#also that taffy thing is when she first gets to use it in a fight against him and hes pretty unequipped to handle a fast fighter

[musubiki]

some brainstorming ideas ive had for a while on what cocos power can actually do

[camarilla-arts]

….. Pokémon au…..

Detailed teams and thoughts below the read more.

These teams would be around the start of the black whale arc, i lightly mapped out which arcs they’d catch and evolve in! No deaths in this au, lesser stakes, this is pokemon. This is only the main 4 for now.

Gon’s team: lots of heavy hitting at the sake of taking damage, lots of environmentally useful moves.

Kon- Ursaluna: Main Partner. met as teddiursa with Kite as a child. With him for all of series.

Bon- wailord: caught in whale island, evolves into wailord during hunter exam. I love the concept of a small child with only massive Pokémon tbh.

Mon- Togekiss: Mito(Poke-breeder) gave him this egg to hatch and everyone finds it funny his hair matches. Probably trains and evolves with Bisky(Former Champ/Gymleader) in GI training times. Once she evolved to Togekiss they LOVE flying together.

Ja-Jan- Scizor: he caught scyther traveling with Kite and evolves it training with Knuckle, it’s cause of Knuckle that his naming pattern is different. Ja Ja Ken themed pokemon! Bisky teaches them how Mega-evolution works!

Don- Kommo-o: Instead of a video game, Ging left Gon two dragon eggs, one he kept and hatched into the battle loving Don and the other he gifted to Killua. Also evolves during GI training. They have immensely similar personalities.

Solgaleo doesnt belong to him, they're friends. Killua and Gon both help a Cosmoem/Cosmog and when fighting along side Gon it takes on this form! only see this during the parallel to the Chimera Ant arc.

I also consdered: Koraidon, Hitmonchan, Heracross, Kanto-Nintales, Pidgeotto, Eevee, dondozo, Wishiwashi, Annihilape, Dragonite, etc.

Killua's team: the Zoldyck family is notorious for their Dark and poison type trainers and protecting Kukuru Mt. a similar vibe to Aether research group.

Cocoa-Weaville: Main partner. perfect IVs, Good EVs, a classic Zoldyck match. they get better together. Her nickname is a secret between the both of them till after Gon and friends rescue him from his house.

Mallow-Crobat: Also already on his team for the Hunter Exam as a Golbat. also Family Approved. He's frustrated by its inability to evolve until he does while visiting Whale Island with Gon.

Pop Rocks- Luxray: Caught during Heavens Arena timeline and evolved fully with Bisky training. his first time choosing a pokemon for himself and having fun.

Taffy- Silvally: Given to him by his Dad as a Type:Null, but rarely used because Killua knows it hates battling and doesnt want it to hate him. the Mask removal likes up nicely with the Needle removal moment. they learn to Battle for themselves and enjoy it over time.

Bonbon- Salamence: Killua's first time hatching a pokemon egg gifted to him by Gon. shes a little defiant and stubborn, Killua blames Gon's influence. Also evolved under Bisky training. If asked why her nickname matches Gons pokemon he will tell you to stop imagining things.

Lunala is also not technically his, he also helps out the same Cosmog/Cosmoem and is blown away when it takes on this form for him while he's rescuing Alluka/Nanika and their Jirachi.

Also considered: Miraidon, Killowatrel, Hitmontop, Floragato, Morpeko, Jolteon, toxtricity, snealser, Alolan-Ninetails, etc.

Leorio's team: this man is deceptivly good at battling but no one would guess it looking at his team. He has the slowest progress in training compared to his friends but tbf he's also attending medical school. lowest effort nicknames.

Gimmi-Gimmighoul: Main Partner. here from the start but stays as a Roving form until we see Leorio again at the election arc and its in its treasure chest form! they are besties.

Pooch- Mightyena: has as a Poochyena for the Hunter exam and his main battler. Cheedle first notices Leorio because she pays extra attention to Dog pokemon and approves of how they battle together. both of these guys give bad first impressions.

Audi- Audino: also a pokemon he starts the hunter exam with but he's a little self conscious of her. Not that either of them ever hesitate to go doctor mode even if they don't match each others vibes. She knows Leorio deep down has a good heart and she refuses to tolerate his nonsense so she can be dis-agreeable until he says what he really means. Learns Mega-evolution off camera just like his nen.

Boar- Tepig: gift egg from Ging as a congrats for getting the Zodiac position after him. Leorio is trying extremely hard to live up to expectations and Boar is probably the most spoiled Pokemon by all of Leorio's team.

Lunch- Applin: in a reference to the Gon giving Leorio and apple scene in 99 anime i really wanted to put an applin on his team. probably given to him by Gon, maybe from whale island. Leorio has no idea how to train this guy, hes working on it. I'm not 100% on this one.

Xerneas- its not unusual for hunters to form bonds with legendaries if they impress them. and i think Xerneas would like Leorio's gumption and kindness. :) plus parallel for Kurapika. probably starts bonding with him around the end of the Election arc.

Kurapika's team: I wish we knew more about the Kurta language cause i think he'd name them after that. It was less a massacre and more a mass destructive event as the PT looted their remote village looking for rare and valuable pokeon, probably following the rumors of a psudo-legendary doomsaying pokemon.

Nemesis-Absol: Main Partner. They both feel responsibly for the attack and seek both vengeance and the return of any pokemon taken. She is just as driven and determined as he is. they learn to mega-evolve while training with Mizuken pre York New.

Prometheus-Blaziken: caught as a torchick post PT attack. insp by the ride-able birds in the Memory comics! the second most dedicated and determined on the team along side Nemesis. loves training. pressent for Hunters exam.

Aion-Metagross: caught and trained with a matching beldum alongside Pairo. Sheila helped them catch them! too bad Pairo's beldum went missing in the PT attack. present for Hunters exam.

Odysea-Palafin: a pokemon Kurapika always adored and was super excited to catch. Dolphin fan boy. Heroic type the vibes are perfect.

Achlys- Rattata: F.E.A.R. tactics. A gift from Pariston after inheriting his Zodiac position. neither of them are above using this tactic if need be lol. His feelings about her are cautious suspicion but they are growing closer over time.

Yveltal is the Legendary that Kurapika willingly made a deal with to give himself the certainty of defeating the PT. they are what they are and its not the healthiest bond but Kurapika would never blame it for its nature and his own choices.

Also Considered: Dodrio, Gyarados(Shiny), Hydredgeon, Talonflame, Giratina, Corviknight, Armorouge, Husian-Zorark, Klefki, All of the Ruinous legendaries, ect.

[sweetly-yours-and-mine]

Far From My Eyes

Pairing: Javier Peña x F!Reader

Word Count: 3.3k

Summary: It’s summer now, and Javier can look forward to a glorious four months with her alone. He gets to have her all for himself for what feels like an infinite amount of months, the long hazy days of the hottest weeks of the year stretching out in front of him like salt water taffy. 

Warnings: childhood best friends to ??, fluff and a tad bit of angst, lots of longing, idiots in love, young!javi deserves more love, a tad bit of body insecurity from both ends

A/N: I took inspiration from the absolute masterpiece that is Fleabag and voila I have an idea for a series. The dialogue I used from Phoebe Waller-Bridge is bolded down below.

I don't own photos, or characters. Divider is from the talented @firefly-graphics.

Her hands are tucked between the side of her face and her pillow and Javier knows that it’s going to smell like her tomorrow morning and he also knows that he’s going to be desperate enough to press his face into it. She looks like those statues of sleeping child angels. The soft glow from his nightstand light only adds to the effect. 

It’s late at night or early morning. She’s half-asleep but fighting it.

His sheets are tucked around her chest, and she’s wearing one of his shirts because she claims that they’re softer than hers. There’s a soft smile hanging around her mouth like early morning dew on a tree’s leaves. It’s a look on her that tugs at something inside him that’s never been tugged at before, but his mind is too muddled to make much sense of it. 

They’ve spent the better part of six hours like this. 

Old habits die hard. 

She was only supposed to stay for dinner, but then he’d taken her to his room claiming that there was a book of hers still in his shelves, which there had been, but then they’d never managed to make it out after. 

They’ve found themselves in much the same position as this for over fifteen years. Her hands tucked between her face and pillow, his underneath the covers and both of them on their sides facing each other. 

She always lies down closest to the wall. This evening had been no different. He hadn’t even asked her to stay the night but she had this way of drawing him into doing the things she wanted for her, and all of a sudden Javier had found himself handing over his t-shirt, crawling into bed and shifting awkwardly as she tried to do the same. 

Some of his best memories as a child come from moments like these. 

The time when she’d confessed her first crush on a boy in their class, the other when he’d done the same for his first crush because it felt easier to tell it to her and not his friends at school. 

The many times she’d snuck in a box of cookies and they’d eaten all of them until their stomachs were fit to burst, and they were giggling with all the sugar gone to their head. 

Those couple of weeks where Javier had found a series of scary story collections in the library and read them to her out loud, and then held her as close as he could to himself so that she could fall asleep. 

Dozens upon dozens of memories stacked on top of each other like printed photos, all bathed in soft yellow light and drowning in that gentle silence the night would take on when everyone in the house had fallen asleep. 

Looking at her now, at the warm glow of her eyes and the way her hair spreads on her pillow, he finds himself craving chocolate chips and walnuts. Finds that he wants to hold her hand and doesn’t know how to ask for it without it seeming weird. 

He’s been desperate for the press of her skin against his, the soft feel of her breaths fanning over his arm and the way her ribs would rise and fall in time. His body has been starved of her in the past few months where she’d been away from him and at college. 

It’s summer now though, and Javier can look forward to a glorious four months with her alone, listening to the melodic tilt of her voice as she tells him about college and Austin and what happened when she was away from him as if trying to justify her absence. There’ll be popsicles that will end up more on the ground than in their stomachs, and his hand will be sticky with sugar. 

He gets to have her all for himself for what feels like an infinite amount of months, the long hazy days of the hottest weeks of the year stretching out in front of him like salt water taffy. 

It’s been two years, two summers and he’s still fooling himself. He’ll blink and they’ll be at the end of August and he’ll be laying on her bed watching her pack her things up again, and biting his tongue so he doesn’t say anything stupid, envy gnawing at his heart. 

Even as a kid he’d known she’d been destined for bigger things than Laredo. Had seen it in her voice and in the images she painted for him in his bed when he asked her to tell him a story. She could do that really well, and didn’t need to rely on books the way Javier had to to have the same effect. 

But even if she is destined for better, bigger, greater, she’s also his friend and Javier loves her in a way he’s not sure he’s able to describe. Which means that he doesn’t like having to see her off twice a year, scared that she’ll never come back and leaving him here all alone, the ghost of her shadow hanging around every corner. 

When he goes to pick her up, at Christmas and in April, there’s a clamp twisted around his ribs and it doesn’t go away until he hears the tears at the edge of her voice and feels the way her hands press into his shoulders. Then he can breathe easy because she’s back and the inevitable has been pushed off for another time. 

Javier’s drawn back to the present by the flutter of her eyelids, keenly aware that they’re slower coming back up than they were going down. He should let her sleep but he’s suddenly terrified of what’s to come in August and the hour has painted it so that he’s scared that maybe he’s dreaming.

So, he shuffles forward, and the sound opens her eyes. She starts to smile at him again.

If it is a dream, he hopes it lasts a while. 

“If you could change anything…in the whole world,” His voice is still gravelly from the way she’d made him laugh this evening until he felt that he couldn’t breathe anymore. “What would it be?” 

Her face is always so open for him, so easy to read. He thinks that if he gets close enough to her eyes, he can see the thoughts arise behind them. There’s a dent between her eyebrows that shows when she’s thinking and Javier presses it away with his thumb. He hides his hands away before he can think too much of it. 

“My thighs.” 

He laughs, “In the whole world?” It’s clear that it’s late and her mind isn’t working the way it should. He was expecting an answer more worldly from her. Eliminate corruption. Free education and healthcare for all. 

Still, he likes her answer much more. Likes that she gave it to him plainly and that she didn’t hide behind words and ideas that were too big for the town, and by association, himself. The people of Laredo say she has her head too far up in the clouds, that her imagination hadn’t been reeled in at the right time and that she’s a lost cause now. 

College. They say it as if it’s shameful, when it’s all Javier wants. 

Sometimes, he’d catch her eye and feel like he’s the only one who ever really knew her. 

He knows that she thinks too much and that she feels too much. She does too much of everything for everyone else that she forgets herself sometimes and Javier has to bring her back with a gentle hand for fear of scaring her away irrevocably. 

“But don’t tell anyone I said that,” the fleshy little anxious part of her is wide awake now, her mind having mulled it over for too long. She lets out a small nervous laugh that she only half-commits to, abandoning it before it’s completely out.

Javier shakes his head, inches forward that much more. With every breath he takes in, he can smell her, and it’s strong enough that he can’t pretend that he’s making it up. 

“You?” 

He follows the same line of reasoning as her answer, “I’ve always been insecure about my face.” He thinks about the time she’d been the only one able to find him during hide-and-seek, and how, instead of ratting him out, she’d squeezed herself next to him and held his hand so hard that his fingers hurt. He thinks in turn about how she didn’t leave until the moment he’d felt ready. “You know that.” 

Her smile widens, she’s grinning at him now. He can’t take it anymore and reaches for her hand. She gives it to him without a qualm or question and lets him thread their fingers together. “You shouldn’t.” 

Looking away from her for a few seconds he wills the red to not rise to his face, “Well, thanks but-” 

“I mean it,” she squeezes his hand, her voice warm. “Seriously, there’s nothing wrong with your nose.” 

That makes him pause, pushes down the insecurity that was rapidly growing inside him like mould. He looks at her and frowns. 

“I mean, there’s nothing wro-” 

“Say that again.” 

“I mean there’s nothin-” 

“What?” 

Javier’s just fucking with her now. 

“I don’t know…” he narrows his eyes at her in the way that always makes her spill something she’d been hiding from him. The soft corners of her voice turn panicked, “I always say the wrong thing!” He wants to contradict her, but she’s already hiding away from him, face pressed into his chest. 

The air gets kicked out of his lungs because of how close she is to him and how she’s staying so close to him. She’d arrived over a week ago but had just come for dinner tonight, at Chucho’s insistence only.

Despite the years they’ve spent together, Javier becomes shy when she first comes back, awkward and fumbling as he tries to pull himself upright long enough so that she doesn’t suspect anything’s changed in their relationship. 

Because really, nothing has. 

It just takes a while for him to get used to her and the idea that she’s once again a four minute drive away from him. 

“You’re an asshole,” she mumbles and he can feel it in his chest. He’s glad she can’t see him now because he’s trying to rapidly blink away his tears. 

He’s missed her. 

“M’know.” 

“I’ve missed you,” pulling away, she looks up at him. The words are offered up like an apology. Javier doesn’t accept it because she can never do wrong to him. For a split second he fears that she’ll go back to her side of his bed and without thinking about it, his free arm curls around her. 

“M’know.” 

The corners of her eyes crinkle, “Smart-ass.” 

He rolls his eyes and his hand seeks out the comforting dips and grooves of her spine. 

In a couple of days, he’ll regain his footing and be brave enough to reach underneath her shirt and feel her skin. Right now, it’ll be too intense for him, he has to build up to it. “You meant it? ‘Bout my nose?” 

“Yeah,” her gaze falls to it. “There’s nothing wrong with it…Really, I mean it, and not just ‘cause you’re my friend either.” Javier’s just a little scared that she’d managed to read his mind even after they’ve spent months apart. 

Javier thinks that the person who first said ‘far from the eye, far from the heart’ had never really loved anyone. 

“I don’t-” 

“You should…the tip, it’s very…kissable.” 

He’s suddenly acutely aware of how close she is to him, and swallows in time with the bob of her throat. She lets go of his hand and he lets her and tries to ignore the caving in of his stomach. 

Her head falls beside his on his pillow. She’s just far away enough so that his eyes can focus on her. He tries not to think of her and how she’s thought that his nose is kissable and fails miserably. 

“Javi?” 

“Hm?” 

“Will you take me to the movies sometime?” 

His forehead wrinkles, “Of course.” There’s a movie theatre just over an hour by car from Laredo that they’ve been going to since he’d learned to drive. Summer was synonymous with cold ice cream and her smile beaming at him in his bed, spending the days fleeing the hot sun and the evenings in the violently AC’d air of the movie theatre. “‘Course I will.” Fear seizes up in his throat, “Why are you askin’?” 

She just shrugs, eyes falling to his shirt and staying there. 

He presses, anxiety drumming in his blood, “When d’ya wanna go?” 

“Oh, I dunno,” she shuffles closer to him on the pillow and Javier has to hold his head just a little further back so he can see her clearly. “Just…sometime.” 

The static of the silent night falls around them. 

“You know,” at the sound of his voice her eyes meet his and he doesn’t know how to describe the feelings that wash over him. He wishes that she would never look away. “Your thighs are great, you shouldn’t change them.” 

Candles light up around her face and she smiles, biting her lip like she always does when she gets shy, “Really?”

“Yeah.” 

“Great?” 

He nods and then teases so she won’t hear how serious he is about this, “And I’m not just saying it as your friend either.” 

Maybe if they were both well-rested, they could have heard what he’d written in between his lines. They’re not and his insinuation flies over both of their heads. 

A giggle bubbles up in her throat and the room grows brighter, even with the sunrise still a few hours away. “You think about my thighs a lot, Javi?” 

He sends it right back, “You think about my nose a lot?” 

Her lips pout down and she starts to frown at him playfully, “No fair.” 

“You think about kissing my nose just as much?” 

The amusement falls from her face, and he becomes scared that he’s forgotten how to read her in just four months. They always knew when to push and when to stop, when to be pulled and when to pull. A delicate tug-of-war balance that could only be achieved over years of spending any possible moment they could together. 

There’s nothing that scares Javier more than forgetting how to pick up on her cues. He thinks that if it ever did happen, he’d stop living. 

Life only had meaning when he knew that she picked at her cuticles when she was anxious, that she leaned onto her right shoulder when she was bored and her left shoulder when she was uncomfortable, and that chamomile tea helps her calm down and that she prefers witty one-liners to elaborate jokes that take years to set up and usually end up being a let-down anyways. 

He murmurs her name, hoping that he hasn’t ruined his summer with her with just one question, “I-” 

Her lips press lightly to the blunt tip of his nose. It’s as soft as the breath of a baby, fleeting as the flap of a butterfly’s wings, and shorter than a heartbeat. For Javier it feels like being born anew. The ever-present noise in his head goes silent. All he can hear now is the rhythmic rise and fall of her breaths. His meaning is only given to him by her face in front of him. 

Awkwardly, like the rusty joints of a car, Javier leans towards her, so close to her that the edges of her face are blurry. 

In the same manner as her, he presses an idea of a kiss onto her mouth and pulls back just as quickly, if not faster. 

His nose and his mouth are tingling. 

She’s looking at him in a way he’s never seen before. The rush of emotions that it triggers inside him leads to him kissing her again, long enough that they can both understand what he did the first time, long enough for him to feel how soft her lips are. 

She lets out a little sound and Javier comes to himself again. His ears pop and his world grows from just her back to his room around him and the gravity of his actions fall down on him like a boulder. 

In a jerky movement he pulls away, his heart hammering against his chest, eyes widening. 

Images start to flash across his mind. 

He sees her frowning and yelling at him, changing back into her clothes and going back to her house. His stomach drops as he thinks of her leaving his bed eternally, and of the way her smell will fade from his sheets in a couple week’s time. He thinks of what he’s going to do with the rest of his summer and what’s going to happen at the end of it when he won’t be the one driving her to the bus stop and then watching her bus drive away until he can’t see it on the horizon. 

He should look away now, so as to make the leaving part easier, but instead he’s selfishly drinking up the last few moments he has with her, before he starts mourning their friendship. 

Instead of moving away like he’d been expecting, she inches forward, presses her palms to the sides of his face and runs her thumbs under the tender skin of his eyes. “Come back to me, Javi.” 

He doesn’t know how. 

“Baby,” her eyes are searching his face and he’s back to her. He’s back in her arms and in his bed. His heart is still pounding but he only knows himself in relation to her so it doesn’t matter. 

This time, when he kisses her, she’s already there halfway. Her hands are in his hair and though they’ve been there a thousand times before, it feels new to him. His body sings for her skin against his but he can’t bring himself to do it. His hands remain on her waist, on top of his shirt. 

“Did you miss me?” she’s out of breath with her forehead pressed against his. Her breaths are fanning out across his face like the waves of the ocean.

It takes a moment for his mind to straighten itself out, for him to realise what she’s asking of him. 

Slowly, he sits up, with her in his arms and his lips against hers. He gives butterflies after hummingbirds of kisses to her and she accepts each one as if they were the first. His stomach twists into itself and untwists. He feels as if his heart has just started to beat after twenty long years. 

She’s leaning against his arms and looking up at him breathlessly, her chest labouring to catch her breath. 

Javier wants to reply but he also wants to kiss her again and he does. Meandering and lazy as he pushes his tongue into her mouth. She makes no move to rush him, thumbs running across his cheeks, one hand reaching under the collar of his shirt and resting at the place his neck meets his shoulder. 

He pulls away and closes his eyes for a brief moment and then opens them again out of fear that she’ll disappear. 

“Yeah, I missed you,” he’s breathing harshly as he says her name. The words tumble out before he has a chance to think about them, “All I did was miss you.” 

Thanks for reading! If you enjoyed it please consider leaving feedback, it means the world to me. Please let me know if you would like to be tagged for the next part.

Masterlist here.

[the-sun-and-the-sea]

Odesta Week Day 4: Throwback Thursday

Annie is almost fourteen years old, and that is a very important age to be. Yes, there’s the ‘you’re growing up’ speech that her parents foisted onto her last year, but that’s not what she means. She’s talking about something even more important than that.

From the ages of twelve to fifteen, students are leaving District Four’s training facility in droves. That’s because this is where things start to get serious. A lot of parents pull their kids out before they reach sixteen, so they never live and train at the Academy full time. But the teachers are also cutting people from the program; anyone who can’t run or fight or survive is gone.

That won’t happen to Annie.

She’ll be sixteen soon enough, and then it will be her turn to live at the Academy. It will be her turn to become a Senior and eventually be selected as the volunteer. Her Games will be the 70th, the first of a new decade. She got really lucky in that way.

She’s just gotten out of a weapons class, but she needs somewhere quiet to study. Although the Academy doesn’t require as much studying as regular school, they’re still expected to know the most common causes of death and what weapons are most frequent at the Cornucopia. Annie finds her way to an isolated hallway, grinning as the sunlight that beams through the big windows hits her skin.

It’s only after she walks a little further that she realizes she isn’t alone.

He’s sitting on a bench, slumped against the wall, oddly still. The sunlight seems to illuminate him from the inside out. When he looks at her, his eyes are so vividly green that her breath catches.

Finnick Odair. In case that wasn’t clear enough from the description of his eyes.

Annie almost apologizes and walks away. Victors are supposed to be treated with the utmost respect, but Finnick Odair is only a year older than her, so it feels weird to treat him like any sort of authority.

“Mind if I sit?” she asks, faux casual. Hopefully she’s not overstepping. She’s pretty sure Finnick Odair doesn’t even know her name.

“Sure,” is all he says.

Annie joins him on the bench gingerly, pulling out her notebook that’s filled to the brim with her careful handwriting. This notebook has everything from arena strategy to fighting stances to different tactics for the Flickerman interview. Finnick peers over her shoulder, and Annie pretends she doesn’t care.

“I guess you don’t need this stuff anymore,” she says conversationally. There’s a hidden question in there too; what are you doing here? He must pick up on it because he huffs a laugh.

“I spent a lot of time here,” he says. “I used to come here when I needed to think.”

Annie feels heat rise in her cheeks. She’d never admit it because the last thing she wants to do is look stupid in front of Finnick Odair, but she does the same thing. “What are you thinking about now?”

“Are you going to volunteer?” Finnick asks, promptly changing the subject. It’s not a smooth transition at all, but she supposes that since he won the Hunger Games, some brusqueness can be excused.

She folds her notebook proudly in her lap. “Of course.”

He gives a vague hum of acknowledgement, and Annie can’t tell if it’s approving or disappointed.

“Do you have any advice?” she asks after a beat of silence.

“No,” says Finnick softly. “I thought I did. But I don’t.”

She gets the feeling that they’re not talking about the Games anymore. The only problem is that she doesn’t actually know what they are talking about. “Well, that’s okay. You’re only fourteen. You can take your time, right?”

He laughs. “I guess I have all the time in the world now.”

What that must feel like, to have achieved your life goal at fourteen. Annie can’t even imagine. She’ll be eighteen by the time she wins, practically an adult. It all feels so far away. “What are you going to do with it?”

He actually smiles now, and it’s genuine enough that his eyes brighten. “Eat all the saltwater taffy I can find.”

“Lucky,” she says. She’s actually salivating. The Academy doesn’t really do sugar; the closest thing she’s had to real dessert since she turned twelve is protein cookies, which are definitely more protein than cookie. “When I win, I’m going to have so many muffins.”

“What kind of muffins?”

“Chocolate. Obviously.”

Finnick hums. “Solid choice. You don’t have to win to have muffins, though. They have them in the Capitol.”

“It’s not the same,” Annie says immediately. Victory muffins will just be different. She watches the swatches of sun on the ground until they start to swim in her vision and she has to look away. “What’s the Capitol like?”

“It’s cool,” he says with a shrug.

When he doesn’t elaborate, Annie asks, “That’s it?”

“I don’t know. It’s weird. The people dress like they’re in costumes all the time. And they sound weird when they talk.” His eyes meet hers guiltily. “Don’t tell anyone I said that.”

“I won’t,” she says solemnly.

“It’s not too late to drop out of the Academy,” he says, and Annie’s caught so off guard by the sudden change in topic that she almost drops her notebook.

“What? I’m not dropping out. I’m going to—”

“Win the Games, yeah,” Finnick finishes. He’s not looking at her anymore, but his eyes have taken on a glassy look. “Just try to think about if that’s really what you want.”

What is he even talking about? “Isn’t that what you wanted?”

“I was reaped,” he reminds her.

“I know,” Annie replies, because she’s watched the reapings of every living victor enough times to memorize them. “But you trained here before that. You must have wanted it a little.”

Finnick shrugs. “I guess. I don’t really remember, honestly. Everything feels different now.”

It would, after an experience like the Hunger Games.

Annie stands up, sliding her notebook back into her bag. “I hope you figure it out,” she offers. “Whatever it is you’re thinking about.”

His eyes gleam in the sun as he looks up at her. “Thanks, Annie.”

[xandriagreat]

What happens when wearing The Crescent Amulet/Taffy's Prison?

This explains what happens when someone wears The Crescent Amulet and some history (in the bad guys x steven universe au).

(To let you know, this is long)

Here's the explaintion:

Since Taaffeite “Taffy” is like Lapis Lazuli in this AU, she would gotten caught in the middle of the war when visiting earth, ending up getting poofed by a Crystal Gem (either by a Bismuth or a different gem) and would be mistaken for a Crystal Gem by a Homeworld soldier.

But, instead of a mirror like Lapis, Taffy would be put in a moon shape frame Amulet with small non sentient gems.

To communicate with her, someone/gem would wear the Amulet and only the wearer would see her light silhouette and also hear her voice, so the wearer can talk to her. Also The person/gem wearing the Amulet would also get to have her powers. (since amulets symbolize protection, power, and good luck). (Also think of the mystic amulet that Gideon Gleeful uses in Gravity Falls, it would be about the same as that.)

Taffy would be used as a tool. Either to tell them what she knows about the leader of the rebellion and the base (which she doesn't know and she tells them but no one believes her). Or use her powers to fight the war when wearing the Amulet (which would be uncomfortable/cause pain to Taffy when used too much).

When the Homeworld Gems fled, Taffy was left on an island where the Galaxy warp pad was. (Thankfully she didn't get stomped on and got cracked).

Taffy would stay there for a few hundred years until some explorers (maybe Buddy Budwick's friends/crew) came to the island. One of the explorers (lets call him Sammy) found her prison and took her prison with him on the ship, to examine it more.

Sammy would name her prison The Crescent Amulet, because of the golden moon frame.

When the explorers got to the mainland, Sammy would put on The Crescent Amulet and would experience what the wearers would feel and see when wearing it.

He would be surprised to see a light silhouette and hear Taffy's voice, along with having her powers when wearing the amulet. But he slowly would adjust and start getting used to the powers when wearing The Crescent Amulet.

Sammy would use her powers to build homes and sort of talk with Taffy as he built a few Empires.

Then he would show his friends and other people the power of The Crescent Amulet, letting some of them wear The Crescent Amulet.

Taffy would meet a lot of people that would wear The Crescent Amulet but she would notice something. They all start to get greedy, prideful, and power hungry. Some start to go crazy.

Taffy would try to talk to Sammy when he wears the Amulet, begging him to stop this craziness and set her free... But he didn't listen as he also got a bit crazy, greedy, prideful, and... power hungry.

Soon, people started to fight and caused a few wars over The Crescent Amulet and Taffy couldn't do anything but watch everyone fight for her power.

Taffy's Crescent Amulet prison would be passed to different owners over the years, either by generations or won in a war.

Taffy would start to feel nothing, the hope of being freed was low.

But around late 1890s, when Taffy would be in position of a very rich family, The Crescent Amulet would be stolen by none other than Reginald E. Scary.

Taffy would notice that Reginald was different from the many different people who had her prison. He was the first thief to get his hands/wings on The Crescent Amulet and was able to steal it. She also noticed that he was alone, nothing but with the jewels and things that he stole.

When Reginald puts on The Crescent Amulet, he would experience what the wearers would feel and see when wearing it.

Just like Sammy, Reginald would be surprised to see a light silhouette and hear Taffy's voice, along with having her powers when wearing the amulet. He slowly would adjust and start getting used to the powers when wearing The Crescent Amulet.

But Reginald wouldn't use her power when wearing The Crescent Amulet. Instead, he would talk with Taffy and they would get to know each other as Reginald gets the clues and traps set. (This would have been around when Reginald sealed himself in his mansion.)

Taffy start to be happy but she noticed that Reginald was paranoid.

Not wanting to lose another friend, Taffy would plan to ask Reginald to set her free but Reginald already passed away...

So Taffy would wait in her prison that was placed on the stand for MANY years, until The Bad Guys arrived at the mansion to steal The Crescent Amulet (and, after sometime, accidentally break the gold frame, which sets her free after a long time).

[axailslink]

Revenge is sweet but so is love

Shuri Udaku x Taloakan FEM reader

SongFic: Revenge by Mariah the scientist (Part 1)

@shurisnewbabymomma

word count: 1011

Summary: K'uk'ulkan was dead he was killed by her hand and she wants peace? Namor has been killed in the fight against Wakanda but he requested that not any of them be slaughtered instead that the people of Taloakan should use this as a peace wager and move on to be one with the Wakandans. Peace? After she slaughtered your king? Your God? asking for a piece of taffy was too much in your books.

Disclaimer: all of my information was provided by google while some things may be altered most of this is true at least in Aztec mythology.

Your king was dead while their queen remains well alive and all-powerful if it were up to you you'd have each Wakandan slaughtered except the children. You have no choice you have no power but that's alright one should never underestimate the power of body language and flirtatious glances. well... because that is what catches her attention.

The princess as a wave of peace decided that if the Talokan people were interested they were welcome to come upon their land and share it with them. You could scoff at her being so honorary as if she holds any honor she slaughtered. Her people slaughtered.

You were one of the only ones like K'uk'ulkan born a defect. A mutant. You didn't have little wings attached to your feet you had something else something far more interesting. K'uk'ulkan got the feathered God part of your deity while you are the snake yourself you have a tongue easy with lies and the wind moves at your command. Many people forget that the feathered serpent God was also the God of twins. One being the serpent and one being the bird. You are K'uk'ulkan's twin although you were not born at the same time and come from different mothers you grew like siblings and just like him you age differently.

Yet here you are laying in Shuri Udaku's bed watching her as she gets undressed "you move slow princess I've been told otherwise" she raises her brow and approaches you her hand gently sliding to your throat you hold in yor instincts as her fingers gently glide down your throat "it's queen" you smile and nod "my queen" you want to immediately pray to the Gods for the forgiveness of the many things you are about to do for your brother.

It's a lot more fun than you expected there's so much emotion in everything she does when she plants soft kisses down your body it feels electric her hands never stop roaming your body you're like a fresh new canvas to her and she's going to paint you black and gold. When you finally reach your climax you're surprised to see she wants nothing in return "so how exactly does that work?" She glances at the strap and smiles "you are interested in my work?" You turn on your side and come face to face with her and you find yourself giving her a true smile "maybe." You two spend the rest of the night talking each other's heads off well...Shuri does most of the talking while you decide to listen. She tells you everything about her little gadgets and you listen making mental notes just in case.

You were disgusted by her when you first entered her room but now you find just how easily she can enchant you. This wasn't good you have a mission and you can't let it be distracted by some amazing time you have once.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Once. It was supposed to be amazing once but it just kept happening and each time she found something new or she did something new and it had you in her iron-tight grip. She of course gets tired though not of sex with you she gets tired of hiding you "date me out in the open" you laugh and shake your head "absolutely not" she frowns and your laughing dies down.

"My people will see me as a traitor."

Translation: I'm already attracted to you which would make this even harder.

"I can't I know we're on the same team now but I can't forgive and forget."

Translation: I have to kill you I can't fall in love.

She nods slowly as she grabs your hands and squeezes them comfortingly "I understand what I did was Ts'u'ut yéetel implacable- (selfish and unforgivable.)" You widen your eyes when she speaks your native tongue and she nods "-and I have no reason I have no apology to make but I don't want that to come between what we can b-" you quickly get up and grab your clothes. "Shuri no I will not date you I won't. I can't." You hurriedly get dressed in the civilian clothes she got you. Shuri sits up gently grabbing your hands you see the hurt in her eyes why should you care that she's hurt? Your brother is dead you have no feelings for her stop entertaining this and just do it. You've entertained this for long enough it's been a month.

Kill her. Finish the job you've won her trust now finish the job.

Kill her.

You snatch your hands away and finish getting dressed "I knew this would push you away but is this all I'm good for? A good fuck?" You found something out really quick when it comes to Shuri she's one hell of a manipulator. You ignore her and quickly walk to the door but you find yourself pausing and looking back at her tear-streaked face "that's good to know I'm willing to piss off my own people why you're willing to give up what!?" You leave her room without a word.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The next few nights are hard you don't go to see her in fact you go back home to your people to remind you of who you truly are. You surround yourself with the beauty of the culture that you were raised with yet you can think of nothing else but the woman from the other culture. You can't sleep without thinking of her your dreams are filled with passionate lovemaking, not sex but love making and in those dreams, you find yourself ready to kill her. When her eyes are closed and you're slowly grinding on top of her gasping and moaning as loud as you want you're holding your staff to her neck and you can feel your Gods pressuring you to do what you know is the right thing somewhere in your heart but you can't. The dreams always stop before the climax leaving you with one constantly unanswered question why can't I kill her?

What's stopping me?

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Tag list of the people who liked my post previously regarding this fic

@jordyn-laufeyson @bananineno @studiouschica @happyfrogos @alovese @realovesworld7 @marice23top @jillqvalentine-simp @shuris1princess @verachii @misguidedsierra @playgurlxoxo @iyana101 @xellabrownx @iwillbiteabitch @lucillele @kittyo2018 @hoesluvkani @thatrichhoe @shuris-whore @sklevenfourtyfour @missinmya @mocha-aya @poeith5 @szalipcombo @liv444me @idkducker @ppawmpkin @rayrayvan

[minusgangtime]

The apocalyptic kitty crew batch 13 bios:

“Everything will be fine..I’m sure of it..”

Name: Sadie

Age: 20

Status: healthy

Feeling: unsure

Bio: Sadie has stayed inside the house the entire apocalypse. She’s pretty much the same as she always has been..with one difference..her hope..is wavering..anytime someone asks her if they’re gonna be ok,though she said “yes” that was a lie,she’s deeply unsure that everything will be ok and lies to herself that everything will be ok..there have been days where she considered..suicide..cause she feels no one will miss her..she only holds them back..

“Don’t try to bribe me,I know all your tricks. NOW EAT BULLET HELL!”

Name: janko

Age: 20

Status: healthy

Feeling: neutral

Bio: for months,she observed the infected behaviors,so when the crew were allowed to fight,she was ready. She wields two of picos spare Uzis to take care of infected,at first they hurt her ears,but she learned to deal with it. She uses her knowledge of the infecteds behaviors to not only dodge them. But also not fall for their manipulation. When she’s inside,she behaves like she normally does. Lively and sassy as ever.

“I won’t let you hurt anyone AGAIN!”

Name: taffy

Age: 20

Status: healthy (cured from corruption.)

Feeling: neutral

Bio: in the early-ish days of the apocalypse,taffy’s friendly nature was taken advantage of. A corrupted infected lured her away and corrupted her,though fortunately,she was saved. Since then,she had been testing out her new corruption powers. When the crew were allowed to fight,she jumped in to help. Using her corrupted powers,she takes care of any infected with ease. When not fighting,she is just as friendly as she’s always been.

“Heh..I know..pretty ugly right?..”

Name: jewel

Age: 20

Status: healthy

Feeling: insecure

Bio: in the middle of the apocalypse,jewel was ambushed by zombies,getting bit in the leg and her eye torn out. She had her leg chopped off to prevent herself from getting infected. As a result,now she uses emeralds crutches to move around,since he says he dosent need them anymore. Jewel now is unable to see herself other then freakish or ugly,other then that,she acts mostly the same,though she’s more soft spoken now.

“Hey kids!~ I got you some gifts!~”

Name: Brutus

Age: 20

Status: healthy

Feeling: neutral

Bio: when the crew were allowed to help fight against the infected,brutes decided to do something different. Brutal when he goes out,dosent come back with food,but with toys and plushies for the kids,to keep them entertained and happy,and in high spirits. Seeing his family happy,gives him the fuel to keep him optimistic and gives him the energy to get up everyday.

“Alright,alright,time to get serious.”

Name: crunchie

Age:20

Status: healthy

Feeling: neutral/sturn

Bio: through the apocalypse,crunchie has stayed inside,still remaining as his cheery self. However,when he goes out to get supplies,he gets serious,being as calculated and sneaky as he can to get past infected when getting supplies.

“Hm? Oh,hey..what’s up?..”

Name: Charles

Age: 20

Status: healthy

Feeling: lonely

Bio: through the apocalypse,Charles had stayed inside..however,seeing how everyone was struggling,despite wanting someone to talk to,he didn’t bother anyone..so nowadays,he just stays in his room,just doing stuff on his phone,only occasionally coming out to get food.

“I just..I just wanted to things to go back to the way they were..”

Name: spot

Age: 20

Status: healthy

Feeling: longing

Bio: despite being as old as nearly everyone else,spot has a more childish mind then the others,meaning when the apocalypse hit,he didn’t know how to process it,to this day he still dosent. He constantly longs for the days of old,just wanting to feel the sun,feel safe and secure,and like nothing could go wrong..he stays cooped up in his room from being sad so much that he sometimes forgets to eat or drink.

“Don’t misunderstand,I’m not afraid to get my hands dirty.”

Name: Everest

Age: 20

Status: healthy

Feeling: cold

Bio: when the apocalypse began,as Everest saw how it changed everyone,with him helpless to stop it,his emotional state eventually faded out. When the crew were allowed to fight,he took the opportunity. Rather than the others,he simply fights with his bare fists,seemingly not caring if he gets infected or dies. He’s become so used to the horrors of the apocalypse he isn’t even phased by blood anymore. When not fighting his emotional state is clearly falling apart,while he still behaves like he would normally,at time he would be cold and distant to his own family.

“Listen,your family is just going through a hard time..give them time,just know no matter what,they always will love you.~”

Name:toasty

Age: 20

Status: healthy

Feeling: exhausted

Bio: through the apocalypse,toasty has tried his best to remain in high spirits,however,he realized the kids might need more support at some point,they must’ve been so scared..so he would gang out with them all the time,he let them dress him up,play plushies with him,and when they were upset,he’d comfort them. Though this takes a toll on him,having to constantly tell himself,everything will be ok,as a way to cope and make the kids belive everything was gonna be ok..he’s emotionally exhausted from putting in a happy face,but feels like he can’t stop. After all,if he does..what will happen to the kids?..

-mod shelby

(I'm glad half of them are okay but Sadie considered WHAT- Ó.Ò)

[phoenixstartedthefire]

Coraline analysis

Okay so I may be obsessed with Coraline and fallen down a rabbit hole of the lore behind it and I find it super interesting and very cool. I’ve seen and heard a lot of theories about it and I wanted to talk about it. Most of these theories aren’t my original ideas. This will mostly be a mix of other theories I’ve seen that I like the most/make the most sense. Because some of them are just completely outlandish and make no sense. This will probably be a multiple part thing and I’ll probably add onto it as I delve deeper into the universe and have more thoughts. Don’t take these as facts as they are only theories. I just think it’s cool to delve deeper into the meaning behind these things. I would also be happy to hear some of your thoughts as well! Also trigger warning because I will be discussing death in parts of this so don’t feel pressured to read this if that makes you uncomfortable. That being said, get ready for some extreme over analyzing and a very unnecessary essay that I started at 4am. But if you follow me, you should know that I do that quite a lot. Essays are fun when you actually care about the subject.

Okay the first thing I wanna discuss is the idea of three universes of sorts. In which Coraline never returns to the real world. We know of the existence of the real world and the other world but what about the existence of a third world that you enter once you go return through the door? I’ve seen the third world called a limbo so that’s what I’m going to calling it as to be as clear as possible. In this limbo, the other mother still controls but doesn’t directly intervene as she does in the other world. We know that the doll that Coraline gets in the beginning is a spy for the other mother so she can see what’s wrong with Coraline’s life and manipulate the other world to solve those problems. But Coraline didn’t have the doll with her when she went clothes shopping with her real mother so how would the other mother know that she wanted interesting clothes? Also consider that Coraline never interacts with her neighbors until after she enters the other world for the first time. I believe that once she enters the other world and travels back through the door, she enters a limbo of sorts where the other mother can see her at all times. She only needed the doll in the beginning. And at the end, we see Coraline’s ideal world. Where her parents are loving and spend time doing things with her and her neighbors are eccentric but overall lovable. They pretty much do a complete 180 from the beginning of the movie. What caused the change of heart from her parents? They aren’t as perfect as they seemed in the other world. They’re just flawed enough to seem believable while still making her want to stay in the limbo. I hope that makes sense.

Now for the reason the other mother wants children in the first place. The film makes you believe that she eats the children after she sews buttons in their eyes but that’s not true. She doesn’t eat them in the physical sense but feeds on their souls. The reason she tries to lure them in by being their ‘mother’ is because she feeds on the love they feel. And that’s why the other mother is fine with Coraline staying in the limbo. Her ‘real’ mother doesn’t exist there but Coraline still believes she does and loves her like a child would love a mother. And the reason she doesn’t lure adults in is because they a) have more common sense and b) don’t rely as much on feelings like that. They’ve outgrown them for the most part. I’m not saying that adults can’t love their parents. But they don’t feel the same love for them that they did as a child. She of course would rather Coraline stay in the other world with her because it’s easier to feed on her that way but she is still content with her staying in the limbo place and puts up a big fight to make Coraline believe she’s going back to the real world and she can’t feed off her anymore.

I also want to discuss the button eyes. I think the main reason for them is so Coraline thinks she can tell the other world from the real world. There’s a point in the movie where the other mother poses as Coraline’s real mother with normal eyes so we know she’s capable of producing people with normal eyes. It’s all a trick. Now I don’t think that other than the trick the buttons are useless. We’ve established that the doll Coraline is given is a spy and uses the button eyes as a look into the real world. But once they’re in the other world, the buttons are just used as a trick so Coraline thinks she can distinguish the real world from the other world. 

Now for my second theory that’s pretty much confirmed if you actually pay attention to the movie but still a theory technically. That the well is another portal to the other world. Wybie says in the beginning that the well is so deep that if you fall down it that you’ll see a sky full of stars. It’s always night in the other world. Also the well is surrounded by mushrooms in a circle. There’s a belief from some people outside of the Coraline world that a formation of mushrooms in a circle is supposed to be an entrance into a magical world. It also has a negative connotation that it’s an evil magical world and it’s referred to as a fairy circle. So the other mother doesn’t actually die/get defeated in the end. Coraline essentially gives the key back to her. This theory is probably the most plausible one supported by the movie and general common sense that I’ll talk about here.

My next theory is about the other mother. I have a lot of those. The idea that she has complete control over everyone in the other world. Even the ghost children. Now you’re probably thinking, “but the other father, Wybie and the ghost children warn her about the other mother and help Coraline”. That’s kind of the point. The other mother is very smart and cunning. If she didn’t want that idea put into Coraline’s head that she was evil, why would she deliberately put her in the mirror with the ghost children? Why would she not stop Wybie from letting Coraline escape? And if you accept those, it’s extremely likely that the father was also under her complete control. She purposefully made it seem like they had free will so Coraline would trust them. Coraline would think that if the other mother controlled them, it wouldn’t make sense for them to rebel against her. The other father gave Coraline one of the eyes but we all know that even if she fullfilled the rules of the game, the other mother wouldn’t let her go.

I also think that the cat is under her control for the most part as well. I don’t think she fabricated him as she did with all of the other people but I think he serves as a sort of double agent, more so than the other father and other wybie. As with the mice but I won’t get into that now. The cat is there to trick Coraline into thinking the other mother has limitations to her powers. He takes her across the world and shows her that the pink palace is all she can make. But if you accept the limbo theory, you know that she can also fabricate the town/shop Coraline and her mother go into and the well which she seemed incapable of making in the other world. It makes the other mother seem less powerful and more easily beatable even though she had a grasp on Coraline as soon as she entered the other world. He is also the one to show Coraline the mirror with her parents in it and the doll of her parents to lure her back in the other world. He says that the other mother tries to keep him out of the other world but we never see this happen. There are a lot of theories about who the cat is. A lot of people think she might have been a human at some point. Which I’ll discuss in my next point.

Now I want to discuss the bowls of taffy that Miss Spink and Forcible show Coraline when they give her the seeing eye thing(I don’t know a better term for it). There are three bowls and all have different dates. 1921, 1936, and 1960. These are the dates the ghost children were taken. The pioneer girl in 1921, the boy in 1936, and Wybie’s grandma’s sister in 1960. Now a lot of people believe that there must have been another child between 1936 and 1960. That’s where the cat comes in. A lot of people believe that the cat was the fourth child but the other mother couldn’t successfully feed on him for some reason. So she turned him into some sort of spy. Some people speculate that it was Wybie’s great grandfather since we know his grandmother grew up in the pink palace and it would explain why the cat is so close to Wybie. He’s protecting him. I’m not sure where I stand on this as it makes the timeline a bit messy but I think it’s interesting nonetheless. 

Wybie says that his grandmother won’t let families with kids move into the pink palace. So why would she let the Jones family live there? I think the most plausible and most easily understandable theory I’ve seen is that she’s protecting Wybie. He is around the age that her sister went missing and while I don’t think the grandma knows about the other world, I think she does know that there’s more to it than her sister running away. So she was willing to let another child, Coraline, be taken if it meant that Wybie was safe. 

Now for the origins of the other mother. Some theorize that she’s a fairy, of course not in the traditional sense with wings and a magic wand, and that she created the other world. Others believe that she was once human and discovered the other world. The human theory is the one I find the most interesting. We know that the pink palace was built around 150 years ago when the movie takes place. It was confirmed that the story takes place in Ashland, Oregon and we can assume that the town was settled around 150 years ago. A lot of people believe that the other mother was the original owner of the house. It would explain why the garden is in the shape of her face which later takes the characteristics of Coraline. She was obviously very wealthy. Some believe that picture of the ‘boring blue boy’ that Coraline finds in the study is a picture of the other mother’s son. Some believe that he died and the other mother either was called to the well by some magic of the other world, accidently fell in the well, or purposefully jumped in the well. And we’ve established that the well is a portal into the other world. And the reason she lures kids in by pretending to be their mother is in part because she is trying to replace her dead son. She discovered the other world and took it over.

And now for the parents. The other mother seemingly ‘captured’ Coraline’s parents. Yet the parents have no recollection of it. And while her parents seem a bit neglectful, it’s unlikely that they would write the ‘help us’ message on the mirror. They wouldn’t put their 10/11 year old daughter in danger on purpose like that. She made it seem like she kidnapped the parents to give Coraline more incentive to go back to the other world. And again, if we accept the limbo theory, the snow on the parents’ clothing when they return would’ve been put there by the other mother to make it seem like she really did kidnap them. If she can control the limbo word, she would have been able to do that. 

Okay, that’s it for now. I have a lot more theories but this is very long already. I hope this was comprehensible. A lot of these are very complicated but I did my best to explain them. 

[theclockworkmonk]

Taller

Written for @kataang-week

Day 1: Height Difference

Words: 1,546

Read on AO3

Readon FF.net

******

Despite the ever-present cold, Katara wiped sweat from her brow as she stood back to look proudly at the building made of ice she had just finished. The Southern Water Tribe was swelling faster than anyone had anticipated, and now looked much more like its northern counterpart, with actual streets, canals, and buildings carved with waterbending, instead of the hodgepodge of tents and igloos that Katara had grown up in.

A large part of it had been personally built by Katara herself, and if she was being honest with herself it had long since become unnecessary. A migration of people from the Northern Tribe had come to help rebuilding, swelling the population, and even some Earth Kingdom natives had taken up residence, hoping to establish trade between the two nations for the first time in a hundred years, but they still weren't enough to compare to the population of a proper major city, so large sections of the construction Katara had been working on would remain empty for the foreseeable future.

She knew why she kept going, though. It took her mind off how much she missed Aang.

They had gotten a few months together in peaceful, laugh-filled bliss. But ironically, the same newfound peace that had allowed her to finally slow down and sort out her feelings for Aang, was also what made her finally realize how homesick she was. She had been running all over the world for close to a year, never really having time to think about Gran Gran or all the other people she had left, but as happy as she was in her new daily routine, it still didn't feel like home. Plus, her father had been away from home even longer than she had, and she wanted to make up for lost time. So when he had told Katara and Sokka that he was about to make the journey south, they had both known that they had to join him.

But the world still needed their Avatar, and they needed him in the thick of things, not at the bottom of the world. A hundred years of tension and hostility between the Fire Nation and the Earth Kingdom hadn't vanished overnight, and new fighting threatened to break out every day, even if it wasn't being ordered by the Earth King or Fire Lord, so Aang had his hands full with his duty as peacekeeper and mediator. He couldn't go home with her.

It had broken her heart, and she hadn't known how to tell him she was leaving, but of course she hadn't needed to. With a smile, her sweet boyfriend had been the one to bring it up, insisting that she needed to go with her family, or Sokka would surely cause some kind of catastrophe without her there to look after him, and promised that he would follow her as soon as he could.

That had been seven months ago, and while the pain of missing Aang wasn't as sharp anymore, there were still multiple times a day when she thought about looking down into his gray eyes, or how nicely he fit curled up against her as they lounged on sofas or grassy hillsides.

And her inability to get Aang off her mind certainly wasn't helped by the fact that everyone in the tribe was constantly teasing her about being the Avatar's girlfriend. Every time she would walk past a group of younger girls, they would giggle loudly with each other and, if they were feeling bold, ask if the Avatar was a good kisser. Even Sokka was still coming up with new immature jokes every day; one would think he would get tired of it by now.

So here she was, enjoying her rare piece of solitude on the outskirts of the ever-growing ice city, making it even bigger.

"You know, the basic idea of going home to your family is to actually spend time with your family." Sokka's voice from behind her made her jump.

"Only if Gran Gran stops making wedding plans for both of us," she answered over her shoulder with a laugh.

"You're in luck, it's actually far worse than that," Sokka sighed, putting an arm around his sister's shoulder. "Her target has shifted, now she's of the opinion that it's time for Dad to find another wife."

Katara spun away from him to face him and her mouth gaped open. "WHAT!?" she shrieked so loudly it echoed off of the surrounding ice.

"Yeah, so stop being a loner and come back with me, we need a united front to squash this," said Sokka, and Katara was more than willing to start following him back towards the center of the settlement.

They were approaching their family's hut, right near the edge of the ice shelf where most of the villagers were still clustered, when something made both of them stop dead in their tracks.

To the north, across the water, she heard the distant sound of a loud, low roar. The unique sound of the roar of a sky bison.

Katara and Sokka looked at each other and their faces split into wide grins. They forgot their current familial crisis and ran towards the edge of the ice, waving frantically at the dark dot growing bigger in the distance. Katara was jumping up and down by the time Appa came in for a landing and she could make out Aang's beaming face. The bison's feet hadn't even touched snow yet when Aang leapt off his head and landed in front of Katara, and they both threw their arms around each other and shared a passionate kiss, trying to pour seven months worth of affection into it.

Katara felt like she was floating. She couldn't stop a very girly giggle rising up from her throat as she pulled Aang's face down to kiss him harder—

Wait. Down?

Her eyes snapped open and she suddenly pushed him away to arm's length.

Her eyes narrowed dangerously as she looked up and down at her boyfriend. No, she hadn't imagined it. He now had a few inches on her. He had shot up so far so fast that he looked like he had been stretched like taffy, his build skinnier than ever and lanky.

Aang frowned in confusion at her reaction. "What's wrong?"

"You're taller," said Katara, like this was a grave betrayal on his part.

"Than what?"

"Than me."

"I've always been taller than you!"

She put her hands on her hips and raised an eyebrow at him to say, Really? But Aang maintained his completely straight face. "Aang, everyone knows, I'm the tall, intimidating waterbending master, you're my tiny, adorable squirrelmunk of a boyfriend."

"What? NO!" Sokka's voice called from Appa's side.

Katara and Aang turned to see Sokka's look of despair. He had finally noticed Aang's change after helping a very grumpy and now-actually-blind Toph down from Appa's back and onto the ice.

"Ugh, I know, right?" grumbled Toph. "I've had to switch from short jokes to skinny jokes, which aren't nearly as fun."

"But I've got seven months worth of short jokes I've been sitting on!" Sokka whined pitifully. He, Toph, and Zuko had greatly enjoyed making fun of Aang for being shorter than his girlfriend.

Katara looked triumphantly back at Aang, daring him to keep the charade up, but he couldn't keep it in anymore and his face broke out into a mischievous grin, and soon he was laughing heartily, which Katara joined him in, despite her best efforts.

"Okay, you got me," said Aang. "But in my defense, I never expected you to get this….upset about it? I actually thought you'd be impressed, and maybe more than a little attracted. Is it really a bad thing that I'm taller than you?"

"Well I don't know….maybe," she said with a pout she hoped looked cute. "You were the perfect height for me to kiss you on the forehead. Now I have to pull you down." She did exactly that and planted a kiss in the center of his arrow. "See? Far too much effort."

"You're right, I'll miss that," admitted Aang. "However, if I may make a counterpoint," he pulled her close and easily planted a kiss on her forehead.

"Hmmm," Katara hummed in contentment, closing her eyes and smiling. "I suppose we can make due with that."

Their romantic moment was interrupted by Sokka and Toph doing a loud duet of simulated vomiting noises.

"Oh, like you wouldn't be doing the same thing if Suki were here!" said Katara nastily.

"Yeah, sorry Sokka, but the Kyoshi Warriors are providing additional security for Zuko," said Aang more kindly.

Sokka's face fell, and he sighed. But then, his face lit up and he gave a wicked smile that Katara didn't like at all. "Well, there is one upside to that. That means all the attention will be on you two."

"What attention?" asked Aang.

Leading Toph with one hand, Sokka placed his other one on Katara's shoulder and started leading her back to their family hut.

"Come on, sister, with the Tribe's biggest golden couple reunited again, it won't be Dad's love life that Gran Gran is sticking her nose into."

Katara groaned and considered jumping into the ocean.

[canyouhearthelight]

The Miys, Ch. 152

I’m not going to jinx it, I’m not going to jinx it, I’m not going to jinx it...

Okay, maybe I am. I managed to queue up the chapters I had in the barrel! Yay!! Which also means that I have a super duper exciting chapter coming up, which I can’t wait to write and can’t wait for y’all to read. I just need it to be perfect.

That said, thank you to @baelpenrose and @charlylimph-blog for your help with this particular chapter.  I love when we are all three in one of these sessions and just descending into chaos in the chat. Also, @mamayoda (who I can’t tag but I do want you to know I see your likes in my notes!) for love-bombing my notes recently.

“Is it just me or is everyone really jumpy?” Charly asked as I set my food down across from her.  It was our thrice-weekly lunch dates in one of the public mess halls, and she definitely had a point.  I had already noticed three people scowl distrustfully at the food consoles, hugging closely to the prepared food side of the room instead.

I sighed. “It has to have been Derek’s stress test.  It wasn’t supposed to impact systems we didn’t design, but…”

She snorted loudly. “Tell that to the week I spent taking cold showers again.  At least this time, the doors didn’t play any music when I walked through them.”

“Did your doors at least open consistently? I was stuck in my quarters for a whole day until we figured out that I could walk through if I had an escort.”  I laughed and shook my head before digging in to my food. “And, come to find out, we actually do manage the water systems, thanks to BioLab 2.”

Contrary to myself, Charly was entirely unperturbed at this revelation beyond sniffing her hoodie and shrugging. “My doors worked fine as far as I know, but Coffey and I tend to work the same hours, so… Maybe that was it.  Oo!” Her cheer of enthusiasm caught me off guard as she started bouncing in her seat. “OOOOO! I bet he activated the routine Xiomara had running when you and Jokul weren’t friends yet!”

“There was a routine!?” I asked, exasperated. “I behaved, thank you. It wasn’t necessary.”

“Meh. Just in case. What do you think her deal is?” She tilted her head to the side, at a table near us.

Sure enough, the woman at that table was darting glances around the room, her shoulders hunched, elbows close to her body, eyes wide.  I could practically feel her shaking from where I was. “I can’t tell if she looks suspicious or afraid,” I murmured, hoping the woman couldn’t hear me. “But the fact that I’ve met mice and chihuahuas who shook less, I’m going to go with afraid.”

As I watched the woman, weighing whether or not a stranger trying to comfort her would make it better or worse, Mona’s familiar face approached her instead.  She was speaking softly enough that I couldn’t make out words, but the woman clearly recognized her and only jumped slightly.

I was so focused on the sight of Mona comforting the woman that I nearly hit the ceiling when Parvati’s voice came from entirely too close to my right shoulder. “Rebecca.  She lost her family twice, first her parents, some cousins, and an uncle when the hack happened, and then her partner and children in the After.  It’s understandable that she’s terrified right now, after the stress test. Too many bad memories.”

My face flushed in humiliation. “Pranav and Zach sent a ship-wide alert that the stress test was happening - “

A perfectly manicured hand clapped over my mouth, one dark eyebrow arched in eloquent disbelief. “Sophia. You of all people know that mental scars do not heed logic.”

Charly’s hair flew around her face as she nodded enthusiastically. “After day three of cold showers, I flinched every time I went through a door in case that stupid song started playing again, no matter how many times I reminded myself that it was a stress test and I had decidedly not given Derek boba tea again.”

Both my hands flew up in surrender. “I stand corrected, I just feel awful to see people react like that.” Gazing around the room, I was suddenly much more aware of all the darting eyes, protective postures, seats turned so that backs were against walls.

Charly had obviously seen the same thing. “We may need to talk to Pranav about limiting the tests to one or two systems at a time.”

“I wish we could,” I admitted, stabbing a potato out of my pie slightly harder than necessary. “His department was passing the tests with flying colors when Derek was limited to one or two systems at a time.  But they failed this last test miserably, it turns out.  As soon as they would react to one thing, Derek would switch to another system, and they couldn’t be everywhere at once as well as they convinced themselves that they could.  And they can’t just be good at small scale attacks: the revolt that happened before the End brought everything down at once, from multiple access points. It was… kind of elegant, in a terrible way.  Very clean.”

Charly squinted at me and Parvati in suspicion. “Are you supposed to know that they crashed and burned in the test.”

I rocked my hand back and forth while I chewed on a mouthful of crust.  It had way too much butter in it, but at least it was actually crust this time. A week ago it had been something pretty close to paper mache. “Technically we don’t officially know that.  Officially, all we know is that Pranav has requisitioned enough additional staff to increase his team of programmers by seventy percent.”

“Asses handed to them, got it,” Charly nodded in understanding.

“We also officially know that Pranav currently owes Hannah quite the enormous favor,” Parvati confided.

“How big?” Charly ventured slowly.

“Big enough that his grandchildren may be indebted to hers,” came the laughing response.

Charly shook her head and clucked her tongue. “He should know better than to bet against Derek.  He breaks the systems for fun, and they asked him to really go for it. What did they expect?”

“Apparently to put up a better fight at least.” I forced a smile, but guilt weighed on my heart as I studied the room again, fully seeing the microexpressions of anxiety, fear, and anger.  It felt like the entire Ark was constantly swinging between hope and fear. The random drills weren’t really helping, either.

“They aren’t,” Parvati agreed, letting me know that I had been thinking out loud. “Everyone is sleep deprived, on high alert, and then all of a sudden all the computer systems went on the fritz for a week.”

I sighed and rubbed my forehead, pushing what was left of my pot pie away from me, appetite gone. “We need to talk to Grey and Antoine about getting counselling for everyone, seeing as how Xiomara and Pranav pretty much just triggered the entire ship. I mean, everyone knows counselling is available, but I think allocating training and resources to the therapy teams is going to take priority over Pranav’s request for the moment.”

Charly tapped her chin thoughtfully. “Do we have the space for some quiet rooms, like you set up for the Food Festival a few years back? That may be a good idea.”

Snapping into work-mode, Parvati flicked her datapad open, bangles clattering as she started making notes. “The quarters left by those who relocated closer to the Archives are still uninhabited, those can be used.  We may be able to convince some people to relocate so we can spread the rooms out more evenly, but even if we can’t, just having those rooms available will help.”

“Make a note to add in the proposal for Grey: possibility of having specific vendors permitted to serve food in BioLab 2.  Encourage mental health days and picnics.”

Parvati nodded in acknowledgement of my request, before adding her own spin. “As a contingency plan, find vendors who will pre-package picnics.  Between the current distrust of the consoles and the fact it will remind everyone of the annual Festival, the good emotions will help.”

“I like it,” I confirmed. “What else?”

“Paintball tag day in the corridors,” Charly announced, without preamble or warning. “Make it a holiday, everyone is off work, limit it to one end of the Ark.”

I shook my head. “Guns, not the best idea.”

“Ew, no. No pew-pew.” She wrinkled her nose. “I was thinking more paint-soaked splash bombs.”

Finger guns deployed, dual wielding. “I am so here for a paintball tag day in that case.  The flavored paint?”

“Not the scotch bonnet please,” Parvati begged. “I just know someone will get that in the face, I don’t care how much Else likes it.”

“Got it, no more pepper spraying people,” Charly agreed seriously. “OOO! I could test the new arrows out!  With something like buttered popcorn paint, obviously. Maybe kiwi on the other team.”

“Just limit the pull on the bows, okay? I don’t want anyone getting hurt.”

“Fiiiiine…”

Parvati smiled and added to her notes. “So, we probably want someone to correlate the current date to whatever the date would be on Earth… Just in case we need to get a consultant for Holi.”

“Good point. Conor is alarmingly good at that, so I can ask him.  It would be a nice cultural event if we could do that. If not, we can totally work on celebrating Holi when it comes around.”

“Final suggestion for right now, because I have to get back to work,” I sighed happily. “This is going to be the biggest ask, and the smallest at the same time…” Both nodded at me to continue. “Care packages, for everyone. And I mean everyone on the Ark.”

“Sophia,” Parvati scolded me. “That’s almost ten thousand people and sixteen animal companions.”

“Well aware,” I forged on, “We’ll talk to Sam about the bows, I can wrap them. Commission some of those really nice chocolates, or maybe some taffy from Simon. And something salty.  I know there is someone on the Ark who makes aromatherapy candles, Tyche is bananas about them.”

Shaking her head, she added it to the list. “If you insist on that, I insist on a celebration for the drop out of FTL.  Hannah and I can use some of the plans from the Food Festival, include Charly’s paint tag - “

“And Kink Night!”

“- and Kink Night, apparently… have several events going on across the Ark, since we already discussed declaring a holiday.”

“Get Bash’s permission to use the Undine again, and I won’t object,” I surrendered before standing. “On that note, I really do have to get back to work.  Come on, Vati, we have work to do apparently.”

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[musubiki]

i'd love to learn more about coco and lime's dynamic... the art you've made of them give me annoying bickering siblings energy (compared to mochi and taffy's more softer sibling energy) and i love it so much LMAOO

ITS TRUE in my mind mochi/taffy give off the "siblings who have to have each others back because the world is cruel and cold" dynamic whereas lime and coco have the "asshole siblings fist fighting to sit in the front seat" dynamic LOL!!!!

but their friendship is honestly very funny (if it can be called that). coco straight up thinks theyre cool. shes like "Oh yeah hes my bro" and throws up a peace sign, meanwhile lime cringes in the distance. between her and oscar, coco is WAY more likely to meddle in limochi moments and lime HATES IT !!!!! he just wants some mochi time, and coco is the one thats usually interrupting and/or stealing mochi away for some girl time. HOWEVER coco also then has the Inside Scoop on mochi, so he has no choice but to consult her. as a result, coco is one of the only two people (the other being oscar) that lime actually talks to about mochi (his options are garbage. 50/50 chance that oscar will use the newly acquired information to fuck with you, and coco uses it as blackmail)

i think lime would get along with her more if she didnt meddle in the mochi affairs so much. shes the one thats more likely to try and play matchmaker, and lime wants to kill her every other episode. he just wants Something To Develop(tm) with mochi naturally and casually without coco over there kicking his shin every time mochi mentions shes going to buy snacks or something. "First of all," he aggressively and quietly whispers, "I was gonna buy her snacks anyway, and second you don't have to kick me every fucking time mochi does something!"

as a result, from mochis pov, she'll be talking about something and all of a sudden lime and coco start fucking fighting in the middle of the classroom. coco kicks him and he throws fruit juice on her and it starts a whole thing. mochi doesnt actually even know what triggers it. (she DOES hang out with stray cats a lot, so she figures they just fight randomly sometimes like the cats do LOL)

another thing is coco is notoriously unhelpful when it comes to mochi. she only gives very obvious and straightforward advice that lime is too much of a coward to do. its like "Easy, just tell her you like her." and lime walks away like "Oh great idea, I cant believe I never thought of that. Thanks for nothing."

also during their high school years, as class president she very much sees him as a money-generating asset. "You see, if we hold a school dance and set up a booth where you pay 10 dollars to dance with Lime, then all the girls will come and pay the entrance fee AND pay the dance fee, and since all the girls will be there all the guys will come too so summing up all of that we have--" and she just rambles off not even paying attention to lime yelling that she cant just sell off his body like that without even asking him (he eventually gets roped into doing it against his will)

and the love-hate friendship is also because shes so annoying, but she does things sometimes which lime is actually greatful, like when she convinced mochi to start wearing the short skirt to school. catch them afterwards with coco being like "Hey hey you see that? What do you think? Where's my thank you? I take cash or card for tip." and lime is head in hands, a mix of extreme gratitude and irritation

(also worth mentioning that from cocos pov, lime is excessively selfish with mochi. shes like "Dude, you walk with her to school everyday. You see her after school EVERY DAY. You SLEEP with her EVERY NIGHT. I can't have ONE AFTERNOON for us to get ice cream??" and lime goes "No. I was gonna take her to do that.")

an equally funny dynamic thrown in: oscar the opportunist ripping the rug out from both of them while theyre fighting all the time. goes and gets mochi ice cream while theyre hashing it out. this actually happens more than once, no one really figured out yet why oscar keeps doing this, but i think its because it serves the dual purpose of 1) fucking with lime and/or coco, and 2) doing something nice for mochi, since he knows shes always stressed out. the main time this little thing of his shows up is when mochi off-handedly mentions that no one asked her to prom/winter ball/some dance. immediately coco kicks lime and they start fighting again, and oscar the opportunist (after giving it a few seconds) goes "Why not go with me?"

(when lime (pissed) asks him what the fuck later on, he goes "Well you were taking too long to ask her, plus half chance you actually gather up the guts to do it. This is our last school dance, and I don't want Mochi to miss out just because you didn't get your shit together fast enough. You'll still see her at the dance, I don't see the big deal.") (oscar is good at forcing limes hand)

[i-do-trash-fanfictions]

Destober: Day 2, Vanguard

"Thera! May I speak to you a moment?" Ikora called out after spotting the young wolf walking across the bazaar.

"Of course," Thera, who had previously been on her was to the Drifter to collect gambit bounties, replied, then walked over to the warlock vanguard. "What is it that you need?" She spoke professionally, most likely guessing this was an assignment she was about to go on.

"You've been working a lot lately Thera and well... I worry for you. I believe you need a break from the fighting for a few hours. So, I'd like to request that you join Zavala and I to a walk in the City where we'll be checking on the citizens and such." Then she added with a smile, "And, as an addition to this invitation, Zavala has agreed to pay for supper at the end of the day."

"I-I suppose I could." She wouldn't be doing much else, and it was very rare that she got to spend much time with either vanguard. "Casual clothes?" She asked.

"We'll be wearing our casual. We intend to take breaks ourselves. Saint-14 and Shaxx will be watching the Tower in our absense for the day."

"Alright." Thera nodded. "When will I meet you?"

"The elevator in twenties minutes."

"See you then."

----

Twenty minutes later, on the dot, Thera met with Ikora by the elevators that led down to the City below. The warlock vanguard was now wearing fitting grey pants, a white blouse with a purple cardigan, and black boots. It was so weird for Thera, seeing her without her normal robes on. She couldn't remember a time in which she had ever seen her in anything different.

"Where's Zavala?" Thera inquired, looking around.

Ikora sighed. "Late. He always shows up on time to meetings, but for a walk in the City he decides to take his time."

Thera leaned against the metal railing. She wore an outfit made of black denim jeans, a light purple shirt tucked into said jeans with a hunter snake emblazened across it, along with a black leather jacket and black leather ankle boots. A top her head rested light purple aviator sunglasses, and on her ears, worn for the first time in forever, hung amythest stone earrings.

Zavala arrived a few minutes later than the two women. He wore black pants and a beige cashmere sweater. Peeking up from the sweater was the white collar of a button down shirt. It was also so different seeing Zavala without the bulky titan armor.

Thera straightened, arms crossed over her chest.

"Ready to go now, Commander?" Ikora asked, gesturing to the elevator.

"Ladies first."

Both Thera and Ikora entered the elevator with Zavala behind them. In no time they were on the City streets. People came from their homes to stop and wave at them. A few vendors who had set up in the streets gave them deals. Thera ended up with a small bag of taffy, 50% off. She usually didn't get this type of attention, she didn't go into the City much. She was surprised really with how many people knew her as the Young Wolf, and how many ran to her when the Vanguard was right there beside her. She had always seen them more liked than her by the City civilians. Children ran up to Zavala arms reaching in the air, wanting to be picked up and put on his shoulders. Little girls and boys ran up to talk to Ikora, and she crouched down to their height to speak with them, kindly and softly. Thera, without much knowledge about what to do with younger children despite having taken part in a few dodgeball games with Shaxx and Ann, followed the vanguards' lead. She gave each one she came across a piece of her taffy, and at one point a young boy came up to her with two wooden swords, wanting to play with her.

Thera took it and laughed with the child as she gave light blows to the boy and then dramatically fell back when he stabbed her in the stomach with the blunt wooden weapon as the children around them laughed and cheered.

The three also took their time to talk with the adult civilians, asking questions such as whether there was anything they should work on to make the City better. Thera got rather angry when a few mentioned passive aggressive statements about the House Light, but brushed it off quickly. It was one thing to get angry at a Guardian, another entirely to show aggression towards a civilian. Guardians could come back from a punch in the face, these people could not.

Thera took mostly to speaking with the teenagers, especially the shy ones who looked longingly at the three celebrities practically who walked along the City streets. She gave a few autographs, took a few pictures, and at the end of the day Zavala took Ikora and Thera to Cayde's favorite ramen restaurant.

"I had no idea the people loved me that much, especially the children." Thera said after slurping down another bite of ramen.

"Oh they adore you." Replied Ikora. "They usually ask us when we're bringing you down to the City with us."

"Really?"

Zavala nodded. "While Ikora and I are the Vanguard, we handle the more diplomatic aspect. You on the other hand are a warrior who has done many great feats, more so than Ikora and I both."

"I highly doubt that."

"Either way, they are inspired by the tales told to them by their parents about you. Your devotion to the City and the great stories of your triumphs inspire them, Thera. Many wish to be like you."

Thera smiled a small smile. "I never knew. Perhaps I should come down to the City more often."

"The children would love that. We do try to do this once a month. I'll invite you."

Thera nodded as she took another bite. All was silent for a moment and then Thera asked, "Did Ann put you up to this, to invite me down to the City?"

Ikora smiled sheepishly. "Well, she did come to me asking for you to be let off. But the taking you down into the City with us was all my doing. That girl does a lot of good for you."

"That she does." Thera replied. "Wouldn't know what I'd do without her."

Ikora smiled solemnly. "Cayde used to say the same about you."

"He did?"

"He was always proud of you Thera, how far you've come in your life. He always said he wouldn't know what he'd if he didn't have you around." She chuckled lightly. "He said you made life more interesting, and quoting him, 'That you were one of the coolest hunters he's every had the honor of training.'."

Ikora's words touched Thera's heart and she smiled.

It wasn't much longer until they finished their food and left after giving a generous tip to their server. Then they were walking back to the Tower again, the sun setting beautifully behind them.

[pepperonitimeline]

There is an interesting emphasis on timelines in Steven Universe

but like. Why?

Hypothesis: Steven Universe is made up of multiple timelines, but shown in an order that makes the events seem linear. read part 2 here!

I'm not the first person to speculate this at all. A lot of this stuff has been pointed out by @dogcopter​ @arrozbrillante​ @stevenutheories and many others on various platforms!

I just gathered the most conspicuous "evidence" into 1 post. If you’re interested in SU theory and analysis you should check out their blogs. :o) This was as short as I could make it..

And a big thank you to @love-takes-work for her podcast summaries!!! 

So, most ostensibly there’s Garnet, who can see multiple futures. In Pool Hopping she begins to call her visions timelines specifically.

Garnet: In this timeline, we do the opposite of that. Hey, you! Have a pizza!

Steven: Hey, Vidalia's house is around here. Let's bring her the last pie.

Garnet: Now, that would be nice. She must be upset that her son was taken into space by those Homeworld Gems. (referring to the events of I Am My Mom)

Steven: You mean Onion? He isn't in space. He's right over there. *points*

Garnet: Sorry, I-I must be thinking of a different timeline.

-

Garnet: My bad. I was sure we were in the pepperoni timeline.

-

Garnet: It's important to keep in mind that all these horrible things did happen to you in alternate timelines. Safety is fun.

In Steven and The Stevens:

Yeah

It was confirmed on the podcast that the Steven we see from that episode on is a different Steven than the one from episodes 1-21. In “The Fantasy of Steven Universe” Sugar explains:

"I think, early on, we knew for sure what we wanted to do was to create episodes that feel self-contained but give you a new piece of information or change the characters fundamentally. So, Steven and the Stevens, is tight but Steven does change fundamentally after having that experience. He's not the same- in THAT case he's LITERALLY not the same character..."

It’s muffled because they're all laughing but right after they say this Matt Burnett goes “He died.” 

Link to the episode

Love-takes-work also has a text summary of the episode

But something I haven't seen discussed very much is the time travel chase scene. Granted it’s very blink-and-you’ll miss it, there are some Stevens who witness the other Steven’s fighting but that don’t end up in the Sea Shrine at the end.

Way back in 2015 @stevenutheories already did the math as to how many alternate timelines may have stemmed from the time shenanigans: 3 to 5. Not counting the original one who is definitively gone. 

Technically quantum mechanics don’t work like that and those Stevens should have been Thanos’d too. I’m not going to pretend I understand physics, that is just what I’ve been told by someone who does. But then again the magic time thingy wasn’t bound by rules of real-life physics in the first place… so ??

Let’s cross-examine SATS’ accompanying KBCW post.

“At any given moment, if you asked me what I was thinking about, the answer would be one of two things: katana swords, or THE POSSIBILITY OF ALTERNATE TIMELINES RUNNING PARALLEL TO OUR OWN!

Proving the existence of these timelines can be pretty tricky, even for a seasoned paranormal investigator such as myself.  An inter-temporal incursion caused by the momentary weakening of the time-space continuum doesn’t really photograph well.  And all the cross dimensional time travelers I know don’t want to go on the record about their experiences.  Frankly, the only thing I can submit as evidence of alternate timelines is the fact that THEY ARE PROBABLY JUST SO COOL AND AWESOME THAT THEY HAVE TO BE REAL.

Think about it!  What about a universe where that asteroid missed Earth and we had DINOSAURS for pets instead of dogs?  Or a universe where someone was like “Hey, zeppelins are way cooler than planes, let’s just do that!”  Or a universe where AN ALTERNATE VERSION OF ME CAN GROW A FULL BEARD?!  What an amazing life that Ronaldo must have… in THIS stupid reality I have a really hard time getting my moustache to connect to the rest of my facial hair and it’s incredibly frustrating.”

KBCW and Ronaldo’s commentary in general are usually half-right. Like the “Polymorphic Sentient Rocks are aliens who want to hollow out the earth… to make it lighter so they can transport it back to their star system” thing.

I can't help but think the "Dinosaurs for pets instead of dogs" is a reference to the live action Super Mario Bros. movie- where the meteor that killed the dinosaurs sent them to a parallel universe instead, causing mammals to go instinct in said universe. (Don’t know about the zeppelins.)

And then, and THEN there’s Keep Beach City Safe, KBCW’s more obscure rival blog run by (most likely) Onion under the pseudonym "The Observer". Apparently he’s planted cameras all over town to record Steven’s adventures. There's also a "Recruiter" and second mystery narrator calling themselves "Marco Díez", it's a whole thing,

Assuming it’s real, here’s one of the posts I think are the most relevant.

“I have been on zero gem hunts over the years, and what i have learned over the years is: always be prepared for anything, and everything. Connie’s already knows that and this her first mission. I, wasn’t so fortunate on my first mission. It was a crisp Autumn morning, - with notes of cinnamon in the air. I was the mountains, the air temperature, humidity and level elevation levels, were perfect.

Then, I noticed the creature, it was charging me. I tried to evade the gem monster, but it just kept on coming, and coming! There was no escape! And then- Wait! I just remembered. I never been on a gem hunt! So where did I get that story from?”

This was posted on August 1st alongside Gem Hunt… and the day after the Greg The Babysitter post, which was deleted earlier this year, right after people started interacting with it again.

Being a Babysitter is hard, especially if your Greg Universe. This guy, in the picture above me. Wait did I just become self aware? Hey, I did! Haha, I always knew I was more to me than just a narrator. Actually this is the first time I thought about, Because I'm self aware baby! Woohoo, yeah! Wait, what was I talking about? Ah yes, Gregory. So this Greg guy,Has to Babysit this cool baby, because he owes her for letting him mooch off her. And Greg, is like totally irresponsible, he some how lets the baby climb a Ferris Wheel. How does that even happen? This dude is so not getting payed. And what's up with his hair!?!

So here it is, another story, told by Greg, about his past self. I wonder how many times I started a paragraph with the word so. And when he was telling this story, we got some clues that could finally tell use when all of this started. We know about the gems and what happened  thousands of years ago, but we don't know about the hems and  what happened thousands of years ago. They wee being very vague about the whole thing. Almost intentionally, well it was obsessively intentional.

?

There are subtle inconsistencies in Beach City's layout. ("The Observer" points this out, too.)

Remember Danny’s? In Bubble Buddies and Joking Victim, there’s a shop named Danny’s Salt Water Taffy.

Then in Watermelon Steven it’s gone.

As for a prop: Chaaaaps used to just be Chips

That’s from Monster Buddies, the episode right after Steven and The Stevens.

It's just as likely someone on the show simply thought the background/chips looked a little too busy or whatever. But re-doing stuff costs a lot of time and money, yknow? Neither of which is the animation industry very generous about. Did you know even props have model sheets?

Of course it could just be another brand of chips. Maybe Utz got involved somehow.

Lastly I want to highlight a quote from a Rebecca Sugar interview regarding SU ending.

“The story is continuing off screen and I do know what happens next, at least in certain timelines, for the characters,” Sugar says. “But I would have to decide how and when I’d want to dig into that, or if it’s best to give them their privacy.”

yeah so like what the fuck

[locktobre]

bcbd thoughts

right away I see that this is only an hour long, so... it’s not a movie, then. it’s a one hour special, again. I feel like I’m already gonna miss the extra 20 minutes just like dolphin magic but we’ll see I guess. maybe it’ll be a mercy that it’s shorter.

the opening credits/dream sequence was nice. the animation on the city is decent, and the monochrome thing was kind of cool.

her being on stage reminded me a little of Eden, and then immediately I missed Eden so much. they would never let a version of Babs be a bitch now and that’s such a shame.

so now we’re joking about George tracking Barbie’s cell phone? bc that’s fine and not at all an invasion of privacy or anything. also, you can check flight statuses on the internet so that’s really not necessary. also, why the fuck didn’t Barbie call them once she got off the plane? or at least text? I always text or call my mom when I land, and frankly I’m not even as close to my mom as Barbie claims to be to her parents. and I did that when I was 17 traveling alone, too, so it’s not just something I do as an adult. it’s part of the responsibility of traveling to let ppl know that you got somewhere safe so they don’t worry about you. what the fuck Babs.

was that honking supposed to be like censoring the cabbie swearing bc I would love that. let the cabbie say fuck.

I still maintain that this “summer program” thing is bullshit and Babs should have been going off to college. I know they won’t let her grow up but it makes more sense than this does. also, you’re telling me there’s no summer programs for acting/whatever in LA? seriously? she HAD to go across the country for this? and her parents let her? they don’t even trust her! they said that 2 seconds ago! or is tracking her cell phone the reason she’s allowed to travel across the country (to Willows and Florida and Hawaii) by herself in the first place? I hate this I hate it so much already

The Handler Arts Academy... oh I’m feeling emotions

“luck’s got nothing to do with it. you worked your tail off for this” SHOW ME FOR WHEN, PLEASE. this could have been an actual arc of the show, a goal Barbie was working towards that could thread thru multiple episodes... but no. this came out of nowhere. I’m STILL saying that Amelia bought Barbie’s place here bc FUCK YOU SHOW

“I hope I’m good enough” you’re a mediocre rich white woman, you can do literally anything you want.

why is her guitar shoved in a cardboard box and not, idk, in a guitar case? that’s stupid. also, that’s an open cardboard box, so how did that travel on the plane? a closed cardboard box, fine. should be a suitcase, but fine. but this just makes no sense and I am not going to let it slide bc I hate this continuity and everything about it.

however, I will give Brooklyn a pass for the open cardboard box bc she literally lives in NYC and didn’t have to take a fucking plane to get here. she can carry it like that if she wants.

“as long as you don’t break [my leg], we’re good” I’ve already seen Brooklyn in a cast, so... does Malibu literally break her leg later on? even on accident... jesus christ.

is this Russian(?) custodian lady gonna be the antagonist/villain? bc I’m already not vibing with that. not at fucking all.

how the FUCK could they show up a day early? why would they not show up on the day they’re supposed to? that doesn’t make any sense! and if they’re NOT supposed to be there yet, then there would be no staff there to watch them, so they should have to come back tomorrow! they shouldn’t be allowed to be by themselves in a school like this! I’m assuming this is to facilitate a day of bonding without stupid things like classes in the way, but they could have written an orientation day or something in that would have made more sense, and as I said, I am not inclined to give them a pass on anything these days. fuck you all.

so, room assignments are alphabetical... I guess that kind of explains them being in the same room, altho it does feel coincidental that they wouldn’t be, like, in neighboring rooms. also they didn’t animate little signs on the other doors, even with nonsense text if they didn’t want to put other names up, so their door really sticks out for no reason. also, shouldn’t it say “Barbie Roberts & Barbie Roberts” or some other way of having both names on the door? also, if the school knows they have the same name, couldn’t they put middle initials or something? we know Malibu is Barbie M. Roberts, and I will generously assume that Brooklyn’s middle name is something else, so that would have been fine. this really feels like the administrators don’t give a fuck, and in a supposedly prestigious school, I don’t buy that.

so, Brooklyn has been training every summer in different programs, very intensely, to get in here... and Malibu trained on the internet. what have I been saying about Malibu’s white mediocrity? hmm?

even after that (lackluster) montage, it feels way too soon for “Before Us.” I don’t believe they’re best friends who warrant a song about their friendship. I don’t believe that at all.

I like the bald fashionista being on the billboard, that’s a nice touch.

Malibu bringing up her vlog like that gives me hives. she has already stated multiple times that she does that to help ppl, not for clout, and yet. here she is. being a fake ass bitch once again.

Brooklyn and Emmie’s story is already way more interesting than this and I’m pissed that’s just backstory.

LOVE that green-haired dude. idk where you’re going with that drum but godspeed my dude.

I’m assuming that’s Emmie incognito in the back, but... what’s she doing here if she’s already famous? pulling an Erika Juno?

Dean Morrison seems cool

(is it too early to ship Brooklyn x Emmie?)

if pets are allowed in this school, I’m SHOCKED Malibu didn’t bring Taffy. truly fucking shocked.

Rafa reminds me so much of Jacques Rousseau

“the only labels we believe in are designer” so Rafa’s gay, right? Barbie’s first gay character? I can only assume

the ballet thing still doesn’t make sense to me, if their goal is to be on Broadway. ballet is an entire art and discipline in itself.

fencing makes more sense, bc stage fighting is a thing.

‘work it’ is even funnier than I imagined. Malibu you’re such a fuck up. and I can’t even cut you some slack bc earlier you said your training was “internet.” you didn’t work for this and you don’t belong here. die.

if this was PCS, Malibu would have been kicked out already. YOU WERE NOT PREPARED FOR THIS. WHAT HAVE I BEEN SAYING FOR MONTHS.

so, the ‘work it’ montage clearly showed the passage of time, it’s been at least a week, and... Malibu hasn’t talked to Ken at all during that time? this is the first time she’s telling him about Brooklyn?

ok, confirmed to be a week. and she hasn’t talked to Ken. of course. they are so close of course she hasn’t talked to him in a week, especially when she’s been struggling so much and would need to vent to a friend about it. of course.

so, Emmie is pulling an Erika Juno. at least she’s in disguise.

jesus christ, they’re really having Emmie be exploited by her own father??? JESUS.

ok Brooklyn x Emmie is sailing.

Brooklyn’s mom is an airline pilot, that sounds cool.

so the dresses are powered by the magic of friendship? cool. that’s stupid.

of COURSE Emmie’s dad is the board member. jesus christ I hate this dude.

okay, so she DIDN’T break her leg, it’s only a sprain. thank god. poor green-haired drum dude.

saying “epic fail” in 2021 unironically is not cool, mattel. unless I’m even more out of touch with the youth than I thought, but I’m pretty sure about that.

wait, so Brooklyn was dancing... and now she’s on crutches again? what is this montage? they fucked up here.

of all things to kick Malibu out for, they’re saying she pushed Brooklyn? why not all the fuck ups in her first week?

also, Rafa was taping that class so how do they not bring that up immediately? that’s the whole reason they were dancing over there in the first place! (so he might not have caught anything, but still, I have to assume that’s going to fix this bc that’s what these movies do.)

I really like Malibu’s leather jacket look, but she does look a little bit old I think. Brooklyn’s leggings look is nice, too.

okay, so Brooklyn suddenly believes the unnamed witness over the girl she sang ‘before us’ with? okay. I told you this friendship was a crock of shit. they don’t trust each other at all! Brooklyn should have been angry when she first fell, and it builds to thinking that she was sabotaged, but she brushed it off... and now she’s pissed. that makes no sense.

this friendship breakup song also means nothing to me bc their friendship fell apart for such a stupid reason. fate didn’t tear you apart, you tore yourselves apart by not trusting each other. stupid little children.

if Brooklyn’s ankle isn’t completely healed aka still painful, she should not be dancing on it, she could injure herself more or at least prolong the healing process.

ok, so NOW, after Malibu has already been expelled and sent back home, they remembered the video. these kids are so fucking stupid. and of COURSE the unnamed witness is Mr Miller! Emmie, you ALREADY KNOW that your dad is shady as shit and wants you to get the Spotlight Solo! HOW DID YOU NOT PUT THIS TOGETHER IN 5 SECONDS? I DID

so, Mr Miller thought Malibu was Emmie’s biggest competition for the solo? Malibu, the spectacular fuck up? not Brooklyn? or any of the background extras? I refuse to fucking believe that. I REFUSE.

how did George and Margaret just let Malibu get expelled without flying out there to fight the charge? seriously?

how is is Brooklyn singing ‘before us’ in-universe such that Malibu recognizes it? you’re breaking the conventions of musicals! I don’t get this!

I like Brooklyn’s mom being a pilot less after it’s been used to facilitate this bullshit part of the plot.

again, just “Barbie Roberts” makes no sense. where’s a middle initial to differentiate them! SOMETHING! I know they’re doing the finale together, but still, it’s STUPID.

shipping Rafa x green-haired drummer dude bc I can

where’s the Emmie doll for this movie?????? I’m so disappointed. also the other outfits, the leather jacket and leggings ones, I swear those weren’t dolls either. what the fuck

I see more fashionistas on billboards at the end! I really like that

so the custodian wasn’t a villain... then why that introduction for her? that went nowhere

is “Big City Big Dreams” supposed to be Emmie’s song? that Malibu lips-synced to on her vlog (apparently)? I can’t tell by the voice and they don’t list the voices for the songs in the credits

overall, once again it largely made no sense. idk if it would have benefitted from 20 extra minutes of screentime bc nothing really happened.

also, what the fuck happened to Mr Miller? he just keeps on exploiting his daughter? and for that matter, what happened to Emmie’s mom? bc she lived with her, and then all of the sudden her dad was in her life again and exploiting her, so... what did mom die? did he kill her? what am I supposed to think? and Emmie’s STILL stuck in that situation? girl. what the fuck

also of course they were too cowardly to confirm anything about Rafa. of course.

[ihaveafandom-problem554]

Hamiltots

"Mama! I-I wanna stay w- with you" Alex whined to his mother. "I'm sorry Alexander but mama's busy. You'll stay with Mr. Washington, he's a nice man."

Alex looks up at Mr. Washington, then quickly diggs his face into his mother's chest. "Ooh! Alexander! I'm so sorry, he's just really shy- OW Alexander Hamilton! What have I said about biting!" Alex only yells into his mother's chest in response.

" It's ok madam, I understand." Washington leans in closer to Alex. " Hey Alexander, Mom needs to go-" Alex yelled even louder then the first time in his mother's chest. "Hey, look I know you're gonna miss mommy, but you can make lots of friends here!" He tries to reassure Alex. "Come on, mom will be back before you know it!" Washington says leaning over to grab Alex from his mother's grasp. "Come on, say bye to mama"

"B-Bye-bye" Alex waved, tears threatening come out from his eyes. "Now, I just know you will make plenty of friends Son." Washington says opening the door for Alexander.

Alex glares at Washington before walking in.

The second Alex walks in, he sees a series of activities and multiple at each one. The crafting table has 4 boys and 1 girl. At the book section there 2 boys and a girl who seems to admire the kid in a pink shirt with puffy hair. One of the girls aren't even doing anything, she's just staring out the window. To take a guess she might be talking to the birds.

Alexander's examination of his surroundings was interrupted by a girl in a yellow shirt and a boy with a missing tooth, he looked scary but his smile was sweet, both kids came from the crafting table.

"Well aren't you two eager to meet our new friend?" Washington charmed patting both the kids' heads.

"Children!" He says getting everyone's attention " We have a new friend! Introduced yourselves, like we practiced yesterday." One by one the kids start to introduce themselves.

"Hi I'm Maria!"

"I'm Charles Lee"

"Samuel Seabury!"

"King George The III" A disappointed was heard from Mr. Washington

"James Reynolds"

" *small cough* James Madison"

He glares before telling Alex his name " ..... Thomas Jefferson"

"John Laurens!"

"Hercules Mulligan!"

"Aaron burr"

"Angelica"

"Eliza!"

"And PEGGY!"

Hercules and Peggy were the two infront of Alexander almost jumping, "What's your name!" Peggy burst out. "A-Alex- Alexander Hamil-ton"

"Wow that's a mouth full!" Peggy says with a wide smile. "Yeah, but not as much as Laf's name"

"Well that's because Lafayett- wait if Jefferson is here...Then where is.." All three kids look up at Mr. Washington, who was looking around the classroom. "Hey Hercules, where's Lafayette?"

"Oh he went with Mrs. Martha, he looked sad."

"Oh ok, Alexander you can go ahead and have fun with Hercules and Peggy" Washington says, then walking off to the back room. "Come on lets go the crafting table!" Hercules grabs Alex's arm then rushing off to the crafting table with Peggy following right behind.

At the crafting table...

"And that's how I will get all turtles to rule the world an I will become a turtle Princess!" John says standing on the table showing a drawn picture with Laurens on a throne and turtles fighting off the humans to Aaron. "You won't be a 'Princess', you're a boy. You'll be a prince or a King." Aaron says grabbing his poorly drawn picture and pointing at Laurens on the throne.

"Sudd up A-a-ron, I'll be a princess when I wanna" Laurens whined while snatching his beautifully drawn picture.

"My name isn't 'A-a-ron' It's Aaron!"

"Nuh-uh It's spelled A-a-ron"

"NO IT'S NOT-" ( calm down Jamal-)

"Guys look Alex- oh wait do you mind me calling you Alex?" Herc asks, his bounce slowly leaving his body. " Yeah you can"

" *Excited gasp* Guys! Alex Seems really cool can he stay with us?" Hercules' bounce comes back. "Sure! he can be my partner in the war of turtles" Laurens says, throwing his hands up in the air. Alexander giggles in response. He sits down with the rest of them and they plan out on how to help turtles take over the world.

Randomly, Alexander feels uneasy, like if he was being hunted. He turns around to see 2 things. Peggy literally jumping of excitement, and a pair of eyes staring at him from the reading center. Like if they stared any longer laser beams would come out and kill him.

Alex gave them the same look back but more intense, the person is taken back, not expecting Alex to glare back. The kid comes out of his hiding spot to reveal itself as Jefferson, his glare get scarier but Alex stood his ground, knowing he can't glare any harder he keeps his glare and continues to stare at Jefferson.

30 seconds past and their still glaring at each other. Like if it was some intense staring contest.

"Alexander, was it?" A woman spoke, causing Alex to turn around. "O-oh yeah.."

The kind women smiles then points to herself "I'm Mrs. Martha... And this shy one is- Oh Laurens we spoke about standing on the table!" She quickly grabs Laurens off the table and onto a seat. "Sorry Mrs. Martha.." Laurens pouts.

"It's ok Laurens. Anyway Like I was saying, Lafayette honey, come on and introduce yourself"

A kid- who looks a lot like the Jefferson kid, emerges from behind Mrs. Martha's legs. Alex smiles "Hi! I'm Alexander! you can call me Alex!" Alex jumps, hoping it would cure his shyness. The boy mutters something under his breath while fiddling with the ends off his shirt. "You can do it Laf!" Herc cheers.

"He's Italian, so he can't speak english that good... He gets really shy about it" Peggy tells Alex. "Peggy it's not Italian it's french!" Mrs. Martha corrects.

"Ohh yeah sorry!"

"My..na-me?..."

"Go ahead honey" Mrs. Martha trying to encourage him.

He takes a deep breath. "Marie-Joseph Paul Yves Roch Gilbert du Motier de Lafayette, Marquis de Lafayette, but Toi can appelle-moi Lafayette" he says in a very THICK accent.

"Ce est tellement cool! Je n'ai jamais parlé de quelqu'un qui parle français (This is so cool! I never spoke of someone who speaks French).." Alex beams.

Lafayette lights up "Tu me comprends!? C'est tellement incroyable! (You understand me!? It is so amazing!)" he leans in to hug Alex. They both share a laugh while Hercules pouts and Mrs. Martha takes in the moment. "YAY!" Laurens Cheers "You can tell us what Laf is saying! This is going to be the best!" All the boys and Peggy, cheer expect Burr. "Well, I'll leave you guys be." Mrs. Martha turns around going off to the back room. "Don't be rough now"

"Guys I'll be right back" Burr says getting up. "Nah-uh, You stay here, Alex just got here and you're gonna go and talk to Jefferpoo" Laurens grabs Burr and sits him  back down.  "Hey! his name isn't Jefferpoo it's Jefferson!"

"Nuh-uh, He hurt Laf a lot he'a a real meanie" Herc protested.

"Yeah! he also took my yellow crayon and broke it this morning!" Peggy whined. Laurens and Herc went over to confort Peggy.

"He just think you guys are babish that's why" Burr stated, causing Hercules and Laurens to argue with him.

...

" Taffy can I test your english again!?" Peggy bursts. "Ooo can I help?" Alex bounces for the first time today. "Oui" Lafayette smiles. "Ooo Lets get a book!" Alex beams, then turning around to go over to the reading center. "W-wait you need-" Peggy panics but Alex was too busy running  over the reading center to listen. Once he gets there, he sees 3 people.

James Madison and Angelica were on one side sitting on a bean bag. James looks like he was reading a book but later gave up and was listening to Angelica who was rambling about something. On the other side was Jefferson he was also on a bean bag reading a book bigger than his head.

Alex looked over in the different genres of books, deciding which one will be better for Lafayette. Grabbing and putting back the bins, sometimes grabbing a couple books in the process. In a split second, he turns around, reacting to the shifting sound of a bean bag. When he does, he sees Jefferson staring right at him.

They stare at each other for a bit, until Lafayette stepped in the gap between them. "Found book?" Lafayette gives him a nervous smile while trying to block his view of Thomas. "Oh not yet. I don't know which one to chose."

"Ooo ooo! Get the one about the black kitty!" Peggy doesn't get in the reading center, but she points at the book she was talking about. It was right next to Angelica. "Excuse me-" Alex says grabbing both, Angelica's and James' attention. "Could you please move... I need to grab a book."

Angelica stares at Alexander. It's not a threatening look, it's a surprised look. "Uh, are you gonna-"

"OH! yeah sorry!" she apologizes than moving out the way.

It a took while but he finally found the book Peggy was talking about. He picks up the cat book and a few other books he chose for Lafayette. " Come on, Laffy! It seems like a lot but I think you can do it!" The second Alex said 'Laffy' he noticed Jefferson look up at him with anger in his eyes.

As the two boys were about to walk out of the surprisingly big reading center. Lafayette fell face first onto his nose.

"Laffy! are you ok!?" Alexander puts down the books to check on Lafayette. "Ce n'était pas pour vous, arrêtez de vous embarrasser. Il n'est pas censé t'appeler comme ça.(It wasn't for you, stop embarrassing yourself. He's not supposed to call you that.)" Jefferson says digging his head back in the book.

Alex was confused. I thought Lafayette was the only one who spoke French... And if he speaks French and english, shouldn't he be around Laffy to translate?... but all those thoughts got put to the side after processing what Jefferson had said to Lafayette.

"Y-you were gonna trip me?" Alex says helping Lafayette up. Jefferson looks up at him, "Yeah, there's rules here. Starting off with one of them, don't call Lafayette Laffy, only I do that and I also don't like the fact you have a lot of confidence to walk in here like no else is here. Your lucky you're new here cause I wouldn't hesitate to drop kick that butt of yours..." Alex was almost speechless, at the same time impressed by how much sass he had.

"That's dumb. I bet all those rules just makes yourself feel better than anyone else-"

"There aren't dumb, they just keep everyone else out of my way, knowing most of you are.... what do you call it ... idiotic" Jefferson snickers. "Well at least I know the difference between girl and boy colors." Alex snaps back.

The room isn't silent but Lafayette and Peggy can feel the dense yet quiet tension between the two.

"Say it again." Jefferson stands up from the bean bag obviously threaten. Alex notices this and takes advantage of his anger.

"Hey Alexander, allons lire les livres que tu choisis? (will we read the books you choose?)" Lafayette says desperately trying to change the subject.

"Sorry I didn't know you poofy hair blocked your hearing, I said-"

"Kids! What's going on?" The 4 kids turn around to see Mr. Washington hold a stack of papers.

"Jefferson-"

"LAFAYETTE WHAT HAPPENED!" Mrs. Martha shouts grabbing nearly every kids' attention. Lafayette didn't know what she was talking about until he touch his nose.

blood..

"Jefferson-"

"Baby how long have you- Why didn't you- Hunny keep your head up- How- Oh it's ok tell- dear goodness that's a lot of- Imma need you to keep your head up-" Mrs. Martha continues unable to finish a sentence.

Alex walks over to Mr. Washington and pulls on his leg. "Yes son-"

"Don't call me that- Jefferson tripped him"

"W-what?-"

"Well he tried to trip me but LAFFY saved me" Alex emphasizing the name 'Laffy'

Jefferson growls at Alex before reluctantly looks at Mrs. Martha who had a very upset expression. "Jefferson we talked about this" She says sternly. "You aren't allowed to do stuff like this, It's rude and you'll get other kids hurt."

"Well sometimes they deserve it" Jefferson mutters. "What was that Thomas?!"

"I'm sorry Mrs. Washington... Sorry Laffy" Jefferson leans in going to give him a hug. " I didn't mean to hurt you"

"And? who else do you have to say sorry to?" Jefferson glares at Alexander "And I'm sorry.... Alexander." He tries not to gag at the name. "It was an accident.."  

"No it wasn't-"

"Thank you, Now are you going to stop hugging Lafayette so you can hug-"

"No"

"Ok then.. Lafayette come with me so I can help you with your nose."

As Mrs. Martha leaves with Lafayette, Jefferson quickly grabs Alex by the collar. "Pull a dumb stunt like that again I will hurt you bad. Understand?" Alex doesn't answer he only glares for a while until he feels someone pull him away from Jefferson.

"Hey are you ok?" Laurens worries. "He didn't hurt you right?"

"Nuh-uh, He didn't get the chance." Laurens' eyes light up in admiration. "O-ok let's play pirates until Lafayette comes back."

Alex smiles, then takes one more look at Jefferson who went back to the bean bag. Daycare is going to be fun.

I just want to say Mrs. Martha and Mrs. Washington are the same person.

[castlevania-afterdark-imagines]

Halloween Headcanons

HAPPY HALLOWEEN FROM MOD ROSE AND MOD SOVIET! Thank you guys for continuing to read the blog! We hope to be releasing some of the character matchups soon, but for today please enjoy this quick post covering the crew's holiday activities! Assuming modern for this post, kids probably aren’t trick or treating at Drac’s castle. 

Trevor

Costume for this year: Zombie, easy to make and fun to overdo when you've got the time. 

Favorite candy of all time: Snickers, he actively buys the fun sized ones for himself instead of full size because he knows his lack of self control. 

Favorite autumn treat: Baked apples, with a pint of whatever fancy autumn ale the local brew pub is trying out this year. 

Trick-or-treat etiquette: Leaves the candy in a big bowl on the front porch, which he guards by blending in with his ridiculous amount of decorations and scaring the daylights out of anybody who tries to take more than needed. 

Sypha 

Costume for this year: Mad Scientist,  complete with fake green blood spattered  robe and pipe cleaners shaped into *electricity* coming out of her floofed out hair. 

Favorite candy of all time: She loves all the tart and fruity things, but if you forced her to pick one she'd say Nerds.

Favorite autumn treat: Pumpkin bread, homemade and covered in a maple brown sugar icing. She tried incorporating the seeds into some sort of crumble on top but nearly burned the kitchen down trying to toast them.

Trick-or-treat etiquette: Answers the door, gushing over the kids who dress up and closing the door on teens who show up without costumes. She also keeps a small stash of allergy sensitive alternatives in case a parent asks for it. 

Alucard 

Costume for this year: Werewolf who just changed back to a human again, or at least that’s what he calls it when he realizes he forgot to get his costume together and wears a torn up shirt and pants with a little makeup to make him look haggard. (Offer to add on a dog collar and cuffs to sell the costume and watch him be really fucking prepared for next year)

Favorite candy of all time: Redhots, or any other cinnamon candy. They were always super easy to trade for, in that most kids didn’t want them so he just got to take them all home for free.

Favorite autumn treat: Hot and fresh apple cider, with a splash of brandy if he’s feeling particularly chilly that night.

Trick-or-treat etiquette: He’s not a big fan of answering the door every 5 min, but he manages a smile and a few pieces per visitor. Lights go off as soon as the sun goes down though.

Dracula

Costume for this year: He just fucking hauls some old ass armor from his closet and goes as a warlord and has won every costume contest every year. Cheater.

Favorite candy of all time: Dark Chocolate pieces, not too sweet and also no kid is going to complain if he fishes all of them from the candy bowl.

Favorite autumn treat: Homemade toasted pumpkin seeds, they’re infinitely better than the basic store bought ones you find year round, and he adds a little bit of extra spice to them in the form of ghost pepper powder. He can handle it, and it keeps people from filching them.

Trick-or-treat etiquette: His is known as the house that only the bravest kids go to, for no particular reason. The decor is pretty standard, the handfuls of candy are GIGANTIC, but Vlad is more than aware of the tall tales kids spin for each other about the giant who lives there.

Lisa

Costume for this year: She tosses a doctor’s coat over a long body hugging black dress, dawns a black big and dark makeup, and goes at “Morticia-n” Adams. It doesn’t matter if no one gets it, she knows and is smug as hell about it.

Favorite candy of all time: Caramels, just by themselves but she won’t turn down a caramel apple if one happened across her path.

Favorite autumn treat: All the fun autumn coffee drinks, she needs that caffeine hit for long hours at the doctor’s office and hey, gotta spice it up now and then.

Trick-or-treat etiquette: Loves answering the door, hypes up the kids over their costumes and kneels down to their level to hand them their candy. She doesn’t give them a ton though, doctor’s guilt and all.

Hector

Costume for this year: Elf, very much inspired by Lord of the Rings styling. It fits in well at the vet clinic with all of the animals and keeps him looking normal enough to not spook them.

Favorite candy of all time: M&M’s, they’re simply and easy to just fill a bowl with and munch on throughout the week of Halloween. Plus no extra individual wrappers that he was to worry about Cezar trying to munch on.

Favorite autumn treat: Caramel corn, again a simple and sweet finger food. But this one he much prefers to get at a festival booth when it’s still hot and you have the smell of it cooking lingering in your nostrils.

Trick-or-treat etiquette: He’s not a huge fan of answering the door, but he’ll put on a brave face since he knows for many kids this is a big deal. If he notices any kid getting bullied or jeered at he unceremoniously dumps the entire bowl in their bag and tells them to head home early to avoid any more issues.

Isaac

Costume for this year: Grim Reaper. It’s literally a robe and a scythe, super easy and minimal effort, but just enough effort to avoid being called out for not trying harder.

Favorite candy of all time: Not really a candy person, it’s all high processed garbage to him. But he does have a soft spot for butterscotch and strawberry hard candies like his grandparents used to have around all the time.

Favorite autumn treat: Pecan pie, he’s not a huuuuuuge sweets person but a slice of pie with a dark roast coffee to offset the sugar and he is instantly in a good mood.

Trick-or-treat etiquette: Always conveniently ends up away from home that night, mostly so he doesn’t have to hear the doorbell constantly. He’ll leave some candy out to avoid getting his house egged but that’s about it.

Godbrand

Costume for this year: Pirate, then he can make all the booty jokes and drink all the alcohol he wants.

Favorite candy of all time: He likes the chewy things, like taffy or Twizzlers but will honestly eat anything. More specifically, he will eat EVERYTHING if you don’t hide the candy meant for the trick-or-treaters.

Favorite autumn treat: Cinnamon rolls, cake for breakfast? Fuck yeah. (Nobody tell him you can have them year round)

Trick-or-treat etiquette: Is of the mind a kid has to go through a fuckin gauntlet of spooky yard decor to earn their sugar rush. Yes he is going to jump out and scare them in the yard, yes he is going to get nearly punched by a few spooked fathers, but he always rewards the kids with a decent candy haul.

Carmilla

Costume for this year: Banshee, it’s dramatic, dark, and scares the sweet jesus out of men.

Favorite candy of all time: Godiva chocolates, she buys a whole fancy box for herself at the beginning of each month. And then pretends she doesn’t eat them all in the first two days.

Favorite autumn treat: Cranberry things, like bars or jams. People have tried to argue with her that it's more of a winter thing but fighting with her over other things has never worked either so...her opinion stands unchallenged now.

Trick-or-treat etiquette: She’s hosting a very lavish party at her house, to be honest she probably rarely hears the doorbell. When she does answer it she lets the kids grab a handful from the ONE bowl she keeps by the door and when that’s gone she just turns off the outside light and stops answering.

-Mod Soviet