#AUGH the tags didn’t post the first time

[moxymaxing]

falling parallels

[cable-salamdr]

Happy birthday to you and me, Our whole dear family

PLEASE pretend I posted this 24 hours ago I honestly just?? forgot?? But yeah birthday art for my favorite Wet Towel whom I will resume with tormenting soon

[heyiwrotesomethings]

She’s The Housekeeper Prt9: Bond

Yor Briar/ Forger x She/ Her Reader

A/N: Prt8 Alright, here is the last part for the foreseeable future. The first chapter of this story is still my most popular post to date, and it’s so cool to see 800+ notes on something I’ve written. If you managed to stick with me for this long, thank you for your time and support💜! Word Count: ~5,800

Anya ate her breakfast with an extra vigor that morning because today would be the day Loid would take her to the pet shop to find a cute little dog to take home! She inhaled her food so fast, she nearly choked.

“Hey, careful!” (Y/n) cautioned as she pushed Anya’s glass of water closer to her for the little girl to gulp down, “I know you’re excited, but let’s try to avoid having to go to the hospital instead.”

“The dogs aren’t going anywhere anytime soon. You can take your time.” Loid reminded.

“I’m just as excited to look around as you are Miss Anya!” Yor beamed as she put down the burnt omurice she had made, “but please do be careful.”

Anya downed the water and though she was still eating rather quickly, she was pacing herself better than she had a few moments ago.

“Anya is ready to go now!” She declared, sliding off of her chair to fetch her coat.

“Anya, we’re still eating.” Loid called after her, but Anya kept moving, pulling her coat from the rack. Loid sat back in his chair, letting Anya wait by the door. “Are you joining us, (Y/n)? It shouldn’t take terribly long.”

“I wouldn’t mind tagging along.” (Y/n) decided. Maybe she could influence the decision made of what dog they got. Something that was already house trained would be ideal. One that rarely shedded would also be preferable.

“This is going to be so much fun.” Yor hummed, between bite of crispy rice and egg. She offered (Y/n) a bite, and of course (Y/n) had to take it.

“Definitely an improvement over the last one, well done my dear.” (Y/n) praised before downing her water in just a few gulps.

The food really was one of Yor’s better attempts. It was still vile, but (Y/n) didn’t feel like she was in danger of throwing up. (Y/n) wasn’t absolutely insane like Yor’s dear brother Yuri, if Yor’s food made her feel ill, she would simply excuse herself to the bathroom to take care of it, not smile and try to clear the plate faster than she could vomit. (Y/n) shuddered at the memory. The Briar siblings were not normal.

“Woof! Woof! Woof!” Anya chanted from the hallway. She simply couldn’t wait any longer, they were wasting precious daylight!

“Let us do the dishes at least, then we will go, Anya. Be patient.” Loid began gathering plates while (Y/n) and Yor went to the sink to wash and dry.

Anya felt like she could explode from the anticipation, but finally all three adults had put away the dishes and put on their coats and they were heading out the door.

“Woof! Woof! Woof!” She barked again, swinging Yor’s hand in hers. “Papa,” she asked, turning back to look at Loid, “Do doggies like peanuts?”

“You probably shouldn’t give them too many. It might not be good for them.” He replied, making Anya pout.

“That leaves more peanuts for you, Miss Anya.” (Y/n) provided helpfully, making her smile again.

“Oh, is this the shop right there?” Yor asked.

“That’s it.” Loid confirmed, going ahead of them to open the door for everyone.

Inside were the most fucked up looking dogs that (Y/n) had ever seen. Anya looked severely unsettled and (Y/n) couldn’t say she blamed her.

“Is… is that one flexing?” She asked Yor in a concerned whisper.

“What do you think, Anya?” Loid smiled, “Do you like any of these dogs?”

“No.” Anya wasted no time saying.

“R-really?” Loid’s eye twitched.

“Are you really surprised, Loid? I mean, look at them.” (Y/n) shuddered.

She did have a point… Guess they would have to go to the shelter event instead. A person caught his eye from the back room, flashing him a signal. Now really wasn’t a good time, but if Handler was calling, it must be important.

“Augh!” Loid cried out, clutching his stomach.

“Loid? What’s wrong?” (Y/n) asked, startled by the outburst.

“I, I need to use the restroom! You all can go, I’ll meet you at the shelter.”

“Are you sure you’re alright? We can wait.” Yor offered.

“Papa takes a long time when he goes to the shitter to shit, so we should probably go.” Anya bluntly explained.

“I see…” Yor blushed.

“Eugh, Miss Anya, we didn’t need to know that.” (Y/n) shivered in disgust, “Also, watch your language.”

“Yes, watch your mouth young lady.” Loid echoed before running off to deal with his… ‘problem’.

“Well, guess we should get going then.” (Y/n) decided.

“Yes!” Anya skipped to the door with (Y/n) and Yor following close behind.

Before long, the sidewalks became more congested and the unmistakable sounds of animals flooded the air.

“So this is the adoption event. Wow, it’s even bigger than I imagined!” Yor gushed.

“Yeah, it seems like Loid should’ve brought us here first.” (Y/n) observed.

Puppies, kittens and bunnies! They seemed to have every furry household pet under the sun! Anya ran haphazardly to look into every crate and enclosure she could find.

“Don’t run around Miss Anya, you’ll get lost!” Yor warned.

“Promise us you won’t leave this area with the dogs, okay?” (Y/n) asked.

“Okay…” Anya deflated a bit, but that was fine, there were so many cute doggies to look at and she would get to take one of them home!

The trio walked up to an enclosure together and Yor squeaked with excitement, grabbing (Y/n) by the arm and shaking her around.

“Look at that dachshund’s cute little legs!” She cooed, making (Y/n) smile.

Anya was overwhelmed by all the cuteness. She couldn’t possibly choose just one. They were all so sweet! Standing by the window, something large and white caught her eye, and she turned to see it more clearly, feeling a possible connection with whatever that may be.

(Y/n) and Yor were going over their top picks when one of the ladies working the event approached them offering assistance. (Y/n) and Yor took up the conversation, distracting them from Anya’s sudden disappearance.

“Are there any breeds that are easier to clean up after?” (Y/n) asked.

“Poodles rarely shed, so cleaning up after them is a breeze.” The friendly lady shared.

“You don’t say.” (Y/n) perked up, making Yor smile.

“Or there are smaller breeds, Shih Tzus are very friendly.”

While (Y/n) and Yor were engrossed with the woman’s abundant information, they failed to notice Anya slink outside to follow the shady man and the big white dog she had seen through the window. By the time they had stopped talking with the woman and thanked her for her suggestions, Anya appeared to be long gone. (Y/n) looked up to find her in the crowd, but could not see her anywhere within the dog section and her heart began to rise to her throat.

“Yor,” (Y/n) alerted, grabbing her partner’s arm, anxiety already slipping into her tone, “Do you know where Anya is?”

Yor snapped to attention, scanning all around, a familiar sense of dread pooling in her stomach. She did not like the trend that seemed to be forming every time she let Anya out of her sight or reach for but a few minutes every time they went out in public.

“I- I don’t—“ Yor swallowed thickly, her feet traveled on autopilot, “Miss Anya? Where did you go?!” She called out, a static buzzing growing steadily between her ears.

“I’ll look for her in the kitten section!” (Y/n) yelled after her before running off in a different direction, but she was not heard.

Between the two of them, they must have asked everyone in the event hall if they had seen the little girl, each growing more and more desperate with every shake of a head they received.

Upon getting her latest negative sighting, Yor felt unshed tears burning the corners of her eyes. This was the aquarium all over again, but worse! She turned, expecting to see (Y/n) there, ready to give her a hug and to let her know everything would be alright, but of course she wasn’t there.

Yor had already been so tense and her brain had been so focused on looking for Anya, she had somehow lost her dear (Y/n) along the way! Now she began to really freak out, completely overwhelmed by the crowded venue and the noise pitching around and within her.

Something in her that was already tense, snapped and she jumped up, kicked off of a nearby pillar, and expertly braced herself on the ceiling so she could search from above. Her breathing uneven, she drowned out the noise of the crowd below. She didn’t see Anya. Anya wasn’t there, not even a trace, and that terrified her.

What if she had been eaten by a dog?! No, Yor managed to stop that train of thought. That was unlikely. Someone would surely have noticed something like that. But what if she had been kidnapped again like when they had gone to the aquarium, or when they had gone grocery shopping! What if (Y/n) had been taken too!

An awful image of her beloved and her adopted daughter being carted away by despicable men to be married off to even more vile and cruel men consumed her vision, but then she found a small light, a familiar splash of color, she saw (Y/n) in one of the far corners of the venue, a strange man looming over her.

Without another second of delay, she skillfully swung from the pipes above and dove between them from the ceiling, startling the man enough to make him yelp. Yor prepared to uppercut him into the sun next, to see what kind of sound that would make, but instead (Y/n)’s hand quickly shot out to grasp her bicep and pull her back. Confused, Yor allowed her.

“Where the hell did you come from lady?” The man blinked, bug-eyed, mouth agape.

“She’s the mother. As you can see, she’s worried sick. If you see her little girl, please do not hesitate to let us know.” (Y/n) beseeched, pulling Yor back a bit more to try to knock her out of whatever murder-y thoughts were fogging up her mind.

“Yeah… of course.” The man gave them a weird look then began walking briskly away.

(Y/n) turned to hold both of Yor’s biceps, pressing her thumbs into the fabric of her coat’s sleeves to try to put pressure on the tense muscles beneath.

“Hey, try to breathe, okay? What’s the matter? Besides the obvious.” She cooed.

Yor sobbed, slamming her head hard against (Y/n)’s chest, making a deep thunk sound that rattled (Y/n)’s insides.

“Oof!” (Y/n) winced, but held Yor all the same, rubbing her back comfortingly.

“I- I can’t find Miss Anya! A-and I thought you had gotten taken too!”

“Honey,” (Y/n) murmured, giving a, ‘mind your own business’ smile to anyone who dared curiously look their way, “I told you I would look for Anya over here. You must not have heard me.”

“I guess not.” She sniffed.

“I’m okay. Now take some deep breaths. It’s clear that Anya isn’t in here, we need to go find her, but we can’t be snapping the neck of anyone whose just going about their day.”

Yor made a pitiful sound, but cut herself off halfway through, almost knocking heads with (Y/n) from how quickly she brought her head up.

“What…!” (Y/n) began to ask, but she heard it then too, that sounded like Anya outside!

And she was outside! They could see her through the window! She was barreling down the street… on top of a big, fluffy white dog.

Yor took (Y/n)’s hand and began sprinting in the direction the dog had ran off in. It was a brutal pace, one that (Y/n) couldn’t keep up with and when she tried to communicate to Yor that she would catch up. Yor was having none of it and scooped (Y/n) up into her arms, making quite the spectacle as they zoomed around the people walking by. It hardly mattered to Yor. She wasn’t going to risk losing (Y/n) for real by leaving her behind.

“Down that alley!” (Y/n) pointed.

“Right!”

(Y/n) braced herself, this was the side of her career that she was not trained for, but when they saw a strange man reaching for Anya in the alley, she still let Yor take her by the arms and spin her at a dizzying pace before finally being launched towards Anya.

(Y/n) sailed over the shocked kidnapper’s head, took hold of Anya’s hands, and catapulted her into the air. While Anya was airborne, (Y/n) sprung off of her hands when she hit the ground and flipped into an upright standing position just in time to catch Anya and see Yor smash her foot into the kidnapper’s face.

Yor fell into place beside (Y/n) so that Anya was between them, protected on either side. Anya couldn’t have looked more relieved to see them, looking between them with visible awe and joy.

“You won’t get away with this, Mr. Perverted Kidnapper,” Yor spoke in a measured tone, glaring at the remaining man who had his jaw hanging open, “It is much too early for Miss Anya to get married!”

“Married?” (Y/n) cocked her head to the side. Just what kind of scenarios was Yor imagining?

The gravity of the situation seemed to catch up to Anya then, because she began to cry, grasping onto the coats of both women she wailed,

“Mama! I was so scared!”

“Don’t worry, you’re all right now.” Yor comforted.

“We’ve got you.” (Y/n) assured, wiping Anya’s tears.

Kieth clenched his teeth. Which one was the mother? Ah, it didn’t matter. They’d all have to die if he was going to succeed in his plans.

“Dog! Rip their throats out!” He commanded.

The German Shepherd beside him began to approach, snarling, but then Yor gave one of her most terrifying expressions to date and growled right back with startling ferocity. The dog whimpered pathetically and turned tail, running out of the alley as fast as he could.

“Coward!” Kieth yelled after him.

“Bwah! Mama, I’m scared!” Anya bawled, hiding her face in (Y/n)’s coat, keeping Yor out of her sight.

“Hm? But you’re safe now?” Yor frowned, perhaps not realizing just how frightening her face had been jus a moment before.

“Don’t worry Anya, if that man thinks he can take you from us he has another thing coming!” (Y/n) promised, her mind filled with thoughts of fire and acid.

Yeah, Anya was glad to have those two on her side because they were honestly terrifying.

Voices began to be heard near the mouth of the alley and Keith cursed. All that noise had alerted people from the street, and now they were coming to investigate!

“Come on, come on you stupid mutt!” He hissed at the remaining dog, the big and fluffy white one. He tugged and tugged at the dog’s leash, but he wouldn’t budge.

“Damn worthless beast!” He kicked the dog in anger and fled the scene empty handed.

“He’s getting away!” Yor groaned, but she stood firmly at (Y/n)’s side. There was already one kidnapper she needed to properly detain and she didn’t want to leave (Y/n) and Anya for even a second.

Just how long is Loid going to stay in the bathroom? She mourned internally. His stomach was probably revolting from the breakfast she had made!

“Mr. Dog are you okay?” Anya asked, running up the the dog once (Y/n) put her down.

“Ah, careful Miss Anya! You shouldn’t run up to dogs you don’t know.” (Y/n) warned, trying to stop Anya from going any further.

“Mr. Doggie is no stranger. He saved Anya.” Anya put her hands over her heart, looking over to the dog with gratitude.

“Where did this dog come from, Miss Anya?” Yor asked.

Anya took a deep breath, that question required a very big answer.

“Terrorist bomb dogs?!” Yor blanched.

(Y/n) got on her knees and thoroughly searched the fluffy dog for bombs. Thankfully, there weren’t any. She sighed in relief and gave Yor a shaky thumbs up.

“Anya is sorry for running off without permission…” Anya mumbled, grabbing the hem of her coat between her fingers while she kept her eyes firmly on the ground.

“We’re just glad that you are safe.” (Y/n) knelt to the ground to hug Anya.

“We were so worried about you.” Yor chimed, following her partner to the ground.

“But expect a stern talking to when we get home.” (Y/n) warned.

Anya pouted, but nodded in acceptance and the three, plus the dog, walked out of the alley, tied up kidnapper dragging behind Yor.

They called the police on a nearby public phone to explain the situation, during which Anya suddenly grew restless, shaking the dog.

“Anya don’t be rough with the doggie.” Yor scolded lightly before her attention was brought back to the receptionist on the phone.

“Mama, Mama, sorry, Anya just remembered something. Papa forgot to take toilet paper with him to the potty!” The little girl yelled out of the blue.

“Huh?”

“What?”

(Y/n) and Yor stared on, frozen, as Anya leapt onto the dog’s back and urged him into a run.

“He might be in trouble so I have to go get some from home!”

“Anya, wait!” Yor called, reaching out the hand that wasn’t currently cradling the receiver.

“She’s running off again!” (Y/n) yelled in disbelief, finally sprinting after the blob of pink and white as they rounded the corner.

“W-wait! What about the police?” Yor called after her.

“We told them all we could! Just hang up and leave that guy there, he won’t wake up anytime soon! Let’s go before we lose Anya again!”

“Ah, okay!” Yor rose the receiver back to her ear, “I’m leaving the kidnapper by this phone booth! I have to go now, bye!” She hung up the phone and caught up with (Y/n) before she rounded the corner.

They searched every block, every street within half a mile. (Y/n) finally came to a stop, resting heavily on the guardrail of the bridge they had been speed-walking across.

“Darling, are you alright?” Yor’s voice was laced with worry. She could tell that (Y/n) was breathing quite hard.

“I’ll be okay, I just need a minute.” She wheezed. God, cardio sucks.

While (Y/n) tried not to keel over on the bridge, Yor paced back and forth. The only trace that she had been running at all was the light layer of sweat on her rosy face.

“What if she gets found by the terrorists again? I can’t let that happen!” Yor fretted.

“Maybe she went back to the pet shelter?” (Y/n) suggested between breaths. “At the very least, maybe Loid is finally there?”

Before Yor could speak, a loud honk of a horn and a sharp squeal of tires interrupted her. The scent of burnt rubber permeated the air. Looking down from the bridge, the women saw a car speeding recklessly down the road.

The light caught the windshield just right, allowing Yor to see an unwelcomingly familiar face. The other man who tried to kidnap Anya!

“Him again? How dare he try to take Miss Anya and run away! You won’t get away this time!” She declared, then jumped off of the bridge.

“Yor!” (Y/n) yelled. She tried to reach out for her, but she was too slow. Her hands snapped right to her eyes. Covering them from whatever was about to happen. “Pleasebeokaypleasebeokaypleasebeokay—“

An awful crashing noise reverberated within (Y/n)’s ears and she cautiously lifted her face from her hands. Below, she could see that Yor looked unscathed, thank the stars, but the car looked as if it had been t-boned before crashing into a lamppost.

(Y/n) hobbled down the hill to meet Yor on the street and flung her arms around her, a gesture that was always eagerly returned.

“Are you hurt?”

“Nope!” Yor smiled, “Kicking the car did make my leg feel a little tingly though.”

“My indestructible tank, I love you.” (Y/n) sighed, looking back at the crushed car. “We’ll have to call the police… again.”

They quickly relayed the location of the car and hung up before the responder could ask any follow-up questions. Then they were off to continue their search for Anya.

It was near sunset when they saw Loid walking down the sidewalk towards them. They opened their mouths in a rush to tell him that Anya had run off on a dog, but said girl and dog appeared from the alley between them and they instead slumped over each other in relief.

“What are you three doing here?” Loid asked, “I’m surprised to find you so far from the shelter.”

“Anya was coming to give papa toilet paper.”

“Ah.”

“She ran off on us. Twice.” (Y/n) informed, resting most of her weight against Yor. Now that Anya was with them once more, the exhaustion of running around all day was really starting to get to her.

“Did she now…” Loid looked down at Anya disapprovingly, finally truly noticing the dog beside her. “And who is the dog?

“That is actually quite the story.” Yor rubbed at her cheek with a sheepish smile and retold the events of the day. (Y/n) would occasionally chime in, but ultimately she was too tired to try to censor anything Yor was saying. Somewhere in her brain she knew they probably shouldn’t talking about taking down terrorists without much trouble, but again she was too tired to care.

“I’m sorry all that happened while I was in the bathroom.” Loid finally said, a faint blush coloring his cheeks.

“Yeah, you were gone all day. Have you considered seeing a doctor, because that is not at all normal.” (Y/n) spoke in a teasing tone, but there was a notable hint of concern in the way her eyebrows scrunched together.

“It was probably because of what I made for breakfast.” Yor bemoaned.

“It has to be something else. The rest of us survived.”

Loid, wanting to put his day long trip to the ‘bathroom’ behind him, began to address Anya and her penchant for running off.

“How many times do I have to tell you to not run off on your own. You could have been seriously hurt!” He yelled, making Anya flinch.

“Anya is sorry!” She sniffled, her eyes shining with unshed tears.

Loid immediately softened, falling to one knee before her, “I’m sorry for yelling. I was just worried. You aren’t hurt at all though, right?”

Anya shook her head, putting a hand on the fluffy dog beside her. The fur nearly swallowed up her hand.

“Mr. Dog protected me.”

Loid smiled at the dog, petting him gently, “Thank you.”

“Excuse us,”

The family turned to see a woman and a man in suits approaching them from across the street,

“We’re investigating an incident near City Center. We understand that this was one of the dogs involved in the incident.” The woman said. “Please hand him over to us. He’ll be in good hands.”

“Of course. Thank you.” Loid tipped his hat, motioning them towards the dog.

“Now we can go back to looking for a puppy!” Yor beamed excitedly.

“Is the shelter even still open?” (Y/n) almost hoped it wasn’t. She wanted to shower and then spend the next several days in bed. She was already dreading how sore she was going to be tomorrow.

“Come on, Anya. Let’s go take a look.” Loid reached for her hand, but Anya pulled away.

“No! Anya wants Mr. Dog!” She said, stepping between the officers and the dog.

Loid shook his head. “He was owned by bad guys.”

“He saved Anya!” The esper refuted.

“You said you wanted a small dog.” Loid crossed his arms, peering down at his fickle adopted daughter.

“But Anya wants Mr. Dog now, it’s okay that he is big!” Anya continued to argue, hugging the dog close.

“Anya please,” Loid pinched the bridge of his nose, “Stop being so difficult.”

“If papa doesn’t let me have Mr. Dog, Anya will go bad and stop going to school!” Anya’s lip wobbled and then she began to cry.

“Wh— what are you saying?!” Loid sputtered.

“It’s okay, Miss Anya! Please don’t cry!” Yor beseeched.

“There are a lot of nice dogs in the world! I’m sure you’ll find another who is just as sweet…” (Y/n) attempted to console, but she knew that trying to get Anya to change her mind would be impossible at this point. She did just spend the whole day with this dog after all.

“Very well.” The woman conceded, leaving Loid particularly surprised.

“What?!”

The woman chuckled, then couched in front of Anya, a bittersweet smile on her lips.

“The dog itself didn’t cause any harm. If you promise to take good care of him, he’s yours, but we will need to keep him for the night to check his health first.” She explained softly.

“Are you protecting the other doggies too?”

“They are sleeping in the softest of beds and eating warm, yummy food.” She nodded.

“Thank you very much, important lady.”

The woman’s smile tugged a little further, “You’re welcome.” She stood back to her full height, turning to Loid. “We shall make contact with you tomorrow.“

“Thank you. Sorry for the trouble.” Loid bowed his head.

“No trouble at all. Have a good night.”

And so they began their trek home. Anya and Yor were particularly pleased with themselves because of the parts they played in saving the city from terrorists. (Y/n) and Loid on the other hand were exhausted.

“Why do you look like that?” (Y/n) had asked him pointedly. “I know it isn’t easy being… ill, all day, but I’ve been running around the city for hours and I still look better than you.”

“Do you really want to know?” Loid asked with a wry smile, his eye twitching in aggravation. If only they knew what he had really been up to all day!

“No.” (Y/n) shook her head quickly, “No, I really don’t want to know. Forget I said anything.”

After a night of the deepest sleep that any of them had ever experienced, morning soon came, and with it, a large and fluffy white dog.

“So curious!” Yor giggled, watching the dog sniff around the living room.

“Anya wants to stay home to play with Mr. dog today.” Anya said hugging the dog tightly.

“I believe the deal was that you wouldn’t stop going to school if you got this dog.” Loid said after spitting his toothpaste in the sink. “Get ready for school.”

“Does Anya at least get a Stella for helping stop the bad guys?” She asked. That would help put her in a better mood about going to school.

“I’m afraid not, Anya. No one is supposed to know about what was going to happen because it would just cause fear and panic. You have to keep it to yourself or the police might need to come and take you away.”

“Shock!” Anya flinched. She couldn’t let that happen, but it certainly was a disappointment that she couldn’t tell anyone.

“Loid!” (Y/n) gasped from the other room, “Don’t phrase it like that, you’ll scare her!”

Loid rolled his eyes at his reflection in the mirror and Anya began getting ready to go to school, pouting all the while.

“Have a good day at school Miss Anya!” Yor waved. “(Y/n) and I will take good care of Mr. Doggie while you’re away.”

“I’ll do my best.” (Y/n) called from the couch. Even raising her hand to wave goodbye to Anya hurt. Her whole body felt stiff and sore from the whole ordeal yesterday while it appeared to be just another normal day for Yor.

Anya and Loid said their goodbyes and then it was just (Y/n), Yor and the curious new addition to the family.

“Yor, darling, would you make me some ice packs.” (Y/n) groaned while she moved to lay flat on the couch.

“Of course! My poor, sore heart!” Yor cooed. She cupped (Y/n)’s cheek and leaned down to kiss her forehead before heading to the kitchen.

While (Y/n) waited for Yor’s return, the dog took notice of her and began to lumber up to her.

“Hello, getting used to your new home?” (Y/n) asked him.

The dog sniffed her hand, then slowly hoisted himself up onto his hind legs by placing his front paws on the edge of the couch.

“Ah, wait. No, don’t come up here— dog! No! Down! Oof!”

(Y/n) couldn’t stop the dog from laying flat across her sore body. It was a warm, and an almost comforting weight, but in the state (Y/n) was in currently, she didn’t find it entirely enjoyable, but it was kind of cute.

“Honey, did you say something…?” Yor walked back into the room, her arms filled with industrial bags of ice that she got from who-knows-where. Her eyes fell on the dog and she pouted, “That was going to be my spot, Mr. Doggie.”

“Yor, help me get him off. He’s too heavy.”

Yor did as she was asked, dragging the dog back to the floor.

“I apologize, Mr. Doggie, but (Y/n) is sore from running around yesterday. Surely you understand.” Yor then promptly dropped the giant bags of ice onto (Y/n)’s body.

“Not quite what I had in mind, but thah, thank you.” (Y/n) shivered.

The dog was undeterred by the upheaval and soon climbed his way back onto the couch, sinking between the bags of ice.

“My, perhaps he is sore too!” Yor observed. “Poor thing.”

(Y/n) sighed. She couldn’t find it within herself to make Yor push the dog away a second time. Perhaps she should feel special because the dog seemed to like her already, but her body was not appreciative of the extra pressure at this time.

“Would it help for me to massage your calves?” Yor asked thoughtfully. “Mr. Dog isn’t covering those up.”

(Y/n) mulled it over. Typically, a massage from Yor would be nice as long as she didn’t push too hard.

“I think that sounds nice, just be gentle please.”

“I will, I promise!”

And she really was. Yor did a great job, so wonderful in fact, that the combination of the frigid melting ice, the warm, weighted blanket of a dog, and the soothing massage knocked (Y/n) right out.

She was rudely awakened hours later when the dog clumsily leapt off of her to jump into Anya’s arms when she got home from school.

“Welcome home!” Yor smiled, clasping her hands to rest them against her cheek, “Oh my, such good friends already! He must have missed you!”

“Save me! He’s eating me!” Anya gasped while the dog slobbered all over her.

“He seems to have a lot of pent up energy. We should take him for a walk.” Loid suggested. He looked over to (Y/n) laid limply across the couch and smirked, “Care to join us, (Y/n)?”

“Not today.” (Y/n) deadpanned, ever so slowly lifting herself into a sitting position. “You all go on ahead. I’ll start getting dinner ready.”

“Are you sure? I could stay an help.” Yor volunteered.

“I’ll be fine,” (Y/n) assured, “Go have fun at the dog park.”

(Y/n) shuffled through the kitchen like an old woman, slowly preparing dinner. Though she could be prideful at times, she was actually surprised that she had dinner mostly completed before the Forger’s returned home.

“I hope they haven’t ran into anymore trouble.” She murmured to herself as she finished setting the table. She walked to the armchair this time around when she finished her self imposed task. She hissed through clenched teeth as she lowered herself into the plush chair.

She then decided she would never run again, maybe never even walk. She didn’t care if it would look strange, she was going to have Yor carry her everywhere from now on and if she knew anything about her love, she would be happy to do it too.

Finally, the front door opened and the Forger’s piled inside.

Anya ran up to (Y/n) all excited, “Mama, I know what to name Mr. Dog!”

“Do you? What is it?” (Y/n) thought Mr. Dog was the name already, but she was curious to hear what else Anya had come up with.

“Wait just a minute!” Anya asked.

She bounced excitedly when Loid came back from the short trip to his room, a black ribbon of fabric in hand. He deftly tied the fabric around the dog’s neck and once he stepped away, (Y/n) saw he had looped it into a bow tie.

“Behold!” Anya flung her arms out in the direction of the dog happily thumping his tail against the floor. “Bond!”

“Oh, like Bondman.” Loid understood. “That should work just fine.”

“Boof!” Bond leapt at Anya, sending her to the floor in a flurry of licks and wiggly wags that made Anya laugh.

“He seems to like it.” (Y/n) smiled fondly.

“They’re so cute!” Yor cooed.

“Come, Bond! Let me show you around the hideout!”

“Anya, it’s dinner time. And don’t forget you need to study. afterwards.” Loid warned.

“Anya will study later, promise.”

Loid’s eye twitched, but he relented.

After dinner, Anya fed Bond. She filled his bowl to the brim and watched him begin to chow down.

“Try not to give him too much.” Loid cautioned as he walked by, a towel under his arm. “I’m going to take my bath now, but I expect you to be studying by the time I’m done.”

Anya pouted and Loid walked to the bathroom. Curious, Anya took a kibble from Bond’s bowl and nearly popped it into her mouth before (Y/n) called out her name.

“Miss Anya, please don’t eat anything meant for a dog.” (Y/n) shivered in disgust as she scrubbed the dishes nearby.

“I know it must look tempting, but take it from me, it is not as good as it looks.” Yor helpfully added.

“I don’t want to know if that is coming from a place of experience or not.” (Y/n) said, but the shy laugh Yor gave was damning.

Soon after he finished his meal, Bond began to wiggle uncomfortably and Anya took notice.

“Need to go potty? Here, I’ll show you where to go.” Anya led him to a wide tub lined with newspaper. “When nobody can take you outside, you go in here. If you go anywhere else, mama will get mad cause she like things tidy.”

After business was taken care of, Anya and Bond played all over the apartment. (Y/n) wanted to remind Anya about her studies, but she couldn’t bear to break up the fun. It was Bond’s first day home, and Anya hardly got to see him before she had to go to school. A little more playtime couldn’t hurt.

(Y/n) and Yor watched them play, losing track of time. And when Loid returned from his bath, they showed him the cute little girl and her dog curled up together and fast asleep.

The studying could wait until tomorrow, Loid supposed.

[chibishortdeath]

I got a new sketchbook since I filled one recently :3c. Shout out to suddenly getting a ton of energy and drawing bizarre fanart at 1 am 💀💀💀.

I’m putting the more violent ones under a cut even if the post is already tw tagged because of the subject matter being a bit dark d(^^ ).

Along with explanations for all of them of course!

⚠️tw for self harm and burning past this point⚠️

First one (before the cut) is just some pose practice. Simon’s just sitting, all sad and mopey. There’s also a little chibi doodle of him in the bottom corner and a little pose armature in the top corner for a pose I didn’t even end up drawing whoops lol. I feel like I drew his face a little differently than I usually do in this one :O. Idk how that happened lol.

This one is to show the differences in anatomy between each game! The curse takes a lot out of him, poor guy, so he’s a bit less jacked than usual 😔. Well, more specifically he doesn’t have as much of a layer of protective fat anymore. And he’s also very tired :(. But yeah, this is just a reference I’ll look back at to keep this detail consistent! I was going to put scar reference on it too, but I completely forgot and eh it mighta made it kinda hard to make out anyway d(- - ).

I drew this side profile of Simon while watching a video talking about lost media stuff. I think the image I based it on was something Saki Sanobashi related, idk I just liked the vibes of the hair being blown back by wind and got inspired :). And yes I know that Saki is probably a hoax 💀💀💀💀💀, I didn’t have much interest in it tho tbh, besides just hoping something lost gets found in general. Lost media videos are honestly great for putting on as background noise when drawing :)

Simon is totally me when I have a crisis and cover my face with my hands, but make sure one eye is visible and miraculously out of shadow for dramatic effect!!!

Ok spookier stuff time, first of the below the cut drawings. This one is based on how sometimes vampires are depicted as being able to drain someone from long distances or beyond the grave. Dracula is mean, and Simon is suffering from the curse, the usual. Augh I actually need to do things cause I keep thinking of a cool scene of Simon having a weird Dracula nightmare and then waking up to see it wasn’t a dream, and that’s tropey as hell, but it’s spooky!!! Do you see my vision?

This is a depiction of like what happens with a game over or something :O. Like an absolute worst possible outcome: Simon dies and Dracula is unsealed and fully regenerated. I basically just took is Simon’s Quest design and then rehydrated it and tada, Dracula is no longer a skeleton— He ends up looking way more like Vlad the Impaler in this outfit hmmm. Also, unrelated, but a friend of mine mistook Dracula for Jesus in this drawing 💀💀💀.

Oh boy, edgy depictions of uh a lot of not being very kind to yourself themes. Idk how else to describe this one other than ya know when you get really mad at your past self for making a mistake or the wrong decision that you could’ve only known about in hindsight? Also in part the fear of actually becoming a vampire at the end of all of this? And I guess a bit of feeling like it’s your own fault, you’re the one that keeps shooting yourself in the foot, but I feel like he’d also attribute getting hit by Dracula in the first place as his fault too… hmm just a lot of very sad things going on, this one was definitely a later 1 am time drawing, maybe 1:40 or something. I think what I draw at night is further proof to not trust you when you’re tired; I get weirdly existential at night and then it’s totally fine in the morning. Simon! Just sleep! Stop overthinking!!! You’ll be ok!!!

This one I debated putting up at all cause it’s graphic and not finished (TwT ;). But it was a rare drawing of Simon smiling that didn’t look uncanny, which is kinda ironic because Simon this is not the time to be smiling—! That is also wayyy too far for just the Dracula ritual, you really only need a tiny amount to open the seal, but I’ll cut him some slack cause he is a bit at wits end by this point. I’d say maybe he’s smiling because he thinks he finally won, but tbh I thought of it more like when things are just so bad you start laughing. Like Dracula just rose from the altar and the morbid irony of it all is just so absurd, the irony that you did everything right and fought tooth and nail (Dracula’s to be exact lol) to stop it and here it is happening anyway. I wanna give this guy a weighted blanket and a bowl of warm soup—

These last two are based on what could’ve happened to him. The Grey ending is pretty much usually considered the “worst”, but they’re all nearly interchangeable, especially in the Japanese version. For example: the western release really makes the Blue ending seem like he died and didn’t kill Dracula, but it’s a lot more that he just died doing it in the original, which is to say that it’s kinda like the Grey ending just with a different eulogy— Anyway, the Grey ending is the only one that doesn’t show Simon at Dracula’s grave, so I’ve always taken it as he didn’t make it out of the castle basement. And well, setting Dracula on fire is a pretty common way to kill him so uh um, R.I.P. I’ve got a couple ideas for alternate comic endings to say the least. I might honestly just depict all of them and leave it entirely up to the reader which one happened because it doesn’t change much— Though this also has me thinking of how him surviving would work now. The curse would definitely have left some lasting effects, you don’t just magically stop having been rotted, sleep deprived, and whatever else it did. Idk I picture him being like Renfield levels of lost it afterwards if that makes sense… that could also be a pretty solid explanation for why his story isn’t told correctly and the cycle repeats with Maxim later; it’d be a pretty traumatic thing to talk about tbh. Ok but yappersvile over, next doodle 💀💀💀💀💀💀💀

Aside from the burnt doodle that’s uh same explanation as the above (R.I.P.), the other two are just a little head angle and expression practice and one tiny one towards the top that’s Dracula being all spooky ghost vampire, but I didn’t like how it was looking and gave up on it 💀💀💀. It’s very hard to draw a vampire attacking someone and not have it look kinda awkward or unreadable. Tbh I struggle putting two characters in one image anyway because I have to draw the anatomy lines for both of them and they end up getting really hard to tell apart when one is behind another, one character suddenly isn’t proportional compared to the other, or you find out one of them isn’t tall enough for the pose you had in mind (>~< ). So anyway Dracula was accidentally way too short all of a sudden and I couldn’t figure out how to draw his torso without making a completely incomprehensible blob behind Simon oof.

Okie, it’s lunch time, bye :3!

[kitcatttt]

Serious post.

Hi guys. I know you guys are probably surprised to hear from me considering my last post, and no, I’m not back permanently, but there is something I feel I need to make a post about.

Disclaimer: Do not harass the user mentioned in this post, I do not wish any harm onto them.

If you have been in the TPC community since January of this year, you know about the drama involving the user Cintagonisupset. If you’ve been keeping up with his blog (only reason I have is because I do 100% expect him to make another post about me and/or my friends) you would have seen one, or both of these posts.

Now, you might be wondering, why am I bringing these up? Both of these situations are extremely unfortunate, and they would be, if he wasn’t lying.

I know that it’s a bold claim to make, but it isn’t inaccurate. I may not have concrete confirmation of him lying, but I have more than enough evidence.

For the first image, he legit just- didn’t leave tumblr. He just pinned that post and kept on tumblr like normal. For the ENTIRE time he was supposedly gone, he was still reblogging posts, just putting in tags that he was “still gone”. After about,, maybe a week or so his pinned post was back to the usual one and he was posting like normal. Not to mention, a little ways through that whole leaving tumblr bs he had changed the pinned post to this. “I hope y’all bitches burn in hell” (actual picture to be added once I fucking find it AUGH)

(UPDATE I GOT IT) And the second image? He claimed. To have to be sent to a mental hospital because of a mental breakdown. That is EXTREMELY serious. Do you know how in need of help you need to be to be admitted to a mental hospital? Do you know how horrid that would be to fake? Now, I haven’t been to a mental hospital myself, but I have several friends who have. Hell, I even have a IRL friend who has been to one AND has written a 10 page research paper on them. They have all stated to me that they wouldn’t let a patient keep their phone, and my IRL has stated that the wait times there would most likely keep them in the hospital for longer than they supposedly were in there.

All of this alone isn’t enough for me to claim that he faked it, seeing as he is in Canada and I’m in the US, and they most likely operate different than here. But you know what is? The fact that he has deleted EVERY SINGLE POST HE HAS MADE ABOUT HIM BEING IN THE HOSPITAL. Sure, he could’ve gotten out early, but why delete all of the posts about it, and not at the very least make an update post on his condition? I know for a fact that there are still people that care about him, and not making a post about his condition when he CLEARLY has the ability to be on tumblr seeing as he deleted all his posts mentioning the hospital is extremely suspicious, and basically proves that he has ulterior motives for making these posts.

What do I think these motives are? Well, I believe that he is trying to make anyone who checks his blog that was involved in the drama against him think that he’s gone, so that they stop checking his blog for good. Then he gets rid of or hides/buries the posts and goes on with life like nothing happened. I honestly don’t blame him for trying this, as trying to get out of drama with desperate tactics isn’t that surprising and is not that odd of a response. BUT LYING ABOUT GETTING SENT TO A MENTAL HOSPITAL??? YOU REALLY COULDN’T THINK OF ANYTHING BETTER??? Honestly, it makes me sick. Seeing someone fake something as SERIOUS as that. Makes me sick.

I do not wish harm on him. I wish for him to heal. I wish for him to get the help that he needs. From his repeated behavior, there appears to be something wrong with him mentally. While I do not enjoy claiming this, it’s the most logical explanation seeing as he’s been doing shit like this FOR OVER 4 YEARS. He genuinely needs professional help, and I pray that he gets it. But for now, all we can do is defend ourselves if he decides he wants to attack us yet again.

And a personal message to Cintagonisupset, if he just so happens to be reading this. Your actions severely upset me. This post has not been made to wish ill will onto you, but to bring to light something that you have done wrong, that is genuinely disgusting in my opinion. You have made callout posts for way less. Again, I do not wish any harm onto you, so do not wish any harm onto me. Or do. It’s just more evidence against you.

If anyone has read this far, thank you. Once again, do not harass Cintagonisupset, that is not the purpose of this post. Thank you, and have a wonderful rest of your day.

[arisenreborn]

Fateful Symmetry WIP - hangover

I'd been thinking about posting this and then I also got a snippet tag from the lovely @fangbangerghoul, so I'm also using that as an excuse. This feels a bit one-shot-y, but it's a likely wip for a future, longer scene in Fateful Symmetry, so it gets slapped with the wip tag. Definitely not snippet sized at 1,785 words.

Takes place early-ish in the story, after arriving in Vernworth.

Olivia slowly roused, the dim light coming in through the windows feeling like tiny daggers against her eyes, carving into her skull. As soon as consciousness grabbed a firmer hold on her mind a tiny thrill of panic rose in her. There was a new black gulf in her memory, and confused she sat herself up too quickly, head spinning -everything, spinning- as she tried to orient herself.

A pinch of relief was her reward as she made sense of the small, familiar room around her. Somehow they had made it back to the house, though she remembered none of it. Their boots were off, and outermost layers discarded, but beyond that they seem to have barely made it to the bed properly. Emrys laid wrong-ways across it, with his head propped against the wall and his legs hanging off the edge of the bed, and she’d been curled up with her feet on the pillows and her head on his stomach. 

Squinting so hard she could barely see, she reached over and gave him a shake. He was going to get one hell of a crick in his neck laying like that. 

He grumbled and grunted sleepily in response, a snore catching in his throat before he shook himself awake blearily. Looking at first just as confused as she’d felt when she woke, he gradually focused in on her, before wincing and groaning some more, rubbing the back of his neck.

“When did we get home?” She asked, her voice so dry and gravelly against her throat she flinched. Furthermore, just summoning up the effort to speak made her insides twist and her head pound. 

“No tellin’.” He mumbled back, covering his eyes with one hand before pinching the bridge of his nose. “Hmm, I’m positive it was before sunrise.” The low rumble of his voice maintained his usual levity, but it sounded clear to her he was dragging it, white-knuckled, through a bog of exhaustion. 

She took a daring glance towards the window, trying to get a read on the light through the curtains. It was always a bit hard to tell with the way the city rose up around the small house, but if she had to guess… Some time past noon?

Augh, her stomach twisted again, and she gently clasped her hands over her belly as she lurched forward some. Then there was simply no stopping the tide as she leaned over the edge of the bed and expelled whatever it was she’d eaten last night.

“You bloody lightweight.” Emrys sighed, gently holding back her hair with one hand, and rubbing her back with the other.

“I…” she sniffled, carefully trying to sculpt her words around the need to hurl some more. “I would not call… the amount we drank last night by any means light.” Her innards agreed. 

“As you say.” He relented, finding her ribbon on the bedside table to tie her hair back proper. She felt miserable, her eyes blurred with tears and her nose was runny, but his small ministrations were a welcome comfort. 

Once she’d finished he moved out of bed and got her a glass of water, and set to cleaning up her mess while she sipped at it slowly. She wanted to tell him he didn’t need to do that, that she’d take care of it in a moment, but had a feeling he’d just do it anyway. Part of her wondered if it was just his inclination to do so as a pawn, or… him being him. Perhaps it was sillier of her to try to distinguish between the two.

Their morning - or afternoon, rather - moved along slowly. Time mattered little, they simply lazed around and let the alcohol gradually loosen its enduring hold on them. 

After a while Emrys got up and set to work cooking them some eggs and diced potatoes to nibble on. Though she was reluctant to move overmuch she felt the need to stretch her legs and padded over to watch him. He made it look easy, the way he peeled and cut the potatoes, or breaking the eggs without getting bits of shell in them. 

She half-expected him to shoo her away like the cooks in the kitchen when she was a little girl. Instead he gave her a brief glance from the corner of his eye and asked: “Feeling better?” 

“Mm, a little.” She took a few shuffling, small steps closer. “It smells good.” 

“How do you like your eggs?”

“Runny.” She smiled when the answer came quickly to her, and he hummed. Taking a few steps closer she nudged into his arm. “How are you feeling?” 

“If I had to guess, better than you.” He answered with a grin, one that still had traces of a hard night of drinking and its ensuing exhaustion around the edges. Even so, she imagined he was probably right.

“We had fun though… I think?” She remembered singing - her throat remembered singing. Maybe shouting. The faces all blurred, but overall she recalled a pervasive feeling of merriment when she thought back on it. 

“Oh, you most certainly did.” Emrys snorted, scooting the potatoes around in the skillet to make room for the eggs. “You challenged near about everyone in the tavern to cards or arm wrestling, or otherwise invited them to dance.”

“Oh! I remember dancing!” A bright laughter swelled up in her - that would explain the twirling in her memories, and at least some of the smiling faces. 

“Aye? And do you remember falling into that sour louts table and ruining his meal?”

Her smile careened into a grimace and her voice quieted meekly. “...No, I do not.”

Emrys just laughed. “Just as well. He got his regardless.”

Olivia groaned, holding her face in her hands. “I didn’t assault the poor man, did I?” After ruining his meal? How terrible could she have been? 

“Is that what you think happened?” 

She squinted hard and tried to recall, then looked at the backs of her knuckles. They didn’t sting or ache… No, instead she seemed to remember… Singing? Really bad singing. No doubt seeing the confusion etching itself into her brow, Emrys chuckled and shook his head.

“When I attempted to remedy the situation, he imparted some choice words -nothing I couldn’t have dealt with mind you- but you had the bright idea to challenge the good ser to a contest of skill. T’would not be right of you to choose a duel, or so you oh-so-nobly insisted-” -she groaned and rolled her eyes- “-so the contest would be one of the arts. And what better art at a tavern than the art of song?”

A few thoughts fluttered through her mind then. She did not think she was particularly good at singing, but Emrys had already said the man had ‘gotten his’. Did that mean…?

Her eyes lit up, a hint of a grin curling at the corners of her mouth. “Did I best him?” 

The face he made wounded her. The incredulous judgment in the subtle tilt of his head and arch of one brow, the tightly restrained smirk. He looked as though he were recalling the taste of an especially sour lemon, while also trying not to laugh.

“No.” He answered flatly. “He went first, got himself laughed at and heckled until he cursed us all and left. Then you insisted on taking your turn anyway, proceeding to sing…” He paused, lips tightening into a thin line as he mulled over his words. 

“I am not rightly sure. I believe you started with ‘Strawberry Fair’, but I think I caught bits of ‘Four Nights Drunk’ and ‘The Elfin Knight’ - and at some point I am certain you mewled out part of ‘I Once Loved a Lass’. At times you forgot what you were singing and just started something else, if not making up the words as you went - though I am not quite certain they were always words at all. Up until Keltse finally forced you to stop, and me to take you home.”

Her groaning this time was muffled behind her hands, now fully covering her face. Unfortunately she could not doubt him or accuse him of lies. As he spoke the shroud was pulled back, and while none of the memories were very clear and lacked any sense of chronology, they were true enough. 

“Oh, don’t let it get to you. Everyone loved you. Though, mayhaps not the lout.” Emrys shoveled the food onto plates and handed her one, his smile as affable and reassuring as ever. “You’d not have cared for him anyway, ugly as a warty toe and with a personality just as puss-y.” 

He was probably just trying to make her feel better, but it worked. She laughed and thanked him as she took her plate, moving over to sit at the table. 

“Did you have fun, though? I do hope you weren’t running around putting out my fires all eve.”

“Hah, no need to worry on my account.” He stabbed his fork into a potato. “Cleaning up the Arisen’s messes is all part of a pawn's job.” 

She paused, fork held aloft and mouth part way open, frozen in a split-second of guilt and questioning. Sometimes he said things like that, and then-

His eyes flitted up to her, sharp and practically glowing with mischief as he grinned. “I’m only kidding, there was plenty of merriment to go around, and even more for a pawn no one rightly suspects of being a pawn.” He rested his chin in the cradle of his palm as he took his bite, chewing partway through it before speaking again.

“You shine so bright, it practically blinds them all. I daresay I haven’t had so much fun traveling with an Arisen-” his words fell off so quickly it was almost alarming. The expression he wore - that friendly, conversational smile - looked thin as parchment for a moment, but his gaze on the other hand seemed endlessly deep, almost frighteningly so. The clash between that ghost of a smile and the haunted look in his eyes was jarring. 

“...Emrys?” She reached over, tentatively touching her fingertips to the back of his hand. He blinked at her, the dark depths receding from his eyes as he pressed a smile back into place. 

“Ah, apologies. I…” He started in his usual tone, but it quickly fell off again, as if he couldn’t quite wrangle himself in the right direction. He lowered his gaze to his plate and stabbed at his eggs. “What I mean to say is, I enjoy my time with you. 

“You shine so bright,” he said again, “even standing in your shadow is filled with warmth.” 

[many-gay-magpies]

WIP/word game

tagged by @babyseraphim! thank you lovely ^^ i love games like this hehe <3

Rules: you will be given a word. share one sentence/excerpt from your wip(s) that start with each letter of that word. my word was SOUL

S - From a (nearly finished!) mildly spicy and entirely self-indulgent Payneland oneshot :>

Still, it is difficult.

They’ve both gone quiet now. Charles is watching the window, eyes bouncing back and forth across the familiar scene of a London evening, and Edwin is watching Charles; taking in his pocketed hands, distant eyes, and the minuscule tightness of his jaw.

O - From a currently simmering Crystal character study I started a while back, exploring her as an artist and her friendship with Niko.

“Oh my gosh, Crystal!” [Niko] exclaims, reaching forward, pausing mid-air, then carefully taking the paper into her hands when Crystal presses it closer in offering. “This is amazing! How did you do this?”

U - From my first full-fledged casefic, originally conceived for Painlandweek until it spiraled completely out of control. Fairly recently post-canon; Crystal, Edwin, and Charles investigate a witch’s house, where several ghosts have disappeared to without a trace.

Unfortunately, that did nothing to sway Crystal.

“You didn’t have me before,” she said. “It might have been fine for you guys to risk your asses when the only asses you had to save were each others’, but I’m here now. And I’m not gonna risk losing you two to an evil witch just because your self-preservation skills are shit.”

L - I couldn’t find any sentences starting with L in my more recent WIPs (and also I ran out of DBD WIPs), so here’s one from the first draft of a Merlin fic I have yet to do my desired rewrite of. The premise is that Arthur gets cursed to see Merlin’s dreams, and basically all of the reveals ensue. It’s not outright romantic, but like, it’s not romantic in the same way that canon Merthur isn’t romantic, so. Still pretty fucking gay

"Lifting the curse should be thanks enough," Arthur answered, but he was smiling and thinking, Your joy is thanks enough. He thought he might have been able to face treason a dozen times if it kept that smile on Merlin’s face.

The word I choose is: DAWN

I tag: @blusandbirds @edwinspaynes and any other writers who see this and want to participate! consider yourselves tagged by me <3

i need to get to know more writers augh. if any of y’all out there are secretly writers and im not aware of it yet and you want me to be, please inform me

[dlanadhz]

Fic: Dragon Out of Water

Fandom: Kamen Rider Build Pairing: Banjou Ryuuga/Kiryuu Sento Rating: T for minor language Word Count: 4840 Tags: Post-Canon, Light Angst, Canon Compliant with a dash of gay, Spoilers for the whole show, Confessions, Introspection, Happy Ending, Sento's Self-Sacrificing Habit

Summary: After beating Evolt, Ryuuga thought he’d be dead, absorbed by the merging worlds. What he didn't expect was to wake up, alone, in a world that didn't remember him. A world that, as far as he could tell, didn't include Kiryuu Sento.

AO3 Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/44359768

The sun was hot on his face. When Ryuuga blinked his eyes open, he had to squint against the light. He brought his hand up to block it out and groaned as he pushed himself up to a sitting position. He had to blink several times to clear the spots from his eyes and make sense of what he was seeing.

He was in a park. There were families and pets and people on walks, and somehow it was familiar and yet not. It looked a lot like Touto, like the park where Ryuuga and Misora had discussed the future and Sento’s smile, and yet… there was something different. Squinting around, he had the oddest thought that the sky looked too bright.

And that’s when he realized what was different.

There was no Sky Wall.

He was seeing the sky as it was meant to look for the first time in ten years. There was no red light, nothing blocking the horizon. It was normal. Well, normal for… normal people. The norm for Japan for the last ten years had been the red glow of the Sky Wall.

But if the wall was gone, then that meant – !

“Sento?!” Ryuuga jumped to his feet and spun, looking for any sign of his genius.

If there was no Sky Wall, then that meant Sento’s plan had succeeded. They’d won! Ryuuga didn’t know how he’d survived and made it into the new world, and he probably wouldn’t understand it even if Sento tried to explain it, but that wasn’t the important thing at the moment.

Sento had followed him into the rift. Sento had been fighting Evolt. If Ryuuga had somehow survived the collision, then Sento must have survived too. He had to have survived. If Sento hadn’t made it, then – then!

“Damn it, Sento,” he cursed when he saw no sign of anyone he knew.

Knowing Sento, he’d done something self-sacrificing to save Banjou. The thought that Sento had died, had not been able to cross over into this new world, stung and made his whole body sore.

Sento couldn’t be dead. He had to have made it.

Without another minute wasted, Ryuuga turned and rushed out of the park. He didn’t have time to admire the new world. After fighting and running for so long, he had only one goal in mind: He had to find Sento. Or he had to find someone who could help him find Sento. And there was only one place he could think to look for his allies.

When Ryuuga got to the waterfront, he cursed. Nascita wasn’t implanted in the warehouse here. With a loud groan, he paused to catch his breath.

“Augh! So in this world… is it back where it was originally? Damn. That’s halfway across the city!” He dropped to a squat to bemoan his luck.

The Sky Wall was gone. That meant Evolt was gone. That meant Ryuuga didn’t need to rush. He didn’t need to get up right away and run across the city again. He was allowed to rest. 

It felt like he hadn’t truly relaxed in a year. In truth, it had been just the night before - when they’d set off fireworks and grilled meat on the roof. It had been when Sento turned to him and said “I need to tell you something,” and Ryuuga had a heart-stopping moment of thinking Sento was about to– but he wasn’t.

Remembering Sento’s face, the way he’d looked so determined, so tired, and so heartbroken on the top of the tower, gave Ryuuga the strength to stand back up.

“He’s out there,” he muttered to himself. “He has to be here somewhere. And I gotta find him.”

He turned from the water and rushed back the way he’d come, back into the city. He didn’t have time to rest. Not until he found Sento.

– — –

There was a broadcast on the big screen as Ryuuga crossed the city. All those dumb politicians were alive again and back in office. But then, maybe he shouldn’t call them dumb. They’d been horrible when Ryuuga knew them, but that was because of Pandora’s Box. The prime minister of Hokuto had apparently been pretty upset when they’d gotten her back to normal, and Gentoku was a decent guy too. Ryuuga should cut them some slack.

Seeing their faces on the screen, seeing that Prime Minister Himuro was alive and well, and even spotting Gentoku in the background of the broadcast just gave Ryuuga more hope. They were all alive. They were in this world and living their ordinary lives with no alien involvement. The rest of his friends had to be alive too, and they were waiting for him.

Finally, he reached Nascita. But he had to take a moment to pause. He’d been living in the cafe for awhile, and he knew for a fact that it was never busy. However, there were tons of people there now. Friends were even sitting at a few tables outside.

Carefully, Ryuuga stepped through the door, his body tense and ready for an attack. This was the cafe he knew, but it was different, and the changes had his skin prickling. Inside, there were no empty tables. Everything was so… loud. Clinking cups and interwoven conversations. Chairs scraping and a radio playing. It threw Ryuuga off balance and he almost stumbled right back outside the door, except someone pushed on his back to make their way inside.

At first, Ryuuga was ready to snap at them, because - wow - rude. But then he recognized the hair and even the clothes.

“Kazumin?!” he exclaimed, jumping back in alarm.

The older man turned to take him in, and Ryuuga’s chest burst with excitement. It was Kazumi! And there, behind him! The three hard smashes! What were their names again? Oh, what did it matter? They were alive and here!

The joy in his heart and on his face died when Kazumi frowned at him. “Who are you to call me so informally?” he asked cooly. “You wanna fight or something?”

“What?” Ryuuga frowned too and crossed his arms. “Is that anyway to greet a friend? Bakazumin!”

The shorter smash stepped up beside Kazumi, looking confused but innocent. “Boss, do you know this guy? He just called you a silly nickname. We don’t even call you that.”

Kazumi looked a little agitated but mostly calm, in that cool way only he could do, when he said, “Never met the guy before in my life, but he’s definitely trying to make an impression.”

The reality of the situation settled over Ryuuga like snow, cold and uncomfortable. Kazumi and his friends really didn’t remember Banjou Ryuuga at all. There wasn’t the barest flicker of recognition on any of their faces, just curiosity and distrust.

Ryuuga was an idiot, but he wasn’t completely dumb. He had to back out of this situation immediately. He held his hands up loosely, innocently, to diffuse the situation, and he let out a forced laugh.

“Hahaha! I mean, sorry about that. That was a dumb prank. I lost a bet,” he said, lying through his teeth and hoping it sounded more convincing than it felt.

It must have, because the tension drained out of all four men in front of him, though Kazumi still regarded him curiously. “Is that so?” he asked nonchalantly. “Well then, don’t lose next time, huh? Muscle Monkey.” Then he scoffed and urged his group away to a couch that had just opened up.

For a moment, Ryuuga watched them, dumbfounded. They didn’t recognize him - that much was clear. But Kazumi had still called him by a dumb nickname too. Maybe, somewhere in the combining of worlds, those memories had just been locked away? If Ryuuga kept talking to them, would they remember?

That sounded like a dangerous experiment with lots of variables that Ryuuga wouldn’t understand. Once he found Sento, he could ask the idiot genius to do the math or whatever for him instead.

Yeah. Once he found Sento.

Nodding to himself, he turned for the counter and the fridge in the corner. Sento would be in the basement, right? Except when he reached the edge of the counter, a waitress blocked his way and shooed him back.

“Where are you going, sir?” she asked in annoyance.

“I–!” Ryuuga hesitated as his eyes glanced for the fridge, only to find it wasn’t there.

There was no secret entrance. There was no entrance at all. It was a wall with shelves, stocked high with product. There would be no way to open that without everything falling off. So was there no basement? No base of operations? No place where Sento worked and slept and ate?

“I–” Ryuuga swallowed thickly and glanced warily over when another waitress joined the first.

It was Misora, out of hiding and waiting tables, and she looked between her coworker and Ryuuga without any sense of recognition for him. Just like Kazumi.

Just yesterday, they’d all grilled meat on the roof until they passed out. Just yesterday, she’d been smiling at Sento and at Kazumi and at stupid Gentoku. She’d been hugging Sawa and trying to keep everyone’s hopes up. And now she was here, watching him for a sign that she needed to get help to remove him.

“I’m sorry. I’m just… lost,” he finally managed to say.

“Oh.” Misora looked sad for him while the other waitress was unimpressed. Misora nudged her coworker away and took charge. “Are you looking for someone?”

“Y-Yeah.” Ryuuga cleared his throat. He looked her dead in the eye and willed her to remember, prayed that her bond with Sento was enough. “I’m looking for Sento. Have you seen him?”

Her brow drew together in thought. He could tell she was giving it serious attention, and his chest felt tight as he held his breath. But she was frowning and no light of understanding lit up her eyes. Eventually, she shook her head sadly.

“I’m sorry. I don’t recognize that name,” she said. “Did he come with you today? I can be pretty loud and make an announcement, if you need me to.”

Ryuuga felt cold. He shook his head and felt like he was going to vibrate out of his skin. “No. No, that’s okay. We didn’t… come together today,” he said, voice uncharacteristically quiet. “Sorry.”

He bolted. There was no other way to describe it. He ran out of the cafe and down the street, ran until he felt like his legs would give out. Then he dropped to his butt on the side of a walkway, just out of people’s paths. Not that he gave a shit at the moment if someone stepped on him.

Misora… if Misora didn’t recognize Ryuuga, didn’t remember Sento… then who would? She’d been the closest one to Sento, like the sister he never had. Surely if anyone would remember their old world, it would be Misora! Right?!

“Idiot,” Ryuuga grunted and ran his hand through his hair. “Idiot, idiot Sento. What kind of world… How am I supposed to find you now?”

If the worlds had combined and everyone was back as they should be, then… Then Sento would be…

Ryuuga’s throat felt like it closed up for a moment and he choked on air. If the Sky Wall incident hadn’t happened, then Katsuragi Takumi wouldn’t have gotten involved with Faust, wouldn’t have come across Evolto, and wouldn’t have had his memories erased. Without the Sky Wall, there would be no Kiryuu Sento.

“No!” Ryuuga jumped to his feet, heart racing, and unaware of all the stares he’d garnered. “No, he wouldn’t have… He wouldn’t have come up with the plan if it meant…that he wouldn’t…”

Except he would. Sento was the most self-sacrificing man Ryuuga had ever met. He shouldered all the burdens of their fight, all the guilt and sin, and he bore it like the hero he was. And if saving the world meant he would die, Ryuuga knew Sento would bare that too.

But! Ryuuga had known that this morning too, and he’d tried to save Sento from that fate! He’d sacrificed himself instead! Stupid, idiot Sento had followed him into the rift to save him too! But they had still won! Well, hadn’t they? They’d combined the worlds! This was Sento’s world of Love and Peace! Would the universe be so cruel as to bend actual physics to Sento’s will and then erase him from existence? Like he was never there?!

Chest tight and mind blank with worry, Ryuuga moved numbly down the street. He just needed to find a way to look up Katsuragi. Maybe in this world, Katsuragi had a brother now? Ryuuga stumbled into an internet cafe and somehow managed to ask someone to help him get online for five minutes. Maybe he looked as lost as he felt, because the workers looked at him with pity and showed him how to log on and do his search.

He was an idiot, and he couldn’t think straight. He wouldn’t even know what to do if not for the kindness of the workers, and he thanked them as best he could. The kindness and goodness in people… that’s what Sento fought for.

Fingers trembling, Ryuuga searched for Kiryuu Sento.

He hit enter.

No results.

He took a deep breath. That– He’d expected that, right? Evolto named Sento, so this made sense. He looked up Katsuragi Takumi.

The smug bastard’s face was all over the place, though he looked moderately less evil. There were articles about him winning awards or making breakthroughs in science with his father. No mention of a brother either. He worked at the Institute of Advanced Matter Physics, just like before he became Sento. Ryuuga found his social media, but it was annoyingly unhelpful - full of science articles and shit he couldn’t understand. Definitely no sign of a recent influx of memories belonging to an entirely different person.

Because Sento and Takumi were completely different. They shared a body, but not a heart. Even with the worlds combining, they probably wouldn’t have joined together like the others. They weren’t the same person.

Without the Sky Wall, there was no Kiryuu Sento.

Ryuuga leaned forward and pressed his face into his hands. He knew his face would show his devastation and frustration, and he didn’t want these people to see him like that. He could feel them glancing in his direction as he searched, and he didn’t want them to see how much of a loser he was, how lost and alone.

“Idiot,” he cursed quietly.

Sento would tease him if he saw him like this, so worked up over the loss of one person. Except he hadn’t teased Ryuuga about crying over Kasumi. He’d let Ryuuga cry for her, given him time to say his goodbyes, and he never made fun of Ryuuga for holding so tightly to her memory. It was one of the things Ryuuga loved about Sento. He was shit at saying how he really felt, but he could show it in the best ways sometimes. He was so goddamn thoughtful of everyone else.

“How is this okay?” Ryuuga asked no one, remembering when he’d been willing to give up after Kasumi. Sento had grabbed him and shaken some sense back into him, and he’d given Ryuuga a new goal to fight for. A new life to live.

With a deep breath, Ryuuga steadied himself and locked away the loss and grief that wanted to take hold of him. He couldn’t break down. Not here. Not now. He had to hold onto hope. Somehow, he’d survived the collision. Somehow, he’d figure things out.

He left the cafe with another round of thank yous to the staff and started walking down the street. He had one more place he could think of to check if anything had stayed the same. This was a new world, but Banjou Ryuuga was in it. If Ryuuga went home, maybe he could find some answers.

Maybe Sento… Maybe Sento was looking for him too and would find him there.

“He was a real person. You can’t just erase him,” he growled under his breath, unsure exactly who he was trying to convince.

— — —

He didn’t live in the same building anymore. His key didn’t work, and he saw someone else’s name on the plate that used to say his. So in this world without the Sky Wall, Banjou Ryuuga didn’t live here. To find out where he lived, he’d have to do another search, and then what if it wasn’t on some public record? Ryuuga had no idea how to find residential addresses of people!

Sento probably did.

With a groan of frustration, Ryuuga dragged his feet and moved away from the building before someone could complain he was too threatening or something. He shuffled down the street, unsure of where he was going but walking anyway.

He was hungry, but he had no money. He was lost and had nowhere to go. God, why was he so dumb? If he’d been smarter, he would have put his wallet in his pocket when they went into the final fight, prepared for some kind of world collision where he’d lose everything he didn’t have in his pockets. And if he wasn’t so dumb, he wouldn’t have needed help figuring out that computer at the cafe. And if he wasn’t so dumb, he would have looked himself up too before he left.

If he wasn’t so dumb, he would have found a way to make sure Sento survived to see this world.

Eventually, Ryuuga found a bench at the edge of a park and sat down to rest. He looked around at this new world, so bright and open, with nothing blocking the horizon. He watched kids playing with bubbles and people playing with their dogs. He listened to the happy, pointless chatter as they passed him, worrying about work and relationships and a new ice cream down the street. It was exactly what they’d been fighting to protect. Simple, happy, peaceful life.

He took several deep breaths and tried to focus on the positives. It was a beautiful day. They’d clearly won the battle. His friends were all alive and seemed to be exactly where they should be to be happy. It was a victory, and yet…

“Sento…” He leaned forward, head between his knees.

So many times, he’d wanted to tell Sento something. It had been on the tip of his tongue before they entered the tower, had almost slipped out when he’d grabbed Evolt and jumped into the sky, had been the next thing on his list to say before Evolt managed to fight off his consciousness. Why hadn’t he said anything then? Why hadn’t he said anything sooner?

Maybe it would have been stupid to admit that Sento was the most important person in Ryuuga’s life. Maybe it would have clouded Sento’s mind during a literal earth-shattering moment. Maybe getting a glimpse of how deep Ryuuga’s feelings truly ran would have scared Sento. They were all reasons why he’d kept his mouth shut, even when he thought he’d die and never have to see the consequences of his confession.

But if he’d known they’d all live through it? Would he have done anything different?

A familiar voice drew his attention and he glanced up slowly. There was an ice cream stand a couple dozen feet away, but even from this distance he recognized her. Kasumi. She was sitting at a small table by the stand. She was alive, and she looked healthy. She was smiling so happily, in a way she hadn’t been able to manage in over a year since her test results came back, and since Ryuuga lost his career.

Seeing her was bittersweet. Here Ryuuga was, mourning the loss of his new love, and his old love appeared like a beacon. He’d buried her in his heart, made peace with her death, and yet there she was.

He stood up slowly, unsure if he would go to her even as he took his first steps in her direction. Did he want her to recognize him? To still love him? Of course. Her love had gotten him through so many tough times. And yet all he really wanted in that moment was to hug her, to feel her arms around him, her fingers in his hair, as she comforted his slowly sinking heart.

He was only three steps toward her when she looked toward the ice cream stand and her smile got even brighter. Someone joined her at the table, handing her some ice cream, and she looked at him the way she used to look at Ryuuga.

Which is when Ryuuga realized that the person sitting beside Kasumi… was him. They looked the same except that this new Banjou Ryuuga had black hair and looked much less world-weary.

In this world, there was a Banjou Ryuuga, and it wasn’t him. This Banjou was probably human, had parents, had a steady job. There were a lot of probabilities and Ryuuga understood very little of them. He couldn’t begin to understand why he hadn’t combined with his other world self and lost his memories like the others. He wanted to be frustrated and angry but… The other Banjou looked happy. She looked happy too.

He turned and walked away.

— — —

He really had no idea where he was going. At this point, he didn’t think it mattered. He was looking for a sign or something, but he didn’t know what it was. Maybe he was waiting to be recognized or maybe he’d find some lost wallet and just use the cash or card inside to get a place to sleep for the night. Or some instant ramen. He was so hungry.

He wasn’t smart like Sento. How was he supposed to carve out a place for himself in this new world? Sento would have a plan. And if he didn’t, he’d figure something out on the fly. Sento could do anything if he wanted to.

Ryuuga walked to a bus stop and paused to lean on the pole there. He was so tired of walking. He missed Sento’s Machine Rider and the way they used to ride to scenes together. Hell, he even missed being thrown from location to location at this point, not that he wanted some big villain to show up and chuck him across the park.

Down the way, a flock of birds was frozen in a statue over a fountain. Sighing, Ryuuga imagined how great it would be to have wings and fly. He’d managed some great jumping height in his rider form, and the convergence of the worlds had allowed him to literally jump into space, but now he was imagining the ease and peace of simple flight. If he was a bird, he could just glide around until he found somewhere nice to land and sleep for the night.

And if he didn’t like someone, he could poop on them.

He could imagine Sento laughing at him for that thought.

His eyes drifted down the art installation, to the fountain below. People were walking up and down the stairs on either side of it, and someone was sitting alone on the front. They were slightly hunched, looking totally alone. Ryuuga understood that sentiment too well at the moment.

Then he squinted against the sun to get a better look. The set of those shoulders. That hair cut. That stupid green and white hoodie shirt. He knew that person.

Ryuuga’s heart sped up anew and he gripped the pole tight in his hand to stop himself from rushing over. What if– What if it was Sento? But what if he didn’t recognize Ryuuga, just like everyone else?

But also, what if–

“Screw it,” he hissed out, startling the woman next to him, and then he pushed off from the pole.

He ran down the sidewalk on his already tired legs and almost tripped down the stairs in his haste. But the closer he got, the more sure he was. It was really him! It had to be! Ryuuga would recognize him anywhere! It was–

“Sento!” he called out as he stumbled to a stop at the base of the fountain.

The genius physicist looked up in surprise and Ryuuga’s chest heaved with relief. It was really him! But did he recognize Ryuuga too?

Sento looked stunned, like the wind had been knocked out of him at the sight of Ryuuga standing there, and it was such a good sign. When he spoke, he sounded rough with shock and relief. “Banjou?!”

Exhaustion hit Ryuuga like a wave. He’d been running and walking for hours, searching for anyone – no. Searching for Sento. And finally, at last, here he was! And he knew who Ryuuga was too! The worlds had combined and left the two of them alive to remember!

“What is up with this world, man?!” Ryuuga complained, stumbling and dropping to sit on the edge of the fountain. “No one remembers me! And there’s another version of me walking around!”

It was easier to complain first than to put in the emotional effort of confessing. Right now, Ryuuga just wanted to lay down and rest while Sento rambled off some complex explanation of how this stupid new world worked. Yeah, that actually sounded nice.

“Ah, I see,” Sento said, getting into a thinking pose. “A version of you with Evolt’s DNA wouldn’t have existed in this world either…”

Either? So Ryuuga had been right. Sento had known there was no version of himself in this world. He’d expected to vanish when the worlds combined. He’d gone into that battle as the self-sacrificing idiot he always was. And if he’d been right, Ryuuga would never have gotten the chance to tell him how he felt.

Annoyance flared inside Ryuuga and he stood again. “You’re a jerk, you know?”

For a moment, Sento looked abashed, but then a brilliant smile lit his face. He ruffled his hair in that way he always did when he was excited, and he laughed. It had been so long since Ryuuga had heard him laugh. It had been too too long since he’d seen Sento smile like that.

“This is terrific!” Sento exclaimed and pulled out his phone. With a flick of his wrist, it transformed into his Machine Rider and he beamed at Ryuuga.

Despite having just been wishing for this exact motorcycle not long before, Ryuuga resisted the urge to immediately grab a helmet. He looked intently at Sento and took a deep breath. “What’s terrific?” he asked.

“You’re alive,” Sento said as though it were obvious. “We’re both alive, and we remember each other.”

“But no one else remembers, we have no money, and no place to live,” Ryuuga pointed out, no heat in his tone. If anything, he sounded hopeful. Because he was getting to watch Sento riled up with excitement, and it was invigorating. And maybe he was hoping Sento would say something wonderful and smart, or even romantic.

Sento waved off his concerns and held out a helmet for him. “We’ll figure all of that out. As long as we’re together, we’ll be fine.”

Ryuuga took the helmet from him, a smile dancing on his lips. That was his Sento - hopeful, brilliant, and unknowingly making Ryuuga fall in love with him every day.

“This is probably a dumb thing to do right now,” Ryuuga muttered to himself, looking down at the helmet. He’d just found Sento, so pushing him away would be so, so stupid, and yet…

He stepped forward and grabbed Sento’s shoulder with his free hand. Then he leaned in and kissed his genius on the cheek. He wanted to kiss him for real, but he didn’t want to force that on Sento if Sento didn’t want it too. Consent and all that. He was dumb but he wasn’t an asshole.

When he pulled back, Sento looked stunned again, which made Ryuuga nervous. He fiddled with the helmet in his hands.

“Sorry. I just–”

“This is–,” Sento interrupted, and his smile returned. It was even more infectious than his first one, and Ryuuga found himself smiling, albeit warily. “This is terrific,” Sento repeated.

“Yeah?” Ryuuga asked. So he hadn’t just ruined their first meeting in the new world? They could stay together still?

“Idiot,” was all Sento said before he leaned in again and captured Ryuuga’s lips with his own. Yeah, maybe he was dumb, but nothing really mattered past that for Ryuuga.

Maybe they had no identities in the new world, and maybe they had nowhere specifically to go. They had nothing except each other. But Sento smiled when he saw Ryuuga and was excited that they would be together. And when he called Ryuuga an idiot, it was filled with so much fondness that it made Ryuuga truly believe everything would work out.

As long as they were together, they could take on the world.

[cobiehaven]

With You on Lonely St. — Yang Jeongin

SYNOPSIS; great minds think alike, they say. you and jeongin might have crossed paths in the most awkward of circumstances but maybe he was good enough to live up to your expectation level of insane.

PAIRING; jeongin x reader

GENRE; baby pinch of fluff, angst, horror, tw

WORD COUNT; 3.1k

TAGS/WARNINGS; post-apocalypse au, strangers to friends, reader lowkey got rizz with that zombie in the beginning of the story, reader lowkey a sadist..?, reader also kind of a tsundere, jeongin is kinda crazy—, jeongin and reader have major chemistry but no established or hint of future relationship, badass!reader, reader is lowkey mommy material 😳, mention of  blood, graphic scenes warning, fake background stories, not supposed to represent the real yang jeongin, lowkey hard to follow plot ???? i think ??????

AUTHORS NOTE; okay it is actually really hard to write a story that has so many background aspects and make it be interesting WITHOUT adding those aspects and making it like- a 10k story. so i’m sorry if the plot is a little hard to follow, you can improvise if it’s too hard !!!

you screamed out as you swung your axe down on the undead body below you, the tears rolling down your cheeks as you continued to beat and axe the zombie underneath you.

this was your outlet, your only way to take out all your built up feelings on the horrible things that you had been through to get here. sure, other people might have been through worse and that it might have been selfish to cry like this but y’know what? fuck them. this was your life. this is what you were living in right now. you didn’t have the time and place to worry about others.

your past explains a good deal of all the emotions and opinions you have leading up till now.

you breathed heavily as you stopped your swinging, looking down at the body practically carved into the asphalt at this point. his chest was slashed open with multiple blade markings caving into his heart, his arms and jaw were long gone, probably flew off somewhere whenever you were getting carried away with swinging. the sight of the overly burnt and decaying faces of these things would never get old to you. if somehow, the world ever went back to normal, you were sure that you probably wouldn’t even be able to look at normal human beings anymore. “augh..” the zombie below you groaned.

oh, you forgot to actually kill him.

you stared at him for a bit, your emotionless eyes watching as the poor man below you tried to helplessly go for your ankles to naw at. “tsk tsk, buddy,” you leaned down, grabbing ahold of his receding hair and lifting him up to your height. “you don’t even got teeth anymore, how do you expect to ever get a taste of your favorite flesh ever again?” you acted as if you were actually concerned for him, pouting at his rotting face as if he could actually understand what you were saying right now. he continued to try and naw at anything in his sight, in this case, now it was your face. “gosh, if you wanted a kiss that bad then you could have just said so,” you laughed. “oh wait.. you can’t,” you smirked, throwing the zombified man back onto the ground and lifting your axe above your head, swinging it down into his head. nothing could compare to the amount of joy you felt when you saw his brains split into half. and it was by your doing.

“ah,” you sighed out, standing up straight again and finally wiping the sweat from your forehead. “it’s a shame that you guys don’t feel pain.”

suddenly, you heard the shuffling of gravel rubbing against the ground.

whipping your head around, you quickly pulled out your gun from your belt, aiming it at whatever was just making movement behind you. you were surprised when you saw an unfamiliar man standing in the aim of your shot. you narrowed your eyes at the boy, his hands flying up as a gesture for no harm.

he wanted peace? no, you couldn’t trust him. you didn’t even know this man.

“what do you want?” was the first thing you asked, not finding any interest in exchanging names or getting to know each other. like you said, you didn’t have time for other people. it was silent for a little bit before he finally opened his mouth, contemplating what to say. “i saw you kill that rotter, you seemed pretty angry.” you eyes trailed down his figure, hm, he wasn’t carrying any weapons? did this guy have a death wish? that could set off many different possibilities for you that you could either interpret or misinterpret. “and? that was none of your business,” you responded. “you’re right, i just wanted to know what your reasoning was for toying with it before finishing it off.”

well, you certainly didn’t expect the conversation to start turning this way. was he asking for your entire backstory or something? why is this stranger trying to find out your entire biography? you wouldn’t even be surprised if the next thing he asks you is your age.

“are you… trying to hit on me?” you lowered you gun a little but still aiming at him, showing your visible confusion as he panicked and shook his head. “what?! no! no! no! i was just curious! believe me!”

for some reason, it felt like he was doing anything but just being curious. this guy was fucking spying on you for fucks sake.

“okay..” you trailed off. “i wouldn’t tell my reasoning to some guy i’ve never met before, so i would suggest you drop it and leave before you get the same treatment as the dude on the ground,” you held your gun up higher, his hands only shrugging up higher. “wait! can we just.. talk?” you tilted your head. “the reason i was watching you was becau-“ suddenly, he was cut off by the loud sounds of machine guns being set off in the background, the two of you whipping your heads around to try and identify where the shooting was coming from. only to be sent off sprinting down the road together when the shots landing at your feet, nearly hitting the both of you.

the raiders. a group of mistrustful sons of bitches who do nothing but steal from the hopeless and laugh at others who are of lower rank than them. if you really want to get deep into your history with them, then we can just say that you might have pissed off their leader far one too many times by being just as worse as them.

“what the fuck?! how did they find me so quickly?” jeongin shouted as he practically ran for his life. “what? they’re after you too?” you asked, remembering how your disgusting backstory ties a big part into this groups ways. you still shivered thinking about your beef with their ruler. “the fuck did you do to piss those guys off?” you asked, secondly. “oh y’know, just stole from them, killed some of them, pretended to be one of them for the food before betraying them. and now here we are.” he winked at you which had you in utter disbelief. this frail man with no sorts of weapon or stealth abilities did more than you? just who was he? “what about you?” the shots went right above your head, the both of you ducking down. “can we talk about this later?” you shouted back to him as you could hear the shots ringing in your ears at this point. the both of you ran for a while, the raiders seemingly not following after you which was a normal occurrence for your case. it was always easy to get away from their dysfunctional group just as long as you never actually got caught by them. if you ever did, you were sure that their way of torture and negotiation was not the ‘let’s sit down and have a nice little talk’ kind of way.

the both of you sprinted into a nearby store, a run down convenience store to be exact. the two of you catching your breath but still being cautious to the area around you. there could be anything lurking in here… literally.

after zombies happened, you were starting to believe shit like aliens existed.

“watch your step,” you warned to jeongin who just waved you off and started confidently down the aisles. “hey! stop! we have to search the place first!” you whisper-yelled and taking steps towards him before nearly screaming when you felt something tug on your hair. the all too familiar groan of the dead raking it’s dirty fingers through your locks had you in a panic. luckily enough for you, you somehow had come across the ace in this world.

jeongin swooped in between you and the zombie, his strong grip grabbing ahold of your hair and literally shoving the zombie off of you.

you had never felt so relieved and so disappointed to have long hair.

watching jeongin deal his way through the walker that had attacked you, you were finally starting to see just what he could do even without the use of his own weapon. he was elegant and quick with his movements, using his legs and arms in swift and equal motions to basically just beat this zombie to eternal death. not once did he seem like he needed help or even give the zombie a chance to even graze his pale skin. you wondered just what exactly this boy did before the whole pandemic went down.

“you-“ you started but cut off in disbelief once more. “you just killed that thing with your bare hands..” you trailed off as your hands were clutched to your chest. you were honestly amazed, dumbfounded, flabbergasted, floored. you didn’t have the words.

for once since the outbreak, you had never felt so… safe? of course, though, you weren’t going to admit that to him. and that still didn’t mean you trusted him nor were you going to give him a reason to think you were going to grant him that luxury any time soon.

letting out heavy breaths, jeongin then turned to you and smiled. “you should consider cutting your hair.” you gripped your long pony tail protectively. a girls hair is her pride and joy. for most, anyways. “no way!” he shrugged, “it was just a thought.”

your eyes trailed down to the crushed in body, it laying limp on the floor. “you should consider carrying a weapon,” you said, gesturing to his overly bloody hands. “i can’t believe you carry things and eat things and touch things.. with those hands, when there’s no running water.. that’s disgusting.” he shrugged once again. “they’ve never bothered me. as long as i clean them with a cloth then its fine. i know a nearby river, too.” you just stared at him for a couple of seconds before turning and searching the rest of the store. “come on! not even a thank you for saving your life?” he called out to you, a visible pout forming on his lips. you ignored him, not ever going to give him the satisfaction of a thanks. your pride was too high for that.

“care to tell me why you were spying on me?” for all you knew, he was just watching on you and now the two of you were hiding out together so neither of you got caught by the raiders. “i found your behavior interesting,” he followed your actions, going down the opposite end of the aisles. “interesting?”

there was something wrong with this guy if he thought you having fun cutting open a dead person was interesting.

he nodded as if you could see him. “the art you made with that zombie was just.. beautiful. the way you dealt with his jaw and arms and the way you spoke to him, even the way you threw his head back was so inspiring.”

did he think you were doing that to be pretty or to actually be genuine with your feelings?

if it was either, he was right.

for a long time now, you’ve loved the feeling of slinging a rotting body in your arms and splattering the blood all over, just mangling your way through deteriorating flesh, watching as it hung off or sometimes even fell off of your victims. you wanted those things to suffer the same way you had suffered back then, to feel the pain, that was the only downside to it all that just didn’t quite reach the edge for you.

if he thought the same way, then maybe keeping this boy by your side wouldn’t be so bad after all..

and if you both hated the same group of people, then maybe working together with his agileness and your strategy would make a good pairing in combat. not to mention, it would make gathering supplies much easier.

but of course, you still had your doubts… he’d have to live up to your expectations if he really wanted to stick around.

“you want to stay with me, don’t you?”

“of course i do.”

“i don’t even know your name.”

“yang jeongin.”

“l/n f/n”

“great, can we stick together now?”

he was a very persistent person but you were sure you could handle it if he played his cards right. surely he knew what he was getting himself into.

“you’re insane,” you shook your head, a small laugh coming out of you as you turned the corner at the end of your aisle. as if on cue, jeongin has also turned the corner on his aisle, but on the opposite end of the store. “you too.”

THE BACKSTORIES.

“so, you want to know my story?” you sat and jeongin nodded.

the crackling of the fire and the stillness of the night being like music to your ears as you propped one of your arms on your pulled up knee, your other hand being occupied with the brewing of the lovely yet bland rabbit stew you and jeongin managed to learn how to make over the course of these very few weeks. so fair, he has been a great asset to you, and you have been of great help to him. you could remember this one specific time when you both were able to lead a hoard of mobs into a huge deck of traps that only you and your partner knew how to maneuver through. of course, every zombie died to your work, the both of you wanting nothing more than to see the blood shed of such vile beings.

and of course, this was also all done just for the fun of it all.

great minds thought alike, they always said.

“only if you promise to tell your own.” he agreed, a small smile forming on your lips as the two of you stared at the fire in front of you. his resting legs plotted down on the opposite end of the small fire. you figured making a small one would make for less smoke as the two of you were pretty drained for the night to deal with any interruptions. “before the whole pandemic happened, i was with my family in our small town house. it was big family, mind you. probably about a family of 8 living in one small town house on a big street named lonely st.” you started. “when we heard about the outbreak starting to happen, no one wanted to believe it, obviously. until it actually happened. a lot of us managed to survive together, some of my brothers and sisters going within a short amount of time. when they were all gone, i was left alone in the house with no knowledge of how to fight or even care for myself in conditions like these. it was weeks in and i didn’t dare to walk outside my front door and see my undead family waiting for me on the infested road. but, luckily enough.. or i guess, unluckily enough, the raiders came to take care of the mess for me. they never found me but i couldn’t shake the feeling of them killing my family even if they were all already dead. the feelings got to me and eventually, i joined a trustworthy group that i could happily call my friends at the time. but of course, good things don’t always last…” you added, your eyes finally looking up from the campfire and into jeongin’s eyes. “that is when you found me, a week or two later of just rampaging my way down lonely st. doing what i do best and showing off my new skills and power,” you chuckled, his expression still seemingly unfazed.

you wondered what he was thinking.

“i couldn’t have imagined you going through that to get to where you are now,” he responded, you giving him a little shrug. “at least the raiders didn’t kill my family while they were alive, that would have been a different story.”

“why are they even after you anyways?” he asked.

“they’re just pissed off that i’m faster at raiding than them,” you snickered. “what about you?” you asked him the same question, he tilted his head.

“why are the raiders after me or what’s my backstory?”

“i did kind of ask for both.”

“you are very right”

the both of you laughed shortly before he finally broke his gaze with you, hugging his knees close to his chest. “the raiders are after me because i grew up with them.” this certainly caught you off guard. “but i never wanted to be one of them like they tried to force me to be. i only did for the food and protection. it was until i was of age that i started to rebel against them, they hated me for it, tried to beat me up for it. until i killed their previous leader. i became a run away after that.” he shrugged, not finding much in his story to be sad about, yet you were completely appalled. “if you were with those machine gun loving warlords, then what is your reasoning for not carrying a weapon?” you asked him, after all of this time with being with him, you had never seen him carry an actual weapon until it was something he knew he was going to need for one of your future traps. he shrugged again, “i hated using them when i was with the raiders, i find it way easier to use my hands. i’ll use a gun if it means i’ll be stuck in a place that i can’t stand my ground.”

it was silent for a bit, you tried to take in all of the information he was telling you. the mood was dampening, your backstories were sad, how could you find something to lighten the mood after that?

then suddenly, you thought of something.

“if you start carrying a weapon, then ill let you cut my hair,” you looked up at him, his eyes meeting yours, widely. “what? really?” you nodded.

it was a deep decision to consider.

both options were beneficial to the both of you.

after long thought, he got up, making his way over to you and helping you onto your feet, his fingers intertwining with your fingers. “then promise you’ll teach me how to do that cool tripping trick you do with the knife?” he proposed, a small giggle coming out of you.

“of course.”

“good, now turn around and lets get to work.”

© cobiehaven 2023

[suchacomet]

do you know if the baseball scenes in a league of their own were done by the actresses or by professionals? i can't find articles about it and i'm kind of curious your opinion as a sports person (sorry, i only know you from your analysis posts about the baseball aspects of the series)

omg i’m flattered you think i’m qualified to answer this question… i’m no professional commentator or even really a super avid baseball fan—the most i follow sports is college softball and then i only watch the championships bc godDAMN do those girls know how to play but godDAMN do i not have time to follow a whole season of pro sports—but i’m happy to share my personal beliefs on this topic, which boil down to: a little bit of both, i think!

in a bunch of interviews the actors have talked about doing baseball training and learning to play baseball as part of their prep for shooting the show (for example this interview which also has the bit where kelly mccormack talks about now much fun she had shooting the bar scene w roberta colindrez ❤️). plus there are, obviously, moments where we see the actors playing—scenes that come to mind are jess’s jump + barehand catch and throw to first, max’s barehand catch in the last episode, and the splits catch that one of the other peaches does at tryouts.

but there’s no way they didn’t use stunt doubles, especially for scenes like the runner mowing down carson at home plate or any of the slides. and honestly, most of the pitches, throws, and hits are probably either stitched-together cuts of multiple takes or cgi to get the ball where it needs to go. from a filmmaking standpoint, it’s just impractical to do anything else—no producer wants to do thirty takes of a pitch until it actually is a strike, no actor wants to worry about hitting to center left vs center right when they should be focusing on staying in character and being present in the scene, no editor wants to sift through hours of takes that are unusable because the ball just isn’t where it’s supposed to be.

there are definitely moments where they spliced together a bad play to make it look like a good one. the best example i can think of is this stop from jess:

obviously i can’t be certain, and it could just be the angle of the shot playing tricks on me, but it wouldn’t surprise me if jess/kelly mccormack overshot her lunge in that first wide shot and missed the ball. i can’t quite put my finger on it but it just doesn’t look like she’s gonna catch the ball to me. they cut quick enough and well enough to the close-up where she does make the catch that the audience really doesn’t notice the cover-up (if there actually is one), so it works.

same with this pitch from max! i don’t see anything wrong with the form necessarily but i highly doubt that exact pitch matches the ball landing perfectly in carson’s glove in the next shot. the angle of the ball traveling in the first shot doesn’t match the one in the second shot. but again, with the editing and the fact that what we’re really focusing on in this shot is their faces, it doesn’t register as being faked

also there’s for sure “errors” in some gameplay—i’m at work so i don’t have the time or ability to get screenshots but i distinctly remember someone walking back from running through first on the inside of the baseline/within bounds and being like AUGH NO THEYRE GONNA TAG YOU OUT but no one reacting, and i’m sure if i really thought about it i could come up with more examples. but having been in an editing room many a time, i get having to sacrifice a little bit of continuity or being 100% error-free in order to prioritize the best performances or the pacing of the scene

i don’t think it takes away from the show at all to do this btw! this is a fictional baseball series, not a baseball game. molding the shape of the game and the plays to serve the narrative and reflect the characters is the name of the game. if i wanted to watch people actually play baseball, i’d turn on an mlb game, you know? the baseball serves the story, not the other way around, and if that means cheating pitches and catches then so be it. it’s all part of filmmaking.

all that being said, i DO think the training the actors did does show in the series! it makes them look confident and natural on the diamond. like look at this still of geena davis from the original movie:

i love this movie. i love this movie so much. but jesus christ that is one of the worst batting forms i’ve ever seen in my life. her elbows aren’t bent enough; her back elbow should be angled higher; the bat should be held at a lower angle; her hands should be tucked much closer to her head/cheek area; her stance is too narrow and she looks so off-balance that a breeze would knock her over; she’s got some weird torque going on in her hips and torso that i can’t figure out but it looks a) uncomfortable b) weak and c) like she’s scared of the ball.

compare that to shirley’s form. i love shirley’s form and her batting prep. she lines herself up properly to the plate. she looks back to check her back elbow is in the right place. she leans back into her stance. it’s still stiff like geena davis, but that comes from shirley’s character, not the actor’s lack of skill/familiarity with the sport. and honestly shirley’s whole at-bat ritual with the tapping and the shirt tug and all not only makes sense for her as a nervous, compulsive character, but is SOOOO accurate to baseball players. i had a routine like that (not as complex but the whole having to do the same thing before every swing is so real)

(you know i gotta include a lupe image here) with the angle here it’s hard to tell whether that pitch is actually a strike, but it doesn’t matter bc she looks confident and capable! in her face she looks like she’s putting force into the pitch and with the leg kick, the glove point, and the follow through, she’s believable as a star pitcher

i think that’s the value of training your actors. i don’t think everyone can be, or even should be a tom cruise-type do-all-their-own-stunts actor. to get an entire team’s worth of actors (multiplied a few times, if you went all out and also trained the minor character and all the extras from the other teams) to a professional ball-playing standard, it would take years of training and millions/billions of dollars that i’d rather the production team use elsewhere to make a compelling narrative with high production value. but having the actors do SOME baseball training really pays off in these moments where we feel like we’re actually seeing these women play ball, even when we really aren’t.

i remember watching the original movie and laughing at the characters’ forms. it broke suspension of disbelief for me and again, even though i love that movie, it’s so clear to me that the way the women look (read: pretty/palatable to a cishet male audience) was more important than making them look like ball players. like i said earlier, geena davis looks like a rookie who’s scared of being hit by the ball, which completely undercuts her whole character. in aloto the show, they look like ball players—they look like fucking stellar professional ball players

(credit to @ropoto and @hikarielizabethbloom for the gorgeous gifs!)

[irrealisms]

3, 4, 12, 19, 23, 24 - simplepotatofarmer

3. favorite line/scene you wrote this year

“Does it matter? You did.” Quackity’s voice isn’t cruel, not like some of their conversation has been, just matter-of-fact. “And now you have to live with it like the rest of us.” Wilbur isn’t sure he can think of anything worse.

4. total number of words you wrote this year

ahahaha it's gonna be comedically low because i was Rather Crazy this year--unless we count glowfic, i suppose? 13,287 words on AO3. if we include glowfic though that brings it up to 84,802 which is much less embarrassing!

12. favorite character to write about this year

Tommy, for sure ^^; his style of rambling is just a lot of fun to write for me!

19. any new fics to start next year

i have so many fics on my to-write list and who knows if any of them are going to....get written... i have been bad at Actually Writing recently ;-;

23. fics you wanted to write but didn’t

augh so many.

in the dsmp fandom: - techno and ranboo and socrates' daimon and hearing voices - a late-s3 tommy-centric fic about Being Alive When You Should Be Dead - current (s4) tommy christmas fic - some sort of pogtopia wilbur fic

other fandoms: - a xue yang-in-jinlintai fic about teenage xue yang flirting with jin guangyao and jgy being like No. - a xianle trio fic where mu qing and feng xin learn about the events of book four - a(nother) s4 jonathan sims fic focusing on his statement addiction

not technically a fic: - there's a crimeboys parallels post that i have been putting off writing for like a month now. i'm so sorry guys

24. favorite fic you read this year

How to Sex Vol. 4-58. epistolary is a hard format to pull off, especially in fanfic, and despite being short it does it really well!

honorary mentions: Dissonance, Chicken Strategy, touched for the very first time

lots of CWs in all of these so mind the tags!

[EDIT: ALSO MANGOBALL. HOW DID I FORGET MANGOBALL]

[origami10]

Ajin ch. 85 thoughts

Spoilers under the cut! Although I’m really late after the chapter so who can say if these’ll even really count as spoilers anymore.

Okay, so, I was already late in getting to this chapter because I had a bunch going on, heard it wasn’t the last chapter, avoided spoilers, and basically just had a hard time coordinating the time, technology, and energy that I feel it deserved... and then I started reading and got interrupted and lost the posts I had drafted. So, take 2, I’m going to read it in English and then go back to the Japanese for my vocab post, so I at least read the chapter now that it’s been more than a week and a half. Otherwise I’m going to fall into the “can’t read this manga I love because what if it ends and there’s no more” trap. 

Things I remember from my drafted post:

They found a dead body, so Tosaki’s either really dead for real, or it’s Sokabe. 

They took in Takahashi and two other ajin who are probably the randos we saw them fighting at the base. 

They’re changing legislation about ajin, but not because they were directly persuaded by the Kei/Tosaki group, rather it was because that one lady (who is a legislator?) turned out to be an ajin.

There are just straight up a lot of words in the chapter. The editor was having fun with wordplay in their comments.

Okay, so new thoughts: 

Wow, I didn’t realize there were only what, 8 pages? Reading through the magazine it felt like a lot and also I didn’t pay enough attention to the table of contents to realize ahead of time how short it would be.

wow, that IBM-on-the-TVs page looks WAY different in the English version vs. the magazine: (just in that it feels a lot starker since they don’t have all the magazine editor chatter)

Oh, that was a previous thought- tying it all back to the beginning with the Saitama police.

I had also been thinking, it’s interesting seeing this from the media’s perspective first since we know that in the past they haven’t gotten the facts or the whole story, so it makes me wonder if we can take what they’re saying as the truth of what’s happening in the story.  (Oh, I was thinking this particularly about it saying that Tanaka is still “at large”)

Oh, and also that for this chapter to come out on Jan. 6th given real-life events just seems weirdly appropriate...?

Okay, I was wondering about this part about Tosaki and what the translation would say. So not having read the rest of the chapter yet, maybe they’ll clear it up, but my confusion was about the fact that the state that... hm, well, I guess 戸崎優氏が遺体で does sound like it’s Tosaki that’s the dead one. But in the newspaper article it says the body is unidentified... so is it Tosaki, who they’ve identified (but maybe only the TV news has identified and the newspaper hasn’t), or is it Sokabe who may still have been working secretly for the Ajin Management Committee (Control Commission). Other previous thought... why am I so sad about Tosaki being dead ;o;  (And how did I not see any spoilers about this?? Maybe because it’s been three and half years that we’ve been assuming he’s dead?) I prefer denial...

oh jeez “unprecedented” made it into this chapter I guess they really did have to translate all the random text floating around on these pages.

Oh, I was thinking they were going back to school for the fall, but maybe the schools were closed because of the attack?  (I feel like I’m going to realize a lot of small stuff like this if/when I go back to reread)

augh there have been like 15 million distractions of varying scale in the entire process of making this post! Why is it so hard to find the right time to do this ><

OH YEAH NAOMI!! I did see that before but forgot! So she survived and is okay!  (so the Naomi/Tanaka ship is still afloat...)

Okay, so I had only read four of the nine pages so far. Time for new pages.

huh, is it that they couldn’t see the IBMs on film? (I don’t think they can, right? I forget ><)  Media coverage has always been a big theme in this series. Also, so totally relevant in a way to current events ><

“Immortal Powers Through Intense Psychoplasm” does sound like it’s pretty much how ajin work though...

Are we actually going to see any of the characters in this chapter...? D:  (Although Naomi showing up is a pretty big development)

Glad they recognized that Kei helped! I wonder where they all are though...  Hopefully Tanaka is with them...

OH JEEZ WHAT? SATOU DIED?  (Don’t know whether I can trust this... which is probably why I haven’t seen any spoilers...? I’m getting concerned...)

ok, so the point being that the news cycle is done with it already...?  (also feels relevant, sigh)  And that all major developments and events that we tell stories about are only fleeting hearsay in the lives of the majority of people...  

I don’t know how I feel about this chapter, it’s simultaneously MAJOR information in the most low-key presentation possible, and also I don’t know whether to believe it. SIGH   CONCERN      

oh shit though, (editor’s note so take with a grain of salt) the tag at the end says “次号、永井圭はどこへ行った。大増ページで、すべてが収束する！！” “Next month, where did Nagai Kei go?  Large increase in pages, everything will converge/conclude/return to normal!!”  THAT DOESN’T SOUND GOOD, THAT SOUNDS LIKE IT MIGHT END...

[faejilly]

Replies to “Reticence”

@janoda said:

I love this so much!!! My heart ached!

#LIGHTWOOD FAMILY FEELS FOREVER

/Persuasion feels forever too, tbqh, tho this bit is obviously not much of an Elliot cognate. Perhaps it fits, though, for how Lady Russell felt about Anne’s father and sister in comparison to her mother?

@princess-shepherdess said:

Malec and Persuasion fusion are the match made in heaven tbh. Second chances! Two people in love finding their way back to each other! YES GOOD MORE OF THAT!! Alec as Anne Elliott is a delight. Maryse as Lady Russell is also an interesting choice because I’ve got so many conflicting feelings about both of them.

I’m also intrigued by Magnus in this universe and maybe a little bit worried; ngl I’ve never been very fond of Captain Wentworth  

I really quite like Lady Russell because she does mean well, she loves Anne with all her heart and she truly thought she was helping. (She wasn’t, obviously, but there’s a reason Anne never thinks there’s even anything to forgive, though obviously Frederick had some different opinions there.)

And yes! Anne is my favorite for many of the same reasons Alec is, perception and self-worth and external validation issues that are so related... though she’s not quite as salty 😅

I’m not sure what to do with the second half of that because I love Wentworth beyond rhyme or reason? If it helps, you can do a correlation with their temper; Magnus is quite capable of being vengefully petty after all, and Wentworth refuses to see Anne how she is when they meet again in the future, largely because he’s still holding on to how much Anne hurt him.

/the fact that she hurt herself more is not a thing he would have any way of knowing, really, though perhaps it should have been obvious to anyone who knew her well. But he perhaps didn’t know her as well as he thought? It was not a terribly long romance, the first time ‘round.

and @sharona1x2, I saw those lovely tags, I can rant about Magnus & Persuasion forever and ever feel free to ask any time *laughs*

(and wow I’m behind on my replies, this uh. keeps going. for awhile. sorry?)

Replies to Luis de Vega/Isabel de Flores:

@leahazel said:

Augh my HEART. After doing de Vega’s romance and then going back and seeing him at his worst, it was so PAINFUL. I love this.

agony.gif

(thank you)

@teaandinanity said:

Your answer for knight and prince(ss) filled me with squishy feelings, just - not being able to cross lines because he knows he’ll have to meet her eyes the next day? That SO PERFECTLY SUMS UP the beauty of that route and I think I have to replay now.

whoo! I AM ALWAYS HAPPY TO BE BLAMED FOR REPLAYS

/and also agony, see above *laughs*

Replies to “F, I, and/or L?”

@shadoedseptmbr said:

:D:D:D:D i asked because I *KNOW* you’re a dialogue addict and I adore you for it! *evilgrin* Butoh, that’s perfect.  Joker as a screwball comedy hero, I love it. <3

I mean, I can see him dangling off a dinosaur skeleton and swearing? That seems entirely in character :D (Or trying to hide a torn dress with his fancy hat. Basically, apparently, I need to watch Bringing Up, Baby again. As Always.)

Replies to “F, Q, and R”

@tarysande said:

I did not ask for these Feelings, jilly ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️

WELL YOU CAN HAVE THEM ANYWAY, SORRY NOT SORRY 🥰

@jadesabre301 said:

JILLYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY :O :O :O :O :O :O :O AUGH <3<3<3<3<3<3<3<3<3<3<3

ilu2 😘

Replies to WIP GAME

@stillwaitingformagic said:

Can I just say, I’m sold on your Wing!fic wip? Like if you end up finishing and posting it, I will definitely read this. The idea of Alec’s wings flirting with Magnus with a s1 Alec attached to them is pure gold. I think the idea or fake-hating is interesting 🧐it’s a nice twist. Also… don’t mind if I go check out your Mer-curse series 💨

WHY THANK YOU ON ALL COUNTS!

And yes, I love the idea of wing!fic, I’m glad other people do too, I’m just bad at actually writing atm. 😅😭😐🤷🏻‍♀️

@la-muerta said:

I would read demon!Magnus contemplating priest!Alec’s feelings/thoughts/beliefs on faith!                      

YAY. I am enjoying it, I just have no idea where I’m going if it’s no longer slightly heretical smut in front of the angel stained glass 🤣

Replies to “Anonymous asked: wip meme :)”

@angelrtsy95 said:

oh i just made an absolutely inhuman sound at the last paragraph of the amnesia!fic section…. I want to read so much more of that

to be clear all of them sound amazing, i just especially love the /angst/ 

awww, thank you (istg, that’s not even that angsty? In comparison? I mean. It’s a sequel to the “he died” after all.)

[avauntus]

Supernatural - a retrospective

This is super self-indulgent, and I have so much else I’ve promised-- I owe a long-fic rec post, and ao3 comments, wip work, and that’s just my fandom stuff I’m behind on. *sigh*

But it’s late on a Saturday and now I’ve finished Supernatural, I want to share what I think are my top few eps, and a few other comments. I promise some of this will be different from the “greatest hits” you probably usually see, and I’ll try to make it worth your time. *wry smile*

Look, we have to have categories like: “Most Likely to Live in My Head Rent-Free for the Rest of my Life” and “Most Likely to Inspire Unnecessary Fanfiction” that are different from “Favorites,” because that’s just the cursed energy this show has. ;-)

My top five

#5 - 13.01 - “Lost and Found”

Written by: Andrew Dabb | Directed by: Phil Sgriccia

In fandom, this is most often referred to as the start of the “Grieving Widower” arc, tongue-in-cheek. Also has Alexander Calvert (Jack) walking around completely in the nude for the first third of the ep. (Neither of these are why this is in my top 5, but he has a good story about wardrobe for his ‘first day.’) 

I didn’t expect much out of this episode the first time I watched it, but I’ve gone over this ‘section’ of the show maybe 3-4 times in my Netflix catch-up, and I watch this one in full every time. From Jack being...not at all what anyone expected and an unsteady vindication, to the stunning cinematography (there’s a post that compares shots to Brokeback Mountain, but I think the shots here might be better), to the sheriff who takes the time to remind her deputy that “...there’s no such thing as ‘weird.’ Everyone’s normal in their own way,” to the slow reveal of exactly how hard the events of the previous night (12x23 - All Along the Watchtower) are hitting Dean and Sam and in different ways...(how long the episode takes to reveal to you how Dean fucked up his hand, and what he was saying when he did. Augh!) The Winchesters are trying to rally, but they have been taking hits for a long time, and the cracks are showing.

 #4 - 15.06 - “Golden Time”

Written by: Meredith Glynn | Directed by: John F. Showalter

Supernatural  has a terrible track record with representation in all stripes. It is infamously consistent in killing off anyone minority, female, or non-White. One of the interesting things about the chaotic meta-narrative of season 15 is you can see the lack of fucks some of the writer’s room had to give about not even being subtle about tearing down that type of ‘White-male-hero-journey” now that they were in a literal “what will they do, fire me?” situation.

I’m a Cas fan, and this episode, which gives him an actual, ‘case-of-the-week’ hunter’s narrative where he gets to save the day on his own, successfully, was wonderful. I love that for him! But more than that, for me, this episode is emotional to me for other reasons-- the way Dean and Cas circle around each other on their angry phone call (with the body language! They are broadcasting so LOUD and neither can see because they’re on the phone!), Sam’s story here, where he’s inheriting things from Rowena that allow him in turn to save Eileen, to Cas’ speech and quick anger at the lake when you reflect on his entire journey of self-realization from a soldier of blind faith to an agent of free will... “You selfish little men in your positions of authority...” I just... *clears throat, grabs tissue* 

#3 -  6.20 - “The Man Who Would Be King”

Written & Directed by: Ben Edlund

Speaking of Cas’ journey... I know some folks don’t like the angst and drama of the ‘Heaven and Hell’ plots of Supernatural, but I am here for it. Oh, did we need another reason to include this episode? This has some of the most metal quotes I have heard from any TV show. Ever.

I mean, look at this:

“If I knew then what I know now, I would have said: Freedom is a length of rope. God wants you to hang yourself with it.”

“Explaining freedom to angels is a bit like explaining poetry to fish.”

The delivery of: “It's not too late. Damn it, Cas! We can fix this!” “Dean, it’s not broken!” is one of those Supernatural bits that will live in my head until the end of time. All of Edlund’s episodes are among my favorites, but this (along with “5.04 - The End”) was on another level. 

#2 - 5.16 - “Dark Side of the Moon”

Written by: Andrew Dabb & Daniel Loflin | Directed by: Jeff Wollnough

I think of this episode every time  I hear Bob Dylan sing “Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door.” This is kinda a giant montage episode, but the connecting concepts are so...satisfying. 

“Heaven is your favorite memories.” “ It’s called the axis mundi. It’s a path that runs through heaven. Different people see it as different things. For you, it’s two-lane asphalt.” “This is your idea of heaven? Wow, this was one of the worst nights of my life.” “I don’t think I realized how long you’ve been cleaning up Dad’s messes.” “It’s awesome to finally have an application—a practical application—for string theory.” “Everyone leaves you, Dean. You noticed?” “Why is God talking to me? Gardner-to-gardener, and between us, I think he gets lonely.” “You son of a bitch, I believed in... ” Whoosh.

#1 - 4.01 - “Lazarus Rising”

Written by: Eric Kripke | Directed by: Kim Manners

So...this is the episode where Castiel, angel of thee Lord, shows up. And that’s primarily why it earns the no. 1 spot, because 80% of my enjoyment of Supernatural from this point on was Cas-adjacent. Plus this entire episode just hits. ALL OF IT. Dean’s homecoming. Ruby, my darling. Bobby’s entire vibe. Pamela Barnes, easily one of the most interesting women Supernatural ever introduced. Cas being so hot to say “Hi” to Dean he forgets he wounds people. 

But beyond that-- the way the show writes their ‘oh, by the way, angels’ narrative! If you haven’t seen this episode, would you believe me if I told you that THIS EPISODE, the episode where Supernatural said “canonically, Judeo-Christian Heaven is real, btw” involves no churches but does involve a séance, a soulmark handprint brand, and a himbo angel that “gripped you tight and raised you from Perdition”...but they were all “no homo, guys” for years?

Truly no one was out here doing it like Supernatural even back in 2008.

Others--

15.18 - “Despair” 

“Most Likely to Live Rent-Free in My Head for the Rest of my Life”

Written by: Robert Berens | Directed by: Richard Speight, Jr.

You know why this episode is here. It broke reality. I could be wrong-- but I’d put good money on this episode being the subject of academic theses in the future. That doesn’t automatically make for interesting story, but...

Has there ever been a case, in a mainstream US TV show where a major lead character (Cas) came out as queer so late in the game in a narratively-important way? I’m not aware of it, but I might just be behind on my television.

This episode has great writing, and (blessedly) amazing direction and blocking anyway. Check out the above gif - that is some next level foreshadowing going on in the cinematography, and this isn’t even the most remarked upon shot in this episode. (Seriously, I had to search for 40 minutes for this gif, please respect my game, lol.) Everyone who was involved in 15x18 is giddy talking about their investment, from the costume designer to the actors to the director to the writer...

...And then a bunch of them steadfastly have avoided posting much Supernatural-related since. So that’s...loud. There is a bunch of subtext in this episode that is screamingly loud; there is a bunch of text in this episode that makes several things clear fandom has been chattering over for years and years. The meta-commentary around this episode continues, months later. There are over 700 fics on AO3 with this episode tag.

I have more to say about the themes of ‘free will’ and ‘love’ and ‘identity’ tied to this episode, but seriously-- you’ve probably read 17 versions of it on Tumblr already, so.

This is the last time we see Cas, and the last time Supernatural can claim anything close to narrative consistency. For that alone, it’d earn free head-space.

Runners-up: “4.20 - The Rapture”; “5.04 - The End”; “7.21 - Reading is Fundamental”; “8.21 - The Great Escapist”; “9.06 - Heaven Can’t Wait”; “12.19 - The Future”; “14.08 - Byzantium”

6.17 - “My Heart Will Go On”/8.07 - “A Little Slice of Kevin”

“Most Likely to Inspire Unnecessary Fanfiction”

Written by: Eric Charmelo & Nicole Snyder (6.17); Brad Buckner & Eugenie Ross-Leming | Directed by: Phil Sgriccia (6.17); Charlie Carner (8.07)

Usually the show kills off it’s “one-episode” female characters, but do you know one time it didn’t? When the Moirai (the Fates - specifically Atropos, the shearer of the Threads of Fate) showed up in canon in 6.17. She was posited to have “two older sisters that were bigger than her- in every sense of the word,” ...and Castiel had to back down when she challenged him to a cosmic game of chicken over the Winchester’s lives.

Then they never returned to that idea again. 

“A Little Slice of Kevin” is on here for the opposite reason -- an amazing idea that was really underwritten in the episode it showed up in. Dean Winchester has been dragging himself across the fabric of universes; the literal Word of God is in play in a warehouse in Middle America; Cas is back from Purgatory, but what does that mean, micro and macro? As a person on the street, what would it mean, or feel like, to learn you were a Prophet of the Lord, uncalled? That what you are, everything you are, is a cosmic contingency?

Maybe Fate has an opinion on all these shenanigans?

Perhaps all that doesn’t make sense, but it certainly made an impression on ~2012 me. To this day, it remains the WIP I can open up and fool myself with the ‘twist.’ I wish I remembered where I was going with it so I could finish it.

Runners Up: “2.20 - What Is and What Should Never Be”; “5.04 - The End”; “6.15 - The French Mistake”; 12.12 - “Stuck in the Middle (with you)”; “13.05 - Advanced Thanatology” “14.03 - The Scar”; “14.10 - Nihilism”; “15.15 - Gimme Shelter” ... and “15.20 - Carry On” (obviously)

Fifteen seasons. There were plenty of other episodes I loved that didn’t make these limited lists. But overall -- thank you, Supernatural, for the run. Even if I’m upset at the ending, I can appreciate the game. If you watch the show, what were your favorite episodes?

[tfw-no-tennis]

mtmte liveblog issue 9

back at it again, and its time for the shadowplay arc, HELL yeah

oh I'm so excited i love this arc lets DO this

oooh its nightbeat and quark!! way before they become relevant, which is so cool

‘one of those recepticon fanatics’ lmao imagine if they were...the recepticons. just doesn't have the same ring to it 

god i fucking love all the politics of mtmte. i love how they’re talking about the senate here before we really get to See how bad they were (we heard a bit about it from whirl a few issues ago, and now here)

love how nightbeat is pretty much agreeing with the decepticon ideology here, even if its clear that he isn't Actually a decepticon - it just drives home the fact that, in this story, The Decepticons Were Right About A Lot Of That Stuff (or at least, they had a reason other than ‘destruction’ for rebelling). 

AND THEN THERES RUNG!!!!!!! WITH HIS MODEL OF THE LOST LIGHT....god i fuckgin LOVE the continuity in this story bc the first time reading this ur like oh ok rung is old yea makes sense...but then later all the time travel stuff happens and then its like OHHHHH 

damn poor rung nightbeat can rlly tell he's lonely just by looking at him vbhjdkdfhbjsjkdf geez. also nightbeat that's ur mystery stick bf from the future js!!

quarks extreme POV on all of the stuff is so interesting, and makes so much sense bc of Course he would think that as a non-combatant scientist who, due to his functional value in current society, wouldn't really benefit much from a revolution - in fact, he’d probably lose a lot. and that’s the sort of thing where you’re like, ok well think about everyone else dude, have some perspective - but at the same time, quark did suffer a pretty terrible fate, so his fears weren't entirely unfounded...augh, its so fascinating...im sorry I'm not gonna shut up about space robot politics this Entire time

HOW did nobody notice that dead body before now

ratchet spray-painting the hands he stole from pharma to match his own paintjob is like...kinda gruesome if you think about it hvbhsjkdfbkjdf

i love rewind sooo much oh my god 

he rlly stashed rung’s comatose body in a wheelchair behind the bar hbkjdhfbshjkdf rewind 

rewind and chromedome’s tag-team explanation....ough hhhhh THEM 

wait a sec, rewind, you have medical records in your database? that is, at least according to regular medical laws, very illegal lmao. my favorite long-running theme in mtmte: the fact that hipaa and osha laws on cybertron are either basically nonexistent, or just universally disregarded 

what the actual fuck is up w/cybertronian time units. that shit is wack as hell 

ooh i love how chromedome looks different in the flashback - no shoulder tires! - that's a cool detail

how come prowl just said ‘minute,’ rewind was busting it up w/all the wack ass fantasy time units just a second ago. geez

also goddd i love the scenery of pre-war cybertron, its SUCH a cool setting like, visually and aesthetically and politically

like, i adore details like the sign in the bg that says ‘everyone’s shape serves a purpose.’ really adds to the ‘society on the precipice of civil war currently controlled by an increasingly-desperate faction who are doling out propaganda like crazy in an attempt to maintain their image and control over the populace’ vibe

good ole murder mystery setup. love it!

pre-war prowl is such an interesting character. actually prowl in general is such an interesting character...I kinda wrote him off during my first read of mtmte (and even a little during my second readthru) as just this dude who’s an asshole (espec bc my prev tf experience involved watching tfa as a kid, and this prowl is very different from tfa prowl lol)...but prowl is SUCH a multi-faceted and interesting character, even in the relatively little we see of him in mtmte 

plus it was interesting to learn later that prowl was one of the characters that jro wanted for mtmte and didn't get, and MAN i wish he got prowl bc I would've loved to see what jro would've done w/prowl on the lost light, that would've been amazing. like, just imagine the arc he would have...I have no idea what that arc would BE, but I know it would be awesome. plus I’d be really interested to see how prowl would factor in, relationships-wise, amongst the crew of the lost light. so much potential!

anyways. I'm in a very talky mood tonight it seems. its currently 4 am so that kinda explains it. ok, moving on!

chromedome and prowl bantering....in their own morbid forensic-cop way...

skids bvhjdbsfjasf. speaking what we’re all thinking: is prowl gonna keep showing up in mtmte despite not technically being part of the cast??

swerves drawing of prowl lmaoooo

AND THEN REWIND IN SOME OF MY FAVORITE MTMTE PANELS....fuckgin cracks me up every time god. rewind was rlly about to flip their entire ass table just to demonstrate that prowl is a serial table-flipper...and then he cant even make the table budge and he just stares at his hands like ‘how could you betray me like this’ hvbajkhhsfdhksdf PEAK hilarity

drift hvbshfdjbasdfj his forcibly cheery expression even tho he’s being harassed by rodimus, who is a big whiny toddler w/drift lmao 

rodimus is the type of guy who, upon drift not replying to one of his texts, would post a whole twitter thread being all like ‘these days u cant trust any1 to hav ur back...u think u kno someone and then they just ghost you...(1/14)’

again, rewind, HOW and WHY do you just Have medical reports, oh my god, somebody please call a hipaa agent I’m scared, 

ratchet interrupting the story to give a quick medical PSA....that's Such an on-brand thing for Me to do that I feel like jro is assigning me ratchet kin as I read this

also, hey, its sonic and boom, those two decepticons from delphi! nice little continuity there

AND HERES ORION PAX SUPER COP

can’t believe idw made my dad optimus prime into a cop. smh. shouldn't be that shocked tho, I feel like half the idw characters are cops

orion rlly hit them w/the omae wa mo shinderu arrest strat

orion: I cant believe you're beating this guy up. anyways, now I'm gonna beat YOU up,

when ratchet puts his hand over drifts mouth and then gets spray paint on drifts face bhjdfsvsdjhfgbjdskf

pre-war ratchet and drift ;_; ratchet’s little inspirational speech...the fact that he tells drift that he’s special...the fact that drift remembered all of this even after 4 million+ yrs...it gets me bro it GETS me

ALSO the layers in the fact that drift then goes on to become a well-known murderous decepticon...so this little scene of him and ratchet in the past gives a lot of context to ratchet’s general attitude towards drift - ratchet clearly feels at least somewhat responsible for all the blood on drift’s hands, since he saved drift’s life way back in the day

the whole relinquishment clinic thing is such cool worldbuilding, bc of course that's the kind of thing that would develop in a society of robot aliens who are only allowed to work within the rigid confines of their alt mode 

I love the whole matrix thing bc its kinda like being the pope or st but also you have a ton of political sway, so its a super important position, so of Course the corrupt senate would want full control over that power, and would assassinate the current prime to try to get their own guy in 

god vhbhjsdkbgshjdf rodimus is such a dick lmao poor drift

HHHHH I love that the cybertronian version of an autopsy is taking the dudes body apart into the smallest components and laying them all out. that's so fucking cool

hmmmm chromedome maybe you should Not be interested in mnemology, how about that,

oh god. time to start being sad about op and senator shockwave. oh god

senator shockwave more like senator sexy 

also the first time I read this I thought I had just missed his name and like halfway thru the story I went back and scoured the pages looking for it hbvhsjdfbshgfdsbj then I was like oh ok so we’re maybe supposed to just know who this guy is from another comic? but NOPE it was very deliberate and I only realized very close to the end that they were setting up some sort of reveal

its funny bc normally I'm not a huge fan of stories where politics play a huge role but I fuckgin love it here, the politics and worldbuilding is all so interesting and also balanced out with a healthy dose of cool sci-fi hijinks, so

lmao there's chromedome being obsessed w/people making the ‘pfft’ sound 

also wow yet more hindsight, maybe you Shouldn’t be so interested in the Institute, chromedome, 

OHHHH shit I forgot abt the red alert stuff happening at the same time as this :( :( :( 

AUGHHH what a fucked up situation. god 

oooof i gotta continue now!! what a solid issue, I love the shadowplay arc

[kinghoranshit]

Tell Me a Lie (NH) Ch 3

Word Count: 2,065

Warnings: Swearing

I snapped a pretzel in half and munched on it. I dipped the other half into the small jar of peanut butter and popped it into my mouth before I flipped the piece of paper to the other side. I was deep in editing mode for Stone Cold. 

I had talked to my manager about the upcoming events since there were red carpet dates already locked down for later that year, and she approved them, along with congratulations on the romance. But I was not able to get any definitive days off to truly work on Stone Cold, so I was still back to my weird schedule to get it finished on time. 

Out of bad habit, I clicked my power button on my phone and looked at the screen for anything to distract me for a short second. There was a message from Niall. 

N: Yoo, it’s go time . 

L: Really? What about publicity photos?

N: This is gonna work better . I’m gonna use one of our old selfies . 

L: Haha You mean from backstage in Chicago? That was like 6 months ago... 

N: It’s the only recent once we’ve got , Kelly . 

It’ll work 

L: I guess you’re right.

N: I am (: 

Be ready for it . 

Now, an Instagram notification came up and I already knew who it was from. I pulled down my notifications bar to see it and tapped it. I swear my heart stopped at the caption. 

@NiallOfficial: You know I don’t like lying to you all, but I’ve kept this a secret . For the sake of wanting our first few months to be only us . Well , those few months turned into a full year . I couldn’t be happier with this woman ! She makes me feel like I’m on cloud 9 . She even makes the golf losses better haha

He’d also tagged me. It was another requirement for social media; all posts had to be tagged. I was suddenly super nervous. This was actually it. There were so many new follows, likes, and comments on my account, and people were commenting congrats underneath Niall’s; though it wasn’t hard to miss a few of the mean wishes. 

K: So…. this is really it?

N: Yup . You got this , Kelly !   

K: There weren’t that many restrictions to the socials, surprisingly…

Do I have to follow people back? 

N: Haha no ! Follow who ya want 

K: Cool

A Twitter notification popped up on my top bar. I pulled it down to see Niall had tagged me in a photo there as well, and it was similarly worded to Instagram. At least it wasn’t a total copy and paste, that wasn’t necessarily Niall’s style. The Twitter notifications also started to flow in and I knew there had to be some way to filter them or this was going to be overwhelming.

K: Please tell me there’s a way to filter the notifications 

N: Absolutely , under your settings there should be a way to just get ones of people you follow 

If you get verified , I’ll help you with those 

K: Who said anything about me getting verified? 

N: Kelly , don’t act so cavalier love . It’ll happen eventually . 

I’ll walk you through it , I had Modest to help me and you’ve got me to help you

K: Duh duh DUHHHH

N: Okay , if you don’t want it I won ‘t give it to ya 

K: You know you will anyway

You loooove me 

N: Augh

You’re right 

***

I finally gathered the courage to thoroughly go through my Twitter notifications. I figured that the most recent ones may not be necessarily nice since I had been MIA for a few days after Niall’s initial post. But could they really blame me? I didn’t think so. 

My Twitter followers went from literally 450 to 38K. Just cause I was Niall’s “girlfriend”? That’s just… I couldn’t lie, I never followed the boys’ girlfriends or PR girlfriends, whatever they were to them. I didn’t have much to say to this. 

I decided to make a tweet first before doing anything else. 

@kellygarden: Sorry I’ve been MIA y’all. About to get interactive though! How about a Q&A? Hashtag #AskKelly :) 

I used the time of people asking questions to go through some of those following me and follow a few. And when I say a few, I mean a few. I might do a follow spree at some point and do a hundred or a couple hundred people. 

I about shit my pants seeing some of those who were following me that I was already following. Like Tom Holland, all the 5SOS boys, the other lads from One Direction, and Selena Gomez. Holy shit. What? Why? I was having a hard time believing this, but I couldn’t stop a smile from crossing my lips. So unreal. 

I searched my hashtag now and looked at some of the questions, replying to some. 

@Fuckmeniall: @KellyGarden Was it love at first sight? #AskKelly

@KellyGarden: @Fuckmeniall First off, love your @ . It was more like love at first coffee - we met at a cafe in London :)

@DamagedQueen: @KellyGarden Hw old r u? Wt do u do? #AskKely PS luv ur layout<3

@KellyGarden: Aww thanks so much! I’m 24 and a novel editor for a publishing house in London. 

@Jocylnbitch: @KellyGarden I don’t really like you, but I have a question about Niall. What’s he like in bed? #AskKelly

@KellyGarden: @Jocylnbitch: Glad to hear your opinion about me. And I don’t think that’s any of your business. 

@Rylanroll: @KellyGarden R u a virgin? #AskKelly

@KellyGarden: @Rylanroll Are you old enough to be asking this question? But no, I’m not.

@Hannable: @KellyGarden If you could clone yourself, would you? Why? #AskKelly

@KellyGarden: @Hannable I would. As selfish as this is, I’d have my clone to do my work so I could go see the world and be with Nialler.

@Uplousass: @KellyGarden Have you met the other boys yet? Freddie? #AskKelly

@KellyGarden: @Uplousass Props for the @, I’m dying! *laugh crying face emoji* I haven’t... and I’m not going to force any of them to meet me if they choose not to. 

@NiallOfficial: @KellyGarden How far are you up my ass? #AskKelly

@KellyGarden: @NiallOfficial I would be Hella far up if you weren’t so far up mine already :P

@Michael5SOS: @KellyGarden CAN I MEET YOU?! ASDLFKAS #AskKelly

@KellyGarden: @Michael5SOS DLKASLGA YEAH IF YA WANT 

@lukecummings: @KellyGarden Have you ever written fanfiction? #AskKelly

@KellyGarden: @lukecummings I have, but they’re cringy af. I’m not kidding on that. They will never resurface the web. 

@Astheticnolan: @KellyGarden What are you favorite smells on earth? #AskKelly

@KellyGarden: @Astheticnolan COFFEE, books, rain, You&I perfume, flowers, Niall’s cologne

@Haywire: @KellyGarden What’s your music taste? #AskKelly

@KellyGarden: @Haywire My music library is on crack. I could be listening to 1D, then it could go to Skillet, Ed, Counting Crows, M83, etc. It’s a wide range, except no Country.

@Luke5SOS: @KellyGarden Is that lame band 5SOS not in your music library? :(

@KellyGarden: @Luke5SOS Pft yes, yes they are in my music library. It’s full of lame bands lmfao

@Daylight5SOS: @KellyGarden Have you talked with the other boys? #AskKelly

@KellyGarden: @Daylight5SOS Yeah, Louis. 

@Louis_Tomlinson: @KellyGarden Do look forward to officially meeting you. Freddie son says hi.

@KellyGarden: @Louis_Tomlinson I look forward to it as well. Stay safe you two x.

@Penofhope: @KellyGarden Favorite genre to write? #AskKelly

@KellyGarden: @Penofhope Fiction. YA. Mainly Fantasy and Sci-fi. 

@Clotheswhore: @KellyGarden What's your aesthetic? #AskKelly

@KellyGarden: @Clotheswhore By your @ I’m going to assume you mean my clothes aesthetic? I’d say it’s a little bit of everything - I can’t stick to one thing lol

@Niallsride: @KellyGarden Do you drive? #AskKelly

@KellyGarden: @Niallsride I do. Both car and motorcycle/bikes.

@Monaymaker: @KellyGarden Do you drink? #AskKelly

@KellyGarden: @Monaymaker I do socially.

@Harry_Styles: @KellyGarden I look forward to meeting you. Niall is a lucky guy. All the love. H. #AskKelly

@KellyGarden: @Harry_Styles Thank you so much, H! Soon I hope x.

@Horanyass: @KellyGarden How many kids do you want? Gender ? Would you like to have them with Niall? #AskKelly

@KellyGarden: @Horanyass 2 or 3, any gender, and if I happen to have my kids with Niall then I’d be happy about it :)

@Styleskid: @Kellyiebabes Fave bromances of 1D and 5SOS? #AskKelly

@KellyGarden: @Styleskid All the ones with Luke and Niall, Cashton, and Lilo. 

@5Saucelove: @KellyGarden Pancakes or waffles? #AskKelly

@KellyGarden: @5Saucelove Waffles all the way! X.

@Horanhasmyheart: @KellyGarden Have you heard any songs off Niall’s upcoming album? #AskKelly

@KellyGarden: @Horanhasmyheart Nope, he’s super secretive about it. I’m gonna be just as shook as all of you! Looking forward to it! 

I looked at all the ones I answered, smiling a bit at a few of them. I didn’t realize how many I answered or how much time had passed. I had to be on a work call soon, which could go until midnight because of the time difference. 

@KellyGarden: Gotta get back to work. Thank you all for the questions! I’ll be doing another one of these soon, yeah?

I didn’t wait for any of the replies before I locked my phone and set my laptop up for Zoom. 

***

I huffed, observing the cherry patterned and floral dresses in my hands, and the pile of other choices I thought about taking to LA. I was so indecisive right now. How many outfits did I really need? Five days worth, but on top of some clothes for clubbing possibly, and pjs. But if I packed something I didn’t want to wear, I didn’t really want to wear the same thing. Why was I like this?

I huffed once again and flopped down onto the mass. I leave tomorrow and need to get this sorted out. After another half hour of stalling, I willed myself to get back up and actually pack. I decided on six solid outfits, on top of one clubbing fit and pjs. It seemed like the safest route.

N: Get in loser , we’re going to see Paps 

K: Hah hah like oh my god they don’t even go here 

I finally just packed. How’s LA? 

N: Kelly, you’re such a procrastinator 

LA is ready for you 

K: But I don’t know if I’m ready for LA 

N: Ooo so cliche , you’re both ready. 

See you tomorrow x

K: See you tomorrow xo

***

As much as I’d love to say I could handle getting myself to my flight on my own, I couldn’t. I hadn’t flown in a few years and that had been with a group of others. I was flying by myself now, and I have to do all the checking in and such as well. 

I took a deep breath as I approached the security check line. I set my purse and backpack in one bin and my duffel in another before setting them on the metal rods that would take it through a detecting machine. I waited for the woman to wave me through the detecting machine, and I went through fine. I mean, I didn’t have anything that would set it off. 

Once my stuff came through the other end of the metal rods line, I grabbed it and put the bins in the pile that was started. When I started walking away to find my gate, I realized I was stupid to be so nervous about going through the line. 

Finding my gate wasn’t hard. It helped that the Cedar Rapids Airport was small. There’s like eight gates. I settled myself in a seat to wait until boarding was called. I took my phone out and busied myself with Instagram and Tumblr; I just scrolled through my feed, liking and reblogging stuff. 

“Gate B is now boarding. If you are first class, you have a separate line. If you are G1 for the coach cabin, you can now board.”

That was me. 

I took another deep breath, grabbing my three bags, and I walked over to the woman. She took my ticket, ripping off the part she needed, and then handed it back to me. “Enjoy your flight.”

“Thanks,” I replied. 

I walked through the terminal and onto the fairly small plane. It was more of a jet. I found my seat and settled everything. I followed the directions given by the fly attendant as I waited for the plane to actually take off, and finally, we moved to be on the runway and ascended into the air. 

Next: Ch 4

[Masterlist]