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mostlycompetentwriter · 4 years ago

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“M.I.A” - I am YOU Sequel

F/M Pairing: OC x Bang Chan x Changbin x Jisung (SKZ)

Word Count: 2.2K

Warnings: Fluff!!!!

Genre: Werewolf AU; Sequel AU

Summary: Life has a funny way of moving too fast, and Changbin knows this very well as it feels like he just blinked and his pups have already experienced their fourth birthday. He’s determined to make the best life for them, but all he really wants to do is keep them close to his side and safe from harm.

The new hunting recruits were always eager to learn, which definitely made Changbin’s job a lot easier. But it was always helpful when you were dealing with younger pups looking to make an impression and discover their place in the pack. Usually, Minho was in charge of hunting training, but he was too busy with his new mate, so Changbin had agreed to takeover with his latest batch of pupils. As such, Changbin found a new reason to leave his cabin in the mornings, stretching out his limbs before joining his students as they ambled around the training arena.

For the most part, Changbin had settled into a bit of a regularized routine. Whenever the sun finally penetrated the curtains in his bedroom, he knew to rise and shower quickly before joining his mate and pups in the kitchen for breakfast. Sometimes, they were joined by Chan if he wasn’t busy with an early morning meeting, and Jisung managed to also make his way downstairs if he somehow defied his natural instinct to sleep in for as long as possible.

Which meant that on most days, it was just Y/N and their two sons and daughter, and Changbin loved to make them breakfast and listen to his pups as they chattered away with one another. Over the years, they had grown out of the round cuteness that had defined their early features. They could support themselves more and more - learning to walk and speak as if they had been doing it for their entire lives.

Sometimes, it made Changbin long for the days when he carried them around everywhere because he certainly didn’t mind keeping them close. But it was also nice when they could follow him outside to help with something, or when they volunteered to assist their father in the kitchen. Regardless, Changbin knew that life had a tendency to fly by without anyone really noticing, and he was determined to cherish his small pups during their childhood. Until they were old enough to live on their own - possibly joining other packs or taking on bigger responsibilities.

“Don’t overthink the future,” Y/N had told him at one time, and Changbin intended to follow her advice because his mate was rather astute when it came to understanding what was going on inside his head.

Y/N was also exceptionally wise, and she was a natural when it came to motherhood. Changbin enjoyed watching his mate interact with their pups, and most often during the mornings, she would spend a great deal of time convincing Nia that it wasn’t necessary to follow Changbin to the training arena. “You’ll distract him,” Y/N said, balancing Ren on one knee while trying to convince Jay that fruit was actually really good for him. Meanwhile, Nia had glued herself to Changbin’s leg - refusing to see reason with Y/N because she couldn’t quite understand the inherent risk of joining the hunters during their training sessions.

“Daddy,” Nia pouted, looking up at Changbin with chocolate brown eyes - the same color as his own.

“Maybe when you’re older,” Changbin said, struggling to join Y/N at the table with a tiny pup hanging from him.

“Are you hunting later?” Y/N asked because she understood Changbin’s desire to be out in the woods because his wolf craved the shelter of the trees.

“I might go out tonight,” Changbin said, chuckling when he lifted Nia onto his lap, allowing her to snuggle her face closer to his scent gland while he tried to eat the rest of his food.

It was an interesting challenge, and Changbin had barely even noticed Chan’s arrival until Jay ran by the table and practically launched himself into his father’s arms. “Ah,” Y/N said with a relieved smile.��“I’m glad you’re here. I think you might be able to convince him to eat.”

“I don’t want it,” Jay complained, squealing in delight when Chan easily muscled him into his arms.

“Why not?” Chan asked, taking a seat at the table while he brought Jay’s plate closer. “Don’t you want to be as strong as me one day?”

Jay’s eyes widened, and he immediately started stuffing his mouth with as many orange slices as he could manage. “Where’s Jisung?” Y/N asked, rolling her eyes playfully at Jay’s sudden change in attitude.

“He doesn't have a morning patrol,” Chan grinned. “I doubt we’ll see any sign of him until this afternoon.”

“Lazy,” Y/N remarked, offering Jay a bright smile when he finished all of his food.

Changbin smirked, lifting Nia up from his lap to allow her to take his spot at the table. “When will you be back?” she asked him with a trademark pout.

“Hopefully, before Jisung even wakes up,” Changbin joked, and he forced himself to leave his little family behind because Nia was still looking at him like he had just taken away her favorite toy.

Changbin managed to keep his promise, for the most part, when he arrived home while the sun was at its highest point in the sky. It was nearing the end of this particular group’s training, and Changbin was proud of their progress. He had taught them a few advanced moves before sending them off together on a hunting patrol to see who could catch the most prey.

He would be monitoring their progress; although, he intended to hunt on his own. But he planned to stop at home first and make sure that everything was okay. “Hello?” he asked, stepping inside the house where it was disarmingly quiet.

“Daddy!” Nia squealed, rushing around the corner to launch herself into his arms.

He struggled to support her weight, allowing their noses to brush before he was glancing around the living room. “Where is everyone?”

“Mommy left Sungie in charge,” Nia explained, referring to Jisung by the same name that Y/N liked to use because Nia found it exceedingly cute.

“Jisung’s in charge?” Changbin sighed because he knew that his younger friend tended to go a bit overboard with his idea of playtime.

Nia giggled, leaning in closer like she was going to tell Changbin a secret. “Jay and Ren broke into Dad’s supply.”

Changbin groaned because Nia always referred to Chan as her dad, and all three of his pups knew very well that they weren’t allowed to touch Chan’s secret supplies (AKA his collection of sweets that he kept locked up in the kitchen).

“Did Sungie let you guys have some?” Changbin asked, and he started walking in the direction of the back door where Jisung often allowed the pups to play.

“He said he was too tired to argue,” Nia explained proudly, and Changbin tried not to laugh at that while he brought them to a standstill outside on the porch where, sure enough, Jisung was currently chasing his sons around the yard.

“Jisung,” Changbin called, and the younger paused mid-step, gasping for breath as Jay and Ren collided against him on either side of his exhausted body.

“Changbin!” Jisung cried, struggling to make his way to the porch while supporting additional weight. “I’ve never been happier to see you.”

“Jisung, I have to go out later,” Changbin said. “Nia told me that you let the kids have sweets.”

Jisung cleared his throat, swiping a nervous hand through his sweat-caked locks. “Oh, yeah, about that...”

“He let us have all that we wanted!” Jay announced, bouncing up and down as he jerked on Jisung’s arm. “Can we play hide and seek again?”

“Good job,” Changbin grumbled. There was no way that Jay or Ren would agree to come inside - they were clearly exploding with energy courtesy of a sugar rush. “You’ll have to wait for them to crash,” Changbin said, and Jisung pouted.

“They asked nicely!”

“You’re the adult here, Jisung,” Changbin argued. “Stop giving them whatever they ask for.”

“Fine,” Jisung agreed. “But can you at least help me watch them? Y/N’s supposed to be back soon.”

Changbin sighed because he was meant to be on a hunting mission, but he still nodded and transferred Nia to Jisung so that he could spend the next half-hour attempting to chase Jay and Ren around until they finally grew exhausted. Needless to say, Changbin was feeling every bit of his older age by the time Y/N came home to scold Jisung about the importance of a healthy diet. “It’s not like they eat them everyday,” Jisung said.

Y/N rolled her eyes, tucking Jay and Ren into their beds for a well-deserved nap. “You’re lucky that I love you.”

Changbin grinned, leaving the two of them to argue while he helped Nia settle down for her own nap. “But daddy,” she complained around a yawn. “I want to go out with you!”

“Maybe some other time,” Changbin said, and he gently closed the door to her bedroom before excusing himself to join the rest of his students in the woods for a well-deserved hunt.

It had been less than twenty minutes since Changbin had shifted forms and started tracking fresh prey in the forest, and he was already cornering a deer who was preoccupied with grazing. His hunting skills had always been a source of pride, and he had often exceeded expectations back in training. But it was really because of his heightened instincts, and Changbin took advantage of them whenever he could.

He lowered his haunches as he flexed his claws against fresh earth, keeping his eyes on his prey, but he was interrupted when he heard a shrill cry from somewhere close to his hunting spot. Changbin grumbled when the deer took off at the sound, but his ears stood straight when he faintly recognized the voice. It only took him another moment to track down a strikingly familiar scent that led him further into the trees - and he immediately froze when he realized what was happening:

His inexperienced four-year-old daughter was cowering away from a very intimidating-looking raccoon - sharp teeth and a foaming mouth who was likely trying to protect his territory. Changbin only hesitated for a moment because of the unexpected situation before he was launching himself into action - landing between Nia and the bristling invader who certainly wasn’t interested in attacking something as big as Changbin.

Instead, the animal whimpered and slunk away into the surrounding foliage. Meanwhile, Changbin immediately turned around to face his daughter, shifting forms to give her a disapproving look. Nia whined in response - refusing to shift back out of her wolf form.

“Nia,” Changbin said with a stern tone, and he sighed when his daughter was back on two legs. “Did you sneak out of the cabin?”

Nia nodded. “I’m sorry, daddy.”

Changbin groaned, wondering if Y/N knew about this unexpected excursion. “Why would you do that?”

“Nia’s sorry,” she repeated with a sniffle. “She just wanted to be with daddy.”

Changbin hated how the fresh tears in her eyes melted his attempt to take a firm stance. His daughter’s frown was his weakness, and he knelt down in front of her and softened his expression. “I know, sweetheart,” he said. “But you see how dangerous it is out here. What if you had found something worse? Your mother got herself into trouble too a long time ago doing the same thing.”

Nia lowered her head. “Is daddy mad?”

“He can’t stay mad at you,” Changbin said, holding out his arms so that he could lift Nia off the forest floor. “He just wants you to understand that you can’t do something like this without his permission. You’ll have to wait until you’re a lot older before joining any kind of hunting patrol.”

“But...then Nia can be with you?” she asked, and Changbin couldn’t fight his smile.

“Yeah, when you’re older we can go hunting together,” Changbin agreed, and Nia held tighter to her father as he brought them both back to their cabin.

As soon as they were walking through the door, Y/N and Jisung rushed inside from the backyard, and Y/N took Nia from Changbin’s arms and let out a deep breath. “Oh, thank god! I thought I lost you.”

“Holy shit,” Jisung cursed, fanning a hand across his heart. “I didn’t know she was with you.”

“Well...” Changbin trailed off, reaching out to support Jisung who looked seconds away from fainting. “She snuck out to follow me.”

“Nia!” Y/N exclaimed. “You can’t do that.”

“It’s okay,” Changbin intervened. “We already talked about it in the woods. Isn’t that right, Nia?”

His daughter nodded, eyes wide as she took in Y/N’s disheveled expression. “Nia is sorry, mommy.”

“I’m just glad you’re okay,” Y/N said, trying to wipe away her tears.

“She’ll wait until she’s big enough to hunt with daddy!” Nia informed her proudly, and Chanbin smiled as he wrapped an arm around Jisung’s shoulders to lead him inside his bedroom.

“Come on, dude, you definitely need a nap after today.”

#stray kids #stray kids fanfic #skz #skz fanfic #stray kids changbin #stray kids han #stray kids chan #stray kids drabbles #bang chan fanfic #changbin fanfic #han jisung fanfic #mostlycompetent #requested

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nighttimepixels · 5 years ago

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Night: Oh yeah, the lillytale ladies purr btw :) Me, absolutley ascending: ffuUck yeS.... PlEase.... My WiFe.... 🥺💖💞

You are all so valid, oh my gods.

They absolutely all purr, and each have their ‘spots’ and circumstances, heh. Across the board they’re definitely inclined to do so when particularly sleepy, or in a particular intimate cuddly moment. Specifics though... here’s the Lilytale Purr HCs, then ✧(ô▿ô )

Serif (Lady UT Sans):

Best spot when relaxed: massage the palm of her left hand, or gently skritch/soothingly rub her occipital bone (aka, bottom/back part of skull)

Likely to purr in general when she’s drinking coffee on a rainy afternoon, sunk into a couch/soft spot and listening to music.

She blushes a little when she’s caught purring, but mostly chuckles it off and deftly changes subject if you try to point it out.

... get close enough to her though and become her nap buddy and you’ll get to hear it a lot. Softly, quietly, as you drift off. It’s a really soothing sound, actually.

Vellum (Lady UT Pap):

Best spot when relaxed: trace her collarbone or gently run your hand over the top her skull~

Likely to purr in general when she catches you doing something particularly cute and/or making her proud in a casual sort of way! EG, maybe trying to solve some of her handcrafted puzzles so you can engage with her more on it, or maybe she sees you working on your own passions~

... also purrs a little if you praise her when she’s in a rare sleepy state. It’s very hard to catch her in these, but oh man, is it worth it. She turns extra cuddly - good luck escaping her arms - but she flushes with magic and can’t help but purr if you genuinely praise her. Just prepare for the praise to be turned back on you in an exceedingly honest and spot-on sort of way :D

Sapphire (Lady US Sans):

Best spot when relaxed: trace along/gently massage her upper spine, or skritch at the difficult-to-reach-spots where her spine and ribs meet (but not the inner part, the exposed outer part, oh geez)

Likely to purr in general when you get the hiccups (they’re illegally cute, and you getting frustrated over them even more so), and when comes up to hug you in public if you’re close - because only you can hear her and she knows what it does to you ;D

Also a big-time aftercare purring type. Also also, sort of... panic purrs if you’re sick? It’s subconscious after she’s already done a lot to try and make you comfortable - she’s close (or if possible, holding you/cuddling you, germs don’t mean much to her) and taking care of you and instinctively just purrs to try and soothe you. ;v;

Amber (Lady US Pap):

Best spot when relaxed: almost anywhere, frankly, she really enjoys casual intimacy like that, buuuut you’ll almost certainly get her if it’s along her sternum - or if her head’s in your lap and you stroke delicately along her nasal ridge.

Likely to purr in general when having quiet together time with you - eg, you’re both reading, maybe you’re leaning up against her side, each buried in your own book, or other activity - just together, doing your own laidback thing. She loves it and without fully registering will probably purr and nuzzle you a bit if you’re within easy range.

Also purrs if she catches you falling asleep against her. She’s a sucker for that gentle trust and mutual comfort.

Crimson (Lady UF Sans):

Best spot when relaxed: along the underside of her mandible, but also - if you’re willing to risk the casual moment turning more intimate - tracing/massaging her mid-to-lower spine. She’s a sucker for feeling your soft touch dancing along her spinous process. (the lower you go, the more you risk frisky energy, heh - but that’s not unlikely regardless, with her)

Likely to purr in general when you get caught up talking about something you’re passionate about. She likes the spark in your eye, the way your hands get all the more expressive, the vibrance to your very soul. The chances double if she catches you satisfied at the results of whatever you’re passionate about (eg, completing a difficult task that you were very into)

also will definitely purr if you get sassy/snap back rightfully at anyone who’s being a jackass to you. Of course, she’ll also summarily see if you... need her help (and probably send the bastards running if you consider it for even a moment), but the purring will happen in the end as she hooks you close and readily confesses to how hot that was and how much she likes seeing that spark in you. This kind of purring might turn x-rated very fast, woops

Scarlet (Lady UF Pap):

Best spot when relaxed: you have to be very close to earn this, but if you’re at that point with her, then - delicately massaging the bones of her wrist... or tracing her collarbone.

Likely to purr in general when you’ve asked her to help you with anything and you’ve gotten... close over the course of that help. Perhaps it’s learning how to cook something, or investigating something, or learning some measure of self-defense or even swordplay from her... pride in you reaching some level of success will absolutely induce a pleased purr from her.

Also prone to purring if she’s had a good amount to drink. She definitely forgets some of her inhibitions and will be inclined to be more flirty, too - it runs in the family - buuuut she can also accidentally fluster herself, woops. So try not to tease her too much if you want to maximize the purring if you’re drinking with her ;D

Pepper (Lady SF Sans):

posted about here :D

Cinnamon (Lady SF Pap):

Best spot when relaxed: stroke along her sternum, or gently massage her spine. She’s got a lot of built up tension - having a soft, sweet human she’s awfully close to help take care of that is practically a guarantee to start her purring.

Likely to purr in general when she gets high and gets to play with your hair/touch you (doesn’t have to be frisky touching, either - you’re just soft and it’s nice to her)... and also when she watches the northern lights or a meteor shower. The latter is a very happy and rare state for her, but you’ve never seen her so relaxed and in awe that isn’t carefully hidden/masked with something that edges control.

Also inclined to purr if you’re inclined to sing/make music of some kind. It doesn’t even have to be particularly skilled; hell, half the time her purring in this regard is never even witnessed. Maybe she catches you singing in the shower and just leans on the wall outside the bathroom to listen, or you’re picking up an instrument and she overhears you from the hall/another room. She enjoys the musical expression from you, and the exploration even if it’s not expert, so long as you’re into it.

Blade (Lady HT Sans):

Best spot when relaxed: her palms! They’re so much bigger than your hands, but gently tracing along them and/or massaging them just tickles something soft in her soul and she ends up purring.

Likely to purr in general when you’re resting on her in any sort of casual, deliberate way. The display of trust means a lot to her - she knows how scary and threatening she looks and how hard she can be to get that kind of close to.

Also inclined to purr whenever she finds you making food for her/her sister. For fairly obvious reasons that... kind of means everything to her. She’ll eat every bite of course, no matter what it tastes like, but if you’ve paid attention and made something she particularly enjoys... well, hope you’re prepared to be stuck in the very comfortable grip of a purring giant skeleton woman for a while yet - it’s time for a sleepover, probably.

Bonus: purring machine if she catches you and her sister napping. Favorite human, bonded so well and appreciating her sister too? You won’t catch her purring probably, but you will wake up to a blanket having been laid over you both and Blade almost certainly nearby. If not, then you’ll smell her obscenely good cooking in the other room for sure.

Twist (Lady HT Pap):

Best spot when relaxed: gently tracing along her cheekbones/back of her skull, or along the vertebrae of her neck! Also, as is a bit of a trend, is a bit weak to the collarbone as well.

Likely to purr in general when you’re appreciating nature with her in any way. Sitting in her lap as she sings to the flowers? Helping her water the garden? Simply following along as she tends to her many plants/goes on her walks through the forest? She’s going to end up purring. It means the world to her that you’re interested, for whatever reason you may have.

Also going to purr if you’re willing to take a bath with her. They have a massive tub, but also a hot springs they tend; she really, really likes going there, and if she has you agree to go with her, though it’s a vulnerable sort of thing? Hoo boi.

Alpha (Lady Q Sans):

Purring denied actually, as my sib (who made Q, Alpha’s og counterpart) states... Alpha would effectively be like: “I am no simple bitch, I am a super-advanced AI - you’re going to have to work harder than that to get me to do something like purring!”

... So, for now, she remains an enigma. You’d probably legit have to be with her for ages & married or some such to unlock that after... winning a significant and highly unlikely bet. Or a series of them. XD

Glyph (Lady G!Sans):

Hardest (besides Alpha) to get to purr, actually! You’d have to be at an obscenely high intimacy level to unlock this.

Best spot when relaxed... isn’t a thing for her, actually! It’s the reverse. She’d have to have you melting in her arms relaxing at her touch before she’d come close, oho.

Likely not to purr, in general, as stated... but if there was any chance beyond the one stated above, it’s almost certainly if she’s all but the opposite of sober. The others are all nigh positive they’ve never heard it, except Serif - who secretly has recorded footage from when she and Glyph got drunk one night while looking after the dogs and Glyph ended up in a pile of adorable dog affection.

She’s a bit too well-managed beyond that to let purring slip - the Coda side of her is extremely opposed to purring, so that part of her nature is withheld XD

Dusk (Lady HF Sans):

Best spot when relaxed: third trickiest to get to purr, actually... until after she’s coming out of a high-adrenaline state and is finally relaxing with you soothing her. Mandible’s the trick with her then, or general careful affection. She’s still a bit out of her mind - literally, giant hole in her head and all - and is a liiiittle on the feral side.

In exchange for hearing it, then, you’re probably gonna have to resign yourself to semi-feral protective instincts and chill in her protective hold for a while, heh.

Warning though - don’t mess with her floating ribs when she’s in that purring state. She’s been through a lot, and they’re really tender; you’re just as likely to cause her pain as ignite a passionate spark in her. It’s a danger zone.

Dawn (Lady HF Pap):

Best spot when relaxed:... I-If you can reach... she likes it when you touch (pet??) her nasal ridge, or massage the points where her giant horn/antlers connect to her skull.

Likely to purr in general when... er. Well. Honestly, she’s usually too... on-edge, and not terribly present, to purr. But if Dangerous Things have recently been significantly handled, enough to pull back to tend to wounds and stuff, she might start if you’re taken care of, her sister is there and safe as well, and the Snowdin forest has been, at least for a short reprieve, been successfully defended.

#night answers #lilytale asks #imagine the lilytale crew #purrings hcs #ngl i'm cracking up bc I checked re Alpha and purring and my bro's response was viscerally no XD #so i guess... cw??#cw: purring #'s super not a thing for some people and hey i respect that #but also ehhhh i'm deep into the monster fun fuck it i enjoy purring hcs #Anonymous

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lurkingleighbee · 4 years ago

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Thrawn Ascendancy: Greater Good Chapter One - Chapter Three

Chapter One

The Chiss Ascendancy (according to Thrawn): power, stability, integrity, light in the darkness, culture, and glory

Ar’alani faces off with the Nikardun, who appear to want to die as martyrs

Ar’alani seems to have that desired combination of experience and intuition

“There were tables and balance charts to calculate that sort of thing. Ar’alani preferred to do it by eyesight and experienced judgement.”

puppies = whiskercubs?

Thrawn and Ar’alani work well as a team :)

“...she and Thrawn had worked together long enough that she knew he would see what she was seeing and know exactly what she wanted him to do.”

Ar’alani seems to be AOK with striking down what are basically floating, defenseless ships without offering a surrender. Pretty dark.

Thurfian got a secret promotion to Syndic and is preening on the inside (and apparently promotions within the family are supposed to be kept secret)

Thurfian still hates Thrawn and wants him gone (I think the reason(s) were spelled out in the previous book, but this is an obsession of another kind)

the Vagaari are confirmed canon again! But then again, you may know what that means

“That was certainly one of his most mixed-results exploits... [Thrawn] captured that gravity-well generator the researchers are still trying to figure out, but then lost the big alien ship from Lesser Space before anyone could get a look inside.”

Mitth’ras’safis (aka Thrass) is most certainly MIA

possibility: will Thrawn find his brother?

and what about C’Baoth? And Lorana?

Zistalmu (from the Irizi family, same as Ar’alani) and Thurfian (from the Mitth family) are going to start a rumor that’ll (they hope) get Thrawn an... “extra-long deployment” (my words)

Thurfian knows spreading a rumor around needs to have a certain weight to it, and decides to angle himself higher up in the family

Memories I

it looks like the Memories chapters are going to a new character, Haplif, rather than to Ar’alani

we are introduced to Jixtus - a veiled being with an exotic voice, described as a “strange mixture of rasping and melodic wrapped up inside an obscure accent”

Jixtus (and honestly my immediate instinct was that it’s Palpatine because of the cloak and hood, but (1) Palpatine would not have the time, (2) Palpatine was not aware of the Chiss until Thrawn showed up, and (3) Palpatine does not wear “gloves covering his hands” nor does he wear a “black veil covering his face”

Jixtus gives me slight Jedi vibes with this line: “But beware of overconfidence. Eyes held high in pride are less able to see uneven ground ahead”

Haplif’s talent lies in “reading and analyzing cultures” which is apparently “unmatched” (just you wait, buddy), “but individuals could still surprise him, especially those he hasn’t had good opportunities to read”

so basically an evil Thrawn

Haplif (and Jixtus, I assume) managed to engineer a civil war on a planet within months

topical!

Haplif: “MIlitary minds and reactions are of no consequences. I deal in the political realm, and I doubt the Chiss leaders have any less ambition and lust for power than anyone else in the Chaos”

oh no... will he and Thurfian team up?

Haplif is going to make contact with the Chiss and stir up some serious, potentially fatal, danger

Chapter Two

I feel like Thalias and Che’ri have their own little crushes on Thrawn

Che’ri is past her 10th birthday (and people around her forgot and she’s sad...)

Thalias promises to make it up to her, somehow

also they have a little discussion about Che’ri learning to fly the ship - is this a bit of foreshadowing? Hmm...

shoot, will Che’ri start to lose her skywalker powers as she gets older?

Thalias is revealed to have claustrophobia

how did she handle being in that giant box with Thrawn in the last book?

Thrawn has given himself the quest of trying to return that certain ring from the previous book (the one described as a “nest of small stylized snakes with two larger ones curving up from among them”)

Samakro seems quite uptight with rules and regulations

gets a bit pissy that Thalias is on equal status with the military in a meeting with the Rapacc, in a discussion about refugees (called the Magys) and the Nikardun

“So now a mere caregiver - and an only recently confirmed one, at that - was to have equal voice with Expansionary Defense Fleet officers? Samakro could see no reason for it. And things with no clear purpose always made him nervous”

Samakro also has a great line about children: “...you’ve been dealing with a ten-year-old girl for the past few months. Children that age are as alien as anything you’ll find in the Chaos”

So, to summarize a bit of exposition, the head of the Magys has convinced herself that the home planet is totally destroyed and she has utterly failed - therefore suicide is the only option left (i.e. mass suicide)

Thalias was asked to basically convince the head of the Magys (also called the Magys, a bit confusing but so be it) to NOT kill herself

The Magys are matriarchal - and the head lady honcho won’t talk to any man

Chapter Three

During the “conversation” (which feels like a massive hostage negotiation Thalias has to take on by herself), Thalias brings up that the Chiss managed to survive and endure what is essentially a never-ending Ice Age

and if they can handle that, why can’t the Magys handle their darn selves?!?

“The Beyond” = “Third Sight” = “The Force”

“That there is no reason to go back,” the Magys said. “No hope that others of the people still live. So we will therefore die and rest in the Beyond, and through the Beyond bring healing to the world.” “How can you bring back healing when the people are gone?” Another double tongue flick. “Do you not even listen to your own words?” the Magys said scornfully. “You said it yourself: The world is not the people. Our world has been torn and scarred, but perhaps it can be healed. We will join the Beyond and make the attempt.” Thalias frowned, trying to make sense of it all. So the Magys believed that by dying she and the rest of her group could join with some greater cosmic system and through it work to heal the damage caused by their civil war? “But what’s the point of healing the world if there’s no one left to live there?” she asked. “There are others in the universe,” the Magys said. “Many others. Some of them may one day come to live on the world we leave to them. Why should we not strive to properly prepare it?” “Because those others may or may not come,” Thalias said. “You and your people, on the other hand, are already here. Shouldn’t you be trying instead to return and build your world and culture for yourselves? We did. Why not you?” “No,” the Magys said. “We are not you. It cannot be done.” She lowered her eyes again. “All that can be done is death, and the Beyond.”

Thalias decides to prove her wrong and suggests going back to the home world to see what is left.

This is the planet Jixtus and Haplif were talking over in Memories I - I believe, the one engulfed in civil war

Thrawn acknowledges The Force

“A concept from Lesser Space” - keeping in mind this Lesser Space is much, MUCH larger and dare I say more advanced than Chiss Space, but go on - “that General Anakin Skywalker told me about when we were working together,” Thrawn said. “He defined it as an energy field created by all living things from which he and others could draw power and guidance...”

“The concept seemed somewhat vague. But if living things create the Force, perhaps it can work in reverse, with the Force creating or nurturing living things”

The first “Perhaps” - page 46

Side trip time!

Samakro likes order and structure and CANNOT stand it when it is interrupted

does not care for Thrawn personally but he is not insubordinate

does not like Thalias at all (suspicious of her from the get go)

and this side-trip has him kind of bent out of shape, and he is worried that “the Springhawk could be delayed or, worse, summarily ordered to report back to Csilla” - and that would mean the mission going tits/belly/toes up

Samakro seems to borderline loathe Thurfian (and by extension the Aristocra) and notices that Thurfian has something going on with Thalias

Samakro is all military and cannot stand politics

But, he seems to have a good grasp on the relationships going on between people

Notes on the audiobook

Samakro still sounds like Jack Nicholson and it tickles me

Lakinda sounds like the voice Thompson uses for Eli Vanto

there seems to be a new soundtrack underscoring the narration, which is interesting

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giogama08 · 5 years ago

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Tendou Satori, School Festival part 1

I dropped the tone a little… Just wanted to write something cheesy with my cute yokai :3 This end being a lot longer than I originally intended, so I split it into two parts. As always, sorry for my English, I promise I will get better. ft Ushiwaka.

The school cultural festival of Shiratorizawa was approaching. Everyone was busy with some sort of task, even you were drowning with a bunch of chores. You know for sure that most of the students should be staying late in the school trying to advance their designated jobs. Well, at least most of them.

The volleyball team was another story. Because a tournament was coming up, they were exempts from any important duty for the festival. Nonetheless, they would still have to participate even if their contributions were less.

“Wakatoshi-kun, are you excited about the festival?” Tendou asked to start a conversation with the ace. They were just finishing cleaning after practice and most of the team already left.

“Not particularly” he answered in a monotone voice.

“As expected” The redhead threw a sigh, but immediately recover his enthusiasm. “There will be a lot of food and a lot to see!” Says the middle blocker, hiding the main reason for his excitement. “Besides, my class says I just have to work for a little and then I am free. Shall we go together? Or perhaps you have to stay longer?”

“No,” said Ushijima. “They said I just have to help with the cleaning after the event”.

“Heeeeh!! That’s so lucky!” exclaimed the redhead with an envious voice. “That means you have all day to visit all the other classrooms. Are you going to visit me, Wakatoshi-kun? I promised you won’t get disappointed” He added with a mischievous smile that the other guy completely ignored. “Can you bring (Y/n)-chan? I bet she would enjoy our class project”.

It was not a secret to the ace of Shiratorizawa that Tendou has feelings for you, not because he had said something but because he was so obvious that even someone as indifferent as Ushiwaka could notice. Why he hasn’t confessed yet was an unknown matter for the brunette.

“Sure. I can tell her tomorrow in class” he said.

“Yei!” He yelled euphoric with his both arms in the air. “I can’t wait for the festival to start!”. As they were leaving the gym, Semi and Ohira joined them and walked together toward the dorms.

“What is your class doing?” Ushijima finally asked. Tendou displayed a smile full of pride and his chest swelled.

“A haunted house,” he said.

An opportunity to costume as a real monster and scare the hell out of people? Of course that Tendou couldn’t let it slipped off him. He was so excited when his classmates suggested a haunted house as their project that he immediately volunteered to be one of the ghosts for the attraction. Although the staff would be rotating to provide enough rest to the actors, he was resolved to terrorize as many people as possible.

“All of you have to come! I promise that you all will end up so scared that I will appear in your nightmares” he said with a spooky voice.

“You are already in them,” said Semi in a low voice.

“Of course! Sounds fun” replied quickly Ohira, in order to prevent Tendou to heard Semi’s comment. Fortunately, Tendou was so overexcited about his future performance that he just brushed it off.

✧゜ﾟ°º｡✧｡º°ﾟ゜✧゜ﾟ°º｡✧｡º°ﾟ゜✧゜ﾟ°º｡✧

‘Seriously?!’ you thought as you stand at the entrance of the classroom 3-2, aka Haunted House. You saw people exiting the place completely in terror. Some of them even crying. You swallow hard in order to keep yourself together. There have been rumors that the class 3-2 has successfully scared everyone that has entered so far, even heard that Goshiki leave the place running like a maniac.

You were a scaredy-cat and for some out-of-your-hands reasons, you have to enter alone into the said project class. Ushijima told you that Tendou was expecting you to go, so you couldn’t avoid visiting your friend. But a haunted house wasn’t exactly what you wanted to do during your break time. You took a deep breath before taking a step inside the room.

It was as horrible as you were imagining. The place was so dark you could barely see the floor. You supposed that they had turned the AC on cuz it was chilling inside, which didn’t help to your already shimmering body. There were a lot of cardboard figures simulating being some antique furniture of an old house, fitted in a way that creates a labyrinth. You started walking through the place, hugging yourself, in hope nothing actually jump on you. You had no such luck.

As soon as you pass nearby a chair someone, disguised as a Nando babā, on the other side jumped behind it and scared the hell out of you. Although you didn’t scream, your heart almost escaped from your chest. After recovering from your initial fright, you continued your course.

Even tho you started to guess when someone could appear in front of you, it was still really frightening for you. You were wishing not having come when suddenly a Hōnengyo emerged in front of you. It was by far the more realistic yokai in the place. It was easily taller than you. It’s scales and claws looked extremely intimidating, as it raised its arms above its head, attempting to scare you. That was the main reason everyone was leaving in terror because Tendou has put so much effort into his disguise and his performance that everyone forgot for a second that they were in a school and believed that it was real. He wasn’t even using a mask compared to most of the monsters in the place, he actually managed to paint his face so his skin could look terrifying.

“So cute…” You whispered loud enough for Tendou to catch it. “What?!” he thought, tilting his head a little. Crimson was starting to color his cheeks as he noticed how your eyes literally sparkle at the view of his costume.

“It’s amazing, Satori-kun! You look like a real monster” the amaze in your eyes didn’t disappear as you raised your hand to reach for his chest. It felt like actual scales. Tendou tried with all his might to recover his composure.

“Why you aren’t scared?” He said, trying not to pay attention to your hand that was still on his chest. You retire your hand (for his misfortune) and thought about his question.

“Oh, I am scared,” You said with a calm voice. “But at the same time, I know is you. And I always have felt safe with you, Satori-kun”. Your smile melted his heart. Moving by an unknown force, he took your hands with his claws and looked directly into your eyes. In that instance, he forgot about where he was and what he was doing, he could only focus on your eyes and how beautiful you looked.

“I liked you, (Y/n)-chan. I really do”. You open your eyes wide and the blood rushed to your cheeks. ‘Shit’ Tendou thought, realizing what he has just said. He didn’t have the intention to confessed to you, EVER, not to mention dressing as a giant lizard. “I mean… well, you know… in a way…” he didn’t know what to say to fix it. As he was about to retreat, you grab his claws.

“I like you too, Satori-Kun” Your cheeks were still red, but your eyes were focused on him. He felt like a bucket of water just dropped on him.

“Wait, really?!” He couldn’t believe his luck. You like him back?? For real?? What were the odds? A big smile was placed in his face but with all the make-up it looked kinda creepy. You giggled at the sight.

“I have to go back to my classroom now, but promised me to come and visit, ok?”

“I promise!” He said, kissing your forehead before letting you exit the room.

#haikyuu!!#tendou satori #tendou satori x reader #tendou x reader #haikyuu scenario #haikyuu imagines #haikyuu x reader #school festival au #my post #my writing #shiratorizawa #ushijima wakatoshi #ushiwaka #ohira reon #semi eita #haikyuu headcanons

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pack-the-pack · 5 years ago

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Any thoughts on the aftermath of mating bites? I have a headcanon that taking care of the other's bite until its healed is a huge part of strengthening a pair's mating bond. Do you think Alphas would take pride in changing the Omegas bandages every day? Or feel guilty for for causing them pain? Would Omegas fret over using the best salves and anti-inflammatory medicine?

Honestly I adore this idea. But as in most of the asks I answer my response is not just “yes, pretty much” or “No” lol Yeeea, sorry about that guys… I do think that overall the biting and the care for it is an intimacy majority of couples take pride on, but I also think the process and importance itself might change depending on personal preference of the couple, culture, time period and social and economic status. Yes We are going there again, fasten your seat belts kids, cause it’s time for a History lesson, Pack style!!!

Warning: Mentions of death, abortions, mental illness, sexual stuff and all sorts of ancient hi jinks in an incredibly lengthy post (cut possibly unavailable on mobile cause tumblr is garbage).

Disclaimer: A lot of what I’m basing these fictional concepts in is very eurocentric because that’s what I know best, I am not a historian, I am not an archaeologist or a biologist, I have no degree on no nothing let alone an specialisation on anything relevant enough to be used as educated sources for what I’m about to write. This is just for fun okay, guys? So no need to rub your years of hard work and experience on my face or be like “well actually-!”, cause it will be like just, cool to know? But very unlikely taken into account past that, so just, relax m’kay? Thanks…… Also a lot of my knowledge on these things just comes from the “History of the entire world I guess” video so yeaaa.

So first and foremost, the types of things one would use to treat mating bites. Again, I think there are variants regarding time period and culture, but I think every culture would end up coming up with rather similar things, or overlapping methods of treating such scarring, and I made a little drawing for it :3 Nothing, great, nothing awesome, but because this ask inspired me to draw something.

(Kind of messy, my pottery is kind of crooked and I totally intended for the background to be grey and didn’t just fuck up cleaning up on the wrong layers and had to pretend that was the original plan, you’re imagining, but it’s from the heart c’mon).

Before people had this fancy thing called modern medicine, they had to rely solely on instinct, anecdotes and superstition to make their medication, and of course, bite treatment wasn’t any different.

Whenever an Alpha would bite an Omega or a Beta or vice verse, the glands around the bite area would get irritated, itchy and achy. The most ancient method of soothing these aches was mud, just plain out wet dirt, applied to the area and left there to dry and reapplied only when the entirety of the first batch cracked and fell off naturally during daily activities. It was the hottest trend amongst packs 50.000 b.c. - Though there is also evidence of animal fat being used for the same purpose as well as snow.

With the end of the Paleolithic period and the invention of agriculture things started to get more advanced, now people have bowls, and lots of seeds… and grains! Grains and seeds that they can squeeze really hard and it makes residue come out of them. This is when various types of oils started to pop all around along with various simple mixtures of flour and water. Many clay statues and other rudimentary paintings from these periods show a variety of deities and rituals that existed around the manufacturing of these products and there are indications that the importance of treating bite wounds only then started to become somewhat of a significant part of mated couples’ lives. It was believed that these smaller human settlements created by the first sedentary packs, aka warrens, didn’t make distinction between the Eleusinian¹ and Asterian² dynamics when it came to mating bites and the treatments of such. Omegas would bite and care for the marks they inflicted on Alphas just as much as Alphas and Betas to one another or other Omegas. It was only when these warrens started to grow into full blown villages and subsequently distinctive cities that these differences started to develop.

Once these villages and cities started to gain shape and power, social hierarchy took on a new dimension beyond sole survival. Alphas no longer concerned themselves solely with the survival of their own small pack and hunting food to provide for their mates and children, Betas no longer concerned themselves with just assisting Alphas and Omegas in their daily activities as well as primarily caring for crops and animals, and Omegas no longer only cared to make sure their children and pack were in good health and cared for. Farming and the domestication of animals allowed everyone to have more time for architecture, writing, laws, politics, dancing, music, religion and most important of all: Figuring out how to divide people in a way that totally doesn’t benefit everyone equally, as one do. So now you got social classes and cultural diversity, and these come with different ways of treating mating bites. So around the period of the Bronze age to when the Greeks were like really important (specially cause a lot of the terminology and ideas about the dynamics carried nowadays comes from them and the Romans in western society) methods and materials started to shift a bit, but not drastically. Herbs like mint and parsley, flowers like lavender and aconite, roots like ginger and marsh mallow, and oils like that from olives, frankincense or sesame seeds as well as animal derived products such as wax from bees or blood and fat from animals and sometimes even metals like iron started to pop up all around from east to west as cures for all sorts of ailments and diseases. Brought through the sea or through land by merchants (rhizotomiki) who crossed nations and continents, carrying with them they brought all sorts of new superstitions and beliefs about mating bites. Flowers said to be born from rivers or lakes of eternal youth, roots and spices made of fire itself, honey directly from the mouth of deities or roots that’d kill any spiritual disease started gaining popularity quickly with pretty much everyone seen as a lot of these were said to provide for good fortune and happy and prosperous marriages if incorporated on biting rituals. Oracles and religious leaders would advise their followers and rulers to consume certain things before mating and to care for their bites and their partners with extra amounts of care because all of a sudden they started to become super important. Deaths, famine, bad luck, abortions and mental illnesses started to be blamed on the lack of care or the improper care of mating bites, said to either cause the body to perish in account of some malignant aspect of a specific plant or to have angered the gods in some manner.

The high mortality that could come with infected mating bites became more and more apparent the more society advanced, but they didn’t know it was because of the infection itself yet, so surviving these was not only a sign of strength or luck, but a sign of status, power, money and higher spirituality. Emperors, Empresses, feudal lords in the orient, etc. All took pride in having enough money to buy rare ingredients from merchants from far away lands as well as hundreds of slaves and servants to care for their gardens, plantations and animals which provided them with an immense diversity of always available plants, herbs and roots that gained favour in aiding with biting marks. To be the chosen mate of one of these people would grant one with a similar status and privileges, such as not dying and having better flavoured bread or something.

This also meant that they didn’t really want other people but them using these miracle medicines, because they thought that for the common people to use “divinely provided” forms of care would inevitably result in corruption of said methods and subsequently the fall of society. So now you had:

The rulers of nations and cities/nobles: Using and manufacturing refined powders from roots, grains and metals from far away nations in order to bind and cure mating bites. Rare Oils from plant eradicated anywhere but the palaces and gardens belonging to the highest circles, bandages made from the finest silks and sown and painted with all sorts of religious meanings. Concoctions that took hours, months or even years to be finished for a single claiming treatment, with recipes and processes kept secret and many times lost forever with trusted doctors/shamans that’d tend to royalty only.

Generals, Priestesses, Shamans, Politicians: Using plants and roots that were common, but difficult to come by, expensive, difficult to use or “required” a specific ritual that’d grant them some sort of untapped potential from these plants otherwise, providing them “enlightenment”, “strength”, “wisdom” and “spiritual clearance” in order to win all things from wars, to new knowledge and insight on the gods’ wants and needs to political feuds. Alcohol and other fermented blends such and wine and grape must with marsh mallow, made to clean and close wounds as well as soothing burns were prioritized here. The immediate pain was considered cleansing and efficiency. Mandrakes were rather popular as well, but for treating “deep spiritual diseases”, such as when ones mate falls ills some hours or a day after the bite is consummated, or to ensure healthy and strong offspring coming from the union since it was considered to aid on sexual prowess. However given its “immense” power and magical properties it was rarely ever given or prescribed to the masses without the supervision or blessing of a highly spiritual attuned authority.

Lords and wealthy merchants: Using, manufacturing and selling all sorts of blends, mostly creams and perfumes said to help with pain and itching. These would change depending on the city and the deities they worshiped and superstitions they carried as well as the plants naturally available in the lands (the ones that haven’t been eradicated or hogged by other classes of people). These were the ones usually gifted by acquaintances, and friends of the newly mated couple as offerings of good fortune, prosperity and fertility. These varied hugely in ingredients and price as well. Though there were other ingredients and recipes guarded with an amount of secrecy by these as well, gifted and used just by the family to other members of the same, these tended to be tended to and made with a higher degree of care, utilizing plants one would have at their disposal in their own home.

Common soldiers, artisans and lesser merchants, sailors and farmers: The people that didn’t really have much money, time or social status to dedicate to bite wounds would resort to simpler and cheaper methods of soothing their pains. Simply dousing the wounds with olive or fish oil was a common practice, as well as using salt water to wash the area. Clay of various kinds as well as coal and ground up seashells were popular on various cities as ingredients for lotions and creams and many times were offered to the gods as well as a form of prayer for good health and happy mateship. Lamb and goat fat was also very popular with the poor for its healing and relaxing properties, people would collect an array of herbs and flowers that’d fancy their partner or the both of them to incorporate into it, in order to symbolise their union as one as well as to mask the strong foul smell from the fat.

Slaves: Slaves were usually prohibited to mate by their masters, but the ones that happened to mate someone or being mated would be punished with not being able to treat their wounds. It was seen as a disgrace and distasteful to not treat ones bite wounds, and people thought only fitting that slaves who step out of line would have their favour taken from them entirely on the eyes of their gods or polite society. As a result slaves had to resort to only using water and cool mud, many succumbing to the infections and fevers that were attributed by most as a corruption of the spirit and not worthy of pity.

So as you can see, there was a divide in how they treated their wounds based on many things, and while some of these methods and rituals sometimes overlapped between classes the distinction was stark enough that you could clearly tell what type belonged to whom. It was around that time as well that the Eleusinian and Asterian dynamics started to get divided more and more as time passed. Omegas were treated as borderline property and in many places like Athens were not granted the right to mark their mate back, with exceptions occurring just in certain occasions (such as the soon departure to a losing war on the mate’s part, or to save the mate’s life though a spiritual treatment), Beta females and poor Omega females being forbidden to use certain plants and to take part in certain rituals by law claimed to be belonging solely to Omega females of higher social status, Omega males being prohibited of using any sort of soothing agents if not prohibited of being bitten altogether. Alphas having or not marks as a form of weakness or a show of strength varied ridiculously from city to city and from nation to nation (So much so that to this day there is not full agreement on that in society). And a whole lot of other rules and random crap just around mating bites alone.

With the invention of modern medicine, these things started to change obviously, people had a better grasp of what helped and what just made things worse, creams, pills, oils,,and ointments started being patented and people would gradually only look to more naturalistic methods of treating claim bites as an element of a different all-natural life style or a belief (misguided or not) that natural = better. With all that said one thing has remained true: Yes, caring for ones wounds is something that is and was believed to strengthen and solidify ones bond with their mate. People always tended to care a great deal for it, doing everything in their power to provide for their mates in the best way they knew how, if it were through giving them private care by more servants then they can count, with the best ingredients in the world at the moment, or simply by choosing smells and things that they’d like in order to show how much they care, they took and still take great pride in caring for that very fragile wound in their necks. As whether or not this is more an Alpha thing or a Omega thing, or if Alphas hate or take pride in causing pain to their partners, that varies in belief, culture and time period. I particularly think that overall it’d be a mixture of both. They don’t want to cause excessive pain to their partner but they also want their bonds to be solidified forever. The Eleusinian dynamics were always the ones more intimately connected with the production and rituals surrounding bite soothers so to me it makes sense they prioritize its quality more than Asterian dynamics, but that also is a highly individual thing.

Overall I hope this wasn’t a complete departure from what you asked >.> But I really wanted to explore this a bit more and your ask gave me the opportunity to. Remembering this is all just my interpretation and applies to my verse (PTPverse) which is completely open for creative use in fanfictions, RP sessions and others, so if you don’t agree with what I said here that’s 100% fine, to each their own, I just hope this somehow was able to help anyone ;) any lingering questions try checking out my other history posts such as the Ancient Greece Headcanons one or make another ask on my inbox for clarity. Peace.

¹ - Eleusinian dynamics: Referring to Omegas (of either gender) and Beta females.

² - Asterian dynamics: Referring to Alphas (of either gender) and Beta males.

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kyuala · 5 years ago

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monsta x in são paulo (19.07.19)

hey y'all this post is to tell my experience during my concert and hi touch event of the we are here world tour last friday night 🤩 so buckle up bc its a LONG ONE but i divided it into categories so u dont have to read everything if u dont want to!

the concert in general: ok so the concert was ABSOLUTELY AMAZING. there were about 7 songs i didn’t really listen to a lot or liked before the concert but even those were amazing and had me jumping and screaming and going crazy. they’re all SO much more beautiful irl which is like !!!!!!!!! HOW. and they’re so so SO talented all the choreos were incredible and their voices!!! sound even better irl. hyungwon asked minhyuk to sing a little bit of play it cool acapella for us and his voice 😭😭😭 so sweet it’s like honey. they brought hero back to life which was. an experience to see live tbh. i got to the venue line at 9:30am (10.5 hours before the concert) and i was about maybe 15? rows away from the stage (bc i had to go pee real quick as soon as they let us inside) but im like 158cm (5'2) tall so even tho i was standing on this little protection thingy to be taller i still couldn’t see them that well :( i dont think i saw any choreos in full bc of that but it was still amazing to see them do it irl. they all introduced themselves in portuguese during the first ment it was super 🤩 adorable! most of them only said “oi, eu sou ___” (“hi, i am ___”) but some of them had longer phrases prepared (maybe kh, jh and ck? i believe) which was so awesome to see!! during the second ment, hw talked about how some of their songs were composed by their own members and he did that to introduce “our maknae’s song” (aka mohae) and my soul left my body. after jealousy there was the first vcr which was like a youtuber au vcr and it was so!!!!! cute hyungwon, minhyuk and wonho giving us styling, skincare and exercising tips respectively, jooheon making a burrito he named "honey-to", kihyun and kyun teaching us how to make coffee and how to speak english resp and of course nunu's famous asmr mukbang 🥰🥰🥰 it was honestly superrrrr cute and funny i remember hyungwon trying to spell a word in english and just going "..........ne" after the first two letters and then kyun snickering skejdkksdk and jooheon making fun of ck for something and ck laughing the fakest laugh i ever seen in my life lmao and i also remember ki telling us to be careful about a lot of things but most of all our hearts bc he's gonna steal them 😷🤒🤕 but yes i loved it it was v cute and v funny and i loved how they were all interacting with each other even tho it was separate videos. after the unit stages, hyungwon revealed that joo had actually changed up his routine for a more samba-like beat specially for brazil 🥺 he confirmed that and we went INSANE and started showing them our own beat (a classic carioca funk "tchu tcha tcha tchu tchu tcha" that we fo with our mouths/words) and at first they were all like ??????? but then they LOVED IT and joined in on the fun. mh and kh were dancing to it the most and it was so funny. hyungwon or minhyuk then asked jooheon if he could incorporate our beat into his beatboxing and he said it was possible and then we were all just going TCHU TCHA TCHA TCHU TCHU TCHA while he was beatboxing along and he said it was difficult skdjkekddk around five or six different times they told us to take steps back and step a little bit away from each other so we wouldn't hurt ourselves or feel ill (hyungwon did it the most, he actually spotted a girl nearly fainting in the front rows and brought staff's attention to her and he only stopped talking about it/got more relaxed when they did something about it). during this same ment they talked about sn's and wh's different choice of clothing for their unit stage and said it was more daring and sexy and shownu said that kihyun actually chose those clothes for them lmao and ki said he chose them bc he knew us brazilian mbbs would love it and we were like wow. They Know we're whores love that. then someone was like "u chose that?? ur kinda conservative tho????" and ki said he's been "open-minded since birth" KDJSKFKDK rip conservative brothers but the way the lady translated it accidentally kinda made it sound that he was like. open for romantic/sexual advances and we were all like 👀👀👀 OKAY. oh also sometime during the concert one of them slipped and nearly fell doing something stupid (i think wonho or changkyun) skndkskdk the second vcr was the seven deadly sins themed and wow. the PRODUCTION. the absolute ARTISTRY of it all. wheres their oscar. it was honestly super cool but minhyuk was the only member that hadn't appeared yet and the only sin left was lust so we were all like 👁️😏 but then it said AGONY. ????????? it was kinda confusing but amazing nonetheless kyun wanted to shoot hyungwon but then he didnt bc the underlying message was that they all committed sins and blamed themselves but managed to find forgiveness by being together aw <3 a random moment that i dont remember when it happened was when kyun was speaking portuguese to us and he was trying to say "vocês querem curtir?" (which is something like "do you want to have fun?") but he messed it up a bit and accidentally said "vocês querem cu...?" which means "do you want asshole?" and we were all like BOY DKEJDKEJDIDKFKS i dont think he knows what it actually means but he corrected himself real quick and moved on to the next song 💀 for the second to last ment they tried to convince us the concert was ending (lmao) and there was only one song left, so we were all shouting "não" ("no") and they were like "we cant go??????" and we were like "no!!!!!" and they were like :/ oh well guess we gotta stay kdnskdjs they had the brazilian flag up there for some time but they also somehow got an lgbt pride flag there too for the pics??? before the ending ment kihyun said that they all have strengths, as i recall kyun's was writing cool songs/lyrics, shownu's was being fun, i think minhyuk's was having a voice like honey? and i dont recall the rest but when he got to hyungwon he just said "being very tall" and we were all like LMAO SAY SOMETHING ELSE ABOUT HIM!!!! and then he said an actual compliment lol for the actual last ment they each said goodbye to us, i specifically remember wonho telling us that the energy we had and him performing on stage for us reminded him of why he was a singer and why he had to be on stage 🥺🥺🥺 and shownu agreed 🥺 kyun(?) said even though he's going back to korea he's gonna feel incomplete bc he's leaving brazil, ki said he liked us so much he could have another 6 concerts here bc our energy would be enough to keep him going and then said something really greasy that i dont remember but obviously loved at the moment. and then they said they're coming back next year 🤩 and they told us to take care of ourselves and wait for them and come back next year (in a bigger venue, they said!) and they all had their pinky fingers up and were saying "promete" ("promise", but as in the imperative verb) to us 😭😭😭

the songs: i was going to put my videos in this post but there’s a video limit so i’m gonna post them separately later but the first song was shoot out and unfortunately i didn’t get to film any of it because i was in SHOCK that they were REAL PEOPLE and RIGHT THERE u know dkjskdkd then was hero and it was INSANE to see it live??? seeing them do the “i can be your hero i can be your man” move IN REAL LIFE????? not to be a kihyun stan but i had kihyun tunnel vision during the entirety of the song lmfao then it was trespass and the energy was INSANE everybody was going absolutely crazy to it esp during the chorus and jooheon’s “excuse my charisma"s!!! after the ment they performed party time and we had this fan project and the people in my area had yellow cellophane on their phone lights and the people in the back had green ones (brazilian colors) and we had them on during the entirety of party time bc they mention brazil in the song and it was just so 🥰🥰🥰 such a vibe! one of the only songs i actually danced to lol party time was next and also a ~vibe~ we all danced a lot to it and after it was over, during the ment, hw asked mh to sing a little of it for us and he was sooo happy to see us sing along and sing the entire chorus even after he had stopped! it was super cute to see him smile so proudly like that. and then it was the loml, my fave mx song, a booty call anthem that somehow moves my heart, miss mohae and as soon as i heard the first few beats i SCREAMED and i was the only one doing that before everybody else realized the song had already started but i didnt even have time to be embarrassed bc i was literally tearing up. honestly hearing it live was one of the best moments of my life bc i have this huge emotional attachment to the song and it was just all super special, i was screaming the lyrics at the top of my lungs and dancing and jumping and yelling. seeing kyun’s rap live was amazing and you could actually SEE how proud he was seeing so many people sing a song HE composed you know? he let us rap most of his part bc he was just in awe and wanted to see us sing it back to him. and hyungwon tried to rap jooheon’s part but he got it all messed up halfway through it was SO CUTE and jooheon had an arm around him and was BEAMING WITH LOVE the entire time 😍😍😍 everyone was fonding HARD at him. and the crowd was SO loud during the "don’t kill my vibe, i be on your way, i be, i be on your way” part it was actually deafening. i only recorded one of the choruses bc i wanted to enjoy the rest of the song but here it is! the next song was one of the other lomls, miss jealousy!!! it was absolutely STUNNING!! and yes the crowd went crazy when wonho mentioned shownu and yes that hyungwon+changkyun part IS as overwhelming to experience irl as it looks. after the youtuber vcr came the unit stages and oh. my. god mh, hw and kh came out first and it was just. so sexy and elegant. and the vocals? 10/10 LOVED that men in suit shit. then was jooheon's and changkyun's stage and HOLY. FUCKIN. SHIT. absolutely my favorite performance of the night it was EVERYTHING to me. the energy was super fuckin cool and we were all jumping around and screaming while they rapped in sexy robes over a cool ass beat it was awesome. in the middle of the performance joo tried to flip a water bottle (???) and he actually failed lol but we were so hype we didnt even notice/care we just hyped him TF up. he later apologized for it during the next ment and the real time translator lady said "desculpa" ("sorry") and changkyun said "yeah, desgupa" immediately after 🥺 then jooheon had a drum solo which ??????? i had zero fucking idea about i was just kinda standing there in shock while he absolutely murdered that drum set right in front of our eyes. AND THEN ck came back and started to rap along to his drumming and i know im saying this a lot but it was SEXY okay i have no other words they were both in muscle tees just out there being their sexiest selves UGH. and AS IF THAT WASN'T ENOUGH then came wonho and shownu's stage and uhhhhhhh wow. SEXY AS WELL but also kinda angsty? idk but i loved it they absolutely killed it with the dance and they were wearing see through shirts and the crowd went insane. after that there were the songs i didn't listen to a lot or liked before the concert but they were all still amazing to me!! honestly, i do love u, white sugar and no reason were all SUPER cute!! AND THEN. miss myself came on and oh my god. it was a spiritual experience to see it live. absolutely amazing and breathtaking even though it's so simple. like it's just so elegant and moving. i had to close my eyes a couple times to feel the moment and it was an amazing sensation. also!! a few girls gave us free banners to lift after kihyun's high note and they said 주변을 돌아봐 내겐 다 너니까 꿈이 아냐 (shownu's line, "turn and look around, because you're everything to me this isn't a dream") and it was SO emotional to see a sea of these red banners showing them our love!!

it was amazing AND THEN. dramarama oh my god it was so freakinggggg cool! to see the performance live, jooheon milly rocking right in front of my eyes... amazing. everyone went insane during rapline's first part. one of my fave performances for sure!! next song after the ment was oh my and IT WAS AMAZING!! the choreo was just stunning and the energy!! everyone was just jumping around and screaming the lyrics, esp kihyun's line before the last chorus!! and im absolutely obsessed with the choreo, honestly. then special and fallin' were SO COOL, just like the other upbeat songs, the energy was amazing, everyone was jumping around and screaming the lyrics. fallin' was especially hype as hell and minhyuk did this funny low voice dkjskdkd then it was alligator and listen. i hated it when it came out but when they performed it i had never loved a song so much in my life. it was CLEAR it was one of the performances they were working the hardest on and their talents were really shining through 😔 i had ki and shownu tunnel vision unfortunately i missed kyun's iconic hip thrusts sksjdks but theres always next year i guess! so they had just convinced us it was their last song but after a few mins hyungwon came back out and we met H.One hehe i didnt think i would like it bc i thought it would be mostly edm and i dont really like edm but it was just some really good remixes?? he played taki taki and mi gente and everybody went fuckin insane like i remember my knee hurting super bad during this part and he was just. chilling on the stage sjejdjsk BUT THEN CAME THE TRUE GO CRAZY AAHHHH GO STUPID MOMENT OF THE CONCERT: RODEO. boy was it a fuckin ride. truly the time to fuckin wild out at an mx concert. i think it was during this song that minhyuk (?) put a brazilian flag around jooheon's shoulders so we were even more hype!! last song was by my side and it was super calm and bittersweet and like a "goodbye, ily" song :( we had these paper hearts someone gave us and we kept them up for them during the entire song, it was so lovely

the hi touch: ok so the concert ended and we waited around 50 mins for the ht event to start and we were all in a single line that went behind a curtain and THEY WERE ALREADY BEHIND THE CURTAIN SO THERE WAS NO WAY TO PREPARE FOR IT KDJDJDJD they were all standing behind a table and on the other side of the table was some of their staff on a single line to keep people from taking pictures of them and we had to go through the line of staff and the table to see them/touch their hands. it was SUPER rushed i dont think i spent 3 seconds there. my brain absolutely froze bc it was my first time at a hi touch (or first time meeting a celebrity, ever) and it was like 7 people i love and admire all at once so i couldn't manage to say more than "hi" to them and just look at them in shock and i was going faster as they (staff) told me to go faster (stupid) but they were also telling us to use only one hand and not touch their hand with both of ours but fuck that lol so in general they are all real people which is insane??? but also they ARE all SO much more beautiful in real life. like they literally glow. my friends told me they would seem taller and skinnier than i thought but i honestly didnt have the time or the brains to think about that or notice any of that. hyungwon IS tall as fuck though

kihyun: just my luck, my first bias was the first one of the line. as i walked behind the curtain there was a taller girl in front of me in line so i couldn't see much so i had like no time to process anything ksjskdks as soon as i saw it was him i went "oh my god, hi" (yes in english bc i know he understands basic english and doesn't speak portuguese lol) and he was SO sweet like it was literally half a second but his face softened and he said "hiiii" back and gave me the sweetest smile :( hes an angel on earth and i can prove it ok. hi touch aside, he's VERY confident onstage and also VERY greasy lmao he was shooting greasy stuff at us left and right and we ATE IT ALL UP. but he's also incredibly sweet and funny but like we been knew. every time he said something greasy he would expectantly wait for the lady to finish translating so he could see our reaction and afterwards he ALWAYS had that smile where he gets those dimples below his eyes :( he's one of the most talkative members!

shownu: mistre hyunwoo was second in the line and i was still in shock from seeing the loml so all i said was "hi" and he honestly seemed confused that i, a brazilian, was trying to speak english to him, a korean DJJSKDKD but he said hi very quick and had this small smile. he's taller than he seems?? i think? at least onstage and he's also very bashful no matter what he's saying lol unless it's serious stuff like him agreeing with wonho during the ending ment

wonho: ok so i dont remember the order exactly after the first two bc i started to like. have brain death but i THINK it was wonho but i saw him VERY quickly. idk if it's bc i saw him right after shownu or if he was bending forward or what but he's actually shorter than i thought he was. he had the HUGEST smile on his face and was super excited to say hi back to my dumbstruck face lol he's also?? surprisingly commanding?? like he's not imposing or anything bc he's super gentle but he told us to be quiet while he was speaking (.......lol) bc we were screaming and when he started to speak again this group of girls continued screaming and he looked at them DIRECTLY, FROM THE STAGE, IN THE MIDDLE OF THE MENT, POINTED AT THEM and deadass went "i have already told you to be quiet twice" and everyone was like??? in shock bc we didn't know if he was serious so we were just like 😳😳😮😮 it was very bizarre honestly a surreal moment to see wonho talk like that to any monbebe ever (for the record im not saying he was rude or anything, it was just very surprising to see that happen). i clearly remember these 3 older ladies referring to him as "primo" ("cousin") for some reason during the entire concert and idk why but that's so funny to me? it's kinda stuck in my mind now im gonna start calling him primo. he ripped his shirt off a total of two (2) different times, maybe three, one of them unprompted and unrequested, during a slow song. love that for him

hyungwon: oh boy. here we go. when my friends told me he was the most different one irl and that he was incredibly prettier i was like ok and then i saw him on the stage and was like yeah alright he's a little different but nothing too exceptional but holy. crap. he was never my type but when i saw him face to face i think my mind literally blacked out. like my body was still functioning but my mind just completely shut down when i saw him smiling at me and saying hi. like that didn't happen with kihyun, one of my ULTIMATE BIASES, but it happened when i saw HIM, that's how beautiful he is. im not using any of these words lightly, but he's beautiful, pretty, stunning, overwhelmingly handsome, an angel. he's just indescribable. his hair is so long and pretty and his face is just so soft and beautiful and he has the prettiest looking lips. has heavy vampire boyfriend vibes also. one of the quietest members, i barely have any pics of him bc he was rarely ever on the big screen bc he didnt say much. tall as hell too

minhyuk: listen i am SO SAD about this i was so overwhelmed by hyungwon's face my mind completely blanked when i got to minnie and i have no idea what i did, i don't even know if i said anything or if i just stared at him dumbfounded sjejjdjsd i have no recollection of his face at ALL like my mind was not able to process anything after hyungwon BUT i know he is pretty as hell (wbk) and he's also even sexier on stage!! like his presence and his moves are just very sensual and he is one of the most talkative ones too! we already know that but he is SUPER funny he never missed an opportunity to do something completely bizarre i just love that funky lil cowboy HE HAD A COWBOY HAT OVER HIS CAP DURING RODEO AND HE ALSO WORE THE FUNNIEST BRAZILIAN FLAG SUNGLASSES DURING HIS ENDING MENT HERE HE IS

jooheon: yall. he is SO. so so so SOOOO much prettier irl like he doesn't LOOK any different like hyungwon does but he's just even more beautiful up close and he also looks taller than i pictured? his whole face was just lit up seeing us and he was super excited to be saying hi to me it was so sweet :( like i am actually even more in love with him now after experiencing that i even dreamed about him that night lmao and oh god I cant even describe how cute his eyesmile + dimple combo is irl 😔😔😔 he talked a lot too and he literally speaks in POUT whenever he said something most of the time it sounded like he was whining it was so cute jdjdjfjd but when he's performing he's a BEAST his stage presence is un-fucking-paralleled he definitely has the strongest one in the group. his mere being there just commands you to pay attention to him in awe it's just very inexplicable. he's just super cute and nice and an angel

changkyun: oh god I didn't wanna write about my experience with him during the hi touch jsjsjdjs but im gonna try to keep this as neutral as possible. so after i got to jooheon he was the last in line (which was my ideal situation, my two biases - ki and him - in opposite ends so even if i did freeze when i saw one id have time to get over it before the other one) and when i got to him he didn't look at my face, he was looking at the beginning of the line (???) for some reason, so even though i grabbed his hand and said hi i dont remember if he even said it back and i didn't get to look him in the eyes like all the others, which made me really angry as soon as i walked out and then really upset bc i spent 110 reais to see them and one of my two faves didn't look at me when i was right in front of him, but u know it is what it is. i dont think he did it on purpose or that he's an asshole or anything like that, it's just something that happened and upset me. but aside from that, the thing that stuck with me the most out of the entire concert: HE IS INCREDIBLY!!! SEXIER IN REAL LIFE like all my friends who saw mx say hyungwon is the most different but for me it was kyun. he's SO MUCH MORE HANDSOME than in the internet, pictures really do not do him justice. and he has this really hot careless, cool guy attitude in general, like when they/we were hyping him up bc of mohae he was like 🤙🏼 he stared at the floor a lot while the others were talking and like. he knows he's hot thats VERY clear lmao. he's surprisingly talkative. he's very effortless with his moves when he's dancing and that's not saying he doesn't put in effort he just makes it seem so. easy and nicely flowing idk. he was wearing a cap during the hi touch and holy fucking hell he has the nicest profile ive ever seen. thats all

sidenote: PLEASE be careful when camping days before a concert or even hours. a LOT of the people who had spent too much time in line to be closer to the stage had to leave the concert halfway through bc they were literally about to pass out after having spent so much time with poor sleep and unhealthy eating/drinking. enjoy your concert but also take care of yourselves!!

#monsta x #shownu #wonho #minhyuk #kihyun #hyungwon #jooheon #changkyun #mari.txt #mx in são paulo

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desertbroad · 5 years ago

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misc. massive headcanon write-up : tvtropes edition. aka some things from fallout: new vegas’ tvtropes page that felt kaj relevant. from here !

1) “ The unique Fatman in Gun Runners Arsenal is called Esther. [...] Esther, much like Gehenna, are named after Hebrew Bible concepts. Esther, both the name of a book in said bible, and the name of the Persian queen of Jewish descent, who helped prevent a Jewish genocide, by convincing the Persian king to allow the Jews to arm and defend themselves. This ended with the death of 75,000 Persians. ”

a/n: kaj parallels a modern esther, having prevented slaughter of her own—or at least, having misdirected it. also ironic, as her nickname in canter was esther due to her bratty, “queenly” demeanor. that said, despite her big personality, kaj is definitely not a fatman user. so it’s even more ironic that they share a name.

2) “ In Vault 11, the vault mainframe tells you that while being a martyr isn't as fun as driving a race car, it's every bit as important. The thing is, driving a race car isn't important at all, and neither is being a martyr. ”

3) “ In Fallout 3 and Fallout: New Vegas, blood packs heal 1 hit point per pack. In 3, you can get a perk from the leader of blood-consuming people which increases the hp gain to 20. Why do blood packs heal so little hp, when blood transfusions can save people from the brink of death sometimes? Because the player actually drinks the blood instead of replenishing his/her lost blood from an injury. [...] Which drifts into Fridge Logic again when you consider the fact that, after 200 years at least, the blood in those packs has certainly expired no matter what kinds of advances the US had made in preservation technologies. With this taken into account, the Sole Survivor injecting the blood into his veins would do more harm than good. Drinking it would actually be more helpful, which makes sense considering that a high medicine Courier would certainly be aware of the expiration date of blood and the concept of a blood transfusion. ”

4) “ If you take a look at Caesar's SPECIAL stats you will find out that he only ranks 4 in both charisma and intelligence. It first seem like Fridge Logic since he is supposed to be extremely charismatic and possess super intellect. But after you find out that he is suffering from a brain tumor, it makes sense that his skills were being affected as a result of it. Additionally, he acts extremely rude to the Courier, and trusts them, and only them, to deal with a problem, without any way of preventing the Courier from undermining and/or sabotaging his plans. ”

a/n: though kaj prides herself on her manipulation of caesar, it wasn’t really a manipulation at all—just an appeal to his baser instincts that only paid off because of his illness. if he was completely well, it’s waaaaaay more likely he’d see her manipulation for what it is. kaj herself even seems somewhat aware of the precariousness of her position, given her cautious actions around him and unwillingness to vie for more power. it makes sense that she starts trying to take him down from day one, knowing his history with anyone he sees as his equal—aka, a threat. she speeds up the process when she meets joshua graham and realizes exactly what’ll happen if she fails. further elaborated on by the legion ending: “ In the Legion Ending, when the Courier receives his/her reward, she's kneeling before Caesar, but standing before Lanius (if he ends up in charge). This seems odd before you realise it sums up your relationship with character: no matter your competences, Caesar will always see the Courier as a servant/inferior, whereas Lanius sees you as an equal and acknowledges the Courier's worth even if she's a woman. ”

5) “ The two Jokers in the deck, Benny and the Courier, have those cards for more reasons than just being the Wild Cards. First, in Euchre, the Joker is called the "Benny" card. Second, the Joker cards in Tarot have significant meaning, one Joker meaning the Fool, the other the Magician. The Fool, being the Courier, is the spirit in search of experience (although XP might be a better word for it), and represents mystical cleverness, not bound by normal reason, and possessing an ability to tune into the inner workings of the world, and is often represented by a wanderer walking aimless, often one foot hanging over a void, a step away from falling to his death. Meanwhile, the Magician, being Benny, is a man who practices sleight of hand, trickery, and deception, a stage magician with the initial appearance of great power, but later revealed to have no ability of his own, and can also indicate a manipulator, a trickster, and the ego, as well as the pursuit of personal power, and is often associated with the first step in the Fool's Journey, as well as the potential for new adventure. ”

6) “ Why is the courier consistently insulted by legionnaires regardless of what they do for them? To serve as a reminder that they don't necessarily need you. The legion offers you few side quests, most of which are just minor preparations before the battle, because they don't need you to do those for you. In comparison the NCR has a significant amount of side quests including training troops, fixing equipment, rooting out spies, exterminating extra problems like the fiends, and reclaiming territory from the legion. Result: by the end the NCR sees you as a true hero which would lead to them being incredibly polite, to the legion you're just a guy who's quite good at fighting, so they have little reason to treat you as anything more than a very good mercenary. ”

7) “ The Wizard of Oz analogy (in Old World Blues) goes further. In the movie, Dorothy's companions each wanted certain qualities, namely a brain, a heart, and courage. In the game, the surgery done to the courier removes their brain, their heart, and their spine. Stupid people are called brainless, unemotional/uncaring people are often said to be heartless, and cowardly people are often referred to as being spineless. Not to mention the similarity in the methods of arrival to the Big MT and Oz the characters went through. Just like in the movie, the Courier realizes that in spite of their missing organs, they have the qualities they needed all along: it takes a heart to befriend the Stealth Suit, a spine to repeatedly brave the dangerous X-8 facility, and a brain to outwit the Think Tank once and for all. ”

8) “ Why are there no long haired options for the Courier? You're in a desert. Long hair would be rather impractical, especially being a courier. You were also very recently shot in the head. It stands to reason that Doc Mitchell might have trimmed your hair, if it was long before the game started, to make operating easier. Also, long hair is a bad idea if you plan on fighting. If you have long hair, it becomes easier to grab it. The world being what it is, quite a few pragmatists are likely to be around. ”

a/n: inverted trope. though native american culture has been forcibly distorted over the years by white imperialism, kaj’s family has still managed to hang onto some old world traditions, such as the styling and care of hair. as a result, kaj’s hair is extremely culturally significant to her even as an adult. she wears it long as a choice, and it is only cut against her will by the think tank (when normally it would only be cut while she was in mourning; and though she does mourn afterwards, it doesn’t erase the fact that it’s forced on her, not chosen). meanwhile, doc mitchell is considerate enough of these traditions and culturally aware enough to leave her hair alone and, given the placement of her bullet wound, cutting it is not entirely necessary regardless. the cutting of kaj’s hair in old world blues (as well as the violation of her bodily autonomy) is traumatic and painful for her, paralleling real life cultural assimilation—when it grows back out, she is extremely protective of it.

9) “ If you ask No-Bark Noonan if anyone has been acing strangely, he states that he doesn't trust anyone who acts too normal, and his description fits Clanden to a tee. No-Bark: If a man's wearing his pants on his head or if he says his words backwards from time to time, you know it's all laid out there for you. But if he's friendly to strangers and keeps his home spick-and-span, more often than not he's done something even his own ma couldn't forgive. ”

#headcanon.#ref.#yes i modified the esther thing in because i think its fun. sue me #aka randi uses tvtropes to explain every piece of subtext he flat out missed the first go around

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deepdisireslonging · 6 years ago

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Family Found Part 44: Last Ambrose Standing

AKA ‘Fastlane and Burn’, Dean and the Reader’s conflict comes to a head. But when the final moments are in their hands, can they do what is necessary to win their Last Ambrose Standing match? The following Monday an old rival of the roster makes an appearance and a demand.

Warnings/Promises: wrestling violence, angst

Word Count: 4665

Note: I swear, my matches are only two paragraphs. But then you gotta have dialogue and some plot advancement, and suddenly there’s so much! It reads quick, or it did for me. And it was fun/angsty to write. If you like how things are going, or if this chapter made you cry, comments (anon or not) and reblogs are always super appreciated. Enjoy! [P.S.: For the record, I’ve had my WM planned since January. Any similarities to what’s actually happening on Raw is just chance.]

Part 1: Welcome to the Team

Part 43: It’s Official

Fastlane – March 10, 2019 – Green Bay, WI

Renee gave the online audience a bright smile. “And welcome to the road to WrestleMania! Fastlane is well underway, and it is almost time for the show to begin. But first, the Raw tag titles contenderships are on the line. Whoever wins this might be going to WrestleMania. It’s a bit of an odd mix going into this match.”

“Yes, it is,” Cole said. “The Revival and the B Team we’ve seen before in big events like this. But how do you think the new team of Dana Brook and Tyler Breeze are going to hold up?”

Corey whined back and forth. “I don’t know. They have both had established places in the WWE, but have been lost in the shuffle for the last several months. I’m curious to see how their plan will work to bring them back into the spotlight.”

“It’s time to see that plan in action,” Renee said as the aforementioned team entered. They received a loud pop from the crowd, though that was drowned out as the B Team, and then the Revival entered the arena.

They each took a corner, bouncing while waiting for the bell. But the stage lit up again. With the entrance of Kevin Owens.

“What!” Corey shouted. “Welcome back, but who is he going to tag with?”

Renee was almost bouncing in her seat. “I think I know who…”

The stage lit up in reds and black as Sami Zayn made his return to the WWE as well. He and Kevin shared a hug, soaking in their welcome from the crowd before going down to the ring. Inside, their opponents were complaining to the referee. But the match was being announced as a fatal four-way for the number one contender spot for the tag titles. Sami and Kevin took the last corner, with Kevin starting the match. He was instantly the target of everyone else in the ring. Sami helped him retreat through the ropes and they backed off, turning on each other.

Tagging in their other halves began. At Breeze’s tag, Dana went after Dawson before he could call in Wilder, and then engaged with Bo Dallas. Sami jumped in, working his way around the ring, knocking partners off the apron so they wouldn’t be available later. Curtis Axel fell the most dramatically. Kevin bided his time, crouching on the floor until Sami needed him. Then they traded while everyone else was exhausted and out. This continued to help them, all the way up to the pin. Sami jumped in, double pinning Bo under the referee’s count.

They celebrated their win, and their continued welcome back as the final preparations for Fastlane wrapped up.

***

Beginning Fastlane with a bang was the Raw Women’s Championship match between defending Ember Moon against Ruby Riott. Depending on who you asked, both women had lost before the bell had rung. Ember had reached her goal of title reign days, but she was still fighting to see how far she could go beyond that. Ruby had suffered losses for the last three weeks, but those losses had ignited enough of a fire that Ember was on the defense. Half-way through the match, both women sprawled out in the ring after a long combination of moves.

“I can’t leave this ring without that title,” Ruby muttered. Ember lifted her head up just enough to catch her eye. “If I can’t… if I can’t win titles, then why am I here?” Ruby wobbled to her hands and knees. “If I can’t… then how can I lead my friends?” She finally made it to her feet, though it looked like a puff of breath could knock her over.

Ember struggled to stand as well and held up her fists. “But what if you can? I’m not just going to give it to you, but you know what you’re fighting for. So fight. Because that’s what I’m here to do. Not for titles or for gold, but for my pride and to hear my name chanted by everyone in this arena. If I’m honest, I don’t think you will leave this ring with the title. I don’t think you have it in you.”

“But what if you’re wrong?” Ruby launched forward with another attack, reinvigorating the match. She pushed and she fought until her lungs burned and Ember’s eyes were half-lidded with exhaustion. With a scream, she threw everything else she had and fell on top of her opponent. One. Two. Three.

“And you’re new Raw Women’s Champion: Ruby Riott!”

Ruby fell to her knees with the title in her hands. She stayed there until Liv Morgan and Sarah Logan appeared by her sides and helped her to her feet where she could hold it high above her head.

***

Ruby stayed ringside for her teammates’ match against Mickie James and Alicia Fox for their tag titles. They moved like a team reborn. Liv’s bright hair caught Alicia in the face, inspiring her to laugh. Sarah mostly engaged with the veteran Mickie, fighting to endure the reserves of years of wrestling and maneuvers that hadn’t seen a ring in ages. Alicia fought back with her repertoire that soon had the Squad on the defense.

Then the mistakes came. Alicia, proud in how flat Sarah was laid in the ring, stepped to the ropes to haggle Ruby instead of going for the pin. Mickie frantically called for a pin or for a tag. But Liv sneaked up behind the teammate and swept her feet out from under her. Alicia heard the cry as she fell and twisted around in time for Sarah to catch her. The bell rang as the Squad retained their titles. As the champion trio, they stood in the ring as three of the most powerful women on the Raw roster.

***

For the number one Intercontinental contendership, Finn Balor and Dolph met in the ring. The palms of Finn’s hands were red, like the demon was desperate to get out but the man wouldn’t let him have full control. That made Dolph warry. One: why would he hold back with so much on the line? And two: how powerful was the man if he could hold back a demon king? He didn’t have much to think about it as Finn attacked. They were caught in a headlock until Dolph was forced back into the ropes. He glared at the ref from between them. Who cares who or what the man was? He was just a man.

The match danced from ring post to ring post along the ropes and round from the floor. Both men were showing how much they wanted even a chance at the title by how much damage they could take and dish out. Finn took it the best. Dolph struggled more and more to get to his feet after each assault. He remained flat on his back after barely kicking out of a pin. Climbing the turnbuckles, Finn went for a Coup de Grace. At the last possible second, Dolph moved, catching Finn in a roll-up. Out of sight of the ref, he used the ropes for a bit of extra leverage. It was enough. He made a hasty exit before Finn could figure out why he’d lost.

Backstage, Charly caught up with Dolph. “Having won your match, how soon do you want to face your former partner for a title match? Will we see it tomorrow, or on the grandest stage of them all at WrestleMania?”

Dolph continued to catch his breath while he thought. “I’m ready when Drew is. Tomorrow. Next week. WrestleMania. Whenever he thinks is his best chance to beat me, let’s go. I will be at my best because I am the best out of anyone on Raw.” He broke off as the champion himself walked up. He was dressed in a suit and had the title resting on his shoulder. Dolph did his best to get into his space and maybe get sweat onto the nice fabric.

“When will I be ready for you? I’d fight you right now, but I want ya after you’ve rested. After you’ve had a good night’s sleep. And then, when ya have ya strength and your full hubris back, I’m going to bury you in that ring. So, I’ll see you tomorrow Dolph. An’ the best man will win again, like I do every time.” He reached up and gave Dolph a heavy double pat on his cheek. “Sleep tight.” He smirked and walked away as Dolph growled after him.

***

Roman watched Dean finish taping up his hands. “You don’t have to go through with this, you know. She’s probably not doing this for the reasons you think.”

“And what would you know about it?” Dean spat. He grit his teeth and twisted his neck. “What you’ve seen from home is just the tip of the iceberg. And besides, she brought it up. I’m just finishing what she’s started.” Dean rolled his shoulders back. “If I had gotten in your way of taking the Universal, would you let Seth or the Usos talk me out of it?”

A long pause was his answer. Nodding, Dean walked away to enter the arena.

You followed shortly after, wearing the gear you’d made for Summer Slam. Really it was the only gear you had. At the same time, you hoped that Dean would see it and realize his cousin was still in it, and not some villain for him to slay.

There wasn’t much room for that hope. Before you’d even made it to the ring, you could see that Dean had his trusty kendo stick quiver wrapped over his shoulder. You entered the ring with only yourself. You had made the choices you did without weapons or premeditated woes. But once that bell rang, you would fight to defend your reasons.

The match happened in three stages. At first, it felt like any other sparring practice when learning with any of your friends-turned-trainers. You even forgot yourself and found a smile spreading across your face and a laugh escaping. Dean’s dimples made an appearance. Then the roar of the crowd brought you back to reality. The match turned real. You tried to win a pin as fast as possible. If you could do that before the very real devices under the ring came out, then maybe you wouldn’t regret this so much.

But the devices did come out. You grabbed a chair to use as a shield when Dean finally began to use his kendo stick. There was also a chain that you used like a whip to rip it out of his hands. Then he followed you into the ring. The chain became your means of keeping Dean away. Or keeping him close in a submission hold.

“Please, Dean,” you tried, “I didn’t mean for this to happen.”

He struggled to detangle himself from the chain, effectively taking it from your hands in the process. “Is that an apology?”

“No.”

“Then we’re not done.”

It went on. Your hearts were no longer in it but you fought hard anyway. Dean’s practiced ingenuity was getting the best of you. Bringing in more things from under the ring wasn’t going to work. He’d been a hardcore wrestler; had the scars as proof. So you ended it like how they’d taught you to: find one weakness and target it. Somewhere in the scuffle Dean had developed a limp. You knew Seth would have some pointers, so you aimed for that injury. He couldn’t fight you if he couldn’t stand.

Dean was able to wobble onto his legs one last time. You climbed the turnbuckles, about to spin with your modified punch that Roman helped you with. Dean fell before you could finish setting up. The referee started the count.

“No!” You rushed down and tried to stop him. “I’m the general manager and I said stop!” He paused, looking past you to Dean. You didn’t look back. “Call off the match. It’s done. I lost.” While the shocked referee went to tell the bell box, you left the ring. It announced overhead, making you flinch.

With all of your might, you wanted to walk away without looking. But a tiny shard made you turn. He was staring at you. Not angry. Definitely not broken. Just… staring at you. Through you. It felt like no matter what you did from this moment on, you were damned. “I’m sorry, Dean,” you said, hopefully loud enough for him to believe you. “I’m so, so sorry.”

***

With the Universal Championship on the line, Seth Rollins and Mojo Rawley pulled out all the stops. Even since Monday, Mojo had found a new hold and a quick tackle that kept blindsiding Seth. The King Slayer would manage to kick out, then stand while shaking away the ringing in his ears. They re-met with a quick handshake. Seth dug deep too and borrowed one of Dean’s old submission holds that pinned Mojo’s arms far out of use with his knees. He rocked back and forth. This backfired as Mojo was able to use the moment to roll around and switch the tension. Seth had to release.

The submission holds gave way to the game of endurance. The universe had already seen Seth fight for over an hour multiple times. But Mojo held his own too. If the dream requires you to run from one side of the earth to the other, then you have to train to run around it twice to account for all the unforeseeable hurdles in between. Rawley kept Seth on his toes, knocking him out of the air and knocking out his ability to stand. He took a second to stare at the title resting in the lap of a techie in the bell box. Seth took it to use his remaining functioning limbs to cut Mojo down until he could end the match with a Curb Stomp. The Universal had been retained.

***

Monday Night Raw – March 11, 2019

You couldn’t start Raw without a little housekeeping first. Elias nodded as you continued speaking. “You see, you have to pick your WrestleMania opponent… tonight. I really should have had you pick before Fastlane but-“

“You were busy.”

The heat behind your cheeks simmered as you focused on breathing. “Yeah. Busy. But have you made a decision? That is… you have been thinking about it, right?”

Elias scoffed. “Of course. I’m going to challenge-“

He didn’t get to finish as a large hand grabbed the scruff of his scarf and shirt and tugged him away. Brock Lesnar stepped into his place. Paul Heyman hovered like a grinning shadow. “Good to see you, Ms. Ambrose. I hope you are having a lovely stress-free evening.” Paul somehow grinned wider.

“I was,” you mumbled. “Can I help you guys? Or are you just here to rough up my wrestlers?”

Brock chuckled and looked down to Paul. He took his cue to speak. “We won’t be here long as we’re not staying for the show. But my client, Brock Les-“

“We all know who your client is. Get to the point.”

“My client, Brock Lensar, is just here to ask for his title. And he’s going to ask nicely. This time.” Paul leaned closer to you. “You won’t be able to play him like you’ve been playing everyone here. He won’t be so nice then.” He leaned back with a smirk, posing with a hand crossed over his other wrist.

You switched your attention from Heyman to the Beast Incarnate. “I don’t know why you’re trying to be all dramatic and scary. You haven’t been here since… oh, Summer Slam? As far as I’m concerned, you don’t deserve a return.” The sass slipped from your voice. Your words scorched your throat. “But Vince McMahon called last week. Your match is already set. For WrestleMania. I was just about to inform your opponent.”

Brock smiled and nodded. He turned and walked out of your office with another word. For Elias’s sake, you hoped the drifter wouldn’t want into the Universal title picture.

***

In the ring, Drew McIntyre came to stand dead-center with his Intercontinental title over his shoulder. “We all know what’s planned for tanight. I am the champion. And I am goin’ to walk out of this ring… as champion. It wasn’t goin’ to matter who won at Fastlane, but ya know what? I’m glad it’s Dolph. He’s been impatiently waiting for his chance to get back at me for somethin’ that happened months ago.” Drew chuckled. “Honestly, I was willing to put it all behind me a while ago. But then he kept pushing. And kept gettin’ in the way. Fine. Now is the time of your destruction, Dolph. Now-“

Dolph entered early, saving the crowd from more of the monologue. For a second it looked like he was going to use the mic in his hands, but he dropped it instead. He marched down to the ring, fighting back a grimace as his pace tweaked a new sore spot. It did not go unnoticed.

They met at the bell. Eager to make it a quick match, Drew targeted the areas he knew that Finn had damaged. It didn’t go as quick as he hoped. And Dolph nearly caught him in a Zig Zag several times. But the targeting had done its job. Drew caught him with a Glasgow Kiss and barely had to work to pin him. Laughing he made his way up to the stage, picking up the mic Dolph dropped earlier.

“This is the best of Dolph Ziggler? This is the best of the Raw roster? Who could even think to step to me?” His smirk disappeared as Elias strummed onto the stage. Drew growled as the drifter stopped playing just long enough to poke at the title. Drew snatched it away and reared back for a punch. But Elias was quicker. And he had a longer reach with his guitar in hand. Wood fractured and splintered across the stage. Over Drew’s momentarily damaged body, Elias took up the title. He looked between it and his smashed guitar. Gingerly, he draped it over Drew, then walked away.

***

When the call came in that Dean had interrupted Seth’s entrance, you rushed to the ring. Dean was waiting for you sitting in a lone chair in the ring. “Well, that didn’t take long.”

“Please, can you not do this right now?”

You waved him away and tried to leave for backstage but he stood and leaned forward onto the ropes. “Why not? What’s so important that we can’t discuss what I got out of winning our match yesterday?”

With a huff, you rolled back your shoulders. “I just had to tell Seth before he came out here that his WrestleMania opponent is Brock Lesnar. And I… I really need a break.”

He waved you down to the ring, which you begrudgingly obliged. “One more headache and then you can find a hole to hide in. It seems to be an Ambrose thing. Since you’re handing out championship opportunities, why don’t you add one more person to that match? I think beating the general manager of Raw is pretty-“

“No.” With a grin, Dean stepped back from the ropes as you entered. “You didn’t pin me, and you didn’t make me tap. I surrendered. I surrendered so that I hopefully could put this all to rest. Please, Dean… I didn’t have a choice-“

“Yes, you did. All of us work our asses off to build this business, but the second that… the second that Lesnar wants something, he gets it. No questions asked.” Dean punched the side of his face as his blood began to boil. “But I’m asking questions. No, I’m done with questions. Now it’s time for demands. Put me in the match, Y/N!”

“No! You don’t know what you’re doing, Dean. There are levels of this that you can’t see.”

“What levels?” he spat. “Levels of you hurting my career to protect you from ‘favoritism’? Or of how much of your soul you’ve given to the remnants of the Authority.”

“Stop.” You walked away, but Dean’s voice followed you.

“No, I won’t. And if you don’t do what’s right, and put me in the spot that I deserve, then I am going to fight you. Not in the ring. We’ve already done that and seen what you’re willing to burn. No. I won’t stop usurping your precious plans and using my last breath to destroy the position you built over family.”

“Fine!” You spun around. Eyes flashing, your jaw ached from the tension. You focused on that tension, feeling it colliding with the pain that had settled into your bones over the past months. With a sigh, you accepted that it would probably never go away. It was all a split second, but the oceans of emotions drowned you eons ago. You laced your words with cold, unfeeling ice. “Dean Ambrose, as won by your match at Fastlane, you also have a spot in the Universal Championship match at WrestleMania. And may God forgive me… since you probably never will.”

Seth came rolling into the ring just as you finished. Dean bumped into him as you both turned towards your separate ways. “Why are you so hard on her, man?”

He barked a laugh. “Didn’t you hear her? We had all that destruction last night, and she didn’t change a bit. All of this is still for business. Nothing more. We’re just pawns. We could have been building momentum between us for weeks for another show stopper, but Brock comes in here and just walks into an opportunity.”

Struggling to get in a word, Seth said, “I don’t know. All of this feels weird. Something tells me there are outside forces here. I really think you should just listen to her and-“

“Don’t you have a match to get for?” Dean shot him down.

Seth bit back anything else he had to say. “Yeah. Yeah, I do.” Hissing out strained air, Seth let him leave and ran a hand through his hair.

***

As Dean stormed towards backstage, Apollo Crews came out for his match with Seth. He stayed on stage just long enough for your cousin to disappear, then smiled as Titus O’Neil joined him. They walked side-by-side to the ring with Apollo hoping onto the apron and Titus walking around to the back to do the same. Before they could enter the ring, Roman’s entrance took over the system. Battle lines drawn, the match was remade as a tag match.

Seth nodded towards the stage, asking about Dean. Roman shook his head. Backstage with a resolute deaf-to-reason Dean was not the best place to be. Not when he could help elsewhere.

It was like old times. Apollo and Titus seemed to forget their thundercloud-plan to take advantage of Seth. Or at least postponed it to another time when maybe he wouldn’t have backup on hand. Frazzled, the former team of Titus Worldwide struggled to stay afloat. Roman and Seth kept isolating each man, wearing him down so much that even after having a break, he couldn’t do much to relieve his partner. Seth ended up pinning Apollo, with Roman standing over Titus outside the ring where he’d been speared through a barricade.

***

“Now would you look at all this gold?” Ruby slapped the championship around her waist. To either side, Sarah and Liv snickered, adjusting their own titles on their shoulders. “We’ve said it several times, so you all should know by now, but the Riott Squad is the best there is on Monday Night Raw. And Fastlane just proved that once again.” She spun the mic around in her hands, watching the lights flicker over her title. “And this isn’t just for tonight. Or next week. Or just this month. Hell, the plan isn’t even to just ‘survive’ until WrestleMania. No. We are going to run this show, command that woman’s locker, and own these titles until somebody back there decides that they are good enough to even think about contending with us. Anyone back there is welcome to try. But we will run them into the ground, and we will do that every time someone steps to us! Whether it is for the Raw tag titles, or for the Raw women’s championship.” Ruby opened her arms for Liv and Sarah to perch under.

They were still laughing together when they were interrupted. Alexa Bliss walked out with Alicia Fox and Mickie James at her shoulders. Miss Bliss slow clapped until she was standing at the top of the ramp. “Congratulations, Ruby. No, really. That’s great. But your ladies have unfinished business with mine.”

Liv stepped up, accepting Ruby’s mic. “Um, that’s not the way we see it. Because… we beat them last night. Quickly, I might add.”

“No, no. Ruby, honey, you were a distraction to my team last night. And when Alicia was too busy making sure you wouldn’t interfere, your bubblegum haired pixie attacked Mickie James who wasn’t even tagged in at the time.” The ladies in question nodded along. “So I say, we’re not done.”

Ruby’s smile spread to a dangerous level, the kind that was inspired by a master plan. “Okay. Fine. But to ensure that none of us are a distraction to the other, why don’t we just put all the titles on the line. The Riott Squad versus… whatever you call your ragtag group.”

Despite the name-calling, Alexa matched her wicked smirk. “Deal.” She tossed the mic over her shoulder and joined Mickie and Alicia in the run down to the ring.

For the first good while, the sudden appearance of the trio had the Riott Squad scrambling to have a plan. It came back eventually like muscle memory. Having championship gold on the line, especially all of it, was a great motivator. Ruby’s mind worked quickly to move her team around so they could have more than just twenty-four hours as a triumphant team. Alexa misread one of her barked commands and tagged herself in. Sarah instead of Liv jumped into the ring, and Alexa was too deep into the ring to turn back. So she ran forward, half-reforming an attack that fell flat. Like she did onto her back a few seconds later. Ruby and Liv barreled forward to keep Mickie and Alicia from breaking the pin, which ensured the win.

Sarah shoved Alexa out of the ring so that they could all pose again with their retained championships.

***

Kevin and Sami had asked for the last few minutes of Raw to reintroduce themselves to the WWE Universe. You gave it to them easily. So they smiled and laughed, basking in the second welcome of the week. They were just lifting the mics to speak when AOP appeared from the audience and began to circle the ring. On the Titantron, Dr. M appeared from his deserted hospital.

“Did you really think that your shock return would guarantee a new life as a tag team? Kevin… Sami… your betrayal of each other runs deep. It will always be there, like a scar. And no tricks devised by you, or cleared by Y/N can cover them up. Tricks are superficial remedies to deep tissue secrets and doubts.”

Rezar and Akam finished circling the ring and came to stand at the base of the ramp.

“Secrets are the disease of the WWE. And Y/N has stepped into the role of Typhoid Mary. Not to worry… that will soon be cured. As well as the sudden arrival of the pestilence of Sami Zayn and Kevin Owens. The Authors of pain need no tricks, no snake oil to save the tag division.” The men turned their backs and walked back up the ramp as Dr. M finished. “So welcome back. But you will not enjoy your short stay.”

Part 45: Oncoming Storm

Series Masterlist

Masterlist

Forever Tags: @blondekel77 @hallemichelles @laochbaineann @ramblingsofabourbondrinker @savmontreal @southsidebucky @tinyelfperson @zuni21798

WWE/Series Tags: @a-home-for-stray-stories @top-1-percent @mother-forker @neversatisfiedgirl @racheo91 @roman-reigns-princess @secretagentfangirl @thetherianthropydaily @scuzmunkie @cait-kae @ramsaypants @sony-undead18 @brianaraydean @st4yingstrong @dopeybubbles @crystallizeme @jessica91073 @denise8691 @stalelight @kenyadakblalock @1dluver13xx @lauren-novak @lunatic-desert-child @littledeadrottinghood @livelifewondering

#Family Found Series #44/50 #omg #cousin!dean ambrose #cousin!reader #general manager!reader #reader insert #female!reader insert #roman reigns #seth rollins #riott squad #wwe fastlane #Brock Lesnar #Paul Heyman #wwe #wwe fanfiction #wwe original series #wwe original storylines

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thewisestqueen · 6 years ago

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Why I, as a Christian, have a problem with Israel Folau's hate post

I apologise in advance for the length of this post. I'm sure by now most of you would have seen/heard of the Australian Rugby player's post condemning (among others) gay people, drunks, and atheists to hell. I didn't really know too much about the situation, until it was mentioned in church today. Once I had seen the post in it's entirety, it became clear that it wasn't something I could get behind. Why is that?

1. Entirely inappropriate apologetics

I'm starting with this point because it is the shortest. For those of you who don't know, apologetics is the way Christians defend/explain their faith. Posting 'you will go to hell' does not make anyone want to listen to you. It does not make people want to become Christian. Human beings are not designed to take criticism well. Telling people they are going to hell doesn't make them say "hey, maybe we should listen to this guy" it makes them say "you're wrong, and here's why". If Israel is trying to convince people to become Christian, he is definitely going about it the wrong way. I firmly believe that the practice of getting up on one's soapbox and condemning people is the main reason atheism is growing so rapidly.

2. The very real and catastrophic consequences.

Israel is a very well-known public figure in Australia, particularly young men and anyone with an interest in rugby. What he says carries weight. For LGBTI teenagers and young men to hear that someone they look up to, that they admire, saying that they are going to hell because of who they are, does a lot of damage. Not only that, but their peers who already bully them because of their sexuality now have more ammunition. People who are already struggling with their sexuality, particularly those with pre-existing mental health problems are especially vulnerable to posts and comments like these.

No one should be excluded from the family of Jesus because of something they cannot change. Actually, I'm pretty sure that Jesus is pretty actively against that (ya know, like how he treated the Samaritan woman)

3. I don't agree with his inclusion of "drunks" either, or really the list full stop.

95% of the time "drunks" are normal people who are struggling with alcohol dependence/addiction. To condemn people with an addiction, rather than help them, is the exact opposite of what a Christian should do. In Australia, drinking is very much part of our 'laidback, beach, BBQ' culture. This makes it very easy for someone to become dependent/addicted to alcohol without warning. And this is the case most of the time. Not to mention that the most influential factors when it comes to substance abuse is socio-economic factors, family genes/history, and ethnic background. None of that is within a person's control. As far as I'm concerned, alcohol addiction is merely a symptom of an illness we as a society are not prepared to treat. It is certainly not a reason to condemn someone to hell.

Condemning atheists to hell isn't going to do a whole lot when they don't believe in hell either. So, again, ineffective apologetics.

As for the rest of the list, well....

Most of them are based on single mistakes. No one should have to spend the rest of their life regretting a single action.

As for the idolators (I.e. people who worship false gods) as a Christian I understand the reasoning, but see point 1.

Also, telling people they are all going to hell doesn't leave much room for forgiveness, which is kinda the whole point of Jesus (but more on that next)

4. Christianity isn't about hate, it's about love and forgiveness.

I had a friend in high school who came out as a lesbian when we were about 16. She was a devout Christian, and her top goal in life was a family and kids. When the people at her church found out, she noticed that she was no longer getting invited to church events, people she had known for years would avoid her. On one occasion when I went to church with her, she was talking to one of the elders. She started her sentence with "I had lunch with a friend the other day, and she-" before being promptly cut off, and told that she should talk about 'that sort of thing' at church. Since I was the friend she was talking about (and we certainly weren't dating) to say I was shocked was an understatement. She essentially had three choixes:

A) stay in the church, pretend to be straight, get married, have the kids she wanted, but be trapped in a loveless marriage (unless she wanted the added stigma of divorce)

B) stay in the church, stay single, and no kids.

C) have the wife and kids she so desperately wanted, but be basically disowned by the church and her family.

I had lunch with her a while ago. She hadn't gone to church in nearly 3 years.

As I said back in point 1, telling people they are going to hell doesn't do anything. It's easy to espouse hate, the real challenge is acting out in love.

When Jesus was on the cross looking down on the people tormenting him, he didn't tell them they were all going to hell. He asked his father to forgive them. He died for us while we still hated him. That is true love. That is what following him is all about. This is the guy who hung out with prostitutes and tax collectors (aka society's scumbags) and called them friends.

If all we express is hate, we should expect to be hated back. After all, we started it. But by loving people, we are showing them that we value them simply because they are people, not because they can tick some boxes on a checklist.

Conclusion: What do we consider 'radical Christianity'

These days, many Christians pride themselves on the arguments they have on social media posts like this one. "We have faced persecution!" they say. "We will do anything to promote our faith!" they say. Others look that them and see 'faith warriors'.

This is not truly radical Christianity.

Look at Jesus and the early church. The people who gave all they and to the poor. The people who took in strangers and gave them food and a bed. The people who gave their all to care for each other.

That is what we should aspire to.

Any Christian can make a post about how much they love God. But when was the last time any one of us saw a person sleeping on the bench outside out house, invited them in, fed them, and gave them a bed? That is true radical Christianity. Loving people so much, and giving them all we have.

For God so loved the world.

And so should we.

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pinknerdpanda · 6 years ago

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Yes Ma’am

Word Count: 3280

Characters: Cas x reader (ish?), Sam, Dean

Warnings: Crack, Fluff, language, mild feminist rage

A/N: This was written for @plaid-lover-bay25 and Baylea’s SPN/Disney Birthday Challenge. My prompt is one of my favorite lines ever and it’s bolded below. Happy Birthday Bay! I hope you enjoy this little bit of insanity! Xoxoxo

Beta’d by: @wheresthekillswitch (aka my Soul Sister aka The Masterbeta) and @hannahindie (aka my Twinny aka the better half of HanPan) - Thank you so much for being the world’s best cheering squad and making my words make sense. Lee - thanks for the idea for the ending. You always make me a better me. I love you both!

Yes Ma’am

“I hate you.”

I glare at the man sitting next to me and he tilts his head almost imperceptibly as his gaze bores into mine. The flickering light above our heads casts a sickly glow across his face and I shift my body as best I can, trying to put as much distance between the two of us as possible.

“I can assure you that had I known the outcome of my attempts at gallantry, I would not have offered any kind of assistance.” His voice is hoarse and low, the sound eerily magnified in the small room. Mere hours ago I’d found his voice intoxicating and sexy, but now it grates on my already frayed nerves; it’s funny how much can change in such a short amount of time.

“And if only you’d listened when I said I was perfectly capable of taking care of myself, do you really think we’d be stuck here?”

He sighs, irritatedly. “I hardly think our ending up here was solely my doing. You are the one who thought assaulting the police officers was the logical next step.”

Before I can argue, the heavy, metal door to our right groans open, it’s hinges squealing in protest.

“Alright, Novak, James and Y/L/N, Y/N?” A sour faced officer appears from behind the door, glancing at us briefly to confirm our identities. We both nod and he drops his gaze back to the manila folder in his hands. “Alright, well, who wants to go first?”

---

I attempt to cross my arms over my chest before remembering my hands are shackled, connected by a length of iron chain, making the movement awkward and impossible. I lower my hands to my lap and narrow my eyes at the officer across the table from me. In any other circumstance, on any other hunt, I’d have been laying on the charm and playing up the puppy dog eyes in hopes of weaseling my way out of the inevitable interrogation. I’ve learned, however, that there’s no charm to lay once your secret stash of weaponry has been collected and bagged as evidence.

“So, Miss Y/L/N…”

I clear my throat, interrupting him. “It’s ‘Ms,” thank you very much.”

I hate that title - Ms. - it always makes me think of edgy divorcees from the 70’s who smoked pot in their basements and wore head to toe mustard colored polyester jumpsuits and feathered hair, but it was marginally better than the alternative.

He blinks at me blankly before over emphasizing it. “MS. Y/L/N, why don’t you start from the beginning?”

“How can I help you today, ma’am?”

I cringe at the overly-friendly voice from behind me. With all the advancements of human civilization, how have we as a society not come up with a better way to address a woman. It’s always “ma’am,” which makes me feel like a middle age matronly woman with a bun and a secret smoking habit. And if it’s not that it’s “Miss Y/L/N,” like I’m some sort of blonde haired, mini-skirt adorned sorority girl that speaks in acronyms and wears Uggs in the summer. Is there no middle ground? Can we just universally agree on a form of address for a woman in her mid thirties that enjoys long walks to the fridge in her yoga pants between episodes of her current Netflix binge show, but can be fancy if she wants to be?

“Ma’am!” The voice has lost a considerable amount of it’s previous cheeriness and I realize I’ve been silently internal-monologuing in my head for longer than socially acceptable.

I sigh, my shoulders drooping slightly and turn on my heel to face my newest companion.

“Ya know, it’s just rude to call someone, who’s clearly under 50, ma’am,” I scowl at the uniformed employee, who seems to be truly taken aback by my tone of voice. “I’m younger than you are! ….ma’am. You oughta be ashamed of yourself.”

“How can I help you today,” he pauses, his eyebrows flickering together for a second, trying to figure out a way to complete the sentence.

“Better, thanks. I was really just wanting to get an inside look into your operations here.” I gesture behind me with a limp hand.

“But M…” he pauses, flinching as I raise my eyebrow, silently daring him to say it again. “Mmm…” he drags the letter out, clearly unsettled. He takes a deep breath and sets his shoulders, plastering a smile on his face. “This is a museum. I’m not really sure what kind of ‘inside look’ you were hoping for, but this section is off limits to everyone except the director.”

“So,” I cross my arms, tilting my head to one side, “are you saying you’ve never been in this section before?”

I almost miss it, it happens so quick, but his left eye twitches the tiniest bit as his ruddy cheeks subtly drain of their recent influx of color.

“You have, haven’t you?” I jab an accusatory finger in his direction. I’m cut off by a swarm of tourists all sporting calf-length black socks with their sandals as they pass by, snapping photos and moving on to the next exhibit. None of them seem to notice me or my new friend.

When they are out of earshot, I continue in a hoarse whisper. “It was you, wasn’t it? You’re the one who opened the box and summoned the demon.”

“Ma’am,” his top lip curling in satisfaction as my nostrils flare. “I’m going to have to ask you to leave, or I will be calling the police.”

“I’m not going anywhere until I get in there and undo whatever bullshit, hoey-doey nonsense your ignorant ass conjured up before any more people get hurt.”

I reach for my gun as he makes to lunge at me, and a second swarm of tourists interrupts us. I try to use their distraction as a way to buy time, but as I turn to run, a heavy hand lands on the back of my neck. I jab backwards, trying to put all my weight into the point of my elbow as it slams into my attacker, and the accompanying ‘crunch’ of ribs is just damn satisfying.

“Excuse me, miss?” A low gravelly voice from somewhere behind me makes both me and my new buddy freeze. I huff a breath in the direction of a stray strand of hair as I crane my neck to find the source. “It would appear that you seem to be in some sort of trouble. Perhaps I could be of some assistance?”

The man’s grip on my neck tightens and I kick back hard with my left boot, connecting solidly with the man’s groin. I whirl to face a man in a long, tan trench coat with dark messy hair and icy blue eyes looking at the scene curiously and, dare I say, a little amused?

“And what makes you think I need your help, blue eyes?” Without looking, I pull the gun from it’s holster and aim it at the man on the floor, who's now making a keening sound and clutching his pearls. “Do I look like some kind of damsel in distress to you?”

His sapphire eyes narrow to slits in a way that should be menacing, but actually makes him endearing somehow. Except he just grins and nods, which makes my blood boil.

Before I can react a hand wraps around my ankle and my back connects with the floor with a painful thud, the gun flies from my hand and I scramble after it.

He shrugs. “Point proven.”

My hand wraps around the handle of the gun, and I jerk upright to a sitting position, the gun and my attention trained again on my assailant.

“Ok, so I’m a damsel. I’m in distress. I can handle this. Have a nice day.”

Blue Eyes opens his mouth to respond but he’s cut off by a voice over a bull horn “Put your hands in the air where we can see them! Nobody move!”

“And that, Officer Fife, is where you showed up and ruined everyone’s fun.”

The stunned officer sitting across from me blinks several times, his ears reddening before he stands and leaves without so much as a grunt in response.

Well, this looks like to be shaping up a great day.

-----

Castiel

“And that’s as much information as she gave us. Do you have anything you’d like to add or change from Miss...sorry MS. Y/L/N’s story, Mr. Novak?”

With Sam and Dean occupied with other things, I had hoped to have found a way to make myself useful, even with diminished grace. So when I’d heard that there was something that sounded like a case only a few miles away, it had only seemed logical that I check it out. Dean had always used the term “milk run” and I had felt that the term applied to this scenario, so I didn’t feel the need to involve them.

However, standing across the room from a man and a woman engaging openly in verbal conflict, I wish that I had perhaps done a little more homework. I have no idea if either person involved is in any way linked to the case, but their fight happens to be occuring right in front of the partition that my limited research had found to be the epicenter of the supernatural activity.

The scene doesn’t look dire, per say - in fact it looks quite tame compared to the battles waged in heaven since...well, since the dawn of time. It does seem that the woman has some level of control of the situation, and I’m almost ashamed to find that there’s something about her that I find both fascinating and albeit somewhat intimidating. It’s almost as if my interfering would be taken as an insult.

I feel compelled to spring into action as I see the man’s hand land firmly on the back of her neck and she makes a squeaking sound. As I cross the room, though, she has once again regained the advantage by cracking at least one of his ribs with her elbow. A sensation of pride floods my mind, followed quickly by amusement as I see the corners of her lips turn in a pleasant and satisfied smile.

“Excuse me, is there anything I can do to help?” The words are out of my mouth before I am fully aware my brain has formed them.

She turns a furious glance toward me and scoffs, causing a ribbon of hair to fall over one of her eyes.

She kicks him in the groin and I vaguely hear her muttering something about the lack of gender equality prevalent in the current culture. She turns and aims a gun at the man, now writhing in pain on the floor, likely caused by intricate and centralized assemblage of nerves in the pelvic region of the male anatomy.

“I’m not some damsel in distress!” Her voice takes on a notably higher tone as she whirls to face me. It appears my offer of help was a mistake.

The writhing man must have sensed her distraction as well, because for a moment I’m looking into her beautifully infuriated face and the next she’s flat on the floor, her gun skidding along the ground and landing a few yards from her grasp.

“Well damsel is an antiquated term referring to a female of human persuasion, which you appear to be. And distress...well, that seems to illustrate your current situation quite accurately.”

The woman reaches the firearm and realigns herself in an upright, seated position.

“I think I can handle this on my own, thank you very much.” Her tone of voice doesn’t seem to indicate any manner of genuine gratitude, but I think the point is made.

“And that is when you gentlemen showed up, arresting her and myself, along with the employee, who you see, appears to be the cause for all of your recent mysterious disappearances,” I smile at the officer and offer a wink. I feel like I’ve seen Dean respond in this fashion. “You’re welcome.”

The officer studies my face, opening and closing his mouth without saying anything. He places his palms on his knees to stand, and winces. It seems that up until this moment, he'd forgotten about the assault portion of the night's festivities. With a desolate tone he asks “Mr. Novak, can you tell me why you and Ms. Y/L/N attacked and injured a handful of the responding officers?”

I purse my lips together, thinking carefully.

“I think she really dislikes being called Ma’am.”

-----

Y/N

The metal hinges squeak again, the stream of light flooding into the room taking on an amber glow as the sun begins to set. Blue Eyes shuffles back into the room, his handcuffs tinkling lightly as he perches on the cot beside me. The door slams shut again and I drop my head.

“I’m just letting you know, that if we have to stay the night here, I am not sleeping on that filthy, grimy, urine-drenched concrete floor.”

He just sighs, his shoulders dropping gently, as though exhaustion is beginning to wear on him too.

We sit in uncomfortable silence as I study the intricate patterns in the cracks of the cinder blocks making up those damn walls.

“The officer asked why you and I assaulted them.” His rich, textured timbre startles me and I glance at him to find blue eyes squinting at me curiously.

“And what did you tell them?” I raise an eyebrow, gnawing on my bottom lip.

A slow smile spreads across his face and he looks down at the floor again. “I said I was sure you’d had your reasons.”

“I did. I can’t say they were good, but I had them.” I turn, shifting to face him. “But why did you help? You would never been arrested if you’d stayed out of it.”

Blue Eyes, or Novak the officer had said, tilts his head to the side and he presses his lips together before speaking. “You wouldn’t believe me.”

“I was hunting a malevolent entity that had been wreaking havoc in the midwest for the last month or so. My capacity for belief is a little broader than most.”

He smiles again, one corner of his mouth pulling inward as though he’s trying to suppress it.

“I was hoping that the last bit of my grace would have been effective in subduing the officers long enough for you to get away.”

“Grace?” I scrunch my nose up, confused.

“Angel’s powers are derived from their grace, but mine was stolen by a sweater-vested megalomaniac trying to take over Heaven. I borrowed the grace of one of my brothers, but it’s fading as are my powers.” He licks his lips and looks at me like he’d just told me he was born in Sheboygan.

I lean forward, not really sure why. “Why didn’t you just get more of the super soldier serum from your brother and power up, Mario?”

Stunned, his mouth opens and closed a few times, but before he can find his words, the door slams open again and we both look up to find the officer standing in the doorway, flanked by two, tall men.

“Well hello, princess.” The man with the green eyes purrs, the wrinkles under his eyes betraying his attempt at keeping a straight face. “Fancy meeting you here!”

“Dean…” Novak and I bark, in matching annoyed tones. We freeze, and he turns around slowly to look at me, his features even more befuddled than before.

“Hey, y/n. I’m so glad you’re ok,” Sam stresses the last word, his eyes boring into mine as he sneaks a glance at the officer. “Thank you so much, for finding her, Cas. We were so worried about her when we couldn’t find her this morning!”

“Cas?” The officer barks.

“It’s a family nickname.” Sam smiles.

The officer doesn’t seem convinced and he crosses his arms. “Family huh? I suppose that would be on your mother’s side? Since you all have different last names.”

“Yes,” Novak, or Cas, or whatever his name is says, tentatively, having obviously caught on. “Our mother was quite promiscuous in her youth.”

“Whatever, just please go home, wherever that is, and stay there,” the officer rolls his eyes, unlocking my compatriot’s cuffs and then mine. He turns back to Sam and Dean. “You need to keep better track of your sister, in case she has another manic episode.”

I glare at the Winchesters, neither of whom make eye contact with me as the officer escorts us quickly to the front and out into the late evening air.

I wait until the officer is out of view, and I whirl to face Dean, jabbing him hard in the arm. “Manic episode, Dean. Really?!”

He rubs at his arm dramatically, though I’m sure it’s just for show as Sam chuckles lightly behind me.

“And you,” I spin to face him, poking a finger in his chest, “I’m only here because you two begged me to, seeing as how you’re so busy saving the world all the damn time. You could have at least given me the head’s up you were sending Rain Man here to check in on me.”

“We didn’t. We had no idea Cas was here until he used his one phone call on us,” Sam holds up both hands in a playful surrender before turning to him. “Why didn’t you tell us where you were going?”

Cas clears his throat, his hands resting lightly in the pockets of his trench coat. “I wanted to do something that would prove helpful to you both, and this seemed - though I recognize the egregious error now - to be easy.”

“So…” I muse, “your name is Cas, not Novak; you weren’t sent by Jolly Green and his trusty sidekick, Freckleface Strawberry to check up on me;” I motion behind me toward Sam and Dean respectively, “and you’re an angel?”

“It’s Castiel, but otherwise, yes. That is all correct.” His gaze flicks between the other two men before asking. “How did you come to know the Winchesters?”

“Dean called me ma’am once and I broke his nose.”

Cas turns to Dean, his eyebrows arched incredulously. “You told me you got into a fight at a biker bar, Dean.”

Dean shoves his hands in his jacket pockets and drops his eyes to the ground as he kicks at a clump of grass. “Yeah, well, I mean I didn’t lie…” Dean trails off.

“I’m still pissed about that, too, Winchester.” I frown at him. “That was my happy place and now I’m banned for life thanks to you.”

Dean gawks at me, vaguely horrified. “Me!? You’re mad at me about that?!”

“Alright, listen, we still have a case to finish,” Sam cuts Dean off, fighting down the smile playing at his lips. “I think it might be best though if you and Cas take off and let us clean up. You’re welcome to stay at the bunker for a few days.”

“I would be happy to drive you, in my vehicle if you wish, as it is getting late and as an angel, I do not need sleep,” Cas offers.

As much as I want to argue and stomp my foot about being able to fend for myself, the offer is tempting. “Ok, but I get to pick the tunes and you’re gonna tell me more about this angel business. ‘Sweater-vested megalomaniac’ sounds like a punk band from Seattle and I want to know everything. Savvy?”

��Yes, ma’am.”

Like what you see? Want more? My Masterlist is here. Thanks for reading! :)

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peppusae · 6 years ago

Text

[kth] lavender honey ch. 3

note: this fanfic has more than one part, so pls look forward for more!

lavender honey: kim taehyung x reader

genre: fluff, crack, college au, smut(?)

word count: 3k

💫

lavender honey

ch 3: in which taehyung despises knowing the sexual orientation of dead ‘literists’

"Hey, Taehyung, do you think Shakespeare is gay?" You ask, slipping into the seat beside him at the counter the next week.

Honestly, you're ready to change your dissertation topic from 'Kim Taehyung's various facial features' to 'William Shakespeare's sexuality' now, and you feel a surge of pride as you lean against the swivel chair and exhale in content at your new discovery.

It's a warm Tuesday evening, and the library is lined with dozens of students, most of them having their laptops turned on and typing like crazy. Perhaps they were those students who had an assignment due midnight, and you smile, glad that you had actually handed your work in a little earlier this time. Good job, you're actually patting yourself for a job well done as you take your seat.

Taehyung, however, does not smile.

In fact, his face scrunches up a bit as he stares at you with a questioning look.

"What sort of black magic are you doing again to twist my otherwise perfectly normal life, [Name]?"

Black magic. Apparently, Taehyung watches way too many movies.

"No, I'm serious. Am I the only one who thinks this way?" You wonder out loud, reaching for the thick paperback inside your backpack. "Look at this."

Taehyung moves a little closer to you in his chair, the rolling of the wheels making a few heads look up from their laptops and stare at him. The male hurries to give a sheepish smile, waving it off before he turns back to look at the book on your lap.

Look, this is what double standards are like. If you'd done the same, you swear the girls who are seated at the desks would have glared daggers at your fragile being, but it's Taehyung, and Taehyung's a hot dude.

Hot dudes always have it easy aka girls giggling like they've just discovered the kind of boxer briefs Jungkook wears.

Not that you've ever considered this before.

Anyways, back to the issue in hand-

"'Shakespeare's sonnets'? What's a sonnet, and what about it?" Taehyung wants to know, taking it in his hands and flipping through a couple of pages.

You kinda wanna punch him for being uncultured enough to not know what a sonnet is, but the fact that he asked what it is makes you forgive him (it's not his confused expression that looks so cute that forgives him, nope).

"A sonnet is a form of poetry which has fourteen lines," you explain, "It usually has like ten syllables per line, but I don't think that matters to you-"

"I'm surprised that you're actually using that brain of yours, for once." Taehyung muses, and you poke him in the waist, which in turn makes him chuckle and turn back to the whitish-yellow pages of the poem book. "Because you're right, it doesn't matter to me."

"Rude." You hiss. "So you see. Good ol' Shakeypakey here wrote 154 sonnets, okay? So, it was split into two parts based on-"

"Wait, did you just call a dead literist 'Shakeypakey'?" He asks, horrified.

"There is no word in the dictionary called literist. You can, instead, use-"

"That is beyond the point here, [Name]!"

"Listen," you hiss, snatching the book back from his clutches, "He has written 126 sonnets about a young man - a very fucking attractive man - and the other 28 sonnets are about a woman. Literally, he wrote at least 5 times more sonnets about the pretty dude."

"...So?"

Oh my god, there's a limit to beings freaking clueless but Taehyung likes climbing higher pedestals. Even The Himalayas would be ashamed. You shake your head in frustration.

"So! Why else would he be so obsessed with writing like 82 percent of his sonnet book about the man if he's not gay?"

Taehyung blinks at you in shock for a long moment, not moving a single muscle. You wonder if he was actually contemplating your reasoning, but then again... Taehyung was Taehyung, after all.

"Did you... do that math... just to..."

"Yes I did the math, so what? It makes so much sense. Maybe he's not gay, maybe he's like bisexual? Because even the sonnets about the Dark Lady was kinda kinky too so I think he has a lot of heterosexual shades too. Who knows."

"This is information I could live without, [Name]." Taehyung finally sighs, moving away from you and sighing. You watch as he begins to clear up his desk space, appalled that he wouldn't understand your very detailed reasoning.

If this is his reaction to your newfound discovery of Shakespeare's sexuality, then you sincerely hope Taehyung will never see your browser history with multiple search tabs of 'kinky Shakespeare'.

Plus that one meme you found of the poet's face cropped out and stuck to the ass of-

"I'm going to go put the books away." Taehyung announces, interrupting your fraying thoughts by picking up the handful of books that have been returned earlier.

Oh no you don't-

"Shakespeare was probably from a Victorian-ish era, you know? Those times when ladies wore metal frills on their skirts to make them more poofy and shit." You hurry to say. "His mama might have stabbed one of the metal frill shit into his ear if he said he was gay. Maybe he was in a polyamorous relationship, maybe he was the one who invented the idea-"

"Oh my fuck, shut the hell up." Taehyung hisses, standing up and stomping away. You blink at him as he takes the trolley of books, quickly making his way to the shelves and starting to put the books away.

Talk about being narrow-minded.

"So, your brother is Namjoon, right?" Taehyung asks the next day, slipping by your seat during lunch.

The cafeteria is excessively crowded, the jet line filled with students seeking a second helping of the ice-cream sandwiches they're handing out for free. According to Jimin, it's on occasion of Ice-cream Day, which you think is the stupidest invention that ever exists.

"Yes, but," you warn between gritted teeth, "Stop talking about it. I'd rather most people don't know. I'm not gonna be that one sister that the girls suck up to so that I'd help them get brownie points with Joon, like back in high school."

"You have a good point... It must have been hard for you, right?"

This makes you soften up a little, nodding back at the male who frowns sadly at you. So, even if Taehyung enjoys annoying you, he can be nice if he wants to.

"Oh, there's Jungkookie! Yah, Kook-ah, come here and sit with your Noona!" Taehyung yells from beside you, and the said brown-haired male's eyes widen as he pauses in his tracks, blinking at you two in surprise and his face going very pink.

You can't blame him, you must be at least two shades redder than he is.

You take it back, Taehyung is not nice at all.

"Over here, Kookie!" Jimin greets, patting the seat beside him. Yoongi lets out a small grunt beside you, and you sigh, giving your best smile to the freshman and motioning for him to join you lot.

Jungkook looks hesitant, quietly nodding and taking a seat right in front of you. Taehyung is paying for this later. Wait till you hide his library card. He's gonna suffer. And you're gonna be the one ugly giggling inside.

"So, Kookie, we were talking about how we can help Joon-hyung and Jin-hyung get together. Do you have any ideas?"

"Ah, so they do like each other. I always thought that too." Jungkook blinks in surprise.

"Even the kid knows. Why is it that those two little shits are the only ones who don't know how they feel about each other?" Yoongi lets out an exasperated sigh. "If they got together, Namjoon might stop writing depressing songs and start working on more brighter songs."

"Maybe they can go to a carnival. Seokjin-hyung has a thing for alpacas, right?" Jimin asks.

"That's a weird animal to have a kink for, but I'm not judging-"

"Shut up." You hiss, elbowing Taehyung, and the male doubles over, laughing and being proud enough to have elicited out a reaction from you. Jungkook watches the exchange in silence, and when you meet eyes with him, he looks away, turning to Jimin instantly and saying 'So? What about alpacas?'

Weird.

"Well, they can go to a carnival, Namjoon-hyung can play one of those dart games, or those ball-throwing games. He wins an alpaca plushie, and he gives it to Seokjin-hyung and tells him how he feels."

"That's like an unarmed battle with a bunch of sirens. Joon can't win no matter what he tries, he's not the most athletic nut in the world." You state.

"Si... Sirens?" Taehyung chokes, an eyebrow raises in confusion.

"Yeah? You know, those pretty fucked-looking female sea creatures that try to seduce idiots like you to get you into the sea and st-"

"I know what a siren is, you dolt," Taehyung sighs, "I took five weeks of Greek Mythology in my freshman year. I remember writing 'Sirens' in Google search and having nightmares."

"Then, why are you looking at me with that face?"

"... What face?"

"It looks like a fuck face minus the innuendo-inducing expression that you use. It's that face you make when you're confused to the level where you don't even know what speaking is, and you look like you accidentally ate ruined kimchi from a ripoff Korean-wannabe shop."

"I do not. And that's really specific, has that ever happened to you?"

"Down at Lindsay's Korean Meals stand a few blocks from the library. I had food poisoning for days."

"That's kinda sad. Was it recent?"

"Nah. I missed like four classes of Advanced Psychology classes near the start of the semester, remember?"

"Oh, then?"

"Yeah. Food poisoning is sad."

"Yeah. Please take care when you eat out, okay, [Name]?" Taehyung smiles at you, and the gesture is so soft that it makes you smile back like an idiot until you hear the sound of throat clearing.

And that's when you remember that Jungkook is staring at you two, and his expression is hard to read, eyebrows furrowed and lips pursed a little as if... as if...

Wow, you really shouldn't be a language major after all, if you can't describe something as basic as an expression.

Another, more defensive side of you pipes in, claiming that it's fine, reading expressions are the tasks of psychology majors, which you clearly aren't.

It's while you have this debate, that Taehyung - who seems to have noticed the way Jungkook is playing around with the bowl of grapes in his tray - coos 'Kookieeeee, what's wrong?' in a sing-song voice.

Jungkook does not respond, eyes hard and now looking at you, and both the angel and devil on your shoulder that's having the language vs psychology war together stops, making you gulp.

"The heck is this tension here? Let me do some mood-making here with my funny humour that no one can get enough of." A loud voice has to say, and all three of you look up and see Seokjin holding his tray proudly, a smiling Namjoon beside him.

"No thanks, Hyung." Yoongi speaks, picking up his almost-empty tray of food and standing up. Jimin, seeing this action, scarfs down the rest of his kimchi and rice, following the older male a couple steps behind after saying a hard-to-decipher 'bye guys!'

"Well, it's okay. Jimin might get offended if he was here to witness this amazing question that I have for all you earthlings."

"But Hyung, you're an earthling too. Or, are you an alien?" Taehyung has to butt in, and you hush him, glancing at Seokjin so that he would say whatever he has to say and get it over with. Namjoon takes the now-free seat beside you, and all eyes are on Seokjin who plops his tray beside Jungkook's, hands on his hips and puffs his chest out with a big smile.

"If Jiminie eats a mochi, does that count as cannibalism?"

"Oh my god, please stop, Hyung." Taehyung mumbles, while, beside you, Namjoon is cracking up like the loser that he is.

You think you hear Hani and Hyojin giggling, while Jungkook just stares at Seokjin as if he couldn't believe what the male had said.

"This story won't be fun without my jokes-"

"YOU CAN'T JUST SAY THAT OUT LOUD."

You're in charge of putting away the books for today, and the trolly is lugged to the side while you look up barcode numbers and do your job in peace.

But there's a being that taps your shoulder, and no one should really blame you for being scared and starting to scream. The light above the philosophy aisle is dimmer than the other isles, so it makes you wary of beings other than human.

But there's a hand that covers your mouth, muffling your scream. God. What a sucky way to die. It's kinda kinky if you think about it, but why is a stranger making you die at the philosophy aisle, at least let you move over to the language aisle, it's literally only three rows away for crying out loud-

"Noona, it's only me." The voice says, and you turn around, seeing Jungkook smiling at you with a fond expression, looking highly amused when you hide your face in embarrassment.

"Kookie, what are you doing?!" You hiss, punching his arm and taking a couple steps back - the kid was standing way too close for comfort.

"I wanted to say hello." He shrugs, watching as you pick up a book and place it back on the shelf. "Extra-credit, right?"

You give him a nod, waving the cardholder you have around your neck. The picture of yours had come out good, you had every right to show it off to the hot freshman, okay?

Jungkook takes hold of the card, smiling down at your beaming picture, and - wait a second, his finger just touched your left boob, rip virginity - he comes so close to you that it makes you slightly intimidated as you nervously look up at the male.

And wow, this must be what interactions with angels feel like; you can see the scar on his left cheek, his pretty doe eyes, and the slightly chapped lips of his from this close, and he-

"Noona, do you want to go out with me sometime?"

"Sure, I- Wait..."

"To see a movie and eat and stuff. You're majoring in language, right? I'm sure we can have a lot of discussions about the movie after it's over."

Wait wait wait pause rewind-

Hey, now that you think about it, dissecting a movie and over-analysing it sounds like fun...

"I mean, well, of course I wouldn't mind going with you, Kookie, but do you mean..."

A platonic going out, or-

"Definitely not a platonic going out."

Shit, did you say that out loud?

"Yes you did, Noona."

"Oh."

"This is probably selfish of me to ask, but, remember that really boxy white shirt you wore once with that blue skinny jeans? Do you think you can wear it for our first date? I really liked it, but for some reason, you didn't wear it after that one day."

Yes, because Namjoon accidentally splashed ketchup all over it when you both had gone to KFC for chicken and fries later that day.

But you aren't going to tell Jungkook that, of course.

"Um. Sure, okay, I'm good to go." You tell him, and you can feel your cheeks flushing in embarrassment while you aggressively take a stack of books and stuff them back on the shelf.

"I'll message you, then?"

You give him a thumbs up, too flustered to look at his face, and Jungkook responds with a small laugh, hands clutching on the hanging straps of his backpack before he quickly runs away. And only after he does so, are you able to let out a huge breath you weren't aware you were holding.

Dragging the now empty trolly, you make your way to the reception desk. Taehyung's laptop's lid is closed now, and he has his chin rested on his hand as he watches you make your way back to the desk and take a seat.

Wordlessly, he reaches a hand out and presses his hand on your cheek. You are about to protest, when he moves his hand back and raises an eyebrow at you.

"You're quite obvious, Ms. Kim."

"Shut up. I just accidentally bumped into Kookie when I was putting the books away, that's all."

"I know."

You expect him to tease you, but he doesn't. Even when you finish up work and Namjoon is waiting to pick you both up and drive you home, he says nothing to your brother.

"Hey, Joonie?"

"Yes, my dearest little sister to whom I will share half my food, half my world, half my milky way, and half of everything I have to offer?"

"You're buying me the same exact white shirt you poured ketchup over. I have a date and I need it."

"Oooh, did the freshman kid finally make a move on you?"

"Shut up. We're driving to the mall and spending half of your allowance. You'll do that for your dearest little sister for whom you said you would give half of everything to offer, right?"

Namjoon has nothing to say while he digs in to see how much cash he has on himself.

Serves him right.

And you find it oddly uncharacteristic, the way Taehyung wordlessly waves goodbye to the two of you and leaves, when Namjoon stops by the younger male's apartment.

read next: ch 4

#lavender honey #bts fanfic #kim taehyung #bts v #taehyung fanfic #peppusae

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alisondentaldesign · 3 years ago

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askullinajar · 7 years ago

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A Merry Little Christmas

Fic info:

This is set in the same universe as The Living Ghost and The Shattered Frame, so go read them or this won’t make sense.

Rating: Teen and up. Pairings: Lucy/Lockwood, Holly/Rani, Quill/OC, others if you squint. Word count: 9720. Ao3 link: here.

The gang all get together for Christmas Eve, 10 years on.

A Merry Little Christmas

“… its thin lips seemed to smile at me as we descended into the dark.”

I closed the book – the final instalment of my account of Lockwood & Co.’s greatest adventure – and was met with loud applause. The first chapter had been received well, it seemed, and I felt my chest fill with warmth and pride, overriding the sickly anxiety that was trying to creep up on me as I stood before the room full of people. Phone cameras flashed as admirers rushed to take my picture. I still marvelled at how far and fast technology had advanced since the Problem had begun to die down.

“Does anybody have any questions before we call it a night?” I announced into the microphone atop the lectern.

Hands immediately shot up.

“Are Marissa and Penelope really the same person?” a girl, who looked to be in her early twenties, asked, excitedly. “Did she reverse her age somehow?”

I smiled knowingly. “You’ll have to read the book to find out.”

She lowered her hand a little disappointedly. I picked on the next person.

“Did you ever find out what the fetch was?” a man asked.

“Ah,” I said. “Unfortunately, not; its Source was destroyed with all the others before we could investigate.”

A woman from the back shouted, “Did you ever let the skull out? Is he still around?”

I glanced back to where Skully was slouched in a chair, fidgeting with a Rubix Cube I’d given him to keep him occupied, though, to my dismay, he seemed almost done. I’d brought him with me because my manager (AKA Holly) had told me I might need a bodyguard, what with my increasing success as an author, and Skully was the most formidable person I knew, even if he didn’t look like much. But no one could know who he really was; we couldn’t have the general public getting ideas about bringing back the dead. I didn’t exactly want another Problem on our hands.

“I still see him from time to time,” I said, vaguely.

A girl of about twelve was sat beside her father in the front row, hopping in her seat and waving her hand in the air excitedly.

I gave her a smile. “Yes?”

“Did you and Lockwood ever get together?”

I flushed. “That’s – uh – not really relev–”

“Aw, look at you!”

Must to my dismay, Skully had finished the puzzle and had grown bored. So, of course, he was back to his favourite activity of annoying me.

“Married for five years and you still can’t think of him without blushing!”

I tried to shove him away from the microphone and failed. Damn his supernatural strength.

“It was a beautiful ceremony,” Skully informed the girl who was practically shaking in her seat with delight. “I gave her away–”

“You also shoved the best man into the cake,” I grumbled.

“–Barnes officiated–”

“George couldn’t return that suit.”

“–the food was wonderful–”

“I didn’t have wedding cake at my own wedding.”

“Oh, when are you going to get over that?”

“When you pay for the damn cake!”

There was a cough from the audience and I realised we were squabbling like school-children in front of two hundred people. I may have cut my hair down to a pixie cut, and Skully may have grown his out a little and added tattoos and piercings and, recently, stubble, but I guess some things never change. Not even after ten years.

I cleared my throat. “Right, well, I think that’s enough questions for one day. I’m sure you all want to get back to your families. Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays everyone!”

There was another round of applause, accompanied by some confused expressions, before the crowd began to gather their belongings and got up to leave.

Skully and I headed out the backdoor to avoid the soon-to-be crowded foyer of the Anthony Lockwood Gallery, past the exhibits of case files and ex-Sources, their glass cases now decked in tinsel and fairy lights.

“Wait in the car for me, I need to pee,” Skully requested.

“Thanks for sharing.”

“Not my fault you waffle on so much,” he said. “I mean, do we really need so much info on how ‘dazzling’ A.J.’s smile is? Or how pretty and perfect Holly is? Side-note: you definitely had a crush on her.”

I flushed. “Did not!”

“Did too!”

“Oh, shut up,” I told him. “Go and do your business, I’ll warm up the car.”

I switched on the heating and the radio once I got back to the car, flicking through the stations absently. Then I gave up and switched it off, leaning my forehead against the steering wheel.

Here, alone in the car with nothing but my own thoughts, I felt all the thick, sickening anxiety I’d bottled up during the event bubbling back up to the surface.

I reminded myself that the people in that room had been living and breathing, though their whispering among themselves as I read had gotten my heart racing, wary of Visitors, even after so many years. The din of their conversation as I’d first entered the room had been reminiscent of the hum of a Spirit Gate. But it didn’t make my head scream in pain. It wasn’t the same. That’s what I kept telling myself.

Outside, children bounced along in front of their parents, gushing about my stories and the place London had once been. They were lucky they never had to experience it. Lucky they were allowed to just be children. They could go to school, join clubs, make friends and visit each other’s houses like normal kids could. They didn’t have to worry that they might never see those friends again. That any day could be their last.

I watched as they flopped down in the snow to make snow-angels, or gleefully tossed snowballs at one another, giggling and squealing. It was beginning to get dark, but no one raced to get home. They didn’t need to; without the Orpheus Society continuously stirring up the Other Side, Visitors had started appearing less and less. They barely showed up at all now. Nothing to worry about. I’d had a hand in that.

I felt my breathing even out.

“Want me to drive?”

Skully had returned and had one arm leaning on the roof of the car as he peered at me through the open passenger door.

I scoffed. “Thanks, but I’d rather not die.”

“I can drive!” Skully protested.

“You drive a motorcycle. You cannot apply the same rules to a car.”

Skully huffed but slipped into the passenger seat. I don’t think he missed me hurriedly wiping my eyes on my sleeve. He was silent for a moment as I started the car, then, “I’m proud of you, you know.”

I glanced across at him. “What?”

“You heard,” he said, turning towards the window to avoid eye contact.

“Yeah, but can I get it in writing or something?”

“Shut up.”

I couldn’t help but smile. He didn’t show affection openly very often, so when he did it was always a special moment for me. I’d let it slide for now, though.

I gave his cheek a prod. “What’s this?”

“What’s what?”

“The beard,” I clarified. “Why are you growing a beard?”

“Oh, you know,” he said, casually, “I figured, if I start now, I can have a Dumbledore-level beard by the time I’m eighty.”

“Couldn’t be bothered to shave?”

“Yep. Though now I’ve said the Dumbledore idea, I’m kinda digging it.”

I rolled my eyes and turned the radio back on, tuning in to some Michael Bublé, coz why not? It was Christmas, after all.

Truthfully, Skully’s new beard looked to me less like an ‘I couldn’t be bothered to shave this morning’ beard and more of an ‘I haven’t had the energy to get out of bed for three days, let alone shave’ beard, going off what my husband was like. I didn’t mention it, as he hated it when I did, but I did make a mental note to check how much of his meds he had left. I didn’t want a repeat of the incident a few years back when he’d forgotten to renew his prescription.

“You’re still staying over tonight, right?” I said.

“Are your sister and her gremlins still there?”

“Mary and her children?” I said. “Yes. And they want to meet you.”

“Wasn’t she at the wedding?”

“You’re thinking of my other sisters,” I told him. “Mary went into labour and couldn’t be there.”

Skully groaned. “Do I have to?”

“Christmas is for family,” I said. “The family you actually like, at least. Unless you’d rather stay in your flat alone?”

“I like my flat,” he protested. “It has a great vantage point for pouring custard on carol singers.”

“We have presents for you.”

He paused. “Okay, I guess I’ll come.”

I nodded. “And is Charlie coming for the party tonight?”

Charlie was Skully’s twenty-four-year-old flatmate, and the human embodiment of a ray of sunshine, if a little lax on the social skills. By all rights, Skully and Charlie should not have gotten along, and I didn’t know the full story of their friendship, though they’d apparently disliked each other when they’d first met in the forensics lab where they worked. Nowadays, though, they were practically inseparable. Something about it being ‘nice to have someone to hang around with when all your gross allosexual friends insist on doing couple things’.

Skully shrugged. “I’ll ask again when we get to my place.”

I pulled the car up outside his block of flats a few minutes later.

“Ah,” he said, patting his pockets as we stepped out onto the curb, “forgot my keys.”

“You are a mess of a person,” I told him, pressing the buzzer for his flat.

“Yeah, they ain’t gonna answer that,” he said. “But, no worries.” He whipped out his phone and shot a quick text to Charlie.

After a good two minutes of standing out in the cold waiting for a reply, he gave up and called them instead. The call ended abruptly as it was apparently rejected on the other end. Then a text came through: Why are you calling me?

“There we go,” said Skully, texting back a quick reply, and a few seconds later, the intercom buzzed to let us in.

Charlie was standing in the doorway when we got upstairs, donned in pastel green dungarees and miss-matched socks, the light from the hallway behind them making their bronze curls glow gold. They narrowed their sky-blue eyes at Skully. “I don’t like phone calls.”

“Made ya look at your phone, though,” he replied.

“Mean,” said Charlie as he slipped past them and down the hall to get ready to go. “Hello, Lucy.”

“Hi, Charlie,” I said, slipping into the flat and shutting the door behind me. The flat was a cluttered mess of overflowing bookshelves and video game boxes littering the floor, but at least there didn’t seem to be any dirty dishes lying around. “Coming to the party tonight?”

“Party,” Charlie repeated, wrinkling their nose.

“A small party,” I clarified. “Just close friends of mine. Mostly people you know.”

They hummed. “My brother’s picking me up at ten.”

“Working late?” I said.

“He’ll be done in the flower shop by now, but then he’s volunteering at the soup kitchen,” Charlie replied.

“Can you get him to pick you up from my house?” I said. “Don’t want to be here alone until then, do you?”

“I can look after myself,” Charlie said as if this was something they had to clarify a lot.

“I didn’t mean–”

“Don’t leave me alone with the couples!” Skully called before coming out of the bathroom, now cleanly shaven. “I’ll let you follow me around the whole time, or just hide in the library.”

Charlie just hummed again.

“And they have pets,” Skully finished.

“’kay, I’ll come,” said Charlie.

“Did you get your things?” I asked Skully. He swore and ran back down the hall.

I gave Charlie the address and they sent a text to their brother, before retrieving an already-packed backpack.

“Got everything?” I asked.

That was probably the wrong thing to say because Charlie immediately plonked down on the floor and began unpacking the bag to make sure.

Skully came back out of his room.

“Remember Anthony wants us all wearing Christmas jumpers?” I said.

He groaned loudly and turned back.

“I don’t have a Christmas jumper,” said Charlie.

“Borrow one of mine,” Skully called from his room. “A.J. keeps buying them for me.”

He came back into the hall, now wearing one of the least garish jumpers Lockwood had given him over the years, one with the words ‘Now I have a machine gun. Ho-ho-ho’ scrawled across it, and tugged a fleecy jumper decorated with robins over Charlie’s head, who squeaked in surprise.

“Soft,” they said, once their arms were through the overly long sleeves.

“Keys?” I asked Skully.

He ran back to his room.

On the floor, Charlie stared at their laptop for a good minute before putting it in their bag, as if trying to convince themself it would still be there even once the bag was closed.

“How do you two ever get anything done?” I remarked.

“Hyperfocus,” said Charlie, simply. I decided not to tell them it had been a rhetorical question.

Skully returned, this time with everything he actually needed. I flicked the lights off on our way out, then Charlie flicked them back on and off again, then again with their other hand, for symmetry, I guess. Skully let them lock the door, and then we were off.

The car journey to Portland Row was mostly filled with Skully and I belting out Mariah Carey and Slade while Charlie happily hummed along and swayed in time to the music in the back, staring out the window at all the beautiful displays of Christmas lights adorning the houses and shops we passed. We weren’t half bad if I do say so myself.

Portland Row was only a ten-minute drive from Skully’s flat, and the front door opened as we stepped out of the car.

“Dog!” Charlie half-shrieked as a golden blur shot down the garden path and nearly knocked me over.

“Calm down, Apollo. I’ve not been gone that long!” I laughed, giving him a scratch behind his floppy ears before he bounded over to Charlie and Skully to beg for tummy rubs.

“Auntie Lucy! Auntie Lucy!”

I looked up as my little niece, Sophie, hurtled towards me in a pretty pink princess dress that was mostly covered in flour.

“What’s gotten you so mucky?” I said.

“We’ve been making gingerbread with mummy and uncle Tony!” she informed me, proudly.

“Ooh! I can’t wait to try it!” I gushed, picking her up and propping her on my hip to walk up to the house, where Lockwood was waiting in the doorway with my two-year-old nephew, Michael, sat on his shoulders, also in a princess dress. He did like to copy his sister a lot.

“Hello, my love,” Lockwood greeted, bending down a little to give me a peck on the lips, then a little further so I could kiss Michael on the forehead. “How’d the reading go?”

“Pretty well,” I replied. “Managed to keep Skully from interrupting for most of it.”

“Most of it?” Lockwood repeated with an amused smile. I rolled my eyes in reply.

“Down,” Michael said, patting Lockwood’s mop of hair. He complied and set him down on the carpet, and he promptly waddled down the hall and into the living room. I set Sophie down, too, so she could go after him.

Mary appeared from the kitchen a moment later, drying off her hands on her apron. “There you are, Luce. Keep an eye on the kids a sec, I wanna get changed before your party guests arrive.”

“Two are already here,” I said, nodding outside to where Charlie currently had their face buried in Apollo’s fur, and Skully was trying to drag them into the house. “Anthony’s uncle and his flatmate.”

Mary hopped over and stood on her tiptoes to peer over my shoulder.

“Oh my god, Luce! You didn’t tell me he was gorgeous!”

“Don’t you dare,” I told her, but she was already rushing upstairs to get changed.

“Remind me to keep her away from the mistletoe,” I muttered to Lockwood, who was snickering behind his hand.

Apollo bounded back into the house a moment later, followed by Skully who was carrying Charlie in front of him, his hands hooked under their elbows.

“Hi, Charlie,” said Lockwood, as Skully set them down and shut the front door. “Haven’t seen you since the Cambridge Cannibal case.”

“A cannibal?!” Sophie exclaimed, peering out of the open living room doorway.

“I still say he was a zombie,” said Charlie, clearly excited about the conversation topic. “He only ate the brains, see? He boiled them up in acetic acid, so they’d stay intact and–”

“Let’s not give the children nightmares,” I interrupted. Not that it was the most disturbing case my friends had worked on.

Since his Talent had faded and the Problem had decreased, Lockwood had gone through a bit of a crisis and had ended up achieving many feats before he finally decided what he wanted to do with the rest of his life. He had opened up a fencing academy, which he had run himself while I had attended art school, before handing over the reins to Quill. Then we had travelled the world together, starting where his parents had left off. That had been fun while it lasted, but, after the incident, we were a little wary to leave London for too long. Maybe we would again, one day.

Now, Lockwood helped out with detective investigations from time to time, partnering up with Detective Inspector Rani Malik-Munro, under the supervision of Chief Constable Barnes, to solve gruesome murders, with the help of their friends in the forensics department.

The oven timer beeped in the kitchen and Lockwood rushed off to get the gingerbread out of the oven.

“Watch the kids,” I told Skully, following after him.

The ‘gingerbread’ that Lockwood set on the counter looked very… flat. And it had a strange smell, which was making me feel kind of queasy.

“So, how much input did you have with these?” I asked, peering over his shoulder at the demonic biscuits. “Just… out of curiosity.”

“I did most of it while Mary was handling the kids,” said Lockwood. “Do they really look that bad?”

Charlie approached and gave them a sniff. “You used salt instead of baking powder.”

“How would you even know that?” said Lockwood. “Besides, they’re basically the same thing, right?”

“And paprika instead of ginger.”

“Right,” I said. “How about we just let the kids decorate them and then never eat them ever?”

Lockwood made a pouty face.

“Aw, don’t sulk,” I said, ruffling his hair. “I’ll make them with you, next time.”

Skully came into the kitchen with a giggling child dangling upside down in each hand and Apollo at his heals. “A.J. ruin the cookies?”

“Jesus Christ, Jim. Put them down,” I scolded.

“Just keeping them out of trouble,” he said, setting them in a heap on the floor. They immediately scrambled to their feet and tried to run off, but Skully shut the kitchen door just in time. “When’s dinner? I’m starving.”

“When everyone’s actually here,” I told him. “I should probably start getting it ready.”

“Did you remember to eat today?” Lockwood asked him.

Skully seemed to think about it for a minute. “I had a can of coke this morning.”

Lockwood pinched the bridge of his nose.

“Hey!” Skully defended. “I’m probably still doing better than Charlie.”

“I had the chocolate from my advent calendar,” said Charlie. “That’s actually food.”

“Damn,” said Skully.

“Who thought it was a good idea for you two to live together?” said Lockwood.

“We just get distracted,” said Charlie.

“By video games?” I guessed.

“The universe’s greatest creation,” said Skully.

I heard the stairs creaking, signalling Mary’s return.

“Now remember,” I said in a hushed voice, so the children wouldn’t be able to overhear. “I haven’t told her about the whole Skully being brought back to life thing, so no one mention it. She’s terrible at keeping secrets.”

“Understood,” said Skully.

Mary entered the kitchen a moment later, looking very pretty with festive-red lipstick and her blonde hair elegantly curled.

“Sorry about running off,” she said. “Didn’t want to introduce myself covered in washing-up water.” She held a hand out to Charlie, who was closer. “I’m Mary!”

“Charlie,” said Charlie. “I don’t like shaking hands.”

“That’s fair enough,” said Mary, lowering her hand. “Do you have preferred pronouns, if you don’t mind me asking?”

“Any,” said Charlie.

“I’ll stick with ‘them’, in that case.” Charlie smiled and nodded, and Mary turned to Skully. “And you must be… Jim? James?”

“Skully,” said Skully.

Mary twirled a finger through a golden ringlet. “Why do they call you that?”

“I was dead for a hundred and forty years.”

I elbowed him in the ribs. “Ha-ha! That’s just him trying to be funny!” I said as Mary gave me a confused look. “We call him that coz… uhh…” I looked towards Charlie and Lockwood for help.

“He works in a morgue,” Charlie supplied, which, while it made sense, was a little more morbid than I was hoping for.

“…Right,” said Mary.

“Why don’t you help me get dinner ready?” I said, changing the subject. “I’m sure this lot can handle the kids for a bit.”

“Oh, anything to get away from these little monsters,” Mary said, sticking her tongue out at the children, who giggled and ran off, dragging Lockwood and Skully with them, with Charlie and Apollo following behind.

Mary and I set about preparing a beef Wellington, chatting idly as we did so. It was almost as if we were back home again, preparing dinner with our other siblings while our mother sat watching TV.

“Anyone spending Christmas with mum this year?” I asked, casually.

“Not that I know of,” Mary replied. “Think she finally blew it when she exploded at Sam for coming out. And after all that tripe about wanting a son.”

“Maybe I should tell her I’m bi, just to add the icing on the cake,” I said.

Mary laughed. “Do it. She’d implode, it’d be hilarious. Ever gonna introduce her to these guys, by the way?”

I snorted. “Oh, hell no. Because, and I am not exaggerating when I say this, Skully would literally kill her. And Anthony would probably help.”

“You told them about her?”

“Of course I told them,” I said. “Anthony’s my husband. And Skully… well… he understands about that sort of thing.”

Mary nodded in understanding.

I popped the Wellington in the oven, and was just about to set the oven timer, when the doorbell rang, signalling the arrival of our first guests. I opened the door to find Holly and Rani, both looking stunning with Holly in a pine-green dress and Rani wearing a matching hijab. Rani and her family didn’t celebrate Christmas, but she still tagged along to parties and such with Holly. Mostly for the free food.

Lockwood appeared in the hallway after hearing us happily greet each other. He pouted at Holly. “You’re not wearing a Christmas jumper.”

“I’m not putting on one of those hideous things,” said Holly.

“This isn’t hideous!” Lockwood cried, gesturing to the demonic looking reindeer knitted into his jumper. Holly exchanged a look with me that clearly said ‘how do you put up with him?’

George and Flo were the next to arrive. George had not changed much at all over the years, though he and Skully got on a little better. He now worked at the local university, giving lectures on the science and history behind the Problem and Visitors, and putting his students to good use experimenting on Sources that still retained some psychic charge. He was the type of professor who turned up to lectures late, put memes in his presentations, and replied to carefully thought out, grammatically correct emails from students with ‘k’.

Flo, however, was much cleaner than her days spent as a relic-woman. Her long hair was still an unbrushed mess, and she still sported a lot of dirt beneath her nails, but that was a result of excavating historical artefacts rather than digging through river sludge. There wasn’t much money in being a relic-woman nowadays, anyway. And at least her new job was legal.

Quill showed up next, having come straight from a Fittes reunion party. He informed us that his old teammates were doing quite well for themselves; Bobby was well on his way to getting a PhD, and Kat was teaching kids at a nearby primary school.

Barnes and George’s mum showed up at the same time, quite by coincidence.

“You’re looking rather dashing today, Monty.”

“You’re looking quite lovely yourself, Martha.”

“I’m gonna throw up,” George mumbled, and Holly smacked him lightly on the arm.

We all crowded into the living room. Charlie, a little overwhelmed by all the people, sat themself in a corner beside the Christmas tree, and Apollo draped himself across their lap. Skully sat half in front of them, like a sort of shield, and the rest of us squeezed onto the chairs and sofas. Michael curled up into Mary’s side, having gone all shy in the presence of new people, and Sophie rushed about showing everyone all the drawings she had done that day before she finally settled down and crawled onto Skully’s lap. She had become rather taken with him.

“So, what’s everyone been up to?” Lockwood said, passing around tea and biscuits that he hadn’t made himself. I accepted the tea but declined the biscuits; I was still feeling a little queasy. “I feel like it’s been forever since we’ve all been together.”

“Why don’t you tell everyone about Lucas, Quill,” said Rani, slyly, sipping her tea.

Quill’s face and ears turned bright red, but he shrugged and sipped his tea, idly. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Ooh, who’s Lucas?” said Mary, eagerly. She was always one for gossip.

“Nobody,” said Quill.

“Just some super gorgeous guy who goes to all of his classes,” said Holly, grinning mischievously.

“Shut up,” said Quill, avoiding eye contact with all of us.

“Wait,” said Flo, pausing in the middle of piling sugar into her tea. “Dark hair? Tattoos? Looks kinda like he belongs in Asgard?”

“Sounds like him,” said Rani. “From all the very detailed descriptions Quill’s been giving us.”

“Shut up,” Quill said again.

“Do you know him?” George said eagerly, ignoring Quill.

“When I filled in for Quill the other week,” said Flo. “He was very disappointed when he saw me instead of him. No one else seemed to mind much.”

“He was?” said Quill, sitting up and seeming very much interested all of a sudden. “What did he say?”

Flo smirked. “Buy me some of that posh strawberry liquorice and I’ll tell you.”

“You are the worst,” said Quill.

“Just tell the boy how you feel, dear,” Mrs Cubbins advised. “Life’s too short to keep beating around the bush, take it from me. I wish I’d had more time with George’s father.”

“Or,” said Skully, “you could try giving him your dead relatives necklaces until he gets the hint.”

“Hey!” Lockwood protested. “That worked out in the end, didn’t it?”

“It wasn’t exactly the most straight-forward way,” I reasoned. “I mean, the first time, you told me to shut my mouth and then ran off.”

“Smooth move, A.J.,” said Skully.

“I was nervous!” Lockwood cried.

I can’t remember what we talked about after that. Just life, I guess. George kept throwing in puns, and I kept whacking him with cushions. When you’ve known someone for a long time, when you get along really well, it doesn’t matter how long you’ve been apart. We all had different lives to live, and it was hard to see each other sometimes, but it didn’t matter in the end. Because, when you know someone that well, you can pick up exactly where you left off. Conversation and laughter flows. There are no awkward silences, no feeling left out and insecure. You can tell all the terrible jokes you want and know someone will laugh because these are the people who understand you, who love you. I had missed them all more than they could know.

I had brought the hellish gingerbread in after people had started to arrive, so we ended up sitting around the coffee table, helping the children decorate them, though Charlie had wandered off at this point, maybe to find the cat.

Sophie proudly showed me the mess of white, green, and black icing she had made. “It’s the skull from your stories!”

“Wow!” I gushed. “It looks just like him! Is he your favourite?”

Sophie nodded happily.

“A wise choice,” said Skully. “Quite possibly the best character ever written.”

I elbowed him again.

Lockwood had Michael sat on his lap and was helping him decorate a gingerbread dinosaur. He was so kind and patient with him, and I got a strange warm feeling in my chest seeing them like that.

“Can we eat them yet?” said Sophie, once all the cookies were suitably drenched in icing.

“Ooh, I don’t know about that,” said Mary. “They’re so good, don’t you think Father Christmas will want them all for himself?”

“Will he be able to eat them all?” said Sophie, uncertainly.

“He’ll need the energy to fly around the whole world, won’t he?” said Lockwood.

“I guess so,” said Sophie, a little disappointedly.

“Don’t worry,” I said, “we’ll make a gingerbread house tomorrow to eat all for ourselves. How about that?”

Sophie seemed happy enough with that arrangement, which was good, as there was no way in hell I was about to let her eat those death cookies.

Charlie came back a while later while we were all in a heated discussion about High School Musical, aside from Barnes and Mrs Cubbins, who were entertaining the children. Don’t ask me how the conversation had turned to that because I have no idea.

Charlie stood sort of awkwardly to the side while we were arguing.

“That song was totally a euphemism! I mean, he was literally dancing the whole way through it!”

“But wasn’t Chad into Taylor?”

“Old news. He and Ryan literally swapped clothes. There is no heterosexual explanation for that!”

“Guys, shut up,” Skully interrupted, having noticed Charlie. “What’s up?”

“Well, there’s a lot of smoke pouring out of the kitchen.”

I leapt to my feet and ran to retrieve a very black beef Wellington from the oven while the others charged around the house, throwing open doors and windows to let the smoke out.

“I think you forgot to set the oven timer,” said Quill.

“No shit, Sherlock.”

“Is your smoke alarm broken?” said Barnes.

“Uhh,” I said. “I might have thrown that down the stairs at one point.”

Barnes gave me one of his disappointed looks. “You’re lucky the kitchen didn’t catch fire. And you could have said something sooner, Charlie.”

“People sometimes get angry when I interrupt,” they said, flapping their arms at there sides until Apollo bumped his head into their hand and Skully gave their shoulder a squeeze.

“Oh, don’t worry yourself, dear,” said Mrs Cubbins. “No harm done. I could whip something else up?”

“It’s fine mum,” said George. “We can just order pizza or something.”

We were all ravenous by the time the pizza arrived, but something about the smell finally set me off, and I had to rush upstairs to throw up in the toilet. Maybe I was coming down with something.

I headed back downstairs once I’d brushed my teeth and was feeling a little better, and realised Charlie had disappeared again, so I grabbed one of the least-offensive pizzas smell-wise, and headed back upstairs, where I found them sat on the bed in Skully’s (once Jessica’s) old room, with Apollo curled up next to them. They were rhythmically stroking a black cat that sat curled up on their lap, which was purring contentedly.

“You found Artemis, I see,” I said, placing the pizza box on the bedside table and climbing up onto the bed beside Apollo. “She doesn’t usually like strangers.”

“Understandable,” said Charlie, quietly.

“Bit much for you?” I said.

“Just needed a little break,” they said. “It’s loud down there. Apollo keeps trying to lie on me.”

“He’s trained to,” I said, petting the dog’s head. “When he senses someone’s sad or stressed. He’s a good boy, aren’t you Apollo?” His tail wagged happy in the Artemis’s face, and she gave me a cold stare.

“But that’s, like, my permanent state of being,” said Charlie.

I laughed at that. “That’ll be why he’s been following you around all day then.”

Charlie smiled and scratched Apollo’s chin. His leg pumped against the mattress and his tail wagged even more.

“Sorry about dinner,” said Charlie.

“Don’t worry about it,” I said. “It was my fault for not setting the timer… and for chucking the smoke alarm down the stairs. Just, for future reference, the kitchen nearly catching fire is one of the things you’re allowed to interrupt for.”

“Ugh, so many rules,” said Charlie.

“You’ll get used to them one day,” I said.

“Getting there,” said Charlie. “Oh, I should probably say congratulations, shouldn’t I?”

I frowned. “For my new book?”

“No,” said Charlie, looking a little confused now. “That, too, but…” They made an uncertain gesture towards my stomach. “Do you… not know yet?”

I could suddenly hear the blood rushing in my ears. “Know what?”

Charlie clapped their hands over their face, hunched over, and let out a little whine. “Messed up.”

“Know what, Charlie?” I repeated, more urgently.

“I might be wrong!” they blurted, voice sounding a little panicky. “I just sort of… have a sense for those kinds of things.”

“What kind of things?”

They began fidgeting with a loose thread in the bed sheets. “Like, I knew Skully had some connection to Visitors, and I know someone probably died in this room… and I know when people are pregnant. It’ll be a girl, I think. She’ll be a little late.”

I stared at them.

“I might be wrong,” Charlie repeated. “Just… maybe take a test.”

“What’s the likelihood that you’re wrong?” I said.

“Statistically…” they said. “Zero. I never have been.”

I swallowed and leaned back against the bedpost, my mind racing. I’d have to take a test as soon as possible, just to be sure. And if it was positive? I had no idea what I’d do. Would I even make a good mother? My own had been abusive and neglectful, spending Christmas alone this year because her children had finally had enough of her. What if I ended up like that?

But then I thought of Mary. My wonderful sister, who’d had the same upbringing, and yet, was an amazing mum. Granted, she’d once called me sobbing because she’d spanked Sophie for being naughty and thought she was turning into our mother, but she’d learnt from that mistake. She never laid a hand on her kids again, and she always had time for them. Teaching them right from wrong, gushing proudly over their messy drawings, oohing and aahing when they babbled on to her in mostly gibberish.

She made sure to tell her kids she loved them every single day, something our own mother never did.

And she’d done it all on her own, never being one for long-term relationships. I had Anthony, my incredible husband, who was kind and patient with my niece and nephew, and they adored him in return. We’d been through so much together, and no matter what, I knew he’d always stay by my side. If I slipped up, he’d steer me back in the right direction. He’d be a wonderful father.

The bubble of fear that had risen in my chest didn’t disappear, but it was joined by a bubble of excitement, and I let out a breath of air I didn’t know I’d been holding. Everything would turn out okay. It always did.

Charlie was looking at me like I might explode any second, so I turned my head and smiled at them, and they visibly relaxed.

The door opened and Skully slipped in. “Oh! Hiding, too? Think I’ll join.” And he clambered onto the between me and Charlie, poking Apollo out of the way with his foot. The dog didn’t stay away long, though, and clambered up onto Skully’s lap as he slung his arms over mine and Charlie’s shoulders. I leaned into him, gratefully. After the internal crisis I’d just had, I needed a hug.

“Why are you hiding?” I asked him.

“Your sister keeps trying to ambush me with mistletoe.”

I snorted. “I’ll have a word with her later. For some reason, she thinks you’re attractive.”

“Who doesn’t?” he said. “I’m bloody beautiful. Always have been. It’s a fact of life.”

“I wish I had your level of self-confidence,” I said. “But even when you were a mouldy skull in a jar?”

“Especially then,” he affirmed. “Have you seen my bone structure? Don’t deny it, you wanted a piece.”

“That’s disgusting,” I said, shoving away from him. “I am terminating our friendship.”

“Nah, you’d miss me too much,” he said. I chose not to respond to that.

“I’m gonna give Apollo a walk before it gets too late,” I said, causing the dog to leap from the bed and hop excitedly around my legs. “Want anything from the shops?”

“Pudding,” said Charlie.

“You’ve not even had dinner yet,” said Skully, picking up the pizza box and shoving it in Charlie’s face. I rolled my eyes and left them to their bickering.

Thank goodness the Problem was over, or twenty-four-hour stores wouldn’t exist.

I strolled leisurely through the snowy park, grateful to be out in the fresh air away from the stench of the pizza. I was pretty sure it had been the smell of barbecue sauce that had made me nauseous.

I peered at the little cardboard box in my hands as Apollo ran around like a maniac, shovelling his face into the snow, trying to pick up fallen tree branches twice his size, barking at nothing. Two bands for pregnant, one for not. Seemed simple enough. I just had to pee on a little plastic stick, and five minutes later, my whole life could be changed forever. No biggie.

I feared for my friends’ relationships when I got home and heard abuse being shouted from the living room, but, as it turned out, they were just playing Mario Kart. Charlie, Skully, George, and Flo racing while the others watched.

“Did you just drop a banana in my face?!”

“Ooh, careful, Charlie! George just sent a leader bomb.”

“For the last time, Lockwood, it’s called a blue shell!”

“It’s a bomb that targets the leader.”

“It’s a shell that is blue!”

“CHARLIE, YOU LITTLE SHIT!”

That last part had been because Charlie had driven off the side of the road so that the blue shell had targeted second place (AKA Skully) instead. Charlie just smirked as they were placed back on the track and drove smoothly across the finish line in first place.

“Jesus Christ, guys,” I said, alerting them to my presence. “I thought there was a murder going on. Where’s Mary and the kids?”

“She’s giving them a bath before bed,” said Holly.

“Care to join us, Luce?” said Quill. “We’re up next.”

“Maybe in a sec,” I said, letting Apollo off his lead so he could greet the others as if he hadn’t seen them in months. “Need to pee first.”

I had to use the bathroom in my old attic bedroom, seen as Mary and the kids were using the main one.

Five minutes seemed to last for an eternity.

I exited the bathroom and perched on my old bedroom windowsill to wait, where the skull’s jar had once sat. I had never imagined that ten years later he’d been hanging around with everyone downstairs, annoying them all with his comments that, once upon a time, only I had been able to hear.

I looked around the room. Over in that corner, Annie Ward’s ghost had once hovered over her fallen locket that I’d taken from her corpse, and it was where Lockwood and I had fought her off with an iron children’s mobile. I wondered if he still had that.

The bed, that was where Lockwood had left his mother’s necklace for me. The symbol of love and devotion that I still wore around my neck to this day. Now I was waiting to find out if I’d be having his child.

Oh, how times change.

How we’d grown.

The timer on my phone chimed to alert me that five minutes was up. I took a deep breath. I looked at the test.

Two bands.

“We need to put the milk and cookies out for Santa!” Sophie insisted, trying to prolong bedtime as long as possible. “And carrots for the reindeer!”

“Santa doesn’t like milk,” said Skully. “Santa likes beer.”

“I think Santa’s a little more partial to red wine, actually,” said Holly.

I shot them both an unimpressed look. “I don’t think Santa should be drinking and driving.”

“Alcohol’s gross anyway,” said Charlie. “Santa would probably prefer chocolate milk.”

“I’m pretty sure ‘Santa’ is lactose intolerant,” said Skully.

“Only a little,” said Charlie. “And it’s Christmas, so Santa’s allowed.”

“I think we should compromise and give Santa Bailey’s,” said George.

“With an extra drop of whiskey, perhaps,” his mother added.

“Ooh, Santa does like Bailey’s,” said Mary.

Sophie was looking very confused. My friends were all terrible people.

I ignored all of them and poured Santa a glass of coke, which I allowed Sophie to put on the mantelpiece.

“There,” said Mary. “Now bed. Michael’s already asleep coz he’s a good boy.”

“But mummyyy,” Sophie whined, “I wanna see Santa!”

“Santa won’t come if he knows you’re awake,” said Mary.

“Santa eats the children who stay awake,” said Skully. Sophie stared at him in horror.

“NO! No, he doesn’t!” I said.

“No, you’re right,” said Skully, thoughtfully. “I’m thinking of his brother.”

“No one eats children!” I said firmly. “He’s just trying to scare you, Sophie.”

Suddenly, there came the sounded of a loud bang from above. Outside, snow began to fall and the water vapour on the window crystallised into intricate patterns that spread across the glass.

“Uh oh,” said Skully, “looks like he’s here already. You better go to bed before he eats you.”

Sophie squealed and ran out of the room, clambering up the stairs to George’s old room where she and Michael would be sleeping. Mary gave me a confused look before going after her to tuck her in and make sure she wasn’t scarred for life.

I turned to Skully and crossed my arms, unimpressed. “You better not have broken anything.”

“Just knocked over a bookshelf, no biggie,” he said, shrugging.

“In the attic?” I said. “You remember you’re sleeping in there, right?”

He waved his hand dismissively. “I’ll sort it out before bed.”

Barnes and Mrs Cubbins went home shortly afterwards, saying they were too old to stay up as late as us ‘youths’, and the rest of us sat around playing games like scrabble and jenga and charades, like hard-core ‘youths’ do.

We decided that the forfeit for losing anything was to eat one of the cookies, which, aside from nearly breaking my teeth, tasted about as nice as I would imagine a cookie that had been shoved up Satan’s arsehole to taste like. To put it simply, they weren’t the best.

As it turned out, Skully and Charlie had both learned some sign language for the occasions when Charlie became non-verbal due to stress, something none of us knew until after they’d won every single game of charades. Cheats.

After that, we just ended up doing our own things. Mary gossiped away to Quill about people he’d never heard of, and he listened attentively, probably just glad to not be the only extra wheel. George and Flo battled each other on Mario Kart, while Holly and Rani spun each other around by the fire to Christmas tunes, all giggly.

“Care for a dance, Luce?” Lockwood asked me.

“Maybe later,” I told him. Skully had wandered off and had been gone a good half hour now. It always worried me when he did that.

I found him lying on the floor in the library. Thankfully, Charlie was with him, as were Apollo and Artemis. Artemis was lying beneath the Christmas tree, pawing at the ornaments, while Apollo had draped himself over Skully’s chest. Charlie had set up their laptop by Skully’s head, which was playing a Christmas film, and they were sat on his other side, doodling on his arm which rested on their lap.

The tip of the felt pen rose and fell over the single raised scar that marred Skully’s arm, as Charlie drew crude little stars and hearts and skulls in bright green ink.

“Alright down there?” I asked as I took a seat on the floor beside Charlie and watched them draw. It was strangely soothing.

“I don’t get why the Whos hate the Grinch,” said Skully, not taking his eyes off the computer screen. “He’s so relatable.”

“They’re probably just racist,” I replied.

“Probably.”

“Done,” said Charlie, putting the lid back on the felt pen.

Skully raised his arm in front of his face to inspect the doodles. “Disgusting,” he said. “Do the other arm.”

“I want a go,” I said, picking up the pen.

“No, you’ll just draw a penis or something,” Skully protested.

“That’s something you’d do,” I said. “I’m way more mature.”

As I drew, Charlie lay down on their stomach by the tree and waggled some tinsel in front of Artemis for her to try and catch. “Can we get a cat, Skull?”

“We can barely remember to feed ourselves,” said Skully.

“But cats scream at you when they’re hungry,” Charlie reasoned.

“True,” said Skully. “We can check the shelters in January for all the discarded Christmas present kitties.”

“That’s sad,” said Charlie, sounding genuinely very upset for the shelter cats. “Stop being depressing.”

I put the cap back on the pen. “Finished!”

Skully inspected my drawing. “Okay, what is that if not a penis?”

“It’s a work of art,” I said. “All those years of life-drawing at art school have lead me to this moment.”

“I’m starting to think I’m a bad influence on you,” Skully said, trying to wipe off the dick drawing before he gave up and just pulled his sleeves back down. At least he seemed a little more chipper now.

Charlie’s phone chimed. “My brother’s outside,” they informed me.

“Does he not like knocking?” I said.

“I texted him not to in case he woke the children,” Charlie replied, reaching for their laptop to put away.

I stood up and went to let Charlie’s brother in.

The man standing in the doorway was definitely not what I expected, to say the least.

“You’re Charlie’s brother,” I blurted before I could stop myself.

He chuckled and rubbed the back of his head shyly. “Yeah, I guess we don’t look that much alike.”

That was an understatement. Where Charlie was short and slight, their brother was big and bulky. His biceps alone must have been about as thick as Charlie’s waist, and were heavily tattooed. Where Charlie’s eyes were sky blue, his were steely grey. Their hair was short and bronze and curly, his was long and black and tied back in a ponytail, with a beard to match.

He looked… kind of like he belonged in Asgard. And a voice behind me confirmed my suspicions.

“Lucas?”

“Quill?!” Lucas gasped, eyed widening in shock.

I heard the others scrambling in the living room before they appeared in the doorway, very unsubtly spying on the two men, who were now the centre of attention.

Quill looked down at the tacky, pom-pommed Christmas jumper that his grandma had knitted him, then back up to Lucas, a man who looked very much like an impossibly handsome Norse god, and swallowed, his face growing redder by the second. “Uhh… W-what are you doing here?”

“I–”

He was cut short by Charlie entering the hallway from the library, with their backpack slung over their shoulders and Skully at their heels. “Lucas!”

“Hey, kiddo! Long time, no see,” Lucas greeted, his face splitting into a huge grin as he yanked his sibling into a bone-crushing hug that pulled them off their feet.

“Eek! Nonono. This is why I don’t like hugs!” Charlie squealed, wiggling in his grasp until he dropped them, quite unceremoniously, on the floor and ruffled their hair, making the curls stick up at odd angles.

Quill’s eyes darted between Charlie and Lucas, then to Skully, who was leaning against the library doorway, grinning sadistically at Quill. I had a feeling he’d known exactly who Quill’s crush was ever since Rani had first mentioned him.

“I am not a child!” Charlie protested, batting Lucas’s hand away. “I am a grown adult!”

“Uh, no,” said Lucas. “If you’re an adult, that means I’m definitely an adult, and I’m just not ready to accept that reality yet.”

“You’ve been an adult for well over a decade now,” Charlie reminded him.

“Hush,” said Lucas. “Now, wait here while I talk to Quill for a sec.”

Charlie glanced back at Quill, who was standing very awkwardly in the middle of the hall, obviously very aware of everyone’s eyes on him.

“But mum and dad are expecting us by half-past,” they said. “We have to go.”

“You got everything?” said Lucas. That did it; Charlie immediately opened their backpack to check, giving Lucas a chance to slip into the kitchen with Quill.

Rani was eying the closed kitchen doorway, a mischievous glint in her eyes. “Mary?” she said. “You still got that mistletoe?”

Mary caught her eye and grinned. “Say no more,” she said, retrieving the little plastic plant from her pocket and handing it to her giraffe of a brother-in-law to hang silently above the doorway.

“Quill is going to murder you,” I said in a hushed voice, trying to fight the smile attempting to make its way onto my lips.

When the kitchen door opened, and Quill saw what was dangling above him, he turned, if possible, even redder than he already had been. Lucas’s cheeks turned a little pink, too.

“Y-you don’t have to!” Quill spluttered. “It’s just my friends being idiots! They–”

He was cut short when Lucas pressed a quick kiss to his cheek. “See ya New Year’s Eve, yeah?”

“Y-yeah,” Quill squeaked, looking like he was about to collapse any second.

Lucas walked down the hallway, picked up Charlies bag with one hand, and slung Charlie themself over his shoulder with the other.

“I wasn’t done!” Charlie protested, thrashing their legs about.

“I am one hundred percent sure you remembered everything,” said Lucas. “Hometime. Mum and dad are expecting us.”

I opened the door for them and Lucas stepped out into the snow and headed towards his car.

“Merry Christmas!” Lockwood called after them.

“Happy Holidays!” Lucas called back.

Skully flipped Charlie off in lieu of a goodbye, as is the way with close friends, and they returned the gesture before Lucas plonked them down onto the roof of his car and made a show of pretending to try and drive off while they were still there.

We watched the car drive away, with Charlie safely in the passenger seat, and as soon as I shut the door, everyone turned to Quill.

“What did he say? What did he say?” Holly squealed, almost hopping up and down with excitement.

“Did he ask you out?” Lockwood asked, grinning from ear to ear.

“Ooh, what’s that in your hand?” Rani crowed.

“Gimme, gimme!” Mary cried, lunging for the piece of paper which Quill quickly yanked away and held above his head. It wasn’t very effective, as Flo came up behind him and swiftly plucked it out of his grip.

“A number,” she said, smirking.

George took the paper as Quill tried to grab it back and pushed his glasses further up his nose to inspect it. “And a time and address,” he said. “Looks like Quill, here, has a date.”

“Shut up, all of you!” Quill seethed, face glowing as red as Rudolph’s nose. “It’s not like it’s a big deal or anything!”

“Of course it’s a big deal!” Holly cried. “Our little Quill’s growing up.”

“I am older than everyone here,” he reminded her.

“And yet, most of them are married, and you’re not,” said Skully.

Quill turned to glare at him. “You could have warned me, arsehole.”

“Hey,” said Skully, holding up his hands in defence. “I’m sure there are many guys your age called Lucas fitting the exact description Flo gave us. How was I supposed to know?”

“You absolute–”

“Hey,” Lockwood interrupted. “No harm done. You got his number!”

“I looked like a complete idiot in front of him,” Quill wailed, gesturing towards his jumper.

“I’m sure he found it endearing,” Holly reasoned.

“Oh, sure, that’s exactly what I wanted,” said Quill. “The guy appears out of nowhere looking like an actual god, but at least I look endearing.”

“So, you gonna call him?” Rani teased.

Quill plucked the paper out of George’s hands and pocketed it. “That’s none of your concern. Oh, by the way, I can’t come to your New Year’s Eve party, Luce. I have a date with a hot guy.”

“Traitor,” I said, but I was grinning at him.

My friends slowly dispersed after that, heading home to their own families before it got too late. Hugs were exchanged, Holly gave us all a kiss on the cheek, Skully even said goodbye to George fairly civilly before going to demolish the rest of the Bailey’s now that Charlie wasn’t there to tame him.

“Want some, Luce?” he asked.

“Nah, I’m good.”

“What’s this?” said Mary. “My sister denying Bailey’s? Are you feeling quite alright?”

I just stuck my tongue out at her.

Mary was in bed by eleven, exhausted from all the socialising and handling the kids. Artemis and Apollo were curled up, fast asleep, on the sofa, and Skully was dropping off not long after; for all his big talk, alcohol only made him sleepy.

“Come on, you mess,” Lockwood told him, slinging Skully’s arm around his shoulders to take him up to bed.

While I waited for him to come back, I fiddled about with the radio, trying to find a good song.

‘Have yourself a merry little Christmas,’

“Oh, I love this song!” Lockwood said upon returning.

I smiled and held out a hand to him. “Come on. I owe you a dance.”

‘Let your heart be light,’

He grinned at me and made a show of a great, sweeping bow, before taking my hand and twirling me around.

‘From now on our troubles will be out of sight,’

I giggled and wound my arms around his shoulders as he tugged me in by my waist. Our noses brushed together as we swayed in a circle, and the lights on the Christmas tree twinkled gently.

‘Have yourself a merry little Christmas,’

On the mantelpiece, the clock struck midnight.

“Happy Christmas, Lucy.”

“Happy Christmas, Anthony.”

‘Make the yuletide gay,’

“How would you feel about having your present now?”

“Depends on what it is.”

“Remember your mobile?” I said. “The one with the smiley giraffe?”

“What about it?”

“We might need to get that out again.”

He frowned at me. “What for?”

‘From now on, our troubles will be miles away,’

His dark eyes glittered as they reflected the lights on the tree. His fringe had fallen into his face when he’d bowed. I raised my hand and brushed it out of the way.

“Anthony,” I said. The right words were difficult to find, so I just went for it. “I’m pregnant.”

He stopped dancing. “You… you’re… what?”

He looked just like a deer caught in headlights. I let out a little breathy laugh. “Pregnant,” I repeated. “You’re gonna be a dad.”

He stared at me, like the words were taking a while to process. “I’m… gonna be a dad.” He laughed, short and breathless, a slight, surprised smile gracing his lips. “I’m gonna be a dad,” he repeated, more certainly. “You’re gonna be a mum.”

He kissed me then. And again and again. On the mouth, forehead, cheeks, nose. He couldn’t seem to stop smiling, and I couldn’t either.

“Oh, don’t start,” I said, wiping a thumb under his damp eyes and sniffling. “You’ll set me off.”

“I can’t help it,” he said. “We’re gonna be amazing, you and me. I love you so much, Lucy.”

“I love you, too, you big goon,” I told him.

We were back to swaying along to the music now, holding each other tight with huge smiles on our faces and teary eyes like two soppy, very in-love idiots.

‘Faithful friends who are dear to us, gather near to us once more,’

I’d tell the others soon, of course. But maybe give it a few weeks. Have something just to ourselves for a little while.

‘Through the years, we all will be together, if the fates allow,’

They’d be so excited. My big happy family. Even Skully, though I knew he’d pretend not to be. Mary would probably blurt it out to the rest of the Carlyles as soon as I told her. I wondered how my mother would react.

‘Hang a shining star upon the highest bow,’

I tucked my head into Lockwood’s shoulder. Now wasn’t the time to start overthinking things. Now was the time to enjoy Christmas with my husband. Our last Christmas together without children of our own. Next year, the Carlyle-Lockwood household would be so much busier.

And I was so excited.

‘And have yourself a merry little Christmas now.’

The Incident

#this is tHE SOPPIEST THING I'VE EVER WRITTEN YOURE WELCOME #its also kinda a mess but im tired so soz #lockwood and co #lockwood & co #locklyle #lucewood #jonathan stroud #fanfic #fanfiction #my fic #validate me in the tags #lemme know what you think of my OCs #this aint the best fic i've ever written but still #k n'night #ily all #merry christmas #unless you don't celebrate christmas #in which case i wish you all the best #rowan writes

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