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vaguesxrrow · 4 months

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hiiya!

i was wondering if i could request a Charles Rowland x alive!reader [established relationship] who suddenly develops like supernatural powers and basically just him and the rest of the team helping out figuring out what exactly reader can do and how it works?

love ya and have an amazing day!

HI LOVEEE yes ofc, here u go ! this took a longgg time but thanks for ur patience

charles / superpowers reader

a/n: basically reader develops telekinesis but also with silver swirly whirlies !!

cw's: swearing

tags: gender neutral reader, reader has superpowers

wc: 1820

"motherfucker!" you swore as you tripped - over a tree root, you noted, because charles was always teasing you over the one time you tripped over your own feet.

automatically, you splayed out your hands in front of you to break your fall; your left hand met soft moss, but your right slammed against a small jagged rock, splitting it open slightly.

charles cackled at your misfortune, even as he backtracked to help you up. "you alright?" he asked.

"yeah," you grumbled, wincing a bit at the cut you had obtained on your palm. whatever. you ran your hands over your shirt and pants, ignoring the slight sting. disinfecting it could wait until after you finished this investigation. you were mainly miffed at your fall, and the damage to your pride.

"come on, then - according to the map edwin gave me, the troublesome tree elemental should be just up this w..."

"you with a map?" you scoffed. "that's interesting."

"[name]..." charles said.

"are you sure you're reading that thing right?"

"[name]," he stressed.

"what?" you noticed his eyes were fixed on something behind you. suddenly, the hairs on the back of your neck stood up pin-straight. when you slowly, cautiously, turned to look behind you, you were met with a wide, gaping mouth, and several sharp fangs.

oh. there was the tree elemental.

"RUN!" charles grabbed your hand and yanked you along, the creature just a hair's breadth away and far too close for comfort.

eventually, you came face to face with a tree - splitting you apart from charles momentarily. you reached out to once again gain purchase of his hand, but you were met with empty air. you whipped your head around to look behind you, and your heart dropped. charles was fruitlessly grappling at the floor as he was gradually being dragged away. the elemental had him by the ankles. two roots were wrapped tight nearly up to his knees, and you spotted another snaking along the floor, no doubt to coil around his torso as well.

you swore. there was no time to rally up the others for help - you had to save him now. even if you were woefully unprepared. this was supposed to be a reconnaissance mission, so you had no weapons. you guessed you'd have to make do with sheer willpower.

"HEY!" you barked at the tree. it reared its head towards you, and roared. if you understood elemental language - did they even have one? - you assumed it would be swearing you out. as if taunting you, it raised charles up into the air, swaying him about as if to hurl him across the forest.

"NO!" you cried, reaching out. suddenly, a beam of silver shot out from your palm, hitting the elemental square in the face. it recoiled, wounded. a spiderweb pattern of silver cracks spread from where you had hit it, growing and growing. the creature seemed to be shriveling up as the silver spread, its trunk turning from brown to a rotten shade of grey.

your eyes bulged, and your jaw had dropped to the floor. you only snapped out of your stupor when charles yelped as he fell to the floor with a 'thud', the elemental having let him go.

"oh my god," you muttered as you rushed to his side. "charles, are you hurt?"

he grimaced, letting you help him up. "i'm good," he said. "although... where'd you learn that from?"

"what?"

"the silver sparkly thing!"

you looked down at your hands. they had stopped glowing, and now were for the most part unremarkable; caked in dirt and elemental ashes. the only notable thing was that the cut on your hand had healed, leaving behind a scar that was a bit too shiny to be natural.

"i... i have no clue." you made uneasy eye contact with him. "charles, i don't know." your hushed voice clued him in to your apprehension.

he looked oddly at ease as he took your hands. "well, hey, good thing we're detectives then, yeah? we'll figure it out. and the others will help.”

⌦ --

when you opened the door to jenny's butcher shop, there were no flailing hands or interrogative "what did you find?"s when you entered. charles looked around curiously.

"jenny, where is everyone?" you asked.

she slammed her cleaver down. you were used to her terse demeanor by now, so you just smiled and thanked her when she said, "library."

charles followed you to your room. "you gonna get some rest?" he asked.

you contemplated it for a second. surprisingly, you felt energised, instead of the usual exhaustion you felt after barely escaping with your life. you told charles as much. "i think i'll read for a while," you said. "tell me when the others are back, kay?"

"i'm gonna go fetch them myself." he kissed you on the forehead. "we need to talk about these." he traced the lines on your palms gently.

you laughed softly. "i guess we do."

he squeezed your hands before disappearing through the wall. you sighed. yes, you would read. it would get your mind off things.

perhaps it was just the adrenaline giving you a false sense of energy, because 10 minutes later, your novel was abandoned and you were asleep, face squashed in your pillow.

you startled awake only when crystal, niko, and edwin barged through the door, edwin clearing his throat. as you jolted up, silver light shone from your hand once again, sending the book flying across the room, sailing towards your friends-

and smacked edwin square in the face. it slid off his body and onto the floor with a resonant thud. crystal guffawed, not even bothering to hide her amusement.

"oh my god, edwin, i'm so sorry!" you apologised profusely.

he waved you away. "when charles came to me spinning tales about how you developed... silver swirly powers, i did not believe him. but it appears he was telling the truth."

crystal laughed. "honestly, you hitting edwin in the face was worth carrying all these." she walked over to your bed and dumped out the contents of her bag. 5 volumes poured out, all thick and heavy looking. charles followed next, standing above you and playing with the ends of your hair as you flipped open one of the books.

"so, i'm guessing it's research?" charles asked.

soon, everyone was crowded around your bed. edwin flipped open his notebook. "close. first, [name], if you could recount the events leading up to this manifestation of powers?"

you recounted the events, elbowing charles when he snorted at your mention of falling. "and then, after i hit the elemental with my-" you gestured vaguely. "swirly whirlies, charles very elegantly fell on his ass-"

"it dropped me!" he protested.

"-and that's it. nothing really stood out."

crystal spoke up. "maybe i could... do my thing with your mind."

you shrugged. "sure. maybe i missed something."

crystal moved to put a hand on your shoulder, when charles intercepted her momentarily. "just, be gentle, yeah?"

his concern was cute, but you waved him off. "charles, i'll be fine. crystal, go on."

you allowed charles to intertwine your fingers before you were pulled into your memories.

everything was slowed down, a fuzzy vignette around the edges of the recollection. the green of the forest darkened from the all encompassing night, and then an epithet from your own mouth as you landed on the floor. on a rock - one that shined as it made contact with your palm, glowing so fleetingly you had missed it before.

the cut on your hand also lit up briefly, disappearing just as you wiped them off on the front of your clothes.

the memory stopped when you were pulled back into the present, charles's fingers still linked with yours. he looked to you, the unspoken question of "okay?" in his eyes. you smiled back, nodding in confirmation.

"there was a rock of some kind," crystal began.

"the one i cut my hand on when i fell, yeah," you added. "here's the scar."

"this is curious." edwin leaned in to inspect your palm. "certainly not a standard scar, nor healing process... it must have been magical."

"okay, so i cut my hand on a magic rock. great!" you exclaimed, feeling hysteria beginning to creep into your tone. charles held your hand tighter, grounding you silently.

"perhaps we should conduct some more research-" edwin proposed.

"research? really, edwin?" crystal said. "i say we see what [name] can do."

niko perked up. "training montage!" she squealed.

before you knew it, you were being ushered to the rooftop.

⌦ --

"it's not working."

you twisted your hand again, feeling stupid as you squinted at the coca cola can like it had personally wronged you in some way.

"this is not as badass as in the movies," niko mumbled.

"i think your efforts are very noble," charles told you, turning your chin and guiding you into a kiss.

the soda can exploded.

aside from the spraying of liquid from the can, there was silence for one... two... three beats. and then laughter, from everyone present - even you, giggling at the comedic timing of it all.

charles chuckled too, although you could see he was pleased with himself.

you rolled your eyes. "is it a crime to like my boyfriend now?" you grumbled.

"nah," he assured. "just might have inflated my ego a little bit."

you grinned at each other.

"hey, lovebirds!" crystal called. "you two are cute and all, but can someone help me clean up this spill?"

⌦ --

you and charles sat shoulder to shoulder on the ledge, his arm protectively draped around your shoulders. you could hear niko bustling around behind you, no doubt arranging the new 'training task'. so far, you had successfully decimated five (empty, this time) coke cans - and without smacking any of your friends in the face. your powers seemed to energise you the more you used them, but you didn't even know that for sure. not even with edwin's diligent research (while you were training, he had been reading).

"what's on your mind?" charles pried.

"just thinking," you hummed. "it's weird. having these powers that i don't know much about."

he narrowed his eyes in concern and shifted so he was facing you. you mirrored the action. now, you were sitting face to face, with your knees touching and ankles intertwined.

"i can't imagine how you're feeling right now. i mean, if i suddenly could shoot light beams out of my palms, i'd be pretty terrified," he said. "but i think you're super badass. and if you need anything, i'm here, yeah? it's important to me that you know that."

"i know, charles." you moved in to kiss him, and he met you readily, his hands coming up to your back.

any doubt you had quickly melted away as you relaxed into him. charles was right. you would figure it out.

#dead boy detectives #dead boy detectives x reader #dead boy detectives fic #charles rowland/reader #charles rowland/you #charles rowland x reader #charles rowland x you #charles rowland

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yinandyanglifestyle · 6 days

Text

I went to Sydney for Alphonse Mucha

by: Icie

One thing to know about me, I was an interior design major back in my home country. I absolutely sucked at it, but I fell in love with Art History. In that minor, our professors taught us about different art styles through the ages and bit by bit I saw the progress of art through the ages. I loved the OG Gothic Style, Romanesque, was disillusioned with Baroque and Rococo from the west... It was too Western focused and it didn't interest me as much (because I was an Asian kid) until we got towards the end of the 19th century where the grandparents of weebs (of which I am a part of) hailed from and Japonisme was a thing. Japonisme inspired so much beautiful art and it triggered a domino effect that ultimately led to Art Nouveau where Alphonse Mucha was a main character.

This was it. My favourite art style! I can never go back to loving other art styles after discovering Art Nouveau. It spoke to me about how feminine it was and it awakened something from my mostly masculine soul. I wanted to see more of these beautiful girls surrounded by flowers and stars, wearing kimono-inspired clothes in pretty pastels. The macaroni hair only added to the romanticism of it all. This is what love is like, but in art form!

Fast forward to 2024, The Mucha Foundation collaborated with the Art Gallery of New South Wales to host over 200 of this master's works which was "the most comprehensive exhibition ever seen in Australia of this visionary artist's work". I had to see it. I needed to see it! I am a big fan of Mucha and Art Nouveau, and one of my dreams was to go to Paris, Brussels, and Prague for all of the beautiful swirly-whirlies. Being a Brisbanite, I was exited. Please come to my city! Please, please, please! But AGNSW said "sorry, it's exclusive to Sydney."

Dammit. It's off to Sydney I go. I donned my Sailor Moon dress, packed my bag for a 3 day trip with my partner just so I could see this legend's works and boy, I was not disappointed. I learned to love Mucha and his works even more. We landed in Sydney, didn't check in our hotel, and went straight to the main quest:

Outside, they had this big banner of Mucha's name. Inside was this glorious area that showcased Summer (left) and Rose (right). Oh wait, the exhibit is next door. So we went to the more modern building, down two floors, bought tickets, and enjoyed the art.

In the newer building next door, I was treated to pre-art nouveau Mucha. We learned about what his life was like before his popularity. He designed some clothes for a theatre, hung out with everyone's buddy Paul Gaugin, Ludek Marold and Annah the Javanese. The tour guide said, "if he wasn't a painter, he would've been a great photographer".

Then we were treated to the meat of the exhibit: the Sarah Bernhardt stuff, his lithographs, his sketches, but what struck me most were his concept art to reality. (Excuse my phone's shadow. For some reason, AGNSW decided to put these works on a 45° angle under bright lights. The girl beside me even said "fucking glare!" and I wholeheartedly agreed.)

We were treated to so many wonderful works and I cried when I saw parts of Le Pater. I'm an atheist but this made me think that maybe there is a god. Maybe. But still, beautiful artwork that left me speechless.

I got to stand next to my favourite work of his: White Star. Joy!

At the end of the exhibit, the tour guide talked about how Mucha who was somewhat influenced by Japan, now influenced Japan. Now we come full circle with anime and manga characters depicted in art nouveau styled paintings and posters. Oh boy, we had our Lord Yoshitaka Amano's works in the gallery as well. I was so lucky to see works of my two favourite artists in one day!

It was almost 2PM by the time we finished the tour. We spent at least 4 hours in the gallery after landing just because I fangirled and was willing to spend money on Mucha. Yeah, I bought stuff. A reproduction of Alphonse Mucha's original "Documents Decoratifs" which focused more on his industrial design work (jewellery, cutlery, furniture etc) which I rarely see on the internet, a set of badges and make-up from Japanese brand MilleFée.

I went to Sydney for Alphonse Mucha and it was worth it. I end this rabid fangirling with the parting words of the Art Gallery of New South Wales' tour guide: Mucha's style has never been as well loved and as well represented as it is in Japan.

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