#though mostly lately a lot of studying learning growing-- but soon...creating.

[applecoreart]

the way it feels when I want to write and/or make art:

[robininthelabyrinth]

🧿🤠🐇🍲🍯: Lan Wangji does not think it’s safe to raise A-Yuan in Cloud Recesses after the Lans participated in the killing of his zhiji and the entire Burial Mounds community (or more accurately that it’s not safe while he himself is in seclusion and can’t watch over A-Yuan, at least) so he delivers A-Yuan to the one person who he knows did not stand against Wei Wuxian (and got away with it, bc this person has never stood against anything, since standing takes effort): Nie Huaisang.

Little Side Door - ao3

Nie Huaisang’s rooms in the Unclean Realm had a little side door that no one but him ever used.

They hadn’t originally. The Unclean Realm was a fortress, designed to maximize protection and defense; there was no better place for keeping things safe by locking them away. While it had its fair share of boltholes and escape routes, they were not common and universally difficult to access lest the enemy learn of them and use them to their advantage. Even the layout of their open spaces were carefully planned lest the attack come from the sky, a concern that only cultivators had, and not about how they themselves could escape – after all, weren’t they all Nie, ready to die rather than endure dishonor?

The little side door that led to Nie Huaisang’s room opened onto a small rock garden, left to grow wild with weeds rather than reveal its presence to more people. It existed only because his brother had ordered it constructed by those he trusted most, all in secret in the dark of the night. He had never explained why he had gone to such lengths to create such an unwelcome and inauspicious place, but then, he hadn’t needed to – Nie Huaisang had been there, too, when his father had descended into madness and they had been trapped in the familial quarters with no way out that did not take them through him. If his brother had been the one to brave his father’s rage directly, Nie Huaisang had been the one stuck in a small space that was only not claustrophobic because it was so painfully familiar.

Now, though his father was long dead and gone, Nie Huaisang had a little side door.

A little side door, and a little garden that almost no one knew about; in combination with the saber that his brother forced him to learn and the golden core he had so begrudgingly formed, he now had a way to reach the sky and the illusive freedom it represented – the freedom to flee and leave his home behind.

If it ever happens again – his brother had said once, the closest he had ever come to speaking of it.

He did not finish his sentence, as Nie Huaisang had thrown his plate into his face and stormed off, steaming mad and close to tears. He did not raise the subject a second time.

Nie Huaisang did not often use his little side door.

Although he enjoyed gardens, he preferred the aviary he’d constructed, or one of the myriad of well-tended gardens in the main part of the sect; even the vegetable gardens out back beside the kitchens were far more welcoming than that sparse straggle of land. He’d only ever spent time there when he was a child and in desperate need of some quiet, wanting to avoid adults with their arguments and their miseries; he’d taken some friends there because he thought it might impress them, but it hadn’t, and anyway his brother had put a stop to that soon enough.

He didn’t even think about the little side door, most days. It was just a part of the room, a small tucked away corner with nothing in it. Nothing to think about.

And then, of course, years after he’d put it out of his mind entirely, there came a terrible banging noise at that little side door, like someone was kicking at it furiously from the outside.

Nie Huaisang nearly fell over sideways in his scramble to get up, and then once again when he realized where the noise was coming from – almost no one knew about his side door and its little garden, and so no one had ever come to him through it. Who would be knocking now…?

He opened it.

Lan Wangji, white robes stained with blood and cheeks bright with fever, shoved something into his arms. “You have a child now,” he said through bitten lips. “Congratulations. He is called A-Yuan. I entrust you with his care, for my sect cannot be trusted with it.”

And then he turned and staggered away, mounting up on Bichen and flying off before Nie Huaisang could say anything – before he could even finish searching his memories and recalling that yes, in fact, Lan Wangji had been one of the friends he had shown the side door to, years and years before, and thus knew how to find it. Before he could even start processing the thousands of thoughts that had spring to life, fully formed, at all the information he’d just received: the bloody robes, the desperation, the reference to the Lan sect – the Lan sect! – being somehow untrustworthy…

He looked down at his arms.

“Congratulations,” he echoed blankly. “I have a child now.”

The child blinked up at him, and then smiled.

-

“Da-ge!” Nie Husiang howled, rushing into the sect leader’s study where his brother was doing work – luckily it wasn’t receiving hours and he wasn’t in the main hall, as that would have been unfortunate. “Da-ge, you have to help me! I have a child now!”

His brother stared at him, expression blank and mouth slightly agape. The brush in his hand dripping ink onto a now-wasted piece of paper.

“Huaisang,” he said after a moment. “What the fuck.”

Nie Huaisang nodded furiously.

“Where did you get – how – who – what did you do?!”

“I am currently unable to disclose any details,” Nie Huaisang said promptly even as his brother tossed aside the brush and got up, striding over with a storm brewing in his face. “All I can say is that I have to raise this child now. By which I mean, you have to help me raise this child now; I can’t raise children! I’m not mature enough to raise a child!”

“No kidding! Why would someone entrust – to you…” Nie Mingjue trailed off, looking down at the child with a frown that shifted from disbelieving irritation to concern. He pressed his hand to the child’s forehead. “Huaisang, this child has a high fever. We need to get him to the medical wing at once – is that blood?”

“Not his, I don’t think?”

“I don’t want to know,” his brother decided. “Move.”

Some time later, they were both sitting next to the bed in one of the spare rooms in the family quarters; Nie Huaisang thought it might even have been the same one that he’d used when he was very young. A-Yuan was sleeping, and Nie Mingjue was still holding his little hand in his own, having been clocked as the oversize comfort animal that he not-so-secretly was from the very first moment A-Yuan laid eyes on him.

The doctors had declared A-Yuan’s fever to be very severe, but they had applied plenty of medicine – the Lan sect might have more esoteric healing techniques, but there wasn’t anything like the Nie sect when it came to standard medicine for injuries and illnesses associated with the battlefield, and despite A-Yuan’s tender age Nie Huaisang would be willing to bet that his injuries were from a battlefield. They were confident that A-Yuan would make a full recovery, body and mind both intact, although they warned that his memory of the past might be impacted.

Nie Huaisang had thought about all that blood that wasn’t his, of Lan Wangji pale-faced and wild-eyed, and decided that a little bit of forgetting might not be so bad after all.

“Are you going to tell me anything more,” his brother said after a while. “Or should I just give up now?”

Nie Huaisang leaned over and patted his knee. “It’s good that you know your limitations.”

His brother rolled his eyes.

“I can’t believe this is my life,” he remarked.

“What part?” Nie Huaisang asked, curious. “The fact that we have a kid now, because obviously we’re keeping him? Or the fact that someone gave a kid to me?”

“Both,” his brother decided. “Definitely both.”

-

“His name’s A-Yuan,” Nie Huaisang said. “Apparently.”

“Well,” his brother said. “Obviously that won’t do.”

-

Nie Huaisang had the ability to be sneaky when he wanted to be. It wasn’t a matter of stealth, he had explained to his brother, but sneakiness– a completely different concept. Stealth suggested that he was doing something to conceal himself and required skills and talent, or else a lot of practice, and obviously Nie Huaisang was not going to go in for either of those.

Sneakiness, though…

He didn’t need people not to be able to see him in order to be sneaky. He just needed them not to care about him, or wonder where he was.

“Psst,” he said, knocking on the window to the rooms where Lan Wangji was purportedly practicing seclusion. “Psst! Lan Zhan!”

Lan Wangji had given him a child. They were definitely past the ‘Lan-er-gongzi’ stage.

“Lan Zhan!” he rapped at the window with his fan. “We need a courtesy name!”

There was some sounds from within the jingshi, mostly stumbling around. Nie Huaisang waited patiently, and after a few moments the window opened and Lan Wangji stared out at him. He was as pale as a ghost with lips as red as blood, and very clearly not in seclusion at all, but rather in the midst of healing whatever wounds had left him bloody – he probably shouldn’t have gotten out of bed to answer.

Oh, well. Too late for regret now.

“You shouldn’t be here,” Lan Wangji said, voice dull and eyes blank as he stared at Nie Huaisang. It was unclear if he meant in the Cloud Recesses generally, or here in particular, interrupting his ‘seclusion’.

“Didn’t you hear me?” Nie Huaisang said, scowling at him. “We need a courtesy name! A courtesy name for the child, you hear me? You know, of course, that Qinghe Nie don’t use personal names, not even for children – certainlynot for children older than their first year. It’d be a complete giveaway that he’s not organically ours if we call him something like A-Yuan.”

Lan Wangji raised a hand to pinch his nose. “Please go away.”

“Courtesy name, Lan Zhan. I mean, I may be the one who’ll be raising him, but please think carefully: do you really want meto be the one naming him?”

“…call him Sizhui.”

“Sizhui,” Nie Huaisang repeated. “With the characters…?”

Lan Wangji nodded.

“Uh, no,” Nie Huaisang said. “I need a bettercourtesy name. Are you joking?”

“Nie Huaisang. Go away.”

“But –”

Lan Wangji slammed the window shut.

“…fine,” Nie Huaisang said to the closed window. “Be that way, see if I care. Not like we don’t need to build up a decent coparenting relationship or anything eventually.”

He thought he heard a choking sound from behind the door and smirked.

“Don’t you think you can baby-trap me and just walk away, Lan Zhan,” he said in his best ominous tone. “If you wanted someone to raise your kid without ever consulting you again, you should’ve dropped him off in the Lotus Pier with Jiang Cheng, who’d probably be too busy being confused to even question where he came frome – but no. You came to me. I don’t make decisions in the best of times, least of all good. I have questions. A lot of questions.”

He thought about it for a moment.

“Not about how you got him or anything like that,” he said. “I’m not stupid, I can tell a secret when I see one. But, you know, other types of questions. Parenting stuff. Are you a ‘go sit and think about what you’ve done’ sort of parent? Or more traditional discipline, with copying lines and occasionally strikes when they’re naughty? Do you want him to learn the Lan sect rules along with the Nie sect principles –”

There was a muffled sound from inside the house.

It sounded angry.

“…we can talk about it later,” Nie Huaisang decided. He might’ve pushed his luck a bit too much. “Talk later!”

-

“You have a…what?” Lan Xichen asked, his smile a little fixed and stare a little wilder than normal.

“A nephew!” Nie Mingjue gushed. “Isn’t he wonderful?”

“Nephew.”

“He’s so well behaved, too! He plays quietly by himself most of the time, drawing and even writing a little, and Huaisang’s already teaching him how to play the dizi –”

“When you say nephew, do you mean Nie Huaisang’s child?”

“Do I have other brothers?” Nie Mingjue rolled his eyes at him. “He’s obviously not yours. Anyway, I know Meng Yao is expecting one, too, but he wouldn’t be dressed in Nie colors if it was his, would it?”

“Yes, but…are you telling me that…that Nie Huaisang…”

“It’s a battlefield child, Xichen,” Nie Mingjue said patiently. “Obviously. Someone entrusted him to Huaisang.”

“Oh,” Lan Xichen said, looking relieved. “Yes, that makes more sense…wait.”

Nie Mingjue waited.

“Someone entrusted him to Nie Huaisang?”

“I know, right?” Nie Mingjue said, and Lan Xichen didn’t notice how strained his grin had suddenly become, or how thoughtful his eyes were as he surveyed Lan Xichen as if trying to find an answer to a question. “I would’ve assumed they’d go for someone more responsible, like you. Guess you never know…”

“I guess you don’t,” Lan Xichen agreed, looking down at the child with a bemused expression. A battlefield child, entrusted to Nie Huaisang… “They must have been truly driven to desperation.”

“Perhaps,” Nie Mingjue said, and then changed the subject to little Nie Sizhui’s accomplishments, of which he could list many at great length and very great enthusiasm. By the time he was done with that, Ln Xichen was so overwhelmed that he didn’t ask a single other question.

-

“So I’ve got an idea on how to do this whole co-parenting thing,” Nie Huaisang said, cracking nuts to eat. He was sitting next to Lan Wangji’s bedside, and dropping the shells straight on the floor, too, staring dead-eyed at Lan Wangji as if daring him to say something – which he wouldn’t, of course. “Since with Sizhui starting classes soon it’s become much more urgent, on account of me needing you to attend meetings with his teachers and discuss his progress.”

Lan Wangji looked deeply long-suffering. He’d only invited Nie Huaisang inside because Nie Huaisang had threatened to start shouting out his business loudly on account of oh but Lan Zhan, how was I to know if you could hear me in there, I just had to raise my voice just in case because I wouldn’t want you to miss any of the extremelyimportant news –

It was all Lan Wangji’s fault for being born earlier than Nie Huaisang, Nie Huaisang thought virtuously. It was merely Nie Huaisang’s lot in life to fulfill the role of annoying younger brother to everyone.

“See, it’s the music,” Nie Huaisang continued. “You do music, right?”

Lan Wangji’s ice-cold glare suggested that he did, in fact, ‘do music’.

“So your brother has been playing this song for da-ge on a regular basis,” Nie Huaisang explained, ignoring the glare entirely. “And when he’s not available, which is most of the time nowadays, he’s been sending san-ge instead. Even though, of course, poor san-ge’s so busy back at Lanling all the time…ughh, it’s so unfair, you know! Poor san-ge has to do all the work of being the heir and gets none of the benefits, and they pile even more work on him on top of that – really, he gets no respect.”

Lan Wangji’s expression suggested he didn’t care.

“And think about the inconvenience to us!” Nie Huaisang sallied forth, undeterred. “People coming and going all the time, da-ge having to interrupt his schedule of spending quality time with me and Sizhui – and sect leader work, of course, though that’s less important – in order to march over to greet them and host them and listen to them…what a pain it is!”

Lan Wangji appeared on the verge of suggesting that Nie Huaisang consider getting to the point.

“So you should come do it instead.”

Lan Wangji’s expression cracked, suggesting that Nie Huaisang had actually managed to make an impact.

“You remember,” he said, voice low and a little hoarse from all that refusing to speak he’d been doing. Really, if Nie Huaisang wasn’t around to goad him into it, he might’ve lost the voice entirely – he didn’t even have little Sizhui around to force him to speak! “That I’m in seclusion. Right?”

“You’re horribly lonely is what you are,” Nie Huisang said briskly. “You require company. Therefore, coming to take up a semi-permanent posting in the Unclean Realm to play the Song of Clarity for my brother morning, noon, and night is clearly the finest way to solve all of our problems, and for you to see little Sizhui as often as you like.”

Lan Wangji visibly wavered. “My brother,” he said, then coughed. “My brother will never believe it.”

“That’s your problem,” Nie Huaisang said. “Find a way to sell it.”

He stood, shaking the remaining shells onto the chair.

“See you in Qinghe soon, Lan Zhan..!”

Lan Wangji was trying to kill him with his mind, Nie Huaisang thought happily as he wandered off with a whistle and a vaguely silly expression. Good – he’d been inside for too long. He needed the stimulation.

-

“Truly,” Nie Mingjue remarked, strolling around their gardens without any apparent notice of the small child perched on his shoulders, giggling wildly at the feeling of being tall, “I feel far better than I did before! One can scarcely compare it – night and day, really. Your Lan sect’s Song of Clarity is a marvel, even if it does take a while before it kicks in.”

“Mm,” Lan Wangji said, walking slowly with his hands behind his back. He was still unsteady on his feet on account of the absolutely horrific injuries he’d incurred – but if the Lan sect’s response to everything was seclusion, seclusion, seclusion, then the Nie sect’s equivalent response was exercise. These little excursions through the gardens were the result.

Thus far, they were still only doing laps around the main gardens, but Nie Huaisang had plans to eventually force Lan Wangji to go even as far as his own little side garden. He’d made it through his side door once, after all; why not a second time..?

At any rate, Nie Huaisang still wasn’t quite sure how Lan Wangji had talked Lan Xichen into allowing him to come to the Unclean Realm, but it really did make the whole co-parenting business a lot more convenient. And his brother had had so much fun making Lan Wangji stiff and awkward over all his thanks and praise for his decision to come ‘help out’ with Nie Sizhui’s raising until finally, at last, Nie Huaisang had taken pity and revealed that Nie Mingjue knew perfectly well whose battlefield child this was.

Both in terms of who had gifted him to Nie Huaisang, and who’d adopted him originally, and of course even his original surname – The little tot’s been through enough adoptions to make anyone’s head spin, his brother had said, his voice gruff as always. There’s no point in thinking back too far, is there?

Lan Wangji had been very relieved.

“Run, bobo!” Nie Sizhui cried, pointing over at a bird. “We need to get it for Sang-gege!”

Nie Mingjue snorted like a bull but obediently quickened his feet and left the rest of them behind, heading in full charge straight at the wild pheasant that was far more likely to end up on Nie Huaisang’s plate than in his aviary. It was about even odds which one Nie Sizhui meant, anyway.

“Nie Huaisang,” Lan Wangji said, his voice low, and Nie Huaisang looked at him. “The Song of Clarity does not take time to work. These effects should have happened at once.”

Nie Huaisang opened his fan, hiding his face as he frowned. “How odd,” he said. “And after san-ge put in all that hard work.”

“Perhaps he played it wrong.”

“Odd,” Nie Huaisang said again. “When san-ge gets so very little wrong…has your brother sent any word on the Xue Yang issue?”

“…he has not.”

“He’s going to need to pick a side eventually.”

“He does not want to make things difficult for his sworn brother.”

“Does he have only the one?” Nie Huaisang asked archly, and Lan Wangji averted his gaze. “It’s awkward for us if he doesn’t back us, and is a bad look besides…truly, it’s a wonder that san-ge managed to squeeze out the time to come here.”

Lan Wangji’s frown deepened. “Indeed,” he said. “One would think his father might be tempted to stop him.”

“Wouldn’t you just?” Nie Huaisang said. “Wouldn’t you just…you know, maybe when you’re feeling better, we should go visit Lanling ourselves.”

Lan Wangji glanced at him, arching an eyebrow, and Nie Huaisang smiled, fanning himself casually.

“I’m not the only one with a little side door,” he said. “Let’s go knocking and see what we find, shall we?”

[alluringjae]

[ 23:45 ] ⮕ END   

part of my collection of cookie cuts from all i do is wait

in order to understand, read the main story first here.

pairing: ghost!doyoung x female!reader

genre: angst, sum fluff if you really squint

warnings: death, grief

author’s note: someone asked me how i would interpret this scene, so here it is. this hurt A LOT. have fun though!

leave me some feedback, constructive criticism or hellos!

Mid-1953

At long last, the Korean War has ended after 3 years.

Over 5 million people dead, and to be one of the lucky survivors was a miracle.

The remaining soldiers who’ve fought through it all could return home, whilst civilians can properly rebuild all that was devastatingly destroyed in their cities. Their own normal lives included.

The fiercest 3 years of your life must you say, too engaged with self-studying your history books saved pre-war while dealing with the bargaining stage of your grief towards Doyoung. Every day, you couldn’t go on without overthinking the what-ifs. On top of that, your toddler Areum was at the stage where she loved creating a mess on the walls with her crayons. No matter how many times you’ve corrected her because it wasn’t your house, she continued anyway.

Now, she’s full-blown crying after you confiscated them and you’re on the verge of it. Thankfully, your mother stepped in to take her out for a walk in the neighborhood so you could unwind for a bit.

Since news broke out that the war ended, everyone from every street cheered and danced on the streets. You hailed with praise along with them, positive that things were going to get better. Yet deep down, you’ve selfishly wished that he was one of the lucky few to come home.

If only you didn’t chicken out so easily after he told you he was enlisting so you had a few more seconds with him.

If only you compromised him to join another field.

If only you told him about Areum earlier so he could go home.

These thoughts revolved your mind the most, instantly getting you to break down wherever you were. Even photos of him and you together were enough to tear down your walls. So, they remained hidden until the day you’re in a much better state of mind.

Dear god, you longed for him. Everything that consists of him.

In hopes to forget this tremendous loss in your life, you poured hot tea in a cup and started on this new book from this ongoing series, The Chronicles of Narnia. Getting it during this harsh period was tough, bartering it with old books you’ve owned in the market.

Fully preoccupied in the fantastical universe, flipping the pages quickly, you almost missed the continuous knocking on your door. You let out a tiny gasp and made your way to the entrance. As delusional to think it was Doyoung, you knew it wasn’t your mother and Areum either because they would’ve simply walked in. Opening it anyways, you were met by two young tall men. One had a bandage on his cheek while the other had a cast on his right arm. Noting their growing hair, they must’ve fought in the war.

Oh, if Doyoung was one of them.

“Hello, may I know who you two are?”

The one with the bandage spoke up, bowing first. “Hello, I am Lee Taeyong and this is my friend, Kim Jungwoo. We were good friends of your late lover, Kim Doyoung.”

Late lover.

Haven’t heard that since people in the neighborhood gossiped about your taboo pregnancy, but it’s not like they knew anyways. But from the letters exchanged with Doyoung before, he talked about these two highly. Whenever there were times of ease while serving, Doyoung was always up to mischievous things with these two. In a situation where they had to man up, they brought out his inner child.

“Oh, yes! Doyoung used to talk about you two in his letters, but I had no clue how you guys looked.”

By instinct, you invited them inside for tea by the patio. You’ve always wanted to meet them despite the circumstances. Bringing in a tray with a teapot and treats, mostly you were inquiring about their lives. Aside from knowing their positions in the team, you learned of their new plans moving forward.

“I want to return to university to finish my studies in mechanical engineering, maybe travel the world too.” Jungwoo stated, blowing on his cup before sipping it. He’s said to be an organized man according to Doyoung, always cautious of his surroundings. It balanced out his liveliness.

“Me too! I want to complete my major in finance, then marry my childhood sweetheart after a few years.” Taeyong expounded, his round eyes glowed in wonder. He must’ve been looking forward to this day, and you were content for him. Meanwhile, it processed to Taeyong what he said, realizing that it may have been insensitive.

“Shit, I’m sorry,” He burst out instantly. “I got stuck in my feelings there.”

“It’s okay, nothing to worry about. You shouldn’t apologize for how you feel.”

“I do think we should feel worried about you though.” Jungwoo interrupted, sighing heavily. “What happened with Doyoung-hyung all those years ago, we’re really concerned for you especially.”

At the mention of the painful memory, this wasn’t the right time to crumble. You weren’t capable to show your vulnerability to anyone but yourself. Plastering a wrenching pretend smile, “I appreciate the concern, truly. But I’ll be okay again. I’m planning to return to university too, then proceed to law school. A shared dream of mine and his.”

Taeyong and Jungwoo transparently viewed you like glass, coping with the grief of it. They were on the same page as you, and unaware to you, they knew his final words. With their interpretation, it only felt right to reach out to you. Befriend you, aid you in any possible way.

At the end of the day, three of you equally shared the suffering over the death of a loved one.

Sitting in peaceful silence, the front door creaked open followed by a tiny, high-pitched voice squealing.

“We’re home!” Your mother shouted.

“I’m at the patio, we have guests over!” You replied, pouring more tea for the two quiet boys.

From such a low-spirited atmosphere only did it liven up when an energetic Areum came into your setting. She had pigtails this time, satisfying herself with fresh bungeo-ppang from the neighborhood. No matter what you’re feeling, it took a single glance of her with her small moon-like eyes to recharge you.

“Mom, who are your friends here?” She pondered cluelessly.

The two boys exchanged looks at each other first, then to you in one breath. Their expressions of perplexity by how one’s hand was on their mouth and the other boy couldn’t stop staring at Areum, you identified exactly what they were thinking of.

“Areum, these are your dad’s friends in the army.” You animatedly confirmed. “The one with that tiny bandage on his face is uncle Taeyong, and the one with the white cast is uncle Jungwoo.”

Doyoung’s death was already so heavy to take in, but upon discovering this hidden surprise, Jungwoo wiped his tears on his sleeve. But you were fast to hand him some tissue. He was younger than you, so your older sister instincts kicked in.

“This is unjust, (Y/N).” He murmured across you so Areum won’t pick up his words. Your lips pressed against each other, maintaining a straight face at him. He was right.

With Taeyong, his arms spread out wide for the small girl who willingly walked to him. He loved children, having a nephew back home. He caressed her smooth hair down to her jaw. The first thing he distinguished was her pretty eyes followed by her squishy cheeks, resembling so much of his late friend.

“You’re so pretty, Areum. Did your mom tell you that you mirror so much of your dad?”

“Yes, she does! But I’ve never met him and I don’t when I will, uncle Taeyong.”

A tragedy how the splitting image of his best friend doesn’t see what everyone sees. But again, she’s only 3 and she can only process so much. She doesn’t know the real truth behind her father’s location, except that he was working far, far away. There are days she’d ask if he’d come back soon, yet your only response is not now. This isn’t the right time for her purity about life to stain.

“Well Areum,” Jungwoo gathered his senses again, crouching down to her level. “As his friends, we know that you look just like him! Prettier even.”

“Really? Tell me more about him, uncle Jungwoo!”

It’s about time someone else shared stories about your late lover because yours was short-lived. It’s even more intriguing to listen to what other people have to say about Doyoung that weren’t his parents. Some stories told by Taeyong and Jungwoo were new to you too, giggling along to their ridiculousness when they’re not training or fighting. Loving their presence, you invited them to stay for dinner with your family, which they couldn’t reject.

What started as a tense conversation transformed into a heartwarming experience. These two boys earned a spot in your life, aspiring for longtime friendships with them. The tender way they cherished for Areum like they’re own after meeting for the first time, it’ll fill in bits of her void. In exchange, they insisted to chip in for you and her lives so it wouldn’t be just you and your family. Struggling already with the consequences of the war, it only felt proper to do so.

“Doyoung has always been there for us, now let us return the favor and be there for you and Areum.”

Your protests were deemed useless, so you allowed them to do so. Once you finished law school and take the exams, you could pay them back. It’s phenomenal how Doyoung’s good influence towards others multiplied even after his passing. Maybe if you began to view things this way, you’d recover sooner. Although he’ll always be in your thoughts, it wouldn’t be as sensitive as it is now.

For now, you’re just going to enjoy the bliss Taeyong and Jungwoo brought, retelling old tales of a drunk Doyoung on the dining table.

From behind your garden fence in secret, Doyoung secretly observed as his treasured companions interacted at last with positivity. His only daughter mirroring his adored smile, he lived in that moment vicariously through her.

What a good time to visit today, truly.

[evolutionsvoid]

If one has read through my previous entries on Slimes, you should know by now that they are an incredibly adaptable and versatile species. Though they are just a heart and a pseudobody, their special signals and incredible slime allow them to create a variety of shapes and forms. From sticky Flayers who cover themselves in adhesive goo and bone shards, to volatile Fire Slimes that secrete flammable liquids and use gathered flint to light it all aflame! It is no surprise that this species has thrived and spread for so long! However, at times this versatility can lead to some issues. Like any other beast, Slimes are susceptible to parasites, disease and the ravages of time. Horrible things that can mess with their minds and hijack their signals. When a Slime is struck by one of these terrible fates, you either wish for a speedy recovery or a merciful death. Cruel as it sounds, things can become a real problem when these illnesses choose to linger. Be it parasite or virus, one can take over the form of a Slime and turn them into something even worse. I have written about Slime Dragons before, and how those abominations come to be. To quickly recap, Slime colonies tend to have buried networks of elder hearts that aid in reproduction and knowledge transfer. Slimes can physically connect to these networks to share nutrients, information or transfer their young. In most cases, these networks get along just fine, but age can start to wear on the oldest of hearts. As the decades pass by, an elder heart may start to degrade and fail. Most cases end with these dying organs being put of their misery and absorbed, but there are rare instances where the network is too late in realizing this weakness. In extreme cases, a fading heart may start to produce a "rotted signal," a droning message that is simple and infectious. Slimes use signals generated by their hearts to control their goo and communicate with others. They can share signals with one another without a problem, but rotted signals are not so kind. Due to their nature, these signals are capable of overwriting the signals of other Slimes and causing their hearts to pump out the same infectious message. All Slimes who come in contact with an infected heart or pseudobody will be hijacked and added to the collective. Slime Dragons are beasts that can result from a rotted signal taking over, but they are only one outcome for this dire situation. You see, a rotted signal is not just gibberish or useless noise, it often is a normal message that a Slime would use that has become corrupted. For Slime Dragons, the signal that births them is the same signal Slimes use when they are hungry or look to feed. It is a blaring message to consume that takes them over and creates this gluttonous monstrosity. So that means a different signal can lead to a different outcome, which is where the Slime's versatility takes a cruel turn. For each type of rotted signal, their is a corresponding abomination that is born from it, and each is specially equipped to bring a whole lot of misery and destruction. The diseased amalgamation I wish to write about today is known as the Mind Sink. While it is a network that has succumbed to an infection like a Slime Dragon, it is quite different from those slithering, hungering brutes. Their congealed and hardening slime will form skittering legs, and a bizarre frame. While its outside has grown dark and thickened by the corrupted fusion of so many Slimes, within this brittle cage will form a gooey writhing core. Here is where the infested hearts lie, and from there comes a multitude of flailing tendrils and snaring tentacles. I imagine it is a freaky sight to behold, and one I have thankfully never witnessed! The Mind Sink is one of these abominations I am most disturbed by, as it hungers for something more than flesh! The signal that becomes corrupted is the one Slimes will use to transfer knowledge to one another. It is a message that kind of says "can I copy your notes?" which the other Slime will agree to and they will share their information. When it grows foul, though, this message does not ask for permission. Rather, it becomes more of theft than a collaboration, as the infested Slimes mindlessly drain the information out of the victim. Slimes that are caught by these serpentine limbs will immediately be linked to the corrupted network and they will begin to draw out all their knowledge. In moments, the Slime will be emptied of all their information and thoughts, and will instead start to pump out the rotted signal. They will be pulled into the core and will join their infested brethren, ready to seek out the next victim. I know some may think that it is a rough process for the Slimes, and to that I must make a correction. It is a rough process for everyone, because the Mind Sink does not just prey on its own. 

It has been thought that the signals from a Slime's heart shares some similarities with the signals our brains create. While that is a whole field of study and wondering I am not well versed in, I can say that Mind Sink has given us a bit of confirmation on that. Mind Sinks not only hunger for the knowledge of their fellow Slimes, but they will target other creatures as well. Doesn't matter if it is man, beast or thinking plant, if it has a brain or a similar organ, it wants inside. Non-Slimes who are seized by a Mind Sink's arms will be entangled and immobilized in its grip. Coils of slime will pin their limbs in a cocoon, and slithering tendrils will seek out the source of the victim's thoughts. They somehow have a way of pinpointing the location of the brain and, once they do, they find the quickest way to access it. The point of entry is usually a facial orifice, be it nose, mouth, ears or eyes. They will burrow to the brain and the corrupted goop will make physical contact. From there, it will hijack the signals and quickly learn how to manipulate the organ, giving it access to their memories, knowledge and life experiences. With the mental feast now ready, the Mind Sink will say "I will have everything!" and start to drain. So far it has not been found if there is any order to what it consumes first, or if there is any logic behind it. Like a whirlpool, it just sucks in whatever it can. The mind will be siphoned away by this hungering mass, and the victim is quite powerless to do anything about it. When your brain is taken over by a gooey monstrosity, you aren't exactly in the right state of mind to fight back. Due to the difference between Slimes and species like us, the brain draining process takes much longer. Think of it like trying to transcribe an entire book in a language you don't understand. Yeah, you can do it by just copying the symbols, but it will take you longer. It appears that it takes a few minutes for a fleshy or plant-based victim to be fully emptied, and then they will simply be tossed aside. Those that fall to this awful fate will not have much of a mind left. Memories will be gone, any knowledge or skills they had will be wiped out and their own thoughts will be a scrambled mess due to the brutal takeover their brain experienced. Most become comatose, while some may flop around like a fish and babble nonsense. It is a truly horrible thing, and a cure or remedy has yet to be found.   Due to how much longer it takes to fully feed off a victim, one can be saved from the grasp of a Mind Sink before they are truly lost. If one can sever the tendril that holds the prisoner and cut them off from the network, the slime will collapse in a useless heap. The connection with their brain will end and so will the drain. It should be noted that freeing a victim from a hungering tendril is just the first step, because the Mind Sink has a dozen more and it will be eager to reclaim its prize. Best to grab them the second they are let go and run as fast as you can! Severing this link before the mind can be fully consumed is certainly a good thing, but damages will still occur. It depends on how long they were being fed on, as that decides how much was removed from the brain. Those that were held for only a few moments won't notice too much of a difference after they have rested and recovered, but some things will certainly be lost. Probably a handful of distant memories and mental tidbits were taken, but they won't notice their absence right away. Those fed upon for longer will have patchy memory loss, temporary issues with physical functions and scattered thoughts. It will be like someone took the book of their life and ripped out random pages. Thankfully, the book will mostly remain, so that means recovery is possible. Physical therapy will be required for any functions that were damaged by the hijacking, and the mind will need some help too. Not only will they need to relearn lost skills and forgotten memories, but their mind will need to recoup as well. Meditation, therapy and other calming activities are needed to help them stabilize their thoughts and reorganize their scattered mental archives. Recovery is not the fastest thing, but time and patience will help heal the wounds and fill the gaps torn in their heads. No doubt now that it has become obvious that Mind Sinks are incredibly dangerous and need to be exterminated whenever they rise. These are diseased amalgamations that will cause untold damage and tragedy as long as they are alive, and there does not seem to be any peaceful way to resolve their rampage. Like Slime Dragons, the way to bring down these monstrosities is to target the original heart that is creating the rotted signal. That is where the signal is originating from, and the other hearts are merely mimicking it. Kill the source and the others will soon fall silent, causing the fusion to fall apart. When it perishes, all the other Slimes are set free, but they won't be the same as they were before they were assimilated. All the knowledge they had was taken by the Mind Sink, and where all that information goes is quite random. As far as we know, all that it absorbs is held in a condensed mess of noise and thoughts that is shared by all the consumed hearts. Its mind eating abilities may make it seem like it can take memories and knowledge then use them against their foes, but that isn't the case. They do not weaponize what they take, they don't even seem to pay the stolen information any mind. Their own mind is like a garbage can, and anything they get their tendrils on is just chucked inside without a second thought. They don't want to use it or interpret it, they just want it. So with all this knowledge shoved into one mangled ball of mental energy, there is no telling what belongs to who or who belongs to what! When the Mind Sink is terminated, all that knowledge is fractured and dumped randomly into the freed hearts. The Slimes who emerge from the collapsed amalgamation will have a stew of memories and thoughts that are not their own. Some will be completely different from before, while some will be fumbling with the fractured mess they have been given. Not only will they be mixed up with their own selves, but there can also be a whole bunch of information that was stolen from non-Slimes that is now stuck in them! Some may be in bits and pieces, while some Slimes can have whole chunks of a person's life inside them! There is a tale that has gone around about a monster slayer going out to kill a rampaging Mind Sink. He failed to defeat the beast and was consumed by it, but eventually someone brought it down. What was brought back to his family was an empty shell, and they cared for him in this comatose state. The family prayed that one day he would get better, that somehow his mind and faculties would return. One morning, his wife heard someone walking around the house and his voice started to call for her. Believing that a miracle had been granted, she rushed to him only to find him still in his bed and still in a coma. What walked in to greet her in her husband's voice was a Slime, who had somehow wound up with a big chunk of his memories and personality. I personally don't think this story is true, because the ending to this tale has several different versions. Some say she took the Slime as a replacement for her husband, while others say she killed it in horror on the spot. I have heard some say that the Slime returned all the memories to the comatose husband and he was cured, but that one is certainly fake. It would be nice if that could happen, but Slimes are incapable of putting things into our heads like that. Our minds are like colorful sandpaintings, and the Mind Sink just reached in and yanked out handfuls of it. Can you just take those fistfuls and put them back so easily? I say that about returning memories and how that is impossible, but then I remember that there is an exception to that: the Slimes themselves. While they can come out all scrambled, it is possible for the Slimes to rearrange themselves back into facsimiles of their old selves. Slimes can already transfer stuff to one another, so they could puzzle out what parts belong to who and then sort them out. I have no clue how you can tell if a memory is yours or not, but then again, I don't have the ability to copy and share my brain (I wish I did, though! It would make teaching so much easier)! So Slimes can return what was lost between them, but they will still wind up with pieces of non-Slime information. What they do with this is unknown and up to who wields it, but some believe that Slimes have gained portions of their knowledge by recovering stolen thoughts from a Mind Sink. Supposedly an ancient Mind Sink fed upon human settlements and was finally slain, and the Slimes that emerged claimed all the knowledge and skills of its victims. Could it have happened? Maybe. Do I believe it? No, because I do not like the light it paints Slimes in. The theory is essentially saying they stole all their knowledge and wisdom from others, and proposes that they couldn't have come across this any other way. Seems more like it is derogatory towards Slimes than it is trying to learn more about them. Doesn't help that the people I have met who believe this theory have all kind of been jerks towards Slimes. After all this talk about Mind Sinks and their horrific abilities, I bet some think that I can offer tips on how to kill one. In truth, I got nothing. Take out the original rotted heart and the rest falls apart. How do you do that? Not really my department there. I am a researcher not a warrior, and I personally don't want to be anywhere near one of these things. As someone who has spent years learning and seeking knowledge, the concept of a brain-sucking monster is absolutely terrifying to me. All my experiences, all my work drained away in minutes, reducing me to a mindless vegetable! No thank you! I like my thoughts right where they are, and I got enough of a scatter brain already! The only way I want to share my knowledge is through my writings and teachings! Read my life's work, don't yank it out of my skull! Speaking of that, I better watch my tongue. Enough talk about a mind-wiping monster and Eucella might hire one and sic it on me. It would be way easier to chop up my writings and sell a book if I was brainless idiot! Chlora Myron Dryad Natural Historian - You know I read these, right? This is not helping your case in the slightest. And also you might want to drop the "if" and change the "was" on the brainless idiot part.     - Eucella - ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Slimes, Slimes, I love Slimes!      

[juniaships]

Vanessa Marble-Whittaker Bio **redux**

I had to delete the old post due to spelling mistakes and to add more info, but here is the official character bio for my AIO OC....possibly the only one in existence 😅 Contains spoilers and subject matter of abuse & postpartum depression; if you're curious you might have to do look into the main story arcs of AIO for easier understanding.

Full Name: Vanessa Crystal Marble Whittaker (nee Marble;)

Age: Unspecified but around late 20s to mid 30s

Birthday: May 15th

Race: African American (with European ancestry on both sides)

Fandom: Adventures in Odyssey

Voice Claim: Cree Summer; Vivica A. Fox is also a good alternate

Character Role: Heroine & love interest/spouse of Jason Whittaker

Items: Cross necklace, Midnight Manor (formerly Blackgaard's Castle)

Relationships

Family: Robienne Marble (mother), Regis Blackgaard (father), Edwin Blackgaard (uncle), Jerry Jr. (son, infant), John Whittaker (father in law), Monty (nephew in law), Jana (sister in Law)

Friends at Whit's End: Whit, Eugene, Connie, Katrina, Angel (pet doberman)

Acquaintances: Nuns, denizens of Odyssey

Love Interest: Her primary love interest and eventual husband is Jason Whittaker. They began as tensse & awkward relationship during the Blackgaard Saga duento their contrasting personalities, before becoming close friends and allies. They do not become completely official until after Novacom. Their relationship is regarded as the bonafide example of "Opposites Attract" in Odyssey.

Enemies: While enemies are far and few, she considers her own father as the major obstacle between her and a peaceful life. She was a major player against Novacom. She had a brief yey tense rivalry with Monica Stone (partly for Jason's affections) but the two made peace at the end.

Appearance

- Average height (say, 5'7)

-Brown skin, light brown eyes, and wavy-curly black hair

-Has an average body type (pear shaped) and seemed to gain a few pounds since giving birth

-Typically were darker shades of purple, blue, with the occasional maroon

-Sense of fashion is put together, professional even if casual

- Still has her nun fatigues

Personality

Vanessa is a composed and reserved lady with a deep connection to God, while respecting other religions (and non religious). While seen as a cold person at first glance, she is actually very kind and open-minded, though she isn't immune to making sardonic comments once in a while. While not really great around kids, she has moments of being supportive. After becoming a mother she is rather clueless, though well-meaning and tries her hardest to be the parent her father wasn't.

One of her biggest obstacle is overcoming her aloof demeanor. She needed to learn to open up to others and to out faith in her new friends. Even now she still has her moments of keeping her true emotions, though she has a wide circle of friends and a spouse to talk to. Vanessa was also ashamed of her Blackgaard blood, though she learns to come to terms with her past in order to create a brighter future for herself and the rest of her family. Sometimes she is prone to feeling inadequate and jealous, especially during brief periods of romantic rivalry.

There is a fierce protective side that comes out when loved ones are threatened, as seen with the Blackgaard and Novacom Sagas. She dislikes staying on the sidelines and does whatever she can to help out. She even broke her vows to protect her mother Robienne when Regis came into town, and later inspired her uncle Edwin to stay and fight her father to help save Odyssey.

While studious snd intelligent, Vanessa is not very tech savvy, naturally preferring traditional mediums such as writing letters and books. While she learns how to use computers and cellphones, don't expect her to be a technophile anytime soon. She expresses curiosity and concerns over the next invention hubby makes.

Abilities

Vanessa can memorize a lot a bible verses which she uses as prayer, or as a quip. She also has taken self defense classes to hold her her own.

- Strengths: In her early years she proved to be surprisingly strong and fast when need be. She can adapt to certain situations and keep her cool. Clever and resourceful, Vanessa often thinks and plans her actions. She can speak three languages (Spanish, French, and Mandarin Chinese) and plans om studying more.

- Weaknesses: After pregnancy she isn't as physically strong and has to limit herself to recover, and can be overpowered by much stronger foes. Vanessa is not very good at advanced technology, and she is a bad cook (Jason keeps her away from the stove as much as possible).

Backstory Vanessa was the only child of Regis and Robienne Blackgaard. Their marriage had be a short and rocky one marred by neglect, emotional manipulation and mental abuse. Finally, on the guidance of Edwin (Regis's brother) Robienne decided she had enough and divorced Regis when Vanessa was two years old. Robienne moved her daughter to New England to be with family, and the two lived peacefully after that. After graduating high school, Vanessa went to the nunnery and stayed there for a few years, while Robienne moved to the Midwest to pursue a career in teaching.

However Vanessa soon grew discontent, feeling as though she was missing out on normal young adult life. Should she stay as a nun or forge her own path?

She would find clues to her answer in the form of receiving news about her father moving to Odyssey - the same town her mother lived. Fearing for her mother's life, Vanessa requested a temporary break in vows, family business, she had said. Settling in Odyssey (under the surname Newman) she got a job working at Whit's End and as a private tutor.

Following major and minor events including the Blackgaard, Novacom, and Green Ring Conspiracy drama, Jason proposed to Vanessa, and they had a summer wedding (but not before overcoming premarital jitters and a threat from Jason's past). Two years after their union (or as of current Odyssey storyline) they had a little boy named Jerry Jr. (named after Jason's deceased brother). Vanessa continues to work at Whit's End as a curator and artist.

Major Storylines: If she was canon she would've been a major player in some of Odyssey's biggest stories including:

- Blackgaard Saga: Her debut, she came to town to take care of her mother & to confront her father on troubled past. She was hired to work at Whit's End where she met then-owner Jack Allen & the previous owner's son Jason for the first time. The townsfolk were.mesmerized by the seemingly mysterious woman and rumors started to abound. Near the climax, Vanessa revealed to Connie and Eugene that came to Odyssey to protect her mother from Regis. Towards the end of the saga, she, her uncle Edwin, and a few townsfolk helped to set up a trap for her father to save Odyssey.

Novacom Saga: She was a big player in taking down Novacom, using her skills writing letters to raise awareness on Novacom's shady actions. This is where her rivalry with Monica Stone began as Vanessa feelings for Jason turn romantic. After Novacom, she would be involved in more stories.

Green Ring Conspiracy: Following Jason's supposed "death" she briefly left Odyssey in mourning. Her uncle and mother managed to convince her to come back to Odyssey. She was unaware of Jason's secret of being alive and working as the Stiletto, and had several encounters with the Stiletto where the mysterious man left her roses and notes of endearment. The two would later reunite after Jason retuned to town, but Vanessa was angry with him for keeping secrets from her. After a long time (and counsel from Whit) she forgave him, and the two reconciled with the promise of being more open with each other.

Courtship Of Jason & Vanessa: An original storyline where the romance between her and Jason comes full circle, leading to their engagement! If only they could overcome personal inhibitions, a hateful doberman, past rivals and a threat from Jason's spy work!

Junior's Birth & Beyond: A couple of years into their marriage Vanessa became pregnant. She was anxious over multiple scenarios, her growing appetite and mood swings. After her son was born she developed symptoms of postpartum depression and sought medications and therapy. Slowly but surely, her mental health improved, & her anxieties faded away. As of now she has gotten involved with the current Rydell Saga.

Trivia

Vanessa won several awards for her artwork and has them on display everywhere in Odyssey

She is one of my most complex characters, but also one starting to really grow on me mostly out of nostalgia for the series

- Characters that inspired Vanessa's creation are Megara (Disney Hercules), Rei/Sailor Mars (Sailor Moon), Esther (biblical stories), Tzipporah (biblical stories esp. Dreamworks The King of Egypt), Talia Al Ghul, and Elisa Maza (Gargoyles). Other inspos include Maria Von Trapp and Marian Ravenwood.

- Vanessa was made to have a unique female character to contrast Connie and Katrina. Also because I have a soft spot for the Forbidden Love trope (if done right).

- She is the only main character OC of mine that is explicitly religious. She was Catholic and while she converted to Protestant, she still holds on to Catholic values. She is also the only main OC to be a parent as of current.

- Vanessa still visits her old nunnery when she and Jason goes to New England.

- She has bouts of postpartum depression, and takes medication to regulate.

- Her favorite things are the color blue, making her own pigments, and coffee flavored ice cream

Quotes

"Blackgaard already made our lives miserable uncle Edwin! If you leave now you're only giving him more power! You helped mama and I so many times, so it's my turn to return the favor!"

"Connie I'm a nun not a miracle worker."

"If my mother superior saw what I'm doing right now I would've had an early meeting with the Lord!"

"No more secrets. From now on it's just truth and nothing but the truth. Except for my age, don't ask me how old I am."

"Sheesh with all these buttons I'm surprised we didn't destroy Odyssey yet!"

"Jason I know you're worried about the baby but did you have to baby proof the doghouse too?"

"My little Angel! Who's a good girl? Who's a good girl!"

"I can't believe I can still wear this after all these years!?"

"Jason Whittaker you have got to be the most stubborn, reckless, foolhardy man I have ever met, and I wouldn't have it any other way."

"You call it junk I call it avant garde."

"I'm not responsible for my father's sins but I am responsible for mine. But my mother and uncle are in trouble. If not for me then please, do it for them!"

"She doesn't hate you Jason, she hates everyone equally."

"I guess God had a plan in store for me after all. I would've never met such wonderful people."

"Are you going to keep talking or should I start the kissing?"

Pictures

I haven't drawn any references for her yet, so that's going to be on a separate post

[rkiverse]

growing pains, 2.

part one | part two | part three

Summary | Puberty wasn’t really your best friend until she introduced herself to you when you hit your early twenties. However, you wish puberty had befriended your seventeen-year-old self and gave you a huge makeover so that you could impress your long-time crush slash high-school quarterback, Jeon Jungkook. On a journey of finding confidence and self-love, you befriended fate, who had somehow drawn you back to nostalgia; to Jeon Jungkook.

Word Count | 10,044 words (that’s a long ass ride) also pls don’t read this on mobile it might crash!

Genre | lots and lots of fluff and a pinch of angst + quarterback!jungkook and basketballplayer!oc. this starts off with highschool!au but it’s mostly college!au, trust me. also i feel like this is sort of sliceoflife!au and a hint of coming of age.

author’s note: it’s been about a year since i’ve posted the first part. i know, it took me a year to get this up and after months of just putting it off and telling you that it’ll be up (and it doesn’t actually end up happening) here it is. she’s here in full form. but on a serious note, i know that putting this off was just a horrible thing to do to you guys and i know that i don’t owe you an explanation because you didn’t deserve having this being on hold for so long (for a year yikes). but here she is and i’m going to pull through and finish this! so i hope you enjoy this.

second year of university

Your first year of university was quite eventful. You had made a couple of friends in your biochemistry program and on your women’s basketball team. However, you had also become friends with puberty, and you had concluded that you were one of the late bloomers. You didn’t complain, though.

Even though your acne had cleared after updating your skincare routine, and even though your hair was finally tangle-free, you wish puberty never befriended you. Why? Because after your first year of university, you realized that out of all the insecurities you had felt during high school, it had only taught you a lesson to love your true self.

The woman that stares at herself in the mirror today, used to be a woman who dreaded how she looked in the past. She was a woman who tried to live up to society’s expectations, to look and act a certain way, even though it was against how she looked and acted.

It was just a matter of loving yourself. Behind those flaws and behind those traits that people label you with, was a woman who was slowly learning to love herself.

And although you were in a different country fulfilling your scholarship, it only took one heartbeat for you to transfer back to South Korea. Yes, you loved your university and the friends you had created bonds with, but you knew that going back to a place and to people who you call home, is the final road to your happiness and self-love. You had to make peace with your past.

And on top of that, if you were to be quite honest, you preferred the biochemistry program in South Korea better. But you weren’t going to let that defeat the whole main purpose of project self-love and happiness.

“Hello?” You grab your luggage from the luggage pick-up station with one hand and holding your phone against your ear with the other. “Where are you?”

“We’re at the pick-up station, your parents are outside at the pick-up lane.” Hoseok says on the other line, and you notice that his voice had gotten much lower.

You can hear Eunbi saying things in the background of the phone call, but you chuckle when you hear Hoseok hush her.

“I’m coming down the escalator!” You say.

As you head down the escalator with your things, you start searching for two familiar people and you spot them just a few metres away. They have their backs facing towards you, looking at the escalator on the other side of the waiting terminal. You giggle.

“You are? I don’t see you. Where are you?” Hoseok questions.

You hang up and slowly make your way towards them. You can already hear Hoseok yell into the phone before pulling it away from his ear to realize that you had already hung up. Before he dials your number again, you attack them from behind. Hoseok lets out a loud yelp and Eunbi squeaks softly.

As they both turn around, Eunbi stares at you with widened eyes and drops her mini umbrella. It clatters to the floor and you bend down to pick it up. Hoseok somehow chokes on air, and when he finally catches his breath, he starts poking your arm.

“Is there a reason for you to be poking my arm?” You ask teasingly.

“Y/N, is that you?”

“Actually, this is her imposter.” You reply.

“Yah, it’s Y/N, you idiot!” Eunbi exclaims, pushing Hoseok aside and crashing you into a hug.

As the three of you reunite after two years of separation, you decide to celebrate this reunion by crashing Eunbi’s dorm with nothing but burgers, fries, and a laptop to watch movies. After a couple of hours binge watching romcoms, you and Eunbi decide to catch up on each other’s lives while Hoseok had already fallen into a deep slumber on her small bed.

“Have you met someone there?” She grins, popping a chip into her mouth.

You scrunch your nose, shaking your head. “I mean, everyone is beautiful. Everyone is attractive. But I didn’t actually date anyone.”

“So, you’re single?” You nod your head. “And ready to mingle?”

“No!” You exclaim, and she hushes you. From the corner of your eye, you could see Hoseok squirm in his sleep to change into a fetal position. You lean in and harshly whisper at her. “No! I’m not ready, and I’m not going to let you or Hoseok drag me into blind dates.”

“That sucks,” she sighs.

“Why?”

“Because I know a really good candidate.” She teases.

You grab a handful of popcorn and throw it at her. She lets out a soft giggle.

“You’re funny.”

Grabbing your keys and phone from the counter top, you stretch out your arms a final time before heading out. There’s a new school year ahead of you, but you were more than ready to tackle it. Parked in your driveway is Hoseok, along with Eunbi in the backseat.

A ton of things have happened when you had studied abroad for two years. Hoseok was pursuing a kinesiology degree and played for the university’s co-ed basketball team. He proclaims he is still single, but he is open to spice his life up by having an additional person to enjoy his moments with. As for Eunbi, she was pursuing a major in English Literature, and in her Creative Arts class, she had gotten closer to her classmate who was surprisingly Kim Taehyung. Hoseok would always whine about how the two had strong feelings for each other but were too much of a fool to confess. But whenever you would try to encourage Eunbi to confess her feelings to him, she would always tell you that her status with him was a bit complicated.

As for you? You were still the same person. You had just matured. You bloomed in the middle of first year university after becoming friends with puberty. A late bloomer, was what your mother had told you after Skyping with her for two hours on a Sunday evening. But after listening to your friends talk about their love lives and relationships, you were hoping that someday and somehow, fate would befriend you next.

“Get in the car, I have basketball practice in half an hour.” Hoseok urges.

“Geez, someone woke up on the wrong side of the bed today.”

As you hop into the car, Hoseok begins to drive through the neighbourhood. You smile to yourself. The neighbourhoods looked so foreign, yet so familiar because of the memories you have engraved in your mind. From playing basketball on your driveway to sipping lemonade with your best friends on the curb, you knew that coming back was the right thing to do.

“Hey, Y/N, you never really told us why you decided to come back.”

You snap out of your gaze. Hoseok is looking at you through his rear-view mirror, waiting for an answer. Simply shrugging your shoulders, you flash him a small smile.

“I just need to make peace with the past. My past.”

After what seems like ages of driving to campus, you arrive promptly before Hoseok’s basketball practice. The campus field was filled with several sports teams doing their usual morning practices. To the left of the campus field, the track team were doing their stretching routine before hitting the race track for laps. Towards the middle of the field were the basketball players, practicing their shots and passes. Lastly, to the right of the campus field were the football players, practicing their throws.

“Tell me why I decided to attend Hoseok’s practices every other morning again?” Eunbi groans, rubbing the sleep from her eyes.

From afar, the both of you could hear Eunbi’s name being called. You glance at a familiar guy, jogging towards the two of you. Kim Taehyung. As he got closer and closer, he looked at you intently until his eyes slightly widened with familiarity.

“Oh, right, it’s because I get to watch Taehyung practice too,” Eunbi says sheepishly, and it’s almost as if she was wide awake at the sight of him.

Once Taehyung approaches the two of you, he nods his head at Eunbi and sends her a flirty wink. Eunbi playfully punches his arm a bit too hard that he ends up letting out a loud yelp of pain. Taehyung looks at you and smiles.

“Hello, stranger.” He wiggles his eyebrows.

You salute him. “Hello, stranger.”

“You look so different, I almost didn’t recognize you.” He chuckles. “I see you’ve ditched the dad hat.”

“Well, not—”

“I hope you didn’t ditch basketball, though.”

“Now that, I didn’t.” You reassure him, and he grins.

Taehyung fist bumps you and nods his head. “Welcome back, Y/N.”

Before the three of you engage further in your conversation, the football coach is yelling at Taehyung to get back on the field. He apologizes for leaving so soon and pecks Eunbi’s cheek before running back to the field. Eunbi looks like she’s floating on Cloud 9.

“A bit complicated, huh?” You tease, nudging her side.

“Let’s just go watch them play, yeah?” Eunbi insists, still in a daze.

The both of you walk down the sidelines of the field, hand-in-hand, and you reach the football field moments later. As the both of you walk a few seats up the bleachers, you take a seat close enough to get a good view of the football players.

From a few metres away, you could see Taehyung walking over to a familiar guy whose face is covered by a helmet. As Taehyung starts talking to him, he pulls off his helmet and you feel your mouth slightly fall open in shock. Jungkook shakes his head and a few droplets of sweat drip off the ends of his hair, leaning in closer to hear Taehyung speak.

“Is that—”

“Yes, it is, Y/N.” Eunbi cuts you off, almost as if she’s read your mind.

You quickly look away, trying to occupy your attention with your phone. Although playing a quick game of 2048 or sending a random good morning text to your sister who could care less was your way of occupying your attention, it had only made you look a bit more obvious of the fact that you were just trying to avoid someone or something in a certain situation.

“Make peace with your past.” You whisper to yourself and Eunbi questioningly raises an eyebrow at you.

Courageously, you look up from your phone and shove it into the pocket of your sweater. The coach blows his whistle and the players are tackling each other. You can’t seem to tell who was who, unless you looked at names on the back of their jerseys. However, you tilt your head in confusion at the sight of one particular player who was just standing there. The player was looking around the field as if they were looking for someone or something. You squinted your eyes to read his jersey, and you feel yourself choke on air. He finally spots you, and he just… stands there, looking at you.

“Jungkook-ah, pay attention!”

But before he could even snap out of it, a football is hitting him straight in the face. Thankfully, the helmet prevents the football from hitting his actual face. He’s flying to the damp grass and lands on his back with a thud. The coach blows his whistle and everyone runs over towards him.

Out of instinct, you stand up and make your way down the field. It seems like you’ve drowned out Eunbi’s scolding voice, telling you to come back and just let the coach do his job, but you couldn’t help it. As an athlete, you learned to look after your teammates and even your opponents. 

As you reach the crowd of players, you squeeze your way to see Jungkook lying on the grass in astonishment. You bend down onto your knees and look at him to see if he was alright. Through his helmet, you could see his eyes staring right back at you. He lets out a soft breathy laugh and his teammates and coach sigh with relief.

“Are you okay—” His coach asks for the nth time, only to be cut off by a loud yell.

You feel yourself being pushed to the side, and somehow, you’re kneeling next to another familiar person. She’s pulling off Jungkook’s helmet and looking at him with nothing but worry.

“Babe, are you okay? Are you hurt? What happened? I literally just left to get us some coffee and I come back—”

“I’m okay, Mina.” Jungkook cuts her off.

It took you a couple of minutes to decipher the words that were coming out of their mouths. They were a couple. They were in a relationship. Jungkook was dating Mina. You snap out of your thoughts, slowly getting up from your knees. As you brush off the grass from your jeans, you realize that Mina doesn’t seem to remember who you were for she just stares at you with curiosity.

“Y/N-ah!” You look over your shoulder to see Hoseok jogging towards you with a basketball under his arm.

“Y/N?” You hear Mina say softly.

Looking at the football players and the coach, you bow your head and excuse yourself to meet Hoseok halfway.

“What’s up?”

“Coach wants to see this best friend of mine that I keep bragging about on the court.” Hoseok chuckles, tossing the basketball to you. “One on one, shall we? You versus me.”

Before the both of you could head towards the basketball court, you hear your name being called. You turn around to see Jungkook back on his feet. He nods his head at you, but never does he flash you a smile. Standing there questioningly, you hear him barely utter a word.

“Y/N, let’s go?” You’re the first to break the stare and you turn around to catch up to Hoseok who’s already a few metres ahead of you.

Hoseok throws his arm around your shoulder and you let out a loud sigh of relief. He erupts into fits of giggles before reaching out to your face to pinch your cheek. You slap his hand away and groan.

“I thought I was going to die back there,” you whisper to yourself.

“Oh, trust me, get used to it. Now that you’re back, you’ll be seeing more of him again.”

Suddenly, you stop in your tracks. Hoseok looks at you questioningly.

“Are Mina and Jungkook… dating, perhaps?” You ask softly and curiously.

Hoseok stares at you for a moment before bursting out into laughter. While he ruffles your hair, you furrow your eyebrows in confusion.

“It would be a miracle for Mina if she was dating Jungkook.”

“But back there… she called him babe and she even got him coffee—”

“Y/N, Jungkook never dated anyone since we graduated high school.”

When he saw you again after two years, the air was knocked out of his lungs… literally. He was sent flying to the damp grass after taking a football to the face. He wasn’t sure if what he had seen was a dream, but after blinking once, twice, and even pinching himself a couple of times, his answers were given the moment you came into his vision.

“You’re so whipped for her,” Taehyung mumbles after throwing a pillow to his face.

“Hey! I’ve already taken a football to the face; don’t you think a pillow is a bit overboard now?”

“Someone’s salty today.”

From his periphery, he sees Taehyung turn around on his chair to resume his task of completing his essay. Amid the sounds of typing and backspacing, Jungkook finds himself falling into another deep trance. On the ceiling of their shared dorm room were stars that he had stuck with clear tape. He smiles to himself.

“Stars… really?” Taehyung questions the latter who’s in the middle of cutting up tape to stick more stars onto the ceiling. “You know you could just go outside on the campus lawn and watch the stars from there, right?”

Jungkook completely ignores him, sticking the last star onto the ceiling. He smiles to himself.

“Do you think Y/N sees the same stars as I do?”

“Of course, Jungkook, we all live under the same sky.” Taehyung shrugs his shoulders.

“You really think so?” Taehyung diverts his gaze from the ceiling to his best buddy who’s too busy smiling like a little boy who got his candy.

Taehyung shakes his head to himself with a grin spread across his lips.

He takes another pillow to his face. He groans, sending a death glare to Taehyung.

“You’ve been staring at that stupid ceiling for half an hour now. If you want to go star-gazing with her, just go! What’s holding you back?”

Jungkook frowns. He gets up from his bed and grabs his phone from the bedside table. Taehyung watches his friend make his way to the door.

“Tell her I said hi—” Taehyung’s cut off mid-sentence by the slam of a door. “Or not.”

Jungkook pulls out his earphones and begins to play his music. As he heads out of the dormitory for a late-night campus walk, he notices that the lights of the basketball court were still lit up. His curiosity gets the best of him and he finds himself walking towards the court.

“Yah! Hoseok! You’re travelling!” His ears perk up at the familiar voice.

As he gets closer and closer to the court, he sees you playing one on one with Hoseok. You dribble the ball in between your legs, while Hoseok is trying to block you from side to side. Flashing a grin, you fake a left and go to the right. Hoseok is chasing you towards the net but he’s too late when you accelerate and jump up to do a slam dunk. Holding your grip on the rim for a few more seconds, you finally let go and effortlessly fall back onto your feet.

“Studying abroad really made you better,” Hoseok says out of breath. “I can’t even keep up with your pace. But when I do get the ball, you’re already snatching it away from me.”

You smile. “It’s just practice.”

“And obviously skill. I’m surprised you’re this good after only two years.”

You laugh, turning around to head to the bench where your practice bag was. It was getting late, the sky was no longer bright and the Moon had taken over for the night. As you open up your bag, you pull out your bottle of water and chug down what you had left. Glancing up at the stars, you smile.

“Hey, Hoseok, the stars look beautiful tonight—” As your eyes look away from the beautiful night sky, your eyes meet a pair of familiar ones. 

Jungkook was standing a few metres away. Your voice slowly trails off into a soft whisper, and you can’t help but stare at him. But as you’re about to wave at him—

“Jeon Jungkook, nice seeing you here.”

Hoseok throws his arm over your shoulder. Jungkook shoves his hands into his pockets and flashes a small smile. “Hey, I was just going out for a… late-night stroll.”

There was something about him that you admired. His demeanor. He was the same shy guy, hesitant with his actions and awkward with his conversations. He was always looking at others with his curious, doe eyes. But he had matured, his facial features more prominent than the last time you saw them. He had gotten much taller, in fact, much more taller than you.

His eyes meet yours. He flashes a wider smile. “Hi Y/N. It’s nice to see you again.”

“Nice to see you too,” you mumble softly, feeling your cheeks heat up.

“We should hang out sometime before you go back to America.” He insists. “It’d be a shame if we parted ways again.”

Hoseok laughs.

“I think you’re getting something wrong here, Jungkook. Y/N is staying here for good.”

“You’re not Eunbi.”

You’ve come face to face with a girl much shorter than you. Her eyes are wide, and she looks up at you through the eye holes of her face mask. Biting your lip to contain your laughter, she tries to utter a few simple words so that her face mask wouldn’t fall off her face.

“I’m a close friend of Eunbi’s. She knows that I’m coming over, but I didn’t know I’d be arrive here first.” You explain and she nods her head. “May I come in?”

She nods her head vigorously and almost crashes into the closet door while making room for you to come in. As you hesitantly walk into the dorm, you could see her roommate run into the washroom and slam the door shut. Surprisingly, you let out a huff of breath that you had no idea you’d been holding the entire time. When you sit down on their small couch, you watch her roommate slowly come out of the washroom and hesitantly approach you.

“Are you… Y/N?” She asks, putting on her glasses.

You nod your head. “Yes?”

“Eunbi is right.” She says, quickly taking a seat next to you. “You’re much prettier in person, and your skin… what’s your skincare routine? Your skin is so clear and soft and—”

“Uh—I don’t think I got your name,” you cut her off and she clamps her mouth shut.

“I’m—my name is Inha.” She smiles.

“Nice to meet you, Inha.”

“And I am very much honoured to meet you, Y/N.” She squeals. You smile awkwardly, and her laughter dies down. “Are the rumours true?”

“What rumours?”

“You don’t know what everyone is saying about you?” She gasps. “I mean, they’re all really nice stuff, so don’t worry.”

“Nice stuff? I’m so lost—”

“Is it true that you and Jungkook are dating?” She whispers, as if there were people next door pressing their ears against the walls to eavesdrop. “Is it true that you guys had a fling or something two summers ago?”

You laugh. “Where are you getting this information?”

“People are talking about how you and Jungkook know each other,” she explains, “but trust me, they’re all good stuff! In fact, I personally think the two of you should date… you suit each other.”

“I—what—”

“Yah, yah, yah, that’s enough, Inha.” The two of you glance at Eunbi who’s just arrived with a pizza tray and a bag filled with drinks.

“S-Sorry.” Inha mumbles softly.

The three of you head over towards the small dining table set up in the tiny kitchen. Eunbi was never really close to her parents, simply because she didn’t pursue their dreams. Because she decided to pursue her dreams, they had decided to kick her out. And thus, she now lives in a shared dorm with Inha.

As the three of you are huddled around the pizza tray with pizza slices in your hands, Eunbi stares at Inha suspiciously. After two years of living together, you’d think that they’d be the best of friends. Hell, they’ve been paired up to be roommates by the Faculty because their personalities suit each other. But you had never expected this to be the turn out.

Eunbi takes a swig of her soft drink and clears her throat. “For the record, I think you and Jungkook suit each other too.”

You’re close to choking on your pizza. Inha’s too busy trying to finish what she’s chewing and by the time she swallows her food, she bursts out into exclamations of joy. “Finally, we have something to agree on!”

“Have you seen how Jungkook stared at you yesterday? He looked like a deer in the headlights.”

“Are you serious?” Inha whispers loudly.

“I think you guys are just overthinking and overseeing it.” You roll your eyes.

“Come on, I’m sure that crush of yours on Jungkook is still thriving within you—”

“No, it isn’t—” You argue back at Eunbi who has a playful smirk spread across her lips. As you slowly get up to avoid the conversation, you’re immediately pulled back to your chair by Inha.

Inha glances at you bewilderedly. “You had a crush on Jungkook?!”

“Yah, Inha.” Eunbi nods her head at her. “Whatever is said in this dorm, stays in the dorm. If I ever hear that you started spreading all of this to the whole campus, you’re sleeping out in the hallway for the rest of the year. Got it?”

You sigh frustratingly. “This is not going to end well.”

“Oh, it sure will.”

“Agh,” you suddenly groan, clutching your stomach. “Where did you get that pizza?”

Eunbi frowns. She stares at you for a few seconds while Inha is too busy trying to finish the pizza in her hand to grab the last one in the tray. You glance at her for a split second before blurting out another groan.

“I got it from the pizza shop across the road. What’s wrong?”

“I—wow, it’s not making me feel too good—I should... I should go.” You groan, bending over and smiling to yourself when you notice that the both of them are buying your act. “I’ll see you guys later, yeah?”

“Wait—Y/N!”

“See ya!”

You leave her dorm and slam the door shut. Letting out a soft sigh, you run a hand through your hair. From inside her dorm, you could hear Eunbi taking a few footsteps to the door and you don’t hesitate to make a run for the elevator. Luckily, before she could catch you, you’re already hopping onto the elevator. You’re out of breath, but you don’t notice the person standing on the other side of the elevator.

He clears his throat. “Y-Y/N?”

You shoot up, wide-eyed and startled to see Jungkook looking at you with the same expression. He’s the first one to flash you a small smile before you come back to your senses. Snapping out of your gaze, you play it off by returning a soft grin.

“Hey, Jungkook, didn’t see you there.” You chuckle, pressing the button leading to the ground floor. “What brings you here on this elevator on a late evening?”

“I was planning on going for a run around the track before hitting the books,” he shrugs his shoulders. You notice how he’s flat out avoiding eye-contact. “I can’t seem to focus. You?”

You shove your hands into your pockets. “I’m currently caught up on my readings, I just finished hanging out with Eunbi and her roommate, so I think I’ll head home.”

Jungkook doesn’t say anything. You take his silence as a sign to just shut up. Instead, you settle on fiddling with the ends of your sleeves, until you hear him clear his throat.

“Uh—would you like to—uh, would you like to go for a jog, or something? I can walk you home uh—right after since it’s getting late.” He stammers, and when you looked away from him, he can’t help but wince at how ridiculous he sounded.

You nod your head. “Sure, I have nothing better to do anyways.”

“R-Really?” He stutters. He didn’t expect you to say yes.

You laugh, and he feels his heart flutter at the beautiful sound. “Really.”

The elevator erupts a soft ‘ding!’ and the doors open to the ground floor. The both of you exit the building, walking side by side. You could sense that Jungkook was sort of awkward around you, for he had left a small distance between the two of you. He was quite timid and soft-spoken, and he was very hesitant with his words. But you didn’t mind at all, because you felt awkward around him too. There was something keeping you from starting a conversation, and you weren’t sure if it was the unsteadiness of your heart, or because you were just flat out shy too.

“You know, you’re literally being talked about all over campus.” He finally breaks the silence. You raise an eyebrow at him and he starts to internally panic. “I mean—not that it’s a bad thing—the things I’ve heard have been nice things.”

“Eunbi and her roommate were literally just talking to me about it.” You say softly. “I’m just worried that those things that they say and spread about me could suddenly transform into horrible things.”

He frowns. “If that happens, then they should be scared of what’s about to come at them.”

“What do you mean?” You question confusedly.

“I’ll give them a piece of my mind,” he shrugs his shoulders.

You gaze up at him, a smile beginning to spread across your lips. “T-Thanks, Jungkook.”

“Don’t worry, I got you.” He says reassuringly.

“Hey, I’m not the only one that’s being talked about all over campus.” You purse your lips into a tight line. “You too, Jungkook.”

“Me?” You hum in reply.

“You and Mina, specifically. I had no idea you guys had a thing going on,” you fake a grin.

He stares at you for a couple of seconds before bursting out into laughter. You glance at him, eyebrows raised, surprised at how he’s laughing so hard. He was literally quiet two seconds ago, and here he was, clenching his stomach and throwing a laughing fit right in front of you.

“Mina and I,” he says in between laughs, “we’re not together. We could never be together. I don’t see her that way… she’s not even my type.”

“Oh?”

“Disappointed?” He asks and you quickly shake your head.

“No!” You blurt out only to feel your cheeks fluster. “Uh—I mean—you guys look good together—so when people talked about the two of you being together, I sort of… believed it. But only because it seemed real!”

Jungkook was afraid that you could hear how loud his heart was beating. Your cheeks were flushed a light shade of red out of embarrassment, and he couldn’t help but stare at you a bit longer than he should. When he notices that you awkwardly look away from him, he snaps out of his trance.

“So, you’re not disappointed?” He teases. He’s surprised at his current behaviour. What is he saying? Where are these words coming from? Since when did he get so flirty?

“I—uh—” You stammer.

He chuckles, reaching out to ruffle your hair. “Good. I wasn’t interested in her anyways. I’ve been waiting for someone else.”

You find yourself looking at how bright his smile was. There was a certain charm that Jungkook had, and back in the day, you had fallen victim to it. But you’re not surprised that even now, you’re still a victim of his charms. There was something about him that you couldn’t move on from, and you weren’t sure if that was a good thing or a bad thing.

“Y/N?”

You snap out of your thoughts to see Jungkook already standing a metre away from you. He’s jogging on the spot, looking at you questioningly. “Are you not going to jog with me?”

“Oh—right!” You exclaim, jogging up to him.

Jungkook falls back onto his bed in a daze. Taehyung tears his gaze away from his laptop, turning around to glance at him. Jungkook’s staring up at the stars plastered on his ceiling, and Taehyung can’t help but smile at how stupidly in love he looked.

As he turns back around to finish his essay, he pulls out his phone and sends a quick text.

to: eunbi (10:23 PM) he’s so whipped for her. [img_1092]

As you run to your lecture room with a banana in one hand and a water bottle in the other, your eyes scan the room numbers to spot for yours. Just as you spot your room, you bump into a figure causing your banana and water bottle to fall to the floor. As you bend down to pick up your things, you bump your heads with the stranger.

“Oh! Sorry—” You exclaim, and it’s almost as if you had gobbled up your words. Looking right at you is a very… handsome guy. He laughs softly, rubbing at his forehead before getting back onto his feet. “I’m so sorry, I didn’t see you there.”

“Oh, it’s no big deal. Are you okay, though?” He questions.

“Ah, yeah, I’m okay. How about you?” You ask, completely embarrassed. He nods and flashes you a reassuring smile. “Sorry, I have to get going, I’m late for class.”

He watches you as you give him one small smile before heading to the same lecture room he’s in. He tilts his head to the side in confusion, he has never seen you before. But something urges him to catch up to you, and he does.

“Oh—wait!” He says a bit too loudly. It catches your attention, and you stop abruptly with your hand on the doorknob. You turn over your shoulder with an eyebrow raised questioningly.

“Y-Yes?” You mumble.

“I’m in this class too! Biochemistry, right?” He smiles. You slowly nod your head. “I think we got off on the wrong foot, but let’s be friends, shall we? I’m Joohyuk.”

You blink, thoughts completely blank. Who did this guy think he was? You bow at him and give him one of your timid smiles. “I’m Y/N. It’s my first day in this class and I’m already running late, but it’s okay. Shall we head to class together?”

He nods his head in reply. As the both of you head into the class, the professor flashes you a harsh gaze before continuing his lecture. You’re scurrying to an empty seat that you spot near the middle of the lecture room. At the same time, you could hear Joohyuk following behind you. Just as you reach your seat, coincidentally, the seat next to yours was empty. Slowly turning around to find Joohyuk, you raise your eyebrows in surprise, for he was right behind you, heading for the seat next to yours.

“It’s a coincidence these two seats are empty, don’t you think?” He questions, and you let out a soft chuckle.

Your soft laugh dies down, however, when everyone around you seems to take note of your presence. Everyone’s whispering to each other, and you can’t help but feel yourself sink into your seat. Your gaze looks down your row of seats, and you could only confirm that everyone’s talking about you by the fact that they’re taking a quick glance at you before continuing to whisper to the person next to them.

Your heartbeat starts to quicken. Your breath is caught in your throat. This feeling of insecurity, vulnerability, and self-doubt had been absent since you studied abroad. However, you had never thought these feelings would come back. You hate attention, whether it was good or bad, because you didn’t want people talking about you. But you can’t stop people from doing it, and neither could you stop yourself from feeling insecure about the idea of them saying bad things about you behind your back.

Joohyuk, on the other hand, seems to notice how you’ve grown tense from the atmosphere. He notices how people are whispering to others, how they glance at you, and it leaves him curious. But he feels as if he’s somehow become part of the reason as to why people are looking at you, whispering about you. He notices that your breathing quickens, and he grows a bit nervous and anxious.

You’re too focused on calming down your breathing. You’re too absorbed by the sounds of whispers. You’re tapping your feet against the floor, hoping that it would help you focus on the lecture. But your breathing starts to quicken, and you’re afraid that—

“Hey, are you okay?” You feel a warm hand being placed on top of yours, and to your surprise, you calm down. Joohyuk glances at you with concern. “Do you need water?”

You let out a soft sigh, your body relaxing. “I’m okay, just anxious. Thanks.”

He flashes you a reassuring smile before fixing his gaze on the screen. A small smile starts creeping up on your face. Somehow, all of your worries fade away. Your growing anxiety and your growing pains scurry away.

And the warmth of his hand never seems to go away.

Class ends on the dot, and you’re already scurrying to get out of the lecture hall. Everyone’s taking their time, while you’re trying to squeeze your way through the aisles towards the exit. The whispering doesn’t seem to stop, and you know you’ll hate yourself forever if you decide to listen to what is being said.

Joohyuk watches you amusedly. You’re too occupied by your thoughts, and you were muttering things underneath your breath. As he just finished packing his things, he finds you already at the exit of the lecture hall. He tilts his head in confusion. He squints his eyes in suspicion when he hears the whispering yet again.

“Joohyuk’s so handsome…”

“I know, right?! She’s so pretty too… don’t you think they look good together?”

“I think they’ll be the couple of the campus, it must be fate that they both came to class late.”

“Yeah! They even ended up sitting together, what kind of coincidence would that be? I think it’s fate.”

Joohyuk purses his lips into a tight line. He starts to feel guilty, wondering if you had felt uncomfortable throughout the whole lecture because of everyone around you.

“Hey, but what about Jeon Jungkook? Isn’t he interested in her?”

“I thought he was dating Mina.”

“Yeah, me too!”

He shrugs off his thoughts, throwing his bag over his shoulder as he heads out of the lecture hall.

“You’ve got to be fucking kidding me!”

You furrow your eyebrows in confusion as Eunbi continues to belt out into fits of laughter. Her roommate, Inha, went back home to spend the weekend with her parents, leaving Eunbi all alone for once. Eunbi’s laughter echoes throughout the dorm, and you can’t help but look at her ridiculously.

“Why are you laughing?”

“Do you know who Joohyuk is?” She questions. You shake your head. “I can’t believe it! I really can’t.”

“Just tell me!”

“Joohyuk. Nam Joohyuk. He’s the top student, he has been on the Dean’s list for two consecutive years – and counting! On top of that, he’s on the swim team and never loses.” She explains, and your mouth slowly falls open at each fact. “You could tell the heavens took up so much time trying to build a perfect man like him. He not only has the looks, he has the brain of Einstein too.”

You groan, shoving your face into her pillow. Eunbi begins to giggle. “Are you kidding me? I literally embarrassed myself in front of him?! Please, just shoot me.”

“But listen,” she whispers, “he’s single.”

“So, what—”

“You didn’t let me finish!” She exclaims. “He’s single and ready-to-mingle.”

You frown. “And he’s definitely not going to be mingling with me, because I won’t mingle with him.”

“Stop being such a party pooper! I’m sure he’s interested in you,” she wiggles her eyebrows. “On the plus side, I think fate has all the reasons to explain why you both ended up in seats next to each other after showing up late to lecture.”

You roll your eyes. “I’m not going to let the event of coincidentally sitting next to him determine my fate.”

“But that’s how I met Taehyung.”

“You’re the only exception.”

Eunbi sighs and falls back against her bed. As the both of you lay next to each other, she props herself up to look at you. You’re completely absorbed in your own thoughts, and you can’t help but feel bothered. There was no doubt that what had happened earlier between you and Joohyuk would soon enough be spread across campus. It makes you let out a frustrated groan, and you rub at your temples. 

“Everyone’s definitely going to be talking about it tomorrow, huh?” Eunbi grins at you.

“Of course.” Her grin suddenly falters. “But be careful. Words can be twisted up.”

Mina walks down the hallway as she heads to her next lecture, and she notices the eruption of whispers. Her ears perk up out of curiosity, but she’s surprised that she’s not hearing her name being the subject of conversation. Y/N. She purses her lips into a tight line and shrugs it off, entering the lecture auditorium to see none other than—

“Y/N,” she sees you seated a few rows up and flashes you a smile. The auditorium was still empty, the seat still unoccupied except for yours. “Nice to see you here.”

At the sight of Mina, you could feel your body tense up. There were gears turning in her head, and you knew that she was planning something. You prove your thoughts correct when she starts heading up to your row to sit right next to you, of all seats. As she grabs her things out of her backpack, she gives you a glance.

“Are you uncomfortable with me sitting next to you?” She questions and you shake your head. 

“Not at all,” you reply softly. She grins.

“Great,” she closes her bag. “Because you’re the only person I know in this class.”

Of course I’m the only person you know. You almost ruined my life. You thought to yourself as you try to make yourself look busy by finishing one of your assignments due this week. Mina clears her throat and it prompts you to give her a side glance.

“Did you know you’re being talked about all over campus?” She asks. “Must be nice to have people talking about you. But don’t worry about what they say, they’ve all been nice things.”

You nod your head to acknowledge her, before returning to your task. The auditorium slowly fills up with fellow peers, who don’t take long to realize that you and Mina are sitting right next to each other. It makes you feel uncomfortable. The whispers come back again.

Once the auditorium is finally full before the start of lecture, Mina looks at you again. “The things they say about you might be nice for now, but if I were you, I’d watch out. Nice things could turn into backstabbing rumours.”

You gulp nervously. She smiles at you, and you’re not sure whether she’s faking it or whether she’s just doing it to irritate you. “But let’s hope that never happens to you, alright?”

“I can’t believe you’re majoring in biochemistry.”

Hoseok huffs out, leaning back in his chair. The two of you are spending your afternoon in the library, catching up on weekly readings and assignments. There was one week left until reading week, where all the students had the opportunity to catch up on their readings. You raise an eyebrow at him before flipping to the next page of your textbook.

He leans in, whispering, “Eunbi told me about Joohyuk.”

“And?” You question, looking completely unfazed.

“There’s something you should know about Joohyuk…” He trails. “And Jungkook.”

“They’re best buddies, aren’t they?” He shakes his head and you frown.

“Well, you see, Jungkook and Joohyuk have always been rivals. Joohyuk is practically the perfect guy you could ever dream of. In first year, he attended the football team tryouts, and he passed with flying colours.”

“And where does Jungkook come in?” 

Hoseok dismays. “Jungkook also passed with flying colours. Both of them were on the same team, but it was almost like they weren’t teammates. They were like rivals, and it was all due to two reasons.”

“But Joohyuk’s on the swimming team?” You laugh, completely confused. 

“That’s the thing,” Hoseok mumbles. “Reason number one, Joohyuk was so whipped for Mina, who was whipped—and still is—for Jungkook.”

“And reason number two?” It’s too much for you to handle that you’re afraid that the second reason is much more worse than the first.

“Jungkook was the reason why Joohyuk was kicked out of the football team. This explains why he’s on the swimming team now.”

“What did Jungkook do?” Hoseok shrugs his shoulders in reply. 

You close your textbook and rub your temples. Hoseok’s revelation and the words in your textbook were both screaming at you to take a break, maybe think and worry about something else for once. But you can’t help but imagine Jungkook and Joohyuk as enemies, two of the most talked about students on campus. And now… you’re somewhat in the middle of it, which is probably why everyone’s talking about you.

“I’d be extra careful if I were you,” he suggests, “the moment Joohyuk finds out you’re connected to Jungkook in some sort of way, he’ll use you in his power to ruin Jungkook.”

You roll your eyes. “I’m sure Joohyuk isn’t that petty and bad to use me to ruin his enemy.”

Hoseok places his hands on top of yours. “Sweetheart, trust me, I’ve seen the two of them brawl, and it’s not the prettiest sight. And it definitely won’t be much prettier if the person they brawl over… is you.”

“I’ll see you tomorrow morning, Y/N.” Hoseok waves as the both of you head back home.

You’re walking in the opposite direction as he is, and you plan on making a quick stop at the convenience store to grab some cup noodles. Since it’s almost midterm season, and that only meant that your fridge will soon be empty and your cabinets will soon be filled with cup noodles. It was university at its finest.

You come across the convenience store near your place, and you step in, your feet absent-mindedly dragging you to the cup noodle section. There was a huge variety of cup noodles that you could probably spent at least half an hour trying to pick one that suits your taste. But knowing you, you were on a crunch of time—study time to be exact—and here you were, grabbing anything your hand comes into contact with, and placing it in your basket. 

Once your basket is almost filled with at least a dozen cup noodles, you find yourself at the checkout desk with your eyes squinted at the total. You pull out a few bills and hand it to the cashier, receiving your change in return.

“Thanks,” you smile and begin to head out the convenience store. 

As you step out of the store, you immediately stop in your tracks when you hear the heavy pitter-patter of rain hitting against the concrete. You rummage through your backpack in search of an umbrella, but frown when you realize that you’ve left it at home. The weather forecast proclaimed a beautiful day and a cloudy afternoon, but you guess you could never trust anything at this point anymore.

Sighing to yourself, you decide to make a run for it. Besides, you didn’t live far from the convenience store. Just as you’re about to make a sprint, you hear your name being called. Standing a few metres away is Joohyuk, his umbrella shielding him from the rain as he makes his way towards you.

“Joohyuk, hey,” you smile softly. 

“What are you doing out here in the rain?” He questions, but he seems to answer his own question when he notices the bag of cup noodles in your hands. “Ah, I see. Are you headed home?”

“Yeah, but unfortunately I forgot my umbrella.” You laugh sheepishly, “I was honestly about to make a run for it. I don’t live quite far from here.”

“You live in this neighbourhood?” He asks and you nod your head. “Really? How come I’ve never seen you around? I live here too.”

“You’ve never seen me around because I’ve been studying abroad last year.” You laugh, and he gestures you to walk with him. “Oh, no, I’m good. I don’t live that far!”

“I don’t want you getting sick,” he argues cutely. “We live in the same neighbourhood, let’s just go home together.”

He takes your silence as permission and the both of you are now walking through the neighbourhood. He glances down at you every now and then, and you notice it. You’re too shy and awkward to start a conversation, for this was one of your weaknesses. Being a complete introvert made it extra difficult for you to make any sort of conversation with someone you barely even knew.

“I heard you’re best friends with Jungkook,” he begins and you gulp nervously, recalling the conversation you and Hoseok had earlier. 

You hum in reply. “Yeah, we went to the same elementary and high school. We’ve been friends for a long time.”

He smiles, and you look up at him. “I used to be on the football team with him, actually.”

“Really?” You try to act surprised.

“Really.” He laughs. “I’m surprised Jungkook never told you. I would have assumed he had already told you, since both of you are close.” 

“Oh, no, here’s the thing,” you explain. “Jungkook and I have been friends throughout elementary and high school. When we both went to university, we haven’t spoken to each other for about a year.”

“Ah, I see.” He nods his head, scratching the back of his neck. “Well, a lot can happen in one year, I guess.”

You nod your head in agreement. “I don’t want to be a bit nosy but, what made you switch to the swim team?”

You watch his smile falter. He plays it off by letting out a small laugh. “I guess a certain football teammate and I had some sort of fallout over a girl. Honestly, looking back at it, it seems extremely ridiculous.”

“A girl?” You question. He nods and you sigh. “I guess a lot of things do happen in one year.”

The two of you look at each other before bursting out into laughter. You finally reach your place, and you gobble up your words when he ruffles your hair. His eyes trail down to meet yours, and you swear he stares at you much longer than needed. You’re the first to look away and his cheeks flush a slight hint of pink.

“Uh, I’ll see you tomorrow in class, I guess.” He clears his throat. You look at him, is he nervous? 

He leans down to peck a gentle kiss on your cheek and your eyes slightly widen. You bite your lip, your feet glued to the ground. What was going on? Why was your heart beating so fast? Why couldn’t you say a word? 

“Good night, Y/N.”

“Hoseok, do you mind passing me a face towel?”

Hoseok goes through your bag and pulls out a towel. He tosses it to you and you wipe down the sweat from your face. As Hoseok starts going through his bag, he furrows his eyebrows in confusion. “I swear I brought my water bottle, where is it?”

“You’ve been quite out of it since this morning, Hoseok.” You chuckle. “Maybe you left it at home?”

“Ugh, you’re right. I think I am out of it.” He pulls out his wallet to take out a few bills. “I’ll be right back. I’m going to go to the convenience store to get some water.”

You smile. “No worries. I’ll be right here.”

As Hoseok leaves you out on the basketball court all alone, you decide to fix up your layups. It’s been a couple weeks since you had an actual one-on-one basketball game, and you were getting pretty rusty with your footwork. You loosen up your legs and your ankles before beginning to dribble down the court. 

As you get near the 3-point mark, you dribble the ball a couple of times before making a shot. The shot goes in clean, an immediate swish, and you smile to yourself. From afar, you could hear someone clapping. You look over your shoulder to see Jungkook leaning against the lamp post.

“Jungkook, nice to see you.” You smile and Jungkook pushes himself off of the lamp post. 

“Went out for a jog,” he mumbles softly. “But I could definitely use up a quick basketball session.”

The both of you meet halfway through the court. This oddly feels familiar to you. 

“One on one?” He smirks.

“Sure.” You grin as you toss the ball at him, almost a bit too forcefully. The ball hits him in the chest and he groans in pain. You gasp softly. “Sorry!”

“Someone’s competitive,” he laughs. 

There’s no denying that you feel butterflies in your stomach or how you feel your heart leaping for joy. There’s that same feeling of nostalgia that you miss so terribly. 

Jungkook begins to charge towards the free-throw line. You take notice of how Jungkook’s surprisingly improved since the last time you played basketball with him. He dribbles the ball between his legs, almost as if he’s trying to distract you. You smirk, snatching the ball from him mid-dribble, passing the ball through his legs. You pick up the ball from behind him and begin charging towards the hoop. Throwing the ball up, you toss it into the hoop and it goes in clean.

You shrug your shoulders. “Zero-one.”

“I should step up my game, huh?” He teases. “It’s the only way I could impress you.”

You retrieve the basketball and begin dribbling it back outside of the three-point line. Jungkook starts to approach you, and you start using his method of distraction by dribbling the ball in between your legs. He tries to snatch the ball away from you, but he misses every time. 

You move side by side, and you decide to fake a left. But as you fake a left and begin to move right, Jungkook stumbles on his untied shoelaces and falls to the ground. You completely forget about the basketball in your hands and check up on him. 

He’s laughing cutely as you bend over. You tilt your head. “Are you okay?”

Jungkook opens his eyes to see you looking at him with concern. He feels his heart soften at the sight. He forgets the fact that he’s stopped laughing at himself. “Mind helping me up?”

You hold out your hand for him. He grabs it and pulls you down. You let out a soft yelp. The both of you lie down, back against the concrete. You glance at him to find him already staring at you. 

“Helping you up doesn’t exactly mean pulling me down with you.” You tease.

The both of you burst out into laughter.

Joohyuk parks his car and lets out a tiring sigh. As he pulls out his gym bag from the trunk of his car, he hears faint laughter from a distance. The laughter had seemed to be from two people, and one laugh sounded oddly familiar. He furrows his eyebrows in confusion.

He starts walking down the jogging path. As he walks closer to the sound of laughter, he sees a basketball court. There are two people versing each other on the basketball court. He sees a familiar figure dribbling the ball and tossing it into the hoop.

As he walks closer towards the basketball court, he realizes that it’s you. He smiles. Heading towards the court, he sees another figure lying down on the ground, grabbing your hand and pulling you down with them.

He squints his eyes. “Look what we have here…”

It doesn’t take quite long for his legs to drag him all the way to the basketball court. The closer he gets, the louder the sounds of your laugh gets. He arrives at the basketball court and stops a couple of metres away.

He clears his throat. “I was wondering who was out here at this time of night.”

You and Jungkook slowly get up, glancing at whoever was speaking to them. When you had realized it was Joohyuk, you flash him a small smile. “Joohyuk, nice seeing you here.”

Jungkook glances at you then at Joohyuk. Joohyuk eyes the both of you before shoving his hands into the pockets of his sweater. As the both of you are having a conversation, Jungkook can’t help but feel out of place. It was like he was invisible, and no matter what, he hated feeling left out. But it was almost as if you had heard his thoughts because you patted his shoulder, catching his attention. You look at him questioningly and he gives you a reassuring look.

“I have yet to go out on my night jog, so I guess I’ll see you in class tomorrow?” Joohyuk insists and you nod in reply. “I’ll save you a seat, as always.”

Once Joohyuk’s out of sight, Jungkook gets up onto his feet and offers you a hand. You grab his hand and he pulls you back up onto your feet. As you dust off your pants, the both of you decide to head back. 

After a couple of minutes of walking in silence, Jungkook asks, “you’re in his class?”

You hum in reply. “Yeah. I met him on my first day of class, actually. He seems pretty nice, he’s been saving seats for me ever since.”

“That’s nice of him,” he mumbles softly. “We used to be best friends, actually.”

You purse your lips into a line. Jungkook seems to be deep in thought and reflection, as if he’s reminiscing the past. You can’t help but look up at him as the both of you walk together. Jungkook glances down at you and it prompts you to look away. He smiles because although you reply with silence, it’s the type of silence where someone just knows. 

He’s hesitant to ask you something, but when you look up at him again, he decides that it’s better to find out. “Do you… like him?”

Curious, you ask him, “what makes you ask that?”

He shrugs his shoulders. “It looks like he likes you.”

You bite your lip. Joohyuk was a sudden change of current, attempting to sway your boat filled with feelings for someone else. He was simply someone who came into your life in the most unexpected way. And although he makes you feel warm, you weren’t sure whether that was enough to determine if you romantically liked him or not. 

“I like him,” you nod your head, and Jungkook looks at you hopelessly. “But only as a friend.”

Right when those words come out of your mouth, snowflakes start falling from the sky. Excited, you look up at the sky to watch the snowflakes fall down. Jungkook sighs with relief, but he finds himself falling into a trance when he looks at you. You catch some snowflakes in your hands, and you watch them melt away. Suddenly, you feel something warm and soft being wrapped around you. Looking up, you watch Jungkook as he wraps his scarf around your neck.

You could feel your heart combusting and your cheeks heating up. He adjusts the scarf before pulling away and giving you a soft smile. “It’s getting cold.”

If you could remember one thing from this beautiful night, it would be how you realized that your feelings for Jungkook have never faded away. Unlike the snowflakes falling from the sky, your feelings for Jungkook had never disappeared in an instant. In fact, they had grown stronger.

That night, Jungkook pulls up an old undelivered text message. 

(11:07 pm - July 2017) jk: hey y/n. that day at grad, what i really wanted to tell you was that i like you. a lot. and i was wondering if you’ve been feeling how i’ve been feeling whenever we hang out. there’s just something indescribable that i feel whenever i’m with you and only you and i’m sort of terrified but at the same time i feel… safe. and at peace.

It’s been two years since that text message, and everything remains the same. The only difference is that Jungkook knows that he’s not terrified of the fall, and he is more than sure that the feelings he has for you won’t ever change. 

Jungkook loves being lowkey about his strong feelings for you. Although his definition of lowkey doesn’t necessarily mean or seem lowkey to his close friends, you somehow are oblivious of it all. But he’s not sure whether he should keep things lowkey anymore when there’s another guy coming into the picture.

And that guy happens to be Joohyuk.

author’s note: i hope you like this early christmas gift! i know this was long overdue but i knew that i had to get it done somehow. let me know what you think! hmu :-) i love making new friends!

[chaoswillfallrpg]

EDWARD TONKS is TWENTY-FOUR YEARS OLD and a PHOTOGRAPHER in INVESTIGATIVE REPORTING at THE DAILY PROPHET. He looks remarkably like TOM HOLLAND and considers himself NEUTRAL. He is currently OPEN.

→ OVERVIEW:

Edward Tonks lived a very normal life until he realised something wasn’t quite as it should be. Growing up in the sleepy seaside town of Whitby in North Yorkshire, Ted as he was better known as, spent his childhood down by the sea playing with friends, taking polaroid pictures that adorne his room and imagining his future as a very different from the one he was destined to have. His parents owned the most popular seafood restaurant in Whitby, known for their fish and chips in particular, people would file up and down the seafront in the hopes of getting a taste of the food being served at The Little Mermaid. The restaurant was a staple in Ted’s life, he loved just being there, colouring in at one of the tables as he watched the world go by in front of him or sitting in the kitchens watching his parents cook their famous food. Ted had always dreamed of owning the restaurant when he was old enough, his mind filled with amazing ideas as to how he would build on his parents legacy. Nothing tipped Ted’s parents off to the idea he was anything other than a regular little boy until he was around eight years old, then things would happen his family couldn’t quite explain. 

A small argument about cleaning up his room after dinner would result in the fish raining from the ceiling when Ted was angry and alone in his bedroom, or a frustrating moment at school would send the water in his bottle shooting up into the air. Though some of these occasions happened in front of other people, Ted chose to believe he was not the overarching factor in these strange occurrences and tried to live his life as normal. On his eleventh birthday, Ted received his letter to study at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry and everything began to make some semblance of sense. It was a difficult pill to swallow for Ted that he was a wizard or even that magic existed at all. His life had always been set to take a course he was prepared to be set on which his letter to study at a magical school completely threw out of the window. His parents were understandably worried, having not prepared him for a life beyond their sleepy seaside town but they understood this new path filled with danger and excitement was one they had to allow him to take. Trying their best to immerse themselves in this new world, they took Ted to Diagon Alley to collect his books, told all their friends he was attending boarding school in London and dropped him off at King’s Cross station. 

The first week of school was a blur for Ted. Upon entering The Great Hall, Ted stared in amazement at the ceiling as he watched the candles dancing up and down in the air, a warm feeling in his stomach as he allowed himself the first time to believe in the magic he had coursing through him. Sitting under the sorting hat, Ted was more curious than he was nervous, listening to the booming voice in his ear deciding where he should be placed and considering if it meant anymore than when you were sorted into tables or teams at school. Hufflepuff was a funny word that didn’t mean a lot to Ted until FABIAN PREWETT explained it to him with a cheeky grin. Huflepuffs were known for kindness, loyalty, fairness and tolerance which Ted felt explained him quite well. Fabian and his twin brother GIDEON, became Ted’s first friends at school. Flame haired boys who enjoyed telling inappropriate jokes and throwing parties in the Hufflepuff common room, they took Ted under their wing in the wizarding world, explaining a lot to him whilst simultaneously badgering about his Muggle upbringing which both interested and confused them. Fabian was a little bit more on Ted’s wavelength than Gideon, Ted preferring to spend his evenings down by the greenhouses rather than in detention. A studious and well behaved boy, Ted was quickly separated out from his friendship group by older student AMELIA BONES, when Ted became a Prefect in his fifth year. 

Amelia who was a year his senior quickly established a motherly sort of relationship with Ted, acting as his unofficial protector. Although a lot of his were Pure-Bloods, Ted soon learned there were people in the wizarding world that treated him with contempt due to his status as a Muggle-Born. Amelia tried to reassure him that the opinions of families like the Blacks and Malfoys were outdated and despite her pristine record, managed to get into a few courtyard duels over the mistreatment of Ted. Some names stuck in Ted’s head as bad ones. Black in particular was a name he’d been taught to avoid long before he’d even registered there was a girl in his class who shared the surname. ANDROMEDA BLACK was quiet. A prefect and a member of Slug Club, she kept herself to a small trio of Slytherin girls and rarely spoke without being spoken to first. Like most things in the wizarding world, Ted became curious about her and despite his better judgement and several warnings from Amelia decided to embark on a friendship with her. It was a few words here and there, casually bumping into her at parties or happening to see her in odd areas of the castle that formed the basis for their relationship, although it truly blossomed after Amelia had graduated. Ted was very fond of Andromeda and although he had meaningful relationships whilst they were at school she was always the constant in his life, though Andromeda was unaware of it. 

Leaving school having made Head Boy in his final year and with a firm set of friends, Ted quickly moved to London and embarked on securing a job working for The Daily Prophet. Moving in with a few fellow aspiring journalists in Russell Square, Ted quickly befriended his landlord and fellow housemate DAISY HOOKUM, who he found lived mostly at the office rather than in her own home. His other roommate THEODORE STEBBINS was obsessed with gossip and worked with RITA SKEETER, often attempting to corner him in the hallway to ask if he’d heard anything juicy he wouldn’t mind passing his way which he always passed up on. BETTY BRAITHWATE was a little more easy going than the rest of their house, though she took her job just as seriously. The youngest reporter in Arts and Entertainment, Betty longed for a job in Ted’s department and to be taken more seriously as a journalist, though her connections amongst the young wizarding elite prevented her from being moved around. They were strange characters, but quickly became close friends of his, bound together due to their crazy work lives that prevented making too many friends outside their profession. Ted secured a photography internship at The Daily Prophet a few months after Hogwarts, feeling it was a good fit for him due to his passion for taking photos, though he still had later aspirations of taking over and expanding his family business. 

The Prophet was a world entirely it’s own with vast departments, office politics and personal agendas that created their own little cliques which transcended any area you ended up working in. A talented boy who was quick on his feet, he quickly made an enemy of fellow photographer ADRIAN CAVERLY who was gunning for a job in Investigative Reporting before it was assigned to Ted which prompted a rivalry between the pair. Ted has been working alongside their senior reporter ELIAS SPENCER-MOON as his personal photographer for the past year. Working with Elias has been a huge step in Ted’s career, though it has come at the expense of his personal life to some degree due to the strange hours he works and the huge target which has been painted on his back as a result. Currently working a string of missing persons cases happening across London, including the infamous BOOKER BAGNOLD case. Despite being fond of Booker, the case has certainly put Ted on the map as a photojournalist and flagged to Elias he was more than a glorified assistant. As more people go missing, Elias has had Ted and his researcher EMMA SQUIGGLE working around the clock speaking to people of interest and trying to find an angle that connects the late Booker Bagnold with any of the other cases. With friends in high places at The Ministry, Ted is currently using all of his resources to help uncover the truth in spite of his safety and will stop at nothing to break the story and hopefully get a little bit closer to a certain member of the Black family who is running in similar circles. 

→ ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:

Blood Status → Pure-Blood

Pronouns → He/Him

Identification → Cis Male 

Relationship Status → Single

Sexuality → Up to Roleplayer

Previous Education → Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry (Hufflepuff)

Societies → Sorcerers for Equality 

Family → N/A

Connections  → Amelia Bones (best friend), Fabian Prewett (best friend), Gideon Prewett (close friend), Andromeda Black (close friend/potential love interest), Daisy Hookum (close friend/colleague/housemate), Betty Braithwate (close friend/colleague/housemate), Theodore Stebbins (close friend/colleague/housemate), Romeo Davis (friend/colleague), Emma Squiggle (colleague/potential love interest), Saoirse MacMillan (friend), Adrian Caverly (colleague/adversary), Elias Spencer-Moon (colleague/mentor)

Future Information → Eventual Member of The Order of The Phoenix, Husband of Andromeda Black, Father of Nymphadora Tonks

EDWARD TONKS IS A LEVEL 5 WIZARD. 

[pyrctechnic]

𝐈 𝐃 𝐄 𝐍 𝐓 𝐈 𝐅 𝐈 𝐂 𝐀 𝐓 𝐈 𝐎 𝐍  /  𝐂 𝐀 𝐑 𝐃

when  yongsun  hands  over  his  identification  card   ,   it’s  clear  something’s  struck  a  nerve   .   ❝   hey   ,   you’re  the  GUMIHO’s  son   ,   aren’t  ya   ?   you  know   ,   that  notorious  south  korean  villain  who  ate  her  victims’   —   ❞   the  poor  student  volunteer  didn’t  get  a  chance  to  finish  their  sentence   ,   mostly  due  to  yongsun’s  fists  connecting  with  the  student’s  teeth   .

H I S T O R Y

yongsun was born in seoul, south  korea. his childhood was glamourous. his father was a fashion designer & made a name for himself on multiple international runways. his mother was a model who was known for her fierce, in-control  demeanour. she was a force to be reckoned with & she always got what  she wanted. she was a ballet dancer before that, though as all dancers are forced to be met with — the body’s not meant for such rigorous fervour all the time. the two were determined to pamper their child & make sure that life wouldn’t be cruel to them.

their child was fierce & determined like his mother, hard-working & passionate like his father. his eyes were set on the heroes he saw on the television & the way they looked so cool while they fought. growing up, he was a huge hero merch fiend. this served as an endearing trait as he became a child actor personality. whenever they published behind-the-scenes footage of young yongsun, he was always decked out in hero merch. he was a good child actor, compliant to his parents & possessing a natural talent for memorization. not to mention that his parents already had influence in the entertainment world.

as he got older, a few things became abundantly clear. yongsun was becoming a bully, heavily demanding & not the greatest when it came to rejection. yongsun was also becoming a proficient fighter, practicing with his quirk until twilight & learning all he could about the way fireworks worked. yongsun was the king of the playground & woe to those who tried to contest that.

oh, the way things changed when he graduated elementary school. he stopped taking up actor roles, claiming he wanted to focus on his schooling. shame, the public thought, he had such a handsome face that belonged on the screen. still, if one were to dig, they could find all the television shows & movies that yongsun was in as a child. nonetheless, yongsun was kidnapped at twelve by a small villain organization that belonged to the GUMIHO.

the GUMIHO was a notorious, ruthless villain that attacked people on the streets. seemingly at random. the victims would go missing for weeks, only to turn up murdered & without their livers or hearts. like the legend of the nine-tailed fox, the villain was dubbed GUMIHO by the public. soon, villains flocked to the GUMIHO in attempt to form a powerful organization that wreaked chaos & cruelty across seoul. 

yongsun’s parents begged heroes to help find their son. they made public statements, issued rewards for information regarding their only child. they pleaded with the world to not let him be taken by the GUMIHO. five days later, yongsun made an appearance. he broke himself out of the hideout all on his own. he escaped the clutches of the GUMIHO. but the yongsun that came back wasn’t the yongsun that was kidnapped.

somehow, yongsun became even mouthier & rude than before. he closed himself off from his parents, holed himself in his room, only talking to a select few. he became very good at the broody preteen sterotype. then, one day, their home was invaded.

his parents, frantic & desperate not to be taken in by the police, were quick to deploy counteractive measures. still, officers in gear stormed their mansion. when yongsun’s father begged yongsun to go with them, to continue living the life they always had — yongsun took a walke talkie out of his hoodie pocket & radioed the leader of the raid that the villains GUMIHO & ENDER were trying to escape through a secret exit in the private study. yongsun didn’t leave his father’s gaze as he did so & his father noticed something that he’s never seen in his son’s eyes before: pain. it hurt yongsun to put his parents behind bars but it’s what heroes do, right? heroes have to make sure that villains end up punished for their crimes by the law.

you see, the GUMIHO & ENDER had an outstanding investigation to identify & apprehend them. they were close to cracking the case too. in desperation, yongsun’s father suggested that they kidnap yongsun. not out of malice & never intending to hurt him, but to throw the police off their scent. they trusted yongsun to put up a fight, to be a hassle for their henchmen to handle. maybe they put too much trust in their hero-to-be, as yongsun completely escaped & noticed strange discrepancies during his escape. his broodiness was actually investigation into his own parents.

the wealth that the villain couple accumulated legally was sealed away until yongsun became of age. until then, he was set to live with his maternal grandparents... who lived in america. he also disappeared from south korea’s media. he declined interviews & statements of his own. he all but disappeared from his home country’s eyes. GUMIHO & ENDER were sent to the highest security villain prison that south korea has to offer. although visitors are allowed, they both knew that they couldn’t expect any.

in america, he was the classic angsty teenage transfer student. however, he excelled in hockey when he was offered the chance to try out for the high school team. in fact, people assumed he was going to put everything into hockey. he never spoke about being a hero. he still refused to talk about his parents. he seemed to forget about being a hero.

turns out that yongsun was being a vigilante all throughout high school. he’d sneak out in the middle of the night to find crimes to stop. during this period of time, he was angry & cruel. full of grief & loss. any villain that he’d leave on the doorstep of the police station was beaten to an inch of their life. at least, they were alive. he had choices to make upon coming to college, however. let everyone know he was still fully intending on being a hero or continue this facade & accept a hockey scholarship ? he continued to pretend for two more years before finally having to drop out of his old university to pursue heroism.

he reached a stalemate. he couldn’t fight any better than he could, unless he had support items & endorsements. he couldn’t continue only doing this at night, as his regular schooling required his attention if he weren’t to fail. so then, he entered u.a academy two years late. still, he was exceptional in the course & quick to use his experience as a vigilante to his advantage. 

S T A T I S T I C S

POWER: ★★★★★

SPEED: ★★★✰✰

TECHNIQUE: ★★★★✰

INTELLIGENCE: ★★★★✰

COOPERATIVENESS: ★✰✰✰✰

M O V E S

ILLUMINARY: yongsun lights a bunch of short, bright white bursts of fireworks from all over his body, temporarily disabling his opponent. this movie is accompanied with a straightforward advance before he jumps & spins, using the momentum of the small fireworks to keep him moving forward like a missile. this move allows him to get closer to his opponent to allow for short-range attacks.

EMPEROR’S PARTY:  this move is considered an ultimate move, something he uses when he’s confident that victory is assured. the reason being is because it takes a lot of concentration to manifest. he fires off fireworks from his feet, thrusting him into the air. from here, he sets off a sequence of fireworks that are large, loud & that will set anything within two meters of it on fire. it’s called emperor’s party as it’s reminiscent of a fireworks show finale. his body is hard to see through the fireworks.

SIKE OUT: there are some fireworks that are bright & sparkling, though do little in terms of damage. these gaudy displays are some of yongsun’s favourite moves. he’ll shoot these types of fireworks from his hands in a straightforward as the firework is already creating a trail of sparks as they emit from his hand. he then sends a second barrage of fireworks, though they are a delayed ignition firework. they are silent & invisible until the last possible moment & by then, yongsun would have maneuvered his opponent to be in the crossmark.

C O N N E C T I O N S

t b a (aka i’m leaving right away but i want to post this i will come back to edit this)

[florarie5a]

PATCHOULI

Florarie Patchouli Flowers 🌸 The Freshest Of Flowers In A Unique Approach 🌸 We Know It’s The Little Things That Make Each Memory Last A Lifetime, Flower Shop 🌸 Couture Events 🌸 buchete de flori in cutie PATCHOULI STORY LOTS OF PEOPLE ASK ME HOW PATCHOULI BRAND WAS CREATED. FOR THEM I HAVE DECIDED TO WRITE THIS STORY … The PATCHOULI Story begins with a wish, a name and a passion. In 2012 I was in London for the … I do not know how many times, looking for inspiration. I spent there over a month – burning for a new beginning, for setting up a new business representative for me to allow myself to express myself. We, people, suffer a lot when we do not have the chance to create, to express ourselves. So, I was wandering along the famous King’s Road and through Harrods, hoping to find something to catch my attention. It was there I’ve found some of the most opulent flower shops I’ve ever seen. I was swept by their sense of beauty, the artistic and creative boutique side. And then, I made the connection … The connection with my name. Although I did not realize until that moment, my name was predestined for the floral world, towards which only (too) late I was directing my senses. My royal names are imposing, royal names, with echoes in the world history. But Viorica did not sound to me, until that moment, as a source of inspiration in none of my previous professional activities. Even though in the past I was involved in many other business activities, the greatest passion was only to come, or, better said, to the blossom, right from the etymology of my name. Reaching this land of scents, colors and forms, I knew that the next step was the setting up of the first shop of floral creation in Romania. At first I intended to call it Patchouli & Bergamot , but it seemed too long. Patchouli is another name for Pogostemon Cablin, a bushy plant from the mint family, being one of the aromatic plants that grow in India. As of the 19 thcentury, the traders were using patchouli leaves between the cashmere wool shawls to protect the merchandise from the moths. The oil extracted from the leaves of this plant has a strong exotic aroma with a scent of sweet musk. In the East, the plant has various uses: in cosmetics, in aromatherapy, in treating nervous diseases or infections. In perfumery, the patchouli oil has been used since 1960. They say that sprayed on money or on wallets it attracts more money … Another essence that delights my senses is the vetiver. Although both scents are masculine and strong, they are among my favorites – I, myself, being passionate of perfumes, which I collect from all my trips. Following the decision that the brand name will be PATCHOULI, I visualized the concept of the entire floral workshop: from the interior to exterior. The space for the workshop to function in Piata Dorobanti is asymmetric, with lateral glass walls – meaning it was a harsh volume that needed to be tamed in order to welcome the flowers. I thought that vintage curvy furniture contributes to the warming of the space. The centerpiece is the working table, the place where all is happening, while the black floor reflects the Patchouli logo background. On the first part of the table I imagined us creating the bouquet, wrapping it up in tissue paper or in specially branded bags, while at the opposite end the creation process to start all over again. Once the entire process was settled, meaning the technique of combining colors and flowers and considering the client’s budget, we succeeded to create spectacular bouquets within 5 to 10 minutes! The idea of a floral concept store was highly welcomed by the public, from the very beginning. The clients were amazed about the fact that the entire process was unfolding before their very eyes, rapidly and efficiently. At that moment, Patchouli was the sole concept store of the kind on the entire Romanian market, so the most frequently asked question was whether we are an international franchise. The concept in itself is still not widely spread, due to the fact that the custom is for the bouquets to be ready made and exposed for rapid sale. We chose to continuously have very fresh flowers, so as our customers may have the chance to appreciate them and to participate at the creative process.  Hence, they are always aware of the content of the bouquets they buy. People were very excited with the newly and stylish opened store, always full of flowers from all over the world. The window was aimed at being another sensational element of our marketing strategy: wooden cages full of luxuriant flowers disposed in a chosen lack of symmetry and boxes with succulent plants – a static show full of life at which every passer on the street was a witness in awe! Many of these passers were reticent at coming into the store… they were expecting exorbitant prices. I remember the first order I made: I could’ve decorated the entire Dorobanti market with that quantity of flowers! Being in contact with these beauties for the first time, I wanted to learn, to feel their variety, diversity, color and to master them in every aspect. I was longing to meet Anthurium, Amaranthus, Cymbidium, Phalenopsis, Astilba, Eustoma and the rest of the flowers that caught my eye and spirit. The space of the store of 38 square meters, plus the basement, soon became insufficient, despite the overlays our imagination came up with. The only solution was to go out in the street and exhibit our flowers and bouquets, to the delight of the passers. I started to study and register the behavior in time of each flower, so as to learn its resiliency, its specific characteristics. Consequently, I made my own selection and customized my orders so as the variety of merchandise one may meet in Patchouli concept store cannot be found no place else. Along my journeys I was constantly attracted by books and magazines in the domain. I bought everything I could find about flowers and decorations, thus created a vast collection of catalogues. The next step was to ask the suppliers for new and original types of flowers that they never heard of… Slowly, they started to import them and the uniqueness and specificity of our offer have won a special place in our client’s hearts. Moreover, from the very first day our store opened, our staff was specially equipped with branded aprons and vests. We did not stop there: the branded ribbon, the tissue paper and the black paper bag, all of them have contributed to our brand identity. No one before had the courage to use black in this kind of creations, despite this color’s elegant and stylish touch, especially in combination with silver and gold! A visually attractive combination of flowers was studied in order to realize exquisite and unique bouquets and arrangements. This is how we found our place on the market, we got to be known and, following constant positive feed-back, we became notorious. One of the feed- backs close to me heart and that will remain in my memory forever is that each time a Patchouli bouquets or arrangement is presented it’s like a Chanel piece of fashion entering the room – a reason of huge satisfaction for myself and my team. People, in general, were used to a round and extremely compact type of bouquet. We started to educate our customers and to impose our vision on this art, which was a little bit difficult at the beginning. Slightly, the taste for our creations grew so as we can say that we have launched the new trend in the floral design, another great satisfaction for our work. My favorite floral design is the  ‘sauvage’ type, the one that gives you the feeling that the component flowers just have been picked up from the garden –fresh and special. The wrapping added to the style: we have introduced lace, ribbons of all kind and colors, newspaper type of exterior packaging. Starting from this unconventional wrapping, in the context of running a flowers concept store, we created also unconventional arrangements using any object that was inspiring us: boxes, cups, objects of all kind and value. Eventually, a floral arrangement may be realized both in a silver or rusty bowl, each of them bearing their own originality. Owning your business comes with the greatest advantage of all: freedom of decision. So, I decided to give up some flowers that were extensively used on the Romanian market, such as the one we call ‘bride’s flower’, as well as Aspidistra, which is mostly used at funeral creations. In exchange, I introduced various types of eucalyptus: Euchalyptus Cinerea, Baby Blue, Berry, with berries or flowers, or fruits, mimosa and many other types of green plants that add even more value to the bouquets. We also have created the Patchouli candle to represent us by its pithy, vibrant scent. In this way, through the elements that we gathered, we succeeded to make Patchouli a remarkable brand in people’s life, seeding in them the desire to give more, better and more passionately. Despite my strong character, the background is one of a sensitive woman. I love perfumes, trips and adventures – it’s them from where I get my inspiration. Even before Patchouli concept store was created, when I was acting in the advertising industry, I participated at various design international fairs and events. I applied that experience once with launching Patchouli. Passionate by interior design, I created and built a spectacular fountain and placed it among flowers, like a tranquility oasis in the back of the store. In this way, I wished to inspire those who come inside a peaceful feeling, like the one in the Garden of Eden. Lots of people envy us for the nature of our work: the wonderful environment, constantly surrounded by the nature’s beauty. However, underneath that is the assiduous work, the sweet care for the flowers, customers and the business as a whole. Among my trips, an experience dear to my heart, like an anniversary present, is the meeting I had with Jeff Leatham, one of the greatest floral artists of the world, the artistic manager of the Four Seasons Hotel in Paris. The “eternity” I spent with him and his advice have been a true joy and represented a new source of inspiration. I hope to meet him again, why not, in the Patchouli ‘garden’. It is this experience that inspired my new project – the PATCHOULI Garden Showroom – a place where to withdraw the PATCHOULI essence from. I combined flowers with interior design and created a new location where a house and its garden host the home, flowers and decorations concept. It is a special concept, targeting those who appreciate nature and aesthetics in every corner at home, at the office, in the restaurants or hotels. It’s about colors, shapes and perfume symphony, where the queens of the show change their gala costumes. Behind them, as the director, my aim is to admire and talk to them, delighted by their majestic silence. Like them, I myself, become speechless. When our silent dialogue turns into a meditatively one, just the beauty of flowers give rise to new stories.

[paint-pilot]

shit it’s been a second, guess it’s time to update again

edit: holy christ this is long, i’m gonna readmore it. tl:dr tyler has many badweird feelings but is getting through it. fun body changes, including hair growth and an unexpectedly nice voice. surgery and legal matters are Annoying. tw for menstruation

it is truly bizarre to think that i’ll have been five months on t in a little under two weeks. another month after that and it’s half a year. it’s uhh...weird. quarantine has just made this all feel weird. it’s like i fast-forwarded through this whole journey i was supposed to go on i guess? like i got randomly torn out of my life one day in march with no warning and then just as suddenly got spat out in august with a new life - new name, new face, new major, new identity - and no transitional period whatsoever. my classmates, my professors, my students, they all have only known me as tyler. and only ever will know me as tyler. and that’s great! it’s great, and i’m truly just blown away by how markedly easy it’s been and how weirdly good my timing was in transitioning. but it almost feels like i’m still a ways behind everyone else, i guess. i’ve spent so much of my life hiding, and lying through my teeth, and covering my ass every second of every day to protect myself, and i don’t have to do that anymore but the instinct is 100% still there and that honestly doesn’t feel good. of course i’m not making any of it up - i’m happier now than i’ve ever been, and i know i’m making the right choice - but it still persistently keeps feeling that way.

it’s just difficult, i think, to balance wanting to be read as male (and, to a large extent, wanting to keep my transness hidden both for safety reasons and so people don’t start treating me differently) and finding it difficult to hide this truly massive life change that, like, four people are really seeing anything of. and y’all, i guess, lol. it’s one thing to talk about all this in therapy, but it’s another entirely to just be able to share it with strangers and not worry about it being weird.

i was writing this with the intent of it being a mostly happy update but i guess there is some negativity boiling up so. gotta be honest, i guess? there’s a lot of fun trauma stuff i’ve been going through lately that i won’t get into but it’s culminated with this bullshit in this really fun way where my mom gets upset because i get kind of uncomfortable when she shows me childhood photos or tells stories about me as a little kid and then i just break down for reasons i really can’t discern. i’m going to try and articulate this, and who knows how messy it’s going to get, so i apologize if it gets kind of incoherent from here on out. as far as i can tell the root thing that she really gets upset about is that i’ve “thrown away” my whole previous identity. like, not a direct quote, but “you can’t just pretend [deadname] never existed. because she did, for a long time.” and...sure, i guess. i know this has been hard on my mom. i know she was raised in a conservative family, and while she has worked hard to adopt an accepting and open mindset she still doesn’t 100% grasp all of it and will make mistakes. i’ve made my peace with that. and yet. it’s not so much, really, that i was this other person and then became tyler, y’know? tyler did not appear suddenly two years ago where she once stood. tyler put on a mask, even before he knew he was tyler, because tyler was scared and ashamed but people seemed to like her and, for a time, she was an easy person to be. and i hated her. that is so fucking scary for me to say, and i’m not sure i’ve admitted that until literally right this second, but i did. not because she was a bad person. because she had a voice and a face and a body that i hated. because people saw her and assumed they knew me. because even she had many faces, because there was no real base or identity to her, just traits designed to paint a pretty picture and make people like her. because i knew, when i finally threw her away, people would miss her. compare me to her. expect me to be like her.

so i don’t know. i don’t have a satisfying way to wrap this up, because i honestly don’t know how to face this because i know it is absolutely not just the trans thing that created this situation. i’m kinda warring with myself, because i do kinda want to go back through this blog and delete photos of myself with long hair and whatever (because jesus, i’ve had this thing since i was like 14) but i genuinely don’t know if that’s healthy. i know i’m going back on my bullshit, fretting this way and that over whether something is “healthy” as though that’s an objective term without considering what’s going to make me happy, but honestly? i don’t know anymore. i keep sensing the mental block - the swathes of my childhood that i cannot recall, just vague, constant unease - and i don’t really know if i want to dig into all of that and learn what lies underneath because i’m sort of afraid of it. like i said, i’m happy now, happier than i’ve ever been, and i’d sort of like to just leave it like that. but i guess the length and tone of this post might argue otherwise.

anyways. anyways. enough mental health therapy, more actual hormone therapy updates since that’s what this goddamn thing is supposed to be i think? i’m finally starting to grow some noticeable hairs - my chin hair is coming back after my mom made me shave it before i left for school lol, as are a handful of mustache/lower lip/sideburn hairs. i keep feeling phantom bugs on my legs/feet and i’ve only just now recognized that that’s just leg hairs brushing against places i’m not used to. my appetite has picked up like absolute hell again, too, so i don’t know if i’m just having a metabolic spurt or what. also, i’ve started bruising more? idk what the hell that’s about - i fucking never bruise unless i’ve been hit Hard, and i kind of assumed testosterone would make you less likely to bruise, but then that’s probably just not related to the hormones at all. i was gonna put this in the tags but seeing as this post is already so long i might as well put a readmore and just put this here lol: my period is late, like, four days late, which is exceedingly unusual for me and might mean i’m finally done. or almost done. fingers crossed.

my voice has started to settle, it seems like. i popped out an e2 yesterday, which is Sick, but i’m not as focused on that anymore as i am on the actual quality of my tone. which is...good? i’m not just a baritone, i’m kind of a good one, at least it seems like. i’m really working right now on just getting familiar with my instrument - i’m second-guessing my pitch sensitivity a lot, but i think i really just need to drill and practice until everything starts feeling like second nature again. but since the musical didn’t happen for me, my coach wants to enter me in a classical solo competition next spring. so...no more retirement from competitive singing. i’m back! and thank god, because i’m starting to go crazy without being in musical work lol.

jesus fuck, i have a lot to say. i should probably split this into two posts but i don’t care. i am frustrated; i tried to get an appointment with a pro bono legal program for a name change, but it happened today and i wasn’t invited so apparently i’m on my own. and i’m frustrated. i’m trying to look at internships and shit for next summer, but i kind of can’t apply right now because my legal name and sex don’t line up with my presentation, and i don’t really know how easy it is to get away with that in this day and age and especially in my field. genuinely, if anyone has any advice, i’d appreciate it. i don’t know how long this will take, i don’t know what the requirements are, i don’t know if i’m better off just applying now and hoping they don’t eliminate me before ever getting me an interview. and, of course, i’m working on getting consultations for top surgery, but i keep catching myself procrastinating that. which seems weird, but listen. i’ve said it before but i have to emphasize, i am capital-t Terrified of getting this surgery. i know i need to, i know it will make things better for me, i know now is the time, i know i hate binding and can’t really get away with not doing so, but jesus fuck i am so frightened of anesthesia it’s not even funny. but i guess i’m mostly just calling myself out here and telling myself to quit being a big baby, schedule the thing, and give myself a few months to prepare.

anyway. that’s all i have to say. i’d apologize for ranting, but honestly...i dunno. i know at the start of all this a handful of you requested these updates, and i have to imagine it’s because at least some of you are transitioning, are thinking of doing so, or know someone who is or will be soon. and i just hope someone out there can at least relate, because there honestly just aren’t a lot of comparable life changes out there. or maybe this is just therapeutic for me, that’s fine too.

i have two midterms next week i should be studying for. i should do that.

[angelbabylu]

Man or Beast // LH

pairing: witch!oc x vampire!luke

word count: 7.5k

warnings: smut, fluff, magical stuff, angst if you squint 

notes: so last week i posted something wicked, an introduction to this universe where 5sos are vampires. as stated in my note for that fic, the idea comes from this book series. whereas that fic dealt with a lot of witch lore, this will deal with vampire lore. basically digging into luke’s family and backstory and such. this has the barest of allusions to dracula. i hope you enjoy! 

title: from this dracula quote: “[S]omething dark stood behind the seat where the white figure shone and bent over it. What it was, whether man or beast, I could not tell.”

Part 1: Something Wicked

-- 

The first year in front of her had turned bright red in embarrassment. They were in the greenhouse discussing the life cycle of plants and how magic could be used to speed up that process. Margo, the TA for this freshman herbology class, had grown quite used to her students being intimidated by her. Especially those like the young witch in front of her who’s magic had gone haywire and caused several plants in the vicinity to die. The good news was that Margo was somewhat of a prodigy when it came to herbology. It was one of the few things she could do without incantations.

She ran her hands over the flowering plants as she spoke to the girl. “Like with all magic, it is about manipulating something on a molecular level. With raw power, all you have to do is send your magic into the universe and manipulate it to do your bidding. Like creating water.” Margo whispered a quick spell that had an orb of water forming between her fingertips. She tossed it into the air, and it disappeared into steam.

“Or,” Margo continued, “telekinesis.” After a wink from Margo, the large, round, wire-rimmed glasses that the first year wore wiggled up and down on her face.

“The water and your glasses are both inanimate objects, so I only had to worry about manipulating them to my own will. With plants, you can’t just shove energy at it and hope for the best as they have a will of their own. Listen to the plant and learn what it wants. If you just try to bend it to your will, it will resist, which could lead to. . . ” Margo trailed off.

The young witch had already experienced the consequences of such actions. “This takes a level of practiced magical manipulation.” As if in a show of agreement, the plants began to come back alive around her, sprouting flowers as red as the witch’s face had turned earlier.

Margo was so engulfed in trying to teach her young student how to control horticultural magic, she didn’t notice the slight prickling in her thumb.

She missed the whispering and giggling too. It was not until the young witch interrupted her with a small, yet constrained smile and said, shyly, “Miss Crowley, I think your boyfriend is here,” that she looked up and out towards the doorway. Sure enough, leaning against the door frame to the greenhouse was Luke, arms crossed, a smile on his face.

Margo pursed her lips in mild annoyance, hands coming to rest on her hips. Luke knew that when he showed up to her lectures, it distracted the class. Most vampires didn’t hang out with the Horticultural Magic students–they tended to prefer biological sciences, history, literature, and other such pursuits. And, vampires were also the least prevalent of the magical beings. Chances were many of the first years had never seen a vampire before meeting Luke.

Some of the bolder witches had already made their way over to him, taking his attention away from Margo.

“I suppose class is over?” asked the young witch Margo had been helping. She looked at her students whose focus was no longer on the plants in front of them, but on the tall, looming vampire in the doorway.

“I suppose,” Margo said solemnly.

She went to the front of the greenhouse and called out for attention. “Class dismissed. Please remember that I expect all of you to be able to draw the life cycle of an angiosperm by next Tuesday! There will be a quiz.”

As always, there was a collective groan throughout the room. Margo ignored it as she went to about packing her things. Luke stayed at the door for a couple of seconds saying goodbye to the few students that were friendly with him before walking over to her. When she had rammed all that could fit in the small laptop bag, she slung it over her shoulder, picking up the spellbook and the biology textbook she couldn’t quite fit.

Reaching out, Luke stole the books and a kiss. “Good afternoon, mon cœur,” he said, his native language rolling smoothly off his tongue. “I take it you had a good class.”

Margo refused to smile at him, no matter how charming he was.

When she didn’t return his smile, he turned indignant. “What did I do?” He asked, voice raising an octave.

“Half my class is like in love with you. Every time you show up, they forget I exist.”

Luke laughed at her revelation, placing one arm around her and ushering her out of the greenhouse. “Half your class is in love with you,” he shot back. “That girl you were talking to when I walked in? She has such a huge crush on you, I could hear her heart hammering from halfway down the hall.”

“What?” Margo’s mouth hung open. “No way. Poor thing. It’s too bad for her that I don’t date my students.”

“And that you’re dating me,” Luke reminded, squeezing her shoulder possessively.

Margo laughed; she had known that would get a reaction out of him.

They walked in relative silence, basking in the golden hue of the late afternoon sun. Glancing up at Luke, she watched as the light brushed against his angular features, causing the contours of his face to seem more prominent. She remembered the days she thought vampires would burn in the sunlight. Turns out that, while they preferred nighttime, the sun did little more than irritate their sensitive eyes. Growing up in her small town in Massachusetts, she didn’t have much contact with other supernatural creatures that weren’t witches. It was part of the reason she loved the University of the Arcana as much as she did. The different kinds of people she got to meet were refreshing.

Luke’s Tesla was parked a few feet outside the Horticultural Sciences Complex. The research lab where he mapped the vampire genome and studied evolutionary biology was just a few blocks from Margo’s greenhouse. Their evening routine used to include enjoying a leisurely 5-minute stroll from said greenhouse to the biology complexes. Recently, however, that had not been the case.  

“Why’s your car here?” She asked, despite already knowing the answer.

“I went to a few theology seminars today,” Luke said in response.

Along with being an evolutionary biologist, Luke was getting a degree in the history of theism, and, when he was feeling particularly nostalgic, he also attended classes on Romantic-era literature. The thing about vampires was that they had all the time in the world, so getting two or three degrees at once was nothing to them. It didn’t escape her notice, however, that he had been attending these classes more frequently.

Margo tramped down her budding need for confrontation and asked instead, “Do we have any plans for tonight?” In the privacy of Luke’s car, she kicked off her trainers and took her hair from its top knot. Saying goodbye to the day, she relaxed back into to cool leather of the interior, facing Luke only once her legs were tucked firmly underneath her.

Splitting his attention expertly between her and the road, Luke asked, “Would the house be mad if I stole you away for one more night?”

Her house, or rather the Gamma Nu Sorority House, had a habit of misbehaving when it was feeling cheated. Once, a few weeks before, she had spent 6 blissful days sleeping on Luke’s memory foam mattress only to return home to find her room missing. After hours of begging and cajoling, there was still no sign of her scratched up wooden door. Finally, it had taken her promising not to spend more than three days at a time at Luke’s for the house to re-materialize the room in its former spot.

“We’ve got one more day,” Margo informed him, thinking about their Game of Thrones marathon that had lasted two nights in a row. “I can’t watch Game of Thrones tonight though. Your girl’s gotta study.”

“I could cook while you study?” Luke suggested. “Then, we can do dinner and go to bed early.”

“Good food and an early bedtime?” Margo released an exaggerated moan. “Talk dirty to me.”

:: ::

It was 9 PM when Luke entered the study that, over months of dating, had become more hers than his. He was holding a pasta dish, two glasses of wine, and some freshly baked bread. Margo was more excited to see the food than she was to see him.

Luke’s diet consisted mostly of blood, animal’s or hers, and wine. Since becoming a vampire, he had lost his taste for human food, but not his love of the culinary arts. Dating her gave him an excuse to get back into the kitchen where he liked to get experimental with his dishes.

She closed the potions textbook in front of her and held her hand out for the plate as soon as he got close enough. “Carbs!” she cried happily. “You do love me.”

He chuckled and kissed her before handing her the plate. Leaning against the edge of the desk, he watched intently as she took the first bite.

“Any good?” Luke’s culinary inventions didn’t often leave her wanting, and this time was no different. The fork had no sooner left her mouth than she was groaning.

Laughing, Luke said, “I’ll take that as an affirmative.” Perched on the desk, he sipped wine casually and gave her a moment to savor her food. Then, he asked, “How’s potions going?”

“It’s kicking my ass,” was her grumble of a reply. “There are hundreds of potion bases, and I have to memorize them all by next Friday.”

“Do you want me to quiz you while you eat?” He was already reaching for the book she had set aside earlier.

Grabbing his hand, Margo stopped him. “If I see or hear anything about potions for the next 12 hours I might actually die.”

“At least we haven’t resorted to dramatics,” he retorted dryly. After he studied her for a minute, then announced, “Alright, finish eating and meet me in the bathroom.”

Reluctance must have shown on her face because he exclaimed, “Oh my god, just do it!” Then, he disappeared through the office door.

Fifteen minutes later, Margo left the study for the bathroom, which she found with its door slightly ajar, soothing piano music drifting out. She pushed inside to reveal a prepared bath and a few candles burning, tossing soft light off the porcelain of the tub. A small speaker sat on the counter, the source of the sounds that had drawn her in earlier. Luke was noticeably absent.

He appeared behind her in the next second, a couple of large towels in hand. “Ah, there you are.” He said nonchalantly, as if unaware of how romantic this simple gesture was in her eyes. He had seen how strung out she was and had known exactly what she needed. “C’mon, get in the tub.”

Margo was eager to follow his order, but first, she leaned over the stack of towels to press a chaste kiss to Luke’s lips. “You’re getting in with me, right?” She asked while unbuttoning the powder blue shirt she’d been wearing for over 14 hours then.

“If you want me to.”

Margo scoffed, then moved to unclasp her bra. Next went her pants and underwear. While wrapping her hair up into a bun atop her head, she slunk into the tub. She didn’t recline against the porcelain back just yet, leaving space for Luke. He was still standing by the doorway where he had been intently watching her movements.

“You coming?” She asked impatiently.

Those words snapped him out of whatever reverie her naked form had pulled him into. Shaking his head, he deposited the towels next to the tub, then undressed and slotted himself behind her. She relaxed, at last, leaning against the broad span of his chest.

“Thank you so much for doing this for me,” she whispered. Luke’s response was to place three small kisses on the route from her shoulder to her neck. She melted even further into his arms. “Who are we listening to?”

Luke, being as old as he was, preferred classical music to her top 40 pop. Having only taken a recorder class in elementary school, Margo knowledge of music was limited. Luke was determined to change that. Every chance he got, he played his favorite songs for her.

“Chopin,” was his answer, mouth still grazing the skin of her throat. “Nocturne Number 2 in E-Flat Major.”

“Did you know him?” She couldn’t help the slight hitch in her voice when he nibbled gently on the skin of her throat.

“We may have met once or twice.” In Luke terms, that was a yes. In 1795, the vampire who sired him had been wealthy with connections all around the globe. This meant that, for the first hundred years after his rebirth, Luke easily became acquaintances with any one of interest. As little as Margo knew about history, she enjoyed hearing the stories of past historical figures.

But tonight, Luke wasn’t interested in telling her a story. “Luke,” she whined as his bites got rougher, and his hand trailed down past her belly button.

“Is that a ‘Luke, please continue’ or a ‘Luke, stop.’” He asked, pausing all motions.

“It’s an ‘I can’t promise I won’t fall asleep immediately after I come,’” she retorted. A yawn slipped from her in that exact moment as if to prove her point.

“That’s okay.” This time he bit her ear. “You coming is all that matters anyhow.”

Unhindered, his hand slipped between her thighs. It started out gentle, with two fingers pushing against her clit. Almost reluctantly, she pushed her hips up to greet them. Then, as he started to explore her folds a bit more, she ground up against him in earnest. The hand that wasn’t toying with her folds squeezed gently on her breast and toyed with her nipple. She gripped his bicep in response.

Then, he slipped one finger inside her, sinusoidally dipping in and out, setting her whole body alight.

He another added another. Margo’s hips ground against him as she searched for more leverage. When he touched something inside her that filled her with ecstasy and the ravenous need for more, she cried out, and threw one leg over the side of the tub, displacing water in the process.

“Oh, fuck. Oh, God. Luke.” The cries of pleasure rang out throughout the room.

Luke began to finger her in earnest then, index and middle finger slipping in and out of her. He kissed up and down her neck until he was taken by the heat of the moment too. The hand that had been toying with her nipples slid down to her stomach, holding her flush against him as he rocked up against her. His dick was obviously hard between their slick bodies.

It wasn’t until he growled, low and guttural, that she realized just how far gone he was. He rearranged her, so she was seated fully on his lap, dick now positioned between her cheeks. All the tiredness was swept from her mind as she ground down against it.

Then, raising off his lap a bit and reaching back, she wrapped a hand around him. It was an awkward angle, but she made it work. Pumping him a few times made his hips go wild as he bucked uncontrollably.

She said, “I’m gonna–“

The words didn’t quite get out, lost in the haze of lust that made it impossible to think straight. Margo lined herself up with him and sank down. They weren’t going to last very long. The water in the bathtub continued to splash to the floors as one of Luke’s arms wrapped around her body, holding her slave to his motions. He had her pressed up against his chest, fucking up into her and toying with her clit. It was slippery and messy, and Luke had to reposition himself a few times, but neither made any attempts to stave off their lust so they could move to a bed. 

Chopin could barely be heard over his growls, her cries of pleasure, and the distinct sound of water sloshing over the edges of the tub. His lips continued their path up and down her neck, bites deeper than before. They were painful, but in a way that made her toes curl.

She knew what he wanted before he said anything. “Please, can I–” He began, but cut himself off and threw his head back, fighting an instinct.

They weren’t face to face, and with the way they were moving, inches from orgasm, neither would want to take a moment to reposition. So, he would have to bite her neck. It was of no consequence to her; it was nothing she couldn’t hide without makeup.

Without really thinking about, Margo responded to his silent plea. “Yes,” she gasped out. “God, yes.”

The next second, she felt the sharp pain of the skin of her neck being pierced, followed immediately by intense euphoria. She buried one hand in his hair, holding him there; the other went down to encourage his motions as he continued to rub against her clit. They came, one right after the other, their hips stuttering to a halt.

“Fuck,” Luke grunted when he pulled away from her neck, head falling against the plaster wall behind them with a thud. As always, it took him a few minutes to get his wits about him after drinking her blood. Margo took that time to pull off of him and catch her breath.

Later, when they were both tucked underneath Luke’s black silk sheets, Luke ran his fingers gently over the deep teeth marks on her neck. Another lore Luke had taught her: Vampires didn’t have retractable fangs, but their teeth were more than sharp enough to pierce skin.

She had marks, like the ones now on her neck, almost ingrained in the skin of her chest. That is where he most often drank from her, as was the vampiric custom when it came to lovers.

“I shouldn’t have done this.” He said, fingers still tracing the indents of his teeth.

Margo couldn’t figure out why he sounded so pained. The healing properties of his saliva would ensure it didn’t leave a mark. Unless he bit her there again, after a day or two of covering it with makeup, neither of them would remember it even existed.

“It’s fine. No one’s going to see it.” Margo insisted.

Luke didn’t respond.

Margo fell asleep with his thumb still tracing the outline of the marks.

:: ::

She woke up to a sharp prickling in her thumb. Shooting to a seated position, she looked at her hands, disoriented and confused by the sudden onslaught of pain. Luke, who had been awake in bed next to her, sat up as well.

“Are you okay?” he asked, voice noticeably laden with worry.

Margo shook her head.

“Something is looking for me.” She tried to shake the drowsiness from her mind. Her senses were dulled by it. Whenever a powerful creature came looking for her, a small prickling would alert her to their intent. But this was more powerful than anything she had ever experienced before.

“Three somethings,” she continued as she began to make sense of what she was feeling. “They’re big, and they’re powerful. Unlike anything I’ve ever felt before.”

She saw the exact moment understanding dawned on Luke. He sniffed the air once, then muttered, “Shit.” He was out of bed and at the door to the room in a blink.

“What’s happening?” She asked frantically, trying to figure out what she might have missed. There was some information Luke’s supernatural senses had picked up that hers could not provide. In moments like these, she envied how he was preternaturally attuned to his senses. 

“If I asked you to stay in the room, would you?” He asked.

But, she was already getting out of bed and slipping into her slippers and his robe. Even rushing through these motions, she was no match for vampire speeds. By the time reached the front door, Luke was standing there blocking the way of three large, imposing vampires she had never seen before.

They were all dressed in all black. One stood in front of all the rest, his dyed red hair slicked back. He wore a t-shirt tucked into jeans with a leather jacket thrown over it. Margo could see he wore two rings on each hand and his nails were painted black. The man on the left looked much more laid back. His black jeans were distressed, and he wore an ACDC t-shirt. While Luke traded jabs in French with the frontman, this one simply stood back with an easy smile on his face. Finally, there was the man with a slightly deeper skin tone than the others leaning against the door frame. His arms were crossed and the fabric of the plain black t-shirt he wore struggled to cover the entirety of his bicep. If this was some kind of vampire shakedown, he was definitely the muscle.

The frontman noticed her first. He scoffed in disgust and began gesturing to her as they spoke. The other two remained relatively quiet but did spare her a few wary glances. What little French she knew was unhelpful, as they spoke too fast for her to catch any words.

She attempted patience first, trying not to look too indignant as they conversed about her as if she wasn’t there. But that was one of her pet peeves, and, to her displeasure, the conversation did not seem to be letting up any time soon.

Next, she tried speaking up, but not even Luke turned his head at her, “Excuse me.” If anything, they seemed to talk louder. She began reciting the spell before she could think better of it.

Their mouths snapped shut the next instant, and all was quiet for a moment. When they realized something magical was preventing them from speaking, all eyes turned to her. Luke’s baby blues looked more frustrated than she had ever seen them. She released him from the spell.

“What’s going on?” She asked, now that his attention was back on her.

For a moment, he glanced between her and the three men standing at the door. Then, he said, “Let’s go inside.”

:: ::

Ashton, Michael, and Calum.

Those were their names, respectively.

It wasn’t a vampire shakedown; it was a family reunion. They relocated into the uncomfortable chairs Luke had purchased for his dining room in hopes of dissuading guests from overstaying their welcome. It was still relatively early in the morning, so Margo made herself tea. The other four vampires had wine.

She knew a bit about Luke’s brothers from the stories about France and the French revolution that Luke liked to tell. From what she knew, Ashton was the leader of their little clan. He was the one who had sired Luke in the first place. It explained why at some angles they looked similar, when he replaced all the blood in Luke’s body with his own, some of Luke’s features changed.

Ashton had an assuming presence that seemed almost too large for Luke’s dining room. Were Margo more mild-mannered, she might have retreated to the background to let the vampires talk. But that was not her.

“You don’t like witches?” Margo presumed aloud once she was seated across the table from Ashton with her tea. She still hadn’t made sense of the argument at the door. Her witches senses did not lie, they had shown up at Luke’s looking for her. When they found her, it obviously became a point of contention.

Ashton scoffed with a hint of condescension. “Please. We are not prejudiced.”

“Do not scoff at me,” Margo shot back. “Not when you refuse to tell me why you’re here. Looking for me might I add.”

The one in the distressed jeans, Michael, grinned at her and whistled low. “Oh, she’s feisty. Finally, someone that’s a match for Ashton.”

Ashton did not dignify that with a response. Instead, to Margo, he bared his teeth and hissed, “This is not about you, it is about Luke. You need to stay out of it.”

“Well, come on now, Ashton.” Calum, like Luke, had decided to remain standing while the other two vampires sat. Well, Michael lounged, and Ashton perched as if poised to jump off the edge of his seat. From his position behind Ashton, Calum placed a large hand on his shoulder. “It’s a little about her. Luke should decide if he wants to tell her or not.”

At that, every eye turned to look at Luke. He was looming over Margo protectively, but not in a way that suggested he expected his family members to attack. He was obviously not afraid for her safety. It was rather like he wanted her out of the conversation more than anything else.

For what seemed like a full minute, Margo believed Luke wouldn’t share this secret. She feared that months of sharing everything with each other had culminated to this one moment, this one Big Thing that she wasn’t allowed to know.

Thankfully, he sighed and sunk into a seat next to her. “My brothers think you and I have mated.”

Admittedly, Margo’s knowledge of vampire mating was basal. She knew, of course, that Luke had every intention of mating her. You’re it for me, he had told her a few months before. It had terrified her, but she couldn’t deny that her feelings for him, their feelings for each other, ran deep. To her knowledge, however, they hadn’t taken that step yet. Even if they had, she wasn’t sure that was something they needed to discuss with his brothers.

“Forgive me if I’m wrong,” Margo began slowly, keeping her eyes leveled with Ashton’s. “But isn’t whether or not we’ve mated between the two of us?”

“No,” Ashton replied with a bitter chuckle. “No matter what you and my idealistic brother like to think. This is a matter for a clan. Luke cannot handle taking his mate by himself.”

Seeing the look of confusion on Margo’s face, Michael took pity on her and began to explain. “Luke is still very young. He has only witnessed one vampire mating in his lifetime, and even then he wasn’t privy to our procedures. Mating when you aren’t familiar with the methods–well that could have dangerous consequences.”

Michael’s eyes drifted pointedly towards her neck where Luke’s bite marks from the previous night were on full display. With the excitement of the morning, she had forgotten to cover them. She slapped a hand over them; then, her color deepened in embarrassment.

She turned to Luke, expecting him to respond, but he was lost somewhere deep in his own thoughts. When he didn’t, she spoke for him. “It was an accident,” She insisted, even though she had a feeling she didn’t quite understand the repercussions of Luke biting her neck.

Michael leaned forward, voice dripping with a dangerous edge. “When it comes to predators, darling, one small accident is all it takes to kill you.”

Finally, Luke spoke, words coming out in a snarl. “I would never kill her.” Shock and anger registered on his face. He was obviously taken aback by Michael’s suggestion.

“Not purposely,” Michael amended. “But your carelessness could get her killed nonetheless.”

“It’s a good thing then that Margo and I aren’t mating.” Luke snarled. He was out of his chair in an instant, glaring down at his brothers.

“Luke–“ this time it was Calum popping in with an argument.

Luke cut him off. “I’m fine, Calum. Now, if you guys want to do something other than have this conversation while you’re in town, let me know. If not, I’ll see the next time I’m at home.”

Michael threw his hands up in frustration. “This is what you get for siring a vampire amid the French Revolution, Ashton,” he grumbled. But he made no more protest as he walked towards the door.

Calum turned to follow him.

Ashton was the last to leave. “I just want you to be safe,” he said, eyeing Margo. What she had mistaken for disgust earlier was now clearly weariness and reluctance. It was as if he wanted to trust her, but was afraid to.

Luke gripped her shoulder and squeezed. “I am more than capable of taking care of myself. As is Margo.”

They held eye contact for a minute, having a silent conversation Margo couldn’t follow. Finally, Ashton conceded and followed his brothers out of the house.

:: ::

It happened in herbology.

That morning, Margo had woken up in her own bed feeling a little dizzy and disoriented. These spells had been happening more frequently, but she chalked it up to stress and dismissed it. She should have told Luke, but he was prone to worrying over the smallest of things. Plus, it had only been a week and a half since his brothers had shown up at his door unannounced, and, no matter how “good” he claimed to be doing, she could still see something bothered him.

So, she didn’t think twice about chugging her weight in tea and going to work. The dizziness plagued her throughout the day. Two hours into her three-hour herbology lab, she was standing in front of the class explaining how gymnosperms grew and reproduced. It was imperative for her students to understand plant life on a cellular level if they were ever to successfully manipulate plant growth.

The funny thing was - she felt it coming on. She felt herself grow dizzier and heard her words begin to slur. She chose to fight through it. Then, one minute she was talking about fertilization and pollen cones, the next, her feet give way below her, and the world went dark.

. . . . . .

When she opened her eyes the first time, the world was hazy. She clearly made out an IV drip bag and an oddly familiar man standing at the edge of her bed. His arms were crossed, and he looked like he was there as some sort of protection detail. Margo had the distinct feeling he was there for her. Whether it was to protect her from someone or to protect someone from her, she did not know.

“Hey. Look who’s awake,” came an oddly chipper voice from somewhere outside of her line of sight. Margo almost turned to search for it, but there was a pressure on her left hand. She turned to that instead.

Luke. He was staring at her with worry in his baby blues, gripping her hand tightly.

“What,” she opened her mouth to ask what had happened. Then, a cool hand she knew had to be vampiric brushed her curls from her face and shushed her.

“Try to sleep if you can,” it said. “We'll explain everything later.”

She knew that voice, much like she knew the man standing at the edge of her bed. Before she could search her mind for their identity, something pulled her under, and the world went black again.

. . . . . .

The next time she came to, the man was still at her bedside, arms crossed, watching her intently. Her brain felt less foggy this time, and she instantly recognized the man as, “Calum.”

With the tiniest of motions, Calum quirked his lips upwards in the ghost of a smirk. She wondered if he was comfortable standing ramrod straight like that. He looked like he hadn’t moved since she last opened her eyes.

It took him snickering for her to realize she had said that last thought aloud. “I like this position.” He said. “I’ve got clear eyes on everything in the room.”

“Not the door,” Margo pointed out obviously, gesturing to the large door looming behind him. That was what it took for Margo to realize that, despite the drip IV, she was not in a hospital room. This was someone’s house.

Calum shrugged. “That’s what Mikey’s for.”

She noticed Michael then, sitting in a loveseat underneath a large window. It was nighttime, and heavy blackout curtains were pushed aside to reveal what looked like deep woods. He had a Nintendo DS in his hand and was obviously more focused on the game than the other two people in the room.

“Don’t let Calum fool you,” he said, fingers still moving furiously on the buttons of the game. “I do not give a rats ass about security and espionage. At least, not as much Calum and Ashton do.”

He said all this without ever looking up from the small device in her hand.

“Espionage?” She croaked out.

Michael nodded, blissfully unaware of Calum’s glare. “Calum’s the family spy.”

Margo eyed Calum. When she had first seen him, she had believed him to be the muscle of the group. The way he exuded danger made Michael’s words seem less like a joke–as if Calum really was some vampire spy. She didn’t have time to think on this, however, because the dark mahogany door swung open to reveal Luke with Ashton flanking him.

Luke rushed immediately to her side. She didn’t miss how haggard he looked. Briefly, she wondered how long she had been in this bed. However long that was had obviously taken a toll on Luke. Vampires, as far as she knew, did not get tired, but there were unmistakable bags under his eyes, and his pale skin seemed lighter under the harsh overhead lights. She reached out to him, and he knelt at her bedside and slotted his hand into hers.

“How’re you feeling?” he asked as his thumb gently rubbed circles on the back of her hand.

“I could ask you the same thing.” She tried to shit up, but a palm came to rest on her shoulder, stopping her. “Don’t try to do too much too quickly,” Ashton warned, gently pushing her back down.

She obeyed, hoping that it would make them more agreeable with what she was about to ask next. The question had been on her mind since she awoke the first time. She had to know, “What happened?”

She remembered feeling dizzy in her herbology class, but not much else.

Furtive glances were exchanged around the room as everyone, even Michael, turned their attention to Luke. Luke’s focus was on her. He looked as if those were the last words he’d wanted to hear from her. The longer everyone took to acknowledge her question, the more she wondered if she should have waited. Perhaps this was something Luke was uncomfortable talking about around his brothers.

She slipped her hand out of his so she could brush his hair out of his face.

“It’s okay.” Despite how weak her voice was, she tried to convey all the love she had for him in those two words. Whatever it was, they would work through it.

He leaned into her palm. “You tell her Calum,” He eventually said, shifting all attention to the 6 ft vampire looming over her.

Calum uncrossed his arms and braced them against the foot of the bed. Dark brown eyes told her the story would be emotionally exhausting.

“I came to UoA a month ago to visit Luke.”

Margo’s brow furrowed. She hadn’t heard anything about this visit.

“He didn’t know I was coming. I got into town then tracked his scent.”

“It’s a kink of his,” Michael interrupted with an easy grin. He had abandoned his DS in favor of paying attention to the story. With everyone in the room on the wrong side of somber, she welcomed his quips. “He likes to pop up out of nowhere and scare the holy hell out of people.”

Calum ignored him and continued on. “I followed his scent straight to the Gamma Nu house. When I got there, I assumed that perhaps he was just inside with some witch. We’re all aware of Luke’s. . .”

He trailed off as if afraid of offending her, and she laughed. “Propensity to be a hoe?” She finished for him. When she had first met Luke, he was slipping out of her housemate's room with no shirt on. She was no stranger to his promiscuous behavior.

Calum smiled, amused at her choice of words. “Propensity to be a hoe yes. But, when I listened in, he didn’t seem to be anywhere inside. Instead, I found you. You were sitting at your desk buried in some book about potions and muttering to yourself. I watched you for hours trying to figure out how Luke’s scent was so intermingled with yours. I couldn’t find where your scent ended, and his began. I knew, of course, but I didn’t want to accept it. I didn’t think Luke would be stupid enough to take a mate without contacting one of us first.”

At that, he shot a look at Luke. Luke grimaced, ashamed. Margo ran her hand through his hair again in a gesture of assurance, then looked to Calum to continue.

Ashton did instead. He was still at her shoulder, looking down at her as he spoke, “Margo, what do you know about vampire mating?”

“I know that it’s instigated with a mark, like the one on my chest.” The hand that was not in Luke’s hair came up to rest on her chest, touching the mark through her shirt. “That’s the physical aspect of it. There is a mental and emotional aspect to it as well.” Margo trailed off. She didn’t know much about said mental and emotional aspects. She figured Luke would explain those to her when they decided to take the next step.

Michael spoke next, now at the edge of his seat. She remembered Luke’s mention of his bond with someone named Crystal. Perhaps he was their resident expert on bonding. “This is how a bond works. If a vampire has the intention of mating someone, and that person has the intention of accepting said bond, when he bites that person, he’ll be able to feel the bond form from inside him. If he lets it, the bond will wash over both parties like a wave. Then, it is up to the bitten to accept the bond. This act deepens the mental and emotional connection of a couple. In rare instances, the couple will be compatible enough to hear each other's thoughts and feel each other’s emotions. Even when they aren’t as compatible, these bonds are nearly impossible to break. That’s why bonds can never be between strangers and can never be nonconsensual. It’s kind of like your magic in the way that it senses what both parties want, and creates that for them.”

“Luke,” Calum picked up, “has wanted to mate you for a very long time now. And judging by the way his biology is behaving, I’m guessing you wanted to mate him as well. Yet, every time he bit you and that bond began forming, he would suppress it.”

Margo glanced over to Luke, but he wouldn’t meet her eyes.

“Which ended up confusing his biology.” Calum continued. “Driving him to want to be near you, to be in you, to bite you, to complete the bond by any means necessary. It’s why he was drinking from you every time you had sex. It’s why you fainted. He took too much blood too quickly, and your system couldn’t handle it. Instances like this are rare, and usually lead to obsessive behavior on the part of the vampire.”

“But Luke wasn’t obsessive,” Margo pointed out. She had dated wizards more obsessive than him.

“Not where you could see,” Calum said.

Luke dropped his forehead to the bed, perhaps to avoid feeling the eyes on him. He was ashamed of whatever Calum had to say next.

“I followed you both for days before calling in Ashton and Michael as reinforcement. On the nights you spent apart, Luke spent them standing outside your window. He started making up theology classes because he didn’t want you to know he had spent your entire TA period sitting in a car outside of the greenhouse, straining to hear your heartbeat. Worst of all, he stopped hunting and started getting all his blood from you.”

“What?” Margo croaked out. Luke looked up then, and she couldn’t miss the welling of tears in his eyes.

“I didn’t want to worry you,” He said solemnly. “We have only been dating for what, almost a  year now? It is way too early for us to mate. I was hoping that if I ignored it, maybe it would go away.”

“The bond can be suppressed, Luke. But not as long as you keep drinking from her.” Ashton grumbled. Then, with a pointed look at Margo, he added, “If that’s what you want.”

“It is,” Luke answered for her. “She’s young. She hasn’t even finished her degree yet. I can’t just shackle her to me forever.”

“Let her speak, Luke,” Calum ordered.

With every eye on Margo, she wasn’t sure what to say. Luke was the love of her life, and she wanted more than anything to be mated to him. She tried to tell herself that it didn’t make a difference if it happened that moment or in a year when she had her degree.

You are but mortal woman. Time is now to be dreaded - since once he put that mark upon your throat.

She bitterly remembered the words of Bram Stoker. Time moved differently for her and Luke, she had always known that. Where she wanted to rush, he took his time. This was no different.

She tried to remind herself that, as Luke said, it was forever. Repeated exposure to his venom through a mating mark would expose her to super-powered vampiric proteins, probiotics, and antibodies that would stop her aging and make her impossible to kill. She wouldn’t be a vampire per se, but something else. A hybrid between what she was now and what he was. These were rare, she knew, as vampires and witches were not used to coming together for more than politics and sex. Perhaps an extra year of normalcy was what it would take to give Luke the peace of mind about changing her.

“It’s fine,” she finally said. “We can wait.”

She brought her hand down to where Luke’s rested on the bed and squeezed gently. “What about Luke, though? What’s going to happen if we don’t bond?”

“Nothing,” responded Calum with an easy shrug. “So long as he starts hunting again and stops drinking from you.”

“Like forever?” Margo asked, then blush at how dejected she sounded.

Michael laughed, but said, “Until he’s ready to mate you, yeah.”

That made her stomach sink. It was fine. As much as she liked the biting, she could go a year without it. “Is that going to be hard for you?” She relayed the question to Luke this time.

“It’s fine. The boys will take me hunting. It will help.”

“How long are you guys staying?” As she asked this question, Margo took note of how the air in the room lightened. Ashton left her side to stand by Michael’s loveseat under the window, Michael picked up his game, and Calum’s shoulders relaxed just a little. (She was beginning to think that relaxed shoulders were all she would get from him.)

Ashton answered her question, still staring out into the darkness outside the window. “Not sure. I’ve accepted a position teaching classic Greek literature, so quite a while I think.”

“What?” Margo asked, surprised. Ashton didn’t look like the scholarly type. “Are you qualified to teach that?”

Ashton scoffed in response. “I sure hope so. I was there.”

Margo’s mouth dropped. “Wait, how old-”

Luke cut her off. “Don’t ask a vampire how old they are, babe. They’re not fond of that.”

Margo gave Luke a look that let him know she would definitely be asking that question again, but she would at least do Ashton the courtesy of asking at a later date.

She was almost all caught up now, but there was one question still on her mind.

“Where am I?”

All four vampires laughed.

“Oh!” exclaimed Calum, remembering that he left out that little detail. “It’s our house. It’s in the woods behind UoA. Hospitals kind of cause sensory overload for vampires, so when you fainted, health services allowed Ashton to bring you here.”

“What, just like that?” asked Margo, confused.

“Well, Ashton has a medical degree, so it’s not like you weren’t in good hands.”

Of course. Vampires were fond of their multiple degrees.

“So y’all thought ‘lemme buy a house, so we don’t have to go to a hospital.”

Calum snickered at that, but Ashton was the one who answered. “I’ve owned this house for years. Since a little after the school was built. I thought it would be nice to have if I ever decided to come and get another degree. For all intents and purposes, it belongs to the clan now.”

“It belongs to you too,” Michael added. “You’re family now, whether you like it or not.”

Margo matched his grin. Raised in a household that was always just her and her mother, she dreamed of having a big family. As far as family went, Calum, Ashton, and Michael seemed more than perfect.

--

end notes: i can’t believe how obsessed i am with this series lmao! i’ve already started writing part 3!! anyway, i hope you like cal, mikey & ashton in this one. let me know what you think! 

tag list: @5sosnsfw / @bloodmoonashton / @lukescaboose / @5sex-of-summa / @deviantnines / @halcyonnhood / @gh0st-0f-y0u-95 / @aspiringwildfire / @cal-pal-cuddles / @sweetcherrymike / @hereforlukescruff / @softforcal / @ohhmuke / @fratcalum / @calumamongmen / @ashtonandcalslefthand / @asht0ns-world / @colorful-queen-of-the-roses / @heavenlydrarry / @slowlyelectronictragedy / @myemptywallets / @pagesuponstpages / @fallfrxmgrace / @thefireisgone / @michaelorwhat / @dammitbands / @sugarcoated-pain / @sublimehood / @cal-puddies / @singt0mecalum / @irwinkitten / @myloverboyash / @pinkbubbles-and-bigtroubles

[jarienn972]

A Simple Spell - Chapter One

A 2019 Captain Swan Supernatural Summer Tale

This day managed to sneak up on me a bit but it is finally time for me to start posting my 2019 @cssns story!  After having so much fun taking a few creative challenges with last year’s event, I decided to take a huge chance by creating a bit of an AU universe here.  Our setting will still be Storybrooke but I’ve twisted up some of the familial relationships to develop a different world where Emma is a young deputy who has just recently discovered a whole lot about herself - family she didn’t know she had and powers she didn’t know she had.

I want to extend huge thanks to the organizers of this event which has already spawned some amazing stories (many of which I need to get caught up on!)  I also am so grateful for the assistance of my beta reader, @lassluna for helping me smooth out a few things and for the amazing art created by @cocohook38! (Edited to add this stellar piece of artwork to my post to complete the package!)

I am going to try to get new chapters posted every Monday, job permitting.  I accepted a new position at work last month that curtailed my writing time a bit, but I’m working to make sure updates are as prompt as can be.  Patience will be greatly appreciated and I do hope that everyone will enjoy reading this tale as much as I’m enjoying writing it!

Edited to add links: AO3 and FF.net and also added a cut that didn’t save yesterday.

If there was one thing that Emma Swan had learned during her brief residency in Storybrooke, it was that she had a lot to learn.

A whole lot to learn.

Perhaps it was finding the right teacher that had made adjusting more of a challenge than she’d anticipated but there was no doubt that she’d struggled during those early days.  She’d battled with her self-confidence and fought against a sometimes crippling loneliness, but she’d needed to find those with like abilities - because in a town blessed (or cursed) with magic, proper instruction in the ways of the supernatural was an absolute necessity.

Eight months ago, she would never have even dreamed that a place like Storybrooke existed, let alone discover that this unusual little town had been her birthplace.  Little details about her mysterious past emerged every day, but none more startling - and completely life changing - than the fact that she possessed a natural ability to utilize magic.  It was becoming both equally fascinating and terrifying to learn new details about her past and the family that she and her late mother, Ava, had left behind.  

Since she was a little girl growing up in one of the poorer sections of Boston, Emma had possessed an intense curiosity about her family.  Maybe part of that stemmed from growing up in a city so steeped in history. She’d yearned to know more about her own ancestry, but her mother had never been particularly forthcoming about anything.  It was always as though their past was some deep, dark secret - especially any mention of Emma’s absent father who her mother scarcely even spoke of. 

After her mother passed away, Emma found that her desire to find the family she was missing couldn’t be tempered. She began actively utilizing resources available to her through her position as a bail bonds person to try to find any remaining family she might have and eventually, her tireless research led her to a half-brother, David Nolan, who resided in the small town of Storybrooke, Maine and served as the town Sheriff. She’d taken a step out of her comfort zone to reach out and after a few weeks of telephone conversations, David and his wife, Mary Margaret, convinced Emma to come visit them.

Initially, Emma had planned for just a brief weekend trip but as soon as she arrived in the quirky little seaside town, she found her insatiable curiosity piqued.  By the end of the second day, she’d felt so comfortable and so at home here that she made the decision to relocate to Storybrooke - and that was when the fun began. David had hired her on as a deputy, giving her plenty of access to the town records to continue her research, understanding her need to fill in the gaps of her heritage. Absolutely nothing had prepared her for the shock of discovering the town’s biggest secret until she’d barged in on a drunk and disorderly call down at the Rabbit Hole and stumbled upon a man levitating above the bar, cheerfully showering the bartender and a few fellow patrons with what smelled like bourbon.

Stranger yet, Emma had sensed an odd energy even before stepping into the tavern.  There was some sort of a connection she’d experienced with the levitating drunkard and he’d instantly dropped to the floor in a heavily-sauced heap the moment she’d raised her hand toward him.  She hadn’t known what it was back then, but it had been the moment she discovered her first hint that she was a witch.  And not just any witch - she’d been born with potential not seen before in Storybrooke - only she didn’t know it yet.  

She hadn’t even known how to address the incident with David until he’d burst out in a fit of laughter. Having spent a lifetime in Storybrooke, he’d already figured out what his younger sister was skirting around.  He confirmed for her that while neither he nor his wife possessed any otherworldly abilities (aside from his charming personality), the town was indeed was ripe with magic.  Magic had been that unusual energy she’d sensed enveloping her and he was certain that if she could feel it, she could wield it, and if that was indeed the case, she needed to find a tutor quickly.  He’d seen far too many citizens here who’d been driven mad by powers they couldn’t fully harness or control.

And oh boy, did she ever have a lot to learn!

She had a flurry of thoughts crossing her mind as she eased her battered old Volkswagen Beetle to the curb outside of the Sheriff station.  It had just now dawned on her that today marked exactly eight months since she’d first communicated with her long-lost brother and found her life turned entirely upside down, although certainly for the better.  She’d given up a lonely life of chasing bail jumpers in Boston in favor of this small town’s laid back lifestyle - well, mostly laid back.

She recalled arriving here expecting to deal with minor little crimes like tractor tipping, petty larceny and the occasional pickpocket fleecing the tourists visiting their picturesque seaside haven, but it certainly wasn’t what she’d found.  Even though David hadn’t been particularly forthcoming about the town’s supernatural side, Emma had gotten used to arresting people for placing evil spells on their neighbors to make their crops fail or hexing their dog for growling at them.  It was now just part of her day to day routine and she kept trying to immerse herself into magical education to hone the skills she’d recently discovered.

David had encouraged her to talk to Storybrooke’s Mayor, Regina Mills, who was well-known to be a practitioner of Wiccan arts.  Her sister, Zelena, was also a seasoned witch and the two of them had developed a powerful coven that at one time had included several members Emma hadn’t even realized practiced witchcraft like the town’s pawn shop owner, a local waitress, and one of the elementary school teachers.  Regina had initially been reluctant to bring Emma into their fold due to her inexperience, but upon learning she was David’s sister, she’d caved and agreed to help Emma.  Emma had been studying under Regina and Zelena’s tutelage for nearly six months now which almost seemed unbelievable.  Her brain was filled with Latin words and phrases that formed the simple spells she’d practiced and she’d helped brew a few potions, almost grateful that she didn’t know what some of the unsavory ingredients actually were.

She smiled to herself as she clambered out of her car, pinning her deputy badge to the waistband of her jet black twill pants.  She felt she was adapting fairly well to her new reality and certainly believed that she was more confident today than she’d been eight months ago, and now it was time to start a new workday. She raised the rear hem of her crimson leather jacket to tuck her service weapon into the holster she wore at the small of her back, hearing the echo of David’s repeated complaints and suggestions that she switch to a shoulder or hip holster.  She just found this style more comfortable as it allowed her to easily conceal her weapon beneath her nearly ever-present leather jacket, the garment she wore as though it were some sort of magical armor even long before she’d set foot in Storybrooke.

She unconsciously wrapped a stray tendril of blonde hair around her index finger, slipping the wayward strands behind her ear as she pushed open the front door of the station and strolled inside.  Unsurprisingly, early bird David was already present, chatting with his other deputy, Graham Humbert.  From what she could garner walking in on the conversation, they were discussing one of the town’s most bewitching potions - the virtually irresistible brew that Granny served at her namesake diner.  By the level of chipper she was encountering in the squad room, and from the aroma wafting from the takeout cups in hand, she knew they’d both already partaken of Granny’s intoxicating elixir, which made her a little jealous that she’d have to settle for the inferior substance found in the station’s break room that passed for coffee.

“Good morning, Emma,” David greeted her.  “I was wondering if you were going to make it in on time this morning.  You got home pretty late last night…”  She knew David wanted to ask if she’d had a date, but he held his tongue.  It was no surprise that he and Mary Margaret had been encouraging her to go on a few dates, but considering that the other person present had been the other half of a disastrous evening a few weeks back, she was glad he didn’t ask.  That single dinner date with Graham had not gone well, but they’d chosen to put it behind them so they could remain amicably working together.

As much as she’d appreciated David and Mary Margaret’s offer to rent out the upstairs bedroom of their loft, the longer she stayed, the more she thought it might be time to start searching for a place of her own. She’d inevitably wear out her welcome and there was definitely a privacy issue should she ever want to bring a date home.  It wasn’t exactly the sort of thing you wanted your brother knowing - or especially hearing…

“I’m sorry if I woke you up when I came in last night,” she replied as she made her way across the squad room to her desk against the far wall.  She took a precursory glance at the stack of files awaiting her before shrugging off her jacket and hanging it on the back of her chair. “Had a late night lesson with the Evil Queen and I stuck around the vault to read up on spell casting.”

“You know, you really should stop calling Regina, the Evil Queen,” David chided her, trying to keep a straight face until he was betrayed by a chuckle he couldn’t hold back. Emma certainly wasn’t the only person in town who used the nickname in reference to the town’s mayor, but Emma was one of the more vocal - probably the only one who’d ever said it to Regina’s face and lived to talk about it. “I know she’s a bossy pain in the ass, but she’s still trying to help you develop your magic.”

“I know, I know,” she assured her brother as she dropped onto her chair.  “Some days, I could do without her condescending attitude though. I know she’s trying to help, David, but there are times when she treats me as though I’m beneath her and it really irks me.  Same goes for the Wicked Witch…”

“The Mills family has been running this town for decades,” Graham chimed in.  “They’ve been practicing magic since childhood, so it’s probably best to just give them a break.  They wouldn’t have agreed to accept you into the coven if they didn’t believe you had potential.”

“Eh, I’m not worried about them throwing me out over nicknames.  They call each other far worse and you should hear some of the things they call me,” Emma said, dismissing any worry the two men had. “Usually it’s The Prodigal or sometimes just Lucky Bitch. It’s all in good fun.”

“Yeah, well anyway, it’s time for the two of you to get to work,” David stated as he held up two slips of paper in his right hand. “Which of you wants to take the disorderly conduct call and which of you wants to take the vandalism call from the middle school?”

“Such excitement,” Emma groaned. “I’ll flip you for it, Humbert…”

“Oh yeah, when they’re equally bad, does it really matter?” Graham complained. 

“You two decide quickly or I delegate,” David insisted. “I’m going to be in my office going over last week’s reports. Anything either of you would like to amend before I review them?”  Emma and Graham each shook their head and began to debate which investigation would be the lesser one while David rolled his eyes at his deputies.  He left them to their argument as he headed for the relative peace and quiet of his office.

———-

In the end, Emma wound up following up on the disorderly conduct call from the town harbormaster.  David had insisted that she take the Sheriff cruiser instead of her own beat up Bug so that her arrival would look as official as possible since the complaint involved a ship full of merchant sailors from out of town. She hadn’t bothered with the lights or siren as the reported incident wasn’t currently in progress, having occurred earlier that morning.  The harbormaster had encountered a drunken sailor tossing barrels and something described in the complaint as floatation devices into the bay. She wasn’t quite sure what these floatation devices might be, but she was certainly curious.

Her earlier phone call to the harbormaster’s shack had gone unanswered so she decided to head down to the marina and pay a visit to the vessel the unruly sailor had arrived on - an ancient-looking wooden merchant ship moored at the marina.  She parked the cruiser at the harbor entrance, a few hundred yards from the gangplank and as she climbed out of the vehicle, she couldn’t shake the thought that the boat looked suspiciously akin to a pirate ship straight off of a Hollywood film set.  While it might not have been uncommon for Storybrooke to attract some eclectic tourists, she wasn’t entirely convinced that the crew milling around the marina were actually merchants.

The vessel’s soaring masts towered above everything else in the harbor, maybe even over most of the buildings in town. It was also buzzing with activity this morning as crew members were busy loading and unloading cargo, some hoisting crates and barrels from pier to deck with a system of ropes and pulleys while others hefted merchandise up and down the gangplank.  Emma made certain that her badge was prominently visible as she strolled furtively towards the gangplank and asked the first person she encountered in her path who was in charge.  The uninterested and seemingly annoyed man stabbed a filthy finger at the top of the gangplank and replied that she needed to ask for the captain.

Emma nodded and thanked him before forging her way up to the ship’s deck while the man she’d so rudely interrupted resumed his tasks.  She took a tentative step onto the plank decking and spied a mousy little man clad in a corduroy overcoat that had definitely seen better days and who sported a shapeless red knit cap atop his head.  The man didn’t appear to have noticed her arrival so Emma called out in attempt to garner his attention.  

“Excuse me, I’m looking for the captain. Could you tell me where to find him?”  When it didn’t appear that he’d heard her query, Emma repeated her request a smidge louder. “Pardon me - where might I find the captain?”

“Oh, sorry, sorry,”  the man apologized profusely as he spun around to face the unexpected guest. “Cap’n doesn’t like when we fall behind schedule.”

“So he’s here?”

“Who’s here?” the befuddled man asked her, his eyebrows knitted in confusion.

“Your captain,” she clarified, shaking her head in disbelief. “Is he here?”

“Oh, yes.  Yes.  He’s in his quarters.”

“Alright then, how might I find the captain’s quarters?” she pressed, growing rapidly frustrated with the lack of cooperation she was getting.

“Oh, the captain wouldn’t like a stranger poking about his ship.  I’ll go fetch him.  Please - wait here, miss…”

“Deputy,” Emma corrected him as he scurried across the deck, uncertain of whether he’d even heard her.  She didn’t have much experience with ships, especially not with relics like this one but she had to admit that there was a certain beauty to the expanse of soaring masts and billowing sails.  Well, sails that would have been billowing were they not lashed down while in port.  She’d become so entranced that she failed to notice the figure wordlessly approaching her until he spoke.

“Welcome aboard the Jolly Roger, Love,” a velvety, deep voice with a hint of a British accent greeted her, rendering her momentarily speechless as she turned in the direction the voice had originated and caught her first glimpse of the captain. The timbre of his voice should have served as warning but instead, did nothing to prepare her for the appearance of the man who stood before her. He was probably a hair shy of six foot tall but it wasn’t his height that gave off an imposing impression, rather his all-black attire.  Slim, black denim trousers. Polished black leather boots with a hint of a silver cap at the toe. A jet black oxford style shirt topped with a three button black leather vest. And over the entire ensemble, he sported a black leather jacket that glistened with a hint of salt spray and fell just past his hips.

Her gaze darted upward to get captured by a pair of sparking, sapphire blue eyes beneath a fringe of wind-tossed dark, chestnut brown hair.  A broad smile stretched across his lips and one eyebrow inched upward in amusement as he soaked in her perusal of him.

“See something you like, Love?” he teased, lip curling into a lopsided smirk as he relished the attention. “My first mate, Mr. Smee, advised me that there was a lovely lass asking for the captain, and as I’ve never been one to keep a beautiful woman waiting, you now have my full and prompt audience.  How may I be of assistance, M’lady?”

The words rolled off his tongue so smoothly that Emma nearly forgot why she was here, but after a few stunned seconds, her sensible self clawed her way to the surface and reminded her that now wasn’t the time to get lost in a handsome face.  She had work to do.  “It’s Deputy,” she corrected him. “Deputy Emma Swan of the Storybrooke Sheriff department. You’re the captain of this boat?”

“The proper term would be ship,” he countered, visibly cringing at the injustice done to his vessel. “And aye, I am Captain Killian Jones.” He extended his right hand in greeting to shake hers.  She scarcely noticed that he kept his left arm tucked behind his back as he switched seamlessly to a business-like tone. “Since I don’t have reason to believe this is a social call, Deputy - as much as I might like it to be - how may I assist you today?”  It was also his turn to surmise who he was dealing with in this pretty blonde package.  She was certainly quite guarded.  He’d noticed that the moment she realized he’d caught on to her visual assessment of him.  She’d instantly faded into an embarrassed defensive before coming back with the steely law enforcement facade. But he’d also spied an intensity and curiosity lurking behind the warm emerald of her eyes.  What a challenge it would be to find her softer side, he thought as she responded.

“Well, Captain,” she began in a fully, professional composed voice, “my office received a complaint this morning from the harbormaster that someone from this ship got a little too rowdy.”

“My apologies, lass,” he said with an over exaggerated sigh. “One member of my crew, Mr. Parsons, imbibed himself a smidge too much of your town’s finest libations.  He returned to the ship too inebriated to locate the gangplank and when confronted by your harbormaster, he became perhaps a tad too belligerent and began hefting things about.”

“That much I’m aware of,” she reminded him with a note of sarcasm in her response. “The harbormaster reported several barrels and other assorted items being thrown into the bay.  He hasn’t yet formally reported any damages…”

“It isn’t likely that he shall,” Captain Jones replied with a flat dismissal of her concerns. “I’ve paid him a tidy sum already to cover the damages and the offender, Mr. Parsons, has been confined to the brig as punishment.”

“May I speak to Mr. Parsons?” Emma queried, a tad miffed that the matter appeared to have been resolved long before she’d arrived. She was supposed to be representing the law here, not this cocky visiting ship’s captain. “I would like to speak to both him and the harbormaster before I declare this matter closed or decide that additional charges might still apply.”

“You are more than welcome to speak to him once he sobers up,” the captain assured her. 

“Good.  You aren’t planning on leaving port any time soon, are you?”

“No, Deputy.  We’ll be here for the remainder of this week as we’re awaiting supplies yet to arrive from out of town.”

“Good,” she repeated. “I’ll be back later this afternoon.”

“I shall eagerly await your return,” he responded with a salacious grin. “It was a pleasure to make your acquaintance, Deputy Swan.” Emma rolled her eyes as he made his exit by giving her a sweeping mock bow.  Was this guy actually for real? At this point, she wasn’t even certain what to put in her report aside from the fact that the matter appeared to be closed - at least until she spoke to the harbormaster.

But there was something else nagging at her subconscious as she descended the gangplank to the dock and Emma wasn’t sure how she should feel about it.  The encounter with Captain Jones had her rethinking her actions from last night and silently wondering if perhaps she might have gone a bit too far… She had to push that out of her mind immediately though because there was no chance the two could be connected…

No chance at all…

[dopcmine]

   ⋆     𝑰𝑵𝑻𝑹𝑶𝑫𝑼𝑪𝑰𝑵𝑮 —  * ⋆ ╰  hey , did you happen to see DAMON NAM on campus today ? you know , the JEON JUNGKOOK look-alike in our seven am class ? yeah , that SENIOR . ah , well they had their SILVER NECKLACE on their desk this morning and left without it . i wanted to return it … but i have to get to class in five minutes . wait , don’t you see them around at THE APARTMENTS ? oh , great ! can you bring it to HIM then ? ugh , thank you so much. you’re the best ! now i know they get the rep of being EGOCENTRIC but you don’t have to worry . they’re always MAGNETIC . and who knows , maybe you two’ll hit it off ! i know that they’re a INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS major too . well , i have to jet before i miss my exam but i’ll catch you at the frat party later , right ? oh , you should bring DAMON ! it’s always fun having the PLAYBOY around .

𝒔𝒕𝒂𝒕𝒊𝒔𝒕𝒊𝒄𝒔 :

fullname: damon nam

nicknames: none

age: twenty-three

d.o.b: april 15, 1996

zodiac: aries sun, leo moon, scorpio rising

gender: cismale

sexuality: bisexual

occupation: tattoo artist @ body electric tattoo and piercing 

𝒔𝒐𝒄𝒊𝒂𝒍 𝒎𝒆𝒅𝒊𝒂 :

twt & insta handle: p7ayboy

insta followers: 1.3m

twt followers: 1m

tik tok: 750k

𝒂𝒆𝒔𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒕𝒊𝒄 :

cruisin’ around l.a with the windows down, drinking cold beers on a hot summer afternoon, old school music playing loudly from his apartment, late night kbbq dates with the gang, old childhood scars from fights and playing outside until late evening, silver jewelry around his neck and wrists, street racing, rolling blunts on the hood of his car, face smudge with oil and sweat working on his car, stumbling around the city on the lookout for his favorite food trucks, tattoos up to his neck and down his arms all the way to his back, a gold virgin mary necklace hanging from his rear view mirror, belting out to romantic spanish music drunk and slurring the words, always moving forward and never looking back, selfish tendencies, playing with people like a deck of cards, carrying a butterfly knife with him at all times

𝒃𝒂𝒄𝒌𝒈𝒓𝒐𝒖𝒏𝒅 :

born and raised in east los angeles, damon had to grow up a little faster than his peers. he comes from a working class family, his parents both public school teachers trying to get by like every other family. being one of the very little korean-american families in maravilla, damon used to get picked on and bullied to the point he refused to get out of bed in his early elementary days. but like any kid, he made friends with some of the neighborhood kids that went to the same school he did, and they stuck by his side. it gave damon the confidence to stand up for himself now that he had his little group to the point he repeated the bad words they taught him in spanish to the same little boys that would pick on him, not knowing what it meant but knowing it was something about their moms that caused one his many first fights to break out in the school yard. after that, damon and his little band of misfits became a little notorious for getting into scuffles with other students. 

he stayed in maravilla up until high school, venturing north to a new house due to his dad being offered the position of principal at a junior high. damon went on to attend lincoln high school but it wasn’t hard to fit in, nor was it difficult to fall into step with a new group of friends ( some of which he knew from his earlier days when he used to sneak out of his house with his friend and venture off ). high school was a ride, even if damon had found a place where he belonged people still loved to talk shit and damon loved nothing more than confrontation. he got into fights behind grocery stores, there was fights in empty parking lots where groups of people showed up before everyone scattered the moment they heard cop sirens down the street. damon did get caught once for a misdemeanor the summer before sophomore year and his parents had to get him out which was a hell of a ride home, both his parents almost losing their voices taking turns yelling at him. 

it was that moment that his parents made him attend mandatory after school classes, starting smack in the middle of summer. it’s safe to say he was very angry about it but found no outlet to get it out on when he was confined to the library. he started doodling instead of doing his homework while he was in there, soon off he started drawing more and he had talent. he could draw any picture you put in front of him just by looking at it, and soon he started to create his own. that very same summer, on one of the rare days his parents let him out to go to one his friend’s birthday party, he met their older brother, covered in tattoos from his legs to his arms. old english font and a portrait of a woman he later learned was his wife. he was entranced by the ink that decorated the man, asking him questions as the man grilled the carne asada, coughing every once in a while the smoke blew in his direction. 

too keep it short, damon wanted to do that. he wanted to draw permanent drawings on people and he wanted his own. he drew more, filling more sketchbooks with his own ideas and interpretations of others. he started working odd jobs after school, trying to save up for his own tattoo gun and ink, even venturing off to tattoo shops to observe them before he got told to scram. at the age of sixteen he had his own set and it wasnt long before his friends lined up to get their first tattoos done by damon. just little small things that didn’t require damon to worry too much about safety and health. the first tattoo he made on himself was a lucky eight ball and a match, now faded on the sides of his fingers. 

at seventeen his got his fake id not only for booze but to get a job at a parlor -- not tattooing -- but cleaning up after them, keeping the store tidy and clean. he had a car at the time, an old beat up chevy, and it took him thirty minutes to get to body electric. the owner new damon was underage but he let him work anyway. point is, he was taken under his wing and became an intern, an apprentice, and by the time damon hit eighteen and got his tattoo license, he was able to work a couple hours at first. from 18 to now, damon has been in the same place with a booming following on social media -- which is thanks to his good looks and talent. 

he’s been wanting to drop out of ucla because of how in-demand he is now. he’s tattooed celebrities, from socialites to rappers to all sorts of people. he hooks up his old friends from where he grew up for free, and his close friends at school too. but overall, damon makes hella bank now. which is why he finds school pointless, however, the owner of the parlor he works out told him that if he didn’t finish his bachelors he’ll fire him. the owner definitely grew to treat damon as a son, and wants him to venture out and travel with his talent, but he wants him to be smart about it and learn the ropes of the business industry. it’s why damon stays despite not being too happy about it, but it’s his last year and he’s going to make it one shot of patron at a time. 

𝒇𝒖𝒏 𝒇𝒂𝒄𝒕𝒔: 

damon is trilingual -- english, korean, and spanish ( considering he grew up in a heavily latinx/chincax neighborhood as a child, the language latched on to him ). 

he’s very appreciative of the chicanx culture because he grew up around it, and they took him in despite not being chicanx himself he was still treated as family by his close friends. ( and also because i’m biased to my own culture and east los is heavily mexican/latinx )

he almost joined a gang but it was around the time he was forced into after school study where he found his outlet through art. 

he knows how to dance pero like cumbias and shit, he’s hella good at it.

damon makes it his goal to be good at everything, it doesn’t even matter what it is. 

he has a bmw he fixed up and uses it for street racing -- races which he wins most of the times ( just ask dae lmao ). 

he can drive under the influence of weed but i do not condone this behavior !! but he can do it, but he’s beent doing it, don’t try this at home guys, or alone. 

damon was a little heartthrob in high school though, going out with the girls and hooking up with some guys. 

he was honestly one of the popular kids growing up, he was in THAT group that people longed to be a part of because they were always out mobbing, drinking, throwing parties and being out. they had fun, but they were also notorious trouble-makers. 

his tik tok thing started as a joke because damon looked like the eboys that began to trend and now he has dae help him film them just for the hell of it, because why not. he’s got nothing to lose, it’s a good laugh in the end. 

is a gym rat, he’s out there doing weights and bulking up and boxing because sometimes he just wants to procrastinate his homework and that’s valid, plus he’s gotta stay in shape with all that heavy drinking and weed intake. 

patron is his best friend -- after dae of course lmao.

damon’s actually never been in love??? like he’s had maybe three s/o’s but it was never that serious? except maybe for his first one? but he’s never experienced something where he feels genuine care for a person and love, it’s mostly just lust and like the need to experience what it’s like being with someone but it never rlly takes off

𝒘𝒂𝒏𝒕𝒆𝒅 𝒄𝒐𝒏𝒏𝒆𝒄𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏𝒔:

gang shit: this one’s already taken up by whoever’s in the no homo chat but like, let me plot out dynamics with you all cause ion know how damon is gonna treat y’all characters if we don’t talk about it lmao

enemies: damon could always use some tbh, those are fun because damon grew up around people that have given him a hard time and he isn’t one to back down from a good altercation 

an ex: listen, damon isn’t that great of a person he probably cheated on them only because he didn’t know they were exclusive and frankly, he doesn’t really even remember agreeing to be something but they were and even if damon knew, he still went ahead and did it.

highschool sweetheart, THE ex: listen this one is...particular and super specific. must be a girl/nb but latinx because i picture this being the person who really really taught damon more than he already knew, from dancing to romantic spanish music, etc. perhaps they weren’t in love but they did care about each other, damon even still has a gift i picture she gave him ( a gold virgin mary necklace ) hanging from his rear view mirror. this is like...when we can take up more chars ig? idk just thought i’d write it down

flings: hookups ig? except not people involved with dae cause he isn’t about to fuck no sloppy seconds lmao, if not he venturing out to usc away from ucla lmaooo

idk what else to add im so tired and this is so late and i just want to post it, so if y’all got anything else just hmu tbh

[sciencenewsforstudents]

It’s frog dissection day in biology class in the new film The Addams Family. Wednesday Addams thinks she knows what to do. First, she leaps on the table. Then, raising her hands to the sky, she shouts, “Give my creature life!” A device that pulses with electricity now shocks a dead frog waiting to be cut open by the kids’ scalpels. The electricity then bounces from one frog to another. Suddenly, frogs are hopping everywhere — a bit groggy at first, but apparently as alive as ever.

This wild scene isn’t one you’ll be able to recreate on dissection day in your own science class. Electricity can’t jolt the dead back to life. Still, this scene has a lot in common with experiments that happened hundreds of years ago. Back then, scientists were learning how electricity kicks muscles into motion.

Today’s researchers know that electricity can do a lot of amazing things — including help shape the body in the first place.

Muscle powerhouse

Skeletal muscles help animals move and breathe. These muscles move because of tension in their fibers. This is called “contraction.” Muscle contractions are triggered by signals that start in the brain. The electrical signals travel down the spinal cord and to the nerves that reach into muscle.

But electric impulses also can come from outside the body. “If you’ve ever shocked yourself on something, your muscles contracted,” explains Melissa Bates. A physiologist at the University of Iowa in Iowa City, she studies how bodies work. Bates focuses on the diaphragm. That’s a muscle that helps mammals breathe.

Shocking a dead frog might make its muscles twitch and get its legs to wiggle. Still, this animal couldn’t hop away, Bates points out. That’s because leg muscles can’t make their own electrical signals.

As soon as a frog hopped away from the source of electricity, the game would be up, she says. “It would fall down and be limp and not able to move.” (This applies to the muscles in a hand, too. And that has left Bates wondering how Thing — a hand without a body — can move at all.)

There are some muscles in the body that can power themselves. Involuntary muscles, such as the heart and muscles that move food through the intestines, supply their own electric impulses. In an animal that has recently died, these muscles continue to function for a while. They can keep contracting for minutes to upwards of an hour, Bates says. But that won’t help the frog make a getaway.

It is possible to use electricity to revive people when they are having a heart attack. For this, people use machines called defibrillators (De-FIB-rill-ay-tors). This isn’t reanimating the dead, though. Defibrillators only work “in something that appears lifeless but still has some of its own electrical potential to reboot that system,” Bates explains. Electricity helps get heartbeats back to a regular rhythm. But this won’t work if the heart has stopped beating entirely (which happens when it has lost its ability to make electrical impulses).

The frogs from biology lab have probably been dead for quite a while and preserved with chemicals. They couldn’t be revived with a defibrillator because they wouldn’t have any heart electrical activity left to jump start.

Twitch, twitch

Wednesday Addams’ froggy antics, while impossible, call to mind experiments that scientists did in the late 1700s. “That was the first hint that electricity is an important part of our body,” says Bates. Back then, people were just starting to see what electricity could do. Some shocked dead animals to figure out how electricity made muscles move.  

The most famous of these experimenters was Luigi Galvani. He worked as a doctor and physicist in Italy.

Galvani mostly worked with dead frogs, or rather their bottom halves. He would slice open the frog to reveal the nerves that ran from the spinal cord to a leg. Then, to study how a frog’s muscles respond to electricity, Galvani would wire up the frog’s leg under different conditions.

Italian scientist Luigi Galvani studied electricity in the body by wiring up frogs’ leg muscles in different ways. This image illustrates his experiments connecting nerves to leg muscles, which then contracted. CREDIT: Wellcome Collection (CC BY 4.0)

By this time, scientists already knew that an electric shock would make muscles twitch. But Galvani had questions about how and why that happened. For example, he wondered if lightning would do the same thing as the electricity made by his machine. So he hooked up one animal to a wire that snaked outside to a thunderstorm. He then watched those frog legs dance when they were jolted by lightning — just as they did with his machine’s electricity.

Galvani also noticed that when a wire connected a leg muscle to a nerve, the muscle contracted. This led him to hypothesize an “animal electricity” inside creatures. Galvani’s research inspired many scientists and created a new field of study that investigated electricity in the body.

Such work also inspired fiction. “There is an imagination that followed Galvani’s experiments,” says Marco Piccolino at the University of Ferrara. He’s neurologist, a scientist who studies the body’s nervous system. Piccolino, based out of Pisa, Italy, is also a science historian. Galvani’s experiments and those of the scientists that followed him helped inspire Mary Shelley’s novel Frankenstein, Piccolino says. In her classic book, a fictional scientist gives life to a human-like creature.

Sparking life

Nobody has figured out yet how to use electricity to make the dead come back to life. But some researchers have figured out how to hack cells’ electric signals to change how animals develop.

Michael Levin works at Tufts University in Boston, Mass, and at the Wyss Institute of Harvard University in Cambridge, Mass. As a developmental biophysicist, he studies the physics of how bodies develop.

“All of the tissue in your body is communicating electrically,” he notes. By eavesdropping on those conversations, scientists can crack the cells’ code. They also can play back the electrical messages in other ways to alter the body’s development, he says.

Messing with electric signals can change how animals develop. By changing the electric state of cells, researchers have made this tadpole grow an eye in its gut. CREDIT: M. Levin and Sherry Aw

Cells in the body have an electric potential (a difference in charge) across their membranes. This potential comes from how charged ions are arranged inside and outside of cells. Researchers can mess with this using chemicals that change where the ions can go.

Manipulating these signals has allowed Levin’s team to tell a frog tadpole to grow an eye in its gut. They also have gotten brain tissue to grow elsewhere in a frog’s body. They’ve even been able to tell nerves how to connect to a newly attached eye.

Everyone thinks genes determine how an animal develops. But “that's only half the story,” Levin says.

Bioelectricity could hold the power to fix birth defects, regrow organs or reprogram cancerous cells. Levin and his colleagues have already fixed birth defects in tadpoles. And they picture a day when electricity could be used similarly in medicine.

This is far from Wednesday Addams and her reanimated frogs — but so much better.

[hadleyfxster]

( DUA LIPA. DEMIFEMALE. SHE/THEY. TWENTY-FIVE. ) Hey, is that HADLEY FOSTER? I heard they’ve been in Salem for TWO YEARS and they’re working as a NURSE. Last I spoke to ‘em they were pretty +SAGACIOUS, but I hear they can be -DEFIANT too. I wonder if they’ve got anything to do with this. ( cal, 23, they/them, est. )

henlo, i am cal and this is my babe hadley. below you’ll find a whole shpeal about them. pls excuse how messy it is, i tend to word vomit when i write!! if ya’ll are interested in plotting pls lmk as i would love to establish some fun connections. i even added some potential ones at the very bottom ~ 

name: hadley mickey foster nickname(s): hads, haddie, mickey job: nurse age: twenty-five gender: demigirl pronouns: she/they sexuality: bisexual / biromantic birthday: april 2nd zodiac: aries personality type: the entertainer | esfp

label: the reveller - a person who is enjoying themselves in a lively and noisy way.

brazen ( adj ) : bold without shame astute ( adj ) : having or showing an ability to accurately assess situations or people and turn this to one's advantage sagacious ( adj ) : having or showing keen mental discernment and good judgment; shrewd. tactless ( adj ) : having or showing a lack of adroitness and sensitivity in dealing with others or with difficult issues. defiant ( adj ) : showing defiance.

then

growing up, hadley didn’t want to be a nurse. no, they wanted to be a police officer and fight the bad guys, just like their father. he was their hero, protecting their mother and them as well as their city. they understood his lack of presence at home was because of his job- they got that. so they often hid their disappointment at missed school events, birthday parties, and good night hugs.

being primarily raised by their mother, hads did their best to keep out of her way. unfortunately, they’d always been a bit on the wild side and trouble would always follow no matter where they went. between climbing things they shouldn’t have, a few boken bones, and getting in trouble at school for speaking out and starting fights in the name of justic, they weren’t a bad kid - just a difficult one. 

at one point, age eleven, they’d broken their leg and was stuck in the house one summer for months on end. this left them with little to do and led them into the great hobby that is art. haddie got so caught up in creating things and, subsequently, ruined so much clothing due to pain and pastels. it was amazing to them that they hadn’t gotten attached to art before this but it certainly resulted in a bit of an obsession. they circled between studying artists paintings and work and creating their own during the months they weren’t able to participate in any of their other extracurricular activities.

haddie’s childhood was pretty good, all in all. their family we well-off financially, their mother, despite them being unruly, loved them endlessly and thier father remained a hero in their eyes. they had some vacations together here and there. hads participated in a handful of different sports ( dance, soccer, swimming ) and kept their hobby of art. 

( murder tw, racism tw ) of course, things were bound to change and it burst their bubble, waking them from their daydream world like a bucket of ice water. their dad having a gun never really bothered them. he’d taught them the danger of it, as well as how to shoot one, and the never really considered the consequences of it. they learned about it on the news. fourteen year old hads had made it a habit to watch cnn to make sure to keep up to date on what was happening in their city of chicago. the video of their father shooting an unarmed black man ( no, boy, he couldn’t be much older than they were ) burned itself into their mind. the subsequent grief of his family weighed heavily on their shoulders as they remained glued to the television. the time it took for the trial against their father and the suspension to wrap up was too short for them to digest it all. he barely got away with a slap on the wrist and that family lost someone important- the whole city did. hadley had to stand by their father during the whole time, their mother’s hands holding them in place, her nails digging into their shoulder to keep them from retreating or reacting. the whole ordeal changed them. this was the point when their entire future path changed and their love for their father, and the police force, crumpled to ashes. 

( alcoholism tw, abuse tw ) the rest of their high school career saw them deeply troubled. they chose to test out of a few grades, jumping ahead in determination to reach their new goal. their mother, struggling with the torn relationship between child and spouse, did her best to support them with this decision. they’d come to appreciate her attempts later on but in the moment they were too stuck in their head. they had a goal and they needed to reach it as soon as they could. they dropped all their extra-curricular activities, stopped creating art, and focused fully on studying. when they weren’t studying, they would break into their parents stash of alcohol and drink their self into a tizzy. their parents didn’t really recognize the signs of their trouble child, too caught up in their own problems and work. it wasn’t until their father caught them with a bottle of rum one evening, curled up on their couch, that things seemed to come to light. he attempted to berate them, scold them, and ground them. his fury was huge but hads easily over powered him. their screaming match drew the attention of their mother, who couldn’t do anything to calm either. the fight came to a head that resulted in their father lashing out physically at them. his ring nicked their cheek, cutting a line along their cheekbone that would later result in a scar. the quiet that had settled over the room after that could be cut with a knife and hadley was the first to break it. the ‘get out’ they had spit out, voice already hoarse from the yelling previously, was strong and unmoving. the expression on their father’s face was twisted, as though he couldn’t believe the child that used to worship him could turn into what was on the ground before them. he left. their mother immediately collapsed, a sobbing mess that they couldn’t try to collect in the moment because their fear finally settled in. fear of a man they realized they never really knew. 

the aftermath was, surprisingly, unexciting. their father returned the next morning and acted as if nothing happened. he seemed to clean up some of his act, however, they were hardly fooled. their mother, though, she seemed to sink into an easy acceptance that things could be fixed- that her spouse would fix them. haddie knew better. there was no going back. ever since that faithful day in front of the t.v., there would be no reconciliation between them. with their mother’s approval, they started university as soon as possible, graduating two years early and finally getting out.

now

8 years later along with another early graduation on their part, hadley settled into a job as a nurse in salem, mass. their time in universty and subsequently med. school changed them quite a bit from how they were in their early and late teens. the freedom away from their parents allowed them to fully settle into their skin and the ease that came with it brightened them up immensely. they seemed to regress to their carefree and energetic nature they held as a child, picking up art again as well as a sport ( kickboxing ). the trauma and toil of their past buried close to their heart as they began their career in the hospital. 

mickey wears their heart on their sleeve and it didn’t take long for them to find love in salem. the two were together for a solid seven months before they ultimately fell apart and hads heart was torn apart. the horror of this particular break up caused some previous issues to emerge in them and they decided to swear off romantic relationships all together. 

they talk to their mother once a week and have yet to talk to their father. 

they’re not at all a fan of authority figures, especially police, and are defiant when faced with them.

they’re a bit of an odd personality to work in the hospital, but they seem to fit in surprisingly well. their character tends to be seen as refreshing and, though they lack tact, they make up for it with their enthusiasm and optimism. 

hadley has a big ol’ cat, a mainecoon, named baloo that they are allergic too but love with all their heart. they found him on the streets and couldn’t find him an owner so they decided to keep him even if they have to take allergy meds all the time and maybe wake up somewhat dying cause baloo decided to flop on their face.

their room is part sleeping space part art studio. they have a bunch of posters of famous paintings as well as some of their own on the walls and there’s definitely a ton of paint stains on the light hardwood floors. 

they’re a bit of a partier and tend to induldge in wine nights on the occasion. they definitely have a lot more control over their drinking then when they were younger and have come to manage their self fairly well. sure, they can sometimes get into trouble ( most of the time without intending too ) but they reached their goal of working in medicine and aren’t about to risk their job over anything. 

they love to give platonic kisses and hold hands and hugs. if you allow them to, they will hang over their friends with great enthusiasm. 

big fan of petnames and using them with everyone. 

wanted

ex-partner : it didn’t end well, in fact, they’re the reason hadley has sworn off any and all romantic relationships. the two don’t talk- mostly because hads refuses to even acknowledge their existence less her more fight-y side emerges.

housemate(s) : haddie has never really wanted to live by herself. she loves people and is really into skinship. somehow, someway she either roped them into living with her or they accepted her ad or she accepted their ad but now they’re housemates and hads couldn’t be happier to come home to a lived in house.

mega crush : even though she’s sworn off romantic relationships, her heart just can’t seem to stop itself from speeding up every time she’s around this individual. she’s doing a pretty good job of being in denial but it’s not the easiest thing to hide seeing as her face is an open book.

best friend : literal ride or die, she’ll do anything for them and vice versa. 

friends with benefits : 

patient : someone hads has had the misfortune of taking care of while on the job, can develop from there 

patient #2 : someone mickey here has, for whatever reason, ended up stitching/fixing up when not at the hospital. due to whatever situation she came to their aid and helped them out ( perhaps more than once ? )

bar buddies : someone haddie always runs into at the bar but has yet to push to be friends or anything further. the two have a pretty steady history of just making small talk together.

skinship buddies : they both love to hang off one another and get along swimmingly. sometimes they’re mistaken as being in a romantic relationship but things are strictly platonic- they just love to be close to one another

[missnight0wl]

Never say never

Summary: There was a time when Patricia Rakepick had a best friend.

Words: 2560

Patricia Rakepick was a wild child, full of ideas and energy. Her knees and elbows were usually abraded since she was always the first one to try new things, to get to unreachable places. Her parents had to constantly keep their heads on a swivel, yet their offspring’s rumbustiousness wasn’t what worried them the most. The problem was that she didn’t really have many friends. And it wasn’t even due to her social skills, or potential lack of them. There just weren’t a lot of kids in their neighbourhood. Not that Patricia seemed to be bored because of that reason. They simply felt it’s an important thing to take care of before sending her to school.

The Rakepicks lived in a small village, and a few houses closest to them were occupied either by elder people or couples with much younger children. Therefore, when the new family moved next door, Mrs Rakepick got quite intrigued. It turned out that not only were they wizards, but they also had a daughter.

“You know, Patty,” she said on Saturday afternoon while making tea. “I’ve met our new neighbours. They have a girl your age.”

The redhead took her eyes from a map she was sketching. “Uh huh,” she showed a polite interest.

“I think she’s even outside right now,” Mrs Rakepick continued, looking through the window. “Why wouldn’t you go to say hello?”

Patricia finally took a break from her activity and came closer to her mother. She quickly judged the situation, deciding it sounded like a good challenge. “All right,” she replied blithely. A moment later, she was putting on her shoes.

“Just be nice, sweet pea!”

“I’m always nice, mum!” Patricia yelled back before closing the door.

On one of two swings between houses was indeed sitting a dark haired girl. She was drawing some unspecific shapes on the ground with her foot. When she heard someone approaching, she raised her head.

“Hi, I’m Patricia Rakepick! I live next door,” the incomer introduced herself cheerfully with reaching gesture. “What’s your name?”

The brunette glanced at her rather surprised, yet she shook her hand. “Kathleen. Kathleen Adams.”

“So when did you move in?” The ginger took another place and immediately started to sway slightly.

“A couple of days ago...”

“And how do you like it here?”

“It’s kind of boring, to be honest,” Kathleen replied, wrinkling her nose.

“Well, yeah, if you’re just stuck on the swings the whole day.”

“What else you can do here?”

Patricia stopped abruptly, looking at the other girl with a smirk. “You can hunt for treasures, for example.”

“Really? What kind of treasures?” she asked, clearly intrigued and already in a better mood.

“I don’t know yet. But I’ve started some research. You can join me if you want.”

That was the day when Patricia and Kathleen became the best friends – because when you’re a child it’s as simple as that. From now on, whenever one moved, the other followed. The young witches loved their little adventures where two of them went against the whole world. They promptly become regular visitors in each other’s houses, although still the most fun they had outdoors.

One summer they were both sitting on a tree: Kathleen placed in a spot between the branches, Patricia hanging with her head down.

“What if I won’t get a letter at all?” the first girl worried.

“Don’t be silly,” the other one replied. “You’re a witch, Kathy. You have to go to Hogwarts. Besides, who’s gonna be my partner in crime if not you?”

Kathleen laughed. “Don’t worry about that. I’ll always be your partner in crime. Even if they won’t accept me, I’ll sneak into the castle so we could do some mischief.”

The redhead pulled herself up to look at her playmate. “Promise?”

“Promise. Cross my heart and hope to die.”

The letter came a couple of days later. They both went to Diagon Alley, and later on the platform nine and three-quarters. They squeezed each other’s hands when Kathleen Adams was called as the first person during the Sorting Ceremony. The old hat was wondering for a bit, and then it announced: Gryffindor! Patricia got as excited as the older students at the red themed table – she already knew it’d be her house as well. After all, where else such young adventurer as herself could belong?

They quickly got known as talented pupils and creative pranksters. They were a pain for their teachers, and joy for other classmates. Despite the fact that both of them were popular among peers, they stuck mostly to their own company. There were moments when two of them weren’t causing troubles, but it was always only the calm before the storm, meaning they’re seeking the new excitement. Like that one time when Patricia had spent hours in the Library, winning Madam Pince’s heart with her exemplary quite behaviour.

“You’re not gonna believe what I’ve found,” the girl said to Kathleen, sitting next to her back in their Common Room.

“I’m probably going to believe anything you say, but go on.”

“Have you heard about the Cursed Vaults?”

“No, though I like the sound of that,” Kathy replied with a grin, leaning towards her friend.

“Oh, it’s getting better. Listen…”

The Vaults investigation wasn’t the easiest one, compared to their other treasure hunts. There was a lot of information missing, yet they kept coming back to it every now and then, even though other things were drawing their attention in the meantime. But then, everything started changing in the fifth year.

“I don’t understand why you wanted to be a prefect in the first place,” Kathleen said at the beginning of the term, clearly upset.

Patricia was laying on the couch, playing with her Puffskein. “Because I could. What else is there to understand?”

“So you’re fine with running around the castle, watching if first-years don’t break the rules?”

“You’re looking at this the wrong way, Kathy,” Rakepick replied, laughing. “It’s easier for us to break the rules when I’m the one in charge.”

The dark-haired witch glared at her companion. “There are still prefects older than you. Not to mention that you’ll have other responsibilities to fill your schedule.”

“Don’t worry, I have good time-management skills. And I promise I will definitely find time for you,” Patricia reassured her with a smile, but it didn’t seem to bring the results, so she decided to change the subject. “Hey, y’know, I’ve found something interesting about the Cursed Vaults. Apparently, there was that group of teachers…”

“Aren’t we too old for that, Patty?” Kathleen cut in.

“What…?”

“I don’t know. I sometimes feel like you’re way too serious about that whole thing.”

“But it might be very serious…”

The other girl only shrugged. “Anyway, I have something to do before curfew. We’ll talk later, okay?”

It left Rakepick speechless as she was staring at the fellow Gryffindor going through a round hole in the wall. She got used to being ignored by her teachers whenever she mentioned this subject, but never before by her best friend. Nonetheless, she wasn’t going to beg anyone for attention. It was probably the last time they talked about the Cursed Vaults before their graduation.

Patricia couldn’t really understand the change in her confidant. Of course, everyone knew that the fifth year is particularly stressful because of the O.W.L.s, however, there was more to that. Kathleen shouldn’t have been worried about her studies, they were almost equally good students – in Charms and Transfiguration she might be even a little better. Yet, they started growing apart. Kathy was hanging out with other classmates more often, and even though Patricia tried to accompany her at first, she soon got bored with girly gossips. And she rarely allowed for such situations.

Around this time, she got interested in a group of the first years: four Gryffindor boys, funny and quite gifted. They had a mischievous streak, so she dealt with them a lot as a prefect. Nevertheless, the chaos they created wasn’t what she enjoyed the most. She saw potential in them, and she discovered she got a lot of pleasure from mentoring them. She never really experienced it with Kathleen as their skills were usually comparable, and the girl was refusing lately to share further improvement. But surprisingly, guiding someone far less advanced brought Rakepick thrill similar to her own learning experience. She was gaining a new outlook on certain things as well. Among all of that, she didn’t give much thought to her closest relationship – at least until the summer holidays.

Perhaps it was thanks to a familiar homey atmosphere or the lack of other company. Perhaps Kathy needed consolation after the recent break-up. Or maybe it was related to the fact they both passed their exams really well, so they didn’t have to stress out over it any longer. Either way, the friendship between Patricia and Kathleen seemed to get back to normal. Their activities changed a bit, of course. They were teenagers now, after all. They realised, for example, that the nearby town had more attraction to offer, like weekly parties.

“So what d’you think about Eric?” Adams asked one time when they were walking near the sunflower field on their way back home.

Rakepick raised her eyebrow. “He’s all right, I guess.”

“Are you going to date him then?”

“What? No way!” the redhead chuckled.

“Why not? He’s a nice and quite handsome bloke.”

“And he’s a Muggle.”

“Crikey, since when you’re prejudiced like that?” Kathleen watched her carefully.

Patricia hesitated. “I’m not… Really. Just… What’s the point in wasting time on a relationship that leads to nowhere?”

“Because you couldn’t duel with him?” the brunette asked with a smirk.

“Among other things,” Rakepick admitted reluctantly.

“You don’t need magic for everything.”

“I need a challenge, Kathy, not snugging.”

“Well, you have friends to challenge you. Sorry, a friend, in your case.”

Patricia crossed her arms on the chest. “I do have friends beside you, y’know,” she teased the other witch.

“Oh, really? Name one. And those four Gryffindor kids don’t count.”

“Well… There’s Susan… And Alex…”

This time Kathleen laughed out loud. It was a calm and warm night, and there weren’t much sounds around them other than crickets. The girls were standing at the point where a path led to the Adams’ house.

“Maybe you’re right, Patty. Every boy will break your heart eventually. And I could never let anyone hurt you like that.” Kathy stepped closer to her companion. She was gazing at her for an instant in silence and then she leant forward to briefly kiss her lips. “See you tomorrow.”

Patricia remembered that moment when she was passing the same spot years later as a graduate student. Her relationship with Kathleen continued to be a real rollercoaster after that one summer. She often got irritated by her moodiness, and then she would focus on herself for weeks, only to get closer again later. Maybe it was sentiment, maybe a deeper connection they had. She was hoping it could finally stabilize now when they had their teenage years behind them. And that day was special in particular – Rakepick had just found out she would get her dream job as a Curse-Breaker in Gringotts Wizarding Bank. Her parents were out of town, but she decided that maybe it’s better. She could spend the night on the celebration with Kathy. She even bought a red wine.

It was dark in both houses, therefore she assumed the Adams were absent and walked straight to her own front door. After leaving her things in the hall, she went to the living room. She lit some candles with a hand gesture and smiled with satisfaction. In spite of being a simple spell, it felt rewarding to see she’s getting the hang of wandless magic. She opened the window, but when she turned back, she got startled.

“Blimey, you scared me! I didn’t hear you enter,” she gasped with relief.

“I saw you coming home, and I was on my way back too, so I followed,” Kathleen explained.

Patricia moved to the cabinet, searching for some glasses. “Well, it’s quite fortunate, because I was hoping for some shared time anyway. I got good news from Gringotts, and you could tell me about your Auror training, y’know. It’s been a while since our last meeting…” She only now noticed that the witch is holding her wand. “… but that’s not why you’re here, is it?”

Kathleen smiled gently and stepped into the room. “Tell me, Patricia, how far did you get in your investigation for the Cursed Vaults?”

“Why? I thought you’re not interested in such stories anymore,” Rakepick replied calmly.

“Did you find any information about the organisation called R?”

“Please, don’t tell me you were so stupid.”

Kathleen slowly walked closer. Her thick dark hair was contrasting with the red robe. She seemed to be very composed.

“No, we both were stupid back at school,” she noted, still grinning. “We could’ve done so much more if only we had proper guidance. Just think where we could be now. All that knowledge, all that power… But maybe it’s not too late, for both of us.”

Patricia was trying to access the situation. Her wand was left in the hall. She wouldn’t do much in a fight without it, and the chances for reaching it fast enough were small. She didn’t expect she’d need to defend herself in her own home, protected by the Fidelius Charm. She could merely play for time now. “So what now? You’re going to force me into joining too?”

“I know you can’t be forced into anything,” Kathleen got a bit tensed. “You always do what you want, don’t you? And you do it with such ease. I had to work so hard to keep up with you, yet you were still better. The most talented, the smartest, the prettiest… And you think you’ll achieve everything alone, but you’re wrong...” She paused, struggling with her thoughts. “But you still can put it to good use, Patty! We both can! We’d be together again, partners in crime, two of us against the world.”

“I’m not gonna be a fucking puppet…” Patricia spat with contempt. “Listen to yourself! Do you really think we’d matter to them? Do you believe in their promises? You’re better than that…”

“Don’t make it harder than it already is.”

“You’re the one who made it hard enough when you decided to betray me!”

“Oh, because you’re so moral, right?”

The redhead tried to contain herself, but the emotions were overwhelming. “I trusted you!” she yelled, unconsciously clutching her fists.

“Did you, really?”

Rakepick was a split second too slow and she didn’t manage to dodge the spell which bound her wrists and legs. She lost her balance and fell to the floor.

“You don’t have to do this, Kathy…” she said with a barely noticeable sign of panic in her voice.

“I’m afraid I do. I’m so sorry, Patty.” Kathleen approached her childhood friend. There was a glint of sadness in her eyes when the warm light reflected in them. Patricia, however, couldn’t really tell what was the reason for that. She couldn’t think at all. She just waited to hear the incantation of the curse. “Crucio!”

A terrifying scream broke the silence of the evening.