#✧˖*°࿐ SECRET MENU // they’re here in SPIRIT.

[voidfell]

Suddenly remembers Sofia the first. That girl is headed for a steven universe future-style breakdown someday.

[jadkyll]

jade leech -

-likes to think he’s found a kindred spirit.

you both playing this little, game every time you grace the monstro lounge with your presence.

the tea game, he muses to himself one day.

sitting you down in a cicular booth facing the giant aquarium, jade would hand you a small, black leather menu and the monstro’s signature plum leather menu. both having gold dipped edged you’d use to peel them open and look at their insides.

the smaller menu, the one you would only get and your friends would crowd around you once it was in your hands, trying to peer inside at it’s secrets- was a special menu.

a secret one.

only jade and azul had the authority to give out these menus- floyd showing time and time again that he’d hand them out just to screw with the two, had his privileges revoked.

it always made jade smile when he’d set down your special meal, your friends eyes lighting up the cool, dim lighting of the resturant. their eyes hubgrily eating up every detail of the dish.

honeyed ham

seasoned sea food boil

shrimp ala- whatever.

while your two friends from heartslabyul were stuck with the ‘surf ‘n turf,’ you were out here eating like a king.

jade’s quick, gloved hands ready to slap away any sticky fingers- paws that tried eating from your plate. his plate.

jade could care less about the roasted lamb, or the fish heads packed with flavors.

your relationship blossomed from tea. the leaves that jade would expertly mix and seep into a perfect blend for each customer. his own inventions being placed on the secret menu, or promotions for a monstro event that had the customers vying for more.

jade would watch with a baited breath as you took a sip, lashes fluttering closed so you could focus on your taste buds.

a scrunched face meant you didn’t like it, lifted brows meant you were pleasantly surprised, and when you would swoosh it around your mouth like mouth wash? well, that meant jade had won.

the first few tomes you were at the lounge you would order a different tea and a light snack- sometimes a salad and other times 3 whole crabs for you and grim. jade remembers that day, when it was you 5 in a booth, very clearly.

have you heard about the joke where you, grim, and 3 crabs walked into a bar?

besides the point-

jade was watching you scan the menu, a stink on your face as you were stuck on the teas.

he remembers floyd calling you ‘weird’ when jade brought the order to the kitchen. ‘who orders tea with crab?’ his face contorted in disgust as a minnow swims around floyd. he always had a way of bending his environments to his will.

but jade just stares at the ticket, “yes,” he says, “how weird indeed”

“oi get that creepy smile off yer face. yer creep’n me out”

as usual jade seeps your tea and you drink it. he knows you. your tea.

there’s something so intimate about knowing exactly how someone likes their tea that gives jade satisfaction.

you put your trust in his hands. his cynical, conniving hands.

he could spit in your tea ya know. he’s done it before to especially annoying customers. who think they’re in control because he’s serving them. mix up with a pinch of salt, or a dash of sriracha sauce and he’s grinning ear to ear as they down it.

oh lovely.

—

but he’d never do that to you.. he hopes he doesn’t have to.

it takes you 3 visits and a menu change to finally convince azul to let you in on the monstro’s little secret.

jade, as he brags, harassed azul to put more teas on the menu. when he did add 2 more jade deemed it, ‘not good enough.’ azul buying into it (for profit) added teas to the daily specials.

“not good enough. i have an audience to apease and you are stifling my creative endeavors. i will not tolerate such a-“

“just give her the menu jade! sevens above!-“

if jade leech ever did skip, he’d be on his way with a heel click.

so you can obviously imagine his grin as he places the leather book in your mitts, your friends asking where theirs is- only to get ignored.

“please do not share the contents inside with other parties. this is strictly for our monstro vip’s and will be confiscated if you cannot follow our rules.” he bows in thanks as you voice your agreement.

turning his heel he can practically hear the chaos ensuing as your friends try reaching and peeking.

“tropical darljeeng, wonder how’ll it’ll work” you grin as jade jots down your order. you had told him to give you whatever he wanted to give you. ‘dealers choice’ to be more specific.

…what jade won’t ever tell anyone is that he made that tea thinking of you.

it was a black tea, infused with an opposing flavor. tropical against woody, you and him. a child of the sea and child of the land. never meant to work and mix yet has a unique addicting flavor to it.

non tea enjoyers would know that darjeeling is more… robust.

it can turn off people just from the description- tropical tea with a black tea?? are you nuts?!

yes. yes he is.

so jade is pleasantly surprised when you ask him for another cup the moment you took a sip…

he leaves his number under the tea mug, and gets a text an hour later.

[ywpd-translations]

Ride 725: Towards a new trial!!

Pag 1

1: Sohoku will become even stronger!!

An injection of will-power to power up!!

Pag 2

1: The Izu Peninsula is a group of massifs perched on the Pacific Ocean, with a view of Mt. Fuji and Hakone

2: In the center of the peninsula there's the hot spring Shuzenji

3: Since a long time ago, a railway for the hot-springs has been made

4: And it made it prosper as a tourists attraction

5: About 10km east of Shuzenji, climbing a ridge in the mountains

Pag 3

1: There's the sports park circuit for bicycles

Pag 4

1: Ohh, woah.... it's so huge, teh

Waaaaa this is incredible Rokudai!!

2: A huge pylon!

It looks like an hotel from that anime with the cars

3: It's- it's huge, teh

Where should we run, I don't kow this level!

4: You've never come here, Kinaka-kun?

I... I've ran in races, but I only went as far as Saitama, it's the first time I come here!!

Pag 5

1: This is Shizuoka!!

When we in the car, we even saw Mt. Fuji...!!

2: Th-th-th that's Mt. Fuji, teh!!

Wooah, it's true! It's so huge! It's more huge than in pictures

3: The camera makes it look smaller

You're right, teh

5: They're in high spirits, those two

Yeah

Pag 6

1: They were chose for the quaolifiers.... and won...

Of course they're excited

3: Let's go, the meeting is soon, Furuya

Yeah, Murakami

5: From now, for the next four days, the training camp will start!!

Pag 7

1: Those of you who get injured or don't feel good, report it immediately

There's no need to overdo it, you can retire in the middle

2: So we can retire, too?

Yeah

I'm glad

3: However

4: This training campalso serves as a selection for the six members who will participate in the Inter High

5: Those of you who want to run in the national competition, the Inter High

6: those of you who want to make a name for themselves, those of you who want to contribute to the team, and those of you who have the secret ambition of playing a flashy active role....

Pag 8

1: Run with everything you have!!

Squeeze out beyond your limit!!

This training camp's finishing order...

2: The first

3: six people

5: Will be the Inter High members regulars!!

Pag 9

1: This course has a 5km long climb

The practice menu for these four days

2: is to run

Pag 10

1: 1000km!!

Pag 11

1: 1000km!

1000km

1000Km!!!

2: Running 1000km is the only practice menu!!

3: Kinaka-kun....!!

4: 1000km... don't tell me

5: Yeah, it's an impossible number

My father's family home is in Aomori, so every year we go there by car, and to go there by car it takes half a day

6: How far do you think it is from Chiba to Aomori!?

Pag 12

1: It's 700km!!

3: 1000km is 300km longer than that!!

4: It's longer.... than from Chiba.... to Aomori.... teh

5: And tht's not all

10: This training camp is simple but intense

Naruko-san said it

Pag 13

1: This electronic scoreboard will show the distance and number of laps accumulated

2: There's a chip installed on your bikes

3: So you'll know the individual number of laps and ranking

4: So I don't have to count them myself?

I'm glad, it'll be comforting

1000km, so, uhm...?

5: You can check after every lap

How many laps you did

6: And how many laps did the others!!

Pag 14

1: “How many laps the others did”..... that means that you can see your own rank on the eletronic scoreboard!!

You have opponents to fight.... in other words, this is a “race”!!

2: During this training camp

A race of 1000km....””

3: It's not just running, it's about how to reach the goal faster than the other members

4: We're being tested!!

5: No!! Wait, Kinaka- the third years are included too, and including both the second and third years, there's no way we can be in the top six!!

Furuya

6: If it's just running... then isn't this training camp is useless?

7: We're too much at a disadvantage!!

It's too much for us first years!!

Pag 15

1: No.... I don't think we have no chances at all!! At the end Naruko-san talked about “requirements”

I think those might become our breakthrough!!

2: Requirements”!!

3: Breakthrough!? How!?

Well.... somehow- I've been thinking about various things...

See, as expected it's impossible

4: As nexpected, Kinaka-kun is thinking about how to make a breakthrough, teh!!

5: The “requirements” for the training camp that the Sohoku racing team organized to work towards the Inter High....

6: How to run during the training camp is basically up to you

Think for yourself and run

Pag 16

1: But there is one “requirement”

Huh? A requirement, what is it!?

Like they'll give us handicaps?

2: Until now, in mine and Hotshot's personal experience in Sohoku training camp

3: many things were used to bind us and made each of us stronger

4: But we talked about it and decided not to use them this time

Those who want to do it can do it on their own accord

5: Instead of that

6: For the next 15 minutes, discuss with each other and choose a partner

Huh, a partner!?

Pag 17

1: The onw you choose will be your buddy for this training camp!!

3: Buddy!?

4: They a partner... who you'lll... run with?

Among us!?

Can I choose anyone?

5: What do we do?

Can we choose someone who's around as strong as us? How about that

6: Sure

Pag 18

1: “Fighting in pairs”

This is this training camps “requirements”!!

2: Kinaka-kun!!

3: Rokudai!!

Pag 19

1: I'll say it once again!! Will you run with me, Rokudai!?

Okay!! Yeah, teh!! Kinaka-kun!!

4: The stickers on their helmets!!

5: To make it easy to identify your chosen buddy, stick the same stickers on your helmets

6: Ugh... the two who participated in the qualifiers

Furuya, we can't lose either

Nogami!!

Pag 20

1: Being a pait means that we can protect each other from the wind

That's right

2: And we can cooperate with other pairs, as four people!!

Alright!! Let's settle aqnd run!! No, as six people!!

I have a feeling this is gonna be okay

4: The other first years wioll be a bit of an hindrance

I want to scatter them as soon as possible

5: Can I ask you that?

6: Kaburagi-san!!

Pag 21

2: As expected

3: I guess they started already

We're a little late

4: Sorry, Danchiku

No, it's alright....

5: Uhm... so it's really.... not good?

7: Yeah

It's better to stop

[jokertrap-ran]

Disney’s Twisted Wonderland: Magic Assault Practice Dire Crowley SSR 【Raven Jacket】 Chapter 2

“Greetings. Allow me to teach you the secrets of magic in this school.” *Spoiler free: Translations will remain under cut*

Chapter 1 / Chapter 2 / Chapter 3 / Album Lines

⊱ ──── Cafeteria ──── ⊰

Crowley: Oh, dearie me. This morning could have gone better.

Crowley: But no matter how bad things get… it doesn’t matter once lunch hits! Lunchtime perks me right up!

Crowley: That’s attributed to the delicious food that our school provides, of course! What’s today’s recommended menu?

Ghost Chef: Greetings, Headmage. Today’s menu is the spectacularly filling meat pie stuffed with large chunks of beef!

Crowley: That sounds mouthwatering. I’ll have one of those, thank you very much.

⊱ ─────── ⊰

Crowley: Oh? Crowley and Vargas? Trein too!

Crowley: Are you all out for lunch as well? Mind if I join you?

Vargas: Of course not! Come, sit! It’s so crowded out here - I don’t think you can find another seat even if you wanted to.

Crewel: I was unable to find a seat as well, so here I am, reluctantly putting up with a nag.

Trein: If you don’t want to be nagged at, then I suggest you refrain from doing anything that would warrant one.

Trein: Oh…? You’ve also ordered the beef pie, Headmage?

Crowley: Indeed, I have. I do love meat.

Crowley: Not just beef, but even pork, chicken, and wild game if it comes down to it.

Trein: Wild game?

Crowley: Otherwise known as gibier, yes. Have you ever heard of it?

Vargas: Ohh, gibier! I had some once – venison. It’s so delicious that it really lifts your spirits~

Crowley: Not bad. You have good taste.

Crowley: There are other types of gibier as well. If you have the chance-

Sam: IN STOCK NOW!

*Everyone yelps*

Crowley: S-Sam-kun… please do not pop up behind us without warning like that!

Sam: Nyehehe. Everyone looked so happily immersed in the conversation that I couldn’t help myself.

Crewel: Sam? This is rare. You’re usually tending to the Mystery Shop around this time of the day, aren’t you?

Sam: The cafeteria ghosts have ordered some ingredients, so I’m simply here to do the delivery, see?

Sam: If you’re ever in the mood and seeking gibier of the rare sort, your humble man, Sam, is the right man for the job.

Sam: I can procure you any food that you fancy.

Crowley: As expected of someone of your caliber, Sam-kun. How reliable! However…

Crowley: I actually love other things other than meat. Vegetables, fruits, sweets, and the like! I love anything and everything so long as it’s not spicy!

Crewel: We’re aware. Your omnivorous tendencies have been quite infamous even in the past.

Crowley: Omnivorous… Couldn’t you express that in a classier manner?

Sam: …Oh? I just realized this, but everyone seems to have ordered different meals. Really goes to show your individual preferences.

Vargas: Taking muscle-building into consideration, I make it so that I consume protein-rich egg-based dishes during lunch!

Crewel: I personally love pies, so I was initially at a loss, but… well, not when it’s that size…

Crewel: While it may work in favor of the students, seeing as how they’re still growing, I’m sure it exceeds the recommended nutritional intake of adults.

Trein: Mmhm. I, too, decided on another meal after witnessing the actual size of the pie with my own eyes.

Trein: If I had such a heavy meal for lunch, it’d likely weigh down on me during the afternoon classes.

Crowley: Really? Shame. It’s such a delicious treat too~

Vargas: Oh, what an appetite you have! I won’t lose out either!

Trein: Oh, to be young and scarfing down such a hearty pie drenched in butter…

Crewel: I know, right? He really hasn’t changed one bit from his time back in my day.

Trein: I don’t think he’s ever changed since I started my tenure here at Night Raven College for that matter…

Crewel: Headmage…? Just how old are you? I want to know, but I also feel like maybe it’s best that I don’t…

Sam: Nyehehe. He’s certainly a man of many mysteries that serve to pique one’s curiosity, isn’t he?

Crowley: Ahh, yum! I’m so thankful for the past me who decided to hire the ghost chefs who used to work in a restaurant that had a five-star rating.

Crowly: And what a dramatic encounter it was when I met those ghost chefs.

Crowley: That was… Oh, wait. How many decades has it been now?

☪⋆ ────── ⋆⋅☆ 𝔗𝔬 𝔟𝔢 𝔠𝔬𝔫𝔱𝔦𝔫𝔲𝔢𝔡 ☆⋅⋆ ────── ☪⋆

[rasheedcorley]

Elevate Your Event: Hiring Mixologists and Bartenders Made Easy

Have you ever thrown a party where the drinks just didn’t hit the spot? Or maybe you’ve attended a wedding where the bartender was a bit...underwhelming? I get it, it’s happened to me too. And if you’re like me, you don’t want that for your next event. You want people to rave about your cocktails long after the night ends. So, how do you make sure that happens? The answer is simple: hire mixologist or bartender who knows their craft and can keep your guests happy, engaged, and refreshed.

Today, I’m going to walk you through everything you need to know about bartenders for hire, mixologists, and even taking a cocktail-making class in London. Whether you're planning a corporate event, wedding, or a fun night with friends, this guide will help you make the right choice.

Why Should You Hire a Mixologist or Bartender?

First things first. Why even bother hiring someone? Can’t you just mix the drinks yourself?

Well, you could, but imagine this. You’re hosting a wedding or a corporate event, and instead of mingling with your guests, you're stuck behind the bar trying to remember the recipe for an Old Fashioned. Doesn't sound like much fun, right?

Here’s why it’s worth hiring professionals:

1. Expert Craftsmanship

Mixologists aren't just bartenders. They’re cocktail makers who elevate drinks into an art form. These guys know their stuff. Whether it’s classic cocktails like a Mojito or creating a bespoke seasonal menu for your event, they’ve got the skills. When you hire a mixologist, you're hiring someone who can take your event to the next level.

2. Customer Service Like No Other

Let’s be honest: It’s not just about making drinks. A good bartender or mixologist knows how to interact with guests. They’re friendly, professional, and ensure everyone has a great time. This is why companies and individuals are keen to hire bartenders who can multitask, have excellent time management, and offer top-notch customer service.

3. Professional Equipment and Ingredients

If you’ve ever tried to recreate a cocktail at home, you’ll know how hard it is to find the right ingredients and equipment. When you hire a mixologist, they come fully prepared. From spirits, syrups, garnishes, and even a full bar station, they’ll bring everything necessary to wow your guests.

When Should You Consider Hiring a Mixologist or Bartender?

There are so many occasions where a professional can turn a good event into an unforgettable one. Here are a few to consider:

Weddings

Weddings are all about the experience, right? Your guests will remember how they felt, and that often comes down to the little things—like the drinks. Having a skilled bartender ensures that the drinks are flowing and people are happy. Plus, who wouldn’t love a personalised cocktail menu at a wedding?

Corporate Events

Ever been to a corporate event that felt a little stiff? Hiring a bartender can help lighten the mood and create a more relaxed atmosphere. Whether it’s an office teambuilding event or a reception, a mixologist can add a touch of flair that impresses clients and employees alike.

Private Parties

Whether it’s a birthday, anniversary, or a just-because party, hiring a bartender gives you the chance to enjoy your own event without stress. They can even create a signature drink just for your night.

Cocktail Making Classes

Now, this is where things get really fun. If you’ve ever fancied yourself a budding bartender, why not take a cocktail making class london? It’s an interactive, hands-on experience where you’ll learn the secrets of mixology, perfect for groups or even as a solo adventure.

How to Hire the Right Mixologist or Bartender

So, you’ve decided to hire a mixologist or bartender. But how do you find the right one? Here’s what I’d recommend:

1. Experience Matters

When hiring a mixologist, their experience should be one of your top priorities. Have they worked in high-pressure environments like weddings or corporate events? Do they have knowledge of the latest mixology trends? A mixologist with experience is not just good with drinks but also with managing inventory, customer satisfaction, and keeping the bar organised.

2. Attention to Detail

In the world of cocktails, it’s all about the details. A good mixologist knows how to balance flavours, pay attention to garnishes, and use the right glassware. They should be passionate about creating visually appealing drinks that taste just as good as they look.

3. Look for Reviews

The best way to know if a mixologist is worth their salt? Check reviews. Previous clients will tell you whether their drinks were a hit, if their customer service was top-notch, and how they handled themselves under pressure.

4. Get a Custom Quote

Pricing for bartenders can vary, depending on your needs. Do you need them for just a few hours, or is this an all-night affair? Will they be creating bespoke thematic cocktails, or are you sticking to the classics? You should always get a clear breakdown of pricing, including any travel costs, so there are no surprises.

What to Expect from a Cocktail Making Class in London

Let’s talk about one of the most exciting activities you can do: attending a cocktail making class london. These aren’t your typical nights out. Instead, they’re immersive, interactive experiences where you can learn everything from the history of cocktails to the latest bartending techniques. And the best part? You get to drink what you make!

Here’s a breakdown of what you can expect:

Hands-On Learning

You won’t just be watching—you’ll be making your own drinks. Classes often start with an introduction to basic bartending techniques, like shaking, muddling, and layering. Then, you’ll get your hands dirty by making drinks with the guidance of an expert.

Craft Your Own Cocktails

Once you’ve learned the basics, you’ll have the chance to get creative. Most classes give you the option to create your own custom drink using a variety of liquors, syrups, and garnishes. Think of it as your chance to be a true mixologist for the night.

Social and Fun Atmosphere

These classes aren’t just educational—they’re a lot of fun. Whether you’re doing it solo or with a group of friends, you’ll have the opportunity to laugh, drink, and learn in a laid-back setting. Many cocktail classes in London even offer group bookings, perfect for corporate events or private parties.

Teambuilding and Corporate Events

Want a unique team-building activity? Cocktail-making classes are a hit with corporate teams. It encourages communication, creativity, and most importantly, it’s just plain fun. Whether you’re booking a private class for your team or joining a public class in places like Shoreditch, your team will appreciate the break from the usual.

Pricing and Duration

The cost of a cocktail-making class in London will vary based on what’s included. Typically, expect classes to run from 1-2 hours. Prices generally start around £30 per person but can go up depending on the location and what’s included in the package. If you’re booking a private session, there may be additional fees for venue hire or travel expenses.

What Does It Take to Be a Mixologist?

Ever thought about becoming a mixologist yourself? I’ve got to tell you, it’s a great career for anyone who loves working in the hospitality industry. But like any job, it requires a specific set of skills and dedication.

Here are the key skills every mixologist should have:

Customer Service Skills

Being a mixologist isn’t just about mixing drinks. You need to be great with people. Whether it’s a packed bar or an intimate private event, you should be able to interact with customers, handle complaints, and keep everyone satisfied.

Drink Knowledge

Knowing your way around a spirit bottle is essential. From the classics like gin and vodka to more exotic choices like absinthe or mezcal, a mixologist should have an in-depth knowledge of what they’re working with. Not only that, but you need to stay up to date with the latest trends in mixology.

Organisation

From managing inventory to keeping your bar station spotless, organisation is key. A good mixologist knows how to stay on top of things, even in a chaotic environment. Keeping your station clean and restocking as needed are just as important as the drinks themselves.

Creativity

What sets a great mixologist apart from a regular bartender is creativity. A great mixologist is always thinking about how to bring something new to the table, whether that’s through unique flavour profiles, drink presentation, or using seasonal ingredients.

Responsible Service

And of course, responsible alcohol service is critical. A professional mixologist knows how to gauge when guests have had enough and ensures that everyone is safe and enjoying themselves responsibly.

Final Thoughts: Should You Hire a Mixologist or Take a Cocktail Class?

Honestly, it depends on what kind of experience you want. If you’re planning an event and want your guests to have a truly special experience, hiring a mixologist or bartender is the way to go. It takes the stress off you and ensures everything runs smoothly. Plus, your guests will love the professional touch.

On the other hand, if you’re looking for a fun, interactive experience that lets you learn new skills, then a cocktail-making class in London could be just the ticket. It’s a great way to enjoy a night out while learning something new.

Whichever route you choose, one thing’s for sure: great cocktails make for great memories. So, go ahead, elevate your next event with a touch of mixology magic!

[oglaswellswife]

bruce and clark have been … well, bruce and clark for 3 years. they’d known each other for 10.

they’ve been up and down more than a yo-yo but they’re more up than down these days, things are good. they manage to work around their schedules, both in capes and out of them.

the poetry thing started 2 years in, it began with a shakespeare sonnet here and there, then it evolved into bruce’s original words, and they only got better with time. they never spoke about it, or bruce never brought it up so clark never did either.

they were having dinner together, on the one night a year both of them can get completely free. at first, these nights were spent in fancy restaurants where they don’t even print the price on the menus, incredibly romantic. or at least bruce thought it was romantic, clark didn’t agree. so now they spent these nights having an intimate, candlelit dinner at the manor. alfred cooked for them, before he made himself scarce so they could be alone.

the conversation was easy, it always is with the worlds finest, but this was different. that difference came from the folded piece of paper burning a hole in the pocket of bruce wayne. former playboy.

just as the wine was refreshed, bruce reached a hand in his pocket and slid the paper over to a now, slightly confused reporter.

“open it” just 2 words, but they were the most important words bruce has ever spoken.

with hesitant fingers and furrowed brows, clark does what he’s told. only to find a ring between those beautiful words bruce can only write, never speak. and when clark, superman, award winning reporter, looks back at the man he fell so hard for all those years ago, he’s down on one knee.

and the word, their world, their little bubble of a world they made for themselves in that dining room, was perfect.

‘In constellations bright, our laughter shines,

Like stars that weave through midnight’s velvet cloak,

With bonds as strong as ancient, timeless lines,

Our spirits dance, a cosmic, sacred joke.

Through nebulae of dreams, we drift and soar,

With every whispered secret, sparks ignite,

In galaxies of friendship, we explore,

Two comets tracing paths of pure delight.

When shadows fall, and darkness cloaks the sky,

Your light, a supernova, guides my way,

In orbits close, our hearts will never die,

Together, we will brave the night and day.

So here’s to us, two souls, forever spun,

In this vast universe, we are as one.’

‘clark waxes poetic about bruce’ ‘clark could probably write essays about bruce’s eyes alone’

well, yes but consider this:

bruce is a man of few words. he thinks saying ‘hm’ is a full sentence. but that doesn’t stop him from wanting to have a way with words so he can sweet talk his superman.

it starts off as leaving sonnets in clark’s pockets, once a week at most. he won’t talk about it if clark brings it up, so clark never does.

but it only evolves from there. because the monster has been set free from deep in bruce’s chest: he’s obsessed with his pet alien, that’s HIS clark and he deserves to have every nice word said about him.

he walks around his gothic mansion, wearing his rich widow robe waiting for clark like a war wife waiting for her husband to return from combat.

this is a long winded way of me saying: bruce writes poetry about clark and its sickeningly beautiful. and he continues to leave these poems in clark’s pockets in place of the sonnets.

and one day, bruce slides a folded piece of paper across the dinner table, and when clark unfolds it, not only is there a beautiful new poem, but a ring too.

[steve0discusses]

Yugioh S5 Ep 18: A Series of Ecological Disasters

Booting up ye old Yugioh, booting up a new aesthetic playlist to type to. (today’s playlist is webcore, which would feel like such a damn fake aesthetic, if it weren’t that every single one of these -core aesthetics are pretty damn fake and everyone knows it.)

Anyway, it’s been so long that, I’ll be honest, I thought I booted up the wrong episode:

I usually skip the anime intro, but I try to watch it once each arc, cuz the intros change, and this arc was like “screw it, here’s all the other villains, just pretend this arc isn’t happening.” They had Pegasus, they had Marik, they have Bakura (who is kind of in this shot as well, you can see him phasing in there.) And like...I guess they’re hiding the villain of this arc or something because that was it. Alexander the Great got just nixed from this villain list and that’s a shame.

Just a real weird choice, but since apparently this arc didn’t air in Japan they probably had to outsource this anime intro and whatever studio in charge of it just cobbled together stuff from every other season and then a couple of shots of capsule stuff.

Speaking of capsule stuff: get a load of how many freakin lines the animators have to deal with every time they draw Grandpa.

Bro saw this and was like “oh yeah, this is a Shonen Jump” and yeah. The hair does give those vibes. We got a good look at what Vegeta would look like if he really let himself go.

(read more under the cut)

Sorry, my playlist started playing a song where every single line of the song is “Adrien Brody” and it took me like a few minutes to realize I was listening to “Brodyquest” completely seriously.

Damn it, webcore, don’t betray me like this.

Anyway, this arc does something super surprising: Yugi actually hugs somebody and doesn’t look like he’s going to pass out standing up.

It is pretty fitting that the good Yugi hug would go to Grandpa.

And, as night falls, Joey Wheeler has gotten hungry, and there is nothing to eat but his new best friend and spirit animal, baby dragon. Unfortunately he shares life points with the dragon, and I think if you eat it that just instakills you.

And directly underneath him--since this world is like 100 feet wide and things just conveniently happen--Tea has told everyone that they needed to stop worrying about Joey. Which is a lot coming from Tea, because her worrying about Yugi/Yami getting hurt is most of what occupies her headspace in this series.

But even Tea was like, screw Joey, I guess.

Who kinda just falls directly into them upside down, and shows us what Joey’s hair looks like when it’s sticking straight up.

For reals, admire how long Joey Wheeler’s hair is. If Tea were upside down, she would have the same length of hair.

Also speaking of Vegeta, I am low key concerned that Joey has what appears to be a significant amount of male pattern balding going on for a teenager.

Apparently getting set on fire many, many times did have an effect on Joey, and this massive pompadour he wears is a combover. Poor baby.

Holy crap, if this is what card stress and getting killed multiple times did to Joey Wheeler, can you imagine what’s going on under Seto’s bangs? That’s probably why his bangs ride so low, Seto likely wears a freakin toupee.

Guys, Joey’s gonna lose his hair at 25 at this rate. Those locks just aren’t long for this world. Poor baby.

After Joey rejoins the party, he immediately eats all of their food. Not sure why they can’t just have Baby Dragon eat like...whatever Baby Dragon naturally eats...and then transform that into shared Joey Wheeler life points, but it’s not clear exactly how much of a life-connection they have with their Yugioh monsters. Not like it matters because Joey Wheeler is default starving all the time anyway.

Tristan has decided we should start laying blame, I guess because Duke Devlin isn’t here anymore to be the local kill joy. This doesn’t seem to be important at any point, and most of the characters are just ignoring Tristan because like...once you’re in the haunted game in a haunted tomb in a random part of India--it’s kind of moot to argue about who’s fault that is, youknow?

Joey reminds us that he found this quest item in a treasure chest under a secret waterfall. No one says “that was convenient that you landed there after getting chased through a ravine by man-eating birds after you got your dragon from when you got your crotch injury from getting spliced by that tree.”

Which is when Tea says “Wait! We haven’t had a plot thing happen in like 4 seconds! Wait!”

Hey what degree of “I don’t trust nature” do you have to be to assume that all the flowers are trying to eat you?

Like what level of anxiety is Tea where she not only is like “pretty sure the flowers are going to destroy us?” but also...she’s correct? Like she’s not wrong.

They set the dog flowers on fire, but unlike the Jungle Book this doesn’t solve any problems (which apparently got taken off the Disney+ kid’s menu so...yet again, I make a Disney reference in these recaps that future generations will not understand because so much of the Disney library has been banned from the vault. It’s almost like Disney should let go of that copyright they held on for like a hundred years, because what they’re holding on to is only going to get more racist with time. But nah. Gotta hold on with their greedy mickey mouse gloves.)

So instead of using fire, Tristan used his monster to electrocute the air (?) and blind the dogs. Wisely, the animators quickly jumped to this other scene so we wouldn’t have to analyze why it’s suddenly daytime or why that plan would even work.

Joey and Tristan do a lot of buddy buddy stuff this arc. Usually we see a lot of Joey and Yugi’s bottomless friendship, but we don’t get this much Tristan/Joey love. So shippers rejoice, these two seem to have several coordinated dances and songs...and I’d say that teens don’t typically do that, but I went to summer camp, there are situational places where teens will sing the entire vacation and make coordinated dances.

Weirdly, since Joey and Tristan share so much time together, this also means Tea and Yugi actually sit next to eachother for a lot of this arc, almost as if they were a couple. Mind you, they’re chaperoned closely by Grandpa, but youknow...that’s a different energy than I’m used to seeing.

That and like, they can’t have Tea dance with them because last time she did a dance, it was like a DDR fight and she elbowed some guy like it was a fisticuffs situation. Like there was some sort of dance war going on behind the scenes of Yugioh’s card war, and it came up once and I guess Tea resolved it and the dance fights haven’t come back since.

Overall, if they did a dance with Tea, they would get kneed in the face, so that’s probably why they insist on doing cancans as a duet and not a trio.

After Joey and Tristan freak out over having no food, Tea decides to just start eating in front of them.

and like...didn’t Joey eat that food yesterday? Like last night? The short term memory loss on all these fools.

Immediately after this we realize something weird in the water. That’s right, it’s a massive head.

Yugi seems to have forgotten they lit this turtle on fire and electrocuted the entire sky the night before. Not that it mattered.

There were like...nesting birds on those trees on that island. What the hell? They just killed so MANY of those man-eating dogs that are flowers.

Seriously are land turtles allowed to just...dive underwater for long periods of time? How does that ecosystem even work? It’s like...That’s wild to think about.

Inside the temple, they have to fight a genie or something.

In case you were wondering, the only reason Tea and Grandpa got iced is because they were the closest to the door. The two who were actually standing out of harms way were the closest to harm the whole time.

Bro tells me this is also what will happen to you if you are in the front or the back of the party while playing Cthulu D&D

Anyway, Pharaoh decides to disclose that his big problem of feeling guilty all the time and taking all the blame, which he did all of last season...is still a huge problem he will probably never tackle.

Straight up, don’t be fooled by my caps, everyone else has completely forgotten about Alex, who is still running around that temple up there. They haven’t even asked Grandpa “hey is this your protege? Is this your mentee you never told us about?” Nah. They already forgot. 

How wild is it that Pharaoh thinks this is all his fault when he was the only one who was like “YUGI IT’S A TRAP DON’T GO IN THE- well...OK I guess we’re doing this, fine.” Is he upset he didn’t take control from Yugi and walk back to the plane? Because that’s the only way he could even be partially responsible, He was the only guy who was like “I see the end from the beginning on this y’all, and it’s the massive pyramid in India.”

Speaking of forgetting, they came across this language Pharaoh has decided to have nothing to do with.

This was actually a riddle and it was like...it was a riddle, sure, I guess.

And so Joey Wheeler does not hallucinate his dead wife from a previous incarnation and get on the back of his Baby Dragon to sail away into the sunset. Instead they’re just gonna walk.

Too bad Tea’s orb covered in wings only seems to hover a bit. Every single wing on that weird orb is absolutely useless.

And then Pharaoh’s pokemon is just a fire--which is hard to sit on--and Celtic Guardian...who would allow it, sure, but probably doesn’t fly (I think. He might fly)

And then Tristan’s Pokemon kinda seems like if you sit on it, you will get electrocuted. It can probably fly though. It’s very round. Seems like an anime thing that the more round your mascot character is, the more likely it can at least bounce a good distance.

So, next time, I’m just going to assume that we are going to do even more camping. And youknow, if you told me exactly HOW MUCH CAMPING was in this card game show with super future tech, I would not have believed you. But like...a lot of this series is set in the woods right? Like a lot a lot? I have grown to appreciate the woods.

Anyway, as always, if you just got here, this is a link to read these in chrono order:

https://steve0discusses.tumblr.com/tagged/yugioh/chrono

See you next time!

[shhh-no-ones-home]

green eyed monster* chris motionless x reader

+++++++++ This is a draft I had from my collab with svintsandghosts so if they are similar that's why. But if you read this one you'll see where they differ lol

*- you end up jerking him off, what can I say? Also md/lb relationship so have fun with that lol

song: and so it went by the pretty reckless

tag list: @musicsexandpizza69 @svintsandghosts @alilpunkrock @cynic-spirit @theoneandonlykymberlee @lifeisabitchandsoareyou @thisplace-ishaunted @joeynihil @xyours-eternallyx

+++++++++

"Hey, I'm gonna head to the bar for a second. Do you want me to bring you something?"

I asked, standing out of the corner booth. He just shook his head, folding his hands together under his chin. I nodded once before walking off. I looked over the menu on the wall before ordering am amaretto sour and waiting for it to be made. I looked back at Chris for only a second to see him grinning ear to ear as he talked to the woman standing at the edge of the table. I watched them for a moment, seeing red as she kept leaning in and touching parts of his arm and shoulder. I bit my tongue as the bar tender surrendered my drink and I took off towards the table.

"No, no, I love your work. your devilish good looks are just a bonus."

She said and I stopped, side stepping her and setting my drink on the table. She looked to me in surprise before a disgusted look flashed over her face. I just smiled at her and offered my hand.

"Who do we have here?"

I asked, looking to Chris as she shook my hand.

"Jen."

She said sternly and I nodded once.

"Well Jen it's nice to meet you. I'm Chris' boss."

I said and she drew her brows. I looked to Chris whose face went white. He knew what I meant. We had a contractual agreement, a Dom/sub agreement. Technically I was his boss.

"I didn't realize you had a boss, being in a band and all."

She said as I slid into the booth beside him.

"Every body's somebody's boss, right?"

He joked and she side nodded.

"Uh yeah I guess."

I picked up my drink and took a sip as she looked between us.

"Oh, don't mind me, please, continue."

I said, looking between the two of them as I tucked my hands under the table. His eyes flashed to me for a moment before scooting closer to the table, resting his elbows under his chin like he had done before I'd left.

"Um, I guess, back to what I was saying then. We've been getting a lot of good feedback on the album and we wanna continue this notion that we-"

He paused and looked at me as I placed my hand on his thigh. I raised my brows.

"That you what?"

I asked and he cleared his throat, swallowing hard as I moved my hand slowly up his leg.

"That uh,"

His eyes darted from me to the table them back to her.

"That we want to keep doing better than we ever have before. We wanna keep going-"

His breathing hitched as my hand hit his crotch.

"Oh I'm sure you will."

She said and he nodded. I could see him clenching his jaw as I began palming him under the table.

"I think whatever you guys put out the other fans will love. There's always gonna be those ride or die fans that eat it up, much like myself."

She said the last part like she was a little too proud and I smirked seeing him squirm in his seat. There was a pause from him though.

"I'm sure he's beyond glad to hear that. Right Chris?"

I asked and he nodded.

"Yeah."

He half moaned and I sent her a smile.

"We love and appreciate those fans so much. They keep our boys happy that's for sure."

I looked to him and he was staring at the table.

"Very happy."

He agreed as I moved to undo his pants.

"Are you okay?"

The girl asked and his gaze snapped to her.

"Couldn't be better."

He said with a smile.

"Why don't you tell her about the tour?"

I suggested and he sent me a death glare. We stared at each other for a moment as I slid my hand in his jeans and stroked his tip. I knew he was having a hard time, I could see it on his face. Normally when I touched him like this he lost all words anyways, I was proud he could even keep a conversation right now.

"Right."

He said, both of us looking back at her as I pulled his hard-on out of his pants. I bet he was glad he'd moved before I started or this would be an interesting sight. His tip was almost touching the table, I could feel it against my hand as I stroked him gently, rubbing his precum down his tip and onto his shaft.

"We haven't been able to do much recently so when we got word we could rour again we decided to-"

He moaned, covering it with a cough as I wrapped my hand around him.

"We decided to do something big."

He said and I let out a short laugh.

"Something big indeed."

I agreed, starting a pace, pumping him slowly. He tried not to look at me as she began talking again but I just ignored her, looking over the side of his face as he nodded. I let him go for a second and his gaze snapped to me like he was mad I'd stopped. I just smirked at him and lifted my hand to take a drink. he looked back to her as I slipped my hand back under the table.

"It's been a rough year that's for sure."

He said before my hand found its way around his shaft again. he offered a tight lip smile to the girl, looking to thr wall behind her for a split second. He sighed through his nose as if bargaining with himself. I turned and watched her, if she had any clue what was going on she wasn't showing it, especially not when he pushed his hips forward to get more and making the table move. It screeched against the floor and he let out a nervous laugh.

"Oops."

He said quickly, pulling the table back. She let out a soft laugh before continuing the conversation. He nodded, placing his elbows back in the table and covering his mouth with his interlocked fingers.

"Mommy."

He moaned quietly and I smirked as the girl kept talking. I knew it had barely escaped his lips, but surely she heard it. But then again maybe not. If she did she didn't let on that she did. He coughed a little again in an attempt to cover it up, shifting in his seat uncomfortably as I continued to work him in my hand.

"Sorry, must be allergies."

He managed and she kept talking. As I slowed my stroking he started to push his hips forward again, trying to get the friction back.

"Please."

He moaned and she drew her brows.

"Uh, are you sure you're okay?"

She asked and he nodded, looking to me again and I just smiled widely at him.

"I think what he meant was that he is pleased to hear you love the new singles, despite his doubts while making them. They went through a bit of a rough patch trying to get them done."

I said, cutting in and he inhaled sharply, closing his eyes and dropping his head against his hands. I ran my thumb over his tip and his mouth dropped open.

"Oh, I'm sorry it makes you so emotional. I'm sure everyone loves them as much as I do, I've seen the ratings and they're really good. Even if you guys did have some issues"

She said and he nodded against his hands. I looked over him and faked an apologetic look.

"I'm sorry, I think he just needs a minute. We are both so glad to have met you and hope you have an amazing rest of your day."

I said and he nodded again, looking up to her and trying to offer a small smile. She thanked us before awkwardly walking off. When she was gone he grunted, begging to breathe heavily as I felt him pulse against my fingers.

"Fuck, keep going."

He pleaded, bucking his hips up into my hand. I paused, holding his shaft firmly. I looked over his face as he sent me a worried look.

"Is that how we ask?"

I said and he swallowed hard.

"Please mommy, let me cum."

He said in almost a whisper and I smirked, leaning forward like I was going to kiss him. I heard the soft whimper escape his throat when I didn't give him what he wanted.

"I don't think I heard you."

I said and his face went flush.

"Please mommy."

He said a little louder.

"Please let me-"

He threw his head back as I moved my hand again, shivering under my touch as I felt him pulse.

"Cum?"

I asked and he bit his bottom lip hard, squeezing his eyes shut and cumming over my hand. After he spilled I moved closer to him, kissing his jaw as he gripped the table, his knuckles going white.

"Good boy."

I whispered in his ear as he relaxed, falling limp into the back of the booth. He breathed heavily as I let him go, bringing my hand out from under the table. He peered over at me as I licked his cum off my fingers. He groaned low on his throat before moving to stuff himself back into his pants.

"I hate you ya know that?"

He said and I laughed, wiping the rest of my hand on the napkin in front of me.

"You've been a bad boy, flirting and making mommy jealous. It was either that here, or punishment when we got home."

I said, taking my drunk and sipping it. He just stared at me darkly before sighing and slouching down into the booth, his arms crossing over his chest as he pouted.

"Is there a problem?"

I asked, grabbing his chin and turning his head to look at me.

"No ma'am."

He said, his face softening.

"Good."

I said sternly and he sat up.

"Did I do good then?"

He asked and I sent him a knowing smile, one he gladly returned.

"Yes baby."

I confirmed and he wiggled in his seat a little bit.

"Do we want a reward when we get home?"

I asked and his head snapped in my direction.

"Really?"

He asked and I laughed, pulling him to me and kissing his cheek.

"You've earned it, you've been a very good boy, keeping that a secret."

I said and he nodded.

"Thank you mommy."

He said quietly.

"I'll let you pick what you want too so you think about it. Can be in or out of the bedroom, anything you want."

He raised a brow.

"Really?"

He asked a little in disbelief and I nodded.

"Anything you can think of."

He smirked at me.

"Anything?"

He said darkly and I sent him a testing look.

"I'm not gonna like this am I?"

I asked and he laughed a little bit.

"I guess we'll see when we get home."

He said and I rolled my eyes.

"Hey, you said anything."

He pointed out and I nodded reluctantly.

"I know I know, and I'll stand by that. Tonight only, got it?"

I said pointedly and he nodded once, looking smug as ever.

"Yes ma'am."

[dylanhawth]

[ LORENZO ZURZOLO, CISMAN, HE/HIM ] shh ! DYLAN HAWTHORNE, the TWENTY year old SECOND year ANTHROPOLOGY major from HARTFORD, CT is known as a TOURMALINE  around here. HE was invited to join because HE PUBLISHED A COLLECTION OF SHORT STORIES ANONYMOUSLY THAT GARNERED A BIT OF FOLLOWING AND RECENTLY STEPPED FORWARD AS THE AUTHOR, and now, they’re here to stay. HE reminds me of THE NERVOUSNESS OF A FIRST KISS, LEAVING SECRET MESSAGES IN LIBRARY BOOKS, DRIVING AIMLESSLY WITH THE WINDOWS ROLLED DOWN ON A WARM SUMMER NIGHT WHILE THE RADIO HUMS A PLAYLIST CURATED FOR YOU BY YOUR BEST FRIEND.

[ big ass bio ] | [ connections ] | [ pinterest ] | [ playlist ] 

ooc. 

omfg hello. i can’t tell you how excited and happy i am to be here. i was too nervous to apply for the last three months but i decided to stop being a Coward and just try. im SO happy to be here, it’s the highlight of my week tbh lmao. anyway i am mar, she/her, 24, est. i live in nyc and all i do is visit the planetarium and cry. i’m so fucking bad at these so im just gonna LIST things and hope you get the vibe. i am a pisces sun, scorpio moon. i prob have a napoleon complex a little bit lmao. my favorite social media site is goodreads and i get rlly sad when my friends rate books i love poorly dfljskdfs. i can touch my tongue to my nose. i eat a lot of persimmons. i have a favorite rock at my local park that i visit a lot. idk dfskjls. i’m v friendly tho so pls hmu. i send a lot of memes, and love making meme edits for the chars so im rlly sorry in advance if you guys hate that. 

01.      basics.

NAME.   dylan h. hawthorne. ALIASES. dyl, hawth.   AGE.  twenty. HOMETOWN. hartford, ct. GENDER.  cismale. PRONOUNS.   he/him.

 02.      appearance.

EYES.   green. HAIR.   brown. HEIGHT.   6”0 BUILD.   lean. BIRTHMARKS   /   BURNS   /   SCARS.   a birthmark the shape of australia on his left thigh. TATTOOS.   n/a. PIERCINGS.   n/a.

03.      habits.

ALCOHOL   ?  socially. SMOKING   ?  socially. HABITS.  fidgets in chairs. cracks knuckles and back often. nervous laughter. chewing on pencils. talking to his plants. dogearing books. staring off into space and applying chapstick for a prolonged period of time. getting overly competitive about boardgames. stress cleaning. carries a book in his bag always. night owl. incredibly impatient when the internet is slow. creature of habit when it comes to menus, orders the same shit over and over again. LIKES.   feeding the ducks at the local pond. the smell of the earth after a rainstorm. the way music sounds coming from another room. kissing. watering his plants. inside jokes. making wishes in fountains. discussing a recently finished book with someone. making handmade cards for friends on their birthday. fireworks. coming of age films. packages wrapped in twine. jogs. the way friday nights feels when you’re with someone you love. the feeling you get leaving the movie theatre. DISLIKES.   being late. having too many coins on him. coffee with no sugar. when people speak loudly in the library. doing laundry. handshakes with too much squeeze. receiving voicemails. untidiness. golf. charles dickens. lectures with no student input. hot weather. confrontation. being caught in a lie. losing his umbrella. people who cheat during games. rainboots. bad table manners. humidity.

04.      personality.

MYERS-BRIGGS.   infp. ENNEAGRAM. the helper. ZODIAC.   pisces. TEMPERAMENT.   melancholic. ALIGNMENT.   neutral good. ARCHETYPE.   the lover. POSITIVE.   empathetic. sensitive. intelligent. charismatic. easygoing. gentle. loyal. passionate. romantic. humble. supportive. gregarious. playful. diligent. NEGATIVE.   deceitful. gullible. finicky. naive. obsessive. perfectionistic. secretive. timid. possessive. weak-willed. indecisive. cynical. indulgent. summary: basically, dylan is a love starved, people pleasing nervous wreck. big ass nerd who wants to be everyones friend, wants to be liked SO BAD. very charming and charismatic, comes off as fairly confident and comfortable at first. is able to make everyone feel loved and like they’re the most important person in the world, however lacks a backbone. is both romeo and juliet, and just as dumb as both of them too. 

05.      hc’s.

dylan was a football player in high school, believe it or not. he was rather good at it too, which is sort of jarring considering his pacifistic nature. however, he DID land on someone incorrectly at some point during his senior year, and broke their wrist. he quickly abandoned the sport altogether because of how guilty he felt. 

touched on this briefly but dylan really… loves indiana jones lmao. like, it’s quite ironic given his absolutely inability to be a badass, and lack of suaveness. however, he admires indy’s lust for adventure. he also was obsessed with the mummy as a kid. both of these were incredible sources in his very irrational decision to sudden anthropology. however, he does really love and admire anthropology. his favorite ethnography is the spirit catches you and you fall down, which makes him cry like a little bitch every time he even thinks about it. 

he’s the second oldest, but he is also baby. he is SUCH a big momma’s boy. he misses his mom so much. he writes to her often, and of course calls her even more. despite being six-foot tall, he still goes home and rests his head on his mother's lap, falls asleep as she runs her fingers through his hair. he often tries to find native english plants and flowers to press, and mail back to his mother in the form of bookmarks. has nEVER STEPPED ON A CRACK IN HIS LIFE, BABY.

just leaves a shit ton of notes in books in the library. some are riddles, some are poetry, some are commentary on the book, some are doodles. just depends on how he’s feeling for that book. he doesn’t tell anyone he does it, but he’s waiting for someone to connect the dots with his handwriting and writing style. 

speaking of plants, his room is basically a big greenhouse. he has so many plants, and takes serious care of them all. he has a little humidifier in his space for them, marks down when he waters what plants, and has a label maker to label them all with a name. they are all named after shakespeare characters. 

dyl is a doodler, so much so that he contributes to the school paper as a cartoonist. his cartoons are usually just random thoughts he has, but sometimes they get political and he works marxism into them. (this man loves marx.) 

[ suicide implied tw, death mention tw ] he dresses like a victorian boy in love with his roommate who has recently died of scarlet fever and in his mourning, plans to disappear in the bog by the school by mysterious circumstances and become a ghost that haunts the college with his lover. like lots of gray and slacks and ties ands ties and sweaters, lol. also he has glasses that he never wears because he can never find them! catch him squinting in your classroom because he can’t see SHIT. too shy to ask you for your notes though, doesn’t wanna inconvenience you! but when he’s Out on the Town®, he fucking wears like, tacky patterned shirts that are expensive but ugly. someone please help him. 

all about fun socks! he loves owning socks that have dumb little images on them. if you get him a pair of fun socks, he’d absolutely go nuts. his entire week: made. 

he leaves his roommate limericks when he senses they are sad. tapes em to the bathroom mirror or leaves them in the fridge. also loves buying people presents. tiny ones. like haunted looking things from second hand stores, or your favorite chocolate. also is the sort of friend that has EVERYTHING in his bag, in case someone cuts themselves or has a headache. can be a bit of a mom himself. it’s the little things, y’know? 

prob still in his emo phase. listens to way too mcr to not be lmao.

eco-friendly king, will not stand for you not recycling. 

if you will allow him, he will attempt to have a secret handshake with you. he’s a child. is dying for someone to memorize the parent trap handshake and indulge him. 

cannot sit still in a chair. fidgets an excessive amount, the bobbing of his knee and the squirming around. it just never ends. 

bi. that’s the hc.

he’s a little bit in love with everyone he meets if you couldn’t tell, and it’s fucking disastrous. 

he is based loosely off: patroclus ( the song of achilles ), ponyboy curtis ( the outsiders ), laurie laurence ( little women ), eduardo saverin ( the social network ), remus lupin ( hp ), oliver marks ( if we were villains. ) 

( @opalsmedia​ )

[osakaso5]

IDOLiSH7 5th Anniversary Special Story: Opening Doors...

Chapter 2: A Variety Of People

Chapter 1 | Chapter 3 | Chapter 4 | Chapter 5 | Chapter 6

Tenn Kujo: Good morning.

Riku Nanase: Te... Kujo-san!

Tenn Kujo: Nanase-san. Good morning.

Riku Nanase: Good morning. How’ve you been?

Torao Mido: Morning. This is a lot of people, huh...

Ryunosuke Tsunashi: Good morning, Torao-kun. I look forward to our meeting.

Torao Mido: Ah... Same here.

Tamaki Yotsuba: Mornin', Isumin. Did you do your homework yet?

Haruka Isumi: Nope. What about you guys?

Iori Izumi: I did.

Tamaki Yotsuba: Nope.

Nagi Rokuya: Good morning!

Minami Natsume: Good morning. Look at this, Rokuya-san.

Nagi Rokuya: OH..! A limited edition Cocona disk! Have you become a fan of hers, as well?

Minami Natsume: I got it as a gift. I plan to watch it later.

Momo: Mornin'!

Yuki: Good morning.

Riku Nanase: Good morning!

Tenn Kujo: Good morning.

Haruka Isumi: G... Good morning.

Momo: Looks like everyone's here!

Yuki: We've got plenty of time today, so let's take it easy.

Tenn Kujo: That's a terrible idea.

Momo: Yuki's got a point, you know!

Momo: We're all busy people! Let's make the most of what little free time we get!

Riku Nanase: Great idea! I'm really glad I finally get to talk to everyone as much as I want!

Riku Nanase: Let's talk about idols, find a good flavor for us, and come up with a delicious dish!

Tenn Kujo: To celebrate their 5th anniversary.

Haruka Isumi: ...Glad to be working with you.

Momo: Sure!

Momo: Let's get started, then!

All: Yeah!

- - - -

Staff: We'll have the cameras rolling, but don't mind them and just start brainstorming for ideas!

Yamato Nikaido: Huh? You're giving us total freedom to do whatever?

Staff: Total freedom!

Mitsuki Izumi: Uh oh. I hope we'll be out of here before tomorrow.

Staff: You won't have to cook anything yet, you're just deciding what to make!

Yuki: That's going to take at least three days.

Momo: We're all free spirits!

Riku Nanase: Hey, guys! How are we going to sit? Should we make a circle so we can all see each other?

Iori Izumi: We can just sit along the table.

Riku Nanase: But then IDOLiSH7 will have to sit in Re:vale's spots.

Tamaki Yotsuba: Yeah. We can't sit in a quad. We'll be on TRIGGER's side, too.

Momo: See? Now they're segregating our seats.

Staff: Uh...

Gaku Yaotome: Hm? Our side? Oh well, I don't really care where we sit.

Gaku Yaotome: Because we're gonna win in the end!

Ryunosuke Tsunashi: You're so encouraging, Gaku!

Yuki: See? They're turning  sitting down into a competition.

Momo: Maybe even three days won't be enough for us!

Staff: Uh... Please just get through this before the evening...

Tenn Kujo: Very well. We'll do what we can.

Staff: Alright, we're starting the cameras! 3, 2, 1...

All: ........

Yamato, Mitsuki, Tenn, & Momo: Okay! Let's...

Mitsuki Izumi: Ahaha, we all spoke at the same time!

Momo: We should probably at least decide who leads the discussion!

Yamato Nikaido: Also. Nobody from ŹOOĻ tried to step up to the plate, did they?

Mitsuki Izumi: They're real quiet. Assert yourselves some more!

Toma Inumaru: ........

Toma Inumaru: Ah, right... Sorry.

Momo: Wait, are you actually nervous!?

Toma Inumaru: We're not! We're just not really used to this stuff, so we're trying to figure out our position...

Yamato Nikaido: Can't you do something? I hear you're known for your funny variety appearances. Don't make your senpais do all the work.  

Toma Inumaru: O-okay.

Torao Mido: Hang in there.

Haruka Isumi: Hang in there.

Minami Natsume: We believe in you.

Toma Inumaru: Don't act like this has nothing to do with you!

Mitsuki Izumi: They're so lively already... Okay, so who's gonna lead the discussion?

Tenn Kujo: Why not Momo-san? He's used to this stuff.

Momo: I don't mind, but wouldn't it be more interesting to pick someone nobody's expecting?

Yamato Nikaido: Like Yuki-san, since he's the oldest.

Yuki: No. And I'm not the oldest here because I want to be.

Yamato Nikaido: I'm just showing my respect. Now hurry up and do it.

Yuki: Who's the youngest here? Was it Tamaki-kun or Iori-kun?

Tamaki Yotsuba: Yup! Probably me!  

Mitsuki Izumi: Ah, there's three people who are all the same age here. Why don't you do it with Iori and Isumi?

Iori & Haruka: Huh!?

Mitsuki Izumi: It'll be fun! You can be the classmate trio!

Tenn Kujo: Oh, you're all in the same class?

Haruka Isumi: Yeah, just by chance...

Tamaki Yotsuba: Isumin transferred to our school mid-year.

Haruka Isumi: Stop pointing at me!

Toma Inumaru: You three are gaming buddies, aren't you? Thanks for hanging out with Haru.

Iori Izumi: I don't play games. But thank you, as well.

Tamaki Yotsuba: Friend me too, Marucchi.

Toma Inumaru: Marucchi? Huh..? Are you talking to me?

Tamaki Yotsuba: Yeah. You're Inumaru, so Marucchi.

Sogo Osaka: Tamaki-kun, that's impolite. I'm sorry about him, Inumaru-san...

Toma Inumaru: Ahaha! I don't mind! I know he calls Re:vale Yukicchi and Momocchi, too.

Yuki: No. I'm Yukirin.

Momo: And I'm Momorin!

Toma Inumaru: M-my bad.

Ryunosuke Tsunashi: He calls me Ryu-aniki!

Gaku Yaotome: I'm Gakkun.

Tenn Kujo: I'm Tenten.

Riku Nanase: I'm Rikkun!

Nagi Rokuya: I am Nagicchi!

Sogo Osaka: I'm So-chan, I guess.

Iori Izumi: What are we even doing?

Yamato Nikaido: This kid's Iorin. I'm Yama-san, and he's Mikki.

Toma Inumaru: Ah, it's a pleasure...

Mitsuki Izumi: Hey, Tamaki. Inumaru's Marucchi, and Isumi's Isumin, but what about these two? Mido and Natsume.

Minami Natsume: Oh my.

Torao Mido: Haha, now it's our turn.

Tenn Kujo: You look very pleased about that.

Ryunosuke Tsunashi: You're very popular, Tamaki-kun!

Tamaki Yotsuba: Hmm, well...

Tamaki Yotsuba: Minamin and Toracchi!

Minami Natsume: Minamin. Hee hee, how adorable.

Torao Mido: Haha, feels like I'm back in high school.

Haruka Isumi: Could you guys be any happier about this?

Mitsuki Izumi: Looks like they like their nicknames. That's great, Tamaki!

Tamaki Yotsuba: Yeah!

Yamato Nikaido: Wait, what were we talking about again?

Tenn Kujo: Who should lead our meeting about the menu. We were thinking of making the high schoolers do it.

Momo: Oh, right.

Yuki: Let's not always pick either the youngest or oldest. Can't we choose someone in the middle, for once?

Gaku Yaotome: In the middle? Aren't me and Nikaido the closest thing to that?

Yamato Nikaido: Nope, we're totally at the upper end of the age scale. Wouldn't the middle be Nagi and Natsume-chan?

Nagi Rokuya: OH! We are the median value!

Minami Natsume: ........

Nagi Rokuya: ...Have you no reaction to this?

Minami Natsume: Oh, not at all. I was just calculating the average. And I don't think it's us.

Yamato Nikaido: Really?

Minami Natsume: Yes. I believe it's Inumaru-san and Osaka-san.

Toma Inumaru: Oh, right! Me and Osaka were the same age.

Momo: Now there's an unusual duo! Stand next to each other!

Sogo & Toma: .........

Yamato Nikaido: Ooh, nice.

Tenn Kujo: you look very rock 'n' roll.

Toma Inumaru: Ah, you like that kinda stuff a lot, don't you..?

Sogo Osaka: Ah, yes. I do. What about you, Inumaru-san..?

Toma Inumaru: I do too! Have you heard the one that came out this month..?

Sogo Osaka: Huh!? You know about it, too!? Wow, I'm so happy...

Tamaki Yotsuba: They're getting into it.

Gaku Yaotome: Haha, looks like they're getting along just fine. I guess that's just how it is when you're the same age.

Yamato Nikaido: Huh? Are you talking to me?

Gaku Yaotome: Who else would I talk to about this!?

Ryunosuke Tsunashi: We've got a lot of people who are the same age! Mitsuki-kun and Torao-kun are too, aren't they? Come stand over here, you two.

Torao Mido: Like this?

Mitsuki Izumi: Whoa, our height difference is huge!

Iori Izumi: ........

Iori Izumi: It certainly leaves a lasting impression.

Haruka Isumi: I know, right. They're totally an odd duo.

Nagi Rokuya: OH! How cute! You are like anime character designs!

Torao Mido: Ahaha! It's the first time I've been part of a duo.

Mitsuki Izumi: Oh, well. We might as well come up with a duo name, then. Maybe it can get us more work!

Momo: You're so greedy, Mitsuki. I like that about you.

Yuki: Can you hold a conversation, like all people of the same age supposedly should?

Mitsuki Izumi: We probably watched the same shows when we were kids! Like sentai stuff.

Torao Mido: What rangers did you watch?  

Mitsuki Izumi: The Four Great Civilization Historangers.

Torao Mido: Ah, me too.

Mitsuki Izumi: I liked India Red!

Torao Mido: My favorite was Mesopotamia Blue.

Nagi Rokuya: OH... They look like they are enjoying themselves.

Minami Natsume: I suppose it's easier to find things in common when you're from the same generation.

Haruka Isumi: You and Rokuya are like that, too. Do you guys have anything in common?

Minami Natsume: I'll go along with what he says. Rokuya-san is of a higher class than I, after all.

Nagi Rokuya: I am very happy that you will watch Magical★Cocona!

Momo: Is that it for people who are the same age?

Gaku Yaotome: I guess? Ryu's got nobody who's the same age.

Ryunosuke Tsunashi: Right. I wish I did, though!

Yamato Nikaido: Ichi, Tama, and Isumi, Nagi and Natsume, Sou and Inumaru, Mitsu and Mido, me and Yaotome. That's about it.

Riku Nanase: Um..!

Yamato Nikaido: Hm? What's up, Riku?

Riku Nanase: It just so happens that Kujo-san and I are the same age, too!

Tenn Kujo: ........

Yamato's Thoughts: ........! They're so obviously the same age that I forgot to point it out..!

Gaku's Thoughts: We nearly ignored the secret twins! 

Yamato Nikaido: Oh, now that you mention it.

Gaku Yaotome: We sure have a lot of people the same age.

Iori's Thoughts: Nikaido-san and Yaotome-san really are great actors... That was a good save.

Riku Nanase: At first I was like, "No way!", but then I was like, "Wait, are we the same age!?"

‭Iori's Thoughts: His reaction is too exaggerated...

Riku Nanase: But then after thinking back on it, I was shocked to find out that it's actually true! Yay! Samesies!

Iori's Thoughts: Now he just sounds too enthusiastic...

Tenn Kujo: Yay.

Iori's Thoughts: He's jumping on board to try and balance Nanase-san's forced reactions...

Riku Nanase: Te... Kujo-san! Since we're the same age, maybe we watched the same morning shows?

Tenn Kujo: Maybe. Like "The Milkman and the Forest Family?"

Riku Nanase: Yeah, like that one! We used to sing the theme song together every morning!

Tenn Kujo: Yeah, we did. Me and the old milkman on TV.

Iori's Thoughts: Nicely done!

Mitsuki's Thoughts: Great job, Kujo!

Momo's Thoughts: That's Tenn for you!

Riku Nanase: Right, right! I meant together with the milkman! Oh, do you remember that one time?

Tenn Kujo: What time?

Riku Nanase: When the old milkman spilled his milk, and I spilled mine at the same time!

Iori Izumi: Nanase-san, stop derailing the conversation. We're still supposed to choose someone to direct us.

Riku Nanase: Ah, sorry!

Tenn's Thoughts: Nicely done, Iori Izumi.

Ryunosuke Tsunashi: Why don't we let Sogo-kun and Toma-kun do it? They're right in the middle in terms of age, aren't they?

Momo: Sure, why not? I feel like we can trust them with this, and it'll be a nice change of pace!

Mitsuki Izumi: Okay, you two are leading the discussion!

Nagi Rokuya: OH! It is the birth of a new duo! Let us give them a round of applause!

Clap clap clap

Toma Inumaru: Hehe, you're making me blush here. Thanks for having us!

Riku Nanase: Do your best, Toma-san!

Sogo Osaka: I don't know how well I'll manage... But I'll give it my all. Thank you for choosing us.

Torao Mido: Hang in there, Sogo.

Sogo Osaka: Well then, um... Let me go over the general outline of the project.

Sogo Osaka: We'll have a discussion over what we kind of idol-themed dish we'll make for the show.

Sogo Osaka: After that, we'll get into mixed groups, and travel all over Japan to find the best ingredients we can.

Haruka Isumi: Travel!? We're gonna travel!? And what do you mean by mixed groups..?

Minami Natsume: Most likely that the four of us will be split into different teams at random.

Sogo Osaka: That's right. The staff has already assigned our teams for us.

Haruka Isumi: They have!? Ugh... Can't ŹOOĻ just stick together..?

Tenn Kujo: Oh, are you that afraid of strangers?

Yuki: Come here. We'll look after you.

Haruka Isumi: M-Minami...

Minami Natsume: Isumi-san, there's no need to cower behind me.

Tamaki Yotsuba: So we're getting shuffled!? I wanna be in Ryu-aniki's team!

Ryunosuke Tsunashi: I'm glad to hear that! We've sung together before, too!

Sogo Osaka: U-um, I was there, as well.

Ryunosuke Tsunashi: Of course, I wouldn't forget about you!

Toma Inumaru: The members are already settled. Uh, four groups of four people... Wow! I'm in this one!

Torao Mido: What's up with that reaction?

Gaku Yaotome: I wanna know, too.

Sogo Osaka: And I'm... Ah, I see.

Tamaki Yotsuba: Quit acting all important! I wanna know who I'm teamed up with, too! Can't you just tell us now?

Sogo Osaka: I suppose we can, but...

Mitsuki Izumi: Wouldn't it be more fun to find out after we've decided on a menu?

Tamaki Yotsuba: I guess...

Momo: I already know I won't be in the same team as Yuki. You don't have to tell me.

Yuki: We always get torn apart for these things.

Tenn Kujo: Of course you do. If you stayed together, one of the four teams would be 50% Re:vale.

Yamato Nikaido: That's a lot...

Riku Nanase: The whole team would practically be Re:vale!

Momo: Oh well, I guess we've got no choice! Yuki! Let's flirt extra while we still can!

Yuki: Yeah, let's flirt.

Momo: Yuki...

Yuki: Momo...

Toma Inumaru: Ah, speaking of which, I saw that thing where IDOLiSH7 would yell stuff whenever Re:vale got all close.

Riku Nanase: You did!?

Toma Inumaru: Yeah. didn't really get it, but it made me bust a gut.

Tamaki Yotsuba: Wanna see it again?

Toma Inumaru: What!? You mean live!?

Mitsuki Izumi: Huh!? Are we gonna do it now!?

Tamaki Yotsuba: Let's do it! Momorin, call Yukirin a hunk!

Momo: He has to do something that would make me say that first!

Tamaki Yotsuba: Do it, Yukirin.

Yuki: Okay.

Yuki: Momo... I'll buy you an apartment.

Momo: You're so materialistic, Yuki! Materialistic and a hunk!

IDOLiSH7: Yeeeah! 

To be continued...

[fence-macabre]

HAUNTED HOOTENANNY  Saturday October 3 | Silverpine Forest | 6:30-9:30PM WrA | 8:30-11:30PM MG

Neutral Event | Warmode OFF | Bring Tongues Potions | WrA | MG/Other realms welcome!

What is the Haunted Hootenanny? The Haunted Hootenanny is Fence Macabre’s annual October party. Come visit us at our headquarters, Vagrant’s Respite, in Silverpine Forest (proxy: farm near Ambermill 63, 56)! Square dance to a hand-curated list of barn-bustin’ music, test your speed and accuracy at our Bottle-Blastin’ mini game; tell and listen to spooky, scary tales that send shivers down your spine; and even come by to the Fence Warehouse, the only time of the year where all of our merchants’ wares will be up for sale!

The Basics

Date: Saturday October 3rd Time: 6:30-9:30PM (WRA/PST); 8:30PM-11:30PM (MG/CST) Location: Vagrant’s Respite, Silverpine Forest (63, 56) Anchors: Loira-WyrmrestAccord (Horde) | Oceanid-WyrmrestAccord (Alliance) How to get here Horde: Portal to Undercity, Fly to Silverpine Forest Alliance: Portal to Ironforge, Fly to Refuge Pointe (Arathi Highlands), Fly to Silverpine Forest

Schedule

6:30 WRA (8:30 MG) - Event Start 6:45 WRA (8:45 MG) - Opening Speech; Activities Open Immediately After 8:30 WRA (10:30 MG) - Tombstone Tales 9:00 WRA (11:00 MG) - Raffle Entry Closes 9:30 WRA (11:30 MG) - Closing Ceremony, Winners Announced

Join us on Discord! Find us on Twitter!

Booth Activities

Bottle Blastin’

Your favourite semi-retired salesman and the friendliest Forsaken in Fence Macabre, *Billy Highman* returns to run Bottle Blastin' at this year's Haunted Hootenanny! Make sure to get your name down on our list of competitors - this fan favourite has fierce competition, limit of 30 people per faction.

The competition is divided into two sections: preliminaries and finals. Signups will be cut-off fifteen minutes after the start of the activity, or when the signup cap is reached - whichever comes first. Each raid group will then have people come up to shoot in groups of six, working their way down the list from top to bottom. Each member of the group will take one shot. If they pass, they move onto the next round. If they fail, they're eliminated. This continues until only six contestants remain between Alliance and Horde, moving onto the finals.

Potion Roulette Fence’s resident Apothecary, Loira Winford is opening her potion stores for this game of chance. Want to breath fire? Float above the ground? Look like someone else? Be sure to stop by Potion Roulette, where Zori is eagerly waiting to meet you and Loira is… well, she’s there too.

All potions on offer are safe for consumption by both living and dead, and all effects are temporary. As this is a game of chance, we don’t know what potion you might get! That’s the chance you take when you try Potion Roulette.

Hog Wrasslin’ Fence Macabre’s beloved truffle sniffer and intruder headbutter returns to this year’s Hootenanny! If you’re wanting to test both strength and skill, come try your luck against the toughest and cutest Undead hog in the Eastern Kingdoms! The ever friendly Velvet will get you ready to go, and make sure you get your prize. No need to sign up in advance, just drop on by with a good attitude and be ready to try your best!

Remember, Popcorn’s family to us and she’s real fierce - underestimate her and you’re bound to get hurt! Your job is to catch her, but you can’t hurt her: no weapons, no magic, no outside items or help.

Chuck Wagon Vittles Well it wouldn’t be a proper party without some grub! Chortlerip and Taoln are preparing a delightful array of dishes for our living companions, while our Undead friends will doubtlessly enjoy our offerings from The Bloated Rat. With a range of drinks for dead and living alike, we asked none other than The Squeaky Wheel to send over some of their favourites. Come out and enjoy the buffet, where members of the Fence will be happy to get you sorted with your snacks.

Menu Coming in October!

Tombstone Tales Tombstone Tales are back at this year’s Haunted Hootenanny! Our favourite Ink-slinger, Ryeolan Quillsong will be overseeing the sharing of your spook stories and ghastly tales! Taking place in the Fence’s barn, we promise that the spirits aren’t your imagination. Silverpine is quite haunted, and the Respite is no exception. If your tale is Ryeolan’s favourite, there’s a lovely prize in it for you: an illustrated scene from your story!

Submit your story here!

Fence Warehouse The Haunted Hootenanny 2020 Warehouse is a special event for both our customers and our merchants. During the warehouse, ALL items from ALL participating merchants will be up for sale: we normally only bring a selection of wares to each market, they’re difficult to transport after all! Silverpine’s own Sheriff, Remington Thornbolt will be handling the delivery and placing of your others alongside Fence’s artist in residence, Calria Dawnbrook.

Prop up your feet, grab your beverage of choice, and get to reading! Our menu’s expansive and we’re looking forward to receiving your orders. To pick up for order at the Hootenanny, you must place it before October 3rd. Orders placed on October third will be delivered to you ICly up to a fortnight after the Hootenanny’s conclusion.

Fence Warehouse Menu & Order Form

Hallowed Whispers Silverpine is full of secrets, and yours could well be added to them. Bakuzan Burlycloud will be available all night. Your conversations will be private: just you, her, and her plants. 

Square Dancin’ Spinning spooky tracks that’ll get you down on the dance floor (or dance field, in our case), resident moonshine brewer Old M.C. Donald returns for the second year in a row! Forget your glowsticks? Not to worry, we’ve got plenty. Listen on in right here.

Frequently Asked Questions

"I’m Alliance, or from X Server, can I come?"

Yes, absolutely! Fence Macabre is a neutral guild and, as such, this is a neutral event. Everyone is welcome to attend. However, do keep in mind that Fence Macabre is primarily comprised of Forsaken: if your character would have a problem with that, or if the’re die-hard military and strongly opposed to the opposite faction, this isn’t the place for you.

When does this take place? Our 2020 date is Saturday October 3rd. The event runs from 6:30-9:30pm server, and will begin promptly. You’re welcome to stay as long as you like afterwards!

Is there anything I shouldn’t do in Silverpine Forest? (IC) If you are a scarlet crusader or adhere to Scarlet-like ideology, you will be shot on sight. You will not be buried. (IC) If you cause a ruckus, harass people, or are disrespectful to attendees or the hosts during the event, you will be walloped and thrown out. Don’t be that person. (OOC/IC) Be respectful of the speakers. Hard work has gone into their stories, and talking while they’re trying to tell them is extremely disrespectful and rude. Don’t be that person having a full-blown conversation while everyone’s trying to listen to the speaker. Reactionary emotes are welcome and encouraged. But keep unrelated conversations and emotes during storytelling in party chat or in whispers.

[grelleswife]

Hannamey Headcanons

@bapydemonprincess requested some Hannamey headcanons for an OTP ask meme; my answers are included below!

I'm assuming that we're in a more auspicious version of the Season 2 verse where O!Ciel wins and stays human, although Alois eventually dies and leaves Hannah free to pursue her love in peace.

Pre-relationship

2. What was their first impression of each other?

Mey experienced a full bi panic when she first laid eyes on Hannah in that seductive black dress. The maid didn't recognize her feelings at the time, but she had a crush. Although Hannah didn't show it, the comely young maid caught her eye straightaway. The demonness was quietly amused by how taken Mey Rin was with her; Hannah knows exactly what kind of effect she tends to have on the sapphics >:3. Due to her devilish instincts, she sensed that Mey had a tragic past, and that she'd sent many souls to an early grave (the act of killing tends to "mark" the spirit in ways some demons can perceive), which piqued her curiosity. 4. Who felt romantic feelings first?

Mey Rin! She tends to fall fast and hard in romantic relationships. As a demon, Hannah took longer to acknowledge her growing attraction for the maid as something other than carnal desire. 5. Did either of them try to resist their feelings?

Both of them did, to an extent. Mey Rin was distraught because she knew she shouldn't harbor romantic feelings for someone who served an enemy of young master, while Hannah, after becoming acquainted with the pain of grief through Luka's death, was none too keen on being entangled in an intimate relationship with a human. Love could not be suppressed for long, however... >:3

General

2. Did they have an official first date? If so, what was it like?

Sort of. Their first few trysts occurred under the cover of nightfall, in the woods near the Phantomhive manor. That way, Mey Rin wouldn't have to risk a visit to the Trancy estate, and Hannah was sufficiently far away from the grounds to avoid Sebastian detecting her. However, their first proper date took place when the Phantomhive servants went on a trip to London. Mey Rin split off from the rest of the group to have a rendezvous with Hannah at a little cafe. They both started off a bit awkwardly (Mey was a bundle of nerves and Hannah felt uncharacteristically shy), but once the conversation got going, the bubbly, smiling maid of Phantomhive soon drew Hannah out of her shell. The demonness bought Mey a plateful of the tastiest pastries on the menu; of course, Hannah didn't eat or drink anything herself, but dear flustered Mey was too caught up in the moment to notice. When it was time for Mey to rejoin the other servants, Hannah walked her part of the way back, and the two held hands. >w< 3. What was their first kiss like?

Mey Rin bid Hannah goodbye after one of the demon's nocturnal visits, but they both lingered, neither wanting to be the first one to leave the secluded forest spot. Hannah took an indecisive step towards Mey Rin. Then she tenderly cupped the maid's face in her hands, bent down, and kissed her. When they parted, she whispered a simple "Good night" before disappearing among the trees, leaving Mey Rin red-faced and trembling. The maid dreamily stumbled through the next day, grinning and tripping on air. The demonness wore no perfume, but she smelt of petrichor, and a whiff of the earth after it rains never fails to remind Mey Rin of that first kiss. 7. Who takes the lead in social situations?

It depends. Hannah is melancholy, withdrawn, and secretive, while Mey Rin tends to be cheerful and outgoing in environments where she feels secure. However, if Mey Rin is nervous or unsure of herself, Hannah will take the lead in order to spare her lover the anxieties that come with prolonged social interactions. She'll gently pat Mey Rin's back or hold her hand to help the maid stay calm. 8. Who gets jealous easier?

Hannah. Demons jealously guard the souls they hold dear, and are very protective of their mates. If Hannah catches someone trying to make a move on her woman, she'll either wrap an arm around Mey Rin's waist and hold her close, or step between Mey and the (real or imagined) rival...giving them a deadly glare that makes the bravest heart quail. She bares her fangs and lets her demonic essence show, her long hair writhing like Medusa's serpents, until the interloper beats a hasty retreat. However, after a few conversations with Mey Rin on the subject, Hannah learns to calm down a little. 9. Who whispers inappropriate things in the other's ear?

Under normal circumstances, I don't think either of them is given to making crass remarks. Hannah prefers subtle innuendos--double entendres or inside jokes that no one but Mey Rin will understand. She'll smirk knowingly when she catches Mey Rin's longing glances at her cleavage (causing the maid to turn into a blushing, incoherent mess). Mey Rin gets a little bolder when she's tipsy; she'll climb into Hannah's lap and whisper about all the things she hopes the demon will do to her when they're alone. Shortly thereafter, Hannah finds an excuse to leave the party early with her lover so that she can make good on Mey Rin's suggestions. ;)

Love

1. Who said "I love you" first?

Mey Rin! She gave Hannah a small gift (a little embroidery piece of an owl), and when she saw how stunned the Trancy maid was at the gesture, Mey Rin blurted out, "Why do you look so surprised? You know I love you, yes I do!" She was mortified by her outburst and slapped her hands over her mouth, but Hannah just laughed and gave her a warm hug. 2. What are their primary love languages?

physical touch and acts of service, with quality time being a close second. Like most demons, Hannah views language as a tool for manipulation--in her mind, actions speak far louder than words when it comes to revealing a lover's true intentions. And since Mey Rin spent most of her childhood and young adulthood deprived of meaningful connections with others, she craves small intimacies like having the demonness brush her hair or hold her when she needs comforting. 4. How often do they cuddle/engage in PDA?

Very often! They're extremely snuggly in private. Mey loves to sit in Hannah's lap or rest her head against the demon's bosom, and Hannah dotes on her human. They have to be cautious about overt PDA in the Victorian period, but no one will look twice if two very good lady friends stroll arm-in-arm together... 8. Who's better at comforting the other?

Mey Rin is a little better at this because she's naturally warm and empathetic. However, Hannah has a quiet, reassuring presence, and she learns to tell when Mey Rin is feeling sad or vulnerable and needs a little cuddling. 10. Do they prefer verbal or physical affection?

As explained above, physical affection! 12. What kind of nicknames do they call each other?

Hannah calls Mey Rin "beloved," her flower, or her little princess; Mey Rin is initially hesitant to speak so familiarly with an ancient, powerful demon, but she'll sometimes call Hannah "honey," "love," or Chinese terms of endearment.

Domestic Life

1. If they get married, who proposes?

Demons' concepts of mating bonds aren't the same as our ideas about marriage, so it never occurred to Hannah to make a formal proposal. But one day, Mey Rin wistfully confessed that she would love to be Hannah's wife, if society were more open-minded about that sort of thing. The demonness couldn't bear to see her human sad, so she used her powers to make a pretty engagement ring (amethyst set in gold) to give to Mey shortly after this conversation. If they couldn't have an official ceremony, then damn it, they'd make their own. 2. What's the wedding like? Who attends?

It's held in the Phamtomhive garden, among the roses (Sebastian and Hannah reached an uneasy truce after Alois's death), and all the Phantomhive servants attend. The triplets are also there to assist with the ceremony, strewing flower petals, carrying the ladies' wedding trains, and so on (my headcanon is that they're babey demons who serve as Hannah's subordinates). Lizzy, Sieglinde, and Ran Mao are Mey Rin's bridesmaids. Both Mey and Hannah wear beautiful dresses (pink and purple, respectively). Instead of having a religious official preside over the ceremony, the ladies exchange vows that they wrote for each other. 4. Do they have any pets?

Oh yes! Hannah sometimes takes in injured wild animals to nurse back to health, like a fox kit that got its paw stuck in a trap, or a robin that broke its wing, so they soon have a smol menagerie on their hands. 8. How do they celebrate holidays?

Mey Rin loves holidays like Halloween and the Chinese New Year, so Hannah learns about the associated customs and traditions to help her wife celebrate. For events like Halloween, they'll coordinate costumes (one year, they both dressed up as witches), and save up lots of candy to give to the local kids. Hannah uses her demon powers to add spooky touches to their home, like magical floating candles and ghostly shadows that appear in the windows when someone passes by. Mey Rin gets a huge kick out of it! 10. Who's the better cook?

Hannah. When you've existed for millenia, you pick up a few skills here and there, such as navigating your way around a kitchen. ;) She loves spoiling Mey with her favorite treats. 11. Who likes to dance?

They both do, though Hannah is usually the one to ask Mey to join her on the dance floor.

[bobasheebaby]

107 The Good Place Prompts

Eleanor Shellstrop

1 “I just don't think the group thing is for me. I'm better when it's one-one-one and we're both looking at our phones and I don't know the other person and we don't talk.”

2 “The closest thing I could find to herbal tea was a root beer I had them throw in the microwave.”

3 “Whenever anyone tells me a story about their life I always imagine all the people as being super hot. Otherwise, I quickly lose interest. Do you not do that? You can do it for free.”

4 “I'm SO ready to learn, it's like my brain is HORNY!”

5 “What can you possibly say to us that will make up for your actions?” “Pobody's nerfect?”

6 “You don't seem like a ... super genius.”

7 “Ugh, of course your hugs are amazing.”

8 “Oh, so now I'm supposed to be nice and make friends and treat him:her with mutual respect?” “Yeah!” “That's exactly what he/she wants me to do, NAME, wake up!” “That's what everyone wants everyone to do.”

9 “Your friend sounds like he’s/she's one pickle short of a pickle party.”

10 “I'm not mad, I'm just disappointed.” “Oh, come on. Everyone knows that's worse.”

11 “I know it sounds crazy, but if it weren’t crazy they wouldn’t call it a ‘leap of faith.’ They would call it a ‘sit … of ... doubting.’”

12 “Buzz off, Bambadjan.”

13 “Where is everyone?” “Who knows? Maybe they finally figured out clam chowder is disgusting, 'cause it's basically a savory latte with bugs in it.”

14 “First of all, throwing sand is an excellent way to put out a vodka fire.” “Why would you even know that?!”

15 “No, NAME, I used to do that. Now I do selfless things without even thinking about it.”

16 “Why don't I ever listen to people when they talk about themselves? No, it's annoying, and I'm right not to.”

17 “Are you going to talk? Or just walk around like a nerd trying to get a personal best on his Fitbit?”

18 “I guess ‘try and enjoy this’ is a better plan than ‘have the anxiety sweats.’’

19 “I’ve only ever said ‘I love you’ to two men my entire life, Stone Cold Steve Austin and a guy in a dark club who I mistook for Stone Cold Steve Austin.”

20 “Is that some kind of nerd pick-up line? Because it’s only kind of working.”

21 “You know I’m trying to say ash-hole instead of ash-hole, right?”

22 “It’s suddenly very important that I get drunk.”

23 “Well fork you, too.”

24 “Holy mother-forking shirtballs.”

25 “‘You’re not better than me’ was my yearbook quote.”

Tahani Al-Jamal

26 “You guys came to say goodbye because you're my friends.” “Well, I suppose some part of me possibly has a sense of casual kinship with you, much as one might be fond of a street cat.”

27 “I would say I outdid myself, but I’m always this good. So I simply did myself.”

28 “NAME, you seem thoughtful. And that concerns me.”

29 “I, NAME, shall do my level best to make every event too much.”

30 “I just want to sit and stare at nothing, and silently scream for the rest of time.”

31 “I made a complete fool of myself tonight. I interrupted your big speech and badly stained my cargo pants, which, I have to admit, are quite comfortable. Oh, God, what’s happened to me? I’m praising off-the-rack separates!”

32 “Who else feels that NAME has ruined every moment of your existence since you arrived?”

33 “Right now I'm just a boy/girl, towering over a boy/girl, asking him/her to admit he/she loves me.”

34 “My whole life, whenever I encountered any obstacles, I would simply say, ‘I would like to speak to a manager.’ But in our relationship, there was no manager. There was no one who could fix this for me except me.”

Chidi Anagonye

35 “I’m just not a ‘new experience’ kind of guy. My comfort zone is basically like, that chair, and honestly? The arms are a little sharp.”

36 “Here’s an idea. What if we don’t worry about whatever comes next?”

37 “Principles aren’t principles when you pick and choose when you’re gonna follow them.”

38 “If this isn’t a test, then it’s something way worse: A choice! That we have to make!”

39 “I am absolutely paralyzed by decision-making.”

40 “I’m going to ... start crying.”

41 “I am pretty good at turning every place I go into my personal hell.”

42 “You know the sound that a fork makes in the garbage disposal? That’s the sound that my brain makes all the time.”

43 “Well, I’ve narrowed it down to two possibilities: yes and no.”

44 “There's an old Chinese proverb... ‘Lies are like tigers. They are bad.’””That's it?” “I guess it's more poetic in Mandarin.”

45 “I argue that we choose to be good because of our bonds with other people and our innate desire to treat them with dignity. Simply put, we are not in this alone."

46 “I am breaking up with you.” “Why?” “I can't ... It's complicated, but it's happening. Ya dumped!”

47 “I do have a stomachache. Why do I always have a stomachache?”

48 “You put the Peeps in the chili pot and eat them both up! You put the Peeps in the chili pot and add the M&Ms. You put the Peeps in the chili pot and it makes it taste bad.”

49 “Are you alright? You didn't sleep at all last night.” “I got a solid eight minutes. Not consecutively, but still. It's fine. You're not even that blurry.”

50 “We can be colleagues. Associates is pushing it. And by even having this conversation, you're becoming my confidante. I can't have that.”

51 “I am absolutely paralyzed by decision making and it is destroying my life.” “Yeah, I sort of got that when you couldn't choose a chair to sit on.” “Well, I didn't want to offend you in case you had a favorite.”

52 “This whole romantic situation is such a mess. I am vexed, NAME. Vexed.”

53 “I need to step outside ... for some air ... and I will not be back for many days.”

54 “I'm sorry, everyone, I just have some worries as well as some concerns that could potentially turn into outright fears. Ah, there they go, they're fears now.”

55 “When I'm really upset, concentrating on a table of contents helps me calm down. It's like a menu, but the food is words.”

56 “I have never been that certain about anything. I once even tried to rent socks. How did I say that that easily?”

57 “You broke the world. It's not a compliment!”

58 “This is fun. It's a fun party. There's no question about it, this is a fun ... situation. Hey! You guys are here! The fun continues, nay, increases!”

Michael

59 “If soulmates do exist, they’re not found. They’re made.”

60 “I’ll say this to you, my friend, with all the love in my heart and all the wisdom of the universe. Take it sleazy.”

61 “We have no plan. No one’s coming to save us. So ... I’m going to do it.”

62 “It’s a rare occurrence, like a double rainbow. Or like someone on the internet saying, You know what? You’ve convinced me I was wrong.”

63 “Lies are always more convincing when they’re closer to the truth.”

64 “Kissing is gross. You just mash your food holes together. It’s not for that.”

65 “Birth is a curse and existence is a prison.”

66 “Serious question: should we kill them?”

67 “Lonely Gal Margarita Mix for One.”

68 (Holding a plush Minion) “I won this ugly yellow toddler, which is one of the most beautiful things I’ve ever seen.”

69 “Hello, everyone. Good to see you all here, mingling around with your various secrets. Who really knows which of you are who you say you are? No way to know unless I pull your skeletons out, right?"

70 “In the words of one of my actual friends: 'Ya basic'. It's a human insult. It's devastating. You're devastated right now."

71 “Where's the H? This keyboard doesn't have an H.”

72 “Dick Tracy called back on his watch phone and said you better "watch" out!”

73 “I got to ride a bike. I put a coin in a thing and got a gumball. And then someone came up to me and said, ‘hot enough for ya?’, and you know what I said? I said, ‘tell me about it!’” “Well I am glad that you got to chew a gumball.” “Oh, damn. I didn't even think to chew it. Missed opportunity, shoot.”

74 “I saw this place that was at once a Pizza Hut and a Taco Bell! I mean, oh! The mind reels! A Pizza Hut and a Taco Bell!”

75 “And what's the significance of the keychain?” “Nothing, I just like frogs. I'm a frog guy.”

76 “I won't let you down.” “I think you will. I think this entire project of yours is stupid and doomed to fail.”

77 “You know the way you feel when you see a chimpanzee and a baby tiger who have become friends? That's how you're going to feel every day.”

78 “You humans have so many emotions. You only need two: anger and confusion!”

79 “It makes sense, right? They're good so they're stupid and trusting.”

Jason Mendoza

80 “I have no idea what’s going on right now but everyone else is talking and I think I should too!”

81 “I can’t believe NAME betrayed us again, why is it always the ones you most expect?”

82 “I wasn’t a failed DJ. I was pre-successful.”

83 “Claustrophobic? Who would ever be afraid of Santa Clause?”

84 “If you’re a devil, how come you’re not wearing Prada?”

85 “I’m too young to die and too old to eat off the kids’ menu. What a stupid age I am.”

86 “Well, my year started about a year ago …”

87 “Dude! We can get mythical animals? Maybe I’ll get a penguin.” “Penguins are real.” “That’s the spirit, NAME. They’re real to me too.”

88 “When I say I'm meditating, I'm just trying to figure out what the fork is happening."

89 “You know, it doesn't matter if you know things. All that matters is what's in your heart."

90 “I'm ranking my favourite Fast and the Furious movies. You said you wanted to know who I am, and this is the best way to get to know me."

91 “He’s/She's my everything. He/She makes the bass drop in my heart.”

92 “Long story short, it was all a dream.”

Janet

93 “I think I might hate things now, too. So far, it’s genocide and leggings as pants.”

94 “NAME told me that instead of being sad, I should ‘go get it, girl.’ So I’m going to go get it, girl.” “Get what?” “Unclear. I’ll get everything, just to be safe.”

95 “In case you were wondering, I am, by definition, the best version of myself."

96 “Ooh, I've never had to walk before, this is fun! [Walks a few steps] Now I'm bored. Walking is dumb.”

97 “Oh, really? Is it an error to act unpredictably and behave in ways that run counter to how you were programmed to behave?”

Minor Miscellaneous Characters

98 “There is some good news. There’s some cake left!” – Neil from Accounting

99 “Well, I'm sure you're busy, you probably wouldn't want to talk to me. I get it, I wouldn't either. I'm as dull as a rock. Ugh, even that analogy was boring. I'm sorry, I'm so dull, and I'm ugly. I'm like a rock. Ugh, stupid Larry! Stop talking about rocks!” — Larry Hemsworth

100 “Oh, and you should smile more. You'll get bigger tips.” — Trevor

101 “Later days, dingus.” — Trevor

102 “Hold that thought. Is it OK if I go work out? I love working out. I gotta stay jacked. It's who I am.” — Chris Baker

103 “This is exhausting. I just want to go back to my container of goo and go to sleep.” — Shawn

104 “So, what's up, what's your deal? Are you single? What's going on?” — Trevor

105 “What up, ding dongs?” — Bad Janet

106 “Hello, imbeciles.” — Shawn

107 “So, we'll just roll on out, and you can get back to putting rainbows up your butt or whatever you do here.” — Trevor

[fiction-in-my-blood]

Switching Sides: Part 6 (HLITF)

if anyone possibly wants to get on a tag list I’d be happy to make one

👉 @theshove 👈

If you wanna catch up, Part 5 is right here! Happy reading :)

Premise: Growing up in a life of crime in a Japanese mafia, Atsuko Motomori has seen enough injustice to last her a lifetime. To try and give back to the universe her family has taken so much from, she dreams of being a detective from a young age. Her twin, sharing her disgust for her father and many uncles, just wants an ordinary life away from the crime, paing and suffering. Instead, she wants to be in the spotlight with the soft notes she makes with her cello. In their escape of 2015, on their coming of age birthday, they must split ways, never to be together ever again. If one was found, they didn’t want the other dragged down with them. Atsuko, having changed her name and appearance as best she can without a scalpel, sets off to start her life of car chases and arrests.

Four years in a seemingly dead-end police station in the middle of nowhere, being passed over time after time for promotion, Atsuko finally gets a shot at her dream, having been sent to an academy for the best candidates in the country by her boss who had always kept an eye out for her. After discovering her boss may have made her bite off more than she could chew, Atsuko must become the slave of a dominating instructor!? Who so just happens to be the captain of the most famous police unit in Japan? Not to mention a total knockout! Will Atsuko finally achieve her dream? Or will her new instructor put her through the wringer?

Warnings: Language, Reference to sexual activity, Forceful nature, description of traumatic child abuse.

~~~~~~

It had been a few days since Kaga went to negotiate with the mafia by himself. Ayumu seemed to have forgotten all about whatever he was trying to accuse me of, which only made being around him more nerve-wracking. I wondered if he was trying to gather evidence against me, but why would he waste his time doing that when we had a mission to prepare for? Well, knowing him, he could probably do both at the same time. Not that I would ever show the fact I was impressed by his skills- his head would grow two hat sizes bigger- but he was an efficient detective.

The mission in question was my undercover assignment with Instructor Kaga. As his girlfriend. In the moment, I was sat in the Monitor Room, partaking in an investigation briefing, surrounded by all of the special instructors. 

"Kaga and Atsuko will go undercover as a couple to tail Takeda." Soma reminded us all, showing a picture of the subject of the mission. 

"I've hacked into Takeda's cell phone GPS so I'll be able to find him," Shinonome announced. And that, ladies and gentlemen, is why I didn't have a smart phone with connection to external sources except for cell service. It was easy enough to hack into, especially for a man like my father who has endless amounts of money for tech-wizards to find me.

"The target is currently south of Main Street. According to Ishigami's information, it's likely he's heading to a luxury sweets bar." 

‘What the hell is a politician doing at a sweets bar?’ I quizzed myself, forgetting all about the fact he was a suspected criminal.

"It's a couple’s place. You two won't stand out at all. This is Takeda's favourite retreat." Maybe mistaking my confusion for worry, Ishigami ensured it was a place where we wouldn't seem suspicious. 

"In other words, it's likely a place where he holds secret meetings." Shinonome brought up the answer to my thoughts and I nodded in response.

"I've got the gist of it. Let's go, Atsuko." Immediately after saying my name, my instructor had his arm wrapped firmly around my shoulders. He laughed at me as he usually did, but he wasn’t normally this close. I could smell the cigarette smoke in his breath, mixed in with the fresh scent of mint. 

‘Ri-Right, we're a couple from now on.’ I sighed to myself. ‘Well, at least he won't bully me for a bit.’ Trying to lift my nervous spirits, I reminded myself why I was here in the first place.

"Motomori, good luck." Ayumu, who hadn't really spoken to me since our confrontation in the Staff Room, spoke up. My gaze darted to his, but he seemed unaware of any unease he had caused me.

"I wish you the best of luck." Soma chimed in to break our eye contact. 

"Kaga, I've said this countless times, but acting on your own accord is-." Ishigami could hardly get in a sentence before Kaga brushed him off. 

"I'm well aware. You don't have to tell me." Sounding like a bored kid, the Captain walked out of the room, taking me with him by his grip still around my shoulders.

~~~~~~

The sweet bar we arrived at was chic and the lighting was dim. There were fish tanks in the walls and champagne on almost every table. I couldn't help but grimace at all the fancy people sitting around us. This was the type of place my father liked to take us if he ever let us out. Usually we were an excuse to get cops off his tail or stop any suspicions.

"This is the place Takeda holds his secret meetings?" I spoke in a low voice, not wanting to draw attention from anyone eavesdropping. 

"Don't use that name anymore." All Kaga could do was criticise me for my loose tongue.

He and I were standing in the entrance, waiting to be seated. I forced myself to look around the shop, not wanting to seem restless in the stuffy atmosphere. Doing so, I noticed a man whose photo I had been studying. It was Takeda, sitting on a table in a far corner of the room. 

"Kaga, over there." Trying to seem more friendly and regard him more casually, as I was told in the briefing, I tried to get my instructor's attention.

"No. Do as you were told in the briefing." Not accepting that as personal enough, he whispered in my ear as we were directed to a table in the back. I grumbled a little, but gave it a go anyway. 

"Hyogo. That better?" Although it took a second, I was able to force the name out of my mouth.

"It could be better." He smirked as we passed behind Takeda. As we did, I noticed a blind spot in the corner of my eye, which I was sure my partner had also noticed.

When we were seated, Kaga removed the hand he had around my waist. "Okay, call the shop and ask for Takeda. Act like you're a reporter." He reminded me of the plan. I was meant to lead the politican away so that the Captain could plant a listening device.

"Sure thing." I whipped out my phone and called the sweet bar. Eventually, Takeda made his way to the phone at the counter.

"Hello, this is Takeda." The politician announced and Kaga got up to approach his table. Goto's team was busy distracting the staff from going over to Takeda's table so that Kaga wasn't spotted. 

"Hello, sir, sorry for the sudden call. I'm a reporter with Toho News." I watched as all of the members in the team in the bar worked seamlessly. Kaga was quick to plant the device and gave me a nod when he returned. "Well, there has been a rumour about you’re having an affair with a certain actress." Keeping my voice upbeat, the suspect quickly hung up after having a go at me for wasting his time.

"That was more nerve-wracking than I thought." I breathed a sigh of relief as I put my phone back in my bag, glad I hadn't made a mistake like accidentally blabbering our entire plan to the man we were tracking. 

"You did good." The blunt compliment was a little surprising, seeing as it seemed like the instructor could only ever see my faults. A small smile graced my lips as I saw Takeda take his seat.

Pushing an earphone in his ear, Kaga looked at me to hide the fact he is listening in on the suspect. As I decided not to distract him, Kaga started talking about the menu. I was sure it was to make us look less inconspicuous, so I quickly played along. 

"Well, they're sweets, so I'm sure I'd like just about anything." I smiled up at him as he was sitting next to me with the menu in one hand. We were sitting in a booth, allowing us the view of the whole room. Despite all the space, we were pushed up against each other, Kaga's hand on my hip. Even though I had never been on a date before, I was surprisingly comfortable in this situation. Maybe it was the excitement of the mission, but I was actually enjoying myself.

After we've ordered, Kaga stroked my cheek softly while we waiting. "You have a weird smile." He commented and it instantly flattened. I had heard from Naruko that my smile when I was hungry to work is a little... off-putting. She said I looked like a villain from a kid’s movie, which doesn't really instil me with confidence. 

"Well, I was excited." I pouted, crossing my arms on the table. Looking around at all the other couples, I noticed how close they were as well. I was trying to act like a girlfriend, but I had never done it before. I became a little disheartened.

That was until Kaga grabbed my chin, gently guiding me to look at him again. "Oh yeah, what're you excited about?" The evil grin on his face made it clear he was teasing me. 

"This is my first investigation," I stated bluntly, trying not to blush as our faces were so close. I couldn't pull my gaze away from him.

Suddenly, our waiter returned with our food and I diverted my eyes from my instructor. Kaga stabbed his cake with a fork and turned towards me. 

"Open up." He whispered in my ear, bringing the piece covered with cream to my mouth. I worried he might carelessly shove it down my throat in an effort to punish me in someway or another, so I wasn't all that happy to follow his order.

"Hold on, promise you won't choke me." I was hesitant at first, but the look on his face forced me to open my mouth. He gently fed me the cake and it was actually quite nice.

As I'm fascinated by the flavour, Kaga got my attention with a simple "Hey". When I looked up from the food in front of us, my instructor's face was right in front of mine. The closeness brought me back to everything Naruko had said about him, and I couldn’t help but blush. 

‘He's more handsome up close.’ I couldn't help the thought from crossing my mind as he started drawing closer. Before I know it, he has gently pressed his lips on mine. I hadn't even thought that was a possibility in the situation.

‘Th-That was my first kiss.’ I was wide-eyed as he drew back, swiping his finger along my lip and licking the cream that came off it. ‘I don't think I'm breathing.’ I reminded myself to do as such as I stared at him. 

"That's fairly good. The sweetness is perfect." He smirked down at me. 

"Y-You j-just..." Stumbling over my words, I couldn't stop looking at him. 

"If you're not going to eat it, then give it to me." Kaga gradually ate his way through all of the sweets in front of us. I was too shocked to protest to my half being eaten.

Forcing myself to think about something else, I remembered the night I brought him his midnight snack. ‘He must have a sweet tooth.’ I thought back to the two pots of mousse he wolfed down that night.

Suddenly, he put his fork down and his finger on his ear where he had the earpiece. "The woman." Directing my attention back to the table, I glanced over and was in shock of who it is.

Juna.

My sister's birth name echoed in my brain as I felt an arm gently wrap around my waist and pull me towards the man I was sitting with. My mouth went dry and my eyes felt a little dewy. Even though she had a lot of makeup on, I could tell it was my twin sister. It was that distinctive dark green hair she had pinned back. She hadn't noticed me yet as she sat at the politician's table.

‘Dad must be working with him.’ I regained my composure as I remembered why I was here. 

"Don't look." One hand on my waist, Kaga grabbed my hand with his other. "Your voice will be easily picked up. Don't get flustered." Maybe realising how shocked I was when I saw the woman dressed in fine clothing entering the shop, Kaga tried to silence me so that I wouldn't talk over the two. His lips were so close to my ear, I could feel them brushing against my lobe as he whispers. I nodded several times, but he didn't let go of my hand.

‘I need to go to the bathroom. What if she sees me and says something without realising?’ I began to panic as all the worst-case scenarios flood into my brain. 

"She looks like a normal woman, but she's an intermediary," Kaga informed me, thinking I have no idea what was going on. 

‘I know full well what he's using her for.’ I spat internally, trying to ease my hand out of his. "I'm going to the bathroom." I jumped up quick enough so that he had no time to decline me. On my way, my sister's gaze fell to my silhouette disappearing through the door.

In the empty restroom, I clutched the sink basin to try and calm my breathing. ‘Okay. Game plan. So, if she's seen me, she'll probably follow me in. I can explain to her then, but we can't spend too much time in here together or Kaga will get suspicious.’

Suddenly, the door openen and I spun around to see who it was. 

"Katsumi." My sister gasped my birth name, running over and throwing her arms around my neck. I was frozen stiff, not knowing what to do. 

"Juna, I heard that you quit and then this guy called me from a payphone. What happened to you?" My worry overflowed as I pulled back and held her hands to make sure she was tangible. 

"He found me at a concert a few months ago. Then, a couple weeks ago, he pulled me off the street. I was so scared." She was teary-eyed by now, but I held her cheeks to try and catch her tears. 

"It's okay. I can help you. I'll help you get out." I commanded as her gaze fell to the floor. She looked so lost, so scared and broken, it seemed like the only expression I ever saw on her face in person. Those emotions and feelings were the only constants in our lives, the familiarity of them all too nostalgic. Although, not the good kind. 

"But how, Katsu? It's not like he's eased security." Juna was a mess as she explained how little time she got alone.

"Look, I got into an academy to become a detective. I won't tell you everything because it'll just put you in danger, but I'm on a mission right now." I explained. 

"For Takeda." She nodded in understanding. 

"Right. If this ties to dad, I can find a way to get you out of there. Meet me as this address this weekend. It's a safe place, I promise." I wrote an address down for a cafe I knew was outside of our father's territory. "We can talk more there. But, I need to go now or I'll look suspicious." I hugged her one more time as she stared down at the napkin I had pulled from our table.

"Katsumi," Juna called out as I reached for the door handle. I turned back to see her smiling. "I missed you." The words made me feel like my heart was breaking into even smaller pieces than they already were to let her go back to that man. With a heavy sigh, I smiled back. 

"I missed you too."

~~~~~~

Once I returned to our table, Kaga didn't seem very happy. I explained that, even though she had followed in after me, the woman sitting with Takeda didn't talk to me. It didn't take long for Juna to clean herself up and return to the table. 

"What are they saying?" Hoping to ease the anger from my instructor, I spoke in a low tone. 

"They seem to be setting up a private meeting involving the Prime Minister. But does he really have anything to do with this?" Kaga's expression became severe as it seemed like we're uncovering a government conspiracy.

"What do you think they're planning on doing?" I was quiet, not trying to impede on the investigation. 

"There's been some reports of strange monetary movements recently. That could be in exchange for national secrets." He whispered in my ear and my heart raced. 

‘Dad getting involved in government secrets? Oh my god, what is he planning?’ I bit my lip, my eyes darting around, trying to figure out what my sister was talking about. 

"It has to be someone else, not the Prime Minister. There must be some scheme." Not believing the prime minister could be corrupt, Kaga went on to explain that they're talking in code to set up a meeting. I had been out of the ‘family business’ for so long, I didn't think there was any way I could help to decode what they said. That would be awfully suspicious as well, especially since our conversation will be sent to Shinonome for decoding.

Suddenly, Kaga stopped talking and I peered up at him for answers. "Seems like they're bumping the meeting up to tonight." He announced quietly and I got the gist of what he was suggesting. "We're going to tail Takeda and track down the others." As Kaga explained that, Takeda and Juna stod up, splitting up. My instructor callsd Shinonome so we could continue to track the politician's GPS and follow him.

"Let's go." Sliding the phone back into his pocket, I stood up and Kaga slipped an arm around my waist once more. 

‘He seems too used to this.’ I gazed up at his profile as the growing awareness of my racing heart pounded in my ears. On our way out, I saw Juna getting into a car on the sidewalk just outside the shop. I couldn't help but let my eyes wander to her and our gazes click together. Her expression was somewhat sad and I could see the panic in her eyes as the man driving yelled at her to get back in the car. She looked from him and then back to me, and I worried Kaga would notice the way she stared at me. That knowing gaze boring into me. I mouth to her that she would be safe before she was pushed into the car without anyone noticing me.

~~~~~~

After following the directions Ayumu gave us, we finally saw Takeda, who I now noticed had two men by his side. 

‘They could be dad's people.’ I thought, staring intensely at the back of their heads. This looked a little suspicious due to their muscles and tightly shaved heads. Having seen my sister was okay, I had a new spark in my heart to do well in the investigation.

Suddenly, maybe feeling eyes on his back, Takeda seemed a little hyperaware. Scared he was going to turn around, I pulled on Kaga's blazer and pushed myself up against a glass building. 

"What're you-?" Maybe taken aback by my sudden forwardness, my instructor glared down at me. 

"He's looking right at us." With my face hidden from them all, I frowned up at him, speaking in a whisper.

With this new piece of information, Kaga trapped me in his strong arms. "H-Hey now." I began to panic, not realising this was the situation I was getting myself into. 

"Relax, you're so stiff." He grunted as my face was buried in his chest. "If you give us up now, this was all meaningless." With those words echoing in my skull, I swallowed my pride and stared up at him. His expression was stern, having his back to the men so they couldn't see. Then, he ran a hand through my hair. My breathing hitched as his lips touch my temple. I gulped to try and calm myself down as his hand trailed from my cheek to my neck and then to my chest, reaching for the buttons on my blouse.

‘Is that bit necessary?’ By now, my cheeks had flared up beyond belief.

"Don't take your eyes off Takeda." With his head nestled in my hair, I was able to take peeks at Takeda, who had now started walking about.

"He's gone." My voice was shaky as Takeda disappeared into an alleyway. Kaga broke away from me and I breathed a sigh of relief. 

"That was quick thinking." He grumbled as we started walking again. Through all of it, I remembered I had initiated it. All I could do is make quiet noises in response. 

‘You have to get used to this, Atsuko. This is what undercover is like.’ I told myself off for getting so excited as we slowly trailed the steps of the politician.

As we were about to turn the corner, Kaga stopped. I looked up at him in confusion as I noticed the crease in his brows. "I've got a bad feeling. We're going another way." He turned suddenly and, holding my hand, he pulled me along with him. As I stumbled over my heels that I wasn’t used to wearing, I kicked a bottle and the clashing sound vibrated in the silent street. "What're you doing, moron?" Kaga glared back at me as I regained my balance. 

"Well, you just pull-."

Before I could finish complaining, someone jumped out of the shadows, brandishing a knife in one hand. 

"Die, Kaga!" The man yelled out, lifting the knife above his head. 

"Instructor!" I pointed the man out as I jumped in front of Kaga, punching the man just under his ribcage and grabbing his wrist. Shaking the knife out of his hand, the man fell to the floor. Kaga quickly kicked the knife away, asking the man who he was sent by.

With my heart racing from the adrenaline rush, the man tried, and was successful in making a break for it. He disappeared around the same corner as Takeda. I had loosened my grip so Kaga could interrogate him to heart's content, but didn't think about how that would turn out.

"Missed him," Kaga grumbled, watching the man flee. 

‘I should call Shinonome and get him to track Takeda.’ Finding the need to fix what I messed up, I pulled my phone out of my bag.

"What're you doing?" Kaga turned back around to see me typing out the number. I was about to explain, but the instructor cut me off. "Too late. He's probably already noticed we're tailing him." Kaga sighed and my heart dropped. Disappointed in my clumsiness, I apologised. 

"I don't need apologies." Kaga was scowling at me, probably calling me a useless moron. 

"I lost sight of Takeda and ruined all our work." My annoyance was most likely displayed on my face. I bowed my head despite myself, but Kaga only stared at me. Noticing the time, I saw that it was long past the last train. 

‘Am I really that useless?’ I sighed to myself, spacing out at how much I screwed up. How the hell was I supposed to save my sister when I couldn't even stay silent enough to follow someone?

"Your leg." He suddenly announced and my gaze jumped to him. I saw him looking at my leg, so I follow his gaze to see a slice of red on pale skin. 

‘Oh... The blade must have hit me when it fell.’ Blood trickled from my shin. "It's fine, I can walk." I sighed, more annoyed than in pain. 

"I can't leave you here." Seemingly ignoring me, Kaga offered me support to walk. I gave in, not wanting to reject my instructor.

"Are we going to the dorms?" I asked, a little embarrassed. It felt like I was making one mistake after another. 

"My apartment's closer from here." His exasperated expression was so close to my face as I hobbled beside him. 

"Your apartment?" I yelled out in shock, worried about being alone with him in his personal space. 

"Don't shout in my ear." He complained and I quickly shut up.

~~~~~~

Kaga's apartment was much more upscale than I expected it to be. ‘How much does a Public Safety Detective make, anyway?’ I awed at all the expensive furniture and worried about bleeding over his floors. My instructor told me to sit on his leather sofa and I try to angle my leg where I wouldn't damage it. He pulled a first aid kit out of somewhere and kneeled in front of me to lift my long skirt. 

"I-I can clean it myself, thanks." I panicked as he cradled my ankle in his hands, moving it around to see if I had caused any further damage. 

"Quiet..." He grunted and I shut up, scared to anger him so much he kicked me out without warning.

As he fixes up my leg, a sharp pain shooting up my leg from the antiseptic, I couldn't help but think about my sister. She has to be okay. She's useful to him. I bit the tip of my thumb when another sharp pain made my leg jerk.

"Hey!" I yelped, too much in my own head to remember what was going on. 

"I'm going to put this on." His hands came to a stop on my calf as he put on the gauze and bandages. As he stares at his handy work, I peered into his face. He looked interested in something. When I was about to ask, he started poking and pinching my skin.

"H-Hey! What're you doing?" I jumped from the sudden action, slightly ticklish from his finger gliding along my skin, a sensation I wasn’t not used to. 

"I'm reducing swelling." He looked somewhat satisfied at the softness of my leg. 

"More like inducing it." I pouted, looking away as I crossed my arms.

Suddenly, his hand moved further up, towards my thigh. "Ha-Hang on. This is sexual harassment!" I yelled, pushing his hand back. 

"Hush. Stop with the shouting. I'm enjoying the feeling." His serious glare shot up at me. 

"Does it look like I care? Hands off." I held his hands away from my body as he frowned.

"I'm going to take a bath. I expect you to have dinner waiting." He stood up and I almost snorted at the request. 

"You expect me to cook you food?" I raised an eyebrow. He may have patched me up, but my leg still killed. 

"Is there anyone else here?" He questioned, his concerned frown returning. "You can use whatever's in the fridge." He looked down at my shocked face. "Or would you rather get in the bath with me?" A teasing smirk played on his face and I jumped up. 

"No thank you!" I cheered, waddling over to the kitchen on the other side of the room.

Opening up the refrigerator, I couldn't say I was surprised by what I saw. 

‘Well, he's definitely a sweet tooth.’ Remembering all the instances of Kaga before now and all the sweet rice cakes he ate, I couldn't help but smile. ‘I guess you really can't judge a book by its cover.’ I laughed, thinking how a man like Kaga could enjoy sweet things so openly. There were very little ingredients that could be used for a real meal, not to mention the absence of any vegetables. I hurried to make a recipe of meat wrapped in seaweed dumplings. I praised myself for being lucky for the past experience I had in a Japanese kitchen.

~~~~~~

As I'm finishing up the dumplings, Kaga returned from his bath. His hair was wet. ‘Wow... He is... Just, wow.’ I couldn't help but let my mind wander as I saw the sex appeal he was exerting. He frowned, somewhat perplexed by me not saying anything. 

"Hey, what're you just loafing around for?" He jabbed and I jumped out of my trance. 

"You have no vegetables in your fridge," I commented to distract him from my staring, turning back to the dumpling I was about to finish. 

"It's not like I'll die if I don't eat them." He frowned, but it was different from the times he has frowned at my mistakes. 

‘Is he... Pouting?’ A blush flared up my cheeks as I thought about how he must have been as a kid at his childish comment.

"Dumplings?" He spoke up, peering over my shoulder at the food I had prepared. I tried to ignore the warmth of him on my back. 

"It's the best I could come up with when you have next to nothing in your fridge," I explained, putting them all on a plate. "Don't worry, I used seaweed, so it's healthy!" I smiled, turning to him on the couch.

He stuffs one in his mouth without any complaints. Then, he returned for another, and another, and another until they're all gone. 

"Well, you didn't entirely mess that up." He seemed to compliment me as I sat as well.

"I used to work at a cafe, so I learned a lot while I was there," I commented, smiling back to my time before I entered the police academy. After I ran away from home, I needed money. I was lucky enough to get the job there, and the people were all so nice. Although, maybe they pitied me for having such big dreams to become a detective.

"Where's your's?" Noticing I hadn't eaten, Kaga pulled my attention back to earth. 

"Oh, I wasn't hungry." I shook my head, pulling my foot onto the sofa. I was starting to get a little uneasy, realising I was in a man's apartment. Alone. It was my first time. The thought of 'first-times' brought back the memory of our kiss and I blushed.

While I was spiralling into embarrassment, Kaga retrieved something from the refrigerator and had thrown something at me. "At least eat this." I jumped out of my thoughts to grab it, finding a sweet rice cake in my hand. 

"Oh... You sure?" Thinking about how much he must love these to stockpile them, I looked up at him glaring at me. 

"I've got plenty. If I run out, I'll buy more." He shrugged, falling back onto the sofa. I began to unwrap the sweet when I realised the rare packaging. Naruko was always complaining she couldn't find any. I could really care less about candy flavours, sugar is sugar, but I know finery when I see it.

"How did you manage to get so many?" I was in shock as I thought back to the contents of the fridge. 

"I bought them at every store I saw them in." He explained and I was honestly shocked with how far he went. 

‘Who are you and what have you done with my instructor?’ I yelled in my head as I stared at him digging into the one he brought over for himself. ‘First the first-aid, now he's feeding me a rare candy?’ I continue to stare in bewilderment.

"Give it here if you're not going to eat it. Or are you going to make me feed you like I did earlier?" He held out his hand but I quickly denied him. He laughed faintly at my blatant shock. When I turned my gaze back to him in surprise, it isn't a happy expression I see on his face. It's the same, cold stare he always shows me. 

‘He does seem a little more laid back than usual... Maybe it's because this is his private space?’ Knowing I would calm down too if I was in my dorm room, I continued munching on the cake in my hands.

"Anyway, when you're done, go to bed." He commanded. 

"Okay. If I could get a blanket, I'll be fine." I announced that I would sleep on the couch, but he quickly rejected me. 

"You'll sleep in the bed." The kind, yet indifferent, statement was a little shocking.

"But this is your home," I argued, but it only made him tired. 

"I said it's fine. I don't need the unnecessary modesty."

"I'm sure you're more tired than I am. The sofa will be difficult to sleep on." I responded stubbornly. 

"I'm not tired. And you're probably a wreck mentally." 

‘Well, you're not wrong there.’ I sighed to myself, not seeing the confrontation going anywhere positive. 

"If you tell me you're not tired yet, I'm kicking you out." He scowled. 

"No, no, thank you. I'm going." I jumped up from the sofa, not wanting to walk back to the dorms this late at night.

~~~~~~

In his bedroom, I couldn't help but look at the sofa he was going to sleep on. 

"What? You're staring." He jerked his head at me and I shook mine. "Do you want me to jump into bed with you?" His suggestive comment was void when his expression didn't change. 

"No, thank you," I replied bluntly, suddenly overcome with a wave of tiredness. 

"Then, do you wish we could sleep together?" I could see the growing smirk on his lips as I yawned. 

"I don't."

‘It might be a weird way of going around it, but he's trying to be kind.’ I think as I sit on his bed.

When the lights go out, I noticed Kaga tossing and turning for a bit before he finally relaxed. As I thought back on all the kind things he had done, and not just today, I remembered the rumour that went around. 

‘He can't have killed his partner. I don't believe it.’ Because he's usually so scary, I wasn’t surprised that a rumour like that could spread so quickly. 

I thought back to the scared woman I saw in the bathroom and shut my eyes, falling asleep fairly quickly. ‘I have to become a good detective like him. So I can save Juna.’

~~~~~~

In the middle of the night, I woke up with a sudden deep breath. 

‘Just a dream.’ I told myself as I looked around at my surroundings and noticed they weren't what they were in my nightmare. I had dreamt about my childhood, soon after my mother had disappeared, and dad was mad. He was angrier than I had ever seen him. Luckily, Juna was at the community centre, taking music lessons. Dad, on the other hand, was screaming at a go-between for another gang.

"Why haven't you found her yet?" He roared, throwing an old vase at the man kneeling on the ground. He was beaten up and the water splashed out around him, making most of the people in the room jump. Including me, who had been peering around the corner of a door frame.

"We've followed everyone she knows. No one knows anything. It's like she disappeared into thin air!" The theatrical display the man was showing only made my father angrier. 

"That's impossible! Find her or you will take her place in the dirt!" My father roared, making the man scurry out of our living room. Following the pathetic man, my father's gaze fell on me.

"You see, Katsumi. This is what happens to traitors!" My father stormed forward, grabbing my wrist and pulling me into the room. I tried to struggle, but he threw me in front of someone lying on the floor. I couldn't see his front, but there was blood oozing out of his neck. I threw myself back, not wanting to listen to the dying gurgles of the victim in front of me.

"Katsumi, you will look! Look at what your mother has caused!" My father yelled, grabbing my wrist tightly and forcing my head to look in his direction. When I tried to struggle again, he hit me. I cried out, tears already falling down my cheeks, and he eventually started taking his anger out of me.

As I sat there, panting in the dark room, I clutched the sheets to help me realise I was awake. I gulped, blinking several times to help me see through the darkness. When my heart wouldn't slow down, I crawled out of the bed and walked back to Kaga's living room, wanting to turn some lights on without waking him up.

Sitting on his couch, looking out at the city below me, I bit the tip of my thumb. I couldn't stop thinking about what my father could be doing to my sister since he found her. I looked down at my hands, using one hand to feel the smoothness of my fingertips. 

I had tried to escape once. Just to see if it was possible. Of course, one of my uncles caught me and told my father. That night, he forced my hand into a pot of bubbling oil and it burned off my fingerprints, and any nerves in them. Then, to somehow scar me further, he told me the only way I could soothe the pain was washing them in the tub of boiling water next to me. With blistering hands, I remembered him telling me that if I did go missing, no one would ever be able to identify me. He wouldn't come forth and I would be buried nameless. I gulped, thinking back to the tears pouring down my sister's face as my father made her watch the feeling in my hands practically melting away.

‘I have to stop making stupid mistakes.’ I tell myself, falling back on the couch, staring up at the ceiling. As I thought about all the ways I could have done that day to make myself a better detective, I fell asleep.

[dansedan]

I threatened on the Disco Writer’s Nook server to share my notes from this latest fic, but since they’re wildly incomprehensible and kind of silly I thought maybe I’ll just... chuck ‘em on here instead, under a readmore where they can pass by easier so uhhh xX WeLcOmE To My TwIsTeD mInDXx !!!1!!

(warning for LONG LONG post- I write full sections and asides from the universe that aren’t even in the damn fic within the same notes document a lot... I’m also insufferably pretentious on notes I KNOW and I cull it on the final as much as I can, as well as mild possible spoilers for a fic I haven’t written in the same au-timeline-thing I suppose and NSFT stuff)

(also a lot of this gets discarded because it’s so stupid and I write it at terrible brain moments)

"Por la mañana me di a la estúpida tarea de esconder mis cigarros por los rincones de la casa. Los encuentro, claro, pero fumo poco, fumo menos, hago esfuerzos por mejorarme de una vez."

meditative cigarettes and quitting fic.

Harry smokes less than he drinks, because he smokes to keep sharp and he usually wants to be numb, down to zero, space-based. but after going tee-total and opening up on his quest to actual-human-persondom he finds himself chainsmoking constantly. A concern in his volition is raised, a thought project ruminated on, and strategems laid out.

Harry grasps at the first half at a low point in his attempts to get better without anyone knowing or helping. He wonders about Kim's life, Kim's control. The electrochemistry in him fantasizes about a free-wheeling party-boy sort of Kim, still cool, still quiet, but free and soft and in control of his lack of control- the aviator, the flying ace, at the mercy of the elements and gliding by by choice- lands on the question of the one-per day, the Kim he knows, who takes what he needs with trepidation and preparation.

The truth is that last one- Kim was a social smoker, an after-dinner-if-the-date-is-pleasant smoker, an after-sex smoker, a bumming-cigarettes-to-gague-his-interest smoker (it all started with a boyfriend) but police work and his neverending stint in Juvie drove him to once-per-day, a creature of obsession. He used to heavily resent it- until Harry came along and joined the ritual.

"bebiendo mate con el ademán gracioso de los novatos. Es lo que hago ahora cuando siento ganas de fumar, dijo, con una sonrisa."

Kim and Harry not so close together- the idea of Kim and Harry not knowing everything about each other, because that's just not how you survive, but somehow Kim aching to be up-to-date on Harry all the time.

Harry and his funny little excursions around town. Kim visits and finds cigarettes hidden around the house, smells them in fear of finding drugs, or Harry has to awkwardly shuffle around for one when Kim invites him to smoke. Harry tries to join a book club, starts cooking lofty meals for his yoga class, tries being vegan for a week, checks out a bunch of books on the history of the Coupris Corp (SUZERAINTY ERA MARK OF AUTHENTICITY BABEY) as a way to help him wean off substances but also off Kim. They want each other but they know they need to stand on their own </3

Harry starts going to this novelty/gourmet supermarket and buying one new thing every paycheck like furikake that says it has lead on it and mate and all that. He spends his ex-drinking, smoking money on it.

Harry makes Kim huevos rotos :'-)

You're barely holding it together- how the hell did you get to this newsstand? Is it a newsstand? This structure- round, metal, iron-wrought frame and squat stature- was once a newsstand. How do you know it isn't? What is it now? You feel yourself point someplace on a menu you can't see past the dew of heavy crying- the clerk does not react, he's seen you like this- slam your wallet on the counter. You receive a paper parcel slightly larger than your fist, long. It's warm through the paper, and you can feel the dryness of a light dusting of flour passing through it. Food.

Your legs and arms are moving on their own again, wallet shoved this way, steps stumbled past the other, clumsily bringing whatever it is to your mouth and feeling crumbs fall into your beard- like a shark. That's one of the first things you remember, the beautiful old ultraliberal woman, like a shark, on her boat. The joy of your first- no, second- idiom. The first was up on Marvel Hill where you can't live. Kim said that. Kim's gonna be there, when you do it like a shark and don't stop any of this on your way to work and you stop crying so nobody thinks you did what you're avoiding doing. Is there anyway you can forget the frittte? There's so many locations in your mind, what kind of man are you, remembering the placement of a store that's meant to vanish and appear out of convenience like it's a fucking pitstop (would a flask not be enough? A single habit to get rid of, easy- but you're never easy).

You feel dark-dark-light-darkness and then light again, and smoother flooring and your coat being too warm. You're at the precinct- fuck, you're at the precinct- and it's late, real late, but you are here and there's too many people to fuck up here and at least you aren't crying. Your red face and eyes blend perfectly into too many years and days of red and puffy eyes to call attention. Perfect, perfect- god bless the innocence (or is innocence god? You can't forget- Remember- something.)

"You're late, shitkid." At some point Jean appears beside you. He's walked the other way and stopped- he's grimacing- but more importantly you see his left arm raise and still and clench itself, like a restricted movement, natural instinct. "You smell like shit- is that fish?" You do not know if that is fish because your throat hurts so bad already that you cannot know if you've been swallowing bones for this past hour (minute? Minutes? The walk feels like forever and never enough. You're swearing like a pig now that you're standing, how adequate.) 

You want to say it's agony, the end of days, the end of you- you want to say reprise, and sorry, and oh god I didn't want to see you please I don't deserve it Jean please leave and go away from me and also please oh god please hold me up I don't know what I'm doing but I'm trying to be better but I ate this thing that might as well be sawdust and I do not know what time it's been for several days.

Instead you say "it's my GOD-GIVEN RIGHT, VIC" and you move along like a fucking idiot.

"An image arises in your mind's eye-- a baby, dirty, hideous, its skin mottled and raw and red, peeling, stretching almost impossibly. The baby cries from pain- in it's brief stay on this earth it has already suffered more than some men do in their entire lives. He is built for it- thick skin, quite literally. He is being held by a slight, pale, ugly nurse- a nun in bloodied white rags with a terrible smell of herbs permanently attached to her. The scene is a caricature of mother and child- the hideous thing, held up to her chest, is drinking from an amber bottle, clouded over. In ten years, the contents of this bottle he will be legally too young for-- is this the reason you became the way you are? Are you just born-and-bred this way, surviving off of alcohol where most people had blood and human kindness?

-- It's not. The little pastiche you've thought up for yourself is half propaganda and half racist idiocy. Despite what the supposed "race-realists" may say, not everyone from the Insulindian is thrown on the bottle the moment they're weaned from the tit. In truth, you were barely even medicated, and those bitter, herbaceous spirits are not the cause of your current addiction. It's still on you harry, it's always still on you.

"Wake up- time to listen to the radio.

You love the radio. You really, really love the radio. You think the radio was the greatest purchase you have ever made- drunk you was horrible, and traumatizing, and entirely undebatably subhuman, but he did buy this radio, and by god fuck if that isn't his saving grace (a story comes to mind- a Dolorean allegory from your childhood- about a selfish rich woman and a lazy cheating bum both ferried up to heaven by a single onion that she'd given him during their lives as charity. You choose to ignore the part where they fight and fall back into hellfire). It's the thing that broke you off from your mazovian monk-like refusal to buy anything for yourself other than flour for a week after THE HANGED MAN, it's what got you into cycling and hanging out with the neon eyebleed catsuits crew, it's what reminded you that public libraries exist and nobody will ask you why you're in there reading about suzerainty-era motor carriage manufacturing and the homo-sexual underground. It's the greatest thing since communism, since disco, since-- since-- since cigarettes and kebabs and- and--

... And idolizing someone to the point of crucifixion. Which you aren't supposed to be doing.

Good thing the radio cranks up real loud! 

"You've read everything in this section- theory, history, photography, even, notably, the single romance novel, comically bad, about a middle-aged Vespertine businessman travelling north to the harbour where he had experienced his first teenaged love-- and the young, strapping man he gets to know there. (There are boats involved- it's very biblical). All in all, you read it twice,  meticulously rewrote its horrifyingly vague and unsafe sex scenes (in pen, inside. Not like the librarian's gonna check it) and masturbated at your efforts, winning you a very sore wrist and about 30 minutes of crying because you remembered being in a bookshop with Kim in Martinaise while you were remembering what books were, and then remembered Jean's apartment having a secret stack of equally terrible heterosexual novels bequeathed to him by an ex that you made fun of him for (rabidly, for years).

"Harry's apartment is no longer clean, but not as dirty as before, and its stalwart light-green walls seem, in the summer light, less queasy and foreboding than what they are now, almost dainty in the contrast of the sparse few frames and piles of knickknacks on the floor. 

Believe it or not, this is good-- sometimes, life with Harry makes you feel like a zoologist, intricately analysing an animal's pile of leaves and refuse and knowing, despite all human standards, what these habits mean for the foreign species. And for Harry, mess like this is good. It means he's kept busy by any one of his million little projects,  picked up and put down at a dizzying speed and constancy, each one increasingly out of left field in

Kim and harry talk about the radio, kim thinks about it "radio, what's new? Radio- some-one still loves you"

Harry talking abt agenda + library bc you can't smoke + planning for dinner with Kim :-)

Gotta go to the library so you don't chainsmoke

Gotta shower to go to the library 

Don't wanna shower bc executive dysfunction

Grab a smoke before you shower 

Oh wait you've been chain-smoking fuck (insert meditation on sharp vs smooth)

Hide all your cigarettes around the house feeling pathetic about it

You still don't feel like showering

But you just chainsmoked and you know you'll do it again because you JUST hid your smokes and the hiding spots are fresh in your mind

Birdbath (why are you so fucking dysfunctional that you can't shower like a normal adult) 

Introspective rubber ducky selfhate momence

Rubber ducky encourages you through the power of nihilism and Kim

Thought project gain

Go to library and need comfort so you're going thru all your usual shelves (insert le funny homo shelf joke here) 

What does he read about? Smoking? Idk

Kiiiiiim. Kimmy kim kim. Think about Kim

Maybe he reads recipe books to woo kim

        INSERT EXISTENTIAL BROTH EPISODE HERE to talk about how you've never actually seen Kim cook (he told you it was good soup, clearly lying, you told him it was broth, and that you could teach him how to make soup out of it if he wanted...)

(broth episode was another note, inserted here: 

ANOTHER harry coping fic. Miserable housebound weekend nights because he can't party but the house is horrible to be in and he keeps dunking his hands into more and more ice water and taking like half-body cold showers and he's like "maybe this is bad for my skin!!! I gotta get out holy shit" and he's like uhhhh fucking. Can't go to work. Let's go to the supermarket. And then he's almost there and he's like OH FUCK NO THERES ALCOHOL AT THE SUPERMARKET and he straight up bolts out of there and muscle memory gets him to a shady ass butcher shop in some random immigrant neighborhood and he buys so much fish because of a failed check and he goes home and basically he makes so much fish stock. He makes just so fucking much fish stock and Kim comes to pick him up the next day and panics because it genuinely smells like the dead in there but it's just harry making fucking. fish broth or something. Just harry coming up to the door in his work clothes with way too much cologne on and a thermos of fish soup like "uh... Do you want some Broth kim?" And Kim can't fucking cook but he takes some Broth anyway and he's trying to figure out why harry would do that but harry is being a little edgy about it and Kim is like oh god I need to help him a little and they have a sit down about it and he's like wanting to say "hey if you need somewhere to go I'm here for you" but it's hard and I don't even know if he ends up actually saying it. Okay bye)

Talking about the sexiness of supermarkets and how they make reptile brain go brrr

Think about alcohol vs smoking. Think about kimmy kim kim (insert european drinking joke here)

Have that get stuck in his head. Kim kimmy kim kimmy kimmy kim kim. Kimster. Kimbo. Kitsy. Kitty. Cutie. Oh god no fuck oh god I need to stop.

He goes home and still rlly wants to smonk

You hide the cigarettes around the house. It feels stupid, and you know you’ll be embarrassed having to pull the Jamrock Shuffle in your own apartment, that you’re a grown adult who could just *buy another box of cigarettes* whenever you wanted to, but you feel like it helps. Drag the killing thing away from the crappy little animal even for a couple moments more, let yourself get tired out like the old man you are below all the disco scaffolding. You can’t really bring yourself to shower, but you drag the radio into the bathroom with you and wash yourself in the sink. You try to be good about it- stay away from the mirror, really lather up and clear away the sweat that’s caked to you throughout the night and morning, feel the warm graze of the water on your skin. You brush shampoo through your hair and work it in in cycles, focus on the humming feeling of the bristles on your scalp, trying not to think of much of anything, just the smell of the cheap powdery soap and of what clothes you’ll wear today, try to settle into a better memory of this instead of picking at the shame you feel about how hard it is for you. ducking your head into the stream of the water in the sink and forgetting everything except the whishing, scratching sounds of cleaning.

Being clean feels good, and being dressed again feels maybe even better (knit sweaters are a revelation- who could’ve known polyester satin wasn’t made for seaside winters), so by the time you walk your way into the Jamrock public library the morning’s incidents are nigh-forgotten. The dry warmth of the old library is a reliable balm- the yellowed fluorescent lighting washing out the rows and rows of slate-grey plastic bookshelves lined up like soldiers over prerevolutionary tile, with its woven edges and dark, jeweled pinwheels of color, stretching out endlessly full of books, reels, and the rare intricate portrait hanging overhead. Before them, long wooden tables dotted with mismatched lamps, flickering in and out of use, occupied by antsy juveniles and sleeping hobos. It feels effortlessly like home, like a shared worldly past that welcomes everybody- and maybe that just means that it's generic and a little overdue for renovations, but you love it as it is.

Shuffling through the tall shelves of books, you weave through mindlessly to find your favorite sections- the history (both common and infra-cultural, with a surprisingly competent collection of industrial works and a predictably miserablly little shelf of homo-sexual underground interest), the art, and the meager offerings of political literature. You can hear your off-tune humming echo back to you somewhat feebly off the high, painted ceiling, done up in some lame facsimile of early Dolorian excess (therriers, noblewomen, forget-me-nots crowding the edges of each filligreed panel, dead-eyed faces in doleful expressions, pale and empty smiling). You've got all of daylight ahead of you, which is more than enough time to browse around as usual before you have to get yourself home and start cooking.

You turn the corner smoothly into the very back of the library, into a wider set of dusty and anachronistic wooden bookshelves-- history trends unpopular, considering the fact that all the books within are horrifyngly outdated due to a miserable municipal budget, maybe that's for the best. There are better places for students to get this information now, like the private library a couple blocks away at the Cycle Universitee, or from library dial-stations tuned in from the south, where the Bibliotheque Nacionelle Des Travailleures is run by Coalition-approved volunteers. The first thing to catch your eye is the pillar of works of infra-cultural expression and documentstion- essays and short stories from New authors, studies and zines on Disco, and of course, the particular political darling of the 20s, the homo-sexual underground.

You've read everything in this section- theory, history, photography- even, notably, the single commercial romance novel, comically bad, about a middle-aged Vespertine businessman travelling north to the harbour where he had experienced his first teenaged love-- and the young, strapping man he gets to know there. (There are boats involved- it's very biblical). All in all, you read it twice,  meticulously rewrote its horrifyingly vague and unsafe sex scenes (in pen, inside. Not like the librarian's gonna check it) and masturbated at your efforts, winning you a very sore wrist and about 30 minutes of crying because you remembered being in a bookshop with Kim in Martinaise while you were remembering what the world was, and then remembered Jean's apartment having a secret stack of equally terrible heterosexual novels bequeathed to him by an ex that you made fun of him for (rabidly, for years). You shudder, now, at the sight of its cracked spine looking you from the middle sill. Its gaze feels hefty and judgemental, and you do not like it.

There are  

KIM CHAPTAAAA

"you'd like him to take care of himself. You'd like to be there to do it for him when he can't"

"He opens the door, and immediately there are a million little things that test you (hell, with that thick-knit sweater he's wearing, any weakness in you would have him writhing on the floor in seconds). The half-up style of his now-so soft looking auburn hair, split across to reveal the pale white of his nape between the raised collar of his sweater, the kind wrinkling of his open smile upon seeing you walk in, the light, jazzy music of the radio backing his belly-deep laugh and the heady smell of incense in the room are all exhilaratingly Harry to you.

What to do with jean:Standalone fic for him?

Starts when he sees Harry with the eyebleed crew and he's the one who goes up to him like "WHAT IN THE FUCK ARE YOU DOING SHIT KID" and harry is like. Oh god oh fuck jean uh let's be... Cordial! Optimistic! (What jean sees is one of his signature pauses but like. Yeah it's the skills talking) and he's just like "oh it helps me stay sober and make friends, I found out about it on the radio🙂" and Jean is like holy fucking shit this is absolutely insane.

            1) bc Harry used to be so repressed he was basically homophobic with his macho act

            2)bc Jean originally didn't believe the amnesia thing but then when Harry genuinely did shit like this and never told him (which, if it was a cruel joke he would've tried to make it very public and obvious and drag jean into it to embarrass him)

            3) because JEAN was his friend and why the fuck does he just. Run off with random people with a radio ad instead

            4) because he's doing so well. He's like, fully at the sort of "this-side-of-pudgy" bear level that's hot enough to get him positive attention over the damage of the alcohol and he's wearing the sort of clothes that show it and he's got all these crew buddies where Jean is stuck with his hellish depression workouts where he sometimes works until he pukes and then feels like shit about self-harming like that. (what he doesn't know is that Harry is basically doing that same exact shit just he's using his swag alcoholic skills to lieeeeee about it. rip)

Maybe harry apologizes in their conversation about the romance novels. Like it blurts out.

eventually add in the previous consideration fic you were thinking of &quot

starting with bitter porno kimbo/viccy catfight bullshit

"no that's pathetic and he'd never go there." dynamic where kim cares quietly and jean is bitchy about Harry

then "no, he's dealt with harry so much already, I can't imagine." so it's all concern for him

and then that backslides into "how could I comfort him? how could he understand my need for comfort? "

we stan a mildly nonaccepted himself Jean so he's like "WAIT UH GAY THOUGHTS ABOUT THIS GUY TOO? FUCK FUCK FUCK"

gotta make it panic horny. it's a Dan Gat fic. how would kim look.... yknow......

since the only other guy who's been like that with him has been harry -> third wheel dynamic going to ->

horny ot3 dynamic. old men doting on him because it's his fantasy and he gets to be the pampered one goddamnit

end somehow

THIS IS THE EXACT DYNAMIC WE'RE GOING FOR Jean liked Harry premart and Harry was unbearably machismo repressed homophobic bullshitero man (I need to decide if he was stupid enough to be like AS LONG AS IM ON TOP IT ISNT GAYYYY or smth sex/intimacy related like that maybe he just kinda. ""comically"" hit on Jean or said suggestive shit to him but never fully acted on it) and then he comes back from Martinaise all loyal puppy dog or whatever for Kim and Jean is like "??? OKAY SO I GO THROUGH ALL THIS BULLSHIT AND HE TALKS SO BIG ABOUT LOVING MUSCLE DUDES AND NOW HES GONNA FUCK THIS GRANDPA?" but then he's like self-aware enough to know that's stupid.(Jean's problem is that he looks for wounds on Kim and not Harry, so he's all like "damn this bitch stole my mans when he's actually good...." meanwhile Harry is like Very Obviously Self Harming All The Time and not even really with Kim so often rip)

Harry wants to reach out and ask him about his thing with Kim because he has memories of Jean either being gay or being less homophobic or just having Gay Energy that he was an asshole about or whatever plus it just feels natural to work through shit with Jean but he stops himself because he's like "well DRINKING also felt natural that doesn't mean we should do it..."

maybe they get into it because Jean makes an offhand comment about "stop ogling kim" and harry is like (computer warmup noises) and jean just kinda forces him to spit it out RE: meme description

Harry's whole deal with avoiding Jean is "some things are unforgivable and I'm fairly sure I've done things bordering on that to you for so, so long, and now I don't even know what they were or who I was when I did them, to me that person is dead, and I know then that I can't apologize to you thoroughly, genuinely, and I don't want to insult you by presuming that I ever could, at this point. I don't want to insult you by assuming I can just go back to what we were before, to each other, without an apology or an actual understanding of what went wrong. I can't speak for certain about his mind-my mind- but at least in some part that guy killed himself because of what he did to you, and to everyone around him, sure, but mostly to you. And now I'm here, and it feels horrible to try and go against that and push myself into your life. It feels horrible to see I've done something to you worth killing myself over and then still insist on coming back to bother you beyond the grave"

And Jean's response is "you thought everything was bad enough to kill yourself over! And you're still alive, you're still him, and fuck, yes it'll take a long ass fucking time for me to ever really forgive you, but you were my best friend and you're still fucking alive- I see you every single day, Harry, do you know what that's like? To see your best fucking friend every single day and watch him flinch and try to act like he doesn't exist every single time he sees you? Fuck you and fuck what you wanted before, *I* never wanted you dead, and your little stunt here with pretending you're finally fine and then keeping everyone at an arm's distance is just another, slower grave you're digging" etc etc "if this is the upswing at last, I’d better be there for it.**”

Jean is a frat boy that you do not expect to be a frat boy. He unironically gets along with mack and chester. He's only just started to grow out of it through dealing with Harry's horrible downfall

sequel to geste drole des debutantes but it's just a 3 chapter PWP masturbation fic..... of Kim and Harry after the dinner and then SHOOKETH SURPRISE IT'S JEANGST YEARNING TIME!

Kim trans.... Good for him...

Stroker shit

He wants to fuck Harry basically

     ...slow tease? Or fast and desperate?

Dry kissing

Hair pulling...

Youre hard, and you're wet, and you can't help but think of that smile on his face as you left and you want him to taste it, to get on his knees for what he's done to you and swallow it all down, feels the soft brush of his beard on your thighs.

 Harry also trans... Good for them good for them...

Handkink shit

Wants kim to absolutely wreck his shit

... He's new at this

Slow....

Jean

Jeangst

Want to wreck harry's shit... Mouthfuck stuff maybe

Power bottoming?? Idk

Whoops my hardcore dom revenge fantasy has slipped into a getting bossed around by the guy I thought I disliked for taking away my partner UHH.... LETS NOT UNPACK THAT....

Some idiot makes like a homophobic stupid "ah the fucking lieutants off scissoring or something" comment and then jean is like "oh god what if that but sexual instead"

Gym shower...

Jean has a big dick too bad bitch

When harry du bois ruined his life, thinks satelitte-officer Jean Vicquemare- he might at least have had the decency not to also curse his dick. This shit was weekly and only getting worse, now that the shitkid didn't constantly smell like despair and carrion had scored a threesome with a bartender's manual.

[phoenotopia]

2019 December Update

The game is officially playable from beginning to end!

That battle has concluded...

Soon begins the war! But first, a brief reprieve for the holidays.

And I must throw in the usual caveats. We're still playtesting, we're still polishing, we still gotta get age ratings, more red tape, etc etc. And most importantly, we need to figure out the launch strategy. Think Megaman, charging his shot for 5 and a half years... We're not allowed to miss at this point. It has to HIT.

Luckily, we're in a relatively stable position where we don't have to rush the game out immediately. It's not LAUNCH or STARVE - it's... take some time to aim a little. We don't want to launch in the shadow of a bigger behemoth game, and we don't want to launch completely unknown either. We have to build up the game's media presence, which has been neglected so far. I know it's annoying to have to continue to wait... but please bear with us a little longer!

Here's what we've been doing for the past couple months.

---------- THE SCRIPT ----------

The script sits at over 80,000 words. I didn't realize the significance until a teammate told me that that's actually as long as a novel! I looked it up, and sure enough, it's a little longer than the first Harry Potter. But unlike Harry Potter, hardly any of these words are wasted on, pffft, narration. It's all juicy dialogue!

(Some of the game's golden nuggets of dialogue)

There was actually a lot of mundanity getting to the end. Pirate, acting as my editor, caught tons of errors and inconsistencies. One of the most recurring issues had to do with capitalization. I like to capitalize things, often inconsistently. Some common questions that arose:

Why is this text highlighted yellow, and this one highlighted blue?

Why is this monster name capitalized, but this monster not?

Why is this item capitalized, and this one not?

... and so on!

All very mundane issues, but all very necessary to tackle. And there was a TON of 'em. (em vs 'em was another thing we had to make consistent). I actually did some research to see what capitalization rules Zelda had. From what I could tell, when it comes to animals and monsters in the Zelda universe:

All monsters are capitalized

All regular animals are not capitalized

The Cuccos are special, and ARE capitalized

(a collage of Zelda pictures I assembled to study)

In the Zelda universe, all regular items are lowercase, but highlighted blue when mentioned in a quest context (e.g. "butter", "hylian wheat"). Items can be uppercase, if they are special named items (e.g. "Sheikah Slate"). We adopted similar rules as Zelda in some cases, and deviated in others. For instance, in the Phoenotopia universe, there isn't a clear distinction between animals and monsters - that fish monster is really just an animal that happens to be the alpha predator in its natural habitat. So most entities are lowercase, but "big deal" entities can be uppercase.

(we made a formal document to consult whenever a question regarding capitalization arises)

---------- A SAMPLING of QUEST AND CHARACTERS ----------

A lot of new quests have arisen in our great writing effort extending over the past several months. And with it, new characters, big and small. I'll tease a sampling of some of them here (warning: some light spoilers ahead):

My favorite new quest is undoubtedly our game's new "Trading Quest". This one takes inspiration from the Zelda series - the trading quest similarly has you roaming the world and its towns in search of needy people who desire a particular item. Deliver them the item they desire, and get a new item. Do this 10 times, and the ultimate weapon awaits you at the end.

I tried some things to vary up the formula. Some NPCs don't reveal what they need right away - steps have to be taken to get them there. It's also possible to go down the wrong route in the sequence, and have to double-back. We try to keep it interesting.

---------- LOOT PLACEMENTS & GAME BALANCING ----------

A great effort was also spent towards balancing the game this past 2 months. Because even one good healing item, easily obtained, can throw the game's whole difficulty off-kilter. And this same principle applies to other areas, like the money economy and player powerup options. Altogether, they form a very delicate ecosystem for enjoyment.

One of the recent things I did for this game was put down exactly where each heart ruby, energy gem, and moonstone could be found. And this was actually a rather involved process because you have a limited number of rewards to distribute (you wouldn't want the final max HP count to be a weird number like 297). Put too many rewards in the beginning, and the late dungeons would have no rewards to offer. Put too much in the end, and the inverse happens.

I found myself going back into earlier areas and plundering their rewards to fill the later areas. And then to ensure a relatively even spread of rewards within each area themselves, I drew crude maps of the dungeons & their reward spots, so that they could be studied from a bird's eye perspective.

But it was still not enough. With NPC quests and towns also taking up their own allotment of the rewards, I found myself running low on things to distribute. So I went back to the books and upped the number of rewards across the board. Before there were 44 Heart Rubies to collect - there are now 55. Before each Heart Ruby boosted your max HP by 5, but now each one now boosts your max HP by 4, so your final max HP count would still end up the same. It's kinda similar to what happened with Twilight Princess, where they broke with tradition and made 5 heart containers required to gain a new heart instead of the usual 4. Overall, the final tally for treasure to find is:

55 heart pieces

30 energy gems

108 moon stones

Who's crazy enough to collect them all?

---------- BADGES / ACHIEVEMENTS ----------

As one of the game's finishing touches, there's a menu for BADGES - they're this game's version of achievements. This is an ongoing task that we hope to stamp out this December. A few favorites of mine from the original flash game will return ("Pillow Connoisseur" is among them).

(The menu looks like this before any badges are earned)

I allocated slots for just 33 badges, so we're selecting the badges very carefully. We got rid of most of the fluffy ones that appeared in the flash game - we wanted to reduce the number of badges that you would earn automatically for just playing the game (so no more "1st boss", "2nd boss", "3rd boss" achievements). We're aiming for a healthy mix of easily earned badges, hard earned badges, collectathon badges, secret fun badges, and so on.

The badges have another twist - they bear miniaturized portraits of characters from the game! In the initial brainstorm mockup phase, I wasn't really fond of the badge designs. You got a medal of a heart because you collected some hearts, and you got the medal of a moonstone for collecting moonstones, etc. It just seemed so... expected.

(various badge mockups)

How could we engage the players on a more fun and deep level? The idea came - what if we attached pictures of the people you meet on your journey? And these people's stories and character would have a connection with the achievement? That could keep the player guessing which character would come attached with an achievement, or even reveal a hidden detail about the character you didn't know.

---------- MUSIC ----------

Will has just one more task to do. And that's to recut the song for the trailer. One of our other goals for this December is to make a really good trailer... again. There's actually 2 other trailers we cut and never made public for reasons. Maybe I'll talk about them one day in the post-mortem.

Since this may be the last conventional update, we wondered with which song to best leave the audience. And we decided that the most suitable song is "Sanctuary". It's a song that the player will often encounter often when they happen upon a quiet resting place in the world.

There's a little story behind this song. Two and a half years ago, I linked Will the Earthbound song, "Buzz buzz's prophecy", and told him, make a song like that!

In response, Will made "Sanctuary".

Give it a listen HERE. What do you think? Did Will hit close to the greats?

---------- FAN ART ----------

Three fan arts have come in the last couple months. I display them here proudly:

Another submission by Cody G! Gale looking shy as she flashes the V sign for the camera. I like how Cody G's art is continually evolving. Note the additional detail on her eye, and how her hair is drawn extra fluffy. Very nice!

Shafiyahh is another consistent contributor, and made one in the spirit of Halloween. I really like their costumes! Gale as an angel, and Lisa as a demon, fittingly captures their relationship, since Gale is the responsible one and Lisa is the troublemaker. So cute!

A contribution from a new artist, Negativus Core! Wow, Gale looks so bada-- here! We often forget about Gale's tough side due to the cutesy graphics. This is probably how her enemies see her. And the gummy (slime) is a cute touch!

---------- FINAL NOTES ----------

Similar to last year, this will be the last update for a while. If things run too slow, I'll post a status update come end of February 2020.

It's possible, and this is a BIG IF, that something notable happens sooner than expected - like we're going to a con or we have reason to drop the trailer sooner than later. If so, this blog will update earlier than expected. BIG IF. Otherwise, it's end of February till next you hear of us.

The game's development has reached a new uncharted territory. We're going to take the time and figure out exactly what our next steps are. In addition, we'll still be doing some playtesting and script polishing. And we'll be taking a break too. It is the holiday season, things move kind of slow around this time of year. We'll enjoy the company of our family and friends.

Until then, Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!