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abouthoundsandlittlebirds · 3 years ago

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Can you speak more to your Kirin and Kagura theory? Was Kagura sent to the future by Kirinmaru to protect her? If so, how does Riku know jack shit and think Rin is the mom? Or, if he’s purposefully lying to Towa about Rin being her mom, why would he do that? All I know is Riku looks hella sus whenever he’s with Towa, and especially when he mentions Rin.

Sorry for the late answer, anon, I was gathering information for your question. Surely I will share with you what I've thought so far, knowing that this is only an incomplete theory and not a certainty about what may happen in the future of Hanyo no Yashahime.

Since this post will be long and may contain spoilers I will add a cut, so keep reading if you don't mind it.

Recently I came across a theory that Osamu Kirin is one of Kirinmaru's offsprings, being this the reason why Kirinmaru could see the future through Osamu's eyes. Actually this kind of power was introduced to InuYasha OG show through Kanna's mirror and Byakuya's flying eyeball, allowing Naraku to see what they were seeing. We get to know about Osamu and Kirinmaru's connected view in episode 23 of Hanyo no Yashahime, where Osamu is looking at the sky at an airport rooftop(?) and saw the comet that comes to Earth every 470/500 years (conflicted translations in the videos I've watched). Shortly after this scene is over, we can see Kirinmaru also watching the same comet, even if it is only shown in the Reiwa period at that moment.

When I've first watched episode 22 and 23 of Hanyo no Yashahime I didn't give a second thought about those events, however now I recognize that they are VERY important to the storytelling. That is why episode 22 ended with the airport scene and episode 23 began with the continuation of this same scene.

There are three important things to notice with the airport event: The first is the connection between Osamu Kirin and Kirinmaru that I've mentioned above (and I am not the best choice to talk further about it, since it is a theory that belongs to another person); Second, Osamu Kirin thought that the comet could be seen by humans at the Reiwa Era, since as pointed out by Sota, the notice of the comet approaching the Earth's atmosphere is being spread through humans; and, the third one is that Osamu Kirin was actually waiting for somebody at the airport, since in the end of episode 22 he shows surprise to see the Higurashi family over there and chooses to make a comunication with Sota in order to catch information about Towa’s wellbeing and to do remarks about the comet instead of following his way.

Now, rewatching episode 15 that is when we first knew about the comet, Riku tells Kagome that every 500 years the comet approaches the Earth atmosphere and drops some fragments. Those fragments if not stopped by a powerful demon and by Meido Zangetsuha technic which is the only attack that can be used to definitively stop it (this note was stated by Jaken in episode 15 and is very important and the reason why InuYasha was kept alive, since he is the only one who can hold Tetsusaiga and summon it), will bring the age of destruction to Earth, the exact same thing that the Spirit of the Tree of Ages (also known as Treekyo) says that is going to happen in episode 4, planned by Sesshomaru and Kirinmaru. The first because he abdicated his title as Lord of the West and the second because he saw an opportunity in it to do as he wanted. We can see it through Sesshomaru's choice in InuYasha OG show and in the reaction of Kirinmaru when the comet appears in the Feudal Era soon after Sesshomaru's daughters were born.

Sesshomaru as the first born of Inu no Taisho was supposed to have heinreted the role of his late father as the ruler of the youkais of the West, that is why Toga left Tenseiga with the hidden power of Meidou Zangetsuha to Sesshomaru, which was the most powerful attack that Inu no Taisho had (perhaps because he believed that InuYasha wouldn’t survive many years with Kirinmaru hunting half-demons). However, Sesshomaru only released this power when Kagura died. In the episode 3 of InuYasha - The Final Act, Totosai says to Sesshomaru that something grew where Sesshomaru's heart was lacking, that is why Tenseiga reacted to his change of heart and was now ready to recieve the Meidou Zangetsuha. However, later on The Final Act, Sesshomaru gave this power to the Tetsusaiga, InuYasha's heinreted sword that the first born couldn't held, meaning that he couldn’t summon this power anymore even if he wanted. Even if Bakusaiga is a powerful weapon, only the Meidou Zangetsuha is able to fully erase the comet’s fragments, like we saw in episode 15 of Hanyo no Yashahime when InuYasha and Sesshomaru fought against it and in episode 22 where Toga and Kirinmaru destroyed it themselves in the past.

If we pay attention to Kirinmaru's reaction after the comet was destroyed in episode 15 we can see that he wasn't worried about the fragment being destroyed, even if it was his role alongside to Sesshomaru to make sure that the peace on the Earth should prevail. Yet, his place in that fight was taken by Sesshomaru and Sesshomaru's place was taken by InuYasha. Yet, in episode 23 the reaction of Kirinmaru about the comet fragment in Reiwa Era is quite the opposite, whatsoever. Kirinmaru seemed to be worried and angry to have to face the comet and he imediately went to InuKimi's place to know if the wheel of time moved and he even tried to gossip about the intentions of Sesshomaru with Akuru's pinwheel.

Knowing that Kirinmaru's intentions seems to face the comet himself, he needs Meidou Zangetsuha to destroy it in Reiwa Era. This seems to be the reason why he was kind of frustrated to know that Zero had broken Tenseiga. Since Tenseiga was the previous host of that technic, his intentions could be to return Meidou Zangetsuha to Sesshomaru's “useless weapon”, which means that he could get rid of InuYasha at least. However, with Tenseiga being broken and the comet approaching even more the Earth’s surface, he will have no choice but to spare InuYasha once more, and fight alonside with him.

By his actions, even if he put aside his plans of getting rid of half-demons, Kirinmaru is afraid of the prophecy of the Shikon no Tama about his death being true. That is why even if he thought that the Yashahimes were weak he still fought against them for a second time and killed Setsuna in the process. His problem with those girls is that they have Inu no Taisho's blood. The two Lords used to be pretty amiable with each other before Toga took a human as the mother of his second child, after being aware of the prophecy that a being that is neither human nor demon would kill Kirinmaru. Taking this action as a sign of treason in their alliance, Kirinmaru made Toga his enemy and would've fought against him if Inu no Taisho wasn't severely wounded as we saw in episode 21. Also, the events of this episode related to Toga's death would explain why Kirinmaru doesn't trust too much on Riku anymore, since his offspring couldn't arrive on time to save his enemy/friend's life. Riku must have sensed it too, because he went to Zero's side and openly betrayed his master in episode 24.

This lack of trust was the reason why Osamu Kirin was created. Kirinmaru needed a trustful subject. He didn’t trust too much in the Four Perils or in his sister. That is why he used Riku to deliver the medicinal herbs to Toga. It could be seen as a meanless job, yet the inefficiency of doing it had consequences. Riku now is no longer the first choice of Kirinmaru to do errands, meaning that he is indeed a pirate washed ashore like it was written in his introduction chart in episode 7.

We actually don’t know the reason or how longer Kirinmaru was sleeping before being waken up by Zero. What we know is that he lost his will to return to sleep when he knew that Sesshomaru had half-demons daughters and that InuYasha was alive and fathered a shi-hanyo. Soon after he knew this, Sesshomaru was introduced in his presence and offered help to kill InuYasha (thanks to him his brother’s life was spared).

If I may speculate over here, then my guess would be that Kirinmaru fell asleep after he heard that Sesshomaru was hunting InuYasha in order to obtain Tetsusaiga or when he learned that InuYasha was sealed by Kikyo’s sacred arrow. Kirinmaru doesn’t seem to be concerned about all the half-demons around, only with those who carries Inu no Taisho’s blood. We actually know that Zero was hunting half-demons, that is why Kirinmaru went to sleep and left the hard work for her to do. Even if Zero has no longer her powers, she could still get rid of half-demons, since Riku stated in episode 15 that Kirinmaru and Toga were the most powerful demons around 500 years ago, meaning that their bloodline is pretty exquisite.

Returning to the theory, after InuYasha and Kagome were sealed in the black pearl, Sesshomaru became the guardian of Izayoi’s tear. As said in episode 15 by Hosenki II, the black pearl is the only (actually easiest) way to go to Inu no Taisho’s resting place. Without it, Kirinmaru wouldn’t be able to reach InuYasha any longer and curiously Kirinmaru allowed Sesshomaru to become the pearl’s guardian.

Temporarily it should be a solved problem, but 4 years after Sesshomaru’s twins were born something may have happened that led Kirinmaru to doubt about his decision, being Yotsume a crucial proof of it.

When we first see Yotsume disguised as Sokyu in episode 1 of Hanyo no Yashahime, he tells Towa about a story that he heard ten years ago about a priestess called Kagome that time-travelled across the bone-eating-well located in Tokyo and alongside a half-demon called InuYasha she hunted demons. It could be a meanless information, if in the next scene we didn’t see a flashback of him in his original form watching Kagome, which seems to be at least 5 years earlier than the backstory he got to know, since that scene happened in the day that Root-Head attacked Kaede’s village, way before Moroha were born. Here then we have a mismatched speach. This means that even if Yotsume was watching Kagome that day, he didn’t know about her ability of time-travelling. So when Kagome were sealed with InuYasha in the black pearl, Kirinmaru didn’t know about her, since they were sealed soon after Moroha was born, meaning it must be more than 14 years ago.

The main question at this moment should be what happened in the four years after Kagome and InuYasha were sealed that led Yotsume to gather information about the origin of InuYasha’s wife. We can speculate as much as we want about it, but the main fact is that probably Osamu Kirin only time-travelled to the future ten years ago. But why? And how?

Whatever the reason for it, it is related to the forest fire that threw appart the twins and Rin becoming Zero’s shield. For four years Kirinmaru held back Zero, stopping her desire to kill Sesshomaru’s daughter. This action could be a proof of faith that Kirinmaru gave to Sesshomaru. Yet, this faith was broken and he decided to not give anymore protection to the twins’ life.

In episode 24 Zero tells Kirinmaru that the rainbow pearls are her tears and she is able to find it wherever and whenever she wants. It is a controversial saying, because in episode 15 she knew that the white and yellow pearls were with Sesshomaru’s daughters, yet she lost track of them inside the barrier that Jaken had casted soon as they were born. So at that time she wasn’t looking for the girls. And even if she could sense the presence of her tears, she was only able to see the girls when she learned how to use the spell of watching people’s dream/sleep, and this happened four years later, that is why when Homura set fire to the forest the twins weren’t inside a protective barrier as we see in episode 14, that was because Sesshomaru became Kirinmaru’s trusted subject and planned against his fellow. But how?

My guess is that this treason is connected to the black pearl. Something that we cannot see in naked eyes changed in the relationship of Kirinmaru and Sesshomaru. The first glimpse of doubt that Kirinmaru had about Sesshomaru was when Sesshomaru sealed InuYasha inside the black pearl. He didn’t doubt about Sesshomaru’s loyalty when he knew that he had half-demons daughters because they weren’t allies back then. They forged this alliance after Kirinmaru woke up and Sesshomaru offered help to kill InuYasha. And as it seems, it took four years for the trust to be broken.

At this time I’ll insert my Kagura theory.

After Sesshomaru sealed InuYasha and Kagome inside the black pearl, I believe he gave Kagura the pearl and told her to keep it safe. Izayoi’s tear was the assurance that his family would be safe. Yet, when he sensed that his family was in danger (probably after the fire in the woods) he sent Kagura to the future (probably to look after Towa and keep her safe over there, since he wasn’t surprised to know that Towa was alive) and decided to hide Setsuna among half-demons.

It is a fact that Sesshomaru’s daughters are half-demons (strong ones, to be honest), so Riku and Zero presumed that their mother is human even if she was underage, taking the close relationship Sesshomaru had with Rin. But if we recall episode 99 from InuYasha OG, Koga, that is a wolf demon and lives in a demon’s tribe, didn’t find it strange that Sesshomaru was travelling with the child Rin (that was 7/8 years old back then), and even took her as a love interest of Sesshomaru, showing that he knew little about humans and human x yokai interaction, quite different from those who knew about human life, like we see in episode 41 of InuYasha OG when Kagome, Sango and InuYasha showed horror about Koharu, a 13 years old girl that wanted to marry an 18 years old Miroku. Also, Kagura just like Riku and Osamu is only a puppet, an offspring created by the essence of a demon and the power of the Shikon no Tama. Even if she is said to be a demon, no one knows what kind of creature would be the children she had, specially with her creator being a half-demon himself.

Also, in episode 4 of Hanyo no Yashahime, after the Yashahimes met the Spirit of the Tree of Ages and killed Root-Head, Treekyo confronted Sesshomaru and said that his daughters denied her request and if he leaves Rin behind, the girl would never wake up again. Then he walks away from her and she says that it is also a way and perhaps the best choice. If we take Treekyo’s request to the Yashahimes we will know that the best choice she speaks of is related to stopping Kirinmaru from doing what he is aiming for. This means that after Sesshomaru knew that Towa, Setsuna and Moroha were fine, he dropped Rin in the backstage of his plan. For ten years (or even more) he worried about Rin in her sleeping state, however just when he found out that the girls were fine he changed his mind, meaning that something that was supposed to happen did not. Indeed Sesshomaru is still being protective over Rin, he even stopped his search for Akuru’s pinwheel in the moment he found it, to save Zero and Rin’s life as a consequence of the first rescue. However when she broke Tenseiga he didn’t think twice to kill her again, but still keeping a cold face that was hard to read.

I personally believe that when Sesshomaru gave his back to Rin and Treekyo at the end of episode 4, his plan changed and he then began his search for Akuru’s pinwheel that until then wasn’t a thing he was doing. We know that the pinwheel is connected to the wheel of time, so Sesshomaru’s intention is to change time or, perhaps, travel across time.

As we’ve seen in InuYasha OG show, only Kagome and InuYasha were able to time travel using the bone-eating-well. Back then Kagome had the Shikon no Tama (jewel and later fragments) and InuYasha had the black pearl. Then, in Hanyo no Yashahime only Towa, Setsuna and Moroha were able to time travel through the Tree of Ages and each one had a rainbow pearl. Taking those facts as an example, it wouldn’t be too impossible if only those possessing some kind of jewel/tear would be able to use this ability. The other possibility would be the pinwheel of Akuru and perhaps this is the way used by Osamu Kirin to arrive in the Reiwa Era.

Considering the concern that Kirinmaru had about the Wheel of Times moving and Sesshomaru’s search, probably Kirinmaru is hiding something related to the past/future from everyone else, except Osamu Kirin. And he is afraid of this hidden secret being revealed.

Taking Naraku’s arc as an example and how Sunrise is repeating some backstories of InuYasha OG into Hanyo no Yashahime, it wouldn’t be weird if later on Osamu Kirin is revealed as the incarnation of Kirinmaru’s heart, just like Akago was Naraku’s heart. This would explain why Kirinmaru isn’t afraid to face the Yashahime as he was when he heard about their existence. Definitively he is afraid of the prophecy, but he isn’t being cautelous while facing the girls. He showed more concern about the Wheel of Time changing than fighting the Yashahimes after being backstabbed by Riku in the place where the Inu no Taisho’s blood would be stronger. If we go back to InuYasha OG show, we will see the same kind of reaction in Naraku. He would confidently fight against InuGroup whenever his heart was far away and avoyd as much as he could a confrontation when Akago and/or Onigumo were near.

Using the information of Yotsume and the timeline drawn so far, the travel of Osamu Kirin would match with the information gathered about Kagome’s backstory, giving Kirinmaru the false hope that the future is a safe place for his heart to be, meaning that Osamu left him when Kirinmaru had a confirmation of Sesshomaru’s betrayal, almost 10 years ago.

Now, if we return to the airport scene where we see Osamu Kirin looking at the sky in episode 22, we notice that he watches an airplane land and then he glances at the comet for a short time. Then he gives his back to the sky and starts walking away, imitating five people close to him that too started to move away from the rooftop, when he notices Sota with his daughter, Mei, a few steps far from him. He shows surprise and go to Sota, starting a conversation about Towa’s absense from school (and showing no concern about it) and ending with the comet out loud observation.

For me it is a proof that he was waiting for someone to arrive over there. My guess would be Kagura. Also, when we see Osamu Kirin in the classroom in episode 4, he tells Towa to pay attention to the lesson, otherwise she will miss the context, and then he tells her to read the sentence in page 23 that says: “I am going to visit Kyoto”.

It could’ve been an Easter Egg, because in episode 23 he is actually waiting someone at the airport that probably is coming from Kyoto, because Kyoto is a prefecture located in the Kansai region, and Kansai according to the research I did is located in the West region of Japan, that in the Hanyo no Yashahime is a land that belongs to Sesshomaru (Lord of the West), meaning that the person/creature that is arriving in that airport is somehow connected to Sesshomaru and seeing that Jaken, Rin, Towa and Setsuna are in the Feudal Era and A-Un wouldn’t fit into a plane, it can only be Kagura.

To finish this theory that is already long enough and explain how Kagura and Osamu Kirin are connected, I must speculate even more and say that this connection happened because neither Kagura nor Osamu knew the backstory of each other and they might have taken interest for each other as an equal (two incarnations/demons). Also, probably the forest that Towa said that she grew up in episode 21 is located in the West, that is why Kagura was in that place and visits Tokyo, because Tokyo is where Kaede’s Village is located in the Feudal Era. My guess would be that using Towa’s age as a guide, she is looking for her daughter in high schools. Osamu Kirin being Towa’s teacher could’ve contacted her and is waiting her at the airport since he was the one that summoned Kagura over there. However, I believe that he is using Towa as a bait.

With Kirinmaru watching everything that Osamu is doing/seeing, he is quite aware of the fact that the comet is arriving in the Reiwa Era and also knew how Towa looked like before meeting her in person. Now, knowing that someone in the Reiwa Era that is not her family (the Higurashi) is looking for her, Kirinmaru is curious enough to see who this person could be since she is probably connected to Sesshomaru and if he can’t use her as a bait to hold Sesshomaru back, then he imagines that she is hiding something that would be useful to him.

As I said before, this is only a theory/speculation that I did using the anime info (and my imagination) to elaborate. All the real events I have tagged the place it came from (the episodes number) and gave them my interpretation. Those events without the official reference tagged should not be taken as a reliable source.

I thank you so much anon for this ask, it made me really happy to be able to share my thoughts with you! Again, sorry for my late answer and be free to say whatever you want, it would be a pleasure to answer you back!

P.S.: Sorry for the typos, I don't use Google Translator and my English ain't that good.

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peigslayers · 4 years ago

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Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Archive Warning: Major Character Death Characters: Sam Winchester, Mary Winchester, John Winchester Additional Tags: Episode: s01e01 Pilot, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Dead Mary Winchester, Character Turned Into a Ghost, Banshees, Celtic Mythology & Folklore,Fire,Pre-Stanford Era (Supernatural), look fair warning there's a description of mary winchester dying in this fic so keep that in mind!, ghost mary who haunts her family, is something i hold very dear to my heart, also this started as a tumblr post but i have not got the strength to go looking for it on my blog,just know that it was basically just an outline of this, also finally i write something where sam actually gets to feature, bean sí is just the irish for banshee btw its pronounced the same

As the moon at midnight moves through the starry sky Out there in the bog land the Banshee's shrill cry The one seldom heard and that human eyes cannot see Some say the ghost of one who died in agony.

- The Cry Of The Banshee By: Francis Duggan.

For the Prompt: AU on Day 2 of @spnwomenweek

Fire. She is burning and it is pain like she has never felt. Her body is not her own, it is stiff, unable to even react to the agony. Strapped to the ceiling. The smell of her own burning flesh overpowers her. The pain from the wound in her stomach pales in comparison to the feeling of eyeballs boiling in her skull and the skin sloughing off her bones.

She should have known. Hunting is a black hole - an inexorable votex. How could she have ever thought she could escape? Even as her nerve endings fry and her limbs screech in agony, she finds it within herself to hope that at least her family might survive her.

The pain fades away, exceeding the limits of human comprehension. A single-minded purpose takes its place in her consciousness. Her sacrifice will be worth it if it protects her family, if her two beautiful boys never live the life that she has. The deal is done, the demon should have no more business with her family. In her death she can make sure they are safe.

The last thing Mary sees is the horror on John’s face.

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There has always been a ghost in Sam’s life. A woman who exists in the corner of his eyes and flickers when he shakes his head. Her haunting screams are as familiar to him as led zeppelin tapes crackling through the car radio. Together they form the soundtrack of his childhood.

She is pale. Completely washed of colour. Limp grey hair frames her wan face and there’s a suspicious darkness that stains the front of her long white nightgown.

When he was younger he couldn’t understand her erratic and ever changing moods. She seems to flip between disinterested floating to terrified wails between breaths and he can find no rhyme or reason.

Sam would ask his brother if he knew the reason but Dean cannot see her. No one can. He tried to tell Dean - once - after the woman kept him from sleeping for eight hours straight with screams. The response kept him from ever bringing her up again. Shut up Sammy. There’s no one there. You’re imagining things. Don’t tell dad. I mean it Sammy. Keep your mouth shut.

Eventually Sam finds a pattern for himself. His teachers always tell him that he’s clever. She only ever appears when his father is gone on one of his trips.

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

When Dean finally caves and tells him about the monsters, Sam finally understands the insistence on keeping the woman a secret from their dad. As a ghost she is a part of the supernatural that his father fights.

And since Sam is the only one that can see her then that means - What does it mean?

As soon as the library opens again after the holidays he’s straight in the door and into the folklore section. He needs to understand what (who) this spectre is. After hours of research, there is only one real conclusion to be made. She must be a banshee. A death omen.

Armed with the truth of his dad’s trips, he makes the inevitable connection. She is a banshee and she screams when Sam’s dad is gone. And yet his dad is not yet dead. She has to be screaming for the monsters at the other end of the knife.

An uncomfortable thought drifts into view. If she screams for monsters and he's the only one who can hear her then does that mean that-? No. He slams the book closed and shoves his pile haphazardly back onto the shelf. Dean is expecting home in an hour.

But even as these fevered thoughts rattle through Sam’s brain on the walk home, he still never connects this woman to the other ghost that haunts their family. Mother Mary. Patron Saint of the Winchesters. The spectre that pushes all of them forward on this reckless self-destructive odyssey of vengeance.

She is so changed after death as to be unrecognisable even to one raised on her legend.

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

Sam is relentless now. He sneaks off to study whenever he gets a minute to himself between hunting, training and research. No time to sleep - he just reads. Textbook after textbook until all he sees are diagrams and his dreams are drafted in legalese. Over dinner he scrawls as many practice essays as he can for his final exams and attempts to ignore the sniping from his dad

It’s a struggle to keep his grades up as he moves from school to school across state lines and curriculums and sometimes it’s all Sam can do not to cry. He knows his dad is annoyed that he hasn’t dropped out yet. Like Dean. That he wants a high-school diploma and not just a GED.

Sam doesn’t care. The banshee appears more often to him now. She stands in his line of sight and blocks his view of his family when they hunt. She screams and screams and drowns out all of his doubts. God only knows how his eardrums remain intact.

He knows more now than he did on that first day in the library. Has been on a million hunts. With enough time and research he could probably find her bones and shut her up for good. Salt and Burn. He never does. She is a reminder of all he wants to escape. An omen his dad cannot tell him to ignore.

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Sam sits on the edge of his bed with his law school acceptance letter in his hands. He’d picked it up from the post office earlier that day. Compulsively, he smoothes the creases over and over again, listening with half an ear to his family clattering around downstairs.

This is a good day. Dad is cheerful. The case had been a simple one - a poltergeist - easy to get rid off. Another suburban home rid of the monster. Dean is happy too. He’s been talking all day about the steaks he’d picked up in the bargain section of the supermarket. Now they can have a small celebration before moving out to a new town.

Sam looks down at the letter and knows that he won’t be going with them.

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

The fight is world-ending. Of cataclysmic proportions. Sam’s never seen his dad so angry in his life.

He sits on the lonely greyhound bus to California, his only possessions in the bag he’s clutching to his chest. His lungs are still burning, hours after the argument and he can’t tell whether it’s anger or choked back tears or if it even matters.

But even here, alone on the bus, his clearest memory is that of blessed silence as he walked out the door. The woman standing stock still in his path.

She made no sound.

Instead. For the first and only time that he can remember. She smiled.

#spnwomenweek #spn #fic #mary winchester #wrote this in a fugue state this afternoon #so there may be typos sorry

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spevonnie · 4 years ago

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Everybody has bad days. A day where you wake up, and you don't know why, but something is just off. You don't feel like getting out of bed, you don't feel like making or eating breakfast, you don't feel like going to work, but you suck it up and deal with it--Only some people can't.

Steven had woken up Saturday morning, luckily a day he and his flatmate slash girlfriend Connie both had off work, with a heavy, slimy ball of despair banging around his torso, his chest tight and a thick layer of gloom and guilt coating his throat. He lay on his side of the twin sized bed they shared, blankets tangled and askew as one leg and one arm hung off, his face smushed against his pillows, staring at the wall. He was awake unusally early, probably due to a nightmare he didn't remember, and he decided he had no intention, nor energy, to get out of bed that day. He felt Connie stir beside him, stretching out a bit, and she yawned and scooted closer to him, hugging him from behind as she wormed an arm under his rib cage and lay her head against his back.

"Mmmm....Good morning." She mumbled softly, waking up.

Steven, not wanting to alarm her and knowing she would try and get him out of bed because it was 'good for him' ow whatever, pretended to be asleep.

"Steven," Connie said, fingers scrambling sleepily at the little words on the chest of his shirt. "I know you're awake, I can tell by the way you're breathing."

Steven sighed. "That's impossible,"

"Well obviously not."

He didn't answer. Even his lips felt heavy, like it took an enormous amount of energy and motivation to speak.

"Steven?" Connie began, lifting her head so she could look at him. "Are you alright?"

"Yeah!" He mustered. "I'm fine."

She peered at him. "Bull. I'm gonna go make coffee, I'll even put that ridiculous amount of creamer you use in. Does that sound good?"

"I don't want any..."

Connie frowned. "Would you like me to make you breakfast?" She rubbed his back in slow circles. "Anything you'd like, I can even do those egg, mozzarella, sausage, and mushroom quesadillas."

"No thanks." He mumbled.

"Steeeeveeen..."

He didn't respond.

"Okay, well I'm gonna go get myself coffee and breakfast, okay? I'll come check on you." She kissed his cheek and left the half-walled room, making her way to the little kitchenette.

Steven remained in the same position, and she noticed with a deepening frown as she checked on him after breakfast, after her run, after her shower.

After her shower was when she finally drew the line. "Steven, you're isolating," She frowned. "Come on, come get out of bed and do something with me. It's almost noon." She walked over and crouched by his face so he was looking at her, taking his hand gently. "You wanna cook with me?"

He looked at her. "Can we make zucchini bread?"

Connie was a little but surprised at his response, but she smiled. "Zucchini bread? Yeah, sure! C'mon, sit up."

He nodded and sat up, stretching a bit and yawning. "Kiss me?" He asked her as he stood.

She smiled and stood on her tiptoes the slightest bit, giving Steven a little peck on the lips, making a playful stink-face at him as she pulled back. "Brush your teeth,"

He snorted and nodded, going to brush his teeth.

A few moments later, Steven and Connie were washing their hands in the kitchen sink.

"Okay, so," Connie began excitedly "I didn't know if you had a recipe in mind, butI was thinking maybe we could look for one that has-"

"I don't need a recipe," He shook his head.

"What? Steven, no," She giggled.

"Yeah! I made this all the time, we can do it."

"Okay, whatever you say." She said skeptically, but she smiled.

He gathered what he thought the ingredients were, and she began grating the zucchini.

"How much of this do we need?"

"Umm..." He began. "L-Like three cups?"

"Oh boy," She muttered playfully to herself as she shook her head at him, grating more.

He was mixing together their dry ingredients, and in Connie's opinion, he was spending way too much time switching between measuring tools before he actually used each one. She finally managed three cups of shredded zucchini and came to help with the wet ingredients.

"How many eggs?"

"Err...three..."

She gave a small laugh. "Steven," She said with a smile, hip bumping him gently. "I'm hearing an awful lot of hesitant threes. Are you sure you know the recipe?"

"Yes! Yeah, of course!" He grinned. "you just don't know how any of this works, you're too busy genius-ing or whatever."

She giggled as she cracked three eggs into the bowl. He turned around, hands on his hips and powdered ingredients all on his pajamas, scanning the room. She watched him, smiling a bit, seeing his eyes light up a bit as he found what he was looking for, a whisk he'd left on the counter. He brought it over and poured some milk into the bowl, eyeballing it and whisking. She pulled the zucchini over and they mixed it into thw wet ingredients, combining it with the dry. They poured it into their greased pan, and Steven popped it in the oven, setting a timer.

"Okay, you wanna come watch that one episode I've been telling you about all week?" She asked, poking his cheek with hands on his shoulders.

"Yeah, okay," He shrugged and took her hand, her free hand reaching to dust him off. He blushed and they cuddled on their little loveseat.

Some time later, Connie got up to pull it out of the oven, making a face.

"What?"

"What, 'what'?" She asked

"You're making your oh-no face." Steven said.

"Er--It's nothing, I'm sure it'll be fine." She smiled.

"Connie, that's like the least effective way to assure someone," He smiled, shaking his head as he walked over on his toes a bit.

"PFFFT OH NO!" He laughed, blushing and covering his face a bit. "How-How did I mess it up this badly?" He asked, frowning at the sloppy, deformed lump on the cooling rack.

"Steven, I'm sure it's fine, it probably tastes delicious." She said, breaking a piece off and blowing on it for a second. She popped ut in her mouth, waving the heat off and beginning to chew. "See? It's--" She made a face and spit it into the sink.

Steven groaned and covered his face again. "Oh no, I wasted our groceries and your time, I-"

"No you didn't!" She smiled. "Okay, the zucchini, a little bit, but we weren't gonna use that anyway I bet. Steven, of course you didn't waste my time. You think I pulled you out here because I wanted some picture-perfect baked good?"

"Well--Well, yeah," Steven admitted, shrugging as he blushed a bit, rubbing the back of his neck.

She smiled and shook her head, reaching up and hooking her hands together behind his neck. "Honey, I brought you out here so you'd get out of bed and spend time with me. I couldn't care less if you made gourmet or garbage, I just wanted you to take care of yourself and let me take care of you." She said, blushing a bit.

He was a little pink as he nodded. He kissed the tip of her nose. "Well thank you..."

She smacked his shoulder playfully. "No thank-you's! This is just what you get when you have my love. You wanna go see if we can get some donuts?"

He smiled and nodded. "But I'm paying-"

"Not if I get my wallet first!"

They laughed as they stumbled over each other in their scramble to get their wallets and to the one set of car keys hanging by the door, and Steven felt a bit better in that instant--Not cured, and it was still a rough day, but he knew he had someone on his side.

#sorry again 😎#steven universe #steven universe future #su #connverse #connie maheswaran #stevonnie #steven quartz universe #depressed steven #baking #otp prompts #my writing

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steve0discusses · 5 years ago

Text

Yugioh S4 Ep 24: Someone Actually Called the Cops.

So recently I was like, “I should do something different than my usual” and I decided to open up a little thread for critiquing ppl’s short stories, and I kid you not, the very first story I got was someone’s Seto Kaiba erotica. Which, even in erotica form, did not have very much romance in it. So, now that Yugioh will apparently haunt my every waking move forever until I die, lets get back to S4. Lets desperately get back to canon. I miss canon.

Last we left off, Kaiba lost KaibaCorp...again. Really feels like he loses this company once every couple of years (weeks if we count season 1-3). Except, this time, Dartz didn’t read the fine print in the legal files that says the company must be run by a member of the Kaiba family. While that was a huge plot point with Pegasus, turns out that Seto and Mokuba’s memories have been blended so thoroughly, like a very fine Shadow Realm smoothie, that they just...forgot.

And like I’m positive that Roland remembers, but Roland’s not gonna say something and accidentally reveal he’s the 4th Kaiba brother and have to get abducted all the time and actually work for a living. Anyways, they forgot why Pegasus abducted them in the first place in Season 1, and honestly, so did the writers of this season 4 years later. Not like it mattered, because if Seto and Mokuba did take Dartz to court, the world would end before their case would even start.

Which is how, after one talk with Roland, Seto and Mokuba just sort of laid prone on the metaphorical ground and let it wash over them that yes, KaibaCorp is gone.

I really like this extra-long helicopter, PS.

Both members of Kaiba’s Sunglasses Army decided to align themselves with Kaiba, although honestly, I don’t think anyone else in this company has realized that they’ve been bought. It happened...1 hour ago. Like what do you even do if your company randomly gets bought in the middle of a workday? Like no lead up, no indication, just BAM you’ve been bought?

And if Duke works for Pegasus who got bought out by Dartz and then Dartz bought Kaiba Corp-------What does that make Duke? Is he gonna have to start wearing sunglasses inside?

Anyway, Roland knows better than to tell Seto Kaiba he doesn’t work for him anymore while still in the same helicopter as Seto Kaiba, who already crashed one plane today and will crash yet another plane before this episode is through.

(read more under the cut)

Seto decides to align with Yugi since he needs to confront Dartz eventually. Which is when we find out that Seto always planned to align with Yugi and was just giving him a really hard time.

Because over the last several episodes, Seto has had an entire team at this random museum in Florida in order to take some pictures (that really should have already been on the internet but wtv, it was 2003 so maybe it wasn’t?)

It’s like most of the way through s4 and the biker ninjas still send me. How did he make SO MANY biker ninjas? At what point was Dartz like...and now...all my mooks...will be ninja bikers. Or orcs. Mostly Ninja bikers.

Did Alister or the others ever tell him “hey, Master Dartz, I get that your 10000 years old but like...do you not understand what a biker is?” and was Dartz like

“clearly bikers are the most evil thing in the world, obviously.” completely unaware that most bikers are just 45 year old accountants.

In these scenes we also get a gander at their laptops and, if you ever want to see high level life crippling OCD anxiety in picture form, it’s illustrated very clearly right here:

Not only did they draw this keyboard in 1 pt perspective, they used like a ruler to draw all those letters so they were the same size. Some artist put so much time getting this nice and crisp and smooth...and then this happened.

And I’m pretty sure they died after that. I’m pretty sure this scene killed an artist.

It’s at this point that Yami kinda puts two and two together and was like “WE BOUGHT PLANE TICKET’S, YOU ASSHOLES.”

(It’s been such a long time since we’ve seen Mokuba smile like this, and it’s because he’s been hiding the fact for So Many Episodes that he and his brother prepped like hours ago to get this huge dunk on the rest of the party. He just wants to dunk on them so bad. Look at him. His company was bought today. BUT he gets to spend time with his bro dunking.)

Serious question, will Delta refund your flight if the Great Leviathan appears in the sky and tries to eat your soul to reboot the world from the ground up?

Of course not. They will never refund your flight. Trick question.

We switch back over to Rebecca and Duke, who have been absent from this show for so long, I actually forgot what Duke’s name was and had to think for like...5 entire minutes until I remembered that his nickname sounds like a poop and I was like “oh man, what name of poop would it be???” and then I recalled “Dookie. Yes. His name is literally Dookie. Wow that took way too long!”

Then we start a story arc I’d to call “My Kingdom For a Sharpen Filter” where, much like King Lear, the Yugi crew splays themselves on a battle field just strewn with different ways to sharpen an image, but can’t for the life of them use any other one, but the one deep in the heart of what is now DartzCorp.

And so yes, we are going to fly to San Fransisco, hop into ye Olde KaibaCorp, and log into proto-Noah in order to read a language that Arthur Hawkins can already read.

This is nonsense, but they put it there because it’s something to do. And honestly, it’s not a card game, so I’m down for this change-up. Lets go visit a version of Noah’s brain. At least they won’t drop an orichalcos for the 12th episode in a row.

On the way, Seto decides to try and egg on Yugi.

This backfires as you expect it will because Yami doesn’t freakin care. Like he’s not Yugi, he doesn’t care who the King of Games is, he harnesses freakin Dark Magic. The Wizard never cares if he’s King Arthur or not, and in fact, he probably prefers it....

..................Except in that spinoff where they had Yugi as a reincarnation of King Henry VII.

...................................................never mind.

And then Seto Kaiba says this actual line and I just...

WH.

WHHH

WHAT?

This entire show is just watching Yugi desperately cling to his scary ass hobbies. The tagline of Yugioh is “1001 reasons to go back to school and get a real job.”

What does Kaiba think Yugi does when he’s not around? Does he actually think Yugi attends school or sleeps at night or works an actual job? Like...he thinks Yugi has...NO HOBBIES.

Very interesting insight into what Seto considers a hobby and not hobby.

Especially since this Yami, who spends most of his spare time farting around his scary ass brain castle and getting lost. Occasionally he is forced on a date with Tea and wipes minds. That’s it. That’s all the things Yami does outside of hobbies.

Anyway, what is Dartz doing during all of this?

After this, Dartz pulls back the literal curtains on this room to reveal these candles that each hold the soul of someone he’s murdered.

There are not NEARLY enough candles for this segment.

A very brave man to have candles littered on the floor when his hair is down to his ass and all of his mooks have floorduster coats.

I really want to know what the local arts and crafts store thought when Dartz strode in there and bought every single tiny styrafoam skull during the Halloween sale and was like “can I put souls in these? You sell the kind I can put souls in, right?” and then immediately pulled out like a dozen 50% off coupons like a complete asshole.

Anyway, using this candle hocus pocus, Dartz uses the Orichalcos powers to take advantage of something Yugi did in the first episode. We distantly recall there was a giant eyeball in the sky--turns out if you bust up the eyeball with, lets say, a card that has a dragon on it, the eyeball will explode into many tiny Orichalcos pieces that will fall all over planet Earth.

So apparently Yugi didn’t save anyone at all when he busted that eyeball, because he instead set in motion Dartz’ evil plan to eventually use these many tiny Orichalcos pieces like the one seen here, to kill the hell out of people.

Good job, Yugi. Too bad you missed the Actual Bakura.

In fact, actual Bakura is probably the only one who survived this incident because I guarantee that Ryou Bakura is too busy eating all the contents of his fridge out of stress. He’s probably opened his window at this point, seen the crazy lights in the sky and in the street and was like “Blooooooody nope nopenopenopenopenope” and just locked the windows and doors, turned up Hercule Poirot to max volume, and stuffed his face with cookies.

(Or biscuits, I guess.)

WELL.

I don’t know how to tally that.

Yugioh not only broke the tally I was using to measure the distance they spent commuting this season, it also broke the tally on the amount of people who have died on this children’s show.

That’s a really big number.

We’ve had real duel monsters for a couple weeks but youknow...this time they’re extra, extra, extra real. More so than the last times. Also they’re all Orichalcos versions of their cards so their extra edge now. They’re the hot topic versions of what were already pretty hot-topic ass cards.

MMM. We come full circle, back at a dock, a warehouse, and some huge ass boat.

Right where we belong. Where all friends meet, where we can all finally be one.

Yugioh found one of the only cities that has a very famous and tourist heavy pier/warehouse district in it just so the Yugi gang could finally feel comfortable in their natural habitat. HOWEVER, there’s just one tiny problem in this scene, and it’s that it’s not overlaid with the actual soundscape of a SF pier, which is that of 100000 screaming seals

youtube

I don’t have a seal problem, you have a seal problem.

Anyway, the only healthy adults here attempt to follow the children into danger but someone on the animation team was like “we just lost the keyboard drawing guy to that capslock! We cannot lose any more interns to a crowd scene with 9 people in it and 2 dead bodies!” and they uh...

And we immediately eject Roland and whoever that weird sunglasses guy is out of the script. Mokuba gave them a longing glance as they helicoptered away. Maybe because he missed his Dad stand-ins that he went through such efforts to call in the first place. Or more likely, because Mokuba would have preferred to be on that helicopter and far away from whatever the hell is going to go down on this dock.

Honestly the rest of Joey’s storyline this episode is him going rogue because of Mai rage, and it both comes out of nowhere and also seems very on point for him.

Meanwhile, Rebecca’s unbridled rage towards Yami Muto is still low key hilarious to me.

Witness the only character here who thinks Yami should suffer actual consequences and witness Yami just appear to not give a single damn about it.

Nearly spat out my own drink watching this.

The...

...police...

...exist in this universe?

Anyway, while Tristan and Tea try to locate a payphone to dial 911, Seto and Yugi decide to invade Seto’s own company by going through an elevator that you have to reach through the sewers.

Straight up I don’t think SF even has sewers. At least, not in the sense that you can walk in em like New York or Paris or other cities that have sewers. Our sewer systems are very small cuz we got something called “liquefaction” which means our ground is so soft (and artificial--a lot of the land is fake), that when there is an earthquake, certain parts of the city will...liquefy. It’s Terrifying. We kind of...avoid going and building underground except in certain stable places. (like even BART gives me the heebies.)

I just have a very strong distrust of basements, caves and other underground places in general and it’s not because of spiders, or ghosts or whatever, I’m just afraid of faultlines. It’s like having an active volcano, but you just don’t see it, and we haven’t had a Big One since 1989 so...any day now (I mean, 2020 has been such redic content, that I think we’re finally ready)

Again, Japan has way more intense Earthquakes than we do, and yet they have a billion underground subways and very, very tall buildings, so like, this is mostly a big cultural difference between the two of us. And the bedrock. They probably have better bedrock than we do (honestly, I just have no idea).

MASTER HACKER SKILLS.

Almost as good as that time he hacked into Pegasus’ company by dropping a satellite on it. I’m starting to think Seto actually doesn’t know how to use a computer.

Anyway, Seto is faced with...real cards, real monsters, indisputable evidence, and he decides, it’s time. It’s time to finally face facts.

So, while these two are just flinging cards around willy nilly, Tea and Tristan are ...actually talking to police.

4 seasons. They’re actually doing it.

Although, TBH, they probably should have gone to the Japanese Embassy first? Just throwing that out there.

Ah Yugioh, the only kids show around that tells you point blank not to trust cops. Timeless.

U.S

In some weird underground earthquake hazard, Rebecca proves that she is smarter than Seto Kaiba. She’s maybe even the smartest person on this show. Nice that we gave her nothing to do this season but pine over Yugi who is already taken by Tea who he is also not even dating.

Not that I love Rebecca or anything, I actually have a hard time with her voice, but like...they really dropped the ball on Rebecca.

If she does end up joining Kaiba corp as their back up Felicity Smoak while Seto just runs around aimlessly punching stuff that really is just offbrand Arrow but with cards. And with slightly less resurrections.

So, lets get a gander at that computer.

We didn’t get to see Kaiba pull out 12 other discs to complete the installation process for these all these Hard Discs. Maybe the lure of throwing a very aerodynamic CD across the room like a paper card was so strong that his dev team forced him to switch to these defunct squares?

PS, I am a true millennial, OK? But, I don’t remember Hard Discs.

Hard Discs were SO long go. I stopped using these damn things in Elementary school. The last Hard Disc I ever touched was in college, when I had to put my art portfolio on a disc to submit it to my degree. I don't know even why. Everyone had a mac, so I knew no one’s computer in the department even...HAD a disc drive so it was like...whomst among you has this damn computer from 1997? Whomst among you is still using Windows 95? WHY would I put IMAGES on a floppy when I can just email them to you?

Anyway, I had to get a USB hard disc reader, and to get that reader, I had to call my Dad who had legacy software because he’s a computer engineer, and he had to mail it to me.

In that same portfolio review, PS, I also had to submit my portfolio as slides.

I didn’t even know where to produce slides so I had to ask all these old people and go to the last photo processing store on earth to get digital pictures turned into negatives and then turned into freakin slides.

SLIDES.

I honestly think they just did that to weed people out of the art degree.

Anyway, I tell you this story just to say that there is no way in hell that Kaiba was using a hard disc during the height of the CD era. We were CD or go home since 2000. We had pretty decent jump drives at this point. We had wifi. It was realllly bad wifi, but we had it. Your phone could connect to the internet. It would charge you 50 bucks, but it COULD connect.

Who on the Yugioh team DID this?

Anyway lets see these pictures that for which, we spent thousands of dollars in unused plane tickets, destroyed a Caltrain, killed 2 ancient Atlanteans (and their dog), killed 3 random mid-villains, walked across the entire Peninsula, crashed an international plane, and left both the plane and the train to rot gas fuel into the nearest lake which is right next to a ghost graveyard?

Yeaaaaaaaaaah!

Like he reads it and is all “They’re gonna resurrect Atlantis” and it’s like WE KNOW. Dartz and his hooligans have talked about starting their Utopia to reboot the world since Gurimo. Since Day 1.

Man.

Anyways, there was one plus to the pictures, and it was that Seto Kaiba recognized the Oricalchos logo.

just...

The Oricalchos logo is...

...This logo, Seto?

You...didn’t recognize...seriously? Not until just now? You have been inside of this logo, rearing to lose your soul to Alister 2 times, and he only recognized it...just now.

I mean Seto takes a while y’all. He’s a genius, but his memory is so, so bad, that he will Eventually get smart, but you have to wait until like episode 24. But he’ll get there. Just gotta be patient.

And, when he saw it, he wigged out in a way I wasn’t prepared for.

Y’all I feel like I’ve seen to many weird zooms on Kaiba’s crotch in this show. Or just in life in general, especially after that surprise fic. That’s all.

I don’t know why everything exploded, but maybe the logo is cursed in the same way as God Cards? I dunno.

Anyway, this is when Dartz shows up with his brand new dog.

So they run outside onto the roof.

Now listen, does every Kaiba Corp building need the same weird ass roof? Is it like a McDonalds?

Because I’m just picturing this type of roof in SF and I’m having a time.

Forgive me if I made this lemming joke already. He’s just stood on a cliff’s edge so many times I can’t keep up.

RIP Dragon Jet, who took us from S3-S4, you’ll always live on in our memory, you glorious, wasteful, beautiful death trap.

Seto and Yugi are fine by the way, they just kinda jumped out, as you do when you’re an immortal god possessing a small boy and a...whatever the hell Seto is.

It’s at this point we reintroduce Valon because Joey went rogue and has decided to take on Dartz by himself. This is what happens when Tristan leaves the party. You always need Tristan to hold back Joey by his armpits to keep him from fighting random people.

So I guess Valon’s gonna die next episode. That’ll be nice.

What’s great about this show is each arc is just watching each villain die. You know they’ll die. But...how much?

Anyway, that’s all for today. I’m still drawing a hell ton of stuff so I don’t know when the next update will be...but just now I haven’t dropped off or something. I’ll...eventually get to it.

And if you just got here, this is a link to read all of these in chrono order.

Anyway, I mentioned Hercule Poirot, (because watching a hell ton of BBC was how I spent time with my family when I was a kid, and my very Southern Grandma freakin LOVED Hercule Poirot) So here is the best subplot of that show, which is David Suchet eating stuff.

And which doesn’t want to embed for some reason. Probs can’t embed more than one video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=17antzzJrzQ

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jackbabewang · 5 years ago

Text

Chapter 2 — Bad habits

Word count ‧ 3,730

Chapter summary ‧ You must be out of your mind to think that he actually cared.

Masterlist

You finally got your eyes to cooperate to stay open and looked up to see a silhouette of a man in very close proximity with you. Your heart leaped to your throat, suddenly remembered that you were in Yoonoh’s room.

“Jung… Yoonoh,” you said his name in a faltering and trembling voice. You dared not to move and stared dumbly at him. The touch of his hand on your bare skin sent streaks of fire racing up and down your body.

He seemed to hear your voice then his movements came to a complete stop. You felt his breath warm on your neck, heard his heavy breathing in your ear.

“Keep going, or not?” he asked, his voice deeper than before, huskier, and filled with unspoken desire.

Your nervous system shut down, but quickly came to life in a rush of heat. Your knees trembled and your stomach clenched. Your breath was uneven when your lips parted as if to say something, but nothing came out. It was intense and then suddenly he pulled back and lifted the blanket and made his way to the bathroom in the darkness.

You had no idea what time it was when you woke up last night, but it was an absolute certainty that your eyes were wide smack open till the next morning. And after Yoonoh went into the bathroom, he had been out of his room since. Where did he go?

You dilly-dallied, slipped out of bed, padded to the bathroom and damn—your head was swimming with dizziness along with pounding from the two or three hours of sleep. You stood before the mirror, you could see the stark evidence of the episode from the night before—that your pyjamas looked a bit crumpled. You had no idea how you were going to face him any later.

It was still early in the morning, not quite seven, your parents had not gotten up yet. All your clothes were in that room and you were afraid that you could not get in there at the moment. You remembered you had clothes hung outside that you washed yesterday and so you went downstairs to get a fresh set of clothes.

Chop, chop, chop. Slice, slice, slice. The sound of the knife cutting through and landing against the wooden board drew you into the doorway, onto the threshold of the kitchen. Assuming your mother had woken up rather early. You opened your mouth—to call out “mom”—but the word was suddenly stuck in your throat as soon as you came eyeball-to-eyeball with the last person you wanted to see just then. You jolted with the shock and spun on your heels preparing to sprint away.

“Come here.”

The second after you whirled, Yoonoh called out to you faintly. Did he not feel awkward at all?

Right, it was him who took advantage of you, how could he possibly feel awkward about it.

Reluctantly you turned back around, somehow keeping your face perfectly calm. “My! You’re up early today.”

He brought some thinly sliced spring onion into a small bowl, without any expression on his face he echoed, “When was I never earlier than you?”

Pfft! Only very slight bit, what’s there to be hoity-toity about?

“Wash your hands.” He commanded.

“What for?”

He did not answer but turned around to continue what he had been doing without giving a damn on you. On instinct you rolled your eyes and padded to the sink. You ran the water and held your hands under the stream, rubbing palm to palm as an indication whatsoever before turning off the faucet. Yoonoh swiveled his head rather abruptly and stared at your hands, “Wash with soap.”

It’s not like you’re a kid anymore, so what’s with the soap? Killing bacteria? You grumbled internally but not wanting to waste time and energy bickering over petty things so you had it his way and washed your hands once again with an antibacterial soap.

As you dried your hands with soft strokes of the towel, Yoonoh pointed to one, two, three and four eggs in the basket then said, “Peel the eggs.”

After all that fuss made about hygiene, was it his germophobia acting up then? Only just peeling eggs and you thought he wanted you to knead a dough instead.

You obliged without uttering a syllable and with every murky shell that peeled off you felt your cheeks grew warmer.

That… bared in its all glory… last night you shared a bed with someone as equally au naturel, and…

Stop, stop!

You became even more flushed than a minute ago, with bright red spots appearing on your cheeks. Yet Yoonoh noticed every detail with his sharpness as Hawkeye’s, giving no quarter that he pointed out, “What’s with your face matching the colour of pig’s blood early in the morning?”

He could’ve gone further exaggerating the metaphoricity; it would not hurt any less either way.

Noticing your silence, he seasoned his remark with malice, “Or, you’re shy about what happened last night?”

“Hmph,” he smirked, without another word he spun around and poured a little olive oil in the pan.

Pervert.

You did not want him to see your face, your embarrassed reaction to his comment so you could only turn your back to him as well and not pick an argument with him.

After breakfast, your parents had to catch the return flight back to Ulsan and so Yoonoh drove them to the airport. In wishing you goodbye, your mother held onto your hands, and over and over she was only concerned about Yoonoh that you might not take good care of him, leaving him to starve or freeze or wither up at leisure.

You were certain the woman standing before you was, indeed, not your biological mother.

Until your parents had settled in at the boarding gate then you returned home. As Yoonoh drove past a grocery store, you suddenly remembered that you were out of toothpaste so you made him stopped by.

Afraid that he might get impatient with waiting, you headed straight to the sales assistant for the placement of the product, impulsively grabbing a box of toothpaste and checked out at the counter.

Right after you walked out through the automatic doors labeled “Exit Only” you saw an oh-so-slim sylph sashaying towards the direction of Yoonoh’s car. The man got down, apparently completely clueless what he said to her that the very next moment she was in the passenger seat.

A message came in, signaled by the slight vibration of the device in your hand, from Yoonoh: Something came up, had to leave first. Get yourself a ride home.

He drove away and you watched until his car was out of sight. Gingerly you moved your thumbs over the screen, typing out a reply: Ok.

In the center of your palm laid a dull silver coin of 500won of the amount of change. It was cool and, weirdly, heavy.

Five years ago, 500won would have taken you through the main areas of downtown of Seoul. But now, 500won worth nothing to what seemed to be the cheapest transportation in the entire world.

During your summer break from middle school, you and your little companions would walk miles to travel around the city and returned on foot evening just to reserve that 500won for snacks. The distance of those journeys was never concerned, surprisingly you did not feel tired at all be it three hours, or that was because you were snacking along the way.

But, as you grew older, and supposed to be tougher, thirty minutes of walking already had you feeling tired and panting, the soles of your feet hurt.

It took you a little over an hour to walk back home from the airport. When you finally reached the front door and opened it, you could have just sit in the foyer and would not move a finger for hours on end. The fact that you made it into the house with persistence was enough to say that you were absolutely soiled.

A wave of utter exhaustion overtook you, and eventually you felt sleepy so you took a quick shower and went to bed. Till five thirty in the evening, you woke up. For so long you slept it was the reason that you had not sleep a wink last night.

You got up and filled yourself a glass of water. You gently raised your head high enough so you could drink without choking. The water was cool and refreshing and you sipped a few mouthfuls. You had not realized how thirsty you were, then your stomach grumbled, or how hungry. And so you made yourself a bowl of noodles then washed the breakfast dishes.

Yoonoh was not home yet, you had no idea what had he been doing or where was he with Sooyoung, or he might not return even…

Tidying up the living room after, dishwashing, you made your way upstairs again. Had you been sleeping all the afternoon through, you did not feel signs of drowsiness.

Flipping through pages, reading passages randomly, yet you could not commit to reading the book in its entirety, so you pulled out your phone.

Ever since you graduated from college, you had lost contact with many of your friends except for your dear Jennie. And you called her for long, giggly, pointless chats about the minutiae of life, not knowing when or how the conversation led to Yoonoh.

Jennie: Honestly, about your marriage to him, it’s kinda unbelievable, but bound to happen.

Y: What was bound to happen?

Jennie: Even though I don’t know him well, he seemed to be a cold person to me, it’s the truth. I couldn’t deny that I wasn’t shaken when I found out in high school that we have a senior that’s smart and so good-looking. But every single time when I greeted him he just ignored me, and I’m like ‘forget about it’ and moved on.

Jennie: But then again, I’m not the only shameless one. A lot of girls tried to talk to him and got ignored, except you. Every time you walked past him and need not to say anything, his eyes went to you instinctively.

Jennie: And I’d also realized that you’re the only person he talked to, that’s the only time his poker face showed expressions, which is why we’d all thought that out of all the women in the world, he’d choose you.

Frankly speaking, Jennie transferred to different school in 12th grade, she had no idea of the presence of another.

Y: Was his face like this every time he saw me? 🙄 This kinda expression was it? 😒

Jennie: Dang, those two. Accurate!

Y: …

And how did they even perceive that as signs of interest?

Jennie descended from a family of scholars, her father an archeologist while her mother a college professor, eventually their thinking was old fashioned—positively feudal. Watching their daughter of nearing thirty and had no male relation of potential son-in-law, they were undeniably concerned.

When Jennie was still in New Zealand, never had they ever brought up the topic in their phone calls. However merely returned for a few days, the poor girl had been getting her ear chewed off.

She grumbled, “Had I known it’s gonna be like this, I wouldn’t come back.”

Gloating over her misery, you pricked the bubbles of truth, “I guess your parents were afraid that you’ll find yourself a kiwi husband so they never pressed you about it. Now that they’ve coaxed you to come back, of course they’re gonna seize the opportunity to settle you down with a domestic spouse.”

She banged her head against the table, “That’s racist, racist! Why’s my life so miserable?”

You lifted the cup of fresh coffee to your lips, blowing on it prior to taking a sip, not even trying to console her at this point.

Your supposed “hang out” for the day was because of her desperately crying for help earlier in the morning that her parents had arranged a blind date for her.

She had never done anything like that, which was why she was extra nervous and dragged you out from your house to be that… third wheel.

The more she talked about it the more she grew restless and finally she slumped motionless on the table as if her body was hollowed out. You intended to remind her of her hair getting into the coffee, but before you could even speak up, a hand came out of nowhere and brushed out her messy strands.

Assuming that it was you, she lifted her head and grabbed ahold of the hand, then as if feeling an unusual sensation, aggressively surprised, “Who are you?”

The hand belonged to a remarkably handsome man with dark eyes and hair; well behaved, very courteous, very well-mannered, radiating all—Jennie’s designated partner for the blind date.

Maybe he was equally unfamiliar with the social engagement which he had also brought along a company as emotional support.

Therefore, what was supposed to be a blind date for two, appeared to be for a pair now.

Jennie’s partner, Kim Doyoung, came from a family of scholars as well; his friend went by the name Qian Kun, whose parents ran a small business.

You were struggling to manage a conversation with Kun and at the same time observing the other two, seemed like she already had the urge to run for her life, meanwhile the man was more of a gentleman that there was no way for the usually bold Jennie to lie her desire to escape.

As for the impression that Doyoung gave you… it was a positive that he had taken an interest in her.

No no no, but the way he looked at Jennie was definitely like… he was gazing upon his lover.

It gave an indication that they had known each other for a long time.

Interesting.

Kun was untalkative, but he was polite, the kind of person that would only answer questions, not offer more and kept silent when not. Though he lent a sense of comfort and harmony, but lacked existence at the same time. Thankfully he was born charming that even when he did not speak, people would almost stop and stare at him.

More than a little while at the cafe, Doyoung offered to buy dinner for everyone. Jennie had wanted to reject however under the supervision of her mother with a text message querying about their progress, she gritted her teeth and made it happen in case she would be having her parents breathing down her neck.

Doyoung only ate a little and then stuffing Jennie with so much food that it was visibly to you that she had lost patience with the man.

It was yet the end, that you proceeded to the next round at a karaoke bar. Somewhat dubious that Jennie had reached the limit of her tolerance, or she intended him to retreat. Who used to have a wonderful singing voice was intentionally going off pitch, and picked a trot song that she belted out from deep within her soul.

It was to the point that you, being a tone-deaf, could not help but grew annoyed at her awful singing.

She was rather ferocious that night that she bitterly suggested to compete Doyoung in drinking. Clearly she was a lightweight but insisted the attendant to serve bottles and bottles of soju.

Your eyes bulged in surprise as you stared at the dozen of alcohol, you contemplated warning her but out of the blue you registered the changing gaze of Jennie on Doyoung.

She cracked open a bottle of soju and slammed it on the table with a loud smack. She looked at him provocatively, speaking, “If you get through me tonight, I’ll try to date you for good, deal?”

Both you and Kun gaped at the pair in silence. There was a ghost of a smile crossed Doyoung’s face then he reached over to snatched the bottle from her grip, “You don’t have to drink, I’ll finish all of these, as long as you don’t go back on your word.”

Next thing you all witnessed him drowning bottle to bottle, ravenously. Till the third bottle, he was unable to swallow anymore, clear transparent liquor escaped from the corner of his mouth. Jennie roared, “Don’t let it drip!”

He shot a glance at her then ushered Kun to bring him another bottle.

Kun said nothing, and did not bother advising him, without a word he fetched another dozen of soju. You watched him as a small smirk crept onto your face, Doyoung was discreet in choosing friends, you thought.

Specifically how many bottles he had downed, you had lost count of it. He was completely wasted and could not even sit steadily.

You could not bear to watch another moment more and wanted to convince Jennie to make him stop, but in that sense, it meant that she would have to raise the white flag and date him for real. But acknowledging the cruel fact that she had not had even a slither of interest in him, you gave up instead after multiple failed attempts.

In a way everything just came to an end, there was not an outcome between Jennie and Doyoung. However on the way back, you could sense the bad omen in your friend.

You kept your voice calm and neutral, but there was clear teasing in your tone, “That was a difficult one, seems like you can’t get rid of him any way.”

Jennie went silent for a moment while she switched gears mentally, “At first I thought he was familiar but I couldn’t pinpoint exactly who he was until I saw that he was left handed during dinner then I suddenly remembered that he’s that douchebag Kim Dongyoung.”

“Dongyoung? That sounds familiar.” You heard somewhere but could not remember the sudden recollection.

She said, “During high school, the asshole that I had a crush on!”

Now, hearing that from her own lips, you came to the sudden realization and a blurry silhouette of a guy popped inside your head. For quite a while that Jennie dated him in high school, later it was because the counterpart was tangled with another girl that they broke up after. Then Jennie went overseas, and the guy called Dongyoung vanished into thin air, nowhere to be found.

“But why is he called Doyoung now?”

“It was some superstitious belief I guess. His family is weird.”

“Seems like he was hoping to rekindle the past romantic flames. Do you still have feelings for him?” you asked.

She answered disdainfully, “We were immature back then, I’d already lost whatever I had for him.”

“To me it’s like he couldn’t forget about you though.” Honestly you could tell that she had not moved on entirely from him, otherwise how could she recognized him as the Dongyoung back then?

“That’s his problem. I don’t dwell on the past, especially one that’s tainted.” When she spoke of the word ‘tainted’, she muttered between clenched teeth, which did not sound nice at all.

You became silent then, not wanting to jog her through bad memories. However you could not help but be reminded of the diminishing figure of Yoonoh and Sooyoung that day as the distance between them increased by a yard per mile. Suddenly you could feel the morose mood within.

Jennie drove you back home then buzzed off with a simple “goodnight”. You knew that she was definitely going for speeding down the road to get her mind off.

From afar you had already noticed that the lights were on, for sure Yoonoh was home. When you made your entrance and changed your shoes, there you saw him on the couch.

You were still sulky and resentful and bitchy so you decided to ignore him at the moment. You changed into your fluffy slippers and went straight for the stairs and up them.

“Where have you been, why do you smell like alcohol all over?” He sat on the couch, suddenly threw a question with obvious ill judgement.

Subconsciously you took a whiff of your own self, and retorted, “I didn’t drink.”

“What’s with the strong odor if you didn’t?”

“Probably when helping Doyoung…” you paused, previously you had made a mental note to ignore him at all costs, yet you were explaining yourself to him?

He sure knew how to pick up important points, “Who is Doyoung?”

You pursed your lips, had you wanted to explain to him, but questioned back instead, “Why do you care?”

His face went dark immediately, “You’ve been with that guy this whole day?”

“So what if I was?”

“It’s fine, but I have to remind you now that you’re labelled as me, Jung Yoonoh’s wife, you better not try something that puts me in shame,” he said, coldly.

Oh, so that’s it?

What were you exactly wishing for? Doing this deliberately, intentionally to get him misunderstood. You sure were out of your mind.

“Alright.” You were too tired to fight with him, mentally tired, honestly you had began to get tired of this lifestyle as well. Two people who lived under the same roof and seeing the same face every morning, day in and day out, yet always fighting and hurting each other every time when mouths opened that you basically did not speak the same language. It was indeed tiring.

As if he never thought that you would be easily compromised this time that he was stunned for a second, and just continued what he had been doing with nothing said. You did not stay any longer and went upstairs.

In fact, all these years you both had cared too much about pride which caused this constant tension and friction in between.

When one attacked another, there would be horrible and awful words as defensive comeback.

Those hurtful words would end up hurting yourselves anyway. If you did not went all out your way to maliciously hurt others, how would it lead to harsh and cruel retaliation in the other part?

As long as one first backed down and admitted defeat, eventually the other would stop before going too far.

Both adults knew that, yet no one had the courage to let go of their pride and ego.

#nct scenarios #nct jaehyun #jaehyun scenarios

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maree-ff · 6 years ago

Text

Como Estan?: Part I

CAMILA

Staring at the clock I nibbled at my thumb nail tasting the polish against my tongue. I’ve been eyeballing the clock ever since I watched the boys leave the house. Jorden was scheduled to take his driving test this morning and although he’s been preparing since last year, I’m nervous! Ever since Jorden spoke his first words in Spanish he’s been progressing so much faster. However, his lisp is still heavily intact and he still needs time to learn and process information on certain subjects.

Watching Jorden transition from newborn to infant to toddler to child and finally to a teenager has been such an emotional roller coaster. There’s been so many changes in him that I’ve had to adjust to over the years. It’s hard to come to terms with him being sixteen years old now.

I often forget how old Andre and I are but once a birthday rolls around for one of our kids, I swear I have an emotional meltdown. Thank goodness for great genes, a healthy sex life, my wonderful diet, continuous exercise and a stress free life or else I’d look so run down. Aside from the growth of my babies, my world has remained at peace.

Hearing heavy footsteps draw closer I wiped my eyes and shuffled around in the kitchen. Andre has been joking around a lot more than usual about every little thing and I’ve felt so disconnected and bothered to every punch line. It’s nearing that time of the month for me so of course I’m feeling overly emotional and withdrawn. At least towards him. Around the kids I’m a little sweeter.

Jorden taking that test to determine whether or not he can drive is shaking me to my core. The last thing I want is for Jorden to believe that I’m not happy for him or that I don’t support his desire to have more freedom. That’s not the case by any means. I’m just scared that he’s going to come home defeated and with terrible news. Every encounter he has with new people in the world has always had me on the edge of my seat. Just like I spoke on when he was four, I didn’t send Jorden to public school like his sisters. I couldn’t bear the thought of kids teasing him or teachers treating him like he was slow.

I searched high and low for an awesome home school teacher and when I did I begged her for her services. Coincidentally she was teaching a few other kids who were exactly like my baby boy at the time. Andre and I argued for a while about granting Jorden the access to having social interaction with kids his age. He has always had that. Not once have I robbed our son of the opportunity to have a social life. I had my many reasons for Jorden and for myself about why I didn’t want to send him to public school. Sadly when Jorden turned thirteen he began begging to go to school in a setting where he can meet other kids at every turn. He wanted the typical classroom, ride the school bus, have gym class with the cute girl experience.

Of course I gave in. I couldn’t tell Jorden no. After Andre and I talked we decided on private school. The most accredited, diverse and costly private school in the state of California has been Jorden's home for the last three years.

“Baby, where you at?” Andre yelling throughout the house for me shook me up. I can’t wait to get through these next five days of hell so I can go back to normal!

“I’m upstairs babe.” Taking a deep breath I opened the refrigerator to find something to take my mind off of Jorden’s test. The anxiety is kicking into overdrive and I need to tame it before I snap on this sweet man of mine.

“Hey..you’re avoiding me again. You know that right?” He started off.

I glanced over my right shoulder seeing him sport a look of dissatisfaction.

“Aw honey I’m sorry..” closing the refrigerator I turned around to find him standing directly behind me. I jumped and used the appliance for support. “I haven’t been avoiding you. I’m on edge and I hope you understand why.” I explained.

“Of course I do. You’re waiting for Jo to get home so we can find out how the test went and you're about to get a visit from the bitch from hell.” There he goes again with the jokes. This one actually made me laugh though.

Playfully punching him in the stomach I traded the fridge for his body to support my weight. “You’re not funny, asshole.”

“Clearly I’m a little funny or else you wouldn’t have laughed. Is there something else bothering you that I should know about?” He asked, wrapping both arms around me. I disagreed and wedged my face in between his chest and arm so he couldn’t see my face. Kissing my hairline he separated us. “Come on Cam, seriously. What else is going on? You don’t think he did okay?” He pressed the issue with concern.

Meeting his eyes I shrugged. My response was pathetic but it was a gut reaction. “I’m not doubting that he passed. I’m doubtful of the other people around him. Don’t you worry that people treat him like he’s beneath them when we’re not around? The possibility of Jorden being bullied by any means or ran up on doesn’t keep you up at night? Even a little bit?” I questioned.

“I’d be lying if I said no. Camila, of course I worry. But I know Jorden well enough to trust in his abilities to brush that shit off. He’s a tough kid. He’s got very thick skin and I know he can handle himself by any means. We raised him to have faith in himself. We raised him to never allow anyone, us included, to deter him away from his goals and dreams.” Hearing Dre confirm that he’s just as concerned as I am about how our son is treated put me in a positive headspace.

“All I have ever wanted for our kids is for them to be given a fair chance. Jorden especially. He’s never been like any kid I’ve ever met and being that he’s ours I want to him to know that I’m always fighting for him. I want him to know that we are always fighting to honor his name and his right to be treated fairly. I don’t care how old any of us get. Our kids are our babies. At least to me they always will be.” I felt emotions slap me in the face as tears rolled down both cheeks. The liquid made contact with my collarbones and flowed on down from there.

Andre coddles me exactly the way I desire. He provides me with more than enough affection when I’m feeling overly sensitive.

“Mom..pop..where are you?!” The sound of Jorden’s voice made the hair on my arms stand up.

“He’s home. He’s back, Dre!” I panicked. I squeezed and clenched at his shirt sleeves listening to Jorden walk up the stairs.

“I know that baby I can hear him too you know. Relax, don’t let him see you all worked up remember? We talked about this.” He coached me through my miniature episode and hugged me tighter.

Jorden appeared in front us and as much as I wanted to spazz and get answers out of him, I remained put.

“Hi baby. How was your day?” I quizzed him in a soothing yet normally toned voice. I masked my concern so he wouldn’t be alarmed.

He hesitated, “productive but good. Can’t complain. What’s wrong?” He asked. I watched him set his things down as Brix and Blu made their entrance.

“Nothing, I’m fine. So..” I trained off.

“How did it go?” Dre spoke up. His hands drawing circles on my lower and upper back keep me locked in place.

“It went good. I passed.” This beautiful and grand smile of relief on my baby’s face set me off. I burst into tears as I allowed the good news to register in my brain.

“Ma, why you are crying? Are you not happy that I passed?” He freaked.

Snapping my head up and breaking away from Andre I closed the distance between Jo and I. I hugged him close, smelling his new favorite body wash on his clothes. I can’t believe my youngest child can legally drive without another adult present in a vehicle now.

“Mom..talk to me. Estas asustando a mi.” Jorden spoke in my ear, hugging me firmly.

Disagreeing I rocked us from side to side. Cupping the back of his head I turned my face to lay against his shoulder. “No baby, I am so happy for you. Estoy tan orgulloso de ti.” I whispered.

“Thank you mama. I couldn’t come home without good news. After all, I have been studying for this test since last year. I’m just happy that you and dad are proud of me.” We hugged a bit longer and separated so he and Andre could have their own moment.

“I told you, didn’t I boy?” Dre laughed.

“Yeah yeah whatever. I told you!” Jo and Andre struck up playful, stupid conversation about who was right over who. I however still have some questions.

“Were they rude to you up there? I mean did anyone give you a hard time?” Playing with my hair I leaned against the counter feeling Brix sit next to me.

“Not really, no.” Jorden denied.

“Not really? What do you mean “not really”?

“Okay..well there was one dude who kept staring at me funny when my proctor was going over some of the rules before we went out on the road. I’m not sure why he was grilling me so hard. Maybe because I asked the lady to repeat herself four times but I didn’t let him get under my skin. Other than that all else was cool. No complaints.” Jorden had this look on his face that begged for me not to flip out or press him for more information.

“All that matters is that you passed. What you wanna do tonight? In honor of your good news, we can go wherever you want and do whatever you want.” Andre’s proposal sparked so much excitement in Jorden’s eyes.

“There are limits, you two.” I warned.

“I’m a grown ass man so limits don’t apply to me. So what do you-”

“Daddy!” Zoe’s voice spooked us all.

“What the hell is she doing here?” Andre shuffled to the kitchen entrance at the sound of Zoe rushing around to find us.

“Mom! Jo! Where are you guys?” Zoe continued to yell and run throughout the house.

“Zo, what are you doing here? I thought you had to work today?” Dre quizzed. I stepped around Brix to see Zoe and Andre talking.

“Never mind that! I can’t get ahold of Kenja.” She clutched the stair railing while fixing her top. Recalling her mentioning Kenja I walked closer to them.

“What do you mean you can’t reach her? She just got a new phone and I know the area she lives in works well with her service. How long have you been trying to get a hold of her?” I’m doing my absolute best to not think too seriously into this situation but this isn’t a light subject matter.

“I’ve called her over fifty times and not one of my calls was answered! I’m scared but I don’t know what else to do!” She rambled.

“Camila, you need to change. Jo, call your grandfather and Zoe you get in the truck. Go.” All of us broke off into a frenzy to get out of this house and an hour down the road. I ransacked through my wardrobe throwing on a modest outfit.

“Andre, I’m scar-”

“Maree, not now, okay? Finished getting dressed and let’s go.” His warning reeked of panic but he’s trying to mask it so I don’t have a panic attack. I did as he said to do but stood still watching to him pace.

“Andre..” I sighed. He turned to face me no longer capable of denying how I feel about what’s currently happening. Andre and I huddled together not using words to fill in the silence. Every fiber in my being is screaming that Kenja is in trouble. The look in Andre’s eyes is telling me that he’s thinking the exact same thing.

With no regard at all I set free the tears as my only way of showcasing what I’m thinking.

“Camila, stop it. You can’t think like that. She’s fine. Our little girl is okay.” He pet my hair and encouraged me to think positively.

“But babe what if she’s not? What if she’s no-”

“Camila, stop it! Don’t think like that. Put your shoes on. We have to go.” I listened to him knowing that he means well. I hurriedly slid my feet into a pair of sneakers, following him downstairs. Once we were in the truck I decided to try Kenja’s cell, hopeful that she would answer.

I left her a voicemail and held onto my cell with a vice grip during the drive to her apartment. Andre to my surprise drove the speed limit not once flooring it on the gas. Each of us were on edge in different ways. My worst fear is for either one of my kids to become a victim to domestic violence by anyone for any reason. Kenja, since she witnessed the first hand what Damon did to the both of us. In Zoe’s case, she involuntarily fell victim to being molested at a young age. Not only that but Chris murdered her birth mother. Graciously, my son has not had been harmed in any way.

Although my daughters are old enough to make their own decisions regarding relationships, I will always worry about them. Nothing can eliminate that fear I have deep rooted inside of me.

When we made it a visitor spot just outside her building I saw cops and emergency responders. I didn’t hesitate to jump out of the passenger seat and make a break for it up to her floor. I’ve never ran this fast in my entire life. I’ve never had to until this moment. From behind I could hear both of my kids and Andre yelling my name but I didn’t care. I pushed my way through everyone not bothering to explain my urgency. One of the officers tried grabbing me and I lunged at him. I didn’t actually hit him but I did shove him with every ounce of strength I had. For a guy his size, he stumbled and lost his footing. Ducking under the yellow tape I scrambled through Kenja’s apartment looking high and low for her.

“Ma’am, you cannot be back here. This is a crime scene.” Someone tried warning me.

Swiftly turning around I caught my breath before speaking. “Stay the fuck out of my way!” I barked at him.

Walking away from him I zipped through the remainder of Kenja’s place finding her passed out on the floor by her bed. Normally my fight or flight response would kick in. This time, that gut reaction failed to hit me and in place of that, seeing my daughter unconscious brought me to my knees. I cried the whole way over as I crawled to her side. Checking to see if she was breathing I carefully lifted her head onto my legs. “Oh baby I’m so sorry.” I sobbed.

Throwing my hair over my shoulder so it wasn’t in Ev’s face I pushed her curls out of the way to get a better look at her. At first glance I don’t see any bruises on her neck, chest, face, arms or legs. Her skin is cold, she doesn’t have a pulse and her skin looks paler than usual. My brain is swimming with ideas as to what happened to her.

“Camila, where you at?”

“Mom!”

“Back here!” I didn’t bother to look up as I continued to try and wake Kenja up. “Come on nena, wake up.” I sniffled. “C’mon love, please wake up.” I begged. I stayed still for a moment to see no change in her state. That’s when I did a little more searching. Lifting her shirt I checked out her abdomen. The alarming sight of a slight protrusion ignited that fight or flight reaction. “My sweet baby..” I gasped. I watched my tear fall onto her shirt as I felt underneath of her for any blood. When I raised my hand I felt my eyes twitch at how thick the consistency of her blood is.

“You cannot be back here!” Someone shouted.

I glanced up to see three officers failing to hold Andre and Jorden back from this room. Zoe pushed past the smaller officer and came to kneel beside me.

“Mom, what happened?” She panicked.

I showed her my hand and placed hers on Kenja’s lower abdomen. The color in Zoe’s face faded quickly.

“No..” she whispered.

“Where is he? Where the fuck is he at?” Andre yelled.

“Dad calm down..”

“Sir, Mr. Amaad is in custody. You need to relax and step back so we can do our job.”

“Fuck you and fuck him! I want to see him!”

“Pop, come on man, stop. He’s not worth it.” Jorden intervening is exactly what I need.

“Nah man, I want to see his smug ass face so I can beat the shit out of him. I told you that little nigga was no good for her. I told you so, Jo! He was trouble from the jump and I’m the only one that saw it!” Andre’s fuming and I understand but I need him to calm down.

“Andre, please.” I spoke up. He looked over at me and forcefully shoved the cop out of his way. He trudged over, taking his hat off slowly as he came closer. He knelt beside me not moving.

“Is she breathing?” He mumbled.

“No.” I sniffled. We had to clear out of the way so the EMTs could get Evelyn onto the stretcher and down to the ambulance. The kids and Dre were hot on their tails. I stayed behind to grab some of Kenja’s important documents and I packed a couple of bags. Each were filled with her favorite wardrobe pieces and personal items. The cops weren’t telling me much of anything so I left the apartment.

The ride to the hospital was dead silent. Andre pushed this truck with all his might. There wasn’t a chance in hell that he would lose track of the ambulance carrying our daughter.

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

Leaning on Andre for support I sipped on my tea continuing to pray for good news. Kenja had to have an emergency blood transfusion so I donated. She and I are the same blood type and I just happened to have the perfect amount of iron in my system today. Jorden and Zoe fell asleep but I woke them up to send them to grab something to eat.

“I just want to hear something already.” Andre muttered from beside me. “I’m sick of waiting around. I want to see her.” He complained.

“I know baby. Here.” I offered him my cup only to watch him decline. “Papa, please.” I begged of him.

He gave in, drinking some, handing me the cup back once he had enough. The sound of footsteps drawing close earned our attention to the kids coming back.

“You get enough to eat?” I questioned them both.

“Plenty. We got something for you guys too when you want it.” Zoe sat down next her dad and Jo sat next to me. The four of us were once again silent waiting to find out how the transfusion went.

We sat alone for another half hour before someone came out to speak to us. Andre jumped up but I urged him to stay seated. I convinced him to stay behind so I could talk to with the doctor. Andre would bombard the poor woman with questions and he wouldn’t think twice about how his tone comes out.

“Just be honest. I can handle it.” I scanned her eyes with my arms folded across my chest.

“Your daughter is stable as are her vitals. She’s resting right now. The blood transfusion was a complete success, thank you for donating. It’s a blessing that you two are an exact match. Without you I don’t know how else we would’ve found such an eager and ready donor in time.” She smiled gently.

“So..she’s going to be alright? Is there anything else? When can we see her?”

“Oh yes, she will be just fine. I would advise that she stay here overnight for further observation. I wouldn’t want to take any risks with her health. You all can go in and see her. But I do suggest you all to keep the talking to a minimum so she doesn’t have to strain her voice. She’s still very weak as I imagine and she needs all of her strength for a speedy recovery.” She said.

“I don’t want my husband to hear this but I need you to tell me how far along she was. And I understand the patient-doctor confidentiality but this is my daughter. I have an idea but I want to be crystal clear about the facts.”

To be continued.......

#mareeff #tentwentyninecompositions

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simwoman2002 · 6 years ago

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Safe

Elsa was suffering a long day of a frightfully boring council meeting.

All these gatherings ever consisted of was constant bickering amongst elderly men over various subjects that weren’t overly important. Elsa understood how decisions regarding the issues needed to be made, but she didn’t really understand why she couldn’t just sign something herself and resolve them. It would be much better that being forced to listen to a group of crochety old people argue.

“Queen Elsa, what do you think?” Elsa immediately was snapped back into focus. She gazed albeit dazedly at all of the expectant faces staring at her.

She had almost forgot what they had been talking about, but life wasn’t about to allow her the pleasure. The subject suddenly appeared in the forefront of her mind and she suppressed a groan of slight irritation.

“We need to arrange stronger trade agreements with Corona so that our kingdom and its occupants may receive goods that will-” Elsa suddenly stopped midsentence. Something reddish-orange and suspiciously colored like her sister’s hair caught her gaze out on the roof. She angled her head a bit, looking out the window. To her horror, it was Anna.

Her eyes widened as her baby sister suddenly slid down the roof at a high rate of speed. She stood up instantly with a force that would knock a chair of any less craftmanship over and rushed out the door.

Elsa could hear the faint cries of the councilmen, but it barely registered in her mind. All she could think about was getting outside before Anna hit the ground.

Elsa summoned ice beneath her feet and propelled herself through the corridors and down the stairs in a fashion and speed similar to that of a bullet. She zipped through the courtyard, reaching the area she estimated Anna to fall.

Her heart stopped. Anna was not on the roof any longer. Elsa searched the ground, frantically glancing all about. Her efforts were fruitless. All that she saw nearby was a haystack, grass, and the stone of the courtyard.

“ANNA!” Elsa yelled in desperation, feeling her heart sink to the pits of her stomach.

She had lost her sister again and for the last time. Elsa would never see her sister’s sunny, loving face, she’d never hear her musical laugh…. Elsa would never see Anna again.

Before Elsa could absorb herself too much in grief, she then heard a muffled voice. Elsa whipped her head around behind her to face the noise. Elsa strode a little closer to the source. Quite oddly, it seemed to be coming from the haystack.

Elsa inched closer to look at it. She nearly screamed when a straw-covered head poked out of it.

“Whoo, that was one heck of a ride. Man, gotta do that again sometime!” Anna exclaimed, giggling and glancing up at the roof as she tried to dust some of the hay off of her body.

Elsa felt a rising joy suddenly burst in her chest and her face blossomed into a large grin.

“Anna!” Elsa practically tackled Anna back into the haystack.

“Elsa?!” Elsa nearly sobbed at hearing her sister’s sweet voice again.

“I’m so glad you’re okay!” Elsa expressed, deeply inhaling the scent of her sister as well as the sweet aroma of hay that seemed to compliment her natural fragrance very well.

“Wait, what? Okay, hang on a second.”

“I was so, so worried about you, Sunshine!” Elsa sighed relievedly. She then pulled back out of the haystack, grabbing Anna’s hand and pulling her out.

“Why are you-”

“You jumped off a roof, Anna! Why shouldn’t I be worried about that?!” Elsa raised her voice a bit in her excitement, dusting Anna off emphatically. Anna’s previously confused face morphed into an expression of guilty sheepishness.

“About that…”

“Anna, sweetheart, you really need to be more careful. You could get hurt!” Elsa said grabbing Anna’s cheeks and inspecting her teeth closely.

“Essa, you reawy don’t need to wowwy,” Anna insisted while Elsa had her fingers inside her mouth, ensuring the safety of every tooth.

Elsa then took hold of the skin above and below Anna’s eye, sparked a bright blue light in her hand to shine it into Anna’s eye, and looked into the pupil.

“Elsa.”

“Hmm?” Elsa, now satisfied with the constrictions of Anna’s pupil, stopped observing her eyeball.

“Elsa, I am perfectly fine,” Elsa, with a concerned expression, lovingly tucked a lock of hair behind Anna’s ear.

“I know. But you could’ve been hurt. How often do you do things like this?”

“Not that often?” Anna replied with a large toothy smile that Elsa always associated with a guilty Anna.

“You seem uncertain about that,” Elsa observed, immediately picking up on Anna’s noncommittal tone.

“No, I’m not,” Anna insisted, the grin still plastered on her face. Elsa looked at Anna with complete and utter anxiety. She normally would’ve found slight amusement at Anna’s attempts to deceive but concern was currently wholly overpowering Elsa. She watched Anna squirm under her intent gaze.

“Fine. I’ve done it before, okay?” Anna admitted with a sigh. Elsa groaned and shook her head.

“Anna…”

“Look, it’s really okay! I mean, I’ll go up and show you again if you want me to-”

“No. Please don’t…” After a moment of staring into the younger’s eyes, Elsa pulled Anna closely against her. “I don’t want to lose you.” She smiled, feeling some of her worry dissipate as Anna wrapped her arms around Elsa to reciprocate the embrace.

“Okay, I won’t slide down the roof again. I promise,” Anna said somewhere nearby Elsa’s ear.

“Good.”

………………………………………………………………………………………………………

“Anna! What are you doing?!” It had been a few days since the roof episode and Elsa had hoped that would be the last of Anna’s insane attempts at acrobatics.

Apparently, she was wrong. Very wrong.

“Oh, Elsa! Hey! Do you want to ride around the halls with me?” Anna asked, sitting on the bicycle, about to push off.

“Anna, you need a helmet,” Elsa insisted, grabbing Anna’s arm and pulling her off the bike to go to her room.

“Elsa, good grief, I’m just riding my bike around the halls. I’ll be fine! We used to do this all the time.”

“I would prefer that you wear a helmet,” Elsa expressed, keeping a tight hold on her sister’s upper limb.

“Fine,” Anna grumbled a bit as she was dragged along behind her sister.

Elsa couldn’t understand why Anna wouldn’t take care of herself any better. Didn’t she know that Elsa couldn’t live without her and couldn’t bear for anything to happen to her. Even if it was a small bump or bruise.

“Why in the world are you such a daredevil?” Elsa questioned as they entered Anna’s room that was thankfully not too far from their previous position in the halls.

“Why are you such a spoilsport?” Anna mumbled. Elsa released a huff of air in slight exasperation.

“Anna, I just want you to be safe,” Elsa said, snatching the helmet from its haphazard position on the floor. She turned and gently sat it on Anna’s head, buckling it underneath the latter’s chin.

“I know, but I’m a big tough girl. I’m not going to get hurt,” Anna persisted, trying to convince Elsa of her outlook.

Elsa kissed Anna’s forehead, and pulled back to look in her eyes.

“Accidents happen, Anna,” Elsa said, unintentionally allowing more gravity in her voice. The memory of a very unfortunate accident dredged itself to the forefront of her mind. Elsa felt a reverberation of sorrow ring through her frame, leaving a sickening feeling in the pit of her stomach.

She was drawn from the painfulness of the memory by a warm hand on her pale, bare shoulder. Elsa looked at the owner of the said appendage with an expression of despair.

“Don’t worry, Elsa. If you need me to wear a helmet, I will,” Anna reassured, and Elsa felt a wash of relief flood her.

“And if you don’t mind, could you please wear kneepads and elbow pads?” Anna huffed a bit in response but reluctantly agreed.

Elsa smiled happily and easily procured gear for Anna made of strong ice and soft padding made of snow.

After looking over Anna’s form and considering Anna’s ensemble, Elsa took the liberty of adding a few unmentioned- and likely unwelcomed- additions.

When she was done, Anna resembled a giant snowman. She was padded with snow and ice from her head to her toes.

“Elsa, don’t you think this is a bit much?” Anna questioned, her voice muffled by the extensive amount of cushiony winter precipitation surrounding her face.

“Go try your bike now,” Elsa said, completely disregarding Anna’s inquiry in her satisfaction in Anna’s certain safety.

Anna waddled over to the bicycle and tried to hoist her leg over it. After the first fail, she looked over at Elsa, completely unimpressed. Elsa simply gave her two encouraging thumbs-ups and motioned for her to try again.

Anna tried once again, and yet another failure occurred.

“This is ridiculous, Elsa,” Anna complained indignantly.

“Just try one more time,” Elsa implored, smiling cheerfully.

Anna rolled her eyes but attempted it once again. This time, however, she was able to squeeze herself up on the bicycle.

“Yay!” Elsa grinned widely and clapped her hands. She quickly made her way over to Anna and hugged her. “Good job!” Elsa congratulated Anna. She kissed her little sister on the nose, the only place on her face that Elsa could reach.

Yes, Elsa wouldn’t let her sister be harmed. Not while she was around.

………………………………………………………………………………………………………

Elsa eyed the bedroom with her lips pursed. The whole place looked like a tornado went through it. Perhaps a redheaded tornado.

Elsa’s impromptu visit to Anna’s room was inspired by her earlier visit in search of a helmet. She had quickly come to the conclusion that the entirety of the room was dangerous to her little sister.

Elsa walked over to a particular corner of the room that caught her eye. And it wasn’t in an appealing manner in which it did so. As she got closer to the heap of something in the corner, she came to the realization that it was a pile of dresses. Soiled dresses. Very soiled dresses.

To Elsa, this was certainly some sort of health hazard. The germs in this pile would likely cause Anna to contract some sort of sickness. Elsa made an icy basket and, using her magic, loaded the enormous amount of dirty laundry into it. She shook her head in disgust, using a cold wind to push the basket just outside the doorway.

Elsa then turned to the bed. It was unmade, and there was quite a bit of clothes still on their hangers strewed all over it. Elsa’s eyes widened. These hangers were made of metal wire. What if Anna was exceedingly tired when she came to bed and she completely forgot to move them, resulting in her being stabbed by them?

She immediately coated the hangers holding the clothes and the hangers in Anna’s wardrobe in a soft permanent covering of snow. Nodding her head in satisfaction, she summoned a strand of magical wind to hang the dresses on the bed in the wardrobe.

Elsa turned to observe the whole room. There were just so many hazards in this small area. Elsa huffed a bit. Anna could trip and knock out her front teeth on the hard floors. She could slide into the wall when coming into the room too quickly. Anna could even get a concussion if she slipped on the rug.

She was freaking out a bit at all of the possible disasters that could occur until she happened to glance at the snow-covered hangers. Elsa eyed it thoughtfully with an eyebrow raised. She then came to an excellent idea.

Why couldn’t she just coat the walls, the floor, and all the hardwood surfaces in the room with soft, permanent snow that couldn’t be kicked away by anyone?

Elsa waved her hands a bit and, starting from the center of the wall she was facing, the snow began to creep onto all of the surfaces composing the room. She stepped backwards just outside of the doorway as the snow reached where she had been standing. Just as the snow reached the edge of Anna’s room, Elsa stopped it.

She tentatively stepped into the room onto the snow. It was solid and as she reached down and touched it, she came to the realization that it was also forgiving in that it was squishy. She turned and touched the wall. It had the same texture.

Elsa nodded her head in satisfaction and relief. It was perfect. Anna wouldn’t hurt herself and Elsa could have peace of mind in that the entire room was Anna-proof.

Now all she could hope is that Anna wouldn’t find it for a while.

………………………………………………………………………………………………………

Elsa peeked around the corner, watching the red-headed girl strolling through the halls and singing in a melodious voice.

She almost couldn’t persuade herself to move from her position. It was such a perfect moment. Anna was completely relaxed and in her element. She was interacting with all of the paintings and throwing comments their way.

“How’s the life of the party, Julie? Enjoying your dance, Romero?” Anna winked at a painting of a man and a woman dancing in a hubbub of people as she strolled leisurely through the large room of pictures.

“I trust that the sandwiches are tasty, Mr. and Mrs. Gilbert Grape?” Anna questioned in a false, pish-posh voice to an image of a woman and a man having a picnic.

“How are you today, Lady Odette? I hope wonderful,” Anna gave a little curtsy to a woman in a picture with a male consort. “Ever the charmer, eh, Prince Percy?” Anna eyed the consort with an eyebrow raised.

“Ooh, livin’ la vida loca, Señorita?” Anna spoke what Elsa assumed was the only Spanish Anna knew and laughed up at a woman in a Spanish-looking dress.

“What’s up, Charlene? Oh, yeah. You!” Anna giggled, pointing at a painting of a woman being pushed on a swing. She then moved a little further down the wall.

“You guys!” Anna exclaimed enthusiastically, her arms opening wide in a gesture at all of the characters in the image. “You are looking especially good today. New haircut, eh, Karl?” Elsa rolled her eyes at Anna’s constant one-sided banter with all of the inanimate objects depicting people that likely never existed.

Yet, although it was very concerning to Elsa in regard to Anna’s mental state, it was quite cute and Anna-like overall and seemed to only endear the younger girl to Elsa more.

“Welp, see you guys later. I’m going for a ride with Kjekk,” Anna skipped out of the room through the door on the opposite side of the room from Elsa.

Elsa furrowed her brow and pursed her lips. Who in the world was someone called Kjekk?

At that moment, Elsa decided to follow Anna to not only ensure the younger’s safety, but to also discover who this Kjekk was.

They continued through the halls, Elsa creeping along a short stretch behind a skipping, singing Anna.

Soon enough, they came upon a picture that Elsa recognized to be Joan of Arc.

“Hiya, Joan! How’re things going with you?” Anna paused for a minute as if receiving a response. Elsa raised an eyebrow. Anna didn’t really interact with the other paintings quite like that.

“Things are going great with me, girlfriend. Elsa is doing so well as queen and as a big sister and I am so glad we’re back together. I truly couldn’t ask for a better sister. I’m so, so proud of her and I can only hope that I’ll be like her one day,” Anna expressed lovingly, and Elsa felt her heart flutter with the praise.

It had been so long since anyone had ever given any sort of commendation to Elsa. Actually, it had likely been more than thirteen years ago. During her isolation, she never was provided any approval for her actions. No acknowledgement was given to how hard she struggled to control the magic she was born with and how unbelievably difficult it was to abandon her sister outside that door. To live a life of misery and unhappiness with an overpowering desire to throw it all away and open the door to give her sister the life she deserved.

But Elsa never really patted herself on the back for enduring all of those horrors. She didn’t feel as if she needed it. It was simply what she deserved as a terrible icy witch that hurt her sister in every way.

But to have someone say that they were proud of her and for that someone to be her sister… That was more than Elsa could ever ask for. It was the best thing she’d had in a very, very long time.

“Oh, and I have something to talk to you about. It’s gonna have to be later, though, ‘coz I gotta see a man about a horse, if you get what I mean,” Anna grinned and laughed, successfully drawing Elsa from her reverie. After reconsidering what Anna said, Elsa came to the conclusion that the joke was something humorous only to Anna.

“Okay, seriously. I got to go. I’ll talk to you later, I’m going to ride Kjekk!” Elsa’s eyes widened a bit in horror. Why was Anna riding Kjekk?

Before Elsa could truly contemplate this question in depth, Anna had exited the area and moved on to the hall. Elsa followed along as quietly as she could. Pretty soon, though, Anna stopped.

Elsa looked around quickly, trying to find a place to hide. There weren’t many options, but Elsa saw a decorative potted plant and decided that it would have to do. She scurried over behind it and kneeled down.

Elsa peeked through the leaves to see Anna turning around in the elder’s direction with a confused look on her face. However, after a few seconds of glancing about, she soon turned around and continued on her previous path.

The blonde sighed in relief at Anna’s apparent imperceptiveness.

Elsa then cautiously exited her position behind the plant and continued on her trek behind her younger sister. They continued for a short while before Anna suddenly stopped once again.

Just as she saw the redhead beginning to turn her face back towards her, Elsa dove into a doorway.

“Hmm,” Anna hummed suspiciously. Elsa winced. She was afraid Anna might have seen something. It was probably her hair. Elsa formed a few icy pins for her hair and put it up into a nice and tidy bun. At hearing the sound of Anna’s footsteps growing fainter, Elsa hurried out of the room and rushed after her sister as quietly as she could while nearly jogging.

However, very unfortunately, she was caught in the act of sneaking around.

“Who is following me?” Anna interrogated as she spun around before Elsa could hide behind a corner or nearby foliage.

Elsa smiled sheepishly.

“Elsa?”

“Hi!” Elsa squeaked, giving a little wave.

“Hi,” Anna replied suspiciously. Elsa swallowed in nervousness. She really hoped Anna wouldn’t catch on to what she’d been doing.

“Well, I’m heading to a meeting, sooo… Catch you later?” Elsa grinned widely with a seemingly cheerful exterior, but inwardly cursed herself for being so opposite of herself and rather being Anna-ish in her response.

“Okay…” Anna continued about her way and Elsa clicked as silently as she could behind her.

“You’re following me, aren’t you?” the redhead demanded suddenly after a few beats, whirling toward Elsa quickly.

“No?” Elsa said in a manner that was more of a question. Anna judged her with one eyebrow raised. Elsa kept a smile plastered on her face.

“You just said you had to go to a meeting.”

“Well, I was just going down this hallway and looking at things as I was going to the meeting room.”

“Elsa, the meeting room is the other way,” Anna stated, her eyes half-lidded and an unimpressed look on her face.

“Umm… I like taking the scenic route,” Elsa quickly lied, trying to cover up her true intentions.

“Hmmm…. Okay,” Anna accepted Elsa’s response very skeptically.

When Elsa saw Anna turn to continue about her way, Elsa stroked her chin with a hand. How was she going to watch Anna if Anna was watching her back?

Elsa looked down at her shoes. They were shiny, sparkly heels of ice and she clacked them against the floor a few times.

Elsa reached down and slipped off her shoes, leaving her feet bare. She looked up in the direction Anna left in and smiled, her eyes half-lidded.

“Game-changer.”

………………………………………………………………………………………………………

“Ow! Ow! Ow! Goodness me, that hurts,” Elsa muttered as she trekked barefooted across the sharp pebbles that were trailed into the stables. She realized it probably wasn’t the smartest idea to leave her shoes neatly placed in the hall. Her ice shoes…

Elsa looked down at her feet and shook her head. Why didn’t she think of it before? Elsa waved her hands and magical icy heels appeared on her feet. Sometimes she really didn’t think about things.

“Who’s a good boy? You are!” Elsa suddenly heard Anna’s voice not too far from her.

Elsa lifted her gaze from her feet and to the hallway of a stable in front of her. She then realized that Anna was quite close to her and was petting a horse.

“You want one of these?” Anna held out a sugar cube on her extended palm. The horse quickly but gently took it from her grasp and whinnied in happiness. “What a sweet boy, Kjekk.” Elsa’s eyes widened. That beast was Kjekk? Oh, well. It did make sense when Elsa pieced together the clues in her mind.

“You ready, buddy?” Anna asked as she approached the side of the horse. It neighed in what Elsa assumed was some sort of affirmation.

“Alright,” Anna hopped up on the horse. It was then that it occurred to Elsa that she needed to hide. If Anna caught her spying again, the redhead would likely be angry with her.

Elsa’s eyes darted about. She was too far from any of the horses’ stalls to hide with any of them, and she was also too distant from the pile of hay that was near Anna and her horse.

“Elsa, what are you doing here?!” Elsa looked at Anna wide-eyed in horror. Anna was staring at Elsa in turn, but Anna’s expression was angry. Correction: furious.

“Hangin’?” Elsa tried with a very much forced smile.

“Elsa, you’ve been following me and you’re going to tell me why right now!” Anna yelled.

“Well, I just wanted to see how you were doing,” Elsa answered. It was mostly true, so Elsa technically wasn’t lying.

“Wait a minute… You were spying on me!”

“Anna, no, I wasn’t-”

“Yes, you were! You’ve been driving me absolutely crazy with this ‘I Spy’ game that I seem to be the star of. Elsa, I’m not a baby. I don’t need to be watched!”

“And you covered my whole room in snow!” Elsa winced and opened her mouth to try to reply. “Before you say anything, yes, I’ve known about it all day. I was just waiting for a good time to bring it up. Good grief, Elsa, I’m perfectly fine! It’s not like I’m made of glass!”

Elsa watched as Anna’s horse shifted a bit under her, presumably uncomfortable with its mistress’ anger.

“Anna, I think you need to get off that animal,” Elsa encouraged, feeling her being fill with worry and dread that overtook the guilt that was beginning to consume her being.

“I do not need to get off Kjekk. I am going to ride him if I want,” Anna proclaimed hotly, suddenly spurring the horse forward.

It immediately sprung to action and sped past Elsa. She turned and hurried out of the stables. Elsa sighed at the sight of Anna riding away swiftly on her mount in the direction of the slowly setting sun. She looked down at her feet and closed her eyes.

Elsa shook her head sadly, heading back into the castle.

Anna would be fine.

………………………………………………………………………………………………………

“I can’t believe she thinks she can run my life! This is getting out of hand,” Anna ranted as she rode Kjekk as fast as she could push him to go. They were racing through a small trail that Anna happened to see in the midst of her angry frenzy.

Neither one of them had been on the trail before and that fact was barely registering in Anna’s mind.

“I’m not a kid anymore and I need to stop being treated like one!” Anna almost shouted as Kjekk rounded a corner at an incredible speed that, if she hadn’t been holding on tightly, could have thrown her from the horse.

“I’m a responsible adult and I can do what I want to!” Anna growled loudly.

The horse took a trail that shot off to the left of the main path.

“I should be able to do what I want to do when I want to do it! It’s been that way my whole life! No one ever cared what I did as a kid! Mama and Papa were always preoccupined. Preoccupied! Good grief, I’m not good with words,” Anna raged as her steed raced through the wood.

Anna then was suddenly hit with a realization.

Now was the first time in forever that anyone had cared about her more than their own self. Mama and Papa may have cared, but no one kept such a close watch over her as Elsa did now.

Anna’s anger dissipated quickly as she understood that her sister was trying to keep her safe because she loved her.

However, as the pair approached a log that had fallen over the trail, Kjekk was already inconsolable from his stress at Anna’s previous outbursts.

At that moment, Kjekk came to a stop mid-run and reared up on his back legs.

“WOAH!” Anna screamed as she held on tightly to the reins. “Stop, Kjekk!” Suddenly the horse bucked, and Anna flew off, landing directly on her arm.

“AHHHH!” she screeched, clinging tightly to her arm. The horse turned and fled in the direction of the castle.

Anna managed to wipe away a few tears with her good arm to take a look at the other. It was covered in blood and she found that whenever she moved it, a blistering pain shot through it.

She looked under her arm and there was a large, sharp rock. Anna winced and felt the sting of the cut. Tears welled up in her eyes at the pain and they streamed down her cheeks.

“Ow,” she whined hopelessly. Anna glanced around the forest, trying to pinpoint where exactly she was.

Suddenly, a fact that didn’t seem so important before, suddenly took more priority than anything else.

Where was she and how would she ever get back home?

………………………………………………………………………………………………………

“Hi, Elsa! Where’s Anna?” Olaf questioned as he bounded playfully into Elsa’s study. Elsa looked up and furrowed her brow in concern. She glanced out the window and noted that it was dark out.

“Is she not in the castle?” Elsa asked Olaf with a worried expression.

Elsa had been lying low since Anna’s outburst. The truth is that Elsa felt absolutely horrible. She never meant to make Anna feel inferior or anything of that sort. She simply wanted to protect her. The fresh cut that was Anna’s sacrifice still deeply wounded her. She had just been trying to prevent her sister from any more deadly experiences.

She had spent the entirety of her time in her study since she last saw Anna. She had missed dinner and had halfway expected Anna to come in and say something to her about the previous happenings.

“No… I looked all over for her,” Olaf said, his smile beginning to fall as Elsa began to more visibly panic.

“Are you okay?” he implored innocently with a bit of worry in his voice.

Elsa stared out the window in horror and fear as the icy cold fear began to course through her veins.

She never should have allowed Anna to ride on that horse.

Elsa spared Olaf a short glance in the midst of her nigh hysteria.

“Anna’s in trouble,” Elsa said simply, before taking flight through the castle. In a manner quite similar to before, Elsa burst down the stairs and blasted out the door.

She stopped for a moment at the gates and looked to the guards standing on the wall.

“Has Anna come home since her ride with her horse?!” Elsa shouted desperately, dreading the answer that she so feared she would receive.

“No, your majesty. We haven’t seen her,” the one on the right replied apologetically. Elsa shook her head, staring out into the dark town, and she felt her ice begin to creep around her feet.

Elsa’s eyes remained wide with fear. She had to find her somehow.

But Elsa knew she wouldn’t be fast enough if Anna was in any sort of dire situation. She began hyperventilating with all the fearful visions flashing through her head.

However, the worst of those images was that of wolves in the forest. Angry, hungry wolves.

Dismissing that thought as soon as it entered, Elsa tried to focus on the thought that Anna was likely in the town somewhere and preoccupied with something in a shop.

But she couldn’t silence the nagging voice in her mind that perpetually insisted that Anna was in the forest.

Suddenly, she saw a large figure racing toward her. She watched, horrified as it drew closer.

As it entered the light of the path nearing the castle, she came to the realization that it was Anna’s horse. It rushed by her speedily and her hair blew with the wind it left in its wake.

At that moment, a thought occurred to Elsa. Kjekk knew where he left Anna. If Elsa could somehow get that information from his memories. If only she could speak to horses…

Elsa put her hands in front of her and concentrated on all the love, concern, and every emotion she held for Anna. She poured those feelings wholeheartedly into her creation.

She watched as her figure contorted itself into a large snow being. Elsa moved her hands so that the figure formed four legs and a sturdy, stout neck.

Finishing her masterpiece, Elsa shoved a piece of her essence into the snow creature.

As she stood there, her chest heaving, the great snow equine opened its eyes to stare into that of its creator.

It had beautiful icy blue eyes that Elsa felt were looking into her very soul. It seemed to understand her entirely and even appeared to mirror her emotions at the moment.

There was an immediate connection between the two and it trotted past her to Kjekk.

Elsa turned to watch her steed as it, with one stare, calmed Anna’s horse. They both exchanged several strange grunting noises. Elsa furrowed her brow. Before long, the snow creature turned to rush toward her. It threw a glance at her and she understood it immediately.

It wanted her to get on.

The horse bent down and she mounted her easily. When she was securely rested on its back, she held on tightly, knowing that her creation would take flight as soon as she was mounted.

Suddenly, with a burst of speed that Elsa didn’t know was possible to reach, her snowy steed rushed forward the way from which that Anna’s horse came.

Elsa clung onto the soft, silky mane of the creature as well as she could. She watched helplessly as the animal zig-zagged through town.

If Elsa would have been on a leisurely ride, she would’ve noted the beauty of Arendelle at night. The soft glow of street lights lit by candles and the serene scene of people quietly wandering about.

People that were wandering in the path of her creation that was running like a bat out of nowhere.

“Watch out!” Elsa shouted as they were quickly approaching a man and a woman. They quickly parted on opposite sides. The beast charged between them quickly.

Elsa’s eyes widened as they suddenly took a left around the edge of a house. She looked ahead and saw exactly where they were headed: the forest.

The steed then turned and took her on a small trail that led into the thick of the trees. Elsa ducked down a bit so that she wouldn’t hit her head on any branches.

After not too many moments, they reached a divide in the road. While Elsa expected to continue on the main road, her mount had different plans.

Elsa yelped as it jerked almost violently in its desperate attempt to get to their location. When she felt herself sliding off one side, the creature shook a bit in the opposite direction, repositioning her.

To her surprise, the animal stopped just short of a log crossed over the road. Elsa, knowing that this was the place, slid off quickly and scanned the ground through the trees.

There was no one in sight and the only sounds she could hear were her own panicked breathing mixed with the anxious hoofs beating on the ground behind her.

The desperation was building within her and she felt an almost overpowering need to let loose with a scream.

Originally, she tried to hold it back. She didn’t want to frighten the horse, after all. But then it occurred to her that the horse was basically her in a foreign body. Elsa turned to look into its eyes.

Inside the swirling blue orbs were multiple emotions. There was fear, guilt, worry, and love combined into the complicated emotions that she held for Anna.

Elsa knew immediately that it would understand and would not be spooked in the least. So she released one of the loudest screams she’d ever had.

“ANNA!!!! Where are you!” Elsa screeched.

There were several moments of silence following her outburst. Just as Elsa was about to break down completely, she heard something.

“Elsa?” a weak, sleep-addled voice sounded somewhere to her left. She snapped her head to the side. There in the ditch was a dark figure resting at a strange angle.

“Anna?!” Elsa questioned, hoping and praying that the person in the ditch was her sister.

“Elsa! Oh, thank goodness you’re here,” Anna answered, relieved. Elsa felt a sudden wetness on her cheeks, but didn’t bother to wipe it.

“Oh, Anna!” Elsa lit a bright blue light in her hand and rushed over to her fallen sister. She huddled down in the ditch with the redhead and brought the younger girl into a tight hug.

“My baby sister.” Elsa held her tightly as the tears streamed down her face. She rocked the girl back and forth in her arms, relishing the feel of her sister’s warm and most importantly breathing body.

“I’m so glad you’re okay, Sunshine.” Then it occurred to the blonde that she hadn’t checked if Anna was completely okay. And she felt some sort of strange moisture on her elbow.

“Anna?” Elsa pulled away and shone her light on her elbow. Her eyes widened in horror as she came to the realization that it was blood smeared all over her limb. Elsa immediately turned the magic’s light to Anna.

“You’re bleeding!” Elsa cried in shock, staring at the blood coating her sister’s arm.

“Yeah, please don’t touch it,” Anna winced as Elsa attempted to feel her arm.

“How badly does it hurt?”

“Pretty bad,” Anna said and tried to move it a bit. As soon as she did, however, Elsa noted that a look of extreme pain shot onto her face. “AH! Jeez Louise, that hurts!” Anna grounded out in pain. Elsa took hold of her sister’s face between her hands gently.

“Look, don’t move, okay? I’m going to cover it in a layer of snow to stop the bleeding now,” Elsa reassured as comfortingly as she could manage as inwardly she was experiencing quite possibly the most extreme wave of terror she had all night. She waved her shaking hands and gently coated Anna’s arm in snow so that the bleeding would stop.

“How long has this been bleeding?” Elsa asked, halfway to herself.

“Don’t worry, I had gotten it to stop an hour or two back,” Anna responded, her voice strained with the pain she felt. Elsa glanced up into Anna’s comforting face that was slightly contorted with pain.

“Can you try moving it, Anna?” Elsa asked, testing and trying to see if Anna’s injury was as serious as she feared. Anna tried to move it and as soon as she did she cried out in agony.

“Okay, okay. Anna, what I’m about to do is going to hurt. Do you trust me?” Elsa questioned, dreading what she was about to do.

“Of course, Elsa, I trust you completely,” Anna expressed with complete warmth and love evident in her voice.

“Alright…” Elsa formed ice and grabbed onto her sister’s arm.

“Ready?” Elsa hoped and prayed that Anna wouldn’t be too loud so that something unsightly wouldn’t be attracted to their position. Anna simply nodded and Elsa could see the trepidation as well as the determination in the younger girl’s gaze.

Elsa nodded in response and began to pull slowly and increased her pressure gradually.

“Elsa, Elsa, Elsa, ELSA!!! It hurts! OH, GOSH! It hurts bad!” Elsa felt the tears slip down her face in response to Anna’s agony, but continued until she heard the arm slip back into its proper place.

Elsa then immediately had the ice on Anna’s hand spread to cover Anna’s shoulder and the entirety of her arm in a cold splint.

“Anna, does it feel any better? I need you to tell me honestly. This is vitally important,” Elsa informed her.

“Yes, it feels a lot better than it did.” Elsa let out a breath of relief that she didn’t even know she had been holding. Elsa placed her hands on Anna’s face and kissed her sister’s forehead, allowing her lips to linger there for a few moments. She pulled away and placed a few more kisses on Anna’s face, finally stopping after kissing the younger girl’s nose.

Elsa reached under Anna’s knees and supported her back with another hand as she lifted carefully.

Anna wrapped her good arm around Elsa’s neck and allowed the splinted one to rest on her stomach. Elsa trudged out of the ditch and was immediately met with the sight of her snowy creation.

“Elsa,” Anna breathed in fascination and wonder. Elsa glanced at her sister and a ghost of a smile found its way on her lips at the childlike expression of glee on Anna’s face.

Anna extended a hand and the horse immediately pushed its head into her grasp.

“Elsa, it’s… it’s you!” Anna said, absolutely enamored. Elsa nodded, a loving smile finally coming onto her face.

The animal suddenly seemed giddy with excitement and happiness and it nibbled at Anna’s braids and huffed on her face, nuzzling her. Anna giggled, thrilled with Elsa’s snow beast.

“Yes, it is. And she loves you dearly, Anna,” Elsa stated contentedly.

“Just like you do,” Anna connected the dots, looking into Elsa’s slightly more matured features.

Elsa nodded warmly, but immediately remembered Anna’s injury after glancing at her. Elsa decided that it was definitely time to take Anna back to the castle for an inspection by the doctor.

“Come on,” Elsa said, approaching the side of the steed. She immediately knelt down so that Anna could be placed on her large, strong back. Elsa placed Anna on the horse and got on behind her. Without even telling the animal, it began trotting at a pace just fast enough to arrive at the castle in not too extensive of a time but not so fast that it would jostle Anna.

The redhead leaned back against her sister and rested the back of her head on the eldest’s shoulder in relaxation.

Elsa smiled in relief. At least her sister was alright.

………………………………………………………………………………………………………

“Elsa, I need to talk to you about something,” Anna confessed. Elsa turned her gaze from her reading and to the girl lying in her bed beside her.

“Hmm?” Elsa hummed in response, placing the book on the nightstand beside the bed. After looking at Anna’s face, she knew that Anna had something serious to talk about.

Anna had possibly the most solemn expression that Elsa had ever seen on her face. It was a very strange contrast to her usual bubbly countenance.

“I’m sorry, Elsa. I shouldn’t have flown off the handle earlier. If I wouldn’t have been so angry- for absolutely no reason, might I add- maybe none of this would have happened.” Elsa’s eyes softened, and a sad smile found its way on her face.

She knew this conversation would appear soon. She just hadn’t expected it just yet. As ridiculous as it was, Elsa had actually halfway hoped it never would be brought up and that they could continue with their life as if nothing happened.

“Anna, Sunshine, I shouldn’t have treated you like you a child. Then you wouldn’t have been so upset. I’m the one that caused you to hurt your arm,” Elsa said, her voice guilt-laden and she couldn’t help but cross her arms over her stomach in a self-protective gesture that had become one of her telltale signs of insecurity.

“Elsa, it’s not your fault at all. I shouldn’t have been so quick to react. I know you’re just trying to protect me.” Elsa glanced at her sister with slightly worried blue eyes. All she could see in the youngest’s gaze was pure adoration coupled with a smile dampened by the gravity of their current conversation.

Elsa sighed and gently threaded her fingers through Anna’s hair. It was very soft and velvety. She could touch it all day.

“I haven’t had anyone try to protect me in more than thirteen years ago. Mama and Papa pretty much didn’t care what I did because they were so busy trying to do their duties and whatnot,” Anna continued, her tone a bit guarded and very gentle. Elsa knew that Anna was trying to avoid saying the truth.

“You mean because they were so busy trying to keep my secret,” Elsa couldn’t help but allow to slip past her lips. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see Anna’s struggle with the words.

“You were the only person that’s ever tried to protect me like this. I’m just not used to it, I guess,” Anna admitted, finally deciding to avoid Elsa’s previous statement.

“I can’t lose you, Anna,” Elsa confessed, using the hand in Anna’s hair to pull her closer to the eldest’s body. “You’re my everything. And…” Elsa swallowed, struggling with her next words. It was certainly foreign releasing such deeply-hidden feelings. “I don’t think I could go on in the world without you.”

“Elsa… is that the reason that you didn’t move when Hans was going to kill you?” Anna asked and the words cut through Elsa like a spear. She looked quickly at Anna. She was saddened terribly to see the worry and the fear swirling through Anna’s teal pools.

Elsa had hoped that Anna never made the connection that Elsa had heard the sword behind her. Well, since they were delving so deeply into feelings unsaid, then Elsa supposed that she might as well tell her sister the truth. After all, Anna deserved to know.

“Yes,” Elsa voiced so quietly that she was afraid that Anna hadn’t heard. Just as she was worried that she’d have to repeat herself, Anna responded.

“I can understand your decision. I can’t live in a world without you either.” Elsa closed her eyes, mulling over this fact. It didn’t surprise her in the least that Anna felt that way. But it didn’t necessarily mean that Elsa agreed with those feelings.

“Anna, I need you to promise me something. Can you promise me that if something were to happen to me, you’d continue living?” Elsa asked. She knew it was an unfair request. But she also knew that Anna had to live above all else.

“Can you promise me the same thing?” Anna threw the question back at Elsa. At that moment, Elsa knew that the promise would be impossible to accomplish for either of them.

“I don’t make promises I can’t keep,” Elsa settled on saying after several silent beats.

Anna nodded, accepting the answer. It was an unsaid knowledge that neither would be able to keep that promise.

“Elsa, thank you,” Anna suddenly stated out of nowhere.

“For what?” Elsa asked, albeit surprised.

“For loving me and caring enough about me to give up everything.”

“Sunshine, you don’t have to thank me for that,” Elsa responded heartfeltly, feeling love and adoration for her sister swell in her chest.

“Yes, I do. You’re the best sister ever,” Anna expressed, nestling into the blonde’s side.

“No, that can’t be right because you’re undoubtedly the best one,” Elsa negated Anna’s previous statement with a growing smile on her face.

“I love you, Elsa.”

“I love you most, Anna.”

#Frozen #elsa #anna #anna of arendelle #elsa of arendelle #snow sisters #sister #sisters #sis #family #fam #familial

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toboldlyblahblahblah · 6 years ago

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Your gifs are beautiful and so clear! Have you ever done a tutorial on how you get them so flawless and well lit? Like esp DS9 and TNG gifsets! I love your work so much!

@maylovelies

Wow! Okay, for starters: Thank you so much! I really, REALLY appreciate the kind words and the time you took to send this! I really enjoy making gif sets and I’m always so glad to hear that people like how I edit mine.

To answer your question, yes, I have made a tutorial post in the past, but the method I used back then I’ve strayed from a bit, recently. Some of it I still use, but in reference to lighting and getting them to look a little more high quality, there are some other techniques I’ve been working with lately and really enjoying the results…

I can walk you through with a new example.

Here’s a quick gif from a scene of DS9:

and I’ll do a rundown on how I got it to look like this:

Going to put the rest of this below the cut, though, because it’s significantly longer than my last tutorial-based answer…

So! One trick is to not be afraid to stack up a few adjustment layers of the same variety, sometimes even duplicates of the exact same layer, on top of each other. The reason I do this is because wild adjustments on a single adjustment layer are a lot less controlled and will often effect the wrong parts of the scene’s lighting (by that I mostly mean shadows v highlights).

I edit for light first, personally. Here’s where I am after doing those corrections

Already looking a lot better and clearer. This was done using three adjustment layers.

The curves layer is just a basic “lighter” preset that you can find from the drop down menu once you open a new curves layer

The levels layer I start by using the preset “lighten shadows”

at that point the image looks very washed out and grainy

(still image)

so from there i just messed with the layer a bit until I liked it a little more, added some contrast and adjusted the distribution of light, etc.

which got the image looking like this

(still image)

But I still thought that looked kind of washed out and flat, so, lastly, I added a completely custom exposure adjustment layer where I pushed up the gamma correction and exposure settings (you can also push the offset into the negative to get a secondary effect similar to gamma correction, but it’s very harsh and temperamental, at times. I wouldn’t recommend it for first-time use)

that gets us back to this lightness corrected gifset, which I’ll post again now

You can actually get a similar look by using just curves adjustments and their presets. Here’s what happens if you take three (3) layers with the same curves “lighter” preset (see above) and then one (1) curves layer with the “medium contrast” preset.

and the results are pretty similar

Each technique lends itself better to different scenes. And obviously with either method (or a combination of both as tends to be the case on super dark scenes - cough, mirror-universe episodes, cough) you can customize a lot from these presets to get the desired effect. They just give you a good jumping-off point…

Now the first thing I always notice about adding brightness to these scenes is that the tones get very warm and muddy, so from there I usually like to color correct next.

I like to bump my vibrance and saturation sliders up before color correcting, but I know a lot of people do it after. That’s really just a matter of personal preference.

There are a handful of ways to color correct, and, just like with the lighting methods above, I tend to mix and match the various adjustment layers. I’ll use Color Balance (as illustrated in my previous tutorial) and I’ll also now use Hue/Saturation layers and Selective Colors layers.

Honestly, color correcting / color grading alone could be its own tutorial so I won’t go very in-depth on that here. But just play around with the settings and find a method that works for you. (If you feel like you’d want a specific run through on that, just shoot me an ask and I can cover it some other time in more detail.)

My one recommendation to help you avoid the big rookie mistake I made when I first started doing this is that with the hue/saturation layers, never use the Master slider option; instead, click the drop down menu and work on each color individually.

So here’s where we’re at once I bumped up the saturation and then did my color corrected.

You may notice how sometimes color correction darkens an image and undoes some of the work you did earlier (in my experience, this usually happens when you have to add a lot of blue in the color balance layer) You’ve got two options here. Either go back in to the previous brightness adjustment layers and lighten up some of the contrasts, or put a new layer over top of latest color edits to add brightness back in over top. Again, this comes down to personal preference. Experiment with either version and do whichever works best for you.

Here’s after I brightened it back up a little again.

Subtle difference, but it’s how I prefer it for this scene. Plenty of times scenes don’t end up needing it at all.

So the gif is looking pretty solid from there. In some cases, I’d actually stop right here and just add the quote text to the bottom and call it a day. But if you really want to make it look HQ, there’s a few additional steps…

Firstly, it helps to keep the images smaller (a retread of something I said in that other tutorial too, I believe) but after that, there’s a way to sharpen all the layers and frames at once while also reducing “noise,” both of which improve the quality of a gif.

To do that, take your frames timeline at the bottom of photoshop and click the little icon that looks sort of like a funnel going through a bar graph…

If you have history window open, it’ll say “Convert to Timeline” after you’ve done this, and instead of frames you’ll see a bunch of short purple lines instead of the gif’s individual frames. Don’t panic! That’s supposed to happen.

From this point, go to your layers window and select all of the layers that are frames of your gifs, which you can do by clicking the first layer - holding shift - then scrolling up to click the final layer - then releasing shift. They should all have the little eyeball icon on next to them, indicating that they’re all active. Then, right click the top layer and from the pop-up menu click “convert to smart object”

When you do this, all of the layers compress into one Smart Object with the name of the top layer.

Again, don’t panic!, you didn’t lose the other layers they’re just now all going to be affected by the sharpen filter instead of having to be edited one at a time.

Now, go to the top ribbon in Photoshop and in the drop down menus, go “Filter” > “Sharpen” > “Smart Sharpen…” and click that.

A little window will pop up that gives you a preview of how this filter will impact your image.

**notice that the smart sharpen preview does not show color and lighting corrections; that’s fine & because we are not applying this smart filter to any of our adjustment layers.

And what you do from here is again a matter of personal preference. Raise the sharpening amount too much and the image starts to look crinkly, have the noise reduction too high and all the detail gets smudged away.

Here’s an example of what happens if youwere to crank both the sharpness and the noise reduction all the way up:

(still image)

And I guess there’s maybe a place and time where something with this aesthetic would work for a particular scene or edit, but generally, I like to keep the settings pretty low. Sometimes, less really is more…

For a 268x200px gif of an 80′s or 90′s Trek show, I keep Reduce Noise at 10% and have the sharpening anywhere from like 85-150, depending on how much I’ve cropped in on the original camera crop. But for this gif, where I didn’t zoom in very much at all and pretty much kept it how the original videography framed her, keeping it around 95-115 works nicely.

When you’re done, click OK.

Now that Smart Object looks like this

And that’s pretty much it! Now, when you export your gif from Photoshop, it’ll look something like this:

The one thing you have to remember about this technique (and this is something that still trips me up from time to time, myself) is that when you export, it doesn’t automatically set the gif to loop forever. Instead, it’s set to “Once.” To fix that, when you click through “Export” > “Save to Web (Legacy)” and the Web window pops up, go to the bottom right corner and above the “Save” button there’s a drop down menu in the “Animation” section. Click there and switch from Once to Forever.

And there you have it! Start to finish, that’s how I make my HQ gif sets!

I know it seems like a ton of work for one lousy gif and super overwhelming at first and hard to remember, but once you get into the swing of things it all becomes very second nature.

So thanks for asking and thanks for reading. Hopefully this was helpful, please let me know if you got anything out of it.

And, of course, feel free to reach out with any other questions or requests. I’ll always try to do the best I can and answer. ♥

#gif tutorial #gif making #photoshop #photoshop tutorial #ds9 #tutorial #answer #gif making tutorial #hq gifs tutorial #maylovelies

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chuffyfan87 · 6 years ago

Text

Temptation. Part A.

Set after Series 3, Episode 5.

-x-

Charlie's eyelids felt heavy and it hurt to move his eyeballs. He tried to focus. His mouth tasted like something had crawled into it and died there. His head was throbbing. How much had he had to drink last night? More to the point, where had he even been last night? Focus, focus! A fragment of a memory resurfaced - the pub! Right, he'd been to the pub with the others from work. Why had he gotten so drunk? A wave of sadness washed over him. Ewart. They'd decided to have their own wake for him after the family had decided they didn't want any of them at the funeral. Ewart's death had affected them all but it had been seeing the broken looks on Duffy and Megan's faces that had spurred him on to organise something. It was hurting his head too much to remember anything more though so he gave up and decided to go back to sleep for a while.

Duffy opened her eyes briefly but shut them again quickly as the tilting of the room made her stomach churn. She tried to focus on her breathing, willing the nausea to settle. She feared her legs wouldn't carry her the few short steps to her bathroom and she really didn't feel like clearing up the mess of vomiting all over her bedsheets. Her head felt like it was about to explode as she rolled over and curled up into the fetal position, clutching her stomach. It was her own fault for mixing her drinks, she knew better than to do that! She risked opening her eyes again and found herself staring at a closed door a few feet away from the bed. What? Her bedroom door was on the other side of the room. Surely she hadn't been so trashed last night that she'd decided to rearrange the furniture in her bedroom on a sudden whim? She attempted to lift her head to see what else she had moved but that turned out to be a very bad idea indeed as almost instantly she felt the vomit begin to rise up her throat. Oh shit! She slumped out of the bed, clutching one hand tightly over her mouth as she crawled along the carpet trying desperately to get her barings before it was too late. Where the hell was everything? She spotted a bin and lunged for it, barely grabbing hold of it and bringing it towards her face in time before she was violently sick.

The sounds of vomiting roused Charlie once again from his drunken slumber. For a brief second he feared he'd vomited in his sleep but then he heard the noise again. It seemed to be coming from the direction of his desk. He slowly pushed himself up to sitting, his head feeling like it could fall off his shoulders at any moment as he did so. He wasn't alone, that was for sure! His companion was turned away from him however so at first her identity was a mystery. He forced his eyes to focus. Whoever she was, her skin was pale and scattered with freckles. She possessed a shapely figure too. If only he could see her face but that was obscured by her red hair and the bin she was vomiting into. Red hair... Oh shit! No! He hadn't, had he?

Turning away from her he got out of bed, wobbling slightly as he bent down to pick up his boxers and put them back on. He also picked up his shirt. He stumbled across the room and lowered himself awkwardly to sit next to her on the floor. He draped his shirt around her as best he could and rubbed her back. She was no longer vomiting but still occasionally retching and hiccuping.

"Shh, its OK. You'll be alright soon." He reassured her softly.

On hearing Charlie's voice, and feeling his hand on her back, several thoughts raced through Duffy's brain all at once. Why was Charlie here? Where was here? How had she gotten wherever here was? What the hell had happened last night? Lowering the bin to the floor she looked up tentatively. He was sat next to her wearing just his boxers. Her brain suddenly registered her own lack of clothing. She felt very self conscious and tried to wrap the shirt around herself. Oh shit! Her mind went blank. What the hell was she going to say to him?

Sensing her discomfort he staggered back to his feet. "I'll go get a flannel so you can... Um... Er..." His words trailed off as he stumbled out the bedroom. As the door closed behind him, Duffy dropped her head into her hands. She felt so embarrassed. How had she let this happen?

Entering the bathroom Charlie closed the door behind him and lent back against it, closing his eyes briefly. He was such an idiot! He should have known better. He was almost 10 years older than her and he was her boss for goodness sake! He had a responsibility to behave properly towards her. Put a few drinks inside him though and all that went straight out the nearest window! A few drinks was all it took for him to be totally unable to resist the charms of his gorgeous, vivacious, headstrong best friend. He sighed, she let few people see the vulnerability that lay behind the facade she presented the world. He'd had to work to gain her trust and when he had he'd discovered something so delicate and precious. He wanted nothing more than to protect her and care for her but she was far too stubborn to allow that. What now though? Had he ruined everything between them as a result of being unable to control his desires for her or would she be willing to give them a chance?

Sighing once more, he grabbed the flannel from the side of the sink and ran it under the tap before squeezing it out and taking it with him back to his room. He was about to walk in when he stopped. What if she wasn't yet dressed again? He took his hand from the handle and knocked on the door. There was a lengthy pause before he heard her voice telling him that he could come back into the room. As he entered he saw that she looked confused.

"Why did you knock? It's your house..."

She was now laid back on the bed, one hand massaging her forehead and the other holding her stomach awkwardly.

"Do you still feel sick?" He queried gently.

"A little," she replied. "But I don't think there's anything left in my stomach to come out."

He handed her the flannel and then crossed the room to grab a t-shirt from one of the drawers. He put it on and then perched on the edge of the bed near to where she was laid. Looking over at her he watched as she wiped her face with the flannel before placing it on the bedside table. It was then that he realised that she was still wearing his shirt, though she had put it on properly and made an attempt to do up the buttons. He didn't understand why she hadn't simply quickly redressed while he was out the room so she could make a quick getaway.

"I think..."

"Look about..."

They both spoke at the same time. She blushed and briefly closed her eyes whilst he cleared his throat awkwardly and spoke again. "Um, I think we need to talk about what happened last night, don't you?"

"Yes..." She replied hesitantly.

"So we went to the pub..."

"I'm so sorry I was late getting there." She interrupted him.

"You were! You never said why though."

She blushed again and bit her lip. "I overslept..."

He raised an eyebrow at her. "You usually start work then..."

"I went dress shopping in the morning and I'm not used to being up so much in the day so, well, I had a nap." She shrugged.

"Oh, OK. Well, you looked... Nice..." He mumbled.

She couldn't stop herself from giggling. "Just 'nice'? Well thanks Charlie!" She rolled her eyes at him. Silence descended over them for a few moments until Duffy giggled again. "I can't believe that Kuba insisted we all drink vodka shots!"

"Polish tradition I think he said it was."

"I should have just stuck to wine." She grumbled.

"Well you nicked my whisky at some point too."

"No I didn't! I swear you gave it to me."

"Oh yes, we swapped drinks didn't we? That wine you were drinking was awful!"

She shrugged. "It was the nicest one I could afford."

A sudden thought occurred to Charlie. "I hope Megan is OK. It's all hit her pretty hard."

"You're right. Megan and Ewart were like a proper mum and dad..." Her voice trailed off as she started to sniffle and hiccup.

Charlie reached out his hand towards her but then stopped himself. He began to recall a similar conversation from the previous evening. She'd started to cry as they'd been walking back to her flat. They'd been near his house at the time so he'd suggested they pop over there til she calmed down. He moved his hand back to rest on the bed beside him. He should keep his distance.

"I'm surprised she didn't insist you got a taxi home with her."

"She wanted me to but I was hungry."

He laughed. "Oh yeh, you made me buy you a curry!"

"Did I? Well that explains why my throat burns!"

"I did try and convince you that it might not be the best of ideas but you insisted!"

"Best not tell Megan you let me make myself sick. She'd not be pleased with you!"

"Well to be honest Duffy I wasn't exactly planning on mentioning any of this to Megan..!"

"Um... Yeh... Probably best." She cleared her throat. "So we came here and I ate my curry. Actually I'm pretty sure you ate half of it."

"You started complaining that it was making your stomach hurt coz it was spicy and then, well, you burst into tears again."

"Sorry about that, I'm not normally so..."

"Hey its OK, its been a tough few days for all of us." He gave her a reassuring smile.

"You said pretty much the same thing last night when you gave me a hug." She said tentatively.

He shrugged. "Well, it's true." He looked away. "That was when I... Um... I'm sorry, I didn't mean to... I shouldn't have... It was wrong of me..." He stammered.

Duffy was deeply hurt by his words. "You didn't mean to kiss me, it was a mistake? Is that what you're saying Charlie?" She replied sharply.

#chuffy #charlie and duffy #charlie fairhead #lisa duffin

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