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ahkaahshi · 4 years ago

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a parenting moment [miya atsumu x reader]

pairing: miya atsumu x fem reader

genre: fluff

warning(s): none

word count: 2.3k

overview: when yours and atsumu’s five-year-old daughter gets into trouble at school, it’s up to him to practice his good parenting skills

note: though this is a reader insert story, it focuses more on atsumu’s relationship with his daughter and sheds some light on how I think he would be as a dad :) also I wrote this months ago and am just now posting lol hope you enjoy

Atsumu’s features settle into a look of discontentment as his honey colored eyes scan his young daughter’s short figure, taking note of her dirtied shoes and the slightly disheveled appearance of the French braids he’d woven into her dark hair that morning. Wiping a bead of sweat from his forehead and letting out a small sigh, he asks, “What happened, girly?”

She turns her (e/c) gaze towards the polished wooden flooring of the large gym and mutters, “I got in a fight at school and they made Mommy pick me up.”

Instead of towering over her, as he had inadvertently been doing before, Atsumu kneels down in front of her and places his hand on her shoulder. “Hey, look at me, (daughter’s name),” he requests, making her tilt her chin up the smallest amount so her eyes can meet his. When their gazes connect, he purses his lips before saying, “We’ll talk about it when we get home, ‘kay? Right now, Daddy’s gotta practice, so jus’ sit tight with Coach Foster for a bit ‘n hang out.”

She nods slowly and Atsumu lifts her light blue backpack off of her shoulders to carry it with him over to the bench beside the court where his team is currently running through serve-receive drills. The head coach gives him a small nod of acknowledgement and a promise that he’ll protect her from any rogue volleyballs as she takes a seat.

Knowing that his daughter’s safety is in good hands and that she’s occupied--since she had pulled out a notebook from her backpack to doodle and write in--gives Atsumu a sliver of comfort as he returns to his practice. It takes himself some time to get his thoughts off of her, however, given the situation.

Minutes earlier, you had appeared at the gym with (daughter’s name) and offered a brief explanation of the matter at hand. You’d had to pick her up from school after receiving a call that she’d gotten into trouble, but, because of your own responsibilities at work, you’d had to drop her off with your husband. According to what the teachers had explained, she had gotten into a physical altercation with another student that had ended in tears, screaming, a few scrapes, and a dropped popsicle--your daughter’s, unfortunately.

(Daughter’s name) was a well-behaved, studious girl--though she did have a bit of a wild, energetic streak in her, thanks to Atsumu--so to hear that she’d been involved in a fight was understandably shocking to both of you. Sure, she enjoyed roughhousing with her dad and her uncle, but you’d been adamant about reiterating that real fighting was not allowed.

Atsumu hated seeing his daughter so distressed. It broke his heart. Usually, she was upbeat and full of life, but, now, she looks so defeated and ashamed. In an attempt to cheer her up in any way he can, he enlists the help of Bokuto and Hinata to tell her funny stories during each water break; and while they provide her some temporary relief, the cloud of sadness casting a shadow over her still lingers.

Though she holds onto his hand and clings to his side during the commute back home, she’s unnaturally quiet, and goes straight to her room upon returning to the house. He decides it best to leave her alone for a bit, but he can’t ignore how quiet the house feels without the sound of her favorite show blaring from the television in the living room. To busy himself for some time while you’re at work and she’s in her room, Atsumu sets himself to whipping up a snack after he’s taken a shower, and icing his aching joints.

After preparing some onigiri that looks rather sloppy compared to that his brother always serves, Atsumu shuffles down the hallway towards his daughter’s room. Her door is open, so he can see her sitting on her bed with a selection of colored pencils strewn across the comforter, and one in her hand that she’s using to color in a project she has to complete for class.

“Hey, girly,” he greets her and stands in the doorway, “Wanna eat some onigiri with me?”

She doesn’t respond verbally, but nods her head without lifting it to look over at him. So, he walks into her room and plops down on the bed beside her, setting the plate down in front of him. Before he can even get so far as to offer her one of his homemade creations, he hears her sniffle loudly.

Turning his honey-colored gaze to her brings him to the realization that she's stopped coloring and, instead, has her hands pressed against her face as her body shakes with quiet sobs. His paternal instincts to protect and comfort her immediately kick in, and he pushes the plate aside so he can sling an arm around her shoulder to pull her closer to him.

“Hey, hey, li’l princess, what’s goin’ on?” he murmurs.

She leans closer to him but keeps her hands over her face. “It wasn’t my fault, Daddy,” she whimpers softly, the sound of her strained voice nearly shattering her father’s heart, “There’s a really, really mean girl in my class. She always pulls my hair, a-and takes my markers, and cuts in line so she gets the last orange popsicle--and that’s my favorite flavor--and... I hate her!”

Atsumu grabs a tissue to dab at the tears spilling down her cheeks once he gently moves her hands away from her face. He’s silent for a moment as the previous sadness he felt at his daughter’s suffering morphs into anger upon hearing that she was being bullied. “Didja hit ‘er 'cause she was bein’ mean?”

She nods and cries, “S-She pushed me during recess ‘nd I got mad and pushed her back,” before finally lifting her head to gaze up at him with watery, (e/c) eyes. “I didn’t mean to hurt her, Daddy! I-I was just scared she was gonna hurt me!”

Wrapping both of his arms around her small frame, Atsumu brings her face to his chest and holds her tightly in his embrace in an attempt to comfort her. “It’s alright, (daughter’s name). Mommy ‘nd I will make sure this gets fixed, ‘kay?” The grip she has on the back of his t-shirt tightens slightly as she presses her face into his shoulder. One of his hands rubs her back to calm her down while the other smooths down any stray hairs sticking up from her head.

After a few minutes of crying, whimpering, and venting, she’s finally relaxed enough to let her dad lead her into the living room so they can sit and watch a few episodes of her favorite show together while snacking on onigiri.

“Hey,” he calls out to her, making her tear her wide-eyed gaze away from the television screen, “I know me, Mommy, ‘n Uncle ‘Samu always say that fightin’ ain’t the right way ta go about things, but I’m proud of ya for stickin’ up for yourself, girly.”

A small smile sprouts across her lips that’s made even cuter by the fact that her cheeks are puffing out from the amount of rice she has in her mouth. The sight makes him chuckle and ruffle her hair.

“But don’t go tellin’ Mommy I said that. Instead, use yer words, find one of the teachers, ‘n let ‘em deal with whoever’s givin’ ya trouble, alright?”

When she’s finished chewing her food, she replies, “M’kay.”

“Mind tellin’ me what started the fight in the first place?” he asks, one of his thick eyebrows raising in curiosity.

She twiddles her thumbs and slowly directs her gaze back to the television. “She made me drop my popsicle when she pushed me.”

“And it was your favorite flavor, wasn’t it?”

“Yeah...”

With a hearty laugh, he comments, “Man, you really are yer mom’s daughter, ya know that? She don’t mess around when food’s involved.”

The sounds of his daughter's giggles ripple through the air, sending waves of warmth over him as he continues telling her stories about all the times he’d dealt with you getting on his case about food or treat-related issues. He made sure to include an anecdote about a time when you’d nearly knocked him over after he’d jokingly swiped your candy bar during lunch in high school.

Needless to say, he never did it again out of the fear that Osamu wouldn't let him live it down if he got destroyed by a high school girl over food. However, the passion and unrelenting desire he’d seen in your eyes that day had made him absolutely sure that you were the one for him.

By the time you step into the house a few hours later, your daughter--being the mature, young girl she was--has moved her schoolwork from her bedroom to the living room table to do her assignments while her dad snoozes on the couch. Upon noticing that she’s in a better mood than she had been when you’d dropped her off at the gym with Atsumu, your heart lifts slightly.

“Hey, honey,” you greet her as you slide off your shoes and set your purse down on a table in the entryway, “What’re you up to?”

She holds up a piece of paper with colored markings on it that vaguely resemble Atsumu’s tall figure holding what you assume to be a volleyball, along with a few, familiar faces in the background. “I have to draw a picture of what you and Daddy do at work to show my teacher.”

You smile at her and plant a kiss atop her head before commenting, “Looks good so far. You drew Bokuto-san’s hair perfectly.” She chuckles and quickly returns to her masterpiece, since your compliment seems to spur her to keep creating. “I’m gonna talk to Daddy, real quick, okay? I wanna see how you draw Omi-san’s hair when we’re done.”

With that said and your daughter on a mission to produce her version of the prickly, outside hitter on Atsumu’s team, you rouse your husband from his nap so the two of you can head into your room to talk about the situation. Once out of earshot, he explains what your daughter had told him and the two of you work together to devise a plan and time to speak with her teacher about the true story. Amazingly enough, this entire exchange occurrs without your usual, good-natured--but sometimes cumbersome--squabbling.

“Hey, ‘Tsumu,” you call out to him, reaching for his hand and wrapping your fingers around it gingerly.

He had been on his way to the bedroom door so he could head to the kitchen and start making dinner while you showered, but he stops in his tracks and turns to face you once more. When your eyes meet, your heart skips a beat, like always.

Taking a deep breath, you tell him, “Even though we may argue from time to time about parenting, and you sometimes let her have just a tad too much sugar before conveniently deciding to take a nap so you don’t have to deal with her going berserk, there's nobody else in the world that I’d rather share a kid with than you. She loves you so much, and so do I.”

His unoccupied hand finds your waist to pull you closer to him, and he leans down towards you to plant a gentle kiss on your lips. As per usual, the tender moment you shared doesn’t last long, since he always has something smart to say. “What’s gotcha all sentimental, (f/n)? Does seein’ me doin’ fatherly things give ya the hots for me, or somethin’?”

“Oh, yeah, sleeping on the couch while our self-starter of a child does homework by herself is so fatherly.”

He frowns. “I had a long practice. Bein’ a professional athlete is hard work, baby.”

With a sardonic smile on your face, you mention, “Working a nine-to-five is pretty tiring too, baby.”

“Fair,” he groans and slides his arms around your back, “But, seriously, what’s got you feelin’ all in love with me, huh?”

You snicker at his tone and the mischievous look on his face as you brush his golden hair away from his eyes before letting your hands come to rest on his cheeks. “It’s just that when I picked (daughter’s name) up from school today, she was all sad and mopey. Yet, when I come home after dropping her off with you, she’s all smiles and rainbows again. It just reminds me of how good you are to her and it makes me happy that she has you as a father.”

A genuine smile rather than a sly one appears on his lips, and you press your own against them to give him a few, affectionate kisses.

“You know I’d do anything for my favorite, li’l girl, (f/n). She’s only as good of a kid as she is 'cause of you, anyway.”

Your lips form a giddy grin, as if he’s a high school crush who’s just delivered the sweetest of compliments to you, and you allow him to pull you closer so he can shower you with more kisses. “I love you, baby,” you murmur as you plant another peck on his cheek.

“I love you too, sweetheart.”

There’s a short moment of silence as he pulls you into a tight hug that seems to wash away all the stress that you didn't even realize had been building up within you at the day you’ve had. His breath fans across the tender skin of your neck when he nestles his face there and allows his hands to roam up and down your back. However, after the two of you release each other, you notice a sneaky smile playing at his lips that oftentimes makes you wary.

“Hey.”

“Yeah?”

“Wanna go see (daughter’s name)’s rendition of Omi-Omi?”

Chuckling and following him out of the bedroom, you agree, “Wouldn’t miss it.”

masterlist ⭐︎ treat me to a coffee!

taglists (see pinned post on my blog for form)

general: @krynnza, @yamagucji, @tendo-sxtori, @dinablossom, @newfriendjen, @devlovesramen, @ohbyunhunn, @aftcrlust, @mister-future, @kyleclxin, @kac-chowsballs, @osamusmiya, @nit-sir-hc, @arixtsukki, @shinsurou, @ichorizaki, @dominikmagnus

atsumu: @pretty-setters, @misora-msby, @why-aminot-dead, @lotsoffandomrecs, @tsumue, @heyhinata

#haikyuu x reader #miya atsumu x reader #atsumu x reader #haikyuu fluff #haikyuu!!#hq!!#x reader #reader insert #anime #manga #miya atsumu #fran writes hq!!

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whatifxwereyou · 3 years ago

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Ashes Chapter 9: City Lights

Pairing: Liu Kang x Reader

A good night, for the most part. You search for peace amongst the stars but you find something else instead. I hate writing summaries. Lol.

A/N: Hope you're all doing well. Thanks for reading! I'll be busy on Sunday because it's my birthday, but I will still be updating~

First Chapter << Previous Chapter Next Chapter >> Chapter Index

Afternoon became an evening spent with Cole, Allison, and Emily. You ate an early dinner, returned to the hotel, and found one of Johnny Cage’s movies to watch. You mostly laughed at it. “Gist of My Fist’ was a terrible name for a movie and the movie itself, while it wasn’t the worst movie that you had ever watched, was pretty up there. You had no qualms with bad movies. Watching it had at least prepared you for tomorrow if you had to use your arcana to persuade the actor into helping you.

When they were ordering room service and preparing another movie you said your farewells. It was late, you’d claimed, and you weren’t very hungry. You were socially exhausted, and you really weren’t hungry. So, it hadn’t exactly been a lie. It had been ages since you’d spent that much time with anyone outside of Kung Lao and Liu Kang in a social setting and it had drained you. You had forgotten how exhausting other people could be. They were incredibly nice, and you had become more comfortable around them, but you still needed to recharge your social battery.

That and you had to resist going to the bar for a drink.

Whiskey had been your lullaby nearly every night after Kung Lao had died.

Waking up next to Liu Kang had sobered you up but it had been days since then and your brain was so loud. A little drink would quiet it down. It was a bad idea, and you knew that but it didn’t mean you didn’t want to. The price of liquor at the hotel was enough to make you decide to think on it.

Instead, you decided to go to the roof where there was a garden setup for guests. At that late at night most people were leaving the garden, bothered by the nighttime bugs. You sat away from those who remained for some time, watching the world pass by below and the clouds moving over the ocean in the distance.

As time passed, you were left alone. You were both grateful for the silence and frustrated by the thoughts that immediately filled it. There had been a time where you’d been grateful to be alone and now it was torture. Raiden had been right to send Liu with you except that he was a big part of the reason that your thoughts were torture.

A pretty substantial part of why your thoughts were torture, actually.

What did anything mean anymore? You didn’t know.

Seated on one of the garden benches, you stayed silent for a long time. Once certain you were alone, you dared to do something that you hadn’t done since he’d died.

You drew Kung Lao.

He stood before you, tall, with a permanent look of smug satisfaction on his face. You walked around him and admired the details in his clothing right down to the misplaced thread on his favorite shirt. Then you stood beside him and watched the night sky. The stars were few and far between. There were too many lights in that part of the world to see the majesty of the night sky that you had admired only nights before alongside Liu Kang.

“I miss you.” You knew that the drawing couldn’t respond. It wasn’t real. Kung Lao was gone. You were alone. “I wish that I could talk to you. I wish I could tell you all the things that I made you wait to hear.” All you’d wanted was a conversation. A real conversation about what he thought marriage meant, about the fighting you’d done in the past few months. A moment for you to be honest about your history with Liu Kang.

Instead, he’d died and you’d never gotten the chance to say yes. You’d never gotten to understand what any of it had meant. You should have just said yes, damnit.

Liu Kang’s words were eating you alive.

Had your connection to him made you hesitate? He’d broken your heart and you’d gotten over him, sort of. You’d distanced yourself, at least. Now you were tearing yourself apart from the inside out because you were afraid it was true. What did it matter if it was? You would never know. Even so, you fixated next to the carefully crafted apparition of a man that you’d loved with your whole heart.

Nothing about this was healthy.

You were exhausted.

Stepping back from the drawing of Kung Lao, you lowered into a ready position. When you’d been angry with each other, bored, or you were frustrated, Kung Lao would spar with you. It usually ended up with you wrestling around laughing or in bed. Sometimes both. The drawing of Kung Lao did as you asked. It fought you and for a time it was soothing to keep up the action of something that you were good at.

You lost your balance on the stone and the ink caught you, wrapping its arms around you, and pulling you close against it. You admired his face and he smiled. He smiled because you wanted him to smile. Just the way that he used to. His hand cupped your cheek and you leaned into it, resting your hand over his.

Your eyes misted with tears. “I’m sorry, Kung Lao.” Time was supposed to heal all things but you weren’t sure that anything could do away with the guilt you felt. Closing your eyes, you tried to pretend that the hand wasn’t cold, dark ink. It was his warm and comforting hand. He would be there smiling down at you, telling you that you’d worried over nothing. You’d overthought it.

Then you were falling, your footing completely lost. Water pulled back from the shore, moving further and further away. It would come back tall and angry; it was a pattern you recognized. It meant you had to run but you couldn’t move. Hadn’t you been on the roof? The sand was hot beneath your toes and you were stuck. Your body was rooted firmly in place beyond your control.

The water rose in a wild roar, obscuring the sky with a sun that burned a brilliant red. You tried to scream, to warn others who might be in danger but there was no one. The air was suffocatingly hot, scorching. But as the wave grew closer, your stomach dropped into a tremendous pit and you felt sick. The air stunk of death and a wave of bodies soared toward you, towering high above. Winged creatures like giant bugs flew overhead through the dark skies. They were massive and you tried to get a better look, but the sun was so bright you couldn’t make out much of their features.

A dark figure stood before the wave of bodies surrounded by the roaring of souls. A hand grabbed your arm and turned you around swiftly.

Kung Lao.

Your heart stopped.

“You have to run, Y/N,” he whispered with such urgency that you swore it was really him. There was no way. It wasn’t possible! Before your eyes, his skin became sallow and sickly, deteriorating and rotting, cracked and filled with green mist. You fought his grip in a panic and pulled back. “Y/N…”

Your feet unstuck from the sand and you gasped, falling backwards. You braced yourself for the fall but instead you were saved by a pair of strong, inky arms. You grasped desperately onto the form and caught your breath. Your lungs ached as though they were being crushed.

The drawing of Kung Lao had caught you.

You buried yourself against the drawing’s chest and sobbed as you caught your breath.

This was not Kung Lao. Your grasp on the drawing tightened.

It was Liu Kang.

Panicked, you dropped the magic and collapsed to your knees out of breath and trembling from head to toe. You were clammy and dripping with sweat. Cursing under your breath you held your head in your hands. That hadn’t been a dream. The other night hadn’t been either. You should have known better. What did it mean? And what were you going to do about it? You had to talk to Raiden. He would know what to do.

This was the last thing that you needed right now.

Stumbling to your feet you made your way back to the garden bench just as the door opened behind you. Resting your elbows on your knees, you fanned your face and tried to will away the nausea left behind by the vision. It was already disappearing from your memory. You’d never been good at interpreting what your visions meant. They’d mostly made you sick.

Liu Kang stopped on the other side of the garden bench and avoided your eyes. “Oh.”

“I can go.” You needed a minute to be steady on your feet, but you’d had your time on the roof with the few stars.

“You don’t have to. I just wanted to see the stars.” He folded his arms over his chest.

“Too much light pollution. You can’t see much.” You pushed your hair away from your face and rested your hands on your knees afterwards. The world was still spinning. Liu was watching you and then sat next to you on the bench.

“Are you okay?” He made to rest a hand on your back but stopped himself.

“I’m fine.”

“You’re gray.”

“I’m tired. That’s all.”

“I haven’t seen you this gray since you first came to the temple, and you had…” He drifted off as if realizing exactly why you were that gray. You wanted to deny it until you could talk to Raiden, but your body betrayed you. You were too tired to fake it. Your fingers were tingling with numbness, and you were nauseous.

“Yeah.” You sighed. “I’m fine.”

“If you had a vision, you would tell me, right?”

“I’m not in the mood for this.”

“Y/N, don’t be unreasonable.”

“Do you have a reason to still be talking to me? Or are you just here to make tonight harder?” You didn’t mean to snap at him and immediately regretted it. You were feeling sick and defensive. Also, you had accidentally made him out of ink for the first time in years and wondered what that meant for your subconscious.

He smiled. You turned away and pouted. “I thought you’d been lying about having a temper to make me feel better.” You puffed up your cheeks in frustration. “I owe you another apology, I think.” He counted on his fingers, and you turned back to watch him. “That’s the third one this week, right?”

“You probably owe me more than one apology at this point.”

“Yeah, but how many times can I apologize before it becomes meaningless?” He was trying to joke with you, and you needed to try and unclench. It was bad timing, all of it. “I am though. Sorry, that is. Not about last night, well maybe about pushing you so hard but… I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to take any of this out on you.”

“I know.” Perhaps that was part of why it had hurt so badly. None of it had ever felt like your Liu Kang. “I’m sorry too. I handled it poorly.”

“I’ve been told that we’re grieving.” He clasped his hands before him.

“Yeah, that’s what we keep saying.”

“I had an idea.”

“Is this idea going to make us yell at each other? Because if it is then I would very much like the chance to reschedule.”

“I honestly don’t know. I don’t think it will.” His brow furrowed into a line.

“Well, go for it, I guess. Idea away.”

“I’m grieving in my own way.” He shrugged but he looked weighed down and you felt guilty again. “Not well, obviously. And you’re grieving in your own way too. Also, poorly I might add.”

“I thought you said that you weren’t picking a fight.”

“I’m not.” He reassured you. “I thought that maybe we could try grieving together.” He was staring at you again, and you sighed heavily.

“I don’t know, Liu.” You could think of a dozen reasons why that was a bad idea and wouldn’t work off the top of your head. But it was the first non-confrontational thing he’d done in days. “He was your brother. You lost something like a limb. I love Kung Lao but what we had was different. Our grief is not the same.”

“Your grief is no less significant than mine, Y/N.”

“It is, Liu. You lost more than I did. I know what I lost. But it’s different. You lost so much more.” Your eyes were burning again. God, you were so frustrated with your emotions.

“And now I’m losing you too.” Liu spoke with a bite of frustration and then looked as if it was taking all his focus not to lash out. “I don’t want to lose you, Y/N.”

“I can’t fill the void that Lao left behind.”

“I don’t want you to. I don’t even want you to fill the void that you left behind.” He held his head in his hands. You wanted to say you didn’t do that, he had pushed you away, but you also knew why he’d done it. This was a terrible mixed bag of emotions. If you said that then you would definitely end up fighting again. You held your tongue. “I miss you. I don’t need you to fill a void. I just need you.”

“Liu…” You hesitated and felt the guilt in the pit of your stomach again. But he was asking for something for himself, and you couldn’t tell him no. He never asked for anything for himself. He picked up your hand like it were something delicate and you felt your heart just aching. What would Kung Lao do if he could see you now? In your mind’s eye you could see him resting his hands on your shoulders and telling you it was okay. But that was just what you wanted to see.

“Don’t do that, Y/N.” Liu’s eyes were glassy too and he turned away. “You’re allowed to have feelings.”

“Isn’t this part of why we keep fighting?” You sniffled but didn’t pull your hand away from his. “You keep making assumptions about what I’m feeling. Saying things without thinking first. You have no idea what’s going on in my head, Liu Kang.”

“I’m not trying to start a fight, I promise.” Liu closed his eyes as if to try and recite what he would say so it wouldn’t come out wrong. He used to be so thoughtful. This really was taking a toll on you both. “I just know you well enough, or I think I do, to see that you’re beating yourself up for things that are beyond your control.”

“I…” You hesitated and then pulled your hand back. “Kung Lao…”

“Kung Lao loved you, Y/N.” Liu Kang said with a huff. Did he resent that he had? “He wanted you to be happy. It would crush him to see you now.”

“I know that, Liu. I know and… he would have wanted that for you too. You always put your needs beneath his and he let you without realizing, I think and…” You didn’t mean to say that, and Liu was staring at you in surprise as if he hadn’t realized that he’d been doing that either. When you caught his gaze, he turned to avoid you. You were playing an extremely dangerous game of cat and mouse. “It’s impossible to know what might have been, Liu Kang. To know how it would have turned out. What he would have wanted. No matter how I spin it in my head there is nothing to be done that can change the truth that he’s gone.” You spoke slowly and carefully, not wanting to escalate the sudden tension further if you could help it. It only ended one of two ways and both of those were destructive. “No matter what I tell myself… it doesn’t ease my guilt.”

“Yeah, I can see that.” Liu was sounding bitter again and you held your head in your hands once more. You were still nauseous. This was the worst.

“I don’t have it in me to fight with you tonight, Liu,” you whispered. “I just don’t. Give me a day or two and we can be at each other’s throats again.”

“I don’t want to fight with you, Y/N.” He turned to you again. “We need to talk.”

“I know but I’m not sure we can do that without fighting.” You closed your eyes. You sat in uncomfortable silence, a now common occurrence. Your stomach was in knots.

“Are you sick because you had a vision? Or are you sick with grief, Y/N?” His tone was soft as if he were trying to ask a hard question without making it sound like a confrontation. You whined.

“I had a vision, okay?” You confessed. “I don’t know what it means. I need to talk to Raiden. It’s already almost gone. I remember a beach. I remember… being stuck and then I fell and…” The details were like drops of soap in water. Impossible to catch once they’d been mixed in. “I’ll be fine. It had just happened when you got here.”

“Have you eaten?”

“I had dinner with Cole and his family.” You decided to turn the tables on him. “Have you eaten?” He looked affronted.

“I… no… ummm…”

“Pot, kettle, black.” You poked his shoulder, and he smiled a little. “Stop worrying about me. Don’t fixate on it. I’m fine. Raiden will figure it out when we get back.” You reassured him and then sat there together quietly again, unsure what to say. You did know one thing, at least. “You need to eat.”

“I ate earlier, just been since this morning.”

“I stand by what I said.”

“I’ll eat if you come with me.” He suggested. “We can grab a drink in Kung Lao’s honor and reminisce. Try that grieving thing together.”

“That’s a terrible idea.” You laughed as he looked instantly insulted. “Liu, us and liquor? Historically? Not good.” Liquor made the consequences seem less significant. It made you care less about what went wrong. It clearly made him a little bolder, too.

“Oh, yeah, I didn’t think about that.” He smiled a little. “No alcohol then. I just thought that it might make it easier to talk about the things that we are finding difficult to talk about if we had a drink.”

“Well, it would make some things easier but who knows how we’d feel about that tomorrow.” You wished, just for a brief second, that you remembered the night you’d had. You got all the trouble without any of the fun! You were sure that you’d had fun, but you couldn’t remember it, dammit.

“How about it, Y/N? We go downstairs to the bar, grab some food, no alcohol… we just… talk. Grieve.”

You considered it. You weren’t sure how that was going to work. You were in a place where the slightest thing could turn your conversation into an argument at the drop of a hat. But if you could find common ground to stand on then maybe it might make the rest of what you needed to say less painful.

“Okay.” You finally replied and Liu Kang seemed genuinely surprised.

“Oh yeah?”

“Yeah. The truth is, Liu, that I miss you. This has been so incredibly trying and difficult for so many reasons. I swear though, if you make me cry again? I am going to punch you. No more slapping. Big ol’ punch. You will have a black eye to explain.” You didn’t think you’d actually punch him, but the threat was a little funny.

“Honestly, I am impressed that you haven’t yet.” Liu Kang stood and offered you his hand. “I stand by most of what I said though, even if I apologized.” He shrugged and you ran your tongue over your teeth and narrowed your eyes at him.

“Don’t start, Liu.”

Next Chapter >>

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mythiccheroacademia · 4 years ago

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“Private villa and the fur chinchilla, When he post me, all the hoes get sicker. Fuckboy killer, I don’t need fillers, Never been a lame so the real bitches feel it.” —Saweetie

Word Count: 1.3K Pairing: Dabi X Reader Context: Everything is the same, but the LOV are rich af bc they be scamming the hell out of people. Warnings: explicit language, drug and alcohol use, sexual content (no straight up smut tho), nudity ig but implied bc this takes place at a strip club lol

All characters are 21+

A/N: When I tell you I had way too much fun making this little header...someone needs to take photoshop away from me. Quickly! Also, sorry if your name is Rebecca, MJ, or Rinah. I promise I like you. Anyways, I hope y’all enjoy this as much as I enjoyed writing it <3

Dabi | Tap In

It had been a long week.

After dealing with the authorities and keeping tabs on his sperm donor—as he liked to put it—Dabi needed a way to take the stress away.

And he knew the perfect way to do so.

Dabi took a long inhale of the thick blunt in his hand before puffing out a cloud of smoke that mixed along with the misty air. The multicolored strobe lights shined over the dancers who skillfully spun around the pole. The cheers and chatters within the crowd swirled well into the music and quickly became background noise.

He sunk into the couch, watching the scene with a lazy gaze, and relaxed as the hands of giggling waiters and waitresses smoothed over the expensive material of his coat.

“Feeling good, big boss?” a pretty redhead asked. She’s no stranger to him, but he cant remember if her name started with a C or an R.

Regardless of her name, she was good with her hands. After a minute of staring at a dancer performing an impressive back hook spin, Dabi was quick to groan in relief when she massaged a knot out of his neck.

“Fantastic,” he sighed.

An attractive man, with hair like gelatin, popped up on his other side, stealing his attention with the drink in his hand. The woman glared at him in distaste.

“Would you care for a Martini? I know you like them stirred,” he purred, eyes on the dark-haired man’s crystal embedded watch before they slowly eyed his exposed chest.

Dabi took another puff, thinking about if he was in the mood for it. He was just about to answer when someone else chimed in.

“You had that last week. What about a Whiskey Sour?” This time it was a woman with snake like features. She leaned in, slim tongue hissing dangerously next to his lips. “You can never go wrong with that.”

“Everybody knows Dabi prefers that on Saturday’s,” the first women huffed.

“And everyone knows Dabi prefers a Screwdriver on a night like this,” another person said, their hand gliding along his chest. Dabi shrugged but didn’t pay much attention to them. The waiter sent a challenging smirk to the redhead. “Something you probably wouldn’t know much about, Rebecca.”

Ahh so that’s what her name was. I knew it had an R and a C in it.

“Fuck off, MJ.”

“You’d like that, wouldn’t you?”

“Here we go,” the man with gelatin hair grumbled.

They ignored him and continued their bickering.

“Just say your jealous of me and go!”

“Jealous? Baby, I wouldn’t be jealous of you on your best day. Like, ew.”

The snake-like woman rolled her eyes in irritation. “I can’t stand you bitches,” she muttered under her breathe.

Rebecca’s eyes turned a violent red as she seethed in anger. “Why you dirty little—“

“Am I interrupting something?”

For the first time since he got to the club, Dabi’s eyes found focus. Real focus. His crystal blue eyes lit up against the darkness of room when your voice silenced the petty argument going on.

You stood in front of him, chin high and eyes confident despite the four pairs of unfriendly glares on you. It was always like this. The dark-haired man could walk into any room and be immediately surrounded by people who shamelessly fawned over him. Whether it was for his money, his power, his undeniable looks, or the mysterious aura that followed him, they were on the man the moment he made his presence known. They’d light his cigar, buy him drinks, and flaunt whatever body parts they needed to for a second of his attention.

Sometimes, Dabi would mess around when he had the time. Other times, he’d just enjoy the attention. But all of that went out the window when you came into the picture. And whether they wanted to admit it or not, everybody knew it.

For some reason, he just couldn’t get out of his head no matter how many times he fucked you silly.

Dabi liked the knowing smirk on your lips as his eyes raked over your face and body, committing every feature to memory as if he hadn’t had the pleasure of indulging in it before.

It was something about the way you wore the clothes he bought for you so well. It made his pants uncomfortably tight in the best way.

“Nothing at all, doll-face. Mind keeping me company?” he said.

“Sure thing,” you shrugged.

You squeezed through the small parade he had going on, and plopped yourself right on his lap. Dabi happily attached his grip to the meat of your thigh, enjoying the way your hand raked down his tattooed neck.

“Why don’t you guys give us some privacy?” he off-handedly said. “Oh and Rinah was it? Can you get a Tequila Sunrise for Y/N? Two cherries. Gin tonic for me.”

“You remembered,” you chuckled, sensually dragging your thumb across his bottom lip.

“Of course I did, babe.”

The four internally groaned as Dabi seemed to become enraptured in your gaze.

“It’s Rebecca,” the woman muttered before going off to get the drink. They all dispersed, leaving the two of you alone.

After your drink was made, you two spent the next half hour talking, laughing, drinking and smoking together. You enjoyed each other’s company. It was easy between you two. Your adventures were wild from leaving the country to spending nights skinny dipping in random pools. It was fun and there wasn’t much commitment on either part, however, despite indulging in your separate endeavors, you always came back to each other. And you would never admit it to one another, but there was comfort to be taken in that.

Before you knew it, your legs were seated on either side of his hips and his hands were feeling on your ass. The curtains surrounding the lounge chair had been closed long ago and it was only a matter of time before you’d take advantage of the privacy.

“So remind me again why I haven’t heard from you in two weeks?” you questioned, a teasing smile in your voice.

You rolled your head and fluttered your eyes closed as Dabi trailed hot kisses on your chest and shoulders.

“Police were on our ass. Had to move locations. Important shit,” he responded between each kiss.

“More important than lil’ ole me?”

“Can’t finance your shopping addiction if I’m in jail, sweetheart.”

You almost gave up your playfulness when his veiny hand gripped your jaw and his tongue slowly traveled up the length of your neck. If the bulge against your thigh was anything to go by, he was more than excited, but you wanted to have your fun.

A slight grind of your hips had him growling against you. You threaded your hands through the back of his hair to pull his head back.

“But you promised we’d go to that Italian restaurant downtown. I was really in the mood for some pasta,” you faux pouted.

Your puffed out lips and slow grinding took him over the edge.

“Then I’ll take you to fucking Italy next week to make up for it,” he rumbled before swinging you down so you were on your back. You laughed at his antics but it was short lived as he gave you a kiss that made you see stars.

Once you separated, a silver line of saliva breaking your connection, a devilish smile took over your lips as he hovered above you with one of his own.

“I’ll hold you to it,” you said.

He laughed through his nose and shook his head. You were a pain in the ass, yet here he was ready to devour you at any second.

Dabi licked his lips before lowering himself down your body.

“Now if you don’t mind,” he began. Your stomach erupted in butterflies as his eyes remained on your own. He slowly pulled your pants off you in waves and sent you a smirk that gave you goosebumps.

“I’m in the mood for something a little different.”

#bnha dabi #todoroki touya #dabi x reader #bnha scenario #mha scenarios #mha fics #touya todoroki x reader #honorable mentions:#his sperm donor aka endeavor sksksksks #and y/n...whoever the fuck they are #i enjoyed writing this wayyyy too much #get yall a dabi like this to finance your way through life #okay that's it #2.5k follower event and celebration!#not smut but like spicy ig??? idk it was just sum bumpin and grindin

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maria-scribbles · 4 years ago

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glitter + crimson (let’s start a riot)//part two

summary: the pogues get up to a few shenanigans, burn the shit out of some marshmallows, and have a group hug of epic proportions. the dynamic duo of kiara and sailor brings out girl power in full force before getting real about a certain golden group rule.

word count: 4.2k+

ship: jj maybank x oc (sailor flynn)

warnings: mentions of abuse/neglect/parental abandonment/anxiety, underage drinking, weed usage, more fluff, flirting, reference to absolute legend kobe bryant

a/n: hello again! thank you all for the great response to part one, i’m seriously blown away and so grateful for your support! <3 i’m happy y’all enjoyed reading about sailor’s adventures with the pogues! here’s part two, which had previously been combined with part one but i decided to split it because it was getting wayyyy too long (over 8k words, oops). also i’ve never even seen weed with my own two eyes before so my bad if that part’s not realistic, i did my best lol. unbetaed, so i apologize for any mistakes. enjoy!

gif credit goes to @toesure

~Masterlist~

part one | part three | part four | playlist

part two: treading water

The pogues spend the next few hours among the waves, surfing their hearts out until they’re waterlogged, exhausted, and hungry. As the sun starts to sink over the island they pile into John B’s beat up Volkswagen, all their boards tied together on the roof, and head to The Wreck, where Kiara’s dad begrudgingly feeds his daughter and her ‘delinquent’ friends.

That word seems pretty harsh at first but as the evening goes on and the group gets a little louder, it’s kind of well-deserved. Pope can’t seem to stop dropping his fork, sending the rest of them into hysterical laughter each time, and everyone knows when Taylor Swift comes on the radio, Sailor has an obligation to get up and dance. The fact that she knocks a chair over in her haste to show off her moves only makes them laugh harder. When they finally leave and head back to the Chateau for the night, she makes sure to put forty bucks on their table for the food and the twelve pack of beer Kiara swipes from behind the bar when Mr. Carrera isn’t looking.

While it may not look like much, John B’s house if home for more than just him. It’s a safe port for all the pogues when they get lost in the storm, a place where they can all be themselves, be real, without judgement, and it’s Sailor’s second favorite place on the island. She’s lost count of how many nights she’s spent here, sleeping in the spare room, on the pull-out couch, and the hammock in the yard (sleepovers have become even more common in the eight months since Big John’s disappearance at sea, no one willing to leave his son all alone in an empty house.).

The hammock is where she finds herself now on this warm June night, sitting beside JJ with his arm around her shoulders, clad in his sweatshirt that she unashamedly stole last year, passing a joint back and forth while the others lounge around the small bonfire, roasting the old marshmallows John B found in the very back of one of his kitchen’s cupboards and drinking beer. One of her long legs dangles over the edge, toes pushing against the cool grass as they lazily swing back and forth, watching Kiara burn her third marshmallow in a row.

“Kie, what did those poor things ever do to you?” Sailor asks, exhaling smoke through her nose before passing the joint to JJ, and the brush of his fingers against hers sends warmth through her whole body. Kiara just shoots her the bird in response as she stabs her fourth marshmallow and holds it over the fire. The redhead laughs and rests her head against JJ’s shoulder, her limbs light as air. In the distance, lightning arcs between the clouds and creates a dazzling show over the water as thunder rumbles but none of them care enough to notice.

Although she never outright asks to smoke, she also never refuses the chance to get high with her best friend and let their problems drift away with every hit, if only for a little while. Lines get a little blurry between them, too, as both become oh so affectionate with each other when their inhibitions disappear like the sun over the horizon. She sighs contentedly at the blissful feeling of his fingers running through her hair and burrows further into his side, turning so she can throw an arm over his waist and curl her own fingers into the soft material of his shirt.

“Damn it!” John B yells as his marshmallow, in the span of a few seconds, catches fire and unceremoniously falls into the flames with a hiss.

“Ha, I’m not the only one on the struggle bus!” Kiara laughs gleefully, delicately turning her fourth attempt to keep it from burning like the other three. “We can’t all be Pope, I guess.”

The other boy looks up at the mention of his name and grins, holding out a perfectly toasted marshmallow on the end of the stick in his hand. “It takes talent, Kie.” He jokes, chuckling as she sticks her tongue out at him.

Sailor can’t help laughing, too when the two of them dive headfirst into a heated discussion about the finer points of roasting things over a campfire, their voices becoming louder and louder as they try to talk over one another while John B, unfazed from his spot between them, just holds another marshmallow over the fire and ignores them completely as he takes a sip of his beer.

“Aaaand JB’s totally checked out of that particular conversation,” She says to JJ under her breath and she feels more than hears him laugh in response.

“Poor bastard,” He whispers back before taking one last hit of the joint, now burnt down to a nub in his hand, and flicking it into the fire with a shout of “Kobe!”

“Nice one, hotshot.” She shifts her head up on his shoulder as her eyes unabashedly trace his profile in the warm orange glow of the fire, from the golden hair falling haphazardly onto his forehead and down the straight slope of his nose to the curve of his lips before she’s caught -not that she was being subtle in any possible way-, his ocean blue gaze holding hers with an electrified energy that would’ve normally set her whole face aflame. She’s not Normal Sailor now though, she’s High Sailor and High Sailor has positively zero shame so she just looks up at him with a saccharine smile on her face and blesses the fact that weed makes her bold as hell.

The flickering flames throw JJ’s features into sharp relief and highlight the dimples that she loves as he returns her smile, the hand in her hair now twirling a single curl around his finger. His free hand settles on the strip of bare skin at her waist where her sweatshirt has ridden up and her heart beats a little faster when he starts drawing agonizingly slow circles with his thumb. Her hand releases its grip on his shirt and before she even realizes it, she’s reaching up and brushing a finger along her jaw, just like he’d done to her that afternoon on the beach, and she feels the fingers at her waist press against her skin.

It’s moments like these that make her wish she could freeze time and live in them forever. Just the two of them, looking at each other like they’re more than just friends, touching each other like they’re falling into something beautiful and all they need to do is stick the landing. The possibility of taking that final leap teases her. He’s so close, it wouldn’t take much to just reach up and make that minuscule distance between them disappear and from the way his eyes flick down to her mouth and back, she’s sure he’s thinking the same. They won’t though and for now that’s okay, but deep down she wonders just how long they can balance on the cliff’s edge before they both fall.

As much as she’d like to stare at his stupidly handsome face all night, the weather has other plans as lightning flashes white across the sky, immediately followed by a big crack of thunder that makes Sailor jump and accidentally headbutt JJ right in the forehead. The stick in Pope’s hand goes flying somewhere into the bushes when he startles, too, and there’s a pause as everyone looks at each other before bursting into wild laughter.

“Jesus, Sail,” JJ says, reaching up to rub at the spot she hit, “you have a hard head.”

Her reply of “speak for yourself!” is drowned out by another clap of thunder and seconds later it starts pouring rain, sending the group scrambling to head back inside the Chateau before they get too drenched. The duo, in their haste, get tangled together in the hammock and nearly fall to the ground in a heap but manage to hold each other up with their hands clasped tight, both laughing so hard she’s sure the water on their faces is more than just rain.

“The beer! Don’t forget the beer!” Someone yells and John B, halfway to the porch in front of them, does a smooth 180 on the wet grass and runs back for the booze sitting beside the dying fire, sending them a lazy salute when he passes by.

“We honor your sacrifice, Captain!” JJ calls over his shoulder before they clamber onto the porch alongside a giggling Kiara.

“Oh my God, you two almost bit it so hard.” She says while wringing out her shirt, adding to the steadily growing puddle of water at their feet.

“But we didn’t, all thanks to me and my impeccable balance.” He says proudly, grinning down at the girl still snug against his side before she lets go of his hand to slug him in the shoulder.

“Ow, what was that for?”

“Oh please, J, I was the one who kept you from falling on your face. Now, hold still.” Sailor orders and places her hand on his arm, using him for balance as she brushes the grass from her feet.

“Yes, ma’am.” His reply is low in her ear, his hand settles even lower on her back, and she pretends the shiver her body makes is just from the cool rain.

“You like being bossed around, Maybank?”

Her hand grips his strong shoulder a little bit tighter, and she feels his fingers tighten on her sweatshirt as he replies, “Depends on who’s doing the bossing, Flynn.”

Kiara coughs pointedly, staring at them with her eyebrows raised and Sailor feels her face begin to flush bright red because, to be honest, she’d kind of forgotten she was even there as they both let go of each other. The other girl snickers and drawls, “If you two are quite done-”

Thankfully, a thoroughly soaked John B joins them and interrupts whatever Kiara was going to say, his hair plastered to his face and dripping onto the soggy carton of beer protectively cradled in his arms.

“Mission accomplished.” He says with a satisfied smile, setting the drinks down on a chair before shaking his head like a dog and splattering rainwater on everyone, including Pope as he emerges from the house carrying a pile of towels. A few drops land on his cheek and he wrinkles his nose in disgust, wiping them away with his own towel hanging around his neck.

“I was just kidding about the beer.” He says, throwing one and smacking John B right in the face, then kindly passing out the rest. Sailor barely grabs the last one before Pope’s suddenly put in a headlock by the brunet boy, yelling something about mutiny and a captain “not standing for this” as they start to grapple back and forth. JJ pauses in the middle of drying his hair and instantly jumps into the fray after tossing his towel to the floor, the scuffle quickly turning into a three way wrestling match.

She and Kiara both glance at each other and roll their eyes before scooting by the melee and heading into the house, leaving the boys to do their thing. They quickly dry off and change into pajamas, hang their wet clothes up to dry in the bathroom, and then tiredly flop onto the bed in the spare room together.

“How long do you think it’ll take until Wrestlemania out there’s done?” Sailor asks, rolling onto her stomach and reaching to pull her phone and glasses out of her bag on the floor; under her newly acquired hat, the lightning whelk peeks through its towel and the sight of it makes her smile softly. Kiara snorts and sits up, crossing her legs and running her fingers through her damp hair. “Knowing those fools, too long.”

The redhead laughs and mirrors the other girl’s position before slipping her glasses on and glancing down at her phone in trepidation, where no new texts block the lock screen picture of her and the rest of the pogues, and she does her best to ignore the hurt coiling in her chest, the smile fading from her face. She places the phone screen down on the bedside table and when she raises her head, she’s not surprised to find Kiara, ever so perceptive, staring at her with sympathy in her soft brown eyes.

“You okay?” She asks and Sailor takes off her glasses, then pulls her knees to her chest and wraps her arms around them.

“Could be better.”

Lightning illuminates the room, followed by an impressive crack of thunder a few seconds later as rain continues to pound against the window and down the hall, they hear the door slam closed as the boys finally storm inside after their scuffle, still yelling like banshees. The other girl reaches over and quickly squeezes her wrist before shooting her a bright smile.

“If you ever need to vent, I’m all ears.”

She knows she means it. Aside from JJ, Kiara’s her closest friend and from the moment they met, the two had quickly bonded over being the only girls in the group and their love of the environment: she’s lost count of how many times they’ve volunteered, both themselves and the rest of the pogues, to help raise money for animals. Despite Kiara’s kook year, Sailor considers her a sister and knows that Kie feels the same about her. Having each other’s backs no matter what is just what they do.

The redhead looks away from watching the storm outside and matches Kiara’s smile, then scoots closer to wrap her arms around her in a grateful hug.

“Thanks, Kie.”

The dark haired girl eagerly returns the embrace. “Any-”

“Comin’ through, gotta get me some of this group hug action!” JJ yells, storming into the room like a hurricane and throwing his arms around them, all but tackling them onto the bed before they even realize what’s happening.

“No, no, you’re still wet!” Sailor cries as his head rests against the back of her neck, his damp hair slowly beginning to soak into her shirt while Kiara growls, “Oh my God, get off!”

“And miss out on this? No way.” He says cheekily and pulls them both closer, ignoring the dark haired girl’s venomous glare and attempts to pry his hand away from her arm. Sailor, resigned to her fate, just laughs and calls over his arm to John B and Pope as they curiously poke their heads in from the hall, “Get your asses in here!”

She doesn’t have to tell them twice. They throw themselves into the hug faster than she can blink and with such contagious enthusiasm that Kiara can’t fight the affectionate grin making its way onto her face, even as she threatens, “I’m gonna kill all of you.”

Sailor rests her cheek on JJ’s outstretched arm and smiles to herself. This, right here and now, is where she belongs, surrounded by the best friends she could ask for, living each moment to its fullest. No matter what comes their way, she knows this is true: as long as they all stand together, the pogues will be just fine.

Some time later, the hug comes to an end as JJ jokingly complains about Sailor’s big head making his arm numb, which earns him a swift elbow to the stomach from the redhead.

“Weak.” She replies, smirking at the little oof he makes before grabbing his arm and pulling them both up from the bed. “Now get out.”

“Please.” Kiara agrees and pushes John B out the door, followed by Pope. “This room is girls only.”

“Since when?” The latter asks, sidestepping to avoid JJ as he’s playfully shoved into the hall by Sailor, who replies, “Right now.”

“Why?”

“’Cause we said so!” Both girls say in unison before they slam the door shut and then lean their backs against it, giggling. On the other side, they hear Pope ask in a very amused voice, “I thought this was your house?”

John B sighs the deepest sigh they’ve ever heard before replying, “Yeah, I did, too.”

“Ten bucks they’re gonna talk shit about us.” JJ says and there’s a not so subtle bump against the door that gives away the fact that he’s got his ear pressed to it, trying to listen in on them; a fact that gets proven when Sailor smacks her hand on it and makes him stumble back with a yelp of surprise.

“Dream on!”

“You wish!”

She and Kiara call at the same time, then glance at each other and burst into another fit of giggles.

“Tough break, dude. You’ll feel better in the morning.” That was John B’s tactless way of saying he’s tired without actually saying it and seconds later they hear his footsteps disappear down the hall to his room as he makes his escape, followed faintly by the sound of his door swinging shut.

“You don’t talk about us at all, Sail? Seriously?” JJ asks and Sailor can almost feel the sheer force of Pope’s inevitable eye roll when he mumbles under his breath, “Oh my God.”

Kiara’s on the same wavelength as him because she rolls her eyes, too and all but yells, “If we say yes will you fucking leave?”

There’s a pause and then: a slightly miffed “...yes.” along with Pope trying and failing to disguise his laugh as a cough.

“Then yes, we do talk about you. Now go.”

“Okay, okay! Jeez.”

“Goodnight, boys!” Sailor calls in a singsong voice before hearing them retreat to the living room, arguing about who gets the sleeper sofa and who gets stuck with the regular couch. When she’s sure they’re gone she shakes her head fondly (she doesn’t see why they can’t just get over themselves and share the damn thing) and turns back to Kiara, who’s already in the middle of pulling the damp comforter from the bed, her face the picture of disgust.

“Ugh,” She shudders, tossing it to the floor and then wiping her hands on a discarded towel from earlier. “Don’t touch that.”

“No shit.”

The dark haired girl jokingly flips Sailor the bird and then joins her in lounging on the bed, watching the fan spin in circles above their heads while the storm outside continues to rage on. The silence is comforting, soothing, and goes on for so long that the redhead’s nearly sent off to dreamland by the sound of the rain before Kiara finally speaks, “Hey, Sail?”

She hums in response, slowly turning her head to face her and blinking the sleep out of her eyes.

“Can I ask you something?”

“You just did.” She replies with an impish grin, but it slips from her face when the other girl shoots her a flat, unamused glance.

“Ha ha. I’m being serious, okay?”

Well that wasn’t worrying at all. “Is something wrong?” Sailor asks, rolling onto her side to face her friend completely and propping her head on her arm, all traces of lethargy thrown out the window. Kiara does the same with an unreadable look in her eyes as she answers, “No, I’m just a little...okay, a lot curious about something, and I want you to be honest with me.”

“I mean, I kind of have to. You know I suck at lying.”

She frowns when Kiara doesn’t even react to her comment and instead starts to worry her bottom lip between her teeth. “It’s kind of a personal question, though.”

Oh, Jesus. She’s gonna ask about her dad, Sailor knows it, and that’s something she’s just not ready to talk about -she hasn’t even told JJ the whole story yet and she tells him (almost) everything- but before she can think of a semi-decent excuse, or run to the bathroom, or pretend to just pass the fuck out, Kiara blurts, “What’s the deal between you and JJ?”

Okay, that’s decidedly not what she expected to hear and it completely throws her for a loop, her brain blowing a fuse in epic fashion. A long stream of gibberish comes from her mouth as she tries and fails to articulate a response because holy hell she’s so not prepared for this; she’s a listener, not a talker! She’s the confidante not the confider, the asker not the answerer, and she can feel herself getting a little sweaty at just the thought of talking about her feelings, even with someone as close to her as Kiara. She almost wishes the other girl had asked about her dad.

To be honest she should’ve seen this coming, considering the looks Kiara’s been sending her recently and especially today, the ones that clearly meant that the dark haired girl’s seen what’s been happening and wants. that. tea. What Sailor doesn’t get though, is why she’s being so serious about it: she expects at least an overexaggerated wink or a teasing comment or two from her friend but she’s just waiting patiently, the slightest hint of mirth in her eyes.

Finally, the redhead manages to collect her panicked thoughts enough to squeak oh so eloquently, “Me-him-nothing!”

Kiara arches one eyebrow. “Sail, you really do suck at lying.”

Sailor flops back onto the bed and slides her hands down her furiously blushing face with a groan. “I’m not lying.” She mutters insistently but even she can admit it sounds weak as hell.

“It’s obvious there’s something-”

Something in her snaps and before she can stop them, words just start coming out with the force of a wave crashing against the shore, rough and callous. “It’s obvious there’s nothing going on, okay? Nothing. And even if there was -not that I’m saying there is- it can’t happen. That’s the golden rule, Kie.”

Kiara looks momentarily taken aback at the redhead’s outburst and then rolls onto her back, staring at the ceiling for a moment before she whispers quietly, like a secret she’s reluctant to share, “Maybe I think that rule is stupid.”

“Stupid?” Sailor glances over incredulously, the brief flash of anger aimed at her friend slowly morphing into confusion. “You’re the one who came up with it in the first place!”

“I know...” The dark haired girl sighs, tiredly running her hands through her hair, “I wanted to keep things from getting weird! It’s worked pretty well so far but I’m kind of, sort of, maybe starting to think it might not have been the best idea.”

“Why?” She asks, brow furrowing.

Kiara appears deep in thought as she keeps staring at the ceiling, working her jaw until she seems to come to a decision and turns her head to look Sailor in the eye. “Because I don’t think something as simple as a rule should be able to dictate who you can or can’t...love.”

Oh, God. Anxiety starts to take hold in her chest and she tries to keep her brain from going into five-alarm fire mode, her fingers tapping nervously against her leg. Why oh why did she have to say the L-word? Who said anything about that? Hell, it’s been a few months and she’s still getting used to her world-changing, panic-inducing, everything-clicking-into-place epiphany that made her realize that she does, in fact, like JJ as more than a friend (how and when her feelings changed, she hasn’t quite figured that out yet.). She’s not even close to thinking about love. Noticing her friend’s distress, Kiara reaches over to place her darker hand on the paler girl’s and gives it a reassuring squeeze.

“I’m not saying you love him, okay? But there’s obviously something good going on between you guys and I’m not cool with some dumb rule we made when we were twelve getting in the way of your happiness,” Her mouth curls into a lighthearted smirk, “even if it happens to be with someone as, uh, distinct as JJ.”

Despite herself, Sailor snorts a laugh and the tight feeling in her chest slowly starts to become a little more bearable as its replaced by a swell of gratitude that she has a person as wonderful as Kiara for a friend. She really did luck out in that department, she thinks, and the corner of her mouth lifts in a small smile.

“Distinct?”

“Hey, I was gonna say idiotic but I’m trying to be nice here.” The dark haired girl says, laughing as Sailor affectionately rolls her eyes before continuing, “But you do know that if he messes this up I’ll kick his ass, right?”

“Trust me, I do.”

“Good.” She punctuates that with a massive yawn, then rolls away from her and pulls the sheets higher over her chest, mumbling, “Now I don’t know about you, but I’m ready for bed. All this deep talk made me tired.”

“Big mood,” Sailor replies, reaching over and flicking off the bedside lamp, the only light now coming from the occasional flash of lightning through the windows as she rolls comfortably onto her side, tucking her arm under the pillow. Silence settles over them, dark and calm and stretching for who knows how long before she says quietly, “Thanks, Kie.”

There’s no answer. Realizing she must’ve already nodded off, the redhead’s just about to crash herself when her friend’s reply softly cuts through the silence like a knife.

“You’re not the only one I did it for.”

Kiara doesn’t say anything after that and Sailor falls asleep wondering what, or rather who, exactly the other girl meant.

let me know what you think!

taglist ❤ (i added everyone who’s comments and reblogs made me smile so let me know if you don’t want to be tagged!) : @jiaraendgame @obxlife @sunflowerbecca @maysbanks @obx-adventures @mortifiedposts @sexualparkour @coltonparayyko @heavensalreadyheres

#outer banks #jj maybank #obx netflix #outer banks netflix #jj maybank x reader #jj maybank x oc #jj maybank fic #obx fic #outer banks fic #jj x oc #jj x reader #my fics #obx #outer banks fanfiction #jj maybank imagine

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appreciatethefoolishness · 5 years ago

Text

BUNNY TROUBLE | 01

01 | 02 | 03 | 04 | 05 | 06 | 07

― pairing: Jeongguk x reader ― genre: fluff, future smut, (kind of) hybrid!jeongguk, bunny!jeongguk, magical wishes, Taehyung!best friend, crack/humor lol I tried, swearing ― word count: 5.9k ― summery: A quick decision to save a hurt bunny on the side of the road might not seem like a big deal to many people, Y/N doesn't think much of it either and decides to take care of the little male rabbit but what she doesn't expect is when he one night turns into a human and hell breaks loose...

― A/N: So today’s my birthday so I thought what better way to celebrate it than uploading the first part of the series I’ve worked on for a little more than a week now? I hope you like it and I’ll start writing part two as soon as possible! posted: June 23, 2019

don’t post/copy my work without my permission ©

“So what are you gonna do now?” Taehyung’s low voice filled your ear as you walked down the long sidewalk.

A heavy sigh left your lips, the cardboard box in your hand was impossible to ignore and just reminded you of how bad your day had been. Not only did you burn your breakfast, miss the bus which made you late to work but you also lost your job today.

“Honestly, I’ve no idea,” you answered, feeling how your eyebrows furrowed together, “I don’t even know why that evil hag fired me in the first place!”

As Taehyung could see your facial expression through the phone he laughed, “Maybe ‘cause she’s evil?” and you snorted at that, sure your boss, or more like ex-boss, was a bitch but did she really have to take her anger out on poor you? “Anyway, do you want to come over? My shift ends soon so maybe we could watch a movie, maybe that one you told me about a few weeks ago?”

“Oh, you remember that? Then yes, please I just want to forget about this day ever happened.” You whined and threw your head back to see the dark sky above, even the gray clouds matched your mood today. “I’ll go to you now.”

“Great,” you could hear his smile, “see you later, bae.”

“I told you not to call me tha-”, you started saying but he had already hung up on you making you roll your eyes. “Taehyung!” you exclaimed but you couldn’t keep the corners of your mouth from turning upwards. Your best friend was such an idiot, you thought shaking your head before turning off your phone and putting it in your pocket.

You tried to keep smiling but it was difficult, you just lost your income and would have to start searching for a new job as soon as possible and who knew when you would be hired again?

“Aish,” you hissed before kicking a small stone lying in your way and watched how it rolled away toward the ditch on the side of the sidewalk. You didn’t really think much of it and kept walking but a strange noise made you stop in your tracks. A weak whimpering sound made you turn your head and look down, a gasp fell from your lips and you dropped the box.

“Oh, God,” you whispered as you got down on your knees to get a closer look at the little bunny, his black fur was covered in red liquid and dirt and your heart sunk immediately. He had an ugly wound on his back, it was a deep jack and though you weren’t a vet you could tell just by looking at it that it required medical help. “What happened to you..?”

You didn’t know if the bunny was still alive until he moved his small nose to whine measly, his big brown eyes were teary when they locked with yours. His ears were flat against his head, he ground his teeth and his whole body shivered as if he was cold. His eyes were pleading and you didn’t even need to think before you had picked up your box again to throw out the inside material so all the papers flew everywhere and your stapler and shit landed on the ground with a thud but you didn't care. You tried to take a deep breath to calm yourself down and cupped your shaking fingers to gently lift up the dying animal in your hands and you noticed how small he actually was, he could fit in your hands without any problem so he couldn’t weigh more than just 1 kg.

You could tell he wasn’t a wild hare but a pet rabbit which only made it even more difficult to bare and as warily as you possible could you placed the animal in the box. You felt a little dizzy standing up and looking down at the mess with all your office supplies lying on the ground before you but you couldn’t care less, you were already fired and would probably not be able to use that stuff anyway for a long time. And without wasting any more time you started speed-walking toward your best friend’s workplace.

“Shh,” you hushed the small thing as he whimpered again and it almost sounded like a sob, “you’ll be okay, Bunny, I’ll save you, just hold on.” You mumbled feeling his starry eyes on you and you swallowed hard to prevent yourself from crying, you just couldn’t handle seeing animals hurt.

A few minutes later you were pushing up the heavy door with your back and storming into the empty waiting room, totally out of breath. “TAEHYUNG!” you called out with a panic-filled voice as you moved toward the room where you knew the needed equipment where.

“What?! What is it!?” he yelled back and opened the door to the room, his eyes were wide making the white in them pop matching his doctor coat. You didn’t have time to answer as you rushed passed him into the room and put the box on the metal bed.

You turned to him, flushed cheeks with your chest going up and down. “It’s a b-bunny… he’s hurt!” you shuttered as Taehyung shut the door and you could clearly see how his brows pulled up in confusion but without questing he ran up to the bed to examine the little creature.

With his latex gloves, he gently picked the coal colored bunny up to put him on the bed tissue and started to look at the sore. The bunny tried to jump into the box again and yelped as he tried to escape Taehyung's grip when he started to touch the bloody wound and you bit on your thumb nail uneasy. “Where did you find him?” Taehyung asked as he made a face and moved with the bunny toward the tap to run warm water over his back which made him whimper again and your breath got caught in your throat. Even though you just met this rabbit today you felt thousands of things for him.

“O-on the side... of t-the road.” You said but you couldn’t keep your eyes from watering. “Will he b-be okay?”

Taehyung hummed, “Yeah, though it’s a deep wound so I have to use stitches.”

A surprisingly growl rose from the back of the bunny's throat as he jumped out of Taehyung's hands but before he could get any further your best friend had caught him again and the rabbit hissed.

“Yes, please do.” You tried to blink away the unleashed tears from your eyes which made Taheyung looked up.

“He’ll be okay, ____.” He said, seriousness covering his features as he gave you a reassuring smile. “I promise.”

You nodded and let him continue the rescue by applying some anesthetize before taking out a curled needle, needle driver and some medical thread to start stitching. You helped to hold the bunny down and as your hands touched his shaky figure he stopped struggling and just high pitched whines escaped from his little mouth. Taehyung worked quickly but precisely, each stitch was carefully sewed and you had never seen him so focused on one task, his brows were furrowed and hands steady.

"What do you think hurt him?" you asked as he snipped the thread and backed away from the bunny to clean all his tools in the sink.

The now free rabbit looked up and turned his head to look around the room and when his gaze fell on you, you expected him to immediately run away but unexpectedly he jumped into your arms instead. You were surprised to say at least but were quick to wrap your hands around his body and held him against your chest, your heart fluttered at the action.

"It looked like a laceration so probably some other animal but I have no idea," Taehyung replied with his back turned to you. "By the way, how did you know it was a guy?"

"Um," you were still puzzled by the closeness of the rabbit, his whimpers had stopped and his face was now rubbing against your collarbone. "I don't know… I just guessed."

"Well you were right," he said and turned around with a smile on his face and it only brightened when he saw the bunny in your embrace, "and the little guy seems to really like you."

You grinned before gently bringing your fingers up to pet your new friend’s head and he didn't protest as he just closed his eyes and cuddled closer to you. "Oh, he's so cute." You cooed and the fur felt so soft against your fingertips, "aren't you the cutest? Yeah, aren’t you are a cutie, Guk?"

You didn’t know what that name came from but you liked it.

"Guk?" Taehyung's repeated and his voice startled you a bit, "shouldn't you give him a proper name?" he teased. "Guk is too short, give him a full name."

You playfully rolled your eyes at him, "okay then, this is Jeon…," you trailed off as your inspiration died halfway through and Taehyung lifted his eyebrows as in a gesture for you to keep going, "Um, Jeon...jeongguk. Yeah, Jeon Jeongguk."

"Really?"

"Yeah, I like it," you defended yourself toward his uncertain voice.

"Okay, then go for it."

"I will," you sassed back but not even a second after you remembered something important, "but wait why are we even naming him? What if he already has an owner?"

Taehyung sucked on his bottom lip before shaking his head making his hazel mop of hair move like waves. "I doubt it, he doesn't have a collar on and neither seems to be chipped."

"But then… what are we gonna do with him? He needs a home." You mumbled and Taehyung gave you that look again, "what?"

"Well, maybe his new home is much closer than you think." He said with a glint in his dark eyes.

"You mean…," you started but he didn’t let you finish.

"Yeah, didn't you talk about being jealous over pet owners? Well now are one." And Taehyung’s words became more true then you first though because a few days later Jeongguk moved into your apartment and you couldn’t be happier.

But of course, not everything brought you joy especially when you tried to work, Jeongguk was, for lack for a better word, an attention whore. Not that it was a bad thing, you loved how much he wanted to spend time with you and seemed to adore everything you did but when you had to focus on writing your CV your bunny’s constantly honking sounds and running did not help at all.

“Oh, God,” you mumbled as you moved your fingers away from the keyboard on your computer. You were sitting in your living room on the couch with Jeongguk energetically jumping all over it, trying to get your attention and well, it certainly worked. “Sweetie,” you sighed and reached out to stroke his silky fur and he purred in victory as he got what he wanted, “you must let me do this so I can send it in to more companies and eventually get a new job, you know I can’t take care of you if I don’t earn any money.” Jeongguk tilted his head just slightly as he was listening to you, “yeah, so be a good boy and stay still for me or go somewhere else and play, okay?”

And after that, he sat quietly beside you only licking and nibbling on your hand from time to time but it didn’t bother you and you finished writing and editing your document rather quickly and after you pressed the last ‘send’ button you were done.

“Okay, now we’ll just wait and see how it goes,” you announced, closed your laptop before placing it on the coffee table in front of you and turning to the bunny again, “and you’ve been such a good bunny and deserve some well-earned cuddles.” You cooed, brought him up against your chest and he immediately started humming while you petted him. “How’s your wound by the way? Is it healing nicely?” you asked and moved your fingers to be able to see the stitches across his back, “Ah, it looks good, we just have to wash it again today and soon we’ll remove them and you’ll be like new!”

A few hours later of you two watching TV (A bake off because for some reason you loved watching them even though you never baked) and Jeongguk seemed to also find the screen with all the moving pictures interesting. Just like you he liked carrots but without the dip, obviously, but he took the word ‘like’ to the next level, he nibbled so passionately on the orange sticks you gave him that had to stop before he ate too much.

You hadn’t said it out loud yet but Jeongguk had become such an important part of your life these last few weeks and you couldn’t remember how you managed to survive without him before. He always made you feel less lonely and brought out a smile on your face when you felt devastated due to being unemployed. You two fell into a daily routine almost immediately with him waking you up early in the morning by running around your apartment before jumping on your bed so you would pet and feed him as soon as possible.

In the beginning, he used to sleep under the dinner table or in his indoor house that you and Taehyung had built together but after a while, he started to creep up on your bed to sleep beside you. Of course, you were surprised, especially after you asked Taehyung and he confirmed that no, it was not normal for bunnies to sleep beside their owner, but mostly thrilled and happy but who wouldn’t if a cute bunny wanted to cuddle you to sleep? It almost seemed to be too perfect to be true and soon you discovered that living with a hormonal rabbit had its flaws...

As the dark silence slowly swept you into dreamland a weird feeling on your leg made you open your eyes and you stirred awake. Dazed you reached out to the light on your nightstand to turn it on and when the brightness lit up the room the sight that greeted you would certainly be hard to forget.

“Oh, my God, no!” you cried out as Jeongguk humped your leg. His small hips were thrusting against your bare skin and you quickly lifted him up in the air, separating him from your body. “Stop, we're not the same species! It doesn’t work that way!”

He kept thrusting in the air for a few moments before he realized he wasn’t grinding on anything anymore and he stopped.

“Bad r-rabbit,” you tried to school him, “don’t do that!”

Your stern voice worked surprisingly well and his ears flattened on his head and he whined apologetically and tried to bump his nose against you. You learn from that night that he hated disappointing you and every time you had to lecture him he took it to heart and tried to never do it again but the thing about him humping you- he couldn’t stop it. It was his instincts telling him to do it and you didn’t see yourself spaying him anytime in the future.

Except Jeongguk’s never-ending rutting against your body parts and the sexual aspect to it so was company something he loved. He followed you around everywhere you went and when you had to leave the apartment he always tried to make you stay by protesting, whining and ‘blocking’ the door as best as he could but as soon as you returned home again he would attack you with licks and cuddles and his previous sulking would be long forgotten.

“Oh, hi sweetheart!” you exclaimed as you opened the door to walk inside and an energetic Jeongguk greeted you by jumping up and down.

You put down your two grocery bags to see your little bunny running circles around your feet in excitement as he made happy honking noises and a bubbly laugh rose from your throat.

“Did you miss me?” you cooed and scrooched down to pet him, “I was only away for an hour, why do you always act like I’ve been away for years?” you giggled as he started to climb up your body with his cute paws and then licked your hands and whatever he could reach. “Ah, Guk!” you shrieked and fell on your back and he continued to lick, nuzzle and nibble on your skin.

“Why does it always feel like I’m the third wheel nowadays when I visit you, ____?” a voice a few meters away made you throw your head back on the floor to see an upside-down Taehyung standing in your doorway.

He was dressed in his normal clothes or the most normal Taehyung’s style could be‒ a t-shirt with a simple print on it and jeans. When he wasn't in his vet/doctor coat he usually wore designers like Gucci and Prada. In the beginning you were confused from where he got all that money to spend but eventually figured out that people used their money differently and that’s how.

“Ah, Tae!” you said still slightly laughing and stood up with the excited bunny in your hands, “I promise you’re not, right Jeonggukie?” you asked and held him up toward your friend’s face but instead of agreeing with you he started hissing and kicking to get out of your grip. Surprised you quickly sat him down on the floor but instead of running away he jumped in front of you in a protective manner and grunted hostility at your friend, “What are you doing, Guk? It’s only Taehyung, you don’t have to do that.”

Jeongguk didn’t flinch when you leaned down to collect him but kept hissing and grunting toward Taehyung who looked like a question mark. You tried to calm the bunny down by holding him against your chest and pet him but he still wouldn’t stop glaring at your best friend.

“That’s so weird, he didn’t do this when my mom was here yesterday,” you mumbled as Taehyung closed the door behind him and removed his shoes.

“Maybe he’s just really protective of you, you know in his eyes you’re his and when another guy comes over he might get a bit aggressive? I don’t really know, rabbits aren’t my specialty.” He shrugged and you laughed.

“Oh, that’s so cute!” you said and turned Jeongguk around so he was facing you and he immediately stopped growling, “Too bad you need Tae, otherwise who will remove your stitches, huh? Isn’t that why you’re here?”

Taehyung was already half-way through your kitchen with your grocery bags in his hands, you hadn’t even noticed because you had been too busy talking to your pet and you hurried to his side. “Yeah, but also to make that move night that never happened happen.” He said and opened your fridge to start packing in the milk and eggs you had bought.

“Oh, really?” you carefully put Jeongguk on one of the counters before leaning down to help him, “that’s dope.”

He froze midway through his movement and slowly turned to you with eyebrows slightly pulled together, “Did you just say ‘dope’?” he asked and you could clearly hear the judgement in his voice.

“Yeah, what about it?”

“Oh, wow… I don’t think I can look at you the same way anymore, bae.” He sighed falsely disappointed and shook his head and without hesitating you hit him with the leek in his face.

“If I can’t say dope then you can’t call me bae!” you snorted amused as he rubbed his cheek that had took the hit, “You should call your girlfriend that not me!”

He chuckled and moved closer to you so you had to lean against the stove while he was towering over you, “Why would I want a girlfriend when I already have you, my love?” he also had made his voice much lower and huskier as you gripped the leek in your hand tighter.

A moment passed with you two just staring at each other, his arms were on either side of you trapping you against his body but it was soon over when you burst out laughing. Taehyung’s eyes narrowed like they always did when he smiled and showed his straight teeth.

“Aish, you’re such an idiot,” you giggled and pushed him away, “no, thanks.”

He jokingly winked at you while smirking making you laugh even more but what you didn’t notice was how his smile slowly faded and eyes dropped when he turned away to keep stacking stuff in your fridge. The rest of the evening was spent trying to hold Jeongguk back from biting Taehyung when he cut the bunny’s stitches and to get him to calm down but he would still give your best friend the evil eye every chance he got. And another thing that happened was in the middle of the movie when Jeongguk decided to hump you again but this time with Taehyung as a witness.

"I know _____'s pretty but can’t you at least try to keep it in your pants?" Taehyung chuckled as you tried to pry the bunny off your knee with loud complaints leaving your mouth.

"Jeongguk!" you made an attempt to sound harsh but he didn't even flinch as he kept thrusting against your hand and grunting lightly. He looked at Taehyung with his big brown eyes as he kept going as he wanted to claim you as his but the other male just kept laughing not understand a shit about Jeongguk's intention. "Stop it!"

"He's much more feisty than I first thought," he snickered again and you sighed.

“Oh, tell me about it.” Eventually, you got the bunny to stop by hugging him and stroking the bottom of his long ears and he rapidly calmed down and started to grind his teeth showing how much he loved your affection. "You know, the humping is kind of cute in a weird way." You spoke after a while and Taehyung just shook his head at that.

"I repeat; I can't look at you the same way anymore," he joked and you hit him with the hand that didn't hold Jeongguk. "Ouch! What was that for?" and you just shrugged. "Anyway, instead of talking about your weird rabbit what about the meteor shower that will take place in two weeks?"

"The meteor-what?" you asked and turned to him.

"Yeah, you know shooting stars and shit like that," he explained with a small smile on his face, "Wanna go to Han River and wish for some money with me?"

You snorted before caressing Jeongguk's fur again, "sure but don't expect the wish to become true."

"Oh, trust me, if you really want something, anything’s possible."

The next week passed with you going to different job interviews and after a particularly long one, you couldn't wait to come home to be able to complain to Jeongguk about it. He was a good listener and cuddle buddy who didn't seem to mind all your endless talk about life and shit like that.

You were thankful you had remembered to bring an umbrella with you as you walked toward your apartment. The rain hit the shelter above your head with small tapping sounds and the sky had slowly turned from a light blue color to a gray one.

After fishing out your key from your pocket and unlocking the door to open it you were met with nothing. There was no bunny attacking you with kisses or anything like that- just dead silence.

"Jeongguk?" you called out and closed the door behind you with a thud. "Jeonggukie?? Are you here?"

This had never happened before, he usually waited for you in front of the door and this absence made you anxious. You dropped the long-forgotten umbrella on the floor and swallowed hard, you started looking for him with your heart beating a little faster then usual.

"Guk?" you said again but softer, after searching through your bedroom without any success you felt how your voice began to shiver.

Panic rose up from your stomach to your chest and the constantly whipping against the windows by the rain only added to the pressure. Lightness blinked through the apartment for a millisecond making you look outside to the storm and a moment later thunder rumbled in your ears. You almost didn't even notice as you walked into the living room still looking for your Jeongguk and a small whine made you stop. It came from under the couch and you were quick to get down on the floor to check if he really was there. He usually only hid under furniture when he wanted to chew on it but this time it was for a different reason.

The heavy weight lifted from your shoulder by the sight of him even though he looked so small and pitiful with his long ears covering his eyes. His whole body quivered when more sobs leaked out of his mouth.

"Oh, baby~," you cooed and reach out to touch him but he shied away as more lightning and thunder struck through the apartment. "Are you afraid of the thunder?"

He whimpered again and your heart broke, just like the first time you saw him he looked scared and frightened but this time you didn't know what to do. To force him out of his hiding place didn't seem like a good idea at all and it wasn't like you could turn the storm outside off. Hesitantly you sat up to lean against the couch, still with your hand under it to let him know that you were there for him. Another thunder thud wrecked through the room which made Jeongguk hiss terrified at it and the heavy feeling in your chest increased. Without thinking about it you started humming comforting to your bunny just like your mom had when you were a kid and dreamt nightmares.

Soon the humming turned into soft words falling from your lips, you weren't a singer, far from it, but you could hold a tone or two. You didn't know if it helped the poor bunny anything but you kept singing lowly with the rain in the background, the song was from the radio that you had heard a few days ago and it had calmed you down so why wouldn't it work for Jeongguk too?

You didn't hear any growling or sobs as you skipped the part of the song you didn't remember the lyrics to and focused on the chorus where you confidently mumbled the lovely words out in the air.

Honey it's true

There ain't nothing I can do

'Cause there's no place

No place like you~

You didn't know for how long you sat there and sang but after a few minutes you felt something soft against your fingers under the couch and you soon realized it was Jeongguk's little nose. He rubbed his face, butt his head against your hand and licked on it before quickly crawling out to jump on your lap. His ears were still pushed back but his eyes didn't wander when the thunder attacked again and just looked at you with the stars in them shining brightly as he cuddled closer to you. You didn't even need to say anything as you embraced his petty form, letting him rest in the space between your breasts, where your heart was. Even though there were many questions surrounding your bunny like the ones about his wound and his oblivious fear of storms, you still didn't know exactly how he got hurt or from whom neither the reason why he reacted so strongly toward the thunder, maybe he was traumatized? Either way, you hugged him tightly and kissed his head.

"I'm here," you whispered between heart beats, "you're okay."

Tae not his bae✨: Today, 19.36

Sorry I know it was I who suggested it but I can't come tonight and watch the stars with u :(

_______________________________________

You: Today, 19.38

What? No :(( Why did something happen?

_______________________________________

Tae not his bae✨: Today, 19.38

Im so sorry Something came up and I have to work overtime tonight Again I'm sorry but I hope you can enjoy the stars without me

_______________________________________

You: Today, 19.42

It's okay Tae Don't worry about it I won't forget to wish for money for you ❤️

_______________________________________

Tae not his bae ✨: Today, 19.43

Yes love u Wish for big cash I don't want small change ❤️❤️❤️

_______________________________________

You: Today, 19.43

Yeah yeah Luv u too 💞

_______________________________________

You looked down at your phone with a crease between your brows. You didn't like the thought of him overworking himself and the fact that he would miss the thing he had seemed really excited about. With a sigh you started to remove the makeup you had applied for going out to the Han River, you figured it was better to stay home, you didn't feel like going out alone without your friend anyway.

"So it's only you and me now," you said turning in your chair to Jeongguk who laid on your bed watching you. "Wanna go to the balcony with me?"

The sky was just as beautiful as Taehyung had promised, black with thousands of shining stars lighting it up and the small moon stood stately in the middle of everything. With a glass of wine in your hand and the other stroking Jeongguk's fur while he laid comfortable in your lap as usual, you waited for the meteor to start falling.

"Wasn't it typical that Tae would diss me at the last minute?" you mumbled out loud and took another sip, letting the bitter taste of the red liquid paint the inside of your cheeks. "Now I can't tell him but I think I might get one of the jobs which means I finally can spoil you! I'll buy anything you would like, hmm…. what 'bout carrots? Or I don't know, what does a bunny want?"

Jeongguk looked at you with his intelligent eyes as his nose twitched and his cuteness caused you to coo at him. "I'm so lucky I have you, Gukkie, you know?" you sputtered before leaning down to give him a kiss on his head, he ground his teeth making a purring sound almost like a cat as you leaned back again and chuckled lazily, "you know, sometimes I just wish you could speak to me just like I do, then you could tell me what I should buy for you..." you sighed, feeling a little light-headed from all the alcohol, it was your third glass and you didn't plan on stop drinking anytime soon. By coincidence, you looked up and realized that some of the bright dots had started falling, "Oh, Jeongguk, look! Shooting stars!" The bunny followed your finger that pointed at the sky and hummed lightly, he didn't care about the stars like you did as you clasped your hands together in front of you before closing your eyes, just like a prayer, "If you exist you great God in heaven," you began shouting as the cold air hit your face making your hair fly in the wind, "please give me and Tae-Tae some money, we need it!"

The rest of the night contained you admiring and taking pictures of the wonderful sky while finishing the bottle of wine and talking to your pet. Jeongguk couldn't speak but it was clear that he was worried about your drunk ass, though you tried to convince the little one you were okay being tipsy didn't help your case at all. You later fell face plant on the bed and Jeongguk was quick to jump up beside you as you two fell asleep.

“Good night, baby boy~,” you faltered and snuggled your way under the duvet and the small rabbit nestled closer to you, "Sweet dreams…"

The next morning you woke up with a hideous headache and feeling extremely warm, too warm and with an unfamiliar heavy weight on top of you. Half asleep you whined by the unfamiliarity and tried to move away from it but a strong arm around your stomach forced you back to the warmth again.

"Huh?" you muttered, laying on your back and turned your head to the side to see a guy's face only a few centimeters from yours.

At first, you didn't react, still weary of sleep and a pounding head, and just stared at his obvious beauty. His features were delicate, dark brown brows barely visible through his bangs, in the same color, that covered most of his forehead. His eyes were closed as he slept making his long eyelashes stand out more against his honey skin, his button nose, and sharp jawline- he looked just like a model. He snored lightly, his pouty lips parted and you took notice how the guy looked to be around your age or maybe a little younger. As your eyes eventually drifted lower to his naked torso it was like the lightning struck you and you suddenly remembered the situation and your eyes sharply widened. With a high-pitched scream, you fell off the bed and took the duvet with you.

"WHO THE FUCK ARE YOU?!" you exclaimed as you struggled to stand with the thick blanket wrapped around your form.

The pretty guy stirred in his sleep, his eyelids fluttered as he slowly propped himself up onto his forearms and when he did that you noticed his clothes or more like his lack of clothing. "What? What's the matter?" he questioned with hooded eyes, his voice was raspy with sleep and surprisingly sweet and calm, unlike you who felt your whole chest rising up and down with the adrenaline pumping through your veins.

In survival mood you grabbed the first thing you could reach which was a book from your bookshelf to point at him with it. "STAY AWAY, I HAVE THE FIFTH HARRY POTTER BOOK AND I'M NOT AFRAID TO USE IT!" you threatened and backed away while eyeing the naked guy. "I'M ASKING AGAIN; WHO ARE YOU AND WHY ARE YOU NAKED??"

The stranger who had awoken from all your fuss rubbed his eyes before opening them fully and your breath hitched. Big sparkling dark eyes that seemed almost too familiar but it couldn't be possible… "What do you mean?" he asked, brows furrowed behind his bangs and tilted his head to the side just like someone you knew all too well did, "How can you not recognize your own bunny?"

When those words left his rosy lips the thick book slipped from your hand and landed on your foot but you didn't even flinch at the pain as you stared at him.

"J-jeongguk?" you breathed and your jaw fell slack.

"Yes?" he smiled but it quickly died on his lips when he saw your horrified face. Hesitantly, he followed your glance at his body and froze, his doe eyes widened and he gasped before locking eyes with you again. Jeongguk's expression mirrored your own, fear and confusion mixed together as he looked back at his hands to examine them and then up again meeting your eyes. Together you screamed so loudly your neighbors probably woke up to wounder what the hell was going on, and well you asked yourself the same question.

What the actually fuck?

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aiden-png · 4 years ago

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to celebrate the end of 2020, I’ve decided to share the highlights of the writing I did this year! I’m going to share a few of my favorite snippets from 2020, and I think this could be a fun tag meme to invite friends to join in on so they can appreciate their progress and hard work too! I couldn’t have written so much if it wasn’t for the great online community supporting me and all my wonderfully talented friends!!

I’m gonna tag @freshie-writes @silverdragon-imagines-blog @st0rmy-writes @fuckit-hero-of-trains @no-themes-just-memes @timeturner-jay and anyone else who wants to join in, feel free! you don’t have to do this if you don’t want to, but you all wrote amazing things this year and I’m gonna appreciate you for them!!

snippets below the cut (please do this or make a new post if you wanna join, just so we don’t flood everyone’s dashboard lol!)

it’s difficult to count for certain, but across 7 google docs from April to December 2020, I wrote 324,782 words just of Legend of Zelda fanfic! it’s been a crazy fun year and I think my writing has improved a ton since I started writing fic again in April! thank you all for supporting me through the last 9 months!! <3

here’s a highlight of some of my favorite excerpts from fics I wrote this year! Smoke on the Wind and Dream With Me are two of my favorite pieces I wrote this year for angst, while Four Feet of Pure Flirtation and Lessons in Love are my favorites for crack/fluff :D the other snippets are featured bc I’m proud of how the fics turned out !

Dream With Me: June 28, 2020 Legend and Hyrule sat on the beach, a mere two feet separating them. It felt like much more. Farther than they’d ever been apart before. The other heroes stumbled onto the sand, frozen in shock as they took in the scene before them. Legend, knife drawn and hands shaking dangerously. Hyrule, knees buried in the sand and hands held over his chest, trying desperately not to reach out again. The sun was rising, pinks disappearing into vibrant gold and crushed purple and bright blue. As dawn broke, their vision wavered. Hyrule gasped, Legend blurring before him, the sand beneath him fading, the roar of the waves diminishing. Magic hour was ending. “This isn’t a dream,” Hyrule whispered, and Legend’s shoulders shook with silent sobs. “I’m real. I’m here. Legend, come with me.” Hyrule stretched out his arm, fingers splayed, eyes begging. Legend flinched back, dagger slipping from shaking fingers. He stared, disbelieving. Vertigo consumed Hyrule’s senses, his vision clouding with black dots. “Take my hand, Legend!” Hyrule cried, and Legend jumped. He sprung forward, hand grasping. Hyrule felt nothing as Legend’s hand passed through his. “Hyrule!” He blinked, and found himself in an unfamiliar field, reaching towards sunrise.

Smoke on the Wind: August 7, 2020 Wind hadn’t always had this ability, but before his second adventure, before the ghosts became tangible to his skin and visible to his eyes, he still had a sixth sense of sorts to rely on. Back then he’d called it instinct, but now he called it a curse. It never helped him do better on his adventure, never showed him the way, never allowed him to prevent someone’s demise--only forced him to bear witness to it in all its excruciatingly gory detail. Some spoke of death like a mercy, others like a boon. Wind knew death like an old friend and he despised it with all the rage contained in his tiny body. Some feared death, some prayed for its delay. Wind feared no man, god, or figment of imagination. There was no reason to fear something he couldn’t prevent, there was no reason to pray to something that would never hear or listen. Some ran from death, some hid. Wind stared death in the eye and spat in its face. He thrust a magical fucking sword through its head and banished it to a watery grave.

Four Feet of Pure Flirtation: June 26, 2020 Maybe he should have shared just a tad bit more with them, but that was a regret for future Four to deal with. And really, he hadn’t been expecting it himself, so they couldn’t exactly blame him when Dark Link materialized in their camp one morning and sent Four’s heart racing in an unfamiliar-familiar way. Four felt the heat crawl up his chest, felt his tongue loosen, felt his eyes trail over Dark’s lithe form just a bit too slow to be innocent. No one had told him Dark was attractive. Although, Vio reminded him, we are the only ones attracted to villains. We are most decidedly not! Four shot back. The denial was empty. They most decidedly were.

Hero Through the Ages: June 19, 2020 Wild sighed, chin resting on his knees. He glanced over at Sky, feeling anxiety buzz within him as a question pushed at the back of his mind. “Hey, Sky… does the sword still recognize me?” Sky froze at the unexpected question, eyes searching Wild’s carefully schooled expression. Wild felt his anxiety rise but he held his ground as the older hero tentatively reached back and unsheathed the Master Sword. He closed his eyes for a moment, and Wild tried hard not to notice the new eyes on them as he waited for Sky’s response. He knew what the answer should be, but when the other slowly opened his eyes and held the sword out for Wild, it was still conflicting to feel the familiar weight of it in his hands. Not too heavy. Not burning. Perfectly at home, as if he’d just begun his adventure and still had many years left before the Calamity struck. Wild felt a pit in his stomach as he handed the sword back, Sky’s concerned gaze not helping. “How old were you when you pulled the sword?” Sky asked quietly, and Wild stared at his hands as they trembled slightly in his lap. “Too young.”

A Shower to Remember: July 4, 2020 Enter Twilight and Wild. TWILIGHT I can see thee up th’re. Come hither. I simply wish to speak with thee.

Enter Legend to Shower Crashers. LEGEND all’s well that ends well, I believe our plan hath been a success. cheers to thee all. FOUR didst thou not see Wild running for his life not a minute past? LEGEND that is’t his problem, not mine.

Lessons in Love: July 9, 2020 The offer though, that’s what truly made Legend pause. Show you the ropes, he’d said. He should be insulted that Ravio thought he was that hopeless, but the man wasn’t wrong. Legend was absolutely, positively hopeless, evidenced by the situation he now found himself in. Should he say no and move on? Should he accept--and then what? Maybe he should laugh it off, say he was joking, or perhaps he should come clean now and tell Ravio how he felt? But he still didn’t know if Ravio felt the same, those dark eyes betraying nothing in the fading light of sunset. So, naturally, Legend continued to panic. “What do you mean by ‘show me the ropes’?” Legend asked, quick, defensive enough to pass as insulted. Ravio snorted, tasting the hot chocolate, and Legend’s eyes were drawn to his lips once more as if under a spell. “I mean no offense, Link,” Ravio laughed, seeming not to catch the blush on Legend’s face as Ravio used his name. “I just figured you might want some pointers. Flirting, hand holding, relationship advice, y’know? You don’t have to accept the offer by any means!” Flirting? Hand holding? Legend gulped. He was already an idiot. Maybe he could play dumb for a little while longer…

Scars: June 2, 2020 “I used to try and cover myself in public--I didn’t like the way people would whisper or stare when they saw. But eventually I came to accept the scars as part of me. I remembered how I got them, and I realized I wouldn’t be the person I am today without the journey that led to me getting these scars. And I like who I am…” Wild trailed off, sifting sand through his fingers as Warriors listened. “I’ve come to love my scars, because they hold such important memories for me. Even if some of the memories aren’t so great, I wouldn’t be who I am today without them, you know? And I wouldn’t trade that for anything.”

Beneath the Surface: July 13, 2020 For the first few months he had lied to himself, blaming the others or the weather or Shadow or Vaati or anything rather than admitting he had a problem. But Blue did, in fact, have a problem, and fighting and yelling it out wasn’t the healthiest solution. For the others it was easy. Green had Vio, for Wind could rarely move Earth, and Red got along with everyone he was so full of love to give. But Blue wasn’t good at teamwork, he wasn’t good at strategizing, and he wasn’t good at showing affection--he was good at being angry, and that was it. He was the protector, the toughest of them all in strength and will; but when you’re always protecting others, no one protects you. Not like Blue made it easy for the others to approach him, and he didn’t blame them for giving up. They were all struggling, they all had their own issues, and while Wind was a gentle breeze and Fire a warming comfort and Earth a steady rock--Water was impossible to hold down. He was forever changing, flowing, and while it meant that he could adapt well to new situations, it also meant that every time he felt close to getting a handle on his emotions they would slip from his grasp once more. His magic ebbed and swayed and his emotions followed their tide, not his, and so he pushed others away rather than admit he couldn’t handle himself. If protecting them meant distancing himself, then so be it.

The Point of No Return: June 19, 2020 He turned back to Four, brushing the back of his hand across his cheek. He’d wanted to share a meal with his partner. He’d wanted to see Four’s small smile--just for him--as he tried Hylian food for the first, second, hundredth time. Long ago, they’d promised to travel the world together. Four wanted to share everything with him; wanted to show him the forge, wanted him to meet his Grandfather, wanted to take him to see the Minish. After the adventure, Four had promised. He’d be free to go and do whatever he wanted, right by Four’s side. Well, he was at his side now. And this was not what they’d promised each other.

A Major Test of Strength: May 7, 2020 Even being worthy of the Triforce of Courage didn’t mean he was brave enough to act on, or even think, about how he felt about Sidon. He reasoned it was better not to say anything, especially now. He was going off to a battle he may not return from. Even if he burned to know if Sidon felt the same, it would be selfish to ask knowing he may be leaving for the last time. Link would rather go to the grave with his feelings then leave Sidon alone with them. At least if he died before confessing, Sidon would be able to move on, he hoped. Sidon was his best friend, and that was enough for now.

#aiden writes #tumblr went down right as I was trying to post this oof!#now I can finally send this and tag all my friends !#everyone is so talented and I hope you all know how much I love your work !!!#you deserve to hear how good it is and to feel proud of your accomplishments!#<3!!!

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the-lupine-sojourner · 5 years ago

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The Tale of Astoria Kenobi [Chapter 2] [Obitine and Anidala Featured] [Dad!Obi-Wan/Daughter!OC]

Sorry I forgot this last night! Anyway, here it is!

Y’all have @sunshineisdelightful to thank for, honestly, pretty much all the scenes in this chapter lol.

Sunshine (apt username cus they’re so sweet!) mentioned some fantastic ideas and I ended up using about all of them in this chapter. XD

So next chapter will skip to her Gathering and then it’ll be her hearing about Obi-Wan and Anakin’s adventures protecting Amidala and she really wants to go to Kamino with her ‘uncle’ but she can’t.

And then Plo Koon is like ‘wanna be my Padawan?’ and Astoria’s like ‘yes please!’ and is so thrilled that such a wise, powerful Counsel Member would offer to train her in the Jedi Arts.

Anyway! Tag list! :) A huge thank you to all of these people! @elite-guard-hardygal, @forcearama, Sunshine, who I tagged already, @fwtcanimelover, and @babycollectiondragon135 (I can’t tag you! TT^TT) are all amazing people! If you want to be included in the taglist please just let me know!

Last thing is Links. Chapter 1 Link and the Prologue Link

Now, let’s get to the chapter!

God Bless and Good Day!

~The Lupine Sojourner

I’ve been here at the Temple five years now, and I still haven’t managed to quite master meditation.

I try my best, but though I make some progress, I never get to the point the instructor describes. I’ve never felt the Force around me like he says I should.

It’s embarrassing and no amount of tutoring by Uncle Obi seems to be helping.

Try as I currently might, the end result is failure.

“I just don’t get it!” I groan, flopping on the ground in frustration.

I was trying yet again to understand what Uncle Obi was talking about, but nothing helps.

“Astoria, flopping around and getting frustrated isn’t helping.”

“If you say I need to ‘clear my mind and let my emotions go’ one more time, I’m going to smack you.” I grumble without thinking, sitting up and crossing my arms grumpily.

“I should like to see that.” He teases, chuckling.

“Sorry, Uncle Obi.” I murmur, sobering. “I just...it’s frustrating I still can’t get this.”

Obi-Wan sits beside me, chuckling and wrapping an arm around my shoulders. “You want to know something?” He asks.

“What?”

“When I look into your connection to the Force, and follow it into your core, I see a bright ball of energy, giving off wild, unfocused waves of light. It’s almost stronger than the connection I see in Anakin.”

“Really?”

“Almost.” He scoots me around to face him. “I want to help you, Astoria, believe me. In fact, I could calm your mind myself so your connection to the Force will be clearer. But, if I do that, I risk hurting you and your connection to the Force, and that I will not do. So, we have to take the long way, but we’ll get there.”

I manage a smile. “Thanks, Uncle Obi.”

“Now, shall we try one more time before bed?”

I sigh. “Yeah, just once more.”

This was one of my favorite times of the day, when my adopted uncle and I can just talk and enjoy each other’s company, even though in the presence of other Jedi I have to call him Master Kenobi.

For the first year, I was allowed an adjustment period where the Counsel let some things slide, like informal names and my energy, but after the year ended, they then began to curb those habits and hold me to the standards of the other Younglings.

I was grateful for the adjustment period and am doing my best to live up to the expectations of the Counsel, which made it all the more frustrating that I couldn’t grasp meditation yet.

=#=#=#=#=

“Oh, sorry Master Windu!” I mumble, scooting out of his way after nearly running into him rounding a corner.

“Eyes forward, Youngling.” He replies, not unkindly.

“Yes, Master.” I intone respectfully. He surprises me by turning back curiously.

“Were you headed to meditation?” He asks.

I shift sheepishly. “I’ve got a private lesson from Master Yoda. Seems he’s noticed my repeated failures.”

“Way I see it, the only thing he sees is your potential. Don’t be harsher on yourself than those around you, young one.” He says, surprising me with his gentle tone.

I nod, feeling better. “Thank you, Master Windu.” He nods and I bow my head in farewell. “I’ll be off now.”

“May the Force be with you, Astoria.” He says and I’m shocked he remembers my name.

A very high-ranking Jedi master remembered my name!

I walk down the hall, giddy.

“Something to celebrate, hmm?” Yoda asks, amused, when I walk into the meditation room he was in, noticing my wide smile.

I sit across from him. “Well, it’s just...it’s silly. Let’s start.”

“Meditation, you will not learn if clouded your mind is, little one.” Yoda replies, smiling and tilting his head. “What distracts you, hmm?”

“I almost ran into Master Windu. He gave me a bit of advice and remembered my name. I shouldn’t have let it distract me, Master. I’m sorry.”

“No error it is to find pleasure in small matters, but distractions, they should not become. Now, begin, we can, hmm?”

“Yes, Master Yoda.” Together, we begin to breathe deep and quiet our minds (or try to, in my case).

“Your mother, cloud your thoughts, she does.” Yoda muses.

“Well...she seems stressed lately. Worried about something. She never talks about what’s really going on on Mandalore. I can’t help being curious.” I reply, feeling childish.

“Allowed contact with their families Jedi are, but one must learn balance. Detach yourself from your training, you cannot.”

I flinch subtly, biting my lip. “I won’t, Master. I’m sorry I’ve been a bit distracted lately.”

The meditation practice had dissolved into a lecture.

Great. Master Windu was wrong; Yoda only wanted to scold a failing Youngling.

“Failing, you are not. Succeeding, you are not. Only trying, you are.” Yoda says as if he had read my thoughts.

For all I knew, he had read them like a book.

I frown. “What does that mean, Master?” I ask.

“Do or do not, young Astoria. There is no try.”

“Master, I’m just not getting meditation.” I point out. “I’ve been going to classes and practicing with Master Kenobi when he can help me, but nothing’s working.”

“Clouded and stormy your emotions are. Never learn meditation you will, if these emotions, settled they are not.”

“Yes, Master.” I bite my lip. “It’s just...I guess I’m not sure how to settle my emotions.” I confess.

Something about Master Yoda made me want to truly open up to him. So I did.

“Learn to let go you must.” Is his calm, enigmatic reply.

“What do you mean?” I ask, not understanding.

“Means do not concern yourself with things you cannot change, it does. Relax your mind and it will become calm and clear.”

And so Yoda and I begin trying to calm my emotions.

It sorta works, and soon enough I’m released to combat class.

My favorite! I’m ahead of the Younglings in my group in combat, actually.

I try not to let myself be too aggressive and competitive, but it’s really hard.

I wish they’d let us fight with actual lightsabers, not the low-powered youngling sabers we use, but I suppose that’s too dangerous right now.

I can’t wait to get my lightsaber crystal and make my hilt!

=#=#=#=#=

“Little Astoria, that move was rather reckless.” Plo Koon calls from the sidelines of the class.

He sometimes oversaw training from the sides and would call out advice to any struggling Youngling.

“Sorry, Master!” I call back, blocking a swing and swinging my leg to trip my opponent up. I then point my practice saber at the boy I was dueling. I think his name is Roman, but I can’t remember.

“I yield.” He says, annoyed that he lost...again. I turn off my blade and extend a friendly hand.

“You’re improving.” I note as I help him up.

“How are you so good at this?” He asks.

I shrug. “I’m not sure. I just...know what to do.”

Plo Koon strides over as the instructor dismisses the class. “In some ways, Astoria, your connection to the Force is instinctive and clear, but in others...you lack discipline and focus.”

I shuffle my feet as Roman awkwardly walks off. “I know, Master Plo, but...I just can’t seem to understand meditation like I can combat.”

“One day this mystery will be solved, young one, but you must continue practicing and learning what you can from your lessons. Never give up when the path before you becomes uncertain.”

“Yes, Master.” I reply. “I am trying.” He puts a hand on my shoulder and I think, if I could see his whole face, I’d see a smile.

“I know you are, and one day you will master it. Astoria, I believe that when you master your connection to the Force, you will become quite an impressive Jedi Knight.”

I grin and automatically hug him. “Thank you, Master Plo!” I cheer. The Jedi were getting used to my hugs by now and Plo Koon even returns the hug with one arm before gently peeling me off.

“Come along, young one, or we’ll miss our lunch.” I nod and skip down to lunch.

I may dislike the food, but I’ve learned ways of coping with that.

Every once in a while, when a Jedi went out to do a bit of shopping for basic essentials, I would ask to go with them.

Usually, that meant a pleasant trip with Master Kenobi as he shopped for things like soap and toiletries and I got to get some fruit and actually flavorful food.

I’d also grab a few spices like salt and pepper to liven up the bland food they serve at the Temple.

That food was grating on my nerves, but at least I had some ways to combat the lack of flavor.

In fact, Master Fisto needed to pick up some special lotion or something so his skin doesn’t get too dry being out of water for so long. We had pools and things in the Temple, but he couldn’t be in them as much as he’d like. I’ll ask if I can go with him after lunch.

=#=#=#=#=

“Master Fisto, may I have a word?” I ask, jogging to catch up to him.

He turns with his trademark broad smile, even crouching a little to be at my eye level. “Of course, my little friend.” He replies. “What can I help you with?”

“I was wondering if I could go with you to the marketplace today. I know you need lotion and I would like to get some more salt and pepper.”

“The food is not to your tastes, I take it?” He teases with a smirk.

“Well, not exactly. The food’s alright, but with salt and other spices, it’s a bit better.”

He laughs, patting my back cheerily and nearly making me fall over. “I feel the same way, young one. I’ll let you come.”

“Yay! Thank you, Master” I cheer, jogging to my room to grab the tiny allowance Younglings were given each month for whatever basics they needed.

Master Fisto and I leave side by side. “It’s always refreshing to step out of the Temple, is it not?” He asks.

I nod. “Yeah. I like it here, believe me, but it is also nice to get out every once in a while.”

“Come, let us get to business.” He calls, walking toward the small speeder that would take us to the marketplace.

“If I may, why don’t you spend more time in the pools and gardens if you’re from an aquatic planet?” I ask tentatively, coming to stand beside the Jedi Master.

“Well, I am a member of the Council. I have many duties that require my attention.”

“Oh.” I reply. “I was just curious.”

“Never let yourself feel bad for merely asking a question, Astoria.” He says gently. “Curiosity has led to many, many great inventions and discoveries.”

I nod. “Thanks, Master Fisto.”

“Of course, Astoria. Ah, here we are!” He cheers when we arrive at the marketplace. “You typically come with...Master Kenobi, that right?” He asks.

I nod. “Yes. He’s close friends with my mother, and I enjoy his company as well.” I reply carefully, not understanding why he was asking or smiling so broadly.

“I see. No shame in that. Come, we’ll hurry along and be back in time for your meditation lesson.”

I groan. “Yes, Master.”

“Do not think of this as punishment, Astoria. We are merely trying to help.”

“I know, Master, but I’m just not getting it!”

“That right there is why you fail.”

“I don’t understand.” I confess.

“Astoria, you view meditation as a block on your path that you cannot get past. That is why you fail.” My frown remains. I had no idea what he meant. “You need to start looking at it as a challenge to overcome, that can be overcome. If you look at it like that, you will be able to reach your potential that much sooner.”

I hum in thought then sigh. “Why is it I can rise in combat so easily, but stumble at meditation?” I ask.

“That, only you can answer, Astoria. But think on my words and the path forward will become clear.” I nod, absently side-hugging him as we near the spice store.

“Thank you again, Master.” I say, then wave to him as we go separate ways to gather our supplies.

“I’ll meet you at the transport in twenty minutes.”

I nod and enter the store.

“Ah, Astoria, my favorite little customer.” The store clerk greets. He was a human, like me, I think from the same planet as Uncle Obi, But I can’t remember for sure.

“Hello, Gastor.” I reply, walking automatically to the salt section.

“Ah, those are brand-new. Put ‘em out this morning.” He says when I grab a small container of a spice mix. It held a lot of good spices with the salt as the main component. I like the look of it, but it’s fairly expensive, so I reluctantly put it back. “I could cut you a deal since you come in so frequently.” Gastor muses idly, noting my interest before I put it back.

“No, but thank you, Gastor. I might be back for it later, but for now I must say goodbye.” I retort lightly, pretending to be emotional.

“Trust you to get attached to spices.” Gastor fires back and I pretend to be insulted, hand over my heart as I move further back toward the other spices.

I hear other customers come in, and feel something...unsettling. I don’t know what, but I know something’s amiss.

“Hello, Gastor.” Somes a slithery voice I immediately distrust. I sneak a little closer and see a tough-looking Twi’lek man and a few other thugs I can’t place.

“Look, I’m just waiting on one last shipment, then your order will be ready.” Gastor pleads, and I instantly am on guard, creeping nearer. I still had time to deal with these goons, buy the spices, and maybe even pick up some shampoo and conditioner as well before meeting Master Fisto at the speeder.

Taking a breath, grabbing a container of standard salt and pepper with granulated garlic and onion mixed in, I walk toward the counter.

“Ah, are you, er, ready to check out, miss?” Gastor says, and it’s clear he is uneasy, sweating as he glances between the thugs and me anxiously.

“Oi! We were here first!” The Twi’lek growls.

I notice a small blaster in his hand and a knife in the other.

“I’m sorry, but as your order is not yet ready- -” Gastor says placatingly.

“Get it ready!” The man interrupts angrily.

“Sir, he said it’s not ready. That’s it. Check back later. I’ve gotta get- -” I’m suddenly grabbed by one of the other thugs (maybe a man from Florum, but maybe not), fingers tight around my throat, and hauled into the air.

As I choke, I begin to feel something pooling in my gut, in my core, even, like a coiled spring.

I instinctively trigger it and find myself suddenly sure of what to do.

I feel a wave begin at my core, expanding outward and suddenly I am let go and the thugs, as well as Gastor, are pressed against the wall.

I take a breath and release the wave and they fall.

Despite being excited by what I had just done (wasn’t that the Force I just used to push these thugs back?), I walk calmly forward. I wasn’t quite done with them. “Gastor here said your order wasn’t finished.” I begin. “So you will return home to wait patiently for it and return when he tells you it is ready. I hear of you bothering him again, and I will not hesitate to return.”

The thugs cower away from me. “What’re the Jedi doing here?” I hear one whimper as they take off running, bumping into each other trying to get out of the door.

“You’re training to be a Jedi?” Gastor asks, breathless in shock.

I nod. He’d never asked and I never volunteered that information.

Uncle Obi says it’s not the Jedi way to broadcast who we are. We are humble servants of the Republic and peacekeepers. That is all.

“Sorry I didn’t tell you. We’re not supposed to broadcast it.” I explain and hand him the credits needed for the seasonings.

“That’s alright. I should have guessed. You’re wearing Jedi robes, after all.”

I chuckle. “Assumptions often lead us astray, Gastor. Anyway, thanks for the seasonings. I use it on my food at the Temple.” I lean in conspiratorially. “They don’t season their food at all. It tastes so bland!”

Gastor laughs and shoos me away. “Well, don’t let me keep you away from the Temple any longer. And thank you for your assistance with those pests. They come in demanding cheap spices in bulk. I can’t keep this up.”

I sigh. “They should leave you alone, but tell me if they come back when I restock.” I call over my shoulder and wave as I leave.

I spot Master Fisto a ways away. The shop with the lotion was the same shop I got my shampoo and conditioner, so I walk over to him.

“There you are. Did you find suitable spices?” He asks.

“Yes, I did.” I reply. I felt the news of my use of the Force bubbling up, but something told me it might be better to wait til we were back at the Temple.

“Good. We’ll pick up the last things we require and return before we’re missed.” Fisto says and I jog lightly over to the bottles of hair products, grabbing the ones I typically use. It was nothing fancy, just cheap products to serve their purpose. Plus, they were very cheap.

Once Master Fisto and I are through with our purchases, we walk together toward our transport. “There’s something you want to tell me.” Mastesr Fisto muses, chuckling. “What happened in the spice shop?” Somehow it doesn’t surprise me that he already knew something happened in the spice shop. “I saw a few men running from there in terror. Did you see something that happened?” It’s clear he’s teasing, but I humor him.

“A Jedi stopped them harassing the shop owner, apparently,” I reply. “but I didn’t see them.”

Fisto laughs, dropping the facade. “Well done, Astoria. It seems you finally unlocked another aspect of your connection to the Force.”

I nod. “Thank you, Master. They were demanding spice for far cheaper than the owner was selling. I convinced them that wasn’t a good idea. I...don’t know how it happened, but I was able to stop them choking me with the Force.” I explain. “It felt...incredible!”

“Don’t abuse that power, Astoria.” Fisto cautions. “Practice restraint and only use that power when needed, and you will find yourself the better for it.”

I nod. “Yes, Master.”

The transport arrives at the Temple and we walk together, back to our rooms to put our purchased items away.

Once that’s done, it’s off to another session with Master Yoda.

This time, however, it seems to go smoother than previous sessions. Whatever I unlocked in the spice shop eases the path toward understanding meditation and using the Force as the instructor says we should be able to.

Now, I just need practice and I’ll soon be able to manipulate the Force and calm my mind on command. This is amazing!

“Learned something you have, hmm?” Master Yoda asks, smiling.

“Yes, Master, I think I have. I went out with Master Fisto to pick up more shampoo and conditioner, among other things, and I ran into some unsavory characters. They were threatening me, even had me by the throat, then something...happened, inside me, and I was able to use the Force to push them back. They ran off once they knew I was in the Jedi Order.” I explain briefly.

“Good, good, young one. Great strides in your training, you are making.”

“Thank you, Master Yoda.”

“Now, perhaps, meditation you can learn, hmm?”

I chuckle. “I hope so, Master.” I get into position and begin trying to calm my mind and focus on my connection to the force. True to Uncle Obi’s words, it was like a ball of energy, wild and untamed. Reaching out and feeling that same coil in my core that I’d felt in the spice shop, I begin to see the waves of energy focus into beams that lead off into the vastness of the Force.

I breathe deeply and try to see if I can find other people’s connections.

Right in front of me, of course, is Master Yoda’s connection. His energy ball was bigger than mine, shining out like a sun with beams also leading out in every direction.

“Yes, Astoria. These connections you feel, see all of them, you can. With training, see distant places and future events you can.”

I release my concentration and open my eyes. “Really?”

“Yes, Astoria, you can. If wills it, the Force does.”

#Fanfiction #Star Wars #SW #Tale of Astoria Kenobi #obi-wan #satine #Obitine #Anidala #SW OC #OC #Original Character #Original Female Character #Jedi OC #Uses both Clone Wars and the movies

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m00nlitknight · 5 years ago

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Neoclassical

fandom: star wars ( sequel trilogy ) / greek mythos au pairing: kylo ren / reader word count: 1,635 warnings: slight mommy issues summary: Oh, how one tires of stagnant days. extra: AH my first work in another fandom! :') i hope it's enjoyable! please do leave feedback if you liked it? depending on the reception i may or may not stretch it to another chapter or something. thank you for reading! ♡ as a side note, i had him refer to the reader as a lilac due to the meanings of the flower: purity + innocence. i would've gone with daisy but i didn't wanna step on daisy ridley's toes lol

archive of our own link

Soft, green grass crushes beneath bare feet. It grew unruly, appearing jagged in some places, brushing anywhere from an ankle to grazing mid-thigh. The wind hummed past gently, rustling not only the unruly grass, but also unruly locks from the top of your crown, beginnings the misplacement of a newly made daisy crown. The day was akin to any other; gorgeous. Unfortunately, you’d grown used to the cycle of its static beauty, instead attempting to salvage appreciation and savor the flavor of the nature at your disposal. However, despite this, you couldn’t help but find yourself becoming a bit desensitized to it.

Every day felt as though it was a trial of the same tribulations; a dance you’d become well acquainted with. To awaken with the sun’s rise, her golden kiss of the horizon enough to rouse your eyes open and put your body in gear. Mother had always claimed that being early to rise would aid in your overall mood for the day, not that you had much particular input on how She’d micromanage how you felt

You began your day with a hearty breakfast of the typically vegetarian variety, typically a nod of appreciation to the work that your mother did. Those around you encouraged to take your time with eating, to allow the flavors of each bite play on your tongue like a Shakespearean play. It amused you in the beginning, taking their words to heart and practicing it just to go along with their wishes. As time wore on, the days blurring together with one another, you found yourself tiring of the routine - of all the routines.

The remainder of the morning would leave you to work on whatever skills She deemed a necessity. Sewing and cooking and honing the prowess growing within you. It festered, beautiful and green, just like Mother’s. Then, the day was yours to explore the lands. The sprawling, gracious, and luxurious Lands. Sometimes you would mingle with the creatures who found home in the forest, those who made their home in the space of bark or in the shimmer of puddles and streams. Though you’d never spoken to Her of them, you were sure she’d known of them. As always, you were simply under Her eye.

Throughout the evening, when the sun’s descent on the other side of the sky colored the clouds orange, or pink, or purple, you would be making yourself another meal. This one was of your own choice, if it included meat, it would be game you’d brought down by your own hand.

Yes, the days blurred together, and the exhilaration of this lifestyle granted to you was beginning to dull, you found yourself craving more than what was granted to you. The freedom was thrilling in comparison to what you had before, and in retrospect, felt as though chains bound you to who you once were.

So as you wander the sprawling green fields, dotted with wild flowers and wildlife that sometimes graced your vision, you wonder if you can find yourself passed the typical borders of what your allowed. To push the limits, pass through the forest filled to the brim with gentle woodland creatures, and see what lie ahead; out from under Her eye.

The thought alone ignited curiosity and wonder through your veins, though not to your face. Never to your face, for that was the first place She’d look if something were to go awry. As momentary as the plan and excitement of it was, it faded, replacing itself with cool, hard fear; like a rock at the pit of your stomach.

Blindly did your feet carry you throughout the woods, passing by many private eyes who seemed nearly enthralled with your every move. Soon, you found yourself perched by a small pond, atop a branch sturdy enough to hold your weight. Around you the scenery came alive, shaping into nymphs with bubbly giggles and typical friendly dispositions. They approached you from their respective residences, glee plastered on their technicolor features. You watched them with idle interest, making a mimic of their expressions as one leaned on the branch beside you.

“Oh, Spring’s Daughter! We’re so glad you came today,” her voice was angelic in tone, as though a choir came together to make her tone; a match made in heaven with her gorgeous foam-colored skin, milky eyes, and shimmering blue hair. “Something has come to our attention, something of interest!”

“Quite the interest,” another said, of oak skin and pearly grin. Her voice, though not as striking, held its own with a soft, melodic tone.

“Are you going to keep me in the dark, then?” You giggle yourself, allowing a genuine smile to brighten your typically hollow features. “C’mon, tell me!”

The quartet around you looks to one another, sharing a conversation of glances. Another giggles, her deep, emerald eyes looking so deep into you, you wondered if she could grasp your heart.

“Do you promise to not show anyone else?” Her tone bordered playful as she leaned herself onto you, forehead to forehead.

“Absolutely not ,” your voice was startlingly quiet, your smile reaching that of a grin.

“Okay, okay, here hold your palm out, I’ll take you,” the fourth one said, with wide eyes and a straight faced expression. Her aura wasn’t as ethereal or peppy, instead something of a darker caliber radiated from her. With ashy-gray skin and pin-straight black hair, she held her hand out to you.

Hesitantly, you put your hand into hers, allowing your curiosity to get the better of you. The other three nymphs allowed themselves to giggle, trotting off to cause a ruckus somewhere else. You watched them for a moment, nervousness beginning to creep into the heels of your feet. It felt as though they were taking your solace with them, in a way.

Looking back to the placid nymph, she cracked a small smile; a seemingly unpracticed expression for her doe-eyed features. You offered a small smile back as she turned, leading you through the familiar woods. Many creatures paid you no mind, though some stopped in their tracks and stared, prompting you to stare back.

“So, where are we going, anyway?” You decide to break the silence, in hopes to shake the building anxiety on your back.

“You’ll see.”

The cryptic answer leaves you bemused, and you look around once more. The scenery, of the typically lush and familiar flourishing kind, are slowly becoming less reminiscent of Her trademark Land. It worries you, despite recalling the vague exhilaration at this exact act crossing your mind hours before. Even worse, the sky had transitioned from the lovely blue you’d spent so long staring at into the beautiful palette which signaled the end of the day was coming soon, leaving the light to come through the tree’s canopy to become somewhat scarce. It left you uneasy, just how long had you two been walking, anyway?

You continued on silently with your unease for awhile until your companion came to a stop. The scenery around was different, not helped by the monochrome, silver moonlight beginning to scatter through the trees. What uniformity was typically held in your Mother’s regard seemed to have been forgone here, instead an unruly, beautiful, ever-changing mess you found yourself fascinated by.

“We’re here, Spring,” she murmured, turning to you. Her voice was hollow, a quiet thing you found yourself becoming wary of.

“What is it that you wanted to show me, then?”

“Take a step over here.”

You momentarily gnaw on your lip, stepping forward to where she’d told you to. The air grew heavy, thicker than just the humidity you were aware of, and all too quickly. No, it was darker, tenser, laced with a kind of energy you’d never had around you. Amid the feeling of anxiety on your back, it drew you in, causing another trembling, yet eager step forward.

A figure began materializing, sapping out whatever silvery moonlight was around for a moment before stepping forward and sending a brief wave of force with them, knocking you off balance.

You took a second to regain your composure before taking him all in. Darkness radiated off of hi in waves, like how life and youth radiated from you. He was donned in all black, with pale skin, and seemingly monochrome in the pale moonlight of the early nightfall. In his hand was an object, one you were unable to make out for a moment before witnessing its ignition. It cut through the single-toned light with an angry and red and threatening light, to which he lowered closer to you, as if to use it like a lantern.

Thankful to some miracle, your breathing stayed level, though your mouth hung slightly agape as you awaited a reaction to grace his stony, scar-ridden face. Anything to change in his deep, dark, brown eyes. A slight twinge to his lower lip, and he finally broke the tension.

“Are you afraid, my dear lilac?” His voice resembled the velvety texture of a petal as his unoccupied hand came to rest under your chin.

Your mouth came to shut, eyes wide and deer-like as you shook your head. There was no way your voice was going to work enough to even say any kind of meager reply.

“Do you know who I am?” Amusement seemed to toy not only in his tone, but also on his face.

“Hades,” your voice came out small, rabbit-like in its timidness.

“I see Mother taught you well,” he snickered coolly, looking to the nymph who led you here. “Fantastic job. You live another day.”

He stood to his full height, eyes seeming entranced on your expression once again before his face returned to stoicism. “May we meet again, lilac.”

And with that, he and the nymph disappeared, leaving you alone.

#star wars fanfiction #reader insert #kylo ren x reader #kylo x reader #greek myth au #kylo ren fanfiction #star wars sequel trilogy #star wars sequel fic #writing.txt

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marshmallowgoop · 5 years ago

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Kill la Kill Books!

Got a small haul of Kill la Kill books the other day!

SUSHIO CLUB LOVE LOVE KLKL has been a glaring omission from my collection, so when I saw a listing of the book for 3,600 yen—which usually goes for 10,000+ these days—I bought it right away.

And I figured I might as well pick up a few more things while I was at it, right? To make the shipping more cost effective?

That’s definitely the only reason.

But anyway, my growing mass of Kill la Kill books and magazines has now reached 36 items.

And I’ve talked about some of this merch before; you can find my post about the Febri volume 21 issue here, my post about Fractal 10 here, my post about the Talking About Composite books, The Complete Script Book, and The Art of KLK Vol. 3 here (and I have a whole tag for the script book, #klk-script-book), and I yammer on about the nine Blu-ray key art collection and artboard books here. I also have several essays discussing the official manga adaptation:

Kill la Kill Manga Chapter 7

Kill la Kill Manga Volume 3, Chapters 8-17: Thoughts and Impressions

Kill la Kill Manga Volume 3: Translation Notes, Anime Differences

Kill la Kill Manga Volume 3: Worth it?

Manga Differences

And now, I wanna briefly (lol) yap about the six new additions to my collection.

Because I have a lot of love in my heart for this ridiculous, ridiculous anime.

SUSHIO CLUB LOVE LOVE KLKL

So, I got this book for cheap because it was allegedly in poor shape and “not suitable for collection.”

(My reaction to “not suitable for collection” is always, “It’s suitable for my garbage collection! I’ll give your ‘ugly’ copies a loving home!”)

But, like? There are a couple of dents and folded corners, but the condition is really not bad at all. The art is completely intact and beautiful.

Sushio—who is the character designer for Kill la Kill—has shared much of this book on his Twitter, and I would definitely recommend fans of the series to scroll through his photos and have a look. There’s such a cute, sweet charm to Sushio’s work, and along with the polished, colored pages from LOVE LOVE that he shares online, he also shares sketches of his own fanart for the series, too.

(Okay, maybe this isn’t exactly the best demonstration of Sushio’s absolutely precious artwork, but. It’s one of my favorites from the book. Ryuko resorting to such wild extremes to be with Senketsu again is just. My heart. Kill la Kill is actually adorable.)

In any case, I don’t think any of the content in LOVE LOVE was new to me, but there’s just really something about having the book in my hands. I know there’s such a strong desire for digital media these days, but call me old-fashioned—there’s nothing quite like holding this art and really seeing every stroke and line in person.

Being able to physically flip through the pages also makes me notice things I didn’t before. For instance, I found myself charmed by the little detail of Barazo, Mako’s father, loving and adoring Sukuyo, Mako’s mother.

I mean, aw? It’s stuff like this that really makes me wish Kill la Kill were a kids’ show (as Sushio himself seemed to want!) Barazo is so much more likeable when there aren’t any signs of his less-than-pleasant behavior and he’s a loving, supportive husband and father.

Seriously!

Another thing I notice from having the book now is the order in which the pages are organized. Like, I couldn’t help but be amused about how Ryuko gets her own page here...

(Smiling for her Starketsu in the sky, right? Just like he asks her to in “Till I Die”?)

...and then the next pages have Satsuki beside Nonon and Mako (and Mataro) beside Ira...

...which strikes me as a bit funny because this isn’t exactly how Sushio organized his Tweets of these images. There, Satsuki was next to Ryuko, Nonon was next to no one, Mako and Mataro were next to Ira, and Uzu was next to Houka:

So, in LOVE LOVE, is Sushio deliberately trying to say something with the changed placement? Especially when it comes to the direction of the ladies’ eyes?

Yeah???

I kid, I kid.

(But really, it looks much better to give Ryuko her own page and not have Nonon standing next to nobody.)

Also, one of the first things that popped out to me about LOVE LOVE is how Senketsu’s pages are right next to Ryuko’s pages. As they should be.

They belong together, okay?!

And speaking of Senketsu and Ryuko, I remember a comment years back that said you could probably find pics of your OTP with matching expressions in this book.

But, uh. Just compare Senketsu posing to Ryuko posing...

They’re kind of different types of people, lol.

But hey, they do both make cute sneezy faces.

As a final note about my copy of LOVE LOVE, I will say that my only disappointment is that I received the version with print errors. As such, this page of Nui...

...was accidentally printed twice, and I miss out on this page of Nui as a result:

There are also some minor goofs, like Mako’s arm getting cut off by the background here:

But considering I got this beautiful thing for only 3,600 yen, I really can’t complain!

Now I just need Sushiotan 2 to complete my Sushio Kill la Kill doujin collection....

Takepro

This charming little volume is a collection of animator fanart for the show (and other shows). The book includes a short profile for each featured artist, and their big Kill la Kill pieces are—like all titles in Kill la Kill—named after classic Japanese pop songs. You can read and see more about Takepro here.

It’s hard to pick favorites from this doujin because there is so much adorable and wonderful artwork, but I especially love Naoki Takeda’s “ここに幸あり,” or “Here is My Happiness,” named after the song by Yoshitsu Ootsu.

youtube

The picture features Ryuko, Mako, and Satsuki sitting together, all having a good time, and there’s just something so sweet about seeing happy Satsuki.

I also found an English translation of the song’s lyrics, courtesy of beast-senior 810:

The storm breaks and the rain falls Thorny as the women's path might be I would still keep on living with you And my happiness is here in the blue sky

I could not tell anybody of my scars A bird of love that resided in my chest If only I wander about crying and evading A sorrowful night wind will blow through the streets

I call out your name from the bottom of my heart Who will be awaiting me at the end of the echoes? Snuggle up to you and cheerfully look up to your face And my happiness is here in the white clouds

Aw. This song is so Satsuki.

And speaking of Satsuki, I can’t get over how cute she and Ryuko look on the cover of this book. Like??

Aw!

I also am quite fond of a small piece by Syuichi Iseki, which is in a super-deformed style and features Satsuki comforting Nonon after her uniform is destroyed during the Naturals Election. Nonon cries, and Satsuki pats her head. In the background, Ira looks distressed at the display, Houka seems to be deciphering it, and Mako smiles. It’s really, really cute.

Yoshie Endo’s “僕笑っちゃいます,” or “I’m Laughing,” named for the song by Shingo Kazami, is also real cute. It depicts Mataro holding up Guts, who licks his face. It’s another one of those, “I-so-wish-Kill-la-Kill-were-a-kids’-show” kinda pieces....

youtube

Hiroyuki Imaishi’s Doujin

Admittedly, I don’t actually know the title of this one, but it’s a very small doujin by Kill la Kill director Hiroyuki Imaishi. There isn’t too much Kill la Kill content, but there are two pages of Ryuko and Satsuki in their respective Kamui, accompanied by some text.

I thought the text might be something about the show, but it seems like it’s actually about Imaishi’s experience working on the show. And... it’s rather sad? He talks about how he’s able to accomplish more now, but he also has to consider a lot more as well, and he doesn’t have the time and energy that he used to. It’s a lot about aging and growing old.

At least, I think that’s what’s being communicated. Here’s a transcription, though:

なんだろう。

初会社役員とか。

昔よりやれることは増えたが考えなきゃいけないことも増えて時間と体力は足りなくなっていく。

年相応とも言える。

だけどいつまでも大人気なく生きていきたいものだ。

One last interesting thing about this doujin is the material it’s made from; it’s different than any other book in my collection. I’m not an artist, so forgive me if I sound totally ignorant here, but the paper reminds me watercolor paper. It definitely took me by surprise!

SL Sketch 3

SL Sketch 3 is a small fan doujin by Buzin. You can find most of the art in this book on their Tumblr!

Sketch 3 is a really fun collection of sketches, and I especially love the cover. I’m so desperate for art where Senketsu is acknowledged as an actual person that I’m just all heart eyes over Ryuko smiling at him here.

March 2014 Newtype

Okay, so this one’s really a magazine, not a book, but wow. I was taken aback by what’s inside!

I’ll definitely have to look at this issue in more depth because there are a bunch of Kill la Kill goodies in here that I didn’t even expect. And I don’t think most of it has been translated at all!

I also realized that I’ve been mixing up my Newtypes and will have to fix my resources page. But on the bright side, there is so much to love about this issue.

Like, the Elite Four Light Novel got reprinted in the Kamui Bansho, but it’s way better here because it has pictures!

I also love how Nonon, out of all the Elite Four, is the only one who stands beside Satsuki in these illustrations.

And I don’t even know what this is (VR or something with Ami Koshimizu, Ryuko’s VA?), but it’s cute and got me smiling:

And Ryo Akizuki, the mangaka for the official Kill la Kill manga, made a small comic about his experience working on the project. I like the little title panel with Ryuko, Senketsu, and Mako a lot:

Plus, there’s a shiny ad for the manga’s second volume, too:

One of the things that most caught my interest, though, is an article about the second opening song for Kill la Kill, GARNiDELiA’s “ambiguous”:

I got so curious about this bit because I’ve heard varying, conflicting information regarding the meaning behind the song’s lyrics. On the one hand, I’ve heard that half of the song is from Ryuko to Senketsu, and the other half is from Satsuki to Ryuko. On the other hand, I’ve heard that the whole song is from Satsuki to Ryuko. But I’ve never found any concrete sources for either of these claims!

So, I was hoping the Newtype article would help, but it’ll take a lot more digging into. Still, briefly looking over the page, I did find this bit:

そんな私の思いと歌詞が一致しました。『キルラキル』でいう流子ちゃんと神衣・鮮血の関係に近いかもしれませんね。

Roughly, it says, “As such, my thoughts about the song agreed with its lyrics. You might say it’s like the relationship between Ryuko and Kamui Senketsu in Kill la Kill.”

I’m not totally sure about the context here—and I admittedly don’t even know the author’s involvement in the making of "ambiguous”—but this article might explain where the Ryuko-and-Senketsu reading of the song came from. It’s definitely something I’d like to delve into more.

Because I really love the Ryuko-and-Senketsu reading of the song, okay, and I’d love some actually official backup for it!

Finally, another favorite part of the Newtype is simply all the art. Takafumi Hori’s spread is particularly great:

(You can find a cleaner image here.)

Just... dang. I wish I got a little poster of this instead of the ones actually included in the Newtype! The artwork is just stunning.

And one of the cutest things about the Newtype is all the fanart from its readers! I particularly love the little Valentine’s Day special; there’s an illustration of Ryuko giving Senketsu chocolate, and there’s also a Ryumako piece, too!

Kill la Kill Storyboard Ep. 01

Finally, one of my favorites from this haul is the Kill la Kill Storyboard Ep. 01. The book was included as a shop bonus for the original Japanese Blu-ray/DVD release, though I was able to win it by itself in an auction. I do think I overpaid a bit, but gosh, it’s a lovely addition to my collection. It’s just really neat to see the production process of an anime in action. I wish there were storyboard books for every episode in the show!

Hiroyuki Imaishi’s storyboards are also just super amusing. Here is a small sampling of some of my faves (because there is so much gold in here, my goodness):

And that’s all for now!

...I guess this really wasn’t so brief at all, huh?

Shocker.

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athanasia-istolla · 5 years ago

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Interview: Sindri Istolla

The following is done in a present state/day style: Oct 19th 2019/Unknown Hydaelyn date.

► Name ➔ “Sindri Rianorix Istolla be m’ full name, not dat anywon uses such.”

► Are you single ➔ “Mm if ye mean am I not see’n anywon, den yee. Tis long since dat’a been elsewise.”

► Are you happy ➔ “A’times, yee. Tis not always easy. I hath my health an me life. The Shroud itself be kind ta me even thou som folk be not.”

► Are you angry? ➔ “Angry? Non non.. Frustrated perhaps at current, but such wilt pass once dem false wanted posters be delt with.”

► Are your parents still married ➔ “When saw em last, yes.. I dun think much could’a shook dat bunch’s unionship even after all dis time.”

NINE FACTS

► Birth Place ➔ “mm such thing, is knowledge for the trusted only..”

► Hair Color ➔ “Most be silver with streaks o black.. Tis ma natural colour despite de questions o who I see ta get it done… all most non believe me thou.”

► Eye Color ➔ “Hmm ma eyes be bit complex.. Da outer lens is Dune-gemed Lilac, such be all dat most see at first glance, in part o how large they are. Yet past such lay a shifting teal-violet set o limbal rings o’ sorts. Tis not supar hard ta see, more easy at night thou. Last me sclera is dark, bu’ with how large de dune lens is, tis unnoticed by near all. If one was in ma life oft enough, eventually would see both o such thou.”

► Birthday ➔ “Thirteenth Moon of the Sixth Umbral Moon (13/12), T’was so early that day the sun had not risen yet”

► Mood ➔ “Perhaps a bit uneasy. Feels like some’n coming.. Yet tis hard ta discern when an if such be related ta thee fake posters.”

► Gender ➔ “Female.”

► Summer or winter ➔ “Winter. Aside de lovely delights of the season, cozy hearths, the quiet snow brings to de world.. The stars hang longer over head.. Tis peaceful to bundle near a soft fire an gaze upon the astronomic gems.”

► Morning or afternoon ➔ “If ye mean when to wake.. Just ‘fore dawn.. The stars still littering the sky.”

EIGHT THINGS ABOUT YOUR LOVE LIFE

► Are you in love ➔ “Love? Non.. perhaps hav’ a crush or three.” soft shy chuckle “But non, not love.. Not yet at least.”

► Do you believe in love at first sight ➔ Rumbles an amused chur as she smiles. “The fates work in many ways.. I have yet to personally experience such depth of sudden infatuation. I would personally be cautious of such. Yet I would not say such be impossible.”

► Who ended your last relationship ➔ “If by such yet again ye be speak’n o the intimate type… Circumstance.. Events beyond our control.. Despite the effort against such. I doth not know if she survived the raid.. An I was likely sold off too quick if they had mounted a rescue.. Twas a very long time ago now..”

► Have you ever broken someone’s heart ➔ “Am sure I likely hath broke a few in my home lands.. An perhaps some of these ones.. in the past at least. I can say such was not out o ill will nor intentional thou.”

► Are you afraid of commitments ➔ “Hmm non.. Tis not commitment I fear, tis abandonment, an what I can contribute being ‘enough.’ I know well I can’t provide all things, even the instances I wish to thee core I could. Tis hard ta find those who understands such.. While I am not opposed at all to Monogamy in the ‘right’ circumstances. Polyamory-esk dynamics feel more natural to me. T’was very common in my home lands. I’m.. still healing from things, I’ve made much road, yet still be more a head. ‘Someday’ I hope to share thine life with anothers again..” Chuckles “course such whimsy talk.. Who knows.. ‘Someday’ could start tomorrow if the fates align.”

► Have you hugged someone within the last week? ➔ “Doth this include Crypts an Elementals?”

► Have you ever had a secret admirer ➔ “Recently? Not any am aware of.. I mean, tis part o the name no? If they be do’n it right am not supposed ta be know’n ye?”

► Have you ever broken your own heart? ➔ “Oh ye.. T’was a very long time ago now though..”

SIX CHOICES

► Love or lust ➔ “Both.. Ye ye I know it says choices.. Yet both share a common base.. Passion.. An I rather adore passion.. In all things, not just the tango twix two or more.”

► Lemonade or iced tea ➔ “While can’t say I’ve tried iced-tea.. Lemonade is much too sour usually fer me. So tea.. With the promise ta try it iced come thee summer months again.”

► Cats or Dogs ➔ “I’m one who rather likes all nature.. If I must chose, Cats. They be far more self sufficient an tis quite lovely ta have a purring snuggle bug close while read’n.”

► A few best friends or many regular friends ➔ “A few best/close companions.. Much as of course one would have other degrees of relations.. A core few dear faces is preferable..”

► Wild night out or romantic night in ➔ “Am a bit o a quiet one on de whole. Yet night outs can be quite delightful.. Hmm will go with night in, this time.” Softly chuckles.

► Day or night ➔ “Night, especially a clear night with a new moon.. Stars as far as you can see.”

FIVE HAVE YOU EVERS

► Been caught sneaking out ➔ “Of course, who hasn’t when young.. Even then I was.. Enamored with the astral.. Twas hard not to sneak out with ma scope on dem new moon nights.”

► Fallen down/up the stairs ➔ “Gehh.. course ye got’a ask som’n like dis.. Ye.. both.. more den am gonna be admit’n..” Her features bronzen with a lil pout.

► Wanted something/someone so badly it hurt? ➔ “Ye.. more den once..”

► Wanted to disappear ➔ “There were times.. In de past.. Am sure in some.. Most would have wanted the same..” Glances away, her tails coiling tighter around her hips as she hugs a length o one to her chest to suppress a tremor.

FOUR PREFERENCES

► Smile or eyes ➔ “Eyes, there is.. Much one can glean from a simple quick glance from the eyes..”

► Shorter or Taller ➔ “Oh dear.. Make’n me out ma self hm? Taller.. Am quite petite.. Four-Fulms an Three-Ilms tall at most, while I do enjoy huggling de even smaller den myself.. Tis hard not to be bit captivated by a taller lass.” Her features bronze again whilst she wiggles a little in her seat.

► Intelligence or Attraction ➔ “mm Am gonna cheat again an say both.. While I do lean towards a captivating mind.. Tis much said for there to also be de draw of the physical.. Perhaps tis a balance or one o em ratio kind’a things?” Grins a lil.

► Hook-up or Relationship ➔ “Mymy ye are a nosy bunch ne? Ye gonna ask for my diary next?” Chuckles through an amused rumble. “mn I’d say there be a place for both.. Yet I do lean more to relationships.. An such things have numerous degrees to them.. Yet something.. I guess that doesn’t leave one feeling.. Used o sorts.. Am sure some could argue there is “fun/good” ways of that feeling.. I’ve.. only experienced the darker side o such thus far.”

FAMILY

► Do you and your family get along ➔ “Yee, we did quite well on de whole.. Course we had our disagreements and such, what fam doesn’t.”

► Would you say you have a “messed up life” ➔ “hmm before these lands.. No.. it was a good life.. Even when we disagreed I was never treated ill or harmed.. An I could tell.. That they honestly thought they were doing the best for my sake.. ”

► Have you ever ran away from home ➔ Laughs softy “Guess you could say such in away.. Certainly wasn’t intentional.”

► Have you ever gotten kicked out ➔ “Non, not in de way yer asking at least.. There be an ‘o age’ passage with my kin.. Live off the lands on our own till our ink finish take’n root.. Mine took bout four full cycles.. Folks were very relieved when I returned ta em.”

FRIENDS

► Do you secretly hate one of your friends ➔ “Non non.. I’ve more aquatencies and trade contacts den friends currently.. I wouldn’t say hate but.. Thinking on it, perhaps a bit of wryness o one fellow.. Am doubtful they be give’n me the right return on some the crystals I sell em.”

► Do you consider all of your friends good friends ➔ “mn again I don’t really have at the moment.. Tis certainly a few acquaintances I’d like to get to know better.. Some.. much better.. I will admit to shyness an caution, despite my friendly demeanour.. Have been.. Betrayed more than few times.”

► Who is your best friend ➔ “Currently I don’t have someone I’d consider such.. Perhaps someday though.”

► Who knows everything about you ➔ Those lilac gemed eyes cast down a bit. “Saga did.. I know not if she lived through the raid on our village. Lady Lena as well, that was less willing of a conversation, despite my gratitude for being saved, in some sense, from de slave fight pits in Ul’Dah. I feared she’d sell me right back to the nearest auction if she knew it all.. or kill me herself. Yet she didn’t.. What more, made me da Head o house Attendant’s second & de attendant/body guard of her only heir, her daughter. Both Ladies of Bloodlion passed in the calamity.”

Tagged By: @kyrie-silverwings

Tagging folks mostly to share the info cuz I have barely anything for Sindri up lol Shy flail. No worries if you’ve already done it: @tsukikotanshi @lulu-ffxiv @az-ffxiv @under-the-blood-moonlight @fair-fae @purple-salt-mage @othard @alun-ura @cheche-dotharl @paleshadeofrose @clouded-vxle @trishelle

#Sindri Istolla #Iridescent Twilight #character prompt #ffxiv rp #sorry for the slight rambles I couldn't help it XD #Sindri

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steve0discusses · 5 years ago

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Yugioh Ep 24 S3: Blimp’s Ultimate Form

So, I realized as I sat down to the blog today that I’ve been doing this for like...a year and half now? I think? So I figured...how many of these have I MADE? Cuz I thought...I MUST be getting close to the 100th recap pretty soon, and guys, the answer was shocking.

This is, in fact, the 121st recap (including Season 0). That is a LOT of content. I don’t think I have that many pages for my own webcomic (which basically only tells you how long and physically exhausting the drawing process is more than anything else). Along the way I realized I was a.) really bad at numbering episodes, and b.) reaaaaally bad at spelling Kaiba at the start of this series, really cringey how I used to spell everyone’s name, I can’t really look back there.

Anyway, in case you are curious, the 100th episode was the “Pharaoh turns Karibo into a rainbow for some reason” episode. So, unfortunately it wasn’t that extraordinary. I forgot to write down which episode was 69, which is a colossal failure on my part.

So that being said, this is the last episode of this arc! Honestly, this arc could’ve been a lot shorter because at this point the only resolution left is for Noah to be a decent person once in his life and for Kaiba Sr. to die (which he’s already done, so...mission already accomplished)

Noah recently came on the PA system to inform us that he accidentally decided to kill everyone (congrats, recently reformed Noah), and so he’s going to do the decent thing and let them know where the exit is without actually doing a damn thing to make a portal to get them to said exit.

Guess where the exit is?

I don’t know why the hell this show keeps going back to the local Dave and Busters where Tea got attacked on a dance machine.

At this moment, Gozaburo decided to turn into some sort of giant red ghost devil.

Yes. Exactly what it sounds like.

Apparently this was a thing he could just do this entire arc.

(read more after the cut)

The fact that Seto’s Dad can just morph into a giant red demon is like...not even a problem for anyone on this cast. He literally goes back to his side of the field and goes right back to playing cards. Cuz youknow. Cards.

It’s basically a "Anyone with a millennium item can shoot lasers but never actually does” but demon format. Gozaburo *could* turn into the hulk but like...why?

Meanwhile the rest of the cast are playing cards against the card monsters, that are really just 3D models that Gozaburo had on file. He could have used...literally anything to throw at these people and he went with cards. He could have just dropped a boat on them but...I dunno, maybe he didn’t know where the boat folder was.

Yugi trying really hard to not acknowledge the annoying as hell Joey face and give it any more attention than it already has.

Tea and Serenity scramble to the exit largely unscathed, dragging Tristan with them because he is too small to hold a card hologram and is too monkey to be at all useful back on the front lines.

And they just wake up. Just like that. Just like they woke up from a simple nap or something.

And voila, Tristan is no longer a monkey, his brain is back to normal, the writers were like “we really have to focus on Noah right now, please forgive us if we just pretend line all that brain damage Tristan went through, his brain being 5 DIFFERENT PEOPLE at the same time, having his brainwaves turned into an actual monkey, and then back again within the space of a few hours- just pretend he’s fine now.

It’s fine. Tristan’s fine.

Tristan wasn’t really...all that bright to begin with so...he’s fine.

And so, as our B team is getting back into the real world, Noah sees this little post-it note on the side of his computer that says “PS, Yugi is a main character and must be present for the finale although he will serve little purpose there” and so Noah pressed that intercom mic button to say:

And it’s at this point that Noah says “I’ll just make you a portal and warp you right there” and then I guess everyone standing around Noah kind of looked at eachother and was like “NOW you do that? NOW? AFTER the chase through the monster copy-paste factory?”

The show is desperately trying to convince me that Noah is now fully a good brother but ehhhhh he’s not. Like, I’ll be honest, they give him the best send off they could have possibly given to such an irredeemably evil character. Like, Seto himself is such a bag of pistachios that you really have to stretch Noah pretty far into evil territory to make Seto look like the good guy in comparison, and it sort of made me not really buy this whole Noah redemption arc.

It’s more like a prequel to a redemption arc that apparently won’t even happen in this series of Yugioh. He comes back at some point, and I only know that because I had to do a google image search of this kid for some reason and it was like ah, yeah, this is definitely a screen cap of a later, glossier looking Yugioh. But, for now, I’d say that Noah’s arc isn’t so much about him coming closer to his family or turning towards the ‘light’, as Pharaoh put it last episode. It’s more about Noah finally letting go of his Father, which should have been the arc of Seto Kaiba.

Instead, Seto did absolutely nothing to let go of his Dad, to the point that Seto is now fighting a computer that just kind of looks like his Dad during a missile strike aimed at Seto’s own face, and Seto did not stop till he won, because of his own damn pride.

Like I think I mentioned this in the last recap, but if they wanted to have Seto show any changes in this arc (which he hasn’t done) then he should have walked away. Instead, he’s very clearly still using his past trauma to fuel the obsessive reasons why he’s playing cards in the present.

Oh, and PS, Yugi’s here, I don’t know why he is, but it does make for some good scenery shots for the commercials so you know, why not.

Gozaburo decides it’s about time to turn into a 50 ft rage monster, and he pushes them to a ledge. Ah, dangerous ledge trope, it’s been a while.

And, finally, as was hinted basically since S1, Yugi gets Seto to jump directly off a ledge of a very tall structure. It finally happened.

Don’t think about it.

And into a portal? That gets them to the exit? Like y’all...this is a kid’s show and all so I shouldn’t question any very convenient plot devices but like...what?

Anyways, they’re fine now, don’t worry about it.

And so, now for a brother pow-wow between Mokuba, who is either still very, very much in Stockholm Syndrome Territory or maybe just doesn’t know that Noah dropped a rocket on his face while Moki was AFK.

And so Noah walks off into the fog cloud because he is the only person on this entire show who would rather die than share a brain (and you know Moki would’ve been down. Moki/Noah as the next Yugi/Pharaoh could’ve been a great thing but youknow, also very much way too complicated for this already complicated show).

It was very melodramatic.

And TBH, I will miss Noah a little bit, he had a fun, insane sort of snobby sass, but I can understand why they might not want to keep even more villains around on this show that is already like...dozens of villains, just so many villains.

Anyway, remember that they woke up in a lab and not in a blimp, so they still have to like...get off this damn boat.

Lol nearly forgot this was an anime. Glad Noah got a magic girl moment before he kicked it.

Also, I’m pretty sure it was shirtless Noah in this glowing yellow farmer’s tan that got this episode flagged for Adult Content when it was still in my drafts folder. Tumblr’s bot got super excited to shut this one way down lol.

And then what follows is like one of the best animated loops in Yugioh. One so good that you bet your ass I clipped it to view for my own leisure.

Mokuba, sensing he’s slowing down for no reason makes the mistake of telling his brother “I’m not going to make it” and so, as an unsuspecting Duke Devlin reaches out and says “grab my hand,” Kaiba does...THIS

when the entire time Kaiba was strong enough and had enough jumps to do THIS

Like he could have easily picked up Mokuba but youknow, any chance to throw a kid at Duke Devlin’s face shoe-first, I guess.

Maybe this is why Moki wears a puffy vest?

And so it was here, as the flames encroach on my wonderful blimp baby that I was getting ready to say goodbye, but guess what, she ain’t dead because...of a completely insane reason we’ll get to in a bit.

Oh, and PS Kaiba’s Dad is a flame monster now. Because of...technology?

It’s probably supposed to be metaphorical flames but youknow, apparently Kaiba had the foresight that someone at some point would become a flame demon and try to devour his entire blimp, and so he made a feature you can add onto what ever blimp you decide to buy from him just so you can outrun fire people attacks.

And it turns out Blimp was the real Magical Girl all along.

Blimp lore is getting pretty wild y’all.

Imagine playing cards on it now...

And then everyone collectively decided that Noah WASN’T DEAD. It was very unhealthy! Thanks 4Kids!

The irony about this exchange is that it is Bakura who is the one who’s uploaded to a flash drive, not Noah--Bakura is on a flash drive around Yugi’s neck but they have never discussed this. Like I’m pretty sure no one even has still picked up that Bakura died and that’s going to be the thing I look forward to the most next episode. If they even address it. Which they might not.

And so, Kaiba looks at the wreckage and the rocket parts that he now has to explain to the UN (and probably not for the first time) and he says:

And thus ends the Kaiba’s Kojima-esque War Crimes arc.

Oh man, next time we get to go back to Marik.

Man oh man.

I don’t even REMEMBER what was going on in that arc guys. It’s been like...man.

I might have to read my own blog to refresh myself haha, I honestly have forgotten a lot of details.

Anyway, in memory of when the blimp still looked like a blimp, I guess this is the last time I can ever post this song:

youtube

And here’s a link to read these recaps from the beginning in chrono-order

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clairen45 · 6 years ago

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Digging into Rey and Kylo’s Spotify Playlists- part 1: episode 7 songs

The Shut Up and Dance with Me post really pushed me to go through the songs from the Spotify playlists and give you the lowdown, as I see it. That these lists even exist is beyond me! And, just to be clear, these lists have been released in 2015 pre-TFA. With no modification, even pre or post TLJ. No added material. If anything, they actually removed some songs from the lists: 2 for Kylo and 3 for Rey. I don’t think the changes necessarily meant that the songs were too revealing or, on the contrary, didn’t fit the characters anymore. It might just be copyright or legal issue or some artistic differences or god knows what. But again, the point of these lists were to get to know the characters a little better. Some characters we already knew of course, the big three ( Luke, Leia, Han Solo), but also Obi-Wan and Yoda, a list for Anakin and a list for Vader, Padmé, Mace Windu, Bobba Fett, Chewbacca... Lists for new characters: Finn, BB8... surprisingly no Poe Dameron. By the way, I think the Dark Side’ list is super interesting! And of course Rey and Kylo. Rey’s list is full of pop, girl empowerment anthem kind of songs, with a few romantic ballads, which already meant something. Kylo’s is of course full of angsty rock. I don’t want to comment on the genre. My mission was less on the musical genres than on the lyrics and how they can shed some light on the characters and their fates. Because, sure, a team chose these songs to let us know about the characters but, honestly, guys, I think somebody let them in on the rough draft of the whole ST. Because post TLJ it is obvious that a lot of songs apply to what happened as far as Rey and Kylo are concerned in this movie. And since we have our bunch of ep 7 songs, and a bunch of ep 8 songs, well, it appears a bunch of songs don’t fit either and could very well give us key information about ep 9. Before I get accused again of “reaching” (LOL), let us be honest: I think they put a lot of care into those playlists. So no, I don’t think coincidences are accidental. And yes, I think it’s fair to speculate about episode 9 looking at the songs. So let’s take the journey and crack these songs together.

There are 53 songs for Kylo (I am excluding the original soundtrack every time) and 54 for Rey. Rey’s playlist also has tunes in common with Padmé, Leia, and Luke. 4 songs in common with Padmé, quite a lot: Smoke and Fire, Rich Girl, Fighter, and Bulletproof. With Leia: Smoke and Fire, and the fact that they both have Love is a Battlefield, except that Leia is Pat Benatar’s song, and Rey’s is Jordin Spark’s song. Same title, different songs. This marks Rey as the “heiress” to these two heroines, which is not surprising. I think it is quite remarkable that she shares so many songs with Padmé, as regards the Anidala inversion we always talk about. Rich Girl, in particular, because Padmé was a Queen, so yes, the rich girl, whereas in Rey’s case the song is ironic. Rey also shares 2 song with Luke: Wild by Troye Sivan (I honestly don’t get what this song does on Luke’s playlist, so that must mean something potentially), and Adventure of a Lifetime. With Luke as a mentor to Rey in ep 8, that would kind of make sense that they would share something. I honestly merely skimmed through all the playlists, but Rey and Kylo seem to be the only one who share songs with other characters (if I am wrong, please correct me). Kylo shares 3 songs, 1 with Anakin (and NOT Vader), Bored to Death, 1 with BB8, Destroy the Map, and one with Mace Windu on You want a Battle (Here’s War). Interesting also. I won’t necessarily comment on that today, because there is a lot to go through, but these are thoughts to save and process later maybe.

Some songs can also fit two, maybe the three, episodes. And also, I have noticed something very interesting in Rey’s playlist: a lot of songs that feature in her playlist seem to be more from Kylo’s POV (like Shut up and Dance). They should normally feature on his list but because they would break away from the others in terms of genre, it is probably how they ended on Rey’s list. I found on Kylo’s playlist 1 song that, to me, should rather feature on Rey’s list, but again, would seem odd in terms of genre.

1.KYLO’S LIST/ EPISODE 7

Kylo’s list also seems way more descriptive about his character, angst, inner conflict, feelings of pain and revenge, than Rey’s list. There is a lot of songs talking about past abuse and family conflict. Sweet Dreams by Marilyn Manson is a good example: “ Some of them want to use you/ Some of them want to get used by you/ Some of them want to abuse you/ Some of them want to be abused”. References to dreams and nightmares in Kylo’s playlist are also quite noteworthy because they tie in with Rey’s visions as described in TFA: she hears voices in her dreams, and when she first sees Kylo, she knows that she has seen him before “in a dream, in a nightmare”. We can also find some parallels with the plot in episode 7: the Jakku massacre, meeting Rey, killing Han... Recurring themes are, without surprise, fire, death, suffering, dreams and nightmares...

This Means War (Avenged Sevendold). That song is packed with so much about his feelings and his introduction in the ST. It goes on and on really. I could quote the whole thing. But here are the highlights :

Hide my face again, harbor in the shadows (duh!) Feel this weight of sin hammering away Die, with the guilt of a thousand AWOL soldiers (The pull to the light) Die, watch the scythe usher me astray (Lor San Tekka’s execution)

The ugly side of me is strong

Carry me to nowhere (Jakku is nowhere!) Lie!Mask the pain Of a child who's forsaken Lie! To myself Praise the new regime (honestly, did they write the song for Kylo?)

I left me long ago Reasons you'll never know No one to miss me when I'm gone With no more words to say No argument to stay. Another post I don't belong (Lor San Tekka: The First Order rose from the dark side. You did not)

No home to call my own No finding someone new No one to break the fall No one to see me through No name to carry on No promise for today No one to hear the call (Oh hon, hang on, the girl is coming!) Buy into the fear (Rey: You are afraid!) My serpent blood can strike so cold (Murderous snake! again) Another thought I can't control (Force bond much?)

Elements of TFA Plot:

Legion of Evil (OFF): “Break down houses”, “ Mystery crews on a murderous spree” (the opening on Jakku, with his mysterious identity) but also “Retaliation against horrible gods/Treasonous snakes with gentlemen's lies/ Waving a false flag to sell the deception” which of course are reminiscent of his line to Rey about the Resistance: “ You mean the murderers traitors and thieves you call your friends ? “. But can also ironically evoke Snoke’s influence on him: he is the treasonous snake with gentlemen’s lies. Or even to him as seen from Rey’s POV in 7 and at the beginning of TLJ: “a treasonous snake”/ “murderous snake”/ “liar”...

The Red (Chevelle) and Evil Eye (Franz Ferdinand), both emphasize the color red, which is Kylo’s color theme.Thunder and Lightning (Motorhead”, “ Maybe you'll die, maybe you'll fly/ Fire in the sky, thunder and lightning”. Heart of Fire (Black Veil Brides): “ I feel alive inside I won't be terrorized, I'll take all the blame/This heart of fire is burning proud/ I am every dream you lost and never found/ This heart of fire is stronger now”. Also the attack on Jakku.

The Map plot: R2 where are U (Flying Lotus): it takes both BB8 and R2 to find Luke’s hideout. This song is also on BB8′s list by the way. Destroy the Map (36 Crazy Fists). Obviously the title is interesting because Kylo gives up on the map and gets Rey instead. The song presents some other interesting points: something that could evoke Starkiller base “ And the clouds don't break when the sun is on empty” , and also something that seems to fit straight into TLJ: “You couldn't hold your mouth to stop the sound/ With all these riches on the tip of your tongue/And I was trying to dampen it all out/You were talking louder than I should here/Producing nothing but all these mirrors”, “ Where the baptized drown/We used to breathe” (Rey in the cave) “This time, our time, we have, we'll last”. So gain some songs can actually fit more than 1 episode.

Failing on Starkiller: beaten up by Rey, never got the intel about Luke... At least I’m known for something (New Found Glory): “ I've figured out my situation/ I am an endless source of useless information/ Give me bad news could be something expecting/ I let my front down/ And I know I will regret it/ /But you don't know that and I'm the one to blame for it/'Cause I'm destined for failure“. More Starkiller: My own Summer (Deftones): “ Hey you, big star/ Tell me when it's over”.

Family and Han:

Refusing his legacy. War on the Palaces (Refused):

I carry history with me I carry hope (I see you Ben You are My Only Hope Solo!!!!) All the nameless faces before us Let's carry them all

I wanna carry the dead (his attachment for Vader instead of the living members of his family) Wage war on the palaces

Bored to Death (Blink 182): “ And it's a long way back from seventeen/The whispers turn into a scream/And I'm, I'm not coming home/Save your breath, I'm nearly/ Bored to death”. Mene (Brand New): “ My father spoke of prophecy/ To think that I believed is self-centered of me/There was something I was trying to say/ But then I choked on it and now it's getting kind of late” (@madandmisquoted did a meta on how Kylo mumbles “I love you dad”+ “It is too late”). Indestructible (Rancid): “ It's so fake now, everything I see right through/I'm ashamed now to say I ever know you” evoke his scene with Han. I don’t wanna Hear It (Minor Threat): “ I don't want to hear it/ I'm sick and tired of all your lies/ I don't want to hear it/ When are you gonna realize.”. Family and mommy issues: Down With the Sickness (Disturbed): “ It seems what's left of my human side/ Is slowly changing in me”, “ It seems you're having some trouble/ In dealing with these changes/ Living with these changes / The world is a scary place/ Now that you've woken up the demon in me”, “ No mommy, don't do it again/Don't do it again/ I'll be a good boy/I'll be a good boy, I promise No mommy don't hit me/ Why did you have to hit me like that, mommy?”.

Conflict

Got the Life (Korn): “Hate, something, someway, each day, dealing with no forgiveness/ Why? This shit inside/ Now everyone will follow/ So give me nothing just feel/ And now this shit will follow/ God begs me, the more I see the light, who wants to see?”. Strife (Trivium): “ I reach for calm/ I starve for a balance unknown/ This burden tortures me deep in my soul” ; “ Guilt buries me alive/ In a coffin criticized/ I shouldered the blame and dug this hole for me to lay in”. Duality (Slipknot). The title says it all, but it definitely applies to the scene with Han: “ You cannot kill what you did not create”; “Pull me back together/ Or separate the skin from the bone/ Leave me all the pieces, and then you can leave me alone” (Can apply to “I’m feeling torn apart”, “I killed your son, he was foolish and weak” ).

The Girl

I know that’s what you’ve been waiting for. There are 2 major songs about Rey in that list and one them has been removed, A Cross and a Girl Named Bless (Evans Blue). That song presents some elements that stretch all the way to 9. I’m including it here, because of the obvious reference to the way they meet on Takodana:

She's holding out for weapons to kill the ghosts inside (She shoots at a ghostlike figure in the forest)

Or at least kill the thoughts she has of killing her mind (Get out of my head!)

She says "I love you" with her hands (TLJ: Smut Hut)

She says "I hate you" with her eyes (You have that look from the forest..)

There's a pretty girl somewhere with a pretty name (What girl?)

But I could never let you know how much this means I swear we'll end this war, because we both know

It wasn't worth fighting for (Major episode IX spoiler)

She, she said to me I will be driving in the wrong direction Did you ever think that maybe your life

Is heading in the wrong direction, baby? (Throne Room Scene)

There's a cross up on the wall See from the corner of your eye When you're down on you knees...and she's begging please So go and lay back down tonight Because you won't know who you are

Until you're down on your knees...your begging please (End of TLJ, Crait)

The other big song is The Answer (Savages):

Wish me luck This was a hard year And I can't see No brighter future Wish me luck I saw the answer It was a girl (What girl?) Will you go ask her (Interrogation scene, the girl is all we need) I saw the answer Will you go ask her Love is the answer

Evil (Interpol): “ Heaven restores you in life/ You're coming with me/ Through the aging, the fearing, the strife/ It's the smiling on the package/ It's the faces in the sand” (the abduction, Rey is literally a face in the sand, the smile...), “You're weightless, semi-erotic/ You need someone to take you there/Sandy, why can't we look the other way?/Why can't we just play the other game?” (he carries her in his arms like a feather, You need a teacher!).

There is also a song there that is all about Rey’s POV on Kylo in TFA. Headstrong (Trapt) screams Rey during the interrogation scene. But, again, they couldn’t have put it on her playlist so it features on his instead.

Circling your head contemplating everything you ever said (getting in HIS head) Now I see the truth I got a doubt (You... are afraid you will never be as trong as Darth Vader!) A different motive in your eyes and now I'm out (escapes the interrogation room) See you later I see your fantasies You wanna make it a reality baby paved in gold See inside, inside of our heads yeah Well now that's over

Back off I'll take you on (Forest duel) Headstrong to take on anyone (Come on, that is SO Rey!) I know that you are wrong Headstrong we're Headstrong Back off I'll take you on Headstrong to take on anyone I know that you are wrong This is not where you belong (Trying to turn him in 8)

I can't give everything away (I won’t give you anything!) I won't give everything away

2.REY’S PLAYLIST/EPISODE 7

JAKKU

There are songs about Rey’s life conditions on Jakku. Poverty in Rich Girl (Gwen Stefani): “ If I was a rich girl/ See, I'd have all the money in the world, if I was a wealthy girl/ No man could test me, impress me, my cash flow would never ever end/ Cause I'd have all the money in the world, if I was a wealthy girl”. Of course the morale of the song is “All the riches in the world don’t mean anything without your love”. To remind us that if Rey has dreams it’s mostly about finding love and belonging. Interesting that she shares this song with Padmé who had the riches + the love and still didn’t get her happy ever after, but more on that later...

New Americana (Halsey) about survival of the fittest, the daily struggle of poverty, social divide. That one is also interesting because of its reference to James Dean: “ Young James Dean, some say/ He looks just like his father”. There is also the big reveal about Kylo being Han’s son. I think it’s probably how they first imagined Kylo, as a hypersensitive, rebellious, angsty youth, a character from East of Eden (another reference to Eden). The character played by James Dean, in Elia Kazan’s adaptation of Steinbeck’s famous novel, is Cal, a rebellious son who believes his father does not love him and sees him as evil incarnate. Kylo much?

Daylight (Matt and Kim) can also be about home and Jakku: “I miss yellow lines in my roads/ Some color on monochrone”, ‘Cause the daylight anywhere feels like home”. In TFA she wants to go back to Jakku. Rey is also used to having to fight for her survival: “ Murder lives forever/And so does war/ It's survival of the fittest/ Rich against the poor/ At the end of the day/ It's a human trait/ Hidden deep down inside of our DNA”.

Some songs talk about Rey’s dreams and her feelings of loneliness.Chandelier (Sia): “I'm gonna live like tomorrow doesn't exist/ Like it doesn't exist/ I'm gonna fly like a bird through the night,/ Feel my tears as they dry”. How she lives on a day to day basis and feels lonely all the time. Wake Me Up (Avicii):

Feeling my way through the darkness Guided by a beating heart I can't tell where the journey will end But I know where to start They tell me I'm too young to understand They say I'm caught up in a dream Well life will pass me by if I don't open up my eyes Well that's fine by me (stuck waiting on Jakku)

So wake me up when it's all over When I'm wiser and I'm older All this time I was finding myself And I didn't know I was lost

I tried carrying the weight of the world (Literally her job as a scavenger) But I only have two hands I hope I get the chance to travel the world And I don't have any plans I wish that I could stay forever this young Not afraid to close my eyes Life's a game made for everyone And love is a prize

THE FIGHTER

Of course songs about Rey, the independent girl, the fighter... Fighter (Christina Aguilera): “ 'Cause it makes me that much stronger/ Makes me work a little bit harder/ It makes me that much wiser/ So thanks for making me a fighter/ Made me learn a little bit faster/ Made my skin a little bit thicker/ Makes me that much smarter/ So thanks for making me a fighter”. Another song shared with Padmé. I know the song is about a guy that cheated on the girl and lied to her, but rather than about Kylo, this song can apply to a lot of people in Rey’s life: her parents, Unkar Plutt, and all the people she’s had to deal with since childhood. There is Run the World (Beyoncé) that could also be foreshadowing for episode ix. Kelly Clarkson’s Miss Independent, with the perfect title for Rey’s episode 7, but the message about love in this song actually fits better episode 8. Roar (Katy Perry): empowerment anthem, plus Rey looks like a lioness at the end of TFA, baring her teeth and snarling at Kylo. Possibly Piece of Me (Britney Spears).

Confident (Demi Lovato) fits well with Roar. That one screams end of TFA with beating Kylo down.

It's time for me to take it I'm the boss right now Not gonna fake it Not when you go down 'Cause this is my game And you better come to play

I used to hold my freak back

Now I'm letting go

I make my own choice (accepting the saber)

Bitch, I run this show So leave the lights on No, you can't make me behave

So you say I'm complicated

That I must be outta my mind But you had me underrated Rated, rated

What's wrong with being, what's wrong with being

What's wrong with being confident?

There is the teaser song about Rey’s origin. That’s Not my Name (The Ting Things). Well, in TFA everybody is asking about her identity, about “the girl”, wo that would make sense to have this song. Rey might not even be her name after all, though she is old enough when her parents sell her to remember it; Does it mean we will l get a new name in ix? Maybe. Or just Rey Solo. I think the song is really there for the fun about the possible identity of Rey...

THE ESCAPE

Songs about Rey leaving Jakku and becoming a pilot. Obviously: Starships (Nicki Minaj) because “starships are meant to fly”. Boom Boom Pow (The BEP): “ I'm on that supersonic boom/ Y'all hear the spaceship zoom”. Alive Tonight (Grace Potter), for these lines: “In the dark of the desert/ I saw a man with a sign, it said/ People get ready, 'cause it's all over/ It's all gonna end tonight, well” ( On Jakku, Lor San Tekka is the man with the intel about Luke promising that “this will begin to make things right”, and eventually this sign gets to Rey through BB8 at dusk in the desert). I also like these lines: “ You wanna get in on the action, you want/ Everyone to listen to you, oh/ You're just living in a prediction/ And that don't, that don't make it true, no” which fits the fact that things will not be as simple as Rey thinks. Also about the end of Rey’s time on Jakku, The Dog Days are Over (Florence+ the Machines): “The dog days are over/The dog days are done/ The horses are coming so you better run”. These lines are great: “Leave all your love and your longing behind you/ Can't carry it with you if you want to survive”, about giving up on Jakku and close to Maz’s line about “the belonging you seek is not behind you”.

MEETING KYLO

Now, with songs that reflect on meeting Kylo... There is Gibberish (Max): “ But then I caught you creepin'/ Secrets that you were keepin”, which could fit the interrogation scene. Or the title could just refer to the fact that Rey seems to understand every language she meets (BB8, Chewie...). LOL. Obviously, the beautiful Yes Girl (Bea Miller):

I got you figured out, you need to have control You think that I don't know you, I know you, I know Trying to tell you now, I've been doing what you want But I won't be your yes girl, no, not anymore

And these even better lines: “ And now you're my favorite sin, oh/ Cause I'm either on your side or you're a mile away” (which fits TLJ better). There is Focus (Ariana Grande): “ I can tell you're curious/ It's written on your lips/ Ain't no need to hold it back/ Go ahead and talk your shit/ I know you're hoping that I'll react/ I know you're hoping I'm looking back/ But if my real ain't real enough/ Then I don't know what is” (again, mood for the interrogation scene). Also like that line: “ Let's find a light inside our universe now/ Where ain't nobody keep on holding us down”.

That one seems really more to me from Kylo’s POV when Rey leaves for the MF at the end of TFA. We Come Running (Youngblood Hawke):

Headed for the open door Tell me what you're waiting for (Rey is coded as the waiting one) Look across the great divide (the ground falling apart between them) Soon they're gonna hear The sound, the sound, the sound (Boom goes Starkiller) When we come running Never go where we belong (obviously, they parted ways when they should be together) Echoes in the dead of dawn (Force bond foreshadowing echoes?) Soon they're gonna know The sound, the sound, the sound When we come running

And also that one: Force of Nature (Bea Miller). That one really fits Kylo in TFA as he starts falling for Rey during their duel on Starkiller: I don't know why but my hands are shaking I can see you coming and I stand here waiting (Didn’t put up much of a fight, honestly) Yeah I get tongue tied in the conversation (Lost the interrogation scene fight) It's an F'd up, bad, sick situationI tried to tie my heart down, board up all the windows Oh but it's too late now (Too late is classic Kylo) I let you get too close (like inside my head) I know I should take cover, hide inside these four walls But baby I surrender, it all'Cause you're a force of nature (Marry Me Face) Look at what you've done I can taste the danger but I don't wanna run So pull me to the ground and I won't put up a fight (End of the fight) I'm a caution taker, but baby you're a force of nature Baby you're a force of natureI feel your lips move in and they take me under (The Force? Mesmerized in looking at her) You know just what to do, how to make me want you And I know I'll be broken when it's over Oh but I can't help but pull you closerI'll be here 'till we collide I don't care if I survive So crash into me one more time

Say what you want, but this beautiful ballad is all about Kylo’s feelings for Rey!

BONUS: THE INVERSE ANIDALA SONG?

There’s an intriguing tune in Kylo’s playlist. Incorporeal (Tiger Army).

I’m gone I died long ago but my spirit still roams (Incorporeal) Unwanted in heaven, forgotten in hell as on earth (Incorporeal) I don't want to stay here, it seems that I'll never be free Oh can you hear me? (no) And so It has come to be that I must wander forever (Incorporeal) Many things I have seen, empires that rise and then fall (Incorporeal) A life you live long is simply a moment to me A tiny drop of water in the sea of eternity There's no place for me everywhere that I go Only seems to bring upset and harm There's one thing that I want and one thing only Release into the great beyond Don't want to remember when I was alive When I held my true love in my arms For like you I once was, and like me you shall be When you Feel a chill in the night perhaps it's me saying hello (Incorporeal) You're so much like my love though she lived in a long ago time (Incorporeal) I long to see her, the day when my soul's laid to rest The peace that I can not find in life, I can find in death

Honestly, this song makes me want to scream!!! Heavy reincarnation theme. Especially when you cross that with Rey sharing 4 songs with Padmé. And with the fact that Anakin (not Vader) and Kylo share a song. And the song I mentioned, Rich Girl. Rey is the inverse Padmé already, right? She’s the younger one in the couple, and she is poor with a low status. Again, Padmé has everything (the riches and the guy) and didn’t end up happy. By sharing songs, it might be another hint that Rey will succeed where Padmé didn’t.

This is it for 7, guys. It is quite a beast. 34 songs left to go through in Rey’s playlist, 25 for Kylo.

#rey and kylo spotify playlists #those playlists have a tale to tell #reylo #reylo fandom #reylo evidence #reylo meta #inverse anidala

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marigorbital · 6 years ago

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Dumb Ducks in the Water: Part 14

IT’S FINALLY HERE. Three actual years later, but it’s here.

A lot has happened in my life for the past three years and, to make a long excuse short, I was doing a lot of life questioning and dealing with events. And once I got out of my dark cloud, I decided to return to this fic while returning with my own writing projects. So I’m here to finish this fic, though I’m not sure how long it will take (I hope within a year?)--I’m just promising not to go MIA again, is all.

Anyway, some notes on this chapter:

- Listen, I did NOT plan on returning when the 3rd season of Free! came. This is pure coincidence, honestly. That being said, SO MANY THINGS HAVE CHANGED. Side characters have personalities now... Isuzu exists (I’ll have to, at some point, change Yukiko’s name)... People are in college now... Anyway, I want to remind folks that I started this fic in 2014/2015 and I’m trying to stay true to that, so anything that doesn’t match up with the current season is kind of like oh well for me.

- This chapter features tweets. Yeah. I used some website that make them look like they were written in 2009, lol, but we’re just gonna go with it. Also, want to give a shoutout to my best friends, who spent like five hours coming up with the twitter handles.

- Speaking of which, trigger warning possibly: cyber bullying (?) and rumors. Now, I generally try to keep this fic lighthearted, so I am also touching the mentioned subjects in a lighthearted manner for the most part, but I also know that if what happens in this chapter ever happened to me in high school, I would have been mortified. So I tried to respect that and take it a little seriously, which also pertains to the rest of the plot--but this is still Dumb Ducks. No PSAs, just some self-awareness.

- I am a little worried the quality is not up to par with this chapter because it’s been a while and I just wanted to get this chapter over with because I’d rather write other scenes, so I’m super sorry if it’s only sort of funny/cute or too serious. It’ll be better next chapter! (Which hopefully comes out by December?)

Anyway.

Start from the beginning or go to the handy-dandy tag page and pick up where you left off.

Enjoy.

------

It was still Tuesday.

But worse yet, it was time for him to face the swim team.

And to be honest, if you asked Nitori, that was kind of bullshit.

There he stood, observing the pool of sharks in the distance just waiting for him to make a move. A whole lot of damage had been done in the past eight hours since Rin shouted a profound WHAT THE FUCK at Nitori and Momo’s dorm doorway, which immediately stirred up a banana telephone game of epic proportions throughout Samezuka Academy. Pair that with the fact that both of the dimwits were publicly announced to head to the principal’s office together and that something amiss had happened in the cafeteria last night—and boy, oh boy, were the rumors trending the social sphere like something straight out of Nitori’s nightmares. They had gone viral, top of the chart gossip among their peers, who were all too ready to roast the couple into infamy.

It all started with a tweet.

Some rando on the basketball team had overheard Rin catching Nitori and Momotarou getting caught in an explicit position at their dorm, and what with the rumors of Samezuka’s swim team having more tea than a J-drama now stirring, this caught the attention of several bored teenage boys before classes had even started.

The sports news network was simple. Basketball passed the rumors around to get some details. One teammate asked who found out about this and were replied to with the captain caught them. Another asked, which one’s the captain?? And another replied, the guy who cries all the time.

Once the rumors spread over to other sports teams at the academy, the Samezuka Swim Team Thot Conspiracy began. It was the volleyball team who mentioned that both Nitori and Mikoshiba were sent to the principal’s office that same day, as sourced by a classmate in Nitori’s homeroom. A peculiar detail because how did the school find out about what the couple was doing in their bedroom? Did someone rat them out?

Then someone on the tennis team who was also in the culinary club mentioned, I heard they got caught doing shit in the cafeteria.

Cue the controversy.

This made folks on the baseball team wonder just how many times the two had done it and bets were being taken about when the relationship started. Someone on the bicycle team hashtagged the gossip thread as #bombezuka, which set off a flurry of well-intentioned, damage control tweets from students who didn’t want the reputations of Aiichirou Nitori and Momotarou Mikoshiba to get tarnished.

Things like who cares if they’re banging and let them live in PEACE to they’re not gay and who are we even talking about flooded social media circles as the rumor spread outside of Samezuka’s sports clubs and into the general student body. Did things get out of control? Naturally. Details were being made up, people weren’t entirely sure who was involved in the cafeteria fucking, and lavish erotic assumptions about who had the biggest dick energy on the Samezuka swim team were battling it out for all of this side of Japan’s internet to see.

One person assumed the captain (Rin) was angry because he was in a secret love affair with “the silver twink” or something. Another person insisted, Mikoshiba-san has been bragging about being with Nitori-san since last weekend. Another student saw them nuzzling faces on the metro train, claimed they were on a date. Oh, definitely, said another, saw them on the beach making out.

Eventually someone had the nerve to try to confirm some things with the swim team by messaging Toru Iwashimizu, who only responded:

But because Iwashimizu had responded, the #bombezuka thread had popped up on the rest of the swimming team’s Twitter feeds, who righteously had mixed reactions of freaking out to defend their teammates’ honor and freaking out because their suspicions had finally been confirmed.

To no one’s surprise, Nagisa Hazuki caught wind of the frenzy, despite being from another school entirely.

And with Rin Matsuoka’s name mixed in with the rumors, it did not take long before six degrees reached his younger sister Gou, who could not believe what had unfurled throughout the day without any comment by her brother. In a desperate attempt to get him to notice the Twitter storm, she tweeted:

The only silver lining of the tweetastrophe was that at least no one was being inherently meanspirited about the potential lust blossoming between Nitori and Momotarou, which was partially due to the swimming team’s notoriety. On paper, sure, the swim team was the pride and joy of the Samezuka Academy, but that’s not why they were famous among their peers. They were famous because the rest of the school viewed the swim team as a group of guys obsessed with swimming. They did nothing but swim. The whole point of the indoor swimming pool was for the team to practice even during the winter—when they didn’t even have to swim—or whenever it rained.

Barely anyone knew anything about the students in the swim team, so many folks figured they had the stock personalities of a school of fish. All going for the same goal to be a professional athlete and not much else. They were untouchable; their schedules surrounding practices, training camps, and swim meets, with not much room for dating in between. The only other thing people knew about them was their annual tradition of hosting a maid café at their school’s cultural festival, which no one could reasonably explain.

That was it. Listen, people figured if there was ever going to be a scandal coming from the swim team, it was probably going to be about some guy shooting up steroids in the locker room or wearing unapproved swimsuits for better aerodynamics in competitions or maybe even something crazy like the students were all brainwashed and manufactured into disciples of Poseidon himself to carry on the legend of Samezuka forever. They weren’t known for actual drama, not even while people heard about Rin Matsuoka swimming for some other school’s team halfway through a competition for some reason last year (that was weird, but okay) or even this year when some folks whispered about Sousuke Yamazaki having a hurt shoulder and, like, that was sad, but he still swam in the championship, so other students figured it wasn’t so bad. Hell, if you even heard about those two so-called incidents, you had to be real close to the swim team—and the fact of the matter was, what happened in Samezuka’s swim team generally stayed with the swim team.

So, when rumors spread about last year’s swim team captain’s little brother possibly dating this year’s captain’s ex-roommate, who some said might be next year’s captain, too, things got a little bit juicy.

To the student body of the Samezuka Academy, this was like finding out the royals were having incestuous affairs behind the castle doors, which got people thinking: maybe the reason no one had ever heard of the Samezuka swim team dating anyone outside of school was because maybe the swim team was dating… each other.

Yet, while folks were reveling in the swim team’s supposed love triangle plot twists, it was all at the expense of Aiichirou Nitori’s dignity. People were quick to forget that. It was one thing to be teased by his teammates about possibly dating Momotarou, but to witness his reputation get warped into being the promiscuous sexpot darling of the swim team was a level of humiliation Nitori had never known. He read tweet after tweet, seeing his name become the butt of a thousand jokes by students who he had never heard of, let alone spoken to.

It was a wild exchange. There were positive messages at first that called him cute, saying no surprise he’s dating someone, remembering him as the second-year breaststroke swimmer, saying how quiet in school he was, saying how small he was, saying well, if he’s still on the swim team, he must be good, right? They said he must be flexible, then mentioned Momo and Rin and Sousuke and Seijuro and damn near any teammate people saw him with at some point during the school year. They got more invasive, calling him relay boy, and assumed he was experienced, assumed he was bottom, assumed he was easy.

He cried about this, locked his dorm room and wept at his desk as he used his laptop to delete his Twitter and turn all his other social media accounts private before the gossip switched platforms. And once it was done and he could finally use his phone again without notifications stalling the system, Nitori stared at his last text message, one from Sousuke that read, emergency meeting at the pool now.

There stood Aiichirou Nitori at the entrance of the indoor swimming pool, with eyes puffed red and swollen, just like his ego.

“I hate this,” he muttered, his voice hoarse.

No one wore their swimsuits, which was good because like hell was Nitori going to do some goddamn laps after all the bullshit he went through today. As he sauntered down the gym in his hoodie and sweatpants, he looked down at the tile floor and listed the day’s events in his head. He woke up at 5:30 in the morning, broke into the cafeteria to smuggle in paper cranes, got caught, kissed Momo, had a nice breakfast, kissed Momo again but in his underwear so Rin could catch them—and thus the downward spiral set off. Today was the first day he started his first relationship. He should have been happy. It should have been a good day, really. But all Nitori felt was tired.

He was so, so tired.

“Honestly, fuck ‘em,” said Toru Iwashimizu, who sat at the edge of the pool with his feet dipped in the water. “Summer break is coming up anyway. They’re going to forget all about this.”

Most of the swim team sat down on the floor as a huddled group, with a few teammates just off to the side by the pool edge or by the wall. Nitori couldn’t bring himself to make eye contact with anyone, knowing what had been rumored, but he saw someone approaching him and stepped back.

“Nitori-senpai?” whispered Momotarou, still in his school uniform. Not because he couldn’t get into their dorm room to change clothes, but because he chose not to.

“Where were you?” asked Nitori. He looked up at Momo then, pointing an incredulous glance at his manic kouhai, and didn’t care if anyone noticed their confrontation.

There was no question that Nitori-senpai looked like a wreck. His eyes were bloodshot, his nose and lips cracked at the irritated dry patches he must have wiped too many times, and his skin dulled from exhaustion. Once he found out about all the rumors, Momo’s first reaction was to go straight to his dorm room and talk with Nitori, but when he heard his senpai’s sobbing and how obviously hurt he was, his next impulse was to stop the madness. For the past twenty minutes, Momotarou went to several sports teams and people whose names he recognized in the tweeting threads and made a small statement to each of them in person. He needed to come up with a better solution, he knew that, but it was all he could think of for now.

He told them, you have hurt someone I care about.

“I was trying to fix this,” he told Nitori, even though he also knew the concept of fixing their shattered reputations might have been impossible by now.

“How could you possibly fix this?”

“Oy, Ai,” interjected Rin, who like the rest of the swim team had been taking note of Nitori’s dejected state. “That’s what we’re all trying to do now. Come up with a way to fix this mess.”

Fix messes, huh, Nitori thought. It seemed like he was always caught in some mess that needed to be fixed, at least for the past four days. Eventually the escalation must stop and crash, that’s what he was learning. He just never thought it would crash on him.

Nitori looked up to evaluate the rest of the team, taking note of their worried yet puzzled expressions as they looked back at him. He saw Minami and Uozumi sitting up against the wall, their lips pursed as if holding back their own commentary until they felt safe to do so. Off to the side, where most of the team sat, lied Nakagawa on his back and yet he averted his attention up at Nitori, then began to sit up when he noticed Nitori staring down at him. Iwashimizu took his feet out of the water and turned toward Nitori, sitting cross-legged and cross-armed. They looked guilty, or maybe Nitori just wanted them to feel that way. He wanted to blame them for their casual teasing as some sort of fuel for the rumor fire, even if he couldn’t prove it as the catalyst to the day’s events.

There was a moment when he wanted to blame Rin for shouting so loud that morning, for getting involved, for being so known at school. It didn’t last long, though, because even with everything that had happened, Nitori couldn’t muster up the nerve to blame his senpai for caring about him and his reckless behavior. As he looked Rin directly in the eyes, Nitori noticed the accountability Rin felt for his part of the scandal, how much of a captain he looked during this crisis—if you could call it that, Nitori wondered, feeling dumb. God, he felt so dumb, standing dead center at an emergency swim team meeting—a meeting—over rumors about him fucking—fucking—Momo.

Over fucking Momo.

When it came to Momo, his anger was complicated. It wasn’t the rage of someone who felt betrayed or even the kind of frustration someone felt because of how stupid their friend was. His fury was much more personal, a fury that made him obsess over every bad mistake he made in the past few days because of Momo’s whims and how any sane person would have said no, would have said the line was being crossed, would have realized they were setting themselves up for a messy catastrophe, but not him. Truth was, as Nitori realized it after sobbing at his desk, that he was, in a way, having fun. And the reason he was mad was because it had been spoiled.

He looked back at Momo and weakly raised his hand with his fingers twitching in frustration, pulling the air as he pulled his thoughts together.

“Nitori-senpai,” said Momo, who stepped closer ready to accept any punishment he was about to be given. “I’ll do whatever it takes to fix this.”

Yeah, he got anxious. Yeah, what they were doing was stupid.

But it was fun.

Nitori got mad because he hated how everyone wanted to rewrite his memories. They weren’t there watching the sunset at the beach with Momo while eating ice cream after a day of dancing and shooting water guns. They weren’t there going into downtown to shop for origami paper and eating lunch while binge-watching anime in their dorm room, just hanging out together and enjoying each other’s company for like twelve hours straight. They weren’t there eating breakfast in a little kitchen shop, planning dates and dodging bashful glances on the morning of their first kiss. They had no idea how much of a big deal it was, how it felt, that first time. All they had was this idea of who they were—just a couple of zany kids, off to the side, doing nothing important, just messing around. Who were they to try to tell Nitori the story of (maybe) the first time he fell in love?

Momo and his big mouth, his stupid ideas, his dumb heart.

Nitori dropped his hand. He took one step forward and plopped his head onto Momo’s chest, letting out a deep sigh. First day of a relationship and he was mad. God, he felt so dumb.

“Is it worth all this?” he said to Momo. “How long are we going to hide this secret?”

This secret, of course, referred to the surprise party they were planning, which had clearly become the bane of their existence. What started out as a prank turned sentimental gesture had wildly spun out of a control as the basis of their public outing for all to jest—and there was still another half of the week to go through before it was even supposed to happen.

Yet, given the rumor situation, when the swim team heard “secret,” a slight misunderstanding prompted folks to speak up.

“Oh, well, you don’t have to hide anymore, Nitori-san,” said Minami from the back, a little preemptively. “We’re totally cool with it.”

“Uh,” Momo stuttered, looking down at Nitori, who merely closed his eyes and sighed further. “That’s not—”

“That’s right, Ai,” said Rin. “We’ll make sure this doesn’t get out of control.”

Sousuke also chimed in with a supportive, “You’re not alone.”

And while it was sweet how quickly the Samezuka Swim Team turned into the Momo-Ai Defense Squad, hearing the phrase you’re not alone had channeled the exact reason Nitori was furious in the first place. He wasn’t alone, was quite prophetically forced to not be alone—when that’s what he wanted. He gripped Momo’s shirt, tugged down at the neckline as his silent call for freedom, and whispered into Momo’s ear, “Fix this.”

As more teammates spoke up to lend their support, it dawned on Momotarou that despite the fact that there was no real plan on how to come out as a couple since they were originally just rolling with the team’s own suspicions, this was probably not it. This was not how anything was supposed to go. He wrapped his arms around Nitori, feeling his senpai give in the embrace and start to choke up. Things had gone too far over nothing and no amount of white lies could change the fact that Momo, frankly, messed up.

“Stop,” he announced, then groaned as he gave in to surrender. “We were just trying to plan a party.”

Huh?

Even Sousuke, who was helping plan the party, wondered why the flustered ginger had snapped out and revealed the party plans. Collectively, no one on the team could tie the connection between Momo and Ai’s relationship outing and a… party? Unless, maybe it was a coming out party? Were they gonna be that elaborate about announcing their relationship? Wouldn’t that be a little much? Was that even a thing?

“What are you talking about?” asked Rin.

But the truth had to come out, and so with Nitori still in his arms, Momo exasperatedly confessed, “It started with the bread, but then you saw the bread, so then we couldn’t use it anymore, but I didn’t want to give up on—well, see, I was trying to plan a surprise because, come on, look at this pool, it’s so big! Like, how am I supposed to be at this school and not put stuff in it, so then why not origami cranes? No one can get mad at origami cranes—because they’re beautiful—and it’s barely a prank if there’s 5000 origami cranes—I mean, that’s practically art—like, honestly, I think it’d even be a good idea for the summer festival, just putting it out there because I’ve been working really hard on making them, you can ask Yamazaki-senpai, who—actually—is the reason we started planning a party. Yeah, ugh, because it was just a really good idea and we couldn’t explain why we are on the beach on top of each other—but nothing happened! We weren’t even thinking about that yet! We were just having a good time and then Yamazaki-senpai was like oh, what are you doing, give me my radio back, you’re planning a party, right? And we were like, yeah, that’s a great idea because it was, so then we had to go through with it, which is why we were always together, but then everyone kept thinking we were together together because we took a shower together and like, yeah, okay, so I checked Nitori-senpai out, but who wouldn’t? Look me in the eyes and tell me you wouldn’t—no, you can’t, because Nitori-senpai is an amazing person who deserves to be checked out and, you know what? I’d do it again, honestly.”

Momo took a moment to breathe.

“Ugh, not that it matters,” Momo continued, his confession getting louder, “because then everybody was getting suspicious because of how much we hung out and Yamazaki-senpai couldn’t take the cranes to the cafeteria, so we had to, and the freaking cafeteria manager came in too early, so we had to run and run and it was sunrise and Nitori-senpai looked beautiful and, like, that was the moment—I couldn’t just not kiss him, especially after last night’s failure, so I did and it was great and today was supposed to be a great day because today—TODAY—was the first time I’ve ever kissed someone and today was supposed to be special because I asked Nitori-senpai out on a date and he said sure and I was,” Momo panted before he calmed down and finished, “I was really happy about that.”

Nitori looked up at Momo, then softly uttered, “Momo-kun…”

“I’m angry, too,” said Momo, meeting Nitori’s gaze. “I ruined our first day.”

The team stood there, stunned.

It was a lot to digest, particularly since Momo gave no context to anything he said, just spouted out a stream of consciousness that only select people could put together in a coherent timeline. But while some team members were trying to figure out the missing details, Rin—who felt he understood most of the Momo speak—hesitantly spoke up and said, “So, you two were planning a party here in the gym?”

Momo and Nitori nodded.

“And you knew about this?” Rin asked, turning around to Sousuke.

“Yup,” he said.

“But you two,” Rin turned back to the frazzled couple, “weren’t dating until… today?”

“Right,” confirmed Momo.

“But I saw… you both… this morning,” said Rin, trying to make sense of the lewd scene he walked in on earlier in the day. Who hooks up on the first morning they’re together?

“We were trying to distract you,” explained Nitori, who stood straight while still in Momo’s embrace and motioned his hands toward their intimate hug. “And it worked really well because we ended up distracting the whole school.”

“I can’t believe this.” Rin threw his head back, trying to be respectful toward his kouhais’ newfound relationship, but also absolutely using every fiber of his being to contain his frustration over the day’s events. “You guys literally test me every goddamn day.”

Sousuke chuckled, covering his mouth with his hand.

“What are you laughing at?” snapped Rin. “This is a disaster!”

“Yeah.”

Still waiting for an answer or a punchline, Rin bucked his shoulders for Sousuke to continue.

To which he shrugged and said, “Oh, nothing. I just think they’re funny.”

“Oh my god,” groaned Rin.

A sense of freedom washed over the two kouhais, who both took in a relieved breath about not having to keep up the lies anymore. They looked at each other then and sort of smirked at each other. Nothing was fixed by confessing about the party and, now that they confirmed they were interested in each other, the dating jokes were probably only just beginning, but it was their truth and they just wanted to live in it. For a moment, neither of them wanted to feel anxious about what was going on around them, even as the team shouted more questions about why were they throwing a party in the first place or why were they showering together if they didn’t like each other then or why would they go to these extremes, dear god, and why weren’t they answering?!

Toru Iwashimizu, who knew very well that today was the first day of their relationship, called out to the team, “Let them have a day, guys. We’ll rag on them later.”

All Momo and Ai wanted was a simple moment together.

They lied on Nitori’s bed together on top of the sheets, facing each other with a quiet acceptance. So much chaos in one day, but for a moment, it didn’t matter. They could just enjoy being near each other. Give them a chance to get used to each other. Be with each other.

“I’m sorry I ruined today,” said Momotarou.

Nitori reached his hand out to Momo, twiddling their fingers.

“You didn’t really,” he said, accepting that fact. “You didn’t start those rumors.”

They scooted closer to each other, enough to press their chests together and nuzzle their necks like swans. Let them feel each other’s heartbeats, that’s all they wanted. Just enough to hear that they were still excited about each other even with clothes on, that their breathing was still deep for each other because they were comfortable in each other’s arms, that when it got quiet it was intimate, not awkward. Maybe they couldn’t have a first day, but they could have a first night.

“Can we kiss again?” asked Momo, who gently tucked some fallen bangs away from Nitori’s face in case he said yes and who noticed the faint blush creeping up his senpai’s ears.

“Sure.”

Their noses bumped, as they realized they weren’t sure how to tilt their heads for a kiss in bed. A soft giggle slipped out as Nitori pointed his finger to the right, and they both adjusted their heads for a second try. A sweet kiss for an evening, involving parted lips and heated cheeks.

Just a moment to relive that morning, that’s all they wanted.

Another kiss.

#dumb ducks in the water #momotori #momoai #free!#free! es #free! dive to the future #momotarou mikoshiba #nitori aiichirou #rin matsuoka #sousuke yamazaki #samezuka #ALSO let me know if the tweets don't show up and I'll just put the text back in #I hope you guys like this...

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sweetsoursugarcube · 7 years ago

Text

The Ghost Ship

I wrote this to celebrate Eren’s birthday, but it’s been over a week since the big day D: In my defense, I’ve been busy translating it from Swedish to English.

Please read the original story, Spökskeppet, if you can, either on AO3 or on FF.NET

You can also read The Ghost Ship in English on AO3 and FF.NET

Summary: The sea rages and Eren awaits a visitor. Jean tells Marco the ghost story of the captain and the lighthouse keeper in the stormy night. And through the mist sails the ghost ship; the Captain’s coming to meet his lover. ~3k

EDIT: tumblr is having problems with the “read more” feature and some strange symbols might pop up if you read the post on desktop, but if you view it on my blog it should be fine :) i didn’t put them there myself lol

Once again the clock strikes twelve and it’s the thirtieth of March. The light of the crescent moon and the stars waltz across the smooth surface of the sea and the heavy air rests. A thick mist from the north glides over the calm waters. Above it rolls the clouds. And the world slumbers.

Standing on his islet, Eren looks over the sea. When he catches sight of the gray mist wall in the horizon, he hops down the cliff and slides down to the water’s edge with wildly flailing arms. There he sinks to his knees on the small, charcoal stones covering the beach and stretches his hand over the water. It’s hardly comfortable despite that the stones have been polished smooth by the waves, but he doesn’t register the pain. He’s only interested in the rippling surface and how the tips of the tiny waves lick his palm.

These waves aren’t common. The sea outside of Shiganshina bay behave like this only once a year, on the thirtieth of March. A hundred years ago or so it might have done so more often, but it’s been long since then and the circumstances have changed over time. Eren doesn’t remember the details of his past very well either, so maybe he’s mistaken. It doesn’t matter.

He wipes his hands on his pants. Visitors are on the way, they must be. The ship has never missed his birthday, but that’s not enough to put him at ease. “The sea has its own mind. You can’t control the damned thing,” Levi used to say. And when Eren’s temperament exploded, he’d say “you’re just like the fucking sea” in that special tone of voice with a tenderness only Eren could hear.

He runs despite the lighthouse door being thirty scarce steps from the beach and he could make it walking as well. Leaving the door open behind him, he rushes through the lighthouse keeper’s apartment and to the stone stairs. So often have they been plodded up and down that the edges have become slanted and the surface worn into slipperiness. Hence why he kicks his shoes off before climbing two steps at a time all the way up.

Lighting the lamp in the lighthouse is like second nature to Eren. Once the light is on, he pushes the balcony door open and gazes northward.

The enormous waves heave greedily. Some break against the cliffs, while others throw themselves over the stone beach to leave thick stripes of sea foam behind, over and over again. It’s a game for them. Sometimes their tips glimmer when the crescent peeks out from between the clouds. The wind that had been mild all afternoon pulls now at Eren’s clothes. It blows through him and nips at his soul as it passes.

The mist is thick and the clouds dark. Eren shields his eyes from the wind and his own hair that whips him in the face. He has to confirm that the travelers are going to pay him the visit he’s been longing for every day, every minute, all year long.

But there in the distance flutters a flag. Not wildly like Eren’s hair, but proudly. It’s green, with a pair of white and blue swords painted across it. Or maybe they’re wings? Hard to tell, because the picture is as worn as the lighthouse’s stairs. Worn and familiar.

He leans over the balcony railing and peers in the mist. Its damp, silky lips have reached the lighthouse and are prepared to swallow him. And all he wishes is to make sure his visitor has arrived.

Surrounded by a bubble of stillness, despite being the eye of the storm, glides the ship across the sea. The mist hangs over her like a bridal veil, but the wind is mild and the air is lukewarm. The floorboards and masts creak, and on the starboard side gapes a hole so big you’d think the ship should’ve sunk a long time ago.

But she has not.

The wind blows away but Eren and the lighthouse remain. They’ve been swallowed by the ship’s private bubble.

“There she comes,” he whispers to himself. “There comes Kuchel and her crew.” And her captain. Kuchel’s son, who has named his most important belonging after he. If only she knew how far away he’s sailed and how much he’s seen and done. The world’s strongest captain, they call him. She’d be as proud as Eren is.

The mist following the ship lies heavy as a curtain and the sight is poor, but there’s nothing wrong with the sound. If you get close enough, you’ll hear the ship creak and the ropes beat the masts, and if you get even closer, you’ll hear the men sing and laugh. In the commotion a command may ring. “Order aboard” or “scrub the decks” will a low but silky voice yell then. And always will it be answered by a “yes, Captain!”

Shanties echo over the calm water. Eren’s heart pounds. Fluttering wild against his ribs, like a flag in the September storm.

Vaguely sung words about storms and sea monsters are carried to him on the wind. The crew has changed course since they’ve caught sight of the lighthouse light. They’ve avoided grounding and are on their way past the islet. The shanty fades away and the low but silky voice shouts “do you call this clean? Deck’s covered in shit, redo it!”

Afterwards it’s silent. Not even a small ”yes, Captain!” rings through the night.

The ship has passed Eren without anchoring. He squeezes the balcony railing so hard his knuckles shine white.

“Wait,” he yells. “Wait!”

Now he’s running again. Down the lighthouse stairs, two steps at a time. He trips, but gets a hold of a window aperture and continues without missing a beat.

This can’t happen, it can’t be true. For the first time ever the ship passes the lighthouse on the thirtieth of March without stopping. Has the old Captain gotten senile? Has he forgot what he came here for? Or does he not have the time to take a break? But Eren’s waited for this night! He’s waited for it for a whole year, every day and every minute, he cannot wait another year. He just can’t.

The lighthouse door has locked itself. Without yanking on his shoes, Eren twists and pulls the lock. He kicks the door.

“Open up, you old bastard,” he says and jerks the handle. The door groans but obeys and Eren falls out onto the cliff.

The pier lies in the southeast. If he waves and shouts from there perhaps the ship’s crew would hear him. And if not, at least he can threaten their captain with what’ll happen the next time his collar is within reach of Eren’s fist.

“We’ll see how much you love the uncontrollable sea then, all right,” he hisses from between his teeth.

The islet is slippery after the mist and the great waves washing the cliffs. The chance of falling into the sea is high, especially if Kuchel continues onward and the storm following her gets a hold of Eren before he gets inside. But he’s not afraid of drowning for he’s been the lighthouse’s keeper for decades already and he can take care of himself. Besides, the legend says that if you drown, you’ll grow a tail over your legs. Though that sounds more like a beautiful tale told to comfort the parents of the hopeless girls who’ve drowned themselves.

When Eren reaches the pier, something splashes at its end and he halts abruptly. An oar pokes out from behind it. In the background sits Kuchel surrounded by her heavy veil.

A man disembarks on the pier. Kicking the rope that keeps his rowing boat in place with the tip of one boot. He raises his gaze and meets Eren’s with an emotionless expression.

Short and pale as a ghost, he is. The hair’s inky black and his eyes light. A few wrinkles sit in the corners of his eyes with black bags underneath. He’s dressed in shiny, knee-high boots and around his neck hangs a white cravat.

The awaited visitor has arrived.

“Levi,” Eren shouts. His legs are numb and yet he runs. On the last step he jumps despite being at least half a head taller than his guest.

They stagger but Levi gets a grip of Eren’s waist and holds him up, unaffected. He tilts his head back to study Eren’s grin.

Eren squeezes the cravat in his fist. “You little bastard, I thought you’d leave without seeing me.”

A small smile pulls at Levi’s lips. “Never. Congratulations on your birthday, love.”

Jean and Marco sit wrapped in a blanket on a fallen pine trunk. The weather had been calm all evening, but around midnight a storm blew in and Marco confessed that he was too nervous to sleep. Together they left the tent to watch over the sea, sheltered by the forest. The shared blanket was Jean’s idea.

“I wonder where this wind came from,” Marco says. Only his eyes peek out from behind the blanket.

“Who knows,” Jean mumbles. Gravity pulls at his eyelids, even though his company has an uplifting effect. It wouldn’t be all that knightly of him to fall asleep in the middle of the storm that worries Marco, so he fights bravely against the Sandman’s temptations.

“It shouldn’t be this windy by the end of March.”

“The end of March. . .” Jean blinks. The sea raging outside of Shiganshina. . . by the end of March. . . A vague bell rings somewhere at a distance, but his brain is too tired to remember what it wants to remind him of.

“Oh but look, someone turned on the lamp in the old lighthouse. I didn’t know it was back in use. Who’s the keeper?”

“Huh? Where? The old lighthouse has been empty for at least a hundred years, why would anyone turn on the lights there?”

“I wonder as well. But since the light’s on someone has to have done it. Look.” Marco shoves his hand out from the blanket fort and points before he quickly tugs it back into the warmth. How cute he is. Jean can’t help his feelings. He wants to say something, but peers northward instead. And as it is, the light from the lighthouse shines through the thick mist.

And then it hits him.

“Oh shit.” Gravity gives up on Jean’s eyelids, because now he’s wide-eyed. Goodbye, Mr. Sandman. “Someone’s playing us.”

“What do you mean?”

“Haven’t you heard the ghost story?”

Marco pales. “No, which one?”

”The one about the captain and the lighthouse keeper?”

“Sounds scary.”

A wide grin spreads across Jean’s face. ”Not really. Come closer and I’ll tell you.”

Marco squirms until he sits pressed against Jean’s side. Hip to hip, arm to arm. He pulls the blanket closer around them.

“It’s said that the old lighthouse is haunted. It’s the crazy son of a doctor, Eren Yeager, who lives there. He’s the last one to live in the lighthouse before it was shut down. Eren died on that islet on the thirtieth of March, on his twenty-eighth birthday. He turns on the light in the old lighthouse every year, on the night before the thirtieth.”

Sorrow weighs Marco’s voice. “In his own memory?”

“Nope. He’s showing the way to passing ships.”

“Only once a year? The lighthouse isn’t used anymore, it’s not needed.”

“No, but it’s more of a signal to one ship alone. Or to its captain. When Eren turns on the lamp, it’s to say ‘here I am’. He’s hoping for visitors, you see.”

Marco gasps. ”The Captain.”

Jean nods with a serious countenance. ”Yeah, that’s his lover. Eren was barely twelve years old when he met the Captain for the first time here in Shiganshina. He was known as a merciless pirate before he was employed by the state. They said that he was the strongest man in the world, that he was invincible. When his ship Kuchel arrived to the battle, it was already won, because she was the quietest ship in the world, and her crew the most skilled. The Captain always led his men himself.”

“What was his name?”

“No one knows. Eren probably was the only one who was allowed to call him anything else than Captain. He was known to be very strict and tidy. And short. It made him scarier, you couldn’t get a good grip of him.”

“Did Eren become a sailor as well?”

“No. His father made him a doctor. And Eren was young, the Captain didn’t want him coming along either. It wasn’t until he turned fifteen that they started to seriously socialize. It’s a bit unclear with all of that. Some pages have been ripped from Armin’s book.”

”Armin’s book?” Marco frowns. ”Is this a fairytale?”

“No-no. It’s Eren’s childhood friend’s diary. That’s where everything’s written. People were worried when weird things happened on the sea and wanted answers, so they dug up some old books. But I personally think it’s only little boys who’re playing around. They probably row out to the lighthouse once a year to turn on the lamp and then they come back again. It’s all in good fun, I know it.”

“Yeah. . .”

”Anyway. The Captain and Eren were in love and Eren goes with Kuchel as the ship’s doctor. One time, when they return home, they’re told that there are many sick in Shiganshina and that Eren was more needed here than on the ship, so he stayed. Kuchel and the Captain sailed away. But they were supposed to return on the thirtieth of March because the Captain insisted on being here on his lover’s birthday.”

“How romantic.”

“Oh, I don’t know, maybe.” Jean rubs the back of his neck and looks over the sea. The mist is thicker and heavier than before, but the lighthouse lamp shines bright. “Problem is, they never came back. People said they must’ve lost their way. Or that maybe the Captain had grown tired of Eren and left him for good. That maybe he had found some nicer and more handsome ship’s doctor. You see, Eren was known for his temper and stubbornness and the Captain was invincible, so it was unlikely that he would’ve died. We still don’t know where Kuchel is, but it’s known that she and her Captain visited the city she was supposed to. She disappeared after that with all of her crew aboard.”

“Do we really not know their fate?”

Jean shakes his head with pursed lips.

Marco shivers. “What do you think happened?”

“Some people blamed sea monsters. It was the only thing people thought could’ve overpowered the Captain. But it’s more likely that he upped and left to a faraway country, painted his ship and lived there for the rest of his life. Eren didn’t want to believe that of course. He insisted that the Captain would keep his promise and sat down to wait. ‘Crazy, he’s completely lost it,’ people said about him. So Eren decided to become a lighthouse keeper instead, since no one trusted him to be their doctor anymore.”

“People are terrible. He was just mourning, poor thing.”

“Yeah, maybe. He was a lighthouse keeper for four years, but then he drowned. No one knows how, but it was on this night, between the twenty-ninth and thirtieth, after he had turned on the lighthouse lamp. It’s said that it was terribly misty back then. The next day Armin and Eren’s sister went to the lighthouse to celebrate Eren’s birthday. They found him dead on the beach by the pier.”

“No, that’s too horrible. I don’t like this at all.” Large, brown eyes stare out at the sea, pause at the lighthouse and turn then pleadingly toward Jean. “It was his birthday. How can something like this happen?”

“Take it easy, it’s just a story.”

“But you said it was written in Armin’s book.”

“I’m sure he’s exaggerated for the sake of drama, it’s okay. So, once Eren had died, everyone thought that was the end of the Captain and the doctor’s son’s romance. No one wanted to move into the lighthouse so it was abandoned. Besides, it wasn’t needed anymore. Everything was forgotten. But then, exactly a year later-”

”The light in the lighthouse was turned on.” Marco swallows. He searches for Jean’s hand beneath the blanket and holds it tight.

“Yeah. Armin and Eren’s sister rowed out on the thirtieth. They’d been warned for the confusing mist that seemed to roll in by the end of March. They were the only friends Eren had and wanted to leave flowers in his memory. But guess what they saw on their way there?”

Marco holds his breath and Jean raises an eyebrow before continuing.

“Kuchel.”

“No, that can’t be true.”

“But it is, according to Armin. Kuchel had been anchored outside of the lighthouse and someone had tied their rowboat to the pier, so Armin and Eren’s sister didn’t have room for theirs. They left their flowers there and rowed away. When they passed the Captain’s ship, they saw an enormous hole in its side and heard shanties sound in the mist. And on the pier stood Eren and the Captain waving at them, side by side. They realized that they’d seen a ghost ship and that Eren had reunited with his lover.”

“But why would Eren still light in the lighthouse if he’s found his Captain?”

“I already told you, it’s not him who turns on the light, it’s just someone playing around. But . . .” Jean bites his lip. ” Armin thought that the Captain’s not done sailing yet. He’s no landlubber you see, he loves the sea. Besides, Kuchel’s disappearance was never explained, so maybe she was cursed.”

“Eren could’ve become the ship’s doctor again,” Marco says.

“But he died as a lighthouse keeper. Armin suspected that he can’t leave the lighthouse and that the Captain can’t abandon his ship either. It’s their destiny to be forever separated and only meet once a year.”

Marco buries himself deeper into the blanket. His eyes glimmer in the light from the lighthouse. “Such a sad ghost story.”

“It’s a myth, don’t be sad because of it,” Jean says. ”It’s just some brats who are trying to trick us with the lighthouse lamp.” And yet he had goosebumps.

Marco sits in silence. ”But it’s misty out here. It’s always misty by the end of March. And the storm began so suddenly too. . . that’s weird, isn’t it?”

Jean rubs his knuckles. ”Ha, no, that happens all the time, every now and then. It’s not weird at all.”

“But a little bit.”

“A little bit, maybe.” And he straightens his back. ”But don’t worry about it. You didn’t get scared, did you?”

“No, just sad.”

Jean grins, but shivers run down his spine again. “That’s so like you. But Marco, shouldn’t we maybe go back to the tent now? Not because I’m scared or anything like that, I just don’t want you to catch a cold.”

“How nice of you,” Marco says and smiles.

“Yeah, haha.” Jean jumps up. ”Let’s go.”

“Okay, I’m coming- oh, but look!”

”What? Where?”

”The ghost ship. It’s there. I swear I can see it.”

Jean laughs, but it sounds more like a cough. He stares wildly over the sea. “No-o, you’re just making things up. It’s so misty, sometimes you imagine seeing things in the mist.”

“No, look past the lighthouse. If you look carefully, you’ll see it.”

He follows Marco’s pointing finger in the thick mist around the lighthouse and its bright light. And he distinguishes a proudly fluttering flag on the top of a mast, and under it the contours of a ship.

“The Captain’s ghost ship,” Jean whispers. His voice is hoarse and so low he barely hears it himself.

“The Captain’s come to meet his lover on his birthday. How nice.”

“You’re the one being nice.” Jean grabs Marco’s arm. “I think it’s for the best if we leave now.”

Into the forest they disappear, Jean and Marco, hand in hand. And out on the open sea rocks the ghost ship, while her captain disembarks on the little islet where his lover has waited and longed for a visit, every day, every minute, for a whole year. As he’s done for many years and will do for many, many more

#ereri #rivaere #riren #fanfic #levieren #fanfiction #snk #my fics #long post #the pocket universe #thank you nevermorexxx for beta-reading this!#and thank you alphaofallcats for helping me with phrasing stuff The English Way #words that inspired this: sea mist love #also do you guys know the ghost ship from moomin #?#it was haunting me while i wrote this

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