#I have urges to write random little short fics on this ship-

[musicblocks]

y’all just a random idea, what if full company, was actually full company-

(Tessa x uzi x n x v x j, no Thad or lizzy in the mix because there siblings)

[lifeofkaze]

Hi love!

Sorry for bothering you, but could you do something like really cute and fluffy between Charlie Weasley and reader where he's all shy and delicate maybe teaching her about dragons and their characteristics pls? Like, something that feels really intimate, you know?

I absolutely love your writing and I believe that you could make justice to the character.

Take care darling,

-A

Thank you for the request, loveliest anon! This is actually the first fic request I’ve ever gotten and I’m so happy you like my stuff so much, this makes me very very soft.

This fluff piece was just what I needed to get my mojo back hopefully. Please let me know if this is like what you had in mind - I for one had a lot of fun with it! <3

***

Favourites

Charlie Weasley x Reader

Word Count: ~ 2.800

As a Care of Magical Creatures test covering dragons of all things is imminent and you were too distracted in class to pay proper attention, you know just who to turn to for help.

“You want me to do what?”

Charlie Weasley blinked at you in confusion. He could feel his blood rushing in his ears as he looked at you standing in front of him, clutching you Care for Magical Creatures book to your chest as you raised your eyebrows at him.

“I asked if you could help me studying for the test next week?” you repeated your question, brow slightly furrowed. “I can’t keep track of all these dragon traits and who would know them better than you?”

Charlie felt the heat creeping up on his face. Of course, the test. It was all he had been able to think about ever since Professor Kettleburn had announced the topic; all except you of course.

He tried to formulate a coherent answer that wouldn’t make him look like a blabbering fool in front of you, but the way the dappled sunlight that broke through the trees reflected in your hair distracted him more than he cared to admit.

So he resorted to a weak nod. “Uhm, sure, I’d love to. See you at six in the library?” he managed to stammer out eventually.

A beautiful smile formed on your face as you nodded in enthusiasm. “Sounds great, see you there!”

Charlie watched as you swished around and walked back to your friends, who greeted you with giggles and whispers as they glanced in his direction. You gave one of them a playful swat on the arm, before your clear laugh carried over to him onto the warm summer air and made his heart clench.

He knew all of his dragons by heart, of course he did; this test was the first he hadn’t bothered studying for at all. But now, he suddenly felt the overwhelming urge to prepare himself.

 *

The light of the sun had already started to turn into the beautiful golden shade that heralded the end of a warm autumn day as you skittered into the library. You were a little bit late for your study session with Charlie, and the exertion from running all the way from your Common Room flushed your cheeks slightly red. Your friends just hadn’t let you go, all of them just as excited for what they called ‘your dragon date’ as you were. Not that you’d ever tell them that.

You found Charlie sitting at a table near the windows and your breath caught for a moment as you took in the warm light that washed around his frame; it was making his ginger hair glow like fire, the only vibrant speck of colour in this dusty old room full of books.

He had his nose buried in a big, leather-bound tome, his eyes darting over the pages frantically; you noticed how the tip of his tongue stuck out between his lips in concentration. He was so immersed in his reading, that he only noticed you approaching as you sat down next to him. Jumping in shock at your sudden appearance, he almost knocked over his ink bottle, only catching it at the last second before its dark, inky content could wash over the thin pages of his book.

“Oh, you’re here already, I didn’t even notice you until now.” His freckled face had flushed a shade darker than usual as he put his ink bottle back into its position and made room for you on the table.

“I’d rather say I’m here finally,” you responded, feeling a little bit guilty at making Charlie wait. “But I see that you started without me.”

He hurriedly closed the book. “No, I was just reading up on some facts about Welsh Greens so I have them sharp in my mind,” he explained, “in case you have questions, you know?”

It was only now that your eyes took in the numerous heaps of books piled up on your table. “First question,” you said as you ran your fingers over the backs of the tomes stacked on top of each other. “I thought the test was about dragons native to Europe and not every single one in existence,” you pulled out a particularly old looking book containing myths and fables, “and beyond.”

You silently counted the numbers of books Charlie had amassed and your eyes went wide. “Charlie, these must be all the books about dragons in the whole library,” you laughed, giggling at the flustered expression of the boy beside you.

“Well, not all the books,” he clarified sheepishly. “There are quite a few in the Restricted Section and then there’s the two I have up in my dorm but forgot to bring and- “

You cut off his rambling by gently touching his arm; he shut up almost instantly, glancing nervously down to where your hand was lying. “It’s alright, it was just a joke.”

“Of course,” Charlie muttered slightly embarrassed. What was wrong with him?

He watched as you pulled your notes from your bag; they were rather sparse compared to the almost three scrolls of parchment he had scribbled down himself.

“Where do you want to start?”

You hummed to yourself as you considered your choices. A warm, fuzzy feeling spread inside Charlie’s chest as you drew your lips into a pensive pout and tapped your index finger against it.

Finally, a neat stack of white flashcards, that lay hidden behind a book on Sea Serpents, caught your attention. You reached over Charlie and pulled them towards you.

Your mouth dropped open as you flicked through them; on every one of the laminated cards was an extensive profile of every kind of dragon imaginable. The descriptions were written out in a neat, accurate hand that looked nothing like the careless scrawl you’d seen on Charlie’s class notes.

But what took your breath away were the detailed drawings below the text. They were done by pencil and although they didn’t move like magical pictures often did, they were so lively as if they only waited to pounce off the paper and take into the air.

Charlie watched you apprehensively as your fingers traced the outline of what appeared to be a Swedish Short-snout. He felt his heart beat faster at the soft, admiring look in your eyes as you turned towards him.

“Did you do these yourself?”

He nodded in response. “It’s hard to find decent descriptions all in one place,” he explained quietly. “I don’t know how accurate the sketches are though; I’ve never seen a dragon in real life.”

You flashed him a radiant smile that had his heart rate pick up considerably. “I don’t care if they’re realistic; they’re brilliant!”

Encouraged by your excitement, he took the flashcards out of your hands and fanned them out, their blank backs facing you. “Then I’d suggest we start with them; pick one!”

Running the fingers along the cards twice, you finally settled on one and drew it out of his grasp. Charlie’s freckled face lit up as he saw which one you had chosen.

“The Ukrainian Ironbelly,” he exclaimed, “my favourite!”

All of his former shyness was suddenly forgotten; this was his prime discipline.

“The Ironbelly is native to the Ukraine, as its name suggests, obviously. It’s considered the largest dragon species in existence with an immense wingspan, long talons and scales that are said to be harder to pierce than steel. It’s name stems from the metallic grey colour of his underside and ever since one particular large specimen carried off a whole sailing ship in the late 18th century, they are under strict observation by wizarding authorities.”

You did your best to jot down the information Charlie dumped on you with impressive speed but there was no way you could keep up with his excited ramblings. So you resorted to listening to him as he lectured you about feeding habits, hunting methods and the average temperature of the flames an Ironbelly could produce.

He sighed wistfully as he paused for breath. “They’re amazing.”

You couldn’t hide your smile at his dreamy expression as you picked out your next card from the stack. “Okay, how about this one?”

The dragon it showed had ridges running along its back, ending in a nasty, arrow-shaped spike at the tip of its tail. It barred its teeth at you in a vicious snarl.

“That’s my favourite, the Hebridean Black,” he repeated his words from before, positively bouncing with energy this time around.  

You glanced at the card you two had just worked your way through. “I thought the Ukrainian Ironbelly was your favourite?” you teased him.

Charlie’s bouncing stopped instantly as he blushed bright red; you hadn’t meant to bring him down and felt sorry all of a sudden. So you propped the card against one of the book piles and turned to him.

“So, tell me more about it.”

Relieved to be able to tread on secure ground again, Charlie immediately recounted all the facts about one of the two dragon breeds native to the British Isles to you.

You continued in this fashion; your pulled a random card from the stash and Charlie would tell you everything he knew about it. He grew more animated with every new flashcard; as it turned out, every dragon you talked about was his favourite.

Seeing him so caught up in his favourite subject had a warmth spread in your chest and the smile on your lips never vanished even once. You had given up on writing Charlie’s words down about four cards ago and were merely staring at him explaining to you everything about these fantastic beasts that made up all of his dreams and musings.

His excitement quickly spread to you and you found yourself hanging onto his every word. But the more you were listening to him, the more you found your concentration shift from the dragons you were discussing to the boy beside you.

Your head propped on your hand, you admired how recounting scale colours and preferred environments of Romanian Longhorns brought a twinkle to his blue eyes and how his contagious laugh had you chuckle at the idea that people would confuse a Hungarian Horntail with a Norwegian Ridgeback.

The dimples forming in his freckled cheeks as he smiled at you were the exact reason why you had needed help with studying for this test in the first place. When you had talked about dragons in class, the eager smile and the slight scrunch of his nose as he scribbled down every single word Professor Kettleburn had to spare had left you breathless and unable to concentrate on anything but the butterflies dancing in your stomach.

The pile of flash cards had dwindled down until only a few more were left. Your breath caught in your throat as you turned around your next pick; the pictured showed a slender dragon directly from the front. It’s wings were outstretched and it seemed to be staring directly at you out of wide, pupil-less eyes. It was the only drawing so far that was coloured.

Your finger traced the subtle colour gradient rippling over its pearly scales as Charlie looked over to see which one was next.

“The Antipodean Opaleye,” he murmured, taking in your fascinated expression, “it’s singularly coloured scales and eyes are the stuff of legends.”

“It’s beautiful,” you whispered, trying to imagine how the scales of a real life Opaleye might shimmer in the sunlight.

“Not as beautiful as you,” Charlie suddenly blurted out. The words had fallen from his lips before he’d even had a chance to stop them.

Both of you froze as what he had said sank into your consciousness. You couldn’t believe your ears and were half sure that your mind must have played a trick on you.

You carefully glanced over to Charlie out of the side of your eyes; he looked incredulous and you could watch the colour of his face turning from ghostly white to a deep, vivid scarlet that clashed with his ginger hair in a matter of seconds.

Feeling your own cheeks starting to blush at the unexpected compliment, you desperately were looking for something to say to take the shock out of his widened eyes. But your mind wasn’t working properly anymore, so all you managed was a meek “Wow, uhm, thank you Charlie, that’s really sweet.”

It was apparent your words didn’t help his flustered situation as he covered his face with his hands and groaned “I can’t believe I said that out loud; I’m such an idiot.”

You didn’t know what to do to help him; you felt utterly flattered and confused at the same time. You thought about putting your hand on his arm to reassure him what he had said actually made you happy, but paused halfway, not quite daring to touch him again.

Still unsure of what to do, you got up and picked up one of the books he had used to illustrate the facts on his flashcards.

“I’d better get going, I guess,” you stammered without looking at the wretched boy sitting at the table next to you, “thank you so much for helping me, I think I’ll manage the rest on my own. Can I borrow that book though?”

He didn’t raise his face from his hands, but nodded anyways. You felt bad for leaving him like that, but your head was spinning and you desperately needed to sort out your thoughts.

But seeing Charlie’s slumped frame sitting at the table, all the bubbly excitement from before completely drained from him, tugged at your heartstrings so hard it almost hurt. So instead of turning around and leaving, you drew a deep breath, gathered your courage and stepped behind him, placing a light kiss on his cheek.

You could feel his shoulders tense and his breath hitch as your hair tickled his jaw and were glad he couldn’t see the deep blush on your cheeks as you straightened up, picked up your bag and his book and hurried out of the library with a racing heart, too afraid to turn around once more.

*

Charlie and you hadn’t spoken again after what had happened in the library. It had taken him quite some time to be able to think properly again after you had left; he had just sat at his table, hand on his cheek where you had kissed him, staring into nothingness, the peachy smell of your hair still hanging in the air.

Even though the thought of how soft your lips had felt on your cheek had been the most prominent thing in his mind, he had passed his test with flying colours; some things just couldn’t be erased from his mind, no matter what was happening around him.

He had just returned to his dorm after a particularly tiring Quidditch practise when he saw it lying on his bed, propped up against his head bord; the book you had borrowed from him to finish studying on your own.

For a brief moment, he wondered how you had managed to get it up here, when he noticed something white sticking out of the pages. Curious, he picked up the book and flicked it open.

Even without looking, he knew what chapter it was you had marked with whatever you had put in there; he had read this book more times than he could remember. It was the chapter on the Antipodean Opaleye; he grimaced at the memory of when he had last thought about this particular dragon.

A white flashcard was stuck between the pages, its laminated surface flashing as Charlie turned it around to read it.

A big smile stole onto his face as he saw the photograph of you laughing and waving at him that you had stuck on the front side. His eyes swept over the lines written in your feminine hand and his smile grew even wider as he read the ‘special characteristics’ section:

It has to be remarked, that this particular specimen was able to pass her test with full marks.

He was glad to hear his blurted out compliment hadn’t affected your marks in the end. He sighed wistfully, when he noticed the very small, scribbled note at the very end of the card; it wasn’t as neatly written as the rest, almost as if your hands had shaken while writing it down.

Greatest weakness: While not many weaknesses are recorded of this specimen, it is said that it can be easily tamed by ginger-haired dragon trainers in the making. Whether these rumours are true, remains to be determined.

Charlie’s mouth dropped open as he read the last section over and over again, not daring to believe what he thought they said. But after the tenth time, he finally allowed the butterflies that  had been fluttering in his stomach to spread into the rest of his body, his smile growing into the widest grin as he tucked the flashcard carefully into the book again.

This time, he was sure; this one was his favourite.

  Tagging: @weasleysandwheezes

[letapollojusticesayfuck]

"the way you flirt is shameful." Klavier (klapollo) and ema ?

"short fics," I said, like a liar.

anyway please enjoy almost 2k of Klapollo Nonsense.

Send me a random line of dialogue and some characters, and I'll write a short fic!

---

Another grey morning, another lukewarm cup of coffee. Apollo pulls his coat a little tighter around him, scowling at nothing in particular. It’s just his luck, isn’t it, that this week’s defendant is a fisherman, accused of murdering their boat’s captain out on the docks.

It’s also just his luck that it’s March, and he hadn’t even thought anyone would be out on the water this early in the year. Shows how much he knows about the fishing industry.

He jumps when an arm lands around his shoulders, and has to fight to keep his awful beverage from sloshing entirely out of its styrofoam cup. With an irritated huff, Apollo turns to reprimand his unexpected company, but the words die in his throat when he looks over to see Klavier Gavin—and, more specifically, the woolly hat perched on his head. It appears to be lovingly hand-knitted, in a shade of purple he’d swear he’d seen in scraps of wool lying around the office in previous weeks. It also happens to be emblazoned with Gavin’s ridiculous logo, the angular G as distinctive as ever.

“Uh…” he says instead, eyebrow raised in what he hopes is a skeptical, yet bewildered expression. He’s not sure he succeeds with that, though, considering the way Gavin’s casual smile crooks up at the edges into a more genuine grin.

“Ja, Herr Forehead? How goes the investigation?” Lazy curls of steam rise from the stainless steel travel mug clasped in his hand, dissipating into the pervasive fog that’s blanketing the docks. Typical. Apollo considers asking him if he’d like to swap drinks.

“Cold. Damp. And is this a good time to mention that I’m allergic to shellfish? I think that’s probably an important detail, considering….this.” he replies, poking an errant mussel with the point of his dress shoe. His dress shoe that he’s for some reason wearing to a crime scene out by the harbour, because Apollo has misplaced ideas of professionalism, apparently.

“Ach, it’s not that bad! For one, you have my company to brighten up your day! And for another thing...I have news for you about the case.”

“Really. And it’s not just going to be something that you’ll immediately rescind in court tomorrow?”

“HerrForehead, what kind of prosecutor do you take me for? We’re on the same side, you know—both seeking the truth.”

“That’s cheesy as anything.”

“But correct! Anyway. FräuleinSkye has just uncovered something tangled around one of the fishing lines on the boat, and she’s attempting to piece it back together. If you hurry, you might get a glimpse before it goes straight into the evidence dossier.”

Apollo hmms, considering. He’s not sure he wants to just take Klavier’s tip-off; it could be seen as collusion under some circumstances. But he’s really not accomplishing anything on his own, and any new evidence could help him prove Annette Sloop’s innocence.

He also realizes, belatedly, that Klavier still has his arm around his shoulders, and that he’s been unconsciously leaning into the warmth of the taller man’s down jacket.

“Okay, sure—it’s gotta be better than anything I can find here,” Apollo decides, and tries to subtly extricate himself from Klavier’s grasp without drawing attention to the fact that he’s actually found some kind of comfort in their proximity, that he’s really not particularly enthusiastic about losing his human space-heater.

Luckily, Klavier realizes that he’ll have to grant Apollo his freedom if he wants the shorter man to be able to take advantage of his newly-gained intel, and drops his arm back to his own side. Apollo stifles a shiver as the cool, damp air rushes back against him, clinging to his skin with a pervasive chill.

He’d assumed that Klavier had business to take care of on the dock, so the fact that the prosecutor follows him as he boards the fishing boat takes him by surprise. What also takes him by surprise is the intensity of the fishy aroma around the vessel, something that Apollo really should have considered as a factor beforehand. He wrinkles his nose and tries to breathe shallowly—and when that doesn’t work out, he buries his nose in the collar of his jacket.

And that brings with it its own set of problems, because somehow the short amount of time his jacket was in contact with Klavier’s own was enough to allow the other man’s sandalwood cologne to seep into the thin fabric. Apollo wishes this wasn’t his life. Isn’t this the kind of stuff teenagers write about?

Luckily, his panicking is cut short by Ema Skye clearing her throat from the other end of the deck, midway through spreading fabric scraps onto a plastic folding table. She appears decidedly unimpressed, but waves them over.

“Justice. I take it you were informed of the recent developments by the fop here?” she remarks, as disinterestedly as possible for someone who’s practically vibrating with the excitement of being able to do something actually forensically significant.

“Er...yeah, Klavier told me that you’d found something?” Apollo replies, trying to look as though he understands more of the situation than he actually does. He thinks he pulls it off. If not, Ema doesn’t comment on it.

Klavier, however, smiles impossibly wide at Apollo’s words, and it takes him a moment to realize that it’s because he’d called the man by his first name, as opposed to his more professional title. A slip of the tongue, nothing more! And yet…

If it’d get a reaction like that, Apollo might start using Klavier’s first name significantly more often.

“Oh, come on, do neither of you actually care about this T-shirt I found? This apparently-bloodstainedT-shirt?” Ema taps her foot against the plank wood of the ship’s deck. Apollo breaks out of his thoughts with just about enough time to look marginally interested in the new evidence—which he hopes is convincing.

And it’s not that he doesn’t want to solve the murder! It’s really just that—well, Klavier is just there, being distracting, like he always is—except it’s worse, recently, somehow. Apollo swears he used to be able to spend time focusing on other things, that he wasn’t always this preoccupied with what the prosecutor was doing, where he was standing, if he was looking at--

“Oh, for God’s sake. The way you flirt is shameful,” Ema says, entirely exasperated. She also seems to be looking at Apollo, for some reason.

“Are you talking to me?” he asks, confused. The detective rolls her eyes and sighs dramatically, visibly resisting the urge to throw up her hands.

“You, him, both of you! This used to be almost funny, you know, watching Gavin be all glimmerous in your direction and seeing you shut him down. But recently you’ve been playing into it and—you know what? I’m done! You don’t get to listen to my stunning forensic breakthroughs until you’ve sorted your shit out, because I just can’t be doing with this. It’s ridiculous. Why can’t you just act like adults?”

The outburst is followed by Ema Skye whirling around, the sensible shoes she’s wearing clacking against the ship’s deck. Halfway to the door to the crew’s quarters, she remembers that she’s left all her forensic materials spread out next to where Klavier and Apollo are standing, and backtracks with increasingly evident frustration.

“You know what? I’m not leaving! You two—off my ship!Go figure yourselves out, and I won’t tell you about this case-changing evidence until you’ve stopped acting like this.”

Apollo’s a little taken-aback—not the least because he doesn’t think that he’s been doing any flirting, especially not with Klavier. He’s been hiding his feelings far too well for that—right?

Klavier looks at him and shrugs, motioning with his head that they should retreat the way they’d arrived. It’s not necessarily the most dignified thing, climbing off a boat in shame after being reprimanded by the detective on the case.

Once they’re back on “solid” ground (as solid as one can call a fishing boat’s dock, anyway), Apollo turns to Klavier.

“So, what was that about? I’ve never seen her that angry.”

Interestingly enough, color rises to Klavier’s cheeks. “Well...I think that, perhaps, she’s...misinterpreting the situation?”

And if Klavier’s strange statement hadn’t been enough to tip Apollo off that maybe something strange is going on here, there’s the familiar pinch of warm metal against his left wrist, his bracelet constricting at the taller man’s fib.

And—they know each other well enough, by this point, that all Apollo has to do is level an unimpressed stare in the prosecutor’s direction, and deadpan “Klavier” with all the air of a man who is taking no bullshit for an answer, for him to deflate and give up, shoving a hand in his back pocket awkwardly.

“Ugh. Okay. Erm. So, HerrForehead, this wasn’t...exactly...unprovoked. It’s possible that FräuleinSkye has been on the receiving end of many conversations about how I would like to….uh…”

It’s quite something, seeing Klavier at a loss for words. Apollo hadn’t thought that the former rockstar could look as awkward as he does now, the hand not trapped in his pocket fiddling with a loose strand of his hair.

He really, really tries not to think about how endearing it is.

Klavier seems to have reached a point, however, where he’s just decided to say things and worry about the consequences later. So Apollo’s contemplations are brought to a screeching halt when the man sighs, flips his hair, and stares at him straight-on, enunciating with perfect clarity:

“Apollo Justice, would you like to go out with me? On a date? Because I must say, I’ve been trying to find the best way to ask you for a while now, but unfortunately all I’ve succeeded in doing is, apparently, annoying the FräuleinDetective until not even Snackoos are a valid enough weapon.”

And—this isn’t the setting Apollo had pictured, in his often-hastily-repressed daydreams about Klavier asking him out. For one, he’d not quite imagined the quantity of fish, or the less-than-steady footing. But Klavier looks so earnest about his request, and Apollo can’t deny the way his heart’s skipped a beat, the way he’s almost petrified to say anything just in case this isn’t real—and so, he takes a deep breath, steps forward, and twines his fingers with Klavier’s.

“You know what? I’d love to. I’ll go anywhere you’d like—with the exception of a sushi restaurant” Apollo smiles, hesitantly at first, and then more genuinely as he sees the softly disbelieving expression on Klavier’s face.

“Really?” the prosecutor asks, and isn’t that incredible—that Klavier Gavin had been worried about being turned down. Apollo can’t quite believe it himself, yet.

“Yeah, really,” he says, smiling up at Klavier, who beams down at him in return. He feels the other man squeeze his hand briefly, and can’t quite contain the impulse to lean in closer to him, consciously this time, sharing both warmth and physical contact in a meaningful way.

When they return to the fishing vessel, Ema takes one look at the two of them and narrows her eyes, proceeding to mime nausea at the way they’re still holding hands.

However, she does follow through on her promise—and by the time they’re ready to leave the crime scene, both Klavier and Apollo are fairly certain of the next day’s trial’s outcome—as well as of the location of their post-trial dinner date.

[starlightinhumanform]

24/7: Chapter One

Fandom: Sanders Sides

Ship: Romantic Loceit, Platonic Demus, Platonic Logicality 

Summary: James (aka Janus) works the graveyard shift at a open-all-night convenience store. Logan is a college student who stays up way too late, way too often. While pulling all-nighters, he often visits the store James works at. As time goes on, James begins to care about Logan as more than just a customer. 

Warnings: Moderate Language, Some suggestive jokes, Mentions of ignorant/negative sentiments regarding vitiligo, Mentions of intoxication— some implied to be underage (please tell me if anything needs to be added)

Genre: College AU, Coffeeshop AU but weird (that’s literally the best way i can think of describing it), Mutual Feelings, Fluff 

A/N: — Janus’ name in this AU is James (mostly because when I began planning this, his name hadn’t been revealed). I may still include his name by writing in a name-change but we’ll see lmao — I do not have vitiligo and do not personally know anyone with vitiligo; Janus’ experience with the condition is based entirely on my research. That being said, I did my best to give an accurate representation but I do not claim that it is flawless in anyway. If there are any improvements you think I can make in this area, please please let me know 🖤🖤🖤 Love you all 🖤✨

Ao3   Fic Masterpost    Fic Request Info

James’ first shift started normally. That is, as normally as he could assume 24 hour convenience store shifts could be. It’s not like he had much experience with it.

Being his first day, he had assumed that the manager would’ve at least stuck around for a while. Instead, the woman had pointed out the bathroom plunger— advising him to not let anyone steal it— told him how to use the slushie machine, and said that if someone tried to rob the store, let them take the money; she even showed him the quickest way to open the cash register. Then she left within the first hour of James’ shift.

James didn’t mind being alone but he couldn’t fight down the frustration at his manager for abandoning him without actually telling him anything useful. He kept worrying that someone would ask a question that he couldn’t answer. What if the customer got angry and then he got reported and lost his job on the first night? Not to mention every time someone walked in, he was ready to bargain for his life with the $225.67 and a random condom in the cash register.

The adrenaline was getting to his head, stirring up usually dormant worries. He couldn’t stop glancing down at his hands. They were warm tan, patterned at random with lighter splotches. He had a condition known as vitiligo which made areas of his skin lose their pigmentation. For the majority of the time, it wasn’t a big deal; the worst part was the weird looks people gave him and even then, he could usually brush them off. Still, there was always the occasional idiot who felt the need to say something rude or inform him that he showed signs of demon possession. He hoped beyond everything that one of those incidents didn’t occur while he was alone in the store.

Thankfully, the only customers for the next few hours were a couple groups of teenagers at varying levels of intoxication and a traveling family made up of two parents suffering from highway-hypnosis and a small child who tried to climb into one of the drink refrigerators.

By one in the morning, the flow of incoming patrons had completely stopped. By that point James had already thrown back an entire 5-hour Energy drink and reorganized the chip rack— twice .

When the entry bell finally rang again at around two, James’ head was buzzing so badly he wasn’t sure if he had imagined the sound or not. A young man walked in— college aged with messy hair and glasses. He disappeared into the rows of brightly coloured plastic bags without a word and so quickly it made James once again question whether or not he was hallucinating.

It wasn’t until the man had made his way back to the counter, setting down a bag of chips and a couple energy drinks, that James was sure he existed. The man’s hair looked like it hadn’t been brushed in two days and his dark circles were so deep they could be seen from beneath his squared glasses. Yup, definitely a college student.  

Despite the obvious signs of exhaustion, the man was undeniably pretty. Counter to his tired scowl, his eyes were bright and alert, framing a sharp nose. The way he kept his strong chin tilted slightly upwards and walked with purpose gave him the appearance of someone who actually knew what he was doing with his life— so basically, the opposite of James.

James was hardly ever self conscious about his appearance but this man— this stupidly pretty, oddly perfect man— made James squirm just a little bit, made him wonder if he was living on one side of some scale while the customer lounged on the other side. James tried to shrugged it off, focusing on the items in front of him instead.

The man spent the entire interaction at the counter muttering to himself and never once making eye contact. It was a little strange, but he was cute and James was bored so he decided to just appreciate the entertainment while it lasted.

It wasn’t until James went to hand the man his receipt that he seemed to even become aware of James’ existence. James held out the thin slip of paper, apparently causing the man to flinch backwards. His reaction was strong enough to make James wonder if he was one of those people— the type that thought vitiligo was some sort of deadly, contagious disease.

His eyes darted up quickly, his gaze sharp as it scanned over James’ face, “You’re not the normal cashier.”

He was taken aback by the accusing tone in the man’s voice, “No, I guess I’m not? I just got hired; the other guy got let off… something about trying to steal the plunger.”

“Oh,” His face transformed into a noncommittal scowl that James simply could not read, “Expect me regularly.”

The man turned on his heels and walked briskly to the door as James stood frozen and mystified behind the counter, “Oh, uh… see you soon then.”

——————

James woke up to the smell of something burning. He didn’t even remember dragging himself home and collapsing in his bed but based on the smell bothering him he evidently had made it back. No one could burn food quite like his roommate.

“Remus what the fuck are you doing?” James shuffled out to the kitchen where his roommate was poking at something on the stove.

“Making lunch.”

Based on his bed head and near-complete lack of clothes (Remus always slept in booty shorts and nothing else) James could guess that he had woken up only a few minutes earlier himself, “Dude that does not smell like anything humans should eat.”

Remus gave him a wicked grin and James decided not to push the subject. He walked out of the room with a sigh and hoped that the smell would clear up soon.

He made his way into the living room, sitting down and flipping open his laptop. James groaned at the lack of new email notifications. No new emails meant no new job acceptions.

“Guess I’m working the night shift again.”

James was grateful he got the job at the convenience store— no question. Getting a job as a college dropout was both necessary and nearly impossible at the same time. He was lucky to get a job at all and being a graveyard shift, he got paid nearly double the normal wage for his position. For now, his sleep schedule would just have to suffer.

——————

The weeks drifted by and James fell into a dull, but easy rhythm. He would go to work every night, spend the hours rearranging chip bags, guarding the plunger, and— if he was lucky— the pretty college boy would come in for a few minutes to grab salty food and a caffeinated drink.

James wasn’t sure when it became “lucky” for the man to come into the store. Maybe it was lucky because he was entertaining, always preoccupied and wandering around the store like his mind was a hundred miles away. He had this odd sort of duality— somehow both spaced out and intensely focused at the same time. It was like he was concentrating on the dimension beyond the one James was living in. He floated through this world, always preoccupied with world in his head. It was endearing and intriguing and James found himself looking forward to seeing the man. James wanted to see the world inside his head, to know what was so captivating that he had no use or interest for what was outside of it.  

The student was quickly becoming his favourite customer— something James never thought he would have— and he genuinely enjoyed having a chance to talk to the other guy. He was handsome, obviously intelligent, and, if given the chance, James definitely would’ve asked him out for a drink.

As it was though, James looked awful in his uniform so he would never have the confidence to make a move the only times he ever saw him.

James started to watch for him. The man came at least once a week, always between midnight and four in the morning. He must have lived nearby because he always walked over instead of taking a car like most of the other patrons. Either that, or he lived further away and walked all the way just for a bag of chips and an energy drink.

It was a Thursday like any other when he walked into the store and James’ curiosity got the better of him.

“So,” James leaned across the counter as the man sat his items down, “you come around here often?”

He tilted his head quizzically, “Yes? I do come here often? You’ve seen me.”

“No I— it was a joke,” James resisted the urge to pinch the bridge of his nose. This was… not going the way James would have hoped, “What’s your name? We might as well get on first name basis since we see each other all the time.”

“I’m Logan,” Logan seemed surprised by the question.

“I’m James.”

Logan gave a curt nod, “I know.”

“But— how? I—“

“It’s on your name tag,” And with that, Logan turned and marched out of the store.

——————

Logan laid on his back, arms and legs spread over the entirety of his bed. The only leftover space of the bed was occupied by Patton, one of his housemates.

“So how did the all-nighter go?”

Logan groaned, “Well… it sure as hell did go all night. I’m so fucking tired.”

“This is what you get for viewing the entire American university system as a challenge.”

He squinted up at Patton. With his blond hair and round, smiling face he looked like the direct inversion of whatever pale little zombie Logan currently felt like, “I gotta stop staying up so late.”

“I don’t know, you kind of seem to like it,” His housemate patted his leg and stood up to walk out of Logan’s room, “By the way, where do you keep going? I hear you leaving the house, like, super early all the time.”

Sunlight was streaming through his partially open blinds. It was probably quite pretty but to Logan it just looked like a headache-inducing glare. He threw a pillow over his face, muffling his voice as he answered, “Booty call.”

Patton laughed as he stopped walking, “Yeah right. The day you answer a booty call is the day I will shave my head.”

Logan shifted the pillow slightly to look at Patton again. The man’s hair was his prize possession, like a curly fluffy cloud that he kept as a pet on top of his head. Logan didn’t know how Patton could afford the time and money he put into his hair. What he did know, however, was that Patton would never risk its safety. Logan frowned in (mostly) fake insult, “You really think there’s not a single person who would send me a horny text at three in the morning?”

“Nah I think there are quite a few people who would do that. I just doubt there’s anyone you’d actually find worth answering.”

Was there anyone he would actually answer? Logan stared up at the dark fabric above him. The pillowcase was a deep navy blue and if he really squinted, he could see the weave of the thread, a thousand random threads coming together to make a greater whole. The way the individual pieces created something far larger than themselves was fascinating to Logan. He had never given it much before, but he couldn’t help but wonder if he would ever find a random individual worth making something together.

In the darkness covering his eyes, a vision of the convenience store cashier flashed across his mind. The face he saw was light brown and across that warm canvas, lighter portions sprawled. For the first time, Logan began really thinking about that face. He had sharp features, tired eyes, and when he smiled with lips sloped upwards at a lopsided angle. His skin reminded Logan of the glossy photos of nebulae in his astronomy textbooks— bright splashes breaking up the sameness of the night sky. How had he never noticed that before? What was his name? James.

He heard the creak of their old floors beneath Patton as he walked out of Logan’s room. He probably thought Logan had fallen asleep as he lay there in silence. He was far from asleep, though. His mind was racing, trying to find the missed connections and continually finding new ones in the process. His eyes flickered as previously unrecognized thoughts began surfacing. And they didn’t stop. How had he never noticed?

“I’ve been going to that convenience store down the street,” Logan called as Patton walked away.

James.

Maybe there was someone for him.

If you want to be added to my Sanders Sides fic taglist just send me an ask or reply to this post :) 

General Sanders Sides Taglist: ~ @centimeter-tries-to-communicate @bee-syndrome @fandomfan315 @cas-is-a-hunter @reggieleigh07 @endless-rain-of-words@mossdeemo @im-actually-ok @softnic@catolicabuena @queer-disaster106 @lunawolf89 ~

24/7 Taglist: @imma-potatoo

[madeofsplinters]

How many works do you have on AO3?

Currently, 78. Soon to be more once I get my butt in gear and finish Kinktober.

What’s your total AO3 word count?

677,266.

How many fandoms have you written for and what are they?

AO3 seems to think that Star Wars is at least twelve different fandoms, but I disagree. By my count, I have fanfics on AO3 in 4 fandoms: Star Wars, Jurassic Park, Harry Potter, and the Marvel Cinematic Universe. (Also one Original Work.) But really just Star Wars. Everything else is like, one or two short fics when I felt like it at one point.

This is not a full reckoning, since it doesn’t count fan stuff I’ve written privately and not put on AO3, such as the long-ass backstories of several D&D characters.

As you can see, I am a basic bitch, fandom-wise.

What are your top five fics by kudos?

1. “Why Wait” (Baby Yoda Christmas fluff)

2. “In The Faces Of Our Children” (Vader and Tarkin, ruling the galaxy together, when Suddenly Luke)

3. “Holding Vader’s Leash” (the first multi-chapter Vader/Tarkin fic I ever wrote)

4. “Do Not Be Prey” (the short bit of Vader’Tarkin smut that started it all)

5. “I Will Not Let My Body Belong to the Dead” (an even longer Vader/Tarkin fic with lots of trauma and disability and Sith temple bullshit)

One of these things is, clearly, not like the others.

Do you respond to comments, why or why not?

I almost always respond! I love comments! Sometimes it takes a few days to get my head together and figure out what to say, and once in a while there’s something that I don’t know how to respond to at all, but generally I respond.

What’s the fic you’ve written with the angstiest ending?

Gosh, I don’t know. I write a lot of whump. Maybe “endure.”

What’s the fic you’ve written with the happiest ending?

Probably “Why Wait,” which might explain why it’s so popular.

Do you write crossovers? If yes, what’s the craziest thing you’ve written?

You know, I don’t think I ever have! I’m not ruling it out one day, but I have no specific plans.

Have you ever received hate on a fic?

I always expect WAY more hate than I’ve ever gotten, to be honest. I’m always like “ooooh, I’m so edgy, they’re gonna cancel me.” Nobody has ever canceled me yet, to my knowledge. I’ve gotten mildly unfriendly comments a time or two but quite rarely, and nothing at the level where I’d really call it “hate.”

(Most hate I ever got in Star Wars fandom was not for a fic, but for a random Tumblr post where I said the Mandalorian writers didn’t understand childcare. LOL)

Do you write smut? If so what kind?

Yes, I love to write smut! I particularly like smut involving BDSM and villain characters. It’s very cathartic to me to take messed-up, morally questionable characters and imagining how they’d approach kink, which means a lot of very complicated emotional dynamics and a lot of stuff that wouldn’t necessarily pass muster as safe, sane, or consensual in real life!

Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Not that I know of!

Have you ever had a fic translated?

No, but “Why Wait” has been made into podfic twice.

Have you ever co-written a fic?

I have not!

What’s your all time favourite ship?

I don’t know about all time favourites. My feelings change over time and that’s fine.

That said, Vader/Tarkin is a fucked up little rarepair that played a role in my life for just over two years that I don’t think any other ship has ever equaled, or maybe will again. I’ve never been obsessed with writing a ship like I was obsessed with writing that one. And then, at the end of “The Madness of Emperor Tarkin,” the muse just suddenly stopped. I’d been using the ship to work through my feelings about a very particular life situation and when my situation changed, suddenly the obsessive urge to write the ship vanished back into the thin air from whence it came.

I still ship it, in a sort of abstract, nostalgic way, but it’s no longer taking up the majority of my brain circuits.

Or, as @taxxxon put it: “[Tarkin’s still] a very compelling character, you’re just not enacting intensive shadow work through him anymore.”

What’s a WIP you want to finish but don’t think you ever will?

“Don’t Let The Water Drag You Down.” Sorry.

What’s your writing strengths?

I don’t know? Characterization? Imagination? Obsessively writing a lot of words really fast? Don’t ask me to give myself compliments, I won’t do it :D

What’s your writing weaknesses?

Pacing. I would not know proper pacing if it bit me in the ass. I’m not very good at action scenes / battles. Also my characters tend to spend a lot of time sitting around thinking about their own feelings, which I think is a feature, not a bug, but it’s certainly something that polarizes readers. Some love it, some hate it.

What are your thoughts on writing dialogue in other languages in fic?

Knock yourself out! There are no rules.

What was the first fandom you wrote for?

I mean, I wrote a lot of Harry Potter fic starting when I was, like, 12. The stuff I wrote in junior high school has been thankfully lost to the mists of time. We shall not speak of it.

What’s your favourite fic you’ve written?

“I Will Not Let My Body Belong To The Dead.” The entire Vader/Tarkin ship peaked with that fic. It has everything.

Thank you to @cealtrachs for the tag. :) Tagging: @milkmochi, @neumh, @vaderssidechick, @choking-on-your-aspirations

[eirist]

Chance Encounter

1: PROLOGUE

Disclaimer: One Piece (and its characters) belongs to Eiichiro Oda-sensei.

Reminder: I have no beta-reader. Any grammatical and spelling errors are solely mine.

Warning: OOC possible.

Rating: T

Note: I’m going to deviate from my usual fluffy stuff. I was browsing my draft collection, because there is a lot of pending write-ups and this one’s been there for far too long… since 2017 to be exact. Procrastinate much.

This was originally planned as a two-chaptered fic. And I’m hoping I stick to that.

Summary: There was a weird sensation pulling at her midriff; followed by a loud, sucking sound before she was suddenly plunged into darkness. 

“Watch out!”

The shrill sound of Usopp screaming reached her ears. Nami watched, horrified, as each of her nakama evaded the eerie, almost dark purplish light that was heading towards them.

She stood, rooted on the spot. Her body failing to move even as her brain kept commanding it to shift out of the way or she’s going to take a direct hit.

Her brown-colored orbs widened with the realization that she’s not going to make it in time. Her hands tightened their grip on her weapon as the light advanced towards to her.

She heard Luffy’s voice shouting her name, as well as the wailing cry of their cook calling out for her. She didn’t understand why in that split second before the light hit her, her senses seemed to have become acute.

There was Robin’s loud gasp, Chopper bursting into tears, Franky screaming ‘strong right’ and Brook yelling Yahazu Giri.

Her ears picked up the sound of someone running towards her. Her eyes tried to search for the source of the sound. Somehow in the back of her mind, she already knew who was responsible for it.

She stared haplessly as Zoro tried to reach her in time to save her from the damning light. His face was taut with concentration as he tried to move faster towards her.

“Nami!” He shouted, one sword-less hand stretching out to her.

Surprisingly, she was able to lift her own towards him.

“Zoro…” she whispered his name, vainly trying to reach out to him.

 But he was too late.

The light hit her. It enveloped her whole body, her whole being—warm and unexpectedly soothing.

There was a weird sensation pulling at her midriff; followed by a loud, sucking sound before she was suddenly plunged into darkness.

The Straw Hat pirates stared, aghast, as their orange-haired navigator suddenly disappeared right before their very eyes.

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

​It was Monkey D. Luffy’s idea, as usual, to explore the unknown island where they just dropped anchor.

After two weeks of nothing but the ocean in their sight, the exuberant captain was at the end of his expectedly short rope to have his ‘land adventure time’—much to the chagrin of everyone who knows that Luffy’s so-called adventures usually ends with all of them knee-deep in trouble.

After the kaizoku bento was distributed, the crew separated into groups: one to survey the island, one to look for the town and restock their supplies and one to stop Luffy’s idiocy from rampaging. Brook volunteered to guard the ship and Sanji promised to relieve him once he’s able to get some food shopping done.

​All’s well until the survey and babysitter groups ran into some weird, crazy guy who has the strange ability to make anyone or anything disappear. How Luffy came across the downright creepy fellow while exploring the mountain’s forest… no one can answer. After all, said captain has an unusual knack for attracting trouble everywhere he goes.

It was a good thing though that for such a rather powerful ability, their enemy seems to be truly unaware of its true potential. For he was just randomly flinging purplish circle of lights, screaming that they leave him alone or he’ll make them all disappear with his power.

Usopp concluded that it was probably because the guy’s got too many loose screws in his head. After all, he was living hermetically in an isolated cave on top of the island’s mountain.

The others, sensing that something was amiss when both groups failed to return to the Sunny after a few hours and seeing the tell-tale signs of a battle going on up in the mountains made their way to the skirmish.

It should’ve been an easy battle, but someone had to deliberately irritate the hell more out of the enemy by dousing him with seawater.

Much to the crew’s amazement, the only effect of the water was to vex their opponent more as he hurled much larger circle of lights at them. This was not a devil fruit user as they had originally believed.

A surprised gasp came from Robin and she went on to explain that while visiting the town’s library earlier, she read something about an old island legend regarding an accursed man who has the power to make people and things disappear.

“Not a devil fruit Robin-chan?” Sanji asked as he avoided another light aimed at his direction.

Robin shook her head. “Unfortunately, no,” she answered. Behind her, Usopp and Chopper dove at the same time behind a bush to evade a light whooshing towards them. "And here I thought it was just a legend." The excitement in her voice was evident despite them being under attack.

“So it’s a mystery power!” Luffy exclaimed excitedly, holding onto his hat firmly as he jumped randomly to escape the lights directed at him.

“You can say so, sencho-san” Robin replied smiling. She hid behind a tree as another round light whizzed past her.

“So how do we beat him?” Zoro growled. He launched a Pondo Ho towards one of the lights. Both his slash and the light dissipated out of thin air. He sidestepped to elude another and promptly collided with the navigator.

“Zoro!” Nami chastised him frowning. “Watch where you’re going!”

“Well don’t just stand there like tree woman!”

“Marimo!” Sanji screamed at him. “How dare you hit Nami-swan!”

“Uruse ero-cook!”

“Shitty swordsman!” The cook seethed.

“I can’t believe you’re getting lost even here.” Nami snapped, fighting the urge to bonk his thick head with her Clima-tact. She roughly pulled at his green coat just as another light flew past the swordsman’s left side.

“Thanks but no thanks witch,” the green-haired lad scowled at her.

“Hey I just saved you! Gratitude please!” Nami retorted. Another light soared towards them and Zoro wasted no time in grabbing her around the waist and pulling her behind a tree.

“Now we’re even.” He muttered condescendingly as they hid behind the trunk. Nami huffed in response and they watched as Franky leaped at the bushes beside them, hollering ‘super’ as he dodged an attack sent towards him.

“Ok this is getting way too long!” Sanji complained.

“Took the words right out of my mouth, swirly!” Zoro sneered, drawing out another katana. Nami backed away from him as the he stepped out of their hiding place.

“Did not, baka kenshin!” The cook yelled back.

“Usopp,” Nami called the long-nosed sniper. “Long-range attacks!”

Usopp nodded. With their enemy’s ability, it poses a much lesser risk to hit him with flying attacks rather than meet him head on.

“Luffy, Sanji-kun!” Nami warned both the cook and the captain not to attack the enemy.

“Hai, Nami-swaaan!”

“But Namiiii…” Their captain childishly protested. Bored from jumping too much, he landed beside the navigator with a pout.

Nami pulled his ear. “Baka! What are you going to do if you get hit with that light and you disappear?!”

“Let the others attack him first Luffy,” Robin said, appearing behind them suddenly. Crossing her arms in front of her, she said, “Franky!”

“Aaww!” Franky, who felt hands pushing him up, jumped from the bushes where he landed earlier, striking a super pose to indicate the he's a-ok.

“Brook!” Sanji bellowed, not seeing the skeleton anywhere near the vicinity.

“Right here Sanji-san,” Brook answered, way up on one of the trees near them.

“Damn it you idiot where you hiding there all the time?!”

“Yohohohoho!”

“Chopper where are you?!” Nami looked around hoping the doctor did not get hit by those troublesome light their enemy was bombarding them.

“Here Nami!” The little reindeer raised a hoof; hopping down from where was currently perched atop of Usopp’s head. He hopped down to stand beside the sniper.

With all the Mugiwara crew accounted for. It was time for a counter-attack.

“Weapons left!” Franky hollered just as Usopp simultaneously released one of his Kabuto bombs.

“Zoro!” Nami yelled.

“Way ahead of you woman!” The swordsman answered, placing Wado Ichimonji between his teeth. He released a much powerful version of his previous Pondo Ho.

The concurrent attack hit their enemy head on. There was an explosion and an ear-piercing scream of pain as smoke filled the spot where the man was standing.

Usopp winced. “Ooops. I think we overdid it.”

“Super overdid it.” Franky agreed.

Sanji nonchalantly shoved a cigarette into his mouth as he studied the scene. “Yeah you all did.” He muttered with a flick of his lighter. “He’s just a normal human being and you all went all out to attack him.”

“Shut up shit cook,” Zoro snarled at his direction. “Better than just standing there and doing nothing.”

“Say that again shit head!”

“Both of you shut your traps.” Nami immediately stepped between the two men. “Now is not the time for yapping at each other.”

“Tch.”

“Hai Nami-swaaan!”

The others ignored them and continued staring at the still smoke-filled area, waiting.

Out of the blue, another light flew towards their direction, bigger than before.

“Everyone scatter!” Luffy commanded, stretching his arm towards a random tree limb and making a grab for one of the nearest crew member, who unluckily was Usopp.

The crew scattered out instantly. “Heeeelp!” The sharpshooter screeched as he was lifted mid-air.

“Kyaaaah!” Nami shrieked.

“Move! Move! You’ll get hit!” Zoro’s voice reached her ears and she bounded towards her left blindly. She felt his arm grabbed her by the waist, hauling her up and tucking her under his arm. Nami was in too much panic to even care that he was lugging her like a sack of potatoes.

“Nami-swan!” Sanji squawked when he saw the green-haired dumbass carelessly carting off his favorite lady brusquely. “Put her down you boorish, moronic marimo! Nami-swaaaan! Come into my arms so that I can protect you! Ack!” He nearly tripped when he accidentally collided with Brook, who landed beside him, when he tried to dodge the light.

“Ah Sanji-san. You must not lose concentration lest you get hit!” The skeleton reminded him as he swept the cook into his bony arms and effortlessly leapt towards another tree.

“Brook! You shitty skeleton! Put me down!”

“Yohohoho! No.”

“Nami-saaaan!” He yelled again when he and the musician landed safely on a sturdy tree branch.

“Somebody shut him the hell up!” Zoro roared from somewhere down.

“Urusai!” Nami can be heard screeching after. “Can’t you see we are in the middle of battle?!” She, along with Chopper (whom she didn’t see earlier was also tucked under Zoro’s other arm), are hiding with the swordsman behind a thick group of trees. As for Robin and Franky, she failed to see where they took cover.

“LEAVE ME ALONE!” Their enemy was screaming as he continuously launched purplish lights at them. Nami squeezed Chopper towards her, ducking her head lower as the reindeer hugged her back just as forcefully.

“Careful! He is going out of control!” Franky cautioned from afar, exactly where, no one can pinpoint.

Nami heard Zoro made a tch-ing sound as he carefully peered from behind the tree trunk to observe what was happening. From up a random tree Usopp was complaining, “Ouch! Don’t push me! Luffy!”

Then he yelped. The light hit the tree where he and Luffy were. Luckily, the rubber man was able to swing himself to the safety of another but had forgotten to take Usopp with him.

The sharpshooter did not hesitate to dive down the ground before the tree they were at disappeared completely.

Everyone held their breath as Usopp was suddenly rolled towards the refuge of some thick shrubbery by Robin’s bloomed arms.

“Robin!” A sob can be heard from under the foliage. “Thank you!”

“You’re welcome.”

“Shi shi shi! Sorry Usopp.” Luffy apologized sheepishly as he leapt down to where Usopp was lying prone.

“Temee Luffy! You idiot, you forgot me!”

“Everyone look out!” Robin cautioned as another light surged towards them.

One by one the trees and shrubberies were disappearing as the purple light hit them.

“Damn it!” Zoro suddenly swore when this time it was their hiding place that vanished. He grabbed Nami’s arm, roughly yanking her up.

“Zoro!”

“Move Nami!” He pushed her forward. “Chopper head towards those trees!”

“Hai!” Chopper jumped from Nami’s arms and change to his heavy point. He grabbed the navigator and made a dash towards where Zoro was pointing.

“Chopper! You could’ve change into your walk point!” Nami protested.

“Eeeh?!”

“Too late! Just go! Go!”

From behind them, Luffy was now telling off the enemy.

“Oi ossan! Stop throwing those mystery lights on us!”

But the man was oblivious. He was only focused in eliminating them out of his sight.

“That’s it! Gomu gomu no…”

“Luffy stop!” Almost everyone shouted.

“Pistol!”

Luffy’s rubber fist collided with the man’s face, sending him flying a good four feet away.

“LUFFY!” They all gaped as the man lay sprawled on the ground, seemingly unconscious.

“Yosh!” Their captain declared with a nod, crossing his arms and looking absolutely pleased with himself.

“Well that put a stop to—” Brook’s voice trailed off when the man stood up, looking totally unaffected by Luffy’s punch.

Usopp let out a whimper. “Is it me or he looks angrier than ever?”

No one answered. Because no one can.

For the man suddenly let out an enraged scream as huge purple orbs appeared all around him. He swung his arm with all his might, casting all of them towards the pirates.

“WATCH OUT!!!” Usopp screamed.

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

Zoro stared at the empty space in front of him.

His hand was still extended, his fingers still poised to grab the woman who was not there any longer.

Just a few inches more…

Yet he was not able to reach her in time.

“Nami!!!!”

Somewhere from behind him, their captain screamed.

[wiredandrewired]

Was trying to actually work on something but my brain is stuck on loop.  So instead I’m gonna make a post of the Voltron stuff sitting unposted in my writing WIP folder to help me organize my thoughts.

I guess since I’m posting this, if you have anything you wanna say/ask about any of these feel free.  I respond well to outside interest.

1. Project ReVolt is without a doubt the project I’ve posted about the most here.  And talked about in random tags.  And tangents.  Originally it was just the name the project had in my internal brain filing cabinet but it’s kind of spread and stuck to where my wife and I just refer to it as that when we talk about it.

ReVolt is basically going to be a VLD series rewrite more along the lines of how my wife and I would have done it or at least liked to see it done.  In some places it will probably stick pretty damn close to the events of the series canon, but in others go completely off the deep end.  We’re each going to be doing one, so a lot of the headcanon and worldbuilding and such that we’ve worked out together in various other stories and RPs will be consistent between the two stories, but it will also give us a place to veer out and do things without the others’ input (as we’re not gonna let each other see our fics until they post, tee hee).  I’ve done a SHITPOT of rules and infrastructure work using actual alchemy tracts to try and make sense of the series’ largely Powers As The Plot Demands system,  and am pretty convinced I’m going to A)fall hard into my very common Esoterica Ranting Mode pitfall and B)enrage literally everyone who reads it with my character and plot choices.  Most conservative estimate says this will be six ‘books’ long as again, we’re doing literally the entire series.  Current status: at the ‘ridiculously large amount of notes and setting up actual arcs and outlines’ stage, and waiting for the wife to finish ‘Happier HOPEless’.

2. There Are No Monsters Here is a fic I really want to do but cannot seem to get off the ground, set to take place entirely in the ‘last universe’ from season 8--the one native-Honerva died in and crazed-death-god-Honerva picked out as her ideal and tried to wedge herself into.  I guess the basic idea was that, like the ‘main’ universe, it got rebuilt pretty much as it was prior to Nightmare Mom Ruining Everything, and I have it with no one fully remembering the events of season 8 that took place there, but characters really closely tied to those events having some itching feeling that something happened, and all the Altean alchemists agreeing that some kind of massive quantum Event certainly occurred even if they don’t know what.  

Mostly the story exists as  a place for me to have a canon-compliant AU that still lets me explore stuff like Altean history, the racial and cultural tensions of the Coalition, dink around with Oldadins that DON’T die in one fell swoop, a living Daibazaal and Altea, Lotor growing up with a decent-but-not-without-strains relationship with his dad, teen Allura and tiny Lotor being absolute shits to each other while also coming to terms as they grow up with who and what they MUST be both on a political and quantum scale, and generally prove that even a perfect universe isn’t, all in one place.  The title is entirely facetious, and anyone who’s read any of my alien culture headcanons for this series knows that.  Lol.  Current status: lots of bits and pieces, but no good beginning or connective tissue.   I have a lot of notes, some arc outlines, and a few scattered scenes and bits of dialogue from later in the story, but my god, I CANNOT get it off the ground.

3. Someone Must Get Hurt (But It Won’t Be Me) is supposed to be a pretty wholly Honerva-centric fic that starts...sometime in her youth?...and carries forward to an as-yet-undetermined point.  Probably her death.  I mean the first one.  I’m not sure.  Another chance to dig my fingers into Altean culture and Alchemy, this time leading up to All The Bad Shit That Happened, with the added bonus of being done from a focal point of a character I have a lot of really strong feelings about both positive and negative that’s resulted in me somehow being EVEN MORE wrapped up in her than I was before I added abject knee-jerk trauma hatred to the mix.  In no way meant to make Honerva more sympathetic, I think I just want to write her even more like my mother so I’ll feel EVEN BETTER about killing her?  Idk man my feelings about her are so complicated.  Also an excuse to write a shitpot of her and Zarkon because listen, I’m really glad they’re married because I ship them so fuckin hard.   Current Status: SO many notes.  SO much infrastructure.  Like three pages of an opening I’m almost definitely throwing away because I can’t decide where, when, or how to open but feel like this isn’t it.  One short but very telling scene of Honey and Zarkon from late in the story.  I’m obsessed with it but I can’t get anywhere. 

4. Currently Untitled Demon Hunter AU started because my wife talks to me about Happier HOPEless a LOT and I just got an itch in my bones to work on one myself.  In spite of the entire Demon Hunter AU thing getting started by a prompt on a Shance blog, neither Shiro nor Lance are set to appear for at least a chapter?  And I am not confident in my ability to not veer off into utter non-shipping anyway because man, am I bad at it.  Or like...just an entirely different ship for either or both of them.  Current Status: A lot of vague notes, a POWERFUL urge to structure the chapters and overall arc after Ripley’s Gates even though that limits my chapter count and means I will DEFINITELY have 20k+ word chapters, and about seven pages of the first chapter so I guess I’m committed now?

5. Currently Untitled Post Series Fic basically exists for me to vent my frustrations about two main things: The Universe is Fucking Huge And There Are Dangers Other Than Galra, and The Galra Empire Was Huge and Is Not Going To All Fall In Line Behind Voltron Coalition and Especially Behind Keith Who Just Arbitrarily Fucking Decided To Tell Them They Couldn't Pick A New Leader According To Their Own Traditions And Need To Do What They’re Told Now What The Fuck.  Also there was a lot of stuff in the series that got left hanging, and while ReVolt is an IN-series fix-it fic, I wanted something that patched up loose ends in a way that was satisfactory to me but also kind of canon-compliant.  Current Status: A lot of notes and screaming.  No one has seen my progress on this and they might never.

6. Dog Runs And Death Dreams is a warmup file turned deeply self-indulgent series of scenes in which I choose to assume that Shiro’s rare neuromuscular disorder was left so ambiguous so I could plug the symptoms of mine into it.  It’s genuinely not any deeper than that.  The whole thing is set pre-Kerberos, and includes copious Shiro x Adam content because of it, but also not the kind that makes me feel good about writing because that means it includes the ‘slow fizzle’ that leads up to their breakup before the mission.  Ugh.  Working on it does make me feel better when I've been having symptoms, though, and I’ve been letting myself write it, unchastised, in a really loose rambly way that I usually deride myself for.  It’s just cathartic.  Current Status: no notes, no plan, just strain-writing between seizures, but somehow it feels like it has some kind of structure and just keeps growing?  Possibly too close to the bone for me to ever post.

7. Birth and Rebirth was born out of two things: the fact that Zarkon is shown to have two ENTIRELY DIFFERENT reactions to first being presented with his baby son in different flashbacks and different seasons, and the fact that in spite of the flashbacks we get at the end of the series, earlier on, the impression I got of Lotor and Zarkon’s relationship wasn’t of a young man who had never had affection from his father, but who had instead lost it.  Well, three things: I have a lot of underlying issues at work, at play, and at large when it comes to the Galra Imperial Family.  Also, anyone notice the monitor blips in the first baby Lotor flashbacks indicate a heart murmur?  Anyway, it was supposed to be a thoroughly self-indulgent and thoroughly self-hurtful examination of Lotor’s early life and the death by degrees of what was left of his father in the husk Rift Adventures left behind, but I got stuck on it a little way in.   Current Progress: ten pages, a lot of notes, and some wistfulness.  I keep hoping I’ll get inspired to pick it back up again.  Contemplating rewriting some of the beginning, maybe it’ll help?

Bonus entry that is not actually in any form of progress soever:

50/50 Voltron Trashfire Edition is spawned from the ‘50/50′ challenge on an old TF board I used to haunt.  It’s a fifty-prompt smut challenge using the list of ‘50 reasons to have sex’ from some tv show, and the idea is to write a different ship for every prompt (hence the name).  My wife is blazing through it and has several (like twelve?) up on her AO3, but I’ll be utterly blunt: I haven’t written fifty porn fics in my LIFE.  Over ALL my fandoms.  Current Status: Literally all I have done is assign a ship to each prompt, and I might actually have some prompts with just question marks beside them still.  I have one aborted start to one entry.  That’s it.  It’s not happening.  But the empty file is technically in the folder, SO.

[overcaffeinated-creative]

A Random Idea Fic

Characters: I had some ideas but they’re nailed down. Everyone’s welcomed to make a guess. 

Rating: Probably T just to be safe

Summary: This is was mostly me indulging myself with unexpected sort of angst, sort of not kissing. It’s set in the Star Wars Verse circa 9 BBY, on someone’s ship.

Notes: Later on this may or may not be canon for my ideas. But, I just had to write it regardless. Also, I’ve stared at it far too long and rewrote in a different font each time. I think I caught everything but probably did not.

“You were my first crush.” In the morning-proper morning not this early late night cycle-he would blame the confession on the bottle of rotgut passing between them. Half drunk courage and all of that. “I thought it might have been idolizing you. But, now I know it was a crush.”

Next to him she lit up in the Force for second. That same effervescent feeling he associated with her since their first meeting nearly a decade ago. Bubbles of light rising up through an unfathomable darkness that tried to consume them. It was hard to believe he once thought her lost too.

Stealing a quick glance to her displayed the light pink blossoming across her cheeks. Mercury bright eyes stayed focused on her lap. “Really?”

“Yeah.” Another drink from the durasteel bottle bought him time. Every thought bounced around his mind causing his mouth to run wild. Whatever point he was going toward needed to be found. “I figured you already knew. Nothing ever escaped your notice.”

She borrowed his earlier idea of drinking to buy time. Nimble fingers stole the bottle back from his. The coolness of her skin lingered over his like crackling ice mist. Using that as a focal point he tried to avoid looking directly at her. She had all of the time to answer or not answer if she wanted.

One drink bleed into two then three. It worried him more and more as she stayed quiet. “You did know, right?” Uncertainty clouded his mind that whatever this was just destroyed everything. She just came back; he could not risk losing her again.

Fangs worried her bottom lip. “A little,” was murmured while she glanced at him from the corner of her eyes. Thick, black lashes made her eyes glow starbright. “I tried not to pry to deeply into your mind. Enhanced empathy or not, it would be rude.”

“Sorry for making things awkward.” He took the bottle back to avoid trying to run his hand through his hair. “I don’t know what came over me.”

Shifting, she tucked her right leg beneath her. “No reason to be sorry then or now. You weren’t obnoxious about it.” Smiling, she leaned over then stretched to poke the tip of his nose. “Not like I’ve not made a fool of myself enough times.”

“You, a fool?” he teased, “Everyone was in awe of you.” A quick deflection to just how much the past loved her might help. “I wasn’t alone in idolizing you.”

The bark of laughter she let out was unexpected and more bitter than their drink. “Awe is the wrong word.” One hand moved to toy with the hem of her orange shirt. Short nails picking at loose threads with an intense focus. “Tolerated or indulged would be better words. I was non-traditional in many eyes and that ruffled feathers. Even the younglings picked up on that.”

“Bantha shit. You were one of the kindest, bravest people anyone knew.” Reaching out, he held her hand to before she unraveled the entire hem. He knew a thing or two about spiraling downward. “Hell, you’re still all of those things and more. Stop talking about yourself like that.”

Silence fell over them for several moments but he kept his eyes on her face. Meticulously maintained brows knit together over intelligent eyes in gloom. Her lower lip slipped between teeth again while she turned something over in her mind. Reaching out with the Force could tell him more but he refrained. Instead, he focused on the tiny freckles dotting her nose and what peaked out from her shirt. All barely darker than her with the same pink tint. The little stud in her nose had remained throughout the years. A silver ball today in place of her favored star.

The urge to kiss the sadness from her roared from deep within his mind.

“Then kiss me,” her voice wavered, unsure of something.

Five full seconds passed while his brain turned the words over and over again. Was he broadcasting something to her through their connection? Did he say something out loud without thinking again? How did she pick up on that thought?

“If you want to kiss me, then kiss me.” Her voice grew stronger with each word before dropping to a whisper. “Right now...I want to kiss you too.”

Three second passed before he closed the space between them. Three agonizing seconds of willing his body to make a move. Anything to make his newest recurrent dream a reality. Then the feeling of her soft lips drove every thought from his mind

Wary of overstepping his boundaries he went to pull back. Instead, she pulled him closer again. Fingers tangled in his sweater to pull him down again. Fangs brushed his lip as she eagerly nipped at him. Shivers trailed up his spine as he responded with enthusiasm. A low whine slipped from deep in his throat. Whatever control she wanted would be hers.

The next break in their kiss came when she pulled back from him. Her chest rose and fell with the rapid beating of his heart against his ribs. Curious, she looked at him almost waiting on something. Both long, pointed ears gave the occasional twitch in anticipation. Unsure of what she wanted he trailed his hand from her cheek to cradle the back of her head. Thumb brushing over the short, tangled hair.

Read as invitation she dove in to kiss him again. A delightful clash of lips and teeth drawing a low, groan from deep in her throat. She scrambled to untangle her legs to move almost falling off the crate in the process but he caught her. The bottle hit the floor with a loud twang before rolling away. They noticed nothing.

All of their focus remained on one another as he helped steady her. Pivoting on one knee, she turned to straddle his lap. Her fingers worked their way into his ponytail to wrestle the hair tie loose. Growling into the kiss kiss she gave up before breaking it. Hands tangled in his hair she pulled him even closer to her. A sheet of flimsi would have failed to slip between them in that moment. Yet, it was not not close enough for him.

On impulse he fell back onto the crate while pulling her forward to rest against him. Small hands left his hair to instead plant themselves to either side of his head. Taking advantage of the shifted position she inched down his body just enough to drag kisses along his jawline. The scruff going in had to burn but she paid no mind. Instead, she started to work the thick strap of his armor loose to free up the other side of his neck.

Reaching to help got that armed pinned over his head with their fingers interlaced. His free hand instead trailed down her back to hook just under her ass to yank her forward. Muffling her squeal against his lips they were kissing again.

Everything about the moment was too much and not enough. With no effort he could feel her echoing on all sides of him through the Force. A swirling point of light growing brighter and brighter against the bleakness. She was like a half-ghost turned tangible again...a forgotten dream made flesh. Her mere presence drove the shadows from his mind as they frantically drown in each other.

[humanitys-shortest-soldier]

List all the things you’re currently working on in as much or as little detail as you’d like, then tag some friends to see what they’re working on.

This can be writing, art, vids, gifsets, fanwork, or original work!

Tagged by: @kaguneko thank you friend! <3

Oh boy, this is gonna be long lmao. I have more WIP’s than I would like to admit.  I SWEAR I’LL FINISH SOMETHING EVENTUALLY OKAY DON’T JUDGE ME.

1) Chapter 8 of Exactly My Type (Akafuri)

 This one should be obvious. It’s the final chapter, more of an epilouge than anything, and will show a couple of flashes into the future of their relationship.

2) You see in black and white until you see your soulmate for the first time (Akafuri)

I plan on this one just being one long one-shot. I don’t why I suddenly caught the urge to write this but here we are -_-

3) A semi-NSFW prompt for Akashi or Furihata in a wet t-shirt (Akafuri)

Barely started, but it’s a document lol. I’m excited to finish it, and I  feel terrible because it’s a pretty old prompt (I’m so slow I’m sorry.)

4) A nameless fic that will be a weird take on a fake relationship/fake dating but also sort of not? (Shizaya)

It’s my first attempt writing for these two, and it’ll be a longer fic if I ever finish it. It’s around 2k right now buuuuuut I dunno if I’m happy with it so maybe it’ll never even see the light of day. Who knows.

5) Another nameless fic with no real plot other than it deals with trust issues (Shizaya)

A random idea I started tossing around in my head at work. Meant to be a one-shot but I dunno if there’s enough plot for me to really make it anything. Evolves the boys in the early stages of a relationship.

6) A random prompt I saw and found oddly fitting (Shizaya)

No one requested this one, I just saw it and liked it. Should be a pretty short one-shot. High school AU.

7) Prompt request inspired by my writing summary (Eruri)

I’m actually super excited about this one. It’s a request for Orphanage Director Levi and Rich Patron Erwin, which I think will work out pretty good for them. I’m super nervous though, since it’s my first time writing for them.

8) A super old prompt for Furihata in the Virgin Killer Sweater (Akafuri)

A suuuuuuper old prompt THAT I WILL FINISH I SWEAR. I even took a poll for the color of the sweater. Akashi needs his Kouki in that sweater and I WILL PROVIDE IT.

9) A fic for fake dating/dare dating/real dating (KiriBaku)

Me trying to branch out into other ships again. Super excited but super nervous. I’m honestly gonna have to rewatch the anime before I finalize anything. Also might never see the light of day because ANXIETY about new shit.

10) Chapter 5 of Defying Fate (AkaFuri)

This has been started for well over year now lol. Exactly My Type kinda pulled me away from this fic, but I can’t wait to get back into it after finishing the other one!

Okay, so I’m gonna cut this at 10. These are all the ones officially started, even if a few only have a few paragraphs written. I definitely have more prompts that just have a word doc open with a title, but isn’t actually started. (I’m so bad I’m so sorry I suck lmao)

(I’d like to apologize to everyone who’s waiting on a prompt from me. I know I take forever, and I’m hoping for that to be one of the things I can change this year. Thanks for sticking with me, and don’t worry about requesting things! I’ll get to it eventually, I promise! Plus sometimes new shit inspires me or helps motivate me, lol)

I’m gonna tag: @anime-saved-and-destroyed-me @jubesy @cerberosthehellguard @bi3n3nstich @herdustisverypretty (and anyone else who wants to do this! Tag me if you do!

[dadzawa-adopt-dabi]

1-35 on fanfic asks

1. From one to five stars, how would you rate your writing? (No downplaying yourself!)

2 stars maybe? Im not great and i forget a lot of things. but no one can stop me from writing and i enjoy it. the more i do it the more i may like my own writing one day

2. Why do you write fanfiction? Fanfiction is everything to me. It was a matter of time until i started writing it seriously for myself.

3. What do you think makes your writing stand out from other works?

Literally nothing. I tend to go off with ships and specific things i want represented... but thats it. anyone can write.

4. Are there any writers that inspire you?

Always! so many! the best thing about fanfiction is how it builds upon itself and spreads!

5. What’s the fic you’re most proud of?

Im very proud of Secret Baby/ River run. Its large and a mess and i hate it. But im proud ive done it. A completed one im proud of is "Compress said its his turn on the murder screen" i think i did well with that one and kept the tone I wanted.

6. What element of writing do you find comes easily?

Arguments between characters and having them express themselves other ways.

7. What element of writing do you struggle with most?

It's the making up and posting works i struggle with. Along with editing which is another monster.

8. Which character(s) do you find easiest to write?

I do love the murder boys! Dabi, Itachi, Deidara, Naruto (should have killed everyone), Reno. If theyve got issues i love them!

9. Which character(s) do you find most difficult to write?

happy characters. I just don't know what to do with them. Like a domestic setting with no action? nope not for me!

10. What’s your favorite genre to write for?

Hurt/comfort has always been my jam!

11. Who or what do you find yourself writing about most?

im not entirely sure? I havent been really writing/posting that long.

12. Tell us about a WIP you’re excited about.

Expectations! its a collaboration i'm working on with a friend and a DabiHawks fanfiction again! It's a fic where they fall in bed together before they even like each other. A lot of assumptions are made and not a lot of talking gets done until quite a bit of Damage has been done. Hawks finds out that Dabi's been doing some things he wasnt comfy with just because he didnt know how to tell Hawks and because he was attached to him. It's messy and won't get less so.

interesting to write to say the least because im such a Zero tolerance person.

13. First fandom you ever wrote for?

Naruto lol

14. What’s your favorite fandom to write for?

part of my heart will always belong to naruto. can't leave it. But im enjoying writing for bnha immensely!

15. What’s the weirdest fandom you’ve ever written for?

Food Fantasy! a video game i did a short one shot on last october!

16. Any guilty pleasure trope(s)?

Soulmate au's! Omegaverse! I love tropes! Oh! Hanahaki!

17. A trope you’ll never, ever write for.

none.

18. Wildest fic you’ve ever written?

I wouldn't say ive done anything too wild?

19. Do you prefer canon-compliant, AUs, or something in-between?

get canon away from me! i love au's! any and all!

20. Gen fic or shippy stuff?

both!

21. Favorite pairing to write for? (platonic or romantic!)

currently its DabiHawks! i love my enemies to lovers! (everyone deserves compassion lave and basic decency)

22. Do you listen to anything while you write?

Sometimes! some fics have specific playlists!

23. Do you prefer prompts and challenges, or completely independent ideas?

All of the above! i dont know how to put wips back lol!

24. One-shots or multi-chaptered works?

I like one shots better but the amount of effort for multichapter fics is something else tbh!

25. Have you ever daydreamed about side adventures/spin-offs from your fic? Tell us about them!

Yes a few times brought on by comments! What if Hawks ran in to Dabi early on or if Dabi had stayed and talked to Hawks the last night they spent together. None of it ever really goes well? Dabi has no support besides his Significant Other in both of these and i dont like that.

26. Is there anything you’ve wanted to write, but you’ve been too scared to try?

Nope! Ive been getting the hang of NSFW and i feel like that's one of my biggest areas to improve on!

27. What’s the nicest comment you’ve ever received?

any! seriously i love comments! telling me to write more or that i forgot something was done 6 chapters ago or a string of emoji's!

28. How well do you handle criticism when it comes to your writing?

Much better than I used to!

29. Have you ever gone outside of your comfort zone for a fic? How did it turn out?

Every time i post lol. Im pretty comfortable with a variety of things! there's been times in this roleplay i participate in that i was very uncomfortable with how my character was acting but that was the entire point and it turned out well considering the outrage he kept causing!

30. Tooth-rotting fluff or merciless angst?

Best of both! ive also taken a shine to writing things that out of story context are fluff but in context are horrendous angst!

31. Do you have any OCs? Tell us about them!

Nope! I don't really do Oc's!

32. Summarize a random fic of yours in 10 words or less.

Secret Baby/ River Run- Dabi gets pregnant and runs away. Hawks is the father.

33. Is there anything you wish your audience knew about your writing or writing process?

I've had such a kind fantastic audience but i wish they would pay some more attention sometimes to why i have characters do things the way they do. Hawks leaves Dabi alone? theres a reason for that and the awnser is not to stalk him. even for Dabi's saftey.

34. Copy and paste an excerpt you’re particularly fond of.

Dabi dosen't meet Rumi like expected. He expected to just get taken out by her in a fight one day, if they met at all. Not him cleaning his torn staples in Hawks bathroom after he's been shoved in there, Rumi having interrupted a blowjob and Hawks had roughly shoved him in his bathroom. He couldn't hear much of the conversation going on outside. But what he could made his face burn with embarrassment as he tried to put himself together. The fact that she was also a Hero and Hawks best friend made him nervous. What a great first impression, sucking her best friends dick with a bloody face. -" NOT DATING-" Hawks voice broke through for a moment and then quieted. -"I DON'T GIVE A DAMN IF HE'S A VILLAIN KEIGO, HE WAS JUST GIVING YOU A BLOWJOB THERE IS NO ." There was a loud thump as Rumi was yelling and Dabi let himself flinch here in private. She quieted down soon after she had started yelling. Dabi sat down against the sinks cupboard and rested his head on his knees. Waiting for it to stop and Hawks to kick him out. He wouldn't actually get to meet Rumi as Keigo's, well as Keigo's anything. It was just sex between them on Hawks end anyways. There's stomping towards the door and Dabi scrambles up as he resists the urge to lock the door. To lock himself inside like a child thinking it will save him from Enjis rath. Hawks is.... he's not kind to Dabi, but he's not Enji either. The door opens and Rumi's gaze finds him as he's getting up. He ducks his head and gives a little half hearted wave, not sure what she's doing. Why she's looking at him with a gaze much softer than expected. "Hey. Sorry I walked in on you guys. I'm Rumi. Hawks best friend he's been hiding away from you." "I uh. Um. Dabi? I go by Dabi. I think it's more like I'm just his dirty little secret." He gives a small dry chuckle and a smirk, a tad on the mean side like he did with Keigo. It came out a little to real and he winced. He sounded like a whiny asshole, he thought as he kept his gaze on his bare toes digging into the tile. "Dabi, I doubt Keigo thinks of you like that." Rumi reaches her hand out and Dabi tenses in anticipation of her grabbing him. To harm him maybe? To throw him in cuffs? Out of Keigo's apartment but he has no doubt that he will be there soon enough after Rumi leaves. "Its fine. I'm just a villain he can sleep with ya know?" Rumi gets a determined look in her eye as she draws her hand back, having noticed him tense up. "I'm going to give you my number Dabi. Villains don't any resources and I don't like how Hawks treated you when I walked in. If anything happens, I want you to have a way out. I don't think you've told your friends who your sleeping with. Or you would have teleported out of here." Dabi hands his phone over still in shock to Rumi and she gently takes it. She's still super confident in person but, there's no violence or anger from her. Its... suprising.

35. Ramble about any fic-related thing you want!

Dabi and Hawks can both have issues and have to put in some serious effort to not only see those issues, but work together with them. this has been a PSA.

[televinita]

Library Triage Time!

You might recall that when I have a lot of library items checked out with insufficient time or motivation to get to them in a timely fashion, I make triage posts like this to help me decide how to prioritize. 

1. Bright Island - Mabel L. Robinson

A book I checked out for my mom to reread, after Goodreads' "What Was That Book?" FINALLY helped her figure out what title it was that she had liked so much as a young teenager. She thinks I'd like it too, and I agree with her assessment. I only have a week left, though. It's interlibrary loan, so I can't renew it.

(verdict: LOVE IT)

2-4. DVD: Pirates of the Caribbean 1-3 Because I just saw the fifth movie, which I am gonna flail about hard as soon as I have a chance, and I am down a FREAKING rabbit hole of reinvigorated Will/Elizabeth shipping like nobody’s business and it is time to watch this trilogy again.

(verdict: I watched #1, and then skipped to #4 and now I’ve kind of blown past onto new things)

5. DVD: POTC 4

Because I shunned its lack of Will and/or Elizabeth when it came out and haven't seen it yet, but movie 5 made me realize you can still enjoy a random fun pirate adventure with Captain Jack Sparrow. Or more precisely, it made me long for a random fun pirate adventure where Captain Jack Sparrow is actually entertaining and integral to the plot.

(verdict: oh man. that was just the palate cleanser I needed)

6. The Miseducation of Cameron Post - Emily Danforth

A book I have long wanted to read due to it pinging all my usual interest points in terms of cover, setting, thickness, and general tone/writing style, but known I would not appreciate enough because of my lack of interest in f/f. Recently, however, I decided to fling myself into the Nell/Kensi abyss, and in light of the utter dearth of fic that means I need templates to test them out on. It is this book's Time. Or at least, it was when I checked it out 4 weeks ago, and then I got busy and other books and fandoms jumped in front of it and now I'm not sure if I'm in the right mood anymore.

(verdict: it took me until the very last day of August to finish. But it was beautiful and it was so worth it.)

7. 10 Things I Can See From Here - Carrie Mac

W/R/T the lesbian angle: in June I picked out a quartet of books from our library system that I thought best fit my perception of a possible Nell/Kensi AU. The two I already read were not as good as hoped, and now my brief spike of interest is already fading beneath fresher shipping tides, at least for the time being while NCIS: LA is chilling on hiatus ice and I have hot new shows to fill my brainspace. However, I'm stubborn (I hoarded Girls in the Moon for 8 weeks and 6 days after checking it out, only finishing the day before the renewal limit was reached), and I would like to finish the set if I could.

(verdict: It took 8 weeks and 5 days to start but I read it. I wish I had not.)

8.. DVD: The Intern Definitely no rush to get to this, I just checked it out a couple days after having a "why don't I have any random feel-good movies on hand to watch when I have time to relax at night!!" moment, which I of course have not had since.

(verdict: ran out of time and threw it back unwatched)

9. DVD: The Internship Very like the above. Except lower brow humor, and with dudes.

(verdict: ugh)

10. Coming Unglued - Rebeca Seitz Second book in the Sisters, Ink quartet. I really liked the first one, and although I have a feeling that's going to stay my favorite, I am Determined to finish all four to make sure I don't miss out on anything. No rush though; I just got this.

(verdict: a worthwhile endeavor)

11. Tuck Everlasting - Natalie Babbitt Because while I was looking up the Pirates movies, I saw the Tuck Everlasting movie in the search results (our system pings weird matches), and suddenly it became imperative that I reacquaint myself with the magic of well-written loss. Bonus, it’s short.

(verdict: I LOVE IT WITH MY WHOLE ENTIRE HEART)

12. DVD: Tuck Everlasting And this is a treat for when I finish the book. I remember liking the movie more, not because the book is bad, but just because a) I saw the movie before I got around to reading the original version and it blew me away and b) the added romance features SUCH PRETTY PEOPLE.

(verdict: see above)

13. History of Wolves - Emily Fridlund I saw this at a bookstore in February and thought it looked kind of cool. The request list turned out to be ninety miles long, though, and by the time I finally got to the final 5, I was hella busy. The request list is still long, so I've suspended my request at #1 until I have plenty of time. It looks like it might be an overly literary read -- I mean, just compare it to everything else on this list -- but I am stubborn and still want to try.

(verdict: got bored quickly, skimmed a bit, read some reviews and then threw it back unread)

14. Little Women - Louisa May Alcott You know, if I can EVER IN MY LIFE GET THROUGH ALL THE BOOKS ON MY LIST BEFORE I FIND NEW ONES, this is gonna be such a treat. (I own this book; ergo, zero urgency)

(verdict: alas...the urge to reread is gone again for the time being)

(In further proof I’m out of control: I also have The Middle season 7 checked out for like the fourth time because MAYBE THIS TIME will be the time I can actually push myself past the traumatic triggery second episode and continue on with the series I love), and a random season of Seinfeld so that I can stop being tempted to watch it inefficiently on TV in the afternoons. Because of all the free time I obviously have.)