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whatudottu · 2 years ago

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Hello! Just here to say that I love all of yours and anon's DID Blitzwing related thoughts!! I adore Blitzwing and they're (he?) what got me researching DID again after so long (my little autistic brain loves them <33). I'm not a system (or if I am, everyone else is really well hidden!!), but I love learning about all the things minds are capable of doing to protect themselves and I think it's fascinating - though I know that obviously I'll have some misconceptions so I'm always very happy to learn more :)

Do you have any other ideas/ headcannons about them? I would love to hear them /gen

Oh I'm not infallible either, not a system myself but I am fascinated with psychology (looks at my therapist Ben 10 character). Besides Blitzwing is an interesting character to have DID because they're not human and so with our human (and audience) perception, it can be easy to connect Blitz to DID even if that's not what the TFA writers intended- the added bonus is my intrigue in xenobiology/psychology so... Blitz's the perfect sample for that asjdhgblsjfkl-!

As for headcanons, those may need to be under the cut they got a bit much haha-!

You can take some of these headcanons as little hints towards a canon!Blitzwing, but because I've been rambling with the anons about Bot Experiment Triple-Changers these are kinda more focused on that little au rather than the original-

I like to imagine Random would totally eat organic (non-metal) food if given the chance/no one else fronts to stop him. With the power of fire and ice, he at least has assurances for the others that Random can and will ingest flaming fuel and liquid nitrogen just to get rid of any residue of authentic Italian cuisine. It seems to really be his thing idk- Probably doesn't help that Octane would totally be on his side if she ever fronted (certainly eggs him on when they're both in the headspace).

There's a pretty common headcanon that Blitzwing sculpts, but I like to pin the sculpting hobby onto Hothead because metal sculpting would work far easier with a little heat. As a bonus BETC!Blitz exclusive I like to say that Private actually had a passion for carving, his little area of the headspace decorated with what he remembers making, so Hothead took a little bit of a peak at that and got interested in it's complement; building something from nothing as opposed from revealing something from another something.

And Icy I feel is just really intrigued by alien cultures (that little commentary on how fascinating human cities are like nano-bots WILL NOT ESCAPE ME), perhaps a little more so than being interesting in Cybertron itself. I mean he's not gonna say that OUT LOUD with Decepticons around, but he finds the different ways different planets and different countries ON those planets create homes and lifestyles unique to their own individual circumstance. Astrotrain would feel a kinship to that, considering the bot had previously worked in cargo transport across Cybertron and getting to experience the different cultures of it's citystates, but Astrotrain also understands VERY WELL why Icy might not have the best connection to 'home'.

I also think that, out of the hosts, Hothead is the most affectionate towards Private and despite not having any wings in their headspace, Hothead speaks to Private like an older warframe does to a young(er) war bot. Random when not fronting fucks around with Octane if Astrotrain's covering Private's six, the two of them being chaotic little gremlins that spells disaster for any bot unlucky enough to be around the next time Random fronts with a prank idea. And to round this off if Octane is being the wine aunt to Private (or about as responsibly irresponsible like one), Astrotrain and Icy take a moment to sit and breathe, talking about traveling and other more silent contemplations.

And I think that might be all from the top of my head? Only saw this ask about nearly 12 hours after the timestamp says I got it so hopefully you weren't waiting to long asjdhfgaslkfkl-! But nah, I love Blitzwing, just needed to sit on my thoughts haha-

#ask #nerdylittleguy #blitzwing #tfa blitzwing #octane #tfa octane #astrotrain #tfa astrotrain #because though they are alters they are introjects based on other BETCs blitzwing was surrounded with #transformers #tfa #BETCs #bot experiment triple changers #maccadam #i realised in making this headcanons that i totally just gave blitz an extra 3 alts #totally unintended but i guess pairing a canon alt to a BETCs alt helped a little with headcanoning lmao #a little part of me is debating on whether random actually ate bots or not-#i mean war doesn't bring out the best in people and if mr teeth over here is a unicron demon what will stop him #on the other hand- don't wanna make random make blitzwing's system a stereotype #i mean i already have thoughts about mal total drama who kicked mike squad's representation into the mud #but if that was the random headcanon i'd probably have to give icy and hothead a headcanon of equal theme to prevent whiplash #which would have made the post probably not a fun little headcanon page #but here is the return of BETCs octane and astrotrain-#featuring 'god forbid women do anything' octane and 'what's in your chassis (cargo)' astrotrain

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lettheladylead · 2 years ago

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quadrell

Minima the beloved... also Adélia

Adelia De Spell first because she’s super easy: she’s been in one comic and never mentioned in any other comic ever lol

Thank you to @myrskytuuli for doing a lil scanlation of the comic way back when (link) (part 2 link) so that’s a lot less work for me. What do we know about Adelia? She’s Magica’s cousin who made a decision to stop being a witch and be a fairy instead. It’s funny to know that’s a decision someone can just make. Will Matilda or Minima make the same decision? You never know

We also learned that the process of going from a witch to a fairy involves many trials, the last of which is trying to convert another witch into becoming a fairy. Very specific. Part of me thinks Adelia made that up ‘cause she wanted to hang out with her cousin Magica but who knows.

Anyway that’s all we know. She’s trusting and a little airheaded, but the fact that she was born a witch and gave it up as an adult is interesting. It’d be nice to see her again. Also here’s some fun images/dialogue and then I’ll get to Minima under the cut:

cute

“everybody knows, bitch”

magica’s physical age fluctuates depending on the author but its fun to wonder if she’s immortal or not

anyway MINIMA TIME! Minima De Spell:

Minima is interesting. She was created specifically for DuckTales 1987, but then they never got to include her in the show, just in the one DT87 comic. But it’s funny ‘cause Magica had a number of young nieces and nephews that they could’ve used instead of making up a new one, but (shrug)

I think Minima might be the only DuckTales cartoon creation that was notable enough to become canon in the comics?? Don’t quote me on that tho

I’ll start with her DT87 comic appearance even though it has zero relevance to her characterization in the regular comics. Minima doesn’t seem to be very close to Magica, only staying with her temporarily while her mother (a sister/sister-in-law/cousin/fellow witch of Magica’s?) is busy. She befriends Webby and then tries to use Webby to get Scrooge’s dime, but then realizes she likes Webby too much to do it. It’s very cute, reminds me of Weblena.

(hanging out on a playground jungle gym is also reminding me of weblena lol)

(sorry for the bad quality pics i just took them with my phone ‘cause i can’t find the digital copy i thought i had of this comic)

Overall, here Minima is loyal to Webby and doesn’t care much about Magica’s life goal. She gets bullied by her peers and has magic powers but they’re not super powerful.

THENNNNNN four years after that was published, Minima made her first Topolino appearance! Funny enough, her original comic was never translated into Italian, so this was her first appearance in Italy. Also the first appearance of Magica’s not-fiancé and her granny’s apprentice, Rosolio Rhododendron.

There was a couple of comics between 1995 and 2002 where Minima/Granny De Spell/Rosolio showed up and caused mayhem for Magica, but Minima’s presence in them is...minimal. She likes Ratface and she plays pranks and is a very silly kid. Also kind of a bit sadistic towards the poor bird. More interesting than that, Magica apparently put a spell on Granny/Minima/Rosolio where they’re trapped in some magic dimension for 77 days at a time and can only come out every 33 hours (in this screencap it says 333 but later they say 33). They’re doing really well despite this.

Oh hey look she’s in the little witches version of the Woodchucks! Junior Witchhex Guidebook...cute. I guess there’s a lot of magic things going on in that other dimension she’s spent several years of her life in

very philosophical child

well that’s it for officially translated comics. I was able to find 1 out of Minima’s 3 other appearances...

Here she’s just telling Magica to stop playing videogames so much

One of the other appearances is something to do with Halloween and it includes April May and June so I’d love to find it but I really struggle to get my hands on stuff from the Netherlands lol

anyway so that’s Minima! She definitely likes to torment poor Ratface but she’s also very good at magic and she’s barely experienced any of the human world since she’s mostly trapped in a magic dimension all the time

#adelia de spell #minima de spell #magica de spell #quadrell #carro answers #duck comics #topolino #ducktales 1987 #duck family tree #family tree

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hello-vampire-kitty · 2 years ago

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Servamp Chapter 120 Translation “Toast and muddy water”

READ ON MANGADEX

TRANASLATIONS NOTES

Saint Germain mentioned "system" (furigana reading) for the word that reads vampire and I recall how the word "system" was used before but it was such a long time ago, I had to look trough several chapters because I couldn't recall who said it...I thought it might have been Gear when he talked about vampires but that wasn't the case. I looked into the chapters where Saint Germain appeared but he also didn't mention it until this chapter. I even asked on Twitter if someone might recall where the word was used and eventually I found it in chapter 87.

The word “system” is the furigana reading for 制度 which also means system and also “institution, organization.”

I recalled that it was a similar case, as in there was the combination of Vampire(s) |System..Maybe I'm wrong and I thought that because of the line in this chapter, but at least I knew that the word "system" had been used before!

吸血鬼に (システム) ついては本人に聞いてくれ。

Saint Germain was saying to the guy who manages the arena that if he wants to know about vampires/the system, then he should as ask the person in question/ask them directly, so in this case, Ildio.

The title...OMG! It might sound awkward but I couldn’t translate it any other way because that’s all the text provided me with. it would have been easier if it was something like "Toast with muddy water", but that's not how it translates. 祝杯も泥水も we have 祝杯 which means toast/celebratory drink and 泥水 which is muddy water. Because it uses the particle も it means something like “Toast as well as muddy water, but it sounded awkward to leave it like that. We have the "muddy water" and the "celebratory drink", which can be all kinds of drinks, usually when I see shows/movies where people make a toast, they mainly have champagne in their glass. If we had the name of a drink like wine or champagne which are fancy, we would have had a clear contrast with muddy water, because "toast" is not a particular type of drink, and since it's not specified, I can only translate it directly. Again, it would have been interesting if what Nicco says would have been something like "Toasting with muddy water", but that's not the case given how it's written, he doesn’t say the verb “to toast”.

Also, I thought that maybe it's a metaphor or something but I haven't found anything about it and what I understood was that maybe Nicco was saying that he accepts the good and the bad and by the time I finished the scanlation, chapter 121 came out and Nicco mentions “toast and muddy water” again and I think he was saying was about what I believed, about accepting the good and the bad. Maybe you’ll understand better when I post the translation for chapter 121.

“You weren’t a god.” This could be a reference to chapter 104, Nicco said the same thing back then.

As you can see on the image, I wrote translations based on the words in kanji. (one was actually in katakana, the word “fork”).

Nicco is apparently making a reference to the Divine Comedy when he talks about betrayal being the greatest sin.

“Treachery was the ninth Circle of Hell. This last circle was dedicated to those people who betrayed their loved ones, friends, best friends, countries, cities, guests and even their masters.”

I think the word that is formed on the plate is “sicario”, which means “hired assassin” and it would fit because in the following page, the word mercenary is mentioned. It would seem that’s the work Ildio was doing to get money.

At first, I wasn’t sure if Ildio was saying that he could do mercenary work because a literal translation of his line would have been “Mercenaries are convenient”, so, hopefully, I’m not wrong and he was expressing that he would do that kind of work. I thought that’s the case if that word in Italian does spell sicario”, which means “hired assassin”.

What’s interesting here is that there’s emphasis on “water”, Nicco says this water” この水 and it doesn’t have another reading to it, but I speculated that maybe he is referring to tears? Maybe he’s referring to how crying is cathartic. That’s what I believe.

#servamp #chapter 120 #my translation

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zoradementio · 4 years ago

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Interesting thing I just realized about the Four Lords & Miranda

So, we know that Resident Evil: Village takes place somewhere in Romania. You can tell because the currency in game is Liu, which is the real-life name of Romania’s currency. But when thinking about the Four Lords and Miranda, something struck me as odd. Namely, none of them seem to actually be directly of Romanian decent, at least based off their names. Let’s start with easiest origins to hardest.

Donna Beneviento: Although the surname does not seem like an actual surname (or at lest is not common enough to have been listed on sites like Behind the Name), the origins for both are definitely Italian in origin. Donna, though being a name mostly used in English, comes from the Italian word for “lady”. While Beneviento could come from a few places. For one, it could be taken from a city in Italy called Benevento. Second, it could be a combination of the Italian word for good “bene” and the Spanish word for wind “viento”. And finally, the surname also sounds similar to “benvenuto” an Italian word meaning welcome. Another note is her mother’s name, Claudia. Although the name is used in many different countries, it is included as being both Romanian and Italian. Heck, the name is even pronounced the same between the two (KLOW-dya rather than the English KLAW-dee-ə). This could mean that Donna’s mother was either a village native or a foreigner like presumably her father. Angie is a very similar case. Though the name Angie itself is more of a specifically English name, it is a shortened form of Angela, a name that does again appear in both Italian and Romanian. But for the most part here, all roads lead to Rome(an Italy).

Karl Heisenberg: While the name Karl can come from a a good many places, based on his surname I’d say he’s German. “Heisen” likely comes from the German word “heißen”, meaning to call. Meanwhile, “berg”, meaning mountain, is a common word used in Germanic surnames. Though, to be fair, the reasonings behind the surname could also be aplied to Norwegian as well. But I doubt a surname would uses the word for “the elevator” in it. So yeah, I’d say it’s safe to say he’s German.

Miranda: Since she doesn’t have a surname to worry about, that means we’ve only got to worry about her on a first name basis. Miranda is a name that can be found in both English and Dutch. Now, I can’t be quite sure which side of that to pin her down as. Hell, even the name Eva doesn’t help much as it’s found all over the fucking place. My best guess would be that she leans more towards English decent, but either or could go.

Salvatore Moreau: Here is where we get into the trickier ones. Now, Salvatore, at least based on the spelling, is the Italian variation of Salvador. However, we never got a pronunciation of the name (at least to my knowledge) so it could be either “sal-va-TO-reh” or “sal-va-TOR”, which if it was the later would make the name more similar to a Late Roman version of the name, Salvator (note the lack of terminal e). Though, one other thing to note is that apparently during certain periods of the 1900′s, it was also a relatively popular French name. Thankfully, Moreau is the one surname of the four that actually shows up on Behind the Name. It’s listed as a French diminutive of the Late Roman name Maurus. Based on all that, I would guess that he’s probably French. Frog legs, yum.

Alcina Dimitrescu: Now this is where we truly enter Village of Shadows difficulty here. For one, Alcina is a name that originated in theater, specifically from an opera of the same name. Although the name is sometimes attributed as a feminine version of the Greek Alcinous. Her last name’s origin is not better. Her name comes from “Dimitr” the Slavic rendering of Demeter with the Romanian patronym, “escu”. On top of all that, in-game, the name is pronounced as if it were French. Her daughter’s names aren’t much help either. Bela, based on how it’s spelled, is either Georgian, Spanish, or Portuguese, Cassandra is English, French, and Greek, and Daniela is all over the place. So, my best guess is that Alcina is either Greek, Slavic, or is actually the only household that actually has any amount of Romanian decent.

“So what?” I hear you ask. “It’s an RE game, it’s not like any of this is actually important.” But there is another aspect I’d like to point out. And that is the names of the other villagers. All of them are Romanian names. Even Elena’s last name, Lupu, is a Romanian surname. So this does beg the question, just why and how did four families find their way to a middle of nowhere village in Romania and establish themselves as the fore-founders of it?

#resident evil #resident evil 8 #resident evil village #mother miranda #miranda re8 #alcina dimitrescu #lady dimitrescu #donna beneviento #beneviento #salvatore moreau #moreau re8 #karl heisenberg #heisenberg #slight resident evil village spoilers #theory #just a little something I noticed that I wanted to share #i would put an answer to my last question but i don't have the brain power rn #and do correct me if i got anything wrong here

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vitrailcoeur · 10 months ago

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And justified picking what feel like extremely ostentatious and maudlin names, replete with high-flown in-world allusions, pointed barbs at rivals, or hints at scandalous secrets regarding the new baby’s parentage... because Orlesian noble parents would. It’s also fun to work out etymological replacement names.

(NAME THOUGHTS)

So, Thedas has no exact France named “France”, but of course there could be characters names Francois or Francine, and you could explain it away where the word France is a place name, but a village somewhere. Or rely on cutting out the place of France idea, and stick with what France itself is derived from - Franks, which you could treat a name like Francine as meaning free/freeman or as being from the javelin/lance reference... and just map it on to whatever Thedas language you think matches up if that even needs to be discussed in your story.

Reference: https://www.etymonline.com/word/Frank?ref=etymonline_crossreference

But what about the spiritual successor to a name like Francine for Thedas? An Orlesian equivalent could be “Orlesine” “Orlecine” or other spellings ... and you can go on from there trying out your chosen language (like French and near-French) name parts (particularly suffixes) on any proper noun names from Thedas. You might replace Germaine with Anderaine or Andraine sometimes. Amaranthine is pretty all by itself, but you can go for Amaranti or Amarantos, Amaranta, for an Antivan (Italian/Spanish) sound. Fracture a given proper noun on the map into all possible “Thedas” language groups. Can even try to meaning-for-meaning swap things in and out of Elvhen or Dwarven or Qunlat or if we had Alamarri or something. And have it be that they’re actually borrowing a different culture’s name idea in, on purpose, to better or sillier effects.

This process is the next step past what they did naming Anders as they did. Which already is the kind of detail that adds verisimilitude to a story’s place names, linking them up to the cultures they arose from and feed back into. Or other names, like fictional plants, metals, concepts, and so on. Someone should be named Emberius or Emberia, right along with Sage, Lily, Rose, or Floret!

Also to be Catholicky, these Andrastians really need to have adopted every last related central Chant concept word or name variation of their central cast of “good figures” as names for their kids. And I want Andraste to be a perfectly normal name for a baby in some places and times, and rare, weird or heretical in others.

Taboos on what can be a name being different different places is interesting to add to a culture. I’ve considered both naming a dwarven character Isana, or hiding the word isana somewhere in the name (ex: Garisana) and having it be a high-status first name ... but then you could alternatively throw in the detail that most Orzammari drwarves currently find it against the Stone or super conceited or garish or bizarre to name themselves after lyrium in any way. Like if you named a kid Money or Oil. Then it could mark a person as an outsider whose parents were clearly separated from the culture, but remembered that word. Or a suspicious surfacer somebody faking a dwarfy name poorly.

This fits in with all the unfortunate ‘too cool’ or ‘awkwardly pious’ names we know have got to be out there, too, knowing the good people of Thedas. Ser Wyvern Vimmarkus Elder IV of Ostwick, the newly minted Templar in squeaky armor, arrests Our-Lady’s-Pyre (”Pyre”) the town’s best brewer on suspicion of apostasy. She resists arrest, setting her vats alight.

Last name thought, magic means accurate portents and prophesies available for some mages (or maybe even kind of sensitive non-mages?) to pick up on, maybe in dreams before the brith. And this provides an excellent excuse for oddly-fitting, and seeming to reference aspects of the named child’s future in a way parents could not predict in any normal way.

I still kind of try to avoid this urge, or at least hide it in the middle names, unless I am going to make it an “uncanny!” plot point that gets noticed by characters. But also, sometimes you got to just go for it without a plan.

not me remembering that the Marquis of Serault is a noble and then going to look at lists of old French given names bc I now feel justified in adding some more parts to their name

#i luv names so much

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stardustnfreckles · 3 years ago

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To celebrate the DeanCas100k on ao3 here's a list of my all-time favourite Destiel fanfictions:

CANON VERSE

A turn of the earth Dean’s your typical half-orphaned, monster-killing 22-year-old until a trenchcoated stranger crashes into his back windshield one September night, claiming he’s an angel that knows him from the future and that he’s on the run.

Early seasons!Dean keeps meeting Cas at the most random moments, till he isn’t anymore... Definetly a must read.

In the shadow of your wings

Set after the S11 finale. Dean kinda breaks Cas’ heart. Because sometimes he can be thick SOB. The Cas finds a new shiny and witty italian boyfriend and Dean’s not happy about it. and now Sam is missing, Mary is back and Dean has a mixed bag of feelings he has to deal with. Probably my favorite canonverse ever.

Like moses and batman and James Dean dean used to turn tricks. over a decade later, he met cas.

A masterpiece in characterization by saltyfeathers. I loved everything, The dialogues, the flashbacks, the way Dean and Cas emotions are portrayed. There’s angst and internalized homophobia but also confort and IT IS JUST SO GOOD OK?

The best bang for your buck It’s not like Castiel knows who this GotImpala67 person is. There’s no personal information listed on their profile. Except that they’re male, thirty-seven, from Kansas and, apparently, they like inserting things inside themselves.

Cas plays dumb even tho he really is not and I love him for it. Dean is the kind of buyer who leaves detailed reviews of the products he buys (which is the best kind if you ask me) I love the writer’s style and their sense of humor. It’s short although I never get tired of re-reading this one. Also Bring up the deep & Till the juice runs from the same author are with mentioning.

Kisses by sunflowers beds by fanforfanatics & Watched by K_K_TiBal

This two fics have a on thing in common: At the end of both you’ll be asking yourself how can less than 5k hurt you so much?

I cried, then I smiled and cried some more. This fics will crush you in the best way possible.

Take me home country roads The most IC Deamon!Dean I’ve ever read. It’s a rollercoaster of emotions.

What’s missing is found (our souls can exhale now) by sobsicles aka queen of post S15 fix-it fics

That black dog ache A simple case turns Dean upside down as he attempts to deal with the effects of a particularly strange love spell.

The perfect gift Castiel has a big problem concerning Dean... thankfully, Sam is always around to help

Really short Crack!Fic about Cas being clueless and adorable.

So says the sword by komodobits

Actually I suggest to go on their ao3 profile and read EVERYTHING.

The profet must die

Dean starts reading Chuck’s book out of curiosity and ends up having a epiphany about his apparently not so much platonic relationship with a certain angel of the lord.

A room of one’s own All Dean wants is a little privacy. Cas doesn't understand.

It mostly smut with a bit of healthy angst and great amount of humor.

My Roots Take Flight After forty years in Hell, Dean’s more than willing to accept the offer: become a guardian angel and earn his freedom. But his new ward seems destined to hunt alongside Sam, and there are secrets in Heaven that the angels don’t want found out. Dean’s going to have to choose between his duty and the people he loves- and to work out just where Castiel fits in.

Reverse!Verse set in season 4. It’s interesting to watch their relationship develop even if the roles are reversed.

The hands that bind me Dean is struggling with adjusting back into the civilized world after a year of fighting for his life in Purgatory. He's going to need some angelic assistance reining in his darker impulses.

If your’re into BDSM/Sub!Dean/Dom!Cas/Hurt/Confort/Dark themes then that’s the fic for you.

What has eight tentacles and isn’t allowed to eat pie? Dean is an octopus 🐙 and it’s weird but also kinda sweet.

Cuckoo and nest For a long time, Castiel thought that every earthly possession other than the immediately necessary was excess to requirement. But Dean – Dean who named his car, who keeps a photograph of his mother in his wallet, some thirty-plus years after her death, who still has the crumpled ‘Do Not Disturb’ sign with a sleeping pelican emblazoned on it from the Microtel outside of Roanoke where he first kissed Castiel, clumsy and unsure, under the unsteady fluorescence of an exhausted bathroom bulb – is sentimental. it puzzles Castiel, where Dean draws the line between what is meaningful and what it is worthless.

Established relationship/ they’re really bad at communication/ fluff / hurt confort

Put up your dukes Dean can't sleep. Cas offers to tire him out.

Along my restless palms Ever since Cas started staying in the bunker, Dean’s been having these crazy dreams—dreams that feature him and Cas in absurd, tawdry scenarios like something out of a filthy paperback. Dean chalks it up to exhaustion, or some monster messing with his head, anything to ignore the real cause: Cas in his personal space, in various states of undress, and, wow, way more muscular than Dean would’ve expected. But if it’s just physical lust that’s the cause, then that’s an easy fix, right? No big deal. There’s definitely nothing else that his subconscious is trying to tell him. Absolutely not.

last but not least Pretty much anything by xylodemon. The atmosphere and the way characters are portrayed are *chef kiss* There are a lor of case fics and they really feels like actual episodes from supernatural just way less omophobic and more fun.

#deancas100k #Destiel recs #Deancas rec list #destiel fanfic #destiel #deancas #castiel #dean winchester

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canyouhearthelight · 4 years ago

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The Miys, Ch. 139

Day Two of the Food Festival! This one has a specific request from @baelpenrose, which was fun to play with in the Low-Stim session (always on day 2).

To everyone who has reached out to tell me how much they are enjoying getting to see Sophia actually relax and just have fun for once.... Y’all are the best! It’s been fun writing it, too.

New reader shout outs go to @corvallis, @penguin--person, @amphibiousuprising, @chip5-0, and I think @lostsoul8822. I think that’s everyone... If I missed you, please DM me, and I’ll add you to the next chapter.

On with the show!

The first day of the Festival, Conor and I ended up staying through not only Maverick’s shift but the one after, just so we could drag him to our favorite spots. Day two, however, Conor was on deck as Support Personnel as well as Maverick, and neither were assigned to me - for the first half of day two, we were in the Low Stim Mode, so I was pretty sure I could brave it on my own with everyone else’s proximity alerts and my own personal hyper-alertness preventing accidental bumps.

For me, the most exciting part was the different foods offered, and the fact that I could focus on just the food. Not having to ignore the other stimuli was a completely relaxing experience. The visual of the mural, with everything present, was still completely different in the even, indirect lighting. The dual nature of it was toned down significantly, leading to the overall feel being softer and overall more pleasant without being distracting.

Halfway through a very good pad thai, I spotted Derek and Sam sitting with Ivan and poking at something that Sam was clearly excited about and Derek was equally doubtful of. I circled around so they could see me approaching, and made a point to wave. “What do you think?” I asked, trying to sign as I spoke but hampered by the food in my hands.

“It was a good try,” Derek confessed, cheeks stuffed with something that had previously been on a plate to his left as a backup plan.

Setting my food down, I grinned mischievously. “Doing my best,” I signed, leading to laughter on all sides.

“You just told him you do him the best,” Ivan murmured, my face immediately flooding red.

“That is NOT what I meant,” I tried to explain out loud, over-enunciating while I clenched my hands in embarrassment.

To his credit, Derek signed what he seemed to understand I meant, emphasizing each sign. It was clear that I had gotten several out of order and added one that changed everything overall.

After repeating the signs and getting confirmation, I shook my head and sighed dramatically. “I tried.”

Ivan was trembling with laughter. “You. You did,” he admitted. “But that was… wow.” His head dropped on his hands as he shook silently.

“Souffle pancakes?” I offered, finger spelling the word souffle since I had no freaking clue how to actually sign it.

“Egg pancake,” Derek explained, poking the one I offered and contemplating the jiggle.

“It’s cinnamon sugar, and not gooey,” I explained.

Apparently I got that one right, because Derek immediately stabbed a piece and shoved it in his mouth. The only judgement I needed was the fact that he dragged the entire remaining pancake onto his plate.

Sam watched his roommate before contemplating his own sample. Before he could even ask, I held up a cup full of macerated berries. “And fruit topping for you, sir.”

“Are those my berries?” he asked, skeptical.

I shook my head. “Bog standard, from the consoles. Your vegetables and fruits are being used in the other shifts. We didn’t want to give anyone here unexpected tastes.”

He nodded and dumped the entire cup of fruit over his pancake, digging in happily.

Ivan batted his eyes at me until I explained. “Sam’s produce has… unexpected pairings. Tomatoes that pair with cheesecake and wines, strawberries that really go well with steak…”

“The mango that goes with beer but not fish?”

“Yeah, that one. Von soil does strange things to produce, turns out.”

“Those matcha-edamame are amazing though.”

“For ice cream, yes. For tea, less so. They’re like… cooking matcha, almost.” I laughed. They actually worked better for ice cream than matcha did, oddly - reducing the sugar content but still giving the same flavor.

“One vendor on the last day is using nothing but my produce,” Sam announced happily. “They asked my permission.”

“That’s good!” I encouraged him. “They should always ask your permission to do things like that.”

“People ask with requisition forms,” he agreed. “Mona asked in person.”

Note to self: much more patronage at Mona’s normal spot, I swore in my head. She specialized in vegetarian dishes, and honestly made some of the best fried cabbage I’d had in my life. Knowing that she was so considerate of Sam cemented her as my new favorite takeaway place.

After a little more chat, I finally waved my goodbyes to everyone and strolled slowly to the next tempting stall. I wasn’t really in any hurry, and did more people-watching than I did eating. Latkes were infinitely more interesting when I could overhear people arguing over family recipes. A small bowl of udon was delicious, but not nearly as flavorful as the discussion around hot versus cold, what to top them with, egg or no egg… the only thing anyone seemed to agree on was that the smiling vendor ‘obviously’ ground their own flour, because the flour provided by the consoles was the wrong texture.

Another mental note: don’t learn to make udon. Despite what I had previously believed, it takes a lifetime to make it right, turns out.

Wandering further down, I was delighted by the discovery of something that was very clearly Hannah’s doing: demonstrations of older food prep techniques. Simon winked at me as he carried on a demonstration of - insanely - how to hand pull toffee. I didn’t know he could do that. Muna was demonstrating the correct way to make chapatis and handing them out as fast as she was making them. Clearly, she had been making them her whole life, because at no point did I actually see her look at them, but every single one was perfect.

Laughter erupted over my shoulder, and I whipped my head around to see the source. After wading through a crowd of smiling faces, I couldn’t help but join in. There, right in front of the entire Ark, was Maverick trying to flip takoyaki as fast as the person demonstrating, and ending up with just a mess of octopus and batter on his side. Both Maverick and the person guiding him were smiling, though, and in the end, the vendor handed Maverick four perfectly-round balls and quickly devoured all of the - less shapely, so to speak - ones on my partner’s side. With an exuberant cheer and extending his arms wide to the crowd, the man exclaimed “The first takoyaki of a new student are always my favorite! Nothing tastes better!”

After bowing to his sensei, Maverick turned and spotted me, face still flushed with laughter. He offered his food to a smaller man I did not recognize, who must have been the person Maverick was Supporting, before waving to me and continuing on. Despite the urge to crush him in a hug, I forced my feet to stay in place and reminded myself that he was working.

By the time I trusted myself not to race after him, I realized someone had been trying to get my attention and had resorted to messaging me rather than shouting. “Phee, I don’t know what la-la land you are lost in, but look 100 yards to your four.”

The hell was Arthur doing here? He wasn’t scheduled to work this shift, as far as I was aware. Craning my neck over my shoulder, I turned to see… Apparently a hallucination. It had to be. There was no chance in any of the nine hells that Arthur Farro was dishing out spaghetti, much less smiling while doing it.

Almost dreamlike, I found myself drifting over to confirm that I was wrong, only to be startled when he shoved a plate with not only spaghetti but two gorgeous pieces of garlic bread under my nose. “Special plates, you can’t smell anything unless it’s on purpose.”

“You… Spaghetti?” I asked, eloquent as ever.

“Family recipe.”

“Leaning into the stereotype a bit, aren’t you?” I asked carefully before shoving as much of one thick, crusty piece of toast in my mouth as I could.

He shook his head. “Anyone who tells you their family is Italian and denies having a family recipe for anything is a damned liar.”

Skeptically, I took a bite. It was amazing. “Ah ee deh rehahee,” I tried to get out around the heap of pasta I was steadily shoving in my mouth.

“Maverick is a very bad influence on your table manners,” he observed drily, plating more portions and handing them out. “And no. Not happening.”

“You know I can cook.”

“Not the point. I also know that you will fiddle with it until it is unrecognizable, so there’s really no point in giving it to you.”

Defiantly, I took a smaller bite and chewed carefully. “Garlic, onions, obviously. Sausage and minced… Lamb? But that’s probably just for this session, knowing you it’s spicy sausage regularly. I’m not getting carrot, though, so no soffritto? Unexpected…. Is that thyme, I’m tasting?”

“Rosemary, you heathen. And you’re still wrong.”

I mumbled to myself. “What did I get wrong? It’s gotta be the lamb… maybe he does usually use the lamb? I’m certain it is lamb…”

“It is lamb, and no, I don’t usually use it. But you left several things out.”

I stared at the plate again, confused. “I didn’t think I needed to mention the tomatoes….”

“Basil… oregano….” he drawled.

“Duhhh?” I poked through the last bite on my plate, sniffing it, trying to figure out what I was missing. “Fine, you win, I’m lost.”

“Mushrooms, Sophia. There’s mushrooms. Jeezus. It was an easy one, too.” He showed me a bowl full of what looked like cooked and crumbled sausage, only for me to realize it was the tiniest diced mushrooms I had ever seen in my life.

“I am dying to know how you got them that small.”

“With a knife?” He arched an eyebrow at me as he turned to start another batch of sauce.

“Yeah, no shit, Arthur.”

“Correct, there is no shit in the spaghetti,” he confirmed cheekily as the vegetables started sizzling.

“Asshole,” I laughed, scraping the remaining sauce from my plate with the piece of bread I saved just for that purpose. Just as I was frowning at the sauce-less plate and remaining half-piece of bread, a scalding hot dollop of fresh sauce invaded my vision.

“You love me, because I won’t let you frown at your bread like that.”

Fiiiinnnne I sighed in my head as I shoved a piece of saucy, saucy bread into my cheeks and waggled my fingers to let him get back to work.

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#the miys #found family #humans are weird #science fiction #aliens #apocalypse #humans are space orcs #humans are space fae #earth is space australia #post apocalypse #post post apocalypse #original science fiction #original sci fi #original writing

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amindofstone · 3 years ago

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Match up No.12

Anon said:

(Somehow this turned out to be longer than expected omg I'm sorry(｡ŏ﹏ŏ) ) Hi! How's your day? This is my first time sending literally anything on this app and I'm really nervous haha👉👈could I request a mash-up? I'm a female, INTJ, Leo, I’m 1.61 tall , I have shoulder length black curly hair and hazel eyes. I'm really introverted and I rarely speak but when I get comfortable I like to talk and joke a lot! (1/2)

I like to think that I'm confident tho deep down I'm insecure about a lot of things lmao. I speak three languages (English, Italian and Arabic) I like to draw, I listen to music most of the time and I'm good at cooking tho I don't do it that often. That's all thank you (；^ω^）(2/2)

a/n:

Hey there! How are you doing? I am so sorry for making you wait for so long. But here I am hopefully giving you want you wanted. And there is absolutely no need to be nervous dear. You´re doing just fine. And I´m glad to know about more trilingual people in here. English, Italian and Arabic. What a beautiful but also interesting combination. Anyways I hope you will like with what I came up with. If there is anything you don´t like make sure to tell me. I will work on it and do it better. Other than that happy reading my dear anon!

Match up rules can be found HERE.

Warning(s): Maybe grammatical or spelling mistakes since English is my third language and I´m still improving in every aspect (Please have mercy on that.)

!!! Please do not steal my idea or work. Credit me if this is shared or published in any other platform or any other way. Please respect me as the writer and my work. Picture is not mine. Credits to: please tell me if you know who the artist is so I can give them the credits and tag them properly. Thank you. !!!

- Well, well my dear anon. I decided to pair you up with Vinsmoke Sanji because I think that you need lots of love and appreciation. And I think that he is someone who can give you all of that and even more.

- You were walking around the deck of the Sunny. Thinking about everything but also nothing at the same time. One minute you were thinking about your friend who send you a letter just yesterday and minutes later you would be walking around with a empty head. For a person that barely talked or spoke up about anything your mind was always somehow occupied with something.

- Two months. Since two months you were sailing with the strawhats who recruited you to join the crew of the future pirate king.

- You liked all of the crew members. But out of all of them you liked Robin and Zoro the most since they were pretty chill and calm people. They were quite and didn´t talk much. You could be sitting next to them without having to hold conversations. You could be sitting next to each other without a glimpse of awkwardness.

- Every member of the strawhat crew knew that you weren´t the most talkative person and accepted you the way you were. But still they somehow always tried to get you to talk. And one of them tried that the most. That person was none other than the ships cook, Sanji.

- You were aimlessly walking around the ship with eyes fixed on the ground when you felt your legs getting tired. You were close to the tree with the swing so you took the opportunity to take a seat on the swing and slowly sway yourself back and forth. You were once again lost in your thoughts when you felt a blanket being placed over your shoulder. The sudden contact made you flinch slightly and look up only to find the first mate standing in front of you. “Oi are you okay? I went to train in the crow’s nest around 6 pm when I saw you walk around on your own.”, with a visibly confused and a tilted head you were looking the green haired man in the eyes. “And?”, you wondered. Zoro raised a brow. “Y/N. It´s half past nine now. Didn´t you realize how dark it got? You´re pretty weird but that’s fine since none of us are normal. Not even Nami who´s not a devil fruit user.”, the words of the swordsman made you laugh. “Thank you for the blanket but I am not weird. I am just not really talkative like some of ya´ll. ”, you said while cuddling into the blanket. “I am fine with that. In fact that makes me like you the most since you´re pretty chill. Anyways I gotta go and shower. It´s your turn with the night watch I suppose. Good luck with that stupid cook. Night.”, without waiting for a reply he left you alone.

- When you thought you were alone footsteps could be heard behind you. You took a look at your left just to find Sanji walking down the stairs in black pants and a white shirt. Rolled up sleeves showing that he left the kitchen minutes ago and a new cigar between his lips he walked down the stairs with one hand in his pocket. No matter how he put a step he always looked elegant and gracious. “It kinda makes me sad to see that you talk and even laugh with that marimo but not me. Did I do something wrong my dear?”

- Out of all the people on the ship you never thought of hearing such a question come from the gentlest and loving person. You never thought that he would ever ask such a question because you always thought he could and would understand you without having to speak about it. “You seem to not like me much. Are you?”, he said with a beautiful smile upon his lips.

- “It´s not like that. It´s just that he never makes me talk. He listens when I do but other than that he never tries to make me speak because he understands that I don´t like to talk much. And when I do out of nervousness he makes me stop and takes over. He might not look like it but he truly is a understanding man. And so is Robin.”, “And I am not?”, you shook your head and smiled back at the cook. “You´re different. You are my comfort and save place.”

- The words that left your lips made Sanji widen his eyes out of shook. For a second his mind went blank but quickly was able to pull himself back together. He lit up the cigar between his lips and put both of his hands in his pocket.

- Sanji always tried his best to get you to talk and look people in the eyes when you did but he never forced you into anything. He always tried his best to make you speak out your thoughts and opinion on everything as gentle as possible. He was always caring towards you and always kept an eye on you. He understands you better than you do. He can read through your facet that was supposed to show a brave and strong you. A woman that was not shy. A extroverted, active woman. He was able to look into your soul and give you whatever your heart desired. No matter if it was food, clothes, books or simply the comfort of a silent room.

- “I really appreciate your words. In fact I am honored to have you see me worthy enough to be beside and with you. Although I wish for it to be more than that.”, out of habit you tiled your head slightly to the side that showed your confusion. You were about to ask what he meant but got cut off when he pulled you back up on your feet. “Let´s go and have a little snack.”

- With no other words leaving you, you let him lead you to the kitchen not knowing that your little head tilt made his heart melt and his soul to bust the biggest uwu.

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charmixpower · 2 years ago

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Yes! I almost asked because aisha seems like the one who is least connected to her element. Like even stella got affected from being underground too long, and was visibly happier when she was gone I think there was a scene in season 3 where valtor put musa in a sound-proofed bubble and she was noticably affected, tecna is the only one who didn't feel SOME connection to nature in season one but had that ep in season 2 where she linked the red fountain ship up to her brain ?? bloom and her connection to the essence of the dragon flame and. But we don't see Aisha have this connection with liquid or water (making rain controling soda cans, splashing a smoothie in soneone's face is all very light stuff compared to the other girls) until later seasons like fate and wow. Even in the first movie she said that she can feel every last drop from the shallowest puddle to the deepest ocean, but also not really???? Like I agree with the other person that her connection is different than flora (but im also questioning what is her limit with "nature") but she should have had her own input (maybe questioning the pattern of the tides or something). I just wonder why the show says she's the fairy of waves but only ever seems to emphasize her morphix abilities.

In that same EP where Musa is trapped in a silence bubble, Flora was put in a darkness spell and APPARENTLY that hurts her too because nature needs the sun to survive or something???

The limit of Flora's nature powers are both non-existent and very strong. Anything that can be considered a plant counts, Flora don't do animal magic XD

Anyways Musa seems pissed and exhausted. It's really up to interpretation if she's exhausted because she tried to break out and it didn't work or if it affected her negatively on a mental level

Stella and Flora are the only ones affected in a big physical way, Flora ends up in pain and Stella grows exhausted and pale, like someone's literally sucking the vitamin D out of her

Also Tecna plugging herself into the computer kinda implies that she feels no connection. If she could connect then she wouldn't need the plugs, she just kinda filters all the ships programs though her magic idk if it's supposed to be her brain. She calls her self the new main computer but aside from that /shrug Your Tecna does not come with Bluetooth

That's true Bloom only has a connection to the dragon flame, but when the Trix stole the dragon flame and she still had a piece of it she was unable to sense the Trix? But she also didn't know she had it so that could be considered a cop-out

The movies claims about what Guardian Faries can do is ALL bullshit except for Musa who can apparently learn the song Riven is singing as soon as she hears it but not realize that he's writing her a song

None of that stuff holds over into the show proper until like s5 and that's how you know the writers don't care XD

OOO fun fact, Aisha is the fairy of fluids in the og Italian dub, and it was changed to waves by Nick. It's implied that she can control any liquid but the reason she primarily and near exclusively uses Morphix (the sticky stuff that can be used to make objects) and Plasma (basically just a pink liquid) is because she created it herself and bc of that it's more useful

If your wondering where the water spells are: Water bolt, Protection of Waves - Bloomix. Waterizing ray - Mythix. Dance of the Tides, Magical Water Hug - Butterflix. Tides of Andros - Tynix. Magic Rain - Cosmix

Yeah they're all p late game so gnksjjd that's interesting

Anyways the show says that the same way it says Flora is the fairy of nature and just means plants or says Musa is the fairy of Music and gives her like 1 singing spell. Because the show fucking sucks at spells

#rus chatters #asks #winx club #winx aisha #winx layla

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eloquentgifs · 4 years ago

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DWJ Reading Project. Part II

As I said here, my 2021 resolution is gonna be READING EVERY DIANA WYNNE JONES BOOK I CAN FIND, and due to my love of making lists and taking notes, I’ve decided keeping track of this reading project here in this post, which I’ll keep updated as I make progress. It’s mostly for my own pleasure, but maybe it helps someone who wants to give it a try to this amazing writer and doesn’t know where to start.

Part I (1970 - 1976 & The Dalemark Quartet)

Part III (1984 - 1992 & Land of Ingary Series)

- The Chrestomanci Series (DWJ’s suggested reading order): · Charmed Life (1977): I couldn’t fully enjoy it because the main premise of the story is the codependency Cat has with his AWFUL sister, and how her abuse shapes everything on his life. He has such a low self esteem and needs so much a hug, it just breaks my heart every page. In any case, the worldbuilding, the magic system and the general vibe are just amazing. If it keeps like this, I totally understand why so many people love this series

· The Lives of Christopher Chant (1988): Ok, this is the good shit. I don’t even know how to describe it in few words. Let’s say that there’s also a kid being abused by his relatives, and there were parts where I wanted to throw the book against the wall, but Christopher is such a fascinating character to read about that you just can’t stop. And this universe, OMFG. Also, is the Asheth thing some kind of homage to The Tombs of Atuan?

· Conrad’s Fate (2005): I’ve binge-watched Downton Abbey a few months ago, so finding out this book is basically DA with magic was just a delight. Christopher and his new BFF Conrad arrive to this big ass manor to work as lackeys, while both having secret agendas of their own. There’s everything one would expect and more: Rich Family Drama, Upstairs/Downstaris antics, crime solving, forbidden loves, scifi-ish reality bugs, and of course abusive relatives (at this point, if I were DWJ’s uncle I'd think she was trying to tell me something). I read it in a day and a half. The only negative thing I can say is that I missed Christopher POV of things.

· Witch Week (1982): This is about a bunch of pupils and teachers in a deppresing boarding school. Everyone is a little bit of an asshole at some point, but it's understandable because this world must be the worst in Series 12. Not only they keep burning witches in modern times, but witches aren’t even a minority, so you can imagine the amount of hypocrisy. It’s interesting how the witch thing can be considered a metaphor for lgtb kids: everyone is scared of being called a witch because they’ll get bullied (and maybe arrested and burnt), but every time a character find out they’re in fact a witch, they just feel confident and happy because they’ve found themselves, so they can’t even hide it. Also, there are more secret witches around than they would expect.

· The Magicians of Caprona (1980): Two families of famous spell-makers keep hating each other through generations, to the point they put Caprona, the city-state where they live, in danger. Sometimes the Italian stereotypes were too much and took me out of the story, but not gonna lie, I really loved the opera spells, the large families living all together in a big house and being loving and supportive with each other, and BENVENUTO.

· The Pinhoe Egg (2006): This one is also about confronted families of magic users, but this time they’re in the villages near to Chrestomanci Castle, and no one really knows there’s a feud because their spells are based on herbs and plants, not in singing opera on the streets. Cat comes back and shares the spotlight with Marianne Pinhoe, and as always I would love more Christopher Chant, but I can´t really complain.

· Mixed Magics (2000): Four short stories settled in the Chrestomanci Universe, more or less linked to the main characters. My favourite is the third one, Carol Oneir’s Hundredth Dream, mostly because the idea of a kid selling her dreams as stories is brilliant, but also because I loved that little moment where Christopher reviews Carol’s dreams and everything he says is the kind of critique that Diana always received on her books.

- The Homeward Bounders (1981): There are some misterious powerful people who seem to be addicted to Age of Empires, but they play it using actual worlds and actual people. When someone from these worlds find this out, they got exiled and doomed to jump from world to world, only able to stop when they manage to get back to their original world. The first act remind me a little of those stories from Arabian Nights where the main character keeps arriving to weird islands and getting into the most bizarre troubles but always manages to survive. Due to life circunstances I couldn't focus 100% on the reading, but I did enjoy the characters, mostly Helen, and Jamie eventually grew on me too. I must confess I got kinda lost with the final explanation about the game and the nature of this multiverse and what it's Real and how Hope acts literally as an anchor that keeps the system going (although I find the notion really interesting as an allegory, and once again a really cool message for kids: hope can be your prison)

- The Time of the Ghost (1981): Ok, this one was a dark trip. I can’t really say that much because everything is a spoiler. Let’s say it’s about an amnesic ghost who’s drawn to their family, and there’s a lot of sadness, pagan blood rituals (one chapter in particular has A LOT OF BLOOD for my taste), abusive relationships, and a little bit of the theme in the previous book: the negative side of hope that makes us cling to things in an unhealthy way. Also, I’ve read this book is kinda autobiographical, and it explains so much about the way DWJ used to depict families in her books, it’s heartbreaking. It has its moments of fun and sweet melancholy tho. It’s never 100% depressing with Diana. I think that’s what make it feel so realistic.

#Diana Wynne Jones #Reading EVERYTHING #2021 Resolution #DWJ Reading Project #Chrestomanci #Charmed Life #The lives of Christopher Chant #Conrad's Fate #Witch Week #The Magicians of Caprona #The Pinhoe Egg #Mixed Magics #The Homeward Bounders #The time of the Ghost

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rmtndew · 4 years ago

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Begin Again

Summary: Walter Marshall is a dedicated homicide detective doing his best to balance his work life with being a single father to a teenage girl. Fiona Sparks is a woman doing her best to take care of everyone and everything around her, except for herself. Neither has had the best luck with relationships, but once they meet, they’re willing to give it another shot, this time with each other. (It’s basically just romantic fluff)

Pairing: Marshall and OFC.

Rating: PG

Warnings: Mentions of death, cancer.

A/N - This is a sequel to ‘All I’ve Ever Known’. I started writing this because I needed an escape for some personal stuff going on and my coping mechanism included giving Marshall all the love that man needed, and imagining him being the softest boyfriend to me, then passing those details on to Fiona (my OFC).

I also made a Spotify playlist for this story, if anyone is interested - Begin Again Playlist

Tag list - @hollydaisy23, @alyxkbrl, @onlyhenrys, @omgkatinka, @speakerforthedead0, @gearhead66, @thethirstyarchive, @oddsnendsfanfics, @littlerinoa, @agniavateira, @aaescritora, @justaboringadult, @beenthroughalot, @seriouslygoodlookinggents, @xxxkatxo

If you want to be added/removed from the tag list, let me know!

Chapter 1, Chapter 2, Chapter 3, Chapter 4, Chapter 5, Chapter 6, Chapter 7

The last Wednesday in October was a gray, misty, windy day. It was cold, the kind you felt more in your bones than anywhere else, with the sky occasionally spitting out sleet. I spent the entire twenty-minute drive to my job at Waverly Catering clutching the steering wheel so tightly that my hands were cramping by the time I arrived from white-knuckling it the whole way there. Usually, I would get to work early enough to enjoy the silence and finish off my coffee before officially starting my workday. That day, however, I spent the very little extra time I had trying to get my hands to stop hurting, then chugged down my coffee that had cooled dramatically to a gross lukewarm temperature.

Before going in, I checked my phone. I always kept it on silent while I drove. My mom had a tendency to text me, make a dozen spelling mistakes because of auto-correct, then correct them one by one, leaving me with about thirteen separate texts to read. It didn’t use to bother me, I thought it was charming and very distinctly Mom. But when she’d gotten sick at the beginning of the year, every text she sent that I couldn’t read immediately made me panic, worrying that something terrible had happened to her, even when I’d just seen her at home a few minutes before. So for my sanity - and hers - I started putting my phone on silent until I got to work, or wherever else I was going. It was a habit I’d kept even after she’d gone into remission because her cancer may have been gone, but my anxiety over her wasn’t.

That morning when I checked my phone, I saw that I had two texts, but they weren’t from Mom.

Marshall: Good morning, Fi. I hope that I get to see you today. I’ll be chained to my desk with paperwork for a while. This is the first time I’ve not dreaded it. You’re my silver lining.

That was cheesy. I’m sorry. I’m bad at this.

And just like that, all of my stress melted away. The weather didn’t matter, my disappointing coffee didn’t matter, even the cramping in my hands didn’t matter. All that did matter was that Walter Marshall thought of me as his silver lining. Yes it was early days, yes we’d barely known each other a month, yes we’d only gone on two dates, but he made me happier than I’d been in a long time. I felt like I’d been holding my breath for two years, starting when my dad had died in a car crash, followed by my boyfriend Ezra breaking up with me, then losing my job as an interior designer, and capping off with my mom’s cancer diagnoses. Then Walter came along and it was like I could finally breathe again.

Me: Please don’t apologize. You have no idea how much I needed to read that this morning. Feel free to be as cheesy as you want. And I hope I get to see you today, too, even if it means you’re chained to your desk.

Marshall: If I don’t see you for some reason, can I call you tonight? I miss your voice and you make me want to get better at this talking thing.

I could feel myself blushing. Even over the phone he made me feel like a teenager with a crush. I had no idea that anyone could make me feel that way as an adult, but he did every time he texted me.

Me: Of course you can. Even if we do see each other, you can still call, if you want? Practice makes perfect, and all that.

Marshall: I’d like that. Talk to you soon.

I sat back in my seat with a sigh as I looked out at the sleet falling from the gray sky, spattering my windshield, blurring out the image of the trees in the park across from me blowing and bending in the wind.

It was going to be a good day.

“You look...dare I say it? Happy?” Darcy said as I walked into her office.

I smiled. “You may dare to say it because yes, I am quite happy.”

“And what brings you to such an extreme emotion so early on such a disgusting day?”

I went to her desk and sat in the chair opposite her. “Well, for one, I know that you’re about to do me a big favor that I will forever be grateful for.”

“Fiona Sparks asking for a favor? I’ll mark the day in my calendar,” she joked. “What kind of favor do you need?”

“I need a copy of the peanut butter cookie recipe.”

“For what purpose?”

“See, that’s where the happiness part comes into play and you, being one of my dearest friends, would love to see me happy.”

“I would but I’m unsure how a cookie recipe is going to do that.”

“It’s not for me,” I said, smiling wide. “I met this guy -”

“What? Who?” she asked enthusiastically, her eyes wide with excitement.

“His name is Walter Marshall. He’s our detective who never changes his lunch order.”

“You’re dating one of the homicide detectives? You can feel free to thank me later for giving you that order, by the way. But right now I want details: How long have you been dating and why am I just now finding out about it?”

“We’re not technically dating. I met him a few weeks ago for the first time and we went on two dates last week.”

“You haven’t dated anyone in over two years, and then you go on two dates in one week?”

“Well, the first was just a coffee date. Saturday we tried having a proper one.”

“Tried?” she asked, raising her eyebrow.

“He wanted to take me to dinner, so we went to an Italian place, but before we could order, his daughter called. She was supposed to be at a Halloween party, but some of her friends had lied to her, I guess, and it ended up being a basement party with slightly older boys and she felt uncomfortable, so we went and picked her up. Then we all went for pizza together.”

“He has a daughter, which is some heavy baggage to begin with, but you met her on your second date? That’s a lot, Fiona.”

“I know it seems like it, but it’s really not. She’s a good kid. And he’s an amazing father, which, oddly, just makes him more attractive,” I said. “But that’s not the point. The point is that his daughter was, understandably, a little iffy about me being with him when he picked her up until she found out that I’m the one who brings the cookies. She apparently loves them and I told her that I might be able to get her a copy of the recipe and that seemed to pave the way for her not hating me instantly. And she’s thirteen, so that’s a pretty big deal.”

“I have so many questions right now but I can’t sort them all out so I’m going to be annoying you with them all day, just be prepared for that. All I want to know right now is if you want the recipe laminated or not?”

I let out a relieved breath. “Yes, please, if you don’t mind. And thank you so much, Darcy. You have no idea how much this means to me.”

“I do know. You never ask for anything, even simple things, so the fact that you’re willing to ask me for a favor means this is a pretty big deal,” she said. “He must be a good guy.”

I nodded. “He really is.”

I arrived at the police station that morning a little before eleven. I’d left the shop early, worried the weather might get bad again and didn’t want to be late for my delivery. Thankfully the sleeting had stopped, allowing me to get there a few minutes early. A few minutes that I used up trying to pull my dolly through the parking lot. The lot had been salted, which was good in that at least it wasn’t icy, but the wheels on my dolly didn’t seem to like the brine mixture. They kept locking up on me. Between that and having to fight against the roaring wind, it took me an embarrassingly long time to reach the station door. Before I could push it open, someone opened it from the inside for me. I looked up, expecting to see Officer Bates. He was the security officer that was posted downstairs and always went through the containers full of lunches that I brought to the homicide unit every week. Instead, I saw Marshall.

“Hello,” he said with a smile.

I immediately felt like giggling. The last time I’d seen him, we’d kissed. And seeing him right then, seeing his beautiful, handsome face, I wanted so badly to kiss him again. Instead, I felt myself grow shy as I blushed so fiercely that my cheeks stung with the new heat that rushed to them.

“Hi,” I said. He pulled the door open all the way, then stepped back, allowing me to walk in. My stomach fluttered as I looked back at him. “Thank you.”

“You’re welcome.” He closed the door behind me. “May I help you with your cart?”

“No, it’s okay.”

“Would you let me help you take it back to your car when you leave, at least?”

I fought every instinct inside of me that insisted I say no. Darcy was right: I hated asking for even simple things. I never wanted to burden anyone. But since I’d met Marshall, I’d learned that his way of showing interest or affection was to do things for me. But he always asked first, wanting my permission. It challenged me, but in a good way. I didn’t need to always go it alone if I didn’t have to.

“Um, yeah, I’d appreciate that. Thank you,” I said. “The wheels didn’t seem to agree with the salted parking lot. You could probably pull it a lot easier than me.”

Marshall stayed with me as Officer Bates went through the containers I’d brought in. He wasn’t close enough to make anyone passing by question it, but it was close enough that my hand hanging at my side could feel the heat coming from his hand and forearm, that was visible from the blue henley that was pushed up to his elbows in a way that I found incredibly attractive. My fingers itched to seek out his, but I fought it. Keeping them obediently beside me. Once Officer Bates was done and gave me the all clear to take the food up, Walter walked me to the elevator and pressed the button to call it down. Then he held the door back, letting me in first before following me. After the door slid closed, he fell back half a step, putting him right beside me. His hand bumped mine, his fingers snaking through, gently holding mine. I smiled, knowing I wasn’t the only one itching for contact.

I turned without a thought and placed a kiss on his shoulder. Then I paused, a moment of panic rising in me that maybe we weren’t at that level yet. But before I could move or feel too worried, he placed a kiss on the top of my head.

“I keep thinking about Saturday,” he whispered.

“Me, too,” I said. I looked up at him. “It was...pretty amazing.”

He smiled. I could see his sharp canine teeth. They were oddly charming. “Yes, it was.” He laced his fingers with mine more securely, properly holding it. “I know I mentioned calling you tonight, but I hoped that we might have dinner again instead. If you’re not busy?”

“I’m exceptionally not busy tonight.”

“Good.” He pressed a kiss to my forehead before turning his head back to face the elevator door. “I won’t be able to finish all my paperwork today, there’s too much and it keeps multiplying like rabbits, so since I have to do it tomorrow anyway, I’m going to knock off here around five. Could I pick you up after that? Around five-thirty, perhaps?”

I nodded, smiling. “That sounds great.”

The elevator dinged as we reached the homicide unit floor. He gave my hand a couple of gentle squeezes before letting it go as the door slid open. He stepped out, then held the door for me like he had before, letting me pull my cart out. He walked with me almost all the way to the break room before a shorter man with glasses stopped him.

“Lieutenant Marshall, can I speak with you in your office for a moment?” he asked.

“Of course.” Walter touched my shoulder. “Excuse me,” he said to me quietly before leaving for his office.

I continued on and was met by most of the detectives waiting for me. Like usual, they didn’t talk to me much, just thanking me for the food before taking their box and going. I took my time, hoping that by the time that I was done, the man speaking with Walter would be gone before I brought him his lunch. When I was done, I packed up my cart before taking Marshall’s boxed lunch and walked down the hall, finding the door to his office open. I could hear him talking still and wasn’t sure what to do. I’d made a deal with him a few weeks back to always bring his lunch to his office whenever I delivered - the first time was because a uniformed officer looked like he was going to swipe it, after that, it was to thank him for rescuing me from a pushy creep while I was with my ‘friends’. We’d never discussed if I should interrupt while he was working. I chewed my lip, debating what to do for several seconds before deciding to just take a chance and knock on the door frame. The worst case scenario was that I looked like a very dedicated delivery woman making sure that all of my orders reached their proper owners.

“Yep. Come in,” Walter called out in response to my knocking.

I entered his office only far enough to be seen and not a step further. I didn’t know if Marshall wanted people to know about us, so I was prepared to make a quick exit if I needed to. “I have a delivery for Detective Marshall,” I said.

He looked at me and smiled, then waved me in further. “Harper, this is Fiona Sparks. Fiona, this is Commissioner Harper.”

“Hi. It’s nice to meet you, sir,” I said.

“You, too.” He looked at me over the top of his glasses. “You don’t happen to be related to Rodger Sparks, by any chance?”

I felt speechless for a moment. I hadn’t heard anyone other than Mom say Dad’s name in months. Finally, I forced myself to nod. “Yes. He was my dad. How - how did you know?”

“We went to college together. You’re the spitting image of him,” he said. “I was sorry to hear about him passing away. I lost my wife around two years ago as well. A brain aneurysm.” He shook his head. “It doesn’t get any easier.”

“No, it doesn’t,” I agreed.

He looked at me for a moment longer, then back to Marshall, who was standing patiently with his hands clasped behind his back. He looked back at me briefly before taking the folder he was holding and tapped it against Marshall’s shoulder. “You know what? This can wait until tomorrow,” he said. “I’ll bring it by in the morning.” He left Walter and stopped beside me before leaving the office. “I’m very sorry about your father. Rodger was a horrible sport when he lost at cards, but other than that, he was a great guy. And probably the smartest man I ever met.”

I smiled slightly. “He was a horrible sport at cards.”

He smiled back. “The worst.” He gave me a wink. “It was a pleasure seeing you.”

“You, too.”

When he left, he closed the door behind him. I looked at Marshall as he walked towards me. “Did I interrupt something important?” I asked.

“No. He was just asking about a cold case.”

“I wasn’t sure if you wanted me to come in since he was here. Next time, if you’re talking to someone, would you rather I left your lunch in the break room?”

He stopped in front of me. He was so close. He smelled like coffee and Old Spice. I swallowed thickly, trying to meet his gaze as he looked down at me. He shook his head, a smile tugging at the corner of his mouth. “No. I’d still like you to bring it to me, please. If that’s alright?”

“Yeah, of course. I just don’t want to get in the way of your job.”

“You won’t,” he said. “But I’ve let my job get in the way of other things for too long, so maybe it’s time someone got in the way of it for a bit.”

“You have an important job, though. If you were a boat salesman, I might feel a little differently about disrupting your work.”

His smile grew as he tilted his head at me. “A boat salesman?”

“I mean a job where it wouldn’t really matter all that much if you were distracted every once in a while. If someone doesn’t sell a boat, it’s not that big of a deal. But if you don’t solve a murder case...that has very real repercussions. I wouldn’t want to be a reason for something slipping by in a case.”

He put his hand on my cheek, directing my eyes back to his. “That won’t happen,” he said. “I take my job seriously. That’s never been a problem for me. My problem has always been figuring out how to balance it with the rest of my life, which I never could, and I neglected a lot of people because of it. Especially Faye.” He shook his head. “I’m still not good at it. But I had a case back in the winter that...put Faye’s safety in jeopardy, among other things, and it made me realize that I need to put more of an effort in my life outside of this job. Despite how hard that is for me.” He stroked my cheek with his thumb. “You motivate me to slow down a bit. And that’s a good thing.”

I took my free hand and placed it over his, then turned my face slightly and placed a kiss on the inside of his wrist. “I would be happy to slow down with you,” I whispered.

Marshall had a smile that somehow showed in his eyes more than his mouth, and that’s how he was looking at me right then. “I’d like that.”

A knock on the door startled me. I took a step back, his hand falling from my cheek. He then ran it over his face, almost like he was trying to scrub the irritation of being interrupted off it. Then he folded his arms across his chest before calling out for whoever it was to come in.

The door opened and a man stepped up to the doorway. He was wearing plain clothes like Walter, so I assumed he was a detective, too. He all but ignored me as he and Walter spoke. Half of what they said was in a jargon I didn’t understand, so I just stood there, head down, waiting. After a few minutes, the guy left, only halfway closing the door as he did. When Marshall finally turned back to me, I could see that he was frustrated. I knew he wouldn’t admit it, but me being at his work right then was only going to cause more irritation with every interruption we had.

“As much as I hate it, I should probably get back to the shop. We have a big order going out tomorrow, so there’s quite a lot to do today to prepare for it,” I said. “Plus, I have a date with a very handsome detective tonight that I want to get ready for.”

The frustration on his face seemed to melt away as he looked at me with a smirk. “Is it anyone I know?”

“Possibly. He does work in your unit.”

“Is that so?” he asked. I nodded. “Well, if I see him around, I might have to have a talk with him.”

“And what would you say?”

“I’d tell him that he better be good to you because you deserve to be treated well.”

My stomach fluttered. “You can rest assured that he treats me very well. Better than any man ever has.”

“All those other men were idiots.”

I smiled. “Maybe so.”

He shook his head. “Definitely so.” He reached out and took his lunch from my hand, then turned and placed it on a filing cabinet behind him. “Will you let me help you to your car now?”

I nodded. “Yes, please.”

He put on his coat and followed me to the break room. He pulled my dolly for me, moving it like it was as light as a child’s toy. Even when we made it to the parking lot, he didn’t seem to have any issue with the wheels fighting against him. Then he picked it up and placed it in my trunk with ease, despite how I very often fought to get it back in. I thought about telling him that he was welcome to help me anytime he wanted, but I was afraid it wouldn’t come across as a joke and he would feel obligated to actually help.

“Thank you. You made my morning a lot easier,” I said after I closed the trunk. I looked at him. “I guess I’ll see you around five-thirty?”

He nodded. “I’ll call you when I leave here, but yeah, I should be there by then,” he said. “And I promise it’ll only be the two of us and no cheap pizza.”

“To be honest, I quite liked the pizza. It didn’t taste cheap. And I really, truly didn’t mind Faye joining us, but it'll be nice to have dinner with just you tonight,” I said. “But that reminds me - I put a copy of our cookie recipe for Faye in your lunch box.”

He smiled. “Thank you. She’ll be very excited about that.”

“You’re welcome. And let her know if she has any issues with it, she can call or text me.”

The crease between his eyebrows appeared as he looked at me thoughtfully. “Are you sure?”

“Yeah. I’ve made them enough times over the last year and a half to make every mistake you can with them. If she has a problem, I can probably diagnose it over the phone.”

“You don’t mind her having your number?”

I felt my facial expressions mirroring his, but from confusion. “Of course I don’t mind. As long as you’re okay with it,” I said. “Unless you think your ex-wife would mind? I don’t want to step on her toes or anything.”

He shook his head. “I don’t think Angie would mind for that purpose, and I don’t have a problem with it. But I don’t want you to feel obligated.”

“I don’t but I’ll leave it up to you. If you’d feel more comfortable being the middleman you can always call me for her.” I gave him a big smile. “And I can help you practice the whole talking thing. Then it’s a two birds with one stone kind of deal.”

He smiled back, nodding his head. “And if she doesn’t need help?”

“You can still call.” I shrugged. “As far as I’m concerned, you don’t have to have a reason for calling. If I’m not at work, I’m usually pretty free. I may be cooking, or watching ‘The Golden Girls’ with Mom, but that’s about it,” I said. “I’m afraid you’re courting quite a socially boring person.”

He laughed. “I’m not sure if you’ve caught on, but I’m not exactly a sociable person, either,” he said. “So perhaps we make a good fit for each other.”

“Perhaps so,” I agreed. “We can be selectively social together.”

“Sounds good to me.”

I let out a sigh and watched my breath turn to steam in front of me. “I better let you get back to your paperwork and I need to go help Darcy at the store. We have over fifty loaves of bread to bake before the end of the day, so depending on when I get home, you may have to deal with your date smelling like freshly baked bread.”

He squinted slightly. “I’m not really opposed to that,” he joked with a smile that showed off the sharp ends of his canine teeth.

I laughed. “Good to know.”

He gave me a short hug, kissing my cheek as he pulled back. “I’ll see you this evening.”

“I’m looking forward to it.

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