#This image is so funny bc it is meant to be the last minute or so of into the mind

[ashtreelane]

I'M IN THE AIR, AND HE'S IN THE CLOUDS / I SEND HIM A SMILE, HE TELLS ME "LOOK DOWN"

THAT'S NOT ALWAYS EASY FOR ME.

[leclsrc]

hi audreeey!!! could i get a drabble where charles and reader are on a basic (not "basic" but u get me) dinner date and they're just all capital F Fond... like maybe even pretending theyre married bc they love the other's company sm... I LOVE U

begin again – cl16

Tonight is different. Tonight is special. title from this

auds here... my quasi-apology for being mia-ish. also i am writing a long form fic it's just taking agesss as i'm traveling rn (its nearly done) but know that I LOVE U ALL... like crazy. this is p long for a drabble but i missed writing them a lot! love u guys n i hope i did this adorable prompt justice

He says something in French, pointing at something on the menu. Then he flips the page and points at a bold red image of a bottle, mouthing its name in perfect fluency. Two glasses, he adds. One for the entree, another for dessert.

“Red wine?” You ask, smiling. Charles doesn’t usually order wine.

“Well,” he says, beaming at you and then the waiter, “tonight is special for us.”

You have to wrestle with the grin that fights its way onto your lips, but you admit valiant defeat. “Very special indeed.”

The waiter departs and you recline, mind still racing. It’s only halted by a polite voice from your left—the girl at the table beside yours, asking with meek timidity: wedding tomorrow? She has this giddy smile on her face, like it’s her wedding or her dinner; her husband-or-boyfriend across her just smiles sheepishly. Sorry. I’m curious.

“Oh,” you say quietly, humming. “I got promoted.”

“And…” Charles says, lookin at you like you share a lovely little inside joke.

Your lips grow. “And?”

“This lovely girl doesn’t remember, but I proposed to her this time last year.” He gestures to your left hand. A ring, blending in with the others you usually wear, sparkles in the low light of the restaurant.

Proposed. Your eyes stay on him even as he looks away, devoting his attention to the conversation at hand. Then you nod, a few times, soft bobs of your head. “We’re having a June wedding,” you say fondly to the girl at the table adjacent. You love the way she lights up at the mention of it, at the added detail—she asks for more in accented English.

“How did you propose?” She turns to the guy in front of her, who’s smiling dopily. “We’ve been together a year, so he could use some ideas for the future, if you know what I mean.” They both share a laugh.

Charles hums, recalling the plan he’s thought of a million times over. He conjures the images of it, the memories of mapping everything out, perfecting every last minute detail. “I did it at our house. We live in Monaco, in this, ah—this nice, wide place on a hill.” You remember seeing the house for the first time, from Charles’ car. “I did not want a big fuss around it. I knew I wanted it to be just us.”

“Just us,” you murmur along, nodding. You’ve always known it’s what he wanted for both of you. Just you two against the world.

“So I bought her flowers, lit some candles, and we sat on the couch.” He pauses, like the next few moments are so sacred and so lovely that they deserve to be heard by nobody but you two. But if Charles is anything, he’s loud—loud when he talks, yells; loud when he loves. “And I played our favorite song, Harvest Moon,and I sat next to her and just talked, and I said it. I know it doesn’t sound romantic—”

“—but I cried,” you cut in, looking right at him. Cut off, his eyes flit to you, softening when they see your smiling expression. “I cried like a baby. He was… he meant every word he said. And I was lucky, I guess, that he knows me well enough to, you know—know exactly what I want.” The conversation ebbs into quiet a little bit after that, but you catch bits of how adorable and a June wedding from their own talk.

You eat in relative peace afterward—he talks about a funny story involving Carlos and stolen underwear from the gym locker room. You laugh, bubbling up your champagne, and Charles zips through two glasses of his own drink. Tonight is special, and warm, and you’re in France, and wine seems to be synonymous with the country, and everything, if just for now, makes perfect sense.

In between finishing dessert and the bill’s arrival, when the couple beside you have said their goodbyes and congratulations, and the restaurant has begun to quell its general noise, he takes your idle hand on the table. You look up from where you’d been staring at the puddle of tiramisu filling on your plate.

He’s staring. Charles is always aware of how often and how long he stares, extended gazes of your beautiful features. The awareness does not, however, cause the frequency to wane in the slightest. He still finds himself constantly enthralled by you. And even when he’s away, in a car going a million miles a minute, he finds you in his daydreams. That smile. 

Nothing, he says with a quaint smile. I love you.

The bill comes and he, of course, covers it—before you even get the chance to slide your card onto the table. You fuss over it. He stares at you like you’re worth everything and more and goes, with a little laugh, I just need a kiss.

His car is parked outside, valet this time, but the cobblestone is so inviting and quiet that he pays an extra few euros to let you both walk around first. You’re not the only couple along the Seine—in fact, you’re one of many, but your shared, hushed laughs make you both feel like you’re by yourselves. Charles knows all the detours, can pinpoint buildings from different vantage points, takes you on a voyage of Paris all his own. You will look back on this one day and think—your maps of cities, your maps of places, they’ve all been charted by him. 

He keeps insisting tonight should be special, like he’s trying to convince you. But you know just as well how special tonight is, how different it is from all the nights previous. You’re just quiet, you suppose, because you’d prefer to bask in this specialty, in Charles. You’re quiet because if you open your mouth for more than ten seconds, you’re going to spill your entire self out to the city. Tomorrow night will not be tonight, just as yesterday night was not tonight. This is just tonight. 

You’re guided through the cobblestone streets, arm around your waist. You’re so overcome with love you feel like hugging him, just now, just here in the middle of the street, breathe him in and sigh out little I love yous until somebody has to pass through, grunting about how PDA has gone too far.

“You know how…” he starts, and every time he starts a sentence that way, it’s almost always followed by something fairly nonsensical. You know how turtles can fly? You know how Van Gogh was in an affair with Mona Lisa? You know how the latest episode of The Kardashians had Kim and Kourtney fighting? You smile, laughing already, gesturing for him to proceed. “How we see the stars nearly every night?”

You hum.

“So sometimes, we forget they’re pretty. We think, oh, bah, stars. And then a few weeks, or months, later, we look up on a random evening and we’re shocked again. We go, wow, stars. They are beautiful.” He clutches at his heart to convey the emotion he’s describing.

“Yeah, what about?” You ask amusedly, turning slightly to him. 

“That is how I feel when I see you. Every time. That feeling when you see the stars after weeks.”

You breathe one, slippery inhale and then it leaves you shaky, wet, trembling. Your eyes tack themselves onto the stars. A chill rolls through you at the knowledge that you remind him of something so confusing, so beautiful, so strange. “I—God. I love you, you know.”

“Did you like my story?” He asks. He maintains his smile, his attitude, his goofiness. His little attempt to make you feel better. Unfortunately, it works every time without fail. You sniffle and roll your eyes, thankful that you haven’t devolved into a sobbing mess.

Then for the first time tonight, he breaks the precarious, near-perfect illusion: “You know, that is how I would really propose to you if I did it. I did give you that ring, remember?”

“I know,” you whisper, trying to fight tears. “I remember.”

“Don’t cry,” he quells softly. You keep freezing to dab at the corners of your eyes. He responds by pulling you into a side street so you don’t block anyone’s walk, allowing you to lean against the lamppost so he towers above you, eyes etched dark, saturated with genuine concern. “Come on, darling.”

“Charles,” you say thinly, and you’ve gone from coherent sentences to weak pleads. 

“Don’t cry.” It’s all he can say, gentle and loving and Charles. “It’s a special night.” It is a special night. It’s the night before your first day at your job across the globe.

It’s your last night in Europe, your last night before you leave, your last night before Charles becomes nothing but an apparition of your past. You’re beginning to realize how foolish this plan was, this wrecked and stupid plan, but God if you didn’t love how real it all felt. It felt like bliss, being a great big pretender.

It was—it should be a month ago now, give or take. You’d gotten the offer, accepted it, told Charles about it, and then you both had to sit with the idea of living across the world from each other. You’d wrestled with plans vis-a-vis your relationship, with timezones and the demand that came with the first year on the job. In the end it was something amicable.

In the end, it ended—but not without one last night together, stretching your dreams and future fantasies to their limit.

Charles will always love you like it’s his last chance to do so. He figures that means letting you fly, letting you pursue things that, if you didn’t, would keep you tethered to the same old things. So even if it rips him apart, and even if all he wants to do is drop everything and dance with you, to the quaint Paris traffic—he remains ever the reassuring one.

He remains, forever, the storyteller, the smiling figure that takes your hand across the table and squeezes once to say he loves you. The loud guy who would’ve, if he could, proposed in your now-sold house, surrounded by candles and music. You wish he could love you longer. You know he always will, in the same way you know the nature of his love will inevitably change when enough time passes.

“Things will change,” you say weakly.

“They will always change.”

“And will you remember me after all of it?”

“I will love you after all of it. I’ve loved you through everything else.” He says, pressing a gentle kiss to your eye. “You know that, right? I’ll just do it from afar this time.”

You swear, if love and hope and being young were ever enough to make things work, you swear—this would’ve worked. But the universe reminds you time and again that they are not.

So, when you kiss Charles for the last time, his eyes are twinkling with Paris moonlight, his lips taste like wine, and you get the special chance to relish in what once was, and what will never be again.

[sugarywishes]

How did the Aftons react to Evan's death via the bite?

About time I get an angsty question, let's dive right in!!

The Afton Family (we'll get into specifics in a minute)

- Well, it was a death in a established/popular entertainment location. Not to mention a gruesome death, so obviously everyone and their mother not only made several tabloids and news reports, they also interviewed/interrogated EVERYONE AT THE PARTY

- so what a joy it was to not only have the company's name slandered, but your family was constantly harrassed about the whole situation too!!

- Michael and Elizabeth's classmates would always ask them about the incident, to the point where William pulled them out of school for a while

- Their neighbors became extremely nosy abt it as well (asking about funeral plans, if they were gonna have Michael arrested etc) and the family itself was already pretty isolated, so they basically became antisocial afterwards and avoided talking to people

- I briefly mentioned this in the Charlie post, but William was kicked out of the company shortly afterwards (my version of Henry was originally kind of a self-centered, prideful man before Charlie...yk ☹) bc of the bad publicity towards him and the fact it was fucking up the business now (I'll list more reasons in a bit) so now the only friend the Aftons had was giving them the cold shoulder and cutting ties with them to avoid affiliations

Okay specifics time!! (This might be a long post so grab some 🍿)

Michael Afton (not the Michael color, I know, there's no gray!!)

- All Mikey wanted to do was just prank Evan, teach him a lesson for getting him in trouble more than usual.

- Nice going, Michael.

- Oh boy. This guy went to a literal state of shock (I'm talking HE FROZE IN FEAR KINDA SHOCK) as soon as Fredbear's jaw closed

- He didn't even manage to 'wake up' until they were already in the hospital (Lizzie dragged him there)

- and of course Mike was scared and remorseful, his prank was quite literally meant to be a funny haha moment which ended up as him technically becoming a murderer 😭😭

- He nearly vomited and passed out as soon as he heard Evan died

- When Michael returned to school, best believe he lost all his popularity, now everyone knew him as the guy who killed his brother (the other kids involved in the prank distanced themselves as far away from it as possible) and so he became a friendless outcast :(

- Even Jeremy stopped talking to him, mostly because of what Jeremy's mom said about them for clout

- which totally didn't help his now declining mental health

Elizabeth Afton

- Lizzie was actually hanging around the bathroom area talking with Charlie when the bite happened, she would've been too late to stop it anyway

- She literally lost her twin. It's not the best feeling in the world.

- Of course she felt terrible about the whole situation but also,,,a sense of liberation??

- like, the one person who stood in the way of her gaining her father's love is dead. Mike doesn't give 2 shits about Will, and Clara is already in a loveless relationship with him. So now it leaves her as his new favorite

- she surprisingly was able to move on faster than the rest of her family (at least on the outside, as I said she did lose her baby brother)

- but it's not a fun life afterwards, considering she no longer had friends at school now since Will pulled her out quickly (and plus, Henry started cutting ties with the Aftons so now she couldn't hang out with Charlie!!) And again, she started losing her mind just like the rest of the family

Clara Afton

- Girly was just tryna to find a camera in the car outside, she didn't see or hear the bite thankfully (she did have to see the image of her bleeding son being carried out by his father though)

- Evan's death is truly what got her motivated enough to actually start fighting against Will's constant mistreatment of her and the kids

- but of course that doesn't last long. (Guess who ends up in Ballora?)

- because of the news (and more specifically, one particular news article made by a Mrs. Helen Fitzgerald, mother of Jeremy Fitzgerald,,,👀) she was now labeled a neglectful, hosebag mom who was probably in it for those Afton bucks 💸 which ruined her relationship with her neighbors and friends

- Remember, EVERYONES reputation was terribly slandered by the bite (and by the media wanting to cause more drama)

- She was already a stressed out, meek person because of her marriage with William, she got a lot worse after her baby died

William Afton (his is the LONGEST sorry for the text walls)

- He was just about ready to carry out Evan's birthday cake as soon as he heard the screams of terror

- He reacted almost instantly. William is not a very physically strong looking man, but he is powerful enough to break a robot's jaw open.

- He pulled Evan's body out (as best as he could, he was rushing to save him so who knows if some...chunks were still left inside 🤢🤢 sorry for the mental image)

- He didn't acknowledge ANYONE else in the room. And he didn't even have the rest of his family get into the car, he placed Evan in the back with a blanket wrapped tightly around his head and drove off, leaving the rest of the family to find another way to the hospital

- but of course his efforts were all for nothing.

- Everyone kinda expected him to become deranged and violently (publicly) abusive but for a while he was just...numb. and detached from everyone and everything. He wouldn't talk to a single person and would isolate himself in his workshop/basement to grieve

- (he didn't even bother punishing Michael for the accident, which set off a lot of red flags for Mikey who knew that something would snap inside his father soon)

- His already inconsistent sanity started cracking when his name and family were considered pariahs now (thanks a lot Helen for further spreading rumors about them)

- it became even worse when Henry kicked him out (According to Henry's excuses, he knew Will was likely never going to recover from the bite so he might as well give him an 'early retirement')

- (Basically, Will wasn't coming to work at all and wasn't making them money, his damaged reputation would ruin the now shitty rep of the diner more, and bc of the Aftons now being associated with the words 'horrible' 'neglectful' and 'irresponsible' , Henry just decided to tie up loose ends and get rid of him to save face) (Remember that Henry was an asshole and only got to his redemption journey once his daughter died)

- So, great. But what's this?? The closed Fredbear's Family Diner Fredbear animatronic is acting?? Off?? Sort of seems...alive??? You bet it is!!

- And of course, we all know what happens from there.

Thanks for asking! If you want more just ask!!

[neonbutchery]

You not seeing mystra as evil despite grooming someone just BC her victim is a man is uh a red flag ngl

okay i'm going to turn off anons for a while so this will be the last thing i'll say about this. if you do want to have a discussion about this, i'm open to having it as long as it's earnest (which judging from the tone of your message, isn't the case).

number one, the post about the evil bg3 character hairstyle was meant to be a joke. i know that saying "bro this is just a joke" is a crappy defence sometimes, but i never aimed for serious character analysis in a joke image i made in 20 minutes that came from me noticing a funny pattern.

number two: i haven't done the gale romance nor played through the gale origin. all i know about gale's story is what i've experienced through a tav that didn't romance him, so it's very likely i missed some of the content related to his story. that being said, i've seen both "mystra is evil" and "mystra isn't evil" thinkpieces, so i honestly didn't want to get into this discourse since i have zero to none knowledge about gale's wider backstory and mystra's wider dnd lore. if i had included mystra as a villain i would've probably gotten people contesting that, too, so i decided to just put her in a category that wasn't "100% maliciously evil villain". she absolutely did harm to gale, and i'm not denying that. i'm just not comfortable making a clear judgment on if she's irredeemably evil or not.

you want to go back to that image? fine. i included cazador and mizora, both of whom have male victims (astarion + all of the other male spawn, and wyll). mizora's abhorrent treatment of wyll is especially dismissed by the fandom as something that's not that serious anyways, too. are also you going to jump into the inboxes of every single person who's ever made "step on me mommy mizora" jokes and accuse them of also not caring about male victims?

finally, number three: i really don't appreciate the implication being that i condone abuse/grooming if it's directed towards men just because of a shitpost i made. i'm sorry, but you don't know nothing about me nor my personal life nor my relationships, and i don't think that making wider judgments on internet strangers based on a single meme about fictional characters from a fictional world is something that you should be doing. i can't tell you how to think, and if you're weirded out by my take (which, i reiterate, isn't even a serious character analysis) that's completely fine! feel free to mute me or block me or unfollow/unfriend me if you're one of my mutuals. i won't even hold it against you, since i know that everyone's triggers and squicks are different. but what i don't appreciate is you coming into my blog and accusing me of being a grooming apologist based on only one tumblr post that wasn't even about mystra's relationship with gale on the first place.

again: if you want to actually have a serious discussion about this, you can go off-anon and dm me. if you want to accuse me of something as heavy as being an actual abuse apologist, say it with your whole chest. have a nice night, afternoon, or morning, wherever you are.

[roseannebp22]

Something funny I realised recently is that Taylor still has that image of a hopeless romantic, sweet girl waiting for her knight in a white horse cemented in everyone's minds but if you think about it, last time she truly fell in love hard for someone before Joe was literally Jake Gyllenhaal when she was 20 years old (maybe some people would argue Harry Styles but Idk I feel like what really linguered there was what could've been rather than what actually happened — which was a really troubled, short relationship haunted by their fame). I feel like what she went through with that breakup really changed her..

And I have the impression that that's why Joe meant so much to her, it was really something she hadn't experienced in a while and practically ever in her whole adult life. And why Reputation felt so strikingly romantic, like, listening to it now it's literally all I can gather from it. She was sooo ridiculously in love with every bit of that man. 😭

And at that time she was a bit disillusioned with love, and had been for a minute [read interview for her Lucky cover in 2014]... Songs like Is it over now, Daylight, Hits different and The bolter tell us that she actually started seeing herself as (and behaving like) a serial dater? someone who's afraid of love, who had trouble trusting others, couldn't open up emotionally and commit to relationships and bc of that was maybe pretty shitty to a lot of guys (which I don't judge at all and, in fact, even support 😌)

I guess what I'm trying to say is, that innocent, romantic, loving girl died pretty soon in her career and life... a lot of the past years she was in reality struggling with trauma from being groomed both by fame and past boyfriends 😕

[easily-infatuated23]

Over Protective

Request: Could do image were she dating Dustin in secret and her sibling is Steve Harrington. She sneaks out to see Dustin and then she come back to see Steve sitting on her bed then Steve spots a few hickeys on her neck and he asks her about and she denies it. Then Steve calls robin because he freaking out. He invite her over and Dustin for like a dinner then he see them on Dustin’s neck. Then start being like an over protective brother and talking to them about it. ~anonymous 

a/n: thank you so much for your request anon! it’s my first request so i hope you enjoy! i also aged up Dustin to be 16 bc i felt weird writing this with him being like 13. enjoy!

pairing: Dustin Henderson x Harrington!Reader x Steve Harrington

word count: 1.9k

summary: Steve is overly protective of his little sister and when he sees a hickey on her, he’s furious

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Y/N hated sneaking around. When she and Dustin started dating, Dustin had suggested they keep it a secret. It’s not that he was embarrassed or wanted to hide it but they didn’t want their friends to tease them (especially Max and Lucas), but also because of Y/N’s brother. Being Steve Harrington’s younger sister meant that he was super over protective, especially when it came to dating. Steve knew what guys could be like so he made sure that he kept boys away from her. “I’m sixteen now Stevie” she began. “I am old enough to start dating. Besides, you didn’t act like this when Mike and Eleven got together” she finished, crossing her arms angrily. “Thats different!” Steve replied. “You are my baby sister and I don’t want anybody to…corrupt you!” Y/N laughed. “Corrupt me?! You are worse than dad!” “No boys until you’re thirty, and thats final!” he said, pointing an accusatory finger at her. She rolled her eyes and stomped up the stairs to her bedroom, slamming the door after her. No matter how annoyed she was, even an argument with her brother was not going to ruin this day for her. It was her and Dustin’s two month anniversary. Although it wasn’t a super long time to be with someone, it was still a big deal for her because it was her first relationship.

“Hey I procrastinated doing my English essay for Mr. Hartman so I’m gonna be in my room trying to do it so don’t bother me” Y/N called down the stairs to her brother. “Yup got it” Steve replied, not looking up from the TV. Brilliant. With Steve distracted and her alibi set, she could sneak out to go meet Dustin. She ran back up to her room and changed into her favorite pair of jeans, t-shirt and a red sweater, and sneakers. She carefully opened her window and climbed out, standing on the sloped roof beneath her. She propped the window open with her Science textbook and climbed down. She then hopped on her bike and rode to Dustin’s house. When she was half way there she realized she had forgotten to lock her door. “No matter,” she thought. “Steve is so engrossed in his TV show he won’t check on me for at least four hours”.

Once she arrived, she hopped of her bike and climbed up to Dustin’s window. She knocked on it lightly. Moments later, the curly haired boy appeared at the window, smiling. He opened the window for her and helped her climb in. Dustin turned on the radio and the two began laughing and talking, simply enjoying each other’s company. After a while, the two began to get a bit hot and heavy and started making out. They hadn’t gone much further than this and Dustin respected her decision to wait. Besides, he was enjoying being with a girl as beautiful, smart, and funny as Y/N Harrington. “You are incredible, you know that?” he said to her as they pulled away. She smiled and shook her head. “How did I get so lucky?” The two smiled at each other for another few moments before Dustin’s face dropped. “Oh shit. Oh shit oh shit oh shit I’m sorry” he said, panic filling his voice. “What? What is is?” Y/N said, sitting up. “I left a pretty obvious mark on your neck. I swear I didn’t mean to” he said. She stood up and went over to a mirror on the other side of his room. Sure enough, a purple mark was appearing on her neck. She pulled her shirt down and counted two more, each more purple than the last. “Shit” she said. “I can hide the ones on my chest but this guy,” she said pointing to the love bite her neck, “no way”.

She turned to face the boy and started to laugh a bit. “Why are you laughing?! If Steve sees it he’ll kill you! Oh my god what if he finds out it was me?” he said, even more panicked than before. “He probably will babe, but, you aren’t exactly mark free either”. He went pale and joined her at the mirror, examining his neck. “I’ll just wear a turtle neck tomorrow or cover it with makeup. It’ll be fine” She looked at her watch. 8 o’clock. Damn. “Hey I gotta get home. I only give Steve like a four hour window of focus on that TV before he comes to check on me. “Okay, I’ll see you tomorrow” Dustin said, giving her a hug and kissing her sweetly. Little did Y/N know, Steves focus had worn off much sooner than she had anticipated.

At 7:30, Steve got bored of whatever dumb program had started, and decided to go check on his sister. She usually talked to herself when she did homework and it had been unusually quiet in her room. He walked up the stairs and knocked on her door. There was no reply. He knocked again. “Hey Y/N, you alright in there?”. He was puzzled. He opened her door and was shocked to find her room empty. “Are you trying to play a prank on me? Are you gonna jump out of the closet or something?” Still no response. Then he spotted it. The textbook in the window. A classic Harrington move. Steve couldn’t believe it. His little sister had really snuck out and he hadn’t noticed! He decided he would sit on her bed and wait for her to sneak back in. He waited about thirty minutes before he heard the breathless girl climbing up the side of the house.

When she reached the window and opened it, her heart dropped into her stomach. “What do you think you are doing?” Steve said, pulling his little sister back into her room. “What are you doing in my room?” she retorted. “My question first” he said. Thinking on her toes, Y/N came up with a lie to explain her disappearance. “I wanted to hang out with Max and Elle without you breathing down my neck okay!” she said. She suddenly remembered that her hickey was visible above her sweater and covered her neck with her hand as casually as possible. “Hey, hey what are you hiding?” He moved her hand and felt his face go red. “What is that?!” he boomed. She pushed him away, trying to come up with another lie. “Get off! It’s just a curling iron burn! The girls were curling their hair and when I went to try I burned myself!” That made sense right? Steve squinted at her suspiciously. He knew a hickey when he saw one. “I am gonna find out who did this and I’m gonna kill them” Steve said. “I told you it’s a burn! Now get out of my room!” She yelled, pushing her older brother out of the door. “Just tell me his name!” Steve shouted. She slammed the door in his face. Steve was fuming. They had the boyfriends argument before but this was a new level. Steve did the only thing he could think of. He called his best friend Robin.

“Hey Popeye” Robin said. “Whats going-” “No time Robin, we have an issue” Steve interrupted. “What is it Harrington?” she said. “I caught Y/N sneaking back into her room through a window and she had a hickey! What am I going to do?! I need your help to figure out who the hell did this to my baby sister!” There was a moment of silence and then laughter from Robin. “First of all, relax. It’s just a hickey. You were probably like ten when you had your first one so get some perspective” “I was twelve” he said. “Don’t interrupt me” she continued. “Secondly, why do you care? She’s sixteen now. You have to loosen up.” Steve sighed. “I guess you’re right”. “Also I know who she’s dating”. “What?!” Steve shouted. “Tell me now!” “Fine fine don’t get your panties in a twist” Robin said. “But you have to promise not to do anything drastic.” “Fine fine I promise just tell me”. He said. “Henderson” she said. Steve was silent. Henderson?! Of all people she chose Henderson! I guess it wasn’t as bad as he had expected, after all, he liked Dustin. “What are you gonna do Steve? I can hear your brain exploding” she said. She was met with more silence. “Just invite him over and talk to him or something. Just don’t make it weird.” “Right yeah thanks Robin. I’ll see you tomorrow” he said, hanging up the phone. Thats what he would do. He would invite Dustin over tomorrow and interrogate him.

The next day he called the Henderson house. “Hey Dustin it’s Steve” “Oh uh hey Steve, what’s up?” Dustin’s voice was squeaky. Got him. “I need your help with something and I need you to come over.” “Oh yeah uh sure I’ll see you in a few hours and-” “No,” Steve interrupted. “I need your help now, I’ll see you in twenty minutes.” “Okay”. Dustin’s voice was quiet and his nervousness could be felt through the phone. When Dustin finally got to the house, Steve met him at the door. “Henderson, I’m so glad you could come over” Steve said coldly. Dustin didn’t speak as he entered the house. Steve glared at him. “So what did you need my help with?” Dustin asked cautiously. “I need help understanding what the hell you are doing with my sister.” Steve said. His arms were crossed and he stood blocking the door, blocking any hope of escape for Dustin. “Hey Stevie who’s at the door?” Y/N asked, having heard the knock from her room. “Oh hey Dustin what’s up?” she said casually. “Oh no no you aren’t fooling me” Steve said. “I wanna know what’s going on here” Y/N rolled her eyes. “Did you call Robin last night? Damn I knew I shouldn’t have told her.” She finished walking down the stairs and stepped beside Dustin, clasping his hand in hers. “No no no, none of that” Steve said, trying to break them apart. “Steve relax seriously, you are way too worked up about this” Y/N said. Steve sighed. “I just don’t want you to get hurt” he said. She let go of Dustin’s hand and put her hands on Steve’s shoulders. “I know that but this whole over protective brother act is suffocating”. Steve nodded. “If it helps, I have no intention of breaking up with Y/N and honestly, the past two months have been some of the happiest months of my life” Dustin added. Steve looked up at him suddenly. “TWO MONTHS??” he yelled. He lunged at Dustin, Y/N stepping between them before they collided.“Woah Stevie, chill take a deep breath”. She pushed him back.

“Okay okay I can deal with this, this is fine” Steve muttered under his breath. “But, we need to make some ground rules. No closed doors and no sneaking anybody in anywhere. You come in through the front door and make your presence known!” Steve said, pointing towards the door. The two teens nodded. “Okay…” Steve ran his hand through his hair. “I think I can get behind this but I’m gonna need some time to process.” He lowered himself down onto the couch. Y/N and Dustin looked at each other with smirking expressions. “Okay Steve…you just take your time. We’ll just be upstairs.” Y/N said, slowly leading Dustin upstairs. “Yeah…okay…but I want that door open!” He yelled after them. The two teens laughed and ran the rest of the way up the stairs. Steve shook his head. “Crazy kids” he said, chuckling a bit as he realized he was glad that if his sister had to date anyone, it would be Dustin Henderson.

[multiplefandomsblog]

Shuichi x fem!reader fluffshot

desc; shuichi with a fem!s/o who enjoys wearing dresses. she goes out of her way to buy a dress for a date.

warnings; they're in highschool? i think???, suggestive depends on how you look at it, fluff, so many clichés, i did some fake text messages bc i didnt know how to type the text message format

word count; 2k

“Hmm...” You hummed frustratingly as you skimmed through the dresses in the shop, not finding one you were happy with. You were trying to find a dress that you thought Shuichi would like, but so far you haven’t found one that piqued your interest. You furrowed your brow at a blue dress that you came across on, looking at the back in interest. You grinned as you finally found the right one, the one you were going to wear for the date you had with Shuichi.

As you brought it to the counter and took out your wallet, you couldn’t stop thinking of how Shuichi would react. You felt giddy from the excitement of seeing him flushed from the sight of you. Quickly purchasing the dress, you grabbed the handle of the bag the dress was in and made your way back home with a bounce in your step.

As you sat in one of the public bus seats, you checked your phone for the time. Your eyes widened in panic when you saw the big bold letters read, “5:00 pm” That meant you only had 1 hour to prepare for the date you had with Shuichi. You put your phone back in your pocket and started fidgeting with your fingers in distress, predicting how much time it would take for you to get home, shower and dress up. ‘Would there be enough time?’ You thought. Shifting uncomfortably in your seat as the anxiety bubbled up inside you, waiting to pour out.

Whilst you were panicking in the bus seat, Shuichi was at his house trying on multiple shirts that he was unhappy with. He stood in front of his full body mirror with faux confidence, “H-hey there uh, you look great!” He spoke to the mirror with a nervous smile, picturing you in front of him. His face dropped as he sighed, “Great? Great!? Get it together Shuichi, we both know that she’s much more than great.” He grumbled to himself as he took off his shirt and--yet again-- put on another one.

He looked in the mirror, examining the black button-up on his back. He made a sound of uncertainty before nodding, “Eh, okay.” He inhaled before faced the mirror again and looking himself dead in the eyes. “S/o, would you be my girlfriend?” He said--surprisingly--without a single stutter, before breaking character and groaning. He squatted down and muffled his screams in his knees, face red from shame. “I can’t do this,”

“No, I-I can do this. What would Kaito say if he saw you being such a coward?” He muttered as he stood up and paced the room stressfully, before stopping and staring at the flowers he got for you. He had an internal battle in his head between ‘What if she says no?’ and ‘But what if she says yes?’ In the end, he decided that future Shuichi would decide.

~~~

Once the bus stopped near your home, you quickly hopped off the stairs of the vehicle and started jogging to your house. You unlocked the door to your house and rushed to your room. Checking the time again, it read 5:14 pm. ‘Perfect.’ You thought as you hastily stripped yourself of your clothes and showered. No longer than 10 minutes later, you carefully got out of the shower, careful not to slip. While you dried yourself, you heard your phone ring. Unlocking your phone, you smiled at the message from Shuichi.

Shuichi yelped as he pressed send, throwing his phone at his bed. You replied back with trembling fingers and rosy cheeks.

You laughed loudly as you watched his calm composed texts turned into embarrassed apologies. Your nerves easing as you laughed. Taking a small breather, you replied back with a goofy smile on your face.

You left his last message on read as you dried your hair with a victorious smile. Whilst you basked in glory, Shuichi was at his house, trying his best not to imagine you naked. “Keep it together, Shuichi!” He told himself, voice muffled by his hands. He lightly whacked his head, trying to stop where his thought process was going. He really didn’t want to picture you naked; He would never look at you the same way if he did. Shaking his head of his strange thoughts, he went to the bathroom to splash some water on his face.

~~~

Once you dried your hair thoroughly, you got out of the bathroom, shivering as you felt the cold hair hit your damp skin. You quickly slipped on your undergarments, wanting some sort of material on your cold body. After slipping on your undergarments, you made your way towards the small paper bag you had left near your room door. You reached into the bag and grabbed the dress, grinning excitedly as you saw the glossy dark blue fabric.

You put on the dress and went to go check yourself in the mirror. Looking into your reflection, you beamed at how your dress looked on your figure. You felt like a fucking Disney princess. You made a few funny power poses in the mirror to hype yourself up. This might be your new favourite, you thought, you just hope that Shuichi likes the dress just as much as you do. You did a few playful spins in the mirror, before glancing at the clock on your wall, ‘5:35 pm.’ Looks like you had more time than you needed.

You sat down on your bed, picking up your phone, and opening the messaging app to text Shuichi. Your thumb hovered over the keys, as you hesitated. You decided it would be rude to ask someone if they wanted to go earlier when you had already agreed on a time. So, instead, you exited the app and scrolled on Tumblr, occasionally laughing at a shitpost.

〜〜〜

Shuichi stared at his phone, waiting for the screen to light up with a notification impatiently. His ahoge perking up every time he saw his screen brighten up with a notification, but deflating when he saw it wasn’t you. He glared at the small box before caving in and grabbing his phone. He opened the messaging app, about to text you when suddenly, his phone started vibrating. He almost dropped his phone from surprise, fumbling it until he caught it. Unfortunately, his thumb had tapped on the answer button before he could see who it was.

When he finally held his phone in his hands to look at it clearly, his eyes widened as his heart thumped when he saw your name. Clearing his throat, he quickly brought his phone next to his ear, letting out a squeaky, “Hello?” He winced at the unwanted pubescent sound his throat made, face-palming as his voice failed him.

“Uh-Hi! Is-is your throat okay?” You asked, unsure if who you heard was Shuichi. “U-um yeah- No, my uh, my throat is fine.” He cleared his throat once again. It was as if he had forgotten to speak, somehow managing to mess up each word. “S-so, why’d you call?” Shuichi asked nervously, trying to steer the conversation away from his squeaky voice. He awaited your answer as he laid on his back on his bed, gripping his phone with one hand and leaving the back of his other hand on his forehead.

~~~

“No reason, really. Guess I just got impatient and wanted to hear your voice.” You slyly replied, your face heating up with every word that made its way out of your mouth. You see, that was a lie. You had actually been trying to change his contact name to something funny but you had accidentally pressed the call button. What? Did you really think you would have enough confidence to call him yourself? Hah, you wish! You should be thanking your ginormous fingers.

Shuichi sighed dreamily, basking in the sound of your voice. He was so entranced by the sound of it, that the lovesick idiot forgot to reply. Causing your thoughts to go into overdrive and your confidence to go ‘poof!’, “Oh! I-I’m sorry if that’s weird! I just mea-” He snapped out of his daze the moment he heard your panicked voice, quick to dismiss your thought process, “N-no, it’s not weird! To be honest, I wanted to hear your voice too but I just d-didn’t have enough confidence to call.” He admitted quietly, face flushing from his mini confession.

“O-oh.” You were sure you were going to pass out from overheating, he wanted to hear your voice too! You lived in the thought that Shuichi likes the sound of your voice. Shuichi continued the conversation, “So... Tell me about the dress you said you thought I’d like, I’d love to hear about how it looks.” Shuichi smiled fondly, knowing how much you love dresses. As the image of you in a summer dress popped up in his head, he felt his heart warm up. He’s extremely grateful that you enjoy wearing dresses because he enjoys seeing you in them just as much.

Every time he sees you approach him with a dress on, he’s on cloud 9. He swore he was the luckiest man alive when you accepted to go out with him. As you giggled at his words, you were unaware of the effect your giggle had on this man. Your giggle was near fatal for a love-sick fool like him, you made his heart pump just a little bit faster in his chest.

“Nice try, Saihara-Kun. But it’s a surprise! Don’t worry about it though, I am positive you’ll like it.” You teased, running your fingers on the glossy blue fabric in thought. Shuichi chuckled underneath his breath, making your heart skip a beat this time. “You caught me,” Shuichi confessed, laughing quietly. You pressed your hands against your red cheeks, feeling how warm they were.

Glancing at the clock, you spoke, “Oh hey, it’s already 5:46 pm. Are you going to pick me up, Mr. Detective?” You purred, standing up and searching for your purse. Shuichi checked the time on his phone, eyes widening at the time, “Already? It felt much shorter than that.” You shook your head and laughed, “Time goes faster when you’re having fun.” You chimed. “That’s the most cliché thing I’ve ever heard you say.” Shuichi deadpanned, causing you to chuckle at the tone of his voice.

“But it’s pretty accurate isn’t it?” Shuichi sighed in defeat, “I guess so. Or maybe the author was too lazy to write more.” You hummed in agreement, “That’s probably what happened, yeah.” You smiled softly before saying the words neither of you wanted to hear, “Hey, we have to hang up now.” Shuichi felt dread wash over his body at the thought of not hearing your voice, “You have to pick me up remember?” You reminded, cleaning your room a bit before you left. “Don’t hang up.” He pouted, not wanting to stop hearing your voice.

“Shuichi, I’m going to see you in, like, less than 10 minutes.” You giggled at his desperate tone of voice, “Trust me, I don’t want to hang up either.” Shuichi exaggerated his sigh, “Okay, okay, I’m on my way. I’ll see you in 10 minutes, yeah?” He quickly got up, smoothening the wrinkles on his dress shirt. “Yup!” You gushed, feeling caught up in the moment you blurted out, “Love you!”

Crazily enough, Shuichi didn’t seem to notice it either as he replied, “Love you too.” As both of you hung up, you paused. ‘Wait.’

Shuichi also froze, ‘wait a second.’ The two oblivious idiots simultaneously had a mental breakdown, both realizing that they both had just confessed to each other. What did this mean? Were you two a couple now?? Shuichi pushed the thought to the back of his head, focusing on the fact he had to drive to your house and he couldn’t be distracted(drive safely!). He picked up his keys and the roses he had gotten for you earlier today, and made his way out the door.

You slipped on your heels with one hand while you held your purse with the other. Looking in the mirror one more time, you adjusted your dress slightly before taking a peek at the clock. 5:59 pm. You made your way to the door and opened it. Jolting when you saw Shuichi’s tall body right in front of you, “Shui- Why didn’t you ring the doorbell?” You questioned, cocking your head to the side. Shuichi looked at you in awe, you were right, he really did love your dress.

“I... Uh...” He couldn’t say anything as he marvelled over the way you looked in the blue dress. You grinned bashfully, twirling a bit for him. “You like it?” You bit your lip, looking up at him. He simply nodded, not able to think of any words to describe how godly you looked at the moment.

Holy shit, he really, really wanted to kiss you.

He found himself slowly leaning towards you, eyeing your lips. “Shu?” You tried to snap him out of his daze, before realizing where his eyes were trained on. Realization dawned over you and you flushed, eyeing his lips as in turn. Reaching up to grab his face, you gently put your hands on his jaw and craned your neck to kiss him. Thank god for the heels, you would’ve had to pull him down without them.

His eyes expanded due to the fact you made the first move. Closing his eyes, he gripped your hips, sliding his hands over the material of your dress. As he kept going for more of your lips, more of your touch, more of you, the more he became intoxicated. But to his dismay, you pulled away, breath fanning against his chin. “Ditch the date?” You asked, trying to gain your breath back. “Ditch the date.” Shuichi eagerly replied, curling his arm around your waist and pulling you inside your house, closing the door behind him.

this is so long ;--; and unedited- hsbhjbdkndfx i hope you guys enjoyed this! super fun to write brooo, and hey! its only 1 am! proud of me? :D - mod chia

[static-void]

Actually fuck it I'm chattering about it Now.

So I'm in a discord for a game series (IEYTD) and that's where all this is happening

The most recent puzzle...transmission...thing we got was these two images & a message

(This is a spy game series dw about it it's not super relevant)

Anyways we got that about 5 days ago. More under the cut bc I'm gonna fuckin Ramble

anyways so this guy...i mean technically speaking he's based on the handler character from the games so i'll just call him Handler. anyways. Handler had a pen pal (as you can see) & we. don't know shit about this pen pal. all we know is that they play a "mean game of chess" and are now in mortal peril. cool whatever we can fix that probably.

first transmission is a threat, pretty bog standard, it's fine. the clues make it come out to "this message is a warning - your friend is a secret". which ok cool doesn't give us much to go on but it's fine

next transmission is a drawing of dominoes (the dominoes are orange, green, purple, blue, & yellow). dots & divider lines on the dominoes translate to morse. yay. orange becomes "burn", green becomes "life", purple becomes "bleed", blue becomes "funeral", yellow becomes "flanter". don't worry about that last one it's an inside joke & the moderators keep poking at us about it. anyway

something that wasn't relevant up until this point is now relevant, which is that while Handler can send us transmissions, we can respond. so we pick green. Handler's like "i hope you're right about this because everyone picked green" (we were right. it's fine).

(it also becomes obvious that he's at least somewhat aware of our other discussions, specifically when it would be funny, because he mentions our concerns that the penpal may be the major antagonist of the game series. he shrugs it off. we're still suspicious).

so we're helping Handler at this point.

next transmission comes in, and it's caeser ciphered, different shifts every line, it's fine it gets solved in 30 minutes flat. but unfortunately the person who kidnapped the penpal (referred to as Hijacker from here on) has gotten tired of Handler using a P.O. box & is now demanding his address (coordinates, actually).

So we have to give Handler a burner location. all good. he gives us options to pick from, we pick somewhere in the city, it's great.

we wait a month.

then this one comes in.

so now that about 3 months has been summed up. time to explain what in the absolute fuck this latest one is.

each number on that sheet of paper has multiple translation options, based on what the corresponding letters on a phone pad would be. for example, 4 could be G, H, or I. and it's not consistent - one 4 could be an I, and the next could be a G.

this took us a day to figure out.

and because of how it is by nature, there's multiple different word possibilities.

all of this is from one line of numbers. it's a nightmare out here. and most of these, yknow, they make sense if you look at them for a second (like that one comes out to "take a short walk to get a short cake")

but the first line is a nightmare. and then there's this funny little line

it took us 3 days to figure out what that said with occasional input from the puzzle manager.

p.th.a² + b² = c². that's what it translates to.

which is a pretty obvious reference to pythagorean's so it didn't take long to figure out what it meant after that, but the translation was rough. but now we know

so anyway we get about...3 lines into translating it, and figure out that they're directions. assumedly leading to that purple building in the map picture.

problem is. the directions aren't just "go left. go right. go straight." this is a list of confirmed correct translations & sentences:

(temptation was a typo on the puzzle manager's part. it's fine i assumed it was on purpose)

these are our current directions. we're pretty sure that this is correct bc the puzzle manager reacts with a specific emote when we get a right answer (which has been fucking instrumental in this puzzle. it's been 5 days)

we think we have it narrowed down to a building/area within that star lookin cluster

what we know now is that -there's a park on the immediate left of the origin point -"poof" isn't a relevant word. apparently. -the second sentence (park port) helps with orientation, and the third sentence (pass pest pair and peer) helps nail down the origin point we're hoping to have it done within the next couple days. but then again there's only two people working on it most of the time (+ the input of the puzzle manager)

[janegrey9]

play the role of anyone but me, i

ok so i caved and im finally writing a series on this cursed website. consider it my bday gift for yall. chapters will probably be kinda short and spread out bc motivation is a bitch. also this chapter is kinda just set up of the characters and their relationships. 

idea from a post by @lydias--stiles

summary: when julie and luke are partnered together for a songwriting contest in their music class, they are determined to win. only one problem; they hate each other. julie is convinced luke is just an ambitious bastard who only cares about his career and fame, and luke is convinced julie is just a spoiled goody two shoes who gets everything handed to her. yes i am aware this is cheesy, it is meant to be.

warnings: cursing

word count: 1,083

chapter i - a force to be reckoned with

It was the first day back at school for Julie Molina, and unfortunately, the rest of the school as well. Her father’s driver dropped her off at school less than five minutes ago and Julie was already considering calling him to pick her up. It’s not that she thought herself above all the kids in her school, she just thought most of them were below her. Especially the four boys currently blocking her locker.

“Ugh - move, you’re in my way.” Julie groaned, rolling her eyes at the boys.

“Oh, damn! The princess speaks to us, guys.” Luke Patterson.  The single most obnoxious boy Julie had ever met in her life. He was loud and annoying and practically married to his dumb guitar. Julie hated his stupid face.

“Just move. You’re in front of my locker.” She groaned, putting one manicured hand on her hip and leaning her weight against it. Julie eyed the other three. Two of them were talking to each other, Peters and Wilson. Those two could be decent, sometimes, but Julie hated Wilson for publicly dumping his ex the year before. She hadn't been close with the poor girl, but you didn't just do that to someone. The third boy, Mercer, was smiling at his phone. He was the most tolerable of the group. They had biology together last year and he was good at it.

“What’re you gonna do about it? Call your daddy?” Patterson asked, mocking her fathers status. It's not like it was her fault her dad just happened to be a famous photographer who insisted on only the best for his oldest child. Julie just scoffed at the boy standing in front of her.

“I can smash that pretty guitar of yours.” She said with a sweet smile, tossing her dark curls over her shoulder.

“Pshh. You wouldn’t. Don’t wanna get those hands dirty, hm?” Patterson's eyes flickered to her hand, obviously referring to her fresh French manicure. Julie just rolled her eyes a second time and shifted her weight to the other side.

“Fucking move, Patterson!” She said, finally losing any patience she previously had with the boy. The other boys looked up from what they were doing at the rising tension between the two. Peters and Wilson didn't seem too concerned. Mercer did.

“Make me.” Patterson growled, leaning in towards Julie’s shorter frame.

“Bite me!” Julie spat at him.

Patterson reeled back at that, barking out a laugh. “So the princess has some fire after all. I guess you aren't an unfeeling robot.”

“And I guess you aren't a total idiot,” Julie said, glaring at the obnoxious child of a teenager. “oh wait. Never mind!” She finished with a sweet smile.

Mercer reached out and quickly grabbed Patterson’s shoulder before the teenager could move towards Julie at the insult. To her luck, a familiar blonde came up to the group at just the perfect moment.

“Ugh, why does it smell like testosterone and axe over here? Did you try out a new perfume, Jules?” Carrie asked, approaching the hostile girl.

Julie's entire demeanor changed, her scowl turning into a bright smile that lit up her whole face.

“No, but maybe these dumbasses did. What's the new scent called, boys? Disappointing your mother?” Julie quipped, reaching out to link arms with the taller blonde.

“Nah, it's actually railing your mother.” Wilson said, looking Julie up and down with a slight smirk. “Because that's what I spent all last night doing.”

“Ew, what's my idiot brother doing here? Doesn't he know this hallway is for juniors?” Carrie asked, pretending to whisper.

“I don't know, but he and his sophomore ass need to leave.” Julie stage whispered back.

“Ha ha, very funny.” Wilson said to the two girls. He turned to his friends. “See y'all later?”

“Yeah, see you at lunch. Alex’s boyfriend is saving us a seat, so find him. We have music before lunch so we’ll probably be late.” Peters said.

They all did some sort of elaborate handshake before Wilson left and Julie and Carrie exchanged a look. Julie sighed loudly.

“Just move, assholes.” She said, already exhausted by the conversation. Julie could see Carrie raise an eyebrow at the boys in her peripheral vision.

Patterson raised his hands in surrender, a grin finally taking over his face in place of the scowl he usually aimed at Julie.

“Alright, alright, but don't say I never did anything for you, Molina. See you in music class, ladies!” He called as he finally dragged Peters and Mercer away from Julie’s locker.

“God, I hate my brother’s dumbass friends.” Carrie grumbled, moving to lean against the locker next to Julie’s.

“They always look like they just crawled out of a bar. It's gross.” Julie shuddered slightly as she opened her locker to get her books.

“I know right! But whatever, enough about them. How have you been? I haven't seen you in, like, a week. How's Carlos? He’s so much more interesting than Bobby.” Carrie asked, a much more pleasant look settling over her features.

“I’m good and so is Carlos. He was excited to get back to school. I think he has a lot of friends in his class this year, and dad agreed to let him go to a public school instead of that awful private school he was in.” Julie said.

“Oh that's great! He's been dying to go to a public school for, like, ever.”

“Yeah. I don't see the big deal though. It's not that great here.”

“That's for sure.” Carrie’s phone buzzed, and she opened it at lightning speed to see who texted her. She chuckled.

“Flynn's late. She said to meet her in class and that she's bringing you your coffee and me my tea.”

“Of course she is. Make sure mine has a-”

“A shot of hazelnut, I know. I already asked.”

“You, Carrie Wilson, are an angel.”

“I know. Now c’mon, we have to get going or we’ll be late too. And you know Levy has a reputation for dealing with late students.”

“Oh yeah, Flynn's dead when she gets here.”

“For sure.”

As Carrie walked away and Julie finished locking up her stuff again, Patterson’s smile lingered in her mind. It was so rarely aimed at her, and infuriating as it was, she did like seeing it. Julie closed her eyes momentarily and huffed out a breath, clearing any image of Patterson from her mind. She wasn't about to think about that boy any longer than necessary.

[writesowhatnext]

wayward pines  // sirius black

Summary: Sirius Black and Ravenclaw!reader have loved each other for years, obvious to everyone apart from them

Request: Hii, if you aren't too swamped, could you please write a sirius black x ravenclaw reader fic based on the song 'you're in love' by Taylor Swift where the reader and sirius have been friends since their first years and have been pining for each other? And could it have some angst with a fluff ending please? Thank you!

A/N: k so I said that Lily and Sirius aren’t really friends but that’s partly for the plot and partly bc timeline but I promise u Lily and Sirius were the best of friends also I enjoyed this 

Reader: unspecified

Warnings: swearing

Sirius Black knew every single person that walked the halls of Hogwarts, it was a talent of his. That said, he didn’t have many friends. He had James, of course, and Remus and Peter and on a good day, he would probably call Lily and Marlene his friends, too. He also had you. And whilst he was all clashing teeth and stubble and sharp words and leather jackets and pride, you made him soft; you made him feel more. With you, he was everything he ever wanted to be and, Merlin, did he love you for it. He’d loved you since the day you met, he always thought.

You were both so young back then and it was all so long ago, but he remembered every detail. He was scared shitless, with his relationship with his family already so strained; just a scared kid sitting on his own on a magical train to a magical castle. And then you appeared, excited and curious. And you made it better. He remembered your face when you were sorted; he’d been sure blue suited you. He’d been right. When he was sorted, he had no idea how to feel. He sat next to James that first day, which he was grateful for now, obviously, but at the time it didn’t matter because he didn’t know James. He tried to be happy that he wasn’t like his family but he knew there would be hell to pay eventually. He caught your eye, though, as you shot him a thumbs up across the hall and, to him, that mattered. It meant everything to him, actually, because he knew you. He felt like he’d always known you.

“Oi, Pads, mate,” James shouted as Sirius stared out the window, watching the snow fall and some Hufflepuff students already rushing out to brave the cold. Sirius blinked, trying to brush the thought of you from his mind. It didn’t work; it never worked.

“You coming outside? Or are you just gonna sit there pining over Y/N?”

With his mood immediately soured over being caught, Sirius picked up his scarf and threw it at James, pointing toward him with an accusatory finger.

“Are you really one to talk about pining?”

James’ face dropped as Remus’ laughter filled their dorm.

“Has a point, Prongs.”

“Shut up, Mooney.”

There was a great deal of competition to get outside; everyone was milling through the corridors to enjoy the weekend’s weather. The snow was ridiculously bright when they finally got downstairs, though not nearly as bright as James’ sinister grin.

“Oh fuck,” With horror in his eyes, Sirius watched a large clump of snow fly towards him. With snow now down his neck, in his eyes, mouth and hair, his face was so bitingly cold he almost couldn’t hear James snorting. Almost.

“You’re dead, Potter.”

“Ooh,” James taunted although he was definitely running away. “Potter.”

His teasing didn’t last long as a very, very compact snowball hit James directly between his eyes, covering his glasses in ice. Sirius looked over to Remus who only turned around, looking behind him for whoever had thrown it. He shrugged in mock confusion, sending Sirius into bouts of laughter. That was before Peter pummelled him with a block of snow to the side of his head. Like children, they played for hours outside, as did the rest of Hogwarts, it seemed.

It wasn’t until something cold and hard hit him in the back of the head that Sirius decided he was done with their snowball fight, because when he turned around expecting to see his friends, there you stood with the smuggest grin he’d ever seen. For a moment, he just stared at you, his heart clenching at the way the snow fell into your hair, your bright smile and your fluffy gloves messing with the buttons on your coat.

“Do you think that’s funny?” he asked, running towards you. You struggled to suppress your smile, trying to replace it with a deep frown.

“No, Mr Black, I think this is a very serious matter.”

He rolled his eyes as you giggled, looking up at Hogwarts. He moved so you were stood shoulder to shoulder, both of your staring up at the castle in the snow.

“Beautiful weather we’re having.” You said softly, thinking about how truly beautiful it was.

Looking at Sirius didn’t help. With snowflakes melting in his hair and his cheeks rosy, he looked more handsome than ever.

“It wasn’t forecast.” He added, enjoying your mock small talk. He always enjoyed playing pretend with you. He looked down, noticing that you were watching him. He smiled.

“Care to dance?” he asked, turning to face you with one hand raised expectantly. Sometimes, you thought Sirius knew exactly how much you liked him and that he used it to mess with you somehow. Though truly you knew his pretend-flirting and light touches could never hurt you as much as you hurt yourself by accepting his heart-wrenching offers.

“Of course.”

If Hogwarts had a gift shop, and if that gift shop sold snow globes, Sirius was sure the image of you two dancing there, despite how clumsy and awkward it was in the snow, would be the only thing worth trapping inside of them. He’d buy them all, he thought, every single one. He didn’t have to though, so it was lucky Hogwarts had neither a gift shop nor snow globes; he’d remember that moment for the rest of his life. Bathed in comfortable silence with matching grins on your faces, the two of you side-stepped from left to right, leaving footprints into the snow. Through gloves, you held hands and through your coat, he held you and in some unexplainable way, it was perfect. It had been perfect. At that moment, he decided that you were the only one he wanted to share his world with. At that moment, you decided that you couldn’t keep throwing your heart at a boy that could never love you the way you wanted him to so desperately.

“Sirius, I-“ you said, unsure of the right words. “I don’t-“

You were glad when that snowball hit him, truly, because he knew you more than you knew yourself and had he not been distracted by the clump of ice lobbed his way, he would’ve known there was something wrong. You watched his face turn from peaceful to annoyed amusement and for that second, you cherished it like it was the last time you’d see it. May it would be.

“Sorry, love. I need to teach a git a lesson in manners.”

Shooting you a signature grin, he raced over to his friends, picking up snow from every surface he could on the way. You watched him with fondness as played childlike games, heart already aching at what you knew you had to do.

After that day, you didn’t talk to Sirius for two weeks and three days. Though it doesn’t sound a lot, it felt like years for the both of you. It wasn’t easy to avoid him, especially when he’d made it his mission to find out why you, of all people, had started ignoring him. Despite your best efforts, you were also in more pain now, without him, than you’d ever been around him. You kept telling yourself it would get better and that you’d done the right thing but now you weren’t so sure. You missed his voice and his laughter and his presence and how even in silence you felt like no one would ever know you better than he did. Maybe that’s why you didn’t run when he found you at the lake. You just sat there; your knees hiked up to your chest as you looked at the frozen-over water. You’d seen him coming but made no move to escape and he, in his upset state, had taken that as a win.

Sirius Black had been through many things in his life, many awful things. He’d also done quite a good deal of awful things himself. Nothing compared to those weeks without you. He felt like he’d lost everything good in his life and everyone had noticed how entirely absent he was. While James had been vaguely irritated at his constant pining over you, perhaps unfairly, he’d take that any day over Sirius’ vacant stare and empty laughter. Though Sirius wouldn’t talk about it, he knew it was about you, that much was obvious. It was always about you: anyone who’d known Sirius for more than five minutes knew he was in love. After spending all week looking for you, desperately chasing you after class, lurking outside of your common room and even hunting in the library, when he finally saw you by the lake, he almost thought he was dreaming.

You expected him to be angry but when you looked at each other, your stomach sank at the tears in his eyes. You realised how unfair you were being; it wasn’t Sirius’ fault he didn’t love you like you loved him.

“You’re my best friend,” he said, swallowing. “You know that?”

You didn’t know what to say. You didn’t know how to say that that wasn’t enough. You felt like a monster. Fortunate for you, he didn’t give you a chance to reply anyway.

“And I want to spend every day of my life with you. I want to make you breakfast and burn your toast and I want you to wear my shirts and I want us to talk for hours like we always do…”

Your mouth dropped open. Did he mean that?

“I spent this past fortnight falling apart because I can’t do that. I can’t do my life without you in it, Y/N, because it’s not my life at all. It means nothing.”

“Sirius-“

“No, it’s okay that you don’t feel the same. Y/N, I’ve loved you for years and I could never put into words the way you make me feel. I’m sorry that I’ve ruined us, I’m so-“

“Sirius.”

“I just need you. It’s okay that you don’t feel the same but please just be my best friend again.”

Tears were rolling down his cheeks and when he turned to you, your voice caught in your throat. You stared at his bloodshot eyes, noticing how sad the grey seemed. You couldn’t find the words you wanted to say so you said the only thing that came to mind as you looked at his beautiful face.

“I keep a picture of you on my desk at home.”

His eyebrows shot up and then drew down again, sharply, confused.

“It’s because when I’m not here, you’re the only thing I ever miss. The only bit that matters, I suppose.”

You saw the hope brewing in his eyes and you couldn’t help but smile slightly.

“It doesn’t matter where I am.” You looked back for a second at the lake, eyes skimming over the frozen surface. “As long as you’re there.”

He nodded, licking salty tears from his lips as a smile tugged at them. He pulled your arm towards him.

“You really mean that?”

You stared at each other for a moment as you scooted closer, identical bashful smiles lifting your cheeks. Like the world was right again, the silence between you felt normal.

“I love you, Sirius.”

The way his eyes softened at your words sent a warmth through your chest at the sight of him.

“I just didn’t think you could ever feel the same I’m sorry.”

Without saying anything, he leant forward and rested his forehead against yours. His hand dragged down your arm to rest on top of hand, grass tickling his palm through your fingers. Slowly, he interlocked your fingers together and smirked.

“I thought you were supposed to be the smart one, love.”

You scoffed. Maybe he was right. It was hard to deny that you’d both been blind, though.

[eldritch-elrics]

svsss: the (not so) grand return of peerless cucumber

so a LOT happened in the chapters i read last night (44-49) and i have. SO many thoughts

not as many as i had right after i read but i really had to go to bed so i couldn’t write them all up.....

i put some reactions in individual posts but i’ll repeat them here!

first of all. shang qinghua. fucked off to the demon realm. like, good for him? but also. i want to see my boy

binghe keeping sqq’s body??? xue yang vibes OFF the charts

so I’M IN LOVE WITH THE MUSHROOM PLOT

i love how every so often sv will hit me with a twist that is SO up my alley that i just. lose it a little bit

HE MADE HIMSELF A CLONE BODY OUT OF MAGICAL MUSHROOMS AND TRANSPORTED HIS SOUL INTO IT.

i love mushroom shit and i love bodyswapping and. my god.

the fact that sqq has died twice and been forced to inhabit 3 different bodies??? wei wuxian wishes he were this cool

sidenote but the mental image of sqq doing radio calisthenics in the forest is really funny. or maybe it’s just funny to me because of the associations i have with this one time in japanese class?

sqq’s new body looking like a cross between shen yuan and shen qingqiu is really interesting and perhaps... symbolic....?

also hey does this mean he doesn’t have to deal with the cureless poison anymore. i assumed that it would be cured in his eventual sexytimes with binghe but hmmm i guess not!

the point where i really lost it was when he realized he was disconnected from the system. i know now that it wasn’t permanent but that was just so interesting, how much he hates it and wants it gone. which makes sense! even though it has helped him get out of bad spots at times, it’s a sign that he’s not really from this world. now i’m just really curious what’s gonna happen to the system at the end of the novel. maybe it’ll shut off once he achieves the “goal” it’s seemed to have set for him and gets together with lbh?

also i’m glad that sqq seems to have matured a little bit in terms of his people skills / problem solving skills? though uh. remains to be seen how he’ll act in front of binghe when binghe realizes who he is

it also seems like i was completely wrong about sqq’s motivations for sacrificing himself lol. lot more selfish than i thought? but it makes sense! fun twist

mxtx sure likes to have her protagonists execute plots that they don’t tell the reader about until after they happen lol (i’m thinking of the golden core transfer)

uhh back to plot reactions

love the running joke about peerless cucumber. also the demon names... six balls <3

also hold on a minute, peerless cucumber is a dick joke? lmao

thank you airplane for making it clear binghe has a big dick. absolutely vital character information

so i’ve said this before but sqq’s narration really CARRIES this novel. here i’m thinking specifically about his diatribe against sha hualing’s nails

shl is pretty fun. sexy evil lady!

sqq can turn his fan into a blade. nie huaisang get ON that smh

yang yixuan my beloved!

also HAHA i predicted that sqq’s super mushroom powers could help the xin mo thing and i was RIGHT

so sqq is just. SO invested in getting the plot back on track. like with all the harem members and stuff. it’s so funny because like bro. surely you’ve noticed by now that things are going very differently than in pidw. and also... you don’t WANT to go back on the pidw track bc that would kill you!!!

so the system reactivates when binghe turns up right? i am thinking about. the fact that when it tries to reboot it’s like “contacting customer service”

WHO IS CUSTOMER SERVICE.

it’s so interesting because like... obviously the whole system thing is so much bigger than just A Book? it’s even got airplane trapped inside it. and he’s the fucking author! who is running this thing? and for what purpose?

sqq listening in on the gossip about how lbh is DEFINITELY obsessively in love with him was SO funny. poor man

so binghe. he has become so COLD

i don’t like it :(

once more. my dude go to therapy.

wait also random but sqq has a beard now and for some reason that’s so funny to me

life at the palace seems terrible lmao no one is doing ok

smh, mxtx protags keep dying and staying dead for huge amounts of time and then coming back in different bodies

the fact that binghe’s happiest memories are training with sqq :(

THE FACT THAT BINGHE IS ABSOLUTELY SHIT AT KISSING

my god. that entire scene

went from “awwww headpats” to “AAAAAAAA”

the fact that the system congratulates him i’m sjkdhgjhsdhgjsds poor sqq.... didn’t ask for this shit.......

after 50 chapters, he’s finally realized he turned the male lead gay <3 say goodbye to all those funny oblivious moments!

i had to stop there because it was way too late at night but wow. we shall see how this relationship progresses

i can’t see it improving anytime soon but at least sqq knows lbh likes him now???

i had a LOT of thoughts last night but now i’m pretty much just like. i really need to see where it goes before i make any judgements on bingqiu

rn i’m not a big fan because 1. sqq is so wildly uncomfortable (understandable lol, even if lbh thinks it’s just a dream) and 2. lbh is very obsessive and that’s not really my favorite trope. but like it’s obviously not meant to be a healthy relationship, at least definitely not right now, and i do like some good fucked up romance! i’m excited to see the developments where sqq realizes what his real feelings are

i’m also fairly neutral on binghe as a character atm. his main personality traits seem to be “obsessed with sqq” and “trying not to die from evil sword qi poisoning” and i don’t find that all that compelling? between him and lwj i have to say that mxtx’s love interest characters are not really my favorite, though i wouldn’t say i dislike either of them.

furthermore i’m slightly concerned with how lbh’s “i’m the main character and i get what i want” attitude is gonna affect the romance. i know there’s some dubconny stuff later which i can’t say i’m excited for but i am excited to see how binghe’s character is gonna develop in general

my aspirations for bingqiu is that they’re both able to eventually break free of the expectations of the system

because, look at this from sqq’s pov. there’s this ai in your head that has, for literal years, been steering you towards a romance that you (at least outwardly) don’t want. isn’t that fucking terrifying? i love it. the system (at least how i see it) has been bending the established plot of the world in order to make this happen. it’s like fate but you can see the gears turning.

and even if sqq does end up liking lbh back, can you imagine the existential crisis of like. wondering if he really CHOSE to get with binghe or if he was somehow compelled to by the system which acts based on binghe’s emotions?

i think that would be so interesting

however what i think is Actually going to happen (based on that one time when airplane was like “hey cucumber, uh, is lbh just a character to you or is there more...”) is that sqq is gonna realize that he’s had a bit of a crush on binghe since reading pidw and is only just now dealing with his internalized homophobia. so him getting together with binghe has less strings attached

i think there’s some opportunity here for a commentary on the soulmate trope? because svsss is just so steeped in themes about agency and fate. i think that would be really cool but we’ll have to see. i feel like the ending is gonna be simpler and happier than i want it to be but obviously i cannot make any judgements yet! i’m just having Thoughts :)

so, i also read one of the extras (the one where he goes with lqg to battle succubi) because the translation i’m reading recommended it! it was pretty fun

sqq SO clueless. like i get it, he doesn’t think he’s into anything other than Pretty Cis Women, but. sqq we’ll work on this

also ASKING LQG IF HE’S A VIRGIN. sqq literally stop

(that was so funny though)

liu qingge ACE RIGHTS

actually lqg’s outburst in this chapter was kind of bizarre and can be explained in a few different ways i think?

i really like the idea of him being aroace. thinks true love doesn’t exist etc

i feel like the intended implication of lqg’s outburst is that he’s realized madame meiyin is referring to binghe and is like “holy shit no sqq can’t be with Him”

maybe lqg is just homophobic?

but i. also kind of wonder if lqg is gay and in love with sqq? and is just putting up the “such deep love doesn’t exist” thing because he really doesn’t want sqq to know

there was that whole line where the succubus was like “well you’re not his soulmate you don’t know” and it made me think

on the other hand i can’t really see lqg liking sqq that way; they seem to have more of a Bro Bond

then again lqg does keep fighting binghe for sqq’s sake

either headcanon is fun! i’d be excited for more insight into lqg in general i think

[thepromisedbride]

HELLO JESS. BBC GHOSTS ARTHURIAN AU GO (by which I mean the arthurian characters in the premise of BBC ghosts, not the other way around)

REY oh my god i love you for this here we go

So in Ghosts the alive characters are a married couple, right?? Wrong!! Well, not wrong, because yes that’s exactly what Mike and Alison are. But wrong for this version because though I seriously considered having one of the couples as the main characters I then thought “hey what’s more fun than a family!!” and luckily for us (me) we have a ready made family in the form of (drumroll please) The Orkneys!!

The rest is under a read more because I got what some might call “carried away” and others might call “obsessed”

What happens is this: as the Orkney brothers grow up, they rather naturally become separated, until at last Gareth is the last one, at seventeen, living with their mother. Their father (or at least, their supposed father: they all know that Mordred looked too dissimilar to Lot to really be his son, though they never said it) died a while ago, and Morgause could not find it in her to really focus on her children over her job.

The five of them seem to unspokenly care about each other, but in a way where it was clear that they were all waiting to be contacted first.

Nonetheless, when Morgause does die, with Gareth having just turned eighteen and seriously wondering why he had taken a gap year from university, they all show up, and find that they had jointly been bequeathed the old family house in the country.

Gawain has been recently promoted and is now working from home. This meant more time than he usually spent inside his flat, and he had been getting rather claustrophobic. So, after an admittedly short heart to heart with Gareth, who was looking quite nervously towards a future without parents and with no idea what to do, he packs up his brothers in a typically Gawain-like fashion and moves them all out to the manor.

Mordred has been able to see ghosts since an incident in his youth involving a large body of water, an ill-timed trip and a sudden storm. He hasn’t been in water since, but the near-death experience left his with the ability to see those spirits left when their bodies had departed. This is especially unfortunate for him, because half the time he doesn’t particularly want to be able to see living people, let alone ghosts who do not leave when he throws things at them. But he puts up with it enough: there is, beyond all logic, a particular cup he took from Morgause’s house when he left which somehow has three ghosts attached to it, and they happily provide a deterrent for any others.

(It does create a somewhat awkward car journey: he’s being driven by Agravaine, and between the boxes in the back and the only two seats in the front, there’s not much room even for a ghost. Aggs keeps looking at him weirdly when he fidgets, but it’s not his fault that the only free place left is his lap or that Galahad decided that he simply had to see the journey to the house rather than simply confining himself to the cup like Bors and Percival did.)

Anyway, this means that he arrives at the house and immediately sees a crowd of variously costumed figures and tries turning around and leaving. Unfortunately Agravaine anticipates some “young adult hormones” and quickly steers him straight inside.

It takes him a while to finally be alone with the ghosts, who seem to quickly realise he can see them. There are eleven of them in total, though a couple seem to spend most of their time in the little gatekeeper house rather than the main building. He immediately makes a note to avoid Dinadan, who looks at Mordred once and immediately makes fun of his choice in band t-shirts (and like, he’s a ghost, what does he know about bands, it’s like trying to talk to Gaheris—) and Lamorak is instantly relegated to Mordred’s extensive “least liked people” list, which is different to his “disliked people” list. Kay seems kind of mean, which is funny, and Bedivere is responsible enough to try and control the others, but they are clearly “not dating” which honestly Mordred has no time for.

He gets on best with Clarissant, probably, as she’s smart and not too grating but still sweet enough that she likes sitting with him when he wants to be quiet but doesn’t want to be alone. Owain, likewise, has shown him several spaces in the garden for birdwatching or other wildlife (which Mordred doesn’t particularly have used for, but he does appreciate the effort).

Owain is “not dating” a different ghost, Laudine, but in a different way than Kay and Bedivere are “not dating”, in a way that doesn’t get on Mordred’s nerves and lets him acknowledge that Laudine is kind of funny. Elaine doesn’t really talk to him: there’s a river and lake by the house and she seems to prefer it there, or else by the old tower. But she has great stories, and never minds when he really needs a vent, usually about his brothers.

It’s Palamedes and Brangaine who live (in the loosest sense of the word) in the gatekeeper’s cottage. This is very useful, because it means he can set up a little bedroom inside, though it’s mostly for storage now, and sleep there when he wants to pretend he has his own space. He has a strange nervousness that they might see him as a sort of pet, but he’s pretty sure that’s not the case.

Relatively sure.

Not that it matters. They have a clearly delicate history together, one Mordred is not about to ask after for fear that one or both will start crying, but they manage in a sort of sweet domesticity. He’s left the goblet in there for now, because Palamedes seems to enjoy Galahad, Bors and Percival’s company.

And it’s—

Nice.

And then, of course, there is Lancelot. He seems far too well meaning for Mordred to carry on any kind of maliciousness for long, except that for some godforsaken reason he has also decided that Gawain is an ideal muse. He spends way too much time following Gawain around, thinking up sappy poetry about Gawain, or else sighing blissfully out of a window (presumably over Gawain). Mordred thinks that if Lancelot were to ever be able to actually talk to Gawain (physically, he means. Or figuratively? Because even if Lancelot wasn’t a ghost he does not seem to have any cognitive abilities around Gawain anyway) then this image would be shattered. Gawain looks pretty, but so does this waterfall Mordred once read about that falls down into nothingness and despair, or the river stretch that looks like a lovely refreshing swim but actually is an fierce riptide with a 100% mortality rate. Something like that. But the point is that it’s difficult enough with Gawain constantly around without having his admirer hanging round all the time too. Gawain is insufferable already without Gaheris and Gaheris getting to add to their board of “Is Gawain Secretly (Or Not-So-Secretly) a Changeling” with ‘every time he puts something down it always seems to move just within reach when he goes to pick it up’

(If you’re wondering why there isn’t an Arthur, that is a subplot that I just suddenly decided on just now. I was going to have Arthur as a Captain-like ghost but then I was thinking and long story short there’s a tangent here—

It was Arthur’s house. He’s still Mordred’s dad, though here I guess he isn’t their uncle as well, and he left Morgause the house in his will. He heard she was pregnant, and there was a little but if him which knew he could never acknowledge his child but he still wanted to provide in some way. Arthur doesn’t have to be a bad parent.

Incidentally this also solves why the brothers didn’t really know about the house before rather than “Morgause wasn’t a big fan of the country”.)

(OH MY GOD also so Guin isn’t a ghost either bc I wanted her alive. So now she’s an important plot point. She moved into the outskirts of the nearby village because she liked the area but didn’t want to contest for a massive empty house. Anyway she’s smart and despite the problems her and her late husband went through, she does respect him for this. So eventually the Orkneys will have to go for a discovery on the house’s secrets aka there are ghosts and so they will find Guin and discover the Truth. It’s all coming together now lads)

They invite their neighbours over for dinner one night: the house needs some pretty desperate renovating, but it’s now moderately liveable at least and, according to Gawain, this requires a party.

So invite them over he does. The ones to the left, a couple named Tristan and Isolde, though Gaheris swears that when they were introduced in the village Isolde looked completely different, and the ones to the right, Morgan and Vivian. They pass a very pleasant evening, despite the fact that a fox manages to get on the roof.

No one is sure how.

Gaheris and Agravaine are charged with rescuing it, which is by far the stupidest decision Gawain has ever made. However, despite them all living together, the brothers are really not in a brilliant harmony yet, and so Gawain sends those two off whilst he entertains their guests.

The two of them are staring out the window at the fox for a while before Gaheris dares Agravaine to climb up. He doesn’t want to, but Gaheris is his little brother, and if he passes over a dare from him he’ll never hear the end of it. So he climbs out.

It’s a dry night. But it was not a dry day. And the leaves packed on all the footholds are wet and slippery, and Agravaine—

Falls—

And hits the ground, several stories below.

They’re all terrified, of course, regretting every moment they spent apart or arguing. Agravaine is declared legally dead for fourteen minutes, and it is the worst fourteen minutes of any of their lives. But finally— finally— the doctors emerge to tell them that their brother is resting, but is expected to make a full recovery.

Which he does! There are several more doctor’s appointments and physiotherapists scheduled, but eventually he can return to house. (Unsurprisingly, the arguing starts again quickly.)

There is, however, one major difference.

Agravaine can now also see the ghosts.

Mordred, having been able to see them all his life, had not considered this possibility, and thus does not prepare.

Agravaine discovers these new abilities when he walks into a room to find Mordred, pretending to be on a phone call, chatting away with Clarissant whilst Lamorak inexplicably floats nearby. He stares, screams, and blacks out.

When he comes to after a moment he is faced with a lengthy, surprisingly bored conversation with Mordred, and seriously considers blacking out again. Lamorak has not left the room despite his presence being an inevitable disaster, and Agravaine perhaps unsurprisingly decides that He is to be the newest mortal enemy in Agravaine’s list.

(Lamorak is silently gratified that he is on lists for both alive people who can see him, and chooses to ignore the reasoning behind the lists.)

Mordred has been dealing with ghosts for most of his life.

Agravaine has Not.

This means that, pretty quickly, Gawain, Gaheris and Gareth realise something is even more wrong with those two than normal.

And of course they have to come clean.

Gaheris is half convinced that the two have found his conspiracy journal and that this is an elaborate ruse to trick him into confessing love for Nessie or something. Gareth is mostly concerned about the logistics and privacy, though Mordred’s narrated conversations between him and Owain seem to make him much more comfortable with the whole thing. Gawain is genuinely tempted to jump out a window to see if he can join to newly discovered exclusive club of ghost watchers, but eventually decides that it’s too much a risk to his beautiful face.

(Lancelot silently agrees, though it has not escaped his attention that it would be nice if Gawain could actually see him.)

[tealin]

Basler to the Beardmore 1: You See a Plane, You Take It

As always, the original post is up at the official blog – the formatting definitely works there, if you are having issues with it here.

When planning my research trip with the Antarctic Artists & Writers Program, I had to make a wishlist of places to visit.  One of the more important ones was the Beardmore Glacier, the route by which Scott and his men climbed from the Ross Ice Shelf (or, as they called it, the Barrier) to the Polar Plateau.  It's one of the largest glaciers in the world, but is hardly visited anymore so is rarely photographed, and despite the blessing of Google Image Search, I had too poor a sense of it to draw a journey up or down it with any confidence.

Setting foot on the Beardmore turned out be prohibitively demanding, logistically, but there are regular LC-130 flights between McMurdo Station and the Pole which traverse the Beardmore en route.  The plan we made was for me to get on one of those, and snap as much as I could from one of the small windows as we flew.

November 2019 turned out to be a terrible time for Pole flights – if the weather was OK at Pole, there was a problem with the planes, or vice versa.  However, the weather delays worked in my favour, because they affected not only Pole flights, but one particular season-opening flight, which had been bumped so many times that it still hadn't gone when I turned up. That meant I could get a seat.

The big flights ffor the USAP’s operations in East Antarctica – cargo and passenger flights on/off continent, and to major stations like Pole and WAIS Divide – are handled by the New York Air National Guard, and their fleet of enormous military airplanes, namely a C-17 and small handful of LC-130 Hercules.  There are lots of smaller trips from McMurdo to satellite stations, and these are serviced by Kenn Borek Air, a Canadian company which operates out of Calgary, Alberta.  At the start of every season, they fly their fleet of Twin Otters and Baslers down the length of North and South America, then leapfrog depots down the Peninsula and thence to various hubs including McMurdo.  From there they move people and stuff where they need to go, and also restock those fuel depots.  There was one depot flight that remained to be done, and it happened to be to a cache near the base of the Beardmore, so they agreed to take me along.

I was not the only extra job tacked on to the flight. After depoting the fuel, we were to scout out a camp in the Transantarctic Mountains which had been in regular use until a some fierce winds a few years ago had scoured great furrows in the landing strip.  Was it landable again?  What state was the camp in?  We would find out.  They also wanted to scope out a historic site that left no physical trace, to get updated intel on its condition.  Then we would fly north again via the Beardmore and the coordinates for One Ton Depot.

As soon as the Basler had finished her more pressing engagements, we were put on alert for the depot run.  Everything in Antarctica is weather-dependent, and that can change on a dime, so one is always on standby.  Because they needed to make the most of the Basler's time, they would put two missions on for any given day, then the one with the best prospects would be activated.  For five days I was ready to go – breakfasted, fully suited up, lunch packed, ECW bag to hand – at 7 a.m., in case my flight was the one that was going.  Flight status would be announced on the screens at the entrance to the Galley.

For four mornings I joined the poor Thwaites Glacier team anxiously hanging on the screens – they were trying to get out to WAIS Divide (the high point of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet, from which they would catch a flight to the Thwaites camp) where the weather had been abominable for a month.  One of those mornings my flight was activated and I got all the way out to the airfield only for it to be called off at the last minute because of a change in forecast for the depot site.  But finally, the fifth morning, it was all systems go!

There are two airfields that serve McMurdo: Phoenix, which is designed to take the massive C-17s on a packed snow runway where they can land with wheels, and Williams Field, of groomed snow, for ski'd aircraft.  The extra special thing about Williams Field is that it's more or less where Scott's 'Safety Camp' was located – so named because it was far enough onto the ice shelf not to break up and float out to sea – so the view to Ross Island from there would have been very familiar to our explorers.  On the day of my false start, while waiting to find out that the plane wasn't going after all, I got to take some good pictures of the view from there.  It was also a good day to get a sense of the 'bad light' that obliterated contrast on the snow and made navigation difficult:

The Sea Ice Incident took place between us and the conical hill to the left!  Wild!

Anyway, Try no. 5 was on a much nicer day.  Here is the magnificent bird with her spanking new paint job:

It was a funny experience – I mean, besides sharing the fuselage with many hundreds of gallons of flammable liquid – in that it was an island of Canada amidst all the Americans. The crew all lived in BC when they weren't in Antarctica, and next to my seat were the usual set of flight safety brochures, in English and French, just as if we were flying out of Calgary.

Our pilot was named Steve, and I learned from him that, if you're training to be a pilot in Canada, you have to do your qualifying hours in the North.  Most people put in their time and then get a comfortable job flying passengers between major southern cities, but Steve liked the North so much he stayed and stayed, until he got the job with Kenn Borek and ended up South.  As much as I feel obliged to make a facetious quip about my flammable fellow passengers, I can honestly say I have never felt safer in an airplane than this one.  This was just as well, as one of the first things we did once we were in the air was rather exciting.

The Basler is a workhorse, and one of the Antarctic planes (though I never found out if it was this one) had actually flown in WWII – they just keep going and going.  However, the hydraulics that lift the landing gear were designed to lift just the landing gear, not the landing gear plus 650-pound skis, so in order to get them up we had to lose some weight.  And we did this by climbing steeply up and then nose-diving, bringing us temporarily closer to zero G.  We had to do this every time we took off, and it took 2-3 goes to get the skis up successfully.  You'd expect someone with a history of nervous flying and a sensitivity to motion sickness to find this unpleasant, but it was just plain awesome.

This post is getting long already, so I will describe our errands in detail over the next two posts.  I really must take the time here, though, to give my regards to Kenn Borek Air. I don't think anyone in Canada knows how absolutely vital they are to everything that gets done in Antarctica; their vermillion planes keep camps supplied and people moving around, and are the everyday lifeblood of the continent, in the most literal circulatory sense.  Steve and the Basler may possibly have saved the Thwaites Glacier project this season – after a month of delays getting people and freight out to the field camps, it was reaching a point where they might have called off the massive international project for this year.  But they allocated the Basler to the WAIS flights and Steve landed it in conditions that the NYANG wouldn't – the Basler couldn't fly nearly as much cargo as a Herc, but they got enough out there that some work could begin.  I haven't seen this mentioned in any of the Thwaites coverage and I'm sure it hasn't been covered in Canada, but for a country that doesn't even have a national Antarctic program, they should be mighty proud of the central role their people play in making other countries' programs happen.

[bekahdoesnerdshit]

no one else has reblogged ask meme Mondays so I'm just going fucking apeshit with u. from the big boy: b7 for raini bc it's funny, c1 for cog bc it's inchresting, h3 for brilliance bc I know there's some gay shit going on and I want to hear more, then a17 (character proud of themselves or ur proud of ur rp as them) L5 and L6 for whomsoever u want to talk about

I won’t need a readmore for this one, I tell myself. There’s not that many questions, and they’re not proseboys. I was a fool. She’s too long to be allowed to run on people’s dashboards unrestrained 😔 Thank you! For going apeshit!!

Raini

B7. How do they respond to babies crying in public? I guarantee the image you have for how Raini would react to a crying baby is 10000% correct. She’s unhappy. Uncomfortable. Unimpressed. Can you please make that thing be quiet. Why did you have it if you can’t mange it. This is why she’s never having kids. Like she’s not gonna say anything to the parents or shoot them dirty looks, because she’s not that specific flavor of asshole, but she’s going Mind Her Business and vacate the premises if possible. People who want to take care of something should just get a cat. Goddamn. There is ONE (1) baby that may qualify for an exception, and that’s Red. This is because (and please, picture Raini, the absolute picture of ‘fed up’, squatting down to look a fussy Red in the eye while she says this) “Baby Lent. You’re better than this. I know you are, and you’re letting me down. You need to stop making that noise.” This is unrelated to the question, but please also picture a Raini who was asked (blackmailed?) into babysitting using her Mage Hand to change Red’s diaper. It has nothing to do with the question but I think it’s a Very funny mental image. Thank you.

Cog

C1. Does your OC have a moral code? If not, how do they base their actions? If so, where does it come from, and how seriously do they take it? Absolutely! The way Cog approaches the world is defined by three main mantras: - Kindness is a discipline, not a character trait. - Doing the right thing isn’t always easy, but it is always worth doing. - If you are able to help someone, you have an obligation to do so. Between these three things, Cog sees the world in pretty black and white terms. There are right decisions, and wrong ones. The difference between the two is usually clear to anyone who cares to look, and so most of the evil in the world is born of selfishness. Consequently, Cog does very poorly in morally grey situations. She will commit without hesitation to any course of action that she deems “right” and “kind” no matter how drastic or dangerous it is, but she pretty much shuts down the second she’s faced with a decision that has consequences for someone regardless of what she does.  I’m sure that has not, and will not, come in her life ever at all. Ahah!  I think originally, this worldview was born of naivety. She grew up that religious kind of super sheltered where everything in the secular world was dangerous and dirty, and so when Cog began to realize that definitely wasn’t the case she made the choice to intentionally see the best in people and the world around her to fight what she was told growing up. When she started traveling with her party and actually seeing more of the world than the extremes of a) shitty cult town b) shiny clean magic school, she began to realize that the true state of the Wasteland was somewhere between what her Mama had told her and what she wanted to believe it was. But I’ve never in my life made a character who is stubborn as hell deep down, so instead of letting the world she found herself in change her Cog took a deep breath, rolled up her sleeves, and settled in to be the one changing it by loving and helping the people around her.

Brilliance

H3. Does your OC believe there’s only one ideal partner (or multiple ideal if not monogamous) for everyone, or that there are many people who could be right? I think Brilliance absolutely adores the idea of two people being made for one another. Two souls, wandering the world looking for one another? Who slot together so perfectly that when they find each other it’s clear they never could have fit anywhere else? Bruh. Yes, she knows love takes work. Sometimes you and your partner are going to disagree, and sometimes there’s going to be conflict. The world isn’t “love at first sight” then smooth sailing for the rest of your life. But you put in the work to make your lives better, together, because the universe gave you this person to care for. Maybe there are many people who you could be happy with, and those relationships aren’t anything to look down on. But when you find The One, Brilliance thinks, you know. She certainly did.

Don’t Worry About It

A17. What’s one of your OC’s proudest moments of themselves? Gonna hijack this question to talk about rp moments I’m proud of because Alex sorta kinda gave me permission to do that! Alright! For Raini, the biggest rp moment I’m proud of was her “I’m getting our memories back” speech a few sessions ago, specifically the line, “We’ve been fighting with one hand tied behind our backs for too long. If we’re going to die fighting this thing, I want to know exactly what I’m fighting for.” Morgan and I had been planning to kick off our return from July Hell Hiatus with Wish Two for a couple of days, which meant I was lucky enough to be able to spend a little while planning what to say. I feel like that line in particular embodies Raini’s unwavering confidence in her magic, her determination, and her specific brand of caring for the people around her without actually admitting that’s what she’s doing. I also really liked the way the scene of her apologizing to the party for being Bitchy post losing Magic for a minute went! Idk if anyone else remembers it, because it was pretty short in game, but! I thought it was a very good moment of Raini finding the most Roundabout way to say “thank you for looking out for me while I was defenseless”.  If I can pat myself on the back a little, my Cog monologues kick Ass. The most recent one was when she was talking to Ace about how War is Bad (radical, I know) and there was a moment where she looked at him and said, “...I’m not going to ask for your help, because I don’t know what I’ll do if I do and you say no.” Which. OOF. That was her and I realizing in real time that she and Ace were very much on different sides of this issue. When the session ended everyone said they Loved how good and hurtful that conversation was and I :’) Also, there was a really small moment when Cog was pleading for Maelo’s life (when Sunny’s dad had him locked in a cat carrier. It’s a Long story, made slightly better by the fact that Maelo was wildshaped into a cat at the time) and Cog went Straight for the dad heartstrings by sniffling and asking if, please, would Robert at least let her say goodbye to her friend before he killed him? Please? 😢  She is using her baby face for EVIL!  And oh my god how could I forget! Arcane Timeout! When the party went back to New Alexandria and was confronted by Ace for helping a prisoner escape (which, in fairness, Maelo did do) and Cog brought the encounter screeching to a halt by casting Wall of Stone to make a timeout hut with herself and Ace inside. She then sat herself down, looked Ace dead in the eye, and told him that the wall wasn’t coming down until he actually talked to her, or until he broke her concentration on the spell. She banked hard on him not being willing to hurt her, and it paid off. There were tears all around, both in and out of character. It was Wonderful. Also! I do just want recognition for the fact that I did not give into my impulses to be a little Shit as Cog last session by subtle casting Heal in Ace’s face after he Counterspelled my Healing Word. it was what I Rebekah wanted to do more than anything; unfortunately Cog is a better person than I am. There is No worse feeling than wanting so badly to do something you have no choice but to admit isn’t in character. Rip.  For whatever reason, all of my favorite Brilliance rp moments came during combat. Pressing her forehead to Sabre’s after he died in silent grief, forcefully taking a Narzugon off his Nightmare and then using Misty Step to mount it herself and take off after her friend, planting herself in the chokepoint of a hallway to stare down three minotaurs so she could keep her party safe behind her, pushing deeper into the hellwasp nest to rescue Dembe and Sabre despite knowing that doing so all but destroyed her chance of making it out alive, the list goes on. There were good out of combat moments too (despite the rest of the party’s best efforts 🙄), but I feel like for once I made a character who really shone in combat.  oh GOD I just remembered one really really good rp moment, when our rogue Zihro died when he got separated from the party during combat. We finished taking care of the main devil we were fighting, then began searching the dungeon for Zihro and the npc he was with. We, instead, found both of their corpses. Dembe looked to Brilliance, our healer, and demanded to know why she was just standing there instead of fixing their friend. We were only level three or four at the time, so Brilliance had to tell Dembe, again and again, that she couldn’t fix Zihro. It was too late, she wasn’t powerful enough yet, her goddess wouldn’t answer a prayer like that- It was a rough scene, and without question one of the best rp moments I’ve had with that group. Tae, if you’re reading this, you’re the only one with rights. Also, please unfollow this blog immediately.  Now as a quick pick-me-up after that mess, Pip’s best rp moment was when our barbarian Durokal -who couldn’t read and had a habit of running off and causing Problems- found a plaque he could tell had five words on it, and called Pip over to read it for him when Pip finished chasing him down. Pip, annoyed and out of breath and all of two feet tall, looked up at this 7 foot half-orc and told him, “It says: I’m. Gonna. Kick. Your. Ass.” Also, he regularly called very powerful figures in Barovia by sweet nicknames with “Mr.” in the front. As a sign of Respect. Because he’s the Best. sdfhsdkfj he also he couldn’t think of a fake name quick enough one time so he told an npc that is name was Dick and he was Very embarrassed about it. She: bought it!

Brilliance, Again

L5. Which OC do you think is the most decent morally or behaviorally?  AKA, which is supposed to a “good guy”? The answer is Cog, but we already went in depth on her morals this ask. She’s HAD enough screen time let’s move on. Brilliance is the only other character who, if asked, would say they saw themselves as a good guy instead of just “a person”. She strives to do right by the people around her, and to protect the light and beauty found in the world. She doesn’t have the same illusions about the world wanting to be a good place that Cog does, and she very much understands that sometimes the best thing you can do for the world is to put the things that make it dangerous six feet under. What’s interesting I think is that, despite being a paladin, she isn’t Lawful Good! She’s Neutral Good, because you know what? She wants to do the right thing, and laws aren’t always right. It’s up to you, as a person with a mind and free will and agency, to look at a situation and decide what you think is the right thing to do. And, for Brilliance, generally the right thing to do is heft her sword, raise her shield, and face trouble head on.

Raini, Once More

L6. Which OC do you think is the worst morally or behaviorally? AKA, which is supposed to be a “bad guy”? I don’t have any evil aligned characters, because I personally find things like “getting along with my party members” sexy, but the character who’s the shittiest and the worst is obviously Raini. She’s not a bad person per say, she’s just selfish and results oriented. Very much “the ends justify the means” and in a party like hers she’s aware that somebody has to be the bad guy sometimes, and she’s not afraid to make sure that’s her. She’s also very very likely to fall victim to her hubris making her feel like she definitely knows what’s best, and acting on that maybe without consulting other people (see: the whole fucking premise of the campaign). She sees a goal, she sees a way to accomplish that goal, so why shouldn’t she begin taking the necessary steps to reach it? I think the events of the game have mellowed this flaw out a little bit, but you can still see traces of it in the way she, for example, wordlessly handed Lent a bunch of diamonds before launching her consciousness into the Abeast and very nearly dying in there without consulting with the party first. It happens!  Also, behaviorally, she’s just. I mean. She’s like that. The worst. And that, I promise, will never change. 

[nadisabug]

Title: Sick

Fandom: Danganronpa (SDR2) AU: post-simulation Warnings: disorientation and sickness A/N: okay so I've been super stressed with school, and all I can think about is what if Hajime is getting sick right and he tries to hide it because now hes in charge of the class and apart of the Future Foundation and he is really good at hiding it except nagito notices bc hes nagito and watches hajime closely and now its all i can think about here i go

^^^

Hajime felt awful.

He had been feeling really off for days now, but he brushed it aside. He had to, everyone relied on him. The only reason why they were allowed off the island in the first place was because Hajime convinced Makoto and the rest of the Future Foundation to allow them to move back to the mainland because staying on the island where everything happened would just be worse. Makoto knew Hajime was right, staying on the island was the worst thing that could happen to the students, he told Hajime himself that. But, the Future Foundation was nothing if not skeptical. They were not sure if the students were properly rehabilitated, seeing as they got all their memories back, so they still did not trust the so-called Remnants. Consequently, they were a lot of conditions associated with leaving the island and moving into their relatively nice place. All of which rested squarely on Hajime's shoulders.

One of them was the morning report to Makoto.

He had to report how everyone was doing, feeling, saying, and acting. They did have an assigned therapist that was required to meet with them biweekly, who had her own report, but they wanted an update from the supposed leader of the community as well. Hajime took this responsibility very seriously. Honestly, he had nothing else to offer. He couldn't make patrol groups to help keep the streets safe like Kuzuryu, Pekoyama, Owari, and Nidai, he couldn't help create relief packages like Teruteru, Soda, Tsumiki, and Tanaka, and he couldn't go out into the streets and inspire hope like Moida, Nevermind, Koizumi, and Saionji. He couldn't even just cycle through the three, like Komaeda did, lending his luck to all of the causes. He had a knack for finding out where trouble was occurring, adding personalized items to packages just right and relying on his luck to deliver it to the citizen who needed it most, and no matter how unnerving he could be, no one could deny his unwavering charisma and the faith and hope it inspired in the citizens. Hajime could do none of that. All he had were his supervision and regulatory jobs. So he committed himself to completing them to the best of his ability. He collected and documented everyone's reports flawlessly, he kept inventory and sent out refill requests before the other students knew they were running low on anything, and he never missed a morning report.

Until today. 

Hajime woke up groggily to the sound of his Comm beeping. His head was pounding, needles pressing into his temples, and he could feel the dull throb as his blood pumped through his exhausted body. The pain flared in rhythm with the beat, waves of pain rolling over his head as the pressure within felt like it was going to burst. He was about to chalk it up to the fact that he had gone to sleep at 4 am the night before when he sucked in a deep breath, stopping halfway when a fit of coughs overtook him, curling into himself and coughing desperately into his elbow. Once the fit subsided, he took another, full deep breath and picked up his Comm device. On it, read the time.

7:37. Fuck.

He answered it quickly, then threw the covers off of himself, launching to his feet. As he did so, a wave of nausea rolled over him, his vision going completely white. He stumbled forward and caught himself on the dresser, slamming the edge of his elbow on the corner in the process. He bit down on his tongue to keep the contents of his stomach down. Hard. He tasted the the sour blood as it coated his tongue and filled his mouth, but he did not let up.

"You're late," a cold voice announced from the Comm's speaker. With how hard Hajime was gripping the thing, he was surprised it was still working.

Fucking hell. The one day he was late of course Kirirgiri had to be there. He swallowed the blood and the pain radiating from his head, and now his funny bone, with a grimace. "My apologies Kirigiri-san. It was not my intention to-"

"I have neither the time nor the patience for your excuses, boy. Get to your device, now."

The line went dead, much like how Hajime felt and knew he was. Kirigiri pointedly refused to use his name. She was livid.

And she had every right to be, Hajime thought as he desperately pulled on the first pair of trousers he saw. He was an entire 37 minutes late. He started buttoning his shirt frantically, but found that he could not get his hands to stop shaking enough to do so. Hajime cursed and tossed the shirt to the side, instead opting to wear his undershirt to the meeting, and not his usual formal wear. He ran into the bathroom to smooth his hair when it hit him.

His stomach convulsed and the next thing he knew he was heaving into the toilet, a white knuckle grip on the toilet bowl. He skipped dinner last night because he hadn't been feeling well, so the only thing that came up was bile, burning his throat and stinging his nose. All he could think about was getting whatever was in him out as fast as possible so that he could get to the meeting.

Once the heaving subsided, he rushed to the sink and rinsed his mouth quickly, wiping the snot and vomit onto his hand towel. He rushed out of the bathroom, not bothering to flush or brush his teeth. When he finally threw himself into the conference room, he found that the screen on the computer was already depicting a grainy image of Makoto, Kirigiri standing over his shoulder. He threw himself into his usual seat at the head of the table and in front of the monitor, straightening up  and trying to appear as composed as possible.

Both Makoto and Kirigiri did not appear pleased.

"You took your time," Kirigiri announced the obvious for the second time, her voice dangerously sharp.

Hajime's eye darted to the time and found that it was now 7:53. He had spent nearly ten minutes emptying his stomach into his toilet bowl. /Fuck.

"And did not even bother to get dressed. Did you fall back asleep?"

Hajime knew it wasn't a question, but felt compelled to defend himself. He opened his mouth to respond, but Makoto waved his hand and spoke before he could.

"It does not matter. You are here now. Give your report, I am already late for another meeting and really do not have anymore time to waste." Makoto's voice was unusually cold and strung tight. Hajime had made him very late for a meeting. Hajime couldn't tell if his gut was clenching from the nausea or the guilt, but it didn't matter.

He quickly launched into his report, desperately hoping he wouldn't vomit all over the desktop.

Once the meeting was over, and he had been given another reprimand, he slowly picked himself up out of the chair and stumbled to the door. His next meeting wasn't until noon with the Patrol unit, so he had time to return to his room and clean himself up. He knew he should probably got to breakfast, but the idea of food made his stomach clench and he decided against it. He swung open the door, leaning heavily on the handle, when he realized someone was outside of it. Before he could register who it was, he straightened up and wiped the grimace off of his face. He couldn't let anyone know.

Komaeda pushed off the hallway wall he was leaning on and froze when he saw Hajime. "Oh shit, you look awful," he blurted.

"Thanks," Hajime grunted, rolling his eyes, and started down the hallway to his room. He heard Komaeda scramble to catch up behind him and within a moment he was walking backward in front of Hajime.

"I mean, you just look so sick, you don't look bad Hinata-kun, you never do- I mean well, I just meant that-"

Hajime felt another wave of nausea tear through him and he was forced to stop walking. He folded his arms over his chest to play off needing to put pressure on his stomach and attempted to mask his grimace as a scowl of annoyance at Komaeda.

Komaeda immediately snapped his mouth closed and stopped walking. "Sorry," he apologized quickly. "I just-"

"Why are you here?" Hajime grunted. He didn't mean for it to come out as harsh as he did, and couldn't help but feel bad when Komaeda flinched at his tone.

"Sorry... you just skipped dinner last night... and then you weren't at breakfast... so I was just... worried... I know I am sorry that sounds super stalkerish, like I am watching you or something, but I was so worried that you got hurt or something because you never miss meals, even if you don't eat and I am so sorry for pointing that out I am just-"

"No, thank you Nagito." Hajime found himself thanking the rambling boy before he could stop himself. After the morning he had, being yelled at and just feeling shitty for fucking up, the kind words made him feel better more than he liked to admit. "But you don't have to worry, I'm fine." Hajime moved to walk past Komaeda, but Komaeda caught his arm. If Hajime had been feeling better, he could have easily brushed him off. But for some reason, Hajime couldn't find the strength to break away.

It didn't matter though, Komaeda hissed and pulled his hand back quickly. "You are burning!" He raised a hand to Hajime's face and pressed his hand to his forehead before Hajime could smack his hand away. "You definitely have a fever."

Hajime's stomach dropped. He knew Komaeda was probably right, but he couldn't bring himself to admit it. "No, I told you, I am fine." Hajime stalked toward his room and let himself in, planning to slam the door behind him so that Komaeda did not follow him in, but at that exact moment, a violent wave of nausea hit him and he bolted to the toilet.

Hajime thought it was impossible to throw up nothing. But here he was, heaving over the toilet, nothing but spit falling in. As his entire body clenched and spasmed, he felt a soothing hand on his back. The presence beside him comforted him immensely; just knowing someone was there made this bout of vomiting just a bit more bearable than the first, even though it was worse.

Hajime wasn't sure how long he spent over the toilet, but he knew it was a while. After Hajime no longer felt the need to vomit up his entire stomach, he kept his head hidden in the bowl, unwilling to face Komaeda.

Komaeda stayed silent, rubbing Hajime's back. He gave him a moment, then curled his arms around Hajime's shaking torso. "Here," Komaeda said as he helped Hajime stand up. "You'll want to brush your teeth."

Hajime no longer had the energy to fight, so he just did whatever Komaeda told him to. He guided him through the motions of washing out his mouth, and allowed Komaeda to brush his teeth for him when it was apparent that his hands were shaking too bad. Komaeda took over wordlessly, not commenting on Hajime's shortcoming, but Hajime still had to close his eyes as Komaeda brushed his teeth for him. He wasn't sure what it was exactly, but he knew it was a combination of shame over how useless he was and the fact Komaeda was so close to Hajime's face. He kept his eyes squeezed closed as Komaeda prompted him to spit, and only opened them once Komaeda began to lead him to the bed.

To be very honest, it was more like half dragging Hajime to the bed. Hajime couldn't seem to get his feet to work correctly, and it tore him up. As Komaeda sat him up on the bed and crouched to take off Hajime's shoes, Hajime found himself closing his eyes again. He didn't even ask me to try. He knows I can't do it. I'm fucking pathetic.

"Hey," Hajime felt a hand cup his face and he blinked his eyes open in surprise. He almost shut them again when he realized Komaeda was mere inches from his face. He could feel Komaeda's warm breath fan his own flushed face, and felt Komaeda's thumb wipe away tears he did not know he had shed. Hajime felt so weak and small, but when he looked into Komaeda's eyes, he got lost in the genuine sincerity they held. "It's okay. I want to help."

How did he? Hajime's mind was swirling. Had he said that out loud? He wasn't sure anymore. He was too overwhelmed to fight back at anything, so he just nodded weakly. He let Komaeda take off his shoes and turn him to lay down on the bed. He didn't fight when Komaeda got up to get him water and something to swallow; he just took it.

As Komaeda pulled the covers over Hajime, he finally realized what was happening.

"Wait, meeting..." he protested weakly, trying to sit up, but collapsing back onto the bed when his vision blurred and spun.

"I'll take care of it," Komaeda insisted. He pressed Hajime down into the covers and placed a wet towel on his forehead. Hajime didn't know where Komaeda had found it or gotten it, but he was grateful nonetheless.

"They can't... I'm not..." Hajime struggled to form words as exhaustion tugged at his mind.

"Don't worry," Komaeda smiled, shushing Hajime. "I won't tell them. It will be our secret."

Hajime knew that he should have been creeped out by that, just like all his peers would have been, but Komaeda's reassuring words and kind actions overwhelmed him. Hajime chalked it up to him being sick. He was probably delirious, and that was the reason why he felt like kissing Komaeda. It was the fever and not because he liked him, because he didn't.

"Thank you, Nagito," Hajime muttered with a small smile, his eyes closing before he could gauge Komaeda's reaction.

After that, Hajime fell into a deep sleep, no longer able to keep himself up for another second.

[doing-all-write]

the art of flirting on a hover board pt. 2

Ivy runs a successful arts non-profit and Joe tags along when Rami and Lucy go to visit her. But what happens when a simple bet made over a hover board competition gets out of hand?

Pairing: Joe Mazzello x Ivy (OC)

Rating: Rated S for Stupidity (we love friends who share one (1) collective brain cell. 

Warnings: None!

Here’s part two! I hope you all love it!

Part 1

Any comments, notes, love, hate WHATEVER you got for this, let me know!

Reblogs and feedback are much appreciated bc I crave validation!!!!!

"So then, I'm up there, I'm telling them my story, pleading with them to realize that the arts matter and that's when I see Charlotte off to the side frantically trying to tell me my dress had come open and my whole bra was out." 

Rami bursted out laughing, Lucy let out a gasp and Joe clapped his hands in mirth as Ivy shook her head at her own bad luck, "I swear, it was the most embarrassing thing that ever happened to me." 

Ivy's fingers worked to secure the rope they had found around the axle of the skateboard. Joe couldn't stop thinking about her hands and what they would look like doing other activities.

Like, holding his hand.

Or wrapped around his dick. 

Either one was fine. He wasn't a picky man. 

"So what did you do? I mean, how do you even recover from that?" Lucy wondered aloud, as Joe shook himself from his thoughts and went to take a drink from the beer Ivy had distributed to them all. 

Ivy shrugged as she sat back on her heels and brought her own beer bottle to her lips, "Well, we got the most donations we've ever received so at this point I'm considering just doing a strip routine to get more money." Joe started choking on the drink he had just swallowed as the image of Ivy stripping crowded into his mind to take up permanent residence. 

Rami whacked him on the back. 

Ivy's eyes flicked up to meet Joe's as her eyebrow quirked up in a silent ask of You good? Joe nodded and flapped his hand around in the universal gesture of, Keep going, don't mind me dying.

"I mean, everyone still teases me about it but I make jokes about it more than anyone else. You just laugh at yourself. Make a few memes, bing, bang, boom. It was over and I still got those old geezer's money so I'm not super upset. And besides, what's a few memes in the grand scheme of things?" She inquired as she stood up, wiping her hands off on the backs of her shorts as she looked right up into Joe's eyes and smiled. 

"You okay?"

"I'm fine and besides, I couldn't have died without seeing some of those memes that you just talked about. I mean, you can't leave us hanging in suspense like that." Joe retorted as he crossed his arms over his chest. 

Ivy's eyes flicked down to his biceps even as her brain kept repeating over and over "don't look at his arms, don't look at his arms" and mentally cursed herself for being so weak. She felt her cheeks heating up as she realized Joe had DEFINITELY tracked her eye movements.  He quirked an eyebrow at her as she tried to salvage whatever of her pride remained, 

"I'm pretty sure Gracie has one of them framed and hung up in her office, I'll show you." Okay, not a great save of the ole pride but memes are better than blatant thirst she thought as she smiled at him and watched a matching smile grow across Joe's face.

The moment between them stretched on as Lucy's gaze bounced between the two and tried to subtly let Rami know that he should keep his mouth shut so he didn't ruin the moment. 

Rami, however, missed these cues and kept looking back and forth between the two, feeling very much like something had just happened that he was not meant to be a part of. His mouth opened when he felt Lucy, who realized subtlety is overrated, stomp on his foot. 

"OW."

Joe and Ivy's gaze was ripped apart as they both glanced at Rami who was glaring at Lucy who had widened her eyes to max capacity and was suddenly very invested in the molding around the ceiling.

"Sorry, I, uh, bit my tongue." Rami offered weakly as Ivy cocked an eyebrow in disbelief. 

"So. Anyway. Yeah. That's about as exciting as my life has been the past few months. Some performances, writing songs, running the business, the usual." Ivy said nonchalantly as if running a successful non-profit was just another boring life event, like visiting the DMV. 

Ivy suddenly whipped around to Rami as she dramatically pronounced, "But what about YOU Mister 'I'm an Oscar winning actor' like what the FUCK?" as her eyes bugged out and her fist collided against Rami's shoulder. 

Rami rubbed the sore spot as Joe barked out a laugh. Rami narrowed his eyes at Joe as he held up his hands defensively, "Sorry man, it was really funny." His eyes slid over to Ivy's where she met them with a smile.

Fuck, he would never get tired of that smile. 

"So, are we testing this thing or what? Because I believe she's ready for her maiden voyage." Ivy declared as she tugged on the length of jump rope one more time to test its tautness. 

"Yeah, my life is FINE, thank you for asking. And so is my SHOULDER." Rami announced to no one in particular.

"Oh I'm sure you're fine but if you're so hurt maybe you shouldn't ride this-" 

Rami pointed a finger at Lucy, "Don't you keep me from doing this. I've waited so long to get here. Do NOT take this away from me." 

Lucy held up her hands in surrender as Joe and Ivy snickered. 

"SO." Rami rubbed his hands together as absolute glee washed over his face, "Lucy and I try it first? Then you and Joe?"

Ivy looked at Joe who looked back at Ivy, "Hell yeah. The dream team here is going to CRUSH it." Joe held up his hand for a high five and Ivy smiled as she slapped her palm against Joe's.

She wrapped her fingers around his hand and held on as she turned to Rami, 'This originally wasn't a competition but we're going to kick your ass." 

"Oh it's so on. Let's make this interesting."

"Name your terms Malek." Ivy said.

Joe was doing his best not to move so Ivy wouldn't let go of his hand and Lucy was practically quivering with suppressed excitement. 

Ivy was very aware that she was still holding onto Joe's hand but really didn't want to let go as she realized how long it had been since she had held hands with someone who actually gave her butterflies and not grabbing onto Gracie or Ava's hand when she saw a particularly stunning picture of Harry Styles.

Rami was lost in thought as he tried to think what would be the worst thing he could do to Ivy if she lost this arbitrary competition. 

"Hmm. Okay. Got it. If whoever's on the hover board can stay on longer than either Lucy or I can, then you get to post whatever picture you want on my Instagram with whatever caption you want."

Ivy's eyes lit up like a Broadway marquee at the idea of using Rami's rarely used Instagram to post one of the many embarrassing throwback photos she had of him. 

"Alright Malek, but if we lose, which we won't," she squeezed Joe's hand again to emphasize her point and Joe prayed his hands weren't too sweaty, "what do you get out of this?"

"I get to schedule a date for you with whatever guy I choose."

Joe had never seen a human lose all color in their visage so quickly as he did when Ivy heard Rami's terms. 

"No."

"Yes."

"Rami, no! That's my personal life! You can't go messing around in other people's lives!"

"Oh, so giving you access to my Instagram account is what exactly?"

Ivy made some various noises that almost sounded like words and finally sighed, "Fine. I agree to the terms." She let go of Joe's hand as she wheeled around to face him, "We have to fucking win."

"Well, we better. I have some absolutely delicious behind the scene photos of him that need to see the light of day."

~~~

"Ready?"

Ivy whacked the side of her helmet and shot Joe a thumbs up as she prepared to lift her other foot onto the hover board. 

Rami and Lucy stood off to the side, red-faced and sweaty after having raced down the path they had decided on and back. 

They had walked to a park that was close to the organization. Rami and Ivy had argued over a path for five minutes, and would have gone on all day but Lucy stepped in to say if she wanted to listen to an old married couple arguing she could just listen to Joe and Ben talk. Once the path had been declared, Rami and Lucy had gone first.

Rami's screams, as Lucy took off like a shot once she got her balance on the bike, had caused every dog in a three mile radius to start barking. They had made it halfway when Rami got overexcited and his cheering caused him to fall over.

Which then caused both Ivy and Joe to sing simultaneously, "Another one bites the dust" which then caused Lucy to run the bike into a tree because she was laughing so hard. 

Needless to say, Ivy and Joe were both feeling confident about their abilities. 

Joe gave Ivy a grave salute, "If this is our last time serving together, I just want to say, it's been an honor."

Ivy gave a stoic nod back, "Likewise, sir."

Joe faced forward and took a deep breath as Rami and Lucy counted down, 

"FIVE"

Ivy wiped her hands on her shorts.

"FOUR"

Joe cracked his neck.

"THREE"

Ivy sent up a call to the universe to not let her fail.

"TWO"

Joe sent out a silent prayer that he wouldn't be the reason Ivy broke a bone.

"ONE" 

Joe's legs tensed and Ivy stepped up onto the hover board.

"GO"

Joe took off like a shot and Ivy's arm that wasn't holding onto the rope pinwheeled as she desperately tried to keep her balance. She was all of a sudden overwhelmed by a memory of trying to surf and falling more times than she could count. 

Not the best time to be thinking of that she thought as she used her core in ways she never would have thought to use it. 

Joe kept his focus on the path in front of him. He didn't dare look back for fear he would lose focus and cause Ivy to fall off. 

Ivy was starting to feel more stable when all of a sudden she felt much lighter, the sky seemed much closer and her feet were no longer attached to the hover board by gravity.

She landed with a "FUCK" and a thud that had Rami and Lucy freezing for just a second before racing over to her. 

Joe heard Ivy swear and realized the bike seemed much lighter. He risked a glance behind and saw a heap on the ground and an empty hover board. He was off the bike before it even stopped the whole way.

"No, no, no, no, fuck! Ivy, are you okay?" Joe cried as he reached Ivy as Rami helped her up into a seated position and Lucy was feeling her arms for broken bones. 

Ivy groggily looked up at Joe, "'m okay. Must have hit a hole. Not your fault."

Joe reached up and gently unclipped the helmet from her head, "Well, at least you were wearing your helmet. Safety is key when doing stupid stuff."

"Safety and stupidity notoriously go hand in hand" Ivy offered him a weak smile as Joe smiled warmly down at her. 

"Well, I don't think you have any broken bones in your arms." Lucy reported.

"Do you think you can stand?" Rami asked as he looked at Ivy with concern.

Ivy nodded and took the arm Rami offered her to pull herself up. She gingerly put weight on one leg, then the other and when neither buckled or felt like anything was severely wrong, gave a soft thumbs up.

Joe let out a giant breath, "Thank god."

"I'm so glad you're okay." Rami said as he wrapped an arm around Ivy's shoulders and pulled her into his side.

"Thanks Rami, me too." Ivy murmured as she laid her head on his shoulder.

"And since you're okay, I don't feel guilty for doing this." Rami said as he took a deep breath in, pointed at Ivy and Joe and yelled, "WE WON. IN YOUR FACE." Rami grabbed Lucy and spun her around as she laughed.

Joe rolled his eyes and Ivy groaned, "Sorry I bit it super hard and let down the team." She bit her lip and kept her eyes glued to the ground.

"Hey, no. Ivy. It's no big deal. I'm just glad you're alright." Joe said. He leaned forward and back as he contemplated whether he should hug her or not. Ivy made the decision for him as she wrapped her arms around his neck. 

'Thank you" she whispered as Joe hesitantly wrapped his arms around her waist and tried not to breathe in her perfume too deeply. He wanted to remember every detail of this moment. 

How her body felt pressed against his.

How her arms felt around his neck.

How she smelled. How warm she was. 

How he never wanted to let her go. 

"IVY. You better get ready for your date!" Joe and Ivy's eyes snapped open as they remembered what the consequence of losing was. 

A soft chorus of "fuck", as if from a profane angelic chorus, was heard from their embrace as Lucy and Rami continued celebrating.