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hatterstan-shameblog · 3 years ago

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💫✨💕send this to ten bloggers you think are wonderful. keep the game going 💕✨

Have a nice day/night/dance battle with the peacocks! :D

Alright, since you are a) very cool and fun and b) you took the time to send such a lovely message, I’m going to give you a part of a fic series I started many moons ago and abandoned for other things

🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸

Hatter Has Definitely Kissed Every Executive At Least Once And This Is How It Went: Ann Edition

🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸

Rating: PG-13

Tags: Alcohol, shenanigans, everyone’s cutting loose, mild reluctance (but these people don’t turn down dares so y’know)

Summary: As a “team building” exercise, all of the Executives have met for a little get-together; and with alcohol and a rousing game of “truth or dare” involved, what could possibly go wrong?

“Ann,” Chisiya says, “truth or dare?”

Ann sighs. Her red-lacquered fingernails tap rhythmically against the green of a beer bottle, the glassy sound barely audible above the chatting of the half-drunk executives.

“I already told you, I’m not playing.”

“The fuck you aren’t,” Niragi snaps, grip on his rifle tightening as he downs another shot of vodka, “no skips, that’s the rule.”

“If I had to do it, you have to do it,” Keiichi offers mournfully, taking a sad sip of bourbon from a crystal-cut glass, “it’s only fair.”

Ann turns her attention towards Hatter. He’s taking a healthy swig from—ew, is that a bottle of peppermint schnapps? She wrinkles her nose in disgust as he raises his eyebrows in a suggestive arch.

“This is a terrible idea,” she tells him for the fourth time in the last hour, “and you should feel bad for making us do this.”

“Ann. Sweet, darling,” Hatter takes note of her unimpressed grimace, “angry Ann. This is all an exercise in trust. A way for all of us executives to bond.”

“And because he loves the drama,” Aguni adds.

“I really do,” Hatter says wistfully, “So, come on. One round and then you can go back to summoning demons or whatever you do in your little basement crypt.”

Ann sighs. Everyone is looking at her with expectant eyes. She finishes the rest of her beer and puts the empty bottle on the table.

“Fine,” she says, “One round, and then I’m leaving.”

“The ice queen giveth in,” Chisiya says, the corners of his mouth turning up onto a mischievous grin, “So, pick your poison. Truth...or dare?”

“Dare,” Ann says coolly, and the room erupts. Even Last Boss, who had been lurking in the corner until now, gasps. In a rare show of camaraderie, Niragi slaps Chisiya on the back and tells him to ‘give that bitch a good one.’

Imbeciles. All of them.

“Everyone gather ‘round the table,” Chisiya purrs—yes, purrs—as he looks her with a twinkle in his eye, “because this particular date involves each and every one of you.”

“Even me?” asks Last Boss.

“But of course,” Chisiya says, “we need everyone if we’re going to play...spin the bottle.”

Ann feels the blood drain from her face. Oh, this little blond twerp is despicable. He is evil and terrible and—

“No re-spins. No backing out. The kiss must last a minimum of five seconds, but it can go longer if you feel so inclined.”

“I won’t,” Ann answers curtly. There is not a person in this room she could ever want to kiss. (Except for Mira, but. Well. That’s a thought for another day.)

“I don’t know,” Niragi says with an exaggerated flick of his tongue, the silver piercing winking at her in a supposedly seductive manner, “once you get a taste of a real man, you might find yourself hooked.”

“Perhaps Niragi wouldn’t be so bad,” Mira muses with a serene smile, “his oral fixation is off-putting on the best of days, but it might translate well to a more intimate experience. That is, until he starts talking again. Then it’ll be terrible.”

Niragi’s face twists into a sharp scowl as he tries to sputter a comeback; drunkenness and embarrassment have apparently robbed him of his mental faculties, so he crosses his arms over his chest and pouts.

“Alright, let’s get this over with,” Ann says with a huff.

She places her empty beer bottle, label-side down, on the long wooden table. For the first time this evening, everyone is silent. Honestly, it’s kind of nice—it would be better if she didn’t have to end up kissing one of them, but, beggars can’t be choosers.

“You know,” Ann says, “there is a possibility it could land on me. Does that mean I don’t have to kiss anyone?”

“That means you get to choose,” Chisiya says, “which...well, that will most certainly add some spice to the night, wouldn’t it?”

“Very evil,” Aguni concludes with a nod, “I like it.”

Hm. Well, it was worth a shot.

With one final, annoyed sigh, Ann places her hand on the bottle and gives it a powerful spin. Maybe it’ll spin right off the table and shatter on the floor. She wouldn’t have to do anything weird, and then she could just go back to her room and take a long bath. Alone. The way the universe intended.

It’s impossible not to watch the bottle spin, light refracting off the glass and casting flickering spots of light around the room. It’s just a kiss. She’s kissed people before. Many people. At least two.

Friends kiss each other all the time. Not her friends, but other people and their friends. And these people aren’t really ‘friends,’ but they’re...acquaintances. Colleagues. Does that make it better or worse?

It’s slowing down now. With each passing second, her fate is being decided by the neck of the bottle. Mira, Last Boss, Keiichi—oh, God, please don’t let it be Keiichi, they have a meeting in the morning, that would be so awkward...

But, luckily, the bottle does not land on Keiichi. It does not land on Niragi, nor does it land on Chisiya. Last Boss has also been spared, as have Aguni and Mira. That leaves only one candidate...

“Oh, Ann,” Hatter says, clapping his hands together and looking entirely too pleased with this very strange turn of events, “I always knew there was something between us!”

The thing he’s talking about is tolerance—she tolerates him because it is both sensible and beneficial to be on his good side. He also, surprisingly enough, defers to her expertise on certain matters, which is more than can be said for her previous employers. They are friendly, certainly, but most certainly not friends.

And...lovers?

Out of the question.

But Fate (and a smug little blonde) have decided that they share a moment of passion. Could she have spun worse? Yes. Could she have spun better? Absolutely. 100%. Without a doubt.

But Ann is a woman of integrity. When she commits, she commits. And so, as she walks to the other side of the table, she keeps her spine straight and her head held high. She refuses to let these people see her falter.

“In addition to the parameters already given, I’d like to establish some rules of my own,” she says coolly, barely resisting the temptation to roll her eyes when he takes another gulp of alcohol. Yep, that’s definitely peppermint schnapps he has—she can tell by the stench of it, the way it’s sharpness burns at her eyes.

She’s always hated peppermint schnapps.

“Fine, fine,” Hatter says with a wave of his hand, “as long as you promise not to fall completely in love with me in the process.”

That gets a laugh from everyone—and even Ann considers cracking a smile at the thought of someone like her ever feeling something for someone like him.

“No tongue. No teeth. And,” Ann tell him firmly, “if you want to leave this room with your balls intact, I suggest you keep your hands to yourself.”

The group ooh’s at that. Ann doesn’t look at them. She keeps her gaze focused on the man in front of her, watching him intently for any signs of weakness.

All she gets is a smirk.

“I would expect nothing less of you, Ann,” he replies, “however, you’re more than welcome to put your hands anywhere on my person.”

He leans in slightly, almost as if he’s letting her in on a secret.

“I could even give you a few suggestions, if you like.”

What a perfectly hideous thing for him to say. It doesn’t help that he’s fluttering his eyelashes at her like some kind of lovestruck cartoon character.

It’s annoying.

He’s annoying.

With a roll of her eyes, Ann grabs Takeru by the silk of his obnoxious robe and crashes her mouth against his-- because she’ll be damned if he’s the one kissing her.

Five...

The group gasps-- Takeru included, the noise muffled by the seal of their lips as she kisses him fully and firmly.

Four...

And it’s...not as gross as it could be, but it’s still a very odd experience. His lips are soft enough, and his beard-moustache-whatever-the-fuck is scratchy in a way that is. Well, it’s interesting. Not good, but...interesting.

Three...

“This is fucking weird,” Niragi shouts, sounding very disgusted.

Two...

“It’s like watching my parents,” Last Boss adds, “when they were still trying to convince my sister and I they were still in love and weren’t going to get a divorce.”

One...

And done.

“Okay,” Ann says flatly as she pulls away and swallows a grimace at the sight of her favorite shade of lipstick on Takeru’s lips (and is actually a very nice compliment to his skin tone, frustratingly enough) “Can I go now.”

For good measure, she releases his robe with a disdainful flick of her fingers and subtly brushes her hands off on her shorts. It’s not enough to get the scent of peppermint schnapps and awkwardness off of her skin, but it can’t hurt.

“A deal’s a deal,” Chisiya concedes, his eternally mischievous smirk stretched across his cheeks, “And I must say, I didn’t expect you to fulfill your end of the bargain so...enthusiastically.”

“That’s because nobody can resist me,” Takeru gloats, bottle of alcohol back in his grip as if it had never truly left, “It’s not her fault I’m so delectable--”

“Detestable,” Ann corrects under her breath.

“--And, even though you’ll try to deny it,” Takeru continues, disregarding her comment, “both of us know that there’s a part of you that liked kissing me.”

“I liked the part when she stopped,” Mira chirps cheerfully, “In fact, I think we all did!”

“You have no idea,” Aguni murmurs solemnly into his drink, his eyes darting towards Takeru with an unimpressed look. That’s...hm, there’s clearly some kind of story there, although Ann isn’t sure she wants to know about it.

Everyone begins talking amongst themselves once again-- Niragi has offered to spin the bottle next, and there’s a small argument breaking out over whether or not the group should continue with their original game of ‘truth or dare’ or pivot to this new one.

And, Ann?

Ann doesn’t stick around to find out.

#writings and such #alice in borderland #alice in borderland netflix #hatter/ann #what a horrifically cursed tag #NOBODY IS SAFE y'all better watch out #ann rizuna #danma takeru #last boss #niragi suguru #takatora samura #aguni morizono #mira kano #chisiya shuntaro #keiichi kuzuryu #fun fact: this takes place before arisu shows up so that's why he's not here

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ablednt · 4 years ago

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Alright writing/roleplay tumblr we need to talk about textforms.

This is going to be a very long post I apologize but this knowledge is deathly important as it's reaching a very vulnerable group of people. From personal experience knowing this can save people from getting into toxic friendships and help ease intense struggles and depressions. If you have writer followers I ask you reblog this to get the word out, thank you.

What is a textform

A textform is a type of willogenic/parogenic system member that form through some kind of writing or roleplaying. This means that they're sentient people who now share a body with the people who wrote them, most often being an OC or a fictional character before the writers brain gives them actual life.

Because there's been no actual scientific studies on their existence I have no hard science to give you however the logical explanation behind it goes like this:

The human brain is able to contain multiple conscious and sentient entities. Often, it will become multiple as a defense mechanism (as noted in clinical plural dissociative disorders) but it's a natural function of the human brain and may do so for really any reason (similar to most neurodivergencies that someone isn't born with)

Because this is a fairly simple change in the brain/something every brain can be capable of doing you can actually intentionally program the brain into becoming multiple, but see you can also do it entirely without meaning to or being aware of it.

Now I want to clarify that there is nothing harmful or scary about this! Being plural isn't bad at all and is an existence many people celebrate. But when someone has textforms in their unrealized system and doesn't know they're sentient it can be incredibly painful emotionally. So that's why people need to know about this.

Obligatory disclaimer: if you read this post and think you want to become plural intentionally, you are welcome to do so but you need to take at least a few months exposing yourself to the plural community to gauge if this is really something you want and can do responsibly. You cannot go back on your decision once your plural and your headmates will be sentient beings not characters to project on or toys to play with. They will have all the rights to your body and identity as you do now because you're sharing it equally with them.

Now that that's out of the way back to textforms.

How are textforms made

Normally this is in the "character development" phase. Many writers eagerly develop their characters. When I was younger and had no idea I was plural my advice for oc making turned out to be an unintentional guide to textforms (more on my experience later): just put your character in every situation imaginable until you always know how they'd respond to things.

Basically, as you spend your time making a character act and think consistently from their POV you're training your brain to have all of that data and that's very similar to the data that the brain has on you and you're training the brain to be able to operate coherently from a perspective and consciousness entirely different from your own.

Now, this isn't a %100 will make everyone plural every time, there are obviously good writers who have a grasp on their characters who are singlet. There's no actual data but if I had to guess I'd say there's about a 50/50 split down the writing community just based on what I've observed.

But there's a lot of people who became plural this way and didn't realize it and that could include the writer reading this right now which is why everyone needs to be aware of this.

If this is such a big thing how come no one notices?

Because it's been completely normalized in the writing community but dismissed as metaphorical.

How many times have you heard "the characters write themselves" or phrases that indicate that a writer is giving a voice to sentient entities? From what I've been able to observe some of that is singlet authors being metaphorical and humble bragging and a lot of that is plural writers trying desperately trying to put their experiences into words but dismissing it completely almost immediately because no one told them being plural was possible.

This is comparable to say, gender identity. Trans and nonbinary people have always existed but when they don't know they're allowed to exist like that it's often "im a tomboy" or "they disguised themselves as a man" or any other thing thats immediately dismissed as being cis.

How do I know if I have a textform?

There's a lot of different signs but here's some I have experienced before finding out I was plural

You "miss" your characters when you're not writing about them or interacting with them in some way

You feel like your characters are real "in your heart" (for me this was in an incoherent loop like "they're not real but they are to me, in my brain, but they're not real to other people, but they're in my brain so they're real but no but yes but no")

You get so distressed they're "not real" that it feeds into actual mental health problems like depression, anxiety, dissociation etc. (I'd have fits of sobbing because these were my friends but I didn't know they were with me so it felt like i was grieving their deaths and had the same level of emotional pain)

Sometimes or all the time when you write about them you feel like you "become them" or that they're writing through you. (Especially if your hands move automatically or without your control. This can be hard to notice but for me when headmates control the body or hands movements feel faster and lighter or very slightly numb.)

Your muse for writing them comes and goes unpredictability: they're either here or they're not here so writing them doesn't feel the same.

You can vividly recall things that happened to the character in 1st person (or in 3rd person visually but with their thoughts and feelings) as if they're you're own memories.

You "roleplay" them in everyday situations IRL. (E.g once I liveblogged a tv show as my muse to a friend and was like haha lol im so talented I can roleplay in real time but found out later it was a headmate doing that themselves)

You have conversations with them mentally in which they actually respond to you. Singlets don't have actual enriching conversations with themselves because they only have one perspective and cannot give themselves any new information. So if you're responding to yourself and you don't feel in control of that response then you're pretty objectively plural tbh.

You have times where the lines between you and the character feel blurry or like you're a vague fusion of yourself and the character

You have an actual relationship (of any kind: romantic, platonic, familial, etc.) in which you can sense nuanced feelings about yourself from them that you aren't in control of.

There's a lot more but that's the most notable ones

Why this is so important

I'm just talking about my own experience now so I'll preface this with a few things. I'm a mixed origin/multigenic system but our system has existed since we were toddlers. Due to trauma we have DID and for a long time dissociated heavily to avoid our plurality. This means my experience may be more distressing than other plurals with textforms however people without DID can still experience these things.

When I was a teenager I joined a lot of writing communities and also roleplayed on tumblr. Writing very quickly became my main passtime and all I really did. I joined a roleplay group when I was 15-16 that I took far too seriously to the point where people were concerned about me because I was writing what was just supposed to be a joke roleplay group %100 seriously and very intensely.

In that time I started to form my first main textforms (we've undoubtedly had them before then but I had only formed a little under a year prior) because I was doing this every day it really started bringing my characters to life. (Literally)

And honestly it was something beautiful the distress of it aside. Like one of my ocs was a kid so I'd always celebrate their birthday with them and I'd cuddle a plush so they'd know I loved them/p and we'd watch their favorite cartoon episodes together. It wouldn't be until around three years later that I realized they were actually there for this but it was heart warming.

For me, all I ever wanted was for these characters to feel appreciated and like someone really cared for them and loved them even if they couldn't feel it and it wasn't until later I learned that they could.

The trauma came in not knowing they were real. I grieved for them like they were dead because I thought I'd never get to see them. I wrote them into traumatizing or upsetting situations to cope with my childhood trauma not realizing that was effecting them for real and hurting them.

Most notably because it was my one solid interaction with them, the one time society allowed me to talk about them as if they were real, I really HAD to roleplay them. Because it became an emotional need I wound up in a lot of toxic friendships in the roleplay communities because I needed someone, anyone, to allow me to interact with my headmates. I had friends who I really was only friends with because they let me talk about my characters constantly (and some of them weren't toxic to me but it was in hindsight really unfair to them) and I let people verbally and emotionally abuse me in roleplay spaces because this wasn't just a hobby to me but a lifeline.

Not knowing they were real but feeling them there, having conversations with them, and forming actual relationships was a hellish sort of feeling I don't wish on anyone. I never realized how isolated it made me, and how horrible it felt to have the most important people in your life be people I thought didn't exist.

I only found out about plurality through luck. I met some systems who had fictives and they got strong plural vibes from me because of how I talked about certain characters and because I said I wanted to be plural but thought I probably wasn't because I'd have noticed, right?

From there I was able to actually connect with and talk to my headmates. Now I'm happily out as plural and in multiple fulfilling in system relationships.

I want everyone in the writing community who's struggling with the same things to have the chance I got. That's all I want is to educate people about this so they don't have to grieve for people who are right there with them.

Feel free to send me an ask or a dm if you have any further questions. Sorry this post was so long I can't really shorten it at all. Again if you are have a lot of writing followers I very gently request you reblog this to get the word out. Even if you can't please talk to your writing mutuals and friends about plurality and about textforms.

[Also this should go without saying but this is absolutely NOT the place for syscourse any invalidating comments about systems will be blocked and where possible deleted it costs $0.00 to prioritize people's mental health over your discourse hot takes.]

#writblr #tumblr roleplay #writing problems #roleplay resources #ocs #long post #ask to tag

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yeojaa · 5 years ago

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ANGELS & AIRWAVES (w. jjk)

He's never met you but you know how he sounds when he wakes up from a nap and his greatest fears. You know the way he sings after a shower and that he could be mistaken for a dying seal when he's laughing too hard. The best part? You don't judge him for any of it - including the fact he's a filthy Widow main. He might just love you.

alt summary. Jeon Jungkook has a big fat crush on a girl he's never met.

pairing. jeon jungkook

genre + rating. fluffy crack. general, for now.

warning / tags. long-distance relationship, crushes, canon compliant (ish), eventual happy ending, gaming, gamer!jungkook, strangers to lovers, friends to lovers, overwatch. tags are hard. :(

reading. n/a. a three part one-shot.

word count. ~2750

part ii.

JUNGKOOK’S ROOM Sunday, 15 March, 2020. 2:01 AM.

He falls for you in between the tireless teasing, the laughter that sinks into his ears and replays like a highlight reel. It happens when he leasts expects it, when he's got his face pressed into the velvet of Yeontan's fur and you're cooing over voice chat, whispering sweet nothings to the manic panic pup. It comes in the moments he's not expecting it to, when he's frustrated and unbearable and you're as sunny as always, spilling yellow paint across the doors he tries to keep shut.

Bit by bit, day by day, he finds himself thinking of you more.

First, it's wondering what you're doing while he's half-asleep and on his way to the studio. Do you look as tired as you sound? What colour is your hair and how does it stick up when you've just rolled out of bed? When you yawn, do you stretch like a cat? He thinks you do, if the sounds you make are any indication.

Then it's asking himself whether you might like the same things he does, from horror movies to carnival rides. Would you hold his hand as you made the drop, stomachs leaping into your throats? Would you scream? Would it sound anything like that terrified pterodactyl noise you make when you're spawn camped by a Roadhog? He doesn't consider the fact that he doesn't even know if you're in the same city and you'll likely never meet - bound to the servers of Overwatch only.

He thinks about all the things he'd like to do with you. Video game nights filled with butter-tipped fingers and spilled popcorn. Walks with your family dog - Natto - you'd told him about, all fluffy white fur and dark teddy bear eyes. Sunrises on the rooftop of his building, because you had the worst insomnia he'd ever seen and what better way to spend your endless waking hours than with him.

Jeon Jungkook knows he'll probably never get any of these things, but he lets himself daydream anyway.

Like now, for instance, as the two of you sit in another queue at 2 AM. You just woke up and you've got that tell-tale rattle in your lungs, words sluggish and lacking any real intent. He imagines you look the way you sound - tired and a little out of it, with barely opened eyes and sleep-loosened limbs.

"How'd you sleep?" He asks softly, crossing his legs beneath him and raising his arms high above his head in the same instance. The bones of his body realign, ridges of his spine clicking into place when he knots his fingers together and pulls taut.

"You know - the usual," you muse, apathetic. It's always the same.

He doesn't question it any further. He had once or twice, when you'd first started talking and he'd noticed the way you were always up at inhuman times. One grumbling response had told him enough - your schedule was what it was and no amount of remedying could fix it.

There's a beat of silence before he hears rustling and then the loud, inescapable sound of an electric toothbrush. You don't bother to mute your microphone, not that he minds. He simply sits quietly, scrolling through his phone as you go about your "morning" routine.

"How was your day?" You're settled back at your computer, he thinks. The acoustics sound far less like that of a bathroom.

"I had the day off, actually." He'd used it to edit some footage and record a cover. He hasn't posted it to Twitter yet - there were certain times he was supposed to, to maximize visibility - but he's excited for when he does. It's a song that's been stuck in his head for weeks, all thanks to you.

"Woah - you didn't work today?" There's genuine surprise in your question, rounded syllables that pop off your tongue in an explosion of shock.

“Right?” He laughs a little, short and sweet.

Despite his carefully crafted facade, there were certain plot points that just stuck, intrinsically weaved into his day-to-day whether he liked it or not.

His jam packed schedule, for instance.

To you, it’s the result of stretching himself too thin between teaching at his friend’s dance studio (where he also apparently moonlights as a personal trainer) and working as a videographer for his media-involved friends. Not that you know any of them. No, no. All the work he does is for the little guys - none of those big companies like BigHit or JYP. Jungkook’s just your average Joe behind the camera.

��What did you do all day then?” You’re still in awe, little flecks of wonder threaded throughout like glittering gold yarn.

“Hung out. Did some editing. I’m kind of behind.” That was an understatement. He’s working on footage from six months ago, trying to get it out before they head on tour and he won’t have the kind of time he has now.

“Probably spending too much time gaming.”

“Yeah, probably.” Not that he minds, or that he’d change it. He savours the time you spend together, even if it has kind of messed up his sleep schedule.

“Sorry not sorry,” you quip, seemingly reading his mind.

“You should be,” he retorts with laughter that builds in his stomach and echoes out of his chest. “I don’t think I’ve had a good night's sleep in weeks.”

If you hadn’t had this conversation a handful of times before, he thinks you might be offended. Instead, he can practically hear you roll your eyes - imagines your optic nerve nearly severs with the intensity of it - and grins.

“Don’t kid yourself - you know I’m the best thing about your nights!”

You’re not wrong. “You’ve been lied to.”

“I’m suing!”

“I’ll have my lawyer contact your lawyer.”

“Wait, what?”

The two of you have done what you always do - talked yourself into a tizzy that has you both laughing, sound crackling across the airwaves. It’s nonsensical and silly but it feels good. Your bond shines with it, glitters prettily between you.

Thank god for Overwatch.

You return the conversation to a semblance of normalcy first. “Did you listen to that song I sent?”

“Yeah.” The briefest pause. “It was terrible. Hated it.”

“Oh, shut up!”

“I’m kidding. It was really good.” Jungkook doesn’t tell you that he’s had it on repeat for the past few days, saved to the private playlist that’s filled with the rest of your song recommendations.

“I know!” You’re preening as if he’d just complimented you, clearly pleased by the praise. He supposes it’s a pretty good endorsement regardless.

“Got any more for me?”

“I should just make you a playlist.”

He ignores the way his heart skips a very real beat, mimics the erratic rhythm of his fingers on his keyboard. Because he’d absolutely love that.

“You should.”

“Really?” You sound uncertain but maybe - just maybe - a little hopeful. He might also just be imagining things, as he so often does with you.

“Yeah. Why not?” It comes nonchalantly despite the rushing in his ears, the wave that threatens to drown him. He can feel emotion in his chest - winged and distracting. A kaleidoscope of butterflies fluttering away.

You’re quiet for another second. It feels like an eon. “Okay, yeah. I’ll start one and we can just add to it together.”

BIG HIT ENTERTAINMENT’S GYM Thursday, 26 March, 2020. 6:30 PM.

“You sound like a meathead,” you say, off-hand and disinterested.

He loathes the grunt that squeaks past his teeth as he gently returns the dumbbells to the floor. Cue a generous chug of water and a near death experience when the liquid goes down the wrong pipe.

Loud coughing crackles through his airpods before he’s addressing you. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“You’re grunting like a caveman.”

If your first comment hadn’t offended him, this one does. Jungkook scoffs, tonguing the interior of his cheek as his brow furrows. Weights are returned to his hands, rotated above each shoulder as he resumes another set of presses.

“Do you even workout anything other than your fingers?” He’s making a conscious effort not to make a sound, breath exhaled sharply through his nose. It’s harder than he cares to admit but he’s also not about to give you an excuse to tease him further. You already had way too much material.

“Don’t shame me!” You really don’t sound that indignant.

“So, I’m right? You’re a big couch potato who’s just jealous of my hot body?”

Now you’re incredulous. It’s one of his favourite sounds because it comes draped in laughter, dancing around his head in the form of cartoon hearts.

“Did you just say ‘hot body’, Jay?”

“Maybe I did. What of it?” He sniffs - he’s picked it up from you over the months - and your amusement doubles, giggles crashing into each other in their haste.

“You are so, so weird.” There’s a tenderness in your voice that he’d like to live in. It wraps him up like a hug, tugging at his feeble little heartstrings.

“Weird and hot.”

“You can’t just say that!”

“Why not?” If anything, you’re the one person he can say it to. With you, it’s the funniest joke he’s ever made. It’s playful and silly, with no rhyme or reason. He doesn’t have to worry about it being misconstrued or held against him.

“You just can’t! Only other people can say it.” You sigh dramatically, from your chest. “Do I have to teach you everything?”

“Everything but being healthy, probably.”

“Har har har.”

He can tell by how the words roll off your tongue, muffled and lacking clarity, that you’re eating. He wonders if you’ve made pancakes - you’d been complaining about craving them just two days ago. There are no tell-tale crunching or slurping, so he knows it isn’t your usual double whammy combo of ramyeon and Choco Boys.

“I’ll have you know I used to run.” Something about the way you say it makes him believe you, even though he wants to mock you a little more.

“In gym class doesn’t count.”

“I used to run with Natto, you ass!” Okay - so that actually sounded legitimate.

“Why don’t you still then?”

“There was an incident once.” You’re sipping on something - likely coffee with oat milk and two pumps of hazelnut syrup. It doesn’t matter that it’s dinner time and most people would be winding down for the evening. “Because of my insomnia, I’d run at odd hours. One day, some weirdo stopped me while I was running along the river. He didn’t hurt me or anything—” A part of him thinks you’re downplaying it but he says nothing, only waiting for you to continue. “—but he followed me home. I made the mistake of telling my parents and they freaked out so…”

“So no more running by yourself.”

“Yeah, exactly.”

“I’d run with you.” It doesn’t mean much, but it’s the thought that counts.

“Thanks, Jay.”

Not for the first time, he wishes he could hear his name - his real name. Just once.

“JUNGKOOOOOOOOOOK.” It eats up every ounce of space of the gym, filling the room with the resounding boom of it. How it manages to be so loud, he’s not sure. He wishes it weren’t. There’s no way you haven’t heard it.

Especially not when it comes again, deafening even to his occupied ears.

“JUNGKOOOOK-AH!” Namjoon now, right as the double doors fly open.

Jimin’s barreling toward the alarmed maknae as he shouts. “WE’RE DOING A VLIVE!”

Jungkook feels like his insides are melting - his internal temperature spiking with embarrassment and worry and something that chants oh no! over and over in his head. The tops of his ears are burning, as is the column of his throat. A quick glance in the mirror confirms his suspicion that he is, indeed, bright tomato red.

“Jay?” You repeat once, twice, when he doesn’t immediately answer. “Everything okay?”

He moves with a speed he doesn’t expect, weights unceremoniously dropped on either side of him before he’s tearing his AirPods out. “I’ve got to go. Sorry!”

He doesn’t end the Discord call a moment too soon, Jimin upon him in the next instant. The smaller dancer is draping himself across Jungkook’s shoulders, the widest shit-eating grin on his pretty face.

“Want to join us for a VLive?”

“No. I’m busy.”

“Busy with your girlfriend?” Jimin’s wiggling his eyebrows suggestively. He only stops when Jungkook shifts aggressively, tearing himself out from underneath the other.

“Not my girlfriend!”

“But you wish she was!”

He can’t deny that, so he doesn’t bother, instead seizing his discarded weights with an embarrassed scowl permanently etched into the planes of his face. He’s reracking them - because god, he’s not an animal - when he notices Jimin making his departure, that teasing smile replaced with something soft and edging on concern.

“What’re you going to do when we’re on tour?”

Jungkook blanches then. You’d become such an undeniable part of his everyday life that he hadn’t even considered what it’d mean when he was busier than now, unable to spend late nights gaming with you.

But Jimn’s already gone, leaving him and his thoughts alone.

JUNGKOOK’S ROOM Friday, 27 March, 2020. 12:05 AM.

It’s close to midnight by the team he logs on. Realistically, he should go to sleep. He’s clean and worn out and his bed is calling to him like a siren at sea. But you’re sitting alone in the channel, streaming Overwatch for no one to see, and he can’t just leave it at that.

He needs to say goodnight, like he always does.

“Coming for my title as Headshot God?” The quip’s off his tongue before you have a chance to acknowledge him, your laughter the first thing he hears once he’s connected.

“I’ve been waiting in this queue for seven minutes. Seven!”

It’s really not that bad. The rare times you’d both queue for DPS were nearly double that.

“Patience is key,” he teases, slumping into his chair as he watches you click through your Hero Gallery. You’re cruising seemingly aimlessly, roving through the different skins for your mains (Mercy, Ana, Genji, Ashe). The silence between you is comfortable, interspersed only by the occasional munching he can only assume comes from the carrots you seem to inhale.

For all the junk you ate, you were somehow also weirdly into vegetables.

“Patience sucks,” you retort, matter-of-fact.

“You know what else sucks?”

It’s a rhetorical question and he knows you know, but because you’re you, you start listing things off just to get under his skin. “Spiders? Undercooked samgyupsal? Not having coffee? Your jokes?”

If he weren’t laughing so hard, he might’ve given you shit for making fun of his comedic genius. He really doesn’t understand how you think he’s the unfunny one when all you do is crack puns.

“I was actually going to say me,” he finally manages in between those high pitched cackles of his.

“Wait, why?” You’re used to him having witty comebacks.

Edge of enamel worries his bottom lip and Jungkook can taste cherry Chapstick and what would be bashfulness, if it had a flavour. “For earlier.”

You scoff, your own tinkling laughter tearing him out from inside his own head.

“It’s okay, goofball.”

He appreciates how laidback you are, never holding anything against him. Not even when he hangs up on you or accidentally spams you with memes when you’re trying (and failing) to sleep. “No. I’m sorry.” He says it earnestly, with all the meaning he can muster.

MATCH FOUND flickers across his and your screen and you’re loading into hero selection. He knows you’ll be too distracted once the game starts, so he’s grateful when you laugh again, sweet as summer.

“Nothing to be sorry about. Just tell me everything’s okay and we’re even.”

Inhale, exhale. Try not to tell her you have the biggest, stupidest crush on her, he tells himself.

“Everything’s okay.” And he means it when he says it, though they aren’t the words he wishes he could say.

“Good.”

You’ve chosen Genji, He smiles to himself when you join voice chat and the rest follow, greetings filtering in from your team members.

“Good luck.” You don’t need it. He still likes to say it.

“You have an early day tomorrow, right?” Leave it to you to remember his schedule even when he doesn’t.

“Yeah, pretty early.”

“Then go to bed! I’ll still be awake when you’re up.”

He lingers on that fact - holds it tightly in his hands so it can’t slip away. You’d be there in the morning, just like you always were. Knowing that stirs those same butterflies in his chest, words stolen by the overzealous beating of their wings.

You read his silence like they’re your own thoughts, “I’m always here for you, Jay.”

“Goodnight.”

"Sleep sweet."

notes. this chapter is set four-ish months following the first, in case that’s not clear. :)

tag list. @teawithbucky

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liukangmybeloved · 4 years ago

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everyone else is fighting for second {Mortal Kombat (2021)}

SPOILERS FOR MORTAL KOMBAT (2021)

Summary: Canon Divergent AU. Crack & Fluff. The team develops into something of a found family, which happens to include Cole's actual family. They take a day off from fighting to go to the fair, where the biggest question is 'who is Cole's daughter's favourite in the team?' Besides her dad, of course. Kano is very competitive about this question.

A/N: 1968 words. I will take a meat-tenderizer and FIX the canon and make it SOFT. i love cole young and mk 2021, if you don't like that, you've been warned. everybody lives/nobody dies AU & kano isn't a traitor. also imagine there's just like.... more time before the tournament. enough to become a found family. like i said, fluff & crack. warnings for swearing.

If Cole had it his way, Emily and Kano would have never met. He would be perfectly happy letting everyone else on the team meet her, but he's yet to hear a single sentence leave Kano's mouth that didn't include some colourful variation of 'fuck', 'shit', 'wanker', or 'cunt'. So unsurprisingly, he wasn't exactly eager to let his teenager daughter near the man who Sonya had literally called 'scum of the Earth', but alas.

"I'll be on my best behaviour, pinky-swear!" Kano's grin was all teeth as he'd held his pinky finger up to Cole's glowering face, wiggling it a little when Cole made no move to finish the pinky-swear.

"If you say - cunt -" and the word sounds so uncomfortable coming from Cole, he damn well looks uncomfortable just saying it, "within a hundred feet of her, I'll get Kung Lao to cut you in half." And he gesutres over to where Kung Lao and the rest of their ragtag bunch of misfits; the man in question had forgone his usual weapon for a more modern, soft-brimmed sunhat, but his jaunty wave to Kano at the sound of his name still managed to be menacing. The Australian shuddered in horror at the mere thought; at least he took the threat seriously.

"You don't have to be jealous, man," the threat seemed to only have dampened Kano's jovial attitude momentarily, as he's got a spring in his step as he follows Cole to the rest of the gathered champions, "Uncle Kano's gonna set a fuckin' - flippin' -" he corrects himself as Cole shoots him a warning look, "great example." Sonya barks a loud, derisive laugh as Cole sees fit to remind him that he's not Uncle Kano.

"Emily's a good kid," Liu Kang assures, kind and sincere.

"Yeah, she never even believes me when I tell her Kano's a dirty, little rat," Kung Lao smirks in the face of Kano's sudden outrage, and Cole is pretty sure that, despite it being Emily and Alison's idea, to give the team a day of levity and to bond, this might be the worst plan he's ever agreed to.

"This is a day of bonding, not of infighting," Raiden's voice joins them, followed by the God himself only moments later, which is enough to unite all the champions in confusion at his choice of wardrobe for the day. While still sporting a majority of his usual attire, somehow he'd managed to procure a t-shirt with a meme of all things on it, a personalised meme!

"I designed it myself, I think it turned out pretty okay; whaddya think?" Kano sounded far too proud of himself, looking at the cartoon drawing of what could only be Raiden himself pointing awkwardly at Thor as depicted in Marvel Comics, who was pointing back.

"We are both Gods of Thunder," Raiden explained, pointing to his own shirt; Sonya had gone wide-eyed, unsure of how to react, while Jaxx was doing his utmost not to burst out laughing.

"I... didn't know you knew what a meme was," Cole admits, though honestly, once the shock had worn off of, it was rather charming.

"I didn't know you knew what a meme was," Kano fired back, equally confused.

"I have a thirteen-year-old, of course I know what a meme is -" but then it seems to hit him just as it hits Sonya and Jax, and the three of them turn to the pair of confused, cave-dwelling, internet-free champions. None of them knew where to begin trying to explain the whole situation, but thankfully, Raiden chose that moment to open a lightning portal, and they all headed through quickly.

----

The night that Cole and his family had gone home after everything had gone down, the fighting, Sub-Zero, and the man he's pretty sure is the ghost of his ancestor, Emily had looked him dead in the eye and called him a super hero.

And then told him that his friends were really cool.

This was a sentiment that his new friends seemed to share about his family.

Cole quickly comes to realise that family isn't something a lot of the rest of the team have nowadays; they have each other, but for a lot of them, that's mostly it. He sits on an invite to dinner that he'd already ran past Alison several days ago, before inviting Liu Kang and Kung Lao over, if nothing else, to repay the hospitality they'd shown him so early on.

Alison's rule was that there was to be peace on their property; no training, no fighting, but the team was welcome as long as they didn't bring trouble to the door.

So then it was Sonya and Jaxx, who brought dessert when they came over.

Emily once asked what Thunder Gods ate. Did they eat? Cole wasn't sure. He extends an invite to Raiden anyways, but it's politely declined. The next time, however, he took up Cole's invite, mostly for the company, and to thank Alison and Emily for their patience; having Cole away so often wasn't easy, he'd be the first to acknowledge that. Alison appreciated the sentiment, as did Emily, though she was also just bursting with questions for the God, and he did his best to answer what he could.

Then finally - finally - after so long spent with the team, of most of them coming to find comfort and serenity in his home on the occasions that they need it, Kano is invited to Sunday lunch too.

----

"I know us champions and our super powers are pretty cool," Kano says to Emily, the moment they step through the lightning portal and emerge into the sunshine and the noise of the fair, "but I'm your favourite, right? Besides your old man, of course," and he rolls his eyes a little at that, as does Cole, for very different reasons, while Alison shoots Cole a questioning look. Thankfully she still does not trust Kano as far as she could throw him.

For her part, Emily answers incredibly diplomatically, sounding much older than her thirteen years, and quite a bit like her mother;

"Kano, you're a grown man, my approval shouldn't matter to you," she sounds sincere, which is completely undercut by Kung Lao sliding into step beside Kano.

"Which means you're not her favourite," he teases, and Kano practically growls back, embarrassed, while Emily calls out to Raiden that she likes his shirt. He practically beams.

"Not a lot of people will really get it, though," she points out, and Raiden muses on that for a moment.

"But I get it, and it's mine."

"Fair point," Emily nods at that, as their strange group steps up to buy tickets.

---

Emily spends more of the fair of people's shoulders than she does actually walking, which delights her endlessly. Mostly she's up on Jax's shoulders, and charges her cotton candy for the ride, ripping a small chunk from the one Cole had bought for her.

"It's weird seeing you all look so normal," she says to Sonya, the two of them in line for the Dodge 'Em Cars alongside Liu Kang and Kung Lao. Sonya grins, knows exactly what she means, gaze turning to the two members of the Shaolin Order of Light, not that anyone would know simply from looking at them now. Where Liu Kang had found a pair of trendy, ripped jeans was beyond Sonya's imagination.

"You look cool, though," Emily amended quickly, "I didn't realise you all would come to the fair, but I'm glad you did," she's smiling brightly as they get closer to the front of the line.

"Who did you expect to come along today?" Liu asks, eyes wide and curious. It wasn't that he was as competitive as Kung Lao or Kano, but he still found the child's interpretation of their group to be interesting. She knows, in some capacity, what they're capable off; she'd watched her father slice, dice, and kill Goro after all. The fact that she could think so highly of them speaks a lot to her capacity for kindness, or perhaps her childish naivety, but Liu preferred to think it was the former.

Emily, however, goes quiet, seems to be a little embarrassed. She mutters something, avoiding eye contact with any of them, and Liu goes to ask her to repeat herself, but she interrupts him while doing so;

"I wanted Dad to have a day off," she admitted, before adding, "and... and Lord Raiden; I don't think he's had a day off this millennium."

"It's good of you to look out for them," Sonya tells her fondly, "our team can be pretty single-minded, but we needed this day off, I think." And she gives Emily a pet on the shoulder, and lets her steer the tandem Car when they finally get a turn.

----

"It's me, right? I'm your favourite," Jax asks Emily over lunch, not because he genuinely believes it, but because it riles up Kano, and to a lesser extent, the competitive Liu Kang.

"Jax is one bad day away from pledging his allegiance to Skynet, he can't be your favourite -" Kano grumbles.

"Dad's my favourite," Emily reminds them sternly, and Cole has to hide his proud little smile, before she adds, "and mom's my favourite too, the rest of you, well of course you're all badass as hell -"

"Is it Liu? 'Cos he's pretty and you're, yanno, a teenage girl," Kano scowls at the warrior who'd been attempting to just quietly enjoy his basket of fries. Both Cole and Alison are wearing similarly murderous expressions, and Kano raised his hands in mock surrender, dropping his gaze.

"Actually," Emily said pointedly, despite the embarrassed flush on her cheeks, though she was mirroring her parents intensity, "my favourite is Raiden because he's literally a God that shoots lightning out of his hands, and you're now my least favourite because you're a rat bastard."

"I taught her that," Kung Lao was grinning from ear to ear, and when he and Emily look to each other, they share a definitive nod.

"How come he's allowed to teach her words like bastard?!" Kano demanded to know.

"Because you're a bastard," Sonya interjects.

Kano is thankfully quiet for the remainder of lunch, sulking at his end of the table as chatter returns to normal, returns to talk of how everyone else had been enjoying the day.

----

At the end of the day, Kano shoves a large, stuffed kangaroo at Emily that he'd won at the booth where you had to knock over bottles.

"Didn't even use me eye or anything; lost an hour of my life and fifty fuckin' dollars," he was grumbling, while Emily was examining the prize.

"You won this?" She seemed endeared by it, endeared by the thought that he'd put the time into winning it for her.

"'course I won it, can I stop being your least favourite now?" He asked, and Emily tucked the kangaroo beneath her arm, giving him an appraising look.

"You can't buy my loyalty -"

"Wouldn't want it if it could be bought, I know that shit from experience," Kano interjected, crossing his arms defensively, ignoring where Cole was glowering at him every time he swore.

"But you put time in, and effort, so you're back to third with everyone else."

"As long as none of those bastards is beating me, I'm okay with that."

As they headed to the exit, to where Raiden had created a lightning portal for them all to go home through, Emily reached out and punched Kano lightly in the shoulder.

"Thanks, Kano, it's pretty sweet that you care so much."

"Don't tell the others," he grumbled back.

"We've been with you all day," Jax calls out, "we already know."

#mortal kombat #liu kang #mortal kombat 2021 #kano #kung lao #cole young #raiden #jax briggs #emily young #alison young #sonya blade #mortal kombat fluff #mortal kombat fanfiction #lkmb

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starsmuserainbow · 4 years ago

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Hmm, okay uh, I have no idea what I’m doing here but I feel like everyone needs positivity and so here’s a post where I’ll try to give just that.

First off, happy holidays and a good end of the year to everyone who reads this, I am glad that you’re here watching my blog and perhaps even interacting with me! Thank you for everything, whether that is a simple follow or an occasional (perhaps anon) ask, or actual interactions!

Next, I want to say that everyone that I’m seeing on my dash is absolutely amazing and I admire so many of you and am happy whenever I see you around! I am most likely very happy to have you around, especially if we’re mutuals and interacting with one another. I would probably love to talk with each of you more, but I’m just really bad at smalltalk or anything like that so with most people, I simply default to only messaging them (= you) when there’s something as a reason to do so. Sorry for that!

This goes out to everyone reading this: You’re awesome, I’m honored to have you here and interested in my blog, and I hope that your days or weeks or months will be great because you surely deserve it!

And then, I’ll now follow with a kind-of list mentioning a few people that I want to say more to. Which might sound repetitive because I suck at words in these regards, but yeah. Under a cut for length.

If you see this post and weren’t tagged, please don’t be sad or think I don’t value you being around! I can’t tag everyone, and I don’t have the best mind for things like coming up with someone that I forgot in the moments of writing this.

To not start off with the same names all the time, I wrote down the URLs I wanted to include and randomized the order. So don’t think anything by if you’re first or 5th or last on this list! And once more, I’m bad at words, so I’m sorry if this isn’t sounding too great or like it’s similar for each one.

I told myself to not include anyone that isn’t active-ish at the moment, but I made some exceptions to that because I felt that said person needed to be on my list.

@rogueprinceconsort ~ (I read the post you did recently more or less saying you’re leaving, but I wrote this before that post and it would have felt wrong to erase it from here only because of you leaving!) I enjoy our interactions a lot! They feel like they actually develop a story, which I can’t say for ALL my interactions but definitely for each one that we have going! Which is really cool! You’re one of the only few people where I have the chance to play around with different verses too (well, or at least one different verse, since our other two ongoing interactions are in the mainverses of my muses, but still), and you’re one of the few giving one of my OC-sideblogs a chance as well, and, just, I really am so thankful for it and happy to have you as a mutual!

@untouchable-lightning ~ You aren’t here at the moment, so let me just start this by saying that I hope that things will get better for you again soon! It’s a lot of fun to interact with you and I think you’re a good writer and I’m very happy for our interactions! They are always fun! I did not often yet get the chance to do this other RP-style that I do (the ‘choose-your-option’ one) and you are one of those that allowed me to play through it, and you also interact/ed with my sideblogs too, so a big thank you for that! Our threads also often last nicely long, which is absolutely amazing since it’s a big rarity these days, too. You’re great, and I’m happy that we’re mutuals and interaction-partners!

@miasmarp ~ We’re more or less only starting out interacting and talking and anything basically, but I felt like I just absolutely had to include you because I HAVE A CHANCE TO PLAY ONE OF MY OTHER (non-blog-having, not even an info page or anything outside of one or two ooc posts about them) OCS with you and that’s just like the first time at all (not counting if I do include them as minor appearances in other things, though even there it has only happened one single time so far iirc), and that is just so much fun and just thank you! You’re really cool and I’m happy that we’re mutuals!

@karaoftomorrow (or @yourfavoritesidekick if you’d prefer I tag your main) ~ It’s so wonderful to write with you! It feels like we’re developing stuff in our things really well, and I really like to read what appears from you on my dash! Talking with you is very nice too, and I’m always really happy whenever I see you in my notifications or IMs or wherever! I’m very glad to have you as mutual and am really happy about any and all of our interactions!

@skymade / @siriseen or maybe I should tag one of your other blogs instead but those are the first two I usually think of and I don’t wanna tag more than two blogs for one person xD ~ Sooooooooo awesome! You have so many characters, which all are wonderful as far as I can tell, and I love our interactions so much! I’m always really looking forward to the next reply I get from one of our things, and talking to you is always a delight and I’m so so happy that we somehow found each other! Or well, I guess you found me because if I remember right you followed me first, but yes! Thank you for writing with pretty much all of my characters, you’re very cool, I absolutely love the connections our muses get (especially those where they know one another at a younger time and then ‘now’ meet again too - how cool is that?) and it’s always a joy to see you on my dash!

@azarathian ~ We haven’t really done or spoken that much together yet (or at least I assume we didn’t? There was your old blog but I don’t think we really spoke there, much less did threads or the likes? Sorry if I’m wrong though xD), but I’m so very glad we started! I admire your writing and the thoughts you put into Raven and I think you’re great! Our threads are incredibly entertaining and it’s so awesome to put more story into the situations of or between the episodes of the cartoon, and yes, I’m just very very thankful that we got together somehow and I’m excited for how our threads - and potential future ones - will develop!

@nvertoolate or if I should tag your currently more active sideblog @bloomingtalent ~ It is so absolutely amazing that one of my first mutuals, friends, or however I should call it, still is active on here as well! With most people on here, it’s sadly the case that they’re gone again sooner than later, so it’s especially great that we are still both here! I think I’ve said multiple times before that I don’t think I would even have stayed on tumblr if you hadn’t been around and interacting with me so I won’t go into detail about that yet again, but, yes, I absolutely love our interactions when we do them, and while I don’t know much about Naruto so we don’t really interact that much on your sideblog, I’m still so very happy to have you around and as my mutual! I’m so thankful for you and that we got to interact - and still do! Thank you!

@sewn-cutie ~ Our interactions are always so wonderfully adorable and cute! I love the connection between Starfire and Clementine, and it’s a lot of fun to write any of our things! I’m very happy when I hear from you in an OOC-y way too, like when you reply to one of my posts or in the IMs or whereever! I’m absolutely convinced that you are a great person, and I am delighted that we are mutuals and can interact so nicely!

@legaxies ~ I wasn’t sure if maybe I shouldn’t include you since from how much I can tell it seems you are at the moment more focused onto that theme-sideblog you have and I told myself to not include those that aren’t really active at the moment - but I felt like I had to! I wanted to say that I’m really happy for the things we started, and that I have a lot of fun talking to you when we do! I’m very much enjoying the potential relationships we have started on, and I look forward to hopefully continuing them in some way eventually! (This of course is not meant as pushing you to work on replies or whatever, please don’t understand me wrong here; I just mean this in a way of, if we do get to continue it - if not that’s totally fine too!) You’re doing great with any of your characters (as much as I can judge with not that much knowledge), and I’m happy that we’re mutuals! It’s a joy to interact with you, so, thank you!

@featherchan ~ You’re interacting with me, or did in the past, on pretty much all my muses (I think not on Starlight? But outside of that on all I think), and that means a lot to me! We have some really cool plots going, and you joined in on that event-au-thing I did all that time back too, so that’s very great, and I wanted to say thanks! Our interactions are always fun and I’m happy to write with and talk to you!

@thedoctornumber11 ~ Throughout my time being here, you’re pretty much the only one of the world of Doctor Who that I got interactions going with (I think there was someone on Wildfire once too, but not for very long iirc), and I really enjoy that! I wanted to include you here too because I wanted to say that I’m very very grateful for the nice words or explanations you sometimes throw onto my posts, and for the things you send in to me, and yes just for all of it! Thank you!

@flashgotthis ~ I love our things so much! All the interactions that we did so far were really really really cool, still are, and they often last really long too, and it’s just absolutely wonderful! You’re also one of those that aren’t only talented writers, but also really great artists, and I admire that skill so much! I’m delighted that we are mutuals and interaction-partners, and I look forward to what’s still to come! You’re amazing!

@graceful-cure-swan / @rosecoloredmuses (mostly tagging your sideblog as well to give it, like, some sort of indirect promoing here) ~ You are great! I feel so bad for all the many things you sent me whereas I barely ever send you (or anyone else, for that matter) anything at all, but, I’m also really grateful that you do it, so - thank you! I’m enjoying our interactions very much, I think that both Tsubasa and your other characters are done really well (even if I don’t know that much about each of them or can compare them to their canon versions much), and you’re a lot of fun to interact with! You also give my sideblogs and OCs a chance too, which means very much to me too, so yeah, I’m very grateful to have you as my mutual!

@eterniita ~ We’ve been interacting throughout a few of your blogs already, and I enjoy our interactions! I think you put a lot of love and thought into your characters, and they are great, and our threads are a lot of fun! I haven’t yet checked out your remade blog of your canons again, but I intend to and most likely follow you there again, too! I hope we will still get to more wonderful interactions!

@merveiilles ~ I’m so happy that we’re interacting! I love our threads a lot and I’m enjoying every reply that I get or write! You have a lot of characters and it’s really impressive that you do them (as far as I can tell/know them) so well! Your art, that you occasionally post, is also really really amazing and it’s very wonderful that you are so talented! I am very thankful for the nice words that you put onto my posts every now and then, and I am delighted by the threads and connections we are having between our muses!

@symbioteburnout ~ I don’t feel like I can say very much here (yet), but I wanted to include you too! I enjoy the things that we got going so far, and going from what I see from you about her I think Andi is a interesting character! It’s always wonderful to me, when people put the effort into characters who might not get as much time to shine in canon as others. Thanks for replying to my opens every now and then, and just in general for being my mutual and interacting with me!

@titansandothersrp / @robynrpmain (Now I’m getting frustrated at tumblr again for not letting me tag your main) ~ You are really cool! You’re a great artist, I love to see your work, and our threads are very entertaining! I feel like you’re doing very well in giving the characters you play as more story, more... I don’t know the right word here. Just, that you make them ‘more’, and that’s a really awesome thing. And yeah, like said, you also do art which I think looks really good, and I just absolutely admire people who can do art so well. Thanks for being mutuals and interacting with me!

---

So, and as a nice little bit of words at the end, I guess~ I’m very honored by anyone of you who’s actually interested in me and my writing, I’m thankful and glad to have you around, and I’m looking forward to more amazing things to come in the future with all of you!

#✫ Out of Clurblopf ✫ | OOC #if I'd have had more time to spend on this I'd have searched for some comic-ish background of a christmas-room #(or taken a screenshot from inside the tower and made my own with pics of tree and gifts and whatever)#to have there behind star; but yeah I didn't #I'm very much not content with some of the things I said here - aka I feel like I should have said more - but I'm #not good with words and so this is probably already more than I can usuall say/write to it so uh; yeah #also in case anyone's worried or curious or whatever; no that tiny star is not fanart #it's a sprite from the game 'calling all titans'; so it's from an official thing #I scheduled this to be posted at a time when I'm surely not here; that way I don't need to feel quite as nervous or whatever about it #I still do just as I actually click on scheduling; but; at least not quite as much as when it's out #so yeah; happy whatever you wish to celebrate; and let's all make the next year a wonderful one!#I might reblog this post a few times throughout the next days? maybe on my sideblogs too? I'm not really sure yet #thank you all and I'm grateful to have you interested in my blog and my things and all that

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vindicatedvirgil · 5 years ago

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only fools rush in / part one: two parties and a lot of crushes

this first part is kind of all over the place. basically i just wanted to establish the dynamics going on here and i figured the best way to do so would be through group hang outs and stuff like that. it feels like i cover a lot here, but future installments will be more focused on one couple or group! sorry for the kind of wackiness and yeah.

i don’t think that there’s anything that i need to tag for this, but this part includes: QPP loceit, Remus making jokes, Roman crushing hard, Emile and Remy very briefly.

[masterlist]

if you want to be tagged when i update, please send me an ask/reply/reblog and i’ll be sure to add you for the next part!

read to the end for the title and a small teaser for part two!

next update will be on: Sunday, July 19.

---

“Wait, you have a twin?” Patton looked at Roman in deep disbelief. “Why didn’t you get an apartment with him?” Roman just shrugged, unloading one of his boxes, hanging up his shirts. “Lo, did you know about this?”

“Yes. He’s one of Janus’ new roommates,” the man in the tie said, leaning against the wall, eyes focused on the phone in his hand as he typed quickly. Patton’s jaw dropped, and he crossed his arms, frowning.

“Yeah, he’s moving in with Virgil Cloud, too,” Roman said, eyes focused forward, but he couldn’t hide the light dusting of pink that appeared on his cheeks. Virgil was the techie for the last school production, and Roman couldn’t help but fall for the embodiment of a dark and stormy night, with his black nail polish and purple fringe and–

“Earth to Roman,” Patton was waving a hand in front of his face. Roman blinked, then smiled awkwardly at his pastel-clad roommate. “You should invite them all to a party tonight! Logan, will you tell Jan to bring his roommates?”

“I- we were gonna…” Logan sighed, then nodded, head hanging in front of him, “I guess so.” He didn’t have the heart to tell his roommates that he and his partner had other plans for the evening, so he texted Janus quickly about the change.

Roman and Patton want you to bring your roommates over for a party tonight. We can leave early, though. -Logan

A party could be fun, Lo. Besides, I think that Virgil has a crush on Roman. ~Janus

I believe that it’s mutual. I don’t really want to stick my nose into their business, though. -Logan

Logan opened the door to the apartment to see Janus, Remus, and Virgil standing there. Remus was holding a twelve-pack of beer, Janus had a bottle of wine, and Virgil kept his eyes down on the floor, not acknowledging anything as the three stepped into the apartment. Logan kept the door open since it was already warm in the apartment with the three of them; the end of summer was always unbearably hot in their town. Roman immediately gravitated towards Virgil as the others went over to the kitchen counter to open their drinks.

“Hi Virgil,” Roman said, smiling brightly. “I don’t know if you remember me–”

“Of course I do,” Virgil muttered, leaning against a wall awkwardly. “You were the lead in the play last term.” Roman stammered over his words, his cheeks once again dusted with pink.

“Oh, yeah, yeah, that…” he chuckled awkwardly, rubbing the back of his neck. “You uh, did a really great job as one of the tech guys. It was… awesome.”

“Thanks.” Virgil stuffed his hands into his jacket pockets, and he still hadn’t looked up at Roman.

“Can I uh… get you a drink or something? Or…” Roman’s words trailed off, he wished that Virgil would just look up at him and meet his eyes and then maybe they’d fall in love–

“Hey there!” Emile stepped in through the open front door, carrying a plate full of baked goods. “I just wanted to welcome you… oh, looks like somebody’s having a party!” Roman grumbled then went up to the man in the sweater, wondering how he could cope in the heat. “Hi there! I’m Emile Picani, I live downstairs!” “Nice to meet you. I’m Roman, and my roommates Patton and Logan are… somewhere,” he said, sticking his hand out. Emile giggled and brought the tall man in for a hug. “Oh, uh…”

“Sorry, I’m a bit of a hugger!” Emile laughed, setting the cookies down on a table. “You all go to the university? I’m working on my psychology doctorate there.” At this, Virgil perked up and came over, and Emile held his arms out for a hug.

“Please don’t,” Virgil muttered, and Emile backed up a little, giving a toothy smile. “Uh… you study psychology? I’m majoring in that…” He said shyly, and Emile pulled him by his wrist to sit down on one of the couches.

“Okay, I’m your mentor now! Let’s chat,” The two went to go sit down on the couch, and Roman frowned. Of course Virgil would be interested in chatting with someone in his field of study, but… he really wanted to talk to Virgil, maybe ask him on a date. He stuffed one of the cookies that Emile made into his mouth and groaned at how delicious they were. Of course he could bake. He’d probably be able to steal Virgil away, too.

Remus was watching this from his spot against one of the walls, and noticed his twin’s distraught demeanor. He thought about saying something, but out of the corner of his eye he saw Patton smiling brightly at something that Janus said, his sweater sleeves pushed up to his elbows, exposing colorful floral tattoos on his forearms, and that was it: Remus was smitten. He didn’t hesitate to approach the trio talking at the kitchen counter, Janus and Logan sharing a bar stool, Patton resting his chin on his hands as he listened to the pair recall how they decided to become partners over the summer break. Remus settled into a chair next to Patton, and silence fell over the table.

“I don’t believe we’ve met, cutie pie,” Remus said, raising an eyebrow at the small man. Janus and Logan exchanged a look and got up to go chat with Roman, and Patton turned his attention to focus directly on Remus.

“You must be Remus!” Patton exclaimed suddenly, eyes bright as his smile beamed at the curly-haired man, and Remus suddenly wished that he was wearing sunglasses. “I can’t believe I didn’t know that Ro had a twin!”

“Ah, you must be Patton,” Remus said, realizing that this was the roommate he didn’t know. Patton nodded excitedly. Remus stretched his hand out and grazed his fingers against the floral tattoos, and Patton shivered. “These are beautiful, though not as gorgeous as you, flower.”

“T-thank you,” Patton said, his face bright red at the fact that he was complimented and given a nickname. “Do you have tattoos?” Remus nodded and rolled up one of his jacket sleeves, revealing a morning star.

“I minor in medieval history. Weaponry is so fascinating,” he mused, and Patton nodded, brushing his short fingers over the tattoo. “I have a few more, but they’re in… unique places… Maybe I can show you someday, flower.”

“O-oh, uhm…” Patton stammered over his words, the blush spreading down to his neck and to his ears. “M-maybe…” Remus smirked, leaning closer to the small man.

“If I’m making you uncomfortable, please tell me,” He whispered, and Patton shook his head quickly, which made Remus smile. Patton wasn’t exactly Remus’ usual type; soft boys never paid much attention to those with piercings and a menacing glare, but Remus quickly realized that Patton wasn’t like the others.

“Y-You’re not…” Patton’s face was so red and warm that he felt like he could explode. No one like Remus had ever paid him this much attention. He was always taunted by jocks and punks because of his softness, but Remus? The dark makeup, the piercings, the tattoos, and the leather jacket, it all made him feel… dangerous. And Patton secretly loved danger.

Roman was leaning against the wall, watching as everyone else had someone to talk to. His twin was hitting it off with Patton, Janus and Logan were sitting on one of the couches, looking at something on Logan’s phone, and Emile and Virgil were on another couch, talking about psychology. He had never felt left out from any situation in his life before, but here he was, alone in a room full of people.

He couldn’t help but focus on Virgil, who had lit up as he talked about things that Roman knew nothing about. Roman was, of course, happy that Virgil was smiling, but he wished he was the one making the very tall man smile. Emile seemed nice enough, but… something about him irked Roman to no end.

“Oh, hang on,” Emile’s phone was ringing, the tune to a cartoon that Roman vaguely remembered blasting out loudly. He answered the phone, and Roman listened carefully. “Oh, sorry baby! I’m upstairs welcoming our new neighbors. I’ll be right there. Okay, bye.” He hung up and glanced around. “Sorry, that was my boyfriend Remy, I have to go!” He gave a hug to Virgil who waved goodbye awkwardly, then went around hugging everyone, and then left the apartment, closing the front door behind him. Virgil looked like he was going to melt into the couch, and Roman took this as his moment. He sat down next to the tall man and gave him a warm smile.

“So, uh, what do you think the production will be for this term?” Roman asked, and Virgil shrugged. “I’m hoping for a musical, but I’m not much of a dancer…”

“I kind of want something that allows me to experiment with fog on the stage, you know?” Virgil said, glancing down. “I’m not brave enough to audition for any roles on the stage, but I really like working behind the scenes…” Roman frowned, watching Virgil carefully.

“Well, when they announce the production and if there’s a role that interests you, I could help you… practice, maybe? To build up your confidence,” he suggested, but Virgil just shook his head. “I used to get stage fright really bad. But… if it’s something you love doing… then it’s worth all of that anxiety, right?”

“Is it?” Virgil’s voice was shaky. “In one of my school plays as a kid I fell on my face in front of everybody during my solo. Afterwards, I found out that someone purposely spilled water where they knew I’d be walking.” He twisted his fingers together, and Roman frowned. “Ever since, I haven’t wanted to be on stage in front of others.”

“No one would do that here,” Roman said reassuringly. “If they did, I’d beat them up until they fell on the ground, too,” his face was firm, resolved, and it made Virgil laugh a little. “I think… you should try. I’d love to perform with you.”

“Yeah… maybe,” Virgil looked down at him finally, and Roman thought he would melt into a puddle on the floor. “Thanks, Roman.”

“Remus is so cool, you know? And he’s so sweet,” Patton was blabbering. It was a few weeks after the party, and the three roommates were playing Mario Kart in the living room. In the time since that first party, the semester had started and they were all buried in school work, and had only seen the other three in passing or going out to dinner as a group. “N-not that you’re not cool, Roman, it’s just… he’s on a different level!”

“Yeah, a dangerous level,” Roman muttered so that Patton couldn’t hear, but Logan did, and he sighed. Roman didn’t want to reveal his fraught relationship with his brother to Patton, but he also wanted to protect the soft, small man. But… Patton was so enthralled, and Roman had never seen him that way. He seemed happier since meeting Remus, and had a confidence that didn’t exist in him before. But Roman definitely had a surge of concern for the other man.

“Do you think we should invite them all over today?” Patton suggested as he finally rolled over the finish line, in second to last place. Logan had gotten first, of course, and Roman a close second. This was the usual for their games.

“I actually have plans with Janus–” Logan started, but then his phone rang. He answered it. “Hello? Oh, hi Janus… what? But we were…” he sighed, then covered the receiver while he looked at the two others. “Remus wants to invite us all to their place for a movie night or something.”

“Yes!!” Patton exclaimed happily. “Oh, I should figure out what to wear. What time, Lo?” He asked, his excitement bubbling over. It was contagious. Roman could practically see the cogs in Patton’s mind moving as he thought about what to wear and how to do his makeup.

“Eight, apparently,” Logan responded, his lips pulled into a taut line. He brought the receiver back towards his mouth. “I guess we will be there. Yeah, see you later. Bye.” He hung up, a frown on his face. Roman wondered if he should dress nice, too, since he’d be seeing Virgil.

“Dibs on the first shower!” Roman exclaimed, dropping his controller and running off to the bathroom. Three guys and one bathroom wasn’t ideal, but it was what they had to deal with.

By the time all three of them had gotten ready, it was almost 7:30. Roman went with his usual attire, as opposed to Patton, who went a little overboard (probably to try and impress Remus): he was wearing a pale green sweater and some shorts, knee-high socks, and his converse, his makeup bright and colorful, the emphasis on his lips and eyes. Logan was wearing his usual attire as well, but had slipped into a coat since they’d be walking to the other building. It was only a few blocks away, but things always got sidetracked when Roman and Patton were involved.

Once Patton slung his messenger bag over his shoulder, the three set out to the others’ apartment. On their way down, they passed Emile, who was walking into the building with another man, their fingers intertwined.

“Hey kiddos!” Emile said cheerfully, waving his free hand at them. “Remy, these are the new neighbors I told you about!” The man called Remy raised his eyebrows then nodded in greeting.

“Hey babes,” he said.

“Where are you all going together?” Emile asked, and Roman thought it was a bit nosy to ask of them, but he said nothing.

“Oh, we’re going to Roman’s twin brother’s apartment–”

“Yes, and we really should get going now. Goodbye Emile, nice to meet you Remy,” Roman began to nudge Patton along the sidewalk, and Logan shot the couple an apologetic glance.

“Ugh, this movie is booooooring!” Remus yelled, startling the others. He had thrown his arms up in frustration. Logan and Janus were on the couch, trying to wait for the right moment to leave since they had their own plans. Remus, Roman, and Patton were on the floor or on cushions, eating the pizza they’d ordered, and Virgil was on the lounge chair, just observing.

“You’re the one who suggested a movie, idiot,” Virgil muttered, crossing his arms. Remus frowned, then finished off his bottle of beer. He made a soft hmmm noise, then began speaking again.

“This empty bottle gives me an idea. Spin the bottle, anyone? Or perhaps… truth or dare with spin the bottle?” He suggested, eyebrows wiggling. Patton’s face turned bright red, and some of the others all mumbled their disagreement.

“Isn’t that game for high schoolers, Re?” Roman asked, rolling his eyes. He glanced at Virgil, though, and wondered what it would be like to kiss him tonight. Not that he’d ever do that, Virgil hadn’t shown any interest in him, but…

“Sounds like fun,” Janus said, smirking from his spot next to Logan, who pouted. Janus noticed this and pressed a quick kiss to his cheek. “Oh, come now, Lolo, just a round or two and then we can go, okay? You know how much I love truth or dare.” Logan sighed, then nodded.

“Fine, a few rounds.”

The group moved the coffee table out of the way and sat in a circle, the empty beer bottle laying in the middle of all of them. “Alright, rule time,” Remus started. “The spinner asks the person it lands on for truth or dare, and then must ask them. The person who last did the thing spins it next. Capiche?” Roman shrugged and then pat Remus on the shoulder.

“You spin first, bro,” he said, settling in as he sat cross-legged on the floor. Remus shrugged and leaned forward, spinning the bottle. It pointed towards Logan, who sighed. Remus smirked, crossing his arms, deep in thought.

“Truth or dare?” Remus asked finally, meeting Logan’s eyes. It was silent for a few moments as Logan pondered his options. Janus leaned over and whispered something in Logan’s ear, and his partner nodded.

“Truth,” Logan said confidently, and Remus raised an eyebrow.

“Would you wear your best friend’s used underwear if you went camping and ran out?” Remus asked, and Patton giggled, covering his mouth to prevent spit from flying everywhere.

“Uh…” Logan glanced at Janus, who was trying to hide his laughter at the audacity of the question. “Yeah, I would? I’ve worn Janus’ underwear before–”

“Whoah, whoah, too much info, stop,” Virgil waved his hands, groaning. Patton pouted a little, frowning at Logan and Janus.

“I thought I was your best friend, Lo?” He asked, and Logan hit his forehead with his hand.

“You- Pat, ugh,” Logan was exasperated, and he glanced at Patton carefully. “You’re both my best friends, okay?” Patton seemed pleased with this answer, a smile crossing his features again. Logan leaned forward to spin the bottle, and it landed on Remus. “Uh…”

“I mean, if it’s just you two who get to play, that’s fine,” Virgil commented, leaning his back on the lounge chair behind him.

“Maybe if it lands on Logan again, though, you respin?” Patton suggested, and everyone else nodded in agreement. Remus shrugged, and then nodded to Logan.

“Dare me, Lodaddy,” he cackled, and Janus rolled his eyes, but still slid his hand over to rest on Logan’s thigh, a protective glare directed at Remus.

“I dare you to get an A in one of your courses this semester,” Logan smirked, adjusting his glasses. A few of the others grumbled about how that wasn’t fair, but Remus nodded in acceptance and held out his hand to shake Logan’s.

“Dealio!” He spun the bottle again and it landed on Roman. “Alright, twinny twin, truth or dare?” He waggled his eyebrows at his twin.

“I know better than for you to ask me a truth. So, dare,” Roman said, confident with his decision. An evil look crossed Remus’ eyes only briefly as he glanced between Roman and Virgil.

“Kiss the back of Virgil’s knee,” he said simply, and Roman nearly choked on his own saliva. Virgil buried his face in his hands, grumbling a little. Patton started to defend the two.

“Now, Virgil, you don’t have to–”

“Yes I do, it’s a fucking dare,” Virgil mumbled, standing up. He rolled one of his pant legs up and turned around so the back of his leg was facing Roman, whose face was bright red and who felt like his breath was being stolen from him. “Just make it quick, Princey.” Roman turned more red at the nickname, which probably stemmed from his role in the production from the previous semester. He scooted over to Virgil and pressed his lips to the bend between Virgil’s thigh and calf, and then scooted back, saying nothing. The tall man rolled his pant leg back down and sat down, explicitly not looking at Roman. His pale face was lightly pink.

After a few awkward beats, Roman leaned forward and spun the battle. It landed on Patton, who looked to be in deep thought. “Truth or dare, Pat?”

“Hmmm. I think truth is safer,” Patton admitted, and Roman thought a little. He hoped that his plan would work, but was concerned over what could come from a question like this. He really did want happiness for Patton, even if his brother was involved.

“What are three things you first noticed when you met your crush, if you have one?” Roman asked, and Patton glanced down at his fingers, twisting them together, his face dusted with a pale blush. Remus perked up a little, listening carefully to the answer the small man gave.

“U-um… well… I noticed that he has gray in his hair, that he has a lot of piercings, and that he has a cute smile,” Patton said this so quietly that everyone had to lean in to hear it. Patton’s face was bright red by the time he finished listing off the attributes, and everyone’s eyes trailed over to Remus, who was smirking. Patton quietly excused himself and practically ran to the restroom, grabbing his bag along the way, leaving the rest of the group in an awkward silence.

“Fuck, that’s on me,” Roman said, standing up. “I’ll go… check on him,” he said, and he followed Patton to the bathroom, knocking on the door once. “Pat, it’s me Roman, are you okay?”

“Why did you ask me that?” Patton asked from the other side of the door. It sounded like he was crying, since he was sniffling a little bit. “You know I like him, but I wasn’t ready to say anything, Ro.”

“I’m sorry, Patton, I just… I saw that you liked him and figured a little nudge could help…” Roman explained, then sighed. Maybe he had overstepped a little. “Do you wanna go home?”

“Roman,” a voice came from behind him. It was Remus. “Is he okay?” Concern was etched on his face, and he had crossed his arms. Roman was surprised to see this much care coming from his twin.

“Is that Remus? Oh god, hang on,” Patton sounded like he was panicking. “Where are my makeup remover wipes–” A clattering of things falling out of his messenger bag could be heard. “Shoot!” Remus and Roman exchanged a look as the noises of Patton being flustered echoed into the hallway. “I can’t believe… such a fool… dang it… stop crying, idiot…”

“Patton,” Remus stepped past Roman to knock on the door. “Patton, it’s okay… I uh…” He cleared his throat, “my first impressions of my crush were that he has really awesome floral tattoos, his pink hair is awesome, and he dresses in a really cute way.” He admitted. Roman started to back up, but saw Patton open the door and peek out.

“R-really…?” He asked. It was obvious he had been crying, his eyes were red and his eyeliner had smudged, but he had wiped the majority of it off. “Um…”

“Patton, do you wanna go on a date with me next weekend?”

Roman scooted out of earshot, and stepped back into the living room, but not before he heard Patton squeak out an affirmation. Janus and Logan had disappeared, maybe off to go and do whatever their plans were, and Virgil was scrolling on his phone.

“Sorry about Remus’ dare. If I’d have known about what he’d ask me to do, I would’ve gone with a truth instead,” Roman admitted. Virgil’s face hardened, but the theater major didn’t notice this. “I’d hate to make you uncomfortable.”

“Uh, it’s okay…” Virgil didn’t meet Roman’s eyes, though, as he sat down beside him on the couch. “Actually, um. I was looking at the roles for this next production? Have you looked yet?” Of course Roman had looked. They were going to be doing a production of Wicked, and Roman was absolutely stoked for it.

“Yeah, I’m planning on auditioning for Fiyero…” Roman mused, then remembered the conversation he had with Virgil a few weeks ago. “Is there a role you’re interested in, Virgil?”

“Um, actually, I’ve always loved Boq, but… I don’t know if I’m talented enough for that,” he admitted, twisting his fingers together. “Plus I’m a little tall to play a Munchkin.” Roman sighed, then smiled encouragingly at the taller man.

“Well, I can help you practice for the audition, if you’d like!” Roman said, and Virgil nodded. “I don’t think your height will affect anything, it’s all about talent!”

“Oh. Yeah… I’d uh… really appreciate that, actually.” Virgil responded, still looking down at his hands. “I just… auditioning is really scary, you know?” Roman shrugged, then set his hand on Virgil’s shoulder.

“Maybe they’ll let us audition together, so that way you’ve got a familiar face on stage,” he suggested. Virgil nodded, a small smile appearing on his face. “Hey, don’t worry, Virge. I think you’re gonna do great.”

---

teaser for part two: a botanical garden and some deep conversations

“I’ve never seen you so panicked over a first date, so I think that means that this is… real for you. You’re going to take this one seriously.”

“I want someone who understands how special I can be… but also someone who I can pamper and love with all of my heart.”

---

---

taglist (send an ask, reblog, or reply if you want to be added)

@winterrose42

@are-you-even--real

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thegoodgayshit · 4 years ago

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Luz’s mother really doesn’t want to send Luz to camp. She knows once she leaves, there is no going back. But Luz has a knack for getting into trouble, and one day she stumbles into the same type of people her mother would have preferred she avoided. After helping Luz dissolve her high school bully into dust, Eda and Lilith know right away that this kid is just like them - a child of the gods. So Luz hops on a Pegasus and heads to Camp Half-blood, where she embarks on a dangerous quest that makes her both friends and enemies... and she might even save Olympus along the way.

Chapter Fourteen: I Begin My Career in Bullfighting

Luz’s hands were shaking as the Minotaur charged again, slashing through the thorns with his ax. Willow swung her blade, and another wall appeared in front of it, buying them some more time.

“What do we do?” She yelped, as the beast bellowed in rage and reared back to swing again. Gus flinched behind his shield, and Amity stepped forward with her sword, her eyes hardened ready to attack. Luz’s heart hammered in her chest.

“Amity, get in the tent!” Luz ordered quickly, and the daughter of the love goddess whipped her head around to look at Luz with wide eyes.

“What? I’m not letting you do this on your own!”

“You’re injured and exhausted,” Luz retorted. She knew Amity was going to fight with her on this, but Luz thought that despite their little time, it was worth it. “You could get hurt. The three of us can hold it off.”

“I’ve dealt with worse these last few weeks,” Amity insisted. “Four demigods are better than three.” She turned her head back to the monster and Luz gawked in annoyance that she wasn’t going to listen to her.

Luz wanted to keep arguing with her, and she opened her mouth to do just that, but from her right, she felt Willow put a hand over her shoulder. When she turned, she was looking at her seriously, her green eyes shining with an emotion she couldn’t read.

“Let her fight. It’s no use trying to talk her out of it when she’s made up her mind. We’re out of time.”

She was right. With another roar, the Minotaur hacked down the thorns and charged, flying in their direction. Willow and Gus yelped, throwing their bodies to the right, but Luz just froze up, unable to tear her eyes away from the massive bull-man running at her at full speed.

Amity literally saved her life. She threw her body into Luz’s, knocking them both to the left. Luz felt her body skid and roll, and she scrambled to her feet, clutching her sword. She looked over and saw Amity struggling to get up, so she reached down and help pull her to her feet. The Minotaur wasn’t able to change direction fast enough and ran straight into the tree next to their tent, and the force of the impact caused him to roar in pain.

“Thanks,” Luz breathed out, and Amity simply leaned against Luz for support, the force of their fall clearly having knocked the wind out of her.

“Next time just pay attention,” she said, and while the tone was light, Luz felt a flash of guilt realizing just how close they’d come to being flattened. They needed a plan.

She looked over at her friends and saw that Gus was trying to get Willow to circle the monster around the tree. Thinking this was a decent idea, she charged forward with Amity on her heels and they spread out in a half-circle around it and took turns stabbing with their weapons. The Minotaur roared in annoyance, and its massive head swung around and around as it tried to pinpoint who had hit it where. But it was too slow, and with one particularly good strike from Amity, who stabbed it right in the thigh, it realized it was trapped.

Locking its eyes on Gus’ shiny sword, it reared back and charged, and the boy just barely had time to screech and dive sideways before it charged right where he’d been moments before.

It took the monster some time to do a complete full turn, but when it did, it’s eyes locked on a new target: Willow. As it reared back to charge, Willow swung her sword in a slashing motion, and roots sprung up from the ground, wrapping around its legs. The Minotaur tripped, falling to its knees, and Amity gasped.

“Now’s our chance!”

Luz had seen the opening too because she was already running. She knew Willow was doing her best to keep the thorns wrapped around its legs, and in Amity’s condition, she’d never get there in time before the monster broke free. She was the only one who’d be able to get there in time.

She broke into a long stride and leaped through the air right as the Minotaur broke free. With a swing of her leg, Luz managed to straddle it’s shoulder blades in a piggyback as it stood up, shaking as hard as it realized Luz was on it.

It took everything she had to hold on for dear life. The beast shook its head in a fury and began charging at random. Luz wanted to use Aletheia to stab as hard as she could into the back of his head, but she couldn’t keep a strong grip on both the sword and the Minotaur without being thrown off it.

The Minotaur kept charging at random, trying to shake Luz off while also keeping her friends at bay. Luz heard Amity shriek in surprise as it spun in a 180 and almost rammed her against a tree. If it’d not been for Willow, who’d seen it coming and was able to yank Amity out of the way, she’d also have been crushed. This spurred on new anger inside Luz. They’d come so far to free Amity from Orpheus, they were not going to fail her now. She couldn’t move her hands away from the monster's neck, but she did have her feet.

On one particularly hard spin, Luz used the momentum of the beast to throw her body up in the air, and come back down hard with her heel, slamming it into the back of the monster's spine. The Minotaur yelped and recoiled, and Luz finally had an opening. Luz reached into her pocket and slipped on the leather strap she only used on special occasions. When she felt it slide over her palm, she reared up her hand and slammed the buzzer down on the Minotaur as hard as she could. His whole body jerked as it was wracked with an electric shock, and the beast was frozen in paralysis.

Everybody around her moved at once. Willow and Amity used their swords to slash at its arms, and Gus charged with his spear, hitting it right in the stomach. There was a horrible squelching sound as all the weapons connected at once, and the beast went limp, dropping to its knees.

Luz leaped off it’s back and stabbed with her sword as hard as she could, and the blade went right through its heart. The Minotaur dissolved into dust, every part of it fading including its armor that melted away like butter. All that drop to the ground was a single silver chain around its neck, landing neatly in a pile on top of the monster dust.

Exhaling, Luz touched her blade and it turned back to a ring. Willow and Gus retracted their own weapons, and the three of them shared a look of exhaustion. How many more battles were they going to be in today? It was barely after two o’clock.

Amity tucked her xiphos back onto her belt, doing her best to stand straight, but Luz saw her chest rise and fall quickly. She was still favoring her leg, and while she knew nectar and ambrosia was all healing in a sense, she didn’t like that Amity looked almost just as exhausted now as she had at Orpheus’ manor.

“How did it find us?”

Gus was the first to speak, his voice wavering fearfully. Luz was suddenly very aware of how much younger he was than Luz, Willow, and Amity. With his shield on his arm hiding half of his body and exposing his face, his features were still incredibly baby-like.

“The thorns should have kept our location hidden,” Willow mused, her own eyes dark with anxiety. “There’s no reason it should have spotted us in the forest like this.”

“Is there any way it could be tracking any of us?” Amity asked the question innocently, clearly not wanting to start any kind of pointing figures, but Luz’s blood ran cold. Her hands immediately popped up to her face, and her eyes widened comically.

“Holy Zeus,” she said guiltily. “I know how it found us.”

She then told them about the cellphone she had packed with them and forgotten to ask about. When she was halfway through the story, Gus groaned so loudly Luz winced. He looked like he wanted to smack Luz across the face.

“Are you serious?” He exclaimed, glaring at her. “There’s a reason cellphones are banned at camp.”

“That was very irresponsible, Luz,” Willow agreed, and Luz deflated, feeling worse about the whole thing.

“I’m sorry, guys,” she said, her face heating up. “I just wanted to have a way to keep in contact with my Mami. I put us all in danger and I’m sorry. I’ll leave my phone behind the next time we move.”

“We should move soon,” Gus said. Now that Luz had apologized, he looked less frustrated. He must have been able to tell how guilty Luz was feeling. “As long as that cellphone is on Luz, all monsters will know where we are.”

Amity, who had been quiet the whole time, was watching Luz with narrowed gold eyes. “Hold on, Luz, could you please go get your phone?”

Luz blinked, and Gus and Willow shared equally confused looks.

“Uh, okay.”

She went into her bag inside the tent and took out the phone, bringing it back outside. While she had gone to get it, Willow had waved her hand and grown back more thorns, but the act seemed to make her more exhausted than she’d been before. Luz’s curiosity spiked. She wondered how much energy summoning plants took out of her.

When she met back up with Amity, the gold eyed demigod held out her hand, and Luz dropped the phone into her palm. Amity pressed the home button on her iPhone 7 (Luz wasn’t allowed to have a new phone, she’d broken the X her Mami had splurged on her for Christmas last year and after that, she’d had to use her Mami’s old phone) and her eyebrows furrowed when it didn’t turn on.

“Has it been off the whole time?”

Luz frowned, she supposed she must have turned it off when they were in the chariot as they left Camp Halfblood. She nodded.

“Yeah, I didn’t want it to die on the trip in case I couldn’t charge it.”

Amity handed it back to her. “Then the monster didn’t find us from your phone.”

Now Luz was confused. “What?”

Gus sighed and nodded to what Amity was saying. He and Willow were now looking guilty.

“Monsters track the signal from the phone when you send or receive messages,” Gus explained. “So you’re phone wasn’t the reason the Minotaur found us.”

“Gus!” Willow hissed, looking around nervously. “Watch what you say.”

“Sorry, Pasiphae’s son.” Gus corrected. Luz now was so confused she just settled on the realization that she was never going to figure out this whole demigod thing so she just let Gus talk. “So we were traced here, but not by your phone.”

Amity had crouched down over the scatterings of Minotaur dust, and she pulled up a huge silver chain.

“This is it.”

Luz peered closer at it, and realized on the bottom of the chain there was a little old-timey message in a bottle hanging off the end. Amity popped the cork with her thumb, tipping it upside down to take out a small piece of paper. She unraveled it and read the note out loud.

“This is your last warning. Now that you have your friend, turn around now and go straight back to your camp. More horrors await you if you come after the hearth. -Theo”

Luz felt white-hot rage searing through her bones. “That jerk!”

“That’s some way to promise us they won’t hurt us if we turn around,” Willow said in annoyance.

“We should have known it was from him the second we saw what monster it was,” Gus added, turning to look at Luz guiltily. “Sorry for accusing you.”

“It’s fine,” Luz said, doing her best to control her temper. “I didn’t tell you that I’d brought it, so it’s also my fault too.”

“Hold on,” Amity said, and Luz was glad she wasn’t the only one who looked confused. “Who’s Theo?”

“We better get inside the tent and talk,” Willow said, her mouth forming into a hard line. “We have a lot to catch up on, from both sides.”

The four of them sat around the blanketed floor of their tent, each of them picking at the wraps they’d bought from Starbucks earlier that morning. The only one with an appetite seemed to be Amity, and she wolfed down the sandwich so quickly Luz wondered when the last time she’d had a real meal was.

Willow told their side of the story all the way from the beginning of camp, from when Edric and Emira had called on a favor from Aphrodite to take the chariot, to Antheia and the crowns, (which had finally wilted off their heads, and no flower magic Willow had tried seemed to get them back to health) to the white, sorry Caucasian, eagle. When she told Amity that the eagle had been killed in exchange for a ride, Amity winced.

“Sorry about that, Edric and Emira have a habit of just doing things without thinking.”

Luz shrugged. “It ended up working out. It got us all the way to Cincinnati in less than an hour. We met Theo… er… Theseus on the bus.”

Amity blinked, her gold eyes widening comically. “Like, the Theseus?”

The three of them nodded grimly, and Luz launched into the story about map reading and the bus ride from Indianapolis to Kansas City. When she finished, Amity’s face had gone ashen.

“That’s the third demigod rising from the dead to serve this man in the mountain. That is definitely not good.”

“I know you’ve been through a lot recently and I don’t want to push,” Luz began, and Amity’s face tightened. She knew she already had a feeling of what she was going to ask, but Luz’s curiosity had now gotten the better of her and there was no way she could stop the question now. “What happened in Colorado, Amity? What did Achilles want from you?”

Amity was quiet, and she reached down at her Southwest wrap and started picking at the pita. Luz wasn’t sure she was going to say anything at all, but then she started, and Luz and her friends were unable to stop themselves from leaning in eagerly.

“When I got to the mountain with Skara and Boscha, we thought we were going to face the man in the mountain… this Belos guy… right away. But before we even got up the mountain, there was some weird magic stopping us in our tracks. We couldn’t move. Our whole bodies started feeling cold, and even if we were in the mountains, it was way too cold for June. It started snowing, and I knew we needed to find shelter. It’s like this cave had appeared the second I had thought we needed it. When we went inside, Achilles was there waiting for us.”

Amity’s hands had begun to nervously climb up and rub her arms together. She looked lost in thought, and Luz didn’t want to push her to continue if she couldn’t. But then she steeled her expression and took a breath, and kept going.

“When we got there… Achilles looked directly at me. He called me ‘one half of the hero’. I had no idea what he was talking about… I thought he was calling me weak so I challenged him. That was such a mistake… he played at my pride and used it against me. When we were dueling, he leaned down right in my face and said that the prophecy would destroy me. I might have won if his words hadn’t rattled me so badly. I know the prophecy, I heard it and knew this quest was dangerous… but I hadn’t wanted to be the one to go down for it.”

She swallowed hard, and Luz had a hundred questions but it didn’t feel right to interrupt her right now.

“I thought after he captured me and sent Skara and Boscha away that I was dead for sure. I had almost lost all hope in anyone finding me… and then you three showed up and saved me despite all the terrible things I’ve done to you.”

Amity’s eyes had welled up, and Luz wondered if the tears were from terror, exhaustion, or relief. She turned to Willow and reached out with her hand to touch her arm. Willow didn’t flinch away, instead, she looked at Amity with wide, blinking eyes. Amity swallowed, looking shameful but also the most apologetic Luz had ever seen her.

“Willow, you were never too weak to be my friend. I was too weak to be yours. I can’t take back everything I did to you and Gus and Luz at camp, but I can promise that I will never let anybody hurt you guys ever again. I am so sorry.”

Willow paused, and Luz’s hands involuntarily went to her mouth. She couldn’t believe that this was the same Amity who had threatened to destroy her during capture the flag two weeks ago. After a moment, Willow blinked and tilted her head.

“I was listening to what you said before the monster attacked. I heard why you did it.” Her mouth twisted into the smallest of smiles. “I can’t say that we're friends just yet but… this is a start.”

Amity didn’t say anything, but the soft smile she gave Willow gave away just how relieved she was. Eventually, Gus and Luz were grinning too, and the tension broke like a knife. The four of them shared a couple more of the (very overpriced) Starbucks snacks they’d bought, and they talked and laughed about what Amity had missed at camp since she’d left for their quest, including the latest game of capture the flag where Edric had fallen into the creek and accidentally tripped the red team player running with the flag and accidentally won them the game. After the four of them had stopped laughing at the retelling of the story, Gus and Willow got to their feet.

Willow reached into her backpack and pulled out a baggie in the inside pocket. She fished around and pulled out three golden coins, and Luz gasped.“You’ve had gold all this time and we’ve been worried about money?”

Gus chuckled. “They’re golden drachma’s, Luz. “We should send an Iris Message to camp letting Eda and Lilith know that Amity is okay.”

“I saw a waterfall by the edge of the creek,” Willow said. “Where there’s a water flow, there’s a rainbow. Do you guys want to come?”

“As much as I’d love to hear from my siblings, I think I should probably rest,” Amity said, and Luz couldn’t have agreed more. Willow and Gus turned to Luz in question, and as much as Luz would have liked to hear from Eda, she didn’t like the idea of leaving Amity alone right now.

“You guys go, I’ll wait here.”

The two shared a glance, before shrugging. “Alright, we shouldn’t be too long,” Willow said, and Amity and Luz nodded to them in understanding. They got the code. If they were too long, they needed help.

As they left, Luz realized that she was once again alone with Amity. The two sat in quiet silence, it wasn’t exactly awkward, but it wasn’t steady either. The air seemed charged, and Luz realized it was because she was still itching with questions.

Unable to hold it back any longer, Luz finally felt like she could ask the question she’d been dying to know since Amity left.

“In the strawberry fields that morning, you’d asked me to watch after the camp,” Luz said, and Amity tensed, her hand freezing over the apple slice she was about to pop in her mouth. “Why did you ask me that of all people?”

Amity was quiet for only a couple of moments. Eventually, she put the apple slice down and looked up, her eyes conveying just how nervous she was to talk about this.

“The prophecy gave me some kind of indication that I would have to rely on other people besides the ones I knew well to finish the quest,” she said slowly, and Luz’s curiosity peaked. There it was again, that strange prophecy stuff. “I had been thinking so hard on it, that I felt like it couldn’t be a coincidence you were up that morning too. Then you told me about your dreams, and I knew something was off. Barcus’s prophecy had seemed so strange… like it told me nothing but everything all at once. You make me feel like that sometimes too. Like every time I look at you, there’s something big I’m missing just beyond my reach.”

Luz felt her face flush at the comment, and she knew it was because Amity had spoken just a little too freely. Luz got it, she really did, because Amity often made her feel the same way. Like that night of the skeleton attack when Amity had first opened up to her.

“When I got my prophecy, Barcus told me it was incomplete,” Luz said slowly. Amity blinked looking over at her in surprise. “He said that you’d only been given one half of it, and that I received the second part.”

As what Luz said began to process, Amity’s expression shifted from surprise to curiosity.

“A double prophecy? I’ve never heard of that happening before,” Amity mumbled, but her head was tilted curiously, so Luz smiled.

“Maybe if we each share our bit, we’ll understand the whole of it a little better!”

Amity suddenly got nervous, tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. “I don’t know Luz… maybe your half is better than mine, but my prophecy wasn’t exactly optimistic.”

“That’s why you didn’t share it before you left?” Luz inquired, and Amity sighed.

“Yes.”

“But maybe the whole thing will sound better!” Luz tried, but Amity still looked nervous. Luz frowned, not understanding why Amity was being so hesitant.

“Look, my prophecy doesn’t exactly paint me in a very nice way,” Amity said, her face flushed. Luz realized she was now embarrassed, and her mouth dropped open in surprise. “I just… I don’t want you to judge me for it now that we actually seem to be getting along.”

Luz reached out reassuringly and put a hand on Amity’s arm. Amity’s face got, if possible, redder, the blush now reaching the tips of her ears.

“Whatever it is, I’m not going to judge you,” Luz promised, offering a white smile. “We’re in this together, remember?”

Amity paused for another moment before she nodded slowly. She opened her mouth and began to recite the lines.

“You shall go on a quest with those you hate calling friends,

From what you find in the nightmare, a hero’s life ends.”

Amity paused, her voice cracking on the last line. Luz winced as well. She had been hoping Theo was exaggerating about the “someone will die” part, but the prophecy seemed to be pretty clear. Luz did her best to steel her expression, not wanting to discourage Amity from continuing. It was like Eda said, prophecies can be misleading. They don’t always speak overtly. They could worry about this later. After a short pause, Amity continued.

“Left there alone, you cling to your past

Without better friends, your journey won’t last”

Amity finished her line, and Luz made a noise of understanding.

“I get why you didn’t want to share that,” she said gently, reaching out and wrapping her arm comfortingly around the other half-blood. Amity’s face was so red now it looked like she would pass out. Luz assumed this was from the nerve-wracking lines of the prophecy, so she squeezed her shoulder and smiled. “But the other half of the prophecy is a lot nicer. I’ll show you!”

Luz recited the lines as best she could from her memory.

“But with wisdom and life, the merchant travels and meets

The fallen heroes home, where they lose all their speech

It takes four to escape, and release the goddess caged

As a group restore peace, and dawn a new age.”

When she finished, she released her grip around Amity’s shoulders and grinned.

“See, we’re already off to a great start! It’ll take four of us to save Hestia, and now we have you on our side! Orpheus must have been the fallen hero since he used his lyre to not let us talk. So as a group, we’re going to save Olympus together!”

While Amity was not looking as upset as she was before, she was still biting her lip nervously.

“I don’t know, Luz. Don’t you think it all seems too good to be true?”

“There’s no such thing,” Luz insisted. “I won’t rest until we have this whole situation figured out. Repeat after me: we can fix this together!”

Amity sheepishly rubbed the back of her neck, a little blush appearing on her cheeks. “We can fix this together.”

Luz whooped in excitement, pumping her fist in the air. “Yeah, we can!”

#the owl house #lumity #luz x amity #Percy Jackson AU #shelby speaks

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just-absolutely-super · 5 years ago

Text

The First Crack

@soulxmakaweek

Day 4, Laughter featuring baby (and by baby I mean they’re, like, 12) SoMa. Enjoy!

Summary: It was the first time she had ever heard him laugh like that... Maka, Soul, and a kitchen mishap

FF.net // AO3

Maka had only known Soul for a week and she was thoroughly convinced he was emotionally constipated.

Seriously, the only form of raw human emotion she saw out of him came in the form of his playing the piano. It was like he had opened a window into his soul, one she had peered eagerly into and accepted wholeheartedly. But then he had decided that she couldn't see any more and firmly shut the window before nailing a bunch of two-by-fours to it, making him impossible to read again.

It didn't help that all their interactions afterwards were in the form of arguments. She'd try to get to know her new partner only for him to make scathing, teasing comments about her appearance and her affliction for reading books. This would cause her to lose her temper, leading to a chop before they'd go back to their respective rooms to do their own thing.

It was rather frustrating. She wondered if all boys were like that. She dismissed that thought, though, when she remembered the other men in her life: her father and Black Star.

Her father had no trouble expressing himself. He often wore his heart on his sleeve (as well as a different woman every day), sobbing big fat tears whenever his darling daughter gave him the cold shoulder. Meanwhile, Black Star spent most of his time crowing about how awesome he was and how he'd surpass God while Professor Sid yelled at him to get off the school's roof before he hurt himself.

No, she deduced that all boys weren't as opposed toward expressing themselves. It must just be a Soul Eater thing.

She could have tried harder to get to know him, but her mother often told her that partnerships were so fragile during the beginning stages. Even if you clicked right away, there was always that risk of things becoming strained and awkward the more you got to know each other. The best plan of action was to always go slow and to not force yourselves on each other.

Maka didn't want to try and search for a new partner—one who was a scythe at least—so she hung herself back and allowed Soul to be his moody, closed-off self. If things worked in her favor, he'd open up to her sooner or later…

"Hey, Mama sent me a blender as a housewarming gift. I'm gonna make a smoothie, do you want one?" she asked him one afternoon, poking her head in his room.

Soul was in bed lying on his stomach, some magazine in his hands. He lifted his head up to acknowledge her, "Yeah, sure. You got strawberries?"

Maka nodded, "Of course! I'll let you know when I'm done."

Soul gave a grunt in reply as Maka bounced into the kitchen. She was excited. Excited because not only was she going to try out her newest appliance, but she and Soul would have another reason to bond with each other. Sure, it may end up as them drinking their cold drinks in the living room while aimlessly flipping channels, but it was better than nothing. Maka liked to think of the glass half-full during these occasions.

After setting the blender up, Maka hummed as she brought the ingredients onto the counter. Following the recipe she had looked up at the library, Maka put everything in the jar. Placing the lid onto the jar, she eagerly pressed the start button…only for nothing to happen.

"Huh?" she said, turning every which way to figure out why the appliance wasn't working. She thought she had everything in place. It should turn on!

After fiddling with it for a while with no results, she got frustrated. She yelled out, "Soul! Could you come in here and help me?"

"What's the matter?" she heard him ask from his bedroom.

"I can't get the blender to come on."

"Are you serious?" he complained. She heard his heavy footsteps. "It's a blender, Maka. It's not like they're hard to use."

She pouted at him when he rounded the corner into the kitchen, "I know that! But I can't get it to turn on!"

Soul rolled his eyes, "Move aside. Let me look at it."

He inspected it. She watched him take the lid off of the jar to look inside, probably making sure nothing was jamming the blades if Maka had to guess. Deducing that the blades were fine, he detached the jar from the base and set it on the counter before picking the base up to examine it. Maka was thankful he had done that; she didn't want to worry about him accidentally spilling the contents of their smoothie onto the floor. After a brief moment, he placed the appliance back on the counter before turning to his meister.

"Found the problem. It's battery operated. You didn't put the batteries in, genius." He said, letting out a chuff at her incompetence.

Maka flushed in embarrassment. She was torn between hiding her face in shame and punching that infuriating smirk off his face.

"I… I thought they were already put in!" she defended.

Soul snorted, "Obviously not." He checked the box Maka had opened when she received the package from her mother. "Oh good, your mom included some batteries. Let me install them then we can work it."

Maka watched him place the batteries in, her cheeks still burning from the shame of making an utter fool of herself in front of her weapon. She hoped this didn't give him second thoughts about agreeing to partner up with her.

"Alright, here we go," she heard Soul say. She looked back to him and saw he was about to hit the "on" button. What she also noticed was in his hurry to make smoothies he had forgotten to put the lid back on the jar.

"W-Wait, Soul! Don't—"

Too late. Soul pressed the button and Maka watched his red eyes widen comically at the realization of what he had just done. Both weapon and meister squealed in shock as the contents of what would have been their fruity drinks exploded over them and their kitchen.

"Shut it off! Shut it off!" Maka screamed, running over to the boy.

"I'm trying! I'm trying!" Soul screamed back, strawberry and yogurt and whatever else had gotten into his eyes, clouding his vision and inhibiting him from hitting the correct button.

"Let me!" she said, forcing the appliance closer to her and managing to find the "off" button. She sighed in relief at hearing the whirling blades die down.

"Man, so uncool!" Soul groaned, running a hand through his hair and grimacing in disgust when it came back covered in pink goop.

Maka blinked at his appearance. The pink tinge of the smoothie and random chunks of strawberry worked really well with his white hair. It practically dyed it. Before she could stop herself she gave an unattractive snort before bursting into uncontrollable giggles.

Soul scowled at her, watching as his meister leaned forward in laughter.

"It's. Not. Funny." He growled.

Maka said in between giggles, "Oh…yes it…is! Hahaha, you look ridiculous!"

"Yeah, like you're any better!" he fired back, gesturing to her own smoothie-covered appearance.

"Yeah, well…" giggle, "at least my hair isn't pink now. You look so uncool!" she then fell onto the floor. The comment might have been mean, but after a week of hearing him call her breasts tiny, it felt like a breath of fresh air to make fun of him for a change.

"We'll see about that…" she heard her weapon say. Maka stopped her giggling upon hearing the underlying threat in his words. Looking up to him, she saw he had a maniacal grin on his face, a handful of pink goop in his hands.

"Soul Eater, don't you dare—" Maka's attempt to threaten him turned into a squeal of shock as Soul dived onto her to rub strawberry smoothie into her pigtails.

"Who's got the pink hair now, huh?" Soul taunted, making sure to slather the chunks of strawberries onto her face for good measure.

"You are DEAD!" with a battle cry, Maka tackled Soul.

The two wrestled each other on the kitchen floor, using whatever they could find among the mess as their ammunition. Various noises coming out of their mouths—screaming, threats of bodily harm, and most of all, laughter.

The laughter was mostly consuming them, to the point they disentangled themselves from their brawl to spread themselves out onto the floor. Maka was clutching her stomach as her sides were starting to hurt.

"Ceasefire, ceasefire!" she pleaded, her guffaws too much for her.

"I can't believe I forgot to put the lid on!" Soul said, "That's like…the number one rule of a blender. You'd have to be a stupid cartoon character to make that mistake! And now I'm covered in all this crap!"

He then turned onto his side as he broke into more infectious laughter. Maka would have joined him if she weren't overcome by a sudden revelation.

This was the first time she had ever heard Soul laugh.

Sure, he would snicker at a crude joke Black Star would tell him, or chuckle if he heard a funny joke on television, but as for genuine bone-deep laughter? This was definitely the first.

She just marveled at the site. His sharp teeth fully on display; his deep red eyes closed tight, crinkling at the edges in his mirth; and if she looked closely, she could see tears forming in the corners because he was laughing so hard.

He looked so natural and carefree. Like he didn't have the world's biggest chip on his shoulder. Like he wasn't worrying about how he looked or presented in front of others.

He looked…happy.

"Hey, what's with that look on your face?" his voice drew her out of her musings. He was trying to glare at her, but it was offset by his still present grin, "If you think I look bad, you should see yourself, nerdbrain."

Maka stuck her tongue out at him, "I wasn't staring!" (She ignored how unconvincing that sounded.), "I was just thinking about what a pain this was going to be to clean up, is all!"

Soul sighed, rolling onto his back again before cringing as more of the smoothie substance seeped into his shirt. "Yeah, that's gonna suck… Well, I'll let you take care of it. I'm gonna hop in the shower."

Maka gave an indignant noise, "Oh no you don't! You're the one who caused the mess, I get the shower while you clean up!"

"It wasn't my idea to make the smoothies!" he shot back.

"Well, I'm a lady and ladies go first!"

Soul snorted, "Funny, I thought 'ladies' had more sex appeal—"

"MAKA CHOP!"

"OUCH!"

While Soul nursed his aching head, Maka used the opportunity to run to the bathroom. "I'll help once I'm done showering. Then you can shower and I'll finish what you started!"

"Yeah, yeah, whatever…" she heard him grumble as she grabbed some clean clothes and shut the door.

As she peeled off her stained clothing, she thought she heard more of his distinct laughter from his place in the kitchen. She felt herself smile.

It may take some time, but she felt hopeful that she could crack the sturdy exterior that was Soul's metaphorical walls.

Hopefully it wouldn't take too many mistakes and messes for that to happen…

#soma #soul x maka #soulxmakaweek #somaweek #somaweek2020 #soul eater evans #maka albarn #soul eater #my writing

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i-believe-in-soriku · 5 years ago

Text

I Won’t Say

Riku had followed Sora to the Coliseum. He was itching to go see him to provoke him, but he had lost that urge when he saw Sora pass the tournament trials. He had been… impressed. He had to admit that Sora had really gained strength. A touch of jealousy gripped his heart. He decided to leave. It was then that he realized that he was not the only one to stare at someone here.

Trying to sneak around, he saw that a woman was hidden nearby. She hadn't seen him, at least he didn't feel like it, and, curious, he approached her to find out what she was doing there. He then witnessed something ... unexpected. The young woman was whispering curses against Hercules - at least that's what he thought he understood. He would have liked to learn more, but before he had time, she fled from the Coliseum through the main door.

Since he didn't have much to do that day, Riku followed her. Her trace took him to a very beautiful park with a pond surrounded by hedges, columns and statues representing characters that Riku could not have identified - he noted however with a little embarrassment that they almost all showed lovers . He just recognized the statue of Hercules. He had saw that guy with Sora - he looked like a pretentious fool. Riku hid behind a hedge and spied on the girl who gazed at the statue of Hercules ... and suddenly, she kicked it furiously.

"Stupid hero with his stupid smile, his stupid muscles, his stupid success", she shouted.

Riku was beginning to understand the situation. Obviously, she was in love with Hercules. He guessed, seeing her rage, that he was probably too busy doing heroic things to take an interest in her. That he left her aside. He was starting to feel a little strange, and as the woman continued to rant about her heartache in front of the statues, he decided to have a little fun.

"I don’t think this poor statue deserves to be treated like that," he said, standing behind her, hands resting on his hips.

These words made her jump. She turned back and glared at him.

"And to whom have I the honor?"

"Tell me, if you're really so mad at this great hero, why are you spying on him? he mocked her, avoiding her question.

The stranger looked at him, then smirked, folding her arms over her chest.

"You can talk, kid. I saw you. You too were spying on a 'great hero'."

Riku was overwhelmed. So she too had caught him in the act, and he had seen nothing! His rage mixed with the embarrassment he felt, but he did his best not to show any emotion.

"I'm only checking that he does not forget what is important."

She raised an eyebrow, questioning. Riku proudly faced her gaze and she finally understood that he would not tell her more about that.

"Well, kid-"

"My name is Riku, not kid."

"...It turns out that my ... (Riku sneered, and she corrected herself). This hero is an idiot. But I'm also an idiot. I fell for him. Now, I think you agree with me, the heroes don't have time for what they consider ordinary people.”

Riku listened to her words, and he felt anger rising in him. She was not wrong, of course. Since Sora had learned to use the Keyblade, he had forgotten about him and Kairi. He was far too busy saving people, winning tournaments, and making new friends to care about their fate. And then he pretended to be looking for Kairi! He clenched his fists without answering.

"So, yes, kid, I am angry, and I have no lesson to receive from you, since you are in the same situation as I am."

"I am not in the same situation as you!" Riku protested vehemently.

"Oh, come on. If you are not there because of this boy, then why?"

Riku couldn't think of anything to say because he was there for Sora. Couldn't she understand that he was just trying to put the pieces together? He had to make his childhood friend understand that he was losing sight of what really mattered!

"You love him", concluded the stranger, taking on a compassionate face.

"Love him? He's just my childhood friend! You don't even know me..."

"Maybe not you, she cut him off. I'm just watching your behavior and your actions. And now, kid, you are lying to yourself. Look how defensive you are. You make fun of me because it reassures you about your own case", she asserted.

Riku received these comments as blows. He tried to control the panic that was starting to take hold of him. How did she ...? They only just met. He thought he could hide his thoughts ... The young woman seemed to realize that she had been a little brutal, because she added in a softer voice:

"It's not your fault. I thought I was immune, and look at where I am!"

She pointed to the statue.

Riku did not react. He turned away and looked down at the reflection of the moon in the water of the pool. It was painful to admit to himself that the jealousy he felt was real. It was painful to realize his own weakness. Behind him, the woman sighed dramatically.

"Oh, Meg, what idea did you have again? Fall in love with a hero and discourage a kid!"

Meg - as it was apparently her name - gasped, as if surprised to have dropped the words "in love". Riku felt a slight smile appear on his lips. He turned to her.

"Don't tell anyone about what you told me. I would not repeat what you told me. Sounds fair?"

Meg approved and held out her hand. Riku hesitated. In the end, she was not mean. Awkward and a little brutal, but not mean. Even if she irritated him, he felt ... sympathy for her. He shook her hand. They stared at each other for a few moments, then Riku turned around.

"Goodbye."

He started to walk away, when Meg said to him:

"Good luck, Riku."

He did not turn around, but thought: I really need it.

_____________________♡___________________

So, this is one of the first fanfics I wrote. Idk if it's really good but I'm pretty satisfied. It happens during the events of KH the first, when Sora visits the Coliseum.

I really like Megara in the Hercules of Disney,and her song, I Won't Say, was always one of my favorite from the studio, and my favorite of the cartoon! I pictured myself Riku and Meg talking anout their "silly" lovers and I had to write about it!

At first I wanted to really include Megara singing and the Muses teasing on Riku, unfortunately I was unable to write that. I hope it is still good, even though it's less fun! Maybe I'll re-write the thing because I really like the idea 😂

Also this one is pretty short, but I usually write more than that.

#kingdom hearts #kh #riku kingdom hearts #kingdom hearts riku #riku kh #kh riku #megara #hercules #disney #square enix #kh fanfiction #fanfic #kingdom hearts fanfiction #soriku #riku x sora #i won't say i'm in love #my writing #writing #my fanfiction

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vmohlere · 6 years ago

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More Infinite Coffee Q&A

@musings-on-bucky-barnes had some more questions from last year’s Q&A, and after AGES of procrastination on my part, here’s the first set of answers. Also on Ao3.

· When does Pepper teach Bucky to wink?

I have no idea! That’s not one of the little details that my brain bothered to supply.

Or perhaps he saw her do it (to himself or someone else) and decided to copy it.

Very possible! Barnes definitely watches Pepper closely, because he considers her a reliable source for acceptable social cues.

· Reactions of the Tower residents and other friends when Bucky recovers enough to start grinning and winking? (We know that Natasha said it makes him look epically hot!)

Pretty much the universal reaction to being grinned at by Barnes for the first time is being stunned and maybe a little turned on. Barnes doesn’t bring out the flirting that often – most often with the Olds and the folks at the Lucky Carp, because of his comfort levels – but Barton and Sam flirt with him pretty shamelessly, trying to get him to smile. Hill has been known to save up a particularly juicy smart comment so she can make it in front of him. And Tony would deny it forever, but once Barnes laughs softly at something during arm maintenance, he ramps the Tony Show up to 13 to try to make Barnes laugh again.

And also what about flirting at and with Steve? Lucky Steve would get the full force of it when they’re together.

Prior to Upgrade: Advanced Happiness Skills, Barnes only flirts with Steve when it’ll cause maximum embarrassment and/or make Steve drop something heavy onto his own foot.

· The reactions of the others to Steve and Bucky being together? We get to see the main Avengers and the Olds react, but not Pepper, Maria, Bruce, Katie, Peggy and the Carp clan.

Hill yells at them for ruining No-Touch Valentine’s Day, but come on – you know she’s delighted. Especially since their timing meant that neither Barton nor Tony won the betting pool for how long it would take. (Pepper won, because she picked the date Nat told her to).

The others might complain that the bet is then null and void because Nat had insider information ;)

Who would dare complain (to her face)?

Mr. Hayashi blinks at them for a minute, until Kazue fusses at him for being old-fashioned.

How does he then react?

Oh, he’s fine, just momentarily surprised.

Katie cries with happiness, and Steve’s a sympathy crier, so that’s a very damp conversation.

Bruce notices. Eventually. (Nah, I kid – all the Tower residents saw this coming miles and miles away.)

So that means that they are good at keeping their poker faces, as Bucky says in Advanced Happiness Skills that none of them (apart from Nat) noticed and that they appeared to be morons. (Which could mean that HE was so happy and distracted that he was actually the unobservant moron!)

Correct.

Sadly, I’m not sure that the Peggy in this world would be mentally together enough to hold onto the news. But her objective was always that Steve be safe and happy.

· Steve and Peggy’s relationship - how it was affected in the period after Bucky’s ‘death’?

I don’t have anything for this. Just thinking about it makes me so sad, though.

It is ironic that Bucky remembers more about Steve’s sex life than his own, like Steve & Peggy in the room in Lyon. Poor Bucky…

Oof, his own sex life has a lot of stuff he didn’t want to remember, so he walled off all of it.

Steve’s reactions to knowing that Bucky loved him and was jealous of Peggy

Capt. Compartmentalization took that knowledge and tucked it very far back in his mind, bringing it back only when he wanted to torture himself by feeling guilty about it.

Will Steve and Bucky discuss Steve’s feelings/guilt about how he felt he let Bucky down during WW II?

Oh, sure. They live for a very long time, and eventually, they talk all of it through.

· Other Tower residents & Olds after Bucky has been shot

Widespread frantic worry. There’s a phone tree for updates. Barton remembers to add the Hayashis to it.

Steve’s reactions to wounded Bucky’s ramblings – including the ‘you’re my favorite person’ comment

Well, you know, Buck was just as high as a kite there, couldn’t be held responsible for anything he was saying, and there definitely was no teeny tiny little part of Steve that had been in love with Bucky Barnes since he was 15 years old that was 100% thrilled.

· Does Bucky ever run into Tyler and Dale again? Or they recognize him on TV when the media realize Bucky is alive/helping the Avengers?

Oh man, I don’t know. I have thought about The Dale & Tyler Question a number of times, and I haven’t ever been able to decide what the funniest option is.

· Bucky’s next birthday – will he be recovered enough for a big birthday party of his own?

No, but I’ve just decided this minute that they rent out the Carp for the evening and have all the mission-assists for dinner. Barnes has to sit with his back to the wall near the front door, but he loves it.

· What made you decide to do Steve’s POV? It was the first look at Bucky from the outside in this series.

That section rose up and demanded to be written and fell out all in one lump. The only thing I changed while revising was to rearrange it a little. I really loved writing Steve’s voice.

· Tony’s reaction to someone apart from himself doing something risqué/scandalous (the skinny dipping)

He hates it, of course! While secretly loving it. Incapable of having a straightforward emotion, that one.

· Solo trips to the Carp by other Avengers

Oh, sure. They’re very good for that place’s bottom line. And Nat visits the Olds on her own.

· It seems that Ollie’s honey Wayne died not long before Ollie encountered Bucky for the first time. How did the Olds all meet? Did they know Wayne?

That must be so, given the way I mentioned things, but the timing wasn’t deliberate. Esther and Lidia had both lived in the building for several years, moving in when it was a much less dire place, and neither could afford to leave once it started getting bad. They were “nodding neighbors” until O’Reilly bought the place and started using it for nefarious purposes, and then they clung together for safety. Ollie moved in because it was what he could afford. They took one look at how sad he was and adopted him.

Eventually, all three of them move to California, because the NYC winters get to be too much for their joints, and Ollie’s family is so happy to have him more active in their lives, and they don’t want to be separated. Barnes is NOT a fan of the plan, though it’s what ultimately makes him stubborn about learning to make air travel okay.

That makes me sad and happy in equal measure. Tony would probably offer to do something whiz bang to the building’s heating, but a permanent move to warmer climes makes sense (and he and Pepper would make sure they got a great home). Hopefully Cat Eleanor likes her new home!

Yeah, they are all really happy in California. Ollie’s family takes them all in with open arms.

· Use of first names/surnames/nicknames and the importance of choice of which.

Like how you mentioned in a Tumblr post that you were very specific in Bucky’s use of Rogers, Steve and Stevie. And there is also how he only seems to prefer to let Steve say ‘Bucky’.

Using a first name is a sign of intimacy for Barnes. Surnames keep people at arm’s length – or, in Hill’s case, are a sign of recognizing one as an equal. His using “Steve” or “Stevie” means that it’s a moment of the programming losing power.

And yes. Only Steve can call him “Bucky.” Only the Olds can call him “Jimmy.” He thinks of himself as “Barnes.”

· How quickly did it take the Olds to realize that their mysterious new neighbor was Bucky Barnes?

A couple of weeks.

· Any more snippets of Cat Eleanor being her glorious cat self with the boys?

Oh man, I wish I had one for you, but I don’t.

They do eventually adopt their own cat, though, after the Olds move. His name is Jack, and he’s a hideous old grey thing with one eye. He and Barnes are devoted to one another. Jack tolerates Steve as a second-class roommate.

· In ‘This You Protect’, you mention that Barnes is somewhat of a prude when Steve trolls him by singing rude and yucky songs. Is that a feature of old Bucky or new Barnes or both?

Barnes

Bucky thought all those songs were hilarious.

· Recently you gave an intriguing one line summary about your original novel – please repeat that and tell us a bit about the genre, what stage it is up to, why you decided to write it.

oh jeez.

Did I say it was about a lady and her six werewolf boyfriends? I’m working on my query letter now, and I don’t know whether it’s urban fantasy—with—romance or paranormal romance, because marketing labels are a mystery unto me, but it’s full of jokes and people being dumb about their own emotions and baked goods. It’s definitely a coffeeshop AU, plus lots of boning.

It’s not high art, but I had a ton of fun writing it.

Honestly, I wrote it because I got mad at a bad fic (non-MCU) and decided I could do better. I will NOT link the fic.

· Tell us the story behind your choice of that Battle of the Planets art for your icon.

HA! I loved that cartoon when I was a kid. But mostly that picture just makes me laugh every time I look at it – it’s so cheesy. There’s something about the pose and the facial expression that I find hilarious, and I’ve used it for long enough now that it would be weird to change it.

xXx

#ICaPD #Infinite coffee #Barnes #This You Protect #owlet

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apparitionism · 6 years ago

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Mercury 11

This is basically just one scene. It was going to be more (and this scene was going to be better), but I’m being fussy about what follows it, so I figured some content, sooner, was better than more later. (Some previous content: part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4, part 5, part 6, part 7, part 8, part 9, and part 10.) I was additionally having a little hiccup of trouble figuring out exactly how to start this part... but “in the middle of things” is usually a good rule, particularly when the “things” in question are important, so “in medias pie” it is!

(P.S. to anon who asked about a masterpost: That’s too much housekeeping for me. But you’ll find I’m diligent with tags, plus my tumblr has search and an archive, so you shouldn’t have to scroll too much. Also, much of my stuff can indeed be found on AO3, where I move it after posting on Tumblr, usually with copy and/or content edits, depending on what seems warranted. Thanks for asking!)

Mercury 11

“But this pie,” Myka said with her mouth full.

“Has rendered you ill-mannered and inarticulate,” Helena said. “Interesting.”

“And here I thought demolishing cars was gonna be the entertainment,” Pete added.

They all had to work hard to be heard over the soundtrack provided by the derby: the roar of engines, the sharp bang and crunch of metal colliding with metal at speed, the shouts of extremely invested spectators. Myka had been paying some attention to it before she embarked on this trip to pastry-girded key-lime paradise. She hadn’t had any idea that bliss was in fact a combination of citrus and... whatever other things it was combined with, here in this very-nearly-literal slice-of-heaven pie, but Pete was right: this had been a really educational trip.

Ida said, “This is closer to what I’d call a show.”

“Here in Wisconsin?” Pete asked.

“Anywhere. Is she always like this about pie?”

“I’ve only known her five years,” Pete said, “but I think it’s safe to go with ‘never in her life has she been like this about pie.’ Or maybe anything.”

“Well,” Helena began.

“Don’t say it,” Pete advised.

Ida temporized, “She doesn’t need to. Everyone understands innuendo. And subtext.”

Myka didn’t care, not even a little—not about the kind of show she was putting on, not about how innuendo-y and subtext-y Helena was getting with regard to what Myka might find heavenly in other contexts—as long as nobody took this miracle of a pie away.

She certainly hadn’t expected this to be the outcome when she, Helena, and Pete had taken the lengthy walk—thankfully, in their normal configuration, with Myka reclaiming her “run interference” slot between Helena and Pete—to the site of the demolition derby, some distance away from the fairgrounds proper, accompanied by what had seemed like an additional fair’s worth of people. Were these things really so popular? Maybe Pete was right, maybe “the IRS” should sponsor one in Univille. For purposes of general sociability, because for all Myka didn’t like the place, she did still care what its denizens thought of her, and if—“Bet these’re cow pastures in real life,” Pete had said, interrupting her speculation. That prompted Myka to start taking careful note of where she was placing her feet during that long walk along not a path as such, but rather through grass that had been marked at irregular intervals with spray-painted arrows.

“You’re so prissy,” Pete said.

Myka shrugged that off. “Maybe. But cows. Or rabbits. Nobody with sense in their head want to walk in anything they leave behind.”

Helena said, to Pete, “Are you as unnerved by bovines as you are by lagomorphs?”

As a dig, it seemed mild, even polite, but Pete reacted as if she’d reached across Myka and slapped him. “Leave me alone! I’m not scared of anything unless it’s freakishly huge!”

They were passing the cars’ inspection area: the same spray paint had been applied to a piece of plywood, leaning against a fence enclosing those cars, to spell “INSP AREA.” It could have meant “inspiration area,” Myka supposed, but people with clipboards had seemed to be inspecting rather than inspiring, or being inspired... she tried to think of another word that began with “insp.” Nothing came to her.

“Size-wise,” she told Pete, “the bumpers on that Sable over there must be giving you nightmares already.”

Pete looked where she’d indicated. He did a cartoon double-take. “Are those even legal? I think I just found my horse.”

“I like the Pinto next to it,” Myka said.

He scoffed, “Nobody likes a Pinto.”

“The ponies enjoyed a brief vogue when I was a girl,” Helena mused, as if to herself. “Would that the car were painted like those...it’s a shame that a pinto—and, in fact, a sable—shouldn’t resemble their namesake animals in some way.”

Myka said, “I guess we can call my Pinto a Palomino, then. The color’s why I like it.”

“That’s not a good reason,” Pete said. “Not for a demo derby.”

“It’s a great reason. Look.” Myka pointed toward a corral ringed with bleachers. “There’s a lot of mud over there, where I assume they’ll do the demolishing, right?”

Pete nodded. “Mud slows ’em down. Safer, plus it’s a better show. Upset it’s gonna be such a messy show, Miss Prissy?”

“My point is, the Pinto’s yellow, so I’ll be able to keep track of it through the muck, while it does its demo-ing. Or gets demo-ed. As I watch it happen, because I’ve got a horse—almost literally—too. Do you want me interested or not?”

He glanced at the Pinto, then looked back at Myka. “Not sure,” he said, like he thought she was trying to trick him.

“You wanted us here so bad you won it,” she reminded him.

“Mostly wanted to make you suffer.”

“Then I think your win is more of a ‘win,’ because I refuse to suffer,” Myka told him. “Not about this.”

She was holding Helena’s hand. She had been, for the entire walk, “because I didn’t get to on the Ferris wheel,” she’d said when she first reached for the contact, her voiced reason in response to Helena’s questioning did-you-not-recently-express-objection-to-public-displays eyebrow, and it was true as far as it went. But what had compelled Myka to make the small display, really, was that she’d needed something, and this was simple. Uncomplicated. Something to bank against whatever was going to happen later, in the hotel room. Which she was, she had to admit to herself, doing some pre-suffering about. Because she didn’t know.

Helena declared, as if to assure Myka that she too felt both the simplicity and the need for it, “I’m not suffering either. Not about this.”

She gripped Myka’s hand tighter. It did feel good. Myka echoed the pressure, and one corner of Helena’s mouth curved up.

Pete rolled his eyes. “You two are gonna wish so hard that Myka won that duck bet.”

“It was a bet that concerned ducks?” Helena asked.

Myka grimaced. “I’ll tell you later.”

“I wonder,” Helena said, jauntily, “whether the poultry competition might include a Rouen or two.”

“I’m gonna regret this, but: okay. That’s a...?” Pete prompted.

“Giant mallard,” Helena said, with even greater cheer. Pete groaned, and Myka found herself wanting to kiss Helena: for being clever, but also as yet another instance of that bankable, uncomplicated touch. She almost said that out loud—“I want to kiss you,” simple, like that—but she understood that if she did, she’d have to deal with Pete about it. Because of ducks.

“Well, I don’t see any of your probably-made-up freak-ducks around,” Pete said. He added a taunt of, “I do see the two of you practically sittin’ in a tree, though.”

“Mature,” Myka said.

“Water off a Rouen’s back!” Helena announced.

Her insouciance made Myka again want contact, like a kiss, but more than that—but still simple. Basic. The most basic.

Pete must have seen and read that thought as it crossed Myka’s mind, crossed her face, for he said, “Jesus, Mykes, just jump her and get it over with. Get yourselves behind the bleachers and take care of business.”

Nobody had taken care of any behind-the-bleachers business, of course, but Myka had kept on holding Helena’s hand, even as they sat on the uncomfortable aluminum of those bleachers and listened to engines rev in preparation for entering the corral. Pete had taken it upon himself to explain the derby’s rules to Helena: “...and they all go in and they have to hit another car every minute, or maybe it’s every two, but anyway if your engine bonks out you get a little while to try to restart it but if you can’t you’re out, and they break that piece of wood by your window to show that you...” Myka listened with one ear, but mostly she concentrated on not finding a reason to loosen her clasp. The interlacing of their fingers had moved from “this feels good” to Helena’s barely fleshed bones pressing too solid against Myka’s, giving rise to an uncomfortable ache... but that ache was no reason to let go; rather, it was a reminder not to. Bodies, real ones, felt pain. So Myka sat on aluminum, listening to engines rev, not letting go. Banking it.

She’d been banking it, still, when Ida arrived, asking, “How did we ever live without the ability to text?” (Pete had said, as they sat down, that he would text Ida to join them, “because maybe she’s done with judgy-judge-judge and can bring us some leftovers.”) She’d looked at Myka and Helena—specifically, looked at their joined hands. “Well,” she said. “Another distraction?”

“Maybe,” Myka acknowledged. From something freakishly huge...

“How are you?” Ida asked Helena. “Did your summit go well?”

Helena smiled at the word. “As well as such a thing could. I suppose one might call the outcome détente,” she said. Myka, too, had smiled a little at “summit,” but as for “détente”... well, there was a lot to be said for that in the relations between several of her nearest and dearest. But she wasn’t sure how she felt about the idea of any relaxing of tensions between Helena and Emily Lake’s girlfriend. “It’s been a very strange two days,” Helena went on to say.

“That isn’t news to me,” Ida said, which prompted in Myka another Amen, sister. Ida added, “But I’ve got something that will make everything better.”

“Fruit spreads?” Pete asked, with great hope. He pointed at the small hamper she held. “That looks like something.”

Ida nodded. “Something. But better than fruit spreads.” From the hamper, she produced—with a “ta-da!”—the key lime pie. Pete gave a gasp that Myka judged both overdramatic and unwarranted; it was just a pie, albeit one that nearly matched her Pinto for color; if she’d thrown it at the car, no one would have noticed the spatter, not that she was in the habit of throwing pies at cars. This one hadn’t been thrown at anything, but it did look a little the worse for having traveled in close quarters: not show quality anymore. Given the crumbled edges of its crust and slightly dented surface, it might have been any pie at all. Ida then handed out plastic forks and paper plates, and if anyone near them in the stands around the fenced patch of mud recognized the picnic as larcenous, they kept it to themselves.

Pete took his fork up with his usual enthusiasm, dug in, took a bite, then closed his eyes. “This pie is freaking awesome. In an ‘I could literally die now’ way.”

“I told you, you literally can’t beat it,” Ida said.

While Myka had respected that particular “literally” when Ida said it yesterday, she wasn’t sure she believed it today in any kind of existential sense. Hence her astonishment when she found her own first bite to be... was “rapturous” outsize, as a word or an idea, to apply to the experience of eating pie? It didn’t matter what word she used, though; she wielded her fork with even more gusto than Pete, and she felt a niggling worry that this was, for her, unseemly, yet the combination of the unprecedented pie and the certainty that it was nutritious was irresistible. The mouthfeel alone was enough to knock her out—unctuous, yet with a sharp slash of lime-presence tanging on the tongue... she’d noticed Helena ignoring her own serving so as to watch Myka. “What?” Myka had asked. “It’s good for me.”

“I am prepared to offer to any and all attending deities,” Helena had said, amusement animating her face, “my prayer that your recently espoused belief does not wear off.”

“I’m prepared to livestream it so everybody on the planet can testify later that it happened,” Pete had enthused. “Also so Claud’s head explodes when she sees it.”

And so it was that the only words Myka had managed to come up with in her own defense, “But this pie,” had caused everyone to express even more opinions in the matter.

Fortunately, however, they let her keep eating. “I feel like I’m somebody else, how much I’m enjoying this,” she now said, not bothering to pause before scooping up another forkful.

“Interesting,” Helena said again, and her tone told Myka that something was waiting to be interrogated there... but she was extremely unwilling to turn her attention away from the pie.

Meanwhile, the cars destroyed each other. None of it mattered to pie-intoxicated Myka, except the Pinto, a little, because she could in fact keep track of it in the muck. It was surprisingly agile, “her” Pinto. Or Palomino. And if the derby had engaged only her eyes, that would have been fine, but exhaust and mud and the crowd’s sweaty enthusiasm hung heavy in the air, congesting her nose and clogging her lungs; she resented that it interfered with her experience of the pie. Its rich citrus viscosity was similarly condensed, on her tongue, but far more pleasurable... but wait, she thought, thickness... a dictionary-page memory... “fr. L in- + spissus slow, dense”: “Inspissate!” she exclaimed.

Pete and Ida both said “What?” and Myka looked up from her plate, ready to explain about “insp” and areas—but her neon pony caught her eye at just the right, or wrong, instant for her to witness its driver’s failure to recognize a danger for what it was: it received in that moment a dramatic T-boning from a seemingly unthreatening even-more-compact car. She yelped and upended her plate, which landed face down on the aluminum at her feet. It had held one last bit of inspissated key lime and... whatever else it was combined with, a last bit that she’d told herself she wanted to savor, but that she’d in all honesty been about to shovel into her mouth with abandon. She made a decision that was really no decision: she lifted the plate, scraped the spattered filling up with her fork, and willed herself not to think about dirt.

“Not one word,” she said, her mouth again full, to Pete and Helena. “Not one word out of either of you.”

Neither said anything. Myka chose to ignore their thunderstruck expressions, because she still had that precious morsel of pie in her mouth.

“Good choices,” Myka told them once she’d swallowed. She licked her fork. She took note of Helena’s expression as it shifted from shock to avid appreciation of her licking her fork.

TBC

Again, minimal tags, but here, an essay might mention things like strongly held beliefs, and how our strongly held beliefs shape our behavior, and why we so strongly hold the beliefs that shape our behavior, and that it is indeed interesting when a shift in belief (about anything: from sugar’s nutritional value to who we actually are) leads us to engage in behaviors that make us strangers to ourselves—regardless of whether we know of that estrangement at the time it’s occurring. When you think about it, in terms of selfhood, each of us might be said to be a cult with exactly one member. (I realize that doesn’t entirely hold up, but I’ve spent a little while thinking about it.)

#bering and wells #Warehouse 13 #fanfic #Mercury #part 11

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bangtann-bangdamn · 6 years ago

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Part Seven

One Time Thing

Part Seven: So...

After waking up in a strangers bed, all you want to do is forget about your one night stand. The universe, however, has other plans...

~♥~

You ducked the moment the bell rang in the coffee shop, hoping that the two boys who just walked in were too busy talking to notice you behind the counter. Jin wasn’t due back for another twenty minutes, so he wasn’t likely to turn up and distract them for you to make a quick getaway. That left you with exposing yourself to them and making up some excuse to hide in either Namjoon’s office or the storeroom, which wasn’t ideal because Jimin would literally never let you live this down. Instead, you stared down at your phone and shot off two texts to Jungkook, sighing in relief when he replied that he was on his way. You were definitely going to have to owe him dinner after this.

“Y/N?” Jimin said as he stepped behind the counter. He grabbed one of the aprons from the peg. “What are you doing on the floor?”

“Uh.” You stood up slowly, making sure your eyes never strayed to the man on the other side of the counter. The man you just knew was smiling at you with one of the most beautiful smiles you had ever seen. “Jin’s gone to lunch and you know what he’s like with phone’s at work.”

Jimin nodded his head, turning his attention to Hoseok.

“What did you want again, Hobi?”

“Caramel Latte. Thanks.”

You thought you could get away with a quick glance at him as you put your phone back under the counter, but what you didn’t count on was Hoseok already watching you. He smiled when you met his eyes, and you couldn’t help but smile back at him before averting your gaze and leaning back against the counter.

There’s was just something about his smile that made you melt. Maybe that’s why you had slept with him, you mused. Or maybe it was the way he looked at you so softly. You took another glance at him whilst he was distracted by talking to Jimin, watching as he ran a hand through his hair. Or maybe it was just because he was absolutely gorgeous.

He caught you looking at him and smiled. “Hey, Y/N.”

Or the way he said your name.

“Hi.” You pulled your gaze away from him, deciding to busy yourself with emptying the dishwasher.

Jimin shot you a frown as he poured Hoseok’s drink into a takeaway cup, knowing full well that you hated emptying the dishwasher and would beg for literally any other job than to enter that death trap – and that included cleaning the men’s bathroom. But he didn’t say a word, even as you started fanning the air to clear the steam, and practically burning through several layers of skin on your fingers as you grabbed the first mug.

Jimin handed the cup to Hoseok and shook his head as Hoseok grabbed his wallet. “On the house.” He smiled before nodding his head at you. “I’m just going to grab some milk from the storeroom.” He left before you could offer to go, leaving you completely and utterly alone with Hoseok.

You turned to face Hoseok and hoped that something would come out of your mouth.

“So…” Or, you know, anything other than that.

“So.” He smiled as he took a sip of his drink.

You opened your mouth to speak but stopped when you realised that you couldn’t string together a sentence other than ‘I think I need to thank god because, good lord, you look like an absolute snack’ and somehow you didn’t think that would go over well.

He laughed softly when you closed your mouth and went to grab another mug from the dishwasher, dropping it with a cry when you touched the particularly hot glass.

“Hot?” Hoseok asked as he leaned forward on the counter.

“Yeah,” you mumbled, shaking your hand in the air in an attempt to diffuse the slight stinging in your fingers. Not that that would ease the pain, but it did make you feel slightly better.

“Bet it’s not as hot as you.”

You froze for a second as you processed his word before turning slowly to face him.

“Really? That’s the line you’re going to use?”

“You’re smiling, aren’t you?” He leaned back, biting his lip and suddenly you were transported to that night where those lips were all over your body.

Before you could respond, the bell above the door rung as a group of students walked in laughing. Hoseok took a step to the side so you could take their orders. Jimin reappeared a moment later to look over your shoulder as you input their orders before he started prepping their drinks.

“Yo, Jimin, I have to head off, but I’ll see you tonight.”

“Sure man.” Jimin paused in his task to fist bump Hoseok. “Later,”

“Bye, Y/N.”

“Bye.” You waved quickly, keeping your attention on the register so you didn’t stare at his ass.

As the bell run out again, Jimin laughed beside you.

“What?” You turned to look at him, watching as he gently shook his head as he grabbed the chocolate powder for the top of the drink he was making.

“Nothing!” He handed the drink over to the customer. “Absolutely nothing.”

You frowned as the last customer walked away from the counter to sit with their friends. It was then that you noticed the nearly empty milk cartoon that Jimin was putting back in the fridge. You weren’t sure whether you wanted to strangle or laugh at him

~♥~

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vcngttpt-a · 5 years ago

Note

ALL OF THEM. @mun meme ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

@deceptivetreat || mun q&a

━━━━━━━━━��━━━━━━━━━

||you are. the bane. of my existence.

☯ Is there a muse you’ve always wanted to play?

hmm ig i’ll go with canon for this one because i have many ocs, but uh i really wanna write for seto from fragile dreams. i used to have an ask blog for him back in the day but that died quickly seeing as how dead the fandom is so- but i do love him with all my heart and i would love to be able to someday write him or something

♣ Is there an author(s) that you look up to with your writing skills?

rick riordan, marissa meyer and michelle rowen. i’ve read their books throughout middle school and high school and i still find myself going back to reread their books because i just love how their words flow as well as how engaging their plots are. i honestly hope i can reach rick riordan levels of skill whenever i get around to finishing my own novel!

♧ Is there an RP partner(s) that you credit for becoming a better writer?

one would have to be an old rp friend that we sadly don’t talk to anymore since she was the first one i started writing with a lot more back in high school as well as the one who would give me advice on how to improve and just be patient with me when i go stuck with writing our threads and also mikey (@snw-cnvs) since he also supports me outside of rp’ing to get me to write actually fiction drabbles. i just wish i could finish them lmao

♥ What’s your favorite ship with your muse?

all of my ships with mikey no i’m joking lolol i really love my ship with haneul because i’ve had him for two years now and he’s grown a lot because of his ship. he’s someone whose never believed that love was real and sure their relationship is a little rocky, but they both don’t really have the proper understanding for love until waaaay later. i also really love how whenever he’s with obe, he’s able to pull out this different side of haneul, someone whose so overconfident and quick to words, becomes at a loss for words and questioning himself a lot. i just love them best otp

♡ Would you ever write a poly ship?

sure, i’d be down for it as long as our muses have the right chemistry as well as if i know both muns pretty well and if they’re also comfortable with it.

♦ What’s an AU that you’ve always wanted?

answered

♢ What’s an AU that you think just won’t work with your muse?

any au that causes too much of a shift in my muses’ personality. i’m usually willing to try any au but if it becomes too much that my muse basically becomes a different person i don’t like it.

♔ What’s your opinion on teacher/student verses? Do you have any of these as threads?

eeeeh i dont really care, but i work at a school so the thought makes me like uncomfy because i don’t wanna think about work lolol but its also like fiction and i’m able to tell the difference between fiction and reality so yea. also no i don’t have any threads like that

♕ Do you like magic!anons? Why or why not?

not really. it became too much of a thing to deal with back in the day. i just like the simple things

⚜ What is the best time to write for you? Why?

nighttime because i’m fuckin nocturnal even tho i have a day job rip my sleep schedule and ever growing eye bags

★ What type of historical AU would you like to do one day?

Victorian era, or the prohibition era don’t ask me why i like them i don’t even know myself i just know i wouldn’t mind

☆ What type of fantasy AU would you like to do one day?

all of them. i’m a huge slut for fantasy in general. its one of the best things i love the most.

☄ Do you think your muse would have liked going to high school sports games? Do you or did you go to high school sports games?

haneul: no, he’s not into those things, but also he was home schooled until he went to college

eiji: he used to play soccer in high school so yea

reese: do magic tournaments count? cause if so then yes

sage: no, i was the loser who hung out at the library with friends to sit around and read books and manga

☾ Do you like writing smut? Why or why not?

okay, if it wasn’t obvious i used to rp back in middle school through high school and on tumblr and i have done my fair share of the sin once i turned 18. nowadays i’m pretty much like eh, but ig i could try again if the need arises, but it also depends on my mood ig? i’d have to write it with someone i’m completely comfortable writing with but also even then it’s gotten to the point i’m more like ig we can just fade to black yea?

tbh i feel i got all the urges to write sin outta me when i was on my old en blog lmao i had so many smut threads on there i’m ashamed

☽ Do you like writing angst? Why or why not?

yes god i love being able to break my muses because it’s so fun. like yea it also hurts because that’s my kid i’m hurting but i’m okay with that. it’s just something that adds realness to them because the world sure as fuck ain’t rainbow and sunshine

☼ What’s an FC that you’re dying to use? Why?

i have these icons that i squirreled away for awhile now and i really wanna use them but my brain is too dead to figure out who he could work for. like he was my first thought for reese but he didn’t really give off the right reese vibes so maybe i’ll dig around my oc bin and see who looks the closest to him

or i cave and just make a brand new oc for him

☀ What’s an FC that you desperately want to play with? Why?

i’m not really picky about what fc write with tbh

☁ What’s an FC that you refuse to play with? Why?

not really refuse to play - more like i’m eh with. if only because en used to be my main chara for a long time like, i was so deep into the magical boy lore that a good chunk of my headcanons became canon. but also it just…leaves a bad taste in my mouth even more so since the drama that happened in that fandom left me filled with fear and hesitance to rp for a good chunk like before. it just brings back bad memories and i thought i was moving past it when i was thinking about using him for reese but alas. some memories don’t leave

maybe one day i’ll either get to write en again or i can use his face as fc but we’ll see

☂ How does your muse spend a rainy day? How do you spend a rainy day?

haneul: he loves the rain and he’ll spend it either under an umbrella or just sitting there in the rain just letting it wash away his thoughts and fears for a little bit

eiji: he’d spend it indoors playing a video game or playing with seto

reese: he’d prob be dumb and splash in the puddles because he likes to enjoy the little things. other times he’ll just ignore it and stay indoors either hanging with friends or studying and practicing his magic for his school’s next tournament

sage: i like to spend it just lookin out my window with my kitty on my chest. i love the sound of it against the sidewalk and streets.

☃ If your muse was cartoonized, what would their FC be? Why?

uh idk how to answer this tbh

☺ What’s a character that you desperately want your muse to play with? Why?

toshi @ haneul *stares at @snw-cnvs* and also reese @ momo *stares at @deceptivetreat* but also i just want everyone to bother my boys i love them so much.

☹ What’s a character that you refuse to play with? Why?

idk i’m pretty open for any character

☢ Are there any ships that you would like to write for one day? Any that you wouldn’t?

uh dunno. i’m open for any ships that have the right chemistry tbh just not haneul since he’s already taken

☣ What’s one thing that will make you drop a thread?

useless drama and or if i can’t seem to figure out where the thread is going for our muses. like if they don’t clash well i don’t wanna give tryin to grasp at straws. but i’m always down to try again unless it ends up the same than welp

♨ What’s a muse that you wished had lasted, but didn’t?

aaaah my supernatural brothers!!! i love them so much but they didn’t last and i’m not sure if i’m goin to add them on here or leave them in the void.

❀ Do you like reblog karma? Why or why not?

i’m gonna sound old but i don’t know what that is hold on. *googles* oh okay yea no. that seems like too much pressure to do and i have too much anxiety to do that i’m sorry.

✿ Do you have a mun FC? If so why did you choose that as your FC, and if not who would you choose?

yes. because i have so many icons it’s not even funny, but also before i got my hair cut she looked the most like me and also i thought it’d be fun to be able to tell the difference between me and my boys

see, back in the day i was the loser who would make ooc posts that included my muses and it was easy to have mun fc so you could do that and it was a lot fun, but it’s somethin i won’t so nowadays.

♪♩♫ Does music inspire your muse? What’s one song on your playlist that reminds you of your muse?

haneul: mirror part II

any of weiss’ songs work for him tbvh

eiji: rpg

reese: havent found one that works for him yet, so come back later

✂ Do you like to format your posts? Why or why not?

yes it’s all for the aesthetic

✆ Other than RPing, what’s a hobby of yours?

i love to write and draw. lmao sometimes i don’t write drafts so i can write more of my novel or little drabbles that’s for friends.

✉ Do you RP on any other platforms?

nope

❤ Have you or are you currently in love?

answered

❥ Has something ever happened for you to hate a ship? Why?

uh nope can’t say there has been.

ツ Who has been your favorite muse to play so far? Why?

haneul, eiji, lifty and shifty, and en

han and eiji because they’re both my ocs and it’s so much fun to see them develop and grow their characters more.

en because i was able to write a lot of different aus, headcanons, and just develop a canon character until he pretty much just became my own character

lifty and shifty were my roots. i started in the htf fandom and had so much fun writing those lil shits. it was just my go fuckin crazy shit. i still have their icons and their old blog is still up and i do kinda miss them some days.

回 Which muse was the worst to play? Why?

i used to have an oc named harley who was a living doll and i haha came to hate him because i made him around the same time i created haneul and i always loved haneul because i put a lot of effort into him and not much in harley and i got annoyed and jealous that back then everyone seemed to love harley more him. so i pretty much tossed him to the curve adfhsdkfjh

sorry harley but you were also hard to write because you were too sweet and cliche for me

✘ People come in a group. If I were to look on your blog, who would I see you interacting with the most?

@snw-cnvs and @deceptivetreat

ღ Do you have a personal blog? Do you share it with your followers or do you keep it private?

nah i haven’t used tumblr in years until now. i do have one but i don’t use it so idc it’s called @shouyoutheworld but again i don’t use it it’s…v old

▼ Do you keep your character in character even if they are one of the worst people in the world?

yes. what’s the point of writing and creating said character if you’re gonna sugar coat them?

▽ Why did you create this muse?

haneul: i wanted an oc who was really jaded and brat. i wanted to see him grow into something more even if its difficult

eiji: i pretty much wanted a muse that i could dump all my useless game infos on

reese: i wanted a witch oc who had a rival that they both hated their guts for and eventually fall in love I’M SO RR Y THAT’S REALLY WHY HE WAS MADE FORGIVE ME BUT NOW I DEVELOPED HIM A LOT MORE FOR RP’ING PURPOSES BUT Y’KN OW

#﹝저자 — ooc ﹞#﹝저자 — answered ﹞#aah #that took forever but there we go #i was gonna say fuck format but uh #i gotta fix the readmore line #so ig i'll do a quick formatting change #im just glad #i got no kids to deal with at work #otherwise id do this at hime

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sunlithalo-goldeneyes · 5 years ago

Text

Marvel Au Update?

Because I am never not working on something, I’ve decided to share the musings I’ve been having for the last few weeks.

I am really, really unhappy with the construction and story of Izadia’s Marvel au. Part of that is...I...didn’t really put a lot of effort into, more or less laying her into the framework of an old character and it just. Does not work. The original idea for Izadia’s Marvel Au is that she’s a mutant with a touch of angelic DNA that influences how her mutation presents, like Archangel, but that’s. Not the sort of story I usually tell with her. I loved the X-men when I was a little younger but it’s not really my favorite thing anymore. I adore most of the animated universe and even a lot of the cinematic universe that comes out of it but I’ve never really gotten into the actual comics and, well, that’s ok, we all have different tastes.

My dissatisfaction with Izadia in this au is as follows, I’ll put it under a cut as this post is already way too long.

1) It’s not interesting -- In trying to stay canon-compliant, I haven't done anything new or interesting with her. Mutant with healing and light powers? Been done. Lots of times for either or, I think once or twice with together. Angel hybrid? Also been done, see Archangel. A healer with no faction affiliation? That might lead to interesting story conflicts, but I don’t have the writing partners at this time to really explore the consequences of her...not choosing a side. And part of her not choosing a side has to do very much with the Meta perspective that each factional group, inside and outside the x-men universe, are neither wrong nor right, but somewhere in the middle, which is in discordant contrast, for the most part, with the type of story it’s trying to tell, a sort of good vs. evil. Rarely do the writers intend to write a grey morality, and when they do it’s often bad. This ties in with my next point.

(I could write up my thesis on Things I Wish Comics Did Differently That I Feel Would Improve Them but it’s been done by better people than me and it’s highly subjective anyway, so I’ll move on.)

2) Her common themes Do Not Work -- So, the biblical themes are right out. That’s not an instant disqualification, she has both a really solid Star Wars au and a really solid Forgotten Realms au, neither of which are really strong in biblical themes, although the latter does at least have the concept of celestials. Starting at her character archetype, the warrior-healer, the Cleric or Palladin there doesn't seem to be a close equivalent. I honestly expected some battle-field healers in comics but there just aren't any. I can think of instances of characters with varied powers having a Healing Moment (Looking directly at you Adam Warlock) but nothing that’s a re-occurring instance. Which makes sense from a storytelling perspective because drama, I guess, although my DnD sessions are pretty darn dramatic and there are TWO clerics in the party. So the archetype I put her in was the more passive nurse character, like Jane Foster in the Only Avengers Cartoon I Will Acknowledge or Daredevil’s girlfriend in the Netflix special. I’m dissatisfied with how passive that makes her and how much I would have to not only Let Story Come To Me, but how it will always be the same story.

Past her archetype, there is the problems of her internal conflicts. They are most frequently, she is rare, something like her is uncommon so she’s lonely. I do this in nearly every verse because it’s a key part of her story and how she relates to people. In DnD she’s an Aasimar, which ties in both there are very few like her, and she’s placed on a pedestal and has unfair expectations dropped on her shoulders from a very young age, making her Paragon nature in direct conflict with a more well-rounded, normal person, not a saint. This is also true of Jedi! Izadia. In the modern fantasy aus, she’s either one of the few Supernatural beings, so is always looking for new friends like her, or she’s, again, back to the Aasimar themes. Marvel does not have a great fantasy framework, which I could grapple with if it was The Only Thing, but it’s not. Mutants aren't rare(All the time), and they’re also despised which puts me in a sort of awkward position of being a Very White Girl writing about a Black Mutant and I am just not qualified to write those internal conflict stories. I can speculate to hell and back about the unique challenges of being so marginalized but I can’t truly do them justice without overstepping, I feel. (Also since Izadia is kind of me this isn’t the story I want to tell with her. The tribulations of being female, of being queer, or being poly, or being a gifted, quiet, and well-behaved child who is distant with her family for really no one’s fault, those are stories that not only can I write, that help me.)

Izadia is also pretty anarcho-socialist with a philosophy of radical kindness which also does not fit in any of these stories I can think of. You’re either pro-anarchy and are probably a bad guy, or you’re GoodTM and highly lawful. Honestly, Old School Captain America comes the closet to her alignment.

So in short I’m left without really anything to anchor her too, no themes to build her off of. With DC, at least, there is a good and well-established modern-fantasy cast that also includes angels and demons and whatnot and it’s very easy for me to imagine her showing up in Constantine of Justice League Dark or, heck, Batman, but Marvel? Eh. Dr. Strange is the hallmark of Marvel’s magic universe and it is very new-age buddism and Hinduism influenced spiritualism as opposed to neo-pagan movement like Wicca that are closer to her magic roots. Again, we see in DC, not Marvel.

3) It’s too passive and relies on others for plot - I think that one’s pretty much covered by point 2, but deserved its own bullet for ease of skimming.

4) It involves NONE of my favorite Marvel Bits - My favorite part of Marvel is the Cosmic cannon and she just. Does not fit with any of the cosmic archetypes. I think the closet would honestly be the Kree but, oof. It’s still not great, especially with some of their recent storytelling decisions.

I feel like I could probably make something that satisfies me, but I don’t want to lose my old friends in the Marvel Rp scene by doing a truly massive overhaul.

Pls Pls Pls if you’re a marvel mutal and you’re reading this, chime in with your thoughts. What would you do with her? What people, place, or storyline does she fit the best with in your opinion?

#ooc

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theinsideoutmermaid · 6 years ago

Text

Chapter 2: Nakia

Marvel high school AU

Words: 2467

***

The second hand of the clock had never moved slower, and Nakia’s foot had never tapped faster. She stared at the offending hand, willing it to throw off the soporific influence of 8th period AP Spanish. It wasn’t that Mr. Coulson was a bad teacher, exactly; he was just kind of bland and anyway, getting through any eighth period class when you had something exciting after school was like trying to swim through molasses. A lifetime ago, there had been two minutes left in class. Now there were thirty seconds. Nakia tuned out Coulson’s re-explanation of cláusulas con si and bounced her leg ever faster.

“Now remember, everyone: hubiera goes with habr—” Thankfully, the blaring end-of-school bell drowned out the rest of his sentence. Nakia sprang up, throwing her bag over her shoulder. She was the first student out the door of X108.

Weaving skillfully through the hordes of students filling the halls, Nakia forced herself to take several deep breaths. Her fingers still tapped a swift rhythm on the strap of her bag, but her mind felt a little less cluttered. It’s going to be okay, she told herself. Nakia paused in front of one of the hall bulletin boards while the sea of students continued to surge around her. There it was: her flyer.

She had put them up a week and a half ago, and she knew every word by heart, but she reread it anyway. Yep, all the right information. Today was supposed to be the easy part, the part where everything was out of her hands and she just had to wait and see who showed up. The hard part, technically, was planning out initial activities and asking the notoriously intimidating Ms. Carter to be the staff sponsor. Nakia had been only a little scared to approach Ms. Carter. She had had her for AP US History last year, and the teacher liked her and was also a fierce advocate for human rights. So, no, that actually wasn’t too hard. The real nerves came from awaiting the student response. LHS students were generally nice kids but also shockingly ignorant and complacent. They were good about supporting local charities and food pantries, and pretty much nothing beyond that. And that’s what I’m going to change, thought Nakia as she arrived at the door of Q124. She straightened her colorful skirt and headwrap and then marched inside.

So far the only inhabitants of the room were Ms. Carter, impeccably dressed as ever in a pantsuit, and Pepper Potts, president of the Student Council and Nakia’s best friend. Pep turned at the sound of the door opening, ginger ponytail swishing with the motion, and she grinned when she saw Nakia.

“Thanks for coming, Pep,” said Nakia, slinging her bag onto a nearby desk.

“Wouldn’t miss it for the world.” In one look, Pepper seemed to discern everything that was going on in Nakia’s head. “And I’m positive that it won’t just be me. I heard Steve Rogers convincing the rest of the Boy Scout Bunch to come during lunch. And where Steve goes, Bucky Barnes follows, so you’re guaranteed at least two other members.”

“Rogers, huh? I guess this is the sort of upstanding thing that he would do,” Nakia said, feeling a little bit pleased.

“I always thought Steve was like a cartoon,” mused Ms. Carter, a smile playing on her ruby-red lips. “Not in a bad way, of course, he’s a wonderful kid. It’s just that he’s so all-American that you almost think he’s made up. Top it off with that hair and those eyes—”

“--And you’ve got a boy straight from a World War Two recruitment poster. I know exactly what you mean,” said Pepper, laughing. “I went to elementary school with him, and he was like eighty years old even then. He called all the teachers ‘sir’ and ‘ma’am’ and always looked so solemn.”

“He sat next to me in English sophomore year. He’s nice,” said Nakia. And cute, mouthed Pep. Nakia rolled her eyes.

Changing the subject, Nakia said, “I made a Powerpoint for today. Is it okay if I pull it up on your computer, Ms. Carter?” As Nakia logged into her account, the door banged open, letting in a small stream of students led by — Thor Odinson? No way. There was no way that Thor Odinson, the blond giant, the boisterous partygoer, He of the Bajillion Varsity Letters, was joining her Human Rights Club. And yet, there he was, dwarfing the tiny desk chair he had chosen as a perch. Following him were Steve and Bucky, plus Sam Wilson and Rhodey, rounding out the Boy Scout Bunch. Pepper chatted them up immediately, because she was a master of small talk that didn’t feel like small talk, and Nakia was left to her thoughts. Her thoughts were as such: Wild. Maybe she should have brought snacks.

She glanced at the clock. It was 3:25, ten minutes after school ended, so it was probably about time to start the presentation.

“Hi everyone,” she yelled, which was necessary because Thor spoke at volume level 30 at all times. They quieted and turned to look at her. “Hi. Um. I’d like to thank you all for coming to the first meeting of Human Rights Club. I wanted to start off today’s meeting with a presentation showing some of what we’re—”

But the door flew open again, and Nakia stopped her speech to look.

“Hi. . .” Standing in the doorway was T’Challa. He was smiling at her in a weird frozen way, and he hadn’t moved out of the doorway.

“Hi?”

“Oh!” He blinked and seemed to realize what he was doing. “I’m sorry to interrupt, but I had to tell my coach that I was going to be late to practice, but I guess that made me late coming here, so. . . my bad.”

Nakia reassured him that he was fine. “We hadn’t really started yet. Please, take a seat,” she said, gesturing to the assembled desks and trying to ignore Pep, who was clearly trying to communicate something through intense eye contact.

“So anyway, I made this presentation to show some of what we’re up against as a Human Rights Club, and what we are obliged to do as citizens of the world.” She clicked the remote. “This is a picture of a mother and her child. The woman is crying because her husband, a fourteen-year resident of the US and well-respected employee at the local grocery store, has just been deported to Mexico. He was the breadwinner in her family, and with no other relatives in America, she has no way to either support her son or take care of him during the day while she works. Her name is Maria. There are hundreds, thousands of other Marias, dreamers in America who work hard and yet have their dreams stripped away.” Nakia could feel the power building in her voice. This was what she knew. This was what she was passionate about. This was her mission. By the end of the Powerpoint, her small audience was looking subdued and concerned.

“Well. I can see that I’ve made an impact on you. I need you guys to take that energy that you’re feeling and put it to good use. The world may look bleak, but there are so many good people in it, and so much we can do to help. I want Human Rights Club to have three main tasks: education, fundraising, and volunteering. Educating others is just as important as taking action ourselves.Yeah, Pep?”

Pepper, who had been raising her hand, cleared her throat. “I thought we might include one or two foreign or global organizations when we vote for The Drive this year. We’ve always chosen local ones before, and that seems so. . . small-minded now.”

“That’s really great, Pep!” The Drive was the school’s massive annual charity fundraiser, led by Student Council — and therefore, by Pepper, the president. The whole community got involved. Last year they had raised upwards of $200,000. “That kind of support for one of our charities would be. . . incredible.The only problem would be getting the student body to vote for it.”

“You need a good video,” said Rhodey, speaking up for the first time. “I’m pretty good at editing. Sam’s in my film class, too.”

“Show it in homeroom before the vote,” suggested Sam.

“I would vote for it,” said Thor.

Nakia smiled. “Thank you, Thor.”

“I think all you’d have to do is say you voted for it, and then we’ve got the rest of the football team in the bag,” said T’Challa, grinning. “Those people listen to you.”

“And you,” muttered Bucky. “What? It’s true. People like you. And Pepper. They’ll do it if you do.”

“Well, as StuCo president I can’t exactly show any bias, but I’m sure you boys can work some magic,” Pepper said.

“Do people even vote for these things?” interjected Sam. “I mean, I’ve never done those stupid surveys — sorry, I guess,” he said, shrugging at Pepper. “Kinda didn’t care because we’d be end up doing something nice or good or whatever no matter what I voted. Lotta people feel the same way, I’m pretty sure. Sorry. Again.” Pepper continued to look a little crestfallen.

“Well, that’s not right, is it?” said Steve, speaking up for the first time. “The Drive is supposed to be democratic. It’s supposed to represent a cause that we, as a school, feel passionate about. It just doesn’t work— it’s not authentic if people don’t put in their due effort.”

“Chill out, bro, this isn’t the United Nations.”

Ms. Carter, until this point, had been observing the proceedings with a small smile. “No, indeed, Sam, but I think Steve has a point. Let me just say this, at the risk of sounding pretentious or overly dramatic: At this point in time, our country is suffering from negligent and honestly rather lazy citizens. People say they don’t like the direction our country is headed, they don’t like the immigration policy or the trickle-down policies or what have you, but they refuse to do anything about it. I was shocked at how many of my own colleagues didn’t even vote in the last election. The students here do have opinions about causes, but are content to let that be it. There’s a general belief that regular people are powerless. It’s important to teach them — you — that your actions can be impactful. So Steve is right: we need teach students to contribute now in order for them to continue contributing in the future,” finished Ms. Carter.

“Why not do it on paper instead of on the computers?” suggested Thor. “Homeroom teachers can pass out slips to everyone and collect them at the end.”

Pepper chewed on her bottom lip thoughtfully. “I think that’s a good idea, actually. It’s easier to hold people accountable.”

“I guess I would feel bad handing in a blank slip,” admitted Sam. “It could work.”

“Well,” said Nakia. It was now 4:12, and she had planned to only go until 4:15. “This has been a really great first meeting. I want to thank you all again for coming. Honestly, this was a much better turnout than I could have hoped for, and you guys have some great ideas that make me really excited for the rest of the year! Pep, when’s the vote scheduled?”

“In two weeks.”

“That might cut it a little tight, but I think we can do it. We’ll choose our organizations next week, and then Rhodey and Sam — can I count on you for the video?” They nodded assent. “Awesome. Thor and T’Challa will be our promoters. Okay! See you next week everyone, and thanks again.”

Pepper stayed behind with Nakia while the boys filed out of the room. “Nice job, babe,” she said with a smile.

“Thanks,” replied Nakia, feeling a matching grin tugging at her lips, “and thank you Ms. Carter for sponsoring us.”

“It was my pleasure, Nakia,” said Ms. Carter, as she slid her purse onto her shoulder. “I think you have something amazing in the works.”

It was with a new spring in her step that Nakia followed Pepper to the parking lot. On the way, they discussed possible organizations, the logistics of a paper ballot — Nakia was also on Student Council — and the surreality of having Thor Odinson in her humble club. Pepper glanced up and stopped suddenly. Laying a hand on Nakia’s arm, she said, “You know what, I just realized I forgot something in my locker.”

“Do you want me to wait for you?”

“No, go on ahead. See you tomorrow, love you!” Her voice was suspiciously bright.

“Bye,” Nakia called after her, watching the perfectly curled ponytail shrink into the distance. There has to be something up with h— oh, there we go. On one of the benches next to the front door was T’Challa, and he was staring right at her. There was no way to pretend she hadn’t seen him, so Nakia hitched an awkward smile of greeting onto her face and continued on her way to the parking lot.

“Nakia!” he said, standing up at her approach. She took a deep breath and stopped, wheeling around to face him. He’s really handsome, said the voice in her head that belonged to Pepper. Dammit, said the voice in her head that was her own. T’Challa had started to speak: “I, um, I just wanted to say that your presentation today was really. . . impressive. I had no idea you know so much about all that stuff, and it’s really cool how much you care. It shows. And. . . it makes you. . . I think you looked really strong up there.” His face softened into a charmingly shy smile. Flustered, Nakia’s fingers flew to tug the edge of her headwrap. Her face was too hot.

“Thanks. . . um. . . I really have to go do, uh, homework now, so ummmm. . . see you next week, I guess,” she stuttered, and she fled from the lobby into the parking lot. Safely in her car, Nakia buried her face in her hands for a moment, then scrounged in her backpack for her phone. She pulled up her text thread with Pep.

Nakia: PEP CALL ASAP WHEN YOU GET HOME I AM THE MOST EMBARRASSING HUMAN BEING ALIVE

Pepper: ;) ;) ;)

Nakia: dont wink at me you witch

Nakia: I just ruined my life

Pepper: :D

Pepper: babe he liiiikes youuuuu

Pepper: but ok we’ll save it for facetime. u gotta tell me Everything tho.

Nakia: there isnt that much to tell but ok i promise. God im so pathetic.

Pepper: not too pathetic for TCHALLA the KING to have a CRUSH ON YOU

Nakia: stOP!!

#marvel #marvel fanfiction #marvel fanfic #nakia #pepper potts #tchalla #black panther #steve rogers #captain america #bucky barnes #the winter soldier #high school au

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