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gamergirl929 · 4 years

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No Matter Where You Are (You'll Always Have My Heart) (Julie Johnston x Reader)

Anonymous Request: Could you do one where reader and JJ have been dating since college? Bonus points if it has smut but if it doesn't fit the story it's okay

PLUS...

Anonymous Request: Can you write a Julie x reader fic where Julie gets jealous.

Decided to add these two together into one nearly 5,000 word ficccc! I hope both requesters enjoy!

Implied smuttt

The first thing you hear as you make your way through the airport is a high-pitched squeal, everyone around stopping to turn towards the source of the sound.

You beam, opening your arms, waiting for the blonde sprinting your way to get to you.

She slams into you, her lips pressing against yours.

“Well nice to see you too.” You say in between kisses, Julie Johnston kissing your lips over and over and over again, only ceasing when she can’t stop grinning.

“I missed you so much.” She whispers, burying her face in your chest, the woman inhaling your scent greedily.

You duck down, burying your nose in her blonde locks, nuzzling into the top of her head.

“I’ve missed you too.”

Julie’s embrace is warm, a warmth that spreads to your heart, your chest feeling lighter than it had in the last 4 months that you’d been without the woman.

Your job took you overseas at times, a job the woman in your arms wasn’t aware, that you’d currently transferred from, a job you could now do while traveling along with Julie, or staying at home in Chicago.

The two of you pull apart, both leaning in again to close the gap between you, the two of you smiling against one another’s lips.

“I love you.” You whisper against the woman’s lips, the woman beaming as she wraps her arms around your neck.

“I love you too Y/N.”

A wolf whistle pulls the two of you apart, your eyes snapping open at roughly the same time, Julie rolling her blue orbs in annoyance.

Julie groans, burying her face in your chest, the woman nuzzling into your collarbone.

“I see you invited some friends.” You grin as Kelley O’Hara and the rest of the USWNT waves excitedly your way.

“Just some.” Julie whispers against your chest.

“Well? You plan on introducing me?” You ask, the blonde pulling back to look up at you with a grimace.

“I hope you’re ready...” She teases and you nod, eyes narrowed as you stare at the women, some who are currently dancing in the middle of the airport.

You shake your head with a chuckle.

“Oh, I think I’m ready.”

Julie takes your hand, her fingers tangling with yours as the two of you move towards the group of excited women.

Unsurprisingly, you’re not even to the group before Crystal and Alyssa meet you halfway, your hand leaving Julie’s as Crystal pulls you into a bear hug, whereas Alyssa wraps her arms around the two of you, giving you both a squeeze.

“Nice to see you both too.” You laugh, giving Crystal a tight squeeze before you wrap your arms around Alyssa, the goalie giving you a squeeze.

“Julie’s been talking about this for a month.” She whispers in your ear and you chuckle, turning to Julie who looks as if she’s threatening the group of women you’ve yet to meet.

Tierna makes her way over to you, throwing her arms around you giving you a hug.

“Did you tell her yet?” She whispers in your ear, Crystal and Alyssa leaning closer to the two of you.

You shake your head.

“No, I’m going to tell her tonight.”

Crystal claps her hands excitedly.

“Do it at dinner! I want to see her face when you tell her.” She grins, Alyssa and Tierna nodding in agreement.

You nod, watching Julie out of the corner of your eye, the blonde turning to you, blue orbs sparkling as a grin spreads across her face.

“I think I can do that.”

Your vision to your girlfriend is cut off when someone slips between the two of you, that someone grinning, that someone being Kelley O’Hara.

“SO, you’re Y/N.” She grins, the woman’s eyes narrowing slightly.

“Th-That’s me.” You grin nervously, the woman’s other teammates joining her.

“Nice to finally meet who Julie goes on about all the time.” Tobin grins, and Christen nods.

“It’s cute how much she talks about you.”

You turn to Julie, the woman’s cheeks flushing red.

“She goes on about you constantlyyyyyyyy.” Emily drones, earning a slap on the back of the head from Lindsey.

“Hey! I didn’t say that was a bad thing!” She winces, rubbing the back of her head.

“Hey she isn’t wrong.” Kelley shrugs, the woman too, being slapped on the back of the head by Alex.

“We’re really happy we’re finally getting to meet you.” She smiles.

“Yeah, we were about to just show up at your house in the off season.” Ashlyn shrugs and you grin.

“I can’t say I would’ve mind, but Julie sleeps until like 1 PM, sooo... OW!” You grimace when Julie grabs your ear.

“I do not sleep until 1! That’s you.”

You roll your eyes, slipping an arm around her and pulling her close.

“Only because you keep me up all night...” You smirk, Julie’s eyes widening as her cheeks flush blood red.

“With your snoring.” You finish, Julie, punching you in the side, her teammates watching, snickering.

“Yeah, I like her.” Megan grins, Ashlyn nodding as she throws an arm around her shoulders, everyone smiling as you duck down, kissing Julie’s forehead, the woman unable to bite back a grin.

“Me too.”

***

The second you and the mob of women settle at the restaurant’s dinner table, you slip an arm around your girlfriend, the woman smiling as she leans against you.

“I’m so happy I get to be here with you.” You whisper, kissing her temple, the blonde’s eyes fluttering shut.

“Me too.”

Julie’s blue orbs flutter open, the woman cupping your cheek and turning your head, her lips pressing tenderly against yours.

She grins, her thumb brushing your bottom lip, blushing when you press a kiss to the pad of her thumb.

“I love you.” She whispers and you grin.

“I love you too.”

Emily makes a wrenching noise, only to be punched in the arm seconds later by Lindsey, the woman sending her a glare.

“Let them be cute asshole.”

Emily scoffs.

“It’s my goal in life to fake vomit at any and everyone’s happiness.”

You snort, taking a sip of your drink.

“She sounds like me.” You whisper in Julie’s ear, the woman giggling as she slaps your chest.

“You’re a secret softie.”

You gasp.

“I am, NO softy.”

Julie rolls her eyes.

“You whine every time I leave bed to go for my morning run.”

You scoff.

“You get up WAY too early, and the bed’s cold without you.” You pout, Julie’s brow arching.

“See, softy.”

You shrug, your eyes darting around Julie’s face.

“Only for you.”

Julie’s cheeks flush, the woman’s head resting against your chest.

“So, how did you two meet? It was in college, right?” Ali asks with a smile and you grin.

“We went to college together, the lesbian fanfiction, roommate's trope.” You laugh. “Also, we WERE at a Catholic school.” You hum, Julie shaking her head.

“Hey lesbians can go to Catholic school.” Megan snorts and Kelley shrugs.

“That mostly happens in por- OW!” Kelley is stopped mid-sentence when Alex flicks her on the side of her head.

“No.”

“But Jan-”

“No.” Alex says again, and you bark out a laugh.

“That does sound like a porno.” You snort, Julie punching you hard in the arm.

You shake your head.

“It wasn’t like that honestly, we didn’t like each other.” You laugh, rubbing the back of your neck.

“Oh my god, how much more tropey could you get?” Ashlyn snickers, sipping her drink and stuffing a biscuit in her mouth.

“I know, right?” You laugh. “In the end, Julie found me irresistible, so...” You smirk cockily. “Here we are.”

Julie rolls her eyes, sending you a playful glare.

“That was NOT how it went.” She says, sticking her tongue out at you.

“Well, that’s how I remember it.” You snort, the two of you knowing full well, that’s NOT how you remembered it.

“More like you stopped being cocky and turned into a softy when I came to our room crying and drunk over some guy.” She shrugs and you growl.

“He was a prick.” You grumble angrily, smiling when Julie kisses your cheek.

“He was, but I had someone better than him, just took me a while to realize it.” She cups your cheek, turning your head until she can press a kiss to your lips.

“Wait...” Crystal clears her throat. “Didn’t you tell me he got his ass kicked?” She asks, and Julie giggles.

“I did. It was hilarious.”

A smirk stretches across Tobin’s face when she sees the look on yours.

“Ever figure out who did it?” She asks and Julie shakes her head.

“No, he wouldn’t sa- Wait.” Julie stops mid-sentence, the woman turning to you.

You grimace, grinning innocently.

“IT WAS YOU!?” She practically yells, everyone in the restaurant turning to the table.

You clear your throat, downing your drink in a single gulp.

“Hold on, but you looked fine.” She throws her hands in the air and you smirk.

“He was a bitch.” You say as you wipe your shoulders off, the blonde rolling her eyes, unable to bite her grin back.

“Yeah, I definitely like her.” Kelley nods, the defender earning a toothy grin.

“I take it you won the fight?” Carli asks and you nod.

“Wasn’t much of a fight to begin with.”

Julie giggles.

“So THAT’S why he wouldn’t even look my way for the rest of the year.”

You nod.

“I told him if he did I would...”

You go silent, glancing at Tierna.

“Cover your ears.”

The younger player scoffs.

“No!”

You huff, blowing a raspberry at the girl.

“Fine. Fine. I told him I would ummm...” You shrug, glancing at Julie. “Remove his iota of manhood.” You whisper.

A beat passes before the entire table erupts in laughter, each and every one of them doubling over with laughter, Julie giggling against your chest.

“That’s the funniest thing I ever heard.” Christen wipes the corners of her eyes and you shrug.

“He deserved it. No way was I going to let him get away with hurting JJ.” You say looking down at your girlfriend who picks her head up.

“That was WAY before we started getting along.”

Becky smirks.

“Oh god, you were crushing on her, weren’t you?” She asks and you grin innocently.

“Another trope down.” Ashlyn creates an invisible check mark in the air with her index finger.

“I guess we were meant then.” You smile lovingly at your girlfriend, the blonde’s cheeks flushing pink.

“I guess so.”

You glance at Crystal and Alyssa out of the corner of your eye, the two nodding as you clear your throat, reining in your courage.

“I uhhh, might have uhhh...” You swallow hard, taking a deep breath. “I have something I need to tell you.”

Julie’s eyes widen, brows knitting in confusion.

“Wh-What?” She asks nervously and you smile, cupping her cheeks before leaning in, pressing a kiss to the tip of her nose.

“It’s nothing to worry about.” You smile.

“I transferred.” You say, Julie’s eyes widening.

“Wait, what do you mean? Overseas?” She asks nervously, the brightness in her eyes dulling.

Your eyes widen.

“No, no, no.” You say, waving your hands around wildly, Julie catching them to stop your nervous flailing.

You take a deep breath.

“I meant, I transferred home...” You smile, Julie’s blue orbs lighting back up. “But I CAN travel...” You shrug, Julie’s grin nearly splitting her face in half.

“Oh?” She says innocently. “And where to?”

You hum.

“Wherever you are.” You grin, Julie pulling you in for a firm kiss, your lips slamming together.

“You’re serious?” She whispers and you nod.

“As long as you want me to come with you.” You shrug and Julie snorts.

“OF COURSE, I DO.” She giggles, pulling you in for another kiss.

You again part, reluctantly, grins plastered on both of your faces.

“So that means I can follow you to your next game?” You ask, the blonde nodding enthusiastically as she pulls you in for another kiss.

“Well yeah, you better.”

Julie’s teammates watch the two of you as you snuggle up to one another, whispering softly in one another’s ears.

“She’s so good for her, isn’t she?” Christen whispers.

The rest of the table are quick to agree.

***

It had been the first time in a WHILE that you were going to see a USWNT game live, and you couldn't wait.

“Ready?”

Your eyes widen as you’re pulled out of your trance by Julie’s voice.

The woman pulled some strings so you could sit closer to the action, meaning you get to sit in the VIP section.

“More than ready, I can’t wait.” You beam, Julie giggling as she leans over the seat between the two of you.

“Good luck kiss?” She asks, and you laugh.

“Don’t even have to ask.”

Your lips meet in a tender kiss, the woman pulling back only to lean back in, stealing another kiss before she follows her teammates to the locker room.

You sigh, leaning back in your seat, your fingers brushing the budge in your pocket.

Even though the game was simply a friendly, it was going to be one that everyone remembered, and the box in your pocket would definitely be the reason why.

***

Julie Johnston had been playing like she always had, but seeing it live was like something you never experienced.

You couldn’t remain seated because watching her was exhilarating, the woman sliding into players and swiping the ball over and over again.

Watching your girlfriend in action left you in utter awe, and when she sunk a header, you knew you were cheering the loudest in the arena.

Julie’s blue orbs dart to you as she celebrates with her team, the woman grinning as you blow a kiss her way, the woman giggling as she catches it.

You beam as play resumes, your girlfriend playing as if she hadn’t been playing for nearly 40 minutes.

The whistle blows soon after, signaling the end of the first half and you smile, your girlfriend jogging towards you, leaning over the seat to press a kiss to your lips.

“So, what did you think?” She asks, her tongue trapped between her teeth and you snicker.

“I think I know who my favorite player is.” You smile, leaning in to press another tender kiss to her lips.

“Oh, someone I know?”

“Johnston!”

The two of you turn to find Crystal, smirking at the two of you, her hands on her hips.

“You better get going before she carries you out.” You smirk, Julie rolling her eyes as she presses another kiss to your lips.

“See you in a bit?” She asks and you grin.

“I’ll be right here waiting.”

Julie pulls back with a giggle she and Crystal jogging toward the tunnel and eventually out of sight.

***

“Excuse me, Y/N?”

Your brows furrow as you turn around, your brows further furrowing when you see a reporter standing behind you.

“Umm, hi.” You smile.

“I was wondering if we could get a word?” She smiles and you chuckle.

“With me?” You ask again and she nods, eyeing you intently, in a way that makes your cheeks flush.

“It’s not every day we see Julie Johnston’s significant other at a game, just wanted to get your thoughts.” She winks and you hum.

“O-Okay.”

***

Julie’s eyes narrow as she watches the interviewer ogle you unashamedly.

The blonde lets out a growl and Tobin snorts.

“Don’t let Julie anywhere near that reporter when we get back on the field.” She whispers to Christen, the forward giggling.

“Down JJ.” Alex teases and she hums.

“She’s looking at Y/N like a starving lion.” Emily winces, eyes widening when Julie glares her way.

“Hey, don’t look at me, I’m not eyeing your wife.”

Julie’s eyes widen, her cheeks flushing blood red.

“She’s not...” She swallows hard. “We’re not...”

Emily winks.

“Not yetttttt...”

Julie smiles softly.

The thought of marrying you had crossed her mind daily, she wanted it, she wanted to be with you, and she wanted more than anything to be with you always.

Julie’s pulled out of her trance by a giggle, her eyes narrowing as she turns back to the TV, the reporter still ogling you as you talk.

“Let’s get back out to the field.” Vlatko claps his hands and Julie nods.

“Gladly.”

***

“Thank you so much for your interview Y/N, it’s a real honor having you here to-

The reporter stops mid-sentence when Julie appears out of nowhere, the woman’s arm slipping around your waist, her free hand moving to cup your cheek, turning your head so your lip can meet gently.

You kiss her softly, the two of you parting, neither going far as you tilt your head back and kiss her forehead.

“Thank you for your time Y/N.”

Julie smirks, watching as the reporter takes her leave.

Your eyes narrow as you watch her go, a grin stretching across your face.

“Was someone jealous?” You ask, the blonde rolling her eyes.

“No, I was NOT jealous of that...”

Julie’s mouth snaps shut at the look on your face, the woman huffing.

“Maybe a little, but she was staring at you like Kelley does at an all you can eat buffet.” She growls and you laugh, kissing the tip of her nose.

“I know and she didn’t even try to hide it.” You mumble, watching as Julie again glares at the reporter, letting out a tiny growl.

“Well, she won’t do it again.” She murmurs and you smirk, kissing her forehead.

“Oh, I know she won’t, not while you’re here.” You laugh. “Now go put a hurtin’ on Canada.”

Julie smiles.

“You’ve got it.”

***

Unsurprisingly, Julie, yet again tears the field up, playing the entire 90 minutes, the final resort being USWNT 3 Canada WNT 1, only a single ball making it passed Alyssa Naeher.

The final whistle blows and Julie sprints to you, the woman giggling as you meet her halfway, catching her as she jumps into your open arms.

Your lips meet in a tender kiss, the two of you parting when you, as per usual, can’t stop grinning.

“Were you showing off?” You ask, earning a giggle.

“Maybe just a little.”

You clear your throat, your hand unconsciously brushing the tiny box in your pocket.

“Jul-

You stop mid-sentence when Tierna comes flying out of nowhere, jumping on your back.

“We won!” She beams and you chuckle, Alyssa and Crystal joining the party, Alyssa patting your back.

“You made some great saves.” You smile, Alyssa smiling shyly.

You turn to Crystal.

“I guess you did okay.”

The woman rolls her eyes, giving you a playful shove, it’s then you realize that Julie has made her way across field to shake a number of Canadian player’s hands.

“I need to show you guys something.” You whisper, Tierna, Alyssa and Crystal leaning in close.

“What are we talking about?” Emily asks, appearing out of nowhere, Lindsey and the other children on her heels followed by Kelley.

“Yeah, what’s going on?” She asks, jumping on Alyssa’s back and you take a deep breath.

“Well...”

***

A number of squeals pull everyone’s attention, including Julie’s, across field to where you and a number of other USWNT players are standing, the group all huddled around you.

Julie’s brows furrow as she walks to you and the group, the group parting so you can make your way towards her, something clutched in your fist.

Julie frowns at the look on your face.

“Are you okay? You look like you’re going to puke...” Julie giggles and you clear your throat, nodding.

Julie’s brows furrow when she sees a number of her teammate’s giddily bouncing on their heels behind you.

“I know last night I told you I transferred so we could be together and I didn’t have to be so far from home, but there was something else I wanted to tell you...” You clear your throat, face pale.

“Seriously wha-

Julie’s blue orbs widen when her eyes settle on the small black velvet box in your hands.

Blue orbs fill with tears as they dart from your face, to the box and back.

“Y/N...” She whispers, her heart racing in her chest.

You stare at the velvet box for a moment, taking a deep breath before you sink to one knee, the fans in the crowd cheering loudly as the USWNT watch excitedly.

“I had planned on doing this earlier, but the timing just wasn’t right.” You smile softly, shyly.

“But here, at the first match I’ve gotten to see live in a long, long time, I think now the timing is JUST right.” You chuckle nervously.

Julie giggles as tears stream down her cheeks, your shyness as endearing as it always had been.

“I want to spend the rest of my life with you Julie Beth Johnston, I want to grow old with you.” You smile, Julie unable to hide her growing grin.

“I want to have kids with you.”

“I want to see the world with you.”

“I want to spend forever with you.”

You take a deep breath.

“You’re my forever JJ, so now, can I be yours? Julie Beth Johnston, will you do me the honor of becoming my wife?” You ask, opening the velvet box to reveal a diamond ring.

Julie immediately drops to her knees, the woman throwing her arms around your neck as she slams her lips against yours.

Tears stream down your own cheeks as your lips meet.

“Is that a yes?” You laugh against her lips, pulling back with a grin.

Julie kisses your lips again.

“YES! YES! A MILLION TIMES YES!”

You grin, surging in to kiss her lips again before you’re pulling back, taking the diamond ring out of it’s box and slipping it on her finger, the woman letting out a squeal.

The second the ring rests just above her knuckle she pulls back, cupping your cheeks and slamming her lips against yours, the cool feel of her engagement ring on your face.

Julie pulls back, resting her forehead against yours.

“You’re my fiancé.” She whispers and you grin.

“And you’re mine.”

Suddenly someone dives on your back and you groan.

“LET ME SEE THAT ROCK.” Megan grins, she Kelley and Ashlyn, along with Emily, Lindsey and the other youngsters straining to look at the ring on Julie’s finger.

You grin, watching as her teammate’s fawn over her ring, a number of camera’s zooming in on you and the USWNT mid-fielder, your hands finding purchase on her waist.

“You did good bud.” Alyssa pats your back.

“That proposal was so sweet.” Christen says, her hand over her heart.

“It was beautiful.” Alex grins, patting your back.

“I wanted to do this last night, but it just didn’t seem right... She loves soccer so much, and when she thinks about it, I want her to remember this moment.” You shrug, smiling when Julie turns back towards you, a grin taking up nearly half of her face.

“You’re always on my mind.” She whispers as she cups your cheek.

You grin, leaning in to kiss your fiancé’s lips.

“And you’re always on mine.”

***

You couldn’t help but blush when Julie abruptly declines going out with the others, her teammates smirking knowingly.

“Try not to have TOO MUCH fun.” Crystal teases and you groan.

“You just had to deny them so quickly.” You grumble under your breath and Julie giggles.

“Sorry?” She shrugs and you snort.

“You aren’t sorry at all are you?” You ask and the blonde shakes her head.

“Nope.”

Julie leans in pressing a kiss to your cheek, giving her teammates a grin before the two of you head to the elevator.

“Use protection!” Kelley screams and your cheeks redden, Julie’s cheeks equally red.

The two of you wordlessly get into the elevator, Julie’s fingers tangling with yours as she leans against you.

“So, Ms. Johnston, what do you have planned for our night?” You ask innocently, the blonde giggling.

“I don’t know, what did you have in mind?”

You hum.

“Sleep sounds fine.”

Julie scoffs, rolling her eyes as she takes your hand and drags you down the hallway towards you room.

“Shut up.”

You snort as the blonde eventually gets the door open, shoving you inside.

“What? Sleep was a very plausible respo-

Julie cuts you off, shoving you back against the hotel room’s door and kissing your lips passionately, the two of you only parting when the need for oxygen becomes too much.

Julie giggles when you scoop her up in the air, the blonde’s legs wrapping around your middle.

“I mean, this is better than what I had planned.” You smirk, Julie unable to hold back her laughter as you carry her to the bed.

You bury your face in her neck, playfully nibbling at her tanned flesh where you KNOW she’s ticklish.

You gently lay her on the bed, standing over the blonde with a grin, your eyes softening as you stare at your fiancé, the woman pushing herself up on her elbows she can look you in the eye.

“I love you.” She whispers, your lips splitting into a grin.

“I love you too...” You whisper, kicking your shoes off before you jerk your shirt over your head.

“Now let me show you how much.”

***

Making love to your eventual wife was different than it usually had been, you weren't just with your girlfriend, the woman you wanted to spend the rest of your life with, you were with your FIANCE, who wanted to spend the rest of her life with you too.

It’s in that moment, lying beside your future wife, entirely bare, the woman’s blue orbs locked with your Y/E/C orbs, you know that there’s no one you’d rather spend your eternity with than Julie Johnston.

Julie grins, pulling you forwards, her lips pressing tenderly against yours.

“I love you Y/N.” She whispers and you grin.

“I love you too.”

#uswnt x reader #uswnt imagine #julie johnstin x reader #julie ertz x reader #julie johnston imagine #julie ertz imagine

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f4liveblogarchives · 3 years

Text

Fantastic Four Vol 1 #294

Tue Jan 05 2021 [11:41 PM] Wack'd: Say goodbryne [11:41 PM] Bocaj: This is funny to me [11:42 PM] Wack'd: Oh. We may have already said goodbyrne [11:42 PM] Umbramatic: 🦀 🦀 Bryne is (almost) gone 🦀 🦀 [11:43 PM] Wack'd: Credits are Roger Stern on script, Jerry Ordway on pencils [11:43 PM] Wack'd: And Bryne only on "plot" [11:43 PM] Bocaj: I just saw on the wiki that-- yea [11:43 PM] Bocaj: He quit mid story [11:43 PM] Bocaj: Amazing. [11:43 PM] maxwellelvis: He must have left before turning in a--ah [11:44 PM] Bocaj: He really was just spinning his wheels at the end [11:44 PM] Bocaj: Amazing [11:44 PM] Umbramatic: rip in spagetii [11:44 PM] Wack'd: Not with a bang but with a whimper [11:46 PM] Bocaj: This was considered one of the best FF runs from what I get from the general mishmash of comic opinion [11:46 PM] Bocaj: I'm beside myself [11:46 PM] Umbramatic: of course [11:47 PM] Wack'd: There's a persistent school of thought in rock scholarship--I have learned from following people who are or fancy themselves rock scholars-- [11:48 PM] Wack'd: That the best way to measure success is through sales and popularity. If a band had those, they must've been good, and thus more worth studying, and we can reverse engineer what rock is quality that way [11:48 PM] Bocaj: Hm [11:48 PM] Wack'd: I can't help but see a similar thread in comics scholarship. Bryne was around for six years and his run is well-remembered, therefore, it must've been good [11:51 PM] Umbramatic: yep [11:51 PM] Wack'd: Roger Stern: not necessarily less racist

[11:52 PM] Bocaj: Unlike other, natural paving this paving is artificial [11:52 PM] maxwellelvis: "This cave is not a natural formation. Someone built it." [11:53 PM] Wack'd: Oh, this is actually really neat. Normy fighting styles inspired by the Fantastic Four

[11:54 PM] Wack'd: ...or not, I guess

[11:54 PM] Bocaj: This is some bonkers [11:55 PM] Umbramatic: welp [11:56 PM] Wack'd: Anyway a leader lady arrives and points out hey, these are your gods, stop fighting [11:56 PM] Wack'd: It immediately makes things awkward

[11:58 PM] Wack'd: Anyway it turns out the big black dome built to spare Central City from an eventual atomic fallout [11:59 PM] Wack'd: What does this have to with the Four? Uuuuuuh the guy who built it was an old friend of Reed's. Sure [11:59 PM] Wack'd: Anyway the dome is apparently gonna open and unleash all this madness to the rest of the world [12:00 AM] Bocaj: Cool, cool, cool [12:00 AM] Wack'd: Turns out the guy, Jessup, is still alive, but refuses to believe the Four are the genuine articles--or so he claims [12:00 AM] Wack'd: Okay

[12:00 AM] Wack'd: Well that was certainly something. I will not finish this story tonight [12:00 AM] Bocaj: I can't believe Reed is fuckin' dead [12:00 AM] Bocaj: Again [12:01 AM] Bocaj: Wait, aren't they looking for She-Hulk? [12:01 AM] Wack'd: Yeah uh Jessup captured her but refuses to elaborate [12:01 AM] Wack'd: I guess I should do a postmortem on Bryne of some sort but I think my feelings on him are pretty clear. He has a handful of good stories and he's a decent artist but overall he's an egotistical douchebag and astounding misogynist and I'm glad he's gone [12:01 AM] Bocaj: Postmortem: "Don't let the door hit you on your way to Superman" [12:01 AM] maxwellelvis: He'll be back with Marvel, though. [12:01 AM] Wack'd: He will be somebody else's problem

#1986 #John Bryne #(plot)#Roger Stern #(script)#Jerry Ordway #(pencils)#The Main Book

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maybeimamuppet · 4 years

Text

tale as old as time

Cady is sitting across from Janis at their lunch table on the last day before winter break, chattering excitedly about her plans for the holidays when Damian suddenly mopes his way over and plops his tray down next to her, sitting down with a quiet huff and picking at his pizza. Neither of the girls know quite what to do, Cady cutting off mid-word to look his way. Damian comes to lunch directly from his theater class, usually full of energy and excitement about whatever new thing he’d learned that day.

“What’s the matter, Dame?” Cady asks sadly, hugging him gently.

“They just announced the spring musical. They’re doing Beauty and the Beast.” He pouts.

“Are you still that hung up on Phillip?” Janis teases.

“Janis, don’t be mean! Damian’s sad,” Cady scolds, going full koala and trying to wrap her entire body around Damian’s torso. It doesn’t quite work due to their size difference, but she doesn’t let it stop her.

“Yeah Janis,” Damian responds jokingly, returning Cady’s embrace. “Damian’s sad.”

Janis and Damian stick their tongues out at each other, Janis moving to his other side to hug him as well. “Sorry Damie,” she says, genuine this time as she rests her head on his shoulder.

“It’s okay, I know you were joking. I’m just wondering if it’s worth it. I’ve already been in the show before, y’know? Do I really need to do it here?” He asks, resting his head against Janis’.

“Damian, you have to do it! It’s your last ever musical at North Shore,” Cady gasps, aghast at even the mere suggestion of him pulling out.

“Yeah, Dame, don’t you want that experience?” Janis asks, now more worried about him. She didn’t think it was still that big of a deal to him.

“I don’t know. I want to, but I just have so many, like, tainted memories of it now or whatever. I don’t know if I wanna put myself through that again.” He says morosely.

“What if I did it with you?” Cady asks, completely out of nowhere.

“What?” Janis asks, stunned.

“You would do that?” Damian questions, also quite shocked.

“Yeah! I’ve been wanting to try theater anyway, it sounds like fun. I probably won’t get a big part, but we can still hang out at rehearsals and stuff. We’ll make new memories!” She chirps excitedly.

“I’ll do something too, Dame. Mister Gordon already asked me to do set design, I’ll see if I can be stage manager too, maybe.” Janis adds. What the hell, she has nothing else going on.

“You guys are the best,” Damian says, patting both of their cheeks.

“We know,” Janis jokes, moving back to her side of the table. “Grab the audition stuff for Caddy and ask Gordon about managing for me.”

“Done. Wait, has Caddy even seen the movie yet?” He asks, suddenly serious.

“Nope!” Cady says, stealing one of his fries.

“How did we miss that one? It’s a classic. Both of you come over tonight, it’s movie night anyway. Bring your sleepover stuff.” Janis says definitively, pounding the table gently with a fist.

——-

All three art freaks sit nestled on the small couch in Janis’ basement, Cady in the middle practically shaking with excitement at the opening credits and no fewer than four bowls of popcorn and candy on the coffee table in front of them.

As the movie goes on, Janis is watching Cady more than she’s paying attention to the screen. She’s trying desperately not to think about how her crush is pressed so close against her, how she could easily just lean over and be cuddled up with her. For all the staring she’s doing, she doesn’t notice how tense Cady seems to be growing as the tale is told.

Damian says, “Adam!” exactly like the Vine when the prince finally reveals his face, making both Janis and Cady burst out laughing.

“He was hotter as a beast,” Janis mutters, watching the final few scenes.

“Jan, you’re gay.” Damian says.

“And? Tell me I’m wrong,” she challenges.

“Fair point. What did you think, Cads?” He asks, looking to her.

She seems frozen for a moment before she suddenly yells, “IT DOESN’T MAKE ANY SENSE!” and jumps to her feet, starting to pace back and forth.

“What do you mean?” Janis asks, glancing warily to Damian. They’ve never seen her this angry.

“The curse is either made permanent or has to be reversed by his twenty-first birthday, but in Be Our Guest Lumiere says they’ve been stuck like that for ten years, so the prince would’ve been what? Eleven when the enchantress showed up? He was a kid! He was absolutely right not to let some strange old hag into the castle! And why was he even answering the door in the first place? He’s the prince! They clearly had servants for that!”

“Okay, but-“

“And then why does he have a portrait and a bunch of stained glass of him as an adult if he was a kid when he was turned into the beast?! And also, he’s the prince! Where are the king and queen? Are they dead? Why does nobody talk about them?!”

“That’s fair-“

“AND when Gaston steals Belle’s book he asks how she can read it because there’s no pictures but when she was reading it by the fountain it showed that there clearly was a picture in it! And then- and then later Gaston just swallows a bunch of eggs! Whole! He doesn’t even crack them first, who does that?! And if he eats five dozen eggs every day, that’s twenty-one thousand, nine hundred eggs per year. The average chicken only lays three hundred eggs per year -don’t ask me how I know that- which means it would take a minimum of seventy-three chickens just to feed him!”

“Caddy-“

“And Maurice! He took a ‘shortcut’ to get to the fair, how is anything a shortcut if it goes in an entirely different direction?! That doesn’t work! The whole story could’ve been avoided if he just listened to the horse!”

Damian just silently passes a bowl of popcorn to Janis, as Cady shows no signs of stopping anytime soon and frankly her ranting is quite entertaining.

“And don’t even get me started on what goes on in the castle! Like when Cogsworth falls down and loses a bunch of gears, what were those supposed to be?! His kidneys? Did he break bones? What happens when Lumiere runs out of wax? Is he shorter when he turns human again? And can they feel what they do? Does Lumiere burn his hands a lot? Does Mrs. Potts feel like she’s drowning?”

She hasn’t noticed that they’re not even trying to interrupt her anymore.

“And then Chip! What’s his deal?! Where’s his dad? How old is he? He’s clearly younger than ten, so do they age while the curse is on? If not, then how does the timeline add up? And if they do, then how is he still a little kid? Also, who turns a little kid full of energy into fine china?! He’d break himself! How is the enchantress not the villain here?! And is Chip an only child? There’s clearly plenty of other teacups! Why is he the only one that matters? And then, for all her favoritism, Mrs. Potts doesn’t even realize when he runs away!”

Janis and Damian lock eyes, stunned. How did they not notice this stuff?

“And way later, everyone in the town seems to just suddenly realize there’s a big castle in the middle of the forest! Did they forget about the whole royal family? And where did the cooks in the castle get food and stuff?! Also, they don’t ever mention to Belle that the Beast is the prince, or that he’ll be human again if she breaks the curse! So was she just, like, down to date this monster who, to her knowledge, could’ve eaten the real prince or something?! And also, if it’s a kingdom, what happened to their international relations?! What do the other countries think happened?”

“Are you done?” Janis mutters, amused.

“No! Somebody stop me, please,” Cady hollers. Janis goes to pull her into a hug, rubbing her tense back and hushing her gently.

“Deep breaths, Cads. You brought up some good points, we can look into it later. Let’s go have some hot chocolate, hm?” She murmurs as Cady finally relaxes, panting slightly as she nods into Janis’ shoulder.

“Then we can watch the live action one!” Damian says.

“Damian, no!”

———

All of them went out of state a few days later for Christmas to visit family. Unfortunately, they all went to different states; Cady went to Indiana, Janis to Ohio, and Damian to West Virginia. This meant that Damian and Cady didn’t get to start working on their auditions together until just before New Years.

So now, they’re curled up next to each other on his bed, listening to A Change In Me on repeat so Cady can learn it. The audition cut is just a few bars towards the end, but she would have to know the whole thing on the off chance she got a callback. The first few times, she would just listen and read along with her sheet music, but she eventually starts humming the tune and murmuring little phrases under her breath as she caught on.

Once Damian notices she’s muttering the whole song, he asks if she wants to try singing it with the piano recording for the first time. She nods after another quick glance at her music.

Damian brings up the recording the director had sent out, explaining what she needs to do and when to come in, then handing her the phone so she could start whenever she felt ready.

She takes one deep breath before hitting the play button, and starting to sing. The second the first few notes flow from her mouth, Damian feels his jaw drop slightly. The girl could sing. She wasn’t perfect by any means, but she had undeniable talent.

“Holy shit!” He bursts out when she finishes, clapping for her.

“That was good?” Cady asks, blushing slightly.

“Yes, that was incredible!” Damian praises. “Oh wait, I should send you the recording so you can practice on your own. Let me do that before I forget,” He says as he takes his phone back.

“I have to go to the bathroom, can I try again after?” She asks shyly, as if she hadn’t just completely blown his socks off with her very first attempt.

“Yeah, yeah, go ahead, Little Slice,” he hums, already moving to text Janis.

sashafierce: Jan holy shit

sashafierce: Your girl can sing

gaylien: she’s not my girl

sashafierce: Yet

gaylien: shut the hell ur mouth

sashafierce: I Will Not

gaylien: anyway, caddy can sing ?

sashafierce: Yeah

sashafierce: Like ‘might get the lead even though she’s never set foot in a theater’ can sing

gaylien: damn

gaylien: proof

sashafierce: You just want to hear her voice you soft little dork

gaylien: shut the fuck

Cady comes back in at this point, so Damian puts his phone down. He asks if he can record her singing to help her get better, not mentioning he would secretly also be sending the recording to Janis. He feels a little guilty about keeping secrets, but this won’t hurt anyone. Janis won’t do anything with it.

Cady agrees, settling in again. Damian braces himself slightly before hitting record as Cady hits play again. She sings her cut, and then looks to Damian for feedback.

He stops the recording and fiddles with a few things to get it sent to Janis before asking if she’d like to hear it played back. Cady gives a shy nod and cuddles up to him again.

“See, you sound really good! We just need to work on your movement and expressions and stuff like that. If you can’t act nothing will happen, no matter how well you can sing. But really, that’s impressive, sweets.”

“Can we work on that later? I want to hear you sing too!” She pleads, gently nudging his arm.

“Oh, absolutely,” Damian says, bringing up

his own audition cut and striking a pose. Cady giggles at his antics, giving him a standing ovation when he finishes.

Their phones chime at the same time, Cady’s with a message from her mom telling her to come home, and Damian’s with a response from Janis. He hugs Cady goodbye before checking it, bursting out laughing when he sees what she’s sent.

gaylien: i just spat coffee all over my cat

gaylien: oh god

———

Auditions are held the day after they get back from break. Damian had been continuing to work with Cady over the break, in between movie nights and sleepovers with Janis.

Cady’s been shaking with excitement all day. She’d grown much more confident with all her practice, and she was also looking forward to seeing her friend truly in his element.

Damian leads her by the hand towards the theater classroom to get checked in, filling out their forms and grabbing their numbers. They have to wait a while before they get to go to the auditorium and get started, so they sit on the floor and look around. After a few minutes, Damian notices Cady start drumming her hand rapidly against her leg, her most common stim when she’s nervous.

“Do we need to get out of here for a minute?” He asks quietly, making sure nobody else can hear them. She nods quickly, taking his offered hand to stand up. Damian leads them into the hallway, where it’s less crowded and much quieter. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah. There’s just... a lot of people in there. It’s really loud too,” She mutters, shifting her lips side to side, another anxious stim. “I’m nervous.”

“That’s normal. I’m a little nervous too, actually. We can just wait out here until it’s time to go start warm ups with everyone,” Damian comforts, pulling out his phone and earbuds so they can watch animal videos together. Cady takes the proffered earbud and puts it in as she cuddles into his side and focuses on the video.

Eventually Karen comes bouncing down the hall, lugging a slightly panicked Gretchen behind her. “Gretch, come on, you just have to sing part of a song once and then it’s all over! You can do it,” Karen comforts as her girlfriend freezes just outside the door. “Oh, hi Cady! Are you trying out too?”

Cady nods, feeling her confidence coming back with every passing second. “Yeah! I didn’t think you guys would be into this sort of thing,” she says. She had kept in touch with them throughout the year and they still hung out frequently, but Cady had distanced herself slightly from the former Plastics while the events from junior year were still raw in everyone’s minds.

“I’ve always wanted to try it, but Regina never let us. She said theater was for dorks. No offense, Damian,” Karen says sheepishly. She liked Damian, he was always nice to her even though she had to be so horrible to his best friend.

“None taken.”

“But yeah! I decided to go for it and got Gretch to do it too so I wouldn’t be alone!” She says, turning to look at her as Gretchen starts coaching herself through breathing exercises.

“Are you okay, Gretchen?” Cady asks gently.

“Mmhmm. I’m fine,” she responds, looking close to passing out where she stands.

“You guys should go get signed in and come wait with us out here,” Damian offers, much to Cady’s relief. She’s missed them, but didn’t want to invite them in case Damian didn’t want them around just yet.

“Sounds fetch! We’ll be back soon,” Karen cheers, dragging poor Gretchen by the hand into the classroom. They come out after a few minutes, noticing their numbers are just after Damian and Cady’s.

They chat happily for a few minutes, getting caught up on the events of the few weeks since they’ve last spoken. Eventually the theater teacher, Mr. Gordon, and the choir director, Mrs. Baker come down the hall, entering the room to let everyone know that group warm ups are starting.

They follow the crowd into the auditorium, everyone finding a place on the stage as Mrs. Baker takes a seat at a piano in the pit. Mr. Gordon explains the routine for those who were new, then passes it off to her to lead vocal warm ups.

They go by fairly quickly, and then everyone moves to their seats in the auditorium to watch individual auditions, clapping politely for each one. Damian goes just before Cady, rocking his cut before bowing sarcastically and returning to his seat.

Cady steps up, says her name, and then just tries to focus on everything Damian has taught her. She blinks and the song is done, so she moves on, giving Gretchen a sneaky thumbs up since she’s up next.

Gretchen can sing well, but it’s painfully obvious she’s panicking inside and she stumbles off the stage when she finishes. Surprisingly, Karen actually does quite well, she’s confident and it shows.

They listen to the rest of the auditions together and chat quietly on their way out of the building, splitting back into their duos as they reach the doors.

Janis is waiting for them by the main entrance, leaning casually against the wall. She stays after school to paint sometimes, so they don’t suspect anything, but she was actually hiding in the auditorium to watch their auditions today.

Cady squeals, “Janis!” as she rushes up to hug her, and Damian shoots Janis a look when they lock eyes. Janis just shakes her head and wraps her arms loosely around Cady.

“You guys wanna come over? Jules has a dance thing tonight so I have the house,” Janis says, letting Cady go. “Movie night?”

Damian has been trying desperately to get the two together since the school year began, any alone time they get together is a chance. “I can’t, my mom’s making my favorite dinner tonight,” he lies. Janis glares at him, she’s caught on to his plight. She’s also just known him long enough to know he doesn’t have a favorite dinner, his favorite food is just whatever he’s eating in the moment.

“I can go!” Cady pipes up happily, excited to have a little alone time with her crush. Janis hasn’t shown any signs of reciprocating her affections (that she’s noticed), but she tries to get as much alone time with her as possible regardless. She’s starting to realize it’s probably not healthy, but she doesn’t want to stop spending time with her abruptly in case Janis gets suspicious.

“Tits, what do you want to watch?” Janis asks, still glaring at Damian, which Cady somehow doesn’t notice.

“The Lion King?” Cady says sheepishly.

“Of course you do. You owe me a slasher, though.” Janis sighs, accepting her fate.

“I can live with that,” Cady giggles. “Just nothing too gory.”

“Fine,” Janis pouts. “Let’s go, Africa. We got movies to watch.”

Cady hugs Damian goodbye and rushes out into the parking lot, and he manages to call out, “Remember the callback list gets sent out at nine!” just before she’s out of earshot. She gives him a thumbs up and continues running to Janis’ truck, Janis jogging sluggishly after her.

“Later, Dame. Love you, loser.” She calls over her shoulder. “Have fun with your mom.”

“Love you too art freak, have fun with your date!”

“It’s not a date!”

———-

Pancakes makes a beeline for Cady as soon as she steps in the door, rubbing against her legs with a welcoming meow. She bends down to scritch behind his ears, cooing at him in a baby voice.

“Hello Pancakes, how is the best little cat in the whole wide world?” She says as she scoops him up for better snuggles.

Janis just glares at him, grumbling, “Oh sure, I had to spend months and have trainers to get you to like me but little Miss Kenya comes over a few times and she’s your new best friend,” under her breath.

“Aww, Jan, don’t be jealous. He still loves you,” Cady pouts.

“I’m not jealous. He’s a dummy anyway. He stuck his paw in my coffee this morning and then yelled at it for getting his foot wet,” Janis says, as if that somehow redeems her. She actually is a little jealous, but only that Pancakes is getting Cady’s cuddles instead of her.

Cady laughs at that. “Orange boy cats are always dumb, that’s why they’re great. Why did you name him Pancakes anyway?” She asks as Janis leads them to the basement, cat still laying contently in her arms.

“He was really fat as a baby and when he sat down the way he would squish out made him look like a stack of pancakes,” Janis says, digging through her DVD collection for a movie. “I dunno, I was thirteen, it fit at the time.” She mumbles as she finds The Shining and puts it in.

Cady plops down next to her on the little couch, pouting as Pancakes decides he’s had enough and leaves with his tail flicking arrogantly. Janis mutters, “Little bastard,” under her breath affectionately as he trips on his way up the stairs.

Cady inches closer to Janis as the movie starts, pretending to be slightly more scared than she actually is. She does genuinely jump and bury her head in Janis’ shoulder at the first jumpscare, deciding to stay there as Janis wraps an arm around her shoulders to keeps her close.

She peeks out eventually, only to see a man with an axe in his chest and hides again with a little squeak of fright.

“You said you watched a snake eat a whole cow, why are you so scared?” Janis teases gently, playing with her hair to comfort her.

“Because this is people? I never said I liked watching the snake eat the cow either,” Cady points out.

“Fair enough,” Janis giggles. “Should we just skip to The Lion King now so you can actually sleep tonight?”

“No, you can finish, I’ll just stay here,” Cady says, muffled by Janis’ shoulder. She’s secretly kind of glad she has a reason to be this close to her, content to just breathe in the comforting scents of vanilla lotion and paint that follow Janis as she’s held tightly.

Janis laughs again. “Suit yourself, Peanut,” she hums, resting her head against Cady’s.

Once the movie ends she stretches out, standing up to switch the tv off and holding a hand out to help Cady up. “Let’s watch the rest upstairs, this couch is too small,” she says.

Cady follows Janis to her room, jumping onto her bed and wrapping herself up in the pancake blanket so that only her face peeks out. Janis grabs her laptop to bring up the movie, laying down next to her but making sure to leave a little bit of space between them.

Cady decidedly ignores the gap and inchworms herself closer to rest her head on Janis’ belly, Janis freezing for a second before relaxing. Cady’s love language was obviously touch, and if she trusted you she would not hesitate to make that known. It had taken some getting used to for Janis, being made into a social pariah and then having that all collapse last year didn’t exactly lead to many pretty girls wanting to cuddle with her. Every once in a while it was still a shock, but she treasured every little hug and cuddle she got from her crush.

By the time Hakuna Matata is playing softly from the speakers, Cady rolls over and Janis notices she’s sound asleep. She turns the volume and brightness down on her laptop and switches to watching The Little Mermaidinstead. She only watches The Lion King with Cady now, and if she wasn’t watching anything she would just stare at her sleeping face the whole time. She just got people to stop thinking she’s some kind of creepy molester, she doesn’t need Cady waking up and noticing she’s been watching her sleep.

She only gets a few minutes into her movie before her phone chimes with Damian’s text tone. She stretches gently over to her nightstand to grab it, trying not to wake Cady up.

sashafierce: Is Caddy still with you?

sashafierce: She got a callback for Belle and she’s not answering my texts

gaylien: Sent a picture: she sleep

sashafierce: Aww

sashafierce: Gay

gaylien: no

sashafierce: Yes

gaylien: she’s just a cuddly person

sashafierce: Yeah, with you

gaylien: she cuddles with you all the time!

sashafierce: Only when you’re not around, you’re clearly her favorite

sashafierce: And she has never fallen asleep on my lap like a little kitten. Not once

gaylien: point made but i still say ur wrong

sashafierce: And I still say when y’all start dating you have to give me 20 bucks

sashafierce: Anyway I hate to disrupt that little burrito but you really should wake her up and tell her, she needs to make sure she knows the whole song by tomorrow

Janis tries to shake Cady awake, only getting a sleepy groan in reply. “Peanut, you gotta wake up really quick,” she murmurs, shaking her again.

“Wha’ happent? Why’d you wake me up?” Cady grumbles, cranky about being so rudely awakened.

“You got a callback for Belle, Damian wants to make sure you know the song for tomorrow,” Janis says, grinning as Cady rubs at her face like a cat.

“‘ll call’er back later. Lemme sleep,” Cady groans, smushing her face against Janis’ tummy. “Goodnight.” She says, muffled as she reaches up to pat Janis’ face before falling back asleep.

gaylien: she just said “i’ll call her back later” and went back to sleep

sashafierce: LMAO ok

sashafierce: I’ll talk to her about it in the morning I guess

sashafierce: Enjoy your little totally platonic sleepover, love you both

gaylien: she’s just a cuddly person!!!! she doesn’t like me back there’s no way

gaylien: i love u too but ur the worst sometimes

sashafierce: And you’re a whole idiot sometimes you oblivious sap

gaylien: damb i’ve been called tf out

gaylien: goodnight loser

sashafierce: goodnight dork

Janis texts her mom to ask if Cady can sleep over, since she definitely won’t be able to wake her up enough to get her home by this point. Her mom agrees, letting Cady’s parents know as well.

They both wore clothes they can sleep in, so Janis only has to wake Cady up to take her contacts out before they can both go to sleep. Janis boops Cady’s nose gently in an attempt to wake her, trying to contain her giggles as she scrunches it like a bunny and the corners of her mouth tick up in a grin.

Once Cady’s contacts are out, she flips down onto the bed and buries her face in Janis’ pillow. Janis reaches over to shut the light off before lying down next to her, making sure to leave a few inches of space between them.

“Goodnight, Caddy.”

———-

The next day is the dance call and callbacks. Everyone gets to meet the choreographer, Mr. Dunn, as he leads them through some basic stretches and a few pieces of basic choreography that would be in the show. He calls out certain people’s numbers after every section, making Cady nervous when hers is never called until she notices Damian’s was never called either. Maybe it’s a good thing.

She has a roughly ten minute break to cool down from the exercise and prepare herself for her callback audition, sucking down water from her small bottle and doing a few of the warm-ups Damian taught her. Belle callbacks go first, so she goes to stand with a crowd of about five other girls in line.

She’s more confident than she was yesterday, Damian’s new tips fresh in her mind since they had worked on it a little at lunch. She’s technically excused after she’s finished, but since Damian is her ride home she goes to take a seat in one of the cushy chairs and watches him do his.

Damian got a callback for both the Beast and Lumiere (again), but since the audition song was the same for both he was only required to stay for one. He shoots Cady a wink once he finishes, and she claps silently for him so she doesn’t disturb the other people preparing.

They meet in the cafeteria, Damian rushing to scoop her up and spin her around in congratulation. “You did so good, Cads! I seriously think you might get it.”

“You did good too, Dame. I hope you get whatever part you’re wanting,” She says as he sets her down again.

“We’ll find out later tonight, they’re sending the cast list out at eight. Janis wants to take you-us out to dinner, by the way. She says you get to pick,” He says, faking annoyance about not being allowed to pick where they go.

“Aww, that’s nice of her. We could go to that buffet place, they have everything. Then you can pick what you want too,” She says, trying to compromise even though he was joking.

“Sounds good, Little Slice. She’ll meet us there, let’s go,” He says, scooping her up again and carrying her towards the parking lot as she shrieks with laughter and wraps her arms around his neck.

———-

Once all three are absolutely stuffed, they meet back up at Damian’s house for a weekend sleepover. All of them immediately flop on the ground in the living room, Pippa coming over to sniff and lick at their faces before settling in on Cady’s chest for a nap.

“I’ve never been so full in my life,” Janis groans. “How did I even make it here, I shouldn’t have driven.”

“You drove me here,” Cady says, concerned.

“That’s on you for trusting me, dork,” Janis says as she somehow manages to peel herself off the carpet and trudge over to the couch. “What movie do y’all want to watch?”

“Let’s just nap,” Damian grumbles. “Come back, Jan.”

They form a cuddle puddle on the ground, Cady in the middle pressed against Janis, and Damian on her other side. Janis pulls her closer, squishing poor Pippa between them and resting her cheek against the top of her head.

When they wake up again, it’s dark outside and Damian’s mom is back from work. She put a blanket over the lot of them and gave them each a pillow, but Cady moved from hers in favor of laying her head on Janis’ chest.

“Morning, sleepy heads,” Mrs. Hubbard teases from the couch as they all sit up and rub their eyes.

“Hi, Ma. What time is it?” Damian asks blearily.

“Just after eight. I’m assuming you girls are spending the night?”

“Yeah. Cads, that means the cast list is out, come see,” Damian says, grabbing his phone as he stands up to stretch. He sees his mom sent him a photo of the three of them curled up on the ground, making it his lock screen quickly before moving to his email to bring up the document the director sent out.

Cady pokes her head around to look at the screen just as it loads, and they both gasp excitedly as they see the first name.

Belle: Cady Heron

Damian keeps scrolling, seeing he’s been cast as Lumiere once again. That makes him a little nervous, but he had a lot of fun in the role last time.

Karen was cast as Chip, and Gretchen was in the ensemble and would also be portraying the enchantress.

“Holy shit, Cads! You got the lead!” Janis cheers, stopping herself at the last second from kissing her and playing it off as a hug instead.

“That’s crazy, I thought they only gave big parts to people who’ve done it before,” Cady says dazedly, suddenly nervous as she returns Janis’ embrace. “But Damian is Lumiere, that means we get to be together a lot,” She adds as she pulls him in to make it a group hug.

“And I’m stage manager, we get more time together too,” Janis adds, rejoicing internally.

——-

Rehearsals begin on the first of February, Janis working on taping out the stage for blocking set pieces while Cady sits in the auditorium seats with the rest of the cast for their first read through of the script. Every time she hears her sweet, soft voice ring out Janis’ heart skips a beat.

Cady comes to find her when they get a break, while Janis is working on painting a piece that will eventually be the door to the house. “That looks really good, Jay,” She says, accidentally startling Janis as she comes up from behind.

“Thanks, Caddy. How’s practice going?” Janis says, plopping her brush into the water cup next to her and leaning back on her hands.

“It’s fun! Sonja keeps getting yelled at because she’s not supposed to swear but does anyway and Dawn doesn’t want to flirt with Damian, but I like it. Everyone’s really nice,” Cady answers as she sits next to her.

“That’s good, if they weren’t I’d show them my fists,” Janis says, brandishing her weapons. She had actually started working out lately, so that on the off chance she ever encountered a homophobe or bigot she’d be able to deck them with the most force possible. It’s a genuine threat.

“Your rings would hurt a lot,” Cady laughs, leaning closer to see how Janis reacts. She blinks at her for a second, but eventually also leans closer.

“I was listening to your run earlier, you sound good, by the way. You do her character really well.” Janis compliments.

“Thank you. It’s actually kind of easy. Belle’s a lot like me, I suppose. She’s from somewhere else and never quite fits in, loves to get lost in other worlds, she loves her family...” She falls for someone she never thought she would, Cady adds in her head as she trails off, looking meaningfully at the gorgeous girl sitting next to her. “I have to get back, I’ll see you later.” She stuns Janis with a peck on the cheek as she goes, leaving her blinking rapidly and gaping at the wall.

“Bye,” Janis replies, several minutes after Cady’s already left.

——-

They’re only more distracted by one another when they start dating two weeks into rehearsals. Janis nearly ruined one of the rose props because she was so distracted listening to Cady working on a scene, and Cady had lost count of the times she’d nearly fallen into the pit while looking to see where Janis was.

Cady also had a tendency to hyper-express her emotions; if she didn’t say out loud what she was thinking or feeling her face would let you know. It was quite useful when she was acting since she didn’t have to try very hard to get the mood across, but when she had other things on her mind it could be an issue.

She got several notes about it one day. She kept giggling during an emotional scene, remembering Janis trying to clean out the fog machine and having it puff out in her face. Then later, she looked too bored during Be Our Guest causing Damian to resort to increasingly ridiculous measures to get her back, but she was actually just disappointed that Janis wouldn’t be in her eyesight anymore now that she had switched to working up in the booth.

Janis was also struggling to keep on task, her mind occasionally elsewhere. She missed a cue she was supposed to call up to lightning because she was laughing so hard watching her (now literally) flaming homosexual best friend pretend to flirt with Dawn Schweitzer, who was Babette. A few days later, she was so distracted staring at Cady in costume for the first time that she absentmindedly started singing a song from High School Musical at one of Sonja Acquino’s (Mrs. Potts) lines under her breath.

It wasn’t until she heard “Sarkisian, your mic is still on,” buzzing into her headset that she realized she never hit the button after calling her last cue and scrambled over to the switchboard.

Eventually, the director has to pull them both aside before practice one day and ask them, politely, to get their shit together. They both nod, embarrassed, but he just ruffles their hair and says it’s cute, but they need to focus on the show during rehearsals.

———

As they get down to the wire, Mr. Dunn asks Cady if there’s any way she could work on the waltz scene on her own time for extra practice. She had terrible coordination with her feet, so she wasn’t too surprised she’d have trouble dancing.

“I just don’t know who to ask, I don’t know anyone who can dance,” She complains to Damian while they get their snack break, crunching frustratedly on her celery.

“Janis could help, she did ballet for almost ten years,” Damian says, putting a hand over his mouth as he does. “Don’t tell her I told you, she’ll kill me.”

Cady has to bite her lip to contain a squeal at the mental image of a young Janis in a leotard and tutu. “Don’t worry, Dame, I won’t tell her.” She says comfortingly once she’s recovered.

That night, Janis comes over for a movie night, sans Damian who was “busy”. Cady immediately pins her to the couch for cuddles, not that Janis is complaining. They lie there for a while, talking about their day and peppering kisses wherever they can reach. Eventually Cady pipes up again, saying, “I learned something interesting about you today.”

Janis tenses, that could quite literally mean anything. “Oh?”

“You never told me you were a ballerina,” Cady says, leaning on her elbows to hover over her and playing with the ends of her hair as Janis visibly relaxes beneath her.

“I haven’t told you a lot of things,” She teases. “Who told you?” It could only be Damian or Regina, they’re the only ones who know.

“Nobody.”

“Damian?”

“No.”

“I’m not gonna do anything to him, you can tell me,” Janis coaxes. “I’m not embarrassed about it or anything, I just have some bad memories associated with it. It’s how I met Regina, actually. Plus it just doesn’t really fit my vibe now, either.”

“Okay, yes it was Damian. But he didn’t mean to, I just need more help learning the dance for Tale as Old as Time, and he thought you could do it,” Cady mumbles.

“I probably could, I’ve watched you guys working on it enough. I think I know the steps,” She says, reaching for her phone to bring up the song as she stands up.

They push the furniture out of the way so they have room, Janis guiding Cady to where they should begin. “Okay, so you put your hand here,” She says, taking it gently and resting it on her own shoulder. “And then mine goes here.” She places hers on Cady’s waist, pulling her slightly closer.

Cady grins up at her as the music begins, following Janis’ movements and trying very hard not to step on her toes. It’s obvious she has some kind of dance background, she can follow the rhythm easily and the passion she puts into the movements makes Cady want to kiss her senseless right where they stand.

“That was good, Butterfly. Just loosen up a little, you’re so tense,” Janis says once they finish, still lost in each other.

“You’re really pretty,” Cady blurts after a second, staring into Janis’ eyes.

Janis laughs. “Thank you. You’re pretty too. Beautiful, even. Ma belle fille,” She coos, pressing a kiss to the tip of Cady’s nose.

“You know French?” Cady asks as they return to their starting positions to go again.

“Oui. My dad was French. I was born there, actually. He got sick a few years after, and he wanted my mom to have her family to support her through everything so we moved back here. My mom kept teaching me what she knew after he died, and his side of the family kept helping when she couldn’t anymore,” Janis says, smiling fondly as memories of her family run through her mind.

“That’s sweet,” Cady says, trying to remember the footwork and have a conversation at the same time. It does feel better now that she’s released some tension. “Wait, then why are you only in French 4?” She asks as the realization hits.

“Because nobody’s supposed to know,” Janis teases. “I get things wrong on purpose so nobody suspects anything. I didn’t want to be bumped up to a class with people I don’t know.”

“You’re such a dork, oh my god. Only you would purposely lower your grade in a class,” Cady laughs.

“What about you? I thought you were fluent in French too,” Janis points out.

“I used to be, but I speak so many things that are similar to it and I wasn’t using it regularly when we moved. I wanted to pick it back up, so that’s what I scheduled, and I tested into this one.”

“That makes sense,” Janis answers, spinning Cady out into a twirl before pulling her back. “Remember you’re gonna be in a big dress while this is happening, you’re not going to be able to be this close.”

Cady pouts. “But I like being close to you,” she whines.

How is she so cute? “You can be close for now, but you’re gonna have about five pounds of fabric between you and the Beast when the time comes,” Janis hums, kissing her soundly once the music ends again.

“I wish you could be my Beast. I like you much more than Jason,” Cady says lovingly. “Can you help me run lines while we eat?” She asks as her mom lets them know that dinner is ready from the other room.

“Thanks, baby. I like you more than Jason too,” Janis laughs. “Let’s go get food, I’m starving.”

———

Tech week hits and everyone is immediately exhausted. Other than in classes and watching each other on stage, the art freaks barely even get to speak. They still have homework and chores, so sleepovers and movie nights have taken a backseat and probably would until the show closes.

After the last hell week rehearsal, Janis is cleaning up backstage as everyone files out to head home. As she finishes, she notices Cady lying spread eagle in the middle of the stage, staring up at the ceiling. Slightly worried, Janis decides to investigate.

“You okay there, Butterfly?” She asks, nudging her with her foot gently.

“Yeah,” Cady says, patting the ground next to her. “Come lay with me?”

Janis does, settling next to her and resting her head against Cady’s shoulder. There is something relaxing about it, staring up at the scaffolding and set pieces hanging above them. It’s the first moment they’ve had alone all week, both of them soaking in the other’s presence as much as they can.

“Are you ready for tomorrow?” Janis asks quietly after a while.

“Yeah. I think I am,” Cady says softly.

“I’m so proud of you,” Janis says. “I can’t wait to see you in it for real.”

“I love you,” Cady whispers after another beat, rolling on top of her and leaning down to kiss her. Janis grips her hips tightly, pulling her closer and flicking her tongue against the seam of Cady’s lips.

They lie there for a while just kissing softly, lips meeting again and again as they’re illuminated by the stage lights. Cady pulls back after several minutes, drawing a frustrated whine from Janis. “Can you take me home? I forgot that’s why I stayed behind, I don’t have a ride,” Cady asks. “You can spend the night,” She adds seductively, rolling her hips slightly.

“Yes, I can, let’s go,” Janis says quickly, scrambling to her feet as Cady giggles. She shuts off the stage lights, and they escape the building guided by the soft glow of the ghost light, hand in hand.

——-

Janis is rushing around backstage frantically, headset around her neck as she nearly plows over several people. One of the bars broke on the dungeon set, and she has to find a last minute fix for Belle’s basket.

She’s dashing past the girls’ dressing room when Cady pokes her head out, barely hearing the “Janis?” called after her.

She spins around on her heel, heading back towards the room. “Yes, princess?” She asks breathlessly.

“Can you help me? I can’t get my bow in,” Cady pouts, holding out a blue ribbon. Janis takes it from her gently, spinning her around and tying it around her curly auburn ponytail.

“There. Vous êtes belle,” Janis hums, wrapping her arms around Cady’s shoulders and pressing a sweet kiss to her cheek. “You ready?”

“I’m nervous,” Cady mumbles, fiddling with the hem of her apron.

“You can do it. You’re my tough Kenya girl, this is just your next adventure. You’ll soar out there, my butterfly,” Janis comforts, squeezing her before letting go. “Break a leg, baby. Je t’aime.”

“Je t’aime aussi,” Cady giggles.

———

Cady is killing it. Janis can feel the energy of the audience, the way they’re totally engrossed in her performance. She is as well. She has to hold back tears as Cady weeps at being torn from Maurice, has to tamp down actual jealousy at her stage relationship with the Beast.

Damian’s a crowd favorite as always, getting laughs in all the right places and lots of applause when he finishes his number. Lumiere really is the perfect role for him. He does comedy better than anything, as Janis knows well. She’s been in the audience for every single show he’s done since they were freshmen, and she can tell he’s giving his all to the last one he’d do here.

Karen nearly gets more laughs than Damian, her comedic timing is on point, and Gretchen looks remarkably comfortable onstage surrounded by the rest of the ensemble. She had really come out of her shell during rehearsals, and Janis is oddly glad to see her looking anxiety-free for the first time in a long time.

She tries not to be too surprised when she spies none other than Regina George in the audience at intermission, two bouquets of flowers on the seat next to her and nibbling on some peanut M&Ms she’d bought at concessions. Regina has changed a lot over the past year. Janis doesn’t necessarily think they’ll ever be friends again, they don’t spend time together without Cady, but it’s still nice to see.

The whole show nearly goes off without a hitch, other than Jason getting stuck hanging from the ceiling during the Beast transformation scene and Cady nearly getting run over by a set piece during a scene transition. They’re both incredible actors and play both off in character near perfectly.

Before either of them are really aware of it, the show is over and the final number begins. Cady is looking directly at the booth as she sings the reprise of Tale as Old as Time, looking right at Janis. She’s unable to leave the box until the audience exits, but she cheers loudly for Damian during his bow with Mike Thurman, who played Cogsworth.

Cady’s bow is last, and she comes running out onto the stage in her poofy yellow dress with the biggest grin on her face. The audience (and Janis) claps loudest for her, giving her a standing ovation as she bows proudly and leads the acknowledgement of the pit and crew. She blows a kiss as she gestures to where Janis is in the booth, able to pass it off as going to the audience, but Janis knows it’s just for her.

——

Cady is standing amongst the crowd in the cafeteria with her parents, hugging them

both tightly and accepting the bouquet of roses they got her. People are constantly congratulating her, and she’s high off the adrenaline of the night.

She bids her parents goodbye and turns to go congratulate Gretchen and Karen, who are currently chatting with Regina. Aw, Regina got them flowers, she thinks, when suddenly a small form rockets into her leg and hugs her tightly. She looks down to see a little girl, no more than seven, wrapped tightly around her leg and smiling up at her with missing front teeth.

A woman, presumably her mother, comes rushing up, apologizing frantically and gently scolding her daughter. “I’m so sorry, she got away from me. Darling, I’ve told you not to leave my side.”

“Oh, it’s okay, she’s fine,” Cady says calmly. “Hello!” She chirps to the girl being pried from her skirt.

“Oh, she’s mute. Only speaks at home,” her mother sighs.

“Does she know sign language?” Cady asks.

“Yes, but we’re both still learning,” the woman answers, looking surprised as Cady crouches down to the girl’s eye level.

“Hello there, what’s your name?” Cady signs slowly.

“Hi, I’m Willow.” She signs back, fumbling over a few of the shapes.

The woman gasps, “You know sign?”

Cady nods. “I was mute too, I didn’t really speak until I was six,” she explains.

“I like your dress,” Willow signs once Cady looks back to her.

“Thank you! I like yours too,” Cady reaches out to tug gently on the hem of it, making Willow giggle. “Did you like the show?”

Willow nods rapidly. “Lumiere was so funny!”

Cady laughs as she stands up. “That’s my best friend, would you like to meet him?” She says out loud, holding out a hand. Willow takes it with an excited nod, placing her little hand in hers.

Cady leads them through the crowd to Damian’s tall form; made even taller by the candle hat he has on. He spins away from talking with Janis when she taps him on the shoulder, immediately pulling her into a tight hug.

“I’m so proud of you!” He exclaims, letting her go. “Who’s this?”

“This is Willow, she wanted to meet Lumiere,” Cady says, allowing the little girl to hide behind her skirt. Damian can be kind of intimidating if you don’t know how gentle he really is.

“Oh! Enchantée, petite,” He exclaims in character, turning his candle hands back on and kneeling down to her height. Willow seems to realize he’s not actually a threat, just very tall, and comes out from behind Cady’s ballgown signing excitedly to Damian.

“She says you were really funny, and you’re her favorite character in the show,” Cady translates, also bending down. “Oh, except for me.” She adds with a giggle.

“Ah, merci! I’m glad you liked it,” He laughs, adding, “Belle’s my favorite too,” in a whisper as if it’s some sort of terrible secret. Willow giggles again.

“Willow, we have to go now, darling. Say goodbye,” Her mother says from behind them. She frowns, but hugs Damian gently before throwing her arms around Cady again. Janis has to turn around to avoid cooing audibly at the adorableness.

Cady hugs her back just as tightly, saying, “Oh, adieu, little one. It was lovely to meet you,” as she passes her back to her mother.

Willow waves goodbye to them as she takes her mother’s hand, Cady and Damian both waving back. The mother thanks them both several times, nearly in tears as she leads her daughter out the doors, the little girl signing excitedly that Belle was just like her.

“That was sickeningly adorable, I hope you know that,” Janis says once they’ve gone. Cady is incredible with kids. Maybe they’d have a few mini-Cadys running around someday.

“I do indeed,” Cady giggles, finally getting to hug her girlfriend. “Now let’s go take some pictures, my mom wants some of all of us together before we get out of costume.”

——-

Damian drives them to Waffle House after they change into sweats, Cady still in full makeup and him with his gold-painted face.

Cady’s still off her face on adrenaline, chattering about how much fun she had that night so quickly that neither Janis or Damian can make a word out. She rushes inside the restaurant once they get there, bouncing excitedly at the promise of waffles. The waitstaff look a little frightened when they see she’s clearly in show makeup, but calm down once they notice it’s just the three of them.

They pick a booth, Janis pinning Cady to the inside so she can’t cause too much property damage with her excitement.

Once their food arrives, Cady wolfs down her meal and promptly falls asleep on Janis’ shoulder. Janis shifts to cradle her sleeping girlfriend like a baby, wiping some stray whipped cream off her lip and grinning down at her.

She continues talking to Damian as they finish eating, glad they finally have a chance to catch up. They didn’t get as many chances to hang out just the two of them now that she was dating Cady, and it had only gotten worse once the show had started getting more intense. They would always be first in each other’s hearts, platonic soulmates, but she’s still missed him.

“You two are so soft,” Damian teases once he’s paid for their food. Cady has to wake up for a minute so Janis can actually stand up, practically falling asleep on her feet until Janis picks her up. Working out also came with the added benefit of being able to carry her girlfriend around, which they both loved. Especially since Cady had a tendency to fall asleep in inconvenient places.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Janis answers as Cady wraps her arms around her neck and legs around her waist loosely, burrowing into her shoulder and going back to sleep.

Damian just gestures broadly at the whole situation as he leads them back towards his car. Janis decides to sit in the back, laying her girlfriend down gently before sliding in after and placing Cady’s head on her lap.

As Damian peels out of the parking lot, Janis smiles down at her girl, running her fingers through her soft auburn curls gently and trying not to giggle too hard when Cady puffs happily in her sleep and nuzzles into her hand slightly.

“Je t’aime tellement, mon papillon,” she whispers softly in French so Damian won’t understand. “Merci de m’aimer aussi.”

And they lived happily ever after.

------

thanks for reading! as always any and all feedback is appreciated, but please be kind.

lots of love,

ezzy

#cadnis #cady heron x janis sarkisian #paint by numbers #cady heron #janis sarkisian #damian hubbard #karen smith #gretchen wieners #regina george #karen smith x gretchen wieners #mean girls #mean girls musical #mean girls broadway

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kys0g0i · 4 years

Text

Mama Janus - Chapter One

Word Count: 2971 words

Warnings: Mentions of past toxic relationships, mention of insomnia, mention of food/eating, talk about reproduction and raising children

- I’m not sure how long this will go on and how often I’ll update; this is mostly for my own entertainment, as I very much so enjoy this au.

First Chapter | Previous Chapter | Next Chapter

———

Janus hummed to herself as she washed dishes, soaking dirty plates into the steamy hot, soapy water she had in the sink, filling it halfway. She had always liked cleaning them. It was relaxing, and she never really had to put too much thought or energy into doing it. Plus, it was just a nice way to calm down in general, especially after a trial. (If it wasn’t too late, that is. If it was, she’d usually just cuddle up to her shorter husband, Roman. He always seemed to have a way to make her feel more at ease. She believed they both had that effect on one another.)

Setting another dish to dry with the rest to her right, she grabbed a towel to dry her hands off, tucking a piece of curly black hair that had fallen out of the ponytail he had pulled her hair back in. It was always a struggle to get it to stay back. If there was one trait she inherited, it was that her hair always seemed to want to be everywhere at once, just like her mother’s had been. Though, she felt hers looked more awkward, if only because of the many burn scars that covered the left of her body.

The brown skinned woman had reached to grab another plate, as she was not done cleaning all of them yet, when she felt a pair of arms wrap around her and a head lean itself against her back. Janus smiled, glancing back a bit to see her pale lover. “Well good morning to you too.” She said warmly, looking back to the sink to continue her cleaning. “Finally decided to wake up, hm?”

“It’s only 10 am you big jerk.” Roman murmured tiredly. In truth, they weren’t too different in height. Janus herself was 5’4, while Roman was 5’1. He was pretty short for a guy, but she didn’t mind. She honestly found it pretty cute, and she liked being the taller one in the relationship. She had barely ever that privilege in the past. So, really, it just worked out for the both of them. “Did you sleep tonight by the way? I remember the other day we had forgotten to pick up the refill of your medication, but you had them for tonight, so was everything okay? I can finish the dishes if you want to go try and sleep.”

Janus shook her head. She liked that about Roman. Always wanting to make sure that she was okay. It was sweet, and more than almost any of her past relationship partners had done for her. “No no, don’t worry. I slept plenty actually. Fell asleep at 10 and woke up around seven this morning. But thank you, baby.” She turned her head and bent down a little bit so she could comfortably press a kiss to his messy, short brown hair due to how they were standing. “Though, if you’d like to do something for me… you could take me out for lunch?”

Roman quietly laughed, letting go of his wife to walk to and lean against the counter that the dishes were drying on. “It’s funny you say that, because I actually wanted to take you out to eat today.” He said, a smile on his freckled face. “Perhaps to… Umi?”

Janus blinked in surprise, turning to him for a few moments to show him this emotion. Umi was her favorite restaurant, but since it was expensive, they usually didn’t go too much, especially at lunch, when the prices were their highest. “Umi?” She asked, letting a bit of disbelief slip into her voice. “For what? Is there something special happening today that I forgot about?” She glanced at a calendar not too far away on the kitchen door. It was the sixth of June. Surely nothing important was happening, right?

Her husband shook his head, glee shining in his bright green eyes. She always had adored their color. It was so pleasant to stare into. Or maybe that was just because she was in love with the man. Either way, she loved them. “Nope, there’s no important date, don’t worry. I just thought I should treat you today.” He said, shrugging a bit. She knew that was a lie. She could tell there was more to it. He softened a bit. “Plus, I… kinda wanted to talk to you about something… if you don’t mind.” And there it was.

She felt her stomach drop a little bit, until to help but let a bit of dread, doubt, and worry enter her brain. Realistically, Janus knew she had nothing to worry about. The two of them had been married for about three years at this point, their anniversary having been on New Years, 2023. Even with all of the different ‘partners’ she’s been with, she had no reason to doubt that he loved her or that he was taking her there to have one more good night with her before he would tell her that he wanted a divorce and left her like so many people had before. She pushed away the thought to the best of her ability, trying not to let her concerns show, but it clearly hadn’t worked, but it was apparent that Roman noticed due to his expression.

“Oh, oh Janus, it’s nothing bad or anything like you’re thinking it might be, really.” He quickly said, reaching forward and putting a hand on her right arm. “I promise, okay?”

Janus nodded, embarrassment pricking at her. She felt foolish for letting the worry get to her, or at least for letting Roman see that it came across. “Yeah, yeah I know it’s not anything bad. Just, old thinking habits.” She said teasingly with a smile, trying to settle Roman’s concern so he didn’t worry about her for no good reason. “So when do you want to go? Around twelve? Eleven?”

Roman hesitated for a few more seconds, but he seemed like he decided that it was okay to continue on with the conversation. She was glad for that. She didn’t like to talk about the past too much, more specifically, her life from ages late 13 to mid 17. It… didn’t give her the more pleasant memories. “Well… how about we leave at eleven forty-five? Plenty of time for us to get ready.” He suggested, picking back up the tone he had had before.

Janus nodded, feeling herself start to get excited to go. She always liked getting the bento boxes. The steak was the best part of it. It was always so juicy, sweet, and perfectly prepared… she could feel her stomach starting to itch for it just by thinking about the food item. “That sounds lovely. I can’t wait, love.” She sweetly said as Roman walked closer to her so he could press a kiss on her cheek.

“I’m glad. Love you, honey.” Roman said with so much warmth, Janus wanted to beg him to come back and kiss her again and again, but she had to finish cleaning the rest of these dishes and get ready to go on, what she decided would be, their date.

“I love you too, Roman.” Janus returned, turning back to the dishes to pick up a bowl, starting to scrub it as her head filled with questions of what her husband could possibly be wanting to talk about with her.

...

Janus quietly laughed as they walked into the restaurant, her left hand in Roman’s right, who was smiling happily at the sight of being able to make his wife laugh. “Oh my god, I can’t believe she said that to you! Why have you never told me this story? It’s been a while since we’ve been in highschool and that’s happened!” She said amusedly as they walked up to the front desk, waiting there until someone noticed they were there so they could be seated.

“I thought I did!” He responded, half laughing through his words. “It was so stupid, I must have just thought about telling you in my head and then forgot that actually didn’t. I-”

“Hi, welcome! I’m so sorry for interrupting, but how many members will there be in your party?” A voice suddenly said to them in a cheerful voice, making the two lovers turn and look. It seemed to come from a woman, maybe around thirty years old. She had black hair pulled back in a ponytail, and her work name tag seemed to clarify that her name was Jade and pronouns were she/her. Janus instantly felt a bit of fondness, as if she already liked the girl. Or maybe that was just because she was going to be overly friendly with them, so her head registered that she was nice, she should like her.

“Oh, sorry, hello,” Janus said, giving the waitress an apologetic smile. “Just the two of us. We’d like a table, please, not the bar.”

The black-haired lady nodded. “Sure thing! Follow me, please.”

The two lovers followed after the waitress and were soon seated at a spot where they could see the tables where they cooked right in front of you, but not at one themselves. That was a relief, she was never particularly fond of those. She just liked to have her food delivered to her, not be in an interactive show with it. “Here’s your table,” Jade said kindly, setting two menus down at the table before Roman and Janus sat down at the two-person table. “Someone will be out soon to get your drink order, enjoy!”

Janus thanked her, watching her walk off before turning to her husband, about to speak when she stopped himself and saw his expression. He was clearly trying to hide it, but she’s known him too long as well as his habits. He was worried, maybe a little scared? But why? Was it due to the fact she would learn what he wanted to talk about soon? Surely whatever it was, it couldn’t be too bad, right? Maybe he was just anxious about how she would respond to it. “Hey, you okay baby?” She asked gently, reaching a hand forward to rest on his, making him look away from staring out the window and look to her.

“Oh, um, yeah, I’m okay, Jan. No worries,” Roman said, giving her a smile, but she could tell he was lying, and she knew that he knew that. He dropped his eyes, pressing his lips tightly together. He looked like she was struggling to find the right words to say to her. Was it about the thing…? Surely it had to be. “...Janus, I-I've been thinking about this for a long while, and…. I-”

“Hi, welcome to Umi! Can I start you two off with something to drink?” A chirpy voice perked up, interrupting Roman so he didn’t have time to finish what he was saying. It wasn’t the same girl as before. No, Janus could tell from the name tag that this person was non-binary, as made clear by the ‘e/em’ on eir nametag. She was surprised to see the neopronouns. It was unusual for her to see people who used them, or maybe she had seen people with them before, and just didn’t know.

“Oh yeah, a hot tea for me, please. Splenda for the sugar, if you don’t mind.” Janus said, the waiter nodding eir head along as she ordered. “Roman?”

“Just a water for me, thank you,” Roman said to em, smiling back at the smile e gave him.

E nodded, writing the order of water down on eir notepad. “Alright! And do you two know what you’d like to eat, or do you need a bit more time to decide?” She asked, and the two of them nodded. Janus ordered a beef bento box, while Roman got a simple order of honey chicken with brown rice. It wasn’t long after that until e left, Janus saying one last ‘thank you’ before turning back to Roman.

“What were you saying before?” Janus asked, slightly tilting her head a bit with the question. “You didn’t get to finish speaking before e kinda interrupted you.”

Roman hesitated for a moment. “Um, right. Okay, so… don’t feel like I’m pressuring you into anything, or care if you don’t want this, okay…?” He said quietly, as if he were scared of Janus herself, but she knew he was just worried about whatever he wanted to ask her. He went on speaking after a few seconds and Janus nodding in agreement. “I… I’ve been thinking… We’ve been married for a few years now, and… I think we know our marriage is pretty good and healthy, so… I… I’ve been wondering… if you’d like to start a family…? Not to say we’re not already a family! I-I just meant that, maybe you’d be interested in having kids? Whether that be adoption, or… or you know… you actually carrying and… giving birth… to the kid…?”

Janus stared at him in shock, barely noticing how the hand that was resting on her lap moved to gently touch her stomach. She would be lying if she said that she had never thought of having kids with Roman. Though, she knew she would never be able to have kids with him that were both biologically his and hers, since science didn’t have the technology yet to make it so trans men could impregnate others, but… she had thought about what it might be like to carry children one day. Her dwelling must have taken too much time, as Roman seemed to take it that she was repulsed by the thought of having children. “I-I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have suggested it. You obviously would have brought it up if you wanted to have children. I’m so sorry, I just-, I”

“Hey hey, Roman, it’s alright. Just breathe with me, okay?” Janus quickly said, reaching forward to take her lover’s hands in her own. Roman nodded, taking a deep breath and trying to steady himself. She wondered how long Roman had been thinking about this, as well as how long it took him to work up the courage to ask her. He obviously had a lot of worry and doubt about asking her this. Due to what he said before, she guessed that he thought that it would come off as pressuring her to bear a child that she didn’t want to have in the first place. And frankly? That was a fair worry. In the past, she did almost anything just to appease people and get validation that she used to crave so much. She didn’t blame him for thinking that she would be willing to have a kid the way he wanted just to please him and make sure he didn’t leave her over not doing something he wanted her to do. “It’s okay, I know you wouldn’t pressure me into anything like this, especially carrying the child. You’re not like that in the slightest.”

Roman nodded in short and quick motions. She could tell that he was embarrassed by his actions and words. She couldn’t blame him, though. If she’d done the same thing and then thought he mistook her suggestion, but found out he hadn’t, she’d be a bit embarrassed too. “Sorry, I just… I don’t want you thinking that I'm trying to force you to pick one thing over the other, but… I really like the thought of raising one or multiple kids with you, no matter how we get them. Us naming them, watching them grow, teaching them their first words, watching them learn to walk… seeing them go on to be amazing human beings…” He shook his head, finally looking back up at Janus. “I understand if you don’t want kids, at the very least not right now, but… I just wanted to see what you thought.”

Janus didn’t respond for a little, letting her gaze move to stare down at their intertwined hands. “I… need time to think about it completely. I think… I wouldn’t mind having kids right now, but I want to be a hundred percent sure before I commit to anything, and I want to decide if we would adopt or…” She swallowed thickly. “...or if I’d want to be pregnant with the kid… That’s a really, really huge and important thing to decide…”

Roman quickly nodded in agreement, giving his wife’s hands a soft squeeze before speaking. She could see the waiter from before putting their drinks on the table, trying to be as quiet as possible from the looks of it. She was thankful for that; this was a conversation she didn’t particularly want interrupted at the moment. “Yeah, of course! You don’t have to decide anytime soon, you can take all the time in the world! I don’t mind waiting one bit.” He said softly, lifting one of her hands to gently press a kiss on her knuckles. “Whenever you’re ready, I'll be ready too.”

Janus softened, giving him a warm and thankful smile. Now that the idea of being a mother had been put into her head, she knew that she was only going to be able to think about that for a long time. She wouldn’t be surprised if she went to bed that night, cuddled up to Roman and thinking that, if she carried the child, would it get in the way of their cuddling? Would he still want to cuddle with her when she had a swollen belly? Maybe he’d be disgusted by the sight, or maybe he wouldn’t mind at all, and they’d fall asleep with his hand on her belly. But, then again, they could always adopt, and she wouldn’t have to go through everything that came with being pregnant… “I know, my love. Thank you.”

#sanders sides #sander sides #roman sanders #janus sanders #Roceit #Roman x Janus #Janus x Roman #tss Janus #tss Roman #mention of reproduction #mention of insomnia #mention of toxic relationships #Mama Janus au #mama Janus

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daleisgreat · 3 years

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Speed

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Today’s entry will mark the first official 4K home video release I am writing about. I already own a few other 4K UHDs, and a couple of months ago, I watched my first 4K video at home with 2001’s The Fast and the Furious. However, I already covered that movie’s BluRay release here several years ago, so I will not be dedicating another entry for it, other than to say that the 4K upgrade pops and makes it look like a new release. Today’s entry is for 1994’s Speed (trailer). Before diving into this movie, I noticed one of the tracks from this film’s score repeatedly used throughout sounds awfully like one of the main themes I primarily associated with the Metal Gear Solid franchise. I have no idea if this was pointed out before, and I just overlooked it all these years, or maybe I am grasping at straws. Click or press here to take a listen and decide for yourself. 1994 was a hell of a year for Hollywood movies primarily transpiring from a highway with The Chase, Speed, and the OJ Simpson Bronco chase….oh wait (although I highly recommend the ESPN 30 for 30 on it, simply titled: June 17th 1994). The majority of Speed has a straightforward premise: serial bomber and local madman Howard Payne (Dennis Hopper) planted a bomb on a bus rigged to explode once the bus drops below 55 miles per hour. Police officer Jack Traven (Keanu Reeves) is alerted to this by the bomber himself to exact revenge on Traven after successfully rescuing hostages from an elevator Payne armed at the beginning of the film.

From there, for the middle hour of this nearly two-hour film, the action almost entirely takes place on the bus. Traven makes a grand entrance onto the bus by commandeering a Jaguar and having its owner (Glenn Plummer) take the wheel so Traven could heroically leap onto the bus and save the day. It would not be that easy of a rescue mission as Payne has eyes on the bus, and Traven has to play by his rules and get him his $3 million ransom to disarm the bus. Without question, the middle hour on the bus is the best part of the film. The opening half-hour is an excellent appetizer with the elevator hostage crisis that Traven and his partner, Harry (Jeff Daniels), successfully foil. However, once the action shifts to the bus is when Speed takes off. Shortly after taking control of the bus, one of the passengers freaks and inadvertently shoots the bus driver, and a fellow passenger, Annie (Sandra Bullock), takes over the wheel. Throughout the film, Annie and Traven have wonderful chemistry, and I could not help but root for the duo throughout. Every couple of minutes, there is a new potential conflict to overcome to keep the bus going over 55mph. The film wisely peppers in brief dialog exchanges to let the movie breathe just enough before the next hurdle makes itself present.

The film's standout moment is the major obstacle for the bus to overcome when it encounters a stretch of unavoidable highway under construction and missing a hearty chunk of the road. Traven’s solution is that since that stretch of a road is on an incline, they may clear that gap if they build up enough speed! That epic stunt hits all the right notes, and I got goosebumps all over again re-watching it, and odds are, I bet you did too if you have seen this movie. If you have not, then watch this scene and see for yourself by click or pressing here. A lot of the critical discussion in the aftermath of this movie was if that jump was realistically possible. The best thing I can do is to compare it to another film, Road Trip, which is likely a better indicator of what could happen when attempting such a feat. Once the middle bus portion of the film is over, there are still about 20 minutes left where Traven tracks and chases down Payne in a subway station. The movie felt over once the bus portion had such a satisfying conclusion that it almost feels wrong to keep sticking with the film by this point, but I recommend you do since there is a satisfying payoff in the form of Payne’s demise. I have to share a story now when I first saw this film at around 13 or 14 on VHS. My dad’s VCR had what seemed to me at the time was a revolutionary feature where if I kept pressing the pause button repeatedly, it would slowly, frame-by-frame, play the film in super slow-motion. At that age, I thought this was a fantastic way to get the most out of the biggest stunts in action scenes. My favorite moment exploiting this feature was seeing Traven and Payne wrestle around on the top of a subway train until Payne was not watching his field of vision, and a warning light lead to his sudden beheading. I slow-motion replayed that sequence countless times in my awkward, early teenage years. Suffice it to say, Hopper plays the out-of-his-mind bomber perfectly, going so far as to make sure he receives his appropriate cinematic comeuppance.

The director ensures the many passengers on the bus maximized their minutes to the point I where it feels like you are right there with them!

Two audio commentaries are the only extra features of the 4K disc in this 4K/BluRay combo pack. One is with the director, Jan de Bont, and the other is with producer Mark Gordon and writer Graham Yost. Props are to whoever decided to subtitle the commentary tracks. I very much appreciate it! I first started to bounce back and forth between the two commentary tracks, but Bont was way too relaxed and had too many pauses to hold my attention, and I finished up with his track within five minutes. However, Yost and Gordon are very much engaged from beginning to end and have fun cracking jokes and sharing memories throughout. Some quick takeaways I got from them were how they wanted to film a major scene outside of a sports arena, dealing with critics poking holes at how unrealistic their stunts were, and how watching the movie felt very different at the time of the commentary recording just two months after 9/11. The BluRay disc contains the remainder of the bonus features. Inside Speed is a four-part feature lasting just under an hour breaking down the visual effects, stunts, and location sequences, but half of it also contains an HBO First Look special hosted by Dennis Hopper that hits all the right kinds of cheesy mid-90s EPK nostalgia that it is worth checking out. Aside from 12 minutes of extended scenes and a Billy Idol music video that seems totally off base with the tempo of the film, there are a couple of Action Sequences mini-features breaking down some of the stunts. I highly recommend watching the one dissecting how they did the bus jump, as it shows raw footage of what really happened when they shot it, and showed footage of some of the specific safety measures they instilled to make that stunt as safe as possible and had some eye-opening interviews with the stunt driver before and after.

After watching that old VHS copy nearly a dozen times, Speed wound up being one of my favorite action films I got burnt out early on and never bothered upgrading to a DVD or standalone BluRay. Watching it again in 4K all these years later breathed new life into it for me. I am not an expert at breaking down video quality by any means, but watching the 4K disc on my 4KTV gave the impression of this having far more current production values. The editors somehow managed to remove all the old film grain defects for a smooth 4K upgrade. If you have not seen Speed yet, then it has everything you could want out of a mid-90s action movie with explosions, gripping thrills and stunts, dramatic rescues, plenty of zinger one-liners…..and a Billy Idol theme song. Pardon me while I attempt my best Dennis Hopper impression here, “Pop quiz, hotshot, which 1994 blockbuster that takes place primarily on a bus is a perfect candidate for beer and popcorn movie night at home?” Other Random Backlog Movie Blogs 3 12 Angry Men (1957) 12 Rounds 3: Lockdown 21 Jump Street The Accountant Angry Video Game Nerd: The Movie Atari: Game Over The Avengers: Age of Ultron The Avengers: Endgame The Avengers: Infinity War Batman: The Dark Knight Rises Batman: The Killing Joke Batman: Mask of the Phantasm Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice Bounty Hunters Cabin in the Woods Captain America: Civil War Captain America: The First Avenger Captain America: The Winter Soldier Christmas Eve The Clapper Clash of the Titans (1981) Clint Eastwood 11-pack Special The Condemned 2 Countdown Creed I & II Deck the Halls Detroit Rock City Die Hard Dirty Work Dredd The Eliminators The Equalizer Faster Fast and Furious I-VIII Field of Dreams Fight Club The Fighter For Love of the Game Good Will Hunting Gravity Grunt: The Wrestling Movie Guardians of the Galaxy Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2 Hell Comes to Frogtown Hercules: Reborn Hitman I Like to Hurt People Indiana Jones 1-4 Inglourious Basterds Ink The Interrogation Interstellar Jay and Silent Bob Reboot Jobs Joy Ride 1-3 Justice League (2017 Whedon Cut) Last Action Hero Major League Mallrats Man of Steel Man on the Moon Man vs Snake Marine 3-6 Merry Friggin Christmas Metallica: Some Kind of Monster Mortal Kombat Mortal Kombat Legends: Scorpions Revenge National Treasure National Treasure: Book of Secrets Nintendo Quest Not for Resale Old Joy Payback (Director’s Cut) Pulp Fiction The Punisher (1989) The Ref The Replacements Reservoir Dogs Rocky I-VIII Running Films Part 1 Running Films Part 2 San Andreas ScoobyDoo Wrestlemania Mystery Scott Pilgrim vs the World The Secret Life of Walter Mitty Shoot em Up Slacker Skyscraper Small Town Santa Steve Jobs Source Code Star Trek I-XIII Sully Take Me Home Tonight TMNT Trauma Center The Tooth Fairy 1 & 2 UHF Veronica Mars Vision Quest The War Wild The Wizard Wonder Woman The Wrestler (2008) X-Men: Apocalypse X-Men: Days of Future Past

#random movie #speed #keanu reeves #Sandra Bullock #jeff daniels #dennis hopper #glenn plummer #jan de bont

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whatsseobb · 4 years

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Four Seasons (Crystal x Gigi Fanfic)

[A/N: I have finally made a story with this concept. I have been thinking of this concept yeaaaars ago. Maybe around 4-5 years ago. Finally, I was able to finish it, thanks to Crystal and Gigi. I hope you enjoy it just as much as I enjoyed writing this.]

AO3 Link

_______________________

Spring

It was mid-spring and all the flowers were in full bloom. The coffee shop was filled with different groups of people. Aside from the crowd, the aroma of coffee seeped through the room as a girl with long red curls came in.

“Your usual, Ms. Crystal?” spoke the barista with a cheerful voice.

“Of course, Jan. Wow, you are jam-packed today, I see.” The red-haired girl gleefully replied. She stepped aside and waited for her drink.

“Good afternoon, Ma’am. What can I get you for today?” the cheery voice of Jan greeted the next person in line.

A tall girl moved to the counter and tapped her fingers on top. The girl seemed to be struggling to choose so Crystal can’t help but to give a suggestion.

“I usually order a Cappucino but if you’re not into that, you can have a latte. If you’re don’t like coffee, why are you even in a coffee shop?” Crystal paused. “Kidding! You can have hibiscus tea. It’s sweet and tasty.”

The tall girl was stunned. After a few seconds, she let out a soft giggle at the red-haired girl’s remark before proceeding to order.

“I’ll just have what she’s having.”

“Great choice. Well, I hope you enjoy that.” Crystal tried to wink at her but failed. It made the tall girl chuckle, seeing how charming the other girl was.

After getting her drink, Crystal took herself to her usual spot in the coffee shop, a table near the window where she can see all the people passing by. She opened her laptop and wrote emails for the rest of the afternoon.

“I would like to believe that One Direction is one of the biggest blessings that came to earth. I don’t even know why I did not listen to them until now.” The mention of the band made Crystal’s ears perk up. She looked around and tried to find where the voices were coming from.

Three girls sat around a circular table, sipping on their drinks. They were leaning forward, one of them was showing her screen to her gals.

“Thank you so much to Simon Cowell. I am so glad they joined Britain’s Got Talent.” Another girl chimed in.

Wait what- Crystal thought to herself. She had the urge to walk to the girls and answer all their questions about the band. She proclaimed herself their biggest fan and could talk about them for hours with no end.

“God, Jackie, you’re so stupid,” quoted one girl. “They were in The X Factor. Keep your facts straight.”

The red-haired girl turned to look where the voice came from. She noticed a familiar girl with black hair that contrasted with her almost pale white skin. She had a captivating face with a nose perfectly positioned in the middle. Her lips stained with a cherry color, slightly smirking at her remark to her friend.

Crystal did not realize that she was completely staring at the girl longer than she had expected. The two of them caught each other’s eyes before Crystal looked back to her laptop. She tried to focus on her work but after seeing the girl, she can’t help but look back. From time to time, they have exchanged glances.

Maybe now she’s thinking I’m a creep. Ugh. Crystal focus on your work. She told herself.

“Any additional slice of cake or dessert, Ms. Crystal?” the barista asked.

“No but thanks.” The girl bit her lip, contemplating whether to ask or not. “By any chance Jan, do you happen to know those girls? I think it’s my first time seeing them.”

“It would have not been your first time if you took a break and rest from work, you know?” Jan responded. The two girls chuckled. “Does her face really not ring a bell on your glittered brain? Anyway, your cup is now filled. Enjoy your day! Also, take a rest from time to time.”

It was true that it was not their first time meeting each other. A few weeks ago, Crystal was working on a project inside the coffee shop that was nearing its deadline. She was so busy but she knew she cannot finish it with a coffee or two. Gladly, she came early and was able to take her usual spot. The place was crowded as usual and there were no vacant tables available.

“Is this seat taken? Would you mind if I join you for a while?” a soft voice spoke. The red-haired girl was very busy that all she can give to the speaker was a little shake on the head. “I’m actually just waiting for my friends to meet me here so I’ll be gone in a few. Thanks anyway.”

The girl sat down in front of Crystal, a drink on her hand. “Do you happen to know the Wi-Fi password?” The busy girl slid a small piece of paper with the Wi-Fi password before continuing to work on her project.

A few moments later, the other girl was getting bored while waiting for her friends. She turned to look at Crystal and noticed her laptop with a lot of sparkling stickers on the back. “I like the stickers.” She commented, trying to make small talk. The red-haired girl appeared to have ignored her. She let out a scoff before putting her focus on her phone instead.

Crystal heard the scoff and felt bad. “Oh no, I’m sorry. I’m not ignoring you, I’m just really busy with this project and if I don’t finish this my manager will be mad at me so I really need to finish it on time.” She talked a little bit too fast, panicking at how the other girl might feel.

“Gosh, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean it that way. Good luck with that.” The tall girl said cheerfully.

Her friends came a few minutes after so she set off. She left a small note to Crystal saying,

“Thank you for keeping me company. I hope you finish that thing on time. – G”

As Jan walked back to the counter, Crystal tried sneaking a glance at the charming girl’s table. She saw that they were walking towards the door, about to leave.

The red-haired girl noticed some kind of paper on top of the table. At first she thought it was just some trash but it appears to be shaped like a flower. She immediately walked to the table and picked it up before rushing outside to catch the girls.

She almost did not see them but luckily, the girl was tall so it caught her eye.

“Uhm, hey!” Crystal called out. “You’ve left something on your table. I was just sitting near you and I happen to see this.” She handed the note to the black-haired girl.

The taller girl let out a soft giggle before pushing Crystal’s hand back. “That’s actually for you… Ms. Crystal. Did I get your name right?”

She was slightly confused. First, why would she give her a note? And why does she also know her name?

“Oh… uhm…” Crystal trailed off.

“See you around then!” The girl said before jogging off to follow her friends.

“Hey. I think you are missing this from your contacts list. 209 *** ***** - Gigi”

_______________________

Summer

“Catch me if you can!~” A singsongy voice echoed on the shore as a girl was running around, holding up a towel like a cape.

“Hey Geege, that’s mine. Give it back please!” Crystal followed the taller girl. She tried to catch her so she can get her towel back and wrap it around herself.

“No. Why are you even trying to cover up? Oh. My God. Look at you! How you doin’?” Gigi replied, winking at her. She was still hugging the towel close to her, stepping backwards while looking at the older girl.

“Not when I’m with you.” Crystal stopped walking, her lips pouting as she looked at the taller girl. In her eyes, Gigi was the most beautiful creature that landed on Earth. Seeing her at the beach with her gorgeous shape matched with a red bathing suit wrapped around her perfectly makes her heart flutter.

It has been a few months since they first started talking to each other. Their first exchange of messages were rather awkward since Crystal was stunned and surprised for the sudden relationship that she was forming with this incredible lady. To her surprise, Gigi confessed that she had been seeing her in the coffee shop for quite some time and that one spring day, she took the courage to give the girl her phone number. This confession made Crystal like her even more.

A week after they met, they have followed each other on their socials. At the beginning, the two girls were just exchanging Instagram comments on each other’s stories. After a while, they started doing video calls. They both couldn’t find the time to meet and go on a proper date yet so they decided to do it virtually. Even when they were doing different things, they still had each other on call.

Usually, Gigi would be showing off the dresses she had made to Crystal. The red-haired girl admired how passionate Gigi was on her works. She could watch days after days of her working on her garments. There were even times when she didn’t realize she was staring on her screen already, wondering how it would be like to be there with her and watch her work face to face. It was just so mesmerizing for her.

One time, Crystal was taking Gigi into a virtual tour of her home. She showed her almost all the nooks and corners of her home, even her closet which was like an inside of a rainbow, if that was even possible.

The older girl was walking backwards, trying to showcase the different things she can see on her house.

“So this thing framed here was actually on my brother’s findings when he went to have his annual camping trip. I don’t even know why he gave that to me but I love it so I’m keeping it here. Then this one-“

“Crystal!” called out Gigi. She wanted to warn the red-haired girl on the wall that was about to hit her head. The other girl kept on blabbering about an elaborate story on how she got the house.

“Hey! Crys! Crystal Elizabeth stop talking and look behind you- Oh fuck. I’m on mute.”

Gigi turned her mic on a little too late. Crystal already hit her head against the wall.

“Why didn’t you tell me?”

“I was about to tell you but my mic was on mute… Now go put some ice on your head. Be caref-" Crystal hit another wall that was in front of her.

“Gosh, you are clumsy. Now stop looking at your screen and focus on getting ice without hitting another wall again.” If Gigi could have jumped to the screen and help Crystal, she probably would. This girl was surely careless but that carelessness made the tall girl want to care for her more.

They have decided to go have a date on the beach. It was perfect for summer anyway. They got to enjoy the sun while keeping each other company.

“Why me? What have I done to you?” Gigi asked. She batted her eyelashes to the older girl, trying to be as enchanting as she can be. As if she even needed to try.

“Ugh. You are so annoying. Fine. Don’t give it back to me.” Crystal quickly snatched the taller girl’s hat and put it on her head a little too low just enough to cover her face.

With a chuckle, Gigi poked the curly-haired girl’s shoulder. “…What are you doing, Crys?”

“At least now, people won’t recognize me.”

“What’s wrong with your face? You are beautiful and charming. Your sexy body is just a plus.” Gigi honestly revealed. Those were her real thoughts. Before she left the flower note to Crystal, she did not expect that this girl would captivate her heart. There was something about the curly-haired girl that swept Gigi’s feet off even when she won’t admit it to herself.

“I am not. Well, look at yourself.” Crystal whined. She tugged the hat lower to cover her face. “You are thin and gorgeous. You’re perfect, you’re beautiful. You look like Linda Evangelista. You’re a model. Everything about you is perfect. Your legs are to die for. And your shoulders are so sharp I think it might kill me but I wouldn’t mind dying for you-“

“Crys, you are so weird. I love you-“

The two girls stopped talking. The sounds of the people surrounding them echoed through the beach but it seemed as if there were no voices to be heard for the both of them.

It took a few seconds before one of them said a word.

“What? What did you just say?” The older girl was slowly pulling up the hat from her face to take a peek of Gigi.

“I said… I said ‘Crys, you are so weird’ and then I just stopped.”

Crystal removed the hat completely and gently hit Gigi with it. “If you’re going to continue quoting F.R.I.E.N.D.S to me, I’m gonn-“

“I also said I love you.” The taller girl confessed shyly. She took a glance at the older girl’s face and saw the most beautiful smile painted on her lips.

“You what?” Crystal’s voice cracked.

“I said I love you, you weirdo.” Gigi’s hand reached Crystal’s face and cupped it, brushing her thumb softly against the latter girl’s cheek. Crystal leaned in and sealed the kiss. It was the sweetest kiss the couple shared. Their lips perfectly moved against and with each other. For the both of them, it felt like the perfect fit. Gigi wrapped an arm around the older girl’s waist to pull her closer, their bodies leaning against each other for support. Crystal tilted her head to the side to deepen the kiss as she grazed the tip of her tongue on Gigi’s soft lips.

After a while, Crystal pulled away and touched her forehead against Gigi’s, looking intently into her eyes. “You know that I love you too, right Geege?” The taller girl nodded before they shared another kiss. It was different from the other kisses that they have shared before that. Maybe because finally, they were able to express the secret they have been hiding for quite some time. They were both pouring down their love into the kiss, wanting to say their feelings without using any words.

_______________________

Fall

It was in the middle of a cold autumn night when a sound of keys dropping on the floor woke up the red-haired girl. She was lying down on the couch, her eyes half-awake.

Careful footsteps were heard as someone opened the door and came in. The figure obviously tried to be quiet and walked as straight as they can be.

“Gigi? Is that you?”

Crystal rubbed her eyes and tried to look at where the noise was coming from. The taller girl tiptoed towards the living room and planted a soft kiss on what was supposed to be Crystal’s forehead but it landed on her ear.

“It’s late. Why are you late tonight? Where have you been? Did you go out with your friends?” Crystal spoke softly.

The other girl seemed agitated. “Why do you have so many questions? Gosh, give me a break.”

The softness in Crystal’s face seemed to fade away as she furrowed her eyebrows. Gigi’s voice seemed to have woken her up and not in a good way.

“I was just asking. You did not text me so I waited for you here. I kept on calling you.”

“Can’t I have a little fun with my friends? Do I have to tell you everything I do? Are you my mother?” It was obvious in Gigi’s voice that she had been drinking that night. Something might have happened in the place where she was and Crystal was worried. However, she cannot stand it when someone talks to her like that.

“Not everything. But I deserve to know because I am your girlfriend, Geege.” Crystal wanted to say something more but decided not to. It seemed that her girlfriend needed some time alone to calm down and that’s what she wanted to give her.

The red-haired girl finished preparing some warm soup to help Gigi relax and sober up. She put it in a bowl and went to their room. As she walked, she kept on trying to think of what might have happen with Gigi and why she was that upset. She have obviously seen her girlfriend irritated before so she thought she knew what to do.

“Knock knock?” Crystal said in a calm voice. “I made you some soup.” She put it down on the bedside table before sitting closely next to Gigi.

“I was with Nicky and some friends earlier.” The taller girl finally spoke softly.

“Did you celebrate Heidi’s birthday? I suppose you had a lot of fun. Anyway, I made you some soup.” She was about to reach for the bowl when she realized that her girlfriend was wearing a t-shirt under an unfamiliar jacket with a boxy shape. She was not able to notice it earlier when Gigi arrived home. Those were not owned by Gigi, Crystal knew for sure.

“Is that some new shirt you bought? I also have never seen that jacket before. Is that yours, love?” Crystal asked with a gentle voice, trying not to trigger Gigi’s annoyance.

“I changed before I went home. Some stupid drunk girl spilled her drink all over my clothes.” It was clear that that was the reason the girl was pissed off when she got home.

“I’m glad your friend brought some extra clothes.”

“It is Liam’s.” The younger girl whispered. It was almost as if she was hoping Crystal won’t hear the name clearly. She knew the red-haired girl would react to that name but she just wanted to be honest.

The sound of that guy’s name made Crystal furious. She surely did not like that one. He was from Gigi’s circle of friends. The first time she met him, Crystal knew that they will not get along. There was just something about this guy that made her angry. Maybe it was for the fact that Liam had a small crush on Gigi even before the two girls met. She trust her girlfriend but that guy, she did not trust him.

“Were you… with him earlier? Did he take you home? Were you two alone in his car?” The red-haired girl tried to hide the anger from her voice.

“We were with my friends, Crys. Is something wrong with that?” Gigi’s irritation came back and that definitely surprised Crystal.

“I… Well I’m sorry. I was just worried about you. You don’t share much about what you do anymore. I have no idea who you are with. What if something wrong happens to you?” The older girl raised her voice a little.

“I can handle myself, Crystal! Don’t you trust me?” For Gigi, it didn’t feel as if she was protecting her. It seemed as if her girlfriend does not trust her anymore.

“Of course I trust you. But you know that I don’t trust that Liam guy.”

“Here we go again, Crys. I’ve already told you, Liam is already over his little crush on me.” Gigi knew about the jealousy that Crystal felt towards Liam. Even though she had constantly reminded the older girl that nothing was going on, it seemed to not be entering Crystal’s mind.

The latter girl knew Gigi was saying the truth but her feelings have totally blinded her this time. “Geege…”

“Crystal, it seems like you don’t even trust me anymore. I have been telling you that multiple times but it’s as if you don’t even listen to me!”

Crystal remained quiet. She stared at Gigi for a while, letting the girl speak. “Crys, how many times are we going to talk about this? This is making me so tired. I had a tiring night and you’re not helping.

“These past few days all we did was fight. Are you not getting tired of it? ‘Cause I am.” Gigi was right. All they did for the past weeks involved the two of them disagreeing with a lot of things. The couple had tried to talk it through but one way or another, they just ended up fighting.

What Gigi said next made Crystal feel uneasy and downhearted.

“I am very exhausted having to fight with you every day, Crys. We have been arguing days after days. It is as if nothing is changing. Let’s take a break.”

Silence filled the room, their deep breaths were the only sound that were heard. Thoughts rushed into Crystal’s mind as she tried to make another way to not have Gigi end it with her that night. Nothing came to her. She knew the both of them did not want it to end that way. Crystal was absolutely sure about this one.

After a while, the red-haired girl tried to find her voice. She tried to say it calmly but her voice gave away her feelings. “Are you tired of me? D…Don’t you love me anymore?” The girl was looking at the floor before she slowly lifted her head up to have a sight of her girlfriend.

“What if the answer is yes?”

_______________________

Winter

A white blanket of snow covered the road, ice crystals freezing on the window panes, as the cold breeze of winter spread around the city. Crystal was staring outside from her room, wondering about how nice it would be for someone to have another human wrapped around them that chilly evening. For the red-haired girl, it could have been another night spent in isolation.

She bent down and pulled out a small box covered in colorful bows and stickers and glitters. If someone else would see it, they would instantly know that it belonged to Crystal. No one was that sparkly and colorful like her. That was one thing that Gigi loved about that girl.

The older girl removed the lid and the inside was filled with different knick-knacks that some may just immediately throw to the trash. But not for Crystal. For her, those were memories that she have stored, important events and moments that she have shared with the girl she loves.

Looking at it made her eyes teary. It was one of the things that she truly treasured. She scanned the inside of the box, looking at everything that they have shared.

A rainbow colored flower crown caught her attention. She stared at it for a while, a smile slowly creeping on her face.

“Geege, you should try this one!” The older girl tried to put on a cat ear headpiece on top of her girlfriend’s head.

“Me-ow,” purred Gigi. Both of them laugh at how silly yet sexy the taller girl looked. Crystal even caught herself staring at her for a bit, imagining some dirty little thoughts that she would rather keep to herself.

“You should buy this one, Crys. You look goode in this. And for myself, I’ll wear this one.” Gigi put a devil’s headband on the older one’s head while she wore an angel’s halo. “This is quintessential Crystal and Gigi, a devil and an angel.”

“How come I’m the devil, Geege! That’s is unfair.” A small pout came out of Crystal’s lips as she tilted her head to the side. Gigi absolutely found this cute and she cannot help but to squeeze her girl’s cheeks.

“Fine. Oh oh!” The taller girl skipped towards another isle before she shoved another headpiece in front of Crystal’s face. She was holding two matching flower crowns. “I don’t see another one that is like this. We can totally be matchy.”

The red-haired girl was just staring at her girlfriend with a small beam on her face. ’Oh gosh, I am totally in love with her.’ She thought to herself as she watched the other girl pay at the cashier. That was the moment she realized she wanted to be with her forever.

Crystal returned the flower crown inside the box. When she looked in it, she saw another crown that was the same as the first one she picked up. The smile on her face slowly faded.

A receipt from an ice cream store landed on Crystal’s palm. She inspected it for a while, trying to figure out what it was about. A small smile crept on her face as she realized what happened that day.

“Geege! Why are we even watching this movie?” The older girl cried out as she hugged the tub of ice cream closer to her. The two girls were watching some scary movie that Gigi picked up from the movie collection. She wanted to tease Crystal because she knew she was very much afraid of these films.

“This movie is fun!” Gigi said. But in her mind, ‘This movie is totally not fun’. It was not her cup of tea but she wanted to try watching this kind of film with her girlfriend because she knew the other would scoot closer to her and cuddle against her.

It was one of the moments when Gigi wanted to do something sweet with her girl but cannot find the right words to say. Or rather, she did not want her to find out how lovey dovey and mushy she was.

“Oh my gosh! Oh my gosh!” The red-haired girl froze on her seat. Gigi felt concerned that she put her girlfriend into this situation.

“Gosh, what happened to you?” She reached for the older girl’s face and cupped it on her palms. “Are you okay?”

“ There’s something on my right leg. Can you see it?” Her voice sounding almost like a cry.

“ Wha- what is it?”

“Oh nevermind, it’s just your leg.” Crystal shrugged and proceeded to watch the movie. Gigi rolled her eyes on how stupidly enticing her girlfriend was. She gave her cheek a quick peck.

“Aaaaahhh!” Crystal shrieked. She buried her face on the crook of Gigi’s neck. The latter wrapped her arms around the older girl’s shoulder, acting brave as she protected her from the scary film. “I told you I don’t want to watch this. What if I have a bad dream later? It will be your fault.” Soft whimpers were heard from the red-haired girl.

Gigi leaned closer and planted a soft kiss on the temple of her girlfriend’s head as she hugged her closer to her body. “Don’t worry, I’ll protect you.”

It would be nice to be hugged like that tonight, Crystal thought to herself. These memories that she have reminisced about gave her a sense of warmth in that cold winter night. Before she closed the box, she reached in for one final item that she wanted to remember before she buried the memories again under her bed. It was a small note shaped like a flower. The very same note that started it all.

A chuckle escaped the girl’s throat as she opened the note. Gigi’s handwriting were still clear and that day was as vivid in Crystal’s mind.

“Mhm… What are you laughing at?” A throaty, sleepy voice was heard from behind her.

The older girl waved the flower note in front of the half-awake person. Her eyes popped open before she reached her hand to try to grab the letter.

“Give that to me!” Before she can even stand up, Crystal was already out of the room. “Don’t wait for me to catch you!”

“Catch me if you can!~” The red-haired girl teased. Suddenly, Crystal tripped on the carpet and fell on the floor. The girl immediately jumped on top of her and tried to snatch away the flower note.

“Hey, that’s mine, Geege!” Crystal tried to take it back but to no avail. She just showed her pouty lips to her girlfriend. The taller girl leaned in and softly pecked her lips.

“And you’re mine.” Gigi whispered before leaning in for a tender kiss. They had their arms wrapped around each other, sharing a warm kiss on that one chilly winter evening.

#rpdr fanfiction #crygi #crystal x gigi #crystal methyd #gigi goode #crygi fanfiction #lesbian au #fluf #rpdr s12

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thdorkmagnet · 5 years

Text

Mother Knows Best (Star is Rapunzel AU)

A/N: Next up is Tangled!!

Summary: A series of one-shots and multi-chapters proving why Star Butterfly should be considered a Disney Princess, as Star and company take over the roles of all your favorite Disney Princess characters! (Starco inevitable)

Check out my other stuff on Fanfiction!

Disclaimer: Star vs and all its characters are owned by Daron Nefcy and Disney. Tangled belongs to Disney. All rights go to their respective owners.

This is the story of how I died.... oh wow, sorry, that was way more intense then I thought it was going to be. D-Don't stop reading! This is actually a really fun story, I swear!

Marrrrcoooo, hurry up!! Get to the part about me already!

Umm, right, sorry Star. Okay, let's see, where was I? *ahem* Once upon a time....

Ugh, boring! Do you want to put the readers to sleep? Start off by telling them something really cool, something that's gonna draw them in. Like a... a monster fight!

Hey, who's telling this story here?

Sorry.

Okay anyways, this is the story of a beautiful young princess with magic golden hair that had the power to heal the sick and wounded-

That's me!

Star, shhh! For years, she lived locked away in a tower, hidden deep in the woods, kept there by an evil and controlling woman, who wanted nothing more than to horde the girl's gift for herself.

Yeah, cause she's a meanie!!

That and so she could live forever.

And also cause she's a meanie.

And the name of this princess was Rapunzel... I mean, Starunzel! Ugh, I mean Star.

Geez, Marco. You really don't know what you're doing, do you?

No, I'm sorry.

Aw, that's okay. How about we just start by showing what happened the day we first met so we don't confuse the readers anymore than we already have.

Yeah okay, that sounds good.

Great!

Soooo, how do we do that exactly?

Simple. We use the mystic and magical page break.

Page wha-

…

Star was excited, practically racing through her chores that morning, cleaning every inch of the well-kept tower she called home. What would normally take her fifteen minutes to complete, today only took her a mere ten, which was quite the accomplishment for her dragging around seventy feet of long, blond, and sometimes unruly hair wherever she went. Though the downside of this was of course, that she now had the rest of the day to herself with literally nothing to do forcing her to find some other way to fight off the horrible enemy she was in almost constant battle with...boredom, but today she didn't really mind too much, her excitement over the special day helping to keep her mind occupied.

Once she was finished with the last of the cleaning, she looked around at the neat and tidy room in satisfaction, grinning with pride as every last inch of the tower seemed to be sparkling. “There, perfect, if I do say so myself,” she said boastfully, adding, “which I do.” She giggled at her own joke, while putting away her broom.

“Hey Janna!” she called to the ceiling of the tower, which was dark and not very well-lit. “Jan! Come on Janna, wake up,” she tried again, with still no reply. She frowned, before grabbing a strand of blond hair, flinging it out like some sort of lasso, where it wrapped around a lever that was normally just out of reach for her. She gave her hair a yank, pulling the lever down and opening up one of the windows above, lighting up the scaffolding of the tower, as well as the small purple bat currently snoozing up there.

Janna flinched as her small, fluffy body was encased in the hideous light, keeping her eyes glued shut, as she wrapping her wings tightly around herself to shield her from the intense beams, before going back to sleep. Star blinked, before groaning as her only friend ignored her, her cheeks puffing up cutely in anger. She wasted no time as she grabbed a bigger strand of hair and threw it up toward the beam the small bat was sleeping under. It flew over the beam before wrapping around the beam next to it, Star now able to use her hair as a rope as she climbed her own blond locks up to where Janna slept.

Once she was next to her animal friend, she gently poked her with her finger over and over again waiting for a reaction, a wide smile spread across her face. “Come on, sleepyhead,” she said softly, as she tried to gently awaken her bat friend.. “Wakey-wakey.”

Finally, Janna sighed, unfolding her wings and giving her a blank and tired stare, clearly wanting to know why she was being woken up so early in the morning. “Now don't give me that look, Janna,” Star defended herself, seeing the intent behind her friend's piercing green eyes. “It's not my fault you stayed up all night.” She crossed one arm across her chest, while the other still had to be dedicated to holding onto her hair to keep from falling, turning away from the bat with a pout, closing her eyes and refusing to look at her.

But after a few seconds, she slowly peeked open an eye and could see out of the corner of her eye that the look on the bat's face persisted, a small scowl on her fuzzy features. Star groaned in exasperation, before angrily stating, “Okay fine! I know you sleep during the day and everything, but c'mon, tomorrow is my birthday and I don't want to spend it all alone.” She gave the bat a pouting look, her lip quivering cutely knowing Janna couldn't resist the stare she had spent the last fourteen years perfecting.

Janna gave a small huff, rolling her green eyes before flying off of her perch and to the floor with a look of annoyance.

“Yay!” Star cheered, pumping a fist into the air, as she slid down her hair to the ground, excited her friend would be with her on the very big day. Once she was on the ground, she asked her friend, “So what should we do first?” She didn't even bother to wait for a reply as she began listing off potential activities to fill time in a nearly sing-song voice. “Playing guitar, knitting, cooking, puzzles, darts, baking, oh I guess that's probably the same as cooking, huh? Haha, umm, well we could also try some pottery or ventriloquy or candle making, I could try painting if I could find a spot that I haven't already painted on. Hmm? Oh, oh, oh, or we could re-re-reread those books I have, what do you think?”

Once she was done, Janna just gave her a one of her bored looks that said, 'I-don't-really-care'.

“Huh, you're right,” Star said thoughtfully. “We'll do them all!” she declared at the top of her lungs, pointing a finger in the air, dramatically.

Janna just sighed again, thinking it was way too early to be doing anything right now.

…

Meanwhile, in the nearby kingdom of Corona, the whole town was teeming with excitement and lively chatter on that lovely morning. Townsfolk were already going about their daily work with more vigor than usual and the streets were filled with the sound of children's laughter and general merriment. Everyone was in high spirit, the air itself practically electrified with jubilant energy, as all were happily anticipating the festival that would be the following day. Preparations had been underway for weeks, streamers and decorations hung up all over the busy streets, fluttering freely in the breeze and proudly showing off the beautiful logo of the kingdom: a purple flag with a bright, golden sun. This served as a constant reminder to the townsfolk of what was to come and the anticipation many were feeling was close to bursting at this point.

But one such individual was free of any feelings of merriment that plagued the rest of the kingdom, as he looked down on the people below with an impassive look. He was more focused on the work that had to be done to care about some silly festival and besides he would be long gone by that point.

He stood high on the roof of the large castle in the center of town, keeping a close eye on the guards that patrolled the perimeter, none the wiser to the teen's presence and he smiled to himself. Idiots. He took a moment from his precarious position to stretch, mentally and physically preparing himself for what was about to happen, letting out a calming breath. The boy had tanned skin and brown, spiked hairs (which he kept styled at all times) brown eyes and a mole just under his left cheek. He wore a white long-sleeved shirt with a red vest over on top of it and a brown belt hugging his mid-section firmly. The sleeves were rolled up to above his elbows on his shirt and a satchel hung loosely over his shoulder. He had on light brown pants, which were tucked into black, hunting boots.

A gentle breeze blew up against him, causing a shiver to crawl up his spine which he ignored. It was bound to happen being this high up. All he had to say was thank goodness he didn't have a fear of heights. Behind him, he heard a strangled squeak and he turned to see his two accomplices behind him, one tall and thin and the other short and fat. The thin one was tightly hugging his partner in a death grip, shaking as he looked at the ground below. “Do we have to be this high up?” the teen asked in a nasally voice.

“Can't be helped, Alfonso,” the boy in red shrugged. “This is the easiest way in. The higher up we are the less the guards look.”

“Marco's right, Al,” the third boy, Ferguson, agreed, pushing his friend off of him, causing him to shriek in fear and Marco cringed, glad they were too high up to be heard by the passing guards. “The last thing we need is to get caught stealing from royalty,” the chubby one added.

“Yeah and with that in mind we better hurry, just in case someone does happen to look up and see us,” the thief in red, Marco Diaz, said, before he recklessly jumped off the side of the roof, sliding down its tiled side and landing on the side of one of the towers with a barely audible thud. Ferguson followed quickly after, with an anxious and fear stricken Alfonso following hesitantly after, trying to ignore the long, fatal fall beneath him.

The three boys began making their way slowly and carefully around the side of the tower, leaping from tower to tower, Marco in the lead of his friends, jumping and maneuvering his way around expertly. This wasn't his first time stealing from another person, but his was the biggest and most satisfying job of his criminal career. If he pulled this job off right he would be set for life, even after splitting it three ways with his cohorts.

He did question bringing these two along, their skills as thieves not anything too impressive, but he couldn't pull this job off on his own and they were the only ones he trusted enough to help him, knowing anyone else would stab him in the back and take off with the goods in a heartbeat. He was the one who had gotten them into this life after all, asking them to tag along with him on jobs when he had been just getting his start as a thief. He could tell that they weren't too interested in it in the same way he was, going along with his schemes more out of obligation from being his friends than actual want to engage in criminal acts. Still, they never turned down any of his offers and this job was no different, so he was fine with cutting the share with his two long-time partners.

The three finally reached their desired destination, Alfonso at this point panting and shuddering all over with fear. Marco and Ferguson quickly opened a small hatch in the roof, revealing the throne room, where about a dozen guards stood around a small pedestal. On it lay the object the three thieves had been seeking, the lost princess's crown, lying preserved and safe on a soft, purple pillow. It was made of pure gold, intricately crafted with white diamond's embedded into its top, as well as several rubies that made up the bottom half of the priceless prize.

Marco took a moment to marvel at the beautiful crown, while his two companions began tying a long, thick rope down beside him. He released a slow, breathy sigh, still unable to look away from the golden headpiece. But he was quickly pulled back into the moment as he felt Ferguson and Alfonso now tying the other end of the rope around his waist. He lifted up his arms allowing them to do their job much easier and waited patiently for them to finish. The two took their time making sure that the rope would be secure but also cause no discomfort to their friend, tying it as tight as they dared without hurting him.

Once the rope was properly in place, Ferguson and Alfonso began lowering Marco down into the throne room, making sure to keep a firm and steady hold on the rope as the thief was inched closer and closer to his prize. Marco took slow, even breaths, trying to stay as quiet as possible, not wanting to alert any of the guards to his presence. The large chamber was so unnervingly silent that if a pin were to suddenly drop Marco was sure it would startle every guard in the room. He honestly wondered how someone could tolerate being in the room all day, every day, as their source of earning. It seemed awfully boring. And to the adventurous, thrill-seeking Marco that was like a fate worse than death.

The young thief quickly pushed aside his racing thoughts, focusing instead on the guards themselves, his highly trained eye on alert for any notable or abnormal movements from the bunch that would indicate that they had been discovered. But the guards around him were none the wiser to his presence, their backs to the young thief as their eyes alertly scanned only directly in front of them.

Finally, the boy in red came to a sudden and jerky stop, the pedestal and crown now only a few inches below him and easily within arms reach. He smiled to himself, but made sure to keep a weary eye on the guards as he quickly snatched up the crown, before tucking it safely away in his satchel. So far so good, he thought to himself, giving the rope a tug to let them know to pull him up. We might actually pull this off without a hitch.

But it seemed the boy had spoken (or rather 'thought') too soon, as he heard a small yell of none other than Alfonso, which sounded like a bombshell going off in the once deafening silence of the throne room, every guard jumping at the echoing noise. Before Marco could react, the boy felt the rope go slack and he was suddenly sent catapulting downward, as they boys above him, for whatever reason, lost their hold. Marco felt his stomach drop and he let out a small yell himself, as his body rushed toward the ground. He crashed into the pedestal on the way down, knocking to over, where it hit the floor with a loud bang.

Somehow, Marco was saved from the same happening to him, as Ferguson and Alfonso must have gotten a hold of the rope again, as he was yanked to a stop, his face near centimeters from the ground, the tips of his bangs touching the tiled floor. But all the commotion, of course, attracted a lot of attention, every guard swerving on their heels to see the young criminal suspended precariously from the rope, all of them in shock and disgust at the illegal action that was clearly taking place.

“Hey, stop thief!” one of them shouted angrily, as he and the others gritted their teeth and held out their spears, the sharp tips pointed directly at Marco.

“Pull me up!” Marco shouted above him in a panic, trying to somehow maneuver out of the way of the deadly weapons that now surrounded him on all sides. But the two thieves didn't have to be told twice as they began frantically pulling Marco back up, the dangling thief in just seconds out of the guards (and more importantly their spears) reach and he let a sigh of relief. The guards watched helpless as the intruder was hauled back onto the roof, their anger growing as they shouted up at him, while several ran to go get reinforcements.

Once Marco's was safely back on the roof with his two friends and his feet were once again planted on solid ground, he shot a glare at the two, demanding in a breathless and nerve-wracked tone, “What the heck was that?! Why'd you drop me, now the whole castle knows we're here?!” He began working on untying the thick and intricate knots, tugging relentlessly at the coarse rope in frustration.

“Sorry, Marco, something landed on my shoulder and it scared me,” Alfonso apologized sheepishly. “But it was totally a spider or something that was about to bite me,” he quickly added in his defense.

“It was a pigeon and no it wasn't,” Ferguson corrected, rolling his eyes at his friend.

Marco's eyes narrowed at the nasally teen. “So you just jeopardized one of the most important jobs of our career over a stupid bird,” Marco said irritably, the annoyance in his stony gaze unmistakable.

“Uh, apparently,” Alfonso muttered guiltily.

The boy in red face-palmed, letting out a infuriated growl as he dragged his hand slowly down his face. But he recovered quickly, as he said to the two in a much calmer tone, “Okay, then, time for 'Plan B'. We need to get out of here and fast. Let's go.”

He left no room for arguing as he began making his way down the castletop with no regard for his safety, more focused on getting away quickly than bothering to take things slow. He hopped from tower to tower and ran across perilous scaffolds without even looking to make sure his feet were in a good position to do so. Ferguson and Alfonso, to their credit, kept up with his quick and reckless pace, though the latter looked terrified the whole time, fighting off the panic attack that was slowly building up inside him.

Eventually the three were able to make it off of the castle, jumping from one of the balcony's onto the roof of one of the nearby houses, Alfonso stumbling slightly and looking paler than a ghost from the long drop. Marco wasted no time though, as he slid down the roof, landing on a nearby awning, doing a flip in the air, before tucking himself into a roll as he hit the stony sidewalk. Ferguson and Alfonso, on the other hand, carefully made their way over to the side of the building, dropping down onto the awning, before sliding down the poles using them to hold the thing up.

Marco rose to his feet, waiting until his companions were both down before leading them into a race through town, several guards already racing out of the gates of the castle and chasing after them, spears in hand. Marco dodged his way around the traffic on the streets, civilians screaming and frantically moving out of the way to avoid being knocked over, in total confusion and disarray over what was happening around them.

Soon the gates to the city were in sight, the bridge that would lead them into the forest and their freedom within reach. Marco smiled, before slowing his pace enough to allow Ferguson and Alfonso to run past him, knocking a cart of apples over, ignoring the shout of alarm from the seller, causing fruit to tumble into the road behind them. He hoped this would stall the guards long enough to give them enough time to escape.

He was rewarded with the sound of a scream and a crash behind him and the boy picked up his pace even more. As he and his companions ran out of the gates to town and across the long bridge, they all began laughing in victory, all quite overjoyed with their success.

“We did it, guys!” Marco shouted at the top of his lungs. He let out a loud chuckle, before adding, “Today is a very good day!”

…

“Today is a very good day, Janna!” Star stated to her bat friend, one musical montage and several dozen time-wasting activities later, still just as giddy and hyper as earlier. Nothing seemed to be able to deter Star's enthusiasm that day, not even the dreaded clutches of boredom, but unfortunately Star's peppiness was not shared as Janna just lay on the girl's shoulder looking utterly dissatisfied with life. But the young blond didn't notice this either, as she looked up at her newly constructed masterpiece with increased satisfaction. “I mean just look at that beautiful painting, I'm a true artist,” Star bragged proudly, puffing out her chest and striking a dramatic pose. “When mom sees this she'll be sure to let me go see the floating lights.”

Janna's gaze slowly shifted to the picture, not sure if she quite agreed. It was a terrible looking stick version of Star with goofily large eyes looking up at small white dots that Janna assumed were supposed to be the floating lights. And, because it was Star, she had also needlessly added in a lopsided skull and a smudged picture of a spider wearing a top hat floating in the air around her. All in all the pitiful excuse for art looked like it had been drawn by a four year old kid, not a soon to be fifteen year old teenager.

It was almost unbelievable that even after all these years living alone inside a tower with nothing but time to practice Star still hadn't gained even a speck of talent in painting whatsoever and the bat would have bet a fortune that the only thing Star's mother was sure to be when she saw it, was confused. Janna barely understood what she was looking at, there was no way her human friend's mother would know what it was supposed to be, as well.

“Well, what do you think?” Star asked, looking to her only friend in anticipation. This was when she finally took notice of her bat friend's clear difference of opinion, adding shamefacedly, “Uhh, sorry I didn't put you in the picture, too. But I kinda ran out of room.” The nocturnal mammal would have been offended she hadn't been added onto the picture (terrible as it was), if she actually cared. All she wanted was just to go back to sleep, unable to stop thinking of all the precious daylight that was being wasted. So Janna didn't say a word about how awful it looked and what a crime against true artists and art it was, instead she just shrugged and gave her a look that said, We-done-now?

Star sighed dramatically. “Fine, you can go back to napping,” Star said rolling her eyes, unable to believe Janna's lack of enthusiasm in all of this. How could she even consider napping on such a monumental occasion? Didn't she realize how amazing and life-changing this was?

But apparently she didn't, as the purple bat just flew up to the ceiling, hanging upside down from one of the pillars that was still in shadow, tucking her wings around her as she drifted off to sleep. Star tried to contain her disappointment as she muttered more to herself than Janna, “Mom will be back soon anyway. Don't want her to know I've been hiding a pet from her all these years.”

As if on cue, Star heard a call from outside the window, a familiar voice that the blond instantly knew had to be her mother's. “Star! Are you there, dear? Let down your hair, please?”

“Coming mom!” Star yelled, as she raced over to the window, opening the shutters, before looking down at her mother, waiting patiently below. Lady Eclipsa as she was known to be, had poofy teal hair and a flowing purple dress with small black dress shoes.

“Star, you know I don't like being kept waiting,” her mother called up in a warning tone. Star tried not to let this get to her as she hung her hair on a small hook that hung down from the top of the windowsill, before gathering up the rest and quickly flinging it over the side. Her long, blond locks fell gracefully down the entire length of the tower, nearly touching the ground when she was done. Eclipsa moved out of the way to avoid getting hit by the make-shift rope made of her daughter's own incredibly long hair.

Once in reach, Star's mother quickly grabbed the end of the blond locks that were now nearly glowing in the sunlight, and raising it up to be used it as a little foothold for herself. She stepped onto this, before waiting for her daughter to begin pulling her up. And Star wasted no time in doing this, heaving back on her hair and the heavy form that now weighed it down immensely. But Star had had plenty of practice at this and was able to slowly but surely began pulling Eclipsa up the side of the tower, with little to no problem whatsoever, her experience in pulling things up by her hair alone a much more accomplished skill than her artistic ability.

She grunted as she pulled the last bit of distance needed for her mother to step onto the window frame and then safely inside the tower. Star panted heavily as moved to hug her mother, saying in a tired but cheerful voice, “Welcome back, mom.”

Eclipsa though just handed her the basket she had brought back, before stepping past her, not even noticing her daughter's show of affection. “Excellent work, Star. Though I think you could have done that a bit faster, hmm?” her mother commented, as she began gazing at herself in the mirror, messing with her hair to make sure it was still the way she wanted it.

Star looked hurtfully down at the basket for a moment before setting it down on the nearest table, racing over to her mother, hopping up and down on the balls of her feet to try and contain her excitement. She quickly asked in a hinting tone, “So mom, do you know what tomorrow is?”

“I believe it's Saturday,” her mother replied flatly, still examining herself closely in the mirror. Star shook her head saying, “No, no that's not what I meant.”

But her mother once again wasn't really listening, her eyes widening as she spotted a gray hair hidden in with the mess of blue locks around it. “Star, dear, we can talk in a moment, first I would love it if you would sing for your mother,” Eclipsa said, turning to her daughter with a small smile.

“Oh right, of course,” Star said, quickly jumping at the task, rushing over to get everything ready, running and grabbing the chair and stepstool needed, setting them in front of each other. Eclipsa just watched all of this with a blank stare, following her daughter's movements as she sat herself down in the chair Star had brought her. The blond grabbed the hairbrush before running back over to her mom, handing her the brush and laying a thick portion of her hair on her lap, as she plopped down onto her own small seat.

She cleared her throat before singing as quickly as she could the song her mother had taught her. “Flower gleam and glow, let your power shine. Make the clock reverse bring back what once was mine. Heal what has been hurt, change the fates design. Save what has been lost, bring back what once was mine.”

As Star did this, her hair lit up golden, trailing all the way down the entire length of her mane. Eclipsa hummed along with the fast pace of the song, seemingly unaffected by how quickly her daughter was going, as she just ran the brush a few times through the glowing locks. The woman felt a deep powerful magic coursing through her veins, a wonderful feeling overcoming her as all at once all her ailments and aches were reversed and healed.

Once Star was done, she quickly jumped up from the chair, grabbing her mother's arm in a tight hug, as she quickly began talking a mile a minute, “So now that that's done, I was going to tell you that tomorrow is kind of a big day and since I know you won't be able to guess, I'm just gonna go ahead and tell you that's its my birthday!!”

She smiled widely at her mom as she finished, but her mother didn't seem to react much at all, as she merely said, “Really, so soon?”

“Well, it has been a whole year,” Star mumbled under her breath, to her it had felt like she had been waiting forever for this day to come.

“Star, you know what we talked about with the mumbling,” her mother scolded, giving her a look, and Star remembered immediately all the previous lectures she had been given about how it was undignified for a young lady to whisper things under her breath and not speak loudly and clearly enough to be heard.

“Sorry, mom,” Star hastily apologized, making sure her voice was now loud enough her mother could easily hear it.

“It's alright dear,” her mother said, giving her a small hug, before walking toward the kitchen and pawing through the bowl of fruit, looking for something to eat. “So is there anything you wanted for your birthday?” she casually mentioned.

Star sucked in a breath. This would be the hard part, convincing her mom, but she decided to just go for it. “Well, I was thinking,” Star said as casually and innocently as possible. “Since I'm turning fifteen tomorrow I thought that it would be a good idea... to maybe go outside.”

Star had a wide, awkward smile on her face as she waited for her mother's reaction. Eclipsa stilled, dropping the apple she had chosen back into the bowl, as she turned to her daughter in surprise. “What?” she asked, shocked.

“Not for forever, of course,” Star quickly added, seeing her mother's concern. She chuckled nervously saying, “I mean that would be... crazy. But just long enough for you to take me to go see the floating lights.”

Now Eclipsa looked even more startled, asking hesitantly, “Floating... lights?”

Star could tell her mom was starting to think she had gone insane so she quickly clarified, “Yeah, y'know the big glowing lights that fill the sky, every year, on my birthday.”

“You mean... the stars?” Eclipsa said slowly and Star let out a sharp, frustrated sigh.

“No, not the stars, mom. These are different. Here, let me show you,” Star quickly used a length of her hair to pull open a lever on the wall, opening a hatch which sent a flood of light cascading on her drawing, highlighting against the rest of the musty tower. “See,” Star said, pointing at the painting. “These things. The big bright things that always appear out of nowhere on my birthday.”

Eclipsa looked at the painting in silence for a few moments, her face completely unreadable. “I... see,” was all she managed to reply, trying to keep her face calm. She turned to her daughter asking, “And your sure you didn't just dream them? “No, I didn't,” Star said defensively. “Have you seriously never noticed them before?” When she received no reply she quickly waved this off. “Whatever, it doesn't matter. I see them every year, mom, and I just... really want to know what they are. I want to see them, up close, in person.”

“Why do you care so much about these stars, darling?” Eclipsa asked, sounding amused at her daughter's bizarre interest in something seemingly ordinary.

Star's cheeks puffed up some in anger. “First of all, they're not stars. And second of all, I don't know. I just feel like they're meant for me somehow, y'know.” Star shrugged not sure how quite to put it into words.

Eclipsa grew very quiet after that, watching her daughter closely as her eyes glazed over in thought. This was very bad. Very, very bad and she knew it. She had to do something. She couldn't let her flower discover the truth. She had to find some way to get her to stay. But how.

“Now, now, darling you know the rules about going outside,” she began, stepping closer to her daughter.

Star began to fiddle with a strand of her hair, nervously. “Yes, I know but, I thought maybe we could break the rules, just this once.” She gave her mom a sheepish smile, hoping that this would somehow convince her to let her go, though her optimism was beginning to fade.

And to Star's dismay, Eclipsa shook her head, before saying, “The rules exist for a reason, Star. To keep you safe. Do you have any idea how dangerous it is out there?”

“Well no,” Star admitted, but quickly tried to argue, saying, “But I-”

“Exactly, dear, you don't know,” Eclipsa continued, as she walked over to her, placing her hands softly on her shoulders. “But I do. The world outside if full of dangers you couldn't even begin to imagine and you are just not ready to face them yet. You're too naive and the people out there would take advantage of that.”

Star looked sadly at her bare feet. “Not to mention what they would do if they discovered the power your hair holds,” Eclipsa continued softly, running a hand through Star's hair once.

The blond felt her heart thumping a bit out of control, fear filling her being. Her mother had told her stories of what had happened when she was just a baby. How everyone had wanted to cut her hair and have the power all for themselves, even trying to take her away from her mom and she shuddered at the thought.

Eclipsa pulled Star close in a comforting embrace, as she said worriedly, “I couldn't bare to see you get hurt. It would hurt me if that happened, you know that right?”

“Yes,” Star said sadly, feeling all the fight and hope drain from her, leaving her feeling empty.

“Then you are going to listen to your mother and stay put?” Eclipsa asked, waiting to hear the answer.

Star hesitated, but finally sighing saying again, “Yes.”

“That's my girl,” Eclipsa said, pulling out of the hug to cup her daughter's face in her hands. She gave her gentle kiss on the forehead. But as she pulled away, she saw the pitiful look on her daughter's face and added, “Trust me, Star. I always knows what's best for you.”

Star just gave her a half-hearted smile, as her mom gave her cheek a soft pat. “Well I must be going again,” Eclipsa said, as she quickly retrieved her basket and then climbed back up onto the window, before taking hold of the still hanging hair. She turned back to her daughter one last time before saying, “I will see you in a bit, my dear. I love you.”

With that, Eclipsa quickly began descending her daughter's hair. Star stood perfectly still, waiting until she couldn't feel the tug against her scalp anymore, letting her know her mother was now on the ground and probably heading out of the clearing and into the big, bright world Star was forbidden to see. Once she was sure her mother was out of ear shot, she loudly huffed, flopping herself down on the ground and crossing her arms in front of her, childishly.

She just fumed angrily to herself for a few moments, muttering comments about being trapped there forever, bored out of her mind, and calling her mom a poophead. Finally, Janna flew down and landed on her shoulder, giving her a look with her wide, brown eyes.

Star sighed, rubbing at her eyes as she agreed, “Yeah, that definitely could have gone better.”

…

“Hurry their gaining!” Marco shouted over to his two comrades, looking back to make sure they were still with him. To his relief, they were, Ferguson and Alfonso just barely managing to keep up, both panting immensely. But none of them had time to stop as, not a short distance away, the roar of approaching horses could be heard, growing louder by the second.

Marco did his best to evade their pursuers, going between trees that would be too narrow for horses to follow, jumping over fallen trunks, and sliding down steep inclines, but nothing seemed to work. Nothing seemed to be slowing any of them down any and Marco was quickly running out of ideas. If something didn't change soon, they would definitely be captured.

Suddenly, the three thieves all came to an abrupt stop as they reached a dead end. Marco looked up at the rocky cliff in front of them, quickly judging the distance, before turning back to Ferguson and Alfonso. “Okay quick, boost me up!”

The two shared a look with one another, looking unsure. “What?” Marco asked, seeing their hesitation.

“You sure you'll remember to pull us up when you're done?” Ferguson asked, in a half-accusing manner.

Marco looked hurt at the comment. “What? Of course I will. You two are my best friends.” The two still looked hesitant and Marco sighed, adding, “Look we don't have time to argue about this, the whole royal army is right on our tail.”

As if on cue, they heard a shout followed by the thundering roar of horses racing at full-speed toward them as it grew steadily louder. This finally seemed to convince the two thieves as they quickly formed a human ladder for Marco to climb up, the young man taking care not to step on their hands or faces as he scaled the cliff off of his friends.

Once Marco reached the top and had hauled himself over the ledge, he quickly checked his satchel, before giving a quick glance below, making sure no guards were there yet.

But he heard more guards riding up from around the clifftops and knew they had no time to waste. “Come on, guys! Let's get going!” he shouted before running away at full speed, forgetting the predicament he had left his two friends in.

The two just stared up at the cliff blankly for a moment. “D-Did he just leave us behind... again?” Ferguson asked.

“Yep,” Alfonso replied.

They both sighed dejectedly, as they waited to be arrested... again.

…

Marco continued at full sprint though the forest looking back occasionally to check and see if his pursuers were gone or not. Unfortunately for him, they weren't.

There were about four horeses following him, all carrying armed guards dressed in Mewni's traditional golden armor, the lead guard being none other than the captain herself, Kelly, her recognizable blue hair tied up in a bun, most of it covered by her helmet. “Great not her, that's just what I needed,” Marco muttered to himself, focusing on the impossible task of outrunning the riders on foot. “Does the universe just hate me or something?” he pondered to himself, as his eyes scanned the area around him, trying to think of a plan.

Finally, an idea came to him, as he grabbed onto a nearby vine, using the momentum to swing himself around the tree before kicking the unsuspecting Kelly off of her horse and instead taking her place. He situated himself better into the fancy saddle, checking back once to make sure the girl was okay. He breathed a mental sigh of relief as he saw she had landed in some bushes, her usually well-kept hair now coated in leaves and sticks, rubbing at her head and glaring daggers of death at him but not looking too injured. Once he knew she was fine, he allowed himself a small laugh of victory as he rode triumphantly away from his honest-working rival.

Kelly gritted her teeth as she watched helplessly as the thief rode away on her own horse and she stood up with a huff. After a few moments the other guards caught up to her, stopping to see if she was hurt, one of them worriedly asking, “Are you okay, Kelly?”

“That's Captain Kelly! And yes I'm fine, Tad,” she angrily snapped at her ex-boyfriend. “Just follow after that guy before he gets away!” The others all obeyed, returning to their chase as they hunted after their target, one of them stopping long enough to lift the girl captain up into the saddle behind him before galloping after the criminal, as well.

While that was going on, Marco was putting more and more distance between himself and his pursuers, confident he would easily allude them at this speed. He still took a few seconds to double-check and make sure he really was in the clear, though, listening to the now near-silent trotting of horse hooves, and smiled with satisfaction. Perfect. They were nowhere near him and at this rate he would be long gone before they had time to track him down. He was pretty much in the clear now.

The young thief allowed himself to relax a bit in his seat, loosening his tight grip on the reins. He absentmindedly patted the horse, saying, “Good job, girl. I think we lost them.”

The horse he was riding, who was names Pony Head (Kelly wasn't very clever with the names, her mind on more important things like hunting down criminals), hadn't been paying attention to the whole thing, finding all these stupid chases boring. She would much rather be hanging back at the castle with the other horses, maybe even flirting with a few of the better looking stallions there, not going on some annoying chase through the dumb woods looking for some turd.

But the second the boy spoke, the horse snapped to attention, the unfamiliar voice from her current rider setting off red flags in Pony's mind. What the heck?! Pony thought, as she turned her head to see some dumb boy sitting comfortably on her back, looking behind him rather than even paying attention to what was in front of him. Oh no! Pony thought in anger. No boy is gonna sit on by back!

She dug her hooves into the ground, bringing them to an abrupt halt and Marco, who had been distracted checking behind them to make sure they were free and clear, was nearly sent flying. The thief screamed, squeezing the reign's clenched in his hands with a death grip, somehow managing to stay on Pony Head, much to her anger and dismay.

“Hey what's the big idea?!” Marco screamed down to the horse, his heart still in his throat, causing him to pant harshly. When he got no reply from the animal, he repositioned himself back in the saddle, taking slow, steady breaths to try and calm his frazzled nerves. He did a quick look around for anything that might have spooked the mare. “Did you see a snake or something?”

Only the one on my back, Pony quipped back in her head.

The boy sighed, letting the scare go for now. “Never mind, let's get going,” he said, snapping her reigns to try and get her moving again. But to his surprise the horse didn't move an inch. “Uh, hello?” Marco said with slight annoyance, flicking the reigns again, a little harder this time. “Move.”

Still nothing. The boy was starting to lose his patience, the longer they lingered there the greater the chance the guards would catch up to them, Captain Kelly surely not giving up the chase so easily. This was exactly what Pony Head was thinking, as well, mentally smirking to herself at the idea of getting the annoying boy caught. Yeah keep yellin', turd. I ain't movin' a muscle.

“Come on fleebag, forward!” he yelled, kicking the stubborn horse in the side.

Oh he did not just call me that!! Pony mentally screamed, letting out a loud huff through her nostrils. The red thief heard this and opened his mouth to comment, but it quickly turned to a scream as the horse's hind legs bucked up over and over again, trying to knock the annoying pest off her back. It was a quite to see, as the horse aggressively kicked and stomped her way around the clearing, the poor young man holding onto her back for dear life as he was flung around like a rag doll, shouting out his complaints at the top of his lungs, “Whoa! Wait, stop!!” The thief felt his stomach churn in protest and he quickly exclaimed in a panic, “I think I'm gonna be sick!”

Oh you better not puke on me, you little turd, Pony angrily thought, before giving the hardest buck yet, this time finally managing to throw the boy off of her, Marco releasing a high pitched scream as he was sent flying through the air and right toward a cliff. Luckily for him, he was able to grab onto a tree branch, now suspended over the steep incline, hanging on for dear life as his feet dangled helplessly. Marco swallowed down the panicked lump in his throat and tried to ignore the fact that he was currently hanging over a hundred foot cliff, focusing instead of pulling himself up onto the branch. He just prayed it would support his weight. He managed to wrap his legs around the thick back, meaning he didn't have to worry about his arms giving out just yet, but he still understandably held onto the limb with a death grip.

Just as he was about to begin trying to get back on solid ground, he heard the familiar clip-clop of horse hooves, followed by shifting from the branch, alerting him that he was not alone on the limb. The young thief craned his neck to see the same stupid horse that had gotten him into this situation now try to walk onto the unstable branch. He gasped in horror, terrified that the clearly brain-dead mare was about to get them both killed, Marco not sure if the limb could support their combined weight.

He wondered what on earth could be causing the four-legged creature to act so recklessly. That was until he noticed the satchel handing on the far end of the tree, hanging precariously on one of the small limbs that had luckily stopped its descent. And do despite his fear, he began inching his way across the trunk, trying to move as fast as possible, ignoring his safety instincts screaming at him to stop. Pony, though, quickly caught on to what Marco was trying to do and began trying to step on Marco's hands with her hooves, also seeming to completely disregard the dangerous drop directly below them.

Marco, now with a new motivation to beat the stupid horse and keeps his hands from being crushed, took the risk and jumped toward the branch. He just barely managed to grab the satchel, as well as grip the branch it had been loosely hanging off of, the bag nearly slipping off from all the jerky movements and sent plummeting off the cliff. Marco let out a victorious yell, as he turned to the stupid horse with a smug grin, showing off his claimed prize. “Ha, take that you stupid-”

But Marco didn't get a chance to finish his insult, as suddenly there was a loud snapping sound, Marco and Pony Head both looking over to see the large crack in the trunk, which had been made weak by the two's overwhelming weight and constant abuse on the fragile limb. The didn't have any time to react as it gave altogether breaking free of its hold in the cliff side with another loud snap, now sent falling to the unforgiving earth below.

Marco screamed at the top of his lungs, giving out a very undignified yell, while beside him Pony neighed loudly in terror. He felt his body go weightless, his stomach twisting uncomfortably, as he continued to cling to the plummeting branch. A wave of nausea rose up, both from his unbridled terror and his well-known case of motion sickness, which was choosing to come back at the worst possible time. But suddenly his lifeline was gone, snapping in half when it bumped against the cliff side, sending Marco and Pony spiraling away from one another on their fast track to becoming acquainted with the ground.

Next, Marco reached the treetops, thick vines wrapping around his body and slowing his descent immensely. Finally, the vines went taunt stopping the young thief mere inches from hitting the hard ground. His body went limp, allowing the ropes to hold him there, swaying unevenly above the ground. Marco just stayed like that for a few moments, panting as the stress of the ordeal slowly wore off and his heart rate slowed to a more normal pulse.

Until finally he said in a remarkably calm voice, “Well that was scarring for life.”

The young thief managed to untangle himself from the thick, knotted vines and get himself settle back down on the soft ground, nearly tempted to get down on hands and knees and kiss it. He would have to, if it weren't for the fact that the ground would have been what would have ultimately caused his death and he really didn't want to go around praising his almost killer. So instead, he just put his satchel back over his shoulder and began walking deeper into the woods.

He wasn't sure where he was headed but literally anywhere was better than here at the moment, just in case that dumb horse had survived too and was now looking for him. Right on que, Marco heard an angry neigh in the distance, not that far away. Marco panicked, looking around for somewhere for somewhere to hide, slowly backing up toward a large hill covered in ivy. But as his back brushed against the vegetation, he found no resistance there, stumbling back and into the hidden entrance and cave within.

The red thief had no time to ponder this as he quickly hid behind a nearby rock, just as the distinct shadow of a horse appeared on the vegetated wall. Pony stopped, as if sensing his presence, looking around her, her ears twitching as they tried to pick up any sound from the boy. Marco pushed himself a little further behind the rock, making sure to make no noise whatsoever, holding his breath and trying to keep himself as still as possible.

For a few tense seconds, Marco watched the silhouette of the mare, unmoving and stock still. Then, at last, the annoying pony seemed to give up on the chase, trotting away from the area and allowing Marco to finally release his held breath. But he kept an eye on the entrance as he backed slowly into the cave, taking slow, cautious steps just in case she was still within hearing distance. Once he could no longer see the entrance, he allowed himself to drop his guard and turn.

The boy's mouth dropped open at the unexpected sight before him. Instead of a dingy, dirty cave like he had been suspecting he had found himself in some sort of secluded clearing, though it was hardly empty. For in the middle of the green and vibrant clearing was an abandoned tower, standing tall and majestic as the sunlight gleamed off of it. Its color was faded from years of neglect and thick, green vines clung around its base and crawled up its sides. But despite this, it still looked remarkable, seeming like it had just been ripped from the side of a castle before being dropped into the hidden clearing. That or it had been taken right out of a fairytale book, but that one was just silly, this was real life, not some fairytale... right? Behind it was a rushing waterfall, which also gleamed brightly in the sunshine, running into a gentle stream.

“Huh, a tower? How'd it end up here?” Marco wondered aloud. But he quickly dismissed his wonderment with a shrug. “Oh well, better not look a gift horse in the mouth.”

The young thief cringed at the phrase, before releasing a violent shudder as he was reminded of his brief encounter with that stupid horse. “Okay note to self, never use that phrase again,” he told himself.

“Still this is a good place to lay low for awhile,” he muttered, his eyes scanning the tower carefully, searching for any form of entrance along its crumbling exterior. “Now if I could just find a way inside...”

Marco's gaze froze on a small window near the top and luckily for him, it was open.

“Bingo!” the boy said with a satisfied smile. He made his way over to the tower, looking up its side, trying to plan out a way up. He pulled out two arrows using those to climb slowly up. He got into a stead rhythm, sticking an arrow in the wall with a loud thunk, before pulling out the next one and sticking it into the wall a bit higher than the last, careful to make sure his feet had a proper resting place as he did. Clop. Thunk. Clop. Thunk. The sound repeated itself over and over again, until at last Marco reached the window, grabbing onto its frame and lifting himself inside. He tucked the arrows into his satchel along with the crown, as he looked around the dark room.

It was impossible to tell what anything looked like inside until his eyes adjusted to the dim lighting, but he didn't really care of the condition of his temporary hiding place at the moment. He was more interested in checking on his valued prize. He looked into the open satchel with a content grin, staring pleasingly at the golden crown shimmering inside.

So distracted, in fact, that he didn't see a small form making its way over to him in the darkness. He let out a satisfied sigh, saying softly to himself, “Looks like I'm finally out of danger.”

A loud bong sounded, echoing around the dark enclosure, as the young thief fell over unconscious, his body going limp as a heavy frying pan smacked him hard in the back of the head. Star, for a moment, just stood over the sleeping man on the floor in front of her, her eyes wide in shock of what she had just done. She continued to hold the frying pan up, ready to strike once again, just in case he did manage to remain conscious after the hit.

“Um, hello?” Star hesitantly called down to him. “A-Are you awake?”

She poked him a couple of times with the pan, but when he didn't react she relaxed some, letting her guard drop a little. Though she was anything but calm, as she began pacing around the room, saying to herself. “Okay so I just knocked out some guy and now he's unconscious in my living room. What do I do? What should I tell mom? No, I cannot tell mom about this. Then again,” Star stopped pacing, putting a finger to her chin as she looked thoughtfully over at the boy. “If she saw that I was capable of taking out this intruder then maybe she would see that I'm strong enough to be able to go outside! I'm a genius!”

Star patted herself on the back for the idea, a wide, hopeful grin on her face, as she approached the boy again. She looked down at him smugly, saying with a laugh, “Ha, thought you could just sneak in and try and steal my hair, didn't you? Well you are no match for my incredible talents, mister.”

Once, she finished bragging, she just grinned proudly down at the unconscious boy. But her smile vanished as she finally got a good look at the intruder. He was actually quite handsome, his soft brown locks laying across his face, which looked so peaceful and warm as he slept. She could see the slightest hint of toned muscles though his shirt, which caused a lump to form in her throat for some reason. And to top it all off, he had the absolute cutest mole on his left cheek.

For a moment, all Star could do was just stare, love-struck at the handsome boy laying on the floor in front of her, a blush beginning to light up her cheeks. That was until she felt a small tug on her hair and she jumped turning to see Janna flapping her wings behind her, a frown clearly discernible on her fuzzy features. “W-What?” Star said, quickly hiding her blushing cheeks from the bat. “I've just never seen another human before is all,” she said defensively.

Star didn't have to be looking at her bat friend to know that she was raising a skeptical eyebrow right now. “L-Let's just find a place to put this guy, before mom gets back,” Star said, trying way too hard to change the subject.

She scanned the room in search of a good hiding spot, finally landing on the large closest. “Ah ha! Perfect!” She looked to Janna for agreement, but the bat was still just giving her a skeptical look, not convinced the boy could fit in there. Star frowned, before demanding, “Just help me get him in there.”

#Star vs #Star vs AU #My Writing #Star is a Disney Princess #Starco #Star is Rapunzel

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driversmutbucket · 6 years

Text

Reader x Jude

Part II

——

Part I:

——

Warnings: zero, none, nada

Author note: alrighty, this turned out to be a slow burn. I can’t make our sweet boy Jude fuck on the first date 👌

The next week, a Thursday evening, you were just about to leave for the day from the practice when the phone in your nurse station rang.

“Hello, this the Dr Ross paediatric centre, you are speaking with y/n” you said with a hint of forced enthusiasm.

“Oh, ah, hi! It’s Jude”

“Oh! Hi Jude, is Andrea okay?!” You said slightly concerned “I was just closing up here.”

“Oh shit, yeah, no, he is fine, I’m so sorry to ring at this time, I just have been trying to get hold of you, and didn’t know any other way” he admitted “I actually feel like a bit of an idiot, this is probably the fourth time I have rang, you have never been able to take my call.”

“Oh! Well now it makes sense why the receptionist said the other day that a lady with a deep voice named Judith had rung for me.” you said snorting.

You could hear Andrea babbling away in the background as Jude chuckled warmly ”Oh God, i am so sorry”.

”No, no, don't apologise, it was a temp receptionist and she seemed absolutely off the wall” you assured him ”anyway, what can i help you with?”

You heard Jude clear his throat before he said ”Well actually, uh, i was ringing to see if you wanted to get that coffee?”

“Oh! Yeah sure!” you said, blushing.

“OK great, are you free tomorrow?” you could hear the relief in his voice, “and could i get your number so i can message you incase...” Andrea suddenly started wailing in the background and he didn't finish his sentence.

You quickly gave him your number and hung up so he could tend to his son. You heart was beating rapidly.

Your rang Dr Ross (or as she insisted you call her, Jan).

”Hello, y/n, is everything ok?”

”Hi Jan, so sorry to bother you after hours, but uhhhh, i seem to have been asked out by a patients parent....” you admitted cautiously.

”Oh, so Jude finally did huh?” you could hear the smile in her voice.

”I’m sorry what!?” you laughed..

”Come on y/n, I've seen how he looks at you, I'm glad he finally did it, he is a lovely, lovely man” she gushed.

“I mean, wow....” was all you could manage.

“As for going around with a patients father, it is all ok legally, i checked it out a while ago” she assured, “let’s just say, i had a hunch.”

“Shit! Oh god sorry for cursing! I mean, thank you!” you stammered, laughing nervosly.

“Oh y/n, don't be ridiculous, I will see you tomorrow ok?” Jan replied with a laugh.

You said your goodbyes and hung up. She really was a terrific boss, you thought with a grateful smile.

Checking your phone you saw Jude and messaged you with the details about tomorrow morning. You replied and left work, with a slight spring in your step.

----

You woke the next day with a feeling of nervous excitement bubbling in your stomach.

You decided to take the half an hour walk through the city with Bil to meet Jude. You enjoyed walking, you were in the habit of walking everywhere, a side-effect of New York City.

As you walked up to the cafe where you were to meet Jude, you saw him before he saw you. He was sitting in the sun at a table outside, Andrea on his lap. We wore sunglasses and black v neck tee. Oh, he was handsome.

”Hi!” you said, announcing yourself.

Jude looked up and smiled warmly, “Hi, y/n” he took Andrea’s little hand and waved it at you.

”Awh! Hi handsome” you gushed as you bent down and ruffled Andreas hair.

“Jeez son you get all the pretty ladies, huh?” he said to Andrea, who babbled happily at him in return.

You sat down and Jude fussed over Bil as you ordered a coffee. Andrea climbed off Jude’s lap and came over you, you picked him up and popped him on your own lap.

“Honestly, that kid is the biggest ladies man I have ever met, but it is always one sided” he said with a wink, “you are one of the only women he has any interest in!”

”What an honour!” you exclaimed, laughing as you stroked Andrea’s soft locks. Jude smiled at you both tenderly.

You spent a while chatting about the usual kid stuff you were accustomed to, it was obvious Jude was distressed about Andrea’s lack of vocabulary at 2 and 1/2, you tried to reassure him.

You got onto the subject of dating,

”The thought of explaining this whole situarion” Jude said motioning at himself and Andrea, “to new people all the time is just exhausting.”

You nodded sympathetically.

”The solo dad/widower gig is crazy” he admitted, “it’s so nice to meet up with you y/n, I feel instantly at ease because I don't have to preface this with our big sob story, you know? Our world is pretty small”

“Well first off, it isn't a sob story Jude!” you said as you bounced Andrea on your knee, “but I can see how it would be so hard to get out there with everything going on.”

“I really feel like I need to focus on him while he is young, I don't want him to be fucked up from all of it” he nodded at Andrea.

”You are doing an incredible job” you beamed at him, taking a sip of your coffee.

Before you knew it you had been chatting away comfortably for 2 hours, you said with regret that you needed to drop Bil off at his dog day care and head to work. You parted ways with smiles.

----

After work that evening you checked your phone, there was a message from Jude.

I really enjoyed coffee this morning, how about dinner on Sunday? I will try get a babysitter so I’m not competing for your attention.

Haha! Sounds lovely! You replied.

----

On Sunday you were a bundle of nerves, you had never spent time with Jude, without Andrea there as a sort of, buffer. However you were looking forward to getting to know him better and seeing how he scrubbed up. He had chosen a slightly upmarket restaurant in Manhatten for dinner.

You spent the early evening flapping about deciding what to wear. Eventually you settled on a simple yet chic black dress that was entirely fitted and hugged all your curves. It went to mid calf but had a slit up the left leg to mid thigh that made it a touch sexy. The v neck cut showed enough cleavage to be enticing. You chose some simple pointed toe heels to go with it. You wore your hair down, something that you didn't do often, and styled it into soft waves. You did your usual makeup, but added a bold red lip for the occasion. You looked in the mirror and breathed in and out deeply.

You got a cab to the restaurant, arriving before Jude and you decided to wait outside for him.

“Y/n!”

You turned and saw Jude grinning and striding toward you. Jesus take the wheel.

He. Looked. So. Good.

You inhaled sharply, taking in the sight. He was in a crisp pale blue dress shirt and black dress trousers. His dark hair shined and softly waved around his face. You collected yourself and smiled,

“Hey Jude, gosh you look very handsome!”

You saw a red hue tinge his cheeks at the compliment.

“I mean, thanks, but you look...wow” he said as he ran his fingers through his hair.

It was your turn to blush.

“Yeah, decided to give the scrubs the night off” you joked.

He put his hand gently on your back and motioned to the door, “shall we?”

During dinner the wine flowed and the conversation and laughter with it. You hardly noticed what you were eating as you talked.

Neither of your wanted the night to end and after dinner you walked to a jazz bar you had heard of nearby. Both nicely buzzed on alcohol, any awkwardness was erased as Jude dragged you to the dance floor. You both laughed and danced until you were out of breath, retiring to the bar.

“I honestly haven’t had this much fun in ages” Jude confessed, beaming “I forgot what it is like to socialize after 6pm!”

“Thanks for asking me to be your accomplice” you said resting your hand on his upper arm.

You ordered another red wine each and clinked glasses.

“To dancing badly!” Jude announced.

You laughed, “long may it continue!”

When your glasses were drained, Jude checked his watch and groaned.

“I best be going home in about half an hour.”

The jazz band started a slow number, and he extended his hand to you.

“My lady?”

You snorted, and grabbed his hand, “let’s show them how it’s done.”

He dragged you to the dance floor, then turned to face you. Even in your heels he was tall, you reached and put one hand on his shoulder and slipped your other hand into his. He placed his free hand on your waist.

In your joyous alcohol induced state you closed the gap between your bodies and rested your head on his broad chest, closing your eyes and humming along to the music. Jude didn't miss a beat, lowering his head and rest it against yours affectionately. You stayed this way, swaying to the music, until it was time to go.

——

Part 3

#Jude x Reader #Hungry Hearts #Adam Driver #fan fiction #fluff

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writcraft · 6 years

Text

2019 Fandom Year Ahead

After writing out my reflections on 2018 I thought I would share some of my fandom goals and things I have going on in 2019.

I’m going to do a fic related recap/meme of 2018 but I’m waiting for Erised reveals then I’ll get that up too. In the meantime, here’s some of the stuff I have going on in 2019 and I hope you’ll join in some of the fun :D

I’m also upping my participation over on Dreamwidth where you can find me as Writcraft, so if we don’t have mutual access or whatever then do come and say hello and I’ll subscribe back and grant access to my own journal if I recognise your username.

Moderating: Harry Potter

I’m excited about the fests I’m moderating this year and I hope we get plenty of sign ups and people enjoy them. The upcoming fests are below.

Harry Potter Kinkfest (@hpkinkfest): I can’t quite believe Kinkfest has been running for a decade, and I’m super excited to see what people come up with this year. The fest is designed to explore any and all kinks and hopefully be a safe space for creators who fancy working with kinks you see around less frequently, as well as creators who want to write those well-loved kinks and celebrate all the different ways there are to make our favourite characters get their kink on. Prompting is well underway and head over to the fest tumblr to find out how you can leave your prompts if you haven’t already done so.

My Bloody Valentine: An anti-Valentine’s mini-fest exploring the darker side of love, romance, sex, obsession and relationships. This will be a self-prompting, self-posting fest running from 10 - 16 February. More details will go up at @hpdarkarts in mid-Jan but you can start creating at any point if you’re interested. I already know we have a couple of brilliant entries ready to go, and I’m excited to see what people come up with.

Wand In A Knot: The Harry Potter 24 hour smut tag challenge. This is such a fun fest, inspired by similar fests in Teen Wolf, Sherlock and Supernatural fandom. The fest begins with a mod tag, tagging the first participant with a short prompt and then go, go, go, you have 24 hours to produce and post your fanwork, choosing your own character/ship to fill the prompt. You get your fanwork up, then tag the next participant with a short prompt and they then have 24 hours to create their contribution. It’s super fun to be part of, and we hope sign ups go swimmingly. There is a 30 participant cap and the tagging will happen on a dedicated fest Discord. Follow @wand-in-a-knot for details which will go up around March. The fest starts in May.

Harry Potter Horror Fest: The annual HP Horror Fest, an anonymous prompt based fest, will be back this year only this time it will run in September. Keep an eye on @hpdarkarts for details.

Moderating: Radio One RPF/One Direction

Grimmy Appreciation Fest (@grimmyappreciation): For those interested in 1D/Radio One RPF fandom, this annual fest dedicated to fanworks focused on Nick will be running again in 2019. More details will go up in the summer.

Gryles Exchange (@grylesexchange): I’m delighted to be part of a terrific mod team for this year’s Nick/Harry exchange which will open for sign ups at the end of January. Keep an eye on the blog for more details.

Writing

I’ve got a bunch of projects I’m super excited about this year. I’m going to finish off my Festive 500s, probably posting a bunch in a mad rush, then I’m focusing on all the new things. I’m hoping to be a regular participant in the @hpfemslash-minifest when a monthly theme grabs my interest, and I’ll be writing for Daily Deviant on a monthly basis again this year, starting this month. There are a few fests I’ve got my eye on, although I’m trying to limit fest participation. I’ll probably have a little something in the fests listed above as I want to write at least two pieces of dark/horror fic this year, I’m hoping to do the Snarry-a-Thon at Snape Potter, and after that, we’ll see! I’m sure I will do one of the Drarry fests, the question is which one??? It will likely depend on timing and other commitments.

HARRY POTTER

Play Me Like A Love Song - I am working on a novel length Minerva McGonagall/Wilhelmina Grubbly-Plank story. They make a fleeting appearance in my Drarry fic, Little Compton Street, and this is their story set within that 'verse. It charts them meeting in the 50s, how they got together and looks at the communities they found on Little Compton Street and their work with those communities during the AIDS pandemic in the 80s.

Novel Length Snarry - I've been really enjoying indulging in writing longer stories and I haven't really written a novel length Snarry. I really want to spend some time on this ship this year in general. Expect much more Snarry from me this year and feel free to block the tag if it’s not your thing.

Losing His Religion Series - I swear the sequel to my Drarry fic Bedroom Hymns isn’t abandoned. It’s on the list of projects to complete this year and I’ll be glad to share the second instalment with you!

Festive 500s - God, I wish I had called these ‘suitable for any time of the year’ 500s :D - nearly finished with them and with 10 remaining chapters to post, I hope the rest will be up by the end of the weekend.

Daily Deviant - As above.

ONE DIRECTION / RADIO ONE RPF

Rebel Girl - I am super excited about this story, my first genderswap fic in this fandom, pairing Nick Grimshaw and Louis Tomlinson. This story will be a queer coming of age story focusing on Manchester's music scene, LGBT communities and self-discovery. On her first visit to Manchester’s Canal Street, Louis becomes captivated by flighty, infuriating DJ Nick who offers Louis the no-strings sex she thought she wanted. As Louis and Nick grow closer, pretending not to care becomes increasingly difficult.

London Rain - My Tomlinshaw hook-up app fic that I still haven't finished. Hoping to get this up at some point this year.

Someday You Will Find Me - Another 2018 WIP I haven't finished, in which non-famous Nick and Louis fight over the last copy of Oasis album What's The Story (Morning Glory) in an L.A. record store, and it leads them on a forty-eight hour music binge at Louis' posh house in the Hollywood Hills. A kind of liminal spaces story, structured around music from Northern England.

Thirteen - The Harry Styles/Nick Grimshaw/Louis Tomlinson Doctor Who AU with Nick as the Thirteenth Doctor that I've had in my WIPs for ages. Maybe this will be the year? Who knows.

Gryles Kink Fic - My Gryles muse has fucked off, but I’m hopeful it will return. Maybe? Anyway, it’s on the list.

Little Lion Man Sequel. Edited this in because I forgot to include it. But yes, this is happening. It won’t be a multi-chaptered WIP and definitely won’t be as long as the original, but it wraps up some of the things I set in motion towards he end of LLM. Yay!

#2019 in fandom #projects #my fic #stuff I mod #let's see how this goes #lmao

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suga-ssi · 6 years

Text

Bloom: 1

Characters: (So far) BTS Kim Taehyung, BTS Min Yoongi, BTS Park Jimin, BTS Jeon Jungkook, Kim Seokjin

Pairing: Taegi, Yoonmin, Jikook, Taekook

Tags: Established Relationship, Drinking, Cursing, Cheating, Heartbreak, Suicide Attempt, Overdose

Summary: The universe has a way of bringing people together. But how the rest of our story goes is up for us to decide.

CHAPTER 1: Start of the End

Jan 2019

Taehyung saw the black vine-like marking that crawled from the base of his hyung’s neck, as the older man fixed the collar of his leather jacket. Their room was dimly lit by the morning sun and his eyes were a bit blurry from sleep, but he saw it. An annoying marking that stained Yoongi’s pale skin.

Should I bring it up? Taehyung thought to himself, but he knew that talking about it would mark the start of the end. Or maybe their end has started regardless.

Everyone has a base mark at the bottom of their nape and it starts growing from the moment you meet your soul mate. One stem after another, it can grow to reach the back of your ear until the love between soul mates bloom. Once they have fallen in love, the whole marking will show. It will be a perfect match between the couple, blooms and all.

And Taehyung saw it, he was sure of it, a short stem-like vine protruding from his hyung’s base mark. And the growing vine wasn’t for him. They both knew from the start that they would never mark for each other.

Tae sat up from the bed, pulling the sheets to cover his bare chest. “Your beanie, hyung”, Tae said as he threw the grey beanie from the night stand to Yoongi who was almost finished dressing to leave.

Yoongi smiled widely at him as he caught the flying beanie mid-air before facing the mirror once more to fix it on his head.

“Nice catch!” Tae murmured as he lay back down to brew on his thoughts once more.

“See you for lunch?” Tae asked as he watched Yoongi walk towards him to give him a peck on the cheek. “Jin hyung’s café?”

Yoongi hummed in response, “Jin hyung’s café.” He agreed as he straightened his jacket once more.

“I love you.” Tae whispered, as he tugged on Yoongi’s sleeve, catching the weighted pause before the other said it back. “I love you, Tae. So much”, the older answered back, planting a soft kiss on the younger’s pouted lips.

Tae watched as Yoongi walked out of their bedroom. He knew it was coming, the pain and the sting that he thought he has fully accepted was inevitable. He clutched at his chest as he tried to picture the sad smile Yoongi gave him before he kissed him. “This is it”, he whispered to himself. “The end.”

Yoongi locked the door behind him before checking his phone.

Park Jimin: Hyung? You said 8 am right? I’m here. (07:58 am) You: Yes. I’m sorry. I had a late start. I’m on my way. (08:03 am)

He tugged on his jacket to tighten it against his body, pulling his hood over his beanie as he sped up his pace. The air was still chilly and he was worried that Jimin might have been waiting for a while.

Yoongi has felt terrible for weeks. When has he become a man who kisses his lover before secretly meeting another man? He thought to himself, as he rubbed his face roughly.

But he had not planned on meeting Jimin. How could he have known that he would meet and save someone on that bridge on his way home? How could he have predicted that the man he will stop from jumping would trigger his mark? Maybe no one can really fully prepare for the moment fate steps in.

Yoongi has been with Tae for 3 years, and they have been friends for years before that. They travelled from Daegu and lived together in Seoul, fully aware that one day the universe will fuck them up. “The mark doesn’t matter”, he boldly promised to his lover as they held on to each other. He loved Taehyung. He knew this remained true. But that didn’t change the fact that Jimin needed him and that no matter how hard he tried to deny his affection towards the latter, the mark growing on his neck stubbornly wanted to prove him wrong.

The air in the diner was warmer and it was not as busy as he expected it to be on a Monday morning. He spotted Jimin on the corner booth near the back, black hair covering his face as he bent to sip the drink he held between his hands. Jimin waved at him, smiling shyly as Yoongi walked towards the booth.

“You came!” Jimin exclaimed excitedly, as he watched Yoongi sit in front of him.

“Of course, why wouldn’t I?” Yoongi replied while taking off his leather jacket.

“Hyung, your mark. It’s growing.” Jimin pointed out, unconsciously rubbing his neck which now boldly showed a thick stem with two protruding small vines.

“I know. I’ve noticed too”, he smiled curtly, pulling on his hoodie as he felt self-conscious.

“I thought you wouldn’t come.”

“Why?”

“I know you were with him, hyung.” Yoongi noted the sadness in his eyes as the younger spoke. He knew. Jimin knew he loves someone else. And Yoongi was still confused as to how he would be able to stop hurting both Jimin and Tae at the same time.

#fic #yoonmin fic #taegi fic #taekook fic #jikook fic

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geminiwrld · 6 years

Text

The Jacket 01.

Sweet Pea x Reader

Riverdale, a town where everybody knows each other and their business. A place that had a great divide better the posh north side and the destitute south side. One side had the Serpents and the Ghoulies while the other had the Lodges. Each side had their dirt, maybe more than the other, but there was something special about the both of them.

A new family was coming to Riverdale, and rumors were already brewing. Well, one of the family members was familiar with the small town. The mother, Diane Jackson, a chocolate firecracker, with an afro big enough to supply Earth, Wind and Fire,was born and raised in Riverdale. When she was eighteen she left her hometown, because she wanted to see what was outside of her tiny town. She went to Seattle, Washington a city where her past would not catch up with her and she could peacefully start a new life their and she did. A force drew the family to Riverdale and the three members all agreed that the city life was becoming to reckless. So they decided to pack up, leaving their life in Seattle and moved to the seemingly peaceful town called Riverdale.

-------

The gruff sounds of a Uhaul and the soft humming from a motorcycle were the only sounds heard on the road. Upon the family’s arrival the weather was depressing, grey skies and cool winds, shades of green whipped passed the drivers as they made their way to the town. In the Uhaul, Diane sat in the driver seat and her husband Vontae, a tall caramel man and had a short fro, who was the sunshine of Diane’s eyes slept in the passenger seat.They met soon after Diane moved to Seattle and were connected by the hip ever since. Their daughter

rode behind them, trying not to go too fast.

Cassandra Jackson, the new sophormoreat Riverdale High. A medium toned African-American teen, with tight brown curls touching the middle of her back. Her dark brown eyes ignited with passion and rebellion as she goes about her days. She was a perfect mix of boom and street smart, just like her mother. She always knew how to play the game, without getting caught up,even in unfamiliar places like Riverdale. Another thing Cassandra got from her mother, was a jacket. The leather jacket, with a two headed red eyed, green serpent on the back. The words “South Side” on the top and “Serpents” on the bottom, was always found on the teen. The jacket came from her mother, a symbol of her time in Riverdale, the truth but not the whole truth.

------

The family continued driving along the bumpy road and soon made a turn disappearing amongst the trees. The further they drove, a sign on the side of the road became more visible.A curious Cassandra slows down and puts her foot on the ground as she stopped to read the sign.

“Riverdale, the Town With Pep!” she mocks in a high pitched voice “Tch.”

She sets herself back on the bike and continues to drive to her destination

————

The trees left and were replaced with shabby houses, trailer parks, small shops, an abandoned school with graffiti all over,and this large log cabin styled building with motorbikes decorating its parking lot. The trees took its place once again and Cassandra began to ride faster. After playing speed racer behind her parents and hearing the glorious honks of the other riders on the road, the family crossed the train tracks that led to the other side of town. A retro diner right by the train tracks,caught Cassandra’s attention.

“How cute.” she thought.

She continued to ride and soon the scenery changed again. This was obviously the nicer part of town. The small shops looked more kept together and the streets weren’t as dirty as it was on the opposite side of the tracks. The homes on this side were a lot more upscale. A complete 360 from what was behind the diner. This is the side of town the Jackson family would be residing for the rest of their time in Riverdale.

Driving through the suburban neighborhoods of Riverdale,the Uhaul began to slow down approaching a of a white two story house. Cassandra stopped at the mailbox and took off her helmet, while her parents backed into the driveway next to their red Toyota Camry and her navy blue Ford truck behind it. The cars and the bigger furniture was brought to their new house a 3 days in advance. She leaned on the bike and waited for her parents to come out. Her mother, Diane, jumped out of the truck first followed by her father,Vontae. Her father started unloading the U-haul while Cassandra and Diane started talking.

“Hey mom, I got the jacket,” Cassandra smiled “almost forgot it.”

“All these years and this jacket still looks good as new.” Diane rubbed her daughter shoulders

“That’s ‘cause it has an awesome owner.” she gave spin with a smirk.

Diane laughed softly at her daughter antics.

“Come on let's help your father with the stuff.”

“Yes m’am.” She nodded.

After what seemed like a decade, everything was unpacked. The only that remained was a small box in Cassandra’s bed that contained memories of her past life back home. Diane and Richard were down stairs fixing dinner, while the curly haired girl was upstairs taking a shower.She came out of the bathroom with a purple cotton towel wrapped around her body and made her way to her room, shutting the door behind her. Cassandra changed into pajamas, black shorts that stopped mid-thigh and a random shirt, and went downstairs to eat.

Everyone ate in silence, until Cassandra decided to break that.

“So, what’s the school called again?” She looked up at her parents

Vontae dropped his fork, “How could you forget and we just told you?” His deep voice could vibrate the table.

“You told me a week ago, how could I not forget.” Cassandra said sarcastically.

“Riverdale High is the school and you start tomorrow.” Diane sighed and continued eating.

“Tomorrow! I can’t even see what this town is about?” She dropped her fork.

The parents continued to eat.

“You can… after school.” The mom stuck out her tongue in a cheek my matter.

“If you say so” she sighed “Where is this place at?”

“We passed it up on the way here. ” She knew her daughter was trying to get out of going to school.

“Right.” She rolled her eyes and started eating again.

“It is a good school, I enjoyed going there.” she said reassuringly.

“I thought you went to Southside High?”

“Yeah I went there for my last two years since they finished building the school after ny sophomore year.”

“Oh.” she nodded

“You have to start for eight, so be up at 7 or before then”, He said sternly, “and no shenanigans!”

She took a final bite of her food and said, “Yes sir and yes m’am.” She got up from her seat and headed to the kitchen to put her plate in the sink. Cassandra told her parents goodnight and headed up the stairs, to her room, and finally to sleep.

————

Banging on the door slowly faded in the sleeping teens ears.Cassandra peaked from under her covers, immediately regretting her decision as she groaned at the sunlight that passed her curtains.

“Wake up sweetheart, it’s your first day!” A loving voice came from the other side of the door.

Cassandra huffed and sat up, glaring at the door through her hair in her face.

“Kill me why don’t you?!”

The door opened and Diane leaned against the threshold. She put a hand over her heart and gasped.

“Oh, I couldn’t do that.” she shook her head.

Cassandra slung the covers off of her body, letting her feet touch the tan carpet.

“Oh yeah why not?” In groggy voice she stood up.

“Duh, I would go to jail and who wants to go jail?” She yanked one of Cassandra’s arms and dragged her to the bathroom.

“This counts as abuse you know.” She whined.

“No it’s not.” Vontae says standing next to the bathroom door, sticking out his tongue.

“I know my rights, and this” she pointed at her parents, “aint right” you shut the door.

“Sure Jan.” They said together and laughed.

The curly haired beast looked at herself in the mirror and huffed. She started to the run the water and brushed her teeth while waiting for the water to get warm. Cassandra spat into the sink and rinsed her mouth out. She smile at herself in the mirror and proceed to take her shower.

——————

After her shower she returned to her room to get dressed for the day.

She went to her closet and found a pair of ripped skinny blue jeans and a loose white t-shirt. After putting those on she went to her vanity and picked out her hair and then brushed it up into a bun. Light makeup was applied and she was ready. Cassandra grabbed her black combat boots, her book sack, and her leather jacket and left her room.

“Come on!” A feminine voice rang from down stairs.

“I’m coming!”

She walked down stairs and met her parents at the bottom of the stairs.

“How do I look?” Cassandra gave a fake smile.

They stared at her.

“Alright let’s head out” Richard said.

“Slander. Pure slander.”she said under her breathe.

Diane had Cassandra’s keys in her hands. Cassandra grabbed the keys from her mother’s hand and started going towards the door.

“Alright I’ll be on my way.” she rushed out of the house and locked the door.

Her parents stood side by side of each other stared at the door that their daughter went through.

“Have a nice day” Vontae said softly

The rumble of her motorcycle was heard from outside and soon faded out as she took off to her new school.

“Shit!” Diane jolted, scaring her husband.

“ What ?”

“Was she wearing the jacket?”

“I don’t know I was paying attention. I think so..”

“Shit!”

“What’s the problem she wears it all the time?” Vontae crossed his arms.

Diane sighs, giving up “I need to tell you something.”

#sweet pea x reader #riverdale x reader #riverdale fanfiction #sweet pea #riverdale #betty cooper #jughead jones #southside serpents #toni topaz #fangs forgarty #the jacket #sweet pea fanfic #sweet pea imagine #serpents #riverdale serpents #sweet pea x oc #southside

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michaelhalberstamapartments-blog · 5 years

Text

LARRY KING LIVES LIFE IN OVERDRIVE

Larry King, the rumbling voice of midnight questions, stares at Pat Buchanan, the White House director of communications. King's eyes are intense and prying, his chin is jutted toward the target, his lips are parted to give the impression that he is hanging on every word, about to interrupt but holding back to wait for a gem.

Except for six hours of sleep every 24 hours, Larry King keeps this expression all day and all night.

King's schedule puts demands on his phenomenal energy at an all-time high: He does a daily, hourlong interview show, Larry King Live, for Cable News Network, which reaches more than 300,000 households. He then does The Larry King Show for Mutual Radio, which has been cut back to a live four hours, with the first hour recycled for a five-hour package that reaches 3 million to 5 million people a week. In between these obligations, he writes two newspaper columns. On his slow days, he travels to sports arenas and does color commentary for Home Team Sports -- its audience by mid-June standing at 100,000. Once a month he does a worldwide talk show for the Voice of America and his next guest is scheduled to be Ronald Reagan.

"Certainly I have a weird life. But I like everything I do," says King. At the end of his workday (and night), his companions and staff feel like they just took the red-eye from California in non-reclining seats. Millions of people work two or even three jobs to make ends meet. But, for perhaps the first time in his life, King isn't worried about money. Mutual alone is paying him a reported $2 million on a five-year contract.

Strangely enough, King, 51, never seems to be in a hurry. Lean with a bit of a belly, he moves at the deliberate pace of a batter stepping up to the plate. The voice and metabolism are fed by coffee and cigarettes. He rarely drinks. A long time ago, he mastered naps -- he takes them during the five- minute news breaks on the radio show.

The time is now 11:30 a.m. King already has dressed, taken mucho vitamins and one aspirin -- "because the late Dr. Michael Halberstam told me to" -- worked for an hour on his personality column for USA Today, haggled a bit with an editor on his next book, talked with an insurance company about his daughter's graduation present of a Firebird, and complained that he was missing that night's Orioles game. Before 4 the next morning, he will stop another three times and ask, "Am I crazy?" and then "What is my real complaint? I can't have dinner when I want to, I can't see the KING, F-3

baseball game. But what if I had to be a librarian? No, instead, today I'm going to talk to Pat Buchanan and Harry Blackstone."

This is how he survives.

He eats lunch at Duke Zeibert's, dinner at the Palm. He gets one of his daily calls from his daughter, Chaia King, 17, and his oldest friend, author and consultant Herbert Cohen.

He doesn't prepare beyond his daily consumption of several newspapers, backed up by information from his contacts and his nearly 30 years behind the mike.

"I work with an acquired dumbness, a street dumbness," says King. That means he tries to think about what Joe Citizen would want to know.

From 5 to 9 a.m., he sleeps. He wakes up without an alarm. He tries to nap from 3 to 5 p.m., but the telephone jangles. Sometimes he calls someone personally to ask them to be on the show, such as New York Gov. Mario Cuomo, his first guest on CNN.

It's now 12:15 p.m. King is at his daily table in Duke's in full view of the glass doors. He has ordered coffee and is nibbling on the onion rolls. When his platter of fruit and cottage cheese arrives, he largely ignores it. He talks about his forthcoming book. "Sterling Lord is the agent. He's the kind of guy, you have dinner with him and they remove the plate, you have the crumbs, he doesn't have any. Impeccable," says King.

Bill Aber, the general manager of cable TV's Home Team Sports, tells a King endurance story: "On Wednesday, April 4, 1984, King had done his regular show, then he flew to Cleveland to do a luncheon banquet, then he had to meet us in Baltimore for our kickoff. The game was rained out and at 6 p.m. Larry interviewed celebrities for our party. Then he left at 7 to go to the Capital Centre to do some color on the Caps. Then he did the Wednesday all-night show."

In the last month King spurned offers from every major network and syndicator, says his agent, and renewed his contract with Mutual. The perks include 12 Fridays off and four weeks of vacation each year and a new luxury car every two years. Now he is driving a gray Riviera, on which Mutual put an "L King" vanity license plate, which King hates. Since the phones started lighting up on Jan. 30, 1978, when he was heard on 28 stations, he has built his affiliate stable up to 262 stations. His is the only talk show ever to win the prestigious Peabody Award. In the last few weeks, he signed with CNN for a reported $200,000 over three years. Once that show gets rolling, King says, he will tape a couple of shows a week.

He has had cameos in two movies -- Ghostbusters and Lost in America -- and television will increase his recognition by sight, not just sound. July 12 is King Day in Baltimore. Where once the Mutual show was taken on the road to build up audiences, now it's taken out to satisfy demand. In the next few months it will travel to the All-Star Game in Minneapolis, and to media gatherings in Nashville and Dallas.

It is now 8:15 p.m., the start of his evening's work.

Walking into the television studio, he says, "you got to be pretty weird to be doing radio, television and newspapers. Godfrey used to do it. I'm tired right now but . . . something about that light going on . . . I can't explain it."

Makeup is applied to his face and hands. Then King and Buchanan are facing each other.

At 10:20 p.m. he is at Mutual's studios on the 12th floor of a suburban Virginia highrise. This is home, behind the microphone, checking out the baseball game, doing promotions for a new station. During a commercial break he will do a 2 1/2-minute interview with Harry Blackstone Jr., the magician, for something called Larry King in Focus. On Saturdays the network runs The Best of King.

King has been in one studio or another since 1957, when he moved to Miami after finishing high school in Brooklyn. In Florida he quickly established himself as a radio interviewer, added a newspaper column and did commentary on Miami Dolphins games. But he ran into some well-publicized financial troubles, which forced him to leave broadcasting for four years. In 1979, shortly after taking the Mutual job, he filed bankruptcy for $350,000 in debts. Because of his past financial difficulties, his money is now handled by Bob Woolf, the agent he shares with Doug Flutie, Larry Bird and Gene Shalit. King says he gets a $150 weekly allowance.

Now it's 11:50 p.m. He glances over a press release and talks about his approach.

"You need the ability to listen. A lot of broadcasters don't know how to ask a question. One of my idols, Jimmy Cannon, could pick up every detail but he couldn't ask a question in the locker room. You have to keep it spontaneous, always be curious. I have a good memory, I never expect the answer. I don't think I am a better interviewer than I was at 25. I can relax people."

"Jimmy Hoffa embodies everything you want in an interview, except one thing. You want someone with a chip on their shoulder, passion, a little bit of anger, the ability to relate to the question and to talk about their business. But he didn't have a sense of humor."

At 12:06 a.m., his jacket is off and cigarette dangling. Blackstone is sitting where Gerald Ford, Bob Hope, Dizzy Gillespie, Mel Brooks, Milton Berle, Sophia Loren and scores of others have sat.

At 3:55 a.m. he gets up from the chair, stretches and says he feels really tired. He doesn't hang around the studio. "We have entertained and informed the callers, and we only reach 1 percent of the audience," says King.

He ads: "I don't think much about it. I don't take it home with me."

And he goes home. But he'll be up again in four hours. Making that face.

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nehawriter16 · 6 years

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2018, THE YEAR THAT BROKE ME

I’m currently sitting on the floor of my bedroom. It’s been a day of avoiding real work and responsibilities, but then again, escapism is kind of the theme of this year, so it’s only accurate that I’m here writing this.

Everybody is asleep, except me. And the men I like who live overseas, but they’ve been ignoring me, so I have no desire to ring them up despite the general despair and loneliness I feel. But let’s not begin our round up with boys, because although they rank high on my list of important life lessons/disappointments this year, I don’t want also want to give them the satisfaction of first place.

In the last 365 days, a lot about my life changed. I’m going to try to sum it up as best as I can.

1) In the beginning of December, I quit an internship that anybody else would have killed for. The work and constant travelling and being yelled at by crude seniors broke the delicate petal that I am. I’d landed that job at 19, and I loved that I was thrown into the adult world so early because it taught me a lot, but two years of showing up every day to do something I don’t love killed something inside of my brain. And so, I decided to take a month off and then move to a smaller firm, not realising that my job at EY would help to keep my sanity by keeping me occupied.

The first few weeks were bliss. After twelve hour work days, I suddenly had a lot of free time and I indulged in attending fun trainings and catching up with old friends. For a short second, life was filled with hope, up until my birthday in mid Jan.

2) Since I now had the luxury of lesser work hours, I decided to pursue one of my biggest dreams – writing a book. I already had the story in mind, and I thought that despite the emotional turmoil that revisiting some of the memories would bring, the bigger picture would be worth it. It’s almost the end of December now, and I’m still sure it is.

But the truth is – my relationship with A blossomed in 2016, and died a premature death in mid 2017. And I’ve been dragging it through the ground for longer than I should be. Sometimes I wonder if I’m solely responsible for squeezing it for the story. Or maybe it was the kind of love you can’t forget. Well, I can’t. I’m sure he has.

But one of the hardest things about writing this has been taking myself back to when we were falling for each other. I’ve been reading emails about hopes and dreams and forever after it has already ended. And how do you write about happiness when you know there isn’t going to be any? All this is important for the narrative, yes, but it fucks with my mental health so badly. 2016 me was naive and trusting. 2018 me is bitter, and not too thrilled about revisiting those moments mostly because of how much they hurt just to think about, forget turning them into an interesting cliff hanger filled story.

I have almost finished writing it though, and that’s what’s the more important thing. I don’t know what kind of nightmares publishing and finding an agent and royalties is going to bring, but at least I will have created something tangible and coherent instead of this faraway thing that I’ve dreamt of since I was 13.

3) I tanked my CA Final – and this was the biggest disappointment, no surprises there. More than the gallons of self loathing it brought on me, it was about the burden I created for my parents. Yesterday my mother, in a burst of anger, said, “If you don’t pass in May, you can’t live under our roof anymore.” She doesn’t know this, and she probably never will, but I cried myself to sleep because that thought terrifies me.

I feel like I am already just swimming through a rubble of guilt. Most people my age have already gotten well paying jobs and have been living out of home for years now. They are financing themselves and starting businesses and I don’t even read the newspaper on a daily basis. I lack the self control I used to have in school, or maybe my mother’s constant nagging and being up my ass was the only way I stayed successful when I was younger.

Of course, this career choice was a MASSIVE bad decision, and I’ve always felt out of place in it. I will never be the best, but I really do need to pass and finish. If I can’t pass it again, I will literally sink into unconquerable depression that no amount of therapy and medicines will be able to pull me out of.

I’m supposed to start studying from the 1st, and I hope that it doesn’t drive me FUCKING INSANE like the last time it did, because this time, the pressure is higher and time, lesser.

I still have some grit left in me though. The last two months of this year have been difficult, but creatively fulfilling, and I am okay with having to go back to analytical subjects again. I feel sane enough to drop into the mental battlefield that is the CA Final syllabus.

4) I’m 23 in a fortnight, and at least 5 of my friends got engaged this year. I was the oldest in school in my batch so they’re all younger than me. This whole finding a boy thing is stressing me the fuck out, because as per my calculations, it would take a year of courting for me to so much as like somebody seriously. After that, it would take two years for me to try every possible method to drive him away, and torture him with all my hamartias, and THEN if he doesn’t leave, and when he proposes, I’ll be like, “Okay fine. Maybe we can be engaged.” This whole process takes 3 years. I want to be married at 26, so I only have those many. The problem is that in this time period, it will not only be difficult to find an emotionally available boy with a pretty face – WAIT, for him to find me, because women don’t do the chasing – who is also sexy and charming and reads poetry and has a sensible head on his shoulders. No, in this time period I will also be taking solely career-oriented decisions as one must, and love will always take the backseat. I want to move abroad in 2020 and he may live somewhere else, and it’s clear from my several failed attempts that I can’t do long distance. Also to be noted that you cannot try this experiment with different men simultaneously. It’s sort of a one lab rat at a time type of test.

So what, then? Fuck feelings, and only be serious with hook ups? I think I’ve filled my 2018 with at least a two dozen of those hot but dumb types (tall, abs, rolling in money, half a brain, bonus if they’re good kissers, but you can never date them seriously) and to be honest I’m getting tired of them. First of all, they’re all pussies about the poetry, it literally frightens them which I find kind of hilarious, but it’s also annoying. Sure, we can roll a joint and make out on my terrace, and they’ll just pull up when I find myself getting even the least bit lonely, but the ones I really like – the fuckboys who I see have real turning into boyfriend potential – they live abroad. It’s so cliché, I might vomit, but they literally live in London and New York. London Boy is only here for a month and then he’s gone. New York one may stay back, but he always wants to meet after midnight and there’s no fucking way my parents are allowing that.

And let’s face it, I’m a relationship girl. Sure, I’ve picked up some skills with hooking up and if we’re being honest I don’t really have to make an effort, just pick a half-interesting loser from the hundred DM’s sitting in my Instagram, and it’s done. He does the work and buys the drinks. I put out. I ghost. It’s practically a system.

But I’m bored now. I need somebody entertaining. But no matter what, one of the most important lessons I’ve learnt this year is to never settle for less than what I deserve. (At least for my heart. My body gets it when she likes it, and thats enough.) So I say no to…well, everybody. True love has literally been evading me, and may for a while, I think until this CA shit is done, because it’s more important anyway.

Until then, I literally have a broadcast list called, “FWB.”

4) Do I even need to write about fake friends? Girls are so fucking FAKE NICE, it irritates me. And I have a great group of these girls in my life, who want nothing more than to use you as a stool to get to where they want. I have very few real friends and I’m so grateful for them (okay, her) because everybody else is just about the temporary bullshit. I am always afraid of judgement with them, and everything I say comes with a “what will they think of me?” filter. I don’t think real friendships should be like that at all. No, in a true friendship, you should be able to take both – your make up and fake bitch mask off and sit around in sweats, drinking and complaining about everything that’s wrong with your life.

Is this really how adults act? Will I always have to worry about the ulterior motives of everybody new I meet? And even scarier, if I spend enough time around them, will I also turn into a self centered asshole with no backbone? Will I forget who I am and start adapting to the social settings into which I’ve been thrust?

Because I hope not. Despite everything that’s happened this year, and despite almost losing my mind to mental health (yes! A thing I am still not ready to talk about! But someday will be!) I actually like my brain and what its capable of, once it starts trying. I like the stuff I come up with, the way my thoughts come out as sentences. I am actually a fan of the voice in my head, who – let’s face it – has been a real ass friend to me also. Even though she kind of went crazy with the depression, but I think the recovery has begun.

2018 was a fucking shithole, and god, I fell deep. I know 2019 is going to be even harder but I hope it is filled with more genuine happiness because it’s been a long time since I felt “happiness” as a permanent, internal feeling. It’s just been more of a fleeting and momentary thing for a few hours before the sadness envelopes me and takes lead.

So I hope that when I speak to you in – and over – the next 365 day period that’s about to begin, I am able to share some more hope and joy with you. I hope the motherfucker I’m going to marry stops sitting around on his ass and finds me, because I’m ready for my heart to be won over again. I have mourned enough, and fucked half the high spirits crowd. But most of all… I hope this book I’ve written does well. Not just because it’s a brilliant piece of shit, and a beautiful fucking story (if I may say so myself) but mostly because I really like clothes and I could use the money.

Also it would be great to stop feeling so mediocre all the time, so yeah. That would be nice. Will keep you updated Tumblr!

Love,

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firstpuffin · 6 years

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A summary of the Star Wars: Dark Forces series

-Notes=

0.1 = I apologise about being late this week (not that anyone waits on me), I decided to go and get my own images for this article, only for it to take longer than I remembered. I was up until 4 AM playing Jedi Academy.

0.2 = I am fully aware and being open about that some of this piece is basically the same as in a previous article. I found that I was trying to put too much into the previous article and decided to write this one, reusing a few bits and pieces. Most of this is new though, so please give it a read.

I grew up playing Jedi Knight: Jedi Outcast on the GameCube, the only game of the series that I had access to and I spent years craving the opportunity to play the sequel Jedi Academy. I played my favourite missions again and again; playing with and without cheats and played multi-player (against the computer) for hours at a time. I still remember convincing my friend to play with me, only for him to win using cheap exploits. He won, but I don’t think it was fun for either of us.

-above: multiplayer

I was so obsessed that I would devour whatever information I could find on the next game, and I believe this was before Let’s Plays on YouTube were a big thing. I learned that you could design a character AND a lightsaber; could you tick ANY more of my boxes? I even downloaded a PC demo to, well let’s be honest here, fail at. It would be a long time before I started playing games on PC and that may be due to my experience with this demo. I knew enough about this game that I could call out a braggard at school; you know the type, that guy who has played everything you want to play and is cooler than you until you realise that he doesn’t know jack-all about what he’s talking about.

When I finally started playing games on PC, I discovered that I had access to this series; in fact I think Jedi Academy was the deciding factor on why I started doing so. I found that the early games were too clumsy for a casual gamer like myself to play, although I was able to finish, and then cheat my way to different lightsabers and realistic dismemberment, that game from my childhood dreams. I love the series so much, and particularly the main character, that I have decided to take the time to write this. I intend for this to be a summary of the series rather than a review and is totally, one-hundred percent for fun; for me and hopefully those who read it.

The first game was released in 1995 was a clone of Doom which had come out two years earlier, and the final game came out in 2003 so you can imagine the sort of thing that I am talking about.

-above: graphics from the first and final games of the series

Despite being called the “Jedi Knight” series, that title only appeared from the second game onwards, which makes sense considering the first game was, as I said, a Doom shoot-‘em-up clone; it was only in the second game that the protagonist begins down the path of the Force. Speaking of whom, the series follows the character Kyle Katarn, an ex-Imperial officer who was betrayed by the Empire over the circumstances of his father’s death and became a mercenary with ties to the Rebel Alliance. Katarn and his games are not currently canon (by which I mean an official part of the Star Wars story) thanks to 2016’s Rogue One, given that the very first mission of the very first game is to steal the Death Star’s plans. Before the new entries to the Star Wars universe plodded over and trampled down what was the Extended Universe and is now referred to as Legends, Katarn was popular enough to appear in literature, graphic novels, role playing games and the video game Lethal Alliance.

-above: Kyle Katarn in his first appearance

Bringing my wayward thoughts back on track, the first game (Star Wars: Dark Forces) involved a very, boring Katarn shooting his way through his given mission of stopping the Empire’s Dark Trooper project, all of which is set to happen after the first movie. Thankfully Katarn improves as a character (personality-wise AND physically) as the series does. The game is separated into different missions, each with its own objective and usually on a different planet to the last. There isn’t much of a story outside of how the main goal is accomplished, with no real character dynamics or establishing of their backgrounds.

-above: the PlayStation cover for the game

The second game is called “Star Wars” with the subtitle “Jedi Knight” and… a second subtitle? I don’t get how this works but the game is known by the second subtitle “Dark Forces II” and I personally wouldn’t mind if the entire series was called Dark Forces which sounds badass; plus Dark Forces: Jedi Outcast is far less clumsy than Jedi Knight: Jedi Outcast, but hey. Getting, again, back on track, Dark Forces II was released in 1997, two years after the first.

The developers attempted to use live-action cutscenes to tell the story, bringing about an adorably quaint feeling through bad acting and even worse CGI. Katarn’s actor, Jason Court, was a major improvement on his design which would stick around for the rest of the series (in cases like this I always have to wonder what the actor thinks of the later representation of the character, if he cares at all).

-above: Jason Court as Kyle Katarn

The story of Dark Forces II, set after the Battle of Endor, followed the pursuit of the Dark Jedi Jerec who is attempting to become the leader of a new Empire and who was revealed to be the killer of Kyle’s father. In a cutscene, Jerec kills Jedi Qu Rahn whose disembodied voice talks Kyle through the training needed to become a Jedi and who provides advice throughout the game, particularly before a boss fight. It is also Rahn’s green lightsaber that Kyle uses, and is his first out of three over the series. The rest of the story is pretty simple as Katarn chases down Jerec, all the way to a place called The Valley of the Jedi where a Force user can gain immense strength. The most interesting part of the story is how there are two endings: the Light side and the Dark side endings.

-above: Kyle with Qu Rahn’s lightsaber

The Light side ending is the canon (technically correct) ending where Katarn’s actions earn respect from one antagonist and whose yellow lightsaber becomes yours after Rahn’s is destroyed, and Katarn uses it to kill Jerec in the Valley. He eventually becomes a Jedi and trains with Luke Skywalker, although this isn’t established in-game. The Dark side ending has Katarn kill Jan Ors, the token love interest, and the voice of Qu Rahn stops talking completely, having abandoned you just as you did the Light side, and after killing Jerec, Kyle fulfils his goal for him, becoming the new Emperor with Jerec’s female companion alongside him, all the while retaining Qu Rahn’s green lightsaber.

-above left to right: The Light side and Dark side endings

There was an expansion pack named “Mysteries of the Sith”, where the player got the chance to play as Mara Jade (who has quite a presence in Legends) and fight Kyle who fell to the Dark side. Set five years after Dark Forces II, Kyle has become a Jedi Master and is still using the yellow lightsaber he gained while fighting Jerec. During his time as a Jedi, and clearly after this game, Katarn builds his own lightsaber, putting aside the yellow one in favour of this new blue one with a much cooler hilt (although if you’ll entertain me, I’d like to say I’d prefer that he kept the yellow blade after changing the hilt as I feel that blue lightsabers kinda oversaturate the Star Wars universe; either establish blue as the colour of the Jedi or mix things up to keep it interesting, please).

At some point before the third game, Jedi Outcast, Kyle’s fear of the Dark side is exacerbated by actually falling to it, and he separates himself from the Force and the Order, leaving his new lightsaber with Luke. During Jedi Outcast he returns to the Force when Jan Ors is kidnapped by Dark Jedi Desann (there are so many of these buggers), retrieving his lightsaber and relearning his powers. This game is a landmark in the series for the development of the unique and super-fun lightsaber combat system.

This combat system made use of the agility of the Jedi, leaping off of walls, somersaulting and wall running to get the upper hand in fights and the fights themselves can either really drag on, leaving the player with stiff hands, or end in a single strike, depending on a combination of skill and chance. This method of fighting earned the game a Lot of praise and is largely considered to be the best lightsaber combat system of all time and was expanded on in the next game, Jedi Academy, where dual wielding and double-ended lightsabers were added, each with their own styles.

-above: mid-way through the game you can choose a new style

On top of this there were options to cheat, allowing the player to decapitate and dismember their opponents (or themselves should they lose in a fight) and thanks to these cheats, Jedi Academy gave players the opportunity to pick up dead opponent’s lightsabers and use them; this allows the player to switch between single, double and duel sided lightsabers depending on what enemies they face. It’s so incredibly cool that one has to wonder why it wasn’t a part of the game already, especially as they can be unlocked with a code in the console (I don’t understand this well enough to explain, but it's basically accessing what’s already in the game).

-above: a red lightsaber taken from dispatched enemy (not shown)

By the end of Jedi Outcast, Kyle has returned to the order and is an instructor during the events of Jedi Academy, the final game in the series. As Jedi Academy did really well upon release, yet it followed so soon after Jedi Outcast that some apparently considered it to be little more than an expansion and I assume there was some amount of Dark Forces exhaustion which may be why no further games were made. There may be other reasons, but they are not important for the purposes of this piece.

Dark Forces IV: Jedi Academy (see how it flows so much better when you don’t say “Jedi” twice?) no longer directly follows Kyle, but instead follows Jaden Korr, a character whose species, sex and overall appearance are designed by the character, although there does seem to be a canon design as the character is mentioned elsewhere. This could be considered disappointing, but neither species nor sex affects the story in any way so it is debatable whether or not this matters. I believe that I mentioned this in an earlier article but the customisation options are limited and, in some cases, kinda weird. Clothes are specific to species and sex, while not all races have both genders even if that has been established; for example you can only play as a female Twi'lek. I assume there is a reason for these choices, although the clothes limitation seems a bit odd and, should we ever be lucky enough to have this game remade, I’d hope that future editions expand on the options. (I’d like male Twi’leks and a Togruta species, plus outfits that aren’t limited to species).

-above: Togruta female Ahsoka Tano from the Clone Wars cartoon

The same applies to the lightsaber customisation. The player is understandably limited to three types of lightsaber: a single blade, two blades or a double-ended saber, but the blade colours are limited and the hilt has to be chosen from a pre-made select few. With today’s technology it should be no problem to expand these options. I have rambled on a lot about customisation as I always find it to be a favourite part of any game, but I’ll get back on track now.

The story of Jedi Academy follows Jaden Korr, fellow disciple Rosh Penin (an absolute tool) and their master Kyle Katarn. While Kyle is technically training these two, Jaden is usually alone in their missions. Rosh slides to the Dark side as Jaden uncovers a plot to steal Force energy from particularly powerful places (what the hell even is the Force anyway? I might write a thought piece about that sometime). We discover that the perpetrator is a character who Kyle let live from the last game and Jaden can lean into either the Light or Dark side for a different ending, just like Dark Forces II, but the Dark side ending (also non-canon) pits Jaden against Kyle in a final battle.

-above: failing the final battle against Kyle (I did this a lot)

I don’t know how to conclude what is meant to be a simple summary of a series and doing so is probably made harder by the fact that I’ve already written about it from the point of view of how it could be remade.

The Star Wars: Jedi Knight: Dark Forces series is an amazing product unfortunately limited by its time. Of course I wouldn’t want it delayed to be made later as the same people wouldn’t be working on it with the same goals and intent; it simply wouldn’t be the same series.

#first puffin #star wars #Dark forces #video games #star wars games #Jedi Knight #jedi academy #opinion

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