#Juvenile Puzzles (rose)

[mlcltoys]

The Jungle (3 puzzles)

Collection: Juvenile Puzzles (rose) Catalog code number: #JP098

Manufacturer: Usborne, ©2019 UPC: 9780794547455

1 board book + 3 puzzles (9 pieces ; 6.5 x + 6.5 inches)

[valiantarcher]

I'm rereading Black as Night and have a few thoughts (under a cut for spoilers and because it did get a bit long).

Even thought it's incredibly obvious and his role is obvious, I think this is the first time it's clicked why Hunter is named Hunter.

This is the one book where it feels like I miss a certain amount of nuance and humour because I don't have a good grasp on the structure of the Roman Catholic church (what is the basis of the snub about Benedictines and fruitcake??).

I am again having idle wonderings about what would've happened if Blanche had tried to tell Fish about her feelings of danger before he left for Europe. I'm guessing he wouldn't have really believed her but I also have a feeling that he would've probably tried to give her a ride home from work a few times or checked in, just to set her mind at ease, with the result that he probably would've seen her mystery stalker or otherwise had his sense of danger raised enough for him to start taking it very seriously.

While rereading, I also was struck by the remembrance that, at one point, Regina Doman had been considering retellings of Rumplestiltskin and East o' the Sun, West o' the Moon. It seems unlikely those will happen now (but not impossible, I guess!), which I'm mostly fine with, but I am curious all over again about how those would've worked out.

I'm struck by how frustrated Fish is that Bear makes spur-of-the-moment decisions and gets into trouble without looping him into it. There's an aspect that probably comes from experience (always better to have backup and they learned a lot on the streets as teens) and some that just comes from their differences in personality and strengths, but it's also interesting with respect to Waking Rose, where Fish does get into trouble without Bear BUT always with a plan, usually with backup, and often with having given Bear a heads up or keeping him looped in.

The Nancy Drew reference is common enough, but I'm amused that Fish knows enough about girls' detective stories to know to call Rose Trixie Belden. Also somewhat telling that Fish both has a point in his comment about Rose not surviving to star in a second novel, much less three hundred fifty more, from the perspective of her only surviving SotB (and then WR) because he saved her and also sells her short because she *does* survive three novels where she does detecting. ;))

Also! I had forgotten that Rose is the one who hits the nail on the head as far as motive! Fish is right that it's unlikely but she's correct that it's about jealousy - they're just both missing a couple pieces of the puzzle at that point.

I feel like the Austrian professor is a reference to Fish's later adviser in WR?

I also feel like there's some significance to Mr. Fairston's name being Alistair but going by Jack. Maybe a bit of foreshadowing that his last name isn't really his right name either (though it is legal - which raises the question why he didn't change his first name to Jack when he changed his last name if he hated Alistair so much)?

I appreciate the continuity between Bear trying to talk Mr. Freet out of further murder in SotB and him trying to talk Elaine out of murder in BaN. Granted, the stakes are high in both instances, but he is also genuinely concerned for the consequences of murder on themselves.

The short emergency room scene is good and I like how quickly Fish, upon being thanked, redirects that thanks to Rose and rightly acknowledges her invaluableness to saving both of his surviving family members. (Also, I still kind of wish there had been a parallel emergency room scene at the end of SotB.)

OH MAN. I just caught that Mrs. Foster comes by to read to Bear and Fish's dad! She was so protective of them and rightly upset by how their dad threw them out after they got out of the juvenile detention and yet??? She comes by and visits him and reads to him, something he is appreciative of! She was under no obligation and it would've been really easy for her to just not even stop by and yet!!

I'm really hoping Rose had wandered off by this point in the phone call and didn't hear Fish's "Let's hope Elaine didn't dump [Blanche] in the river" comment.

I'm unexpectedly appreciating the reconciliation between Bear and his dad more on this read than I have before. I know it's critical for Bear's arc and growth, but it just stands out more this time around. (Also, I'm a bit saddened by the realisation that, apparently, his own probable reconciliation didn't have much of an impact on Ben as it never comes up in WR.)

I'm wondering if Fish went out, bought a cellphone for Bear, and pressed it into his hands before he went out looking for Blanche or if Bear is still just carrying around Fish's cellphone. Either seems reasonable and either is just slightly amusing.

[quincyhorst]

RG: Émile and Ladji post-FFI

Some more ÉmiLadji, now this time from the reserve keeper's POV too, because he also went through his own issues post FFI.

...I found this while browsing my drafts. I have no idea why I hadn't posted it here before, oops-

Here's a post I recommend reading for better context. And this one, too.

Back when the "Ogre" match happened, Émile stood in the bench the whole time, although not by choice. Originally his expectations about the match were positive, like usual, but when in just 15 minutes the rivals were winning by 6 goals... He started to feel very nervous, and it got even worse as the match kept progressing with the score getting worse and worse.

I'm not sure if this match was treated normally with a half-time and such, but I like the idea that around the 18th enemy goal, Émile started to beg the coach to play, completely distressed. He couldn't just stay there and sit! Maybe Ladji had an issue catching those goals, but maybe he could do it instead! The french coach was quick to listen and act, but to both their surprise, Ladji refused to leave the goal himself and begged Émile to stay on his place.

Eventually, the frenchies straight up left the field at the 36th goal, and thus the whole mess that fell over RG happened. Given he was not the one who failed to catch so many goals Émile was -partially- free from being the center of drama, although he couldn't help but feel guilty upon what had happened. For a while, Ladji's stubborn choice to stay in goal puzzled him, and it became the first major obstacle on their relationship. But as Émile searched for an answer, he finally got it by the keepers main words.

"Regardless who played, the match would've ended the same. They were too strong for both of us. Besides, if somebody is going to be ridiculed from now on... I'd prefer it to be me than you."

(Remember, Émile is part of the team Celebrities, at the literal same level as Pierre, Julien, Ronnie... Maybe it was his movie collection or not, but he seems to be carrying a HUGE fame.)

The answer left the reserve conflicted. He was still pissed off for not being able to do anything, but he could at least start to see where Ladji came from. As the FFI came to an end the two managed to at least be on good terms again, which was appreciated. Émile felt so bad on the idea of losing a friendship with such a cool artist like him...

When returning home, Émile saw from the sidelines the huge shitshow the media had turned into due to juvenile soccer. And things didn't got any better when reuniting with his family. They were happy Émile didn't went by much trouble (And hell, his father was willing to help cover anything that could hurt his reputation)... But the sudden dissing of his teammates and the main keeper started to make him uneasy. He tried to do all he could do defend them, but it was futile. Rose Griffon was now a bad-luck name among everyone. Time only made Émile realize even more the reasons behind Ladji's choice back then. Don't get him wrong, his family is WAY nicer than what's pictured here, but such a huge stain would have hitted them in many ways otherwise.

Gradually, things returned to their normal pace for Émile. Though with a little twist, and that he was in constant contact with the former Rose Griffon members; given he had gotten almost all their numbers and some addresses, even. However, even if it had been almost a month away from the FFI, Émile couldn't help but still think about Ladji, wonder what could be of him. So, getting his address thanks to Pierre, he decided to contact him via a letter. Originally it was to check out on him... But right at the last minute, he decided to ask if they could hang out some time. Don't mind him, he just wanted to see the artist in action one last time.

Time kept passing, perhaps even more than Émile would've wanted, yet with no response. Pierre told him he also had been ignored in person, which made things even more upsetting. However, right when he had almost given up, his older sister surprised with the main keeper's letter in the mall. His reply was quite short, but he did accept to hang out together! Hell yeah!!!

And this is where everything I've written before happens, after their first visit the two become close with one and another, even to the point they attend Uni together thanks to Émile's aspiration to become a cinema director. Studies might be quite hard at times, but student life isn't bad, making tons of friends! And yeah, he's still in contact with the other RG members to this day too :')

Every weekend, he and Ladji like to go to Carrousel Cafe as a place to rest, given is nearby the university. Plus, Laurent's work hours occur there, so the three like to spend time and talk for a while. Curiously, it was also here where Émile gained the idea for his final uni project... But here's where I end the post.

[jimlingss]

Sugar and Coffee [9]

Chapter 8 - Chapter 9 - Chapter 9.5 OR Chapter 10

➜ Words: 3.9k

➜ Genres: 99.5% Fluff, 0.5% Angst, Pâtisserie school!AU

➜ Summary: It isn't hard to be a pâtisserie chef, but it's not a piece of cake either. It seems like for you in particular, life keeps throwing in one wrench after another. It always finds ways to make your sweets bitter. The cherry on top is Jeon Jungkook — a rival with a sensitive sweet tooth who always finds ways to complain about you.

➜ Warnings: Heavy mentions of sexual themes.

cr.

Fuck romance.   That shit is overrated anyway. Everywhere you look, there’s love here and there — in television shows, movies, advertisements, short stories, novels. But it hits you like a train, like a light switch that finally turned on in your head, you don’t need love to be happy. You don’t need someone else. You’re perfectly content with being by yourself for the rest of your life. You’ll never have to shackle yourself down or compromise again. It’s the ultimate freedom.    “I approve this message.” Aeri nods several times.   “Right?!” You wipe away the cheeto dust that’s accidentally sprinkled on the pouch you call your stomach. Your sweater’s ridden up as you’re slumped over her bed. “Like do people even realize that almost half of marriages end in divorce?”   “Exactly.”   “Love? It’s all trash feelings. It’s a distraction. Why should I have to work hard for years and then throw away my career and ambition to stay at home and have kids and then eventually be divorced and have to fight over custody?” There’s a bitter taste in your mouth and you shake your head.    “Men ain’t shit.”   “Hallelujah.” You don’t believe in love anymore, not when you’ve come to realize that you’ve been brainwashed for so long. Now, you were enlightened. But you just can’t believe you were so blinded and stupid in the first place. You were crying over a guy who wasn’t worth shit. “But where are you going?”   Aeri is dressed up in a summer outfit despite it being the end of February and still frigid outside. She looks at herself in the mirror, fixes her lipstick and then whirls around. “Oh, I’m just...meeting up with Hoseok.”   “You’re going on a date?”   A blush creeps up on her cheeks. “N-No. W-Well...he didn’t really call it that.”   “Oh my god, all my friends are leaving to the dark side.”   “Just for a little, love.” She winks at you and you can’t hate her when she’s so evidently excited. Aeri grabs her bag and smiles. “Well I shouldn’t make him wait. How do I look?”   “If Jung doesn’t cream himself, he doesn’t deserve you.”   The tips of her ears turn scarlet and she throws a pillow at you, making you laugh. You watch Aeri leave and then the silence settles. You sigh and get up to go to your only friend left.   Your fist pounds on his door for a good second until it opens.   “Jesus, try not to break it down, will you?”   “Hey, Yoongi,” you greet the person on the worn sofa, brushing past Jungkook. “Where’s the other guys?”   “Well, unlike you two, people actually have their own lives,” Jungkook mutters, flopping down to where his butt’s been imprinted into the couch seat and he resumes his game.   “Taehyung and Jimin are in class like good students,” Yoongi says, “and I’m only here cause Hope’s ditched me for a lame date apparently.”   “Same.”   “Is my room a refugee camp?” Jungkook glances over with his brow cocked. “Am I everyone’s second choice?”   “Get used to it,” Yoongi mutters, watching Jungkook play.   In the meanwhile, you walk over to Jungkook’s bed that’s sloppily made with the covers wrinkled, but at least the effort shows. You’re about to flop down and maybe roll over to take a nap, but then you pause, gawking at his collection of IU merchandise.   You’ve seen it before, but you realize you’ve never gotten a good look. There are posters of her from when she debuted in 2008 until the most recent comeback lining the corner of his wall like a small shrine. And over his bed is a shelf of albums and her lightstick. “Wow, you have a lot of her stuff. Must’ve costed a fortune.”   It occurs to you that he even had a substantial amount of IU things in his room at his parent’s home — little things that you didn’t pay mind to at the time — a sweater that was on a hook, more albums, some DVD sets, posters of her in her dramas.   Your comment seems to trigger a reaction from him. Jungkook pauses the game and those bambi eyes of his are rounded. He’s defensive. “What?”   “He’s got a massive hard on for her,” Yoongi snickers.   “Don’t talk about Jieun like that.”   You steal a glimpse of Jungkook, rather puzzled over his hobby. You just never expected Jeon Jungkook to have an idol, or rather, celebrity crush. “Why do you like her so much?”    He looks like he doesn’t even know where to start. “She’s just so...talented.”   “Oh, here we go again.” Yoongi rolls his eyes.   “Shut up,” Jungkook spits and then turns to answer your question seriously. “Her voice is beautiful, she’s good at singing, she can play guitar, and she’s really cute. She produces a lot of her music too. And her personality is great. She’s kind and funny. She donates a lot and stuff like that.” Jungkook shrugs. “I just like her.”   “Yeah I get it.” You nod while staring into IU’s eyes. “She’s pretty hot and cute. I’d do her if given the chance.”   His big nose wrinkles. “You act like you don’t have any celebrity crushes either.”   “True. If Song Joongki walked through the door right now, I would throw myself at his feet and he could do whatever he wants with me. He’s so handsome and such a sweet guy.” You sigh wistfully, wishing you had someone like that. “Do you have any celebrity crushes, Yoongi?”   “What’s her face from the Notebook.”   “Rachel McAdams?”   “Yeah, her.”   “Okay, I can see that. Jungkook!”   “What?”   “Would you smash or pass Rachel McAdams?”   He wrinkles his nose again. “Smash, I guess.”   “You guess.” A scoff comes from your throat. “What? You think you’re too good for her?”   “No. She’s just okay.”   “You’re wrong,” Yoongi deadpans, making you laugh.   You ask— “Okay, how about Sana from Twice? Smash or pass.”   “Smash.” — “Pass.”   Both you and Yoongi look at him with brows raised and you audibly gasp. “Dude, even I would smash her. Why would you pass? She’s cute and hot. Isn’t that your type?”   “No.” Jungkook snorts. “You don’t know my type.”   “Okay, so who would you smash then?”   “I don’t know. Maybe Gong Hyo Jin. That main girl from Master’s Sun.”   “Seriously?”   Jungkook glances over. “Why?”   “No, she’s pretty and really girl-next-door-ish. She’s just older, like twenty one years older than us.”   “Yeah, well, she’s good at what she does. She’s a good actress.”   Apparently being good at what they do is enough for Jungkook to want to bang them.   It’s a juvenile game, but a fun one. And it’s particularly interesting to hear both Yoongi and Jungkook’s responses. They’re unpredictable, unlike Taehyung who you’re sure would say yes to anything as long as it breathed, and Jimin who would be too shy to answer.   “How about people we know? Byun Baekhyun.”   “No.” Yoongi answers right away. “He’s so loud, he gives me a headache.”   “If you find him annoying, it makes for good hate sex.”   “Sure. But that’s still a no.”   “Okay then, who would you say yes to?”   “I don’t really swing that way but if I were to give it a shot, maybe Kim Jongin, just so he can teach me how he gets the ladies.”   “Word,” Jungkook mutters, concentrating on his game.   “Or maybe Lee Ken,” Yoongi points out. “His face looks good enough for me to spit on.”   “That’s disgusting.” Jungkook wears a distressed expression, looking at you as if to ask if you’re hearing the same things he is, but you merely laugh.   “Trust me, Ken’s a screamer. Jin told me about it when they shared a room during their first year.” You don’t notice how Jungkook pauses his game at the mention of your ex. He stares at you from across the room, on the edge of his seat, but you don’t have a trace of sadness on your features. “He’ll burst your eardrums. He’s a loud dude.”   “No thanks then.” Yoongi hums and bluntly considers, “Maybe Seokjin then. He’s pretty good looking. Looks spitable.”   You smile softly. “He’s too nice for you, Yoongi.”   You recall the faded memories with Seokjin, but they don’t make you feel so sad anymore. Your heart doesn’t ache as much. It makes you wonder if this is what it means to move on.   //   The cardboard box is in your lap as you study the small trinket in your hand before tossing it in. Everything that Jin ever gave to you, anything that’s associated with him, sweaters and tokens, key chains from amusement parks and stuffed animals he gave is thrown in the box or stuffed in a trash bag.   “I wonder if I’ll ever regret giving this stuff away.”   “Maybe, but you’ll always have new stuff and new memories and all that.”   “Yeah.” You remind yourself that you’re just making space for the new memories you’ll make — maybe with Aeri, maybe with Taehyung and Yoongi, Hoseok or Jimin, or Jungkook, or just by yourself.   Jungkook helps you put away the stuff, asking every once in a while if you wish to discard a certain object. You had asked for his help, afraid you would chicken out, and you promised him that in return, you would buy him a meal.   It seems like you owe a lot to Jungkook these days.   You donate it all before deleting all of Seokjin’s contact information on your phone. The pressed rose he once gave you on your first date and the first note he ever passed you in class is thrown away too.   Finally, you’ve severed your ties with Seokjin once and for all. It’s a bittersweet moment, like sugar mixed with coffee. Not quite sweet but not quite bitter.   The room seems emptier, but it’s welcoming.   “So where are you going to treat me?”   Suddenly, a light bulb flicks on inside your brain. Your entire face lights up and Jungkook notices, shifting on his spot in discomfort. It’s never good when you have ideas. “I think I know something better we can do.”   “Better than eating?”   “When was the last time you ate some pussy, Jeon?”   Jungkook chokes on his spit. He wheezes. And pounds his chest. Jungkook’s doe eyes look at you in horror like he’s been personally violated. “What?”   You repeat the question and he makes a strangled noise like he’s absolutely disgusted talking about this with you.    “Are you ten? Answer the question.”   “I don’t know! Maybe like over a year ago,” he rambles in a breath, “I dated a girl named Olivia for a few months but then it didn’t end up working out, so we broke up.”   You put your hand on your friend’s shoulder, squeezing securely while nodding once. “I think we're both deprived of some good pussy and cock.”   “So what do you propose?” He doesn’t know where you’re going with this.   “We go to a club and get ourselves some one-night stands.”   “That’s a terrible idea,” Jungkook spits without even needing to think. It’s instinctive. Impulsive. Like he knows not to squeeze a lemon into his eye, to not touch his crotch area after handling chili peppers, to not take toast out with a metal fork.   “Why not?” You shrug. “Some low-level commitment, no love or strings attached sex. We don’t need relationships to keep us satisfied and we don’t need to keep...you know handling it ourselves…” Your hand makes a rounded circle and you thrust back and forth obscenely, wiggling your brows, and it makes Jungkook groan.   “Oh my god. Please stop.”   “Listen, I’ll be the best wingwoman you’ve ever seen. I owe you, right? So I’ll find you the best fuck of life and then I’ll find my own. I see this as an absolute win-win.”   “It’ll be fun,” you insist and then pout when he continues to glare. “If you’re not coming, I’ll go by myself.”   “You’re not going by yourself,” Jungkook says.   “Why? You can’t tell me what to do. What are you, my dad?”   “Why? Because you’re an idiot. If I see you on the news, I’ll never be able to forgive myself….” You scoff and he continues. “—for being best friends with such an idiot…”   “Are you coming or not, jackass?”   Jungkook sighs.   //   It’s spontaneous. One moment he’s in your dorm room and the next blink, there are strobe lights flashing around, sweaty bodies, and deafening music. The alcohol on his tongue is certainly not enough to make him feel remotely sane. Jungkook didn’t even have enough time to drag Taehyung, Jimin, Hoseok or Yoongi over. You told him that it was a two man mission and any more people would only serve as a distraction to the main goal.   He’s not sure what you think that goal is. Jungkook isn’t really a one-night stand kind of guy.   “Hey!” You scream in his ear above the booming beat, making him wince. Your breath is stained with that tequila. “What do you think of her?!” You point to a girl dancing on the floor. “She’s got a great ass!”   He internally sighs. “Why don’t you go fuck her then?!”   “What?” Your voice strains above the music.   “Go fuck her!” He points.   You frown, lips lopsided. “You want to suck her?!”    Jungkook’s last two brain cells are about to die. “Never mind!”   “What?!”   He shakes his head and then you giggle.    Jungkook wonders if you’re just fucking with him, but before he can even react and perhaps punch you, you’re leaning over the bar, waving your arm towards the bartender. “Excuse me! Can we get two shots again?!”   Of all the shit you make him go through, he’s hoping you don’t get drunk. He can’t carry your ass back to the dorm. His back is too precious for your idiocy.   The two of you down the alcohol given to you and he shudders after. The taste is sharp and beginning to dull his senses. You can feel it too, how the world is spinning faster and that’s when you begin, clasping your hands together. “Alright!” You lean in close to talk into his ear, breath skimming against his neck. “Let’s get down to business, Jeon. Anyone caught your attention yet? How about her?”   You signal to a busty girl sitting alone at the bar. She’s in a tight, red dress with her lips matching the same crimson shade. Her black hair contrasts the boldness, cascading down her back in waves.    Jungkook looks and then glances at you. “Not re—Hey! Where are you going?!”   You strut with drunken confidence, sliding up to the girl with plans to be the best wingwoman on this planet. “Is it always this noisy?”   The girl turns her head and visibly relaxes to see another female and not a greasy dude. “Well, it’s a club. So yeah, it usually is.”   “I’m just not used to it.” You sigh and take a seat on the stool. “Know any good drinks?”   “Chardonnay’s pretty good,” she tells you with a friendly, open expression. “Usually wine sucks at bars, but it’s pretty good here.”   “I’ll order it then,” you muse and extend your arm with a grin. “I’m Y/N.”   “Hyuna.” She shakes your hand, red lips curling.   “Can you do me a favour, Hyuna?” You point across the bar to Jungkook. He’s frozen. Watching you in horror like you’re trying to seduce his mom or something.    You wish he’d wipe that stupid fucking expression off his face. It’s not helping. Frankly, it ruins his looks and for once he’s not in gym shorts or sweatpants. Jungkook’s dark hair is gelled back, black dress shirt and black trousers fitted to his muscular frame. It took so much nagging to get him dressed up, but it was worth it. If he didn’t look so dumb, you would be proud of your best friend.   “My poor friend here really likes you, but he’s pretty shy. If you said hi, I’m pretty sure it would make his entire night.”   Hyuna gazes at him and her smile only widens. “I’d be happy to help.”   “Great!” You slide off the stool, strutting back. Inside your head, you are screaming for joy that you actually pulled that shit off on the first try without getting a drink thrown in your face.    Maybe you should consider switching career paths.   Jungkook leans in close to you when you’re in earshot distance. “What the hell are y—”   “Jungkook, this is Hyuna. Hyuna, this is Jeon Jungkook.”   Her hips sway as she approaches him and she extends her hand. “Hi, nice to meet you.”   Jungkook shakes it with a polite smile, trying to diminish the awkwardness and attempting to be civil. In the meanwhile, Hyuna’s cat-eyes sweep him up and down, focusing on how his pants are tight around the meat of his thighs.   Her perfume fills your senses. “Nice to meet you.”   You stick your nose between them. “Jungkook goes to baking school, so he knows how to knead dough! He’s really good at it!” You grab his wrist, pulling it up in front of her eyes. “Look at his hands!”   “Oh god, shut up.” If there was enough light in the room, you’re sure his face would be beet red. But unbeknownst to you, Jungkook’s embarrassment is second-hand. He takes his own hand back and looks at the stranger. “I’m so sorry for her behaviour. She’s obviously drunk.”   “I’m not!” You’re just….happier. A little giddy. On an energy high.   Hyuna giggles and looks between you both. “Are you two togethe—”   “No.” Jungkook cuts her off and is truly thankful his relationship with you isn’t like that. He can barely handle you as a friend. Anything more would frankly be overwhelming. “We aren’t.”   “Oh, okay, cool. I thought this was going to be a threesome situation.”   Jungkook starts wheezing as you giggle. You put your hand on Jungkook’s shoulder and squeeze. “Oh no, he can’t keep up with me. Not for miles. Anyway, I’ll leave you two at it. I should probably go to the bathroom, gotta take a leak.”   “Y/N.” Jungkook calls after you. “Y/N! L/N Y/N!”   He shouts after you, tightening his fist and wondering if you actually have the outrageous audacity to leave him behind like this with some chick you picked up like you just went grocery shopping. But much to his dismay, you don’t even glance behind you. You dive into the sweaty bodies, disappearing from sight.   He groans internally and turns back to Hyuna.   She smiles at him. “So you bake?”   “Yeah, well, I’m in this pastry program.”   “Wow.” Her thick lashes bat. “That’s so impressive! So you can make whatever dessert you want?”   “Working towards it.” He smiles meekly. “Are you, uh, here by yourself?”   Jungkook has never done this before, never talked to a girl like this — but so far it’s not bad. Probably because it was her who was salvaging the conversation and lessening the stiffness.   “It’s actually one of my friends’ birthday today, so we’re just out celebrating, but I lost them in the crowd.” She flashes a million watt smile. “I assume you’re just with your friend, Y/N?”   “Yeah, she dragged me out here. She’s a headache. I swear she’s shaving years off of my life.”   Hyuna laughs and bats his arm. She leans close and he swallows hard at the way her eyes sparkle, her lashes thick, and her cleavage is practically shoved in his face. “Want to dance?”   “I don’t really…”   “It’ll be fun. Trust me.” She takes his hand and drags him out on the floor.   In the meanwhile, half across the club, you’re dancing to the music. It’s not until a second later that you feel someone's hands on your waist and you turn around in their arms.    In dark lights, you make out a half-decent looking guy. “Shake that ass, babe.”   You smile at him, looping your arms around his neck. Maybe this is how it was always supposed to be. Giving into temptation and the heat of another person’s body, not having to commit to someone else and put yourself out there. Maybe you were doing it all wrong to begin with.   You don’t even know his name, but you dance with the stranger, your sweaty bodies moving against one another. You’re not sure how long it lasts, but eventually he presses his crotch to your front and offers to buy you a drink through a whisper in your ear.   When you get to the bar, you don’t see Jungkook and Hyuna anymore and you wonder if he’s getting lucky in the washroom or if he’s gone completely.    But you try not to dwell on what your best friend might be doing. You focus on the present moment and order a Strawberry Daiquiri. You’re sipping your drink as you talk to the guy. You don’t exactly catch his name, but it doesn’t matter. The fewer connections, the better. After all, you’re just looking for a rebound.   But you’ve never done this before and in your nervousness and intoxication, you end up on a tangent. “Like it’s so easy to make better cheesecake! And there’s so many kinds of cheesecake.”   “Cheesecake?” The tall blonde frowns as if he doesn’t understand what you’re talking about.   “Yeah! Cheesecake! All you need is the crust, cream cheese, sugar, eggs, sour cream, vanilla extract, and all-purpose flour! My favourite is actually chocolate cheesecake in a restaurant back at home and they had chocolate wafer crumbs in the crust and it was so delicious, must have had ganache between the layers or something. I can’t remember anymore.”   “Oh, cool.” The guy glances around, looking at the other people on the dance floor and the bar. When he realizes you’ve stopped talking, he directs his attention to you again. “Uh, what’s a ganache?”   “Ganache? It’s just chocolate and heavy cream and you can use it as a glaze, icing, sauce, or filling for pastries. You’ve probably had it before if you’ve had chocolate cake!”   “I see.” His eyes flicker down to the swell of your chest exposed by your small black number, and they linger there. “You ever tried pouring chocolate over your body?”   “What?”   You realize he doesn’t care about baking — he doesn’t care for what you have to say.   The guy excuses himself to the bathroom and never comes back. After ten minutes of waiting, you sigh and check your phone. You stand up, ready to leave as it occurs to you one-night stands aren’t really your thing.   You’re about to text Jungkook, but you catch his mop of hair on the dance floor. He’s dancing with Hyuna, her back pressed to his front. His hands are placed on the dips of her waist, grinding his front against her ass that’s pushed out. You make a face of disgust before snapping a blurry picture and sending to the group chat.   But Jungkook seems to be having fun, out of breath, but still enjoying himself. You’re happy for him, glad that at least one of you is getting lucky tonight. Or rather, it was Hyuna getting lucky.   Jungkook’s a great catch. You wonder why you didn’t realize it sooner. Whoever ends up with him will be fortunate.

[dirt-cup-draco]

Fred x Reader - Truth or Dare

Can I request a Fred x reader?They + some buds are playing T or D in common room with actual truth potion,you avoid doing a truth at all cost and have to go through the most mental dares.But George catches on + gets cheeky like ’I dare you to tell us why you havent picked truth’.At first you dont speak coz if you do you’ll confess your feelings for Fred.Coz you cant tell truth if you dont say anything.You can pick how it goes after😊sorry this if this is too long,I haven’t requested a fic before

Fred had his arm slung around your shoulder affectionately as you chatted idly with Lee and George. He sipped at his firewhisky, eyes moving about the room as the party had started to slow. The smart kids were turning in for the night, knowing they still had classes once the sun rose the next morning. The eager kids were already wasted, tripping over themselves and rushing to the nearest toilet as their stomach won out over their heads. The rest of you whoever were swaying comfortably to the music that had been turned down. 

The night was coming to an end but Fred wasn’t ready. You were warm and pliant against his side and he was soaking up every second. It wasn’t rare for you to be this close, you had been closer to George once upon a time but the two of you had steadily melded together. George was still your best friend but Fred knew he was different. Fred knew you liked him, it might have something to do with the fact that George got tired of the both of you going to him with your tales of woe. Fred supposed his twin could only handle so much of, “Why doesn’t he/she like me back?” before he snapped. Fred considered himself lucky that his twin was such a miserable secret keeper. 

Fred nursed his drinking, nodding subtly at George whose face split into a wicked grin. “Alright everyone who is sober enough to walk,” George teased as he announced to the Gryffindors partying around him, “It’s time to play...” He stalled, pretending to play the drums as he smacked Lee’s back in a rhythm that had people turning his way. “Truth or Dare!” 

Fred felt you tense momentarily but then you were pulling away. “And that is where I take my leave,” You declared but George whirled on you as Angelina sat on the floor, Fred following her lead as the other other participants followed suit by making a wide circle. 

“Nonsense!” George encouraged, wrapping an arm around your shoulder and guiding you to the circle where he sat you right across from Fred. You looked nervous and Fred would have otherwise been bothered if he wasn’t positive that you were just nervous about telling him how you felt. He was giddy for the night to unfold. 

George, however, wanted to draw it out. Fred had been hoping that his brother would coax you to pick truth quite early, leaving the rest of the night for whatever the two of you decided to do. It seemed that neither you or George wanted that to happen as you picked dare once again. After several wicked dares that had you leaving an article of clothing in Filch’s office as well as lobbing a dungbomb into the Slytherin’s commonroom as well as Snape’s potions classroom, you were tired and ready to turn in. 

“Dare,” You sighed, shoulders heavy as George thought for a moment. You hated this game, it had nothing to do with the juvenile dares and questions and everything to do with the look George had been giving you all night. He wasn’t going to go easy on you and you were desperate to escape. It was impossible though as Fred cheered you on every time you completed a wacky dare, a smile on his face. You hated to admit it but you craved validation from the boy who sat criss-cross in front of you, his clothes switched with Angelina’s as he teased that he thought he look ravishing in her skirt.

Fred’s eyes traveled to you and a frown tugged at his lips. You didn’t look like you were having fun at all. George was looking quite maniacal, the cogs of his brain turning so quick steam should have been coming out of his ears. Fred didn’t like the look of this. 

“Alright, Y/N, I dare you to tell us why you haven’t picked truth all night long,” George quipped. “And no lies,” he added as you opened your mouth and then promptly shut it. This happened a few more times, your mouth opening but then clamping back shut as your eyes darted around the group that had slimmed in the past hour as Lee, Angelina, George, Katie, Fred and you remained. 

Even that was overwhelming apparently as your stomach churned and your palms became clammy, heart thudding against your chest. “I’m sorry,” You muttered as you stood quickly, stepping over the mess of discarded cups and a shoe without it’s pair as you vanished to your dorm.

 “Nice going!” Fred scolded. “I wanted you to get her to talk, not scare her off!” 

George realized he had been a bit too hard on you but he wanted you and his brother to be happy, he regretted upsetting you however. It seemed like all would be well though as his twin got up and chased after you. 

“What’s that all about?” Lee asked, puzzled. 

“Do you try to be this stupid?” Katie rolled her eyes, silently cheering you and Fred on. 

Meanwhile Fred caught you just before you slammed the door to your dorm shut. “Y/N, hey, what’s going on?” He asked as you slumped on your bed, rubbing frustrated tears from your eyes. His heart ached. Fred may have scolded his brother but he had just been doing what Fred had asked him to do. 

“’M just tired Freddie,” You gave your poor excuse, kicking your shoes off. 

“Are you sure?” Fred pressed. “It didn’t have anything to do with what George asked?” 

“Oh come off it!” You burst out. “What does it matter?” Fred shut up and looked downcast. You let out a strained breath. “I’m sorry, I’m just not ready to... admit some personal things,” You said carefully. “Truth or dare makes me really uncomfortable.”

Fred came to sit beside you, hand running up and down your back carefully as you leaned into him, head lulling against his shoulder. “Would it make you feel better if I admitted something?” Fred asked as he shifted, and you followed, now directly across from each other, knees bumping together as you crossed your legs underneath you. 

You watched Fred as he grew timid. His fair skin gave him away every time and he was blushing as he picked at a loose thread on your bed cover. “Is something wrong?” You asked, suddenly worried. The redhead reassured you immediately everything was alright with a shake of his head and his hold on your hand. 

“I just should have come talk to you first,” He started with and you looked puzzled. 

“About?” You coerced. 

“You,” 

“You should have come talk to me first about...me?” You weren’t following. Fred sighed and began to rock gently in his place, his nerves getting the better of him as you squeezed his hand to help relax him. 

“Yeah, but instead I asked George a couple of days ago to try and get everyone together for truth and dare once we won the quidditch game-”

“Cocky,” You giggled but Fred just continued. 

“-and he obviously did that, I just didn’t think that he would go so hard on you. Maybe more than that I thought you would pick truth sooner. I didn’t think you wouldn’t get upset either which was my fault, I know you don’t like being put on the spot-” Fred was speaking quickly, his train of thought derailing quickly and with seemingly no survivors. 

“Woah, woah,” You interrupted. “Slow down. So let me get this straight, you asked George to start a truth of dare game so I would pick truth and say what exactly?” 

“That you like me?” Fred finished for you, his phrase turning into a question as he became sheepish, now suddenly worried you didn’t feel the same and he would have only succeeded in angering you and ruining your friendship. 

“Y-you know?” You asked, suddenly pale. 

“Yes,” Fred confirmed but noticed the panic in your eyes. You were beginning to apologize when he cupped your cheeks in his hands. “But I wanted you to admit it because I like you too! A lot... It seems I’ve just mucked things up though,” He sighed, dejected. 

“Say it again,” You pleaded, needing to fully grasp what he was saying.

“I really like you Y/N,” Fred admitted, more sturdy and confident this time. 

You let a smile break out on your face and you held your hands over his to keep them in place. “I have to say, you did muck up things,” Fred’s expression fell. “But nothing so bad a kiss or two wouldn’t fix it,” 

“You mean-?” Fred blushed.

“Kiss me,” You giggled, as he nodded excitedly, rushing forward to kiss you. It was eager and sloppy, your nose sore from him missing the mark the first time and bumping it but that faded to the background as he tried again and you two fell into an easy rhythm. 

“I like you Fred,” You finally admitted aloud, the fear gone as he looked at you in a way you had never seen, or maybe just never noticed, before. 

“Clearly,” He teased but pulled you back to him, not having had gotten enough of your lips on his. 

Maybe you didn’t hate truth or dare as much as you thought. 

[snk-oc-guide]

Please review my OC?

Danica Orlov Name meaning: "Danica" is the latin word for Danish, but it is also the personification of the morning star in slavic mythology. "Orlov" means "son on Oryol" in Russian, a nickname meaning eagle. Nickname(s): Red(for her hair color), Dani (by her yearmates)

Species: Human Gender: Female Age: 16 (850) Height: 170cm Weight: 60kg

Relatives:

Radek Orlov (father)

Francine Murphy (mother)

Birthday: June 3rd, 834 Birthplace: Mitras Residence: Wall Rose Status: Alive

Occupation: Soldier Affiliation: Survey Corps Former Affiliation: 104th Training Corps

Former Occupation:

Seamstress Apprentice

Medic Apprentice

Field Medic

Thief

Scullery Maid (Dishwasher)

Graduation Rank: Outside Top Ten

Titan Kills: During Battle of Trost

Solo: 0

In Team: 0

During 57th Expedition:

Solo: 0

In Team: 0

APPEARANCE: Danica is a juvenile female with thick, auburn hair that sweeps down to her shoulders which she wears up in a bun or ponytail and amber colored eyes. Standing at a height of 170cm, she is broad-shouldered and narrow-hipped, fairly muscled and not very well-endowed. Her fair skin is heavily freckled, as if someone generously sprinkled breadcrumbs on a plate, and the stress and small numbers of sleeping hours of the past years have painted crows feet and dark circles permanently on her eyes.

As a soldier, Danica wears the standard uniform with the badge of the Survey Corps. When off duty she dresses in a loose, boat-necked green shirt with the sleeves rolled up, black opened vest, black tights and knee-high sturdy boots.

PERSONALITY: Danica is a reserved, mature, pragmatic and intelligent girl whose caring heart and kind nature have hurt her heavily after the fall of Shiganshina.

As a child she was open and expressive, unafraid of taking risks and getting hurt. Surrounded by people she loved and who loved her in return she led an idyllic childhood. Unafraid of work, she was completely in her element when helping around her foster family's bakery or later in her apprenticeship.

From an early age she showed restraint over her anger, not wanting to hurt those around her and preferring to just back down from an argument, although she couldn't always keep a lid on her emotions. For her to get really angry took a good reason or a buildup overtime, but when it happened she would stop caring about the feelings of others and use her words to strike where it hurt most. After reducing others to tears, Danica would feel ashamed and renew her effort to temper herself. Her self-restraint was noted by her foster family who encouraged her to always be levelheaded.

Sensitive and empathetic to those around her, Danica craved a greater understanding of people and the world in general, although she never entertained thoughts of going outside the walls. She was content with her lot in life, with her work and with her family and friends, even if they weren't related by blood. Despite wondering now and then who her real parents were she never gave it much thought as in the end she felt it didn't matter.

After the fall of Shiganshina, Danica retreated into herself, becoming listless and apathetic. It didn't help that the Beckers blamed her for living, while their daughter did not and had ceased all relations with her. That the only person in her life who remained committed soon afterwards suicide when both of them were drafted among the refugees for the culling of '46 made things even worse for Danica. She felt abandoned, lonely and depressed. Her thoughts and dreams gave her no rest, when she wasn't thinking about Adele (the Becker's daughter), she was thinking about Gigi (a seamstress and friend).

The world felt old and decayed, she was constantly tired and weary and only got up every day out of bed because she could not stand the thought of wasting away. It also helped that her new employer in Trost had taken a liking to her and had started her on a crash course in medicine, to increase her chances of coming back. Not wanting to disappoint him or to be useless she persevered. A larger part of her simply didn't want to die.

The horrors of the expedition that came from both Titans and people who had nothing to lose and no restraints anymore, left a lasting mark on Danica. Unable to view humanity with kindness or concern anymore, Danica grew to have problems relating to those around her. The loss of the man who had helped her and later her partner in crime only made her sink further in her depression. Had Hannes and one of his officer not been notified of Elia's body and found her alongside him, Danica might have just remained there until she wasted away. Hannes kindness however rekindled something inside Danica who realized she still wanted to live and that she was tired of being tired, sad, weary, guilty, ashamed, lonely and always having to start again.

Her decision to join the Garrison changes after the Battle of Trost however when she begins piecing the puzzle in front of her and realizes that things are not what they seem. Wanting to learn the reasons behind the war, but more so about the Colossal and Armored Titan who had ruined her life she decides to join the Survey Corps, even if she would come to regret it.

HISTORY: Radek Orlov was a Military Police officer whose affair with Danica's mother, the youngest daughter of a noble non-Eldyian clan affiliated with the ruling government, saw him transferred to the Survey Corps when it was discovered Francine was with child. As for Francine, herself, she was forced to go into hiding until Danica was born then give her up so that the Murphy's wouldn't be affected by scandal and that her engagement to the eldest heir of another noble clan could go through.

(rowan) you say her mother, francine, is from a non-eldian clan. that isn't possible, as all the residents within paradis are eldians. even the members of the ruling government are eldians

Francine's father wasn't completely without mercy however, even if he sent Danica as far away as Shinganshina, he also arranged for his bastard granddaughter to be taken in by a foster family as well as an apprenticeship to a seamstress when she reached her tenth birthday.

Danica grew up with the Beckers, knowing nothing of this, in a cheerful, lively and loud environment. She was best friend's with the Beckers middle daughter, Adele and often time helped around the family's business, the bakery. From an early age she developed a curiosity for herbs, brought on by Beckers varied recipes that included them and when she left their household for Madam Girard's, she was very happy to receive a book on botany from them. This passion slowly turned into gardening which became her hobby, as she would from there on always keep a small pot to grow mint in it (using the leaves alongside baking soda to wash her teeth or to chew to keep her breath fresh).

At Madam Girard's, a local seamstress of some renown inside and outside Shinganshina, Danica would spend most of her days sewing alongside her teacher and the other girls in her employment. Despite the long hours of work, she grew quite close to the other girls, the two she roomed with, Yulya and Gigi, especially. Whenever given free time, she would more often than not find herself in their company or visiting the Beckers. Sometimes Yulya and Gigi would join her at the Beckers and soon Yulya and the Becker's oldest son, Gregor grew close to one another much to Danica's great joy, as she had been the one to introduce them.

(rowan) i think it should be noted that just because danica is apprenticed with the seamstress, it doesn't mean she lives with her. it just means she basically has an internship, and will treat it like a job, except she is only getting paid in knowledge/experience. if this was a farm, i could understand having to live there, otherwise i find it kind of weird.

STORY: On the day the Colossal Titan appeared, Danica and Adele were out together. The frightening sight made them lock hands. When the breach occurred, Danica was blown back by a piece of falling debris. Adele was not so lucky and Danica was left to stare in shock at the disembodied arm she was holding hands with. Her best friend being a mere smear on the floor, Danica was on the verge of going into shock when she was jostled by the panicked surge of the fleeing crowd into dropping the arm and running. To this day she cannot remember how exactly she managed to escape to the boat, but when she came to all she could do was tremble and cry.

Upon arriving in Trost she tried to find anyone she knew and eventually stumbled upon Gigi who was quite a fright, having been witness to a Titan devouring Madam and crushing Yulya underfoot. Eventually Danica managed to reunite with the Beckers who asked about Adele. Claming up, all Danica could find in her power to do was shake her head much to the family's horror. Asked to leave and not come back by a grieving mother and father, Danica went off and she and the Beckers never spoke again. Returning to Gigi's side, the two of them eventually found work, Gigi with a local tailor and Danica with a doctor thanks to her knowledge of sewing and botany.

(rowan) i can understand grief making the beckers react unfairly and out of emotion, but considering they've raised danica since she was a baby and have treated her like she was their own, i'm surprised by their reaction. it makes it seem like they never loved her in the first place. if that's the case, i think their behavior towards her should change a bit, and danica should come off as a bit more neglected. since before it seemed like they loved and cared for her.

When the culling in 846 was called, both Gigi and Danica were drafted from among the refugees. Gigi unable to cope and fearful of a terrible death, hanged herself, much to Danica's horror as she was the one to find her friend.

(rowan) while i think this is an interesting idea, during the culling, only men were selected out of the civilians to take part in it. the women and children were left alone. it doesn't state that specifically, but if you go back to look at the images about the event, you don't see any women or children. just the male civilians and the members of the survey corps.

even if that wasn't the case, however, i don't see why gigi and danica would be selected. the world needs children to grow and take place of the older generation. they also need women to keep the walls populated. so why would two young girls be sent off to die, when the government knows they could be potential future mothers? it makes more sense to weed out the old, since they're going to die anyway.

this is just my take on it though! since nothing is officially stated regarding the people they selected among the civilians, you're free to do as you like.

Dr. Owen, despite his gruff and cantankerous personality, was in his own way of great help to Danica especially concerning the upcoming expedition, emphasizing that her medical knowledge no matter how limited might just be her ticket home. As it so happens he was right and Danica was placed among the soldiers of the Survey Corps, alongside their own medics when the expedition began.

Danica would be among the few civilian survivors who returned from the culling. Changed by the horrible things she had seen and the many wounded she could not save, Danica decided she would never again step a foot outside the safety of the walls and that she would not pursue a career as a doctor. Returning to Dr. Owen to take her few belongings back, she was dismayed to find out from his neighbors that the old man had died, knifed for trying to break up a fight.

Alone and without anything to her name, Danica is forced to sleep on the unsafe streets. In the days to come, unable to find employment and going hungry she begins stealing food to survive. Soon she encounters a young boy, Elia, a thief and pickpocket, who suffers of pneumonia. Like her he is a refugee forced by circumstances into such a life and his sickness makes it even harder to find honest work.

The two of them team up to survive and grow quite close to one another, Elia going as far as to teach Danica parkour so that they can make easier escapes during their heists. This partnership does not last as Elia takes a turn for the worse and dies one night. Once more alone, Danica realizes that nothing in her life has had any stability ever since Shiganshina, that the past year had been nothing but hunger, pain and suffering. Weary and tired of this lifestyle, but not knowing what to do she remains alongside her friend's body until two Garrison officers come upon them.

Elia's body is taken away and one of the men who found her, Hannes takes Danica to a pub for a hot meal, going as far as to secure a job for her there as a washer in the kitchens. The kindness shown to her, leaves Danica in tears and she decides then and there to enroll in the military the coming year and join the Garrison on her graduation.

When the time comes she signs with the 104th Cadet Corps. The intense training as well as her own continued practice of parkour, leave Danica exhausted more often than not at the end of the day. Despite her growing skills, she does not care much about grades as she is still quite set on the Garrison and makes sure to put in enough effort to pass, but not overtake anyone. More concerned to learn how to defend herself, she focuses only on improving herself without putting effort into any exams, not caring about the instructors opinions that she could do much better. This coupled with her own reserved nature, her inability to connect to her peers or relate to their worries, paint Danica as stuck up and someone who thinks she is better than everyone else. When she eventually learns how others perceive her, she is both mortified and distressed. Until that moment she had not realized how much she had changed the past two years and as the situation is something of her own doing and she has no idea how to change, Danica remains on the outside more often than not. Eventually as team building exercises are introduced, her natural abilities as a leader shine through and her relationship with her yearmates becomes friendlier, although she is still seen by most as stuck-up.

(rowan) danica seems like she doesn't care about the people around her, and she is only focused on reaching her goals. i thought she also didn't get close to people, as a way to protect herself, since up until now everyone she was close to either left her or died.

that brings me to wondering why all of a sudden, danica cares how others perceive her. since she never took time to get close to her yearmates, i find it weird that she suddenly cares about what they think of her.

unless, her becoming "mortified and distressed' has more to do with herself, and her realizing how much she has changed. and less to do with her finding out what they think of her.

this is just an observation i made when i read her backstory and etc, so i could be wrong in the assumption. either way, i hope me pointing it out helps in some way.

Graduating outside the top ten, Danica is stationed alongside the other cadets in Trost. Despite having lukewarm relations with most of her yearmates, she is buoyed with happiness, knowing that she would join the Garrison soon. This is remarked by the rest of her teammates: Vera Fermi, Leon Mikaelsson, Theo Durand, Kathrin Beckert and Felix Grey. Assigned to patrol the six of them, get to know one another a bit better but the appearance of the Colossal Titan puts a quick stop to Danica's joy and her first honest attempt in years to make friends. Her reaction isn't missed by the rest of her squad, who despite their shock and horror have an easier time, never having seen titans before and still somewhat optimistic as to their own chances. They manage to get Danica moving to HQ where they receive their orders. Despite her shaking, Danica is aware enough to order Theo Durand to requisition additional gas canisters and blades to carry as the possibility of running out is quite high. She assigns him and Felix Grey to divide the burden among themselves, placing the remaining Vera Fermi, Leon Mikaelsson and Kathrin Beckert as the scouting/vanguard of their squad, with the two logicians and herself as a medic behind.

Surprised but seeing the merit of her idea, they prepare and head to their assigned position only to find that the Titans had advanced. Realizing that the first line of defense had fallen, Danica has an outburst of nerves, cursing everything in sight. Devising a plan to separate and pick them off one by one, using her and the logicians to lure them in while the three assigned to the vanguard take them out works for a while. But as titans fall, her squad mates become overconfident and bite more than they can chew. Vera is caught and Leon and Kathrin jump to her rescue. They are promptly killed by titans and Felix and Theo try to make a break for it, overcome by fear. Their mistake costs them their lives but allows Danica to use their death to make her escape. She doesn't stop until she finds more of the 104th cadets and as they hopelessly watch the advancing enemy, Danica is filled with dread. Unable to stop wondering how much time they have until the Armored Titan appears, Mikasa's sudden arrival and lousy speech emboldens her and she joins the rest of her yearmates in making a break for HQ to resupply. (Things go more or less as they did in canon at HQ)

The Rogue Titan's leaves Danica without words, more so after Eren emergence.

Keeping a close eye for the appearance of the Armored Titan as they flee for the safety of Wall Rose, Danica makes a few realizations:

The Armored Titan was nowhere in sight.

The Colossal had appeared as suddenly as it did in Shiganshina and just as suddenly dissipated, much like the Armored.

Eren's titan form was already discomposing when he emerged.

(rowan) i thought danica didn't remember much after the fall of shinganshina? i thought she just remembered her friend dying, and then somehow making it to one of the boats and arriving at trost?

that being said, i find it weird just remembers something like the armored titan appearing, nonetheless disappearing. especially considering the chaos that was taking place. it'd be hard to keep track of something like that.

Although her mind is in a jumble and she hasn't yet come across what exactly is wrong with this picture, she asks Mikasa and Armin to allow her to stand with them when defending Eren. Despite their skepticism about her intentions and Mikasa's threat that she would die if she were to make a move for Eren, she is allowed to defend him to the panicked Garrison. Once Commander Pixis arrives on the scene and agrees to Armin's plan, the three ask Danica why exactly she stayed with them. The only thing Danica thinks to say is that "The Armored Titan hasn't appeared." This confuses them, until Armin straightens all of a sudden as of just now noticing the same thing. Both Armin and Danica come to realize that the Armored Titan might not appear at all, that those two titans had already found what they wanted.

(rowan) very confused as to why danica would want to put her life on the line for people she doesn't know. i'm surprised she even knew their names lol but it just seems very random for her to want to suddenly stand in defense of eren. what is she gaining? what is the point to it?

also, her assumptions revolving around the titans are weird. at this point, no one knows anything about the titans other than the fact they are out to end humanity without rhyme or reason. thinking of the armored titan and colossal titan as things with "motives" or "reasons" is not fitting for the current timeline, where they don't know anything. so her thinking that the two titans "have already found what they wanted" is weird, as titan's don't have thoughts. and as far as they know, the colossal and armored are just that: titans.

another thing i don't think fits, is danica putting the armored and colossal titans together as a pair. as in, if one appears, then the other one isn't far behind. titans don't work in teams or anything, so to expect that from them doesn't add up. even if they had showed together during the fall of shiganshina, that was just one instance. there isn't much of a pattern to turn it into something predicable.

Danica is left frothing at the mouth, her mind working overdrive as she suspects the Colossal and Armored might both be like Eren, shifters, and that the people who died five years ago were merely collateral, instead of their main objective.

(rowan) again, this is something no one knows about yet. in the current state the word "titan shifters" hasn't even been discovered. they all think eren is an actual titan who has adapted to fit in with the humans to kill them all. very far fetched, but again, they don't know much about titans except that they kill humans. eren having been a titan is enough to confuse and scare them.

the fact that the intelligent characters such as armin, hange, and erwin, took a bit to discover there were others like eren says enough about how unbelievable the theory is. according to these people, there is no world outside the walls. how could they even imagine something like titan shifters existing?

so, unfortunately, i don't think it'd be fitting to have your character draw that conclusion. no matter how smart they are, i doubt they're smarter than the aforementioned characters. if anything, danica needs more evidence before jumping to such a conclusion.

Burning with anger, Danica is quick to interrogate Eren about his transformation and how it came about to see if Armin's plan had a chance. As he tells what he remembers, Danica realizes that Eren's intent, his desire to kill the titans might have been a trigger and advises him to think only "I will pick the boulder and seal the breach" and only that. She is quick to point out that if he loses control of this power, even if he's never before realized he had it, things could take a turn for the worse not only for himself but Mikasa and Armin too. Eren agrees readily, but can't stop asking why she is so fired up. Danica tells them that she too comes from Shiganshina and that she too has lost everyone, to the trio's surprise as Danica has never even hinted at her past before. With a better understanding of one another, they part ways. The mission is a success from the start as Eren takes Danica's words to heart as well as minimal loss of life on the part of Eren's protectors. Not long after Eren and the rest of his team's triumphant return, the Survey Corps arrive. As the battle comes to a close and the Garrison and Survey Corps join forces in cleaning the town of Titans, Danica becomes aware that her suspicions were right and that there's more going on than what can be seen at first glance. Although she cannot point to why exactly the two titans waited so long to mount another attack, especially as the Armored could have just made a run for Wall Rose and no one would have been able to stop him, Danica realizes that she wants answers. Knowing that if she joins the Garisson she might not ever find out why they attacked, why so many had to die (why did she have to suffer so much), she tears up and laughs bitterly knowing that her only option is the Survey Corps if she plans to go ahead with finding answers. Even as she shakes with fear, a much bigger part of her burns for knowledge.

(The rest would be spoilers when I get to writing as it steadily turns AU, since Danica manages to save some people (Mike [by agreeing to tell Zeke everything about the VME in exchange for their lives], Gelger, Nanaba [by being there on orders to inform them about the Beast Titan, and being able to help, also by realizing that Henning and Lynne's blades and canisters might still be of use after Gelger gets injured and she and Nanaba run out]) and even befriend them. Her past also comes under scrutiny in the Uprising Arc and that is when she learns about her parents.)

(rowan) i highly doubt zeke will spare mike if danica tells him about the 3dmg. if anything, i could see him killing them both/leaving them for dead right after getting the information. the only way to spare mike, is to not let zeke get a hold of him at all lol

as for her past, i have to ask, will it really change anything? if she discovers her birthright, what will it mean to her? you said her family is a noble one, but why are they so important? what is it exactly that they do? i feel like, to have such a background, it will have to mean and result in something important. otherwise, it would have just been better to make her a random orphan in shiganshina, rather than a bastard noble child.

STATS Combat: 7/10 Initiative: 7/10 Wits: 9/10 Teamwork: 7/10 Agility: 10/10

(rowan) i think some of the stats are bit high considering the information i was given. i would make initiative, a six, considering so far i've seen her having to receive a "push" before she does anything.

teamwork, is also a little high, considering her standoffish attitude. i would make it a six.

A/N: I'm sorry for giving you more work, but I've had this idea stuck inside my head for a while now and I really need some advice if the OC is worth actually writing in the story. I've tried to give her constant character development and a believable reason for joining the Survey Corps and I don't know how much of my ideas come across since English isn't my first language and there might be some spelling mistakes. I've also added the characters I would like to save and possible explanations about how she goes about them, but I'm a bit unsure if Mike's is even possible, because while Zeke does seem practical, he's also kinda ruthless.

(rowan) no problem at all! thank you for submitting this to us, and i hope i was at least a little bit of help.

as always, i like to remind everyone that you don't have to listen to my critiques, but they are honest thoughts and observations i made. and i also say them with your best interests in mind! :)

[rhotdornn]

[Tender Little Hearts II] - Sapling

Wayward lodge, The Step Autumnsfall aerst-eve, third Moon, Seventh Astral Era

The last ribbons of golden sunlight gradually seep behind the cracks and nooks of the mountains overhead. Spring always held sway over these distant shores, so far removed from the mainland... For even in Autumn’s advent could one stumble across fields replete with reds and whites, and yellows and blues; a tapestry of colours in bloom. From boundless glades brandishing beds of petals, inked in all hues of the rainbow, to harrowing peaks of stone and iron, maintaining solitary vigil over us who oft dwell ‘neath their crooked boughs... It truly did hold this unfathomable allure, a getaway haven above any other far and wide... Well, ‘s long as you valued green plains o’er roofs o’ maple crowns, or vast kingdoms of seamless snow that is...

I know I did. At least on that day.

It all began not unlike all other, grand adventures--with small feats. Naught more than a little ‘Dear diary,’ here, and a doe-eyed observation there... Oh, and ‘course, not wanting for a spirit of adventure and mischief o’erlong, nay...

It all began on a sunny day, a normal day by all accounts, I assure you, honest.

With a spirited lad, and his hunger for the world--among other things.

The royal court of Autumn, a terrific place, you see... They held all of these halls and keeps of splendour, bathed in vibrant strokes of the paintbrush, and the Great-forges, the Haer-fyr being the grandest of ‘em all, differed very little. A proud folk, a hearty folk--aye, they found succor in those decorated marbles and draped halls...

...Yet, they also were none the wiser to another quarter, one far more rustic, under Hyrtfyr’s belt. There, in the secluded midst of The Step, laid the Wayward roadside lodge... A rustic cabin, homely and tranquil, long-removed from the troubles that ailed the shores of the Mainland.

That is where, upon that day, a flighty Sea Wolf had made his escape from the familiar life that cradled him thus far, and with no more than eleven summers to his name, did he steal away, under the veil of night, a ship of silver sail and mallorn timber; or had he merely joined a well-versed crew secretly so? Frankly, memory oft eludes me on these matters...

I am but certain the former sounds far more tell-tale worthy, I’d say...

Yet, as the break of dawn sprang ‘hind the jagged pillars of the mountains, so too did he find himself upon this blessed, remote soil. While Roegadyn cubs may’ve been left wanting for stealth, this slippery Wolf honed his own skills throughout the better part of his childhood--fleeing ‘twixt chamber and hall with varying success, at first.

And where did the road take him? Well, of course he knew... In a sense. His destination was made known to him, albeit the course--not so. His day wasted away in exploration, and as morn waxed to midday, had he already learned of the fruits and the flowers that made their peaceful home there. As midday turned to wane into night, however, did he finally chance upon the steadfast planks and crude cobblestone that lined the foundations and walls of the beckoning homestead. A keyturn here, a few cursory glances there... And to bed he went, wholly spent and content, sinking away into dreamscape’s hold...

...Would that he awoke the same fashion--at least, as far as his feelin’ of accomplishment went. As his vibrant hues began to squint open, did he drink deep of the crashing sunlight; of the specks that flitted from window to floor, of the gentle wind that lulled the shutters.

Of the looming silhouette, colossal and terrible, perched by his bedside, with arms in a lax fold atop its breast. Yet, a gasp he could not withhold, no matter how hushed--his instinctive fear entrenched him firmly, forcing him to spring back in his covers. This, of course, was noted by the stalwart shade, now visibly sitting upon a pulled-up chair.

Its bulk soon gave it away--a male Sea Wolf, through and through, his skin brandishing a light tint of seafoam, and his fiery mane long, at ends sharp, with two great braids running past each side of his face, each encased in a metal cask near the bottom. It was the brittle clatter of these very cases that announced his attention steering towards the cub.

“Well, well, what d’ve have here, then... Rise an’ shine, lil’un.” His deep, powerful voice gently ushered into the wind, an unbecoming serenity yielding from his lips.

The child’s jaw unhinged gingerly, for as he took in the form of the man afore him, he could make no mistake; from the runic insignia upon his braids, to the war-paint cherishing his lower eye, even momentarily bereft of crown--the Haerkoen, the Greatking of Hyrthyml stood afore him. The youth was swift to knit his brows in frustration, pulling up the covers in a feeble attempt to remain concealed.

“Your--uh, your... Majesty, what... Brings you ‘ere...” The Sea Wolf feigned a cough, muffling his juvenile voice faintly.

“Oh, you know...” Began the larger Wolf, a single brow flicking up in quizzical amusement. “Making certain my ‘subjects’ are happy and content in all matters. Oh, and seein’ as you’re wholly satisfied with lounging the day away ‘ere by your lonesome, figured I’d take up the undying duty of delivering you this coveted... Journal, which someone simply must’ve stolen from ye--no way you’d e’er be clumsy enough to forget it by yourself... Mm? It belongs to you, I trust--especially so, given the detailed plans o’ yer lil’ flight to the Step littering its pages, and all.” 

Oh, he knew the words to pick at times... While mostly stoic, in the few instances where he could, he’d feed his own twisted amusement until every last drop was siphoned.

“What’re you doin’ ‘ere! Don’t ye have some important errand t’ attend to anyroads...” Barked back the child, the frustration of his own, flighty nature, gnawing at the back of his mind--how in the Seven Hells could he forget his most prized possession!?

“Nortstyr Rhotdornnsyn,” Thundering swept his proud voice, as ire rose and grew ripe in his burly throat, and akin to a whip he barked back, “The most important, unending duty o’ mine rests with my son, my daughter, my wife and my peoples--and none may come inbetween.” The quivering of the shutters would quell in the aftermath, as he assumed a much more resolute, hushed decibel. “Gather your belongings. We are to set out.”

While the rolling thunder instilled him with dread, the King ever knew the blood that ran in the child’s veins--and how a simple spark could give way to an unquenchable flame of anger. Not that he had been any different in his childhood, anyroads.

Off came the covers, and with a swift swipe of his arm did he snag back his adventuring journal--greedily pressing it to his chest, plumes of fire nearly seeping through his nostrils, as his own anger began to boil. 

“I am not leaving! I barely got here, lil’alone findin’ the place besides. I have no mind to go home yet.” Baleful daggers were shot towards the larger Wolf’s crimson hues, who only reprimanded him with a proud smirk. It did occur to the younger’un then that his senior wore less so a royal garb or anything alluding to his status--no, a simple, leather jacket, dark trousers and journeying boots was all he required for this task.

“I ne’er mentioned returning home just yet, my son. Come, while the dew is still fresh, and the ground rousing awake.” Into his arms he would guide Nortstyr, reassuringly guiding him off the weathered bedside. In bewildered wonder did the child glance up to the figure of order, and for the first time in a long, tiresome while, did the light of morn wash over not the High-king, but his father. Together, they would eat and make merry still, at the expense of the mature Wolf’s love for cuisine--before setting out into the wild.

There, after a longer trek drowned in rising laughter and, past halfway of the route, a piggybacking, did they at long last reach their quarry--an aged, immense oak, resting upon a sizable glade--a glade entirely cradled and embraced by the arms of the mountain. A quiet brook trickled and bubbled nearby, running off into a timid pond at the far side of the verdant plateau.

“We are come, at last. The Ahldeyha, or Old Oak, in short.” Spoke the labouring male, squeezing the child’s ankles within each fist affectionately. He gave him little room to ask his queries, for he knew what puzzled the cub’s mind. “You see, back when I was no more’n a lil’un, I fell into the same woes I seem to have cast upon you... My Pa was awfully invested in running everything, yet even in spite of it all, he noticed my turmoil... And while he did his best, it hardly sufficed.” Rhotdornn’s lips curled into a nostalgic smile, as he gazed up the terrible crown of the lush giant ahead, slowly taking his approach.

“So one day, o’erloaded as we both were with our burdens, our duties--I was stolen away, in the naught o’ night, by a mysterious figure cloaked in shadow... An’ next thing I knew, I awoke in that very cabin, with ol’ Hyrtfyr by my bedside, in these... Farmin’ trousers an’ suspender vest. I’ve never quite seen him out of his royal attire afore then, either.”

Nortstyr found great irony in this, if the devilish smirk upon his lips gave any indication. “Like father, like son.” He jabbed lower, prompting his father to rustle his legs playfully.

“Aye... Suppose it runs in our blood. An’ so we made away, an’ he took me to this place... A thing of beauty at night, as you’ll witness yourself. And together, we... Well...” Bracing both of his palms against the smaller one’s sides, he’d gradually pry him off, softly allowing him to find his own footing once more upon the gentle, dew-crowned blades of grass. From his large palm, at last, he’d unearth the smallest of seeds, to which the youth took immediately, taking it away as if it were the most brittle of all things.

“We made a promise or two to eachother, and dug into the earth together a little seed--no bigger than the one in your hand, my little lion.” Dornn’s hand soon proudly sat atop his son’s fiery locks, ruffling them with unwarranted affection.

“As we gave birth to a new life that day, so too did our bond grow, replenished with new life, new hope... And as our sapling grew greater an’ greater, so too did it nourish and strengthen the ties that bound us. A simple ritual, to be sure--but on this enchanted glade... You need little more than a bit of love, care and determination to see the smallest of saplings burst the mightiest of branches. Great feats oft spring from the smallest, most humble beginnings. Remember this, my child.”

The child nodded but once, awestruck as he had become from the intimidating shadow, blotting out the rays of daylight’s break near-wholly. “Aye, I... Think I un’erstand.” He slowly muttered, honouring the seed within his palm with an impressed, if not slightly fearful, glance. But in the end... It mellowed out, ultimately finding greater comfort than intimidation in such a small, timid thing.

Rhotdornn guided him ever lower, with one palm on Nortstyr’s back, and another patting a malleable patch of heavenly-soft ground to boot. With a bare palm each did they endeavour to draw out a smaller hole, none too far from the great Oak, gingerly lodging the seedling within the firm mouth of the earth. Rhotdornn slowly guided Nortstyr’s steps, piece by piece, showing him even as much as to how to pat the land together, how to straighten up the stalk... And from the nearby, gurgling brook did they draw water, sprinkling it across with due diligence, to tide the newborn life over, until new clouds were to blanket the sky, and pour clear rains upon the fertile soil.

At long last, they’d merely sit upon the ground, enjoying the peace that spoiled their senses vehemently. At long last, Rhotdornn spoke once more.

“The deed is done, Nortstyr. We ought to think of a name for it, I reckon... But that can wait. ‘Tis funny, in a sense--e’ery time I visit this spot, I visit a life I’ve given to one, while in the company of another... Much like my father, I’d say. Mayhap one day, even you will... Or you may yet unravel the magicks that stir within this place at dawn and dusk. Or you might chance upon a fetching lil’ witch and bring her hither to solve the mystery... Among other things.”

A sharp fang protruded from the roof of his upper lip, as his lips spread in a subtle grin, offering the smaller Wolf a little nudge with his elbow. Nortstyr scoffed, unused--and nearly unsettled--to witness his father in such informal chatter.

“Hrmph... As if. Besides, didn’t uncle Ornn say that adventure waits for no Wolf!? And so, none will hold me in one place with the world so large and ripe for the taking. Besides...” He quizzically peered up at his father, ever so innocently blinking upwards. “You mean to tell me sis an’ I were planted in the soil, too? Is that where Roegadyn children come from?”

Rhotdornn near-froze up, billowing a long breath out of his nose at the assumption. A long sigh followed thereafter, as a profound chuckle stirred his chest boisterously. “...Eh, let’s... Leave that mystery fer ‘nother day, can always ask one of your uncles or aunts--not Dhem, though. Never Dhem.” His brows knit together in a flat line, half-lidded as he had grown at the mere idea of his twin granting any... Quality advice in hindsight.

And so did the waning of the Sun, and the waxing of the Moon, finally come to pass. Together, did the two set out once more, homeward bound--hopeful glints for a brighter future twinkling in their eyes.

Signed, Nortstyr Rhotdornnsyn

[ The lower section of the entry appears to have weathered a few drops of liquid at the very bottom of the signature, bearing a more recent addition. ]

I miss you, Pa...

[freelancer-chronicles]

A PARABLE

THEY WROTE A PARABLE AJKSHDFAKJH

Once upon a time, there were two mean-faced girls. Everyone who encountered these girls remarked upon their fiendish demeanors, and all who spoke to them knew that they were no good.

Indeed, they were more than just mean-faced: they were spiteful, ill-behaved, insolent, loathsome children, profoundly averse to any useful labors and famous for playing the nastiest sorts of tricks on the town’s rule-abiding citizens. It was thought that these unpleasant girls had become so because they were abandoned as infants in the alleys of the town, with no parents to teach them right from wrong.

Yet despite the unfortunate circumstances of their upbringing, only the most charitable of souls took pity on children with manners as ill as these.

Such were the times.

One day, the two mean-faced girls worked a medley of malign pranks, which, in whispers to one another, they called “joys.”

They sprinkled vesnid powder on the fishmonger’s wares, and all who ate it went blind for a day. They tortured a baby wyvern and released it into the satomi, where it bit and scorched the cypher headmaster in his study. They stole handfuls of steel bearings from the javelin forge and scattered them around the market stalls, causing injury among the merchants and patrons. They even abducted the Sentinel Captain’s loyal hound and “walked” it in the nearby moorlands, where it was trampled near unto death by wild korox.

The two mean-faced girls took delight in these joys.

“We are the cleverest girls in the town! Do you agree?” said one.

The other replied, “Indeed, not only the cleverest—but the prettiest, too!”

And at that, they laughed a laugh so horrid, beastlike, and shocking that a nearby potter spilled her glaze and had to fetch more from the general goods dealer.

On this particular day, unlike many others, the Sentinel Captain caught the mean-faced girls in the act and held them for punishment. With her bandaged and baleful hound standing watch, and the perpetrators locked in the stocks nearby, the Sentinel listened to the girls’ victims and considered their pleas.

“Throw them in the deepest gaol!” roared the fishmonger, still rubbing his eyes.

“Brand them with the mark of Irascible Miscreant!” shrieked the market chief, hobbling on a crutch.

“Thirty lashes for these dirty lasses!” howled the cypher headmaster, indicating the bite marks on his forehead.

“Would you like the privilege yourself, headmaster?” shouted one of the girls, who wriggled out of her trousers and showed her pale bottom to all assembled.

The crowd surged forward, their loathing hot as lamp oil. “For pity’s sake, Captain,” they yelled. “Look at your own dog!”

But the Captain merely folded her arms. For all their warts, the Captain had a soft spot in her heart for these pranksters. And so, she sentenced the mean-faced girls to two weeks’ labor in the town’s Freelancer vault—no less than the law demanded.

“I know what you truly are,” she said to the girls on leaving them to the vaultmaster’s care.

“Somewhere there, inside your mean little selves, I sense a glimmer. The spark of invention. And we have need of that.” She got down on her knee to look them in their bad little faces. “So promise me: look to your glimmer, so that others may see what you truly are.”

“We promise,” they lied.

The vaultmaster left them that night to sweep the deep vaults, and thus their baser instincts resumed post-haste. They poked their noses into unsorted salvage. They played dress-up in obsolete javelin armor. They juggled spent mortar casings and danced on defused mines. They mixed up the confiscated scrolls and penciled filthy rebuses in the untranslated tomes. They hurled handfuls of exhausted ember dust into the air and marveled as the electric lights cast fractal polygons in the silvery clouds.

And then they discovered the box.

It was a plain-looking box, certainly overlooked by the junior cyphers who appraised Freelancer salvage. It had twelve sides of flat grey metal, cool and smooth to the touch, with a small hole on one end. When handled, it did nothing.

At first.

Now, all good little boys and girls know that objects like these must never be touched by anyone but an Arcanist, Freelancer, or other such experts. To do otherwise was to invite dangers beyond anything known within the walls of a town. And to discourage such invitations, the Sentinels enforced a punishment most severe: three fingers cut from the left hand.

Such were the times.

But the mean-faced girls had no respect for rules, lacking parents to teach them right from wrong. And so they employed their curious and creative minds to reveal the box's function.

Before long, they found they could slide the panels along invisible planes. With each slide, the box changed shape in the most indescribable ways. Twelve sides became sixteen; sixteen became twenty-three; twenty-three became eighteen. And with each change, an incandescent beam poured from the tiny hole. It glowed like fire and twinkled like ice.

The strange light changed whatever it touched. It changed an empty crate into a chunk of stone staircase. It changed a munitions shelf into a feather bed. It changed a section of the vault’s wall into a geyser of purple liquid filled with astonished squid. And some things changed into other things that were not easily described—a merging of materials both familiar and strange into shapes that bothered their eyes.

Soon, the vault had gone beyond all reckoning. But the two mean-faced girls cared little for that—they laughed a horrid, beastlike laugh at the bizarre shapes they had created.

But then, when they turned the beam on a juvenile grabbit, which they discovered trapped in a strider container, and changed it into a brass latrine… well, that's when their amusements gave birth to A Very Bad Idea.

“Everybody hates us,” whispered one.

“I’m not fond of them much myself,” grinned the other.

“They thrill at telling us what to do, and what not.”

“Such overbearing tendencies. It cannot be good for the digestion.”

“They are in luck. The right medicine for such has just now come into our possession.”

They smiled darkly and then spirited into the residential quarter, taking the box with them. First, they visited the sleeping fishmonger, and changed his eyes into glowing mushrooms. They visited the sleeping headmaster cypher and changed his bedtime sheets into a tumble of burning logs. They visited the market and turned the entire block into a seething maelstrom of whirling seawater, swallowing all the stalls and goods into a bottomless void of sucking black brine.

And when they came upon the Sentinel Captain's home, the two girls changed her dog into a half-turtle, half-saurian. It did not survive the night.

Then the girls perched their pale bottoms on the highest battlement and set to laughing a horrid, beastlike laugh at all they’d wrought: the terrified wailing of the fishmonger’s wife; the inferno at the cypher headmaster’s home; the growing squall in the central bazaar.

But, in time, the two mean-faced girls ceased their wild snickering and merely stared in disbelief.

“Do you think maybe we’ve tortured them enough?” one ventured.

“We could always save some for tomorrow,” the other smiled, weakly.

“I think we ought. Yes.”

So, they turned the box to face the town in general and worked to bring the puzzle back to its original shape—to reverse all they had done.

But in trying to master the puzzle, the puzzle itself grew ill-mannered. With every twist and turn, the town began to change in awful ways. At first, the residential quarter rose upward and folded wholly into the Freelancer guildhouse. Then the Sentinel keep twisted into itself like the braid in the schoolteacher’s hair. The storm in the market became a tornado of slicing metal, rending the houses apart with a crashing shriek. Distantly, the screams of the villagers reached the girls’ ears.

With growing terror in their hearts, they twisted and turned; rotated and pushed; rearranged and repositioned. As they did, the world before them began to unwind. The entire plateau on which the town stood ripped itself free and was hurled through space. The mountains crashed upwards into the sky. The sun drew itself into a thin line and wound itself around the horizon.

The girls clung to the box as they were surrounded by the scrambled chaos—the only home they’d ever known—and were lifted into the air. For a moment, all there was pandemonium—all they could hear was each other’s screams.

And then they crashed to the floor of the vault.

When they looked around, nothing was changed. All was as it had been before. And the box— it floated down between them, ominous and steaming, rolling to one side as it touched the ground.

With tears raked across her face, one turned to the other and said, “Perhaps… perhaps it is wise not to touch strange objects, as the grownups have said.”

“Yes,” the other whispered. “As they have said. Time and again.”

In that moment, the Captain’s glimmer flared brightly, and they wondered at it.

Then the door to the vault crashed open and in rushed the Sentinel Captain and three of her largest town guards.

When she saw the girls lying where they fell, with the box between them, she crossed her arms and looked quite cross indeed.

And so, the Captain, with her bandaged and baleful hound standing watch, locked the girls in the stocks and held them before the people. After all the traumas and horrors were recorded, the townspeople insisted that the mean-faced girls must lose three fingers each—no less than the law demanded.

But the Sentinel Captain frowned and spoke with a grim voice. “I’ve let you all down. I let the soft spot in my heart act in defense of these mean-faced children. We must all always do whatever it takes—indeed, more—to protect our way of life. That is the spirit of the law, if not the letter.” Then she turned the strange object on the children, and it mutated their bad little faces into horrible visages.

Bony protrusions erupted from the first child’s face. Between them, tufts of coarse black hair grew in gnarled curls. Her eyes turned white-blue and her skin molted off, growing back sallow and blotchy. The other was worse: one eye swapped position with her mouth, wiggling tendrils protruded from her cheeks, and her voice evoked a spoon scraped on rusted metal.

As the children howled a howl so pitiable, the Sentinel Captain turned and held the strange box up to the silenced people.

“Do not. Touch. Strange objects.”

The townspeople nodded in reply.

Forever after, the two horrible-faced girls were unbearable to look upon. Because of that, they were feared and shunned by all they encountered, and they lived alone with each other until they died.

Special thanks to Mary Kirby, Cathleen Rootsaert, and Jay Watamaniuk.

[blueplanettrash]

Eastside

This a story suggested by @2windowpanes where Lance and Keith met earlier in their lives and didn’t realise who they were until they did a mind meld exercise. I’m gonna have a few parts after as well. I hope everyone enjoys! 💙

They met one year at summer camp. They had a crush on the same guy and caught each other staring at him. At first, they fought for his attention and fought each other in the process. When they both realized that he was dumb as a stick and didn’t realize they were both crushing on him, they became best friends.

Their names were Akira and Leandro.

Usually, Leandro had no problem with getting along with people, no matter what but when he saw another boy looking at Dillon (the boy he had a crush on), he wouldn’t stand for it. He ended up calling the boy out behind the meal hall right after dinner.

“Stop looking at Dillon,” he said, crossing his arms trying to come off as threatening in some way. Surprisingly (at least to him), the boy just raised his eyebrow at him.

“No,”

“W-what!!? Why!?” He demanded.

“Because I like Dillon too!”

“So, stop liking him!”

“No!”

“Fine! I guess I’ll just have to get him to like me first!”

“Good luck with that!”

“You too!” With that Leandro, turned and stomped away, shoulders tense. Akira looked after him, his eyes narrowed.

And so their rivalry began. They were constantly working against each other, whether it be by bringing Dillon gifts or demanding their attention, or damaging each other’s chances in some way. One day, Leandro would shove a bug down the back of Akira’s shirt, making him hop around the camp, shrieking as he tried to get it off. Another, Akira would sneak under the table and tie Leandro’s shoelaces together.

Was it juvenile? Yes.

Did it work three times? Also yes.

In the grand scope of things, it wasn’t a very sophisticated “prank war” by any means but the word of their “battle” spread across the camp and it became something to look forward to. Almost everybody knew about the war and who it was about, except for one person;

Dillon.

Now, people would look at this situation and think Dillon is dumb as a stump and you’re absolutely right. He was, but they didn’t see it that way, in fact, they saw it as kind of adorable that he was so innocent. At first at least. Then one day after a wilderness survival session, they sat with Dillon as he studied the small map they were given.

“Is the blue part, water or the sky?” He asked, pointing at the coloured parts of the map. The rose coloured glasses over both of their eyes shattered. As candidates for the Galaxy Garrison and prodigy students, there's only so much they can take.

“Uuhhh, yeah, sorry Dillon, we gotta go,” Leandro said, pulling Akira up and bolting away.

Thankfully all of this happened in the first few weeks of the summer and for the rest of it, they spent together. Honestly, if they had to describe it, it was every summer teen movie filmed by Disney ever. You know, the typical enemies become friends and save the day or whatever. They never had a final boss battle but you get the point. Unless you count when their parents came to get them.

The night before they left, they snuck out of their cabin and to the fire pit. With the fire extinguished and the light from the camp almost completely blacked out, they could see the stars stretching across the entire sky.

“Wow, the whole summer passed and there wasn’t a single, other cute guy,” Leandro mused.

“If this is any inclination to the rest of my life, I’m gonna be disappointed,” Akira agreed, chuckling.

“What about Dylan, he’s kind of cute,” Akira suggested.

“Ehh, he’s okay I guess but man I thought this was gonna be my summer for romance,”  he sat up quickly before sighing. “What am I even talking about? No one would want to date me anyway,” Leandro huffed, pressing his face into his knees.

“What’d you mean?” Akira asked with concern. So far this summer, he hadn’t shown this side to Akira. He was usually confident in himself and in turn boosted Akira’s confidence.

“Dude, just look at my face, no guy would ever ask me out,” he peeked back at Akira.

“Well, at least you’ve got perfect teeth,” he shot back crossing his arms and lifting his lip to flash metal lined teeth at him.

“The braces are gonna come off eventually, my skin is gonna look like this forever!” Leandro whined.

“You’re being dramatic Leandro,”

“Obviously!”

“Come on, we’re only fourteen, we’ve got forever to find boyfriends!”

“When have you been this upbeat?” Leandro said with mock suspicion.  

“Since I saw my best friend upset,” He scoffed, crossing his arms triumphantly.

“Man, why can’t I have friends like you at home?” Leandro sighed, laying back and looking at the stars.

“Because I’m irreplaceable,” Akira teased, laying beside Leandro.

“True,” he sighed. “I’m gonna miss you Akira,” he said quietly after a beat.

“Me too,” he sighed, looking over at Leandro.

“Promise you’ll come back next summer?” Leandro asked, his eyes suspiciously glassy. He held out his pinky, Akira sniffed and nodded his head latching his pinky to his.

“Pinky promise,”

“You’re not going back this summer,” his mama informed him as she pulled out his suitcase from the closet.

He’d just gotten off school for the summer break and brought the camp application to his mother to sign so he could back. He couldn’t wait to see Akira again and catch up. Unfortunately, his mama had other plans.

“What!?” Lance cried, his eyes wide. “Why not!?”

“We’re going to Cuba for the summer,” she said shortly, handing the case off to her son. Normally Lance would be excited to be spending his summer away from home but he’d been waiting for camp the entire year. He’d even been counting down on his calendar.

“But-but, I want to go back!” He cried, desperately. “I promised Akira!”

“Akira?” She questioned in confusion. “Was that the boy you hung out with last year?”

“Yeah, and I promised that I’d be there this year,”

For a second, there was a look of sympathy on her face before she sighed and rubbed her hand down her face.

“I was going to tell everyone together but your grandmother is sick and the doctors don’t think she’s going to make it through the summer,”

“What?” The colour drained from his face and shock overtook his senses. He felt arms wrap around him and he sank into the comfort, he didn’t even realize that he was sobbing. While he looked out the window of the plane, he hoped that Akira would forgive him for breaking their promise and more than anything wished that they would meet again someday.

The first time Lance saw Keith, he didn’t know what he was feeling. It was a weird mix of familiarity, but also competitiveness? In simple terms, it was confusing as hell and he didn’t know what it meant. When he found out who he was, he thought he figured it out. Keith Kogane: one of the most talented pilots of their generation, almost as great as Takashi Shirogane, or so everyone was saying. So he chalked it up to him wanting to compete with Keith, prove who was the better pilot.

“Dude, why are you always staring at Keith?” Hunk asked one day, while they were eating in the mess hall. Lance chewed thoughtfully for a second, still burning holes in the side of Keith’s head.

“I don’t know… I’m pretty sure I hate him?” He questioned with a tilt of his head.

“You don’t know?” Hunk deadpanned. Lance hummed and shrugged.

He really didn’t know, but nothing else made sense.

He thought that maybe that weird feeling would go away after a week or two in Voltron. Team bonding and all that, but it just kept getting stronger. To be perfectly honest, it was interfering in their team dynamic and everyone was starting to notice. Surprisingly, Keith was acting strange around him as well. At times he would look around and catch Keith just staring at him with narrowed eyes. At first, he thought he was glaring at him but then he’d tilt his head as if he was trying to figure out a puzzle.

Allura and Shiro finally had enough of their behaviour and she and Coran organized a second bonding session with the mind meld headbands. But this time they weren’t trying to form Voltron, they were just trying to get to know one another.

They sat in their circle thinking of happy memories or things that would help their teammates know more about them. Things were going smoothly until for just a second Lance thought of Akira. Keith gasped, his mind suddenly racing with thoughts. He pulled the headband off and dropped it on the floor. The others pulled their’s off as soon as they lost Keith’s connection and watched him with concern.

“Keith?” Shiro reached out to grab his shoulder but Keith was too busy studying Lance, who had narrowed his eyes at him.

“What’s with you?” Keith’s eyes widened.

“No. Fucking. Way… Leandro?” Keith asked, staring across the semi-circle to Lance. His mouth dropped open in shock. There was only one person his age who knew that name.

“Akira?”

There was a beat of silence before they both jumped up and leapt at each other with excited shrieks of “HOLY SHIT!” They collided in a hug and started squeezing the life out of the other.

“Man, you had some glow up,” Lance whistled, pulling his bottom lip down. “Look at those beautiful teeth!” He whistled.

“Me!? Look at you! I’ve never seen clearer skin!” Keith said, with a wide grin, reaching out to pinch Lance’s cheek.

“Wait. You guys knew each other?” Pidge deadpanned, pointing between them.

“Yeah! Oh my god, it’s been so long!” Lance laughed, hugging Keith again. “We have to catch up, we’re doing a spa night right now!” He cheered dragging a smiling Keith out of the training room.

“Wait! How do you know each other!?” Hunk yelled.

“Later! We’re having a best friend night!” Lance laughed back.

In case you’re wondering why they didn’t recognize each other:

Keith has braces, his hair is short, and he has glasses.

Lance has pretty bad acne (why he’s so careful with his skin now, glasses, and he was really short.

[mlcltoys]

Bulldozer

Collection: Juvenile Puzzles (rose) Catalog code number: #JP097

UPC: X00333WE3X

100 pieces ; 13.5 x 20.75 inches. Ages 3.5+

[anip-ocs]

"Why'd I get detention?!" A voice shrieked from inside the building.

"Because Mr. Kent still thinks you don't speak English!" Another shout replied--this was Brett. The first voice must be Diana, then--the girl who sat in the back of her math class making animal noises and answering any questions in what Alana believed may have been either Russian or German. Or both.

Diana Terrível--local queen of mischief and style.

(Bonus Pic and text under the cut)

Location: Kasey K-12 School for the Gifted, Kihiro City, California, United States

Time: Friday, October 25th, 3:15 PM

The detention slip told Ken he had to be in a 'Mrs. Ginny''s room at 3:10. However, it had taken him ten minutes after the bell rang just to find Mrs. Ginny's room, let alone get his things into his locker. There was no sort of room number on the paper, and the man he'd asked had pointed him in the entirely wrong direction. Turns out that man was Mrs. Ginny's substitute. He didn't even seem sorry.

He walked in to see his friends already in there, trying to hide their laughter. In there with them was the boy who had been bullying Alana a few weeks ago, and a girl he’d seen skipping down the hall singing a handful of times. The girl wasn’t subtle at all, and straight-up pointed his way and let out a cackle.

“Nice hair, dweeb,” she said, still snickering. Ken couldn’t help but sigh, even as he sent her a glare and took a seat near his friends.

A few moments later, the curly-haired substitute closed the door and moved to lean on the desk. He was tall--very tall. Taller than Alana--which was unbelievably rare, now that Maddi thought about it. Hell, this guy had to duck to get back inside.

“Greetings, future juvenile delinquents,” he began.

“Hello,” the girl greeted with a grin, leaning back in her chair. The sub laughed a bit before he continued.

“I’m Mr. Peters. I don’t care if you guys stay quiet or whatever it is kids do in detention now, but I’m supposed to tell you to be quiet and do all that stuff anyways. I’m off to the teacher’s lounge. Don’t leave the room, don’t kill anybody, see you guys later.”

“No promises,”

Everyone made sure to scoot as far away from the animal noise girl as possible.

“As I’ve already said, I don’t really care. I’m out.” at that, Mr. Peters walked out of the room and closed the door behind him. ‘Madame Mimicry’ stood and made her way to the window, watching a bit. Brett sent her a look.

“What are you doing?” he asked.

“Watching Mr. Peters drive away on a motorcycle with his boyfriend.” everyone rushed to the window to see that she was telling the truth--Mr. Peters was noticeably not in the teacher’s lounge as he rode away on the back of a motorcycle, being driven by another man his age.

“How do you know that’s his boyfriend?” Brian asked.

“He gushes about him sometimes when he subs my classes.”

“Well then,” Ken said, watching as the two turned a corner and vanished from view.

“I mean, they could at least wear helmets. They might crash, and then they’d get comas.” Maddi said.

“Or die,” the animal noise girl added. Maddi nodded.

“That too,”

“So now what do we do?” Brett asked.

“...guess we just talk to each other?” Alana said with a shrug. Brett just scoffed, flipping hair out of his face.

“And why would I want to talk to you?”

“Because if you don’t I’ll snap your fucking neck,” animal noise girl and Maddi said at the same time. They sent each other a look before low-fiving each other.

Everyone made sure to stay as far away from those two as possible.

“...let’s start with names, then, since we’re apparently being forced to talk to each other. Not like I know who any of you are--except maybe you,” Brett sent Alana a look. “And not even your actual name. Unless your birth certificate says ‘Glasses Dork.’”

“My birth certificate says Alana,” Alana tucked her arms into her jacket.

“Huh. Okay,”

“Hey, our names rhyme!” animal girl said with a grin.

“Oh, really? What’s your name?” Alana asked, shifting in her seat.

“Diana! Diana Terrível! And the ‘I’ on my last name has a really cool accent on it.”

“Oh, cool!”

“I’m Ken Shinigami,” Ken almost bowed, but then stopped himself. Apparently bowing was weird. Apparently all the formalities his father had taught him were strange here… what else was?

Apparently, his last name.

“Hello there, Ken Demon.” Diana grinned again. Oh right, that. Ken rose an eyebrow and Diana just burst out laughing, Brett following quickly after.

“Demons aside, I’m Taylor. Wakes, since we’re doing last names.” Taylor offered a short wave. The group of students began shifting their desks closer together, sitting on them to talk. Ken sat in the chair the same way they had to during school, instead of taking advantage of their ‘freedom.’ What a dweeb.

“I’m Cujo Smithson, but everyone calls me CJ.” CJ said with a grin.

There was a moment of silence as everyone wondered who was going to go next. CJ nudged Brian so hard he nearly fell off his desk. The boy fumbled with his tablet for a moment before shoving CJ in return.

“Brian Hodges,” he said, sending a glare his friend’s way.

“I’m Maddi,” Maddi said with a shrug. Ken sat up a bit in his seat.

“Hey, Maddi, I just realized you’ve never told me your last name,” he said. Maddi’s hands curled into fists.

“There’s a reason for that,”

“What is it?”

“Don’t use it.”

“Well, why not?”

“Don’t ask,” Alana said, nudging him in the shoulder and sending him a look that said he’d better not ask. Needless to say, Ken didn’t ask.

“...well, I’m Brett Mage.” Brett said with a sigh.

“So what are you all here for?” Diana asked.

“Skipping,” Maddi said. Her friends all nodded in agreement.

“I skipped detention,” Brett shrugged. Alana’s eyes grew wide.

“You skipped detention?!” she asked.

“Yup.”

“What were you originally here for?” Maddi asked. She scarcely noticed Brian’s grin--it was clear he knew something.

“Talking back to the teacher,”

“What’d you say so bad that you got detention?” Taylor quirked an eyebrow. Brian let out a snort and covered his mouth.

Brett slammed his hands on the desk. “I was being smarter than the goddamn teacher, that’s what! He was being all like ‘everyone open Internet Explorer and go to this website’ and I said ‘Why do we have to use Internet Explorer, that program sucks, can’t we use Chrome? They’re all way faster’ and he’s all ‘because I’m the teacher you do what I say, I’m Mr. Gardner and I hate smart children bleh bleh bleh’ and I said ‘I refuse to use Internet Explorer, at least let us use Firefox, goddammit’ and then he handed me a referral for cursing in class.”

Diana started laughing uncontrollably.

“I remember that! Wasn’t that also for playing Overwatch during his presentation on applying animations to PowerPoints?” Brian asked. Brett just seemed even more exasperated.

“I was told that we were going to learn how to design websites and program video games and stuff, but no! We’re just learning stuff that any third grader could figure out! Hell, he does everything the long way, I’m smarter than the damn teacher, what the fuck?!”

“Wait,” Diana gave him a puzzled look. “Are most people not smarter than the teacher?”

“We aren’t supposed to be. Doesn’t tend to happen that way, though.”

“I can’t believe he’s spent two entire months teaching us how to use Microsoft Word?” Brian said. This elicited a groan from Brett, a full-blown, head-tipped-back groan. Diana looked completely lost. Taylor gave her a pat on the shoulder.

“Right?! I mean, doesn’t he know that everyone uses Google Docs now?! It’s way better than anything else on the market, and it's free!”

“Actually, I think Shinigami Docs is better than Google Docs,” Ken stated.

“But you have to pay for it! And that doesn’t even mention…”

This began a three-way techno dork-off. Alana decided that Brett was not only the biggest dork she’d ever met in her entire life so far, but was also rivaling Brianna Jones for the title of Biggest Drama Queen in the Entire School. No wonder they were dating.

“Wait. You never said what you did to get in here?” Alana said suddenly, looking at Diana. She was greeted with a positively wicked grin.

“I put someone in the hospital,” she stated. The room grew quiet.

Everyone made sure to scoot as far away from her as possible. Except, this time, for Brett.

“Liar!” he called, pointing at her. “You are a dirty liar! Ha!” he turned to address the rest of the room. “She’s in here because she keeps meowing and shit in math class, answering questions in basically every language except English.”

“Actually, that’s just what they caught me for.” Ken felt a shudder go down his spine when she smiled again. Her teeth looked like fangs.

Brett scooted away too.

Disillusions: In The Beginning Yakk list: @ravenpuffwriter @dreamswithadashofspice @ejmcmoon @writerofwriting @beeofwriting

(If you wanna be added to/removed from the tag list just hmu)

[restlessmaknae]

Walking on thin ice // I. (Im)possible

Baleful powers and icy hearts collide and no one knows what would come out of it. A girl who doesn’t want to be seen and a boy who desperately wants to be seen.

❄ Pairing: Jack Frost!Yoongi (BTS) x Elsa!Joohyun (Red Velvet’s Irene)

❄ Supporting roles: Joonmyun (EXO) as Santa; Kibum (SHINee) as Easter Bunny; Hayoung (APink) as Tooth Fairy; Mark (GOT7) as Sandman; Yerim (Red Velvet) as Anna; Myungjun (ASTRO) as Daylight

❄ Basics’ post: setting & long summary & cast

❄ Genre: angst, drama, fluff, fantasy

❄ Chapters: I. ❄ II.  ❄ III. ❄ IV. ❄ V. ❄ VI. ❄ VII.

Look what you did to her! You can’t do anything but to hurt people. You are a monster.

Said the loud, intriguing voice in Bae Joohyun’s head and even though she tried her best, she couldn’t shake off that unwanted feeling that was slowly engulfing her. It was like she was listening to her thoughts through an earphone without being able to hit the ‘stop’ button. The words were haunting her, whispering into her ears wherever she went. She couldn’t get rid of them, the voice got louder and louder as time went by.

What have I done? She gulped as she rose from her seat beside the bed and shifted her gaze to the pale, tiny body in the giant hospital bed. The young girl’s eyes were closed, looking like a baby as she was sleeping safe and safe. Her breaths were steady and uninterrupted. The sight of her little sister unharmed made her relaxed for a few minutes. Yerim is okay. For now.

She looked at Yerim for the last time, her eyes going over every single detail of the girl’s growing body. The long, chestnut brown curls of her hair, the usually blushing red cheekbones that were paler than ever, the little freckles on her nose and the bracelet around her wrist which represented their strong family bond. Only two little letters were written on the material; A and E. Anna and Elsa – their childhood nicknames.

She looked at her own bracelet and made an attempt to take it off. She didn’t want Yerim to be connected to her in any way anymore. How could she hurt her little sister? She had no idea how to control herself when was panicked or even slightly anxious and it was only a matter of time someone would get hurt. Joohyun would never ever hurt anyone on purpose, especially not her beloved little sister. She couldn’t risk another outburst. She had to leave her behind. She had to protect her and only by being away from her, could she make sure that she was safe.

First, it seemed that Joohyun wouldn’t be able to get rid of that oh so familiar bracelet that she hadn’t taken off ever since they got the pair of jewellery from their parents. However, as she strained harder, she managed to succeed in a matter of seconds. Then, she put it on the bedside table with trembling hands, still trying to cling onto for a few seconds. But as Yerim suddenly snored louder, she knew she had to go.

She can’t see me. She sighed heavily as the thought nestled into her mind. She glanced at Yerim’s sleeping figure one more time and hurried out of the room as quickly as she could. She didn’t want to imagine Yerim’s heartbroken expression when she finds out that her sister was no longer there with her. Yet, Joohyun tried to reassure herself that it would be the best for both of them if she left.

You are dangerous. You can’t be around people. You need to hide. These words wormed their ways into her thoughts more and more frequently; she wasn’t able to escape from the sneaky voice in her head. It was stronger, louder and more malicious than ever.

Small wonder she trembled like a leaf as she left the hospital, hoping that she would never need to come back. She hated hospitals and everything that was related to hospitals – the horrible smell, the blinding white walls, the lip nibbling of the patients and the unpleasant memories that chained her to the place.

She was wandering around for minutes, not knowing where to go to find solace. How could she find a shelter when she was her own enemy? When she was a ticking time bomb that could explode any minute? How could she remain calm and composed? How, how, how?

In the end, she decided to sit down on an abandoned bench near the Han River. Luckily, nobody was around, she was completely alone for the time being.

Joohyun sighed with relief and watched the crystal-clear water in its usual peace and tranquillity. Gosh, how much she wanted to have her old life back! She wasn’t the happiest person on Earth but she was fond of her ordinary life as a twenty-one-year-old college student. Now, everything was falling apart. Her life changed in a blink of an eye and the glass bead of her old self fell to the ground and scattered into tiny pieces. What was she supposed to do? Was she even able to fix anything? Or should she merely start a new life and accept her destiny? Be ready that worse was still yet to come?

She was so lost in thought that she could barely notice that someone sat down on the bench beside her. She didn’t look sideways but hoped that the stranger would leave soon. She was craving some time alone because she was terrified that she would hurt more people after her own sister. Yerim was in the hospital because she couldn’t control her power and it was the cruellest way to pay a price for having such an ominous ability. Freezing things was supposed to be fun, most people would think this way. However, unleashing powers by accident and striking your little sister in the heart is not fun at all. Joohyun almost died of shame and regret when Yerim collapsed in front of her. Her feelings were totally out of control and the more she was afraid to hurt her, the more pain she had caused.

Suddenly, the stranger got to his feet and Joohyun drew another sigh. Although she thought that he would leave, he started walking back and forth, right in front of her. She noticed that the young man wasn’t wearing shoes and had light clothes despite the chilly weather of an afternoon in November.

“I give up. She can’t see me.” He muttered in a low, manly tone which surprised Joohyun because she imagined a much more gentle and youthful voice to the odd-looking boy. He looked like an innocent teenager with his pale skin, blonde hair and shabby clothes but sounded like a grandpa. Was he dressed up as a character from an anime? Was he going to a roleplay?

Joohyun looked up from her intertwined hands, furrowing her eyebrows in question. She didn’t know if she should speak up or not but there’s no way the boy was talking about anyone else considering that they were the only two people around.

“Are you talking about me?” She inquired indignantly, tilting her head in contemplation.

To her surprise, her question almost scared the hell out of the boy. He visibly bounced a little as he realised that she was talking to him. He seemed to search for the right words to say as he hesitated for some seconds. Though those seconds were more than enough for her to check him out.

He was indeed a young guy, probably around the juvenile age of twenty yet there was something really peculiar about him. At first, Joohyun couldn’t pinpoint what it was, yet she almost facepalmed when she realized the most interesting feature about him. Apart from his bare feet, the most striking thing about this guy was his icy, ocean blue eyes. They were so cold and lifeless, stern like winter itself and deep like the Pacific Ocean. His eyes looked old like they kept hundreds of years of horror and wisdom in them. It was scary. Plus, why was everyone so fond of dying their hair almost-white-blonde these days?

“Look…” The boy started awkwardly as he ran a hand through his messy hair. There was an undoubtedly embarrassing pause after his sudden exclamation. “Me and my friend, Tooth−“ He continued quickly but bit his lower lip as said Tooth’s name out loud.

Joohyun gave him a frowning look, not sure who the hell was he and what on Earth he might have wanted from her. She was certain she had never ever seen anyone like him before. She would have remembered such an odd figure. He was already suspicious looking like a homeless kid, he didn’t have to mention a friend whose name was Tooth to make her regret her choice of striking a conversation with him.

Though the continuation was more than enough for her to make her move.

“So Hayoung and I saw what had happened.” The white-haired guy confessed absent-mindedly, shrugging like he was talking about his grocery list, not the fact that he and another person had seen what Joohyun could do with her unwanted power.

Bang. Saying that she was shocked would have been an understatement. She was thrilled, her heart almost missed a beat. But as soon as she got back to her senses, she jolted up and started running away from the boy as fast as she could. If he was going to hurt her, she could still use her power to stop him. Even though she didn’t exactly know how to control it, the guy probably didn’t know about this little detail.

“Please, let me explain it!” The boy shouted after her as he tried to catch up with her. Unbeknownst to her, he was much faster and appeared exactly in front of the terrified girl a second later. He looked like he was trying to plead but Joohyun had no time for solidarity, nor silly questioning. She needed to get away from him as soon as possible. If he knew something, she was up for no good.

That’s why she turned around right away and started walking in the opposite direction. Nevertheless, the boy was pretty fast, so he was by her side by the next second.

“I didn’t do it on purpose, okay?” She exclaimed furiously, furrowing her eyebrows in a not-so-subtle way. She was already on the edge due to the events a day before, so he wanted nothing else but to hide away from the world and herself. Yet, it seemed that if the accident wasn’t already enough, she also had to deal with a clingy stranger. “You can report it but I’m not going to jail.” She stated fervently, her voice shaking a bit.

The boy looked puzzled for a moment but still maintained the eye-contact, looking like the type who would examine her by looking fiercely into her eyes.

“No, you don’t get it. I’m just trying to help.” He raised his arms defensively, making an attempt to clear the tension in the air. The fierce sparks in his eyes proved that he was speaking the truth yet she couldn’t believe any stranger who witnessed what she was capable of. She knew the situation too well. I’m just trying to help. Sure. But was he even able to help her? Was there anyone out there who could help her?

“Oh yeah, sure.” Joohyun snorted way too mockingly. “By taking me to a mental institute or something like that? Or using me as a weapon for the government? No, thanks!” She grumbled angrily, rolling her eyes at the boy’s intentions.

She already felt the anger boiling up inside her and her heart rushing dull. As she noticed the frustration rushing through her body and uncomfortable chills running down her spine, she stiffly put her hands into her pocket. She didn’t want to strike the boy in the heart, even though he was kind of getting on her nerves. She wouldn’t be able to live with more blood on her hands.

“No, you really don’t−“

“I’m warning you!” She immediately cut him off because there was no use of listening to a weird stranger’s misinterpretation. Maybe that white-haired, icy eyed guy was crazier than ever. “Go away or I’ll use my power to make you!” She blurted out without giving much thought, yet she tried her best to sound as confident as possible.

However, the anime-like guy didn’t seem to take the threat too seriously. He raised one of his eyebrows in question and stated out of the blue:

“You can’t even control it!” He scoffed like he was belittling her power. Joohyun was taken aback by his behaviour. Who was he to talk so casually about something so mysterious and inexplicable? Who was he to know about such things? Was he a specialist in supernatural powers? Was he even aware of the seriousness of the whole situation? Or did he think that it was fun because it was only a game for him? If he attempted to piss her off, he definitely succeeded.

“What makes you think that? Are you a stalker or something?” She grunted at him, trying to scare him away. What if he was just toying with her to see if she was responding the way he wanted?

“Do you really want to know?” He snapped back, nervously massaging his temples. Oh Lord! No, obviously not, that’s why I asked! She glared at him, edgily gritting her teeth. What on Earth could he want from her?

“What? You know what? No, I don’t want to know. Just get lost for God’s sake!” She cried out in horror and was about to break down in front of that weirdo. After all, she was just a twenty-one-year-old girl who had previously discovered that she could freeze things and create icicles and snowflakes with her bare hands. Unfortunately, she couldn’t figure out how to use her powers safely. For starters, she hurt some innocent pedestrians who slipped on the frozen puddles which she had created when she was trying out her unknown abilities. After that, she hurt her own sister because she wasn’t able to control the explosions. It was too much for her at once. It hadn’t been even a week or so that she found out about her ability and she had already caused so much pain.

On top of that, there was that anime-like guy with his constant questioning who was slowly driving her crazy. Half of what he had said didn’t make any sense. Or at least, not to her and she was too tired to make an attempt to understand what he was trying to do with her.

“My name is Min Yoongi but most people know me as Jack Frost.” He announced flatly, looking incredibly bored like he had said the exact same introduction for the hundredth times already. He even yawned in annoyance!

Joohyun couldn’t have been more dumbfounded. Did he really expect to know any Min Yoongi? Let alone a so-called Jack Frost? Was he really going to a MondoCon as she assumed? Was Jack Frost an anime character?

“Well, it does ring a bell but I’m not sure. Are you a famous therapist?” Joohyun guessed with a shrug of her shoulder. That Yoongi guy was more than hurt by her response. He gasped like he was some world famous superstar that she hadn’t heard of. Oh please, she had enough drama to deal with lately, she didn’t need to deal with people like him.

“No.” He shook his head after he got over his sulking. “I’m a Guardian.”

“A what?” She yelped, trying hard not to laugh out loud. Yeah, sure, that boy was a guardian. But a guardian of what? The British Queen? And what was that supposed to do with his offer to help her?

“A Guardian.” He repeated impatiently, pronouncing the world slowly and clearly like he assumed that she was merely too stupid to know the meaning of the word. She rolled her eyes in response. “Along with Tooth Fairy, Easter Bunny, Sandman and Santa Claus. I believe I don’t have to introduce them but I’m the Guardian of Fun and I’m capable of manipulating ice and snow.” He added with a mischievous smile and Joohyun had to realize that this was the first time she saw him smiling. She couldn’t deny there was something far too attractive about the small curves of his lips but when she noticed she was staring at him, she shifted her gaze to the ground instead.

“So… you’re like me?” She whispered coyly instead of making a total idiot out of herself for gazing at him. There was an uncomfortable pause after her sudden question and when that Jack guy finally spoke, his voice came out hoarse.

“Well, we’re still not sure what are you and why do you have the ability to freeze things…” He suddenly stopped, probably not sure what to say but then, he cleared his throat and continued. “But yeah, we’re quite the same. Except that I’m more than 300 years old and exactly know how to control my power.”

Joohyun nearly fainted after the jaw-dropping confession. She had to close her eyes for a second to straighten her thoughts. It was too much for her. It was all too much. She wanted to reassure herself that all he said was a big, fat lie. There was not even a bloody person on Earth who could have been more than 300 years old! It was just too surreal and unbelievable. On the other hand, everything seemed to be possible after she had realised that she was able to freeze things and create snow. That seemed impossible a week before but now she had to come to terms with her newfound power and all its downhills.

“Prove it!” Joohyun spoke up abruptly, wanting to see for herself if he said the truth or lied the whole dawn time. “Show me what you can do!”

The Guardian didn’t seem to mind her request yet he carefully looked left and right before he reached his hand out and pointed at a puddle which slowly froze. If it wasn’t enough of an evidence, he walked one step closer and created tiny snowflakes above Joohyun’s head. She stared at him open-mouthed, not knowing what would be appropriate to say in such a situation. She was ready to confront him if he was bluffing but she wasn’t ready to face him if he told the truth for real.

“O-okay…” She murmured embarrassedly while looking into the boy’s eyes which were full of mischievous playfulness. He enjoyed it, she realised. He was capable of such an ominous thing and he was smiling! How could he to do that? To know that he can hurt others with his power? Still, he remained totally calm and reassuring. His eyes had these bright sparks which looked like little shooting stars hovering on the sky.

“Well, I know it’s a little too much but I’m really trying to help. Once, I was in your shoes and I know it’s not easy.” That Jack guy explained suddenly much more patient than ever, however Joohyun suddenly felt cornered. It was all too much at once. It was all too sudden.

“I don’t need help, guide whatsoever Frost−“ She said ironically, it was her way to defend her. She started building defensive walls around herself, so that no one would get in. After what had happened to Yerim, she knew she shouldn’t get close to anyone. She wanted to persuade herself that she didn’t need help but obviously she did. She was just too afraid and headstrong to admit it.

“Excuse me!” The boy looked puzzled after her sudden change of mind but at the same time he seemed more worked up because of his new nickname. Joohyun knew that she was probably too much but she was more than devastated by the fear that she could hurt him. She didn’t in the least intend to do so even though he was confusing her more than ever. But she really didn’t know how to deal with her power and that’s why she tried to push him away.

“I’m serious. Get lost!” She tried to dismiss him while she ruffled her hair in frustration but immediately put her hands back into her pocket. She was almost pleading because she didn’t want to take more shame and pain.

“You really want to learn the hard way?” The Jack guy looked at her, making his doubt clear. A half-knowing, half-confused look came into his eyes while his voice was full of clumsy fondness.

“You really don’t get it?” Joohyun yelled agitatedly, her voice slightly shaking. She couldn’t hold herself back, not anymore. Everything that happened to her in the previous weeks was weighing down on her and she wanted to shake off those painful memories so badly.

“I’m dangerous, I can hurt you. Well, I don’t want to but I still can. Look what happened to my sister! I didn’t want to hurt her but I freaked out and that thing just came out of my hands and it stroke her in the heart. And now she’s in the emergency room and doctors are still trying to save her life…” She freaked out, her whole body trembling with great fear. The sudden outburst wasn’t intended but under the pressure of the boy’s demanding gaze, she couldn’t help herself. She needed to let it out.

When your biggest enemy is your own mind, it’s hard to fight it. She also wanted to tell those voices in her head to shut up but they wouldn’t listen. So, she wanted to push him away before things get even more out of control.

“I appreciate your effort but it’s for your own sake. Believe me, you don’t want to be by my side.” Joohyun shook her head decisively but Jack looked persistent. He seemed more than confident, hands still tugged into his pockets, looking straight into her eyes.

“It’s up to me whether I would like to be by your side or not.” He declared stiffly and dropped a sigh in insecurity. Joohyun assumed that she scared him enough yet he didn’t show any sign of fear. He didn’t even budge.

The more she stared at him, the more her heart started to thump. She felt the blood running through her veins, the voices in her head screaming even louder and more furiously. Her hands began to shake. She couldn’t take it anymore; the fear overcame her confidence and before she could realise what she was doing, she defensively held her hands up in front of her face and felt the usual energy which came when creating something icy. Oh no!

She shifted her attention to the boy who was holding an icicle in his hands, eyes widened in both surprise and relief. Joohyun brought her hands to her mouth, not sure what to say or do. However, Jack Frost seemed perfectly calm and unharmed, thus he was the first to break the silence.

“You see, I can take care of myself.” He admitted with a smug grin, throwing away the already melting icicle. When their eyes met, his gaze wasn’t resentful, not even a little but her heart wasn’t at peace. Even though she didn’t hurt him this time, she could still have. “Come on! I’ll take you somewhere and teach you how to control your power.” He offered matter-of-factly but he didn’t even show sympathy or care. He was just a boy who tried to help but not even in the least intended to get emotionally closer to her. Well, that’s good for me, right? No emotions, no doubts.

Jack Frost reached his hand out to her and she only hesitated for a moment before she took it. When you think that you’re a monster, you feel that there’s no one whom you can trust. Not even yourself. So how you can trust someone who’s just as distant and cold-hearted as you are?

The answer is pretty easy: you can’t. But you still have to.

[causalitylinked]

"Famished, Kijima-san," Sonia began, holding open a dictionary for Akira to see, "simply means hungry! In short, the general feeling when fried chicken is present. At home, it's considered polite to say one is 'famished' as opposed to 'hungry,' once one is grown: to be hungry is seen as juvenile, or more appropriately labeled to those who are food-insecure. And that is something else entirely."

She beamed, closing the book. Had her friend never encountered a dictionary before? She wondered what sort of books he did happen to read, especially as he'd never mentioned any favorite books before. In her case, she had shelves, a library even, full of them back home in Novoselic Castle.

"Can I help with deciphering any other words?"

             UNPROMPTED ASKS. » always accepting!

     “...So that’s what it actually means. I now remember a kid saying she was ‘famished’ right before she died, but I thought it was someone else’s name. Either way, she could have just said she was hungry - would have been way less complicated for me to figure out that puzzle a while back.” As he speaks, Akira would idly poise a gloved fist against his cheek. Naturally, he neglects to mention that the kid he had recalled seeing was from one of his Bloodmetry visions when was he was out exploring the Miroku Residence with Rose and Ban or that said kid was a girl his father made Masaru Ishimaru abduct before removing her limbs; after all, it was an extremely long story, meaning if Sonia didn’t ask, he wouldn’t bother disclosing the grisly details.

     Still, he’ll find himself furrowing his brows, the more she proceeds to explain. “Don’t they both mean the same thing, though? If you ask me, they should simply say they’re ‘hungry’ since it’s easier to understand. Do the posh people from your country really have to use such complicated words in order to seem polite?” Akira then questions, allowing incredulous disbelief to punctuate his tone, before managing an appreciative nod. “Well, that aside... thanks for jogging my memory, Nevermind. I knew I had heard ‘famished’ somewhere.”

      Honestly, he might not have smiled back at her when she beams so dazzlingly bright after concluding her own explanation, but regardless, he’s glad Sonia was the one he asked instead of Seiji. Why, knowing him, his best friend would probably tease him for even bothering to study for once. Upon registering her next subsequent offer, however, he’s quick to widen his eyes.

     “...You sure that’s okay with you? I’ve pretty much been an ass to you from day one, y’know. Do you really wanna help the guy that called you mean things outta frustration?” 

@more-than-a-princess​ ⁠( in reference to this post )

[thelionshoarde]

For the prompt-a-thon I have a cheesy idea: What about Obi proposing to Shirayuki at the christmas tree? *-*

Uh. I would just like to say that I am not really a marriage person, but I did my best. Have a little angst with your cheese, tho?

12 DAYS OF CHRISTMAS PROMPT-A-THON, DAY 2

read here on ao3 if you prefer :3

“Hey,” said Shirayuki, tugging Obi to a stop on the busy sidewalk. Someone snarled something rude under their breath, bumping into Obi’s shoulder, and Obi tilted his head back, reminding himself to let it go. That a snide remark or left hook or clever pick pocketing rebuttal was not worth it, not anymore.

Instead, he ushered Shirayuki to the side, next to the storefront that had caught her eye. A bakery, full of many-tiered wedding cakes, exploding with iced roses and edible pearls. Obi eyed it, askance. For her part, Shirayuki merely raised a mittened hand up to rest against the window, the pom poms that dangled down catching on the intermittent breeze.

“You have zero situational awareness,” Obi chastised, resting his chin on the top of her head. The wool of her knit cap itched, but Obi ignored it. “Hey what?”

“Do you…”

“Honey,” Obi drawled, “if you want a cake we’ve got some sort of fudge monstrosity at home. I can bake it in a flash. No reason to go speechless with hunger. Though if you want iced flowers you’ll have to give me a day to practice, you know. I’m good, but I’m not a baking god.”

That got a laugh out of her. “You’re terrible at baking, don’t even. And – that’s not… Well. Hm.”

Standing there, laden down with bags of early Christmas shopping, the city a whirlwind of traffic, and chatter, bodies in bulging coats pressing all around, the sky as gray as the pavement – snow began to fall.

Obi jerked his head up, delighted, to watch it. Gentle, minuscule white flakes of biting cold to dust the rust red of Shirayuki’s hair where it spilled out from beneath her cap.

Then Shirayuki asked, “Have you ever thought about getting married?”

* * *

He needed – eggs. Right, eggs. And vegetable oil, probably. Sugar? Milk? Hot water?

Obi held the measuring cup in both hands, fingers slipping against the thick glass, and stared at the closed door of the refrigerator. Behind him, Shirayuki said gently, “The recipe is on the back of the box, Obi.”

“I know that,” he said. “I – yeah. I know. I was just thinking – pecans? Or walnuts? Which would you prefer? Maybe both? None? Coconut? I think we still have caramel drizzle somewhere. How about some caramel?”

She sighed. “Obi.”

“It’s just a question, Shirayuki,” Obi snapped, before he could stop himself.

In his chest his heart pounded, rabbit-fast. It still made his skin crawl, sometimes, fighting with her – but it was okay. They were past the point where he thought a fight meant the end. Were instead at a place where Obi could just get petty, and not feel like the world was closing in on him. Usually.

Obi set the measuring cup down onto the counter with a clatter, reaching for the pantry door, and the box of cake mix inside. “Just – let me make the cake,” he said into the cluttered shelves. “Please? Give me a bit, all right?”

He heard the shuffle of her stockinged feet on the floor. The hesitation at his back, barely enough space to keep from touching. He fought down a flinch, holding perfectly still, waiting, relieved when she didn’t touch. When she read the tensed lines of his body, maybe, or heard in his voice the things he was carefully holding in, and knew better than to push.

“Okay,” she agreed, and was gone.

When Obi heard the door to their bedroom shut, he let himself fall, hunched down between his knees, hands over the back of his head. It was just a question. Had he thought about getting married – had he thought about it – marriage – with Shirayuki –

He –

He hadn’t.

He hadn’t, but apparently she had. Shirayuki had thought about marriage, and him, at least enough to ask him about it. Which meant… What? That she wanted a proposal? That she wanted to tie the knot? Make it official? Happily ever after, and all that? Like he was – like he could –

Groaning, Obi squeezed his fingers into the tense muscles at the side of his neck, jaw working. His stomach felt like lead, like cement snakes weighing him down. The shopping bags were still on the floor by the entrance way, where they’d dropped them without care. Outside, snow fell, a languid flurry of silent white to blanket all the ugly things beneath.

It would have been nice to go outside, let each snowflake kiss his skin, his scars, numb him from the outside in. Hide him, at least for a time.

Instead he stood, grabbed the box of cake mix, and got back to baking.

* * *

When he opened the door it was two hours later, he’d burned the base of his thumb, and there was egg yolk on the ceiling.

Shirayuki was curled up in their bed beneath the throw Ryuu had knitted them last winter with Hana, their tortoiseshell monster, sprawled across her shins and purring like a finely tuned motor. Obi leaned against the door frame for a moment, hesitant to intrude. They looked peaceful, calm – a safe haven as pure and cleansing as the snow outside.

Shirayuki’s eyes flickered up to him from her book, and she crooked a timid smile his way. Obi saw the way her body language shifted open in welcome for him, reeling him in, instant and gratifying. Somehow, it dislodged his heart from his throat, allowed his feet to move again.

“Hey, there. Nothing exploded, so… one of your better ventures, I’d say.”

“You would think,” Obi agreed, grin just as crooked but far more sheepish. “And yet, I present to you – burnt, soggy fudge stuff. Your fork, milady.”

“Oh, my,” Shirayuki said, voice faint and face a curious puzzle of dismay and fondness. She took the plate and fork, setting her book aside. Hana opened one amber eye and twitched her tail before subsiding. Shirayuki prodded the cake, which oozed. “It looks…”

“Horrifying? Like an occult nightmare? Possibly Lovecraftian?”

“…delicious.”

Obi laughed, a sharp, wild thing. Shirayuki looked up at him from beneath her fringe, pleased, and Obi sat on the edge of the bed, taking the fork from her hand before she could quite dare be brave enough to try a bite. “Your stomach would murder you, and then me. Trust me – it tastes terrible.”

“You’ll get it right one of these days.” Setting the plate aside on her bedside table, she insisted, “You’re too good a cook to be this bad a baker, Obi. I have faith!”

“Mm,” Obi hummed, tilting the fork back and forth across his knuckles, watching the light shine along the tines, marred here and there with a touch of fudge. “You do. And –”

Shrirayuki’s fingers – tough with calluses, nails clipped short and painted a glittering purple, familiar and strong and kind – just brushed Obi’s wrist. A barely there graze of assurance. “You don’t have to answer,” she murmured. “You never have to answer, Obi. So long as I’m with you, I’m happy. You – us? We don’t have to –”

When the words tripped over his tongue Obi thought they would taste like acid, or scrape the inside of his mouth like metal – but in the end they were just words, and it was almost easy. “I never considered myself the marrying type, so I never really thought about it, no.”

This time, Shirayuki’s fingers hooked over and around, a gentle pressure rubbing against the vulnerable skin on the underside of his wrist. Her thumb curled around to form a circle, holding him. “What do you mean?”

He raised his free hand in the air, then dropped it, shrugging.

“You know me,” he joked, even knowing that she would be able to tell that he wasn’t. That she could read between the lines by now, after all these years, and would hear the truth even where Obi couldn’t help but try and hide it. “Bad boy through and through. Juvenile delinquent, felon. Scruffy and handsome, sure, but – not the type to stick around, or be – be kept, I guess.”

Did that make sense? He wasn’t so certain. But Shirayuki kept silent, waiting, so Obi kept going.

“It wasn’t a big deal. I mean, I never thought about marriage when I was younger because I never would have wanted it. Being tied down? Ha! And later… Well, I knew no one in their right mind would want to marry me,” he laughed, and tried to ignore the hollow echo in it, the way Shirayuki’s thumb dug in just slightly, in protest or kindness or empathy, Obi didn’ t know.

But it reminded him where the border of his skin was, and how he fit inside of it. His breathing steadied, and he explained, “I don’t think I ever bothered thinking about it again, to be honest. There never seemed to be any point.”

Eventually, when Obi was silent long enough that the words had settled, some of the tension easing out of his shoulders, Shirayuki tugged gently at his wrist.

Obi went to her, laying out on the edge of the bed atop the blanket, fork dropped carelessly to the floor, Hana a purring cocoon wiggling in between them. He kissed Shirayuki’s cheek, her eyebrow – she caught his lips, and held them, before pulling back. Hey eyes were green, clear and bright, and without expectation.

“Thank you for telling me,” she whispered.

Obi quirked his mouth, not quite a smile, but almost. “Yeah,” he murmured. “Sure.”

* * *

Three weeks later in Zen’s office Obi was pacing. “I can’t get it out of my head,” he admitted. “I mean – marriage? Me?”

“You,” Zen agreed, flipping through his planner, sounding distracted. “More surprising things have happened. Why shouldn’t you get married? Izana did. And I never thought I’d see the day.”

“This is true,” Obi realized. “Izana got married. Anything can happen. I should – Should I –?”

“Aha,” Zen cried, looking up finally and grinning as he caught Obi’s gaze. “Tomorrow at 4pm I’m free for an hour and forty-five minutes. Meet me out front, got it? Don’t be late!”

Obi blinked, pacing halted. But he still felt the nerves in his veins, bubbling like champagne, and his heart was a restless wandering thing, something that ceased to stay still now that it had a glimpse of a new horizon. “For what?” he asked, exasperated.

“Ring shopping,” Zen said.

“…What drugs are you on and why aren’t you sharing?”

Sighing, Zen leaned back in his stupidly plush leather chair, looking smart and mature and infuriating behind his desk. “Obi, I hate to break this to you, but – you haven’t stopped talking about this for weeks. So tell me, is it that you can’t stop thinking about it because it freaks you out? Or does it freak you out because you can’t stop thinking about how much you want to marry Shirayuki?”

Obi squinted, tilting his head. “Stop it,” he complained, hand clamping down on his shoulder and squeezing. “You resemble your brother far too much in this moment. This is unacceptable. I will not allow it! Where is the drunken asshole I once carried home on my back at three in the morning? Where is the idiot who took me to the hospital that time I –”

“We promised never to speak of that,” Zen interrupted, turning faintly green. “Also: don’t avoid the question, Obi. You deserve to be happy. And someone should make an honest man out of you. May as well be Shirayuki, since you’re stuck with her regardless. She’s not letting you go, in case you were under any delusion otherwise.”

“Ugh,” Obi said, a giddy warmth suffusing him in a way that was positively embarrassing. “You brute. Four tomorrow, then. I hope you’ll have your smelling salts on hand, because I’m going to swoon. It’s going to happen.”

* * *

Obi didn’t swoon, but he did have a mild panic attack when he found the perfect ring and realized, without any lingering shred of doubt: he wanted to be Shirayuki’s husband so badly it hurt.  

* * *

Christmas Eve was utterly cliche, but Obi was – something. Something impossible, and reckless, and overflowing. He was all sharp angles and weak knees and a heart that wouldn’t quit, beating and jumping and breaking at every sleepy smile, too-loud laugh, or casual touch that Shirayuki gifted him with.

He was going to ask her to marry him.

He was almost certain she would say yes.

It was funny, he thought. Trust wasn’t something he had ever come to naturally. It was a prickling, ferocious opponent, something that had hurt him more often than not. He had never expected to ask someone to marry him. Had never anticipated wanting to. Yet here he was, dressed up in a cable knit sweater, his nicest pair of jeans, and his fuzziest socks. Ring in his pocket, plan reformulating every half-second in his fevered brain.

Because he –

He trusted Shirayuki.

And he trusted their relationship. Had more faith than he’d ever known his entire life in this thing that they had built together, through every awkward misunderstanding, every halting, inching step forward, every bump in their path that they surmounted because it was worth it.

Whatever her answer, Obi knew he wasn’t going to – to ruin anything.

Everything was going to be all right.

Wiping his sweating palms on his thighs, he just wished that meant he was less nervous. “You ready for spiked eggnog and A Muppet’s Christmas Carol,” she called from the kitchen, sounding distracted.

“Yep,” he called back, trying not to shiver with nerves.

For some reason he couldn’t look at her, as if seeing her in front of him would chase all his courage away, or knock him stupid. So he stayed standing in front of their Christmas tree, the bright multi-colored lights and goofy ornaments Obi could never resist buying, the shiny packages beneath. He rubbed his fingers against the ring in his pocket, and listened as Shirayuki set their glasses down on the coffee table.

Nothing fancy, he thought, trying to get his heart to calm down. Nothing impressive. Just honesty. Shirayuki would understand what this meant, what he was saying; and besides, he didn’t know if he could get through anything more than the most basic of questions – will you marry me? – without puking.

“Obi.” He heard her take a deep breath, like she was bracing for something, and a muffled thud. Her voice came again, insistent. “Obi, I have something to ask you.”

Right, Obi had to stop staring at the tree. He had something to ask her as well, after all. It was time. He could do this.

When he turned around, there was Shirayuki – knelt on the floor by one knee, a little red velvet box being turned nervously in her hands. And – oh. Oh, that was – that had to be –

A ring box, like the one in his pocket.

For just a second the whole world swam, vision dipping with the excited thrum of his pulse. Obi felt like he’d been kicked in the solar plexus, all the air rushing out of him at once and sending him reeling. She couldn’t – Was she actually –

“What are you–”

“Obi,” she started, and it was the tone she got when she was choked with nerves, but determined, and yet softer somehow, soft like the way she whispered to him at night in bed, when a nightmare woke him. “Obi, I–”

This was happening. Obi was being proposed to.

“Holy shit,” he whispered.

Maybe Obi should kneel, too, or pull her up from the floor? Do – something other than stand there like an idiot. The ring box was burning a hole in the pocket of his pants, and this was too much, too much. But somehow he couldn’t quite do anything at all, save stare, heart in his throat, waiting.

He hadn’t known how much he could want, how it could take him over and make him fragile, and how he would still feel perfectly safe, regardless.

Shirayuki took a deep breath, and met his eyes, steady and fierce, a little wet with the force of her emotions. Distantly, Obi realized his hands were trembling.

She said, “You can say no, Obi. We don’t need this. But I – I want you to know how much I love you. I wanted to show you with more than just – just words. That I have no intention of ever leaving you. That I absolutely think you’re the marrying type.” Pausing, she laughed a little, cheeks turning rosy. “I love you more than I ever knew was possible, you know? I just… I never really understood it, before. The idea of a single person changing the way you – you see things, how you think, you live. But now I can’t imagine what my life would be like without you. I don’t want to. I want – you, Obi. Only you. I want –”

She flicked the box open, revealing a gold band, beautiful and shining in the low light.

“Obi, will you marry me?”

He didn’t mean to, but he started laughing. A snorting, helpless kind of snigger that had him clamping a hand over his mouth, eyes wide. Shirayuki’s nervous, hopeful expression shifted into raw panic, and Obi went down onto his knees in front of her, graceless and eager, hands clutching at her forearms and forehead pressed to hers.

“Yes,” he gasped.

She whined, “Then why are you laughing.”

“It’s just,” Obi tried to calm the bubble of euphoria in his chest, and explained, helpless, “traditionally, aren’t I the one who’s supposed to propose? You even – on one knee, Shirayuki!”

“Well,” she said, grinning shyly. “Like I’m going to let something like that get in my way. I just… I wanted you to know that I choose you. Forever and always.”

“So you decided to put a ring on it?” Obi asked, laughing, and was glad this was private, glad this was just the two of them in the home they’d made together, because his voice was thick with emotion, eyes smarting with unshed tears, and his grin was so wide it almost hurt.

“I decided,” Shirayuki sniped, “on a symbol of my commitment to you, a – a promise. And a request, that you – that you will allow me the honor of marrying you, Obi. And – well, yes, basically. I decided to put a ring on it. Speaking of…” Shirayuki fumbled the ring from the box, holding it up towards him. Her eyes were wet, too, and shining, and beautiful. “May I?”

“You better,” Obi managed to squeeze out, throat tight. Both their hands were trembling a little, but Shirayuki managed to slide the ring onto Obi’s left hand, the band a snug, perfect fit. Tiny, tasteful diamonds flashed in the light, and Obi admired the way it looked, a physical claim, a declaration of intent.

Then Shirayuki took his hand in hers, and kissed the ring on his finger, a sweet, tender thing, and that was better, that was –

“I love you,” she whispered.

Obi had always, secretly, tried not to drown. Tried not to go so deep that he couldn’t survive it; but he’d fallen faster and deeper than he’d ever expected, a whole world opening up in front of him. One where he was wanted, and desired, and where Shirayuki had no intention of ever, ever letting him go, and wanted everyone to know it at a single glance. Wanted Obi to know it, that she trusted him as much as he did her, that they were in this together for the long haul.

He said, “I love you, too. In fact, I – I have something for you, as well.”

[nikifyingtales]

Mistletoe

In the times of our young love sagas, We’d be blind or heroic enough to enter ourselves into the love locks just after witnessing, Romeo and Juliet ending up. All at once, Paris and Helen part ways. Next, Rose and Jack segregated worldwidely. I question why the random lad of my round- the-clock thoughts doesn’t find these legends severe!? He ain’t my love interest but my knowledge of Legends is his delight, I reckon. He keeps mentioning, the legends are going to be considered. Finds the lad, legend of Mistletoe exclusive and worthy, Might I wonder if once he cast himself in one of my dreams and untangle the puzzle that whether he wants to kiss his sweetheart under the mistletoe or seeks atleast one day festival where they skip the fights away!? And one day with the new exclusives ,my thoughts would come up with some lassie, I suppose and she embraces him into her arms.

(This mere juvenile imagination to me, would get imprinted on my pages, replacing the characters).

They are young, these sagas! Innocent and beautiful. Stimulated with the believes of every love legends in the hope of being counted in one of the successfuls if not legendaries. (We are here to have a successful story).

I would like to present this with the title “Mistletoe” Caption- Mistletoe is a decorative plant used on Christmas and has a legend that the couples who kiss under this mistletoe are destined to be with each other for a long time and if some they fight, this plant keeps them fight free for atleast one day. I am trying to illustrate that in the journey of love, we are ought to try every legendary beliefs to have a successful love saga

[juanbal]

An Alphabet for the Girl I Met

You caught me in a time and left me Astonished By the way you made me feel when I first saw you Knowing that my feelings always kept me dead That maybe I was just a guy that you once knew

You were as Benevolent as your heart can be That opened my eyes for the first time to see With you around I could finally see the real me Growing like a sapling into a juvenile tree

Like a blank Canvas who’s color were scattered I was an artist eager to repaint the picture Knowing that every little piece of her mattered That I would try to rebuild her delicate structure

Like wolves, you've shown Dauntlessness through the night All that chaos in your mind that you're willing to fight I always knew that the moon was always your acquaintance But sometimes I offered my ears when I have the chance

Your eyes reminded me of a beguiling Eclipse They shine and glimmer through the streetlights You make me stumble like decrepit paperclips Hoping that something extraordinary ignites

Whoever knew what Fireflies could always do? Like stars, they shine in the darkness for you Telling you that the dusk could a friend too But when dawn comes, I can come through

Gloom wasn't really what fitted your ambience Seeing you so down is what made me move "Make you feel special", It's all over my conscience "I care about you", something I really want to prove

Why do I feel so much Harmony when I'm with you? Like every second I discover something new More reasons for me to fall under your spell Aspects of you that I've been dying to tell

Sometimes you reminded me of an Incomplete puzzle Missing a piece that makes you struggle I will fix you up until your shine comes back Filling up the emotions that you've always lack

Why do I feel like we're Juxtaposed by fate? Separated by our differences where our lines refract Where destiny ravaged me into a confused state Isn't it ironic that opposite magnets can attract?

I am but someone who was hoping to be your Knight Watching over you and protecting you in plain sight Chivalrous as I can be to give you that feeling That every step that I take has an abstract meaning

Lucid as my actions could ever show you To take this risk closer to your heart To take a chance in discovering something new And tell you that your face is but art

What's going on in that beautiful Mind? Trying to pretend to be a sunflower in a garden of roses You have that smile that I've been dying to find A flower through winter hiding her bliss

Nervousness has always been my foe It always got my self-esteem low Worried that our connection will be lost That maybe our friendship will be the cost

Maybe my ways has always been Obsolete But I'm still hoping that our lines would meet Signs of compliment were on their way I wish you'd understand what I'm trying to say

You were too Perfect like a melodic song Every tune of you seems like nothing is wrong I would always listen to that satisfying voice Forgetting about these feelings were so hard of a choice

As Quick as the beat of my heart when you're near Your simplicity has caught my breath my Dear Nothing else can make me be so amazed When you turn my sorrow into bright days

Knowing that the rain always had me in Ruins You always help me stand up with your luminousity Telling me to forgot all of the "What have been"s Continuing to inspire me of your heart's generosity

Silence wasn't really the answer to what I’ve been holding But I never knew my feelings for you were growing Couldn't find ways on how to overcome these emotions But stay tranquil and write these exquisite poems

You gazed me with your stunning Talent And made me fall for everything you do Our lines were bridged like they were meant To have feelings for someone as attractive as you

Maybe you were someone who could Utterly complete My sored spirit that is dying for someone to meet Even if these aren't the plans written in the sky I will court you even if fate doesn't want me to try

Would it be an exalted chapter worth to Venture? That I will adore every part of your silver lining I will stay by your side no matter what's the weather Even in rainy days I will always keep you smiling

I was always Winded by the chaos in my thoughts Whether to standby in the fights that you fought But now with these words you will now realize That i care about you even in your deepest demise

You've always shown me Xenial within your sympathy Makes me think if I could be a part of your journey In your eyes, maybe I'm just your intimate friend But I've totally fallen for you, an occurrence I can't comprehend

Time with you gave me a chance to forget about Yesterday Cherishing every moment before avenues slip away Nethertheless there isn't much time for me to gladly say Thank you for being there and guiding me along the way

Even though at one time I felt like all I had was Zero You were there to cheer me up like a real-life superhero Memories with you were captivating as they seem Maybe a mutual feeling with you is nothing but a dream