#(i just have to finish this giant packet first)

[gothamite-rambler]

"Let's make some water!"

Stephanie: Let's make some water together! Follow me! First you get your flavor packets! Flavor packets:

Tim: Flavor packets?

Dick: Where's the water?

Jason: How do you make water? What does that even mean? Just go to the faucet.

Stephanie: Silent! Next you get your cup!

Stephanie: You following me, camera guy?

Tim: There's no camera in here.

Bruce: Just let her do her thing.

Stephanie: Thank you, now you fill the cup with lots of ice!

Stephanie slides over the bucket with ease. She scoops the ice in.

Stephanie: Now we-

Jason: We haven't even gotten to the water part.

Stephanie: I'm at that step! I said silence! Next is the agua. Bottled agua!

Stephanie pulls out a giant bottle of Poland springs water, unscrews the top and pours into the cup. Everyone except Bruce and Damian look on confused.

Stephanie: We toss the bottle-

Alfred, appearing and leaving quickly: In the trash.

Stephanie chuckles nervously and tosses the bottle in the trash and not the floor like she had planned.

Stephanie: Right in the trash, not the ground. All right, we get our flavor packet-

Dick (pointing at the cup shaking): But it's already water. You already made water.

Tim: Still confused on that. The ice is water too so you made more water?

Jason: You're not going to put that sugar in the water are you?

Stephanie (her left eye twitching): Bruce.

Bruce: Shut up until she finishes, children. I will lower your allowances if you speak before she does show us this.

Dick: ...

Jason: ...

Tim: I don't even get paid, but whatever.

Stephanie: Thank you. Where was I? Oh, right, flavor packets! One flavor packet? Two flavor packets? No, three! One orange and two purple.

Damian claps in support of Stephanie as she rips open the packets and pours the orange one in first.

Stephanie: Now we do a little stir with our trusty straw.

Stephanie pulls out a hot pink metallic straw.

Tim: I-

Jason slaps his hand over the man's mouth, he wasn't losing that $5,000.

Stephanie: Purple packs. Pour, pour, pour, and I stir a little. Stir, stir. Annnnd, finished!

Stephanie took a sip from her metal pink straw. Stephanie nods satisfied. She makes this gesture 👌🏾

Stephanie: Perfect!

Tim, eyes dart to Bruce.

Bruce: You may talk.

Tim: Where's the water? Where's the water! I ask once more...

Tim (breathing heavy): Where's the water?! Cuz all I see is that you made Kool-Aid!

Stephanie (offended): That's not what I did! It's flavored water.

Tim: It's not even that- Someone else go.

Tim rubs his head frustrated.

Jason: That stopped being water when you put in the "orange and purple packets". Your freaking voice there sounded like a valley girl.

Stephanie: No you are not the type of people that decide to call this not water because I happen to put in flavor packets!

Dick (upset): It's not!

Stephanie: Bruce says it is!

The Wayne boys stare at their father.

Bruce: It's technically still water and it taste good. I'm not going to deny that.

Stephanie: If B agrees with it, then it's officially canon!

Damian: Can I try some then?

Stephanie: Of course you can, because I happened to have a second prepared in the fridge.

Stephanie brings out the second "water" that looks like fruit punch, but it's not because she says it's not! Damian claps again admiring her planning.

Damian took the glass, shrugged and took a sip.

Damian: Hm... Yummy, flavorful, I like it.

Damian and Bruce clap.

Stephanie: Yes! It's low calorie too.

Dick (holding his head down): You stupid... water has no calories you added calories!

Tim: Is this a thing? Did we miss a stupid thing?!

Jason takes the second glass and chugs it without the straw.

Jason: I pretend that it's water, to be nice, but wow that is so sugary!

Stephanie (indignant): Excuse me for not wanting to drink plain water which tastes awful sometimes.

Tim (losing his patience): You- I- You- I can't talk. I actually can't talk. I drink coffee, coffee is not just brown water!

Stephanie (rolling her eyes): Mm, that would be really weird to call it brown water... look who's the idiot now.

She takes a sip from her water while giving the boy a judgemental look

Damian chuckles.

Damian: That's you Tim. She's making fun of you.

Tim: Ha ha I'm leaving. This was a waste of my time.

Tim leaves.

Dick (follows but turns around quickly to say): Also how do you say water tastes bad? It's meant to replenish the body, not have a Kool-Aid flavor! Strange, strange person!

He leaves.

Jason: Hm, well I do drink Vitamin water, so I'll give this a shot.

Bruce: She uses a lot of packets, you might find one that you like the most.

Jason: What's yours?

Bruce: Kiwi strawberry I think.

Damian: I want whatever this is.

Stephanie: Welcome to the good side boys.

[quartzalynlove]

Spidey Sense

Pairing: hobie brown x Fem! Reader

Summary: hobie shows up at your place

A/n: I don't think this is my best but I need this man biblically.

Was this finals week or your final week? You couldn't remember the last time you didn't have fun on a weekend. All you did once school let out on Friday was work through review packets given by your teachers. Currently, you were halfway through the chemistry papers.

It was Sunday afternoon and there was still plenty of work to do. Time for a break was yet to be seen on the horizon. Your brain was on autopilot as your hand absently scribbled across the paper and words slightly blurred as they reached your eyes. A band of tension was tight around your head; you knew a break was probably in order, but you couldn't take one. Not yet.

The chemistry packet was finally finished, and the history one began. By this point your eyelids were heavy while your brain struggled to stay on task. With a sigh, you hunched over your desk and inspected the first question harder, as if that would make it easier to work.

After a while, you finally got the first question. But before you could start the next one, you saw the bright sunlight shining in your room become partially blocked from your peripheral vision. You brushed it off, assuming it was only a plane or something until knuckles rapped against your window. With your attention caught, you whipped your head around to see Spider-Man holding a brown paper bag while crouched on the fire escape.

Confused, you finally left your chair to open your window, but not giving Hobie access inside.

Hobie looked at both of your hands pressed against the sides of your window then back at you.

"You gon' let me in, babe?"

With your lips pressed together, you shook your head. "Come back in like an hour thirty, Hobie."

The eyes of Hobie's mask squinted as he look around in feigned thought.

"But like what if I come in now?"

"I'm almost done with my work," you sighed. "We can do whatever after that."

"You still workin' on that?" He asked, tilting his head.

Another sigh left you as you brought a hand to your forehead, attempting to ease your growing headache.

"Yeah." You answered quietly.

Hobie didn't just swing by because he felt like it, even if he was missing hanging out with you all weekend. Ever since Friday, he had an odd feeling crawling over his skin that he couldn't shake. At first, he suspected it had something to do with President Osborne and his regime, but after some investigation Hobie found the dictator was still hiding after their last battle. It wasn't until he made his rounds through the city, and stopped a mugging close to your apartment, that Hobie realized. The crawling vibrated right through him, and it was all coming from you.

"Got a headache?" Hobie asked.

You kept your eyes squeezed shut. "Yeah."

"That the same shirt you took from my place Friday?" He looked at you in the distressed, blue sleeveless t-shirt that he knew was his.

"Maybe." You fiddled with the hem of his shirt.

"You eat anything since lunch yesterday?"

You fell silent for a moment as you looked at Hobie; you could see his dumb smile under his mask.

"Thought so."

Coming through the opening you made when your hand left the window, Hobie held the bag he had in front of you. You took it as he entered further into your room and removed his mask. Inside was your regular order from the local deli and a bottle of water. Hobie smirked as he heard the bag crinkle when you plunged your hand inside. He was at your desk looking over the absurd amount of work that you had been doing.

"History and trig? Baby, I could do this." Hobie offered, turning to you.

Shaking your head, you tried to get down the giant bite of sandwich you took. "No, I need to do those to pass my finals."

Hobie didn't listen, taking your pencil and scrawling through a few questions on the packets.

"The education system is just twelve years of teaching children how to conform to society and not question authority." He shrugged.

You laughed slightly at Hobie as you made your way next to him. As you leaned against Hobie, you took your pencil out of his hand and looked up at him.

"Yeah, but, I still wanna go to college."

Hobie hummed, nodding his head, "Hm...and I want that too because you want it," he brought his index finger to his chin as he took a brief thought. "Take a break, then."

With the smile on his face, you knew Hobie's idea of a break for you was cuddling and ignoring both of your responsibilities. While it didn't sound like a terrible idea, your first final was tomorrow. You could take a break when the work was finished.

You linked your arm around Hobie's. "Baby, thank you for the sandwich, but I swear, I'm almost done then we can do whatever you want."

With furrowed brows, Hobie brought his free hand over his chest. "This ain't 'bout me, babe, I said you need a break."

Before you could attempt to shoo him off again, Hobie made his argument for why he should stay.

"Ever since Friday, I've had the most bonkers feeling that I just couldn't figure out. But I was swingin' round here earlier when it hit me. You aren't taking proper care of yourself."

You looked up at Hobie with a puzzled look as a small laugh left your throat. "So you got spidey sense about me?"

Hobie shrugged. "Guess so."

"I didn't think it worked like that." You smirked.

"I ain't got Scooby-Doo."

You let go of Hobie and looked up into his eyes. "Well, if the spidey sense says I need a break, I guess these last two packets can wait."

As you took another bit of your sandwich, Hobie kissed your forehead.

[awarmbowlofhomemadesoup]

There’s some weird dissonance reading Leosagi fics first before watching Samurai Rabbit: The Usagi Chronicles. I mean it, I enjoyed the fics, truly. But some of them made Yuichi more like Miyamoto Usagi than himself (and I’m not saying it’s a bad thing). It’s just funny after finishing 2 seasons of SRTUC because:

While Miyamoto Usagi has a resting bitch face, Yuichi did NOT inherit it. Yuichi has a resting space face when he’s not getting excited about his ancestor or Yokai.

2. He wants to be like his ancestor so bad, but he’s just too wholesome.

3. A lot of people have already said this in a lot of posts, but dude is a disaster (affectionate):

Whooping and swinging his sword and yelling he doesn’t need a sensei after making a promise to his auntie that he would find one and treat the sword with respect.

Almost got run over by heavy traffic (and is not aware of it)

Pissed off every single one of his would-be friends who were ready to beat him up.

Was given a wide selection of mystical weapons, and ended up with a yoyo because he got distracted by it. 

AND went to jail. That’s just his first day in Neo Edo. 

He is not easily distracted, he's "momentarily focused" on other things ("oh look, a bird!")

Went into a self-induced drug trip after trying so hard to meditate

4. While Yuichi can be spacey and distractible, he’s already a skilled swordsman with good instincts and reflexes. What he lacked was experience and something to temper his one-track mind.

5. When the show said he’s “all ears, no brain,” they meant it. Guy keeps syrup packets in his pockets so that he’s always prepared. (for desserts, ig) 

6. “All ears, no brain,” was said within his hearing range and it just went through his head because he’s too excited about fighting yokai like his great-great-greatx grandpa.

7. Has the selfishness and self-centeredness of someone with ADHD (and I’m not saying that’s a bad thing). He can be so caught up in wanting to be a hero, he would sometimes not listen to his friends, or hog the mission for a chance to be remembered for a thousand years.  

8. He wants to be the main character so bad:

Jumped into conclusions with Gen and made a wanted person escape.

Attacks yokai on sight to live out his fantasy of being like Miyamoto Usagi

Tries to pilot a giant robot and did well for 1.5 seconds.

Risks his life more than once by making contact with a giant magic crystal that could’ve burned him alive with too much power.

He’s goddamn lucky his show is for a younger audience or he’d be traumatized along with Leo (and his bros) from rottmnt, Luz from TOH, and MK from Lego Monkie Kid. 

9. Likes one-liners because it’s like in his comics/manga of his greatx grandpa. (”Put down the pig, or I’ll put down the hurt -wait, I can do better than that.”)

10. But yeah, all of that and he’s still a polite and considerate kid who sincerely wants to help people and his friends and will do the right thing because it’s the right thing to do. 

Saves the three people who were going to beat him up.

Got delighted when the three people who were ready to beat him up were there to rescue him. (”Are we friends now? :D”)

Wants to hug them in the first hour of meeting them.

Somehow convinced one of the most terrifying yokai to be his sensei.

Would babble about yokai in the middle of fighting one.

Risks the city for an alien.

Like I know some people can’t stand its animation. It’s not the best, but it’s not bad either. Anyway, this is the Yuichi Usagi that I have known from the show and I’m glad I’ve met him. 

[writing-house-of-m]

Sexy Sokovian Fortune Teller

Wanda Maximoff x Reader

Genre: Fluff

Warnings: None

Word count: 565

Summary: You want to ask Wanda out at the annual Stark Halloween Costume Party

A/N: This is for a 25 sentence prompt challenge set by @vancityfire13 and @runawayswrite - technically I'm late but I wanted to finish and post it 😬

Let me know what you think and I hope you enjoy!

Natasha Romanoff is a fucking liar. 

She told you Wanda would notice you if you were wearing the sweetest costume, but all night she's been talking to Vision and every time you have tried to speak to her when she has been alone, he would pop up out of nowhere. 

You consider the party a dud because It's been hours of the wrong people making conversation with you so you decide to leave. 

Catching your own reflection in the mirror that made the back wall of the elevator you stepped into, made you think a little bit clearer. Maybe you took 'sweetest' a little too literally. Why would any sane person want to speak to someone dressed as a giant sugar packet for a Halloween party? 

Just as the doors are about to close, someone enters and you hear "Hi Y/n." 

She's here, in the elevator, Wanda, with you, alone. 

You manage to squeak out a reply but keep your eyes forward staring at the closing doors, you did not get a chance to mentally prepare for this. 

"I've been trying to get to you all night, I just couldn't get away," she says, turning to you smiling. 

You raise an eyebrow in surprise and she continues, "I like your costume, it's different compared to everyone else's usual 'sexy-whatever-character'. Maybe we could have been salt and pepper shakers or something together instead of me going with," she points to her red outfit with her gloved hands, "sexy Sokovian fortune teller." 

The words are coming out of your mouth before you can even stop yourself, "No I think your costume is great!" 

You gather yourself by clearing your throat, "It's just you- you look really pretty Wanda." 

A blush takes over her cheeks as she smiles from your words but you have already averted your gaze to the floor in embarrassment from your outburst to even notice. 

You continue the short elevator ride with small talk; Wanda joking about how "sweet" your costume is, making you laugh, to Pietro disappearing once he found Monica; you both continue while you walk to your rooms that are across from each other. 

As Wanda says goodnight and turns to her door you force yourself to speak up once more before she walks through. 

"Wanda, I wanted to ask," she turns to look at you, "err, would you like to go out with me? Not today, obviously, maybe tomorrow, actually that might be too soon, how about next week or maybe in a couple of days, I'm not really sure whe-" 

"I'd love that," Wanda cuts in to stop your rambling, "tomorrow sounds great." 

"Oh, ok, cool cool cool," you release a breath, relaxing your tense shoulders, smiling sheepishly. 

You say goodnight to each other again and when you rest your head that night it's about all the possibilities of a future with the girl who's always been so close but so far out of reach in your mind. 

You smile remembering she said yes. 

The first of many yeses that would take place over the years including one at the altar when you begin the rest of your life together. 

She even said yes the following year when you showed her the couples costumes you had picked out for the annual Halloween party - Salt and Pepper shakers (you didn't need to ask Nat for advice this time around). 

[aniron48]

Love Letters - Day 5

Welcome to Day 5 (!!!) of Love Letters, a 00q choose your own adventure! We're in the home stretch, friends--as a reminder, we'll wrap up on the evening of 2/14, around 9ish EST. If you're joining for the first time, you can catch up here: Day 1 Day 2 Day 3 Day 4

And for those who have been here for the long haul, come see how your voting turned out! Day 5 starts below the cut. 😁

He just had to make one more stop.

Bond arrived in Q Branch to find Q underneath the hood of one of his cars.

“James,” Q said, straightening up at his approach. He rubbed ineffectually at the engine grease on his cheek, only succeeding in smearing it further. “I didn’t know you were stopping by.”

“Why in god’s name do we have a Ford Fiesta?” Bond asked, leaning against one of the work benches.

“Believe it or not, some of the agents actually appreciate being inconspicuous on their missions. You should try it some time.” Q reached for a rag to clean off his hands. “Are you here just to see me, or...?”

“Just to see you,” Bond confirmed. He held up a bag from the Thai place down the block. “I’ve brought lunch.”

It had been meals like this one that brought them together in the first place. Bond had learned early on that Q, in many respects, was not dissimilar to a giant panda: both of them had to eat almost constantly in order to survive, and like the panda, if left to his own devices, Q’s natural diet was almost entirely devoid of nutritional value, consisting of sour gummy worms, liters of tea, and whatever biscuits he could scrounge from the break room. 

He and Bond had barely been friends, in those early weeks after Skyfall—there was a newly-forged trust, and a certain grudging respect, but that had been it. But one afternoon, Q had nearly fainted while fitting Bond for a holster. Bond had stormed down the street to the nearest Tesco, returned to throw a sandwich, an apple, and a packet of digestives at Q’s head, and had stayed in his office until he’d finished them. Before he knew it, he’d fallen into a pattern of bringing Q meals whenever he was in London.

Bond couldn’t pinpoint exactly when these lunches with Q had become the thing that felt most like home to him—more than his empty flat, more than the ruins of Skyfall, more, even, than the halls of MI6 itself. It had happened gradually, a slow thawing of the frozen earth under the relentless advance of spring. And then one day, a few months back, he’d leaned in to wipe a bit of curry from Q’s face, and Q, misreading Bond’s intention, had kissed him.

Bond had never been a selfless man. Self-sacrificing, maybe; reckless with his life and well-being, certainly. But he was selfish at his core, incapable of denying himself the things he wanted most—first MI6; then Vesper; and now Q—curling around them instead like a dragon with his secret hoard. And so he’d kissed Q back, that night, instead of letting him go; kissed him, and gone home with him, and stayed.

Bond lingered over the takeaway containers after lunch, gathering them up to take them to the bins.

“Is everything all right?” Q asked.

“Yes. Everything’s fine. Why do you ask?”

Q smiled, but didn’t answer, reaching out to smooth at the furrow between Bond’s eyebrows with his thumb.

“I’m all right. I just wanted to say…” Bond scrubbed a hand over his face, the words he’d planned suddenly out of reach.

Q sat down on the edge of his desk, his grey-green eyes on Bond as he continued.

“It’s about what you said, the other night, after the movie. I know you didn’t want to talk about it, then—maybe you still don’t. But I wanted you to know—it isn’t just you. I’ve never had a love letter, either, as it happens. I should have told you that night, but I’m telling you now, because I need you to know that any���any lack that you’ve experienced has nothing to do with you. It’s certainly nothing to do with who you are. It’s not a fair world, nor a particularly kind one, in my experience. And if it comes down to whether there’s something wrong with you or something wrong with the world, then the answer is the world. Unquestionably.”

He’d had more to say—at least, he thought he did. But Q was on him, then, knocking the empty takeaway containers out of his hands and kissing him within an inch of his life, and anything else was forgotten.

He wrote the letter in Q’s flat that night, sneaking out of bed while Q slept, the cats curled around his feet. He sat at the kitchen table, the light from the moon coming in the window, and wrote until he’d said all he had to say. He had one last surprise up his sleeve, however, and for that, he needed to go to Bath.

You've probably noticed that Bond did, in fact, write the letter at the end of this segment! If you're wondering how this outcome differs from if you'd picked "sit down and write the letter," the spoiler-free answer is that you would have gotten to read the text of Bond's letter to Q a little bit earlier. You'll just have to wait a little bit longer... 👀

[oddlittlestories]

Trick or treat! Prompt 3 looks amazing :)

:-D I get to write a genuine creepypasta! This is turning out longer than I expected, so I’ll post it in parts as I write.

Part 1 of prompt 3 below the cut!

The Warping Ward, Part I

Kutner rubbed his eyes. He loved coffee���he loved caffeine of any kind—but it didn’t keep him up. Sugar helped, but he’d just eaten the last of the Halloween candy he had here. Time for a snack break. He smacked the spacebar to pause the show on his laptop and shrugged, shaking out his shoulders and getting up from his seat.

Down the hall in the break room, he’d stashed a jumbo sized bag of cheese puffs. House wasn’t going to like him getting cheese puff orange all over the equipment, but, well, Kutner didn’t want to be here. Lose-lose? House had forced him to stay after hours. Maybe he should pay for it.

He stumbled into the break room, the low light casting shadows on the walls. It was a little eerie, maybe, but he liked being mostly alone in the hospital. Sometimes it was spooky but it was mostly just relaxing. Plus, he could take a quick walk to almost any other hallway if he needed people for some reason. And no one could tell him not to eat his snacks.

He knelt down to open the bottom cabinet, moving aside the cardboard box of serving silverware that covered his cheese puff hideout.

Nothing.

Kutner frowned, blinking. Either he ate it already, or someone found his snack stash. It wouldn’t be the first time he’d forgotten he already ate one of his snacks, but if someone on the team wad screwing with him, he’d really like to know. In the meantime, he scooted the silverware box back into his line of sight, taking out most of the giant spoons and forks with a clatter and rummaging around underneath the rest. C’mon… gummies… he had to have at least one more package, right?

Wrong.

Kutner sighed, glancing at the microwave. A little past 1 am. Too late for the Speedway across the road. And the twenty-four seven Wawa was too far if he wanted to finish this by the morning. He bit his lip. He hated stealing food, but he couldn’t do this without snacks. Kutner threw open the cabinets.

Most of the shelves were bare. There were no bags of chips, microwave popcorn… there were no snacks at all. There wasn’t even the fake creamer or packets of sugar for the tea.

The cabinets weren’t totally empty. On the top shelf were the big bowls, and on the bottom, all the usual mugs. But there was something off about the mugs. He squinted at them until it hit him. They were tucked in perfectly uniformly, all of the their handles turned forty-five degrees to the left. Weird.

Maybe they’d done a deep clean of the break room. Kutner yanked the fridge open, blinking in the bright light. Empty. Hmm.

Kutner rummaged in his pocket and opened his wallet. Okay, cool, had some cash, so desperate times called for desperate measures: the first floor vending machine.

The elevator always seemed to take longer at night, like it was coming from the top floor or something. Kutner pulled his yo-yo out of his pocket, swinging it around so it kept a comfortable tension on the string as he waited. The only light was from House’s office and, further down the hall, the lab and break room. Kutner shuffled impatiently, and tried a few real tricks. When the elevator doors slid open, the light very bright and cool in the warmly dim hallway, he didn’t want to stop, so he kept playing, sending the yo-yo down the string as he stepped into the elevator. It flew further than he meant, hitting the mirror with a resounding crack. Oh crap—he grabbed it frantically with both hands, wincing. He squinted at the mirror. Was it broken? No. Okay, good.

When he got to the first floor, it was unusually quiet, so hopefully no one would interrupt him. Kutner liked to chat but tonight he was a man on a mission. He turned right and slipped around the corner to the vending machine nook. It stood there in yellow light, humming softly, and had absolutely nothing in it, the silver springs painfully empty.

Crap.

This was weird right? Well, he had one more move if he wanted to finish this all by morning. He needed those snacks. Kutner pulled out his phone and dialed Thirteen’s number.

She answered right away, laughing. The soundtrack of a movie was playing in the background. “Hey, what’s up? We’re doing a movie marathon.”

“Who’s we?”

“Me and Chase.”

“What, are you dating or something?”

“Ew, gross,” she answered.

Kutner could barely hear Chase protesting, “I’m not gross.”

“I’m on the phone,” Thirteen whispered, mock sanctimoniously. “What’s up?” she asked again.

“Can you bring snacks down to the hospital for me?”

“House wants you to do the labs alone. Why should I come all the way down there?” It was an almost-genuine question, even if it was sarcastic.

“Uh… because it’s fun?”

“Snacks are fun. But we already have snacks.” She was half teasing him, half daring him to come up with a reason that was actually good. “Cutting into our horror movie marathon to run an errand to a place we already spend too much time at? Not so fun.”

Crap. She wanted him to make it worth her while, but how? He’d traded in his last favor with Thirteen to get out of Saturday clinic duty. The comic book signing had been totally worth it, but now what? She didn’t owe him a favor. He didn’t have any dirt he could trade. There was only one way.

He sighed. “I’ll owe you one.”

Kutner could hear her wolfish grin through the phone, and he could already tell he was going to pay for it. “We’ll be there in fifteen.”

Muffled, he heard Chase add, “Make that twenty.” The line went dead.

Kutner wandered back up to the lab and hit the spacebar. He could watch nearly a whole episode before they got here, so he might as well try to get some more lab work done.

Kutner adjusted the microscope and leaned forward, looking down at the next slide. He’d barely had a chance to adjust the magnification when his phone buzzed. It was a text from Thirteen. “We’re here, but the door is locked. Come break us in?”

Kutner blinked. No way they could’ve gotten here that fast. He looked back to his computer. Sure enough, it was at the end of the episode. Twenty minutes had passed. He shook his head, trying to wrap his brain around what had happened. He didn’t think he’d dissociated—he felt pretty good, actually. Maybe he’d just fallen asleep? Hmm. Nothing he could do about it. He got a move on and was downstairs as quick as he could, pushing open the front door to catch the tail end of a long conversation.

“—Witch Project was the most boring horror movie I’ve ever seen.” Thirteen smiled at Kutner, striding through the door. She held out a giant sized cheese puff bag like she was triumphantly rescuing him—which she was.

“It was artistic!” Chase protested, following her. His arms were wrapped around a huge, crappy grocery store bag full to bursting with snacks, but he managed a small emphatic gesture with one hand.

Thirteen shook off the cold as the door shut behind them. “Run Lola Run is artistic. In Bruges is artistic.”

“I’ve never even heard of those.” Chase protested.

“I liked Blair Witch Project,” Kutner said. “It was creepy. Besides, without Blair Witch Project, you never get…” he trailed off as he saw concern cross Thirteen’s face. “What?”

“Where is everyone?” she asked.

“Everyone, who?” Kutner wasn’t totally sure what she meant.

“Everyone who runs the hospital?”

Chase frowned, looking around. “It is really empty in here.”

“No,” Thirteen corrected, “it’s completely empty in here.”

“There were cars in the parking lot,” Chase pointed out.

“Isn’t there usually a night person here at the front desk?”

Kutner shrugged. “I have no idea.”

Thirteen frowned, wheels turning in her head. “ER‘s not that close to here, and the clinic is closed this late. But… are you sure you didn’t miss something?”

“Like what?”

Thirteen hesitated. “An evacuation?”

Kutner thought about it. The diagnostics office was pretty out of the way. And he’d obviously been out of it to somehow miss an entire episode of his show. “I guess it’s possible.”

Thirteen shook her head. “I’m jumping to conclusions. It’s probably nothing. So what if the hospital’s a little quiet? We should just go up to the diagnostics ward and not worry about it.”

Chase hefted the bag of snacks protectively. “Nah, let’s go check out the surgical ICU. There’s patients they couldn’t have evacuated.”

“Or evidence that they did,” Kutner added. It was a good idea.

“If we don’t find anyone, we should get out of here,” Chase said.

“Yeah, screw House’s tests,” Kutner agreed.

Chase pushed the elevator button.

“Shouldn’t we take the stairs?” Kutner asked.

Thirteen nodded, pushing open the stairwell door.

Chase sighed. “Thirteen,” he groaned, “Can’t you carry a few more things?”

Thirteen playfully dropped the door on him. “Hey!” he protested, using his shoulder to catch the door. “You’re gonna smash the snacks.”

“I’ll help you carry them,” Kutner offered, grabbing a few packages out of the the bag.

“Thanks!” Chase’s eyes lit up with a smile before he turned to race Thirteen up the stairs.

Thirteen stepped neatly ahead of Chase so that he couldn’t get ahead of her. Kutner trailed ahead, wheels turning, and then it clicked.

They weren’t a couple at all. “Oh, I’m an idiot!”

“Yes,” Thirteen agreed firmly.

Chase paused to look at him. “Why?”

“You’re not dating. You’re basically siblings!”

“Um, yeah,” Chase deadpanned.

“C’mon, let’s go find the ICU team.” Thirteen pushed open the third floor door.

Kutner instantly knew something was wrong. The hall was semi-lit and silent, and the trio settled down as they walked. As they pushed open the doors to the ICU, Kutner began to worry. It was too quiet. Even if everyone was quieted down for the night, there should be monitors beeping, ventilators puffing, and the quiet hum of machinery.

He was right. The surgical ICU was completely empty. No one was at the nurse’s station. No one was in any of the rooms. The lights were on here, but it only highlighted how wrong this all was.

Every computer was off, the chairs neatly pushed in against the desks, stacks of paper organized neatly beside them. Every ICU bed was made, the equipment more perfectly set up than Kutner thought a hospital ward had ever been.

“This is too perfect. It’s creepy.”

“Even if they’d evacuated,” Chase whispered, “there should be signs. You’d expect a messy ICU, not a pristine one.”

“We should leave,” Thirteen said, her voice shaky.

They went back down the staircase without talking. Every step was too loud in the echoey stairwell, and Kutner kept glancing over his shoulder even though he didn’t think there was anything there.

Chase pushed at the front door only to find it locked from the inside. “That shouldn’t even be possible.”

Cold dread squirmed in Kutner’s chest. He glanced back at the lobby, scanning the upstairs overlook. It really didn’t feel like anyone was watching him, but he had the overwhelming sense that if he was too loud, it might get unwanted attention.

But was it intuition? Or just anxiety?

[qweengiba]

SOOOOOOOOOOO, the brainrot refuses to leave (thankyouverymuchADDforthat). So I tried to write..... something???? Please do correct me if I have done the Clones or the GAR any injustice.

When the explosive energy of the Catalyst had surrounded and consumed Shepard, their eyes were already closed. Their body was far too gone to feel the pain of being ripped into a million atoms as they finished the job that they had set out to finish. Yes, they would die again, but at least this time, Shepard could smile. No matter what happened next, the main threat was gone, and the fragile peace that they created between every species was not their duty to maintain.

It took several moments, though if they were seconds, minutes, or hours, they were untellable to Shepard. But it took them several moments to begin questioning their own situation. Was there actually an afterlife? Were they just just stuck floating in nothingness without sensation and feeling? Would they be forever alone? And what the fuck was that whistling sound?

That last question sent a shock through Shepard, one that made what should be a still heart into a racing beat that thrummed under their skin. Opening their eyes greeted them with an unfamiliar sightfar below them was what looked to be a war grounds on a planet that was very much not Earth. In just a single instance, several facts slotted themselves into Shepard's mind.

First of all was that they were free falling from a considerable distance from the ground.

Second was that their armor was somehow in one piece again, helmet and all. Every readout was positive for functions and objects in their kit, omnitools registered and non active, full omnigel and medigel, hell even full ration packets for after biotics use.

Third was that they felt no pain, and their helmet feedback wasn't screaming at them, so they were pretty sure there were no more injuries for them at this current moment. Which was facanatincing because taking a reaper beam to the face was a whole new pain that they were glad it was over, hopefully.

Fourth was that far below them was what appeared to be a rather nasty battle between white and brown bipedal beings with lights flying between the two groups unequal in number. Two clear lines against each other with the whites seeming to be losing ground and cover.

One deep breath, their ribs expanding with ease instead of the burning pain they can remember from only minutes before, and then Shepard was acting. They sparked up in blues and violets as they used their biotics to lighten the mass to help with deceleration as they spread their limbs apart as far as possible. To slow down their descent to gain a bit more time to think. The helmet hud was scanning the environment below and was throwing up multiple errors and failures. No information on location from the geographic landscape, no System Alliance or Council beacons to connect to in near by space, no real technology at all that their systems were recognized as friendly or known that could be possible connected to, the only actual usable information being that those in white were 78% chance of being organic while those in brown had a 99% chance of being synthetics. And that apparently the strange giant brown lumpy thing with a long barrel attached was most likely either a tank or heavy artillery. The barrel moved, first swinging to the side before what appeared to be minor adjustments for angles before it reared back, and a short red beam left the muzzle. And then what had been some gray jagged piece of ruin that had two whites behind it was gone in an explosion of fire, only smoke and strewn pieces left behind.

And then the barrel was moving once more.

Shepard is the first to admit they are an impulsive person who acts just as much as they think. They know their next action will be against the tank because past experiences have them leaning towards helping organics over synthetics, but also because they are a bit of a sucker for the underdog. They ponder only for a few seconds, which of their load out would be most useful to take down something so big from the air before a singular idea launched to the forefront. It was stupid, peak of reckless, several people Shepard personally knew would call it insane. Grunt and Jack would love it for how possibly destructive and flashy it would be. It was a good thing they had their helmet back because Shepard knew the grin on their face was absolutely feral like a krogan.

They activated their omnitool and quickly set their personal shields into overdrive. It would drain their charge harshly at first impact, but that was all they needed. A glance at one corner of the hud gave them an estimate on distance left till ground and it was in the number that Shepard had trained for biotic jumps, though that still involved a lot more deceleration than what was next. Another deep breath, and then they were flipping in the air before stabilizing in a standing position.

"Well, I have always wanted to be a meteorite." Their biotic signature was able to latch onto the large mass of metal and energy, allowing Shepard to use said biotics to pull their gravity to the tank while also increasing their mass. The entirety of their body was encased in a blue and violet electricity, with a blue vapor near their body. The several barriers they were wrapping about themselves only made the ethereal light show brighter.

________________________________________

Stat was hiding behind a large chunk of something made of duracret with two fellow vod while the rest of the company was spread thin behind poor cover. That left them all just pretty little targets for the very much not included in any intel, Armored Assault Tank that was currently treating this like some little shooting range game. He was sure that Captain Tyto was injured but alive from grumbling commands on holding the line and trying to stay alive for backup. But those were hard commands to follow when every time the main cannon from that AAT fired, there was a loud CRACK-pop over the coms as another few vod were sent marching on ahead. 27 vod haven't been heard from since the last shot, and Stat could only pray to little gods that if his cover is next to be hit that it would be fast and painless.

Pyew fzzzzzzzzzzzztfump BANG. CRACK-pop pop.

The blaster in Stat's hands was going to start to crack from how tightly he grips it as he refuses to look to his left to see two more gone. 29 now silent vod. The line crackles alive, and instead of the call off, it was a question.

“Does anyone else have eyes on the sky? Because what the kark is that a klik up from the AAT?”

That got Stat to turn from pressing his back against the cover to facing it and leaning back. Anything in the sky means they were all spotted no matter what, and anything on the separatists side was always bad news. But instead of the expected ship or droid, it was an electric explosion of blue and purple and every shade in-between. It hovered in the air for a single breath before rocketing down at the AAT like a comet, a trail of blue streaking behind. The muzzle of the tank was still lining up to fire when impact happened, the brown metal folding and cracking apart. Then it exploded gloriously that any vod who had made one would have been proud. The view obscured by smoke, dirt, and fire, even the droids just stared at the destruction.

“Did that really happen?”

“The scanner says the AAT is gone.”

“That wasn't a jedi, right? Like, I'm pretty sure their magic doesn't do that.”

“No lights as far as I'm aware.”

“Blasters up vod, just because the AAT is out of the way doesn't mean we are clear yet. Backup is still two hours out at the least, and I want all those damn clankers dealt with now.” Ah, good old Captain Tyto, keeping focus on the target as always.

Someone else was just laughing quietly with a pitch of hysteria, though they had quickly switched off their comm.

The rest of the comm channel filled with chatter as they began to easily pick off the standing clankers. The commander droid must have been in the tank for how simple it was to pick off droids, no tactics other than straight forward. The line advanced and it was becoming clear that the droids were distracted by whatever took down the AAT because what sounded similar to slugthrower was coming from the still smoking wreck that was also in a small, very newly formed crater.

Stat was the first one to make it to the edge of the crater, droids falling before anyone fires. A glance over showed physical damage with no burns so not anything plasma, but slugthrowers and like normally didn't have the power to punch clear holes through droid heads and chassis. Looking over the edge showed a being covered cacophony of those same blues and purples from the thing in the sky, the comet that saved them. Underneath the unknown power was a humanoid covered head to toe in black armor unlike any seen, what could possibly be classified as a rifle in their hands as they fire at the last droid on the other side of the crater they created. Surrounding them were the twisted remains of the AAT. An all-clear was called out on the comms, and a thorough sweep would have to happen, but most if not all the droids were dealt with. The light show that surrounded the being in black died down, leaving only a whisper of color that lingered around their body. The rifle they held was one not known by Stat, but they pointed it down instead up at them, which was a good sign. Stat holstered his blaster, his hands going up to be held in the air in front of himself with fingers spread wide to show nothing in his grip. A nice, mostly universal sign for non aggression for fellow sentiments, to which the being in black nodded their head and put away their own weapon. With a flick of his eyes in his hud, external comms turned on.

“Thank you for your help.” Maybe not the correct thing to say to an unknown on a battlefield, but kriff it all if Stat didn't thank the person who single handedly turned a slaughter into a battle. “As a member of the Grand Army of the Republic I request you to identify yourself…. Please.”

What sounded like a sigh came from the black armor as they shook their head while shoulders moved into a shrugging. Then a voice came from them, distorted by speakers but still clear and in a language unknown.

“Ey doont un derstan yew und eym gussin yew doont un derstan me eethr.”

[totchipanda]

🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

THIRTEEN roses, so here is a whole scene from the Titanic AU <3

He held onto her tightly as they made their way topside, his arm heavy and warm on her shoulders, hers firmly around his waist. They were both laughing and humming the tune of a popular song, occasionally bursting into the words, off-key and out of sync. It only made them laugh harder. 

The stairwell opened to the deck, blasting them both with chilly air. Inej couldn’t help the shiver that stole down her back and Kaz pulled her closer. “Are you cold?” he asked.

“No, she replied, and made no move to get away from him. It would be highly inappropriate here, on the deck, should anyone see them, but she wanted to hold onto the moment a little bit longer.

Together, they walked towards teh first class entrances, still singing occasionally. Above them, the stars glittered in a carpet of black, as bright as the city lights in Paris or London. Brighter, as far as she was concerned. She broke away from Kaz to stand at the rail, leaning on it as she tipped her head back to look at the sky.

“Isn’t it magnificent?” she said with a content sigh. With the motion of the ship beneath her and the sky above, she could almost forget where she was. And who.

He joined her, facing towards the ocean rather than the ship, pulling a packet of cigarettes out of his pocket. He lit one with a match, taking a long drag off of it before offering it to her. She took it, letting her lips close around the place his had just been, and inhaled.

“They’re such small people, my crowd,” she said after a moment, taking another hit from the cigarette before handing it back to him. “They think they are so big, giants among men, above everything and everyone else.” She signed and turned to face out with him, seeing nothing but the stars and the occasional lift of the water far past them.

“Someday, the bubble will burst,” she finished her thought. “And it will all come crashing in.”

Kaz said nothing and handed the cigarette back. She took it with the hand opposite him, and he laid his hand on her free one. “There’s been a mistake,” he said. Before she could ponder his meaning, he continued on. “You’re not one of them. Never have been.”

Inej snorted, exhaling the smoke into the night. “I suppose I haven’t been,” she allowed.

Across the sky, a bright light burst into being and streaked across the sky. Inej pointed, the cigarette still in her hand. “Look!” she cried. “A shooting star!”

“Make a wish,” Kaz said. There was a softness to his voice that drew her attention, and she found him close at her side, mere inches separating them. He hadn’t looked when she’d pointed, he couldn’t have. Not to be looking at her the way he was now.

She wanted so badly to close the distance between them, stretch her neck just a little and find his lips with hers. Thoughts fired through her head almost as fast as the shooting star had been. She wanted to kiss him, and to be kissed by him, and then –

Inej cleared her throat and leaned away, looking back out over the ocean. “I can’t,” she said, feeling herself starting to close off again, parts that had been awakened by Kaz and the dancing. She took one last pull on the cigarette before throwing it over the edge of the rail, removing her hand from beneath his.

“Inej, wait,” he said. His hand shot out and caught at her wrist. It stopped her in her tracks. “Tell me –”

“I can’t,” she interrupted, yanking her hand free. She looked at him, framed against the sky in his borrowed white dress shirt, the jacket slung over one shoulder. She longed to feel his hair in her hands and the heat of his body on hers. She shivered and it had nothing to do with the cold night air. “Good night, Kaz. And, thank you.”

[zachwalton]

Home WAN Failover with UDM Pro

If recurring cloud service fees for hobby projects cause death by a thousand cuts, I'm feeling like I did the first few times Ashina Elite - Jinsuke Saze kicked my ass in Sekiro:

...but my SRE day job long ago scared me off single points of failure, so I've been hesitant to host services that real users depend on--mostly https://life4ddr.com and https://truebpm.dance--at home.

But then we moved to our new home, where the prior owners had installed a couple of 13.5 kWh Tesla Powerwalls in the garage, and I realized I had power redundancy for the first time. This got me thinking about what it would take to build a sufficiently HA environment at home for hosting community projects and, well, there's work left to do to answer that question.

Might as well start with...

Redundant ISPs!

Step 1: ISPx2

Step 1 is easy: We pay $80/mo for AT&T Gigabit fiber as our primary ISP. I've had a (deactivated) Starlink RV dish and have been waiting for the chance to use it.

The primary downsides of Starlink for RVs are a) the slightly higher cost than residential Starlink ($135/mo vs. $110/mo for residential), and b) RV users are throttled during periods of high demand. In practice, this has never happened to me; I'm on the waitlist for a residential plan.

Starlink is fairly fast:

And the latency to google.com is eehhh, ok:

So why not another fiber or broadband provider?

I've been enjoying not paying Comcast too much

The Starlink dish was sitting in my closet

They're hobby projects, not payment processors that need 5+ 9s of availability and sub 10ms latency

(the primary line kinda never goes down anyway)

Off the griiiiidddd

etc.

Installation is a cinch if you cut corners:

Put it on the roof

Do a great job running and hiding the cables, definitely no eyesores here (not pictured)

(sorry to devon)

Through the wall and into the router

First time using this stuff to seal the hole drilled for the cable, plus some Sikaflex concrete sealant since, unlike regular silicone caulk, it can be painted once dried.

There may be an embarrassing part omitted here involving drilling into an "electrical wire", panicking, and in the end discovering that it was chicken wire & part of the stucco...

Not pictured: cable grommet for the 1" hole that has not yet arrived from Amazon

"That's a giant hole" Yeah, because of this thing :(

The official routing kit comes with a 3/4" drillbit. I used the 1" drillbit I had on hand.

Final result:

Step 2: Automated failover

At this point, I had a separate SSID that I could manually switch devices to, but I didn't want to have to deal with doing that manually when I'm away from home. And I might not always be available, and don't want users waiting until I am...

Enter the Ubiquiti Dream Machine (UDM) Pro!

Ok, so I really just copied a friend here without doing a ton of research:

But it ticks the boxes:

WAN failover (WAN load balancing not supported... but we can handle a few seconds of downtime)

Remote management interface

...That's it?

It does way more than this, but my goals are not lofty.

Once it arrived, it only took a few minutes for initial setup:

Plugged primary modem into WAN port 2, SFP+ 10gb (with an RJ-45 adapter)

Plugged Starlink router into WAN port 1 (with a Starlink ethernet adapter)

Turned on the UDM Pro, paired via bluetooth and finished guided setup through the iOS app

I then changed the port configuration to make WAN 2 primary and WAN 1 secondary. In my head this felt like a step toward >1Gb home Internet (AT&T offers 5 Gb today 😱). In practice, this led to a lot of packet loss and continual failovers to the backup link; it's probably an issue with the adapter or cable somewhere in the chain but i didn't feel like figuring it out.

I then discovered that you can configure port 8 as the secondary WAN link, and shuffled connections around so both WANs were cabled without the need for an adapter. This fixed the failover flapping and packet loss.

Somewhere along the way I also changed the echo server from the default Ubiquiti server to Google DNS (8.8.8.8). Ubiquiti pings the echo server to make the decision to fail over or not. I'm not sure this contributed to solving my issues, but it has for some

Success!

And kind of a sick name...

I didn't have to simulate failover because I broke things plenty of times during the setup process:

In practice, I saw 5-10 seconds of packet loss before Starlink took over. And automated recovery when AT&T started pinging again! More than adequate for users of a DDR BPM calculator.

What's left?

Ok, redundant power + Internet. But how do users get to a server deployed in my house when the IP changes on failover? Dynamic DNS? Do I go full Brad Fitzpatrick and shell out $12k+ on a /24 of IPv4 space, and create my own ASN + anycast from my house? (probably not) Am I going to deploy CRITICAL DANCE GAME SERVICES on a SINGLE DESKTOP MACHINE!? (obviously not) I don't know. Hopefully we will find out together in a subsequent post.

[thedaveandkimmershow]

Okay on Saturday we meant to leave at 3 in the afternoon. Instead we leave at 5 after a full day of packing camping gear (Kimmer) and cleaning the house (Dave) plus a little last-minute shopping.

Out the door, on the road, we cruise 405 to Hamptons Seattle/ South Center where we check in around six

We're missing a few things, though, like a luggage strap for one of our giant bags that's actually missing one of its handles so the remaining one just sort of flaps about. We shop some Target and Dollar Tree between six thirty and seven fifteen for the luggage strap (settled for duck tape instead), Easter candy for Kimmer's cousin, a chocolate bunny rabbit for me, and then some additional food for the evening and breakfast the next morning so we can eat on the fly if we have to.

By the time we're back in our room, it's 730. We figure we'll be in bed around 830 because that's the smart thing to do. Instead, we don't settle down for sleep until a little after ten. Kimmer studies. I score a hot chocolate downstairs by the lobby as well as water and a chamomile tea packet to go with the hot water Kimmer's already got going in the room. I decorate my thermos with Harry Potter, National Parks, Cheeky & Dry, Mod Pizza, and some other random stickers. I finish the evening coordinating with the gentleman looking after our cats. Did a huge text dump into his messaging app on the care and feeding of two cats that's so much more complex and complicated than taking care of just the one. Then I set three alarms on my phone. 245. 3. And 305. 245 did the trick, though, because we weren't sleeping at all deeply through the little less than five hours we could. It was more like we were playing tag with sleep. Sometimes we'd catch it. Most of the time it would get away. Not sure what that was all about. Maybe it was excitement on our part. Maybe it was the people, a family Kimmer says, who were arguing in the room next door during the wee hours of the morning.

So when my first alarm goes off at 245...

No big deal.

Our bodies weren't that invested in sleeping anyway.

In no time, we're outta bed, snagging the breakfast Kimmer scored at Target the previous night, mango yogurt and berry yogurt and split a banana. Then I hit the shower after taking a photograph of the alarm clock that reads

Because I can't believe it myself.

While I'm in the shower, Kimmer repacks what little we unpacked the night before, then she gets ready and we're outta there. 

Three thirty five AM we're walking out the front door.

We embark on an eight-minute basically nighttime drive to Doug Fox Parking, during which we travel part of the way almost directly beneath the light rail track that climbs the hill west of South Center Mall.

For the first time ever we're confronted by a Lot Full sign. Not a problem if you have a reservation. Which we do. Unfortunately, I've got it tucked in my bag in the back of the van. So I pull forward, get out the car, grab my reservation which the attendant checks, then we snag parking just as he pulls a shuttle right beside us. The whole process seriously moved. And now we're on our way in a packed shuttle to the Southwest drop-off just before 4AM, mere minutes behind our projected schedule. We check our bags, the two massive ones clocking in at 44 and 47 pounds, meeting the 50-pound limit so thus they travel free. Then we're into the TSA line where, because it serpentines, we get to see all the different ways family resemblance manifests across generations. Also, we're getting our first look at bleary-eyed human beings of all ages. Children, especially. It's like they just pulled an all-nighter. 😳 The morning, in fact, is marked by a lot of kids who look like this. 😕 They're wiped out even though they haven't done anything yet. 

By the way, some are wearing their PJs, some are dressed pretty jazzy, and all are wearing the eyes of being up all night. ☹️

Once we're through TSA and down the concourse, it's three minutes until it's time to take our place in line.

Our super early morning's timing wasn't tight... but it kind of was without us thinking too hard about it.

And the thing I said before about bleary eyed human beings? 

That was definitely the missus 'n me who slept deeply on both legs of our flight, short as each one was.

Landing at LAX around ten thirty was kind of a woozy experience recovering our bags and rolling everything out front and then a coupla blocks over to catch our Lyft at the new transportation hub.

Annoying. Exhausting. Kimmer was not pleased.

A few minutes later, our Lyft driver scoops us up and drops us at Escape Campervan around 11:15AM. Within a half hour, the staff at their  Inglewood location gets us checked in, set up, and on the road with our full complement of camping luggage.

To where, though?

Kimmer's idea is that she'd like to drive down the coast before cutting inland to her cousin's place. 

We're also hungry though.

Plus, earlier at one of the airports we were both remarking on how often we end up traveling on Easter Sunday. Mostly by car or van. This time by plane. But yeah.

Over the years we traveled a lot of Easter Sundays. 

At the same time we're thinking about that, I remind her of that one time we were traveling with Linzy. I think this was in the Rialta RV and we were driving down the coast from Crescent City California. It was taking longer than we figured, though, so we cut inland earlier than intended and Kimmer figured out a hotel for the three of us as we traveled through the middle of the night.

The next morning (of course) after that midnight ride, it was Easter Sunday. Having no plans, we decided on a brunch at the local Denny's. The place was absolutely packed. We did get a booth, though. And, I'm guessing, a bunch of grand slams.

So.

With that memory freshly recovered, we drive down to one of the Denny's restaurants in Long Beach on the Pacific Coast Highway during a relentless rainstorm, water pouring in streams off the roof of the restaurant as we scooted ourselves down the block from the parking lot, along the side of the restaurant, up the stairs, and into the lobby. At our table, we order a Mile High Denver Omelette, a side of fruit, sausages, and brioche French toast along with a coffee and a tea.

Later, we shared our experience there with our waitress and the manager. Our waitress encouraged us to contribute a Google review.

Which I did.

"My wife and I actually had to travel today, Easter Sunday. We were up at 3 in the morning for a 520AM flight with one stopover. So by the time we arrived in California we were pretty wiped out.  😕 We were really hungry, though, and decided to stop in Long Beach for breakfasts for lunch. The service and attention we received from everyone from the manager to wait staff to assistants was the loveliest thing. We were welcomed and attended to in ways that surpass some of our fine dining experiences where there's only one point of contact. We're definitely leaving here feeling more energized and ready for the rest of our day ☺️"

And yes.

It really was that lovely.

We were at the Long Beach Denny's from quarter past noon to one thirty at which point the rain let up.

By this time, with rain dogging our travels, we travel first to the Irvine Sprouts to pick up groceries before heading to Kimmer's cousin's place where we roll in around 230. Kimmer's cousin's prepping his teardrop trailer he's taking camping because that's what we're doing this week: our annual Family Camp on the Hill Above Laguna Beach Adventure! If the weather permits (and it usually does) there's beach exploration to be had, sunsets to watch, stars to see, family campfires to experience and, since this is right along the PCH, I always think good grief, Veronica Mars lives down here. 😉

For now, we pull our bags outta the van, Kimmer and her cousin take it all into his place while I park up the hill. Afterward, Kimmer's cousin, Derek, continues his work, and Kimmer gets cozy upstairs for the papers she's gotta write and the tests she's gotta take for her doctoral program before the day is over.

Yeah. Her doctoral work is ongoing. Even while we're in sunny California.

Around 430 I head out to do some grocery shopping at Trader Joe's and Ralph's for dinner (and dessert) as well as a little bit for the week.

Back at 630, we all break from our late afternoon activities for a meal featuring bacon-wrapped, slow-cooked meatloaf and a viewing of Jesus Christ Superstar, a movie that I've never seen before.

Crazy stuff. 🤔

Afterward, Kimmer's back to papers and tests, Derek finishes his work before turning in for the night, and I hang out with Kimmer's nephew, Kyle, while he plays video games and I write. We do those things and talk at the same time and, eventually, it's just talking about neuroscience and academics, if you can believe that. Plus the story of my cousin in Europe who, whilst interviewing for the job of bodyguard answered the question Would you take a bullet for me? with a prompt No. But if there's time I'll push you out of the way. 🤣

By n by, Kimmer comes downstairs, triumphant in her day's doctoral accomplishments... and joins us.

By now, the day's just nudged into tomorrow and Kyle finally asks the obvious question.

Why are you guys still up???

Hmmm. Good question.

We were gonna take a nap just as soon as we arrived but that never happened.

I guess we just caught our second wind, I tell him. And then proceed to tell the tale of our earlier experience at Denny's, the experience that gave us the shot of energy that sustained us through the rest of the day.

Apparently.

To which Kyle says

Do you know you could've paid way less for breakfast?

Wait. What?

Yeah. Turns out Denny's gotta menu (back of the menu) for kids over 55. Now, I'm not saying the missus 'n I are over 55... but my spin on this is that Hey.

No one there thought we were over 55 so they never suggested we check out that menu.

Yeah. I'm going with that. 😑

In the end, we cruised the full twenty-one of a twenty-four hour filled day. We absolutely did chunks of it bleary eyed... but caught our second wind and just kept going.

Tomorrow, then, Laguna Beach!

😁

[lunaslogs]

August 18-19 HAUL

So, for the first time in literal months, I went to stay the weekend at my uncle's house for something we call "staycation" which is basically staying over for a few days and going places together. It's our little family thing. We decided to go to the American Dream Mall on Friday, August 18 and a local town mall on Saturday, August 19. In between those two days, I managed to get a bag full of snacks that were sure going to screw with my diet for the weekend and some clothes that will serve me well for the first few weeks of school in 2 weeks.

FIRST, THE SNACKS! I am a HUGE fan of everything Sanrio and ramen noodles so when I found out that hello kitty actually had a little collab with Prince Katsu, I HAD TO get it. Obviously, I blame capitalism for taking my money because they literally slapped Hello Kitty onto a ramen noodle cup and expected me to walk out of the store without it. It was actually really good! The little vegetables and "spice" stuff came in little packets and stuff and I'm not gonna lie, the "spice" wasn't really spicy. It was, however, a little tangy. I got it on Friday at American Dream and I saw more of those little ramen cups of Saturday at the local mall so I'm assuming it's in very high demand (and for very good reason.) I got this Japanese soda in this cute little bottle from F.Y.E (For Your Entertainment) and I actually got one last year when we went! But I got a watermelon flavor one this time, I think I got just like, a regular melon flavor last year. But I def wanna start a little bottle collection of them, the bottles are so cute. The soda reminds me exactly of a freshly unwrapped watermelon flavored jolly rancher, but carbonated.

I got 2 boxes of Pocky. One was the regular cookies n crème flavor (my favorite btw) and the other one was original chocolate. The difference? Not just the flavor. But the size. Omg, THE CHOCOLATE ONES WERE LITTERALLY GIANT! No lie, it literally said "giant" on the box. It was like, 10 times the size of a normal pocky stick. They tasted almost the same, but I felt like I could taste more of the biscuit than the chocolate but that's what happens when you super size a snack like that.

I got a share size bag of KitKat thins (KitKat is one of my all time favorite chocolates) They were individually wrapped which I hated but I did have a little cup to put all the wrappers into because I was too lazy to get up and throw them all out in the actual trash can. My cousins did end up stealing some of them so I didn't completely finish them on my own (despite the fact that I really wanted to) but I would totally get them again just so I can add to the little snack drawer in my room. And last for the snack section, I got a hello kitty boba milk tea kit because I love boba but I've always wanted to try making it at home. It came with 4 paper boba straws, 4 tapioca pearl packets, and 4 milk tea powder packets. Luckily the instructions was on the box and it wasn't some million page long paper of directions because I totally would have lost it. Honestly, the boba was really good. I did have to leave it in my fridge to cool a little bit (I like it cold okay) but I would totally buy six more boxes just so I can make some every day.

AND NOW, LAS COSAS! (aka just little things I bought.)

I BOUGHT MY FIRST EVER KPOP ALBUM! Now, I've been into Kpop for around 4 years (got into it in august 2019) and over the course of these 4 years, I've explored already existing groups, disbanded groups, soloists, newly debuted groups, survival shows, and even groups from other generations. But as of the past two years, I really found myself gravitating towards a soloist named AleXa. She's a former contestant from a survival show that aired back in 2016 called Produce 101. I absolutely LOVE her music and I'd be lying if I said I hadn't tried to cover a few of them. But when she came out with "Girls In Vogue" last November, I knew I HAD to get it. Now almost a year later, IT'S LITERALLY IN MY ROOM! The pictures from the photoshoots look so beautiful, AleXa looks so good! The photocards are so cute, I keep one in my phone case. My favorite song from the album is probably either "Back In Vogue" or "Please Try Again" but I absolutely ADORE her little collab with Moonbyul from MAMAMOO (she's literally my bias) it was practically a musical match made in heaven.

Now, I'm a person who likes dressing both masculine and feminine, however I do mainly present feminine. Unfortunately, I do still have a bit of a "girly" weakness aka shiny sparkly things mean I want it in my hands. So, when I saw these two little boxes of press on nails, I had to get them. Now, I have friends who go out and get actual acrylics and drop $80 or $100 dollars for them but as someone who is both broke and gets tired of things very easily, press on nails just feel easier to deal with. I got one box of press ons (24 nails total) that have a little French tip and honestly, they look cute. I haven't tried them on yet but I'll give an update on when I do. I'm just hoping they look cute on my nails when I put them on. Then there's the second box that has little diamonds on the "cuticle" part of it (idk how nails work) but it's only for the ring finger and maybe the thumb? Or pinky? I haven't tried either of them yet but when I do, I'll update.

I'M THE BIGGEST FAN OF RWBY THAT I KNOW IRL AND WHEN I SAW THE MANGA, I HAD TO GET THEM ASAP! I already have an almost complete collection of the RWBY official anthology, I still need the fifth one in order for it to be complete. Then, I found the first book of Bunta Kinami's RWBY manga and I got it! It's funny because last year during winter break, I found the second one but I couldn't find the first. I couldn't buy it last year because I had already spent majority of my money at other stores so by the time I saw it, I was too broke to get it. Now this year, I find the first one but the second one is nowhere to be found! I did end up buying the first book though. I was able to find the amazon listing for the second book and a few others so I'm hoping those will come in very soon! I also got Shirow Miwa's RWBY manga! So, I now have SIX RWBY manga books in my collection with more to come!

I have a literal collection of stuffed animals. I'm sure everyone has one or has had one before but I have literally kept every single stuffed animal I have ever owned. Big, small, medium, jumbo, mini, you name it. Stuffed animals were a huge part of my childhood. Growing up as a little kid, being relentlessly bullied in school and fighting with my mom over childish things, my main friends were my stuffed animals. One of my favorites was this little mint green TY teddy bear. I absolutely adored it. So, when I went to True Believers and saw a pink cherry blossom TY teddy bear, you already know I had to have it. Apparently, her name is Sakura and she's a Japanese exclusive! She is so soft and cute and adorable and she DEFINITELY makes for a good cuddle buddy if you're someone who likes cuddling with stuffed animals.

I got this cute little fake gold headband with butterflies and rhinestones on it and it is the cutest thing I could ever put on my head. I lowkey felt like a Disney Princess. It's two headbands but they join together at the end to make it one headband so it's cute. I think I have a dress or something that might work with it in the future.

Now, you know I had to save the best for last. THE CLOTHES!

I know a lot of people in a lot of places have already started school but I don't start until the 7th of next month. I have a little over 2 weeks to get myself together. I couldn't just walk into a new school year with old fits. So, I went to Forever 21 and Hot Topic to pick up some new shirts, pants, and a jacket or two to start me off strong.

First the hot topic stuff (only two pieces)

I got this black and white striped long sleeve shirt on it with a skull on the upper left part of the chest and I am a total HOE when it comes to stripes. I genuinely had no idea just how many striped shirts I owned until I went back home and started putting all of the clothes away. It brings out the masc side of me, which I really like. Then I got this Monster High Crop Top Hoodie WHICH I'M FUCKING OBSESSED WITH BECAUSE IT HAS THUMB HOLES AT THE END OF THE SLEEVES! There was no way I was walking out of that store without buying it. It has the Monster High logo on the left shoulder and a little pink heart on the bottom right. AND THE STRINGS HAVE LITTLE BLACK BOWS ABOVE THE KNOTS! The hoodie def gives Draulaura which is perfect because I was absolutely OBSESSED with Draulaura when I was a little kid (I was quite literally the conductor of the Draudeen/Clawlaura train) so I got it. It's so comfy, bro-

NOW FOR THE FORVER 21 CLOTHES!

So I got this little "set" if you will of this military green jacket and ripped pants and when I tell you, it was the best purchase I have ever made, I am not even joking. GREEN IS ONE OF MY FAVORITE COLORS BUT THERE IS NO SHADE OF GREEN I ADORE MORE THAN MILITARY/FOREST GREEN AND OMG IT LOOK SO GOOD! The jacket is denim and the sleeves are a liiiiiiittle bit long but the jacket fits me perfectly fine. I'm not exactly tall so my arms don't reach all the way but I couldn't get a small or else the whole jacket would look and feel small on me so I went with the medium instead. THE PANTS THO?!! Okay, so they're styled like sweatpants but they aren't sweatpants, they just have the stretchy waistband with the string and stuff. But the knees are ripped and it makes me feel cool.

I got this gray shirt that says "classic" on it and it has little holes (it's supposed to be that way, I swear, I saw the other shirts of different sizes having the same holes) and it's so cute. I paired it with the green jacket and green pants and it works! But I can't really wear the shirt with the jacket because the jacket covers most of the letters and all you see is "ass" and I don't feel like getting dress coded and suspended for "offensive speech" but if I just wore the shirt by it'self without the jacket, it's so freaking cute.

NEXT UP WE HAVE SOME BEIGE PANTS! Now, I wasn't in the guys section which made this so much better because the pockets are actual pockets. Not those pockets on usual pants or jeans that are like an inch and a half deep, I MEAN I CAN FIT MY WHOLE HAND IN THE POCKET! I FOUND POCKETS! IN THE WOMENS SECTION! The pants also have these fake suspenders/ random straps attached which honestly make it look so much cuter. They fit really well and I have a lot of white shirts that could totally work with the pants. The material was surprisingly a little soft for them being jeans, yk? LASTLY, WE HAVE A CREAMY WHITE SHORT SLEEVE TURTLE NECK THAT I BOUGHT TO MATCH THE BEIGE PANTS! As someone who isn't the biggest fan of turtlenecks, this lowkey made me change my mind. So, it's not completely a turtle neck, it has a zipper that goes down the middle in the front to adjust it to your liking. The zipper is really convenient, I tried the turtleneck style but I also zipped it down enough to make it like a collar which made it 10 times better. The top has black lines on the left and right sides IN THE FRONT and a text on the back saying "NEW YORK NYC EST. 1964" and it's the cutest top I've ever gotten. I've also been trying to branch out in terms of my style so I feel like this top really helps that.

If you've made it this far, then thank you for ever even being interested in this little haul and my excited outbursts in text form! I promise there will definitely be more to come. But for now, this is Luna, Logging off!

[confusedshades]

Yes yes Damian is an excellent addition here.

Damian and Danny start hanging out a bit and Danny's parents see Danny connecting with other kids as a progress in his Ecto decontamination. So they don't increase the testing any further, but they don't decrease it either.

Meanwhile Damian talks about having a stabby friend who can help Danny escape his home if he ever wants. Danny grins wryly and says, "Even if I escape, where can I go? The usual systems are overloaded as is, and with my... situation, there aren't many places that can keep me and the others involved safe." He doesn't respond to any other points after that even when Damian tries leveraging more answers.

So Damian as "stabby" Robin drops by on patrol a couple of nights a week. Until one week, it's Red Hood dropping by. "Short stack got benched. I'm here until he's allowed back out." Danny of course panics because 1) there's a hulking 6 foot+ masked figure in his room who's armed like the end of the world is in a couple of hours and 2) said hulking 6 foot+ masked figure is a Halfa which means his parents sensors in his room are going to go off any second.

So he begs the guy to meet him later on the roof and sprints to the kitchen. He stuffs his face with fudge. When his parents come barrelling past the kitchen their faces when they see his chipmunk face is enough to make Danny relax.

After some of their probing questions, Jack joins him in finishing off the last of the giant fudge batch. He promises to make more for Danny to take to school as well and Danny goes to bed.

Ten minutes after his parents go to sleep again, Danny quietly sneaks onto the roof and tells the red masked brick house that he's not interested in check-ups if it includes having a Halfa come in. A stabby Liminal is different but a full on Halfa? Forget it. By the time Danny is done ranting Red Hood is confused.

He agrees on not coming around on three conditions. At Danny's cautious nod, Hood squats to be at eye level with him.

"First, you explain all the Halfa and Liminal stuff. Second, I'll swing by to check in with you but I won't come in. If everything is good with you, leave a book propped against the window. If you need help or to get out put a sticky note on the window."

Danny chewed his lip before slowly nodding. "What's the third condition?"

He gets the distinct impression that the guy was smiling underneath the mask. "If you ever get into trouble and need to run last minute; you go to any of the ladies in the Narrows and tell them you need Red's help. They'll hide you, patch you up if you need it and contact me. I'll find you a place where no one will be able to find you, and you can heal. Only the people you clear will know, and we can help you get your feet under you whatever and whenever you imagine that being."

Danny just stared at him. First that pushy classmate of his, then the kid brother who went out as the stabby sidekick at night (did no one tell them that a simple mask is a really bad disguise?) and now this guy. Something inside Danny finally cracked and he saw Hood start patting his pockets for tissues before patting his shoulder and holding the packet out while Danny scrubbed at the tears.

Tim's new classmate was weird. He often wore oversized hoodies that wouldn't be alarming if the sleeves didn't sometimes slip up to reveal arms covered in bandages. There were also these deep bags under his eyes that somehow surpassed Tim's own. But more peculiar was his attendance. He was constantly coming to school late, only to dip out of class on frequent bathroom breaks. Given all of the evidence in front of him, Tim concludes his new classmate is also a new vigilante. One that he is dead set on mentoring.

[hannibals-favourite-meal]

The Lost Princess Chapter 1

Jotun!Loki x female plus size reader eventually

Partial Steve Rogers x female plus size reader

Series Masterlist | Marvel Masterlist | Main Masterlist

When Jotunheim and Asgard are on the brink of war, only a marriage of convenience between the two worlds can unite them. The only problem is, Odin does not have a female heir, or does he?

A/N: This is canon divergent, after Loki discovers his true heritage in Thor, he returns to Jotunheim and becomes the crown prince. Odin also cheated on Frigg with a human

A/N: Let me know if you want to be added to the taglist for the rest of this series or any other writing I do!

Warnings: smut, size difference, breeding kink, violence, shitty fathers, pseudo-incest? (Loki was adopted but he refuses to acknowledge Thor as his brother and Odin as his father and now has returned to his biological family), fat-shaming, fluff, arranged marriage, first time, loss of virginity, angst, torture, experimentation (not the good kind), d/s dynamics, pregnant reader, pregnancy, slow burn, Odin slamming, enhanced!reader, swearing, slightly unhealthy relationship, Loki is an emotionally stunted person, age gap (I wrote reader as being in her early twenties but can be read as any age), mention of dead parents 

Minors DNI 

WC: 3.5k

Chapter 1

Beginnings

The Avengers tower was bustling with people, the noise was incredibly overwhelming to the young woman that had just entered the lobby. She cautiously approached the front desk, nervously tapping her fingers against the desk while she waited for the secretary to finish her call.

“Sorry for the wait, some people just don’t know how to shut up,” The older woman chuckled before looking up, “How can I help you today?”

“Hi, um, my name is Y/N Y/L/N and I have an appointment to meet with Ms Pepper Potts.”

“Ah! You must be Mr Stark’s new assistant! Ms Potts has been waiting for you to arrive, apparently he’s run-off every one that he’s got and Ms Potts has been getting very aggravated about it. You’re a bit early but I’ll send you up anyway, here’s your security keycard and welcome packet. Just head to the elevators and go up to the 90th floor, I’ll be sure to let Ms Potts know that you’ve arrived.” She handed over a large manilla folder and a small card, pointing out the elevators to Y/N.

“Thank you so much,” Y/N began to walk away when she heard the secretary call out ‘Good luck!’.

She quickly made her way to the elevators and jumped in right before the doors shut. She breathed out a sigh of relief, steeling herself for meeting her new boss.

“First day?” Y/N jumped slightly at the deep voice that appeared next to her.

“Oh my word! I’m so sorry, I thought I was alone!” She turned and faced Captain America who was smiling down at her.

“It’s no problem, doll, I’ve been told that I’m rather sneaky.” Y/N smiled. 

“Yes, it’s my first day here, Ms Potts hired me to be Mr Stark’s assistant, she didn’t even ask for an interview, she just hired me on the spot. I guess that says something about how desperate she is.”

“Tony does seem to get rid of people pretty fast but I’m sure you’ll do fine Ms…”

“Oh gosh, I’m Y/N Y/L/N, it’s a pleasure to meet you Mr Rogers!” She stuck her hand out and it was immediately engulfed by Steve’s larger one, Y/N’s face heated up at the difference between them.

“Call me Steve please, I feel so old when people call me Mr Rogers.” The elevator dinged and Steve stepped out, “Good luck with Tony, come find me if he’s too mean, I’ll teach him a lesson.” He smiled brightly at her and the doors shut again.

As she began moving up again, Y/N felt better about the whole thing, hopefully everyone would be as nice as Steve had been.

When the doors opened again, she was faced with more marble than she had ever seen in her life, it lined both the walls and floor, leading to a giant office that overlooked the city and bay. Her heels clicked loudly as she approached the glass doors. Y/N reached out and knocked gently as she straightened out her blouse and skirt.

“Come in!” The voice called and Y/N swung the door open.

“Ms Y/L/N! Thank you for coming on such short notice. Please sit, I’ll need to go over some responsibilities with you and then I’ll introduce you to Tony.” Pepper stands and shakes her hand, gesturing to the chair in front of her desk. “I hope you have a high tolerance for bullshit cause Tony has a lot.” Y/N laughed and settled in.

“Finally, feel free to wear casual clothes, you’re probably going to be here until late at night so make sure you’re comfortable! Now will you be needing accommodation? We have a lot of open rooms in the tower and I’m sure we can move you in quickly.” Pepper leaned back in her chair, confident in her choice of assistant for her fiancé. 

“Yes ma’am, I have a house that I inherited from my mother when she passed but it is too far out of town for a commute.”

“Good, we’ll get you set up temporarily tonight and you can go out this weekend to get any supplies you’ll need. Now let’s go find my infuriating fiancé so you can get started.” Y/N giggled and followed Pepper out of the room. 

AC/DC blasted through the halls as the pair of women headed to the labs, Pepper sighed as she opened the glass doors and the music grew louder. “F.R.I.D.A.Y. please turn off the music.”

“Come on! Seriously! I was just getting into my groove!” A head of black hair popped up from behind a massive screen.

“Tony, you’ve been in here for at least 24 hours, if you weren’t in the zone 12 hours ago, you aren’t in the zone now.”

“Alright fine, what do you have for me today Ms Potts? Another zit faced teenager who’s obsessed with me? Blonde bimbo trying to get in my pants?” Tony glanced over at the pair. “Or what looks to be an incredibly attractive young woman.” His eyebrows were raised high on his forehead.

“This is Y/N Y/L/N, she’s going to be your new assistant, please try not to scare her off, she’s very sweet and intelligent.” Pepper shoved her forward slightly, making her stumble on the uncomfortable heels she forced herself to wear. She reached to shake his hand.

“It’s a pleasure to meet you Mr Stark! My mom actually was a really big fan of yours before she died, I think half of my house is covered in Iron man memorabilia.” She chipped, her hand shaking slightly with nerves. Tony looked at her firmly for a moment before he smiled broadly.

“I like her already!”

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Tony’s schedule was all over the place, some days he slept until 3 in the afternoon and did nothing productive, others he worked for days at a time, constantly requesting coffee as his only form of sustenance. Y/N quickly got into the hang of being his assistant, making sure he ate and was actually early to the meetings he had to attend, for both Stark Industries and the Avengers but her social life had gone completely down the drain. In the five months she had been working for Tony, already that was three times longer than the longest assistant he’s had, she had met most of the Avengers and befriended all of them. Yet Tony’s odd hours and chaotic lifestyle kept her from getting close with anyone besides Steve who woke up early enough to encounter her most days. 

“Good morning doll!” Steve entered the kitchen right as Y/N took a sip of her scorching hot coffee.

“Morning Rogers,” She muttered back.

“How long have you been up?” He reached around her, his hand grasping her thick waist to get to the cabinet behind her.

“Something like 39 hours, I lost track a while ago. Tony’s made some new discovery and of course I’m the only one he trusts to take notes, and handwritten mind you. That man has made at least five different A.I.s but no, he has to make sure that all of his notes are taken by hand and then transcribed at least three times. I swear I’ve aged at least 10 years while I’ve worked here.”

Steve laughed loudly, hand gripping her waist tighter as she leaned her head against his toned chest. “And here Tony is calling me the old man!” He paused suddenly, looking down at her. “Oh doll, you need some rest, how about you go back to bed and I’ll get him off your back for the day. You look like you’re dying.” He cupped her face, her eyes slightly swollen and red rimmed from exhaustion, her normally beautiful S/C skin was pale and lifeless. And her H/C hair was wild and unkempt. Her eyes shut with the warmth his hand gave her, she nuzzled closer to him, sighing loudly.

“Yeah I just might, I’m so tired. Pepper didn’t mention this in the job description.” Y/N giggled slightly. Steve was frowning as he looked down on her.

“You need to take care of yourself Y/N. Let me take you back to your room and when you get up, I’ll cook you a nice meal, one that my Ma used to make me.” 

“I’d like that,” Her eyes were slightly glassy as she looked up at him.

“It’s a date then.” He smiled broadly and Y/N settled back into his arms. He suddenly gripped her tighter and lifted her up, cradling her body close to him in a bridal position. Her eyes snapped open and she squealed.

“Steven! Put me down! I’m too heavy for you!”

“Nonsense doll, you’re light as a feather.” He chuckled as he began walking to her room.

“Thank you Steve, I don’t know what I would do without you.” Y/N sighed and her eyes slid shut, quickly falling asleep. Steve moved carefully through the corridors so as to not wake her. He quietly opened the door to her room and laid her down. Before he left, he covered her with a blanket and lightly kissed her forehead.

As Steve left the room, the bickering voices of Bucky and Sam came down the corridor. He hurriedly shut the door to avoid waking the sleeping girl. “Will you guys be quiet, Y/N just got to sleep and she needs it badly.” The men stopped in their tracks and sported an identical smirk on their faces.

“You’ve got it bad Stevie. You’ve been pining after that girl for months.” Bucky rolled his eyes at his love-sick friend.

“Yeah just ask her out already, we’re so sick of you talking about her all the time, ‘did you see Y/N today? she looked so pretty!’”

“‘Her ass looks amazing in this pants!’” Steve’s face flushed profusely.

“I never said that!”

“Yeah but we could tell you were thinking it!” Sam retorted. The Captain sighed before getting a stern look on his face.

“Come on, if you want to keep talking shit, might as well do some training while you do it.”

Sam and Bucky gasped.

“The great Captain America swore?!?! Oh my heavens! Has our favourite little assistant corrupted you already?” Sam exclaimed.

Just as Steve was about to retort, thunder shook the building. The men looked at each other confused.

“Thor isn’t supposed to be back for another seven months, what would he be doing back?”

“Something bad must have happened.” The soldiers sprinted through the building, not even bothering with the elevator, running quickly up the stairs to the roof.

Thor was furious, the sky darkened with his rage. His shout of frustration echoed across the city as he collapsed to his knees. The door to the roof burst open, the Avengers prepared for a fight at the sight of their clearly distraught friend. Natasha stepped forward first.

“Thor, what’s going on? Do you need help?”

“Where is Stark?” He growled.

“What do you need him for? If we all just calm down I’m sure we can work this ou-“

“Get me Stark NOW!” Lightning crackled behind the god as he pushed through his colleagues in order to get to the billionaire.

Mjölnir smashed through the glass walls of Tony’s lab and pinned him to the floor.

“Where is she!” His voice boomed.

“Jesus Christ, point break is your pillow talk always this bad?” Tony wheezed, the hammer on his chest digging uncomfortably into him.

“I have no time for your stupid jokes. Tell me where she is!”

“We don’t know who you’re talking about, big guy!” 

“My sister.” Time seemed to freeze as the hero glanced at each other.

“What makes you think we know where she is let alone who she is.”

“Heimdall told me that she is on Midgard, I must protect her.” Thor’s blue eyes were wild and frantic as he looked down at Tony. 

“Who do you have to protect her from?” Steve questioned.

“Loki.”

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The tension was thick in the conference room. Thor stood at the end of the table, his jaw clenched so tightly that his teeth could shatter at any moment. Tony was uncharacteristically quiet, Clint was pacing the room, Natasha fiddled with one of her blades, Bruce was nervously playing with a fidget toy Y/N had gotten for him weeks ago, and Steve stood by the door, jaw set and eyes firm. It was Bucky who broke the silence, asking the question the newer Avengers were afraid to ask.

“Who is this Loki person? And why does your sister need protection from him?”

“He was the reason the Avengers were formed,” Natasha began, “back in 2012, Loki used an alien army to invade New York. He wanted to use the Tesseract to bring his armies to Earth in order to rule. We just barely stopped him, a lot of lives were lost because of him.”

“He used the mind stone to brainwash me and dozens of other people,” Clint’s pacing ceased for a time, “I’m sure you know how that feels Barnes.” Bucky’s fist clenched.

“Loki was my adoptive brother. My father took him in when he was a baby. We were raised as siblings but when he discovered his true origins he attacked my father and revoked his position as a prince of Asgard. He’s returned to Jotunheim and is now next in line for the throne. He wasn’t always like this, wanting power. I do not know what has corrupted him but he is no longer himself. He is threatening war with Asgard unless there is an alliance between us, through marriage with my younger sister.”

“You’ve never mentioned a younger sister before,” Bruce sat forward. Thor sighed and ran a hand through his messy blonde hair.

“I didn’t know I had one. Apparently my father had an affair a couple decades ago with a midgardian woman and that relationship produced a child. Loki wants her as his bride. I need to find her and hide her away from him, it’s not right that she has to marry a man who will probably use her against me and my father.”

“The only question that remains is why the hell did you burst in here and try to kill me if none of us knew you even had a sister?” The billionaire glared at the god.

“Heimdall mentioned that she was actually-“ The door slammed open and Y/N burst in clearly frazzled.

“I’m so sorry Mr Stark, I must’ve overslept. Here’s your coffee and a sandwich and your schedule for the day… oh my god I’m so sorry, I didn’t realise you were doing an Avengers thing.” She averted her eyes from the newcomer who was studying her intently. 

“No this was a last minute interruption after that idiot tried to kill me and for the last time, call me Tony. You’re literally the least annoying person I know, you’ve earned the right to my first name.” Steve rolled his eyes and Y/N turned to Thor.

“Hi I’m Y/N Y/L/N, Mr St- Tony’s assistant. It’s nice to meet you Mr Odinson. Um, I should get to some of my tasks for the day. I’ll be in my office.” And just as quickly as she arrived, Y/N ran out of the room leaving all of the team softly smiling at her antics.

“How long has she been working here?” 

“About five months, why?” Tony answered absentmindedly while munching on his sandwich. Thor rubbed his chin, deep in thought.

“You were saying something about your sister, what was it, we could help you find her.” Wanda pointed out. He broke out of his trance.

“No no, I must think on this.” He turned abruptly and left, following Y/N’s path down the hall.

“Why the hell is everyone so goddamn dramatic?” Sam muttered.

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A knock on the door frame broke Y/N out of her trance. She pushed the blue light glasses up her nose and smiled at the blonde man standing in the doorway. He blushed slightly at her gaze and walked into the office.

“Hi doll.”

“Hi Stevie.” His blush deepened.

“Do you maybe want to get some dinner? I’ve got it all prepped in the kitchen if you’re ready to eat.” Steve came around the desk and gripped her shoulders, she moaned slightly as he massaged the tension out of them. The woman leaned her head back against his warm chest, enjoying his affections. Just as Steve was leaning down to kiss her forehead, Y/N’s cell phone rang.

“I’m so sorry, I have to take this,” She glanced at him apologetically, Steve just kept massaging her shoulders, “Hi this is Y/N!…. Yes, that’s my place….really? How bad is it?….no, no I’ll be there soon, thank you, bye.” She hung up and buried her head in her hands.

“Everything ok sweetheart?” Steve’s face was right by her ear causing her to shiver.

“That storm that Thor brought in completely flooded my mom’s house and brought down a couple power lines, my neighbour noticed when she was walking her dog. I have to go make sure that none of my stuff is ruined.”

“Do you want me to go with you doll? I could put my muscles to use.” Y/N giggled and looked back up at him.

“No, I’ll be alright. Besides you and your muscles have a mission tomorrow,” She winked at Steve, “I better get going. The house isn’t going to unflood itself. I’m sorry about dinner Steve, I’ll make it up to you when I get back, promise.” She quickly gathered her things as she spoke to him.

“Oh I’ll be looking forward to it doll,” Steve grabbed her wrist and pulled her back into him before cupping her plump face and leaning down to kiss her cheek, “Call me if you need ok.” She nodded dumbly, staring wide-eyed at him, her face heated. He grinned and kissed her again before handing her the bag she had dropped. “Let me know when you get home, I need to know you’re safe.”

“I will, thank you Stevie.” She pulled her jacket on and rushed out the door.

🐍🐍🐍🐍🐍

Grunts echoed through the hall as Steve and Bucky sparred. The mission had been brutal. The Hydra base that they had cleared out was full of failed Winter Soldier experiments, many of them children. They had been tortured extensively to try and get the serum to work but it never did. The kids were practically dead on their feet when Steve found them.

Just as Bucky was about to throw a punch at his friend’s head, he paused.

“Hey, did you think that mission was too easy?” Steve’s eyebrows were furrowed.

“Too easy? They were killing kids, they were torturing them Buck.”

“That’s not what I meant. We found that base too easily, like they wanted us to find it ya know. The guards there were newbies, they hardly even put up a fight. I think it was meant to be a distraction for something else.” Just then F.R.I.D.A.Y. chirped to life.

“Captain Rogers, Mr Stark is looking for you.” 

“Where the hell is my goddamn assistant Capsicle? You’re always hanging around her like a lost puppy!” Steve froze, his whole body going rigid. Tony’s voice rang through the empty training room.

“I haven’t seen Y/N since the day she left to go check on her mom’s house.”

“What the hell Steve! That was two days ago!” Tony sounded stressed.

“F.R.I.D.A.Y. what is Y/N’s location?”

“Ms Y/L/N’s location is currently unknown. The last location I can find was on Wednesday at 8:34 pm in Windham, New York from her phone. It seems to be powered off now, I cannot reach her.” 

“Motherfucker!” Steve ran from the room headed towards the garage, his only thought was that this was his fault she was gone.

🐍🐍🐍🐍🐍

Flashes of lightning were the only illumination in the dark house at the end of the drive. A lone car sat facing the open front door, still idling, the battery nearly drained. The door had nearly been ripped off its hinges, blood soaked the floorboards and a spray painted symbol of a skull decorated the wall in the entryway.

“Hydra,” Captain America sighed.

Tony Stark scrubs his face, clearly agitated. “Why would they want my assistant? I mean she’s a great assistant but I don’t know how she would be an asset to them unless they need her for coffee runs.” Steve glared at Tony, “What, Y/N loved my jokes.”

“Maybe we should focus on finding her instead of making jokes, Stark. There’s no telling what they’re doing to her.” Bucky grumbled.

“I know why they took her,” The Avengers faced Thor, his face dark with fury, “She’s my sister.”

Next chapter

[99liners]

divine timing – pjm;

pairings: park jimin x tarot reader!female reader.

extra characters: jeon jeongguk, kim taehyung and kim namjoon.

genre: fluff, fluffy angst, university!au, strangers to lovers!au, soulmate!au, reincarnation!au.

words: 9.461

warnings: sfw, adult alcohol consumption, koo mentions marijuana (weed), contains tarot readings, talks about meaning of tarot cards, the reincarnation bits are implied and nothing too visual or upsetting, mentions of a car accident, minor character death.

a/n: i am not a tarot reader at all but do enjoy watching them. please forgive my shortcomings in case i make a mistake. i have tried my best with the symbolic meanings. enjoy! 💙

also, i tried to employ a new writing method similar to ‘closed captioning’ lol to aid in visualising the setup of the scene better and as always, thanks to @silversparkles11​ to motivate me to write this and helping me to figure out the outline! i love you so much bb.

★彡[ʏᴏᴜ ᴅᴏ ɴᴏᴛ ɴᴇᴇᴅ ᴋɴᴏᴡʟᴇᴅɢᴇ ᴏꜰ ᴛᴀʀᴏᴛ ᴛᴏ ʀᴇᴀᴅ ᴛʜᴇ ᴏɴᴇꜱʜᴏᴛ. ᴇɴᴊᴏʏ!]彡★

┏━━━━━━༻❁༺━━━━━━┓

          𝑨𝒄𝒕 𝑰 — 𝑻𝒉𝒓𝒆𝒆 𝒐𝒇 𝑪𝒖𝒑𝒔

┗━━━━━━༻❁༺━━━━━━┛

March, 2022:

“did you get the booze?” jeongguk looked around himself, before turning his head up to stare at his friend climbing up the iron fence of the boys’ dormitory.

“ass, hold the backpack, at least,” the said friend, park jimin, threw the bag latched to his back at jeongguk’s face who grabbed it before it could hit his face, very much to jimin’s dismay.

“yeah yeah, get down before someone sees you.”

“really? wow! would have never guessed that, dumbass!” jimin muttered before crossing sides over the fence and jumping to the ground. the grass, owing to the spring rain, was slippery and did not prove to be a good platform for the high impact jump and jimin tripped down to his ass.

“ow. dude, at least help me!”

jeongguk let a wordless laughter, fingers clawing at his stomach as he tried to calm down, while the other held the cellphone that recorded the ordeal, “nah, this is what you get for being a jerk. shit, this is so going on my IG story.”

jimin rolled his eyes and got back to his feet, dusting off the mud and grass from his white jeans. he let a soft sigh, this fresh pair of jeans was supposed to easily last him at least two weeks. well, not so much anymore.

by the time the duo reached jimin’s dorm room, taehyung and namjoon had finished setting up the snacks. the table where jimin usually sets up his film equipment has been cleared and is now the host to the bowls of chips and shot glasses. jeongguk set down jimin’s backpack on the floor near his bed, the glass bottles inside made a clinking noise.

closing the door behind him, jimin stopped at the threshold of the room as he felt a very overwhelming sensation. oh, not this again. his eyes fleeted between namjoon basically destroying the packet of chips while trying to tear them open and even knocking down one of the bowls in the process while taehyung scolds him and jeongguk joins the duo only to pop a bunch of chips in his mouth.

jeongguk turned to jimin who was blankly staring at the trio, “what?” his voice came out muffled because of the chips.

“nothing i-”

“another one of your déjà vu moments?”

jimin’s eyes shot up, “fuck. this has happened before. like not just the actions but you asking me and me explaining it to you guys that this has happened before. fuck.”

“well, if we look it at it technically, then that way you have had two past lives and the original event was from the first past life and then in the second past life you had the déjà vu moment which you explained and now in this life you remember having both the event and then explaining the déjà vu moment. mm, too many variables.” kim namjoon, the mathematics major chipped in his two cents.

“i swear if you take out your notebook and start formulating the chain of events, i am kicking you out of our room,” kim taehyung, jimin’s roommate spoke up, his eyes narrowed at the 6″0′ giant who just smiled nervously.

“i don’t even understand what they are supposed to mean. i bet we all experience déjà vu moments but day by day, it is only happening more often with me.”

taehyung leaned down to retrieve the soju and beer bottles from jimin’s backpack, “they don’t necessarily have to mean something,” he shrugged, holding four bottles by the neck and bringing them over to the table. namjoon followed suit and emptied the bag.

“do any of you cheap asses have weed?” jeongguk spoke up, brushing over the topic.

“i have some good shit coming in tomorrow,” namjoon informed.

park jimin and jeon jeongguk are the theatre kids, majoring in film making, kim taehyung is a linguistic major with kim namjoon as a mathematics major. an odd group of friends but they have grown quite close ever since university started.

the close-knit group of four sat down around the table and soon enough, the drinks started pouring. the topic of conversation moved back and forth between the interconnectedness of film making and mathematics and jeongguk groaning how he wants to kill the person who decided to introduce alphabets in mathematics.

︶︶︶︶︶︶︶︶︶༉‧₊˚.

taehyung was about to uncap his second beer bottle when he noticed that jimin was just quietly sitting, his beer bottle clasped between the fingers of his dominant hand — unfinished and turning warm.

“are you still thinking about that?”

jimin blinked himself out of the trance before turning to taehyung, “no — just — yeah, i cannot stop thinking about it. it has to mean something, right?”

“lord. jimin, you are getting hung up on it! maybe déjà vu moments are just reminders to be more present in the current life—” taehyung turned to jeongguk in a snap “— of course, your ass has something else to contribute. go ahead.”

“what? i said nothing!”

“yeah yeah, your face is oddly expressive. go ahead, the floor is yours,” taehyung took a sip of his beer and leaned back in his chair.

jimin turned to jeongguk who waved his hands in a defensive manner, “you guys know very well what i am going to say.”

“just spill it,” namjoon sighed.

“i suggest you turn to tarot to understand why you are experiencing so many déjà vu moments.”

“koo, you did one three-months elective course on spiritualism for one project, one year ago. you don’t even know what you are talking about!” namjoon retorted.

“but i know what i am talking about! see, this is why i didn’t want to say it because you guys are such sceptics that the hints could literally bonk you in the head and you would be too caught up trying to scientifically explain it.”

“everything does have a scientific explanation though.”

“oh yeah, mr 148IQ? fine, why did the big bang happen? why do we all exist?”

“oh yeah? why don’t you ask your tarot cards and tell me why did the big bang happen?”

before jeongguk could retort back — stretching the argument any further, jimin interrupted the childish duo.

“that’s enough, guys. nothing is a perfect science. i agree most things can be explained logically but then again there are some things which have no explanation and have existed around us for a long time.”

“there, thank you!” jeongguk downed his soju, pouring himself another.

“shall we go to a fortune reader, then?” jimin voiced, unsure.

taehyung groaned, “i cannot believe you are actually considering this.”

jeongguk rolled his eyes and turned to jimin, “no. for most of the professional fortune readers, it is just an act they have perfected, and they will only tell you what you want to hear. i think you should try a tarot reader.”

“take the hint, koo. i don’t know any tarot readers.”

“oh, right,” jeongguk clicked his tongue before retrieving his phone from his jacket. he navigated to the YouTube application before clicking on one of his subscribed channels “Rei of Light”. “here, try her videos. i have and she is awfully accurate to the point where it’s downright creepy.”

jimin took the phone from his hand, “wait, it’s like an hour-long video.”

“dude, you don’t have to watch the whole thing. start the video and she will present you with various piles. you have to choose one and only watch what she has to say about that particular pile.”

“okay, that’s better but how do i choose?” jimin paused the video which had started auto-playing and stared at the piles presented in front of him — it consisted of four stones which the narrator identified as ametrine, fluorite, lapis lazuli and rutile quartz, “i don’t know shit about stones.”

jeongguk grinned, “that’s the beauty of it. you don’t need to know anything at all, just pick whichever appeals the most to you.”

jimin nodded slightly, still unsure about the whole ordeal but his alcohol dazed brain could not come up with one reason why he should not watch the reading. where is the harm? he scrolled to the pinned comments to find the timestamps and clicked on lapis lazuli as per the narrator’s instructions. she had a very soothing and nectar-filled voice, but it was getting drowned among the overlapping voices of namjoon, taehyung and jeongguk arguing about something else. honestly, he does not even want to know what the three musketeers of dumbassery are discussing now and stood up, collecting his unfinished bottle.

jimin walked over to his bed, pushing off the stray books and clothes to the floor before plopping on it. he grabbed his pillow and stationed it under his head at an angle to aid him in finishing the beer while he held the phone in front of his face before clicking on ‘play’.

morning, next day:

jimin walked in, the hood of his sweatshirt pulled over his head to help cover his eyes from the invading rays of sun. he cannot believe he passed out from just one bottle of beer. he is known throughout the university for his alcohol tolerance, but here he is, shouldering a killer hangover from just one bottle beer while he does the ‘walk of shame’ to his class — running fashionably twenty minutes late.

upon entering the class, the professor stopped speaking so he turned to apologize, “i am really sorry, ma’am.”

“mr park, please don’t interrupt the class further and just take your seat.”

jimin wordlessly complied and sat on the seat jeongguk had saved for him, following which, the class continued.

“couldn’t you have woken me up?” jimin whispered.

“you were out by the time joon hyung and i left. did you pass out?”

“seems so—”

“you two. is the conversation more important than the class?” the professor interrupted the whispers.

both jimin and jeongguk shook their head with an apologetic look, to which the professor warily went back to the lesson.

it barely had been five minutes or so before jeongguk turned to jimin, “how was the reading?”

“i passed out after watching it but i had the weirdest of dreams,” jimin whispered back.

“no one cares. did the reading resonate? like did it match with you?”

“ye—”

the professor walked to their desk, slamming the book she was holding on the desk, “mr park, mr jeon kindly leave the class.”

jeongguk went to protest but the professor beat him to it, “not a word, young man. make yourself scarce.”

after exiting the class, the fantastic duo headed to the library lawns as they did not have the next class till another hour. 

“okay, now tell me,” jeongguk put his backpack down after sitting on the grass.

“i don’t remember everything exactly but she was talking about reincarnations and past life being incomplete, also some empress or emperor card which represented the energy of libra. i mean, i am a libra. also, a lot of gemini and cancer too.”

“probably your moon and ascendant, which would be unlikely but can be worth a shot. come on, let’s find out,” jeongguk brought out his phone before inputting some details onto a website, “what time were you born?”

“who even thinks about that stuff? i will have to ask my mom.”

“are you waiting for official orders to do so?”

“don’t get smart mouth with me, koo,” jimin narrowed his eyes at his friend before ringing up his mother.

mrs park relayed the information to him after making sure he is not getting into ouija or witchcraft, to which jimin lied that it is for one of his film projects to ease her mind. after jeongguk inserted the birth time, the chart revealed that jimin’s moon and ascendant are indeed gemini and cancer, respectively.

“so, you are telling me that this person who does not even know me did a reading for me specifically?”

“not at all. it is a general reading but some parts only resonate with specific people like the signs did with you. maybe she talked about other aspects that had no correlation with your life.”

jimin grabbed his head, gently massaging his temples, “okay. okay. okay. i guess all that makes sense? i guess, but still it does not answer my questions.”

“maybe you should watch more readings.”

“i guess we can...there’s time for next class...” jimin checked his watch and mumbled unsure, still not sure if he should delve into this unknown realm. is he even ready for it yet?

“stop overthinking and let’s do this,” jeongguk started playing another video from Rei of Light and set the laptop before the two of them.

︶︶︶︶︶︶︶︶︶༉‧₊˚.

“okay, so far the cards emperor, magician, lovers, two of cups, three of cups, tower, moon, fool have come up in all of the videos we watched,” jimin finally spoke after finishing the seventh video they were watching.

“also, for the time frame spring and autumn shows up. also someone with a vivid and artsy imagination,” jeongguk added, reading from the piece of paper he had noted it down on. midway through watching the readings, the duo realized that in almost every reading jimin was choosing, most of the cards were being repeated.

“also the yin-yang card and 11:11 timestamp also showed up in the cards a lot. how does any of that make sense though? like what about it?”

“wait, wait, don’t lose hope. let’s try to formulate all these together,” jeongguk took the pencil tucked above his earlobe and started making a chart, “so, first emperor card means someone who is older or wise, basically someone who has life experiences. then we have the magician card which means inspired action—”

“also someone who has heightened manifesting abilities,” jimin added.

“right. now three of cups means a party or celebration, being introduced via mutual friends. what else do we have?”

“uh, there’s the tower which is basically a bad rollercoaster ride where everything goes to shit and then the fool which talks about new beginnings,” jimin took the pencil from jeongguk’s hand and started scribbling on the piece of paper, “then the lovers card is about soulmates and so is the 11:11 timestamps, oh! also the two of cups is about twin flame or a serious partnership thingy.”

“so? you are going to meet the love of your life?”

“how is that the answer to why i am getting so many déjà vu moments and the weird ass violent dreams—”

“oh shit” jeongguk cursed under his breath.

“what what what? did you think of something?”

“we missed the 14:15 class!!” jeongguk groaned, clutching his head. he hates professor kwon and if he misses any more of his classes, poor koo is going to fail so bad.

“fuck, what? he is supposed to hand out the end-sem assignment topics today,” jimin hurried to his feet, gathering his bag.

“it’s 14:40. we already missed it and you are dreaming if you think kwon is going to allow you in so late.”

the bag latched at the edge of jimin’s shoulder dropped down to the ground when his shoulders drooped, owing to the realization that they had, in fact, missed the class and there is no going back.

“i don’t think we can be friends anymore,” jimin gave jeongguk a solemn look after sitting back down.

jeongguk, who had lied down on the grass by then, closed his eyes, “you would be lost without me.”

“everyone likes to think that way,” jimin lied down as well, letting his back rest against the maple tree.

“go ahead, walk away.”

“mm, i will, after watching you fail in kwon’s class.”

“i will ace it.”

“right. sure. definitely you will. i totally believe that.”

the duo shared a light chuckle before a comfortable silence took over the environment.

“my sleep paralysis is getting worse. a few nights ago, taehyung told me that i was sleep-talking too,” jimin broke the silence after a while.

“why don’t you talk to taehyung?”

“he worries too much. i mean they are just dreams.”

“yeah, dreams which are fucking you up.”

“well, it’s not that bad...”

jeongguk opened his eyes and turned on his side, towards jimin, “stop downplaying it.”

“leave it. i am going back to the dorm.”

︶︶︶︶︶︶︶︶︶༉‧₊˚.

April 16, 2022

jimin woke up in a cold sweat to his phone blaring in the middle of the night. he sat up at once, the back of his tank vest sticking to his skin owing to perspiration. he stared at his hands, they had both turned red and were sweating profusely. he was stuck in a bad dream and could not wake himself up. thankfully, his phone started ringing which brought him back. remembering the blaring call, jimin grabbed his phone but it had stopped ringing. he meant to keep it away, however, it started ringing again.

the insufferable jeon jeongguk.

“hey,” jimin heaved out, his heart still beating rapidly.

“woah, are you okay?” jeongguk’s excitement dampened to a worried tone.

“yeah, yeah. what happened?”

“bro, we got a free personal tarot reading with Rei of Light.”

“what?!” jimin’s voice went one octave higher.

“fuck yeah, okay listen — in her last video, she was picking random commenters for a free personal tarot reading giveaway since she reached a subscriber milestone. i commented and she replied on the comment that i have been selected!!”

“are you sure it’s her? could be an imposter too?”

“nope, i checked. it’s her. she has provided her mail and asked me to send her the convenient time to do the reading.”

“oh. sounds good, i guess.”

“stop second-guessing and just agree already. when are you free?”

“what day it is today?”

“16th april.”

“ahha, saturday then tomo — wait, remember in one of her readings, she had said that something significant is going to happen when the moon is in libra and that was in april, right?”

“yeah, i remember. wait, let me check once again,” jeongguk quickly checked with google before placing the phone back over his ear, “fuck. the full moon in libra is in april 16.”

“this is creepy...” jimin trailed off, feeling chills down his spine thinking about the vivid dream he just woke up from, trying to remember the whole dream but his mind replayed the same bits and pieces like a broken record.

“it’s not! it was meant to be! she could have replied tomorrow or yesterday but she replied today! it has to mean something.”

“like what?”

“that tomorrow you are meeting her and getting the personal tarot reading.”

“and how will that fix anything?”

“jimin. park jimin. dumbass. park dumbass. you are too fixated on finding an answer. it’s not always about an answer.”

“are you high?”

“unrelated, irrelevant and nothing you can prove. so, i am fixing the appointment with her for tomorrow. bye.”

︶︶︶︶︶︶︶︶︶༉‧₊˚.

around late afternoon on a beautiful sunday, you were sat at the cafe two streets away from kyunghee university. they had a system of booths which was obscured and hence would not permit prying eyes to judge your craft. it felt like a decent place for a one-to-one reading, although now in hindsight, what if the person is a serial killer? no one would even be able to know for some time if the person just kills you and walks out. maybe you should do some vocal warm-ups to free up your throat in case the person tries to drive the knife through your stomach, so you can make a loud enough sound. alternatively, what if the person slits your throat, instead? is this why the Universe showed you the way to spirituality? — yeah, you are definitely a little bit too nervous for this interaction and conjuring up all sorts of idiotic scenarios.

this is the first time you are giving someone a face-to-face offline tarot reading. personally, you do not even think you are that good or if you are even conveying the messages properly. at the next swing of the air conditioner, you could smell your parfum — ‘Portrait of a Lady’ by Frederic Malle wafting around the air and it provided you with some ease as it was something familiar which helped you stay grounded.

you had conveyed the time and location of the meeting to the user “IU is my queen”

around 4 pm? at the ___ cafe, booth number 7

almost as if on cue, you could hear muffled footsteps outside the booth door at exactly 4 pm. quickly fixing your hair and clothes one last time, you brought a smile on your face as the doors slid horizontally to reveal the person on the other side. 

it did not take long for your soft smile to fade away on seeing the person stood in front of you.

“have i seen you before?”

i have seen him before but not in this lifetime.

┏━━━━━━༻❁༺━━━━━━┓

              𝑨𝒄𝒕 𝑰𝑰 — 𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝑴𝒐𝒐𝒏

┗━━━━━━༻❁༺━━━━━━┛

your hands placed on the table-top were shaking lightly, ears ringing as you felt an oncoming headache the moment the person came into your field of vision.

on the other hand, jimin opened his mouth in the process of saying something but closed it before opening it again to finally verbalise the words, “i was just about to ask that.” 

this has happened before. i have seen her before but not in this lifetime.

︶︶︶︶︶︶︶︶︶༉‧₊˚.

around seven months ago, you started the YouTube channel ‘Rei of Light’ after you were convinced that you have enough knowledge, if not much, to finally read for others (and also after you had done so numerous times for family and friends).

unlike most tarot readers, you do not have an endearing story about your tarot journey. it started in quite an unusual way, but i guess we draw inspiration from everywhere. 

when you were in middle school, like every other all girls’ school students, your friends group used to go around trying everything. after-schools were strictly reserved for exploration when exams were not near. one day its karaoke, the other it’s a trek, and another day it’s playing games at the arcade. similarly, one day somebody (you cannot exactly remember now who it was) in the group suggested getting a reading from the resident tarot reader at the cafe near school. the lady used to only give readings on tuesday evenings.

after finalising the plan and working out the expenses of getting a reading, your small group headed to the cafe. it was decided that all of you would get a group because none of you had enough funds for individual readings.

it was easy to locate the lady, although she was not wearing any eccentric clothes or any other imagery (as you had expected, no thanks to the inaccurate media portrayals) but there was just something about her that you could easily recognise that yep, that’s her.

the lady was sat at a table in the corner, shuffling a deck of cards, with imagery different than playing cards, effortlessly between her fingers — the sound created was satisfying — it really drew you in. you could almost fall asleep listening to that uninterrupted shuffling, it had such a lulling effect.

after your little group got seated in front of her, she wordlessly kept shuffling the cards before spreading them out on the table-top face down.

“pick ten cards. two each,” she spoke up and smiled for the first time that evening. her arms now resting near her thighs as she leaned back to let you and your friends choose — her aura was warm and very welcoming.

the imagery at the back of the cards were all the same so there was nothing that visually attracted you, but you were the first one to pull out two cards from the pile — you segregated them from the rest of the pile neatly and set them aside as you waited for your friends to take their pick — following your lead, they did the same.

“interesting,” the lady mumbled, her eyes at you before she sat up straighter and checked the two cards that you had picked.

“did i do something wrong?”

“absolutely not, dear. rather, you have an interesting future ahead,” she placed the two cards back down, this time face up, “the moon and the star. beautiful celestial bodies — such a precious energy.”

your meek eyes were quick to catch that both the cards had the numbers 17 and 18 on them, like in a sequence. the joy of hearing ‘the moon’ did not linger when you were confronted by the imagery on ‘the moon’ card. the moon was depicted more like the sun and instead of basking in its eternal beauty, it rather looked perplexed and deep in thoughts, like something was wrong or something was not adding up. in contrast, the star card was visually emotionless and had a big star on the top and underneath it, a lady pouring water on the ground and in the waterbody in front of her; it seemed paradoxical. *

* [the imagery is based on the rider waite tarot cards]

“they don’t look happy.”

“you are not wrong but let me tell you, from what i can feel of this energy here, for you it’s going to turn out happy.”

“but what does it mean?”

the lady chuckled, “you know most people come to me to hear good things and don’t really care about symbolism, but you are one of the rare cuties who ask what it means. well, the moon refers to a number of things but for you it means that you should pay more attention to your dreams—”

“—my dreams?”

“—yes, your dreams. for the past few reincarnations, your soul has suffered from a pain it could not bear but had to shoulder time and again but not anymore. this time, the moon has completed its rotation and become full — you will get what is meant to be yours.”

“i-i don’t understand.”

“i am afraid i have to get to your friends. our time is almost over.”

you went to protest and ask more questions but chose to keep quiet instead. however, none of it still made sense. you are not one prone to bad dreams, you cannot even remember the last upsetting dream you had. later in the day when you reached home, all you could fixate on was reading up the various meanings of the two tarot cards. notwithstanding which version you read, none of them seemed to have a correlation to you, your life, or your situation.

“maybe the lady was wrong.” became your mantra as you dedicated all your free time to reading up on tarot and watching tarot videos. for christmas that year, you saved up money and bought your first tarot deck — rider waite and thus started your spiritual journey.

it was probably at the age of sixteen onwards when you started having nightmares — it all consisted of losing a person to an accident, or to a disease or knowing that they have not reincarnated in that life with you and then having to live out the rest of your life without them. your soul felt like it was inexplicably interconnected with the other soul, it would even tug at your chest and you would almost always wake up with tears flowing incessantly from your eyes and a deep-rooted heartache — the type which usually means you are having a heart attack. it would be next to impossible to get you to stop crying or clutching at your chest as if it would ease the pain somehow, but your parents know after getting checked by a number of top-rated cardiologists in the country, it was not a heart attack but just a heartache, painful one at that. maybe you were just meant to feel the pain but again you did not know ‘why?’. the dreams scared you of something you have never faced before, they stressed you out to the point that you were scared of falling asleep — afraid of putting yourself through that same pain again.

disturbed, stressed, anxious — you tried to delve deeper into the spiritual world. you tried reading up on witchcraft, spells, the various schools of religion, and of course tarot but all that it yielded was a rapid decline in your grades to the extent that your parents were called in and informed that you would be expelled if you were to maintain such negligible scores.

it took your parents taking away your phone, access to internet, your tarot decks and other resources you had piled up on, to finally get you some much needed headspace.

the dreams slowly stopped becoming so violent when you swallowed the fact that everything cannot be possibly explained at the very moment. the dreams seemed to have changed their version with time — earlier it used to be just you going through the heartbreak and left alone to shoulder the pain but lately, you find a soft hand extended towards you; when you are at your lowest, this hand pops up in the dreams and when you hold it, it helps bring you back to your feet. you do see a face in the dreams but it’s not a face that you have ever encountered in real life nor can you describe it once you wake up. it seemed to be another thing that your mind was ready to fixate on but instead you shook your head and understood that things need time to be played out, they require the time to bloom and become the proper blessings that you are supposed to receive and enjoy in this lifetime. so, you took a step back, deep breath in and out and let the cards play themselves out. [pun intended]

now in your early twenties, majoring in history in one of the top colleges of the country, you have a clearer conscience which is not constantly overburdened with the urge to know every answer out there. you will know when it is time. you still hold the reins to your life — bleach your hair as it pleases in the obnoxious colour that tickles your fancy, adding more piercings or tattoos, partying till late and then pulling a decent grade in a major that interests you — but in terms of spirituality, you let your spirit guides lead the way. what is meant to be yours, will be yours at the right time. 

after finishing your elective three months ancient practices course in india, you were introduced to the possibility that the hand in your dreams might belong to your spirit guide or guardian angel and it made sense, it just made so much sense. a week after you settled back into your dorm, you posted the first tarot reading on your youtube channel because it felt like something that you just had to do.

┏━━━━━━༻❁༺━━━━━━┓

            𝑨𝒄𝒕 𝑰𝑰𝑰 — 𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝑳𝒐𝒗𝒆𝒓𝒔

┗━━━━━━༻❁༺━━━━━━┛

“what shall i get you guys started with?” the waitress smiled as she walked in, breaking the silence that had seeped in when your lucky subscriber walked in.

you lowered your gaze breaking the eye-contact as you gently cleared your throat. jimin, also, touched the back of his neck shyly before taking the seat in front of you.

“i will have a lemonade, please.”

“make it two,” jimin put down the menu which he had just picked up.

the waitress smiled, noting it down and walked out, leaving the two of you alone.

“um, let’s just get started, okay? can i get your name?” your voice came out softer than you intended to, almost like you were trying to unconsciously appeal to him.

“yeah, i guess. i’m jimin. also, i didn’t catch your name.”

“it’s y/n,” you mumbled, hands too busy shuffling the cards to ease the anxiety that you felt from the earlier incident. he is the perfect stranger; you have never known anyone with the name jimin nor have you ever seen this guy before and yet you can swear you know him too well. 

you tried to channel your focus back to the cards and had barely begun to shuffle the transparent tarot deck when four cards flew right out and landed onto the table. pouting a little, you continued and drew out two more cards to complete the tarot part of the reading. when you tried to pick up the cards, owing to your short nails you could not grip the edge of the cards to flip them over.

the corner of jimin’s lips turned up ever so slightly as he tried to stifle his chuckle, he did not mean to be offensive in any way but it was just endearing to watch you struggle at picking up the cards. deciding to put you out of your misery, jimin grabbed the cards and put them face forward on the table.

you were ready to cry, honestly. this is the first time that you are giving one of your subscribers a personal reading and everything that can possibly gone wrong, has. first the awkward encounter, then you meant to show off a bit with your shuffling skills which was watered down by the spirits throwing the cards at your face and then you struggled to even pick up the cards. the cards that you handle almost every single day! how embarrassing.

you cleared your throat again, swallowing your tears this time before regaining your composure. usually you start with small talk as you like to make the other person feel comfortable but today you just anxiously skipped to the reading — wanting it to be over soon. although it is supposed to be a big deal, but your mind kept leaping back to the previous mishap, your feet tapping against the floor in a constant rhythmic manner. it feels both wrong and the rightest thing that has ever happened in your life.

“the best thing about this deck is that you can pile the cards to form a new imagery” [you put the first three cards on top of each other to form a unified imagery] “we have ten of cups, three of cups, justice,” [you put the fourth card aside separately] “and the moon.” and there it is, your heart has started aching again. it is feeble but you can feel it clearly at the bottom of your chest, pulsing throughout your heart. you have always shared this bittersweet relation with the moon but this is the first time that you have started feeling the good ol’ heartache just because the card showed up in a reading, a reading for someone else.

“are you okay?” jimin asked upon noticing the grimace on your face.

“oh, absolutely!” you turned your frown to a grin, “looks like we have a love situation here, jimin.” [you kept stacking the three cards as neatly as possibly, brushing fingers over the imagery of the cups gently] “the three of cups makes me think of a celebration, look at these three figures clinking their cups together like they are harmonising ‘cheeers!’ it doesn’t necessarily have to be a grand party, it can be an intimate get together too but it feels like you are introduced to the other person through a mutual person. now with the justice card it makes me think that whoever this other person is, they are going to be your perfect half and your intellectual and emotional equal who will balance you out. also, it is related to the signs of libra and gemini—”

“— i am a libra sun with a gemini moon,” jimin spoke in-between.

“oh! you know your signs, that’s nice. well, the signs are just an extra layer of confirmation which can mean that you are on the right path keep going! the ten of cups is a happy card, it symbolises a happy long term emotional commitment. [you point to the two figures sharing the cups] notice how the two figures are in an embracing position? like they are just happy and celebrating how many cups they have! if you are not looking for a relationship then it works just fine with colleagues or new friendships but it is a card which talks about fruitful companionship, something that will fulfil both the parties involved and even convert to marriage or a successful partnership.”

“is it weird that every time i watch any of your readings or even any other tarot reader’s video, i always get most of these cards. like they always somehow show up with the same messages.” 

“not weird at all. it just means this is an urgent message that spirit wants you to know.”

“but everything that i am going through have nothing to do with a relationship.”

“maybe you are not able to see the bigger picture.”

“i like that. please, continue, i am sorry i interrupted,” jimin admitted sheepishly, before drinking some of the lemonade.

“not at all. this is a conversation. so, moving on — ah the moon... i will get a clarifier for this,” [you shuffle the rider waite tarot deck and shortly ‘the star’ card flies out from the deck] “oh great,” you mumbled. the Universe is messing with you, right? the same two cards that you had received in your first reading, the same two cards which is the reason why you are sitting here today doing tarot readings.

“what? is this a bad combination?” jimin asked as you quieted down.

“no, actually,” [you start speaking subconsciously] “you should refer to your dreams, if you had any significant ones. it seems like for the past few reincarnations, your soul has suffered from a pain it could not bear but had to shoulder time and again but not anymore. this time, the moon has completed its rotation and become full — you will get what is meant to be yours.”

your throat felt extremely parched all of a sudden — the realization that you narrated that lady’s interpretation of the cards without thinking twice but the interpretation seems to fit jimin’s situation too because you do not feel like you said anything wrong. grabbing the glass of lemonade, you chugged it down in one go.

“i am so sorry — okay, so lastly for the tarot cards we have the tower and death. mm, it’s a nice combo. they go pretty well as the tower deals with a significant event in your life where it felt like everything just crashed down, your dreams, aspirations — but it feels like you have passed your tower moment, maybe you are still in the process of healing yourself but since we also have the death card which represents the end of a cycle so that gives space for a new cycle — a happier cycle to start.”

“like the page of wands.”

your eyes turned to him in a flash as you did not expect him to know much about cards, “wow, you know your cards.”

jimin let a chuckle, “a few months ago i fell down the rabbit hole of tarot looking for answers.”

“did you find your answers?”

“not the ones i wanted but i did get some, very strong ones certainly.”

you chuckled this time, “it do be like that sometimes. don’t worry, tarot is all about interpretations and perspectives. maybe at the moment it didn’t make sense because we might not be looking at it the right way, but it will all add up.”

“alright, for the oracle part we will take three cards to get any additional information,” [you shuffle the starseed oracle deck] “we have ‘new earth’, ‘all paths lead home’ and for the last one” [two cards fall out of the deck] “— oops, two cards fell out. guess, i will take them. it’s the ‘courageous pony’ and ‘deep cellular healing’.”

“alright, so ‘new earth’ means that things are unfolding as they should so don’t give up now. you are on the right path — i feel like i have said this three times already — [light chuckle] you are closer to uncovering the truth than you think. for the ‘all paths lead home’ — this is funny, remember how you said you turned to tarot because you wanted answers? well spirit, through this card, is asking you to look within, your soul has all the answers you need. your soul feels like it has seen and felt a lot of things, definitely an old soul. next, the ‘courageous pony’ is asking you to be more outspoken, don’t try to bury all your thoughts deep within. maybe you have become habituated with burying things deep down but it is time to break free from that habit. talk with your friends, or your family and let it all out. and finally, affirming what i said earlier — ‘deep cellular healing’ is about healing your wounds, healing your inner child, doing shadow work to clear your conscience, so you can focus on new things than being stuck in the past.”

jimin’s eyes turned glassy as your words deeply comforted him, he had absolutely no idea what the messages even pertained to but just being talked to in a manner — in the manner that the person on the other side understands him or, at the very least, has a vague idea of the predicament he is in — he feels comforted. a feeling that had been missing from his life for a long time.

you kept smiling nervously, waiting for jimin to say something — anything but when his lips finally parted to let a sound out, his phone started ringing — breaking the veil of uncomfortable silence.

jimin’s eyes quickly fleeted to the blaring phone kept on the table-top, his glassy eyes drying up in a beat as he silenced the incoming call from the insufferable jeon jeongguk, “sorry about that. thank you so much for the reading. i-um, i am sorry but i am at a loss of words and i feel like i am doing you a disservice with this stupid feedback to such an enlightening reading, but my mind is just all over the place.”

you frowned a little, “hey, look at me. it’s alright, you know? it’s alright to feel that way.”

he nodded, grabbing his phone as he scurried to his feet, “i will be taking your leave. thank you again for the reading! i know it doesn’t seem like so, but it has helped me greatly.”

before you could bid goodbye, jimin walked out in a hurry. his face had the same grimace over his ethereal features like you had when you felt the heartache. as he left, you felt a sense of emptiness surround you. your ears weren’t ringing anymore nor was there any dull heartache lurking around. breaking out of your trance, you left the booth too to catch one last glimpse of the perfect stranger, but he had left already. you looked around the cafe; buzzing with people, couples, teenagers but your perfect stranger was nowhere to be seen. sighing, you went to collect the bill, but the waitress let you know that mr park had paid for it already.

︶︶︶︶︶︶︶︶︶༉‧₊˚.

jimin crossed the road, speed-walking back to his dorm at the kyunghee campus. he was feeling the same overwhelming feeling that he did when his father passed away two years ago in a car accident. a dread took over him, he felt like he was about to throw up and none of that made any sense. meeting you — it was such an amazing experience, but his mind was flooded with colourless memories of a distant past where he lost someone close to his heart, someone who’s hands resembled yours, the same hands that slipped away from his. the memories weren’t his, they cannot possibly be his because he has never gone through something like that. the colourless memories blended with the recent memories of losing his father, causing his face to lose all colour altogether as he stumbled at his room finally.

placing his hand on the doorknob with the plea to twist it open, he lost his balance and passed out at the threshold with a muffled thud.

︶︶︶︶︶︶︶︶︶༉‧₊˚.

luckily, taehyung was still in the dorm and upon hearing the crashing sound and discovering his best friend in such a state, he rushed jimin inside.

once he successfully got his friend on the bed, taehyung tried to shake jimin awake but to no avail. he quickly grabbed a bottle of water and sprinkled some over jimin’s face which seemed to do the trick as jimin’s eye crinkled open.

upon regaining consciousness, jimin sat up at once, grabbing taehyung’s shirt as tightly as possible, “it was so dark, fuck it was so dark.”

“jiminie it’s me. you’re okay. nothing happened. here, drink some water,” taehyung sat at the foot of the bed after handing the bottle of water to his friend.

jimin took a few sips before balling up on the bed, resting his head on the pillow. he could hear taehyung asking what happened and about his whereabouts but slowly the voice seemed to grow distant like it was coming from another room, another building, another reality — as a strange tiredness took over him, his eyes drooping close, ensuing a dream.

taehyung stopped enquiring further when he was met with silence. at first it alarmed him ‘cause he thought jimin blacked out again but when the non-rhythmic snores of his friend reached his ears, he visibly calmed down, letting a sigh he did not know he was holding on to.

︶︶︶︶︶︶︶︶︶༉‧₊˚.

jimin woke up in the middle of the night. 

everything outside had quieted down, the blinds were drawn closely, not allowing any moonlight in. he sat up and noticed that taehyung was also sleeping on the same bed, poor thing must have been worried sick.

jimin looked around for his phone to check the time — it was 03:47am and the only sound he could hear was taehyung’s soft rhythmic breathing. jimin felt so fresh, so energetic like a wave of stamina had washed over him but all he wanted to do was talk, he badly needed to talk. waking taehyung up seemed like a bad choice because he must have fallen asleep worried whereas namjoon sleeps early. he tried calling jeongguk but his cell was unreachable for some reason. he got off the bed carefully before walking to the windows. moving aside the blinds a bit, his eyes were able to trace out the beautiful moon in the sky.

first he felt overwhelmed and now he felt frustrated because finally he was ready — or at least he thinks he was — to talk, talk about his father passing away and how much it affected him so much to the point that he just sat at home for two years — burdened with new responsibilities to support his mother and brother. he forced himself to swallow all the tears and held his composure day in and out for the sake of his mother. he was supposed to go study film and multimedia at sungkyunkwan university that fall but he dropped out and took up odd jobs till his mother recovered and resumed the flower shop business that his mother along with his now gone father had dearly curated. two years passed by in the blink of an eye as jimin was in a constant state before his mom finally pushed him to pursue higher education and join his friends. jimin was against the idea because he wanted to be there for his mom, his mom and brother were all he had left now, and life had certainly proved to be so unpredictable.

taehyung took it upon himself to furnish all the formalities when jimin’s mom contacted her son’s best friend. he submitted the forms, took care of the dorm room arrangements, inter alia before jimin finally joined him after leaving busan following the two years living in a fog-like state.

jimin opened instagram and navigated to your profile before clicking on the ‘message’ option after debating on it for a few minutes. his eyes were stuck to your profile picture, your smile was absolutely infectious, and he swears you look the best in the blue dress that he gifted you — he zoned out again before finally typing out everything that was on his mind. he mentioned how he thinks that he has gone through the tower moment of his life — his father’s untimely demise — and is ready for a new beginning. that he felt anew after receiving the beautiful reading from such a beautiful person inside and out. yes, yes, he is sort of flirting, but you are the perfect stranger. you have over a 10k followers, and it is so unlikely that you would even check his direct message — it would be pushed down under the sea of messages you must be receiving on a daily basis. furthermore, neither his username nor his profile name has his real name on there, additionally his profile picture is an anime one so you would not even know it is him.

debating over it for a few seconds before clicking on the arrow at the left of the text box, jimin locked his phone and went back to sleep feeling better.

︶︶︶︶︶︶︶︶︶༉‧₊˚.

“so, what happened yesterday?” jeongguk asked after the morning class ended and the duo headed to the canteen.

“nothing!” jimin was beaming. he felt so free, so light — from what — he does not know but he ain’t complaining about it either.

“uh-huh, taehyung was saying that you blacked out last night. also, you hadn’t taken my call last day.”

“because your dumbass called while i was still talking y/n.”

“y/n?”

“the creator behind Rei of Light.”

jeongguk’s jaw fell open, “you dawg! so you did go to the reading but did not think of letting me know!?!?!?!”

jimin chuckled and stood in the queue to order a cup of coffee. jeongguk took place behind him and nudged him forward, pleading that the older male tell him every last bit of the details. losing his balance, jimin stumbled forward — grazing the person in front of him.

“shit. i am sorry!” jimin blurted out.

the person turned back, ready to forgive the polite intruder when their eyes met — for the second time. your smile faltered at recognising the man — the man who had lent his hand to you last night in your dreams — finally you have a face to the person, and it is this man who is standing in front of you, jimin.

“hi, jimin,” you let out a breathy greeting.

“hi, y/n,” jimin replied with the same fervour. 

jeongguk watched you two just staring at each other so he cleared his throat, “ahem. i will see you in class.”

“in class?”

“yes, in class in an hour?”

“in an hour?”

“yes,” jeongguk walked away shortly to give you two some privacy.

grabbing a pair of iced cafe lattes, you two walked to one of the empty tables. however, neither of you said a word before you remembered his texts last night.

“i read your texts from last night.”

“my tex— wait, you saw them?? and you knew it was from me?”

“yeah, i cannot explain how but i just knew that it was you, i wanted to reply to you but i was running late for class so kept it on hold to reply properly.”

“uh, you don’t really have to reply. i just needed to vent, i guess.”

you nodded, “although i will admit that i was surprised it is an anime fan account. thought it would be an IU fan account.”

“IU fan account?”

“yeah, your youtube handle is IU is my queen, right?”

jimin laughed, “oh, that was my friend, jeongguk’s profile. he had won the giveaway actually, but he claimed it was for me and forced me to go.”

“oh? what a weird series of coincidences.”

“anyways, i am sorry again for unloading on you like that. i really needed to talk but had no one at the moment.”

“not at all, i would like to think that you had me,” you smiled.

jimin nodded, smiling fondly, “so, you study here?”

“yes, i am from the history faculty.”

“it’s the other campus, right?”

“yeah. okay, funny story; i was supposed to meet my friend who studies film making in your building but after i reached here, she cancelled last moment. i thought oh well, might as well get a drink for my way back.”

“truly a weird series of coincidences.”

︶︶︶︶︶︶︶︶︶༉‧₊˚.

“hi, i am sorry but i will be stealing this dumbass,” jeongguk appeared like the devil, “kwon’s class started five minutes ago, let’s go.”

“koo, that’s rude. you go ahead, i don’t think i will attend today.”

“no, please go to your class. i don’t want you to stay back because of me.”

“yes, thank you for speaking some sense,” jeongguk feigned a sarcastic smile at you before turning to his friend, “today is the class test, park. no resits.”

“fuck, it’s today?” jimin got to his feet at once, “shit, i am sorry but i have to leave, kwon hates us both.”

you chuckled at the friend duo, “we will talk later.”

jimin grabbed his bag and started walking away but turned back, “can i have your number?”

“yeah, of course. it’s-” you waited as jimin fumbled to take out his phone.

“just take his number, i don’t want to fail ‘cause of him,” jeongguk sighed before reciting the ten-digit cell number of his friend.

“wait, i have to pay for the coffee.”

“actually, no you had paid that day although it was supposed to be a free reading, so it was on me,” you recounted how unfair it was for him to pay.

“there, problem solved, love birds,” jeongguk grabbed jimin’s shirt and dragged the man away.

you heard a distant but enthusiastic bye and could not help but laugh out loud.

︶︶︶︶︶︶︶︶︶༉‧₊˚.

jimin grabbed the blank sheet professor kwon handed out distastefully and took his seat. he took out his phone to put it on silent when a new message appeared on his notifications which immediately put a smile on his face.

+829876543210: all the best. hwaiting! ^~^

︶︶︶︶︶︶︶︶︶༉‧₊˚.

five months later:

“you know, it doesn’t make sense.”

“mm?” jimin turned to you, his index finger tracing out figures to the side of your arm as you are sat on his lap in the dorm.

“out of all the tarot readings that i have received, i was told that my soulmate would be super tall and super handsome. the Universe has scammed me.”

jimin’s eyes narrowed, “oh yeah?” his hands grabbed your sides as he started tickling you. laughing, you toppled on the bed, trying to pry his hands away.

unbeknownst to the pair of you, taehyung had just walked in as jimin got on top of you, still tickling you.

“no no no no, not this again. do you guys have any shame? you asshole, you share this room with me!” taehyung yelled at jimin.

you pushed jimin to the side and sat up, “tae, we are sorry.”

“we are?” jimin sat up too.

“you will be when this goes live on my IG,” jeongguk appeared from behind taehyung, the phone in his hand videotaping the whole ordeal.

jimin laughed as you ran behind jeongguk to grab his phone.

︶︶︶︶︶︶︶︶︶༉‧₊˚.

feedback is deeply appreciated.✨

masterlist | bts masterlist | rules | ask box

- jaimie

© 𝟫𝟫𝓁𝒾𝓃𝑒𝓇𝓈, 𝟤𝟢𝟤𝟤. 𝐀𝐋𝐋 𝐑𝐈𝐆𝐇𝐓𝐒 𝐑𝐄𝐒𝐄𝐑𝐕𝐄𝐃.

[teenandbeyond]

Dom.Shigaraki x Fem.Reader

I honestly don't know wtf this is. It's just Raki, I guess. It's a decent lemon.

✋🏻✋🏻✋🏻✋🏻✋🏻✋🏻✋🏻✋🏻✋🏻✋🏻✋🏻✋🏻✋🏻✋🏻✋🏻✋🏻✋🏻✋🏻

🍋𝓕𝓪𝓻 𝓯𝓻𝓸𝓶 𝓓𝓮𝓵𝓲𝓬𝓪𝓽𝓮🍋 (MHA and BNHA)

Warnings: Lemon, Choking, squirting (Thanks google, I know what that is now), rough, PLF

What happens when Shigaraki finds you, his new assistant, absolutely irresistible?

☆*: .｡. .｡.:*☆☆*: .｡. .｡.:*☆☆*: .｡. .｡.:*☆☆*: .｡. .｡.:*☆

You bowed in front of the Grand Commander, "Sir."

Shigaraki leaned back in his chair, legs crossed on his desk, "[Name]. What is it?"

"I have some information I need you to look over."

His eyes raked over your figure for the fourth time this week, his eyes mostly hidden behind the giant hand that covered his face.

"Fine, come here."

You walked forward confidently, unlike most, you looked past his appearance, you quickly got over the phase of finding him startling.

"Here, sir," You placed the short, two-page packet in front of him.

"Read it to me, will you?"

"Well, we have plenty of supplies and--"

"Sit."

You glanced around...there were no chairs for you to sit in.

He beckoned you forward with a finger.

You walked around his desk stopping a couple feet beside him, he turned his chair to face you. Before you could process, he tugged you forward, making you stumble onto his lap, a knee on each side of his outer thigh.

Your face warmed, "I-Sir, this isn't very professional-"

He turned you around to face his desk, his chest pressed against your back, your thighs on top of his, "Read it to me."

You bit your lip, he was surprisingly more toned than it seems, "Yes..."

He watched as you continued on as if you weren't on his lap, professional, he was impressed. But how long would it take...?

"Also there's a little concern--!"

He spread your thighs with his, lowering his head and muttering, "I don't remember telling you to stop."

You continued, controlling your breath as his hand slowly caressed your thigh. Fortunately, you had immunity to Quirks, so you had no worries about being destroyed (not by his quirk, anyway).

"T-there's no concern a-about the number of v-villains for--Sir..."

He smirked when he rubbed a gloved finger against your clothed kitty, he'd disintegrated the bottom half of your suit without you realizing, "You're completely soaked, [Name], how naughty."

Stutters became more apparent the more he rubbed there, you were almost done with the first page, "An-And the...Mn~"

"Keep going," he gruffly muttered into your ear.

Your shaky hand flipped to the last page, clenching when he moved your panties to the side, "Lace, huh?"

"It--It isn't a problem to follow your idea with--hah~--with what you mentioned yesterda--y"

He took off his glove and began to rub your bare wetness, you blushed at the erotic nature of this situation.

"Hm. What's this?"

You arched your back, your mouth dropping open, he'd found your clitoris.

Then like the evil man that he was he abused it, you gripped his wrist, back arching at the feeling, "S-sir~"

He chuckled, trailing his other hand lower, lower, rubbing it against you until he found the entrance to your cavern.

You bit your lip at the feeling, "Please~"

He moved his finger a little faster, "Please, what?"

You shook your head, the feeling so intense "I need to--Please, I need to come~"

He smirked into your ear, "Hm. I don't know, you didn't follow my instructions, [Name]."

You hurriedly tried to finish reading, a few moans in between, you glared to try and rid yourself of the daze.

You sighed in relief when you finished, your head laying back on his shoulder, "Sir, please!"

Soon your hips were jerking, your body involuntarily trying to escape his hands, this orgasm would be intense.

He removed the finger thrusting into you to hold down your waist, rubbing your clit more to make up for it, "Be obedient and come for me, [Name]."

Your thighs shook as you released, but it was different, it squirted out like water, your moan so loud Shigaraki had to cover your mouth.

"[Name], you got your papers wet, shame," he muttered indifferently.

"That...that was..."

"Just the beginning," he finished, he sucked on his fingers wet with your slick.

Your face got hot, you realized that he'd gotten terribly aroused throughout this whole thing.

"Do you want me to, um, s-"

"Nah, I'm too impatient for that. Bend over."

"O-on your desk?"

"Yes, where else?"

You stood, bending over on his desk.

Shigaraki groaned when he was eye-level with your ass.

"Perfect. Let's see if it feels perfect too--Mn~"

"Ahn~"

He slid into your cavern with ease, taking it slow, he grunted at the tightness. This might've not been your first time, but it was his, he'd never been able to fully touch someone before.

"Fuck."

He needed more.

"Ahm~ Siiir~"

He sped up, skin slapping against skin.

A few minutes you were flipped over, he wanted to see your face. Fuck, you weren't making it easy, you're lucky he had abnormal stamina.

You gripped the edge of his desk, he went faster than you were ready for, you grabbed at his ass desperately.

"Damn, you may have to be my plaything."

"Please~"

Your hands slid up when he hit your sweet spot, "There! Please, there!"

You both were close.

He went faster, "I'm close, [Name]--Fuck, stop clenching around me like that, you brat."

He could feel it, you were close like him, he slid one hand up from the desk, gripping your neck.

He switched pace, going slower but hitting harder, deeper.

"S-"

"S--ay my name..." Shigaraki growled out, his red eyes meeting yours as he gripped your throat tighter, "My hand looks so pretty as your necklace."

The hand around your throat is what did it, "Shigaraki~"

You repeated clenched around him as you released, he shuddered at the feeling, he quickly pulled out and released on your thighs.

He liked seeing you with his cum painting your body.

"We'll do this again later. I let you take a break, I wouldn't want my delicate [Name] to break."

You lifted your head that laid on his desk looking him in the eyes with a smirk, "Oh, sir. I'm far from delicate~"

[lebenspurpur]

AN: Helloo, wrote this because I spent today suffering through my post-drunk-vandalism hangover. Guess it's deserved but still, it sucks. After eating chicken broth my dad made, unsalted if I may add, for an hour straight I am now ready to be creative. I really don't know what this is.

Have the link to my Larry playlist while we're at it:

Pairing: Larry Johnson x reader

Warnings: Swearing, mentions of alcohol

Wordcount: 1744 words

🤍🧷💀⛓🔪🏁🕷🤍🧷💀⛓🔪🏁🕷🤍🧷💀⛓🔪🏁🕷🤍🧷💀⛓

Larry looks really, really stupid right now. Stupid and sick.

His tall form slumped over in defeat, big blanket wrapped around him but not too tight, otherwise he'd feel too hot, too feverish, he still needs some air. There are tissues scattered across the couch as well. Fucking hell.

Usually, this would disgust you but it's Larry, you think you've seen worse.

Small sniffles come from where he's laying, whenever he clears his throat hoarse croaking leaves his mouth and he cringes every time he hears it. He can feel your judging gaze on his body, hear your arched eyebrow without even lifting his head.

His radio is blaring some kind of metal music, you don't recognize the band. Technically, the music is useless since the TV in front of Larry's bed is playing an old horror movie, bloody screams only adding to the grimy ambiance in the room.

"I-", you start but Larry lifts his hand before you can even consider continuing.

On any other occasion, you would've noticed the rings adorning his slender fingers, the metal accessories leaving a trail of dark smudge on his hands. Damn, did he have some nice hands.

Thankfully today wasn't a normal occasion. The metalhead in front of you had worse problems than you drooling over his fingers right now, one of them being the sickness he caught.

"Don't you dare say 'I told you so.'", he croaks out while he finally lifts his head, bloodshot eyes meeting yours. He looks immensely tired. You can sense his annoyance at this sickness, this hellish treatment he's in and can't seem to escape.

You take a deep breath in and drop your bag next to his opened front door.

"Alright. I won't."

You close the door quietly and deposit your jacket as well as boots next to it.

His mom always screams at Larry to finally get something for visitor's shoes and bags but he never does. Too busy, too lazy, he figures his visitors get it. Who even visits him, anyway?

The floor is, as usual, covered in stuff he hasn't cleaned yet. Unfinished drawings, sketchbooks, take-out cartons, empty booze bottles, you keep wondering how he manages to create that kind of mess in a timespan of not even two days.

You tiptoe over them, careful as to not to step into something. Earlier experiences have taught you to never mistake one of these seemingly empty cartons as really empty. Just last week you stepped into a fucking pizza the man in front of you didn't finish.

You sigh as you sit down next to him and Larry tiredly raises an eyebrow.

"Dude, I know you don't want to move but Jesus, we really need to get you to bed.", you then state, voice comforting yet firm. You use the moment to stare into his eyes, adore the brown, thick, deepness of them.

Larry groans loudly, voice breaking from how raw his throat is. His head falls back and he closes his eyes, a pained expression on his features.

"Don't wanna.", he grumbles quietly and you involuntarily crack a smile. Larry always managed to do that, even in the most unbelievable moments.

"I'll join you if you do."

One of his eyes slowly creaks open, observing your face to look for any kind of sarcasm or irony. As soon as he doesn't find any, the other eye opens as well and he leans forward again, blanket clutched tightly in his fists.

"Alright."

You grin at his quiet answer, hand reaching over to pull him with you. He obliges, warm, slightly clammy hand tightly grabbing yours. He follows you through the messy room, his blanket leaving a trail of destruction behind the two of you.

You kick open the door leading to his bedroom. Immediately, the familiar images of various album covers greet you. The air in his room is colder and less damp and you hear him take a deep breath.

Turning around, you mention for him to wait while you walk over, grabbing the blanket on his bed. You shake it a bit, readjust the sheets as well the pillow, all while Larry's eyes never leave your back.

"There you go, sweets.", you add as you finish, quickly turning around to see Larry standing the same way you've left him. Tired, slumped, and emotional. The need to hug him starts boiling inside of you but you try and hold yourself back. First, you have to make sure he gets into bed.

Larry slowly stumbles past you. During the last few baby steps, he drops the blanket around his shoulder, faceplanting right into the freshly made sheets. He's not even wearing a shirt and you huff at his stubbornness.

Larry's back looks strong like this, muscles contracting beneath his skin as he tries to get more comfortable. Your eyes glide over his spine, his wide shoulders, the small bumps where his ribs encase his organs. His olive skin is sweaty and long, brown hairs cling to it.

You cringe at that, knowing the feeling all too well.

Softly placing a hand on his back, you move closer, forehead scrunched together.

"Larry, darling."

He grunts into his pillow, a muffled questioning sound.

"I got a hair tie here. Mind lifting your head real quick?"

Larry obliges and lifts his head quickly, taking a deep breath while he does so.

Your fingers find his scalp and start collecting all the strands, securing them afterward with the tie around your wrist.

The man beneath you hums in appreciation as the cold air hits his neck, sweaty skin finally being able to breathe. You kiss the small space beneath his neck real quick, a short sign of comfort before you stand up again, hands leaving his skin.

Larry whines the second you do so, all while quickly turning around, sending you a pleading look.

"You said you'd stay.", the whiny tone only makes his voice sound more hoarse and you can't help the small grin from appearing on your features.

"In a second, sweetie. You need some water and medicine first, alright?"

He whines again but the thought of something fresh and cold going down his throat is enough to soften the pleading look in his eye. You blow him a kiss and then quickly walk into the kitchen, which is right across from the brunette's room.

It's surprisingly clean but what did you expect? Larry never uses his kitchen unless he has to. Which isn't all too often.

Grabbing a water bottle and placing it on the counter, you keep searching for the small broth packets you'd bought exactly for this kind of scenario. You find them in the fridge, the only thing in this room that Larry actually uses.

Chuckling you get some water cooking, all while pouring the powder into one of the giant cups Sal has gifted Larry a while ago. According to the masked man, everything tastes better if it's being eaten out of a cup and so, everyone has their own sets of cups, a premium gift from Sal Fisher.

Soon, everything's done and you maneuver your way back into Larry's room. Said man is awaiting you, eyes still opened as he watches you creep towards his bed, hands full with water, soup, and medicine.

First, you feed him the medicine. Normally he'd do this himself but you know that he'll just ignore the bitter juice unless you force it down his throat. Stubborn motherfucker.

Larry's sitting up now, back propped up against one of the many big pillows he has. You hand him the broth and he inhales it in less than two minutes, apparently, this is the first thing he's eaten today. Shaking your head at the thought, you tug a few strands of hair out of his face, smiling at your lover's appetite.

Finally, after gulping down half of the water bottle, the brunette leans back and smiles, for the first time this evening.

"Thank you.", he croaks out and you touch his arm as an appreciative gesture, "Does that mean you're allowed to join me now?"

You're about to nod as you notice the faint traces of eyeliner on his skin.

"Did you take off your makeup when you got home?", you ask, throwing a teasing smile his way.

Larry clears his throat, embarrassed that you caught him. A faint blush raises on his cheeks and you feel your heart swell at the sight.

"I might have forgotten about it.", he answers, gaze slowly meeting yours again, "But please, let's just do this later, dude. I am so fucking tired."

Huffing, you roll your eyes at his answer but you nod anyway. He'd be fine with the makeup for a few more hours. You just have to remember taking it off tomorrow.

"You're lucky I love you."

Larry grins at that, the usual wide, blinding grin, that makes your stomach tingle with fuzzy feelings inside of it. His fingers find your arm and he tenderly pulls you down to join him. Soon, your head is placed on his chest, and his arms cradle your shoulders, pulling you into his body.

You can hear his relaxed breathing as he finally settles down, nuzzling his face into your hair.

His skin is warm against your cheek and you smile into it. It doesn't matter how often you've done it, laying on his nude chest always makes you flustered.

Larry's fingers start to draw stuff on your back, the feeling more than a delight for you. Humming, you snuggle closer and the metalhead next to you smiles.

His eyes already start to close slowly, lack of sleep finally catching up to him. The quiet sound of the ongoing movie in his living room, as well as the metal music, make for a great background sound and you both listen intently.

You notice the way his heart beats, slow and steady, beneath the tanned skin. Unknowingly, you start to synchronize your breaths with his. In and out. In. And out.

Soon, your eyes close as well. Damn it, you don't want to fall asleep. Though, you suppose it doesn't matter as the man next to you pulls you closer, his breath warm against your ear. He wouldn't let you leave anyway.

The thought makes you feel giddy, excited, in love. Smiling widely, you try to press yourself closer into him, and soon, you too, fall asleep, enveloped by the arms of the boy you love most. Your favorite boy.