#{ forgot to make one after i archived whoops }

[lupaeusmoved]

STARTER CALL .

like for a starter from my number one rat girl 🤍

[pancho-pinto]

Messages In Paper Boats

Fic based on this MASTERPIECE by @150en wrote this like a month ago and forgot to put it on tumblr. i think the tumblr people will like it too

Fandom: 3rd Life Words: 2,362 Rating: General Warnings: No Warnings Relationships: Etho/Joel, Grian & Joel Additional Tags: Modern Setting, Mentions of Everyone/Joel, Mentions of drinking, Slice of Life Summary: It's another week, another meet-up. It goes the same way it always does, of course. But the special drama of today is Grian being nosy in Joel's business. Hey, are those wedding bells? Joel says no, but no one can be sure.

Fic under cut

It's a random Tuesday when everyone gathers. The only day their schedules aligned, only for a couple hours though because Pearl has her part-time security job at seven while Gem and Bdubs have some botany-related assignment to finish—they rest, luckily, couple spare the couple hours of freedom. Between jobs and college work, Tuesday has to do, even if it means no drinking and absolutely no chance to do anything stupid.

As they talk loudly over greasy pizza and fizzing drinks, it's hard to ignore how much they've all changed. They are older now, whining and scoffing about college work, about part-times jobs and taxes, about annoying coworkers and pesky roommates (even if said roommate is sitting just two seats away), and more importantly, this is a chance for them to let out steam.

Free to complain and whine, for a couple hours. Which, all things considered, is a little fun and relieving as they group up and shit-talk everything.

The day reaches a point where they move on, having let out enough steam for at least another week before their meet-up again. It's a slippery slope, really, because Jimmy is the first to bring an anecdote about their past, then Grian is teasingly bringing another embarrassing anecdote of Jimmy's, and then it unravels from there.

The same dance and song. Their highschool days, their primary and kindergarten days. Old crushes, old relationships. Their time back at home, when the worst thing that could happen to them was having their phones taken at home. Between laughs, they bring up their sneak-outs late at night, hanging about at the park until early morning before sneaking back in with the tips of their noses and ears frozen.

Joel laughs, a little meanly, at the time Grian and got caught making out with Mumbo under the bleaches, and Grian glares at him, flustered.

"Oh, yeah, you of all people laugh."

Joel offers a smirk as the group falls silent, like scavengers watching a fight, ready to have their fill of drama. He kicks his legs on the edge of the table, ignoring the side-eyes and gasps despite the pizzas being devoured a while ago.

"Of course I laugh, it's hilarious." He taunts, and Grian's eyes darken. As he waits for Grian's response, he wipes his hands on a tissue, crumpling it then tossing it to Grian's head, whooping when it hits him dead-center in the forehead.

Impulse puts a hand on Grian's chest to keep him from jumping up, and Joel almost looks disappointed at that. After a breath, though, Grian finally replies.

"Let's talk about your relationships, why don't we?" Grian smiles, faux friendliness in this lips. Joel knows what Grian is about to bring up—despite not wanting to talk about it, he let's it happen because he kinda deserves it. He will retaliate later anyways, one way or another. They know where the other lives after all.

"Which one?" Cleo tacks in, laughing into the edge of her paper cup.

"Good question," Grian nods, pressing his index to his chin in thought. He makes a show to look around the group, everyone seemingly interested. It's nearly the end of their time together, with the trio who needs to leave first glance at the time on their phones. Grian spares a glance at the clock on the wall too, but continues regardless. "What about Lizzie? Longest, healthiest relationship you've had yet didn't work out. How about Jimmy? Your 'best bud', no homo there. Your drunk hook-ups with Impulse, Skizz and Scar? Those seven minutes in heaven with Martyn? I'm surprised nothing's happened with BigB and Scott yet—"

"Oh, it has," Scott chips in, devilish yet innocent smile on his lips.

Grian looks surprised for a moment, eyes wide as everyone else, looking between Scott and BigB for answers. Scott only smiles, and BigB sheepishly ignores everyone's eyes with his phone.

"Alright, there's that. We can find out next week." Grian states, cutting the curiosity short. He claps his hands, pointing at Joel as he squints. "Or that time you were supposed to help Gem get ready for her date and ended up taking her to dinner yourself?"

"Not my fault that loser couldn't measure up," Joel shoots back.

"Those two months were you and Cleo pretended to date?"

"Okay, but that was fun. I still remember your horrified face."

"And Pearl."

"What about Pearl?"

"You know what about Pearl."

Pearl huffs, rolling his eyes as Joel does. Like Vegas, no one talks about that. In fact, Joel rarely talks about any of this. Despite still being close friends with all of them, despite knowing they sometimes bring it up, he doesn't. Not because of shame, or some other feelings. He just doesn't, for whatever reason.

Grian brings no more details, squinting a little more. Joel can tell he's getting frustrated, because this is a topic that won't get under his skin. He knows, too, that Grian is running out of time. It just isn't the same once Pearl, Gem and Bdubs leave, even if they will find out by text later.

Just two more people to bring up.

"Okay, what about me."

Joel raises his brow, tilting his head slightly.

Grian grimaces, and visibly looks like he regrets even thinking about it. His eyes flicker beyond Joel, everyone knows.

"Okay then, why don't we talk about your situationship with Etho then."

Joel knows exactly which moment Grian is leading to. Everyone knows, too. It's something he's talked about a couple beers over his limit, red face and slurring slightly, stupid grin on his face and leaning against the closest person around.

It's a dumb memory, one he talks about fondly when tipsy and outright boasts about when drunk.

Summer camp, when they were kids. They had been assigned camp-mates, and their first activity was to create their own emblem. They had assigned themselves as Boat Boys, because Joel had snatched a tent with a ship print on the bottom. Joel had poked himself with the needle a couple times, Etho had twice as much, but they hadn't been the last to finish to that was good enough. A long hexagon with a green border, the letter B messily threaded, their little emblem then sown into their sleeves. Joel had poked Etho when he sew it in, Etho had tried to not poke him but threatened to, because they had been dumb enough to not take their shirts off.

For Joel, that was a sign. A good one. They were both idiots.

So they spent time together, wearing the same clothes as all the other kids, with only their emblems to show that they were paired up. At first, with their bickering and hard to agree decisions, they spent little time with each other. But they had drifted back every night, sharing one tent, unable to sleep and ultimately talking under they were both too tired and passed out.

Aside from that, their day activities involved them being by each other. Always in pairs, during hikes and afternoon walks. Paired up during kayaking and always sticking with each other when they had to split into bigger groups. They would sit together during breakfast, and lunch, and dinner, stealing bits from each other's tray just to annoy themselves and the other. But Etho would take the carrots from Joel's plate, and Joel would take the mushy peas. They would trade half-drank milk cartoons just so they could make sure to try all flavors. Etho would get them extra servings of food because he 'looked skinny' and Joel would get them bigger pieces of dessert because he was a sweetheart to the staff.

So it made sense that they became friends.

They got closer, in all senses of the word. They stuck with each other, getting into petty fights like stealing Bdubs' horse plush (even if Etho and Bdubs got along), throwing buckets of water on Martyn and Jimmy (mostly avoiding their partners because they couldn't find the right moment), ravaging through Grian and Scar's tent for a block of chocolate they divided among the other kids (when Etho also had one, sharing it only with Joel between giggles), and many other activities that could technically be excused under guise of playing around.

The others knew they were being malicious. Joel thought he was having the time of his life. Etho looked satisfied, too—at some point, he'd even stopped deflecting and accepted the blame proudly, which seemed to make the others madder, Joel just smiled wider each time.

"So?" Grian asks, sending everyone to look at Joel.

Joel thinks about it a little longer, humming briefly.

He remembered the camp counselor's cabins, the places they weren't allowed to be at. Joel knew they had booze, but he didn't really care for any of that. They already had trouble sleeping, and he doubted drinking would help. But he would drag Etho along sometimes, just to hide from everyone for a bit, doing nothing. They couldn't be loud because they would get caught—in fact, they could nothing but sit and chill out, which was fine. Etho never complained, so Joel assumed it was fine.

They had, however, stolen some markers from inside the cabins just for the hell of it. And they had drawn on the walls. Lines of green mixing into blue, blue mixing into green, some orange to represent their artistic rendition of the campfire they had both got burnt in. The mark on his right hand was present, on the outer-most right side, two inches below his wrist. Nothing big, and it didn't hurt after a couple days, but when he wrote 'Joel was here', his eyes drifted to the burnt mark.

He added a smiley face, because he was grinning despite having being hurt.

Near the bottom, Etho sit down to write something too. Joel threw himself on Etho's back, arms around his neck and chin on his shoulder, and Etho had stopped writing, almost having expected Joel's surprise clinginess. Etho finished writing after a couple seconds, neither talking.

'Boat boys 4 eva'

Joel thought the '4 eva' was lame, but he smiled at the overall message, giving a nod of approval. They were the Boat Boys, menaces of camp, and they would always be as promised under the stars, even when camp was over.

On their last afternoon, they had met up beside the counselor's cabin again. Etho had been the one to invite him this time. They sat a while, talking about the activities they did, their pranks, their friends and temporary enemies. They talked about going back to school, about extracurriculars and classes, about things they missed back at home and their beds. Etho talked a lot about his bed, Joel noticed and teased appropriately.

When the sky got darker and the chill snuck under Joel's shirt, he rapidly rummaged through his pocket, pulling out a paper boat. It had a small heart sticker on the hull, which Joel also stole from the cabin. He gave Etho a sheet of stickers too, grinning proudly when Etho's eyes lit up at the shimmering stars.

Etho rolled his eyes a second after, because he also pulled a sticker sheet and gave it to Joel. It was gold stars, compared to Etho's silver ones.

Joel gloated about the paper boat though, because Etho didn't have something like that. Etho only sighed, but he smiled under his mask, because Joel was happy.

"What about it?" Joel says eventually. He blinks back slowly to current life, the too bright summer afternoon sun, everyone stuck inside Cleo and Scott's flat. Different, because everyone was there, not like in that little camp hide-out.

"Oh, don't play coy. We all know what was inside that boat."

Joel stretches his arms over his head, arching his back as he bumped shoulders with Jimmy and Mumbo. He smiled, "Oh, don't you know, it's all make believe." He closes his eyes for a moment, the tension easing from his arms once he brings them down, sighing as he rolls his head. He has homework too, he remembers idly, wondering if he can put it off until the weekend. "We were just kids playing pretend. You know a playground proposal isn't real."

Grian looks at him with a glare disguised as a squint, meanwhile the others dance between hesitation and belief.

Until footsteps cut the momentary silence, stopping right behind Joel. A hand snakes around his neck under his chin, firmly yet gently guiding his head back, and he closes his eyes as lips crash into his. He opens his eyes when the other pulls back, catching Etho pulling his mask back on. He doesn't miss the dumb smirk on his lips though, but he does miss the hand touching him when Etho walks back to his spot on the couch.

"You liar!"

Grian screeches, Impulse too slow to stop him from jumping to his feet. But an alarm go off, and there is a collective sadness. It's quick goodbyes and threats to meet up again, then the trio is dashing out first, the rest following a short while after. Scott complains about the mess while Cleo accepts defeat, everyone hurrying a little faster to spill out.

"I know where you live," Grian says as they walk out.

"I know where you live too," Joel retorts.

But Jimmy is pushing Grian to his car quickly, giving waves and smiles, Tango and Gem trailing behind. He waves at them shortly before being pulled in the opposite direction. The walk is short, the unspoken agreement that he is not going back to his own place for a bit. Can't risk Grian walking from his room to Joel's to strangle him after all.

"Is your room locked?" Etho asks.

"Of course it is," Joel replies.

"Just checking."

Etho's arm lets go of Joel's side, pulling to the side where he finds Joel's hand. And Joel is more than happy to hold hands, despite how sweaty their hands will get.

Quietly, as they discuss dinner with the sound of their footsteps, a metallic clink goes ignored as their hands find each other.

Etho + Joel | Sick fic

"You're sick."

Etho states, rather firmly. Joel only looks at him, eyes slightly squinted, trying to focus the three Ethos into one—and absolutely failing—still, he points at one.

"You are sick," he retorts with a more accusatory tone in his voice.

Etho lifts his head with a probable eye-roll, though Joel is too busy fixating on his neck. Etho's Adam's apple, the line of his jaw pointing to his chin, the muscle that cuts diagonal. He squints a little more, grounding himself on pale skin as he feels himself wanting to throw up or pass out.

Etho moves closer, and Joel now has a face full of Etho's chest, not having realized they had been standing so close to begin with. Where are they, anyways?

He pushes back to look around, very slowly, and sees… walls. He nods like he understands, like everything makes sense, because of course, he is—

Well, could be anywhere, he is not sure.

"Did you kidnap me?" He accuses when he looks back at Etho, looking up at him—more so the line between his face and mask, such a sharp contrast that is. He raises a hand to touch, like Etho is a statue or some sort of unmoving thing for his enjoyment. Cool skin and soft fabric graze his fingertips, then he pokes him back slightly. "Where am I, Eefo? You're so obse—"

Joel headbutts Etho's chest as he feels another wave of nausea, the impact enough to keep everything down at the expense of a throbbing head. He whines or groans or makes some sort of noise, a pathetic one because it makes Etho snake an arm to hold him up, a hand on his back rubbing soothing strokes.

"There, there," Etho almost mocks, and Joel is sure the little tug of neck muscle is him rolling his eyes again. "And please don't throw up on me."

Joel thinks Etho deserves it.

"'m not sick," he says instead.

Etho hums, placating him.

In the meantime, Joel closes his eyes, breathing out hard as a wave of heat washed down his body like a chill. Awful because he can feel the sweat on his skin, the slightly dampness of his clothes that are not already sticking to his body. And Etho's hand on his back is nice, very, but it is also creating heat.

He chuckles, "You're hot. Stupid, silly Canadian man."

Etho hums again.

If Etho thinks not replying is going to get him to settle down and even rest, then—

He is right.

At some point, between breaths and mental nags, Joel slugs against Etho, held up by him. He breaths slow and shallowly, and Etho waits another second before checking to make sure, tilting his head to the side to look down at a peaceful face.

Despite the sweat, the hairs sticking to his forehead, flushed cheeks on too pale skin, and dark bags under his eyes, Etho thinks Joel looks peaceful. Or at peace, at least.

Carefully, he maneuvers and picks him up, taking the two steps to the bed Joel had rolled off once already. This time, however, as he wraps and tucks him into bed, he slides beside him, holding him against his chest to make sure he does not make friends with the floors again.

Fleetingly, as he drifts off himself, he thinks about his plans for the day—thoughts rapidly overtaken by the memory of Joel practically crashing through his door and passing out at his feet. He huffs, smiling under his mask as Joel sighs under him.

At least Joel went looking for help and did not push through his current state alone.

[melonthesprigatito]

Before Legends Arceus came out (so, two years ago whoops) I started coming up with my own Hisuian Ancestor and I spent a lot of time brainstorming (cough, cough daydreaming) about a hypothetical scenario of what their encounter would be like in the actual game. I tried to make it realistic as possible by making it seem like an actual event that could happen in the game, and the one thing I have to say is that it serves as the obligatory "Spooky Encounter" that's been in pretty much every Pokémon game since the Old Chateau.

I'm not going to tell you which character is the descendant of this ancestor just yet, because the story is better if you don't immediately know what's going on. All I can say is that this ancestor is the ancestor of a Gen 7 character.

The quest is intended to be more of a post game thing because it eventually leads into an Ultra Beast catching quest involving the space time distortions (which isn't the main focus, more of a bonus quest really). Think of it as a second update story quest like the Daybreak Update. I'm just going to call this entire thing the Nightfall Update I guess.

WARNING: SUPER LONG POST, FULL OF PLOT SUMMARY, HEADCANONS AND ART (Uh.... Don't read the post tags before clicking the blue read more button pretty please. Kinda spoilery

Update (2nd November 2024) : This is a full fanfic now! I'd recommend reading that before reading this post because it's basically massive spoilers. Like, recaps the entire story spoilers because I used this post to make that fic

To start the story quest you have to buy a special charm called the Otherworldly Charm from Lucille in Jubilife Village. Item description: ("A Mysterious charm made of an unknown material, discovered in Obsidian Fieldlands. It bears an inscription of a six pointed star.  Perhaps something will happen if you keep it around.") Why does she have this? Oh, she just found it lying out there in the field and thought it looked neat. Someone must have dropped it.

After you complete your expedition for the day, a short cutscene will occur. A random merchant from the Ginkgo Guild is making his way though the forest when he suddenly hears a noise behind him. He looks around, but it's completely silent. 

All of a sudden the merchant gets ambushed by the Miss Fortune Sisters. Unable to defend himself, he has no choice but to drop his goods and run. The bandits laugh among themselves at the successful robbery. They're still pissed that their scheme to steal the Origin Ore went up in smoke and they're just SOOO frustrated that the Player (in my case Akari) keeps absolutely destroying them in battle so this ambush was a morale boost for them.

Suddenly they hear a noise. Clover suspects it's another poor defenceless merchant unfortunate enough to cross paths with them, about to be robbed blind. A mysterious hooded, deathly pale figure with glowing eyes watches them from the treeline. The bandits are unnerved but launch into their motto anyway, because they're idiots, but become highly offended when the figure doesn't respond or show any sign of emotion at all. How dare they not acknowledge their perfectly rehearsed intro that strikes fear into people's hearts?! Coin says "Forget this, let's just rob them!" and lunges at the ghostly figure and she instantly gets hit with a blast of lightning coming from the figure's hand. 

The screen goes black and it cuts to the beginning of the quest.

Quest [Insert Number Here Because I Forgot How Many Quests Are In This Game]: The Witch of the Woods 

The sidequest continues when you talk to Ginter from the Ginkgo Guild. He is upset because some of the guild's merchants have been suffering from an increased number of attacks from bandits and supplies in the village have started mysteriously vanishing. At the same time, people have spotted a mysterious pale figure sneaking about Jubilife Village in the dead of night, stealing items such as food and clothing and rumours have started to spread around that it might be the evil witch that supposedly lives in a dark cave, deep in the woods at the edge of the Obsidian Fields which has gotten everyone in a panic because they're afraid that the witch might go after their children next.

Ginter doesn't believe in witches so he suspects that this supposed witch might be behind the thefts of the Ginkgo Guild stock, so he wants the player to look into the rumours and put a stop to them. At this point Zisu approaches them because she's heard ALL about this wicked witch and is really eager to join the investigation. As the Captain of the Security Corps, she feels that it's her duty to defend Jubilife Village from any threat so she wants to look into the rumours about this supposed witch so she can come up with a plan to defend the village from them if she needs to.

Current objective: Investigate the rumours in Jubilife Village (I'm using these quest objectives as a way to break up the giant wall of text. I can't remeember if the quest objective does update as you progress because I haven't played in months but whatever)

So Zisu tags along with the player and they start asking around Jubilife Village about the witch to gain more insight into the rumours. Several people recount different bits of information, but the most damning evidence is a tale from one farmer in particular who tells them a story about how one night when he was working in the fields, a big hole opened up in the sky, and what came out of it was this inhumanly pale woman with glowing eyes that spoke in a language he didn't understand. The farmer had the everloving crap scared out of him because he was convinced that this woman was an evil being that emerged from the underworld (a kid friendly way of saying that he thought it was a demon from hell) so he gathered some of the other villagers and they chased the witch off into Necro Forest.

Zisu is excited because "Sweet! Now we have enough evidence! Let's go investigate that forest then!"

Current objective: Head to the Necro Forest, north of the Obsidian Fieldands

What happens next is an escort mission where the player has to take Zisu across the Obsidian Fieldlands by fending off any wild Pokémon to a new area unlocked exclusively by this quest called the Necro Forest (Eterna Forest in the modern day) which is filled with Ghost Types. The background music is the Night Time Field theme no matter what time of day it is, or maybe a remix of the Old Chateau theme.

Later the Miss Fortune Bandits are encountered in the Necro Forest and they're running for their lives as they crash into Akari Barry Style (Charm dragging a paralysed Coin behind her). Charm is immediately aggressive but resists the temptation to battle Akari, especially because she's accompanied by the head of the Security Corps. Zisu asks what happened to Coin, and Clover freaks out about a witch in the woods that casted a lightning spell on Coin.

Akari wants to help Coin but the other two bandits are vehemently opposed to accepting help from some "Galaxy grunts." So Zisu purposefully drops a Cheri Berry on the ground and is like "Oh noooo, I dropped my berry! It would be a shame if it got stolen by bandits!" and Clover begrudgingly "steals" it, and the flee the scene, saying that you'd have to be stupid to go after the witch.

Eventually the Player and Zisu reach the cave which is supposedly the witch's home and at first Zisu doesn't want to go in because she's been pretty spooked the whole time in the forest, then she tries to play it off like she's not scared at all "What? I'm not f-f-frightened or anything! Let's just go!" then she dashes into the cave.

Current objective: Explore the Necro Cavern!

There is no cave in modern day Eterna Forest. The idea is that the land was dug into and smoothed out in order to build the Old Chateau on top of it. Its a small cave with a suspicious lack of Pokémon inside. The music is the cave theme that only appeared in the cave with the torches that you pass though with Ingo. I dunno, I just think that theme should have played in more than one location.

At the end of the cave, they discover an open chamber filled with signs that it's been lived in, such as scraps of food and clothing lying everywhere as well as a makeshift bed on the floor. Zisu finds the stolen merchandise in the far end of the chamber and runs towards it, while the player notices some weird looking metal things lying in the corner. Zisu comes screaming in the opposite direction "IT'S HER! IT'S THE WITCH!" and immediately uses the player as a human shield. The player turns to see a pair of glowing eyes in the darkness, orange pupils with silvery blue irises. As well as the eyes, she has weirdly pale blue skin and she's wearing a stolen dark green torn cloak over some sort of dirty grey and blue futuristic clothing. Her hair is an absolute mess, riddled with sticks and leaves and she has sun burns all over her face.

All in all, she does look like some sort of evil forest witch, and she's started to freak out about the intruders, showing a particularly negative reaction to Zisu in particular and Akari gets dragged into a Pokémon battle. The witch sends out a Poipole aka a Pokémon that no-one in Hisui has ever seen before, and honestly if the player has any Psychic or Ground Types it gets defeated very easily.

After the battle, the witch is still freaking out, but now she just seems more terrified and upset. She quickly grabs a stick and starts brandishing it at Zisu, trying to scare her off. Zisu squeals like a little girl because she thinks the witch is waving some sort of magic wand at them but Akari puts herself between her and the witch and tries to diffuse the situation.

Nothing seems to be working until Akari has the idea to show her the Otherworldly Charm in case it belongs to her because the charm resembles the other strange metallic objects in the cave.

Akari holds the charm out as a peace offering and the woman recognising the charm, hurriedly snatches it out of the Akari's hands and backs away again. It finally hits Zisu that she's not a witch at all, just a really strange looking desperate woman.

The witch calms down a little because now she knows they're not a threat since they're not attacking her and the Player was kind enough to give her the charm back, but she's still really uneasy.

Zisu tries to ask her who she is and what she's doing here, but she doesn't understand a single thing she's saying. The woman shakes her head and tries to respond and it becomes very clear that the woman doesn't speak the Hisuian language at all and Zisu doesn't recognize the language she speaks either.

Zisu is perplexed at how they're supposed to help her when there's a language barrier, but she decides that at least they should tell her their names and try to get across that they want to help her in some way.

Zisu points at herself and says "Zisu", then she points at the player and says "Akari" (or whatever name you picked for your player) and the woman is confused at first, but then she catches on to what she's trying to say, so she points at herself and says "Hijiki."

Hijiki frowns for a moment until she suddenly decides to do charades to try to communicate with them. She mimes writing in a notepad and Zisu grabs a pen and a notepad from her bag and hands it to her.

Hijiki finds it way easier to communicate with drawings so after a while she flips the notepad over again to show them.

The first drawing is an image of a sad face and some strange device that has smoke coming out of it. Zisu is confused and Hijiki gets frustrated and points at the pile of metal objects. She walks over and grabs a small device from the pile and Zisu acknowledges that it even though she has no idea what it is, it looks very broken.

The second image is a crude drawing of several Pokémon: Luxray, Raichu, Electabuzz and Jolteon, surrounded by lightning bolts.

The third image is of lightning striking the device, making it look shiny and new, with a picture of a smiley face beside it.

Zisu is still confused but she deduces that Hijiki needs the Pokémon in the image to fix whatever her strange device is. The idea is that she needs electricity to charge her device again and it's up to the player to go out and catch these Pokémon and bring them back to her. Zisu decides to stay with Hijiki DEFINITELY not because she doesn't want to go back into the forest again, no sirree, she has to protect Hijiki and although Hijiki doesn't want her to stay with her, it's not like she can speak up and object so she just stays silent and anxious.

Current Objective: Catch the Pokémon from Hijiki's drawings and bring them back to her.

One catching quest later, the Player gives Hijiki the Pokémon and she starts tinkering on her device with whatever tools she has on her. The Pokémon strike her device with lightning and when she's finished, she attaches the device to her belt and has a distinctly relieved look on her face.

The device gets switched on and immediately Hijiki starts to speak English (well, the text is English, but in universe she's speaking whatever language the Hisuians speak), much to Zisu's shock. The device she fixed was a universal translator and she's so glad that she can finally explain herself she doesn't have to keep producing those terrible drawings with her embarrassing lack of art skills.

And with that, the truth finally comes out and the mystery is solved. Hijiki explains that she's from another dimension called Ultra Megalopolis and she and her Poipole fell into this dimension through an Ultra Wormhole. She lost most of her memories and woke up scared and alone in the Obsidian Fields, having no idea where she was. When she spotted civilisation, she tried to get help but because of her appearance and the language barrier, she got chased off and fled for her life into the Necro Forest. Because of how badly the first contact went, she assumed that the inhabitants of this world were extremely hostile, (hence why she attacked them on site) so she created a shelter for herself inside a cave to hide from them.

She then explains that there is no natural light in her world, so it was impossible for her to travel outside of the cave during the day because she got blinded and burned by the harsh sunlight. All she has is the clothes on her back and a few gadgets and tools that were in her backpack, so in order to survive she had no choice but to ambush passing merchants venture into Jubilife Village at night when it was dark and where no one could see her so she could steal supplies for herself.

She's very sorry that she had to steal from the Ginkgo Guild because stealing is a crime in her world as well. She didn't mean to scare anyone and she really wishes she didn't have to live in the wild anymore but she's too afraid of being attacked by the villagers again to try to ask for help.

Zisu is very shocked and saddened by Hijiki's story, and after a few moments be asks her if she wants her to escort her back to Jubilife Village. Hijiki doesn't want to because she'll get attacked, but then Zisu says "No you won't! I'm the Captain of the Security Corps. Everyone trusts me to keep the village safe, so if I say that something is not a threat, they'll listen to what o have to say, so I'll clear up the misunderstanding for you!"

Hijiki is still sceptical. She finds it hard to believe that the villagers will accept her just like that, so Zisu sighs and says "Maybe we should report to Commander Kamado about the situation, and give the village a heads up first?" 

Hijiki thinks that's fair enough. She's willing to wait in her cave for the Akari and Zisu to come back for her.

Current objective: Report back to Captain Kamado!

Zisu and Akari have a meeting with Ginter, and Commander Kamado to discuss their findings. Firstly Zisu reassures Kamado that there's no threat to the village. The witch of the woods was really a faller from another world like Akari and Warden Ingo and one of the Pearl Clan's Wardens. She was driven to stealing for survival after the villagers attacked her and drove her away even though she was lost and confused, and most likely in pain from the suburns.

Kamado is incredulous when Zisu tries to argue that they should take her in. Kamado is against inviting Hijiki to stay in the village. Akari is already on thin ice about being allowed to stay and the villagers only tolerate her because she's been busy quelling the frenzied nobles and slowly earning their trust. To invite someone who's KNOWN TO BE A WITCH would be disastrous. Zisu insists that Hijiki isn't magical, she just has some gizmos from her world that haven't been invented in this world so they only seem like magic. She tries bringing up the Pokéball, it looks like magic too but it's really just an ordinary object.

But Kamado is firm in his decision, even if Hijiki does have technology that seems like magic, what if she were to use her technology against the village? And some of the most superstitious villagers wouldn't accept that she's not dangerous and would still consider her to be a bad omen. Letting Hijiki stay would be too much of a risk.

Zisu is worried and disappointed. Even though she was one of the people who was terrified of the forest witch, now that she's discovered that she's actually an innocent person who's suffering hard, she feels absolutely horrible that they can't do anything help her. Zisu decides that they should at least head back to Hijiki's shelter and tell her what Kamado said. Maybe they could formulate a different plan, maybe the Diamond Clan or Pearl Clan could take her in instead?

Akari and Zisu return to the shelter to find it completely ransacked and Hijiki is nowhere to be found. Zisu finds a ransom note among the rocks. Turns out that the Miss Fortune Sisters had been spying on them ever since they bumped into them. After they found out that Hijiki wasn't really a witch, they wanted to take revenge on her for attacking Coin, so they kidnapped her and stole all her technology. Seeing an opportunity to spite Akari as well, they wrote on the ransom note that they took Hijiki further north to the Alabaster Icelands. If she wants to get Hijiki back she has to go the ice caverns in the Bonechill Wastes.

Zisu is outraged, but warns Akari that it's most definitely a trap. The Miss Fortune Sisters are most likely using Hijiki as bait to lure her into an ambush far away from where she can get help, and they're probably intending to leave her to die in the frozen wastes. But Akari wants to go save Hijiki anyway so Zisu decides to head back to the village to rally some of the Security Corps as backup and tells Akari that she'll meet her in the Icelands.

Current objective: Chase after the Miss Fortune Sisters!

Meanwhile, Hijiki has been thrown into the the ice pit in the Bonechill Wastes and the Miss Fortune Sisters are currently occupied. Clover is whining about how cold it is as Charm and Coin go through Hijiki's belongings.

She had things like her taser, an aura scanner, a GPS, an Ultra Smartphone etc but they can't figure out how any of them work or what they're used for. Clover is whining about all the effort they put in ended up being for nothing because everything "the witch" has is useless junk, but Charm snaps at her. At least they might be able to sell this overworldly technology on the black market after all. Coin isn't convinced. Who would buy useless garbage that don't work?

Coin starts threatening Hijiki into telling them how to use her gadgets, or else she'll sicc Toxicroak on her, but there's just a slight hiccup. Hijiki is unable to understand what they're saying because they took her translator away so all she does is stare blankly at them. All three of them are oblivious to the fact that Hijiki can't speak Hisuian at all, and that they all sound like nothing but enraged gibberish to her.

All this really does is piss them off. Clover starts yelling at her again, just completely exasperated and baffled. She's literally being held captive by bandits and tossed into an ice pit, probably freezing to death. How could she possibly feel so blasé about it????? Does she not realise the situation she's in right now??? Coin has had enough and decides to let Toxicroak attack Hijiki anyway. If they can't get any use out of her things, at least she'll be able to get payback for the "lightning strike"

At that moment, Akari shows up just in time. The Miss Fortune Sisters do their motto and start evil motive-ing about how THIS TIME for sure they'll win against Akari and leave her to perish in the ice forever. This time they're going to attack her with all three of their Pokémon at once instead of one at a time like the last few fights and overwhelm her with numbers.

Charm and Clover release their Pokémon and instead of joining in, Coin decides to sit it out. She tells the other two that she's still going to attack the witch with Toxicroak and that they could stall Akari long enough to let Toxicroak get enough hits in. Charm and Clover start arguing with her because that was NOT the plan, but Coin just tells them to shut up.

Charm and Clover go 3 Vs 1 as Toxicroak attacks Hijiki, with Charm substituting Toxicroak with her Rhydon. Akari beats them because of Main Character Plot Armour and Charm goes full villainous breakdown and just decides to attack Akari herself, but then out of nowhere, Hijiki's Poipole breaks out of it's Pokéball and glues the Bandits to a rock. Akari jumps down the ice pit to save Hijiki and you end up battling Toxicroak with Poipole instead of your Pokémon.

With the bandits finally defeated for good, the Security Corps show up to apprehend them. Akari stays with Hijiki who's in a really rough shape. She tried to avoid Toxicroak for as long as she could, but it eventually weared her down, and now she's lying unconscious at the bottom of the pit. Zisu immediately orders the two Medical Corps people to take Hijiki back to the village to get her medical attention. The medics are like "You want us to WHAT-" because that would involve taking THE WITCH TO THE VILLAGE, but Zisu yells at them again and they have no choice but to do what she says.

A day later

Scene transition to a day later and Akari is waiting in Kamado's office. There was quite a uproar in the village when the Security Corps returned with the famous Miss Fortune Sisters somehow stuck to a rock and near mass panic occured when the Med Corps rushed the rumoured witch of the woods to the hospital room in the Galactic Building. Professor Laventon runs in, very upset. He can't get any work done with the noise of that many people crowded around the entrance trying to catch a glimpse of the witch to see if she's really as terrifying as people say she is. Kamado informs him that he already sent Cyllene to get them to leave.

Pesselle arrives from the hospital room to give them an update on Hijiki's condition. They're currently treating her for Toxic poisoning, as well as suburns and eye damage. Pesselle is clearly shaken and explains that she's never seen anyone like Hijiki in her life, she's not even sure that she's human. For starters, her eyes are extremely unnatural looking and she's so deathly pale that her skin looks pale blue. Not to mention that she appears to have bioluminescent eyes and freckles.

She's willing to take Zisu's word that Hijiki is still a normal human from another world, but she wonders what kind of world would have people who are so obviously weakened by sunlight. Kamado thanks her for her help and Pesselle returns to her duties, not before telling her to bring this supposed witch to his office once she's recovered enough.

Professor Laventon talks to Akari about the strange purple Pokémon that was following Hijiki around because he's having trouble identifying what it is. Rei speculates that if the witch is from another world, then maybe the purple Pokémon is too. Laventon nearly explodes with excitement because they have the chance to document a Pokémon from another world! Maybe he could ask the witch if he could have a look at it, which is something he immediately goes to do. Rei runs after him in a panic.

Zisu enters with Ginter. Ginter confirms that they managed to get back some of the things Hijiki stole from the Ginkgo Guild, though obviously things like food couldn't be recovered. Zisu asks if he wants to press any charges, and Ginter considers for a moment before ultimately deciding not to. From the sound of things, Hijiki went through a lot and he would feel terrible if he added to her suffering. Zisu regretfully tells them that the Miss Fortune Sisters got away. After they were freed from the glue, they used a smoke bomb and escaped in the confusion, though she thinks that hopefully the bandits would think twice about confronting Akari again.

A while later, Pesselle brings Hijiki up to Kamado's office and the poor woman is shaking like a leaf, half from because she's still weak and the other half because she's obviously terrified of Kamado. In a scene echoing Akari's first meeting with Kamado, he stares Hijiki down and she loses her nerve instantly, backing away and hiding behind Akari. Pesselle scolds Kamado because this is clearly no way to treat a patient, but he reminds her that this is an outsider he's dealing with, and he must test her by having her face him in combat like he did with Akari.

Hijiki stammers and tries to say that she has no idea how to do that "creature combat thing" that Akari and the bandits did and Kamado clarifies by saying he meant PHYSICAL combat, not a Pokémon battle. Hijiki freaks out because she'd just die if she did that. Kamado retaliates by saying that surely someone who is capable of survived in the wilds and ambushing Ginkgo merchants MUST be able to fight, and if she wants to prove herself, she has to.

Hijiki takes a deep breath and just edges close to him, hesitating to even touch him AAAAAND Kamado throws her. Cut to black with a CRASH! text box and fade back in to see Hijiki flat out unconscious on the floor again. Cue Pesselle totally ripping him a new one, yelling at him about how that was totally unnecessary, why does he always have to do this, has he no shame, as text box after text box hits the screen going by too fast for the player to read.

Zisu helps Hijiki to her feet but she's distressed because Kamado managed to dislodge her translator from her belt so she doesn't understand him when he says that someone so cowardly and unwilling to fight clearly isn't a threat to anyone. Hijiki quickly retrieves her device and turns back to Kamado, saying

Hijiki: "I'm very sorry, my translator fell off. I don't speak in whatever language this is so I couldn't understand any of that. Could you please repeat what you said, sir?"

Zisu: "He said that someone so cowardly and unwilling to fight clearly isn't a threat to anyone."

Hijiki: "Oh…"

Kamado then says that if she wants to stay in Jubilife Village she has to be able to contribute to society, so what skills does she have? Hijiki thinks for a moment because she can't remember much but she does have a vague idea of what her old job. She remembers that she was probably a Poipole handler which is why she has one with her, and she was one of the people tasked with taking care of them as they were typically adopted as companions or to help with construction because of their glue (kinda a Zookeeper/animal shelter worker kind of deal)

Pesselle speaks up and says that it kind of reminds her of the people who look after the Pokémon in the village's pastures. Kamado turns away, thinking about it. He would half to discuss it with Zisu because that falls under the Security Corps jurisdiction. Zisu barges in like "DID SOMEONE SAY SECURITY CORPS?" at that moment and startles everyone. She's 100% on board with letting Hijiki help at the pastures.

Hijiki interrupts, unfortunately she can't work during the day because the sun is straight up harmful to her so she doesn't know how useful she could be. Zisu turns to her and proposes that she'll give her a lodge in exchange for her services at the pasture on the night shift. They're needing more people who can stay up all anyway.

Hijiki is stunned. They wouldn't really do that for her, would they? One encouraging grin from Zisu is all she needs to accept the offer and become a full fledged member of the Security Corps.

Catching Poipole

Hijiki thanks the player for everything, and as a reward for completing the sidequest, she gives the player her Poipole because she feels that the player would be better at taking care of it in this new world…. If she can catch it that is.

Catching Poipole plays out like a Legendary Pokémon battle like how you catch Enamourus. As in, it flies around attacking you with poison blasts and you have to stun it before you can throw a Pokémon to battle it.

After this, Hijiki just becomes an ordinary NPC that you can talk to near the pastures (though she can only be encountered at night.) Her appearance changes, as she's now in the Security Corps uniform instead of her Ultra Space/ cloak get up.

As a little easter egg, you can have a rematch with her and she battles you with the Pokémon you gave her in the sidequest. She excitedly explains that Zisu taught her how to partake in "creature combat".

Her dialogue is mostly showing amazement at how cool everything is in Hisui and how she really wishes she could go out and investigate everything like the Ultra Recon Squad. She realises that Akari wouldn't know who the Ultra Recon Squad is and she explains that they're basically her world's equivalent of the Galaxy Team.

She's heard of the legends about Hisui from Rei and is just as intrigued by them as he is. Though her main complaint is that Hisui is a little… behind, technological wise. Though she expresses interest in the player's Arc Phone as it seems a little out of place in this world…

Since the quest is available during the post game, she talks about how scared she was when "the sky turned red and green" (aka that part of the game when the Player is banished from the village and the sky distorts. She remarks that thought that the Blinding One had escaped from the Tower and drained Hisui of it's light, but apparently it was something else. She figures she shouldn't worry about it since it's not this century's problem anyway. The Tower isn't predicted to break down for another two hundred years anyway (Ultra Sun/Ultra Moon Necrozma foreshadowing!)

Ultimately she doesn't affect the story in any way and her sidequest is completely optional, but it is required if you want to be able to catch Ultra Beasts.

Sidequest: ??? The Beasts from Beyond

To trigger the next quest, you have to enter a Space-time Distortion. The next day, Melli barges in to the Galaxy Team headquarters demanding to speak to someone, ANYONE. He claims that he was minding his business, in the Coronet Highlands when all of a sudden a pile of bricks just up and attacked him! They completely ruined his day and scared Lord Electrode and he demands that someone does something about it! Nobody takes him seriously and Rei just thinks he's gone nuts.

But the next day, Warden Palina shows up, looking really worried. A strange pure white Tentacruel creature showed up in the Coastlands and has been behaving aggressively towards anything that approaches it, and even the Alphas won't go near it. Cyllene calls Akari into her office because she's been getting continuous reports of strange monsters being sighted across all of Hisui that apparently emerged from the space-time distortions.

Hijiki runs in, and quickly excuses herself for interrupting. She's really panicked because she heard from the villagers that Hisui is being invaded by monsters that sound suspiciously Ultra Beasts. She volunteers to help because they're creatures from her homeworld so at the very least she's familiar with them and knows what to expect if Akari goes out and attempts to catch them.

To learn about where to catch the Ultra Beasts, you have to talk to Hijiki. She's heard rumours of monsters and such from the people who visit the pastures to see the Pokémon and she thinks she knows exactly what the monsters really are. She has dialogue talking about each Ultra Beast and a hint as to where it's found.

"There's a ghostly figure floating around the Deadwood Haunt. I don't know much about spirits but it sounds an awful lot like Nihilego. It would float around like a ghost, I think." (Deadwood Haunt, Cobalt Coastlands)

"I heard from someone in the Pearl Clan that an insect with huge muscles is challenging an Alpha Machamp to a flexing contest…. I don't understand, do Buzzwole normally behave like that…?" (Arena's Approach, Alabaster Icelands)

"There's a Pheromosa going wild in the bog. What terrible luck to fall into a wormhole and end up in a place so muddy. It hates getting dirty." (Scarlet Bog, Crimson Mirelands)

"That rude man can't catch a break. Apparently his Electrode is being bothered by a Xurkitree that's trying to eat it's electricity… " (Moonview Arena, Coronet Highlands)

"I've heard that a Celesteela has taken root near the Floaro Gardens. The soil there must be very fertile. It's a giant creature that blasts off like a rocket and- Wait, have rockets been invented here yet? Never mind." (Floaro Gardens, Obsidian Fieldlands)

"I've heard that a sharp creature that looks like paper has been cutting down trees in the Heartwoods. It's Kartana, I'm certain. That Lord Kleavor must be jealous of it's cutting edge sword techniques…" (The Heartwood, Obsidian Fieldlands)

"Oh, this is absolutely terrible! A huge monster is eating giant lumps of ice and snow in that tundra! Sounds very uncomfortable, chewing ice hurts my teeth… Oh wait, what was I saying? Yes! Guzzlord! You must stop it before it consumes everything in sight!" (Avalugg's Legacy, Alabaster Icelands)

"The creature that's that looks like a pile of bricks in must be Stakataka, I'm certain. Where did that unpleasant man say he encountered it? Must have been near some ruins?" (Celestica Ruins, Coronet Highlands)

"Um… What's a volcano anyway? I've never heard of such a thing… Apparently there's been the sounds of explosions coming from the volcano that's making people worried. I don't think the explosions are coming from the volcano itself, sounds more like a Blacephalon is causing them." (Firespit Island, Cobalt Coastlands)

To get Naganadel, talk to Hijiki. She'll explain that Poipole have been selectively bred to be unable to evolve by themselves. They must be taught a special move that lets them evolve that only experienced handlers know how to teach, because it's stronger form is too wild and dangerous for the average civilian to handle. She's seen Zisu teach Akari's Pokémon new moves and tells Akari that she needs to get Zisu to teach Poipole the move Dragon Pulse.

Other stuff

And that's everything I've got about Hijiki. If you haven't worked it out already, she's the ancestor of Zossie from the Ultra Recon Squad. Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon are kinda my favourite 3DS Pokémon games and there was a time when I was absolutely obsessed with the Ultra Recon Squad and I was so sure that they'd come back as an explanation for being able to catch Ultra Beasts in the post game of future Pokémon games that I felt ROBBED when they never showed up in the Crown Tundra.

So with the dawn of the idea of Hisuian Ancestors, I thought "Wouldn't it be cool if the ancestor of one of the Ultra Recon Squad fell into Hisui and got mistaken for a supernatural creature because the locals thought their technology was magic?" Because of how massively technologically advanced Ultra Megalopolis is, I figured that even if it was 200 years ago, it'd still be way more advanced than Hisui so anyone who fell through a wormhole would be in for a sort of time traveller-esque fish out of water scenario but without the time travel.

Hijiki is Zossie's great great great great great great great great (however many greats that can fit in 200 years) aunt. She can't be Zossie's great great grandmother because the grandmother has to stay in Ultra Megalopolis for Zossie to even exist at all.

The name of Necro Forest has a double meaning. As soon as you walk into it you think "Oh, Necro = Death because of the Ghost Types" but it's also the first foreshadowing that the ancestor is from Ultra Megalopolis. Who stole the light from Ultra Megalopolis? Necrozma.

If you're one of the 47 people who played USUM, you'd remember that the Ultra Recon Squad had to wear full protection against the sun, which Hijiki lacks, hence the sun burns.

Hijiki is scared of Zisu because she's been stealing from the Ginkgo Guild and she recognises that she's part of the village's law enforcement so she was afraid that she came to catch her and punish her for the thefts.

About the whole glowy eyes thing, that's a headcanon I have about how the inhabitants of Ultra Megalopolis have bioluminescent eyes. It's based off official art of the Ultra Recon Squad where Dulse's eyes appear to be glowing in the dark. What is canon is the whole thing where the Ultra Recon Squad has silver irises and pupils that match their hair colour. If you zoom into their concept art you can see it.

I picked the name Hijiki because it has the same seaweed theme naming that the individual members of the Ultra Recon Squad have. The seaweed she's named after has been part of the Japanese diet for centuries. (At least according to Wikipedia.)

But what was that "lightning magic?* It was just an ordinary taser. Hijiki just nonchalantly tased Coin. You can find the taser among Hijiki's other gadgets in the cave

Bonus: my thought process while reading over part of this:

"Ok, so Hijiki jumps Gingko merchants in the woods and mugs robs them. Wait... wasn't Volo a Ginkgo merchant---"

The result:

This post took me two years of procrastination to make-

Update: (2nd November 2024) Somebody made art based on this post so I've decided to add it in

[smells-like-mettaton]

Rating: T Summary:

She feels nauseous at having left the child alone, even after they passed her test of independence. She wants to hold them and tell them everything will be alright and show them her favorite bug hunting spots and—and if she wants any of that, they have to stay. So she has to clean. She has to make her Home worth staying in.

Word Count: 400

For day 2 of Toriel Week: Pie (I forgot to crosspost this here yesterday whoops)

XXX

Toriel takes a deep breath. More of a gasp, or a heave, if she’s being honest; the bile trickling down the back of her throat suggests the latter. If she’d known what was coming—who was coming—she wouldn’t have drained that wine vessel last night. She would have—would have scrubbed those stains from the floor, done something about—the smell—oh stars, the smell of her spiraling failure is etched into the hardwood, sealed there by tears and vomit—

It’s been so long. So long. She didn’t expect… but they’re here and she, she can fix this. 

She has to.

They’re number seven.

She feels nauseous at having left them alone, even after they passed her test of independence. She wants to hold them and tell them everything will be alright and show them her favorite bug hunting spots and—and if she wants any of that, they have to stay.

So she has to clean. She has to make her Home worth staying in.

She sweeps. She scrubs. She places the knife block in the highest kitchen cabinet. She hides the wine and cider and polishes the dining table with its one-too-many chairs.

(Three drops of water land on the clean wood. She wipes them away before the salt can stick.)

Her work is quick and thorough and soon the house looks like a diorama, the set for a play that’s run its course for too many seasons. 

That’s how it looks. But the smell—she can’t erase the drunken scents quite so easily. Shame heightens her senses, choking her. Cleaning alcohol and drinking alcohol blend together in a horrible concoction. 

Gasping, she digs her claws into her palms, then into the wood of the fireplace. It lights with the scents of maple and char. Better.

Better, but—she can do better. The scents that used to envelop her home—butterscotch and cinnamon. It’s been years—decades? Centuries?—but the recipe is stamped in her soul. She couldn’t erase it if she tried. 

It won’t take long to pick up ingredients. None of the monsters in the Ruins ever stop her for small talk. She’ll have the pie baking before the human tires of playing in the leaves.

She flees her house, locking its current pathetic scents behind the front door, and takes a deep breath.

She can fix this. 

(Please, just once, let her fix this.)

[transfenris-truther]

FANFIC UPDATE:

Uhhhh. It's been awhile, sorry! Chapter 38 of No Town More Barren Than Our Town is up! In this Chapter Fenris tries to recover from the events of "Alone." First he goes to Anders for help. Then Merrill comes to him.

Whoops. Forgot to link it. Thanks @blarrghe

@jupiter-squid I did it, haha.

He was plagued with nightmares, though he barely slept. His dreams, which had seemed so clear and direct before, were now psychedelic and confusing- full of grasping hands and gaping mouths, screams which were at once his own and Varania’s and Danarius’ and Hawke’s blending together into a single haunting note- And then waking up in an icy fever, gagging on the contents of his roiling stomach, the smell of acid burning his nostrils, soaked through with sweat. In its worst moments, sleep and wakefulness blended together into a single sour condition of self-pity and despair. He ignored knocks at the door. He ignored the natural rhythm of the sun and moon. Then suddenly, he woke one midday and realized he was sick of weeping. The indulgence- after so many years of denial- had been needed, but wasn’t in his nature to be stagnant. He pushed the worn sheet off his mattress and tried to force himself to move on. Only to find that he couldn’t. His mind was trapped in a loop of Danarius, Varania, sickness, shame. Similarly, his body could not regain it’s strength. He couldn’t force himself to don his armor, couldn’t draw himself away from bed, couldn’t make himself walk to Hawke’s to apologize. It was nearly a full week before he could muster the energy to buckle on his breastplate and stumble out his front door. Once he could, he didn’t stop until he’d dragged himself all the way to Darktown It was only severe desperation that could drive him to seek out Anders

[songofsaraneth]

ok i finally realized i FORGOT to actually post any update here about Kazul's tank upgrade whoops! It has been a whole Saga. Mostly because the guy I buy tanks from took (Boaphile) his website offline in 2021 just as I was ready to place an order... i thought maybe he was just updating it (since it looked like it was last revamped in perhaps 1995), but after 6 months, it was STILL offline.

So I did what any normal, hinged person would do and used the wayback machine to get to the archived version to track down his phone number and call him. Turns out he wasn't dead but he DID have to have rotator cuff surgery so said he wouldn't be able to make tanks again until summer 2022 at the earliest. I'd been hoping for earlier but Kazul was still under 6ft so I was like ok fine. Well September 2022 the website finally started coming back online in bits and pieces (while now more modern i would not actually say it is more Functional, and there are still now Lorem Ipsum text blocks here and there, but whatever). Spring 2023 the banner that things were under construction finally disappeared and I placed my order!!

At the time the advertised wait time was 12 weeks. I checked back in June, and there was another banner saying they were flooded with orders so had temporarily closed them to catch up. Ok, sure, running behind. August comes around and I'm like ok I should have an update by now at least and played phone tag for a few weeks... and eventually discovered that my order had gotten lost along the line somewhere (as in the printer paper with my tank details on it telling them what to build, not a whole tank lost in the mail). Sooooo i got put at the start of the queue for the next batch and FINALLY it shipped and arrived at the end of November. To compare the first order I placed took pretty much exactly 10 weeks back in 2017 so I do think this was just bad timing and fluke. However... they forgot to include the thermostat i also bought :| So I had to wait another 2 weeks for that to ship out to me too.

ANYWAY. I finally got it in mid December, but didn't want to throw a whole new section on the week before i left to visit family for the holidays. So I didn't set everything up til January. I'll put all those pics in another post because this one is already long and not that interesting but I shall keep the timeline on record here in case I need to reference it ever. Here's a pic of her though because why not :3

[audioaujom]

Sam Saves Sebastian From a Cult

Stardew Hub, < prev, next >

Whoops. I totally meant to post this last Monday since it’s been done for a while, but I completely forgot ;-; This is not canon compliant, as it reimagines a handful of members of Pelican Town as members of a cult that participates in ritual sacrifice. That’s the warnings in and of itself, really.  Also sorry about the text messages' format. I promise I did it better on archive.

Word Count: 2095 Chapter TWs: Cults, Attempted Human Sacrifice, Blood and Injury

--

———————————— From: Abby hey, are you busy rn

To: Abby um, not really

what’s up?

From: Abby my dad wants help with some store stuff and I need to get out of it lol

prairie king?

To: Abby sure

wanna invite sam?

From: Abby no, it’s fine

come by quickly, though

To: Abby oh, alright

coming

————————————

“Hey, I’m gonna drop by Abby’s for a bit. Catch you later?” 

“Bummer.” Sam frowned, looking up from his guitar case as he finished buckling it closed. “That’s cool, though. Everything okay?”

“Said she just wanted to get out of some shop work.” Sebastian shrugged, heading out into the living room to put his shoes on with Sam in tow. 

“Sounds about right. Catch you later?”

“Yup.” Sebastian flashed him a smile, standing up and stretching after getting he finished tying his laces.

“Hey, it’s raining like… really hard out there. Could you let me know when you get there?” Sam hesitated before asking as Sebastian went for the door, turning back to look at his friend with a smirk.

“Will do, dad.” 

Sam frowned a little, putting his hands on his hips. “Haha, very funny.” 

“I know. Appreciate the worry, man. I’ll text you.” Sebastian laughed, putting up the hood on his hoodie and ducking out into the rain with a small wave.

Jogging through the downpour, Sebastian ran carefully up through Sam’s backyard and then through the town square, taking a second to catch his breath under the awning in front of Pierre’s. Confused but not deterred by the ‘CLOSED’ sign on the door, Sebastian lowered his hood and shook his head to dry off as he stepped inside.

The lights were all off, the front section of the store completely deserted. All he could hear was the pelting rain on the roof, taking a couple of hesitant steps further into the store with a small frown.

“Abby? You in here?” Sebastian called, glancing around the closed shop in confusion. 

Why’d she ask me to come here to help when the place is closed?

He wandered even further in, glancing down each of the darkened aisles as he went. He frowned as he reached the counter, lifting himself up to look over and behind it as if expecting to find someone hiding back there.

“Abby?” He tried again, then heading for the ‘Staff’ door in the back corner that led into Abigail’s house and pushing it open. He stepped through, glancing around while wondering why the house and shop would both be open when no one seemed to be home.

Suddenly self-conscious of how he was in someone else’s house when they weren’t there, he glanced around again to make sure no one saw him and slowly backed out of the main room to head back into the store and then outside. As soon as he turned to push back open the door to the shop he got a flash of purple hair before a stinging pain slammed against the back of his head and he went crashing to the floor.

“Quickly! Before he recovers!”

He didn’t even register the familiarity of the voice, his body stunned and frozen on the floor as the pain in his head began thudding like a headache. His voice seemed stuck as he was pulled back up to his feet, his vision swimming while he was overwhelmed with a sick sense of vertigo that spurred nausea in his stomach as his head continued to pound. Despite his sluggish struggles against the arms that wrapped around him, he was dragged rather quickly back through the house, the pain slowly dulling as his senses started to come back to him. He first saw the floor change from wooden boards to tiling as he and whoever was grappling him burst through the set of double doors in the house he’d never actually seen the other side of, instantly able to understand the danger and trying to dig his heels into the ground to slow them down as he tried to squirm away.

“I need a hand! He’s coming back to his senses!” A voice called out from behind him, and the sudden shock of recognizing it as Pierre’s momentarily halted all of his attempts to get free.

What the hell…?

Abigail came running through the doors that had swung shut, a grimace crossing her face as she made eye contact with a slack-jawed Sebastian. “Shit.”

“The hell are you doing?!” Sebastian wasn’t able to keep the panic off his face as Abigail went to grab his legs, managing to kick her hard enough in the chest she went careening back and landed on her ass with a thump. She rolled her eyes as she stood back up, this time more prepared and able to grab his flailing legs to help her dad carry him through a few lines of empty chairs towards a strangely ornate table that looked a little too much like an altar for his liking. 

“Oh, my. Need another set of hands?” Caroline’s head suddenly poked in through the doors, smiling softly as the two managed to lift Sebastian up and hold him down on top of the altar.

“That would be lovely.” Pierre sighed in relief as his wife came in, Sebastian’s stomach churning with disgust as they smiled at each other before turning their attention back to him. Caroline then took over holding down Sebastian’s arms as Pierre went digging under the table, triumphantly returning with several lengths of rope, dropping all but one and then starting to loop it around one of Sebastian’s wrists.

“Seriously, what the hell is this?!” With the entire family working together, he could barely even struggle as Pierre made short work of tying the other end of the rope to a leg of the table, then uncomfortably pinning his arm flat against the table as he moved to the other one.

“Honey, is he always this noisy?” Caroline asked Abigail, who shrugged lightly.

“Didn’t think so.”

“You’re all nuts…” Almost in awe of the crazy, Sebastian winced as Pierre quickly tied down his other arm and then moved to join Abigail on the other side of the table.

“You’ll be fine, okay?” Caroline smiled down at him, but it only inspired a cold chill of fear instead of any comfort. “The others will be here soon, so we’ll make it quick.”

“Make what quick?” Sebastian asked, though he really didn’t want to hear the answer from any of them, as he already had his suspicions and was desperately hoping to be wrong as Pierre tied his legs down.

“You don’t need to worry about that.”

——

“Sebastian still hasn’t said anything…” Sam frowned, checking his phone for the hundredth time as his mom unpacked groceries in the kitchen.

“Maybe he got held up somehow and forgot.” Jodi turned to look at where her son sat anxiously at the kitchen table, doing her best to sound sure.

“He wouldn’t forget.” Sam protested, to which Jodi could only sigh in begrudging agreement.

“How about you go check on him after your shift tomorrow?” She suggested, turning her attention back to her groceries as she balled up an empty bag to add to her collection under the sink.

“Shift… tomorrow?” Blinking confusedly, Sam paused for a moment before looking up in sudden alarm. “Wait, today’s Wednesday?” 

“Yeah?” Jodi answered without looking back, putting some fresh fish from a new bag into the fridge.

“Pierre’s closed today…” Sam mumbled to himself, finally grabbing his mom’s confused attention again.

“Honey, what are you talking about?” 

“Sorry mom, but I gotta go.” Sam called back over his shoulder as he ran for the front door, tugging his shoes on and grabbing a jacket as fast as he could manage. “I’ll be back later!” 

“But—! Dinner’s gonna be done in—!” Jodi tried to stop him, but instead just stared defeatedly after him as the front door slammed closed behind him. “Aaand he’s gone.”

Sam followed the road up to the town square, shielding his eyes from the still pouring rain as he ran towards Pierre’s and got under the shelter of the awning to peer in through the slightly tinted front windows. Not spotting anyone inside and the closed sign on the door, Sam tried the front door only to find that it was actually open and he pushed it open so he could step inside.

The store itself was quiet and deserted, Sam glancing around and after determining it was completely empty felt his stomach sink with dread as he then headed for the door in the back leading into Abigail’s house. As he reached for the handle he paused, waiting for a second to see if he could hear anything before opening the door as the house sounded quiet as well.

Fighting the urge to call out, Sam headed into the main room of the house after poking his head into Abigail’s room and finding it also empty, hearing hushed voices from behind a set of double doors at the far end of the room.

“I’ve never been in there…” He said under his breath to no one in particular, taking slow steps in that direction until he was close enough to make out talking from inside.

“—and with this, we can begin.” Pierre spoke as if addressing a crowd of some type, a brief moment of silence passing before Sam heard the familiar—though now incredibly panicked—voice of his friend.

“He—Hey!! What are you doing with that? Get away from me!” 

“Abby.” Pierre seemed to ignore Sebastian, his voice dull and bored as if—Has he done this before? “A hand?”

“No, don’t—!” Sebastian cut himself off with a cry of pain, Sam’s eyes blowing wide as he cursed, “Shit!” and threw the double doors open without another thought.

The entire room fell still and silent as the assembled townspeople turned to look at Sam, who stood just inside the doorway with his mouth agape. The room was strange, with gilded tiles covering the floors and walls, a bunch of chairs set up to model pews that faced a large, ornate altar that sat atop a slight rise in the floor. The recognizable figures of Lewis, Gus, Clint, Pam, and Caroline were sitting in the seats and staring at Sam—who was too preoccupied with Pierre and Abigail who were standing over Sebastian, who’d been tied down on top of the altar. Abigail was also holding a bloodied kitchen knife, which had just been used to slash at Sebastian’s wrists—which were now steadily dripping blood into large buckets beneath the head of the table.

“Sebastian!” Sam charged up through the center aisle created by the chairs, ignoring the townspeople who stood up in protest as Sam ran faster than he thought he could to reach his injured friend.

“Sam?” Sebastian’s head was slow to roll to the side, his slightly bleary and clouded eyes noticing his friend’s rapidly approaching form.

“Now, Sam, don’t interrupt.” Pierre warned, starting to reach for Abigail’s weapon but moving a moment too slow as Sam punched him hard in the face.

“Dad!” Abigail—in her surprise—dropped the knife as her father fell hard to the floor, clutching at his face as blood began seeping through his fingers from his nose. Sam lunged for the knife as she realized her mistake, him standing up in time to kick her legs out from under her and send her crashing into Pierre as he tried to get up.

Sam quickly sawed through the ropes around Sebastian’s wrists and helped him sit up, waving the knife in a wide arc towards the onlookers who had begun to approach. “Out! All of you, out! Whatever this is… it’s not gonna happen!”

The assembled townspeople looked at each other warily, glancing between the knife in Sam’s hands and the crumpled forms of Abigail and Pierre and started backing away, allowing Sam to cut Sebastian’s legs free and begin to fret over his bleeding forearms.

“Keep pressure on them. I’ll get you to Harvey next door, he’ll fix you up.”

“Sam, you…” Sebastian trailed off as he pressed his injured forearms against his shirt in an attempt to slow the bleeding. “How’d you know I was here?”

“Well, you didn’t text me.” Sam explained sheepishly, setting the knife down to help Sebastian off the table, supporting his weight as best he could as the two hurried out of the room. “And mom reminded me it was Wednesday. This place should’ve been closed.”

“Thanks.” Sebastian stumbled a little as Sam helped him outside, keeping under the awnings to get next door to Harvey’s without being drenched.

“Anytime!”

[mane--attraction]

Ah yes, my very late "year in review post" whoops lol (MINORS DNI)

I posted 25 times in 2022

That's 13 more posts than 2021!

18 posts created (72%)

7 posts reblogged (28%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

@umbral-archives

@westanthewaterman

@weirdlyhornyforegos

I tagged 25 of my posts in 2022

#gender neutral reader - 9 posts

#mun speaks - 8 posts

#lemon - 8 posts

#x reader - 8 posts

#minors dni - 6 posts

#gn reader - 4 posts

#murdock x reader - 4 posts

#lemonish - 3 posts

#darkiplier x reader - 3 posts

#mun answers - 3 posts

Longest Tag: 130 characters

#okay after thinking about it you may have mentioned the idea as a fic at one point (cuz i know it was brought up for rp) but still

My Top Posts in 2022:

#5

Murderplier/Murdoch spicy headcanons - MINORS DNI

A/N I’ve been holding onto these since... May 5th? Damn lol forgot about them until literally today when I’m making this post. >:P Under read more just in case. 

CW: knifes, murder mention, blood mention, gender neutral but there is a period mention (if I need more warnings, let me know)

(read more at the link below)

58 notes - Posted July 21, 2022

#4

A/N: I wrote this at 3am don't look at me

MINORS DNI

Murdock has a habit.

(read more at the link below)

58 notes - Posted November 8, 2022

#3

"Perhaps you are tired of me repeating myself over..."

One spank. You yelp with a jolt.

"...and over..."

Another spank, another cry from you. You swear that slap was harder.

"...and over again," he growls into your ear as he gives one more and you hiss in pain, even as a shudder runs down your spine.

(read more at the link below)

79 notes - Posted February 1, 2022

#2

Technically

(A/N: This has been languishing for a while cuz despite being a drabble I got stuck really quickly; I couldn’t figure out how to make what I wrote mesh with the idea of “someone comes to the door” without it feeling unnecessary. Ah well, another time, mayhaps. Anyway, enjoy~)

(minors dni)

~~~~~

Technically, the head engineer should bunk near the engines, in case of an issue. Technically, in addition to being closer to the bridge, the captain's quarters only have room for one.

(read more at the link below)

147 notes - Posted September 2, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

How they would react to you tying yourself up in ribbon as a gift for them: Actor and Dark

(click the link below to view the headcanons)

157 notes - Posted January 5, 2022

~~~

(posts edited down for length and also to hide most of the naughty stuff lol. also for some reason this recap post removed the read more from everything so the entire post was slapped in there)

What a year! I know I'm (very) late with posting this, but I only refound this recap thing in the last few days of 2022 and then I got busy. My most popular post was the one towards the beginning of the year, and I actually reblogged stuff to this blog that wasn't just that one gifset! Whodathunk! The top five has a pretty good range, which I'm happy about. Thank you to everyone in particular who reblogged stuff and added tags, I appreciate those notes the most. And also those asks, hehe. I live for the yelling at me in my inbox and the tags. Who knows what this year will bring~~ >:3

Get your Tumblr 2022 Year in Review →

[lampmanliveblogs]

Excerpt All of this eventually lead to the present, where Artemis was struggling to hide his wheezing breath from Butler so the bodyguard wouldn’t hear that his principal was slowly dying from walking uphill. He swore to himself that once they got back home he’d actually start working out in the gym like he kept telling Butler he was doing. Right after he had finished the super laser he was building.

As he finally reached the top of the slope, he spotted what it was they had come there for. In a small clearing stood several stone pillars and walls surrounding… something.

Reinvigorated at the prospect of a mystery to solve, Artemis picked up the pace and soon found what was at the center of the ruins. A round, sky-blue crystal platform. This was what he was here to investigate.

Synopsis Artemis is investigating an alien artifact giving off weird dimensional energies ("bad vibes," as Qwan and No. 1 put it) when a magic boy shows up to complicate things.

Steven is looking for a corrupted gem when he runs into a pale boy and a large man doing some science stuff on a warp pad.

How does the fairy world of Artemis Fowl and the alien adventures of Steven Universe clash? Read and see!

Fandoms: Artemis Fowl, Steven Universe Rating: Teen and up Words: 5 300 Warnings: Blood mention (not a lot, but it's there), References to Swedish media you haven't heard of Relationships: Artemis Fowl II & Steven Universe Characters: Steven Universe, Artemis Fowl II, Domovoi Butler, Angeline Fowl, Artemis Fowl Senior, Holly Short, Foaly Additional Tags: Crossover, Post-The Atlantis Complex, Post-Steven Universe Future

Author's Notes I decided to go back to update and make some edits to this one. One thing led to another and I basically rewrote the entire thing. Most of the story's the same, but I expanded on some things, fleshed out some details, and fixed a bunch of awkward sentences.

I also changed the title because I realized I didn't like "Artemis Fowl: The Magic Boy" anymore. That ampersand makes all the difference, lemme tell you.

You'll also notice that Vinyáya is alive in this, even though she died in The Atlantis Complex. This is because when I first wrote this story, I forgot that she died in that book. Whoops.

And for the followers of my liveblog: Yes, there are references to The Owl House in this.

[24-05txt]

... forgot to post my gift fic whoops

Tags: POV outsider, Character Study, Recovery, Slice of Life, Awkward Social Situations

Summary:

And I swear to every deity known to man that it’s because I’m thinking of it that the damn SecUnit comes ‘round the corner like it isn’t even a thing, like I’m not standing right here. It’s far enough away that I might’ve been able to pretend it was someone—something—other than it is, but I don’t easily forget the face of one who saves my life, one who I shot not five minutes after that, and—almost like an insult—every time my eyes focus on the figure across the walkway, my interface displays it’s feed ID: a damning ‘SecUnit’, stamped above its head like a name.

Surviving the trip from BreharWallHan isn’t the end of it for Human One, she’s not even sure it’s a beginning. There’s no clear end to the effects of her time spent in the backrocks, but recovery is made one step at a time. Recognizing her family, acknowledging her rights, claiming a home… taking a break.

This is what making an effort looks like. It’s harder than it has any right to be, but damn her if she won’t try anyway; and, like a mercy, some things come unexpectedly easy.

[us-the-voices-and-more-voices-2]

"we should be shaming both parties" have you watched any of the footage from October 7th? I'm not talking about the death and mutilation, but the stories and interviews of soldiers and police officers (hell, one Rabbi shot in the face who was out on the streets trying to protect civilians) who were first on the ground trying to respond to the attack?and when they show the actual body camera footage from the attack? I'm in disbelief there wasn't MORE of friendly fire, the situation was utterly chaotic

oh sorry man, I actually haven't.

to be brutally honest, those stories do not make it over-here in Australia and I do not subscribe to any newspapers I read the news though I just don't subscribe to any, why would I? most of them are like so much money and I read them via archival sites anyway.

especially Israeli sites my god why are they all money, I do not have the spare change and the newspapers clog my emails up lol.

I really should start advertising that I am in fact Australian and usually don’t have much news about anything the ABC doesn’t think is interesting. Ugh not listening to sky news or 9 news Ew.

I unironically get my Israeli news from my Israeli moots, lol

(btw you need a tone tag for this I have zero idea what your tone is, if it’s lighthearted or serious or angry I have zero idea. You need to clarify, I usually am pretty good with figuring out tone but it’s a bit confusing. Thank you for your understanding)

We were a bit high strung to shit over the past 2 days, turns out we have triggers I did NOT know about.

And was ping ponging between incredibly suicidal and not, lol we are NOT okay. This happens sometimes!

anyway, I phrased it a bit wrong. I still have a lot of trouble putting my thoughts into text, I have problems lol 😂

genuinely though it’s a freaking miracle I regained so much of my thought and brain processing skills after having covid. I still have BAD episodes of brainfog and I start stuttering and blanking on the simplest of things.

at least it doesn’t feel impossible to think anymore lol, I genuinely completely Forget what I was talking about sometimes. My short term memory goes to shit sometimes genuinely.

I honest to god completely forgot my whole thought process for the first tag, it’s like genuinely unrelated to the rest of them but yeah what I said was actually shitty I realize now.

whoops I completely apologize and thanks for bringing it up, I can admit my faults. I’ve just had a fucking ROUGH 2 days, rough and honestly fully my fault I shall do better in the future.

also do please drop the news articles! I have zero idea which ones your talking about and would love to read more about it, sorry for my actions I’m genuinely head empty right now and have been going through some shit.

this always happens, we get like really emotional and have some of the brainfog and just say bullshit. Because I genuinely forget wtf I was talking about and then also I misread things a lot? So yeah my fault I’ll be better in the future, all the brain stuff usually isn’t THAT bad but when multiple different things are happening at once WOOF the brain stuff is bad.

At least this time it wasn’t a paranoia spiral or something.

long covid fucking sucks + dyslexia + ADHD + dissociation

I really have bad short term memory problems at times.

blanket statement, I genuinely have really fucking bad language processing problems that flare up at the strangest of times.

usually when we are sick or ill, but over the last 2 days we were pretty unwell + having some mental health problems.

I do need to keep explaining this because genuinely it is BAD at times, sometimes I cannot string together a coherent thought or sentence without just fully blanking and taking a minute to actually try and collect my Thoughts.

usually I completely and utterly forget what I was thinking.

it’s genuinely that bad.

I honest to god just forgot what I was going to say, anyway thanks for bringing this to my attention I will edit the reblog as soon as my brain starts working again.

I hope to hear more from you soon!

[builder051]

Whumpmas in July 2024 day 11: Whumpy daydreaming songs

Aight, before we get started here, I’m going to set some boundaries.

I use a lot of song lyrics in the titles of my fics. That doesn’t mean the piece of music is related to whump or even related to the features of the story. Sometimes I’ll randomly add them as I go to post the fic and realize I forgot to title it. And sometimes I hear a specific lyric in a song and have to write a story to go with it because it sounds perfect.

I know a few songs with outright whumpy lyrics. I consider those to be more like inside-joke trivia items than writing inspiration.

Lyrics that hit me and stir my imagination are often related to angst or inner demons. I will tell you about some of them, but be aware that they can be difficult listens.

I create specific playlists for my novels and novellas, and I post them as front matter for each piece. My fanfic novellas are Tenement Falls, Beautiful Oblivion, and Ignite your Bones. They all contain intense angst, so tread carefully. You can find a teaser for each in my blog archive, and they’re posted in full on AO3.

Ok, here we go:

Songs with sick (as in feeling/being physically ill) in the lyrics:

Inside Out by Eve 6 (no, the title is not Beautiful Oblivion)

I think sick like ginger ale/ my stomach turns and I exhale

Mr. Brightside by The Killers

Now they’re going to bed/ and my stomach is sick/ and it’s all in my head

The City by The 1975

He threw up on the floor and his shoes

Songs and artists that inspire big angst:

Shinedown, in general. A ton of their songs are what could be classified as “breakup songs.” They have many lyrics about being angry and needing to move on. Call Me is permanently off my list of listens; I accidentally made it my theme song in a crisis. (I’ve done that a few times over…whoops.)

Remedy by Thirty Seconds to Mars. This is another of the accidental theme songs. It’s kind of like the singer is offering to be the listener’s support person? Shoulder to cry on? It’s permanently off my listen list too.

I Hope You’re Happy by Blue October. This is the last accidental theme song (I promise), and this one makes me emotional just to think about. Please don’t ask. It’s about wishing someone well after they’ve gone away. No more to say.

Zombie (the Bad Wolves version) is a great classic angst song.

Loser by Beck is quite humorous to me, but it’s great for dealing with (or being) a hot mess.

Losing My Religion (originally by R.E.M., but grab the Glee cover if you can. Cory Monteith does a hauntingly good job.) Mostly because I was weirdly affected by his passing, but it’s also about giving up hope.

Bonus round:

Hot Blooded by Foreigner. You all probably know it, but that’s the proper name of the song (If you google the chorus lyrics, you’ll never find it—too many other associations). Pull it up on YouTube. The front man is very impassioned. And there’s pair of very tight white jeans involved… Anyway, the lyric is:

Check it and see/ I’ve got a fever of 103

[caedogeist-rights]

Podcasts ranked by the amount of kissing/gross sounds in it (and also how romance-repulsed/aromantic-friendly it is), by me, your neighborhood aro and hater of Body Sounds. Spoilers ahead for every single podcast listed!

(also, this got long, so uh. see under the break for the full list.)

1. Time:Bombs: The Perfect Podcast, not a gross foley, kiss, or romance-heavy plot in sight. I’ve got nothing bad to say about it, im sorry. It’s perfect.

2. Northwest Footwear Database: It is beauty, it is grace, it has got no Weird Sounds (unless you count a banging song and in-depth discussions of shoes. which i do not). A weird fiction podcast, so not Perfect in the listening, but... still #2 for a reason.

3. RQG: it is a ttrpg podcast. theres very obviously no kissing foley here. Thank G-d, is all im saying. Also has a QPP with a PC, and i give every budding romance an aro thumbs up!

4. Wolf 359: I don’t remember any terrible sounds, there’s no explicit romance- overall, a Good One! 1/2 a point taken off for the mental image of freezer-burned doug.

5. Kaleidotrope: oh, if there ever was a good podcast! This podcast is also kinda obsessed with love, which is nice, but focuses on romantic love for 90% of it, which is less so. Oh kaleidotrope... you need some aros.

6. TSCOSI: I adore this podcast! this is a wonderful podcast with wonderful characters, and I enjoy the ace rep! However, the torture scene in the s1 finale was... less enjoyable. 1 minute of Terrible, but it counts. (we have entered one-strike-territory)

7. The College Tapes: I am filled with adoration, but also, the book and cult chanting is creepy and unnerving. Also, the sheer volume of romantic pining was... overwhelming. Didn’t hate it, but not The Aro Friendly Podcast of my dreams.

8. Mabel: I do not remember much of this podcast, except I enjoyed it and there was some foley that was uncomfortable. Overall, not bad, but... a romance-focused plot, no matter how much I love it, with uh. Weird Sounds.

9. Archive 81: behold, my favorite podcast! Why, you may ask- oh, it simply is the Weird Shit Aro Haven of my dreams! Not a kiss or romantic plot to be found (some of yall ship chris and lee, and i support you, but i never interpreted them as romantic, so It Doesn’t Count on this list). However. the heart-eating scene. the s2 surgery scene. the concept of half the characters? the definition of body horror. Gross! (we have entered into the couple-strikes territory)

10. Stellar Firma: much like a81, perfect except for just one thing, and in this case, its the foot kink shit. Please listen to stellar firma, but also. Hartro’s Foot Kink. I give it my aro sign of approval, though! (I have also only listened up to s2 finale, so uh. idk after that).

11. The Bright Sessions: there are xactly two reasons why this podcast is rated so low on this list. One, there’s quite a bit of romance in this podcast. I’m not against 80% of it, but like... Romance Exists. Two, Safehouse! I do not want or need to hear a man beaten half to death, no matter how much I hate him!

12. TMA: but, you might ask, why is TMA so low? It’s got not a kiss in sight, an a canon ace! Yes, I say, that all is true. It’s why TMA is in its special little category: As An Aro I’m Fine But What The Fuck Bro. An ace main character cannot erase the experience of listening to jon’s hand be burned while I was on a public bus, my Actual Physical Repulsion to michael’s voice, and also all the gore. It’s Gross, Bro! Edit for post e200: yeah.... i must admit the kiss was gross and the sound design really only got more disturbing, so its staying at #12, but... keep in mind that this podcast is simply quite terrible on the ears.

13. Junoverse (Penumbra Podcast): Didn’t mean to make these three popular podcasts the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th worst ones, but what can i say! these fuckers have foley. Junoverse is one of two podcasts in the special category Make Room For Jesus, and juno gets here primarily because of the downright ridiculous amount of making out in it, plus a Giant Subplot being romantic, and also the multiple scenes of torture/a character getting Hurt, Badly. However, not the worst, since while kissing is gross, I can deal. Torture/death/screaming/gore, however...

14. The AM Archives (including Order&Chaos): behold, the pride of the Make Room For Jesus category. I love this podcast/s more than life itself, but I also used transcripts for most of it, so I was able to actually get through it. But from what i could get from transcripts/listening to the finale/asking fellow listeners, its... well, #14 for a reason. And what I can say: this podcast has everything! Burgeoning romance thats, ngl, kinda uncomfortable to listen to! A Kiss (thank you, Order&Chaos, for giving me lovely poly content, but... Kiss Gross)! Copious amounts of screaming and torture! Emotional distress of many varieties (mine included)! Extended Death Scene! I’m sorry, i feel like doing tama a disservice by ranking it last, but unfortunately... it ain’t easy on the ears, and I’m incredibly glad I avoided a lot of it! (...i still did listen to owen’s death, tho. which. aaagh i’ll never be over that one, huh). I love you, TAMA and O&C, but you are hard as hell to listen to.

ty for reading to the end! please, i take aro-friendly podcast suggestions! again, this is based on memory and memory alone (tama excluded), so uh... whoops! if i forgot something important

[noirewrites]

Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: Miraculous Ladybug Rating: General Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Luka Couffaine/Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug, Alya Césaire & Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug, Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir & Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug Summary:

“Wait, when was the last time you slept, Marinette?” “A few days. Haven’t slept... for a few days... Work to do… Black coffee… Monster drinks... Caffeine in blood…” “I am totally sure the last thing was other way round."

@miraculousfanworks​  Fulfilled for a prompt in @mlwritersguild​!

Read the story under the cut!

“Marinette, it’s 4.30 A.M. in the morning! You need to sleep!” 

“Just one more stitch, Tikki,” the girl mumbled to her kwami as she focused on the dress she was trying, trying to get the golden embroidery completed. Kagami’s birthday was in two days and Marinette wanted to give something to her new friend. Hence, she had decided to make the fencer a nice red jacket with black accents, and with a beautiful golden dragon embroidered on it. And she really wasn’t in a mood to mess her hard work up.

  “But Marine--”

“Just a second, Tikki…” the girl gritted out before letting out a whoop of joy. “There! It’s done! How does it look like?”

  The designer turned the mannequin to show her little friend the final result. The red jacket with its black trims and buttons looked pretty simple. However, it was the majestic dragon that gave the jacket its signature look. It started from the left breast pocket, occupied most of the jacket’s behind and ended with its tail curling near the right hip. 

“Wow Marinette, it looks just as if the dragon is embracing and protecting the wearer of the jacket!” Tikki commented, running her hand along the jacket’s embroidery. The golden thread glimmered under the kwami of creation’s touch.

  “Thanks Tikki, and now,” the girl let out a long yawn as her eyes drooped. “I guess it’s finally time for a good nap.”

“Yes Marinette!” The kwami chirped, flitting around her chosen’s head in concern. “You haven’t had a proper sleep for a few days. That’s not good for you!”

  “I know, I know Tikki, but…” the girl paused as she tried to get her bearings, her hand on the railing to hold herself steady. “There have been just so many commissions for Jagged and Kitty Section, and then the class presidential duties, and let’s not forget Hawk Moth--”

“Along with which you also took it upon yourself to make Kagami a birthday present and babysat Manon for a day, I know!” Tikki completed her statement for her. “That’s why I’m saying, you need to sleep.”

  “Yeah yeah, I’m just going to do that,” Marinette sleepily chuckled “Gonna climb the stairs and just flop down on my bed and--”

The moment she lay her head on her pillow, she immediately shot up, eyes bugged out in horror.

  “What happened, Marinette?”

  The frantic girl yanked at her pigtails as a crazed look appeared in her eyes. “Tikki, I forgot to complete the Literature homework due today!”

 *************************************

“Cesaire, Alya?”

“Present!”

  “Dupain-Cheng, Marinette?”

There was a silence in the room.

  “Dupain-Cheng, Marinette?” Ms. Bustier called the name out again, looking up from her register.

Alya raised her hand. “Um, Ms. Bustier, Marinette’s still not here and--”

  “Present!”

  Immediately the classroom door slammed open as someone dropped on the classroom floor with a yelp. Papers went flying by and the students in the classroom got up to find Marinette sprawled out on the ground, grumbling something incoherent.

She quickly sat up and started to assemble her papers. Adrien and Nino got down to help her as the others went back to what they were doing. Thanking the two guys quietly, Marinette marched up to Ms.Bustier’s desk and slammed the papers down on her table.

  “The homework that was due for today, Ms. Bustier. Complete with detailed analysis of the scene that we studied yesterday.”

The teacher took in Marinette’s appearance and tentatively nodded in response, immediately to cringe a bit at the maniac smile that the girl gave her. With a skip in her step, Marinette walked over to her desk and plopped down in her seat beside Alya.

  As Ms. Bustier continued taking the attendance in the background, Alya leant into Marinette’s space, holding her hand up in a whispering notion. “M, what the heck? Your hair’s a bird’s nest, your eyes bloodshot and the dark circles make you look like a ghost. What the hell have you been doing?”

Marinette hummed distractedly as she dug into her backpack, before pulling out a big can of Monster energy drink, causing her best friend’s eyes to bug out. “Oh nothing much, just homework,” she nonchalantly spoke, waving her hand as she took in a big gulp of the drink.

  “Just…. Homework, you say?” Alya eyed her friend as she continued to drink. Clearly Marinette needed some help, for no normal teenager should be drinking that .

“Yeah, and a bit of designing. Woke up a bit late but thankfully managed to get a croissant and two cups of black coffee.” Marinette put the drink down and wiped at her lips. Alya peered into the can. It was half-finished.

  “Girl, are you sure you don’t want to have a heart attack?”

“Mhmm,” Marinette grinned at her manically and Alya decided then and there that her best friend did not need just some help. 

  She needed some serious help.

 ***********************************************

“Okay class,” Ms. Bustier clapped her hands, gaining the students’ attention. “Since today’s lecture was based on stress management and relaxation, I want you all to write something about your life. It doesn’t have to be long: a short paragraph or poem also works!”

The children scrambled to get their supplies out and started working on the task assigned to them. Satisfied with having kept the students busy, Ms.Bustier sat down at her desk and started going through her paperwork.

  Five minutes later, a paper was put on her desk. 

The teacher looked up to find a weary Marinette looking at her expectantly. Smiling at the student, Ms. Bustier took the paper and turned it, letting out a gasp.

  “Marinette, what is the meaning of this?” She asked the girl, pointing at the random squiggles and scribblings that filled the paper.

Marinette shrugged as she swayed a bit. “You asked us to write something about our life. Well, that’s me, a total sleep-deprived mess.”

  “You haven’t been having proper sleep, dear?” The girl responded with a small shake of her head.

“Okay.” The teacher immediately signed a note and handed it to Marinette. “Take this to the nurse and she will give you the permission to rest for the day. Grab a proper sleep, it is important for your health.”

  Marinette gave her teacher a small smile of gratitude and a thumbs up before grabbing the note and moving out of the room. Sighing in relief at having helped a student, Ms. Bustier started to get back to grading the homework.

  The thudding sound of someone falling down the stairs made her run outside the class, to find Marinette staggering quickly (and wearily) in the direction of the nurse’s office.

****************************************

Being in bed was a wonderful feeling, Marinette decided that day.

  After having completed the homework, she had gotten to sleep at 6.00 A.M., only to be rudely woken up by her alarm at 7. The dark coffee and the Monster drink had got her through the first half of the day, but by the time Ms. Bustier had suggested them all to write something about their life, Marinette had been done with.

Her brain had come to an abrupt stop and she couldn’t think of anything except squiggled and wiggled and incomprehensible stuff. So when Ms.Bustier had granted her the permission to actually gain some rest for the day, Marinette had been very excited.

  A bit too excited to not look where she had been going and end up tripping down the last set of stairs.

But having a bruised ankle only solidified the reasons for her rest, so she wasn’t sorry.

  She closed her eyes and curled into herself, waiting for sleep to kick in. Given her state, sleep could ambush her any time. And she was very much willing to invest this time in her favorite pastime.

  Dreaming of emerald eyes that twinkle in mirth. Cologne that made adrenaline rush through her bld. And blond hair that shone like the sun.

Right now she hated the sun. 

  Sadly, she ditched the dream in a dark corner of her mind and started to focus on her breathing, waiting for sleep to grab her in her embrace.

  Just in a moment. 

  Just a moment more. 

  ...

  Maybe one more moment?

  Marinette tossed in her bed with a groan. Why was she not sleepy?

  The can of Monster energy drink winked at her from her backpack.

  Stupid energy drinks, kicking in at the wrong time.

  Marinette wanted to sob and cry and wail at her fate. Why did the universe hate her?

  As if answering her pleas, the nurse turned on some soft music in the room. Music that was soft and sweet and serene and calming and relaxing. 

  Relaxing and soothing like the music that accompanied the smell of the ocean. Ocean… that reminded her of deep blue eyes. Framed by a mop of dark hair.

  Darkness was welcomed, for it made her totally drowsy .

  Marinette sighed in relief. Yeah, she could dream about soft music and ocean and deep eyes and mysterious smiles and--

  The alarm on her phone blared suddenly, causing her to shoot up in bed as she spoke in a language so colourful, it would have made a real sailor blush.

  The akuma news feed flashed on her phone in a deep red.

  Marinette vowed to herself to not rest till she kicked some moth butt that day.

 ********************************************

“Watch out Ladybug!”

  The warning came a bit too late. The pink beam hit the red and black spotted heroine square in the chest, and immediately she felt a wave of drowsiness crash over her.

  The akuma, Sleeping Beauty, stole people’s sleep or made them drowsy, depending on the rested state of their mind.

  Ladybug was totally done. 

  Done with the stupid akuma, done with the old looney toon of a butterfly supervillain, done with the ever-conspiring universe.

  She just wanted a wink of a peaceful sleep. One that was not akuma-induced. Could she not even get that?

  She simply wanted to get over with this quickly.

  “Lucky Charm!”

  A big carton of Monster Energy Drinks dropped into her hands.

Sadly, the cans were sealed tight and not meant for drinking purposes, as the notice on the top of it said.

  She looked at the carton and at the rampaging akuma. The carton shone first, then the akuma’s head.

  Such a nice plan.

  Simple.

Easy.

Executable.

  She hauled the carton over her head. 

  “Take that, you mangy akuma!”

  And summoning all her strength, she yeeted the heavy box at its target.

  The carton flew. Chat followed its line of motion with his eyes.

  A resounding thud.

  The akuma dropped. Ladybug fell to her knees.

  “You okay, Ladybug?” Chat was by her side immediately as she panted in exhaustion.

“I am f-fine,” she managed to grit out.

  A Cataclysm later, Ladybug tossed the carton once again, this time weakly, into the air with a cry of “Miraculous Ladybug!”. 

  The magical ladybugs fixed everything. Everything except Ladybug’s exhaustion.

  She really wanted to drop dead from exhaustion right now.

  “Milady, are you really sure you are okay?” Chat asked once more, looking at his ring worriedly as it beeped.

“As okay as a sleepwalking zombie,” she said with a thumbs up.

  Chat stayed a little longer by her side, before vaulting away.

  Ladybug gathered all of her strength and pushed herself up on her feet. She trudged forward and finally broke into a sprint. 

  She had to scale that gap in the buildings in front of her. She crouched. She leaped.

  Her Miraculous beeped the final time before the magical suit faded away.

  Oh darn.

 **********************************************

Luka came up from behind the dumpster, brushing dust off his jacket. He made a way for his bike, when a yelp from above caught his attention.

  The next thing he knew, Marinette was in his arms. And he was breathing as heavily as her.

  “Marinette? What were you -- wait, how did you end up THERE?!”

  “I-I-” she looked around with wide eyes, before letting out a breathless chuckle. “I was parkouring!”

  “In the midst of an akuma attack? From that height? What were you thinking?!” He asked worriedly, his tone going an octave higher.

  Marinette gripped his denim jacket and looked up at him with teary eyes. “I just...I--I am sorry!”

“Hey hey, don’t cry, oof calm down Melody,” Luka awkwardly shifted her a bit in his arms, patting her back slowly. He started walking towards where he had parked his cycle.

  She curled into him, gripping his jacket as she snuggled.in deep. ‘I wanna sleep,” came her muffled voice.

  That was when he took in her bedraggled state, her messed up hair and the dark circles that had been visible in her eyes. “Wait, when was the last time you slept, Marinette?”

“This morning?” Her answer was immediately followed by a yawn.

  He got his cycle of the stand with one hand, balancing the vehicle and the girl in his arms awkwardly. “I meant a proper, nice sleep, Mari.”

There was silence from her side and Luka looked down to find her eyes screwed shut. 

  Oh well, she had fallen asleep.

  Carefully, he mounted himself on the cycle, all the while trying his best not to disturb the girl in his arms. He adjusted his grip, and after making sure everything was secure, pedalled off in the direction of his home.

  A few moments in the ride, and he felt Marinette fist his jacket as she mumbled something.

  “What was that, Mari? I didn’t catch you,” he asked softly.

“A few days. Haven’t slept... for a few days.”

  Luka was totally concerned. “But why? And how did you even function?” 

“Work to do… Black coffee… Monster drinks... Caffeine in blood…”

  “I am totally sure the last thing was other way round,” Luka grumbled as he continued to cycle.

  Marinette didn’t speak anymore, just drifted off to sleep.

  Once he reached home, he gingerly picked the girl in his arms and got aboard the boat. He walked quickly towards his cabin, all the while praying his mom would not see him (for heaven knows her boisterous congratulations would freak the sleeping Marinette out).

  Luka gingerly put Marinette down on his bed and pulled the sheets over her. He picked up his guitar and moved to go to the deck, but found himself stuck in place.

For Marinette had fisted his shirt tight in her little hands.

  Sighing partly in realisation and partly at the sight of her cute, sleeping face, Luka bent down to get his shirt free of her hold.

However, as soon as he made a move to loosen her hold, Marinette’s face scrunched up. 

  “Stay?” came her soft mumble, and Luka’s heart melted.

  With no other alternative visible, the boy sighed before pulling his phone out of his pocket. Shooting a quick text to Juleka about Marinette resting at the Liberty, he gingerly sat down on his bed, leaning on the wall.

Marinette immediately shifted herself a bit, giving him room to adjust as she put her head in his lap and dozed off again. 

  Smiling down at the girl in his lap, Luka gently threaded his fingers through her hair, before pulling the hair ties out. He didn’t want her to get up with heavily knotted hair, after all. Plus, it just provided him more of an excuse to play with her soft locks.

  Marinette snuggled herself to him, and Luka shifted his legs a bit to make her more comfortable. He hummed a lullaby, letting himself relax as the love of his life slept near him in pure bliss.

  Sleep came to him discreetly, and he found happiness in dreams of pink cherry blossoms, the scent of chocolate and bread and the beautiful smile of the music of his heart.

 ************************************ 

Anarka entered the small cabin, looking for her son to get some groceries. However, the sight that met her caught her off guard.

  Luka was leaning by the wall, his head tilted to the side as he dozed off, a content smile spread on his face. On his lap lay the sleeping form of the girl who designed for Kitty Section. Luka’s one hand was in the girl’s hair while the other was draped over her back protectively. The girl herself had a peaceful smile on her face as she used the boy’s legs for her pillow, while her one arm fisted his jacket and the other was near her waist, interlocked with Luka’s.

  Smiling, the Captain of the Liberty simply pulled out her phone and discreetly clicked a picture of the two sleeping kids, before smiling and walking out of the room. 

[star3yed]

Happy Holidays @lanelin​! I am you gifter for the @mlsecretsanta! I apologize for such the late work but I really hope you enjoy and had a great holiday season!

Thanks to my editor Tia @tombombadilcankickyourass​ for editing my random ramblings into cohesive sentences!

NSFW between the asterisks! The story ends within the asterisk for those who want to read it, if not I added a small SFW ending.

I made a small playlist that include the songs in this story, check it out :https://open.spotify.com/playlist/40za0n7AHlybZlNWvKde9P?si=sOe7Q5M8QCWXKIN6t0Mw8A

Summary:  A band AU where Marinette and her band decide to come back from retirement to surprise Luka at a music festival!

Rating: Explicit

Fandom: Miraculous Ladybug

Relationship: Luka Couffaine/Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug

Marinette ran in the alleyway leading to the back entrance of the venue, holding her coat tightly around her, her heels clicking against the damp ground. “Girl Hurry!” She heard Alya yell at her from the backstage door. She held herself upright as she stumbled on an empty can of beer. She made it to the entrance, panting a bit as her best friend chuckled. “Well, it isn’t a concert if you aren’t late, is it?” She joked as Marinette looked up to mock-glare at her. “Forgetting something?” She felt Alya press something in her hand and she looked down, seeing a mask, a new mask she had never worn but had spent hours slaving over, a staple of their band. Smiling, she accepted it and put it over her face. “Now c’mon, they’re almost done setting up.”

“Is he in position?” Marinette asked as she held onto her coat tighter, warming up inside the venue. 

“Allegra told me she finally dragged his ass to the floor. He wanted to go back home to you.” Marinette blushed, not surprised her boyfriend wanted to go back to her, yet still flattered. “I guess I acted sick a little too well.” She handed her coat to one of the stagehands and reached the rest of the group. Her bandmates had already put on their masks, a reflection of their onstage personas. Juleka, Ivan, and Adrien huddled together with Rose as someone yelled that it was almost time for them to perform. Marinette had missed this, the backstage mess of people running around making sure things would run smoothly, other bands networking as they waited for their opportunity to perform, the heavy smell of musk, and the excitement of the crowd ahead. She spotted a familiar blue splattered black guitar, with an intricate snake design around the head. Smiling, she turned to her group. 

“First off, thank you guys so much for willing to do this for me, taking time out of your busy schedules and learning to play a different genre …” Rose grinned and held Marinette’s hand, as Juleka spoke up.

“We know you would have done this and so much more for us, so don’t mention it!” The rest of the group agreed unanimously and energetically, making the raven-haired girl flush. 

“Besides Marinette, we missed this too.” Ivan chirped in, Adrien and Juleka nodding alongside him. 

“I haven’t had time to play in forever, I almost forgot how much I loved playing.” Adrien said, smiling.  

“I am honored to share a stage with you guys again, and hopefully we can do this more often.” Marinette said earnestly, stretching her hand out; immediately the rest of the group followed hands on top of one another. “Who are we?” Juleka cheered, 

“Miraculous!”

“And what do we do?” Ivan boasted,

“Rock!” The group said hyping themselves up. She heard a stagehand call out to them. Nerves made her stomach drop, and hyper aware of everything surrounding her, the amount of people backstage making her feel a little overwhelmed. A stagehand offered her a microphones and an earpiece, realizing that her band was up. Feeling her heart race as Ivan and Adrien were the first to get on the dark stage, followed by Juleka after kissing her girlfriend, Rose. “Nerves of steel”; she reminded herself. She had performed for bigger crowds before, and she knew she had at least one fan out there. Alya put a familiar strap on her shoulders and she smiled. Even through his objects, Luka’s magical calming effect washed over her. She put her hand on the neck of the black guitar, breathing deeply. While technically she’d be playing rhythm guitar to Adrien, she wanted to show Luka that his lessons hadn’t been in vain. 

Inhaling deeply, she took a step onto the stage, gingerly holding the neck of the guitar. The audience milled beneath her and as she exhaled, she felt at home. Although it had been a few years since she stepped on a stage, it felt familiar. The dim lights, the buzzing excitement in the air. She felt her heart speed up in anticipation, nerves slipping away as she walked towards the mic stand, her domain. She heard the excitement grow as she approached; a bright white spotlight flickered to life on her. She turned her head towards her bandmates for reassurance, they nodded back at her, signaling they were ready.  Putting her mic on the stand, she leaned in close. 

“Good evening France!” She called out to the crowd. She heard a whoop and her eyes quickly scanned the crowd. “I see someone recognizes us!” She laughed as another few cheers fluttered back to her. She smiled as her eyes settled on a mop of black and blue hair. 

 “We have Stoneheart back on the drums!” She called out as Ivan started to play the beat of an old song of theirs, a white stage light passing from her to him. “And Reflecta on the bass!” She called as Juleka joined in with the bass, the spotlight changing to purple and shining on her. “Chat Noir on the Guitar!” She felt Adrien shred a tune and smirked when she saw Luka’s eyebrows raise into his hairline. “And yours truly Ladybug on vocals!” She pumped an arm as the lights on the stage shifted from green on Adrien to red on her. “We’re Miraculous and we are back for ONE. NIGHT. ONLY!!”. As her words reverberated through the hall, the excitement became palpable.  Her eyes flicked from her boyfriend to the crowd, as they became more vocal and cheered on. “I’m sure most of you know this song! So, feel free to join in and help me sing!”

Juleka and Adrien stopped playing as Ivan changed the tune he was playing, and she flipped the guitar on her back. As she gripped the mic a bit more firmly, Juleka started to play the melody for their song Sorry now. Her nerves having dissipated as she sang, her heart swelled in joy. In the background she heard Alya join her for faster paced lyrics and smiled. The words flowing through her mouth as if she had just made them up on the spot, the emotion building up in her as she remembered the person for who she wrote the song for. Her eyes flicked back to Luka as she got into the chorus, memories flooding back to her; Luka comforting her on his bed after a terrible day at Lycée with Lyla, helping her channel the anger into music. 

Reaching the second chorus she held the microphone out, stopping midway and let the audience sing along with her. Marinette beamed, pleased their song was still remembered. For Marinette, this song was very much her way to cope with the emotions from being bullied and humiliated by Lila. Upon reflection, she realized that the hurt and confidence this song portrayed had made it what it was, and that passion made it resonate so much with her fans. She waved her hand at the audience and put both hands on her microphone preparing to hit the high notes on the second half of the notes. Grinning as she hit them, she opened her eyes again to finish the song.

Relishing in the cheers afterwards Marinette locked eyes again with her boyfriend in the crowd as he cheered for her. He winked at her, before letting out another cheer. Although Marinette wanted to bask in the emotion, she knew that festivals were fast paced, and the band didn’t hesitate to transition between songs. Ivan changed their beat, shifting into their song ‘Care’. Marinette took advantage of Ivan’s small drum solo to shift the guitar from her back to her hands. She gave it a small strum before quietly signaling in her earpiece for the crew members to turn on her amp. Care had a bit more of a nostalgic feel and was Adrien’s favorite song to perform. It was his cathartic song about his father. It wasn’t as vocal intensive as their first song, which gave Marinette time to focus on the guitar and keep the singing more instinctive. It really was more of a song for Adrien to show off his guitar skills. 

Their third song was more guitar heavy and had Mariette step up her game. Luka’s face was priceless when he saw her actually play a second song on his guitar. ‘California Girls’ was a tribute from Juleka to Rose. Jules wrote the lyrics and Luka had helped with the melody. The beginning of the song allowed Marinette to move more freely on the stage as it had more instrumentals. More comfortable with Luka’s guitar she jumped and danced around as she played. She trusted Rose with her backup vocals and focused a bit more on having fun on stage. After the bridge Adrien and she added a small guitar duet to really showcase their guitar skills, a small tribute to their teacher. Marinette had been nervous during practice yet performing and the audience cheering made playing the guitar akin to breathing, effortless. Finishing the song Marinette let go of the guitar, letting the weight fall upon the strap on her shoulders. Running a hand through her hair she moved closer to her mic. 

“You guys have been awesome so far!” The crowd cheered as Marinette held the microphone once again in her hands. “This song is so special to me,”. She smiled and peeked at Luka, noticing him tilting his head to the side. For the past two songs she had sneaked glances at him yet was focused more on the energy that reverberated through the venue. “My boyfriend wrote this song before we started dating.” She held back a laugh as she saw Luka’s reaction. “I had the biggest crush on a model when I was a teenager and he thought I was going to reject him in favor of the model when I had the chance.” Marinette laughed. “I hope if he’s out there and hears this he doesn’t mind we made the melody a bit more pop than rock.” She smiled and nodded towards Adrien to stop playing. ‘Daft pretty boys’ was something Luka was never proud of writing, yet they both found it immensely funny after a few months of dating. She never realized how Luka felt about her and how jealous he was to write a song about his pent-up emotions. She found it somewhat endearing that he felt so strongly about her even back then. Marinette started to play the guitar, and kept her eyes locked with her boyfriend. The band agreed to let her sing and play the first verse alone, as an homage to his writing process, and then join in the pre chorus. It would be the first time he’d hear the song being sung as an actual song, and not a melody. Although she tried to keep her gaze on Luka, she eventually had to look around the crowd, yet she felt his gaze burn onto her. They had changed the original melody to fit a more upbeat tune. Nino had helped with the composition, turning it into a more danceable song. The band had fun learning this song, a small creation for their performance. 

As the song ended, Marinette took a small sip of water provided for the band as the rest of the band room also took a small break. Marinette beamed as she addressed the crowd. “This is our final song tonight! A small tribute to our favorite band, one that inspired us to come back from retirement.” The crowd buzzed with anticipation. “It’s this small band, you might have heard from them. The Quantic Kids?” Marinette paused to let the crowd cheer with anticipation. “I’m pretty sure they’re the headliners tonight. “Her eyes locked with Luka’s as he flushed.  She grinned at the crowd’s excitement as Ivan started the beat of the song. “This song is called When it Breaks.” The crowd continued to cheer as Marinette held the guitar, ready to play again. The song was exciting and different for the band, and it was a bit intense for Marinette as it required more focus on both singing and playing from her. It was worth it in her eyes, as she had spent countless nights practicing in Nino’s studio away from her boyfriend to give his band the respect they deserved. The beat of the song was much faster paced and left the ambience hyped for the next band. Ending the song left the singer slightly out of breath. 

Marinette looked back into the crowd, her eyes scanned quickly trying to find his piercing blue eyes, to no avail. Smiling, trying to press down the growing nerves inside she waved to the crowd. “Thank you, France! We are Miraculous!” trying to reason with herself why Luka wasn’t in the audience she reminded herself not to freak out. “Bug-out!” She yelled out before the lights onstage cut off and the band made their way offstage.

 Immediately the band was flocked by people, but Marinette held tightly onto Luka’s guitar as she searched for him amongst the crowd. Praises and congratulations abundant, Marinette grinned politely, her mind racing with thoughts of Luka and concern over where he was. As the band was brushed from person to person she suddenly felt for her mask. Sighing in relief that it was still in place she resumed her search for a certain blue haired musician. Finding her way to Alya, suddenly a voice struck out clear as day, “My guitar seems to have been stolen.” Marinette’s polite grin turned into a fully-fledged beam.

“So, what if it has?” She retorted as she felt a strong arm wrap around her shoulder. 

“I’d have to report you to the police.” Luka smiled back at her before hugging her. His proper congratulations could wait when she wasn’t Ladybug anymore. 

“Even after we paid homage to your band with our theme?” She retorted sticking out her tongue at him. 

“I’m glad you found inspiration in us to come out of retirement.” He said, eyes filled with laughter. 

“It was an executive decision. You were a big factor.”

“Well, I’m honored…”

“I’ve even taken inspiration from you for my outfit. You like?” She said cheekily. She felt his gaze take her over and his cheeks flush. She had designed a leather bustier top with a teal scaley design that shifted from black to teal chrome with light, mimicking snakeskin. The bustier ended a little above her waist, exposing her abdomen. She designed a short black leather asymmetrical skirt with three thick buckles in the front with a snakeskin texture, to match with the theme. Alongside some teal and black jewelry, she finished the outfit with black platform boots with buckles that matched her top. 

“I’m not sure my girlfriend would approve.” Luka replied, raising an eyebrow. 

“I have a feeling she wouldn’t mind one bit.” She smirked, as Alya came in tow with Nino. The crowd around the band had dissipated, and the bandmates were buzzed from their performance. Nino hugged Marinette as he saw her grinning from ear to ear. “LB! It’s been forever!” She smiled and hugged him back.

“It has been, thanks for squeezing us in for a little comeback.”

“No problem LB, you guys really helped launch the label, along with quantic kids.” He said high fiving Luka. “Are you sure I can’t convenience you guys to record a new comeback record?” Marinette laughed and shook her head. 

Alya chimed in, smirking at her friend “Fine Ladybug, well the least you can do is come to our party, model Adrien Agreste is going.” This time Luka burst out laughing alongside Marinette. 

“Is it true you sang a song about him?” Luka jested raising an eyebrow at the singer. 

“My songwriter would kill me if I told you.” She poked Luka’s side with her elbow before turning back to Nino. “I already have plans for tonight, but if they blow over, I could make an appearance.” Nino chuckled and tilted his hat towards her. “Hope to see you there.” The couple walked towards the rest of Miraculous band to mingle, leaving the musician and singer alone. She waved at him, continuing to mingle lightly with some people before ducking out when everyone was distracted. 

 She walked towards Ayla’s car, having agreed to meet up with the rest of the band after changing. Safely inside she found another set of clothes, almost identical to her current outfit but with the top and bottom colors inverted. She shook her hair out of her pigtails and took off her mask, quickly changing in the safety of dark tinted windows, becoming designer Marinette once again. Just in time, there was a soft knock on her window signaling the group was ready to leave for the party. 

Adrien and Luka joined her in the backseat, as Nino and Alya slipped in the front. Marinette handed Adrien another neat pile of clothing to change. Although his all black leather get-up was sure to be a knockout at the party, Adrien wanted to keep Chat Noir a secret for a little longer, just in case they did decide to get the band back together. Marinette held Luka's hand as the man squished next to the girl to give Adrien more space to change in the small sedan. “So, I heard Ladybug was flirting with you backstage.” She joked making the musician blush. “Should I be worried about competition?” She heard Alya chuckle in front of her, eavesdropping on the conversation, Luka joining in. 

“Why is my melody jealous?” Marinette wrinkled her nose and Luka kissed the tip of her nose. “Well Ladybug should know there is only one girl for me, although I do have to thank her for the comeback.” Marinette smiled at her boyfriend, before leaning against the car door. 

“Well, it’s a small thank you for teaching us how to play the guitar.” Adrien chimed in, signaling he had changed. 

“You guys improved so much! I felt like a proud father.” Luka responded. He squeezed Marinette’s hand twice, a small gesture they shared as reassurance. The group talked on their way to Nino’s afterparty, catching up on their lives. They talked about Adrien’s love life and modeling with Juleka in Fashion Week, Luka’s upcoming tour in Europe, Ayla’s success as a music columnist and her plans to open her own magazine, Nino’s record label and the upcoming artists in his roster, as well as Marinette’s designs that were selected to appear in an Italian Magazine. The car ride had been long yet with the friend group it had felt as though time hadn’t passed since lycée.

The party was more of an industry mixer, where artists, managers and famous people mingled about. The friends were accustomed to this type of party, as it was prevalent in their career choices, and although it was great to make connections it was also somewhat boring. Being a Nino party, it felt more like a club than a networking event, yet people were always on the job. Getting out of the car, paparazzi was abundant at the entrance, trying to snap pictures of model Adrien and rock star Luka, yet the group ignored them, walking straight inside. Immediately Nino and Alya were whisked away to talk to some editorial, and Adrien was being flirted with by an American socialite. Marinette and Luka headed to the makeshift dance floor and started to dance but were quickly interrupted by other artists star-struck by Luka. 

Being used to this Marinette headed to the bar, which is where the couple always agreed to meet when separated by others. She ordered a cocktail and saw a small and quiet lounge area to the left. Heading there she was stopped by two women, a couple she recognized as a musician in Nino’s label and her famous actress girlfriend. Making small talk, she soon found out they were interested in her designs, wanting custom gowns for a red-carpet event. They started to exchange contact information when she felt an arm wrap around her waist. She wanted to lean into the warmth yet before she could it was gone, Luka opting to stand next to her instead of behind her. Introducing themselves again to Luka; the musician and Luka started to talk about the label, the woman curious about the way things were managed as she was new. 

She felt his hand intertwine with hers and a tingle went through her spine. His thumb rubbing the back of her hand made her look up at him, chiseled jaw moving with his mouth, a small smirk present. Although he was mostly nonchalant, he had grown more confident in the year his band has been performing. Goosebumps suddenly traveled up her arm as she tried to focus on the conversation, but the tension building up between them made it hazy. Her eyes darted to the bathroom and smiled, “It was great catching up! I’m going to get another drink.” She said to the couple, letting go of Luka’s hand. 

******

She straightened her back and headed towards a coat room, closing the door behind her. A few moments later she heard a familiar knock before the door opened, revealing Luka. He quickly entered before closing the door behind him and locking it. It only took him to turn back to her for Marinette to be on him, lips crashing against each other, her hand tangling in his hair. Instantly his hands grabbed her waist and pulled her closer, a small moan escaping her throat. He pulled away and smirked down at her. “As much as I love to hear you my melody, we might have to keep this symphony a bit quieter. We don’t want to alert anyone.” He said, putting a hand on her cheek, features softening from lust to adoration. He felt his heart swell at the sight of the seamstress/retired pop star with flushed cheeks, swollen pink lips parted slightly with breathlessness and a baby blue eyes that held utter desire for him. “God you are beautiful.” He whispered, bringing his other hand to hers, and pulling it up to his mouth to kiss. “A goddess of beauty and a siren of song, you’ve lured me into your arms and I never want to leave.” 

Marinette flushed a darker shade of pink, yet the emotions stirring in her stomach beat any of the sentiment in her heart.  “As are you, but we’re wasting precious time. It won’t be long before someone starts searching for us.” She whispered, through half lidded eyes. “It’s been torture to not have you all to myself.”  She took another step towards him, his hands slipping from her waist to her hips to hoist her up and against the door. She instinctively wrapped her legs around his hips, her hands resuming their position in his hair. She suppressed a gasp as he continued to kiss her hungrily, opting to clutch his hair tighter pulling slightly. Luka let out a soft moan, and peppered kisses from her mouth to her ear. Marinette snaked a hand underneath his blouse, feeling the soft skin against hard muscles. He let out a sigh as she gently traced her fingers up and down his abdomen and chest. Deciding the shirt was too much of a hassle, Marinette unbuttoned two other buttons before throwing it over his head. They only separated for a moment before their lips were back together, grinding against each other as they hungrily wanted more. As Marinette’s hand started to gently move up and down his back, the soft touch sensual, Luka started nibbling on her earlobe lightly before kissing behind the ear. He bit down and sucked, “Luka!” Marinette gasped before he continued kissing down her neck leaving a small love bite. Marinette pressed against him harder, wanting him to be closer. Grinding a little faster she felt his hard bulge against her as he groaned into her ear. His face moved back to her lips as he moved closer to the wall opposite the door, his lips sucking on hers hungrily as she bit his lower lip, enticing another moan from him. As soon as her back hit the wall his hands pinned her arms above her head, kissing his way down her neck towards her collarbone. “You know I love your designs but seeing you up there earlier on stage with my colors and my guitar… I never knew I needed to see that before.” He kissed her collarbone again, before straightening out and tightened his grip on her wrists, making Marinette moan. 

“Seeing you up there, wearing this… it made me want to ravish you,” he whispered leaning his forehead against hers before gently lowering her. Marinette almost whined as her feet touched the floor, “it was downright sinful what I wanted to do to you in that moment.” One of his hands slipped from down her arm, neck, between the valley of her breasts to the hooks on her bustier top, leaving shocks of electricity with his touch, Marinette leaning into his touch with pleasure. “My thoughts were filthy. But now…” he trailed off, eyes dropping to unhook the front of her top. “I get to show you exactly how I felt at that moment.” He pulled her top apart to expose her breasts, nipples getting harder against the cold air. Luka smiled and resumed where he left off, kissing gently down her collar bone, Marinette let out a soft moan, her hands clasping together as he neared her nipple. She felt the anticipation of his warm breath on her, yet before he could take the delicate skin in his mouth he smiled. “I haven’t even started and you’re already flustered ladybug?” she groaned, about to retort but the words never came out as his tongue flickered against the soft sensitive skin of her nipple. 

“D-damn you.” She managed to mutter out, his tongue flicking the tip before circling around it. Her fingers tightened around themselves, rolls of pleasure crashing through her. Had Luka not been holding her against the door, she would’ve felt her legs weaken as he bit down gently before taking it in his mouth and swirling the flesh with his tongue. His other hand came down cupping the other breast, fondling it before pinching the other nipple making Marinette moan louder than she meant to. He smiled before shifting, replacing his hand with his mouth, making Marinette arch her back trying to get him closer to her.

Luka pulled away, hand leaving her arms before grabbing her waist and kneeling in front of her. Marinette was left panting biting her lip, as her hands found their way into his hair. He smiled before kissing down her sternum and between her ribcages. He pulled back before pulling the hemline of her skirt above her hips admiring the lingerie underneath. “I see you didn’t waste any of the bustier fabric.” He said, lips tilted upwards in amusement. 

“s-Shut up…” She managed to sputter out, face bright red. Luka gently kissed her thigh from the middle inwards, training his way upwards until they hit the cut of her panties. Marinette was red and flushed, biting her lip to keep sounds from coming out. Her stomach fluttered, as the burning passion inside her consumed her. His lips felt like a matchstick, his trail leaving a tingling sensation that she didn’t, particularly mind. Kissing her through her panties, he looked up at her for permission to continue, to which she nodded, releasing her bottom lip from between her teeth. Luka so gently pulled them down, before ever so delicately put a finger between the folds of her warm, wet, and sensitive pussy. He gently brushed against her clit enticing another moan from the small seamstress. He pulled his finger back and admired it as it glistened in the low light before popping it into his mouth. He wasted no time sucking her wetness from his finger before his face was back at her inner thighs, kissing from the middle towards her slick clit. It didn’t take long before he reached there, giving her clit some special attention with his tongue. Soon he had Marinette bracing herself against the wall for support and her hands gripping and pulling his hair, begging him in sweet soft moans for more. As wave after wave of pleasure overrode her, Luka enjoyed seeing his girlfriend try to keep quiet as orgasm overtook her. Seeing her head tilted back, mouth agape, gasping for air made him wish he had photographic memory. He sat back and admired his handiwork as he held Marinette steady. 

Licking his lips, he smiled and stood up. Marinette let out a small sigh and put her head against the wall. “Need a moment?” he chuckled as he kissed her forehead. She nodded breathless. “Well come here” He wrapped his arms around her waist letting his girlfriend lean against him. He quietly started to rearrange her clothing as she gathered her bearings. “What about...” Luka’s eyes pierced into hers and he winked. “We can continue this at home, but I think our absence might be noticed if we are gone any longer.” He kissed Marinette again before lifting her bustier top over her exposed chest. “Now, my melody, where exactly did you throw my shirt?”. 

*******

Marinette got to the bar and ordered two cocktails as Luka met up with her at the bar. He kissed her temple as the bartender handed her two drinks. She felt proud of her boyfriend, they spent the night mingling, eventually dancing with their friends and happy in each other’s arms. 

[cressasdbfanfics]

Windblown

Paring: GoChi

Words: 2,051

Summary: Just me fulfilling a really old prompt request on Tumblr that I kinda forgot about. Whoops. Set about a year after Goku’s return post Buu’s defeat.

Prompt: The power goes out following (during) a windstorm. Also, it’s spring in the fic, not fall like the prompt list says.

Prompt list: The user deleted their whole account. Sad. I tried to link to the prompt list.

Fanfiction.net: https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13868732/1/Windblown

Archive of Our Own: https://archiveofourown.org/works/30883772

Cool spring air floated in through our open living room window, bringing with it the nice sweet scents of blooming flowers. Fluffy little clouds dotted the blue sky visible out the window. Gohan and Videl enjoyed a little spar under the evening sunshine a ways away from our home. They deserved a break from studying for their upcoming finals.

The breeze carried in their distant laughter and grunts. Curled up on our living room sofa, I hummed enjoying the soft breeze while I browsed a home décor catalogue.

A weight settled in the empty cushion on the other end of our sofa. I smiled at my sweet husband who was on his knees on the sofa, hands braced on the windowsill, as he looked toward where our son and future daughter in law fought.

"Videl's gettin' really pissed," he said through a chuckle.

I set down my catalogue on the side table next to me and watched Gohan and Videl through the window. Gohan's eyes lit up with a familiar, playful smirk—the same smirk his father wore when he stayed just out of my reach. Gohan dodged Videl's kick with a big jump backwards. Videl flew toward Gohan, her growl floating in through the open kitchen window. That little smirk during a little spar was just as infuriating to her as it was to me.

Goku flashed that same playful little smirk in my direction before returning his attention to Gohan and Videl. I shook my head but couldn't help a smile.

I stood from our comfortable sofa and nodded toward the window. "Shall we, sweetheart?"

Goku's eyes lit up and he jumped to his feet. I giggled as he grabbed my hand and pulled me outside with him into the cool spring breeze.

+++

I wiped the sweat from my forehead and glared at Goku. Oh, he was really going to get it if I could just catch him. I rushed Goku with a snarl, my fist ready to smash into his cheek.

My fist passed through empty air.

A whisper of warm breath off to one side brushed the exposed skin of my arm. I swung my elbow toward the warm sensation with as much weight as I could put into it. My elbow did collide with flesh in a satisfying smack—though not my intended target. Goku caught my elbow with an open hand, which he dropped to hang limply at this side. I shook off the jarring impact and got ready to attack him again.

Goku dodged and wove through every kick and punch I threw at him. Sometimes he returned a light hit, exploiting the rare opening I left. That playful little smirk never left his face. The light, cooling breeze picked up as we fought and felt wonderful against my skin.

"You're really strong, mommy!" yelled a small voice from somewhere near the house.

I sprang backwards out of Goku's reach and could easily make out Goten's awed smile inside our brightly lit house.

I giggled. "Thank you, sweetie."

"Yeah, you are," said Goku with a wink.

My heart fluttered in my chest as a little extra heat spread across my cheeks.

The bright sunlight faded.

An imposing mass of dark grey clouds blotted out the golden sunlight of late evening.

"Huh. Looks like we're gettin' a storm," said Goku, his gaze toward the sky. Goku looked at me, his eyebrows raised.

I answered Goku's silent question with a smirk. I wasn't about to let a little weather stop me.

Goku grinned.

I lunged for him as the wind picked up and feigned a punch to one side while setting up my real attack. Goku caught onto my ploy and answered with simply springing backward just out of my reach. I growled under my breath.

Goku chuckled and winked. "Nice try, babe."

I sprang after Goku and again let loose a quick series of knife handed strikes but all of them, as usual, missed.

The increasing wind made things difficult to keep going but I pushed through it, anyway. Goku seemed unfazed by the wind pulling on his gi and simply bobbed and wove around my attempted strikes, still wearing that irritating smirk.

"Mom! Dad!" yelled Gohan.

I stopped my attacks against Goku as Gohan and Videl landed by the two of us, eyes wide.

"Uh-oh," said Goku, staring at something behind Gohan and Videl, across the yard.

I followed his gaze. A wall of very low, dark grey cloud rushed toward us, flattening the grass it passed over. The wind carried the fresh scent of rain. A deep rumble echoed through the mountains and a bright flash of light lit up the darkened sky.

Goku pulled me against him. "We have to get inside!"

Goku reached toward Gohan and Videl. "Goten's inside! Grab on!"

A few droplets of chilly rain hit my face and the skin of my arms exposed by my rolled up sleeves before our living room materialized around us. The wind howled through our house.

"Quick! Close the windows!" I yelled as I dove for the open window above our sofa. The window wouldn't budge. It was hard to close against the wind. Large, strong hands stopped my struggle and easily pulled the window closed. I grimaced at the high-pitched sound of shattering ceramic. "The kitchen!"

Goku jogged into the kitchen but not before another dish—likely from the drying rack above our sink—met its end with another loud crash.

The wind blowing through our house ceased. I sighed grabbed the broom out of the utility closet.

"I need to cover the firewood," said Goku as I swept up the razor sharp shards of white ceramic.

He didn't give me the time to tell him to be careful before he phased out and vanished from the kitchen.

Instead, I called out, "Boys! Go check your bedrooms!"

"We are!" called Gohan from down the hall.

I picked up a few kitchen utensils the wind knocked to the floor and put them in their places.

"I hope nothing broke in the boys' rooms," I murmured as I put away the broom.

I decided to check on them.

A few loose-leaf papers littered the hallway floor. I gathered the papers, recognizing Gohan's handwriting, and knocked on Gohan's half-open door before I pushed it open.

"These were in the hallway," I said holding out the papers I found.

Gohan's attention slid up to me from his cross-legged seat on the floor and settled on the papers in my hands. "Oh, thanks," said Gohan absently as he added the loose pages to the stack in his hands.

Videl—seated on the other side of the mess—handed Gohan other papers. "At least you keep everything well labeled."

Gohan's chuckle was only half-hearted as he thumbed through the stack in his hands. "Heh, yeah. All of this is—"

The lights flickered and then went out, engulfing us in darkness.

Gohan groaned.

"I'll find a flashlight," I said. "Goten?" I called toward my youngest son's room. "How's your room?"

"It's fine," came Goten's unconvincing response.

I sighed. "I'll go find a flashlight."

I turned and reached out into the pitch-black darkness. My fingers made contact with the textured paint of Gohan's bedroom wall. I patted my way along the wall and found Gohan's doorway. I didn't get much farther before a warm, dry hand grasped mine.

Goku led me down the hallway with more confidence in the darkness than I showed. Goku always did have excellent night vision but I was surprised even he could see in that perfect, inky darkness without so much as a moon.

"How can you see in this?" I asked.

Goku's giggle reverberated across a wider space than the hallway. "I can't see much more than fuzzy shapes right now. But I can see energy."

"Your fuzzy shapes are better than me. I can't see at all," I said.

Goku giggled again and gave my hand in his a light squeeze. "I gotcha."

Goku stopped walking. I walked into the solid muscle of his back with a soft grunt.

"Heh. Sorry," said Goku. He drew my hand down and off to the side where my fingers grazed the soft, fuzzy fabric of a throw blanket. "Here's the couch. I'll make a fire so we have some heat and light."

I made myself comfortable as Goku shuffled around the fireplace, clangs and scraping noises echoing around our living room, adding to the noise of the wind rattling our windows. A rustle of fabric sounded next to me. I reached toward the noise and felt a small arm.

"Hmm. I wonder who this is," I said, knowing full well.

I moved past his arm and tickled his side.

Goten laughed.

A bright, tiny pinpoint of white light floated on Goku's outstretched fingertip, highlighting Goku's silhouette. The light turned into a soft orange glow that quickly grew brighter. When Goku moved aside, I watched small flames consume the kindling and spread to the logs.

"That should be enough light to see by," said Goku, coming to sit at my other side.

Gohan and Videl emerged into the dim light from the hallway.

"Did you manage to organize your homework?" I asked, dreading his answer from the way his eyebrows pinched together.

Gohan shook his head.

I jumped out of my seat. "I'll find that flashlight and light some candles."

"Thanks, mom."

It took some time to help Gohan get his homework and lecture notes organized again and help Goten clean his room but we did. When we finished, we all sat in the living room, enjoying the heat from the cozy fire burning in our fireplace.

"So, now what?" asked Goku.

"Hmm. Well, we could roast some mochi in the fireplace."

"Yeah!" said Goten as he jumped out of his seat next to me on our sofa.

"Mmm!" hummed Goku.

"How about it, you two?" I asked turning toward Gohan and Videl.

Gohan and Videl answered with eager nods.

I giggled. "Okay."

Goku got up and followed me into the kitchen. I set five plates, five roasting sticks, the box of mochi, and a small bowl of sweetened soy sauce to dip the roasted mochi in all on the counter. Goku helped me carry everything into the living room with a sweet smile.

Gohan, Videl, and Goten all moved to the floor just in front of the fireplace and the burning fire. I readied our snack, spearing a piece of mochi on everyone's roasting sticks and passed them around. We settled into easy, pleasant chatter as we roasted our treat over the fire to a perfect golden brown.

The pleasant chatter died down after we finished our snack. It didn't take long to figure out why. Goten fell asleep curled up against Goku's side under a throw blanket. I reached over Goku's lap and ran my fingers through Goten's thick hair. Gohan and Videl fell asleep facing each other, their hands intertwined.

"Oh, Mr. Satan is going to be so worried about her," I murmured over the crackling fire.

Warm lips pressed against my temple. "Don't worry, babe," breathed Goku into my ear. He yawned and then said, "She's got a phone. She probably already told him." He nodded at Gohan and Videl asleep on the floor. "'Sides, just look at 'em. I don't have it in me to wake 'em up."

I smiled at how sweet Gohan and Videl looked together. "I don't, either."

Goku carefully shifted Goten off of him and grabbed a couple of logs off the small stack of firewood. He pushed them into the fire with a roasting stick. "Let's keep this going a little longer."

I nodded.

Goku wiped the little bit of soot off his hands with a rag, scooted next to me, and wrapped his strong, gentle arms around me. He pulled me down with him to the soft blanket covering our hardwood floor. I giggled softly and settled next to him, resting my head on his chest. Warm breath tickled my forehead. I hummed and snuggled closer.

The chilly spring storm raged on outside but it was so nice and warm inside our little home on Mt. Paozu, I forgot all about it.

My family was home safe and whole.

This was perfect.