#IF YOU SEE THIS WISH PHOENIX (tagged) A HAPPY BIRTHDAY

[sinigangrobot]

Commission for @fan-enby-anonymous <3 thank you for asking me to draw them, your AUs and little fic tidbits about them are everything to me!! It was an honor.

[xpeachesncream]

bands | five

[ series masterlist ]

summary: jeon jungkook has it all: the looks, the fame, the money, the women. being considered the sexiest man in the industry, he finds no complaints about the way his life is going nor does he find any reason to apologize for the way he approaches it. he is a force to be reckoned with - until he meets you.

pairing: stripper!reader x idol!jjk

genre: (18+) strip club/nightlife au, post grad au | fluff, angst, smut

words: 3.2k

warnings: cussing, mature language/implied sexual content, implied nudity/nudity (at the nightclub), teasing, sprinkle of breast touching, alcohol consumption, pole dancing, straddling/lap dances, slight degradation/implied degradation, rough handling, flashback scene

note: took a stab at this jungkook one shot + wips are updated!

tags: @brightcolorsoffendme @min-nicoleee @eggbutnotyolk @ra-mun-e @miinoongi@ephemeralkookie @ppeachyttae @thebeebi @bluesharksandfish @kooafraid @liriaus​ @thisartemisnevermisses​ @ggukkieland​ @preciouschimine​ @sunniejinnie​ (please message me if you would like to be added to the taglist!)

'Do better' is exactly what Jungkook does, because he wants you, and he wants you bad. He thought he had you wrapped around his finger, when in fact, you had him wrapped around yours and he was crumbling by the minute. It's a little entertaining to you, seeing his name pop on your phone throughout the day with texts like:

[jungkook]: have a good day today, pretty lady.

[jungkook]: :)

[jungkook]: can't stop thinking about you and how good you looked last night.

[jungkook]: hope you aren't overworking yourself.

[jungkook]: can i call you tonight?

You would chuckle every single time, seeing him weak for you. You weren't gonna lie - you were fucking weak for him too, cause lord, who wouldn't be with Jungkook? The only difference is that you were just the stronger one between the both of you.

Ha, ain't shit but a hairflip. You for sure got this from your mama.

"To the club for Yoongi hyung's birthday!" Taehyung yells after they finish rehearsals for the next set of performances scheduled to happen in the next week and filming some content for Youtube.

"To the club-club!" Namjoon responds, throwing his hat back on.

"Excited to see some pretty girls shaking their ass and titties in my face." Yoongi lets out a cocky laugh.

"No private show?"

"No, hell no. I want 'em all." Yoongi smirks. "Jungkookie is the only one who loves his private shows."

"Yeah, yeah." Jungkook brushes it off with a chuckle.

"Are we finally gonna figure out who she is tonight?"

"Nope. She's not working tonight. Good try." He feels relieved saying that because to be honest, he's feeling completely and utterly selfish with you. He didn't wanna share, not with the guys. Hell no.

Except he's gonna have to tonight and he has yet to learn that.

» FLASHBACK

Jimin had just solidified the plans with Yoongi a couple of hours ago, learning that he wanted to head to the strip club for his birthday. And yeah, everyone has their own favorites. Everyone has their own agenda coming to the club. But, Yoongi says he wants to shut down the club for the evening so all 7 of them can enjoy the general floor together.

So, Jimin makes it a goal to grant Yoongi's wishes, but he also has another thing on his mind.

He had been picking up on Jungkook's little habits lately, even though he was notorious for always being on his phone and for barely paying attention to the environment around him. Jimin just knew he had it bad for you, miss new girl, simply by how his mood would change whenever he looked at his phone. How he was always at the club. How he always got shy and beat around the bush whenever you were brought up.

He just knew.

And to be honest, he was concerned. Moreso for Jungkook and his safety. Jungkook and his feelings. Things didn't sit right for him, and he worried that you were only out for his money. For his fame. For the attention. For all the wrong things. And he didn't like that shit one bit. He wasn't gonna let anyone take advantage of his little brother like that, he wouldn't give anybody the chance.

He wants to figure out who exactly you were. He wants to find out what you're all about. He wants to finally meet you face to face.

"Mr. Park Jimin!" Mr. Bigs says with a loud laugh. Jimin gives him a small smile as he tugs the brim of his hat down and approaches him. "How can I help you?"

"Yoongi's birthday is coming up at the end of the week, is it possible to shut the club down so the rest of the guys can enjoy the general stage together?" He pulls out an envelope and hands it to Mr.Bigs, his smile getting bigger the more he counts all the dollar bills inside.

"Whatever works for my boys." He laughs.

"Thanks." Jimin chuckles. "Uh, one more thing - if it's not too much of a bother, could I request a specific dancer to be out on the floor that night?"

"Yeah, of course you can. Who's the lady we're thinking of?"

"Whoever Jungkook's lady is." Mr. Bigs laughs so more and nods.

"Ah, I'm assuming he wants her there, huh? He really loves watching that young lady, but hey, whatever works and makes ya'll happy right?"

"Yeah, I suppose he does. I'd like to keep the request between us though." Jimin lies.

"Don't you worry about it. I'll make sure Phoenix is there that night. I'll have all of this covered so Mr. Min Yoongi has a fantastic birthday." He winks.

"Thanks, sir. We'll see you then." Jimin nods his head before heading out. Mr. Bigs waits until Jimin is out the door before pulling out his phone to give you a call.

"Hello?"

"You need to be here Friday, special request."

"From who? Can't I just take the—"

"Stop questioning me little girl, you hear me? Your ass better be here on Friday or else I'm taking a chunk out of your fucking tips and check." He abruptly ends the call.

» END FLASHBACK

And so the infamous Bangtan Sonyeondan boys are dressed, whipping out their cleanest, black attires from their closets. They take a couple of shots back to back before they're loading into their cars to be driven to the strip club. The club is empty, except for a few body guards, bar staff and the dancers.

"Oh shit, we get our own private show? Like actually?" Yoongi says, stepping into the empty club that was more than ready for the boys' arrival. There were topless dancers waiting alongside the stage with trays filled with different drinks and shots.

"Happy birthday, hyung." Jimin says, playfully massaging his shoulder.

"God, this is such a good way to end the day." Namjoon takes a shot from one of the beautiful ladies near the general stage. He smirks at her as he eyes her up and down, licking his lips when he realizes how fucking skimpy the bikini bottom she has on actually is. "Sheesh."

"Boys!" Mr. Bigs' deep voice comes from the other end of the club as he approaches them. "Please, enjoy and help yourself to whatever you like. Happy Birthday, Mr. Min Yoongi." He winks.

"Thank you, sir!" Yoongi yells as he grabs another shot from the tray. The rest of the boys follow suit, taking more drinks and eyeing the ladies around them, but Jungkook helps himself to a seat in the front of the general stage.

"Someone misses his private lady." Hobi jokes, causing him to shake his head.

"Whatever, as long as I don't have to share her with you guys." He spits out. "What's yours is mine and what's mine is mine." Jungkook finishes jokingly with his infamous line. It seems like a full house of dancers tonight, either on the sidelines or now entering the general stage. Jungkook rests his foot on his knee, ready to get the night started so he can enjoy, but also hurry on home afterwards to try and hear your voice.

But you were in the back room of the club.

No one really knew what was going on outside unless you had been outside already. Mr. Bigs gave you all a pep talk saying each and every single one of you needed to be on your best behavior, especially out on the floor. Bigs and his men refused to name the special guests just so none of you would psych yourselves out and mess up. You didn't know you were soon going to be catering to the BTS boys together, and Jungkook didn't know you were going to be one of the main dancers on stage either. His eyes were glazing over the rest of the girls on stage because they weren't you, to be honest. I mean, hell. It's always nice to be around topless, beautiful women. But he had gotten so used to seeing you. Your face. Your body. Touching you. Smelling your strawberry scent.

Jimin situates himself next to Jungkook, the rest of the group aligning themselves along the seats in front of the stage. He eyes Jungkook, taking note of how uninterested and bored he was - so bored that he even caught him trying to hide his yawn. Maybe he was just tired, as with everyone else, but that just meant his special lady friend wasn't out yet.

"You three, up. Now." Bigs says, coming into the backroom from the floor, pointing his finger towards the curtains. "Phoenix, remember. Don't throw no stupid ass attitude out there, playing hard to get like you're some kind of queen." He scoffs in disgust before dismissing the three of you. You roll your eyes, already highly irritated being there since it was originally your day off and no one wanted to give you answers as to why you needed to be there. Mr. Bigs had almost all the dancers out here to tonight, why the fuck would he need you?

The lights are off for a quick second before they dimly shine onto the stage, the music playing loudly in the background. You step onto the stage, your eyes instantly landing on the man front and center.

Jungkook.

You swallow the lump in your throat seeing the rest of the boy band around him, already smirking and licking their lips at the sight of you and the two other dancers on the stage. Jungkook adjusts himself in his seat, fixing his jacket as he sits upright to lean forward onto his knees. His eyes are glued onto you, almost like he's confused as to why you're here right now.

Why you're giving him and his boys a show.

Jimin catches Jungkook's slight uneasiness, his gaze following Jungkook's onto the stage. His eyes were set on you, the pretty lady swirling her body around the silver pole in the middle of the stage.

"She's fucking beautiful." Yoongi says, immediately getting up and reaching into the inner breast pocket of his jacket to pull out some bills. He stands in the front, almost blocking Jungkook's view of you. He catches Yoongi placing a couple of hundreds under the bottom portion of your fishnet bodysuit. The bodysuit that captured your curves so perfectly - thighs thick and full, ass cheeks popping out of the thong portion, your titties and pussy very visible through the fishnet material. God, you were a fucking beauty. Jungkook watches as you squat in front of Yoongi, bouncing up and down before you get up scandalously and shake your ass in front of his eyes. "Ohhhh shit." Yoongi bites onto his bottom lip as he laughs and tucks more bills near your thigh.

"It's his birthday!" Hobi yells, causing you to smirk at Yoongi and grab his hand to let him feel up on your breast. Jungkook shifts in his seat, a little envious of how Yoongi was able to touch you in that way before he was able to. Like fuck? Could it be my birthday too? Could it be my birthday everyday? He was never gonna let this one go. He continues to watch as you push Yoongi back onto his chair and give him a birthday lapdance.

"Happy birthday." You say softly in his ear before getting back up on the stage to do some tricks on the pole.

One, two: Turn upside down.

Three, four: Wrap them legs around.

Five, six: Treat the pole like a slip and slide.

Seven, eight: Flip back up and slide back down.

"Damn, it's my birthday over here too." Jin says tapping his lap and tossing a roll of bills near you before looking over at Taehyung. He's also throwing bills onto the stage, but he's focused on the other main lady off to the side. Still doesn't mean he isn't throwing bills your way either, cause he is every chance he gets to look over at you.

"Like what you see?" Jimin jokes with Jungkook.

"Yeah." Is all he says as he's approaching you. He gives you this look, which you don't understand what it means, but you didn't have the time to decipher it right at this moment. You watch Jungkook closely, his mouth pressed tightly together as his eyes are still scanning your entire body before he brings them back up to meet your eyes. You crawl towards him seductively, your fingers lightly brushing down his neck before you gently tug on his jacket. He doesn't say anything as he tucks bills near your titties, giving you one last look before sitting back down in his seat.

The main show comes to an end pretty quickly afterwards, other dancers making their way to the poles if they wanted or kept serving the boys whatever they needed. You hop off the stage, collecting your bills and folding them tightly together, tucking it deep on the side of your breast to keep it hidden. You head outside to get some air because what the fuck just even happened? You weren't expecting that whatsoever, even though you knew better than that. You should have always thought there would be a chance you'd have to do what you just did. You should have always been prepared.

"Lil mama, you looked good dancing up there in that tiny ass suit you got on." One of the men in Bigs' crew said as they lingered outside the backroom door, smoking cigarettes. "What do you say? Wanna come home with me so I can help get that off?" He smirks, approaching you.

"I'm only out here to get some air, please don't come up to me with all that bullshit." You spit out, causing the guy to furrow his brows at you.

"This one's got a little fire in her." He laughs, coming closer to you. "Whatchu gonna do if I don't take no for an answer, miss thang?" He grips your wrist tightly. You try to break free, but after tonight, you were too fucking tired to even deal with his stupid shit. "Oh, she's weak now?" He grips tighter, making you wince as you try to pry him off. He brings you closer, his face inches away from yours - so close you can smell the smoke and alcohol mixed together, coming off of his breath. Suddenly, you hear someone clear their throat behind them, their attention going from you to the individual. "Oh shit, it's Jeon Jungkook." You watch as the man lets you go, Jungkook standing there with his hands in his pockets and jaw clenched. He doesn't say anything besides nod to acknowledge them. "Big fan, dude."

"The fuck? I had my private show scheduled with Phoenix almost 10 minutes ago. You guys have been holding her up?" Jungkook is obviously throwing on an angry act because you didn't have any private shows booked tonight.

"Shit, my bad. I didn't know—"

"You didn't know cause you were too busy being a jackass?"

"Mr. Jeon, no disrespect here. I'm sorry I took time away from your show. Please, take whatever time you need with her - on me." He says, his friends silently standing by as they throw their cigarettes and go back inside.

"Yeah, it should be on you for fucking wasting my time." Jungkook doesn't say anything else, but he does glare at him until he's almost tripping over himself making his way back inside the club. "You okay?" Jungkook asks, coming closer.

"Yeah. Thanks." You rub your hand up and down your arm, the cold air nipping at your skin.

"I thought you said you weren't working tonight."

"I wasn't supposed to. Bigs just told me I was requested to be here tonight." You raise your eyebrow. "Wait, how did you not know? I thought it was—"

"You thought it was me that requested for you?" He chuckles. "Funny that you think I'd share you with the guys."

"Sooo?"

"I don't know." He shrugs. "Maybe he just wanted his best dancers to be here."

"Hm." You slightly smirk at the compliment. "Best dancers, huh?" He rolls his eyes and playfully sighs.

"Yeah, don't milk it." A small smile tugs at the corner of his lips.

"You gonna be here all night?"

"Possibly since it's Yoongi's birthday." You nod. He stays silent as he looks at you for a bit, his head slightly cocked to the side.

"So does he get a pass for tonight?" Jungkook chuckles and shakes his head.

"Only cause it's his birthday."

"Mm, not even because he's your senior or anything of the sort?"

"Nah." He smiles a bit. "Not at all. I hope you know I'll never forget it."

"Please, I didn't know Jeon Jungkook was a drama actor, too. What can't he do?" You sarcastically say.

"Okay, say whatever you want." He kicks the dust below his shoes as he lightly chuckles with you. It's silent again, but it's a calming silence. There's no awkward vibes or anything of that matter. You begin to rub your arms again, the cold nipping at your skin harshly. "You should get back inside, it's freezing." He watches you shiver in front of him. He isn't sure if he should hand you his jacket, even if he does want to help you out in the slightest bit, but he figures he shouldn't since you still needed to finish your shift.

"Okay." Your expression softens. "See you in there?" He silently nods, watching your hips sway back and forth until you're deeper in the club. The night doesn't end for everyone until a little bit past 2, close to 3am. You're hauling your tired ass back home, Kai struggling and barely making it alive as soon as you walk through your front door.

"Jesus fuck, thank god." He shuts the TV off and covers his entire body with the blankets.

"Kai, I told you that you didn't have to wait."

"Well until you're out of the club, this is my life now." Why was everyone so dramatic tonight? You chuckle to yourself.

"Okay, if you say so. Night bubba."

"Night." He yawns. In about 2 seconds, he's back to snoring loudly, causing you to laugh to yourself as you get ready for bed.

[jungkook] 3:14am: home?

[y/n] 3:17am: yes. you?

Maybe Kai didn't have to stay up for you after all.

[jungkook] 3:23am: yeah.

[jungkook] 3:24am: i'm assuming you had a really long day today so sleep well, Y/N. can i call you tomorow?

[y/n] 3:20am: you can, i don't know if i'll answer though. :) goodnight jungkook.

And so Jungkook smiles to himself before grabbing a water and heading back to his dorm room. He was slowly getting used to your sarcasm and attitude, being that he has never had to deal with someone being this way towards him. It was fun, and new.

"So was your lady actually there tonight?" Taehyung asks with Jimin sitting next to him.

"Wouldn't you like to know?" Jungkook scrunches his nose before turning on his heel to walk away.

"Wow, Jungkookie is being selfish. Namjoon hyung go scold him." Namjoon laughs.

"Jungkookie don't be selfish." Joon says nonchalantly just to keep Taehyung happy.

"Yeah, yeah." He shuts himself in his room to get ready for bed. Jimin silently sits next to Taehyung as they relive the night's events before going to bed. He had seen you and Jungkook talking outside, which only solidifies his assumption.

And he was onto you.

i'm good on that pussy shit; i don't want what i can get, i want someone with secrets that nobody, nobody, nobody knows

track six: gangsta - kehlani

[eileen-crys]

Ho postato 2.298 volte nel 2022

435 post creati (19%)

1.863 post rebloggati (81%)

Blog che ho rebloggato di più:

@eileen-crys (not me reblogging my own things fo visibility lol)

@a-froger-epic

@bambirex

@julescape

@natromanxoff

Ho taggato 1.344 dei miei post nel 2022

Solo 42% dei miei post non aveva tag

#john deacon - 206 post

#queen - 192 post

#johnica - 171 post

#rachelb's art - 166 post

#queen band - 149 post

#queen fanart - 140 post

#john deacon queen - 106 post

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#john deacon x veronica tetzlaff - 76 post

#veronica tetzlaff - 74 post

Longest Tag: 135 characters (@kinole009x me swooning again over nevermore is mu longest tag aaaaaa)

#and kinole if you read this please know that i haven't forgotten about it and i stil love this story more than any of my own 🙏🏻💕💕💕

I miei post migliori nel 2022:

#5

"... unless you're afraid."

The first post credits scene left me shaking and in tears of happiness because I sincerely didn’t expect to even see her, let alone in this gorgeous suit. They managed to keep her iconic shoulders and the circles on her leggings, I’m OBSESSED!!! And bless Charlize for sharing those HQ photo of her corset and that backstage video, it seriously helped me. 🙏🏻 Please consider this is a Work In Progress, I’m aiming to turn this into a bigger illustration about Clea and I’ll definitely fix this as soon as we’ll get better photos of her whole costume.

Please do not repost! Reblogs and comments are welcomed 🥰💜

221 note - Postate 17 maggio 2022

#4

🎶 Lover of Life, Singer of Songs 👑

Freddie sits on the piano, closes his lips and his eyes. The song is over, he thinks, but the music goes on. It can't be stopped and he knows it. And so, he smiles.

It's been 31 years since you left, but we all know you're still here with all of us. Thank you, Freddie!

Please do not copy or repost this! Reblogs and comments are welcomed 💜 I used a photo from Montreal 81 as a reference, his peaceful expression at the piano melted me.

246 note - Postate 24 novembre 2022

#3

Guarda il post completo

261 note - Postate 14 febbraio 2022

#2

👑 Happy Birthday Freddie Mercury! ✨️💕🌈

Last (but not least!) piece of my Queen illustration, here's Freddie above all, with his phoenix wings and his crown! 💕💕💕 (TAP on the image to see it better!)

I had lots of fun drawing him at the top of his power, inspired yes by that time in Montreal when he jumped on stage wearing only a pair of white shorts, but with a sprinkle of the majestic Magic Tour as well 🥰 Happy 76th birthday Freddie, we still love you with our whole hearts!

And stay tuned for the full piece, are you excited? 👀🤭

Please do not trace or repost! Reblogs and comments are welcomed 💕

308 note - Postate 5 settembre 2022

Il mio post numero 1 del 2022

🌈 Happy Pride Month!!! 🌈

I couldn't not draw the husbandsTM for this year's Pride Month! 🥰 I've been inspired by the crazy hat party, with a bit of a Pride twist, I hope you'll like it! 💖 Wishing the best to all my fellow LGBTQ+ followers, friends and Queen fans (and more!), be proud of who you are and don't let others silence your voice 💕💕💕 You're valid, always.

Please do not repost anywhere else. Reblogs and comments are welcomed! 💖🌈

316 note - Postate 1 giugno 2022

Guarda ora l'Analisi del tuo anno 2022 di Tumblr →

[shnuggletea]

A Long Night (A MirSan Birthday Fic)

Happy Belated Birthday @sapphirestarxx​. 

Although, I did give you this the other night. But the banner is new as is the playlist. This sweet girl is a lover of MirSan (as we all are) so this is my first for her. Sapphire was one of the first people to friend me in the Inu fandom and one of the things she lamented the most was the lack of MirSan fics. 

So who’s ready for some Miroku x Sango romance with a side of InuKag established relationship? In this “we’re not setting you two up��� fic Miroku and Sango have one wild night that hopefully ends well for both of them. This is also me playing with 3rd person omniscient again. I hope that doesn’t bother you Sapphire!!

I was going to do a one shot but for those of you who know me, my one shots aren’t really one shots... expect the next chapter soon!! Working on it today hopefully. 

Playlist is here!

Tags!

@underwater0phelia​ @lavendertwilight89​ @mamabearcat​ @nartista​ @nopenname22​ @echobows​ @superpixie42​ @smmahamazing​ @redflamesofpassion​ @jme-chan​ @cstorm86​ @cicleydark-light​ @ruddcatha​ @lavaffair​ @kirrtash​ @sistasecbhere​ @obsessandfangirl​ @britonell​ @lordofthechips​ @mcornilliac​ @faolenwolf​ @keichanz​ @phoenix-before-the-flame​ @artisticloveexpressitsall​ @lamuertadehambre​ @noyourenotreal​ @mitty-san​ @thenoammonster​ @little-deeluna​ @royaltrashpanda​ @sailorbabydoll92​ @storyweaver2017​ @malditamigs​ @adorabubblesblog​ @lilms-obsessed @petri808​ @anniehcresta​ @fan-dumpp​ @itzatakahashi​ @utakuprincess​ @theschultinator​ @all-too-ale​ @little-inukag-obsessed​ @theseagullqueen​ @queenofthesquirps​ @jolinaaa00​ @knowall7k​ @neutronstarchild​ @fawn-eyed-girl​ @eringobroke​ @sapphirestarxx​ @clearwillow​ @dangerouspompadour​ @misspepperpottss @kagometaishostory​​ @egosolivagant​​ @fandompromptsandfun​​ @fandomartlover​​ @fanficnewbiee​

Chapter One

8:24 pm

“You promise this isn’t a setup?”

“For the hundredth time, yes. We are just meeting up with some people. That’s all!” Kagome called out from the bathroom as she finished lining her eyes. Sango paced in the living room, already in a bad mood. “You need to relax!”

“I’ll relax when this night is over and I’m back in my bed. Alone!”

Kagome emerged, light sundress and heels next to Sango’s jeans, tank, and tennis shoes made them look like they were going to different places that night. “At least wear your hair down?”

Sango rolled her eyes. The last thing she wanted was to go out tonight. The week had been rough enough as it was. Nothing but bratty debutants for clients and with no one calling for a guard this weekend, she had to worry where her next paycheck was coming from. Her roommate, Kagome, was the only real reprieve she got from the paranoid, ‘so rich they choke on their money’, assholes she had to deal with on the daily. So she tugged the elastic out of her hair and let it fall around her shoulders.

“Better?”

“Much.”

Their door shook from the knock someone did on from the outside. Kagome’s boyfriend was here! Due to him being such a stand-up citizen that could clearly take care of (and cared for) Kagome, Sango tolerated him. Actually, she really liked Inuyasha. He was the only ‘down-to-earth’ rich prick she had ever met. She was pretty sure that had to do with the fact that he was the illegitimate child of a CEO and his secretary. He had money now but he didn’t grow up rich.

Neither did Sango or Kagome. And their apartment reflected that; comfortable but cheap along with all the furniture inside it. Sango knew Inuyasha was a good guy when he came over for the first time and didn’t so much as flinch.

“Hey, Baby.” He leaned in and kissed Kagome before entering.

Sango looked away (never comfortable with PDA) but could still hear them whispering. It was sweet, however, it grained on Sango’s nerves. Especially tonight.

“Where are we going tonight?” She had asked Kagome but the doe-eyed look her roommate gave made Sango give up quickly. 

“Out,” Inuyasha answered gruffly.

Sango was pretty sure Inuyasha was only sweet and soft towards Kagome. “That’s been made clear. Got a location in mind? Or are we wandering the streets like hookers tonight?”

Inuyasha grinned, he liked Sango. She was clever and snappish. She never took shit which was why he was sure his buddy was so enraptured. Not his word, fucking Miroku’s (of course). “If you’re into that, I’m not going to stop you.”

“Screw you.”

“No thanks. I’m good.” Inuyasha grabbed Kagome by the waist and pulled her in tight to his side. 

Kagome giggled and Inuyasha smiled brightly down at her. It made Sango’s heart ache. She would never admit it but she really wanted something like the two of them had. Comfort, stability, and love.

She grabbed her cropped leather jacket and pushed around the pair. “Whatever. Let’s just get this over with.”

“There’s the spirit!” Kagome cheered sarcastically.

Inuyasha kept his arm around his girlfriend and leaned in close to whisper. Sango wasn’t that far from them but he figured, with the intimacy, she wouldn’t listen. “Did you tell her anything?”

“No, and it wasn’t easy.”

“Nothing about you is easy, Baby.”

She gave his ribs a playful smack; taking in his appearance in full. Her favorite part about her boyfriend? His long hair. It was pulled into a ponytail at the top of his spine right now but tonight it would splash with hers; a pool of silky black hair that neither could tell who was who’s. Sango walked ahead of them and sat up front in the cab. The beauty of tonight was that Inuyasha and Kagome didn’t know where they were going. They only had an address.

Which was why Kagome squealed, Inuyasha groaned, and Sango cursed when they pulled to a stop. “What the hell?”

“Goddammit, I’m going to kill Miroku.”

“Dancing!!!”

It was a dance club, already bursting at the seams with bodies going in and out. A long line (that had Sango hopeful) and a bouncer stood between them and a night full of scantily dressed men and women and overpriced drinks.

Kagome was already swaying to the beat on the sidewalk (yes, it was that loud) and Inuyasha wrapped an arm around his girl’s shoulders before she danced away. “We’re not exactly dressed for this. Maybe they won’t let us in?”

He said, consoling the hope he and Sango had. Neither of them wanted to go inside. But then Kagome turned to face both of them, hitting Inuyasha the hardest with her puppy dog eyes. “But… it looks like fun!”

“If you wanna dance then you can do it at my place. I’ll let you go nuts.” Sango chuckled as Kagome pouted. No way they were getting out of this now, Kagome wanted to dance. “Goddammit,” Inuyasha growled and threw a hand through his bangs, messing up the black mop that fell on his brow.

Sango knew where this was going as Inuyasha stepped up to the bouncer. Truth be told, Sango probably could get them in too; she recognized the bouncer from a work outing a year ago. Times were tough; good bodyguards had to moonlight as bouncers. Maybe she should ask if this place was hiring while they were here?

A few hushed words, some money slipped between them, and they were walking unimpeded into the den of demons. The place was actually called Hengoku (which meant Limbo). It seemed fitting, bodies undulating all over the place as if listless. 

Kagome was trying to go to the dancefloor but Inuyasha kept a tight hold on her; guiding them all to a set of stairs towards the back. He didn’t know where Miroku was, but if he was here he’d be in the rooftop club for ‘high rollers’. And if he wasn’t there yet… then Miroku would be there eventually. 

Grabbing her from his hold, Sango hissed loudly in Kagome’s ear. “You told me this wasn’t a setup?!”

“It’s not! We’re just meeting up with Miroku too! So we can all hang out?!”

Taking a look around, Sango didn’t see Miroku from the stairwell they were on (a clear view over the entire club). “Where are we going now?”

“No clue.”

Kagome caught back up to her beau and Sango caught on to the name of the rooftop bar. Tengoku. Seriously? Was the basement called hell? The roof was Heaven, the middle Limbo, and the bottom was probably a tattoo parlor. Sango couldn’t imagine anything worse than being drunk and near a place to permanently mark yourself.

The music changed; hard beat with the singers talking about Karaoke. At least they weren’t doing that tonight. And she seriously hoped the song didn’t give Kagome ideas. The roof wasn’t as crowded and Inuyasha had to pay their way into it as well. She couldn’t decide if Inuyasha being loaded was a good thing tonight. Because it was clear neither Sango nor Inuyasha wanted to be here. But it did make Kagome happy so they both went with it.

That is until Miroku stood and waved them over. 

Inuyasha broke away from Kagome, rushing up to his friend and punching him in the gut. Miroku groaned and fell back to the booth he had for them, taking several breaths before struggling to speak. “Good to see you too…”

“A fucking dance club? Seriously?!”

Miroku recovered and smirked. “I knew once Kagome saw it, she’d make you guys come play.” The clever bastard considered his soul clean and turned to Sango. “Sango, my dear, so glad you could make it.”

“Drop dead.”

“I just might. You look exceptionally well tonight. I love your hair like that.”

Turning towards the crowd, she hid her blush as best she could. “Whatever.”

Miroku got to his feet again and allowed Sango to sit. She continued to scoot around, though, until she was mostly in the middle. Kagome sat on the other side of her and Inuyasha closed them in, keeping Kagome from escaping to dance. Miroku didn’t sit back down, looking over the group of fine (albeit mostly agitated) friends he had out with him tonight. He let his eyes linger on Sango and didn’t care if she noticed. 

“First round’s on me.”

Inuyasha huffed. “You mean all rounds are on you. And I ain’t a cheap date. You owe us drinkssssss tonight!”

Miroku just held up his hands. “As you wish; Inuyasha, beer and whisky; Kagome, strawberry daiquiri; and Sango…” he paused to think but also to look her over again, “Jack and Coke?” 

“How did you do that?!” Kagome asked, amazed.

Miroku shrugged with a grin. “Special talent of mine.”

He left to get the drinks and Sango turned to Inuyasha hotly. “If this is you guys trying to punish me for something, I promise I’m sorry.”

Kagome hugged Sango sympathetically. Then continued to dance in her seat. That wasn’t going to last long, Inuyasha was going to have to set the bird free. Miroku set drinks down and sat closer than Sango liked next to her. But with Kagome trying to get Inuyasha to stop pouting, Miroku was the only person she had to talk to at the moment.

“Want to make a wager?” Miroku said, a curl of a smile on his lips.

Her eyes danced from his mouth to his eyes and found she couldn’t resist smiling in return. “Yeah?”

“I bet you a dance that Inuyasha dances tonight.”

Sango huffed and glanced back at her friends. Inuyasha had one arm slung over the back of the booth, pretending to watch the crowd on the dance floor. But really he was watching Kagome as she shifted in her seat. Any second now she was going to spring free and leave them behind. Because no way Inuyasha was ever going to dance. 

“You’re on.” Miroku held out a hand to shake and she took it. But then he held on, shaking slow and steady. Sango sucked in a deep breath; Miroku’s eyes were locked on her and made it hard to swallow. But she found the will soon enough. “If he doesn’t, then you have to do something super embarrassing.”

“I’ll gladly strip for you, Sango, but that won’t be embarrassing in the least.”

There was a twinkle in his eyes that both fascinated and terrified Sango. Miroku was just another trust fund baby. He didn’t have to work but he did. Miroku worked hard at the advertising firm and was now the owner. She could see it; someone like Miroku would be a natural at selling shit no matter how useless.

His finger snaked out and started rubbing her palm. That was when she yanked away. Miroku wasn’t deterred in the slightest. He never was as far as she could tell. But the truth was, Sango was the only one that made him feel unworthy. 

After their second round, Kagome got free to dance. It looked like a combination of begging and promises that included some kissing that made Sango uncomfortable to no end. She stayed at the edge of the crowd insight and Inuyasha’s attention was almost completely on Kagome. Save for the small fraction he gave to Miroku.

“I fucking hate you, dude.”

Miroku balked. “Why?!”

“You never said anything about a damn dance club. You know I hate this shit.”

The glance Miroku sent Sango’s way had her worried. “I know. But Kagome doesn’t, clearly. She loves it. And just think how much love she’ll be giving you later tonight? Or how much she would be giving you right now if she wasn’t alone on that dance floor?”

All three of them turned back; Kagome was floating around on a high, twisting to the music without a care. Inuyasha suddenly didn’t give a shit about anything else and left his friends behind. He was welcomed warmly by his girlfriend while Sango grimaced back at Miroku.

“Someone owes me a spin on the dancefloor.”

She rolled her eyes and quickly slung back the rest of her second drink, hoping it would help her. Miroku waited for her at the edge of the booth, taking her hand to pull her to her feet. She ignored the skip her heart did and he enjoyed the rough feel of her skin. Sango had calluses on her hands from all the training she did. It was so different from all the other women he had touched… he probably shouldn’t put it like that but he did do a lot of handshaking.

The song was a little slower but still heavy and suggestive. A woman sang about ‘feeling good’. Miroku felt Sango made him feel good whenever she blessed him with her presence. It was clear she had been hurt, but he desperately wanted to be the one to silence that.

Kagome was curled into Inuyasha; the two oblivious to the pair that now joined them. Sango looked away when Inuyasha grabbed Kagome’s ass to get her closer. Miroku tried to do the same to Sango and she pushed his hand away hard. “Don’t push it!”

He chuckled and grabbed her elbow instead. Miroku put a hand on her hip as well, but she couldn’t bring herself to push him away; his eyes were on hers and she really liked that. They were swaying together; not really dancing together like the other couples were. But then again, Sango wasn’t trying to screw Miroku. But she was enjoying this, being close to Miroku while he was being decent for once. He wasn’t groping her or someone else. And he was silent so she didn’t have to hear his ridiculous promises of devotion. 

Sango liked hearing them, she just didn’t believe the man whore for a second.

The song changed but neither made any indication of caring. Miroku pushed his luck and kept dancing, pulling Sango a little closer. His hand on the small of her back, he pressed his cheek against hers; it sent his hot breath down her neck to her shoulder. She was far from cold but it made her shiver.

Slowly, Miroku pulled and turned, brushing his nose along her skin. Sango knew what he was doing but couldn’t find the want to pull away as he lined his lips up with hers. Now his hot breath puffed across her mouth and cheeks; causing her to shiver again.

“Walk away.”

She snapped out of it just as Miroku did; a loud and angry voice making it over the other noise. And it belonged to Inuyasha.

The couple had drifted away; the distance made by either Sango and Miroku or Inuyasha and Kagome but now there were bodies between the friends. Miroku held Sango’s hand as he pushed his way back to their friends. Inuyasha was squared up to some guy and Miroku cursed loudly. 

“What?” She yelled to him over the music.

He pointed. “That’s Koga. And he has always hated Inuyasha.”

“Why?”

“No clue. Jealousy? Inuyasha was a poor kid until a few years ago when his father found him. Koga has his own money and hates the status Inuyasha received with his money or something like that. Some people just want to hate on others. And Koga… he likes to mess with Inuyasha any chance he gets.”

Miroku said nothing more, pulling her along with him the rest of the way until they stood next to Inuyasha. Kagome was behind Inuyasha, holding tight to the back of his polo and stretching it out. But she was scared. Scared Inuyasha would get hurt and it didn’t seem worth it. The guy came out of nowhere and pulled her out of Inuyasha’s hold. Then tried to force her to dance with him! Inuyasha got back to her fast enough and now Miroku and Sango were with them. So it would be okay, right?

“Koga! How nice to see you again!” Miroku had his ‘seller’ voice on.

“Fuck you, Miroku.” Koga spat.

Two other guys stepped up and Sango glanced Miroku’s way. She felt a little pulse in her heart and thighs when the Letch didn’t back down in the slightest at the new threat. It was… hot. 

Koga stuck out a finger and started ‘adding’. “Half, half,” and when he pointed at Sango, “zero. One against three doesn’t seem all that fair. How about, I get a dance from the girl and we call it even.”

Inuyasha growled and shoved Koga back. “What the hell is wrong with you? She’s not a thing!”

“She’s making my thing ding; far too pretty for you, Tashio.”

Miroku glided between the two alphas with his hands next to his face. “Why don’t we all act like grown men and walk away?”

Sango rolled her eyes at that; it was a nice idea and certainly the grown-up thing to do. However, nothing said or done so far was the actions of an adult. 

The one in front of Sango reached out for her and put a hand on her arm. “Don’t you wanna go dance, Sweetheart?”

Miroku and Inuyasha both lurched; going to help her. It was unnecessary as Sango grabbed the guy’s hand and twisted it back. His arm was now a pretzel and she held tight. “Look, don’t touch asshole.”

“Okay, okay, okay, I’m sorry. Let go!”

Miroku chuckled and she glared his way for a second. “You didn’t say the magic word!”

“PLEASE!!”

She released the prick and he scampered back to ‘his side’. The three of them took a step back now. Miroku still stood between Inuyasha and Koga, putting two men between the creep and Kagome. 

“Enjoy the rest of your night, half-breed,” Koga called out as he walked away.

Inuyasha turned on his heel, grabbed Kagome, and made for the exit. Kagome didn’t fight him on it either and Miroku continued to stand still as he watched the threesome disappear in the crowd. Sango had to stand on top of him and speak in his ear. 

“Are we leaving now?”

He blinked at her; a slow grin spreading on his face before he nodded. Then he tested out a theory, wrapping an arm around Sango’s waist to guide her away. “It might be best.”

Kagome was still trying to calm Inuyasha down while they waited for Miroku to pay the tab. More PDA, Sango turned and took up watch for their remaining friend. The relief she felt at the sight of him was only because Kagome had started giggling behind her. That was the only reason: nothing else. 

Miroku returned his hand to Sango’s hip, his arm wrapped around her. She allowed it but only so she didn’t feel like an odd wheel with Kagome now on Inuyasha’s back. The only good thing about Koga’s appearance was how eager Kagome was to calm Inuyasha (in his book). Not that Inuyasha expected anything else from her; she would have ‘calmed’ him down with a simple ask from him. But he never had to ask and it was one of the things he loved about Kagome.

“How did you know he would dance?” Sango’s question broke the silence between them and it took Miroku a second to follow. She had thought she understood Miroku but now, Sango wasn’t so sure. “How did you know Inuyasha would dance?”

“Maybe I just wanted to get naked for you?” He said with a chuckle but she wasn’t buying it. So he sighed and pointed to the couple before them. “You didn’t know Inuyasha before Kagome but he wasn’t like this.”

“Like what?”

“Happy.”

She looked at the couple again -closely- but it was impossible to imagine with the shit-eating grin on Inuyasha’s face. One he always seemed to have. Save for a moment ago in the club. The guy was prickly yet caved to Kagome’s every wish like it was nothing. Sango should have known the fucker would have danced for Kagome.

“I have to say, I was impressed with how you stood by him in there.”

Sango was giving him a coy look and it nearly stopped his heart. “Oh, come on! Like I’m going to run and hide?”

“I don’t know,” Sango smirked to the sky above, “you strike me as the flight instead of fight type.”

“I am a lover not a fighter, Sango dear.” He whispered, leaning into her ear.

She kept shivering, every time his hot breath touched her skin. It was why she didn’t like Miroku, he was always getting the better of her. Like now. “Miroku… get your hand off my ass.”

“What if I said ‘please’?” Her answer was to glare up at him. Miroku laughed and pulled his hand back to rest on her hip. “Too bad. It’s a very nice ass.”

“Look, don’t touch.” She growled.

“Happily… for now.”

She glared at him again but he was tipped back, looking straight at her ass as she walked. “Miroku!!!”

He straightened and laughed; Inuyasha and Kagome had stopped and turned to face them. Kagome’s head hung over Inuyasha’s shoulder to look down at them. “What are we doing now?”

“Going home?” Sango hoped.

“Mine or yours?” Miroku begged.

“Awe, come on guys! It’s early!” Kagome cried.

“This one’s drunk already.” Inuyasha groaned.

They were silent for a moment save for Kagome’s whimpering (sounding like a puppy). Inuyasha caved quickly and started carrying his load towards a bar or something. Kagome was cheering and rubbing his shoulders like a deep massage so Inuyasha decided to be happy with the choice. Sango looked to Miroku who hadn’t moved at her side. 

“Shall we then?”

His dark brow twisted upward suggestively and she groaned. “It’s going to be a long fucking night.”

“Oh… I really hope so. Especially the fucking part.”

Sango really hoped he didn’t feel her shiver again. At least he couldn’t hear her heart as it danced in her chest. “Keep dreaming, Letch.”

[carewyncromwell]

The POTC AU is continuing, and with it, the reveal of the Brethren Court at Shipwreck Cove! Above we have six out of our seven Pirate Lords -- you’ll be meeting all of them in this section one by one, but to list them off, we have Merula Snyde; Arjun Singh (pictured with Aishwarya Mehra) @hogwarts9; Ellie Hopper @that-ravenpuff-witch; Jacob “Black Jack” Cromwell Roberts; Orion Amari; and Jae Kim.

Merula’s outfit is modeled slightly off of Angelica Teech’s from the fourth Pirates film, though with an oversized 18th century-style men’s undershirt rather than the “Renaissance Fair”-style shirt we get in the movie, while Jae’s most closely resembles Elizabeth Swann’s Pirate King ensemble from the third movie. Ellie’s is most closely modeled on Carina Smyth’s from the fifth Pirates film, though I did make some more period-worthy adjustments like the sleeve length and the light-weight scarf underneath the neckline, which were often worn by women of the time to obscure any deep cleavage and/or for warmth. Arjun and Jae, like the rest of the male pirates, I also gave facial hair because it was considered bad luck to shave while on board a ship, and so most pirates would invariably have beards of some variety, since they would be at sea much more than on land. In the 18th century in particular, beards were kind of “out of fashion” for men on dry land -- were you to have one, you were generally presumed to be eccentric, wild, uncouth, or just flat-out insane. (Which honestly kind of fits the traditional image of a pirate. XD)

The song “Hoist the Colours,” in the original Pirates films, actually refers to Davy Jones and the Brethren Court “binding Calypso in her bones” -- but since in this version of events, Finn McGarry/Davy Jones @theguythatdraws had no part in the Court binding Calypso (because seriously, OG!Jones?? Dick move), the “King” in the song is the original Pirate King, not Jones. It’s actually a rare case where one can take a lyric more literally than metaphorically. XD

A kumiho is a nine-tailed fox spirit from Korean mythology, rather like the Japanese kitsune. One of my personal headcanons for Jae Kim is that his Patronus is a fox. *grins at @kyril-hphm* 83

Previous part is here; whole tag is here; and also featured in this section are Jules Farrier-Weasley @cursebreakerfarrier (happy belated birthday, mon couer!) and Samantha O’Connell @samshogwarts!

x~x~x~x

Shipwreck Cove was a settlement made out of hundreds of wrecked ships, all stacked on top of each other inside of a dead volcano. It was an imposing fortress, lit by thousands of lanterns in the night. Even its location at the end of the treacherous Devil’s Throat gave it a sense of impregnability -- it needed no tall walls to keep its enemies out.

As soon as Charlie arrived on the island, his new First Mate Barnaby Lee cheerfully showed him and the rest of the Phoenix’s crew around before he guided them to the Hall of the Codex, the room where members of the Brethren Court gathered, whenever they convened. Barnaby advised Charlie to make sure he stuck his sword in the globe before approaching the table -- it not only signaled his status as Pirate Lord to the other gathered Lords, but it also was a sign of respect to the others, indicating that he would not incite violence at the meeting.

“You can bring other weapons to the table, though, so you could still start a fight if you really wanted to,” Barnaby added rather brightly.

“Hopefully it won’t come to that,” laughed Charlie.

“CHARLIE!”

The new captain of the Phoenix looked up, and his face lit up at the sight of a familiar freckled face racing towards him.

“Bill!”

The two Weasley brothers latched onto each other, squeezing each other in a giant hug.

“Thank God, Charlie!” Bill mumbled as he clutched at the back of his brother’s coat.

Jules ran over too so she could also bring an arm around Charlie, resting a hand on the back of his head as she and Bill both hugged him tight.

“We were so worried about you,” said Jules, her voice a bit more level than Bill’s but no less relieved.

She glanced curiously at the new hat and coat his new crew had lent him.

“...Is there a story behind the new clothes?”

Charlie grinned a bit sheepishly. “Uh...aye! Actually...”

“Can we send Weasley and her crew out so we can call this meeting to order already?” came a rather impatient female voice from the table.

“Captain Farrier-Weasley and the crew of the Revolution are my guests,” said the level, patient voice of Orion.

“This meeting is for Pirate Lords, Amari,” said the impatient voice irritably. “You can’t just invite non-Lords to it -- ”

"Jules’s father is the Governor of Port Royal,” said the logical voice of McNully. “Since Port Royal’s the current base of operations for Cutler Beckett and the Navy, there’s a 65% chance she’ll have some good insight about how to approach this whole thing.”

“And considering we’ll likely be missing a member of our Court, I thought it might be helpful to have another captain present who could fill in for our seventh Lord,” Orion added calmly.

"You can’t decide that all on your own, Amari!”

“He’s not trying to!” snapped Skye’s voice. “At least Orion’s trying to bring something to the table besides tantrums -- !”

“Skye, please,” Orion soothed quietly. “Samantha, is it against the Code for Pirate Lords to invite other captains to meetings?”

Charlie’s ears perked up. Samantha O’Connell was there too?

Jules beckoned Bill and Charlie with a jerk of her head to follow her into the Hall of the Codex properly.

There was a large, stained, circular table set up in the middle of the room, around which two women and two men --  presumably four out of the seven Pirate Lords -- were already seated with Orion. One of the Lords -- a young man with tanned skin, bright blue eyes, and a black ponytail -- had a dark-haired woman who closely resembled him standing behind his chair with her arms resting on top of the back. Charlie guessed they must be related.

“...The Code does state meetings of the Brethren Court are to be attended by the Pirate Lords and their crews,” said Samantha. She was sitting with her legs slouched over the right arm of a high-backed chair in the corner of the room, a gigantic, dusty, leather-bound book open in her lap. “But it doesn’t say that it can only be attended by those people...so any dispute to the rule could be settled by popular vote. If any other Lord wished to co-sponsor your guests, Orion, they could stay.”

Samantha then flashed a beady look at the brown-haired female pirate -- likely the one who’d been arguing with Orion -- across the table.

“What is stated, though, is that all active Pirate Lords must be present before a meeting starts.”

The blond female captain sitting closest to the door nodded in agreement. “And we’re still missing one Pirate Lord.”

“Technically we’re missing two Lords,” the tanned young man pointed out in a rather charming, amused voice.

“I doubt the Lord of the Pacific Ocean will show up, Arjun,” said the woman leaning against the back of his chair. “I mean, there hasn’t been one since the first Brethren Court...”

“You’ll have one for this meeting.”

Everyone turned around in surprise as Charlie strode forward toward the globe, stabbing his dragon-hilted blade into it just as Barnaby instructed.

“Charlie?” said Bill, perfectly stunned.

Charlie walked up to the table, the crew of the Phoenix following along behind, and stopped in front of the empty chair beside Orion’s. He shot Samantha a smile and a little wave, before he glanced around at the other Lords more more seriously.

“I’ll second Captain Amari’s sponsorship of Captain Farrier-Weasley and her crew,” he said firmly. He tapped his hat to indicate the S-and-anchor-trimmed “Piece of Eight” button he’d sewn onto it, before removing it and setting it down on the table as he took a seat. “The crew of the Revolution is welcome to attend this meeting.”

He shot a cheeky grin over his shoulder at his brother and sister-in-law. Bill’s mouth had dropped open in shock and disbelief. Jules looked rather stunned too, but she recovered more quickly and soon smiled broadly herself, coming up to stand between Charlie and Orion the way the woman with Arjun stood behind him.

Orion gave Charlie a muted, but still very pleased smile.

“Captain Charlie Weasley...allow me to introduce Captain Merula Snyde of the Blackbird, Pirate Lord of the Adriatic Sea -- ”

He indicated the impatient pink-eyed brunette, who was now slouching in her seat and crossing her arms irritably.

“ -- Captain Ellie Hopper of the Treasure, Pirate Lord of the Mediterranean Sea -- ”

The blonde pirate wearing the thigh-length teal dress and brown tricorn hat nodded politely to Charlie and smiled. “A pleasure to meet you.”

“ -- Captain Arjun Singh of the Naga, Pirate Lord of the Indian Ocean, and his cousin and co-captain, Aishwarya Mehra -- ”

The man called Arjun and the woman behind him both smiled and inclined their heads respectfully to Charlie.

“ -- Captain Jae Kim of the Kumiho, Pirate Lord of the South China Sea -- ”

A pirate with a long black braid dressed in a beautifully patterned gold silk tunic, who was slouching casually in his seat, raised his hand in an off-hand wave. “Hey.”

“ -- and last but certainly not least, Samantha O’Connell, Keeper of the Code.”

“We’ve met,” said Charlie with a cheeky grin.

Samantha’s lips were tugged up into a broad smile too as she closed the large book in her lap and got to her feet.

“Yeah,” she agreed. “And of course you already know Orion -- Pirate Lord of the Caribbean Sea.”

“So the last Lord is for the Atlantic Ocean?” said Jules after a moment, once she’d mentally listed off all the seas she’d heard.

“Aye -- that I am.”

Everyone looked up as a man with a long mane of dark curls and hollowed-out, almond-shaped blue eyes strode up to the round table.

“Black Jack!” said Barnaby in relief.

The rest of the Phoenix chattered happily at the sight of the Tower Raven’s captain. Charlie was relieved too, seeing that Carewyn’s brother was all right after all. Unlike the rest of the captains present, Jacob only had Ashe accompanying him instead of a full crew, and both men were also missing their hats and dressed in sopping wet clothes.

“Apologies for my tardiness,” muttered Jacob as he sidled into the seat next to Merula’s. “Ashe and I had to swim most of the way here, as that twat Rakepick decided to blow up my ship -- ”

“Swim?” repeated Merula, sounding both perfectly scandalized and disbelieving. “How could you have swam all the way here from...wherever the Hell you were?”

“Very strong lungs and muscles,” Ashe said in such a cool voice that it put an end to the train of conversation. He stood over Jacob much the way Aishwarya stood over Arjun, draping his arms around the back of the chair so as to hug Jacob from behind, and shot beady looks at the remaining Pirate Lords. “Seems they’re all in attendance, Jack.”

“Aye,” said Jacob. “Shall we begin, then?”

“Aye,” agreed Samantha. “Now, as per the Code, we can call this meeting of the Fourth Brethren Court to order.”

“Finally,” growled Merula.

She immediately shot to her feet and addressed the others.

“All right -- for those of you who aren’t aware...the Flying Dutchman, cursed ship of the damned, has been impressed into service by the British Navy. Then, under that arse Cutler Beckett’s orders, it attacked Tortuga.”

Jacob looked stricken. “Tortuga?”

Merula nodded. “Two hundred people have now been hanged in Port Royal, all for supposedly aiding and abetting pirates -- men, women, and children.”

Ellie looked back at her crewmates, visibly disturbed by the news. Arjun and Aishwarya exchanged a grim look.

“Both of the Captains Weasley and I were on Tortuga at the time of the attack,” said Orion, indicating Charlie, Jules, and himself. “I’m afraid the Flying Dutchman has burned the settlement to the ground. It’s no longer safe to return to.”

“It’s worse than that,” Charlie said lowly. He glanced from Jacob to Orion. “...Commodore Carey Weasley...warned me that Beckett is on his way here, to Shipwreck Cove.”

Orion’s dark eyes widened. Jacob stiffened sharply.

“You saw Carey?” said Bill, his voice strained with desperation.

Charlie glanced at his brother uneasily. “Yeah. ...He’s aboard the Flying Dutchman.”

The pronouncement made Jacob lunge to his feet so violently he knocked his chair over with a clatter.

“What?!”

His face was as white as a sheet as the rest of the Pirate Lords and their crews muttered amongst themselves. Ashe squeezed his lover’s shoulders that bit more tightly, his own brown eyes narrowing in concern. Bill had also blanched, his freckles sticking out sharply on his face. Orion’s gaze dropped onto his hands as he clasped them together on the table in front of him.

“Sh -- he can’t be on that ship!” Jacob shouted. “I explicitly told him to stay in Port Royal, away from the sea -- !”

“Carey had to have been ordered to go,” Jules cut Jacob off as gently as she could, even if she looked just as anxious as Bill and Charlie were. “If he got the order, he wouldn’t have been able to disobey it...not if he wanted to keep his position as Commodore -- to protect all of us.”

She glanced at Bill and reached out and took his hand, squeezing it empathetically.

Arjun exchanged a confused look with Aishwarya.

“I’m sorry -- but I think we’re missing something here,” said the Pirate Lord of the Indian Ocean with a bit of a sheepish smile. “Is the Commodore of the British Navy our ally now?”

“Of course not!” scoffed Merula. “Beckett’s been puffing his chest out for weeks, crowing about how he’s roped ‘the great Carey Weasley’ into his anti-piracy campaign. Rumor has it that the Commodore himself was the one who suggested sacking Tortuga in the first place!”

“It’s obvious, isn’t it?” said Jae.

Everyone turned to look at him, startled.

“Amari here captured Carey Weasley to send a message to the British Navy and the East India Trading Company, didn’t he?” said the Lord of the South China Sea. “Yet Weasley escaped him. Then, only a short while later, Amari got arrested in Weasley’s hometown of Port Royal, only to be ‘liberated’ by Weasley’s own brothers and the Governor’s daughter, who has now become his sister-in-law.” He nodded curtly at Jules, Bill, and Charlie. “...It seems clear to me that all of it must’ve been planned. There’s no reason I can see for Charlie, Bill, and Jules Weasley to break Amari out of prison unless he and the Commodore were allies.”

The Pirate Lords’ crews excluding Orion’s starting muttering again. Charlie glanced at Orion, but the Captain of the Artemis’s gaze was still solidly on his clasped hands on the tale.

“...That’s true,” the second eldest Weasley said at last. “Captain Amari and my twin staged the escape. That was the reason Jules, Bill, and I helped Captain Amari escape prison, so he could help us rescue Carey from Charles Cromwell. Carey may be with Beckett...but he’s only agreed to it so that he’ll be in a position to protect us, now that we’ve been branded pirates.”

“Your twin’s smart,” said Jae with a nod. His black eyes then flitted over to Jacob. “What I want to know, though, is how you know the Commodore, Black Jack?”

Jacob’s skull-like blue eyes narrowed very coldly upon Jae’s face. “My history with the Commodore is none of your business. Nor is it relevant.”

He turned his focus back to the rest of the Brethren Court, his eyes blazing. “If that bilge rat Beckett does know where Shipwreck Cove is, then we’ll need to make preparations.”

“What preparations?” said Jae. He looked oddly unconcerned as he slouched back in his chair. “Shipwreck Cove is a fortress. It would take ages for anyone to penetrate our defenses.”

“The British Navy has broken out their Man O’ Wars from the War against the Spanish,” said Jacob grimly. “No pirate I know of has a ship that large and heavily armed.”

“Even so,” said Arjun bracingly, “it would take at least a month for them to reach us here, even if they found Shipwreck Cove. Would Beckett really want to waste that much time?”

“And money too,” Ellie pointed out. “That’s always what men like him worry about most.”

“Not to mention all the lives of the men he’d lose,” said Aishwarya.

“I’m afraid those things mean little.”

Everyone looked at Orion. He slowly raised his gaze from his clasped hands at last to look at them all.

“Cutler Beckett may be a man of business,” the Pirate Lord of the Caribbean murmured, “but he’s also a vengeful, close-minded, and ambitious person. He seeks status and wealth, and he has no compassion for those who might stand in his way of achieving them. And right now, in his eyes, what stands in his way -- in the way of the East India Trading Company’s profits and his own personal ambitions -- is every person who sails under a pirate flag or who shows any sympathy for our plight. Beckett may be crafty enough to manipulate others rather than just using his own physical strength...but he only acts like a gentleman when he doesn’t have absolute power over another person’s life. When he does have that level of control over someone...he can be as ruthless as the Kraken itself.”

Despite the calm, serious expression on his face, there was an odd flash of cold emotion that crackled through his dark eyes. No one doubted Orion’s testimony.

“If the fleet Beckett’s assembled does contain Man O’ Wars,” said McNully, as he rolled his wheeled chair up beside Orion, “then there’s a 73.2% chance this could turn into a siege.”

Jules’s dark eyes became a little smaller and she set her jaw tightly.

“...Then we’ll just have to assemble our own Navy and fight back,” she said firmly after a moment.

The other Pirate Lords’ crews started to laugh.

“‘Navy?’” repeated Arjun. He wasn’t laughing, but he did look a little incredulous. “Captain Weasley...we pirates may have a Court and Lords, but we’re not a country. Even those of us who have fleets -- or had fleets,” he gave a nod toward Jacob, “don’t answer to anyone else.”

“Even Shipwreck Cove isn’t a military fort or town,” said Aishwarya. “People stay here, and it’s very well-protected...but it’s no one’s home.”

“No pirate has a home,” said Samantha solemnly from the sidelines. Her emerald green eyes had drifted off toward the wall absently. “Just a ship, if we’re lucky.”

Charlie’s eyes lingered on Samantha’s face, clearly struck by how grim and oddly sad she seemed, saying this.

Jules, however, didn’t falter in her conviction even slightly. If anything, her dark eyes grew sharper as she put a hand down on the table and leaned over it.

“Cutler Beckett is an ally of my father’s, so Beckett hates pirates just as much as he does -- likely more, if we take Orion’s word -- and we’re all pirates. There’s no way any of us could defeat Beckett on our own, and if he reaches Shipwreck Cove, it’s likely he’ll treat it the same way he did Tortuga. If that happens, where else will anyone branded as pirates be able to go? Where else will we be able to go, if we decide to run instead of standing our ground? Even if you don’t have a home, we all need a safe place to rest and resupply...”

Bill nodded in agreement. “We all need a sanctuary to escape to, now and again.”

Jacob rested his head in his hands on the table, interlacing the fingers over his lips thoughtfully. Ellie Hopper placed both of her hands on the table so as to hoist herself up and out of her chair to her feet.

“You bring up a good point, Captain Weasley,” she said to Jules, “but it’s as Captain Roberts said -- none of our ships are comparable to a Man O’ War. And although there are pirates who were once soldiers...” she inclined her head respectfully to Bill and Charlie, “...there are quite a few of us who never were. Most pirates who were once in the Navy were privateers -- sailors who only ever attacked merchant vessels, not war ships -- and others, including both you and me, have no military experience at all. We don’t have the strength needed to defeat an entire fleet of Man O’ Wars.”

“We don’t,” said Orion very softly. “But there is someone who does.”

He glanced at Charlie. “Charlie Weasley...is Chia Dalma still with you?”

Charlie blinked. “Aye...she didn’t seem to like the thought of meeting the rest of the Court, so she stayed behind on the Phoenix.”

Orion nodded, but seemed unconcerned -- likely he’d presumed as much.

“You all recall, I hope,” he said, “that the Brethren Court was first formed when the original Pirate Lords decided to steal control from the goddess Calypso?”

Most of the people in the room nodded and murmured in assent. Charlie, Bill, and Jules did not.

“I’m afraid I’m not familiar with that story,” said Jules.

“I’ve heard of Calypso,” said Bill slowly. “She’s supposed to be a goddess of the sea, isn’t she?”

“She was, once,” said Orion. 

“There’s a song that tells the tale,” Skye added.

They both glanced at Merula, who straightened up in her seat and sang in a rather lovely voice,

“The King and his men stole the Queen from her bed

And bound her in her bones --

The seas be ours, and by the powers, where we will, we’ll roam.”

The tune immediately sounded familiar to Charlie, Bill, and Jules -- it was the same one Carewyn had sung for Pearl, just before she died.

“You see, the original Pirate King, Henry Morgan, and his allies were buccaneers who were scared of how dangerous the sea was,” said McNully. “Because their livelihoods depended on their ability to sail, they all decided to tame the sea enough that it’d be safe to travel on, without them needing to appeal to the whims of a ‘heathen goddess.’”

Jules’s eyebrows came together tightly.

“And how did they ‘tame’ her, exactly?” she asked, her low voice betraying some cold disapproval.

“They ‘bound her in her bones,’” said Jae, “or, more simply, trapped her in human form. The transformation restricted the use of her powers significantly, making the seas less turbulent to sail on and therefore making it safer for the Lords and other pirates to evade the Navy and ‘ply their trade.’”

Jules looked furious. “So they cursed a goddess, just to help themselves?”

“To protect themselves,” Merula shot back a bit defensively.

Skye nodded in passionate agreement. “Calypso was terrifying at full power. She could create maelstroms out of fat air, send wild sea creatures to attack ships. She was the one who created the Kraken and the Flying Dutchman in the first place. Davy Jones was her lover, so they say...”

“The decision is more complicated than you think, Captain Weasley,” said Jacob, and his skull-like blue eyes drifted absently off toward the ceiling as his voice grew more thoughtful. “The Pirate Lords, much like us, could only support themselves and their families through their buccaneering. They did not come from wealth as you have. There was no other good way for them to make a living or a better life for themselves and their loved ones, as they weren’t land-owners and didn’t have any financial collateral. Not to mention many of them were God-fearing Christians who were intimidated by what they thought must be a servant of Satan, since there can be no other God before Him. What they did was cruel, of course -- no question...but it was made out of self-preservation and fear, not just greed.”

Jules crossed her arms, clearly unmoved. “It seems to me that people who so clearly value freedom shouldn’t try to justify why someone else should be denied theirs.”

“I agree,” said Orion, and although his voice was much softer and more level than Jules’ was, his eyes twinkled with something like approval in response to her words. “And that is why I propose that we reverse the First Brethren Court’s decision, from all those years ago...and release Calypso from her bonds.”

There was a silence. Then, very abruptly, all of the other pirates started shouting and arguing.

“Are you insane?!”

“That’d just make everything worse!”

“Cut out his tongue!”

“Calypso has no reason to help us -- she’d no doubt hate pirates, for what we did to her -- ”

“Give him a good shot to the head!”

“We’d be fighting both a sea goddess and the entire British Navy, if we did that -- !”

Even Skye and McNully looked at Orion with notable trepidation.

“Orion, I’d say you might want to pull back on that idea a bit,” McNully muttered to him.

Even if the volume and anger in the room did take him aback slightly, Orion kept his cool. He rose to his feet, holding up a hand for calm, but many ignored him and instead shouted louder. Seeing this, Charlie got to his feet too and, pulling his pistol of his belt, pointed it at the air and shot at the ceiling. The loud BANG scared everyone enough that they fell silent and the Lords who were standing all returned to their seats.

Orion nodded to Charlie in mute gratitude and addressed the rest of the pirates again, his hands clasped in front of him.

“We currently don’t have the force needed to overcome Cutler Beckett and his Company. We do not have the force needed to defend Shipwreck Cove, or even to ensure that we all escape this storm alive. We could hole up here for a month or so and hope that the Navy tires themselves out -- but as McNully stated, that could easily become a siege, at which point this place would become our tomb. We could all evacuate the island before the Navy arrives -- but as Captain Farrier-Weasley said, we’d lose the last sanctuary we have remaining in the world, as well as the last place from which we could plan a counterattack. We would all be out for ourselves at that point...leaving us to be picked off one by one by Beckett’s greater forces.”

His dark eyes grew a little smaller and more solemn.

“Therefore...the only path remaining to us is to stand our ground. And if we don’t wish to die on that path, we’ll need to gather whatever strength is available to us. Uranus and Saturn are set to collide in the Heavens...hinting to a climatic battle between order and chaos. We cannot know what the outcome will be unless we decide not to fight at all...but if we did that, then we’d only know the outcome because it would indisputably be failure.”

The other Pirate Lords exchanged wary looks among themselves. Jacob then gave a loud sigh and gave a reluctant nod.

“Amari’s right,” he said lowly. “Regardless of what your positions on releasing Calypso are...we don’t have a choice in whether to fight or fly. We will have to fight...and it’d be stupid and pointless to try doing it on our own.”

He glanced at Ellie, who nodded in agreement, and Merula, whose pink eyes narrowed disapprovingly.

“We can’t declare war,” the Pirate Lord of the Adriatic Sea pointed out in a rather arrogant sort of voice. “Only the Pirate King can do that.”

Orion actually blinked in surprise. “Really?”

He turned to Samantha. “Is that true, Samantha?”

The Pirate Dragon’s emerald eyes narrowed slightly as she reopened the large leather-bound Codex in her lap, flipping through the pages and scanning each line to find the proper section.

“...As per the Code,” she said lowly, “‘the Pirate Lords shall select a captain by popular vote to serve as Pirate King, who shall represent the entire Court when all cannot be present. The Pirate King alone can declare a state of emergency; declare war; take custody of the eight Pieces of Eight; take governorship of Shipwreck Cove; and give commands to ships that he himself does not sail.’ Looks like Merula’s right.”

Charlie frowned and turned to glance back at Barnaby, who’d been standing on the opposite side of him as Jules.

“The Pirate King is the leader of the Brethren Court, right?” he muttered to him.

“Aye,” Barnaby whispered in his ear. “Only, there hasn’t been one since the first Brethren Court.”

“Why?”

“Everyone from the other Courts just voted for themselves...so there was always a six-way tie and no one could decide on a winner.”

“I call for a vote,” said Orion serenely.

A lot of the other pirates in the room sighed in frustration or covered their faces and shook their heads. Jae himself plopped his chin down on his hand and rolled his eyes.

“Amari, are you serious?” he said tiredly.

Orion looked perfectly nonplussed. “Captain Roberts, would you start us off, please?”

Jacob raised an eyebrow at Orion and exchanged a suspicious look with Ashe, before he shrugged and nodded.

“I vote for Black Jack Roberts,” he said coolly.

He glanced at Merula sitting next to him.

“Captain Merula Snyde of the Blackbird -- most powerful ship on the seven seas,” she said, her lips curled up in a dry smirk.

“Ellie Hopper,” said Ellie uncomfortably, exchanging looks with some of her crew members.

“Captain Jae Kim,” sighed Jae.

“...Arjun Singh, of the Naga,” Arjun said after he’d exchanged a bemused shrug with Aishwarya.

When it was Orion’s turn, the Pirate Lord gave a quick sweep around the table with his eyes, before they shifted to his left, twinkling with something almost like mischief.

“Captain Juliette Farrier-Weasley.”

“What?” said Jules.

“What?” said Charlie and Bill, just as taken aback.

Orion’s lips actually spread into a full, broad grin seeing how much his choice had blindsided everyone.

“The Pirate Code said that the Pirate Lords must select ‘a captain’ to be the Pirate King,” he said airily. “It never said that captain had to be a Pirate Lord. So I vote for Captain Juliette Farrier-Weasley of the Revolution to be our Pirate King.”

He then nodded to Charlie. “Captain Weasley -- your vote?”

Charlie grinned broadly from ear to ear and he shot a glance over his shoulder at his sister-in-law, who had flushed a dark shade of red and looked very stunned.

“Captain Juliette Farrier-Weasley,” said the Lord of the Pacific Ocean.

The other Pirate Lords and their crews all started chattering at once.

“What?”

“If I’d known you could pick any captain, I would’ve voted for Aishwarya -- ”

“Choosing your own sister-in-law -- ”

“I call for a recount -- ”

“How long has she even been a pirate?”

“Pure nepotism, that’s what it is -- ”

Orion raised his eyebrows very coolly. “Am I to take this to mean you all will not be keeping to the Code?”

Everyone almost as a unit turned to look at Samantha, who was glaring very pointedly at them as she rotated a pair of grenades in one hand.

Ellie, the Pirate Lord who had reacted with the least hostility to the decision, turned to Jules with a solemn look.

“The votes have it,” she said. “So Pirate King Weasley -- what say you? What shall we do?”

Jules, her face still very red, glanced hesitantly at her husband. Bill looked at her with pride, his eyes sparkling fondly as he squeezed her hand. Her lips spreading into a comforted smile, Jules raised her head and faced the Court with new confidence.

“Gather together and arm every vessel that floats,” she said firmly. “At dawn, we’ll prepare for war.”

With the meeting having come to a close, the Pirate Lords departed one by one to begin their preparations for the battle to come. Jules (knowing that, even though she was now Pirate King, she lacked military experience) immediately asked Bill, McNully, and Charlie to help her with figuring out what strategy would work best to defend the Cove. Orion himself seemed very pleased with the final outcome -- Charlie had asked him why he didn’t vote for himself, but Orion merely smiled and didn’t reply. Bill, however, thought he could guess.

“I don’t reckon Orion’s the sort to want to rule over anyone,” he said with a knowing smile. “Guide them, yes -- lead them, maybe -- but not rule.”

Orion looked at Bill, his eyes as calm and unreadable as ever.

“Interesting conclusion. What made you draw it, Bill Weasley?”

Bill’s smile faded, but his brown eyes lost none of their warmth. “Because Carey’s the exact same way.”

There was a strange spark in the back of Orion’s eyes -- something almost like surprise, which then morphed into something warmer and softer...fonder.

“...True,” he murmured. “Although she may have the heart of a queen, and all of the grace...Carewyn Cromwell would never choose a crown for herself.”

Bill’s gaze softened. Before he could say anything, however, there was a very loud WHAM.

Jacob, who was still in his seat and had been talking to Ashe, had abruptly slammed the large table across the floor with all of his strength, nearly knocking it over as he barreled over.

“YOU!”

Out of nowhere, the Pirate Lord of the Atlantic seized Orion by the collar with both hands.

“Jacob?” said Bill, completely taken aback.

“Jack!” said Ashe, his eyes narrowing in concern.

But Jacob didn’t seem to hear either of them. His blue pupils were dark, irrational slits of rage.

“IT WAS YOUR VOICE! YOU’RE THE ONE WHO CALLED MY WYN BY HER NAME! YOU’RE THE ONE WHO SPOKE OF HER IN THAT SOFT VOICE, YOU MAGGOT-INFESTED BASTARD -- !”

“Jacob, let him go!” said Jules. 

Orion amazingly didn’t look the least bit scared -- instead his expression was rather tense as well as a bit confused.

“Captain Roberts,” he spoke quietly in an attempt to soothe the other man’s anger, “I understand what Carewyn means to you -- what you mean to her. I would never harm your sister. I could never hurt Carewyn, nor could I ever wish to -- ”

Bill was reminded of when Orion was trying hard not to fight him, back in Port Royal. Jacob, however, was just as unmoved as Bill had been.

“STOP CALLING HER BY HER NAME!” he roared.

Jacob yanked Orion around by the collar, slamming him roughly into the wall.

“IT’S BECAUSE OF YOU THAT JONES IS AFTER WYN! SHE WOULD BE SAFE NOW IF IT WEREN’T FOR YOU -- I’LL KILL YOU, YOU SCABBY, BILGE-SUCKING SON OF A -- !”

“Jacob, stop!” Charlie bellowed.

“Get off Orion NOW!” yelled Skye.

Samantha, Barnaby, Skye, Jules, and Charlie had all grabbed onto the back of Jacob’s coat and onto his arms, trying in vain to pull him off of Orion. Jacob, however, was ridiculously strong, and his grip tightened around Orion’s collar and throat, making the taller man wince.

Bill, his expression darkening more than anyone had ever seen before, very sharply skipped grabbing onto Jacob and instead stepped right between Orion and Jacob, taking his pistol out of his belt and pointing it right at Jacob’s temple. The move prompted Ashe to make an angry move toward Bill, but the eldest Weasley put out his other hand to hold him at arm’s length.

“Jacob, Carey’s not here, so I’ll say this for her,” Bill said very icily. “‘I’ll never forgive you if you hurt him.’”

Jacob gave a sharp flinch. His mad, hollow, slitted pupils never left Orion’s face, but they seemed to lose some of their focus -- almost as if he was looking right through Orion.

Ashe, furious at Bill having held him back, grabbed the red-haired man’s wrist and twisted it painfully out of the way so he could run over to Jacob himself. He brought both of his arms tightly around his lover’s neck, his face resting in the dark curls over Jacob’s brow as he hummed something under his breath. The sound seemed to calm Jacob little by little, making his shoulders loosen and his grip slacken. Light gradually returned to his eyes as he slowly removed his trembling hands from Orion’s throat, breathing shakily.

Jules immediately moved to Bill, bringing up a hand to his wrist to make sure it wasn’t too badly hurt. Once she’d confirmed he was okay, she turned to Jacob with a fierce look.

“Jacob, what do you mean Jones is after Carey?” she demanded. “Why is she in danger?”

Jacob’s gaze had fallen to the ground, throwing his eyes into shadow as he continued to take heavy, labored breaths. Ashe, still holding Jacob tightly, turned around, a very hard, grim look on his face as his eyes flickered from Orion to Jules.

“Jones aims to force someone into servitude on his ship,” he said lowly, “and he’s decided that person is Jack’s sister.”

[alienoresimagines]

'Cause You're A Sky Full Of Stars (I'm Gonna Give You My Heart) | Lew "Chuckler" Juergens x Gender Neutral! Reader

A/N : This is for Jace (@speirs-sexy-ass) who is turning 18 today!! Happy birthday girl!💕 Own the day and enjoy your first (or not) drink😂👍🏻 You're one of the person I respect and admire the most, no matter what you say and you're SO funny. I love talking to you🥰 And I'm waiting for a report of Haikyuu!!! when you'll get around continue to watch it💙 All the love to you, Jace, have the best of days and make plenty of good memories❤ As Avicii said, live a life you can remember!😚

Also probably no one cares but just when I was writing the last sentence of this, "A Sky Full Of Stars" by Coldplay (who obviously inspired the title) came up while my whole playlist was on shuffle and I did nothing for this to happen so it just made me smile😊

Taglist : @murphyism @mavysnavy @speirs-sexy-ass @order-of-river-phoenix @inglourious-imagines @liebegott @tvserie-s-world

Posted : 14/08/2020

Masterlist Prompts Taglists

-----

"Lew, we can't just sneak on the roof of some strangers' apartments!" You whispered urgently, waving your hands around for emphasis of your words. Watery blue eyes stared at you and you felt your resolution weakening as warm and calloused hand covered yours and tugged them lightly towards him like a child who just saw his dream toy in a shop.

"C'mon [Y/N], it'll be fun! Besides, today's a special day, isn't it?" Right. And who could resist your boyfriend's puppy eyes? Definitely not you. However, you couldn't resist teasing him a little and started looking around you, frowning slightly as if you were in deep reflection.

The both of you were in a lost corner of Melbourne, -how Lew found it, you didn't dare to ask- in front of an outside steel staircase you knew brought to the roof. The only light was coming from a floor lamp nearby and the white and cold light of the moon, and the only sounds were the ones you were making and a crowded bar a few blocks away.

Lew's thumb stroked your hand gently and you couldn't think about anything other than that. These hands that have held a gun so tightly, pulled a trigger to kill, were touching you with such tenderness and love, as if you were the most precious thing in the world. Your throat felt dry and your stomach was in knots only Lew could make you feel, all noises had been drowned by the buzzing in your head as you realized just how much you loved him. Giving his hand a gentle squeeze, you smiled and nodded, watching as Lew's own smile broadened, almost blinding you.

"Okay, Lew, let's do it. But if someone comes up and bear our asses, the blame's on you." You finally said with a grin.

"You won't regret it, sweetheart, I promise." Your boyfriend swore as he had already started to climb the stairs, his hand never letting yours go, and the bag he was carrying on his bag jolting a little with every step he was making.

Every few seconds, he looked back down at you, clear eyes shining with love and his smile in full display. He could win over the world with this smile., you shamelessly found yourself thinking. It was crazy to think that just a few weeks ago, you all were on a god forsaken island, fighting for your lives and now you were running up steel stairs, feeling like a teenager with your first crush.

"We're there." Lew announced at the same time wind rose. The breeze caressed your face softly in a relaxing way and you couldn't help but to close your eyes to focus on that unique feeling. On your right side, you could ear Lew shuffling with what contained his bag, the ruffle of a fabric being undone and what seemed to be something made of glass given the sound it made when Lew's bracelet touched it. You furrowed your brows, but trusting Lew more than enough to choose to keep your eyes closed.

You let out a breath, and the screeching of shoes against the dusty ground and pieces of stones warned you before a pair of arm sneaked around your waist, bringing you closer until your back was pressed against Lew's clothed chest. Your eyes now open, you stared in awe at the view. From your standing position, you could see beyond the low wall, and the few lights of the city had their reflect on the ocean's water, the moon shining over you.

"No roof has a better view here."

"Did you climb on every Melbourne's roof just to see what view they could offer?" You snickered as he fully laughed behind you.

"I'm not crazy enough to do it, sweetheart, though you'd deserve it." You raised an eyebrow but you weren't sure if he saw it so you nudged his side.

"C'mon big guy, don't leave me hanging there." You protested, deliberately not mentioning his last words.

"I hired Runner and Hoos." Lew shrugged nonchalantly as if making Hoosier get out of bed to walk up hundreds of stairs was an easy thing to do. Then you remembered your boyfriend's puppy eyes, to which you had fallen victim again, only minutes ago. Puppy eyes were a mortal weapon. It should be forbidden., you decided.

"Should we go sit?" You asked after a moment of quiet and felt him nod then kiss the side of your head before taking your hand in his and walking to the blanket he placed in the middle of the roof.

You sat down next to him, wincing a little bit as rocks sank onto your bottom and thighs, and after some shifting around for a moment, you finally settled for crossing your legs at your ankles. Army blankets were thin after all, you learned as everyone else while shivering in the cold of the night. Though as of right now, you were surrounded by warmth, your body and Lew's pressed together from shoulders to foot, your intertwined fingers resting on your lap.

"I brought this." His deep voice broke the silence as he took from grey bag a familiar glass bottle, soon enough wiggling it so close to your face you couldn't read the tag.

"You want to know what it is, right? You want to known don't ya, sweetheart?" His smug face suddenly appeared in front of you, blocking the moon for a second, just the time to steal a quick peck on your lips then going back to his previous position, bottle no longer in his hand but now on your lap. You took it with care, feeling the cold glass on your fingers, passing your thumb on the tag and bit your lower lip to refrain from smiling too wide upon reading the year.

"Really, Lew? The year of my birth?" Your tone would have sounded sarcastic to everyone but the two of you. Maybe that's why you loved him so much. He could read through every jokes, every sarcastic remarks and roll of the eyes, knowing exactly how you felt in the depths of your heart. You didn't take away your eyes from the bottle but you saw him shrug from the corner of your eye.

"Oh? Ahh lucky! I didn't even notice!" Snorting, you chose not to say anything. You knew what he was doing, brushing it off like that. For people back home, a bottle wine with a wanted year was easy and definitely wasn't considered fancy. But for you, for anyone in the army, in deployment even if it didn't feel like it, it was as precious as if Lew just handed you the Moon.

"How? How much did it cost you?" You whispered in awe, finally looking at him with diamonds in your eyes.

"It's a gift, sweetie, I'm ain't gonna tell you." He smiled again, and you only sighed, expecting this answer anyway.

"Thank you." You kissed his cheek quickly but the broadening of his smile told you he understood your feelings.

"Then are we going to drink or not?" He joked, distracting you from your embarrassment, and oh how much you loved him.

"Of course we are!" You exclaimed, as he chuckled and gave you a knife to open your well deserved gift.

When the cap popped out with a satisfying sound, you licked your lips but offered it to your boyfriend first, who shook his head with a smile, eyes amused. What a gentleman., you silently huffed before raising the bottle into the air :

"Cheers." You took the first sip of the red liquid, feeling it going down your throat and into your stomach, closing your eyes again. It was delicious, you had to admit it, a little aftertaste you couldn't quite describe nor place but it wasn't unpleasing. Lew took the wine bottle you gave him as you wiped your mouth with a hand and stared at the midnight sky.

"Happy birthday to you." He wished you before drinking himself. If your lips weren't already stretched from smiling, you were sure you'd have smiled wider but alas, human corpses had their limits so you simply reached out and squeezed his hand, letting him intertwine your fingers again.

"I know we're in a big city but I wouldn't have minded one or two stars. It's dull without them, empty." You mused quietly, making Lew look at you, head leaned to a side then his gaze turned to the infinite deep blue.

"Mh, I guess it is. I don't need a star lit night when I'm with you, though."

"Huh?" You looked at him; not quite understanding what he meant by that.

"I saw you up there." That was his only answer but the distant look in his clear eyes made you think he wanted to say much more. He just seemed so serious, his smile having faded away.

"In the sky? I'd like to put into the light that I'm not dead yet if you don't mind." You laughed, the urge to try and bring his smile back where it belonged stronger than the one screaming to lower your head.

"Don't be silly." He huffed a laugh though you realized he seemed to avoid your gaze, focusing on the full moon instead. "Back on the island. Had you ever watched the sky back there? Beautiful landscapes, really. And I just saw you, between two stars, shining brighter than any others." His eyes finally met yours and your will to disappear into the ground vanished as you choked on your own words. How Lew could say such things without second thought other than the one to show you his love, you had no idea. You embraced it however, as you loved and welcomed every part of him like he did for you.

"Next time you're going to say something as cheesy, send me a warning first please." You croaked out with a shaky voice, overwhelmed by so many different feelings. Shock, confusion, uncertainty, surprise. Fondness, devotion, love, adoration. A light squeeze of your hand made you turn your head to look at your boyfriend, who was impossibly close to your own face. His wide smile, his clear eyes that could make everyone do as he wishes, his scent. Him, and you was yours like you were his.

The tips of his fingers strokes your cheek in such a tender way it made you shiver, and then he kissed you. It definitely wasn't the first time you kissed, but you always felt like the first time. The feeling hadn't changed for a bit, and it was like forever. As if each kiss was infinity.

When you pulled away just enough to breathe but still in each other's space, you both had stupidly big smiles on your face but none of you seemed to care.

"You're my star." Lew's words hung in the small space between your lips, twirled around your heart like a promise.

"Where was my warning?" Your lips met again in a valse, to the rhythm of the words still sealed in your heart and it was the only answer you needed.

[jemelle]

these are ties that bind (8/8)

fandom: criminal minds

rating: t

(chapter) word count: 1,465

story masterlist / all writing

you can also find this story on ao3!

summary: emily and hotch must pretend to be in a long-term relationship in order to foster carrie. shenanigans and serious conversations alike ensue. this chapter: two years later, a perfect summer evening.

a/n: when I started this fic in march, I had absolutely no idea what I was getting myself into. eight months and 50(!) pages later, here we are, and it has been such a pleasure to get to tell this story. thank you so much to everyone who has given tattb a chance. i’m endlessly grateful for your likes, reblogs, and especially your kind words.

this final chapter is lovingly dedicated to my sibling for beta-ing, to @ssa-lesbian​ for being there since day 1, and to @robins-gf​ for endlessly hyping this fic <3

epilogue.

The string lights Emily had hung made the backyard look like something out of a fairytale. The guests mingled together, drinking homemade punch and eating food from the grill Aaron was carefully tending.

It was a warm evening in August, a few days before Carrie’s eighteenth birthday. The air was humid and the occasional mosquito buzzed around the edges of the party. From the kitchen window, Emily could see Penelope and Spencer swaying slightly to the music while JJ and Morgan fought over a football that had appeared seemingly out of thin air. Rossi sat in a deck chair, watching the proceedings with an amused look on his face, while Will sat beside him, cradling Henry in his arms. Even Jordan was here, making conversation with Aaron as he slid burgers into buns.

True to Emily’s prediction, Penelope had been the first to figure them out. She swore she’d never tell how she connected the dots, but Emily suspected that Penelope regularly checked in on all of them in less than legal ways. Once Penelope knew, their cover was all but blown, so Hotch had convened an all-team meeting to break the news.

He and Emily had told them the story straight, so to speak. The team understood that they weren’t really in love, but neither Emily nor Aaron felt that coming out was necessary for the story. Emily had come out the next year anyway, telling everyone as they sat around a crowded booth in the same bar where she had first told JJ. Aaron, for his part, he had reassured Emily that he was content with just being out to her.

Two years later, Emily thought that they were doing pretty well. Not every day was easy, of course. Sometimes Aaron snapped and Emily swore and Carrie sulked and Jack sobbed, but those days were few and far between. More often, there were sad days, because nothing would ever really heal what had happened to Carrie. On sad days Emily or Aaron begged off work, watching terrible movies with Carrie until she had cried herself out.

Every year, the three of them flew out to Denver to visit Carrie’s family. The old lady who ran the florist nearest to the cemetery knew when to expect them by now, and Emily’s perfunctory refusal to accept the flowers she insisted on providing free of charge had become something of a routine. Carrie liked to visit the cemetery alone, and she often sat there for hours, seemingly lost in thought. After she was finished, she and Emily and Aaron would go visit her old friends, the ones who had turned up for her when she had expected to be most alone.

There was always a little part of Emily that was scared Carrie would leave them. She would decide that Denver was still her real home, or that she wanted to live closer to her aunt and uncle in Phoenix. Emily had long since promised herself that she would support Carrie in whatever she wanted to do, but that wouldn’t lessen the sting. Nothing like that had ever come to pass, but in less than a month, Carrie would be heading off to college. 

Emily knew that Carrie’s parents had emphasized the importance of college, and that she had been fighting with them about it the night they had died. When she first came to live with them, Carrie had wanted to re-join all the activities her parents had encouraged. It had taken time and a lot of therapy, but eventually she had realized that straying from her parent’s wishes wasn’t a betrayal, not when what they had wanted most was for her and Danny to be happy. 

When the time came for Carrie to apply to college, Emily and Aaron made sure she understood that they would be proud of her no matter where she went. In the end, Carrie had chosen the University of Virginia, promising to make the two-hour journey home often. Still, it would be strange to not have her around every day. Emily had gotten used to her snark and sincerity, the way she cut right to the truth every time.

Tonight, Carrie was standing in a corner, Haley by her side, both of them watching over Jack. Emily and Haley would never be the best of friends, but they had long since formed a truce, recognizing that they both wanted the best for their strange little family. Haley loved Jack, that much was obvious, and she treated Carrie like the big sister Jack had never had. She was happy to take them both when cases ran long, though Emily secretly suspected that was because Carrie was able to calm down Jack better than anyone.

Leaving the house, Emily made her way over to the snack table, setting down the bowl of pretzels she had been carrying. When she looked up, Haley was motioning her over, gesturing at her empty cup and then Jack in turn. As Emily reached their corner of the yard, Haley headed off to refill her drink, leaving Emily and Carrie to monitor Jack.

Without warning, Emily was overcome by a wave of emotion. This life still felt like a dream sometimes. Past Emily would never have believed that this was where her life would end up. After Italy, she had been so angry, and after Declan, so resigned. In her lowest moments, she had told herself that she would never deserve a family. Emily knew now that she had been wrong, that she deserved to love and be loved. She also knew how exceptionally lucky she was to have found this family.

“I love you, you know that?” Emily said, keeping her gaze fixed firmly on the party. If she looked at Carrie, there was a good chance she would cry. If anything could ruin the joyful mood of this evening, that would be it, even if the tears came only from a place of happiness.

“I know,” Carrie said, no trace of sarcasm in her voice. She took a slow sip out of the cup in her hand. In her periphery, Emily saw a single tear fall down Carrie’s cheek. “I know.”

When Haley came back, new drink in hand, neither Emily nor Carrie had looked at each other. She gave them a strange look before striking up a conversation with Carrie about what she wanted to study in college.

Emily bid them adieu and headed towards Aaron, the adoption papers burning a hole in her back pocket. They had applied for them months ago, but the envelope had only arrived a few days ago. Emily had snatched the letter from the mail as soon as it arrived, hiding it among her paperwork. The plan was to give them to Carrie on her birthday and let her make a decision about what she wanted. 

Unlike the thought of Carrie leaving, this decision didn’t feel Emily with dread. No matter what she chose, Carrie would always have them to come home to. 

She reached Aaron as he was finishing up making dinner, flipping the last of the burgers and sliding them into perfectly toasted buns. At his call, the guests flocked to the table, Spencer and Penelope almost tripping over each other in their haste to get food. After grabbing a plate, they dispersed once more, leaving only Emily and Aaron by the grill. 

A few months ago, JJ had asked Emily if she and Aaron would stay married after Carrie turned eighteen. Until JJ had asked, Emily hadn’t considered the possibility they wouldn’t, which she supposed was answer enough. That thought process would have been unthinkable two years ago, when begrudging respect was the only thing keeping them together.

They stood next to each other as they ate, watching the future they had built together. The lines around Aaron’s eyes were softer now than they had been two years ago, and he smiled more, though he was still tough-as-nails Hotch when he needed to be. At the end of a long day, or a tough case, the thing Emily looked forward to most was his companionship. He would sit with her at the kitchen table, or rope Carrie and Jack into a game of pictionary, somehow always anticipating what she needed. When she woke up thrashing, he was there, and when he couldn’t sleep, she sat up with him until his breathing evened.

Emily finished eating, setting her plate on the table behind her and wiping her hands on a paper napkin. Aaron mimicked her, then refilled his cup from the nearby punchbowl.

As he turned to her, Emily raised her own cup, bumping it against Aaron’s before taking a drink, a mischievous smile tugging at her lips. “So,” she said. “How about that divorce?”

tags: @robins-gf, @catgrantknows, @lizziechase, @blakes-dictionxry

[starlightshoe]

Tagged in this by: @galaxyvent thanks man i owe you one cassette player exactly

Nickname/name: inez and no one seems to call me nez/nezzie yet so that is an interesting situation

Gender: i wish i had jnco jeans

  Star sign: aries

   Height: 5’3 and a half yes i will always put the half... it matters

   Birthday: march 24th babeyy

   Fav bands: well. gorillaz. (everyone remembers the summer of #letacefuck)... hot chip? phoenix. 2003 norweigian jazz-house-acid odyssey clubstrophobia. i find it extremely funny to be a fake weezer fan but i need peer pressure to focus on any new music so i havent graduated to real fan yet

   Fav solo artist: so sorry to be an eboy but last summer i had a few weeks where i listened to the entire discography of mister tame impala (AN: SHIT I FORGOT TATSURO YAMASHITA EXISTED FOR A MINUTE HIM TOO)

   Song stuck in my head: yakuza club jewel theme (extended)

   Last movie: man i dont remember it was a tarantino hotel movie i saw without knowing it was a damn tarantino movie but i did see on an imdb list of top 10 new years movies so i looked at it for about 10 minutes and accidentally forgot about it (4 rooms????)

   Last show: can’t remember! me and popular tumblr user who tagged me watched like the last daria special at some point back when so taht might just be it

   When I created this blog: september 2015 ive been here an UNGODLY amount of time

   Last thing I googled: "magnification ofbnet force”

   Other blogs: grubbles-covers-nobody-wanted and a really dead blog from years ago regarding low quality pictures of marco diaz from star vs. that died within months but got a pretty big followerbase so sorry to those guys rip

   Following: 1347

   Why I chose this url: made it for a sims 3 legacy blog out of a fucked up name generator and like of the twinkle toes shoes!

   Average hours of sleep: like 9 to 12 but sometimes 4

   Lucky numbers: 7 and 77 :]

   Instruments: i played the violin back in middle school.... still have one but it does not sound too great

   Dream trip: road trip <3 road trip!

   Fav food: spaghetti and or pizza they are so great

   Fav song: titanic my heart will go on drum and bass remix 10 hours

   Top three fictional universes: cowboy bebop :) atlantis.. bojack horseman cinematic universe

tagging: @memequeenmachine420 @69420coolman @lesbiamyoshy @kokorocala @giraffeyla10 shoot i cant remember much else so woo i am happy if anyone else does it

[fragiledewdrop]

Send a space thing for questions by @sentencestarters-and-asks. I need a distraction, so I am going to answer all these and tag people at the end.

Planets: Life

Mercury: What’s your full name? Federica

Venus: What’s your first language?Italian

Earth: Where’s your home?An apartment in the outskirts of a town near Rome.

Mars: What’s your sexuality?I’m bi.

Jupiter: Do you have any siblings? A younger brother named Giacomo.

Saturn: Any pets?A cat named Faramir, Mir for short.

Uranus: What’s your hobby? Writing, mostly.

Neptune: When’s your birthday? March 27th

Pluto: What time is it right now where you are? 13.49

Moon: What are you currently studying/hope to study? Foreign Languages and Literature

Stars: Experiences

Sun: Have you ever had alcohol? Oh, yes.

Sirius: Have you ever failed a class? No. I almost failed PE in Highscool though. I am not cool.

Rigel: Have you ever gone on a rollercoaster? Yes, when I was a child. I don’t remember the experience very well.

Deneb: Have you ever been out of your home country? Many times, most recently to Paris.

Arcturus: Have you cried out of something other than sadness? Yes. Out of joy. Out of wonder at the beauty of things.

Betelgeuse: What’s something you can never forget about? The fact that my family love me. There was a time I doubted that. I won’t anymore.

Aldebaran: What’s something you care desperately about? Writing, for one. And equality. And learning the most we can from everything and everyone.

Canopus: Have you ever broken a bone? No, thankfully.

Bellatrix: Have you ever been forced to lie/keep a secret? Yes, more than once. When my mother was depressed, severely, I wasn’t allowed to talk about it. Something similar happened with my brother too. Thankfully now I have a better understanding of the fact that mental illness is not shameful. I also kept my sexuality a secret for a long time.

Alphard: Have you ever lost a friend? More than one, but the most painful was my former best friend who couldn’t accept I was bisexual and depressed. I had my share of faults too, but it still hurt. Now we are on speaking terms again, but I’ve never taken any relationship for granted ever since.

Vega: What’s something you’ve done that you wish you hadn’t? Hurt myself. Don’t do it. It’s not worth it.

Constellations: Favourites

Centaurus: Favourite holiday? Christmas!

Orion: Favourite month? October

Cassiopeia: Favourite book?   Right now I am reading “The Waves” by Virginia Woolf and it’s becoming a fast favourite.

Delphinus: Favourite study? Any kind of literature.

Hercules: Favourite instrument? Violin.

Gemini: Favourite song? Savage Daughter by Sarah Hester

Pegasus: Favourite place to be?in my room with the window open, sitting under a tree or near the sea.

Libra: Favourite colour? Green.

Phoenix: Favourite thing to wear? Flowy dresses.

Aries: Favourite movie? Portrait of a Lady on Fire, The Handmaiden, The Return of the King.

Cygnus: Favourite weather? A sunny crisp autumn morning.

Hydra: Favourite sound? My cat drinking his water. I stop whatever I am doing just to listen.

Galaxies: Love/Friends  

Milky Way: Who’s your oldest friend?   Her name is Roberta. We were in Middle school together and reached out to each other about a year ago to reconnect. She’s awesome.

Andromeda: Do you consider yourself social? Hell no.

Black Eye Galaxy: Do you believe in love at first sight? Not really. I do belieave that we can glimpse the possibility of something when we meet certain people, whtether a friendship or a relationship, and attraction certainly plays a role, but it takes more than that to truly fall in love or even become real friends.

Cartwheel Galaxy: When was your first kiss?The first REAL one? I was 21.

Cigar Galaxy: How’s your flirting skills? Awful.

Comet Galaxy: Have you ever had to leave a relationship because someone changed too much? No, not for that reason.

Pinwheel Galaxy: Would you date the last person you talked to? MY MOM? xD

Sombrero Galaxy: Do you have a crush right now? No

Bode’s Galaxy: Have you ever had a secret admirer? Yes, actually. My brother told me one of his friends had a crush on me. Same with Roberta and one of her friends. I had no idea either time.

Sunflower Galaxy: Would you date/make friends with someone out of pity? I have made friends with someone out of pity. Not the best idea to be sure, not if pity is and remains the only reason. I would not date out of pity, though.

Tadpole Galaxy: Would you deny a relationship/friendship? If I had a good reason, yes.

Whirlpool Galaxy: Have you ever cried over a breakup? Absolutely and abundantly.

Other stuff: Wishes

Comet: What’s your big dream? Being healthy and indipendent.

Asteroid: What does your dream life look like? A job I don’t hate, travels,feeling useful, having friends, being able to manage my depression.

Meteor: What’s something you wish you could tell, but can’t? I wish I could tell that I will be able to graduate.

Nebula: If you could undo one thing in your life, what would it be? Keeping my problems a secret from the people who loved me.

Shooting Star: If you could bring back one thing, what would it be? The lightness of childhood.

Pulsar: What do you hope to do in the next 10 years? Make my parents proud. Fall in love again. See more of the world. Graduate. Stay in touch with my friends. Publishing a book of poems.

Supernova: What’s one thing you want to do before you die? Being happy.

Quasar: If you could spend the rest of your life with only one person, who would it be? Honestly, at the end of the day it would be my brother. I love him, and I still have the big sister insinct to make sure he’s okay, even though he doesn’t need me in that way anymore.

Wormhole: What’s something you wish would happen, but know won’t? I will never be completely fine, most likely, but that’s okay as long as I can live a fullfilling life.

Black Hole: What’s the last thing you want to see? The face of a loved one. Tree branches against a clear blue sky.

Tagging @snovolovac , @vengefulnoob , @awed-frog , @justsomeonerandom17 , @leeaneea , @mirandasinclairs , @pancsaa , @unefemme , @procasdeanating , @mansikkaomenabanaani , @phasingoutfromthis , @popping-pills-at-popeyes , @laurentlovesdamen, @pxwerpxlitics

Do it only if you want, of course

[jlf23tumble]

Help, I am freaking out about rent i need a distraction from his hell month, what new things did you love (any fandom), fic rent is due, give me some power!

oh, GOD, yes, I’m happy to help! I sat on this ask for a couple of days so I could include anything that came in up to the wire, so here’s hoping nobody releases anything today!! This would be the stuff I read/loved in March, and it’s surreal to compare the beginning of the month to today, yikes a yikes. Come on, April, pull through for us, jesus christ:

First of all, you know I gotta rec each and every single one of the pubefest fics because they're outstanding in terms of characterization and writing, they're all so short and great, and this fest got some real star power. SWOON!

Reconnected, @star55, G, 1.5k, 1d, louis/harry. One of the very best girl direction fic writers out there, and how is this one possible, so much emotion, an ot5 reunion, zouis angst, an upbeat ending in less than 2k words, unrushed???

from winter sun to summer snow, objectlesson/ @alienfuckeronmain, E, 2k, the witcher, geralt/jaskier. SPEAKING OF PEOPLE WHO DO A LOT IN A LITTLE, this one, yeah, WOW, absolutely nails Jaskier's voice and character (Geralt, too, but his mouth is occupied).

No Control, thegirlwthekittentattoo, E, 2.6, 1d, louis/harry. I follow the ao3 tag for a laff, but every once in a while, an absolute GEM pops up and makes it all worth it, and this made my entire month!! It's all about the hids and how Harry uses them to tease Louis and some self-discovery comes in along the way (as well as some amazingly described bras and other looks). LOVED IT

Pregernante, Blake/ @newleafover, E, 2.8k, Star Wars, finn/poe (stormpilot??). I tell you what, without fail, my very fave birthday presents for the last three years have been fic gifts from Phoenix and Blake. In this one, Blake managed to squeeze an mpreg kink into the least-mpreg-kink-seeming pairing possible? THEIR POWER!

Next Exit, Jaerie, E, 2.9k, 1d, louis/harry. Someone sent me an ask for pregnant girl direction pee kink fics recently, but sadly, they do not exist...enter Jaerie, going for at least part of that brief, and it's the combo I never knew I needed.

Every Drop of Rain, haemophilus/ @h-influenzae, E, 3.3k, 1d, harry/taylor. The amount of gender exploration and dynamics (and Taylor's inner monologue) are simply stunning, I wish I could shake the shoulders of people who can't quit 2013 because the modern era is amazing, and it looks like there’s more to come in this one? GOOD!

Mon Petit, coffinofachimera, E, 3.5k, 1d, louis/harry. I love the entire concept of Harry wearing his fuzzy chick sweater while Louis films him mid-bj on their private jet. The kind of canon I deserve!

revolution, SunshineandLou, E, 3.8k, 1d, louis/harry. I am already prepared to love every single fishnet!harry fic that comes my way, and this one's no exception.

No Light of Day, objectlesson/ @alienfuckeronmain, E, 4.2k, Man from UNCLE, illya/napoleon. FUCK ME UPPPPPPPPP, this entire Tom of Finland series is so goddamned good, and this was a birthday surprise for me that blew my mind (partially because I randomly sent Phoenix a link to a Tom of Finland exhibition that morning), but yeah! In general! Very much yeah!!

into joy i'm sailing, @hereforlou, E, 4.6k, 1d, louis/harry. This was on tumblr as a drabble, and i am SO GLAD it's here now, too, archived! The setup of Harry wearing a dress at home and Louis accidentally seeing him and the aftermath of all that, simply gorgeous, soft.

Steaks High (Bitch I'm a Cow), objectlesson/ @alienfuckeronmain, E, 4.7k, 1d, orville/harry. I thought about this fic about 30 times during the recent Orville youtube living room concert (I’ll think about it in tonight’s, too), it's so tremendously on point with all the dirty talk, I legit hope they've read and loved it.

Will We Talk, gayumbrella/ @hypersoniclesbian, E, 5.1k, 1d, louis/sam. I don't know Sam Fender too well, so I don't know if this is perfect characterization or not, but wowwowowowow, is Louis well done here! And it's such a treat to see him outside of the bbc1 radio dj squad, too, ha.

Have a Nice Trip, @kingsofeverything, E, 6.3k, 1d, louis/harry. I swear to god, this should be in the pubefest rec pile, Harry's OBSESSION with Louis's pubes here is everything.

like sweat dripping down your dirty laundry, objectlesson, E, 8.6k, cars universe, doc/lightning. Best use of a Niall Horan song title outside of a 1d fic? MAYBE SO. But honestly this fic, with all the scent kink throughout, you practically live it.

canon-ish series, by @moonshinelouis-archive, E/M, 8.8k, 1d, louis/harry. MAnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn, this is some great kink discovery (BDSM in the first one, body worship in the second, 10 for 10, would recommend 'em both, can’t wait for more).

Whoever, However, Brooklyn_Babylon/ @twopoppies, E, 8.9, 1d, louis/harry. JESUS CHRIST, the dirty talk in this is so fucking good (the way Harry reacts to Louis talking about H's pussy, chef's kiss). I loveeee all these fics related to current photoshoots, bring 'em on! 

(And if you’re into the dynamics of sexy sweet camboy/very interested filmer/more angst/any fandom, As Sweet as Blood Red Jam (cars universe) updated this month, too, god, this story kills me, I wanna hug Doc tight!)

Tangled Up Again, QuickedWeen/ @becomeawendybird, E, 14k, 1d, louis/harry. Technically, I read the third chapter in this specific story, but it feels like a new installment in a series? That's a fine line, I guess, but this is a GREAT girl direction series, and the descriptions of this outfit and the entire tennis competition/aftermath are so visual, gotta love pillow princess harry!

Second Spring, vondrostes, E, 88k, 1d, louis/harry. I tend to read all of Terran's amazing fics through patreon, but meanwhile, my fave is slowly drawing closer to her end on ao3. This is a thorough look into a transition and how it affects multiple people (the way all the characters change and grow, niceeeeee).

[sxfterhearts]

About Me!

thank you for the tag @prettywordsyouleft 💞 hope you’ll have a great week ahead chelle~ 

now for the questions!

1. It’s your birthday! What did you ask for and did you receive it?

so it was my birthday about a month ago and my friend gifted me a really pretty journal! i didn’t ask for it but it was definitely something that i wanted and i could picture myself sitting in a pretty cafe, sipping my coffee and doing some journaling in some faraway land

2. What was the last song or album you listened to?

stay gold by bts was the last song that played on my spotify!! (i have been playing it on repeat... the chorus is so satisfying) the last album is lay’s album lit (莲) :))

3. What is your go to snack when you’re hungry or bored?

whenever it’s that time of the month, chocolate (esp dark choc). i often get hungry at night so i’ll have yoghurt + granola!!

4. What is your morning routine?

these days? there is no routine LOL i’ve been on uni holidays so i just wake up.. whenever.... as in close to 12pm ahem but i’ll always brush my teeth before having breakfast (if i wake up early enough for breakfast, that is hehe)

on normal days when i have to go to uni i’ll be up around 8, wash up, pack my stuff and eat breakfast with my fam. we’ll always have the morning news on the tv as well

5. What mythical/cryptid creature would you be?

it’d be great if i could fly... so unicorn or dragon or phoenix? tbh tho i wanna be a witch if i could and do magic cos harry potter :”)

6. How do you interact with someone that you don’t like?

i’ll avoid them if it’s possible and just pretend they don’t exist.. if i really don’t have a choice, i’ll keep communications as limited as possible, perhaps just by text/online

7. How do you define a toxic person?

when the other person repeatedly fails to take into account your own feelings and wishes, always putting their own needs first. also not respecting the other person/their boundaries.

8. Have you ever been to a concert or fanmeet type of event? If not, would you want to?

i’ve been to an ed sheeran concert!! my seats were really far away tho so i couldn’t see him properly T^T

i haven’t been to any kpop concerts or fanmeets... i really wanna go to an exo concert (cos they were my youth) and ofc got7 as well (flashback to their part switches and that one fanmeet where jinyoung + yugyeom sang 1:31am omg)!! i also really really like day6′s music and i think their concert will be fantastic

9. Do you believe in astrology? Why or why not?

yup! i find astrology posts interesting and mostly read them for fun but sometimes they can describe my personality/actions/thoughts pretty accurately (the skeptic in me tells me it’s probs bc they always write general statements that apply to everyone haha)

i would also read up my zodiac’s fortune for the year during CNY, but it’s mostly inaccurate hahah

10. If you had only one sense (hearing, touch, sight, etc.), which would you want?

sight, and if i could choose a second one definitely hearing. i really enjoy music and sounds but i think not being able to see would be... devastating for me.......

11. Who is your favorite celebrity or idol?

at the moment 100% park jinyoung. this man is so fine. (him dancing to coming home in his fanmeet??? hello???? pls give me my heart back thank you)

12. If you could talk to your favorite celebrity(s) for a limited time, what would you tell them?

for got7, i want to tell them that even though i haven’t known them for long, discovering them and being their fan has made me a happier, better and more confident person. their music, their personalities and their kind words really makes a difference in soooo many people’s lives. i’m thankful for their existence, their sacrifice and their hard work. also i want to say that i will support them no matter what they choose to do in the future, whether it be retiring, or marrying the love of their life, or having children. they deserve to find their own happiness after being ours for so long.

for exo, i think there are no words to express how much of an impact they’ve made to my life (i’ve stanned for nearly 7 years now! my entire teenage years). i’ll probably just give them a big hug if i could and tell them that i’m super proud of them and that i love them. and that it will always be an honour to be their fan.

13. I’m taking you out on a date and it’s your choice. Where are we going and what are we going to do?

FOR FOOD AND BUBBLE TEA. 

this is like the ideal date for me. we go try out a new restaurant and i intro you to my fav bbt place~

14. Do you like sweet or savory foods?

depends on my mood! usually savoury unless i’m craving chocolate specifically

15. Do you have any band merchandise or merchandise from any of your favorite artists? If so, what?

i’m not sure whether you guys know this but i’m a baby ahgase!! so sadly i don’t own any got7 merch :(( (i’m so tempted to buy some tho, especially hear here)

i have 5 exo albums (xoxo, growl, monster, lucky one and tempo), 2 posters in my bedroom, 1 in my study and a few more rolled up cos idk how to put them up properly!!! i also have an exo planet concert shirt~

16. (i added this question bc min tagged me ages ago but i couldn’t come up with decent ones) 3 random facts!!

my fav got7 title track is tied between eclipse and ycmn

i just read me before you and watched the movie (the book is 100 times better)

my fav videos to watch on youtube are cafe vlogs (specifically: pouring espresso on top of a cup of milk to make iced latte, ahhh satisfying)

Tagging: @mxillusion @beombam @jinyoungsir @tuangelic @defnabeom @listlessmaenads @ilytuan @defwons (the blogs that i really admire and frequently appear on my dash!! thank you all for posting and brightening up my day 🥺) + anyone who read this far and wants to do it too! 

[zedecksiew]

d100 Adventure Beginnings

Feeling anxious, indoors because of the Covid-19 quarantine, I adapted an idea from Khairani Barokka and asked Twitter to give me emojis.

I’d turn these emoji into oddities, instigations, opening to adventure.

Guess I wanted to travel? In my head, far afield. It took the weekend, but it made me happy. There were many, many typos, but I visited a hundred different microcosms, with a hundred different persons.

Original thread begins HERE; tweets in the thread were tagged / attributed.

+

d100 ADVENTURE BEGINNINGS

1. 🥐 The sandwich comes to you via delivery. You unwrap the foil as the quadrotor buzzes away. There's something in your sandwich, between tempe patties -an oil-stained slip of card. "Come alone," it says. There is a street address. ~

2. [Photograph of a vine tendril] Watering the garden, you see your morning glory stir.

Its tendrils uncoil. Its vines unclench, recede. Knot in on themselves, twine into thin limbs.

They let go of your fence. They have a face. Flower eyes: two purple trumpet blossoms. They offer a hand to shake.

~

3. [Italian flag] Morning ritual: put coffee on, wash face, check phone. Twitter takes a half-hour.

You smell burning. Coffee! Your moka pot is now sooty, long past hissing. A man stands next to it, made of steam.

"Salve," the steam ghost says, tipping his steam cap.

~

4.  🕯️ A warm night. The air is still. The candle flickers in your partner's face. She is checking her wallet. Slips it in her pocket as the candle dies.

"Ah!" she says, in darkness. "So over this power cut."

Time to get more candles.

~

5.  🔧 This is a *great* spot to get a flat: Lonely road, no streetlights, trees knitting their branches overhead. You shiver. You hate that you shiver. You're an adult. You make noise to assert this. The jack clunks on the ground. "Darling?" somebody whispers.

~

6. 🦚 "Make way for Lady Lerna!" cries the page, swinging his censer. Behind him a dozen men bear a gilded litter.

Laughter. Ringed fingers part the curtains. A powdered dowager wearing a cartwheel ruff of peacock eyes peers out. She holds her nose.

You hate her.

~

7. 🐷 Suckling pig. Its split-jaw-ed head faces you. You have never been more aware of an animal corpse.

Goldteeth Liu sips his cognac and asks: "Hey boy, why you not eating? My food not good enough for you is it?

"You feel sweat on your chest, where the wire is.

~

8. 👻 An ordinary corridor. Sconces, faded wallpaper, a painting.

"Behind the painting," a voice says.

A button behind the painting. Press it. The wall goes click. A crack appears.

"Now can I go?"

You unspool your spell, and the spirit leaves for her afterlife.

~

9. 🎲 The dice land. "Nine! Woo!" She moves her token, counting every space with a smack.

"What's with you?" they ask her.

"What you mean?" she giggles. She never did know how to play it cool. But she doesn't have to. Under the table, she puts her feet in your lap.

~

10. 🦷 When you took this assignment, they gave you two false molars:

The one in your right cheek is a transmitter -- a signal for Ops to start the evacuation; The one in your left is a cyanide pill, in case of capture.

Or was it the other way around?

Shit.

~

11. 🐉 From heaven a serpentine form, golden and gleaming. Growling like thunder ground out of the earth.

Descending, approaching --

But getting no bigger? Is it shrinking?

It is in front of you, now. It is as big as your forearm -- no, your finger.

"Bite me," it squeaks.

~

12. 🍞 The curfew has gone on for months. You have survived through food shortages, power cuts, rumours of civil unrest.

But now you are in trouble. Now, you enter your second trimester. Now, you crave.

Gardenia white bread.

You will brave cordons to get it.

~

13. 🧎‍♀️ You are hurrying to your car when somebody calls: "Girl? Girl!"

The voice comes from a red altar under a tree, past the kerb. From a songkok-ed uncle, as tall as your calves.

"Got food ah girl?" the roadside god says. "Two weeks already uncle hasn't eaten."

~ 

14. 👀 Someone has been pasting googly eyes on your stuff:

Your mailbox in the lobby; The telephone pole in front of your parking spot; The flower pot on the balcony.

Creepy. "It's not me!" your housemate says.

This morning, you find googly eyes on your forehead.

~

15. 🔐 The padlock on your front door is broken.

The door swings open onto an empty living room. On the floor: rectangles of dust, where your shelves and cabinets once stood.

As well as a shred of newsprint. "Take this, Mat!" it says.

Your name's not Mat.

~ 

16. 🎟️ Pa played the lottery on his birthday. Always with the same numbers: 1406, 2902. Ma's birthday. Yours.

Pa died last week. Yesterday was his birthday. You bought his numbers from the ticket counter.

Today you check the results: "First jackpot: 1406 2902."

~

17. 🦖 Dusting Dr Khoo's shelves, you accidentally knock over a novelty Tyrannosaurus piggy bank.

It shatters on the parquet floor.

There are ceramic shards, change -- and a passport with Dr Khoo's photo. Under a different name. In Cyrillic script.

Uh oh. 

~

18. 🍳 Eggs in your cast-iron pan -- the last three eggs you have.

Ina: "What are we going to do for protein, now?"

Gan: "We can search the shophouses in town. Or hope to catch a lizard?"

Ina makes a face. You shrug. With your cast-iron pan, you can cook anything.

~

19. 👻 Knock before you enter a hotel room for the first time. Say: "I'm coming in, okay?" Let its other occupants vacate.

But:You bustled in, dropped the card in its holder, threw your suitcase in the closet, dumped yourself on the bed.

So, now:

Don't look up. 

~

20. 🙆‍♀️ From you balcony, you watch your neighbour in the community playground. She is a dancer. She plays music on portable speakers. She practices pirouettes.

You wish you could work up the courage to talk to her.

She looks up, sees you watching, and waves.

~

21. 🗝️ "The key will open any lock," the goblin said.

The key feels heavy in your hand. Plain and iron. But when you bring it near the queen's jewellery box it shifts: turns silver and intricate.

A skeleton key!

"The key only works once," the goblin said.

~

22. 🎥 You don't like the protesters. So naive. And look at how they've spray-painted the street! Anarchists.

The cops charge with riot shields. They are beating protesters --

What are you doing?

You are recording this on your phone.

A cop points his baton at you.

~

23. 🥳 On your birthday you are surprised at the door. Balloons, food, music to dance to. A party! Laughing, you thank you friends.

"Thank Brian!"

"Brian?" you ask.

"Your cousin Brian?" they say. They point. He smiles and waves back. You don't recognise him.

~

24. 🤦‍♀️ Your headache gets worse. On day three your vision blurs; you collapse in your bathroom.

You wake to familiar voice: "Hey."

It is your voice. "Don't panic," your doppelganger says. "You're okay." She dried you off, put you in bed. She will not harm you.

~

25. 🍳 You tried to steal from the Pasha. He is magnanimous, and decided not to behead you. Instead, you will serve him.

You will journey into the wastes. You will brave the fire. You will acquire the Phoenix's egg. The Pasha is a gourmand. He wishes to eat it.

~ 

26. 🐙 "Finding the Perihelion Squid is not a problem," your captain says. "It glows in the water."

Sunset. A ray catches your captain's arm and belly, throwing the sucker-shaped burn marks there into textured relief.

"The problem is fighting it," your captain says.

~

27. 🚦 You stop at the lights. You look at your phone.

Somebody bonks your side-view mirror. "Oi!" you say -- but more people are rushing past. The drivers of the cars in front of you. What are they running from?

Across the intersection, a stampede of water buffalo.

~

28. ™️ "Breath Easy," the billboard says. A beach panorama, with a white family in the foreground: father, mother, daughter -- all three in pastel shirts. Eyes shut, chins up, smiling.

"VitaOX, premium bottled air," the billboard says. "A Sinochem-McDonald's company."

~

29. 🦥 The Colossal Ground Sloth is a geographic enormity.

See that hill, blocking our view of the rising sun? That's not a hill. That's a sloth. It sits, seemingly smiling, covered in trees. When it shudders the birds take flight.

Look: it opens its lake-like eyes.

~

30. 🗽 When the Statue vanishes, America freaks. Who's to blame? Terrorists? SJWs?

Then it turns out the Statue is also missing from all visual media: T-shirts, postcards, patriotic paraphernalia.

The White House settles on its favourite scapegoat -- China.

~

31. 🧩 The map to the Treasure of Sagely Fu is borne on the back of the Divine Tortoise:

Its scutes represent the 38 provinces of the Empire. Its coloration represents the hills and valleys. When Sagely Fu fought the Tortoise, he kicked a chip-mark into its shell.

~

32. 💙 The Heart Of Ice is a crystalline fortress, so high above the sea that the sky is twilight and the air freezes you solid.

There rules the Queen, a goddess of pure and alien elements. If you can make Her shed a tear she will grant you your heart's desire.

~

33. 🌼 The pontianak is a monster -- born when a pregnant woman dies, wronged.

Seeking vengeance, she hunts men. She takes the form of a comely woman. One of her signs is the fragrance of frangipani blossoms.

"Hey," says the bar hostess. She smells of night flowers.

~

34. 🦊 "My foxies," the witch says. "My vulpies."

In her hut are bones, bones, bones. Piled in a bucket. Mounted on display stands. Sniffing your ankle -- fox skeletons, moving as they did in life.

"Can you do cats?" you ask, nodding to the bundle in your arms.

~

35. 🥾 The search parties assemble quietly. A trekker is lost on the mountain. Nobody is happy.

"I told him," one of the guides whisper. "I told him. Don't take anything, I said. You don't know whose things you're taking. But I saw him slip a stone into his pocket."

~ 

36. 🐬 The pool is still. Park management turns this fountain off at 10pm.

You like walking here, at night. You like the granite dolphins, mid-jump, frozen in time. You toss a coin into the fountain for luck. Clink.

There is a splash. A flash of motion. A fin.

~ 

37. 📚 In the book you find a letter, in delicate cursive:

"Dear Emily, Bought this book for your birthday. Which is also Valentine's Day. I will never be able to tell you that I love you. So I will never give this book to you. Sara."

Sara is your mother's name.

~

38. 🌲 A postcard of evergreens. A landscape you've only seen in photos.

You stash it in a notebook, stuff that in your bag.

"Over here," Michelle says. She grins, shimmies out of a space between leaning shelves. A box of double-A batteries. Meaning: jackpot.

~

39. 🥡 You bike to the pick-up.

It's a commissary in the middle of an industrial park. The guy at the counter says nothing. Just looks you up and down. He licks his lips.

"What's in this?" you ask, pointing at the takeaway pack.

"Meat," he says. He licks his lips.

~

40. 🎏 The airships of Vo Langka are fish-shaped.

Carp and arowana are most common -- but advances in aeronautics have made wing-form (ie: stingray-like) aircraft possible.

You are a pilot. Today you will test the first ever flying machine made in imitation of a bird.

~

41. 🐗 The boar charges your golf cart. The caddy veers onto the green.

Gunshots!

Your bodyguards down the beast. It came from the forest behind the golf course -- the one you've earmarked for clearing.

It's not the only forest creature that wants to murder you. 

~

42. ♻️ Your body slides into the furnace.

Your husband will pick through the ash and bones. Tomorrow he'll take a boat, sail a kilometre out, empty your urn in the sea.

The day after, silver pomfrets will school in a person's shape, and you will see the ocean.

~

43. ✨ It's a clear night. "Honey?" you call. "Come see!"

She whines -- you are tearing her from her work, she says. You insist. You point up.

Orion and the Dipper, the soft shine of the sickle moon.

"Wanna go for a walk?" you ask. She slips her arm into yours.

~

44. ✒️ The auto-pen you own is old. Picks up too much background chatter. The newer pens have noise-cancelling wards.

See? You've stopped dictating, but the pen is still writing:

"NO AH NO IT MOTHER PLEASE IT HURTS MAKE IT STOP"

Hell's not a good muse.

~ 

45. 🌌 The transitcraft trembles as it descends on its pillar of plasma.

"Sorry you didn't make it," the pilot says. "Cosmofleet is not for everyone." He's trying to be kind. This does not help.

He leaves you on the pad. Here you are, with packed bags, back home.

~

46. 🤫 The librarian drags you under the counter, pale with terror.

You hear the tread of the logovore. The meaning-eater. Books impaled on its spines -- leeched of their ink, their substance, going see-through, disappearing.

It does that to humans, too.

~

47. 🍥 You spit the fish cake out. From surprise, really. Because it is candy.

A confection of flour, sugar, pink food colouring, floating next to beef slices, on the oily surface of the noodles you ordered.

The kitchen makes you a new bowl. The chef is baffled.

~

48. 🛰️ Satellites no longer obey us.

Meteorology reverts to fortune-telling. Intelligence becomes earth-bound. Defense satellites play games of laser tag.

Broadcasting ends -- well, not really. When you turn on your TV it tells you: CALL YOUR MOTHER SHE MISSES YOU.

~

49. 🌿 Where you buried your cat, something is already growing:

A fresh stem of basil, putting out its mild scent; its green, convex leaves.You pluck a leaf, put it in your mouth. Your cat jumps into your lap. You feel her scrape your finger with her tongue. 

~

50. 🐸 The Weed Toad sprouts spiky fur filled with chlorophyll. Basically: it's a frog with grass on its back. It can be a pest.

When you step into your garden something squeaks.The toad jumps away, incensed. Its siblings hop off, too. Your whole lawn, leaving you. 

~

51. 👾 Pixel Goblins are voxeloids, walking about in waking life. Refugees from a reality whose servers shut down two years ago.

They eat electricity. They line the sidewalk. "Hungry," the Pixel Goblin says. She looks at your phone, hopeful.

You have 11% battery left. 

~

52. ✴️ "I am chaos!" the boy shrieks. "A conduit of magick!"

You can hear that hard "k" from here. Baldie in an Invisibles tee and factory-distressed jeans, thinks he knows magic? Please.

Then he pisses on your headstone. Which is rude. So you possess him.

~

53. 👣 Footprints, made with oil. They cut across the driveway, onto the grass, leaving rainbow sludge on some clovers. They turn the corner of your house.

You turn the corner, too.

In front of you, the prints have stopped, side by side. Their toes now face you.

~

54. 🐷 In the middle of his emergency pandemic address, during a live broadcast, on national television --

The Prime Minister oinks.

He blinks. Clears his throat, looks at the teleprompter -- and oink-oink-oinks.

The PM's eyes blink tears. Then the broadcast cuts out. 

~

55. 🌙 Can we trust the moon?

See its phases -- the way it goes from a bright circle, wanes into a crescent, shuts completely, then opens again, waxing half into full --

Like a creature blinking: slowly, ever so slowly.

The moon has not looked directly at us. Yet. 

~

56. 🌺 You tuck a hibiscus in her hair. "It's pretty!" you say, before she reacts. "Plus it's patriotic."

She rolls her eyes.

Day after the party she wants to meet you. That makes you happy. She's not happy. The flower's driven a root into flesh, behind her ear.

~

57. 🍜 This bowl of noodles, made from soup powder, desiccated ramen, the last remaining tomato in the fridge, one overcooked egg -- 

It's the most delicious thing you've ever tasted.

This shouldn't be possible. You cry. You'll never have anything this good again.

~

58. 🥦 "This," Mother says. "This needs to be half-size."

You know this moment. The kitchen was never your thing. You made an excuse and left to play videogames in your room. Two days later Mother died. Car accident.

This time you stay. You cut the floret in two. 

~

59. 🌵 The Blood Prickle's blossom is prized by cities that border the Pebble Sea. Dried, smoked, its fume delivers accurate prophecies.

The Blood Prickle only blossoms when watered by the viscera of living creatures. You lead your herd of sheep into the desert.

~

60. 🕸️ The bungalow is covered in gossamer, like a suitcase shrink-wrapped at the airport. Shreds stick to you, glue.

"Go away!" the bungalow's owner says. You see her eight eyes peer at you from a window.

"Babe, please," you say.

"Stop stalking me!" she shouts. 

~

61. 🐼 The ghost bear waddles across the plaza and through a wall.

They felled a forest to build this strip mall. But they did not exorcise its ghost. Ghost vines hang from the ceiling. Ghost trees fill changing rooms. In the car park a ghost brook babbles, incoherently.

~

62. 🕯️ You blow out the candle. "Happy birthday!"

Your friends have grey hair. Others dance to Kelly's playlist. Something in your brain snaps -- you do not know how old you are.

There is only one candle on the cake. It tells you: you are however old you want to be. 

~

63. 🍥 At the bottom of an empty paint bucket in your backyard shed, you discover a giant millipede, dark red, curled into a spiral.

You name her Millie. Obviously.

You boyfriend is disgusted. Slightly jealous of the attention you allot her. He was always insecure.

~

64. 🍡 The city is a shadow. Office towers in shards. Hypermalls with their skybridges broken. Collapsed nightclubs.

In the midst of all this, on an overgrown street, incongruously -- the smell of boiling soup. Fry-oil. Fish balls. A lok lok truck, greasy and pristine.

~

65. ✨ The light in her eyes die when you tell her to leave.

You lose your job at the production house. Once again, you are a freelancer. Interviewers pooh-pooh your portfolio.

You will learn how to draw again. Your muse was a crutch. You must do this on your own.

~

66. 🔮 Everything is as kitschy as you expect. Fake-velvet curtains and tablecloth. A set of tarot cards from Etsy. Even a crystal ball!

But when the fortune-teller looks up and sees you, she says: "No no, out."

What?

"You. No. Get out," she says, afraid. 

~

67. 🥵 Ten laps in the pool. Then you pant to the sauna.

Stones sizzle as you open the door. Somebody is here, already. You take the opposite bench. He has an athlete's thighs. Sweat on his obliques make them look oiled.

He looks you up and down. Smirks. Judges.

~

68. 🗨️ In the kitchen Khan grunts. Khan being Khan, you think.

Sylvia comes in. She makes an oinking sound.

He grunts. She oinks again. Hoot-hoot. He hisses in reply. It appears to be a conversation.

Sylvia sees you staring. Waves a hand in your face, asks: "Moo?" 

~

69. 👹 "They are going to hate me," she says, frowning around her tusks."

They are going to love you," you say.

In her nervousness she walks up to the microphone, no intro, just launches right into it. Her poem is electric. She is electric. And she is yours.

~

70. ⚛️ Guards, gyrocopter patrols -- Coilhaus Atomworks’s compound is well-protected. Which is as you expected.

You didn't expect the hex-wards in the inner compound. When you set foot on the manager's balcony, the teak floor shrieks: INTRUDER INTRUDER INTRUDER HERE! 

~

71. 🌂 The Bum Under The Overpass jumps out. You yelp.

"Flee, peasant!" he growls. He reeks. He has a bin lid for a buckler, a brolly for a sword. "I shall shield ye against yon creature!"

You peer into the dark under the overpass -- and notice the hulking shadow there.

~

72. 💀 The captain wears a cutesy plastic skull on a silver chain. You don't think it fits with her camo grease, her fatigues.

"My daughter made this," she says.

You nod. You miss your son, too. All this -- the pay you earn, burning villages -- you do for your children. 

~

73. 🦧 "Orangutan Kong". Some sort of gangster moniker?

No. Kong is actually an orangutan. He escaped from the Zoo, and started working in Goldtooth Tat's crew. As comic relief. Everybody who laughed at him is dead now.

If you want to work for him you should know. 

~

74. 🧠 The robot ploughs through Market Street. Tiles scatter like confetti; cars are stomped flat. Pressure in your ears -- a thunder clap! The police van up the road explodes.

"There!" your partner shouts, pointing. A brain in a glowing jar, in the robot's belly. 

~

75. 💈 You grew up here.The broom, the hair -- the chairs, Naugahyde over industrial frames. The mirrors, angled slightly, either side leading into infinity. The sink where Uncle Kuppu rinsed his razors and shaving brush.

Uncle Kuppu's gone. This place is yours, now. 

~

76. ⚗️ The alchemist stumbles backwards, knocks over a beaker.

"My formula," he whispers. "You're an assassin from the Bankers’ Guild? You can't have me turning lead to gold."

You shake your head. "No. I work with the Silversmiths' Guild. I'm here to protect you." 

~

77. 🔭 It is the fourth victim he has brought home.

They are always young, with tattoos. He restrains them, strangles them by the neck on the floor of his bathroom.

You watch, through your telescope. You should report him. But you like to watch them struggle. 

~

78. ⛩️ The way to Grand Andropolis is lined with 417 red gates -- each one for a glorious victory the Imperial Legions have won over lesser races.

Gate 412 marks the time they slaughtered your parents. You touch it, and swear quietly: you will burn Grand Andropolis. 

~

79. 🌻 The men at the big table drink beer, munch kuaci, laugh.

A woman with sunglasses arrives. The restaurant people tell her: "Kitchen closed already. Drinks?"

Just kuaci, she says.

She watches the men. When she bites the seeds open, you see long canines.

~

80. 🤖 You've never considered yourself technosexual. You thought robots cold. Then you met MARY-K8.

Her bright crystal optic sensors. Her omni-articulated limbs. Her way with words:

"HEY HUMAN USER," she synthesises. "HEART-UNIT NOT FOUND. PERHAPS YOU HAVE IT?"

~ 

81. 🦖 "The job is a museum," your master sighs. "Museum's are the worst."

You ask him why.

"We are exorcists, dumb-dumb! You know how many things the damn spirit can hide in? Can throw at us?"

When you master sees the T-rex skeleton in the atrium, he sighs again. 

~

82. 🎍 Treaties signed between the Yun Empress and the Princes of Elemental Wood have resulted in the Type-4 Rhizomic Footsoldier --

A stiff, lanky construct; needing only sun and soil; grown in vast groves; with souls of bamboo and therefore without mercy ...

~

83. 🧜‍♀️ Each year, the mer send an emissary to bargain with the dry world.

The tide swells, then withdraws just as quick, leaving a carriage of driftwood and flowering coral --

"Dammit!" a voice says. Rattling, from within. "Door's stuck!" A sigh. "Some help, please?" 

~

84. 🧠 "You're always going on about life hacks. So here," Mark says.

His gift is a book. "Telekinesis In 100 Days", its title says.

Mark smirks. "Enjoy!"

You'll show the bastard! It's just day 13. Already you can toss 50-cent coins with a lift of your eyebrow. 

~

85. 📯 The footmen blow their horns. The herald crows: "The Tyrant and Lady van Sur!"

They descend the stairs. The man frail, tubes stuck up his nose; the woman in silk, her wig so heavy it is held up by grav-suspensors --

One push of your remote, and the suspensors fail.

~

86. 🥶 You jolt awake. Ice is pressed to your ankle -- no, chilled skin. A toenail. Feet.

"Jesus. Your feet."

His apology is a snorted murmur. He curls further, pressing into the heat of your belly. His hair tussled, smelling of lavender.

What's his name? Can you remember?

~

87. 🚪 The heavy door is shut. Padlocked. Your lock sprite shakes her head. "Mechanism's rusted solid."

Your spell-dwarf grumbles. "Lead brackets, see? Shock hex won't work."

"Lemme try," your slip-spirit squeaks. Flattens itself, slips under.

Doesn't came back. 

~

88. 🌵 The Saguaro Sea is a vast tangle of sole-cutting rock, thorny brush, towering cacti broad as hillforts.

Here is found the Weeping Roc -- whose cry is a woman wailing; who steals children to feed its blind, featherless chicks.Children like your six-year-old. 

~

89. 💃 Flamenco star Magritte Tanaka's talent is such that people say it is more than just grace and training.

They say she made a bargain. When she dances a devil helps her; plays her like a puppet on strings.

Truth is he forces her. She never wanted to dance.

~

90. 🎸 You stole the keytar of synth legend Razzak Luminem from the Museum of Sidereal Art last month.

Tonight you host its auction. Many have shown up: demon worshipers; glamrock stars; violist perverts; members of the Critics' Cartel -- troublemakers.

Watch yourself. 

~

91. 🙆‍♀️ To fear the sky falling is silly --

Except in Fading Dassho, whose most dilapidated districts sit twilit under an obsolete stellar shield, its support struts increasingly ancient and tottery. A shutter collapsed, just last week -- shattering six thousand souls. 

~

92. 🤖 We sent unmanned drones through the Hell-portal; we assumed exposure to Ultimate Evil would be bad for the human psyche.

All moot, it turned out. Because drones are robots -- and, you know, that cliche about robots turning bad, turning KILL ALL HUMANS?

Well. 

~

93. 🏚️ A manor-turned-hotel, on a cliff, with a history of homicide? TrueCrimeFest 2018's organisers could not resist.

Three days of signings, panels, cosplay -- and a podcaster found garroted in her room.

Horrible! Horrible. (But, really: Best. TrueCrimeFest. Ever.) 

~

94. 🤪 The Rictus Worm causes paralysis. Distorts the muscles of the face.

Your eyes pop, your tongue hangs lolling. You speak drool and sputters. You try the chirurgeon. He thinks you are fooling. Kicks you out.

The Rictus Worm is rare. You feel it in your nape.

~

95. 🌌 One by one the stars disappear. Without their light -- were they ever there?Constellations vanish, nebulae fade. The moon hangs alone in the night sky.

Only our sun and its huddling planets remain. An isolated, solipsistic, self-obsessed apocalypse. 

~

96. 🤗 She welcomes you with open arms. "Happy you're home, Ah Boy," she says, kissing you, Tears on her cheek transferring to yours.

She is your mother; she calls you Ah Boy. Return appropriate amounts of affection. Your mission depends on how well you fool this woman. 

~

97. 🅱️ The mark is made in red ink. The letter "B". Not so bad, outsiders might think --but yours is an euphemistic society.

This is the Competency Test, through which all citizens are streamed. An "A" means you get to stay above-ground. A "B" sends you Below. 

~

98. 🎡 Anna gets into the pod before you. The ferris wheel begins to turn.

Travelling carnivals! Holdovers from a previous world, now surmounted by app-stores. You don't get the appeal. It's not even ironic --

High up, in the pod, Anna kisses you.

Now you get it. 

~

99. ☄️ You still remember your wonder --

A bright blue star, trailing a bright line, bisecting the sky. Staring at it would spoil your eyes, they said.

In your cockpit, as the countdown begins, you think: now you will be a bright blue star. There will be a young girl on the ground, watching.

~ 

100. 🥑 When you halve the avocado you don't find a seed. You find a tiny baby.

It is curled up foetal. It is the colour of mahogany. It fusses slightly -- then starts into a full-blown caterwaul; big droplets of blood well from where your rough knifework has nicked it.

+++

[jakes-eyebrows]

Thanks for tagging me 💖 @satans-helper & @juvinadelgreko

Rules: answer 10 questions, tag 10 people, and give them 10 new questions to answer.

1. Would you rather become a star or a cloud? Why?

A star so I could make wishes come true ✨

2. Have you ever had a dream shake you so much that even years later, it’s still vivid in your mind?

I don't think so 🤔

3. If you were to name and make a cocktail after yourself, what would it be?

Pink lemonade cocktail

4. Has the universe appointed you a spirit animal? If not, what would you want it to be if you could choose?

A phoenix

5. What was the best meal you’ve ever made for yourself?

I'm big on tex-mex food so I like to make nachos with rice, beans and cheese 😚

6. What was the best meal that was ever made for you?

I can't possibly pick just one omg there's many amazing cooks in my family and I love them all and the food they cook for me 💕💕💕

7. If you had to plan your own birthday party but you had to pretend you were 10 years old again, what would the party be like?

Probably Power Rangers themed 😂

8. Out all the horror movies you’ve ever seen, which would you be most afraid of living in an why?

All of them, I don't like scary movies.

9. What’s one of your most irrational fears?

Wow okay so this is going to sound like a GVF reference but I'm afraid I'll never meet someone who's gonna love me and accept all my love. I feel like I have this massive amount of love in me and that my heart might just explode if I never give it to anyone 🥺

10. What’s something you tell yourself to bring yourself comfort?

I have anxiety so I've had to come up with many ways to soothe myself. For example, I like to close my eyes and think about happy memories and try to remember all the details about an specific nice day ☀️💕

10 Questions:

1. What’s your favorite color, and why?

Light pink, it makes me happy 😇

2. If you could move anywhere in the world tomorrow, no strings attached, where would you go?

A nice suburban town

3. If you could thank you hero for one thing, who would it be and what would you say to them?

I would love to thank Greta Van Fleet for bringing joy and healing to my life 💖

4. Do you believe in true love?

Yes!

5. Do you have any pets? If so, what kind?

I have a cat 🐱 he's super cute!

6. Tell a story of a random act of kindness you experienced, whether it involved you or you were just a bystander.

If I see someone having trouble with a language barrier I like to offer my help as an interpreter 😊

7. If you could get rid of one current pop culture trend, what would it be?

Hating on girl's interests: discrediting their interests just because it's pop or "mainstream".

8. Least favorite food?

I don't like seafood

9. Favorite plant?

Jasmine

10. Do you have any special articles of clothing that you’ll never get rid of? Why?

Not really 🤔

My 10 questions:

1. What's your favorite emoji?

2. What do you like to do before going to bed?

3. What are 3 things you can't leave the house without?

4. Do you collect anything?

5. What's your favorite dessert?

6. What do you like to eat for breakfast?

7. Describe your favorite outfit:

8. What makes you smile?

9. Last song that you listen to:

10. Do you like Pokemon?

I tag: @hansonobsessed @karrotkate @imacrowcawcaw @satingrass-maidensfair @woman-ina-dream @ashesandacidrain

[positivity-studies]

10 Questions Tag

Thank you so much to the lovely @yourstudyfriend for tagging me : )

Some of these answers are pretty long, I apologize!!

1. Do you like videogames? What is/has been your favorite? I like to call myself a casual gamer, and by that I mean I almost exclusively play Pokémon and the occasional other game. I have every main series Pokémon game that has ever been released for the DS/3DS (well, one from each set that is, like I don’t have Diamond AND Pearl) and a few other side games, so 13 total. If I had to choose a favorite, I’d pick Pokémon Platinum and Pokémon SoulSilver because they’re so unique compared to many of the other main series games. I turned 21 in quarantine, and my original birthday gift (tickets to Dear Evan Hansen on tour) didn’t happen, so I’m getting a Nintendo Switch and Pokémon Sword for my birthday instead as soon as I can find a Switch in stock somewhere (it is NOT easy). I’m really looking forward to playing the new game on the new system, and maybe I’ll save up and branch out and try some other non-Pokémon games : )

2. What album is your all-time favorite? Why do you recommend it? My all-time favorite album is Sam Tsui’s debut album Make It Up, which was released in 2013!! Sam is my favorite singer/songwriter of all time, and I’ve been listening to him for over six years now; the title song from Make It Up is the song / music video that introduced me to his music and his YouTube channel, and it also happens to be the first song I saw him sing live way back in 2014 (he used to open shows with it). So needless to say, the album is pretty special to me. On top of that, I am so impressed by the fact that Sam and Kurt Hugo Schneider (they work together on YouTube a lot) wrote and recorded and produced the whole thing completely independently without any kind of record label or anything. The album has everything from feel-good jams (including a song that’s basically become my quarantine anthem) to some of the most beautiful songs in the entire world. It’s absolutely fantastic, and no album compares for me. Fun fact: I wrote an entire paper about it for one of my classes this past semester, and it was honestly a highlight of my quarantine.

3. Who are your favorite YouTubers? I used to be really into YouTube but I’m not anymore, though there are still a few that I’m subscribed to (most of them are musicians, though): Sam Tsui and Kurt Hugo Schneider (obviously, based on the answer to the last question), Rosanna Pansino (she was the first YouTuber I ever watched!), Cimorelli, and Alex Blue. I used to really love Tyler Oakley, Troye Sivan, Connor Franta, Ricky Dillon, all of the OGs from the early to mid 2010s, but I don’t have the time to keep up with them all anymore unfortunately. There are a few others that I’d like to start watching and/or catch up on, so hopefully I’ll have time while I’m still stuck in quarantine!!

4. What type of art is your favorite - music, visual (fine arts, sculptures, design, etc.), drama, or literature? Oh gosh, this is hard!! I guess I have to pick music, though I also love musical theatre so I guess that combines two of them? And I’m a bit of a graphic design nerd as well, though I wish I was better at actually making the designs myself.

5. Do you keep a journal? What about a planner? I don’t keep a traditional journal anymore, but I do keep a planner!! I have a Passion Planner - I discovered the brand on Instagram a few months ago and I bought one for myself and I absolutely LOVE IT. I really love the freedom of bullet journaling but at the same time I need a little bit of structure to get started, and Passion Planners are the happy medium I’ve been looking for. I also love the brand’s focus on reflection and growth. I highly recommend checking them out.

6. Do you like to dance? In your room, or in public places? What’s the best song to dance to in your opinion? I’m not much of a dancer in the formal sense, but I do enjoy a good dance party : ) I dance by myself in my room sometimes, especially during quarantine. I don’t think I can pick ONE best song to dance to, but the first one that I thought of was Cut to the Feeling by Carly Rae Jepsen (or really, any of her songs - they’re all bops).

7. Which Disney princess are you? She’s not a princess so I’m not sure if this counts, but Elsa!! I’ve always loved Frozen since it first came out, and every time I rewatch the movie (or the second movie, or the shorts, or the Broadway musical...) I find even more ways that I relate to her and identify with her. If I had to pick an actual princess though, I’d pick Anna, because I am just as awkward as she is and I too hate mornings ; )

8. What mundane aspect of life do you enjoy more than others? Is sleeping too obvious of an answer?

9. Do you like celebrating your birthday? Why/Why not? And if you do, what was your best birthday so far? I generally do, yeah! I just think it’s really fun to celebrate making it through another year. I don’t think I have one particular birthday that I consider the best (though I did spend my 5th birthday in Disney World), but surprisingly my quarantine birthday actually ended up being really special despite it, you know, being quarantine. I watched musicals and Disney movies with my family, and a bunch of my friends surprised me with a Zoom call (though I kinda found out about it before it happened, oops). The highlight, though, actually happened the night before - Sam Tsui (this is my third time mentioning him in this one post lol) did a spontaneous livestream on Instagram that night and took song requests so I sent him mine and told him my birthday was the next day, and he wished me happy birthday and played my request and I could not stop smiling : )

10. What’s your favorite type of bird? A bluebird - or, if we’re talking fantasy birds, phoenixes are pretty cool!!

Thank you for reading that long rambly post - here are my questions:

1. Do you have a favorite day of the year? What is it? 2. What makes you smile? 3. What is your favorite TV show and your favorite episode of that show? 4. What song speaks to you most? 5. What is your favorite type of chocolate? 6. What book do you think everyone should read? 7. Are you a morning or a night owl? Do you wish you were the opposite? 8. What is the nicest thing anyone’s ever said to you? 9. What is your favorite memory? 10. What has been the highlight of your quarantine?

I tag @purenerd, @lattesandlearning, @myhoneststudyblr, and anyone else who’d like to do this!! I can’t wait to see your responses : )

[snowrobin-133]

Artist Appreciation Day

Hewo hewo!! As you can tell by the title, it is artist appreciation day!! Well technically an hour before it in my timezone lol. International Artist Appreciation Day is on October 25th. And for those who's birthday is that day, then happy birthday too!

So, let me tell all you artists this! You art is amazing and it deserves to be loved. It has those little details only you can do. It represents you. So we should love it like it's a thousand year old piece. Those of you may call your art bad and/or ugly, but it doesn't matter to any of us. We will always call it beautiful either way.

It's sad to see amazing artists go through tough times though. Such as their art being stolen, traced, etc. It's a pity... no, a shame, that some people resort to this. Perhaps they were jealous and wanted attention. Who knows because either way, it's wrong to do so.

Anyways, it's amazing to see how you progress through the years. Even if it's little by little. Compare your art from now to 5 years ago. I bet it's different. Thus, you cringe at the art from 5 years ago. Because it's no longer up to your standards. Just like your personality, your art grows with you. So please appreciate your art, because you are criticizing yourself. Draw what you want to draw. Don't let rules get in the way either. And if you're feeling burnt out, take a break. I'm sure everyone will understand. If they don't, then don't listen to them. Us artists are not bots. We do not just generate art. It takes time and effort.

I give thanks to the artists around me that help me improve with their comments and tips as well as giving me inspiration. I love all of you and all of your art

@aikurone @trashyatt @miso-297 @musubiki @merrinou-chi @thecoolsquirrel @gypsophiaa @5-of-spades @vitaminxi @chaotic-prince @meshikichan77 @ocenhaven @plumpblueberry @pianoperson @rougescribe @phoenix-before-the-flame @kaychaart @haleigh-g-art @phoneboxfairy @dark0angel13 @diabl0o @rosechi @thewritingstar @thegemibaby @ayumichi-me @acnologias-ass @dc9spot @bearpluscat @wow1076 @aurantia-ignis @stardust-make-a-wish @oce-sky62

Phew I spent quite a while tagging all those people lol. Anyways, these are the people I tag! If I forgot anyone or you would like to add anyone, then please do! Today is about celebrating artists!, even those that only do a small amount of art!! Have a good day/night everyone and I send y'all my uwus

[mannien]

Quarantine question tag game

I was tagged by @niallandtommo, thank you! 

Are you staying home from work or school?

From school yes, altough it’s not too complicated because I’ve got only my MA seminar and I can just message my professor if I need anything. I’m still working, but most probably it will end next month.

If you’re staying home, who’s with you?

I live with my parents and my brother, so it’s us as always. Although sometimes I wish I was living by myself. 

Are you a homebody?

Definitely! But every homebody has its limits, you know? Priorities change and currently, with my work situation, I crave every working day and I can’t wait to leave the house for one of the last shifts. 

An event that you were looking forward to that got canceled.

Mainly live shows. But the greatest bummer counts as w a long weekend with my friend and see Harry Styles in like 2 weeks, or Niall’s shows in October, one of them being in London which would mean I’d have been in the UK for the first time in my life :( I was also looking forward to having an impromptu holiday in July, which would probably mean a long haul flight to the States :( And I love long haul flights :( Not having a birthday party after agreeing to one for the first time in my life is also not a good sign

What movies have you watched recently? What shows are you watching?

There’s been a lot of them, if I’m honest! One of my recent faves is Knives Out, it’s so so good. I’ve seen the first episode of Tiger King and Spy on Netflix, so I’m still figuring these two out. Other than that I’m always coming back to Friends, I’m somewhere in the 3rd season this round

What music are you listening to?

Throughout this pandemic I’ve been listening mainly to my writing playlist, there’s Niall’s album on there and a couple of chill and upbeat songs. I’ve been listening to a lot of movie scores while reading, I can tell which melody is from which scene in which Harry Potter movie

What are you reading?

Fanfics on tumblr all the way, oh my God! And I’m not the one to have only one book out, I get easily distracted. So I’m having bits of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, Eclipsed by Dom Holland, and Paige Toon’s “If You Could Go Anywhere.” But in all honesty, I should be reading three textbooks that my professor sent me, they’re about filmmaking. 

What are you doing for self-care? 

Upstairs in the most quiet room in the house I’ve been doing a very hard puzzle, it calms me down. I listen to my favorite music, I spend some time in our tiny garden, I look out the windows and freshen up the air in my room like every two hours. I read a lot of fics if I feel anxious. When creativity hits, I’m writing my fave stories. Maybe I haven’t been doing it in over a week, but I used to do a bit of exercise. I need to get back to that

Tagged @peeterparkr @heyhihellowhatsup0 because girls your blogs are my absolute fave and your fics make me all happy and cozy at nights when I can’t sleep 

:)