#also my original idea for this was sort of like a travel poster but it went. very poorly LMFAO

[tarteggs]

shoutout to the house of healing. gotta be one of my favorite places to get dubious and deadly medical surgeries

[kerubimcrepin]

Dofus: The Production - what is left of the old movie

Originally, the movie was supposed to tie in with the game and the Welsh & Shedar series, and be a trilogy.

As we had already explored on this blog, this did not happen for a variety of reasons.

Welsh and Shedar got cannibalized by other projects due to its cancellation, and the script of the movie "Dofus Book 1: Joris Jurgen" had to be completely rewritten from its old plot;

In that movie, Joris was likely supposed to be a street urchin, who survived together with Lilotte, who was a rogue, and the trailer we have for the older version of the movie reflects that:

As we can also see from the trailer, and the poster featured earlier, proto-Kerubim is also a part of the movie, and Khan was not yet meant to be a boufbowler.

(And considering the posters, the cat that inspired Kerubim's design was also a part of the movie. I wonder if it's related to Welsh's cat from Welsh and Shedar? But maybe I'm just crazy.)

Subsequently, the movie came out at a much later date than planned originally.

(two images included because, bizarrely, there are two versions - one with Joris's tail censored, and the other with his tail uncensored. This proves that already at this point they had a draconic backstory in mind for him, though we do know that at the time of Wakfu season 1 (and, likely, the cancelled DS game, as was noted in my post about it) it was not the case.)

Also, interestingly, it is the only art of this time to include the tail. A possible error on Xa's part, or something that was considered very briefly?

In the end, Kerubim (as well as Simone) swallowed up not just the design of Welsh's cat, clothes, and Ecaflip friend;

He also got the role Julith was supposed to have, both metaphorically, and also literally.

Or not entirely — considering the fact that Joris was supposed to spend time with him anyway, since we have art of Joris on his mount from that old draft.

It's quite interesting, to think of all that could have been different in the 2009-2012 version of the movie!

But even during the making of the second draft of the movie, a lot of things have changed. From the first idea of Joris winning Kerubim back at a pachinko machine, to the concept art of Joris's non-possessed appearance.

The movie was being actively rewritten at the time of the making of Aux Tresors, so some of the early drafts were already tied in with its canon — taking place in Astrub, to be specific — but not with its ending, because the show was still ongoing.

At one point there was supposed to be a whole cast of Huppermage characters, and judging from the fact one of them is mentioned in the following text, they did play some sort of role in the plot:

It is likely that from this early draft it was decided that Joris would be a boufbowl fan, which was then worked in as a plot point in Aux Tresors.

(Stélina may be a proto-version of Bakara.)

It also seems that at this stage, it would be likely that Lilotte was reworked to be the Princess of Bonta, before eventually becoming the Ouginak we know and love.

After this Ankama once again returned to the concept of Lilotte as an orphan, though — even when the movie was still set in Astrub!

And it seems that the draft involved travel between Astrub and Bonta, judging from the usage of a Zaap to attack Luis.

And even at this point they have come up with the tragically cut "Joris and Khan go to adult industry workers and Joris (10yo boy) engages in depressed underaged drinking" scene.

(I'll never forgive Ankama for cutting this. I still argue that it's in character for Khan, our detested/beloved turbovirgin, to do this — as long as he doesn't get together with any of the women due to thinking himself "too good" for them.)

Also, at some point the gods were supposed to play a role. And personally, I am glad it was cut — it feels a bit too grand for the first movie in what was supposed to be a series.

I don't have any grand statement, or conclusion, but it is interesting to see all the ways the movie has changed.

[hannahssimblr]

can you put on your creative director / marketing hat and talk about the cover art for lucky boy (and/or both) 🎤

!!! I've actually never been asked about visuals before this is so fun!!

Okay! So here's the cover in question

Honestly I love this and I was really proud of how it turned out.

The raw & more detail is below the cut

Alright! so the idea for this was that it's simply an image of Jude: finally free!

Here he is backpacking in Thailand which he hasn't done yet as of the date of this post, but Lucky Girl readers will know that he eventually Does Do That.

You can tell by his hair here too that he's older. He has this haircut when he reunites with Evie briefly in 2012, so I imagine this trip took place sometime around summer-autumn 2011.

To be honest the whole purpose of Lucky Boy was as sort of an extension of the original story for Lucky Girl readers who wanted more in-depth detail about Jude's life, more than what he ever had the time to tell Evie during her portion of the story, so for that reason the story is filled with little hints of what we know will happen, as well as nods to specific things about him that some have already learned - Like, how the story opens with him getting both ears pierced. The fact that he was a boy with two (and eventually 3) piercings was something that Evie found particularly cute and unique about him, and it's something he references in jest from time to time. ("haven't you seen my cute little earrings?")

Anyway, Thailand is where he gets that rather meaningless forearm tattoo, but it's also a place where he spends a lot of time alone. He does travel with a friend, but said friend is holed up with food poisoning for a significant chunk of the trip, which makes me quite certain that Jude spent a lot of time doing a lot of thinking. I'll explore this more in the actual story when I get there, but it's worth pointing out that when Evie meets him after this trip she notices a certain calmness in him, and like he's lost a lot of the boyish energy ("I realise I am looking at a man"). I feel like this trip is somewhat responsible for that.

He's also, clearly, facing away from the camera, which is probably self explanatory. In the chapter with Jen's birthday, as they take the train to the aquarium in Bray he waxes lyrical (as usual, yawn!) about his preference to sit facing the engine, never looking back. It's the same in this image. He is always moving forward.

YET - that is his school bag. (It is the wrong colour, yes, i didn't have the recoloured version when i made this poster lmao) so there's a sense that he's still in some way tied to childhood, to the things that are unresolved. Lucky Girl readers already know what (and who) those things are but I'll develop all that further from my controllers seat here inside Jude's brain.

"It seems like we wanted the same thing (...) Not to grow up too quickly, like, to be allowed to just be a kid.”

Also - the toy attached to it represents Ivy. It's never explicitly stated in the story, but I think it's probably not in his character to have something like that on his bag unless it was gifted from someone important. So, he's carrying her with him too on his travels.

Now, for the artistic stuff (eek!)

I chose this pinky purple as the base colour by messing around with some hard light blending and the colour balance adj. because it creates that kinda fantasy feeling, like wonder and/or enlightenment is ahead, which hopefully for our dumb boy, it is. Purple is also often used in graphic design to indicate creativity, which is apt, seeing as he's an artist and all that.

I slapped in some sun in the corner ala 3 year old child's drawing, and added the text in yellow for no reason other than it's a complementary colour, and it picks up some of the yellows in the image.

Then added a text gradient to blend it in better and a little drop shadow effect

And finally some grain, paper texture and rounded corners because I wanted it to feel tangible, that sweet, nostalgic 35mm camera effect, or like a postcard.

and that's it!!

This was so fun, you know I love 2 yap and you gave me a platform to do so.

Thanks so much for your question!

[dreambigdreamz]

The Shire Papers a beloved work-in-progress

Sharing another fic idea that I’ll most likely never write but will lie to myself that I will because I am delulu like that

“The literary journey of a simple hobbit maid, and her [failed] attempts to spark a rebellion in the Shire to overthrow Sharkey and his ruffians.”

Firstly we see the Shire getting roused up and bustling and lively for Bilbo’s 111th birthday party

But during that time a poster/news article pops up on the Party Tree, a hand written paper

And it starts off as a gossip column (haha yes Bridgerton crossover) for the people to read while getting the preparations ready for the party.

It features all sorts of secrets and embarrassing things that people do and say during that time of readying, and it becomes a sort of weekly/monthly thing in Hobbiton

We see Daisy Bolger reading it again one day alone and Bilbo joins her and she tells him the author, Lady Nosybody, must be a very nasty person to write such things about others

He jokes, “Well, the things she writes about are not untruths, are they?” but tells her seriously that “there are a lot of wrongdoings in the world, but calling out others harshly is not a big crime necessarily, though, yes, the author could’ve used less strong words.”

Then finally it’s the birthday party and we see Daisy being unhappy because the other hobbit-children are making fun of her quiet ways and slow understanding. We learn they never want to play with her because she doesn’t understand what she’s supposed to be doing and they all consider her no-fun-biddy (she’s my darling autistic baby)

Then of course the infamous vanishing of Bilbo

A few years down the line and we also learn Lady Nosybody has become quite established in Hobbiton and even has spread over to Bree.

Then the conspiracy theory happens, Frodo leaves Bag End, and the Black Riders come.

When the four hobbits arrive at the Prancing Pony, they miraculously manage to meet Daisy there, which is a big surprise because she’s known to be very quiet and meek, and plus the fact that no hobbit has journeyed out of the Shire without it being a thing talked of.

They learn from the talkative innkeeper that Daisy was often there on errands out of Hobbiton, errands of newsletters from her ‘mistress’ that she carried to Bree to be published, and gives good coins for news from Bree and the travellers. The hobbits are surprised to no end at this seeming interest of outside affairs in someone like Daisy. It comes out to light that she is the one and only Lady Nosybody who has been writing mean stuff about everybody in the Shire for these past years.

She admits and apologises Mr Frodo for calling him “Mad Baggins” but that it was inevitable to join in the majority’s nickname or else it’d be suspicious. Sam is mad that she once wrote about Rosie as “a pretty maid, very good chef, but smiles too much that makes her look there’s nothing up in her head” but Daisy explains that there was beginning to be talk of Rosie’s being the writer behind Nosybody, since she works at the tavern(? inn?) and hears all pieces of news and everyone’s starting to get suspicious of her. In truth, she was collecting information that Daisy was using for her writing, unwisely because it led to people suspecting Rosie. That’s why she had to write in about Rosie, who had been her kindest friend since childhood (some backstory of Daisy’s original name was Meredith except it was shortened to Red, just like her hair, and her mother Rosamunda loved roses and would put red roses in her daughters’ hair except it looks awful on Daisy’s red hair and Mrs Cotton suggested having the younger girl wear white flowers like lilies and daisies and has been like a godmother to her ever since, and Rosie Cotton her best friend.)

She’s even written mean things about herself, which was to throw off suspicion and it rendered Merry and Pippin shocked to no end that she would call herself such names. She tells them she is perfectly aware of her social status in the Shire and writes accordingly to not have anyone suspecting. She wrote once, “There are, as of this year, three hobbits named Daisy, which must account for it being such a common, overused named. It is to be hoped that whichever hobbit-child gets to be named Daisy next, would have better temper than Daisy Boffin (who used to be the most amiable until she married Griffo and became gruffy—appreciate the pun), have better brains than Daisy Bolger because she has none, and better hair than Daisy Gamgee, whose hair looks like an inviting nest for the pigeons.” Also this alludes to Sam’s daughter being named Daisy later on hehe

So to wrap up, she accompanies them to Rivendell because elves and she wishes to see Mr Bilbo again.

But then when the fellowship sets out, she’s sent back to the Shire as a warning and guard against the Black Riders and of the evil ahead, but of course that only earned her a new title of Crazy Daisy. She keeps writing her Nosybody articles, trying to play it as best as possible to stop the other contemporary gossip of why the four hobbits were absent. Then, these ruffian men began to come into the Shire, at the inns and taking up Lotho Sackville-Baggins’ house at Bag End (the one Frodo sold before he went away) and Lotho becomes “Chief” and the Shiriffs are employed to beat and teach anyone who doesn’t obey the numerous rules set out.

So yeah, they begin to feel their home turned and changed for the worse. They have to give up beer and crops as ‘rations’ and ‘gatherers’ but it’s only kept by these ill-looking men. They aren’t able to go out after dark anymore, and basically this coup situation of mine, which inspired me to write Daisy to be honest.

With her siblings Estella and Fatty, she goes over to Farmer Cotton and his family to enlist their help (bc her own parents will get such high blood pressures if they know this truth), revealing to them her true identity and the power it’d have to rouse mass groups of people. She starts writing against this new chief and the Big Boss, but of course, that was a foolish thing since the men simply took her columns away and beat anyone who were caught reading it at the trees the papers were stuck at.

She manages to secretly go over to Bree to ask help from the innkeeper Butterbur but he warns her “that her mistress might do well to stop writing altogether in these dangerous times.” She replies optimistically that her mistress would never back down from doing the right thing against all odds and fears. But trying to get the residents of Bree to know and care about the abuse and terrors in the Shire is now meaningless as Bree was also in the same state.

So starts over half a year of writing a worthy, rousing speech to rally up the Shire, and then copying that same paper for two hundred times just to make copies of it, which she cannot hire anyone else for fear of being discovered. Then, on the day she finished the two-hundredth paper, she climbs up the highest place at Bucklebury, the Buck Hill (where the Brandybucks are in charge so at least the ruffians don’t dare mess around with people just simply walking) and tosses it over into the wind, saying “Fly!! Fly into their hands! Sink into their heads!” and it’s about a rallying appointment to go up to Bag End together to demand to meet their Chief Lotho to complain about the bad treatments in the Shire.

But of course, once again, the men discovers this and starts rounding up anyone caught with the papers in possession. They show up at every door, demanding to search the houses, and leaving with more than a few ‘trinkets’ they meant to keep without permission. Daisy lapses into a sad state of hopelessness as she feels her actions only brought worse circumstances for them as this being invaded of the privacy of their houses was a bitter, brutal insult to the hobbits’ comfort of one’s home.

But the day of the rallying arrived and more than a few showed up, it was more than a success. They marched up the hill to Bag End but were stopped before reaching the door, and a fight seemed about to ensue as the men threatened them to go away and Daisy, quiet and scared till then, stood up and said loudly, “This is our home. You take our food, you cross our thresholds, and you order us where to not go and what not to do. This is our home, and we go where we wish. We won’t hesitate to kick out anyone who bullies us in our own home!” But the men leaned down and took out their daggers saying, “Do you know what this is?” and everybody got scared and dispersed in the face of danger.

So it kind of became secret club meetings at night at Odovacar Bolger’s house and believe me the hobbit loves the importance of it and showing around his home; these club meetings are aimed to pass on the word, to have every household armed with rakes, shovels and kitchen-knifes at the call and ready while they figure out how to organise a breakout. Some of the Shiriffs, like Robin Smallburrow, knew of these proceedings but turned a blind eye and even went as far as to cover up these doings from the ears of more unfriendly Shiriffs. But of course, the general public don’t trust the Shiriffs at all.

Then one night it was said Daisy was whisked away, the men came up to her door and arrested her, locked her up in a cell under Bag End, next to Mrs Lobelia Sackville-Baggins whom she used to insult most vilely on account of Mr Bilbo.

The old lady and the young girl bond over this time in darkness and bondage (“I’m sorry I ever called you a greedy, old hag, Mrs Lobelia.”) Daisy kept fretting and repeating to herself miserably, “We need arms. We need height and size!! We need big, strong elven-warriors like Mr Glorfindel and Erestor.” Whereas Lobelia was mourning her son’s well-being under captive of this Sharkey and his assistant Wormtongue. Then Frodo and the hobbits returned and Buckland rose up in rebellion as well as the Cottons and then Daisy is released and the canon ending ☺️

Daisy ends up taking care of Lobelia for the rest of her life until she died. And the epilogue is she has new kittens and gifts Frodo one of the black and white one whom everybody says is ugly and she’s like ���I don’t get why nobody sees he’s such a sweetheart.” And Sam, who is included in the ones who don’t like the grouchy cat, nicknames him Gollum and now Mr Baggins’ grouchy old black cat won’t answer to any other name but Gollum.

Daisy makes up with everyone finally, especially Eppie Fairchild who she used to envy a lot, puts in a teasing word about how mad Sam was about her insulting Rosie, and then completes her matchmaking career by writing about Master Merry kissing her sister Estella near the Party Tree one night.

I have an idea Pippin will keep going to her for advice when he meets Diamond, the girl who nearly ran him over with her cart one day.

But as for her own love-life, Robin Smallburrow chases her for a while but she gently tells him she destines herself for a long life of being a scholarly spinster, which she later fulfils by following Aragorn and Arwen back to Gondor after their visit where they announced no Big People shall enter the Shire ever again.

Oh, and when Mr Frodo is leaving for the Grey Havens, she hurriedly follows them to meet Mr Bilbo one last time and says, “Foolish me, I’ve brought along my portfolio to ask him of what he thinks of these papers I’ve been writing over the years. It’s selfish to ask him to read and tire himself out on the journey, isn’t it?” But Bilbo told her to keep writing nonetheless because he always believed she had that in her specially shining bright.

So it’s been kept alongside the Red Book as “The Shire Papers” which date from Bilbo’s 111th Birthday Party all through Aragorn’s passing the law of the Shire being a safe haven removed from the Big People. The Shire Papers. About all the tumultuous ups and turns and the scouring of the shire and the salvation of it. Oh, the bountiful year of 1420 when the weddings were plenty and the children born that year were golden haired and food was so abundant for everybody and the mallorn tree grew which Master Samwise planted, the seed that was rumoured to be given by the Lady Galadriel.

The Shire Papers

I’m in love goodbye

[spacestationstorybook]

some stuff about‏‏‎ ‎my‏‏‎ ‎mouthwashing‏‏‎ ‎insert‏‏‎ ‎under the cut

younger sibling of‏‏‎ ‎curly.‏‏‎ ‎everyone on the ship looks pretty distinct from one another but i kind of just look like nerdy lesbian curly irl (sorry for being blonde...cringe of me i know...) so i thought it would kind of make sense and also adds some complexity to the crew relationships. they used to be super super close with him as a kid and looked up to him a lot but they grew apart over time (and as jimmy entered the picture).

ship's navigator and fixes problems with the ship's ai. it's not their first mission but they have their own crew they usually work with. they convinced corporate to let them on this mission after they met anya (not originally for romantic reasons. they were worried about her considering the rest of the crew would all be men and they have been made aware of the kind of atmosphere‏‏‎ ‎that‏‏‎ ‎pony‏‏‎ ‎express‏‏‎ ‎can let fester.)

(despite their best efforts, yes, things still go as they do in canon.)

i mean there is an alternate version where they live but everything leading up to the ship crash still happens in both the good and bad ending in my head.

a bit of a deconstruction of the "one of the boys" character trope that's common in action/thriller/sci fi stuff. compared to‏‏‎ ‎anya‏‏‎ ‎they are a lot more Tough and masc but they don't look down on anya for being softer and while they do put up a certain image while working they didn't "abandon femininity" to hang with the guys they did it because masculinity was a genuine comfort to them. and i think with anya's help they learn how to be softer without giving up the parts of their identity that are important to them...

jimmy definitely thinks they are playing up the tough butch lesbian thing to scare off men and gets on their case about it constantly. he would be more pushy with them if it weren't for the fact that they are still related to curly and he doesn't want to test which one of them he trusts more.

big sci-fi nerd who's still a little sad that actual space travel is not as cool as the books and movies made it seem. anya teases them a little about this (gently). they have a bunch of posters in their quarters (one of them is‏‏‎ ‎alien.)

daisuke's‏‏‎ ‎buddy‏‏‎ ‎who talks‏‏‎ ‎video‏‏‎ ‎games with him and plays board‏‏‎ ‎games with him and anya.‏‏‎ part of me wants to say they like those freakishly complicated board games that take an hour to set up but when they suggested playing one of those they were immediately outvoted. ‎swansea‏‏‎ ‎sort‏‏‎-of jokingly sort-of not gets on their case about if they think they're better than him because they get to work with the newfangled tech while he sweats his ass off on the physical shit but they get their work done without whining and he respects that.

iiii don't have a solid idea of their name lmao.‏‏‎ ‎like i kind of don't want to put in the effort and just make it nyx‏‏‎ ‎but it doesn't feel like it fits the setting.‏‏‎ ‎curly‏‏‎ ‎and‏‏‎ ‎swansea‏‏‎ ‎aren't really the most common names either but it just doesn't feel right. i kind of want to give them a short gender neutral name like max but none of the ones i've thought of work for them and are also a name i'd go by.

[secretsofdbz]

So, a little preface info...

Recently-ish, I've been curious about updates to the fandom, because of Dragon Ball Super, and due to my students reading/watching, and me remembering how much I liked it back in the day, I just.. let the algorithm decide lol. So, after way too much DBZA, way too many manga chapters and spinoffs, and some sort of adult eyes, well. So I'm back into the fandom and discovering what the English speaking world has had to offer since 2004 lol. Things -have changed-, to say the least.

I've been a longtime Dragon Ball fan, ever since the mid 90s or so (Latin Americans and French speakers got widespread access to it far earlier than Anglosaxons), and like any girl into anime, I've been extremely original: Future Trunks has always been my fave.

Avatar comes from the Doujinshi Gracias, by Shin Minazuki (author in the circle PALS). If you ever find a way to contact them please let me know because their website and domain has been down for a decade :/

My hot takes, analysis and co will be tagged as "von rambles" :)

My recommendations would be under “Von recommends”

AO3 what if Future Trunks was a girl (and fixed a whole lot of minor plot holes) (also on FFNET) <- my fic, "a different baby". It's 12+ rated, has weird ass ships that may or may not sail, and has a time travel chart.

My Trunks, the tag I use for art or stuff involving my version of Trunks, for the fic :)

Don't hesitate to reach out for whatever!

Here are the rest of my links, including my "other blog" @dbfandom where I'm trying to explain how differrnt the fandoms are between English speakers and the West in general, and Japanese and Korean fandom (especially in terms of how people communicate)

Also when I mean it’s been a hot minute hiatus, you guys need to understand that I was in the thriving fandom from 98 to 2004. ICQ era. 56k to early ADSL era. Napster era. Geocities, forums and visitor books. You have no idea…

Here's a list of my hot takes and analysis and whatever (if the tags don't work, and I know they don't sometimes :/):

Self Pronouns in Z

Honorifics and "yous" in Z

Timelines in Z and DBS and why there's actually 7 of them in Z because of one cursed panel.

Trunks' SSJ transformation against Freeza is great.

Pink is a royal saiyan color (+ updates and more proof)

Vegeta's uses of pronouns and honorifics part 1

GT and nostalgia

Trunks isn't a good martial artist and that makes sense

Fixing the Goku Black arc (bullet points)

Trunks' hair color differences

Why Goku is the problem for DBS to work well

Some linguistics and localisation things

My Trunks, the tag I use for art or stuff involving my version of Trunks, for the fic :)

Did Goku meet baby Trunks before dying in the future Timeline? When did he die of the heart virus?

Dr Brief's cat, Tama (or Scratch) is immortal.

Gohan's confusing age.

Akira Toriyama's death and some reactions that I gathered over the following days of the announcement for posterity.

[weaverreaver42]

Railjack make no sense in-universe

(This was inspired by Derelect Horror's notes post, I didn't want to pollute the tags or anything so I just made my own post shotgunning my errant thoughts because warframe lore is so weird and I'm obsessed)

First of all: This isn't me complaining, I know the title can give that impression but I wanted to get that mindset out of the way. What I mean by the title is Literally no one knows exactly how it works. Sure you have mechanics and Cy who work on the thing, but you get a sense that they only know part of why the ship works. This can best be seen with the Suda Companions on the ship. The suda companions are shocked by the parts on the ship, being made of 'orgone' which is orokin tech. The further we go into orokin stuff the more pseudoscience you get, such as eternalism and a bunch of other wacky stuff- a prime example is orgone that is used in some fashion on railjacks (Orgone is based in actual historical pseudoscience but I'll have to check on that). One thing to note about orokin tech is this: It tends to seem half-complete. There is always a portion of orokin technology that just seems to fit barely outside the understanding of what is normal reality-we could never explain the stuff the orokin are capable of in a normal manner because of how divorce it is from normal reality, and railjack is no exception. The thing I like to imagine is all these resources and pieces are apart of the 'logical' part of the ship. They are designed to serve as a base to the rational before the void can come along and mess it up. It's designed to take advantage of the inherently chaotic nature of the void it uses to travel, but all of this stuff is secondary to surviving and breaking the rules of reality to be the best at what it does, It's essentially what the tenno are in ground combat- but for space travel. It only barely makes sense because most of what is actually going on is left to the void, or more specifically the man in the wall. Hence why he will occasionally speak to you inside it, this explanation also gives a reason why we needed that weird space pod thing that whipsers in the back of the ship- It's letting good 'Ol Wally channel the void to your ship in a safeish way.

Also The original poster was talking about Negentropy and while I am the furthest thing from an expert, I have an interpretation of what it COULD be based on the idea of reverse entropy: Negentropy might be just be an extreme buildup of energy, as entropy is essentially the universe settling down and spreading out- that's why entropy leads to heat death- so the opposite would be matter and energy coming together and getting more destructive but also falling into a complex system (It's worth noting that chaos isn't necessarily energy intensive or even hard to understand- it can just be a small amoun of random stuff in random places), but order also doesn't have to be slow and simple- one example of negentropy is a star and those literally are just giant nuclear reactors that turn energy into matter and then turn that matter into planets or they just die and let gravity do it for them. It could be the energy and matter cycle in an 'orderly' fashion, but build up in a way that leads to disastrous problems such as implosion, black holes, void storms, or even just the ship blowing up in the case of railjack as the 'system' tries to even out by becoming entropic like normal reality (sort of a rubberband effect where it goes from no entropy to total entropy in a certain area). speaking of chaotic, I'm sorry for this post- I'll probably clean it up later

[trobed303]

I Wanna Hold Your Hand

For Trobed week, organised by @trobedzone. I started writing this on my break at work (on a wake-night) and finished it in a exhaustion-fueled delirium on the way home from said wake-night so please excuse how bad it is or any typos but I really wanted to participate. Thanks so much for tagging me!

I would put this under a read more so it wasn't clogging up people's dash but idk how to do that on mobile so I've tagged it #long post. Feel free to block the tag if you don't want to see this.

-------

"... So it's a prequel, but it's actually set ten years after the first Kickpuncher."

"So how is it a prequel if its after the first one? Won't it just be a sequel?"

"Well, my theory is that Kickpuncher's love interest is actually from the future and travelled back in time in the original movie in order to make sure the events of the first Kickpuncher happen, and the prequel is why."

"Sounds stupid. I'm in."

Abed's lips quirked up in a small smile, and he turned to his right where Troy had been walking beside him, holding one hand out and one to his chest in preparation for their special high five. But Troy wasn't there anymore. Abed's smile turned to a frown as he looked around, but he couldn't see any sign of the yellow sweater Troy was wearing today, despite how easy it should have been for him to pick the colour out amongst the other students around him.

He saw a flash of yellow, but before he could take a step towards it he realised it was just a girl in a yellow t-shirt.

He tried to listen for Troy's voice, but there were a lot of students around. It was between lesson times after all and the crowd was moving in all different directions as students weaved between each other to get to their next classes. And they were all having their own conversation about all sorts of different thing.

"She said she was going to Ralph's tomorrow but Ralph said--"

"I have no idea, I swear I haven't learned a thing all semest--"

"My dad is going to kill me if he sees how much I spent on--"

"Why are you being so snappy toda--"

"Did you see the new episode? It was awesome!"

"Are we going to Starbucks after cla--" 

Abed winced as all the sounds of conversations and squeaky shoes on hard floors seemed to get louder and louder, the students around him seemed to be closing in more, leaving him with no space around him and leading to a few bumping into him now that he was no longer moving with them. He tried to take a few deep breaths, but he already knew that logically he was too overwhelmed for that to work.

Abed focused his attention on the notice board on the wall opposite him, then quickly made his way over to it, hoping to just pretend to look at the board until either Troy found him or the hallway empties enough for him to catch his breath.

It had a flyer for a new dance the Dean was putting on, but he couldn't quite make out what excuse the Dean had come up with this time. There were also flyers for extracurricular activities like lessons for several different musical instruments. There were also posters for dance lessons, acting classes, a sign-up sheet for the school play and another one for Glee Club. Abed couldn't make out the other papers taped and stapled to the board. They were all too brightly coloured and loud.

This isn't helping.

Instead, Abed turned so his back was against the wall and sunk down until he was sat on the floor with his head on his knees and his arms wrapped around them. It was easy like this to block his ears with his biceps, keep his eyes closed, and make himself as small as possible in the hopes that people stopped banging into him.

He wondered where Troy was again. It was always easier walking through the crowds with Troy because they had the best conversation, about topics that actually interested Abed. It was easy to just focus on that - focus on Troy - and not the hundreds of other people at this school who all seemed to have classes in 50 different directions with every route starting from this one hallway.

Just another three minutes, then everyone will be in class. Abed thought to himself as he rocked slightly in an attempt to soothe himself. He thought about trying to stand and power through the overstimulation, to at least get outside, but he would have to see everyone and his dad said it was too weird to walk around with his hands over his ears so he'd have to hear them all too, and it was all just too much.

Abed rarely cried, but when he was overwhelmed his eyes would sometimes well up, even if Abed didn't understand what good it would do. It happened now, and Abed buried his head deeper against his knees in the hopes that no one would notice. He could still hear the mean kids from his high school teasing him about it.

"Look! The alien's leaking!" Brent would laugh, pointing at the tear tracks down Abed's face.

"Its trying to mimick a sad human to make us feel sorry for it so we'll let our guard down!" One of Brent's lackeys would pipe up. Abed didn't care enough to remember his name. It didn't matter anyway, none or the others had personalities of their own, they were all just extentions of Brent.

He wondered if Troy was like Brent in high school. He knew Troy was a jock, and he wasn't as thoughtful and sweet as he is now, but was he bad enough that he would have called Abed an alien because he didn't understand social cues? Would he make fun of him for crying just because daily life was sometimes too much?

"Abed?" He heard a voice above him say; Troy's voice.

Looks like he was going to find out. This was the first time Troy had seen him this overwhelmed, and Abed found his breath halting as he realised the significance. If he looked up and Troy saw him crying, and the other laughed, Abed wasn't sure they could still be friends. At least not as close as they were. There would always be a small part of Abed that would be worried Troy will judge him or laugh at him for his neurodivergency.

So he kept his head down and tried to discreetly wipe his eyes on the sleeve of his hoodie. Troy was his first real friend, and he wasn't ready to have that shattered yet.

Before he could deem his face dry enough to face looking up at his first and only best friend, he heard Troy's sneaker squeak slightly against the lino as he pivoted. For a moment he thought Troy had gotten sick of waiting for him to answer and was going to walk off, but instead Abed heard his backpack hit the floor - it wasn't a harsh sound, Abed knew Troy only kept a cushion in there for when he wanted to take a nap somewhere - then felt Troy drop too, to sit on the ground beside Abed. Not close enough to touch him, but close enough that he could feel Troy's body heat gently warm his right side.

"Abed? Are you okay?" Troy asked quietly, and though Abed will always be the first to admit he's not great at picking up tone, he was pretty sure he heard concern in Troy's words.

"Where'd you go?" He asked quietly.

"Just to the vending machine... What's wrong?"

"Too much..." Abed mumbled, hoping Troy would understand but not really expecting him to. In fact, he was already trying to come up with a way to explain what he meant in a way Troy would understand, but his mind felt fuzzy, like TV static, and he wasn't sure how to phrase it right.

He didn't have to though. Troy didn't ask about it.

"You think you can get to class?" He asked instead. "You know what Senior Chang is like when someone's late."

Abed picked his head up. The hallways were a little less crowded, but it was still loud and too much. He dropped his head again and shook it against his knees to indicate that, no, he didn't think he could get to class.

"Is it because there's too much going on?" Troy asked quietly, like he didn't want anyone to overhear, and Abed was grateful for that. He nodded against his knees.

Troy was quiet for a moment, and the only thing that stopped him from having to look up and make sure he was still there was the warmth he could still feel radiating from Troy's arm where it was barely an inch from Abed's. Troy fidgeted a little beside him, and Abed was about to tell him to just get himself to class so Chang wouldn't be mad at him, that Abed could handle the consequences alone, but Troy spoke again before he could.

"You were okay a minute ago... What happened? Did someone say something to you?" He asked quietly, but there was a bite in his voice.

"Are you mad?" He mumbled.

"At you? No." Troy assured him. "But if someone said something to make you sad I'm mad at them. Who was it?"

Abed shook his head a little and curled into himself tighter. "No one said anything."

"Then what happened?"

"You were gone." Abed answered before the voice in his head that sounded a little too much like his father could tell him to stop, that he was being too clingy and Troy was going to get creeped out and stop spending time with him.

He had already started now, so he figured he may as well explain himself.

"Its easier... with you. Because we talk and I can just focus on our conversation and follow what you do. I don't have to look around because people always move out of your way anyway and if I'm next to you they move for me too. But then you were gone and I noticed how many people there were and I could hear all of them talking at once and..." He was over explaining, he knew that, so he made himself stop before he could embarrass himself in front of Troy any worse.

"So... Walking with me helps?" Troy asked, and Abed nodded again.

He felt Troy shift again and winced when he heard Troy stand up and pick up his backpack again, assuming he was going to just leave him there.

"Come on, buddy." Troy prompted gently from in front of him, and Abed picked his head up. The first thing he saw was Troy's hand, palm up, held out for him to take. His eyes trailed from his hand up his arm covered by that baggy thin sweater, then finally up to his face. He was smiling a little, but his brow was also pinched, like it was a sad smile.

Abed took his hand and allowed Troy to gently pull him up from the floor. As soon as he was upright Abed looked around again and let out a sound he could only accurately describe as a small whimper. The hallway wasn't clear enough yet.

"Its going to be okay, I'm right here." Troy promised, not yet letting go of Abed's hand. "Don't look around, I'll lead you."

Abed dragged his attention away from the people around them and instead focused on Troy's face. His smile looked more happy now, the crease between his eyebrows gone and his bright white teeth showing.

"So why do you think she needs to go to the past to make sure Kickpuncher 1 happens?"

It took a moment for Abed to remember what Troy was referring to, but when he did, he went into a complicated explanation about the antagonist's great grandson and how he would be able to change the past using the technology his grandfather had started working on before Kickpuncher killed him in the first movie.

By the time he'd finished explaining it and gotten on "Ohhh.... That actually sounds kinda cool." from Troy, he was being nudged into his seat in Spanish class.

Troy kept hold of his hand for another moment while Abed looked around and processed where they were, waiting for Abed to let go first. Once he did, Troy gave him another smile and walked to his own seat, managing to sit down just a second before Chang entered the room.

It became a habit after that. Troy would hold Abed's hand in busy hallways and talk to him about whatever Abed wanted.

It helped.

But repeating Troy's words in his head helped more.

"It's going to be okay, I'm right here."

[luminescentauthor]

random fun RatLD hcs

you came here for RatLD shitposts and that’s what you’re gonna get!

SPOILERS AND LOTS OF THEM BELOW THE CUT, IF U HAVEN’T SEEN IT YET PROCEED AT UR OWN RISK.

I refuse to post about this movie without acknowledging the cultural significance of the first SEA disney princess and I will continue to do so until people on this website start remembering that this movie is about amazing cultures and trust and overall a WHOLE lot more than just the sapphics (as great as they are.)

anyway, so, headcanon time, my dudes!

The Next Adventure

Talon is a total mess after everyone gets un-stoned. (Ok so just for posterity, my marvel fan brain just went “un-snapped” on instinct and I hate it here.) The two chiefs are fighting for control, and Noi, being a baby, is not really in a position to help (unlike Raya, Naamari, and Tong.)

As such, the crew has to go undercover in Talon to try and, you know, stop the chiefs from destroying their people with their infighting. Tong insists on coming. Naamari happened to be in Heart and gets dragged along by Sisu and Raya, complaining the whole time, but everyone knows she doesn’t mean it. Boun also shows up and exactly no one is surprised.

During this misadventure, Noi’s mother names Tong as Noi’s godfather/honorary uncle/whatever, undercover Naamari and Raya go “noooooo, we’re not the princesses of Fang and Heart, what on earth are you talking about???” on at least five separate occasions, and the crew discovers that Noi inherited her sticky fingers from her very clever mother. She’s basically a grade-A spy and thief but she’s also just like, genuinely a very nice woman.

Rayaari!

Raya and Naamari take a long time literally just figuring things out and reconstructing their friendship, because really, as much as I love sapphics, there’s also a whole lot of messy there, and because these are my headcanons, they work out their problems and have a healthy friendship for a couple years before any romance happens, because that’s how Real Life works and I don’t believe in ignoring those Pretty Important Things in fiction.

They do eventually start a relationship, but they take their time. A bit into it, Benja accidentally mentions that Raya told him she liked Naamari when they met. Naamari’s like “ha you did?” and Raya goes “BA NO.” Then Virana immediately says “oh yes, Naamari also liked her, she didn’t stop crying because she thought Raya turned to stone for like three days” and Raya goes “you did, hmm???” while Naamari turns bright red.

Before they start dating, as their feelings grow, they start calling each other “dep la” more and more and everyone is just kinda of like “oh my GOD just date already???”

Eventually Raya and Naamari get married and become the leaders of Kumandra. No I Won’t Change My Mind.

Unification of Kumandra

The unification of Kumandra felt a bit shoehorned, and I suspect the nations aren't united under one leader(s): it's more that they're now becoming close-knit again. Perhaps they have a meeting council of all their leaders that makes decisions that affect the whole land, otherwise that probably becomes a thing at some point.

When Kumandra eventually becomes totally unified, the capital of Heart (which I believe is on the island we see on the map of Kumandra) eventually becomes the capital. It still has five provinces/states, though.

Fang and Heart

Heart and Fang help each other out a lot with recovering from the “most of our people got turned into the statues” stuff. Heart has more resources, but most of its people have been stone for 6 years. So the two states/countries are both capable of different things.

Of all the kingdoms, Heart and Fang have the most to rebuild: Fang’s only standing city was destroyed in the finale of the movie, while Heart has been growing over for six years. Sure, Spine’s been stone for a while, and some of Talon’s docks and water ships and whatnot collapsed when the water vanished, but it’s still significantly easier to repair than “six years of overgrowth and rot and rust” or “literally the ground collapsed underneath us and wow um I don’t think that’s reparable.” So they really team up to fix it, and the others help them a lot.

The actual leaders stay in their capitals to lead until things have calmed down a WHOLE lot, so Raya and Naamari travel around Kumandra on their parents’ behalf a lot, and wind up going between Fang and Heart a lot to establish diplomatic relations and also to help with rebuilding.

Over this period, and while doing diplomatic meetings later on, Virana and Benja come to realize that the other person is actual quite decent. There’s some mess and distrust because of Virana’s thing with the Dragon Gem, but it eventually gets worked out. (Virana’s reaction is “yes that’s fair. In my defense, I was trying to do what I thought was right for my people, who were starving, but Yes, That’s Fair.” Benja’s reaction is “honestly if your people were starving from famine and you thought the Gem would help, that makes more sense.”) After a while, they become pretty good friends.

And suddenly Raya and Naamari regret everything. See, Naamari mentioned that both parents make terrible jokes. The girls are Suffering. Help them.

Sisu loves the bad jokes. Sisu also makes bad jokes. Raya and Naamari are silently dying.

It’s silly, but I like the idea that 3-4 years down the line, Virana and Benja consider getting married just for political reasons (alliance and all that) (they’re not actually interested in each other, it’s just practicality) and Naamari and Raya, who are not dating but are definitely in deep for each other at this point, are immediately like “NO. NO. DO NOT MAKE MY CRUSH MY STEPSISTER. DO NOT.”

Virana and Benja (mostly Benja) tease them by “considering” it for a bit longer, but they don’t, since they talked about it and both kids are uncomfortable with it. (”They like each other, don’t they?” Virana asks dryly. “Ohhh yeah,” Benja replies.)

Music? Music!

I was listening to a youtube mix this morning and “Too Far Gone” by Hidden Citizens popped up and it just reminded me of Raya’s attitude towards Kumandra at the start of the movie. Also it’s just a beautiful song.

“Knife in my Back” by Alec Benjamin is Raya @ Naamari before they figured things out, change my mind.

Other Stuff!

We can guess based off how long it took the crew to get from Tail to Fang even with side adventures (I think it was 3-4 days max, I wasn't totally paying attention) that one can navigate from one end of the river to the other within a couple days even in a boat like Boun's, and the royal families probably have even faster modes of transportation. (I.e. Naamari got from Tail to Fang in a couple days, then to Spine, then beat the crew back to Fang. On land.) Therefore, unlike I was originally thinking, it's actually totally realistic for the crew to be visiting each other once or twice a month.

It's even more realistic for Naamari to crash Raya's place on a weekly basis, since that's probably like six hours on cat at max.

I don't know what the cats are, so I will be calling them saber-cats until someone corrects me.

TUMBLR JUST MYSTERIOUSLY STOPPED ACCPTING MY "E" KY HLP I HAV TO US COPY PAST

Wait I think I fixed it. Crisis averted! Sorry about that.

Because Naamari is in Heart half the time, Virana visits quite frequently too. It’s not a long trip, anyway.

Virana is not straight (haircut) but I can’t decide if she’s a lesbian or what. She doesn’t have a spouse and never did. Only those Virana closely trusts know who Naamari’s dad is. Naamari does know and she’s met him, because Virana figured she had a right to. He and Virana never had a relationship, Virana just sort of needed an heir and a trusted personal friend offered to father the kid.

Tong’s wife is a total badass and instantly fits in with the crew. She and Noi’s mother quickly become very close friends.

Noi and Tong’s kid also immediately get along. As in, they constantly throw things at each other while giggling madly and both love the Ongis, and -- are they whispering to each other in that corner?? They might be conspiring to take over the world. Who knows.

Noi learns how to talk and becomes about 5 times more chaotic. Everyone is Regret (except Tong.)

[tiredassmage]

wip ask meme

Kindly tagged by @sullustangin, thanks so much!

Rules: post the names of all the files in your WIP  folder regardless of how non-descriptive or ridiculous. Let people send    you an ask with the title that most intrigues them and then post a  little snippet of it or tell them something about it! And then tag as  many people as you have wips. (You can make your own post or reblog this    one!) This isn’t just for writing either. Sketch titles? Comics? DnD  campaigns? If you have an unfinished project, it counts!! 

Oh boy. Can I actually remember them all? Bold of anyone to assume I have a folder. I’m a trash gremlin who lives off of Google Docs, okay? So let’s goooo!!!!

I’m not sure how many lovelies I have to tag vs how many WIPs I will uncover on this trek, so I’m just gonna throw out some names for friends with absolutely no pressure and also if you see this and you wanna do it, feel free to declare yourself tagged by me xD Also if you’d like me to tag you in stuff like this, feel free to shoot me a message or an ask because I know there’s plenty of you in my notes, but I’m usually shy about starting conversation so I don’t want to bother anyone with tags that don’t like it, so I tend to err on the side of caution and leave these general.

@firelightmuse @fatewalker-phoenix @traveler-of-light @ffxivbabey @captainderyn

And, without further ado, let’s see what I can cook up here!

(I did, in fact, find more than I thought I would. As seems inevitable, lol).

SWTOR

I’m actually... better than I have been about WIPs and stuff in the past thanks to getting into SWTOR and writing for it because one (1) night it was midnight and I decided that my Tyr x Theron brainrot had to go SOMEWHERE so it might as well be AO3. So, in my attempts to continue embracing that philosophy of just sharing to share, a lot of what I write for SWTOR tends to be posted the day I finish it or a bit later if I need to let it marinate for elaboration or editing purposes. But I do have some. Of course I do.

“through passion”

“check the mirror”

“lessons”

“chase the light” sort of swtor, sort of just... inspired by swtor. but very heavily influenced by my swtor experience, so we’ll put this one here.

“arena grand poster” (aka ‘girl help i have an idea that’s probably above my current skill ceiling; this is a backburner project that one day, i might get to, one day i might not. we’ll see. but i still think about it a lot, lol)

does wanting to get back to charcoal portraits count? practicing on my swtor ocs? the sheer idea of it??? another girl help above my current skill level thing, but, hey, the way to get there is practice so i need to start on something, might as well be blorbos from my video games

FFXIV

“don’t say goodbye”

“what follows”

“like shattered glass”

“eden’s verse reminiscence” (omg hi i forgot you existed??? what is this???)

“proceedings interrupted” (this is. borderline original but heavily inspired by xiv content, so once again, oddball but i’ll put it here)

okay god now we’re getting into the stuff i haven’t looked at in moons, oh boy

“cherish”

“desire”

“our answer”

“where we belong”

DRAGON AGE

They technically exist. Nothing I have written for DA has ever seen light of day outside of Discord DMs. But since you asked nicely, lol

“guide”

“and if you close your eyes...”

“ma melava halani” (don’t ask me to translate that, i thought i knew what i was doing then but i don’t know if i trust me now, lmao)

--

Okay, if I dig any deeper into Google Docs, I have no idea what we’ll find, but man I found some finished stuff I haven’t seen in ages, too, so this was a fun trip either way, lol!

[recurring-polynya]

In tHiaM, Renji mentioned a fictional fateful encounter in which he and Rukia met in the circus. I can picture this deeply. The Rukon has circuses. It has gritty knife throwers, it has scrappy beast tamers, it has a lovely doe-eyed tightrope walker who does stunts so dangerous your hair'd turn white just watching her. It is for Renji's birthday so he should get Rukia being extremely badass and saving his life from a rampaging circus bear. Ideally, Kenpachi is there.

A lot of times, I’ll have some idea for a story, and I’ll do a bit of research and find out that the thing I wanted to do absolutely does not exist in Japanese culture, and I was completely sure that when I dug into it, Japanese circuses would not be a thing, or they would be extremely different from Western circuses, but as it turns out, circuses were absolutely a thing in the Edo era, and they had acrobats and strongmen and horseriding and more. I had so many tabs open about circuses, and almost none of it actually made it into this fanfic.

Anyway, THANK YOU ALOPEX, you know what I like to write, and what I like to write is Renji telling rambling stories of questionable veracity. I put in some lifting for good measure. This might be the most perfect Renji birthday story.

If it isn’t immediately evident, this takes place in the middle of the Advance Team Arc, or more specifically, in the middle of my Advance Team Arc story, See You on the Other Side, where Renji tells Chad a different RenRuki origin story that’s basically the desert bandit subplot from Crouching Tiger, and also a story about bees.

Read on ao3 | ff.net

🏋️‍♂️   💪   🤡    🎪    🐻

Renji hefted the last bumper plate onto the end of the barbell and tightened the collar. Chad watched him with narrowed eyes.

“You sure you want to try this?” Renji asked. “One thousand pounds. It’s the weight limit for this bar. Once you beat this, we gotta go back to Urahara’s place and pick up big rocks.”

Apparently, Chad worked part time at his gym, which meant he had a key, which meant that he and Renji could go in at two a.m. so that Renji could teach him how to lift absurd amounts of weight with his reiatsu. It was pretty convenient, as long as you didn’t mind lifting weights at two a.m. Renji loved lifting weights at two a.m.

“You just don’t want to tell me another story,” Chad replied, flexing his shoulders in anticipation.

“Whatever, I got a million of them.” Renji took a few steps backward.

Chad flared his nostrils and stepped up to the barbell. He squatted down and curled his fingers around the grip. He took three deep breaths as he stared straight again. Leading with his hips, he straightened up in a smooth, textbook perfect movement, the sinews in his neck popping out, the air around him boiling with power.

Renji wished he could drag Chad over to Squad Six, so those spoiled weenies could see what hard work actually looked like.

Chad dropped the weight and a huge breath burst out of him, his eyes widening in relief. “I did it,” he gasped.

“You did it, buddy!” Renji shouted, pointing at the barbell. “You’re a machine! You didn’t even make it look hard!”

“It was hard,” Chad managed.

“I don’t believe it!” Renji continued. “One thousand pounds! You’re incredible, dude!”

“What do you mean, you don’t believe it? You told me to do it.”

“I mean, when I told you we were gonna work for the big one-kay, it was, you know, a stretch goal. I didn’t expect you to get there so fast!”

“You said you would tell me another story when I hit it! I assumed it was a reasonable goal.”

“I keep making unreasonable goals and you keep hitting them, so I’m just sort of winging it, now, t’be honest! I’m actually really bothered how much you are motivated by my dumb stories. If I had any human money, I would just offer to buy you tacos or something.”

“I can make my own tacos. I like the stories.”

Renji sighed. They didn’t have tacos in Soul Society and he was determined to eat as many tacos as he possibly could while he was stationed in the Living World. “Go get cleaned up, and I’ll put the weights away and try to decide which story to tell you this time. I did bring us some protein shakes. I can’t vouch for them, because they’re made out of stuff I found in the Shouten, but it’s important to get some calories in you after lifting. ”

“I’m sure they’re fine. I like your protein shakes. Oh, and I know which story I want to hear--how you met Rukia.”

Of course he did.

Renji was a man of many stories. He had so many good stories. He had Inuzuri stories that were full of mischief and dirtbaggery. He had Squad 11 stories that were full of headbutting and idiocy. He had interesting stories about his clever friends Izuru and Momo and funny stories about his goofy friend Shuuhei and horrible stories about his horrible friends Iba and Madarame. But Chad had asked him once how he met their mutual friend Kuchiki Rukia, a very reasonable and natural thing to ask, and Renji had responded with a ridiculous story that was very obviously not true. Now, all Chad wanted to hear was ostentatious lies about how he, Abarai Renji, had met the incomparable Kuchiki Rukia.

Renji racked his brain as he racked Chad’s weights. This would probably make the eighth or ninth Renji-Rukia origin story, he’d honestly lost count. He was running out of material. There was a bulletin board next to the weight storage rack, covered with flyers for a weightlifting tournament in Naruki City, the Karakura High kendo team, tumbling lessons. Renji stared at the picture of the girl in the sparkly leotard on the last one. He thought about how he and the gang used to make up stories of how they were gonna make it out of Inuzuri some day. He thought about Rukia’s absolute favorite, the one she told over and over, the way it got bigger and sparklier every time she told it.

Chad returned, a tracksuit zipped overtop his workout clothes. “Need help?” he asked.

“This is the last one,” Renji replied, hefting it up onto the shelf. “You can put the bar away, though.”

Chad did.

It was kinda nice, Renji thought, being in a gym in the middle of the night with Chad. It reminded him of hunching over his dorm room desk across from Izuru, cramming for written exams. It reminded him of achy muscles in a dim Fifth Company dojo, trying to figure out the mechanics of Zabimaru’s shikai deep into the wee hours. It reminded him of long runs with Ikkaku as the sun was just peaking over the city walls. The hours between dusk and dawn were a pretty good time for doing things, in Renji’s opinion.

“So, did you remember? How you met her?”

“Of course I remember!” Renji protested. “You think I would forget something like that?”

“You do get hit on the head a lot,” Chad rumbled gently and it took Renji a moment to realize he just got dragged. Chad was actually a really funny guy, you just had to pay attention.

Renji plopped down on a pile of mats and started rummaging around in his backpack for the two bottles of questionable nutritional substance he had mixed up earlier. “Well, I certainly remember the time I ran away from home and joined the circus, I’ll tell you that.” It was a good opening line, and he paused a few seconds to get the full effect.

“The circus?” Chad echoed skeptically, sitting down next to Renji and accepting his smoothie.

“The circus,” Renji replied after taking a long swig. It was very, very strawberry flavored. “So. I think I mentioned once that when I died I got sent to the shit-end of Rukongai. District 78 of the Southern Quadrant, where your best hope is to die soon and catch an express trip back to the Living World. I was too dumb and stubborn for that, though, so I was always on the lookout for a way out. Now, it’s pretty hard to move between districts in Rukongai-- it’s illegal without a special permit, see, and special permits get harder to get the further out you go. But there are a few kinds of permits that allow you to travel all up and down Soul Society, and one of those is for entertainers.”

This was more-or-less true. It was true in theory, but travelling shows never made it out to the deep Rukon-- there was no profit in it. Rukia used to swear up and down that a circus had made it to Inuzuri once, basically just passing through on their way to capture wild animals from the magical wilderness past the end of District 80, but she had seen it. Rukia was older than the rest of them, and she used to talk about it in such nauseating detail that they had no choice but to believe her.

“When I saw the posters plastered up all over town, my first thought was that it was an opportunity to pick up some quick kan as temporary labor. My primary job skill at the time was picking up heavy objects, you see, perhaps moving them from place to place. Circuses always need help with set up and tear down. I mean, do I look like a theater kid?”

Chad stared at him pointedly.

“I don’t know why I asked that,” Renji quickly corrected, “but also, keep in mind that I am Like This because I was in the circus, not the other way around. Anyway, my instincts were correct, and I found myself gainfully employed, carting crates and also tying and untying knots, another of my many talents. But then two things, or rather two someones made me decide that I needed to hitch my star to this ridiculous pageant. The first, I will admit, was a complete castle in the sky, but what is being an adolescent boy about if not chasing after hopeless dreams?”

Chad frowned. “Well. There’s school.”

“There is no school in Inuzuri, actually, and perhaps that would have kept me out of trouble, but instead, I became absolutely entranced by the glittering star of the show-- a tightrope walker of exceptional agility, grace, and beauty. Her most defining characteristic, though, was her audacity. There was no trick too dangerous for her. She somersaulted through hoops of fire. She juggled daggers. She’d stop halfway across the tightrope, pull out a tokkari, and pour herself a saucer of sake and drink it, while the audience gasped.”

“It was Kuchiki,” Chad guessed, the corner of his mouth tipping up into his shy grin.

“It was Rukia,” Renji agreed, “but imagine Rukia in head-to-toe spangles, with bells in her hair and glitter painted around her eyes, 20 feet in the air. She was unreal. She was an apparition, a spirit. I was desperate to meet her.”

“Did you?” asked Chad.

“Chad,” said Renji.

“What?”

“Did you just… did you just ask me if I ever managed to meet Rukia? Your friend and mine, Kuchiki Rukia? In the middle of this story about how I met Rukia?”

Chad thought for a moment. “It’s two a.m. and I just deadlifted a thousand pounds.”

“That’s fair, and the answer is yes, eventually, I did meet Rukia and she saved me from being eaten by a bear, but we’ll get to that. Are you drinking that protein shake?”

“Oh, sorry! It’s really good, I just keep forgetting because this story is a good one.” Chad took a long sip. “Hey, Abarai?”

“Yeah?”

“Sorry to interrupt again, but I have a question about the bear.”

“The bear is later.”

“Yeah, I realize that, but does the bear die?”

“Huh?”

“I’m just asking up front, because I don’t like stories where animals die, and if the bear gets hurt or dies, maybe could you skip over that part?”

“Oh! No, the bear is fine. Well, he’s probably reincarnated back into a living bear by now, he was pretty old even then. I exaggerated a little to make it sound dramatic, he probably wouldn’t have eaten me in any case.”

“Okay, you can go back to the story now, I just wanted to make sure. Thank you.”

“No, no, it’s cool. I’m glad you checked in.” Renji took a deep breath through his nose and mentally rearranged his story so that Rukia no longer defeated the beast in a dramatic knife fight. “Right. So, as I said, there was a second person at the circus who influenced me greatly and that was the most famous strongman in the entire Rukon, Zaraki Kenpachi--”

“Wait, Captain Zaraki? Big guy? With the bells in his hair?”

Oh, shit. “Uh, yeah. That’s a circus thing, you know. Hair bells. You, uh, know Captain Zaraki?”

“Yeah, Orihime made friends with him, and he broke us out of prison, but then we split up because there was someone he wanted to fight.”

“That sounds like him. Anyway, yeah, he’s in this story, too. I used to be in his squad, you know?”

“I gathered that from the way Madarame and Ayasegawa talk to you.”

“He helped me get in the Gotei, you see. Because of our time together in the circus. That’s a different story, though, we’re focusing on circus times, here. He wasn’t even the Kenpachi, yet, actually. One of the reasons he’s so strong is because before he was a fighter, he lifted things, heavy things. He did all the typical strongman stuff-- bending iron bars, biting through teacups, tearing packs of cards in half, but his most famous trick was balancing bamboo poles on his shoulders and then various acrobats and other performers would scramble up on them and do tricks from on top of him. He was wildly popular, pictured on all the posters. People would come to the circus just to see him. I did not have a lot going for me at this point of my life, but I was strong, and when I saw this guy, it occurred to me that if I could get him to take me on as some sort of apprentice, I might finally be able to use my strength to get out of that shitty town.”

“Seems like a good plan.”

“It did. It seemed like a good plan, except that Zaraki had a very busy schedule of getting drunk and napping when he wasn’t lifting things, and he was absolutely not interested in Inuzuri punks who had been hired to move crates around.”

“So, what did you do?”

“Well, speaking of Inuzuri punks, I may have been a fairly honest and hardworking fellow, but one day, a couple of my reprobate neighbors decided to sneak in and try to get a glimpse of some of the wild animals. The fellow who looked after the menagerie was a little guy by the name of Mameji. Very kind and loved the animals deeply, but not very good at standing up for himself. I barely knew him, but I don’t like bullies, and I owed most of those guys a punch in the nose anyway. Mameji was pretty grateful for the solid I did him and asked if there was any favor he could do me in return. Naturally, I asked if he knew Zaraki, but unfortunately, he was terrified of the guy, so I told him I was just happy to do a good deed and make a friend.”

“You should have asked him if he knew Rukia. Rukia likes animals.”

“You’re very smart, Sado, but remember that this story is about me, not you. It didn’t matter anyway, because the next day, he comes to find me and says there’s someone who wants to talk to me. I can’t imagine who he means, aside from holding out hope that maybe he did know Zaraki after all and was just slow-rolling me.”

“But it was Rukia.”

“It was. Mameji leads me over to the area where the animals are kept, and there, in a blue kimono embroidered with silver stars and crystals in her hair, was The Fearless Rukia.” Rukia’s circus stories were usually at least seventy-five percent descriptions of her outfits, and Renji felt obligated to keep up that detail. “‘You helped my friend out,’ she says to me. ‘I appreciate that.’ And I replied something very smooth and suave, like, ‘I like the way you do cartwheels’ or possibly just “Guuuuuuh.’ And then she says, ‘I hear you’re interested in Zaraki, what’s up with that?’ and as you know, I’m much better at talking about muscle stuff, so I explain about picking up heavy things and Inuzuri and my ambition to join the circus and she just listens carefully, nodding from time to time. She makes me pick up a few barrels and then Mameji, for good measure, and finally, she nods and says, ‘You’re pretty strong and I like your hair. Come back here tomorrow. I’m going to help you impress Zaraki.’”

Chad’s eyes sparkled with anticipation.

“So, the next day, I came back, like she said, and Mameji was there, too and they’ve got this big sack of yams. I’ve told you before about eatin’ in Soul Society, right?”

Chad nodded and belatedly took another gulp of his shake.

“My initial thought was that they were gonna try to bulk me up. Raw yams may not sound very exciting to you, but after years of living on near-moldy rice and the occasional sad vegetable or bony fish, I was watering at the mouth. ‘You’re gonna feed these yams to Sunny,’ says Rukia. ‘Who?’ says I. ‘His stage name is Brawler,’ says Rukia, ‘But he’s a good boy so Mameji and I call him Sunny. It’s a joke. Because he’s a moon bear.’ Brawler, you see, was the second scariest thing in the circus, right after Zaraki-- the biggest, ugliest moon bear you can possibly imagine, probably 200 kilograms. A lot of circus bears do tricks-- balance on balls or some shit, but Brawler’s only trick was looking mean as Hell. Sometimes they’d throw him a deer haunch and he’d eat it in a real gross way, I guess people like seeing stuff like that. I, like most people growing up on the southern border of the Rukon, had a healthy fear of large carnivores, but I had a much larger fear of looking like a weenie in front of Rukia, and I was determined I was gonna do whatever she told me to. The first time wasn’t so bad-- I just tossed the yams in and he snuffled over and gave me the hairy eyeball before snorfling them up. We did that the next day, too, but the day after that, Mameji took me into his enclosure to give him his yams. I was a little surprised, you see, because I would have expected a bear like that to eat meat or something like that, but he sure did like those yams.”

“Moon bears are omnivores,” Chad supplied. “They like sweet things.”

“You’re right, and I later found out that Sunny did get meat and other stuff at other times of day, but yams were his absolute favorite thing. Again, Rukia did not tell me this, because Rukia often neglects to tell me important things. I found all of this to be absolutely terrifying, and I probably would have given up and stuck to my crate moving, except that Rukia and Mameji were just about the nicest and amazing people I had ever met. They let me hang out with them for a bit and they told me stories about traveling with the circus and I told them about Inuzuri. They introduced me to their other friends, Fujimaru, who could do all sorts of knife throwing tricks, and Kosaburou, who had the most beautiful singing voice you could possibly imagine. By the time Rukia asked me to give Sunny the yams right out of my hand, I was doin’ it, not because I was desperate to get out of Inuzuri, but because I was desperate to do anything to stay with my new friends.”

Renji paused and pretended to be interested in his protein shake. Usually, he tried to fill these stories with a lot of daring-do and badassery, but he’d gotten a little off-track when had to junk his big exciting Rukia versus Bear fight scene. All he could think of was lying around the squat on miserable rainy days, one-upping each other with stories about their ridiculous circus acts. He hadn’t thought about those days-- hadn’t let himself think about those days-- in years. What a sap he was turning into. Maybe it was because Rukia was back in his life. Maybe it was because there was a war coming, a war he might not make it through. Maybe it was because it was two a.m.

“I know how that feels,” Chad said very quietly, so quietly that Renji almost didn’t catch it, and it occurred to Renji that maybe sometimes it helped to hear a sappy story at 2 a.m.

Renji snorted softly. “So, the day before the circus was set to pack up, Rukia explains her big plan to me. Up until now, I’ve sort of been assuming that this is all an exercise in building courage or some gonzo shit like that, but it turns out it’s very straightforward. Zaraki’s dream the whole time he’s been in the circus is to pick up Sunny as part of his act, except that Sunny has zero interest in being picked up and ends up chewing on Zaraki’s head every time he tries. If Zaraki had ever bothered asking Mameji for help, maybe he could have tried the old yam trick himself, but then this wouldn’t be much of a story.

“I wait ���til the big guy is done with his nap and is prepping for the night’s performance, inventorying his lead pipes and such, and I go up to him and I say, ‘Zaraki the Great, I am very strong, you should take me on as your apprentice!’ Now, Rukia had seen people do this to him before, and she knew that he always came back with ‘Oh, yeah? Do something to impress me, then.’ Of course, I was prepared, and I said, ‘I am going to pick up Brawler, would that do it?’ and Zaraki laughs in my face and says ‘If you can do that, I will definitely take you on, kid.’”

Chad’s face had split into a huge grin and he leaned forward in anticipation.

“We go over to Sunny’s pen, and of course, Mameji’s already given him his dinner and he’s feelin’ real fat and happy when he sees his old yam buddy Renji coming. I slip him a yam that I had tucked in my sleeve and I start rubbin’ his side, which is a thing we’d been practicin’. He leans into it, ‘cause he was a big, itchy boy, and I just… flipped him and picked him up like a baby.” Renji made a scooping motion to demonstrate. Chad’s face absolutely lit up. “He was incredibly heavy and also he did not really like that,” Renji continued, “but I put him down right away and gave him another yam and he forgave me. Zaraki was laughin’ his ass off, but he kept his word and got me signed on as a Strongman-in-Training. We went on to have many more adventures, both me an’ Zaraki and me an’ Rukia an’ Mameji an’ Kosaburou and Mameji.”

“And Sunny.”

“Sunny continued to be a hideous, angry bear for the crowds, but I kept giving him yams and never picked him up again and we were great friends for the time we spent together in the circus.”

Chad sat back, smiling his usual inscrutable smile. “Thank you, Abarai. That was a really good one.”

Renji cocked an eyebrow at him. “Was it?”

“Yes. It had friendships and a nice bear and I felt like Rukia would really appreciate the effort you put into describing all her outfits. I’m pretty sure it wasn’t true, but it was a good story.”

Renji heaved a big sigh, as though he’d honestly thought Chad was gonna buy it this time. He stretched his arms and legs out in front of him. “Let’s go home. I could go for a few hours of sleep before the Shouten Shouting starts. You’re taking a rest day tomorrow, but don’t forget to stretch.”

“The last time I had a rest day, you came over and you taught me some stuff about reiryouku.”

“Did I?” Renji frowned.

“Can we do that again? You said you would try to explain how flash step works.”

Shit, he did remember promising that. He’d just gotten overenthusiastic because it was nice to be the guy who knew things for a change. On the other hand, he also remembered the enthusiasm of going to school for the first time and wanting to know everything, and could hardly fault Chad for the same. “Sure,” he agreed. “After noon.”

“Let’s make it noon,” Chad amended. “I’ll make you tacos.”

“That,” replied Renji, “is a deal.”

[accio-victuuri]

Hello Anon! Sorry I had to cut some parts cause this got too long. For everyone else, Anon is actually very critical with their words and just really wants some explanation. So. I will just answer this whole thing once and I doubt my view on this will change anytime soon. As more modified-bl dramas comes out, I know I’ll get this. We don’t even have Immortality out yet. lol.

It’s okay to have this feeling. If you tried to watch it and it’s not making you happy, it’s okay. I am very bad w/ watching dramas and series in general so I will 99.9% not watch anything else that does not have Web or GG in it. My stance on this will always be: There is no need to pit them against each other. I also cannot prove you wrong. No one can prove that but the people who are actually behind the scenes with this project.

So now to the other parts of this ask.

• similar scenes - I did see a lot of this comparison shots on Wb, like they really did put these scenes side by side. So I know what you’re talking about. Even that cliff scene. What I think here is it’s a matter of tropes used in Danmei stories. This can be one explanation on why there are similar storylines. Like if we’re talking about epic fantasies, there is always a wise old wizard, the chosen one and the loyal best friend. even in shounen animes, there are similar themes. a formula, if you wanna call it that.

Some common tropes in Danmei: Rebirth, Space-time travel, Master/apprentice, Evil leaders, Dragons, shifters, Immortals, power struggles and ghosts.

I bet someone who has read a lot from this genre will be able to point out more common themes that we are sure to see w/ these stories/dramas.

• promo poster - there is also another drama with the same look. Again, we cannot verify for sure. that’s the problem w/ things like this. No one owns that “pose” anyway. Yes it can be very 👀 but it’s unfair to judge the entire show because of that.

• same phrases in interviews - lol anon. I will not search. I barely have time to do things that are not on my schedule plus i’m not really interested. tho i think i saw this in passing. something to do with atop the snowy mountain/ side by side which is really bjyx’s thing. Again. We can’t tell. As with how the promos are going, I can’t really fault the producers or whoever is in charge for taking some inspiration from cql promos. I mean, it was wildly successful. So if you’re someone who wants to go the same route, wouldn’t you look at something like CQL for reference? I don’t wanna take it as blatant copying. These observations that you see are almost all from people who are already critical w/ the show. So they already have that bias and just waiting for WoH to slip.

There is no such thing as an ORIGINAL IDEA in media. being inspired by something is also usually not a bad thing. At this point, I honestly don’t know what these other upcoming dramas can do to be considered original. I don’t think there is anything they can do to please other people. I feel bad for every other drama of the same genre that comes after CQL. which is something i’ve thought of even before any other projects got announced.

I also just wanna add that this xx pair copying how bjyx interacts in promos is just so weird to me. Of course it’s a show where they play lovers so what do you guys expect? they have to sell the CP. or maybe they are really good friends. I don’t see this nitpicking with het pairs. No one is saying xx pair is copying xx pair. Everyone knows that what these actors do in promos have some sort of direction from production. This is why during CQL promos up until 2019 tencent star awards, most of us had that “but is it really szd?” question in our head. 🙃 There is no point in comparing, of course it will be different because bjyxszd.

Okay, hope this helped Anon. It’s okay to stop watching things you don’t like but I hope you don’t end up hating them. Just ignore it and spend more of your time on things you actually like. 

[ruakichan]

(This was originally posted to my defunct PF in 2018, but reposting it here in heavily edited form for posterity so I can have my mobage reviews in a singular place.)

The Room is one in a line of premium (aka you need to buy the game to play it) "tactile puzzle games," which are games that utilize the touchscreen and has you manipulating objects in a 3D environment to solve puzzles.  These are among my favorite style of mobage, yet they are hard to do well so you don’t see them around too often. But they are an absolutely brilliant way of utilizing the touchscreen medium to immerse the player.

What caught my attention about the Room  was the aesthetics, and, later, the lore that runs through all four (five if you count the VR game) of the currently released games:  a mix of Lovecraftian horror meeting Old World steampunk.  The mysterious "Null element" and its eldritch origins, the tragedy that befalls those who want to learn about it, the mysterious organizations all after its power:  this type of atmosphere is so up my alley that it felt like the game was tailored specifically to my tastes.

The graphical design of the game match these themes: the steampunk and Old World influence in both the setting and the puzzles are incredibly gorgeous (if you're into that sort of thing), matched by the ambiance and lighting.  The music is low-key, if existent at all, adding up to the very lonely, trapped experience the protagonist is found in.

Each game offers something different in terms of puzzle design: the first game's puzzles all originate from a single box: and each time you solve a major puzzle, the box opens up to reveal more and more.  There's something incredibly satisfying about watching the box grow bigger and bigger as you solve each layer of puzzle.  The idea of going from small to large just adds to feel of the otherworldly power you're manipulating.

The second game has you time travelling: following after the erstwhile scholar that discovered the box in the first game, going through doors you open up as you solve each room, landing in different time periods as you relive the history of the box.  This game explores more about the series' deepest lore, solidifying the story established by the first game.

The third game has you entrapped by someone who has villainous intent about this mysterious Null element, and now you work your way through a house's mystery, trying to escape with your life.  (This game is the one I started with, incidentally, as it had a lot of very strong reviews, and it was definitely worth it.)  The puzzles in this one were probably the most difficult, since there were several endings and some of the endings required you to break from the linear path of the story to address mysteries unsolved in previously cleared areas.

The fourth returns more to the first game's roots:  now you play as someone from one of the organizations looking to research and harness the Null element, uncovering the tragedy that befell another intellectual through the mystery of unraveling a dollhouse.  Solving each part of the dollhouse opens up more rooms, and tinkering with such tiny miniatures is just absolutely appealing to me.

Overall, the series itself isn't terribly difficult; any time a roadblock is encountered, it typically is because you're missing an item in your inventory.  There is a hint system, and it's not overbearing, for those that need a little direction on what to do.  Like any adventure game, some of the items that have to be manipulated or found can be really tiny or cleverly hidden, but the game itself doesn't follow "adventure game logic" so each puzzle progression makes general logical sense in how it should be solved.

Some of the games are also available on PC or the Switch; I'm not sure how the controls handle on these systems, but the games themselves got huge graphical upgrades in terms of more design and lighting:

At the time of this writing, the games themselves range from 0.99 to 3.99 (most recent release), and can last anywhere from several hours to a near day, depending on how hard you binge and how quickly you can solve the puzzles.  It's definitely worth your time and money if you're looking for a good puzzle game with atmosphere and lore; the series itself has won quite a few accolades which can be seen on the site linked above.  The games are available on Android and iOS, and some are on PC (steam) or the Switch.

[nofive]

Five’s Bedroom

I have done a headcanon about brief observations I have made on Five’s bedroom before. I have also talked about things in his bedroom in a few other headcanons. But this will be delving into the canon state of Five’s childhood room, and his area in the Apocalypse to get a sense for how Five is as a person and a bit more of what he was like as a child.

Also fair warning, this post is long, and their are lots of big images. If you want, I am tagging this post with a special tag “Five’s Bedroom Meta” so that you can block it if you do not wish to scroll through it on your dash. All images that have adjusted brightness was purely to enhance the background of the image.

Like with everything I may add on to this as time goes by.

The bare bones, no deep diving yet ( Five’s Childhood Room )

Based off multiple images from the Making of TUA book, the show itself, and Aidan’s behind the scenes pictures I’ve put together a very basic floor plan of Five’s room ( please don’t make fun of my handwriting ). I don’t know about y’all but I feel like Five’s door needs to be at a til like Allison and Luther’s. But its not. So this floor plan basically gives a layout of his room in general. Its not to scale obviously, but it gives us a good starting off point. One thing I would like to note, that I think is only applicable to Five’s room as that there are two doors much like Reginald’s office, which I will touch on a bit later. Not drawn are the at least four lamps, one on his desk, one on the small bookshelf by his bed, and one on his nightstand, he has at least two sconces one on the wall near the closet, and one on the wall near the blue chair, he also has a main light fixture with at least three bulbs. But it is simply his closet, a very small closet at that.

Five’s bedroom has two windows, one that leads to a fire escape, which is next to his bed on the wall with the slanted roof. Both windows have radiators beneath them that Five utilizes as shelving. On the slanted wall side of his room Five’s bed is pushed not quite into the corner as he has a small bookshelf there that has more toys on it than books, and has a chest at the foot of his bed, and then he has his bookshelf which due to the slanted wall has the appearance of a built in.

Five’s desk and desk chair are on the same wall as his closet, though his desk chair being on wheels can move about. Above the desk are a set of shelves, Luther’s room has something very similar, with a set of towels and his toiletries. Five’s towels are blue, Luther’s appear to be tan or brown. If I had to guess all the siblings have different colors of towels. Next to his desk in between it and the bookshelf is a basket that appears to have a white board, and a fireman’s hat. There is also a possible laundry basket on the other side of his desk closer to the closet.

On the wall that has the main door to his room you have his wardrobe or armoire. we know thanks to Klaus that this houses jackets, possibly that snazzy coat and scarf from the bank as well as various toys namely baseballs. I know there is a baseball bat in his room but I cannot find a picture of it. Also I should note, I have no idea what is rapped in that white sheet looking thing.

On the other side of the door we have his dresser. The door funnily enough has a window up top sort of akin to an office door implying that Five’s room did in fact used to be an office. In fact the way it’s styled makes it seem like it could be a 1920s styled Private Investigator office. The dresser has a dart board above it that he takes down to write his equations and then puts it back up despite not putting anything else back on the walls. In front of the dress and the second window is a blue chair that we see Delores occupy while Grace patches up his Shrapnel wound she is sitting on his blue desk chair. Next to the radiator under the window we have Five’s nightstand.

The walls of Five’s bedroom are all painted a minty green color. So is all the triming including the the window seal ledges. The only non-painted areas are the bricks under the slanted roof/wall of his room and the boarder wallpaper.

The Deep Dive

So that takes us around his room, now lets actually delve into those pictures and what we see in them. So lets start at the beginning with the closet. To my knowledge Five is the only one with a closet in his room, and a second door. I only bring this up because the parallels and similarities between Five and Reginald is very obvious. And we know Reginald’s office has two doors. I just think that is interesting, not to mention Five’s bedroom was very likely an old office based on how The Academy is multiple buildings together. I should also note that based on the scene when Five is escaping onto the fire escape the window that is not on the slanted wall portion of his room shouldn’t have light coming into it because another building butts up to it.

Five’s bedroom is actually quite large accented with blue of varying shades from the carpet to his main comforter, to his desk chair, pillows, curtains, and his secondary chair. All the wood in his room is a light walnut color. And his doors are painted this minty green color. His second comforter looks to be navy, white, and red plaid. The fact that he has a second comforter that is used means not only has Grace changed his sheets, but he likely has slept in them, which means he likely did sleep. I only say its second comforter and not a blanket because we know Five has a chest at the foot of his bed with a blanket on it that could have been used. The chest likely has his extra bedding in it though. On Five’s bedside table he has a stack of what appears to be text books, but they seem more like workbooks of some sort. So think like SAT prep books. He also has a set of what appears to be five novels on his nightstand, and some sort of CD player or maybe a dehumidifier. 

The blanket as you can see has planets, a moon, and a spaceship on it, which is pretty on par for things that Five likes. All over his room, and in these images you can see images of robots on his walls. Particularly you can see comic drawings of robots. He has a rock-em sock-em robot poster on his wall. He even has a robot on his bookshelf by his desk. Five has a fascination with robots. Which could foreshadow his relationship with Delores, and perhaps something of his relationship with Grace, liking wanting to know how she works. Also foreshadowing of Five and Delores is quite literally in the wallpaper boarder above the chair rail which has a kid pulling a red wagon with a mannequin in them.

Additionally we see lots of building blocks particularly on the bookshelf next to Five’s bed. Five is very hands on when it comes to his hobbies. He has means of transportation all over his room which could make sense given his power, but it could also give him a connection to Luther seeing as Luther also has airplanes and cars in his room. Five has boats, and cars all over his room. Further he also has lots of construction toys including an excavator and a cement truck. On top of his wardrobe he has a sail boat and a covered wagon. He also has a poster of a motorcyle or moped on his wall. If Five had stayed behind he would have been the first to learn how to drive for sure.

From first glance Five’s room seems super organized. But when you actually look at it, its not. Books in particular are stacked where he can stack them. The binders on his desk are initially upside down, and someone put them right side up, I would guess Luther as he is messing around Five’s desk to look for things. Five works in an organized chaos we see this from his equations as he writes over the boarder and such We later see this echoed in his Apocalypse home.

When it comes to other things Five has a few knick knacks all of them are travel based, saved for one. I’ve mentioned the toys. The one I’m referring to can be seen on his desk and I believe it is a nautical instrument used to help measure distance and time or speed. I could be wrong. But it is on Five’s desk along with what appears to be homework of some sort in the trays. He’s also got a stapler on his desk which I simply find ironic.

The one knick knack he has that isn’t related specifically to travel is a wooden basket that has busted up watches. Pocket watches, wrist watches, etc. They are old, and are not digital. My theory on this is that at one point he attempted to use the watch to magnify his power, particularly that of Time Travel. But they kept breaking, but it only fueled his theory that he could do it. This is also a call back to the comic where Five as a kid is always shown to have a pocket watch.

Briefly on his closet, which is best pictured above. It is small. Also it appears to only hold his uniforms, which by the way he is going through them makes him seem like he should have more clothes and he can’t find them. This implies Five does have civvies or street clothes but they have been lost over time which would make Five’s “Shit” make much more sense. Its not that he only has uniforms as his option, its that he can’t find his civilian clothes.

Last but not least the dart board. I do have a headcanon about it. But the fact that you can see the equations go behind the dart board on the wall means he put it back up. Five in the original pilot script had a love of knives quite like Diego. My guess is the dart board is a call to that. But we also know Five is super competitive and I think he tries to get accurate with throwing knives to beat Diego. Also we know that Five has Diego’s knife holster in the apocalypse so Five liking knives is not just a original pilot script thing. 

The Comparison ( his Apocalypse Home Base )

Five’s apocalypse home base ironically takes on many similar characteristics of Five’s bedroom. Meaning the core of who Five is has not changed. He has a love for learning, partially cause he is literally creating new math, but he has a desk still, and he still stacks books haphazardly. He also has his chalkboard which seems to be Five’s favorite way of doing math. I theorize its because he’s working on things that are so large he needs more room than paper can provide. Also paper is hard to come by in the apocalypse, at least blank paper is because he uses Vanya’s book. Five has a habit of placing important things on places he can easily see and find. Such as the probability map ending above his bed, and the equation on his chalk board likely ending up in his copy of Vanya’s book.

Final Thoughts

So what are my final thoughts? I think the making of TUA book has got Five pinned all wrong. Five’s room is sparse because he left early, but not because he didn’t have hobbies or time to decorate it. He clearly did. Five like athletics at least baseball, and he had an interest in robots, comics, and transportation. He also likes building as he has blocks and potentially even legos. The transportation could be an extension of him getting to know his power, maybe. But we know Luther is very similar with transportation just of the aerospace kind and we know that’s likely not related to his power ( unless you include my headcanon that his main power is actual gravity manipulation ). Five had interests and was even starting to personalize his room before he left, he also had an imagination seeing as the fireman’s helmet is still readily out and available to play which plays into Delores being part of his active imagination and becoming the imaginary friend he needs to stay somewhat sane in the apocalypse.

Five’s room tells us of a boy who was active, and had interests, and he still has a liking for those interests as we see him unable to help himself and play with one of the trucks during the show. It gives us a brief look into the boy that we truly know very little about. Because while we have so much of his story displayed for us, we have so little of what he was like before. He has toys and things all over his room with no real rhyme or reason as to why things are placed in certain areas. It makes sense to him obviously, but it is not the key organized thing you would expect. If it was all his trucks would be in one place for example.

We also can see Five is a bit more chaotic than his room implies on first glance. From both the Apocalypse and his kid bedroom Five has a habit of stacking books a bit haphazardly and storing things also a bit haphazardly as seen by the crate on top of his wardrobe, and the fact that he has stuff just piled into said wardrobe that comes tumbling out when Klaus does.

When it comes to his room location I believe it is on the third floor above Allison and Luther’s, on the second, and Klaus, Vanya, and Diego’s on the lower floor. Since we don’t know where Ben’s room is and the door across from Five’s is always shut, I do think that that is likely where Ben’s room was. But according to Five there are 42 Bedrooms in the place so it could be anywhere really.

Five’s room, like Five himself hides behind a layer of sparsity. You have to give him more than a cursory glance to know what is really going to get him deep down.

[officialinuyasha]

Yashahime News - The Seven Colored Rainbow Pearls! - Theories and Analysis

https://youtu.be/4yxJ_sm_qck

On September 11th we saw the Sunrise Music Festival Livestream. They said that Souta will play a bigger role in Yashahime and that they wanted to create something that the Fans that grew up with InuYasha and that have became adults - Can enjoy. I did make the post about it, so you may have already seen what I said about it when the Sunrise Music Festival happened on September 11th. I will just say that my wife was not very happy about me staring at a screen for four hours. But hey we also got to see Towa's voice actor, all she really said was the synopsis. But still, fun. I think I completely dissosicated from that because of how long we were watching it alongside my group chat friends. Alot of them passed out directly after because we were exhausted from staying up just to watch this whole thing for more possible information. So we're crazy dedicated to this. The voices for Adult Kohaku, Hisui and Takechiyo have been announced - Ryohei Kimura will be the role of Kohaku Takehiro Urao will be Hisui Ai Fairouz will be Takechiyo [I apologize if I said those names wrong in the video] Here is the translation for Yashahime Keyword number 13 #13 Shikabane [Dead Body Shop] It is a bounty shop that trades heads and the remains of youkai. The owner of the shop, Jyubei, hires Moroha and Takechiyo. Moroha works with Takechiyo, like it had said in Moroha's early translations that she does work for the Shop. It even mentions Jyubei in that translation! So this would be the second time we hear about Jyubei. There's definitely going to be some Bounty Hunter and Demon Slayer conflict. Which is probably why we see Moroha and Setsuna fighting in the trailer. It would make sense for them to have competition because of their jobs. An idea of what could go down for that fight - Setsuna: This is my job to exterminate this demon. We need the parts for our armor and weapons. Moroha: It's MY prey! We sell the parts! The demon slayers could buy the parts from the Corpse Shop for their armor, maybe at some point they can agree and collaborate. But I think it would be nice to see them being competitive with one another at first, and then come to some sort of an agreement. The Corpse Parts shop can supply the Demon Slayers with the material they need for their weapons and armor! They could have some nice sort of trade going on for parts, armor and weapons. So, Jyubei. Who is this guy?- Well, I think it's possible that Jyubei is the new character we see in the poster. I say that because their clothes are tattered like Moroha's. Which gives me the feeling that it's gotta be a signature Bounty Hunter look for the Corpse Shop. That's saying if it's not Shippou or another character that we can think of. What do you guys think? I think it's possible that character is Jyubei. I mean, it also could just be some other character that is a traveler based on the attire. I previously stated that I theorized that there could multiple colored pearls because of the name being rainbow, and because of what was shown to us on the Yashahime Website We have confirmation that there is multiple colored pearls for the rainbow pearls. It was stated in the Yashahime keyword #14 Rainbow Colored Pearls A jewel that enhances the magical power of youkai. It is said that there are seven-colored pearls, as the rainbow-colored name suggests. I know what you're thinking - It's like Dragon Ball or Sonic the Hedgehog. Well Dragon Ball was also actually inspired by Hakken-Den which was a famous Edo-Era Japanese novel, Akira Toriyama said that was his inspiration in Dragon Ball Bouken Special. In Hakken-Den there was eight and he didn't want them to be the same exact number - So he had changed it to seven. If you look at the image, they all sparkle the same as Setsuna's eye does from the trailer. The Shikon jewel sparkles in the same way, as these clearly look a lot like the Shikon Jewel as well. Let's hope that we didn't have seven priests or priestess have to make these...I'm Kidding! I previously talked about how Moroha also has a red pearl on/or in her shell and that it could hold memories or someone is trapped there such as InuYasha, Kagome any of the others. As we know that pearls have to do with memories and portals. However, it's unknown if certain abilities are only exclusive to certain colored pearls and it's something that I'm looking forward to finding out about. So we can also take that possibility into consideration that the different colored pearls may do different things as well. Now we can speculate more on all of the colors that could be related to the characters. We know that there are seven colored pearls based on the Yashahime Keyword but on the site there also is an 8th one that is a Black Pearl. If we want to see about linking these pearls with the characters - We can base the pearls on color palette and also speculate by using the InuYasha Cafe Pictures though some of them are different colored we can still use this as our map. InuYasha Cafe was created to celebrate and promote Yashahime so we can use this as a possible idea for speculation on what the colors could represent. I'll put Miroku inbetween Sango and Shippou, as his colors are in the middle. However, it's more likely that Miroku would be tied with Sango. As we can also speculate if two characters can relate to one pearl as well. We can swap some of these around based on the various artworks, or even the characters color palettes. Such as InuYasha as red - Kagome wore green for a lot of the times, Sango wears pink in her demon slayer armor, Kirara for yellow, Shippou as blue, and Miroku as purple. Maybe Sesshoumaru in the middle. I think it's also a good idea to use The Final Act's Opening as reference as well. - InuYasha would be green - Kagome would be red - Miroku would be yellow - Sango would be blue - and Shippou would be Pink Any of these could be right or wrong. [InuYasha-Red,Kagome-Pink,Sango-Blue,Kirara-Orange,Sesshoumaru-Yellow,Rin-White/Grey] Now, what's interesting is that the Official Yashahime website still has an unclickable pearl. It also reminds me like how Setsuna is missing her memories. Gotta wait on that update for us. We can even speculate using the first Yashahime poster - since Moroha has a red pearl, she is represented by red, that Setsuna is represented by Purple and that Towa would be Blue. The thing is, the pearl that is currently still unclickable on the website may be the purple or pink pearl. If it's supposed to be purple - which would be like Setsuna's color palette suggests on the first Yashahime poster. Though, it could just be a pink pearl. We still don't know if Moroha's pearl is a special pearl, or just for decoration. It's up for speculation as of now. Of course these character colors may have nothing to do with the pearls, but I will say that it's ironic that Moroha does have a red pearl, InuYasha's color palette being red does match the InuYasha Cafe art, and well he is most known for wearing the red robe of the fire rat. While Moroha's color palette on the poster is also red. We also can speculate that each pearl may simply be a fraction of memories that are missing. These memories may be related to the characters or unrelated to the characters. There's a chance that these Pearls could be the other characters memories besides Setsuna. Could these pearls even hold their souls? More hidden places in these pearls? We do know that Setsuna needs a Rainbow Pearl to recover her memories, it could be that she just needs one or multiple as each could represent a fraction of her memory. We're getting closer to the air date. LET THE ANXIETY CONTNUE. Or, you could be excited. Or BOTH! Hosenki's son said it would take him 100 years to create a Black pearl, it could be that Hosenki himself made these. Unless these are newly made experimental pearls that his son made. I wonder how old these could actually be. Hosenki's son did say that his father used all of the pearls before he passed away. But, you never know if there was some secrets none of them knew about. It's possible Jaken's staff could help them find these pearls, besides just the black one. The Black Pearl being the 8th hidden pearl could lead us to InuYasha or of course the Inu no Taishou's grave. It could be that these pearls were not made by either Hosenki or his son, there's always the possiblity of these being made by another Oyster Demon. As there could be others that we don't know about. Their origins are such a mystery, and I can't wait to find out what their history is. I'm guessing the pearl in the middle will be called the white or grey pearl. I'm just saying this based on the website because it shows the darkest color pearl at the bottom, which we can assume is the Black Pearl. Unless they decide to call this middle pearl, a black pearl as well. But as we know from the information given to us, they will recover Setsuna's memories for sure. These pearls make demons stronger and I like that they took the idea for the Black Pearl and made them multicolored. As obtainable items that increase power, similiar to what we had seen with the Shikon Jewel. I've previously talked about that - There's a possibility when all of the colored pearls are collected that they can combine and create one whole rainbow pearl. If the characters are sent to different dimensions in each pearl, I wonder if time passes differently inside of them. It could be that the others would be sealed and perhaps not even age. Someone wanted to know how long I think Yashahime will be? Well as a season I guess would be 24-26 episodes. There's a lot of times that we have anime that run on 12 episodes, but since I think Yashahime will do well - Around 24-26 atleast. I also don't think that they will reveal who the mother is of Towa and Setsuna right away. I think it will be revealed later on, as they want to keep our attention on watching the series. I think it would be very quick for them to finish Yashahime in one season, especially with the idea of collecting seven pearls - so I think that they should do more than one season. Here's to hoping that it will be more than one season, but I still will be content with one season that wraps up well - Because this is an InuYasha Sequel we are talking about. It is a big deal to me. I know it's a big deal to a lot of people. What do you guys think? Are you guys excited or what? October 3rd is coming up fast!

[wowweeharrystyles]

Part 1 | Kindness & The Perfect Fit | 9.2k words

‘Sequins & Zippers’ Summary: An internship with Harry Lambert transformed into a job of a lifetime - Aurora Del Gatto finds herself touring the world with the one & only Harry Styles as his ‘Head of Wardrobe.’ Aurora is nothing but nerves & excitement as she packs her bags & almost 100 custom designer suits that belong to an unbelievably kind rockstar. She never thought she’d fall in love on top of it all.

A/N: So here’s part 1 of Sequins & Zippers. A MASSIVE shoutout to @niallhoranapologist​. If it weren’t for Gwen I probably wouldn’t have continued to work on this story. Thanks for always helping me brainstorm ideas, listen to me talk about these fictional characters all the time & for continuously supporting my writing. you da best. 

“Ugg, this is useless,” Aurora groans as she throws the t shirt she had in hand across the room. Aurora has been attempting to pack her suitcase for hours now. “How the hell am I supposed to pack 4 months worth of clothes in a single suitcase?” she whispers in defeat to herself.

“Rory? Everything alright?” Aurora’s mother calls from the other room. Rory is the nickname her mom gave her when she was only a baby. Her mother walks into her room and sees the frustrated look on her daughter’s face. 

“25 countries? The weather is gonna be different in every freaking country,” Rory lets out a frustrated sigh, falling onto her bed. “I can barely pack properly for a weekend trip.” 

“Hey, you’re thinking too hard and overwhelming yourself,” her mother says softly as she sits on the bed next to her. She places a hand on her shoulder, “Let me help. We’ll figure it out.” 

Aurora is currently trying to pack for her new job. After the craziest year she’s ever had, packed with graduating college, moving to London to work with one of the most well-known stylists in the fashion industry and having the time of her life doing what she loves most, she was offered a career-altering job for the next 4 months. Never did Aurora think she would be sitting in her room back home in a small suburb of New York surrounded by cardboard boxes labeled with things like: “NYC Apartment - kitchen,” “London - winter clothes,” “School things,” “London Flat - bedding,” “I have no idea, from london.” Organized Chaos explained her life best right now. 

“Rory, sweetie, where’s your list?” her mother asks, looking around to locate the papers she’s been carrying around for the past week that’s covered in scribbled notes, lists upon lists and small sketches here and there. “Should’ve really been keeping that stuff in a journal or something.” She finds the papers scattered on Aurora’s desk and a few laid on top of boxes. “Probably wouldn’t be so overwhelmed if you could be a little bit more organized,” her mother sighs gathering the papers into a stack, tapping the bottom edges on the desk to line them up. “You’re normally so much more organized,” her mother continues before pressing a kiss to Aurora’s hair. 

“It’s a lot, Mom. I don’t know where to start.” She stands up from her bed and grabs her phone as it dings, indicating she’s received an email. “Finally!” she exclaims with a sigh of relief. “Harry’s just sent me my official itinerary and all of my flight info.”

“Harry Styles himself emailed you your travel plans?” her mother asks in disbelief. 

“No, mom, Lambert. Harry Lambert, my boss.”

“Oh yeah, of course,” she laughs lightly, “How many mix ups has there been with that name?” 

Aurora’s new job is ‘Head of Wardrobe’ for Harry Styles’ Arena World Tour. In all honesty, she has no idea how she got here. Well she does, but it still doesn’t feel real. Lambert’s original hire for the tour ended up needing to stay in London to help him with his styling work there and she was next in line, but she still isn’t too sure how she got this lucky. The past year happened so fast and it was one opportunity after another that landed her here. She’s barely had a moment to breathe after the holidays and some small jobs here and there to keep her busy. Last January, just over a year ago, Aurora traveled to London for a six week menswear design course at Central Saint Martins for some extra credits before her final semester of college. During this course, she was lucky enough to met Harry Lambert. After he saw her collection of work from the past few years, what her thesis plans were and what she had been working on during the CSM course he kept her information on file for the future. When Aurora left london at the end of the course she had no idea if she would ever hear from Harry Lambert again, but around mid march she received an email from him about an internship position he needed to fill and thought she would be perfect for. Starting the internship in NYC before she even graduated, May was a whirlwind and was the perfect indication on how the rest of her year would be. She moved to London in June and was put to work without a second to spare. 

“Okay, so here’s what we’re gonna do,” Aurora’s mother starts before launching into a detailed plan on how they’re both gonna tackle packing up Aurora’s life for the next 4 months on the road, traveling. They’ve got barely 3 days until her flight leaves for London.

Nearly 4 hours later and they’ve organized Aurora’s room. Unpacking the appropriate boxes, written a new packing list, and they’ve also written a shopping list. They’ve got organized piles surrounding them. Again, Organized Chaos best describes Aurora’s life, always. 

“Oh, what about that long pleated skirt you made last year? The emerald green one? You definitely need to take that.” Aurora’s eyes lit up at the idea. She loved that skirt, it was versatile enough that she could pair with heels or sneakers. Versatile pieces were key to packing she found out quickly. Her mom reaches into her closet and searches for it. “Probably at the back, haven’t worn it in awhile,” she motions towards her closet while sorting through the box of her bags, making decisions on which ones she’ll need with her. 

“Oh gosh, Rory, look what I found,” her mom emerges from the closet with a handful of rolled up posters. 

Aurora goes bright red knowing exactly what is on those posters. “Oh no. I kept those?” her mom sets them down on the floor but keeps one to unroll. Once the tape is off and her mom has got it flat, she turns it around to face Aurora. It’s a large poster of One Direction from a TigerBeat magazine. Aurora drops her face into her hands. 

“Remember when you couldn’t see a bit of the wall cause of these posters? If I remember right, you liked that blonde one yeah?” her mom laughs, rolling the poster back up. “Maybe you should take one with you and have Harry sign it? He’d get a kick out of it, I’m sure.” 

“Mom!” Aurora whines. “This is my job, my career. I have to be nothing but professional.” 

“I’m sure he wouldn’t mind a joke or two. Gotta have fun still and honestly, he’d probably think it’s cute.” 

“Mom, it’s embarrassing and I’m gonna be working with him and his team for the next 4 months.” Her mother can see the panic on her face. “I cannot just show up with a One Direction poster.” 

“Ror, I’m just having a bit of fun with you. You need to relax or you’ll just be frustrated and stressed the entire time.” She sets the posters aside and goes to join Aurora on the floor. Placing a hand on her cheek, “Baby girl, my baby girl, promise me you’ll have some fun? This is a chance of a lifetime and I know you’ll work your butt off and do your job perfectly, but you need to enjoy it too. Okay?” Aurora nods slowly. She knows her mother is right, she always is. 

“Okay,” she says softly giving her mom a weary smile. 

“You’ll be okay, I know you will,” her mom says before leaning in and hugging her daughter. “I’m so proud of you.”

Aurora and her mother continue bustling around her room until the sun sets. By the time there is no daylight left there are 2 large suitcases completely full, all organized and packed with Aurora’s belongings. They spend the next hour packing up Aurora’s rolling caboodle. The large, rollable, sturdy set of drawers and compartments is from Aurora’s days as a competition dancer. It used to carry her stage makeup, extra pairs of tights, accessories and an emergency sewing kit. It was always covered in glitter and there were bobby pins in every nook and cranny, a few stray sets of false eyelashes too. But for the past 4 years, she’s used it for all things sewing and design. She never went to class or the design studio without it. Aurora and her mom empty the drawers and reorganize the contents. They make another list of things they need to pick up at the local sewing store the next day. Aurora pulls out her old sketchbooks and sets them to the side and adds a new clean book to the now empty drawer along with her cases of Micron pens, drawing pencils and prisma coloured pencils. 

Aurora continues to organize each little compartment as her mother prints out small labels and adds them to the section dividers. Aurora loves to be overly organized and have everything in its place. It keeps her calm and stops her from getting overwhelmed in stressful situations. There’s nothing she hates more than being backstage at a fashion show and needing a simple needle and thread to fix a small seam quickly and having to dig through the drawers to find what she needs. Backstage life, anywhere, fashion shows, dance competitions, or even a world tour, can be stressful if you’re not prepared properly. 

“Oh, keep the box of sequins and swarovski crystals in there. I actually might need them.” Aurora finishes the sentence with a giggle as she’s setting her scissors in their respective home. 

“Really?” her mom laughs too. 

“Yeah, some of the looks for this tour are actually pretty sparkly. You never would’ve thought. I actually might have to bedazzle a few things on the road.” 

“You’re home!” her mother sing-songs. They both laugh again thinking about the countless hours they spent bedazzling dance costumes with 100’s of crystals. 

After saying goodbye to her parents through a continuous flow of tears, Aurora got on an 8 hour flight. She kept herself busy on the flight to occupy her mind and stop her from overthinking or panicking about the next 4 months ahead of her. She landed in London on the 3rd of March, just a few days till she’d be back at this exact airport with the same luggage plus a few crates labeled ‘Wardrobe’ that she’d also have to care for. She made her way to the Air B’N’B that had been set up for her for the next few days and headed straight to bed. One thing Aurora, jokingly, prides herself on is the ability to sleep anywhere at anytime. 

When the morning rolls around and her alarm wakes her, she’s preparing herself a cup of coffee when her phone rings. She notices Lambert’s ID on the screen. She answers and they exchange good mornings before he asks her about her travels from the day before. 

“Okay, so, I’m sending a car to where you’re staying in about an hour to bring you to the arena.”

“Arena? I thought we were meeting at your studio?” 

“Oh no, change of plans, sorry should have mentioned that in an email. Harry is in full rehearsal mode and everything for the tour is at the mock stage space at Wembley Arena. They’ve just finished the final tech rehearsals and Harry will be there today to start running the show,” Lambert continues. The new knowledge of Harry Styles being there on her first day makes Aurora jittery, small butterflies erupting in her stomach. She’s met Harry before. They’re friendly, but she was only just Lambert’s shadow anytime they were together. He was sweet and kind, just as everyone always says, but she was still a tad nervous. She will be with him almost everyday, on her own, without Lambert there to be a buffer. Aurora tended to be a nervous person, especially if she doesn’t know someone all that well. She can keep her nerves at bay and save a proper panic for after the situation ends most times, which is the best she can do right now. It’s something she’s working on. It’s what she hates most about herself, not being able to keep her nerves in check. 

“Oh yeah, makes sense,” Aurora responds, surprisingly with no jitters evident in her voice. 

“Great, I can have the run of show lookbook all put together for you when you arrive and we’ll go through it and make notes.” “Do you mind if I actually set it up when I get there? I would feel much better and more settled doing it myself as we do a walkthrough of the wardrobe.” 

“Of course, Aurora, whatever you think will work best for you.” 

She thanks him and they end the phone call after confirming the time and car that will be picking her up. She finishes off her coffee and heads to the living room where she left her suitcases last night. One of the large suitcases was lying on the ground, opened, exactly where Aurora left it last night. She ruffles through the contents of her suitcase, moving around different packing cubes until she finds the cube that contains her favourite black jeans. She locates a creme hooded knit sweater and some clean undergarments. She pops into the shower and continues to bustle around the small flat getting ready. At some point she turns on some music to distract her mind. There’s an airy feeling in the flat, the sun shining in london for a change and it calms Aurora down despite the nerves running through her veins. Aurora checks her watch, 10 minutes until her car is due to pick her up. She slides on her all white leather court sneakers and laces them up, tucking in the excess laces for a clean finish. She grabs her black bomber jacket and slips her arms in, then pulls out the hood from her sweater so it lays comfortably on the outside of the jacket’s collar. She takes a quick look in the full body mirror that leans up against the white brick wall across from the large, unmade bed. She’s reminded by the reflection in her mirror to text her mother and thank her for convincing her to pack her favourite clothes instead of all her fancy stuff. She looks put together but is still extremely comfortable, prepared for anything today has to offer her. 

There’s a short honk from the street in front of the building. Aurora grabs her rolling caboodle and her purse before rushing out the door to meet the driver. 

20 minutes later she finds herself stepping out of the car and thanking the driver for holding the door. He grabs her caboodle from the trunk and hands it to Aurora and wishing her well and to have a nice day. Harry Lambert greets her at the door giving her a big hug and exclaiming about how excited he is to have her there. He takes her an office where the tour manager, Michael is set up. The office is busy with several people working at desks on laptops and people taking phone calls. Lambert introduces Aurora to the team and gets her set up with her tour pass and all the nitty gritty stuff. Within half an hour she’s all set for tour and has her new lanyard tied to her on a belt loop. They walk through the never ending halls plastered with signs that state “Treat People With Kindness” and Aurora smiles everytime she sees another. Lambert points out different places, important notes posted on bulletin boards and casually introduces her to people as they quickly pass. 

Everyone seems to be on a mission, darting in and out of rooms and talking on headsets. It’s a busy atmosphere but nobody seems stressed or upset. Aurora appreciates the hustle that everyone seems to have. There’s smiles and high fives passed between crew members and coffees getting pass along. Lambert points out where Harry’ band’s dressing room is and then Harry’s as well. Harry’s reads “Hershel” on the sign that sticks out from the wall. 

“Hershel?” Lambert chuckles when he sees the confused look on her face. 

“Yeah, Jeff, his manager, you’ve met him, calls him Hershel 95% of the time.” She nods along with a smile. After making their way through a few more halls they reach a larger dressing room. “Okay, so here’s our space for the week.” Aurora rolls her caboodle and sets it against the wall near the door for now and sets her purse down on an empty space on the counter that lines one of the shorter walls. On the wall directly across from the doorway there are 3 large black cases that stand about 6 feet tall, opened and filled with garment bags. 

“Is everything here already?” Aurora makes her way towards the case farthest left. 

“Hopefully!” Lambert picks up a large binder that’s sitting on the table across from a small leather couch. “That’s where we’re starting. Checking through each night’s look and making sure it’s all here.” She takes the binder that Lambert has handed her and opens it up to the first page.” 

“Oh wow. I almost forgot how beautiful these suits are.” Towards the end of her internship in London, Lambert let her help him pick some options for the tour. She thumbs through the book quickly to get a glimpse of the beautiful designer suits. She notices quite a few of her favourites made the cut. The 2 of them sit down and devise a plan to best get through this large task of double checking the 60 looks in front of them. They’re about ¾ the way through around 1pm when they mutually decide to take a break and grab some lunch before they power through the rest of the wardrobe. After meeting more members of the crew and grabbing another cup of coffee, Lambert and Aurora make their way back to their dressing room. 

“Hey, let’s go take a look at the stage,” Lambert said as he made a sharp turn in the opposite direction of the room they’ve been working in. “I haven’t seen the final setup yet.” 

“Oh, I’d love that!” Aurora’s face lights up at the idea. They enter from the back of the stage. The stage itself is fully constructed but the light trees are currently hanging low to the ground and crew members are working carefully to change the direction, colour or size of each bulb. Lambert excuses himself as he takes a call, telling Aurora he’ll meet her back in the dressing room in 15 minutes. Aurora continues the theme from today and introduces herself to the stage crew. “Mind if I check out the stage?” she asks Jack, one of the crew members who introduced himself as the Stage Manager. 

“Go ahead, just keep an eye out, we haven’t cleaned up much.” She nods and smiles while walking up the metal steps at the side of the stage. She takes careful steps as she steps to center stage. She looks out into the empty arena. The lights are low and the noise from the powertools is echoing through the arena. 

Though there isn’t any music, the stage lights aren’t shining, and she isn’t in one of her rhinestoned costumes, she still feels at home standing center stage. The nerves she’s been holding on to all morning wash away as she takes a deep breath. Her eyes flutter shut for a moment and she remembers the last time she performed on a stage like this one. It was her senior year of high school at nationals in New York City. It was her farewell to her dance career. A smile starts to grow on her face, the nerves from this morning, the the whole trip to get here, completely washed away now. 

“Oi!” a voice booms through the air, making Aurora jump and she searches for where it came from. She turns around, her hair following her as she turns. Her hair continues to follow her movement, falling in front of her face a bit but she can still make out the face the voice comes from. “What’re you doing on my stage?” She’s met with a smiley, broad shouldered Harry Styles. He’s got his hands in the pockets of the tartan trousers he’s wearing. The strong feeling of embarrassment brings heat to her cheeks as she looks down at the black and white vans he’s sporting. 

“Oh gosh, I’m sorry, I-,” she starts rambling apologies. She watches his vans take a few steps closer to her. Aurora’s fumbling with her hands, a nervous tick of hers. “-I was told, told, I could, could, check out the stage,” she’s stuttering over her words and pointing in the direction of Jack. She finally stops talking when she meets Harry’s eyes. He’s still beaming and her stomach drops at the fact that he’s enjoying this situation. His confidence paints an incredible stark difference from her mumbling nervousness. Her brain is a bit fuzzy right now but that doesn’t stop her from noticing the way his eyes sparkle. 

“I’m only joking, love” he says as he pulls his hands out of his pockets with a chuckle. “The stage suits you.” 

“I’m sorry,” Aurora offers again. “I’m-” She’s reaching her hand out when he cuts off her introduction.

“Love, we’ve met. How could I forget you, Aurora.” She’s startled a bit when her name comes out of his mouth. “Ya fixed the hole in my pink jacket, remember?” He’s stepping closer to her and before she’s able to process what’s happening he’s wrapped his arms around her torso, his tattooed arm rubbing her back briefly before pulling away. 

A small laugh leaves her mouth, “I remember, didn’t think you would is all.” Her voice is soft and trails off towards the end of her sentence. 

“Not got much a reputation then if I’ve got people that work with me thinking I’ll forget them.” He lets out a soft chuckle and his smile elicits a dimple on his cheek. 

“No, no, you’ve got a much better reputation than that, promise. You must meet a lot of people day to day is all.” Aurora is calming down, now, realizing that there is no reason for her to be so nervous around him. She’s interacted with him before, this shouldn’t be so jarring to her. Though this time is different. She wouldn’t be working behind Lambert or running errands. She’ll be with Harry just about everyday and she terrified she’ll never be comfortable, always anxiety ridden. Although his life is much different from hers, she’ll be getting a real taste of it and they’re close in age. They’re bound to find something in common. Right?. There’s a bit of silence before Aurora speaks up. “Well, your suits aren’t gonna organize themselves. I better go find Lambert.”

“Yes, of course. Don’t let me stop you from your work.” Aurora nods. She excuses herself as she makes a comment about how she thinks the stage looks great so far. Just after she’s walked past him she feels him grab her hand. “I’m excited to have ya on tour with us, love. Happy to have you making sure I sparkle just right on this stage.” He’s let go of her hand and presents his arms out to the sides as he mentions the stage. 

She’s beaming back at him. “Packed extra rhinestones just for you.” She’s almost skipping down the stairs after that. A weight of relief falling from her shoulders in a light sigh.  First, interaction with Harry? Check. She finds her way back to the room she’d been working in all morning. She settles down on the couch again, pulling the large binder into her lap. She jots down a few notes and adds to the ever growing list of things that need to be done. She stands up and walks over to one of the open wardrobe cases. She’s sliding hangers across the rack before she gets to the next look. Aurora takes the hanger off the rack. The sleek black hanger is labeled Yves Saint Laurent and an emerald green sequined button down shirt hangs off of it. There’s a pair of black straight leg trousers folded over the hanger as well. Aurora carries the ensemble across the room and hangs it on one of the vanity bulbs that sticks out from the light bulb framed mirror. She fixes the collar so it’s sitting straight. She takes a step back with one hand on her hip and another on her chin. 

“What’re you thinking?” Lambert asks when he sees Aurora’s furrowed brow. She hums, still processing her thoughts. 

“You know Michael Jackson’s black sequin jacket? The one he wore when he did the moonwalk for the first time?” He nods, following along. “Think we could play with that idea. What if Harry wore this open, with the Calvin tank?” In the small section of a wardrobe they’ve already gone through is a slew of clothing articles that will be used for multiple shows. The Calvin tank she’s referencing is one that will be, in Aurora’s opinion, an iconic, staple for the entire tour. It’s a simple white ribbed tank but on the left side, “Treat People With Kindness” is embroidered in black. “It’d be closer to Michael’s ‘Billie Jean’ performance in Munich that same year, but it’s the iconic sequin jacket that will sell it.”  

“You really know your stuff huh?” Lambert chuckles, impressed by her knowledge and the way her brain works. Lambert walks away and grabs the tank from the rack and brings it back to Aurora. 

A smile creeps onto Aurora’s face. “My mom loves Michael Jackson. Loves him like everyone loves Harry. I grew up dancing around the house to his music.” She takes the tank from Lambert after he slides it off the hanger. She’s quick to unbutton the YSL shirt in excitement but does it as carefully as possible. She hangs the tank under the shirt, turning it into a overshirt now. The smile on her face is growing. She’s in her element, doing exactly what she’s always wanted to do. Lambert places a hand on her shoulder and gives it a squeeze. A silent approval. Aurora walks back to the table and writes down their decision for this look in the notebook she’s been working with. They go through a few more suits and make a note that they’ll need an extra white button down from Gucci. Lambert is sending Aurora there sometime this week to pick a few more things up that are getting finished and some extra shoes for Harry as well. Lambert says Harry likes to wear his shoes to dust and that Aurora will have to make sure he doesn’t go on stage with holes in his shoes cause he will, especially his rainbow loafers.  They finish going through the rest of the suits before calling it a day. Lambert fills her in on the next few day’s timeline to prepare her for the week. Aurora leaves the arena feeling like her heart could burst. She couldn’t have imagined a better first day at her new job. Aurora heads to bed early, after she orders a Domino’s Pizza, to rest up for the days ahead and beat the jet lag that’s bound to hit her in the next few days. 

When she gets to Wembley the next morning, Aurora grabs a coffee from craft services and says hello to a few people she recognizes from yesterday. She’s thankful that everyone has a lot to get done and people are jutting off to their own areas to get to work. Aurora would be lying to herself if she didn’t acknowledge that she’s a bit overwhelmed by all of the new faces. She knows faces will become familiar as time goes on but right now she’s content with her coffee and knowing that she’s walking to a room to work on her own for awhile. 

When she finds herself in the familiar green room she sets herself up for the day. Aurora pulls her laptop out of her leather bag and presses play on her current spotify playlist. She likes working alone, but not in silence. After collecting her notebook from yesterday and the envelope of images that Lambert left for her she sits down and starts putting together the final look book for tour. She’s organizing the book by tour dates, making a section for each city. 

“Basel, Switzerland” is written on the top of the 1st page in bold all capital letters. Aurora tapes an image of the black glittered Gucci suit that Harry will wear for the opening night of his world tour. She copies any notes she made about this look from yesterday onto the space underneath the photo. After she’s finished the page for Switzerland she goes to the large cases and pulls the black glittered Gucci suit to the empty rolling rack that she set up yesterday. Each of the traveling cases will need to be organized by date to make traveling and set up easier throughout the tour. She continues this process for the next 2 hours. Once her coffee is empty at the end of the 2 hours she has almost 6 cities complete. Aurora takes her empty coffee cup as a sign for her to take a break. Before leaving the room to get more coffee she checks her phone. There’s a few notifications, emails from lists she keeps forgetting to unsubscribe to and a string of texts from her mother. She laughs at the first text - “I know you’re probably fine, but you’re in a different country and I need to hear your voice to make sure you’re still alive and it’s not some kidnapper texting me back” - then another text about 20 mins after that one reads “I love you, I know you’re busy, but please call me” and the last one delivered just a few minutes ago, “I’m your mother, it’s my job to worry.” Aurora shakes her head and feels a bit guilty because she hasn’t texted her mom as much as she probably should have and before knocking out last night she texted her back apologizing for not calling after her first day and that she was just too exhausted. 

Her mom doesn’t answer and is greeted with an automatic voicemail greeting, “Classic,” she chuckles as she hangs up without leaving a message. She shakes her head, standing in the doorway as she sends off a text saying she’s taking a break and to call her back, adding a “I’m good, everything’s amazing! Just calling to chat” as she always does so her mother doesn’t worry any more than she is. As she finishes the texts she mumbled a bit to herself about how her mother is always worrying but never picks up her dang phone. It isn’t until a familiar voice rings through the hallway that she realises she was mumbling quite clearly. 

“Sorry, everything alright, love?” Harry’s distinct voice travels closer to her as she looks up from her phone to him. She’s made her way into the arena hallway completely now. There’s a small furrow in his brow but a slight grin on his face. 

“Ah yeah, didn’t realise I was talking out loud.” She holds her phone up, “You know mothers, always worrying but never actually answering their phone when you call.” Harry laughs, his shoulders shaking. “She sent me this string of texts about being worried and 2 minutes later doesn’t pick up when I call her.” She sighs before sliding her phone into the pocket of the track jacket she’s got on today. 

“My mum does the same. Always saying we don’t talk enough or that she misses me and when I do get the chance she’ll text me back saying she’s out with friends drinking wine or s’thing like that.” Aurora laughs along with him. When she takes a proper look at him she notices he’s wearing black adidas joggers today with a white t shirt and a black nike jacket. 

“Looks like we both had the same idea when we got ready this morning,” she continues to laugh while gesturing between to two of them. They’re dressed almost identical right down to the white sneakers. Aurora’s got on her favourite black lululemon leggings instead of joggers but her tshirt and track jacket look just the same as Harry’s. Harry takes a good look at what he’s got on and back to Aurora and his eyes begin to crinkle and his nose scrunches up before he’s laughing. The laugh is almost a giggle and Aurora has to hold back from flashing him the most endearing smile. 

“Guess it’s a good thing that my Head of Wardrobe and I match. Must mean I’ve got the right person taking care of my clothing then.” He swings his arm around her shoulder before asking if she’s got a minute to grab a snack. 

“Probably should eat and I definitely need some more coffee,” she replies with a smile and shoves her hands into the pockets of her jacket not knowing what to do with them. There’s something about Harry, it’s that thing that people always talk about, his ease around everyone, the way he makes you feel like you’ve known each other forever. His kind demeanor relaxes Aurora and she’s sure this is how he makes everyone feel. Harry starts to go on about different things that are happening around the arena as they walk to the green room, pointing out different people and what they’re working on. Harry doesn’t know this, but the more Aurora knows about her surroundings and the things people are doing, the more comfortable she feels. Aurora likes knowing what’s going on. She knows it’s got something to do with wanting control over as much as she can but she also knows that there is so much going on that she can’t control anything and she especially knows that it isn’t her job. But knowing is good for her. Just as they turn the corner to the green room her phone rings. She pulls it out of her pocket and “Mother” with a pink heart is flashing on her screen. She shows the phone to Harry and she slides out from under his arm. “Rain check on the snacks?” she offers him before answering the call. She smiles as he shoots her a grin and voices an ‘of course’ before he turns around and goes back the way they had came. She questions his actions for a moment before saying hello to her mother. 

Aurora pulls out her notebook while she’s in the car the next morning to review what she needs to get done today. Written in red, at the top of the page under today’s date is: final fitting with Harry @ 12pm. She’s excited to get some of the newer pieces on him and finally have all the looks together. She’s nervous too. Lambert won’t be there again today or barely at all the rest of the week, her part time buffer ripped away sooner than expected. She knows there’s nothing to be nervous about. It’s just Harry. ‘Just Harry,’ she continues to mumble under her breath. 

“Miss Del Gatto, we’ve arrived,” Steven, her driver, who she’s come accustomed to after the past few rides, announces. Aurora looks out the window and sees the Gucci store front. 

“Thanks, Steven. I’ll only be a few minutes.” She smiles at him before stepping out of the car. She got dressed this morning in slightly more put together outfit that she had on yesterday, knowing she had to stop into a few stores on her way in to pick up some pieces that were still missing. Her black chunky heeled leather boots make a clacking sound as she walks towards the entrance. Before she can even reach for the door, she’s welcomed by a man in an all black suit that is welcoming her into the store. 

“Welcome to Gucci.” His voice is deep but bright and welcoming, she thanks him with a smile. 

Once she’s a few more steps into the door she adjusts the small gold airplane necklace that is sitting on the outside of her black turtleneck before speaking up. “I’m here to pick up some shoes for Harry,” she rattles out. A questioned look appears on the man’s face. “Harry Lambert and Styles.” She clarifies. 

“Aurora Del Gatto, yes?” another woman’s voice speaks up from across the store. 

“Uh, y-yes,” she stammers while turning towards the women. 

“I’m Lauren. Nice to meet you, Aurora. Harry told me to be expecting you this morning.” Aurora shakes Lauren’s hand with a smile. Lauren looks like a seasoned pro, her black suit fits her perfectly and her greying hair is pulled up into an elegant low bun. “Go ahead and make yourself comfortable,” she says motioning towards the plush dark purple couches. “Would you like any water or coffee, dear?” 

“Oh, I’m alright actually, thank you.” 

“I’ll be right back with everything.” Aurora nods in acknowledgement while sitting down on the couch. She slides off the lightweight, long, camel coloured coat she’s wearing and drapes it over the couch next to her. She checks her watch to make sure she’s good on time. She’s got to stop at Calvin Klein as well before heading to arena to prep for Harry’s fitting. It’s just gone on 10am, she’s got plenty of time but still anxious at the thought of arriving just before the fitting, not getting a chance to set up. She’s brought back from her thoughts when Lauren returns with 3 shoe boxes in her arms and a garment bag.

“I think there are only 2 pairs of shoes I’m supposed to be picking up,” Aurora questions, “the rainbow loafers and the Spring 18 leather boots.” Lauren’s face lights up in a smile. 

“Yes, those are both here and there’s a pair of sneakers here for you as well.” Aurora’s face reflects exactly what is going through her mind: surprise, shock, and other emotions she couldn’t put words to. Her jaw has dropped and her eyes are wide. “Harry called last night and wanted us to fit you into some Ace Sneakers for the tour.” 

“Lambert said that?” Aurora is confused, giddy and nervous, always nervous. She doesn’t even know how to accept a gift like this. She’d also be lying if she hadn’t been looking at these sneakers forever. 

“No, dear, Harry Styles.” Aurora is beyond caught off guard at this point. 

“I’m sorry, I think there must be a mistake. There’s no reason for Harry to be giving me anything.”

“He specifically called these in for you. I don’t know the details, he just wanted to make sure you walked out with the perfect fit.” She set 2 of the boxes down on a glass table and brought over the 3rd box. “I grabbed the 7.5, I’m normally pretty good at guessing.” 

“Well, you would be right.” Aurora laughs nervously. She slides off her boots in order to avoid the overwhelming thoughts in her head. She’s afraid if she doesn’t keep moving she might go into shock. She’s trying on the sneakers before she speaks up again, “Uhm,” Aurora starts to speak, “Does Harry, uh, do this often? I-I mean, uh call in for gifts?” 

“I wouldn’t say often, but I’ve fulfilled a few of his gifting requests over the past few years. Just a handful though. There really hasn’t been many, if I’m honest.” 

Aurora smiles to herself. She’s still confused about it all but still that same familiar feeling rushes through her when she’s reminded of Harry’s incredible kind demeanor. And before she knew it, she's walking out of Gucci with a smile on her face, a tingle in her fingers, a garment bag and not 2 but 3 boxes of shoes.

She’s setting up one last suit on the tall silver rolling rack before she checks her watch. 11:59. She made great time getting to Wembley after grabbing the pink plaid jacket and custom boots from Calvin Klein. There’s a light knock on the slightly ajar door seconds later. 

“‘Ello, love,” Harry’s voice booms through the small, concrete walled room. Aurora turns towards the door. “All ready!” He exclaims as he makes his way towards her. 

“Hi Harry,” Aurora responds before Harry has a hand at her waist and is placing a light kiss on the top of her cheek. 

“How’s your morning been?” He’s now made his way to the rolling rack she had just filled. 

“Good,” she wants to ask him about the shoes but she doesn’t know how to bring it up. “I did uh- I, I-”

“Can I try this one on?” Harry interrupts, suddenly distracted by the garments he hasn’t seen yet. She’s grabbing her book from the table across the room when she hears the sound of hangers hitting the floor. “Oooff,” there’s a chuckle that follows. “That one’s a bit slippery.” 

“Oh gosh, yeah I need to add some hanger loops to that one,” Aurora sets her book down and rushes over to pick up the fallen garments and hangers. Harry utters a few sorry’s before stepping away. She swears she hears him mumble about being in the way. Once she’s got the fallen garments gathered on the crook of her arm, she grabs a hanger adorn in the pink plaid Calvin suit. “That’s what you get for being so nosy,” she quips at him and hands him the suit. His jaw drops slightly but before he can say a thing Aurora’s speaking again, “Try this one on first, please.” Aurora lingers on the please and shoots him a sweet smile. “There’s a small room through there you can change in.” She turns around after motioning towards the door and sees that Harry already has his trousers down to his ankles. “Orrrr you can change right there.” 

“Oh, don’t wanna make you uncomfortable, darling,” he responds as you quickly turn away, sliding the plaid trousers all the way up and buttoning them just as fast.

“Oh no, you’re fine, don’t wanna be rude is all.” Aurora is flipping through her book finding the section for Stockholm. “The black ribbed tank was on the hanger with the jacket, yeah?” She asks as she skims over the page in front of her. He hums back letting her know it’s there. Aurora lifts up her coffee cup from earlier this morning to her lips, turning around to find Harry fully dressed in the Calvin Klein suit she picked up this morning. She frowns realising there’s no coffee left in her cup. 

“What?” Harry asks, his brows knitted together in concern after seeing the frown on her face. “Does it look that bad?” He’s messing with the way he’s tucked the shirt into the waistband of the trousers. 

Aurora giggles at his frantic hands. “Harry, nothing could look bad on you.” She shakes the empty cup in front of him. “I’m out of coffee.” 

“Well, that frown was badly timed. I’ve got a brand new suit on and that’s the first reaction I get?’ 

“Oh you’ll be fine, rockstar. Plenty of ego pumping in the near future,” Aurora quips backs at him as she makes a circle around him. “They did great with this one,” she’s pulling at the shoulders of the jacket so it sits just right on his broad frame. “How do the trousers feel?” She asks as she smooths down the fabric of the sleeves before rounding back to face Harry straight on. 

“The trousers? Yeah they feel good. Fit perfect, I think.” He’s pulled up the bottom of the jacket and is twisting his hips round. “Wha’ d’ya think?” 

“I think Calvin Klein knows exactly what he’s doing,” she says with a smirk. “Okay, that one’s all set, go ahead and put this one on now.” She hands him another pink jacket, this one velvet with embellishments and it has a Gucci tag on it rather than Calvin Klein. She hands him black trousers with a gold trim as well. “You’ll wear this with a button down but just try with the tank. I just need to make sure all the alterations were done properly.” 

“Did you stop at Gucci this morning? Lambert mentioned you were going,” he asks while handing her the plaid suit he just took off. Aurora busies herself with hanging them up. 

“Yeah. Got your loafers and boots. I also-”

“Oh nooooo, Aurora,” Harry’s voice is panicky. 

“Wha-,” is all she gets out before she sees and hears the beads rolling on the floor. “Ahhh I had a feeling that was going to happen. And THIS is why we try things on 100 times. Wouldn’t want you unraveling on stage.” She runs over to her kit that stands in the corner.

“I’m sorry, not sure what I did,” Harry’s face shows worry like he’s done something wrong. 

“Hun, you didn’t do anything, promise. I think it might have been from the alterations.” Aurora is tying a knot in a piece of thread before walking over to him. “I’m just gonna close this strand up while it’s on you and I’ll re embellish it later.” The piece that’s come undone is on the right shoulder. She slides her hand under the jacket to find the back of the spot she needs to fix. Her hand brushes the skin of his shoulder, reminding her he’s only wear the tank underneath and he flinches. “Sorry, my hands are probably cold. This will only take a second.” 

“S’alright, love.” There’s silence while she focuses on the work in front of her. Once she’s finished she carefully slips a small pair of gold scissors underneath the jacket and cuts the thread and needle she had been working with loose, detaching herself from Harry’s shoulder. “That was quick,” Harry says with a tone of surprise and Aurora thinks she can hear a little bit of disappointment as well. Aurora shrugs her shoulders in response. 

“Could you put on the black version of that jacket for me?” Aurora asks as she grabs a spool of black thread. “Think we might have the same problem with that one too.” She slides the needle she’s threaded with black thread onto the cuff of her sweater so she doesn’t lose it. She helps Harry into the black jacket and hangs up the one he just had on. 

“Aannddd there it is,” Harry says with chuckle as a strand of beads comes loose on his right sleeve. Aurora gets to work on the one on his sleeve as 2 more make themselves known on his back. “So you got my boots and loafers this morning? Up to anything else before I came in and ruined all the garments?” Aurora laughs and moves to his back to take care of the broken pieces there. 

“Uhm picked up that Calvin jacket and your custom boots. Let me tell you, those boots are glorious. The glossed leather with the steel tip will look incredible with your suits. ”

“Oh can I see them when we’re done?”

“‘Course you can!” There’s some silence between them again as she concentrates on the job in front of her. She catches a glimpse of the white gucci bags that are sitting by one of the wardrobe cases and it’s like those new sneakers are burning a hole in her head. It clicks in her head now that he’s been directing the conversation this way trying to get it out of her. “Hey Harry,” she’s met with a hum, “can I ask you about something?” She continues to work on the jacket, keeping her hands busy. She’s thankful that the strand she’s working on is on his back so she doesn’t have to make eye contact with him. 

“‘Course, Aurora.” 

“Uhm, at Gucci this morning, they uh, they fitted me for sneakers,” Harry hums in response, “and um, I-I, um, that was very kind of you.” She’s stuttering through her words. It wasn’t until now that she got a tinge of nervousness. “Y-you didn’t need to do that. Really.” 

“Aurora, I wanted to. And I thought you deserved some new shoes.” She can’t see his face but she can hear the smile that’s formed on his face. “We’ve got a few countries to trek around the next few months.” 

Moments later she’s finished repairing what she can and she’s sliding Harry’s jacket off his shoulders. “Thank you, Harry,” she says finally after the black jacket is hung back on its Gucci hanger on the rolling rack near them. “Seriously, too kind.” 

“No such thing as too kind, Ror,” he quips back and before she can comment on the nickname, he’s talking again. “Now what else do you need me to try on?” 

The afternoon goes by quickly and Harry is patient with her. He stands up straight in each new piece and asks questions about different things she’s making notes of or checking off of her thousands of lists. She checks her watch quickly as she’s making one last note. 

“How is it 3 o’clock already?” Aurora stammers out. “Sorry to take your entire afternoon from you.” 

“Don’t worry about it, Ror.” Harry’s pulling down the hem of his white tshirt he walked in wearing earlier today, “Nice to spend some time with ya and seems like you’ve been able to check a lot off your list.” 

“You probably have a list a mile long of things that need to be done this week too, though,” she rebuttals. “Or do you have someone to take care of those things for you?” she jokes. 

“Oh yeah, don’t remember their name, but I just tell them everything I need done and they do it for me.” The look on Aurora’s face is utter disgust, unable to politely react because she wasn’t expecting that answer.  There was no hint of sarcasm in Harry’s voice. Harry’s face is still and he’s silent for a moment before his nose scrunches up and a giggle erupted from his mouth. “Ror, I’m totally kidding.” He’s placed a hand on her shoulder now, rubbing his thumb soothingly. 

“Harry,” she’s giggling along now too, “you had me for a second.” 

Harry thanks her for her work and the time spent together today and leaves only after giving her a hug and a short kiss on her cheek. 

The next few days are spent hand stitching gold and silver beads onto those 2 Gucci jackets, labeling every single piece of the wardrobe and then organizing the giant crates for the travel managers to take and get ready to fly. She walks through all of the wardrobes multiple time and completes fittings with all of Harry’s band members as well. Brief 1 hour time frames are scheduled with each of them, Clare, Sarah, Adam and Mitch. Lambert pops in to make sure the final fittings went well and pays complements to Aurora’s new sneakers she’s sporting with a knowing look on his face. 

There’s one day left till the first tour stop and the arena is just about empty. The stage is packed up, the wardrobe crates have been taken from Aurora and the number of people in the arena is starting to dwindle down. Since everything is already loaded on a truck making its way to the airport Aurora didn’t have much to do today but she kept herself busy at the apartment she’s been at all week for the majority of the morning. She’s repacked multiple times getting everything to fit perfectly, almost committing the perfect folding techniques and order of adding things to her suitcase to memory. Everyone is to arrive at the airport early the next morning but Harry has arranged for a group lunch at the arena for one last collective meeting before the tour starts.

Aurora arrives a few minutes early to the lunch and says hello to a few crew members she’s gotten to know. Lambert is there too - seems that Harry has invited anyone who has helped with the prep of the tour regardless if they’re coming along or not. She also meets a few more new faces like Ayae, Harry’s hair and makeup stylist. She’s new to the tour group and hasn’t been needed for prep so this his her 1st time meeting a lot of the crew too. She sits down with Aurora and Lambert at a table and is engaging in a conversation about this and that when Harry comes up to the table with Jeff. Jeff is a familiar face to Aurora even though she has only interacted with him a few times.  Jeff always seems to be everywhere - Aurora always makes mental acknowledgment about how he is consistently working on something but always is seemingly available to everyone. 

Alicia, a woman probably in her late 30’s, is following Harry and Jeff with a grey rolling cart like you would see in an old cafeteria and it’s filled with large cardboard boxes. Aurora has met Alicia and remembers Lambert introducing her as the Tour Merchandise Manager. 

“Aurora, Ayae, Harry, great to see all of you! Doing alright, I assume?” Jeff asks while rounding the cart and reaching a hand in the box. 

“Got some tour sweatshirts for everyone, treat people with kindness and all that,” Harry adds in, running a hand through his hair. It isn’t until now that Aurora notices the length of his hair. It’s not as short as it was when she first met him but it’s nowhere near the length she remembers him having while still in One Direction. There is one curl that won’t stay back no matter how many times he runs his hand through it to push it back. The lone curl falls against his forehead one last time before he gives up. 

“Oh, very humble of you, Harry,” Ayae says with a chuckle while examining the sweatshirt Alicia had just given her.

It’s a plain black Champion hoodie with 2 small pieces of embroidery, 1 on the left of the chest and the other on the inside of the right arm. Ayae is referring to the large embroidered “Harry” on the chest. Underneath his name is ‘World Tour 2018’. Hah. He’s gotta love this shit. His name written on everything. Clothing, signs, his name is branded everywhere. 

“Heyyyyy,” Harry’s voice is slightly whiny, both of his eyes scrunch up and his brows furrow. The ‘hey’ turns into a giggle and they all laugh along with him. Harry then hands Aurora her sweatshirt. “Here ya go, Ror.” She thanks him softly after taking it from him. 

Post lunch, Harry, Jeff and a few others talk about how excited they are and how successful the prep went all week. The Head Travel Manager, Daniel, reminds everyone to double check their itinerary when they get home tonight and to double, triple, quadruple check they’ve packed everything. Harry yells something about making sure everyone’s got their passport cause “long story short” he forgot his once and it was not a day full of kindness. The large group chuckles at his little antidote before the room begins to clear out and everyone heads home to get ready to travel the next day. 

Thanks for reading !!! Feedback & comments are always welcome !!!