#very curious about this family of weirdos there are many things i wanna know on them

[harvestmoth]

something something familiar

[navree]

ooh, pls expand on your dae/jae/aeg3 ideas! 😃😃😃

This is what happens when I wake up at 3am due to stubbornly persisting jetlag (pro tip, if you're gonna go to a country that's, like, sixteen hours ahead of your's, just block off a solid week of not doing anything when you get back because your sleep is gonna be FUCKED, my European jetlag has never been this longlasting or this bad), I create Ideas in my head and then use them to help me fall asleep. And it's honestly highly likely I'm actually gonna write something with this, it's quickly moved really high in my ASOIAF fics priorities list, just behind my Dance AU (I really should also write my version of Aegon's Conquest but it would just be so fucking looooooooooong and fall quarter is about to start for me at school anyway).

So, unlike most Greens, I actually quite like Daenaera, sue me, sometimes character are just Your Baby, and she's mine (I've enumerated why here for the curious). But I do understand the narrative issues some people have with killing off Jaehaera to make room for her, so I'm merging the best of both worlds here. A lot of the same things I talk about when it comes to why I like Daenaera's relationship with Aegon can also be applied to Jaehaera, she's also someone who likely would have felt lonely and isolated and deeply depressed after all she went through, and there likely wouldn't be many people she could try and connect with. There's Gaemon, her bastard half-brother, and there's Aegon. But can Jaehaera really bring herself to connect with him, or he with her? Aegon's father sent men to murder Jaehaera's twin and threaten to rape her; Jaehaera's father not only kept Aegon a prisoner but also made him watch his mother's execution via being eaten by a dragon. That's a huge emotional gulf for two children to overcome on their own, and that's where Daenaera comes in. Kids need socialization with other kids, we know this, and given that Daenaera becomes a ward of Aegon's half-sister Baela, her visits to King's Landing to see her brother often include bringing her young charge (I'm also reducing the age difference between Aegon/Jaehaera and Daenaera, because it is rightly weird as Hell that so much emphasis was put on six year old Daenaera being the hottest preschooler in Westeros). She socializes with both Aegon and Jaehaera, since she's on a similar social level, given not just the closeness between the Velaryons and the Targaryens, but her being kind of a member of Baela's family, and thus technically the royal family by extension. And Jaehaera is queen, so it's not unreasonable for someone to go "OK she needs some noble female companions" to allow her and Daenaera to hang out more.

In my head, the first closeness happens between Jaehaera and Daenaera, and not only as a meta-rebuttal to fandom weirdos who wanna pit two little girls against each other like it's One Tree Hill because you've all got big feelings over a fictional succession crisis. But I think Jaehaera would be more openly receptive to friends than Aegon. I mentioned it in my above linked post about Daenaera, but Aegon's one friend in his minority was Gaemon, and he had to be very careful about that friendship because of how Gaemon could be treated, so he was probably recalcitrant from getting close to anyone, along with his other issues. Jaehaera doesn't have that hangup, she's just a lonely girl without any friends, so having someone who's canonically sweet and charismatic enough that her sunny disposition uplifted the people around her would definitely help her out, and make her appreciate Daenaera as a person and want her around. It'd be almost something similar to what HOTD has between Rhaenyra and Alicent, close female companions bordering on homoeroticism and sapphic first loves.

On the Aegon front, a lot of what I talked about when talking about their canonical relationship can also apply here even before a marriage. Aegon's two main relationships to people his age are Gaemon, with the issues mentioned above, and Jaehaera, which does come with its own issues from the Dance. Daenaera would still be the first major guilt-free relationship in his life, someone he can interact with and be close to without feeling the burden of his own sins or the ones of those close to him on his shoulders. And again, along with that same temperament that endeared him to her in canon, and would endear her to Jaehaera in this AU, that's how they draw close and forge their own independent friendship. On all three sides though, it would likely be restrained to something like courtly love, where you can have concretely romantic feelings and even certain minor expressions of those feelings, but you can't ever really do anything, you just pine and have unspoken thoughts about everything. Aegon and Jaehaera are married, to each other, and they're also still growing, considering they get married when they're ten, so even if they grow closer and start communicating about shared desires more, it's still gonna take some time to parse out what it is they feel and what they want. Similarly, Daenaera would also need the time to grow and realize what she wants as well, and what her feelings even are, given that she's also young. And while I've talked about how Aegon and Jaehaera would grow closer to her, even beyond Daenaera being a naturally friendly person, there is something for her in those relationships as well. Companionship with people her age, for one, and a more calming presence from two people who do seem pretty even keeled, if melancholic, after the chaos of her own early life, and a measure of stability after going from two parents to just a father to orphaned to living with Baela.

One thing that would, in my view, firmly solidify the idea that Aegon and Jaehaera like having Daenaera in their lives and want to keep Daenaera in their lives is the secret siege. In canon, Daenaera nearly dies because of the poisoned fruit tarts, it's only because maesters give her something to make her throw up before the poison gets too much ingested into her system that it doesn't, unlike what happened to poor Gaemon. In my head, there's a period of time, probably a couple hours but still, where it's verrrrrrry touch and go for Daenaera and both Aegon and Jaehaera are really worried about her. Because they know death, they've seen death, not only have a lot of their family members died but they have personally witnessed someone not just die but be killed, be murdered. They know what it looks like and they both realize that they don't want that to happen to Daenaera, that she's important to them. After all, when I said "aegon and jaehaera and daenaera as the conquerors reborn", I wasn't just being facetious. I've mentioned in a lot of my Conquerors meta that Rhaenys appears to have been the glue that held her and her siblings together, and I can see Daenaera occupying a similar role. Like Aegon I and Visenya before them, Aegon III and Jaehaera are likely people who would be reticent in expressing emotion, though for different reasons (trauma vs just inherent personality), whereas Daenaera is not. And having kids socialize with someone like that, and learn to socialize with other people, including each other, like that, it's important, and it makes Daenaera important to them, along with the personal feelings that might become involved, especially with them all maturing emotionally and sexually at the same time. Post-secret siege is when I think things would take a concrete turn to the romantic, and given that the most successful Targaryens of all time were very famously in a polygamous marriage, that's when a plan can start forming about bringing Daenaera into the marriage, not unlike Rhaenys getting brought into Aegon and Visenya's marriage.

(though, unlike my headcanon where Aegon and Visenya never wanted each other romantically or sexually due in part to incompatibilities as Visenya was a lesbian, and they both wanted Rhaenys, all three participants in this poly couple would want each other. I think that Aegon and Jaehaera might like Daenaera individually more than they might like each other, cuz again there's a lot of baggage involved, but there's romantic attachment and sexual interest, though to varying degrees, from all parties to all parties)

A marriage including Daenaera also helps deal with the unseen faction of the Dance: the Velaryons. The Velaryons kinda got shafted by both sides in this war. The Blacks in general treated a lot of members of House Velaryon badly in the lead up (Daenaera's grandfather, again, is Vaemond Velaryon. That Vaemond Velaryon), along with Rhaenyra imprisoning and threatening the House head, Corlys, over her own neuroses. The Greens, meanwhile, not only kept a member of House Velaryon as a prisoner (Baela, who is also the current king's sister), but are responsible for the death of a member of House Velaryon through marriage, since Aegon and Aemond killed Rhaenys (fuck you HBO for ruining that team up, sorry I'm done now). The toll of the war on House Velaryon was pretty severe, with wrongs done by both sides, and there does need to be some element of House Targaryen going "my bad" and offering some kind of recompense, especially considering the ways House Velaryon helped both sides with the allegiance switch (also, if we're moving up Daenaera's age, you can have her father be a casualty of the Dance, rather than the Daughter's War). Having a Velaryon at the table, given a prominent seat at the table, can definitely be that, especially someone who is historically pureblood Velaryon, without major Targaryen ancestry who can clearly advocate for House Velaryon. So if the two Targaryen monarchs go "we want this Velaryon as our queen", that can work from a political perspective and allow the match to go forward.

And if we keep the dragons around, which I want to, because I like dragons, that's something that can also connect Daenaera and Jaehaera. Say Morghul never dies in the storming of the Dragonpit, now Jaehaera has a dragon, and we know Daenaera loves dragons, whereas Aegon can't stand them (reasonable, given what happened to Rhaenyra). So Jaehaera can't bond with Aegon about dragons, but she can bond with Daenaera, who'd be very interested in hearing everything about it. If Daenaera wanted to claim a dragon herself, and we know she expressed the desire to have one after seeing Rhaena and Morning in canon, Jaehaera could be the one to help and facilitate that. Not to mention, I put in a response to someone asking who might Sunfyre have allowed to be his rider if he survived Dragonstone (can't find it for the life of me tho, sorry!) that Daenaera was a likely candidate, given that they're both pretty sweethearts. So if I get to be self indulgent and have Sunfyre survive for a bit, Daenaera can connect with him and Jaehaera can have some link to her deceased father, Sunfyre's original rider.

So yeah, these are just a couple disjointed thoughts I had based on that idea, but in my head that's how it should be. I'm sure I'll think of more about them as actual proper adults and reigning monarchs, cuz right now a lot of this was childhood and teen years focused along with a spotlight more on how they got together than how the relationship unfolded into adulthood, but hope you enjoyed the expansion anon!

[imnotoverlyobsessive]

Moodboard by @softhecreator

Don’t Blame My English Blood For This American Heartache

Chapter Six: Take U With Me

AO3 info prologue one two three four five six seven eight nine ten eleven twelve

All my work is 18+.

I try to resist, but the light’s getting low to a glow till you’re touching my lips. I wanna stay when I shouldn’t, wanna go but I wouldn’t, wanna say no but I couldn’t. So meet me in the dark; kiss me in the shadows of every spark.- Marianas Trench, Rhythm of Your Heart 

October, 1984

Hogsmeade, Scotland

The Scottish weather wasn’t too cold yet, and most people got by without any sort of coverings whatsoever, but Sera was a Californian, so she needed something to keep her warm.

She quickly discovered that she very much liked Hogsmeade. It didn’t have the warming charms that the castle did, but it was a cute little village with a bunch of magical stores. Most of the other people there were decked out in that fancy wizarding shit they all wore, but the so-called Muggleborns—what a ridiculous concept, blood purity; as if it mattered—were in regular clothes the way she was. She liked her knee-length black dress; it was fairly low cut and had a little V-shaped thing that she kept closed with a tie, and she wore black leggings, an old pair of Converse, and a long knitted purple sweater.

So yeah, she was protected from the fifty degree weather adequately enough to enjoy a deliciously sweet—and slightly alcoholic—drink at a small bar-slash-inn called The Three Broomsticks. She was listening to her Walkman, humming along to Freddie Mercury singing about how girls with big butts—such as herself, which was nice because, like, how many songs actually praised her body type?—apparently made the world go round. She honestly doubted his claims, but he was Freddie Mercury, so who was she to argue? 

Anyway, point was, she was enjoying her sweet drink, snacking on the magic candy she’d gotten at a place called Honeydukes, and leafing through one of several magical books—mostly romance novels, if she were honest. She’d never had sex and she was curious, alright?—she’d purchased at the local bookstore. It was peaceful.

Until, that is, someone with an irritatingly long body sat down in the chair across from her. She looked up from her book, yanking her headphones down around her neck with a sigh of annoyance.

“What do you want, Regulus?”

He grinned that sickeningly attractive grin of his. “Nobody else who claims to dislike me calls me by my first name, you know.”

She stared at him, nonplussed. “What am I supposed to call you?”

“My surname is the standard.”

Sera pursed her lips. “Your surname is normal. Your first name is weird. I prefer to point out your weirdness.”

He frowned. “My name isn’t unusual in my family.”

“Neither is inbreeding,” she said flatly. “Again: what do you want?”

“To spend time with you, of course,” he said with a grin.

Sera scowled. “No.”

He didn’t seem to hear her. “Did you get my letters?”

“Nope.”

Regulus hummed, drumming his fingers on the wood of the table and looking very much like he didn’t believe her. “Pity. I sent you a birthday present.”

Yes, I know. You sent me a fucking family heirloom, you goddamn weirdo.

“What are you wearing to the Christmas ball?”

She stared at him. “I don’t celebrate Christmas.”

He frowned. “You don’t? Why not?”

“I’m Jewish.”

He thought for a few long moments. “Is that a religion?” When she nodded, he hummed, looking at her consideringly. “The Malfoys aren’t religious.”

“My parents converted before I was born,” she explained. “I’m not fluent in Hebrew or anything.”

“I see,” he said slowly, and she wasn’t entirely sure that he did, but whatever. Most people didn’t understand shit about Judaism. After a long moment, he decided, “Well, you don’t need to celebrate Christmas in order to attend the ball.”

She scowled at the thought of the last ball she’d attended. “I don’t particularly want to dance with you again.”

“Why not?” he asked, flagging down a waitress to order a drink of his own.

“Because you’re a dick,” she informed him bluntly.

He snorted. “I do so enjoy your language, you know. Most witches titter and blush during a courtship. You don’t.”

“I don’t know how I’d behave,” she said slowly, “as I have never gotten an offer to be courted from someone I’d actually consider saying yes to.”

“You’re already being courted, darling,” he explained, an amused smile playing at his too-perfect lips.

She sipped her drink. “I don’t understand why you’d want to marry someone who doesn’t even like you.”

He hummed thoughtfully, accepting his drink from the waitress with a smile when it was brought over. “You don’t treat me the way most people of my acquaintance do,” he said slowly, “you’re intelligent and magically gifted. I’m unused to being around witches like you, and I find you fascinating, to be perfectly honest.” After a brief pause, he added, “And you’re exceptionally lovely. As for not liking me, I’m winning you over already.” She glared at him, but before she could say anything, he pointed at her novel and asked, “What are you reading?”

“A book,” she snapped, flushed and prickly with embarrassment at the compliments.

“I can see that,” Regulus drawled. “What kind of book?”

“Fiction.”

“Let me see.” Before she could object, he snatched it from her hands.

“Hey!” she griped.

Ignoring her, he read for a few seconds before bursting out laughing. “I never would’ve thought you the type!”

“It’s interesting!” she snapped. “I’ve never read magical novels before!”

“So you choose the ones with sex, do you?” He was smirking, the dickhead. “If you’re interested in it, my dear, just say the word—“

“Even if I was, it wouldn’t be with you,” she hissed, her face bright red.

He chuckled again. “All in due time.”

Regulus showed up on Hogsmeade weekends a lot after that.

One afternoon, they were having a relatively normal conversation when he suddenly asked, “Have you ever been involved with a man before?”

Sera coughed on her own spit. “Gag me with a spoon, what the fuck—“ she sputtered. “That is none of your business.”

He frowned. “I just want to know how to behave with you, that’s all.”

Glaring viciously at him, she crossed her arms and declared, “No, I haven’t. I’ve never met a boy who wasn’t either ugly, stupid, a wastoid, or a super fun combination of the three.”

He looked amused. “A wastoid, hm?”

“Yes.”

“Good to know.”

Okay, so maybe she liked him a teeny tiny bit. Seriously, though, it was only a little. It wasn’t even that big of a deal. People got meaningless crushes all the time, and it honestly wasn’t even her fault. She really, sincerely could not be blamed for wanting to French him just a little. She’d never done it before, and she wanted to see what all the fuss was about. And Regulus… Well, he reportedly knew what he was doing. He’d probably be pretty good at it, right?

So being around him was getting kinda awkward for her on account of her rapidly growing attraction to him. She was really trying not to like him, but he was so fucking dreamy, and she’d started noticing things about him and couldn’t seem to stop.

His hair, for example, hung in super soft-looking curls, falling over eyes that looked like the ocean after a storm. His lips were pink and perfectly shaped, and he had the most pronounced jawline and cheekbones she’d ever seen, even in movies. The point was, Regulus made Tom Cruise look unattractive.

To make matters even worse, he’d taken it upon himself to start cursing around her and calling her by her first name, citing “adequate familiarity”, whatever the hell that meant. The way his mouth looked when he formed the syllables of her name, the way ‘fuck’ rolled off his tongue— it shot sparks down her spine. 

He was so fucking sexy, and she really didn’t appreciate him getting all close to her and making her already-made decision to continuously reject him all the more difficult. The horrifying reality was, if he kissed her, she’d probably let him.

November, 1984

Hogwarts

Scotland

“Where are you going?” Yarrow asked one Saturday evening in November after even most of the seventh years had snuck back into the dorms. Sera zipped up her black dress and turned around, examining the way the leather made her ass look in the mirror. She had fishnets that went up to her thighs and were held up by garters, as well as her favorite pair of black combat boots, which Beo was currently rubbing against. She wasn’t thin or muscular the way most people seemed to find attractive, but it was a Queen concert, and dammit, she was gonna feel good about her appearance for a change.

She waved a hand around her, casting a quick warming charm to stop her from getting cold on the walk off the grounds. Taking out a tube of bright red lipstick, she addressed her friend. “I’m going to a concert.”

“How are you even leaving the school?”

“Uh, doy, I’m sneaking out.” Sera rolled her eyes. “I’ve been turning myself invisible since I was, like, fourteen. It’s whatever.” She applied the lipstick, tapped her lower lip once to charm it so it wouldn’t smudge or fade, and decided she was satisfied.

“Isn’t your beau coming to visit tonight?”

Sera turned slowly towards her friend. “What?”

“Uh, yeah,” Yarrow said, gesturing towards the pile of letters on Sera’s desk that she liked to pretend she’d never read. “He told you in the most recent one he was coming up for a visit. Said if you didn’t meet him, he’d come find you or something. Flitwick probably wouldn’t mind, but I’ve honestly no idea how he could convince Dumbledore.” Yarrow shrugged. “Whatever, I suppose.”

“Fuck,” Sera gasped. “Did he say when he was coming?” 

“No,” Yarrow said, delicately turning a page in the book they were reading.

“Better see if I can beat him, then,” she decided, and off she went.

Unfortunately, just as she passed the school gate, there was Regulus. 

Fuck.

She’d made herself visible again, which, in retrospect, was a bad idea, but making herself completely invisible was actually pretty difficult.

“Sera?” Regulus frowned, looking her up and down. “What’re you wearing?”

“Go away,” she snapped, irritated. “I’m busy.”

“I don’t understand,” he admitted. “You’ve come like I asked, so—“

“I didn’t know you’d asked,” she told him impatiently. “I have plans.”

He raised his eyebrows. “Plans that require you to sneak out of the castle at night?”

Sera glared up at him sharply. “Yes.”

He tensed, examining her outfit again. “Those are your Muggle clothes, yes?”

She pursed her lips and didn’t respond.

“Are you…” He gulped. “Are you meeting a Muggle boy?”

She stared at him in disbelief. She was so annoyed by his audacity that she sniffed and said, “In a manner of speaking.” Regulus looked so displeased at this that Sera couldn’t help but groan. “I’m going to a concert, you wastoid.”

“Oh.” He instantly relaxed. “I’ll come with you, then.”

She lurched back, though he wasn’t particularly close to her to begin with. “You most certainly will not.”

He hummed, shoving his hands in his pockets. “Where are we off to, then?”

She scowled at him, marching past him and away from the school gates to get outside the wards so she could relocate. 

“I don’t have my usual friends,” she snapped. “I last saw these guys a couple years ago, and I can’t go with my friends the way I did back then, and it sucks.”

“You can go with me,” he pointed out. 

“You’ve never even heard their music.” She paused. “Which is so fucking weird, by the way. Literally everyone’s heard Queen.”

“Why don’t you show me, then?” he asked. “I might like it.”

He sounded so hopeful that she just didn’t have it in her to turn him down. And, well… she actually enjoyed spending time with him, even though she’d never tell him that.

“Fine,” she eventually decided. “I just do magic to get in anyway. It won’t be hard to get you in, too.”

He fell into step beside her, his eyes wide. “Really? That’s illegal, you know.”

She shrugged. “All the best things are illegal.”

He looked down at her in bewilderment. “Are you quite certain you’ve never been involved with a man before?” he asked.

She glared up at him wordlessly. Once they were outside the wards, she said, “Shut up and hold still.” With that, she grabbed his arm and transported them off to London.

Sera charmed everyone who might otherwise get in their way with basic confusion spells, the same way she and Ta had always done. Her non-magic friends never understood how she and Ta got away with everything they did, but nobody ever questioned it. Not when the two of them could get away with damn near anything. 

When Freddie Mercury took the stage, Sera screamed, jumping up and down. 

She admittedly wasn’t paying much attention to Regulus, but he’d been looking at her for most of the show. She actually noticed some when he watched her dance and shake her ass to Fat Bottomed Girls (along with everybody else; it wasn’t like she was particularly special), but other than that, she didn’t think about him much.

Until the last song of the encore, halfway through Somebody To Love, when she had her eyes closed and was singing along with Freddie when he said, “Someday, I’m gonna be free.”

Suddenly, out of nowhere, she was turned around, a hand was in her hair, and lips were on hers.

Sera’s eyes snapped open in shock, but… but Regulus was kissing her. He was kissing her like he was dying.

She was frozen for a moment, and she really should’ve pushed him away, but there was alcohol buzzing in her veins, so she could do nothing but arch into him, clenching her hands in his shirt and trying her best to kiss him back.

Regulus pulled away after what felt like a delicious eternity of his mouth on hers, cupping her cheek with one hand, the other on the small of her back. His eyes were hooded and fixed on her lips, and Sera could only look up at him, breathing heavily and wishing he’d kiss her again.

They stumbled, giggling, up against the wall of a random building in the city.

“God, Sera,” he groaned into her throat.

She hauled his mouth back to hers wordlessly, winding her arms around his neck. Now that she’d given in, she couldn’t really recall why she’d bothered fighting this to begin with.

“We should— we should talk about this—“ he said between gulps of air.

“God, shut up,” she complained. “Just kiss me.”

“I’m supposed to be a gentleman,” he muttered, mouthing wetly at her throat. “You just make it so fucking difficult in these sexy little outfits. Damn near show me your arse, fuck.” He grabbed her ass then, squeezing it roughly. She took a sharp intake of breath, arching into him, her breasts against his chest. “But we have to talk about this.”

“Ugh,” she grumbled in frustration, shoving him away from her. Her head thunked on the brick wall of the building she was leaning against, and she fixed him with a glare. “What do we have to talk about?”

“Us,” he explained, sounding terribly impatient for reasons that most likely directly related to the large tent in his pants. “I’ve been trying to court you properly for months, and tonight, I— I know I shouldn’t have kissed you. I’m sorry, I couldn’t help myself. You are just…” He exhaled, his eyes roving over her form, pausing briefly on where the zipper of her dress revealed her cleavage. “You’re so fucking gorgeous, so I kissed you. Sorry. It wasn’t how I planned to…” He took a deep breath. “Look, Sera, I fancy you. More than I have done anyone so quickly before. I would very much like it if you would seriously give my offer some consideration.”

“Your offer?” she asked, raking a hand through her curls, still dazed by the kiss, the way he’d touched her.

“I’m not proposing,” he said slowly, carefully, “but if this continues, if you allow me to kiss you again, touch you again, I…” He looked down. “If there is no chance of you ever consenting to marry me, tell me now.”

She was silent for a long moment.

She really did have feelings for him, didn’t she? She was falling for the prick. 

Oh, fuck it.

“I dunno how all this courtship stuff works,” she admitted quietly, “but I do like you, Regulus. A lot. Normally, that’d mean, like, dating. Here, I guess it means—“

“An engagement,” he said flatly. “It means an engagement, if your aunt agrees as your Head of Household. It’s generally… expedited in the event of genuine interest between prospective spouses.”

“You said you weren’t proposing,” she pointed out shakily.

“I’m not. But if you allow me to, I’ll court you with that goal in mind.”

“I thought you were just getting to know me,” Sera recalled.

He nodded once. “I was. I’m satisfied. I want you.” She blushed to the roots of her hair at that, but he continued, “If you’ll allow it, I would like to court you properly with the intent of marriage.”

“I mean…” She gulped, anxiously twirling a curl around her finger. “That’s kinda what all dating is, if it’s serious.”

“This is serious,” he informed her, his voice stern. “Do you want me?”

She looked at his feet, the fancy shoes that were somehow spotless despite having just attended a fucking concert. “Y— yeah.”

He cupped her cheek, lifting her face up—up, up, up. Fucking hell, he really was a tall bastard, wasn’t he?—to his. “Agreeing to allow me to properly court you is to agree to marry me, assuming all goes well. Do you agree?”

She looked up at him with wide, nervous eyes. It was just like they were dating, right? He’d just be her boyfriend. That wasn’t a big deal, really. After a moment, she breathed, “Yes.”

He kissed her before the word was fully out of her mouth.

Yeah, a Queen concert, we’re ignoring what the set list was and the exact date that Queen was in London, okay, cut a bitch some slack and lemme be self indulgent here

Big thanks to @lilmaymayy for betaing!

Tag list:

@ellamaianderson @shika1200 @blackqueenstarseed1 @gatoenlaciudad @esmaada @mariaelizabeth21-blog1 @softhecreator @timolaurence @timmymyluv @oddlyenoughiamweird @leecrunchybones @s-we-e-t-t-ea @almostg @leespparker @bubblebuttwade @glizzymcguirex @starberry-cake @camille-1019 @lixzey @shycreationdreamland @gossamer19

To be added, please ask 💗

[babydrummer]

hellooo ,,, (evil smirk)

i’m so very curious as to what rainworld is as i’ve only been exposed to it through tumblr and tumblr alone; and to be frank it looks very intriguing and very confusing. ok basically what i’m saying is that if you wanna infodump abt rainworld onto me.. please do i’m a little lost

OH MY GOD MOOR you've activated my trap card i am legally obligated to ramble about rainworld. alright. SO

rain world lore is very. VERY vague and cryptic. even i don't know the whole story n i used to be obsessed with this game so i may or may not be getting this all wrong. but here's the jist.

thats you. you are a slugcat. a fucked up little guy half goop and half kitty. you just happened to be exploring the world with your lovely little slug family when WOOPS it started raining real bad and you accidentally got separated. now you're alone. and at the very bottom of a very brutal food chain.

the world you inhabit is INCREDIBLY FUCKED. essentially, no one here can die. ever. you exist inside a horrible cycle of death and rebirth. it sucks. if you get eaten you wake up the next day just fine. kill the annoying predator lurking outside your den? he's fine. this continues for forever (probably.)

a billion or so years before you existed, there were these people(?) called the architects (? i think?) and they really wanted to die. they had built a great utopian society blah blah blah and now they wanted to die. so they built these MASSIVE computers called iterators and were like "heyyyy lol. please figure out a way to kill us. please"

and the iterators (who are sentient by the way) were like "okay bet" and got to work thinking. but the architects got really bored of waiting and kept searching for their own way to die and eventually, they FOUND SOMETHING. at the very bottom of the world there was this weird substance known as void and if you jumped into it you WOULDN'T BE REBORN.

the architects were like "hooooly shit we're fucking free" and a lot of them jumped in. but turns out the Void has a TERMS AND CONDITIONS. turns out there's this thing called karma and i have no clue how it works but if you had too much / too little karma the Void would spit you back out as a weird eldritch creature cursed to never live or die again.

the architects were mildly freaked out by this and no one really knew how to deal. they kept the iterators running to try and figure out an alternative to jumping into the Void but eventually the architects were like fuck it and killed themselves via void anyway.

a billion years passed. probably. i dont know. but in that timeframe, the iterators made a group chat (im not kidding) between like the 8(??? i forgot how many) of them and were like "heyy lol you guys made any progress on figuring out how to die" "nope lol." this continued for a while.

BUT THEN SUDDENLY. one of the iterators was like "HOLY SHIT I FIGURED IT OUT" and then fucked died. and everyone else was like "HOOOOLY SHIT?????" but no one else could figure it out. and this kinda spurred the iterators on a little more (i think.)

eventually this is where YOU come in. you meet two of the iterators, Looks to the Moon and Five Pebbles, (yes they have strange names dont worry about it they dont mean anything) and while Moon is too run down to properly communicate (in the normal route), Pebbles is like "man lol i don't know what you want you fucking cat weirdo. if you wanna die there's this void thing i guess."

so you saunter your goopy ass down to the void and jump in. and die. and you have a vision of your family. all is well in the world (?????????)

AND THAT'S JUST THE BASICS FOR THE NORMAL ROUTE. THERE ARE FOUR MORE. AND THEY'RE ALL STUPIDLY COMPLICATED. I LOVE IT.

also the reason rain world is called rain world is because every now and then it rains so bad it floods the entire world. it turns out that rain is coming from the iterators. they are apparently SO BIG that the water they use to cool themselves evaporates into CLOUDS THAT CAUSE FLOODS.

also in one section of the game you get to crawl through their systems and eat their neurons. which is cool.

[nanjokei]

hopefully we get more info about mutei, yeah. any thoughts/'meta' on reiji isoi? or any character you'd like, really, he was just the first that came to mind

im not good at making choices so you will have to ask me if there's anyone specific youre curious about!

for reiji ill just talk about both LOL. S+ and DLC spoilers untagged.

i think our reiji is an absolute genius character. the fact that the entire real climax of the game hinges on whether or not you like reiji, its honestly a great burden that i usually see flop or gets overemphasized without really giving reasons to care (or really, giving too many reasons and having it feel forced). but, if you think about it, there isn't much in the plot itself that makes caring necessary— the base game is way more sympathetic to minoru than utsugi, but it is still very late on before the moment most will finally throw their hands up and go "oh this guy has it bad" so reiji's unwavering desire to do something for him is the strongest part of his character in the latter half of the game... to the point where he sort of played the heel to get his mission over with. even at his most antagonistic, coming back from a long absence from the plot which casts more doubt to the "why" of his actions— you do kind of wanna root for reiji, even if his actions are sus at best. im almost certain the initial reaction to the woof scene is usually always "no, wait, shinano, it's not like that, fuck. why now." even though it is INCREDIBLY suspect. subsequently, reiji and atou opening up to each other a bit and placing trust in each other with shinano eventually joining in feels like a ticket home to a good ending. a good ending which doesn't come if you don't put in the work for it.

it is precisely why S route is so genius. without reiji being such a good character, being so convincing really, the setup would warrant nothing more than an eyeroll. i LOVE it. and i LOVE the usage of ave maria there. and the domino effect that ending has on the survivors. pure definition of having to earn your happy ending. it is a stunt that by all means SHOULD NOT WORK. but it DOES. i'd clock it as cheap if it was a hair out of place in the execution.

as for reiji himself as a character, i absolutely adore him, he's so cute. his personality hits all the good points of "this guy was definitely raised by a bunch of weirdos and knows nothing else". i think the purity in his motivations and overall self philosophy is *chefs kiss*. his respect for LDL both as his family and his superiors is balanced incredibly well. in the dlc, the feeling of "you're a part of the team, but adult things are adult things after all" jumps out to me. especially the way reiji's actions seem to respond "but i want to repay you, i want to be acknowledged, i want to be useful." even before 2015 he was kept in the dark about things. now, i don't know if this is on purpose on fukao's part (obviously the date is on purpose but lol) but i do choose to see reiji going off on a suicide mission to save the son of the man who raised him, who he doesn't know, as a sort of coming of age. if you only reach S route, reiji dies at 20 years old, but if you get to S+, the very next day, he turns 21. i want to think it's intentional!! seriously god-like!! its enough he dies right before his birthday to begin with, but the fact that it's like that!!! AHHHH!!! i do feel like it may be on purpose given reiji's age is obscured as "early 20s" until the very end of S+ (the note that there's a 5 year difference between shinano and reiji). after S+, reiji has become an adult, who pulled off the impossible. his graduation from just being just a very highly attuned kid, a capable adult. also the fact that he's only hung out with a bunch of weirdo adults in his whole life means the gap between him and his peers is incredibly endearing

i love reiji. he's so good!

as for reiji numero uno, it's spoilers all around, so ill put it under the cut

honestly this is less about reiji himself and more about the circumstances around him... intensely tragic character. but it really is funny. i think its funny hatsutori basically used his existence, the potential of him being useful to misumi, as a way to mobilize misumi against empyrean and theodore. now i don't think misumi is some kind of misunderstood saint (though i have a feeling by com is out we're gonna find out he's probably one of the less demonic fragments) but the fact that he clears the very low bar of telling hatsutori off for being a homicidal psycho... well it's telling i think. even then apparently reiji wasn't experimented on immediately, and was taken care of before misumi split his fragment. but still. it is a state to be in. when atou and sanemitsu find out he's not only alive but sharing a body with a man who's probably well within retirement age the fallout is gonna be BAD

his existence as a device to further the motivations of at least like 10 other characters, is fun. it's fun. i like izu. i like misumi. i'd love to see the reiji part of the body izu is occupying to come out. is he still a 10 year old boy in there or what. definitely getting the short end of the stick here

[khodorkovskaya]

I'm worried that I'm boring like that dude, I'm not really a sporty person though, what can I do to become more interesting and well rounded as a person?????? PLEASE????? I really dont wanna be like or sed like that dude

No offence to him tho, like not in a bad way...

to be completely honest with you, i have no idea. because i also have a suspicion that im super boring because yes, i do a lot of things and have a lot of hobbies/interests, but when it comes to conversation i just like don't have a lot of thoughts and opinions. i can talk about my hobbies like "ooo im so excited to go to skating camp" or info dump about dinosaurs or whatever. but when it comes to more profound conversation i just like never have anything to say. so my strategy is to really ask myself questions and try to figure out what i actually believe in and think and stuff like that. because once you get past the stage of like superficial talk with me, it just doesn't go anywhere, you know?

with certain people tho what i do is that i start talking about the interesting people in my life. like stories about my father or lucien or panda or my friends always entertain people. because i know so many "weirdos" (i say that in the most affectionate way btw) and they're all so much more interesting than me. but that poses another problem that often people remember me as "the girl whose dad is a flat earther" or "the girl whose student is obsessed with the military". and people aren't really interested in me for me.

and another tricky thing about this approach is that some people really vibe with those stories, whereas with others it's just like not the place to talk about it. like with the ukrainian guy i went on a date on, he was just like too plain, so i couldn't even talk about all my favourite "weirdos". like you need to have some sort of sense of humour to be able to appreciate my stories about my flat earther father or lucien, you know? and he just didn't give off the vibe of someone who'd really vibe with that.

but back to your question, i think first of all it's important to be interested in things to be interesting. even if it results in infodumping. like id much rather talk to a person who's obsessed with something niche than someone who's like "yeah, idk, i don't really do much". for me personally i know that i have a very neurodivergent way of approaching hobbies and interests. like i get obsessed with everything and can't be chill about things. but at the same time i always stay very superficial with everything i do. so being obsessed with things doesn't make me more interesting, it just makes me come off as a little strange, you know? but if you're able to enjoy things normally, just like go to as many events as you can, take up some sports activities or classes. and through that you will gain new experiences and become more intresting.

another important thing about coming off as an interesting person is having passion. in the sense that you have to be passionate about life. going back to the dude i went on a date on, he just appeared as like quite passive and uninterested in things. but if you're passionate about life and the things you do, you'll naturally be able to talk about things more and it'll give you that little spark in your eyes, you know what i mean? like if you stay in your room all day and have an uninterested attitude towards everything in life, ofc you won't be an interesting person. and passion is important to be an overall wellrounded person. you have to be curious about everything and openminded and yeah just like passionate about things.

but idk im not the best person to give advice about this whole thing bc it's something i struggle with too. i feel like i know nothing and have nothing to talk about apart from like the two-three things im obsessed with at the moment:

second hand fashion and sustainability, our family business and our startup, also VAT laws for some reason really scratch an itch

that one documentary about dinosaurs with david attenborough

me and my cousin's interpretation of milan kundera's immortality

figure skating drama and how excited i am for skating camp

???? singing in the church choir i guess but like there's nothing to say about it, im just obsessed

when im hanging out with my oxford bestie we talk about north korea non stop, that's like our common hyperfixation for some reason

that's it

[cactusspatz]

October recs

I apparently had two reading settings in October: gen family fic and (mostly polyamorous) porn. Triads were in the air? So today I have 7 Batman/Batfamily fics, 1 Batman/Leverage crossover, 1 for The Untamed, and then three miscellaneous polyamory fics for Singin' in the Rain, comics Spider-Man/Fantastic Four, and Love & Friendship (in addition to the one DCU poly fic). Mostly gen except for the ones that are VERY not, I've marked pairings where needed.

DCU (in order from shortest to longest)

Clockwork by @heartslogos

“Do you even hear yourself when you talk?” Tim wrinkles his nose. “Also stop trying to hide the coffee. I’ll always find it. You just put it out of reach or opposite the peanut butter. I am on to you.”

Charming and detail-driven fic about Bruce and Tim, that really drives home how well and closely they know each other. (Also that they’re a couple of weirdos.)

sweet child o' mine by Nokomis/ @nokomiss

Steph said cheerfully, “Bruce, from now on, consider yourself in possession of one Steph-mom.”

“Absolutely not,” Bruce said.

Steph took a bite of her cake, undeterred.

I was howling with laughter reading this. Nokomis always writes Steph and pranking and comedy so well, and this one lands perfectly. Mom notes! Playdates! Snacks! So adorable and funny.

World’s Saddest Breakfast Club by @motleyfam

Following a couple of Very Bad Weeks™ (which may or may not have involved being kidnapped and mildly tortured), Jason decides the best way to cheer himself up is to break into the Manor for a 3 a.m. snack.

Turns out he isn’t the only one awake.

Chaotic and sweet, highly recommended to anyone who has feelings about food and family.

The Rule of Three by Zoeleo (Jason/Tim/Stephanie)

“Yeah. Um. Thanks, but I don’t wanna interrupt you guys or third-wheel you or anything so I’m just going to—” Jason tries to shrug on his jacket but one of the sleeves is turned inside out and his arm gets stuck.

“Well, technically you would be a third wheel. But like a structurally integral third wheel, one that’s an intentional part of the design. Like on a Polaris Slingshot or a—” Tim rambles until Stephanie smacks him again.

Jason loses the battle with the jacket. It drops to the floor with a heavy thump from too many gadgets hidden in secret pockets. Is Tim really proposing what he thinks he’s proposing?

Jason came for the pizza and MST3K, he may just stay for the face-sitting and multiple orgasms.

Pure threesome porn on the way to a relationship, plus great banter. Fittingly in a trilogy format.

The Last Someone by FabulaRasa/ @fabula-unica (Hal Jordan/Bruce Wayne)

I decided that what the fandom really needed was yet another object of Pussygate 2021 discourse, so here is my contribution, in which Bruce gets humiliated, Hal gets curious, and they both get what they're looking for.

In case you were (blessedly) living under a rock the last few weeks and don't know what any of this is about, here is your starter kit.

The first chapter of this is hysterical - Batman is ranked last on an internet article rating superheroes by how good they are at oral, and Green Lantern first, and then MORE shenanigans ensue - and then it takes a sharp swerve into feelings and some moderate angst. So ideal, really!

best laid plans by Valkirin

Tim Drake knows that Batman needs a Robin. When Bruce and Dick aren't interested in what he has to say, Tim makes his way to the cemetery to say a few words to the boy he's trying to replace.

Tim has the chance to say far more than he expected when Jason digs himself out of his grave that night. Tim does his best to get Jason home to Bruce. The League of Assassins finds them first.

Lovely hurt/comfort-y AU where Tim gets kidnapped along with Jason, and all the complications of that.

Recollect, re-collect by Ptelea

A spell gone wrong leads to Jason hashing some things out--with himself, with Dick, and with the rest of the Batfam. Featuring: rather a lot of thoughts and conversations about memory, change, damage, love and trust, accountability, family, hurt, lies, death, Spyral, pedestals, cases, memorials, stories, and Robin.

I am a sucker for amnesia fic, and this one is a terrifying variant where a spell makes people start to forget Jason. The resolution involves a truckload of feelings about Robin and Jason's place in his family, especially his relationship with Dick.

MISCELLANEOUS

The Gotham Job by Hinn_Raven/ @secretlystephaniebrown (Batman/Leverage, gen)

Generally, thieves of their caliber avoid Gotham. There are always exceptions that prove the rule, however.

(Or: five times that a member of Leverage met a member of the Batfamily, and one time that they teamed up.)

Fantastic read, with a creative set of character intersections and friendships between the two fandoms.

Knight Hunt! Phoenix Mountain by travelingneuritis (The Untamed, Wangxian)

 "Contestants get paid by the week. The longer you stay in the running and the more you charm the fans, the bigger your paycheck after the season wraps. People compete on Knight Hunt for fame, fortune and love. In that order."

I know, getting Lan Wangji onto a reality show convincingly is a big buy, but this one manages it, AND has peak Wei Wuxian gremlin action, modern cultivation, and a lovely romance. The author tagged it ‘low stakes pining’ and it’s just that - an engaging and emotional but easy read.

The Lockwoods & Mr Brown by @onlythegeste (Singin' in the Rain, Kathy/Don/Cosmo)

The continuing adventures of Kathy, Don and Cosmo in their house on Sunset and Camden.

Involving a camera, several pianos, scheming, dancing, and a magic trick.

Adorable look at their queer household and growing family across the decades. Well-written and perfectly satisfying.

A House in the Hills by @traincat (Spider-Man comics, Peter/Mary Jane/Johnny Storm)

   “Anyway, did you ever think I might want to sleep with him?”

   Peter sat straight up in bed and turned on the bedside light. Mary Jane was still sitting up, her arms crossed defiantly over her chest, staring straight ahead at a spot on the wall, twin angry spots of color in her cheeks.

   “You want to sleep with another man?” he demanded.

   “Well, ideally you’d be there, too,” she said, scowling.

Johnny is getting married. Peter is having a problem. Mary Jane has the solution. (Or, the Watson-Parkers homewreck their way to Johnny's happiness.)

I'm normally not a fan of any form of infidelity, but I'll make an exception for this situation (read the a/n for a brief overview), absolutely. Funny, sexy, and actually terribly romantic.

A Divinely Attractive Arrangement by @fahye (Love & Friendship, Lady Susan/Sir James/Manwaring)

A selection from the Private Diary of Sir James Martin of Martindale. Concerning Peas, Friendship, the state of Blessed Matrimony, and several wonders of Modern Medicine.

I’d argue that you don't even need to have seen the movie to enjoy this fic about the absolute dumbest golden retriever of a himbo to ever marry a manipulative woman so she might have cover to carry on with her lover, except since it's Fahye so of course things go poly instead in the FUNNIEST way possible. Bless his heart, I'd say Sir James has a pea brain but he doesn't even understand how peas work.

[petri808]

I1+Nalu Only one bed @thegalilea3 request

The wedding of Laxus and Mirajane Dreyar was a cozy affair attended by only close family and friends. Neither had really wanted a lavish event, so a simple morning ceremony and luncheon in a beautiful garden was perfect. The bride and groom instead funneled the majority of their budget into food, drinks, and overnight lodging for the guests at a small nearby hotel. Lucy Heartfilia was happy to see her friend finally married and settled because Mira deserved it.

Though there was one odd thing about the luncheon— assigned seating. With only 21 people including the bride and groom, it seemed unnecessary. Plus, everyone except Lucy and one other person were a couple anyways. Maybe it was to ensure everyone was accounted for, only Mira knew. As it was, it also meant Lucy was sat next to the only other single... Natsu Dragneel. It was a bit weird, but not a big deal. Natsu was her close friend after all.

The day was perfect in every regard. Clear skies, light breeze with warm sunshine, great food, and jovial company. It was a nice reprieve from Lucy’s job in the city. She missed spending time with her friends, especially Natsu and this provided a perfect couple of days to relax in the countryside. They were best friends, her unrequited high school crush until adulthood sent them onto different paths. University, then careers. The pair stayed in touch as often as possible, but both were busy in their endeavors.

“How has it been at the magazine,” Natsu questioned Lucy. “I see you’ve made it to junior editor.”

“Oh,” she laughed, “yeah, but it’s still a glorified title. I’m really just my bosses assistant.”

“It’s still a big step,” he smiled back.

“What about you?”

“They’re sending me to EMT training next month. So, I’ll be a specialized firefighter.”

“That sounds exciting.”

“I guess,” Natsu shrugged, “I prefer the action.”

Lucy chuckled, eyes crinkling in a smile, “same ‘ole Natsu.”

“Hey you two,” Mirajane waved as she walked over. “How is everything?”

“Hi Mira! Everything is perfect, you did a fantastic job planning it.”

“Aww, thanks Lucy.”

“I was surprised that Laxus finally caved.”

Lucy slapped Natsu’s chest for the comment, but if only made Mira laugh.

“I threatened to leave if he didn’t just get this over with. Anyway, the reason I came over is I just received a call from the hotel and it seems they made a mistake in my booking. Instead of 11 rooms, they only booked 10. Unfortunately... they’re also full.”

“So, what does that mean?” Natsu questioned the woman.

“Well, as singles I had booked you guys your own rooms, because the couples have theirs, which means one of you now doesn’t have one.”

“Oh. It’s okay Mira, I can try and find a room elsewhere for the night,” Lucy chimed in. “Don’t worry about it, it wasn’t your fault.”

“Why don’t we just share it?” Natsu then suggests to Lucy. “When we check in, we’ll just ask for a room with two beds.”

“Are you sure,” both Lucy and Mira questioned at the same time.

“Why not? I mean, I don’t mind.”

“Lucy would you be okay with that?” Mira questioned her friend. “I don’t want you to be uncomfortable.”

Lucy looked at Natsu, then back to Mira. “I’ll be okay. I mean, he’s not a stranger to me.” She laughed although inside she was a bit nervous about sharing a room with him.

“I won’t bite,” Natsu put his hands up in defense. “I swear.”

“Weirdo!” Lucy laughed.

Mira laughed as well. “Great! I’ll let the hotel know the room will be a double occupancy. You guys enjoy the rest of party. Check in is anytime after 4pm.”

“Thanks Mira. And congratulations again!”

Everything will be fine, Lucy assured herself. It’s just Natsu. She knows Natsu. He’s harmless. Spending one night alone together won’t kill her. Just think of it as more time to catch up. Maybe find out why he’s still single. ‘Stop that!’ Lucy chided her mind. She is not asking him that kind of question! Even though she is curious... more so now after having spent the last 4 hours being reminded of what a great guy he was. All the reason she’d crushed on him, his warmth, oof, his smile...

“Wait what?!” Lucy shrieked at the hotel receptionist. “There’s no rooms with two beds?”

“I’m very sorry ma’am, but we only have a few of those and they’re all taken already.”

“What about a roll-away?”

Again the woman shook her head. “We’re just a small country inn. We don’t have those.”

“Oh... my god...” Lucy breathed out. She’d have to share a bed with Natsu?!

Speaking of the man, at that moment, he gently coaxed Lucy away from the receptionist. “We’ll make it work, don’t worry, she’ll be fine,” he assured the woman. “Just give us the keys and we’ll be on our way.”

Once inside of the hotel room, Lucy surveyed their predicament. It was a king sized bed. Great, at least it provided a decent amount of space between them, and it was a very nice room... a bit too nice compared to a standard hotel room. Strange, but maybe it was the only option left because of the full capacity. Well, guess it wasn’t such a bad thing. She could think of it as a sleepover, like the kind they would have when they were teenagers.

The first thing Lucy did was change out of her formal party attire into something comfortable. When she exited the bathroom, Natsu was lounging on the bed, looking through the pamphlets the hotel left on the nightstand.

“What’re you reading?” She questioned him.

“It’s a pretty small hotel, no services, but they do have a restaurant open for lunch and dinner... oh and a pool.”

Lucy hadn’t brought a swim suit, so the pool was out of the question. “What time is the restaurant open till?”

“Um... 9pm.”

“Good. I’m not hungry yet, but in a couple of hours I will be.”

For the rest of the evening Natsu was weirdly quiet. He talked as needed, but it almost felt to Lucy as if he was trying to avoid something. Or maybe it was all in her head. Maybe Natsu was just as nervous as she was about arraignment and was doing his best not to make it uncomfortable. Their conversations were pleasant enough, catching up on their lives, their families, any new interests they may have developed. They’d become functional members of the community in careers they enjoyed. For all intents and purposes, their lives were normal, happy on the surface.

Around 11pm the pair agreed it was time to get some shut eye. It had been a long and contented day, but tomorrow they’d return to their own lives. They chose their respective sides, turning off the light and settled into bed facing away from each other.

As Lucy lay there, she reflected on how things had turned out and of their day. The thoughts in her mind loud against the silence of the darkened room. It felt weird, knowing Natsu lay less then two feet away. Or maybe it was simply weird sleeping in a bed with another person. It had been a couple years since her last failed relationship, so she wasn’t used to this feeling anymore. She didn’t know how many minutes had passed by when she’d heard Natsu shift in the bed and his voice, soft and hesitant cut through the inky blackness.

“Do you ever think about... us Lucy?”

What does he mean? “Us?” She parroted.

“I do sometimes,” Natsu continued. “I think about, what our lives would be like if I’d grown some balls and asked you out years ago... where would we be today?”

Lucy’s breathing slowed as she processed his words. Had she thought of it? Moisture slowly filled her eyes. Yes— yes she had, many, many times over the years. Every time a relationship failed, she thought about it. But she never blamed him because she was just as guilty for not saying something sooner. Yet here he was posing such a question.

Her eyes closed as she spoke. “What are you trying to say Natsu?” She felt him turn over and shift again, then a hand pulling, coaxing her to face him. Once she’d switched sides, Lucy could see his shadowed face, oozing with regret.

“I’m saying...” Natsu reached out and took her hand. “I wish we were an us. I’m saying I want to lay like this every night next to you, to wake up beside you, come home to you. Im saying... I don’t want this to end.”

Lucy squeezed his hand back. “Idiot!” Tears prickling the corners of her eyes. “Why didn’t you say something sooner!”

“I was afraid! Okay?! I thought you deserved better than me and I’d just hold you back!”

“Better?! It was always better together! All these years I’d been lonely and miserable cause no one could replace you!”

“I’m sorry!!”

A few seconds after the last words are screamed, laughter broke out from the two. Unrefined laughter at their own stupidity. They’d both been pining all these years and it took being stuck in a room together for it all to come crashing out.

“Natsu...” Lucy squeezed his hand again, “I’d really love to be an us too.”

He reached over and caressed her face. “I’ve always loved you Lucy, and I wanna make up for all the years we lost. But I have a confession to make.”

Oh, god what the hell now?! “What are you, actually married? No, divorced? Secret kids?! What?!” Lucy trembled as her euphoria threatened to crash down again.

Natsu scratched the back of his head nervously. “No! Nothing like that. The hotel didn’t make a mistake. Mira and I set this up so I could confess. I’d planned to do it earlier but couldn’t work up the nerve until I realized I was running out of time again...”

“Ohhh! Is that it?!” Lucy’s head lolled as she groaned. “You damn goof! You almost gave me a heart attack!”

“Im sorry!” He chuckled. “I just didn’t want you to find out later. And don’t blame Mira, it was my idea. I’ll make it all up, I promise. I’ll make you forget about those years of loneliness. I’m gonna make you so happy you—”

Lucy sighed. “Natsu?”

“Huh, yeah?”

“Just shut up and kiss me already.”

[suituuup]

pieces - chapter eighteen

Five years ago, Chloe dropped off the face of the Earth. Beca sees her again in the most unexpected place.

ao3 link

*

Chloe couldn’t remember a time where she’d been happier. Just over a year ago, she found herself on the verge of giving up by letting the drugs and the emotional abuse consume her whole, and now… she felt at peace. 

Fulfilled. Brave. Loved. 

Beca and Marleigh were her whole world, and Chloe still had a hard time truly believing that this was her life, now. 

“The itsy bitsy spider, went up the water spout,” Chloe sang as her pointer and middle fingers walked up Marleigh’s stomach. “Down came the rain and whoop!” Her fingers disappeared. “Washed the spider out!” 

Marleigh giggled, her laughter Chloe’s new favorite sound. She was completely obsessed with her daughter and the new things she discovered every single day. Marleigh now slept through the nights and was otherwise a very chill baby, who loved cubes, ladyfingers, rolling over, and listening to Beca or Chloe sing. 

Chloe gasped when she heard the door open. “Who’s that?? Is that Auntie Beca?” 

Beca soon rounded the corner, grinning as she slung her messenger bag over her shoulder. “Hi! You’re still up!”

Marleigh cooed and flailed her arms towards Beca, who lifted her from the bed and held her close. Chloe had witnessed plenty of moments like these between the two, but they never failed to make her heart swell. 

“I was waiting until you got home to put her to bed,” Chloe murmured with a smile, knowing how much Beca loved to take part in Marleigh’s bedtime routine. “I already changed her diaper, if you wanna sing her to sleep?” 

Beca nodded, and Chloe stood up, pressing a few kisses to her daughter’s chubby cheek. 

“Goodnight, my love,” she murmured. 

While Beca put her down, Chloe changed for bed. Ever since they got together, Chloe had been sleeping in Beca’s room. They hadn’t gone much further than making-out so far, and Beca proved to be incredibly patient while Chloe found her footing again when it came to intimacy. 

Beca flopped down face first on the bed when she came back ten minutes later, drawing a giggle from Chloe as she slipped under the sheets. “You alright there?” 

Beca’s groan was muffled by the comforter. “M’tired. Picky artists suck.” 

Chloe smiled in sympathy as she reached out to knead Beca’s shoulder. “At least tomorrow is Saturday? You get to sleep in.” 

Beca rolled her head to the side. “Yeah.” She propped herself up on her elbows and craned her neck to brush a kiss to Chloe’s lips. “Hello.” 

“Hi there,” Chloe breathed out, giggling softly. She dipped back in for a longer kiss, and Beca hummed as she shifted to her side, her hand falling to Chloe’s hip. 

Their slow, exploratory liplock soon turned into something heavier, tongues dancing together and hands roaming under clothing. 

“Wanna slow down?” Beca asked as she laid on top of her, panting slightly.

Chloe shook her head and tugged her down into another hungry kiss. Her hips rolled against Beca’s, and Beca groaned against her mouth, her hand slipping under Chloe’s shirt to run up her side. 

Chloe wasn’t ready for her arousal to be chased away by a wave of panic. She tensed under Beca’s touch, memories she thought she’d gotten rid of flashing behind her eyes, and was pushing Beca away in the next beat.

“Sorry,” she whispered when she realized what she’d done. Embarrassment coated her cheeks with red, and she avoided Beca’s gaze as she sat up. “I’m sorry.” 

“Hey, no,” Beca murmured as she sat back on her heels. “It’s okay. You don’t need to apologize.” 

Chloe scratched at her forehead as she drew her knees to her chest. She could feel the craving for some coke rise within her, to make her forget about those nights. She pressed her palms to her eyes. “Fuck.” 

“Do you… wanna talk?” Beca asked after a few beats of silence. 

Chloe opened her eyes to find twin twinkles of worry staring back at her. She glanced back down to the comforter. “I think… I think I’m dragging some trauma from-- from the stuff that would happen at the club. With--with the customers.” 

Beca nodded slowly, reaching out to slide her hand into Chloe’s and squeezing. Chloe drew in a shaky inhale.

“I… I got used to my body being used in various ways, but never for my own pleasure,” she explained, looking down at their joined hands. “It was just pure sex, whatever the customer wanted me to do to them. Sometimes it was too rough, but I couldn’t say anything because I really needed the money,” she whispered, a sense of shame gripping her insides.

“And I think… that I blocked it all out at some point. It felt like my body didn’t belong to me anymore, and now…” She blinked back the tears pricking in her eyes. “I’m having a hard time reconnecting with it.” She thought it wouldn’t be a problem, as she had taken care of herself when her pregnancy hormones went wild, but being intimate with someone else was a lot different. “It’s not that I don’t trust you,” she said, eventually looking back up. “I do. It’s just... a me thing.”

Beca blinked back her own tears. “What I want the most is for things to feel good for you when we do take that step,” she murmured. “And if you need more time to get to that letting go point, then we’ll wait. And if you never reach it, then that’s okay, too. I don’t… need sex to be happy, you know? I’m already happier than I ever thought I’d be, thanks to you and MJ.” 

“You really mean that?” Chloe asked, quietly. “About the sex part?”

Beca nodded. “I do. I promise.” 

Chloe hoped she would feel comfortable having sex again at some point, but it felt incredibly reassuring to know Beca wouldn’t leave if she never did. 

“Thank you,” Chloe murmured, not surprised but still in awe of Beca’s love and patience for her. “I really don’t deserve you.” 

Beca smiled. “That’s weird, I was telling myself the same thing about you earlier today.” 

Chloe’s cheeks warmed, and her heart swelled in her chest. “I love you.” 

“I love you too, Chlo.” 

*

Spring warmed to summer. 

With Marleigh growing more and more curious about the world around her, they spent a lot of time outside, whenever the temperatures were bearable. Marleigh was obsessed with dogs, squealing every time she saw one and crawling after it in hopes of catching up before Chloe or Beca would snatch her back. 

She was already showing a mischievous side, and Chloe knew her toddler years were bound to be interesting. 

“Do you ever see yourself living elsewhere?” Chloe found herself asking one afternoon at the park. 

They laid on the blanket in the shade of a large oak tree, Marleigh having fallen asleep between them. The eight-month-old could sleep anywhere as long as she had her lovey. 

Beca glanced at her. “Elsewhere than New York, you mean? Or like, another country?” 

“Other than New York. Like, somewhere where we could have a garden, and maybe a dog. And where we don’t have to drive over an hour to find a forest.” 

Beca smiled as she folded an arm under her head. “I like the sound of that. I have the label to manage, but a lot of stuff can be done from home. So maybe somewhere within a two-hour drive from here so I can come down twice a week?” 

Chloe nodded. “Maybe after I’m done with college?” 

She was going back to vet school in a few months to get her vet tech training, and that would take her a year to complete before she could apply to jobs. 

“Sounds like a good plan, babe,” Beca said. “We could start looking in the new year?” 

Excitement swirled in Chloe’s stomach over the knowledge that Beca was on board, and she beamed. “Yeah?”

“Yeah,” Beca murmured. “Maybe somewhere around Poughkeepsie or Beacon? With four bedrooms and space to make an office or a studio?” 

“Four bedrooms?” Chloe asked, cocking an eyebrow as an amused smile tickled the corners of her lips. “How many kids do you see us having, exactly?” 

Beca chuckled. “Maybe three? If you want to, I mean. I’m also perfectly happy with our family as it is now.” 

Chloe’s heart felt fit to burst over Beca’s words. “I think three is a good number.”

They headed home around six and had dinner, then gave Marleigh a bath and read her a story before bedtime. Chloe stepped into the kitchen a bit after, where Beca was washing the dishes. 

She wrapped her arms around her waist, pressing a few kisses along the side of her neck. “Come to bed?” 

They hadn’t had sex since their talk but continued to explore through make-out sessions that gradually got more intense. Beca was incredible, always in sync with Chloe’s feelings and regularly checking that she was okay. Chloe could feel herself getting more and more comfortable with the idea of taking that step, and she was thinking she was ready to give it a try tonight. 

Beca hummed. “I’ll be right there.” 

Chloe was lying atop the covers when Beca rounded the corner, and she set her book aside, raising a curious eyebrow when Beca remained in the doorway, gazing at her with a look Chloe couldn’t identify. “What?” 

“You’re beautiful,” she murmured. 

Chloe felt her face warm-up, and she rolled her eyes softly. “Get over here, weirdo.” 

Beca laughed and stepped closer, climbing onto the mattress and crawling over Chloe. “Is that what you meant by here?” 

“Yes,” Chloe breathed out as she looped her arms around Beca’s neck and craned hers to brush her smiling lips against Beca’s. She bent her knees and wrapped her legs around Beca’s waist, a thrill of pleasure coursing through her as Beca’s hips met hers in a gentle roll. 

Chloe took the lead and deepened the kiss, skimming her tongue over Beca’s bottom lip. A moan spilled into the liplock as Beca answered with equal enthusiasm, one hand drifting down to rub her outer thigh. 

“I want this,” Chloe breathed out after a while, her lips kiss-swollen and her eyes darkened with lust. 

Beca kissed her softly. “Are you sure?” 

Chloe’s head bobbed up and down in a near desperate nod. “Yes.” 

“We can stop at any time,” Beca murmured. “Promise me you’ll say it if you’ve changed your mind?” 

Chloe reached up to cradle her cheek. “I promise.” She sat up and whipped her top over her head. Her body was different; she still had some lingering baby weight, but she considered herself too thin before the pregnancy, and she liked how she looked now. 

“Jesus,” Beca rasped as she took in the sight before her. 

Chloe couldn’t remember the last time someone had looked at her the way Beca was doing now, with so much love and desire it made her breathing hitch. 

Beca leaned in, re-attaching their lips together as her hand roamed up and down Chloe’s side in a featherlight touch, enticing goosebumps in its wake. Beca’s lips then traveled along the edge of Chloe’s jaw and down her neck in hot, open-mouthed kisses. A moan spilled past Chloe’s parted lips when she latched onto her pulse point, and her back arched off the bed, searching for some kind of relief where she needed it the most. 

Beca continued to explore, kissing her way down Chloe’s chest, towards her breasts. While her palm wrapped around the right one, she swirled her tongue around Chloe’s left nipple, drawing a gasp from Chloe. 

“Too sensitive?” Beca asked, lifting her head. 

“No, no,” Chloe assured her. “It’s-- it feels really good.” 

Smiling, Beca dipped back in and spent the next minute focused on her left breast until she noticed Chloe squirming underneath her. “Okay?” 

“Yeah, I just-- I might come if you keep going like that.” 

Beca puffed out a breath, her cheeks turning redder. “Can I touch you?” 

“Yeah,” Chloe said, then pushed a kiss to Beca’s lips, her whimper swallowed by Beca as she slipped her hand between Chloe’s legs and cupped her. Chloe broke the kiss to take a sharp inhale as Beca moved her fingers in a light stroking motion. 

“Okay?” She asked as she rested her forehead against Chloe’s. 

“Yes,” Chloe breathed, raking her teeth over her bottom lip. Her hips tilted towards the contact, seeking more pressure. Chloe stilled Beca’s hand after a handful of seconds and sat up to shimmy her underwear down her legs. “Better.” 

Beca smiled and placed her hand to its initial position, a moan surfacing from her throat as she felt Chloe’s slickness. “Can I-- I wanna taste you.” 

At a loss for words, Chloe could only nod, her breath growing shallow at Beca’s request. She watched as Beca slithered down, leaving kisses in her wake until she settled on her stomach between Chloe’s legs. She kissed her way along Chloe’s inner thigh, slowly but surely reaching her destination. 

“Oh,” Chloe let out at that first exploratory lap through her folds, propping herself on her elbows to get a better view. One set of fingers gripped a fistful of the sheets while the other tangled through Beca’s hair. A gasp followed soon after, any ounce of apprehension left in her dissipating. “Baby.” 

The groan Beca emitted against her sent a zap of pleasure down Chloe’s spine. Her fingers tightened around the sheets as Beca alternated between lapping at her and stimulating her clit with licks and flicks. Beca clearly knew what she was doing, using the right tempo and pressure to draw out Chloe’s pleasure and not bring her to that climax too quickly. 

Mewls and whimpers echoed against the walls as the coil grew tighter and tighter with each ticking minute. Chloe’s elbows gave out at some point as her body started shaking with her incoming orgasm. 

She knew it was going to hit her like a freight train, yet was taken aback by its power as she released a throaty cry. Her body spasmed with each wave of intense pleasure as she let herself go, Beca’s name tumbling past her lips in a sweet prayer. 

“Oh my god,” she breathed as she basked in the lingering haziness following her climax, attempting to regulate her breathing. 

Beca made her way back up, capturing Chloe’s lips in a deep kiss before flopping onto her side. “Are you okay?” She asked, running her fingertips along Chloe’s side.

Chloe hummed, smiling. “Mmm. Okay is definitely an understatement,” she murmured as she chased Beca’s lips for another kiss. Once she had regained feeling in all four limbs, Chloe rolled on top of her. “Your turn.”

Chloe wasn’t sure at what time they fell asleep, wrapped up around each other as they basked into their newfound connection. There was one thing she knew for sure, however, and it was that the future had never looked so bright. 

[angst-fairygodmother]

Hi, I have a Diego x reader request if you’re still taking them. Reader stays over at Diego’s after a date with him and wakes up in the Morning to find a drunk Five asleep on the couch. Reader is uninitiated into the Hargreeves stuff so is supremely confused as to who this drunk child is. Awkward family introductions ensue. Thanks in advance if you write this

A/N: I probably shouldn’t be taking requests with everything else going on right now, but it will be a cold day in hell the day stress and work/school take away writing from me again. Also, Five is my newest Favorite, so I am happy to include his shenaniganary. Although it ended up not so much being drunk Five as Roastmaster Five. Still, I hope you like it. Word Count: 1404 Content Warning: swearing, reference to alcohol, references to season 2

The morning sun’s rays peeking through the only mostly-closed curtain fell gently across your face, their warmth and light stirring you from the most beautiful dream. Stretching languidly, you cracked open your eyes to discover that perhaps it had been less a dream than you thought. Curled up on his side, facing away from you, was Diego Hargreeves, snoring softly and more at peace than you had ever seen him.

It was a sight you could certainly find yourself getting used to, and you hoped you’d have the opportunity. The two of you had only been dating for a month or so, and were still getting to know each other in many ways (including the way you had spent quite a bit of the night…getting to know each other for the first time, which had led you to this very moment). So you didn’t want to get your hopes up, but you could really feel yourself falling for the man just barely waking beside you.

Unfortunately, any romantic thoughts you might have had were interrupted by biological needs, and with a sigh, you rolled out of bed feet touching the cold hardwood floor as you searched for something to put on, not comfortable enough in his place to walk around completely naked. Fumbling, you shrugged on his too-large turtleneck and padded out into the rest of the apartment.

Almost immediately, your eyes fell on a peculiar sight, that definitely wasn’t there the night before.

Hey, um, Diego?” you called over your shoulder, staring openly at the child asleep on his couch. “Why is there a teenager on your couch…?” you peered a little closer, registering the nearly empty glass bottle in his arms. “And who replaced his teddy bear with Smirnoff?”

“Dammit Five,” you heard him growl as he stumbled out of the bedroom, still buttoning his jeans.

“Oh good, so you know him?” you asked, still wide-eyed and curious as you turned back to your boyfriend.

“Yeah,” he sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose. “That’s my brother, Five.”

“Five? Like the number?”

“Yes like the number,” the annoyed voice startled you and you jumped, not realizing the teen in question had woken up. “Now could you two keep your imbecilic chatter down, I am trying to sleep.”

“You wanna tell me why you’re doing it on my couch?” Diego countered, glaring over your shoulder at Five, who flipped him off and slammed a pillow down over his head to muffle the sound of conversation.

“Why is your brother named after a number?” you asked, trying to keep your voice a little lower.

“We all were,” Five chimed in, voice slightly muffled by the cushion. “The others just chose to replace their numbers when our mother and monkey butler-slash-surrogate-father-figure gave them ‘real’ names when we got older. I chose not to. Because I am not ashamed of who we were.”

“Sorry what?”

“Oh did you not know you were dating Number Two?” the kid sat up, casting you a very uncomfortably judgmental look.

“I would be careful getting involved with this idiot,” he continued. “His last two girlfriends, one ended up dead and the other turned out to be evil.”

“Hey! She wasn’t totally evil, only…sort of,” Diego said, moving to stand protectively in front of you and jabbing a finger toward his brother. “And if anything, that was your fault, not mine. Which is why I was planning to keep you and our entire bullshit family away from Y/N for as long as possible.”

“Diego, I don’t understand,” you said, frowning. “What’s going on?”

“That’s right, I forget that you didn’t grow up around here,” Diego commented softly. “Did you ever hear about The Umbrella Academy?”

“Sure. That was that weirdo superhero family or whatever, occasionally showed up in the news or tabloids after some stunt why?”

Diego looked glum and a little sheepish as he waited for you to put the pieces together like he knew you would.

…oh shit. You mean, you’re…?”

He nodded.

“I’ll be honest, I never really paid attention to all that stuff, it seemed sort of…fake? to me. So I still don’t totally get what’s going on, babe.”

Diego sighed, and then gave you the rundown of their family: how they had all been born at the exact same time down to the second, to different parents around the world, and then they were adopted as infants by eccentric billionaire Reginald Hargreeves. They all had superpowers and Hargreeves had raised them to be an efficient crime-fighting team, at the cost of normal childhoods.

“Five,” he continued, pointing to his brother who was now, seemingly at least, back asleep. “Had the power to teleport, and kept pushing our father to let him try time-travelling with it. When he got shut down for the last time, he tried anyway, and ended up stuck in the post-apocalypse for forty something years before he found his way back.”

“So you want me to believe that the strange drunk teenage boy is actually your 58-year-old twin brother? But you’re not 58, just he is. Because he time travelled?”

“W-we’re not twins. We were just born on the same day.”

“Right…like twins?”

“No, at the exact same time, to different parents. Us, and a lot of other kids.”

“That’s not all that strange. People are born at the same time all the time…”

“She’s not very quick on the uptake is she? Perfect for you then,” Five commented with a smug smirk, evidently giving up on sleep in favor of joining you both in the kitchen.

“Hey!” you shouted, glaring at the littler man. “I didn’t come here to be insulted, okay.”

“No, I’m sure my brother had plenty of other things on his mind than insulting you,” he said, angling his head pointedly, with a raised eyebrow at your very bare legs, which you had frankly forgotten about in all the kerfuffle.

You felt the heat of a blush creeping up around your ears.

“I’m not awake enough to deal with this. I need coffee,” you muttered.

Five perked up at the word, watching you intently as you carefully measured out the grounds and set the pot, which Diego owned despite claiming that his body was in such peak condition that he didn’t need caffeine, to brew. When you silently poured a cup for the younger Hargreeves without asking, and it actually tasted rather decent, he regarded you again with renewed interest.

“What do you see in him?”

“What do you mean?” you studied him over the rim of your mug, not even noticing that Diego had left the room.

“You’re quite pretty, and obviously aren’t in it for the ex-celebrity thing since you didn’t know. Seven billion people on the planet. So why him?”

You sat there for a while, sipping at your coffee, pondering the question. Why had you agreed to go out with Diego in the first place? It had only been a month, but it felt like a lifetime ago for all that you could remember the reasoning.

Finally you shrugged. “I don’t know. There’s just something about him I liked, I guess. He’s always looking out for other people, and he’s sweet, and funny.”

“And he’s got a real nice butt,” you muttered into your coffee, smirking when Five made a disgusted face.

“Ugh!” he cried, setting his coffee down as if another sip after your observation would make him hurl.

“Hey, you asked,” you laughed.

Diego wrapped his arms around you from behind, having come back from getting fully dressed, kissing your cheek as you both watched Five pace and wave his hands around as if trying to fan away the image in his mind.

“I think you broke him,” Diego commented.

You chuckled again, turning to drape your arms over his neck and kiss him properly.

“I couldn’t resist. But I like this kid, he’s…interesting.”

“And you held your own against him impressively.”

You smiled.

“So does that mean I get to meet the rest of your siblings soon?”

“You still want to after that?”

You nodded. “Of course I do, Diego. They’re your family.”

He smiled softly down at you, eyes shining at your unspoken confession, that you wanted to share every part of his life, even the weird bits. And even more, heart feeling strangely fluttery at the fact that he found himself wanting to let you.

“I’ll make a few calls.”

[fangirlyah]

✦ just an arrangement - Draco Malfoy x Reader (part 1)

summary: the return to the school year with the dark mark is hard enough, but now they must fulfill a more intimate request or they expect a happily ever after with an old death eater.

warnings: none

word count: 1,950

a/n: i’m pretty excited about this so i hope u like it. if u wanna be part of my (still non-existent) tag list for this fic, just tell me :)

a starry night full of light illuminated the sky.  very different from the humor y/n was holding. 

she saw herself in the mirror, immersed in constant pain, both physical and emotional. her arm, freshly marked by the dark lord, felt almost on fire, stitches and burns that were almost impossible to hold. thanks to her childhood surrounded by darkness due to the alliances of her families, she herself already knew how to create her own healing potions that sootheed her wounds for at least a while.  

she was only sixteen, but had a higher weight on her back than any teenager. she was not the only one, her classmate, draco malfoy, had and was suffering a life very similar to hers.  but he wasn't very good at hiding it, his thinner body and marked dark circles revealed his stress. but y/n was always a better actress, no one had ever seen the bruises on her arms, nor had she been seen decaying. on the contrary she was known for being one of the sweetest and most positive people with every hogwarts student. thing that put his hair on end, ‘how could she be so calm with everything that was going on?’ she knew a war was coming but he always saw her smiling sweetly at every person who crossed her path. how many times had he smiled that sixth year of hogwarts? maybe not one. 

but as he noticed her big white smiles, she noticed the lack of his. she knew what he was going through, his task was very complicated and terrifying, y/n had been lucky enough to be out of the instant murder of her own headmaster, but she had to be in charge of repairing the vanishing cabinet. 

they were not friends or anything close to the word, they were acquaintanced despite the number of encounters they had during the months, due to the similar connection of their parents. both only children, completely alone on their way to giving their full life to who-must-not-be-named. y/n did not want to be alone, since she was a child, she had tried to approach the blonde and become his friend, but he did not acknowledge receipt. 

"hello, draco! my house elf made pumpkin pie, would you like a piece?" a small y/n took small leaps in her freshly ironed dark blue dress.

"I'd rather die than try something of yours," an eleven-year-old draco disgustingly expressed to the girl who was just looking for his sympathy. 

a sympathy that, despite the passage of the years, she had never found. y/n had stopped trying, had stopped fraternizing with draco in the fourth year, when she had slightly begun to develop a crush on him. and she was, and is, smart enough to know that if her hormonal heart kept hearing his wretched words, she would have an almost irreparable broken heart. but it didn't work, because even though he ignored her, she couldn't get him out of her mind. and seeing him at least twice a month at her home, dressed in his pristine suit and his fine hair combed did not help. 

"y/n since when is your roasted chicken more important than good gossip?" millicent spoke with her mouth full of crushed potatoes, spitting slightly. 

"since always, millie" y/n was not at a time in her life where an adolescent gossip filled all her senses. 

"you're very boring... so, it turns out ginevra weasley is in love with potter!" 

"I'm not at all surprised, weirdos like weirdos" pansy parkinson, despite the years that elapsed, did not seem to forget her hatred of gryffindor and everything related to it, especially the golden trio and its own close ones. 

it was a Friday night and despite the icy weather and sun falling much earlier, the great hall was full of students enjoying their dinners. at the slytherin table there were most students, but there wasn't any sign of draco malfoy... but she spoke very quickly. 

"get up" a big, cold hand, adorned with silver rings and emeralds that stood out on his pale skin, grabbed y/n by the arm and pulled her with intent to lift her out of the seat. 

"sorry?" she looked up to see the blonde with a serious countenance, staring at her. 

"hey, we're talking you can't take her that way!" spoke one of her friends but it was too late, y/n was already standing on draco’s side, who kept holding her arm tightly. 

"shut your mouth, bulstrode" and with that, draco began to walk quickly without looking back, which she thanked as he would not see her in a hurry and almost stepping on her own feet. 

arriving on the seventh floor, finally, a large door suddenly appeared on a white wall, capturing the complete attention of y/n. draco did not hesitate and submerged them both inside the unknown room which turned out to be too small for its immense door. 

'the room of requirement' thought y/n immediately, but why did it appear before them? she wondered. 

it was the first time y/n and draco had crossed word for at least five months, since the first time they both attended a death eaters meeting as official members. she still remembers how her body trembled and as his did too, but the firm hand of lucius on his back almost held him in his place. she also recalls that their seats were facing each other, and that she saw him swallow heavily when, after the meeting, he saw the girl accidentally shed a salty tear. 

"may I ask you what we are doing here?" y/n’s voice sounded shy and calm despite having draco in front of her swinging from one place to the other, regardless of the small space. he did not speak and it had been more than five minutes that they were inside the room and the idea of leaving had crossed y/n’s thoughts, but she knew what he was going through, so she decided to wait. 

"you're my girlfriend now..." draco's body stood violently in front of her, leaving a reasonable distance. he didn't look her in the eye, but she knew he was serious.

"what the-... what?" 

"we have to be together, the dark lord wants it so" 

"since when?..." the confusion took over her body, even though her heart was screaming, 'your crush is telling you to be together, shut up and accept!' but it wasn't that simple. 

"in less than six months we will both be seventeen, your parents and mine were married at that age, and they were all already death eaters..."

"it's our turn" y/n thought out loud.

"we must not marry, just... be together...as a couple or we'll be paired with other death eater who's at least fifteen years older and I think we both know that's not a reasonable choice"

"I understand..." it was something they should do sooner or later, then they could split up and submit to some other arranged marriage. but at the moment they were both the best choice of the other. "let's do it" 

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

the idea of pretending to be a couple began to really settle in y/n’s head a week of the event, when draco rested his hands on her shoulders unexpectedly on a sunday for breakfast time. she wanted to bewitch herself when she felt the butterflies she hated so much flowering. those butterflies provoked by him, which she had sworn to bury years ago and which she had clearly failed to achieve. 

her friends’ faces were transformed to the sudden change in the attitude of the prince of slytherin. they all noticed that they both slipped away from classes and most social situations over the weeks. but, they would never have assumed they were going away to be together, they were right. they used to escape because of the tasks indicated by who-must-not-be-named or because the terror and darkness had suddenly consumed them. 

then the weeks passed and their interactions increased, because they had to increase if they wanted to make it believable. 

the arrangement had begun in august and by that month, their only contact was some rubbing of hands in potions or small glances in the great hall, which however minuscule they were, they both knew that they should be noticed. 

"you're doing it wrong!-emm...I think you're putting more ingredients than the necessary, y/n" sometimes she wanted her fake boyfriend to be a better actor, his voice changes were notorious, but at least that day they were lucky to be sitting with crabbe and goyle so none of them noticed his weird voice changes, and if they did, they wouldn't have the braveness to ask. 

"I've made this potion multiple times, draco. to make it perfect a few drops of agrippa are never too much" the blonde’s ears were still surprised to hear his name, his actual name and not malfoy, come out of y/n’s mouth. despite his attitude towards her, which had not changed since the age of eleven, she continued to treat him delicately. 

"you've done this multiple times? this is the first time we are learning potions to close wounds" the last thing he wanted was to make the cute girl uncomfortable, it wouldn't show a good image for their relationship.

"I'm only curious when it comes to potions" but y/n answered with immediate discomfort, much to the chagrin of draco. 

by september, their hands were already united from class to class and their bodies were sitting together in the great hall for almost every meal, all of this causing a lot of whispers.

"your hand is sweaty" whispered draco in his ear, as they traversed long meadows to hagrid’s hut.

"sorry... is that everyone is looking at us and it's making me nervous" she wasn't used to being the center of attention, unlike him. 

"just... focus on me" draco gave a squeeze to her hand, making y/n think that, finally, the boy had given in to acting cordial in their false relationship. but his phrase wasn't over, "you must do well, I won't let you ruin this."

with that said, y/n focused her thoughts on draco. how he was holding her hand, how she had imagined this so many times and how he seemed unbothered by it. but he wasn't feeling like that.

it was only in october that they first had a meeting alone, only the two of them, with no audience present. 

y/n was on a sofa, very close to a large window pointing to the big forests surrounding hogwarts, in the common room. it was the early hours of the morning so the sun was orange painting the sky as if it were its own canvas, lighting everything around it, including y/n. her hard-covered book was on her lap and she moved it so gently that it seemed that her fingers floated. for draco's eyes it was something new. with semi-swollen eyes, a morning voice but perfectly clothed, he watched her from the other side of the place. he didn't think she was a morning person, so when he received the letter and decided to be the first to come down for breakfast as he couldn't fall asleep again, the last thing he thought was he was going to find her there. with her legs contracted towards her and her bright hair braided in a shedding way, was the first thing draco saw that morning. and for a moment, he thanked merlin for waking up so early. 

"it's time to go" was the only thing the blonde seemed to say, when he approached the couch where she was. y/n just turned around to see him. she knew exactly what he meant. 

[hattibroski]

Fanfic time.

“Oh, hi there!”

On some sunny day, you could hear birds and junk, there was a lot of commotion going on in the refurbished “Partridge Family” bus on the movie lot. (It was in seriously bad shape.) What was going on in there....? Oh boy, looks like the Broskis moved in. By the way, this is not written badly, I’m supposed to tal....wait.....write like that on purpose. So, who are the Broskis? Well... An artist got bored one day and he like, thought it was a great idea to like, come up with 3 new Warners. O-Em-Gee, right? Of course they turned out to be just as crazy... So we have, Whimsy, who is quite a great artist, but she’ll kill you without her morning coffee. She normally wears her T-shirt with jacket and has a big tuft of hair with a blue streak that she’s proud of. Then there is Hatti, who apparently is the reason that the bus is shaking, by bouncing on the bed. She...well...well nothing, she’s an adorable weirdo and knows it. Her choice....pardon....the artist’s choice of clothing for her is a hot pink and white striped t-shirt and overalls. She lets one strap hang down, because she thinks she looks too geeky with both over her shoulders. And her hat... That hat stays on, no matter what she does, because of her bangs. She hates them. They are shaped like a mustache. She tried to cut them, but they grow back in seconds. And I’ll be going back to past tense in a bit, I’m sorry, I’m tense right NOW. Aaand, there is also Brassi. This guy knows how to sweep girls off their feet. Yes, there is always a lot of dust. He lets one ear hang low. (He’s cool like that.) And he has a low ponytail that hangs over one shoulder. His green t-shirt looks pretty awesome over his white long sleeved turtle neck. Looks like he is.....x’cuse me........was just sitting there, reading a book....upside down.

“You guys have no idea how bored I am...” Brassi dropped his book. “This book is also horrible, can’t understand a thing and they drew everything upside down. “No, it’s actually pretty good. You just have to hang upside down to read it!” Hatti stopped jumping and adjusted her hat. Brassi turned upside down and picked up the book. “Oooh! You’re right! The letters look much better, too.

“I DID IT!!” Whimsy suddenly yelled, making Brassi and Hatti jump. Brassi needs a prize, because jumping upside down is pretty hard. “I finally got the hands to look like hands!” She grinned proudly at her drawing. Hatti walked over and took a peek. “Yes, they are amazing...” Whimsy sounded excited. “Yeah, right?!” “But the thumbs are on the wrong side.” Hatti pointed at the hands. Whimsy’s happy expression turned into a frown....tears gathering in her eyes. Hatti gasped! “BRASSI, QUICK, THE COFFEE!! Brassi shrugged. “Sorry, but she drank it all. I really like the part where the ox turns into a garbage can by the way.” “Yeah, right? And they take it to the King and he just plain hurls! ... WAIT, NO, NO TIME TO TALK ABOUT BOOKS! GO....ER....RUN TO STARBUCKS AND GET A MACHA FRAPPUCCINO WITH MOCHA AND WHIPPED CREAM AND CHOCOLATE DRIZZLE!!! DO NOT FORGET THE CHOCOLATE DRIZZLE!!! ...oh, and can you get me one of those lemon loaf pieces?” Brassi got up and stretched. “Sure thing sis....” Then he zoomed off, screaming.

Whimsy was crying a lot and just sat there. “Why is it always so HARD?!” Hatti cleared her throat. “That’s what she said!” Whimsy looked up at Hatti with snot dripping out her nose. “I’m a horrible artist!!” Hatti hugged her sister. “There there.... Actually, do you know why people say ‘there there’ when someone cries?” Whimsy stopped crying. “No, I don’t. Wanna look it up later?” Hatti nodded. “Yesss!” Whimsy started crying again and Hatti pet her head.

Brassi burst through the doors of the bus with a drink, a small bag and a blow up dolphin. Hatti stared at him and the dolphin. He noticed the look on her face. “You don’t wanna know...” He handed Whimsy the drink and she drank it so fast, her head froze. Hatti took a small hammer and hit her on the head to break the ice. Still looking at Brassi, Hatti looked a bit annoyed. “What took you so long, a whole minute?” Brassi huffed a bit. “There was a long line. 2 people. And both wanted ice cubes!” Hatti facepalmed. “What is this world coming to?��� “I never even saw it leave....” Brassi raised an eyebrow and scratched his chest.

Whimsy sighed happily. “That hit the spot.” “What did?” Hatti sounded curious. “Well, that.” Whimsy pointed over a target on the wall and some weird hammer hitting the middle of it. “ANYWAY, I feel much better guys, thanks! Why don’t we go out for once?” Hatti gasped. “You mean, out there? For longer than 5 seconds? NO running?” “NO running and for HOURS!” Whimsy smirked. “Also, I’m feeling kinda masculine right now, so...” She ran off for a second and came back wearing a different outfit, which made her look very boyish. ... What? You want me to describe it? Le-groan! Fine! It’s a purple zip up hoodie with a yellow star on it. She’s also wearing a blue beanie! Hrm....anyway.... They all left the bus together and decided to walk to the water tower. It seemed like a great place to look over everything.

When they reached it, Hatti stared up and blinked. “How are we gonna get up there?” Whimsy laughed and pulled an itty-bitty suitcase from her hoodie pocket. She set it down on the ground and opened it. Nothing happened. Hatti looked into it... “There’s nothing in there...” Whimsy waited patiently, looking at her nails, which makes no sense....since she wears gloves.... Suddenly a latter burst out and smacked Hatti in the face, sending her flying. She landed doing a pretty pirouette and fell over seeing stars. “What a lovely night. Is that Venus?”

Brassi picked her up and started carrying her on his back. “I don’t know, sis.... I’d rather get hammered than lattered.” They made their way up the latter and Hatti violently shook her head, then smiled wide. “Look at the view! Never seen something like this!!” Whimsy chuckled. “Yeah, it’s pretty cool! Imagine if you could live here!” She leaned back against the tower and heard a doorbell. Confused she turned around and saw a button. Even more confused, she started pushing it over and over...and over. Of course Brassi and Hatti had been staring for a while, also confused. They all jumped 6 feet back, or at least as many feet as they could, I’m bad with math. Also, it has nothing to do with Covid-19. Hrm.... Yakko Warner opened the door...

[kannra21]

Okay I have a DaiSuzu/DaiZue HC prompt! Imagine...Daisuke who is not married to Suzue yet gets her to do all these decoy detective work with men as per usual but ofc he never gets jealous cause that's her job and he trusts her. But then when she is off duty and there is a guy who is genuinely competing for her affection...I ACTUALLY WANNA SEE A JEALOUS DAISUKE IN THIS CASE! I honestly wonder what he would be thinking/doing! HEHE

DaiSuzu- jelly Daisuke

♛ Tbh Daisuke was always portrayed as someone who held his composure very well. He never let trivial things like random guys poking on his jealousy get to him. It was intentional so to speak and Suzue was a beautiful woman no less. He should've been prepared for things like this, he should've seen it coming.

But this also didn't mean that he didn't care, of course he did, and Suzue being a free woman worried him. He should confess to her soon before someone else beats him to it. Well, now that he thinks ab it, no one can outstand his enormous wealth and good looks, which he took a great pride in. But the problem was, he didn't know about any of Suzue's preferences. He didn't know what Suzue considered a virtue in men.

♛ To settle things, he decided to take her for dinner as an excuse for taking a break from work. Suzue noticed that he was more curious than usual but she thought it was probably because he wanted to know more about the person he shared his mansion with, so it was normal. Btw it was kinda pleasing to know that Daisuke actually took interest in her instead of viewing her as a tool for accomplishing his tasks.

♛ Suzue got to know more about Daisuke as well and there were things she'd never consider connecting to his character. For instance, he had an interest in music since he played a piano, he liked stargazing and writing a diary of sorts. He said he liked to write down his thoughts and things he learned, it helped him become wiser in the future.

Suzue realized that sometimes he didn't really depend on HEUSC's assistance. Daisuke was a wise man and he knew how to get what he wanted out of every situation. He seemed overly reserved and serious at first, but Suzue later noticed that he was actually quite open-minded and intriguing in so many ways. He held a special charisma and was pleasant to have around.

Daisuke learned that Suzue liked things like honesty and straightforwardness. She liked strong characters, insecurity was something she didn't prefer because it was holding her back and interfered with her dreams. This was mostly emphasized through her own relationship with preople in her life. Her family didn't exactly support her in pursuing her career as a mechanic because it was too risky.

It really depended if she was starting on her own, opening her own workshop and such, if people noticed her and her talent. It wasn't a job where money was easily guaranteed. But she never listened and thanks to her own resolve, she managed to come this far in life. She seeked support, someone who can actually be there for her when no one else could.

Daisuke loved how he could find himself in her description the more she continued on.

♛ But later in the following days, he noticed a man he's never seen before hanging around with Suzue. And as much as he tried to deny it, he was jealous. Incredibly jealous. He tried not to show it around Suzue not to give a bad impression of himself and she seemed quite happy talking to the man, he felt discouraged.

♛ There were days when he'd find flowers on the doorway and a bunch of letters tucked in the mailbox. He didn't burst in anger. He brought the flowers inside and put them in a nice vase, he also took the letters and put them on the counter. When Suzue arrived, he decided not to act all intrusive. Instead, he playfully suggested that it seemed like she had a secret admirer, pointing to the flowers and letters.

Suzue smiled uneasily and Daisuke asked if there was something wrong. She told him about the guy and how they met each other. The guy was very confident to the point of becoming an incel, Suzue had fun with him until he became persistent and annoying. And since then he followed her everywhere and tried to win her heart, not realizing how patronizing he became. Daisuke asked her if he should help to which she replied that she had no idea how he'd be able to do that. Daisuke came up with a plan.

♛ One night he took her out for dinner again and, as expected, the guy arrived somewhere around the corner and started to talk to Suzue, ignoring Daisuke entirely. Suzue smiled uneasily and Daisuke entered the conversation, informing him that they were going on a dinner and asked him if he'd like to join them, not wanting to threaten the guy and instead trying to play the situation smoothly. The guy ignored him again and continued talking to Suzue who looked vividly uncomfortable by now.

When he stepped towards her, Daisuke gently pulled her closer to himself to prevent whatever this weirdo was about to do. Now the guy looked unnerved with Daisuke's presence and asked him what his deal was. Daisuke pointed to Suzue's uneasiness and asked him to leave her alone. The guy started acting all self-righteous and claimed how Suzue enjoyed his company since the first day, which Suzue then denied.

The guy felt humiliated and stared to act aggressive to which Daisuke replied in the most nonchalant way. He took out his badge and told him that he has the full right to arrest him for harassment of an individual and physical threatening. He also told him that he'd get a longer sentence if he confronts a police officer. And the guy, being the coward he was, left the two alone and never talked to Suzue again.

Needless to say, Suzue was smitten.

♛ They continued on with their dinner and had a wonderful time. This night Suzue realized something about herself as well. It wasn't the loud confidence she was so attracted to, it was the silent confidence of a gentleman who refused to leave her side when she needed him the most.

[tillman]

Pls infodump about lancelot from what i observe almost everyone hates him? (Ok its understandable bec of his affair with queen) im curious why do you like lancelot? And i remember a few days ago you post that there so many things you want to talk about him? And i want to see you rant/gush about his character, relationships, mental illness, his flaws etc ans also what is the difference between fate lancelot and lancelot in the legends? I want to know more about him he is complicated

OK its not that everyone hates him its that people hate what he stands for. the french side of arthurian lit is VERY focused on making lancelot seem like the greatest knight in the entire world because…. wow… hes french. and french people suck. stop normalizing the french. i like lancelot because of what he COULD stand for. theres a lot of things that could be delved into more (his mental illnesses, his communication issues, his inability to comprehend love, the struggle with being unholy or wrong, ect) but no one ever does. so i stole him hes mine now fuck the french they did him dirty.

uhm ok this is under a cut for talks of kinda heavy topics (lots of mental health talk, lots of abuse talk) and also cus its long. sorry i have a lot to say about him) 

i like lancelot a lot cus i see myself a lot in him. mostly in his mental health and how he ends up dealing with situations. his struggle with violent mood swings and his huge burden of being labeled as a sinner or whatever for a relationship he admits to feeling trapped in is…. relateable… comforting to see in a fictional character i guess. as flawed as he is hes still heralded as a good person. hes still loved by his friends and his family. and thats nice.. i like it. 

uhm for his mental health the main thing that comes out is his struggles with trauma, awful depression, and also just the fact he dissociates a lot. in knight of the cart he is so out of it he doesnt realize a knight is attacking him until hes thrown into the water in which he reacts violently and freaks the fuck out, trying to rip the guy off his horse. he like. physically can not handle extreme emotions and will either fall asleep so he doesnt have to face it (le morte says this is a known quality of him, he does this enough dinadan expects it as soon as he gets mad) or he swings so hard he has an extreme bout of depression (in the vulgate when trying to comprehend his relationship with guenevere and galehaut he just shuts down and spends all his time sleeping or staring at the river) or awful mania (see: the many times guenevere freaks out at him and he gets so upset he jumps out a window and lives in the woods). Lancelot has a lot of unworked out trauma from being r*** twice by the same woman who continues to use him and freak him out so much he cant find camelot safe (triggering another huge spike where he runs off into the woods) or the literal entire end of the legends where he has to deal with the trauma of while having one of his dissociative episodes in combat he accidentally kills gareth, someone he loves and adores like a brother or son and gets so upset he just accepts everything happening and hides in joyous gard, where his cousins have to BEG him to go and defend his honor from gawain whos basically knocking on his door pleading with lancelot to kill him. 

lancelots inability to understand a lot of social nuances is also really interesting but like, ultimately leads to a lot of strife for him most namely galehauts death and gueneveres constant abuse. The thing is Lancelot basically idolizes guenevere and this is where a lot of the abuse and weird shit comes from in their relationship. lancelot was a very young knight who honestly didnt understand anything about BEING a knight when he came to court. the queen knighted him and him, being young and not understanding, took this as “i am her knight! i will do anything for her!” and guenevere just kinda ran with this? i dont rlly wanna go too into it ill do that later when i get farther in the vulgate and can talk more on it but it leads to lancelot being trapped in a relationship he admit hurts him, but the small sliver of love guenevere gives him when she needs him is enough to keep him in because his mindset is still “im her knight! this is what a knight should do for his lady!” Galehaut is a different situation where his blindness to social cues and other shit leads to a lot of drama and hellish shit and when he finally snaps and realizes “oh. oh no this is what love should be” its too late and galehaut is dead and lancelot isnt much better. his own mother has to come and convince him not to literally kill himself over this and sends him into a spiral of depression where he doesnt leave the joyous gard for months. when he does and when he comes back to court, no one really … cares? that galehaut is dead. and this is lancelots first experience with actual love and his first experience with the death of someone close to him. which is an awful double whammy to have to experience. he does have good friends like gawain and dinadan and tristan and his relationship with galahad is good but they all end up dead or turned against him by something thats he did and its just. god its so sad to watch. the only people lancelot is left with in the end are his cousins, and even at the end of all of that hes left alone with the corpses of people he thought he loved. 

like hes a very flawed man. lancelot is a problem causer and not a problem solver. he doesnt try to he really doesnt, he strives to be the perfect knight mostly for some sliver of appreciation from someone he idolizes he never really ends up getting. he doesnt know how to cope, and ends up making things worse when he inevitably ends up screwing shit up because of this. hes called a sinner and unholy by god, and while he is very proud of his son for what he ends up achieving, has to deal with the trauma of the grail quest alone. he ends up killing someone he loves, and who genuinely respected and cared for him like a brother in a fit of him not being able to deal with heavy emotions. like he truly is in the wrong in most situations but like. in such a pitiable way. hes a good person, but lets his flaws overtake him a lot and pushes away the people who want the best for him. its like…. sad. 

(about to talk about fate u can drop off now if u just wanted to read my arthurian lit opinions :-) )

i could go off about fate lancelot and all the problems i have with him for hours but i think the main thing i wanna talk about rn is how they handle his internalization of his life and then just did nothing with it. his wish for the grail is just to be told he was wrong. thats so fucking GOOD!! in life he was heralded as the best knight like of course his one regret was that no one ever stopped him and went “you are wrong. this is wrong. you are doing the wrong thing.” and that being all he wants out of the thing that can grant any wishes is soooooo soo cool and neat. and then they just reduced his personality to “oh boo hoo im so sad im going to fuck a married woman now” like. the fucking dissonance. like lancelot isnt the type for random flings. tristan sure i understand that a bit hes unhinged and hard to characterize and .. honestly does just go around fucking married woman. weirdo. but lancelots entire struggle is over his relationship with guenevere being both wrong morally and literally abusive! i jsut dont get it i dont understand how they built up something so interesting with zero and threw it all out the window it makes me so mad. i dont even wanna talk about fate lancelot anymore rn its giving me a headache cus im so mad. 

[askwaterwitch-perbear]

Monsoon Isle HCS: villager edition

Barbra 

Her sweet demeanor should not surprise anyone she’s a sweetie 

She used to be much more savage over the years, but she’s mellowing out with old age

She worries everyone who cares about her old sheep bones because she sleeps on a towel 

Is the island representative's absolute favorite because she has a soft for the grandma like behaviors. (I don’t care if she’s not old. She might not be I’ll always think of her old) 

She acts like a grandma figure to so many of the younger residents

She always has candy on her especially in her purse

She wishes to live the high life because her house is literally her own spa

She still has some sass and foxy for her age her current friends right now is Audie, Rolf, and Muffy, though two of them won’t be around for much longer

Favorite music is the tango 

Flora

Wants stardom!!!

She has the fabulous oh! everything is so fabulous girlfriend!! 

She doesn’t know how to not be quiet!

She is fast friends with June, Rolf, and newcomer Marina. 

She wants to be Lapis’s best friend and knock June and Bob out of the picture

Wants to know everything about everyone so nosey! 

Hates that Bob is so lazy and “influencing” her forever bestie to hang out with him 

All the cats are sleazy to her and she doesn’t like them very much. They have some nerve showing up and kicking her friends Flip and Phobe out! 

Curious about Pearl and wants to be friends but thinks herself below her status

Steven is always sweet to her she might do well to have him for a friend instead. 

Bratty attitude and her home full of squid and butterflies!  

June

Super soft-spoken and polite teenage cub 

She wants Lapis to be her mentor or become like her big sister. 

Is semi jealous of Kyanite, because of how close Lapis is with her actual sister, but still likes her. No bad blood.  

She loves the sea and the tropical getaway package and was lucky to meet so many nice animals

She likes to receive fish as pets especially tropical fish. 

She thinks Flora can be too pushy with no disrespect because she hit it off better with Lapis by being cautious and not so invasive

Wants to know about Peridot! She showed up to her birthday party and gave her a present so she would like to be her friend! 

She’s scared to approach Pearl and if she talks to Aquamarine she will get bullied. 

Lapis will protect her like she would protect Ky and Bob too

Bob and Punchy act like strong big brothers to June and she’s uber close to Punchy (Hey! How about that? Steven and Lapis’s Favs are friends)  

She makes a point to talk to Rolf and Barbra when they are out and about, good grandpa and granny figures. 

Rolf

An old friend very loyal companion especially for Kristin he does call her kiddo every single time he sees her

This island is getting a little too wiper snapper young boys for his liking but he stays because Barbra is there and Kristin who gave him a home when he needed it they became a family unit and good friends

Rolf wants to teach the funny boy some respect going around blastin’ his horns and throwing cream pies at people what RUBBISH! 

These kiddos don’t know how to make the true honest living! 

Has a lawnmower but rarely uses it he’s just going to sit outside and complain 

Spends a lot of time in the mountains enjoys to fish but is miffed when he can’t catch any

Close to death and he knows that leaving an impact! 

He doesn’t like Lapis’s attitude because she teases him a lot about his gruff deep voice because it sounds like he’s choking on his words smoking six-packs of zigs a day! 

He would like to be an uncle figure everyone can look up to but he’s not popular enough 

appreciates Steven’s good nature thinks the boy can do no wrong

Bob and Punchy throw fish around his yard 

Bob

The newcomer has approached! 

Bob will always be best friend with his god-tier friend Punchy 

Bob is a little older and looks out for Punchy they’ve already hit it off like brothers

How does he sleep on a block bed? 

Is the most easy-going guy just don’t hurt his friends. 

Bob closest friends are Punchy and June

He likes to pretend he’s got an ouchie to con some candy off of Barbra

Insanely easy going just don’t touch his sandwich

He can tell he’s hit it off really well with Lapis and will cherish her as a best friend since they are eerily similar in enjoying the simple pleasures of life

Will always have mad respect for Flip to go out into the world and find a new place because Bob can see he got some good property with a beach and a Pool! 

Loves to meme

Pisses Flora off on purpose

Is excited for the playground and the campgrounds

Is there when someone needs him even if he’s sarcastic

Punchy

Convinced to move to Monsoon island because of Steven now that is incredible because most cats hate water! 

Loves to nap in the sunshine on Lapis’ beach and Pearl’s private beaches

Precious. Must protect!  

Will touch all of the gizmos and gadgets and camping gear Peri has just to be sneaky and attempt to be friends

becomes spikey scared boy when Aquamarine is around 

He enjoys Kyanite thinks she’s very sweet 

He wants to be friends with Pietro he’s SO FUNNY! But Spinel growls at him 

Will protect June with his snacks and risking his tail for her

Everyone is a good friend even if Rolf doesn’t like his laid back personality

Flora is a little too judgy for him and it hurts his feelings

Goes for long walks on the beach with Steven and Lapis and sometimes June, Bob, and Biskit 

Cutie Pie

Respect! 

Biskit

A very good girl yes I said girl (fight me) 

Peridot’s favorite VillagerTM (Strong personified Pumpkin vibes)  

She doesn’t mind being Peridot’s best friend since the mad scientist smart city human gives her presents and treats her very sweetly

She has a dog house in her backyard because sometimes she’ll lay in it and watch the clouds up above

She is friends with practically everyone except for Muffy, Bluebear, and Flora since they are very judging of her stimmy dog behaviors.

LOVES PERIDOT AND LAPIS!!! Even if they are judged.  

She will growl at intruders if they don’t smell right. 

A good younger sister and teacher’s pet character

Has picnics with June and Flora begrudgingly when she can

Chases anything that moves including her tail   

Enjoys STEVEN, PEARL, AQUA, SPINEL, AND MUCH LOVE FOR LEADER KRISTIN!

Pietro

He somehow got to be the ONLY villager that isn’t beat up by Spinel 

Even stranger he respects and genuinely cares for Spinel like the other two strange weirdos who love Spinel and teach her right things. 

Us clown acts gotta stick together 

Marina tries to get him to consider taking amusement jobs that pay better but he won’t do it

Wants to be besties with Julien, but Spinel doesn’t think he would make the travel with how he got plane sick on the way to her island

Pranks everyone and thinks he’s the hottest stuff in the world

WHERE IS HIS BED? THE WORLD MAY NEVER KNOW! 

He is misunderstood and Bob and Punchy know that so they make an effort to dry his tears

We’re not sure if he’s an adult or not??? 

Not doing so good with Rolf the dude has to loosen up a bit

Walks around spraying people with flowers and Joins Spinel in net fights and slapping villagers with fish learns from Her

“THAT’s a big sister figure you don’t need to be influenced by,” says Steven to him time and time again

Blasts loud Boom Boom ain’t it great to be crazy?!  

Very Sad that Weasel is afraid of him wants to be their buddy. 

Marina

The mom friendTM 

She can tell everyone is goofing around and not working hard so when it happens she tells them they can’t have snacks until they get it done

She adores that Pearl H. is so welcoming to her and will jump in at the chance to live on the island with her and teach her some responsibility

She’s a little uptight, but she’s older than almost everyone except Flora, Barb, and Rolf so it falls on her to make sure things don’t go south.

She adores the Island Rep K. May not be the smartest, but her heart is bigger than anyone’s

June, Bob, Punchy, Bluebear, Flora, Pietro? Protective as hell

Would LOOOVE to visit Cheeri and tell her how everything is

She thinks that the “farm couple” (Peri and Lapis) are little scamps

She loves sunsets, water fights, sweets, togetherness

FAMILY ORIENTED

Bluebear

INSTIGATOR!!!

Young, bratty, little shit

Stirs up drama at any chance she gets 

Still teases Pearl by flirting with her partner even though they are MARRIED

Is tired of Muffy and  Audie can she leave already so she can take over!

Girl Power!

Has a good heart but still very judgy of others

BFF is Aquamarine, Flora, and occasionally Pearl 

Wishes she could get into Julliens friend circle on Typhoon Island, but he has a bestie already but she can easily be replaced teehee.

Misses Rosie a lot and can tell Aqua does too, but they bond over tea and discussing who they think is a screw-up

They laugh at how Flora thinks she’s famous, but since they also wanna be they kinda relate,

She will be nice to June and Biskit but she’s still on the fence about being seen too much with them. Deep down she does care though

She will stir up drama Real fuckin’ fast

WHERE’S MY TICKET ALREADY?!

I”M A LITTLE ANGEL!!!!

I WANT MORE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Stays away from Bob and Punchy and Pietro they’re boys ewwie

believes Bob has cooties and will avoid him but he will scoop her up and throw her into the pool!

Not at the biggest fan of any of the human residents 

Omg Freak Biskit! 

Gonna own this island she believes

Sunbathes frequently 

Bubble Gum K. is her favorite song. 

[fibula-rasa]

October 2018 in Review

October was way more hectic than I thought it would be and I didn’t watch as many movies as I usually do. I spent a week in Korea (a post about my visit to the Korean Film Archive will be up soon!) And I was motivated to watch a lot of new movies (a.k.a. was on a long-haul flight).

You may have already heard the news, but the irreplaceable Filmstruck is shuttering this month after two wonderful years. Fair warning: I’ll probably spend a good deal of this month (November) trying to watch as many new-to-me movies in my queue as I can. I think I’ll try and write them up quickly over on my letterboxd, we’ll see!

Also, though The Vamps was intended to be an October series, the month’s general hecticness meant I didn’t get the final essay finished before the end of the month. So, in November, you all have that post to look forward to. (See if you can guess who it is! Hint: she’s a Dane.)

The reviews below are essentially transcriptions of the notes I took right after watching the films. They’re presented in the order in which I watched them. 

Enough blathering, on to the movies. BELOW THE JUMP!

Dolls (1987)

29 May 1987 | 77 min. | Color

As a long-time devotee of the Band family’s productions, I’m always down for a Band film I haven’t seen. (When I was a kid, we probably spent a dozen times what it would have cost to buy Pet Shop (1994) renting it from Dollar Video.)

Yes, I did talk about haunted doll movies in my last roundup but this one was more fun, okay? The cast of characters are a great larger-than-life assortment of weirdos. I wish that 1980s English punks would just keep popping up in horror films after the 1980s. I particularly liked the performance of the little girl’s father. In most other movies, it would be a terrible performance, but in Dolls, it’s pitch perfect.

Dolls is a fairytale story that creates the atmosphere of a child’s viewpoint. The dolls are scary and do scary things, but, of course, they can be reasoned with.

As with many Full Moon movies, Dolls had a great balance of scares and campy humour. The doll designs are gross and fun–especially their wet, bloodshot eyes.

Dolls is a great choice for someone who watched a lot of Are You Afraid of the Dark? growing up and wants a “grown-up” version of that.

Funland (1987)

16 October 1987 | 98 min. | Color

After watching Dolls on Amazon Prime, this film was recommended. From the plot description and the featured image, we expected a fun slasher film. And, with William Windom (who I’m pretty sure took time off of Murder, She Wrote to make this movie!!!) in the cast, we couldn’t resist. What we got was… a… comedy? I guess?

There’s no doubting that there are some talented performers in this movie, but it’s just not funny. The only reason I’m writing about Funland at all is that it’s a good example of the kind of cheesy movie where you can see what could have been a good (or at least more interesting) movie underneath the movie that was actually made.

How exactly do you think: “I’m gonna make a movie about a killer clown fighting mobsters!” and then come up with this movie? I wrote a much longer complaint but, I won’t subject you to it. In short, Funland doesn’t execute its plot very well.

I definitely wouldn’t recommend this one. However, I am curious if any Atlanta natives have feelings about this movie? It seems like it features a lot of locals.

Flying Air Canada

The movie below are what I watched on my plane journeys to and from Seoul. I was flying Air Canada and I need to rant for a sec before moving on to my thoughts on the films.

There are a lot of reasons why captions (or subtitles, if you’re British) are necessary. They’re needed by lots of people, including people who aren’t d/Deaf or hard of hearing. If you want to learn more about why captions are good Jessica Kellgren-Fozard has you covered.

Personally, I have sensory processing disorder (SPD). This prompts me to have captions on when I watch most things. At home, I do this because not every movie or TV show I watch has decent sound mixing. It seems to be an art a lot of film/video makers are neglecting nowadays. Ho hum. I keep captions on so I don’t need to constantly change the volume. On a plane, my SPD is significantly worse because the noise of the plane is so loud that there’s little to no chance of me catching dialogue without raising the volume too high for my own comfort. Unlike the airlines I travel on within the US, Air Canada’s captioned offerings are practically nonexistent. That’s why so many of the movies I ended up watching were foreign-language (or ASL) films–they came with English subtitles.

Now, Air Canada, listen: Most of the movies you had on offer are definitely available with captions elsewhere. Even in theaters they likely had open-caption screenings. What is the deal? Seriously.

Anyway, sometimes I take for granted that we do some things right in America.

Okay, back to movies.

Mary Shelley (2017)

9 September 2018 | 120 min. | Color

This film didn’t have captions, which honestly might have weighed negatively on my experience of it. I was excited to see Mary Shelley. Mary and Percy Shelley are two of my absolute favorite literary historical figures and I love their work. This movie was a let down. It seemed like it was meant to be a character piece but the characters felt more like types than people. Also, don’t get me wrong here: I give no ground to fuckboys, but the depiction of Percy Shelley felt particularly oversimplified.

A Quiet Place (2017)

9 March 2018 | 90 min. | Color

Everybody raving about this movie was totally right. Definitely check it out if you haven’t already. Even if you’re not big on horror, it’s worth a shot.

How Long Will I Love U (2018)

18 May 2018 | 101 min. | Color

Scrolling through Air Canada’s film options, I got the feeling that time-travel romance is pretty popular right now in China and Korea? I think I picked the right one to watch in How Long Will I Love U. The premise put me in mind of The Lake House (2006), a movie I don’t like but can never resist watching when it’s on TV. This movie is a lot better than The Lake House. The premise is pretty cool and the plot is spurred on by a proper sci-fi concept. The leads are very cute together. I love that the main characters both kinda suck but become better people in getting to know one another. The special effects are good looking, conceptually fun, and not excessive.

I highly recommend this one. It’d probably be a great date movie or a Friday-night-with-some-Chunky-Monkey-and-a-cuddly-pet movie.

JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: Diamond is Unbreakable — Chapter 1 (2017)

4 August 2017 | 119 min. | Color

Listen. I have friends who are big fans of the JoJo manga and anime. I have never read any of the manga and couldn’t get past the first episode of the anime. That said, when I saw Takashi Miike directed this live-action adaptation of a story arc in the multi-generational JoJo series, I hit that play button right fast. Then, to my surprise, I enjoyed it! I often struggle with the visuals in live-action adaptations of anime and manga, but I loved how Diamond is Unbreakable played with the characters’ unique styling and design. The superhero-like story drew me in a lot faster than the anime and might just get me to look into some of the manga.

This movie might be a hard sell for a lot of people but if you wanna see something that’s out there and imaginative with supernatural overtones, Diamond is Unbreakable might be fun for you. Don’t worry–it’s easy to follow even if you don’t know who Joseph Joestar is. (Yes, that really is a character’s name.)

Un Traductor / A Translator (2018)

19 January 2018 | Color

I had no idea that following the Chernobyl disaster, some of the victims were sent to Cuba for medical treatment. I also had no idea that the program continued until 2011?! So, Un Traductor was a modern history lesson for me! Un Traductor is a model film for propaganda filmmaking–and I mean that in a fully complimentary way. The film does an admirable job of communicating how life for Cubans changed with the fall of the Soviet Union and how they adjusted to persevere.

You can probably gather from what you just read that this isn’t a fun watch, but it’s worthwhile if you have any interest in modern Cuban history.

A Casa Tutti Bene / There is No Place Like Home (2018)

14 February 2018 | 105 min. | Color

I don’t have a lot to say about this one frankly. It’s a decent family dramedy. Massimo Ghini and Sabrina Impacciatore both turn in good performances. *shrugs in Italian*

That’s all for this month’s roundup! Are you all ready for Noirvember? How about Kicksgiving? If you’re a Filmstruck subscriber, what are you marathoning this month?