#a combination of A. me planning the actual renovation of my actual house

[jeannetterankin]

last night I dreamed there was a "missing" 90s movie version of Pride and Prejudice that was a lurid, ahistorical romp, and completely unfaithful to the book.

It was set in the mid-1800s and Darcy was an inventor/architect/engineer who was obsessed with improving people's houses and raising their living standards. But he did it in such a rude and high-handed way that everyone was constantly mad at him, even though he was giving them better drains and electic lights or whatever. Elizabeth spent most of the movie arguing with Darcy about minute details of the structure and architecture of her family’s house and defending it against his criticism.

The movie was part North and South, part George Eliot, part Marie Antoinette (2006), and part Rodgers and Hammerstein's Cinderella. It was directed by Baz Luhrmann.

[nowoyas]

Koi no Yokan 4: say yes if you don't have a reason to say no (Nishinoya Yuu x Reader)

First - Prev - Next - M.list - Ao3

Summary: You head over to Nishinoya's place for tutoring and general headachery and make a decision.

Warnings: language use, depiction of an anxiety attack

Word count: ~4000

One thing you appreciate about trialing a managership for the volleyball club is the fact that you don't have much time left in the day to think. Yachi is perfectly happy and perfectly suited to tutoring Hinata and Kageyama, which means you get to spend lunches planning out ways to keep the house livable and eat regularly around the amount of time you have left in your day. The volleyball club practices every single day, which would be impressive if it didn't mean that agreeing to this would eat up a lot of time.

That isn't a real objection, though. There's solutions, so you figure those solutions out. By the time you're sitting at a table in Nishinoya's living room with two overly active teenage boys hanging off your every word, you only have one real objection left:

Wouldn't it be kind of shitty to take advantage of them like this?

Maybe that's the real reason you're sitting down with them. Nishinoya's house is cleaner than you expected, but then again, you have confirmation of at least one more responsible sibling. You like the mental image of him frantically cleaning before your arrival, though, and, being a house in the same neighborhood that also hasn't been heavily renovated, it's kind of cozy. The tatami mats are soft under your fingertips as you absently drag your hand across them. It's a good fidget as you go over study tips with the guys.

Tanaka and Nishinoya take careful notes on what you're saying—all things you'd think would be obvious, but maybe that's only in hindsight. Things like "make flashcards and actually test yourself on the information instead of just passively reading them" and "don't sit down the whole time if it sucks and you can't focus". You should have guessed this from seeing them practice, but the terms "regular breaks" and "disciplined breaks" do not appear to have previously been in their vocabulary.

"Don't you also need to do that for sports?" you ask at this latest revelation, resting your chin in your hand. "I mean, if you go nonstop all practice without like… drinking water and sitting down for two minutes, you'll collapse."

"It's not like we're exercising, though," Tanaka says. "We're just sitting here, so…"

You level a bewildered look his way. "Your brain uses up more energy than the rest of your muscles combined. Thinking is incredibly difficult work. That's why humans are basically the only known species who do it at our level. We had to fundamentally change the sizes of our brains and do all this complicated stuff with food to even make it possible."

Nishinoya lets out a dramatic sigh. "That's so stupid, though! I don't even get tired after studying!"

"Uh, yeah, you do. Your exact words to me were, 'my brain's been melting' and 'it just rolls right off'. That's because you're working too hard, not studying effectively, and not taking enough breaks. Brain fatigue doesn't feel the same as other muscles because it's coming from stuff happening inside of your head instead of from repetitive motions."

Somehow, this doesn't reassure him. His head is fully on the table. "I hear everything you're saying, and it all makes sense, but all I'm getting is that I'm not making it to Tokyo because I should have been doing everything differently for longer than I've been doing it."

"Noya-san, you can't give up! If even you're giving up…"

You reach out and bap him gently with your pencil before you even think about it. "Pick your head up. You're not gonna fail."

He picks his head up and—holy shit, there's actual tears in his eyes. "[name]-san?"

"I'm not wasting your time, you're not wasting mine. You—both of you—are making it through finals and you're going to Tokyo." You lean back, flip both their notebooks closed. "And feelings like that are a really good sign that you're working too hard. Break time. We're all three gonna get something unhealthy with too much sugar to snack on and not think about exams for at least twenty minutes. Any questions?"

"Will you marry me?"

"Aren't you supposed to, like, eat almonds or whatever for brain stuff? I think I remember hearing a girl in my class talk about that," Tanaka says, brushing right past proposal number ten.

You shake your head. "That's walnuts, I think.⁸ Technically, loading up on sugar right now isn't the number one best idea, diet-wise, but like, stress coping mechanisms, right? And it's not horrible. Your brain needs glucose for fuel, anyhow."

"Damn. You really know a lot."

You shrug. "Not really. I've just been reading a bunch of cookbooks and meal planning stuff recently. If I'm gonna do the whole manager thing, I'll need to get better at meal prepping in bulk. I have to handle the cooking in the house, so…"

Oh. That was the wrong thing to say.

Two sets of sparkling eyes lock onto you. "So you're gonna do it?"

"Oi, I didn't say—I'm thinking about it. Part of thinking about it includes figuring out how I would even make it work if I said yes."

"But you haven't come to a no, yet."

"No, I have not. I wouldn't bother showing up if I had settled on a no." The words have to be pulled out, a little bit. Even if they didn't catch it, the thought loops in your head—the wrong thing to say, they're gonna know and the way they look at you is going to change and—

Nishinoya hops to his feet. "We'll have to work even harder to convince you, then!"

Alright. Act normal. You snort. "You're certainly welcome to try. For now—you two, break. Is it alright if I use your bathroom?"

He offers a hand to help you up. You take it, let him pull you to your feet. "Yeah, of course. Down the hall, third door on your right."

You slip down the hall, escape into the restroom. Take a moment to breathe.

What are you doing here? No, really, what are you doing here? Sure, you're helping them out, fine, whatever, but…

You stare at your reflection in the bathroom mirror for a moment. Grip the counter to steady yourself. There is no reason for you to be acting like this. No reason at all, and yet your heart is racing in a way that's sickening, breaths coming shallower than you'd like.

You should go home. Escape before this feeling escalates.

You should. You should do that.

Doubtless, you're gonna come out of the bathroom and they'll have piled up snacks for you, too, insisted you take some even though you didn't ask for any. You'll accept after some back-and-forth because it's only polite, even though you'd really rather them not waste food on you, and this… this will escalate. They'll notice something's wrong over the rest of the session, bring it up outright because they're refreshingly tactless, and then you'll end up metaphorically shoving them away because how and why would you even explain that you're suddenly wired for no fucking reason to two guys who are acquaintances at best? Chances are they'll blame themselves for fucking something up even though they've done nothing wrong, and—

Fucking hell, okay.

Inhale. Exhale. Again.

There you go, doing great.

Splash some water on your face, straighten out your clothes. Check your hair in the mirror. Adjust. Inhale again. Exhale again. Adjust again. Splash some more water on your face—

Fucking hell, [name]. Just get back out there. You only gave them twenty minutes for a break, and this isn't your house to have a breakdown in for some stupid reason. Pack it up for later.

Okay.

You open the door, slip back out into the hall, and conveniently run directly into a complete stranger, because that's how the last few minutes have been going for you I guess.

The stranger in question is a much older guy. Short. Has a sort of familiar-looking face and is inexplicably wearing a Hawaiian shirt. Old enough to have kids your dad's age. Synthesis: probably Nishinoya's grandfather.

"Oh! Um, s-sorry," you stammer, cringing at the way your voice pitches unnaturally. "I should have been looking where I was going, sir. Please pardon my intrusion!"⁹

The man laughs it off with a shake of his head. Yeah, he's some flavor of Nishinoya, for sure. "No need to get so worked up. You look like you've seen a ghost!"

"Oh, sorry, I'm fine—no ghosts here, I don't think."

"Good to hear! 'Sfar as I know, the only ghosts in this house stick to the second floor!"

You laugh, because you're pretty sure you're supposed to in response to that, and mentally scramble for some response to have here. "Um, I'm a friend of Nishinoya-senpai's. I should probably get back to���"

A firm pat on the shoulder. "Oh, you're Yuu's little friend? It's not often he brings a girl home!"

You will bet your father's life savings that Nishinoya has never brought a girl home, but you'll bite your tongue on that one. Instead, another laugh, this one more nervous than the last, bubbles out of you. "Oh, I'm just helping him and Tanaka-senpai study, that's all."

"Good, good. And he's being nice?"

"Of course! He's very nice. Excitable, maybe, but nothing I can't handle."

God, you really do sound nervous. Whatever's messed you up in the past ten minutes is something you need to shake ASAP. If anything has, anyway. Maybe you just need a new brain entirely to fix this one.

He's still laughing. It's strange. "That's the spirit. He ask you out yet?"

…he is actively trying to set you up with Nishinoya right now. Horrifying.

"Oh, no, sir, we're just friends." Well, 'friends' is a strong word, but you are in his house right now, so…

"Hey, don't discount the possibility! Yuu needs a girl around who can handle him."

You resist the urge to drop your head into your hands. He pats your shoulder one last time before moving past you, down the hall. "And no 'sir' around here! You stay friends with Yuu, you call me Jii-chan, yeah?"

"Yes, sir!"

He opens a door down the hall, allowing what appears to have been a giant sentient fluffball to race past your feet, a sound like a mrrp almost lost beneath your yelp. The fluff disappears as fast as it appeared, already lost to your vision.

You escape while you can, slump into your seat at the table. Definitely a Nishinoya.

And speaking of Nishinoyas, your Nishinoya laughs, sliding a bag of chips across the table at you. Tanaka is nowhere in sight—perhaps having run to some other bathroom while you were busy staving off a breakdown in the closest one. "Sorry. That sounded like Jii-chan caught you."

You shake your head, take a moment to catch your breath. That did not help, not in the slightest, and neither are the chips or the bottle of soda you've just been given. "No, don't worry about it. The snacks or any of it. I'm fine."

Silence. You peek at him to find that he's just staring at you, this unimpressed look in his eye like he's completely seen through you in an instant. Probably because he has.

"Are you okay?" he tries, voice dropping into this weird gentle tone like he's coaxing a frightened animal. You sort of feel like that fits, honestly.

"Fine."

"Really? You look like you're having an anxiety attack."

"You know," you say, gripping the bottle of soda he's given you in hopes that the cold will do something to you, "every now and then you say things that are like, weirdly aware and it doesn't really gel with your whole, rush in headfirst, don't think about it, cool-guy image. Why do you even know what an anxiety attack looks like?"

His posture straightens a bit, offense flashing across his features. Shit. The offense ebbs away fast enough, before he even speaks, but you saw it and the damage is done and— "Nee-san gets them a lot. I'm usually not the one to help her through them, but I at least know what one looks like. Did something happen?"

"Your sister? The one who told me to get you arrested?"

"Nah, different sister. I've got three. You're avoiding the question."

"There's—not really any point in pressing it, honestly. Nothing happened, I don't know why I suddenly feel like I'm about to die, I just do. It just happens sometimes, and it'll probably fade once I lock myself in a dark room for an hour or something."

He nods firmly, stands back up. "Wait here a second."

You wait, namely because you have nothing better to do, and fidget with the soda bottle you've been given. He returns quickly—you think he might've ran, based on how quickly his footsteps are coming, and then a wrapped popsicle is being thrust in your face. "Here!"

"Um…?"

"It helps Nee-san to eat something really cold. She usually just gets an ice cube, but this way it's more like you're just snacking, right?"

You look between him and the popsicle a moment. Accept it tentatively. "…you know, every time you feed me I feel worse about it. I'm not nearly as good of a person as you think I am."

"I'm not feeding you because you're a good person. I'm feeding you because you're helping us, I like you, and you're having an anxiety attack."

"Do you revoke the food if I calm down?" you ask as you unwrap it with shaking hands.

"Yeah, sorry. Better eat quick before you chill out."

You huff. "What, am I supposed to bite it to get the effect of eating ice or something?"

"How else do you eat popsicles?"

You level a half-horrified look at him. "What do you mean, how else do you—do you bite your popsicles?"

Tanaka appears in the hallway, nodding solemnly as he rejoins you. "He does. You didn't notice the other day?"

"No! Why the hell are you biting popsicles?"

"It helps with anxiety!" Nishinoya proclaims.

You bite off a chunk, wincing at the cold on your teeth. Honestly, you were already feeling better from the sheer fuckery of Nishinoya apparently chewing his popsicles for sport, but it does help. "First of all, I have no indication that you've ever felt anxious in your life, second of all, that is unhinged behavior."

"Will you still marry me if I eat popsicles with all my teeth?"

"No!!!"

Tanaka bursts into laughter. Nishinoya flops dramatically. "But [name]-saaaaaaan—"

"Eat your popsicles like a normal human being, you freak!"

"I do!"

"I once watched him eat one of those in two bites," Tanaka supplies helpfully. "It's sort of amazing to watch, like a snake on the nature channel swallowing a rat whole or something."

"Two bites? Nishinoya!"

"What can I do to make it up to you?" he pouts up at you from where he's dramatically flopped onto the floor. "What can I do to make up for this transgression?"

"Tell me that popsicles are the only food you eat like that." You lick the popsicle properly. You can't keep up with it the way he seems to think is normal.

Silence. Tanaka quietly raises a hand.

"The other day he unhinged his jaw and swallowed a nikuman whole. Also like watching a snake eat a rat."

"Ryu, you are not helping!"

"I feel like the more I learn about you, the less I understand."

He waggles his eyebrows up at you suggestively. It'd probably be a lot more effective if he weren't laying on the floor with a bag of chips in hand. "But you're curious?"

"Morbidly, maybe." Your popsicle is melting already, and honestly, you're not sure you can manage this whole thing. "…can you really eat one of these in two bites?"

"I do! Frequently!"

"You know it probably tastes better if you actually let yourself enjoy it, right?"

"Mm, that sounds fake."

"Well, here. Either way, finish this before I get soda-flavored water all over your tatami." You thrust out the popsicle to him. He pops up on his elbows, eats it right off the stick without even taking it from your hand.

Fucking hell. He actually ate it in two bites.

"…and thanks, by the way. I do feel better. Mostly."

He sits up. Tosses a chip at Tanaka, who effortlessly catches it in his mouth. "Mostly? Wanna talk about it?"

You don't particularly want to, but you don't not want to, so you might as well.

And that's just it, isn't it? How many times are you going to go down the road of "no reason to say no"? When do you just get to say yes because you want to? When do you ever want to?

Your sigh comes out more aggravated than you'd like it to. "I say yes when I don't have any logic strong enough to justify saying no. It's stupid and frustrating and I'm starting to really hate myself for it. Right now, my 'no' for 'join the volleyball club' is that it feels like I'm taking advantage of you guys if I just join because I have nothing better to do and don't really wanna go home if I don't have to. I'm sure you two will probably say something like, 'oh, no, you're not taking advantage of us, we want you here!' which is all sweet and all, but I've said some variation of sure, why not like five hundred times this week and it's actually stressing me out so getting rid of a lukewarm no doesn't really help me at all."

Nishinoya blinks. Glances to Tanaka. Tilts his head. "So right now you don't want to join because you don't have a good enough reason to?"

"Kind of?" You rest your chin in your hand, absently reach for a chip. "More like I don't want to join just because I don't have a reason not to. I'm not making sense."

Tanaka crosses his arm, racking his brain for… something. "So… you're just looking for a good reason to join, then?"

"I guess?"

Nishinoya hums thoughtfully. "How has it been coming to the practices? You liked watching the practice match and stuff, right?"

"I… guess? I didn't mind it."

"You don't get super excited over anything, do you?"

A shrug. "Not really. I probably used to, but it's been a minute."

"But you've definitely seemed a little happier since you started coming to practices."

You raise an eyebrow. "Not beating the stalker allegations, Senpai."

He reaches across the table to bat at your arm playfully. "I'm being serious! Even before you got around to introducing yourself, I thought you looked kinda sad."

You've half a mind to be offended, and Tanaka seems to agree that you should be based on the way his jaw drops at his words. "Noya-san, you can't just—"

"It's fine. Really, I was going for more of a 'detached and cool' vibe, so it's good to know that I'm missing the mark."

"Detached and lonely, maybe."

You push a chip around the opening of your bag with a fingertip. Anything to not  have to keep looking at these guys. "Yachi-san said the same thing. So that's why you keep talking to me and stuff?"

"I'm talking to you because I like you. That's not the point. The point is, you're not like that at practice. Kiyoko-san smiles when she talks to you and Yachi-san, and you keep smiling and laughing at practice. You smile a lot when I ask you to marry me, too. I sort of get the impression that you don't do a lot of that the rest of the time."

Your eyes flick to Tanaka. He nods in reluctant agreement. "…I don't, no. So? I'm just not that smiley."

"But you smile when you're happy. So, if you're smiling and laughing and stuff when you're being our manager and hanging around us, and you're not the rest of the time, then you're happier around us. That's a good reason to go for it."

"…but I'm just there to waste time. Isn't that, like, rude? You guys are all so passionate. You're working super hard for this, literally pushing yourselves to burnout preparing for exams just so you don't have to miss one weekend of games that don't even count—they don't count, right?"

"They don't," Nishinoya confirms.

"I mean, you don't have to be a screaming lunatic to manage for us," Tanaka says from the hall, causing you to startle. "Kiyoko-san's plenty chill, and we've even got regulars on the team who aren't exactly fired up. I don't think anyone's asking you to act like Noya-san or Hinata."

Nishinoya nods. "Yeah, exactly! Having fun's a good reason. We're all fired up because volleyball's fun. No one else had to, like, convince us they had a good motive before joining. You definitely don't have to."

You take a long sip of your soda. This is… putting a new perspective on things that you're not sure how to make sense of. Do it because it's fun. Let yourself enjoy things now and then. And then the stupid marriage proposals. A running joke to make the lonely girl laugh. One that works. No ulterior motives you can sense.

 "…do I really smile and stuff at practice?"

He nods again, more enthusiastically. "You do! It's a really nice smile, too."

Despite yourself, a smile flicks to your lips.

"Yeah, like that!"

And that draws a laugh from you. "You're ridiculous."

"Will you marry me anyway?"

"Tanaka-senpai, I am so sorry. He's insufferable."

Tanaka laughs. "Don't be!"

Inhale. Exhale. Another long sip of your drink to think. You check the time on your phone. Break should be over soon…

"Alright. Notes out. Let's see what I can help you with. It'll be a pain to go all the way to Tokyo without you boys there."

"You're going!?"

"One good reason to say yes, that's all. Nine hundred and eighty-nine, by the way, don't think I haven't been keeping count."

They high-five each other, cheering. It takes another five minutes to get them back on track. It takes you twenty to lose the stupid smile on your face.

Footnotes

8. It is both.

9. This is one of those cool weird moments where dialogue feels just slightly stilted on account of how I'm approaching this fic. I focus hard on trying to make dialogue sound natural, but that can only go so far in cases like these, where my aim is to approach dialogue and character choices assuming that everything is "translated" from an original Japanese version which doesn't actually exist.¹⁰ In this case, Reader's gonna say shit like "pardon the intrusion!" to a stranger whose house she's in even though she's like 15 and I'm half-convinced that I was the only 15 year old in existence to have spoken the word "pardon" completely seriously. I was a weird kid.

10. Do you ever feel like you're taking something too seriously? Me neither. My answer to trying to keep everything feeling authentic and in character is to maintain what I like to call "subs" English, where we're approximating decent translations of an original Japanese while also trying to make these characters feel like 15-18 year olds at this point in the story. It's a delicate balance. I could probably write at least a C essay about the kind of English used in subtitles for media originally in Japanese.

Tags: @deeplightgarden @idonthaveanameideayet @dusstory

[subdee]

9 people you would like to get to know better

tagged by @hxhhasmysoul thank you!

3 ships:

KilluGon (HxH) -

It's The Ship of All TIme, they fit together like puzzle pieces... copedence central (affectionate) as munen said.

EndHawks (BNHA) -

Actually my instinct after watching BNHA was to ship EndHawks, bc they ARE the bratty western-inspired blonde younger guy x button-downed repressed trad japanese dark-haired older guy trope from BL manga + their issues are tailor made for each other, they fit together like puzzle pieces (derrogatory). I think this could be one of those ships where it looks extremely messed up from the outside - and it IS messed up - but it works for the people involved. BUT most people don't write it correctly, for instance in my ideal Endhawks fic the rest of the todoroki family would HATE the relationship because they would think (correctly) that Endeavor is evading taking responsibility for being a terrible father by choosing to be in a relationship with someone who has a terrible father kink. And most people either don't write Hawks as messed up enough or they write him as messed up in a generic gay slut way, and not his specific variety of messed up.

BakuDeku (BNHA) -

So because the Endhawks fic is mostly not what I'm looking for, I just kinda gravitated to BakuDeku which has tons of awesome fic, plus I'm just not as choosy about the characterization and accept all kinds of AUs that have barely any connection to canon. Haha. (I like the genderswap fic for them actually). BakuDeku is fun because they're shounen rivals who aren't purely rivals, even from the beginning of the manga Bakugou is a lot more involved than the rival character usually is (knows Deku's secret & helps with the training plan etc). It fixes a lot of the things that generally annoy me about rival plots in shounen manga... I also like the growth narrative for Bakugou and Deku's versatility as a POV character.

I'm not currently shipping anything else... maybe Cloud/Tifa/Aeris, in any combination of two or three, was the last thing I shipped but didn't really talk about on tumblr. Oh! And the main characters from the Kdrama It's Okay to Not Be Okay, Ko Moon-Young and Moon Gang-tae.

First ship: Ranma/Akane from Ranma 1/2!!! Classic ship, probably the first really big juggernaut anime ship on the internet. It's all about the genderbending with this one... I used to really like the fanfiction where they're together because Akane is a attracted to women and Ranma is sometimes a woman.

Last Song: Me and RJ are doing a version of Death Cab for Cutie's I'll Follow You Into the the Dark to sing the baby to sleep at night, so probably that? I made up a new harmony for it that I'm kinda proud of. One of these days we'll record it and I'll put it up here.

Last Movie: It was the Barbie movie, yeah. (No I haven't seen Oppenheimer.)

Currently Reading: "A Secret Princess" by Margarat Stohl and Melissa de la Cruz. It's like a fanfic mashup of The Secret Garden, which I've never read, and A Little Princess, which I've read a bunch of times and love, with a mysterious new original character added to the mix. A fanfic remix of a book I've already read is about the level of literature I can handle at the moment.

Currently Consuming Watching: I'm into this house renovation show on Roku called Old House New Home, because it's set in England and they actually talk about the history of the area and why the houses were built the way they were... there's a lot of historically listed beautiful homes... and not every renovation looks exactly the same following the exact same trends, although a lot of them are similar (combine the kitchen and dining room, raise the ceiling, add windows and glass doors and skylights - all things that look beautiful and increase the feeling of light and space, but make the house less energy efficient).

Me and RJ are also watching The Marvelous Ms. Maisel - the heavy(ish) show - and the One Piece live action - the lighter(ish) show - when we have time. Recommend both of those.

Currently Craving: Sleep

Tag 9 people (if you feel like it :D): @fury-brand @rosemochi @nautilusopus @tofucasserole @spectroscopes @fireolin @storybookprincess @autumnxsunflower @recents @applepi00

[lunapwrites]

September Readings

So, the other day I did a whole ass Celtic Cross reading for September, instead of my usual 5 card pull. Just wanted to get a little extra context and direction. But also, I wanted to take some extra time with it this month and really, really sit with what it was showing me. And I think that was a good call.

For context, I started with more of a general question than I normally might have: what's our general outlook over the next 3-6 weeks? (I prefer to give CC readings a time frame so I can differentiate better between the future and outcome cards lol.) I then touched briefly on the main points I wanted to focus on: home renovation projects, writing, relationship stuff, etc.

It was... a lot of Swords. I don't normally get them a lot in readings, so when I do it tends to make me a little uneasy - especially cards like Ten. But contextually, I think the overall message here was actually rather positive (and gently scolding lol.)

So first... the cross...

Ace of Swords crossed by the Ten of Swords: we've got a lot going on right now! Lots of projects starting that really needed to be started, lots of stuff that's really engaging our brains - where are things going? How are we going to redesign our space? Will it work better? Will it work at all? It's taking a lot of planning and creativity to make happen. However, we've had a TON of setbacks and general negative bullshit happening to us throughout the process - issues with contractors, things breaking (or arriving pre-broken), shipments getting lost, a car accident, etc. It's all been getting to us a bit, and we've been kinda wallowing in our own misfortune to varying degrees, which isn't really great for keeping your brain engaged on the things you're working on. What this combination is asking us to do is quit stumbling through the streets, wailing and rending our clothes because One More Bad Thing happened, and to just get on with it - even if it sucks.

Queen of Wands in the Subconscious position: this loops back to the context of our Ace of Swords above, as this position kind of sets the foundation of the querent's mindset and position in the situation. In this context, she speaks to focused energies. We are committed to our path, and we're going to put everything we have into getting what we want. No flakiness to be found here - which considering this is an ADHD house, is amazing to hear lol.

Two of Cups in the Recent Past position: this particular card really is what cemented the idea that this reading is aimed at both of us for once lol. This card is usually a symbol of romantic love (especially new), but it can also represent partnership. Everything we're doing now is the result of joint decisions, and mutual support and effort. No one is in this alone. So despite all the bullshit, we've got each other to lean on, and that's huge. (This plus the Queen signal that we're working off a very strong foundation, and that we've at least started off in the right direction.)

King of Swords in the Crown position: so this is basically like... the aspirational self. And in the past, I might have seen this card and handwaved it away as only representing my partner (who does frequently show up as the Kings in my readings, FWIW) but it does go a little deeper than that this time. This card represents logic and intellect above all else. In short, the need to make firm, well-researched decisions before moving forward. In other words, right now we're trying to do a ton of reading and measuring and comparisons before we move forward with anything. That seems like it's been serving us well so far.

2 of Swords in the Self position: okay so this is where my deck starts calling me out for filth, because this card has to do with choices, or rather: indecision. This is something that I struggle with a ton in general, but also particularly with a lot of these changes we have going on. I get so hung up on what ifs and on others opinions that I freeze up and wait for someone else (namely my partner) to pick. That's not really cool, and it's definitely a source of some tension right now (I'm not the only one in the house suffering from executive dysfunction and decision fatigue.) I'm reading this as asking me to basically just shut up and pick one, and if it's the wrong choice, deal with it then, because...

7 of Pentacles in the Future position: I have been getting this card a LOT lately, which makes sense given the projects we're working on and the goals we're working towards - even with my writing. Progress is SLOW but it is STEADY and we are laying the groundwork for success. As long as we keep at it, we will succeed. But more importantly for our dopamine-chasing lizard brains: while the fruits of our labors are not going to be immediately evident, we're going to see some results soon. OR, worst case scenario, the proper foundations will have been laid.

Now for the staff.

8 of Swords in the Environment position: the whole point of this card is about feeling stuck, but not actually being stuck. All I have to do is try and I can most likely solve a lot of my problems myself. But anyway this one goes hand in hand with the Two, supporting the idea that I need to just do it. Adjustments can be made later, but you can't adjust nothing.

Eight of Pentacles in the Hopes and Fears position: this is a very encouraging card overall. It represents slow but steady progress, hard work, and building towards success. We're most likely on the right track, and we should keep up the good work. :)

Ten of Cups in the Outcome position: this is hands down one of the best cards to get in this position. Tens typically symbolize a sense of completeness, whether it's the end of a cycle or the achievement of a goal - and the Ten of Cups is no different. It's the happy family card. Lots of joy and contentment here (and honestly if the way I felt after I reorganized the pantry I now have was any indication, then this tracks lol.) Also, the timeline lines up with our family vacation, so... there's that lmao.

So what does this all mean in the context of the month? Basically, that it's gonna get off to a rough start, but gradually get better - so long as we actively work to make it so, and don't let ourselves wallow in the bad. Fair enough!

As for the runes and Oracle cards...

Kenaz: light, creative fire. For once, not showing up reversed lol. Might be that the brain gremlins are looking to behave!

Ansuz, reversed: communication, or rather a lack thereof in this context. There's going to be some breakdowns.

Berkana: new beginnings, growth. Lots of stuff getting set up now that mean we can actually put plans into action this month, so here's hoping!

Death: despite the name, this is similar to the tarot card in that it is more about change and transformations - consider the moth! As well as the moon (cycles.) Things are ending and beginning.

Protect: this one I'm admittedly a bit fuzzy on, but worth noting that it includes the planetary symbol for Earth. Could also include the sun, but tbh I'm getting more holy mother and child here. Gotta think about how that one fits in.

Anyway, that's September's reading (posted several days late lol.) Let me know in the comments if you've got any different reads on this than I do. :)

[this-curiouscat]

🌀,🌤️,and 🌈 please!

🌀 Post the pitch for a game you’re working on

I have to cheat a little for this one because my games are currently either done or such vague ideas that I can't even pitch them properly.

But let's talk about Bunny, We Bought a Dungeon, which Jasmin Neitzel and me actually wrote first before we hacked it into Dolly, We Bought a Dream House.

Here's the pitch: You're a group of anthropomorphic bunnies who have bought a dungeon to move in there together. As you narrate the exploration and renovation of the dungeon, you draw a map of it together.

Mechanically, we're calling it a GM-less OSR story game. We're using OSR elements like dice drops, random roll tables, and of course a classic fantasy dungeon setting and combine them with GM-less story mechanics, action rolls inspired by Lasers & Feelings (but not exactly like L&F), and the idea that dungeons can also be homes.

We've already published it in German earlier this year and I've recently translated it into English and will release it tomorrow at the latest.

🌤️ Share your favorite mechanic from a game you’re working on

Same disclaimer as above. So let's talk about something I've already published! I'm still proud of my supplement Alternative Crowns of the Queen for Brindlewood Bay.

As in the original game, it's a set of narrative prompts that allow more insight into the characters' backstory and current life outside of investigating murders and supernatural conspiracies (you use them to bump up a roll one level). And as in the original game, they're meant to show the Murder Mavens "as a woman."

However, my Crowns of the Queen cover a lot more ground than the ones in the original because a senior woman's life of course contains many other relevant aspects than being a daughter, mother, or wife/romantic partner (which is what the original game focuses on). Therefore, my Crowns offer you prompts about bodies, aging, and health, female solidarity and friendship, professional successes and failures, and of course an option to tell a coming-out story.

(In case anyone reading along is wondering: Yes, I absolutely think asking questions/giving narrative prompts is a proper game mechanic just as much as rolling dice or drawing cards or ticking boxes on a sheet is.)

🌈 Share your favourite class/playbook from one of your games (name the game, or let me choose)

So far, I only have one game that has something resembling playbooks, so we're talking about my Firebrands game Miss Bernburg's Finishing School for Young Ladies here. It's set in an all-girl upper-class boarding school in the 1950s (located in Western Europe or North America).

It has three cliques to choose from, which function as character archetypes more than social circles: Homemakers, Bookworms, and Rebels (the latter may be renamed in the translation of the second edition I'm planning for sometime in the future). You get a short flavor text, a list of attractive characteristics to choose three from, and some name suggestions. There are further character questions to answer, such as items they've put on display or keep hidden in their dorm rooms (those are partly different in the first and second edition of the game).

I always enjoy playing a Homemaker (or seeing them played) because there's so much variety you can bring to this type of Young Lady. You can play her as a naive, down-to-earth person who just enjoys traditionally female activities and responsibilities. Or you can play her as a charmingly manipulative person who sees this role as the best opportunity to at least have some social and political influence in her life. Or you can play her as someone who aims to use a facade of respectability to create space for a relatively unbothered queer life on the side. Or maybe she's just waiting for someone to nudge her out of her conformist comfort zone and discover a curious or rebellious streak?

As always, we play to find out, and the Homemakers nearly always have some of the most interesting story arcs I've played and witnessed in this game. (Ask me again and I will tell you the same thing about the other two cliques, though!)

(Cover illustration by Christiane Ebrecht)

Thanks for asking! 💖

[the-firebird69]

There's enough said here no he helped me out and I went down to help him and it was good and it's working then it started really working and now it's working a lot and I hear that the alarms are going off and sounding about Max all over the world by foreigners too they're doing they're sending them out too. It's going to work much better than these lazy people who like to attack each other we don't want to be attacked by you I told you we're not in your group and face annihilation you said you don't care and I do. There's some new numbers last night you were 8% including pseudo empire and minority and warlock and miscellaneous and Macklemore now you're at about 6.5% for real but Thor and Freya their numbers are correct in that about three to four percent are up and are going to evacuate and I have numbers in right now and are exiting shortly leaving 4.5%. those numbers are going to change and change back as you more like evacuate and currently only about 0.5% are pseudo empire but as you evacuate they're coming in they're taking strategic areas and they plan on doing it all day we anticipate two more percent more likely evacuate today and 2% of the pseudo empire Will roll in in total and they will outnumber you how's it going out the empire Will roll in and we are too mostly the pseudo empire are taking over your areas but you're barely habitable and they'll start renovating right away yes because their house is a gross. It reminds me of a few things you had a hard time in the desert we had no air and he had a hard time and Cranston you always looks up and says I'm doing fine now he's joking with me says it's not bad the world is our oyster and we can choose if I do laundry or get groceries for pay a bill or any combination of the three so I'm actually laughing cuz he actually asked me all the time anyways what do you think well you should pay the bill and he looks at it and he shows me he's looking all the time he doesn't talk to any of you like that on purpose. You still has a question I think as they roll in probably why it's not to do your laundry there and he agrees. Trump is blowing up his own buildings to prevent anyone from using them and my husband says I don't want your stupid building and he says what about for other people to live in my husband says if it's structurally sound so it's laughing say okay then all right then but in a complex you can't take a few down that easily they said it's pretty shoddy but it takes time to build all that stuff but it takes longer to rebuild it if you destroy only a few of them. We're moving out now. I'm going to tell you this place is going to turn into a nightmare today I don't think it's that great of an idea this is a have to it's going to be a nightmare again the whole time once they take over and I get that push here very much push here it's like three levels of pushiness and that's going to be here in this one that's leaving it's not as pushy they're great these people are pretty pushy.

-bja is beginning his maneuver and he's starting to push these drums out that's what I was walking around in the mall fisherman's village yesterday and he laid off a bunch of people from the local government. Delete off about 20% of the local government that's a lot. 10% of them we're not working I am not there fired anyways. The second 10% spent most of their time chastising the first 10% as I said do not leave your posts and you consider actually fired and they're doing that leaving their post. Right now bja is gearing up the fire another 20% and who's going to try for it and that's why the county and the cities and that's a lot and they're taking it over and it's actually working. It is going on right now and it is a huge deal they are moving out and taking over that would be about 50% of the Charlotte county government positions and the cities the two cities and it should make a difference this guy Trump doesn't really do much and bja and his are more affected yet they have a tendency to do things that are more constructive at times they're not really self-starters but we can help out with that and the pseudo empire is going to try but really they're hoping for them to knock each other out and it probably will happen but bja likes to be busy because it looks like you're doing something instead of sticking your head in everyone's butt. I just let this guy was doing and what he was saying through my husband. And it will go on all day today couple things in addition to

-the sheriff the train to fight over there another fighting over it then finally and fiercely and if I need the clones too. There's a huge number of them fighting to take this over and they want to kidnap my son my husband that is sorry and he's saying it's actually pretty clear and I do understand what you're saying the other way around you would know it okay so we're proceeding we are proceeding and here we go they are getting in there and it's bja it's like 200 sheriff and BJ has about 35 Trump has about 65 and other groups have the rest and a minority more like have 45 and the remaining group split I think that gives you 55 left with the miscellaneous at about 15 or 20 and then the rest are us in the max it's kind of tough and it's going to change quick so we have to be there

He says and it is gigantic it's huge I'm going to publish

Hera

That was done very well and it's true we also have several more announcements she's going to make and it's regarding this area

Olympus

Zues

[asirensrage]

Consequences

Title: Consequences Fandom: Shadow and Bone Rating: M Pairing: Slight Aleksander x unnamed OC Word count: 3420 Warnings: dark!fic, grey!oc, threats, coersion, being offered as a sacrifice, swearing, use of a knife, attempted murder, actual murder (or would it be manslaughter?), blood consumption, violence, demon!aleksander

Summary: Based on the scary story prompts from @darkpromptsyouneveraskedfor. Prompts include: 15) "I made my sacrifice, now it's your turn." and 8) You're hired to house sit one of the heritage homes in town but realize you're not alone.

Horror prompts masterlist

Notes: This is a dark fic. Heed the warnings. There is attempted murder, friendships breaking and more. Shout out to @vixenofcourse who helped me with this. Enjoy!

“You just have to come, water the plants, hang out. It’s easy money.”

“Then why aren’t you doing it?”

“Because I have plans.” 

“Whose house is it again?”

“No one’s. It’s empty right now. The sellers are locked in some battle with buyers who want the rights to update it.”

“But isn’t it a…”

“Yeah. The fancy plaque on the wall says they’re not allowed to change a thing. That’s not stopping them from trying though. Just do me this favour. Please.”

“Ugh, fine. But you owe me.” 

“Sure, whatever you say.” 

She hangs up the phone and sighs. It’s not the best gig but at least it’ll be easy. All she needs to do is pick up the keys and check the place out. With her luck, it’ll be haunted but no one said she had to stay the night. 

🏠

Her friend isn’t around when she goes to pick up the keys but it’s fine. There’s a coded safety case that realtors use and she knows the combination. The house is eerie. She hasn’t even gone inside yet but the exterior is all Victorian trim and dark colours. It looks like it belongs to the Addams Family. The plaque next to the door declares it a historical site. She stares at it for a moment. It’s the cause of all her problems, at least right now. 

She gets the key from the box. It looks new, as though the locks have been changed but the door still looks like it belongs in the 1800s. She’s not entirely sure it’ll fit, and if she has to call her friend because someone left the wrong key, she’s going to be pissed. It’ll just add to this waste of time. 

The key fits. 

The door creaks open. An ominous warning to the dark that lies ahead. It’s a little impressive actually. They must have blocked the windows. That was creepy. Now that she thought about it, who were the original owners? Or the current ones. Jen never said. 

She walks in. She had to water plants? In this place? The only thing that was going to grow here was mold. The door closes behind her. She turns as she’s shrouded in darkness. She left it open so she could find a light. 

“Must have been the wind,” she says. “Closing…a very heavy door…” She rolls her eyes. It was just her luck acting up again. She never had much of it. It was the same reason she couldn’t hold down a proper job. Things just happened. Weird shit seemed to follow her and everything got blamed on her.

She digs out her phone and turns on the flashlight. That made it creepier. There was something about not being able to see everything around you. It made her feel like there was something behind her. She shudders. 

“Alright, let’s just look around, turn on some lights and get out of here.” 

Finding a light switch was harder than she expected. Original switches from the last time the house was renovated, before it was considered historical, look nothing like the ones she’s used to. 

She finally finds the toggle switch but it doesn’t work. At least, nothing happens. “Of course, the place can’t even work…” She turns, looking around for another, when something touches the back of her neck. She jumps. 

A quick turn, flashing the light around her, reveals…nothing. Despite the fact that something just touched her, she knows something touched her, nothing is there. She’s still in the silent, creepy house. 

“And we’re done,” she says out loud. She’ll stand watch outside if she has to, but she’s leaving. 

Wind blows past her as she leaves the room. She stops. Where did that come from? 

“Nope. No, no, no,” she tells the house before heading to the door. 

“Leaving so soon?” 

She jumps again, turning towards the voice. She pushes her back against the wall, right by the door. “Who’s there?” 

“We haven’t even introduced ourselves yet.” 

She moves the flashlight around until she finds him. The man is standing on the stairs facing her. She can’t make out his features very well, it’s too dark and he’s too far away. “You’re not supposed to be here,” she says, sounding far more confident than she feels. Cold creeps up her spine. 

“Trust me, we’re exactly where we are both meant to be.” 

She grabs the door handle, keeping herself facing the man. She’s not about to turn her back on a stranger, not in this creepy house and not when she was told no one is supposed to be here. “I’m going to go,” she says. “You look like you have this in hand.”

“I regret that you will not.” He seemed to disappear from her view and she turns, trying to find him again. 

His face appears in front of hers. She jolts back, hitting the door hard. “I made my sacrifice,” he says softly. “Now it’s your turn.” 

He leans forward, mouth parting and displaying rows of teeth that glisten in the little light there is. His eyes are black. 

“I don’t think so!” She shoves him back. To her surprise, he actually stumbles. He looks at her confused. “I’m no one’s sacrifice!” 

He stares at her for a moment, head tilted. “No,” he says softly. “I don’t believe you are.” 

Her heart pounds in her chest, feeling as though it is either about to burst or stop completely. She can see him clearly now. He looks human but there is something off about him. It’s not only the black eyes and too many teeth. There is something that sets everything in her on edge. 

He moves faster than she sees, gripping her jaw. It’s gentle and yet inescapable. Even trying to pull back slightly fails. He turns her face, examining her from all sides. “What a curious thing you are,” he says quietly. “She must not have known.” 

“Who?” She can’t help but ask. 

“The one who sent you here. She requested a boon, but they are not to be given without sacrifice. I would have escaped this prison with your death but now…” 

“Hold on, my death?” She glares at him. “You’re telling me Jen sent me here purposefully to die?” 

“Are you surprised?”

“You think?!” She scowls at the man in the dark. “Let me out. I’m going to kill her.” 

His eyes seem to gleam in the light. “Are you?” He reaches out again, touching her face softly. There are claws on his fingertips. “Perhaps we could make a deal?”

“I’m not into deals,” she tells him, unimpressed at what he’s already suggesting. 

He grins. It’s wide enough that it looks as though it will swallow his face. “Nothing like you’re thinking. Call her here. I was promised a human soul, not one like you. Bring her and I’ll tell you the truth of what you are.” 

“Do you think I’m stupid?” She asks, staring at him. “You want me to call her, get her to come over here so what? You can kill us both?”

“Do you know what the boon she asked for was?”

“Obviously not.”

He smirks, amused by her sharp edges. “She sold your life away for wealth and the love of a man named John.”

“Oh for the–” She cuts herself off. “John?! Really? That asshole?” She can’t help herself. “She’s been obsessed with him for years and he knows it! He’s played her like a fiddle. Calling her when he wants sex and dropping her as soon as she presses for more and she still goes back for more!” 

“Humans are frivolous with their affections,” he says mildly. 

“She’d kill me to win that asshole? Fuck it.” She lifts her phone, shutting off the flashlight that was eating at her battery and succumbing to the dark and the thing in it. She’s pissed off now. It was one thing to set her up, to send her on this stupid task and try to sacrifice her. Hell, the economy was hard, she could understand it really, but for John? Hell no. 

Her friend is in her recently contacted section. It goes to voicemail. Of course, it does. If she was setting her up to die, she probably didn’t want to hear her screaming. Well, two could play this game.

“Hey Jen,” she says in as light-hearted a tone as she can maintain once the voicemail beeps. “I’m trying the code you gave me but it’s not working. I can’t get into the house. Are you sure it’s the right one?”  

She hangs up. “And now we wait.” 

“Clever,” he praises. 

She ignores it and turns her flashlight back on. She isn’t ready to wait in the dark with…whatever it is. 

It takes about a minute for her so-called friend to call her back. Maybe it’s guilt? Maybe it’s a warning and she didn’t listen to the message.

She answers. “Hey.” 

“You can’t get in?” There’s a trace of panic there. She wonders if she should be insulted at how fast Jen responded to that. How fast they listened for proof of her demise. 

The thing in front of her is grinning again. She ignores it, stomach curdling in disappointment. “No, the code doesn’t work.”

“Are you sure? It’s 5935.” 

She waits for a moment before she responds. “That’s what I tried. I just did it again, and got nothing. I’m just going to go home, okay?”

“No!” Jen nearly shouts it before trying to recover. “I mean, just wait. I can stop by quickly and check it. I have the override.”

“Then why am I here? You said you were busy.” She can’t help but dig into the lie now. She wants to see what the excuse is. 

“I am. I just have a few minutes, like I said, but I can pass by. Just wait for me, okay?” 

“Fine.” She hangs up. Was this really worth it? Could she send someone to their death?

“Tell me about this John.”

She scowls at the thing wearing a man’s face. “Can you read minds?”

“I don’t have to. It’s in your expression.”

“I told you everything you need to know.” 

“Then tell me about you. Your parents, your life.”

She looks at him, at the eager twitch to his smile, and ignores the demand. She owes him nothing, even if the thing has offered to take Jen’s life instead. Anger sits in the base of her throat. A sacrifice. Things like that shouldn’t be real, they shouldn’t exist, but neither should the thing that looks like a man but has too many teeth. It’s better to be angry instead of hurt. It’s not the first time someone has tried to take something from her, or used her, but it stings every time and it has yet to get easier. Especially when she thought they were friends. Good friends. 

“I’m not telling you anything about my family.”

“Well then I’ll guess, shall I?  You’re the odd one out for no reason you can see or they can name?  They forget about you frequently and with alarming ease and seem relieved at your absence?  They meet your basic needs but take no joy in it, just performing an obligation and no effort is made to bond further?” 

She bares her teeth at him. She doesn’t agree or disagree. It’s true that her family wasn’t the warmest or most supportive, but it didn’t matter. Her luck always ran in the worst ways and the people around her sometimes got caught up in it. That often included her parents. 

He looks up, past her and towards the door. “She’s here,” he tells her. 

“That was quick.” Another nail in the coffin. Another shred of proof at how much her ex-friend wanted the boon she was willing to trade another’s life for. 

They fall quiet and she can hear her friend now, coming up the steps and calling her name. She doesn’t respond. She can’t. Not yet. She doesn’t know what to say and there is no real way to explain why she is inside. Especially after the call.  

It doesn’t matter. A key scrapes against the lock and she moves back, behind the door so that she’ll be hidden when Jen enters. The thing looks amused but does not give her away. Instead, it seems to melt back into the shadows and she turns the flashlight off on her phone. 

The lock gives way and the door opens slowly. The light from the outside illuminates the front hall and even from behind the door, she catches sight of things she missed when she entered. The way the staircase was rotting. The dust on the broken frames that were somehow still on the wall. 

Jen calls her name. 

Her heart pounds in her chest, regret and hope churning her stomach. This could be a mistake. It could…

“Did you get her?” Nevermind. Jen’s voice is dispassionate and curious. “Did she get inside? Where’s my prize?”

Her lip curls in a snarl at that. Jen moves forward and she takes the chance to close the door behind her former friend. It seems darker than before now that the light is extinguished. 

“John?” she has to ask. “Really? That manwhore?” Jen turns to the sound of her voice but neither of them can see each other. She just knows that she’s still there. “That’s what my life is worth to you?  I die in some gruesome manner so you can live happily ever after with a fuckboy who drops you on the regular?!  You are some piece of work.”

“What are you talking about?” Jen gives a forced laugh. “It was just a joke.” 

“Sure it was.” 

“You honestly thought I’d sacrifice you?” she asks, peering into the shadows by the door.

“I think the thing that was ready to eat me is more believable than you are right now.” 

“Lying does not become you, Jennifer,” the voice of the thing echoes through the dark. “You offered her life in exchange for wealth and the devotion of an unworthy man.”

“I–”

“Just admit it,” she says. 

“It’s not like anyone was going to miss you!” Jen says it quickly, in one breath.

She swallows down the hurt at that. “That doesn’t excuse it!” she snapped back. 

“You know,” the thing calls out. “I should really thank you, for all that you are unaware of the treasure you’ve placed before me.” 

“I gave you a sacrifice,” Jen snaps towards the voice. “Where’s my gift?”

“There’s no sacrifice!” She snarls. “I am not fodder for your garbage happily ever after!”

“Take her!” Jen nearly screams. “You owe me!”

“I owe nothing,” the voice responds. “You, however, owe me a life.” 

“I gave you one!” 

“You owe a human life.” 

Jen screeches at that. 

She watches as Jen turns towards her, reaching out and leaping forwards. She jumps back but there’s nowhere to go, no space to lean out of Jen’s range trying to slash at her with what looks like a kitchen knife. She slams her hand forward, knocking Jen’s shoulder as she tries to shove her back. 

“If he won’t do it, I will! I’ll get what I deserve!” Jen snarls as her fingers grab her hair and she feels a sharp bite along her side and a tug at her shirt as the knife is drawn back to strike again. 

She tries to slam her elbow into Jen’s face but the positioning is awkward. As much trouble as she draws, she’s never really been in a fight before. She’s never had someone trying to kill her. One more shove and she hears the knife clunk onto the floor and skitter away in the dark as one of them kick it in the struggle.

“Help!” She calls out. She knows the thing is watching, can practically taste their eagerness for more bloodshed in the air. She’s not sure whose but she does not intend for it to be hers. 

“Gouge her eyes,” the voice calls out. “Use your teeth!”

That wasn’t a bad idea. She turns, wincing as Jen’s grip pulls her hair harder with the motion, and bites down on her arm. 

Jen screams and lets go. 

She grabs Jen’s hair, repayment of course, only this time she does her best to slam her former friend’s head into the wall. Jen tries to shove her off, but after the first successful hit, the woman is dazed and she does it again and again. 

The anger comes out then. The betrayal and fear and desire to survive all come out as she slams Jen’s head over and over. It’s only when she actually feels blood on her hands that she comes back to herself and let’s go. Jen crumples at her feet.

“Oh my god.” 

There is slow clapping and her attention returns to the figure who moves closer. She can make him out now in the dark. It’s almost as if a light has been turned on somewhere, just enough that she can start to make things out. Maybe it’s just that her eyes have adjusted to the darkness. 

“Beautifully done,” it says. 

“I didn’t–”

“You did.” It crouches down and she can see as it touches the blood that’s pooling around the head. It puts its finger in its mouth. “She’s not dead, yet. Thank you for that.” She’s not sure where he gets the knife from but she watches as he slams it down into Jen’s chest. He twists the blade and she looks away. 

She inhales sharply. “You have your life,” she says. “We’re done.”

“Not yet,” the figure stands up. The dark eyes somehow shine as he grins at her. “We haven’t been formally introduced.” 

“I’m not interested.”

“Not even to know the truth?”

“About what? Her?” She motions to the body on the floor. “I don’t care.” And she doesn’t. Not anymore. She regrets that friendship now. She regrets letting her in.

“About what you are,” it says. “Why you didn’t meet the criteria for the deal.”

She pauses. That’s true. “And what am I?”

“Not human. Not completely.”

“I’m not interested in your games,” she snaps. “Either tell me or open the door and let me leave.” 

“No games. Not with you.” It moves closer, a claw traces down her cheek and she tries not to flinch. “We could have a lot of fun. I could show you…many delights.”

“Are you going to tell me why you spared me or not?” 

“There’s demon in you,” it says. “A rare thing.” 

“Sure there is.” She rolls her eyes. “Can I go?”

It stares at her for a moment before it moves. Suddenly, the place is illuminated. The lights are lit and she is faced with what the thing actually looks like. It looks like a human man aside from the way his clothing seems to be made of the darkness. His hair is as dark as his sharklike eyes. “We can go wherever you want, but first.  Allow me.” He bites his thumb before he reaches down and she hisses as he presses his fingers against the cut on her side. He drags them across the entire cut.

It burns, sharp and cold. She tries to pull back and he releases her, once the pain finally stops. She glares at him. “I didn’t invite you.”

“And yet I have the answers I know you want.”

She stares at it, at him, for a moment. “A demon, huh?”

“You may call me Aleksander.” 

“That’s a human name.”

“Is it? Who knew.”

She snorts at that. “He’s funny too.”

“A good demon has all the best qualities,” he says. He bends down over the body again and inhales sharply. She almost thinks she sees something move, going from one to the other, but he simply licks his lips. He stands and motions towards the door which opens without a touch. “Shall we?” 

She ignores the arm he offers and walks out. He follows and walks next to her. 

“Your anger was wondrous to watch,” he tells her. “Sharp in the best way, but dangerously slow to rise in your own defence.”

She glances at him. Now that he’s out of the house, he looks more human. It’s some sort of disguise but he grins at her as he catches her looking.

“You’ve got a little demon in you,” he says.

“Okay?” It’s still a matter of opinion.

“Would you like a little more demon in you?” 

taglist: @raith-way @arrthurpendragon @zeleniafic @jvstjewels @veetlegeuse @chickensarentcheap @booty-boggins @residentdormouse @delicateblackrose @stanshollaand @wordspin-shares @chrissymunson

[lorei-writes]

Basic Guide on How Not To: Slavic Characters

Well, as most of you have probably realised by now, I’m Polish. Truthfully, I am quite upset now. I generally tend to avoid most content involving Slavic people, because well, stereotypes are plentiful and I have only one stomach - there is only so much anger I can fit inside of it. However, this time I was merrily watching an episode of a series, for goodnight sleep, and got smacked in the face with just that... So, I suppose, let’s use my anger towards something - hopefully - productive. This is a very hard post for me to write. It may be closer to my personal experience, although I did try to be more general.

Contents:

Where Do I Even Begin or Sad Slav Filter

Common Stereotypes - Professions & Jobs

Common Stereotypes - Characteristics

Few basic issues with languages & names

Where Do I Even Begin or Sad Slav Filter

Grey buildings, empty plazas, ominous blocks of flats with walls up to the very sky. Snow. Gloom faces. Dark nights. Red. Gold.

To start with, be aware that this sort of image is oftentimes not only written into stories or presented in picture-based media, but that I had the displeasure of seeing it being used for cover art for several books.

What I jokingly call sad Slav filter is presenting the reality of Eastern Europe* through, well, pessimistic glasses. The architecture speaks of terror, of being post-communist state, of never having recovered. The streets portrayed in such fashion are gloom, unwelcoming, threatening in a way. Winter is oftentimes the season of choice, to add an extra layer of depressive atmosphere and cold. Nobody smiles. One may say that usage of gold and red brightens the image - however, those connect directly to the communist flag, thus locking the entire space in a rather obvious context.

The reality?

Yes, old blocks of flats built in 60s or so still exist. Some are even grey and in dire need of being re-painted! However... Many are not in such a state. In Poland, the common colours for elevation of such buildings are white, pastel orange, pastel yellow and pastel green, oftentimes put together in combination of stripes or other geometric shapes. What also should be noted is that such estates were designed with plenty trees and other plants around them in mind, as to accommodate for a development of a community - especially for older blocks of flats, those are most likely situated nearby a primary school and a kindergarten, not to mention stores and other services. It is not uncommon for playgrounds to be present as well. You could also expect small flower gardens.

Parks exist here. Architecture does not begin and end at the blocks of flats, especially not in the major cities - most, if not all, have old towns or historical representative streets. Buildings dating back to medieval still do exist in plenty of places. Churches & Tserkovs - those are oftentimes tourists sites for a reason! 

It may happen that the side of a building will be decorated with a mural. It is not very common, but does happen. Here are some examples (from Poland). The designs sometimes relate to other works of art, or to some forms of traditional art.

mural by NeSpoon, a street artist who incorporates motives of koronka ludowa [a type of lace] into her artwork

Overall, I come from a poorer region of Poland, from a small town to add to that. The one thing I would list about it? Flower gardens. All of my neighbours had flower gardens in front of their houses. In the recent years, I’ve seen plenty of new houses being built, plenty of renovations being made. Especially in spring and summer, it is all far from grey. Some major cities started investing in fields of wild flowers, as to aid pollinators. And winters? Well, the way it should be (as climate change shows and I have not seen a proper winter in a while), they should be snowy. Yes, it may involve a rather depressing image, at least in places where snow cannot just rest over the ground and glitter... But I do think it may be the case in plenty parts of Europe, as winter days are overall shorter as well, which hardly helps :”) Eastern Europe as a region is not locked in an eternal winter.

People may not be smiling, but they are not frowning either - it is the... Neutral resting face.

*- that being said, Eastern Europe is not inhabited only by Slavic people, even if it is often presented like so

Common Stereotypes - Professions & Jobs

List of common stereotypical jobs/professions usually performed by characters of Slavic descent:

a member of a mafia (Russian mafia)

a drug dealer

a spy

a prostitute

a maid / a cleaner

As you can see, nearly all of those involve crime, the only exception being a maid / a cleaner (which, I’d argue, speaks of a lower socio-economic status). If you do not plan to have more than one Slavic character in your work, I advise you to avoid those - especially if you wanted to make your character Russian. I do not think I have to explain why representing a group of people nearly exclusively as criminals is hurtful. 

Certain stereotypes exist in media. They do influence the reality. I have seen covers of books about spy programs (non-fiction, referencing an issue from 2000s) which involved clear references to communism (+ used the most hideous Sad Slav Filter I have ever seen). The title suggested all Russians are spies. This is not okay.

If you want to have a character who is performing any of the above, and want to make them Slavic, but then never have their heritage influence anything about them - ask yourself why.

EDIT: Do allow me to also add that being a sex-worker may not be a choice for all Slavic women. Sex-trafficking of Eastern Europeans is a real issue. You should be mindful of that when writing a story - even more so as it affects some countries more than others. Research is due.

Common Stereotypes - Characteristics

Common hurtful characteristics in depicting slavic characters:

uneducated or otherwise stupid

rude, loud, uncultured, violent

an alcoholic / addicted to drugs

extremely conservative / religious

Do I have to explain it? Yes, alcoholism is a social issue, same as addiction to drugs. Yes, some people are conservative and / or religious. However! We are not a monolith! Social issues are not the general rule! 

Scale of conservativeness and religiousness also differs greatly by age group and region. In Poland we have an entire category of practising atheists - non-believers, usually from smaller communities, who appear in church once or twice a year, despite not believing. Due to social pressure. What religion? This differs greatly too! Roman catholic, Greek orthodox, Muslim? Slavic people are not a monolith.

(about women specifically):

beautiful (must put plenty effort in her physical appearance)

looks for a rich (western) husband

submissive

obedient 

Well. This ties into the greater issue of objectification and sexualisation of Slavic and Eastern European women. Admittedly, such portrayal [including all of those] is more so present in online spaces, if you turn a few wrong corners down the roads of the internet :) It is dehumanising.

If your Slavic character happens to be a woman and must be extremely sexy femme fatal spy - this reeks of stereotypes.

Few basic issues with languages & names

As I’ve hinted already, it appears that oftentimes Slavic = Russian. This, however, is not true, both language-wise and culture-wise. Despite sharing some common elements, Slavic cultures do differ. Polish characters, unless they are 50+ years old, won’t generally speak Russian. Czech and Ukrainian are different. Ukrainian is not just another version of Russian.

I decided to single out this paragraph for one reason: authors oftentimes do not bother to check for appropriate names and just use whatever seems right. If you want to write a Slavic character, do make some research. 

The common mess-ups I’ve seen:

inappropriate form of the surname (about Russian surnames in particular; giving a woman a male version of the surname, giving a man the female version of the surname - Slavic languages are heavily gendered!)

claiming a character is of nationality B, while giving them a surname which is most definitely speaking of nationality A (e.g: Polish character with a clearly Hungarian name & surname)

wrong spelling

using very rare forms of names for all the characters written into the story (it sounds very unnatural - in one particular case it seemed to have been done on purpose, as I’ve had to google whether some names were even names. They were used as code names for few organisations during WWII. That sort of uncommon).

nicknames derived from the actual names that would not work at all (Żegota -> Zeg; It just would not work like this. It would be literally more likely for a character named Żegota to be nicknamed/renamed Staszek than for somebody to call him Zeg. It does not only not include the ż sound, but it also ends with g - which a Polish person would simplify to k when speaking. In other words Zeg -> zek. This, meanwhile, is not only not exactly pleasant to say, but it also sounds like a grammatical form of another word, albeit pronounced with a heavy lisp - “river”; It is possible to find appropriate nicknames online).

Also, unless you want for some character to be a dick, do not make them purposefully mispronounce the name of a Slavic character or have them name them after an object/thing. (Calling “Maciej” by “Magic” because they can’t be bothered to learn to pronounce the name or at least try to get it close is not nice).

[sim-lush]

Simlush’s All Packs Save File

This is a save file that I’ve been working on since October 2020, it is a CC free save file that’s made using all the packs installed.

If you want to download this save file and don’t have the packs, it’s still possible but you’ll lose some items from the packs you don’t own.

I will be making more save files in the future, I’m planning to make one save file for each pack, but for a few weeks or months I might need a little break from making contents on YouTube and also making save files, I’ll update as soon as I’m back 😊

Now, let’s talk about this save file.

All the worlds have been either entirely re-build or renovated, all the townies, NPCs and new sims are based on my make overs and preference of style, but I did not change skin tones, face and body shape, eye color or hair color when giving the townies a makeover, I hope you like them 😊

All the worlds are pets, child and toddler friendly except for some particular places like bars or lounges.

I left some of the lots being empty without any building in it because I think you might want to build something, too. You are free to bulldoze, renovate or do anything with the builds that came with the save file though.

Most of the sims in this save file have skills and jobs, I try to make the worlds seems more… you know normal and livable.

You can delete all the families I have created or changing the world based on what you prefer.

In total there are:

69 Builds Renovated

163 New Builds

116 Families (65 are new)

In total there are 364 Sims in the save file including “currently not in world” Sims.

Willow Creek

3 Starter Houses

16 New Builds

1 Renovated Build

8 Families (4 are new)

Community Lots: 

Lounge

Library

Museum

Gym

National Park

I try to make Willow Creek like a serene town filled with suburban houses.

All Community Lots are pets, child and toddler friendly.

There are 3 starter houses (under 20k) that are perfect for family.

Oasis Spring

2 Starter Houses

14 New Builds

3 Renovated Builds

6 Families (2 are new)

Community Lots:

Restaurant

Lounge

Gym

Bar

National Park

The world has modern mid-century and Mediterranean houses.

All community lots are pets, child and toddler friendly.

There are two starter houses (under 20k).

Newcrest

15 New Builds

10 Families

Community Lots:

Spa

Restaurant

Library

Museum

National Park

The world has modern builds with some eco vibes.

All community lots are pets, child and toddler friendly.

Magnolia Promenade

2 Renovated Builds

2 New Builds

1 Family (New)

Community Lots:

3 Retails

The world is build based on older days kind of world where the building is using classic style.

I build an apartment in this world so I can put a retail employer there and play them as if they work in the nearby retails.

All community lots are pets, child and toddler friendly.

Windenburg

7 Renovated Builds

16 New Builds

14 Families (7 are new)

Community Lots:

3 Café

Library

Bar

Lounge

Nightclub

Retail

National Park

Swimming Pool

I try to keep many styles of buildings in Windenburg since this world have so many lots. There are country cottages, Modern wooden houses and some classical houses, too.

All community lots are pets, child and toddler friendly.

San Myshuno

1 Starter Apartment

4 Renovated Builds

24 New Builds

21 Families (13 are new)

Community Lots:

Retail

Karaoke Bar

Gym

Lounge

Arts Center

Center Park

Because I always dream to go to New York, the San Myshuno from this save file is build based on New York, well the kind of New York I’ve seen only from movies lol

All community lots are pets, child and toddler friendly.

Forgotten Hollow

1 Starter House

2 Renovated Builds

3 New Builds

3 Families (1 is new)

I do try to make Forgotten Hollow less dark and weird, but yup, it is still kind of dark and less dark lol

Brindleton Bay

1 Starter Apartment

3 Renovated Builds

13 New Builds

7 Families (4 are new)

Community Lots:

2 Restaurants

Bar

Museum

2 Vet Clinic

Park

This world has many country farmhouse style kinds of houses and community lots, very cozy and warm vibes.

All community lots are pets, child and toddler friendly.

Del Sol Valley

1 Renovated Builds

9 New Builds

5 Families (2 are new)

Community Lots:

National Park

Karaoke Bar

Retail

Museum

Lounge

Del Sol Valley that I try to build is highly inspired by LA and very summer-y in vibes.

All community lots are pets, child and toddler friendly.

StrangerVille

1 Starter House

7 Renovated Builds

4 New Builds

5 Families (1 is new)

Community Lots:

National Park

Restaurant

Bar

Library

Vey Victorian looking but with many colors in it, I try to make it more fun looking and livable.

All community lots are pets, child and toddler friendly.

Sulani

1 Starter House

4 Renovated Builds

10 New Builds

10 Families (6 are new)

Community Lots:

Bar

2 Beaches

This Sulani is inspired by Bali Island and I try to keep as many colors as I think will still make a good aesthetic to keep Sulani having the summer and happy vibe.

All community lots are pets, child and toddler friendly.

Glimmerbrook

2 Renovated Builds

2 New Builds

5 Families (1 are new)

Community Lots:

Library

My favorite world of all worlds, I try to keep the quirky-ness of Glimmerbrook as the main aesthetic of the world, but there and there I combine some antique and bohemian style around the world.

All community lots are pets, child and toddler friendly.

Britechester

All Builds are Renovated Builds

6 Families (2 are new)

Community Lots:

Library

Bar

I think Britechester is the world that already have cool builds, so I just renovate here and there trying to make it more normal and less “The Sims” in general lol

All community lots are pets, child and toddler friendly.

Evergreen Harbor

2 Starter Houses

2 Renovated Builds

22 New Builds (Including each     and all Community Spaces)

9 Families (6 are new)

Community Lots:

Community Spaces

Bar

The Evergreen Harbor of this save file is neutral but most of the lot are already Green, all the community spaces including the other 3 variables that only change when sims vote for it are all already re-build. I aim to create a green world when building in Evergreen Harbor.

All community lots are pets, child and toddler friendly.

Mt. Komorebi

7 Renovated Builds

7 New Builds

7 Families (4 are new)

Community Lots:

Lounge

Park

Onsen Bathhouse

Bar

3 Rentals

I try to keep Mt. Komorebi with its very strong Asian vibes, but I did add some other style around the buildings to bring more richness to the world.

All community lots are pets, child and toddler friendly.

VACATION WORLDS

Granite Falls

2 Renovated Builds

4 New Builds

Child and Toddler Friendly.

Selvadorada

5 Renovated Builds

2 New Builds

Bar

Museum

National Park

Child and Toddler Friendly.

Batuu

Honestly, I did nothing to Batuu because I just don’t know what to do with it actually.

How to Install These Worlds?

Make a backup of your save     files in a folder on your desktop

Download the save file

Put the save file into this     path Documents/Electronic Arts/The Sims 4/Saves

Start your game and enjoy the     save file!

Important Notes:

I renamed the file in hope it     won’t conflict your save files but if you do happen to have the same name     you can change the last 2 numbers from the save file but leave the 0s be.

Always make a backup of your     save files before putting this save.

It's the first release so if     you do happen to have some problems with the save file, let me know and I     will try to fix it.

You can do anything with the     save file, changing lots, bulldozing things, deleting sims or families.

Download from Patreon (no ads & free)

ENJOY!

[writingquestionsanswered]

Any advice on how I can make an emotional and sad backstory for my characters? I have a hard time coming up with one. I'm terrified it won't make sense for my readers :/

Creating Sad Backstory for Character

First, it's helpful to understand that most stories follow one of three patterns:

Pattern A - Something happens that turns your character's life upside down or sets them off on a new path. For example: aliens from another planet land and try to take over your character's city. This will either be a plot-driven story or a story that is both plot-driven and character-driven. In this kind of story, the event that happens forces your character to pursue a goal in order to resolve the conflict created by the event.

Pattern B - The character does something themselves that turns their life upside down or sets them off on a new path. For example: they quit their job and buy a manor house in England, planning to renovate it and turn it into a hotel. This is almost always going to be a character-driven story, where the character chooses a goal in hopes of solving a problem in their life, and that choice/goal pursuit is what turns their life upside down or sets them off on a new path.

Pattern C - This is a combination of A & B, where you have a little bit of both situations. This is sometimes, but not always, the case with stories that are both character-driven and plot-driven.

Why Backstory Matters in Some Cases

Not all stories require characters to have a notable backstory, although giving your character at least a basic past can make them more three-dimensional. But if your character's past doesn't need to play a role in the actual plot in any way, don't worry if they don't have one.

For everyone else, backstories are important because your character's life experience up to that point informs who they are at the start of the story. Their situation and experiences over the years molded their personality, gave them particular skills and/or knowledge, forged relationships with others, guided their beliefs, and helped to form their understanding of the world around them and how things work. All of those things will together inform how your character moves through the story, what decisions they make, how they respond to events, and how they relate to others.

Now, Consider Your Plot to Find Your Character's Back Story

You'll need to consider what backstory elements are necessary depending on your particular plot, important plot elements, and which pattern your story follows. If your story is about an alien invasion, you'll want to consider your character's resulting goal. What are they trying to achieve and what obstacles will they face in pursuit of that goal? Now, consider what life experience, skills, knowledge, feelings, personality traits, hang ups, etc. will need to play into their tackling of those obstacles. What will be important for relationships with other characters? If you know that your character needs to be very selfless and brave, consider what might have happened to them in their past that turned them into someone who is selfless and brave. If your character's decisions must be guided by mistrust in others, you'll need to consider what happened to them in their past that led to this mistrust.

Creating a Sad Backstory in Particular...

This is the part that's up to you. "Sad" is subjective and only you know what your story is about and what kind of sad events would make sense in the life of your character. As the writer, it's your job to observe the world around you for inspiration. If you need inspiration, try looking at news headlines. Real life events often provide a foundation for creating character backstories.

I hope that helps! Best of luck with your story!

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[galactic-magick]

I’m Not Your Enemy: Agnes/Agatha Harkness x Reader

Request: Hey would you mind writing an Agatha x reader where reader finds the basement and confronts Agatha and she reveals herself to her and reader knows she's bad, she knows but she can't resist her and joins her side. Maybe with reader and Agatha having a fight first but Agatha convincing her? I just love my powerful witch lady. - @nyx-aira​ // Is it okay for me to request a agatha harkness x Female reader where reader finds out who agnes really is before Wanda does and she feels hurt by her not telling who she really is? Like she isn't mad at her just upset that she hid true herself from her own girlfriend? And agatha feels guilty but makes up for it? So kinda angst with a bit of a happy ending? I was so happy with her reveal lmao dhsjwbwkwnjw - anon

Summary: You find out your girlfriend has been hiding that she’s a witch.

Words: 700+

Warnings: SPOILERS FOR EPISODE 7!! Also some angst

Author’s Notes: Hope it’s alright that I combined these requests since they were so similar!

-

-

-

Agnes is rarely a private person. She’s never been afraid of saying what’s on her mind or being herself, especially around you. As far as you know, she’s an open book, your beautiful-neighbor-turned-girlfriend.

But despite that, she’s never once let you come to her house, at least not inside. You always have your dates around town, and if you ever want to relax in a more isolated environment you go to your place. Whenever you’ve brought up going to her house she always has some excuse against it, like it’s too messy, or she’s getting renovations done, or her bunny pooped on the floor so everything smells.

Today though, you figure you have a reason to go inside.

She hasn’t been answering any of your texts and calls all day, which never happens. Plus you had a brunch date planned this morning, and she didn’t show up.

Surprisingly the door is unlocked, so you come right in.

“Aggie? Are you here?” you call, with no answer.

You look around all the rooms and can’t find her anywhere, until-

What is that?!

You stop in your tracks, unable to step any further.

Black vines cover an opening in the basement, dark and thick and spreading as far as you can see ahead.

You hesitantly walk forward, entering the void until you can see some dim light. You find a room covered with the same vines, some odd objects and books lining the walls.

You hear some footsteps, and before long Agnes comes in and drops what she was holding.

“Y/N! What are you doing here?!”

“I was worried about you, Aggie! You missed our date and you haven’t responded to anything-“

She places her hands on your shoulders and tries to shuffle you out, “You need to get out of here darling, you were never supposed to see any of this-“

You push her off, “See any of what? What the hell is this? Do you host some sort of weird cult down here or something?”

“Darling please, let me explain-“

“No! I thought you didn’t keep any secrets from me, how could you not tell me whatever this is?”

“Y/N,” she takes your hands and sits down with you. “Please just let me tell you now,”

You take a deep breath as she squeezes your hand, and you finally nod.

“You have every right to be upset. Honestly I just didn’t want to scare you away,” she says. “The truth is, I’m a witch. My real name is Agatha Harkness, and I know all the secrets about this town, most of them you’re probably not ready to hear. I didn’t mean to fall in love with you amongst everything, but I did, so I wanted to protect you, so I didn’t tell you,”

“You’re…a witch? Like an actual witch? You can use magic?”

“I can do much more than that, honey,” she smirks.

“I just,” you shake your head. “I don’t understand why you didn’t tell me. I’m your girlfriend, I thought you’d trust me,”

“I’m sorry,” she strokes your cheek. “I’ll tell you everything, I promise. You’ll understand why I wanted to protect you. There’s forces at play here that could hurt you if you’re not careful,”

“Forces that you made?” your brows furrow as you connect the dots. “No well-meaning person has a dark lair like this in their basement, Aggie. Have you been hurting people? Manipulating me? How am I supposed to trust you anymore?”

“I’m not your enemy, darling,”

“Oh? Then who is?”

She takes your face again, bringing you close, “Like I said, I’ll explain everything. I love you and I won’t hide anything from you ever again,”

You look into her eyes, searching for anything not as genuine as her words. She seems to be telling the truth, and whatever she’s doing she must have a reason.

“Okay,” you nod. “I trust you,”

“Good,” she smirks again, kissing your forehead.

“But,” you sigh. “You are bad, aren’t you?”

“Depends on what you call bad, honey,” she laughs. “Doesn’t everyone like to make some trouble and have some fun sometimes?”

“I guess so,”

“See? Nothing to worry about,”

“Honestly I’d still stay with you if you were,” you mumble, but in the nearly silent room there was no way she couldn’t hear it.

“Would you?” she hooks a finger under your chin, teasing a kiss.

“Just…try not to kill anyone at least, okay?”

“Hmmm, I’ll try my best,” she whispers, closing the gap between you.

[mariamermaid]

F.R.I.E.N.D.S

Young Sirius Black x fem Potter!Reader

Summary:  When puberty suddenly hits you and your brother´s best friend realizes his interest in you

Words: 3.8k

Warnings: drinking underaged, mentions of smoking, swearing

A/N: Inspired by Anne-Marie´s song, but not really following the lyrics

 It happened from your summer break to your fifth year in Hogwarts, for your brother James it was his sixth year.

It was, what you would call the perfect summer; You had spent it with your friend Sarah in Spain, her family owned a stunning little cottage near Barcelona. The golden beach and the hot sun brought you back with a stunning tan and even a few freckles decorated your face now. Due to many trips to the mountains and the regular exercise of swimming, playing beachball and evenings dancing on the streets beneath moonlight, you had toned up and lost some body fat. A late, maybe even a drunk decision to get a new haircut and the obsessive amount of the new clothes, that completely reinvented your sense of fashion.

The time abroad away from your family felt like a gasp of freedom to you. You loved your parents and even your brother James, if he wasn´t annoying you, dearly, but that summer you felt grown-up and independent. You found new assets, hobbies, interests and confidence to further follow them. You hadn´t planned it, but your glow up transformation was born.

You came back just a few days before school was starting and somehow, you even looked forward to it. A new found motivation to become the best version of yourself pushed you to new limits. Not even the fact that Sirius Black had moved in with your family, could shatter your positive attitude.

 “Mom, where did Dad put my luggage, I brought a few souvenirs I wanted to give you!”, you asked while looking through your backpack for a hair tie. Your mother, who had already settled back in the kitchen, her natural habitat, to get some iced tea, shrugged.

“I don´t know, darling, didn´t he put them in your room already?”

Nevertheless, it felt good to be home again.

Your father entered the dining and kitchen area from outside, a suitcase of yours in each of his hands. Just as he was about to call your brother for help, James jumped down the staircase and patted your father on the shoulder. “In a second, dad?”

James, who always had been taller than you, eyed your astonished. “Who is that girl in our home? Is that even my sister anymore?” You chuckled as he gave you a quick hug.

“Shut up James, you´re just jealous that you´re still pale like a snow owl!”

While the two of you started your casual process of sibling bickering, Sirius carefully stepped down the stairs as well. From the back, he observed your figure.

All those years, you had been James´s sister or the younger Potter, but for the first time, you didn´t perish next to James. Actually, you overshone him. James, who was athletic due to the Quidditch practice, still had a crooked and flabby posture. It didn´t help that he was used to swagger through the halls of Hogwarts. But you? You remained with your head held high, your shoulders relaxed and your tanned skin freshly glowing.

“Y/n.”

You turned to find Sirius starring at you; you couldn´t point his look, but you gave him a polite, regardless smile. “Sirius”, you greeted him. Your voice wasn´t rude or cold, still it didn´t match the voice you´d use to talk to James. “Or should I call you brother number two?”

A painfully small grin was brought to his lips. Over the course of years, the two of you barely exchanged words. But yet, you were a constant part of his life. Yes, he had spent many Christmas holidays with your family. He most definitely spent more time with James than you. You were his best friend’s sister, right?

But why did it suddenly bother him, that you called him brother?

“Y/n, Sirius is staying in the guest room from now on. We didn´t use the room anyway, did we?”

The Potter residency had an altogether combined number of four floors; the basement with storage and washing area. The main floor with kitchen, dining and living room, leading to the outdoor terrace and garden and your parent´s bedroom. The second floor with James´s bedroom, your father´s study room and of course, the guest bedroom, which now belonged to Sirius. Last but not least the attic, which was renovated to your room. A point which had caused James and you to argue for several years; the attic was an amazing room and much larger than other bedrooms in the house. James lost the argument due to very weak points. To quote your mother, James spent more time outside doing mischief than actually staying in his room.

You were more relieved than ever to have not only your own room, but basically your own floor. You didn´t mind Sirius, but you needed your space and you didn´t wanted to be involved with their pranks.

“James, help me with my suitcase, will you?” You exclaimed, but your brother already made his way to the kitchen. By his moving pattern, you knew he was up to no good.

“Mom, don´t you and Dad usually spent the weekend at Cindy´s?” You couldn´t help but rolling your eyes at his comment. The last weekend before school begins; James´s house party.

Your parents knew he´d like to bring friends over at that weekend, they didn´t know about half of the school coming and the amount of beer and fire whisky.

“James?” You sighed, but your brother was pursuing his own goals.

“I´ll help you”, Sirius suddenly spoke up and hurried next to you. He took the suitcases without much effort and immediately started carrying them upstairs. On the stairs, you passed the Black boy to open the door to your room for him. Sirius noticed your swift movement and was reminded of James playing Quidditch. Clearly you both inherited that gene. Sirius put down the luggage and couldn´t help but eye your room with growing eyes. The high wooden ceiling, which was decorated with fairy lights and pictures and painting on the walls. You had a secret talent to be good at drawing and detailed sketches of plants, you had learned about in school, hung over your desk. Pictures of you and James at the age of toddlers and family portraits from Christmas. In one of them was even Sirius. You realized how he didn´t leave your room and eyed him warry as he starred at the pictures.

“I´ve never been to your room.”

“Don´t get used to it.” You heaved your suitcase up on your bed to start the sorting out process and Sirius turned away from the pictures, raising his eyebrow. “It´s my room.”

His eyes glided over the silk sheets of your bed and he couldn´t help but wonder, how you looked when waking up in the morning by rays of sunshine falling through the windows. Have you watched him playing Quidditch with James from those windows? Ever so slightly he shook his head to get rid of that thought. You´re James´s sister, he reminded himself.

There weren´t really rumors about you in school, unlike James´s reputation. But there was one thing Sirius knew all too well; you were not to mess with. What your brother inherited in talent, was put together with an almost deadly preciseness. He saw you battling a student in his year once, you won without even breaking a sweat.

“The new hair suits you”, he suddenly added before leaving your room and closing the door behind him. Your mother had pin pointed every single detail that had changed about you, but you´d never guessed that heartbreaker Sirius Black would comment on it…

 James Potter was awfully good at talking people into doing what he desired. And James Potter desired a more memorable house party each year, thanks his ego. Previously, you had spent the weekend at Sarah´s, but after an entire summer, you were left home as well. Against your own anticipation, you didn´t mind. Was it the fact, that you had partied and danced more the entire summer than anyone could imagine? Maybe.

“Y/n, you look out for James, don´t let him do stupid things!” Like a house party? Lingered on your tongue, but you smiled bitter sweet. “It´s hard to look out for somebody as stupid as James.”

Your mother wrinkled her eyebrows, but your dad let out a laughing grunt. “They´ll be fine”, he reassured your mother, before kissing you on top of your head and heading out.

“It´s hard to look out for somebody as stupid as James”, James voice filled the air while he imitated you. He and Sirius came down to the living room, a box of somewhat decorations in their hands.

James was everything but stupid, even though there were times, where you questioned his IQ. He took out old wine bottles with candles in them and packed away your mom´s favorite cutlery and vase. One thing less to worry.

“Tell me, Y/n, do the Spain kiss good?” He continued to mock you.

“Better than the British”, you answered sweetly. A sour taste spread in Sirius mouth, but James pressed his jaw together. He hadn´t expected the answer from you, his sweet innocent little sister.

“Should I worry about you tonight?” He asked a little more serious now, but you ruffled through his precious locks. “Why? Afraid I´ll crash your party?”

“Who are you and what have you done to my baby sister?” He yelled after you, while you left the room to go upstairs, chuckling.

The marauders were first to arrive; Moony, Wormtail and obviously Padfoot and Prongs himself. Remus also brought Lily Evans, your brother´s secret, not so secretly girlfriend. You watched as they arrived one by one from the window at your desk. The golden boy and his gang, all complete.

The past few days, you had taken your time to do whatever you pleased. Your mother didn´t force any of you to have breakfast or lunch together, due to the fact that you all had different sleeping patterns. You had spent it at your desk, getting ready for school, journaling about your holidays, sorting out pictures and old clothes. In the garden helping your mother put together bouquets of flowers or riding your bike around your favorite trails and sceneries. Really you hadn´t seen much of your brother or Sirius.

You took your time getting ready, the Marauder´s already starting off with drinking. You had invited Sarah and when you saw her and her older sister, who was in James´s year, arriving, you finally made your way downstairs. James, Sirius and Remus were grouped around the kitchen aisle, debating sport games with three more guys from Gryffindor. Matt Atkins, Hogwarts second bad boy after Sirius, eyes suddenly grew big as he ran dry. His remarkably sharp jaw fell down and his mouth open. “Who is she?”

You casually strolled down the stairs, even wearing some strapped heels together with a new dress from Spain. A rather hard punch let Matt yelp, James annoyed eyes bringing him to his knees. “That´s my sister”, he muttered with his teeth grinding.

The golden boy was about to be pushed from his throne by his own sister.

You gave the group of boys a knowing smirk before welcoming Sarah, who was glowing with the same tan as you. “Seems like Spain has been muy beneficioso per nos.”

Your laughter filled the air, as not only the marauder but also several other male creatures watched the two of you chat. “How´s Gabriel?” You asked her instead and Sarah blushed. Her apparent summer fling had made it clear, that his feelings were a little stronger than just a fling.

“He wrote me a letter with a poem”, she blushed. Before continuing the topic, a boy joined the two of you. “Ladies, can I get you something to drink?”

James was quick to appear next to you, a sudden wave of protectiveness had overcome him. “She´s my sister and she doesn´t drink.”

“Yes, yes she does.”

Lily, who had joined her boyfriend, snickered at your response. James watched you wide eyed, as did the boy, walking to the kitchen with Sarah after dropping the comment; “Not from you though.”

Sirius, who´s blood alcohol level was already high enough, started smirking as you approached. The feelings he had pushed back and buried, arose in him.

“Y/n, care for a drink?” “Yes, Black, I do.”

As he fished two cups for you and Sarah, the group starred at you. Matt Atkins was first to speak up again. His initial shock about Sirius approaching you, was put back after he remembered that he lived with you and James now. Remus and Peter watched the scene, secretly exchanging a bet of how quickly you would decline Atkins.

“So, Y/n, tell me how was Spain?”

You leaned on the counter top, a trick that had earned you free drinks in bars before, and smiled.

“Hot.”

Sirius passed you the cups and you nodded thanking. His senses tingled, an explosion rushing through his veins. He wasn´t to construe it the past few days, but drunk words are sober thoughts and Sirius´s attraction towards you, grew with each second. Peter slid the money to Remus, Matt Atkins had no chance.

The party continued into the evening and quickly into the night. You were sure that at least 50 people were there, with a few outside maybe more. James, who didn´t enjoy himself as much as he´d like to, was also too stubborn to admit it. You didn´t like how he watched, almost babysitted you, lingering ready to scare away any potential boy flirting. It was until Lily finally swept in and took his mind off you.

Outside remained a small bonfire, which was coming to an end, but you still decided to catch some fresh air. You had more cups than your brother knew about, but he was kissing Lily in the corner and didn´t realize your slight staggering.

James wasn´t stupid, but stupid enough to completely miss the fact that his own best friend was falling in love with you. And he was following you outside.

“Y/n Potter, you surprise me.” Sirius voice was low and a little rough, which was explained as he pulled out a cigarette. You took another sip of who knew what mixture and smiled innocently at him. “Why´s that, Black?”

You never called him Black before, until this summer. An unconscious defense mechanism.

It had taken Sirius five days after your initial arrival to realize that he´d liked you way more than he should and now there was no turning back. He was acting on pure instinct now and so did you. But your instinct told you, that Sirius Black was a heartbreaker.

“What do want, Black?” You asked whispering as he slowly came closer, his hand reaching up to tuck back strands of your hair. This was dangerous, but you liked playing with fire. “You.”

Your laugh was bitter.

“We're nothing more than friends. You're not my lover, more like a brother. I´ve known you since we were like ten.”

You left him behind in the approaching cold from the night and the dying fire. Sirius cursed at himself and ruffled through his hand. “Fuck!”

How could he have been so stupid? You were his best friend´s sister! You were James´s sister! Of course, you didn´t see him in any romantic way and now he not only embarrassed himself to the bone, but probably ruined any kind of friendship with you. He threw the leftover cigarette into the fire, there was only one solution left; alcohol.

 Don't mess it up, talking that shit

Only gonna push me away, that's it!

When you say you love me, that make me crazy

Here we go again

 Sirius Black was astonishing good in hiding feelings and even better at drowning them. At least for the next hour or so. That was until the music box suddenly played a Spanish song with a typical reggae beat and laughing, you pulled Sarah onto the dancefloor in the middle of the living room. Oh, how you had learned to swing your hips at the rhythm.

James was burning in fury and he wanted to punch every single pair of eyes laying on your figure. Luckily, he couldn´t and much too quick for your dismay, the song ended. The room echoed in applause and howlers, and giggling you left the stage with Sarah. The two of you were used to being drunk together and lazily you found your seat on the bathroom floor.

“James isss going to kill youuuu”, Sarah laughed as she not so gracefully, kneeled onto the floor. It didn´t help that after you sat down at the brim of the bathtub, fell over crackling.

“Oh my god!” Sarah suddenly exclaimed startled. You leaned forward surprised, legs still hanging over the brim. “What?”

“We don´t have anything to drink anymoreeee! I´ll be back in a second, just stay here!”

You leaned back, head against the wall, softly humming in response. “I don´t even think I´m able to leave, I´ll wait!” For a few seconds, you closed your eyes; enjoying the buzz of the liquor and the music in the background. You heard the door open and close again.

“Merlin Sarah, you´re flying when it comes to-.“ It wasn´t Sarah, it was Sirius. You eyed him with furrowed brows. “Did you at least get me something to drink?”

He had a cup in his hands and eyed it, pondering to give it to you, or drink it himself. But you leaned forward, grabbing his arm and then snatching the drink from his fingers. He found himself starring into your big eyes, not wanting to look away.

“Don´t you have enough boys outside to bring you drinks?” He asked and you shrugged while taking a big sip. “But you´re here, aren´t you?” The sentence made his heart beat quicker.

“Don't go look at me with that look in your eye”, you then added and avoided his glance again.

“Why not?”

“You know why, but apparently you really ain't going away without a fight.”

He suddenly turned to you, pushing one of his hands against the wall, the other one trailing down to your neck. His fingers brushed against your skin and you felt goosebumps crawling down your spin. He was leaning, yes hovering above you and his eyes wandered back and forth from your eyes to your lips. Stubbornly, you looked up to him.

“You can't be reasoned with, I'm done being polite. Haven't I made it obvious?” You pushed yourself a little up from the bathtub, your face only inches away. But the look on your face was stern and certain. “Haven't I made it clear? Want me to spell it out for you?

F-R-I-E-N-D-S”

Sarah pushed open the door and rolled her eyes, she had obviously noticed the boy´s attention towards you. “Back off, Black.”

Sirius was caught off guard by her, which gave you space and time to pull yourself out of the tub, leaving him sitting there.

 The night only slowly continued after your clashing in the bathroom. Remus watched his friend with plaintive eyes. He had realized the silence and even more oblivious, his sad stares into your direction. It wasn´t hard to guess really, but he understood his reticent mood. You were his best friends’ little sister and he knew, James would kill for you. If anyone were to break your heart and if that anyone was Sirius, the friendship could be over.

On the other hand, there was one thing Remus knew, Sirius had never acted like this around a girl.

“You shouldn’t give up yet.” Sirius glanced back at him and rolled his eyes.

“She´s sees me as a friend, I´m like a brother to her.”

“You don´t dance like this in front of your friend. Y/n and James both know how to get the things they want. It´s probably a family disorder”, Remus chuckled. But he became stern again, laying a hand on his friend´s back. “She´s playing with you, you know it. And I have to admit, she plays better than you, Padfoot. You liked this girl way before, before the summer, before she started flirting with you today.”

“I didn´t-“

“Yes, you did. Or why did you stress out about getting her a Christmas and birthday gift every year since knowing James? Why did it bother both you and James, about Kevin making that remark last year? You broke his nose, in case you forgot.”

Remus was right, he was way too often for Sirius taste. He liked you more than a friend from the second he laid eyes on you. He swore himself to protect you, but now he was the endangerment of hurting you and it scared him.

People left the party; it was past 3.a.m. and Lily started putting away empty cups. He knew Sarah would sleep at the Potter house tonight and just in second, he caught sight of you carrying a blanket upstairs. “You´re the best, Moony and I hate you for it.”

He hurried up the stairs and caught you just in front of your room.

“Y/n, wait!”

You sighed heavily. “Sirius, I´m tired and Sarah´s laying on my bathroom floor throwing up.”

He tried to remember every formal etiquette ever taught to him while establishing and taking together his bravery. Hundreds, yes thousands of pranks and yet, he never had been this nervous. You eyed him wary. “Have you got no shame? You looking insane. Here we go again.”

“I´m sorry for acting like a dick.”

The apology took you a step back, surprised.

“Don't go look at me with that look in your eye.”

His tongue brushed against his lip. “Why not, Y/n? Afraid to admit it?”

“For Merlin´s Sake, get that shit inside your head, Sirius! We´re just friends.”

His hand lingered on the wall to your back. It was the second time he had encircled you, but this time around, you didn´t see an outlet. Maybe you didn´t want one either. You felt his breath tingling against your skin and against your anticipation, the scene felt intimate and fragile to you.

“I like you, Y/n. I´ve liked you for a while now and I suppressed it. You´re right, I´m heartbreaker, and I knew, if I was to break yours, I wouldn´t be able to live with myself.”

You felt your shaky breathing, the dim light coming from downstairs barely gave enough away.

“You made it obvious. You made it very clear. But I wanted- needed you to know this; you were and never will be just a friend to me.” He gulped, lowering his glance.

“And I´m sorry, if that´s going to push you away.”

You dropped the blanket to the ground, throwing your hands around his neck and pulling him down. The kiss was passionate, but dripping like honey; sweet and slowly. His hands grabbed your waist and you inhaled his deep musky scent.

You leaned away from him with caution, sighing. “Sarah´s vomiting and I´m making out, I´m a terrible friend.” Sirius chuckled lowly, his nose brushing against yours again.

“I´m glad we´re more than friends then.”

[thepropertylovers]

The Living Room Floor at Holiday House is In!!

This post is sponsored by our friends at LL Flooring and ShopStyle Collective. All thoughts and opinions are our own. Thank you for supporting the brands that we love and trust. Also, be sure to check out our promo code at the end of this post!!!

Is it not always the best feeling ever to cross something off a to-do list? Especially when that list is over a year in the making?

When we bought Holiday House (the small cottage on our farm) a year ago, we made a commitment to work on the house in sections so that 1. We didn’t get overwhelmed too easily by all that had to be done, and 2. So we could take our time planning it out and get everything just right. This is going to be our home away from home when we stay at the farm, meaning every decision has to be made as if it were for our main residence.

We demoed the kitchen earlier this year by taking down a few walls, ripping up the vinyl floors and painting the subfloor for a prettier temporary solution. But other than that and painting the living room walls, we haven’t really done much else to the house. PJ took a break from working on it while he turned his attention to our flip house in town, but after a summer of working on the pavilion on the farm and the pond for what seems like nonstop, we decided to resume working on Holiday House. When progress starts happening, that usually gets us in the mood to keep the momentum going.

We’ve never shared this photo before, but this is what the living room looked like right before we bought the house, complete with laminate flooring that had seen better days:

And this is what it looked like after we bought it and moved a few things in:

Because the living room is the first room you walk in to, we wanted to start there when we started the renovation up again. I mentioned how we wanted to get all of the design choices just right to create a serene and comfortable environment for our family to stay in, which meant choosing just the right floor. When we bought it, the house was a mix of laminate, vinyl, and carpet. We knew before we even bought it that we would be replacing the floors, but the question that kept looming in our minds was: what do we go with? Do we go light? Do we go dark? Do we do laminate again because it’s easy to keep clean or do we do hardwood?

Enter LL Flooring. They have so many different flooring options for every style of home, so once we narrowed down what we wanted, it was just a matter of choosing the finish. The house is meant to be a relaxing, cozy retreat, so we wanted a floor that was warm and comfortable and maybe most important: that was easy to keep clean. The house is on a farm and the kids will be going in and out nonstop, dragging in mud and who knows what else. Enough said.

What we love about LL Flooring is that they are truly there for their customers and they work with you for the entire project, from inspiration to installation, to transform your space into something you love with floors that are perfect for your project. Selecting our floors turned out to be easier than we thought because their selection is so vast and their service is amazingly easy. LL Flooring offers quality flooring at a great price and I mean, can you really ask for more? 

We narrowed our search down to two options: the 9/16 in. Rattan Maple Engineered Hardwood Flooring 7.5 in. Wide, and the 5/8 in. Prague White Oak Engineered Hardwood Flooring 7.5 in. Wide. We love the wider plank to help make the house feel older than it is (also, wide plank floors allow even more space for the beautiful, natural wood grain to come through and can make your room feel larger) and we went with engineered hardwood because it will hold up better with the way the house was built and won’t bow or buckle over time.

Prague White Oak:

Rattan Maple:

The two options are pretty different from one another. The Prague White Oak is light, fresh and somewhat modern. It feels airy and beautiful, like a true “vacation” home (which is what we’ve always thought of Holiday House).

The Rattan Maple, on the other hand, is darker, warmer and feels…earthier. Does that make sense? It has an older charm about it to me, like it would fit right in in a house that was built a hundred years ago. We want Holiday House to feel like a cottage that’s been on our farm forever; a cozy refuge to hibernate in during the winter and a relaxing escape during the summer.

After going back and forth for a while, we enthusiastically decided on the Rattan Maple! It just felt right for the house. Here’s how LL Flooring describes it on their website:

“Beauty as nature intended, Rattan Maple engineered hardwood is an inspirational starting point for the style of a room. The wide, toffee-hued boards feature dark knots and closed splits, pulling from the most popular trends in flooring. Its neutral color and rustic style bestow simplistic style and grace.”

We ordered it and in a week it was in, so we went to pick it up at LL Flooring in Chattanooga and they loaded it onto our trailer for us. After PJ and our friend Matt put the new windows in the living room, it was time to get started installing the floors. Finally! One more step towards completing this room.

We cleared the room and PJ got to work installing the floors, which was actually a super easy and quick process. The engineered hardwood snapped into place, each piece locking into one another for a beautiful, seamless look. In a few hours the floors were in and, how do I put this lightly…THEY ARE BEAUTIFUL AND WE ARE IN LOVE!!! Although PJ installed our floors, LL Flooring installations are done through their network of expert independent contractors, making the entire process from start to finish even easier.

We plan to put the Rattan Maple floors throughout the entire house, getting rid of the carpet that currently occupies the bedrooms. I think the floors will look stunning in the kitchen with the cabinet color we chose (that’s a whole other post for a different day).

Don’t the floors look so good with the vertical wood walls PJ put in? And see what I mean by “earthy”? The room feels raw and primitive, simple and elegant. The Rattan Maple is absolutely beautiful, especially in the afternoon when the sunlight is pouring in through the four picture windows. I can’t tell you how good, confident and excited we feel about these floors. We both feel like they were the perfect choice for Holiday House, complimenting so well the overall vision we have for this little cottage.

Now we just have to finished the rest of the house! We’re hoping to be finished with most of the rooms (ceilings, walls, floors, paint, and one day, new bathrooms) by the end of the year, as we would love to stay in Holiday House over the winter break. I’m not holding my breath, because life happens, but I’m hoping for the best.

In the meantime, you can find us staring adoringly at our brand new floors. It’s okay, you can stare, too :).

PS: use our promo code PropertyLovers5 for 5% off regularly priced products! Excludes Everyday Value. Full disclaimer: Applies to new orders placed from now until September 30, 2021. Cannot be applied towards existing orders or previous sales. Cannot be combined with any other discounts or coupons. One coupon per person per order. Coupon must be presented to store employee or entered into promo box and applied during online checkout at time of order. Coupon is not redeemable for cash. Void if altered, copied, transferred or sold. May not be applied toward installation services, freight, or taxes. Void where prohibited.

[orangenfrottee]

Hey ho there, feel free to ignore this and I hope I'm not bugging you as I awkwardly slide in here, but I must ask: if you had full creative control of the show, how would you run season 5? You can pick and choose whatever leaks you want to include.

Ah!!! Thank you for your ask <3 I might have spent a couple nights typing out my answer, but in short: I'd cherry pick old story arcs, bring back everyone I like and who doesn't run when they hear Riverdale's calling.

I'd definitely get some decent writers (I'm partial to Jane Espenson, but no idea if she'd be a good fit) and definitely some diversity. I might accidentally fire all men and then play up all their shitty recurring themes for fun as a weird inside joke between me and the show.

I think if they ever gave me creative control of the show it would swerf hard to the crazy and not leave that lane because honestly, i think that's what Riverdale does best.

So, where would I start...

Instead of giving season four a decent ending, I would start with an extra long pilot with the title 'previously on' where the best and most important bits of the teens' school lives is shown with a heavy focus on Jason and the Farm. Parallely, we get to see the lovestory of Chic and Charles. The episode ends with a few very short scenes of the prom where everyone's happy and pretty.

Then we'd start on the real season five. It's been seven years and our characters are older and more grown up.

The show would at first only present the present lifesbof our characters and the barest bones structure to keep as much a little mysterious as possible (but here I tell you what happened during timeskip, too).

Archie is often considered the main character, so let's start with him:

Archie went to the Army after school (though he didn't actually pass his exams and thus didn't graduate, Mr Honey was quite amused). On his most recent tour he met someone special: Eric, his new friend.

Archie was wounded in battle with a... giant mutated elephant with sharp teeth and hallucinogenic venom. Or something. He isn't really sure what happened, but he's got a huge new scar all over his torso. The abs stayed in tact, but oh his pride. During recovery he met new wheelchair user (and on occasion crutches) Eric who has trouble walking since his legs are misshapen/he only has one. Archie thinks Eric got maimed by the same elephant he was, but thinks it rude to ask.

For Eric I'm picturing Sabrina's Ambrose.

With his hurt pride, Archie can't stay with the military and decides to go back to Riverdale.

Eric doesn't have a place to go, so Archie invites him along.

They need a job and since Eric has a calendar full of sexy half naked firefighters AND since they both have abs, Archie decides that type of uniform is the perfect fit for them and trades his newly renovated and well running boxing gym against the old fire station Penelope Blossom owns. (Literally, they even meet at Pop's to exchange keys and sign papers Penelope brought that Archie doesn't even skim.)

The fire station is quite out of everything, but it has a huge pool Eric likes to swim in and a fire truck. To make ends meet Archie sells his sperm to the Greendale sperm bank.

Archie is of course in love with Eric but unfamiliar with the concept of bisexuality and struggles to identify his attraction for what it is. Eric is a foreigner to Riverdale (or is he?) and unfamiliar with the town's culture and quirks. Still, something going on in Sweetwater River seems to be related to him.

Archie and Eric share the Andrews' House - and in the house next door... live Gladys Jones and Polly Cooper!

After Jughead and Betty left for College Alice' horrid mom impulses settled on Jellybean who didn't stand back, grind her teeth and took it but instead broke Alice' teeth. Her and FP were not amused (though FP was also angry at Alice for being too strict). Alice moves out but stays as a journalist in town.

FP gets in trouble for being a brutal gang leader without a gang beating up criminals behind the boxing gym on tape. Not wanting to go to an illegal fighting club prison, he hides with Canadian Serpents behind the border. (Joaquin's identical twin brother and Ricky live there, too. They're happy there.)

Maybe he'd call once or twice with misleading wrong snake facts that have nothing to do with the current mystery of the episode but fit into perfectly by chance.

Jellybean was invited along, but she chose to stay because she thinks Riverdale is rad and the old Cooper House is luxurious as hell. Also, her mom came back to become the new Sheriff!

Nearly seven years in, Gladys still holds the position because no one legally qualified wants it and she manages to keep gang violence at an all time low for Riverdale. Plus, she and Mary Andrews are not exactly friends but able to work well together. When there's another serial killer running wild in town she has no problem with having another girlfriend of Mary who happens to be a skilled professional in the most relevant field take over for a bit. If needed, the Riverdale gangs are usually willing to add muscle to good causes, too.

Jellybean has left Riverdale for university and will only be present for holidays and breaks. She'd still be played by Trinity because I love her and honestly, real nineteen year olds look like fourteen year olds everywhere in the world. Also this gives the viewers 'Archie vision': he will always see his best friend's toddling baby sister in the young woman which makes her the only undatable (legal) female on this planet for him.

While attending Riverdale High she lead the Andrews Boxing Gym and made it the most successful gym in the area. It won't be a plot point in the show (apart from her being angry at Archie for just trading it against trash) but there will be framed newspaper articlesband the like in Gladys' house.

Around the time everyone graduated, Polly was released from Shady Grooves and is back to her old smart self - and really missing her babies! As Choni leave for whatever private college Blossom women have always gone to, Polly takes them and goes home - just to learn on the porch that not only did her mother sell her childhood home more than a year ago without anyone ever telling her, the college fund she never had gotten legal access to and planned to use for the twins is gone too and her sister left town without saying goodbye.

Gladys has always taken care of all the stray kids she found no matter how tight the budget was and now there's this young desolate mother with twin toddlers in front of her posh murder house she'd gotten for cheap and she has this new gig as sheriff. Of course, she takes them in.

They stay in Betty's old room at first, but they soon get to remodel the attic to give Polly her own room. At present, Dagwood has Polly/Chic/JB's old room and Juniper the one facing Archie's. (When Archie sees her in the room, he actually has a flashback once to when he and Betty used to be so young, but then Juniper turns her gead, stares at him really creepily and smiles weirdly. Archie will be somewhat scared from then onwards and be reminded of when everyone thought Polly might gave killed Jason. Juniper would murder.)

At first, Polly's a full time, stay at home mom, but once the kids are older, she starts working part-time: for Gladys.

It turns out they work amazing together. Gladys tends to jump to convenient conclusions and threatens violence way to freely. Also, she is intimidating as fuck.

Polly is everything she isn't: level headed (to a point, in comparison at least), brilliant at combining clues and steering people (remember how she infiltrated Thornhill and made Cheryl unknowingly assist in her snooping plans?). On top of that, she has these stepford smiles and all the ways to appear unthreatening drillend into her head. Honestly, she and Betty are quite alike. While Betty has the lockpicking skills and knows her way around cars, Polly used to be really into fashion (or something) and, with all her experiences at the Sisters, the Farm and Shady Groves, Polly knows psychology.

She started solving some of Gladys' cases at the breakfast table, but now she's officially a deputy or an advisor or something. They're essentially like FP and Jughead, just that Polly is an adult (and that she wouldn't be in a gang beating suspects up regularly).

(These characters would all be mostly in the background though.)

Veronica finally gained perspective on her relationship to her father and grew up. Hiram's cut out of her life for good. They won't ever interact. (In fact, Hiram either moved to New York or he had a minor traffic accident where he lost all of his memory for good and now lives as Ram Rod and works as a trainer at Penelope's newly acquired boxing gym. Everyone is confused about it but doesn't care to ask.)

Veronica is successful at whatever she's doing and doesn't plan on ever moving back to Riverdale, but maybe something is up at Pop's that requires her checking up on in person and she just happens to cross paths with Betty who is also just there for the weekend. And they haven't had quality time together for years, because it's so hard to stay in contact sometimes even with people you love so much you'd die to keep them safe.

If I could come up with something meaningful for them to catch up on emotionally, I'd have them sitting together in a booth at Pop's for a whole episode just talking (but I'm not that deep).

Veronica might be engaged, but we see it fall through without really getting to meet the guy. She mostly just talks to Betty about him on occasion but in a somewhat messed up way. Ultimately, she realises how she treats him in some regards like Hiram treated her and her mother. She wants to grow up further and not be like her father anymore. Since the fiance was only a trophy pawn, she breaks it off and concentrates on introspection/ maybe therapy for a bit.

Later that season her sister comes back and surprise: Hermosa embraced becoming Daddy.

(These would have to be restricted to two half episodes only, she definitely deserves story arcs that aren't about her dad.)

Careerwise: she has a couple businesses, maybe a restaurant chain or a franchise and she seems to collect startups. She reinvests a lot and has to travel quite a bit but can work remotely too.

Everyone seems to want FBI agent Betty and if I'd go that route I'd have her demask Charles as the fraude fake FBI who hires guns for hire and fake emergency teams while making up fantasy horror stories about serial killer genes to scare his biological family into killing each other that I wholeheartedly believe he is. But I also like Betty's interest in mechanics and would love for her to have a career in mechanical engineering. Maybe she switched majors at uni and now works for a company developing prosthetics. Maybe she tries to get Eric into joining a study. (I mean, prosthetic legs would help his work as a fire fighter...).

She's in town to visit Polly and the twins but after talking to Veronica she spontaneously stays in town. She can do her work remotely, really. The two of them move into a two bedroom 'shared bnb' (or whatever it was called in season two) and we finally get to see their friendship on screen.

Betty isn't in a relationship at the moment abd she's so into her work, she isn't looking for one either.

Jughead had broken up with Betty seven years ago and never really had a well working relationship after. He's grown obsessed with finding a way to recreate what he had with Betty.

Not in a totally creepy psycho way, he's simply not understanding that he might be sex positive and he had been in love with Betty, but he is ace and quite aro, too. It doesn't help, that he finds people sexually attractive on their online profiles just to be repulsed by the tought of even kissing them goodbye in person.

(I don't think tv is generally a fitting medium for this, but I guess he can narrate for himself and make it work.)

I guess he has to be an author. Obsessed as he is about finding love again (he wouldn't call it like that) he figures it had either been the location or the constant fear for his life. He chooses to return to Riverdale. He probably instantly moves with everything he owns to Riverdale (not that it's much beside a modern laptop, the typewriter and his camera).

Archie gives the great advice how Jughead is obviously still innlove with Betty, duh.

He of course runs into Betty some day, they end up investigating some random murder together and find themselves in familiar positions and kiss - but it just isn't there anymore. Jughead feels nothing and Betty isn't really into it either.

Veronica later points him in the direction of maybe not being allo (because she used to question herself as aro).

Funfact: Jughead would have failed graduation with Archie if Mr Honey didn't forge some records that weren't actually submitted from Stonewall (they claim all records were deleted during a power outage). Jughead knows and is deeply shamed.

Thornhill has been renovated! Toni is pregnant! Choni will be raising their kids (surprise, it's going to be twins!) in Cheryl's ancestral home. Choni are married and happy.

Toni has reopened the White Worm with Fangs somewhere at the Southside and yes, let's make her the official Serpent Queen. Let her work lots of social causes (remember toys for tots?), grey area rule bending for good and of course she works well with Gladys. I've seen talk about her being a social worker floating around and honestly, I think that works amazing. She's working the local cases (and a few unofficial ones) and I think she and Cheryl are registered foster parents. On occasion (like once) they'd be shown taking care of a random kid.

Cheryl used her College time to study two things: business and Riverdale town history. Remember how in season two she took so much pride in her ancestors because she believed them to be good people? She might be disillusioned but she is the Blossom heiress and her and Toni's as well as Jason's kids will one day inherit a better family legacy. She'll invest in Southside rebuilding projects, advocate for new town memorials, maybe rebrand some of the Blossom product lines. Something like that

She won't run for mayor yet, but she's definitely invested in (local) politics.

Of course the pregnancy was with artificial insemination, the donor was either an unsuspecting red head from the Greendale Sperm Bank or they use some of Jason's that has surly been saved to guarantee the Blossom line when everywhere was scary talk about sperm counts going down due to mobile phones.

In addition: the maple factories need worker bees! Cheryl has a few programs with Toni to get Serpents/random Riverdalians newly released from prison or just with bad luck into a steady job and a cushy appartement overlooking the ex prison on the Southside. Pop's is also participating. Ethel works as a landlady for said appartement complex.

Also, why not add a second Blossom-Topaz lovestory to underline this incest-adjacent show and bring back Toni's grandpa and set him up with Nana Blossom. XD

Then during this season's arc, the Blossom uncle's corpse will be found in the river and the mistery is whether the FBI will figure out who the corpse us and what happened or not.

I love Reggie. Since Varchie is unlikely thanks to Eric, him and Veronica rekindling their relationship would definitely be a possibility I'm into, but he also seems to have an interesting connection with Kevin and Fangs that could be built on.

He would definitely have a car he'd love very much and I think it would still be Bella.

I'm not sure about his career, but it wouldn't include his father's car dealership. Maybe he'd be a successful movie star just in town between movie shootings.

Kevin was doing something with musicals on Katy Keene, I think? Writing or directing? He was trying to nake it big, but some plans fell through. Now he's back in Riverdale. Luckily, they are just about to open Riverdale's first theater in the relatively newly built but forever closed prison. Next to the Southside Theater the complex holds a mall and the White Worm.

Fangs works full time as the manager of the WW that he co-owns with Toni. He meets Kevin again once he's back in town.

Sweet-Pea somehow ended up as a junior doctor at the Riverdale hospital. He spends all of his scarce free time at the WW.

Some of the background Pretty Poisons officially work for the police now. Different than Gladys, they are actually ccccc for the positions they hold.

Peaches works as a manager for one of Cheryl's companies. She's happily married and has a kid (or something).

How long in prison do you get in the US for standing in as the head figure of a crazy pen and paper cult that has literal murders committed in his name? As a blond white dude probably just parole? So honestly, once they actually bring his case to court (and they have nothing against him because anyone could have been under the mask at any one time and people know of different gargoyle kings) he's released of all charges. No one in Riverdale actually knows though since his case took forever, Bughead had already left Riverdale and Alice didn't step up to follow the case. No one wrote about it, so no one knows. They just assume that of course the guy will be locked away forever, he's guilty.

In reality, he and Charles have bought a house somewhere in a different street of Riverdale where they aren't quite known and have adopted a couple kids.

Charles meets Alice regularly for lunch and she thinks he's this workaholic FBI agent only living for solving crime. They play a long con game I don't know the goal of.

(They have been behind the tapes even if that storyline gets totally ignored. They pretend FP being in exile is their doing, but the tape responsible was just a random security camera in the area.)

Josie's plans in New York sadly fell through (I haven't seen any Katy Keene but I want her back)

Lot's of bonding scenes with her brother Kevin who's also back in town. The two share a flat and on occasion burst into song together. Since I've already invented the Southside Theater, maybe she'd find a job there, too.

Val and Melody stayed in Riverdale aftee highschool and made careers in town for themselves. Maybe Melody at city hall and Val as a marketing specialist at the farm, Riverdale's most outstanding new grocery mart. Half of all Riverdalians don't get the controversy of the name, the others either think it's brilliant or tasteless. (Kevin for example has repressed the nemories so gard, he doesn't get it. Josie is very protective and angry at Val for working there.) The store belongs to the eccentric redhaired Eva Everafter or whatever pseudonym Evelyn can come up with to thinly hide her identity behind.

Somewhere in it I'd throw in a few lines vaguely referencing older happenings like "I still can't drink tap water" and the very first time Veronica sees Archie again after seven years she identifies him through his ab muscles.

So in short: Archie would be very dumb, everyone else is just there.

Also: Pop's would serve 50% vegan burgers and milkshakes so I could dig in with gusto.

[cutiepisenpai]

Dear Stranger Series Ch. 9: House Hunters(Spencer Reid x Female OC)

Masterlist

Warnings: mone just fluff

“Ok, so what do you think about this one.” Spencer says, showing her the webpage  for a house in Woodbridge. From the look on her face he can already tell she does not like this house. “What’s wrong with this one?” He asks. “Did you actually look at the photos? Or just the specs of the house?” Melinda starts by saying, “There is so much wrong with that house and you don't want to renovate. Like look at that kitchen it is atrocious and none of the woods match.” This had been going on for three months, having completely different ideals for the perfect home was making the search that much harder. Spencer wanted a historical house which Melinda was ok with but she wanted the interior to be updated, stating no one wants to live in a haunted house. “Yes I looked at the photos and it looks fine, it’s a part of the history. There are too many ways home renovations can go wrong.” Spencer says. This has been the ongoing argument, having already made their compromises it was just finding a house that had what they were looking for. “Okay, how about this one.” He says showing her a new construction with a historic look but being completely upgraded on the outside. He looks over to see her blank stare followed by an eye roll. “What is wrong with this one?!” He says in a huff. “Really? I know you do not like this house, like at all. I don’t want to just compromise and pick a house. I want us both to like it. It’s not just a house it's a home.” She says cuddling closer. They decide to take a break for now opting to just cuddle and talk,

Several days later on the plane ride home from a case the team is relaxed and just making random conversation. Spencer who had been fixated on the book in his hand turns to Melinda, “Are we going to your place or mine?” Before Melinda can answer Emily interjects, “Wait, you two don’t live together?” “No.” They say in unison. Neither of their apartments had the space to consolidate all their stuff so they continued to go to each other’s apartment. With how much stuff had moved between their homes aside from the furniture you wouldn’t know they didn’t live together. “But aren’t you like always together? Outside of work I just assumed you were attached at the ya know.” Emily says gesturing. “Well we are always together. Sometimes we stay at Mel’s some days we stay at my place.” Spencer says. “Are you waiting until after the wedding to move in?” JJ joins the conversation. “No, we’ve been looking for a house but haven’t found anything that will work yet.” Melinda says, looking to Spencer, “Maybe we should look into getting a realtor to help.” “ We have a combined IQ of 370 we can figure this out on our own.” Spencer responds, he didn’t want to have anyone else get involved they can do this on their own. “I think if IQ alone was enough, we would have found something by now.” “Fine we can try a realtor but when this doesn’t work we go back to just us and we finally make a decision.” 

A week and a half later Melinda and Spencer are getting ready to go with the realtor they chose and look at some of the options she had found for them. The first house they see in Woodbridge VA is a nice upgraded everything Melinda could ask for. Spencer did not like it at all; it had no charm to it. “It has carpet, you said no to carpet it traps dust mites,pet dander, particle pollution, lead, mold spores, pesticides, dirt and dust. Some chemicals they use in padding and adhesives also have potential health harm.” Spencer says trying to talk Melinda out of liking the house. “Yes I know carpet is horrible disgusting. Stop worrying I am not in love with this house.” Melinda says with a smile. “Do you not love it because of the carpet or is there something else?” “Well the carpet is a definite problem and you don’t like it. And that is not safe.” She says pointing out of the window. Outside the window past the desk there is a small yard  but no fence there were stairs leading through a wooded area and to a creek. Spencer missed that, how did he miss that. The next house they see is in Springfield, pulling into the driveway both of them already disliked the house.  Walking inside and everything about this house screams no. “The cabinets have scalloped bottoms.” Melinda whispers to Spencer. “There is nowhere for an office or to put any of our books.” Spencer whispers back. Deciding to end this misery early they let the realtor know this would not work at all. The last house she takes them to see is a 1890’s Historic Farm House in Falls Church. It was a beautiful historic home renovated and restored. It was the perfect home for them. Spencer was impressed but Melinda is quiet and he doesn’t know what she is thinking. Walking behind her wrapping his arms around her waist placing his chin in the crook in her neck. “What are you thinking?” she hums before answering,” It’s nice.. Amazing actually.” “ So should we put in the offer?” “If you let me change the back splash in the kitchen I’d say it was perfect.” Kissing her cheek, “Ok you can change the back splash. So we’re making an offer.” She nods in agreement. After telling the realtor of the decision as they are walking to their car Spencer turns and says, “You know that house actually has 2 more bedrooms then we originally asked for so maybe I can talk you into potentially two more kids than we planned for in our future.” 

[iwillhaveamoonbase]

Replay ch. 1

Did I start yet ANOTHER AU?  Yes, I did.   Callum, Ezran, Soren, and Claudia run a popular YouTube channel while Rayla is a lawyer that Callum asks to model for him. Plans for the fic to be rated E down the line.

--------------------------------------------

Callum smiled as he sat in front of the camera, Ezran, Soren and Claudia to his side.  “Hello, everyone and welcome to the first video of our new channel.  My name is Callum Evans.”

“I’m Ezran Williams.”

“Soren Ricci,” Soren winked at the camera.

“And I’m Claudia Ricci.”

Callum nodded.  “And we are going to be trying spicy snacks.” Soren and Claudia immediately paled. “We saw the video the Try Guys did and me and Ezran said ‘there’s no way half of that is that hot.’”

“Nope,” Ezran shook his head.

“And I know what you’re thinking, ‘what do you four know about spice?’  Well, first, Ezran and I are actually half-siblings.  Our mom and aunt are half-Thai and half-Korean, and if you know anything about Thai or Korean food, it’s really spicy.  My dad was mostly German and Irish, but he spent a lot of summers in India and the Sichuan area of China due to his parents’ work as translators.  So, there’s that spicy food again.”

“And my dad is half-Jamaican and half-African-American.  If you’ve never had Jamaican food, it uses a lot of herbs and spices to make everything on the flavor profile.  My grandmother, in connecting to her roots, started getting really into traditional African cuisine which tends to involve a lot of chili and warming spices.  Also, our aunt is married to a lovely woman from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, so we’ve had lot of Congolese cooking as well. The ultimate comfort food in our house is probably a West African spicy peanut soup.”

“If you’ve never had it, go make some right now,” Callum nodded.

Soren gulped.  “Claudia and I are terrible with spicy food.  I am also mildly lactose intolerant so I really hope there is no cheese here.”

“Hate it,” Claudia said. “I like a good cake or ice cream.”

“Clauds is super into dessert.”

Ezran smiled.  “As am I.  My favorite flavor profile is sweet.  I got our mom’s sweet tooth.  While Callum’s got a thing for spice.”

Callum nodded.  “My step-dad, Ezran’s dad, not only grew-up on Jamaican and traditional African dishes, he also grew-up with Brazilian neighbors who would bring traditional Brazilian barbeque, called churrasco, to all the neighborhood cook-outs.  Well, let’s stop talking about it.  Let’s get down to this.  We have all ten items the Try Guys used-”

Claudia gasped.  “Please tell me you didn’t get those rock candies!?”

“Of course, I did!” Callum set all the items on the table in the box he had put them before pulling out the candies.

Soren groaned.  “NOOO. We’re gonna die.”

Ezran sniffed.  “No, it’s a psychological thing where your brain is saying it’s on fire.”

“That doesn’t make it better.”

Callum smiled.  “Let’s do this!  First,” Callum took out the Cheetos, “Flaming Hot Cheetos.  The Try Guys didn’t use the chili lime ones, which I find a shame, because there’s more flavor in those even though they aren’t quite as spicy.”

“I agree,” Ezran said as he opened the bag.  “Chili lime is a classic flavor combination.  Put it on mango and I am pretty happy.”  The bag was passed and they all tried one.  “Not spicy at all.”

Callum ate another.  “Nope.  They’re good, but there’s no real heat there.”

Soren groaned.  “This is perfect for me.  It’s got a bit of heat, but it’s not overwhelming.”

Claudia nodded.  “I agree.  I don’t want to go hotter.”

Callum shook his head. “For those of you who are wondering, Soren and Claudia are siblings and childhood friends of me and Ezran.  Their dad and our dad are best friends.  But, when they come over for dinner, our family has to seriously downgrade the spice level or else these two freak out.”

“And,” Ezran interrupted, “when we go to their place, we have to bring our own hot sauce.  Well, that’s mostly Callum.  He carries hot sauce in his bag.”

“That’s because mango chutney doesn’t travel well.”

“See, mango chutney is almost going into too hot territory for me.  At least, the brand Callum buys is.”

“That’s because I buy authentic and get it shipped directly from a company that makes traditional chutneys here in the States.  Next snack; Takis Fuego.”  Callum held up the bag.  “This time, we got the chili lime!”

“Chili lime!” Ezran pumped both his arms up.

Callum opened the bag and took one, passing it to Ezran before moving it on to Soren and Claudia. “What I taste most is that lime flavor, which is fine with me.  I want it hotter, but I love lime, so I’m not complaining.”

“It’s not bad,” Claudia affirmed.  “I actually do like this.  Like you said, that lime is what’s really hitting, but the spicy is there.”

Ezran hummed.  “Can I have the rest of the bag when we’re done?”

“Sure.”

Soren blinked a bit.  “I think it’s spicier than you guys are giving it credit, but it’s pretty good.  I would take that lime flavor over the chili.”

“It adds to it Soren.”

“Chili is pain!”

“Life is pain!” Callum retorted.

Claudia rolled her eyes. “Not another ‘Princess Bride’ reference. You watched it once and you wouldn’t stop quoting it.”

“Inconceivable.”

Ezran raised a brow.  “‘You keep using that word.  I do not think it means what you think it means.’”  Callum laughed, high-fiving Ezran as Soren and Claudia watched on.  

“Nerds,” Claudia and Soren sang out.

“Proud of it,” came Ezran and Callum’s reply.

“OK,” Ezran said.  “What’s next?”

Callum looked at his notes. “Pulparindo!  Tamarind candy.”  Callum handed each of them their own packet.  “It’s kind of like a fruit leather.”

They went through all the snacks, Soren and Claudia progressively begging for milk as they went. “MILK!” Soren gasped on the Carolina Reaper jerky.

“You’re lactose intolerant, Soren,” Claudia coughed.

“MILDLY.”

“You guys got soy milk?”

Callum nodded.  “I keep some in the fridge in case Aunt Amaya comes over.”  Soren ran for the fridge in Callum’s house.  They weren’t planning on saying anything if the channel continued, but they were currently in Callum’s father’s childhood home.  His grandparents rented it out to him for school because they had moved into a retirement community.  He had completely renovated it and now had this room designed just for these videos.  “You OK, Soren?  We’ve got one last item, the Sonoran Spice Company’s Carolina Reaper Pebbles.”

“NOOOOO!” came Soren’s scream from the kitchen.

Ezran started laughing, taking a handful of the leftover Takis.  “Come on, Soren!  You’ve come this far.”

Claudia looked close to sobbing as she looked at the snacks on the table.  “It’s so hot.  I can’t taste my own tongue.”

“You can’t taste your tongue, Clauds.”

“SHUT UP.”  

Ezran laughed at the two as Callum snuck a few Takis for himself.  “For those of you at home, there is no denying that that jerky is hot. Callum and I just crave the heat while Soren and Claudia do not.”

Soren finally came back, sighing as he looked at the camera.  “I’m gonna die.”

Callum opened the candy, pouring a few into his hands and passing it over to the others.  Ezran took more while Soren and Claudia each only took two. “That’s all you want?” Callum asked.

“YES,” came the combined response from Soren and Claudia.  The four put it in their mouths together.  Immediately, Soren and Claudia freaked out, reaching for the white bread Callum had brought them earlier.  Callum and Ezran coughed a bit, but, for the most part, they had built up a tolerance that didn’t make it as painful as if they had gone right to the candy.

Ezran nodded.  “It’s hot.  No denying it.  But, I think the jerky was hotter.”

Callum nodded as well. “No doubt, jerky was a bit hotter. But I picked the candy last because of how the Try Guys reacted to it.  I was wondering if maybe it was the hottest thing.”

“It’s too hot,” Claudia said around a mouthful of bread.  “It’s like torture.”  Soren whimpered in response, gulping more of his soy milk.

“Well, I guess that’s all the time we got.  Please subscribe to our channel as we continue to, most likely, eat food or, maybe just do whatever we want.  ‘Til next time.”

Soren turned to Callum. “Why do you get to do the sign-off?”

“Because this was my idea.”

“You almost killed me!”

--------------------------------

Rayla snorted as she walked into the cheese shop with her coworkers.  Maybe it was Runaan’s influence, but she was a bit of a cheese snob. Scottish food was mostly friend, but Runaan had grown up in England and spent a few years in France, leading to strong feelings about what made a good cheese, but she had not been impressed with any of the cheeses her coworkers considered ‘good.’  “I’m telling you, you have to go to an actual cheesemonger. The grocery is not good enough. At least go to a delicatessen.”

“Rayla, we’re lawyers. We don’t have time to go to a cheesemonger and have them select a variety of cheeses for us.”

“We do blue sky, fraud. We have time.”  Rayla walked in, making sure her suit was still well-pressed. She didn’t like a wrinkled suit when she paid good money to get it dry-cleaned.  When they looked around, they saw a group of four at a table, several cameras around them and a few people also there.  Her cheesemonger, Marcos, was talking to them.  She saw a jar of one of her favorites, Meredith Dairy Marinated Goat, on the table.  “The kind they have on the table?  It’s really good.  Spreads amazingly on bread.”

One of the guys at the table, a young man with green eyes looked over and did a double-take.  She made eye contact, slightly startled by just how green his eyes were.  The rest of the table looked over at the group, a few jaws hanging open.  Marcos smiled over at her, walking over.  “Rayla!  Sorry, we’re filming a video right now.  Did you want to get your usual?”

“That’ll work.  I was hoping to convert my coworkers to actual decent cheese because if I went to one more office party where someone brought an unaged cheddar and no other options, I was going to lose my mind.”

“Got it.  Let me go get that cheese for you.”

Rayla’s coworker raised a brow.  “Now what?”

“We go back to the office and try it.  Because once it gets home, it’s not leaving my apartment unless it’s part of my lunch.” Rayla walked around the shop, ignoring the video going on until she heard some hissing.  She turned her head, making eye contact with the boy from before again.  He gulped, walking forward.  Out of the corner of her eye, she saw one of her coworkers, Kasef, glare at him.  “Back off, Kasef,” she muttered to herself.

“Hey,” the guy stuttered a bit as he made it to her.

“Hello,” she answered. His eyes went wider, probably at her distinctly Scottish accent.  “Yes, my accent is real.  I grew up in Aberdeen, Scotland.  Can I help you?”

The boy flushed.  “Yes, actually.  My name is Callum Evans.  I’m an artist and I would love to paint you.”

Rayla tilted her head. It was a unique come-on.  “What’s that video your doing?  Art?”

“YouTube.  It’s a thing I do with my brother and my childhood friends. Being an artist isn’t the most lucrative thing if you don’t do graphic design.  I do commissions and try to sell my art, but there’s always low points. YouTube helps off-set that.”

“Fair.  YouTubers don’t really have a good reputation.”

“I know.  We’re not involved in any of that drama or crazy stuff going on.  Claudia does make-up, but, she mostly sticks within our circle of food YouTubers.”

“Mostly food?”

“Mostly food.”

Rayla nodded.  “How do I know you’re an artist?”

Callum reached for his phone.  “Here’s my Instagram and a couple of my sketches that I haven’t posted yet.”  He handed her the phone for her to look through.

“You sure you trust me with your phone?”

“Not really, but I’m a stranger asking to draw you.  Some level of give and take has to happen here.”

“I agree.”  Rayla went through his art, humming as she saw the variety of subjects, though he tended to focus on people.  There were a lot of pictures of the same three women.  “You like drawing women?”

“That’s my mom, my aunt, and my aunt’s wife.  You’ll also see pictures of my grandmothers and Claudia.”  Rayla looked closely at a few of the pictures.  She could see the family resemblance between him and some of the women, particularly in the jawline and cheekbones.  

She paused on a picture of one of the women he looked like and another one of the three he drew often. They were smiling at each other, flushes on their cheeks.  “This picture is beautiful.”

“Thanks.  That was at their engagement party.”

“I’m sold.”

“Really?” Callum asked, looking like he couldn’t believe she would say yes.  She couldn’t believe it either.

“I have four parents. My biological parents are bodyguards for a member of the royal family and were travelling a lot so I was raised by their best friends, Runaan and Ethari.  I got a lot of teasing as a kid for having two dads.  If you can draw these two as unabashedly in love as you do, I’m sold on you as a person.  I’m Rayla Burrows.”  She stuck out her head, giving a slight smile as a he took it.  “You have a decent grip.”

“My step-dad taught me how to do a good handshake.  Can I have your number so we can plan this?”

“Do you have a studio?”

“Yes…in my house.”

Rayla paused.  “Would it bother you if I asked someone I know to come?”

“Not at all.  Whatever makes you comfortable.”  They exchanged numbers and Callum walked off, looking back at her every few moments.  Marcos finally came back with her cheese, smiling.  As she walked out of the shop with her coworkers, she cast one last look at the group.  Callum Evans…interesting.