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popculturebuffet · 4 years ago

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The Three Caballeros Ride Again Review!: And Ladies (Ride of the Three Caballeros)

Saludos Amigos! I’m back with yet another comics review! And we’re back on The Ride of the Three Cablleros! Thanks again to WeirdKev27 for commissioning this retrospective. It’s going to get pricey and I greatly appreciate it. PREVIOUSLY ON RIDE OF THE THREE CABLLEROS

In short.. a bunch of short segments of varying quality, a very thirsty Donald hitting on ladies, the first appearance of Panchito and some very good music. A fun time was had by all. Along with a LOT OF drugs by the Disney Animators. The film wasn’t a huge success, but out of the 6 package films, it was a fan faviorite alongside the Mr. Toad and Ichabod movie, and thus was rereleased quite a bit, as well as being one of the first of this era to end up on VHS due to it’s cult popularity. As for Panchito and Jose they’d get plenty of success overseas, with both getting solo series in their respective home countries, Jose himself having just resumed having comics again this year, and being rightfully massive characters. But despite being a hit with fans across the world.. in the US... they were pretty much shoved in the Disney Vault for a few decades. Jose would show up on the Wonderful World of Disney, in it’s various forms, three times after the Three Caballeros while Panchito just vanished aside from reuses of the Three Caballeros footage. Their careers in the US just sorta vanished for a few decades. But as suddenly as they vanished, our boys returned triumphantly. Naturally being the most used out of the duo, Jose would show up for the first time in decades during Mickey Mouseworks, a show full of new late 90′s produced Mickey Mouse shorts, all but two of which would end up being recycled for the much more popular and well loved House of Mouse, which would feature the triumphant return of the Cabs to animation after so long away. We’ll get to that next time, as just a year before the Cabs had already reunited in the pages of Walt Disney’s Comics and Stories in one of Don Rosa’s best loved tales. The Ride of The Three Caballeros was something Don Rosa had wanted to do since he got the job writing Duck Comics in the first place. As he explained in the back of the complete library edition named after this tale, Uncle Keno isn’t the biggest fan of the Donald Theatrical shorts. Having experienced the Carl Barks comics first, and having built his career around them later, he just wasn’t a fan of the goofier, angrier, less nuanced theatrical short Donald, often feeling like he was an entirely different character from the one he loved. And.. honestly he’s not wrong. Both were built for entirely different kinds of comedy: While both did slapstick, Slapstick, along with standard comedy shenanigans, was the main weapon in Shorts Donald’s comedic arsenal. Barksian Donald, while not immune to slapstick, was more like a well built sitcom character: Multi layered, sympathetic when he needs to be, but still having tons of faults to be exploited for laughs and to play off other characters. As a result while I like Donald in the shorts I do prefer Barks version of him, and the shorts Barks did are usually the best of both worlds, combining Donald’s everyman schtick with his slapstick schtick. Of course later cartoons would pick one or the other or combine both, but I do get his point and at the time he wrote this story the only cartoon show starring Donald was.. Quack Pack.. which I can only imagine his reaction to seeing that train wreck.

But as you can probably guess there was one exception and it was The Three Caballeros. Don genuinely enjoys the beautiful music and the wonderful chemistry the three have. So after a trip to Mexico gave him the perfect setting and the fire in his belly to finally do it, he finally wrote the story. And since they weren’t Barksian characters and hadn’t had any other apperances in decade, Don also took a dive into their comics. Since Jose was more of a fancifial freeloader in his comics, Don decided to ignore this characterization and go with his own based on the film: A latin playboy and lounge singer. And i’m okay with him doing that, as unlike say with Marvel and DC when they destroy a character, Disney characters are both more fluid continuity wise and his is still rooted in a version of the character, and he’s fully accepting and apologetic that some fans hate him for this. Also for some damn reason they redesigned Jose at some point in his Brazil to look like this:

This is far from the dumbest comic book costume change i’ve seen, but it’s certainly one of the most lame, as his original outfit is dapper, stylish and fits the Brazilian version of him well. And it’s not like you CAN’T update the classic Disney characters with modern appearances. Quack Pack, which has somehow come up twice in this review, did so great with Donald and Daisy, giving them new clothes and a haircut in Daisy’s case but both still look great. Same with Goofy for Goof Troop who just wore a dad sweater and bow tie, which puts him in the small but significant club of “Bow Tie Wearing Characters who have defined my life” with Opus the Penguin and the 11th Doctor. You can update a classic character’s’s appearance without coming off like...

Which given Jose’s outfit there is horrifyingly similar, says something. Anyways, Rosa had more use for Panchito’s stories, which had him as a cowboy protecting small towns with the help of his trusty steed Senor Martinez. Rosa loved both aspects and thus used them here, with Martinez getting a makeover to fit Rosa’s style better. Rosa is also the one to popularize Panchito’s last name, having found it on a scrap of research, not realizing the character’s last name was not at all widespread and thus giving him a canon one that has stuck to this day, and sighing in relief when he finally got conformation from another fan this name was indeed something Disney had used after loosing his research scrap. So with the two boys characters set, a plot set up and a whole sequence planned we’ll talk about on the way “The Three Caballeros Ride Again!” was born. How good is it? Well join me under the cut and i’ll tell you.

We open in Mexico, specifically near the Barranca Del Cobre, aka The “Copper Canyon” of the Sierra Madre, a natural land formation simlar to the Grand Canyon that Don Rosa saw during his trip and thought would make a great setting. While larger than the Grand Canyon, Rosa figures in his notes it simply isn’t as popular because it’s more isolated than the Grand Canyon and that, combined with it having trees inside distracting from it’s rugged beauty, makes it much harder to build a tourist industry around. The four are headed to El Divisadero, because this comic is determined to kill me with it’s difficult to spell names apparently, where Huey, Dewey or Louie spouts off for no particular reason about the currently being built Chihuahua El Pacifico Railway. Seriously the boys might as well be the security guard from Wayne’s World in this comic, their role for most of their brief page time is just to set up stuff for later. I mean i’m fine with setting up your setting but there are better ways than just spouting off tons of exposition apropos of nothing.

Donald has driven the boys here for a Woodchuck Jamboree. I did actually look into Jamborees, as before this it only had ever come up in one of my favorite movies of all time, Moonrise Kingdom, and mentioned occasionally in the Ducktales Reboot. Jamboree was first used for a worldwide scouting Jamboree but has gone on to mean a huge gathering of scouts, with the Boy Scouts of America having one every four years, so odds are it’s just a big yearly or quarter yearly thing for the woodchucks. Still it would be nice to see a big gathering like this in the series, especially since several of our cast are involved in them, including the possible power trio of Huey, Violet and Boyd, and Della and Launchpad could easily be slotted into the plot as seen in this season’s premiere.. as could Dewey and Louie if they really want to since according to Frank their members.. they just aren’t nearly as invested as their brother, and thus don’t do Woodchuck stuff unless he drags them into it, as seen with “Day of the Only Child” in the series itself. It does make sense: Dewey doesn’t have the survival instinct or patience for camping, and Louie hates effort, the out doors, and doing things for anything but profit. Scouting is all of that. So the boys have driven all this way for the Mexican Jamboree, as they’ve been carefully raising their tarantula Tara, and the Tarantula Breeding Badge is only given out in Mexico, which is plausible: Different branches of a worldwide organization would have different awards and what not in different countries. And Tarantula’s are also native to mexico so that makes sense.. and I want you to apricate that I’m afraid of spiders, not cartoony ones, for instance, this is adorable.

Galvantula4Life. But real life ones or realistic looking ones? Yeah no fuck that. So I had to go to the Wikipedia entry and see several horrifying looking sizeable spiders for this one tiny fact. Your welcome. Tara ends up on Donald’s face with the boys assuming Donald is sad to see her go instead of you know FUCKING TERRIFIED A GIANT SPIDER IS ON HIS FACE. This gag does not work.. but probably because as I said i’m afraid of spiders and this is my nightmare, you little sociopaths.

The boys however worry about what Donald will do for the weekend as they prepare to board the bus to the Jamboree... why it’s meeting in an out of the way town like this I have no idea, but i’d guess plot convince. They realize he has no friends, which Donald shrugs off, and they REALLY shouldn’t say to his face, but ruminate on it once he leaves to do whatever after vaguely talking about friends he had in the past.

I like this scene even though it annoys me a bit: Ilike it because it does set up how Donald really DOSEN’T have any friends in the comics. It’s part of WHY Rosa was drawn to the Cabs: Their one of the few equal relationships donald’s ever had, people who treat him as a partner, in both sense probably, a friend, a true amigo. As the boys point out Scrooge is a monster to him in the comics, paying him 30 cents an hour which I actually put into an inflation calculator to get an accurate read on how little that was by 2020 standards.. and it’s 3 dollars an hour. Hence why I call him a monster, why that bit hasn’t aged well, and why Rosa REALLY, REALLY should’ve retired it. It dosen’t help reading that knowing Disney largely treated Rosa the same way is cringe inducing at best, if not for any fault of his own. It being cringe inducing for an employer horribly mistreating and underpaying his employees though is his fault, he’s a grown ass man, even in the 90′s this had to be a problem, be better.

And yes i’m being hard on Don Rosa but just like with the comics thing, I simply expect better from the man given just how much respect I have for the guy. His art is gorgeous, his research is immaculate, his knowledge of old films is wonderful and his love for them so infectious i’m tempted to seek the ones he’s mentioned in notes out. He’s a truly wonderful guy and one of my faviorite comic writers.. but I have to treat him fairly like I do ANY of my idols. Just to prove that, I love Grant Morrison, especially his run on New X-Men, but a lot of it hasn’t aged well including some of the language and the entire subplot with Emma manipulating Scott into having an affair when he wasn’t in the best mental place and she knew that and was acting as his therapist, and treating that as a regular affair REALLY doesn’t play well nor should it have. I love Al Ewing, with all my heart and soul, but his run on Ultimates, while having some great worldbuilding and a spectacular cast, ultimately wasn’t very good after the first arc. Not terrible but not good. John Aliison, of Scary Go Round and Giant Days fame, while impressive has had plenty of stories I just didn’t like for various reasons and will probably get into some day and some parts of his stories haven’t aged well. It’s the hard but necessary part of being a critic: You have to be objective and see all the parts of a creator’s creation, not just the ones you like and call them out when they screw up. To me being a fan isn’t about just blindly loving something, it’s about knowing WHY you love it and being willing to call out faults while still thoroughly enjoying the work. There’s a fine line between being blindly loyal to someone, which has created Zach Snyder's awful cult of personality that I hate so much, and being an overly critical shithead and I hope I’m straddling that line.

Back on the scene after that filibuster they point out Gladstone, who himself is a monster to me for how he doesn’t lift a finger to help his nephews or cousin, and constnatly flaunts his luck to Donald, and is a bit more than teasing especially since he tried to, you know, steal your house once boys. That’s canon.. that’s a barks story so it’s canon here. You.. You remember that right? He tried to steal your house. And we will be getting to that one next month, just you wait. Finally the Daisy part that annoys me slightly. The boys being sexist.. was sadly the style at the time this story is set, the 1950′s, and thus plays better for me than it does in Ducktales, as their just little boys and don’t know better. Them assuming Girlfriends aren’t like having friends, while accurate though does bother me a bit, but only because the way this story treats Donald’s relationship is PRETTTTTYYYY bad and this sets that up. But we’ll get to that. Thankfully this foreshadowing of terrors to come is quickly forgotten as we get a GENUINELY great two panels of Donald lamenting his lack of friends. It just works really well, selling his loneliness and how isolated he truly feels without any, which while I have friends I can relate to as I only really hang out with on regularly.

This is what I was talking about. While I will point out Rosa’s flaws.. their truly outweighed but his artistic mastery. In just three panels he really has a truly emotional and heartrending scene, and just that one close up among them is all we need to get the true depths of Donald’s loneliness. I can be hard on the guy, but it’s because he’s one of the best there is, best there was, and best there ever will be and thus I hold him to a high standard. But with that we transition to...

Or rather first his boss at the hotel, whose pissed his headliner has skipped out on him again to woo a lady, and while he plans to fire the guy, only isn’t throttling him because he figures one of his “Senorita’s” boyfriends will do that for him. And while I do like Jose as a playboy i’m not really fond of him trying to have sex with someone in a relationship, as it puts both him and the person he’s having an affair with in a really bad light. It does fit the character, I just don’t have to like it. As for this particular Senorita, it turns out her boyfriend is a notorious Bandito and is thankfully out of town. So yes, Jose is essentially acting out Come A Little Bit Closer by Jay and the Americans.

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Naturally just like the song, said Bad Man returns, Alfonso “Gold Hat” Bedoya, a machete wielding baddie who while understandably pissed about another man making time with his girlfriend, is less understandably about to murder Jose. Though unlike the song, Alfonso’s Lady, rather than help Jose, encourages her boyfriend to murder him and clearly has a fetish for cheating on her boyfriend with various men and watching as he kills him which.. Jesus. This is why while I don’t LIKE the idea of Jose hitting on women in a relationship it does work here, as he’s still not nearly as bad as either of these two, so it evens out. Jose escapes with his umbrella but crashes.. right into the back of Donald’s car. Rosa, Alfonso’s lady, encourages him to murder both of them for funsies, and being a brutal thug, Alfonso obliges and shoots at the car. And since, to quote the duck himself, Donald doesn’t like being killed “Even a little”, he books it out of there.

Alfonso doesn’t peruse them though. He’s on the trail of a treasure hunter who has a map to the lost town of Tayopa, which contains untold silver, but before he can do that he has important buisness to get to.

I fucking love that gag and that Rosa snuck more adult gags in there knowing plenty of Duck Fans, such as myself, are grown men, women and others who can handle this sort of thing, while still slippnig it past the kids.

Donald, once the fear’s worn off a bit, starts to wonder WHY he’s running when he’s not the one who pissed off the guy, and ignores Jose’s good point about the fact Alfonso really dosen’t seem like a guy who sees nuance.. until Donald sees a wanted poster for Alphonoso and keeps driving. He eventually gets far enough away to feel safe.. and confront the guy who got him into this mess.

Now kiss. While sadly, they do not, we do get a lovely warm reunion between old pals. Rosa keeps their past vauge as, correctly, he pointed out in his authors notes that the Cabs movie really had no plot, accurate, so instead just vaguely alluded to Donald having known the two in his pre-daisy and boys past and likely had similar adventures to the movie, but adapted more for Rosa’s barksian universe. Jose explains he often finds himself cash poor and thus hits the road to drum up some money, and Mexico is a great place for that as it has plenty of tourist money.

Though as Jose talks about their past we get the most uncomfortable running gag of the story.

While Donald’s paranoia here is played for laughs.. it just.. isn’t all that funny that Donald’s relationship with Daisy in the Rosa canon is apparently sooooo deeply unhealthy that just HEARING about him having a romantic past before him, as Rosa confirmed this was pre-daisy in his notes, causes Donald to panic and worry she actually somehow heard this. It just isn’t funny.. it speaks of MASSIVE relationship issues and some form of domestic abuse on Rosa!Daisy’s part. It’s stuff like this why there’s only a handful of Donsy relationships I like: Her treating him like shit is reduced to a punchline, instead of being used for character growth. It’s also why I’m deeply dreading covering “Legend of the Three Cablleros” at the end of this retrospective. I just don’t like when Disney media treats Daisy expecting too much of Donald or being hyper jealous of him as hilarious and while I take this more as the story not ageing well rather than barks fault, as since then Domestic Abuse against Males has become a more widely known and talked about issue, it still doesn’t’t make it plesant. It just makes this not entirely his fault. Just like it’s not Stan Lee’s fault this panel is both deeply hilarious and uses a now kinda racist term.

I named an entire youtube channel after that.. we all have our regrets. I also bring it up since currently Harry’s become terrifying villain Kindred... and thus the current big bad of an entire Spider-Man run and the being hopefully bringing one more day into the light and hopefully leading to it’s undoing.. once had a goofy mustache he genuinely referred to a “Fu Manchu Face Fuzz” that for all we know he regrew under the mask.

Donald fondly remembers the old days of being a badass adventuring team and decides, screw it, let’s go show that Gold Hatted Paloka whose boss.. but being Donald ends up driving them into The Copper Canyon instead. Our heroes end up lost in the canyon and , fitting for Donald get shot at. I can only imagine his thoughts right now.

Their mysterious attacker threatens them.. before revealing himself to be Panchito, whose glad to see his friends having mistook them for Alfonso. Turns out HE’S the mysterious treasure hunter Alfonoso was after, to no one’s surprise. We get another deeply unfunny “Daisy’s only a thousand miles away gag” as the boys reminisce and get introduced to Panchito’s horse, Senior Martniez. He also tells the boy about his map.. but how he’s hit a snag as the lost town where the silver, from a silver mine.. is now buried under pounds of volcanic rock, a volcano having erupted. This is artistic license as Don Rosa admits there aren’t any known volcano’s in Mexico, but that they also still haven’t found that missing town, so this was his explanation. All is not lost as Donald’s globetrotting with Scrooge meant he knows his history.. and thus spots an old mission which, at the time, were used by preists as cover for secret mines. Donald naturally bungles his way in and we get the much better running gag of the Cabs thinking Donald did something amazing when he really just wondered into slapstick. They end up down the shaft, with Jose deciding Donald can’t do all the work, and finding a secret entrance under a sanctum sanctorum.. a religious thing I have no idea what it ii s but is clearly where Dr. Strange got the name. Regardless they find some old kegs filled with pure silver. As Panchito puts it:

And he did ideed. In a nice moment that shows off his character, Panchito has no hesitation for sharing the wealth: He wouldn’t of got this far without his friends, and he wont get the Silver cashed in without their help. He also fires off his guns in celebration.. forgetting their in a cave, a gag I genuinely like.

After some off screen loading and hoisting, the boys are slowly on their way out of the canyon, with Donald’s Car and Senor Martinez pulling the cart with the silver together. With some downtime the three talk about what they’ll spend the money on.

About what you’d expect. A big beautiful music venue

For Jose, and a nice ranch to retire at for Panchito. Both despite being wondering souls would love a simple place to call home, in their own personal styles. While they are BIG goals, their also likeable and understandable ones: Jose just wants to stop having to do all these tours and carouse and party and perform at home. Be his own boss, and live his own dreams instead of working for whoever will put up for him. Panchito just wants to retire from being a wondering hero to a peaceful life of farming, an honest reward he well earned. And Donald?

This is easily one of my faviorite moment’s of Rosa’s, one that really cuts to comic donald’s character: Sure he can be lazy, a trickster, hot tempered, and overconfident.. it’s why we love him.. but at the end of the day he genuinely loves those boys and their his first prority and I can see why the reboot took that trait and made it his defining one. They may annoy and frustrate them and he may pull a switch on them, 50′s after all.. but he loves his boys and knows they’ll do great one day and despite his spendthrift ways when given big money.. their all he can think about. Sure Donald probably has his own personal dreams, but instead of going big and retiring he’d probably just take only a small sliver of that money to open a humble hot dog stand or something, so he could have something of his own to provide them, while still giving most of the money to their college. Scrooge is who we all want to be.. Donald is who we are at our core: Flawed people who just want to do our best. It’s why I love the guy so much. The boys rest in the small town of El Divisadero, which like the town we started in is a real place, though both are much smaller, even as of 2000 when Rosa made his visit, so he had to embelish slightly. THey stop at a local watering hole only to find Alphonso. While Jose is naturally worried, Gold Hat has moved on to Panchito and wants to know why he’s here. However Donald thinking quickly says he’s part of their nightclub act, and we get a rousing version of the three cablleros, which when reading this I synched up to the song. I won’t put it here, as it’s too big for tumblr and it really works more as a whole, but needless to say, it’s the highlight of the comic. While Rosa did have doubts about putting a musical number in a comic, and it’s often trickey, he makes it work with the energy, vibrance and number of gags, that compensate for the music not being there. There’s tons of great gags, from Donald getting thrown out window, to the stone faced crowd who only cheers when Alphonso ends the number by whacking the three with one of their own guitars. Alphonso quickly realizes what’s goin on, finds the silver, and then hyjacks the train. The boys take off after him in the car, as Donald triumphantly states “The Three Cablleros Ride Again!”. The three head after Alphonzo, who finds them when trying to release the other cars to increase speed, and then shoots at them. It seems hopeless... until donald gets launched into the air, into a cactus then back into Alphonzo knocking his guns out in a great bit of slapstick. The Conductor, likely not knowing about the others or not carring, detaches the cars though, so our heroes and villian are now sent rocketing through the world’s most dangerous railway. Which, as you’d probably already figured out, is very real and what inspirited rosa to use this setting and thus indeed wind through dangerous mountainsides and over thin cliffs like a real life Donkey Kong Country level. Eduardo still has his machete though and easily beats Jose’s umbrella, but some more Donald slapstick and him apologizing to daisy about the senioritis as he wishes her goodbye seriously GET SOME COUPLE’S COUNSELING IF THAT EXISTS IN THE 50′S. It puls his sombrero down over his head, and with jose’s umbrella top landing on it, carries him off where he ends up in a lazy asshole sheirff’s jail for a gag. The boys however continue going back.. and the railway is unfinished at this time in history and while they save the silver, their fucked. But Donald has a plan, running to the back of the cars to get his car, and while it has trouble starting, Panchito throws some chilie’s in the tank to get it moving again. The boys find the silver.. but when one barrel spills they find out it’s not actual liquid silver.. but quicksilver, which was used for silver refinment. So while i’ts shiny, and toxic so of course Jose sticks his hand in before knowing what it is, it’s worthless. Probably. The boys.. all have a nice laugh over it. I love this moment. Sure the boys lost their dreams.. but like Scrooge, the three belivie theirs always another rainbow. What matters is the journey they had and the reunion that restored their friendship. Donald also muses the boys are smart enough to get their own scholarships anyway, so it’s no big loss.. but he does have to get back to Disvadero as the jamboree ends tonight and Jose agrees as he now needs a job again. The owner balks, understandably since Jose missed a performance to get laid and then disappeared overnight.. but the Hotel Owner is visiting so as long as he can provide a big act he’s good, and while Jose is worried as he already gave them his best, the boys naturally pitch in to be the cablleros once more. After all

So we close on Huey, Dewey and Louie returning, still worrying about donald, when they find him on stage. We then end on a truly heartwarming and great last few panels.

Final Thoughts: What else can I say? This story is beautifully drawn, as usual for Rosa, well paced, fun and really fleshes the Cabs out from the movie. It has a warm, fun adventurous tone and it’s nice to see Donald in the lead since Rosa usually did Scrooge stories and thus Donald was the justifiably surly sidekick instead of the main man> here he’s in the spotlight and gets to show just what he’s made of, while still being the hilarious mess we all know and love. The story honors the original film well, while forging it’s own path and is beautifully built into history. My only real complaints are the nephews being annoying, Alphonso’s somewhat overwrought accent, and of course the daisy gags.. but it’s all HEAVILY outweighed by one of Rosa’s finest hours and easy enough to ignore. Check this out if you can. It’s a classic for a reason.

If you liked this review, you can commission your own by messaging me on here or at my discord technicolormuk#655 for five dollars a comic story or animation episode. Whenever the ride resumes next, we’ll coming on down to the house of mouse to see the boys return to the screen. In the meantime keep an eye on this space for regular Ducktales reviews every Monday, including once this run ends as I intend to start playing catchup, loud house reviews whenever, my tom retrospective that’s returning soon, and my retrospective on the Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck, with chapter 2 of that also coming soon. Until then, there’s always another rainbow.

#the three caballeros #jose carioca #panchito pistoles #donald duck #don rosa #ride of the three caballeros #the three caballeros ride again #huey duck #dewey duck #louie duck #daisy duck #mexico #comics #reviews #elmo keep

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artificialqueens · 4 years ago

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Galactica, Chapter 37 (Group Fic) - TheDane/Veronica

A/N: Click here if you’re looking for previous chapters (or here if you’d rather read on AO3). 💫

Last Chapter: Things looked up for Violet as she finally settled into the new normal of working in design.

This Chapter: One of New York’s most illustrious editors-in-chief turns 40--in style.

***

Shit.

It had been an absolute hell week, Courtney being run ragged all day, everyday. She’d missed more meals than not, barely slept, had gotten used to only using the bathroom when Fame was occupied.

It was really the first time that she and Miss Fame had to interact directly for more than a few words, and if Courtney thought she was high-maintenance before, she had no idea how weird it would get.

On Tuesday, Courtney had been torn a new one for ringing the doorbell when she had dropped off a package at Fame’s house, Fame looking at her like she was absolute vermin.

How was Courtney supposed to have known that it was a deathsin not to just let herself into her boss’ house, Fame explaining to her like she was a retarded toddler that she valued her family life and private time too much to be interrupted, not at all catching the irony of the fact that she was imposing on Courtney’s private time by forcing her to come to her house at 10 pm.

And now, a casual text from Adore that she’d be there around 7:30 reminded her about Bianca’s party and she was absolutely panicking. She had less than an hour to make herself presentable with literally nothing to wear.

She’d meant to ask Ivy about a dress, days ago, and then again yesterday when she was arranging the delivery of Miss Fame’s present to the Marie Claire offices, but it had slipped her mind amongst all the other things she had to remember.

She jumped up and raced into Raja’s suite, a cramp in her side, relieved to find the redhead still at her desk.

“Courtney? Are you okay?” Ivy rose from her seat, a concerned look on her face, ever the empath.

“I just...I forgot…�� Courtney tried to catch her breath.

“Okay, take a breath. Whatever it is, it’s fixable. I promise.”

Courtney gulped. “I forgot that I’m supposed to go to this party tonight at the Guggenheim and it’s super fancy and my ride will be here in 40 minutes and I don’t have anything to wear and I don’t even know what the dress code means and I was just wondering if I could borrow something and I promise I’ll have it cleaned and returned by Monday but-”

“Courtney, breathe. Okay?” Ivy took her hand, inhaling deeply and then blowing out dramatically.

Had this job really killed so many of her brain cells that she needed assistance breathing now? Regardless, Courtney followed Ivy’s lead, taking a few deep breaths to slow her racing heart.

“Now,” Ivy began. “What does the dress code say?”

“Creative black tie?”

“Ah. Okay. Follow me.”

Courtney nearly cried with gratitude as Ivy led her into the wardrobe closet.

“Luckily, you’re a sample size, so this shouldn’t be too much of a challenge,” Ivy said. “It’s Bianca Del Rio’s party, right?”

“Yeah,” Courtney said, watching her paw expertly through the racks.

“Are you going for anything in particular?”

“I guess I wanna look…” Courtney racked her brain, unsure of what to say, when the word, “older” slipped from her lips.

Ivy paused, clearly not expecting that answer, and gave Courtney a curious look before nodding.

“I can work with that. Now, Bianca likes bold colors and dramatic silhouettes with clean lines, so I think something like this…” Ivy pulled a stunning, beaded blue cocktail dress out off the rack. “This will look good on you.”

Ivy was truly a gift from god. Not only did they find a dress that fit perfectly (they settled on a short, fire-engine red silk number with a plunging neckline), along with shoes, accessories, and a glamorous faux-fur wrap, but she even stayed to help Courtney with her hair and makeup, giving her a chic updo and dramatic winged liner.

“Ivy, honestly, if you ever need anything. Someone to cover your desk...a kidney...whatever...you know who to ask.”

“Good to know.” Ivy laughed, checking her makeup one more time, adding a little more glimmering highlighter to her cheekbones, and then proclaiming, “Alright, I think you’re done.”

“Thank you so much,” Courtney said again, pulling out her phone. She hadn’t heard from Adore in awhile, and wondered if she was stuck in traffic or something. She seriously hoped that she hadn’t rushed like crazy, inconveniencing Ivy and nearly giving herself an ulcer worrying, just to sit around waiting for an hour.

COURTNEY: ETA?

ADORE: Soon, I think. I’m on my way to Pearl’s, then we’ll pick you up. Do you want a gyro?

COURTNEY: I’M A VEGAN

ADORE: Oh yeah. Gross. I’ll text you when we’re close.

***

“Bianca! Darling!” Fame reached out her arms to pull Bianca in for a tight embrace. “Happy Birthday!”

She and Patrick had just arrived at the stunning event space a few minutes earlier, and were immediately whisked off to a VIP area with a private bar, where Raja and Raven were already relaxing on sofas, Sutan and Violet standing at the bar chatting with Detox and Jujubee.

It was perfect, removed enough from the chaos of the dance floor, but with a perfect view over the railing. And the speed with which Bianca had arrived to greet her told her that she’s given special instructions for the staff to alert her to Fame’s presence--exactly the kind of preferential treatment that Fame expected.

“Thanks, blondie,” Bianca grinned, “You look beautiful.”

“Thank you,” Fame smiled widely, fluttering her lashes. “So do you. I love this dress!”

“Yeah, your tits look great!” Raja chimed in.

Bianca was wearing a sinfully tight black bandage dress, the neckline showing off her breasts and glowing skin, the hem just above her knees, her legs one of Bianca’s best assets.

“You can barely see that you’re turning 40.” Fame grinned, which earned her a pinch from Bianca, the other still keeping her in her arms.

“Shush.”

“Please,” Fame squeezed Bianca’s forearm, “So, tell me the truth, do you like the ring?”

Bianca held up her hand, where it glittered on her index finger.

Yesterday, Fame had had Bianca’s birthday present delivered to her office at the exact time of her birth, 3:57 pm. Fame knew Bianca liked her statement pieces, so she had custom ordered a cocktail ring, but not just any cocktail ring. Instead of the usual single band, a stone in the middle, Fame had gone for a three part twist in gold, sparkling garnets adorning it.

“It’s perfect, I love it,” Bianca said.

“Wonderful!” Fame clasped her hands together. “You’re impossible to shop for.”

“No I’m not! I love stuff,” Bianca countered. “Plus, you know...I’ll never say no to a present that’s unavailable in stores…”

She grinned wickedly, dimples deep, hand drifting down to Fame’s ass. Fame swatted it away with a scolding look.

“Really, Bianca.”

“What, it’s my birthday!” Bianca said. “You gotta give me something.”

“Fine, a tiny something,” Fame laughed, leaning in and giving her a sweet kiss on the lips, then following up with a light smack to her cheek.

“That’s not where I like being spanked,” Bianca said.

“Oh my god, you’re impossible!” Fame exclaimed, breaking away and stepping over to the bar while Bianca laughed gleefully behind her. “Now come on, tell me about your presents.”

***

“And a drink for the lady.” Sutan smiled as he handed Violet a glass, his date taking it with a sweet smile and a thank you, Sutan putting his arm back around her waist as they walked around.

He had picked Violet up at her apartment, his heart almost skipping a beat as she had pushed the double doors open and walked down the steps, her dress of the night absolutely stunning, the back open and taunting with it’s promise of bare impossibly soft skin.

“So,” Sutan rubbed his thumb up and down, gently caressing Violet’s back, “are you having fun?”

Sutan was happy that she was there, enjoyed spending time with her, but as he got to know her more and more, he slowly realized how little she actually enjoyed big crowds.

“Yes.”

“Okay.” Sutan bit his lip, hiding a smile at Violet’s quick but short reply.

***

Alaska giggled delightedly, letting Jinkx twirl her on the dance floor. If you’d told Alaska a few years ago that she’d have a friend who she could have this much fun with sober, she’d have laughed in your face. But, even though Jinkx didn’t mind it, Alaska really didn’t enjoy drinking around her. So when they were together, Alaska felt like it was the least she could do to hold off on the booze. What she did enjoy was being with her, sober or not, looking into her sparkling brown eyes as they tripped all over their feet.

“For a Broadway star, you’re really uncoordinated,” Alaska laughed, and Jinkx pretended to be offended, then giggled.

“It’s hard to be mad when you call me a Broadway star.”

“Well, you are!” Alaska said, wrapping her arms around Jinkx’s neck and gazing at her happily. She loved these moments, just the two of them having the time of their lives, dancing and laughing and ignoring every other person in the room. They always had fun, but tonight, Jinkx seemed to have an extra bounce in her step, radiating a kind of joy, and it made Alaska feel so grateful to be around her.

“Thanks Lasky...you’re the best.”

They whirled and stumbled around the dance floor some more, until they were both breathless and needed a break.

“What are we feeling like tonight? Ginger ale? Cranberry and soda?” Alaska asked.

“You choose,” Jinkx said, clinging to her arm.

Alaska ordered a couple of drinks for them and then turned back to Jinkx, who was looking at her with the cutest little dreamy half-smile. She couldn’t help the tingling rush that went down her spine as she lowered her eyes and asked, “So...what’s going on with you tonight?”

“What do you mean?” Jinkx asked, eyes widening innocently.

“I mean...you’re just very...I don’t know...” A smile tugged at Alaska’s lips. “...twinkly tonight.”

“Well...I wasn’t gonna say anything because...it’s kind of silly, but,” she lowered her voice, eyes shining. “I ran into her again. Ivy.”

Alaska felt her whole chest deflate, forcing a smile as Jinkx continued.

“At Zabar’s! It’s like the universe is just conspiring to help us get together, you know?” Jinkx giggled happily.

A lump rose in Alaska’s throat and she nodded, using all her willpower to keep the smile painted across her face. “Oh, wow. That’s...that’s cool. Did you talk?”

“Yes. You’d be so proud of me, I even got her number!”

“Wow. Awesome!” Alaska felt like she was going to throw up, shifting her gaze to the bartender, grateful for the distraction as he slid two ginger ales across the bar. She couldn’t help wishing that half the glass was Jack Daniels. She handed one of them to Jinkx and took her own. It tasted just dust.

“Yeah, but she was still a bit formal, you know? I think I need to see her in a more relaxed setting. Do you think she likes opera? Maybe I can ask her to Madame Butterfly?” Jinkx chattered, away, oblivious to Alaska’s shift in mood.

“You really think the Met is a relaxed setting?”

Jinkx threw back her head and laughed, squeezing Alaska’s arm. “Omigod, you’re right. I’m such a dingbat. What would I do without you, Lasky?”

“I don’t know…” Alaska stirred her drink.

“What do you think she likes?”

“Uh, I’m really not sure,” Alaska said. And it was true. She knew that Ivy was sweet, and professional, and did her job with a kind of calm efficiency. But she didn’t know her very well on a personal level, their professional paths rarely crossing directly.

“Hmm, maybe you can ask around? If that wouldn’t be too weird?” Jinkx looked so hopeful and earnest that Alaska couldn’t help but smile for real in spite of herself, immediately agreeing to help her on this quest to capture Ivy’s heart.

“Of course. I’ll ask around.”

Jinkx sighed happily, leaning on Alaska’s shoulder, eyes falling closed for a moment. “You really are my favorite person, Lask.”

“Back atcha, Jinxky.”

***

Adore walked into Bianca’s party, feeling like a million bucks. Everyone that was anyone and even some who were nothing were there, and Adore knew she looked better than all of them with her purple hair, her pouty red lips, her short black leather dress, fishnets, and best of all… Pearl, the sexiest fucking goddess she’d ever seen in her life at her side.

She hung on Pearl’s arm, enjoying the jealous looks she got; knowing that everyone at the party wanted to be in her place. She even got a nasty look from some models, who were clearly all in love with her girl, but Adore didn’t care.

Pearl was here with her and only her. Pearl glanced at her every few seconds with a smug grin on her face, like the cat that just ate the canary. Well, if the canary was Adore’s pussy. Which would mean the cat was… Well whatever, Adore wasn’t an English scholar. She was in love.

The only thing that sucked was that Courtney looked so fucking miserable. They’d been a little late picking her up, due to getting, well, sidetracked for a while at Pearl’s, and then stopping for food. She thought that Courtney would be a bit more understanding, but she’d barely spoken two words in the car, even Pearl picking up on her obvious anger.

And now, even though she was at the coolest party in Manhattan, she didn’t look happy at all. Adore caught her eye, offering a hopeful smile, but received only a resigned nod in return. She reached out to touch her hand.

“Have I told you how gorgeous you look?” Adore asked, hoping that a compliment and a charming grin would be enough to lighten her mood.

“You think?” Courtney asked, adjusting one of her straps nervously. “I don’t look out of place?”

“Bitch, you put all these other girls to shame,” Adore promised, and was rewarded, finally, with a pleased smile from Courtney.

“Thanks.”

“Pearl!”

Adore looked over at the group of giggling socialites who were approaching them, only slightly annoyed when they swept her girlfriend up. She pouted as Pearl dropped her hand, but smiled again when she doubled back to whisper into her ear, “I’m gonna try and squeeze some gossip out of these hoes, and then I’ll catch up with you later.”

“Okay, but don��t be too long!” Adore pulled her in, branding her cheek with a dark red kiss before taking Courtney’s arm and sauntering away, pleased with herself. She scanned the party, looking for her sister and finally spotting her holding court near the bar. She cupped her hands over her mouth to shout through the crowd. “Bianca! Happy birthday, you ancient whore!”

Bianca turned towards her sister’s voice, barking out, “You’re late!”

“Whaddaya mean, we’re right on time for a grand entrance!” Adore countered, laughing.

“Well-” Bianca stopped, completely losing her train of thought when her eyes landed on Courtney. She was wearing a short red dress, the first time Bianca has seen her in a color other than pastels, and she looked absolutely fucking stunning--legs a mile long, one blonde curl falling into her eyes. Damn.

“You look cute, B. Very boobalicious,” Adore said, giving her a hug. “Not bad for an old lady.”

“Yeah, thank you,” Bianca said, eyes still locked on Courtney. “Hi, Courtney.”

“Hi. Happy birthday,” Courtney said, giving her a sweet smile. “Sorry we’re late.”

“Oh, that’s alright,” Bianca told her. “But here, uh...this’ll help you catch up.”

She took a couple of the signature drinks from a passing tray and handed them over. Adore immediately began to suck hers down, but Courtney hesitated.

“Um, what’s in this?”

“Courtney’s afraid of tequila. It makes her messy, right bae?” Adore bumped her hip.

“Something like that.”

“It’s called a Madras. Vodka, orange juice and cranberry. No tequila, but it will fuck you up. Be warned,” Bianca said with a wink.

“Well...cheers,” Courtney said, giving an adorable little laugh.

“Cheers.” Bianca took a sip of her own drink, then leaned in closer. “You look amazing, by the way.”

“Yeah?” Courtney’s eyes shone, her fingers twirling that stray lock of hair.

“Yeah.” Bianca tried unsuccessfully to wipe the stupid grin off her face, and instead broke the tension with, “I’m shocked that someone who’s friends with my sister has such good taste.”

“Hey!” Adore exclaimed.

“Don’t be too impressed. It’s a loaner,” Courtney replied drily, causing Bianca to throw back her head and laugh.

“Fair enough.” She downed the rest of her drink, waving off a couple of acquaintances who were trying to get her attention.

“Be right back,” Adore said, scampering away towards Pearl, of course jumping the second the blonde so much as crooked a little finger.

Courtney reached out for her, but she was already gone. She sighed slightly, looking a little bit dejected, and Bianca cleared her throat.

“So listen, I heard through the grapevine that you’re looking for a way to avoid your, uh, Galactica employers while you’re here?”

Courtney looked up, startled. She seemed shocked that Bianca was still talking to her, and she stammered uncomfortably. “Oh. Yeah, no, I just-”

“Listen, it’s understandable, you wanna have a good time. Can’t do that while your boss is breathing down your neck, right?” Bianca flashed her dimples.

“Well...yeah,” Courtney admitted, laughing a little.

Bianca stepped closer, slipping an arm around her shoulders and lowering her voice conspiratorially. “Fame and Raja are well contained, don’t worry. I made a VIP section since those two need a velvet rope to feel like they’re having a good time.”

Courtney giggled. “Like a rich person playpen?”

“It’s a prison of their own making,” Bianca affirmed, giving her a wink. “Trust me, they’re looking down on everyone the way they prefer, and they ain’t leaving.”

“Well...thank you.” Courtney bit her lip. It was hard to tell in this light, but it looked like a slight blush had crept into her cheeks, and Bianca found herself even more enamored.

“Anytime.”

A second later, she felt someone tap on her arm: one of the Marie-Claire board members, who she sadly couldn’t ignore.

“Sorry, I have go...do hostess shit,” Bianca said, regret flooding her chest, and Courtney nodded.

“Of course.”

She turned towards the middle-aged man and his young wife, saying her cursory hellos and giving air kisses, making small talk with them both. As soon as she could manage, though, she spared a glance back at Courtney.

The plan, from the moment Adore told her that Courtney was coming, had been to seduce this smoking hot friend of her sister’s. And she figured that the “rough break-up” that Adore’d reported would make it a sure thing. An easy and fun little fling--a birthday present to herself.

But now, something about the wistful, faraway expression on her delicate face as she smoothed down her skirt made her look vulnerable, in a way that gave Bianca pause. As stunning as she was--and fuck, she was an absolute knock-out--it didn’t make Bianca want to seduce her. Instead, it made her want to protect her. Ugh, why did her fucking conscience have rear its ugly head tonight, on her birthday of all nights?

“Thank you so much. Be sure to check out the raw bar!” she said, finally escaping and ready to head back to Courtney--but Adore beat her to it.

She watched as her sister came bounding up, Pearl in tow, and grabbed Courtney’s hands to pull her onto the dance floor.

Well, good. She should have a good time. Lord knows, anyone who worked for Fame deserved to blow off some steam. Bianca snatched another drink from a passing tray, trying to redirect her attention to the Welsh model who’d been giving her bedroom eyes all night.

***

Violet was having a surprisingly good time, taking small sips of her champagne. She had hurried home from work, almost ready when Sutan had texted that he was downstairs, the smile on Sutan’s face when he had seen her dress almost, almost, almost worth it’s price tag.

She had never been to an event of this size without having to worry if catering ran out of ice, or if she’d need to get taxis for whoever got way too drunk. It was nice to just stand by Sutan’s side, nice to be allowed to just be, without having to entertain or constantly think about everything that could go wrong.

“Ah, yes, of course.” Sutan smiled, his thumb rubbing up and down the small of Violet’s back. He was talking to one of the models from Elite, Violet vaguely recognizing her from some of the headshots she had presented to Fame for the fall collection. “I’ll be sure to tell Marcel about that.”

“Excuse me,” Violet turned, her eyes falling on a man with a camera, the card around his neck instantly telling her that he was from OK! magazine. “I was wondering if I could take a few pictures?”

“Oh,” Violet didn’t know what to do, her stomach instantly tightening.

“Sure,” Sutan grinned, turning towards the camera. “Right girls?”

“I-” Violet didn’t want to be in the picture, didn’t want someone she didn’t know documenting where she was, didn’t want to risk it ending up online. “I don’t-”

“Oh of course,” Sutan took her glass, handing it off to someone. “There we go.”

“Sutan”

“Come here,” Sutan put an arm around the model, posing both of them.

“Please-” Violet could feel Sutan’s hand on her hip, holding her tight, keeping her trapped, her throat closing up.

“Should we smile?”

“No,” The photographer looked out from behind his camera, “just be natural.”

Violet pushed away, forcing Sutan to let her go as the camera went off. She didn’t hear Sutan say her name, a quick flicker of a question on his face, didn’t see him smile apologetically to the photographer and pose with the model, didn’t notice any of it as she made her way outside, escaping the only thing she could think of.

***

Juju strolled through the crowd with Raven. She appreciated the whole VIP setup as much as anyone, but this was a massive party, and they’d decided to come spend a little time where the action was, maybe dance a bit -at least as much as her poor pregnant body would allow. They were stopped by a group of models, Raven proudly showing off her engagement ring and letting the other girls fawn all over her.

Juju put up with the schmoozing for a couple of minutes--after all, those girls were potential clients, until she spotted Bianca nearby and politely excused herself from the group, knowing that Raven would be perfectly content with her little fan club.

Bianca was chatting up some sweet young thing (typical), and Juju couldn’t resist messing with her a little. She wrapped her arms around Bianca’s waist from behind, asking in a low, husky voice, “Tell me I’m your favorite, Daddy.”

It was a joke between the two of them, something that had started years ago when Juju and Detox were first dating. They’d shown up at brunch one morning in the middle of a heated argument about whether it was appropriate for her to call him “Daddy” during sex--ironically, only a few months before she got preganant with their first child. It wasn’t a kink thing, exactly, it was just that she thought it was funny, and especially so when she saw his freaked out reaction. The group agreed that right or wrong, if it bothered him then she probably shouldn’t say it. But Bianca, ever the good sport, had pulled the smaller woman into her lap and declared that if she really needed to call someone Daddy, she was ‘willing to take one for the team.’

Juju accompanied her breathy greeting by biting gently on Bianca’s ear, adding, “Pwease?”

Bianca burst out laughing, pulling her close and introducing her to a very confused looking girl. “Tayce, you must know my friend Juju Sanderson. The brilliant hairstylist who owns Jujubee’s downtown?”

“Oh, yeah! It’s an honor!” Tayce said, her brown eyes lighting up as a dazzling smile spread across her face. “I’ve been trying to get an appointment with you, but you’re booked up for months!”

Juju had to bite back her laugh when she heard Tayce speak--Bianca always was a sucker for an accent.

“Well, play your luck with Daddy here, and you might jump the queue,” Juju said with a wink.

“Among other benefits,” Bianca cackled. “You know you’re the only one who I’d let get away with that Daddy shit, right?”

“Yes, thank you. You’re a lot more fun than my husband.”

“In so many ways,” Bianca said, turning to Tayce and giving her a playful smirk.

***

Violet took a deep breath, letting it out through her teeth as she could finally feel her heart slow down, though the knot in her stomach wasn’t going away.

She knew she couldn’t help it, but it was impossible not to feel an inkling of shame travel up her spine, the feeling that she was being ridiculous impossible to push down.

Sutan hadn’t meant anything by it, taking photos a part of his life, being in the public eye something that simply came natural for him.

Violet took a last breath, pushing away from the wall she had been leaning against to go back to the party, hoping that Sutan hadn’t noticed how strange she was acting.

It wasn’t that Violet liked acting this way, that she wanted to feel the panic rising in her body whenever she saw a camera in a stranger's hand, but she couldn’t help it.

She was an adult now, she had her own life, her own money and even her own job and her own apartment, but it was hard not to hide, impossible not to react to the instinctive fear that welled up in her at the risk of being found.

Violet walked back inside, the noise and the amount of people feeling so much more overwhelming when she wasn’t at Sutan’s side. She made her way through the crowd, easily spotting both Fame and Pearl, avoiding both of them.

She was starting to think Sutan had left, Raja nowhere to be found either, when she saw him sitting at a table, surrounded by models. He was laughing loudly, his arm around one of the girls, several of the models’ phones taking pictures of everything that was happening.

Violet’s stomach did a flip, the panic from earlier rushing through her body. She couldn’t go over there, couldn’t be a part of that part of Sutan’s world, so instead, Violet did what she always did.

Turned around, and walked away.

***

[Raja?] Sutan put a hand on Raja’s hip, turning her around. Sutan had been sitting with a group of models, doing shots and having fun right up until one of them had touched his legs under the table, and he had abandoned ship instantly.

[Have you seen Violet?]

He hadn’t seen her in over an hour, and while Sutan was more than sure that Violet could take care of herself, he had started to worry.

[Sutan!] Raja grinned, stepping into his space, looping her arms around his neck. [Hello brother dear.]

[Hello.] Sutan smiled, once again reminded of how much he truly loved Raja. She was tipsy, her eyes swimming slightly, which was probably why she hadn’t responded to his question. [Have you seen Violet?]

[Violet?] Raja tilted her head, her hand fiddling with the hairs at the nape of his neck. [No?]

[Shit.] Sutan bit his lip, his hands resting on Raja’s hips.

[Maybe she just left?] Raja smiled, running her fingers through his hair. [There’s no need to worry.]

[Maybe...]

[She can handle herself.]

[Mmmh.] Sutan knew that Raja was probably right, but it still felt weird that VIolet hadn’t said goodbye, and if he was honest, he was disappointed that they wouldn’t be going home together at the end of the night. [I’ll send her a text.]

Sutan was just about to reach into his pocket, was just about to get his phone out, when he saw a photographer to his left, just outside the VIP section. The paparazzi always loved to get photos of him and Raja together, and while he was sure Raja hadn’t noticed, he made sure to twist her slightly to the left, getting her good side as he smiled at the camera.

***

“Every guy here is drooling over you, bae,” Adore giggled, spinning Courtney on the dance floor before accepting another drink from Pearl.

“Not just the guys,” Pearl added with a wink.

Courtney laughed. In spite of her hesitation in tagging along, she’d been having a pretty good time. The attention was fun, of course, but Courtney’d barely noticed the alleged guys drooling over her. She couldn’t help thinking about the way she’d felt when Bianca put that arm around her, the way her brown eyes had sparkled in the dim light. The way goosebumps prickled her skin as Bianca’s fingers grazed her shoulder.

Her gaze kept being pulled in Bianca’s direction. Eyes drifting over her enticing curves in that tight dress. And occasionally, to her absolute thrill, Bianca would be looking back at her. Every time their eyes met, her stomach flipped around like crazy.

It was silly, she knew that. She knew that Bianca was only being nice to her because she was Adore’s friend. A nice kid. That it didn’t mean anything deep. This was, after all, a woman who dated supermodels and Oscar winners. Like the gorgeous girl by her side most of the evening, who had a face that Courtney instantly recognized from last month’s British Vogue cover.

Still.

The reality of the situation didn’t stop her from pretending, even just to herself, even just for the night, that maybe there was something there, that warranted all these confusing feelings swirling around inside her like a tornado.

And later, when they were saying goodbye, she allowed herself to enjoy the way Bianca’s palm pressed to the small of her back. She even let her lips linger for a few moments on Bianca’s warm cheek, kissing her goodnight.

***

SUTAN: Did you leave?

[MISSED CALL]

SUTAN: The party is still going.

SUTAN: Did you get home safe?

[MISSED CALL]

SUTAN: I can’t find you.

[MISSED CALL]

SUTAN: Violet??

VIOLET: I’m fine.

7 notes · View notes

queerchoicesblog · 4 years ago

Text

La Vie Bohème

Hiya, folks! So, as previously announced, the wlw writing project continues after a break with a miniseries set back in the City of Lights - & Love - at the time of the Belle Epoque, at the turn of the century.

The story of Élodie and Léa continues: what’s next?

Next chapter out on Monday, I think!

TRIGGER WARNING: mentions to homophobia, reference to sexual activity (if you are a minor or it bothers you in any way, you have been warned)

Tagging: @scottishqueer

Previous chapters: Paris, Paris ; One Night At The Moulin Rouge , The Handkerchief, The Cage of Fools

Hope you enjoy it: if you do, please consider spreading the word!

_______________________________

The following day I wake up late, around lunchtime. My roommates are all out: Marie left me a note saying she's out for a walk with Alain. Poor Marie, what a concerned look she gave me last night when she saw me sneaking inside our room without my coat! I had to craft a wild story to justify my attire and being so late. I can only hope she believed me...at least, she didn't ask too many questions. I head to the kitchen and warm up the stew leftover my friend saved for me. The events of the night are blurred, they waltz together in a haze: the Moulin Rouge, the Cage of Fools and the jigs I danced with Élodie, her perfume, her laughter, the violet a gallant admirer sent me, then the gendarmes, the clash of their batons, our mad run. The sad look on Élodie's face, the little kiss she pressed on my knuckles parting.

I wash myself and head out for a walk too, wrapping myself in the only other coat I have, much lighter than the lost one. My neighbourhood is certainly not renewed for attractions but it's Sunday and everyone is out to enjoy their day off. Some kids almost collide with me while chasing each other while an old lady nearby invites every passerby to try her apple tart, cheap and decadent, she repeats. Last night was the wildest night I've ever had in my whole life. After the initial embarrassment, I felt incredidibly...happy. I felt like floating on air when Élodie spun me in her arms or when we had a toast at our new friendship. Why did it end so soon? Who called the gendarmes and why they wanted to arrest those people who were just having fun? I don't get it...people crossdress every day now on the stages of cabaret theatres and no one ever complains. Their acts receive thunderous applauses and some artists have adoring fans every night. Why is it so different to call for a mass arrest? The men and women at the Cage of Fools were just doing what popular crossdress artists do: singing, dancing, making sure everybody was merry and bright. Was it because of the two men kissing a few tables away from where we sat? Nobody cared there, I didn't care, honestly. But now that I think of it, that might be the cause. Crossdressing performers never kiss each other on stage. I walk up to a hill into a second hand marketplace, hoping to find a replacement for my old coat I can afford. Could it be that my friend Élodie is a...how do they call them? A sapphic? I heard the word for the first time when I worked as a maid at the uncle Yves' client house. Madame pronounced it with ill grace, speaking of one of their acquaintances while I served breakfast. When I went back to the kitchen, I asked the cook the meaning of the unknown word, that I assumed a fancy insult: my masters wanted to play the role of the rich and the rich don't share the same language with us commoners. They invent new words, more fitted to their uptown world, not tainted with the smell of the street. The lady got all red and threw me a cloth, scolding me for eavesdropping a conversation and warning me to mind my own business. Needless to say my curiosity ran wild and I finally got an answer a few days later when I asked to the maid of a visiting guest. Could it be? The following week is pretty eventful: an important commission and Marie receiving a letter from home, urging her to go back to Aergenteuil to help assisting a sick relative. They would have never asked, knowing all the trouble that would cause her, if they could have done otherwise, her parents wrote. Marie is very close to that aunt and she sobbed in my arms at the thought of losing her and the job all at once. It took time to me and our roommates to comfort her. I told her that she didn't have to worry about the job: we will talk to the girls tomorrow and we will cover for her during her absence. If most agree to help, it will only mean a few extra hours each. Luckily, Marie is well loved at work so things run relatively smoothly, despite the boss' evident contempt. She profuses in an endless series of thank you and praises when I walk her to the carriage station at dawn before heading straight to work. We hug and I give her a tiny slice of that cheap and decadent apple tart the old lady sells at the crossroad. A little treat for the journey home, the only one I can afford. "You're a true friend, Léa. I will never forget this" she says, eyes veiled with tears before taking her seat on board. As the carriage disappears from view, I realise it's the first time we are separated from each other since we first met. Predictably, I end up missing her: we've been around each other for so long that now not walking back home with her, working side by side and sharing lunch on the staircase makes me feel a bit empty, as if a part was missing. Marcel and Alain are busy with work too as festivities approach fast and I have my fair share of Marie's work to worry about. However, from time to time, when I'm not so tired I only want to touch the bed, I pay a visit to the Moulin Rouge. The first time Élodie spots me, she runs straight into my arms, hugging me tightly: she must have thought she would never see me again after our misadventure with the gendarmes. She lets me assist to the acts backstage and I get to befriend other dancers, now used to see me around. I even fix their costumes if they get damaged during the performance. I do it gladly, even if it adds up to my daily amount of work. I usually gets cheek kisses or champagne as payment but sometimes, despite my deflections, they drop some coins into my hand, arguing that the Moulin Rouge tailor is half as good as me. When it happens, instead of saving them, I go buy a dinner at a bistro nearby with Élodie. I'm always starving but she never makes jokes of me for that. I tell her about Marie and the extra hours and, in return, she pretends not to be so hungry and offers me her slices of bread or some mashed potatoes "she won't eat anyway". We talk for hours, until I can keep my eyelids open. We start seeing each other more often. I must admit it's relatively easier now that I don't have to worry about bothering Marie and my friends are busy. Only my roommates look at me differently: I'm positive they suspect I have a secret lover. Now my day off is split between a little work at home in the morning and Élodie. We stroll down the Tuileries Gardens, arm in arm to protect each other against the cold. Élodie loves this place: she doesn't care it's overly popular, to her it's a testament to the the beautiful things people can create, an urban Eden. Who am I to contradict her? The Palace in the distance, the trees, the quiet murmur of the Seine nearby...it's rather gorgeous. One day we bump into a couple of her friends of the Cage of Fools. I could barely recognise gracious Pierrette in her male clothes. She goes by Pierre during the day. "Amélie" the other woman says, offering a hand to shake and I recognise one of Élodie's friends who were playing cards. "We've already met but I don't think I properly introduced myself". I assure her that I remember her. Then, lowering my voice as if I don't know if I can speak freely about it, I ask them about the fate of the Cage. Pierre/Pierrette frowns, she's one of the owners and had a hard time being released by the gendarmes after the arrest. The bar and ballroom is still closed, the authorities denies a reopening. They're planning a night incursion to retrieve all the lost goods, if there's any left. But so far it's hard to tell what will be of the Cage. Then, noticing my sullen expression, she adds: "It will open up again, darling. It's Paris, Pigalle: places like this always rise from their own ashes. We just don't know when and how" We all share a weak smile. The silence is broken by Élodie. "I was thinking of throwing a little party at my place to cheer up the mood" "At your place? But how?" Amélie inquiries, skeptic but intrigued. "A roof party, so there will be space for anyone. We can lit some fires to keep warm. You're all invited and I will ask some girls at the Moulin. A little feast to forget about our sorrows" True to her word, the next week, when I receive a letter from Marie informing me of her upcoming return, she proudly announces me that the party is happening: it's on Saturday night after the act at the Moulin. "Will you be there?" she asks, taking my hand into hers. The sudden gesture draws a smile on my face. We now seat together in bars and bistros very different from the Cage of Fools and I've come to miss casual touches like this. We've been very careful since that raid, especially Élodie. "Of course, I will" I nod over a steamy bowl of soup. She claps her hands excitedly, flashing me a bright smile before scribbling down an address on a scrap of paper she retrieved God knows where. Then she hands it to me. "Don't be late, I'll be waiting for you" Her words colour my cheeks rosy, the warmth in her voice unmistakable. Unsurprisingly, she lives in Monmarte, the artist neighbourhood. I arrive early, afraid to be late. I ate my dinner with great haste once back from work and spent a whole hour getting ready, a detail that -I do not doubt it- cemented my roommates' theory of the secret affair. I washed myself, did my hair up just like Marie taught me, and put on my best dress, which is nothing fancy but I am quite fond of the colour and its lacy sleeves. Once I put kohl on my eyes and some rouge on my lips, I head off into the night. When I finally arrive, I spot some familiar faces in front of the building: Léa's friends. I wave at them and they greet me with affability as if we've known each other for a while. "Good evening, Léa. You're radiant tonight" Pierrette says, kissing both my cheeks. I'm glad to see her back in her female clothes, she even placed a flower in her hair for the occasion. "Élodie hasn't arrived yet, she and the girls must be on their way" Amélie informs me, rubbing her hands. I say that it's fine especially if you're in good company. We chat, hugging ourselves and I discover that they all works as secretaries, bar Pierrette who is "an unsuspecting accountant by day, the best bartender in town by night". Just then, a cheerful choir of voices resounds in the street, approaching. We turn and it's the dancers of the Moulin Rouge. They cheer and wave at us, swaying bottles of wine and champagne raided from the theatre. After a quick round of kisses and loud greetings, we all run up the stairs before catching a cold. Élodie's apartment is messy and rather small for the number of guests attending the party so we quickly take the stairs and head to the roof. The sight is gorgeous: as the others light a couple of fires and one of the dancers harmonises an accordion, I take a moment to admire it. From the top of the hill, Paris lays beneath us like an ocean of light and chimney smoke. An intoxicating combination of misery and beauty I have never seen before. Someone taps my shoulder and I turn to see Carmine, one of Élodie's colleagues, handing me a glass of wine. It's stronger than I expect but I keep sipping it as we chat, grateful to have something to kindle my bones in the cold. A lively tune starts playing and we all share a toast to our host, who performs an exaggerated reverie in full response. The atmosphere is bubbly: some dance, others chat and crack jokes with each other...everyone is in good spirits. I wonder if this is the life my new friend is used to, so careless and free. So different from the one I know. What does she see in me? My ordinary seamstress routine, my life....is a stale dry biscuit in comparison to what she does. I'm saved by the male dance, Laurent, who asks me to dance. I accept: after all, I am here to enjoy myself and he will lead, I only have to follow his moves. As we sway I catch Élodie looking in my direction while chatting with the girls and drinking wine. I have no recollection of how much time we spent there, I remember walking down the stairs arm in arm with Amélie. As some guests take their leave, we gather in the living room and the the tiny kitchen downstairs to keep warm. Laurent produces himself in an impression of Monsieur Ziegler that elicits a general round of laughters. Pierrette and one of the girls sing one last song, a popular duet for the "last ones standing" then say goodbye. When the last guest walks out of the door, Élodie turns towards me. "Stay and help me sinking that?" she asks, nodding at a half empty bottle of champagne. Before I can answer, she's already looking for two glasses. She returns with just one. "You have the glass, I take the bottle" she announces. I laugh at the tipsy note in her voice as she pours liquid ambrosia in my glass. "What?" she chuckles. "Just saying that maybe you should take a seat, mademoiselle" I tease her, guiding her to the sofa. She rolls her eyes and obliges...then at last minute, she pulls me down too. Some champagne sloshes over the rim of my glass but I find a seat beside her. We both giggle. "To the best party host in Paris" I raise my glass. She smiles and mirrors my gesture. "To the most gracious guest, the pearl of Roscoff" We cling our glasses and I blush a little, diverting my eyes. When I look back at here, her eyes rests dreamy on a painting laid nearby on the floor. One of her roommates is a painter, she explains absentmindedly, he finished it yesterday. I tell her she's a real bohemienne, living in the artist quarter with a painter.... "An actress and a music-hall trumpet player. And I'm a dancer myself!" she adds. Then she falls quiet. She smiles to herself, a rather melancholic smile, as if she's contemplating her whole life. "La vie bohème...that's the life I chose" she says after a while. "I've never thought I would achieve that though. I've never thought I would get this far" "How come?" I sit more comfortably and she takes a gulp of champagne before speaking again. She was born in Bordeaux, a place now filled with memories of a lonely grim childhood. Her mother was, is -since she's still alive as far as she knows- a prostitute, who spent more time walking the streets than cuddling her little girl. Sometimes she received clients at home and Élodie ran hiding in the filthy toilet in the garden until they were gone. She never knew who her father was but she likes to think it was a tormented poet or a travelling artist...more likely and ironically, he could have been a gendarme off duty or the spoilt heir of a local noble with a taste for the sordid cheap pleasures the streets of the suburbs offer after dark. Her mother wasn't kind to her -one day when she had a bit too much, she admitted she never wanted a child- but provided for her. She was the one teaching her the can-can. "Decades ago only prostitutes danced like this, now it's different...but I guess it's part of the profession lore, so to speak" she laughs sombrely. "I mean, some girls at the Moulin still do that, dancing and selling their graces to paying admirers. I suppose it's easy to cross the line if you always want more and more and adulation is a weird poison. I don't judge them, if no one is forcing them to do so, they can do what they want...." She turns towards me, placing her hand over mine. I give it a squeeze. "I don't do that, Léa. I don't do that...I saw what that life did to my mother, what it turned her into and when one morning I packed my things and left, I swore to myself to ever do that, even if money was running low, if I could avoid it. I was barely sixteen when I arrived here, alone, in Paris. I was lucky enough to find kind people who didn't take advantage of me...and I...and I started to dance. Dancing gave me freedom" I don't know what made her so suddenly nostalgic, maybe it's the alcohol we had tonight. But her story makes me appreciate her even more: the world has been unkind to her at first, filling her childhood with hardships, but she fought back. She danced away from her misery with ineffable grace and dignity like a brave butterfly. "And now look at you: you're Lila, star of la quadrille" I flash her a bright smile. "I'm proud of you" She laughs softly. "Are you?" "Yes, of course!" I sit a bit straighter, as if it could give my word more authority. "You've faced adversities and you went so far. Only the most talented dancers are allowed to perform in la quadrille!" "You read it somewhere?" "Everybody knows that!" I exclaim, amused and surprised by her skepticism. Then, to prove my point, I hand her my glass and stand. I find a spot clear enough and declare astonished: "Like, I could never dance like you do every night!" And I start mimic the can-can routine at my best, that I'm pretty sure turns out to be a grotesque parody of the real dance. I do it to amuse her and I smile when I finally hear her laughing. She places the bottle and the glass back on the floor and claps her hands, whistling like some spectators do at the Moulin. "What? No, don't clap, that was just silly!" I dismiss her, chuckling. "Well, whatever that was it was...something" she shrugs before bursting into another laughter, softer this time. "Whatever it was? Hear hear, a can-can dancer who doesn't even recognise it!" I make a scene to be offended and throw her a cushion from the nearest armchair. She ducks just in time to avoid it. We both giggle then she stroke her chin and regards me more carefully, pensive. "You have enthusiasm but you lack technique" "Told you I'm a bad dancer" I shrug. The memory of the two of us dancing at the Cage of Fools crosses my mind like a meteor and my heart starts racing again in my chest. "May I?" she says, standing. I nod even if I don't know what she means exactly. I get it when she saunters closer and positions herself behind me. When she gently places her hands on my hips, I inhale sharply. "First of all, you need to loosen up a bit. You're too wooden...sway your hips, like this" She hums the melody of Offenbach and guides my movements so that they match the rhythm. Again, it doesn't take long before I surrender and follow her lead. I don't know how long we sway like this, I must have closed my eyes. I only hear her voice behind me. "See, definite improvement! Now rise your skirt up a little" I freeze and turn towards her. My cheeks warm up and I try to blame the wine I had. "You don't want to trip over your skirt while dancing this, you can hurt yourself" she smiles encouragely. "That's why you do that then...I would have thought..." I shake my head but do as she says. I bend down and reach for the hem of my long skirt then I grab it as I saw the dancers do and lift it up till my the height of my knees. "Well, that's one reason" "I knew there were ulterior motives" I laugh. "The Moulin is not exactly a convent, right? You have to show your legs to the paying audience" she explains, mocking Monsieur Ziedler's voice. "They pay good money for them" "I see no paying audience though" I chuckle, turning my head slightly. "Because you have little imagination, mademoiselle Pearl" she whispers into my ear. Her breath hot on my skin sends a shiver down my spine and my heart pounding against my ribs. "Ready for the gallop? Three, two, one-" "Wait, wait-" Before I can process what's happening, under the lead of Élodie, we gallop from one side of the room to the other, moving laterally like crabs. I understand now: I saw this move over and over during the acts. Élodie gives directions and tells me to sway the skirt as we move. We soon end up laughing again when we almost trip over a tin box on the floor. When we stop, I feel dizzy and lean back against her for sustain. "Enough of that" she announces between laughters. "Now, knee up, girl!" I oblige and start jumping on my other feet. My balance becomes way more precarious. To think that dancers like Élodie make this look so easy...I let out a shriek as I fear of tripping. She encourages me to rise my knee even higher up to my chest. "But I will fall!" "I'll catch you" she reassures me, holding my hips a bit tighter. "C'mon, Léa, a bit higher...higher...yes, like this! You're a natural...and now kick!" I follow her instructions and my kick sends the books on top of a pile nearby flying across the room. It's a miracle they don't land over the painting. "Well, that's one hell of a kick, darling!" Élodie cheers as I lower my leg. Her laughter is contagious, I soon join and we don't stop until we're out of breath. Then I throw my head back and it finds her shoulder. We're still in the same position. I can feel her chest rising and falling against my back and her hands on me. I slowly turn my face towards her and find her looking back at me. We go quiet, trying to catch our breaths. Has she always been so beautiful? This whole time? I remember her cheerfulness, the way she let me spin into her arms and listened to me, resting her chin on her hand at the Cage. How she immediately grabbed my hand at first sign of danger, the tender light in her eyes when our faces were inches apart in that back alley. I decide to do what probably she failed to do that night: I follow my instinct, without thinking twice. I lean forward and brush my lips over hers. A tentative kiss, the lazy stroke of a shy lover. She mirrors my move and our hands move almost at unison: hers around my waist, resting on my stomach; mine over hers, stroking her wrists and intertwining our fingers. The kiss that follows makes me tingle in her arms as a fire erupts underneath my skin. She kisses me again on her own accord this time: it's surprisingly tender and it tastes of rouge, champagne and a refrained passion that finally finds its way. My knees go suddenly weak and I feel dizzy again, lost in our embrace, lost in her. She whispers my name like a prayer and I spin to wrap my arms around her neck and kiss her again. Her hands run up my back, holding me close as if I could run away any minute but there is nowhere else I would like to be now. I cannot refrain a moan when her lips find my jaw and brush over my neck: they burn on my skin and I wish she would never stop. Our kisses become more fervent and fierce as we backpedal down the corridor, bumping into the walls yet uncaring of anything else than the sudden fire consuming us. Élodie pulls me into what must be her room because she kicks the door shut and we soon tumble over a mattress. I fall on top of her, letting out a giggle. I go quiet when I meet her eyes. Illuminated only be the moon light she's the most enchanting vision I've ever seen. Her hair messy and sprawled beneath her, the ruby red of her lips so close I barely refrain myself from running a finger over them. She looks up at me, her eyes gleaming like stars. She reaches out and touches my cheek. She strokes it gently, tucking a loose strand of hair behind my ear. She looks...in awe, vulnerable, adoring. For a moment I wonder if that's what lovers feel when they look at each other, when they lay in each other arms: a sweet ache of the heart, the purest amazement. "Kiss me again" I whisper, begging as a mendicant even if I don't need to. She finds my mouth again and again and runs her fingers through my hair. I place one hand on her chest and I feel her tremble imperceptibly at my touch. She suffocates a gasp against my lips while her heart hammers underneath my fingertips. I whisper her name this time and I kiss her jaw just like she did earlier, mirroring her moves. My hand runs down her side: I'm too lost in her to know what I'm doing. When I feel her knee beneath the fabric, I caress backwards up her tight, rising her skirt. That's when it happens. Élodie squirms and grabs my hand. She breaks the kiss and asks me to stop. Suddenly ashamed of my hunger, I retrieve my hand and prop myself up. My cheeks must turn crimson when I mutter my apologies. "I'm- I'm sorry, I thought you wanted it too" I let her space to move freely. Hiding her face from me, she sits on the edge of the bed for a moment, breathing hard. Then she stands. I sit and try to compose myself. "What I want....that's not the point" she sighs. "What do you mean?" I ask, confused. "Did I do something wrong?" She still gives me her shoulder. When she speaks again, she hangs her head, defeated. "This has nothing to do with you, Léa. God, no, if you only knew..." She sounds on the verge of tears but she must swallow them back because when she turns to face me her voice is less cracked even if she looks in pain. "Léa, I like you. Way more than I should and since the moment I bumped into you and you talked of fireworks. I gave you my handkerchief only as a mere expedient to see you again and you what you did? You turned it into a little work of art for me and you barely knew me back then. You have a kind word for everyone, you're helping your roommate in a moment of need without asking for anything in return. You're a good girl, one of the most honest girl I know and I..." She takes a deep breath before shaking her head forlornly. "You didn't even fully realise what happened at the Cage" I keep quiet for a moment then I speak, keeping my voice low and fiddling with the hem of a sleeve as a kid being scolded: "The gendarmes wanted to arrest everyone because there were...sapphics and men kissing other men. And people like Pierrette there" I say because I don't know if there are words for them that aren't insults. "...Yes" she confirms, meeting my gaze again. Seeing her now, one could doubt the very same girl was laughing and having a blast one hour ago or so. She looks so troubled, her eyes a mix of tenderness and sorrow. Guilt, maybe. "Léa, I...I would spend the night with you. You wouldn't even have to ask me. But-" she grimaces and my heart skips a beat, bracing for the worst. "What will happen when you hear that this is illegal, that people get sent to jail or the asylum -you remember? We joked about the asylum- for things like this? Because the authorities say it's like an...an illness, a taint-" "Why are you telling me all this?" I protest, standing too. "Because that's what happens out there! It took days to get Pierrette out of jail" she exclaims. "I should have never taken you there, I've been such a fool-" "You're a good girl too, Élodie" I interrupts her, reaching for her hand. "Don't tell me you doubt that" She looks down at our hands then meets my eyes, forlorn. "Am I though?" her sad smile pierces through my heart. "I almost got you arrested that night, little pearl. What would have your boss or your friends said if we hadn't been fast enough and those gendarmes had locked us in together with the others? You barely knew me back then, you would have hated me and I couldn't have blamed you" "But I don't hate you!" Now I am the one on the verge of crying. "We...we would have found a way out, I'm sure of that!" Élodie smiles at me, a weak pained smile. She retrieves her hand and caresses my cheek. "Maybe we would have, just like in one of those ballads chanteuses sing" she sighs. "But the truth is I care too much for you and so far I've only been a reckless fool, a selfish reckless fool. I could never forgive myself if you-" Words got stuck in her throat and she lowers her eyes for a moment. Then she presses a soft kiss on my forehead. "It's too late to walk the street alone at night. You can stay here tonight and...you can take the bed, I'll take the sofa" Having said that, she walks away. "Élodie, you don't have to...please, stay" I beg, hoping to stop her but when I turn she's already closing the door behind her. I consider the idea of running after her but I soon realise it would be absolutely pointless and I don’t want to make things worse. I stand for a moment, shaken. Then I lay down on the bed still warm of our embrace and look out into the night. The moon that made Élodie look even more beautiful and ethereal is still up there in the sky but now I'm alone. Silent tears rim my cheeks. I lay awake for hours, unable to sleep. For some reason I know that Élodie is doing the same.

#wlw writing #wlw writing project #wlw miniseries #lgbtq #wlw love #original work #paris #belle epoque

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talesofsonicasura · 4 years ago

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Diamonds and Voodoo

You Do Voodoo

A mysterious visitor comes to Morioh. Paths diverge and intertwine with the various townfolks of this crazy, noisy bizarre town. And it all started with a good deed touched by a bit of magic.

Good deeds tend to create ripples throughout what we know as life. Sometimes an act of kindness can lead to great rewards. At rare times the road to hell is often paid with good intentions. Nevertheless, this type of charity has a habit of changing the future of one or many individuals. For sometimes, a grand adventure begins with that very act of kindness.

"Look out!" Morioh, a small town amongst the middle of nowhere quite unlike many cities found in Japan. A type of place that tends to be quiet but also hosts some oddities within its dwellings. Unlike many small towns, Morioh would become ground zero for a strand of very bizarre events and each with their own level of danger.

A car was parked awkwardly sideways between the road and crosswalk. Upon closer inspection, this was a crash as the front end was inward from the telephone pole currently wedged inside the bright red metal. To the side was an abandoned bicycle alongside a police officer and what many from this town could call a foreigner. The officer holded the visitor close to his chest almost awkwardly, the telltale of being grabbed.

The officer was an older and surprisingly buff male, darkened grey hair hidden under his cap, eyes that had a natural glint of kindness despite the concern now shining for the person in their arms. A would-be victim of the car accident was a young woman around her late teens, between 16 or 17 from the bits of remaining baby fat still left on her face.

Her skin was slightly tanned in a more climate related basis, such as sun exposure than natural skin tone, hair a short messy lime green hidden under the top jaw of a dinosaur-esque skull, a 5'8 body that was slim, lean and had moderate bust along with curves, but it was her eyes and her arms that drew the most attention.

The young woman's arms were decorated in wavy almost vine patterned tribal markings with a four toes pad on each shoulder and her eyes had a unique case of heterochromia with the right being a normal orange but the entire left eye was blue except for a single white pupil. Her outfit consisted of dark blue fingerless gloves, red sneakers, light brown cargo shorts, a black bra and opened orange vest outlined in red.

"You okay there missy? That car almost hit you if I didn't pull you away in time." The officer questioned, his voice soft and kind in a sort of grandfatherly way. She merely looked up at him with a large impish smile. Not even scared or off-put that a speeding car almost made the teen paste on the street.

"I'm good mister! Just glad no one else got hurt either. Car accidents aren't something normal folks can handle and I rather get hurt than somebody else! I'm more than capable of taking some nasty hits!" The woman's peppy, slightly loud and light chuckle paired with the slightly morbid words had thrown the officer for a loop before he strangely found himself chuckling too.

"Hahaha. Well aren't you an odd but thoughtful young lady? I wish some of my friends on the force had that kind of energy. Everyone's been down as of late and honestly needs a pep talk or two." The greenette looked at his badge for a moment as if scanning for his name. Something that was quick to find apparently as it read 'Ryohei Higashitaka'.

With that in hand, she then reached into the pocket of her cargo while silently whispering his name. The officer or Ryohei honestly looked a bit surprised when the youth produced a peculiar item. It was a small brown wooden charm carved into a smiling mask. The mask was painted with red lips, yellow with green outlined eyes, large reddish eyebrows and four small feathers ranging from yellow, orange, purple and red.

"Please take this mister as a sign of gratitude. It's a good luck charm carved into the likeness of Aku-Aku, a spirit of protection. This charm shall ward off a great disaster in your future." The older man took the odd charm with a soft smile and looked it over. He softly chuckles before patting her head.

"Why thank you! It's pretty adorable and well crafted! I'll make sure to keep it close. Good luck is something a lot of people nowadays…" His eyes widened a bit upon realization. "Whoops! Careless me! I forgot to ask for a name. I am Ryohei Higashitaka, an officer of the Morioh Police Department. What's your name missy? I need it to file a report for ya and if you want to press charges." She merely gave an impish smile with a bit of her tongue sticking out.

"It's Taki-Taki, Taki-Taki Bandicoot."

Budo-ga Oka Middle and High School, one of the few schools within Morioh. A joint school where grades between 6 and 11th are together instead of being separate. It was also a place that had a quite an amount of delinquents which make up some of the school's student body.

Walking towards this destination from the local town square was a mountain of a man in very odd clothing. Hair was jet black and well groomed, eyes a bright ocean blue, body sculpted like a Greek God from every single inch out of 6'5 and a natural scowlish look on his face. Nearly all his clothes, from his coat, pants, shoes and torn back hat with golden pins stylized to spell Jo were white except for the man's shirt which was pitch black.

The man was currently looking over a paper, a report or letter from highly detailed it was in both text and a few select photos. His brows wrinkled in aggravation before muttering a soft 'Yare Yare Daze' under his breath. "Godamnit old man. You're too old to be causing this type of bullshit." He hissed, rough, husky and slightly aggravated tone to his voice making a few people steer clear of his vicinity.

Well… not just that. Unknown to the raven in question, there was something odd looking over his shoulder. This peculiarity was a mask of sorts. It looked vaguely human but the light blue material used to craft it was spectral from how it softly glow like wisps in the night sky.

An Aztec type crown at the top with four flat points as if it was a piece from a gear, large carved ears with faint spiral at the center, pure white eyes and mouth outlined in mauve, and the same mauve color to imitate flat eyebrows. Bystanders seeing the mask either quickened their step or blamed this bizarre sight as 'too much coffee' or 'no more liquor in the morning.'

"Huh. Guess an old man in his late 60s can get laid. Oh, so that's where the gardens are!" The young man nearly bit his tongue in shock from both the raspy, light and almost nerdy sounding male voice but also the fact it came from a floating tiki mask that took a closer look at his document.

He couldn't get a word out of his mouth as the mask flew off with surprising speed. "A Stand?! That means there's a Stand User nearby! You ain't getting away from me!" A bright golden aura began to burn around the adult upon giving chase to the airborne oddity. On the sidewalk, the man's shadow grew with the addition of a more peculiar one.

A few minutes passed when the chase was called off upon the mask being too far in the air to pursue, the extra shadow vanished as the adult male let a growl in annoyance. He lowers his hat with a curse. "Damn it. If that thing's responsible for the recent incidents going on in this town…" The man then went to a payphone before dialing in a number.

"This is Jotaro Kujo. Tell the heads of the Speedwagon Foundation that there is confirmed Stand activity in Morioh. Look into the database about a Stand in shape of a glowing blue mask and the possibility if it's connected to Dio." The phone was slammed down as the white coat of the man fluttered while he left.

"Poke!" A finger poking the little snout of a box turtle that had swam up from the water of the makeshift pond seated by a small bus stop. Sitting on the curb of the pond beside was the odd Taki-Taki, currently petting the small reptilian much to its pleasure. "You're a handsome turtle, aren't you? Much nicer than the big ones back home." She cooed while the turtle rubbed itself against her hand clearly in love with the kind contact.

A little whimper had the young woman look around in utter confusion. Soft heterochromia eyes soon met bright baby blue ones tinged with a bit of fear. That fear directed to the little reptile nipping at the greenette's fingers.

A 5'11 muscular young man with blue violet hair tended neatly into a large pompadour, a dark violet gakuran pinned with a yellow heart and gold peace on each side of his chest, sunshine yellow shirt that peeked through the gap of his uniform coat, and dark boots were the owner of these baby blue orbs.

"You okay? Look like you're about to pee yourself." Taki-Taki questioned upon the fidgeting male still looking at the turtle as if it tried to eat him. He immediately calmed down a bit now noticing he wasn't exactly alone, cheeks dusting a bright red. "I'm so sorry! Reptiles just give me the willies that's all, mostly turtles." His soft and slightly rough almost if still adjusting practically rattled with nervousness.

She merely chuckled whilst waving off any concern. "It's alright! Everyone is afraid of something so no harm done. Plus this little handsome fellow is much more kinder than the ones I've seen in Turtle Woods. Those turtles were mean and one tried to steal my hat!" Her spare hand pointed at the dinosaur skull on her head since the other was still petting the shelled reptile.

The pompadour wearing young man shivered upon the two words 'Turtle Woods' but was honestly thankful that she wasn't making fun of him for his phobia. Taki-Taki then stood up whilst petting the turtle's head one more time. "I better go! Promised to get some stuff with my friend Lani-Loli and we're supposed to meet up at the gardens! Chou!" And she was gone with a pep to her step.

"My name is Josuke Higashitaka… And she's gone. Maybe I'll see her again." The sound of male cursing grew as the purple pomp prince noticed a bunch of male students coming over to him. Delinquents from their rude, downlooking and glaring faces, something that only made him sigh. Days like these tend to suck.

The Higashitaka household, home to the Higashitaka family which consisted of the older police officer Ryohei, his daughter but also single mother Tomoko and Tomoko's son Josuke. A lively place from the unique personalities of the three living inside. Well, it wasn't like this right now.

Peculiar water slipping away from the house window almost like a cobra finished with their prey. A fact so true upon the still body of the family matriarch lying lifeless on the floor. Face carved in blood coated horror slowly changes to a pristine clean outlook through a soft golden aura. Almost if the man died in his slumber and not of gruesome supernatural murder.

The golden aura belonging to a bubblegum arm coated in crystalline diamond armor soon vanishes inside the body of Josuke. Behind Josuke was Jotaro, the man clad in white being a relative, his nephew shockingly taken into consideration that his grandfather was the pomp prince's father. Who knew?

And the older man could only look at the teen that was his uncle trying to coax his dead grandfather back to life with sympathetic pity. Aquamarine eyes that always seemed stuck in a perpetual glare now softened at the scene. The look of someone who had seen a death like this before. Or to be more precise, had experienced such a grizzly sight.

Jotaro knew that this wasn't the time for grief fueled hysterics. There were more pressing matters and dangers ready to drown them from the inside. "Josuke…" Any further words from the older man, alongside any actions from the teen immediately stopped upon one thing. Subtle movement originating from the chest of the officer's corpse before them.

A sickly sweet scent reminiscent of cherries filled the air along with the soft sizzle of something burning. Thin wisps of smoke coming from the body's chest pocket spurred Josuke to go into the clothing's pouch. Baby blue eyes widened seeing a small brown tiki charm in his hands but specifically the feathers that were turning to dust.

"A voodoo charm?" The purplette's attention immediately went back to the corpse of his grandfather. His still chest slowly began to rise and fall almost as if… "He's breathing." It was the only conclusion Jotaro came to upon the subtle movements. The charm in the teenager's hands fully became ash once his previously deceased grandfather sat up looking purely confused.

"Ooh my head… I don't remember my favorite booze having that strong of a kick. Josuke? What are you doing here since I thought you were going out? Who's this guy? And why are you crying?" Ryohei didn't expect to wake up to such a scene or his own grandson to hug him so hard thinking he was about to kick the bucket.

He was quick however to notice the scent of cherry in the air alongside a missing weight in his breast pocket. "Did someone light a scented candle and where did my good luck charm go? Was I mugged or something Josuke?" The elderly man's inquiry had the two younger men share the same look. They needed answers.

/"You want to know who gave me that charm? Well, it was a young girl around my grandson's age. She had green hair, heterochromia with her eyes being orange and blue, and had what looked like a dinosaur skull on her head. Said her name Taki-Taki Bandicoot and came into town looking for ingredients. The charm was based off of a guardian of protection... Aku-Aku I believe she said."/

Information that had both Jotaro and his younger uncle running through the streets of Morioh in a hurry. Ryohei had been put into protective custody with a short call from whoever the raven had pretty high connections to. Something that man would have refused if it wasn't for the fact his son was crying. Josuke only cried when things were at the absolute worst. This made it easier to search without the man being in danger once more.

"I never thought my life would have gotten this insane. First an escaped death row inmate capable of killing his victims from the inside with water and now a Stand User capable of bringing back the dead! Things weren't like this until you came to town!" The highschooler quipped as if to ignore the harsh ache going through his legs.

"Your life was bound to become bizarre the moment you awakened your Stand, no, the moment you were born with Joestar blood. A curse everyone in this damned bloodline has. So don't blame me for the shitshow." Jotaro fired back in absolute annoyance. Their destination was the place mentioned by the woman when Josuke encountered her, Morioh's Springroll Garden.

"Maybe she can remove it? She does know voodoo and it does involve a lot of curse thingies? Do you think Taki-Taki can get rid of my fear of turtles?" The teenager's question was merely met with an eye roll from Jotaro. He was going to shout back an insult until something caught his eyes.

A lone figure standing amongst a large collection of various flora and vegetation belonging to one of Morioh's famous landmarks. More accurately a lonehuman figure and a soft blue floating oddity by them that was very damn familiar to the male clad in white. "There she is and that's the Stand I saw earlier!"

Taki-Taki was currently plucking a few mushrooms from underneath the bushes that provided their moist dark home and placed them into a small straw basket. Springroll Garden was a place where people could pick their vast garden by purchasing a special ticket and take home an entire basket full of items.

"It's kind of cool that the town has such a garden like this. Especially when it guarantees a free basket of fresh goods for first time visitors too!" The luminescent mask said with a big smile while looking at a bush full of white roses. His green haired friend merely let out a chuckle in agreement before speaking. "Same here pal. Makes it a lot easier to find the things needed to work my magic."

A loud shout had the two look up to see some familiar faces running their way. "Wouldn't you know? Hey Pompadour Prince, fancy seeing you here!" Taki-Taki's nickname immediately had the boy stop in his tracks. Face burning in anger until the words finally hitting turned that anger into pure confusion. The sudden confusion didn't stop the mask from cowering behind the greenette.

"Pompadour Prince?" He questioned while pointing to himself, clearly confused. "You kidding? That's the best pompadour I've ever seen. Also, calling you king is going a bit too far since we've barely known each other and aren't in a relationship." Her words caused the male teen to blush a bit paired with a smitten look and cheesy smile.

Jotaro merely elbowed Josuke's shoulder as the highschooler remembered what they were supposed to be doing. "Taki-Taki Bandicoot, we need you to come with us. We already know about you being a Stand User since your Stand is hiding right behind you but also that charm you gave Ryohei Higashitaka before he was attacked."

The greenette merely had a confused look before it immediately narrowed into glare after the words Ryohei Higashitaka and attacked. Her emotions were clearly being felt through the odd mask as it came out of hiding to glare at them. "I knew something bad was bound to happen upon seeing that dark aura. Tell me what you've done to that kind officer before I rip ya putzes a new one!"

Josuke was thrown off guard by the sudden aggression consuming Taki-Taki's features. It was as if a cloak of pure madness just overshadowed that sunny aura of the greenette. The change didn't deter Jotaro who refused to back down at her threat. As if proving his point, a gold aura started to radiate from his body.

"You need to calm down now. We aren't your enemies but I won't hesitate to knock you out even if you're a girl." The man spoke as something appeared from his body like an apparition. It was a humanoid spirit of sorts that appeared to be an Aztec Warrior or barbarian with similar origins.

Just as big and buff as his summoner but a bit more, soft blue skin that outlined a coral inner pink, black hair that flowed like smoke but sparkle as if it was stardust, soft ocean blue eyes and a body armed with white pauldrons painted in gold spirals, black fingerless gold studded gloves, a white scarf around their neck, black knee high boots and a long white loincloth alongside a dark tasset.

Yet, the strange being seemed to only piss off Taki-Taki even further as she went into her pant's pocket to pull out a small crystal orb. "You're going to threaten me with a giant in his skivvies? Alright jackass, hope your ready to party. For this Ooda-Booga Boogie of mine is going to send ya to the hospital!" And she crushed the crystal orb in her hand.

Both men only had seconds until a large blackish pink fist had punched Jotaro's spirit in the face, the ghost and summoner were sent flying out of the garden before kissing the street concrete. Josuke could only blink before seeing the thing responsible for sending his nephew airborne. "Holy shit!" For what stood snarling in front of Taki-Taki was an absolute monster.

A heavily built 9'6 tall slightly deformed anthropomorphic porcupine with vibrant magenta skin overshadowed by a darkish gray hide. A long singular black horn tipped with hot pink, burning crimson eyes that glared down at the man in white, a magenta muzzle overlapped with an giant overbite of fangs, multiple pink tipped black spikes across their back, their right arm covered in black armor in the form of a riot shield, and crimson hakama trousers with a black paw print on the side.

The beast snarled angrily at Jotaro while a trail of drool came down from their razor sharp maw. It then let out a loud and deep inhuman roar almost if challenging anyone foolish enough to face the beast's wrath. Jotaro had gotten back onto his feet, spitting a bit of blood on the road before wiping the remainder from his mouth. Some of it stained bits of his hat a dark crimson. His spirit staring at the beast with an analysistic glare.

"That's one hell of a sucker punch you got there. Quite an ugly bastard of a friend you have, makes me question which one it is though. Is the beast your actual stand or a byproduct of its power?" The question only seemed to aggravate the greenette and the large creature she called upon.

"That 'ugly bastard' is my friend Quill and what is with this Stand garbage anyway?! What I want to know is did you attack Mr. Ryohei?! My charm doesn't just vanish without fulfilling its purpose even if stolen. Now answer me or I'll beat the truth out of you!" Taki-Taki declared with a snarl that held inhumanely sharp teeth.

Josuke didn't have to be a genius to know if he didn't stop these two right now then things were going to get a lot worse. His nephew's Stand went in for a punch while the greenette's large beast followed suit. Neither attack landing their blow as two diamond covered pink hands caught both fists.

The culprit was a giant pink skinned warrior whose body was covered in Corinthian style diamond armor. He was huge with the same type of muscle like Jotaro's spirit, eyes were a bright baby blue that shone through the darkness of the heart top helmet with concern, wires connecting the back of his neck to his back, heart shaped diamond pauldrons with spikes, armor that over lined the side of his arms, legs and back, and diamond plating rings around the fingers.

Unlike Jotaro's Stand or Taki-Taki's giant beast, this one exuded a gentle and kind aura akin to that of a guardian or protector. Something that made sense from the soft magenta aura radiating from Josuke. "Please stop fighting! I don't want to see my nephew or the person who saved my grandpa hurt each other for something stupid!" The pomp prince's words carried strong as they were sincere.

Something the greenette easily felt upon Quill taking a step back as if backing down from the fight since there was no longer any hostility. Jotaro's Stand disappeared soon after while he muttered a soft 'Yare Yare Daze' under his breath. "Holy shit… I thought things were going to get ugly there. I don't think this garden deserves to be wrecked by a Spike." The mask's quip not being lost on anyone.

Later at the Higashitaka House, cups of tea were placed on the table. Sitting at the table on mats were Josuke, Jotaro and the odd woman known as Taki-Taki Bandicoot. To their left side strangely enough was the greenette's mask and both men's spirits that were conversing with each other or goofing off upon the playing cards between them.

"I still don't believe that Stands are basically the spiritual energy of someone given form. You sure they aren't warrior ancestors? Jotaro's Star Platinum looks like an Aztec barbarian and Josuke, your Crazy Diamond reminds of those old Greek soldiers from his armor." She said while looking at the three oddities playing Go Fish.

A Scrabble holder was being used for the mask or Lani-Loli's cards since he didn't have any hands. He would ask either Star Platinum or Crazy Diamond to put any of his matching cards down and when he needed to 'fish' a card. "Pretty sure. Couldn't I ask the same thing about Lani-Loli over there? Floating masks that can talk aren't normal either." Josuke quipped while pointing to the mask in question.

"Hey! I'm right here you know and I'm way older than all of you combined! And I would have you know that I was human before becoming a Quantum Mask! If I still had hands I would smack all three of you on the head!" The mask fired back in aggravation, some of the cards disappearing in blue wisps of smoke... alongside Josuke's clothes.

"Eeek!" He panicked immediately covering his crotch, Jotaro hiding his embarrassment under his hat while Taki-Taki turned her head away with face hot red in embarrassment. "Great Tikimon! Lani-Loli! Phase his clothes back now!" The mask quickly undoing his magic in sheer embarrassment. Josuke's clothes and the cards popping back into reality with similar blue wispy smoke.

Poor teen let out a sigh of relief knowing he wasn't nude in front of a girl anymore. "Sorry! Sometimes I accidentally poof things out of existence when I'm stressed! And nothing says stress like an escaped convict who kills people with living water!" Jotaro rolled his eyes at the smartass remark. For an all mighty ancient mask, Lani-Loli was an anxious nerd that was a scare away from passing out.

The reason why they were holed up in Josuke's house was that all of them were targets of the Stand User Angelo and his Stand Aqua Necklace.

Angelo was a psychopath with a taste of madness and penchant for violence. The man was arrested repeatedly for brutal acts like murder and even sexual assault before he was landed on Death row. Sadly his execution didn't work properly, allowing the maniac to escape the morgue and reach Morioh. He attacked Ryohei as the cop was the reason Angelo got arrested.

Due to the nature of his Stand, none of them could use water that came from anywhere but a bottle in fear of accidentally swallowing the dangerous entity. "And when do you think it's safe for us to go home? Unlike you guys, my dad will go nuts if I ain't back soon. None of us want to deal with an angry father much less my pops, Crash Bandicoot." Taki-Taki wasn't blind to the nervous look on the pompadour prince's face while he took a sip of his tea.

"Until that Stand User is caught." Jotaro didn't foresee the spray of tea hitting his face from the greenette's spit-take. The grown man was growling in his seat while the young woman tried to settle down her coughs. "You nuts?! That is the stupidest thing I ever heard and this is stemming from the fact my partner does insanely stupid stuff on a daily basis!"

Lani-Loli had flown over to the table so fast that the card pile dispersed from the sudden gust, much to both Stand's displeasure. "You said this guy's Stand is pure water right? What do we do when we run out of water? Wait, here's a better one! What happens if it rained? Shelter becomes a deathtrap in two seconds!" Both men's eyes widened upon the mask's words.

After settling down her coughing fit, Taki-Taki let out a soft whisper. "I think this is what that putz wants. Turn ourselves into sitting ducks and swoops in for the kill until it's too late. And it's going to rain in three days." Silence filled the room upon that very knowledge. The convict was planning to turn their stakeout into a trap.

Josuke could only sigh at the difficult hand. Sure, they now know the guy's plan but if they ignore it then finding Angelo would be even harder. It also meant that the psycho will find out Ryohei is still alive and won't hesitate to attack him again. "Then let's turn the tables back. Turn the hunter into the hunted." All eyes were on Taki-Taki in seconds.

She had a goofy smile on her face with her tongue sticking out in an impish manner. There was also the fact that another crystal orb was in her hands. An item that produced the monstrous Quill but unlike that one, this jewel was a shade of toxic green. Lani-Loli, upon seeing what his friend held, grew a mischievous grin of his own. The odd duo clearly had a plan that almost made Jotaro and Josuke feel an ounce of pity. Almost being the keyword.

Rain had finally fallen upon the house once three days had passed by. Taki-Taki had called her father about being home a few days late since some issues had cropped up. Neither Josuke or Jotaro heard the man's voice but what they gathered upon how the greenette talked, 'Crash' was kindly lenient. Although, both males would have to see him once she got back home.

They spent most of their time keeping themselves from getting bored. Board games, reading, or Taki-Taki crafting some… mysterious concoctions and trinkets with whatever she found in the Higashitaka household. Josuke could honestly admit that he didn't know there was a den of possums hiding in his walls but the witch doctor managed to get some possum fur and nail clippings after one landed on Jotaro.

The greenette at the moment was alone in the bathroom, various ingredients that surrounded a lone bucket. Each item was odd in their own right, rat tails, frog eyes, shiitake mushrooms, yew branches, spoiled milk and a bottle of water. Taki-Taki began pouring the ingredients into the vat starting with the rotten dairy.

She was chanting in an unknown language that eerily sounded like a mix of Arabic and Pig Latin. Bucket began to bubble from her words as the color shifted upon every ingredient dropped into the vat. Taki-Taki's water bottle was currently halfway empty through the process and the cap left abandoned to the side.

Unbeknownst to the woman, rain began to patter outside and something opaque began to build up by the window. It looked like water but it held a more bluish hue and moved too much like a living creature to be normal. Then a pair of sinister pink eyes and a grin full of sharp teeth slithered through.

"You sure this isn't a mango?" Josuke currently sat in the front room alongside Lani-Loli who floated over the teenager's shoulder. Standing on the table was a large orange fruit with a yellow bottom similar to a mango but two leaves that hung from a stem. The teenager currently poking at the fruit that had come from Taki-Taki's home.

"Nope! It's a Wumpa Fruit, a pretty common thing to find on the Wumpa Islands. They're much sweeter than mango and the juice is pretty tasty too. Especially when used for a Wumpa Smoothie, those are really good." Being curious upon the mask's words, the pompadour prince took a nicely sized bite of the fruit.

Tangy sweetness was the first thing that hit the highschooler's taste buds then a rich zesty flavor kicked in a matter of seconds. "Holy shit! This is actually pretty good. Yo Jotaro, you have to try this!" The raven poked his head out of the kitchen upon hearing his name. He let out an annoyed sigh before snatching the fruit out of the teen's hand.

"Did someone put salt in your oatmeal today?" Lani-Loli couldn't help but point out at the man's awfully sour mood added by the harsh bite he took out of the poor fruit or the vicious vice grip. "No. None of you are taking this situation seriously and last I checked didn't get an angry rodent trying to claw up your face." He hissed before taking another aggressive bite.

The sound of footsteps had gotten the two humans and mask turning their heads. Approaching them with an eerily quiet and dead stare was Taki-Taki. Her feet moving sluggishly to the point it was close to that of a sleepwalker… or if heavy weights were tied to the woman's legs.

"Taki?" Lani-Loli's voice thick with concern while he spoke his friend's nickname. Her response was to open her mouth slowly with evil pink eyes glaring back at them in the darkness. "Sorry but your little friend's life is now mine!" A vile, raspy and deep male voice coming out of the greenette's mouth, all to the horror of her friends.

"Aqua Necklace?! You bastard, get out of Taki-Taki now Angelo!" Josuke could only burn brighter in rage from the deranged laugh of the psychopathic water Stand. "And get rid of my only hostage?! Hell no! This bitch is the reason why Ryohei Higashitaka is still alive! She has the power to bring back the dead, a ticket to immortality!" The mask could only roll his eyes as if sensing a monologue.

"I've been watching you this whole time. I saw the giant beast she summoned and that mask phasing things through existence. With her as my slave, I'll be invincible! The world will be my toy box and every single person my toys that I can break for eternity! Once you're all dead, I'll break her until she's a mindless bitch who will follow my every…" The monologue was caught short upon her mouth snapping shut.

Yet, it wasn't the lips that closed the space but an eerie green substance reminiscent to goo. "The hell?!" Aqua Necklace tried to dive down the woman's throat only to run into another gooey green wall. Then he heard laughter. Pink eyes turned to see it was Lani-Loli who was responsible. He was cackling mischievously that tears looked ready to fly from how hard his laughter, much to the confusion of his friends.

"Haha! Hehehehe! You really thought it would be so easy! Taki and I faced way worse than your miserable hide. Oh, and that's not Taki-Taki you putz! Drop the charade Toxic!" Jotaro and Josuke immediately jumped back upon who they thought was Taki-Taki began to melt. All color draining away into a puddle of green slightly clear goo.

Crazy Diamond and Star Platinum were quickly summoned when that sludge started to rise up in the process of a transformation. The slime forming three toed misshapen legs, dripping fat arms with chubby fingers, a large yellow green belly that from its almost clear texture and Aqua Necklace being held inside looked more like a prison, and a roundish hippo like head paired with short pig ears, large deformed inhuman teeth and two alien yellow orbs looking back at it's observers.

The beast or Toxic's appearance could be compared to a 8 ft tall ogre or even an Oni, supernatural beings that tend to punish wicked humans. "Meet the Sludge, a creature made of magic infused ooze with a love for eating utter garbage, like your ugly face! I told Toxic here about your little plan involving my best friend."

Almost on cue, the large oozing beast let a loud snarl before smoke began filling in its tummy. "Aaaaaaah! What the hell is that smell?! It's getting hot in here! Don't tell me this is acid?!" The mask only had a vicious smile on his face that solidified the fact. "People like you make me sick. I've read your entire file and I bet it would even make Uka-Uka himself furious to see your deeds!" Aqua Necklace could only shiver in horror at the mask.

It was like Lani-Loli's nervous self had been overshadowed by pure animalistic rage that his eyes were narrowed slits and teeth were now large fangs held in a snarl. A deity ready to smite a sinner with divine punishment. Even Jotaro and Josuke were taken aback by the sudden shift.

"I may be a scaredy cat but I am still a protector. My name is Lani-Loli, the Quantum Mask of Phase! For ruining the lives of many, threatening my friends and having an unsavory plan for my contractor, I mark you Angelo and his Stand Aqua Necklace, guilty of your sins! And boy do I have a nice punishment for your wicked soul."

The mask then faced the two Joestar blooded men. "Josuke. Jotaro. Taki-Taki left earlier to find this cretin's owner hence my friend Toxic here taking her place. I know where she is and I'm going to need your help with something."

On a street a few blocks from Josuke's house sat a large boulder. This rock had laid on this spot for centuries after a stray storm left it stranded on the land that would become Morioh. Tied to this very stone was an unsavory dark haired man in a milkman uniform bound by chains and gagged with a black cloth. Bruises decorating his body no doubt from the slightly bloody fists of the witch doctor.

Taki-Taki turned her head and smiled upon the sight of her friends coming into view. Aqua Necklace was still trapped within the prison that was Toxic's stomach, who seemed mighty pleased at the abomination's struggle. "Damn, you did a number on the asshole." Josuke said much to the greenette's pleasure.

"I aim to please. Now then, Angelo, since you made a living of ruining people's lives I believe your punishment should be providing good luck." Taki-Taki then pulled from behind the rock was the bucket filled with her concoction. It was a bright bubbling pink and had a smell akin to rotten lavender. She didn't resist dumping the nasty vat all over the convict much to his displeasure.

The man was struggling in disgust before his movements slowed to a crawl as if his whole body was paralyzed except for his mouth and eyes. Taki then yanked the gag from Angelo's lips allowing the man to speak. "You...crazy bitch…! What have you done?" His raspy dry voice almost sounded like a dying cat from how quiet it was.

"A simple potion made to turn you into an eternal good luck charm for all the folks in Morioh! Bet you now wished that your original execution didn't fail. Josuke, this last part is all up to you. Today you will have to make a choice on how this man goes out." Taki-Taki's eyes narrowed as they glowed inhumanly under the dark cloudy sky.

"Ryohei Higashitaka was the one who put this man in jail and stopped his rampage. In vengeance, this scum tried to rob a righteous soul of his life. As Ryohei's grandson, will you fulfill his task and put an end to the man that escaped the grim reaper's blade? If not, then I will perform the deed with Lani-Loli. What do you say?"

The pompadour prince was a bit off guard by the witch doctor's words. Why would she ask him if he wanted to be the one that dealt Angelo's punishment? "Josuke?! Are you seriously going to let her kill me? Sure I tried to kill your grandfather but if you go along with this bitch's plan then you'll be a killer just like me!"

None of them were blind to the man's false pleas knowing it was a trick to let him go. A rat that will only wreak havoc if given a shred of mercy. Angelo's rants were caught off by a fist breaking both his hand and a chunk of the rock. The shocking thing was that the stone merged and encased itself around the appendage much to the psycho's horror.

"Aaah! My hand!! What are you doing?" Josuke merely ignored the man's painful cries. "You really think that we're going to let you go after all you've done. This town used to be a peaceful place before you came and played with people's lives! So for the rest of your days, you're going to pay back every family that you destroyed! Taki-Taki." The greenette smiled knowing what the young man wanted.

"Let's do this Lani-Loli! Armor up!" The cyan mask flew around Taki-Taki with trails of aqua wispy trails that followed from behind. The mask situated himself onto her back while the ghostly ribbons wrapped themselves around her body. Each wispy streak solidified to form a black jumpsuit of sorts which was highlighted by glowing aqua blue chunks of armor reminiscent of Lani-Loli's crown.

Taki-Taki's eyes were now completely glowing blue while velvet sky blue energy followed through the tattoos on her skin and turned her hair into luminous bluish mist. The sudden change to the witch doctor had the restrained Angelo sweating in terror and nearly pissing himself when Josuke's Crazy Diamond materialized.

"Dorarararararara!!!!" The armored spirit let out a battle cry as both him and the armored greenette let loose a barrage of vicious punches. Each strike was as destructive and fast as machine gun rounds, blowing off huge chunks of the stone and merging to the man trapped in the dead center. Neither of them stopping their assault until every piece of stone had been reassembled.

With one last brutal punch, the stone fragments had fully merged Angelo turning the once human male into a deformed boulder. This new shape of the large stone was a malformed face with wide eyes held in different angles, a large flat nose at the bottom similar to a maui and stress lines just like the person it used to be.

Aqua Necklace, who was still trapped in Toxic's belly, quickly melted away in seconds. No doubt the Stand could no longer survive without the life force of its user, thus following its master into hell. Jotaro could only grimace behind the guard of his cap.

[Morioh Landmark 1: Angelo's Rock. No one knows where this mysterious stone appeared from or why. Despite its unnerving appearance, this landmark is a hotspot for couples both old and new.]

'These three are bat shit crazy and have the strength to back it up. Luckily Josuke has a good head on shoulders but…' The raven's eyes drifted to Taki-Taki, her sludge summon and most importantly Lani-Loli still hanging onto her back. She was conversing with Josuke who took the time to look at her changed form and the living sludge Toxic in rapt curiosity.

'Taki-Taki isn't a Stand User but she's just as dangerous as one. Those beasts, Quill and Toxic, whatever they are no doubt has a connection to her origins. And then there's Lani-Loli. I don't exactly know what a Quantum Mask is but I have a feeling he isn't the only one. Just who are you?'

And that is it! This ended being super long since the story revolves around two whole episodes instead of one. It does take place in the beginning of Part 4 and I wanted to stick as close to canon involving them.

Yes, Taki-Taki can call upon Titans, the enemies normally found in the Crash of the Titan series. Unlike a large chunk of people, I actually like the Titan games. They were the first Crash games I played and 100%. I did play Crash The Huge Adventure for the gameboy advance but it got destroyed in the wash sadly before I got the last crystal.

Any version of Crash of the Titans is good but I suggest playing the DS version of Mind Over Mutant considering the console version is more of an annoying chore with tons of backtracking.

My favorite Titans are Spike and Rhinoroller. I especially love the boss version of Spike from the DS Mind Over Mutant but I haven't found the concept art of it yet.

Just like a witch doctor, Taki-Taki does craft all sorts of potions and charms. The Aku-Aku charm acts like a second chance. If someone who has the charm experiences death, the charm will revive them. Deaths done through murder are a bit different.

The charm will hold onto their soul until its safe to revive the holder. Any extensive damage is done and the soul is returned back to the body once repairs are complete. After use, the charm will disintegrate or dull out depending on how much damage was caused.

The Phase Armor given by Lani-Loli is much different for Taki-Taki when she uses it. Reason for it is that she's contracted to him thus the power and magic he provides is much stronger than someone who doesn't have a contract.

Even if Lani-Loli is quite a skittish character,that doesn't mean he won't get serious when needed. Angelo did a lot of horrible stuff that I bet even Uka-Uka wouldn't do. Uka-Uka may be evil but he has standards.

I wanted to try a different writing style for this considering Part 4 is more of a murder mystery. So I wanted to introduce particular areas, new landmarks and important information in a traversing to the next scene.

Until next time folks! Tell the world that your unbreakable!

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lordxgrinnyxboy · 4 years ago

Text

watching Flowers For Mrs. Harris! Act One!

(thanks Ellie and Mary! :D) (edit: contains spoilers!)

first thought “wow it’s super silent huh” my headphones weren’t on u-u ooooh Music

okay so we’re opening with a Table and Two People okay who are they okay are they having breakfast? I like the background. the background looks cool.

i’m go with crimson just bc i think scarlet would have a little more orange to it wouldn’t it? wait a second is the teapot a snail? my god that’s Adorable sir

“that was 31 years ago” moooooooooooood

awwww he wants her to sell his watch to do something nice for herself? that’s sweet :’3

i think the teapot is not a snail :(

“all i ever needed was here, right here” i’m heeeeeeeeeeere

is that real bread

awwwwwwwwwww

im emotionally invested in these two already

IT’S REAL BREAD?

wait he’s not...gonna die is he....he doesn’t DIE and then she sells the watch? please?

it’s dark and im Nervous

WAIT WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU MISS HIM

WHAT DO YOU MEAN DON’T YOU MISS YOUR

DID HE DIE? DID HE JUST WALK OFF STAGE AND DIE?

WHAT

YOU WERE VERY LUCKY?

IS HE DEAD?

oh my god he died did

is it real cake

is this what it feels like to step in one of those traps where it’s the loop of rope and you’re walking minding your own business and then it yoinks you up into the air by your ankle

it is real cake wow

but he’s DEAD? and it’s been a YEAR?

oh no Something’s Going To Happen? u-u

i like the the friend and i like Ada, both Very Good, Seem like Nice People.

oh to live close enough by a Buddy to drop by and surprise them with Cake :3

how fancy is this dress dear lord

haven’t got a read on Rich Lady yet but i hope she’s Friendly even if it is in a condescending rich person way like pls be nice to Ms. Ada thanks

love how that one strip of stage looks like a Tie going one way and a kind of Gregorian ShyGuy (from Kirby?) Monk the other way

i like that she’s found an Art Thing to be super into like? for some people it’s paintings or sculptures or theater or dance or literature or music or whatever and for her i guess it’s fashion/dresses! Fantastic! Good for her!

i support u ada live ur dream

“numbers” i don’t think there is any more on-brand certified Mr Maskell, immediate “yep that’s mr maskell”-inducing way that he couldve said that. that was some signature Mr. Maskell right there.

alright ‘bob’ who are you in love with who’s this ‘her’

pamler okay

still allergic to standing up i see

“just look at me. why would such beautiful perfection ever look at me” i see Gwyn was not a one-off

are his glasses frames leopard-print

HOW DARE YOU SMACK THOSE PAPERS OUT OF HER HAND WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU

ha. nerd. he’s got some cuteness to him. some endearing qualities. oh mr maskell.

shfjsfhajfhajk his hands he’s got good hands

he sees a pretty woman and just. does that. wow it’s like God just threw him at a windshield

hashtag petition to Help Bob. he needs it. desperately.

so. pamler and bob huh

WHAT ARE YOU DOING ON THAT CHAIR BOB YOU’RE GOING TO BREAK YOUR ANKLE

“he’s acting like a proper twit” HE IS BUT YOU DON’T HAVE TO SAY IT PAMLER

that’s right bob you take your chair and go have fun being wobbly

who is THAT 👀 the person who just put the box on the floor 👀

aw countess

“something to come home to” awww

don’t be mean to her ma’am you gotta support your friend! sure it might not be the most practical dream but dreams rarely are! let her have this!

DON’T FIGHT LADIES PLEASE

VIOLET COME ON DON’T DO THIS

DISAPPOINTED IN HER? WHAT?

HE’S NOT DEAD?

oh oh i see :(

😭😭😭

what about the watch? is Violet going to be even more upset if the coupon she left winds up winning? or?

oh hey is that my person who put the box on the floor but now in a tux?

DAMMIT BOB

BOB?

oh god Bob please Bob oh my god Bob, BOB no,

B O B

bob

oh pls tell me it’s gonna work out pls let her be able to go pls pls pls

my box person! heyoo!

oh no oh no don’t talk up bad news don’t be doing that

aw :(

okay but what about the watch?

pls tell me he wasn’t buried with it

bc if so it’s time to exhume a fella we got stuff to do

wait does she have some pennies put by in the flower vase tho

yeah ada let’s math this let’s get Bob to run the numbers and see how that money might be found let’s do it i believe in u lemme see your budget i’ll do it for free we’re gonna get you what you need ma’am

YEAH VIOLET GOOD GIRL

oh god my heart i’m. oh god 😭

ma’am pls take care of yourself you can’t enjoy your dress if you run urself into the ground trying to get it u-u

oh hi bobert

was it necessary to say ‘wonderland’ Like That OwO

ohmygod what did you just do with your head. do it again. i gotta rewind

oh 🙏 mr 🙏 maskell 🙏

oh no oh no mrs harris pls don’t get sick and have to spend all your savings on hospital we can’t have that pls don’t pls get inside

THAT LAUGH I’M

DAMMIT BOB

she’s about to give all her savings to her little client people isn’t she u-u

oh mrs h why you telling tales

MOULIN ROUGE??????

honestly Mrs H idk if Bob even needs an explanation in order to take a picture for you you could probably be like “hey. photo me” and he’d be like “okay”

oh his little laugh i’m 😭 we never got this with Gwyn 😭

is she about to die and the afterlife is where the dress is i mean for goodness’ sake i have Concerns

idk shouldn’t u make sure you’ve got a little bit extra for Just In Case scenarios?

PAMLER DON’T BE MEAN

OH NO OH NO WHY THIS WHY NOW

where’s the watch sell the watch!

THERE YA GO ALBERT TELL HER

i mean if he originally wanted her to sell his watch and use the money to do something nice for herself then technically anything she gets with the watch money is basically a present from him which means the watch’s “last thing I have left of you” properties are transferable to anything she uses the money to buy

TRUST ME MRS H THAT’S HOW IT WORKS. USE THE WATCH IT’S WHAT HE WANTED

😭😭😭

oh my god 😭

YEEHAW SHE’S GOING TO PARIS GOOD JOB MA’AM

#flowers for mrs harris spoilers #i've never been so stressed out invested in hoping someone succeeds in obtaining a Really Expensive dress before

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infinitestarsintheskye · 4 years ago

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The Lady and the Chauffeur Name Thing

So at the end of my LAST installment of my FS Downton Abbey AU, Christmas at the Abbey, I promised that if ONE person wanted an explanation of the many new names that popped up I would write it. Well many weeks ago now the lovely @valentinaonthemoon asked for such a list, and I am a woman of my word, even if I completely forgot about and only remembered about it just now. I’m going to pop it under a read more bc it is going to get LONG and also contain ALL OF THE SPOILERS for that series.

OKAY SO

We’ll do this in birth order I think. Nicknames are in ()

Eilidh May FitzSimmons, born December 12th 1919 - The first of the many babies!! As many of you will know if you have been following me for a while, Eilidh May was, pre-finale of course, my utter ride or die name for baby girl Fitzsimmons. I think I have like three or four fics with this particular name in it, I loved it so much. Eilidh is the Scottish variation of Helen, and means sun-ray, which ugh wouldn’t that just be so perfect for a little FitzSimmons baby. I was just utterly in love with the idea of FS giving their baby a Scottish name (as you will see in the NEXT FS baby) and the fact that this had a space/star/sun/celestial twist to it just absolutely SOLD IT for me. I should add, for all my non-scottish followers that Eilidh is pronounced Ay-Lee. I have no idea how gaelic pronunciation works, I just know how to say it. Her middle name, May, doesn’t need much explanation. I just loved the idea of them giving their little girl a middle name after someone on the team.

George (Georgie) Lincoln Campbell, born 2nd October 1921 - Okay ngl, I got real lazy with this name. Mary and Matthew’s (who Daisy and Lincoln were in the place of in this fic) son was also named George, and I liked it, I thought it would be cute if he was called Georgie, as a bit of a variation. His middle name comes from his father, obvi, who, in keeping with BOTH canons (the noise I made when I figured out I could do that I swear. I’m so sorry Lincoln it was just far too good an opportunity to pass up), I killed off on the day he was born. My apologies.

Hamish Phillip FitzSimmons, born 6th January 1922 - Oh this name. A lot of people REALLY don’t like this name, which is fine. As I said with Eilidh, I was really on a kick of giving FS babies Scottish names. I originally dismissed Hamish, and it just wouldn’t leave me alone, and just utterly grew on me. I actually went to school with a Hamish, he was a fair few years below me and he was just the tiniest, most adorable little toot! From what I can gather, Hamish is an anglicised version of Seamus or Seumus, which is the gaelic version of James, which is a very long and roundabout way of honouring Fitz’s middle name, but I still love having that connection. The middle name, Phillip, again, this name was a love of mine before this fic came about and it just seemed so natural to me that they would name their son after Coulson, and there was just no other name I liked so much with Hamish

Kathleen (Kathy) Skye FitzSimmons, born 30th May 1925 - I have no really grand explanation for this name, other than Kathleen is a special name to me, and I love using it in stories. It fit in well I thought with the 1920′s style of naming (yes I did that extensive googling) and as I say it is a very dear name to me and FitzSimmons are deserving of it. Skye, again, I’m just going through the checklist of names from the team. This was in NO WAY a narcissistic naming, I promise, I just really think they’d give their child that as a middle name, as also this was my way of slipping a lil bit of Scottish into her name too. Just a smidge :)

Hazel June Sousa, born 14th October 1926 - Oh Hazel. Hazel is just a name I really love. It is also the name of a dear friend of mine who I don’t get to see very often, and I just love it. Honestly I was just trying to find names that worked with the last name Sousa and Hazel just popped into my head. Again it works with 1920′s naming trends, (again with the googling) and yeah I just really love it. The middle name June comes from the fact that in this fic, Daisy and Sousa get married in the month of June. I thought that was a nice way of honouring their relationship, through their daughters name :)

Finley (Flint) Alphonso Mackenzie, born 28th May 1927 - So Mack and Elena adopting Flint is basically canon isn’t it??!?!? He is their son I will have no arguments. SO finding a name that Flint would work for as a nickname, bc lets be real no one was naming their child Flint in 1926, I had to find a roundabout way, was NOT EASY. I still have no idea how Flint could come from Finley, but it is close enough to make sense. By the time I got to Flint I had already named five children and was getting a bit lazy, and so his middle name is just the same as his fathers first name, which is still a very common middle name tactic.

Emily Lorna FitzSimmons, born 12th October 1927 - Again, by the time I got to poor little Emily, I had named six children already. Emily I just like. Every Emily I have ever met has honestly been the nicest and sweetest person I have ever known. It has a good track record for me and it just sounds so nice with Fitzsimmons. Lorna, Lorna comes from my own personal headcanon for Fitz’s mum’s name, and so I think that’s where Lorna comes from, as a way of honouring Fitz’s mum. It is also believed to derive from the name of the Scottish town Lorne, so snuck another bit of Scotland into baby FitzSimmons’s name :)

Arthur (Archie) James FitzSimmons, born 14th August 1929 - If you all cast your minds back, at the very start of the Lady and the Chauffeur, I named Jemma’s dad, Lord Shieldshire, Arthur Simmons. So this was my way of honouring dear old Donk, but they call him Archie, just so he’s his own wee man. James, again, got a bit lazy, same middle name as Fitz. Also v Scottish name, we are 5/5 for Scottish baby FitzSimmons :)

Eve Margaret Sousa, born December 24th 1929 - Eve, well, she was born on Christmas Eve. I cast around for ages trying to find Christmasy names. She was Robyn for a little while, I considered Noel, but that felt a little too contemporary, so she was Eve! And yes, Margaret is my little wink to Agent Carter. I couldn’t help myself.

Violet Faith Mackenzie, born 6th April 1930 - I actually had a lot of fun finding this name. I briefly considered calling her Hope, but no, that felt a little too on the nose for me. The name Violet comes from obviously the little purple flower, but the flower itself means hope, which I liked. Out of the three surnames, I feel like Mackenzie is the easiest out of all of them to find names for, (maybe it’s because I’m Scottish and know a fair few people with that Mac/Mc sound at the start of their surname) and I played around with a few possibilities, but honestly I just fell in love with Violet. Faith comes from the fact that faith is very important to both Mack and Elena and I wanted to consider that and honour that in the naming of their little girl.

Edward (Teddy) Donald FitzSimmons, born December 1st 1932 - The last (for real this time) little FitzSimmons baby of this verse. Blame Fitz being forever broody and Jemma just loving their babies so much, and also being an easy burst when it comes to Fitz and their babies. This name, boy oh boy, this name was HARD. Girls names for FitzSimmons babies, for some reason, easy as pie for me, I have a list as long as my arm of girls names I love for them. As for boys names, Hamish is the only one that has really stuck long term for me. All of the names I found for this poor wee boy that I liked were just a bit too modern, so I had to go searching again. I saw Edward, realised it could be shortened to Teddy and fell in LOVE. Only in this verse would I really get away with calling a baby Teddy so I took the chance and ran with it, and now little dark haired blue eyed Teddy FitzSimmons runs around rent free in my brain. His middle name, is not really obvious why I chose it at first glance. Again I struggled. I couldn’t really find any more Scottish names that I liked, or at least ones that i could give poor Simmons a fighting chance of pronouncing properly (Lachlan is still on my list and I have NEVER heard anyone not Scottish pronounce that first syllable properly). So Scottish was out, and so I went to my next mainstain of family names. And Deke or Enoch were the only two male names I hadn’t touched. Enoch was going to be impossible to find a link (trust me I tried) but DEKE, comes from a common nickname for Donald. So Donald he was.

I hope you enjoyed this little (haha) list! I just love putting thought and meaning into names, and this kind of gives you a little glimpse into my naming process. Yes I know I will be a nightmare if I ever have children. That is a whole SEPARATE and ever changing and evolving list.

#skye rambles #fitzsimmons #skye writes #the lady and the chauffeur #Christmas at the Abbey #tlatc #cata

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creampuffqueen · 5 years ago

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Feyre x Rhysand baby headcanons

Alrighty! First one for acotar kiddos!

-Alright alright alright here we go kids

-Feyre and Rhys are clearly the first to have kids. It's just a fact

-Unlike in the ToG world, however, it takes wayyy longer

-In the acotar world, it's been about thirty-ish years since the war with Hybern

-Things have happened. Eris has taken over his father's spot as High Lord of the Autumn Court. Tarquin found his mate. Helion realized that Lucien was his son and took him in.

-And yet, the Inner Circle has remained the same

-The first few years after the events of acofas were kind of hard for Feyre. Even though she knew it would take a while, she was still disappointed when she didn't get pregnant immediately

-Then life got busy, and their focus was elsewhere

-Which is why, nearly thirty years later, Feyre finds herself.. not feeling too great

-The thing is, none of her symptoms scream 'PREGNANCY' that much

-She was nauseous for a few days, no throwing up

-Had an odd craving or two

-Was extra tired for a while there

-So neither Feyre nor Rhys is too concerned

-The real surprise comes when Feyre starts gaining weight

-Now that's odd

-Feyre's been training for three decades. She's like, swole

-But then her breasts start to get sensitive

-And her stomach starts to get pudgy and soft

-The final clue is when her scent starts to change

-Rhys wakes up one morning and smells his amazing wife, only to find... she doesn't smell quite the same

-Feyre feels fine, but because Rhys is Rhys and must be overprotective, he instantly calls for Madja, their healer

-Madja knows what's up right away

-Because she's just cool like that

-"I am pleased to inform you that you are about three months pregnant, Lady Feyre."

-At first neither believes it

-They haven't been trying, but then again, they haven't been preventing it either

-As soon as the healer leaves, making sure that Feyre promises to show up regularly at the clinic, the couple literally just sit and squeal with excitement for like a solid five minutes

-They are freaking ecstatic, like seriously. Feyre has never seen Rhys so happy before. They're both over the moon

-Because Feyre's already three months pregnant and her scent has changed, they decide to just tell everyone

-Rhys drags Cassian, Azriel, Mor, and Amren down for dinner. Nesta and Elain, being sort of married to some of those people, obviously tag along

-When they're all gathered, Cassian is being all 'what is this even about'

-And Feyre pretty much just jumps up and down and says 'I'm pregnant!'

-Like, she's still so freaking excited

-Of course, the whole Inner Circle pretty much loses it

-Cassian is yelling and patting Rhys on the back, Mor and Elain are both crying, Nesta is actually smiling and so is Azriel. Even Amren seems mildly less annoyed with them for once

-Basically everyone is just so happy for them

-And because Rhys can't keep a secret, almost the entirety of Velaris knows within the week

-Which means that the Court of Nightmares is also aware

-And the Illyrian camps

-And... other Courts

-The citizens of Velaris are all so kind. Feyre gets tons of handmade gifts and lots of food, which is good because she is mostly just hungry and tired all the time

-The Court of Nightmares is... another experience. They give congrats, mostly so they don't seem rude

-But otherwise they don't bother them too much

-Some of the Illyrian camps are hostile, but most are also at least semi-polite

-It's the other Courts Rhys is worried about

-He doesn't think most of them will try anything. But he is concerned

-He doesn't want anything to happen to Feyre or the baby

-So he makes Feyre always keep someone with her just in case. He just wants a buddy system

-Feyre is annoyed at first, but she doesn't want anything to happen either, so she's fine with it. Besides, she likes spending time with her friends and family

-When Feyre is about six months pregnant, Nesta finds out she's pregnant, too

-Which Feyre is ecstatic about, because it means she gets to experience pregnancy with her sister

-Nesta's pregnancy is, unfortunately, a lot harder

-Which means Feyre can't spend as much time with her as she'd like

-But still, it's fun

-At nine months pregnant, Feyre is irritable and uncomfortable

-Rhys spends a few nights in guest bedrooms because Feyre needs the whole bed to sleep

-And some nights she can't sleep at all, so she wanders around the River House aimlessly

-They have a nursery, toys, and so many clothes they don't know what to do with them all

-All they need is a baby

-One day after her due date, Feyre wakes up suddenly in the middle of the night in a pool of water

-She goes to take a bath, trying not to wake up her mate, when she feels it

-A contraction

-It's not that bad, though, so she takes the bath

-She thinks it's just a false alarm, since it was only one and nearly half an hour later there weren't any more

-But when she wakes Rhys up to change the sheets, she feels another

-Again, Rhys being Rhys, gets Madja

-Poor woman, she was probably being called to the River House twice a day because Rhys is an anxious mother hen

-But, guess, what

-Feyre's in labor!

-As far as Fae births go, hers is pretty easy

-Afterwards Feyre doesn't want to know what a hard labor feels like

-Because she was in labor for eleven hours and was in so much pain she couldn't feel her legs halfway through

-Madja nearly had to pull the baby out herself

-Rhys was there to support her the whole way through, and was honestly the only reason Feyre did so well

-If it weren't for him she thinks she wouldn't have been able to do it

-But after everything is said and done

-A little baby boy is asleep on Feyre's chest

-His name is Cirrus Beddor Archeron

-After Clare, the girl who was an unknowing sacrifice to Amarantha

-Cirrus has a head of night-black hair, and tiny little wings wrapped around his body that are nearly translucent with how thin they are

-For Illyrians, they don't gain much body weight soon after birth because all the muscle and fat goes to strengthening the wings

-Which is true for little Cirrus. He's a tiny little bit underweight until he's about a month old

-But damn is he cute

-When he opens his eyes, Feyre nearly gets her breath taken away. He looks exactly like the boy the Bone Carver showed her

-As he gets older, Cirrus is a good kid

-A troublesome toddler, but hey, what can you expect, really? Have you seen his relatives?

-Every now and then he'll say something very weirdly wise for someone so young

-And it's incredibly obvious how powerful he is

-Like, he's got powers from all the Courts, plus extra Night Court powers, PLUS Illyrian genetics and powers

-This kid is crazy powerful

-Which is why Rhys and Feyre train with him relentlessly

-If Cirrus can't expel his powers properly, he could seriously injure someone else. Or even himself

-He's a smart kid, and a strong one

-By the time he's six years old he's got a handle on his powers

-Not enough to properly use them, but enough to control them

-Which is good

-Because Feyre finds herself pregnant again

-This time she's pregnant at the same time as Elain, which is fun again

-And just like last time, her pregnancy is smooth sailing

-Cirrus will practice his reading by reading books to Feyre's belly

-And Rhys is again, overprotective doting mother hen

-This baby is a girl

-And she's the exact opposite of Cirrus

-Feyre's gold-brown hair and violet eyes

-Wings, but not as much power as her older brother

-Her name is Camille Alis Archeron

-Camille's powers are sort of strange

-She has a tiny bit of each power, but her most prominent is not Night Court powers. It's Summer, Day, and Spring

-Camille is a quieter kid

-Cirrus loves her to bits, but sometimes he's just too much for his introverted little sister

-She does, however, get along strangely well with Mor. Even though Mor is her opposite, she's definitely Camille's favorite aunt

-And this little girl also ADORES books

-She spends almost all her time in the library

-When Camille is four years old, another addition joins the Archeron family

-A second baby girl, with hair blacker than the night, and violet eyes

-She looks exactly like Rhys

-Her name is Caliphe Feyre Archeron

-And she's the most troublesome of the three

-It's because she's the baby

-So she gets away with everything

-Cirrus and Camille love their little sister, but she's kind of... ruthless

-Too much time with aunt Amren

-Caliphe is obsessed with jewelry and all things shiny, and is also obsessed with flying and fighting

-She loves to fly more than anything in the entire world

-And Cali also has the strongest Night Court powers of all her siblings

-Her Daemati powers are out of this world. It's completely insane

-She doesn't have any other powers besides those from her father. Nothing from any other Court

-But still, she's freakishly strong

-Feyre and Rhysand have got three of the strongest Fae on their hands

-And you know what?

-Their kids are their joys

-The reason they get up in the morning

-And yeah, maybe Camille is reading instead of doing schoolwork, and Cirrus is causing trouble in the markets, and Caliphe is stealing jewels

-But they wouldn't have it any other way

-The story Worlds of Fire and Darkness takes place when Cirrus is 20, Camille is 14, and Caliphe is 8

#a court of thorns and roses #acotar #acotar gen 2 #sarah j maas #sjm #feysand #feyre x rhysand

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yourdeepestfathoms · 5 years ago

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Ladies in waiting singing their queen’s songs

They somehow got the time to make themselves diverse costumes instead of their ugly black ones and went out with those on. Maria is scarlet, Maggie is teal, Joan is violet, and Bessie is indigo. They also have all new dances they made.

Maria would fucking destroy No Way. She sings it mainly to Aragon (which is obviously a joke; Aragon isn’t offended. She’s very impressed and proud). In the beginning, there’s a lot of stomping around to the beat. As a drummer, it’s just natural for Maria to do this. And then at the end she gets down on her knees and one of the other ladies in waiting is an impromptu Henry for her. It’s awesome

MAGGIE SINGING DON’T LOSE UR HEAD!!! SHE’S FUCKING ADORABLE. ANNE IS SO PROUD OF HER. The amount of times she fingerguns is unreal. The dances she does really highlights how young she is, and how much of a gen z kid she is. After the “everybody chill it’s totes God’s will” the others throw flower petals on her. And at the part where it’s like “I wouldn’t be such a bitch if you could get it up” she said “SHE wouldn’t be such a bitch if you could get it up” in reference to Anne. She also says “What was SHE meant to do?!” and is kinda like guarding Anne while the other ladies in waiting start grabbing her and forcing her down on her knees and Maria brings out a whole ass sword and Maggie’s fucking panicking, clearly a little scared because uhhh she watched her friend die like this but she holds it together. Then she’s like “wait I’m not the one who was beheaded!!” and the other ladies in waiting kinda freeze, Maria’s holding the sword in the air, and then they start dancing again. It’s fun!

Joan singing Heart of Stone is honestly beautiful. She sings it better than Jane don’t @ me. She tried to branch out with it more, though, and moved around a little more because she doesn’t want to stand it one spot. It’s gorgeous. Instead of saying “my son” or “I’ll be by your side” or “my love is set in stone” She says “her son” and “She’ll be by your side” and “Her love is set in stone” because she’s referring to Jane. Jane cries. She also hugs Joan really tightly afterwards and it’s very sweet.

Haus of Holbein is just fucking wild okay. They’ve been wanting to dance to this for forever and they’re not gonna waste it

BESSIE SINGING GET DOWN BESSIE SINGING GET DOWN BESSIE SINGING GET DOWN BESSIE SINGING GET DOWN

HOLY FUCK HOLY FUCK HOLY FUCK THIS IS THE BEST ONE. She starts out on the ground and the other ladies in waiting are lounged around her. Joan is stretched out in her lap, Maria is draped across her back, and Maggie leans against her side and they’re all kind of, like, grooming her. Then she gets up and they follow her around like ducklings. There’s a lot of petting, kinda. And touching. But not sexual. It’s hard to explain, but it looks cool and they move with the beat perfectly. Bessie is also amazing at dancing like holy fuck. Anyway, she ends up stripping off her coat, and her costume under it is 👌👌👌👌 just sayin. The growl in her voice at the last “Get down you dirty rascal” literally sent everyone watching it was a fucking experience.

They don’t sing All You Wanna Do because they’re not assholes. That’s not their boundary to cross.

They do sing I Don’t Need Your Love and they rally the queens to join in.

All and all it’s fucking incredible. These girls deserve to sing

#I have a lot of feelings about them singing #especially bessie and get down #just saying #they would kill the show #six the musical #ladies in waiting #maria on the drums #maggie on the guitar #joan on the keys #bessie on the bass #catherine of aragon #anne boleyn #jane seymour #anna of cleves #katherine howard #catherine parr

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skylights422 · 5 years ago

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10 Favorite Characters

Rules: name your top 10 favorite characters from 10 different fandoms and then tag 10 people

I was tagged by @bemused-writer! Thanks for the tag! Of course, I have many more than ten favorite characters, and could probably be tagged in this several times and come up with mostly different answers each time, but here are a few formative or otherwise noteworthy characters I quite liked:

Fai D. Fluorite (Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle)

When I was high-key obsessing over Tsubasa, Fai was very much my favorite.I loved his cheer, his angst, how he was fundamentally so kind, his look, his relationships with the other characters...basically everything. I just found him incredibly enjoyable and interesting as a character, he was funny and charismatic and relatable.

Lavi (D. Gray-Man)

Lavi really spoke to me when reading/watching D.Gray-Man. I found his role as bookman and his perspective absolutely fascinating, and really liked seeing his character progress. He was a lot of fun ad had interesting relationships with Allen and Lenalee in particular. I was generally just very invested in his character arc and thought it explored a lot of interesting ideas.

Watanuki Kimihiro (xxxHolic)

Watanuki was easily my favorite in xxxholic okay, he was such a good person alright his whole arc with the ghost lady in the tree, and him taking care of Kohane (who was also awesome by the way), his friendship with the little fox spirit dude and with Mugetsu, UGH. GOOD STUFF. Plus he had an incredible and moving character arc and I just really like him okay? He’s hardcore about everything and is an awesome fella.

No Face (Spirited Away)

Okay so I went with No Face for Spirited Away because while I LOVE all the main characters, No Face really stood out to me as a kid and was the one I tended to fixate on the most. The whole atmosphere of his character is one I immediately loved - he is!!! a shadowy blob creature who means well probably and is spooky!!! - and I found him kind of...charming? In a weird sort of way, and then boy did I ever find his arc interesting. Loneliness lead to corruption and greed, and it was crazy to watch since he started out so friendly, and then he goes with Chihiro and returns to his old self more, and finds satisfaction living in a little cabin with his found family of sorts spinning yarn and eating cake??? Like that was so great??? And just I was happy for him and that whole ending sections was full of FEELS, and it was great.

Calcifer (Howl’s Moving Castle)

I just really liked this funky little dude okay? He was a grumbly fire demon who ended up friends with Sophie and he cared. He came back in the end and I was like, yes! Calcifer is just legit okay how can you not love him.

Korra (The Legend of Korra)

MAN DID I LOVE KORRA A LOT. She was fiesty, she spoke her mind, she was bold as heck, like talk about goals, and she cared a lot about justness and stuff. She was allowed to have all this nuance, and weaknesses, and strengths, and she grew so much and had such an amazing arc, like she became wise and powerful and leaderly and just...GOALS, man. She is so cool.

Yukito Tsukishiro (Cardcaptor Sakura)

Picking just one character from this series was extremely difficult, but I settled on Yukito because I really like his plot and he’s also just very charming and fun. Loves food too much (same), is kind to everyone, bit of a ditz, and has a moody magic alter ego to boot. He’s just a lot of fun and I thought the way he handled Sakura’s confession was super sweet and moving and I was Freaking Out when it looked like he was gonna die.

Sokka (Avatar the Last Airbender)

Again, picking just one character from this series is HARD, but Sokka especially in later watches really spoke to me. He is of course hilarious and I adore his sarcasm, but he also has a decent amount of character nuance and development. He grows and matures a lot throughout the series, learning about and struggling with responsiblity and learning to lead, he’s smart and strategic, he’s genuinely a good and kind person, his relationships all have so much mutual respect in them, and he’s creative and entertaining. I just really enjoy his character and think he really feels like a person you could know, but like, a Really Awesome person you could know.

Aladdin (Aladdin)

Aladdin is an old time favorite (like many on this list actually), I’ve adored him since I was a kid. I mean, all he wants is to be off the streets and spend time with his crush, he’s not That Deep lol but certain parts of his character really spoke to me. One of his core characterstics is his strong sense of justice, with him standing up for those worse of than him even though he’s literally homeless and a wanted criminal on the run from guards most of the time. He has a sort of lighthearted cheer that I just found Very Likable, he SINGS and SINGS WELL that instantly makes me like him more, and he struggles through feelings of inadequacy from years of poverty, he gets frustrated, but he pulls through in the end and is able work past all that. Also his friendship with Genie was Legit okay.

Violet Evergarden (Violet Evergarden)

While this is a much more recent show for me, and I never quite reached the same level of fixation as I did for most of the rest of these examples, Violet as a character really spoke to me as I was watching it. She came from such a cruel background, and her journey is really about learning about herself and all of the parts of humanity she never got see while being used as a living weapon, and I just really thought her self-discovery was done super well. She was fundamentally such a kind and caring character, and I liked that they let that be a strength for that grew as she did, and UGH did I have Feelings when the full weight of the war finally came crashing down on her, and I loved her learning to connect to people through helping them write their feelings, and honestly the whole thing was just very charming and emotional and she was a rocking main protagonist.

Okay! I will tag @sapphiredragonprincess, @grassycheesecake, @starfaring-starfish, @shadowycheesecakedragon, @bibliomancer7, @kratqa, @vnckocurzyca, @descendant-of-truth, and @wing-wing-the-bat

#tag meme #avatar the last airbender #d.gray man #tsubasa reservoir chronicle #the legend of korra #spirited away #howl's moving castle #cardcaptor sakura #xxxholic

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jeonggukingdom · 6 years ago

Text

Boyfriend, pancakes and kisses

▽ Pairing: Jimin x Reader

▽ Genre: slice of life, romance, fluff

▽ Summary: You had no idea happiness could be built on such simple things as everyday rituals like baking pancakes for your lover and cuddling in bed for as long as possible. You had no idea love could be simple and sweet and that it was all you needed in life to feel incredibly happy. You had no idea because love for you had always been hard, conflicting and it hurt so much all the damn time. But finding Jimin had been like finding the missing piece of your soul and now, the smell of freshly baked pancakes, the nice smell of cinnamon and the perfume of his skin are the place you call home.

▽ Word Count: 2.111 words

▽AN: a big shout out to @moonlightk-poptrash for sending this for a game and consequently sparking up the inspiration in me to write this fluff story. In the end, I just couldn’t resist the imagery of waking up next to Jimin, lol

The first thought as you wake up — your eyes fighting to adapt to the brightness engulfing the bedroom — is one of utter displeasure and mostly directed at yourself.

Damnation is what you wish for your past self and the lack of consideration you had for your future self, having to wake up on a peaceful Sunday morning at probably an ungodly hour, not because of your alarm but because you forgot to close the stupid blinds last night.

You exhale loudly, grimacing as you force your eyes to finally pry completely open and with hastiness in your movements you close the blinds in one swift movement and, honestly, if you only had more strength in your body you could have probably ripped them in the midst of the anger fit.

As you stand in the room you are suddenly made aware of the soreness spread inside your entire body and, seemingly out of place, a smile paints itself on your still-swollen lips.

Your eyes move to scan your exposed limbs and they are quick to notice the violet petals blossomed on your skin during the night in the form of his handprints.

Memories of sighs and moans and the rustling of sheets fill your mind in an instant and, quickly, all the chagrin you felt as soon as you woke up dissipates like fog under the force of the wind.

Your eyes re-focus on the present and they fix upon the sleeping figure inside your bed: hair of molten gold, a lovely rosy pout and soft small hands reaching across the bed to find you, his companion, sleeping right beside him.

You watch with adoration as his pout deepens and his fingers start grasping the thin air in the vain attempt to find you and pull you closer.

It is only when his sleepy eyes pry open that you walk to the bed, a small smile tugging on your lips as if you fall back on the soft mattress, right next to him.

“Good morning, handsome,” you chirp, your hands jointed to support your head on the cushion as you look at his angelic features.

“Mornin”, he whispers back, voice low and rough with sleepiness, “What time is it? Why are we already up?” He asks, closing his eyes like the stubborn child he proves to be every single morning of your life together.

“We are up because this moron right here,” you point a finger up to your head, raising your eyebrows for good measure, “forgot to close the blinds last night and you know how awfully sensible I am to the light.”

He chuckles and then hums to himself, eyes barely open as he pretty much flings an arm around your stomach and forces you to scoot closer to him.

“My vampire lady,” he hums to himself, nuzzling his nose in the crook of your neck to inhale the natural perfume of your skin.

You chuckle in return, shaking your head a little bit even though you know he is totally right. You repulse the sunlight, especially in the morning, and you do relish in the night, especially if the full moon is brightly shining up in the deep blue sky. Does that make you a vampire or a werewolf?

“Let’s go back to sleep,” he whispers, placing a soft kiss on the tender skin of your neck, successfully gathering goosebumps up your arms and exposed legs.

“As you wish, master,” you murmur and he huffs in your neck, picking at your sides until you yelp and start laughing at his antics.

“What?” You ask, breathless as you try to get away from his torturing hands.

“Don’t make fun of me, love, or I’ll make you regret it,” he jokingly growls as he gets a hold of both of your arms and pushes them up behind your back, rendering you completely harmless.

In the span of a second, he is straddling you, his face looming barely a few inches away from yours and, most importantly, from your quietly awaiting lips.

“What if I happen to like the way you would?” You say back, his eyes glinting with both mischief and excitement.

“Such a feisty girlfriend I have,” his voice breaks in a silent laugh as he keeps pinning you down to the mattress with all of his weight, “Didn’t you have enough of me last night?”

“I will never have enough of you, Jimin,” you say, the words escaping your lips before you can even think of them. Well, they are the utmost truth and you both know it because he can see it in your eyes — how much you love him, what you would do for him and just to be with him. And you, you can see it reflected in his eyes as well.

His plump lips are his response to your words and you feel your whole body melting under his touch, molding to fit perfectly in the ridges and curves of his lean body.

Your mouth opens for him, welcoming his tongue with an ease that can only come with the knowledge of what he likes and prefers. Your neck arches a bit, allowing him deeper access to your lascivious muscle and a strangled sigh escapes from your parted lips as he does so.

Kissing Jimin is nothing new to you but, at the same time, it always feels like the very first time. Kissing him is electrifying, it makes your heart burst and your legs quiver and it’s a sensation you find intoxicating.

You had no idea love could feel like this, you had no idea it could be the key to your happiness and most importantly, you had no idea that happiness you long craved for could be accomplished with ordinary things like kissing your boyfriend first thing in the morning.

When you were growing up you experimented with what you thought was love, you had many crushes, a few boyfriends. But love had been hard all the time, it had been a struggle and it had hurt your heart in more ways than one.

So many tears you shed because of what you called love at that time. And then, one day, Jimin came into your life like a gust of fresh wind during a torrid summer and your heart was magically mended by the strength of your feelings, matching his own.

When Jimin leaves your mouth, all slick and swollen, you pout at him, inching your head closer to steal another kiss from his gorgeous lips but he ducks away, chuckling.

“If we continue kissing like this, things will escalate pretty quickly, baby.”

“Is that a promise?” You chirp back, smiling at him with mischief shining in your eyes.

“Yes, but one I plan on fulfilling later,” he says, letting go of your hands so he can fall back on the bed, right at your side, “Right now, though, what I want is to sleep.”

You roll your eyes at him and his laziness but, in the end, you let him engulf you in his embrace and before you know it, you are soundlessly asleep between his arms.

Your eyes naturally open quite a few hours after your very early morning kissing session and you tilt your head to the side, noticing happily how your boyfriend is still sound asleep right next to you.

You stay like that for a few minutes, watching him sleep with such a peaceful expression on his features. Jimin looks like an angel, one sent down on Earth to teach you how to love and how to be happy and you can’t help but stare at him every time you have a chance.

You watch his naked torso rise and fall with soft breaths, you look at his long and curved eyelashes and they way they brush his adorable cheeks, you notice the way his lips pout out as he’s lost deep in dreams and, before you know it, your fingers are brushing away the soft hair that falls on his face.

You love to run your fingers through his tousled hair and the soft sigh that comes from his parted lips makes a smile appear on your features. Jimin loves cuddling and relishes in all of your little touches, in the way you look at him with loving eyes or even in the way you seem to be unable to keep your hands off of him for a long period of time. Your fingers are always looking and reaching for his own, even in public and Jimin loves all of it, loves how clingy you can be, loves how you’re not scared to show off your love in public, loves how you’d scream in the middle of the street how much you love him not caring a single bit about what other people may think.

“You make me so happy, Park Jimin,” you whisper to him even though you know he can’t hear you right now, not when he’s so deep in slumber. But it doesn’t matter because there is no doubt, he already knows.

Careful to slip out of his arms without waking him up, you get out of bed and quickly walk out of the room, closing the door behind your back with a grin on your face.

This has become a tradition for you two: whoever gets up first in the morning gets to make breakfast for the other.

The kitchen quickly fills with the nice smell of freshly baked pancakes and cinnamon, your favorite extra ingredient, and you feel your heart blooming in your chest at the familiarity the smell brings.

There was a time when the smell of the sea and coffee beans meant home to you because that was what you woke up to every morning. Now, the smell that means home is pancakes, cinnamon and the sweet hint of lavender and mint that comes from his perfume whenever he hugs you.

You are deep in thought as you flip over the pancake on the stove — careful to not burn the sweet treat like you do more times than you would care to admit — when you feel his arms on your hips, pulling you closer so that he can press his entire body to your frame.

“Good morning again, baby,” he whispers in your ear and you lean into his touch, tilting your head to the side to look up at him.

“Good morning, slept well?”

“Amazingly... you’re the best pillow ever, has anybody told you that before?”

You chuckle at his response and shake your head no because he already knows, you never slept hugging someone else before. It was something you didn’t enjoy and avoided at all costs before but, of course, Jimin is different.

“Well, the world doesn’t know what it is missing,” he mumbles to himself and you jokingly pinch one of his hands, making him yelp in surprise.

“Stop saying nonsense and go sit at the table, breakfast is almost ready.”

“As you wish, my queen.”

He’s fast even if he just woke up and that’s his fortune because otherwise, you would have hit him with your greasy spatula.

His laugh fills the kitchen and you find yourself laughing along with him while turning off the stove to retrieve the last perfectly cooked pancake and add it to the pile.

You stare at him as he eats up his pancakes with strawberries on top while you play around with the food in your plate, almost unconsciously.

“Why aren’t you eating? Did you poison these?”

You shake your head no, giggling at the nonsense he comes up with.

“No, you dork, I just love watching you eat.”

He looks at you, almost dumbfounded and rests the fork on his plate.

“What? Did I say something wrong?” You ask, tilting your head to the side with your brows furrowed.

“No... I just have the sudden urgency to fulfill my promise from earlier.”

And that’s all it takes for the pancakes to be long forgotten and for your bed to welcome you back inside its sheets.

#bangtan-bookclub #jimin fluff #jimin imagine #jimin scenario #bts fluff #bts imagine #bts scenario

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inyournightmares97 · 6 years ago

Text

Unholy (M)

Part of the Thirsty Days of September series, a collaboration with @ijustwantacue. Find her version here

You never imagined that one impulsive night with Park Jinyoung could become both the highest and lowest point in your life.

Word Count: 8.5k+

Warnings: Explicit descriptions of sex, lots of language, nothing too kinky except for a little too much ‘Princess’, but it’s super descriptive guys, no innuendos here, it’s all laid out. (I was thinking of the song ‘Unholy’ by Hey Violet)

Park Jinyoung noticed you the very first time you walked in.

It was almost unheard of for a woman to walk into a strip club alone. Ladies’ night was every Friday and it was the only day of the week when male strippers took over the stage. Female customers poured into the club in groups with their tipsy friends, wanting to giggle over the nice bodies that they saw on stage. Park Jinyoung understood better than anyone that what these women wanted wasn’t sex or to see a guy’s genitalia; they just wanted to have fun and he knew how to put on an entertaining show.

But there was something extremely strange about your behavior.

You came in every Friday, three weeks in a row, and sat alone in a corner of the club. You always ordered a couple of expensive drinks and sat silently while you watched the shows. Jinyoung found his gaze drifting towards you multiple times. You weren’t laughing or enjoying yourself like the other girls. You didn’t even have a smile on your face even though you were still extremely beautiful. You merely watched the stage in complete silence and once you’d had a good number of drinks and the club was about to close, you left silently.

It was all extremely mysterious.

“So what do you think she wants? That girl who comes in and sits in the corner every week?” Jackson had asked with a laugh one night after the shows were all over. Jinyoung snapped his head up to stare at him. Jackson was extremely popular with the ‘bachelorette party’ groups because he was shameless and knew how to make them laugh. But Jinyoung had assumed that he was the only one who noticed you. Part of him had begun wondering if maybe you were a ghost that only he could see.

Jinyoung cleared his throat. “I don’t know,” he admitted. “But she always orders a lot of drinks so I guess there’s no point in bothering her, right?”

Jackson rubbed his chin. “Jaebum says she’s rich.”

“How would he even know that-“

“Apparently she gives him a huge tip every time just to get her a corner seat and make sure nobody approaches her. I don’t understand. She’s cute and the cute girls are never looking for any serious action, they just want to have fun,” Jackson replied with a chuckle. He rubbed his hands together excitedly. “I’m going to talk to her next Friday.”

Jinyoung tensed. “Don’t.”

“Why not?”

He wasn’t sure either. “She just… she just looks like she wants to be alone. Why would you bother her?”

Jackson raised his eyebrows. “Jinyoung-ah. Nobody who wants to be alone comes and sits in a strip club on Ladies’ Night, okay? Stop projecting your miserable loner attitude onto everyone else. Clearly this girl wants to get in on the fun but she’s too embarrassed or shy. We just have to encourage her a little bit. Seems like she might leave a large tip if it works out!”

Jinyoung wasn’t sure why he hated the idea of Jackson approaching you. But something about your behavior told him that you weren’t just shy or embarrassed. Your feelings were deeper than that. He just knew that you would react badly to someone as loud and flirtatious as Jackson coming up to you and trying to get you to dance with him. As Jinyoung gathered his stuff and headed back home, he suddenly realized what it was that he thought he saw in your eyes.

You looked trapped.

Jinyoung wished that there was something he could have done to stop the mess from escalating, but there was no deterring Jackson when he had his mind set on something.

Jinyoung was backstage, having just put on the dark suit jacket he usually started his performances off with. Mr. Classy was what some of the more regular customers called him. A customer had once told him that he looked like a handsome, Asian version of Christian Grey and Jinyoung found that playing along with that role on stage always got him the most tips. He’d even bought a copy of the first book, even though he couldn’t make it through more than half of it. It was just too poorly written. Jacking off to sub-par literature wasn’t particularly appealing to Park Jinyoung.

He peeked out from the curtain backstage when he saw it; Jackson leaping down from the stage halfway through his performance and making a beeline for you. His upper half was completely bare. Jackson didn’t like to wait around so his entrance move usually involved him ripping his own shirt off. The confident stripper walked towards you with a grin while you froze in your seat.

What happened next was extremely embarrassing. Jackson playfully danced over to your lonely table and attempted to pull you up into a dance with him but you immediately wrenched yourself away. Most of the other customers were staring at the two of you and even though Jackson began to apologize the moment he realized you were uncomfortable, you had already picked up your bag and begun to run out of the strip club. There was a slightly awkward silence and Jinyoung felt his heart sink in his chest as you ran out.

Damn it, stupid Jackson. Now she’ll never come back here again.

Jinyoung wasn’t sure why (he didn’t know you, had never spoken to you), but he felt the urge to make sure that you were okay. While Jackson recovered from the awkward moment and professionally continued his performance, Jinyoung ran back inside and used a backdoor that led directly out into the parking lot. He could see you standing alone near the sidewalk and fiddling with your phone as you tried to call somebody. Your shoulders were trembling. Jinyoung approached you carefully so as to not scare you.

“E-excuse me?” he called out.

You whirled around, eyes wide. Jinyoung had never seen you up close before and he was struck by how beautiful you were. Under the dim street light with your sparkling eyes and your skin flushed from the alcohol you’d been drinking, you looked like an angel. He cleared his throat and tried to remember what he’d been planning to say.

“I wanted to check if you were okay,” Jinyoung began carefully. When you stared at him in complete silence, he felt the need to explain himself. “I-I work here. I’m one of the performers? And I’m sorry about Jackson. He just gets a little too excited during his performances and he doesn’t realize that not everybody wants to dance.”

Your voice was soft. “That’s fine,” you mumbled, biting your lip. “I’m the stupid one, sitting in a strip club and then freaking out when a stripper comes near me. I’m not upset. Honestly.”

“But you don’t look all right.”

You sighed and wrapped your arms around yourself. You weren’t sure what to say. Jinyoung kept staring at you and even though he was standing at a polite distance, there was something extremely intense about his gaze. You felt a shiver down your spine as you looked at the handsome man. You had watched his performances; he had a sort of subtle aura that one might miss at first glance due to louder strippers like Jackson and Bambam, but once you noticed Jinyoung’s charm then it was impossible to tear your eyes away from it. Most men moved their entire bodies but Jinyoung could make women weak with a single look of his eyes.

“I’m just trying to call a cab,” you admitted quietly. “But, uh, I don’t… I can’t get a decent signal so…”

“I’ll call you one.”

You waited in silence as Jinyoung pulled out his cellphone and quickly dialed for a cab. He spoke to the cab driver briefly and then hung up before giving you a soft smile. “He says he’ll be here in five minutes. Would you like me to wait with you until he arrives?”

You stared at him. Did you? Before you could even think about whether it was a good idea, you found yourself nodding. The street was empty and deserted and you would much rather be with a performer from the club than by yourself. Jinyoung folded his arms across his chest, looking down at his feet as you both waited for the cab. He was trying to think of what to say to you… something which would initiate a casual conversation yet not seem too intrusive. But you spoke before he could.

“Do you guys make a decent living from stripping here?” you found yourself asking him hesitantly.

Jinyoung blinked at you in surprise. He rubbed the back of his neck as he thought about how to answer your unusual question. “Well, not exactly. Ladies’ Night here is only on Fridays and the female performers take up all other days of the week. We try to find employment for other nights. Some of us work for escort agencies on the side. There’s a host club nearby that some guys work for and you know, there’s always customers from these places who approach us privately.”

Your cheeks flushed red and Jinyoung was surprised as you spoke hesitantly. “And by privately, you mean, um… uh…”

“For sex,” he clarified calmly.

You swallowed and nodded. “R-right. I thought strip clubs didn’t allow that sort of thing?”

“There are rules regarding how far we can go in clubs and host bars. But once a customer is interested then we can usually meet them outside the premises privately without anyone finding out,” Jinyoung explained. He noticed that your adorable face kept getting redder with every word that came from his lips. He had never seen a girl so pure before. What were you doing at a strip club if even the mention of sex embarrassed you? He found himself smiling.

“You really don’t belong here, do you?”

You looked up at him. “Is it that obvious?”

“Yes. Most women who come to places like this are pretty clear about what they want. They tell us exactly where to meet them and what their kinks are so that we can play along. Most of them are into some form of BDSM or something unusual that they have a hard time talking their regular partners into.”

Your eyes widened. “You mean like… Fifty Shades stuff?” you lowered your voice. “Do people really ask for stuff like that?”

Jinyoung blinked at you in disbelief. “How old are you, exactly?”

“Twenty-two.”

“I don’t believe you.”

You pouted at him as you reached into your purse and pulled out a driver’s licence. You held it out to him and Jinyoung leaned forward to peek at your date of birth. You weren’t lying; you really were twenty-two. How could you be more innocent than most sixteen-year-olds? He chuckled and stepped back. “Okay, fine. Yes, a lot of women are into BDSM. Can I ask you something? What are you even doing in a place like this?”

You looked down at your shoes. “Just exploring.”

“Exploring?”

“Yeah,” you replied simply. Jinyoung fell silent and stared at you for a long moment. You opened your mouth a few times and then closed it as though you were trying to say something. After a few moments of awkward silence you finally managed to speak. “So, uh, if someone wanted to, uh, to arrange one of these private meetings then how… how would they go about it exactly?” you asked nervously.

Jinyoung couldn’t help but smile at your shyness. “Well, they’d usually have to start by asking the performer if he’s willing to meet outside and he’d get the hint. Then you could get his contact details and discuss his price ranges and then arrange a place and time to meet.”

You bit your lip. “Sounds rather business-like.”

“Unfortunately, it is purely business. We’re all in it for the money, I’m afraid to say.”

You shook your head and looked up at him with a smile. “No, business sounds good. Business is easier, and predictable. I like it. Emotions are harder to make sense of.”

Jinyoung raised an eyebrow. You wouldn’t be asking him all these questions for no reason. Clearly you were interested in something. He folded his arms across his chest. “Do you have your eyes on anyone in particular? I can get you the phone numbers of any of the performers here.”

You took a deep breath. “C-can I have yours?”

Jinyoung looked down at you and pressed his lips together, trying not to laugh. He had never had a woman approach him in such a shy or hesitant manner. You looked more like a shy school-girl asking for a handsome oppa’s number than a grown-woman at a strip club who wanted to spend a night with a male prostitute. Jinyoung normally dealt with such matters very coolly, but deep down he found himself a little flattered at the thought that he was the one you’d had your eyes on whenever you came in on Fridays.

“Sure,” he replied. Jinyoung dug into his pocket and pulled out a small card that had his name and phone number printed on it. He handed it to you and you took it politely with both hands.

“Wow. You even have business cards!” you gasped, looking up at him with wide eyes.

Jinyoung chuckled at your childlike awe. “Yes. I told you, it’s a business.”

You looked down at the business card, feeling a little lightheaded. Had you just taken a stripper’s phone number? What were you even going to do with this? Your heartbeat thudded as you looked up at Jinyoung but he was just smiling down at you. You tucked it into your purse hurriedly and tried to hide your embarrassment even though you knew that Jinyoung was probably already laughing at you on the inside. He seemed rather good at hiding his emotions though.

Before you could say anything else, the cab rolled up in front of you and you straightened up. Jinyoung opened the car door and gave you another gentle smile.

“Go home safely,” he told you gently as he waited for you to get into the backseat. You blushed and nodded, smiling at him.

“Thank you.”

Jinyoung stayed on the sidewalk for a few moments as he watched the cab drive away. There was something extremely endearing about your shy smile and your innocent attitude. It had been a while since he had seen someone so pure around here and it made him feel warm inside. He had long stopped feeling attracted to the women he slept with. He saw them as customers rather than actual women and he only looked forward to the money they handed him once he had fulfilled their wishes.

But, for some weird reason, Jinyoung found himself genuinely hoping that you would call him.

He hadn’t been expecting you to call so soon but you did, exactly three days later.

Jinyoung recognized your voice as soon as he answered the phone but he had a nice time listening to you stammer as you struggled to identify yourself as the girl who ran out of the strip club last Friday. Once he had reassured you that he knew exactly who you were, you had then fallen silent. You made a few noises as you tried to speak and then shyly mumbled your way into asking him if he was free this week and would be able to schedule an appointment.

You’d actually called it an appointment.

Jinyoung had never met a girl more adorable then you. He tried not to laugh too much, knowing that it would only make you self-conscious and informed you that yes, he was free on Wednesday and Thursday. You then stumbled through a few arrangements as you booked a hotel room for the night and he explained to you how his prices worked. You didn’t seem very concerned about the money but you had nervously asked him to bring condoms because you didn’t really want to go into a store and buy such things. (“I’ll reimburse you for them!”) you had promised him hurriedly and Jinyoung laughed.

What was a girl who was too embarrassed to buy her own condoms doing hiring a prostitute?

Jinyoung had no idea, but he was about to find out very soon.

You paused outside the hotel room and took a deep breath.

The receptionist at the front desk smiled and informed you that your “boyfriend” had already checked into the room a few minutes ago. You hadn’t really been expecting Jinyoung to arrive first. You had even bought yourself an expensive bottle of wine on the way and had hoped to get through a few glasses to calm your nerves before you had to face him. But Jinyoung was already inside and as you grasped the door handle, you had to force yourself not to turn and run away.

You stepped into the enormous hotel room. Jinyoung was sitting on the King sized-bed while propped up against the pillows. You took a moment to admire his profile; how could anybody be so handsome? You had assumed that the expensive suits and the makeup under the stage lights were what made Park Jinyoung so attractive but you were wrong. In this dim hotel room, wearing a pair of jeans and a simple white shirt with his sleeves rolled up, Jinyoung looked more handsome than ever before.

“Hi,” you greeted softly.

Jinyoung glanced up from his cellphone and smiled at you. It was a surprisingly soft, gentle smile and you felt yourself blush. He lifted a hand in casual greeting. “Hey, there. I hope you don’t mind that I checked in first. I wasn’t sure if you would be late.”

You swallowed. “No, that’s… that’s okay.”

“Do you want to sit down?”

You nodded and walked towards the bed slowly. Jinyoung stayed still, his dark eyes following your every move as you sat down opposite him and crossed your legs underneath you. You placed your bag on the floor and carefully took out the bottle of wine you’d brought along with wine glasses. “Do you-do you mind if I drink a little? I mean, it’s up to you if you don’t want to drink but I think I need to be a little drunk before I can do this,” you admitted.

Jinyoung silently reached out for a glass and allowed you to fill it up.

You downed one glass quickly and then poured yourself another. You were surprised when Jinyoung gently put his hand over yours and stopped you from lifting it to your lips. He looked a little bit worried and he spoke softly. “Wait. Don’t drink so much yet. Why don’t we talk a little bit?”

You blinked at him. “Talk? Should we… should we do that?”

He chuckled. “We can do anything. It’s up to you. I’m yours for tonight, remember? Why don’t you tell me why you really called me here tonight?”

“You probably think I’m weird.”

“No. I’m just curious.”

You took a deep breath and set the glass of wine down. Jinyoung was right. You didn’t have to have sex with him. He wasn’t your boyfriend, he wouldn’t be disappointed or push you into it as long as he got his payment at the end of the night. Somehow that made you feel a little bit better. You both sat in silence for a few moments and your hands trembled. Jinyoung reached out and placed his hand on top of yours, in your lap. His warm fingers squeezed yours and when you looked up at him he had a gentle smile on his face.

“Tell me something about yourself,” Jinyoung suggested. “Anything.”

“I’m getting married next month.”

Well. Of all things, Jinyoung certainly hadn’t been expecting you to say something like that. You noticed that he looked startled for a moment and his grip on your hands loosened before he squeezed them gently again. His eyebrows furrowed together and his gorgeous, dark eyes blinked at you. “Oh. Wow. Congratulations, then,” he said carefully.

“It’s not what you think!” you insisted, worried that he would assume you were a cheater. Your cheeks had turned a deep red color. You had never spoken about this to anyone before and you certainly hadn’t expected that a male prostitute would be the first person you would spill your guts to. But somehow you wanted to tell Jinyoung, wanted him to understand. “I don’t love him. He’s some guy that does business with my father and he’s more than a decade older than me. He proposed to me in front of my parents and I couldn’t say no because that’s not how things work in my family. My… my Father is extremely protective. He insists that I have to marry someone he knows and trusts.”

Jinyoung blinked at you calmly. “I see.”

“My Dad is really high up in government and I’ve always lived in a really sheltered, protected environment,” you explained to him as you bit your lip. “I… I don’t even have too many friends because I’m usually not allowed to go anywhere without bodyguards. I tried to tell my Father that I didn’t want to marry this man and that I wanted to wait for someone I really loved, but he says that I can either marry this guy or forget about my inheritance.”

“That doesn’t sound fair.”

“It is according to my Father. It’s his money, and I only get it if I obey his wishes. He knows I could never survive out there on my own. I nearly cried the first time I entered the strip club, I was so scared of going to a place like that.”

Jinyoung nodded. He should have known that you would have some reason for coming to that strip club and looking so lost and afraid. He finally understood what it was that he saw in your eyes. A woman that was trapped, who could see a painful future laid out on front of her and was too scared to break away from it.

“So this is your little act of rebellion, eh?” Jinyoung wondered.

You looked down at your hands. “I’m a virgin,” you admitted quietly. “I’ve never even had a proper boyfriend or gone out to flirt with guys at clubs with my friends. I’ve never done anything that girls my age are supposed to do and now I’m going to be tied to this disgusting man for the rest of my life. I figure that even if it’s too late for me to fall in love and all that, I should at least experience my first time with someone that I’m genuinely attracted to.”

Jinyoung blinked at you calmly. “Hmm.”

You looked up at him nervously. “Is that a weird thing to say? That I’m attracted to you? I know this is so creepy to be telling you since I’m paying to be here but you seem like a nice person and somehow I feel like I’d rather it be with you than my fiancé,” you blurted out. You knew that this was supposed to be a professional setting and maybe it wasn’t appropriate to tell a stripper that you had a crush on him but Jinyoung was smiling at you cheekily.

“Trust me, no guy would mind hearing that a pretty girl like you is attracted to him.”

You blushed. “Stop it.”

“But that’s what you want, isn’t it?” Jinyoung asked as he scooted closer to you. You could smell his aftershave when he bent down to look you in the eyes and gently placed his hand under your chin. His voice had become gentle and smooth. “You want to be sweet-talked to, you want to be cherished. You want to feel what it’s like to have a man make love to you and tell you that you’re everything he wants. Isn’t that right?”

Your heartbeat was thudding. “Y-yes…”

Jinyoung chuckled and his finger gently glided across your cheek. “Don’t worry, baby. I know exactly how to take care of you. You don’t need that wine anymore. Come here and let me help you relax.”

You were surprised when Jinyoung suddenly pulled away from you and then moved back so that he was sitting up against the headboard of the bed. He propped himself up using a couple of pillows and then looked at you expectantly. When you merely blinked at him he chuckled and held his arms out to you, patting the empty space in between his legs.

Did he want you to cuddle with him?

You nervously crawled towards him. Once you were close enough, Jinyoung pulled you into his arms. He wrapped them around you and encouraged you to lean against his chest with your head resting on his shoulder. Despite being nervous, you had to admit that it was so comfortable. One of Jinyoung’s hands wrapped around your body and held you close to him while the other hand came up to gently stroke your cheek and hair. He tilted your chin up and smiled at you.

“I’m going to kiss you now, princess,” he whispered to you softly. Your heart skipped a beat at the soft nickname and Jinyoung smiled at you before he leaned down and kissed you.

You had never been held so gently or kissed so sweetly.

You had expected that sex with a prostitute would be just cold, hard and emotionless sex but Jinyoung wasn’t taking it down that route at all. He seemed to be in absolutely no hurry as his lips carefully pressed against yours. He started with slow, soft gentle pecks that helped you relax. Jinyoung’s lips felt like heaven. They were soft and warm and for a moment you could feel nothing but the gentle pressure against your lips and his strong arms wrapped around you.

“Do you like that?” he asked you after a few moments, looking down and chuckling when he saw that your eyes were closed. You opened them slowly and looked up at him. “Baby, your lips are unbelievably sweet. Let me taste them a little more.”

You nodded. “O-okay.”

“Come here, come closer. And put your arms around me, princess. I want to feel you against me, okay?”

Jinyoung gently guided your arms around his neck and you found yourself slipping your fingers into his dark hair. It felt so soft and it helped you get a grip on yourself when his lips came down on yours again. This time you kissed him back. You pulled Jinyoung down towards you and let your own lips dance along with his. Jinyoung chuckled, and you let out a little whine as he refused to let your tongue into his mouth. He stroked your hair gently and pulled back from you. “Shhh, calm down, princess. You’re getting a little bit too eager there. We have all night. Let me show you how you beautiful you are.”

You blinked up at him, missing the feeling of his lips on yours. You wanted more. “Please-“

“No,” he told you gently but firmly. “Shhh. Let me take care of you. You just relax.”

You fell silent as Jinyoung kissed you again. He tried to keep it soft and chaste but your fingers were pressing against his scalp and Jinyoung could feel you squirming between his legs. His hand grasped your chin while he let his tongue explore your mouth softly. His other hand gently stroked your back. Your entire body tingled when he ran his fingers up and down your spine. His lips slowly left yours and began to trail soft kisses down your jaw and your neck.

“Should I bite down here?” Jinyoung whispered into your ear as his thumb gently brushed over a soft spot on your neck. You shivered at his smooth, deep voice so close to you. “So adorable and flawless. Have you ever had a man kiss you here before?”

You swallowed and shook your head. “N-no.”

He chuckled and wrapped both of his arms around you, lifting you up into his lap until his mouth was level with your neck. His tongue darted out and licked the skin on your neck briefly before he closed his lips over it. You gasped and trembled as Jinyoung’s teeth grazed your skin and gently bit you. He chuckled and held you tightly against him.

“There we go,” he told you with a smile once he had pulled away, leaving your skin pink and sensitive. Jinyoung chuckled when he saw your lidded eyes and how you were biting those lips. “Don’t bite those lips so much, baby. I have a lot of plans for them later.”

Your arms were still wrapped around his neck. “Can we kiss again?”

“Sure, princess. If that’s what you want.”

Jinyoung helped you straddle his lap and placed his hands on your waist as he kissed you again. Your tongues danced together and you felt more confident so you pushed back against Jinyoung. He chuckled at your sudden confidence but never let you take it too far. He would pause to whisper sweet warnings into your ear whenever you got too excited. His hands began to roam your back and one of his hands come to your front and gently cupped your breast over your shirt.

You let out a surprised gasp at the feeling of Jinyoung’s large hand on your breast. He wasn’t squeezing it or anything, he was merely holding it from over your shirt. You pulled away from the kiss and looked at him in surprise. Jinyoung merely used his free hand to stroke your hair gently. “Princess, your breasts are so cute,” he told you as he pecked your lips. “Won’t you let me see them?

You felt shy. Kissing was one thing, but were you really ready to strip down in front of Jinyoung? He saw the look of panic in your eyes and he simply reached out towards the light switch at the bedside, making the lights a little bit dimmer. Jinyoung leaned forward and kissed you again as he helped you relax in the dark.

“You go first,” you whispered hesitantly.

Jinyoung chuckled and nodded. He reached up to undo the top button of his shit but you slowly reached for it yourself and pushed his hands away. He smiled as he watched you focus on slowly undoing his buttons while biting your lip. Fuck, you were so cute. He had never seen a woman who was so shy and embarrassed despite being attracted to him. Jinyoung watched you with his dark, hungry gaze until you finally reached the last button on his shirt.

“Happy?” Jinyoung asked, slowly taking the shirt off and pulling his arms out of the sleeves. His dark eyes were fixed on you and you could see the muscles rippling in his arms as his own hands traveled to your waist. Even though the lights were dimmed, Jinyoung saw how your shy gaze traveled down his torso to the point where his v-line disappeared into his pants. He gently grasped your chin and turned your head to look at him.

“Your turn now, baby. Come on and lift those arms up for me, okay?”

You nodded and lifted your arms into the air as Jinyoung pulled your t-shirt off it. You had put on a cute black bra and Jinyoung’s hands roamed over it for a few moments. He dipped his head and pressed a soft kiss on your nipple, over the cloth of the bra. The feeling of his lips made you gasp and you looked down at him with lidded eyes. Jinyoung carefully moved his hands behind your back and his fingers opened the clasp of your bra. One of the straps fell down over your shoulders.

“Take it off for me, princess. I want you to show them to me,” he encouraged you gently. His voice was soft but commanding and you felt a soft shiver down your spine as you let your bra fall down and tossed it aside. Jinyoung smiled and let his hands cup your breasts softly, his fingers teasing your nipples. You bit you lip and whimpered as Jinyoung’s lips finally landed on your bare skin. The feeling of his mouth on your breasts was electric and your entire body went numb. You would probably have collapsed against Jinyoung if he hadn’t been holding you up with his arms.

“Jinyoung…” you whimpered.

He looked up at you, removing his lips from your breasts and softly blowing cool air on one of your nipples. You shivered as he looked up at you and smiled. “Yes, princess? Do you want something?”

You shook your head. “No, I-I…”

“You’re enjoying it, is that what you want to tell me?” he cooed at you softly. You bit your lip and nodded as Jinyoung chuckled and closed his mouth over your nipple again. You shivered and Jinyoung looked up at you once more. The corners of his dark eyes were crinkled in amusement. “Princess, you have to hold still for me. If you keep squirming like that then I can’t kiss you where I want to, can I?”

You nodded. “O-okay.”

“Do you want to see how excited you’ve made me?” he asked you, his voice becoming lower. One of his arms came over and grasped your hand, gently leading it down to his pants. You bit your lip when he guided your fingers to the hard bulge that was forming under his pants. Jinyoung laughed as he saw your innocent wonder. He pulled you down and kissed you gently. “See? There’s still time until he comes out so don’t make it difficult for me, okay? Stay still, baby.”

You nodded and let Jinyoung kiss you once again.

His hands were roaming all over your body as he kissed you harder, his hot fingers leaving a trail all over your bare back, waist, stomach and breasts. You could feel yourself getting more excited as his lips traveled every inch of your skin. There was a warm, tingling feeling in your pants and you found yourself rolling your hips against Jinyoung’s. Some sort of a need was growing inside of you and you weren’t sure how to handle it. The second time you whined and rolled your hips against him, Jinyoung pulled away from you and laughed.

“Are you getting excited, baby?” he asked you gently. Jinyoung pressed his lips to your shoulder. “Tell me what you want, beautiful. I’ll do anything you ask me to.”

“I don’t know,” you whispered, frustrated.

Jinyoung bit back a smile. He could tell that you were getting turned on because you kept shifting and trying to squirm in his lap. He kept one arm around your waist and allowed the other one to slowly travel down your legs. He gently cupped the space between your legs and let his hand linger there for a moment as you gasped. Jinyoung smiled and looked up at you. “I think I know what you want, princess. You want to be touched down there, don’t you? You want me to touch your lips?”

You bit your lip and nodded as Jinyoung’s fingers gently caressed you over your pants. His touch was exciting you but it was too soft and you needed him to touch you properly. Your hips rocked lightly against his hands but Jinyoung ‘tsk’-ed at you and shook his head. “No, no, no. Not like that. Come here. Take those pants off and come lie in my arms, princess. Let me see how wet you are for me.”

You let Jinyoung slowly peel your pants off your legs and then pull you to lie against his chest. His lips kissed the side of your cheek and one arm cuddled you to him, while the other slowly slid down your stomach and torso. You groaned when Jinyoung gently grasped the elastic band of your panties and snapped them against your skin. Wasn’t he taking the teasing too far? You whimpered.

“Jinyoung, please…”

He chuckled. “Who are you calling Jinyoung, princess?”

You were confused. Your mind wasn’t working and all your senses were focused on Jinyoung’s hands grazing over your panties. Why wouldn’t he touch you where you wanted him to? What were you doing wrong? You whimpered again and Jinyoung’s deep voice whispered into your ear, that hint of a commanding tone seeping into it again. “Call me Jinyoung-oppa.”

You complied immediately. “Jinyoung-oppa…”

“That’s right, princess. Now ask me to touch you there. Say it for me; Jinyoung-oppa, please touch me down there,” he commanded you softly. You shook your head, biting your lip. Why wasn’t he just doing it? You could feel the wetness pooling between your legs just from his fingers dancing at the band of your panties and his deep voice cooing in your ears. “Princess, I really want to touch you but I’m not going to do it until you ask me politely,” he told you calmly.

You bit your lip and your hips rose up to meet his hand. “J-Jinyoung-oppa, please-please touch me there.”

“There we go. That’s my well-mannered little princess.”

Jinyoung’s fingers slid into your panties and you let out a loud, audible gasp when he gently caressed your inner lips. You kept squirming while his fingers massaged your skin, and Jinyoung couldn’t hold back a groan of his own. You had bucked your hips back against his. It was becoming more difficult for Jinyoung to hide his own arousal when you were letting out such adorable little gasps and moans. His fingers found your clitoris and you gasped when he teased it lightly.

“Oppa!” you whined.

He chuckled. “Yes, princess?”

You squirmed and squeezed your eyes shut, not knowing what to say. Jinyoung’s fingers were all you could think about and how good they were making you feel. You could feel the blood pumping through your body while Jinyoung continued to tease you, his fingers gently slipping in and out of your inner lips while he stroked your clitoris. Jinyoung leaned down to kiss you and you kissed him back hungrily before he pulled away. Your heartbeat had sped up rapidly and you could feel something building.

“I’m going to make you cum for me,” Jinyoung whispered in your ear, kissing it softly while his fingers continued to caress you. You squirmed and whimpered in his arms but he held you close to him. “No, no, don’t squirm. Let me hear those little moans. Come here, princess, I want to hear your moans. Does that feel good to you?”

You gasped and nodded. “Y-yes…”

“Good girl.”

You had never had an orgasm like that before. You had touched yourself in bed and it had felt nice, but nothing compared to the way you completely fell apart in Jinyoung’s arms. Pure ecstasy shot through you as you finally reached your peak and your eyes squeezed shut, hands grabbing onto Jinyoung’s as you writhed in pleasure. Jinyoung watched you struggle to keep your orgasm quiet, but you failed and gasped and collapsed against him while breathing heavily.

Park Jinyoung had never seen anything as beautiful as the sight of your flushed cheeks and your plump lips slightly open as he teased you to a climax. When you finally finished and slumped against him, your entire body melted against his. Jinyoung chuckled and held you against his chest while he removed his sticky fingers from inside your panties and wiped them clean.

“How did that feel?” he asked you gently.

You leaned up and kissed him, feeling extremely overwhelmed. You had never had an experience like that and while your entire body felt exhausted, you found yourself wanting to feel Jinyoung’s lips against yours. He leaned back and let you kiss him in your moment of passion. Jinyoung’s hard manhood brushed against your leg and you looked down at him while biting your lip. “Jinyoung, what about you…?”

He chuckled. “We can take care of me. You take a few seconds to recover first.”

You nodded and Jinyoung kissed you gently, guiding you to lie down on the bed. He helped you calm your racing heartbeat with gentle kisses on your lips and face. It took you a few moments but you finally recovered from your intense orgasm and could feel your brain working again. Jinyoung kissed your forehead sweetly. “Are you ready for me, sweetheart?”

You nodded.

“Okay. These panties are going to have to come off, now.”

You wriggled out of your wet panties as Jinyoung pulled off his own pants. You could see the outline of his hard member in the dim light and Jinyoung shivered slightly when you reached out to touch it. He chuckled when your fingers wrapped around it slowly and hesitantly. “Be careful with that, princess. It’s a little sensitive,” Jinyoung mumbled while he positioned himself over you. “You can touch it for a while but then I’m going to enter you, okay?”

You nodded, giving it a few more strokes and feeling it twitch under your fingers before you released it. Jinyoung rolled on a condom and then placed his arms on either side of you, settling in between your legs and then slowly entering you. You gasped as the sudden, strange feeling and Jinyoung instantly stroked your hair and paused. “Does it hurt, princess?” he asked you sweetly. “I’m sorry if it hurts. Oppa will try to be gentle, okay?”

You whimpered and nodded, biting your lips to hold back your screams.

You weren’t sure how long Jinyoung rocked against you gently; occasionally pausing when he thought that you looked like you were in pain and then placing kisses on your forehead and whatever part of your skin his lips could reach. It took a while for him to build up and then his pace quickened. There were no more words exchanged between the two of you; the time for sweet-talk and foreplay was over. You weren’t sure that you could have formed comprehensible words even if you tried. Jinyoung was content to let the sounds of your combined groans and gasps fill the room as he finally reached orgasm himself.

Jinyoung pulled out of you and gently placed a kiss on your sweaty forehead. “Are you okay, princess?”

You nodded breathlessly. “Y-yeah…”

“I’m going to go throw the condom away. I’ll be right back.”

You lay still, feeling a warm afterglow fill you as Jinyoung rolled off you and went into the bathroom. You could hear the sounds of him moving around in the silent room and you closed your eyes.

My God. You hadn’t felt such intense emotion in a long time. Part of you had started to wonder if maybe you were dead, maybe you had become so numb to the world that you couldn’t feel anything anymore. When your fiancé had proposed to you, when your father had told you that you had no choice but to marry him and when you had snuck out of home to find the shadiest part of town and go into a strip club… there had been something hollow and empty inside of you. You had felt numb and cold and alone.

But now, for the first time in forever, you felt like you were on fire.

Jinyoung came back from the bathroom, settling down into bed beside you before leaning over you. He had a wet cloth with him and he gently swiped it over your sweaty forehead before sliding it down between your legs. “Are you feeling okay?” he asked you gently. “You might be a little sore tomorrow even though I tried to be gentle. Don’t strain yourself.”

You nodded wordlessly, looking up at the handsome man who was smiling down at you.

“Why are you looking at me like that?” he asked with a chuckle.

“Nothing.”

“Did you enjoy yourself?”

You nodded as Jinyoung finished wiping you with the towel. You suddenly felt cold in the air-conditioned room and you slipped under the covers. Jinyoung smiled at you as you made a burrito of yourself and pulled the cover up to your shoulders. “I did,” you admitted softly. “It was amazing. Thank you.”

Jinyoung sighed and leaned back with a grin. “Well, you don’t have anything to compare me to, but I’ll accept the compliment all the same. I don’t know if it’s because you’re a virgin but you’re pretty submissive, babe.”

You bit your lip. “Is that a bad thing?”

“During sex? Not at all.”

“Don’t you want to get under the covers? It’s comfortable and you can get warm.”

Jinyoung looked at you for a long moment. Some of the women he slept with insisted that he stay until morning; after-care was important for them but never had anybody blinked up at him with such beautiful, hopeful eyes and asked him to get under the covers. He found himself climbing in beside you without even thinking about it. You scooted closer to him hesitantly. Jinyoung could tell that you wanted to cuddle and so he laid his arm out on the pillow, gesturing for you to rest your head on it. You sidled up to him eagerly and curled up against his side.

“Was I… was I really bad?” you wondered hesitantly. You wished that you knew more about sex, but there had never been anyone to discuss it with and watching porn had somehow made you feel queasy so you rarely did. “I mean, I’ve never done this before so I don’t really know how I was supposed to behave and stuff.”

Jinyoung smiled as he looked down at you. Your hair spilled over his arm and you were hiding your face against his chest in embarrassment. He gently pushed your hair out of your face and stroked your cheek. “You were great,” he reassured you.

“You have to say that. I’m paying you,” you mumbled with a pout.

Jinyoung chuckled. “No, I mean it. Let me tell you a secret,” he said as he moved closer to your ear and whispered into it. His warm breath tickled your skin. “Sometimes, I have a really difficult time getting it up for these women because there’s just no excitement in it anymore. But with you… fuck, the first time you moaned with that sweet little voice of yours I was already painfully hard.”

You blushed deeply. “O-oh.”

“Is that weird? That I’ve never had a customer as adorable and yet somehow sexy, as you?” he teased you. You looked up at Jinyoung and saw that there was a twinkle of mischief in his eyes. You blushed and avoided his gaze. Some part of you was aware that Jinyoung was only saying these things to please you but he sounded so genuine that you couldn’t help but feel flattered. You took a deep breath and closed your eyes as you enjoyed the warmth of the moment and of Jinyoung’s fingers gently stroking your back. Jinyoung hummed lightly as his hand rhythmically trailed down your bare skin.

“Sleepy?” he asked you with a smile.

You nodded. “Hmmm.”

“You can fall asleep.”

“Okay.”

As your eyes closed fully and you drifted away, one last thought flickered through your mind. It was fleeting, and taken away by the heavy cloud of sleep but it was definitely there.

You had never felt so safe and warm as you did in Jinyoung’s arms.

You were woken to the sound of Jinyoung murmuring.

You opened your eyes drowsily and saw that the space on the bed beside you was empty. Confused, you looked around and saw him standing near the hotel room’s balcony. Jinyoung had his back to you and was talking into his phone in a low voice.

“Yes, you have to get up now,” he was telling the person on the other end of the line with a tinge of irritation. He was evidently whispering in order to not wake you up. “I’ll be there in half an hour. I told you, I had to work late. I’ll pick up breakfast on my way so you’d better be up and dressed by the time I get there.”

You sat silently in bed, suddenly feeling a little empty. Jinyoung reassured whoever he was talking to that he would be home soon and then ran his fingers through his hair in a slightly frustrated manner before hanging up. Who was he talking to? A family member? A girlfriend? It suddenly struck you that Jinyoung probably had a normal life like everybody else; parents, siblings, friends and maybe even an ordinary day job. Your stomach churned a little bit. Whatever had happened last night was something fake, something that he’d had to do in order to make money. It was like how people forced a smile for their customers.

What was Park Jinyoung like by day? Would he even look twice at someone like you?

Jinyoung turned around and was surprised to see you awake. He gave you a soft smile as he shoved his phone in his pocket, but it didn’t make you blush or feel warm like last night. The faint sunlight streaming through the white curtains and illuminating his fake smile suddenly made you see things a lot more clearly. You were just a way for him to make money, money which he needed to spend on things and people that he actually wanted.

“Hey. Sorry, I didn’t mean to wake you up,” Jinyoung apologized softly. You noticed that he was already dressed and you suddenly felt naked and vulnerable. You pulled the covers up to your chin while Jinyoung walked to the bedside table and grabbed his wallet and turned to you. “I have to get going. You’re okay, aren’t you? Don’t strain yourself since you might be a little sore.”

You blinked at him. “Okay.”

Jinyoung looked at you for a long moment. There was something odd about the way you were looking at him but he didn’t really have the time to look into it too deeply. “All right. I’ll be leaving then-“

“What about…” you struggled to say the word, it suddenly made you feel cheap. “I mean, I haven’t… I didn’t pay you yet.”

Jinyoung blinked. “Oh, right. I’ll text you my bank account details later if that’s okay? I just really don’t have time right now because I need to catch the next bus before it leaves.”

You nodded. “Sure.”

He nodded and turned around, walking out of the hotel room and shutting the door with a small click. As soon as he left you suddenly felt alone and empty and miserable. It was that simple for Park Jinyoung to walk away and move on. To go back to whatever his ordinary life was until the next horny, desperate and lonely woman like you came by and offered him a little money to make her feel better about herself. And he would take that money because women like you were weak and pathetic enough to actually hire a man to love you.

Last night had been the best night of your life, but Park Jinyoung would never even remember it.

#got7 #got7 scenarios #park jinyoung #got7 smut #got7 fanfiction #got7 angst #got7 jinyoung #got7 drabbles #got7 imagines #jinyoung fanfic #jinyoung smut #got7 reactions #got7 scenario

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athanasia-istolla · 5 years ago

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Interview: Sindri Istolla

The following is done in a present state/day style: Oct 19th 2019/Unknown Hydaelyn date.

► Name ➔ “Sindri Rianorix Istolla be m’ full name, not dat anywon uses such.”

► Are you single ➔ “Mm if ye mean am I not see’n anywon, den yee. Tis long since dat’a been elsewise.”

► Are you happy ➔ “A’times, yee. Tis not always easy. I hath my health an me life. The Shroud itself be kind ta me even thou som folk be not.”

► Are you angry? ➔ “Angry? Non non.. Frustrated perhaps at current, but such wilt pass once dem false wanted posters be delt with.”

► Are your parents still married ➔ “When saw em last, yes.. I dun think much could’a shook dat bunch’s unionship even after all dis time.”

NINE FACTS

► Birth Place ➔ “mm such thing, is knowledge for the trusted only..”

► Hair Color ➔ “Most be silver with streaks o black.. Tis ma natural colour despite de questions o who I see ta get it done… all most non believe me thou.”

► Eye Color ➔ “Hmm ma eyes be bit complex.. Da outer lens is Dune-gemed Lilac, such be all dat most see at first glance, in part o how large they are. Yet past such lay a shifting teal-violet set o limbal rings o’ sorts. Tis not supar hard ta see, more easy at night thou. Last me sclera is dark, bu’ with how large de dune lens is, tis unnoticed by near all. If one was in ma life oft enough, eventually would see both o such thou.”

► Birthday ➔ “Thirteenth Moon of the Sixth Umbral Moon (13/12), T’was so early that day the sun had not risen yet”

► Mood ➔ “Perhaps a bit uneasy. Feels like some’n coming.. Yet tis hard ta discern when an if such be related ta thee fake posters.”

► Gender ➔ “Female.”

► Summer or winter ➔ “Winter. Aside de lovely delights of the season, cozy hearths, the quiet snow brings to de world.. The stars hang longer over head.. Tis peaceful to bundle near a soft fire an gaze upon the astronomic gems.”

► Morning or afternoon ➔ “If ye mean when to wake.. Just ‘fore dawn.. The stars still littering the sky.”

EIGHT THINGS ABOUT YOUR LOVE LIFE

► Are you in love ➔ “Love? Non.. perhaps hav’ a crush or three.” soft shy chuckle “But non, not love.. Not yet at least.”

► Do you believe in love at first sight ➔ Rumbles an amused chur as she smiles. “The fates work in many ways.. I have yet to personally experience such depth of sudden infatuation. I would personally be cautious of such. Yet I would not say such be impossible.”

► Who ended your last relationship ➔ “If by such yet again ye be speak’n o the intimate type… Circumstance.. Events beyond our control.. Despite the effort against such. I doth not know if she survived the raid.. An I was likely sold off too quick if they had mounted a rescue.. Twas a very long time ago now..”

► Have you ever broken someone’s heart ➔ “Am sure I likely hath broke a few in my home lands.. An perhaps some of these ones.. in the past at least. I can say such was not out o ill will nor intentional thou.”

► Are you afraid of commitments ➔ “Hmm non.. Tis not commitment I fear, tis abandonment, an what I can contribute being ‘enough.’ I know well I can’t provide all things, even the instances I wish to thee core I could. Tis hard ta find those who understands such.. While I am not opposed at all to Monogamy in the ‘right’ circumstances. Polyamory-esk dynamics feel more natural to me. T’was very common in my home lands. I’m.. still healing from things, I’ve made much road, yet still be more a head. ‘Someday’ I hope to share thine life with anothers again..” Chuckles “course such whimsy talk.. Who knows.. ‘Someday’ could start tomorrow if the fates align.”

► Have you hugged someone within the last week? ➔ “Doth this include Crypts an Elementals?”

► Have you ever had a secret admirer ➔ “Recently? Not any am aware of.. I mean, tis part o the name no? If they be do’n it right am not supposed ta be know’n ye?”

► Have you ever broken your own heart? ➔ “Oh ye.. T’was a very long time ago now though..”

SIX CHOICES

► Love or lust ➔ “Both.. Ye ye I know it says choices.. Yet both share a common base.. Passion.. An I rather adore passion.. In all things, not just the tango twix two or more.”

► Lemonade or iced tea ➔ “While can’t say I’ve tried iced-tea.. Lemonade is much too sour usually fer me. So tea.. With the promise ta try it iced come thee summer months again.”

► Cats or Dogs ➔ “I’m one who rather likes all nature.. If I must chose, Cats. They be far more self sufficient an tis quite lovely ta have a purring snuggle bug close while read’n.”

► A few best friends or many regular friends ➔ “A few best/close companions.. Much as of course one would have other degrees of relations.. A core few dear faces is preferable..”

► Wild night out or romantic night in ➔ “Am a bit o a quiet one on de whole. Yet night outs can be quite delightful.. Hmm will go with night in, this time.” Softly chuckles.

► Day or night ➔ “Night, especially a clear night with a new moon.. Stars as far as you can see.”

FIVE HAVE YOU EVERS

► Been caught sneaking out ➔ “Of course, who hasn’t when young.. Even then I was.. Enamored with the astral.. Twas hard not to sneak out with ma scope on dem new moon nights.”

► Fallen down/up the stairs ➔ “Gehh.. course ye got’a ask som’n like dis.. Ye.. both.. more den am gonna be admit’n..” Her features bronzen with a lil pout.

► Wanted something/someone so badly it hurt? ➔ “Ye.. more den once..”

► Wanted to disappear ➔ “There were times.. In de past.. Am sure in some.. Most would have wanted the same..” Glances away, her tails coiling tighter around her hips as she hugs a length o one to her chest to suppress a tremor.

FOUR PREFERENCES

► Smile or eyes ➔ “Eyes, there is.. Much one can glean from a simple quick glance from the eyes..”

► Shorter or Taller ➔ “Oh dear.. Make’n me out ma self hm? Taller.. Am quite petite.. Four-Fulms an Three-Ilms tall at most, while I do enjoy huggling de even smaller den myself.. Tis hard not to be bit captivated by a taller lass.” Her features bronze again whilst she wiggles a little in her seat.

► Intelligence or Attraction ➔ “mm Am gonna cheat again an say both.. While I do lean towards a captivating mind.. Tis much said for there to also be de draw of the physical.. Perhaps tis a balance or one o em ratio kind’a things?” Grins a lil.

► Hook-up or Relationship ➔ “Mymy ye are a nosy bunch ne? Ye gonna ask for my diary next?” Chuckles through an amused rumble. “mn I’d say there be a place for both.. Yet I do lean more to relationships.. An such things have numerous degrees to them.. Yet something.. I guess that doesn’t leave one feeling.. Used o sorts.. Am sure some could argue there is “fun/good” ways of that feeling.. I’ve.. only experienced the darker side o such thus far.”

FAMILY

► Do you and your family get along ➔ “Yee, we did quite well on de whole.. Course we had our disagreements and such, what fam doesn’t.”

► Would you say you have a “messed up life” ➔ “hmm before these lands.. No.. it was a good life.. Even when we disagreed I was never treated ill or harmed.. An I could tell.. That they honestly thought they were doing the best for my sake.. ”

► Have you ever ran away from home ➔ Laughs softy “Guess you could say such in away.. Certainly wasn’t intentional.”

► Have you ever gotten kicked out ➔ “Non, not in de way yer asking at least.. There be an ‘o age’ passage with my kin.. Live off the lands on our own till our ink finish take’n root.. Mine took bout four full cycles.. Folks were very relieved when I returned ta em.”

FRIENDS

► Do you secretly hate one of your friends ➔ “Non non.. I’ve more aquatencies and trade contacts den friends currently.. I wouldn’t say hate but.. Thinking on it, perhaps a bit of wryness o one fellow.. Am doubtful they be give’n me the right return on some the crystals I sell em.”

► Do you consider all of your friends good friends ➔ “mn again I don’t really have at the moment.. Tis certainly a few acquaintances I’d like to get to know better.. Some.. much better.. I will admit to shyness an caution, despite my friendly demeanour.. Have been.. Betrayed more than few times.”

► Who is your best friend ➔ “Currently I don’t have someone I’d consider such.. Perhaps someday though.”

► Who knows everything about you ➔ Those lilac gemed eyes cast down a bit. “Saga did.. I know not if she lived through the raid on our village. Lady Lena as well, that was less willing of a conversation, despite my gratitude for being saved, in some sense, from de slave fight pits in Ul’Dah. I feared she’d sell me right back to the nearest auction if she knew it all.. or kill me herself. Yet she didn’t.. What more, made me da Head o house Attendant’s second & de attendant/body guard of her only heir, her daughter. Both Ladies of Bloodlion passed in the calamity.”

Tagged By: @kyrie-silverwings

Tagging folks mostly to share the info cuz I have barely anything for Sindri up lol Shy flail. No worries if you’ve already done it: @tsukikotanshi @lulu-ffxiv @az-ffxiv @under-the-blood-moonlight @fair-fae @purple-salt-mage @othard @alun-ura @cheche-dotharl @paleshadeofrose @clouded-vxle @trishelle

#Sindri Istolla #Iridescent Twilight #character prompt #ffxiv rp #sorry for the slight rambles I couldn't help it XD #Sindri

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artificialqueens · 4 years ago

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Galactica, Chapter 8 (Group Fic) - TheDane/Veronica

A/N: Guess what? We’re posting this today instead of tomorrow because we just love you guys so much, and your comments made us very productive today! Click here if you’re looking for previous chapters (or here if you’d rather read on AO3). 💫

Last Chapter: A wild night in the club led to a miserable, hangover-fueled day for Violet--and then a frustrating week, as Fame rejected all of the assistant candidates.

This Chapter: In a last-ditch effort to find a new assistant for Fame, Violet gives Courtney a shot.

***

Never in Courtney’s life had she seen a room as white, spotless and intimidating as Galactica’s reception area. She sat on the pristine sofa, hands folded in her lap, anxiety gnawing at her stomach. She’d been sending out resumes for almost 2 months, ever since she’d gotten to New York, in a desperate attempt to find a job--any job--that would allow her to stay in the United States.

This was only her second interview so far, the first one being a disaster - she’d missed her train connection and arrived late and sweaty from running ten blocks, and then the hiring manager had spent the entire time talking straight to her chest, patting her on the ass as she left while telling her that she was unqualified.

Of course she was unqualified.

Courtney was a 21-year-old who’d just graduated a few months earlier with a philosophy degree and zero office experience. Her current under-the-table job, waitressing at an Aussie-themed steakhouse in Times Square, was not going to keep her in the country. (Although she was grateful to her friend Morgan for hooking her up with it, since she’d be flat broke otherwise.)

Courtney had to stay in the country if there was any hope of her real dream coming true, which was to become a professional singer and songwriter, and maybe even a Broadway actress, if she was lucky. If she could ever get so much as an audition, which had also not happened yet. The best she’d done so far was sometimes singing with Adore’s band, but punk rock wasn’t really her style, and though she was grateful to her bestie for giving her a shot, it always felt awkward and wrong.

While she waited to be called for her interview, she prayed with all her heart; she wasn’t sure she believed in god, but it couldn’t hurt, right?

She prayed that her connection to Adore would mean something here. That Violet would remember her. That Miss Fame would like her. That the hours she’d spent carefully putting together her current outfit, getting her roots touched up and press-on nails to cover her real ones (bitten down to the quick) wouldn’t all be a waste.

Courtney heard the sound of heels coming down the hall, and then Violet appeared from around the corner. Courtney felt relief washing over her, happy to see the beautiful girl she had instantly bonded with the other night.

It was actually amazing that Violet had come through for her, making sure that her application had made it to Fame herself. Courtney smiled brightly.

“Good morning, babes!”

Violet gave her a cursory smile back, quickly checking her watch. “It’s almost noon.”

“Oh, yeah,” Courtney swallowed, feeling like an idiot as Violet looked her up and down like a zoo animal. “I was just making conversa-”

“This isn’t a place for small talk,” Violet said, then pointed at her purse. “Leave that with Roxy.”

“What?” Courtney clutched the bag to her chest. “No!” It was one of her favorite accessories, a star-shaped silver handbag with pink iridescent piping. Not to mention, it contained her phone, wallet, keys, and pretty much everything important.

“Courtney.” Violet made a small, aggravated noise. “If you want any hope of getting this job, you will leave that thing here at the front desk where Miss Fame can’t ever see it.”

Whoever this Violet was, she was very very different from the fun, friendly girl she’d met at the club.

“Okay,” Courtney agreed reluctantly, handing the bag over to the receptionist, who pinched it between her thumb and forefinger as if it was covered in dog shit.

Courtney rolled her eyes.

It wasn’t an expensive designer handbag. So what? Surely she wasn’t the first girl to own a fun, cute, novelty purse.

“Come with me,” Violet then said, taking off back down the hall.

Courtney hurried after her, following her into an immaculate conference room with a huge table. Violet gestured to one of the chairs.

“Sit down please.”

Courtney sat, nerves still on edge.

“So…” Violet sat down across from her, notebook open, looking at Courtney’s resume. She clicked her pen. “How much do you know about Galactica? Miss Fame? What research have you done on the company?”

“Oh, um…” Courtney paused, deflating a bit. She’d been prepared to talk about herself, not realizing that there was going to be a quiz. “Well, I know that it’s a very...uh, influential fashion house. And that Miss Fame is the CEO. And…”

Violet waited for another second, before she sighed deeply.

“Let me explain. Miss Fame is one of the busiest and most sought-after people in town. She started this company with Raja Gemini when she was only 26 years old. They got accepted and won the Fashion Fund on their first try. They’re visionaries. Why do you want to work here?”

“Well, I’ve always loved fashion-”

“Have you now?” Violet said, giving her a stern once-over.

Courtney felt like those judgmental eyes would melt her very soul, and suddenly became extremely self-conscious about her choice of outfit. Was her skirt too short? Did her jacket not fit right? Was she wearing anything as offensive as that purse she couldn’t even take into the office? She gulped.

“Y-yes.” It was the truth, even if Violet didn’t believe her. Ever since she could remember, Courtney had loved putting together fabulous outfits. Usually with her brother, both of them getting glammed up and prancing around the house, pretending that they were posh ladies with all the money in the world. And when they were older, he was the one who dressed her up and escorted her to talent agents and auditions--her own little stage mom. “And I did some modeling as a kid in Brisbane.”

Violet rolled her eyes. “Please don’t say that, it won’t impress her at all.”

“Alright. Well, it seems like it would be a really exciting job. And Adore always talks about how wonderful Fame is-”

“Miss Fame,” Violet corrected her. “You aren’t her friend, call her Miss. And don’t mention Adore.”

“No? But she said-”

“She’ll think it’s tacky. She would never hire someone because of a personal connection. If you get the job, it’ll be on your own merits, not because you know Adore. And not because we danced in a club the other night. Don’t mention that either.”

“Okay. Got it.” Courtney bit her lip. This whole situation seemed less and less likely to work out, the few advantages Courtney thought she might have coming in slipping through her fingers like sand.

“Look, Courtney. Working as Miss Fame’s assistant is not some frivolous job full of exciting parties and fancy clothes, okay? It requires you to be organized, and smart, and always stay ten steps ahead of everyone. You’ll need to anticipate Miss Fame’s every need, before she even knows she has them. Is that something you think you can do?”

Anticipate needs before Miss Fame knows she has them? What in the fuck was Violet talking about? She wasn’t a psychic. But this was a job interview, and Courtney supposed that she should nod and smile.

“Yes. Yes, of course,” Courtney said. “I’m...very intuitive.”

“Mmhmm. And how are you with Microsoft office?”

“Pretty good, I think. And I learn very fast,” Courtney said.

“What about communication? Written, verbal...are you a good communicator?”

“Very!” Courtney exclaimed, gaining a little bit of confidence. Finally, something she knew she could handle.

“I’m gonna be honest with you. You don’t have a lot of experience and she has been very, very picky. So your best bet, when you go in with her, is to keep your mouth shut and just listen. This job isn’t about you, it’s about what you can do for her. You don’t matter. Does that make sense?”

Courtney nodded slowly.

“I hope you don’t think I’m being harsh. I’m just trying to prepare you so that you have half a chance.”

“Oh, I know! And thank you, honestly. I really need this job. My visa is-”

“For god’s sake, don’t mention your visa. If you get the job, HR will deal with that.”

“Right, of course.” Don’t mention the visa. Don’t mention Adore. Don’t mention the club. Don’t mention modeling. Courtney’s head spun, praying she’d remember anything she was allowed to say when Fame asked her questions.

“Look. Everyone in New York wants something from Miss Fame. If you’re her assistant, your most important job is to be the gatekeeper. You need to say no to people without them realizing it’s happening. You protect her from all the madness, support her so that her brilliant creative mind can thrive. Do you understand?”

“Yes. Definitely.” Courtney nodded emphatically, and she saw the first thing that almost looked like a smile on Violet’s face since she had arrived.

“Good.” Violet glanced at her watch. “I need to get back. You can stay here until she’s ready for you. But remember...don’t say anything unless you’re answering a direct question. Okay?”

“Okay,” Courtney said.

“Good luck Courtney, and don’t fuck it up.”

With that, Violet picked up her things and sailed out of the room, leaving Courtney alone. She held her breath for a full 10 seconds before letting out a huge sigh, head dropping onto her arms.

Soon, the sound of heels approaching again caused her to jump, spine ramrod straight as Violet threw open the door and snapped her fingers.

“She’s ready. Let’s go.”

***

Fame leaned back in her chair, assessing the girl in front of her with a discerning eye.

She was certainly a pretty little thing, bright-eyed and well-groomed, definitely the right look. Of course, her shoes were cheap and a bit scuffed, the chunky heels absolutely horrifying, but that could be fixed.

She was trembling like a leaf--although Fame didn’t particularly mind that part.

Courtney had said very little (another mark in her favor), but from what she had offered, Fame appreciated the accent right away. Something about an Australian accent tended to both impress and intimidate Americans, which could easily work in her favor.

After watching her suffer in silence for a few moments, Fame leaned forward, asking, “So...Courtney, was it?”

“Yes.”

“What do you think you’ll bring to this job that no one else can?”

“Well...I work very hard, and I’m very organized, and, uh...I’m really good at playing dumb.”

Fame tilted her head. Well, this was certainly an interesting answer.

“Go on.”

“Violet, she said that most of the job is protecting your privacy and being a...gatekeeper for people who want your attention. That you have to do it in a nice way.” Courtney cleared her throat, continuing nervously. “I think I would be good at pretending I don’t know things, like where you are when you’re in the middle of something that they’re not allowed to know about. Like, um, acting innocent or like...”

Fame continued to listen, eyes narrowed slightly, watching with amusement as Courtney cringed a bit.

“I’m sorry, that was very long-winded. I think I’d be good at making people feel good even when I’m saying no to them.”

“Hm.” Fame lifted her resume, looking it over one more time. She was inexperienced. Very inexperienced. But there was something about her that Fame found charming, even shrewd.

Besides, if she took longer to train, well, then Violet would just have to stay longer. Which was no skin off Fame’s back.

“Thank you, Courtney.”

“Oh.” Courtney seemed to realize that this was her cue to leave, standing awkwardly. “Thank you so much for the opportunity. It was an honor to meet you,” she said, looking like she wanted to say more, but deciding against it. Another plus.

“That’s all.”

***

Violet had never been happier to see the end of the workweek than when the clock struck 7 on Friday.

Fame would leave soon and then Violet would finally have time to tie up the loose ends of the day, which had gone by like a whirlwind.

Violet kicked off her shoes to rest for just a moment. She was feeling utterly exhausted but victorious.

Courtney had been hired, the girl shrieking so loudly when Violet had called to tell her the news that she almost burst Violet’s eardrum.

Violet leaned back, looking up at the ceiling, her eyes slipped closed. It was just a moment, just for one single moment.

“Ahem.”

Violet heard the cleared throat, but she was so tired she could barely open her eyes. The front doors were closed, the alarm set up on most floors, so it had to be someone from their own company.

“What can I help you with?”

“Is Fame still here?” Violet didn’t recognize the voice, the tone of it clearly male, but it didn’t matter who it was. They weren’t going to be allowed in.

“She is, but Miss Fame is not taking anymore meetings for today,” Violet sat up straight, and opened her eyes, “so if you could plea-”

Violet froze in place, the man in front of her someone she knew very, very well.

“Mr. Bertschy!”

“Hello.” Patrick smiled.

“Oh god, I am so sorry.” Violet stood up straight, quickly smoothing down her dress. Of course it was Fame’s husband. Of course. He often worked just as late as Fame, and since his offices were also in the building, he had keys and codes for everything. “I’ll call her right away for you sir, I’m so sorr-”

“There will be no need for that, Violet.”

Violet stopped immediately as she heard Fame’s soft voice coming from her office, the woman herself walking through her door seconds later.

“Hello darling.” Fame smiled, a tenderness in her eyes as she walked over that Violet very rarely saw. Fame leaned forward, gently kissing her husband.

Violet looked away quickly, Fame always preferring to keep her privacy around employees, from what Violet knew.

She felt like an absolute idiot that she hadn’t made the connection that the visitor would be Fame’s husband, Violet herself making the very dinner reservation they were on their way to now.

“Are you ready to go, darling?”

Patrick nodded and Violet hurried over to get Fame’s coat and purse from the closet. She walked over, holding it up so Fame could slip into it, the scent of her perfume filling Violet’s nose as she did just that.

“I expect everything to be ready Monday for our new employee.” Fame took her purse. “It will be your responsibility to train her, so be prepared to work overtime.”

Violet nodded. “Yes Miss.”

“Good.” Fame took her husband's arm, the two of them walking to the door where Fame stopped. “Oh, and Violet.” Fame looked over her shoulder. “Put on some shoes.”

Violet looked down, horror rushing over her when she realized that she had forgotten to put her shoes on.

“Yes Miss, it will happen Miss, right away.”

***

Katya would be hard-pressed to name a place in the world she loved more than their building’s rooftop. What had begun as a little community herb garden and grilling station had expanded over the years into a sanctuary. The rows of trees and potted plants lining the sides provided shade, their own little oasis in the urban jungle. They were chosen specifically to attract birds and butterflies as a tribute to Max, her very favorite birder and someone whom Katya relied on as a source of calm in a hectic world.

With permission from Fame, Katya had blown through the last of her own personal trust fund with a complete renovation to the barbecue area, turning it into a fully functional outdoor kitchen and lounge area, perfect for their weekend brunches.

Trixie had gently questioned her at the time; as someone who grew up with so little, he needed money in the bank or he’d get anxious. But what he might never understand was how much joy Katya had gotten creating a place to share with their friends and neighbors, how the time they spent together was more valuable to her than money had ever been.

Katya’s father was an ambassador, and after their family moved to Washington D.C. from Russia when she was just 3 years old, her life was full of stiff formal dinners, itchy fabrics that made it impossible to sit still, and so many rules that it made her head spin.

What followed were years of stuffy New England boarding schools and regimented summer camps. Every second of every day was planned for her: Latin and classical piano, cotillion and horseback riding lessons. Katya tried, she really did, to live up to all of the overwhelming expectations, but at some point along the line, the pressure was too much and she’d just caved in.

Katya shook her head, not wanting to think about the dark years, how hard it had been to get to this point. Instead, she inhaled deeply, looking across the patio at her wonderful boyfriend, doing his very best to squeeze oranges into juice for their brunch.

“Looking good, sugarbutt!” she called out. “Work those muscles.”

Trixie flexed for her, making her giggle delightedly before returning to the table, arranging the baskets of warm breads and pastries that she had been baking since 6 am. She unwrapped the fruit and veggie platter, artfully carved into elaborate rosettes and whimsical little animals, admiring a particularly cute little kiwi turtle, giving him a secret kiss just before the door swung open to reveal their first guest.

“Kimberly!” Katya skipped over to Kim, greeting her excitedly. Helping her with the mountain of French toast and platter of bacon that she’d brought to share.

As usual, her generosity was overwhelming to Katya, part of the reason that she was one of her favorite neighbors. The other part being her absolute artistry. Katya had been in awe of her makeup skills since the first time she’d seen her work, that Galactica show she’d attended with Trixie so many years ago, nervous to return to a place which had been the scene of one of her most dramatic failures in life.

She and Kim were soon chattering away as they set the table, discussing the latest collection at the Brooklyn museum, an anime-inspired artist who they both adored.

Max showed up next, with a beautiful garden veggie frittata and a carafe of hot tea.

“Thank you, Maxi, this looks delicious,” Katya said, giving him a tight squeeze.

Shangela arrived soon after, with a tray of Southern-style mac and cheese that caused both Kim and Trixie to burst into spontaneous applause, and a large bouquet of colorful flowers, presented to Katya with a wink. Shangela was someone that Katya thought she’d never win over - she’d created a major headache for her during her brief time at Galactica, and would certainly not have blamed her if she’d kept a distance.

But Shangela was a forgiving sort of person—after all, she worked daily with her ex-girlfriend—and had no problem at all giving Katya a chance on her own terms when she moved in. Soon, they’d established a mischievous sort of friendship, a playful flirtation and little inside jokes that Katya wouldn’t trade for anything.

Shangela was just explaining the intricacies of her mac recipe to Kim’s wide-eyed appreciation when the door opened again, revealing Violet in a characteristically chic set of work-out clothes—only instead of brunch offerings, she held a yoga mat in her hands, a surprised look on her face as she backed away.

“Oh, I’m sorry… I didn’t mean to interrupt…”

“Don’t be silly!” Katya called, beckoning her over. “So glad you’re here!”

“I’m, uh…” Violet glanced at the yoga mat in her hands, tugging at the bottom of her matte black tank top.

“Trixie…” Katya put her hands on her hips. “I told you to invite Violet to brunch. You didn’t forget, did you?”

Trixie set the pitcher of orange juice on the table, a sheepish look on his face.

“Oops.”

“Ha! Busted,” Shangela teased, punching Trixie on the arm.

“Hey, come on. It’s been a rough week,” Trixie defended himself.

“I know,” Katya said, putting her arms around him from behind. “Violet, please stay. I promise next time, you’ll get a formal invite, but trust me, we’re thrilled that you’re here.”

“Oh, I...don’t know if-”

“Hey hey hey, it’s my favorite people…” Pearl said, strolling up to the table. The last to show up, as usual, holding a partially empty bottle of vodka and container of strawberries.

“Aren’t those the strawberries that Katya bought?” Trixie asked, one eyebrow raised. He gestured to the platter, where a handful of said strawberries had been transformed into jaunty little penguins.

“Are they?” Pearl asked.

“And thank you for bringing them up to share with our friends!” Katya enthused, hugging her roommate tightly. “You’re so thoughtful.”

Pearl cast a glance over at Violet, lips turning up in a smirk as she assessed her skimpy attire.

“Nice shorts, pumpkin.”

“I-I didn’t know, I’m sorry, I-”

Katya watched as Violet attempted to stammer out a reply, immediately noticing how pink her cheeks got under Pearl’s bold gaze. Well, that would either be the cutest match in history, or end in total disaster. For Violet’s sake, Katya hoped for the former.

“Don’t be sorry. You look cute.” Pearl gave her a sexy wink and sat down, pouring some vodka into her glass.

“So, are we brunching or what?”

The rest of the group slid into their seats, helping themselves to the bountiful spread.

Max raised a judgmental eye at Pearl as he asked, “I assume you’re the one responsible for the racket at 3 am?”

“She said she’d be quiet,” Pearl shrugged, barely containing a sly grin. “Not my fault she lied.”

“No it ain’t, baby,” Shangela laughed, giving the blonde a fist bump.

“Can we please say grace? I’d like to give thanks that I don’t share a wall with Pearl,” Kim chimed in.

“Awww, Kimmy. Don’t be jealous,” Pearl licked her lips, “I’ve always got time for you.”

Kim threw back her head in laughter, a piece of Katya’s blueberry muffins in her mouth as she said, “Never change, Pearl. The women of New York would really be losing out.”

Katya seemed to be the only one noticing Violet’s face getting redder and redder at all the talk of Pearl’s sex life, as tame as the discussion was. Her fingers were twisted into the hem of her top, and seemed to be pulling at a loose thread.

All too familiar with the telltale signs of anxiety, Katya put a reassuring hand on her back and began to fill her plate. Something told her that Violet wasn’t big on rich, indulgent foods, so she began with a slice of fresh whole-grain bread and then some of her favorite little fruit creatures: a few of the penguin strawberries, of course, a kiwi turtle, and a little tangerine bear. She lined them up on Violet’s plate like she was arranging toys for a child, feeling unusually protective of this strange and beautiful new friend.

It took Violet a few moments to tear her eyes away from the very conversation making her so uncomfortable. She saw Katya’s handiwork and then glanced up at her, the two of them sharing a secret smile of camaraderie before Katya placed one last offering on her plate: an elaborate carrot rose.

Violet giggled, mouthing ‘Thanks,’ and Katya winked, leaning back happily to bask in the warm sunshine. Yes, she’d fit in just fine.

#rpdr fanfiction #thedane #veronica #galactica #lesbian au #fashion au #pearlet #trixya #violet chachki #pearl liaison #courtney act #miss fame #katya zamolodchikova #trixie mattel #kim chi #shangela laquifa wadley #max malanaphy

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sailorshadzter · 6 years ago

Text

in another world, sansa & daenerys might have been friends.

id like to write more about this, maybe even more on the “true” friendship side vs this take i took. anyways, this was fun and different to write and someday ill do more with it.

"The mother of dragons, my lady."

The announcement of the Targaryen queen to her own personal chambers surprised her, but Sansa kept her face passive as the door opened and she walked in. Though she knew it was proper and courteous to rise for her arrival, Sansa remained settled in her chair, yards of fabric draped over her legs. "Your grace," she greeted with a cool smile, settling her blue eyes upon the young woman. She wasn't much older than Sansa herself, but her beauty was far beyond hers. Sansa could not stop the fresh wave of jealousy towards her; she would never know what it was like to be so beautiful, so small and delicate, like the petals of a winter rose. "To what do I owe this pleasure?" She tried to do her part of making the dragon queen feel welcome, but she could not forget what Jon had whispered to her the day of their arrival. Believe in me, he had whispered, his breath warm against the shell of her ear, reminding her of the night they'd spent alone before he had left for Dragonstone. They'd not had much time together since Jon had returned, bringing with him this beautiful queen, and Sansa could not help but to feel somewhat put off by him. She knew what was at stake here and she hated herself for her damn jealousy, but hard as she tried, she could not shake it.

"I should like to be friends, Lady Stark." Daenerys spoke, her command of their language as if she'd been born speaking it, though her accent was misplaced among the Northerners. "I have been told quite a deal about you, though we've not yet had a chance to truly meet beyond our first meeting." In truth, it was Tyrion that was pushing her to befriend the Lady Sansa Stark. Shameful as it was to admit, Daenerys could not help but to feel jealousy towards the young woman. She was beautiful- tall and thin like a willow tree, with long red hair that must have felt like silk. And perhaps Jon did not realize it, but she could see how he looked at her, at this half sister of his. It was the way she wished he would look at her. It was true, they had spent a night together before coming to Winterfell, but looking back... It had not felt the way coupling had felt with men prior. Daenerys hadn't been able to place the strange feel to it, but perhaps now she was beginning to understand... But, she'd not come to Lady Stark's chambers to mope about her brother. No, she knew well now that the North backed this young woman. They would crown her Queen in the North without hesitation, as they had once crowned Jon. The Lords would not back her unless Sansa Stark said so. And so, she would have to befriend the eldest Stark child and hope in the end she would have her backing for the Iron Throne.

"If it is Jon or Tyrion telling you things, I'm afraid you will be disappointed." Sansa said with a smile, carefully slipping her needle into the fabric she had been working on. It was lovely fabric, perhaps the nicest fabric she'd worked with yet. At first glance, it seemed black, but in the light it shined green and blue, much like the scales of a fish, and was textured as such. Just a few more stitches here and there and the gown would be complete, ready to be worn at the next meeting with the Lord's. "Jon gives me too much credit and Tyrion was always overly kind to me during our time together in King's Landing." She wondered if the imp had ever told this Daenerys Targaryen that they'd once been wed.

Daenerys smiled, leaning forward on her elbows to carefully inspect the fabric Sansa had been sewing. "I think you should give yourself more credence, I have heard from many about you, even since arriving here." That was the truth. Yes, Tyrion had told her quite a bit her, about her abuse in King's Landing. Dany felt for the girl, truthfully she did. Were they both not products of a man's dark, cruel world? She knew little else, other than she'd been married to a man named Bolton, a bastard of a Northern lord, but Jon had went to war against him and thus reclaimed Winterfell in the name of the Starks. But, she knew little else. Looking into the young woman's eyes though, Dany could see she had suffered, that she had been abused far more than Tyrion had ever let on. In ways that no woman should ever suffer. In ways she herself had suffered, too. But more than all of that... Daenerys could tell how beloved she was to her people, to these Northerners. They spoke to her with respect beyond that of the King's sister, or the daughter of their previous Lord. They spoke to her with admiration in their eyes and bowed in her presence, as if she were a queen herself. And they did it of their own free will, these Northern men and lords. They adored Sansa Stark and from what she had collected, they had since the day of her birth. "This is lovely," she commented, reaching out a hesitant hand to touch the fabric. "Jon told me you are quite good at sewing." Dany looked up and violet eyes met blue, Sansa's lips curving with the first glimpse of a true smile.

"Thank you," she replied, giving in for just a moment, spreading the fabric of the dress out so the dragon queen could see its shape, its design. "My mother taught me... To sew, that is." Sansa smiled deeper, recalling those early days of her youth when her mother had first taught her to make those tiny, precise stitches. "Surely you must sew just as well, if not better than I." Sansa could not imagine a princess who could not sew, a queen that was not taught all of the womanly duties a future queen must know.

To her surprise, Daenerys shook her head. "No, I never was taught." She admitted, running her hand along the scaled fabric. "My mother died just after my birth and after that I was with my brother." There had been no women in her young life to teach her such a thing. "Do you make all of your dresses?" She recalled the two dark gowns she'd seen the girl in thus far, both made in the Northern style, her furs elegant touches. Sansa nodded and to her surprise, blushed when Dany complimented her skills. "Truly, I do not think I could even make a stitch, let alone a gown." This earned her a little chuckle, surprising Dany yet again. Perhaps this would be easier than she thought... In all honesty, she found it easy to like Sansa, the girl was quite charming when she let down her guard.

"I could teach you, if you'd like." Sansa said then, her blue eyes seeking out Dany's violet. "I have this lovely silk that would look nice with your hair," silk was a fabric far too thin to be useful in the North, especially during the long winter. And though she had once dreamed of wearing silk gowns and golden crowns, such dreams were long gone. She knew her duty to Jon, to ensuring this easily provoked queen felt welcomed and at ease in the North. At least for now, until the Night King was destroyed. But... Despite wanting to be cold and distant, Sansa could not help but to be charmed by the dragon queen. She was friendly enough, but her smile was easy-going and her strange colored eyes vibrant. Besides... Teaching her to sew would be a welcome change to the life she'd grown used to living; a life where war was all around them. For even an hour, she might pretend life was normal again.

"I should like that," Dany said honestly, sitting up straighter in her chair. "It might be nice to talk of something other than war and strategy. To do something a normal woman might do." For a moment, Sansa was surprised by the queen's choice of words, but recovered a moment later, a smile taking place on her lips.

"First, I you must learn a basic stitch," Sansa said, rising up from her chair, carefully laying her almost completed dress across her bed. "I shall show you." She returned to her chair, pulling it closer to Daenerys', fishing in her sewing basket for a scrap of linen and a fresh needle. "Like this." She demonstrated by pumping the needle in and out of the fabric, leaving behind a neat little line of stitches. Handing the fabric across to Daenerys, she watched as she carefully tried to make the first stitch, but grimaced when she stuck her thumb instead. "Careful," Sansa giggled without remorse, reaching out to place Daenerys' hands to get a better angle. They worked at it together, talking over things like their childhood's and even their dreams left behind. Before long, Sansa was complimenting Daenerys' first line of neat little stitches, bringing a smile to her face. As she opened her mouth to speak, a knock sounded on the chamber door and Sansa raised her head towards it as she called out permission to enter.

It was Jon there in her doorway, his dark eyes darting from one face to the other, his surprise at their close proximity evident. But Sansa was smiling upon him, unspoken words falling between them, a perfect understanding. "I've come to tell you supper is to be served." He recovered enough to speak, finally taking his eyes from Sansa to fall upon the dragon queen, who was smiling down at the sewing in her hands. For the first time since he'd met her, Daenerys looked like a normal woman.

From behind him, Ser Davos appeared, always close by when he was needed most. Jon allowed him to step into the room at his side, his smile gallant as he offered his arm to the dragon queen. "Might I escort you, your grace?" Daenerys smiled back at him, rising up when Sansa had taken the sewing from her. With a nod, she put her hand to the older man's elbow, allowing him to steer her from the room only after bidding goodbye to the Stark siblings.

The moment the door had closed, Jon turned to her, uncertain as to what to say. He knew how hard this had to be for Sansa... Giving up her home to this foreign queen after only just getting it back. He was proud of her, for all she had done so far. "You're teaching her to sew?" He asked, watching as she placed the fabric squares back into the basket at her feet. "You looked like a pair of normal women." He went on as she rose up, coming to stand before him, her rosy lips curved with a smile. Jon could not stop himself from reaching for her, drawing her into a warm embrace. "Can we speak... Tonight?" He murmured against her hair, breathing in her sweet scent. He'd missed her more than words could ever explain. Since his return to Winterfell two days before, he'd yet to have a chance to sit and talk with her... And more. He longed to hold her as he had done the night before leaving for Dragonstone. "Tell me you will come to my rooms tonight."

For a long moment, she allowed herself to grow warm in his arms. When Jon held her, she felt safe, a feeling she had once thought she'd never feel again. When he spoke, she could not help but to laugh, drawing back to peer into his face. "I will." She promised with a smile, taking his arm when he offered it to her a few moments later. They would make their way down to the great hall and have dinner, then she might spend some more time with this foreign queen, or perhaps see to some of the North's affairs. But then it was as she'd promised Jon, she'd visit his rooms that night, where they would finally have a chance to speak of all that had happened. Finally, they might catch one another up on all things the other had missed. And maybe... They might spend another night wrapped in each other's arms.

#sansa stark #daenerys targaryen #also jonsa #jonsa #got fanfic #i think in a different time they could have been friends #well an entirely different story really lol #but still #i just want sansa to have one female friend she can rely on #i loved margaery but even she was just nice to sansa to get things from her #i want sansa to have a TRUE and PURE female friendship #she deserves that #anyways #long tags are long #my writing #i wrote this

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