#6 Dog Training Questions YOU Probably Don’t Know the Answer to...

[raccoon-eyed-rebel]

White blossoms - Chapter 6

Masterlist

Series Masterlist

If you like this fic, please remember to reblog so that others may also see it!

Pairing: Melot x OFC (Tamsyn)

Word count: 3k

Warnings: Angst. Shenanigans. Historical inaccuracies, probably.

A/N: I was informed that @geralts-yenn has run out of things to read, somehow, therefore I present to you: The next chapter of young love, pining and anticipation... And some fun little history on our young friends.

@deandoesthingstome @ellethespaceunicorn @peaches1958 @peyton-warren @summersong69 @mayloma @livisss @geralts-yenn @sillyrabbit81

It was dreadfully dark in the forest where your camp was set up, and you were dog tired, yet struggled to find sleep on the rough floor. Next to you, Lowen turned around so frequently you vowed to stick a sword right through him and into the ground, so that he might finally stop moving. Aedan sighed every few minutes, a sound of hurt and pining you recognized all too well. It occupied your mind, that sound, threatening to break free from your own lips as you lay there in the dark, staring up at the cloth above your head, clutching the ring that hung from a leather cord around your neck. 

After what seemed to be an eternity, sleep came to you, only to plague you with dreams of your beloved; remnants of the past, at least for the time being. The touch of her hands ghosted over your skin as your mind forced you to relive one of your fondest memories: the day you first laid eyes on her. 

You stood in the square of the town outside the castle walls with Aedan and Lowen, as you waited for Pyran to emerge from his home. When he finally did, he was closely followed by his sister, Morwenna, and had been tasked with accompanying her on an errand. 

“Must you?” you asked. 

“I am afraid so, my friend,” he said. 

“God, why can’t these women ever go anywhere on their own,” Aedan asked, knowing all too well the ample reasons that made up the answer to his question. 

“I am so terribly sorry to inconvenience you,” Morwenna snapped, “I, too, would much rather go about my day without having my brother watching my every move, thank you very much!”

“And exactly what would you do that you’d rather I don’t see,” Pyran said back to her, brow furrowed in suspicion. 

“None of your concern,” she replied without batting an eye, an impish look adorning her sharp features. She was quite becoming, especially when she was angry - which, in the presence of her brother, seemed to be always. 

“Whatever the two of you think you are doing, do it elsewhere!” Their mother shouted from inside the house, prompting your group to take leave and deliver Pyran’s sister to wherever it was where she was needed. 

“I don’t need the lot of you to take me there,” she said, unsmiling as before. 

“We insist,” you said simply, so as to leave no room for discussion. 

“Thank you for your time, lord Melot,” she said, emphasising the honorific. She mocked you often, but you paid her no mind. Women of her beauty got away with such transgressions, or so you had noticed. Your small company made its way to the edge of the town. 

“Tamsyn!” Morwenna called once you were close to one of the houses. 

“Morwenna! One moment!” 

It was after that moment that your life was forever changed - when a beautiful young woman stepped out of the house and your heart seemed to skip a beat. She stood still outside for some time, during which Morwenna made her way over to her. 

“They’re just my brother’s friends,” she said, rolling her eyes and making a face hardly fit for a lady. Morwenna had known most of your company from early on in your childhoods, when her brother had first been brought to start training with you. She was hardly as strict with protocol and etiquette as she should be. The girl she had called Tamsyn seemed much more concerned on that front. 

"I address every last one of the men you are with as 'lord', Morwenna," she hissed, her cheeks flushed and her eyes nervously avoiding yours.

"Oh, stop it, if I ever so much as catch you calling my brother 'lord' anything, I shall… Good grief, I know not what I shall do, but I promise you it will hurt!" 

"That would be fair," you said lightly, "he isn't of noble blood. Morwenna, before we drop every sense of decorum, might we be introduced to your friend?" 

"Of course, my dearest lord Melot," she said before turning to Tamsyn. "Happy?"

"Ecstatic, Morwenna," she sighed. "My lords." She dipped slightly - a modest curtsey, exactly what she should have done. Then why did it feel so wrong?

You couldn't tear your gaze away from her face while Morwenna introduced her to you. Her beauty was striking, with lively eyes and beautiful, full lips. You noticed more about this girl than about any other before her, and the image of her was from that day on etched into your mind, and you were hopeless in your attempts to forget her.  

When you returned to the castle later that day, you stumbled upon Beryan. She immediately discovered that something was the matter with you. 

"What is it, Mely," she taunted. Beryan had given you the nickname when you were small children, and now that you were adults, she only brought it out when she wished to poke fun at you. Which was still far more often than you thought she should.

"Morwenna - Pyran's sister - introduced us to one of her friends today," you spoke slowly, pondering, running through the brief conversation you had had with Tamsyn in your head. 

"And my dear lord Mely has taken a shine to this lady?" 

"Stop calling me that!" you hissed angrily. The inexplicable urge to push her off the fence she was sitting on struck you suddenly, but you wrestled it down. It wasn't just the name calling that bothered you, but also the taunting tone in which she had suggested you fancied the girl. "And I haven't taken a shine to her. Besides, even if I had, it would go unanswered. She's…" 

"A town girl, not of noble birth, her name is Tamsyn, she is exceptionally beautiful, and I hear she has quite the lovely singing voice. Her mother weaves the finest cloth in all of Cornwall, her father is a master carpenter, her uncle a rather wealthy blacksmith in another city. She had a younger brother once, but he was struck by illness and passed away. Her favourite colour is blue and she likes daisies." 

"Bery…" you stammered. How was it possible, in Heaven's name, that she knew all this?

"How many times must I tell you, Melot," Beryan said with a very unladylike grin on her face, "women know everything. We are cunning, powerful and beautiful, and you men would be utterly lost without us." 

"You are wrong, my dear friend. You women are annoyingly nosy and utterly insufferable," you retorted. It was the truth of a young boy, and over the course of the past several years, it had gradually become the lie of a young man. However much you hated to admit it, girls no longer disgusted you to the core of your bones. In fact, you occasionally found yourself rather enthralled by the doings of the fairer half of the population.

"I take it I can't kiss you anymore," Beryan said, and you laughed at her mischievously. It had started as an experiment, following a rather inappropriate conversation. You had been kids, playing in the woods, chasing after one another, fourteen summers young and curiosity had struck you as you had caught her and had tumbled down a slope with her in your arms. Since then, you had oftentimes turned to one another to satisfy your bouts of curiosity, and the feeling of her lips against yours, and her soft skin beneath your fingers would forever be etched into your memory. Now, no matter how curious you did actually find yourself at this time, her lips held no appeal to you. 

"You could, but it would be against my will," you replied softly. With a single brush of her slender fingers, Beryan stroked your dark curls behind your ear. 

"Your ears are red," she noted, "are you ashamed of your affections for this girl?" 

"She isn't of my standing, Bery," you said as you cautiously looked around before you let her envelop you in her embrace. "My uncle will never allow it." 

"Let me see what I can do for you, my precious Mely," she laughed. Her smile was bright as always, shining like the sun over the creek on a beautiful summer day - yet it paled in comparison to Tamsyn's modest yet gorgeous smile. 

“Ow!” You and Morwenna both cried out at the same time, and Beryan and Elowen laughed. While your men were away at battle, they had taken it upon themselves to teach you embroidery, and it was safe to say it had proven frustrating and - quite frankly - perilous to all parties involved. Never in your life had you suffered so much pain in your fingers - and yours were a working girl’s hands, used to decidedly more abuse from daily tasks than the hands of your friends who grew up at court. 

“How do we prevent this?” Morwenna asked, agitation clearly present in her voice and manners. 

“You can feel where your fingers touch the fabric, can’t you?” Beryan asked kindly - perhaps a twinge too kindly. 

“Yes,” Morwenna snapped back at her. 

“Try not to stick your needle through the fabric there.” If it wasn’t so highly inappropriate that it might have cost her her freedom if anyone saw, you suspected Morwenna might have struck Beryan. To her left, Elowen tried her very hardest to contain her laughter, and you yourself had a rather difficult time with the same task. It struck you suddenly; the realisation that Beryan and Elowen had changed in their teaching methods since they first started. 

"You're Tamsyn." The voice startled you, as you were utterly consumed by the task you were performing. Turning around did not remedy your shock, as you looked straight in the face of…

"Lady Beryan," you said, bowing immediately. 

"Won't you walk with me, my dear Tamsyn?" she asked sweetly, and you knew there was no way you could refuse her query. Your chores would simply have to wait. 

"Of course, my Lady," you said, bowing again. The two of you began to stroll through the fields near your house, away from town. It struck you as odd at first, until Beryan began to speak.

"I hear you recently met Melot - or lord Melot, as I should probably say."

"Yes, my lady, I did indeed. He accompanied my friend Morwenna as she came to pick up some cloth," you replied, your gaze dropping to your feet as you realised the lady Beryan would hardly care for the information you offered up so unpromptedly. 

"What do you think of him? And please, speak freely," she furthered her inquiry. You blushed at the thought of sharing your opinions. So often those of higher standing - if they spoke to you at all - said to speak freely, but it was commonly known that they would not appreciate your doing so at all. 

"He is a fine gentleman," you spoke carefully, afraid to say anything that would offend. For a girl of your standing, the consequences of such a mistake could be disastrous. Beryan chuckled and smiled at you, easing your nerves somewhat. 

“That, he is,” she said, “if he isn’t behaving like a complete and utter fool. Which isn’t all too often, I have to admit.”

“My lady, pardon any insolence, but might I inquire as to the reason for your question?” As you asked the question, you could hardly bear to look at Beryan, so great was your fear of coming across as crass or impolite. 

“Oh, dear friend, are you afraid of me?” she asked you, her tone as full of incredulity as the expression on her face. 

“Lady Beryan, I beg for your understanding,” you said nervously, unable to stifle a chuckle of disbelief, “I am not quite used to visitors of noble standing, let alone unprompted inquiries about the nephew of the king.” 

“Dear Tamsyn, I promise you,” Beryan spoke as she put a hand on your shoulder, “my query isn’t unprompted. I will explain in due time, but first, I must insist you give me an honest answer to my question.”

It struck you then that, regardless of your answer, she could spread whatever information she wished at court, and there would be nary a thing you could do about it. Thus, you decided on a truthful response, hoping it would satisfy her curiosity. 

“He seems like a kind man,” you spoke, failing to keep a smile from pulling at the corners of your mouth, “and he is rather fetching, I would say.”

Beryan chuckled softly. “He would be most pleased to hear that,” she said. 

“You won’t tell him, will you?” you blurted out, forgetting your manners for a moment as the fear struck you that Beryan would really share your answer with him. 

“That you find him attractive? God, no! Could you imagine? The man would become absolutely insufferable! And it is barely tolerable to be around him as is!” she snickered. Then, her expression changed. It was a very sudden change, that took you by surprise, in part because it was a sense of guilt that took over for her former playfulness. “I’m terribly sorry, I shouldn’t speak of him that way. The last thing I want is to scare you off… Melot and I grew up together, he became a rather good friend. I know him better than what’s good for me - and Lord knows better than what’s proper. He truly is a fine man.”

It was one phrase in particular that stuck with you, and you turned your head to Beryan, raising an eyebrow as you inquired: “Scare me off, my lady?”

“Right,” Beryan said as she laughed lightly, “that’s why I came to see you. He found you quite becoming when he met you the other day - and that might be too modest a statement. He truly seemed rather taken with you.”

As soon as the words had left her mouth, your feet refused to move any further than they had thus far taken you. “My lady, forgive me, but this hearsay…”

“It’s not hearsay, Tamsyn,” Beryan said as she took your hand in hers, “he told me himself.” 

For a moment, you said nothing, but simply let the words of Beryan run through your head over and over again. Perhaps it was in part to convince yourself of their truth. Though your answer hadn’t been a lie, it had been somewhat of an understatement. The simplest truth was that Melot was, indeed, a very handsome young man, and these days there seemed to be a new rumour regarding his betrothal to some lady or other every other day. They always turned out to be false, which left many a girl in the village to wonder who he would eventually be married off to. That there was even a shred of hope that his uncle would allow him to marry for love… It simply couldn’t be so.

“Even if it is so,” you stammered, taken aback by the sudden turn this conversation had taken, “he is of noble birth. I am not. I have… Lady Beryan, I understand his affections are not something for me to refuse, but this… It can never go anywhere. I have nothing to offer to a lord.”

“Well, he seems to have forgotten about that at this time,” Beryan replied, “I have not.”

“And you are here to tell me not to answer to any advances… Not that I mean to presume he will…”

“Quite the contrary, I am here to help you. If you’ll let me.” 

“My lady, I beg of you,” you said as you turned away from her so as to not allow her gaze to fall upon your pained expression. If only Melot could be yours… The fact of the matter was that you were as taken with him as Beryan told you he was with you, and though you had only spoken those few words to him, and he to you, it was as though he had touched your very heart. 

“Tamsyn, listen to me,” Beryan pleaded. “I have never seen him like this. I think there is a chance for the two of you. Your beauty is striking, and I hear you can sing. Now, you may not know this, but Melot is hardly the king’s favourite, I doubt he will care much with whom Melot decides to enter into a courtship, as long as she’s a kind, honest and educated girl. I genuinely think he might let him marry for love.” 

“I, lady Beryan, am the furthest thing from an educated woman,” you sighed in despair. For a moment, you wondered why this seemed so difficult for her to understand. Until she spoke again:

“And I can change that,” she said. “I can teach you etiquette and vocabulary, dancing, riding, embroidery and other fine crafts. I have even had the privilege of being taught to read and write!” 

“Why would you do that?” you asked without thinking much about it. 

Beryan looked at you with a melancholic half-smile on her face. “I know men and women aren’t supposed to be,” she said softly, “but Melot truly is my best friend. To see him happy, would mean the world to me.” 

And so your lessons had started. Every day, after your chores were done, you would meet with Beryan, who soon became a good friend to you. Not much later, when Morwenna found out about your arrangement, Beryan called in the help of Elowen to teach you both manners fit for court. Your parents had found your new attachment to the young ladies somewhat odd, but your mother - bless her - had recognized your efforts for what they were, and had silently decided it best not to mingle. So long as you did nothing unbefitting a young woman, of course.

[myinky-cloak]

13 Books

What’s up readers?! How about a little show and tell? Answer these 13 questions, tag 13 lucky readers and if you’re feeling extra bookish add a shelfie! Let’s Go!

Not tagged by @softest-punk but I saw it on their page and decided to get involved.

1) The Last book I read:

Just finished Tana French’s “Broken Harbour”. I LOVE Tana French, particularly her Dublin Murder Squad series. I wasn’t very satisfied with the ending. It required too much suspended disbelief for me. Too many characters descending into madness at the same time very conveniently. But it was interesting to consider how many issues we cause for ourselves by attempting to be someone we think we should be.    

2) A book I recommend:

Not to be basic Tumblr bitch but Neil Gaiman’s “The Ocean at The End of The Lane”. The way he can articulate the terrible things that happen in childhood, how we deal with them, how we carry the memories, and the effect they have on us for the rest of our lives left me shaken and breathless. ”You don’t pass or fail at being a person, dear.” I wish I didn’t need this reminder but I do, so thank you, Neil.

Plus, I find it fascinating to see the difference between people who can intimately relate to it and those for whom it is just a story.

3) A book that I couldn’t put down:

Stephen King “The Waste Lands” The third book of The Dark Tower series. A book series that started out so promising and ended with me throwing the final book against the wall in disgust and cursing Mr. King to high heavens. For all the issues the final books in the series had “The Waste Lands” was an absolute masterpiece. I remember reading it on a train to work and nearly missing my spot because I needed to find out what happens next.   

4) A book I’ve read twice (or more):

One book?? Right. Stephen King’s “Salem’s Lot”. It absolutely terrified me when I read it as a teenager. I loved the feeling of small town America invaded by the supernatural which he writes so well. Plus, vampires!  I have a habit of re-reading it every time I go home, don’t really know why. I probably should get around to reading it in English at some point. 

Sometimes I re-read books by accident. I consume so much crime fiction that occasionally I will pick up a book from the library and happily read it with no recollection of the plot only to be told by GoodReads I’ve read it years ago.

5) A book on my TBR:

I am beginning to think this list was made by someone who isn’t a reader. One book? I guess it has to be R.F.Kuang “Babel”. I really want to read it. It's like The Secret History but in Oxford! I know I will enjoy it but I only have it on Kindle. I prefer reading long books in their physical form but the library copy is in hardback so it’s cumbersome to carry around. Thus it stays on my TBR.

First world problems of a bookworm.

6) A book I’ve put down:

Dan Brown “Angels and Demons”. I knew about his reputation when I picked it up, but I wanted something mindless to read and thought it would be fine. Reader, it wasn’t fine. Terrible, terrible writing. I couldn’t deal. Turns out I do have standards even for my trash reads.

7) A book on my wish list:

Stephanie Foo “What My Bones Know: A memoir of healing from complex trauma” I’ve read so many books on trauma and complex trauma both for my degree and for personal understanding. Surprising no one most of them are written by men. I’m very excited to read female perspective on it, plus she talks about generational trauma which is such an incredibly fascinating topic. 

8) A favorite book from childhood:

Alexander Dumas “The Three Musketeers”. I was obsessed with this book. OBSESSED. I’ve read it so many times I could recite pages of it. It introduced me to my first problematic fictional crush Athos, starting my love affair with all the sad tortured blorbos which going strong till this day. I named my dog Count de la Fere after him. I wanted to be a musketeer so bad. Still kind of do.  

9) A book you would give to a friend:

It does slightly depend on a friend but Amor Towles “A Gentleman in Moscow”. I was so blown away when I read it. I gave copies to my friends. I talked to everyone about it: friends, people on the internet, strangers in bookshops or on public transport (In London! Imagine the horror!) One of my friends refuses to read the last chapter till this day because she does not want the story to end. This is probably my proudest book gifting achievement.  

10) A book of poetry or lyrics that you own

The OG problematic bae Lord Byron Selected Works. It’s a second hand school library's copy from 1950’s full of underlinings and scribbled notes. I love seeing evidence of other people engaging with writing and thinking about words. 

Such a problematic person. Such a great poet. 

11) A nonfiction book you own:

Cindy Crab “Things That Help: Healing our lives through Feminism, Anarchism, Punk & Adventure”. I found this book in the feminist bookshop in Brighton when things weren’t going so great for me for the umptheen time and it was like pouring healing salve on my soul. It’s not a book in a traditional sense but a collection of self-published zines collected into a little tome. It destroyed my very conservative idea of what a book is and how “professional” it should look that I did not realise I held until that moment. Most importantly, it reminded me there are other ways of being in the world that a conventional way of living.    

12) What are you currently reading:

Teo van den Broeke “The Closet”. It’s a memoir of a fashion journalist who tells of growing up, coming out and figuring out himself through clothes that were important to him. It’s written in an easy, conversational style. As someone whose wardrobe consists of jeans, leggings and t-shirts I find it so interesting to peek into fashionista’s world.   

13) What are you planning on reading next?

Isabella Hammad “Enter Ghost”. It is a book set in Palestine about staging Hamlet and possibly also a queer love story. What more could you want from a book? Cannot wait to start this one!! 

[drev-the-procrastinator]

20 Questions for Fic Writers -tag game

I got tagged by @zyrafowe-sny, thank you for the tag! This was fun! I wrote the answers at like 5 am sorry if they're rambly and unhinged haha.

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

13, but really 7, because all but one of them are Finnish and English language versions of the same stories sjdfnasdfj

WWAIT 14! one of them is anonymous jhfashdfj almost forgot about that one

2. What's your total AO3 word count?

24 448

3. What fandoms do you write for?

Well,,, the fandoms I’ve published fic for are Hetalia (kringelis krongelis i know) and The Owl House, but when you add WIPs there’s also the Mandalorian, Noragami, and BNHA, and there USED to be HTTYD and GNG as well. Yeah the last one is the old anime where dogs fight bears. What can I say it’s really popular in Finland, Hopeanuoli 4ever

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

hands, grasping (the one TOH fic so no surprise there), Six Sunflowers (which is the oldest), Traitor’s Glory, Two Boys, Two Moments in Time, and lastly December 30th, 1929. 

5. Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

I mean I do try! When I leave comments it’s always nice to get answers, so I think it’s just nice to answer others. :) I do have some comments atm I’ve not answered but. Well. Just look at my url lmao

6. What's the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

LMAO. I have no idea. I’m just going by the published ones here, but like: character seemingly falls to his death, character finds his mom’s dead on his 9th birthday and is left with his two other underage siblings to fend for themselves in the 1930s ussr, character resigns himself to the fact that his siblings probably hate him as he’s starving to death in a prison camp. Which one’s the angstiest? You choose!!

7. What's the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

Lmaooo well none of them are really _happy_, uh. I think Laid Down By Human Hands has probably the most neutral ending, whereas Six Sunflowers is more bittersweet, but like the sweet is there… And then Two Boys isn’t terrible either? Like it sucks a little cuz that kid’s living in WWII time Finland ya know, but it’s _fine_. I dunno! In truth it’s probably the fic on anon that’s the least terrible, but even that ending’s not a _happy_ one, it’s got unrequited pining in it lol.

8. Do you get hate on fics?

Nope! So far at least! I don’t think my fics are popular enough to get it haha.

9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind?

Nope! I’m almost strictly a gen writer, aside from like. 2 AUs and one TOH wip. I guess some of the WIPs could potentially and maybe should have some fade to black kinda scenes because they’re stories involving a fair amount of romance and in one of them it’s even kind of relevant to the plot. But yeah no. 

10. Do you write crossovers? What's the craziest one you've written?

WELL, okay. You see, I actually started out writing via original fiction? I was like 12 when I made up a story based on a long-lasting play-pretend during recess thing I had going on with my dear friend, and it was. Written and plotted by a 12-year-old. But THEN I got really into the How To Train Your Dragon movies, and then I crossed over my story and HTTYD and then tried (still kinda low-key sorta in the process of) to separate it into my original story again, but this time with dragons! So that’s. Like the craziest journey ahfijsd my original as-of-yet unwritten fantasy story has a crossover sequel with HTTYD lmao. Also just occasionally I think about a potential giant crossover that’s got allllll my faves meeting and interacting, but that’s solely for daydreaming and “lmao wouldn’t it be funny if” -scenarios in my head. I’ve later also crossed the characters from my original story with other ones I’ve liked, in my head lol, but I don’t think I’ve written out any. Other than the TT x HTTYD hybrid. (TT is the WIP name for that original story. it doesn’t stand for anything anymore tho lmao it’s just tt)

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Nope! Not to my knowledge, at least! Again, my fics don’t get enough hits/are too niche for anyone to think about stealing them, I imagine. 

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

Yeah! Almost all of them! By me. What can I say, I try to fight the good fight to keep my native language alive on the internet and also in my head. 

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before?

No. I did once talk about the possibility with a friend, but nothing ever came out of it. 

14. What's your all-time favourite ship?

Hhhh. This is very silly but I don’t really actively ship stuff, and rarely think of ships outside of when I’m watching or reading the source material or something. Thus the one I can feel confident in saying I ship is a…. oc x canon ship sshfskjfsidkfajksaf or maybe it’d be more accurate to say oc x mutated blorbo version of a canon character lmao. It’s mainly in. 2 AUs that have so little to do with the source material that they might as well be original fiction and probably by this point mostly are lol. 

15. What's a WIP you want to finish, but doubt you ever will?

GHHH I want to finish ALL of my big 5 main WIPs because I love them dearly and want to read them, but then again. I don’t know if I ever will because I can’t get myself to fuckin WRITE any of them. So I’m just gonna say all of my main WIPs. That is:

TT (original fantasy story thing)

home front fic (historical fic set in WWII Finland about the friendship between a kid and the soviet POW sent to work on his home farm)

Kingdom AU (girl from the country accidentally befriends the crown prince and there’s politics and they fall in love and some cool stuff and some less cool stuff happens. hard to summarize cuz i’ve never had to, target demographic is like. three people + me. here's the aesthetics and vibe blog it's got)

sad BNHA fic (what if. Eri got ofa. but how? i murder someone to haunt the narrative. easy. sad. sad bnha fd. naming skills on full display here) 

anddddd. hypothetical TOH fic (what if i came up with what happens after TTT before the two other eps of s3 came out and stayed on that path. what if the first thing i wrote about it was hunter falling off a cliff to his death. what then).

Kind of also TOH fic 3 (it’s about evelynnnnn) but that one is. Hopefully. Shorter and has the outline all written out so there’s a bigger likelihood of me finishing it someday. And to be fair the hypothetical TOH fic isn’t that long either, I could get it done, one day, but then the other ones have grown to massive size plotwise so I don’t know if I could ever get them done, actually. I hope so! But ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

16. What are your writing strengths?

I guess my plots are sometimes kinda good? Sad BNHA fic and Kingdom AU are pretty cool on that side. I used to be pretty good at writing dialogue too, but that was back when I a) wrote regularly, b) read a lot, and c) socialized. So. But I used to be good! though back then my plots were real frickin weird lol. in my defense. i was 14 to 17.

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

Writing itself. That’s the only answer I’ve got because recently I haven’t written enough to know what I’d be bad at. So just. Writing. See I can plot without writing, that’s why I’m good at that lmao

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language for a fic?

Sure! Hell yeah! I’m gonna do that! I have done that! I love it, I love languages. Though translations are appreciated. Though I think it should be for emphasis, more so than just writing it in the language just for the hell of it (though like I had a wip where all the spoken dialogue was to be in Russian because there was so little of it and it was simple enough that I could do that, but i lost my notes for it). I think if it’s just normal dialogue and the pov character knows the language, it’s best to just add like, “they said in Finnish” to the dialogue tag, especially if there’s a lot of it. 

In my personal opinion, also when the character doesn’t know the language, I probably wouldn’t write it out? But then if a character knew the basics of the language and it was maybe one sentence I would write it in the language. Or if it was a really important line, like someone telling another character they love them in their native language, or a culturally significant thing, like, idk the adoption vow in mando'a in the Star Wars universe. But sometimes it’s also just fun to show off your own language skills! So overall, strongly encouraged. Just. Try not to use Google Translate (etc.) for it jfajfasjdn

19. First fandom you wrote for?

Hhooo. Probably the Ginga-fandom, but that one was so brief it barely counts, so I’ll say HTTYD because of the crossover thing. If it’s just fanfic without crossing it over with my own original work lol then Hetalia. 

20. Favourite fic you've ever written?

TRAITOR’S GLORY!!!!!! I got to talk about my rather niche but intense area of interest in it, which is Soviet POWs in Finland during the Continuation War 1941-1944. Well, that’s the finished one at least, there are some snippets of WIPs I’ve not posted nor finished that are also very good. Imo. But. Yeah. Most of the other favourite stuff I have, concerning my fics, hasn’t been written. So. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ But Traitor’s Glory is pretty nice. :)  Thanks again for the tag! I guess I'll tag some people, though no pressure: @evevoli @cowboy-garfield @peach-oolong-tea @starcloud-nova @littlekysworld @slightlycrunchy uh. yeah. If you see this and wanna do it you can say I tagged you! :) And no pressure!

[kendrixtermina]

But what do we MEAN by Feeling, Thinking, etc.

I hadn’t put these on tumblr & it occurred to me that I probably should  

I think a great amount of the confusion regarding enneagram / mbti combos is that they use the rather vague colloquial terms „thinking“ and „feeling“ to mean different things.

„Thinking“ in the mbti is task-oriented reasoning, „feeling“ is reasoning in terms of intentional actors. Indeed a dichotomy between explaining things through either causes or intentions, living or nonliving systems, seems somewhat inbuilt in the human mind, I think there are experiments that show even babies make this distinction.

Obviously, if you are looking at intentional actors (be it yourself or others), it’s natural for emotions to be a part of that reasoning. Intentional actors usually have feelings; Sticks & tools do not.

You might see that people don’t always make a clean split – a surgeon may treat removing an appendix as a task in which the patient is understood object with parts so he can keep a cool head, a poet might say that the leaves are „dancing“ in the wind to evoke feelings in the reader or express how his perception is colored his own.

„Thinking“ in the enneagram centers of intelligence sense is rather explicit, effortful, ‚system 2‘ thought. (regardless of what kind it is: logic, planning, imagining etc.)

General humans avoid doing that cause it burns alot of sugar and less costly processes work just as well, but some avoid it less than others. Or maybe us head types are just touchy little fuckers that have a more exaggerated response to less stimulus.

The upside of this is that it’s flexible & adaptable to tasks that we never encountered in the savannah, and that it can override our intuitions. Also, if you used explict reasoning you can give a reason for why you arrived at the conclusion, change parameters and „rerun the simulation“.

The downside is that it is slow and costs a lotta juice, also, it doesn’t always have an answer if there is not enough data, whereas intuition & association can almost always supply some usable guess.

„explicit thought“ is needed to apply a method that is counter to our intuitions, to consider multiple factors at once, and to doubt (since doubting requires holding two contradictory ideas in your mind) – its probably no coincidence that type 6, the „pure“ thinking type, is also the most doubting.

„feeling“ here means the middle or mammalian brain, the „associative machine“ or „affect heuristic“.

Enthusiasts of cats or dogs more or less know that they have what we would recognize as a „heart“ – the capacity to bond, social emotions shown through complex body language (and unique personality differences related how how they’re expressed), and also, reinforced learning, which is quite relevant when we consider, say, type 3. Feelingsland is the home of motivation.

Another ability of the associative mind is to intuitive translate things to different scales.

If you’re asked to donate money to protect birds from oilspills, most ppl don’t whip out their financial planners, but decide based on how much emotion they feel about those poor, poor seabirds, and then associatively transfer it from hurt feelings to dollars.

This is why most of us can answer questions like „If dave was as tall as he is intelligent how tall would he be“ or why we can understand each other through poetic expressions like „that hurtful statement felt like being stabbed with a knife“ even if none of us have been in a knife fight. Both emotional pain &physical pain are scales.

Likewise when buying a product, most pll don’t go comparing the specs & the evidence for which is best (well… the 6s among us do.) but we go by what feelings & memories we connect with the product & how it fits our idea of ourselves, & may refuse to touch it if it doesn’t.

However, frequent errors in dog training have to do with how dogs can’t „think“, at least not very well – they have rather good associative memories, but they can’t generalize easily. This is why a dog might have to learn to perform a trick in multiple rooms before it gets that the cue always means the same thing, and why its encouraged to use positive reinforcement over punishment cause the dogs may be unable to deduce why they’re being punished, and just associate „you“ with „pain“. Similar caveats apply with small children whose thinking skills arent fully online yet.

That said, I wouldn’t say humans are the only ones capable of „thinking“ – You could make a good case for Crows, Great Apes, Dolphins, Parrots & Elephants, and maybe even Octopi or Bees. Future planning, symbol use, complex problemsolving…

notably, there’s a third category (thought the two systems approach lumps them together), which is intuitive impressions.

The distinguisher here is that it’s somewhat automatic.

If you decided by thinking you can give reasons, if you decided by feeling you can point out your associations, but in the case of a „gut feeling“ decision, you just „see“ it, or „recognize“ or „guess“.

Just as you „see“ the world around you as distinct objects or, unless you’re a grade schooler, can „see“ what a word means without having to go through each individual letter.

That doesn’t mean it’s not sophisticated: Take for instance the example of a doctor who, after a lot of doctoring experience, can recognize some conditions on sight from skin lesions or a characteristic constellation of systems, or an expert chess player who just „sees“ a strong move or that the game will end in three turns.

This also generates impulses, like recoiling when something suddenly comes at you.

So, in terms of functionality, this includes basic survival machinery like spotting snakes or attractive mates, learning by copying or recognizing from experience, and, crucially, spotting what is normal or expected. The intuitive brain has a sort of „autocomplete“ function where it’s always guessing what’s likely to happen next based on everything it’s seen so far in similar places & situations, & is always on the lookout for stuff that is not right or suspicious.

For example, consider a case where a fireman got the sense that something was „off“, ordered his colleagues out of the room, and then minutes later the floor collapsed. He could not say at first what he had noticed, but he trusted it & acted on it straightaway. Only later could he puzzle together that the noise level was wrong & his ears hotter than normal. He didn’t sherlock holmes style logically deduce that the fire had actually started in the basement, but he knew something wasn’t normal.

If this happens again, though, he is likely to recognize it.

Imagine you’re picking clothes.

If you just grab one, that’s going by impression/impulse. (maybe it seemed comfortable, pretty, „looked right“ according to simple criteria, or was simply your first impulse. )

If you pick one that matches your mood, the impression you want to evoke where you’re going, or the feelings, experiences & memories thar you connect with it, that’s association.

If you briefly stand there thinking about which one’s right for the weather, making a political statement, or fitting some theme, that’s explicit thought.

Consider an ISTJ 1, to pick an uncontroversial combo that won’t derail the example into an argument. That would be someone who does a whole lot of „thinking“ in the mbti sense but not so much „thinking“ in the enneagram sense.

He’s evaluating everything by criteria, task oriented criteria, but probably doesn’t often sit there stressing over what the best criteria are, like his hypothetical 6 cousin might. He has some sensory impression of how whatever it is he works with „should“ look & compares against that – is it right, yes or no? If its not, it jumps out at him right away (Si + intuitive spotting of deviations from norm) he puts it right according some some procedure he has previously learned by copying his teacher or gotten from a rule book (though he prolly reads journals related to his job to have the most up to date procedure & constatly improve to fit his high standards), but which, in day to day life, he now mostly just applies meticulously & dilligently with attention to fine physical detail.

If he notices his method doesnt work, he may stop & explicitly think it through, and maybe come up with a better procedure, but mostly what he has active is his intuitive „seeing“ - & where “explicit thinking” is done it may serve as a “water carrier” to his intuitions, to retroactively rationalize his impressions.

If you had some ISFJ 1 instead much of her evaluation would concern the correctness of their social behavior. (intentional actors) – „oh, lisa’s face looked a tic less enthusiastic than how i remember it last time. Did I do a bad job?“

[ikeepwatchinghelicopters]

I was tagged by @cha-melodius. Thank you for the tag! I decided to combine the two tag games into one post. I hope that’s not illegal 😅

tea, coffee, or soda? Tea, though I find myself drinking a lot of coffee these days.

dogs or cats? Dogs.

can you play an instrument? I played classical guitar. And the cello. But I haven’t touched the cello for almost 5 years. So I probably can’t play it anymore. I could maybe manage something on the piano.

what’s your sun sign? Scorpio.

first song lyrics that pop into your head? “And the soldiers march behind me” a line from Blossoms by The Amazing Devil, because that’s the last song I listened to.

do you have any tattoos? Nope.

favorite place you’ve traveled? Japan.

what’s the last movie you watched? I rewatched Cars with my mum.

what languages do you speak? English, Slovak, Czech (well, I can understand more than I can speak), Spanish and I know a few sentences in German and Norwegian.

do you have any hobbies? Fanfic reading and writing. Cooking or baking when the mood strikes me (so, very rarely). Watching trains. I might buy an ukulele soon and try to learn to play it a bit.

you can hang out with one fictional character for an hour, who do you choose? Jaskier’s my current obsession, so I’d chat with him.

compliment yourself: Uhm, I hate complimenting myself. I guess I like how my hands look?

1. Are you named after anyone? I don’t think so.

2. When was the last time you cried? Sometime last week when I re-read the first few chapters of Chihayafuru. But I have teared up and shed a tear or two when reading fanfiction a few times since then. Most recently from The Stillness, The Dancing by  giddytf2.

3. Do you have any kids? Nope.

4. Do you use sarcasm a lot? Sometimes. I wouldn’t say it’s a lot.

5. What's the first thing you notice about people? No clue. I’ve never noticed that I notice something in particular.

6. What's your eye color? Brown.

7. Scary movie or happy ending? Happy ending.

8. Any special talents? None that I know of.

9. Where were you born? Slovakia.

10. What are your hobbies? See above, lol.

11. Do you have any pets? Nope.

12. What sports do you play/have played? Tennis, football (when I was a small kid), basketball (but that was mostly just in P.E. in high school). I tried archery for a month.

13. How tall are you? Around 164 cm.

14. Favorite subject in school? Biology, languages, literature. I liked history for a few years, because we had a great teacher.

15. Dream job? Changes depending on the last movie/series I’ve watched 😅 Seriously though, I have a lot of jobs I would like to try but nothing that would qualify as a dream job. Maybe working in a bookstore or a library?

I never know who to tag, so anyone can feel free to answer the questions if they want to.

[turtlethebean]

Carchelle Week Day 6: Home

Also available on AO3: Home is a Person - Turtle_The_Bean - Criminal Case (Video Game) [Archive of Our Own]

Michelle grew up not quite knowing where her home was.

Sure, she was born in Singapore, but she never really lived there. She had no childhood memories of Singapore, given that she was so young at the time.

Her parents were American, and that was where she spent most of her childhood. She moved from state to state on almost a yearly basis because of her father’s work. However, sometimes, the family would temporarily have to move to a different country altogether.

She remembered when she asked her father how to answer the question of where she was from, and he told her that home was a person instead of a place for some people. She never understood that statement. Maybe it was because she became socially withdrawn as a teenager due to the amount of trauma that she had received from the various nannies that he left her with, or maybe it was because her brain was trying to figure out a more literal definition of it.

But now, about thirty years after she had asked that question, she felt like she was finally beginning to understand what it meant.

Michelle was standing in an aquarium when she had this revelation. She watched as Carmen monitored Sanjay, who was climbing around the aquarium’s play area from afar, thinking about the future of their relationship.

At this point, almost everyone in the Bureau knew they were going to be shut down soon. They had served their purpose, and now it was time for them to return to normal lives. It was time for most of them to head back to where they initially came from.

However, Michelle couldn’t see herself going back to Singapore. She had so many memories there, but most of them were related to Sombra. She knew she didn’t have to worry about them anymore, but the thought of going back to the country where they controlled her shook her to her core. Besides, all her previous clients were Sombra. It wasn’t like most of them could vouch for her, given that they were in jail.

Being a lawyer was her dream ever since she was young. It felt so disgusting that it was used against her by Sombra. They used her skills to defend their wrongdoings, whether she liked it or not. She knew the truth about the Next Level and what it was doing to the orphans who were victims of it. Her ethics had been stretched far enough that if she continued, she’d probably snap.

That was why she reached out to the Bureau. She was so scared of losing herself to Sombra’s terror that she needed to shut them down. She didn’t care if Sombra was going to come after her for betraying them. She just wanted to protect the children. After all, that was why she became a lawyer in the first place.

She could’ve gone back to living with her parents in the US, but with them being Sombra members, she was worried about what they would do to her if they found out about everything she had done as part of their biggest enemy. Being with them never felt like home anyway. Both of them were always busy with the military – with her father being a soldier and her mother training sniffer dogs. She had been left to her own defences too many times to consider them her parents.

She looked down at her amputated arm, a firm reminder of her stance in defiance of Sombra. Losing it was traumatic, but she wasn’t going to let them do anything like that ever again.

“Michelle!” Sanjay whined, running over to her in one of his teenage moods, “Can you tell Carmen to give me five more minutes?”

“Sanjay, you asked for five more minutes half an hour ago.” Carmen sighed, following him. Michelle realised that she must’ve been there for a while if that was the case.

“Aw, come on, I’ll never get a chance to do this again.”

“I’m sure you will. We have aquariums in Baltimore.”

“Yeah, but do your aquariums have playgrounds?”

“Maybe, I don’t really know, I haven’t been to the aquarium since I was… twenty-something…maybe. They’ve probably renovated the place a lot since then.”

“How about we cut a deal with you?” Michelle smirked, looking down at Sanjay, “We’ll take you to the aquarium in Baltimore, where you can have plenty of playtime as long as you choose where we’re having dinner tonight.”

Carmen nodded, obviously impressed with Michelle’s negotiation tactics that she was using on the teenager.

Sanjay thought about the proposal for a minute before asking, “Can you throw in a trip to the zoo before we leave New York?”

“Only if you choose something other than pizza.”

“Deal! I’m getting sick of pizza anyway.”

“I think we all are.”

---

As soon as the trio entered the restaurant Sanjay had chosen for dinner, they were hit with the smell of various spices that were typical of Thai cuisine. Neither Michelle nor Carmen knew the restaurant he had chosen, but at least it wasn’t pizza, what they had mostly been eating since they came to New York.

The smells were familiar to Michelle, given that Thailand was somewhere she had visited a few times – usually for Sombra errands, but she did visit a few times for her own enjoyment. After all, it wasn’t too far away from Singapore. As such, she knew exactly what she was going to order – Tom Yum soup with prawns.

Thai food also brought to mind another thing about her past. Thailand was the place where the Bureau was when she first contacted them. It was, in a way, her first cry for help, a cry to be released from the binds that tied her to Sombra so tightly that it could’ve choked her.

“I really enjoyed Suki while we were in Thailand the last time. I think I’ll try it again, but damn, since I’ve come back, the food in America just hasn’t been the same.” Carmen commented as her eyes scanned the menu.

“I’m going to have the green curry.” Sanjay smiled at her.

“You’re always choosing the spiciest option,” Carmen chuckled, ruffling her son’s hair, “What about you, Michelle?”

“Oh, I’m going for an old favourite of mine, Tom Yum soup.”

“Mom, can I change my-“

“No, you’re not being indecisive.”

“Fiiine!”

Once the waitress came, took their orders, and left, Sanjay excused himself to go to the bathroom, claiming all the water in the aquarium made him need to pee.

While he was gone, Carmen noticed Michelle’s behaviour. She wasn’t looking anyone in the eye, just seemed to be playing with something under the table. Her breathing sounded shaky as both her head and lips hung lower than usual. Concerned, she put her hand on her girlfriend’s and asked what was wrong.

“Well…with everything that was said earlier today…I don’t feel like I can ever go back to Singapore, and I don’t know what my parents will think when they hear I betrayed Sombra.” Michelle explained, feeling a pit in her stomach as her eyes stung with tears.

“How about you don’t go back to Singapore or even back to your parents? What if you stay with me and Sanjay? I know we’ve only been dating for a few months at this point, but it might be a better option for you.”

The tears started flowing from Michelle’s eyes after that. She had considered asking Carmen if she could stay with her but was always too afraid, given how little time it had been since they initially met. She kept questioning whether or not they had been dating long enough to consider moving in together, but it seemed she had her answer.

“Yeah, let's do that.” She smiled weakly, feeling her makeup running down her face.

Carmen smiled and rubbed her girlfriend’s hand to soothe her. The soft feel of her skin made her feel warm inside.

“Carmen, can I be honest with you for a minute?” Michelle asked.

“Of course.”

“My father once said that home isn’t a place. It’s a person. I never understood that until I met you.”

“I’m glad you feel the same way. I’ve always felt like I can be at home with you.”

“Can you two stop being romantic in public?” The sweet moment was interrupted when Sanjay came back from the bathroom.

“Aw, you embarrassed?” Carmen laughed, teasing her son.

“N-no.”

“Well, guess that’s our cue to be even more romantic.”

“NO!”

[thevoyageurmoteplass-writing]

Rules: Answer 12 questions from the point of view of one of your OCs, ask 12 questions, tag 12 people

As I’m still trying to work on my Superpowers Story, I’m going to do these 12 for a different perspective character: Mathias ‘Matt’ Francis.

1. What is your biggest guilty pleasure?

‘Fast food,’ Mathias admitted easily. ‘I know I shouldn’t eat it, but some of it tastes so good. And it’s so convenient.’

2. What would you do on a day off?

‘Anything but work,’ he said, with a little shrug. ‘I’ve usually got chores and things to catch up, so nothing too interesting. Then maybe some gaming with Jonah.’

3. How is your relationship with your parents?

For a moment, Mathias is silent. The question is easy, but it’s not easy to admit to any of it.

‘My relationship with Dad was great,’ he admitted, the pain of loss coating his words. ‘He taught me a lot, and was constantly listening to my ramblings. With Mum?’ An almost bitter scoff escaped him before he could stop it. ‘Yeah, that’s never been too good. At least, not that I can remember from when she was around.’

4. Dog person or cat person?

‘Dog,’ he answered without much hesitation. ‘I don’t have anything against cats, I just prefer dogs, personally.’

5. What are you most proud of?

‘My little brother,’ he said, a small smile curling onto his lips. It was something he’d tried to tell Jonah before, but his brother seemed to rebuff any possible positivity shown towards him most of the time.

‘But, if we’re not talking about a person, then probably the promotion I got at work after finishing my training.’

6. What do you think is your worst quality?

‘Probably being a little bit of a workaholic,’ he answered, awkwardly running his hands over his knees.

7. Are you in a relationship with anyone?

‘Not currently,’ Mathias said, wondering when on earth he’d even have time to meet somebody new.

8. What is the best thing that has ever happened to you?

‘Getting my job,’ Mathias admitted. ‘It was tough at the time, and finally having somebody give me a chance was the first step in a lot of good in our lives.’

9. Who do you trust the most?

‘I’m not sure,’ Mathias said, thinking about all the people in his life that he could rely on. ‘Though, I’d probably say my uncle Harry.’

10. Do you/would you ever want to have kids?

‘I think I would,’ he said uncertainly, ‘but it’d depend on what my partner wanted as well. But I think I’d quite like to have kids.’

11. What kind of clothes do you like to wear?

‘Mostly jumpers and jeans. Anything that’s comfortable but can be seen as smart,’ he answered.

12. What animal are you the most like?

Mathias chuckled softly, a small smile curling his lips. ‘I really don’t know. I couldn’t even hazard a guess, sorry.’

[justmoreocs-writing]

Rules: Answer 12 questions from the point of view of one of your OCs, ask 12 questions, tag 12 people

As I’m still working on my Peaky Blinders Fanfiction, The Piccola Rossa Series, I’m going to answer these 12 for a different perspective character: Stanley ‘Stan’ Shelby.

1. What is your biggest guilty pleasure?

‘Um, I don’t know,’ Stan admitted, rubbing the back of his head awkwardly as he thought about the question. ‘Hot chocolate is good though, and I know Cece always has a stash of it that she’s willing to share with people who appreciate it.’

2. What would you do on a day off?

‘Usually at Charlie’s Yard,’ Stan said,  a smile curling his lips before he could stop it. ‘Helping Curly with the horses, and just generally not really thinking about anything.’

3. How is your relationship with your parents?

‘It wasn’t too great with Dad from what I remember, and I don’t honestly remember Mum all that much,’ Stan said, feeling a little awkward thinking about it all. ‘Polly pretty much brought us all up, and Tommy did some of it when Dad was... away.’

4. Dog person or cat person?

‘Horses,’ Stan said, smiling as thought back to the Yard and how good it would be to have a day there again. ‘But, I think I prefer cats over dogs. More independent but also affectionate when they want to be.’

5. What are you most proud of?

‘Moving to London. I know there was a lot going on at the time, and moving away was terrifying, but it was a big step. And I get to train to be a doctor, so I’m proud of that,’ he said, a slight amount of pride obvious behind his voice.

6. What do you think is your worst quality?

‘I’m not sure,’ Stan said, before hastily adding: ‘Not because I’m amazing, or anything.’

Stan took a deep breath, forced himself to take a moment.

‘I think my anxious nature is my worst quality,’ he said after a second. ‘It gets in the way of some things, but other times it’s been a lifesaver.’

7. Are you in a relationship with anyone?

A blush crept over Stan’s cheeks, and his attention went to where he was fiddling with his hands on his knees. ‘Lia,’ he said softly. ‘We’ve been in a relationship for about a year now.’

8. What is the best thing that has ever happened to you?

A small smile formed on his lips. Part of him wondered how sappy he could get, to talk about the day he met Lia. But, while he loved that day, it wasn’t necessarily the best.

‘The day I met Luce at Charlie’s Yard,’ he admitted. ‘She’s my best friend, and I’m not sure I’d have done half the stuff I have without her.’

9. Who do you trust the most?

‘Luce,’ he said without hesitation. Sure, he trusted his family, but there was something about Luce that just meant he knew he could trust her with anything.

10. Do you/would you ever want to have kids?

‘I’d like to have kids,’ he said gently, wondering if perhaps it was a good conversation to have with Lia sometime soon.

11. What kind of clothes do you like to wear?

‘Anything I can help out in the Yard in. I wear a lot of smart clothes for things in general, but those are my favourites,’ Stan answered.

12. What animal are you the most like?

‘Um, I’m not sure. Something reliable?’ He chuckled softly. ‘A horse would probably work, honestly.’

[theadventurek9]

@seagulley Asked about resources for those that can’t take classes! I may choose to add more later but for a start here is some things!

You can download all of the signs here: (print them out?!)

Descriptions of each sign:

I really enjoy the app pocket rally, which has a video demo of each sign and will help you practice random signs and so on! ($1.99)

Equipment you need:

Leash and flat collar with nothing hanging (no tags)

Cones (6+) needed for some signs and can also hold signs up with some modifications. You also could use stakes, you can get creative with this.

For intermediate and up you need a plate with food and dog toy.

For advanced and up: A jump (your dog should be able to jump a small solid or bar jump, I’ve made my own.

I’ve found useful exercises and training with Janice Gunn.

Then some other personal tips:

The sign you are going to preform must be within three feet when you do what the sign asks.

The sign will stay on your right side or directly in front of you, depending on what it is asking you to do. If you will pass a sign (like ‘Fast’) keep the sign on your right. If you will meet a sign then either turn or reverse (like about turn) the sign may be placed so you approach it straight on and then do the about turn.

The basic commands you need before trying to set up a course is heeling on leash (doesn’t have to be fancy Heeling!), sit, down, stay, front, finish left and finish right. (Finish is returning to heel).

The dog must be heeling on your left, your left hand must be either on your stomach or swinging naturally at your side (inside of the dog’s head if you have a bigger dog) you right hand must also naturally swing.

Hannah’s Competition obedience book has some great things for your heeling. If you even think you may want to do obedience, I’d try and put in some good foundations with heeling. It’s also worthwhile to note that without a trainer you will probably have to retrain your dog which is okay! A bit harder but really okay! I’ve had to redo a lot of things but we’re making do!

Practice heeling with someone following you and staring at you. (Like a judge!)

Practice heeling and keeping engagement through doorways (like a ring gate).

Reach out to those of us here that want to help! I LOVE helping people train. Especially if they want to try out dog sports (even if just for fun at home! You don’t have to compete) I will answer questions about signs, exercises, ring experience, filling out entry forms and anything that I know of!

[kradogsrats]

Rewatch Shitposts: Ep 5-9

v.

I’m so bad at recognizing voices that I didn’t notice until watching with captions that the “previously on The Dragon Prince” intro line is a different character each episode

oh my god Viren don’t just leave your butterfly carcasses on the floor when you’re done with them, were you raised in a barn

also MAYBE tone down the ominous theme music, just saying

Rayla, trained assassin: apparently skipped the lesson on the mechanics of Moonshadow ritual assassin bindings

AU WHERE AMAYA TAKES THE THRONE, WHEN???

As someone who also gets violently motion sick, I have mixed feelings about Rayla being said to have a water phobia when she’s just… violently motion sick at all times on water transport, like she can clearly swim and swim well?

On that note: OH GOD RAYLA DON’T SIT FACING BACKWARDS THAT MAKES IT INFINITELY WORSE

boat: /goes over waterfall, me: … and then they all died

Love that while Amaya can otherwise lip-read, Gren automatically signs for her when she’s facing away from someone speaking to her

Viren: I will task my own children with finding the princes, Amaya: With all due respect--which, I will note, is none--your children are idiots

Soren’s just so happy to be being mean with his dad, A+ father-son bonding opportunity

”I guess I was afraid of being afraid” yeah according to my old therapist, that’s “anxiety”

The artbook says they originally planned for Viren to eventually imprison Opeli with Gren and for her to find him really annoying, and ngl I think we were robbed by that not happening

Ah fuck, I forgot Claudia already knew about Viren’s secret dungeon?

vi.

Corvus: /falls off a cliff, me: … and then he died

Even in the secret mission conversation, Soren’s not dumb???

AND the mirror, jfc Claudia knows everything and I’m very annoyed on behalf of my AU

I guess Viren needs someone to narrate to other than talking to himself

Claudia: DEATH COMES FOR US ALL... probably? Maybe you’re immortal.

Harrow how did you not teach your children ice safety? Maybe the river by the Banther Lodge doesn’t ice over?

vii.

What did they do with the dogs…?

”This isn’t even my biggest sword” also also peak humor

ngl I hope the sunfire dagger mercenary guy reappears more

Seriously… where did the dogs go? I’m gonna lose sleep over this

”If I fail, I don’t know what Dad will do to me” hmmmMMM yeah

”Cute braid, though!” Claudia, please never change

Animal doctor honestly best character

Ava could have saved a lot of time by just telling Ezran from the start about Lujanne

Ava: also hasn’t had a bath in two years, actually

Claudia’s problem is definitely “18 INT, 6 WIS”

viii.

Hard to believe the entire Cursed Caldera sequence is only like two episodes, it felt like it took forever the first time I watched it

Ellis manifesting true weird little girl energy, love it

”This is my slish hand” ngl that is probably the single joke from this series that I just... think about a lot

Okay, answer to my pending question of “how does Runaan pee while imprisoned” (look just trust me, it has relevance, okay) is, in fact, simply that he’s so dehydrated he doesn’t need to

Which still leaves the question of “how does Gren pee while imprisoned,” but I actually don’t care about that because he’s 80% less likely to choke you out with his thighs if you look away for a second

We were definitely robbed of seeing Viren get the mirror down that tiny spiral staircase

“I’m just a guy who can draw and make wry comments from time to time. And they’re not even that wry.” WOW okay shots fired, I am in this picture and I DO NOT LIKE IT

Rayla, unlike Viren, reacts 100% correctly to bugs crawling on her

Nice callback in the credits sketches to Ziard’s relic staff right after Viren uses it for the coin spell--kind of feels now like I ought to be compiling spells that actually make use of the staff because that’s probably a subset with future significance

ix.

Yeah okay this sequence still feels like it takes forever

Again, Ava could have saved everyone’s at least one pretty boring episode by speaking up earlier

God the horrifying disintegrated mummy-corpse was just… SO unnecessary, Lujanne please

All giant fantasy spiders descended from the tarantula that bit JRR Tolkiens Georg

Always gotta break the dramatic scene for a fart joke, it’s storytelling law

Lujanne is the only bigger drama queen in this series than Viren (Aaravos is a distant third)

Don’t mind me literally tearing up when Zym hatches, whoops

And the circulation returns to Rayla’s hand, which then carried a blood clot to her heart and... yeah, she died

WOW spoiler of Aaravos’s hand on the inside of the mirror in the credits sketches??? did not realize that one showed up this early

[ashintheairlikesnow]

Misread Details, Part Two

CW: Described death of whumper, BBU, implications of pet whump, references to noncon, dehumanization, sadistic whumper

Part One: Nanda | Part Two: Brute | Part Three: Robert

The Unsolved Murder of Henry “Brute” Hanlon and the Box Boy Killer

r/LetsTalkTrueCrime

•Posted by u/oshaycanyousee

2 weeks ago

I’m back, r/LetsTalkTrueCrime! I really appreciated the questions and discussion under my last write-up, and a few of you really encouraged me to keep working to provide a part two to my Serial Killer Box Boy series, so here it is!

In Part One, we looked at the mysterious death of Nathaniel “Nanda” Benson, who died of cardiac arrest due to an undiagnosed heart defect (and likely head trauma played a part) and was found at the bottom of the stairs inside his California home. The only valuable possession missing from his property was his legally-purchased Box Boy, who fled the city wearing Nathaniel Benson’s shoes and using his money to buy a bus and then train ticket. 

The last confirmed sighting of the runaway Box Boy (and Benson’s possible killer?) was in Red Hills, California, a large-ish city a couple hours south of Benson’s house by train. 

Questions remain around Benson’s death: did he suffer cardiac arrest and fall down the stairs? Did the Box Boy push him, with the shock of the trauma and injury leading to the heart attack that killed him?

Is the Box Boy merely a witness to a tragic but natural death, or the prime murder suspect?

And most importantly: If he wasn’t guilty, why did he run?

Less than a full calendar year after Benson’s death, the question of where the Boxie went after Benson died was answered… but even that answer only opened up more questions, and the sudden death of a second man places even more uncertainty into the story of a Boxie who might simply be an innocent victim - or who could be a serial killer whose makes a victim out of those who give him shelter.

Which leads us to the story of Henry James Hanlon, known to nearly everyone - including his wife - as “Brute”.

Henry Hanlon was born in a small town in Texas, but moved to Red Hills, California after finishing a stint in the Air Force. 

His parents, James Hanlon and Estella Hanlon, maiden name Brickers, had had their first child, Henry’s older brother William “Bill”, right out of high school, born six months after their wedding day. Henry came three years later, and his sister Roberta “Bobbie” one year after that.

Henry was a perfectly normal, cheerful little boy, always toddling after his older brother and trying to join in the games of the older kids in town. His parents recalled him as the quintessential “middle child”, always resolving disputes and quietly getting things done. He received his nickname of “Brute” in fifth grade, when a classroom bully was harassing a female friend of Henry’s and Henry decided to take action. The only information I could really hunt down on this was some old school records that I found on a message board, and I can’t really verify if they’re real, but they suggest that the bully was sent home injured and Henry received a three-day suspension.

After that, it seems, anyone and everyone - even teachers - called Henry Hanlon “Brute”, and he never seemed to mind.

He received perfectly average grades, enlisted in the Air Force, served without distinction but without any significant incidents, and afterwards he moved out to California, where he settled into Red Hills (then a city with a thriving industrial district that was slowly beginning its slide into something rougher) and took a job with a manufacturing company, working in their warehouse.

“Brute” dated around a bit, but it wasn’t until three years after his move that he met the woman he would marry, Ellen Patricia Barry. She was a few years younger than him, and they met at a local bar that both were known to frequent. One of Brute’s former coworkers told police that Brute was big into pool and poker, both of which he would engage in when he went to the bar, and that he met Ellen during one of the poker nights, and that Brute stated that how easily she beat him was one of the reasons he was interested in her romantically.

Ellen claims they first spoke while playing pool, not poker, and also claims she’s never played poker in her life. Why Brute would have told his coworkers a different story is unclear. 

They dated for about a year before they wed at Grace Baptist Church on a sunny summer day in 20XX. Ellen’s father gave her away while Brute’s little sister was the maid of honor. A year later, Brute’s daughter Elizabeth was born, and a couple years after that, their son Daniel.

The Hanlons lived a charmed life - they owned a cute three-bedroom cottage home (bought and given to them by Ellen’s parents as a wedding gift) in a good part of town with a little white fence around the property and a yard big enough for the children and dog to play in. Ellen was part of the local PTA and active in her church, and Brute himself had the appearance of a man totally content with everything he had.

But Brute Hanlon had a secret.

Ellen continued to believe he was employed by the manufacturing company, but he actually left his employment there years before his death. Instead, he seems to have transitioned into making his money “under the table”. Ellen wouldn’t discover any of this until after his body was located… in a secret house he’d never told her about, in one of the roughest parts of Red Hills.

Without her knowledge, Brute purchased a two-bedroom home with cash directly from its previous owner that was badly in need of repair in the Pauls Mill neighborhood. Once a “company town” from the 1930’s - 1950’s that was absorbed into Red Hills as it grew in the 60’s, Pauls Mill today is the kind of neighborhood where everyone knows if you belong there, or don’t, and it’s best if you belong.

Brute performed a few very cursory repairs to keep it livable, laid down some new carpet, and then used it as a kind of secret base for the unsavory activities he didn’t want Ellen or the children to know about.

While his family believed he was at work at the factory, Hanlon was in fact hosting poker games, selling illicit narcotics and unlicensed firearms, and generally making quite a bit more money than he had with legal employment entirely under-the-table. He would spend his day making connections (and money) through these activities, then go home right at 5 pm sharp to his loving family, eat dinner at 6 pm, help his kids with their homework and hear about their day, and settle in for an evening playing the loving husband and doting dad.

Somewhere during this time period, Brute told Ellen he was setting up a “poker night” with his friends again, now that the kids were school-aged. 

What he did instead was drive down to the corner of Holt and McCormick streets, known to all locals as the Red Hills “red light district”, and pick up prostitutes, usually simply meeting with them in his car, but occasionally taking them to a nearby motel.

After his body was found, police showed his picture around to a variety of the individuals who make their living at Holt and McCormick, and more than a dozen locals immediately recognized him. 

Some described him as a regular customer who wasn’t particularly special or notable beyond the simple fact that he never tried to renege on payment and could be relied on to always be looking for someone on a particular night of the week… but others, almost entirely male, said he could be violent. A few described being injured enough that they had to seek medical treatment after meeting him. The same individuals stated that he insisted on using dehumanizing and insulting language to speak to them during these encounters, and that he was often unable to perform unless he did so.

One individual, who gave his name as “Mix”, mentioned that the last few times Brute had engaged his services, he had brought along a collar and insisted Mix pretend to be a Box Boy. 

During this time period, Brute continued to be an active, involved, and loving parent. 

He was home right on time every night except “poker night”, attended his chlidrens’ recitals and baseball games on the weekends. He often took them to the Red Hills Zoo, local parks, and even did a weekend trip to Berras to see the Berras Aquarium, stay overnight in a hotel as a family, and then visit a redwoods park before returning home.

Six months before his death, Brute’s visits to the red light district abruptly stopped. Instead, he apparently met with a local prostitute, engaged his services, and took him home… for good. 

The best record we have is that one woman, Needie Brandt, remembered seeing Brute leading a shorter, angular young man to his car one night, and described the young man as “one of those runaway Boxies, collar and all. Poor thing was half-starved”. 

Runaways, especially Romantics, are picked up by police from time to time in Red Hills. Most Romantics don’t really know any other way to survive, so prostitution is a common way to make ends meet. Needie said the young man had been seen around the area for a couple of weeks, right alongside the rest of the working people in the red light district, and that after this one night she saw Brute Hanlon lead him into the car, she didn’t see him again.

Asked if she remembered a name, Needie only shrugged and said that even if she did, it wouldn’t be a real one. Which is probably a good point. 

Somewhere in here, Brute began to date outside of his marriage while his family believed he was out with friends playing poker. He took dancing lessons with one Susan Krieger, had a serious relationship with a Lucy Graham, and was apparently occasionally taking a Natalie Dorn out for dinner.

Ellen was never informed about these out-of-wedlock interests. 

Brute’s family knew nothing. When his eldest son went to state with marching band his freshman year of high school, Brute Hanlon was right there cheering him on.

Then, just two days later, he presumably went right back to brutalizing the Box Boy he was keeping in his secret second home.

We don’t have a record of what exactly transpired within the house after Brute took the runaway Box Boy in. What we do know is what the police found later on.

On October 18th, 20XX, around midnight, Ellen Hanlon called police to report her husband missing after he did not return from his regular poker night. His car was located in the parking lot of an abandoned FoodMart, but a friend of Brute’s came forward to say he often parked there and carpooled with friends when going out.

None of Brute’s possessions were inside, and it didn’t appear the car had been touched by anyone but Brute himself when it was dusted for fingerprints or signs of DNA. Brute’s friends who knew about his secret activities weren’t telling, and Ellen and the children didn’t know anything about their seemingly loving husband and father’s double-life. 

At first, the trail seemed like it would go cold, and investigators were frustrated that they had so little to go on.

Then, on October 29th, 20XX, Brute’s neighbor (who apparently asked that his name not be given) called the police department complaining about how the small two-bedroom house next door had begun to smell “like something died in there”, and that he hadn’t seen his neighbor leave or return in days, which was very unusual.

When police arrived, the front door was unlocked. Officer William Keys, the first one inside, later described the smell as “unmistakable. I knew exactly what we’d find the second we walked in that door.”

He was right.

What they found was the bloodied and decomposing body of Henry “Brute” Hanlon, lying on his back in the middle of a small unremarkable living room, on a dirty and stained carpet. He had been viciously stabbed more than fifty times. One even went so far into Brute that there was an exit wound through his back. Medical examiners would later state that at least seven of his wounds would have been directly fatal, but that he had died within the first few and most of the wounds were technically post-mortem.

The murder had been committed by someone who had a very personal reason for the killing. Investigators believe this individual was “absolutely enraged”.  

Next to his body was the murder weapon, along with a set of buckles and strips of leather that mystified the officers. These were eventually identified as modified leg braces, but rather than straightening bent or injured legs, they forced the wearer to keep their legs at nearly right angles, which would ensure they had to crawl rather than walk. They appeared to be homemade.

Bloodied smears and footprints led the officers down a hallway and to the bathroom, where there was evidence someone had showered, changed clothes, and then left.

The same neighbor who informed police about the smell also remembered seeing, on October 16th or 17th (later determined that it was likely the 17th, the day that Brute did not return home from “work”), a young man wearing an oversized coat, sweatpants, and a too-large t-shirt walk out of Hanlon’s house and down the street. The young man was on the short side, the neighbor said, had an angular face, and a visible scar at the corner of his mouth and another along the side of his face. He had the collar of the coat flipped up, and the neighbor doesn’t recall if he wore a collar or not.

He had dark eyes, and short but shaggy dark hair that seemed to have been cut hurriedly and unevenly, and he waved at Hanlon’s neighbor without pausing or speaking as he walked past.

Tests on fingerprints and DNA located within Brute Hanlon’s secret second home would reveal that the Box Boy who once ran from Nathaniel Benson after his death was the exact same one who ran from Brute Hanlon after murdering him. The Boxie’s fingerprints were all over the murder weapon… and everywhere else, too.

Within Brute’s home, more knives were found, along with what looked like a badly-crafted homemade whip and some other supplies. A few of the things investigators found appeared to be essentially identical to what was found in Nathaniel Benson’s home. Other things were different (“animalization” was mentioned in some of the reports, but what I’ve been able to find is seriously vague for some reason). 

Possibly related, a series of dog leashes purchased from a local pet-supply store were found throughout the home, but there was no evidence of an actual dog. In the home’s main bedroom was a perfectly normal queen-sized bed that was clearly Brute’s, with a small side table, a large dresser, and an attached bathroom. 

There was absolutely nothing outwardly out of the ordinary, besides the room being very plain and impersonal. Makes sense, since Brute almost never slept there. 

In the second bedroom, however, there was army-style cot with a thin blanket and sheet, three folded shirts on the floor, two sets of bloody metal handcuffs hanging off the cot’s frame at the top and bottom, and a bucket next to the bed. Two metal bowls, clearly of a style meant to be a dog’s food and water bowls, were next to the door. One still had water in it. The window was painted and nailed shut, and bars had been installed over the windows.

Investigators determined the bars were on the house when Brute Hanlon purchased it and had been installed by the previous owner. No reason for that installation was ever given.

Investigation revealed trace amounts of evidence of blood, but nothing much. However, the living room and dining area both showed poorly-cleaned bloodstains that were much older than Hanlon’s murder, including discolored patches on the walls.

A contract for a 24/7 “master/slave” style relationship was found in the top drawer of the dresser, signed ‘Pet’ at the bottom, and with Brute’s name alongside it. However, both signatures match Hanlon’s handwriting, and the Boxie is not believed to have actively signed it, as he would be illiterate at best. Plus, Box Boys are not legally allowed to enter into any contract, anyway, since they can’t understand obligations at that level, so even if he had signed it, it wouldn’t have been considered remotely valid.

I mean, not that those contracts are legal, but... you get my point.

Also located in that drawer were more than one hundred photographs showing the Boxie in a variety of compromising situations and positions. Several of these photos had Brute himself clearly visible in them, and a few had other individuals who have since been identified as Brute’s associates in his more illicit activities.

Interrogations of those associates led to more than seven further arrests for illegal gambling, the production and sale of illicit drugs, and illegal weapons sales. Those interrogations are also how we know about what Brute Hanlon was up to in-between Little League games and Girl Scout meetings.

Those associates claim that Brute kept a “secondhand Box Boy”, muzzled him so he couldn’t speak whenever guests were over, and that often ‘poker night’ simply turned into a game where the assorted guests and Brute himself repeatedly assaulted the Boxie. The associates claimed they thought the entire thing was consensual, but frankly… given the overwhelming evidence that the Boxie had to be kept restrained and was often seriously injured by these assaults... that’s doubtful.

Ellen and her children, who had previously been very visible and spoke often to local news stations about Henry’s disappearance, withdrew after his body was found and his second, secret life revealed - and have never given a single public statement or made a public appearance since. 

Ellen moved her children out of Red Hills, moving back in with her own parents, briefly, in northern California. Where they went after that is unknown, but they appear to have left the state and Ellen may have changed her surname. Investigators are firm in their belief that Ellen knew nothing about her husband’s secret life.

I would give my right arm to know what his son and daughter think about it, and if they ever suspected what their devoted dad was up to when he wasn’t at home.

So, what happened to the Boxie after he left the house and disappeared down the block from the witness who saw him?

In short… no one knows for sure.

After murdering Brute Hanlon and cleaning off the evidence that must have been all over him, the Boxie simply fades away. He could have been anywhere, doing anything at all. There is a brief sighting of him on CCTV footage at the local bus station, where he is in line to buy a ticket… and then abruptly looks up, apparently noticing the camera and looking directly into it, then turns and walks quickly away.

The footage is grainy, but the Boxie does appear to be wearing his collar.

He isn’t seen in Red Hills again.

Instead, he reappears one more time before his final murder and disappearance… more than a year later, in a little town right along the border with Nevada.

Part 3 will go into how the investigation into the death of a quiet little oddball named Robert Weber reveals a basement full of skeletal bodies. But our Boxie isn’t the cause.

Instead, Robert Weber’s murder solves a series of related murders police had been stymied by for more than a decade, and a Box Boy who may have been meant to be Weber’s next victim instead turned accidental vigilante with a final killing of his own.

Or maybe I should say, his final killing so far.

-

@astrobly @finder-of-rings @burtlederp @whump-tr0pes @raigash @eatyourdamnpears @orchidscript @doveotions @pretty-face-breaker @boxboysandotherwhump @outofangband @whumptywhumpdump @whumpfigure @thehopelessopus @downriver914 @justabitofwhump @butwhatifyouwrite @newandfiguringitout @yet-another-heathen @nonsensical-whump @oops-its-whump @endless-whump @cubeswhump @gonna-feel-that-tomorrow @whumpiary 

[ghostgothgeek]

Pull.

My first for the Phic Phight! 1,685 words.

Danny's been summoned. But not by who you'd expect. In fact, not by an actual person. Prompt by Greyheartwriter.

-----

Danny had been summoned before. Or rather, Phantom has. Usually by Sam, with Tucker occasionally tagging along. Typically when he was grounded. His two best friends always got a kick out of it. Grounded or not, they were going to hang out with their friend, especially when he insisted he should probably stay home “just in case”. He hadn’t gotten caught yet, but there have been a few close calls. Regardless, summoning Phantom was one of the rare moments the trio had to goof off and be regular teenagers. Well, regular enough anyway. 

Danny sat with his elbows on the desk, hands gripping his hair in frustration. Falluca had assigned a large problem set to be done overnight. Like Danny didn’t have anything better to do - rest, catch ghosts, nap, hang with his friends, sleep. At 10:30 pm, he was almost done, he was just stuck on this one problem. He thought about calling Sam and asking for help, but he really wanted to try getting this on his own first. 

He grabbed his pencil and tried writing out the problem for the 400th time when he felt the pull. “Oh no,” Danny muttered and looked around his room before trying extra hard to focus on his math homework and not the pull. It always failed, but he had been trying to train himself to ignore the pull. “Not. Now.” 

Danny put his face closer to his paper and tried to focus, but the pull was getting stronger now. Ugh, why him? Why can’t people summon other ghosts? Well, that could get ugly and dangerous real fast, but come on! He was gonna kill Tucker and Sam. Or maybe…

Maybe his friends were struggling with the same problem as him and they wanted to put all their brain power together. But they could have just called. Regardless, he was still resisting the pull. 

The pull was just a feeling of needing to be physically somewhere else. Or it started out that way, anyway. It was like holding your breath and forcing yourself to not hiccup again. You could try to deal with it absentmindedly, but usually it was all you could focus on until you were satisfied. And that’s where Danny was at now, the pull was beginning to consume all of his thoughts, it was beginning to cloud his brain of anything else. He gripped his desk as he felt another strong pull. Whoever was calling him had done it at least 3 times now. Again, Danny tried to focus on his paper. 

Another pull, and Danny’s vision became cloudy. He felt anxious. He needed to be somewhere. What about math homework? That was supposed to be his top priority, they had a test on Friday. He gently started shaking as he tried to refrain. 

He fell out of his chair at another pull, another call. Fuck it. He couldn’t hold on anymore. 

He sighed, took a deep breath, and focused on the pull. He felt immediate relief as he answered. He felt the familiar feeling of following the call, like riding a waterslide or a rollercoaster in the dark. You had no idea where you were going, you couldn’t see anything in front of you. You didn’t know how long the ride would last and you had zero control. You were just being forced in a different direction, sometimes feeling the whiplash of the unexpected. 

He could feel his core becoming colder. He felt his transformation into Phantom, and soon enough, the blackness was beginning to fade, and he tried to gather his surroundings. “Sam, Tucker, if it’s you I swear I’m gonna-” 

Oh, OH. This was new. Danny didn’t even know that this was possible. He guessed it made sense though. Maybe Ouija boards were like cell phones in the Ghost Zone. Ghosts had to get a hold of each other somehow. 

He turned his body as he slowly looked around. He didn’t know this part of the Ghost Zone. He didn’t even see any ghosts around. He started to panic. He didn’t know where he was, or who called him, or if anyone even actually called him at all. Was this some new stupid ghost power he had to learn to controll again? He just figured out how to keep his pants from falling down when he tried to flirt with girls. Not important right now, he reminded himself. He formed a small ectoball of energy in his hand, preparing himself for any attack. 

But no attack came. Instead, he just felt a little nudge at his feet. Looking down, he sighed and dropped his ectoball. “Really?” He glanced down at his caller. “First of all, how did you even learn to do that?!” 

Headbutting his ankle was the small green fluffball nicknamed Cujo, in his puppy form. To answer Danny’s question, he used his nose to nudge the planchette on the board, moving it around until Danny began to feel the pull again, though this time the pull wasn’t as strong because he was already in his destination. 

Danny chuckled and scratched the pup’s ear. “What’s up buddy? I gotta finish my homework.” 

Cujo barked and wagged his tail ferociously, sticking his butt up towards the air as he bounced around. Eventually, the dog dragged his squeaky toy towards the halfa and barked again. 

“I can’t play! I have to finish my homework so I can try to get a few hours of sleep in a row tonight. Sorry dude, but no.” 

The puppy’s excitement level deteriorated quickly. He let out a little whine, and gave Danny his best puppy dog eyes. Danny sighed as he rubbed the back of his neck. Cujo was adamant on playing, that much was clear. He called him 6 times already, what was going to stop the pooch from doing it again until he got what he wanted? Maybe just for a few minutes…

Cujo’s tail began wagging again as he could see Danny caving in. “Alright, alright. I needed a break anyways.” He formed another ectoball and threw it as hard as he could. “Go long, Cuj!” He smiled as the pup darted after the ball at lightning speed and stretched his muscles for the few seconds it took for Cujo to return with the ball. The pup barked excitedly. 

Danny smiled, he always wanted a dog anyway. He threw the ball for Cujo for another few minutes, before playing tug of war and teasing the dog with the squeaky toy. “Who’s a good boy?” Danny said in a voice only reserved for Cujo and other animals (except for Sam’s pet snake...he couldn’t use his little baby voice on that thing, it was too weird). He rubbed the dog’s belly, laughing when Cujo’s back leg would twitch in response to the belly rubs. 

The phantom yawned as he laid down on the ground next to the pup, using one hand to prop his head up and the other to scratch Cujo’s chin. “I’ll admit, you are making me feel more relaxed.” 

Soon enough, Danny was snoozing with the little puppy curled up into his side, snoring softly. Though, the moment of peace didn’t last more than 15 minutes as Danny woke up to the feeling of being pulled again. He groaned, gave Cujo a little kiss on his head, and answered the new call. 

Sure enough, he was in the middle of Sam’s room, falling to her rug as he was still too drowsy to make a better landing. He heard Tucker’s laugh and jolted up, shaking the remaining grogginess out of his head. Danny groaned, “what?!” 

“Look who woke up on the wrong side of the...rug…” Tucker tried. Danny could feel Sam rolling her eyes as she offered him a hand so he could stand up. 

Danny couldn’t help but let out a low growl, “Tucker…” 

“We’ve been trying to call you for 25 minutes already! Guess you didn’t have your phone on you. Thank the goddesses for Ouija boards,” Sam stated as she straightened out her skirt. 

“Why? What’s wrong? Is there a ghost?” Danny examined her room, making a face at the snake that he swore was glaring at him. 

“School starts in 4 minutes, dude,” Tucker explained as he grabbed his backpack. 

“You gotta fly us to your house to get your stuff then fly us to school, and maybe we won’t get detention this time,” Sam put her backpack on as well. 

“Ah, fuck,” Danny quickly grabbed his friends’ arms and flew as quickly as he could to his room, grabbing his backpack and flying to school. His parents were already in the lab working on stuff, and Danny doubted they even noticed he was missing and almost late for school. A bomb could go off in the town and they would be so immersed in their work that they wouldn’t hear it. His overattentive sister, on the other hand, had apparently been trying to get a hold of him for an hour now, only stopping when Sam texted Jazz that they had Danny with them. 

The trio landed in the bush as the first warning bell rang. Danny transformed and they ran into the school together, making it to their homeroom late, but for once luck was on their side as the teacher wasn’t paying attention...her car alarm mysteriously went off. 

Danny pulled out his notebook and realized he still had to finish that math problem. Shit. 

He turned as Sam tapped his shoulder, handing him her homework. He smiled gratefully. 

“Don’t worry, Tucker had to copy mine too. That problem took me 5 hours to solve. You both owe me.” 

Danny sighed in relief and nodded. He had 10 minutes to copy this down, and it was two pages long. It should be a crime to assign problems that long. He pulled out his pencil and started scribbling down the solution when he felt it. 

Another pull. Damn that dog. No, he loved Cujo. Damn that Ouija board. “Remind me to find Cujo a puppy friend,” the halfa muttered to his friends.

[sophiashortcake]

𝐍𝐄𝐖 𝐘𝐄𝐀𝐑'𝐒 𝐊𝐈𝐒𝐒

𝐩𝐚𝐢𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐠: tsukishima kei x gn!reader

𝐧𝐨𝐭𝐞𝐬: more tsukishima content because i can’t kiss him at midnight, but i guess this will suffice 😞

𝐰𝐚𝐫𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐬: mentions of alcohol

𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐝 𝐜𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐭: 1.4k

𝐠𝐞𝐧𝐫𝐞: fluff

𝟏𝟏:𝟑𝟎𝐩𝐦

“i can’t believe that you’re drunk.”

“i can’t believe you aren’t.”

you sighed as sugawara cackled to himself, the champagne he had been downing since the party was evident in his behavior. his head was rested on your lap as his flushed face gleamed at yours. you quipped an eyebrow at his grin, knowing all too well he had something mischievous running through his mind.

“who are you kissing at midnight?” he chirped. ah, so that was what he was thinking about.

“the dog, if i’m lucky,” you replied, flicking his forehead. he whined at the impact, and scrunched his face in disapproval. you giggled, spotting daichi’s dog curled up on asahi’s lap, not too far away.

daichi had thrown the new years eve party as a reunion of sorts, so you and the former volleyball club had piled into his new apartment to countdown to the new year. sugawara had been up to no good since the party had begun. but to be frank, he was always up to no good, but it seemed his mischief was directed at you particularly. he had been trying to coerce answers about your love life out all night, but you hadn’t budged. not yet, anyway.

“i know who you really wanna kiss,” he sang, his voice high and bubbly.

“oh, and who is that?” you replied, rolling your eyes.

“a certain tall blonde beanpole named tsu- mmph!”

“keep your voice down!” you hissed, clamping a hand over his mouth. sugawara was too loud for his own good. hopefully the boy in question hadn’t heard, but from the way he was chatting casually with yamaguchi in the kitchen, it seemed he hadn’t.

sugawara pulled his face away from your hand with a shiteating grin, “oh, so i was right?”

“fine,” you groaned, “how’d you know?”

“how couldn’t i? you’ve had googly eyes for him since you two were wittle tiny first years!” he giggled, smiling at the thought of you two all those years ago (really only three, you’d just started college together this year.)

“now you two are adults with unresolved feelings!” he dramatically sighed, throwing his arms in the air for effect. he narrowly avoided smacking you as you sighed.

you supposed your feelings for the middle blocker weren’t as hidden as you thought. since your first year, you’d been teased relentlessly from your friends about your crush for him. while your crush seemed obvious, tsukishima was oblivious to it. it was a miracle that he would even give you the time of day, much less have a crush on you but it was okay, being friends was more than enough.

“unresolved feelings, really?” you sighed, “it’s not that deep, i just never got over my tiny crush is all.”

“tiny?” he scoffed, “i’m pretty sure you’re in love with him.”

“shut up!” you hissed, smacking his head, still laid on your lap.

“i’m right, i’m right!” he sang as you pelted him with tiny smacks. “you love him!” it was funny to think he was now an elementary school teacher, responsible for children, when he was acting like a kid himself.

but he definitely was right, you might be in love with him.

𝟏𝟏:𝟒𝟎𝐩𝐦

sugawara had climbed off your lap to go find bother daichi. now abandoned, you found yourself digging through the kitchen for something to pair with the cheap champagne you all had been drinking throughout the night. your head was stuck inside a cabinet, rifling through the shelves. seriously, who plans a party without snacks?

“looking for something?”

“yeah, something to eat- ouch!”

you hit your head on the shelf as you tried to turn around to the voice behind you. you clutched your now throbbing head to meet tsukishima. you nearly groaned, just your luck.

“great job, dumbass,” he chimed, not bothering to hide the amused grin plastered on his face.

“yeah, yeah,” you grumbled, rubbing the corner of your head that you had hit.

tsukishima snickered, grabbing the nearby ice bucket and towel that had been thrown onto the counter, “sit up on the counter.”

“huh?”

“do i need to repeat myself?” he replied, rolling his eyes, “i don’t wanna bother reaching down, so go sit on the counter.”

realizing he had grabbed the ice for you, you jumped onto the counter to let tsukishima play nurse. you giggled to yourself as he wrapped the towel around some ice, he looked down at you with a questionative face.

“should i be worried you got a concussion too?”

“no, just didn’t think you’d care about my boo-boo,” you grinned. the alcohol in your system made you a little bolder, so why not tease?

“well, i can’t let you go around getting hurt like the other idiots around here,” he mumbled, holding the ice to your head, eyeing the ruckus hinata, tanaka, and nishinoya were causing in the living room. hinata had fallen on the floor after drunkenly trying to do a handstand on nishinoya’s shoulders. tanaka had tried to catch hinata, only to run directly into nishinoya and end up on the floor himself.

you blamed the alcohol for the way your cheeks burned, he was just being nice.

but you had to admit, you liked him being nice.

𝟏𝟏:𝟓𝟎𝐩𝐦

“you think we should get back in there?” you asked, glancing at tsukishima.

“nah,” he replied, “i don’t think i could deal with all the noise.”

tsukishima had dragged you outside with him onto the balcony, claiming the cold air outside would help your head, but you knew he was using that as an excuse to escape the chaos inside. daichi’s apartment was on a high floor that overlooked one of the busier parts of miyagi. buildings were lit up with festivities, and you could see the bustle of the crowd celebrating the holiday below. despite the muffled sounds of the party inside, the cheers and bustle below you, and the distant sounds of fireworks being lit every so often, a comfortable quiet fell between you and tsukishima.

“do you have any new year's resolutions?” you questioned, attempting to make some small talk.

he hummed in thought, his eyes still trained on watching the people below on the streets. the soft light from inside made his skin glow, and the soft wind rustled through his hair. behind his glasses, his eyes were noticeably softer than they usually were, the harsh glare he wore had been replaced with much kinder eyes than you were used to. you knew tsukishima was attractive, but right now, he looked somewhere near beautiful. you shook off your thoughts when tsukishima replied.

“i guess it would be working on my feelings, being more honest with them.”

“you? honest with your feelings?” you teased, “never thought i would see the day.”

“oh yeah?” he scoffed, “and what’s your new year’s resolution, huh? bet you can’t accomplish it either.”

“it’s stupid.”

“probably not as stupid as you.”

“hey!”

tsukishima laughed, and it was noticeably different from his typical laugh. usually it would be quick and condescending, and maybe it was the alcohol, but it seemed lighter and more happy, almost as if he momentarily let down the guard.

“well, what is it?” he questioned.

“i guess, being honest with my feelings too,” you answered, “but more so towards someone.”

tsukishima’s grin faltered, causing your heartbeat to stop. shit, you accidentally admitted that to him. that damn champagne!

“as in you like somebody?”

you had backed yourself into a corner, hadn’t you? his eyes stared at yours for an answer, and under his heavy gaze you could only bring yourself to nod. what was he being so questionative for?

“you know, i think we could help each other accomplish our new year’s resolutions.”

from inside, and from the people on the streets below you, you could hear the countdown begin.

“10, 9, 8, 7!”

you could only manage to stutter out a meek, “w-what?”

“6, 5, 4!

“do i have to spell it out for you?”

“3, 2, 1! happy new years!”

tsukishima brought his lips to yours.

𝟏𝟐:𝟎𝟎𝐚𝐦

after a few breathless seconds, you both pulled apart. tsukishima’s eyes were still focused on yours, and normally you would have felt smaller underneath his gaze, but with his eyes on you, you felt like you were on cloud nine. you could still taste the mint chapstick he wore on your lips and the aftertaste of the cheap champagne you all had been downing all night.

“i heard you and sugawara earlier, do you like me?”

no use hiding it, was there?

“considering i just kissed you, i think i do.”

tsukishima’s mouth opened to retort back, but the way you were smiling was enough to shut him up. you giggled as you enveloped him in a hug.

“happy new year, tsukki.”

🏷 𝐭𝐚𝐠𝐥𝐢𝐬𝐭: @tetsurolls @zumisace @savvamuraz @tsukisemi @dai-tsukki-desu @wisteriarain @shittykawaa @owlnymph @kiraakaashi

[tinyboxxtink]

"...So I Married A Monster" *Chapter 7*

Chapter 6

Chapter 8

Yeah I know, that last chapter was....brutal.

And I have some bad news my babies....I work non-stop the next three days, so maybe no new chapter until Monday.

But I gave you this one with a little floof, to make up for that horrible angsty chapter. But also, it's kind of short.

Worse news....it ends on a cliffhanger.

I LOVE YOU ALL DON'T LEAVE ME PLEASE.

@madamsnape921

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@wanniiieeee

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@sassyada

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@believinghurts

----------------------

Back At Your House

You woke up in your bed, covered in towels and one of Kylie’s pull ups taped under your underwear, along with a million other different cloths/toilet paper.

“What the fuck…?” You tried to move but realized the towels you were surrounded with were mostly covered in blood. You quickly began to panic as the more you woke up the more the pain was coming back. You tried to think of the last thing you remembered before blacking out. Billy had been pumping in and out of your ass, you were in torturous pain, and then he called-- Oh god.

You began scrambling around the bed with your arms under the sheets and comforter, looking for your phone. You could hear the shower running and Billy humming from the bathroom. He was getting off on this, the sick fuck. You couldn’t believe you had been so blind to his psychosis before this. Love is blind sure, but what the fuck?!

Finally you found your phone on the charger, but it was on your vanity across the room. You dragged yourself across the bed and leaned over the bed as far as you could, reaching for the vanity desperately.

You fell helplessly off the foot of the bed, whimpering and crying from the pain in your rectum. You were pretty sure you were still bleeding, but Billy had shoved so much toilet paper and towels up there you probably couldn’t even shit right now. Maybe for a long time.

You weakly pulled on the cord so it made the phone fall off the vanity and land in your hands. You saw you had 30 missed calls, all from Rafael. Oh thank god, he still cared about you. Worried about you.

You hit REDIAL and waited for him to answer. You looked up to the sky and started praying for him to answer before Billy got out of the shower. Finally after what felt like hours, you heard his voice. It was frantic and terrifying, he sounded like he had been crying for a long while.

“What now, Lewis? I swear to God if you FUCKING--”

“R-Rafa?” Your small, weak voice in response made him almost drop the phone in relief.

“Y/N?” He almost choked.

“Mi amor? Are you okay? Where are you? Where’s Lewis?” He rattled off the millions of questions that had ran through his mind since Billy had hung up on him. Hearing him call you amor made your whole world brighten, you wanted to weep in happiness.

“I’m--” You looked down at yourself. You were literally wearing a diaper.

“I’m outside,” He responded before you could say anything else.

“What?” You breathed deeply, pulling yourself up and limping towards your bedroom window. You could see Rafael’s car a few houses down, with the lights off.

“What are you doing?!” You hissed into the phone, glancing fearfully at the bathroom door. “You can’t be here!”

“You can’t stay here baby, you need medical help,” He said into the phone, staring at your silhouette through your window now.

“I-I can’t leave the girls,” You twirled your hair nervously.

“Baby if you’re dead you can’t help them at all!” Rafael reasoned.

Well, he did have a point. You checked the phone for the time: 11:30 pm. You had been out for hours. The girls were probably asleep, you didn’t know how much longer Billy would be in the shower.

“Look he won’t hurt them, right? You said that?” Rafael asked, knocking you back to reality.

“Raff after tonight I don’t know what he’s capable of,” You tried not to start crying again. You knew how upset he already was, if he heard you cry you knew it would send him off the edge again.

“God dammit!” You could hear him pull the phone away and violently hit the passenger's seat several times as the image of your bloody body being rammed by Lewis reverberated in his brain images.

“Rafael, calm down. Please,” You pleaded with him. “I-I don’t even know if I can make it outside,”

“Fuck,” You heard him mutter. “Then I’m coming in,”

“Rafael, don’t. Please--” But it was too late, he had already hung up. You closed your eyes and waited for the boom. You listened intently as the shower continued to run, then you heard your door open, footsteps come running down the hall.

Finally you saw him, Rafael. He scooped you up before you could say anything, grabbed some of your clean clothes out of your drawers and before you knew it you were sitting in the passenger's seat of his car, and he was speeding away from your house.

“Carino…” You felt his hand on the back of your head, rubbing your hair lovingly. “God I’m so so sorry,”

“It’s not your fault,” You shook your head weakly, closing your eyes and enjoying the sensation of his skin on yours again. Even if it was just your hair.

You could smell his cologne wafting from his wrist and you placed a hand on his knee, turning your head to face him. He glanced over at you, giving you a sad smile. He put his free hand on your hand that was on his knee, then when he thought you were far enough away he pulled over to the side of the road.

“Wha---?” You looked around confused as he unbuckled his seatbelt. He unbuckled yours and then pulled you from your seat, over the gear stick into his lap.

“Rafa, what are you doing?” You cocked your head to the side like a confused puppy dog as he stroked your hair. Instead of answering your question, he pulled you into a deep, slow kiss. The complete opposite of what you had been through tonight.

“I just...I’ve wanted to do this since you left my office. Since I saw you with that gun pushed into your back. Since I saw you…” He started to cry so he looked down in shame.

You put one hand on his cheek and wiped the tears with your thumb. He put his hand over the hand on his cheek and kissed in between your thumb and first finger. You pressed your forehead against his while he tried to compose himself, then you just laid your head on his shoulder. He started to stroke your hair once more and just held you like that, basking in each other’s safeness and warmth.

“I love you,” He whispered while still holding onto you, tears still apparent in his voice. “I love you so much Y/N, I’m sorry. I will never let you out of my sight ever again,”

“I’m sorry,” You whispered into his shoulder. “I should’ve listened to you,”

“Hey,” He picked your head up and made you face him. “No, you do not apologize for ANYTHING, okay? This isn’t your fault,”

“Isn’t it?” You bit your lip while trying not to cry yourself. “I married the man, Rafael! I had kids with him, I--I would have stayed married to him if he hadn’t left!”

“But you didn’t know....” He comforted you.

“No but I should have,” You shook your head in shame at yourself.

“How could you have known that he--”

“Because my dad was like him, Rafael,” You finally admitted. You hadn’t told anyone that, not even Billy.

“....What?” You looked at him in shock, trying to make sure you heard him correctly.

“My dad, he--” You looked down at your lap in shame. “He used to beat the shit out of me and my mom,”

“....Me too,” Rafael finally admitted his own shame after a long pause.

“What?” You blinked several times. “Seriously?”

“Mmmhmm,” He nodded sadly. “Well you know when he was sober enough to hit. Sometimes he just wouldn’t come home at all. For hours, days. Finally never,”

“Oh, Raffi….” You gave a sympathetic look. “If it makes you feel any better, my dad drank himself to death,”

“How would that make me feel better?” Rafael raised an eyebrow at you.

“I don’t know, I was trying to say something comforting. I suck at it. I shouldn’t be a mother,” You shook your head.

“Hey now,” He put a hand to your cheek again. “You seem like a great mother,”

“Oh yeah, mom of the year,” You rolled your eyes. “I just left my kids with their psychopath father,”

“Hey, I kidnapped you,” He teased.

“Yeah you did--” You stopped smiling when the thought hit you like a train. “Oh fuck,”

“What?” Rafael furrowed his eyebrows.

“If I know Billy, once he realizes I’m gone and who I’m with, he’s going to claim you kidnapped me or something,” Your own eyebrows furrowed as you started going over worst case scenarios.

“But that’s absurd,” He shook his head. “Clearly I didn’t…”

“I mean you kind of did,” You shrugged.

“But you wanted to come!” He defended.

“You think he’s gonna word it that way?” You gave him a look.

“Well if they come after us then I’ll just clarify that--” Rafael kept reasoning with you.

“Then he’ll say that I just abandoned them,” You made another excuse.

“You left them with their dad--” Rafael was determined to make you see logic.

“He’s going to come after us Rafael!!”

“Okay, baby-- you’re spiraling,” He took both of your hands. “Inhalar, exhalar,” [pronounced

In-hall-ay, ex-hall-ay]

You took several inhales and exhales, long and deep.

“I just--” You breathed again. “I know this is going to end badly,”

“Not as badly as it could have,” Rafael pointed out. “Are you sure you’re okay? Do we need to go to the hospital or something?”

“...I...I don’t know,” You sheepishly admitted. “I haven’t had the courage to check,”

“What?!” Rafael cried, picking you up and standing up out of the car and opening the back door, laying you across the backseat.

“Baby these are fine leather seats! You’ll never get the blood out if you--” You tried to object but Rafael was already peeling off your “diaper”. He became more and more angry at the haphazard way Lewis had just patched you up so that he could shower. When he unraveled the mountains of toilet paper wrapped around your waist, he could see you were “Stopped up” by a bunch of cotton balls and tampons. And you were very clearly still bleeding. The sight made him sick.

“Fuck…” He whispered as he threw the “bandages” back on you, then went to get something from his trunk. He came back with an old t-shirt and wrapped it around your waist and butt area tightly.

“We have to stop this bleeding baby,” he began to panic again. “I-I don’t even know how you’re conscious right now, you must have lost a lot of--” He stopped talking when he realized you were in fact, unconscious now. All of those shitty bandages as shitty as they were, had been keeping your blood and and now it was freely pouring out of you and out of the car.

“Fuck…” He muttered as he slammed the door and got in the driver’s seat, starting his car again and speeding towards the hospital. Well, it would sure be a hell of a lot harder to explain he DIDN’T kidnap you now, if you weren’t awake to verify it.

He sped as fast as he could to the hospital, dialing Liv’s number as he drove. “Liv, get the squad to the hospital,” He instructed her.

“And we need a police detail at this address, but you have got to be discreet, I don’t want him going off the rails,”

As soon as they got to the hospital, Rafael jumped out and started yelling to EMT’s and nurses standing outside the emergency room to help him with you. They grabbed a gurney and helped Rafael put you on it, rolling you inside as you were immediately hooked up to things and had a team swarming you.

“How much blood has she lost?” A nurse asked him as she pushed him back away from you so the doctors could work.

“I...I don’t know,” He answered warily as he tried looking over her to see how you were.

“What blood type is she?” She moved him to face her.

“I don’t know…” He rubbed his hand across the back of his head, but it was covered in your blood. It made him panic more.

“Do you know anything, sir?” The nursed asked in an annoyed tone.

“Yes,” He was now glaring angrily. “I know she was brutally raped, and I’m pretty sure he tore her,”

“....He?” She eyed him up and down, seeing him covered in your blood.

“Oh come on,” Rafael exhaled with a sarcastic laugh. “You don’t think if I did this to her I would bring her in myself?”

“I don’t know you sir, I don’t know what you would or would not do--”

“No I did NOT do this to her--” He started to tell her she was nuts, when he heard the last voice in the world he wanted to hear.

“THERE HE IS!!!!” He turned to see Lewis walking in with Jersey PD, pointing directly at him.

“THAT’S THE MAN WHO RAPED AND KIDNAPPED MY WIFE!!!!!!!!”

….Well, fuck.

[hockeyisit]

You're Having A Baby?

Summary: Mitch and Steph have a baby.

A.N. Hey guys I know its been awhile since I’ve posted. I’ve been going through a lot and haven't had much time to write. Heres something that I have had saved in my drafts for awhile. Its kind short but hope you enjoy and hopefully I’ll be able to get back to writing soon!

Masterlist

“Babe,” I called out as I pushed the door to Auston and my bedroom. He was currently laying down on bed with Noah and Kai laying down next to him. I had been downstairs washing the dishes when I had gotten a text from Steph. He looked up from where he was scrolling on his phone with a raised eyebrow.

“Steph’s in labor,” I told him excitedly as I made my way over to the bed and sat down next to him near the boys. I reached out and set my hand on Noah's little stomach.

“She just texted me that her and Mitch are on their way to the hospital. She was wondering if we’d be able to go feed Zues tonight because they weren’t home when she went into labor and she won't be back for awhile,” I told him as I looked up from Noah so I could see Auston’s face.

“Alright did she say when we should go?” he asked as he locked his phone and slouched down, he wrapped his arms around my waist and leaned forward so he could rest his head on my lap. I reached my hand down to rub it through his hair in a soothing manner.

“Whenever. I was hoping we could go to the hospital since she was there for me,” I told him gently. He hummed as he buried his face into my stomach.

“I don’t know if that’s such a good idea for the twins babe,” Auston mumbled as flipped over.

“Why not?” I asked.

“Well we don’t know how long it’s going to take and the twins might get restless. Maybe we should have her text us when we are allowed to visit and then we go over,” Auston suggested, causing me to let out a sigh as I thought about it. Steph had been in the waiting room for me the entire time I was in labor.

“Okay,” I finally agreed, leaning back against the headboard.

“So you have the day off tomorrow, what would you like to do?” I questioned as I continued to run my hand through his hair. He shut his eyes as he relaxed into my touch.

“Sleep,” he answered honestly, with a sleepy grin on his face. I let a smile overtake my own face as I grinned down at him.

“I’m not tired. Do you mind if I turn the tv on?” I asked as I reached for the remote. He shrugged his shoulders as he closed his eyes. I smiled down at him softly as I turned the tv on. Once it was on I turned the volume down and opened up Netflix. I had recently become obsessed with the show Designated Survivor.

It was currently July and Auston and I had decided to stay in Toronto a bit later than we normally did. We both had things holding up back from traveling back to Arizona like we normally did in the summer. One being I had gotten a job offer and I was going through the process of training for it. Even though it was an online job they had wanted me to come in for a few days of in person training. Auston had also wanted to stay and do some different training sessions with Mitch and a few of the other guys that had decided to stay in Toronto.

After watching two episodes the twins started to stir.  I glanced over at my phone to check the time. 6:45pm. I locked my phone and reached my hand out to rub Kai’s forehead in a comforting manner. The twins were just now a little over a year old and looked more like Auston every single day.

“Hey baby,” I cooed as his face scrunched up like he was about to start crying. I could reach out to grab him though because of the way that Auston was still laying on my lap. I shifted my body slightly trying to lean forward more so I could get a better grip on Kai but with no luck I tried to gently remove Auston from my lap.

“Huh?” he asked as he picked his head up from my lap.

“Sorry I didn’t mean to wake you. Kai looks like he's about to blow.”

Auston glanced at Kai who was quietly crying next to Noah. I reached out and picked him up, he immediately quieted down once he was settled in my arms.

“What time is it?” he mumbled out sleepily so that it sounded more muffled then anything.

“Six fifty,” I responded as I glanced over to Noah who was starting to stir lightly. Auston picked him up before he was able to let out a cry.

“We should probably go feed Zues,” I said as I stood up from the bed.

“Honestly I can just go and pick him up,” Auston offered as he stood up himself. I glanced up from what I was doing to look at him. It had been awhile since we had both Felix and Zues together.

“That sounds like a good idea. Let me just check with Steph and Mitch that it's okay,” I told him. I picked up my phone and sent Mitch a quick text asking him if it was okay before making my way downstairs with Auston following behind me.

“What do you want for dinner?” I asked, setting Kai down in his bouncing chair.

“Anything you want,” he set Noah in the chair next to Kai before making his way over to me where I stood leaning against the counter. I smiled up at him as his hands slipped to my waist.

“I kind of want to make taco salad,” I said, reaching my hand up and resting it on his chest. He smiled as he leaned a little more weight on me so that the counter was holding us up.

“Alright do we have everything for it?” he questioned. I thought about it for a moment before sadly shaking my head.

“I don’t think we have avocados but I guess we don't really need them” I thought aloud, feeling slightly sad at the idea of a taco salad without them.

“I can pick some up on the way to pick up Zues,” Auston suggested causing me to perk up.

“Could you please,” I begged. He laughed lightly as he nodded his head.

“Yeah no problem,” he pressed a kiss to my cheek before leaning back.

“You're the best,” I grinned before leaning forward and pressing a kiss to his lips. He smiled against my lips before deeping it. I pulled away when I heard my phone ringer went off.

“Mitch responded and said it would be really great if we could watch Zues,” I told Auston after I finished reading the text. Auston nodded as he pulled away.

“Alright I’ll go now. See you in thirtyish minutes,” Auston said before leaning in for another kiss.

“I love you. Drive safe,” I told him once he pulled away.

“Love you too,” he smiled at me and then turned to press a kiss to each of the twins' foreheads. He made his way over to the garage door and grabbed his keys off the hook before making his way out to the car.

----

I moved the pot filled with beef to a burner that wasn't warm and started chopping the lettuce. I heard the door open causing me to pause and peak my head around the corner. Zeus immediately ran in and started exploring while Auston walked in behind him. He held up the bag of groceries and made his way into the kitchen.

“Got the stuff you wanted,” he said holding his hand up that had the bag of groceries.

“Perfect thank you,” I said, walking up to him and wrapping my arms around his neck so I could pull him in for a kiss.

“It was no problem,” he slid his hands to rest on my waist and tightened his grip lightly as he pressed another kiss to my lips.

“I’m going to feed the dogs and then we can eat,” he suggested once he pulled away from the kiss. I glanced at all the things I had spread around the counter before giving him a nod.

“Sound’s good, I'm just going to cut this up and then we're ready to go,” I told him as I held up the grocery bag. I finished chopping the food up before putting them into two separate bowls and setting them on the table. I glanced over at the twins to make sure they were fine and they both seemed pretty happy. I sat down at the table and waited for Auston to join me at the table. When he showed up he washed his hands and then made his way over to the twins and pressed a kiss to both of their foreheads before joining me at the table.

“Thank babe,” Auston said as he took a seat and pulled his bowl closer to him. I shrugged my shoulders as I reached my hand out to his.

“Bless this food and bless this family,” I mumbled before dropping his hand and reaching for my fork.

“I love you,” he mumbled as he picked up his own fork. I felt a blush spread across my cheeks as I took a bite of my own food.

“Always and forever,” I responded after I had finished chewing, his smile brightened as he looked at me. My phone vibrated from the table and I picked it up to find a text from Mitch saying that Steph was heading into a C-Section which I knew hadn’t originally been a part of the birthing plan.

“Auston,” I exclaimed before turning my phone towards him and showing him the text from Mitch.

“Do you want to go to the hospital?” he asked after reading the text. I thought about it for a moment before shaking my head no.

“What good will I be sitting around at the hospital. I’ll go first thing in the morning,” I told him before taking another bite of my dinner. Auston nodded as he started eating his food as well. Halfway through eating Kai started whining from his chair. I shared a look with Auston before reaching out to pick him up.

“What's up baby?” I asked, holding him close to me. He relaxed slightly in my arms but continued to cry. I let out a soft sigh as I pulled my shirt to the side so that I could feed him. I was getting to the point of wanting to stop breast feeding the twins but when the boys were hungry and crying I found it harder and harder to stop. I knew that it was something that I would just have to act stronger on.

“I thought you were done breast feeding them,” Auston called out from the table. I turned around and gave him a look to which he quickly held his hands up. When he finished I set him back down in his chair and joined Auston at the table again.

“I want to stop but it's just so much faster. They hate the formula,” I admitted before taking a bite of my food.

“Well they gotta stop at some point,” he said, turning his attention back to his food. Rolling my eyes I glanced at my food

“What?” Auston asked, noticing my expression.

“Nothing,” I mumbled as I took another bite.

“Babe seriously, what's up?” he asked when he finished chewing. I shrugged my shoulders helplessly as I thought.

“Nothing, I just, why are you being so pushy about this?” I asked quietly. Ever since I told Auston I wanted to quit breastfeeding he had been so harsh and pushy whenever I did it.

“I’m not trying to be pushy, I'm trying to be helpful and supportive. You said that in your research it can be hard for women to stop breastfeeding because it feels like they are losing out on the closeness. I was just trying to make sure you did what you want,” he told me as he reached out to place his hand on mine. I looked away from his intense gaze to the boys sitting in their chairs.

“Sometimes I feel like I’m being a bad mom,” I admitted quietly. I watched out of the corner of my eye as Auston put his fork down.

“Amelia you're the best mom,” he reassured me rubbing his finger over my hand causing me to look back at him.

“I’m serious. You do everything right by them. They are so so lucky to have you as their mother and I’m so lucky to be doing this with you,” he removed his hand from mine and moved it up to my face so that he could move a piece of hair and tuck it behind my ear. I gave him a soft smile as I leaned into his touch.  

When we finished eating Auston started doing the dishes while I started getting the boys ready for a bath. As I kneeled down next to the tub I noticed Zues and Felix hovering in the corner. I let out a smile as I reached out to rub my hand through the closer dog, Zeus’, fur.

“Alright time for the bath babies,” I cooed as I reached for Noah so that I could settle him into the bathtub.

“Auston will you come help me wash them?” I called out raising my voice so he could hear me from the kitchen. I heard the water shut off before his footsteps approached.

“Hey Kai, are you ready for bath time?” he asked sweetly as he swept Kai up into his arms and quickly undressed him before making his way over to me so he could settle him into the bathtub.

“When I was washing the dishes your sister called,” Auston mumbled after a moment of cleaning the babies in comfortable silence. I glanced up at him with a raised eyebrow as I continued to rub the baby wash into Noah’s hair.

“Oh what did she want?” I questioned as I poured water gently over his head. Noah let out a small whine before quickly quieting down.

“She got into U of T,” he said.

“Oh my gosh what?” I exclaimed excitedly.

“Yeah she got the letter-,” he started to say before getting cut off by the sound of a phone ringing.

“Is that yours or mine?”

He shrugged his shoulders while I stood up. I wrapped Noah in a towel and then quickly made my way out of the bathroom to where our phones were on the kitchen counter.

“It's Mitch,'' I called out before pressing answer and holding the phone up to my ear.

“Hey Mitch. How's everything going?” I asked the second the call connected.

“Steph is out of surgery and everything went perfect,” he responded through a smile. I could hear nothing but joy coming from his voice.

“I’m so glad to hear, is she up now?” I questioned as I started making my way up the stairs and to the nursery. Auston glanced over at me from where he was standing at the changing table when I entered the room.

“She’s sleeping right now, he was born a few hours ago and she just now finally fell asleep.”

I put the phone on speaker before setting it down on the changing table so that I could start dressing Noah.

“Did you guys get a chance to name him?” I asked as I pulled out Noah and Kai’s pajamas. Steph and Mitch had done a gender reveal party early on in the pregnancy so we had known that they were going to have a boy. We however had been placing bets on what we thought they would name him.

“Charlie Andrew Marner,” Mitch said softly.

“What a beautiful name,” I responded, giving Auston a soft smile. I was so happy for the two of them. Steph and Mitch deserved everything and to hear that everythin went well I was so happy for the two of them.

“Yeah you’ll have to come meet him once Steph is awake,” Mitch said.

“We definitely will. You enjoy your first night as a dad, you wont get much sleep after these first few nights,” Auston warned him. I let out  giggle as I started rocking Noah back and forth.

“Yeah for sure. Also if you guys don’t want to take care of Zues I can have my mom swing by and pick him up,” Mitch responded.

“Nah man don’t worry about it. Felix loves having Zues around,” Auston reassured as he started rocking Kai.

“Alright if you say so. But I do have to go. I have more calls to make so I’ll see you guys.”

“Tomorrow,” I called out before he could hang up, causing both Auston and Mitch to laugh. Auston reached out and ended the call before making his way over to the rocking chair and taking a seat. I quickly crawled on so that I was sitting with him, causing him to settle Kai in my lap as well so that we all fit on the chair.

“Baby Charlie,” I whispered. Auston pressed a soft kiss to the side of my head and wrapped his arm tighter around me allowing me to finally relax and stop worrying about everything I had been during the day.

“Feels like it was just yesterday that the twins were born,” Auston mumbled against my ear. I let out a sigh as I stared down at them.

“I know. I cant believe it's been over a year,” I admitted reaching out to touch Kai’s tiny hand.

“They were perfect, just like their mother,” Auston grinned before leaning forward and pressing a kiss to my lips. The four of us stayed curled up like that until the twins fell asleep.

[kaitoujokerscans]

The Night the Silver Cape is Set Ablaze CH6

<6> The Lady Spy and Phantom Thief Girl

At the same time as when Spade was talking to Noir, a minor commotion was taking place aboard a luxury sleeper train coursing through a European ravine.

 "Stop! Don't let her get away!"

The train shook with a clunking noise, and stern-faced men in dark uniforms trampled through the carriage. They were chasing after a tiny silhouette dashing ahead. The silhouette opened the door connecting to the next carriage and ran into the hallway. Although the hallway floor was made of old wood, the silhouette's footsteps were completely silent.

There came a loud bang from behind her. A pistol bullet streaked past the side of the silhouette.

"Tsk!" The silhouette clicked her tongue, then opened the door to the next carriage and jumped in. This was the first class carriage — a passenger car with numerous private cabins. Through the earpiece she wore, she heard an order to the uniformed men — "The target's headed towards the front! Cut her off on both sides!". She was listening in to their radio comm.

They'll be coming from the front too, soon enough...

The tiny silhouette came to a stop in the middle of the carriage. Right next to her was the door to a guest cabin.

The silhouette was a little old lady in black tights. She would have been at least seventy years old. Yet her hair was a glistening white, and her skin had a healthy sheen. Least suggestive of her age was the look in her eyes. She was keeping watch for enemies in front of her and staying cautious of enemies approaching from behind at the same time.

Her name was Agent Purple. She was a veteran spy of a country to remain unnamed and was still an active intelligence agent. Purple had just stolen a top-secret file from an influential person in a certain country. She had received intel that it was being moved on this train and, putting her petite stature to good use, had skillfully swiped the file without alerting anyone. It was an easy job for Purple.

But it so happened that a newbie spy allied with her country had been caught elsewhere and let slip that Purple was on board.

Good heavens... Young'uns these days have no backbone... Purple sighed and, focusing her attention to the front, reached for the small firearm lashed around her leg.

Anxiety bubbled within Purple. The round of enemy fire had grazed Purple's arm. It was only a scratch, but still, moving it even slightly made pain course through her arm. Usually she would have no issue with firing at this range, but if enough enemies stormed her from both front and back, she wasn't sure she'd be able to make every shot.

Though it doesn't look like I have a choice... Purple steeled herself. She heard bellows come from both in front and behind her. Just as Purple's hand hovered over her firearm... the guest cabin door swung open, and someone grabbed Purple's arm.

"...!" With her opposite hand, Purple immediately reached for the knife at her hip. But she didn't stab anything. Because the person grabbing her said this to her:

"Come with me, Grandma."

When the uniformed men stepped out of the linked cars into the first class carriage, the target they had been pursuing wasn't in the hallway. The train was chugging along at high speed. She couldn't escape out the windows. Which meant that she had to have entered one of the cabins along the hallway.

The boss gave the order to his men to search the cabins. The men didn't know anything about the spy who was their target, other than that she was short. They entered the rooms one by one and inspected who was inside. Because this was the first class carriage, the occupants all had posh appearances. None of the passengers looked like they could be a spy. But it was possible that she was disguised.

Politely and carefully, the uniformed men examined each individual guest. Eventually, they stood in front of the cabin at the very middle.

One of the men knocked on the door.

"Yes?" came a young woman's voice from inside.

"This is the railway authority. We've received word that an intruder snuck on board, thus we are presently conducting an inspection of all cabins."

"I understand. Come in," responded the female voice, not suspecting the man was lying.

Two men entered and saw that there was a girl and an old woman inside. They were sitting across from each other on plush emerald green seats. The girl, her blonde hair done up in twintails, turned to the men with a puzzled look. "Has something happened?"

The girl was wearing an aqua-colored dress. She gave off a refined air — probably the daughter of a rich family. Then suddenly, one of the men took a frightening tone and demanded, "Hey, did anyone come in here?"

"N-No..." The girl replied, startled.

"She telling the truth, Grandma!?" The man said menacingly to the old woman sitting across from the girl. But the old woman's eyes were focused outside the window and she wouldn't face him.

"My grandmother is hard of hearing. I can answer your questions!" The girl nearly shrieked.

"Check their luggage."

The other man tried to pick up the large traveling bag next to the old woman. Then the girl stood up, shouting. "Stop! Not that bag!"

"Shut up! You're hiding something, aren't you!"

"Of course not! Please, just don't!"

"You're sounding more and more suspicious to me!" The man took out his gun and pointed it at the girl. The girl gasped, her face paled, and she sat back down.

The other man undid the clasp of the traveling bag and slowly opened it, when...

"BARK BARK BARK!" A white dog bounded out of the bag and jumped at the man's face.

"WAUUUGH!?" The man threw his head back in a panic. The dog wouldn't get off him.

"Aahhh! Stop that, Corn!"

"W-What is up with this mutt!?" The man peeled the dog off his face, and the girl spoke.

"He's my pet. Pets aren't allowed on board, so I hid him in my bag..."

"Huh?"

"But now that the authorities have found out, there's nothing I can do... You can arrest me," said the girl resignedly, looking up at the man.

Then the men tsked, not having found what they were looking for. "Hey, let's go. Onto the next one," one said, and they left the cabin.

"Phew... that went well." A little after the men left, Queen stopped holding her breath and plopped down on the seat. The girl who had talked with the men was Queen.

Then Purple, who had pretended to just be an old woman, looked at Queen and smirked. "That was quite the fib. I'd give you a passing grade."

"Teehee, thank you."

"Queen, what was that 'Corn' name about?" Roko, who had been pretending to be a normal dog, asked from beside Purple.

"Well, I couldn't call you by your real name, Roko. You got your name because you liked toumorokoshi — corn — right? So that's why I called you 'Corn'," Queen explained proudly. Queen, Purple, and Roko had put on a performance so the uniformed men would pass them by. Playing the parts of a granddaughter, her grandmother, and her pet, they successfully fooled the pursuers.

"Still, I was surprised when you appeared out of nowhere." Purple turned her gaze toward Queen and broke out into a happy smile. It was a warm, gentle smile, hardly an expression befitting a cold-hearted spy. She was said to have been quite the looker once, and it wasn't impossible to imagine. According to Silver Heart, no man had been immune to her wily charms. Silver Heart himself had acted smitten whenever he recalled Purple, until he met with her again...

"You're Silver's granddaughter, aren't you? You came with us to Jackal's hideout."

Indeed, Queen and Purple, along with Silver Heart and Joker, had previously broken into the organization called Jackal, headed by Doctor Neo. Purple had been introduced then to Queen as Silver Heart's partner during his spy days.

"You remembered me."

"A spy doesn't forget intel. So, since you've come out of your way to see me, I assume you need something?"

"Yes, that's right. There's something I want to ask about..." Queen lowered her voice a little. "I want to know about someone who used to work with Grandpa. Someone called Noir."

"Noir?" Purple's pitch rose. So she was familiar with Noir after all.

"You know him?"

"Yes, he's an old friend. I know him well."

"To tell you the truth, it seems Noir took a treasure from Joker, and I was wondering if it had anything to do with Grandpa..."

"Hmm..." Purple remarked in surprise.

"Did something happen between Noir and Grandpa? If you know anything, could you please tell me?"

"Hm, well..." Purple folded her arms, brooding on something. Suddenly, her eyes glinted mischievously, and she grinned at Queen.

"W-What is it?"

"When you get to be as old as I am, you get awfully tight-fisted. Giving information away for free feels like it would be a wasted opportunity."

"Huh...?"

"It makes me want to tease kids, especially a girl like you."

"O... kay..."

"If you want to hear about Silver and Noir, then do something for me. Something that'll delight me."

"HUH?" Queen drew back in surprise, ruffled.

"Do something to entertain me. Then I'll give you the information you want."

"Ergh..." Queen's gaze veered. She wasn't a veteran spy for nothing. This wasn't going to be that simple. The unreasonable demand made Queen fall silent.

What should I do for her...? I can't tell any funny stories, and I can't do tricks like Joker can... I'm not an encyclopedia like Spade is, so what can I do...?

Queen's mind started to spin in circles. Thinking hard wasn't her forte. But then, Roko cut in from beside her. "Then how about making a funny face like the one you did recently, Queen?"

"Fu... nny... face...?"

"It was hilarious! Purple-san might just like it!"

"N-No! Absolutely not!" Queen stood up to refuse, her face bright read.

"Oh, why not, that sounds fine. Please, show me." Purple bent forward and gave a provoking smile.

"I don't want to! It'll ruin my marriage prospects!"

"Nope, I've decided. That's the only way you'll get information out of me. You can't change my mind!"

"You're kidding me...!" Queen stood at a loss for words.

"..."

"Well, what will you do?"

At Purple's prodding, she gave in. Queen took a breath and faced back towards Purple. Queen was about to forsake her prized feminine sensibilities when...

"Shh...!" Suddenly the look in Purple's eyes changed and she put a finger to her lips, shushing.

"...!" Queen and Roko immediately piped down and listened closely.

Conversing voices were coming from the earpiece Purple was wearing. Apparently she had still been listening to the radio communications while talking to Queen.

"It seems they're coming back this way... My cohort seems to have blabbed that I'm an older woman. If he makes it back alive, he's in for a real reckoning," Purple muttered as she listened, a terrifying look on her face.

"What do you want to do? Do we act our way out again?"

"No, it won't work this time. You two can escape out the window onto the roof. I'll handle the rest on my own."

"With your arm in that state?" Roko asked.

Purple looked over at him in surprise. "You realized?"

"You've been stroking your arm at moments. Probably without even realizing it yourself."

"Then you won't be able to fight those men single-handedly. Let us handle it!" Queen said, getting back up.

She threw off her disguise, revealing her usual white coat underneath. She then took out her diamond sword from where it was hidden underneath the seats. "Purple-san, if I fend off those men, tell me about Noir, okay?" Queen winked sweetly. She was sincerely relieved. Thank God I didn't have to make a funny face!

Just as five black-suited men neared the door of the room where they had seen the young girl and old woman earlier, Queen and Roko sprang out of the guest cabin.

"...!"

Queen glared at the men. The look in her eyes was completely different than the girl who had been in the room earlier. She was wearing different clothes, too, and the biggest difference of all was the great sword she held in her hand.

"She's got the secret file!" shouted one of the men. Indeed, in her other hand, Queen was holding the secret file disc case that she had received from Purple.

"Get her!" Their boss barked, and the men all fell upon Queen. But Queen and Roko deftly dodged them and ran off in the opposite direction. The men rushed after her.

There were no men in the direction they were headed. Purple had found this out by listening to the radio comm. That was why Queen immediately set off in the opposite direction — towards the read end of the train.

Queen sped through the train, passing through one car after another on her way to the end. The men followed after, shoving aside the confused passengers, giving chase to Queen and Roko.

"How long are they going to run for!?"

"Don't lose your head. There's no way they can get off the train when it's going this fast. The girl's trapped like a mouse!"

Just as he said, soon enough Queen and Roko reached the rearmost carriage. It was a coach car, with booth seats on either side. Baffled by Queen bursting in, the seated passengers began to murmur.

"Everyone out! Or else you'll get hurt!" yelled Queen, thrusting her sword up overhead.

Shrieks rang out, and the conductor and passengers all started to rush towards the forward cars. At the same time, the men in black caught up to where Queen was. Wading through the waves of passengers, the men entered the rearmost carriage. Now the only ones inside of it were Queen, Roko, and the men.

Queen stood at the very back of the carriage, standing off against the men.

"Say your prayers, missy." Five suited men stopped in the middle of the carriage and took out their guns. "We're gonna turn you into Swiss cheese!"

"Now, Roko!"

At Queen's signal, Roko stepped forward. Then he unhinged his jaw and let out a prodigious cry of "ARFFFFFFFFFFF!!"

His bark shrilled in the ears of the men. Their faces scrunched up and they clutched their heads in agony. "URRRGHH! W-What was that!?"

This was Roko's ability.

Roko's throat has a special organ that enhances his canine howl. He can use this organ to vibrate ultrasonic waves and assail anyone in front of him.

While the men were gripping their heads from the pain, Queen swung her sword at them. She struck their napes with the back of her sword and mowed them all down. The men were knocked out and collapsed onto the carriage hallway with successive thuds.

"Roko, let's go!"

"Okay!"

Queen and Roko stepped past the unconscious men and ran back towards the front of the carriage. They were just a step away from the next car ahead when...

"Hold it right there!"

The two of them turned around once they heard the voice and saw that one of the felled men was getting back on his feet. The man's gun was pointed at a little girl. She hadn't been able to get away while everyone else was running.

"Wha...!?"

"Throw down your sword, right now! Unless you don't care what happens to her!"

"Bah... you really don't play fair. This is the problem with spies!" Queen bit her lip and glared at the man.

"Hurry it up!"

At his behest, Queen twirled her sword and left it on the floor.

"All right, good. Bring the disc here!"

Queen clutched the disc, vexed. Things had been going according to plan up until she knocked all the men out, but she hadn't foreseen that they would take a hostage. While Queen stood still, seemingly at a loss as what to do next, Roko whispered from beside her.

"...Queen, do that."

"Huh?"

"That thing we were talking about. Your special move! You know!"

"Whaaat?" Then realizing what he meant, Queen rejected it flat out. "Absolutely not!"

"Then do you have any other way of making him drop his guard?"

"No, b-but..."

"What are you two muttering about!? Come here, now!"

"Argh... fine!" Queen shouted in annoyance, and slowly walked toward the man with disc in hand.

"Leave the disc there," the man pointed to a seat, just as Queen spoke.

"Hey, Mister."

"Hm?"

As soon as the man saw Queen's face — he snorted out a hearty "pfft!", followed by a "GYAHAHAHA! What is wrong with your face!? BWAHAHAHA!", laughing uproariously. Queen had demonstrated her famous "funny face" to him.

As the man burst out in laughter, Queen crouched down and delivered a swift kick to the man's shin.

"Ghwaaa!?" The man's guffawing face contorted with pain, and immediately after, Queen grabbed the girl and ran back towards the front of the carriage.

"W-Wait! Bwahahahaha!" The man went after her, but was still snorting from the memory.

Without another word, Queen picked up her sword and swung it. The train's coupling split apart with a clank. The rearmost carriage with the unconscious men and the laughing man aboard lost speed and gradually became more and more distant. The sound of the man's unceasing laughter mingled with the sound of the wheels, and eventually faded away.

Roko grinned and looked up at Queen. "Nice going, Queen! Now that's what I call looks that could kill!"

"I'm not happy about this at all!" Queen puffed up her adorable cheeks and stared at Roko accusingly.