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foxyclocks · 7 years ago

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You must be mistaken

Summary:

Marinette has finally decided to start going to a regular school but once again she's been mistaken and has been introduced to her class as Marin Dupain-Cheng. Too nervous to find the courage to speak up she decides to wait but finds herself too deep to reveal to her class that she is really a girl. So maybe she should just role with it?

Chapter 1 WC:1.027 FF.net | AO3

My parents met in the spring of 1993.

My father, without knowing a lick of Chinese traveled to the country after having visited many others on his abroad tour while studying different methods to make pastries. China was his last stop of many.

He stayed in a small town called Tongli and because of his lack of English not many restaurants in the area wanted to hire him but that didn’t stop him from trying to learn all that he could.

My mother at the time was 20 years old. She lived on her own but worked in a small family run café with her uncle. Being a somewhat quiet woman my mother found herself mostly studying instead of going out in her free time but that never seemed to bother her.

My father started showing up to the café after having lived in the town around the first week. Language barriers kept him from making many friends. English had helped him get around many countries before but not many people in the small town knew the language considering that it was mostly populated with older people.

But barriers or non- he still noticed her.

He noticed my mother.

After his first visit to the café he admired the petit girl with the long rave hair who stood behind the counter practicing her constructing of pastries. He found it funny the way she would get frustrated after screwing up the decorations on her many practice attempts but he noticed that her uncle never disciplined but rather encouraged her tossing out many of the failed attempts.

He was probably one of the gentlest chefs to his apprentices even considering his intimidating size.

My father told me the first time he ever spoke with my mother he pointed towards the pile of disregarded bean buns and began to shuffle through his pants pockets t grab his wallet. My mother of course insisted that she give him the better looking pastries that her uncle had made but my father refused to take them. He only wanted the ones that she had made wither she thought they were perfect or not- he appreciated the care that she put into each pastry even when she knew they wouldn’t turn out to be anything worth selling.

The first word my father learned was ‘Xièxiè’ – thank you.

And he milked that as much as he could.

He would spend every day in the café from the afternoon to their close. After a coupe days of perfecting his phrase to the baker he had met he bought an French to Chinese dictionary.

It wasn’t until a couple days of my father trying and failing to speak with my mother that she finally decided to spare my father anymore embarrassment when she began to speak with him in French. Which in all honesty was probably more embarrassing to him but she appreciated his effort in trying to learn Chinese.

His way of never giving up was something that my mother had admired about him from the start.

My mother convinced her uncle to allow my father to work in their café the Chinese that he learned, while minimal, and still helped him get around their kitchen.

After a few months of living in the small town and working along side my mother it was time for my father to return back home but instead- he stayed.

He stayed much longer than anticipated- a few years longer in fact.

My parents got married in the Chinese countryside in the year 2000.

My mother shortly after found herself pregnant.

My grandmother was a Shaman. She predicted that my mother would give birth to a healthy baby boy in the month of August.

You may or may not know: I am a girl and I was born on October 30, 1999.

But my parents- being the young and anxious people they were they were determined to give me the best life that I could.

I was born in Beijing, China on October 30th, 2000 at 17:45 as Marinette Dupain-Cheng.

To my luck and dismay my feminine physique never quite came into play. Though it wasn’t something I ever minded. Long hair wasn’t ever something I really liked on myself, short hair was much more manageable.

Growing up I was often mistaken as boy, often heard people calling me Marin in thoughts that they had heard my name wrong.

It didn’t matter to me wither people viewed me as a man or woman. I knew who I was and that was all that mattered.

I grew up in a small townhouse in central Paris. The front of my home soon after moving into the place had become a bakery and after about three years into that process of constructing their own personalized bakery it finally opened.

For a while the only two things that they had they could afford to make together was red bean buns and macaroons. The two things that my parents bakery became the most successful for.

I grew up down the block from a small family who had also recently moved into the area and I made my first friend.

Her name was Alya Césaire, she was a year older than I was and the only other person besides my parents to ever call me Marinette.

Through my own choice I decided to become homeschooled through primary school. I was never particularly social as a child and I rather liked being home and learning what I wanted, my parents bought me the supplies I needed to create my designs as well as the knowledge I needed and a job inside their bakery.

But at 17 years old I realized that I was missing out. Though Alya was a handful enough to count for 10 friends in 1 she was still the only person I had, well, knew really. The stories that she had told me from her times in school with her classmates- all of the school trips they had taken and fun activities they did together made me envious.

I wanted that.

So I convinced my parents to allow me to go to school.

#foxyfics #Marinette!boy #Marinette mistaken for a boy?#Its a whole complicated bumpy ride #but it'll be a good one #Adrienette #Ladynoir #Marichat #Ladrien #I really hope that this isn't too terrible #Miraculous ladybug #Marinette dupain-cheng #Adrien Agreste #Alya cesaire #Nino lahiffe

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shinjaeha · 3 years ago

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bad buddy ep 8 (thoughts)

so this ep really took us for a ride. i’m still reeling over the end of the ep even though i had a feeling that something like that was going to go down (though maybe not as publicly as what actually happened...). i have so many thoughts and questions...but most of them prob won’t end up being answered until at least next ep.

i think we’ll really have to strap ourselves in for a bumpy ride from hereon in, but FIRST let’s talk about all the things i loved about this ep as usual :)

as fun as last ep was, nothing beats seeing them as ACTUAL boyfriends and the domesticity that comes with that :’) they’re so CUTE i can’t stand them omg. pat making pran breakfast in bed!!!!!!!! i love the little details like the pics/post its on pran’s wall, or their uniforms hanging on the hooks in his room together. the ketchup kiss was so adorable (esp knowing that that was improv on nanon’s part and ohm’s reaction was very real 😂). it’s just so sweet to me that pran can be as playful as he wants with pat now (at least when they’re alone). he’s spent his whole life repressing all these feelings, but now he has the chance to actually indulge and fully be himself around the boy that he’s been in love with for years. you can already see how different he is from previous eps when he was more closed off. he doesn’t have to be like that around pat anymore bc they’ve laid all their cards on the table. they’re BOYFRIENDS now and i’ll never get sick of saying that!!

something i really like about this show is, even though there’s obviously an overarching narrative throughout, it feels episodic bc many of the conflicts they deal with are introduced and resolved in a single episode (and sometimes another conflict is introduced at the end of the ep). like last episode, it was the challenge and who would cave first (resolved at the end when they both become boyfriends). this ep, it’s the struggle of having to keep their secret relationship under wraps, whilst also dealing with their differing personalities and stances within their relationship. this is a fairly common and realistic thing for people in same sex relationships to have to deal with, but it’s obviously more complicated for pat and pran given the situation with their friends and family. as we’ve already seen, pran’s friends and family seem very accepting of whatever he chooses to identify as, so i feel like it’s fair to assume that pran’s as scared as he is to reveal their relationship not bc he likes a guy, but bc that guy is PAT. he’s also experienced firsthand how unaccepting his parents have been about him just being in the same band as pat before (let alone boyfriends) so he has a very valid reason to be as scared as he is.

the hand holding scene is SO sweet bc although pran pulled away initially (and pat was super understanding about it), he couldn’t even bear pat being sad for a moment longer and gave in almost immediately. it’s the little concessions they make for one another that i’m absolutely in love with. just these little things they do to make one another smile bc they know it means a lot to the other.

paa with her arms around the both of them as they held hands behind her back made me weep THEY’RE SO ADORABLE...i’ve watched this scene way too many times to count at this point.

literally this whole rehearsal scene i just felt bad for toto 😂 no idea how he was able to make them get anything done in the end. but also, watching this back, how DIDN’T he know there was something going on with them bc they weren’t even a little bit subtle. just constantly flirting on that stage.

inkpaa!!!!!!!!! i love that paa’s the one always knocking some kind of sense into her brother, but the second she’s with ink she becomes this cute, bumbling mess. and you can tell that ink finds it so endearing. wai though...that’s a no from me :/ it’s so funny to me how ink keeps shooing away all these boys buzzing around paa like their flies...she was NOT here for wai’s interrogation whatsoever.

omg so i full on burst out laughing the moment i heard the sizzy song and saw pat doing the moves in his car (love score has been and always will be a certified BOP). even better when pat starting rapping nanon’s part with the moves bc YOU KNOW that ohm had a great time with that and that pran’s reaction was really just 100% nanon being embarrassed haha.

i was having fun laughing along and then they hit us with whoever it was that saw them in the car...and i will circle back to this again at the end of this post bc i have MANY thoughts about this...

anyway, this is a great ep for us inkpaa stans :) paa continues to be the clumsiest person on earth, but she’s so SOFT around ink. if i were ink, i would be totally enamoured too. interesting how she paid attention to what pat supposedly said about how much paa likes shrimp (and peeling them for her!!!!!)...and their cute little ~moment!! i love them ;;;

i like how the scene right after this is pat and pran’s rooftop dinner date. it’s a great contrast. the rooftop is obviously a special place for them, but i love that this is the first time that we’ve seen them on it when the sun’s still up (now that they’re both awakened to their feelings for each other). it’s lovely, but there’s still that underlying sadness there that they can’t date each other in public (or just hang out in general) the way that pat sees ink and paa doing on their hotpot date. this is clearly something that’s quite difficult for pat esp to deal with since he’s the type of person that WANTS to show off who he’s dating/that he’s taken. i just really love how pran can see how much it affects pat and quickly tries to cheer him up. they’re stuck being a rock and a hard place, but they’re both so understanding of one another as they’re able to see things from the other’s perspective.

pat’s ig posts remind me of how jealous he was when he saw that ig story of pran and wai drunk at the bar together. and even that ig story he just saw of paa with ink. THAT’S what he wants...to be able to post freely about his boyfriend, but he can’t do that. so he settles for these cryptic shots relating to pran bc he needs an outlet of sorts. he’s never been able to suppress his feelings in the same way that pran can bc that’s just not how he deals with things. on the other hand, pran’s just a lot more private in general. and he’s understandably worried that someone might be able to link all these posts to him, so he can’t help but panic on reflex when pat teases him with the kiss (even though logically i’m sure he knows pat would never post something that obvious without his express consent). either way, it broke my heart a little that they’ve been forced into this situation where they have to hide their love like this.

pran trying to make it up to pat with all those little post it notes (and the toilet paper)...MY POOR HEART CAN’T TAKE THIS. pran using his love of smiley faces to make pat smile too!! they really, really just can’t stand to see the other sad at all. honestly, this is the type of cute, domestic relationship stuff that we tend to miss when couples only get together at the end of a drama. i LOVE that we’ve gotten to see their dynamic morph from their playful ‘not friends’ bickering at the start, to them still playfully bickering, but being in an established relationship now. how could you stay sulky after that :’) impossible.

every single one of their friends are so dense it would almost be sad if it didn’t makes it that much easier for them to hide their relationship, i guess 😭

the way we go from pat being sulky to pran being sulky though. but you can already see how the conflict will start ramping up more and more from here as pran gets more paranoid about pat’s posts (esp as they get more daring). that being said, it’s so endearing to see the different methods the both of them use to cheer the other up. they hate seeing each other sad, and they can’t stay mad at each other for very long either.

the line reading back hug scene though!!!!! no matter how many times i’ve seen it, i can never stop smiling during it. it’s just so damn adorable. poor pran squirming in pat’s arms as he reads his lines ahhh...again, how could you stay sulky after that...there’s just no way. also, the behind the scenes for this particular scene was so CUTE...nanon was really going through it omg 😂

it’s so weird to me how obsessed wai is with paa when he literally only talked to her like that ONE time they bumped into each other (and almost fought her before he saw her)?? and then wanting to fight pat when he thought paa was his girlfriend?? this boy doesn’t need a love interest, he needs anger management classes...

not how wai called pran dramatic in ep 6 when HE’S being as dramatic as he is. pran using wai/paa for his monologue on why his relationship with pat is so exhausting bc of all the hiding :((( pran tends to do this a lot. confide in his friends SOME of his feelings (without them really realising), but never telling them the whole truth. pat is the only person he ever tells everything to, but pat is also the one who’s the most patient and perceptive of pran’s feelings when he’s not saying what he means.

i have more to say about wai’s involvement in all this, but i’ll leave that until the end...

pat’s argument with his dad absolutely broke my heart. pat is such an interesting character to me bc on the surface he seems easygoing and carefree. he’s honest and wears his heart on his sleeve. but there’s also a lot more bubbling under the surface with him. and we’ve gotten to see more and more of this with each new ep.

originally, i thought that pat had more freedom than pran (even pran mentioned that pat’s family was more ‘flexible’ than his own), but i think i might have been wrong on that front. pat SEEMS like he has more freedom than pran, but it’s bc he’s always followed the path that his dad has set for him. his dad is constantly talking about his own reputation and how he needs pat to uphold it, and so far, that’s what pat’s been doing. up until this point he’s been the ‘perfect son’. he’s always been involved in the things that his dad WANTS him to be involved in and has been rewarded for it (eg. the drum set, the car). he’s living out his dad’s dreams. but by participating in the architecture play, he’s deviating off this set path that’s been laid out for him by his dad. i hate parents like this. they want to live vicariously through their children instead of acknowledging that their children are their own individual people with their own interests and wants in life.

it’s interesting when he says that he doesn’t intervene in pat’s life much when truthfully he does seem to be keeping pretty close tabs on what his son has been doing. in ep 2, he goes to pat’s dorm and pokes around his room, then tells pat that one of pat’s professors was his senior in school. he’s there during the bus stop opening, and again when pat was talking to pran’s mum. and now he knows about pat skipping rugby practice. all of this could just be him being a supportive parent, sure, but looking at if from this context...it does feel a lot more controlling than it appears on the surface. esp given how his father’s acting towards him now just bc pat is in a university PLAY. maybe he skipped some rugby practices, but he’s STILL on the team. he’s still doing what his father wants of him...only he’s doing something else HE wants on top of that.

i think what really gets to me is just how torn up pat is about disappointing his father like this. he very clearly looks up to and respects his father a lot, and he SO wants his father to be proud of him :( like he couldn’t even outright say that he didn’t want to play rugby last ep...he just kept saying he was too lazy, even when paa pressed him on why he was going for tryouts when he didn’t even want to play anymore. he’s followed his dad’s footsteps for so long, that now that he’s taken his own steps, his dad has intervened in a way that he’s never outright done before...and it’s really shaken pat. i get the feeling that pat might never have realised just how much he needed his father’s approval until this moment (since his priorities have always aligned with what was expected of him by his dad). this is the first time that this hasn’t been the case, which explains why it’s so crushing for him. he feels like he’s letting his dad down for the first time in his life. i just want to hug him :(((

i feel like this scene also lays the groundwork for how pat’s dad is going to react once he finds out about pat and pran’s relationship (esp if he’s already blowing up at pat for being in a PLAY). it’s not boding well for them...but i think we all knew that :/

OF COURSE the first person he thinks of calling is pran...he’s the only person in the world that can give him the comfort he needs. the only person that will understand. i read another post somewhere that basically said that the love that pat and pran’s friends and family have for each of them come with conditions/expectations, but the love they have for each other is unconditional bc they love each other for who they actually ARE and not what they expect from each other, and i just thought that was so beautiful and true ;;; they’re each other’s safe zones.

something i adore about this scene is how pat always come across as super confident and sure of himself, but when he calls pran up and hears that he’s out drinking, he seems to get kind of insecure in that moment. like he doesn’t want to burden pran with his problems/feelings (esp when he’s out having a good time). this is a pretty relatable feeling to have when you’re in a new relationship too. you just don’t want to come across as too much so you end up keeping things to yourself. i just like seeing this more vulnerable side of pat. that he’s not always confident all of the time.

but i also love that pran just knew something was up from the tone of pat’s voice and rushed back home to comfort him. this was actually my fave thing about this whole ep. in previous eps, it was mostly pat that was the one to come over and comfort/cheer pran up...we see so much of pran doing this for pat this ep, and it makes their relationship feel much more balanced and reciprocal.

pran presses a little bit bc he knows that pat’s upset about something, and pat folds immediately which is just so in line with his personality. he can try, but he’s just not the type to hold his emotions in like that. he’s way too communicative, and never wants things to be lost in translation. it’s so consistent with his character and what he previously said in ep 6 (”if you don’t say it, how will i figure it out? how can i possibly understand you?”).

THE BALCONY SCENE!!!!!!!!!! i. can’t. stop. smiling. pran being all cute and trying to make pat happy just shows how comfortable and stable he feels in their relationship now (he would never have done this before they became official). he just wants to make pat feel how pat makes HIM feel...wants to make him smile too. it’s always been really evident how much pat loves pran bc he’s not subtle about it at all. he conveys so much of his love in grand gestures. pran might be more quiet about it, but things like this really prove how much pran loves pat too. it’s just so cute seeing pran be silly and playful in order to make pat laugh. they’re both so madly in love with each other. i’m glad that pat gets to sniff pran’s shirt as much as he wants now too :’)

this is just my head canon, but i feel like pat specifically got pran the earphone bag with their initials on it bc he knows how much pran likes things with the first letter of his name on them (his bag, the giant ‘p’ light in his room)...and idk i just think that’s adorable.

oh god, the montage with kacha’s ost!!!!!!!!!!!! they’re both so gone for one another (and i’m gone for them). at least they gave us a giant slice of happiness before everything came crashing down...

pran’s anxiety about people finding out about their relationship when he heard his classmates talking about it...we knew it was coming bc it’s been building up but still :((( their fight hurt to watch.

i think this drama does a really good job of making us feel for BOTH pat and pran. it’s easy to empathise with either side as both their feelings are absolutely valid, and that’s why it hurts so much. their conflicting feelings in this ep remind me a lot of the ep 5 kiss. since pat’s living in the present, he wants to be loud and proud about the boy he’s in love with, but pran’s paranoid and worried about their future...so he lashes out and panics as soon as he realises that people could potentially be putting the pieces together through pat’s ig that they’re together.

okay but ohm’s acting in the xylophone scene!!!!!!!!! outsold!!!!!!!! gave me goosebumps and everything 😭 i really love that they didn’t use a score here...it was pure xylophone. they just let pat play out the anger he was feeling. art reflecting life. it made this scene so much more effective imo.

pran watching in the audience and thinking back to the history of their entire romance up until this point while pat played...then pat looking up at him with those eyes, so angry, and pran thinking back to what a huge thing it was that pat did for him (taking on the role of riam), making him reflect on how he shouldn’t have blown up at pat like that before walking away. ouch.

and the clarity in pat’s eyes. how he goes from furious to realisation to regret as he remembers the shirt and what it means to him (how much pran means to him). the way the fury in his eyes just dissipates like that as his xylophone playing simmers down to a stop. i just really, really love this scene so much. it says so much without any words at all.

THEIR APOLOGIES TO ONE ANOTHER. they REALLY can’t stay mad at each other for too long ;;; i love that they both knew exactly what they were apologising for, admitted their faults, and just realised that their anger wasn’t worth it in the end. they’re competitive, but they’ve never been too stubborn to admit when they’ve been in the wrong. this is what a loving relationship is. can’t believe pat and pran invented romance AND healthy relationships :’)))

the communication between the two is just soooooo incredibly refreshing and satisfying to see. but the way they compromise with one another is just as important. pat wants to tell the world that he’s taken, but as always, he takes into account pran’s feelings above his own (only posts cryptically, tells pran that he’ll stop posting if it’s what he wants). pran is terrified about anyone finding out about them, but he can also see how much it hurts pat having to keep their relationship a secret...he can see how stifling it is for him, so even though he’s scared...he still takes these baby steps forward (holding pat’s hand, letting him post vague posts alluding to them on ig, the hand holding pic) bc he knows how much that means to pat. they put each other first in so many ways. constantly make an effort to adjust to the needs and wants of the other. genuinely care about and want one another to be happy. if that’s not true love, i don’t know what is.

i also like that while it was pran that needed assurance in previous eps, it’s pat that needed more of it in this ep. i feel like that’s partially the reason he kept posting about them on social media. although pran shows his love in actions (acts of service), he’s not very vocal when it comes to how he feels. i really think pat needed to hear it from pran’s mouth himself, so when he says “just because i’m not telling people doesn’t mean i don’t like you” and admits to being pat’s boyfriend (which he’s never really said properly before), it provides pat with the assurance and security he needs...bc it’s one thing knowing someone loves you/thinks about you in a certain way, but it’s another thing hearing the person that you love say the words out loud like that.

OKAY. so now let’s talk about the big reveal. it was always coming but...it really had to be in the most dramatic and revealing way ever huh.

so there’s a lot of speculation that it was wai that revealed them (possibly turned up the mic on stage/dropped the curtain)...and he does seem like the most likely candidate seeing the way he was overseeing them in the sound booth...like they were just puppets on his stage. he, at the very least, most DEFINITELY heard everything from the look on his face. i know one of the screenwriters tweeted about it too before deleting their tweet. it would also fit with the more villainous trajectory of his character development seeing as how he’s been racking up the red flags for awhile now (and esp since last ep). i’m sure he’s also angry at pran for telling him to give up on paa when pran’s been secretly dating pat this whole time.

what i’m having trouble fitting with the narrative though is, if he really was the one that saw them in the car, does that mean he was acting the entire time he went drinking with pran?? he knew the whole time but was just waiting to reveal it?? i know that wai’s pretty manipulative, but that’s plain diabolical. that’s so much more deliberate (and evil) than if he’d just found out at the theatre and revealed them impulsively...also imo it would have made more sense for him to have confronted pran immediately after seeing him in the car bc that seems more in line with his personality. since he’s the type to act first, think later.

unless he just saw pran get in the car and didn’t know who it was with?? so he went drinking with him to try to figure things out, maybe saw that the phone call pran received wasn’t from his mum, but still wasn’t able to quite pinpoint who pran was being so secretive about until seeing/hearing the two of them in the theatre (and then exposing them in an impulsive fit of anger).

or maybe someone else entirely saw them in the car?? ngl at first i thought korn...like why was he in the theatre in the first place? but then he didn’t seem very sus when they were teasing pat about dating an architecture ‘girl’ so...who knows. i guess we’ll only get answers with ep 9.

either way, what happened to them made my heart stop :( i’m so upset for the both of them that it had to happen like this. and i know their friends are gonna make this REAL hard for them next ep, but i hope they can power through everything together as they’ve been doing so far.

bless ink :’) and i know that the preview has paa looking kind of shady, but i do think she’ll come around. she’s grown up in the same heteronormative environment that pat has...she’s likely never even thought about her brother liking another boy (let alone PRAN) in that way so it might take her some time to adjust. esp given their family histories. and who knows, it might also make her question her own feelings and admiration for ink in more detail...js.

anyway, i do think we’ll get a resolution for the friend drama by the end of ep 9 (since that’ll be their main conflict next ep). they’ll prob have to wrap it up by the end so they can get to the family drama, which is likely going to be a thousand times worse... :/// i’m so worried for them but so invested...here’s hoping we’re all able to get through this storm okay. i just want them to be happy together, that’s it!!!!!

#bad buddy #what if there's a plot twist and it was the other sound guy or something damn i can never tell with this show #every time i theorise something it's ended up wrong so :))) we'll only find out once the eps out #this ep was sooooooooo cute though i think it was my second fave ep after ep 5 (i don't think anything can beat how i felt watching ep 5)#next ep def looks angsty but at least we know there'll still be SOME cute moments #and i'm finally gonna get my fave scene from the first end credits so !!!!!!!!!!!!!!#text

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olivia-anderson-fanfic · 3 years ago

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Stalker X Stalker, Part 11

First

Perma tag: @nathleigh @peachmuses

Stalker x Stalker taglist: @aespades @jayjayspixiepop @blueslushgueen @fan-written @seraphichana @nerd-nowandforever @toodaloo-kangaroo

Plot? What's that? I only know domestic fluff

She really didn’t know what to think when Tim asked to move in for a second time the next morning.

On the one hand, it felt like she was taking advantage of him. He’d seen her get shot and she doubted he’d really thought rationally since.

On the other hand… he essentially lived there already and it would do a lot to alleviate the anxiety the both of them had...

She rubbed her eyes -- ha, as if she hadn’t been awake the whole night to make sure he hadn’t had nightmares -- for an excuse to look away while she thought. What should she do? She would be lying if she said she didn’t want him to move in, she knew that was clouding her judgement, but even if she recognized her bias it wasn’t easy to just put it aside.

She sighed lightly and lowered a hand from her eyes. Tim looked really cute after having just woken up with his hair all messy and his eyes half lidded and one of his cheeks slightly flatter where he’d been resting his head against her and who can really say no to that face?

… well, Marinette supposed that would allow both of them to relax a little...

She let her hands drop to rest on top of his.

“Sure, darling. If you want you can move in… but, if you ever want to move out, I won’t stop you. Just ask.”

He cracked a tiny smile. “The only time I’d ever move out of this place is if you were changing apartments.”

She snickered. “Where I go, you go?”

“You have no idea,” he said.

She rolled her eyes. “You bats and your dumb cryptic sentences. Would it kill you guys to ever say a single thing directly?”

“Yes. I’m pretty sure that I would drop dead on the spot.”

Her lips twitched. “Oh yeah? Heart attack or sniper?”

“Can’t tell you. I would drop dead on the spot.”

“Damn. Foiled again by the… mystery cause of death!”

The smile on Tim’s face brightened and he looped his arms around her. “You’d save me.”

“Oh? And miss out on my chance to get that rich boy money you probably gave me in your will?”

He schooled his face back into a serious look. “I see. I’ll have to write you out of my will, then. Make sure you bring me back.”

“Nooooooooo! My scheme! Ruined! Now how will I become a millionaire without trying?!”

They looked at each other for a few seconds, his face purposefully smug and hers pinched into a frown…

And then they broke character, giggles falling from their lips and smiles lighting up their faces. She tipped her head forward until it rested against his chest. He squeezed her tighter.

Then, to her surprise, he flopped back on the couch, pulling her with him. “Alright, sleepy time,” he said cheerfully.

“Darling --.”

“You didn’t sleep last night. Sleep.”

She pressed against his chest until she could sit up just enough to glare at him. “I have super strength. May not be as strong as Connor or anything but I can definitely get away from you if I wanted.”

“Of course.” A smug look made its way across his face. “But you wouldn’t hurt your darling, would you?”

She glared harder despite the slight reddening of her cheeks. His smirk didn’t waver.

Marinette huffed and dropped back down. “You’re the worst.”

“You love me.”

She didn’t respond to that, instead just grumbling ‘pillows don’t talk’ and letting herself finally nod off.

Having two perfectionists trying to figure out the layout of a limited living space might not have been their brightest idea. They should have, at least, gotten someone to help.

Instead they had brought out Marinette’s tape measure and mapped out the entire apartment on a sheet of paper and then made tiny shapes for the furniture. Now, they sat at the table, obsessively moving pieces around.

It could have been worse, of course. Neither of them were the type to hoard things. He wasn’t all that concerned with anything other than his clothes and his laptop. Marinette only cared about her clothes, video games, and baking tools -- all of which could be tucked away in the provided closets and cabinets with ease. If needed they could probably get by with nothing but a dresser and a pull out bed each.

So, yeah, their own personal living styles weren’t the problem…

It was their work. Who knew their workaholic tendencies would be their downfall (besides everyone, of course)? She needed a lot of space for her fabrics and mannequins to make sure nothing got damaged. Tim would need a lot of space for his supercomputer if he didn’t want to make the long trip to Bristol every night.

Speaking of the trip to Bristol! He needed a place to put his motorbike and his suit. Shit. He could find a place to park his bike if he tried, but… he started cutting out a piece for the suit.

Marinette saw him adding more stuff and her head hit the table.

He snickered a little and poked her hair until she, however reluctantly, picked her head back up to send him a halfhearted glare. He smiled, reaching over and plucking the tiny square of paper from where it had stuck itself to her forehead. A blush spread across her cheeks.

Then she happened to glance down and her annoyance was back in full force.

“We didn’t think this through,” she said.

His smile became more strained as he looked down at their map. “Moving sounds so easy on paper.”

“Maybe it’s easier for people who don’t have such complicated lives.”

“Yeah. You’re right. I’m quitting.”

“Aw, but then I’ll lose my patrol buddy! I’ll have to do everything with your siblings instead.”

His nose scrunched up. “God, no. I wouldn’t wish that on anyone.”

She rolled her eyes. “Please, you love your siblings.”

“Doesn’t mean I don’t know they’re the worst.”

She looked like she was going to argue, but then she tipped her head and nodded. “True.”

He snickered.

Their smiles disappeared quickly as they looked back at the layout of the apartment. Could they even fit all their stuff?

… wait, actually, could they?

He started shuffling things in and he realized that, if they wanted to have space to walk, there wasn’t enough room. No wonder they’d had so much trouble finding a layout that would work. It was literally impossible. They needed more space.

She hesitated slightly. “... what if we bought out the apartment next to this one for work? It could even double as a backup in case you ever decide you want to have a place of your own again.”

He raised his eyebrows. “Can we do that?”

“You’re rich, you could probably figure it out.”

He rolled his eyes. “I mean, yes, we can technically kick out the people next door but I’d kind of prefer if we didn’t displace random families.”

“I mean… we could always…” She made a stabbing motion.

He couldn’t laugh at that. Laughing at that would be bad. So he wouldn’t do that.

“Bean -- Mari -- no.”

“I’m just saying! We’d even get the apartment at a discount!”

Okay, he might have laughed a little.

… they didn’t end up stabbing anyone but, hey, if the family next door happened to get some huge scholarship courtesy of The Wayne Foundation that they didn’t remember applying for with the stipulation that they would have to move districts... then they just so happened to have a lucky break. Good for them.

Which meant that they only really needed to buy a desk, a dresser, and a bed.

So they went to Ikea! A boring place where no shenanigans ever happen!

… well, no shenanigans ever happen if you’re not a pair of vigilantes that bounce bad ideas off of each other like they were playing a particularly intense game of Don’t Let The Balloon Touch The Ground and the entire world would blow up if they dared to lose.

Speaking of things that touch the ground, the resident dumbasses should probably have kept their feet firmly planted on it.

Marinette squinted down the escalator. “Oh, they’re definitely going to kick us out.”

“Definitely,” he agreed.

“Maybe arrested.”

“Maybe that, too,” he said brightly, checking the pot over his head to make sure it wouldn’t come off.

“... the PR team is going to hate us,” she warned him.

“Absolutely.” He could feel the gaze on the back of his head, telling him that the employees had noticed them and, quite likely, knew what they were planning. “Ready?”

A grin spread across her face. “Of course.”

He smirked. “Good, because they’re coming.”

She glanced back at the employees making their way over to interfere.

“Threetwoonego!”

He pushed off with his foot, relishing in her indignant yelp, and grinned widely as he started the very bumpy ride that was snowboarding down an escalator. He’d thought he’d be more or less okay because he had been a skateboarder but it turns out that boarding down moving stairs is very different from boarding down flat planes. He let loose a string of curses as he struggled to hold the plank of wood to his feet and not die a very painful, very stupid death.

Marinette came whizzing past him, eyes wide and the tray she’d been using as a board somehow missing.

She met his eyes briefly and flashed a grin.

And then they crashed.

It was about as painful as one would expect. Tim was glad that he’d thought to give himself a pot-helmet-thing because it had cracked down the middle and he didn’t even want to think about what would have happened if he hadn’t done that.

And he was the lucky one. He got out with a few bruises and a better appreciation for his own life. Marinette was nursing an arm that looked like it was trying to imitate the escalator they had just slid down, lips pressed together tightly as tears threatened to escape.

He carefully crawled over to check for any other injuries that might have been less noticeable.

She grinned up at him, either because he was currently checking to see if her teeth were all in place or to be smug. What she could currently be smug about, though, he had no clue…

“You’re so stupid,” he told her, just in case she wasn’t already aware.

Her smug grin remained even after he had removed the finger from her mouth. “You’re just mad that I won.”

“... sorry?” He hadn’t even been thinking about their impromptu race, too concentrated on the whole ‘making sure they hadn’t just died’ thing, and it took a moment for his brain to catch up. Then he rolled his eyes. “Yeah, won a pretty new cast, maybe.”

She snickered. “You had to cheat and you still didn’t even win. How does it feel to suck?”

“Probably still better than it feels to have a broken arm.”

She sat up. “It’s fine, I’ll live.”

He snorted. “You bet you will. I’m going to bubble wrap the whole apartment.”

“You can’t babyproof the place! We don’t even have kids yet!”

Before he could question her use of the word ‘yet’, the employees managed to get their attention. They were trying to get down the currently very broken escalator and the one that was currently going the wrong way for them. Despite this, the two of them had only a minute max before they reached them.

Marinette and Tim locked eyes.

“Run?” She suggested.

He was already getting to his feet. He dropped a business card for the employees and turned to her.

He grabbed her good hand and they sprinted out of the store, smiles lighting up their faces and laughter spilling from their lips. The poor employees hadn’t stood a chance of catching the two vigilantes, even injured as they were. They knew the city like the back of their hands and were able to weave in and out of side streets and alleyways without much thought.

Once they were sure that no one was following them -- leaving a store unattended in Gotham was a terrible idea and Tim had left a card for them to call -- she tugged him to hide between two buildings.

They squeezed into the tiny space and leaned into each other for support while they struggled to catch their breath. Her good hand came up to grip his shirt. He rested his forehead against the wall above her.

She lifted her gaze to his and he wished she hadn’t because he’d already been out of breath enough before she’d done that but now here was staring into her blue eyes, the corners crinkled in a way that had become so familiar to him over the past few months, and god… all he could think about was all the stories that described how time stopped when you fell in love… and how those stories couldn’t be more wrong. He would have hated for that to happen because if time stopped then he would have to see that perfect smile of hers in anything but real time and he doubted that it would have looked nearly as beautiful without the way her shoulders shook with barely restrained laughter or the slight fluttering of her lashes or the steady pinkening of her cheeks.

She finally gave a little puff of laughter. “What?”

He blinked once, trying to bring himself back to what was going on. “Oh, I was just thinking…”

“Oh? Don’t strain yourself.”

He smiled. “I was just going to say something nice but instead I’ll insult you on your stealth. You’d be a terrible criminal, laughing during your getaway.”

She rolled her eyes. “You laughed, too.”

“Yeah, but when I did it it was super cool and professional.”

“Ah, I see. How could I not have noticed it before?”

He snickered. “Well, if today has proved anything, it’s that you are not, in fact, the world’s greatest detective.”

She grinned. “You were the one that put the pot on my head originally.”

“You came up with the idea to go down the escalators like that.”

“You agreed.”

“You -- I -- shut up,” he complained, sending her a glare.

She smiled at him until he pretty much had no choice but to smile back, letting his head fall the last few inches to press his forehead against hers.

Her hand gripped his shirt a little tighter.

He moved his hands from the wall to her waist.

They stood there, letting time pass them by, searching each other's eyes for some sort of answer to the question neither of them could bring themselves to ask aloud. He bit his lip, trying to swallow down his anxiety.

Her eyes flicked to his lips, her own parted as if to say something, before she seemed to think better of it.

She closed the gap. His heart skipped a beat at the feather-soft feeling of her lips against his and he let his eyes flutter shut. She teased his lip out from between his teeth with her own.

And then she pulled back just slightly.

He opened his eyes just enough to see her shy smile and the blush lighting up her face.

“You… you really have to stop doing that. They’ll get chapped --.”

He pressed forward again, capturing her lips in a kiss that was far more desperate than the last. She gasped quietly and he took the chance to slip his tongue into her mouth. The hand fisted in his shirt slid up to wrap around the back of his neck, dragging him even closer. He pressed her back against the wall, a hand trailing up to tangle itself in her hair, trying to reach more --.

She brought her bad arm up to cradle his face and then yelped in pain.

He jumped back. Right. Broken arm. Looks like a staircase. Not good.

He rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly. “Uh… let’s get you treated.”

Marinette ended up with a pink cast and an order to stay home for at least a week.

She pouted, resting her head back against the couch as she watched him shuffle around in search of his second shoe (it was tucked behind her back, but he didn’t need to know that). “I’m not a child, you guys can’t just ground me,” she complained for what felt like the millionth time.

Tim rolled his eyes. “We all have to do it when we break bones unless it’s an all hands on deck situation. Been like that since even before I was Robin.”

“But B goes out with broken bones all the time!”

“That’s different.”

She raised an eyebrow.

“It is. If there is a situation where B can be a hypocrite he will do it”

Marinette scoffed. “And you’re allowed out because…?”

He started counting off on his fingers. “None of my bones are broken, my job requires me to leave, I don’t get in trouble 9/10 times I leave the house… should I go on?”

“Last one is a lie,” she mumbled.

“No, I only get in trouble, like, 8/10 times I leave.”

It was hard to maintain her glare. She settled for sticking her tongue out at him like the mature adult she was. He returned it, despite the fact that he was also an adult according to the law.

He grinned and came to sit next to her on the couch. She shifted around until she was leaning against him instead of the couch, legs tangling with his.

He didn’t say anything about the blatant attempt at trapping him there with her. Instead, he leaned closer to her face and said: “Speaking of leaving, do you happen to know where my other shoe is?”

She raised her eyebrows. “Why do I get the feeling that you already know where it is?”

He snickered. “I know you, Bean. So, can I have it back?”

“Hm… I don’t know…” she said, twirling his tie around her hand.

He let her pull him down for a kiss. She giggled against his lips as his hands ghosted over her in search of the missing shoe. She kept her good hand at his collar as a kind of silent promise that she wouldn’t -- couldn’t -- move the shoe, even throwing her bad arm around his neck just in case.

He pulled away a few moments later, squinting at her suspiciously. “I’m beginning to suspect I’ve been tricked.”

Her eyes widened in mock innocence. “Me? Trick you? I could never.”

He rolled his eyes. “Yeah, yeah, where is it?”

She glanced at the time and smirked. “I guess you’ve earned it…” She pulled her foot out from between the couch cushions to show him the shoe she had hastily slipped on when he’d gotten close.

He scoffed lightly and slipped it off. “Y’know, if I had literally one of the most common fetishes in the world that wouldn’t have worked.”

“But you don’t, so it did,” she chirped with a cheeky grin.

“Guess that’s true…” He pecked her lips one last time before pulling his shoe on and she grinned as she watched him head to the door.

Only to stop a little short because of a knock.

He raised his eyebrows and glanced back. “Are one of my siblings coming over?”

She pressed her lips together thinly to keep herself from laughing. “It’s not any of their normal times. I just figured that, if I had to be home alone all day and couldn’t really do any work because my stupid cast, I should at least keep busy while you were gone.”

His eyes narrowed slightly. He stepped forward and opened the door to reveal a delivery guy with three giant boxes. The furniture they had ordered from Ikea had arrived.

He signed for them and then turned to glare at her. “You planned all this so I couldn’t go.”

“I mean… you could always leave me here to do them myself.” She batted her eyelashes at him innocently. “Of course, my broken arm will make it a little difficult but I’m sure I’ll manage.”

She had been stared down by Batman in full kevlar, she could handle the glare Tim gave her in his slightly messy work suit.

Then, he sighed. “Do you have a backup plan?”

“Obviously. Don’t think you’ll like that one as much.”

He scowled. “You’re really this determined to not be home alone?”

“Oh, no, this is about getting B to allow me out. Trapping you and your siblings here is just a means to that end.”

“You’re going to be trapping my siblings here, too?”

She grinned. “Yep. They show up all the time, might as well use that.”

His shoulders slumped a little.

She giggled. “If I have to stay inside all the time then so do you guys. It’s the rules.”

And, so, she reached for him until he pressed a short kiss to her lips.

Then, they got to work. Or, rather, he did. She had been relegated to just sitting nearby and helping him figure out how to build it.

She took a few pictures for their public accounts as necessary: a picture of him with three screws poking out of his mouth while he tried to figure out the weird L-shaped tool he’d been given, a picture of the two of them staring at the instruction sheet with confused frowns on their faces (taken by Tikki), Vanelope enjoying the boxes the stuff had come in, what was definitely not a thirst pic of Tim, and then the finished furniture in the apartment.

It was there, right before she was about to post it, that she realized that she hadn’t actually publicly followed any of the Waynes. She squinted at her bio, which proclaimed that she would only follow people she genuinely liked, and then at the ten people she had followed. The internet would notice if she suddenly followed eight more people.

“Darling?”

He peeked an eye open from where he was relaxing on the couch and then raised an arm for her. She took his hand and smiled a little when he pulled her into his lap so he could hug her like a pillow.

Then she pulled a more serious look to her face. “Do you want to go public or not?”

He buried his face in her neck. “Sure.”

“... not even gonna think about it?”

He shrugged. “They’re going to suspect it no matter what. Especially since we were goofing around in an Ikea of all places and you’re uploading pictures of me helping you with furniture.”

She nodded slightly. “I know, but I don’t have to upload them.”

There was a long silence as they considered their options.

Eventually he just sighed and tightened his grip on her. “I’ll go with anything you want to do, Bean.”

She relaxed slowly and, hesitantly, she sent him the photos. “Here, you can upload them, too. Might as well make it public on both of our accounts.”

He picked his head up slightly to check out the pictures. She felt his lips curl into a smile against her shoulder at the picture of Vanelope. “This one is nice.”

She snickered. “All cats are cute, obviously it would make a nice picture.”

He hummed his agreement. “No offense to you, you’re cute and all, but the cat definitely wins the cutest here.”

“I’m not offended at all. We could never beat that.”

Then, she got an idea.

“Except… maybe… want a picture of us kissing for the reveal?”

“I’ll take any excuse,” he said with a wink.

She rolled her eyes even as she felt her face warm. “You don’t need an excuse to kiss me, dumbass.”

Now it was his turn to blush. Yay, revenge.

… also, it would be cute for the picture if they were both a little red for it.

She twisted in his lap to press a kiss to his lips. His hands came up to cradle her face. She threw her bad arm around his neck, fingers threaded in his hair.

Her camera clicked. They ignored it.

#im going to write a million words of fluff and no one can stop me #unless i get like zero likes #im v motivated by likes and reblogs pls guys i need it #pls #also they're getting worseeeeeee #tim is lowkey possessive and mari is lowkey controlling #but its v lowkey so #baaasically doesn't exist #stalker x stalker #maribat #tim drake #red robin #marinette dupain cheng #ladybug #timari #timmari #timinette #shutterbug

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abluescarfonwaston · 4 years ago

Text

Shapeshifter Au 6

Heads up at the top this one is our “Last Wish Special”. It’s extra long and what should be no surprise to anyone- Jaskier does not have a good time! Please take care of yourselves as we move into plot territory.

Part 1 Part 5 Inspired by @spielzeugkaiser art here And Also now on Ao3 cause that’s probably easier for everyone.

Sometimes, when Geralt got hurt, he’d use his shapes against him.

Help was the word he’d use. To help him. But if Geralt preferred to think of him using his shapes against him then so be it.

“Get off me Jaskier.”

He looked down his snout at Geralt and grumbled his reply before returning to his composing. They would at very least wait until the bleeding stopped to ride back. Since Geralt insisted the injuries were not so grievous as to require proper attention.

He might very well have been right about that. Which meant they could afford to wait for it to stop before returning for the reward.

If Geralt wanted to treat his wounds then he’d let him. But he wasn’t going to let him ride off and make everything worse because he was a stubborn ass. That was Jaskier’s job. Being a stubborn ass. Not that he made a habit of being farm animals. The risk it would sour him to the taste of their meat was far too great. He refused to be vegetarian. Grass just did not taste very good. No matter what Roach claimed.

“Jaskier get off me or I will throw you off.”

He shifted more of his near 400 pound weight onto Geralt’s torso to demonstrate exactly what he thought about that.

“I can.” He growled.

He puffed up his fur telling him exactly what would happen if he tried.

He had bigger forms yet. If that’s how he wanted to play- well. He wouldn’t bet on Geralt winning. Witcher enhancements be damned.

Geralt, seemingly having realized this, ceased his struggling and ventured a new tactic.

Insulting him.

Which got him grumbling and growling at Geralt. But didn’t get him off him. Geralt knew well enough what he was saying. He didn’t need to transform to express his displeasure.

Geralt, a versatile and clever man, switch tactics yet again.

Reciting history facts but slightly wrong- the year was 1123 and he was a duke not a prince Geralt- asking questions about agriculture – cereal crops deplete the soil of nitrogen. Legumes fix this. A fallow field is left for weeds and grazing. The three fields are rotated. Together this system allows farmers to plant more crops and increase production. – and finally just asking him to play for him.

He, personally, admitted that his bear vocals left something to be desired but he didn’t let that stop him from belting out a few heavily modified versions of his favorite tunes.

Geralt covered his ears and glared at him.

It was only after three verses of Fishmonger’s daughter that he finally popped down into his human shape to do the finale justice.

Geralt shoved him off breaking his sustained note.

“Rude.” He squawked from the dirt as Geralt stood.

“I stopped bleeding three songs ago!” He growled at him.

“I’m well aware.” He grinned. “But I do so enjoy a captive audience.”

Geralt threw the bedroll at his head. Which did hit him. But he managed to catch it on the rebound, which counted as a win in his books.

“I don’t need you mothering me bard.”

“Is that what you think this is? I’m trying to keep Nenneke from murdering me next time you need her services. The woman terrifies me Geralt.”

She did. A little. Not in the way he suspected she expected to be feared though.

It was because her eyes always held too many questions about why he’d arrived before Geralt, knowing exactly the condition of the man’s wounds, even though he lacked a horse while Geralt road in on Roach.

He’d fly ahead, unhampered by the twisting of the roads, and set them to prepare for Geralt’s arrival. Or, when the situation was far graver, have them send a cart to meet him. Transforming on the road just outside of the temples view.

His skin itched when she stared at him too long. Like she almost knew what he was and if she watched him closely enough she might figure it out.

Luckily, “I mean the woman already hates me Geralt.” She was easy to annoy into not looking closely. “No need to worsen her to me by damaging the one reason she even tolerates my presence at the temple.”

If all she wanted to see was an airheaded flop of a bard that was all he would show her. Staying within the confines of expectations worked well enough to keep people from digging.

“She does hate you.” Geralt agreed with a smirk. Pleased he’d befriended someone Jaskier had not.

“Naaaah deep down she likes me.”

Geralt bobbed his head, half conceding the point.

People were complicated like that. She hated Most of him. But she liked that he cared about Geralt. Even if she didn’t always agree with how he cared about Geralt.

With how they cared for each other.

So maybe he shouldn’t have poked the insomniatic bear that was Geralt as he dredged up the lake at Rinde. But he was a bear often enough and he didn’t mind being poked. Sometimes Geralt needed to buck up and face his problems head on!

Then his throat started closing.

Which was scary. Sure. But there were plenty of forms that didn’t need his throat to breath. He’d play catfish or pike or bream or – he was just listing fish again- something while Geralt sorted out the curse the djinn smacked him with.

Except.

Except none of them would come.

He tried to shift bigger and his skin pulled too tight like it was yanking away from the muscle and he tried to shift down and his organs compressed in his chest. And he was left folded over in pain from his throat and his lungs and from being trapped.

Trapped in one form. Perhaps forever.

“Can you shift?” Geralt asked him, looking between him and Roach. Debating.

He managed a ragged sob that Geralt translated as the ‘no’ it was.

There was the bumpy ride on Roach- poor girl they weighed far too much together- and the elf with the painkillers – which helped a little. But the world continued its painful descent into darkness.

Geralt was scruffing him by the doublet. Dragging his limp form. Somewhere. He liked being scruffed. It reminded him of the old mouser in the kitchen who’d claimed him as kin when he was barely a boy. Whenever he got in trouble, or was lonely, or scared he’d just run to the old tom and pop down into a kitten. Instantly be scruffed and pulled under the cabinet for a bath and cuddle.

Scruffing meant that soon everything would be okay. He was in pain and terrified but soon. Soon everything would be alright.

Everything was not alright.

There was a very scary woman with an amphora on her belly and-

And she was a mage.

A powerful mage.

Something in him was singing. Singing at her notice. Her attention.

He didn’t much like that part of him.

His knees near buckled under him as she gripped his nethers and pressed a knife to his throat.

“If you want to keep all you have familiar,” She squeezed him tighter. The singing and terror crescendo-ing in his ears. What do you want me to be? It sung, heart racing in his chest. “Make a damn wish.”

He reached. Reached for. Something. Some shape that would get her away. Small or big or cute or monsterous or something.

Her magic threw him to the floor and it crackled over his skin- she wants you to be human so that is what you shall be – lighting up every nerve with delicious power – do as she says. So that the powerful one might keep you – and burning the tapestry of thread he didn’t know was woven underneath his skin.

“Make your damn wish! Do it now!”

This one is better. Powerful. Be what she wants. “I don’t- I don’t know!” Lightning ran through his veins and fire blazed through his chest and- and- Be her’s. Wish to be hers. Exalted one.

He didn’t want that.

“I wish very much to leave this place forever!”

She turned from him, the burning fading. The singing loud in his ears. Scolding, screaming, begging him to go back to her as he scrambled from the building.

And Geralt was there.

Geralt was alive.

Geralt left him to that witch.

“Jaskier. You’re okay.”

“I’m glad to hear that you give a monkey’s about it.” He fumed.

The singing was quieter now. The smoldering in his chest easing next to Geralt-

Geralt was going back inside.

The building collapsing.

“She could not have survived it.” The elf from earlier- Chireadan- said.

There was coldness in the shape of the lightning flowing through his veins. Ashes in the stitching of his soul where Geralt once resided.

“Why did Geralt go in there? It doesn’t make any sense. What, to save a mad fucking witch?”

“Because she was magnificent.”

She was. The song wept.

His knees hit the ground, the pain of the gravel collision distant, over the shapeless void that pulled him to nothing.

“What am I supposed to do now, hm?” What would be left when this form collapsed into the emptiness in his chest? “It wasn’t supposed to go this way.”

You should have died with him.

No.

“I’m gonna write you. The best song. So that everyone remembers who you were, what we did, everything we saw.” There was a lifetime there. In the spaces they shared. Not a human lifespan perhaps. But it wasn’t like he was human anyway. “And I will sing it. For the rest of my days.”

“He always said I had the most wonderful singing voice.”

A joke. Between him and a dead man.

If he wanted to correct him he should have stayed alive.

Chireadan knelt before him, laying a hand on his shoulder. A tiny beat of comfort in a symphony of pain.

“They’re alive.”

They were very alive.

He ran his fingers down Roach’s neck, unsure how he was supposed to feel.

Relief that Geralt was alive? Jealously that he’d gone to Yennefer? Jealously she choose him over you?

Anger?

Joy?

Hollow. He felt hollow.

Roach nudged him.

He was nearly draped over her.

He wanted that old tom cat to scruff him and pull him under the cabinet. To lick and squish and purr him back to whole.

What would he be if he shifted now?

Nothing. It called to him that nothing.

Nothing wasn’t a shape. Nothing wasn’t Jaskier. Jaskier wasn’t nothing.

Still it called to him.

Roach lipped at a saddlebag. The one he’d nested in as his wing healed.

He shoved his bloody shirt in as a makeshift nest and fluttered in.

If Geralt wanted his peace he could dump him on the side of the road.

Until then. He breathed in the way the leather bag blended Roach and Geralt into itself and fell asleep.

He drifted back to the shores of sleep welcomed by the gentlest smoothing of his feathers.

He readjusted, further nesting into the callouses of Geralt’s hand.

“I thought.” The pain in Geralt’s hesitating voice forced his eyes open. “That the djinn took your voice and your shifting from you.”

Geralt was laying down on their bedroll watching him with those big sad eyes. Which hurt.

But not as much as the fact Geralt had stopped petting him. He shifted into Geralt’s petting hand demanding he get back to work with a sharp chirp.

Geralt resumed his gentle stroking, lips twitching slightly upward. “So bossy.” He complained.

They laid there as the sun went down; quiet and exhausted.

“We used to do this a lot. When your wing was broken. It was nice.”

He softly trilled an agreement.

“I could smell you on Roach when I got back you know? I thought you had left. I understand if you’d left. After what I did.”

He blinked tiredly at Geralt before standing to shift up. He didn’t want to have this conversation now but if Geralt did then. Well then they’d have it now.

“Don’t.” Geralt’s hands shifted slightly, like they were caging him in. They weren’t. He knew he could get out. Knew that if he wanted to leave Geralt would let him.

He settled back into Geralt’s fingers, more than happy not to.

“Tonight. Can we be that again? Just for tonight.”

Be simple. Be easy.

Nenneke always scolded Geralt for thinking he could deny destiny. Because she cared about him and knew destiny would have her way, willingly or not. It would he agreed. Geralt couldn’t run away from her forever.

But he did help him run away from it. Sometimes. Like tonight?

Tonight destiny could go fuck itself.

Tonight they were just a bird and a man sharing each other’s company.

Tonight they were easy.

#Geraskier #geralt x jaskier #shapeshifter au #shapeshifter!Jaskier #geralt #jaskier #post in the tags darn you #writing

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itmighthavebeenintentional · 5 years ago

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Shackled

Chapter 1

Summary: After nearly ten years, Sam Winchester calls Miriam Bard to collect on a life debt. Unfortunately for Miriam, Sam leaves out a few important details.

Warning: Implied loss of family, grieving, depression, cursing, Demon!Dean, Sam’s tendency to leave out vital details for folks helping him to save Dean (read: Sam’s tendency to be a Winchester)

Word count: 1,895

Author’s Note: This story would not be possible without @thoughtslikeaminefield , who convinced me to write and finish this story, cheered me on every step of the way, and convinced me that even after over a year of not finishing a single thing, I hadn’t lost my writing after all. MJ, thank you for poking the story til it squeaked. And for the banner. And lots and lots of other things. If you’re reading this, hi! Have a seat and strap in, it’s gonna be a bumpy ride (in the best way!).

“Hey, Miriam, it’s Sam...Sam Winchester...I don’t know if you remember me from-”

“I remember you, Sam. Not likely to forget a Winchester, much less...it’s one in the morning, what’s up?”

“I need to call in that favor.”

“All right. Where do you need me?”

…

Miriam stared blearily at the road as it stretched out in an infinite blur of dismal sameness, each expanse of asphalt and surrounding fields a dreary replica of the one before.

The last couple hundred or so miles had been hypnotically wretched, especially with the remnants of her headache hanging on by the tips of its claws since Sam Winchester had woken her with a phone call a few hours ago.

Caffeine and aspirin had taken the edges off, but straining her eyes into the endless darkness, alternating occasionally with too-bright headlights shattering the night (fucking halogens), had done nothing to ease the sharp ache that wouldn’t quite dissipate.

If she was being honest, the headache had been hanging around much longer than just a few hours, and if Sam’s call hadn’t woken her, the nightmares would have. They always did. She couldn’t really remember what an uninterrupted night of sleep felt like anymore. Exhaustion was her state of existence; it was preferable to feeling anything else.

“Suck it up, Miri,” she muttered into the muffled quiet of the car. Even her GPS was set on silent; the soft hum of the engine was the only noise she allowed to permeate her cocoon of quiet suffering.

Aaron would have been blasting some stupid metal band on the stereo, slapping her hand away every time she went to turn it down or change the station. He wouldn’t offer to drive and let her sleep off any physical maladies, but she wouldn’t have accepted anyway. He was a shit driver, and she always said she’d rather live long enough to let the next case kill her rather than the inevitable wreck if her brother was behind the wheel.

“Suck it up, Miri! Take another pill and quit whining!” he would have told her in the middle of an air drum solo.

Would have.

“Shut up,” Miriam muttered aloud. She drove on.

She pulled up outside something she would have dismissed as public waterworks or an electric station if Sam hadn’t told her what to look for. No cars outside, no mailbox, nothing to tell her this was an actual residence and not the setting for a seventies slaughterhouse flick. She checked her phone.

Text me when you get here; I’ll come let you in.

Alrighty, then.

Sam met her at the door and led her into the last sort of place Miriam could have imagined, a cross between a sci-fi/post-apocalypse novel and some sort of Cold War relic. He gave her the briefest of explanations as he led her through the bunker, saying something about legacies and a secret society, information which mostly passed right through her fatigue-addled head.

Pretty nice home base, she thought as they walked through the meeting room and past the library.

The research-oriented part of her itched to run her fingers over the spines of those books, to find out what was inside. Miriam cringed internally as she heard the echo of Aaron’s voice calling her a nerd, equal parts affection and ridicule in his voice. Then she throttled the pain down, locked the thoughts away, and dragged herself back to the present.

A few minutes later, Miriam was slinging her duffel down on one of the nicest beds she’d been able to claim in any capacity in months, maybe even years. Absolutely spartan and about six decades out of date, almost military in decor, but it was clean, and it had air, electricity, and both sheets and blankets on the bed. No nasty or rotten surprises left by former inhabitants; definitely an upgrade on a few of the shitholes she’d stayed in.

“We’ve got a fully stocked kitchen just down the hallway, and showers. Let me know if you need anything,” Sam said, rubbing the back of his head.

Miriam decided to save him further discomfort and cut to the chase.

“Fancy digs, Sam. It’s been a few years. You wanna tell me what’s got you so bothered?”

She’d noticed a distinct lack of the elder Winchester on the way in, but Miriam’s own recent history had done nothing if not jam a filter firmly in her mouth that kept her from sharing any and all thoughts that flowed through her mind.

Sam’s mouth quivered at the corners before he schooled his features into a mask of control that failed to hide the depth of his worry.

“I...Dean is why I called you. It’s...complicated.”

She took advantage of the awkward pause to re-evaluate Sam Winchester. He’d aged a lot in the few years since she and Aaron had run across the Winchesters. He’d grown broader since she last saw him, and he gave the impression of being even taller than she remembered, to say nothing of the length of his hair. She resisted the urge to offer him a hair tie for his shaggy mane.

Her gaze flicked down to his injured right arm, bound to his chest in a sling. She waited for several beats, but when he didn’t continue, she crossed her arms sternly, letting a shade of her impatience show on her face.

“You called me, Sam.”

Sam cleared his throat as if he still couldn’t get the words out. Miriam sighed. Her headache flared, burning the inside of her skull like a wash of acid between her eyes. Fatigue pulled at her, weighing her down towards the bed, but she locked her knees and straightened her back until she could trust her weary body not to betray her to gravity.

“Sam, we’re not close friends, I get that, but you called me here because I owe you, and hopefully because you know you can count on me. I haven’t been in the field recently, wasn’t planning on it any time soon. I’m tired; it’s been a hell of a year. If you want my help, talk to me. If not, I’m taking advantage of your hospitality to catch a few hours sleep in a decent bed, then I’ll head back out.”

“Dean’s a demon.”

His bald declaration woke her as the coffee she’d consumed after his phone call hadn’t.

Wasn’t expecting that, she thought as her eyebrows threatened to meet her hairline.

“Demons aren’t my area of expertise, Sam. And, let’s be honest, it’s fairly common knowledge that the Winchesters can exorcise a demon. What do you need me for?”

Sam shook his head, tension making the movement jerky and stiff as his jaw tightened. He had circles under his eyes to rival hers, and his shoulders slumped with a weight she knew all too well.

He reached up, awkwardly tugging down the neckline of his shirt to reveal a tattooed symbol she vaguely recalled from research she’d done years ago.

“Neither of us can be possessed,” he said, shrugging his shirt back into place with a wince of discomfort. “Dean is...Look, just come with me; I need to check on him anyway. You'll see.”

Making a physical effort to keep her jaw from hanging slack, Miriam followed Sam from the small bedroom. The whole situation was surreal, and the bland, institutional walls of the bunker only added to Miriam’s sense of dissociation.

She raised a curious eyebrow as Sam led her into what looked like nothing so much as a large file storage room.

Their footsteps echoed strangely; the space felt somehow emptier than the full shelves should have allowed. The ceiling, higher than what seemed necessary, continued much further back than the shelves. And what kind of shelving needed caging to connect it to the ceiling? The metal screen wasn’t what drew her attention, though.

The second she set foot in the room, Miriam felt an inexplicable pull to look behind those shelves, to push past Sam and shove the files out of the way. There was a presence in the room, something that spoke to a place deep inside her that she’d trained herself not to acknowledge, something familiar and forbidden all at once.

For the first time in months, she felt something more than tired, foggy despair.

Whatever was back there, Miriam wanted it.

It took her a second to realize that Sam was speaking.

“Don’t...um...don’t let him get to you, okay? It’s Dean, but it...isn’t,” Sam finished lamely with a grimace.

Miriam tilted her head to the side, considering his words. She opened her mouth, then closed it and shrugged, bracing herself for whatever it was Sam didn’t seem to be able to explain.

His shoulders slumped for a moment as he struggled to pull himself together.

Miriam hadn’t spent much time with the Winchesters, just the couple of weeks they'd worked that witch case all those years ago. Sam and Dean had been so in tune with each other, working the case with instinct and skill on a level that she’d both admired and envied. Then they went and saved her stupid brother.

Sam had been so much younger, then, not exactly sure of himself, but much more solid and in control than the tired, injured man in front of her.

“I owe you, and I mean it,” she’d said back then, shaking first Dean’s and then Sam’s hands, looking each brother in the eyes.

“You need someone to watch your back, to help you take something down, I’ll be there. I wouldn’t normally speak for that asshole,” she nodded at her younger brother, currently sleeping off the leftover ill effects from the hex bag that had nearly taken his life, “but I’ll go ahead and vouch for his dumb ass, too. Call me if you need me. Don’t lose my number.”

She hadn’t heard from them since.

Oh, she had heard plenty of them. What hunter hadn’t? All sorts of misadventures and exploits, taking down creatures most hunters had only ever heard of, much less encountered. But Miriam had gotten no phone calls from them, no requests for help. She figured they'd probably forgotten her and Aaron the moment they’d left town, rock blasting from the speakers of their legendary Impala as they cruised on to the next town, the next case.

“Why now, Sam?” Miriam asked quietly. “After all this time, why call me now?”

There were approximately a thousand more questions she wanted to ask, chiefly what the cage behind those shelves was holding, but she held her tongue after the one. Sam had obviously brought her here for a reason, so she reminded herself to be patient and ready for whatever happened next.

The younger Winchester hung his head for a moment longer, then turned eyes on her that were so familiar, her heart seized in her chest. She saw those same eyes every time she’d looked at her own reflection in the mirror since she’d returned from that last job, with one more scar and one less brother.

“Because I knew you’d understand.”

And then Sam straightened, and she watched as he willed steel through his limbs, stiffening his spine and hardening his features. He pulled on a narrow section of shelving and rolled it out of the way.

“Heya, Sammy.”

...

Chapter 2 is up!

#demon dean #demon!dean #dean winchester #sam winchester #supernatural #spn #supernatural fanfiction #spn fanfiction #supernatural fanfic #spn fanfic #demon

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hguardthings · 4 years ago

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How to gear-up business operations during COVID– 19

Our lives have been facing a bumpy rollercoaster ride since the last 4-5 months and so our business operations. COVID -19 affected the whole business world irrespective of their area of operations, consequently, decelerating the world’s economy. Now after a few months when the government is all set to uplift the lockdown gradually to sustain the economic conditions, the main challenge in front of the business is to assure the safety of employees and to carry out business operations smoothly.

Difficulties in carrying out business operations:

In the present scenario, due to COVID-19 businesses are facing many problems like:

Uncertain future – Business mainly operates on prediction and estimation based on previous trends and pandemic is completely an unexpected event. Now it is difficult to estimate and predict the future possibilities because this pandemic has been affecting the economy adversely.

Limited access to capital – Business operations require fixed capital to overcome the uncertainty of future because it is, for now, it is hard to predict the events that can turn out and at the same time, they need working capital to keep continuing their business operations. And since COVID-19 has affected the economy badly; businesses are facing problems to raise the capital.

Impact on technology – Even before some business was facing complications to pace up with the modern technology and now the current situations are calling for many advance technologies to operate in new and diversified ways.

Workforce productivity – Workforce of any business are the most integral part to assure the success of a business. Many people were forced to move out of the city and also aroused insecurity about their employment due to COVID-19 resulting in mental stress and affecting their productivity.

Diversified risks – Before COVID-19, severe risks of businesses were limited to business operations and its policy but now, due to pandemic moderate risks like loss of human capital, outflow of cash, shortage of demand and supply, frequent changes in trade and financial policies has been converting into high level risks.

To read more please visit: https://www.hguardsocialdistance.com/blogs/14/How-to-gear-up-business-operations-during-COVID%E2%80%93-19/

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bellismaperry · 5 years ago

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Idiot { Loki Fanfiction }

This my first Fanfic that I post here on tumblr. I literally just wrote this so theres a lot of grammer mistakes. I’ll promise I’ll get better haha. Hope you like it. It has a main Character but if you want like y/n you can do it. its how ever you want to read it! as long the message of the story is there I don’t care!. Please if you do like tell me to continue!! cause I will. I don’t know when I’ll post because I work and study. but I promise I will post. If want to be tagged pls dm. and will be tagged until its closed!. Hope you guys like this story I have had this idea for so long! hope you really like it like it like I do and lets see what the future holds! I present to you Idiot ( ps the cover is on its way ;) )

Warnings: None

Tara Jones

Loki Odinson

——————————————————————-🦋

Everybody was wearing black attire, with sad expressions. Losing a member of a team is one the hardest things ever. Its like losing a family member. After pushing away Tony’s reacter in the lake, I sat at the wooden porch with my legs in the lake.

God I am such an idiot . How could be so dumb?. I look around the people around me. There were new faces along with old ones. Tony had a lot of people who cared for him.

Strange looks at me looking around and walks over where I am sitting. “ I know its a funural and being happy is not an option, but why in particular you look like you killed some one”

I look up to him and shake my head. “ I messed up Stephen, big time and now its ony hitting me” I say as I move my feet around the water.

he takes a breath “ we all do that all the time Tara”

I shake my head and take my feet off the water and put them on the wooden porch. “ no but i seriously messed up. Theres a solution but it only make it hundred times more worst then it already is. And the worst part is I’m completely alone with it and just still a kid”

Strange Lowers down to my level as tears starts to fall off my face. “ You’re not alone, you have me and the rest of all the people here”

I wipe my tears with the sleeve of my shirt. and look down at my hands. “ Nobody can help because,

I’m pregnant with Loki’s baby” ..

Chapter one

My mother used to tell me that everything was for a reason and that god has set up for me for a good reason in my life. But what my mother didn’t tell me was that getting knocked up by a god at the age of 23 was the plan that a “god” had for me.

This was a whole new game for me and whats left of the avengers team but for overall for me mostly. Since I’m the one pushing the damn thing out of me in 9 months or so.

When I told Stephen that I was pregnant with Loki’s baby hell broke loose. Well let me rephrase that.

Fury wanted me to be locked up because I was connected with a war criminal. Carol wanted to blast me off for being so stupid. Bruce was scratching his head like fifty times at once because how in the hell I was going to give birth to a semi-god. Thor was the only one happy because he had at least some family left couldn’t wait to be a uncle and wanted me to give birth in New Asgard but soon that idea went away when he left with the guardians. And well lastly Stephen was in a screaming match with me for over an hour of how stupid moron idiotic person I am , of letting myself getting pregnant of a super galactic international war criminal. And honestly I couldn’t agree more with everything that happened.

It is stupid of me getting prego of a criminal, and even more when he’s like dead dead and probs never coming back. But at the same time who could blame? I was horny he was too, we both good looking people, we took the chance and honestly to what ever god I don’t regret what happened in that ship, one of the best nights of my life...

Sakarian Refugees Ship..

“Did that just-“ I get cut of by loki

“ Happen?, yes” he says as he sits up the against the bed head board.

I look up at him and smile. “ This was the most Idiot thing I ever done ” I say as I take a breath.

“really?” he asks as he pushes his hair away from his face.

I nod “ yea, but I don’t regret one bit of it” I say with a small smile.

Loki smiles at me and leans down to my face “ good because I don’t either” he leans closer and gives me a kiss. But is soon comes to an end as Thor voice enters the room.

“Loki! We need help theres a ship coming towards us and its not stopping after numerous calls of peace!”

Loki pulls away and takes a deep breath “ well I guess that the end of that” I grab one side of of his face and pass my fingers over his smooth skin. “ don’t worry theres going to be more” I say as I lean over to him for another kiss but I am stopped as the ship moves unexpectedly as like something shooting us.

I look at Loki worried and gives me the same look. “we need to get dressed now!” he says and I nod with him and as we both get off the bed and start getting dressed as fast we could...

Present

Now I’m sitting in a cold white bed in the ginecoligist office waiting to get my first ultra sound done. My case was the worlds most confusing ones. My baby was turn into dust inside of me after the bleep happend or so like Bruce likes to say, you had a dust baby for five years and when the snap was reversed your baby re appeared again. Every doctor in the country wanted to be my doctor and do it for free which man is every pregnant woman dream!. One of this things are so expensive its more expensive then a damn house.

But thanks to Pepper Recommendation I am here with her ginecologist who helped her tru her pregnancy. Which means i’m in very good hands.

“ok, i’m sorry for the wait Ms?” The Doctor aks as she sits in the chair and puts gloves on.

“Jones , Tara Jones” I say as I lift my shirt up and lean down in the bed.

“Ok Tara, My name Is Leslie Williams were going just going to check how the little baby is doing and let you on the basic stuff ok?” she says as she takes container with something jelly inside of it.

I smile and nod.

“ok perfect ,Lets see whats happening inside. I’m going to put this jelly in your stomach its going to feel cold but it will go in a few minutes” she says as she opens up the tube and pours our the cold jelly in my stomach. and starst moving the device around my stomach.

“ Is the Father coming later or”

I Swallow a bit and bite my lip “ no its just me”

“ Oh well, you’re going to be a great mother alone or not don’t let those bad anxieties take over ok. Everything is going to be ok. And in your particular case were going to do everything we can to make this process as painless and smooth as we can”. she says with a warm smile.

i give her a toothless smile. Cmo’n! I am giving birth to a semi-god. I can hear my screaming already. I had a dust baby. A DUST BABY that has to have complications somehow. I am human after all. and to make it all worst the one person who could tell me how this could go was strangled to death so thats great and awsome to start with.

“I mean its not going to be smooth it all. I am giving birth to a god. I am a simple human, the only special thing about me is my magic and this baby. Who’s Father is never going to be with me because a big purple alien with a purple ballsack of a face thought it was a good idea to get rid half of the population and stangle him to death until his eyes was crying blood and then go live in a farm like some red neck in tennessee. No its not going to be fine or smooth or happy or wonderful. So don’t be say things that won’t ever happen please.

The Doctor stares at me in shock. and proceeds to look for the baby. “ i’m sorry to hear that Ms Jones I had no idea.” she says as she keeps looking at the screen.

I take a deep breath pass my hands all over my face “ its ok, I’m used to it by now”

She nods. and when I was about to tell her that I was sorry of how I reacted she stared pointing to the screen and say “ there, theres it is. You’re baby. “

I look closer to the screen and see a tiny circle. A tiny innocent circle that was growing inisde of me. it looked like the size of a 5 peas together.

“you’re Four weeks in the pregnancy, the exams all look great, nothing looks like is altered by the bleep. It looks like you just got pregnant four weeks ago not five years ago. Which its is a medical miracle discovery. “ she says taking off her gloves.

I nod at her while still looking at the screen, I lean over and pass my fingers thru the screen. Thats my baby there. My circle god dust baby.

the Doctor looks at me and crosses her arms against her chest. “ do you want a picture of the ultra sound?”

I nod not looking way from the monitor “ yea”

the Doctor smiles and leaves the room.

I still stare at the monitor. Thats my and Loki’s baby. Who knew that a one-night stand with a god would have lead to this. It was stupid of me not using protection but what did i know? for all I thought humans couldn’t get pregnant by gods.

But I do know that is this is going to be a very bumpy ride... With my dust baby.

🦋—————————————————-

Thank you for reading the first chapter of Idiot hope you guys liked it!! remember to leave a comment, like and reblog pls! also if want to be tagged for the next chapter dm! bye love you guys! 🦋🦋

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agl03 · 5 years ago

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Hi. I love your secret kid theory. I was disappointed with the probable lack of Fitz next season, but the idea of seeing him raising a child (or 2!) has made me happy. Even if this doesn't happen I'm more convinced than ever that Fitzsimmons will get their happy ending, with a family, or at least pregnant. After killing Fitz in the season 5 finale it would be repetitive to do it again, and if we have all the FS separation angst through the majority of the season, we don't need it at the end!

Hi Anon,

Thanks!

I’ve build a fort on the Secret Kid hill and have zero plans on moving.

I mean I can just imagine if after all the hiding with Fitz they pull the rug out from under the fans and in a super epic moment when we lease suspect it reveal. THAT is why Fitz has been in hiding this whole time, THAT is why Jemma has been so sad, THAT is part of why its too dangerous for him to be found will just be....I get chills thinking about it.

Also we’ve seen take no prisoners when it comes to protecting/getting Fitz back Jemma. Can we all imagine if they learn that Fitz has been compromised, the baddies are closing in on him...imagine Jemma knowing her child and husband were in danger. Talk about Woman on Fire.

It is also a very creative way for the writers to drop that baby bomb they have been teasing for ages and to work with Iain’s filming schedule on other projects. And “we had time” takes away many of the normal complications a baby can add to things story wise. IE Jemma being pregnant and with a baby would have limited her on missions. A child with the team means it would have to be accounted for, then if an attack happens it gets even harder. “We had time” also gives them a window. I’m still sticking to my 5 year max. as how much time Fitzsimmons had. So when we do meet said Child she (yes I still think its going to be a girl) she could be around 4/5 if Jemma was actually pregnant in the finale and didn’t know it yet.

Oh I’m sure Fitzsimmons are going to get their happy ending, I”m really Zen on this one, I have a whole list of other characters I’m much more worried about. SDCC was what pretty much cinched it for me. Not only how the EP’s talked of incorporating their own life experiences into the team in the final season (and there have been lots of production babies) but the fact Lil, Iain, Jed, and Mo all left early on Press Day none the less to go back for filming.

Just hearing how cagey Jemma was in the premiere was more of a red flag to me on the secret kid. She is hiding something beyond Fitz can’t be found. And it will only get bigger as things progress and she continues to give few answers.

Something I’ve been saying for a long time when it comes to ships especially is you don’t want to start off the Season all happy and good because it usually means you are in for one heck of a bumpy ride Mid/End. I gesture to Season 4 where we started off Love Nest shopping and ended traumatized by the Framework and Jemma kidnapped to the future and FItz in prison with Hale.

I also have faith that we will be pleasantly surprised by how the whole Fitz thing will work out. Be it we see him more than we think we will, his story arc, some epic Fitzsimmons scenes to make up for it, fun costuming (I mean Space Engineer Fitz was awesome sooo what is next), the secret kid, the annual Fitznapping. Whatever. The writers love Fitz and Iain and they will make the most out of every second they were able to have him.

#aos spoilers #aos speculation #ask agl03 #fitzsimmons #fitzsimmons secret baby

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vateacancameos · 5 years ago

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Chapters: 1/1 Words: 2263 Fandom: Good Omens (TV), Good Omens - Neil Gaiman & Terry Pratchett Rating: General Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Aziraphale & Crowley (Good Omens), Aziraphale/Crowley (Good Omens) Characters: Aziraphale (Good Omens), Crowley (Good Omens) Additional Tags: Autumn, Post-Canon, Fluff, Domestic Fluff, So much fluff your teeth will ache, Gen or Pre-Slash, we'll be getting into slash territory in the rest of this series, adorable Aziraphale, cranky crowley, but not really, he's too busy having heart eyes to put in the effort, Footnotes, gross overuse of footnotes, my footnotes have footnotes, buckle in people Series: Part 1 of Ineffable Seasons

Summary: Aziraphale coos all over autumn and Crowley tries to pretend he doesn't find it adorable.

Story:

Aziraphale takes a deep breath, a smile on his face, his whole being practically glowing. It’s disgusting. Crowley glances away so he can’t be pulled further into the entrancing vision in front of him. But he looks back as soon as his best friend begins speaking.

“Oh, isn’t it glorious? The crisp temperatures, the smell of falling leaves. Jumpers and cider. And pumpkins.” At this final word, Aziraphale breaks his beatific pose—hands clasped in front of his chest, the sun hitting behind him at just the right angle to give him a halo—Hela,[1] did this angel have no shame—to crouch down and pick up a pumpkin in front of him. He holds it under his arm and throws another smile at Crowley, which has Crowley sighing and rolling his eyes to once again protest this whole silly endeavor. How he’d let himself get roped into this inane activity, he’ll never know.[2]

[1] Crowley, tired of trying to figure out which entity to use when he experiences feelings, has recently started using made-up gods instead, starting with the gods of the underworlds. He hasn’t found one that works yet, but he’s willing to try them all if necessary.

[2] It certainly has nothing to do with the strategically sweet and pleading face that had greeted him when he’d entered the bookshop to pick up his favorite angel[3] for lunch.

[3] The only angel he even deigns to like, in point of fact.

“Seriously, angel?” Crowley asks, sliding his sunglasses down just far enough to allow Aziraphale to see the disbelief in his eyes. “Autumn is terrible. Now winter, that’s the best season. Everyone harried and worried about money. Slushy rain and wet socks. Furnaces that stall or overheat. People stuck in their houses wearing terrible jumpers, forced to interact with family members they hate. Shoveling snow, if you live in a place that has that. Yeah, winter is a good one …” He lets himself grow nostalgic, remembering his favorite winters past.

“Oh pish. I’ve seen you light up like a child when seeing Christmas light displays. The closest you get to Scrooge is as him on Christmas morning, buying up roasted meat for the poor children of this world,” Aziraphale argues with a fond eye roll.[4]

[4] Let the reader note that, in fact, the closest Crowley gets to Scrooge is when David Tennant voices Scrooge McDuck on the DuckTales revival, including a great Christmas episode that employs meta jokes that reference Doctor Who, another popular show David Tennant played a part in. This author suggests you check out both shows if you have not yet done so. She’ll wait for you to get back. Okay, back now? Good. That was fun, wasn’t it?

“That’s not– Ngh– I do n–. Stop it right now, or I’ll shove you into the back of the Bentley and take you right back to your bookshop, no cider and certainly no pumpkins.”

Aziraphale’s mouth drops open, and Hades help him, Crowley can’t tell how real or manufactured the look is. The angel often does an amazing impression of being completely innocent, but there are times that his naivety is real.

“You wouldn’t dare. You’re too–”

“Bless it,[5] angel, if you say nice–”

[5] Sometimes Crowley forgets and falls back on old curses and blesses. He’s been using them for millennia, after all.

[read the rest under the cut or over at ao3.]

Aziraphale shoots him an exasperated look. “Of course not. I was going to say you’re too invested in teasing me for my every autumnal exclamation today to back out now.” He raises an eyebrow in challenge.

Dear Persephone, he’s right. From the moment Aziraphale had asked for a ride to the autumn festival/pumpkin patch monstrosity,[6] Crowley had been coming up with ways to tease him for his love of the season and all its trappings.[8]

[6] Complete with corn maze, cider, too many games involving gourds, and a—he can’t believe he’s even thinking of it—a hayride. Really, humans are far better than he is at inventing pure misery.[7]

[7] Let the author again note how amazing she thinks autumn is. That being said, hayrides are itchy, dusty, and bumpy, and you’re stuck sitting far too close to excitedly screeching children. She doesn’t blame Crowley for hating them.

[8] Just wait until Aziraphale turns the tables at Christmas.

Crowley acquiesces with a flop of his hand that he knows Aziraphale will read as both “Fine, fine, you caught me, I want to tease you,” and “Fine, let’s go look at these gourds you’re so interested in. Did you by any chance spend too much time in the New World back when it was still new?”[9]

[9] It was only new to the dumb, egotistical Europeans, though. It was plenty old to the native peoples of that continent by the time the Europeans showed up.

Aziraphale beams, gently placing the pumpkin back on the ground and dusting off his hands and jumper.

“Did you buy that jumper just for today?” Crowley asks as they begin strolling through the pumpkin patch/festival/field of torture. “I don’t think I’ve seen you in one before.”

Aziraphale somehow smiles even more brightly. Crowley is glad he’s wearing his sunglasses.[10] The angel pats the fuzzy, cabled, oatmeal affair covering his upper body. “Do you like it? I saw it in a window display and it just called to me. And it was right after the weather began to turn, and I just had to try it on. And then it was so soft and warm, I couldn’t not buy it. It’s like being wrapped in a hug.[11] I thought today would be the perfect time to debut it. It might get regular rotation with my jacket this autumn and winter.”

[10] To shade his eyes from the terrible angelic brilliance, of course. It has nothing to do with hiding his reaction to said smile.

[11] Crowley would love to be wrapped in a– nope. Nope. That thought will not see the light of day.

“Mm hm,” Crowley responds, quite brilliantly. “Oh look, the cider booth.”

“Oh! Cider? That sounds lov–”

“I’ll just get one for you, shall I?”

He hopes Aziraphale will find another squash to coo over, but he feels his presence next to him as soon as he’s queued up, but he’s cheerfully quiet. They wait in comfortable silence for the people in front of them to get their ciders, Aziraphale’s wide eyes taking in every aspect of the event, and Crowley softens. He enjoys teasing his best friend—doesn’t think their friendship would have survived without it, and truthfully Aziraphale can give as good as he gets, so he doesn’t feel guilty for it[12]—but he also does genuinely enjoy seeing Aziraphale enjoying himself. That smile can have Crowley walking on air for days, even when it isn’t directed at him. It’s the reason he asks the angel out to lunch so often, despite himself being the type to drink his meal rather than eat it. There’s nothing better than watching Aziraphale eat. Or find a new book to fall in love with. Or … yes, even enjoy this absolutely awful season they currently find themselves living in.

[12] Not that demons ever feel guilty. Crowley makes a single exception for back in the beginning and the thing with the humans and the apple. But they don’t talk about that.

They finally make it to the front of the queue, where Crowley asks for one cider, extra cinnamon, for Aziraphale, and one mulled wine[13] for himself.

[13] Which the vendor is surprised to find she has, despite winter still being a good few months away.

They start strolling again, and Crowley lets the angel choose the direction, following along, like he always does, as he always will do.

“I don’t understand it.”

“No surprise there, angel. You may be smart, but sometimes daily life confuses you.”

“Oh hush, you,” Aziraphale admonishes with no heat, patting Crowley’s arm, which has unknowingly been tucked into by Aziraphale’s non-cider-holding hand. That’s been happening a lot lately, but Crowley’s not about to call attention to it, lest it stop. “What I meant was, you said mere months ago that—and I quote—‘I like spooky.’ At the old satanic hospital in Tadfield, if you remember.”

“If I remember? As if I could forget any part of that God-forsaken[14] week.”

[14] Yeah, he means that appellation there. Do you hear that, God?[15]

[15] Yes, She hears that. The author (and Crowley) would do well to remember that the game She plays is complicated and ineffable, thank you very much.

“Well, anyway. That’s beside the point. The point is, you like spooky.” Here, Aziraphale punctuates his words with more arm pats. “And autumn is when Samhain[16] occurs. You can’t have spooky without autumn.

[16] Pronounced saah-wn. Not Sam-hain, like they said on Supernatural that one time, which shows how little research TV writers sometimes do. This author is not stupidly obsessed with this fact. At. All.

Crowley rolls his eyes. “Most spooky these days is over-manufactured swill sold to the masses for profit. It’s torture porn or silly ghosts. None of it frightens me.”[17]

[17] Except the current U.S. president. Now that shit’s scary.[18]

[18] Head office tried to give him a commendation for that whole debacle, but he noped right out of that one.

“Torture porn?” Aziraphale asks, a disgusted and confused wrinkle in his brow.

“Yeah, porn is a term current humans use to mean anything over-indulged in, but it has nothing to do with sexual acts. Well, most of it. Like, torture porn, food porn, space porn.” Aziraphale looks more disturbed the longer Crowley speaks, so he waves it away. “Never mind. I’m just saying, none of that manufactured spooky does anything for me.”

They come to a booth with caramel popcorn, and without even looking at his angel, Crowley signals for a bag, handing it over to Aziraphale as he counts out the correct number of coins. Aziraphale sighs happily and begins munching on it immediately.

“You’re just a stick-in-the-mud,” he says, going back to their conversation.

“Excuse me? I’m the stick-in-the-mud, Mr. I’ve-worn-the-same-jacket-for-one-hundred-and-eighty-years?”

“You’d do well to remember your car is ninety years old.”

“Practically new compared to your old smelly coat.”

Aziraphale’s jaw-drop this time is definitely not feigned. “You take that back. You said it looked good on me.”

“Yeah, in 1840.”

Aziraphale looks truly hurt. “It’s my favorite,” he says quietly, and Crowley relents. He can’t not, when he’s up against that face.

“It’s a nice coat, angel. But it’s good seeing you in something else for once.”

“Thank you, my dear. But the point is, you have no room to call me a stick-in-the-mud. Autumn is wonderful, and you can’t take that away from me.”

Crowley tries and fails to hide his smile. “How’s the popcorn?”

“Perfect!” Aziraphale says, the glow coming back to him. “This is all perfect. The weather could not be more beautiful or autumnal. I can smell spices and caramel and corn husks. The pumpkins look a particularly brilliant shade of orange this year. There are happy people all around. It’s lovely.”

Crowley looks around, seeing a particularly fiendish child twirling his unaware sister’s hair around a candied apple—who he silently cheers on—a small toddler screaming their head off when their parental figure offers them a pumpkin, a couple fighting near the corn maze. The stench of city and human beings is far too strong to be drowned by the sweets and spices, though it does fight for dominance with the moldering leaves blanketing the ground. And though the weather is nice now, he can see a storm building in the distance. They’d do well to hurry through the rest of the festival before they get caught in a chilly downpour.

But He won’t suggest this. He’ll follow his angel as he coos at the children posing for pictures with goofy scarecrows, as he bounces over to the candied apple vendor for a (non-twisted-in-hair) treat, as he begs with his soulful eyes for a hayride. He’ll follow his angel to the end of the world. He’s already done so, and he’d do it all over again if he had to. He’ll let them get caught in the freezing, miserable rain because Aziraphale is too taken with the pumpkin carving contest to notice the darkening clouds, though he will miracle them dry as soon as he’s able. He’ll follow his angel back into his shop, lugging the bag of things Aziraphale didn’t have enough arms to carry himself, and too big of eyes and stomach to not buy.

Aziraphale will light a fire, make two cups of whiskey-spiked chai, and wiggle his way into his favorite chair in the back room. Crowley will follow, landing on the sofa that has molded to his angles and long legs. They’ll talk about Poe and Mary Shelley. Crowley will talk Aziraphale into watching Young Frankenstein. Then Aziraphale will beg to be allowed to read aloud “The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar,”[19] and Crowley will concede it’s just a little spooky. Though only just a little.

And though he won’t say it out loud, Crowley will think that maybe, just maybe, autumn isn’t so bad, when you’ve got your favorite person by your side.

[19] Read it here.

#good omens #fanfic #autumn #autumn mood #ao3 #meagan writes

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kclenhartnovels · 5 years ago

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🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻-(obvi u don't have to do em all)-🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻

119 flowers, Lisa. 119. You think I won’t answer all of these? You’re a fool. I’m a fool. I’m going to answer all of them, and they’re all going to be Wolf at the Gates related so I can break your heart again. Buckle up, it’s going to be a bumpy ride. I’m putting it all beneath the cut so that not everyone has to suffer through this. Just you, Lisa. Suffer with me.

🌻 Here we go. Let’s go. First of all, WatG is about 18 years old. It’s older than most of tumblr. That being said, I found a fun game someone else did that has first and last lines of characters, so I’m gonna do that with the major players:

🌻 T’ke: “T’ke” and “I haven't lost it yet.”

🌻 Medvetis: “What has this man done?” and “Isthe, don't.”

🌻 Isthe: Is mute, has no dialogue

🌻 Constantine: “I don’t recognize him.” and “Long live the King.”

🌻 Delgos: “You’re supposed to be socializing, Con—my Prince. I’m not sure your father would be pleased about—” and “May the stars guide his spirit.”

🌻 Alastair: “Just a few words. Can you spare the time?” and “I am sorry, but we will have to bind your wrists, in order to maintain appearance.”

🌻 Samantha: “Sir Alastair Lobane, am I right?” and “Well, that could have gone worse.”

🌻 Valerian: “Mine ran off when I was attacked.” and “Away with you, rogue, before I lose my composure entirely.”

🌻 Kamin: [Not counting songs, because his first and last lines are actually both songs] “Any requests, my Lord?” and “If you would allow it.”

🌻 Jinx: “Pitiful crowd tonight.” and “Anger is all I have left, Delgos. Don't try to take that from me, too.”

🌻 Ashleigh: “Oh, I can hold my own. Why do you ask?” and “Stay in here to sleep tonight, otherwise the men will raid your bags for scraps.”

🌻 Silas: “Only one word? From Valerian? I didn’t think it possible.” and “Dismissed. Both of you.”

🌻 Aashiq: and “Safe journey, little cousin. Don't lose that bright head of yours.”

🌻 Tallest character: Ash, followed by Medvetis

🌻 Shortest character: Kamin, though narrowly, and of course Constantine is next

🌻 Most popular: Valerian

🌻 Least popular: Silas

🌻 Smartest: T’ke

🌻 Dumbest: Isthe is the least educated, but Con is the biggest dumbass

🌻 Oldest: Major characters only, Valerian. Otherwise, Silas.

🌻 Youngest: Kamin

🌻 Most talkative: V a l e r i a n

🌻 Least talkative: Not counting Isthe, Alastair

🌻 Since it’s pride month, let’s talk about orientations! Main character first! T’ke: Cis, Aro/Ace (touch-repulsed)

🌻 Medvetis: Cis, Demi-romantic, asexual

🌻 Isthe: Trans, ???romantic ??sexual, canonly has sex with a woman, probably at least bi

🌻 Constantine: Cis, super gay both romantic and sexual

🌻 Delgos: Cis, panromantic, pansexual

🌻 Alastair: cis, heteromantic and heterosexual (and so in love with Samantha)

🌻 Samantha: cis, ??? but definitely in love with Alastair

🌻 Valerian: cis (but honestly more gender-flexible if he allowed himself to be), bi but in denial about it

🌻 Kamin: cis, also extremely gay

🌻 Jinx: Cis but genderflexible, aromantic, pansexual

🌻 In the original draft, Samantha’s child from the first marriage died. But there was no real reason for it, and now she and Alastair just get to keep collecting children and they’ll all star in book 3 whenever I get around to it.

🌻 The original original draft was a short story. A short story. A short story. Save me.

🌻 This story has been around so long, the good news is I’ve been able to develop a lot of the world and backstory, such as:

🌻 Three generations of Vendave Kings and what happened during their rule: Marius, Silas, and Constantine

🌻 Two generations of Cielan Kings and their rule: Antony and Kendrick (after he takes out his brothers)

🌻 Two generations of Reckson Kings: [Ash and Xav’s father which I have not named], then Xaviastriuos and Ashleigh fighting over the throne.

🌻 Tawrivers, which was conquered by Vendave during Silas’ rule

🌻 Jinx is one of my favorite characters to write because she’s so unapologetically angry, bordering on feral. She is passionate and injured, and ready to take revenge because no one else will help her and her people.

🌻 Honestly, Jinx would have joined Medvetis and company in a heartbeat, if Valerian and Alastair hadn’t given them shelter and respect first. They are the only reason she didn’t join the rebellion.

🌻 T’ke has dysthymia, and is touch-aversive due to trauma in childhood. He is also very sensitive to sunlight due to his albinism. He wears so many layers both to protect his skin from the sun, and to hide his scarring as much as possible.

🌻 Isthe is mute thanks to a dog attack in his youth, and the attack led to a high fever for many days that nearly killed him. The infection damaged part of his memory, and as a result he has trouble learning new things. This is why T’ke is never able to teach him how to write. He prefers expressive communication anyway.

🌻 T’ke also gets seasick and it cracks me up every time because he’s so annoyed by that fact.

🌻 Valerian has severe agoraphobia, and after he was harassed by bandits in the beginning of the book, he never leaves Angaroth again. Samantha goes in his stead whenever he has to represent the area.

🌻 Alastair has lung problems thanks to his town being razed when he was a child, and severe smoke damage from the fire. It gets progressively worse as he gets older, but he tries very hard not to let it affect his work.

🌻 Constantine is an excellent swordsman and a terrible horseman. He gets thrown from his horse at least twice over the course of the book. May have been three times.

🌻 He also almost dies from sickness, gets strangled twice by Isthe, trips up the stairs during a swordfight, and generally gets his ass handed to him over and over again.

🌻 The beginning of each chapter has a journal entry from T’ke. If you take them all out and read it in order, it is a singular letter of sorts explaining his feelings about the whole story.

🌻 Delgos and Alastair have a very quick bromance that stays a strong friendship to the end of the book.

🌻 Alastair is the first person that Delgos comes out to. Unfortunately, Delgos confessing his love for Constantine flies way over Alastair’s head, and the response is more or less “you’re such a good guard, of course you love your king.” Whoops. He tried.

🌻 T’ke makes a binder for Isthe so he stops bruising his ribs with bandages. It then becomes a battle to make sure Isthe takes the binder off every night to sleep so he doesn’t injure himself.

🌻 T’ke is such the mother of the dynamic trio and he would hate it if anyone points it out.

🌻 That being said, he also spends most of the book making all three of them immune to poisons by gradually introducing them all to it.

🌻 One of the things that changed very little between initial writes and editing is Valerian’s dialogue. It remains paragraphs, rambling, warm, and ridiculous. I love him.

🌻 I need to make it more clear that Delgos is mixed race from a low-ranking family, because his change from middle child of a merchant sailor to Captain of the Guard speaks a lot about him, and about how much Constantine cares for him.

🌻 Valerian has two pet deerhounds that he adores, and are never used for hunting. They just lay all over everyone in the house instead. They were a gift from some nobility, but he never leaves the house to hunt with them.

🌻 T’ke keeps a pet hawk for a good portion of the novel. Isthe is inexplicably jealous of it.

🌻 Alastair gets incredibly attached to his horses, and names all of them after flowers from his mountain home.

🌻 Aashiq is also very attached to his donkey.

🌻 Uh, let’s see. Book one is technically Medvetis’ story arc

🌻 Book two is Alastair’s arc

🌻 Book three is the next generation

🌻 T’ke’s story spans books 1 and 2. His journals cause book 3

🌻 Alastair’s sons are identical twins. Poor Samantha.

🌻 Seeing how Alastair was raised by a single man makes Constantine think very long and hard about adopting an heir rather than trying to make one by blood.

🌻 Most of the reason why Silas passed such terrible laws was because he was in love with Elophia, Kamin’s mother.

🌻 Kamin is the youngest of three. His two older sisters were taken to Tawrivers for sanctuary, but Kamin was too young to travel so far, so he was adopted by Jinx’s family.

🌻 Constantine and Kamin are about the same age, and should have been King and chief advisor if Silas hadn’t been a raging bag of dicks.

🌻 Constantine’s mother died from complications of childbirth. Silas blamed Elophia for not saving her.

🌻 Kamin was an unplanned child. They didn’t think that they could have any more children after the two girls. His name roughly translates to gift.

🌻 Which, incidentally, is what Nafal’s name translates to. Aashiq adores his son beyond all measure.

🌻 Jinx is not her real name, but it’s what she’s been called since she was a toddler, and she protects her real name as if she could some day go back to it.

🌻 Harper is Kamin’s title, not his last name. He is, after all, royalty.

🌻 Kendrick is Alastair’s cousin. There’s no accounting for family sometime.

🌻 I fixed Patience’s autonomy, and I can’t wait for her to pop back up later in book 2 or 3

🌻 At one point, Constantine accidentally breaks Medvetis’ nose.

🌻 It probably wasn’t the first time Medvetis had his nose broken.

🌻 Speaking of single dads, Medvetis was raised by one, too! His mother died from the plague that rocked Vendave and its surrounding lands when he was young, and Cohen took over teaching and protecting him. Medvetis loved his father.

🌻 Oh! Apparently I have a wealth of single dads. Valerian more or less raised his daughter alone, as his wife’s schizophrenia got so bad she confined herself to her room for fear of hurting them.

🌻 Silas theoretically raised his son alone after his wife died, but let’s be real, Silas didn’t do any raising. The servants did.

🌻 Delgos was raised primarily by his mother and older siblings; his father was at sea most of the time.

🌻 T’ke was raised by Khalid and the rest of the merchant caravan, and they ruined him.

🌻 Isthe was raised on the docks with the other street orphans, running with a group of kids and probably one or two pseudo-adults that kept them in line. I have no idea what happened to his parents, but it’s likely they died at sea.

🌻 Delgos really wants to have kids, and Constantine is slowly warming up to the idea. They will likely end up adopting later, and have the discussion about it in book 2

🌻 T’ke hates children. He actually just generally hates people.

🌻 Medvetis wouldn’t mind having kids, but he would adopt and not have them naturally. As much as he would want kids, he doesn’t want to have sex.

🌻 Isthe loves kids. He loves people. Kids usually find him weird.

🌻 Isthe is also incredibly lucky at gambling, specifically dice games. I guess it balances out his poor luck when it came to the dog attack.

🌻 Isthe isn’t his birth name! He refused to let anyone know his birth name after he was attacked by a dog; he thought someone had used it to curse him. So, he made up a new one.

🌻 Delgos has a tattoo of the Runnemede lion on his chest. (Constantine thinks it’s incredibly hot)

🌻 Isthe gets a tattoo of Medvetis’ wolf on his arm at some point.

🌻 Kamin, of course, has his stars on his cheeks.

🌻 Jinx has the stars on her neck, plus another tattoo in her lower back

🌻 In the dark!AU, Delgos has a tattoo of the Cielan dragon instead :D

🌻 Speaking of defining marks, Medvetis has freckles and it is the most adorable thing

🌻 Also defining, Jinx’s red, red hair.

🌻 Ashleigh’s full name is true Reckson style: Ashleigh en Crowenne Brighton di Reckson

🌻 Originally, Wolf at the Gates and Dragon on the Mountain were one big book named Vendave because I had no idea what to title it. One big book. Thank god I had the sense to cut it in half.

🌻 Book 3 has nothing written on it yet, and only a vague idea of what the heck I’m doing with it.

🌻 Book 2 needs major rewrites but it’s not on the next “to do” list

🌻 I have no idea what any of the characters’ birthdays are, even though Medvetis turned 18 during a battle in the book.

🌻 These dumb kids are all so young in the book, it’s no wonder they suck at everything.

🌻 That’s a lie they mostly just suck at emotional stability and the ability to compromise.

🌻 Literally half the plot would fall apart if they all just sat at a table and talked it out.

🌻 All of the plot would fall apart if Silas hadn’t been a raging bag of dicks when he was alive.

🌻 Honestly I’m so mad that he just died in his sleep. He deserved a worse death and a shorter life but unfortunately the author let him get away with all of it. Damn it.

🌻 I thought a lot about cutting all the songs in WatG, but you convinced me otherwise. And no other beta readers were bothered by it.

🌻 Have I mentioned yet that I had the best beta readers for this book? Because I had the best beta readers for this book. They were SO helpful.

🌻 I’m both tired of editing it, and very excited about editing it.

🌻 I’m debating on commissioning someone to make a map for me because I don’t want to, but the book really needs it. I have a rough sketch, but that’s it.

🌻 A part of me wants to go back and rewrite the book as pure medifant, instead of low fantasy, but I don’t want to develop a complex magic system, and it would change too many things. I just want it for the aesthetic really.

🌻 That being said, it’s heavily implied throughout the book that T’ke may really be magical, which is fun in a no-magic world.

🌻 I was able to weave in some of the Ekanti “magic” though, including healing songs and tattoo work!

🌻 Valerian is slightly magical too in that it seems like he doesn’t need air to keep talking. He just goes without ever pausing for breath.

🌻 When Samantha married Alastair, she takes Valerian under her wing too, and tries to keep him from getting beheaded by the crown, or at least getting his tongue removed.

🌻 Speaking of, an assassin later in the book has his tongue removed. Gross.

#wolf at the gates #answer #vendave #you asked for it #you got it #WHY IS READMORE NOT WORKING

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just-some-random-blogger · 6 years ago

Text

Welcome To The Jungle

EXO Park Chanyeol & Oh Sehun Characters: Park Chanyeol, Oh Sehun, Kim Minseok (Xiumin), Byun Baekhyun, Kim Jongdae (Chen) Summary: Chanyeol decides to go to the Amazon on his vacation week. Once there, be meets an exasperated safari tour guide called Sehun... amongst others... Word Count: 1k+ Warnings: BISH ITS CRACK TURN AWAY NOW IF YOU CANT & DONT

A/N: If you wanna know why, then you should know while my exams, I HAD MINSEOK DANCING TO TEMPO LIKE A BISH IN MY HEAD THE WHOLE TIME LET ME LIVE GDAM

This was such a long time coming UGHHHHHH

i cant believe

“Annyeong!” Chanyeol grinned brightly, bowing 90 degrees to the equally tall man wearing the khaki uniform he was expecting him to wear. Chanyeol was so giddy, he looked like an over-overgrown child; his hands were on either strap of his backpack, and was rolling back and forth on his feet. “I was so excited when I heard my tour guide was from Korea! How long have you been working here?”

The man with lopsided lips blinked, “Long enough to want out.”

Chanyeol burst into bright laughter, making the other pull his face in equally as much disgust as annoyance. The man on the job clenched his fist tightly and did everything in his power not to roll his eyes. He forced a smile and spoke with no conviction whatsoever, “Welcome, sir, to the most spectacular safari you will ever have the privilege to be on.”

Chanyeol broke into the largest grin at his words nonetheless.

“My name is tour guide Oh Sehun and I’ll be showing you the wonders of the amazon today.”

Chanyeol nearly squealed and Sehun finally backed away. “C’mon,” the tour guide said, proceeding to walk towards his ranger jeep, “the sooner we leave, the sooner we get back.”

Chanyeol wasted not a second and ran towards the vehicle, sitting in the front seat, buckling himself in before Sehun even gave instruction. Sehun rubbed his nape and breathed out hot air, “That brat. He was probably spoiled as a child. He has no manners at all.”

Once Sehun was eye’s view of what Chanyeol was doing, he couldn’t even tell his client off because he put the complicated seat belt on without any help. Sehun knit his brows deeply and stuffed himself to the driver’s seat beside him, securing himself in quickly. “Is this your first safari?”

“It’s my third, actually.”

Sehun couldn’t help but scoff out a chuckle, to which Chanyeol thought innocently as an impressed laugh, so he continued, “Yeah, the first time I went on one was on my birthday two years ago.”

Sehun was uninterested, and yet he found himself asking one last question, out of sheer formality. He started the car and grunt when it didn’t open. He turned to Chanyeol, “How old were you?”

“24.”

Sehun, who had been fussing with the engine, whipped his head to Chanyeol’s direction just as the jeep hummed, confirming its ignition. This bastard’s was my age two years ago, Sehun thought gripping the steering wheel tightly. How sad. “Hold on tight, hyungnim. The road is bumpy.”

The jeep whooshed forward, heading deep into the thick jungle before them, stirring Chanyeol’s insides in excitement. The man with messy hair had his adrenaline pumping. He held a big grin. He couldn’t let Sehun’s statement go unnoticed however, “I’m older than you?”

Unfortunately for you, “Yes.” Sehun answered simply, shifting the stick.

“Waaaah, I have a cool dongsaeng. Cool.”

Sehun upper lip rose out of instictive disgust, which involuntarily prompted him to drive faster. Chanyeol took full advantage of this and raised his hands up in the air, cheering, as if he was on a roller coaster ride. Sehun growled at his actions, proceeding to shout at the man, “Babo-ya! Do you want to get your arms cut off?!”

“MWO? I CAN’T HEAR YOU!” Chanyeol shouted back, louder, not even bothering to put his arms down or stop his obnoxious howling.

If he fucking wakes the tribe, I swear to--

At this point, they were met with a rocky road that was near a very shallow river. It made Sehun drive a little bit more cautiously, and Chanyeol finally keep his hands to himself and hold on to the handle bars.

The jeep came to a stop as they got to furthest the jeep could take them.

Sehun swiftly removed his seat belt in one motion and jumped out, turning to a struggling Chanyeol. He smirked at him and cleared his throat, “This way... hyung.” he placed his hand behind his back and started walking off, “You have to move quickly if you want to see the animals.”

Once Chanyeol was free from his restrictions, he wasted no time and jumped out of the vehicle. He jogged up behind Sehun who was already walking off. He didn’t notice that Sehun had pulled out a longish knife with him, you know, the ones to chop off leaves and branches and stuff.

Chanyeol pulled out his camera and took pictures with a smile. Sehun finally turned back at him and sighed, “Right. You’re gonna wanna not do that when there are animals around. They have very acute senses of hearing and event he sound of a camera shutter can scare them away, some birds especially.”

The man behind the tour guide lowers his device and nodded slowly. “Oh, gwenchana. Real life experiences are better than pictures anyway.”

Sehun rolled his eyes.

The two continued walking and Chanyeol eventually strided next to Sehun.

“Watch your step, hyung. Some objects on the ground seem--” before Sehun could finish his sentence, Chanyeol stepped on quite a big rock and went wobbling forward, “--invisible.”

Lucky for Chanyeol, he was quick enough to suppost himself, and Sehun had enough heart in him to grab his arm and prevent him from falling. The later of the two did bother hiding the roll of his eyes, the former smiled and spoke a thank you.

“There,” Sehun pointed, “do you see? It’s a toucan.”

“Waaaah,” shutter proceeded by flapping of wings.

Sehun pursed his lips and threw Chanyeol a nasty look. Chanyeol showed his teeth, “Mianhe.”

Sehun released a breath, “Whatever... your loss anyway.”

The two moved not much forward and came across another bird. Unfortunately before Sehun could identify what it was exactly, Chanyeol scared it away by his giggling this time.

The trip continued on, exasperating at Sehun’s end, and excitingly frustrating on Chanyeol’s end, because he kept unintentionally scaring a bunch of animals away. On the bright side, a stick insect thought his shoulder cool. Chanyeol felt bad however that he panicked when it started moving to his neck and swatted it, swiftly ending its life.

At this point, Sehun thinks Chanyeol could even scare away a tiger if they ever come across one, or maybe even a band of gorillas.

Chanyeol started talking about his life in Seoul somewhere between Sehun’s how-much-nicer-it’d-be-not-to-know and thanks-for-boring-me-half-to-death.

Apparently he was a photographer.

How charming.

“-- but then I decided I would much rather do something I wanted, thus I went to another company and ditched the millions of won I--” “Shut up.” Sehun spat out.

Chanyeol pulled his head back in suprise and utter offence. “Mwo-”

“Shhhhh.” Sehun raised a hand and stopped in his tracks, “something’s here.”

For a moment the two stayed perfectly still, and nothing but the jungle spoke. Sehun clenched his jaw, dreading the gut feeling in him. He licked his lips and heard a rustle from his left. Not late after, Chaneyol saw the leaves move. He went reeling towards Sehun, clutching his arm. Sehun hissed, “You woke the tribe. Great.”

The man was small, but he looked furious.

“T-the tribe? Wh--”

“Maehokjeogin neon lovely”

Chanyeol started waking backwards, hiding behing Sehun’s shadow, grapsing onto his biceps. Sehun hissed and shook him off, “They’re doing their tribe chant, it means they won’t attack us yet.”

”Yet?” the other repeated, nervous.

Teum eopsi jopyeojin geori Bulgyuchikaejineun heartbeat Jamsi nuneul gama trust me.”

Chanyeol tilted his head at what he heard, “Is… is that… Korean?”

Sehun rolled his eyes and shoved him back, “If you want to live to—“ but the tour guide couldn’t finish his argument for there was suddenly a loud screech from the bushes, making Chanyeol yelp and jump into Sehun’s personal space.

Sehun shoved him off, but Chanyeol only recoiled back into his place.

There was a spear by the bushes, both of them could easily tell. Whoever it was was heading for them at an eerily slow pace.

“Are they barbarians? CANNIB—“ “Shut up, and do not raise your voice. It only excites them to know you’re scared.” Sehun cut Chanyeol off. The latter gulped.

Then suddenly, there was a battle-cry like scream and the hair Chanyeol’s skin stood up.

From in front of them emerged at small, mud painted man, wearing a skirt made of leaves and a rock necklace. He looked enraged, his chest was heaving and his already narrow were narrowed. His mangled hair and rock pointed spear made him look intimidating… but not to them, not to anyone sane. In fact, Chanyeol was now just… confused.

Sehun huffed and rolled his eyes.

The tourist leaned to his guide and whispered, “Is he—“ “Yes. Just…” Sehun sighed, “let me handle this.”

Sehun walked over to the man in his normal pace, making the man point his speak at him. “You have upset the jungle.” the shorter one spoke.

“Upset the jungle? Or you and Baekhyun hyung?”

“HIS NAME IS TA!”

Chanyeol pulled his head back and Sehun rolled his eyes, “Minseok hyung, you should head back—“

“MY NAME IS POZI, CITY BOY!” Pozi, or to Sehun and the rest of the world, Minseok shouted at the man, slamming the end of his spear on the ground repeatedly.

Chanyeol decided to speak up at this point. “Jjangkkaman, you’re not a native?”

Sehun cursed Chanyeol’s stupidity and Minseok turned to him, “Native by heart.”

“Hmp, you know what, this is above my pay grade, we should just—“ but yet again, Sehun was cut short.

“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAA” someone screamed in and jumped on Chanyeol’s back. Chanyeol was quick to jolt him off however, and he shuddered the way he did when a bug crawled on him.

The man, who looked similar to Minseok, fumed in anger as well.

Chanyeol looked at him like spoiled pizza.

Sehun turned to Chanyeol. “They’re on drugs.”

The newly arrived mud covered man growled, “We are not!”

Sehun nodded his head in full disagreement.

“Baekhyun hyung, you’re wearing mud and leaves. Also, you pretend to be primitive but I caught you making a campfire and roasting marshmallows. Where’d you even get that?”

Minesok spoke, “The jungle provides.”

“Actually, I gave them that.” A separate voice chimed in, and soon a man in attire similar to Sehun’s appeared.

“I’m so sorry these two interrupted your tour,” the man spoke to an utterly confused Chanyeol, stretching his hand out to him. “Kim Jongdae. Biologist and meteorologist,” he introduced, shaking Chanyeol’s hand.

“Uh, Park Chanyeol… photographer?”

The two broke away and Sehun crossed his arms.

“These two, believe it or not, are actually my associates. They believe doing this makes them better scientists.” Jongdae explained, making Chanyeol nod his head as if it was now suddenly perfectly normal, perfectly understandable.

“That seems cool.” Chanyeol spoke.

Sehun pulled a face.

Baekhyun quipped, “Do you want to join our tribe?”

“Ya! I will not have you pull a Jongin here!” Jongdae scolded.

“Kai joined voluntarily.” Minseok spoke.

“Jong-in, his name is J o n g i n!”

Sehun huffed, “Ye, it’s been fun. Let’s go back now Chanyeol.” Chanyeol suddenly frowned, “Mwo? But they just got here.”

Sehun shot him a look, “So you’re staying.”

Chanyeol was silent. Minseok and Baekhyun cheered and started doing their chant again. Chanyeol turned to Jongdae, who was shaking his head in disagreement.

He pursed his lips, “Alright. I’ll go with you Sehun-ie.”

Jongdae let out a breath of relief.

Sehun scoffed and started walking off, “Don’t call me that.”

Don’t mess up my tempo Deureobwa igeon chungbunhi I said don’t mess up my tempo Geunyeoui mameul humchil beat Eodiedo eopseul rideume matchwo 1, 2, 3 Don’t mess up my tempo Meomchul su eomneun ikkeullim

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sisterhoodofthetravelingshants · 6 years ago

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Top 5 Girls's Mountain Bikes Below £1,000

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When you love off-road bicycle driving without sacrificing comfort, then the 29-inch Genesis V2900 Men's Mountain Bike in blue or white is a great option for you! The bike encompasses a 4 inch Suntour suspension fork that delivers 80 mm of suspension for management.

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If you're in search of the benefits of 29-inch wheels but want to depart something in the bank then the SE Mountain Bike is the bike for you. Though the Rockhopper Comp 29 is the flagship mannequin, all three models supply a light-weight aluminum frame, hydraulic disc brakes and specialised 2Ã—10 gearing that reduces weight while optimizing acceleration.

This bike can do trails, bike paths, and extra! It helps you using the bike comfortably although the path causes bumps. This is our tackle the 5 greatest mountain bikes beneath 1000 dollars. Nevertheless, advancements in suspension design and usually decrease costs means rigid bikes have gotten much less common and are sometimes now only bought in niche classes.

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Designed for road and path exploration, the Diamondback Line Hardtail Sports Mountain Bike befits all entry-degree mountain bikers intending to levitate their mountain biking experience to the subsequent (mid or advanced) degree. The frame is warmth treated aluminum that is able to take on the very best mountain terrain, and also best for entry degree mountain bikes The very cool trying wheels are made out of a magnesium alloy that's lightweight.

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The choice now might be between a carbon hardtail with quality elements over a twin-suspension alloy bike with lesser components. For this type of use, having dual suspension with twin disc brakes should not a necessity. If you end up shopping for a motorbike with this type of building, you are going to get a quality made bike that is going to fit your needs perfectly and give you the precise comfort that you will want on those lengthy days out on the paths (or off highway).

The suspension helps take in the influence from the trails, lowering the impression on the rider and bettering traction and comfort in consequence. This bike is prepared by aluminum dual-suspension frame with steel rear. Do you prefer riding downhill on your mountain bike?

This explicit bike is a 29 inch men's mountain bike, product of a super lightweight aluminum frame. This article goals at bracing you with the information on the perfect mountain bikes beneath 1000 dollars including hardtail & full suspension bike. It has a brilliant responsive 24 gear shifter with Shimano parts for the brakes, cassette, and many others.

It's best to avoid suspension bikes at this value range as a result of they will be significantly heavier than hardtail bikes or inflexible bikes, and a budget suspension models may very well do you more harm than good. The Overdrive fashions are a few of the quickest bikes obtainable, featuring Shimano disc brakes, 160mm rotors, and a 2x10 drivetrain.

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chooseywoozy · 6 years ago

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Big Sky Country, Chapter One - Country Roads

(NOW PLAYING AS MOSSY)

You’re driving an old sedan down a two-lane highway through the vast expanse of rural Montana. On the horizon, snow-peaked mountains… Behind you, everything you’ve left behind. You glance at the rear-view mirror, catching sight of yourself.

Mossy: I gotta say, for a week on the road, I’m looking pretty good.

You peek over at the passenger seat, where your precious potted cactus is held securely in place by the seatbelt.

Mossy: You’ve been so quiet on this trip, Spike. Everything okay over there?

Spike gives his usual answer… total silence.

Mossy: Okay good. I wouldn’t want you to get car sick.

Suddenly, the gas pedal goes soft under your foot! You press down harder, but the car continues to slow.

Mossy: What the…?

Your car jerks back and forth as steam billows out of the engine!

Mossy: No no no!

You pull over to the side of the road. The car shudders one last time before the engine quits altogether.

Mossy: Oh, crap.

You get out of the car, and everything is quiet. There are no cars on the road in either direction.

Mossy: Okay, this is officially the middle of freakin’ nowhere. AKA, the worst place in the world to break down.

You check your phone hopefully.

Mossy: No service. Now what?

You sit down on the rear bumper and look out over the horizon… Off in the distance, a small figure catches your eye… You eagerly lean forward to get a better glimpse.

Mossy: Is that a man… on a horse? Maybe there’s hope for a rescue, yet.

The figure draws closer and closer, until…

Cowboy: Howdy, there.

You get a good look at the cowboy as he stops his horse in front of you. He’s got a grin as wide as the horizon and dusky brown eyes.

Mossy: Uh… Hi! My name’s Mossy! You wouldn’t happen to know anything about cars, would you?

Cowboy: Just that I prefer Dolly here to them.

He pats his horse affectionately, and she nickers in response.

Dolly: Nnnghh!

Mossy: Dolly, as in… Dolly Parton?

Cowboy: The one and only. The name’s Sawyer, by the way.

Sawyer rides up to the front of your car and bumps it with his boot. The hood pops open with a hiss of steam.

Sawyer: Looks like you’ve got a blown head gasket. You’ll have to call Larry’s repair shop in town for a replacement.

Mossy: I was worried it might be something like that. Do you have a cell phone I could borrow?

Sawyer: Naw, I don’t bother with cell phones. Signal’s terrible out here. But I’m happy to give you a ride to the nearest landline.

Mossy: You can take me anywhere, cowboy.

You eye him appreciatively, and he chuckles.

Sawyer: Why do I feel like I just rode into some sort of cheesy romance novel?

Mossy: Would that be so bad? I’m pretty sure that would make you the handsome hero.

Sawyer: I was always more of a spies and shootouts kinda guy, but I suppose i could get used to a romance novel.

Sawyer offers you his hand. You take it, and he easily pulls you up onto his horse behind him. He spurs Dolly on, and you pitch forward as the horse starts to walk.

Dolly: Neeeiigh.

Mossy: (Whoa…)

You lean forward and wrap your arms around his toned stomach, appreciating the way his muscles ripple beneath his shirt…

Sawyer: You settled back there?

Mossy: Yup! I’m all good.

The two of you ride in silence for a minute, swaying together with the motion of the horse…

Mossy: So, uh, where exactly are you taking me?

Sawyer: To the ole homestead. Luckily, you broke down right on the edge of our ranch.

Mossy: So all this land is yours?

Sawyer: My family’s, yeah.

You look around the landscape as Dolly rides across a vast meadow.

Sawyer: It’s beautiful out here, isn’t it?

Mossy: Yeah… it really is.

Sawyer shifts in his saddle before looking at you over his shoulder.

Sawyer: So tell me, Mossy, what do you do? Besides, you know, breaking down on the side of the road.

Mossy: Recently, I’ve mostly just been trying to figure my life out.

Sawyer: Any luck?

Mossy: Not even close. So far, all I’ve got is moving from Boston to California. Montana is just one of many stops along the scenic route.

Sawyer: What prompted the big move?

Mossy: The last six months in Boston… weren’t the greatest. This relationship I’d been in for two years ended badly. My apartment got infested with rats, and my landlord jacked up the rent. And this job I really wanted, my dream job, totally fell apart at the last minute.

Sawyer: Sorry to hear it. What was the job, if you don’t mind me asking?

Mossy: I was going to be a programmer.

Sawyer: Oh yeah?

Mossy: Yeah. I ha a gig lined up at this really big tech company. A place I’d wanted to work at ever since I was a kid. And then the week before I was supposed to start, their shareholders made them fire half the staff. Including me.

Sawyer: Ouch.

Mossy: Yeah. Ouch is putting it mildly. More like three weeks lying around in my apartment, drinking wine and feeling sorry for myself.

Sawyer: Lying around your apartment… that was infested with rats.

Mossy: Yup.

Sawyer: Well… I see why you’re going to California then. Probably a lot of coding gigs there. You could live that Silicon Valley life. Make a startup, drive a Tesla, launch a rocket to Mars.

Mossy: I really don’t think that’s the typical Silicon Valley life.

Sawyer: So that’s what this is about? Getting a new job?

Mossy: Sort of. I guess I wanted to start a new life. California seems like as good a place as anywhere for a new start, but…

Sawyer: But what?

Mossy: I don’t know. Maybe I could just as easily start somewhere else. Sorry, I’m sure that sounds silly.

Sawyer: No, it doesn’t. Not to me.

You lean forward, and notice a long scar on the back of his right arm, and a small tattoo on the back of his neck that says ‘Lindy’.

Mossy: Sawyer, can I ask you something personal?

Sawyer: Hmmm… awful forward, aren’t you?

Mossy: I just told you, like, three super personal details!

Sawyer: Fine, fine. What do you wanna know?

Mossy: Where’s that scar from?

Sawyer: This? Oh, it’s just a birthday present from a bull named Thunder Road.

Mossy: Something tells me that scar wasn’t on your wishlist.

Sawyer: Definitely not. But I deserved it for being such a little brat. I was a Youth Rodeo champion as a kid, convinced I had the magic touch despite having only ridden baby calves and the like. The day I turned fifteen, I signed up for a full-on rodeo event. I didn’t even bother to practice!

Mossy: Oh, no…

Sawyer: Oh, yes. Thunder Road slammed me into the gate before we even got into the ring. Taught me a lesson right quick. But it was the best thing that could’ve happened, you know? I had no business riding that bull. And he let me know it.

Mossy: Do you still ride in rodeos?

Sawyer: … Naw. Not so much.

Smiling, you lean back, and that’s when you notice a young woman on a horse in the distance, watching you curiously.

Mossy: Who’s that?

Sawyer: Juliette Mendoza. Her family owns our neighbouring ranch. There’s a whole complicated… thing.

Mossy: Complicated like… she’s your ex?

Sawyer: Ha, no! Juliette’s great, but we’re just friends. Naw, it’s our families that’re the issues.

Mossy: Oh?

Sawyer: Would you believe me if I told you it was a feud going back 150 years?

Mossy: … Wow.

Sawyer: That’s Montana for you.

You glance back the the girl. She waves and smiles.

Mossy: She seems okay…

Sawyer: Yeah. She’s the nice one. Now hang on tight. It gets a little bumpy here.

The two of you ride on, and a little while later, you reach a wooden gate framing a long driveway. There’s a hanging sign that reads…

Mossy: ‘Oakley Ranch.’

Dolly perks up her ears and walks a little quicker as you turn up the road.

Sawyer: Here it is. Home, sweet home.

Dolly leads you up a grand entrance lined with tall trees and a wooden three-rail fence… On either side is green pastureland dotted with cows. To the left, a big red barn. Aead on the right, the ranch house. It’s a beautiful spread, although clearly past its prime. The fence needs mending, and the red paint on the barn is peeling… But Sawyer surveys the place like it’s heaven on earth.

Sawyer: What do you think?

Mossy: It’s charming. You never see anything like this back home.

Sawyer: Maybe you need to get out to the country more often.

Mossy: Yeah, maybe I do….

You cast a sidelong glance at Sawyer…

Mossy: I can tell this place is really special to you.

Sawyer: It is… Although sometimes it seems like my dad and I are the only ones who appreciate it.

Mossy: What about the rest of your family?

Sawyer: It’s just my older brother, but he’s not around much anymore. He sorta… comes and goes.

Mossy: Oh, I’m sorry…

Sawyer: It’s a good thing, trust me. There’s some bad blood and… well, it doesn’t matter. He’s out of town now, thankfully, and will be for a while.

The two of you fall quiet as Sawyer guides Dolly up to the front of the ranch house. He hops down and reaches up to help you off the horse.

Sawyer: Sorry, I didn’t mean to be such a downer back there. It’s just…

Mossy: It’s fine. I get it. There’s nothing to explain.

Sawyer smiles, grateful for the out.

Sawyer: I gotta put Dolly away. You can go on in and use the phone to call Larry, the town mechanic.

Mossy: Thanks.

As Sawyer leads the horse into the barn, you hear a rustling sound from around the side of the yard…

Mossy: Hello? Is someone there?

Calf: mmmoooo?

Mossy: Oh, you’re adorable…

You reach out to scratch behind the calf’s shaggy ears, and it looks up at you with huge, molten brown eyes.

Calf: Mmmmmoooo…

The calf hums with appreciation as you keep scratching its head.

Mossy: I think this is the start of a beautiful friendship…

Suddenly, you hear a loud, low moooooo behind you… You turn around to see a large mama cow coming right for you!

Mossy: Aaah!

You back away from the calf, but the mama cow doesn’t stop!

Mossy: Sorry! I’m not trying to take your baby, I swear!

The cow barrels toward you until…

Cowboy: Whoa there, mama!

A rugged cowboy dives forward, tackling you out of the way just as the cow rushes past!

Mossy: Th-thank you…

Without a word, the guy pulls himself up and dusts himself off.

Cowboy: You okay, girl?

Mossy: I think so…

Cowboy: Wasn’t talking to you.

He leans down to gently pet the calf. The mama cow nudges her baby with her nose.

Cowboy: Go on now, mama, go home…

The man calmly herd the cows back through the gate, then closes it behind them. The calf snorts as if to say goodbye. Finally, the cowboy turns to look at you.

Mossy: So, are you a cow whisperer or something? That was seriously impressive. I swear, I saw my life flash before my eyes!

The cowboy shrugs.

Cowboy: You just gotta know how to handle them.

Mossy: Still. I’m very impressed. I’m Mossy, by the way.

You hold out your hand. He looks at it, but makes no move to shake it.

Dallas: I’m Dallas. You visiting?

Mossy: Not exactly. I just came to use the phone. My car broke down not far from here.

Dallas: The house is that way. Stay clear of the livestock, you hear?

With that, Dallas disappears into the barn.

Mossy: I guess I’d better head inside to call the mechanic.

You make your way toward the main house… You’re almost to the porch when the door flies open and an old man bursts out, brandishing a shotgun!

Old Man: Who the hell are you, and what the hell are you doing on my property?!

Mossy: Aaah!

Old Man: You’re not from the bank, are you?

Mossy: The… bank?

Old Man: Well, are you? Or ain’t you?

Mossy: No!

Old Man: I don’t believe you!

Mossy: Please! Hear me out! My name’s Mossy. I’m not from the bank! Sawyer just said I could use the phone?

The old man narrows his eyes at you.

Old Man: How do I know this isn’t some newfangled banker trick?!

Mossy: Because that’s not a thing!

Just then, Sawyer returns from the barn. He jumps in between the two of you, forcing the old man to lower his gun.

Sawyer: Dad, we’ve talked about this! You can’t go around pointing your shotgun at people.

Old Man: She’s on my property!

Sawyer: Mossy’s car broke down on the highway, and I said it was okay to use our phone to call Larry. Remember that good old-fashioned hospitality you instilled in me at a young age?

Sawyer’s dad grumbles, but finally looks at you.

Old Man: I’m sorry. I s’pose I overreacted a touch.

Mossy: I’ll say!

Sawyer: Mossy, this is my dad, Cliff. He’s got a mean bark, but he’s mostly harmless.

Sawyer drops his voice to a whisper…

Sawyer: He won’t admit it, but those shells are full of rock salt. Stings like the devil, but won’t do you real harm. My old man just wants to seem tough.

Cliff: Eh? What was that? You talkin’ about me, boy?

Sawyer: No, sir!

Cliff heads inside, and you and Sawyer take a seat on the front steps of the porch.

Sawyer: Sorry, I should’ve warned you ‘bout my dad.

Mossy: Between shotguns and angry cows, this place is more dangerous than it looks!

Sawyer: Then we’d better make sure you get outta here in one piece. I’ll call up larry and see when he can get here with his tow truck.

Mossy: I’d better wait outside, give your dad some time to cool off.

Sawyer: Good thinkin’.

Ten minutes later… Sawyer comes back outside and offers you a glass of iced tea.

Sawyer: So, the good news is, Larry said he’ll come get your car and take a look at it.

Mossy: That’s great!

Sawyer: yeah… ‘cept it’ll be at least a couple hours before he can get out to the ranch. But you’re welcome to wait here as long as you need. In fact… I was planning to go to the orchard to do some apple pickin’ this afternoon. Seeing as you’ve gotta wait to hear about the car anyway, do you wanna come with?

Mossy: Apple-picking, huh? Is that what you do with all the girls who stop by your ranch?

Sawyer: Just the ones I like.

Mossy: I can’t so ‘no’ to some good old-fashioned apple pickin’! Let’s go.

Sawyer drives you out in a tractor to an orchard full of top-heavy apple trees.

Mossy: What happened to all the other apples?

Sawyer: We let some kids pick ‘em the other day, and they pretty much took everything below six feet.

Mossy: So how do we reach the top apples? Slingshots? Stilts? Magic?

Sawyer: If only. We can either climb the trees…

Mossy: Or…?

Sawyer: Or you can sit on my shoulders.

You eye his strong muscles flexing beneath his shirt… then look back at the tall apple trees.

Mossy: I’ll sit on your shoulders.

Sawyer: The hands-on approach. I like it.

He crouches next to a tree stump and holds a hand out to you.

Sawyer: Hop on up.

You take his hand and carefully climb onto his shoulders.

Sawyer: Hang on now!

Sawyer slowly stands up…

Mossy: Whoa! Why didn’t I notice how tall you are before?

Sawyer: Mmm, you must’ve been distracted by my handsome face.

Mossy: No, I don’t think that’s it…

Sawyer: Oh yeah? Bold words for someone whose life is in my hands.

Sawyer dips and sways precariously…

Mossy: Stop, stop, you’re going to drop me!

Sawyer steadies you with his strong hands.

Sawyer: I’d never drop such precious cargo. Now, let’s pick some apples.

He maneuvers you under a tree, but as you reach for the fruit, he steps back and you grab a handful of air!

Mossy: Hey!

Sawyer: Oh, sorry. Were you trying to get that?

You poke him, and he laughs.

Mossy: Ha ha. Now, be a good ladder and don’t move.

With Sawyer stable beneath you, you pick up all the apples from the tree before moving on to the next… Five trees and ten baskets later… you and Sawyer step back to admire your handiwork.

Mossy: Do you think we got enough?

Sawyer: Definitely. We’ll be able to make enough cider for the whole town with this haul.

You take a deep breath, reveling in the feeling of accomplishment.

Sawyer: What’s that look for?

Mossy: Nothing. It’s just… this is the most fun I’ve had in ages.

Sawyer: You’re welcome to pick our apples any time. We never turn down free labor.

Mossy: Ha ha.

Sawyer: I’m serious. It gets boring doing this all alone!

Mossy: Don’t you have someone special in your life?

Sawyer: Nope. I’m currently very single.

Mossy: Very?

Sawyer: Let’s just say the dating pool out here is pretty shallow.

You look around at the empty orchard.

Mossy: Yeah. I can see that.

Sawyer: I love the solitude and peace that comes with living out on the ranch… but I can’t deny that it’d be nice to share it with someone.

Mossy: Oh?

Sawyer: not that I have much time to date. With my dad getting older, I’ve pretty much taken over most of the duties around the property.

Mossy: So you’re all about the hashtag-ranch life?

Sawyer laughs.

Sawyer: Yeah, something like that. But I don’t mind. I love it here.

Mossy: Would you ever want to do anything else?

Sawyer: Naw. It’s all ranching and riding for me. Oh! And cooking.

Mossy: Cooking? Really?

Sawyer: Yeah. I’m all about those cooking shows.

Mossy: Do you just watch, or do you cook too?

Sawyer: Hell yeah, I cook! But I can’t get too fancy, or my dad gets cranky.

Mossy: I’ve only known him for a few minutes, but I can already tell that’s extremely on brand.

After a moment, Sawyer bends down to pick up a basket.

Sawyer: We’d better load up these apples and get back to the ranch. But first…

He plucks an apple out of the basket and holds it up to you.

Sawyer: Trust me. Everything tastes better in the country.

Grinning, you lean forward and take a bite. It’s juicy and sweet, the best damn apple you’ve ever had.

Mossy: Mmm. You’re not kidding.

Sawyer: And you’ve got some apple on your chin.

Sawyer leans forward, his hand gently grazing your chin. He smiles, his eyes crinkling ever so slightly in the corners… You feel yourself drawn to him… Sawyer leans in, until his lips are just a breath away from yours… And then you pull away, suddenly shy.

Mossy: We… should probably head back.

Sawyer: Yeah. Of course. Hang on now, and don’t let those apples spill!

Mossy: I won’t!

He revs the engine, and soon the two of you are flying over the grassy meadows and rolling hills toward the ranch. Back at the house, the two of you are unloading baskets… when your stomach rumbles loudly.

Sawyer: Hungry?

You blush slightly…

Mossy: Sorry. I guess picking apples worked up more of an appetite than I expected.

Sawyer: You know, you are welcome to stay for dinner. I’m making Hunter’s Stew and fresh apple cider. Maybe a pie too, if I have enough time.

Mossy: That sounds delicious, but I don’t want to impose…

Suddenly, a sleek blue Mustang comes roaring up the long driveway! The two of you spring apart as Cliff hurries out of the house.

Cliff: Hot damn! They’re here early!

Sawyer: Oh, you have got to be kidding me…

The car door swings open, and a husky man gets out, glowering.

Sawyer: Dammit.

Mossy: Sawyer? What’s going on? Who is that?

Sawyer: The one person guaranteed to ruin my day… My brother.

Thoughts on the episode:

So far I’m not that impressed. It’s the first episode, I know, so it’s more about setting the scene. But uh… nothing’s really happening and Sawyer is neither extraordinarily hot or extraordinarily interesting. I know it’s supposed to be a cheesy romance book, but it’s hard to pull me in with a book in this format without some sort of plot.

I was seriously hoping that Sawyer’s brother would be a love interest and that would be a part of the plot - pick between two brothers, ooooooh. But one look at the brother tells me that is definitely not the case. He did not win the genetic lottery, that one was purely for Sawyer.

Juliette is hot - I hope we get to see more of her very soon. Not that fussed about Dallas. I assume Pixelberry were going for the strong, brooding, mysterious type with him but he just came across like a dick. Maybe he’ll win me over in future chapters, but for now, not a winner.

Fave Character of the Chapter: Spike

Least Fave Character of the Chapter: Dallas

#big sky country #choices bsc #choices #playchoices

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kathleenseiber · 4 years ago

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The road ahead for driverless cars in Australia

Seemingly only just over the horizon, autonomous vehicle trials in Australia seem stuck in first gear. What needs to happen to get them back on track?

The phrase “driverless cars” likely conjures up images of sleek vehicles cruising city streets, ferrying passengers around as part of a futuristic ride-share system. But adjust your mental picture, because Australian researchers are currently trying to make sure these cars can also be driven on the dusty backroads of regional areas.

For over a decade, driverless cars have shimmered on the horizon of possibility, promising to revolutionise the transport system. But although they’ve been invented and manufactured, they still have a bumpy road ahead.

If an expert had been asked about the future of autonomous cars five years ago, Milford notes that “most of them would say we’re going to have 10 million cars in 2017”. But it’s more complicated than anyone imagined – the timeline is now almost impossible to define.

“The whole race to try and create autonomous vehicles has taken much longer than most people thought,” says robotics researcher Michael Milford, from the Queensland University of Technology’s Australian Centre for Robotic Vision.

Milford specialises in navigation and perceptions systems in artificial intelligence – and is fascinated by testing this technology in less-than-ideal conditions.

The companies developing driverless cars are profit-driven, and there’s a financial incentive to first roll out the tech as ride-shares in cities, where there are plenty of passengers 24 hours a day.

vimeo

It may also be easier to deploy in cities. According to Milford, most companies are trying to make the vehicles good enough so that cities will not have to make any modifications; instead, the vehicles will interact with existing infrastructure like signs, traffic lights, and lane markings on the road to make in-the-moment decisions, as well as combine GPS and mapping technology to navigate.

But what about if you want to head off the beaten track, to a place with rudimentary roads or lack of reception?

In 2019, Milford and team took multiple road trips to Queensland’s regional areas in an electric car fitted with autonomous sensors and computer systems. But CHAD (the Cooperative and Highly Automated Driving pilot program) wasn’t allowed to drive – not yet.

“We had an expert human driver to act as a guide,” Milford says. “We were developing and running the state-of-the-art artificial intelligence algorithms that autonomous vehicles have, using the data the car was gathering.”

The trips, which added up to a total of 1200 kilometres of driving, were a result of a partnership between the Queensland Department of Transport and QUT.

In 2016, South Australia became the first state to put laws in place allowing on-road trials of driverless cars. Today, every Australian state is participating in at least one autonomous vehicle trial.

“The whole aim was to experience as representative and wide range of conditions as possible,” Milford explains. “So we drove during the day, at night, in different types of weather, on all different types of roads ranging from freeways or highways, down to sort of small rural roads, and we tried to make sure we had significant coverage of rural areas.”

Their takeaway? Using AI for driverless cars isn’t feasible on regional Australian roads – not without detailed maps.

“The bar in autonomous driving is really high,” Milford says. “There’s zero margin of error of the safety – and so we found that the state-of-the-art AI systems were by no means perfect.”

Since these systems are primarily developed and tested overseas, they weren’t adapted to Australian conditions – from simple things like driving on the ‘other side’ of the road to different signage and environmental conditions. Even after the system was retrained in these conditions, its performance wasn’t good enough.

Companies such as BHP, Fortescue and Rio Tinto are currently implementing hundreds of autonomous mining vehicles. Rio Tinto also has a fully autonomous train fleet, transporting iron ore from mines to ports in the Pilbara – with a price tag of $940 million. Credit: Rio Tinto

Milford says that these cars will likely need to rely in high-resolution maps, giving them “prior knowledge of what the environment is like and what to expect down the road”.

The team did, however, find that the AI system dealt well with issues like lack of lane markings.

“To some extent, the car was able to infer or guess where the lines would be, had they been added to the road, which is basically what a human does,” Milford says. This suggests that in the long-term, the lines may not be critical, potentially saving hundreds of millions of dollars in infrastructure changes.

This kind of research important to figure out how to implement autonomous cars both equally – so it’s not just wealthy people in cities who have access, while others miss out – and efficiently, so the technology doesn’t end up slowing down traffic instead of speeding it up.

“All new technologies have issues of equity,” Milford says. “If a new technology comes along and it’s only available in the city, it just makes inequity between rural and urban areas even worse.”

He thinks that if the technology is available – and it works – there would be just as much demand in rural environments. Since regional and remote areas account for 65% of road deaths in Australia, driverless cars even have potential health benefits.

The Queensland city of Ipswich is equipping 500 resident vehicles with sensors and communication devices allowing them to “talk” to other cars, as part of a four-year “intelligent vehicle” pilot program – the biggest of its kind in the country.

But while city-dwellers may opt to book a ride-share in a driverless car, people living in rural areas would be more likely to privately own a vehicle.

The trillion-dollar question, Milford says, is whether we can produce a driverless vehicle that can actually operate in any environment.

“The only honest answer is it could go either way,” he admits. “I’m not certain that it will happen, and I’m definitely not certain that it won’t happen.

“That’s this grey zone that we’re in now. Five years ago, everyone was really optimistic and thought we’d have them three years ago. Now everyone has a much better idea of how hard the problem is, but that doesn’t mean it’s impossible.”

German multinational Bosch has trialled self-driving cars in rural Victoria; in 2019 they received AUD$2.3m in funding from the Victorian government to test its technology. Credit: Bosch

Right now, the race towards driverless cars has narrowed significantly, with about half a dozen major, cashed-up companies – all overseas – as the serious players.

“Australia is a very good nation in terms of basic fundamental research,” Milford says. “We’re not so good at translating that fundamental research into applications where end users get the benefit.

“In autonomous vehicles and AI, the US is still the centre of the universe.”

Many talented Australian researchers are working in the US. To help translate our research into homegrown technology, a more harmonious relationship needs to be developed between industries and universities – particularly mining, agriculture and defense industries.

Currently Milford is working on fundamental research in computer vision and artificial intelligence, to help robots and autonomous vehicles sense their environments.

But this is a tricky challenge.

According to a 2020 index of “autonomous vehicle readiness” across 30 countries, Australia ranks 15th. Singapore and the Netherlands hold the top positions due to their supportive policy and legislations, along with the eagerness of government and private companies.

“You can’t just solve it through good engineering,” he says. “It’s likely that the cars, to be as good or better than humans, will actually have to genuinely have some level of intelligence, some level of understanding of a very complex world around them.”

This research is largely biologically inspired. It involves learning from natural systems and applying this knowledge to technological problems, by working with biologists and neuroscientists to model how animals – from rats to insects to primates – navigate and understand the world.

Murray, the driverless bus being trialled in Renmark, South Australia. Credit: SA Department for Infrastructure and Transport.

“There’s so much to be learned from the natural world, which is pretty amazing at what it does,” Milford says. “There’s a reason we have human drivers still and not autonomous drivers everywhere.”

But of course, we still don’t have a perfect grasp of how these fabulously complex neurological processes work, and so some creativity is required to apply it to a task such as robotic navigation.

Milford says that when they test the resultant technology on a robot, for example, “it fails catastrophically almost all the time – and then there’s this wonderful iterative process where you go back and forth, talking to the neuroscientist, trying something different. And then if everything works well, you eventually get to a high performing robot navigation system.”

Along with this foundational grounding, Milford’s team is also focused on other the development of types of driverless vehicles, beyond cars for individual transportation. While in the US much research is going into autonomous trucks – which by necessity will need to operate on highways and rural roads – Milford’s group is exploring off-road vehicles. These must operate in places where there’s no road as a guide, such as on mine sites.

FLEX — Flinders Express — is a French-designed Navya Arma electric shuttle that can carry up to 15 passengers at speeds of up to 30 km per hour. Credit: Flinders University.

Milford reckons that we’ll know in the next year or so how close we are to a commercial reality for autonomous cars.

“It’s an overwhelming time but also extremely exciting,” he says.

“If the field progresses, the biggest benefits of autonomous vehicle technology will not be in autonomous vehicles – it will be all the flow-on effects,” he adds.

“You can think of it as the 2020s equivalent of the [1960s] space race in some respects. The technologies will have potentially far more benefits outside of the core area that they’re applied in.”

The road ahead for driverless cars in Australia published first on https://triviaqaweb.weebly.com/

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