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shyficwriter · 3 years

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Temporary Home: Chapter 6

Guardians of the Galaxy fanfic | Reader x Guardians (With Yondu and Kraglin!) Guest starring Nick Fury and Maria Hill

Summary: Peter works on cracking your shell and Rocket just still doesn't like you. Oh, and Fury pays a surprise visit and you accidentally poison Yondu- Oops!

Previous Chapter here | Next Chapter Here Or click here to: Start From Beginning

Author’s Note: I think I knew from the moment I read this post I knew I needed to include something like it in this fic, especially knowing one of my readers had also suggested somewhere that they thought it'd be cool to see how the Guardians reacted to Terran food lol

Word Count: 5,617

You came back inside through the back door more than half an hour later, having decided to run a quick coat of stain over the bed frame pieces. The sooner you applied the stain, the sooner it would dry, the sooner you could apply the varnish. Not that you were in a hurry or anything... You just got excited over having a project, that's all. You totally weren't stalling on going back in the house, or anything.

Peter was sitting in the kitchen with Gamora. The others had seemingly all dispersed by now.

Peter looked slightly disappointed. "Saved you some cookies."

You were slightly taken back in surprise. "Oh, you didn't need to."

"You bought them, I wasn't just not going to save you a couple." Peter said with an odd look. "Anyway, thought you said you were coming back?"

You grimaced slightly and accepted a biscuit from the package in Peter's outstretched hand. "I did come back... I just got caught up with something."

Peter eyed you for a moment, as if he were considering something. He tilted his head, a slight smirk forming. "Are you shy or something?"

You blinked at him. "What? No-"

"Kinda seems like you are. I mean, before you avoided us because you were all cranky and hated us, but you don't seem nearly as cranky today. Heck you even seemed to almost like us today. So the only reason I can see for you to still be avoiding us is that you're shy."

Gamora raised an eyebrow at him, but after a moment's thought, almost seemed to agree with him and turned her expression to you. She didn't think he really believed you were shy. Rather, she figured he was accusing you of being shy to make you come clean about the real problem. He did similar stuff like this all the time to trick Rocket into talking when something was bothering him. She often wondered where he learned it from, until she witnessed Yondu doing the same to Peter one day after he and Kraglin joined their group.

You shook your head at them. "No. That's absurd."

Peter nudged Gamora in the arm. "That's cute. I think she's shy."

"I'm not shy. That's dumb. My line of work doesn't exactly mix with shy." You rolled your eyes and crossed your arms over your chest in annoyance.

"Methinks you protest too much," Peter teased in a sing-song voice.

You narrowed your eyes at him before turning to Gamora. "Is he always like this?"

Gamora half smiled. "Yes... but he might stop if you told us why you keep avoiding everyone."

You sigh. "Look, it's just going to take some time. I'm not trying to avoid anyone, well, not anymore. Just... being around and interacting with a bunch of people is just... not something I'm used to."

"So you are shy." Peter said, his grin almost smug, but mostly teasing.

You sigh in Gamora's direction and she grins sympathetically. "I'm sorry about him."

Before you could respond again you heard a knock at the door.

You looked towards the sound in confusion at who it might be, because you never got visitors. However, you quickly switched to alarm when you realized you had a house full of aliens and no idea who was at the front door. You look out the kitchen window, but you couldn't see a vehicle.

They knocked again.

You turned back to Peter and Gamora. Preferably you'd want to tell them to get everyone to the cellar, but you were concerned on time and knew the curtain was open on the front door window and didn't want to risk whoever it was seeing a bunch of figures fleeing to behind the staircase to the cellar door. You directed Peter to go upstairs and make sure whoever was up there stayed and remained quiet, while you directed Gamora to head into the sitting room, close the door, and do the same while you checked the front door.

Another knock.

You looked at the window of the front door. It was the type of glass where it distorted finer features of subjects, but even with that obstacle, whoever was there seemed to be purposefully standing to the side so they couldn't be seen.

Once Peter and Gamora were out of sight you kept a hand on the knob and tentatively asked, "Who is it?" You eyed the small table by the door where you kept one of your issued guns well hidden. Just in case.

"Fury and Agent Hill. May we come in?" His tone was slightly sarcastic on the second line.

Dammit Fury. You rip the door open. "You ever heard of calling first?"

"No." Fury said flatly, then more sarcastically, "Nice to see you too." He looked around as he entered, seemingly expecting the house to be teeming with more life than it currently seemed. "Where are your charges?"

"I wasn't expecting company. I hid them," you say almost irritably, walking to open the sitting room door, telling those inside that it was alright, it was just Fury. You walk over to the stairs and look up to see Peter peering over the railing and nod to him in a gesture that meant that he and anyone else up there should come downstairs.

When you turn back to Fury he was smiling.

You pinch the bridge of your nose. Of course it was a test, and you complain as much. "Everything's a test with you, isn't it?"

"Not everything," he said. "You should have been expecting us for a weekly check-in."

"You neglected to mention that," you said, slightly embarrassed because you honestly should have expected check-ins even without being told.

"Oh. Must have slipped my mind." Fury said with a wry smile. He knew full well he didn't mention it.

You roll your eyes. "Nothing slips your mind," you confronted, turning now to Maria. She only offered a smile back that clearly said, 'Perhaps if you hadn't been so cranky last time...'

Peter came down the stairs with Mantis, Rocket, and Groot and everyone filed into the sitting room. You caught sight of Kraglin and Rocket again and still had to cover you mouth to fight from laughing before you turned away and tried to keep your face serious. This, of course was much to Kraglin's chagrin and Rocket's annoyance. Yondu noticed and gave Kraglin another strange look, which Kraglin only responded with a shake of his head and an expression that read, 'Please, don't ask.'

Fury spoke when everyone was settled. "This is just a routine check-in. So far your situation has not changed. As expected, NOVA is still trying to make negotiations on your behalf. We're just here to see how everyone is settling in, make sure there are no concerns or problems we need to know about."

"I got a concern," Rocket spoke up.

"If this is about the crib, we don't want to hear it." Maria replied semi-sternly.

Rocket deflated slightly before saying, "I have another concern."

Fury looked unamused, but before he could ask Rocket to elaborate, Rocket was already going into about how you were a dick and how you tossed him outside like a rag doll.

"You were attacking him," you said angrily, gesturing to Kraglin. "Was I just supposed to let you?" Of course the little shit would try to make you look bad to your boss while leaving out the part he played in the situation.

Rocket went on to say that you just had it in for him, and Mantis, who wanted to both try and calm the situation and also defend you, shyly spoke up and said, "Maybe she would like you better if you hadn't tried to poison her?"

Fury and Maria exchanged looks, hers a mix of startled surprise, Fury's one of surprised concern. Surely if there had been an attempt on your life from one of these people, you would have reported it. They turned back, Maria saying, "Excuse me?"

However, she was drowned out by Rocket saying, "That was after!" as if that were a valid defense. "And she wouldn't have died!"

"Yeah, she would have just shit herself half to death. So much better." Peter said sarcastically.

"Why do you care? She bit you!"

This earned raised eyebrows from Fury and Agent Hill. You purposely didn't meet their gaze, embarrassed.

Peter, who felt guilty at the way Rocket was doing you, then stood up for you, "In her defense I did almost break her nose." He caught the expressions of Fury and Agent Hill and added, "We were drunk, it was all just a misunderstanding," as an explanation before realizing he wasn't exactly helping either.

There was more bickering, mostly Rocket saying how much of a dick you were, and others scolding back that Rocket had been the one to start it, then he brought up how instead of helping untangle him and Kraglin you just laughed your ass off, and then others said more things that weren't really helping and everyone was talking over each other while Gamora pinched the bridge of her nose in embarrassed frustration and you rubbed a hand down your face.

"Enough!" Fury said firmly, breaking up the squabbling. "We are not here to listen to petty grievances." He gave the group a stern look. "First off," he looked directly at Rocket, "do not try to poison my agent again. We can just as easily put you in a cell for the duration of your stay on Earth, but I think you'd agree this is a much better venue."

Rocket grumbled something about how'd he'd just escape, but Fury ignored him.

Fury looked at you. "And you- Do try and refrain from getting into fights with your charges." He nodded towards Peter to indicated he specifically meant drunken fights and biting. His tone was as if he was incredulously scolding a child who didn't normally do naughty things, but had suddenly decided to moon traffic. He actually hadn't expected to hear of this behavior from you. You were one of his best agents. He had the humorous thought that this group's dysfunction might be contagious.

You look down and nod. "Yes, sir."

"Good. Now does anyone have any real concerns? Is everyone healthy? Anyone gotten sick? Are the food rations sustaining?"

Peter spoke up, afraid that Rocket would start in again. "We're all fine here. Don't listen to Rocket, he's just cranky and still adjusting. She's been a good host."

Fury grinned slightly as he looked at you. "I'd take that as a glowing review, seeing as it came from the man you apparently bit."

You felt your face grow warm and you didn't meet his gaze. You had a feeling he wasn't going to let that go anytime soon.

Mantis spoke up again, now excitedly. "Oh yes! She's been very kind! She gave me this bear!"

Oh geez. Of course she'd bring up the bear. You covered your face for a moment and wondered if she ever put the thing down.

Fury looked at the stuffed toy in amusement. He could tell it wasn't new. It was in nice condition, but worn more than what would happen with a week's worth of use. Meaning, he felt you likely hadn't gone out to buy it, he had a feeling that it more than likely came from inside the house, which, if his suspicions were correct...

"Nice to see you're making friends." he said with humor in his voice, only briefly meeting your gaze before you broke it again.

Fury kept the rest of the visit brief, asking a few more questions before he clapped his hands together and said. "Alright, I believe we're done here. If nobody has any further questions, we'll be seeing you all next week. You know how to contact us if there are any problems-" he turned and gave a pointed look at Rocket, clarifying, "any real problems."

"Same time?" you ask.

"We'll see," replied Fury, turning with Maria towards the door when no one spoke up with any further concerns.

You frowned. Clearly he intended to make the next visit a 'surprise' as well. You probably shouldn't be surprised, but you didn't exactly like the anxiety attack he gave you with this 'surprise visit,' and you weren't looking forward to another one.

Rocket watched Fury and Agent Hill as they left, biting his tongue. He considered shouting out after him that you wanted to put them in chains, but of course he knew that him simply seeing the chains wouldn't be enough proof. If he called you out now, you'd probably just make something up, or maybe you had them hidden so if anyone went to look they wouldn't find them.

No. He couldn't say anything yet. He was going to bide his time. He had a suspicion he might find answers in the attic. Why else would you have told Groot there were monsters up there to keep him out, if there wasn't something you were trying to hide?

He only needed to find time to get up there when no one would notice.

At the door Fury pushed a button on his key fob and his vehicle shimmered into place as the cloaking disengaged. You looked unamused and both Fury and Maria nodded in goodbye as they departed.

You shook your head with a sigh and closed the door.

***

"I think that went well," Maria said as she buckled in. "No one's been killed yet."

Fury let half a chuckle and just looked at her before driving away.

***

Some time after Fury had left and everyone had supper you decided to treat yourself to some reading. You decided to curl up on the armchair, something you hadn't done since the Guardians first arrived. This was because you wanted to, definitely not to prove to Peter, who was sitting with Yondu at the table, that you weren't too shy to stay in the same room with other people without coercion.

You were sat curled in the armchair reading a horror novel when Kraglin walked into the room, catching your attention. Of course, when you saw it was him you were unable to hold back your snickers, though you tried to hide them behind your book.

Kraglin's eyebrows knitted together. "It's not that funny!" he groaned.

Yondu, who was growing more curious and amused asks, "What's so 'not funny' that she laughs every time she sees yer face, boy?"

Kraglin gives him a pitiful look, but before he can open his mouth to again beg him not to ask Peter answers for him, retailing the whole embarrassing story while giggling, to Yondu's delight as he starts laughing right along with Peter once he gets to the part about Rocket getting tied to Kraglin's butt.

This, of course, makes you laugh harder, and you're now shaking behind your book.

Kraglin looks like he wants to die before his expression switches to mischievous. Sure, you said you weren't ticklish the other day when Mantis was trying to make you laugh, but he was sure that was obviously a lie. He also knew from dealing with a bratty Peter through the years just how to teach you a lesson. Kraglin approaches you. "You think that's funny? I've give ya something to laugh at, brat!" he says, lunging for one of your feet and scribbling his fingers over the bottom.

This lasts all of half a second before you let out a high squeak, which is then followed by an "OOF!" by Kraglin when your other foot connects with his ribcage.

"Ow! You kick hard!" Kraglin whined, rubbing his ribs where you had just donkey-kicked him.

You blushed slightly, peering over your book. "Yeah, well... I suppose it's in your best interest if you don't try that again." You try to sound intimidating, but it comes out sounding more squeaky than you'd have liked.

"Yeah, no shit." Kraglin replied, still rubbing his ribs as he walked over to sit on the far end of the couch, as if afraid to sit too close to you now.

You muttered into your book, "I'm not even ticklish."

Kraglin just rolled his eyes at you, picking up the remote to turn on the television.

Peter and Yondu just kept laughing.

***

The next morning the novelty of having encountered Kraglin and Rocket tangled up had mostly worn off. Mostly. You didn't burst out laughing every time you saw them anymore, but Kraglin was still slightly annoyed that you still couldn't glance at him without cracking a smile. If you had just been happy to see him he wouldn't have minded, but because he knew it was only a result of yesterday's incident, it was slightly embarrassing.

However, it did make him feel a little better to tease you and Peter for jumping when the toaster popped.

You were buttering your toast when Yondu pulled a jar from the pantry. "What're these?" He hadn't tried much Terran food yet, aside from the few times you had cooked and when Peter beckoned him to try something, and today he was feeling adventurous. Might as well. He had the feeling they were going to be here awhile.

You look over to see him already opening the jar of pickled jalapeños and your eyes widen slightly. "Those are jalapeños. I recommend trying one if you haven't eaten them before, they're hot."

"They ain't hot, the jar's cool?" Yondu said, spearing three slices of jalapeño on a fork. Whatever it was, he was sure he could take it. It was only Terran food, after all. What's the worst that could happen?

Seeing the oncoming tragedy that was more than likely about to happen in his mouth you tensed, "No, that's not what-"

Too late. He already ate them.

It was maybe five seconds before his mistake hit him. To his credit, he swallowed, but he also immediately closed the jar. "What the hell!?" he said, looking at you as he tried to suck air into his mouth to cool it down. "What the hell are these things?! My damn mouth is on fire!" He wasn't panicking, to your relief, but he also wasn't happy.

Peter laughed at him. He had thought he remembered jalapeños from when he was a kid, his grandpa would put them in his tacos. However, he didn't try to further warn Yondu with you, wanting to see what would happen. He wasn't disappointed even seeing Yondu glare at him for laughing as he sucked air through his teeth and wiped his now running nose on his sleeve.

You look at Yondu half-apologetically. "I tried to warn you! I told you they were hot- I mean spicy, that's why your mouth burns. Um... here..." You pull down a glass and pour him some milk. "This will help."

He eyed it. "What is it?" He thought it looked like the same white liquid Peter and Kraglin would pour into what Peter called cereal, but he had never bothered to ask them what it was.

"Milk." you answered, getting a very strange look from him in return, a mix of 'What the fuck?!' and near disgust.

Peter spoke up from the table. "It's from a cow. It ain't hers, dude. It's fine."

Your eyes widen, scandalized, as you look to Peter. "Excuse me?"

He looks at you apologetically. "Sorry, I know this is normal here, but uh, on most other planets... you won't really find 'milk' ...unless you're uh, feeding a baby."

A high, "Hmmm..." is all you respond, not sure what else to say to the implication that the blue man thought you were somehow offering him your milk. Your eyes were still wide and you could feel your face growing warm at the uncomfortable information but you still offered out the glass, setting it on the counter between you. "Well this is all I have to offer for the burning. Otherwise you're going to have to wait it out." You cross your arms over your chest self-consciously.

Yondu looked like he was considering for a moment, before hesitantly reaching out to take the glass.

"Drink it slow, it will help with the burning." You then add, mildly scolding. "Next time listen."

He grumbled, but took the glass and sat down at the table next to Kraglin to drink it. Kraglin covered his mouth with his fist, trying not to laugh and looking like he wanted to say something, but Yondu glared at him, grumbling. "Not a word."

Kraglin managed to giggle out a, "Yes, sir." before returning his attention to his cereal, a new food Peter introduced to him a couple days ago that actually wasn't half bad.

Everything was fine for about half an hour or so. You finished your toast and had some juice, and the guys had finished their food as well and the four of you sat in the kitchen talking. Well, they were talking, you were mostly sitting and listening, mostly just making an effort to sit for more than five minutes so Peter would stop giving you that look that said, "Ha, knew you were shy," that he had recently taken to giving you.

Then Yondu suddenly bent slightly and held his stomach with a stifled grunt.

You raised an eyebrow, as did the other two. "You ok?" you asked, seeing his pained expression.

Yondu glared then tensed again, grunting out a "Dammit." before pushing his chair back and making his way quickly from the kitchen without another word.

The three of you shared confused glances.

Then you heard the bathroom door loudly close, and not too long after that began to hear loud noises of the... smelly variety.

Peter half-stifled a laugh, saying. "When ya gotta go, ya gotta go, I guess."

You could hear the sound of the toilet flush a bit later, but Yondu didn't return. Instead you started to hear the "smelly" noises again, followed by muffled cursing.

Gamora entered the kitchen, holding her nose. You knew that wasn't a good sign regarding the smell of your hallway, and you were only grateful it hadn't made it into the kitchen yet, though you were now less than eager to leave and risk facing it.

"Is he alright?" she asked Peter.

"He'll be fine." Peter laughed in response, receiving a look from Gamora as she sat next to him, no doubt seeking a reprieve from the odor.

A few minutes passed and he still remained in the jacks, but the smell had its own travel plans.

"Oh hell," you choke out, seemingly the first one of the four of you (aside from Gamora from before) the smell decided to assault. You motioned to Peter. "You- windows- help- please? Now?" you say, gagging as you stood and made your way to open the closest window.

"Right behind you!" Peter said, standing and quickly making to open any window in the kitchen he could find. Kraglin stood with Gamora and they left the kitchen, stating that they were going to open the windows in the sitting room and see if that might help. You could hear gagging from the hallway when they left the kitchen. Peter made his way further down the room and gagged as he opened the back door, a cloud of stink having unfortunately pooled down that way as it was the end closest to the bathroom.

He braved the stink just long enough to shout, "Damn, man! What did you eat!?" He only got a, "Oh, grow up!" in response from Yondu from behind the bathroom door.

You exited the kitchen from the other end to open the front door, coughing as your fears were confirmed and the smell was much worse outside the kitchen. You wondered if you should open the upstairs windows as well.

This thought was confirmed when you could hear the sounds of Mantis gagging at the top of the stairs and Drax asking if an animal had died in the house, then going on to confirm it wasn't Rocket as he was with him and Rocket indignantly yelling, "Hey!"

You made your way upstairs, Peter taking your lead and following to open the windows upstairs to help air the house out.

Yondu had only just exited the bathroom when you came downstairs, not looking too pleased. However, he only made it about a meter outside the door before wincing as a cramp told him he wasn't actually finished and spinning on his heels to return to the toilet.

Now Peter actually seemed mildly concerned. "Dude, you ok in there?" he called from a 'safe' distance from the door, as if anywhere was safe from the smell anymore.

There was only more embarrassing noises in response to Peter's question.

"Yondu?" Peter called out.

"Leave me alone, boy! Can't ya see I'm a little busy at the moment?!"

"I can definitely smell it!" Peter shouted back.

"I'm gonna head outside," you choke out, looking at Gamora. "Care to join?" It was less of an invitation and more of a hint. If you value air, maybe get out of the house.

"Way ahead of you dorks!" Rocket called as he ran out the front door with Groot clinging to his back, gagging.

Everyone else followed out the front door, not willing to risk walking toward the back.

"Fresh air!" Peter cried out once he was outside in such a funny way you couldn't help but chuckle and shake your head despite sharing the same sentiments.

After a couple moments of taking in the fresh air, you decided to walk around back. While you were out here you might as well fix the swing.

"Where you going?" Drax asked after you.

Before you could answer, Peter replied in teasing voice, "She's running away 'cause she's shy." Gamora elbowed him and told him to quit.

You rolled your eyes but didn't turn back, flipping him the bird. "I am not. Knock it off."

"Then you won't mind if we join you then, huh?"

You shrugged as you continued walking. "I don't care what you do." you say flippantly, turning the corner of the house.

Peter grinned mischievously. "Oh! So you won't care if I do this?" He jogged after you and all the others heard was a squeaky yip that likely came from you, Peter crying "Ow!" and you responding with, "Then quit that!"

Drax called out, "Mister Fury said no fighting!" as the rest of them followed after the two of you.

"Then Gamora, please come get your child!" is what response came from around the wall.

Drax gave a confused look to Gamora. "Does she really think Quill could be your child?"

Gamora shook her head. "No, Drax. She's just insulting Peter for acting like a child."

You glared at Peter as he rubbed his arm.

"Did you really need to punch so hard?" he asked, laughter in his voice despite the pain.

"Don't startle me next time." You warn, crossing your arms and turning back to keep walking.

Peter smirked. "Oh sure. 'Startle.' Looked a lot more to me like that tickled."

You look back to him with a glare.

Peter held up his hands in a defensive gesture and laughed, and you saw the others rounding the corner and decided to just walk away and let him live for now. Definitely wasn't because you were slightly worried he might try to prove his theory in front of all the others.

You unlocked the shed, grabbed the items you needed from where you had placed them on the workbench the previous day, and shut the shed door and locked it back up all before the others really got near. You hadn't told anyone about the bed frame yet and you didn't intend to, at least not until it was finished.

You dropped the chains by the old swing and walked back towards the shed to grab the ladder leaning against the back wall so that you could cut the old rope away from the large eye hooks drilled into the branch that had been embedded in the tree so long they were now a permanent fixture.

On your way back with the ladder Kraglin asks, "Whatcha doin'?"

"Fixing the swing," you say, not looking at him as you set up the ladder.

You grab the two lengths of chains and start to ascend the ladder when he speaks again. "Would ya like some help with that? Those chains look heavy."

They weren't. Well, they were heavy enough to support a person, but not heavy enough, or you weak enough, that you couldn't hoist them up the ladder. "I think I can manage," you say, slightly irritated. Last thing you wanted was some "Let the man do the lifting" crap.

"It's just that-"

You look sharply at him, "Just what?"

"Nothin' ma'am." His voice cracked as he spoke and you turned back to carrying the chains back up the ladder.

Rocket, who kept an eye on you the moment he saw the chains, but tried not to make a show of it, came over and stood next to Kraglin, Mantis following close behind.

"Are you fixing the swing?" Mantis asks shyly.

"Yep." you say, clipping one chain to the eye-hook with a locking carabiner.

"I'm sorry I broke it."

You don't look down, reaching up to attach the other chain as you say, "Already told you, wasn't your fault. The rope was old. Don't worry about it."

"Oh, so if she breaks something you'll replace it." Rocket said bitterly.

You climb down the ladder and look at him in annoyance. "There's a difference between the rope snapping on her, and you almost throwing the remote through the TV screen during a tantrum."

"I was not throwing a tantrum!" Rocket said indignantly.

"Close enough. Fighting with Peter over it, better?"

Rocket doesn't answer, just crosses his arms and glares at you before taking off. Truthfully, he was less mad about that and more surprised that he saw the chains were being used to fix the swing instead of being used to tie him or his team up. But this didn't mean you still weren't a dick. Just because he was wrong about this one thing, didn't mean he was wrong about you probably hiding some dark plans or something. He just had to find it. He certainly wasn't grasping at straws or anything just 'cause he didn't like you...

You reach down and pick up the wooden seat of the swing. You cut off the rope still attached to the eye hooks running through the board and repeat the same process to attach the chain as you had above.

When you were finished to turned to Mantis and said, "Wanna try it out?"

She giggled excitedly and nodded before hopping on the swing.

You smile and pick up the scraps of rope you had thankfully tossed out of swing-range and noticed Kraglin was gone. So was your ladder.

You turned to see him returning it back to where you had gotten it from and you called after him, "You didn't need to do that!"

He replied back with, "I know!"

You shook your head and started to walk back towards the shed to toss the scraps in the rubbish bin, wondering how long it might take for the house to be inhabitable again.

Gamora and Peter watched as you had finished repairing the swing and smiled. Peter internally noted that you seemed to have a soft spot for Mantis. Of all of them, her and Groot always seemed to get your softer side, even when it was obvious you were trying not to make it obvious. He grinned, sure that there were some advantages to be had from that.

By the time you had met back up with the rest Yondu could be seen exiting the house from the back door and walking towards the group, no doubt also seeking refuge from the smell.

Peter grinned cheekily and asked, "Everything come out ok?"

Yondu just glared at him before grumpily turning to you. "I think that milk stuff ya gave me went bad."

Peter spoke up, "Inside of you, maybe. Kraglin and I ate it and we're fine."

Kraglin nodded in agreement, saying he felt fine. He then suggested that maybe it was those spicy things he ate that didn't agree with him.

Your eyes widened and you crossed your arms nervously. You remembered how Rocket had attempted to poison you with the xanti-berries, and think you just realized what happened. You had accidentally actually did what Rocket had tried to do to you, to Yondu. You wince and say, "I'm sorry."

Noticing your change in expression, Yondu asks, "What?"

"I'm sorry," you say again, "I didn't even think that the milk might make you sick."

Yondu made a grouchy face but said, "Whatever. Guess I know now."

Rocket, who had been listening in not too far off came up and said, "So when I try to do it to her, I'm an asshole, but when she actually poisons him, everything's just dandy!?"

You narrow your eyes but before you can spout off Yondu speaks up irritably. "If I didn't even know it would happen, how the hell is she supposed to know, Rat?"

"Yeah, she was only tryin' to help him." added Kraglin. "Ain't her fault."

Rocket huffed and skulked away. "Whatever," he said, waving you all off, "Screw you all."

"Ignore him." Peter said, annoyance clear in his voice, and changed the subject to something less likely to piss everyone off.

Eventually you all were able to re-enter the house again without gagging.

#gotg #guardians of the galaxy #x reader #yondu udonta #nick fury #peter quill #rocket raccoon #kraglin obfonteri #drax the destroyer #gamora #groot #mantis #surprise #earth is space australia

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spacesuitsforemergency · 4 years

Text

Earth Angel

Word Count: 2.7k

Pairing: Sam Alexander x Quill! Reader

Summary: Sam Alexander is an idiot

A/N: Btw this is the Guardians of the Galaxy plot line, but with my own spin. Set after Guardians 2. Sam’s backstory based off the Disney XD cartoon and comics. Also when I say her skin is Snow White I mean actual white, her being alien and all. First oneshot, kinda nervous 👉👈

Sam Alexander is an idiot.

It was just one of the facts of life. Like physics, death, that planets weren’t flat, or that Footloose is one of the greatest movies of all time.

He was annoying, he thought he was better than you because he could fly and stuff, and he stole your dads attention.

You were the daughter of the legendary outlaw, ex-Ravager, half god, Star Lord. Also the product of a one night stand with some alien chick. You never knew your mother, she dumped you with him as a baby. You never felt the need to find her, you had a family that loved you, even if they showed it in weird ways.

Rocket was cool, he taught you mechanics and how to build weapons that could blow up moons. Drax protected you as if you were his own daughter. Groot was nice to chill with when you wanted peace and quiet from your crazy family, he just stuck to his video games. Mantis was weird, but a good cook. Nebula was mean and scary, and she hated kids. She didn’t live on the Milano though, so it was chill. Gamora was a buzzkill, but taught you self defense and strategy. Plus she was dating your dad.

Then Sam Alexander, Nova, showed up one day. They spent more and more time helping him control his powers and find his dad. You felt left out and a little ignored, only increasing your resentment for the Earthling. You understood of course, if you got separated from your family you’d do anything you could to find them, but did he have to also be obnoxious and self absorbed? Of course he did.

You watched as Gamora, Drax and Groot began teaching him target practice, in the middle of the hallway. Because obviously that’s the ideal spot. He wasn’t a terrible shot, but he did miss and nearly shoot your dads head off.

“Woah! Watch where you’re pointing those things!” Quill shrieked as he jumped away from the energy beam.

“Oops.” Sam shrugged stupidly.

“You might want to get out of the way.” Gamora warned.

“Y/N, what’s up kiddo?” Your dad asked as he reached you, affectionately ruffling your hair.

“He’s an awful shot.” You shook your head when Sam idiotically missed and hit the wall again.

“Think you can do better?” He turned and grinned cockily at you.

“I know I can.” You snapped back, glaring at the moronic look on his face.

“They shall compete, whoever wins will shoot the other in victory.” Drax announced.

“Nobody’s shooting anybody.” Your dad sighed. “Remember what happened last time?”

“A competition could motivate Samuel to do better.” Gamora shrugged. “I say it’s worth a shot.”

“What do you say? Up for it?” Your dad asked you both.

“It’s on, White Out.” Sam cracked his knuckles.

“You’re going down, Bucket Boy.” You sneered at him as you stood up, crossing the deck to glare up at him.

Star Lord tossed you one of your elemental guns, and Groot grew more fruits along his arm as targets. You both began shooting, your shots much more clean and precise, while his were messy and just plain luck.

“Ha! I win!” You cheered in victory.

“What? No way! I got way more than you did!” Sam crossed his arms.

“Are you kidding? You got like, 3!”

“Nuh Uh!”

“Drax! Did you see?” You whipped around angrily.

“It is true. Y/N Quill did win the competition.” Drax nodded. “You may now shoot Samuel in victory.”

“Gladly.” You turned back around and shot at his feet, making him yelp and jump away.

“Hey! Stop it!” He complained before running as you shot again.

“Get back here, coward!” You yelled as you chased him around the ship.

“Ow! Can someone stop her?”

Drax and Groot watched as he ran away from you as if he were being pursued by an army, and you charged and shot at his feet to scare him.

“She likes him, you know?” Gamora cleared her throat.

“What? No she doesn’t.” Quill scoffed as they watched. “She clearly hates him.”

“I agree with Gamora. Violence is the highest form of flattery.” Drax asked.

“I don’t think that’s right...”

“I am Groot.”

“Exactly! Thank you, Groot.” Quill laughed.

“You’re so cute.” Gamora chuckled. “You’ll see. I hated you when we first met, remember?”

“Wow, thanks.”

“Who’s killing who?!” Rocket yelled from somewhere below deck. “Can you guys keep the racket down?!”

“Ow! That’s my ankle!” Sam screeched.

“Oops! I do so sincerely apologize!”

“Okay, enough shooting, children! How about lunch?”

•

Sam didn’t know why you hated him so much. What’s not to like? He could flirt, he was handsome, he had a nice smile, and was the Human Rocket! He was cool!

Sure he had to make everything a competition, and sure he purposely aggravated you, and sure he teased you a lot, and sure he said stupid stuff...okay so he could see why you weren’t thrilled with his presence.

He didn’t know why he acted like this with you, he just...did. It definitely wasn’t cause he was a little intimidated by you. By your chocolate brown eyes, your smooth dark hair, your angelic, snow white complexion, your captivating smile or charismatic personality...no! Definitely not that.

When he initially met you he was charmed by your dorkiness and sarcasm. You greeted him happily and asked a bunch of questions. Overtime he noticed you became more distant, and you were competitive and angry at him. For no reason! It definitely wasn’t cause he called you Crest 3D White, that’s for sure.

“I can assist you, you know.”

“Huh?” He snapped out of his thoughts, turning to see Drax had joined him in the lounge, where he was playing an ancient video game from like, the 80s.

“I know you are attracted to Miss Y/N Quill.”

“W-What? No I...I don’t. What do you mean? Not me.” Sam stuttered, shaking his head quickly. “No I uh...I hate her! Yeah, she’s annoying.”

“But so are you. You are both dancers.”

“Huh?” He said stupidly, once again.

“Drax, leave the kid be, would ya?” Rocket said from his other side. Great, another eye witness of Sam’s humiliation.

“Samuel, I will tell you the same thing I told Quill to motivate him to pursue his love for Gamora.” Drax ignored the not-raccoon.

“Oh, here we go.” Rocket groaned. “Don’t listen to this nonsense-“

“There are two types of beings.” Drax continued. “Those that dance, and those that do not. You are a dancer. Miss Quill is a dancer.”

“Okay, so we both dance? So what?” Sam questioned.

“He means go for it!” Rocket rolled his eyes dramatically. “Listen, I’m only saying this cause I’m sick of watching you make goo goo eyes at her.”

“I don’t do that-“

“She likes you, you like her. What’s the holdup?”

“Well, she hates me?”

“Y/N Quill does not hate you, Samuel.” Drax heavily pat his shoulder. “She is much like Gamora. The more she shows dislike, the more she is allured by you.”

“That’s wrong on so many levels.” Rocket scoffed. “But he’s right.”

“Huh?” Sam gawked, once again.

This touching and informing conversation was interrupted when the ships was knocked aside by an explosion. They ran up front, seeing Chitauri battleships.

“They’re here for the helmet!” Gamora yelled to the team.

“Jump point! Jump point!” Quill ran to the controls, Rocket hopping into the co pilot seat.

“Y/N! Take Sam and take the back blasters!” Gamora ordered you.

“Come on, Bucket Head!” You grabbed his arm and dragged him below deck, leading him into the small room.

You and Sam quickly got in the chairs and activated the blasters, beginning to shoot down the Chitauri ships. The Milano shook as it was hit by the Chitauri weapons, the explosions loud and intense.

“Damn, you are a good shot!” Sam yelled over the commotion.

“I know!” You grinned, caught up in the excitement of the battle. “On your right!”

A blast hit the glass, nearly cracking it. You cursed and yelled up to the deck to get you guys out of there.

“Prepare for jump!” Gamora yelled down.

You both held onto your seats, before the ship catapulted through the jump point. You both fell forward onto the glass when the ship abruptly stopped, Sam hitting his nose directly on it.

You groaned as you got up, looking and seeing blood pouring down Sam’s face.

“Oh great, get blood all over the seats.” You teased. “I gotta clean that later.”

“Thanks for the concern.” He scoffed.

“I’m kidding. Come on.” You grabbed his arm and helped him up.

“You guys okay?” Your dad shouted as he ran below deck.

“Bucket Heads bucket didn’t protect his face.” You giggled as you handed Sam a roll of paper towels.

“Oh shut up.” He grumbled as he took off said Bucket and held a paper towel to his nose.

“Okay. Don’t use your helmet for now. We need to come up with a game plan.” Your dad ordered him. “Groot! Stay down here with them!”

“What? Why can’t we have a say in this?” You instantly snapped.

“Y/N, it’s time for the grown ups to talk.” Your dad said sternly as Groot trudged down the stairs, going to his room.

“But dad-!”

“Stay down here, okay? Keep an eye out behind us, Alright?”

“Fine.” You mumbled, plopping down onto the couch.

“Thank you.” Quill sighed before going back up to the deck.

Now it was awkward. Just you and Sam Alexander, the stupid Bucket Head. He avoided eye contact with you, focusing on holding the paper towel to his nose.

You tapped your fingers on the arm of the couch, trying to think of anything to break the tension and awkward silence. You didn’t have a tv down here, and the cassette player was above deck.

“Uh...you hungry?” You asked after awhile.

“Sure.” Sam shrugged.

You went to the kitchen and grabbed some snacks, tossing some to Sam as you walk back. You both silently ate, looking at anything but the other person. It was so quiet you could hear the muffled arguing of the Guardians above deck, in the lounge in an attempt to keep their conversation secret.

“Hey, Y/N?” Sam said finally, after an excruciating...25 minutes.

“Yeah?” You asked.

“Why do you hate me?”

You looked up from your food, your brown eyes locking on his green ones.

“I don’t hate you.” You sighed.

“Then why did you try to kill me the other day?” He chuckled. “And you always...glare at me.”

“I just...” you take a breath. “I don’t hate you. I’m just...you take up a lot of my dads attention.”

He blinks, then realizes what you’re saying.

“You’re jealous?” He raised an eyebrow.

“Let’s not push it.” You say sternly, then soften up again. “But yeah.”

“Uh...why?”

“It’s gonna sound bratty.”

“Okay.”

“Okay.” You repeat. “As soon as you got here, all the attention was on you. It’s always just been us, no one else. It was hard adjusting, I guess. My dad hasn’t really noticed me much cause he’s been focused on you. I understand, of course.”

“Oh...”

“I told you it’d sound bratty.”

“No! No.” Sam cleared his throat. “Not at all I just...I didn’t realize it. I just thought you didn’t like me.”

“Well, you are pretty annoying.” You giggle. “You think you’re a better shot than me.”

“I am though.” He grinned.

There was another long stretch of silence, but this one wasn’t uncomfortable or tense.

“I’m sorry. I haven’t really had a father figure in awhile. Your dads cool.” He fidgeted with his helmet, which was in his lap.

“He is.” You nod.

You both smile softly at each other, finally understanding the other for the first time since meeting.

“Wanna sneak upstairs and eavesdrop?” You offer.

“Don’t mind if I do.” He gave you a mischievous grin.

•

“Gamora! Drax! Rocket! Mantis! Quick! Somethings wrong with the children!” Quill whispered shouted into the kitchen, where said Guardians were eating.

“What? Did they finally kill the other?” Gamora asked as she joined Quill behind the doorway.

“No! They’re getting along!”

He pointed to where you and Sam were lounging together, laughing and chatting away.

“Well we can’t hear them over this damn music.” Rocket grumbled.

“If we turn it off they’ll get suspicious! You know how teenagers are!”

“Do you think they’ve lost attraction to each other?” Drax asked. “There are no signs of violence.”

“Which is a good thing, man.” Quill insisted. “Look at them! They’re basically in each other’s laps!”

“What do you-“

Gamora was cut off when suddenly you kissed Sam. The Guardians’ jaws all dropped, and Quill went to go go break it up.

“Don’t you dare!” Mantis tugged him back.

“The Creepy Bug Lady is right. You should never interrupt a moment like this, especially between beings their age.” Drax told Quill.

“We cannot give away that we’ve been spying on them.” Gamora nodded.

“They’ll never know, Sam’s too busy sucking face with my daughter!”

•

Of course you knew they were watching you. They weren’t exactly known for being inconspicuous.

Ever since the Chitauri attack you and Sam had gotten along great. You weren’t fighting or shooting each other anymore, and any competition was purely for fun. You were surprised nobody had pointed it out yet, since the Guardians has no shame in calling anybody out, and weren’t exactly known for thinking before they speak.

You saw them out of the corner of your eye while Sam was telling you about new video games on earth that were much bette than the ‘trash’ your dad owned. You just wished the music was quieter so you could hear what they were saying.

“Sam?” You said suddenly.

He stopped mid sentence and raised an eyebrow questioningly.

“Can I tell you something?”

“Sure.” He shrugged. He assumed you would tell him something personal, since nobody says ‘can I tell you something?’ followed by something unimportant.

“I think I like you.”

“Well, you obviously don’t hate me anymore.” He shrugged. You blinked, thinking he was joking at first. Nobody could be this stupid. Yet of course, he proved you wrong.

“No, Sam.” You laugh. “I like you. Like like you.”

His eyes widen in realization, and his face heats up. He opens his mouth to say something, but he ended up looking like a bonehead.

Come on Sam! Say something! Anything! Anything at all!

“Neat.”

Not that!

“Oh, uh...” your face falls.

“No! That’s not what I meant!” He quickly says, now even more red and flustered. “I uh...I like you too! I just didn’t think you felt the same way, Y’know? You’re like really cool and really pretty. Not that I like you cause of your looks! That’s just a plus! You’re badass! Not that I-“

You cut him off by kissing him, and you could hear your dad shriek over the music. Sam stiffened, eyes wide. When he finally kisses back you realize he’s actually a good kisser. He hooks and arm around your waist as you wrap yours around his neck.

When you pull away you both don’t know what to say, just staring into each other’s eyes.

Come on Sam, think of something.

His eyes turned to the cassette player when a familiar song started playing. His mom used to play it in the car on the way home from school.

Earth angel, Earth angel, will you be mine? My darling dear, love you all the time. I'm just a fool, a fool in love with you.

“Do you uh...wanna dance?” He cleared his throat awkwardly.

Earth angel, Earth angel, the one I adore. Love you for ever, and ever more. I’m just a fool, a fool in love with you.

You smile at the offer, standing and pulling him up with you. You guide one of his hands to your waist, intertwine your fingers with his other hand.

I fell for you, and I knew. The vision of your love's loveliness. I hope and I pray, that some day. I'll be the vision of your hap, happiness.

You both sway gently with each other, your head resting on his shoulder, this time unaware of the eyes on you.

“Told you she liked him.” Gamora whispered to Quill.

“Yeah yeah.” Quill grumbled, keeping his eyes on the two of you.

“See Rocket? They’re both dancers.” Drax grinned proudly.

You giggled as he dipped you, leaning down and kissing you gently.

Oh, oh, oh, Earth angel, Earth angel, please be mine. My darling dear, love you for all time. I'm just a fool, a fool in love with you.

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theartofimaginaryfriends · 4 years

Text

Halloween Special

Fic series: The Final Straw (HP/PJO Crossover fic)

Premise: Nova and the Stoll's show Fred and George Halloweentown. After that, they try to make Peeves sweat.

Masterlist

taglist: @ilvermornymascot, @lukecastellandeservedbetter

Word count: 602

A/N: I promised myself that I wouldn’t do another “story break” after the last two chapters but here we are... oops. Chapter 5 is being written and I have a general outline for it, my motivation is now dependant on writing it. This short fic isn’t part of the story itself, but rather a scenario that I wanted to write away from the main story. @lukecastellandeservedbetter and I were watching Halloweentown when this was discussed and thus the oneshot was born. There’s a few details in here that haven’t been introduced yet, but will come up in the next few chapters! Happy Halloween :)

The first weekly movie night in October called for Halloweentown, one of Nova's favourite Halloween movies. They were joined by Fred and George Weasley, who had just opened Weasley's Wizard Wheezes in Baypoint Village. Connor and Travis were ecstatic to meet their idols, and the Hogwarts transfers were especially concerned. The four boys combined meant chaos, and it was chaos no one would ever be prepared for.

Nova kept her eyes glued to the massive screen, not wanting to know if the four of them were causing trouble. After all, the Stoll's pulled a prank on the entire student body last week. She hoped her decision to let the twins join was a good one, but if they convinced Connor and Travis to wreak havoc there was nothing she could do.

The only time her attention was pulled away from the movie was when Marnie, Dylan, and Sophie went to the Halloweentown Health Spa to collect ghost sweat. Some of the school ghosts were exasperated when this scene played, and others found it amusing. Peeves, in particular, seemed uncomfortable and a little concerned. He glanced over at the Weasley Twins in alarm and disappeared out of the room.

When the Head Girl turned to look at the boys she'd been worried about all evening, she noticed the four of them conversing. Travis made eye contact with Nova and waved her over. "What the hell are the four of you planning?"

"Do you think it would be possible to make Peeves sweat?" Connor whispered. "He left the room in quite a hurry, after all."

"He could've left the room because he knows you will try this on him," Nova rolled her eyes.

"So you won't stop us?" Fred asked.

"Who are you and what have you done to our dear friend, Nova?" George added.

"I'm not going to stop you because I know I can't!" She said. "Also I'm curious myself. I want in."

"Great, we just need a sauna for ghosts and poltergeists," Travis became scheming.

"I'll ask Leo."

***

Leo managed to build the machine by Sunday and brought it up to a tower for the experiment to happen. Now, Nova sat waiting with the pranksters holding a vial.

"I won't mess with any of you again." Peeves hopelessly pleaded, unable to escape from the contraption.

"Doubt it," Nova laughed. "I bet you're hiding dung bombs in that sauna." The poltergeist sneered at her and continued struggling. In no time, steam rose from the contraption, and Peeves slowly began to relax.

"Woah, it's actually working," Travis looked at it in wonder. "Dude, let's get a closer look."

The brother leaned into Peeves' face but jumped back when Peeves began to yell again. "Hold on, I think we did something."

Fred and George joined them in looking up close, grinning ear-to-ear. Nova joins them after fighting her curiosity and watches as sweat began to form. "Oh my god, it's working."

She opened the vial and waited until it was filled before sealing it. After another fifteen minutes of watching Peeves and ignoring as he swore at them, Nova decided to let him out. When the machine was turned off, and they opened it, Peeves got out of the room faster than you could say 'quidditch.'

"What do you need that for?" Connor asked Nova, pointing to the vial.

"I want to see if I can use it as a potion ingredient." She smirked.

"Wicked," Fred and George said, in unison.

"Alright," Nova grabbed her bookbag. "I was not involved, saw nothing, and did not approve this in the slightest."

"You got it, boss."

#percy jackson #pjo #harry potter #harry potter fanfiction #percy jackson fanfiction #harry potter/percy jackson crossover #harry potter/percy jackson crossover fic

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queen-scribbles · 5 years

Text

On the Bright Side

Started as a “leaping hug” prompt fill for @storyknitter, got way way WAY out of hand. Oops. Set during Dantooine Incursion, with Tel as Outlander

A blaster bolt zipped by her head, and Silver yelped instinctively as she ducked back behind cover. “Kriffin’ pirates,” she growled, both hands white-knuckle tight around the grip of her blaster.

“Look on the bright side, Sil,” Corso said, hunching both of them down further as the next shot gouged out flakes of the boulder protecting them.

“What bright side?!” Silver huffed loose wisps of hair out of her eyes and released one hand’s death grip on Sparkles to free a thermal grenade from its belt clip.

“We left the girls with your parents, so there’s no way Brynna’ll see the mess these nerf-brains made of Aves’ place.”

If there was a bright side to be found in being caught flat-footed by a Nova Blades incursion, their daughters being half a galaxy away was probably it. She did have to give him that. “Hope Aves got all the kids out.”

“‘M sure he did.” Corso started to peek around the boulder and jerked back as another blaster bolt skimmed past. “He’s resourceful an’ determined, which you’ve proved a dozen times over is more’n enough.”

“Hopefully it’ll be enough to handle this moof-milker,” she muttered as she thumbed the grenade active. “Split around the rock and hit him from both sides.”

He nodded. ”Got it.”

Silver tossed the grenade in the general direction of the Nova Blade currently proving a hassle and curved around the boulder, Sparkles already tracking for her target.

The pirate was caught off-guard and didn’t stand a chance against the firepower aimed his direction. He crumpled like wet flimsiplast.

Silver slid Sparkles back in the holster and gave a grimly vindictive nod toward the sprawled corpse. “That took long enough. You alright?”

Corso nodded, rubbing his forearm. “Just a graze. Barely even stings.”

She shot him a skeptical look. Even from here she could tell it had burned through both bracer and armor to leave a red welt against his skin. “Lemme see anyway.”

He held out his arm and Silver curled one hand under it for support while the other tugged out a bacta patch. He’d been right; it was just a graze, but with the state Dantooine was in she’d rather keep everything patched up. Not just the big stuff.

“Hey, Sil,” Corso began, eyes sweeping the chaos that had overtaken the planet they considered a second home. “I get the feelin’ we’re doin’ a stalk in the haystack’s worth of difference out here by ourselves...”

“And?” She slapped the bacta patch on perhaps a tad more forcefully than she’d meant to. “Angel’s engines, Corso, I’m not gonna just let them-”

“I’m not suggestin’ we ‘just let them’,” he cut her off, letting his patched up arm drop back to his side and flashing a grateful smile. “Ain’t far to the Republic garrison, we might do more damage seein’ if they have anything we can help with.”

“Oh. Good idea.” Silver tucked the bacta patch wrapper back in the pouch.

Corso grinned and tweaked the end of her ponytail. “I do have ‘em every once in a while.”

She rolled her eyes, pushing up on the balls of her feet to kiss his cheek. “More frequently than that. Don’t sell yourself short.”

“If you say so, Captain,” he said playfully. “We headin’ for the garrison, then?”

She heaved a sigh. “Guess we might as well.”

“A ringin’ endorsement,” he snorted.

Silver punched his shoulder. “We should prob’ly be sneaky about it, so we ain’t all worn out b’fore we even get there.”

Corso tugged her in to kiss her forehead. “Good idea.”

Stealth generators on, the slipped around pirate encampments, bands of pillaging Imperials, and all the war-torn damage that had been inflicted on the formerly serene planet. Dodging threats and finding new routes made what should have been a ten minute journey take nearly four times as long, but they made it. Silver had to assuage the entrance guards as their blasters tracked to these new arrivals before they were allowed in.

“Who’s in charge?” she asked the guard captain.

“That would be Major Vindo, but she’s too busy for visitors,” the grey-skinned twi’lek said in a weary monotone that hinted he’d given this speech enough times to be sick of it. “The Republic is doing its best to recover the planet as intact as possible-”

“We’re not here to complain,” she cut him off, crossing her arms and nodding toward Corso. “We wanna help. We got experience,” she hastened on as the twi’lek’s brow furrowed and he opened his mouth to (likely) decline civilian help. “I worked as a privateer for a while, teamed up with a Jedi Master’n everything. Took down the Voidwolf?”

At that last hint, the guard’s darkening expression reversed course in a heartbeat. “You’re the Voidhound?”

Silver nodded. She didn’t like throwing around her accomplishments--especially not one that started with being played for a sucker--but it did come in handy sometimes. “Don’t much care for the title, but yeah.”

“As I said, sir-ma’am, Major Vindo is busy, but I’m sure one of the other officers will have something you could do to assist,” he suggested, grip shifting on his rifle.

Not wanting to distract him any longer, Silver took the hint in turn. She tugged Corso’s arm to pull him after her further onto the base proper. It was buzzing with more activity than a kicked wasps’ nest, and while there were plenty of soldiers to be seen, all of them looked overwhelmed and occupied. Finally, though, she spotted a Mirialan with lieutenants stripes who looked less busy than the rest.

“’Scuse me,” she called, heading in his direction, Corso still trailing a step or two behind her. “Privateers Silver and Corso Riggs reportin’, Lieutenant...”

“Jorin,” he supplied brusquely, glancing up from his datapad. “And, no offense, but exactly what good do you see privateers being in a ground battle?”

“We’re damn good shots and resourceful as hell.” Silver shot back. “Also, willin’ to do whatever y’need.”

“Well, we are putting together a team to take back or destroy a stolen walker....” Jorin mused. “So you’re good in a fight, huh?”

She shrugged. “Comes with the line of work. Shootout, close-quarters, we can do either.”

“I’m sure we can find something for you to do, in that case.” He actually cracked a smile. “If you want to help, the team going after the walker is meeting in the barracks just over there.”

Silver looked in the direction he pointed and gave a nod. “Got it. C’mon, Corso.”

The two of them dodged rushing soldiers and frantic civilians both as they made their way to the indicated building. There was an air of... desperation to it all, scrambling to catch up in a fight that had opened with a sucker punch. It made her chest ache, to see a planet that held so many good memories for her family turned to this by thieving opportunistic pirate scum-guzzlers. Corso must’ve sensed her turmoil, because he reached for her hand and gave it a squeeze. Silver flashed him a grateful smile as they reached the building and stepped inside.

The walker recovery team, which proved to be all military personnel except for them, was almost finished their briefing when the team leader’s comlink warbled. She gestured for them to pipe down as she slipped it from her belt and thumbed it on. “Jaiza.”

She’d stepped far enough away by now Silver couldn’t eavesdrop without being obvious, but the general tone was not one of good news. Caraya’s moons, how can this get any worse?

Captain Jaiza looked grim as she returned to the holotable. “It appears the pirates are massing to attack the base itself. It’s now even more imperative we get that walker out of their hands one way or another, and fast.”

“They’re actually going to attack the base, sir?” one of the other soldiers piped up incredulously. “Are they crazy?”

“Perhaps,” Jaiza returned levelly, but Silver could see the concern lurking in her eyes. “Perhaps they’re testing us, or just trying to inflict as much damage as possible.”

“Great, that’s just what the medcenter needs,” the zabrak sitting near the door groused. “They’re already barely keeping up, let’s give them more people to take care of...”

Corso nudged Silver’s shoulder as Jaiza pressed on with the mission details and she grimaced as she nudged back. She knew what he was thinking. Part of her even agreed with him. But that was a conversation for after this meeting.

Sure enough, soon as Jaiza finished running through the completed plan--in which Silver and Corso were largely just extra bodies--Corso dragged Silver out the door and around the corner so they could have a semi-private conversation.

“Corso, I know what you’re gonna say,” Silver began, crossing her arms.

He said it anyway. “You should stay to help.”

“And, what, you still go?” Her fingers dug into her arms at the thought of them splitting up. She didn’t trust other people with watching his back.

“Even if i’m just extra muscle, I can still help, Sil,” Corso pointed out.

“Well, then be extra muscle here.” Silver ran one hand down her ponytail and tugged on the end agitatedly. “I’m sure they’ll need it, too, an’ that way we can have each other’s backs.”

“Yeah, uh, I was thinkin’ about that...” the words trailed off as he fidgeted with his blaster grip, picking at dents Torchy had picked up over the course of today.

She narrowed her eyes. “why do I get the feelin’ I’m not gonna like these thoughts?”

“‘Cause they’re driftin’ in the direction of feelin’ one of us should stay here so there’s better odds the girls get at least one of us back.”

The tangle of emotions hit her with all the force of a runaway airspeeder, and Silver instinctively reached for his hands. “Corso-”

“Not sayin’ I think it’s a suicide run or nothin’,” Corso cut her off. “Just dangerous, like here will be if they attack. We’re good with dangerous, but we gotta think about Talia and Brynna, too.”

“Well, then, you stay here as muscle an’ I’ll go,” she countered. “If it’s that dangerous, they’re gonna need a medic.”

“They got one.” He nodded toward the dark-furred cathar just exiting the barracks. “An’ I think the base’ll need your help more.”

To her dismay, Silver couldn’t think of any other arguments. Oh, she was sure there were more, there had to be. But with her heart beating fast and unease settling in her gut, they eluded her. So she swallowed hard and reluctantly nodded. “You win.”

Corso leaned in to rest his forehead against hers, calloused fingers gently rubbing her hands. “I’m sure we’ll both be fine, Sil, but you know the sayin’.”

“Better safe than sorry,” she muttered, leaning into the contact with him. “Never been fond of playin’ it safe.”

“Part of why I love ya.” He let go of her hands to rub her arms comfortingly instead. “But we got kids now, darlin’. Sometimes we gotta play it safe for them.”

“I know,” Silver groaned. She curved her hands against either side of his jaw and pulled him in for a kiss. He reciprocated, humming softly, which made her grin. “That means you gotta play it safe, too, farm boy.” Her thumb rubbed over his cheek, memorizing afresh scars and other details she already knew by heart. “And don’t die.”

“Aw, Captain,” Corso winked playfully and kissed her forehead. “I’m too pretty to die.”

She laughed at that, smiled as they disengaged and he left with the recovery team, but couldn’t completely bury the nagging thought, no matter how hard she tried.

Famous last words...

The medcenter proved easy to find, and just as desperately busy as had been insinuated. Silver had a moment where she genuinely thought the chief doctor was going to hug her or burst into tears of gratitude (maybe both) when she informed her she was here to help.

After a few rapid fire questions to determine if she had any particular strong suits when it came to healing(no), was squeamish about anything(also no), and if she could keep her cool under pressure(yes), the doctor assigned Silver to help with emergency intake. That proved to be mostly wounded soldiers, with the occasional civilian who hadn’t cleared out of their own property fast enough for the Nova Blades. Between the two, she was soon so busy she didn’t have time to think, let alone worry. After all, there were other teams and groups of soldiers out of there fighting the Blades; it wasn’t as if the entire pirate army was gonna come down like a grav-hammer on one five-person team after a stolen walker. Right?

The soldier on the bed in front of her moaned as the kolto injection she’d administered kicked in and Silver hastily yet gently wrapped medseal around his badly burned arm. It wasn’t pretty, but it would protect the injury until a doctor could treat it properly. Her job wasn’t to be pretty or thorough; it was to get bleeding stopped, wounds bandaged, infection stymied.

And the wounded never stopped coming. She could see why the idea of a direct attack was an unpleasant one. There was enough to keep the medcenter full and busy for weeks as things stood. They’d wind up swamped if there was an actual attack.

There was, and they did. It made Silver feel extra guilty raising her hand when a frazzled cathar with sergeant’s rank marks stepped in and asked if anyone had combat medic experience. At least she was the only one; most of the doctors here were civilians, owing to Dantooine’s formerly peaceful status. She grabbed a field medic kit and followed the sergeant out, flashing an apologetic smile to the head doctor as they passed.

“Am I rovin’ or stayin’ put?” Silver asked. There were multiple entrances to the base, and she couldn’t see the pirates focusing entirely on just one.

“The main gate’s covered,” the cathar replied. “You’ll be at the north entrance, where there’s the second heaviest enemy concentration, but we may pull you if needed elsewhere.”

“Got it,” Silver nodded, distracted by the sunset hues to tinge the sky. Had it really been that long?

The sergeant escorted her past the gate guards, the cacophony of battle rising as they stepped out of the garrison, and gestured to the forward defensive position, fanned out maybe a dozen meters outside the gate. “Stabilize, signal, move on to the next one,” she said, pressing a comlink into Silver’s hand. “The red button on the side marks coordinates, all you have to do is press it.”

“Simple enough.” Silver flinched as a laser bolt sizzle by, a tad too close given the distance.

“Good.” The sergeant clapped her on the shoulder--”Be safe”--and headed back into the fort.

Safe is relative, Silver thought snarkily as she flipped her stealth field generator on and beelined for the nearest wounded soldier. Even cloaked, the enemy fire came uncomfortably close.

On the bright side, at least the adrenaline and challenge would keep her from worrying about Corso.

The Nova Blades’ first assault was driven off in under an hour, as the orangey-purple of a sunset sky faded into the inky indigo of night. And Corso still wasn’t back yet. His team wasn’t the only one; nearly half the Republic’s squads out in the field had yet to return.

At least the respite from open conflict had allowed the medical staff to more or less catch up. Even that, while great for the beleaguered garrison, meant Silver didn’t have anything to distract her from worrying about Corso. And by this point, it was worry. She had every faith in his skill, and the soldiers’ skill, but this felt like too long for a straight-forward search and recover, even moreso if they’d opted to destroy the walker to get it out of pirates’ hand. There’d been no reports of the Nova Blades using the walker during their assault, which was a good sign, but she still didn’t like that no one had so much as checked in since they left. Radio silence was one of the most nerve-wracking things in the galaxy under the right(wrong) conditions, and she felt like she was sitting in the sweet spot for exactly that.

So she paced as the hours stretched on, bit her nails down to the quick, and played with her ring, ragged thumbnail dragging back and forth over the inset purple stone. A few of the field teams trickled back in, using the night to sneak past roving pirates. But Jaiza’s team wasn’t one of them. A couple returning soldiers bore reports of units killed to a man. Jaiza’s team wasn’t one of those, either.

Blast it, Corso, where are you?! she worried as they crept through the back half of the fifth hour since he’d left.

Footsteps sounded behind her and she whirled, tensed with anticipation-

-It wasn’t him. She hadn’t truly expected it to be, but it was still a let down to find Lieutenant Jorin instead.

“Easy, Captain,” Jorin chuckled, holding out one hand in a placating gesture. ”Battle’s done, at least for the night.”

Silver’s shoulders slumped briefly before she crossed her arms. “Maybe so, but my husband’s still out there. How the hell does it take this long to blow up a damn walker?!”

“I’m sure you’re aware from experience that pirates are an unpredictable lot,” Jorin said dryly. “The walker might’ve been moved, they might’ve needed to find an alternate route there or back. Especially if they recovered the walker instead of destroying it. Maybe they needed to hit additional targets because we were under-garrisoned for something like this to begin with, and got hit pretty blasted hard today.”

“Why dontcha ask for help?” she pointed out, leaning against the wall of the command center so she could keep an eye on the main base entrance.

“We did. The Republic’s sending more men and supplies, but with the renewed war, it probably isn’t much.”

“What about the Alliance?” Silver suggested. “Their commander’s a pretty staunch patriot.”

Jorin arched a brow. “You sound like you know him.”

“My brother,” she said with a nod.

He snorted. “Well, we haven’t exactly been hiding how things stand here, Captain. It’s all over the HoloNet, we’ve sent out open calls for aid. Your brother would have to be under a rock in the back corner of the galaxy to not hear something. If the Alliance was going to help, they’d be here by now.”

“Well-” Silver’s defensive protest(no way Tel wouldn’t help the Republic) died in her throat heard the entrance guards challenge an approaching group. Hope rose, then faded when it proved to be a group of farmers who’d waited for the cover of night to sneak around the pirates. A risky move, but she could see the appeal, and it had paid off. Still meant she had to wait and worry longer, and by the time things had quieted it would’ve felt awkward to press the conversation with Jorin, so the waiting happened without anything to really distract her. The lieutenant worked on his datapad, leaving her to stand with arms crossed tight across her chest and fingers anxiously picking at her sleeve as she waited. This is why I frangin’ hate splittin’ up-

“Hey, pretty lady, you look like you’re waitin’ on someone,” a familiar voice drawled behind her.

Already grinning, Silver wheeled--”Corso!”--and lunged toward him. She crashed into him with enough force he stumbled back a step before catching his balance, her arms wrapping around his neck almost tight enough to strangle. He was laughing as he hugged her back, arms warm and solid around her waist.

Silver loosened her grip ever so slightly and buried her face against the side of his neck. “Anybody else’d get clocked for that line, Riggs,” she mumbled.

Corso chuckled and rubbed her back. “Lucky me, bein’ the exception.”

She half-heartedly smacked the back of his head. “That’s for worryin’ me, though.”

He grinned sheepishly. “Sorry, darlin’,”

“One would think you two had been apart for six years instead of six hours,” Lieutenant Jorin commented dryly. “Did you recover the walker?”

“Yessir,” Corso answered over Silver’s shoulder, his arms still firmly and unapologetically around her waist. “Jaiza’s overseein’ the recovery check. Figured I’d wanna find my wife.” He tweaked Silver’s ponytail. “She wasn’t wrong.”

“Is that why it took so damn long for you to get back?” Silver demanded as Jorin hurried off toward walker maintenance, finally loosening her grip.

“Yeah, walkers only move so fast.” He leaned in to kiss her temple. “An’ we hit a few extra targets on the way back, once we had the firepower. Started runnin’ twitchy so Myri didn’t push it on the way back. That’s how come the maintenance check.”

“Alright, an’ howdja sneak up on me?”

“There’s more’n one entrance, walker bay’s by the south gate, an’ I didn’t feel like circlin’ a quarter of the base to come in the front door.” He smirked. “Ain’t my fault you were distracted.”

“I was worryin’ about you.” Silver reminded him. “So it sorta was.”

“I stand corrected,” Corso laughed. “And real tired. Whaddya say we go get some shut-eye ‘fore we gotta deal with whatever tomorrow throws at us?”

“Sounds good,” she agreed, tugging him in for a kiss before they set off to find a place to sleep, Corso’s arm settled around her shoulder and Silver’s hand in his back pocket.

Corso was right; they could deal with tomorrow’s problems tomorrow. Right now, worries assuaged and the day’s adrenaline quickly fading, Silver felt as tired as he looked. Sleep definitely sounded good--sounded like heaven--right about now.

They wound up crowded in a corner, sharing a cot clearly meant for one person. On the bright side, it was a durasteel-clad excuse to snuggle close with her husband all night long. It was an extremely acceptable trade-off in Silver’s reckoning.

And from the smile on Corso’s face as he drifted off with her tucked close, he reckoned the same.

#queens fic #silver riggs #corso riggs #swtor #otp: space dorks

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dramaqueeenamby · 6 years

Text

The Tulips Are Too Red

A/N: So, I have a favor to ask of you all. Sooooo many of you have shared such kind words with me, sending encouragement my way in regards to my writing. Many of you even believe that I could be published my day. That still gets to me.

Anyway, here’s the thing, before I ventured into writing BP fics, I created a completely fictional story that I planned to post on Wattpad once I finished the other stories on there. Well, that never happened. I was working on chapters, getting up to three done but stopped as I was busy with other Wattpad fics. However, you guys have really got me thinking about my writing and just future in general.

So, I’m posting one of the chapters that I’ve written in the hopes that you guys will let me know your honest opinion of it. If it’s shitty, please say so. Constructive criticism will only make me better as a writer.

Also, as I was rereading it, I realized that I could really turn this into a BP fanfic as well, a T’Challa x OC story once I finish up the rest of the fics that I’m juggling.

Okay. I’ll shut up and allow you to read. I also won’t tag anyone because this is far from what you’re used to seeing from me.

----

It Is Winter Here

Chapter 1

It is Winter Here.

There are exactly twenty-four hours in a day. In minutes, that number grows to 1,440, and in seconds, it’s a whopping 86,400. Most people don’t think about stuff like that. Time. Unless they’re wondering how much they have left before they can clock off and go home to their adoring wife who’s been slaving over a stove all day. Or maybe their kids who’ve been home alone since they got out of school doing God knows what with God knows who. Other than those scenarios, and maybe a few more, like I said, hardly ever cross the mind.

But I’m not most people.

I tend to think about these things. I think about a lot of things actually. Like how long Craig plans to grow out his hair, or if Tammy will ever realize that that infomercial with claims of a one hundred percent success rate is based on a trial of exactly five participants, four of them, paid ‘volunteers’. I also notice a lot of things. Most of which, again, people are never privy to because of their supercilious concerns.

Like I said.

Not most people.

I watch her, not even attempting to hide my suspicious stare. She’s been sitting in the same spot for over an hour, a People magazine in hand and expensive shades over her eyes. To anyone else, she’s just another patron with plenty of time to spare. To me, she’s a hawk. No one reads the same magazine for an hour straight, especially one with a Kardashian on the cover.

“For someone who literally needs someone to wipe his ass, this guy is one hell of a di*k.” I look over at Candi who has been reading for roughly thirty minutes and is almost halfway through with the 400-page novel. “He sounds cute though. At least, the way she describes him makes him sound cute.”

“So you’d take him to the shop?” Zaria shifts in her seat, eyes staying on the photographic book in her lap. She’s had the same one for over an hour.

Candi giggles and lifts her left shoulder. “He could own the shop.” I roll my eyes and tap my nails against the mahogany wood armrest of my spacious chair. “Candi likes being on top anyway.”

“Candi likes all positions.” I chime, finally throwing in my two cents.

She sighs loudly and flips her blonde locks over a naturally tanned shoulder. “I’m a lover, Nova. You should try it sometime.”

“Oh I think you have enough to give for the three of us, Candi Cane.” I wink and return my eyes to the woman in question. I squeeze the solid chair, ignoring the pressure it puts on my weak nails. She still has that same damn magazine and has again started from the first page, looking over the front cover like she doesn’t already have the scandalous image and cliched caption memorized.

“Guys.” Zaria’s voice brings me back to reality as she pulls down the sleeves of her white shirt. There’s no need for her to do so, but it’s a habit of hers. “It’s time.”

Sure enough, Pat is only feet away from us, that stupid rehearsed smile on his droopy face.

“Already.” Candi pouts and puts her arms in front of her, hands in between her thighs, her busty chest on full display. “But I’m almost done.”

Pat offers a strained smile, chubby fingers going up to adjust his thick-rimmed glasses. “Why don’t you just buy the book, Candi?”

She tilts her head to the side and deepens her pout. “I already spent my allowance.”

“On?” When she smiles wickedly, his Adam's apple moves up and then down. “Candi.”

“Oh relax, Patty.” She giggles again and chews on her bottom lips, untangling her long legs and rising to her full height. “What kind of girl do you think I am?” She pulls out a southern accent and pulls a finger to her mouth, pretending to think. “Or is it woman?”

“I wanna buy mine,” Zaria informs, also standing up, looking like a lost child next to Candi’s lengthy frame. “Nova?”

I get up, taking Candi’s book and placing it on top of mine. “Yeah. Let’s go.” Zaria pulls her sleeves down again and tucks the book under her arm, walking in front of me, leaving poor Pat to deal with Candi while we complete this transaction.

On our way to the registers, I look back and see that the Hawk is walking out, stuffing the magazine in her black Hamilton bag.

She can’t be stealing. It’s a possibility, but judging by the tennis bracelet on her wrist and that rock on her ring finger, stealing seems rather out of character. No. The magazine is clearly hers. I wiggle my fingers and fix my jaw.

Who in the hell comes to a bookstore to read a magazine they already own?

Like I said, hawk.

✻ ✻ ✻ ✻ ✻ ✻ ✻ ✻

The car ride back is long, bumpy, and crowded. The van, overdue for some serious improvements or a junking, has a strong odor. It’s not vomit inducing, but its stench will leave you crinkling your nose when you first get a waft. In the second row, seatbelt stretched and clutching onto a protruding chest, Candi engages in conversation with the driver.

He’s new, probably a tempt, and after a car ride with Candi Wallace, this will be his last time filling in.

“It’s so beautiful.” Zaria murmurs to my left, her tiny fingers and raggedy nails trailing over a portrait of the grand canyon. “The view from the top must be breathtaking.”

I give the picture a few seconds of my time, for her sake. It is nice, but nature has never really stood out to me. Too many elements that I can’t control. “Maybe one day you can take your own picture. That one, I’d maybe even frame.”

Aside from a small smile, she says nothing.

The rest of the ride is filled with Candi’s musing and Pat’s occasional business calls. When we pull up, the driver and Pat flash ID’s; the guard peaks his head in the car to make sure that everything checks out.

After Candi flashes him a wink and places her index finger in her mouth, he gives her a one-over and lets us in.

“He wants me.” She mouths to us and then giggles, clapping her hands together and resuming her goal of bugging the driver. When we pull up to the entrance, she’s the first one out, blowing him a kiss and happily waving. “Call me.”

“Maybe,” I add on, smiling when she shoots me a glare. “I couldn’t help.”

“Jealousy really isn’t becoming of you, Nova.” She raises her chin and saunters through the automatic doors, switching her hips and uttering variations of hello to everyone she passes.

“You gotta admit.” Zaria starts, keeping her book clutched against her chest. “She’s fun to be around.”

I look over my shoulder to see Pat watching us closely. He’s so annoying.

I roll my eyes. “My lady, you and I have very different definitions of fun.” Swinging my arm around her shoulder is easy as we’re roughly the same height. I think I have an inch on her, maybe even less.

She laughs, and I crack a small smile. Those are becoming more prevalent by the day. It’s a stark contrast from our first meeting where she woke me up out of my sleep with screams and sobs that were only silenced by a heavy sedative.

We’ve come a long way.

“Ladies.” Pat interrupts. I suppress my eye roll.

As always, Candi is the first to volunteer. Smiling happily, she keeps her arms up wide and legs spread perfectly. “It’s new.” She informs happily when the man reaches her chest and pouts when he says nothing in reference to Candi’s new bra. When he’s done, Candi mouths ‘as*hat’ to us, and I put myself in front of the man before he gets a chance to call on Zaria.

With a bored face, I let him do his job, sending a glare when he keeps his hands on my as* for too long.

Creep.

When it comes to Zaria’s turn, I take her book from her, sending her a reassuring grin. She doesn’t return my gesture, but I’m okay with that. Her eyes say thanks. That’s enough for me.

Any sign of trust from Zaria is enough for me.

My glare stays on the jerk the entire time. I watch his every movement, waiting for him to try something with her. When he gets to her chest, I feel fingers move about, fighting the urge to ball my fist. I can literally see the discomfort on her part. She’s literally counting the seconds until he moves his hands anywhere else. I don’t know if he can tell that I’m willing to have my level 5 access revoked or if he senses the ardent apprehension radiating from her, but he keeps it short and professional. As soon as he’s done, she’s back by me, reaching for her book.

“Well, he was a meanie,” Candi comments as we wait for Pat to put the key in the panel right next to the elevator.

“Too touchy feely for my liking,” I reply loud enough so Pat can hear. He says nothing. Neither does Zaria. The rest of the elevator ride is in silence aside from Candi humming “Oops! I Did It Again.”

When we finally reach our floor, the three of us stand outside the elevator for our evaluation.

“Well, you ladies seemed to have done rather well today.” Pat smiles, the fat on his face parallel with the rolls that make up his neck. “If you’d like, we can try again next week.” I yawn, wishing that I could just walk away. I’d risk losing my clearance for Zaria or even Candi, but not myself.

Someone has to keep these two from extending their bid.

“Tomorrow the group outing is to the aquarium.” He smiles fondly like this is the best news we’ve heard all day. One glance to a somewhat excited Zaria makes me realize that for her, it probably is. “I think you all would have a fine time.”

“I wanna show off my new bra. I’m game.” Candi grabs her boobs, lifting them with a wink and a smile. “Nova?”

I can literally think of a million things that I’d rather do than spend a day at the aquarium, but one look at Zaria, and I know my decision has already been made for me.

“I guess a day with Happy Feet won’t be too bad.” What I want to say is it won’t kill me, but around here, there are just some words you want to try and avoid. Kill being one of them. It’s for good reason though.

Even I’m not too much of an as*hole to admit that.

✻ ✻ ✻ ✻ ✻ ✻ ✻ ✻

For dinner, we had chicken lasagna with mixed vegetables, garlic bread, and apple pie for dessert. If it sounds magically delicious, you’re magically wrong.

The chicken was bland, the vegetables cold, and the garlic bread might have left me with some cracked teeth. The apple pie was decent, but nothing to brag about. I shouldn’t complain. Yesterday we had beef casserole.

Majority of my plate ended up in the trash.

“He was cute though, right?” Candi brushes through her hair, that dazed look in her eyes. That can only mean one thing. She’s already been given her nighttime dosage. “Of course he was. I only fu*k with the best.”

Zaria, fresh-faced, arms out and exposed in her short-sleeved shirt and blue Soffee shorts, offers a small laugh. “He must have been close to forty Candi.”

“And I thought you only liked ballers?” I wondered aloud from my position on Zaria’s bed. Next to me, she continues to admire the pictures in her book.

“Well, duh. I need a middleman to get to him.” She says like it’s the most obvious thing in the world, moving her shoulders from side to side, admiring her reflection. “I think my tits are getting bigger.”

“Your tits or your ego?”

She glares through the mirror and then pouts. “Boo, you whore.”

Zaria frowns. “You know I don’t like that word.”

“You don’t like anything, Zaria.” Candi rolls her eyes.

“Better than liking everything.” Zaria shoots back with a sly smile. I high five her, much to Candi’s chagrin. “If you catch my drift.”

“You guys are mean.” She stomps her feet and resumes brushing her hair.

When Zaria yawns, I realize her that her Clonezepam has already kicked in. Her lids are heavy, and she moves to put her book up.

“Uh oh. I think someone is sweepy.” She says in a baby voice and moves to pinch Zaria’s cheek, but Zaria swats her hand away. Candi laughs and sits on the bed, giving her a half hug. “Night, ladybug.” She kisses her cheek and brushes the top of her head.“You know I’m right down the hall if ya’ need me, sugar.”

“And I’m right next door,” I add on, lightly punching her on the arm. “Sleep tight, kid.”

“Thanks, guys.” She smiles gratefully, getting up at the same time we do so she can pull back the covers. She doesn’t even care that the horizontal lines on the inside of her thighs from not even two years ago are on full display. In the privacy of her room, even with Candi and I, Zaria is true to be herself.

We all are.

Candi yawns loudly with outstretched arms. “I’m wiped.”

“Doesn’t take much.” I chuckle, but hug her side. “Good night Candi Cane.”

She smiles brightly, her pearly whites distracting the small mole on the right side of her chin. “Night, babycakes.” I don’t even react as she squeezes my butt. I simply shake my head and walk over to my door.

I stop when I go to turn the handle, noticing the light peaking through the bottom of the door.

Smirking, I walk in and shut it behind me.

“Can I help you with something?”

He’s sitting on the green, faux leather chair in the corner of my room. I narrow my eyes, wishing that I could wipe that smug grin off his chiseled face. He leans forward, his green scrubs a contrast against his sun-kissed skin, the short sleeves clinging against solid muscle.

“I’m here for night check.”

I chuckle, purposely taking my time as I make my way over to him. “Well, I hate to be the one to break it to you Mr..,” I look over at the badge on his shirt. “Collins, but I have level 5 access. I don’t need a night check.” My body is jolted forward, my knees immediately separating so that I’m straddling him. “This is highly unprofessional and extremely inappropriate.” I moan as one hand goes to stroke my already hardened nipple and the other slips into my shorts.

He mimics my chuckle, satisfied when he feels the wetness already pooling from my core. “I’ve seen your records, Ms. Young.” He stands us up, his hand still in my shorts, teasingly running his finger up and down my folds. “Breaking rules is your specialty.”

I look down at him, his blue eyes holding nothing but pent up lust. Using my index finger, I run my finger down his cheek, parting his mouth and tugging on his bottom lip.

“Then what are you waiting for, Doctor?”

With a guttural growl, he throws me on the bed. I don’t think I need to tell you what happened next.

Two hours later, he’s long gone, and I’m out like a light.

Just another typical day at Lakeshore Mental Hospital.

#personal #DQAFics #PLEASE do not steal

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elixirsoflife · 6 years

Text

across seasons and seas

@inekepp

HAPPY BIRTHDAY INEKE!!

i’ve actually been planning this present for a while... i got the idea a few months ago, started it, stopped it when my muse flaked out on me and recently completed it (as of 23rd sept) just in time to spring it upon you. to my soulmate and the person who hyped dormitory 2.6a to a whole new level, here is a brand new novus one shot for you ^.^ <333

(i can’t guarantee it’s any good lmao)

(also bc you are a beast at validating on hpft, i had to upload it onto tumblr first)

"It can only be true love when you enable your other half to be better, to be the person they're destined to be." - Michelle Yeoh

PRÓLOGOS

It starts like this.

With a party in a cosy common room. The lights are dim, and the music is loud, and there are bodies everywhere, too many to count. There's a brief parting of the crowd, a glimpse of one tipsy girl's heartfelt laughter, and a momentary appreciation for the more beautiful things in life.

(Al stops. He stares.)

It starts with the party and then it stutters as the school year gives way to the summer holidays and Al forgets all about Nova Hale and her pretty little laugh.

(Elijah tackles him without warning. The trance he's in shatters as he hits the ground.)

♥

In sixth year, the engine groans to life again, hesitant at first - and then as the Scottish air rapidly chills, everything switches into fifth gear. Whatever is slowly blooming to life between the pair picks up speed, hurtles through the corridors of Hogwarts like drag racers along lamp-lit streets. One moment, Nova Hale is a mere classmate and the next, she's the star of his dreams.

(He's sixteen years old, months shy of his birthday, and he thinks he's in love.)

Loving Nova Hale is easy.

Granted, her friends are without a doubt her immediate concern at all times and she shies away when his hands are a little too familiar in public. But the smiles she offers are soft and sweet, like he's her entire world, and the way her cheeks darken makes his heart sing. Her laughter comes easily and her kindness quickly follows suit and her pinkie links delicately with his whenever they stroll through the courtyard.

They argue over each other's priorities and they're in love.

Exams drive them to the edges of their sanity and they're in love.

The wizarding world barges into their personal bubble the second they leave Hogwarts and they're still in love -

But sometimes love simply isn't enough. And the fact is that Nova has never been great with attention in the first place while Al's surname and dream career greedily sucks it all up like a black hole. Their regrets are countless and their tears are earnest, but in the end, they agree –

It ends like this.

♥

(Months earlier, one hundred and sixty seventh years loitered on the grass near the Black Lake, reluctant to clamber into the boats that first brought them there. Al remembers looking at the girl beside him, the way she tugged on the tassles of her graduation cap, and thinking that, though things will inevitably change, he knows she will always be a constant in his life.

He thought wrong.)

EPISODE ONE

Life without Nova Hale isn't necessarily life without Nova Hale.

There are a couple of months that immediately succeed the break up and though it wasn't messy, it still hurts. He sees her in Diagon Alley, snowflakes melting on her cheeks, and he wants. It's intense and sharp, far more powerful than the puppy adoration from those early days in sixth year when he didn't know the sweetness of her mouth or the press of her arm against his. And quite frankly, it’s…

It hurts.

Strictly speaking, their lives do not intersect much. Without him, there's no reason for Elijah or Adam the Puff or even Scorpius to go out of their way to contact her so there's little risk of Nova tumbling into his life without warning. But Al’s also good friends with Alice and good… something or the other with Dahlia, who both carry with them a constant reminder of everything he's lost whenever he sees them. So life without Nova Hale isn't necessarily life without Nova Hale, even when she abruptly leaves England with a backpack choking with clothes and a pouchful of Galleons, off to travel the world.

(Even when she's somewhere in the middle of Asia, sun on her back and skin darkening to honey, she remains in the peripheries of his existence. Sometimes he thinks that'll never change.)

Life without Nova Hale is –

Gruelling practices where he's run into the ground, thighs sore from clamping around a broomstick for hours on end. Days begin with the sun rising over Montrose and a quick trip to The Harpy for a coffee to wake him up. They end with a hot shower, maybe a night out to the pub with the boys, or crashing at someone's place for the evening. Life is a crappy flat he shares with the reserve Keeper, Ahmad, and Al’s brother – who technically doesn't live with them but can never be found elsewhere. It’s downing chocolate quaffles straight from the cereal box in lieu of an actual breakfast and then having his dad pinch his waist and reprimand him for not eating more.

It’s waking up one day and realising that it's getting a lot easier to breathe again.

(He's pissed out of his head on Firewhiskey when he realises he is no longer in love with Nova Hale. Nothing will scrub away the fondness he regards her with or make her less beautiful in his eyes, but he can accept that. He's moved on. He's moved on.)

♥

Months fly by and his career takes off with them.

Sure, Al's young and inexperienced compared to the big stars of the league, but he's also somewhat of a prodigy when it comes to Quidditch. Passion meets a keen eye when he circles the pitch on his broom; enthusiasm collides with his natural Slytherin instinct to strategise down to every last possibility. He complements this by training furiously and it shows.

Quidditch magazines all over Britain and Western Europe note his performance, the way he elevates the Magpies to even higher ranks. In the meantime, gossip rags note his blossoming relationship with enemy Seeker of the Falcons, Briar James, when they’re seen together a handful of times over the duration of several weeks before they go finally public.

RIVALRY FOR THE SNITCH, ROMANCE OFF THE PITCH, screams Witch Weekly when the news breaks out.

("I will honestly murder you," screams Dahlia Darzi instead.

Alice helpfully points out that it's been nearly a year since the Incident and that Nova herself is in the midst of a whirlwind romance somewhere in the depths of St Petersburg. Dahlia tells her to fuck herself.)

So for a time, life without Nova Hale is a life with Briar James, with her tight afro and her big doe eyes. It's impromptu matches of football in a half-empty Muggle park and pancakes on Sunday mornings and being labelled Briabus by their adoring fans. It's beer on Friday evenings and sex on Saturday mornings and accented English venomously spitting his name over an intense game of Mario Kart.

It’s being moonstruck and happy again.

But then that too fades away and Al is left - well, not heartbroken, not really, but certainly rather upset because he really did like Briar. She was relaxed and easy-going, just as down to re-enact her favourite WWE wrestling moves as she was to tug Al’s jumpers over his head. Time with her was like a hall full of floating candles: bright and pretty. It's a shame they eventually snuffed out.

STASIMON

Nova Hale returns from Europe on a slow Sunday afternoon. They meet in The Harpy, Al walking out of the bathroom to find her on his seat at the counter, sipping on his white chocolate mocha. A million disjointed thoughts fly through his head when he sees her, but he settles for a quirk of his lips and clears his throat.

"Shouldn't you ask me out before you steal my coffee?"

She chokes on it, eyes blown wide as she turns sharply in his direction. There's an eased slant to her shoulders and a new air of confidence that clings to her, scavenged all the way from the far reaches of China, but her cheeks burn as red as always.

"I - I," she stammers, glancing between Al and the drink in her hands. Finally, her eyes settle on the smug smirk of her friend behind the counter. "You said this was for me!"

Dahlia shrugs without care. "Oops."

"Oh my god." Nova closes her eyes, mortified. "I honestly hate you."

"My life is complete."

"Good, now I won't feel bad about ending it," comes the retort before Nova turns to Al with a much gentler expression. Sheepish, she holds out the white chocolate mocha. "Sorry about that, I genuinely didn't realise. Here you go – or, never mind that, I'll buy you a new one if you'd like?"

He's already shaking his head. "No, I'm alright," he says not unkindly. Indulging in a small smile, he adds, "You probably need it more than me anyways. I hear travelling to half the countries in the world takes a lot out of you."

Nova returns the smile with one of her own. It's not nearly as lovestruck as it once was, but it's pretty all the same. "Not nearly as much as winning the Quidditch League," she replies and takes a fresh sip. The slant of her eyebrows is friendly and teasing over the lid.

"Ah. So you heard about that."

"Kind of hard not to," she confesses. "You're pretty big news, Albus Potter. The leagues love you."

On the surface, he preens under her compliments, pleased as ever to hear them. He's worked damn hard to get where he is, alright, and he deserves to accept some praise sometimes. But underneath that, beyond his teasingly arrogant response that of course he's big news and what else did you expect, Hale?, there's a moment of understanding between them.

Once they fell apart because of camera flashes and Quidditch robes. It was a struggle between wanting forever together and wanting their dreams - and now, over a year later, they can admit that they chose and chased the right option.

No matter how much it hurt at the time.

EPISODE TWO

Their story starts in a common room with Firewhiskey clouding their minds and the very edges of their worlds brushing. Then it hiccups, takes a quick detour over the summer, before hurtling down the motorway at ninety miles an hour. And then half a year after their childhood has drawn to an end, it stalls.

A season shy of two years later, it hums back to life again.

It happens like this.

♥

Italy's night sky is a dark blue overhead when Al sneaks out of his hotel. The past handful of days have been spent on Asinara as the wizarding world clamours around a glorious Quidditch stadium far from prying Muggle eyes. Country after country has played passionately, losing or rising to glory. And for the first time in a long time, England is storming ahead towards the World Cup.

The feeling is heady and exhilarating. Somewhere in the past, a twelve-year-old Albus Potter gazes at him in awe, trailing a wondrous finger over the number on the back of his robes. He's here; he's made it. He's finally reached the distant goal he set the second he made it onto the Slytherin Quidditch team.

There's a thrumming in his veins, faint and electric, a restlessness that begs to be dispelled. He apparates hundreds of miles away from the team’s accommodation to a fountain in the Eternal City and recalls a memory from years ago. Remembers the solidness of Nova Hale in his arms, the grandeur of the Trevi Fountain, the coin they tossed in for good measure.

He remembers being so wholeheartedly in love with this one girl.

It's been a little under two years since they went their separate ways. In that time, they've loved and known other partners, stitched together the hurts that lingered on their skin. They've avoided each other, ran away to different continents entirely, and then stood face to face and finally accepted that things have changed.

(The tricky thing about first loves, however, is that they never truly go away. As much as Al tries to kid himself, there's always a part of him that yearns to tuck himself into Nova's side and hide away.

As the months after her return draw on, that part of him grows.)

But here, here in front of this massive monument, the days of his youth burned into the back of his eyes, the acceptance of their situation seems to unravel. The night whispers of regression, of old things rising anew. He looks at the Trevi fountain and once more wants with a ferocity he hasn’t felt in a long while. Not since that winter they broke up.

He hears her footsteps before he sees her face. Hears her voice before she shifts out of the shadows and into view.

"Al?" Nova calls out softly across the courtyard. When their eyes meet, she breaks out into a hesitant smile, slowly drawing closer. "Fancy seeing you here."

Perhaps her presence there should be a little more jarring, a tad bit questionable. After all, as of a few weeks ago, Nova was still in England, scribbling away at the Quibbler. At most a month before that, she was in South America with his Aunt Luna, describing the sublime with words and painting a compelling picture with her articles. And now she's here in little old Italy by his side as they gaze up at the fountain once more.

It isn't.

Jarring, that is.

The last time he was here, it was with her. Back then, his arms were around her waist, fingers interlocking where they met - his chin on the top of her head, eyes drowsy as he absorbed the sight. Something in the quiet air whispered that there were far greater things than them at work here. Such intimacy can therefore only be shared with her; it makes sense for her to appear now.

"I couldn't sleep," he replies at last. His hands bury deep into his pockets. "Figured I should take a trip down memory lane."

Nova mimics his position and stuffs her hands into the silk depths of her coat with a sigh. It's not a particularly sad sigh, but Al struggles to place the emotions that lace it. Longing, maybe? Wistfulness? Or maybe that’s just him.

"Me too," she admits quietly. Her eyes are bright with soft gold lights and distant memories. "Luna brought me along to do a piece on Italy since the World Cup's here and I thought I might as well come here for old times' sake?" Her voice rises in a question at the end as if she's not sure whether it's okay for her to be there while he is. As if she’s an intruder on a private moment when the truth is, she’s the star of it all.

"I guess the coin worked then,” is what Al voices instead.

It takes her a moment to understand his words, but when she does, Nova lets out a surprised laugh. "I forgot about that!" She bats softly at his arm. "Maybe there really is magic going on here then, like all the rumours say. Sure feels like it, don’t you think?"

Al can't help but smile at her. No matter how many years it's been since their last visit, Nova's joy in the face of such grandeur has never diminished in its loveliness. A poet could write sonnets about it, he thinks. An artist could immortalise it in vivid sunsets. The sound of it, the sight - it makes him feel so, so warm.

"Since we're already here," he murmurs, "do you wanna see if anywhere's still open?"

When Nova looks at him, it's with very shrewd eyes. He can see puzzle pieces slot into place in her mind, conclusions being drawn in white chalk against midnight boards, decisions being made. But at last, she offers him her own smile - gentle and indulgent, a little nostalgic too - and cocks her head to one side.

"Lead the way."

♥

High school sweethearts rarely ever stay together. Did you know that? Hogwarts is not a microcosm of the wider world – and so, Al and Nova did not know how to function without the crutch of those castle walls. Life commanded them in different ways, tugged them to separate directions. Al flew up to Montrose, a stadium full of magpies calling his name, and Nova? Well, she travelled everywhere in the end.

Even when she officially returned to England, several countries under her belt and a year after they split ways, she was restless. A true child of wanderlust, she eventually signed up for a job that meant she was always on her feet, returning to town only to Portkey back out again. The Quibbler was more than happy to take her on as Luna’s travelling companion, her vivid descriptions of exotic locations partnered with the older woman’s magizoological finds. Both parties have never looked back since.

Such busy schedules have meant that neither Al nor Nova have had the proper chance to rebuild a genuine relationship beyond standard niceties. Meant that their conversations have always hovered on the strange edge between polite warmth and flirty friendliness, enough attraction lingering between the exes to charge their interactions with an indefinable energy that is never addressed.

That night in Italy quickly unravels into much more.

A catch-up over Butterbeer dissolves into a conversation about old memories, happiness pouring from their tongues and shoulders shaking with its force. As they talk, their ankles are familiar underneath the table, brushing up against each other every so often. And the spark of tension that hovers between them, even years later, rapidly flickers into something much less tentative.

They're not drunk.

Not when Nova laughs so hard she collapses against his arm. Not when they stay in the bar long after their glasses are drained to the last drop. Not when they leave their seats and linger on the cobblestones outside, reluctant to leave for their beds. Not when Al's fingers trace along her wrist and then flutter against the curve of her waist inquiringly – and not when she steps into his embrace as the world blurs around them.

They're not drunk. At least, not on alcohol.

Maybe on this feeling though. This oblivion that wipes all comprehension from Al's mind save the sweetness of honeysuckle kisses from Nova's mouth. Maybe off the pressure of ten fingers on his shoulders and sweat sticking to his back and his heartbeat racing, racing, racing behind the safety of his ribs. Maybe on the way he breathes her name and she murmurs his and how the world seems to align perfectly once again.

♥

(The next morning, his coach’s thunderous knock on his hotel room door startles Al out of his sated slumber. He jerks awake to see Nova still there, face puffy and eyelashes clamped tight. She flips over, a pout pressed against the base of his throat.

"Do we have to get up?" she whines. "Because if so, I think we should stage a protest."

Butterflies swoop in his stomach when she says we instead of you. His fingers intertwine with hers. She holds his hands like she doesn't plan on letting go.)

STASIMON II.

This is a story, did you know?

In the beginning, it starts like this: at a party in a common room underground. A boy sees a girl laugh across the room and for a moment, he forgets how to breathe. That summer, he forgets that he forgot how to do that - until sixth year arrives and he falls in love with that laugh again in a way that'll never really leave him, even when he tries for years.

Of course, all great stories must have conflict. They must have the readers on their edges of their seats, teeth worrying away at the crescents of their nails, desperate to know if their protagonists will make it through their turmoil. And so our story has a hiccup and the hiccup is - tragic, bittersweet - tainted with dreams that are too big and a love that weeps for it. There are Quidditch practices that demand all of Al's attention and cameras that gobble up some more until there is very little left for Nova.

So, she leaves.

Kisses him goodbye, sheds a few hundred tears and packs her bags for a town in France (and then Germany and Europe and then the rest of the world. It’s not running away if she meant to do it eventually, after all.)

They stay this way for years, seemingly for forever. For some tales, this would be where the story draws to a close, the final words stained with melancholy and regret. Others, however - the best ones some might say - have a happy ending. Here, the happy ending looks a lot like:

Italy in the late hours of the day with its silk skies and hidden stars, a sliver of a silver moon hanging low against the night.

Nova's skin when it's kissed by golden light, soft and lovely as a fountain spills magic mere metres away.

Al's pulse juddering under a hot, velvet coat.

Skin on skin and small hands tracing blazing trails along his freckles.

Lazy smiles on sunlit mornings and private meals in the evening

Aa promise made over neat hotel napkins.

(The promise agreed that things between them feel different. That they think they might have grown up since two winters ago. That perhaps this means they can grab the second chance they’ve been offered with both hands - and this time, they can hold on tight.)

EXODE

"Albus Potter, you've just won England the Quidditch World Cup final! How does it feel to bring the trophy home for the first time in half a century?" "It feels great, mate. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go kiss my girlfriend."

#hp #harry potter #hp next gen #harry potter next generation #dormitory 2.6a #albus potter #nova hale #scorpius malfoy??#well he's mentioned once #so is james potter #and adam the puff #dahlia darzi #alice longbottom #novus #extras

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survivesalem · 4 years

Text

Episode 3 - “This music video is kinda hot to be quite honest.” - Raffy

I think this may be the end of me. The worst possible thing has happened. We are tribe swapping....I'm the only member of my tribe over here.....its a 5-1-1......oof Can I get an F in chat? Here's to good luck and hope that there is fracture within the 5.

I am kind of glad to be swapped because it means that I am no longer stuck with a losing tribe. But, it seems no one knows how to edit which just sucks because that will surely mean we will lose the challenge. On the plus side, I have Mac and Jay with me. Our alliance will be stronger than ever! However, Mac let slip earlier that he knows a lot more people than he lets on which means I will allow him to choose the target if we go to tribal council as I don't need to accidentally target someone he's friends with. I feel that I can make stronger connections on my current tribe way more easily than with my old tribe.

Ben and Evelyn went. Inacts. Bye. Now it’s swap. I’m down the street when I see the “Announcement” pop up and I’m like AHH SHIT. I look at the tribes.....I wouldn’t say I’m in danger but the division is literally 3-3-1. Jessie as the swing vote. I need to work my ass off or flip to get myself safe. Oof I’m worried. Butttttt MUSIC VIDEO CHALLENGE TIMEEEEE. I was away when people discussed the songs, and it’s literally some random song I’ve never heard of. I’d love to bitch and complain but also not, so I’ll just sell this fucking performance xoxo

So we get tribe swapped and I’m the only og tituba still on the tribe . Gonna list my thoughts on my new tribe members Raft - seems okay we played a game in the past we’re he got out early . Picked the music video song seems to be a take charge personality . Jay : haven’t spoken much don’t vibe yet . Seems very silent Jessie: wow Jessie, it’s finally your challenge please snap or you’ll probably be yeeted off the tribe Lukas: haven’t spoken . Don’t think he’s gonna reach out first so it’s gonna have to be me . Keegan/Harley: played atomic didn’t work together we said we are gonna work together this time so hopefully it happens Mac/ Oak tree man: THIS IS THE MAN I SENT PICTURES OF TREES TO IN ATOMIC. He passes my vibe check . Brien: I’ve actually met him and he seems genuinely hyped that we get to play together . Don’t think he’s voting me off soon Rn my biggest concerns on the tribe are Jay and Lukas due to lack of communication. I’m sure they already have connections most people tend to . Anyways yeah I’m just hoping we win this music video challenge because honestly I love our tribes ideas. Spooky spooky witchy witchy

Despite being hesitant about editing, I think I am actually doing a pretty good job at this! This is probably going to be the best music video I've ever put together. Brien was talking to me earlier about how he thinks this tribe isn't going to be based on tribal lines. That the game would be more dynamic if we play without it. But, here's the thing, I don't believe that. I think we need to get rid of an original Good member since one of those people will come back if we go to tribal. Plus he wanted to get info out of me already on my old tribe like.... we're not that close bro. At least not yet.

My dumbass not submitting any confessionals before episode 3. Gotta love that INV1 rating! So, lots has happened. Gizmo and Cameron are sneaky sneaks who have been playing all sides and just being chaotic little shits. Our tribe had multiple alliances by like day 2, even before the first challenge results. Slow down there! We ended up coming in second in a challenge but since 2/3 tribes we’re going To tribal we still had to go. Eve was voted out 4-1-1 against Cameron and ME! How dare they?? I think it was Eve who voted me but whatever. And then we swapped into two tribes! And this is basically Nova Scotia 2.0. We’ve got me and Mac and Jessie! We’ll see if that goes anywhere if we lose a challenge. (This rounds is music videos 🤮) So anyways Brien, Lukas and I are sticking together for a bit based on OG tribes, and I’ll see if I can’t get Jessie or Jay (who I just voted out of Atomic oop) to work with us. But that leaves Mac and Raffy in the outs? Who I both enjoy a lot. So, we’ll see what happens. I don’t see myself being a target right away but you never know.

Well, I did not like this challenge at all. I'm a pretty shy person so this was really out of my comfort zone. Unfortunately I wasn't able to film a whole lot due to having to travel this weekend, but! I still at least got something in to show I tried. I may have figured a way to get myself into majority which I really need. I just hope we can get it all sorted out today.

This music video is kinda hot to be quite honest. I think we're going to win, unless they have some editing god on the other side. I would be so disappointed in myself if we lost cause I'm just an amateur. However, I believe that people have appreciated my efforts as editor, so I will most likely survive this round. I just need to protect Jay and Mac. I hope they have started being social with everyone. On this tribe, I want to work with Jessie because she's in the middle of the tribe line split. I have not told Jay or Mac this because I want to keep my cards as close to my chest as possible in the pre-merge. I do not even know if I even want to work with anyone in the long term. In any case, I am hoping to target either Lukas or Brien. I have talked to Lukas the least which is problematic, and Brien is always on game mode seemingly. He's been talking strategy despite not even going to tribal. That's a potential threat. However, I am going to let other people take the lead for this vote. I just want to focus on socially and strategically positioning myself with people that like me.

so uhhh....we’re doing my least favorite challenge. Music videos are the bane of my existence. I always end up editing and I refuse to do it now. Paolo is supposed to be our editor, but he has gone AWOL. I mean...I could offer to edit, but like.....why not let Paolo lose the challenge for us and then vote him out? Seems like an easy option to me. 🤷🏼‍♂️

The swap Tituba tribe are safe. HOT. Now. I’m super happy since this is the first time this season I’m immune. I can’t talk game with Liam and I hate this. But omg I need Alex safe. I also need Liam safe. Hopefully someone flops and they can leave. If my tribe lost, I’m pretty sure I would’ve had the numbers to send Keegan home. I make Brien seem like he’s in control of the vote while working with Jay and Raffy for a 4-3 vote or a 5-2 vote. That difference would be if Jessie was on my side or not.

we lost. i’m excited to start the game and go to tribal. idk what i plan to do yet, but I have ideas about who I want to work with.

Sad days. It's my first tribal of the season in the post tribe swap, and I'm not really sure where I've ended up on the tribe. I haven't spoken a word to Alex, and I voted Zach out in a prior game, so I don't know if he'll hold that against me. I like Austin, Gizmo, and Dylan, but we've never had a chance to talk game or work together yet. I'm also nervous that people will target me since I did such a bad job at editing compared to the other team, but who knows. It's gonna be a free for all on my end.

The other tribe, Osbourne, is going to tribal. In our tribe, it’s a 3-3-1 split. On the other tribe, it’s a 5-1-1 split. The 1 person also has the 5 from the other tribe, making all six. That’s worrying. If one of those 5 don’t go home then we may have to throw a challenge or two and make sure the 1 leaves. The only issue, that 1 is Jessie, and I really like them as a person. My new tribe has 3 OG Good; Keegan, Lukas, Brien, as well as 3 Osbourne; myself, Jay and Raffy. Brien is the outlier with Lukas and Keegan being close. Brien fed me useful info of Gizmo being new and close to Lukas and Keegan. On my personal hitlist; is Lukas, Keegan and Austin. I don’t trust those 3 out of the people left in the cast, even despite me and Austin never interacting yet. Austin is sweet but their style gameplay is a lil cutthroat. Pretty much what I’m saying is whoever goes from the opposing tribe is who I target in this tribe when we go to tribal. Either Jessie, or the Keegan/Lukas duo. Anyways, stream Sour Candy by Lady Gaga ft BLACKPINK.

Keegan definitely voted for Cameron bc he was scared of an idol I’m fairly certain of it but I understand why he did so I’m not mad at him and I think I trust him on this new tribe more then Lukas. But I fear they are a duo and I wanna talk to Jessie and tell her my fears so she knows she can trust me and maybe me her and Keegan can be a group. I wanna work with Jessie bc I know her pregame and met her irl but the only problem is her original tribe has not lost a member and if we don’t vote her out here then the other tribe might stick together and get Alex and Gizmo out before turning on eachother then we could have all of them at a merge which would not be ideal. So I gotta weigh if keeping Jessie as an ally is worth that happening. I had a good convo with Mac Idk where will stand on this new tribe but I wanna work with him bc I think he will always be perceived as more threatening then me. He even bought up the idea of a tengagers alliance with everyone in the game that has a tengaged which is me him Liam Alex and Cameron we will see if all of us are still around come merge time but I’m excited to maybe make that reality once we merge. We both kinda agreed Austin is shady. Keegan Mac and Jessie all just played atomic together which worries me that they will want to stick together on this tribe but I definitely want to work with Mac and I need to make sure he knows it. Atm the person I’m least closest to on my tribe is Jay so if we lose I’d want to try to make a move on him possibly. I wanna work with raffy but he sketches me out in our pms and isn’t willing to give me any info. I fear Keegan and Lukas are too close and I’m a 3rd wheel for them I wanna see if I can enlist macs help to take one of them out maybe Lukas because he talks to me less then Keegan does

I can't believe that I won a music video challenge with my editing skills. I am so proud of that video! I am going to take the time that we are immune to bond more with my tribe. I think I have gotten the best vibes from Keegan and Jessie. Brien is middling. Lukas and I don't really connect that well. I think I am still good with Jay and Mac, so there's no worry on that front. Now that I edited my tribe to victory, they will all probably like me and want to work with me a lot more. There's the benefit of volunteering as editor hehe.

So right now I would definitely consider Mac my number one ally and I wanna keep that lowkey so no one sees us as a duo he suggested throwing the next 2 challenges to get a mix of Jessie, Keegan and Lukas out which is interesting and throwing challenges rarely works but I love going to tribal so Im not gonna say no to it. Plus if it helps gizmo stay in the game on the other tribe longer that’s good. I really like him and want to see him make the merge and then maybe we can work together at the merge Mac really seems to think merge will be at 12 and I’m not too sold on that we could have a swap or not merge at 12 So the way this tribe is it’s me and mad together and he is playing Raffy and jay and I’m playing Lukas and Keegan and idk where Jessie figures into all this but I feel bad that she may have to go simply for numbers sake if one of her original tribe doesn’t go at this tribal. I’m trying my best to be social with everyone and I think I’m a good spot to not go if we go to 2 or even 3 tribals in this tribe that’s another reason I’m not opposed to throwing the challenges. I don’t see a reason jay would trust Keegan after he voted him out in atomic so we may be able to get a 5 person majority against Keegan and Lukas who I made sure Mac knew they were right. Or if we have to we can maybe get a unanimous vote against Jessie. Mac and I made all these grand plans to make the end game and have specific numbers come merge but things never work out the way you plan them so I need to have a plans b through z at the ready and I don’t wanna put all my eggs in the Mac train atm even though I think I convinced him to trust me and he can until I feel I can’t beat him or he is more loyal to someone else *cough cough* Liam they are both hosts together on tengaged I played their game so they are close but mac is certainly trying to downplay it I need Keegan and Lukas to trust me until it’s too late for them. Will I have some remorse going for my original tribe ehh not really in games if I see I better route or a better opportunity I’m gonna take it. I think I’m the real swing vote when we have to go to tribal especially if Keegan really thinks he can get Jessie on our side. So that puts me in an interesting spot a spot where I could be loyal to my OG tribe or I could make a move a change the direction of my game for the better. It’s weird bc I’ll have enemies after I make my choice but I need to make sure the allies I make won’t turn on me after I side with them. Idk the choice I’m gonna make yet I need to weigh out the pros and cons and decide accordingly but one thing is for sure I’ll be in charge at the next vote

Well, we lost the music video challenge. Can't say I'm surprised, we took forever to get it together. There isn't as much activity on this tribe as far as I can see at least. I really want to survive this tribal. I think I've gotten myself into a good position. I'm in a 4 person alliance which is majority, but who knows if they're being honest. I'm currently trying to get in with the three other tribe members. If i can position myself as the swing vote I think that would be good for me at least for this vote.

Flirting with Brien is fun. Maybe that'll bring us closer and he'll be my goat hehe. But who can never be sure

Jay brought up in the alliance chat what we are going to do if we have to go to tribal in the future. He's just trying to get out there who would be receptive of working with us (me, Mac, and him). Jay says that he's talked the most with Brien and Lukas. That is strange because I barely talk to Lukas. I probably should get on that. I said I talked the most with Brien and Jessie. I really want to sell them on Jessie so that we can make her work with us which will help us gain a majority on this tribe without stepping on tribal lines. Mac has yet to wake up, so I'm waiting to see what he thinks. It sounds like our alliance might want to work with Brien eventually, but we shall see. I am very hesitant to even mention working with anyone because I do not want to step on toes so early on. Maybe I should try to keep my mouth shut on game talk and work on being social for the time being.

Mac is spilling the hot tea today. He wants to throw the next immunity challenge to take out either Keegan or Lukas. I am in love with this idea as it puts the target on Mac instead of myself since he was the one who said it. I will just let people fight my battles for me until merge to avoid the big target. Apparently, Keegan is a past winner and Lukas is popular in the community. So, if we take them out now, then we can set ourselves up in a power position late down the line. I can see why Mac made POTS. He is definitely a strategic threat and has a very analytical mind. When I backstab him, I need to do it swiftly and effectively. I hoping that Jay follows through with the plan. I believe that we will target Keegan as he has not been the most active in the chats at all. This could make him the easy vote out. I want to include Jessie in on the plan in order to establish a strong connection with her. This is so when we do merge that she won't fall back to her old tribe and will fall back to us.

So uh........,,.,,.,.,..,shit hit the fan. Apparently Austin is targeting Dylan and I do yeehaw. I think Dylan and I are going to try and pull votes for austin.

When that chat was created between Alex, Austin, Gizmo & Myself I knew I had to expose it! AND THAT'S WHAT YA BOI DID! Austin is a rat and I've had shady vibes from him since the beginning and this just confirmed it. I told Dylan, Paolo & Zach what Austin said and some certain people were not that happy. I think it's either Austin or Paolo going but I'm still not 100% but if I managed to get numbers for Austin I'm so SHOOK

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tennyo-elf · 7 years

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Mass Effect Trilogy Thoughts

I’m ten years late to the party (or 5 years depending on if you start at ME1 or ME3) but I finally finished the Mass Effect Trilogy, thanks to Dragon Age.

Here are my thoughts on the games, the ending, random bits, the romance, etc, etc...

After I played the trilogy I looked around tumblr and found that a lot of people thought the first game was clunky. I, for one, while I know there were kinks (especially regarding dialogue/romance options), loved the first game so much that it’s my favorite of the three games. I played Vanguard and once I got barrier I had so much fun just standing in the middle of fire blasting everything in sight. I hate shooter games because I suck at them, but ME1 allowed me to have fun. The unlimited ammo really was what got me, ‘cause I’m a terrible shot. Of course there was the whole heating thing for your weapon, but I rather have that than, “Oops, out of ammo!”

I didn’t like the battle system for ME2 and the whole working for Cerberus. The characters were pretty awesome, but it took me a bit to learn not to flirt since I wanted to be faithful to Kaidan (I play paragon, so I had to learn to stick to the middle options on the dialogue wheel). ME2 was pretty much my least favorite. I only wish I could have played with Legion more.

ME3 took the best of ME1 and ME2 and made a great game...up until the ending of course. But seriously, ME3 is great and really fun and I loved just going around doing my Biotic Charge/Nova combo. Yeah, let me just charge a Brute or a Banshee that could literally one shot me and then nova/shotgun/charge them to death before they can kill me. That, to me, is seriously fun! Biotic power ftw!

The ending though. That ending...back before I had even heard of Bioware and was vaguely familiar with the name Dragon Age (I had thought to purchase it back in 2009 but went “Nope, I probably won’t like it” - fuck, how wrong I was...) I heard about the notoriously bad ME3 ending. It was all over the place in my geek sphere. So before I played the trilogy I looked up the ending on the wiki and read about it in articles, and I knew I’d hate it. So, since I’m on PC, I looked up some mods. I never met the star child (or whatever) or had to make a choice and I’m grateful for that. (My Shep always survives because I’m a completionist and I always get all war assets thus my end score is well above what’s needed for everyone to survive.)

First I got the regular MEHEM, played the trilogy, and the ending, with this mod, didn’t feel right. It didn’t satisfy me at all. I needed to redo some things to get the ending I wanted (I accidentally killed Steve Cortez in my first pt, fuck that noise) so I played ME3 a second time and used a new ending mod called JAM. That pt went perfectly. The ending seriously made me happy, and if felt so right! The Extended Ending, plus JAM, plus the Leviathan DLC, allowed me to enjoy the trilogy with no tears (besides for Anderson, Thane, Mordin, and Legion). There was only ONE plot hole with this combo.

The catalyst obviously targeted Reaper technology (in this mod/DLC combo), but the Geth and EDI were integrated with Reaper code. So how did they survive? (You know they survived by the ending slides with the Geth and EDI calling for Shepard when the gang went looking for her.) So I have to head canon an extra side quest after Priority: Rannoch, where the Geth and EDI discuss looking for a firewall against the catalyst energies for their built in Reaper code. Maybe they get it from the Keepers on the Citadel or maybe they create one together. Of course there is worry about the Reapers getting hold of this firewall, blah blah blah, but they keep it on the hush and hush and it works out in the end. I had no issues with the destroy ending where the Citadel and the relays go boom, because it made sense to me, I only worried about EDI and the Geth. (I united the Geth with their Creators, I’m not letting them die!) So I head canon the side quest and they’re safe.

There is also the nightmares Shepard has about the boy. I also head canon that when she passes out after Anderson dies, she dreams again, and this time, instead of just standing and watching the boy catch fire, she saves him, she takes action, she stands up for herself and doesn’t let her guilt or fears or worries control her. She wakes with a start (and renewed energy/life) and then activates the Crucible/Catalyst. Perfect ending to me, yes, yes. (Watch here!)

As for the continuation of the series, after playing the trilogy I was disappointed that they didn’t continue the story post war with the reapers. I haven’t played Andromeda yet but I understand it’s in a different Galaxy with different problems and I think that was a missed opportunity on Bioware’s part to explore the other themes/consequences of the first trilogy. There is the dark matter/biotics/eezo/mass effect fields topic to explore as well as the fall out of Shepard’s decisions, such as the Krogan population surge, Geth/Qurian alliance, and the Leviathans. Leviathans indoctrination abilities are very concerning. And granted, Mass Effect 3 did hint that the Krogan and Geth Alliance weren’t a threat, it still wasn’t made certain. Personally I like to be able to have a game where you make sure the Krogans and rachni aren’t a threat based on in-game decisions from both the old and new trilogy. Also, I like the new hero to be able to formalize that the Geth/EDI/new AIs aren’t the threat they were made out to be and we can work together (for Destroy or even control ending, synthesis ending would have to focus on how it didn’t solve the real problems/took away freedom from people). Draw parallels from humans who are evil to AIs who go evil too. And everything leading up to the true threat of Leviathan’s trying to take over again and how the team work of species can over come their old oppressors. Just a trilogy about overcoming old thoughts/beliefs/etc. And it doesn’t have to take place immediately after the reaper war either. It could take place after Shepard’s death or when Shepard is very old and retired. I mean, you could make a game like that, it’d just take finesse because of the way they made ME3′s ending. It’d be tricky with the synthesis ending. but it could happen. A can of worms, yet I truly believe with the five years of development they had they could have written something that may piss off some, but ultimately be a continuation of the interesting galaxy/world the first trilogy created.

Okay, random thought here, but regarding the Asari, wouldn’t be it hard to keep their heads/back of their neck clean? So many places for junk to pile up, cleaning their heads must be a bitch.

Also, this game was annoying with the male gaze, eye candy thing going on. It was everywhere and it never, ever, didn’t annoy the hell out of me. Pulled me out of the story every time I saw it, that’s for sure. I Like Miranda, but with her catsuit you can even see her lips! And I’m not talking about her face lips either!)

Alright, so romances...I went in knowing I was going to romance either Garrus or Kaidan. I didn’t know these characters yet and I saw these two were romanced the most by female Shepards on tumblr, so I figured I couldn’t go wrong with either of them. Playing a paragon Shep, and getting to know Kaidan, the romance for them made sense to me (My Shep is a spacer/war hero). I was highly attracted to his character, morals, and principals. With Garrus, I can see how a renegade Shep would be all over the “fuck rules” bit but with my paragon, if felt more like a mentor/mentee relationship turn best friends type of deal than a romance. Garrus didn’t fit with my Shepard, Liabelle. I did watch a youtube vid of his romance though and he is cute af.

Of course, later, I find out everyone hates Kaidan for Horizon (or being too emotional/whiny...which felt silly to me tbh). I didn’t. Kaidan’s reaction on Horizon made sense for his character and it felt real. My Shep knew Kaidan would react like he did and while it hurt, she didn’t love him less for it. She fell for him for his principals, why would she be upset at Kaidan being Kaidan when it’s Kaidan she fell for? Hurts yes, frustrating yes, but in the end they found their way back to one another and if felt really good. Now I’m a shenko shipper through and through.

Also loyalty to a fault can be a bad thing, sometimes you need a friend who will call you out on your shit. That’s what Kaidan did/does (though he went a bit overboard with the betrayal line, but that’s him reeling and he apologized for it). So nah, I wasn’t mad or disinterested in Kaidan after Horizon or for the beginning of ME3. I liked his character development and him coming to realize he made a mistake. You can see throughout ME3, once he comes back, how he regrets it. Ugh, the well made angst mixed with the happiness of them being back together does things to me.

In the end, Garrus and kaidan were my squad, they were my boys. I think not having Kaidan in ME2 made my dislike for the game more intense because I didn’t have my boys together. I literally shouted “MY BOYS!!” at my screen while playing ME3 when I could pick Kaidan and Garrus for my team again. It probably helped that they balanced out my Vanguard really well.

As for romanced Kaidan head canons, I will say that while they were biotic rabbits between the sheets, they were still touch and go relationship wise for most of ME3. I don’t think they were at a place in their relationship for a real marriage proposal after they find her post destroy. They definitely need time to just be and I can see that happening during leave or working on the Normandy during non war times. My husband is in the military and I asked about what would happen if they were found out and the military does give people options, either break it off or marry. I figure by the time anyone finds out they’re already engaged. That just means postings, they wouldn’t be able to work together on the Normandy. I can’t figure this one out. A part of me sees Shep retiring, another can’t see her as anything but Captain of the Normandy. Kaidan could go back to teaching, and they could meet up on Earth every shore leave Shep has...but, gah, I still haven’t figured it out yet. I do like the idea of them retiring out by Kaidan’s family’s orchard, going camping, or traveling, having kids, etc.

Lastly, the only character I dislike is Kai Leng (too one dimensional and an ass, easy to hate). The rest I will hug if I could. And I was sad I couldn’t have a third squad mate. I’d probably pick Tali mostly with the occasionally Liara or Wrex thrown in with Kaidan and Garrus. Also I have a big soft spot for Samara. I also am weird in shipping Javik and Liara (I want them to have Asari babies!!!!...after writing their book ofc), but I think Joker and EDI are cute af and you can pry that ship from dead, cold hands. Ack, and Thane dying hurt but felt inevitable since he had a terminal illness. Mordin’s death felt a bit unnecessary, he needs to be studying seashells gdi!! ALSO WHY BIOWARE, WHY KILL LEGION, WHY!!! Oh, and Kasumi needs to be able to keep the gray box and move on...humph.

Alright, I may write a small fic for shenko but I might not, IDK yet. All I know is I miss Dragon Age like I’m missing my other heart, so I’m going back to it soon-ish. Will replay this wonderful sci-fi trilogy again though, sometime in the future just not right away. I’ll always prefer my Dragon Age games, but this ride was definitely worth it.

#mass effect #mass effect trilogy #me1 #me2 #me3 #my thoughts on the games #random bits #just things I needed to say #text post #there is shenko here #but no hate #just love #and some complaining #about other stuff #but mostly love #for the games and characters

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lsgingasblog · 7 years

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Of Happy Coincidences and Fated Connections Chapter 7

Final Act

“Honey, remember behave. Keep it decent”

My dad seriously knew how to embarrass me, but also I didn’t want to particularly keep it decent.

“Don’t worry we will Mr & Mrs Kagari”

Aww man Diana why’d you have to be liked that and ‘we’ geez, it sucks having such a proper girlfriend sometimes. Well….not always proper, as I briefly eye the barely concealed hickeys I gave her just yesterday before we flew to Japan from Russia.

Geez both of our lives are hectic nowadays.

Mom might’ve noticed me eyeing Diana’s neck.

“Please dear how many times do we have to tell you to call us by our names? How did you get such a polite girl honey” And she glances at me. Goodness mom.

“We love you like our own daughter dear, so no need for such formalities and she gives Diana a cheek on the kiss and gives me a big old hug and kiss as well. “And honey don’t worry they behave” she winks at Diana. Goodness she did notice. Oops.

And so the door was closed and my parents went on a date night.

Diana scowls at me “I’m going to make the popcorn. Turn on the tv for Chariot’s show. Croix told us to watch the pre-show as well. Stay in the living room”

I’m not an unruly pet, geez. As much as I love having the house to myself and Diana. I don’t think I could seduce Diana tonight. It worked yesterday night, but I think that had a lot to do with a long time without skin-ship.

You see our graduation from luna nova is in 1 week, but graduation requirements have changed.

After passing tests and everything you have to spend you summer interning at your field of profession/expertise and only then after the end of summer break after getting a good evaluation will you graduate.

I decided sometime last year when staying with diana & Andrew and the Cavendish mansion and hearing them talk about politics and Diana’s plan for wanting to improve the quality, health and access to health care around the world.

I pondered about my future apart from putting on show, because I’m definitely going through with that for at least a few years. Except for that I actually like teaching people, like the club I started for no magic family student like me, or the club activities that the green, red & blue team alongside others helped manage. Additionally I was amazing in learning new languages, I didn’t really notice it until I joined other linguistic classes and I picked up on the language fairly fast enough. I now proudly know 12 languages including magical creature’s dialects.

So I went around putting on small shows while having interned as a magical linguistics/translator liaison. Personally not big into politics, but one of andrew’s division he is interning for himself deals with the one I worked for so it makes it more manageable.

It’s amazing though the various places I go and the different people I meet as much as the technicalities of the subject matter and some affairs they do still bogs me down, I do find helping others smoothing over conflicts important. It still doesn’t make me change my mind about putting on shows to show everyone how amazing magic is. With everything going on with a resurgence of magic extremists and malicious magical creatures, it makes you think magic being a lesser known town was not that bad, because it was considered harmless, but now it’s considered a threat.

I want to bring that joy and pure love back at least a bit.

I might be a teacher later on too, but who knows personally I’m more a plan as I go person, but diana’s proximity these last 3 years, close to 2 of which we have been dating has been transformative for both of us. Trying and life changing as well. I can’t imagine my life without Diana and I’m fairly certain she feels the same about me, but this is one discussion we cannot avoid.

I have been travelling all around for summer break and so has Diana. Her project that go approved last year has been finally been put into motion. Red tape is horrible that it took 1 year, but Andrew says that’s amazing time considering some projects take much longer. Diana had been independently starting up the program in Britain because a smaller scale got green lit sometime in the beginning of the 3rd year and it’s been showing marked improvement and the modern medicine discipline will still skeptical they have told Diana thank you for her help in more overworked times.

Third year was hell. I loved every single moment with my friends and sad to have seen it end, but that’s life and personally I’m not planning on just letting us drift away that easily. It might not be easy and we might fall to the wayside at times, but we’ll find our way back. I suppose that’s also diana and I. The problem is that our dream has become so much bigger than our relationship or us as people and it terrifies me to address it, but I’m also aware if we don’t it will blow up that much more poorly in our face.

“Is it on yet?”

I stare at the screen for the first time arguably because I’ve had a million thoughts around in my head.

“No” I’m half tempted to jump Diana’s bones but spilled popcorn on top of being a ticking time bomb means that action will not be met favorably.

She sits down next from me. She is literally all the way the end of the couch, just enough to be able to share the popcorn.

I hate this tension. I want to talk about how she’s been. Or how much I missed her or how beautiful I think she is. How the situation was at her side. How is the project in the various places going? But then I think more distressing thoughts like are we doing even worth it, the way the world is going? Can we stay together? Will we still love each other after having commit ourselves to our respective dreams? What does the future hold? I know deep-down it’s silly to ponder all of these things so much, but a future without Diana feels bleaker for me. I feel my throat close up. Ooh god no, not right now. I start crying.

Diana’s cold mask is immediately dropped and she puts the popcorn down on the counter nearby and puts her hand around me in an embrace. She starts silently sobbing too. I suppose our worries would be the same.

“I can’t imagine my life without you Diana, please don’t leave me”

Goodness I sound pathetic.

Diana pulls away and I was afraid my fears would come true for a moment, but Diana puts both hands on my cheeks and reassures me that she has the same sentiment.

So we finally talk it out she tells me her plan of only doing this for a 1 to 2 years longer just to get the ball rolling and then they can manage themselves. She says she will most likely take on as the Cavendish head while starting a health clinic of sorts nearby after that she might think of becoming a luna nova teacher and try to do both, since as certain energetic witch told her so some years back. Of course she’s talking about me.

I tell her I wanted to perform for 2-3 years while doing magical liaison stuff. Later on I wanted to do something else and teaching would be the last I do after that.

She’s a bit surprised I thought it out so much, but I tell her being around her tends to have that effect and I call her out and back then the very same girl wanted to give up everything to just become Cavendish head. Diana admits we have both affected each other and she wants that to keep happening. She also wants us to be open about anything that might be bothering us, communication is very important for all relationships after all.

I tell her we even might have a solution for the first 3 years or so. We can ask for placement at same place, it might be selfish, but given how we have saved the world so many times since the missile we could probably get a bit leeway. She doesn’t feel all too comfortable with it, but she agrees.

It’s amazing what talking things out could really do on top of that we both admitted we needed other’s people help to make our dreams come true, because our dream doesn’t have to be solely our dream and especially one as big as either of us has, we need people to help carry that burden, whether a lover, friend, ally, coworker, stranger, just people who have a lot of the same sentiments and goals as you.

We were then reminded of Charon the fish and the newest book that came out recently by Ursula Calisits. In there she had the proper end for Charon’s journey in the dessert and it was a magical one and moving one.

Both Diana and I are visibly more relaxed now that we’ve talked it out and told each other how we feel about adult life and following our respective goals.

As we talked a bit more I told her about Professor Ursula wanted me to write a book with her about all 88 constellations. I tell her Ursula is in no hurry though. She thinks it’s a great idea. I even showed her the draft that Professor Ursula is working on concerning Chinese signs crossing over with zodiac signs.

Diana finally tells me a bit about the factions and organization that are directly fighting against dark forces in the magic world, the one that Ursula asked her to join in the summer break of the first year. You know that explains a lot a few of the disappearances or weird scars and bruises.

Of course I knew it had something to do with that because having been all around it would be hard not to pick up on stuff.

She tells me she can’t share too much and that Ursula was with this faction before coming to Luna Nova and a lot of her other combative powers were learned through being in that organization.

Of course while I don’t appreciate my girlfriend not being completely open about this I will accept this for now. I will find out more myself from Ursula and a few other places. I asked Diana if I could join. She prefers I didn’t, but she won’t stop me if I tried and I should talk to Ursula for that.

It is then Diana tells me about where she went and I proceeded to catch her up as well, because we had a whole month to catch up and the big world ending disaster last week did not count as properly catching up. We started talking about our friends and where they are planning to go, their respective relationships etc.

I was after a while though that I start noticing Diana’s chest rise and fall too much during a funny skit I told her about one of the places I was at. So I kissed her.

Truthfully I would be lying if I said I didn’t want to take advantage of my parents being away. My parents do date night like once a week. We will not get another night.

“Akko, no, remember what your parents asked”

I kiss her roughly “Speak for yourself then, because I sure as heck didn’t make that promise”

She glares at me, but that was a wrong move, that only made her hotter if I’m honest.

So I kiss her and Diana isn’t all too annoyed anymore when I start raking my hand up and down her back as we are impossibly close together with our bodies grinding against each other.

We start taking of each other’s shirt and tank top for me and we continue with the touching and the kissing. That was until I move Diana higher up on the couch and I accidentally drop her and the tv is unmuted. Ooh that explains the lack of noise before.

And the pre-show is on…..wait……why is Croix there instead of Chariot?

I decided as interesting as this development was a half-naked hot girlfriend all hot and bothered seemed much more interesting. As I tried to continue my ministrations however Diana pushes me away and says we promised Croix we would see this.

“Atsuko….”

Darn she’s serious. This is so unfair though. I can count the amount of time professor and Croix interrupted our racier moments, but then again I suppose it’s only fair considering the amounts of time we have walked in on them.

Diana was about the grab her shirt though. Oh no. Not letting it end here though so I start kissing her again, diana huffs. I know she enjoys this though. So I go behind her and start massaging her instead. I tell her she can relax and I still watch Croix performance. Win-win. She relents.

I was just about getting Diana back into the mood to discard the show and head up to my room for some much needed intimate happy times, when I glanced at the screen. I shouldn’t have. “Oh my God Croix”

And that broke Diana’s trance, but truth be told I doubt it I would’ve ever been forgiven if I had missed this moment.

Croix just proposed on live television to professor Ursula and she’s doing this sappy speech and both Diana and I are completely moved. Croix very rarely shows her more romantic side, she strangely enough comes to me to plan her random dates etc and I’m younger.

There’s fireworks and signs at the end and then Chariot performs and it’s just amazing.

The mood is a more relaxed one so I put on my shirt and hand Diana her that I threw a bit further away. We’ll have a lifetime of sexy times to be fair and right now more than sex I just want her close to me and hold her. I suppose diana feels the same. We lie on the couch and she’s half next to half on top, but I can’t say I mind.

We kiss a bit and we cuddle. This feels right. On the tv Andrew is talking about our projects alongside other endeavors he is doing to promote healthy relationship between magic and non-magic world. Truly Andrew does not have an easy job, then again none of us have with the world as crazy as it tends to get now.

“Adult world huh” I mumbled out. Diana stays with her face buried in my neck. Just listening to Andrew really. So I barely didn’t hear the “Yeah” mumbled back.

No long formal reply to that. Truly. We have both come a long way. We just bask in each other’s presence and content we had smoothed out our issues for now. They are not done permanently with them and obstacles will always arise, but as long as we are willing to work on it we should be fine. I just realized Andrew has long finished talking and instead it’s that idiot friend of andrew’s father.

No wonder. If there’s anything that guy is good at it’s boring someone to death. Diana’s already drifted off to sleep. No wonder. She had to deal with my insatiable self yesterday not letting her sleep and she already came from half around the world so double jet-lagged. I am too now that I think about……my eyes are getting very heavy……

This is a story of a cancer and a Taurus two animals that are nothing alike but found the perfect complements in each other……

Bonus:

“Honey are they decent?”

Mrs Kagari tskd at her husband’s bluntness.

They walked into the living room and saw the television on and the two girl snuggled together but the cover fell off.

The mother turned off the tv.

The parents smiled and the father proceeded to lift the cover and cover both in it, while snugging them in a bit and he proceeded to give his wife a quick peck and proceeded to go upstairs.

The mother gave both of them a kiss on top of their heads.

The mother whispered near Diana ‘thank you for everything’. Diana smiles although there is no way she could’ve possibly tell in her sleep.

“Good night my angels” and the lights were out.

Two little girls are playing chariot card game.

“Here, take my Cancer card and I take your Taurus card. That way whenever we are apart we’ll always find each other no matter what”

“Promise?”

“Of course! This is our fated meeting!”

“It can just be us meeting this one time and then never again.”

“Then it’s a happy coincidence!”

“So which one is it?”

“Both!”

****

In any case this is my contribution for dianakko week sorry if it’s mostly late. Was incredibly busier than I thought I would be and sorry I combined a bunch of prompts together in various days. Hope you guys liked my extremely long and random story xD.

I’m planning to do a multiverse/dream scenario for most of the members for the mushroom fiasco maybe. Apart from that I have a few drabbles in mind, they won’t be only for diana & akko, actually most of them will focus on other characters and the lwa world and world-building aspects. Might do a main story connected to this particular dianakko week universe, who knows.

I was really happy to be part of this and despite being late. Thank you for making this week. I love this pairing, but most importantly I love lwa in general and would love to see more of this adorable show with these bae girls.

#DianakkoWeek #Dianakko #Diakko #diana cavendish

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audreynickel · 7 years

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Another Tattoo Fail: Big Sister’s Big Mess

“Big sister” got it very wrong

A chairde: I’m just recovering from three weeks on the road, culminating in the annual week-long Irish immersion course in Butte, Montana (an event I highly recommend, by the way!), and I’m a bit fried (Irish: Tá mé spíonta -- I’m spent).

I plan to write about the Butte course next week, when I’m a bit recovered (and when the roofers are done making loud noises on my soon-not-to-be-leaky roof). There’s a lot to write about!

I can’t let a bad tattoo go by, however, and since this one fell into my lap last week, I give you...

Big Sister’s Big Mess: Four Mistakes in Two Words

It’s hard to believe that a person could get so much wrong in a simple two-word phrase. Two words: four mistakes. That may just be something of a record.

This person was clearly going for “Big Sister,” but unfortunately what she ended up with is nonsense.

Let’s Start With the Accents

The first thing that any Irish speaker or learner would notice here is the accent marks. In Irish, the accent marks ALWAYS slant to the right (Like the one over the “u” above. That’s called an “acute” or “long” accent...in Irish síneadh fada). Left-slanting (grave) accents simply don’t happen.

Scottish Gaelic is a little different in that respect. In the form of Scottish Gaelic currently spoken in Scotland, the accents slant to the left...just the opposite of Irish There’s also a form of Scottish Gaelic spoken in Nova Scotia, Canada, that has both left- and right-slanting accents. This raises the question: Was our hero going for Scottish Gaelic, Canadian-style?

Unlikely, I’m afraid. As it happens, The Scottish Gaelic word for “sister” is very different from the Irish word...so different that there’s no mistaking them. The Scottish Gaelic word for sister is piuthar. The Irish is deirfiúr. So she either got the accents wrong or she got the word for “sister” wrong. I’m banking on the former.

Accents matter, folks. They’re not just there to look pretty. If you have the wrong type of accent, or an accent where one shouldn’t be (or none where one is needed), the word is misspelled, and may even take on a different meaning.

And I can’t emphasize this enough: While Scottish Gaelic and Irish are very closely related, and similar in many respects, they are different languages, and you can’t just swap words or features between them.

A Problem with Placement

An incorrect accent mark might be easily corrected, but unfortunately that’s not the only problem with this tattoo. In Irish, the adjective follows the noun it modifies. “Mór” (”big”) is the adjective here, and must come AFTER “deirfiúr.”

People with little or no language-learning experience tend to assume that word order in one language is the same as word order in another. Sorry folks...It just doesn’t work that way. Languages aren’t codes for one another (if they were, all we’d have to do to learn new languages is memorize vocabulary lists!).

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: You can’t simply plug Irish words into English syntax and hope to have something that makes sense. In English it may be “big sister,” but Irish needs a “sister big.”

And Then There’s Gender

As with most European languages, all Irish nouns have a grammatical “gender,” which affects what happens to the words around them.

“Deirfiúr” is grammatically feminine and, in most cases, when feminine nouns are followed by an adjective beginning with a consonant, that consonant must be “softened” or “lenited,” which changes its pronunciation.

In contemporary Irish, lenition is indicated by putting an “h” after the consonant (in the older form of Irish writing known as “seanchló” it was represented by placing a dot over the consonant).

So what this person needed was “Deirfiúr Mhór.” Oops! Good thing it’s not perman...er...oh.

But Wait! There’s More!

There’s one more error in this tattoo, even after all the grammatical errors are addressed. Did you spot it? Look closely.

To add spelling insult to grammatical injury, our unfortunate tattoo-ee has left out a letter. Instead of “deirfiúr,” she’s got “deifiúr” -- the first “r” is missing.

The Big Question: Why?

Tattoos can be a beautiful form of self-expression. They’re also, however, a pricey, painful, and permanent form of self-expression. If you’re going to get one, isn’t it worth the time and research necessary to make sure it’s perfect?

I never have understood why anyone would get a tattoo in a language he or she didn’t personally speak...at least without doing A LOT of research. Sadly, many of the Irish tattoos out there are clearly the result of little or no research. Certainly that’s the case with “Big Sister” here.

Just don’t do it, folks. And don’t let your friends do it. Friends don’t let friends get bad tats. Put in the time before you lay down your money. Is that too much to ask?

P.S. Some have questioned whether “mór” (”great/big”) is the correct adjective here. I admit that I was concerned about that myself (I would have said “deirfiúr is sine” -- “eldest sister”), so I consulted with native speaker friends of mine, who assured me that “deirfiúr mhór” is just fine for “big (in the sense of “elder/eldest”) sister.

Coming next week: “Rocky Mountain Haigh: Irish in Montana”

#Tattoo #Irish tattoos #Gaelic tattoos #Irish #Gaelic #Gaeilge #Tattoo fails #Irish language

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rainbowserenity · 7 years

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Prompt 2 because you deserve more otp after the accident D:

“I keep telling them we’re not dating, but they keep telling me friends don’t normally make out when drunk.”

RFA: I apologize for making this all serious and mildly angsty. Straight up silly fluff is not my strong suit. My vision of the OTP is also not… very straight up fluffy, so I apologize for that in advance :P

Oh, and also sorry again RE: quality. I somehow ended up writing this at 7am again (in one go no less) so um…. oops

The first time it happened, it was an accident.

They were in this weird kind of party that Fang insisted that they go to, Sazh had been seriously told by a teenager Dajh that he should go hook up because that’s what Dajh expected of him, Noel was too curious about actual contemporary drinks and Serah/Yeul just wanted to see him drunk, Snow and Vanille were terrible human beings at suggesting terrible drinking games, and Hope was absolutely too worn out from his day’s work to put up any reliable counter-stupidness rhetoric - basically a bunch of really dumb things happened and before she knew it someone (Serah?) had shoved her onto the dance floor and there were voices calling for people to kiss the person right next to them, like really kiss them, show them your true colors and the full curve of your lips and all that stuff. She groaned in exasperation. She wasn’t against kisses or even kisses in dumb situations, but the sincerity the radio was calling for was getting on her nerves. People couldn’t just get sincere kisses from Claire Farron. She didn’t even know what a sincere kiss from her would be like. She was technically only twenty-one, after all. In some parts of the world she’d only be starting to drink.

She meant to get out of the dance floor or maybe shove someone away or… she forgot, because someone had pressed their face against hers and it felt strangely nice, that kiss. It was deep and sincere but terribly non-invasive. The figure in the darkness was holding back, seemingly as ambivalent about the sincere kiss idea as she was - but the force against her lips and body felt right and they tasted good and it was almost as if they knew she didn’t want anything more. It was the only possible thing that could have made her want more, want to see who they were and why they had kissed her in this way, yet -

A wave of dancers crashed right into them and the mysterious kisser was gone, just like that.

Claire didn’t learn until much, much later that said crash had given Hope a migraine for the rest of the weekend.

II.

The second time it happened, her defenses were crumbling.

She had been drinking furtively in a bar to a mix of melancholy and angry songs, making shitty cocktails and threatening to toss the owner’s ridiculously fat but noisy dog across the town (she couldn’t help it, he was white and red-nosed and looked just too much like Mog when she was drunk). Serah had been sending her anxious text messages, concerned where her older sister had gone without leaving much of a note. Snow and Sazh were probably looking for her in town as far as she knew. She didn’t really care.

She supposed it was always going to happen, this terrible disorientation at having to - somehow integrate into a functioning world again, after Etro knows how long of serving in Valhalla and then thirteen days of serving Bhunivelze across Nova Chrysalia. She could still fight almost as well as she used to, but her finer, terribly anxious reflexes had effects on people. She couldn’t really practice fighting with anyone - or, she guessed, actually fight anyone - without somehow scaring the living daylight out of them, and it just reminded her all over again how she wasn’t and possibly could never really be normal.

You know you’re not the only one, a voice in her head scolded as she mindlessly stirred the drink in front of her. You know Serah and Yeul still see things, sometimes. You’re just pitying yourself and being irresponsible. Closing yourself off again. Don’t you remember the last time something like this happened?

She grimaced. Could she still send a text to Serah without embarrassing herself to Cocoon and back? What would she even say? It was getting too late. The drowsiness paralyzed her arms and head. She wanted to put her head on the table, just let it all pass. Surely they wouldn’t throw her out…

“L- Claire-san?”

Oh. She pretended she had straight up passed out. That voice was from someone she hadn’t even really been brave enough to think about.

“Claire-san?” The voice was growing more alarmed now. He approached her, then called back. “How long has she been here? Is she okay?”

He picked her up with some difficulty - he was still so lean, he never ate enough, Serah and Noel kept yelling at him for it - but being in his arms reminded her of that time in the middle of absolutely nothing and she wanted to cry. She hadn’t understood what she felt then, and she didn’t understand what she felt now. It had meant everything to her that he had come for her, but what was the feeling, really…

“Hope?”

“Oh, you’re still awake!” The relief in his voice was astounding. He cradled her like a princess and if she was sober she’d be squirming while redder than Serah’s newest lipstick. “I was worried…”

Ugh. Was worrying people all she was good for nowadays? “Kiss me,” she blurted impulsively, emboldened by all the alcohol in her system. I’m going to be so ashamed of myself tomorrow.

She couldn’t see his face in the darkness - the things she would have given to see it and for his whole frame to stop spinning around in her drunkenness - but she did feel him almost drop her in surprise, and then a silence that stretched for just a few seconds too long for her liking. “… Claire-san?”

“Please,” she groaned, “Call me Claire… or Light.”

She could feel him purse his lips. “I… wouldn’t do that, Light. You’ve quite obviously drunk a few shots, and - ”

She pulled him towards her anyway and realized two things; one, that she had kissed him before; two, that although she initiated this kiss, he kissed back deeper than he had the first time. There was some kind of… longing in the tension of his face that made her head flare as if on fire. She needed to know more about it. And what was the other thing? Why did he kiss her like he knew exactly how to kiss her?

Damn it, she really only made the problem even more complicated for herself by attempting to somehow solve the problem.

“Light!” The silver-haired man pulled back, anxious and chastising. “Don’t… do that.” His hold on her grew tighter, more stiff. She was reminded again that he was twenty-seven years old - their age gap had basically reversed. Oh, no, he probably has found someone else by now. He’s always been better at dealing with his problems. Even in the Ark -

“Let’s get you home.” The declaration is a bit too fast, and she thinks (in this daze, please don’t let her throw up on his jacket, where would all the dignity she has built up in 1000 years even go after that) she likes it.

III.

The third time it happens she’s staying over at his place and the whole thing reeks of being consensual.

“I think I am a little drunk,” she announces, closing his door behind her and sticking her neck towards the inside of the house in his general direction. “They were celebrating Amodar’s promotion… again.”

“Promotion banquets.” She hears him from his room. It sounds like he’d just gotten back home as well. “Is that all this world’s good for? I had one, too. Alyssa poured me too many glasses, as usual.”

“Are you sure those are safe?” She complains, awkwardly stepping into her slippers and stumbling towards him. He’s changing out of whatever he had worn to his banquet and his hair’s just a bit disheveled and she wants him, wants to reach for his pulse and his frame and just know that he’s there and he’s safe. Or she also wants him to hold her hand and keep her wanted and safe. But that’s just an afterthought.

“Oh, yeah,” he answers absent-mindedly, pointing at the bed right behind him, “why don’t you just crash here for a bit? You look spent, and they still haven’t finished whatever they’re doing in your room, so…”

She likes that he’s calling his guest room her room. Statistically speaking, she’s the one using it like 90% of the time, but she’d like to think it goes beyond just statistics. His bed is nice, anyway. It’s always well-kept and soft and it feels like him and oh god what is she thinking. She falls on top of it, stretches just a few degrees. “You look like you can use a crash, too.”

They agree to just both take a nap and then somewhere into the nap they’ve held hands and wrapped themselves around each other and kissed again. She convinces herself that it’s just some variation of friends with benefits. Or partners with benefits. Or whatever it is. Whatever it is, it feels nice. And she wants more of it. And if Hope’s being as willing as he is (she’s pretty sure he reached for her first this time, poked her and then threaded his fingers and then she doesn’t remember) it must be okay for them to do it…

IV.

“Lightning,” Fang says, flanked by a totally blushing Vanille behind her back, “we need to talk.”

“What?” she’s still annoyed that Fang refuses to call her Claire. The self-proclaimed old hag will always be a pain when it comes to her old friends. “Don’t tell me - ”

“You need to admit that you and Hope are dating,” Vanille chimes, all serious and with her fingers crossed in that Pulse sign of hers, “sooo that you can move onto the next step.”

“For the love of everything - we’re not dating - ”

“Yeah? And now you don’t even hide it anymore, if we give you two just one shot each you’ll make out right in front of us.” Fang’s tone is derisive. “You Cocoon people and your shame.”

“We - ”

“And you can’t tell me you’ve always enjoyed drinking so much. Come on, girlfriend, you’re trying to hide something.”

“Light-san?” A familiar voice echoes overhead and Claire facepalms as she notes the two Pulse women’s understanding smiles. “Are you there?”

“Maybe we should talk to Hope too,” Fang says slowly, turning towards Vanille who is nodding furiously, “so he realizes what he’s doing. Trying to score someone all those years younger than him - ”

Claire barely notices it as she aims a fist towards the empty space two inches to the right of the brunette’s face.

Maybe they do have a point, Claire concedes a few weeks later, as Hope leans in to kiss her on one glass of Bourbon and she’s (quite effortlessly) balancing her own glass of sherry, and alcohol is expensive.

“Have you tried skipping your drink?” She tries, holding up her glass between them. It’s almost empty. His smile nearly freezes on his face before he tilts his head and answers.

“It’s a good habit, don’t you think? And it’s just one glass every once in a while. Studies say it’s supposed to be good for your metabolism. I suppose I can look into it a bit more, try - ”

“Ah, I know. Alyssa told me about this new public health campaign that your institution is doing. I remotely remember something along the lines of the best drink for the soul is water.”

She thinks she can feel him blink as he assesses the situation. She turns her gaze towards him, unfaltering. He stares for a few seconds, then smiles.

“Well, are you planning to drop the drink?” He asks conversationally, raising a hand in an offer to take her glass. She thinks there’s a glint of something in his eyes - a wish? Fear? Whatever it is, it also has hope in it. And she’s not going to let him down. Not in a moment like this. Not when she…

Okay, loves him so much. She doesn’t care anymore why exactly she loves his embraces and his kisses and just being around him all the time. It doesn’t matter. It just matters that she wants more of it and they shouldn’t have to hide behind a layer of glass and spirited water to do it. He deserves more than that. And perhaps she does, too. She’ll convince herself someday.

“Yeah,” she agrees, and buries her head on his shoulder. He hesitates - and then puts an arm around her shoulder, pulling her close. Their breaths are warm on each other’s faces. “How about we try tomorrow?”

“What are we even going to do with the leftovers?”

“We invite Snow and the girls,” she whispers, and she knows his lips are also curving up in a grin, “and we don’t let them go until they’re done with the whole stash.”

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raggywaltz1954 · 8 years

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Most people probably wouldn’t recognize the name Vince Guaraldi, but most people would immediately recognize his music that ran as the soundtrack to numerous Charlie Brown ‘Peanuts’ television specials. From the classic Charlie Brown theme ‘Linus and Lucy’ to the Christmas standard ‘Christmastime Is Here’, Vince’s music is loved by many, even if they don’t know it. Before his fame as the Charlie Brown music guy, Vince Guaraldi was a respected (if not underground) West Coast jazz pianist, and after numerous sideman gigs in the 1950’s, including a high-profile stint in Cal Tjader’s group, enjoyed fame in the early 1960’s as the writer of a song named ‘Cast Your Fate To The Wind’. The album that tune appeared on also featured jazz interpretations of bossa nova songs from the 1959 movie ‘Black Orpheus’, and was appropriately titled ‘Jazz Impressions of Black Orpheus‘. In 1962, the same year that album was released, the bossa nova (Portuguese for ‘new trend’) craze was clobbering the United States. Everyone recorded bossa nova albums, many of dubious quality, many just trying to cash in on the latest fad. Yet, despite the over saturation of bossa nova albums, a few of those albums struck artistic gold. This 1963 collaboration between an American pianist and a Brazilian guitarist was one of those albums.

The Music

Recorded early-mid September(?) 1963

Vince Guaraldi: Piano

Bola Sete: Guitar

Fred Marshall: Bass

Jerry Granelli: Drums

I put a question mark by September because there is no definite recording date. As so often was the case with Fantasy Records, important information like recording session dates, sideman, even song titles were left off. If anything, the liner notes might elusively allude to some of those details. More on that later.

The music on this platter is easy, breezy bossa nova, recorded when it was still fairly new (if not tired). None of the tunes are faster than a walking pace, and features the authentic, non-amplified acoustic guitar of Bola Sete. Bola Sete, born Djalma de Andrade, was a Brazilian musician who spoke little English and came to prominence in the U.S. after a 1962 appearance at the Monterey Jazz Festival. His nickname, Bola Sete, means “Seven Ball”. The moniker arose from Brazilian billiards, where the seven ball is the only black ball on the table; Bola got the nickname when he was the only black member of a small jazz group.

The first selection is an original by an East Coast jazz pianist, the late, great Horace Silver, entitled ‘Moon Rays’. It’s a beautiful example of the synthesis of different idioms that happens in jazz, in this case a hard-bop standard from the East not only getting the light touch of a West Coast pianist, but then getting transformed into the bossa nova style. “Gee, I’d love to know what that sounds like”. Well, for those who asked that question, here’s Horace Silver’s debut of the tune from his 1958 album Further Explorations By The Horace Silver Quintet, for comparison and contrast. Interestingly, in the liner notes to this album, Horace Silver said that he wanted to get a Cal Tjader-ish vibe (pun intended) from the drummer during the melody by getting him to click on the sides of the snare. So, in effect, we have an East Coast jazz pianist synthesizing a West Coast jazz musician, only to have a West Coast jazz pianist in turn synthesize the East Coast jazz pianist while simultaneously synthesizing the Brazilian bossa nova. And you thought jazz was a structure-less free for all? HA.

The second is also an original, this time by Vince Guaraldi himself. In the liner notes, he explains that he wrote the song based off a poem sent to him by a man who worked for Pacific Gas & Electric. The song is simple but pretty. The drummer throughout gets a unique sound due to his using a wire brush in one hand and hitting a cowbell with a mallet in the other. All in all it’s a wonderfully relaxed outing.

The Cover

College Jazz Collector Rating: Cute But Significant

An integrated album cover in 1963?!?! Ok, this was the (supposedly) more racially tolerant West Coast, San Francisco to be exact, but it’s still groovy to see black and white people in a normal, relaxed environment. Vince Guaraldi was part of the late-50’s counterculture movement in San Francisco that later turned into the hippie movement of the late-60’s, and his style is clearly evident here, complete with t-shirt, handlebar mustache, slacks and tennis shoes. He could fit right in in 2017 without changing a single thing.

The Back

As I mentioned earlier, while Fantasy neglected to include the date of the recording session or a formal list of the musicians, the liner notes allude to both. Concerning the date, Ralph Gleason writes that this album was made shortly before the whole group made an appearance on his TV show. That episode was taped, and fifty years later found its way onto YouTube, complete with the very specific air-date of 25 September, 1963. So then, channeling my inner Charlie Chan, I came to the conclusion that this album must’ve been taped in early to mid-September of 1963. For those who want to see what this group looked like in action, or what they looked like period, I’ve included the episode below. As a bonus, we get to hear Vince talk! For the TV show, they perform two songs off this album, including ‘Star Song’. It’s neat to compare the version here with the version they did in the TV studio, and it’s cool to see and hear Mr. Ralph J. Gleason for a change. Now when I read liner notes by him, I read them in his voice. A word on the cover. It’s in terrible condition. The spine and top are completely torn, so it opens like a book. Add to that the wonderful pen doodles and an autograph by Al, and it’s downright dreadful. Such are the joys of collecting vintage vinyl.

The Vinyl

The different label colors are a result of different lighting. This album belonged to a radio DJ at some point in its 50-plus year life, perhaps the guy who autographed the album cover. It’s always neat to add radio/promo copies of vinyl to one’s collection, especially when they’re emblazoned with ‘NOT FOR SALE’. Oops. The vinyl looks fantastic, still retaining its shiny gloss, and the labels look brand new. Another Fantasy Records anomaly, the labels don’t say which one is side 1 or 2. Again, Charlie Chan sleuthing revealed that the record number on one side is lower than the the number on the other. Despite the beautiful-looking vinyl, upon listening to it, there’s evidence of slight groove wear in the form of lost fidelity on some of the louder/higher-pitched passages. The vinyl plays quietly however, with little to no noise. Interestingly, although Fantasy was famous for pressing their albums on brightly-colored translucent vinyl, this mono album was pressed on conventional black vinyl, making me wonder if Fantasy did that for all promo copies. This mono album sounds good, groove-wear aside, and its a deep groove first pressing, which is always nice.

The Place of Acquisition

That global marketplace, eBay. This album, appropriately enough, came to me from California. This album is rather expensive and in limited quantities on eBay and Discogs, which surprised me. In fact, despite the condition of this album, I had to drop about $25 for it, which is pretty expensive in college student terms. That was three years ago. I did a quick search for it today before writing this post, and was shocked to find that there are currently (as of 20 March, 2017) no vinyl copies of this album available on eBay, and only about four for sale on Discogs. Does that make this an affordable rarity? It sure looks like it. It looks like it’ll be a while before I replace my copy with a stereo copy in better condition. I guess I need to find the tape and count my blessings.

Vince Guaraldi, Bola Sete, And Friends // Vince Guaraldi (Fantasy 3356) Most people probably wouldn't recognize the name Vince Guaraldi, but most people would immediately recognize his music that ran as the soundtrack to numerous Charlie Brown 'Peanuts' television specials.

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