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anika-ann · 4 years

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3+1 (Un)Wanted Mistletoe Encounters

Type: One-shot, Reader Insert Word count: 4200

Pairing: Steve Rogers x Reader

Summary: Kissing under the mistletoe is one of the most famous Christmas traditions; so obviously, it is not Christmas without it at the Tower.

Unfortunately for the occupants, you are not fond of the tradition – at all.

...or are you?

Warnings: cliché trope, pushy Pietro, discussion of dub-con I guess, language, fluff

A/N: Idea born from this video where John Mulaney says: “If any decoration needs to be MeToo’ed…” and goes on.

Beatiful divider by firefly-graphics

You were no Grinch.

In fact, you actually liked Christmas and the Holiday season, you enjoyed both giving and receiving and you appreciated when people found time to spend it together, whether in their own family circle or with their chosen one.

But. There was one significant ‘but’.

And with this being your first Christmas with the Avengers, Sam Wilson was about to learn about the said but first-hand, because that sweet kind-hearted dumbass with a sass streak walked right into it.

Quite literally.

December 23th, you woke up well-rested, got breakfast, wrapped several presents and were on your way to hunt down a lunch in the communal kitchen, when a voice stopped you in the doorway, where you nearly ran into Sam. Nearly.

“Ah-oh,” he hummed, a shit-eating grin spreading on his handsome face and you stopped dead in your tracks, frowning at the ominous sound.

“What?”

And then came the fateful words: “You’re standing under a mistletoe.”

You see, here was a thing; the tradition of hanging a mistletoe and meeting people under it by chance as an excuse to get a kiss from someone was… stupid. Downright idiotic. Pushing people into something they didn’t have a chance to back out from. Forced affection.

Yeah, that was not happening even if Sam was a real swell guy and you did find a newly hung mistletoe above your heads indeed as you briefly looked up to check if his words were true.

“Okay. And?”

His eyebrows rose in surprise, his tone turning slightly wavering.

“…And so am I?”

“And?” you continued, crossing your arms on your chest defensively, already preparing a rant that would hopefully spread like wildfire and ended this dumb tradition altogether. Or well, at least spread around the Tower so no one would ever try to corner you again.

“Really?” Sam deadpanned and you stared right back at him, your face probably displaying precisely how you felt; unimpressed.

“Yes, really,” you emphasized and pointed up at the offensive plant for a good measure. “This is a stupid concept, objectifying people, women especially. It’s about people being forced into showing affection they might not even feel. It’s bordering on a damn dub-con if not non-con.”

Sam blinked a few times, instinctively retreating as he felt you heating up. He raised his hands in a no-harm gesture to show he got your point.

But you were already on roll and you glimpsed Tony in the kitchen, so you thought that there was no harm in him hearing your speech too, just to make sure that the smug loveable bastard of a billionaire got the message as well.

“It’s like all those poor kids being asked why don’t you give your granny a hug before we go and a kiss to your granddad— well, it’s because I don’t want to and it’s my choice to give affection to someone! And now this thing, this is the tip of the iceberg, really, the last fucking drop- it needs to be Me Too’ed, I swear.”

You found yourself panting as you finished, your hands on your hips now – not that you realized you had put them there – and your belly hot and angry for some inexplicable reason; maybe it was the fact that it was Sam, amazing, friendly and understanding Sam Wilson, who had to go and point this stupid poisonous plant out for you; and have the audacity to ask for a kiss.

Dammit!

“I’m sorry, Y/N,” he apologized sincerely, voice kind and without any hint of hurt or mockery. “It won’t happen again. I see that you might have a point in this.”

All the fight instantly left your body, replaced by warmth of friendship, mingling with a shiver of shame for your quick judgement and outburst. You sighed, easing your posture and offering and apologetic smile in return.

“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to make a big deal of that-“

“No, it’s fine. Like I said, you’re kinda right.”

“Damn right I am,” you hummed, feeling the corners of your lips rise automatically as Sam chuckled and shook his head at your antics.

But hey – you were right. You were not sorry for that.

Still snickering to himself, Sam sidestepped you in the door and patted your shoulder.

As you continued your path as well, you would swear you heard Tony mutter under his breath that you were a Grinch.

Jerk.

“Hey! Don’t I get a kiss?” Clint called out a complaint as you met both stepped into that damn doorway at the same time.

As he pointed up, all you could do was to sigh, close your eyes and count to ten.

It had only been like four hours maybe; perhaps the word hadn’t gotten to him yet that you were not a fan of making out with random people – even if they were family – just because it was Christmas; or as Tony had put it, that you were a Grinch.

Personally, you thought that his insult had been inaccurate; you had given it a thought. Maybe you were more of a Scrooge. Perhaps you should tell him next time you saw him, just to see his face; Tony did pride in his ability to come up with witty nicknames.

You almost spitted out Bah, humbug now, just because.

“No, you don’t,” you said flatly instead, causing Clint’s jaw to quite literally drop as he looked at you with indignation and horror in his eyes.

“But--- but- mistletoe!” he stuttered and you sighed, deciding to explain it to him too – patiently.

“Why should some stupid plant tell me when someone is worth my affection? Someone who allegedly deserved it by simply standing under the same plant as me, no less? Get. Out. Not happening.”

You winced a bit as you registered the snappy tone you used.

Well. Half of the task of explaining it to him patiently went right, you’d call that a success, you supposed.

The poor archer just blinked, staring at you dumbfounded and mildly hurt; as if you had just told him that Santa Claus was nothing but a trick. Phew, as if you were that heartless…

Just-- logic. In fact, you had given this tradition a generous amount of thought since your last encounter under it and you figured out where it came from, historical inaccuracy be damned.

“I mean, where did the idea even come from? I bet it was just because some dude saw another guy mouth-to-mouth a girl, who happened to eat some of this poisonous parasite, may I add, and she was dying, so he gave her rescue breaths before continuing CPR. And the dude thought, that’s a great idea! Let’s make this a habit, just without the poisoning! Yeah, no. You’re not getting a kiss, Clinton,” you finished, satisfied with yourself as you managed to sound calmer this time.

Also, you were kinda proud of yourself for coming up with this story; it seemed very likely.

“That’s, uhm… an interesting take on history,” Clint hummed, watching you with uncertainty and hesitance and your heart stumbled in your chest as you guessed he was about to say something… cheeky, and outraging, in his cute brotherly way. “I need a hug at least tho.”

There we go.

“Nice try.”

You smirked and sidestepped him to be on your way and almost bumped into Steve, quickly shooting him a smile and disappearing out of sight before a silly idea about him and the stupid plant could form in your head – that would be bad and highly inappropriate, as was your crush on him, not to even mention your feelings—bah -!

“What did you do to her?” you heard the sweet supersoldier ask, a hint of accusation in his voice. Your smile widened, heat rising to your cheeks. Always so chivalrous; your heart could fucking melt.

“I asked for a hug after she refused to give me a kiss under a mistletoe,” Clint ratted you out, still hurt and honestly confused.

You stopped in your tracks as you rounded a corner, chewing on your lip guiltily.

Poor Clint; perhaps you had gone too hard on him… he couldn’t have known. You had to be kinder about it next time – after all, you might have been with them for almost a year now and they made you feel like you fit despite being so-so late to the Avengers party, but all of you still had things to learn about each other.

“Ah, you haven’t heard from Sam. Sorry,” Steve’s voice reached your ear, a notch kinder than before, compassionate even.

Compassion; another quality of Steve’s that you loved-

Bah, HUMBUG, that is not that, the L word is a bit much, that is not what’s happening-

“Wait, you knew- oh… Yeah, a heads-up would be nice,” Clint grumbled and made a pregnant pause, the sign of another prefect line coming. You held your breath in anticipation. “So are you gonna give me a hug or should I just get coffee, aka the hug in a cup-“

You held back laugher and swallowed the fondness for the good-natured archer before you could rush back and give him the damn hug.

“Coffee’s always a safe choice,” Steve replied and you thought you heard a chuckle and a grunt, unable to supress a giggle as you jogged away before they could notice you were still within hearing range.

Clint’s following monologue faded away as you walked.

“Nobody likes me. Nobody. I’m gonna die alone, surrounded by people who are too emotionally constipated to give a man a damn hug…”

Yeah, maybe you should give him a hug next time you saw him… no mistletoe though.

You truly believed that that would be the end of it; after all, a day had passed since the first incident, the incident that was left without a kiss, and you doubted anyone was out of the loop at this point.

That was stupid of you. Naïve even. You jinxed it.

You were just after light breakfast, ready to get a little work out in – complete with tacky remixes of Christmas songs prepared to cheer you up – when the supposedly fastest man in the Tower, and possibly the whole world, pretty much bumped into you.

And he had to bump into you just as you were walking through that fucking doorway with that fucking plant which you were supposed to put down right after the encounter with Sam, dammit.

But no, you didn’t want to ruin everyone else’s fun; in fact, Clint had taken it his personal mission to meet as many people as he could under the mistletoe to get a kiss… or a hug. Wanda hapilly shared affection with others, either kissing their cheek of hugging them. People were having fun.

So, obviously, you let it be, confident everyone knew better than to corner you.

No good deed ever went unpunished, especially in the Holiday season.

Pietro grinned as he spotted you, downright delighted, and spread his arms almost as if creating a cage around you, leaving very little room to escape.

You did not like that.

“A kiss for a guy who caught you under a mistletoe?” he hummed warmly with a sprinkle of cheek and despite his cheery demeanour, you couldn’t help yourself and rolled your eyes.

“In your dreams, Maximoff,” you huffed, trying to duck under his arm, only for him to move it so quickly it was only a blur to you.

Quick to move, slow to take a hint. Yep, that kind of behaviour had Pietro written all over it… Okay, now you were being mean, but he was being an ass, grinning wider and adding a wink to the mix, so it was only fair.

“How did you know? I thought it was just my sister who was telepathic?”

“Pietro, leave her alone,” Wanda spoke as if on cue, eyeing her brother with a frown from her spot behind the counter where she was trying to figure out a recipe for a special Christmas pastry from her old country.

A hint of a pout appeared on Pietro’s lips as he reciprocated Wanda’s gaze; unfortunately for you, he was still aware enough of you attempting to escape his cage, so far without using force; though you were inclined to violence should it be necessary.

“What?! It’s tradition! I thought Americans loved that!”

“Well, not all of us, so-“ you explained with a sigh, catching a glimpse of Steve as he now looked up from his spot on the couch where he had been nestled with a sketchbook for the past twenty minutes.

“I could kiss you before you even notice,” Pietro argued smugly, his expression earning a wolf-like edge as you glared back at him.

Well, it seemed your workout was just about to start, you thought, as you balled your hand into a fist, subtly testing the readiness of the muscles of your leg, prepared to kick the damn man-child to his shin or worse.

“She said no.”

Both your and Pietro’s heads snapped to Steve, who was watching the other man with intense displeasure, all complete with the mildly adorable wrinkle on his forehead – a sign of disappointment and irritation – and a voice that carried the gravity of a Captain’s order.

Which in this situation stirred something in your belly, warmth swelling in your chest as he rushed to your rescue; one not needed, but still appreciated. You didn’t react to Steve’s words aside from giving him a quick grateful smile and shooting Pietro a childish told-you-so look.

“She doesn’t have to do things just because it’s considered a tradition. Leave her be, Pietro,” Steve added, less snappy and simply requesting from the speedster to have a tiny bit of respect for your wishes.

Pietro was most definitely pouting now, but he dropped his arms and released you, still blocking the doorway.

“This is ridiculous,” Pietro muttered under his breath, only for you to hear and you gritted your teeth, irritation spiking again.

“You are being ridiculous. Now move or I swear I’ll slap you.”

“I’d like to see you try, Eagle.”

Oh, we’re doing nicknames now? He could use your title earned by being fast and occasionally deadly all he wanted, flattery would get him nowhere at this point.

“Wouldn’t even see it coming, Speedyboy,” you challenged, chin raised in defiance.

It was ironic, really, how much everyone seemed to insist on following this stupid tradition, even with you. At this point, it was practically everyone but Steve; everyone but the one person you’d be willing to kiss – mistletoe or not, though the plant would at least give you an excuse.

But nope, you just had to get stuck in the doorway with this moron instead.

“Ooookay, you two,” Natasha sing-sang, as she was approaching you from the corridor; you completely missed her arriving, that was how much Pietro irritated you. “Maximoff, move, you’re blocking the doorway. And if you corner her like this again, I’ll kill you in your sleep and you’ll never see that coming,” she promised, voice icily serious despite the twinkle in her eye.

You had no doubt she would deliver just what she promised.

Which was exactly why you leaned over to kiss her cheek, earning a brilliant smile from her and a light brush of her lips against your own cheek.

“Thanks, kotenok,” she hummed just as Pietro gaped and complained.

“That’s so unfair.”

You smirked at him, throwing the smugness he had treated you with right back at him as you went to walk away.

“I give affection to whoever I want and whenever I want. Let your super quick brain process that. Happy Holidays.”

You completely missed the slow smile that spread on Wanda’s face at one point of the whole exchange.

You decided to stop walking through that damn doorway altogether – just in case.

But at the moment, no one was around, so you made an exception since you considered yourself safe. Though main part of the feeling of security was that you didn’t think there was anyone left of the Tower tenants (who didn’t pay rent at all, somehow) who wasn’t aware of your opinion on the dumb tradition. No one who would be stupid enough to try.

Yet, when you glimpsed a large figure about to walk through the doorway just as you were few feet from it, you halted in your steps, letting them pass first.

And then there was a gust of wind, a warning coming a second too late and a harsh push to your shoulder from behind.

“Running through!”

You, the newest addition to the Earth’s mightiest heroes, Eagle, known for her quick reactions and not losing her cool easily, only managed to yelp in fright as you were knocked over, unable to hold onto anything and falling straight to the ground.

Two strong hands caught you and pulled you back up before you could hit the floor and you gasped, head spinning from the swift movements-- only to blink your eyes open to meet the prettiest pair of eyes you had ever seen; determined, kind, compassionate, loveable. And so damn blue despite the drop of green in their irises.

Your heart was trying to beat its way out of your ribcage as Steve instinctively pressed his chest against yours, holding you close and secure, grasp firm but careful.

Your gaze couldn’t but wander all over his face as you found yourself in such close quarters with him, his own eyes and his lips – gosh, those lips – working as magnets, always alluring your gaze to linger.

“You okay?”

Mesmerized, you watched those lips to move, barely comprehending what he was asking. His voice was warm; honey sweet and rich in spice, delicious, causing your stomach to flip pleasantly, your heart stammer.

It might have taken you a while to stutter out a reply, but no one ever needed to know about that.

“Uhm… yeah. Thanks-- thanks to you… thank you.”

Steve graced you with a small but no less meaningful smile. “Of course.”

Torturously slowly – as if he didn’t want to let you go any more than you wanted him to – he helped you stand straight and let go of your arms.

The moment you lost his touch, you lost your sanity too. You must have.

Before you could change your mind – or to think anything through – you leaned back to him and pressed a quick kiss to his cheek. And perhaps on instinct, you kinda aimed more for the corner of his mouth than the cheek.

He felt warm now too – the tips of his ears turned red in an instant and you, with horror, finally realized what you had done; and just how good it felt to finally show at least a little of what you had been trying to ignore and hide for so long.

Despite his apparent surprise and mild embarrassment, his smile widened a fraction, turning pleased.

“What was that for?” he asked lowly, gaze intense as he studied your face, a hint of a glow in his eyes, something brighter than hadn’t been there before. Hope, maybe?

You certainly hoped. Because you just made an ass of yourself, having acted without thought… and it never felt so good and so awkward at the same time.

Your brain had never been so quick and dumb to come up with a poor excuse either.

“We’re…. we’re under a mistletoe?” you offered reluctantly, your lips still burning after the brief contact with his, head once again nearly spinning due to the proximity – was it just the dizziness or was he leaning in closer?

“I thought you didn’t follow that tradition,” Steve hummed with a grin slowly spreading on his face and through the fog of lovesickness, it finally dawned to you.

You had done exactly what you scolded Sam, Clint and Pietro for – you just went and kissed Steve, no questions asked, no consideration of his possible discomfort.

God, you were such an idiot!

See, that’s why you have banned yourself for as much as imagining kissing Steve and meeting him under the mistletoe! Because when your brain went down that road, it stopped working altogether!

You swiftly retreated a few inches, horrified.

“I—I don’t. I mean. I-- I-I’m so sorry!” you blurted out, words spilling from your lips as the panic rose in your chest. And yet, there was warmth, a pleasant feeling coiling in your belly, breaths coming out short as Steve seemed to erase the distance you had created, his gaze studying you, landing on your mouth. “I shouldn’t have done that! What was I thinking—gosh, I didn’t want to make you-“

You stopped as Steve’s lips kept erasing the distance and ended up a breath from touching yours, tempting, his eyes shining bright with a simple unspoken question. You instinctively licked your lips, heart stumbling in your ribcage.

“---uncomfortable. Yes, please-“

And then he was kissing you, a little smile playing on his lips as they danced with yours, sweet and soft, hand moving to your nape, thumb caressing the side crook of your neck, drawing a content sigh from you as your eyes fluttered shut, letting you sink into the kiss you had been craving for almost a year.

Your hands sought out his shoulders as he cradled your face, gentle and guiding so he could take more and all you wanted was to give it to him, give him everything he asked for and take it from him too.

Your toes definitely curled in the thick fluffy socks you wore when his fingers squeezed your nape briefly before he withdrew – as if he once again didn’t want to let go for something so boring as oxygen. You wholeheartedly agreed with that sentiment, dizzy from the blissful turn of events.

As you inhaled nevertheless, you were grateful that Steve stayed close enough for you to breathe in him, relieved and delighted smile on your face as you licked your lips, savouring the sensation.

When you met his gaze, you saw nothing but fondness; and your heart could melt.

Steve liked you too. Steve kissed you like he meant it. Now you could die a happy woman but you rather not. You’d rather kiss him again if he was willing.

“Still sorry I did it without asking first,” you whispered an apology even though you were not sorry at all since it led to this.

“It’s okay. I just hope it wasn’t just the tradition that pushed you into kissing back.”

You chuckled and then chewed on your lower lip when thinking of a propriate retort, not missing that his eyes followed the action. Oh, he definitely liked to back, okay. Why had you never kissed before, again?

“I only give affection to whoever I want, whenever I want,” you threw back at him, the words that had a whole new meaning in contrast to when being told to Pietro; not a turn-down, quite the opposite in fact.

And you leaned in, greedy for at least one more kiss, Steve just watched you with a smile, eyes flickering to your lips.

“That’s good to know.”

He didn’t sound like he complained at being at the receiving end of your affection whatsoever.

Maybe, mistletoe wasn’t so stupid after all…

Three rooms over, the red-haired witch was smiling widely as she, thanks to her mental powers, caught a glimpse of what was happening in the kitchen doorway.

“It worked,” she announced, blinking to fully return herself to the present. “Nice work this time, brat moy.”

Pietro scowled at Wanda and couldn’t but wonder about the plan she had orchestrated and asked him to execute.

“How did you know, sestra?”

Wanda just shrugged.

“I had my suspicions before. But when you ran into her the last time, I checked her mind to see just how uncomfortable you made her,” she explained, giving one more scolding glare for his inappropriate behaviour. But well, it led to this and he helped now, so… he was good. “She literally thought she wouldn’t mind being under the mistletoe with the Captain.”

“Lucky bastard,” Pietro muttered, expression only half-sour.

“Shush. Be happy for your teammates. You just flirt anyway.”

The speedster pouted, but didn’t protest; he in fact was happy for the two members of the extended family him and his sister had found. And he indeed was only flirting, enjoying your reactions, talking back and teasing. It was all good fun and he did wish you and the Captain well…

But.

“Well, yeah, but now I won’t be able to do that or to look at her twice. Not without Captain having my head,” he grumbled and Wanda nodded with a grin, not feeling all that bad for him.

It wasn’t like he had his heart broken – more like had his ego tickled; and he had been needing some of that for a while.

“That’s true. Looks like you gotta be faster with the next girl you get your eye on, brat.”

The speedster gasped, shocked at her audacity. “I’ll show you fast-!”

Wanda laughed as she used her powers to freeze him on spot to get a head start.

Now, the Holidays felt truly happy indeed.

S.R. Masterlist

Thank you for reading!

If this fic feels like it’s written differently, then I guess that’s fair… I tried to make the style more drabble-like and failed epically, because I just cannot write short and without too many feelings :D

Anyway.

Happy Holidays to you all! May you be given love and affection!

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blookmallow · 4 years

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rating spirit halloween clowns again

speaking of spirit halloween,

i previously rated a bunch of spirit halloween clown costumes and now that its halloween times again im back at it again with animatronic clowns this time. they have a very nice pennywise as well but im only rating original clowns here

clowning around

a pretty good boy, i like his face and his spooky eyes, i always love a good monochrome clown but hes got this goofy country bumpkin accent im not really vibing with. he is VERY tall so i imagine he’s probably scarier in person though i have not had an opportunity to meet him. the screaming children are a unique touch but they kinda just look like floppy baby dolls if you look at them too closely. not a fan of anything that would cause whatever spooky attraction you’re making to have constant child screaming sounds playing, either, but, hes still a pretty good clown. hes also the only clown in this old timey monochrome style im seeing here so he gets props for that. 7/10

rotten ringmaster

i dont think clowns are usually ringmasters but points for creativity but then points lost again bc his face just looks so. generically creepy. he just looks boring to me. like hes trying to be pennywise but didn’t quite make it. this child victim looks slightly better than before but also has very very fake little cloth legs and mr ringmaster looks really weirdly proportioned from any other angle and not in a spooky way just in a Weird Bendy Way. 5/10, i dont really know why im so uninterested in this guy

cuddles the clown

look at this fucked up weirdo what am i even LOOKING at here. he looks like a clown made of nightmares and snakes. his fingers are just more clowns. i desperately want to see this thing in person i cannot get OVER this guy i cannot imagine this thing existing in physical space even with the video 10/10

mr salty

he acts like he’s flashing you only to reveal a very... particularly placed shorter clown. the little one’s name is willy. i do not like it at all 1/10 this gets one point for the fact that i like “surprise it’s TWO clowns” if this wasn’t designed Like That

i also can’t tell if they’re like, sharing the same pair of shoes or if they’re bizarre conjoined twin clowns or what the fuck is going on

fright in the box

I SAW THIS BOX EARLIER I DIDN’T KNOW THERE WAS A CLOWN IN IT i cant wait to go back and meet him. im not a big fan of jumpscare animatronics, though they are effective. i like that this guy doesnt seem to have any kind of body. he just looks like a spooky napkin. big beetlejuice vibes here i like him 7/10

tug-of-war

TWO OF THEM!!!

these guys are playfully fighting over a screaming child like brothers fighting over a teddy bear. the fact that they don’t move very fast or very violently makes it seem less threatening and more like they just want to play but are very bad at it which is endearing to me for some reason. i want to hang out with them. mostly im just trying to figure out what the fuck is happening with the right guy’s face though

what is going ON here. this might be among one of the weirdest clowns i have ever seen but hes so different and visually interesting i legitimately really like him. getting some strong jigsaw vibes from the other guy, i like him as well. i like his cute overalls. big fan of these guys. 10/10

waving wally

what a nice young man he doesnt jump out to scare you or threaten you hes just wavin. hi wally. he seems friendly i would hang out with him too. i like this one bc he has mostly pretty normal features/body proportions so he looks more believably like a regular guy instead of a Monster Clown Creature which i personally like a lot more. i like his empty void eyes a lot. not sure about the light up nose though. kind of a rudolph look going on there. i like his little hat. i dunno theres something very pleasant about wally hes simple and visually pleasing and he is my friend 10/10

crouchy

crouchy is such an unpleasant name and i feel like they coulda done better than just naming him after the position hes in but whatever. this guy’s a pretty generic monster clown, there’s not a lot of creativity going on here but if you want a nice monster clown for whatever occasion you need a monster clown for, he’s pretty good. he is VERY tall. the effect is pretty imposing in person, i met him last year. he doesn’t talk he just laughs. here to have a good time. 7/10

uncle charlie

look at this guy!!! i like him. i like his very spooky face combined with the big silly flower/etc. theres a nice jarring contrast there. kinda has almost the exact same head as crouchy though. he doesn’t jumpscare you either from what i can tell he just hangs out and looks ominous. hes my friend i like him 8/10

towering creepy clown

the description says his name is grimsli. i thought his neck ruffle was a bib at first. pretty generic but i like his noodly legs. 6/10 i feel like he may have been on display here last year too he looks familiar

peek-a-boo clown

he’s a clown, he’s spooky, he plays peekaboo. pretty straight forward. his movement is pretty smooth actually though. his outfit is hideous even by clown standards, but to the point i think it actually works for him somehow. his face looks more like a weird zombie than a clown to me but he DOES have rainbow swirly eyes so BIG props for that. 7/10

clown ferris wheel

LOOK AT THEM THEY’RE SO CUTE i love the ones with the empty soulless eyes. the fact that this doesn’t have any dialogue recorded or anything and the clowns just silently stare and spin around and around with a slightly off kilter circus tune looping makes it equally unsettling and hilarious. i legitimately want this thing. if i was rich and owned a house i would have this thing in my living room all year long and everyone who knows me would absolutely hate it. 10/10

also it doesnt look like they’re selling hugz the clown on their site right now which saddens me i hope he hasnt been discontinued :( i met him last year hes good and i like him as well

#clowns #spirit halloween #animatronics #long post #pinned

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radramblog · 4 years

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My commander decks, Pt. 2

I don’t like leaving these two-parters open for too long, so I’m gonna nip this one in the bud now.

Zada, Hedron Grinder- Mono-Red Storm/Tokens

My Zada deck came from having played a weird Red/Green Werewolves/Zada Aggro/Combo deck in Shadows over Innistrad standard, and then getting to come back to it some time later since a lot of those cards took a really long time to rotate out for some reason. The deck was, admittedly, kind of a pile, but it was huge fun and could just kill people out of nowhere. This commander deck, based on a very well-put-together list on tappedout, spawned from how much I ended up loving Zada, with her unique effect lending surprisingly well to an all-in combo deck.

This deck doesn’t come out of the box very often, and for pretty good reason. Not a lot of people appreciate getting combo’d off against, especially when it’s as loose and indeterminate as this deck is, and there is just so much math involved that even piloting it can become a pain. It’s incredibly powerful, being fragile in some ways but resilient in ways you wouldn’t expect. It’s actually probably the closest thing to a cEDH deck I have, though it would obviously stand no chance at an actually competitive table.

The deck, at this point, has deviated pretty heavily from the primer it was based on, both since I don’t want to buy overpriced cards that aren’t significant upgrades and because I have some jankier effects I wanted to play (also, because that list has been consistently updated and mine hasn’t). I’ve had it called a Goblins deck, and while there are a lot of Goblin cards in it (I mean, Goblin Matron is there), it actually kinda gets under my skin when people do that. It’s not a Goblin deck, Goblins just happen to be really good at making tokens! I don’t really like Goblins. (Zada is an exception.)

Basandra, Battle Seraph- Boros Forced Combat/Pillowfort

Basandra was one of four decks I built after I got really bored, hit Random 4 times on EDHRec, and designed four decks based on the results. While I did end up proxying up 2 of the others (Seizan Mono-B Group Sl/hug, DL Atarka Dragons/Panharmonicon), Basandra was the only one that resonated with me enough to want to build it for real. It represents to me the possibilities of Boros beyond just aggro and the handful of archetypes the colour pair has been crumbed over the years.

It also happens to be a pretty political deck. While the plan of making people fight each other instead of me is all well and good, in a perfect situation you’re still going to have one more opponent left to deal with. The deck is pretty light in ways to actually win the game, although having a Flying commander does help a little bit (See, she does do something!). With that said, I’ve played the deck enough times to have racked up a few wins, so it’s far from helpless, and the random hate pieces that are mostly in to keep people from going over my defences can just lock some decks out of the game. (If you’re a deck that loses to Aven Mindcensor then you deserve to lose to Aven Mindcensor, sorry)

I really enjoy the Thalia’s Lancers package. Tutors like this and like Mwonvuli Beast Tracker in the Radha deck are fun to build around, with the right combination of cards letting them turn into mini toolboxes. In this deck, the Lancers can find land, ramp, removal, pillowfort effects, card draw, making them extremely versatile. While I am generally opposed to tutors, Lancers get a pass.

O-Kagachi, Vengeful Kami- 5-Colour Spirit Tribal/Cast Triggers

This deck is stupid bad but it’s built around a bunch of silly cards that I love. The spirits of Kamigawa look and feel bizarre, but in an elegant way- they’re off in their own little world, doing whatever, while the rest of the game happens around them.

Unfortunately, most of them kinda suck. There’s a reason I didn’t build around Soulshift, and it’s not because I’d die to Rest in Peace.

This deck, therefore, is an eclectic collection of spirits, good and bad, with the stated goal of finding enough cost reduction to start loop-casting members of the -Onna cycle, generating value through “whenever you cast a Spirit or Arcane spell…” effects. Getting to this point, however, is it’s own endeavour. The deck is desperately in need of a rebuild, with way too high a curve and not enough ramp to support itself. The deck includes the entirety of the Myojin cycle, all 5 Dragon Spirits, and all 3 pieces of Iname- not to mention, most of the Spirits that actually have good effects are fairly mana-hungry themselves. Even the manabase is a bit silly, though I have gotten away with proxying fetches and shocks since the deck doesn’t need any help flopping.

When the deck does get going, though, it can get pretty out of hand. Literally, in fact-the deck can rip through people’s hands and occasionally lands, but the cards doing so are so expensive and bad that it feels more earned than just dropping Narset/Windfall or Armageddon. No-one can stay mad when they lose to Myojin of Infinite Rage, since the Myojin is the one with all the Rage. It can be resilient as well, with great recursion effects such as Karador and Iname, Life Aspect just happening to be Spirits. It’s still not good, but it’s something.

Gonti, Lord of Luxury- Mono-Black Theft/Control

Like Zada, Gonti spawned from a standard deck I enjoyed playing, in this case the Azor’s Gateway Mono-Black Control deck I piloted to surprising success for a long time. A fair few cards in the deck come directly from that list, including the incredibly water-damaged Torment of Hailfire and some of the weirdo one ofs like Tetzimoc and Liliana, Death’s Majesty. The deck is grindier than anything, with incremental draw being the name of the game and murdering opponent’s threats the subtitle. Gonti, in addition to being one of my favourite cards of all time, supports Mono-Black Control quite well, being able to grab answers to things that would normally be pretty difficult for mono-B to handle off of other people’s decks, or creating synergies where no-one expects them. As a result, while there’s not as many of this type of effect as many Gonti decks, there is still some amount of cards that let Gonti re-enter than most decks they helm, there’s still a fair few ways to do so.

Theft is not a particularly well-supported strategy, especially in Black, but it serves to add replayability and versatility to the deck. The deck doesn’t play a huge number of threats, and most of the ones that it does are those that add to the steady value train or that double as something else. I haven’t quite committed to putting Praetor’s Grasp in, but I’m thinking about it. I also opted not to add in the new hotness of Opposition Agent, because as it turns out that’s not the kind of magic I want to play, and with a full hand and frequent planeswalkers on the board I don’t really need to go out of my way to generate more hate.

Playing this deck does harken back to that old standard deck, thinking ahead about which cards I need to keep around to answer certain threats I guess are coming up, and getting unexpected surprises off the top of my opponent’s library to win in unexpected ways (I once Gonti’d a Radiant Destiny off of my opponent’s Vampire deck, realised between Gonti and a few Gifteds I had a pile of Aetherborn cooking, and beat them down with that). Control is far from my favourite deck archetype, but it’s nice to have the option there if I want it.

Hallar, the Firefletcher- Gruul Kicker

My Hallar deck was given to me as part of the EDH subreddit’s Secret Santa, the maybe only year it was ran, and it still shows some evidence of the budget limit that exchange carried. While I have done my best to improve on it and diversify it, there’s really only so much one can do with such a narrow commander.

With that said, it’s not like the deck is bad. Especially since the addition of more Kicker cards in Zendikar Rising, Hallar has more option to choose from, and they can get burning very quickly. From what I’ve seen, however, most Hallar decks build around cheap Kicker costs, trying to trigger their ability as many times as possible as quickly as possible. And while some of these cheaper cards are of course present in my list, I chose to instead play some of the other bigger kicker cards, along with more ramp, to help spread the attention away from Hallar as needed and to give the deck something to do if they start costing upwards of 10 mana. I’m not convinced this added resilience is the correct path, but it’s my path, and the deck performs admirably even faced against substantially more expensive lists.

With that, I have listed all of my current commander decks. While I have a few in the build process, maybe I should stop? Because 10 is likely enough. Either way, I hope you enjoyed reading about what and why these decks are, and I hope to see you on the other side of a table soon. (I won’t play Zada game one, promise.)

#ramble #edh #commander #mtg

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bloodwillhavebloodtheysay · 5 years

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Hi there! I’ve just recently become obsessed with SNM and am going for my 26th bday in November. I am a bit lost in understanding how to make a “strategy” in seeing the most rooms, scenes, 1:1s (if possible), etc. Any tips for a first timer? Sorry if you already answered questions like this! Thank you!

First, if you will be a first timer, STOP READING THE BLOGS AND GO IN BLIND! But you have obviously discovered our SLEEP NO MORE Love Fest and have already learned far more than a person who is the sort to become obsessed with SNM should know going in, I’ll grant you this indiscretion. ;) And, I actually do understand and respect that some people are not in a position to see the show multiple times so you want to maximize the experience.

Also, your questions has so many parts that I would suggest that there isn't one single strategy to apply to your many questions. Finally, my strategy may not be the best for you, and there are as many approaches to the show as there are visitors to the McKittrick..

My answer really depends on how likely it is that you will be able to come back, and how often.

If you are destined to only have 1 or 2 chances, I would suggest sticking to the people rather than the rooms. (Unless your primary interest is in set and light design, in which case you could easily be satisfied focusing on those elements and just paying attention to the characters as you come across them.) But by picking a character and sticking with them, they will lead you to the content, and most characters will be involved in at least 2 major scenes and a number of smaller, more intimate ones. And while there are a handful of characters who stay within one or two floors, there are others that will give you quite a workout on the stairs, some doing the bottom-to-top climb in one fell swoop, some at a run. Regardless, you can often steal a glance at rooms as you are traveling with the characters.

So, assuming you will have multiple opportunities (my wish for you, not that it counts for much), then it is more possible to develop a systematic strategy if that’s your aim.

Strategy to see most rooms: Depending on how much you want to delve into the detail, you could fly through and systematically go from floor to floor and just do a walkthrough and it get an idea of which spaces you are most drawn too, and then spend the rest of the night going back end really digging around those (letters one the desks, files in the drawers and file cabinets, various journals and notebooks and chalk boards, and “easter eggs” that could appear practically anywhere like carved into the bottom of a drawer, side of a bed, posted on a bulletin board, etc). See below for what I think is a more fun approach to room/set exploration, although not one I employed until I had been dozens and dozens of times.

Strategy to see the most scenes: I believe the possibly-verified-but-commonly-used-regardless amount of actual content is 21+ hours. In other words, if you took all the scenes and figured out how to present them in a linear timeline one after another instead of simultaneously as it is performed, it would take 21 hours to watch the whole show. But But I guess what do you consider “a scene.” Is the nurse hanging laundry, or Speakeasy resetting the rep-bar a scene? I say the certainly can be in the hands of the right performer. So if your goal is to see the “bigger scenes with the most characters” that’s also a different strategy than wanting to see the intimate scenes.

Strategy to see the most 1-1′s: We have a word for people with a strategy to see the most 1-1′s, and it isn’t kind. I say that fully acknowledging that I have absolutely approached shows with that focus before, and suspect most superfans have at one point or another, and if they tell you otherwise they are likely lieing. While I can say that it was occasionally fruitful (I’ve had as many as 6 or 7 in a single show), those nights more often than not lead to disappointment and frustration by completely pulling me out of the experience.

I didn’t have my first 1-1 until my 3rd or 4th show, and then one night I had 4 happen back to back just on a fluke--I literally stumbled into them not even knowing they were about to happen. Last Monday, Ms. Novak was there for like the zillionth time and only got 1, but his first-timer friend, left to explore completely on his own got 4. I had none, but I DID manage to get my friend standing in the right general area to be in the running for Malcolm, and he got it. That made me happy. But I will say that a really good way to increase the likelihood of getting 1-1′s (and this has been discussed by just about everyone who has ever posted about it) is to invest time in the characters, so...

My recommended strategy to hopefully increase the rooms, scenes, AND 1-1′s: Yes, it’s become a cliche, but if you can be in the 1st elevator, get to the bottom floor as quickly as you can and you should catch a large party scene with an abundance of characters to choose from: Both Macbeths, both Macduff's, the three witches, Duncan, and Danvers are all there. Pick a character (any character, but I recommend a witch if you can figure out which ones they are) and follow them until you they take you back to where you first picked them up, then switch to a different character (preferably one you didn’t see in your first loop travels, and do the same thing, picking yet a different character for the last loop. This will give you coverage of most of the building. Also, (and there are no perfect formulae here) being present, attentive, respectful, and loyal to a character for a loop really does go a long way toward getting you noticed by the performer, and just maybe selected for a 1-1. Of course, shoving, aggressively planting yourself between a performer and any other audience member sometimes reaps the rewards, but we have a word for those people as well, and REALLY isn’t kind. Don’t be that person. It’s actually kinda funny to watch how some of us who know each well will other defer to each other and let each other pass through doors, and hold back from each other to the point of silliness. There is a nice camaradery to that that really beats being a dick.

Enjoy. Let us know how you like it!

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punishandenslavesuckers · 6 years

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Caduceus Clay is a just a little strange and maybe he’s a little high? Jester and Caduceus have a conversation about the meaningfulness of first-times. And maybe have a first time at something. Tooth-rotting fluff and Jester figuring a few things out. Cad thinks it’s great. (AO3)

It takes her a little bit of effort to get into the crow’s nest, but she’s starting to worry that Caduceus hasn’t come back down in a while and maybe he fell asleep super high up. Which is bad. She hikes up her skirts a little, knotting them a little against her thigh and lashing her tail around the lot so it’s bunched up while she goes up the ladder to the uppermost part of the ship. She enters through the small hole in the floor of the wooden bucket-like space and peers around. She smells something herbal burning pleasantly. There’s a small stone censer and a small ember of pressed incense smoking gently on the floor. Caduceus is sitting with his back to the curve of the low barrier wall, his staff leaning against his shoulder, one knee drawn up, the other folded against the floor. His arm is draped over his knee and there’s a bit of something – a mushroom? Some fruit? – held lightly between his fingers.

He’s peering curiously at her, one long, fuzzy ear flipped up as though he was listening to her approach to the top.

For a moment, when he looks at her the dim light from the moon catches strange in his eyes – not like it does in Nott’s eyes, which refract the light like a cat in the dark, but a low-lit glow. Dimly pink, like a muted lantern light through drawn blinds at a distance. Then he blinks and its gone. He smiles a little at her, lopsidedly.

“Heey,” he rumbles. “How’re you, Jester?”

Jester takes that as invitation and scrambles up into the nest with him, whispering loudly, “You’ve been up here a long time. What are you doing? Are you praying? What is the Wildmother saying? The Traveler says that the Wild Mother is preeeeetty nice as far as other gods go. Not as cool as the Traveler you know, but – Oh.” She covers her mouth with two hands. “Did I interrupt?”

Caduceus is kind of shaking his head, a dim, befuddled non-comprehension on his pale face.

“I can go. Sorry if I interrupted your god-talk,” she whispers.

“Nah, I’m done doin’ what I was doin’.” He pats the wood beside him. “You can sit if you like. It’s a little chilly up here though.”

“Are you cold?”

He shakes his head, a warm little smile on his face he does. “I dunno. I can’t really feel it right now.” He pauses halfway through tucking a pale wave of pink hair behind his ear, frowning. “Oh. Wait.” He looks at her as she sits cross-legged beside him. “Is it actually cold?”

“No.”

“Oh.” He smiles again. “That’s nice.”

“Caduuuuceus. Are you hiiigh?”

He glances at the mushroom-fruit thing in his hand, then at her. “Maybe a little.”

“Are you okay? Do you want water? I have water.”

“Heh. Thank you, but I’m coming down. Don’t worry.”

“What were you doing?”

“Asking a question.”

“What question?”

“A good one, I think.” He puts the bit of mushroom away in a pouch at his hip. “This is good stuff. I thought it might be good. It smelled right.” He chuckles a little, a low tone that goes so deep Jester can feel the bass of it in her chest. “Sorry, this kind of things mutes a lot of other stuff for me. Feels weird.” He wrinkles his nose in a way that reminds her absurdly of a bunny rabbit. “Good though. Very easy going.”

Jester pokes Caduceus carefully. “Are you like drunk?”

“No. Of course not. Drunk was not a good feeling.”

Jester studies her firbolg teammate closely. He seems to feel her doing it because he flips the ear nearest her a little bit and glances sidelong in her direction. The moon’s high up enough and bright enough that it puts a faint silvery sheen across the fine gray down that lays across Cad’s face and neck, the places where it runs thinnest. She knows exclusively from hugging him a few times that it’s very, very velvety soft and almost not there. She also knows from hugging him and that one time he buried his face in her arm that the strange pad of pink rhinarium that tips his nose is a little rough and dry. Like a cat.

“Are you thinking of petting me?” Caduceus chuckles.

“What?! No! Can I?” Jester immediately realizes that last question she said out loud and also maybe Caduceus is reading her thoughts. “Ah! Shit! I mean, that would be rude.”

Caduceus just laughs again, low and slow and very eventual.

“It’s okay. I told Fjord it was okay and he got very embarrassed about it.” He kind of points at his own head and makes a loop-dee-loo with his finger. “People don’t see a lot of firbolgs. I never thought about that. Everyone I ever met was, like, expecting a firbolg. People say such weird things. Oh. A blacksmith told me I was fuzzy. Did I tell you that? Is that weird? I didn’t think it was weird at the time but Beau says I don’t pay attention sometimes and people are ‘creepy’.” He does finger quotes in a way that says he saw someone else do it and he’s guessing at how to use them correctly. “Anyway, I didn’t mind. Hugs are nice.”

Jester untangles her tail from her skirts and floofing them back out the way she likes.

Then she leans over and gives Caduceus a hug. He’s very tall and very solid despite being proportionally rather skinny, something about his build dense all the way through in a way that makes her remember that firbolg are giant-folk as well as fey. Caduceus hugs her back and squeezes a little before she settles in leaning against his shoulder a little, her tail looping naturally around their tucked feet. He’s very warm and smells rather not at all like seawater. She suspects he has a cantrip for cleaning up a bit, but no matter what he kind of smells like it smells if you stick your face in an old cushion – like something kind of dusty and a little old but with just a little bit of, like, that smell after rain falls.

“Caduceus, do you think I smell nice?”

Cad tilts his head at her.

“You said Caleb smelled better than fine. Is that because you like the smell of dirt?” She twiddles her fingers together a little, talking loudly to air overhead in generally. “That’s fine if you do, I don’t caaare or anything Caleb is kind of stinky. Do you like stinky things? You like fungus and stuff and you smell like dirt kinda. In a nice way! Do the rest of us smell weird to you? Because if I smelled bad, I would want someone to tell me I –”

“You smell fine.” Caduceus chuckles.

“Really? Are you just being nice?”

“I try to be nice. Sure. But I do mean it.”

“What do I smell like? Do I smell like ocean? I think that smells a little weird actually. Like I feel sticky after swimming in the ocean…”

Caduceus considers this. “Huh. Let me see.”

Then he leans over a little and puts his face against her hair. He does it with so little warning, she can’t stop him. She can feel his breath and the shape of his nose and mouth against her ear when he exhales then inhales, disturbing where her hair lies. She goes very, very still. Her heart is suddenly going a little fast and she holds her own breath. Cad inhales again, kind of nuzzling a little to shift her hair, which tickles so she giggles before he sits back against the wall again.

“It’s weird. You always smell like far away,” he says, kind of sleepy as he thinks on it “Like… like flowers that don’t grow here. Or anywhere. People should smell like where they are, you know? And you do, mostly, but also…” He yawns and it’s a big yawn, suddenly inhumanly big, like a big cat yawning before his face kind of comes back together normally again, sleepy and familiar. “You smell like stuff that’s not here. It’s very weird. I’d love to know how you do that.”

Jester pokes Caduceus’ shoulder a little. “Are you going to sleep up here?”

“Hmm, maybe a little?”

“I can stay if you want.”

“That would be nice, but only if you’d like.”

Jester scoots in a little closer and loops her arms around Caduceus again, leaning on him, careful not to poke him in the chest with her horns. For all his sleepy affectations, he doesn’t drift off though. He loops an arm around her shoulders and kind of leans his chin against the top of her head. It feels very nice and cozy. Caduceus left his armor somewhere, so its just that soft white tunic thing he wears, the one with the weird sleeves and she finds herself fiddling with the fabric a little. Then fiddling with a stray loop of long pink firbolg mane where it lays over his shoulder against his chest. It’s quite like that for a while. And oddly warm in the small cradle of the crows nest.

“Caduceus?”

“Mmm?”

“Are you still high?”

“Heh. No. Just a little… humming a bit. That’s all.”

“Okay. Good. Can I ask you a touchy question?”

“Ooh. What’s a ‘touchy’ question?”

“Have you ever kissed anyone before?”

He thinks about it. “Well, sure.”

“No, I mean like kiss-kiss. Like someone you like.” She rolls her eyes. “Like romaaaantically, Caduceus. Not like you kissed your little sister goodnight or something. Which is super cute! But not what I’m talking about.”

“Oh.” He shrugs. “No. I haven’t. Why?”

“Nott says first kisses can be, like, important.” She huffs. “But my mama said also that making a big deal out of it can be, like, silly. Because what if your first kiss happens by accident and was, like, maybe, not a real first kiss? Or it was weird?” She flaps her hand for emphasis. “And if you make a big deal out of it, then you get all worked up for nothing? You know?”

“I do not know.”

“Oh right. Well, I feel like I kissed someone and it was, like, a little disappointing and like maybe not a real first kiss. And I’m feeling a little weird about it maybe? But I don’t have anything to compare it to. You know?”

“No.” She can hear him smiling as he says it. “I don’t have any idea.”

“Oh right.”

Caduceus kind of laughs again, that low sound that vibrates in her chest.

“I think doing something just once makes it bigger in your mind than it maybe should be. More meaningful than it has right to be. Which can be nice, but also stressful.” He pats her shoulder a little. “Once you’ve done it a few more times, I’m sure you won’t feel so odd about it. I don’t… have any personal experience, but I feel like that’s a very small thing in the grand scheme of a relationship. And, really, the odds of having a weird first kiss are much higher than having a good one.” He chuckles. “You’re doing it for the first time, after all.”

Jester considers this for a long moment.

“Shit. That makes a lot of sense, Caduceus. Wow. Duuh.”

“Does it?” He sounds pleased. “Oh good. That’s great.”

“You’re really smart about this for someone who doesn’t know anything about, like, sex and kissing and stuff.”

“I don’t know about that, but I’m glad it helped.”

Jester leans back a little so she can turn and look at Caduceus in the face. The smoke from the incense is coiling in the air over his head, catching moonlight in slow ribbons of silver. The creak of ropes and the aching groan of the wood around them seems strangely loud. Like there’s a fog of noises to mask their conversation when, in fact, Jester is pretty sure voices carry a bit on the water. Jester squints at him. Cad doesn’t see very well in the dark, she knows, but the moon is very bright tonight and he tips his head again, like he’s waiting for whatever she’s going to do next and very curious about it.

Jester points between them. “Could I kiss you?”

Cad blinks. “To practice?”

“Yeah! And, like, because I think you are super pretty, but also, I’ve kissed someone at least once. So odds are higher now that your first kiss will be nicer because I have experience.” She preens a little, but mostly to hide the fact her heart’s going a little fast. “You want to?”

He thinks about it. “I don’t know. I’ve never really thought about that.”

“We don’t have to kiss, Caduceus. I’m just saying.” She brushes her hair off her shoulder, tossing her head very showily. “I am very cute and smell nice and have kissed one other whole person. That’s prrretty good.”

Caduceus chuckles and kind of… looks at her. It’s a different look than before, like he hadn’t been focusing at all and it’s only just now, in the wake of her question and her statement that he’s really studying the whole of her presentation and again her heart gets a little fast. She has to stop herself gulping a little. Caduceus’ eyes are weirdly visible in this low light – the pale rose color almost luminous as he looks at her. She can’t really read his face just this… neutral, friendly curiousness.

He sits back.

“Okay. Sure.”

Jester gasps and claps her hands a little. “Okay! You’re sure?”

He shrugs. “Well, you made such a good argument.”

“Okay, okay.” She sits up straighter, tucking her knees under her where she sits facing her teammate. She can tell he’s amused, but that makes it easier for some reason. She floofs her skirts a little, primly. “Ready?”

Cad chuckles again. “Yeah. Go for it.”

Jester ignores the weird fluttery buzz of nervousness, a sudden thrum of it living under her palms and in her ribs. She leans forward carefully, sitting up on her knees alittle because Caduceus is tall even sitting like he is against the wall and not really helping her close the distance. Again, for some reason that makes it easier – simpler that he’s just kind of waiting expectedly for her do what she’s doing. She places her left hand against the wood over his shoulder, right beside his head and feels it like a brush of butterfly wings when his ear twitches a little, touching her forearm for a second.

Her weight safely braced, Jester leans a little closer, maintaining a determined eye contact.

Caduceus doesn’t seem alarmed by this, just watching her with rapt attention, eyes scanning her face and glancing toward her right hand when she brings it up a little between them. She does not go fast, waiting to see if he spooks at all. This close, she can see every little thing – that he straightens up just a little, that his expression relaxes very slightly, and he almost says something, but lets the word rest on his tongue and stay there, parting his lips just a little. Her curled fingers make gentle contact along the line of his jaw, following the soft line of his cheekbone back to the place where his jaw meets the soft deer-like shape of his ear.

Her fingers curl a little into a thickness of pink hair, tucking a little at the nape of his neck and spreading slightly along the base of his skull. Yes. That seems right. She holds his gaze except to glance down when she feels the warm heat of his breath. She angles her head a little, so her nose doesn’t bump his, and uses her hand at the nape of his neck to tug him forward just a little. Guiding. She feels him inhale a little shakily and she stops.

“Okay?” she whispers, so close to him she thinks her lips brush his.

“Okay,” he murmurs.

The bass in the syllables hum in her throat even before she closes that tiny distance and presses her mouth carefully to his. He’s warm. His mouth is soft against hers, tickling a little where his upper lip converges into the rougher texture of his nose. Her fingers sink a little deeper into the tangled silk at the back of Clay’s head, an instinct curling her nails just a little against the back of his skull. When she does it, Cad makes a kind of… humming sound. Almost curious and surprised. She does it again, just enough to pull his hair a little, and feels him smile against her mouth. She giggles, breaking immediately. Then the only thing to do seems to kiss him three times, rapidly, until he’s laughing against her lips and they pull apart.

“How was that?” Jester beams, fixing Caduceus’ hair a bit and sitting back on her heels.

“Nice,” says Caduceus. “Weird.” He’s smiling fondly at her. “I liked it.”

“Good first time?” Jester says, excited.

“Yeah. Definitely.”

She punches the air with two fists. “Oh my gosh! I am the best!”

Caduceus immediately busts up laughing, a little louder and longer than he might otherwise allow if he weren’t so relaxed and sleepy-like. He folds both arms across his middle and smiles at her. “You shouldn’t worry about kissing. It doesn’t seem like that big of a deal. It’s nice, but probably not worth stressing over.” His smile deepens. “Thank you though. I get to say my first kiss was a really good one. How about that?”

“How about that?” Jester enthuses.

“You feel better?”

“So much better. Do you feel okay?”

“Very okay." Caduceus gestures. "Want to sit together for a bit then head down? I probably shouldn’t sleep up here.”

“No, yeah, you probably shouldn’t. Actually, don’t do drugs in high places, Caduceus. That’s pretty dumb.”

“Oh. Yeah, good point.”

They settle in together and wait for the incense to burn down.

#critical role #caduceus clay #jester lavorre #clayvorre #critrole #lexo is responsible #for this fluff

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longroadstonowhere · 5 years

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okay y’all, is my birthday and i have to spend a majority of it at work, so i’m gonna drop this new chapter of wild child on y’all this morning

it’s a bit short, but as i’ve mentioned before, the rest of the story has been rough drafted, so i should be publishing it all within the next month or so (as evidenced by how there’s actually a set number of chapters for the fic now) - the only reason it might take a bit longer is cuz i like when numbers match up so i might spring for some kind of significant date, haha

(1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 ao3)

"This place is huuuge!" John said, his words distorted a little by the window he was currently smashing his face against. It was still early enough in the evening that he could see how the roads leading up to the airport's parking garages twisted around each other, making complicated loops that had to run around the whole complex. He could almost pretend they were on the edge of an epic car chase, one that would have his dad swerving between lanes, taking supersharp turns to throw off their pursuers until the only course left... was straight onto the tarmac!

Distracted by trying to compose the perfect high-octane music score, John didn't realize his dad was saying something to him until he was almost done talking. "... Thankfully we'll be able to park fairly close to our terminal, since getting from one end of the airport to the other can be quite the journey, It wouldn't do to miss our light due to such a silly thing as that."

"Uh, yeah, sure, that would probably be real bad... So hey! What kind of plane are we flying on, anyway? Is it one of those super cool double-decker ones? It'd be so awesome to climb a flight of stairs when you're actually flying waaaay above the clouds!"

His dad chuckled. "Sorry John, but I'm afraid those kinds of plans are usually reserved for international flights, not domestic ones."

"Oh." There went another possibility to reenact some cool movie moments. "Well, whatever kind of plane it is, it'll still be really cool to really be flying. Do the tops of clouds look different from the bottoms? I mean, they look kinda different in the movies, but movies make a lot of stuff look different."

"It depends on the kind of cloud," Jade piped up from the backseat. She and Bec were sprawled out together, soaking up every minute they could before they had to get on the plane separately - Bec was way too big for any airline to let him ride with the passengers, sadly. "I got to see a few different formations on our trip from the island, and the cumulus clouds looked pretty much the same from above and below, but the stratus clouds will look way different cuz the sun hits them in different ways."

John twisted around in his seat as he said, "That's right, I totally forgot you've been in a plane before, Jade! That's so cool!" Then he frowned. "Wait, that means you got the chance to fly before I did. That's lame."

Jade laughed and stuck her tongue out at him. She showed a little too much of her teeth when she did, so it looked kinda weird, but John was almost impressed she'd picked up such a classic childish expression, Of course, he had to shower her how the pros did it.

John's masterful expression provoked Jade into making another face back at him, and soon the two were embroiled in a contest to see who could make the most unhumanly ridiculous face possible. By the time Dad parked the car, no victor had been declared, but John was in physical pain from all the laughing.

Security lines were boring. And slow. No wonder movie heroes always skip them, John thought as he waited for his dad to finish collecting all the stuff he'd had to take out of his pockets. He'd let Jade and John go first, which was probably the gentlemanly thing to do, but it also meant they had to wait when all John wanted to do was run around and look at all the neat airport shops. He bounced in place until, finally, his dad had tied his shoelaces into the perfect knot. "Our gate is A5," he said, with a gesture of his hand, which clearly meant 'go ahead'.

John didn't ask twice - he was off like a shot, tearing past the other people in the hall on the way to their gate. He didn't get very far, though - as he turned a corner, he stopped short, in awe of the sight before him.

He'd entered what looked like the main hub for all the branches of the airport, a two-story open room with tables and chairs scattered around, a few of them taken up by travelers getting in a quick bite. The truly spectacular thing, however, was that the entire outer wall was made of glass, letting him see the airplanes as they trucked around between gates. The sun was almost done setting, but it still scattered a few golden beams across the sky. It was one of the most beautiful things John had ever seen in real life.

Staring out the window, John didn't notice his dad catching up to him until his hand came down on his shoulder. He looked up into his dad's face, who smiled and said, "Exciting, isn't it?" John just nodded, words failing him for once. "We'd best make our way to the gate, then. Wouldn't want to miss our flight, after all."

Paul leaned back in his seat and rolled his shoulders, taking a break from reading his novel. Checking his watch, it looked like they were about two thirds through their flight. He'd taken a small nap earlier, but he'd never been able to sleep well outside of a bed.

He glanced at John on his left, who was leaning against the wall of the plane, completely unconscious. It even looked like he was drooling a little. Paul grinned and took out his Blackberry to get a quick photo. These doohickies are certainly more convenient than carrying a proper camera around, even if the pictures aren't quite as good, he mused. It looked like John was taking his first flight well, though.

On his other side, Jade also seemed to be sleeping, though it was hard to tell if she was truly out or just keeping very still. She had adapted to life in this country extraordinarily well so far, but she still held many unconscious habits from her time living alone.

Paul sighed to himself. Uncle Harley, some of the decisions you made... I just can't understand them. His mother had never gone into much detail about why Uncle Harley never visited, she'd just said he needed a lot of space. He'd sent a couple letters filled with tales of his adventures, which his mother had used as bedtime stories, but they never had much in the way of personal sentiments, and he couldn't recall his mother sending any back. He'd never questioned that distance growing up - that's just how family was sometimes.

Now, though, he couldn't help but wonder how his mother had really felt about Uncle Harley's long absence from her life. Did he even know about me? Paul suddenly thought. He'd never met the man, after all, and he'd started his adventurous lifestyle long before Mother adopted him. As far as Uncle Harley knew, his sister had spent the rest of her life alone.

Paul shook his head, forcing the morose thoughts away. That's in the past now, for better or worse. He had to focus on taking care of Jade, not musing on what had led Uncle Harley to keep her isolated on that island. It was hard to think of the future, though, knowing what the most likely outcome of this trip was.

He looked at Jade's still face and took a deep breath. I have to do what's best for Jade. No matter what. With that resolve in his heart, he leaned back and closed his eyes, hoping for a little more rest before their trip together ended.

Jade stared out the car's window, watching the landscape race by. Bec was draped halfway across her body, making up for the time together they'd lost because of that airline's policies on traveling with dogs. The pilot on her flight off the island had been much more reasonable.

Then again, that had probably been considered "special circumstances". It still would've been nice to fly with him again.

Next to her, John was still chattering excitedly about their trip thus far. He'd been pretty groggy when they got off the plane, but all his usual energy had come back in a flash when he'd noticed the professional driver waiting for them with a sign that said "Egbert". Apparently he'd been sent by the woman they were here to visit, Doctor Lalonde. John had just been excited to have such a "celebrity moment" happen to him, as he'd repeated several times during the car ride thus far.

Mr. Egbert was listening to John from his position in the front seat, so Jade didn't feel too bad about keeping her attention on the world outside their car. It definitely seemed more... wild than the area around John's house. Not the same as her island, of course, but the only real sign of people was the road they were traveling on. Otherwise, it was all trees and rocks as far as she could tell. It would be nice to spend time here.

After some time, the car pulled around a curve and revealed a majestic, sprawling house nestled into a large clearing. Jade pressed against the window, trying to catch as many details as possible. "... Is that a river running through that place?" she asked, unable to trust her own eyes.

"Seriously??" John stretched toward her side of the car, trying to look out her window, but the car turned to drive toward the house before he could get a good view. "That sounds super awesome! Like a supervillain's lair! Hey, wait, she's not really a supervillain, right?" John turned towards his dad again. "Dad, we're not visiting a supervillain, right?"

Mr. Egbert chuckled. "Son, Dr. Lalonde is a kind and generous woman. She was the one who paid for our flight here, you know, and arranged for the excellent service of our chauffeur here." He nodded respectfully to the driver, who murmured "Thank you kindly" in response.

As the car pulled up to the house, John kept talking. "I dunno, supervillains can be really charming, and this could all be some kind of trap. Paying for the hero's transportation is a total villain move."

Now Mr. Egbert frowned. "John, your imagination is a powerful tool, but while we are Dr. Lalonde's guests, I trust that you'll treat her with respect. Understood?"

John slumped back in his seat. "Fiiiiiiiine." Quieter, he said, "That's way less cool, though."

When the car stopped, Jade let Bec out first so he could get some of the kinks out of his legs. He'd had to stay in that traveling container for a really long time. For her part, Jade got out and looked up at the house again. It was a pretty ridiculous house, really - it looked way bigger than any person really needed, and building your house on top of a river just seemed unnecessarily dangerous. There was something about the place that felt... weirdly familiar, though...

Jade's attempts at placing that feeling were interrupted by a loud voice from the house. "Oh! My! GOSH! You're here! You're all here!" A woman with short blonde hair wearing some kind of labcoat dress was rushing down the path towards them. "Please, please, let Noah take care of your luggage, you've had a long trip and I'm sure you're all completely exhausted!" She came closer showing all her teeth in a wide grin, and Jade had to suppress the urge to run up a tree. She'd gotten better with figuring out when people were just being friendly, but...

Fortunately the woman seemed to be focused on Mr. Egbert for now - they were talking about how the trip went, which seemed useless to her, but whatever kept the doctor's attention off her for now would work. She watched as Bec poked around the landscape, staying within a fairly close distance in case he was needed. It was good she was able to bring hi, She'd have to thank Dr. Lalonde for that, right? Mr. Egbert would probably expect that of her.

"Oh, what am I doing, blabbing your ears off out here! Come in, please, we'll all have plenty of time to get to know each other." She gestured toward the front door and they all slowly made their way into the house.

#wild child jade #man feels so good to finally be getting this part of the story out there #also evidence for me caring about significant dates: could've published this yesterday but i wanted to post the new chapter on my birthday

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sanguinesprout · 5 years

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Spots of sunshine breaking through (group therapy, job updates and blah)

Hoho, quite a bit happened this past month and most of it was kinda good stuff too! My mood lately has been, pretty average, though a little bit better I guess. Physically I’ve been really not great, so please excuse the shoddiness of this post, ugh.

First off, I started going to the group therapy. I have gone for 3 sessions already and have about 5 left. My initial feelings were reluctance and avoidance and kind of still are but I think I’ve kind of settled in a bit better now and am set on completing the full course!

The first session was well, kinda uncomfortable and I didn’t really know what to expect but the content was pretty good (though I felt like the session was dragging sometimes). There were very very few other people there, just a small handful but they were friendly and so were the staff, the mood is very chipper and pleasant and there is no pressure to have to answer or reveal things you don’t want to.

I probably won’t be able to explain all the stuff from the sessions just maybe bring more of a general account of the experience kind of thing. The content of the sessions helps you rethink about things, CBT style stuff. It’s definitely something that would be the most beneficial to experience in person of course because there are practical elements to it that really help solidify and explain some of the teachings. So, if you have the opportunity to attend group therapy, I would definitely recommend you give it a try, it’s not as scary or weird as you may think it sounds and is definitely not like how it is presented on tv, it’s way more loose and casual. I think I prefer it much more than the 1-on-1 type of counselling, it just feels so much more relaxed and educational.

When it came to the second session the following week, I was debating whether to quit or not, but I told myself to give it another try at least. My avoidance was beginning to get in the way of my progress, but if I submit to it, I’ll just be going backwards. There really are lots of beneficial things from therapy, it would definitely be a waste to not take them on board. So I went and it was fine, I learned more things, I talked a little more, I settled in more.

The third time I considered quitting again, but I told myself to stop being silly. Any small discomforts I have and any small comfort I get from not going is nothing compared to missing all the awesome things I could be learning. What also really drove me not to was the fact that the session for the week was focused on avoidance, to avoid it would be like the ultimate meta/ironic thing. The things shared in this session was really helpful, showed me the bad cycle I put myself through and its repercussions.

The sessions are really quite casual, you get to chat to each other, relate to lots of things and discuss. I tried my best to converse and contribute as much as possible. At first I felt I really didn’t fit in because the other attendees seemed so much more mature than me and are a different stage of life kind of feeling, but there are still lots of things we think and feel in common with regards to anxiety/depression, I’m glad I was able to get along with them though I’m probably still very awkward lol.

I do get some worksheets to do as homework but they’re only discussed very briefly at the beginning of the next session and like with other stuff there’s no pressure to do or share any of it. It’s kinda bad but I do it last minute, bad bad me. I’m hoping to get through all the other sessions okay and actually start making some real healthy progress for myself.

In other things... omg! I actually had an interview for another retail job super similar to my last fail and actually got the job! I did try my best and I tried to be more prepared for the interview and welp, I did it!! :D The thing is, it’s the most minimal part time job in terms of days and hours, but it’s something! The minimal-ness is definitely a fitting starting point for me too! I start very soon but I’m kinda worried how I’ll perform because of my health, it’s never been good and has been going pretty downhill lately ;; Still I want to succeed really hard!

I know that it will definitely be a good opportunity for me career-wise and social-wise so I’m gonna try my best. I’ll still be looking out for other additional jobs and applying too if I can though. I’m kinda excited and predictably nervous, but I’m quite optimistic about it for the most part. My family was as surprised as I was, I felt kind of proud, it is an achievement I didn’t think I would reach for a long time. Here’s wishing it all goes well!

As mentioned lately my physical health has just continued to pile new bad things up and up. I’m extremely concerned about my health but help is so limited and slow. I just feel so unlucky in health, it really makes every day harder and my quality of life so much awfuller than it already is. Things are still really slow for my mum and I’m still very concerned about my dad too. It’s just a never ending loop of badness and worry in my family.

In everything else it has been pretty meh, there has been some other nice things happen lately, but it’s been hard to enjoy when constantly ill. My main goal for the present is to get healthy both mentally and physically, I really need to put in a lot more effort though, but I think maybe I’ll get somewhere as long as I keep trying!

Maybe next time’s post will be better and have some stuff I missed out, but for now I guess this is all, I really need to lie down.

Keep learning, growing, fighting! We’ll get there!

Have a great week! ^^

#avpd #depression #social anxiety #group therapy #therapy #nothing ventured nothing gained #things aren't always as hard as they seem #be proud of who you are and what you can achieve #be brave #don't overthink #you can do it!#positive thinking #look after yourself and your loved ones

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ryouverua · 6 years

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A Certain Lab, Reprised

lab get lab get lab get lab get LAB GET

Everything around us is either exploding or on fire so Sweetcheeks and I are going to retreat to our space safe, investigating

am I talking about the school exploding or tumblr

we just don’t know

Speak of the devil!

“I AM HERE!!!”

“K1-B0 THeRE WAS AN OPEN WINDOW OH MY GOD, THERE’S GLASS EVERYWHERE, OH NO -”

“OH YEAH!”

Didn’t really wait at all tbh 8′D

Actually all jokes aside Sweetcheeks is right, it was hella cool - and also thank god he was in the hallway and far away from the window! K1-b0 keeps asking if Shuichi is okay but is being incredibly reckless at the same time - what if Shuichi had been showered with that glass? He wouldn’t come out of that unscathed. Was that just K1-b0 taking more of his uncorked anger out on the school?

... Hm, though I guess calling it ‘anger’ isn’t quite right. Or, at least, K1-b0’s fluctuating between ‘anger’ and sort of... more... ‘grim determination’.

Yeah, he didn’t even flinch at being complimented. He’s got serious tunnel vision right now.

Damn.

LMAO SHUICHI’S SCREEN -

There’s only one other place I can think of that qualifies...

DON’T YOU DARE SHUICHI WE FINALLY GOT HERE AND I HAVE QUESTIONS

Oh thank god I want to satisfy my curiosity about the library as much as you do but RANTARO’S TALENT FIRST

Again - damn, K1-b0.

Whoa -

..... This has a very YGO Season 0 vibe. Sorry, that’s a weird comment. Maybe the better way to describe it is that the words ‘punishment game’ immediately come to mind? Some sorta wheel/puzzle thing in the back, cards hanging from the ceiling, some sort of... table...? Kinda reminds me of a poker table, though there’s no center to it... Maybe he... really did specialize in death games...?

Actually, if Celeste had an Ultimate Lab, I feel like it would have a similar aesthetic ~

IT’S HIS SOUL ROOM WE’RE IN RANTARO’S SOUL ROOM

“Yeah so I never shared with you all, but part of the Ultimate Detective status includes the ability to shoot spirit energy from your finger like a gun -”

I don’t think that’s completely wrong but I feel like the actual talent name is going to be x100 times more ominous. 8′D

MAN end-game Himiko is so different than early-game Himiko! Nice to have you onboard - wait, I just realized we’ve got a magician sidekick helping us in an investigation. Is this the right time to make an Ace Attorney reference, or -

Okay, huh. There’s actually way less to click on than I thought there would be. WHAT IS WITH THE MOST CRYPTIC PEOPLE HAVING THE LEAST INTERACTIVE ROOMS, COME ON DRV3 -

Okay, that laptop first:

Empty laptop.... okay, let’s set that aside for now.

Here’s the real question - what came first? The K1-b0 we knew for the first five chapters or this K1-b0? Which one should we consider to be the ‘true’ K1-b0? I think the game is implying that this is the real K1-b0, and the one who we knew up until now was a ‘controlled’ version of him - but at the same time, if the antenna was built in with him, could it be considered part of the original design and therefore part-and-parcel of K1-b0?

omfg I just realized the implications of a white-haired boy hearing a voice (that he literally calls ‘voice’) in his head who may or may not be controlling him behind the scenes be still my heart you’re getting distracted

WHELP THERE’S REALLY ONLY ONE OTHER THING TO CLICK HERE SO -

Like a safe?

......... Omfg it says ‘B’ and ‘A’ on them and it has pictograms on them. Is... this going where I think this is going...

Okay Himiko is being our in-game tutorial and noting that the zodiac is on one side and astrological signs are on the other but honestly I’m fine to skip all past it tbh because there it is, there’s our fucking ‘horse a’ and ‘twin b’ is gemini, Kokichi himself was a gemini, this was where we were going with those hints??? Rantaro’s lab?! idk I just don’t find puzzles like this hard I kinda thrive off of symbolism and mythology in general 8′D

Wait.... doesn’t that mean Kokichi couldn’t have been the one to leave those messages behind?!

Okay this was pretty cute so I left this in ~ but straight up two minutes later it was just a string of KACHUNK KACHUNK KACHUNK until I got it open immediately -

.... the symbols are weirdly cute though, hehe ~

Don’t worry Sweetcheeks, the only life-threatening time-waster we’ll spend all of our time on is fluff text!

Aaaaaaand done. Thanks Kokichi!

MAN I LOVE THESE TWO SPRITES TOGETHER FOR SOME REASON

Ah, so they’re talking about the stone with ‘horse a’ written on it - which... does make me curious, honestly. I think the existence of this safe pretty much confirms that he didn’t write the original message... right?

When did the letters start appearing aside from ‘horse a’? Chapter 3? Was that around the time he concocted that particular plan, then?

H-Hey now, he’s also the reason we found the second clue. 8′D I mean, it wouldn’t have been terrible to go through 12 different combinations with ‘horse a’ determined, but it wouldn’t have been ideal.

i bet you can buy that, that is literally perfect DR merch

IT’S

THE VIDEO

THE VIDEO!!!!

yeah I’m totally going to pull up my old post to see what matches and what doesn’t

“Oh god I forgot how absolutely stunning he was.”

OH I thought that was an abstract red background, silly me - 8′D well, that was probably the point. It might give away the game if we saw something more concrete behind him way back in... what, Chapter 4?

Anyway, more importantly, Rantaro shouldn’t have had access to this place... except he clearly did. So... he... must have been here before. And he knew more about the killing game, or seemed to intuitively know more, than anyone else. He... must have done this before. Except he had made it all the way here last time??? So there is a loop of some sort? Though it can’t be an outright time loop because otherwise there would be no need to record a video (unless like I considered it’s a ‘simulated’ time loop, aka VR-style like last game)...

This makes me wonder how we saw the video the first time. Was it just another flashback/tease like the meteorites were, before we saw the flashback lights?

I mean, I guess it’s kinda hard for recording!Rantaro to prove, but we’ll have to take him at his word here I suppose. 8′D

OKAY

WE’RE JUST GOING STRAIGHT INTO IT THEN

are you telling me you were the protagonist in the last killing game

DIDN’T YOU HAVE LIKE, TWO AHOGES TOO

Man, what an asshole move??? Like, okay, Monokuma’s creating the puzzle of the safe which would unlock this video. Fine. But almost half of the class would have to be dead in order for him to get to it! There’s no way for him to even start the puzzle at this point, because he wouldn’t know it existed! What a huge handicap!

......... Something.... he had.... since the beginning............. Hm. I’m drawing a blank. I don’t remember anything in particular that stands out....

My dead boy, that is an understatement.

AHAHAHA ABOUT THAT....

Now this makes me wonder if he is the only one repeating it or if anyone else is? Well, maybe the mastermind - but like, maybe everyone is repeating it, but only those who ‘won’ were able to have better memories, or were just able to retain the memories of the last game better than the others?

Or, hell, if I want to go along with my previous theory about downloading the memories of students, maybe... Rantaro can remember more about his real self? Or something? But everyone else can’t?

And if he’s really someone who won the previous one (along with one other person, I suppose), then he knows that for a fact.

???!?! Aaaah this part got cut off last time too - so it was actually cut off in the video, and not just in our flashback?!

“You’re also dead, which may make things a little bit more difficult, but I still believe in you!”

That at least I expected -

WHAT

OH GOD THERE ARE SO MANY LAYERS TO THIS

like the dramatic irony I’m sure the fandom has done to death, for example

What about the second person??? Is there a second Ultimate Survivor???? I guess there can’t be since everyone else knows their talents but -

wait, if you’re the Ultimate Survivor because you won a killing game, who were you in the last game????

Does this really give him an advantage though??? I guess the information would have been nice but I mean, it obviously didn’t do him much good because he got taken out so quickly!

Man this makes me wonder if Kokichi had any inkling of this...

jsyk since I have the screenshots side to side, his expression is different in this video compared to the last one

~ fun facts ~

Yeah, see, the ‘he wanted’ part is throwing me off. He participated, sure, and he didn’t say he wanted the original one, but he came back for round two and said he wanted it.... but why???? That implies there’s a purpose to it, and he was okay to gamble his own life - but also, as a person without his memories of this, he wanted to stop the game. If the chip he bet is his own life, the reward must be huge, right? He won these supposed perks for this game, but what did he win for his life outside the game? .... Assuming there is anything outside the game? Is there anything for him outside the game?

HIMIKO DON’T BE RUDE

Yeah, she didn’t know the identity of her target. 8′\ Also I’d be sad if it was Kaede in the end. Second also! I know that she ended up being the first chapter killer and I’m one of the people got taken by surprise by that, but we were in her head for that whole chapter! Her motive made sense - but for her to end up being the mastermind now? That wouldn’t make sense, based on what we know of her, memory shenanigans aside!

That would require the mastermind to have knowledge of Shuichi and Kaede’s plan then, right? So they would have had to draw Rantaro to the library somehow, so he would get caught in Kaede’s trap...

It... should be one of a kind, considering the circumstances...

Yeah I’m still wracking my brain and not coming up with anything there. Could it have to do with his necklace? It did make me think of that ‘soldier tag’ present, about remembering someone who they lost. That would be an incredibly appropriate, if not cruel, ‘survivor’s perk’ present for someone who survived a killing game.

Man are we going to get a new flashback for every place we investigate???

OH SHIT IT’S BACK

FLASHBACK LIGHT!!!

you can pry the flashback light animation from my cold dead hands

?!?!?!

Immediate thoughts - generic students. But, are they? Is there any chance that they look generic on the face of it, but are actually representative of people in the class? I don’t see anything that could be an immediate match (Korekiyo = masked guy, Kokichi = small guy with similarly shaped hair/short stature/face, Kaito = tall guy, maybe), and they seem to have different VAs - hell, is that Jounouchi (or for the proper DR character, Munakata)’s seiyuu?

...... or the guy with the sick mask could just be sick lmao

Ah, so this is from when the virus began to ravage the population...

That seems like an understatement 8′D But at least we know for sure when in the timeline this takes place! Shuichi doesn’t seem to know they’re going to be the only survivors yet, but they’ve already been presumably screened for the Gopher Project which means it is well under way.

Calm down Sigma Klim -

Shuichi hasn’t told them he swings both ways, huh.

OH GOD RIGHT IN THE KAITO

DO YOU GET IT YET SHUICHI, YOU ARE THEIR HOPE

Don’t mind me, just wanted to make sure Shuichi didn’t miss the cryptic message left for him in these memories -

Not only that, but these aren’t memories meant to act as a reward for completing a stage like the other ones or even one they found - this was literally forced on them. It’s supposed to be Monokuma’s weapon against them. So... similar to the motive from the last trial, it’s trying to make them take action...?

And it’s clearly working!

... Maybe it isn’t the necklace then. I mean, he was wearing it when he died right??? And his body is gone...

Oh man unless just like everyone else there were copies of it along with the rest of it in his room - except there are 15, one for all the participants for the last game or something -

It might be 50/50 right now??? There’s something screwy going on, I just don’t know what.

#Shuichi Saihara #spoilers #drv3 spoilers #Himiko Yumeno #Rantaro Amami #K1-b0 #Kiibo #Keebo #Ryou plays drv3

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atopearth · 6 years

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Modern Cinderella Part 5 - Robert Moore Route

I think you can understand both Robert and the heroine’s perspectives. People have to have standards towards their lives to improve and so constantly making basic, old things and being unwilling to get out of that loop will cause no innovation to occur. On the other hand, basic things like buildings or hot dogs are necessary for our normal everyday lives to enjoy. As we do in Australia, sausage sizzles are such basic but classic food everyone here would rush to enjoy. There’s something to appreciate in both and understanding that is important, but if Robert wants something more, he should probably find another architecture firm that prides themselves on innovation rather than the traditional needs that cities need.

Loll so random how she got her job, I’m surprised that the heroine would be the first photographer to not complain about Robert’s supposed harsh remarks when they weren’t even malicious remarks, it was clear feedback on what he wanted in the photos she took and so whether the person can achieve it or not is dependent on them but he is only expressing what he wants in the photo since it needs to show the building and be on their website. It’s kinda cute that Robert really likes sweets, especially doughnuts, it’s like he’s got a passion for them haha, so cute. Especially when he bought some for her during work when she wanted sugar hahaha!

But whoa! His confession was so out of the blue and so unromantic that it was hilarious! Just randomly says I like you as if he’s talking about the weather😂 and then arranges a meeting after work to discuss what her answer will be and what he wants out of this😂 he’s so straightforward that it’s quite refreshing though lolol. Seeing them go on dates makes me realise that I don’t think the heroine really ever went on dates in the other routes lol! It was always just interactions at work or to do with work haha! I guess since they’re both new to the relationship idea, they are both slowly discovering stuff about each other and trying their best to understand and interact in a way they both are comfortable with. I guess that’s what I like about them, the fact that they put a lot of effort into their relationship and everyone else alongside them can notice the changes that they are both going through and it’s a good improvement! They are both positively impacting each other as people and in terms of their work ethics as well. It’s a really nice thing to see. Until everything came crashing down with the heroine’s father~ although the dad’s harsh, he’s kinda right about Robert, since it seems he fails to understand the importance of plain buildings. But I’m glad he went to apologise to the heroine straight away. It’s always great to see a guy understand that they let their emotions get the better of them and let go of their pride to apologise to their partner because they know that they are more important than that. It’s nice to see Robert improve in understanding that simple house designs whilst thinking about their clients can really make something simple into something special.

They’re both working hard respectively and have agreed to not meet each other for a while which is understandable and just makes it all the more sweet to see Robert dump everything down and stay by her side when she needs him. I guess the father played a bigger role in this route than the mother haha. I like how there was no drama with her parents, they just realised with her leaving and the mother’s car accident that what’s important was that they stay together as a family and allow the heroine to walk her own path rather than forcing her to do things.

It’s nice to see both of their goals accomplished and for Robert to have expanded his horizons in terms of design because the heroine got him to understand the needs of a design to suit a client’s needs as well rather than just for his own standards. Seeing Robert like this makes me happy. Aidan is such a great guy. Whenever he announces that he and his boyfriend are engaged in any route, I always feel so happy for him. He was the one that willingly picked up our heroine and let her invade his place and stay there in spite the inconvenience to him so there’s no words to truly few describe him besides super generous and kind! The care he constantly shows for the heroine in every route always makes me feel so touched.

Anywho, great to have a guy that will design your future house together with you hahaha. As usual, they’re a bit silly but very cute and I did quite enjoy this route seeing Robert change by opening up his mind and himself in his workplace and with the heroine. In terms of guys, I guess Robert is probably a favourite hahaha since he has so much personal growth and it was really nice to see that. Heroine’s job wasn’t the most interesting though so I guess that kinda drags down the story a bit but I guess Robert is good enough to pull all that back up lol. He is pretty cute appearance wise too!

#modern cinderella

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zukadiary · 7 years

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Bakumatsu Taiyouden / Dramatic “S”! ~ Snow Troupe 2017

nngg…

I always feel this weird sort of out-of-body sense of detachment in the Tokyo theater. It’s not home, I’m not grounded… you leave and it’s just Tokyo, no bowl of homemade oyakodon and sympathetic conversation waiting for you with open, friendly arms. I wound up watching Sou’s taidan here too, also in blistering heat. I so wish I’d seen this in Takarazuka, more times, and without such a vast sea of heads in front of me (although having the opportunity to read the July GRAPH talks first added some lovely nuanced depth to the pain).

I did not expect to be this invested in Chigi when my much-loved Sou left. The evolution of my interest in Chigi went from “I wish Kaname was still here” to “eh, I guess” to shattering my personal record for in-theater crying (and I’ve cried in *a lot* of theaters). She lasted longer than I expected, and no one leaving with her is a huge shock, but this taidan is gutting me. I love this Yukigumi so much. I’ve loved a lot of Yukigumis, but this one has its hooks in me real deep. And it feels like its soul is being torn out.

At my first viewing my friend flawlessly described Bakumatsu Taiyouden as “distilled essence of Chigi ft. Miyu’s beautiful voice.” It’s a perfect, lovingly crafted tribute to the Chigi-est parts of Chigi, which also means it’s an amazing troupe show.

::insert 7 minute crying break::

Koyanagi-sensei transformed what I thought was a really mediocre movie (that had me particularly worried Miyu would get shafted) into such a playful, fun, well-orchestrated musical. There are so many opportunities for ad-libs I think I could have gone every day of the run and not gotten tired of it. Even though I’d seen the movie, it was a bit difficult to follow at first; Chigi uses a silly voice and a lot of slang, and it’s kind of a slice of life story with a lot of random happenings going on as opposed to one continuous plot line… but it gets easier once you have a general picture of the character relationships. EVERY CHARACTER’s personality comes across so clearly even with no background (which was soooo refreshing after three viewings of Yamataikoku no Kaze), and I adore Koyanagi-sensei for how well she executed that.

Chigi’s character, Saheji, has contracted tuberculosis and has come to this inn/brothel by the sea to live out the rest of his life (I thought tuberculosis was highly contagious, but *SHRUG*). He winds up meddling, mostly hilariously, in all of the brothel’s drama. The best parts should be seen fresh so I won’t spoil them, but in general, this was so on-brand for Chigi’s comedic abilities, and it looked like she was having a TON of fun. Saheji and Osome (Miyu’s character) aren’t romantically involved, but they play off each other so well and there are so many opportunities for primarily MIYU TO TEASE CHIGI that it’s just beautiful.

Miyu is so heartbreakingly good in this show. Her growth over her tenure with Chigi has been incredible, and her Osome is overflowing with sass and confidence. She’s also dancing the best I’ve seen her dance and singing like an absolute angel; the last time I saw her live was in Kenshin when her voice was broken, so I was beyond happy to hear this. I’m so glad she’s going out on such an amazing performance, but also IT HURTS SO BAD. Lord I hope she continues a career on stage, because she is really blossoming right now… and depriving the world of the full bloom would be such a travesty.

The other taidansha: Anri landed the role of a lifetime with Koharu, Osome’s rival (and almost equal in terms of importance), and she slayed. Dai and Gaori don’t have a ton of stage time, but they each have their own very funny and memorable scenes, so charming that they don’t feel slighted. MomoHina and Miki are primarily dancers, but they get their time up front.

Daimon is the calm and collected leader of a team of hot-headed isolationist samurai comprised of Kiraha Reo, Tachibana Kou, Kanou Yuuri, Hinata Haruki, Suwa Saki, and Manomiya Rui (interestingly, Kari may have had more stage time than anyone other than Chigi and Miyu). And Shou I guess?? She seems to be part of their team but not 100% on board with their plans, which are to blow up the foreign traders’ living quarters. It’s definitely an amusing group; Daimon’s character is all SERIOUS BUSINESS, but between the ridiculousness of their plot and the buffoonery of her comrades it’s just as silly as everything else going on.

I was fawning over Saki after my jet lagged, unfed live viewing of Takarazuka senshuuraku. Unless she was particularly on fire that day, I’m not sure exactly what hit me quite so hard then… BUT, I DO really like this character for her. She’s the spoiled, kinda flamboyant, completely useless son of the two kumichou innkeepers, and she wore that really well. Since Kenshin was the first place I saw her start to level up, it was nice to see her do such a good job with something that could not be more different.

HIME was used properly, which is REALLY IMPORTANT TO ME.

My heart’s not really in summary and analysis… I just want to gush. Spoilers ahead.

Dramatic S is a roaring river of tears.

It doesn’t have a flashy theme; it reminds me of My Dream Takarazuka in that way, all soul-crushing lyrics and simple but sharp, passionate dance numbers. I find myself referencing most of the scenes by the color of the suit, versus “the pirate number” or “the gigolo number” or, you know, “the passion of the christ number,” etc. There isn’t a scene I don’t love, and all the music is beautiful; I’m excited to cry my eyes out at work while listening to the CD.

The part choreographed by Bryant Baldwin, in particular, was a spectacle. It wasn’t a flashing lights and glitter spectacle, but the dance was cool, aggressive, and visibly challenging, and it was full of little Chigi things—a Lupin heel click, a kizuna fist pump…

My kangeki schedule last year included HOT EYES!! and The Entertainer, both of which featured breathtaking special top star numbers: Maakun’s barefoot dance to Chopin under blue starlight, and Micchan ascending from the floor singing while playing a glass piano. I’ve had my fingers crossed since leaving The Entertainer that Chigi would get hers. At first I thought she didn’t, but she completely did. You’ve probably at least seen the mint green outfits in pictures floating around if you haven’t seen the show; they’re from this cruel, devastating Kizuna number. Everyone is in it, everyone is gushing Yukigumi pride… everyone lines up and Chigi looks at them one by one. Chigi’s masterpiece is this close-knit family she built, and they showed it off absolutely spectacularly. I have no idea how they’re going to be able to do it the last time without breaking down.

The kuroenbi is also devastating. Every otokoyaku (except for the newly assigned 103rds) is in it, because that’s what Chigi wanted. I lost it every time they knelt down on the stairs in her direction.

It’s hard to decide whether the Kizuna number or the duet dance is the most awful part. The dance is so stupid and tender and terrible, I need them to stop touching foreheads and looking at each other like that on loop in my memory so I can stop crying and see my damn screen.

……….

But as if that’s not bad enough, the song is so incredibly beautiful… Chigi starts singing it up on the stairs, and when she meets Miyu to dance Daimon’s voice takes over from the kage box. I was hoping that would happen… in her personal book’s Special Talk, Tomu mentions how much she loved dancing to Daimon’s voice, because it created a whole world she could get lost in. It did, and it was a lot… arguably too much. Honey and silk and love and admiration and maddeningly soft at times…

On a personal note, whoever thought of giving first Miyu and then Daimon to Chigi is an absolute genius. Not only did they support her in the exact way she needed to be supported, but she took these two insanely talented but somewhat shy/awkward ladies and nurtured them until they bloomed into something so BEYOND… And I seriously can’t think of a top 3 whose collective chemistry I love more.

And on an even more personal note, as a Daimon fan, I watched Fancy Guy in my despair on Tuesday night and was struck anew by how awkward Daimon was when she came here, and how despite my JOY at my FAVORITE coming to MY TROUPE of all places I couldn’t help but think “Oh honey, I’m so sorry…” And now I get choked up looking at this bit of a photo…

…because look at how fully entrenched she is in our warm beautiful family, I’m so overflowing I genuinely can’t stand it.

I remember Lupin shonichi too clearly for it to have been 2.5 years ago, even though I wasn’t there. It was New Year’s Day and snowing. How fucking perfect is that?

Chigi, I really can’t thank you enough for this ride.

#takarazuka #reviews #bakumatsu taiyouden #Dramatic S(ummer 17)

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ash818 · 7 years

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could you write a little tiny(or super long-i dont mind) ficlet about one of Jon and Tish's snug harbor kinda sorta dates from before they started dating. maybe a little funny one or maybe one of them does something that makes the other fall a little harder.. prettyy please??

Tish learned to dance standing on Papa’s shoes.

On nights when he and Maman shared a bottle of wine with dinner, Maman would tug him to his feet and command the speaker, “Jouez-nous Louis Prima, s’il vous plaît!” She grinned at Papa and twined his arm around her waist. “Ce soir, nous avons besoin de Louis, ne penses-tu pas?”

Playful as he was in those days, Papa dipped her dramatically and then started to spin her across the floor. Tish knelt backwards in her chair to watch, until, laughing, Maman invited her to cut in.

“No shoes, no shoes!” Papa protested, because he knew little Laetitia thought he sounded funnier in English. “Take them off before you stand on me.”

Giggling, she plopped onto the floor and unbuckled her scuffed pink sandals.

“All right,” Papa said when she stepped barefoot onto his loafers and took his hands. “You know how to be Ginger Rogers?”

She shook her head.

“You do everything I do, but backwards. And here we go!”

There were other nights when Maman finished that bottle alone, and after she died there was no more dancing. But Louis Prima was no less real for that.

Tish has not thought of it in years.

Between sets at Snug Harbor, Jonathan Queen sinks stiffly onto the bench seat along the wall and stretches out his bad leg. One second he grimaces in pain, and the next he smiles up at her. “So where’d you learn to do this?”

“Dance?” She takes a seat next to him, because it seems more polite than hovering. “I did theater in high school, and you learn all kinds of things for shows. Cinderella is the reason I can waltz.”

“You can waltz?” He looks her over in a way she’s not sure she likes, and he goes back to rolling his ankle. “Of course you can waltz.”

Tish draws herself up to take offense, but then she realizes that the smirk is really more of a fond smile. Instead she says, “Are you in pain?”

“It’s just muscle cramps.” He props his ankle on his knee, digs his fingers into his calf, and starts working his way down toward his Achilles’ tendon. “They rub right out.”

She feels a sudden and inexplicable urge to do it for him, so strong that she actually leans forward. Then reality reasserts itself, and she freezes at the edge of the bench seat.

There is nothing strange or inappropriate about wanting to take care of him. He has risked his life protecting her more than once, and all she has given him in return are a few mugs of sweet steamed milk. It would absolutely be strange and inappropriate to kneel at his feet on the dirty barroom floor and work her hands up his calf. Dear Lord, please don’t let him see her burning cheeks in the dim light.

“Time for their next set,” Jon says, eyes on the band as they take the stage again. “You want to go again?”

After two songs, it is clear that the muscle cramps have not rubbed right out. His rhythm falters, and though it would probably be unnoticeable to a casual observer, Tish nearly falls out of step with him. Compensating for an injury is hard on the rest of the body; in the brief moment that her arm loops around him for an open position, she can feel the sweat at the small of his back.

“I’m a little bored with this song, to be honest,” she says, the next time he pulls her into closed. “Do you mind if we sit down for a bit?”

“Sure. You want another drink?”

“I think I would. But excuse me for a minute first.”

In the restroom mirror, she dabs sweat from her neck and pins a few loose curls back into place.

When she suggested dancing as physical therapy, she did not think it through much farther than, “We’ll spend an hour goofing off to innocent sixties pop.” She failed to imagine the breadth of Jon’s hand on her shoulder blade. She did not anticipate the smell of his soap or the roughness of his fingers. She swallowed hard the first time she stepped in close and found herself eye level with his buttons.

He once collapsed from blood loss right into her arms, and her attempt to catch him quickly devolved into a controlled descent to the floor. She should have remembered his sheer size, at least.

She pulls a tube of lipstick from the pocket hidden in the folds of her skirt, and she reapplies. War paint, as Jon called it. British Red always steadies her nerves.

She has danced with co-stars who grabbed her by the inner thighs for lifts, or who bent her back dramatically for stage kisses. There is really no need to be so adolescent about Jon Queen’s calluses.

She returns to find him flirting unsubtly with the older woman on the barstool next to him, who seems more amused than interested. As Tish comes within earshot, the woman snorts into a laugh too undignified to be anything but genuine.

Jon seems to count that as a win by itself - just charming someone for a few minutes. It’s an interesting side of him. Brash, loudmouthed Jonathan Queen has at least some small part of him that looks very young and very earnest and says, “Like me, like me, like me.”

“Oh, there you are,” he says, pulling out the barstool for her. “Morgan, this is my friend Tish.”

“Hey, there,” Morgan says with a broad, knowing sort of smile. “I was just telling him he should think about letting you lead. You might teach him a thing or two.”

It is a familiar joke. The conversation will go flat as day-old Coke if Tish tries to explain that leading and following are very different skill sets, that she can’t break with her left foot anyway, and that she wouldn’t have the first idea what to do with a Jon prepared to move on her say-so. Instead she says, “What makes you think I haven’t been?”

Morgan pats Jon on the shoulder. “Oh, you watch yourself with this one, honey.” She gets to her feet, and she raises her drink to someone across the room. “It was nice to meet y’all. Take care.”

Tish takes the seat Jon saved for her, where a beautiful cocktail already stands gleaming with condensation. A candied orange slice floats in it, dusted with cinnamon. She has had two already, and this one is likely to make her silly.

“I stole a few sips,” Jon confesses. “It was just as good as it looked.”

It is the kind of thing he does to his sister - assuming the right to drink from her glass and eat from her plate. Tish gestures to the Collins glass in his hand, bristling with mint. “Then let me try. Fair is fair.”

It is what Abby would say.

Jon looks prepared to laugh when Tish takes a sip, so she braces herself for something bitter and horrible. Instead - “I can’t even taste the alcohol.”

“That’s because there is none,” he says, taking it back. “I’m driving you home, remember?”

This is a perfectly sensible answer, and there is no reason to melt over it. He has every incentive to drive sober regardless of whether she is in the car with him, and this bare minimum of adult responsibility is not for her benefit.

“It was my father who taught me to follow a lead,” she says before she can stop herself. “As soon as I was tall enough.”

Jon’s expression freezes, and then he very deliberately shifts toward her on his barstool. “It’s, um. It’s hard to picture him doing that.”

It is not difficult to imagine, had events played out two degrees off-angle from their actual course, that Jon might have shot Papa. It is not difficult to imagine taking him dancing and wanting to rub his sore muscles anyway. “I don’t mean to convince you that he was a good man, but he wasn’t always… what he became. There was a time before Maman died when he could be very - there was a time when he let me dance standing on his shoes.”

Jon nods for her to go on, though he cannot quite smooth away his opinion of Abel Cuvier. His jaw, his fist - something always clenches resentfully when Papa is mentioned.

“I think he liked the idea that I might grow up to be a dancer. He was always generous about lessons and shoes and costumes, and the one recital he was able to attend was some of the most lavish praise I ever heard from him.”

The line between Jon’s eyebrows softens. “Yeah? What’d he say?”

Maman beamed in the front seat on the way home, just listening to Papa’s glowing review. “He called me a little swan, and he couldn’t wait to see me en pointe.”

“With the toe shoes, you mean?”

Tish nods. “He didn’t get his wish, in the end.”

“What happened?”

How to put this delicately? “Oh, adolescence. It became pretty clear that I was not going to have the ideal ballet body type.” She hesitates, and then she tells him the other, more honest half of that story. “I might have stuck with it anyway, but then Maman died, and I lost interest.”

The line between Jon’s eyebrows has reappeared and deepened, but she feels no judgment in it this time. “I’m sorry.”

“Thank you,” she says, so quietly that the band must drown it out.

“If it’s any consolation, random strangers in bars still think you’re hot shit,” Jon goes on. “That woman who was here a minute ago asked me if you dance professionally.”

Tish laughs. “No, she didn’t.”

“Swear to God.”

“Then she must not have seen many professional dancers.” But she can feel herself glow with the compliment, so she lifts her glass to hide a smile in another sip.

No one would describe Jon as sensitive, but it is surprisingly easy to tell him things. She has trusted him with her safety since the mask came off, and now, time and again, in small ways, she finds she can trust him with the things that are most difficult to explain. If she were just a little drunker, she might even tell him that sometimes she misses Papa.

“Hey, are you hungry?” Jon says, pushing his half-empty glass away. “I don’t mean for bar food. You want to go to Sukho Thai?”

They ate dinner at his parents’ house just a couple hours ago, but if he needs another meal to satisfy his staggering caloric requirements, she’s happy to tag along. “I could be in the mood for a spring roll.”

Somewhere in the middle of sipping jasmine tea and watching Jon ruthlessly hunt down a stray noodle, it occurs to Tish that this entire evening - drinks, dancing, dinner - strongly resembles a date. Had Jon flirted with her instead of a stranger on the barstool next to him, then there would be no other interpretation.

“Best physical therapy ever,” Jon announces, leaning back in his chair. “I’m going to fire that torture technician with the exercise ball.”

Tish casts her eyes down and sets her teacup aside. Had this been a date, it would be in her all-time top five.

“You all right?”

“One drink too many,” she says quietly. “I think they’re catching up to me.”

He chuckles and pushes his plate toward her. “All right, lightweight. Have some carbs and finish that water.” And he starts glancing around for the server.

When Jon drops her off in front of her apartment building a little after midnight, she leans across the center console to kiss his cheek. “Thank you so much.”

His smile looks a little bemused. “Yeah, of course. You want to do this again next Friday? It’s Eighties Night.”

No, she does not want to go on not-a-date with Jonathan Queen again in a week. Yes, she wants him to hold her comfortably in closed position again, and she wants his hands to move her through a spin, and she wants him to smile at her just like this. Her imagination shies away from what comes after that.

Nothing needs to come after that. After all, it is only dancing.

“Next Friday,” she agrees.

She glances back on her way to her front door, and she catches a glimpse of him rubbing absently at her lipstick print on his cheek.

#Anonymous #legacy verse #jon and tish #blood on my name #offscreen in legacy verse

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chubsonthemoon · 7 years

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two idiots, one date

summary: For their very first date, Kageyama and Hinata go to the zoo. General dorky shenanigans ensue.

pairing: hinata/kageyama

words: 2664

also on ao3

thank you so much to @madamredwrites for commenting they would like to see more of these dorks! your support means the world <33

“A date. A date. A date, a date, a date a date…”

“Ugh, big brother! You’re being loud again!” Hinata pauses and sees his little sister at his bedroom door, her little face scrunched up in annoyance.

He flings himself onto his bed dramatically. “I can’t help it, Natsu. The world is ending soon.”

She makes a running head start from the doorway and lands straight on his stomach, laughing. “You’re so silly. The world isn’t gonna end just because you have a daaaate with your booooooyfriend.”

Wheezing, Hinata pokes Natsu in the cheek. “Don’t you have any ideas about what we can do?”

She thinks about it for a moment. “Ooh! How about you catch dragonflies? Me and my friend did that the other day, and it was really fun!”

“Hmm…no.”

“Swimming!”

“Next.”

“Volleyball?”

A pause. “But we do that everyday, Natsu,” Hinata says glumly, which is kind of an odd feeling. Sadness and volleyball should not be on the same plane of existence. “Will it still be special?”

It’s volleyball, right? It’s always special, no matter the day.

He just doesn’t know if it’s necessarily good date material…

“I dunno,” Natsu says, after hard deliberation.

He tugs at the little baubles in her pigtails with a groan. “Thanks a lot, Natsu.”

“You’re welcome, Shouyou.” She elbows her way off his stomach, earning her another indignant huff. “Ask Mom instead!”

“Hey, Suga-san?”

Suga looks up from his desk, surprised. It’s very unlike Hinata to show up in the third years’ classrooms, if the familiar way he’s clutching his stomach is any proof.

Still, Suga is never one to turn down a cry for help, especially since he's grown rather fond of all the first year volleyball boys (even Tsukkishima). “What’s up, Hinata?”

Hinata’s eyes dart all over the room, as if searching for eavesdroppers, or perhaps an angry Kageyama. “I, uh…well…I have a…”

Suga nods encouragingly.

“I have a date,” Hinata whispers like he’s going to be sick. “And I don’t know what to do.”

He blinks, surprise flitting through his gray eyes for a moment. Then, he smiles.

(Hinata wonders how Suga-san can look so nice, but at the same time also look like the cat that just ate the canary).

“A date, huh?” he says, all cheery-like. “Well. Let’s see…”

“I was thinking that we could play volleyball! Or maybe go for a run?” Hinata stutters out. Suga doesn’t respond, brows knitted deep in thought.

“...Or something?” he finishes lamely.

Then, his senpai snaps his fingers, beauty mark next to his eye dancing. “How about something you both enjoy? Like…”

Hinata perks up. “Like volleyball?”

Suga smiles. “Maybe something else. What do you like to do in your free time?”

He thinks. Before school, he has practice. During school, he mostly thinks about how or where or when his next spike is coming (and, by extension, where his new boyfriend-teammate-partner is). After school, he has more practice. After practice, he goes home, eats, avoids homework, and goes to bed with thoughts of volleyball.

Volleyball, volleyball, and more volleyball.

Heck, even meeting Kageyama was because of volleyball.

Hinata groans, pressing his hands into his face. “There’s literally nothing but volleyball.”

With a laugh, Suga says, “How about Kageyama? Is there anything he likes? Other than you, of course.”

This whole dating business is way harder than he thought it would be. Hinata tries to think about everything he knows about Kageyama.

He likes volleyball, obviously. Hopefully, he likes Hinata more than he lets on. He likes milk and beating Hinata at everything and receiving compliments from their senpai and being number one (although Hinata obviously likes that way more than him) and trying to pet small animals (unfortunately, the small animals don’t seem to like him as much).

Hinata relays as much of this as he can to Suga-san, who thinks for a moment.

Then, he smiles, face all lit up like a Christmas tree.

“How does the zoo sound?”

This is a bad idea.

Really, Kageyama should have known, from the moment Hinata brought up this…whole date thing. Whatever.

“Hey, Kageyama! For our date, I was thinking we should go to the zoo!”

"Why the fuck would you want to go to the zoo?"

"O-obviously because it's super fun, you meanie! And all the animals and stuff are in cages, so they can't run very far away from you!"

The conversation hadn’t really progressed past that point. (Hinata had been too busy fleeing).

But here he is now, as promised, eleven-thirty sharp, at the gates of the local zoo. He shoves his hands into his pockets and tries to look as nonchalant as possible. It’s just a date. With Hinata. What could go wrong?

“Hey, Bakageyama!”

He turns and sees Hinata’s trademark hair bobbing excitedly, and elects to ignore the swooping sensation in his stomach. “You’re late,” he says instead, by way of greeting.

Hinata pouts a little, mouth turned up in a way that Kageyama would almost call adorable if it weren’t for the person it belonged to. “It’s not my fault! I had to watch Natsu this morning, and the trains were running late.”

“It’s still my win.”

“You suck, you know that?”

They bicker as they make their way to the ticket booth, and then it’s a race to see who can pay the bewildered man behind the window first. Kageyama wins, thankfully (long arms really are a blessing sometimes).

Once past the entrance, they stroll around the gift shop, near a snow-cone stand, and up to the large billboard-map with a little red dot that reads YOU ARE HERE. With two wins under his belt (arriving first and ticket buying first), and a not-cute-at-all spiker pointing excitedly at all the labeled enclosures beside him, Kageyama could almost say that this might not turn out to be so bad after all.

“Oi, are you listening? I think we should look at the bird exhibit first! Maybe they have crows!” Hinata says, eyes shining.

Kageyama snorts. “Dumbass. There are crows everywhere. If you wanted to see one, you should’ve gone to a garbage dump.”

“You’re a garbage dump.”

The aviary, as it’s apparently called (Hinata reads the sign, eyes squinted), is not actually a garbage dump. In fact, it’s quite interesting, with all kinds of colorful birds perched in the trees, the occasional twitter or caw or some other noise ringing throughout the enclosure.

Hinata leans over the railing, face a few feet from the perimeter of the cage. “Look, Kageyama! That one kinda looks like a crow!”

“That looks literally nothing like a crow.”

“It has black feathers, doesn’t it?”

“I mean, I guess.”

They move onto the next cage.

“Ooh, an owl. It kinda looks like Bokuto-san!”

“Huh.”

“We should take a picture and text him!”

Kageyama flicks Hinata in the forehead. “Do not bother one of Japan’s top spikers with your bullshit.”

Wincing, Hinata puts down his phone. “Alright, alright. Geeze.”

Next up are the monkeys. Kageyama looks in interest at the orangutan enclosure, and nudges Hinata with his elbow. “Hey, they have the same color hair as you do.”

Hinata nods. “Yeah, but I’m a lot more handsome than a monkey, though.”

Yes, you are.

“No, not really,” Kageyama says.

“Shut up!”

The rest of the day continues like this, with various insults and back-and-forths. Really, it’s like any normal day, minus the volleyball, plus few more animals. Most of said animals don’t even run away from him, which is nice (he refuses to think that it’s because Hinata is with him).

By the time lunch rolls around, Kageyama could almost say that dates aren’t so bad after all.

The universe acknowledges him shortly afterward when the sky begins thundering. Dark clouds gather in the distance, the wind picks up a little, and families begin to glance at the sky worriedly. Kageyama turns away from the penguins and asks, “Was it supposed to rain today?”

Hinata looks up from his popsicle and shrugs, lips ringed with blue. “I didn’t check the weather.”

Kageyama presses his fingertips into his temples. “So you knew we were going to spend the entire day outside, but didn’t bother to check if it was going to rain.”

“It’s just a little water.”

As it turns out, just a little water begins to escalate into a whole shitton of water. The sky cracks open, rain pouring from the clouds in literal sheets, so Kageyama is forced to grab Hinata’s stupid hand and run towards the sanctuary of the small aquarium.

“I’m really sorry, ok?” Hinata pants, hands braced on his knees. Kageyama tries to catch his breath before taking a half-hearted swing at him.

“Dumbass,” he says, wiping water from his forehead. “You should have checked the weather.” He takes another steadying breath. “Dumbass,” he says again, because he can.

“Aghhhh dumbass, dumbass, dumbass. Is that the—” Hinata gulps more air, gasping “— the only word you know?”

They gather themselves for another moment or two in the darkness of the aquarium, and then—

“Wow...” Hinata whispers.

Kageyama looks up and sees enormous tanks of water, spanning the width of the room and set into the walls. Each are full of eerie, colorful fish, neon coral, fluorescent hues of green and red and purple, filling the room with an ethereal glow.

“This is so cool!” Hinata squeals, and he dashes towards the nearest tank, fingers trailing along the glass. “Just look at all of them!” Before Kageyama can say anything more, Hinata begins to run, one hand still smearing droplets of water against the tank, the other splayed out freely, as if he were about to hit a spike.

He runs and laughs and jumps and sings—and all Kageyama can do is stare. Stare and stare and stare.

(Blue water and orange hair and pale hands stretched free, like he’s flying).

Finally, reality hits him. “Oi, Hinata! You’re getting the glass all dirty, you little—!”

Hinata, having made one complete loop from one end of the room to the other, simply pulls Kageyama along. “Let’s go, Bakageyama! There's probably more!”

“Still, that doesn’t mean you can act like a monkey!” Kageyama hollers back, voice unsteady.

They run wildly, hand in hand, through the nearly empty hall, ignoring the pounding rain and the annoyed stares. Kageyama feels like he’s hanging on for dear life to some kind of lifeline, which is stupid, really, because Hinata’s hand is not a lifeline and is actually really sweaty and still wet with rain.

“Kageyama! Look at the jellyfish!” Hinata says, pointing his free hand at the archway above them. “The ceiling is the fishtank! How cool is that?”

“It’s pretty nice, yeah—HEY DUMBASS, don’t push me!”

Finally, they reach another tank, a little ways off from the main hall, and Hinata slows down. This tank is the largest yet—and the most beautiful, Kageyama thinks. He’s not entirely sure if it’s because the room itself is a little darker, or perhaps the fish here are a little brighter. Weird.

He turns to Hinata to tell him something—what, he’s not entirely sure—when he notices the pale blue light encircling them, reflecting off the planes of Hinata’s face, turning the water droplets in his hair and—holy shit, his eyes— into starlight.

A short breath escapes him, which has nothing to do with the rain, or their run through the halls of a half-empty aquarium.

“Wow…” Hinata says, for the second time, face turned upwards towards the blue, blue light.

Kageyama looks at him for a moment, face feeling a little warm.

“Wow,” he agrees.

Then he turns and steps forward before Hinata can see his burning cheeks, eyes as close to the glass as he can get. He closes them, gives himself a moment to regain his composure.

It's just some stupid fishtank. Nothing weird about it.

But behind his eyelids, he sees not blue, but orange. Not fins, but wings.

After a heartbeat, he opens his eyes, and screams.

“What? What is it? Is it a shark?” Hinata asks, surging forward, just as Kageyama stumbles backwards. They both hit the ground, Kageyama’s back pressing Hinata’s chest against the floor, the latter’s elbow jabbing painfully into the former’s head.

“Jesus,” Kageyama groans. “Watch where the fuck you’re going, you idiot.”

“Well, if you hadn’t yelled like a big baby then maybe we wouldn’t have fallen!” Hinata wheezes back. He shoves Kageyama off of him. “What did you even see, anyway?”

With a groan, Kageyama sits up, gingerly testing out his limbs. “I dunno, some kind of fish?”

Hinata springs up and marches up to the tank, determined to find the source of their distress—and begins to dissolve into a fit of hysterical giggles.

“That? That’s what made you all scared? What a baby—not even Natsu would scream that loudly!” He wipes a stray tear from his eyes. “Aah, you’re so stupid, Bakageyama.”

Kageyama, never one to take such a blow to his pride, stands up indignantly. “It was way scarier than… whatever that thing is!” he spits, jabbing a finger at the offending fish. “It was really small at first! And then it, like, blew up or something!”

“How does it even do that?”

“How the fuck would I know?”

They end up scouring the entire room for some kind of label or sign that can help them identity the mysterious fish—and they find it.

“Apparently, it’s a puffer fish,” Hinata reads, traces of laughter still in his voice. “‘When threatened, the puffer fish often fills its stomach with water as a defense mechanism, exposing its poisonous spines, which act as a deadly poison.’” He glances at Kageyama slyly, a shit-eating grin spreading across his face. “Your face is so scary even the fish freak out when they see it.”

Kageyama figures that Hinata may have the reflexes of a crow, but he must not have the survival instincts of a puffer fish, because he’s seriously asking for an ass-beating. “Hinata, you…”

“But!” Hinata continues brightly, not even noticing the danger. Almost against his will, Kageyama halts his attack and listens. He knows that tone of voice.

He's going to say something really stupid, isn't he?

“Even if the ball was a puffer fish," Hinata says, "—even if it was poisonous and gross and scared of your face, if you set it to me, I would spike it!” He places both hands on Kageyama’s own, eyes aglow, fingers warm. “Because, remember? If I’m here, you’re invincible!”

Kageyama just stares blankly, not quite registering.

When he finally does, he realizes that he is no longer capable of intelligent speech.

So instead, curls his long fingers over Hinata’s smaller ones (they fit perfectly he thinks distantly), and wonders how the hell he can feel so strongly for someone so…so…

“You’re so stupid,” he says, almost in awe.

And before Hinata can protest (Kageyama can see it coming; the indignant flush of his cheeks, his mouth opening slightly to retort back), he bends down and kisses him, right then and there, on his stupid face, in the middle of the world’s stupidest aquarium full of stupid poisonous puffer fish and stupid blue lights that make everything look weird and a fucking stupidly cute boyfriend.

He steps away, and notes, with a sort of detached sense of satisfaction, that they're both really kind of screwed.

“Dumbass,” he says; this time, perhaps, a little softer.

“Hey, Hinata. How did your date go?”

“Oh, it went great! Thank you so much for your advice!”

“No problem! I’m glad it went well. Whatcha reading there?”

“It's a book on marine biology! Tsukkishima said he didn't care if I borrowed it."

"That was nice of him."

"Ooh, Suga-san, look here! Did you know that there is enough poison in a puffer fish to kill 30 people?”

“Um. That’s nice, Hinata.”

“Ahhh, man. I want to spike one.”

“Spike what?”

“A puffer fish!”

“Eh?”

#haikyuu!!#haikyuu #kagehina #hinata shouyou #kageyama tobio #fanfic

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