#watching and discussing OP with you is an absolute delight!!!

[monoidea]

[moongurl95]

7 Times the Charm

GN!MC / May or may not be an alternate version of a long fic I'm working on, but I've hit a writing rut and this prompt by @serpensortiamaxima (this is dedicated to you too OP!) got me churning out this piece until 4AM (now i can sleep with my brain empty! XD) also divider credits here

Summary: It was no secret that the Three Broomsticks can also be considered a social gathering for the latest news, and Sirona Ryan, the owner was at the neck of it. Or, a glimpse of a blooming relationship she'd observed since that Troll Attack in Hogsmeade. (One-shot also posted on AO3)

“Oh, there’s a face I haven’t seen before.” This may be the first time Sirona Ryan’s memory seemed to have failed her as she was confident in remembering her clientele.

“It’s my first time here.” The student had replied almost sheepishly, which explained everything to the bar owner. Of course, she’d heard about the latest talk in the streets of a Hogwarts student having been caught in a dragon attack.

“Welcome! Butterbeers on me.” Sirona assumed that the student was a transferee, after all, she’d never heard of a student starting this late in their Hogwarts education. “Glad to see you two escape injury.” She glanced between the two students with growing worry, having planned to check on the other shopkeepers and residents once the crowd had buzzed down from the recent Troll Attack in Hogsmeade.

“Thanks to this one. Single-handedly took down a Troll!”

“Is that right? Well done.” Of course Sirona couldn’t take the Sallow boy’s claim seriously, not when she was sure of the way the boy had looked admiringly at his new classmate. Before she could decide to play matchmaker however, they were interrupted by some brutes’ arrival.

The second time Sirona next saw the pair was on a relatively calm day in the Three Broomsticks, she considered herself not eavesdropping at all while the two students had quite the passionate discussion over a round of Butterbeer.

“Honestly! Why do you have to trouble yourself on a trip to get something for my sister? Anne wrote she’d be delighted by your very presence alone.”

“Because Sebastian, it’s common courtesy to bring a gift when visiting your friend’s family.”

Now this seemed to be a development. Sirona had to keep herself looking busy as she wiped away at the mugs on the counter, casting a knowing glance by the corner table to quickly spy the flustered look on the Sallow boy’s face.

Sirona could only hope to Merlin that his ‘friend’ fancied him the way he seemed to.

In exchange for asking her assistance on where to find her friend, Lodgok, Sirona in turn thought to request the new student’s help in retrieving her box of letters. Though she never would have predicted they’d also come as a pair this third time around.

“I’m not letting you go alone. And for Merlin’s sake, why a mine of all places? Do you happen to know what sort of creatures could possibly live there??”

Sirona could only watch in amusement as the Sallow boy was being pushed out by his classmate in an attempt to shush him, “Alright, alright – I’ll tell you all about it on the way. Just get going so we can at least finish this while there’s still sun out.”

The door to the Three Broomsticks had shut after their departure so Sirona could only guess how the rest of their day would go. One thing was for sure though, if she’d initially thought the Sallow boy only fancied his new friend before, then now Sirona was absolutely certain the boy was now smitten.

Maybe there was good reason to owl Mirabel after all, nothing better than an entertaining chat about young love over tea.

The next time Sirona served Butterbeer to the new student at the counter, she was half expecting them to be with a familiar face. Instead, they sat alone, looking quite under the weather as they seemed to stare unseeing into the tankard, Sirona was just about ready to lend a listening ear after she’d served all the other customers’ orders when the student had stood up just as a familiar Slytherin entered the premises.

Sirona was quick to notice the two of them weren’t on speaking terms as they passed by each other – the Sallow boy taking the stool beside where his friend just left. She chose to quietly serve him his share of Butterbeer before she continued to keep busy.

“Sirona, would you apologize if you said something… true but ended up sounding… mean?”

So that was how it was… “Well dear, first of all, it’s not what you said, but how you made them feel. So yes, an apology should be expected.”

“But… how?”

Sirona raised an eyebrow at him as if to say the answer should be obvious enough, but ended up sighing in exasperation as the boy looked pitifully at a lost, “If you aren’t ready to tell them personally, then a letter might suffice, and don’t make it just a simple apology either – at least, offer to take them somewhere you’d think would be meaningful to them.”

“A letter! That’s just it, of course!” Sirona watched as the boy waved his hand in thanks as he rushed out the doors, she hoped everything would turn up for the better the next time she saw those two together.

It didn’t however, for just days before the 5th, Sirona herself had received an unmarked letter notifying her of Lodgok’s passing – his gentle soul did not deserve the fate he was dealt with by his brother’s hands. Yet also here in her supposedly lively pub, sat another lost soul who she dearly tried to keep from straying to the Hog’s Head by keeping the Sallow boy’s tankard refilled with Butterbeer.

She’d heard he just lost his uncle and that the Sallow girl also informed him late, the poor twins were now left all alone.

And just when Sirona felt the boy slipping away, from the doors came in a face who she hoped would be successful in reeling Sallow from his darkest thoughts.

“Sebastian!”

Sirona was glad to see the boy encased in a hug, he dearly looked like he needed one…

“You’re safe now. I promise, I wouldn’t let them take you away.”

It may have well been a secret language only the two students shared with each other, but Sirona was nonetheless relieved to see the boy’s shoulders relax, the undeniable soft sob that escaped him was a sound that would forever tug at her heart.

And it seemed that heart wrenching sob echoed around the wooden panels of her establishment as the once lively pub was filled with students of varying years, all of which ranged from sniffling for their parents to a quiet uncertainty that loomed over the older ones.

Hogwarts was under attack, and despite how Sirona herself could not believe such a situation would even come about, the evacuated students who took shelter in the Three Broomsticks were enough to leave her unsettled for what was to come.

“Sirona! Are they here? Did they at least stop by here?” She could only shake her head in response, clearly seeing the Sallow boy was distraught.

“Sebastian! We have to settle ourselves and wait for Black’s announcement –“

“They could still be there, Ominis!” His next words were barely audible but somehow Sirona managed to catch a hint of it, “What if they’re fighting for their lives – alone? Against a Goblin Rebellion!”

“Attention, students!” Black did make an announcement right after that, clearing his throat as if today was a normal occurrence, “I am proud to announce that my esteemed faculty has handled the – uhm… rebellion. Yes, the Goblin rebellion – wait, what was that?”

Everyone seemed to hold their breath as a House Elf seemed to whisper the latest news to his master, who gasped out as if he was scandalized, “A casualty you say???”

Sirona felt her heart drop at the sudden news, she could only watch as Sebastian Sallow all but rushed out of the doors, fearing for the worst.

Fear melted like snow from a season past, and while Spring came a bit too late for those who grieved, the flowers still bloomed.

The Three Broomsticks was once again abuzz with an energy of celebration and nostalgia – students crowded with relief at having survived their O.W.L.s and others were busy planning their summer ahead – two of which Sirona couldn’t help but approach, “Butterbeers on me, to the Hero of Hogwarts.” She’d winked before leaving the pair in their usual spot by the counter, not really meaning to overhear…

“So… I heard Fig left you a place in his will, back to London it is for you then?”

“Yes… and Feldcroft?”

“Can’t say I relish the thought of spending summer by myself, but I have a way to keep busy by doing some odd errands here and there, I suppose.”

“What would you say to a ticket to London?”

“What..?”

“I was only really planning to spend a few weeks there, fix some things that need to be done and well… spend some time in Feldcroft with you… if you’ll have me?”

“Of course! I – but why even take me to London – not that I’m complaining but –“

“Because I care, Sebastian. I – care about you… very much.”

Sirona couldn’t keep herself from spying a glance then, very happy to see the pair both sporting flustered faces. It may have taken a while, but there wasn’t a perfect time than any to start anew.

[actuallyannesroom]

hi! and welcome to my little corner of the internet. you'll mostly see bungo stray dogs from me here, probably mostly reblogs, but i might start posting writing at some point and even open fic/headcanon requests, since that's something i enjoy doing. you can find ships i like, some of my favorite characters, some random info about me, and some writing request information under the readmore!

i'm not sure i have a name that i'll give to myself on this blog! if you need to refer to me, though, you can use my full blog url, "anne" for short, and they/them pronouns.

i'm an adult (over 25), and i'm currently doing some personal studies. i have a pretty wide variety of interests. i got into bungo stray dogs in... 2015? 2016? i'm not sure, it was really early into my college experience? as soon as the anime started airing, i started watching it--and i fell in absolute love with it. so... here i am now! adoring it with my entire heart.

i can be a little awkward when it comes to talking, so please try to be patient with me. it's okay if you need to ask for clarification, as well. i love to infodump and talk, though, and can occasionally get pretty long-winded when it comes to analyzing or discussing characterization.

when it comes to characterization in my writing, i love to have pretty much all of my characterization rooted in canon somewhere, somehow. sometimes i'll stray from this, but... a lot of the time, i really do prefer to pick characters apart and analyze them endlessly and putting that into my writing, even simple, fluffy one-shots.

i love character analysis, scene analysis, and so on--and i actually studied cinematography! i adore picking apart scenes and how they're framed/shot, transitions, lighting, sound, and how everything all ties in to create the scenes we're looking at. this goes for manga, novels, and anime. please feel free to talk to me about this.

you can also just... drop your headcanons in my ask box. i might expand on what you say, or i might just respond with delight and publish it. please do tell me if you want the response to be private, though. requests aren't private, but i'll gladly respond to discussions privately.

fav characters: sigma, lucy, atsushi, kyouka, kouyou, fukuzawa, jouno, teruko, ango, oda

fav ships: fukuzawa/fukuchi, dazai/chuuya, lucy/atsushi, ango/oda

fav OP: season 5/tetsu no ori

fav ED: ? not sure

i'm currently caught up on both the anime and the manga to BSD! i've read all of the light novels, but i haven't read the beast manga or the 15 manga. i have read and gotten caught up to wan, though!

other interests: webcomics, rpgm horror/thriller games, stardew valley, animal crossing, splatoon, nintendogs

heart dividers used in this post ⁞ moth rules and about me divider ⁞ personal rambling tag ⁞ x

x ⁞ x ⁞ x

Requests: Closed

No. of Requests: --

these rules are specifically for writing requests--i might get back into icon and graphic making at some point, but i haven't really done any of that in years past personal use, so... well! anyways. a tldr/summary version of these rules will be provided at the bottom.

I will only take requests through the ask box. You can put them on anon or off. But anything you request must be sent through there.

If you're sending a request, you have to give a specific prompt and character(s). This can be a dialogue prompt from a post I've reblogged, something you've thought of off the top of your head, a specific character interaction... Anything.

You can request a headcanon list, as well. But please give me something specific, and not just "*Name* Headcanons?" Give me something like, "Headcanons for *Name* in a florist AU?" or something else.

But. I don't write or take not safe for work requests. At all. Things can get a little spicy, but I don't like writing sex scenes, and so, I won't. If sex is implied, it's fade-to-black.

I won't ship minors with adults in a romantic context. It makes me incredibly uncomfortable I will often use AO3-styled tagging, which means that you might see platonic/familiar interactions or relationships marked as "&" (so, for example, Kyouka & Kouyou or Fukuzawa & Ranpo). I don't typically do this in casual conversation, though.

Some of my writing might contain disturbing, uncomfortable, or traumatic implications or themes. I will always trigger warn for these things. If you send requests that contain similar themes or mention them, I kindly request that you start the message off with a TW.

Currently, I'm only taking writing requests for Bungo Stray Dogs fanfics and headcanons. This may change in time.

These will generally be one-shots or short fics, as these are free, and I don't want to write an entire novel for free unless it's for my own characters, my own world--which I love a lot.

I don't take "x reader" or "x OC" fanfics or headcanons outside of my own OCs (I have no Bungo Stray Dogs characters). I'm sorry! I support you guys, though.

Please always refer to the top of this section, underneath the "rules" banner, or at my blog's description to see if requests are open or closed before sending something in.

I'll write for pretty much any Bungo Stray Dogs character, but there are definitely some characters that I'm more confident in than others. You can request ships and characters that aren't on my fav characters/ships lists, that's just there for fun and to show my general preferences. I would love to try writing characters out of my comfort zone.

Requests aren't private, and will always be published publicly. Maybe even on AO3. Who knows.

tldr;

Only send in requests through the ask box.

Mention the prompt you want me to use for the request.

Headcanon requests are accepted, but please also be specific.

I won't do not safe for work requests. At all.

I won't write minors shipped with adults.

I will include trigger warnings for works with disturbing themes. Please do the same if your requests has something potentially disturbing in it.

I am only taking requests for Bungo Stray Dogs right now.

These works will generally be one-shots.

I won't take "x reader" or "x OC" requests.

Please always look under the "rules" banner or my blog description to see if requests are open or not.

You can send in characters/ships that aren't on my favs list.

Requests will be published publicly.

[moiloru]

❄️ The Ice Guy and His Cool Female Colleague Review! ❄️

Hello! Welcome to a new anime review, the first for the 2023 winter season! Considering I won't be writing as many of these, I needed to make this one count, so here's The Ice Guy and His Cool Female Colleague!

Well... I fell in absolute love with this anime. It had been a long time since an anime last made me so happy.

The Ice Guy and His Cool Female Colleague finished airing just yesterday, and it has twelve episodes. It's a romance/adult-cast anime with some humor and (minor) fantasy.

I'll have trouble explaining why I adore this anime so much. I know not everyone will find it as unique as I did, but it made me so happy when I watched it, y'know? It's wholesome, pure, realistic, heartwarming... What more am I supposed to ask for?

The plot is straightforward: two MCs work at the same company and become friends. Then, they both realize they have feelings, and the anime focuses on showing scenes that highlight these growing feelings.

Of course, it doesn't sound like much, and it honestly isn't. But it's so cute and wholesome that I couldn't help but love every minute. Those are some everyday life scenes, and maybe it's why I enjoyed them so much. Just people being happy around one another.

Unfortunately, the first episode is on the slow side, so I'm afraid it might turn people away from this anime. Huge mistake! Everything from episode two onward is straight-up excellent!

It might not be the first point people mention when discussing this anime, but it also has great humor. The fact that one of the MCs is pretty reserved makes for some comedic relief with the other protagonist, especially with his inner thoughts.

The leading duo, Fuyutsuki-san and Himuro-kun, are just fantastic, especially together. Their characters perfectly complement each other, and they're so darn cute! Again, it's simple, but it just works, so I will only ask for that. Love these two!

The rest of the cast is also really good! They have nice chemistry together and with the MCs, and the second duo is delightful, too! They all get at least one episode of attention, too, so there's a bit for everyone.

Artistically, this anime scores many points with some gorgeous scenes. It has moments when it looks nothing short of superb, and there is not even a single scene that's poorly animated. The colors are magnificent, too.

In terms of music, this anime has some really catchy themes. Both the OP and ED are great, too, on top of being visually pleasing to look at. It definitely matches the tone of the story at all times.

So, yeah, for all these reasons, I fell in love with The Ice Guy and His Cool Female Colleague. It doesn't seem like much at first glance, but it's a hidden gem if I've ever seen one. Thanks to Zero-G and Liber for the fantastic work. Please give it a shot.

Down below is the tierlist for the characters in this anime. Thank you for reading this review!

[discover-czechia]

Famous People in Czechia History

I would like to highlight some of the famous Czech people from the past few centuries. From scientists to composers, there have been many noteworthy achievements made by the Czech people. Below is a small selection of them.

Gregor Johann Mendel -

was born in late July 1822. His childhood was hard - his family used what little they had to guarantee he received a proper education, as he was notably intelligent from a young age. Mendel suffered from depression through much of his young life, yet still graduated from school in 1843. It was at this time that his father wished him to take over the family farm. Mendel denied, and instead joined an Augustinian monastery. Despite his time traveling and studying, he would stay a monk for the remainder of his life. His mental health problems would follow him, and yet, despite this, he would make some of the most important advancements in genetics of his time. Wikipedia calls him the “founder of the modern science of genetics,” and I would agree.

Below you’ll find a picture attached, and I will discuss a little bit about his research.

At the monastery, Mendel had a sizeable garden, in which he studied the genetics of pea plants. He would spend time breeding and cross-breeding, and then figuring out how genetic traits were passed down through generations. This research laid the foundation for many scientific breakthroughs in the following centuries. His research would first be replicated and confirmed, which then opened the doors for all kinds of new information to be found.

Jakub Kryštof Rad (Jacob Christoph Rad) -

was never technically a part of the Czech Republic. At the time (early-mid 19th century), the factory he worked at (in Datschitz) was a part of Austria-Hungary. Despite that, Datschitz is now in the Czech Republic, and they claim his invention as a Czechian invention.

What did our dear friend Jacob invent you may ask?

The sugar cube!

Like many things in this world, the sugar cube was an invention of love. Sugar was sold in large chunks, often cone-shaped, at the time, and his beloved wife Juliana cut he hand one day while attempting to carve herself some of the sugar. She came complaining to him (can’t blame her for that, I would too), and he knew it was time for a solution. Juliana was not the first person to struggle with sugar, but Jacob was determined to make her the last. 

(In the picture below you can see Juliana on the left and Jacob on the right)

Months later, he would approach his beloved, box in hand, and present her with hundreds of little sugar cubes, to which she was absolutely delighted. In those months, he had invented, perfected, and patented a machine that would create large numbers of sugar cubes at a time. He had effectively industrialized the process.

Antonín Dvořák -

I could tell you about his life, but to be honest? I’d rather talk about and share some of his music. I will still do an incredibly brief overview. He was born in a village north of Prague in 1841, and became a skilled musician at a young age, a skill that his parents helped foster. He suffered from poverty through much of his life, and lost several children while they were still young. Dvořák and his work were widely popular in life but became even more so in death. 

Below I’ll highlight a couple of his compositions.

Symphony No. 9

Dvořák composed Symphony No. 9 during his time in the U.S. The symphony, therefore, also has the name “From the New World” and in some circles, even the New World symphony. Either way, it was an astounding success and remains one of Dvořák’s most performed works. I personally love this clip. It absolutely drew me in, and made me debate giving the website my email so I can watch the whole thing. Gotta finish the assignment first I suppose…

Dvořák - Slavonic Dances, Op 46 - Kocsis

The next piece I wanted to highlight, Slavonic dances, was originally written as a piano duet, but was turned into an orchestral piece not long after. This is said to be another one of Dvořák’s most famous works, but I included it because I really enjoyed the snippets I saw. The video I included has some really lovely oboe work.

It is said that Dvořák was one of the most important and significant composers of his time. I included a very small selection of his numerous works. He wrote everything from operas, to concertos, even chamber and vocal pieces. Dvořák is without a doubt one of the most widely played Czech composers, and greatly helped to advance Czech and European music.

[artobotsrollout]

Transformers: Harbingers

The Pirate Scream AU

Before I talk about it you guys are the best thank you for indulging me and my AU from this post xjdjd. ❤️ ❤️ ❤️

@badlydrawntransformers @cosmic0de @warrioroffandoms @measlyfurball13 And a bonus thank you to those encouraging me in the tags as well ❤️

I plan to do art for it as well as accompanying written bits and maybe even an animatic but till then have some general info under the cut.

Also there is transformers: Prime spoilers below so open at your own risk.

TRANSFORMERS: HARBINGERS

So this AU comes from the same place many AUs heavily involving TfP Starscream come from: the unfulfilled potential in our boy Scream. Now deeper discussion of that is not gonna be in this post. It'd be a whole essay.

It also comes from just how salty I was that the Team's kindness never really benefitted them much and they kept getting slapped for it. And OP really wanted to win over a con and Starscream kept wanting a partner. ALSO ALSO Optimus was portrayed as keeping his emotions in check and then never really gets a message that it's okay to be emotional so... I'm doing that here.

And the Starscream Pirate AU was born...

Aka Transformers: Harbingers (maybe idk if it's catchy enough djjsw)

Why Harbingers? ''It's just a SHIP Starscream chills in for awhile in the show' ' I hear you say. WELL HANG ON!! I got two very good reasons!! .

First off: Starscream, with the help of some Cybertronians who he wins over one way or another (Ill get to that), help him essentially use the remains of the Harbinger to put together their own functional ship. It's smaller than the Nemesis and will take some pirate ship inspiration. While it is a hardy beast it's a bit jury rigged.

Second of all:

Imagine being a fictional character living in a ship with a name that basically means 'Foreshadowed bringer of change' and then going back to Megatron and his bullshit. I'm gonna grab this and run all the way with it. Highway to Hell just came on my Spotify so... That may be an omen.

---------

NOW LISTEN

I feel like Starscream and Optimus could really have had such an interesting dynamic but we never really got to see that in TfP and I feel cheated. Also both could have mutually benefitted a great deal.

So what do I do? I shove them together to be sorta begrudging Co-Captains. As a result there's a lot of shenanigans to be had!

How this happens OP has some run ins with cons and, through a way I'm still deciding, has the opportunity to extend a hand to Starscream. Starscream, being kindness starved, doesn't entirely know what to do about Optimus being nice to him one whole time with no sarcasm or ulterior motive and sorta starts trying to get his attention.

Starscream and his crew are a bit of their own team at this point. MEANING sort of new LOGOS!

I'm yoinking the crossed out Decepticon logo from the Dark Energon Starscream and Dark Energon Knockout toys cause I mean... It's right there and also kinda like a skull and crossbones. It fits too well guys.

Starscream essentially manages to win over the autobots enough so they can sorta make a mutually beneficial, if strained, alliance to aid their aligned goal: killing Megatron and revitalizing cyberton. This is aided by some slight changes to the plot of course. It's also a benefit, much to Ratchet's delight, since they finally get some cybertronian tech to work with.

And so they gotta work together to take Megatron out and there's much bonding moments esp later when the autobot base is destroyed. Starscream extends his hand to them and offers them a more permanent position onboard. (rubbing in how unfortunate their situation is and how this is such a big favour but he's paying Optimus back.)

And insert team dynamic stuff!! Like cons teaming up with Bots, Starscream and Optimus trying to stick with it leading their own teams but keep accidently backseat-leadering one another. I will write some other ex-con and bot dynamics cause there's a lot of chaos to be had.

Optimus doesn't open up to his crew for morale sake and masks his emotions well, and Starscream is... well Starscream is Starscream so he masks what he truly feels a lot and doesn't share a lot of personal stuff besides complaints with his team either. So there's a lot of tension.... That is until Starscream has had it at just how good a poker face Prime has.

Because he's absolutely paranoid got a harmless curiosity about Optimus's ulterior motives and wants potential dirty secrets he can use as blackmail to have power over the Prime, he essentially puts cybertronian booze (but kid friendly version of course fbejek) in Optimus's energon heavily expecting him to spill the beans when heavily drunk. What he doesn't expect is that Optimus is just... LIKE THAT to his core. He's smart but very sad and guilty. And maybe a bit weepy and exhausted cause this man has not shown an emotion for eons now. /s. Starscream doesn't know wtf to do but swayed by how earnest Optimus is he sorta softens up and does open up. Might have helped that he took a swig of the tainted energon to get on his level though. But it also helps that neither is the others subordinate so they don't need to maintain their image as badly with the Co-captain as they do their team.

The ex cons sorta accidently absorb some of the autobot's morals over time. The cons help the autobots have some fun. There's a lot of stuff learned both ways. Also the cons realize how cool humans can be and after a lot of argument and forced time spent with the kids, they want to protect earth too.

Starscream, helps Optimus open up a bit more and allow himself to be emotional. He also shows him how to be a little selfish. Optimus in turn helps him with self confidence and making friends. Both help each other with the shit Megatron put em both through and overall boost one another up. (This also does change the start of the war a bit but I'll get to that in another post.)

Miko tries to fight all of the cons at first but quickly changes her tune cause "BOOYAH PIRATE CONS!!"

Other bits about this AU:

Starscream will eventually get a slight design change. It'll be less scrappy and look more confident and put together. It'll be minor

Because they are on a flying ship but have less energon than the Nemesis, everyone gets equipped with mods for flight. There is a jetpack upgrade one can get or Knockout can straight up help change their alt mode surgically.

I'm working up a list of who gets what flight mod but... Ya'll should know that Wheeljack dares Knockout to make him into a flying car. Largely cause I just got the image of Wheeljack flying above vehicons and just turning into a car and dropping on them. That and driving up the side of the Nemesis and confusing the fuck out of Megatron. Out of all the characters you know that would be a Wheeljack thing.

Arcee and Knockout grieve together.

Knockout loves bugging the hell out of Ratchet. It's extra fun for him cause Ratchet often can't do shit about it since they both need the room and tools.

Knockout and Wheeljack become an insufferable duo with the nicknames they have for everyone.

Wheeljack won't leave Starscream alone and keeps coming up with worse and worse nicknames like he did with Ratchet.

Starscream and Ratchet become complaining buddies.

STARSCREAM'S SEEKER SQUAD REJOINS. Well some of them. Skywarp, Thundercracker and maybe other peeps.

Miko manages to befriend Skywarp and Bulkhead now has to watch both Miko AND Skywarp. Wheeljack refuses to help Bulkhead round them up.

Raf hits it off with Thundercracker.

Knockout: "FINALLY a team with fragging MANNERS!"

Instead of Beeftimus Prime from the forge, Optimus actually gets access to a third alt mode and.. Idk something else primely. So he actually gets wings.

Starscream and the other fliers are greatly amused because Optimus, as great as he is at his poker face most of the time, hasn't yet figured out how to not emote with the pair of wings he gets from the forge. Thundercracker is the one who eventually informs him while the rest of the crew are booing loudly in the background.

I actually do have designs of TFP Skywarp, Thundercracker, and Ironhide in the works.

Fowler and Starscream have insult battles. Oddly both grow a weird almost fondness for these verbal sparring sessions

They frequently raid the Nemesis

Miko keeps talking in a pirate voice. Smokescreen has joined her.

AND A LOT OF OTHER STUFF I'LL GET INTO WITH MORE DETAIL AND ART. I'll also talk more in depth about some of these things that isn't a ramble like this post is. xnwjskw.

Feel free to ask about anything you're curious about.

[chainofclovers]

Ted Lasso 2x3 thoughts

Brendan Hunt confirmed on Twitter that the writers wrote the first three episodes of the season with the intention of releasing them on the same day, just as they dropped the first three episodes of season one on the same day. Having finally watched the first three over three different weeks, I really wish they’d been able to launch all three on the same day. I really liked the first two episodes of the season, but the third episode really puts a lot of things into context. Between the political storyline, the return of Sassy (and a bit of a level-setting conversation between Sassy, Rebecca, and Ted) and Rebecca’s navigation of her professional life as an all-in club owner and her experience reconnecting to Nora...all of that feels like we’re done setting up the season now. Exposition complete—and to the writers’ credit, all three of these episodes are far more than exposition. A lot of story has happened.

So much so that this week’s installment has categories.

Sassy and Ted and Rebecca

Hahahahahahahahahaha

No, seriously though, I love that they are mature adults about this and I also love that Ted is Uncomfortable and, to be perfectly honest, I like that Sassy’s aggressive unfilteredness becomes an opportunity for the show to venture into more sexual references and humor about characters other than Keeley and Roy. It was a lot of information!

I’ve seen a couple of people express disappointment that Ted seems weirded out by Sassy discussing Nora’s impending first period, but I didn’t get the impression that he was grossed out by periods. There is a lot going on! Nora is right outside the room with the door open and Sassy has run through a lot of very personal topics! I felt like his reaction was more about the proximity issue in specific and the personal nature of the conversation in general more than anything else.

So many thoughts about the intersection between the biscuits and this conversation that it had to go in its own post.

Nora!

I LOVE Nora. I want every episode of this show to be about her. I want this sitcom to be called Nora Collins.

I love that Nora’s a little bit sassy (pun on her mother’s nickname only lazily intended) in the way a thirteen-year-old can be, but also enthusiastic about spending time with Rebecca and genuinely interested in meeting everyone her godmother knows. Rebecca genuinely hurt Nora, but Nora can clearly see that Rebecca is all-in on their mended relationship, and that gives her the space to be a bit teasing. She knows Rebecca’s weaknesses and has a little fun (the cooking joke when Rebecca offers to make popcorn?!) but also isn’t going to manipulate her or take advantage.

The British doll company and all the riffs on American Girl dolls, OMG. So good.

Like literally everyone, I am extremely into Rebecca and Roy actually being friends and exchanging words with each other this season. Now everyone in the group of four mains have had some great conversational moments with each other this season (I count Ted and Keeley being into Sharon’s bike as a great conversational moment, OK?!), with the exception of Roy and Ted. Cannot wait for that.

During the photo op with the team, Sassy and Rebecca remark on how Nora is loving and hating having her picture taken with Sam and the rest of the players, and that is THE experience of being thirteen years old, and Kiki May does an incredible job infusing all of Nora’s moments with the right proportions of enthusiasm to cringe. Thirteen years olds are constantly cringing but still full of spirit and life, and at constantly changing ratios, and Nora is the perfect embodiment of that.

My heart melted during the email-writing scene. Rebecca’s writing the email on Nora’s computer! In the guest room where her goddaughter is staying! They’re wearing pajamas! And Rebecca’s smile is so genuinely huge and delighted when she signs it “boss ass bitch.”

Led Tasso and Jamie’s Redemption

This was so stupid and I loved it so much. I love that Ted’s angry alter ego is absurd rather than scary, kind of like a parody of how worked up some men get over sports. I wonder if Led Tasso’s appearance in some way foreshadows a more uncontrolled, genuine anger from Ted in a later episode, because this Led Tasso dude is ridiculous.

Tentative kudos to Led Tasso for being able to point out the, ahem, clit of the soccer ball even from within a fugue state.

The entire Chuck E. Cheese exchange with Sharon was so hilarious and wonderful.

When Ted has the idea to bring out Led Tasso, Nate assumes he’s going to suggest that Jamie talk to Sharon. I absolutely adore the implication that Jamie’s growth over this episode is attributable to both Led Tasso and Sharon Fieldstone. Because while some players are still unmoved by Jamie’s willingness to stand up to Led, it didn’t go unnoticed! And then I was so proud of Keeley for refusing to take on the emotional labor of listening to Jamie when she was too busy with her actual job, and I felt that Jamie’s pretty immediate willingness to see what the therapy thing was all about was extremely in line with his character. He’s always seeking out Keeley to talk, and sometimes he actually means “talking” when he asks to talk with her! Jamie feels like someone who’s standing at a wall of doors, knocking on each one, trying to see what sticks. He really lacks foundation. I’m curious to know what he and Sharon spoke about in their session, but I like that the writers left the session private. The knowledge that he’s started seeing a psychologist is valuable information in and of itself, and Jamie’s decision to act in solidarity with Sam and the other Nigerian players is the perfect evidence that he’s thinking in new ways.

Sam and Dubai Air

Toheeb Jimoh is always great, but he’s so great in this episode. It’s cool to see his demeanor, pacing, and confidence shift as he becomes more at home with the team—and it’s also lovely to see that he, unlike Jamie, very much has a strong foundation in his home country, his supportive parents, his own moral center.

I like that Sam didn’t spend a bunch of time and emotional labor on teaching Jamie why caring about other people (and the environment!) matters, because that would’ve undercut the other political messages in this episode. Sam’s leading by example and everyone can either catch up or stay out, and it’s really great.

I really like the way they handled the press conference with Ted and Sam. I like that Ted gave the floor to Sam but prefaced that with very brief (for once!) remarks of his own. And I appreciated that Ted acknowledged his position of privilege, and that the angle isn’t that bad things never happen to white dudes but rather that when bad things do happen to people like Ted, it gets attention with so much less effort than when bad things happen to people who aren’t white men. Because that’s how privilege works—it’s not a shield that prevents bad things from happening to you, but it’s a safety net that ensures people will notice and address and even pitch in to take care of your bad things, often at the expense of the people who lack that privilege.

There’s probably lots of other stuff I could talk about, like the hilariously and realistically bad usernames on Bantr and Keeley brushing her snacks off the desk and into her purse and how things between Beard and Jane are clearly very, very bad and I’m worried about Beard and how it was soooo fun and lovely to see Shannon teasing Ted again (little coffee and football rituals before work are the kinds of details I absolutely live for) and HIGGINS PRETENDING REBECCA SENT HIM A BRILLIANT AND HEROIC EMAIL (which she does for real with Nora’s help just a couple scenes later!) and how delighted I was to feel that by this episode this season has really hit its stride and feels like a fully lived-in portrayal of the energized, loving, imperfect, busy, full place that is the whole AFC Richmond community. Honestly, Higgins pretending Rebecca sent that email because he wants to make her look good in front of her granddaughter is kind of the perfect encapsulation of what this episode felt like. This is a show about a bunch of imperfect people who want each other to succeed.

Edited to add: I was delighted to find out Ashley Nicole Black was writing for the show and the writing here did the opposite of disappoint! ❤️

[kirinda-ondo]

You know him, you either love or hate him (or are moderately confused by my sudden dive into this hyperfixation); we're talking about Orko because I have a lot of feelings.

As a disclaimer, I am not gonna claim to be some kind of superfan. I am not aware of every single iteration of the lore and all of its secrets. I don't know anything about the DC comics. I'm only halfway through the 2002 series as of me writing this. I am not someone you want to have discussions on the wider Masters of the Universe.... universe with. However, after watching Revelation, the entire Filmation He-Man (and some of She-Ra, cause he was there too), and going on a deep dive of storybooks, annuals, and minicomics courtesy of He-Man.org and the lovely people who submitted their scans there, I do feel pretty qualified to at least talk about Orko.

So, with all that being said, I'd like to get into a little bit of backstory, if only for my followers who came to this blog for completely different things and are wondering where the hell my love for this funky little wizard dude came from all of a sudden. Truth is, Orko is actually one of my earliest faves! Mind you, I only had limited access to Masters of the Universe as a kid, only seeing a couple of rented VHS tapes and later getting my hands on a small pile of the Golden Books from Goodwill, but apparently it was enough for Orko to  imprint himself into my brain. However, also due to my limited exposure, he kind of got shifted to the back of my head as I got deeper into other things. I still knew for a fact I liked Orko a lot though, even if I couldn't quite remember why anymore.

And then Masters of the Universe: Revelation dropped on Netflix. I'm not gonna get into my opinions of that show lest I open a flood of irrelevant discourse (for those uninitiated, it is a bit... divisive, to say the least). However my feelings on the matter did encourage me to go and watch the original and well, holy shit I love Orko more now than I could have ever comprehended as a kid. He is THE quintessential underappreciated comic relief character I tend to gravitate towards, and then some.

But before I get into that, let me back up a bit and explain. Orko is a Trollan, a race of magical little dudes that are basically floating sweaters with hats and covered up faces. Out of these Trollans, Orko is an incredibly fucking OP archmage. Like, they straight up call him Orko the Great, he's so powerful. But then, he gets caught in a freak storm that whisks him away from his home dimension and into Eternia. Immediately, he runs into a young Prince Adam, who is trapped in a swamp/tar pit and needs rescuing. Orko, being the upstanding lad that he is, uses his magic to save him but in the process loses the item that allows him to focus his magic to the swamp (in the 80s version, it's a medallion, but in the 2002 series, it's a wand). Worse yet, the magic (and dare I say the very laws of physics) in Eternia works pretty much the opposite as it does in Trolla, so he's been incredibly nerfed.

So basically, Orko is trapped in a topsy-turvy world away from friends and family, a world with magic he is fundamentally incompatible with. Ouch. He's not completely screwed, however, as he is rewarded by the king and queen for his heroism and appointed... the court jester. Double ouch. He surprisingly doesn't seem to mind though. He genuinely does enjoy entertaining people, even when his tricks only ever work like half the time because he's basically a Mac program trying to run on a Windows computer.

It's not all horrible though, as he does quite literally get adopted by the royal family  and thus sort of become the entire palace's weird son/little brother (despite being older than many of them. He's very, very child-coded largely for the purposes of being a stand-in and example lesson to the actual children watching). But also, more importantly, he becomes one of the very select few to know that Adam and He-Man are one and the same.

But outside of secret-keeping, he is actually a pretty valuable ally to have against Skeletor and his dudes because even though his magic is kind of screwed up, when it does work, he's still one of the most powerful mages on Eternia. In various materials, he's created floods, a second winter, and hell, he can literally explode himself and still be perfectly fine. He's also really clever and can weasel his way out of a number of situations. In one episode, for instance, he manages to convince someone that he's He-Man and Adam is his "assistant" in order to free him from captivity so the day has a better chance of actually being saved.  He's also got the ability to just be really frustrating and incomprehensible to the point that villains who capture him sometimes either don't want him or don't know what to do with him anymore, which is honestly really funny. In an episode of She-Ra, the villains tried to scan his brain but because the inner machinations of his mind are that much of an enigma, he got diagnosed a weirdo and broke the entire machine. Absolutely delightful.

However, there's a lot more to Orko than just comedy and bungled magic. He's actually surprisingly complex!

See, going into this, I expected Orko's whole situation be played entirely for laughs while the sadder implications of his existence go entirely unaddressed. Coming off the heels of characters like Cobalt and others I enjoy, I'm used to this sort of treatment by writers. But they actually don't do that. The depressing subtext is for once, actually TEXT, which was INCREDIBLY surprising to me. We actually get to see another side of him, a side that hates that he can't be taken seriously no matter what he does, a side that is well aware of all the trouble he causes and feels like a burden to those around him. He actually runs away on multiple occasions, fully believing that he's unloved and everyone would be better off without him, even if that couldn't be further from the truth (a point which the Sorceress hammers home with multiple straight up magical video presentations, and in the 2002 series, a literary adaptation, of why he is loved and important).

Underneath all the hyping himself up that he does, there's a lot of insecurity. He's someone who desperately wants to be loved and respected and feels that without funny magic tricks to entertain people, he has no inherent value (which is incredibly relatable if you are also known by people as The Funny One). At one point he agrees with the notion that he doesn't feel like much more than a pet, which is absolutely heartbreaking. Even when he gets the ability to go back and forth between Eternia and Trolla, his feelings of inadequacy now extend toward his family, worrying that his own uncle, the one who taught him everything he knows and greatly contributed to him being Orko the Great back home in the first place, wouldn't be proud of him. Being on Eternia highkey wrecked his shit, man.

However, even when given the opportunity to go back home for good, he always chooses to stay because he's loyal as hell. Even if he needs some reminders, he does know he's needed not just in the fight against evil, but just because his friends and newfound family genuinely love him. It's heartbreaking, but also incredibly wholesome. I did not even remotely expect a comic relief character like this to get this much depth and respect from the writers, especially not from the incredibly campy and cheaply animated 80s series. I am genuinely so unused to this.

But I think that's also what separates him a bit from his fellow Silly Kid Appeal Characters That Kids Fucking Hate ala Snarf Thundercats or Scrappy Doo. He not only makes a concerted effort to be an actually useful ally, but he's also in fact very self-aware of his status as one of these characters. He knows he screws up a lot but he actually tries to accept responsibility and fix it. It makes me wanna root for the lil dude. Now I understand if someone isn't a fan of the brand of humor he brings to the table, or feel like he's simply a distraction from the Cool Buff Dudes Fighting Each Other, but I hope you can see why he might also be a really appealing character to other people, both kids and adults alike. I mean, he was popular enough to be embedded into the canon despite originating from the cartoon and not the toyline for a reason, after all.

Orko is a fun, entertaining, but also complex, heartwarming, and relatable character. I know there is a faction of people that would disagree with me, but I don't think you need to change him all that much or make him a super serious character to be more appealing. He's already got a lot going on that a writer could easily work with. It all just depends on where you decide to focus. Take a lesson from the show and accept that he's fine just the way he is.

[theres-an-impulstor-among-us]

Heyyy Vaunna, I’m back after a very long writers block- (I’ve still got it actually, but I had an idea lol)

So, Hacker!Zed AU, right? Bdubs, Pungence, and Skizz are horrified of him. Way too scared to tell anyone about him, until one day, one (or all) of the three notice Zed going into medical with Etho, and the door closes behind ‘em.

Do with this what you will, imma go continue playing Hollow Knight and trying to write this fic idea I’ve had for weeks-

Raven!!! :D i do love me some Hacker Zed

link to the other Hacker!Zed chapters here

…

Fairly late in the game, Skizz has finished his tasks. Proud of himself, he heads into storage to find someone to buddy up with and discovers the brothers standing together inside storage, right next to the corridor that leads to electrical.

“Hey, fellas,” he says, approaching them. “What’s up?”

“Zedaph’s standing over there just looking at his tablet,” replies Bdubs in a hushed tone, as if scared he’d be overheard. “It’s freaking us out.”

Skizz opens his mouth to ask why, but then the memories of Zedaph’s previous… experiments return and he gives a shiver. “Is he planning something?”

Before either of them can reply, Etho appears from lower engine and heads into electrical. To the trio’s surprise, Zedaph follows him. As soon as he goes inside electrical, the door slides shut behind him.

The trio stare at each other in slowly mounting horror, the silence between them growing.

“Welp,” Bdubs says finally. “Etho’s dead.”

“SO dead,” agrees Skizz. “Are either of you the imposter? I wouldn’t tell on you if you wanted to pop your head in the vent in there and check on them. Cuz, like, we’ve all been traumatised by Zed before. We can’t afford to lose Etho to the trauma too.”

“Do you really think Zedaph is capable of… of doing that to Etho?” Pungence asks nervously.

The only Hermit in the trio nods. “Oh trust me, Zedaph is capable of ANYTHING. I’ve known him a long time. But unfortunately, I’m not an imposter.”

Both he and Skizz glance at Pungence, who frantically shakes his head. “Nonononono. Even if I was the imposter, which I’m not saying I am, you can’t get me to go in there. Do you have any idea what Zedaph might do to someone if they reveal they’re the imposter in front of him? This game isn’t worth my sanity.”

“Okay, you’re absolutely the imposter, but that’s fair enough,” Bdubs responds. “Maybe we should just wait out here and see what-.”

He breaks off as the door slides open again and Zedaph emerges, appearing not to notice the trio. A few seconds later, Etho comes out behind him and the two stand just outside electrical, talking quietly to each other.

“What are they saying?” whispers Pungence.

Skizz strains his ears but he can’t hear anything specific. “Dunno. Do you think they just did a task or something?”

“Or maybe they’re both the imposters and they were hoping for a double kill but there wasn’t anyone else in there and they had to wait for the doors to open again,” Bdubs suggests.

“Maybe. Let’s keep an eye on them.”

At the next meeting, Skizz ignores everyone discussing the few tasks they have left in favour of watching Zedaph and Etho, the former of whom keeps leaning over to the latter and whispering something inaudible every twenty seconds or so. It’s driving Skizz crazy to know that arguably the two most OP people in this game have some kind of secret and he has no idea what it is.

“Pungence, c’mere,” says Bdubs as the meeting finishes. “C’mere.”

Pungence reluctantly comes over to join Bdubs and Skizz. “Don’t you guys have tasks to finish?”

“I got one task left, and it’s to find out what those two have planned,” says Skizz determinedly. “I NEED to find out. C’mon.”

He and Bdubs, followed by a reluctant Pungence, trail after Zedaph and Etho as they walk together towards weapons.

“This looks SO sus,” Pungence groans. “Can’t we just forget about it and leave?”

“No, dude!” responds Skizz. “We gotta make sure Etho’s okay. If Zed traumatises him, we might never get him back.”

“Doesn’t he usually only do that if he dies first, though? And do we really think he’s just gonna do it for no reason? And on one of the best players? What if-?”

“Oh my gosh, Pungey, relax,” Bdubs says, giving his brother a friendly punch on the shoulder. “We’re just a group of crewmates done with our tasks who’re trying to keep a friend safe. That’s all.”

As Pungence starts to reply, the last task is completed, the game ends, and everyone is sent back to the lobby.

“Oh my gosh you WERE the imposter!” Bdubs laughs, glancing at Pungence. “You and Grian!”

“Yeah,” says Pungence sheepishly. “Which means neither Etho nor Zedaph was the imposter.”

“So then, what were they whispering about?” demands Skizz on their other side.

On the other side of the room, Zedaph approaches Etho and grins. “Thanks for helping me out this round, man.”

“No problem. Tell me again why you wanted to mess with them?”

“Oh… No special reason. It was just funny to make them think we had some big secret and freak them out.”

Etho frowns. “But… we DO have a secret… right? THAT secret? Or was-.”

“Yeah,” says Zedaph quickly, “but it’s just funny to play mind games with them so they’re never sure exactly what’s going on. You like being hard to read, right?”

“I guess so. Just… why THEM, specifically?”

Zedaph hurriedly searches for a response. “Oh, uh… They’re pretty easy to wind up.”

“True,” Etho says, to Zedaph’s relief. “Bdubs and Skizzle are two of the easiest people to mess with I know. Anyway, I gotta talk to Grian before we start the next match.”

“Okay, cool. No worries.”

Zedaph watches Etho leave, before turning his attention back to Bdubs, Skizz, and Pungence, who are standing on the other side of the lobby, whispering urgently to each other. When they notice him watching them, he gives a smile and a wave, and takes great delight in the forced smiles they give back to him.

It’s fun having this specific group of people so frightened of him.

[clownao]

the civil war kayano au is just *chef hand kiss* its so damn perfect and its exactly why i had issues with second season; the fact kayano was forgiven so easily with no consequences at all and the fact students wanted to kill korosensei because??? they will waste their assassination attempts?? so really THANK YOU for this i'd really like to hear more about your ideas for it, if u dont mind ofc 💕

Awww thank you so much!! <33 Ngl canon Civil War was weird and I still wish Kayano Civil War had happened in canon... it would deal with the consequences of Kayano’s arc without losing the edgy paintball aesthetic.

ALRIGHTY TODAY I’ll try to plan out the entire Civil War (!!). Recap of teams as follows:

Team Trust: Kataoka (leader), Sugino (second in command, offense), Kanzaki (strategist, offense), Nagisa (the trump card haha), Hara (makes traps), Itona (in charge of drones), Takebayashi (in charge of paint bombs), Terasaka (leader of Terasaka squad, tank #1, defense), Muramatsu (tank #2, defense), Kurahashi (offense), Yada (defense), Okajima (offense), and Sugaya (camouflage).

Team Distrust: Mimura (leader, intelligence gathering), Isogai (leader, defense), Karma (strategist, offense), Nakamura (strategist, second in command), Chiba (sniper), Hayami (sniper), Fuwa (spotter), Okano (offense), Kimura (offense), Maehara (does both offense and defense, sticks to Isogai), Yoshida (tank), Hazama (offense), Okuda (defense, makes traps).

Notes: Takebayashi follows the same strategy from the canon Civil War (quote: “I wanted to make a high sky paint bullet explode and paint the enemy’s team with a rain of ink”)

Okajima is actually rather physically strong so I think he would work well with Sugino.

After thinking for a bit, while I do understand Karma is good at utilizing his teammates’ strengths, I don’t think he’s exactly a good leader. He can’t really unite his team. He would be a very good strategist, and it’s best we leave the leadership to Isogai and Mimura.

About Isogai and Mimura: while Isogai is definitely the more charismatic one, in cases like this war which involves intensely personal matters, it’s Mimura who ends up uniting the class. No offense to Isogai but the others sort of see him as a cool and perfect ikemen, while they see Mimura as an ordinary person, and as a result they relate more to the “ordinary person”. And Isogai is absolutely delighted that Mimura’s discovering his potential as a leader. They sort of lead the team together with the help of Nakamura.

COURSE OF THE WAR

It starts off with a bang as Chiba immediately eliminates Takebayashi. I’m sorry dude, but Takebayashi’s bomb strategy is simply too OP. (Mimura has discovered Takebayashi’s location from earlier.) 

It is revealed that Takebayashi and Itona had actually collaborated and some of Takebayashi’s paint bombs are stored in Itona’s drones. The first bomb they drop doesn’t eliminate anyone because Mimura spots it and notifies everyone. 

Kanzaki eliminates Chiba like in the canon Civil War. A camouflaged Sugaya attempts to eliminate Mimura, but Mimura knows Sugaya’s tactics all too well and they fight. It’s sad and angsty. They spend some time praising each other’s skills in the war (camouflage and reconnaissance), and Mimura ends up eliminating Sugaya. 

Okano and Kurahashi have a “Hina-Hina” fight. Okano wins. Hara then traps Kimura and Okano with a net and eliminates them the same way she did in the canon Civil War.

Hara encounters her childhood friend Yoshida. Neither of them want to fight each other but they can’t just ignore their encounter, so after some minutes of half-assed, painful “combat” accompanied by them talking to each other while crying, Hayami mercifully ends the fight by sniping Hara from a distance.

Mimura’s position gets exposed and Okajima finds him. Angst happens and they duel in the river. Okajima wins.

Hazama follows a trail of water and end up finding Okajima (who is wet due to fighting with Mimura in the river). Hazama uses her creepy spider manoeuvre to take him by surprise and eliminate him.

Terasaka and Muramatsu encounter Yoshida and Hazama. It is once again painful and angsty. It ends up in Terasaka VS Hazama and Muramatsu VS Yoshida. Terasaka easily eliminates Hazama, and when Yoshida is about to be eliminated, Maehara swings in and uses his “bi blade” (haha, haha) to eliminate Muramatsu. Karma also shows up to eliminate Terasaka after a bit of shit talking. 

Itona sees Okuda and he chases after her, but she escapes. Immediately after this, Itona drops the second bomb. Maehara dramatically shields Isogai from the paint and saves him, but Maehara is eliminated.

Hayami think she’s spotted Itona, but it’s actually a decoy created by Sugaya (he has several of those laying around). Karma decides Itona is too dangerous and sets out to eliminate him. With Hayami and the others watching out for him, he succeeds.

Kataoka and Isogai duel each other as they discuss (read: yell out) their conflicting views of leadership and harmony (Kataoka believes they shouldn’t abandon anyone, Isogai believes class harmony should always come first). After a difficult battle, Kataoka eliminates Isogai. She helps him up and they acknowledge each other’s opinions on leadership.

Kataoka leads Sugino and Yada to fight Hayami and her spotter Fuwa. Hayami takes out Kataoka, Yada takes out Hayami (like in canon Civil War), Fuwa takes out Yada, Sugino takes out Fuwa. Everyone is eliminated except for Sugino. Nakamura and Yoshida, under Karma’s orders, go out to get the other team’s flag. Nagisa stalks them. 

Group 4 are the Last Few Kids Standing, so they meet and FIGHT. Nagisa is somewhere out there eliminating Yoshida and Nakamura, and once he’s done he rushes over to support Sugino and Kanzaki. Karma immediately goes for Sugino while Kanzaki goes for Okuda, who escapes. Karma and Sugino start yelling about friendship and stuff, Karma complains that Sugino is too saccharine and forgiving and that Sugino straight up ignores the harm Kayano has done, while Sugino yells at Karma and says he’s being selfish and a dick. Yay angst. Ultimately Karma eliminates Sugino.

What everyone’s been expecting is FINALLY here! Time for the Karma and Nagisa fight!! They start yelling, they maybe get three sentences out before Okuda suddenly pops out behind Nagisa and literally backstabs him.

“NOW YOU KNOW HOW IT FEELS LIKE TO BE BACKSTABBED!” she screeches.

Kanzaki pops out and swiftly eliminates Okuda. Okuda is very much in Pain after a) being betrayed by Kayano b) fighting her ex-bff Kanzaki c) being eliminated, so she loses it and cries. She begs Karma to win the fight for her. Kanzaki and Karma are both at a lost and step forward to comfort her, but before they can, other Team Distrust members comfort her and take her away from the battlefield. (Fun fact: Kayano has been crying for most of the Civil War.)

Kanzaki, powered with rage and love for Kayano, absolutely DESTROYS Karma. She wins, but it doesn’t feel like victory at all.

I have a lot more to say about this AU, but I’ll leave it here for today lol. Sorry if I accidentally left someone out ;-; it’s getting a little messy for me haha.

[1ddiscourseoftheday]

🌒Mon 9 Dec

Lots of Harry interviews and he was so relaxed and chatty and giggly in the newest, a delight. "People just wanted me to be myself and be authentic," he said, but then also that a song with a lot of writers just won't be as personal as one with just one or two, and choked and gave up halfway through the word while trying to say that Cherry (five writers) is "honest," just changing the subject instead. He gave relationship advice, and said "there’s something kinda wonderful in wearing tights" and discussed his ballet skills. Not everyone's a fan of ballerina Harry though! In what might be the most incoherent crybaby screed I've seen this year (and I see anons in this fandom) an OpEd was published accusing him of "appropriating ballet." If it wasn't so horrifically offensive to anyone who has ever actually dealt with appropriation (or has a brain) I'd be laughing my ass off. We got HQ of him playing WMYB from the other night and it's so good (and SO rocked out, still the same beloved tune but damn near unrecognizable at this point) but it looks so strange now without the flags! There are rainbows all over the screens to make up for it but he still looks kinda naked (though not actually naked which I guess is a thing I have to specify these days). Also today: Jeremy O Harris shared a text exchange between himself and Harry (Harry, politely confused and with read receipts firmly off: 'was this for me?') and the new day brings a new batch of Fine Line merch for everyone to hate, but take heart, today's offering gets you a free tote bag with a $25 order! The shirts are, alas, $24.95 USD each. The ongoing tumblr Fine Line leaks listening party was the big news, but the official ones are continuing as well with Australia, Argentina, Portugal and Japan today. And HSHQ is doing a mysterious invite only event in the LA area Dec 11.... but what IS it? Perhaps they're gathering victims for whatever mysterious event we're keeping our schedules clear for on Dec 12.

Is Louis' new IGTV the best one yet?? Could be! We got casual happy cute Louis, also giggly, we're truly spoiled with these two today, you can hear a little bit of the album version of Habit, an incredibly lovely but much too short clip of acapella practice in a nice echoey shower room, rainbows right there on Louis' socials, plus just a nice visual record of a week of Louis absolutely smashing it. iHeart congratulated Louis on his new single Adore You- it all comes back to Louis and that song is certainly not the exception but he didn't actually write or perform it so uh, oops.

Niall kicked off his week at SNL, and he's so excited ("my heart could explode!") He discusses what it would be like if he was on I'm a celeb (he says he'd get booted off) and is supportive and enthusiastic to female and queer performer friends online, possibly to balance out the abuse he spoke out against yesterday, and had a Moment to share with us: "Having one of those realisation/ thankful moments while I lay in bed. I’m living my dream thanks to you all. I LOVE MUSIC SO MUCH."

And Liam promo continues! He recorded for a pre Brits show performing Live Forever, nice to see him doing the new song. He'll be doing a virtual album signing whatever the heck that is (controlling a robot hand holding a pen?? I would like to see it) and he was given what I would call a wildly inappropriate gift for someone who has spoken publicly about issues with alcohol, "The World Atlas of Gin."

Meanwhile, after adding links to the AY video on the site, Eroda has gone mostly silent. We've been told that Eroda was the friends we made along the way and it was about the journey not the destination and the facebook event is still ongoing but I fear we're watching the dying gasps of our beloved island- can we make her a fishtank please? Nurture and protect her? At least sell us keychains before you go :(

[22ratonthestreet]

APPARENTLY if I send a heart emoji everything after that gets CUT OFF because the bit about not wanting to spam Michael Feelings was only like the FIRST FOURTH of my ask so. I'm annoyed. Anyway I WOULD like to see more of Michael Making His Existence Everyone Else's Problem (I'm glad he's having fun) and more of him being a complete mess with Gerry because as delightful as him getting everyone else off balance is, he deserves to be a little off balance himself. Good for him Gerry thinks its cute

r.i.p. technical difficulties and similarly r.i.p. michael, the spiral makes people’s lives A Whole Trip and while michael loves to hold coins in his mouth so he can pretend to cough them up later while a bystander is watching just to have them thinking about it for the rest of their day, he's absolutely about to get smacked with sincerity like he's never seen but oop ;0 that's gonna have to wait until chapter updates

meanwhile michael being a problem? oh he Is A Problem. he figures out he has neighbors and is like how can i SLIGHTLY inconvenience them? he starts blasting static noise in his apartment. you TRY reporting that to a landlord, what are you gonna describe it as??? the silence is a BIT too TEXTURED?? no. you’re going to slowly go insane listening to it and being unable to tell what it is. michael buys a giant stereo set just for this (Lukas bank card of course), this boy is a BASTARD 

he's going to hide put up false advertisements on bus stops for really normal things like garage repair or something, and then wait for people to call him, and then he’ll pretend like he’s actually discussing a deal with them until slowly derailing it into utter nonsense, see how long they can last before hanging up

catch Jude sleeping and draw a mustache onto the tattoo of that guy on her back. how’s she gonna find out??? she wont. r.i.p.

Godspeed op, <3 that’s some hcs about his terrible behavior pre-gerry for SURE 

[grrlinthefireplace]

Hey so I’ve been seeing you post a lot about La Casa de Papel recently. What exactly is it? It looks kinda interesting.

Thank you so much for asking!

I am delighted beyond reason to have the opportunity to tell you - and by extension the entire world - why this show has cleared my skin, watered my crops, and legitimately healed my soul after this particularly soul-crushing season of Grimdark White Man Television almost broke me as a human being.

I will attempt to keep this as spoiler-free as I possibly can, because this is a show that should be experienced in the moment, but in a nutshell, La Casa de Papel is a heist show set in present-day Madrid which follows both a found family of thieves who rob the Royal Mint of Spain, and the law enforcement officials on the outside who are chasing them.

If that is enough for you, go right to your TV or computer, fire up the ol’ Netflix, and don’t waste any more time.

If, however, you need a little more, here are the top five things I flail about to every single person in my life to convince them they need to start watching this show like immediately and then come back and tell me all about it.

For visual flair, we’ll intersperse them with some gifs of ladies, because I know my audience.

5. character driving plot > plot driving character.

You know that infuriating thing lazy TV writers do where, in order to to hurry up and get to the big explosion or battle scene or dragon attack or whatever, which is the only bit they really care about, they handwave away the whole concept of motivation and make some character do something that any halfway-attentive viewer will immediately clock that they would never actually do?

There is none of that bullshit here.

In its simplest form, the plot of La Casa de Papel is as follows: a brilliant criminal mastermind devises a heist which cannot possibly go wrong, and then we proceed to watch all the ways in which it goes wrong.

This is a fantastic setup for an action story, made even more breathlessly exciting by strategic use of my favorite heist movie plot device (as perfected by Ocean’s Eleven): namely, “scene where it looks like our crime heroes have been outsmarted and are now threatened by a completely unforeseen disaster” immediately followed by “flashback to the team prepping for the heist where we learn that of course they prepared for this exact scenario.”

But from time to time, things do actually go wrong (as they must, or else there would be no story); and, when they do, it is never because you can tell a writer just wanted to write a scene where bullets go flying, and didn’t care how he got there. These characters are so clear, their behavior so consistent, that when gasp-worthy plot twists happen, they happen because of course that character, in this exact scenario, would do that exact thing.

I’m telling you, I came to this show for a ship (more on that in a minute) and I stayed for a swooning, heart-eyes writer crush on the impeccably-designed plot structure and characterization.

4. High stakes, low gore.

Tone-wise, on a sliding scale of Heist Film Intensity where a really fluffy episode of Leverage is a 1, Reservoir Dogs is a 10, and the Ocean’s franchise is somewhere in the 3-4 range, I would place La Casa at a 5 or a 6, which is perfect for me. I love action, suspense, drama and adventure, but I hate gratuitous violence (especially when it’s pointless and masturbatory and doesn’t contribute anything to the plot) and have a very low tolerance for blood and gore. So I kept waiting for the story to eventually take a hard left turn into Tarantino Land, until eventually it was all just one huge pile of dead bodies, and was genuinely surprised when it didn’t.

This is how I learned just how badly my brain has been fucked up by lazy showrunners who think shock deaths are the only way to raise stakes. During the first season of this show, before I had figured out that it was a Flawless Gem of Television Which So Far Has Not Once Disappointed Me, there were probably a dozen moments where I was absolutely convinced that some character was about to be gruesomely killed for shock value … and I was wrong every single time.

Reader, it was fucking wild.

Every single time I was convinced that person A was going to shoot person B in the head because blah blah maximum angst over here in this part of the story and then it will motivate person C to do this other thing, the show did the hard work of finding a smarter, more unexpected direction to take that character’s story. That means that when deaths do come along - and there are a couple - they feel genuinely earned, and they matter deeply to the story and to us.

3. I would die for these women.

This show loves women. Like it truly, authentically, uncompromisingly loves women in all our fucked-up messy glorious complexity. There are no “types” or cliches here; no one is forced to be only one thing. Fuck your one-dimensional Strong Female Characters, lazy writers.

For one thing, on many shows you might be lucky if you get maybe one mom who is given a personality and a story outside of motherhood. Often, on shows written by men, the fact of her motherhood diminishes her strength or her agency. On this show, nearly every one of the central female characters is both a mom and an action hero simultaneously. Seriously. By season 3 there are four different battle moms. They’re all different, they’re not all on the same side, they have different perspectives, and their role as mother impacts the story differently, but that’s the joy of having a whole lot of different kinds of women - no one has to be everything to everyone.

These women are complicated. They laugh, they cry, they crack dirty jokes, they get laid, they have babies, they fight, they make mistakes, they fall in love, they grow. Men pull sexist shit and they shut it the fuck down. Some of them have love stories, some of them don’t, but they are never defined by or triangulated around relationships with men. They get to have relationships with each other. All of them are excellent at their jobs.

Tokyo is the kind of hot mess antihero protagonist we’ve been watching middle-aged white men play for decades.

Allison is such a realistic teenage girl it’s genuinely painful to watch.

Monica has one of the best arcs I’ve ever seen on television, this is not a drill.

Alicia is terrifying. (A pregnant black ops interrogator! ON WHAT OTHER FUCKING SHOW!?!??)

Nairobi is unlike any other character you’ve seen on TV before; she’s got a little bit of Parker from Leverage, a little bit of Raven Reyes from The 100, but she’s entirely her own creature and you will fall in love with her instantly.

And Raquel. Oh, my love, my angel, my hero, Inspector Raquel Murillo. Love of my goddamn life. A fierce, kickass hostage negotiator swimming upstream against a tide of workplace misogyny who sometimes has to make the frustrating little male-appeasing compromises we all have to make to get through the workday. A beautiful, sexy, powerful heroine over 40 whose femininity isn’t diminished based on some bullshit notion that, for example, pairing your tough-bitch suit and gun holster with red toenails and a lacy blouse detracts from your strength. A loving mom and daughter who has to juggle raising a small child and caring for an aging parent with the stress of, you know, trying to stop the biggest robbery in the history of Spain. A domestic violence survivor (TW for those who need it; nothing is ever shown onscreen, but it’s discussed several times) who is given the space to discuss the things that have happened to her and how she has worked through them with such dignity, accuracy and respect that you can tell the writers did their homework.

This is a show where you can tell there are women in the writers’ room.

2. The Professor and Raquel. I don’t want to spoil a single thing for you here except to say that I myself was lured into this show by the promise of electric sexual chemistry between a criminal mastermind and the police inspector hunting him down, and my God I was not disappointed.

1. Love.

This show came into my life at a period where I was so weary of cynicism on television - so fucking furious at showrunners who dangle hope in front of us and then crush it, who only care about building anything if they can tear it down later, who treat love and fun and joy and hope and family and happiness like they’re intellectually lesser than grimdark nihilism with no soul - that I was honestly kind of broken by it. I was just so. fucking. tired. Tired of “the way we show this heroine is strong is to kill off her love interest.” Tired of “sorry but all this rape and murder is NECESSARY because of REALISM” (particularly rich when coming from shows featuring evil A.I.’s or dragons and ice zombies). Tired of getting invested in relationships - whether ships or friends or found families - only to realize that the show I was watching was always going to sacrifice character to force plot mechanics into place, and those relationships were never going to get the kind of care and focus I wanted them to get.

But that is not this show.

The single most revolutionary thing, to me, about La Casa de Papel - the thing that sets it apart from every other rollercoaster action thrill ride on television - is that every single thread of the plot is tied to love.

Every.

Single.

One.

Love of all different shapes and sizes - parents and children, friendships, doomed crushes (straight and queer), toxic exes, blossoming romances, siblings - and over it all, a deep, deep love for humanity.

The thing I said before, about how when things go wrong they go wrong in character-driven ways? It’s this. Love is why everything on this show happens. Love is what makes children want to live up to their parents and what makes parents fight to leave a better world for their children. Love is why deaths have stakes. Love is why we spend so much screentime lingering on small moments another show might ignore, like all the thieves at heist camp sitting down every night to have dinner together and argue about paella techniques. Love is what causes chaos in the middle of the heist; when there’s one person in the room you care about more than the others, you can get distracted and take your eye off the ball. Love is how your enemies can get to you, by leveraging or blackmailing the people who matter most, knowing that you’ll crack if they’re in danger. Love, gone wrong, causes toxic men to develop possessive and controlling behavior towards women. Love is how the Professor gets the idea for the heist in the first place. The plan is flawless on paper, but it doesn’t account for the human variable, and over and over again we see that relationships and connection and sex and family and love cause people to behave in unpredictable ways and throw the whole plan into chaos, which is what makes for a dynamic and compelling story.

How refreshing to see a show simply refuse to grant the oft-repeated premise that a show cannot have both high-octane thrills, and a big soft squishy heart, at the same time.

ANYWAY, I’VE TAKEN UP ENOUGH OF YOUR VALUABLE TV-WATCHING TIME, GO JUMP ON BOARD THIS TRAIN AND COME SCREAM ABOUT IDEALISTIC SPANISH ROBIN HOODS WITH ME, AND LET THE GOOD SHIP SERQUEL INTO YOUR LIFE, YOU WON’T BE SORRY

THANKS FOR COMING TO MY TED TALK

[galahadwilder]

We Are Miraculous, Ch. 4: Full

This chapter was sponsored by @alexseanchai. Sponsor a fic chapter here!

We Are Miraculous Archive

AO3

With thanks to @alexseanchai and @paganinpurple

*

When Adrien comes back from whatever it was he had to do so urgently, he seems a lot calmer. Nino's glad—he's just watched two of his closest friends have barely-averted meltdowns over a vicious op-ed directed at someone else, and he's not sure how to help either of them. Oh, he can put on a happy face and try to cheer them up, sure, but it doesn't change how useless he feels. And how little he thinks it's going to work.

He misses his bubbles. He used to carry a bubble wand everywhere he went—now his hands shake every time he even looks at one, and he can barely even muster the energy to hate Hawkmoth for taking them from him.

"Doing any better?" Nino says as Adrien trudges down the steps of François DuPont, hands in his pockets. He's standing straighter than he was when he left.

"Yeah," Adrien says with a small smile. He isn't rocking anymore the way he was in class, and when he speaks he actually manages to meet Nino's eyes, so... that's a good sign.

"Dad stuff?" Nino says. He wants to put his arm around Adrien's shoulder—physical contact usually helps the dude, he gets so little of it in his everyday life—but Nino knows from Chris and Mari that sensory overload usually responds poorly to extra stimulation. (He's been doing a lot of research into mental health since Enzo... well, since Enzo. He tugs on his hat. He's surprised that he didn't react much to Caron's diatribes. But, then again, not that surprised.)

Adrien shakes his head. "No, not—not this time," he says. His lips twist, and Nino waits for him to elaborate further, but he says nothing.

Nino nods. "Come on," he says. "I'm taking you to Marinette's and we are going to stuff you with sugar until you forget all about what's bothering you."

Adrien perks up at that, a glint in his eyes, and Nino's heart lifts a little at the sight.

*

Every step towards the bakery, Adrien relaxes a little more. Nino’s not sure who he called—he hopes it’s a therapist, because sweet turtle god does he need one—but it definitely helped.

Adrien pushes through the door first, all nervous energy, half-excitement and half-fear, while Nino trudges after him. The lunch rush is in full swing, so the bakery floor is packed, but Sabine still catches sight of them as soon as they walk through the door.

”Hello, boys!” she calls over the crowd with a welcoming smile.

”Hi, Sabine,” Nino says.

Adrien waves nervously, shrinking imperceptibly toward the outer wall. Too many people.

Nino catches his eye. “I’ll order,” he says. “Your usual?”

Adrien swallows and nods.

Waiting in line doesn’t take very long, not that Nino minds. He’s not particularly hungry and he doesn’t really think about inconvenience; as long as Adrien’s okay, it doesn’t really matter. (He is going to have to eat, though. Doctor’s orders.)

He gets to the front of the line and places his and Adrien’s orders just as Tom comes bustling out of the back with a tray of sticky buns. “Oh, Nino!” he says. “We missed you at Mecha Strike last week.”

Nino shakes his head with a rueful smile plastered on his face. “Sorry, dude,” he says. “Other commitments, you know how it is.” He feels guilty for the fib, and guiltier for being unable to drag himself out of bed to see his friend. But that was last week.

”The girls are having lunch in the park,” Sabine says conspiratorially as she hands him a paper bag with his and Adrien’s lunches in it, as well as two cardboard cups. “I’m sure they’d love for you two to join them.” She adds a small wink as she presses the button on the register to process his (heavily discounted) meal.

”I’ll be sure to do that,” he says, feeling a brief spark of mischief light up his brain before burning out.

He pushes through the crowd and the jingling door to find Adrien waiting outside at the patio table. “Hey, dude,” he says, handing Adrien his hot chocolate. “Feeling better?”

Adrien nods, taking the hot chocolate in both hands and sniffing the steam. “Nectar of the Gods,” he murmurs with delight.

”Sabine said Alya and Mari are having lunch in the park, if you want to join them,” Nino says. He hopes Adrien agrees. He still needs to check on Marinette.

”Yeah, I’m down,” Adrien says without looking up from his drink.

*

“Oh! Adrien!”

Nino doesn’t miss the way Adrien deflates at the sound of Lila’s voice. He’s not sure why Adrien dislikes her so much—as far as he can tell, Lila’s a perfectly pleasant, if a bit overenthusiastic, person. But she makes Adrien uncomfortable and as far as this goes, that’s all Nino really needs to know.

”Hey Lila!” Nino says with more cheer than he feels, putting a hand protectively on Adrien’s shoulder. “Adrien and I were just having a little guys’ lunch.” He tries to emphasize the word guys, tell her ‘leave us alone, please.’

”Oh!” Lila says. “Mind if I join?” She latches onto Adrien’s arm before either of them can speak, and Nino glances at Adrien—he’s gone tense, frozen. He’s not gonna say anything and if Nino does he might freak.

”Sure,” Nino grumbles. “Why not.” This is not good—Adrien’s rarely this nonverbal for this length of time. Whatever peace his call at the beginning of lunch had brought him, Lila’s just shattered, and Nino has no idea how to make her leave. He wishes she knew how uncomfortable she makes Adrien, but she seems a bit too oblivious to catch on.

”Can you believe that Caron piece?” Lila says as they walk into the park. “It was so uncalled for!” She purses her lips and shakes her head. “I told Ladybug that video might be a bad idea, but she insisted it was important to her.” She sighs dreamily. “She’s so brave.”

Adrien grunts, and Nino flinches at the sound. But then he spots Alya and Marinette on a picnic blanket nearby, laughing and sharing croissants, and he relaxes a bit.

Alya’s head pops up, and she brightens when she sees them. “Oh, hi guys!” She says. “Come join us!”

”Of course!” Lila giggles, dragging Adrien after her and yanking him down to the blanket. Nino doesn’t miss the way Marinette bristles, and all he can think is, please don’t start this again.

“Oh, Lila, I have something for you!” Alya says, reaching into her bag. She flips open the top and produces... a bottle of mouthwash? She presents it to Lila with a proud flourish. “Here you go!”

The whole group falls into utter silence as Lila stares at the green bottle in Alya’s hands. “I—what?” the Italian girl says, weakly. Her face is pale and she looks like she’s about to puke.

"Oh, I thought...” Alya’s face falls. “Nevermind. Sorry.” She turns to stuff the bottle back into her backpack.

Lila’s face blanches further and she shoots to her feet. “I—I just remembered,” she says. “Mama needed me home today for—we’re, we’re organizing some charity work, so I need to go—”

”Of course!” Alya laughs, waving. “Good luck.”

Lila bolts.

As soon as she’s out of earshot, Alya’s genuine grin turns savage. “Should’ve taken the mouthwash,” she growls. “Maybe it’ll clean the aftertaste of the bullshit you’re spewing.”

Marinette covers her mouth and giggles, her face red, and Adrien stares at Alya before collapsing into his back. “Thank god,” he says.

”Uh,” Nino says. “What was that?”

Alya sighs and rolls her eyes. "Remember how I told Marinette to fact-check Lila?"

Marinette winces at the words.

"Yeah?" Nino says. Ugh, he doesn’t want to have this discussion again—

Alya twists her lips and wraps her arm around Mari’s shoulder, pulling her in close. "Well, she did,” Alya says. “And now I feel like an idiot."

Nino blinks, an ember of dull rage sparking in his chest. She was lying? About—about everything?

Lila was—Marinette has always been someone he trusts. He may not understand why she's so insistent on hiding the anxiety attacks she has whenever there's an Akuma, and her excuses are getting ridiculous, but he grew up with her—she's never been someone who lied before. And he always knew Lila was kind of a flake. But the person Mari’s accusations posited couldn't possibly have existed—she'd painted a picture of absolutely comic pettiness and villainy—on level with Adrien’s dad. And Lila is actually like that? He can barely believe someone like that exists at their age.

Much as he's wanted to, he hasn't really been able to care about the Basielberg connection after that first day. But he's not the only one Lila hurt.

He glances at Adrien as a number of things start to click in his head. “Is that why you’re so uncomfortable around her?”

”She hurt Marinette,” Adrien says without picking up his head. Nino can tell he has more to say, but he doesn't seem to want to.

Marinette looks down at her sandwich, steadily reddening. “She hurt you too, you know,” she whispers.

”And nobody gets to hurt either of you again,” Alya says, lightly punching Marinette’s shoulder.

Marinette winces, laughing, then her laugh slows and she goes back to a small smile, laying herself across Alya's lap. "I've missed this," she says.

Nino looks around, sees his friends, how comfortable they are now for the first time since Lila came back to school, and thinks, so did I.

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[cyborgsquirrel]

Sanctuary: Chapter 16

Pairing: Wolfstar

Summary: The epic tale of Remus Lupin and Sirius Black, from their first meeting until their happily ever after.

Link to Prologue

Link to All Chapters

Monday, 20th September 1971, 2:10 pm

Sitting in Charms next to Peter after lunch, Remus felt delighted with himself. His plan had gone perfectly and everyone seemed to be enjoying their transfigured outfits. Even Professor Dumbledore hadn't changed. The morning had gone well. Transfiguration was easy since he'd already mastered the art of changing a material's colour, and Sirius had commented on how good he was at it. Remus had wondered if the boys would suspect him, but so far they seemed to believe the Hogwarts Marauder was someone much older than themselves.

They were now working on the gouging charm Defodio. It was a simple charm, and most of the class had grasped the basics the previous Wednesday, but now Professor Flitwick wanted them to work on their precision and had given each of them a flat piece of wood and asked them to produce a decorative carving. Peter was attempting some kind of star pattern, but it wasn't going well, and his stars were somewhat lopsided. Remus was working on an intricate pattern of lines and swirls, and it was coming along nicely. He just had a few finishing touches to add. 'Wow, that's fantastic, Remus,' Peter said. Remus looked up from his work to see Peter staring at his carving with wide eyes. 'Hey, guys, look at this,' he said, turning round to speak to Sirius and James. Sirius and James looked up from their own work. Remus had no idea what James' was supposed to be, but Sirius seemed to be carving some kind of dog. 'What?' Sirius asked. 'Remus' carving. It's brilliant,' Peter said, picking it up to show them. Sirius and James stared at the wood for a moment before looking up at Remus. 'How are you so good at everything?' Sirius asked. 'You're the first to get it right in every class. Well, except Potions.' Remus felt his face heating. That was happening a little too often for his liking. 'I kind of read all the books when I was little, and I practised the wand movements with a stick too.' Sirius stared at him for an uncomfortably long moment. 'You are such a nerd, Remus Lupin,' he said. But his tone held a hint of affection and his eyes were twinkling. Remus decided he didn't mind being called a nerd when it was Sirius. When classes were over for the day, they returned to their dormitory to relax, and discussion immediately turned to the Hogwarts Marauder, much to Remus' amusement. 'Who do you think it is?' James asked the room as he flopped onto his bed. 'It doesn't really matter,' Sirius said, his voice thoughtful. James shot upright and opened his mouth, presumably to argue, but Sirius stopped him by holding up a hand from where he was lounging on his own bed. 'I mean, the real question is how are we going to top them?' James' mouth gaped for a moment, closed and opened again twice before he responded. 'You are absolutely right. It needs to be amazing and spectacular and awe-inspiring.' Remus laughed inwardly. This was too funny. 'What do you mean? Top them?' Sirius, James and Peter all glanced at each other, appearing to have a silent conversation. Sirius twitched his eyebrows. James wrinkled his nose. Peter shrugged. James frowned. Sirius rolled his eyes, and James nodded. Sirius grinned and turned to Remus. 'You remember the unpoppable balloon parade a couple of weeks ago?' Remus nodded and plastered an interested expression on his face. Sirius smirked. 'That was us.' Remus attempted to look suitably surprised and impressed. 'Really?' he asked. 'That was very impressive. How did you get the balloons to animate exactly?' James hurried to explain how they'd stolen the vial from Filch's office and used it to improve on their plan at the last minute. Remus was impressed but still thought his own was better, purely because it was all his own work. 'So, when you say "top them," you mean do something better? In competition?' Remus asked. 'Exactly,' James said, grinning. 'You in?' Was he in on helping his friends top his own work? Remus thought, fighting down the bubble of laughter threatening to burst out. 'Sure, why not? What do you have in mind?' he asked. James rubbed his chin and glanced at Sirius. 'I'm not sure. We need to brainstorm,' he said. Peter grabbed some parchment and a quill, and they settled down to think. The evening flew by in a rowdy planning session, and the next afternoon, Remus found himself roaming the halls once again with Sirius, James, and Peter, on the hunt for more Hogwarts' secrets. They had finished with the seventh floor of the main building and had moved on to the west wing, and as they got nearer the entrance to Ravenclaw tower, they heard voices. Three males speaking in a mocking tone and a female who sounded upset. The four boys glanced at each other. 'What do we have?' James said. Remus was confused at first, not understanding what James meant, but as he watched Sirius rummage through his bag, he got the idea. They were going to help the girl. Remus' chest swelled with pride. There wasn't a hint of hesitation in his friends. They were truly good people. 'I have that bag of dungbombs from your father and a fanged frisbee,' Sirius said. Peter was also checking his bag. 'I've got the itching powder and the rest of the stinksap Sirius collected.' Remus already knew there was nothing in his bag but books, quills and parchment and he deflated a little. He had so little to offer. 'I have my wand,' he said, holding it up. Sirius looked up at him and grinned as if Remus possessing the most basic equipment required for any wizard was the best news he'd heard all day. 'Have you tried any offensive spells?' Remus frowned and thought over the spells he'd "practiced" in his garden with a stick. 'Not as such, but I reckon I can manage a Depulso.' James bounced on the balls of his feet. 'Brilliant! Okay, here's the plan.' They rounded the corner and found three, third or fourth year Slytherins surrounding a sobbing first year Ravenclaw and showering her with stinging hexes. Beside him, Remus heard Sirius grinding his teeth together, and he glanced down to see he'd balled his hands into fists. This was really bothering him. He wondered why, but he didn't have time to think about it because, according to James' plan, he was up first. He hoped he wouldn't screw it up. Remus stepped forward, pointed his wand and yelled, 'Depulso, depulso, depulso.' He moved his wand to re-aim after each attack, and three balls of blinding white light shot from the end and hit the Slytherins square in the forehead, knocking their heads back painfully. While they were distracted, James and Peter let loose with a barrage of dungbombs. The girl got to her feet and ran off down the corridor without even stopping to thank them. That was Sirius' cue. With the girl out of the way he launched the fanged frisbee, and they all watched as it soared towards the three Slytherin boys who were too busy wiping dungbomb detritus from their eyes to notice its approach. The frisbee went in for the attack, biting all three of them on any and all exposed skin it could find. Panicking, the Slytherins ran, and the fanged frisbee followed them. It wouldn't stop attacking until one of them had the presence of mind to snatch it out of the air. The four boys watched them leave with satisfaction, congratulating themselves on a job well done. 'What on Earth did you do to them?' a high-pitched voice demanded. Remus looked up and saw the speaker was Lily. She was walking down the corridor from the direction the Slytherins had run and had obviously seen their departure. 'Why do you three keep attacking Slytherins?' she asked. 'And you too, Remus? I'm surprised at you. I thought you were better than these bullies,' she added when she spotted him at the back of the group. Remus was shocked. Surely she didn't think him capable of bullying? Lily gave him one last scathing look before tossing her hair over her shoulder and marching away down the corridor. 'Well, that's nice, isn't it?' Peter asked. He seemed to be the only one of them capable of speech at that moment. James was staring after Lily like a lost puppy, and Sirius was stood with his mouth gaping open, apparently in shock. 'We stop people from bullying someone and get labelled bullies ourselves?' That concise summary of events broke the spell, and they all started speaking at once. 'What a mangy hippogriff!' Sirius said looking scandalised. 'Talk about jumping to conclusions.' 'I can't believe she would think I was involved in bullying,' Remus said. 'She's so pretty when she's mad,' James said with a sigh. 'Mad is the right word,' Sirius said and smacked James around the back of the head. 'Hey! What was that for?' James yelled. 'Being a dopey prat,' Sirius said. 'She just called us bullies, and you're mooning over her like a love-struck pixie.' 'I wasn't mooning! I just think she's pretty is all,' James said, pushing his lower lip out and pouting like a toddler. Sirius shook his head with dismay and, in a rapid change of subject, looked at Peter and asked, 'Is it nearly dinner time?' Peter glanced at his watch, and his eyes widened with surprise. 'It is,' he said. 'I hadn't even noticed.' 'Right then,' Sirius said, straightening his robes and smoothing his already-perfect hair. 'Let's go eat.' And with that, he marched off down the corridor, leaving Remus, James and Peter to hurry after him or be left behind. After dinner, Remus climbed the stairs to the dorm with a light heart and a smile on his face. Breen had made his favourite steak and chips; he'd spent the afternoon with friends; and he had all his work up to date, so there was nothing to do that evening but relax. There was no way he was going to show his face at potion's club again, not after the disaster that was last week and the way Lily had accused him of bullying earlier. When he pushed the door open, he was greeted by a chorus of loud burps. He looked around and saw his three friends sitting on Sirius' bed together and taking it in turns to belch obnoxiously. 'What on earth?' he said. James opened his mouth to respond, but all that came out was another audible expulsion of gas. He tried again and the same thing happened. Sirius giggle-burped and shoved James' shoulder with his own. Peter burp-sighed and picked up a packet from the bed between them, tossing it to Remus. Remus caught it and read the writing on the front. "Belch Powder. Make your friends burp whenever they try to speak." 'I see,' Remus said. 'And you all took this?' Sirius nodded with enthusiasm. 'How long does it last?' James jumped off the bed and bounced to where Remus was standing, took the packet, turned it over and pointed to the writing on the back. "Effects wear off after ten minutes," Remus read aloud. 'How long do you have left?' Sirius held up two fingers before moving his hand horizontally and waggling it. 'About two minutes?' Remus translated and Sirius nodded. 'I'm going to take a shower,' Remus said and proceeded into the bathroom to do just that. When he returned, the boys were waiting for him. 'Can you slip the powder into the food when you're in the kitchens to eat?' James asked him the moment he came out of the bathroom. Remus sidestepped the three boys and continued to his bed to put his uniform away before answering. 'I'm not sure. I don't usually go near the cooking area. It would be tricky, but it's possible,' he said. 'It's not really enough to beat the Hogwarts Marauder though.' 'This is just a small part of it. If we're going to put on a show for the Halloween feast, we have plenty of time to plan the rest. What I really want to do is find a way to combine the powder with a bubble charm. To make people burp bubbles. Just imagine it,' James said, gazing off into the distance with a dreamy expression on his face. 'That might be possible,' Remus said, thoughtfully. 'We'll need to figure out how the belching powder works before we can alter it though. I'll do some research.' 'Thanks, Remus. You're a star!' James said. 'He's not a star, I'm a star!' Sirius said. 'Your name is a star,' James said, turning to Sirius, who was pouting. The expression caused a strange flutter deep in Remus' stomach. 'Remus is an actual star because he is saving me from spending time in the dreaded library.' Sirius nodded. 'Point. We can share stardom, Remus.' Before Remus could reply, there was a tapping at the dormitory window, and they all turned to look. A large owl was hovering outside carrying a flat, rectangular box. Sirius was closest and hurried over to open the window. The bird flew in and dropped the package on Sirius' bed before landing on the windowsill and hooting softly. Sirius grabbed a few sickles from his money pouch and showed them to the owl before tucking them into the tiny bag attached to its leg. The bird hooted again and flew out the window. 'What's in the parcel?' James asked. Sirius grinned. 'Chocolate!' he said, unwrapping the package and revealing a box of Honeydukes' finest. Chocolate which Remus had only ever dreamed of tasting. His mouth watered. 'You want some?' Sirius asked, offering the box first to James and then to Remus. 'Oh. Thank you,' Remus said, and Sirius' grin grew impossibly wider. Remus glanced over the contents of the box and took one of the smallest and least interesting of the selection. Sirius scoffed and rolled his eyes before picking out four of the biggest and most interesting delicacies and handing them to Remus. He looked Remus in the eye and with a serious expression said, 'Remus, you are my friend. I bought these chocolates to share with my friends. In future, if I offer you a share of something and you short-change yourself, I will take it as an insult and be very cross with you. Understand?' Remus felt a warm glow in his chest and nodded. Sirius' expression melted into a beautiful smile and he twirled away to offer his bounty to Peter, who was not shy about helping himself to a decent amount. Remus sat down on his bed, Sirius' words were playing on repeat in his mind. "Remus, you are my friend." He couldn't stop the joy he felt from showing on his face, so he popped a chocolate into his mouth to give him an excuse to smile. It was divine! Rich and creamy with a hint of vanilla and strawberries. He groaned with delight at the flavour. Nothing before in his life had ever tasted so good as this chocolate, given to him by his first real friend.

-o-o-o-o-

The next morning, Sirius was waiting in the Entrance hall with James and Peter for Remus to return from the kitchens after breakfast. He was delighted with how well the chocolates had gone down. A couple more boxes like that, and he would be able to feed Remus chocolate when he returned after the full moon without anyone thinking it was odd. 'There he is,' James said, pointing at the steps down to the dungeons. Sirius followed his gaze and spotted Remus as he reached the top of the staircase. He was looking much healthier than he had at the beginning of the month. His skin had more colour, and the dark rings under his eyes had all but disappeared. Thank Merlin and the gods and Godric Gryffindor himself that Hogwarts has such a competent medi-witch to take care of him, Sirius thought. With Madam Pomfrey's help, maybe Remus could surpass the usual ten-year life-span of a lycanthrope. 'Hey, what do you guys want to do until History?' Remus asked when he reached them. 'We still need to finish searching the seventh-floor. We could carry on with that?' Sirius suggested. The others quickly agreed, and they were heading for the stairs when an ominous shadow fell over them. Sirius looked up into the stern face of Professor McGonagall. 'Gentlemen, I'm glad to see you four all together. It makes my job so much easier. Please come with me. I need to have a word,' she said, before turning with a swish of robes and marching in the direction of her office. Sirius glanced at the others, frowning. 'What the hell did we do?' he whispered. James shrugged. 'Beats me, mate. Guess we better go and find out.' They all followed her up the stairs to the first floor and into her office, where she told them to take a seat. Sirius was confused but not worried. He didn't think they had done anything wrong, so this couldn't be a punishment, and detention wasn't a big deal, anyway. Professor McGonagall took her seat behind the desk and eyed them over the top of her glasses. 'It has been reported to me that the four of you attacked three Slytherin students in the corridor yesterday afternoon. Is this true?' Sirius gaped at her. 'That's what this is about?' he asked. He glanced at the others, and they nodded their approval for him to speak for the group. 'We did attack them, yes. But we only did so because they were bullying someone. They had her surrounded and were hitting her with stinging hexes.' Professor McGonagall frowned. 'Do you have the name of this student so I can verify your story?' 'No. She was a Ravenclaw, looked like a first-year, but she ran off when we intervened. We didn't get the chance to speak to her.' 'I see. You're telling me that you pit yourselves against three fourth-year students to protect someone you don't even know?' Professor McGonagall asked, raising an eyebrow. Sirius wasn't sure if she was surprised or sceptical, but either way, it was insulting. 'Yes. Obviously. We are Gryffindors,' he said. His voice came out a little more haughty than he had intended, but it was effective. Professor McGonagall smiled. That was unexpected. 'Yes, you are,' she said, her voice uncharacteristically soft. She cleared her throat and continued in her normal stern tone. 'I will admit to feeling a little proud. However, I can't condone using magic in the halls. It is against school rules. Under the circumstances, though, I think a warning will suffice. Don't do it again. Understood?' They all nodded. 'Good, you may go.' Sirius stood and sauntered from the room, with the others close behind him. 'I can't believe they reported us. What a bunch of idiots,' James laughed as they started down the corridor. 'I guess they needed treatment for the frisbee bites and had to explain why they were covered in dung,' Remus said. Peter tripped on the bottom step of the staircase, but James caught him. 'Woah, steady. Don't go breaking your nose, we have things to do.' 'Thanks,' Peter said after regaining his footing. 'At least McGonagall believed us.' 'Detention would have been worth it. If she thinks I'm going to leave someone to be bullied because we aren't supposed to do magic in the corridors, she can think again,' James said, puffing out his chest. 'Hear, hear!' Sirius crowed. 'Not on our watch, right, mates?' Remus and Peter were quick to agree, and Sirius felt a swell of pride. He felt bigger, stronger and more powerful, surrounded by his friends. He had people he could count on to be there when he needed help and people who believed in him. He liked it. He liked it a lot. Two hours later, Sirius was sitting next to James in Charms, staring at the back of Remus' head and watching him as he attempted to levitate a feather. He had mastered the swish and flick of the wand movement but was having a little trouble with the pronunciation. 'Wingardium Leviosa,' Remus said, swishing his wand. Nothing. 'Wingardium Leviosa.' Still nothing. 'Wingardium Leviosa.' Remus' feather swayed as if a light breeze had touched it and then lifted off the desk, floating up towards the ceiling. Remus kept his wand pointed at it but shifted it to the left slightly in an experimental fashion. The feather reacted, following his wand tip exactly. Sirius grinned and turned back to his own work, pleased for Remus. He cast the charm and his feather rose into the air. He and James had practised this spell earlier in the week, both agreeing that it could be useful for the purposes of misbehaviour, and James was floating his own feather with equal ease next to him. Sirius was guiding his feather in the direction of Flitwick's hat, hoping to add a little decoration to the headgear when Remus turned around and said, 'Do you think we can use this spell for Halloween? The bubbles won't float to the ceiling without some help.' James rubbed his chin and, forgotten, his feather floated to the floor of the classroom. 'Yeah, but it will take forever to add the charm to each grain of powder. Do you think you can pre-cast it over the top half of the Great Hall?' 'I'll have to do some research. We might need to alter the spell a little,' Remus said. Alter the spell? That sounds incredibly complicated, Sirius thought. 'You can do that?' Remus hesitated before answering. 'I've done a little reading on the subject. I've never tried before, though.' Sirius gave him a searching look. He wasn't sure what was causing it, but something told him Remus was lying. But why would he want to keep that a secret? Best not to let on that he'd noticed anything, though. 'We'll leave that in your capable hands then, Remus,' he said, giving him a wink that made Remus' cheeks redden. After Charms, they dashed up to Gryffindor tower to put their bags away before lunch as they had no classes that afternoon, and on their way back out, Peter spotted something on the noticeboard. 'Hey, guys! Look at this, could be fun,' he said. They all stopped to read the notice that was covering the entire board. The letters bounced around on the poster excitedly. There were inky fireworks repeatedly bursting in the corners and a considerable amount of small print at the bottom.

Hogwarts Annual Super Secret Niffler Hunt

will take place on

Saturday, 25th September

beginning at

8:00 am

in

Classroom 12c on the third floor

Sign up with your team name below. The deadline to sign up is 5 pm on Friday.

Teams must consist of no more than four people. Under no circumstances reveal the existence of the Hogwarts Annual Super Secret Niffler Hunt to any member of Hogwarts staff, under pain of shunning. Participation in the Hogwarts Annual Super Secret Niffler Hunt may result in severe punishment. You are expected to take full responsibility if caught out-of-bounds or otherwise engaging in forbidden acts during the hunt.

You have been warned!

Signed

Hogwarts Chiefs of Raucous Revelry.

'Awesome, I love niffler hunts!' James said. 'What the hell is a niffler hunt? Not hunting nifflers, surely? They're so cute and adorable,' Sirius said, feeling traumatised by the very idea. 'No,' James said, laughing. 'The organisers give you a list of stuff, and you have to find it all within the time limit. Sometimes there are puzzles you have to work out to figure out what you need to find.' 'Ah, so we would be the nifflers then,' Sirius said. 'Exactly. You up for it?' 'Absolutely. Nothing better to do, is there?' Sirius said with a grin. 'We need a team name. Any ideas?' Remus asked. 'How about the Jolly Jokesters?' Peter suggested. James groaned. 'Gods, no, That's awful.' 'The Talented Tricksters?' Sirius said. 'Or the Rebellious Rogues?' James shook his head at both suggestions. 'If we're going with alliteration,' Remus said, 'what about the Magical Mischief Makers?' 'Ooh, I like it,' Sirius said, looking at James to see his reaction. James smiled and nodded. 'Yes, that has a nice ring to it. Peter?' 'It describes us quite well, I think.' Sirius looked down to see where they were supposed to sign their team-name and saw a piece of parchment and a quill hovering inches below the noticeboard. The moment he moved his hand towards them, they floated closer, and he plucked the quill from the air and wrote their chosen name on the list. 'This is going to be a blast,' James said, rubbing his hands together in anticipation. Sirius had to agree. After lunch, they returned to the dorm intending to get some sleep before Astronomy, but James and Peter were restless and soon got back up to start a game of gobstones. 'Argh. You got me again, Pete!' James cried out for the third time in less than five minutes. His shout was echoed by the shifting of bed sheets from behind the only set of curtains still closed. Sirius glanced over to Remus' bed. There was no way he was going to get any sleep with James and Peter making so much noise in the room. 'I'm bored,' he said. 'Let's go outside.' He heard a whispered, 'Oh, gods. Please do,' from behind Remus' curtains and, smirking, awarded himself a mental pat on the back for being such a good friend. James considered his suggestion for a moment, stroking his chin as if thinking deeply on the issue. 'Why, yes, my friend. I think going outside sounds like a splendiferous idea,' he said, jumping to his feet. 'Come on, Pete! Adventure awaits.' With that pronouncement he bounded from the room with Pete following close behind. And everyone says I have too much energy, Sirius thought. 'Sleep well, Remus,' he said as he left the room, closing the door gently behind him before rushing after his friends. They reached the edge of the Black Lake ten minutes later and flopped down on the grass. It was a bright sunny day, but the wind coming off the lake was chilly, and Sirius pulled his cloak around himself to keep warm. 'You know, those Prewett twins seemed quite roguish. You don't reckon it's them, do you?' James said, breaking the silence. 'Who? The Marauder?' Sirius asked. James nodded. 'Can't be. The message would have said "The Marauders" if there were multiple people involved. It's only one person.' 'Well, who do you think it is?' James asked. 'I have a suspicion,' Sirius replied, thinking about what he'd noticed earlier that day. 'But I'm not going to say until I have a little more evidence.' 'What!' James yelled, leaping to his feet. 'You can't say that and then not tell us!' 'I can and I did,' Sirius said, laughing at James' outrage. 'What are you going to do about it?' 'This!' James scooped up a handful of mud from the bank of the lake and formed it into a ball before launching it at Sirius. Sirius rolled out of the way, and the ball of mud missed him by inches, splattering Peter who had been lying on the grass next to him. Peter leapt to his feet, wiping mud off his face and shouting, 'You're dead, James!' before running to the bank to collect his own grubby projectile. Sirius scrambled to his feet. 'It's so on, Potter!' he cried, heading in the opposite direction to Peter in his quest for a weapon. The boys chased each other along the circumference of the lake for over an hour before finally collapsing onto the grass, exhausted and coated in mud. They had each been shoved into muddy pools several times during the course of the game, and there was barely an inch of clean material between them. 'Merlin! I don't think I've ever had that much fun before,' Sirius said. 'Really?' James asked. 'I had mud fights with my dad all the time growing up. Mum used to go mental. It was hilarious.' 'Gods, no. If my mother could see me looking like this, I think she'd drop dead on the spot from sheer horror,' Sirius said. 'Actually, that's a thought. Can we get to Grimmauld place from here? Damn, if only I could apparate.' James laughed. 'Sorry, mate. You'll have to wait until Christmas. Do you have a garden? You can just roll around in the mud when you get home. Job done.' 'Summer,' Sirius said. 'What?' 'It will have to wait until summer. I'm not going home for Christmas. Or Easter. I'd rather put that confrontation off for as long as possible.' James and Peter had stopped laughing, and the atmosphere was heavier than before. Sirius felt bad for lowering the mood. 'Your parents can't really be mad at you for being in Gryffindor, can they?' Peter asked. 'It's not your fault. We don't get to choose.' 'They won't see it that way,' Sirius said. 'But that's a long way off, and there's no use worrying over something that can't be changed. Let's head back to the dorm and get showered before dinner. It might take a while to get there. If Filch sees us in the castle looking like this, he might actually kill us.' James and Peter both looked down at themselves and laughed. 'Yeah, he might. And I left the cloak behind too. Didn't think we'd need it.' Sirius jumped to his feet. 'Race you to the Entrance Hall,' he hollered over his shoulder as he ran towards the school. 'Cheater!' James shouted, but was quick to give chase. Peter moaned behind them as he clambered upright. 'Not more blasted running!' As Sirius had expected, he and James were forced to wait by the door for several minutes while Peter strolled sedately across the grounds towards them. His plodding walk combined with his mud-soaked attire gave him a distinct resemblance to a troll. When Peter finally reached them, they poked their heads around the door to check for cranky caretakers and, seeing the coast was clear, hurried towards the stairs, leaving a trail of muddy footprints behind them. They made it as far as the fifth-floor before disaster struck. After rounding the corner of the staircase onto the fifth-floor landing, they heard a distant voice bellowing from the floor below. 'Look at this filth, Miss Norris! These horrid children spreading their muck everywhere! Let's get them, sweetness. We'll string them up by their ankles.' 'Shit!' Sirius said. 'Run!' James and Peter didn't need telling twice. The three boys ran as fast as their legs could take them. Unfortunately for Peter, that meant he was soon left behind. When Sirius arrived at the portrait to Gryffindor tower, James was by his side but Peter was nowhere to be seen. 'I'm sure he'll turn up,' Sirius said. James agreed, and they gave the Fat Lady the password and clambered into the common room to go and wake a sleeping Remus for dinner.

Chapter 17

[queenbirbs]

waiting game | Ethan Ramsey x MC

AN - Literally couldn’t get this oneshot out of my head last night, so therefore I spent most of my last day off before Easter Hell Week writing it out. Because of course, why not? WC 3701 There’s a special place in hell for Harper Emery.  

It’s the fourth time the phrase has entered his head, but it hasn’t lost the fire behind it. He’s the leader of one of the country’s best diagnostics teams, he’s done a few tours with Doctors Without Borders. Last year, he even went back home for Christmas dinner with a family who would honestly rather receive more postcards from Mozambique in lieu of seeing him in person.  

And yet, this is possibly the most stressful thing Ethan’s ever dealt with. Wading through feces and garbage in a rural country would be more preferable at this point.  

The event room around him is gilded to the tee. Every table is draped in the finest cloth, the silverware sparkling in the light of the chandeliers, the plates filled with the highest quality catering. Extravagant centerpieces explode from the center of the tables, white orchids and white hydrangeas and white lilies spilling out from crystal vases. Some type of curly branch winds up toward the ceiling, breaking up the overwhelming glare of white.  

In the beginning, he tried to position himself just so, hoping the floral arrangement would hide him. Sitting down only served to make him an easy target, though, where any of the sharks could circle his table and feast upon him at will.

Glancing down at the scotch in his hand, he wonders how many more metaphors he can make before he has to cut himself off.

His current strategy is to keep moving, keeping himself between them with large, immovable objects. He learned his lesson with George Kadinskee, who shoved a table and chairs out of the way to get to him. It’s like being in a furniture store or a car dealership, watching the sales people discreetly chase after him.  

It’s all rather pathetic (and childish) of him, but he didn’t become a doctor to get hounded by insurance reps. And yet, here he was at a Banner Health function on a Friday evening, dressed in one of his finest suits, waiting for the earth to swallow him up.

He really just wants to go home to his dog and a documentary.  

“Doctor Ramsey!” a voice calls from behind him.  

Allotting himself a wince and a sip of his drink in preparation, he sucks in a breath and straightens his spine. It’s a good thing, too, because when he turns around he needs to cling to all the composure he can.

“Rookie,” he greets, taking another sip to wet his dry mouth, “what are you doing here?”

Sloane raises an eyebrow at his tone, but doesn’t comment on it.    

“Doctor Emery invited me. She said that the hospital could use some... younger representation.”

It’s his turn to shoot her a look.  

“Are you calling me old?”

“I think the polite term is ‘experienced’ now,” she responds with that low, pretty laugh of hers.  

He doesn’t choke on his drink, but it’s a damn near thing. “I’m sorry I’m late, though,” she continues, saving him from responding, “I had to get cleaned up and get all…” she trails off, waving a hand over her ensemble. “And my post-op was having some complications. I wanted to stick around until he got settled.”

Clinging to the life-raft of shop talk she’s handed him, he asks her about the patient, relieved when he catches the glint in her eyes, that bright flicker of discussing something she loves. Hospital talk saves him from making the inevitable ‘you look nice’ comment, which would be a paltry choice of words. She looks absolutely gorgeous, wearing a royal purple gown with a deep vee neckline. The material looks soft to the touch, the rich color complementing the russet shade of her hair. She normally wears it up, but it’s nice to see it down. His eyes follow the soft curls to the waist of her dress, where a section of thin lace does little to cover her pale skin, before the rest of the skirt continues down.  

“You should go get us another round.” At her stilted tone, he glances at the half-finished glasses they both hold.

“Why?” he drags the word out, blaming the alcohol for how playful it sounds.  

“Because there’s a middle-aged man that’s been eyeing you across the room for the past two minutes.”

He’s definitely blaming the next sentence out of his mouth on the alcohol.

“Are you sure he isn’t eyeing you?”    

Something akin to delight crosses her face, before she breaks into a chuckle and shakes her head.

“Oh, no, trust me. He’s definitely been admiring your backside this entire time, not mine.”

Ethan pointedly keeps his eyes up, because he’s a grown adult, and shouldn’t be tempted with the idea of admiring hers. (He’s done so before, but only from the comfort of the nurses’ station, and only when she’s distracted enough not to catch him. He is a grown adult, after all.) 

“Does he look like he plays golf instead of attending mandatory meetings?”

“Oh, yeah,” she nods, her gaze narrowing just beyond his left shoulder. “And his idea of a good time is yelling at wait staff.”

He chuckles at the matter-of-fact tone.

“You can tell that from across the room?”

“I waited tables in the Upper East Side in college. A sizable chunk of my debt is from buying new white button-downs when people like him threw food at me. I can read people like him a mile away.” Her eyes widen when she adds in a rush, “And he’s headed this way. Here!”

He takes the glass she all but shoves at him, steps around her, and tucks himself into the crowd hovering around the bar. Chancing a glance back, he sees her intercept George with an enthusiastic handshake. He watches as she lets herself be pulled out to sea into the awaiting sharks.

+

The bar takes longer than anticipated, but Ethan manages to secure two fresh drinks (and seven new business cards, which he will promptly throw in the recycling bin when he gets home). Fifteen minutes is a long time in the world of work functions, though, and he has lost sight of Sloane by the time he makes it back to the dining area. Across the ballroom, a live band has replaced the jazz playlist, and couples are moving across the dance floor.

Scanning the crowd, he finally spots a flash of purple, then a curtain of red flickering between bodies. She’s dancing with Anthony Fenton, Banner’s HR assistant and owner of three Teslas, which Ethan only knows because Anthony told him four times within their twenty-minute conversation earlier.

The song that’s playing crescendos, then eases down, the couples slowing as it peters out to a calmer song. Anthony’s hand moves from her waist to the small of her back, gathering her close to sway with her. Sloane settles a hand onto his chest, pushing back to make some space between their bodies.

It’s funny, because Ethan doesn’t see the venue change the lighting, but everything goes red for a moment.

He moves closer to the dance floor, trying not to feel like a chaperone at a school dance. Sloane is an adult, and a smart one at that, and is capable of making her own decisions. So, if she wants to dance with annoying assistants, or flirt with visiting paramedics or the other diagnostic interns, then she’s perfectly free to do so.

It doesn’t matter to him at all. (It does.)

He’s glad he’s watching them, though, because he gets to see the moment Sloane notices him. It’s been a few months since she started at Edenbrook, but it still gives him that same little thrill, that bite of pleasure, when she comes across him in the hallway, or in the cafeteria, or at Donahue’s, and he gets to watch her face light up.

“S.O.S.!” she mouths, begging for a save.

After she rescued him from George, he can’t just leave her to fend for herself, right?

Setting the drinks down on a nearby table, Ethan moves through the dancers with ease and sidles up to tap Sloane on the shoulder.

“May I have this dance, Doctor McTavish?”

She unwraps herself from Anthony and takes his offered hand within the span of one beat. Ethan thinks he mutters a dismissal to Anthony, but isn’t entirely sure about it.

Because he clearly didn’t think this part through. Enjoying Sloane from a permitted distance was one thing, but having her in his arms is a whole different ball game. He wonders if she can feel his heightened pulse where her hand grips his. (She can’t -- her fingers aren’t on his pulse point, but the curve of her lips says otherwise.)

They move in tandem with the crowd, more swaying than actual dancing. The music is just low enough for murmured conversation, which Sloane starts up with a suggestion of turning his people-watching skills on the dancers around them.

He points out the divorcees, the slackers, the ones that should be promoted and the ones that should be demoted. They bicker about an older couple near the very edge (she thinks they’re married, he thinks they’re just business partners). The current song slows and the two men in question share a gentle kiss, the shorter nuzzling the taller’s chest.

He runs out of observations soon after, too caught up in his private thoughts about the woman in his arms to spin any more yarn.  

“Wouldn’t you normally bring a date to a function like this?” she asks, honest curiosity in her voice.

He deploys his best weapon: deflection.

“Couldn’t I ask the same of you?”

She hums, tipping her head to the side as if in agreement. The action sends a cascade of curls to lay against her neck, that floral perfume of hers hitting him again.

“To be fair, I did ask someone, but he works fourth shift tonight and couldn’t make it.”

His brain doesn’t know how to handle that information; he gets a wave of disappointment that she tried to bring a date, then gets another wave of admonishment at himself for wanting her all to himself.

“You wouldn’t want to put anyone through this schmooze-fest, anyway,” he reasons.

“You’re right,” she says. “In the twenty minutes you were hiding at the bar, I was offered to go on three company cruises and seven golf trips. And I’m pretty sure one of those was a combination of the two.”

Ethan makes a face at the idea of a golf-cruise combo.

“I was not hiding. They only have two bartenders working for a full venue.”

“Your mouth is moving, but all I’m hearing are excuses, Ramsey,” she chides with a grin.

The tempo of the song they’re dancing to swells. Neither say anything, but both seem to know exactly what to do. He drops his hand from her waist and twirls her out, her dress floating out into the open space with her, before she comes back into his arms, holding tight to his hand.

There’s a callous on her right ring finger, resting just below the nail, from the way she holds her pen at work. The perfume he detected before drifts up to him, stronger now that her body has heated up. He spots the flush that blooms across her chest and neck, a result of the swing music the band has started up.  

He does not consider what it would be like to lay his lips there at the base of her throat and have a taste of her, to see if that pretty flush of hers would follow the trail of his lips.

“Let’s get some air,” he suggests, once the song is over and Sloane is panting from exertion and he is not thinking about other ways she could become breathless in his presence.

More dancers have joined the floor since they did, making their path out difficult. Ethan puts a hand on the small of her back, keeping her close to his side as they maneuver their way out of the crowd. Her skin is pleasantly warm under his fingers and covered in a light sheen of sweat from their activities and the close quarters of the dance floor.

She heads for the open balcony across the way and he follows, a moth drawn to her flame.

+

Outside, the city stretches out before them. To the south, Back Bay is a faint glow, leading the eye to continue left, where downtown shines bright. Cars are small dots of light underneath them, moving right and left, heading in and out of the city. Just on the edge of the balcony, Longfellow Bridge casts out into the darkness of the river. Despite the heat of the day, the cool night air rushes up to meet them.

Ethan catches Sloane rubbing her arms to keep herself warm and gives her his suit jacket to combat the cold. She tries to protest, but he silences her with another look, and helps her slip into it.

“My dad used to be the handyman for the local hospital where I grew up,” she tells him as she moves to stand at the edge. “During Christmas, they’d put these trees on top of the roofs, and he’d take me and my brother up there every year. It was only five stories high, but to us, it might as well have been the Empire State Building.”

“That sounds nice.”

She tears her gaze from the view over to him. He resists the urge to straighten his shoulders, suddenly feeling as if he’s been appraised.

“It was.” She seems to shift, as if deciding something unknown, and smirks up at him. “And then, you know, I was sixteen and wanted to impress a girl, so I stole my dad’s keys and took her up there with some hot cocoa and Bailey’s and one thing led to another…” she tips her head to the side again, laughing when he clears his throat.

“Well,” he starts, then realizes he has nothing to say to that (at least nothing that won’t seem like he’s offering to perform a reenactment out on this very public balcony with her), so he tries again. “Well.”

Nope, he’s got nothing.

Sloane takes pity on him and reaches out, patting him on his arm that rests next to hers on the railing.

“I’m glad I came,” she says, her face turned towards the open air. “I had a good time.”

“Despite Anthony and his two Teslas?” he can’t help but tease.

“Don’t forget his third one, though, back at his house in the Hampton’s.”

“Ah, of course. How could I have forgotten.” Finishing his scotch, he charges ahead: “I’m glad you came, too.”

He’s very glad he limited his alcohol intake, because when Sloane turns to smile at him, he can’t help but note that her eyes rival the sparkle of the city. And if he’d been drunk, he might’ve actually told her that. 

Instead, he offers his arm. “I think we’ve made a sufficient appearance. We should be able to escape from captivity now.”

Sloane sets her empty glass on a nearby table and links her arm through hers.

“If I’d had another three of these, I’d make a tiger noise right now.”

“Well, thank god for that.”

They make it to the elevator and down to the front lobby of the hotel without any incident. They, of course, have an argument at the curb about her borrowing his jacket for her trip home, since she forgot to bring a coat in her rush to get to the function.

“Here, at least let me get you a Lyft,” he offers as he hands off his ticket to the valet.

“Oh, no, that’s too much. It’s a nice night, despite the wind.” She slips free of his jacket, handing it back to him. “It’s only a few minutes from here to the T.”

“How far do you live from here?”

She glances back to the street, as if checking for something, before she answers, “I’m all the way across town, over near Fan Pier Park.”

He goes over her route home, recalling that the closest station to her is back on this side of the channel. Which means she’ll have to walk at least ten minutes to get home after her stop, all alone on a Friday night. “Don’t worry,” she continues, as if that’ll stop him, “I do it every night. We’re not that far from the hospital right now, and I make that walk at all hours of the evening.”

You’re usually with your roommates, he wants to point out.

She’s already angling her body towards the street, readying to make her journey home. “I’ll be okay, Ethan.”

“I’ll drive you home.”

“You live in the heart of downtown. You could throw a rock and hit City Hall.”

“It’s… on my way.”

He gets another eyebrow raise for that lie.

“It’s not even remotely on your way. You’d have to backtrack.”

“Barely over a mile. That’s not the end of the world.”

“Doctor Ramsey--” she tries, but the valet interrupts their argument, waving over to where another woman has brought his car around.

“Come on, McTavish.” He doesn’t glance back to see if she’s following -- he can see well enough in the lobby’s tall windows as she huffs out a sigh and trails after him.

+

“It’s nice here,” she comments as they wait at a stoplight somewhere along Congress Street.

He’d opted for the side streets, instead of taking a chance with the highway and its propensity for wrecks inside the tunnel. It certainly has nothing to do with the route taking longer the way he’s chosen, thus an increase in time of being in Sloane’s presence.

“In my heated seats? Of course it is. Beats the hard, plastic ones on the T any day.”

“I meant here as in the city, Boston. It’s a nice change of pace from the… constant-ness of New York City.”

“Constant-ness is not a word.”

“It is a word when I’ve gotten off a fifteen-hour shift, then had to walk around in these heels all night, and then was bullied into a car.”

“I did not bully you--”

“Okay, you didn’t bully me. How about: arrogantly demanded?”

He hums, as if in consideration.

“I’ll concede to arrogantly demanded.”

That sparks another chuckle from her, grinning over at him from his passenger seat.

“But yes, I lived in New York City. Therefore, I get to say what it was or was not.”

“It’s rather constant here, too,” he points out. A chorus of honks back up his statement as two cars blow through a red, blocking the intersection when the traffic ahead stops.

“New York was such a high turnover city to me. I had seventeen different roommates when I was living off-campus my third year of med school. People would come from all over the world to chase their dreams. By three weeks in, they came to the realization that it was going to be a lot harder than TV made it out to be. Why would they bother trying to live in one of the world’s most expensive cities being a temp or a waitress, when they could be back in Minneapolis or Nashville or Rochester doing the same thing.”

“That’s… rather depressing.”

She shrugs at his summation.

“It’s just how it was. And why I love living here in comparison. Here, everyone seems a lot more… rooted. I mean, barring unforeseen circumstances, I’ll be here for three years for residency. It’s nice to have that, to have friends who are in the same boat as me.”

His mind unwillingly travels three years ahead, when Sloane inevitably goes off to Johns Hopkins or Vanderbilt or Seattle Grace, and he never sees her again. “People come here to stay here,” she continues, unaware of his sobering thoughts. “I like it.”

He doesn’t know what to say to that, not trusting himself to ask if she can see herself staying here permanently. If she can see a place for herself on his team, because if she keeps at it like she has been, he can easily see her joining him.

He doesn’t want to hear her plans if her answer to that is no.

Instead, he flips on the radio. He taps along to the bass drums as she hums in time with the string instruments and he reminds himself that he cannot fall in love with her (not that it does any good).

+

“Nice place,” he says, and means it. The apartment building faces to the north, with a spectacular view of the harbor to the west. A doorman waves at Sloane as she starts to climb out.

“Thanks!”

“It might be rude of me to ask, but when I was in residency, I lived out of a shoebox. How did you all manage to secure a place like this?”

She glances over to the bay, biting at her lip, before meeting his curious gaze.

“We might have ganged up on the landlord and convinced him that our competition were communists.”

“Wow.”

“Well, ganged up is a strong term. But...yeah. First time I’ve ever been thankful I paid attention in that American History class in undergrad.”

“I have to admit, I’m impressed.”

“Oh, Doctor Ramsey,” she says with a shake of her head, that familiar smile making its appearance, “if you’re impressed by that, you should see what else I’m capable of.” With that, she grabs her purse from the floorboard, thanking him again for the ride, before rushing up to the double doors.

Ethan stays, wanting to make sure she gets inside safely, and watches her chat with the doorman for a moment. He can tell when she notices him still at the curb, and flicks a hand up at her when she waves to him. He waits a moment longer, watching her turn and head deeper into the lobby, until she disappears into a waiting elevator.

“I can’t wait to find out, Rookie.”