#and if he finally releases something i might actually be the happiest person alive

[echos-newlegs]

I return with part two of this fic. I dunno how good it will be, started it at 11:37pm because I can’t sleep lmao. I found a prompt list tho and I’ll be posting that shortly 😳. Also I am a Tom boy so please excuse this chapter. I dunno words of things or how most girls dress up for dates. I’ve never been on one, and my purse is deep, blue Jean, pockets and a Star Wars wallet ✌️🥸

Warnings: Implied sexual themes, it doesn’t go into depth though. I may write the hanky panky in a separate chapter if y’all want.

Part one - This is part two

You and Echo hung out anytime he made his return to Corusant. It could be days after, or even months. Echo always had this horrid feeling that one mission would go wrong, and he wouldn’t be able to see you again. Or that you would decided seeing a clone wasn’t worth it, and move on. If you would even consider what the two of you had as, ‘seeing one another.’ You on the other hand were just worried for his safety. He didn’t make you feel self conscious or like he would move on and find someone new. He was so loyal, even if what you had wasn’t official.

After nearly six months of knowing one another. Seeing each other a near twelve times, bringing both you and your daughter back a gift after each mission. Or just a fun story about he and his brothers for the two of you. Though, Echo finally asked the last time if he could officially take you on a date. One with just the two of you. He adored your daughter, but having a five year old running around did tend to kill the mood, and you understood. Nearly jumping into his arms with a grin as you kissed his cheek. Blurting ‘yes!’ almost a little, too excitedly.

You were just getting ready to leave your house. Purse hung over your shoulder as your shoes clicked on the tile of your kitchen. You weren’t wearing anything super fancy, you didn’t wanna overwhelm yourself or Echo. It was still casual, but it was nicer than your normal. Exiting the house and locking the door behind you, after making sure the lights were all off for the thousandth time. When Echo came up behind you with a grin. “You ready?” He asked, you jumped a bit and you turned to see him. He wasn’t in his armor for once, nor his blacks. Which he would occasionally lounge around your home in until— who you learnt was his brother Fives— was ready to leave.

You smiled and swatted at his arm. “Warn a girl before sneaking up on her,” you teased. Echo tittering a bit. “Not my fault you’re always so jumpy,” “am not,” “Y/N, I could argue differently. You nearly punched me last time I saw you because your daughter let me in the house.” You scoffed, the two of you beginning your stroll down the street to who knows where. “You deserved it, not like I expected someone in full armor to be standing in my kitchen eating Star cherry dessert!” Echo laughed at that, causing you to laugh with him.

The two of you continued your stroll. You were thankful to have a night to yourself. Plus C/N got a night with friends. “Where are we going, anyways?” You asked, looking to your side to see Echo grinning. “You’ll see.” Was all he said. You weren’t really one for surprises. You were impatient and somewhat stubborn, and he knew this. Causing a sigh to leave your lips as the two of you strolled the dim lit streets.

Echos hand brushed against yours, fingers reaching to catch yours. You accepting his offer. Taking his hand into your own and leaning against his side a bit. You could of swore you heard him release a breath, too. Making you smile a bit more. In all honesty, even if the two of you just walked around the city, you would be the happiest person alive. Internally squealing when his thumb started rubbing over the back of your hand.

You came up to a diner, tilting your head a bit. “Echo, I could have made us something.” You spoke, looking over to him and he shook his head. “No no, this is supposed to be us relaxing and spending time with each other. Not me making you cook.” You were about to argue with him, but the look he gave you made you close your mouth and nod in agreement. “Alright, but I’m paying for myself.” Echo snickered and pulled you inside. “Alright, fine, deal.”

The two of you sat at a booth by the window. Across from one another as music played in the background, faintly. You both gazed over the menu, deciding what looked best. “You ever been here, Echo?” You asked, looking up to catch his gaze. “No, actually, but I’ve wanted to try it, have you?” You nodded, “I work here,” you added with a grin as you watched his smile fade. “Oh, I uh, I’m sorry, I didn’t know.” You snickered, shoving him from across the table. “Echo, I’m kidding, I work at a repair shop. I used to work here though, back when I was a teen.” You added and he smiled once more. Stars, how you could watch him smile for hours.

He raised a brow and stared at you, interested. “You repair things, like what?” “Speeders, droids, tech, you name it. It was something I learnt from my dad and brothers, and it pays the rent.” You added and he nodded. “Might have to have you look over my communicator for my helmet some time,” and you hummed in thought. “It’ll cost you,” he raised his brows. Grin only widening. “Oh yeah, and what’s the price?” Though before you could even think of a response the waitress was there with a pen in hand. “What will the lovely couple have to drink.” The comment caught you both off guard, blushing and rambling. “Oh,” “we’re not-“ “he’s just-“ “A friend?” The waitress asked, a hip popped out as she smiled mischievously at the two. “Uh huh, and I work here for fun. What’ll it be for drinks?”

The two of you stared at her and then glanced at each other. You speaking up first, since it was obvious Echo had no idea what he wanted. “A Star Cherry malt, please.” The waitress nodded, and wrote it down. “Just one or two?” “Just one,” Echo interrupted you before you could speak. You glanced over to catch him smile. “Alright, one Star cherry malt on its way.” And off she went.

The moment she returned with the drink Echos eyes lit up with curiosity. “Do you two need a moment before you order?” “Yes please, ma’am,” you spoke, and she nodded. Walking off again. You looked back to Echo and raised a brow. “Have you ever had a malt?” He shook his head, ‘no.’ You would have been surprised, if he hadn’t acted like you made gold each time he ate with you at home. “No, on Kamino, we were...” he trailed off a bit. “Programmed to not intake sweets. It messes with our energy.” He added and you snorted. “It messes with everyone’s energy, hun. Now try some. If you like the cookies I bake, then you should like this flavor.” He didn’t think twice before taking one of the straws and taking a drink.

His eyes were focusing. Eyebrows raised. Pulling back to look at you with a childish grin. “So?” “It’s amazing! Why do I even listen to anyone besides you, I’ve been hidden from everything!” He exclaimed and you couldn’t help but giggle. Pointing out some of your favorites on the menu. He stuck to some simple things. The two of you splitting fries and eating burgers. Absolutely enjoying your time together.

Once finished, you paid, like you said you would. He didn’t argue either. The two of you walking home, hand in hand. “When will you be back?” You asked, expecting he would have to leave the moment you got back to yours. “Tomorrow, if you’ll let me? We don’t leave for our next mission until the day after, I technically don’t even have to be back to the bunks tonight. I could crash on your couch if I wanted.” He told you. You looking up to him with a grin. “You know, the heater in my apartment went out, I’m doubtful you’d want to stay on my couch.” You spoke, looking down towards your feet. Him sighing and pulling you closer. Draping an arm over your shoulders. “Well, now I want to more, I thought you fixed things anyways?” He asked and you furrowed your brows with a grin. Pulling your keys out and unlocking your door when the two of you got to your place.

You pushed the door open and pulled him inside. Shutting it behind the two of you. “I do, but no ones asked me to. I don’t just hand out help for free, you know.” You told him. Making it a point to drag your hand up his arm as you walked off down the hall. Flipping on the lights. You knew he was right behind you, too. Following you like a lost dog. “So, did you wanna stay the night?” You asked, looking back to him, and he shrugged. Licking his lips as he looked around and then back to you. “I can, if you’ll let me. I can get out of your hair, if you want me to?” He asked. “Come back tomorrow.” You shook your head with a grin. “No need, we can watch a movie and lay on the couch for a bit, then you can keep me warm tonight.” You added with a wink. Snickering at the taken back expression he gave you. “I’ll return, I’m going to go change, you get comfy, Echo.” You murmured and he nodded. “Sure thing, Cyar’ika.” He added, and pulled his nice clothes off. Blacks resting underneath as they normally were.

When you returned your hair was down, what little makeup you had on was removed, plus you were in your sleep wear. Baggy clothing that made you look smaller in his eyes, but he loved it. He was sitting on the couch already, waiting for you to return. You smiled and grabbed the remote as you sat next to him with a sigh. Looking over at his awkward form. Scrunched together, hands to himself. He didn’t cease to surprise you. How one second he could be touchy, and the next moment too embarrassed to even hold your hand anymore. “You know, you don’t have to keep your hands to yourself.” You added. Looking at the screen. Finding a holovideo for the two of you to watch. Or even just have it as background noise.

Your lips pressed together when he eventually wrapped his arm around you. Pulling you against him as you rested your head against his shoulder. Neither of you were really paying attention to the screen at this point. Too distracted by one another’s presence. Hands eventually finding one another. “What does.. Cyar’ika mean?” You asked. Looking up to him with a curious and innocent gaze. A blush creeping up the back of his neck as he pretended to pay attention to what was happening in the holo. “It uh..” He stammered, you listening intently. “It means, sweetheart. Or Darling.” He admitted. Glancing down to meet your gaze. You were in awe, really. It really did mean the world to you.

Then you got an idea. Eyes darting down to his lips, and then back to his eyes. “I think I know what it’ll cost for me to look at your helmet,” Echo was curious now. Turning a bit to face you with a small smile. “Oh, and what is that?” You sat up a bit more. Leaning a bit closer to his face. “A kiss.” You murmured, lips ghosting against his. His hands moving to hold at your waist and his attention was all yours now. Both of your faces heated red. Hearts pounding in your chest. You squirming a bit under his touch and gaze. “Then what are you waiting for?” He asked, and that was all you need before your lips met his.

The kiss was soft, everything you imagined from the Arc Trooper. Hands reaching up to cup the sides of his face as your lips danced a slow rhythm. Humming a bit into the kiss as he pushed you back and down against the couch. Shifting himself to he was placed in between your legs, hovering above you.

When your lips parted you nearly whined. The two of you panting, eyes half lidded. Eyes roaming each other’s faces. “You ready for bed yet?” You asked with a small smile and a smirk. Echo grinning down at you. Though this grin was a bit wolffish, wild. Full of mischief. “Is that even a question, cyare?” He asked, voice a bit gruff as he leant down and captured your lips again. Before moving off and lifting you from the couch. Carrying you back into your room. Legs and arms wrapping around him as the two of you were a bunch of giggling messes. Kissing here and there as he scurried off with you in your arms. That night you and him both kept warm, almost too warm at some points.

[yeocult]

lover’s guide | s.mg

genre: fluff, slight ansgt, college au

wc: 4.2k words

synopsis: 5 steps to love by song mingi

step one: being noticed

“mingi, are you even listening?” the male jolted up at the sudden call of his name from his professors, earning a few stares from his classmates.

“um y-yes.” he mentally slapped himself for stuttering. mingi sighed and closed his eyes, desperately trying to kill off the feeling that welcomed itself into his mind.

just a few days earlier, during lectures when he laid his eyes on you. he thought it was maybe admiration at first. you were one of the top students of the class and the way you carried yourself with such grace was so attractive to him. your range of style was captivating, each day came with a new outfit. he liked the way you were confident and also was experimenting with different styles. not to mention you killed every look.

the sudden attraction seems like one of those middle school crushes that he could get over within three days, maximum. but even after three days, he didn’t. he couldn’t stop himself from staring at you from across the room and he often caught himself thinking about you.

he would use every chance he got to interact with you, although he couldn’t say he was the best at it. he knew that small smiles whenever you two pass in the halls or that silently complementing your choice of accessories was not enough for you to get the hint of his crush on you. but he did it anyway.

today was nothing new. mingi found himself stealing glances at you once in a while, especially since lectures were long and he rather had his focus somewhere else than some boring discussion about costume history from the professor’s monotone voice.

“mingi can you be any more obvious? if i was them, i could feel you basically staring into my soul from across the room.” his friend whispered leaning closer to mingi to avoid making a scene. mingi scoffs and wooyoung earned an elbow to his side. “don’t word it like that…” mingi fixes his eyes on the professor to avoid getting called on again, “is it that bad?” he quietly asked and wooyoung nodded.

the boring lectures came to an end and granted him a long desired freedom. since it was his final class for the day, he was free to go home and take that nap he craved for. wooyoung was long gone with yeosang as they walked out of the room together, while mingi was a rather bit slower when packing his supplies.

it wasn’t until you came up to him that he felt his whole body freeze. his insides were jumping and he didn’t know if it was from excitement or nervousness, probably both. you held onto your tote bag with one hand while the other was playing with the hem of your shirt as you approached the tall male.

“hey mingi!” you happily greeted him and mingi mirrored your smile and waved back at you. your smile was continuous, how could he not smile back even if he looked like a huge idiot. 

“i really like your style. you always stand out,” you paused for a moment realizing how that sounded. “you dress really well, um your style is different from others, i like it.” you added for clarifications, not wanting to sound impolite or anything in that manner.

within less than a minute, you manage to make mingi do cartwheels in his head and the happiest man alive. “o-oh thank you! i actually made this shirt myself. it didn’t turn out well so i just wear it casually—sometimes even to bed…” he trailed off. “thank you, uh i really like your earrings, by the way, they’re pretty.” he tells you. mingi wanted to evaporate right now after so much he just stuttered and rambled right in front of you. he shyly scratched his nape, hoping his nervousness didn’t make the air awkward.

your soft giggles filled the lecture room as you thanked him. then you waved cheerfully and made your way towards the exit, leaving mingi there stunned. you noticed him and that was all mingi needed to know he was in love.

step two: being friends

mingi has been falling asleep with a soft smile and waking up with full energy the past week. because ever since you interacted with him, you two have grown closer. he felt more comfortable and less shy around you. the short greetings have turned into telling each other how his days went and him listening to you praise the new album your favourite group released. the two of you would walk to the bus station together after the bell rings, spending lunch breaks together, and facetime once in a while.

he learned a lot about you during the period he started to hang out with you more. mingi took note that you often wore dangly earrings over studs and that you like to eat strawberries to fuel your body during study sessions. he also learned that you went into fashion major simply for the interest and passion of it, he admired you for that. mingi likes to think that your jewelry choices match you fairly well; bright and attractive.

the two of you have been spending lunch breaks together. during those times, you noticed that mingi is a slow eater and he told you he also makes music with one of his friends, hongjoong, who was a year older than him. you noticed his little habits of laughing with his whole body. throwing his head back and sometimes clapping his hand in amusement. although he might come off intimidating or cold to some people, mingi is definitely the most wholesome person you’ve come across and you still can’t wrap your head around his duality.

you two would sit at the bus station waiting for your ride home. mingi’s place was within walking distance but he insisted on waiting with you. after all, it was a perfect opportunity to spend more time with you. and if there’s anything mingi likes more than you, is spending time with you.

the both of you were browsing your phones while waiting for your bus to arrive. getting bored with the lack of notifications on his phone, mingi leaned in to glance at your phone screen.

“you like cats?” mingi asked you as the both of you watch some fluffy cat video on your instagram feed. you shifted your phone for the better view for him and nodded. 

“they’re just so cute, right?” mingi hummed in response. he held back on telling you that he thought you were way cuter than the cats, but decided to save it for another time. you proceed to tell him that your mother is allergic plus that you probably wouldn’t have much time to take care of a pet being in college and all that. he watched your eyes filled with glitter as you continue to watch more cat videos on your screen.

the bus finally arrived and you quickly stood up. it saddens him a little that he couldn’t watch you become all smiley over cats.

“thanks for waiting with me again, mingi. i’ll see you tomorrow.” you gave him a quick hug from the side and softly smiled at him. silently hoping your swift  action wasn’t weird or sudden to him, because you really were appreciating the little things mingi does for you. including companying you while your bus arrives. 

mingi softly smiled at you. “anytime.” he kept his response short because knowing himself, he wouldn’t know how to speak normally with stutters and rambling if he continued.

he tried to cover up the fact that he’s blushing like a fool right now and his heart is beating extremely fast over a simple and quick hug. didn’t go very well as mingi stood there with his cheeks painted a crimson colour and heat rushes throughout his body. a damn hug. you simply warped your arms around his figure and made your way towards the bus like nothing had happened. like you hadn’t made mingi the happiest person alive.

overtime, mingi was proud to call you his close friend. even though that wasn’t what he exactly hoped for, he hoped for a little more actually. but at the end of the day, he was happy nonetheless to have you with him.

step three: first date

today’s a special day, making you want to doll yourself up more than usual. “is this too much?” you’ll never admit it out loud but being around mingi made you feel a bit timid and shy. the total opposite of how people view you, bold and charming.

you weren’t the type to care about what others thought about you. after all, fashion was how you expressed yourself and you didn’t limit yourself to one style. if you felt like adding one more hair clip to your hair, then who’s gonna stop you? on days when you’ve lost your confidence, mingi would be the first person to compliment you. and that was all it took for you to truly appreciate yourself.

“w-what? no! you look amazing, you always do.” mingi pointed out how your nail polish matches your hair clips and you felt at ease, your body loses its stiffness and you softly smile at his compliment.

mingi on the other hand, felt like he was always overdressing. maybe choose something a little more simple? tone down with the colours? those types of thoughts kept mingi from truly playing around with his wardrobe. he admitted, he was insecure. that all changed when he started to hang out with you. your confidence brushing on him made him careless about what others might think of him. he started layering jewellery and wearing that flashy jacket because he can. you had noticed your little influence on him and you loved that for him.

“you don’t look too bad yourself.” you helped mingi break from his shell and gain confidence, mingi made you feel comfortable in your own skin.

the bell chimed at your entrance. your eyes light up at the environment. the welcome scent of coffee wafts through the air and the soft melody playing in the background automatically brings joy to your face. you’ve never been to a cat cafe before, seeing this amount of cute cats casually walking around has added ten years to your life. mingi and you settled to a small table by the window with a few cats already sitting there on the shelf. the sun shined through the glass, warming up the seat and table. while you busy yourself with your new furry buddy, mingi left to order a few drinks and dessert for the both of you.

as he waited in line, he thought about how lucky he was to even be here with you right now.

“so…” mingi takes a break from drawing figures on his sketchbook and meets your face. you hummed and pulled your laptop screen lower so you can see his face. the two of you were studying together in the library, helping each other in various topics covered in today’s lessons. mingi was always grateful that your schedules line up with his. meaning all of his breaks, he can spend time with you since you were off as well. and since you were both fashion majors, it only made sense if you both helped each other out.

“i have a friend, he works at this cat cafe and i was wondering…” pause. his eyes lowered at his hands fidgeting with his pen. “if you wanted to go with me tomorrow?” he continued but couldn’t help to lower his voice almost to a whisper as he shyly asked you out. he knew how much you loved cats and thought it was a perfect idea to take you to visit the cafe one day.

your face immediately lights up at the idea of a cat cafe. “mingi are you serious? i would love to!” you send him a big toothy grin as you were so excited to be able to go with him. “it’s a date then!”

mingi swore his heart stopped beating and his nose forgot how to breathe for a second at your words.

“you’re deep in love aren’t you prince charming?” his friend from behind the counter teased. san grinned at mingi while typing in his order into the machine. it seem like wooyoung had already told san about mingi’s little secret.

he rolled his eyes, as if he doesn’t get ridiculed enough from wooyoung and yeosang in class already. “and what about it?” mingi scoffs, pulling out a couple bills and handed them to san. 

luckily for him, you weren’t around to hear it. although parts of him wished you could hear what just san said because he doesn't know how long he can control his feelings anymore. but mingi wanted his confession to be a bit more romantic rather than his friend blurting it out, so he kept quiet and waited. you were currently occupied with your phone, filling up your photo gallery with pictures of them while waiting for mingi to order.

“it means you should probably do something about it.” san winked, handing mingi his receipt before heading back to prepare his drinks. mingi knew exactly what he meant about that. he knew exactly what he should do about these uncontrollable feelings. but he just couldn’t find the courage to do it anytime soon.

he sighed and glanced towards the table where you sat. he was really glad he brought up the idea of bringing you here because mingi realized how endearing your love for cats was. even from afar, the way you gently pet the cat by the window makes his heart melt. no complaints from him though. if they can make you smile non-stop, then that’s all it matters.

“order up for lover boy.” san announced playfully, snapping mingi out of his thoughts of you and bringing him back from reality. mingi rolled his eyes and blatantly ignored his friend’s word, taking the tray of food in his hand. hearing san giggle from behind him only made him more annoyed but he quickly calmed down at the sight of you playing with a cat’s paw.

“hey. i got your favourites.” he placed the tray in the middle. you thanked him as you took a bite into your strawberry shortcake and a sip from the iced americano. you felt butterflies in your stomach, you couldn’t help but to feel this way towards mingi because he never fails to remember all the little things you’ve told him.

the two of you enjoyed your drinks and desserts and talked about anything that came to your mind. mingi was an easy person to talk to. no matter what you talked about or how long you would ramble on a topic, he was listening to every single word that came out of your mouth. sometimes you would carry the whole conversation and he didn’t mind. and neither did you because something about not worrying or stressing over if you were being boring or annoying was what made you love talking to mingi. your voice was like music to him, he could listen to it all day long. he propped his chin on his hand as you continued to talk.

you jump up slightly at the furry feeling the side of your leg. you melt at the sight of a persian cat making figure eights around your legs. another kitten nearby was on its back, all sprawled out. you both were in awe at the sight of all these cute cats around the place. while you fixed your gaze on the cats, mingi had his eyes focused on you the entire time.

step four: confession

everything was going fine. until it wasn’t.

self-doubts and anxiety starts creeping in and you feel weak. you were unsure, because nothing good has ever lasted this long. you had no idea this would happen when approached mingi. but after that day, you found yourself looking forward to talking with him more. and over time, of course, you fell for him. who wouldn’t?

it felt odd. suspicious. everything was going so smoothly with you and mingi. he makes you feel excited to wake up every day and spend your breaks with him. he makes classes and college a little more bearable. you love the way he unconsciously caress your hand under the table like it’s a habit. you love the little things he does for you like sharing earbuds while waiting for your bus. mingi was an angel towards you.

it was too good to be true.

you were hidden underneath your blanket in a fetal position, curled up with your knee to your chest as you quietly sobbed in your room. you felt terrible. how you’ve been avoiding mingi recently ever since this unsettling feeling started to creep in. you tried to bury your whimpers and sniffs as you heard your door creak open and felt the bed dip.

“hey.” no response. he couldn’t see your face. the only thing he could hear was the shaky breath that you tried so hard to hide from underneath the covers. he could tell you’ve been crying for the past hour or even days considering your current state.

“leave me alone,” you snapped at him. mingi pursed his lips at your jarring words, deciding to push it away because he knew you didn’t mean any harm.

he’s noticed, he always does. today is sunday, he hasn't seen or heard from you ever since friday afternoon. even so, you disappeared right after classes ended and he couldn’t get a hold of you. you weren’t at the bus stop as you normally would, it had mingi worried to death. he started to think about his past actions or words to see if any of that had made you upset, but none came to his mind. opting to just stay by your side for now.

“i haven’t seen you in so long, is everything okay?” he asked but got no response. the lump in your throat prevents you from telling the truth, so you kept quiet. you could only shake your head from underneath the covers.

“i’m here for you, i don’t want you to go through this alone.” mingi took a deep breath. he didn’t like seeing you like this. he settled on the bed right next to your figure, you flinched at his touch when he patted your shoulders gently. he didn’t say a word, he allowed you to continue crying, letting out any pain that has been trapped in there. 

and with that, you slowly pulled the covers down. revealing your glossy eyes and puffy lips from the endless hours of crying in your room.

mingi quickly took you into his embrace because he just couldn’t stand the sight of you crying. he’s been dying to hold you. he tells you that everything is okay to be okay and that it’s okay to cry. maybe silence was the best medicine for now, but he felt the urge to tell you that things were going to be okay. he lets you cry in his arms, allowing you to break down as he rubs your back. you buried your face into the warmth of his chest as he held the back of your head and rubbed your back. soft whispers from mingi calmed you down, you focused your mind on his smooth voice to escape the unsettling thoughts that welcomed itself into you.

you pushed yourself off him and took a shaky deep breath, it sounds like you were going to break and tears would storm down your cheeks again but you quickly collected yourself.

“i’m sorry.” you whispered, wiping your face with the back of your hand. you didn’t know what to do now. tell him? or make up an excuse on why you’ve been down lately? tell him that you were afraid that he would leave you? or push off the topic and hope that he’ll buy it?

you played with your hands as you sat there helpless in front of him, until mingi’s voice broke your racing thoughts. “it’s okay. take your time.” he took both your hands in his, caressing your hand with his thumb gently, like he always does. holding them like you were going to disappear any moment now, leaving him alone.

a comfortable silence falls between you and mingi as you both sit on your bed holding each other's hands. until you blurted out the words you’ve been holding back, words you’ve been thinking over and over.

“i love you.”

mingi froze at your sudden confession. releasing his grip on your hands and his eyes widened. he felt like his heart was about to explode. the fluttering in his stomach, feeling hesitant of what to say back because he was definitely not expecting this so suddenly. 

“i…” he began, unsure of how to properly explain the complexity of his feelings, “i love you too, ever since i laid my eyes on you.” chuckling at himself at how cheesy he sounded. unashamed of how stupidity in love he sounds right now, because letting you know how important you are to him was his goal.

giggling at how adorable he looks when he proposed his feelings, loving how he can make you smile despite you being a mess just a couple of minutes ago. loving how being here with you, makes you forget all about those negative thoughts. you took his hands into yours once again. a wave of relief washes you over because now. you didn’t have to worry about anything anymore, not when he’s by your side.

“it’s just…” you drop your head down at his hands as you play with his fingers, “nothing this good as happened to me and i just…” you trail off, feeling the tears in the corner of your eyes coming back. just afraid of you leaving me, was what you wanted to say but couldn’t. mingi notices and instantly intertwines his hands with yours.

“hey, it’s okay. i’m going anywhere, okay?” he reassures you, like he was reading your thoughts. lifting up his hand intertwined with yours to your eye level as his little proof. his action didn’t fail to make you smile.

“thank you, mingi. for being with me.”

“like i said, i’m always here for you. now c’mere.” opening his arms wide with a huge grin plastered on his face as an invitation for you to melt in his arm. you hurled in his arms.. finding solace in the crook of his neck, feeling his warmth and taking in his scent. 

the room was filled with little sniffles from you, sounding like a toddler who’s favourite toy went missing. “sorry for getting my snot on your shirt.” you shyly chuckled for ruining the slightly romantic atmosphere.

“it’s okay, only because i love you.” if hugs healed, mingi would hold you forever.

step five: being a couple

“close your eyes for me?”

“don’t tell me what to do.”

“you—” mingi sighed. “just do it, please.”

“okay, only because you said the magic word.” you quipped with a smirk.

mingi scoffed. when you shut your eyes, he leads you in front of the mirror. he pulled out the handmade necklace he’s been working on the past couple of days. his hands, unlike the rest of his body, were cold. he carefully brushed your hair out of the way then carefully clipped the two ends of the necklace together. turning them to the front and letting them sit on your collarbones.

it was a simple gold chain with a charm, representing you. he was aiming for a piece you would be able to wear casually, fitting with everyday outfits as well as complementing your other jewelry pieces since he knew you liked to layer them.

with anticipation, you asked if you can open your eyes, mingi hum a tune in response. “i got you a little something, i hope you like it.” slowly opening your eyes to reveal mingi’s gift. heat crawling up your face when your eyes laid on the beautiful piece of gold jewelry resting around your neck. there laid a charm, a key.

“baby…” you gazed at your new favourite jewellery while trying to hold back tears. getting on your tippy-toes, reaching for his cheeks to give him a quick “thank you” kiss.

mingi flashed you a huge satisfied grin, “ta-da! we’re matching!” he pulled his own necklace that was hidden under his shirt with the brightest smile on his face, the type of smile that turned his eyes into crescents. instead of a key, his was a lock. you were in awe at the connection and how thoughtful it was.

“thank you mingi, i love it so much.” you wasted no time wrapping your arms around his neck and a quick peck on his cheeks that made his heart burst into a million pieces.

in a short amount of time, you two managed to brighten each other’s day effortlessly. mingi has never been so wrong about his little crush on you lasting three days. even though it was silly, he thanked himself every day for choosing to wear that shirt. who knew something he put so little thought into could turn to be the best thing that’s happened to him? he was so proud to be in love with such an incredible person. a love he would cherish for life.

“thank you for loving me.”

-

happy birthday to the best boy, song mingi <3

[godsofhumanity]

You said you could go into greater detail with your whole Rhea and Cronus please do

y’all have no idea how happy i am to see the amount of enthusiasm some of y’all have for my cronus x rhea AU 🥺🥺🥺

okay so pretty much the whole plot i’ve already written here... but i’m happy to share with you some more detailed scenes i’ve thought of...

also, i would absolutely LOVE to make this into a comic @rosebriarr, and i’ve actually got a story plan already finished, heck- i even have my designs for Cronus and Rhea here BUT,, i’m currently working on my Aphrodite-Ares-Hephaestus-Aglaea comic, but,, once that’s done, then yes, for sure, anyways- i hope these little* snippets that i’ve pulled out of my plan will suffice:

*warning- it’s not little at all, this became longer than i expected RIP

i thought it’d be more tragic if, at the end of the whole story, Cronus and Rhea actually still don’t hate each other,, like,, neither of them have regrets i think.. and i wanted to frame their relationship in a positive light, so for the Castration of Ouranos arc, i wanted to only have wholesome Cronus x Rhea moments so that when Cronus goes insane, it’s more sad and bitter

anyways, i already said that in my AU, Cronus doesn’t have any big dreams about being King- he thinks Oceanus should take that role because he’s the oldest. but Rhea of course knows that the crown should be earned. it is not merely a birthright, and Cronus has, in fact, earned the crown because he was the only one willing to take a stand against injustice, and all the Titans were ready to listen him- leadership is definitely one of Cronus’ better traits.

i had this scene planned where Rhea asks Cronus if he’ll take a queen or something when he becomes a king, and Cronus is like “well i haven’t thought about it” and then together they list all the good traits that a queen should have, and at the end, Cronus says, “y’know, i think i know a girl like this!” and Rhea’s internally thinking, “me??~” but then Cronus jokingly says, “yeah, i think i’ll ask Theia!” because he likes messing with Rhea, and Rhea’s like “bitch.”

wayyyy later on, after Rhea learns that all five of her children that Cronus swallowed are still alive, there’s a scene where Rhea asks Cronus, “what happened to us?” because i mean, at first they were so happy together and they had fun, and now there’s no love between them, they don’t even trust each other at this point, and Rhea’s in the middle of her own plan to destroy Cronus, so like- what happened from the time that Cronus heroically defeated Ouranos, to present time, where they can’t even look at each other without fighting?

and Cronus doesn’t answer her.. he just kinda lays still because he doesn’t really have a solid answer to give her- it’s not just one thing,, and to be honest, i think he does miss, just a little, what they used to be like.. perhaps there is a tiny part of him that is actually like, “you know what? we fucked up really bad and what we’re doing right now is wrong”... but he’s too proud to actually admit that he might be wrong, that he might actually need help, and i think he feels that he’s already come so far, there’s just no way they can return to the way things were.

so all he does is remain silent and he uses his time magic to reverse both his and Rhea’s aging, so for just a few moments, they both look young and in their prime- when they were happiest.. and when Rhea sees this, any doubts she had (if she had any at all) about betraying Cronus are removed immediately from her mind- now she knows that she has to depose Cronus, not just for her children’s sake, but for Cronus’ sake as well- she doesn’t want to see him destroy himself, and she knows that he isn’t going to accept her help willingly so she has to take matters into her own hands.

after Rhea really begins to get the ball moving, she visits her brother, Coeus in order to get a potion that will strip Cronus of his time powers (because he’s pretty unbeatable with them), but Cronus begins to suspect Rhea ever so slightly.. he has no idea that Zeus is actually alive, but Rhea’s just a little bit too excited and happy for him to be completely at peace, so he too, visits Coeus and gets a potion that will enhance his powers...

Coeus in my AU, is the resident magic boy because his daughter is Asteria, and Asteria’s daughter is Hecate, who we all know is like, the most high grand witch of all- so i wanted to have that magic actually come from somewhere, and that’s why i made Coeus in charge of the magic business, even though that’s not actually mythically accurate.. (Hecate isn’t born yet, so it doesn’t make sense for Rhea to consult Hecate)

anyhow, Coeus is actually a good guy, and he helps Rhea and Zeus out a lot, but he is forced to give Cronus a potion as well because Cronus very subtly threatens Coeus in relation to his daughter (Asteria)... 

i included that in because i didn’t want to completely just baby-ify Cronus like “ohoho cronus my beloved is so innocent”.. well, no- he is a villain, and he’s not a good or nice person at this point and i thought it was important to show just how cruel and insane he’s become, that’s why he doesn’t hesitate to threaten a small innocent child to get what he wants.

anyways, so when the time comes and Cronus finally drinks the potion that Rhea gives him, he’s hit by a spell of dizziness and he’s like “Rhea what the fuck have you done to me?!” and honestly, even though he was a little suspicious of her, he didn’t want to be suspicious of her because that would mean that, once again, Ouranos was right- Rhea did end up betraying Cronus the way Gaia betrayed Ouranos.

so he’s pretty angry and pissed, and he has a whole rant at her like “how do you not understand that i’ve done all of this for us, for everyone???” and then Zeus enters the scene and announces who he is, but Cronus just laughs because he thinks he’s still got his time powers, and hence can beat Zeus without breaking a sweat

BUT! plot twist, Cronus tries to stop time and it DOESN’T WORK!! the potion that Coeus made for Rhea begins to work and Cronus’ powers disappear allowing for Zeus’ siblings to finally be released from the prison known as Cronus’ stomach.

but wait- THERE’S MORE! because Cronus had suspicions, he’d already taken the potion that Coeus made for him to enhance his powers, and this potion reduces the effect of Rhea’s potion,, so while Cronus doesn’t have the ability to stop time anymore, he can push time a little bit back, though not for a long period of time, and not successively.

and now that he can essentially “predict” each of the Olympians’ attacks, he’s quite invincible, and Zeus gets frantic and exclaims, “how in the hell are we supposed to defeat a god of time?!”

but then Zeus realises that Cronus is only powerful as long as he has “time”- well, time is simply just a way to record existence- time itself only emerged as a concept after Chaos first created the primordials- so essentially, time doesn’t exist when the world is just Chaos

so Zeus uses his lightning to rip through the fabric of time and space, and he pushes both Cronus and himself into the little tear and they find themselves in a period of time before time actually exists- when there is nothing but void, chaos.

and here of course, Cronus has no power- there is no time to stop, or time to reverse, not to mention that he’s already weakened by the potion Rhea gave him.

the thing is though- Zeus and Cronus both start to like, disintegrate- nothing is supposed to exist where they are, so they just start to crumble, and it’s not merely that they’re dying in this void, but their entire existence is being eliminated from every timeline ever. and Zeus knows this, but in the same way that Cronus was willing to sacrifice himself to defeat Ouranos, so Zeus is also willing to sacrifice himself to defeat Cronus.

and they argue with each other until Cronus becomes so weak, and eventually he caves, and Zeus wins the fight.

in present time, Coeus does his best to use his magic to reopen the portal that Zeus’ lightning created, and when he succeeds, both Zeus and Cronus get pulled out, and of course, Cronus gets chucked into Nyx’s cave and Zeus becomes king, and peace returns.

some other notes i thought about also- earlier i said that Cronus pretty much escapes punishment because Nyx’s cave is pretty sweet, but upon thinking about it, actually imprisonment in Nyx’s cave is one of the worst outcomes Cronus could have possibly imagined- in Nyx’s cave, there is no indication of time, so Cronus is effectively stuck in a perpetual limbo, powerless.. all he can do is sleep and dream, and that’s it.. so for him, it’s actually quite horrible.

anyways, so yeah ^-^ that’s the comic.

[sword-brainrot]

Hello! For a match up: she/her - I am a semi-outgoing, fun loving lady! Lover of all things self care, like makeup, nails, perfumes, etc. I like to meditate, draw, ride rollercoasters or other rides, go on trips, wear cute things, and birdwatch! I am pretty easy to embarrass, but I try to have a brave or happy face to cover that. Fiercely loyal to those close to me, the ones that get closest I would not leave, and would defend them / do whatever I can for them any time I am able. I would be fine with any match, so long as it's not a tantou~. Thank you ☆!

I Match You With....

🌸Murakumo Gou🌸

♡  Murakumo is rather quiet and keeps to himself for the most part. I think you would be a great match to slowly start to bringing himself out of his shell. Your warmth and inviting aura will make him slowly grow to trust you and grow attached to you. Currently, he is only close to his brother Samidare. So I think he needs someone like you that will reach out your hand to him and teach him it's okay to let others in. Even if it's a slow process!

♡  Murakumo also gets pretty excitable when he trusts someone and will bounce off their energy. He can't keep it up for too long due to his stomach issues but he will have fun being able to release some of the energy that he is been keeping inside because he was afraid of others finding him annoying.

♡  You are the perfect amount of energy and calmness for him. I can see you getting him to bounce around with you but then when he isn't feeling well, you calm down the scale and relax with him. He actually really likes selfcare! Murakumo often thinks he isn't worth it but he would love it if you gave him some special treatment when you two relax. He would let you play with his very silk hair and tie it up however you like. He also paints his nails often, so you two could have quiet time together and just do each others nails. He also doesn't mind makeup! He just doesn't go for flashy colors because he doesn't want to stand out too much. The two of you would be perfect with doing each others makeup, hair, and nails.

♡  Murakumo wears comfortable but fashionable clothes. If you want to dress him up, go for it! He would let you. Murakumo might be a little shy when he comes out because he thinks he isn't worth these clothes but if it makes you happy, he will smile. If you show him a mirror and call him pretty, you will see a light blush on his cheeks and a small smile on his face for being complimented by you. He also has pretty good taste so he will offer to pick out a nice outfit for you! It most likely be pastel/warm colors because he thinks of you like the sun. Bright and kind. Also anything with flowers suits you in his eyes!

♡  Like stated before, Murakumo can't exert too much energy due to his stomach problems so he wouldn't mind learning to meditate with you. You will have to teach him but when he starts to get overwhelmed, he would use the lessons you taught him and start to breathe and calm down. When you two begin to get closer, he may actually fall asleep while meditating with you. He is finally able to feel calm and his stomach is no longer killing him, he would just start to doze off. He may accidentally fall over and lay his head on your shoulder. Hope you don't mind this lovable puppy asleep on your shoulder!

♡  Birdwatching is something he also enjoys. The two of you sitting outside as you watch the birds, maybe drinking tea if you both enjoy the taste. Don't be too surprised if you look over at Murakumo and he seems antsy while watching them. Inside, he wants to run off and play with them. He will stay seated! He knows too well his body would hurt him if he tried that and he doesn't want to ruin your birdwatching. If you want to calm down a little, start giving him facts about all the birds you two see! He will look at you in awe for your knowledge and ask you more questions.

♡  Samidare is the dog brother that loves poetry because his whole history came from it. Murakumo shares similar history but he isn't as into poetry as his brother. Instead, he actually enjoys art! He is by no means a professional artist. He really enjoys it as a hobby. He has to stay inside most of the times, so he will lay on the floor and draw to past time. Join him from time to time! Share pictures with each other. You may even run into him one day drawing the two of you holding hands with crayons. He will get very embarrassed and try to hide it. He really does like spending time with you even if sometimes he has a hard time talking! He is able to express his feelings much better through art.

♡  One thing he really can't do with you is rollercoasters. That is far too much for his sensitive stomach. As long as you two don't ride anything too fast or go upside down, he would love to go to those types of place with you. Plus he will wait for you so if you do still want to go on those rides, he will be right there when you get off. Honestly, if you want to see him be the happiest person alive, show him what cotton candy is. He will have stars in his eyes and become addicted! Get a bunch of food together! If you don't know his lore, Murakumo was actually sold in his sword life for dirt cheap. So his human form has terrible stomach aches due to being starved and bad anxiety. If you show your love through food and just being there for him, he will melt in your arms. He will hold your hand through the whole carnival. Murakumo would also love the carousels and Ferris wheels! He will get really scared when he first goes on the Ferris wheel but after you show him that it is safe and you will be right there with him, he will look out the windows with a big smile.

♡  Murakumo loves going on trips! He doesn't get out of the citadel too much but he looks sight seeing. Just make sure you remind him that you would never leave him. He has a bad fear that you are going to take him someplace and he is going to be sold for dirt cheap again. He really doesn't want to get sold and stay with you. He will never say he wants to stay with you, instead he will accept that he is a failure and if you want to sell him, you can. Make sure you grab his face and remind him that you would never sell him. You will see him tear up and hold onto your clothes as he walks behind you on the trip. He really loves you, ya know?

♡  I'm unsure how you feel about someone teasing you for getting embarrassed but from the sound of it, you try to put on a face so people don't tease you about it. Murakumo is also someone who gets embarrassed rather easily. He would never tease you about getting embarrassed. Instead he will encourage you and say, "It's okay... Sometimes that happens.. At least you didn't get too excited and chased birds only to cry when they flew away..." He knows how it feels to be made fun of when you do something on the embarrassing side and it doesn't feel good that often. He would never want to do anything that would upset you. If you do get embarrassed when you two are really close, he may grab your face in his hands and nuzzle your two noses together. "It's okay..!"

♡  Murakumo will need someone really loyal to him to date. He has some bad abandonment issues due to being sold away for nothing and having a hard life after that. He will have a hard time trusting you at first because he feels like once you realize that he is "good for nothing" (how he thinks of himself) that you will throw him away. He needs someone who is willing to remind him that he isn't going anywhere and that you want to stay in his life. Murakumo is also incredibly loyal. Once he trusts you, he gives you all that trust and never doubts you. He will defend your honor no matter what! Even if he has a really hard speaking up, he will force himself out of his shell and stand up for you.

♡  Cute little thing he will do after you two are close and start dating. If you ever leave the citadel, he will patiently await somewhere and watch the door for your return. As soon as he sees the door open and you walk in, he is chanting your name and running up to you to give you the most gentle hug you have ever received. He will say how much he missed you and nuzzle your cheeks together. His favorite person is back home and he is so happy!

[shakespeareanwannabe]

Heartbeats

Santiago Pope Garcia x F!OC/Santiago ‘Pope’ Garcia x Rebecca Cooke

Summary: A first date at a Beer Garden shouldn’t be difficult to manage, especially with his team at his side, but Santi still has doubts.

Warnings: Drinking/Alcohol Consumption, Swearing, Benny being Benny, references to war time injuries, references to Anxiety if you squint

A/N: Hey y’all. Sorry it’s been a while. Some stuff came up, but I am so happy to finally have this chapter out to you all! Anyway, this is chapter 3. Please enjoy!

**********

Listening to his own heartbeat had become something that Santi was pretty comfortable with. When the Humvee had hit a landmine during his first deployment, sending him, Frankie, and Will sky high, he’d woken up in a military hospital in Germany, with only the steady beeping of his heart monitor to keep him company. Well, it kept him company until Will wandered in with a cup of coffee. The youngest member of the team had somehow managed to walk away with a couple of cracked ribs and some scarring on his back, whereas Pope had fractured his knee and given himself a pretty nasty concussion. At that point, Frankie was still out. He had broken a rib, punctured a lung, and fractured his hip, all on top of a nastier concussion than Pope’s. There was a harried moment when they thought he wouldn’t make it, but Fish was the toughest bastard out of any of them, and within nine months he was patrolling the desert with Santi once more.

After various near-misses, his multiple knee surgeries, and his so-called miracle neck surgery, Santi woke up to that same sound of his heart beating. It reminded him that he was alive. It was a comfort.

Now, his heart was beating so loudly in his ears he couldn’t think straight. And, the kicker was, he wasn’t even in country or recovering from a near miss. He wasn’t getting shot at or sneaking around an enemy compound. He wasn’t even sitting in the back of a helicopter while Fish tried to fly it over the fucking Andes while carrying too much weight and, fuck, he was an idiot. He hadn’t even been able to pull off a ‘sure thing’ mission. He hadn’t been able to pull of a relationship with a girl that everyone thought he was fucking anyway. Why the fuck did he think he would be able to pull off impressing this much younger woman who, for some god forsaken reason, thought he was worth her time?

Rebecca was a professional. She had a fucking Masters of Fine Arts that she used to lead tours and co-curate the art museum while also teaching art lessons to kids all across the state. And then there was him. Santiago Garcia. A washed up, beaten down, half-broken retired soldier who was living off his (not unsubstantial) savings and the kindness of friends, who had almost no prospects other than signing another damn contract and going off to shoot questionable people under the orders of even more questionable people until his knees gave out or he broke his fucking neck running around on favela rooftops. She was so far out of his league, he had no clue how to even find her league.

And yet, he found himself sitting outside her apartment in his truck, about to go and buzz up to let her know that he was there. Early. To pick her up. For their date. What was he thinking?

He was shaken out of his negative reverie when his phone buzzed four times in quick succession.

“I swear to god, if you’re sitting outside her apartment deliberating over actually picking her up or standing her up, I will drive there myself and beat some sense into you.”

“Hey man, Charlie’s had a little too much to drink (first weekend alone without Mateo) and she’s threatening your manhood if you stand up your date. Do not show up here alone, cabrón.”

“Dude, you’re bringing a date? Why haven’t I heard about this lovely lady?”

“Ignore him. He’s drunk.”

Pope could imagine his friends, his team, sitting around their reserved table at the beer garden, acting like millennials with their phones out, texting him and ignoring each other for a moment. They were insane…He loved them.

“Keep your shirts on, I’m coming.” He copied and pasted the message into the four separate threads and sent them off, ignoring when his phone buzzed again with what could only be a “That’s what she said” reply from Benny as he exited his truck and made his way to her lobby door.

He pressed the small white button next to her name and waited impatiently for her response.

“Hello?” the tinny machine garbled, but he had become accustomed to her voice. It was quickly becoming one of his favourite sounds, like the sound of the waves at the beach or the sound of his own heartbeat. Soothing.

“Hey, it’s me.”

“Hey, c’mon up! I’ll be ready to go in five!”

Santi gulped then shook his head and pulled the door open when the lock clicked, signalling that she had unlocked it for him. What was he nervous about? He was god damn Delta Force. Some girl should not be shaking him up this bad.

Santi took the short elevator ride up to the fifth floor, trying to calm his hammering heart, and knocked on her door.

When the door creaked open, he was reminded that Rebecca Cooke wasn’t just ‘some girl’. He had taken one look at her, sweaty and red faced and face distorted from pressing into a massage table and been smitten. Every conversation he had with her dragged him further in, until he was hooked.

Now, standing in front of him, dressed in a sapphire blue lace dress that swished around her knees, he was smacked in the face with the fact that she was, in fact, the most gorgeous woman he’d ever seen. The short sleeves showed off the smoothness of her arms and the V-neck had him having to drag his eyes away from her décolletage.

“Hey Santi,” she smiled gently at him, moving in to place her hands on his shoulders as she placed a hesitant kiss on his cheek.

“Um…hey,” he replied, mentally kicking himself for being so lame. “Uh, these are for you.” He handed her the bouquet of wildflowers he had bought on a whim on his drive over.

Rebecca smiled up at him, a slight glimmer in her eyes as though he had just made her the happiest person on the planet. “Thank you. They’re beautiful.”

“Not as beautiful as you,” he blurted. She giggled, turning her back to him and he grimaced at the stupid cornball line.

“Let me put these in some water and grab my shoes, and we can go, okay?” she called back. He looked towards her retreating form and gulped at the sight of her bare back. Fuck, this was going to be a long night if he couldn’t get himself under control. If he was going to actively pursue Rebecca, he was going to do it properly.

“Uh, yeah. No worries.” He followed her a few steps into her home and peered around at the small space. It was a small apartment, cozy and warm. A suede sectional sofa overtook most of the living room, a soft looking throw blanket tossed over the side and brightly coloured patterned pillows were piled up on one end as though she had been searching for something. A variety of prints and pictures decorated her walls, everything from the infamous Kissing on VJ Day photo to a print of San Giorgio Maggiore at Dusk by Monet, drawing his eye from one frame to another in rapid succession, drinking in the little details of the life she lived that he so desperately hoped to be a part of.

“Ready to go?”

His eyes were drawn back to her like magnets as she exited the small but spacious kitchen, glass vase in hand. She deposited the vase with the wildflowers on the side table next to the sofa, picked up her purse and held up her other hand, a pair of strappy sandals hanging from her finger.

“Uh…yeah. Sorry. It’s a, uh…it’s a nice place you’ve got here,” he managed to get out, cursing himself internally at his stupidity.

She smiled sweetly at him, that starry-eyed look still in her eyes as she clutched his arm to slide her sandals on.

“Thanks. It’s not much, but it’s home.”

She didn’t release his arm as they exited the apartment, clutching him close as she locked the door, as they rode the elevator, and exited the building. He shifted carefully to grip her hand and help her into his truck, closing the door softly behind her as he paced over to his door, silently coaching himself to not be a total idiot on this date.

She was into him. Holding onto his arm, looking at him the way she was. She liked him. All he had to do was not screw it up…and not let his friends screw it up.

He hauled himself up into the driver’s seat of the truck and let it idle for a minute as he double checked his mirrors. Finally, he pulled out of the parking lot and began the ten-minute drive to the Beer Garden.

“I, uh, I meant what I said. About your apartment. And about how beautiful you look. Because you do. Look beautiful, I mean. That dress is…nice.”

“Thanks.” An uncomfortable silence stretched between them, and Santi fidgeted with the wheel. He was halfway to convincing himself that this whole thing had been a bad idea when she turned to him. “Are you as nervous as I am?”

“Fuck yes,” he breathed, causing her to giggle. “I swear to god, I’m not normally like this.”

“I know, that’s why I asked! I thought you were either really nervous or completely regretting asking me out,” she sighed, leaning back in her seat as the tension began to slowly dissipate.

He waited until he pulled up to a red light to turn and meet her gaze. “The only regret I’d have is if I didn’t ask you out at all and was left wondering what might have happened if I’d just gotten my balls up and asked.”

He watched her eyes widen as she looked down at her lap, jerking the car back into motion as someone honked behind him.

“Can I confess something to you?” She waited for his nod. “I had a shot before you got to my place to try to calm my nerves, but I don’t think it worked. I just…why are we nervous? We’ve been friends for a couple of months now, right?”

“Right!” he exclaimed, laughing as he risked another look at her. “I don’t know, Bex. Maybe that’s why we’re nervous?”

She shrugged delicately, pulling her legs up into the seat as she twisted to watch him drive. “I don’t know. Maybe. I just…I really want this to go well, you know?”

Santi took a hand off the wheel and reached out to squeeze her hand. “I know. I really know.”

She sighed, twisting her hand in his grip until she could interlace their fingers. “Okay. So. We’re two friends. Going on a date. We’ll just…see how it goes, okay? At the end of the night, if we decide we’re better off as friends, you drop me off, give me a high five, and we’ll see each other on Monday at the clinic.”

“But?” he asked anxiously because, like he said, he knew. He knew how badly she wanted things to go well because he desperately wanted the same thing. He’d been drowning in her for months, and he felt like he was just now being taught how to swim.

“But…” he heard her take a shuddery breath. “But if things do go well, and I really hope they do, Santi…If things go well, we agree to go on that coffee date before our sessions on Monday. Deal?”

He squeezed her hand again. “Deal.”

**********

The Beer Garden was a nice place. A solid first date choice. There was liquor to settle the nerves, incredible food to snack on over conversation, a live band to dance along to, mood lighting, and an outdoor patio with fairy lights that was pretty fucking magical, if Santi was allowed to say so.

He and the team had been there once or twice, usually after completing a room at Santi’s house, but this was the first time both Charlie and Frankie would be joining them, since Mateo was off for a sleepover at Grandma’s house. In a way, Santi was grateful. Rebecca knew Charlie, and Charlie was very protective of her patients both inside and outside of the clinic. Santi knew that Charlie and Frankie would help make her feel welcome. Will wouldn’t be an issue. But Benny…when the kid drank, he drank hard, and he was a loudmouth stone cold sober. Hopefully, Will would be able to keep his kid brother in line.

Santi slowed as he felt the distance between him and Rebecca grow, their arms growing taut until he was forced to stop and turn around, lest he let go of her hand.

“Hey, you okay?” he moved to stand in front of her, shielding her from the busy wait staff and slightly drunken customers who were milling around the door to the outdoor patio.

She offered him a distracted nod, her free hand coming up to smooth her hair behind her ear. “Uh, I’m just gonna…” her eyes widened slightly as she caught sight of Charlie sitting at a long picnic style table with a bunch of large men. She met his eyes urgently. “I’ll be right back. Bathroom.”

Again, Santi found himself watching her retreating form as he cursed his own actions. He thought that having a group hangout would be a good idea for a first date. It kept things loose and informal and, after their conversation in the truck, he thought it couldn’t hurt to have some people there to help things continue moving in the right direction. Besides, so many people had group first dates. It kept things light. Only, now Pope was seeing his mistake. He wasn’t just introducing Rebecca to his friends. He was introducing her to the most important people in his life. His closest friends. His team.

“Fuck…” he mumbled to himself as he watched her duck into the bathroom before nearly sprinting outside to the table. He dodged a few waiters and barbacks before slamming his hands down on the table, causing Benny to jump. “She’s in the bathroom, Chuck, don’t start,” he quickly stated, watching as Charlie’s eyes went from murderous to understanding in the space of a blink. He slowly met each and every one of their eyes. “If any one of you motherfuckers ruin this for me, I swear to god I’ll find a way to end you.”

“Hey, I like her already,” Charlie shrugged, tipping her glass back to swallow the last of the foam. “If you ruin this with her, I’ll be the one ending you.”

“Noted. Fish?” His best friend cocked an eyebrow at him and Santi nodded, communicating in that way that only best friends can. “Fair enough. Will?”

“Hey man, I just came out for a drink.”

“Yeah, I know,” he conceded, before fixing his eyes on the youngest member of the group. “Benny?”

“What? What am I gonna do?”

“Considering you’ve stared at every waitress’ ass as they walk by, and commented on two of the barbacks’ butts, I’d say you’re definitely the problem here, Ben,” Charlie commented lightly, leaning over to rest her head gently on Frankie’s shoulder, smiling softly when he planted a sweet kiss on her temple.

“Hey, I—”

“Shut up, she’s right,” Will growled into his glass.

“Fine, I’ll be a perfect gentleman. Happy?”

“Ecstatic. Charlie, did you collect on your little workplace bet?” She offered him a slightly drunken thumbs-up. “Good, you’re buying.” Pope considered the table before him before straightening and taking a few steps back towards the door. “Please, just be nice?”

“Hey, I’m always nice!” countered Benny, a cocksure grin on his face.

“Yeah, that’s what he’s afraid of, dipshit.”

The din of another Miller argument faded as Santi returned to his post just in time for Rebecca to emerge from the bathroom.

“Uh, sorry about that.”

“It’s okay.” Santi wrapped his arm around her shoulder as he led her out onto the raised wooden patio. “You’re still nervous, huh?”

She nodded hesitantly. “Charlie’s fine, but the rest of your friends…”

Santi tugged her gently to the side and pulled her to a stop.

“Don’t worry about them, okay?”

She rolled her eyes. “Santi, you fought a war with them. That’s not something I can just not worry about.”

“Look, they’re gonna love you. Trust me…” he looked over his shoulder to peer at his friends, who were all surreptitiously trying to both look at them and look natural. “They’re idiots, but they’re my idiots. Look…see that blond guy? That’s Will. You could set a bomb off next to him and he wouldn’t flinch.”

“Oh, so that’s Will the Wise?” Santi smiled at the moniker. He’d found himself dropping some of Will’s more memorable motivational quotes during physio, and she had come up with the name for his quiet but forceful friend. “And the one who hasn’t stopped staring at my ass is Benny, I assume?” Santi whipped his head around to see Benny subtly trying to peer around him to get a glance at Bex’s profile. He quickly moved into his field of view and turned his back on him. Benny wanted to check out a nice ass? He could feel free. “And I know Charlie, which makes the quiet one…?”

Santi smiled softly. “That’s Frankie.”

“I like him already.”

His smile grew at the pronouncement. “I figured you would. Frankie’s good people. Easy to get along with. Now, please don’t worry?” he gave her shoulders a gentle squeeze before running his hands up and down her arms soothingly. “They’re gonna see exactly what I see.”

“Which is?”

He smiled. “A stunningly beautiful, intelligent woman who I somehow suckered into going out with me. Ready?”

She gripped his hand again and smiled up at him. “Ready.”

**********

Things were going…well. Better than Santi had dared to hope. He didn’t know what Will had said, but Benny was being a real gentleman and keeping his mouth shut other than asking polite and interested questions about Bex’s work. Bex and Frankie had taken off like two peas in a pod, which gave him a warm feeling in his chest that he dared not name. Not now, anyway. Instead of examining his feelings, he decided to go get another drink.

He stood slowly, squeezing her hand when the angle got too awkward to maintain contact, and leaned down to ask, “You want another one, Bex?”

She smiled and nodded, “Yeah, would you mind getting me a pale ale this time?”

“Whoa, whoa, whoa, hold up!” Benny interrupted, leaning across the table towards them. “She got a nickname?”

Santi shot Will a look, but the older Miller just held his hands up in surrender, as if to say, “You brought it on yourself”.

“I-is that a problem?” Rebecca asked, looking around confused.

Frankie leaned forward, resting his free arm against the table and adjusting his grip around Charlie’s waist. “Every one of us has a nickname,” he explained quietly. “For us,” he gestured to the men. “It’s a military thing. Kind of like a right of passage.”

“I earned ‘Charlie’ after three months of seriously dating Frankie,” Charlie added, her voice only slightly muffled from her cheek resting on Frankie’s chest. “Chuck came three months after that, and then only Santi gets to call me that.”

“Oh…” Rebecca murmured, wrapping her arms around herself and looking around the table at the demolished plates of nachos, chicken wings, sliders, poutine, and potato wedges. Santi quickly retook his seat, placing a gentle hand on her shoulder.

It had been instinct, giving her a nickname. Rebecca was too formal for the spitfire who made him laugh so hard his abs hurt more than his knees after a physio session. Becca was cute but she had grimaced at the name, citing overuse in popular culture for her dislike. Rebbie made her snort, and Becky made him want to go find Douchebag Derek and give him a swift kick so there was no way his DNA would be reproduced.

She had loved the name Bex. It was rare, it was quick, it denoted her spark and her wit, and, best of all, he was the only one who used it. Now, it looked like she was feeling insecure in it.

“Frankie’s nickname is Catfish,” he piped up, not wanting her to think too much on the subject of him giving her a cute moniker so early in their relationship (week 3 to be exact).

It worked. Her head whipped around so quickly both Charlie and Santi winced.

“Really? Why?” she asked the man sitting next to her.

Frankie’s quick glare and microscope cock of the eyebrow went unnoticed by the entire table, except Santi, who gave him an apologetic half shrug.

“When we were in basic,” he began with a good-natured grumble. “We were all swapping stories one night, and the only good one I had was the one where my old man and I went out fishing together.” Rebecca watched as Charlie placed a small kiss on Frankie’s chest, just above the third highest button, where Frankie had evidently decided to quit, not that his fiancée was complaining about the excess skin on display. Clearly a sore subject, Rebecca filed away for later. “We went all day without catching a single fish, but just as we were about to call it quits, there’s a tug on my line. And I ended up reeling in a 17-pound catfish.”

“Last time you told the story it was 15 pounds,” Will muttered.

“I always heard 13,” Benny laughed.

“Eh, whatever. It was a big fish to 10-year-old me, okay?” Frankie downed the last of his beer. “Besides, it’s not as stupid as how Ironhead got his name.”

Santi laughed. “Oh, that’s a good one.” Will glared at him. “Hey man, Frankie told his story, now you’ve gotta tell yours.”

Will sighed as he sat forward, leaning in towards Rebecca. “So…I was probably the clumsiest private in basic training. Now, I could do push ups and sit ups like a champion, but the more complicated exercises…Well, let’s just say our drill sergeant didn’t know what the hell to do with me. Climbing a rope ladder? I’d get my foot twisted and end up hanging there like three-day old laundry on the line. Going on a march through the woods? I’d find the only rock in the road and trip over it. Field striping a rifle? I’d yank on something too quickly and give myself a black eye.” Rebecca giggled, bringing a smile to Santi’s face. “And inevitably, every time I screwed up, I’d end up smacking my head. One day, we were doing this exercise and I really got my bell rung. Our drill sergeant sent me to the infirmary because he knew there was no way in hell that I didn’t have a concussion. But I didn’t. Hell, I didn’t even pass out. When he found out, he was shocked. Said I must have the hardest skull on earth. Thus, Ironhead was born.”

“Pfft…” Benny snorted loudly, the sound breaking through Bex’s giggles and Charlie’s muffled chuckles. “It’s not even a good story, man! I coulda told your drill sergeant that you were clumsy as fuck the day you enlisted! Now, Pope’s…that’s a good fucking story,” he guffawed, leaning back as far as the bench seat would let him.

“Benny…” Will put his hand on his brother’s shoulder, which was quickly shrugged off. Santi fixed him with a glare, and Frankie was subtly drawing his hand over his neck, but Benny was too drunk to care.

“Pope?” Bex looked up at Santi confusedly, but he didn’t get the chance to explain before Benny’s crowing laughter boomed out once more.

“‘Oh god, oh god! Yes god! Yes! Please, god. Por favor, mi dios! Oh my god, oh my god!’,” Benny’s voice rang out in a poor imitation of a girlish squeal. He threw his head back and laughed drunkenly, almost falling off the bench seat. “We thought for sure that Corporal had to have the Pope himself in her room for her to be screaming for God that loudly. But no. Turned out to only be Santiago Garcia, known almost exclusively as Pope from then on out.”

Bex looked between the two men, eyes wide, before standing and squeezing out into the crowd, heading back towards the bathrooms.

“At least I got a nickname, jackass,” Santi hissed, kicking away from the table. “I didn’t spend my whole military career known only as ‘Will’s Little Brother Benny’.”

Santi turned and chased after Rebecca, praying she hadn’t gone too far.

“What? What did I say?” Benny asked, half a potato skin hanging out of his mouth.

“If this fucks them up, I’ll kick your ass for both of them,” Charlie groaned, unable to take her eyes away from where her two friends had just disappeared.

**********

He found her standing under the strings of lights that hung above the front door.

“Y-you weren’t thinking of leaving, were you?” he asked in a slightly trembling voice.

She turned to him, eyes bright, and chuckled. “No…I just needed some air. Well,” she looked around the darkened city street. “Some different air. Front fresh air instead of back fresh air. Sorry, I’m rambling.”

“It’s okay,” he shrugged out of his jacket and gently placed it over her shoulders as she shivered. “I…I’m sorry about Benny. He’s an idiot most of the time, but when he drinks…”

“He could win the Nobel Prize for Darwinism?”

He chuckled, a soft smirk appearing on his face. “Yeah, something like that.” They stared up at the dark sky for a long moment, a hesitant peace falling between them. “That story he told…I’m not exactly proud of the way I used to be. I hope you know that.”

Rebecca shrugged delicately. “We all have a past. We all have things we’re not proud of. What matters is who we are today. And you want to know something?” she looked up at him with those eyes, and he pressed down the urge to kiss her.

“What?”

“I really like who you are today,” she whispered, bringing a smile to his face.

“I really like who you are every day,” he whispered back, wrapping an arm around her shoulders, his smile growing even larger when she leaned into him. “You ready to get out of here?”

She wrapped his jacket tighter around her body. “Yeah, it’s getting a little chilly.”

He nodded in agreement, gave her a quick squeeze and released her. “I’ll go grab my wallet and we can get going.”

Santi wove his way back through the crowded Beer Garden until he reached the table, quietly scooping up his wallet.

“Everything okay?” Frankie asked quietly as Charlie dozed on his chest.

“Yeah, tell your firecracker that she doesn’t have to kick any asses. See you tomorrow?” Frankie nodded as Santi pulled out a crisp twenty and threw it on the table. “Adios, hermano,” he murmured, bringing his hand gently down upon Frankie’s cap and giving his head a slight jiggle. “Will, can you get me that info on that electrician?” Will nodded as Santi clapped a hand down on his shoulder, bringing his hand up to gently clasp his buddy’s forearm before Santi removed it to give Benny a quick swat on the back of the head.

“Hey!” Santi fixed him with a glare. “Yeah, okay. I deserved that. Night man.”

Santi strolled out of the restaurant, a smile tugging at his lips when he saw Rebecca, wrapped in his jacket, staring at the restaurant doors, waiting for him. That warm feeling in the pit of his stomach came back full force, and, for the first time, he didn’t want it to go away.

**********

His truck quietly slid into a parking spot out front of her apartment building.

“Well…” she murmured. “I guess this is me.”

Santi nodded, a sigh building in his chest. He honestly couldn’t remember the last time he didn’t want a simple dinner date to end, but he wanted it to continue. He wanted to keep talking to her, keep listening to her, keep touching her.

“I’ll, uh…I’ll walk you to the front door,” he stated, desperate to stretch their remaining few seconds as long as he could.

She smiled and waited as he made his way around the front of the truck, opening her door and offering her his hand. They strolled the maybe twenty paces to the front door and stopped, turning to face each other while their free hands sought each other out.

“I had a really nice time. Your friends are great. Frankie’s awesome.”

“He really is.”

“Well…uh…good night, Santi.”

“Bex?” he tugged slightly on her hands, so she remained facing him. “I…” That warm feeling in his stomach burst. “Oh, fuck it,” he pressed forward, planting his lips on hers the way he had been imaging since he had picked her up four hours previous. Sweet and tender, raw and full of something that would go unnamed for a while but had so much potential. He pulled back for the space of a breath, taking in her closed eyes and slightly parted lips. “Tell me to stop if you don’t want this.”

Finally, her eyes opened. “Don’t stop,” she quietly pled, freeing her hands to place them on either side of his face, tugging him back to her lips.

They stood there for what could have been minutes or hours, neither knew nor cared. It was like every moment of their friendship had been leading them to this moment, and they wanted to live in it forever.

It wasn’t until the nearby sound of a fire truck siren starting up broke the serene quiet that they broke apart.

“So, uh…coffee on Monday?” she asked, eyes slightly glazed over and lips plump.

“Definitely.”

**********

Tags list: @darksideofclarke, @writefightandflightclub, @eternallyvenus, @rae-rae-patcha, @himbopoes, @sophoclese, @phoenixhalliwell, @buckstaposition, @who-talks-first

[phantaloon-books]

I finally read The Tyrant's Tomb and boi I loved this one so much, so here's some my opinion on it (they're not in chronological order)

warning, this is long af and sorry for cursing a bit, I can't help it

Apollo's character arc is lowkey one of the best Rick has written, I'm sorry if you don't agree, but he's gone from wanting others to solve his problems and relying on the halfbloods to intentionally avoiding others doing things for him, volunteering for the quests and saying it should be him that faces the terrible stuff so that demigods and other creatures don't suffer

something really interesting is how his perception of himself has changed, and it's almost worrying how genuinely self depreciating his inner dialogue is, because he no longer sees himself as mighty Apollo, he sees himself as worthless and useless Lester, and his narration is highkey depressing

Also, Apollo disliking and being somewhat disgusted of the god he used to be, realizing the horrible things he had done and how horrible he was and that he looked worse as the former Apollo than as Lester, regretting things he'd done, that's top tier development

(I'm sorry but I love the entire scene with the ravens, the part where he just screams "I'm sorry" it feels as if he isn't just apologizing to the ravens, but to everyone who's been affected by what he's done as a selfish god)

Reyna so openly turning down and laughing at Apollo for suggesting they be together is my favorite thing ever lmao I couldn't stop laughing, like she knew what gods can do if you turn them down (even if it was just mortal Lester) and she didn't give a damn, it was so fucking funny

people say Rick only includes diversity for the sake of including it and to gain popularity, but I still enjoy the fact that he does, because as a teacher he must have had all kinds of students of all religions, colors and sexualities, he includes diversity because he's seen diversity. anyway my point is I love that we have Lavinia, a Jewish lesbian from a Russian family, and she's not ashamed of being any of them

I'm sorry I just love Apollo so much, I've grown to respect him so much, and even if Hermes once said them gods often forget their oaths and promises, I have a feeling Apollo won't ever forget Jason's request that he never forgets what's it like to be mortal

Frank still admiring Apollo despite everything, and despite the fact that he looks like a messed up teen makes me go all uwu

Frank being portrayed as this clumsy and awkward kid but also this powerful and brave leader is my favorite thing ever because I think Frank is underrated and I dare to say that he's one of the strongest demigods we've ever met, even stronger than some of the nig three children

the whole thing about the undead army is honestly so creepy, especially when we see it from Apollo's perspective cause se him slowly succumb to the venom's effect, and that part in Tarquin's tomb where he "calls Lester to be part of his undead" was genuinely disturbing, at least to me

some books in the past have touched the part of the nature spirits not being given enough attention, but I really enjoyed how Apollo comes to realize that he only worries about demigods and gods when all lives are worth the same - mortals, halfbloods, nature spirits, gods, and even monsters

again, I love Apollo's arc, it's just AHH he's becoming so caring of life it just makes me happy

Reyna choosing herself to make herself happy is everything, and inspiring to every single woman who is told by others that they need someone to be happy, I just love it, because self love is the most important love of all

I haven't said anything about it, but man I love Meg and Apollo's friendship, they just care so much for each other, Meg who's so scared of losing her loved ones and Apollo who's so scared of not being able to be loved or to love, but they still love each other, and I'm glad it's not romantic, because yes fraternal love is also what people need, and their friendship is what they need

aurum and argentum being cute doggos rather than the steely (no pun intended) and cold dogs we met in HoO warms my heart. I don't understand why they're so cute and adorable, or maybe that's just how Apollo sees them, but they seem to act like actual dogs in this book

the fact that Reyna never confirmed nor denied being attracted to Thalia just makes me all hyped up, like we love Theyna

Apollo just gives off Eddie Brock vibes throughout the entire book and that's hilarious asf. ever since the start he's said to look like shit, feel like shit and be injured with deathly poison that will turn him to a zombie. if that isn't Venom vibes I don't know what is

I've said it once and I'll say it again, Frank Zhang is one of the strongest demigods Rick has ever introduced in a series, and him facing two immoral and godly in power emperors, burning one to death with his own life fire and injuring the other enough for Apollo to do the final kill is top tier

"If I'm going to burn, I might as well burn bright. This is for Jason." bitch actual goosebumps

We've seen countless deaths before, but something about Frank killing Caligula and Apollo killing Commodus seems so... mature I guess is the word, or well for a more mature audience. I can't describe how or why, but it feels more real, more like actual human death

I can't deal with how human Apollo seems in this book gosh I really am sorry I keep bringing this up, but I feel such warmth

the story of how Frank overcame his curse is actual BS and as much as I love Frank, it makes no sense that they spent all that time thinking of ways to keep the wood secure only for this. idk I mean id that were the case wouldn't the curse had vanished when he broke Thanatos free? he was willing to die then just like against Caligula, so why now but not then?

Don reincarnating into a laurel is peak bittersweet feeling and it actually hurt because in a camp where fauns were seen as dumb and useless, he helped Lavinia organize everything and destroy the canon things on the yachts

I'm still not over Jason's death, he really did deserve better. It makes sense, plotwise, because out of all of the huge characters from the past, Jason, Percy and Annabeth's deaths would impact others the harder, and push them to do better. And I understand that you gotta show, not even the main characters survive sometimes. Still, I'm hurt.

Thalia talking to Apollo during the funeral for the fallen campers made me actually weep. I'm not sure if it was because of Jason, or when Thalia talked about how much Artemis loves Apollo, or when Apollo "accepted" halfblood children of Zeus as his family

Also, you know who deserved better? Harpocrates, damn right he deserved better. I nearly cried when I read his death, cause he embraced it like one would an old friend in happiness. He and the Sybil deserved better. Dakota also deserved better

On the other hand, I tried so hard not to laugh at 2 am as I read Tarquin demand answers from a cat? he genuinely thought a cat would tell him where the Sybilline Books where and I couldn't handle that

This book is cruel but in a much more human way? The maiming of the pegasi wings? that's horrifying, but in such a human way, unlike what we've seen in any of the greek/roman gods series, and it's unsettling

Meg is braver than any of the other demigods were at that age (maybe excepting Nico), cause she's not embarking on a quest to retrieve an item or rescue someone or bring back their sister from the dead, she's facing her own abusive father while aiding a somewhat weak mortal in releasing the oracles and gaining godhood back. what's she getting from it all? absolutely nothing, she's gifted some seeds and she hangs out with unicorns more than other people and she's lost everything, but she's willing to lose more to help her friend. she's heroic like no one else is, because she's the first who doesn’t want anything more than being with her friend (Percy wanted whoever was taken back, Annabeth wanted to be able to be more, Nico wanted to bring back Bianca, even Bianca wanted freedom). the only other person who didn't have somewhat selfish (but kot wrong) interests while doing something heroic at a young age has been Hazel. What I mean is I love Meg and everything she does

Thalia being that chill over Jason's death bothers me so much, as if she wasn't the happiest when she found out the brother she lost 14 years ago was alive after all, and she had a part of her family back, and it was ripped from her, and Thalia is just not one to easily forget or move on from things, it's just unrealistic that she would only need a little furious session of throwing things to be okay with Jason's death as if her brother was not just taken from her all over again. it's impulsive Thalia we're talking about, who fought Percy when dealing with Annabeth going missing, it's just not her to be over his death that quickly. Sorry for Rick but I think differently

I also kinda don't like that Tyson went from being freaking General of the Cyclops, to the guy that has the Sybilline prophecies or whatever, it's important and all, but he would have been of great help during the battle and they had him waiting for help in the shrine hill like his potential went down the drain

but a thing I really loved was how different Camp Jupiter seems from Lester eyes compared from Percy's or Hazel's or Frank's perspective, it's hilarious. The other three see this place where everyone is serious and shit but Apollo just sees beyond the seriousness and it's actually refreshing, cause he's the first not to make CHB seem immature in comparison and like I said before I hated that in previous books

also Reyna laughing watered my plants, cured my depression, and made the world okay again, I just love her

all in all, this is my favorite book of ToA so far, and I'm really excited to see what's to come, and how Apollo and Meg will face Nero and Python, but more  than anything I'm looking forward to what will happen to Apollo, and whether if given the choice, he'd go back to being a selfish god or remain mortal for a while, with his newfound friends

Also I really miss Annabeth so can I please see Annabeth, I just want to see her cause she won't deal with Apollo's shit and I can't wait to see that, I miss my girl

[jalapeno-princess]

Marry Your Daughter

Mark Tuan X Reader

Word Count: 2.8K

Genre: Cute and extremely sappy fluff

Summary: After years of dating, Mark decides it’s time to make you his wife. However, he needs to build the courage to ask your father for his permission to marry you before popping the question.

A/N: Based on the song “Marry Your Daughter” by Brian McKnight (it’s such a cute song holy shit @ God pls get me a man who will love me the way I deserve) Honestly, I could only dream a man would love me this much to go and ask my father for his blessing. 

“Mark? Is that you? Hey! How have you been? How’s my baby girl? What are you doing here by the way? Is everything okay? Is y/n with you? Is something wrong with her? Did something happen to my baby?” Mark lightly chuckled at your father’s many questions. Your boyfriend was fully aware of how much you meant to your dad. 

You meant everything to your father, just like you did to Mark. Which is why he was so nervous standing in front of your father knowing his reason for wanting to meet with him. His palms were sweaty, his cheeks were warm and he was sure he was shaking, but he had no idea why. Mark and your father were the two most important men in your life and because of it, you wanted to make sure they got along. Which they did, very well actually. For starters, they had many things in common. Their love for sports, video games, beer and most of all, you.

In the beginning of your relationship, your mother was quick to fall for Mark’s charm, intelligence, humor, kindness, generosity and extremely good looks. However, you were afraid winning over your father was going to take a little more time and effort to do considering the fact that you were daddy’s little girl and in his eyes, no man would ever be good enough for you. That was until Mark came along. Your dad was hard on your boyfriend in the beginning which was completely understandable. He wanted nothing but the best for you.

However, because of how strict and stern he could be, you were afraid Mark would call it quits between the two of you because he could no longer handle your dad’s rough personality. No matter how scary your father seemed, it didn’t phase Mark. The love he had for you was stronger than any obstacle that tried to come in between your relationship. When your father witnessed how Mark took such amazing care of you, how he took you home every night from school and work to make sure you got home safely, how he smiled at you every time he looked at you and how he treated you as if you set the stars in the night sky, he knew Mark was in love with you and would treat you the way you deserve.

 That’s why he found himself accepting the thought of you getting in to a relationship. Mark remembered the memory as if it was yesterday and snickered to himself when he thought about how long the two of you have been together and how he wants nothing more than to be able to spend the rest of his life with you. Which was why he was here today, standing in front of your dad with sweaty palms and fidgeting knees. He was going to ask your dad for his permission to marry you. Mark knew he was in love with you just months after the two of you began dating and because of that, he knew you were the girl he wanted to settle down and have a family with. 

It’s been almost five years since Mark first asked you out back in your senior year of high school and even if the two of you were still so young, he knew he never felt what he feels for you, for anyone else before. You sent fire to his bones. You made his heart flutter and his stomach filled with butterflies at the mere thought of you. He was sure your smile could cure cancer and your arms were his safe haven. The two of you were still in your early twenties and because of that, sometimes Mark was too afraid to propose to you because he felt as if he was making things go too quickly with you both. No matter how long the two of you have been together, he didn’t want to rush anything and wanted to go at your pace.  However, being three years older than you, he knew he wasn’t getting any younger and he could no longer wait for you to be “Mrs.Mark Tuan.” 

Throughout your relationship, the two of you would talk about getting married countless times, but because you both were so busy with college and your jobs at the time, marriage was just a dream for the future. However, that didn’t mean the two of you couldn’t plan what your future together would be like. You were currently at work and Mark took this chance to finally talk to your father. It took him months of countless pep talks from his friends to grow the courage to ask your father for his blessing. No matter how much your dad liked Mark, this didn’t make him feel any less nervous and worried about your father’s response. But at this point, even if your father refused to allow Mark to propose to you, Mark would still do it in the end. He came here with a purpose. He respected your parents and wanted them to think nothing but the best of him. However, at the end of the day, the only person who’s opinion matters to him is yours. If your dad said no, the two of you would just runaway to Vegas and get hitched.

“She’s fine. I’m fine. We’re fine. How are you? I actually came here to talk to you. I’m sorry for bothering you. I’m sure you’re pretty busy-“ your dad shook his head and playfully pat him on the back.

“Nonsense. Shall we go sit down?”

He motioned for Mark to follow him and your boyfriend found himself scratching his neck anxiously. 

“The 49ers are going to the super bowl, are you excited?” Right off the bat, your dad could tell that something was wrong with Mark. Everyone knew how shy and timid Mark could be. But after years of knowing each other and since Mark would constantly go over to your house, it was clear that Mark was very close with your family and felt comfortable with them. That’s why your dad knew by the way he was fidgeting and furrowing his brows that he had something on his mind. 

“What’s on your mind Mark?” Your boyfriend released a long sigh as he dug in to his pocket and pulled out the ring he bought for you just a few months ago.

 He had Jinyoung and Jaebum accompany him to go and purchase it because he kept chickening out when he was alone. They knew how madly in love with you Mark was and how you were the only person he’s ever loved. You were his weakness and with that being said, they forced Mark to purchase the ring and talked him in to finally having the conversation with your father. Once he brought the ring out and placed it on the table, your dad knew exactly what was going on. A small smirk grew on his face but he didn’t want to say anything or react all too much just yet. But on the inside, your father was really excited. He was fully aware of how much you loved Mark. He saw it in your actions, heard it in the sound of your voice when you talked to him or of him. He saw it when the two of you interacted and how sad you would look every time he would drop you home. Your father knew that Mark would take good care of you and he was the only man he would allow to take his place as the number one man in your life. 

“I um..you..I’d like to..hm, this is going to be harder than I thought.” Your dad had on a poker face, but only because he wanted to come off as stern and intimidating like he did when you first introduced Mark to him. He didn’t mean any harm, but he wanted to see how Mark would approach the topic knowing that there was a chance he would say no. 

“I’d like to ask you for your permission, your blessing to marry our beautiful y/n.” Once he got the words out, he felt as if a huge weight was taken off of his shoulders. Until he saw the blank look on your dad’s face. 

“I’ve been in love with your daughter for as long as I can remember. Y/n is the best thing that has ever happened to me. She makes me the happiest man alive and she’s taught me so much about life, love and what it genuinely means to be happy. She’s the most beautiful person I know both on the inside and out and I want to spend the rest of my life with her. I know she’s your little girl and I know how you want nothing but the best for her, I do too. Which is why I’m here right now. I promise to love her, take care of her, protect her and do whatever I can to make sure that contagious smile of her stays on her face. I’ll do whatever I can for her and be whoever she needs me to be. Y/n is my person. Soulmates, I think they’re called. I truly believe that she and I were meant to be. I know it might be early and I know were still kind of young, but whenever I look at her, I know she’s all I want. Forever. When I’m with her, everything just feels so right. All my worries go away, all my negative thoughts go to the back of my mind just because she’s all I ever think about. I was afraid of coming here and asking you of such a huge favor like this. But I couldn’t wait any longer. I hope you can see how much she means to me, not just by my words but in my actions too. I would give up anything and everything if it meant getting to be the lucky guy she calls her husband. So please, will you let me marry y/n?” 

Your dad sat there for a few seconds and processed the situation. He was very content that Mark came to ask him for your hand in marriage. It just showed how serious Mark was about you and how much he respected your father by asking him first. Hearing Mark’s speech about how much you meant to him and how he was willing to do anything for you brought warmth to your father’s heart. If anyone could love you as much as your father did, it was Mark and he was sure of it. Which is why your dad found himself walking to your boyfriend’s side of the table and pulled him in to a hug. 

“Yes. Of course. I was afraid that this day would come, only because I don’t want my baby girl growing too fast. But I see how much the two of you love each other. And I know you’ll treat my princess the way she deserves. You mean the world to her as much as she does to you. I’ve never seen her so head over heels in love with someone the way she is with you. I know she’ll be over the moon when you finally propose. I’ve been waiting for this day for a very long time. I knew you were the man who was meant to take my place. She gets all dreamy eyed when she hears your name. You don’t understand how she gets so excited over the every little thing that you do. “Mark got a haircut today, he looks really handsome.” “Mark passed his psychology final.” “Mark bought me a succulent.” That girl is crazy for you. Don’t you ever take that for granted. My daughter has the biggest heart and I’m sure you’re aware of it. Hey, I might be giving you my blessing, and I know you’ll give her the world she deserves. But if you ever make her cry, I’m not responsible for paying your hospital bill. I wish you both nothing but the best. You guys are perfect for each other. Take care of my princess Tuan. She’s your queen now.” 

The smile on Mark’s face grew wider if it was even possible. “Thank you, thank you, thank you so much! I can’t even fathom in to words how excited I am. I promise I’ll be good to her and I’ll give her everything she deserves for the rest of our lives.” 

Mark was over the moon and his main thought now was to go home and see you. However, before he could say his goodbyes, your dad gave him a look of curiosity. 

“Let’s see the ring son.” Mark was hesitant at first, when he went with Jinyoung and Jaebum to pick the ring out for you, there were so many ones to choose from and he could only hope he chose the right one. No matter how long the two of you have been together and how much Mark thought he knew everything about you, he had a hard time deciding which ring would be the best for you. You were a very simple and down to earth person, but at the same time, what girl wouldn’t want a big diamond? When a smile rose upon your father’s face, he took that as a good sign. 

“It’s perfect. She’s going to love it. Congratulations again. Now go. You have some proposing to do.” 

Once he got in to his car and made his way to you, he couldn’t help the grin that was plastered on his face. He knew how much you loved your parents, which is why he wanted to get your father’s permission before asking you. Now that he had your father’s blessing, he had to plan how he was going to ask you. He decided to stop by a grocery store to pick up some dinner for the two of you as a way to calm his racing heart. When he arrived to your apartment complex and walked in to your apartment, the smell of garlic chicken engulfed your living room. 

“Babe?” You walked out of the kitchen and towards your boyfriend, wrapping your arms around his waist and placed a chaste kiss on his lips. “You’re home. I’ve missed you. How was your day?” 

He beamed down at you and pulled you closer in to his chest. He brought his fingers to your cheek and gently traced your features that he memorized like the back of his hand. His fingers caressed your soft cheeks that were full of tiny little freckles, poked your cute little dimples that he loved so much and booped your nose before placing a soft kiss on your forehead. 

“Everything okay? You’re being extra soft with me today.” He giggled against your neck. 

“I’m actually always very hard when it comes to you. But I’ve missed you too. Today was amazing. Wonderful. A very great day.” 

You brought your hands up to his face and playfully squeezed his cheeks. Whenever the two of you were alone together, that’s when Mark was the soft, fluffy and shy boy that you fell in love with all those years ago. Even if some people didn’t like how clingy their significant others could be towards them, you loved when Mark would show you sudden bursts of affection. 

“What happened that’s gotten you so smiley?” He playfully bit his lip while shaking his head. 

“It’s nothing. Shall we go eat? I bought some food. Although, it’s probably nothing compared to your garlic chicken.” You reached for his hand and brought him in to the kitchen. 

“I know how it’s your favorite food and you seemed so out of it these last few days. I hated seeing you so down, as if something is bothering you. I’m happy to see you in such a better mood today. Your smile is what keeps me going. So I thought I would make you some..what. What is that face?” The look your boyfriend was giving you sent butterflies to your tummy. You couldn’t describe it. It was a look that he’s given you many times before, but it felt different this time for some reason. Before you could ask him anymore questions, he quickly walked over to you and connected your lips together. Kissing Mark was one of your favorite things to do. He was gentle most of the time and treated you as if you were a fragile piece of glass. But with how passionate and rough this kiss was, you had a feeling there was meaning behind this kiss. 

“I love you. I love you. I love you so much. I can’t even describe how much I love you. There aren’t enough words in the dictionary to explain my feelings for you. God y/n, I can’t wait to see what the future has in store for us. I’m going to spend the rest of my life with you. Just you wait.”

[hoodwinkedtoohoodvsevil]

sappy "i've loved my spesh for a year now" post

[[MORE]]

one year ago today, i got into twrp.

that's not to say i wasnt familiar with them before june 3rd, 2019. my big love was nsp, so i very much knew and appreciated them! i remember when nsp played on conan i was so happy for all of them and hoped twrp was getting just as much credit as nsp because they totally deserve it! i remember listening to guardians of the zone a couple years back in david's car and latching onto rock n roll best friends (my first favorite twrp song and still one of my faves!) and listening to that a lot. i remember the third starbomb album coming out last april and thinking, wow, this is definitely their best album musically because of twrp's instrumentation! and of course, like everyone else, i was obsessed with starlight brigade when the video came out, and recognized it was twrp's song featuring dan, not just a dan project. but i didn't have their names memorized, and for whatever reason, i thought they were all silent performers? like, i thought none of them talked and sung only talked/performed with talkbox. (i mean, i was like 60% right? at least at the time.)

on this day last year, i was showing my best friend arin and suzy's (gg) hot pepper gaming videos and then i noticed twrp's in the related videos. i was like oh my gosh! i didn't know twrp did one of these! and you can imagine my surprise when sung and meouch started talking fhfhdjdlfj i was literally like WAIT THEY TALK??? I REALLY THOUGHT NONE OF THEM TALKED. it's always really funny to look back on. and even though they spent most of that video suffering i thought they were so funny and likeable that i was like. maybe i should finally actually get into twrp.

and holy shit.

there's so much to twrp that i know i didn't do it all in a day. it's hard for me to get used to a band by listening to all their music once, so i took it album by album. i started with guardians of the zone, because i was already very familiar with it. listened to that on loop for a while, then moved onto together through time since it was their most recent album at the time. then, i went backwards from there.

i searched for all the lore i could. i read wiki pages, spent literal hours reading reddit AMAs, watched every video on their youtube channel and the hour long compilation of their instagram videos. this all took place over the span of like? a few days? a week? it's hard to say really. i fell so fast.

from that point on, i have so many stories, we would be here all day. i remember listening to believe in your dreams on repeat the day i became a d*sney trainer, and the literal day after that, they released hidden potential. then of course, the release of return to wherever, which i listened to nonstop for ages. the album is my jam because i love albums with a cohesive theme and songs that blend into each other. it's hard to beat together through time, but rtw comes really close.

i saw them for the first time live on july 30th, 2019. unfortunately, something happened that night that changed my life for the worse. but that wasn't twrp's fault at all. the show itself was incredible. i'd never been to a general admission concert of one of my faves, it was absolutely surreal that they were all right in front of me. and of course, they put on a hell of a show. they always do. god, i love them.

on august 9th 2019, i went to my first sung stream. it was a party stream and i'm on the east coast, so i stayed up until 3 AM to hear sung give me my first talkbox shoutout. i recorded it and still have the video. it made me smile in the early part of a very dark time in my life.

i made a lot of friends in that stream, we all shared twitters and i'm still friends/mutuals with all of them! and i've only made more friends since, especially at nsp10. nsp10 was incredible for many reasons, but a big one was that the three hours my fiancé and i were waiting outside the venue to be let in, we were just walking around saying hi to my twrp friends, meeting a bunch of them for the first time. and i made new friends! i remember standing in a group, shivering in my heart boner cosplay, and one of the guys saying "you're artie, right? i follow you on twitter, i love your cosplay!" he seemed like he was really gathering the courage to say it to me, he had no idea how happy it would make me! (shoutout to logan! you're awesome!)

really, if any of my twrp friends are reading this, i love you to pieces. meeting you has definitely been a high point of the last 365 days.

again, i have so many stories. but since this is already so long i'm just gonna cut to march 5th, 2020. that was the night i met them. now, i'm not a shy person at all, and over the past few years i haven't really been very socially anxious. i'm able to carry myself in conversation, even with strangers. but i've never met a fave before. let alone four faves at once. so, naturally, everything i had planned on saying completely left my brain. but they're literally the best, so it was still an absolute dream. the first thing sung said when he saw me was "hey you look great!" (my outfit was clearly inspired by his own, fancy orange hat and all, so he probs wanted to Respect The Drip but he was right regardless and also HOLY SHIT) and i had my baby porg gary with me (the sunshine of my life) and they all interacted with him and it was super wholesome.

they played two nights in orlando, and i went to both shows because of course i did. first night was great, second night was even better even though that was my GA show. they played life party on night 2, which might as well be my favorite song of all time. it has carried me through every bad moment since i first heard it. big and small. i have a lyric from it tattoo'd on my arm as a constant reminder that i'm alive, and that is something to be ecstatic about. i also had more room to dance and move around on night 2, and dance and move around i did. then, when the show was over and scatman played, i got out everything else i had. august-november 2019 was actual hell for me, and i was still dealing with the aftermath of it all. but that concert high made me realize, holy shit! all of it is over! it doesn't matter anymore! twrp carried me through one of the roughest periods of my life, and met me at the finish line with a fucking gold medal. i fucking did it. now i have none of the bad, and all of the good. it was one of the best feelings i've ever had, and one of the happiest nights of my life.

since then, twrp continues to keep me going. of course the world has been a total shitshow, but everyone's streams (especially the twrp show) have been the highlight of my week every week.

i've always considered myself a very positive person, but last year was a very bad year for my depression, as well as traumatic at times. and i've always had problems feeling understood. i still do. but twrp said hey! literally nobody understands us. not even ourselves! but that's okay! we want you to be happy and feel loved and supported no matter what. and i really can't thank them enough for it.

this part is mostly for another longer post, but i wanted to mention it since it's also really important. i fully came to terms with being a mlm last year after years of compulsory heterosexuality, and twrp played a big part in me exploring and accepting that about myself. and i was already very secure in my gender identity when i found them, but hearing "this song goes out to all the ladies, fellas, and everyone in between" shook me to my very core. i've never loved a band that literally said "shoutout to trans/nb people" at every concert. god. i love them so fucking much.

so this was even longer than i expected (and i expected it to be long bc yknow. spesh.) but i just have so much love and gratitude for this band. every day of my life i'm so thankful that doctor sung, commander meouch, lord phobos, and havve hogan exist and are spreading all this love and positivity to their fans every day. i've never loved a band like this, and i probably never will. they are truly special.

and it's only been a year!!!!

[wonderfulworldofmichaelford]

Psycho Analysis: Halloween Special Villains

(WARNING! This analysis contains SPOILERS!)

Ah, Halloween, that magical, spooky time of year where ghosts and goblins come out to play and children dress up in the hopes of getting some delicious Halloween candy. But what about all of us who are trapped at home on the night of this pagan costume and candy festival? What do we have to keep us entertained?

Why, Halloween specials of course!

If there’s one thing Halloween delivers on almost as well as Christmas does, it’s spooky Halloween-themed episodes of cartoons, where the show is allowed to get darker and more disturbing than it usually does in some cases. And what is any special without a special one-shot villain? Gotta have someone stirring up some Halloween trouble on this spooky night. And since these characters are usually one and done with little in the way to go super in-depth about, I’d figure we’d look at five of them at once! They are:

Jack O’Lantern from The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy

Pumpkinator from The Fairly OddParents

Bun-Bun from Underfist

Fright Night from Danny Phantom

Ron Tompkins from Toy Story of Terror!

I’m sure some of you feel there are some glaring omissions. Where’s the Flying Dutchman? Where’s Stickybeard? Well, I decided that this time around I’d go with characters whose major appearances and debuts are Halloween episodes; both those guys had major roles in non-Halloween episodes as well, so I’ll be saving them for full reviews at a later date. Also of note: I am aware the story of Toy Story of Terror! does not take place on Halloween, but it is aired as a Halloween special, so I’m counting it.

Actor: So if there’s one thing these guys aren’t lacking in, it’s the actor department, and this isn’t a huge shock since when you’ve got a holiday special you want to splurge a bit, you know?

Jack has one of my favorite actors ever, the always-awesome Wayne Knight. Knight just has that sort of voice that’s perfect for smug jerk characters like Mr. Blik or Dennis Nedry, so really it’s pretty fitting for a pranking trickster like Jack, though I will say that it’s hard to match Knight’s voice to the human version of Jack when you see him in a flashback.

Ron Tompkins isn’t too far behind in the impressive VA department, being voiced by none other than Stephen Tobolowsky, who you may remember as the overbearing Ned Ryerson from GroundHog Day (and how can you forget him? You see him repeating the same scene about thirty times). He does a great job at making Tompkins cartoonishly evil and mostly enjoyable, a tall order for a character who steals toys from children to sell online.

And if you thought the list of awesome actors was done, boy were you wrong! Star Trek’s very own Michael Dorn voices the Fright Knight, and Dorn’s voice is absolutely perfect for a cool, evil, undead knight.

Bun-Bun is voiced by Dave Wittenberg who is an insanely prolific VA, playing characters such as Henry Wong from Digimon Tamers (AKA the beast season of Digimon) to none other than Kakashi from Naruto. I think it goes without saying a VA this versatile manages to make the role work.

And finally, we have the Pumpkinator, who is played by Dee Bradley Baker, and if I sat here listing all the notable roles this man has played we’d be here all night. But here’s a small sample: Appa, Momo, Squilliam Fancyson and Bubble Bass, Klaus the goldfish, Cow and Chicken’s dad, Cinderblock and Plasmus, the Alien and Predator in Mortal Kombat, Lion and Frybo, Numbah 4 and the Toilenator, Remy Buxaplenty, most of the animals in The Legend of Korra… you get the picture. This guy’s a legend. He’ll do any sort of role, big or small, so even if he’s not playing the most complex character here, he’s at least giving it a unique spin with his voice because man, this guy has RANGE.

Motivation/Goals: Jack has a rather simple motivation: revenge. You see, ages ago he managed to steal Grim’s scythe when he was about to be reaped, and bartered for the scythe’s return, asking to be made immortal. Grim reluctantly gave him this, but, as Grim is not someone who likes being tricked, also cut his head off. As anything cut off with Grim’s scythe is permanently cut off, Jack had to replace his head with a pumpkin (of course). This lead to him being shunned as a freak, which just made jis desire for vengeance even stronger; I mean, wouldn’t you want revenge if you could only go to the ding-dong grocery store to get pudding once a year?

If you want to get even simpler, the Pumpkinator is your guy! He exists simply to blow up planets. Tat’s it. He’s very much just an obstacle Timmy needs to overcome so that he can undo his wish for every Halloween costume to be “real and scary” before the consequences end up destroying the world.

Bun-Bun is rather simple as well: he just seems to be a jerk. But they don’t just make him a simple jerk, no, this is a Billly & Mandy spinoff so things have to be taken to their ridiculous extreme. Bun-Bun turns out to be behind numerous extremely petty actions that affected the lives of the main heroes, having haunted Hoss as a child and made him afraid of monsters, made Billy afraid of spiders which estranged him from his son Jeff, and, uh, sawed off Fred Fredburger’s tusks. The fiend! As you might guess, there’s no real rhyme or reason to this, it’s just goofy absurdist over-the-top sort of thing you’d expect from Maxwell Atoms.

Ron has a relatively simple motivation, but frankly it might be the most evil out of all of these: the man steals toys from the children who stay at his motel to sell them for monetary gain. Yes, this is more evil than attempting to blow up the planet, you heard me. I have no idea how sick and twisted you have to be to think that stealing toys from children is acceptable. Funnily enough, this is the same sort of motivation Al (who was played by Wayne Knight, funnily enough) from Toy Story 2 had, though Ron takes it above and beyond.

And finally that brings us to Fright Knight, Much like most of the ghosts on the show, Fright Knight seems to just want to cause a ruckus after he’s released, attempting to take over Amity Park when Danny foolishly releases him. Later in the show he is freed to serve Pariah Dark, and after Dark is beaten he joins up with Vlad. In his final appearance of any consequence he is seen serving the Ultimate Enemy in the bad future. Basically the guy is just a really cool overhyped henchman.

Personality: So let’s get the easy one out of the way first: The Pumpkinator doesn’t exactly have a personality, because it is a big generic doomsday villain meant to act as an obstacle for Timmy to overcome. However, when it returned later in the episode where Timmy goes to Unwish Island, it did have one notable personality trait: an undying hatred for Timmy Turner, It’s a pretty relatable trait the more into the series you watch.

Bun-Bun is also rather evil and simple. He’s just a petty jerk, as can be seen by his crimes listed up under motivation. There’s not much else to him, same with Fright Knight who, again, is mostly just an overhyped henchman who acts as the hardcore badass serving whatever big bad of the week is out to get Danny (or he would have, but more on that later).

Out of all of these, Ron and Jack have the most personality. Jack is an unrepentant prankster who, at least when alive, was heavily implied to just not get he was taking it too far with his pranks (“too far” in this case being tricking people off of cliffs, at the least), and simply morphed into a bitter, jaded, vengeance-seeking supernatural entity after hundreds of years of rejection by society and isolation. Jack’s honestly pretty tragic in that regard, though it obviously doesn’t excuse his actions.

Ron is just a straight-up jerk, putting up a facade of being a charming, friendly motel owner while stealing toys from under his guest’s noses. As the truth comes out about him, he becomes more cartoonish and hammy, which really doesn’t help his case at all, and in his final scene he actually does something so cartoonish he almost feels like he doesn’t belong in the Toy Story universe.

Final Fate: Funnily enough, Pumpkinator actually gets the happiest ending out of anyone here: after being unwished by Timmy, he goes to Unwish Island and, after Timmy eventually journeys there, gets to have fun tormenting Timmy clones for the rest of time.

Ron probably has the second happiest ending, for a given definition of “happy.” Bonnie’s mother calls the cops on him for his theft, and when they show up, he somehow manages to trick them, run away, steal their car, crash it into a telephone pole when backing up, and then run off before they even move a muscle. It’s ridiculously cartoonish, and there’s no way this guy is gonna be getting off easy after that little display.

Onto Bun-Bun. Bun-Bun made one simple mistake: he put any trust at all int Skarr. For those not in the know, Skarr was the “Starscream” to Hector Con Carne, always hoping to overthrow him and take over his world domination schemes for himself before he ended up retiring from that life and becoming a reoccurring character on Billy & Mandy. So, when he joins up with the villain by betraying Underfist, what do you think he does? He betrays the villain, pushing Bun-Bun into hot cocoa and melting him, using his power of treachery and backstabbing to help his team save the world. It’s pretty amusing in that classic Billy & Mandy way.

Good ol’ Jack ends up getting sent to the underworld this time since Grim wasn’t putting up with his crap anymore, and it seems Jack still hasn’t learned his lesson about pranking. When last we see him, he’s now tormenting demons, who all start moving in on him while he laughs at his dumb pranks. The screen cuts to black and we hear a squishing noise. It’s safe to say he won’t have to worry about that pumpkin head causing him problems anymore.

Fright Night is easily the most tricky one to talk about because his entire intended purpose in the show got aborted. After he was brought back to serve Pariah, he ended up under Vlad’s control by episode’s end, but for some reason, nothing ever came of this and it was never mentioned again – well, except in the “Ultimate Enemy” special, in which the Fright Knight cameos at the beginning, acting as something of the hype man for Dan Phantom, softening up Amity Park for Dan’s attack. After that, though, he’s basically out of the series, save for a couple of brief cameos here and there.

Best Scene: Jack has the flashback to his origins, because not only is it perfectly dark for a show’s Halloween episode, you have to give props to anyone who managed to outwit Grim, even if he did end up paying a steep price for it.

Ron has his aforementioned escape from the police. I do think it’s a bit too cartoonish and silly for Toy Story, but I’ll be damned if it isn’t pretty hilarious either way.

The Fright Knight has the aforementioned scene where he mentions he’s serving The evil future Danny. Considering that’s his last real role in the series, at least he got to go out on a high note, though it still sucks nothing ever came of the plotlines set up for him.

Bun-Bun’s best scene is when he revealed that he was the architect of most of the protagonist’s woes. Again, it’s just classic over-the-top Billy & Mandy silliness, and there’s nothing wrong with that.

The Pumpkinator… just doesn’t have one. Sorry.

Best Quote: While most of these guys aren’t exactly a goldmine of quotes, Jack has one of my favorite quotes from anything, ever, and I even already referenced it above: “Three hundred and sixty-four days a year, I can't even go the the ding-dong grocery store to buy pudding! And do you know why?" The why, obviously, is the fact he has a pumpkin for a head.

Final Thoughts & Score: Frankly, this batch of Halloween hooligans is a very mixed bag. We didn’t fare quite as bad as Charlie Brown did on Halloween, but we only got one King Size candy bar out of this lot.

I guess let’s just start with the black licorice of the bunch: Fright Knight. God, I wish I could love Fright Knight, I really do, but considering the overwhelming quality of most of Danny’s rogues gallery and just the fact this guy was totally shafted and everything set up for him was ignored there’s just no excusing how lame this guy looks, Michael Dorn or no. He has a great design and a cool concept, and the ideas for interesting stories with him were there, but he ends up being a 3/10, saved only by his cool first outing, great voice work, and awesome design.

Worse still is the pile of weirdly flavored candy corn that is the Pumpkinator. He has a cool design, but he’s not much of an antagonist to be honest. He’s just a cool-looking robot who wants to blow up the planet. That’s about it. There’s really not much to say about this guy, and his only other appearance doesn’t really add much. I suppose he serves his purpose, but I have to wonder, why even bring him back if he wasn’t going to do anything remotely interesting? I don’t like generic doomsday villains at the best of times, but if you’re gonna bring one back, at least try and do something interesting with them to justify their existence, otherwise they’re just gonna end up getting a 2/10.

Finally, we get into the good candy! Let’s start off with the tasty marshmallow bunny we got, Bun-Bun (isn’t that more of an Easter candy? Weird). Bun—Bun is a funy, goofy, cartoonish villain, perfect for the first (and sadly, only) outing for Underfist. The fact they went above and beyond to cement him as this ludicrous mastermind who just screwed with everyone’s lives for no apparent reason other than the fact he’s a jerk is pretty funny. I don’t think he’s gonna win any Villain of the Year awards, but I think a 6/10 is good enough for this above average nuisance.

Oho, what’s this? A… candycane? Well, it’s a bit out of season, but it’s still tasty! And that’s kind of where Ron is. I do like just how unabashedly scummy he is, and there is precedent for people like him in the Toy Story universe, but I feel he takes things to a cartoonish extreme. For crying out loud, the guy has a trained iguana that acts like a dog! He feels like he belongs in a different series than this one, but again, I don’t really think that’s a bad thing, because at the very least he is funny. He gets a 7/10, a bit higher than usual just because I love how ridiculously nasty his whole scheme is. Stealing from kids, what the actual hell.

YES! A King Size candy bar! Just what I was looking for! It’s just a generic Hershey bar, but hey, that’s a lot of chocolate, so who’s complaining? And that’s Jack, he is simply put a perfect Halloween special antagonist. Most of this comes from his voice work, since Wayne Knight is a national treasure, but his backstory and concept are worth praising too. His origin story is something of a twist on the old legend of “Stingy Jack,” the origin story of the Jack-O’-Lantern appropriately enough. While obviously there are liberties, such as substituting Grim for the devil, it’s a mostly accurate retelling, something that would go over most people’s heads unless they’re really into classical folklore. Jack’s a lot of fun as a character, earning himself a nice big 8/10, only being held back from a higher score because despite being rightfully beloved by audiences, he never really had a major role again, getting a minor shout out in Big Boogey Adventure and… that’s it. I think Jack could have been a really entertaining reoccurring antagonist in the same vein as fwllow ensemble darkhorse Eris, but alas, it was not to be. Maybe if Underfist had been picked up he could have been brought back for that, but the fact is it just didn’t happen. Oh well, might as well appreciate what we got.

And that’s it for this batch of Halloween goodies. Halloween specials seem a lot less prevalent than Christmas specials, but they’re no less important or fun, and as you can see, they do produce at least mildly interesting villains, sometimes. If only they could produce a villain so devilishly Halloweenie that he could perfectly embody the spirit of the holiday…

Hey, what’s that at the bottom of the bag…

Wait… is that…

OH NO.

[whateverisbeautiful]

Reveling in Richonne

#136 The Right One (9x03)

Y’all, if anything Richonne related was recorded and released then I gotta break it down. That’s just the rules. 😂 And there were three deleted scenes from this episode that didn’t make it on the air but were still filled with Richonne goodness so I definitely gotta break it down and revel in it.

So the first deleted scene is with the Grimes Family visiting Siddiq. Judith is looking at Siddiq like doctors visits are not her favorite and Rick and Michonne sit next to each other on the side, trying to be as positive as possible so that Judith will be down to get her check up. 

R&M look adorable as they so easily go into this parent role of encouraging Judith. ☺️ Like I love that they’re the kind of parents who both will feel it necessary to take time off to take their daughter to the doctor together as a whole family event. 

So Siddiq suggests to Judith that maybe her dad can go first and Rick’s all cutely nodding and willing to do this for his daughter and then he reassures her “And Family Fun Day right after, I promise.” as Michonne nods in agreement. My face hurts from smiling like a dork lol. I love that “family fun day” is the coined phrase for them and that Rick is so eager to give Judith (and Michonne) (and him) this Family Fun Day. I could listen to Rick refer to the three of them as family all day. 💯 

So Rick gets up and he and Siddiq demonstrate the whole breathing thing which is cute and Judith smiles very entertained, which is even cuter. And then Siddiq mentions that Judith’s file doesn’t have a family history. 

And Rick looks over to Michonne cuz they both know why this conversation is a bit awkward. I’m glad Rick confided in Michonne about that whole Lori and Shane moment in season 7 cuz now he has someone who can be on the same page with him about this kind of stuff.

Siddiq asks if there are any conditions that run in the family like allergies and chronic conditions and all that.

Both Rick and Michonne share a knowing look like, “Look our daughter has a very complicated family history” lol. 😬 Like look at their faces and tell me that’s not a direct quote from their mind.

It’s so interesting tho to have a moment in season nine that alludes to stuff that went down in season two. Again, Michonne never even met Lori and Shane but I’m glad she knows enough to be able to share an understanding and supportive feeling with Rick here, rather than this being something Rick has to carry alone. 

And Rick seems very happy to sort of look at Michonne throughout like “well ain’t this a little messy situation cuz of messy Lori & Shane”. Direct quote from Rick’s mind. 😂

But Rick plays it off saying, “I can’t remember much.” I feel like this really does cement that Rick has reason to be sure Judith isn’t his. Cuz I feel like if it was just a “feeling” that she’s not his biological daughter then he would’ve at least tried to think of some family conditions he might have, but Homeboy’s certain so he’s like nope I did the math and you don’t have to worry about my family history here.

I know for R&M, Judith is their daughter period so I feel like that’d be why they don’t clarify to Siddiq that her parents aren’t actually alive, cuz as far as anyone is concerned Rick and Michonne are her parents.

Rick then quickly changes the subject and asks about Aaron and then they talk about the missing savior and all that. Michonne’s a bit concerned about the fact that a savior was sent packing by Rick and left at night, but Rick is fairly certain it’s nbd. 

And I wish it was no problem. I really do. Cuz then that perfect family fun day wouldn’t have had to end so abruptly. But I just have to note this scene for being yet another glimpse into the lives of the Grimes mom and dad. 😊

The next deleted scene is on the picnic blanket. I wanted this picnic blanket scene to be it’s own episode/spin-off series lol. 😂 But I’m glad that since it was only a clip in the montage, that there was at least a deleted scene with them in this moment.

The scene starts with Rick and Michonne watching Judith in this quiet peaceful environment. Judith coughs and Rick is quick to assure both him and Michonne, “It’s just a cough, nothing to worry about.”  

Michonne agrees and says, “Yeah. Still I’m glad we checked cuz you never know.” Mama Michonne’s saying it’s better to be safe than sorry which I’m sure she feels strongly after losing both her sons so suddenly.

There’s something deep about this moment between them because of course they’re caring parents so that’s why this cough is of note to them, but also as of now this is their last remaining kid. And I know they are both so resolved to never lose her or let anything bad happen to her, whether it be something big like a walker and outside threats or something seemingly “small” like a cough and potential sickness.

Rick gets closer to Michonne and says, “If we could just have a few more years like this; quiet ones. For her sake and ours.” 

I really love that it’s been made clear multiple times throughout this series that Rick’s ideal life would consist of just getting peaceful time with Michonne and their family. 

Just like he wanted a few more days in 7x12, here he expresses wanting a few more years to have beautiful moments like this family fun day. The type of day they’re having and have clearly had in the last year and a half is the type of life he wants Judith to grow up with.

It’s sweet that he says for her sake but also for theirs. Of course they want Judith to have the best and happiest life possible, but I appreciate that Rick wants that for him and Michonne too. “And ours”. They’re married, y’all. 🙌🏽💯

I feel like this line is also meant to allude to the fact that raising a new baby in a world that can finally be quiet and tranquil would be great for them and their expanding family. Like he’s saying, if we can have peaceful years like this, then our babies (plural!!) will really be able to thrive.

I’m just glad Rick was written to be so expressive of loving his time with Michonne and their family this season. Like any chance he gets he’s giving her his focus and expressing his love and appreciation both verbally and non verbally. 

It also just makes me think about how, in Carl’s final moments. Carl shared his vision of the future with R&M and one of the things he envisioned is that “Michonne is happy.” That’s something that was important to Carl and has been important to Rick for a long time too. Rick promised Carl he’d make everything in Carl’s vision real and I feel like making Michonne happy has been a priority to Rick this season, after having to go on his own grieving journey last season. 

With this deleted scene, I love that Rick somewhat randomly brings up how what he wants is to live out his years just like this with them. Years, y’all. 🙌🏽 That’s significant cuz in the past nobody had the luxury to think in terms of years, TF was just trying to survive and make it to the next day. But this really does show how sustainable life’s become, that Rick can now talk in terms of years and that he wants that much time to not just survive but really live and enjoy life with his family.

Michonne of course agrees and says yeah. And it’s emotional cuz this is all both of them want. As hard as they’ve fought to survive and as much as they’ve been through, all they want is to be able to put that aside and live life as a family.

And then as they both smile watching Judith, who is their little light, Rick takes Michonne’s hand. I absolutely adore this. 🥰 

One; I adore that they hold hands any chance they get and two; just the act is so sweet, especially because I feel like this is Rick at his most happy and content. And I feel like him taking her hand emphasizes the “and ours” part cuz he’s like this right here, watching our daughter is perfect and also this right here being with you is what makes it perfect too. So he wants Michonne to know that she’s his light and hope in this as well. 😌 

He takes her hand also to just serve as yet another reminder that no matter what happens they’re in it together. The world has a tendency to scream at them a lot but they know they can withstand whatever would come at them in these coming years. 

And this couple is balanced cuz he takes her hand in this moment to offer comfort and then as we saw in the actual episode, Michonne does the same when she takes his hand to offer comfort before he goes. I love the parallel of that cuz it illustrates how they both equally offer each other this comfort and unity. 

I was just looking at Rick and Michonne and Judith together at this picnic like...

Like Rick knows he’s got the best wife and that with all the work the two of them have put in to making this world civil again, he believes they’ll be able to rest and enjoy it. 

He also knows that they’re taking a huge step and investment in believing this world will be at peace, by agreeing to bring a kid into all this. I love that in this moment it’s the two of them, as this unbreakable unit and as this unmatched love, ready to take on the future together. 👏🏽👏🏽😊

So the final deleted scene from this episode is one with Rick and Carol. They all split up with people they trust so Rick pairs with Carol. As they walk Rick notices Carol’s engagement ring and says, “It looks good.” And I was like, Rick there’s another woman who a ring would look real good on too. 👌

Rick goes on to tell Carol how he’s happy for her that she found a good person and the right person in all this. And it’s sweet that he’s taking time out to address this and express his fondness for Carol and Ezekiel. He personally knows how fortunate finding that someone special is, so he’s happy Carol’s experiencing some of what he’s gotten to experience. 

And Carol’s a real one cuz she tells Rick, “You too.” in regards to him finding Michonne. I seriously love that she tells Rick he found the right person for him cuz...

And Rick also was thinking in his head “facts” at the moment, cuz he just looks so proud and certain when he lifts up his head and shoulders and confidently says, “Yeah, I did.” 😋

I’m beyond here for this moment and I really wish it would’ve made the cut. It’s already nice to cement he found a good person in all this but the part I love most is “the right person”. Rick knows he is with the right person. He’s with the one. 

I also wish this scene had made the cut because one thing I had been wanting is for outside characters to acknowledge Rick and Michonne as a couple more. It really hasn’t been since 6x11 where characters really made note of Richonne. And granted it’s not like it has to be the talk of the town but still. 

And it means a lot for Carol to be the one to say this cuz Carol was in season one. She’s known Rick a long time and she knew Lori. So for Carol to be like “Rick, we both upgraded in this apocalypse” is great and it’s true. 💯😋 

I love that Rick gets to acknowledge to someone that he found the right person. He found the person he was meant for and who was meant for him. And he proudly knows it. 

Him and Carol know he’s got the baddest chick in the game. Amen. So Rick says “Yeah I did” but y’all that translates to...

#DirectQuote from the famous Rick Grime’s mind lol.

This moment also reminds me of when Morales ran into Rick in season eight and was surprised to learn that Glenn had found a wife in all this. And Rick was able to acknowledge both there and now how that’s possible, because he’s living out a story where he found his soul mate in all this too. 

It’s great that he so happily and naturally expresses this, especially after the day he’d had with Michonne. Like this is coming off of the beautiful morning he’s had with her and the family fun day they spent together and so he’s especially thinking about how he’s got the right one and the best one and is proud to declare it.

And then Carol smiles and says, “Who’d have thought?” cuz it is quite a whirlwind to think one could find the love of their life in all this, especially after such a tumultuous first relationship, but for Rick that’s exactly what happened.

(Side note: I miss seeing Carol with this haircut. Hopefully she goes back to this style cuz if they’re going to take down Alpha then…they betta call Carol with the short hair 😂.)

In the part of this scene that did make the cut, Rick confides in Carol and tells her that every morning he wakes up and has this moment of wanting to walk down and kill Negan and just finish off the saviors and how in that moment it’s all he wants. I like the significance of this line because we saw what he actually did in his morning which is connect with his family. 

It shows that while he may wake up with a rage towards Negan, he instead turns his attention towards all the good in his life. He turns to Michonne, and Judith, and Carl and then he’s reminded of what’s more important than killing his enemy. His family brings him back. 😌

Rick says he thinks about everyone they’ve lost and how he has to honor them. (Although call me crazy but I low key think Abraham and Glenn would be honored to have someone kill Negan and keep him from messing with anyone else lol. 👀) And Rick says he knows it’s time to build life not take it which is exactly what he and Michonne are doing and have done. 

I appreciate that 9x03 was such a blessing, even the deleted scenes had prime Richonne content. 🙌🏽

And it’s great hearing Rick verbally confirm what we all been knew and that’s that; Rick and Michonne got the right one. 😊💯🎉

gifs source: @michonnegrimes

[solastia]

Faith | 6

Chapters:  [1] [2] [3] [4] [5]

Pairing: Namjoon x Reader

Word Count: 2,600 (short, but good)

Genre & Warnings: Angst, fluff. Smut free chapter. 

Notes: One more official chapter left. Maybe a Namjoon POV if y’all want it. I might be able to be talked into drabbles if you’re nice. 

Silence. 

That’s all you’d heard from Namjoon for the past week. He wasn’t answering the calls or texts you’d sent, although you knew that he’d at least read them. There hadn’t been any sightings of him on the gossip channels either. It was like he’d disappeared, but you knew he was probably at his Mom’s or the hotel. You’d considered trying to stop by the room, but you’d envisioned horrible enough scenarios to talk yourself out of that. You also knew that appearing at his Mom’s when even his family didn’t know about Faith would just make the situation worse. So you backed off. You knew he’d come to talk to you when he was ready. 

Still, the waiting was not easy. 

Even knowing that Namjoon would never do something like snatch Faith away, you still thanked the powers that be for you having a job in a daycare where you were able to keep an eye on her at all times. Even if Namjoon himself wouldn’t do it, there were still plenty of people around him that very well could. 

You were so upset with yourself. All of this could have been avoided if you had been less of a coward and trusted him a little more. At the same time, you were still a little happy he’d gotten to fulfill his dream and live his little rich and famous lifestyle without baggage. At least now, if he forgave you at least, you’d be able to go forward without worrying about him thinking he’d missed out on anything.

You sigh wearily, reminding yourself to buck up and focus on work. Snacktime was not a good time for self-reflection. 

“Come on, Monkey.” You pick up Faith and strap her in booster chair next to you, setting out her apples and cheese. She munches away, happily unaware of the drama happening in her life. God, you hope Namjoon chooses to at least want to see Faith. This little girl would be so blessed to have a father like him. 

Your phone vibrates, and you take the chance to look at it, quirking an eyebrow when you see that it’s from Keisha’s Instagram. She’d followed you last week, no doubt to try and keep tabs on you, and you’d followed her right back to show you weren’t afraid. You don’t know why you bothered to check the update right now other than morbid curiosity. It was probably just yet another selfie that was 75% boob. 

The picture is of her in a familiar looking bed, the sheets drawn up to just barely cover her, but low enough to tell she wasn’t wearing anything under it. She was grinning smugly into the camera. You inhaled sharply when you realized that she wasn’t alone. It was just the back of him, but there was Namjoon. He was shirtless and turned away from her, most likely asleep, but the implications were clear. And by Keisha’s expression and the fact that she posted such a photo publicly, she wanted you to see it. 

Message received. 

The rest of your day went by in somewhat of a blur. You finished work and drove home. Took the dog for a walk around the complex. Fed and bathed Faith. Got her to bed and asleep with minimal fuss. When everything else was done you sprawled across the couch and stared at the television. You couldn’t focus enough to watch anything, but it was better than silence. Snoop jumped up and settled between your legs, staring up at you with a gaze that suspiciously looked like sympathy. Great, even the dog knew you sucked. 

Just as you’re about to give in to your exhaustion and doze off, a knock sounded at your door. The pattern was familiar, and you couldn’t help a quick fond smile over how music was so ingrained into his soul even his knocking was a catchy beat. You release a tense breath before unlocking the door and open it to reveal a very rumpled looking Namjoon. 

“Hey.” 

“Hi. You wanna come in?”

“Sure. Cool.”

You open the door wider to allow him to come inside, cringing inwardly at the awkward beginning. Still, at least he was here. 

Snoop made his presence known, jumping all over Namjoon and knocking him over onto the couch. 

“Hey there, little man. Jesus, you’ve gotten a little chubby, huh? Mom’s been feeding you well?” Namjoon chuckled as Snoop rolled onto his back and demanded belly rubs on his admittedly bigger than usual tummy. Although that could be blamed on Faith, who thought it was hilarious to throw her lunch on the ground for him to eat. 

Namjoon sighed, patting Snoop one last time before turning to you. 

“Is she asleep?” 

“Yeah. I try to have her in bed by eight every night.”

He nods, looking nervously at his hands. 

“That’s good. I’d like to see her, but this makes it easier to...talk.” Namjoon ruffles his hair and sinks into the couch a bit. “I don’t even know where to start.” 

“I can at least start by saying sorry. I know it can’t erase anything, but I truly am sorry. I made a decision that affected you without your knowledge, and that was wrong of me. I shouldn’t have let my fears of what might happen influence me.”

You plop onto the other side of Snoop, grateful for the little buffer to help calm your nerves. Namjoon thinly smiles at you before nodding. 

“Thank you. I’m still hurt, and it’s probably going to be hard for me to trust you like I used to, at least for a while. But, I had a lot of time to think this past week, and I think I understand your reasoning. I don’t think that would have happened with us, though. You were my whole world, and you having my child would have made me the happiest person alive. It would have just motivated me to work harder. I’m probably always going to be a little upset with you for the time I lost with her, I’m not going to lie, but I think we can move past this. I want to try.” 

Your stare at Namjoon in shock, hope trying desperately to fight its way into your heart. 

“What do you mean?” 

“I’m mean I’m as in as I ever was. I want you, all of you. I want to marry you and be a father to my child. Maybe give you a few more.” 

You blush wildly, the image everything you’d ever dreamed. But...

“What about...I thought you’d gotten back with Keisha?”

“Oh, you mean that picture? Naw, she got someone to give her a key to my hotel room and posed while I was asleep. Creepy as hell. Told her that too. And now thanks to Trey, I don’t have to deal with her at all anymore.” 

“How so?” 

“Trey was getting ready to release his debut album. He’s really talented, and I’m really excited for him. Apparently, he offered to give her a verse and let her be in his MV. She dropped me so fast it was hilarious. She got off the phone with him and said, “Sorry, Nam Nams. This could be it for me, you know. It’s been real.” Then she just waltzed off. I mean, I knew she didn’t have any actual feelings for me, so it’s not that much of a surprise. I’m just sorry for Trey because now his debut’s success is reliant on her not fucking up.” 

“So, just like that? She’s gone? Seems...I don’t know. A little anticlimactic,” you frown. The woman you’d met seemed like she’d fight until the end. 

“Babe, this is real life, not the movies. Did you expect her to melt after throwing water on her? Or, what was that one lifetime movie you made me watch? The sister drugged the husband until she was knocked up or something and then she tried to kill the wife?” Namjoon chuckled, looking at you fondly. 

“Yeah, okay. I got it,” you roll your eyes, before taking a deep breath as you felt some of your burdens fall right off your shoulders. That was at least one worry done. It still seemed too good to be true, but maybe Namjoon was right, and you just watched too much damn television. 

“She went where there was the most chance for her to get famous. That’s all I was for her, and I knew that.” Namjoon shrugged. 

The silence that followed was pleasant now, comfortable. Snoop reveled in the attention as the two of you pet him while you collected your thoughts. 

“So what now?” Namjoon finally asked softly. You glance up and meet his eyes, eyes that were surprisingly full of hope and want. God, you did not deserve this man. 

“I think that should be up to you. I’m the one that messed up here, so I will take whatever you can give,” you tell him hesitantly. You wanted to tell him you wanted everything, all of it, your entire soul belonged to him. But you’d lost the right to demand anything. You’d happily do whatever he wanted. 

“We’ll take it slow at first then? Date a little, get to know Faith. I still have a couple weeks here that we can use to figure things out. I’d like to eventually let my family meet Faith. I kinda already blurted out her existence to them the other day. They are excited about her.”

“That sounds reasonable,” you nod. Fuck, his family probably hated you now. It was such a shame because you adored them. 

“So...how much touching is allowed when one is taking it slow?”

You gape at Namjoon, surprised to find him wearing that look. The look that was so filled with dark promise and love. You wanted to weep because you’d thought you’d never see it again. 

“Once again, up to you,” you responded, your voice thick with unshed tears. 

“Cool. Get your ass over here and cuddle me then,” Namjoon smirked and gently pushed Snoop off the couch, hauling you closer so you were draped on top of him. He wrapped his arms around you, practically crushing you to his chest. The both of you released contented sighs as you just relaxed and enjoyed each other, watching the television silently. 

“Are you staying the night?” You finally ask after about a half hour, knowing you needed to ask now as you were dangerously close to falling asleep. 

“If that’s alright. I’d like to meet Faith in the morning.” 

“That sounds good. Cuddle in the bed then? I’m too old to sleep on the couch.” 

“Yeah,” Namjoon says quietly, but with a little soft smile that showed off one of his dimples. 

You jump up and hold your hand out to him, pulling him into the room and the exact bed that you’d once shared. His snores soon brought you the best nights sleep you’d had in that bed since he’d left.

You were finally awakened when the sun was hitting you right in the face. That struck you as odd for a moment, but you couldn’t remember why. 

You kept your eyes closed but slowly sat up, stretching your arms and arching your back. You managed to crack your eyes open a bit and looked around, your mind finally starting to catch up with you. 

The sun in your face was weird because it had been so long since Faith had let you sleep past six. It was always dark when you started your day. Which led to you realizing that Faith was not in her crib and you didn’t hear her. 

Namjoon wasn’t in your bed either. 

You shot up and jogged out of the bedroom in a panic, not really sure what it was you feared yet, only to freeze once the dining room comes into view. 

Faith is in her high chair, giggling and covered in different colored globs of food. Namjoon is sitting in front of her, also covered in food, but making up some rap about the wonders of fruits that she seems to enjoy enough to open her mouth for another bite. 

“Good morning,” you snort as you grab some wipes out of the nearby diaper bag and stalk towards the pair. 

Namjoon is absolutely beaming as he smiles at you, and Faith smacks her lips in demand for a kiss, which you give her after wiping her face a bit. 

“Morning, babe. She woke up a few hours ago, and I wanted to let you sleep in. I think she likes me. Aside from our battle to figure out what baby food she likes. Which, we decided that the peas suck.”

You laugh and eyeball the chucks of hardening green stuff all over his shirt. 

“I can see that. You have to trick her. Give her a toy to distract her then shove a spoonful in there.”

“That’s sneaky but smart.” Namjoon chuckles then waves another spoonful of applesauce towards Faith, who accepts it without a fight.

“She also let me change her diaper. I think I put it on wrong, but so far she doesn’t seem to mind. Wasn’t as gross as I thought it would be.” Namjoon bounced happily as he told you all of his accomplishments. You sneak a peek towards Faith’s seat, and sure enough, the diaper is on backward. 

You snort and bump him with your hip. “You wanna see gross, you should have seen her newborn diapers. I thought I’d killed her when black stuff came out of her. Didn’t read about that happening beforehand,” Namjoon’s look of horror made you giggle, and you walked towards the kitchen to start your coffee. 

That was already made. And also surrounded by four open containers of baby food, obviously rejected.

You shake your head fondly and make yourself a cup before leaning with your back against the counter, watching the two.

You wanted to cry because it was so perfect. Namjoon was so very happy just being able to do something as simple as feed his daughter, so proud of himself. He was so good with her and she seemed to like him just as much. That you’d nearly messed things up so much that you would have never gotten see how cute they were together made you want to sob.  

“She’s probably going to need a bath because we both have peas and weird pasta stuff dripping off of us. I can take care of it if you want? I promise not to break her,” Namjoon asks earnestly, watching you with big eyes as Faith further dirties herself with the unattended spoon of applesauce. 

You laugh and wave him towards the bathroom. 

“Have at it, handsome. I’ll make breakfast. Waffles okay?” 

“Yeah, that sounds great.” 

Namjoon picks up Faith and comes over to kiss your cheek. The vision of two adorable dimpled smiles shining down on you with happiness fills your heart with joy. 

[lichanggengs]

Is he recording something??👀

[fyeah-redvelvet]

[!] k-pop’s red velvet discuss their evolution, public scrutiny and secret dreams

As they lead the way for South Korean girlbands with a US tour, we catch up with Irene, Wendy, Yeri, Joy and Seulgi.

Red Velvet managed to squeeze this interview in between a concert in Chile, performing (and winning) at the Gaon Chart Music Awards, and their final preparations for the next leg of their Redmare tour, which is about to take them across Japan, followed by five US dates and two in Canada. The intensity of the schedule isn’t unfamiliar for Irene, Wendy, Yeri, Joy and Seulgi, who debuted in 2014 as a four-piece, before Yeri joined in early 2015. The latter tour dates, however, are an anomaly for a K-Pop girl group.

As Korean pop continues to rise in popularity across North and Latin America, it’s the boy groups who have frequently taken to the road. In fact, you can count the women-led American tours of the twenty-tens on one hand -- 2NE1 in 2012, Apink and CL in 2016. 2019, however, has already seen Red Velvet, Oh My Girl and BLACKPINK embark on US tours, making for a significant, although testing, shift in the landscape.

"Like with all modern forms of fame, there are caveats, and being one of K-Pop’s most successful groups comes with intense public reaction over everything from their stage clothes and their weight, to the selfies they post and the books they read."

“We owe this opportunity to all our fans who love our music,” says 27-year-old Irene, the group’s eldest member and leader. “We’ll work hard in return for all the love and support.” It’s a modest and quintessentially K-Pop response, but behind Irene’s words stands a fandom which is, significantly, populated by devoted young women. Women might be the financial backbone of K-Pop, but they often choose to spend heavily on boy groups (physical albums, merchandise, concert tickets) rather than female groups, who are traditionally marketed at a more generalised audience but, as evidenced by their concepts -- primarily sweetness or sex appeal -- with a definite male skew.

A major factor of Red Velvet’s appeal is that there’s no way to pigeonhole the quintet, who have become a fearsome force with their sophisticated duality; marrying the madcap pop fizz of their ‘red’ side (the visual quirks of Red Flavor and its suggestive portrayal of a summer romance) to their ‘velvet’ element (slower, sexier R&B, such as Automatic, One Of These Nights). They are as multifaceted as the women who love them – cute and bright, but also modern, sleek and cool-headed.

Recently they’ve parlayed K-Pop’s ‘girl crush’ concept – usually a fierce, empowering sound and look – into their output to create some of their finest moments; the sly, enticing Peek-A-Boo, whose American Horror Story-esque video sees them trophy hunt and kill a pizza delivery guy, and one of 2018’s best pop songs – Bad Boy – in which they harness the proverbial heartbreaker. The very idea of the female popstar as a submissive, doll-like creature, which they satirised in the video for Dumb Dumb, has become redundant in the Red Velvet world.

“There’s confidence in all of our songs,” says Wendy, fluent in English having lived in Canada as a teenager, “and we want to tell our fans that you can be whoever you want, as long as you have confidence.” Joy, who has a blossoming side-career in acting, adds, “We want to be a group who encourages people, and hope they can learn how to love and be themselves, living the life they were meant to.”

They, too, are still learning lessons in self-belief and confidence. As recently as last year they confessed surprise at the explosive success of Bad Boy, a song which they thought wouldn’t go down especially well, while their 2018 summer anthem, the hyperactive Power Up, scored them a PAK (a Perfect All Kill, #1 on all of South Korea’s major real-time and daily music charts), making them the only group from their label to have achieved one. Yet Yeri recalls thinking they “really had no idea that it would be such a hit”.

“Whenever we release a new album, we feel excited and nervous because we always try out different concepts, and never know how fans will react,” explains Seulgi. “We felt the same withBad Boy, but so many people loved it and we felt proud we were able to broaden our musical horizons. It gave us the belief that we have a lot more to show to our fans.”

The constant movement of their sound and visual concepts provides a wide palette of emotions and experiences, and Red Velvet have taken to immersing themselves somewhere between method acting and self-analysis, to ensure they do it justice. “I do my own research on all our concepts, and there are times when they’re very different from the real me, so it’s interesting to discover new sides of myself,” says Seulgi.

“Right after I debuted, I thought my voice could only work with bright, cheery songs likeHappiness and Day 1,” admits Joy. “But since working on songs like Peek-A-Boo and Bad Boy, I’ve become more interested in groovy, dreamy R&B.” Wendy shares her bandmate’s concerns; “At first, I was really worried about pulling off so many concepts.” Her eventual solution was to “try and find myself within each concept, although it felt really awkward at the beginning”.

Like with all modern forms of fame, there are caveats, and being one of K-Pop’s most successful groups comes with intense public reaction over everything from their stage clothes and their weight, to the selfies they post and the books they read. Wendy says she has come to “mostly deal with it on my own. As time passes, I think it’s become more like this. It’s because we’re all so busy and we don’t want to put our burdens on each other, but I’m always thankful to have the other members by my side, who take care of me or ask when I’m having a hard time.” The support they provide each other is invaluable and genuine, says Irene, who is often referred to as Red Velvet’s ‘mum’ figure. “I think the maternal nature is both something that comes naturally and a role I play as a leader. But I don’t think they’re different at all.”

Red Velvet’s schedule doesn’t leave much time for the freedoms afforded to you and I, but although the quintet have unexplored dreams, they’re also, reassuringly, experiencing sweet pockets of happiness. “My ultimate adventure would be travelling alone,” shares Seulgi. “I haven’t done it yet, and I can’t even imagine what it would be like because I wouldn’t know what to do!” For 19-year-old Yeri, the group’s youngest, it’s the simple things that give her a buzz, like “when I went shopping for a furry hat!”

Joy muses for a moment. “Recently I’ve been feeling frustrated because there wasn’t anything that really excited me,” she begins. “But I started feeling alive as I listened to my favourite jazz and R&B music. My ultimate adventure is learning from a person who knows a lot about my favourite genre, and making it my own based on what I learned.” Wendy, on the other hand, is both critical and encouraging of herself. “My adventure is singing, especially when I perform alone. No matter how hard I practice, there are times when I can’t be 100%, but recently I’ve been overcoming that more. As I see myself improving bit by bit, I realise I’m happiest when singing, but I still have a long way to go.”

Amongst their candidness lies a dry, often low-key sense of humour. Their most recent Korean single, Really Bad Boy (the sibling to Bad Boy), had some feisty moments – “He’s a really bad boy/ they say he lives trusting only his handsome face/ if it’s alright with you/ I’ll try to tame you” – but the burning question remains… what would they do with such a man in real life? “I wouldn’t date him. I hate being lonely,” Irene says, alluding to the girlfriend invariably left wondering where he is every other night. Seulgi tries for diplomacy – “It would be nice if I can actually tame him” – then shrugs it off – “if he’s a really bad boy, I’d just dump him”. Yeri, however, isn’t standing for any tomfoolery. “I’d definitely kick him to the curb because it’s only going to be tough for me,” she deadpans.

Over the next few months, says Seulgi, Red Velvet is concentrating on “our tour concerts, and we’d love to focus on putting together a new album.” But with their fifth anniversary coming up on 1 August, there’s introspection laced into their 2019 vision. “Because of the nature of the job, we receive a lot of love – sometimes a lot more than anyone can imagine – and because of this, I think every word and action has a huge influence on those who support us,” Seulgi continues. “So it’s really important for us to keep our mind and body healthy so that we can give good energy.”

“I’ve realised that every single stage we’re on is important,” Joy adds, “and that it really influences our fans. It makes me think about how to become a good person, and how I can give our fans back as much love as I receive.” Wendy’s parting thought, however, on what she’s taken away from the past four and a half years, is as much for herself as her bandmates. “Whatever happens, just forget everything while you’re on stage. Be genuine to the music, listen and enjoy it from the bottom of your heart.”

cr; i-D

[novelist-nerd-blog]

Left for Dead - Rory Monahan Imagine

Notes- You visit your boyfriend, Rory Monahan, at the site of his latest job. You didn't want to be there, but you didn't want him to be there even more. You go to be at his side and it only leads to much, much worse.

Words- 2,221

The air was cool and crisp, as if it were night already although the sun had just begun its descent in the sky. You were in a cab going to the infamous Roanoke house. Your boyfriend ha received many accolades for the role since its release, which lead up to this moment.He, along with other member of the cast, were brought to spend the night in the house with the people the had portrayed in the show. You didn't really know what to believe about it and decided to just not dwell on the matter, instead you were coming to Rory because the producer said it would add more drama and higher reviews. As the building came into view, you were finally able to see its full grander. Most buildings in television were made to look more imposing than they actually were but this building manage to look more terrifyingly beautiful in real life. You could see the lights in the house and some other buildings scattered about for the crew putting the show together.

The cab pulled up fairly close to the door and you were greeted by a very serene feeling as soon as you exited. Sidney, the producer, waved at you and signaled for you to knock on the door. You could feel yourself beginning to tremble because you knew as soon as you touched the door you wouldn't be able to leave until the morning. You took a deep breath and knocked on the door as you exhaled. Audrey answered the door, which didn't surprise you at all. "What are you doing here," she asked in her famous accent.

" Sidney told me I should come for ratings and stuff. Also, I don't really want Rory to be here alone because this place is creepy as hell."

"Come in then, I'll go get him so you don't have to introduce yourself to everyone else alone."

Audrey walked down the hallway as if her life depending on finding Rory. You could feel the bad vibes radiating from the house. As you were looking at the staircase you saw a shadow with a figure similar to a human pass by. You wrapped your arms around yourself. You knew it was nothing and that your mind was playing tricks on you, but what if it were something? "Y/N," you heard Rory same as he wrapped his arms around you. You sunk against his chest and took a deep breath in and felt better now that he was next to you. " I didn't want you to be here alone."

"I know it's kind of creepy, but nothing's going to happen to us here babe," Rory calmly stated to you.

"I hope you're right about that."

"Of course I am, everything that comes out of my mouth is true."

You playfully hit his shoulder and wrapped your hand in his. "Well, I guess I should give you a tour," Rory said as he pulled you toward a room with voicing coming from it. Rory pointed out who the people sitting around the room were after he introduced you to them. He led you up the staircase and pointed out some rooms before leading you into a bedroom. He flopped down on the bed and pulled you down on top of him. " We can stay up here for awhile, at least until you feel more comfortable here," he said as he gently pressed his hand against your cheek. You put your hand over his before stretching out on the bed in an attempt to feel more at home.

Suddenly, there was a shrill screech heard from downstairs. Rory was already on his feet before you had time to react. He moved to the door and put his ear against it. You walked to his side and wrapped your arms around one of his. He looked at you with big eyes, causing an alarm to go off in you. "We've got to get out of this room. If somethings in this house and I don't want to be stuck in here when it comes. We just need to leave and the sun is almost down."

"Someone could be waiting the hallway though and if they are, I don't want them to hurt you," Rory pleadingly looked at you.

"We need to go see what's wrong and get everyone and leave. Rory, it's the only way out of this."

Rory's hand reached for the doorknob and he turned it slowly. He opened the door inch by inch so he could check everything and be able to close the door fast if needed. After deducing that nothing was in the hall, he stepped out and pulled you against his body. One of his arms were around you and the other touched the wall and later clutched the railing on the stairs. You knew Rory and you knew that for once he actually seemed to be terrified. When you reached the bottom of the stair you pushed his arm off you and lead the way to the room where everyone chatted so happily before. Only one person was left there, and they weren't alive. The body was so badly beaten that you couldn't even be for sure about who they actually were. "Shit," Rory said as the realization of what was happening hit. He grabbed your arm and pulled you towards the door. "If we leave know, we might be able to get away before everything goes to hell."

"That's what I tried telling you many times before," you said and looked at Rory.

"Y/N, all I care about right now is getting you out of this place and it needs to happen as soon as possible." You walked out of the door and slammed it shut behind you. You heard another scream and you both looked towards the sound. You saw two figures obviously running away from something, but you had no idea what that something could be. "I want you to stay in front of me so we both can watch for things and nothing will be able to get you from the back," Rory quickly said. You hated hearing him sound so distraught. You've never heard him like that he's always been the happiest guy in the world, yet he sounded like the most worried one now. You walked forward to the road and notices a glow of soft lights off in the distance. "Is that them," you asked as soon as the thought entered your head.

"I hope to God it isn't."

Time seemed to be dragging on and on as you grew ever so close to the road. You knew every second counted and you watched as the lights only came closer. You stood on the road and took a couple steps further up it before pulling Rory into a tight hug. You pulled his head toward you and pushed your mouth hard against his. The kiss wasn't long but it contained the most passion the two of you had ever put into anything. It wasn't a kiss celebrating the fact that you made it, it was a kiss to get you through what was yet to come. You knew just being off of the property wouldn't make that much of a difference and needed Rory to know that you care. "I love you Rory Monahan."

" I love you too (Y/F/N) (Y/L/N)."

You both started moving again this time you were running to put more distance between you and that horrible house. You heard something hard hit the ground before you heard Rory fall. Something had thrown a large rock and hit Rory perfectly in the leg. "Go, I'll be following you just not as closely, I promise." You met Rory's gaze and watched him move to get up before you took off running down the road. In less than a minute you felt hands reach out for you in the darkness. You feel to the ground and was stunned due to fear. You could feel something hard crashing into you and felt sharp pains spread through your chest and abdomen. Then, you felt one last blow

Rory limped along the road, not even taking the time to make sure nothing else was following him. He made you a promise and he'd rather be dead than break it . He knew you'd be safe and would have to wait a while before he could actually make it to where you were. That was good though, if anything wanted to attack they would attack him since he was an easy target. Rory looked back and saw the crowd start to form in front of his house and did his best to break into a run. It was more of an awkward skip than anything. He heard a rustling in the brush next to him it sounded as if it were an animal running in the opposite direction, so he didn't take the time to see if it actually was.

He came to a small bend in the road and saw what looked like fresh blood spattered. As he walked around it he could see a somewhat familiar frame lying in the center of the road. He only moved a little closer because he didn't want to see more than what he had to. Rory knew it was his beloved girlfriend from the little detail he could still see. He could feel hot tears begin to run down his face and dropped to the ground. He scream and hit his knuckles against the road, causing him pain he only barely felt. "Why her, why not me? You hurt me after all. She wasn't even supposed to be here. It's all my fault," Rory choked out before letting out yet another wail.

He pulled himself towards Y/N's lifeless body. He laid his head against her's and wrapped his arm around her mangled, bloody body. Rory didn't care what came after him now. You were gone and his friends were still at the house. He knew everyone was going to die that night, no matter where they were.

                                                                        Rory continued down the road, knowing that if he had any chance of making it out of this he needed to get away. He pushed himself off of the road and noticed the ungodly amount of blood that was on his clothing. He looked at his girlfriend's body one more time before heading down the road. The city was pretty far away, but he needed to get as close to it as he possibly could. He kept walking and walking and could see the moon moving slowly across the sky. Rory sat down on the side of the road for a much needed rest and pulled out his cell phone. He clicked the button several times and the phone didn't even try to flicker to life. He threw it on the ground and let out anger fueled scream.

Everything happening didn't even seem like it should be real. His friends were either dead or soon would be, his only love had been violently murdered, and here he was not even being able to call for help. Rory's eyelids begin to get heavy and he wanted to do nothing more than go to sleep; sleep wasn't an option. In the distance he could hear the engine of a vehicle coming his way and he knew he had to get their attention. He stood up and wildly waved his arms in every way he could possibly could. The vehicle was an old pick-up truck and its brakes screeched as the truck came to a stop next to Rory. "Can you please give me a ride to the city or just let me use your phone or something," Rory pleaded with the passengers. The men looked at the woman sitting in between as if waiting for her to tell them what to do.

The men opened the doors to the truck at almost the exact same time. The passenger made it to Rory first and had begun to start on conversation with on why exactly he was out here. Rory watched closely as the driver began to make his way over to them and noticed something in his hands. It was then that Rory realized the only people even close to here were the Polk family. He moved to run away but was caught by one of the men. The other came straight for him and hit him hard on the head with something. Rory fell to the ground in a pile leaving the men to pick him up.

You could feel Rory's body jolt hard next to yours and started to try and wake him up. He sat up and groggily said," Y/N, what's wrong?"

" You were moving really hard and I thought something might be wrong," you answered.

"It was just a bad dream. I'm fine, I promise."

"I still don't think you should go to that house tonight. I have a feeling that nothing good is going to come from it."

"Babe, it'll be fine, I'll be gone for a little while and when I can come back we can go do whatever you want."

"Yeah, sure," you said sarcastically as you got out of bed to go get something to drink.

[vld-spoilers-blog]

ive been awake all night. i own voltron now. heres season 7

-once the crew has found a planet to camp at for a night lance and allura have an honest sit down. allura thanks lance for being there for her during the whole loturd mess, and also admits that the mice spilled the beans about lances crush on her. allura says that she respects lance as a person and paladin, but after everything thats happened, shes not ready for a relationship, and she feels they work better as friends than they would partners. lance is obvs heartbroken, but supports her and understands what shes gone through and what she needs/wants. after this discussion their friendship grows even stronger.

-keith and crew take a moment to just... appreciate that theyre alive, that everyone is okay despite the hardships theyve endured. the team bonds w krolia and the wolf dog and they discuss the last 2 fucking years. keith and lance break off from everyone and have a convo along the lines of “hey man i missed you, im glad youre okay/i respect how you/we’ve grown”, where lance semi admits to the one sided rivalry as a coping mechanism for feeling insecure, and now that shiro almost died and all the other shit hes realized that he needs to put all that behind him and continue maturing like keith has.

-the journey to earth is long af considering they dont have a teleduv to wormhole them across the galaxy, which means hours of them all flying in their lions playing ‘i spy’ ‘20 questions’ ‘never have i ever’ etc to pass the time and “bond”. of course the paladins are gonna have some kinda trick contest w their lions bc flying for hours on end gets boring as shit. also? roadtrip sing a longs started by hunk and pidge which end up lasting for hours w almost everyone chiming in depending on what song theyre singing. during this time pidge and hunk work on a replacement prosthetic for shiro which is sick as FUCK. 

-once they finally make it to earth, first thing lance does is find a phone and call his family. like fuck the government, fuck the garrison, this boy is calling his family they need to know hes okay. of course he cries on the phone w them. hunk calls his moms and pidge contacts her mom and dad, matt fully joined team voltron on their way to earth bc by god hes not gonna go see his family all together again. keith and shiro visit keiths shack/wherever shiro and keith lived before the kerberos mission. ummm shiro has a husband named theo like that one post ill link when i have the energy, so they go and find theo and shiro and his husband just,, sob into each other. shiro feels like this is the first time he can breathe in years: being back on earth with his team and keith and his husband there and hes no longer connected to the galra and hes just,,, ALIVE. 

-team voltron is cordially invited to dinner at lance’s familys house which is just a mad house considering how many people there are when u combine his family and team voltron lmao. but they all get along so well and its the happiest the team has ever seen lance, dudes talking a mile a minute and laughing with his siblings and giving his parents the tenderest looks like if keith wasnt already in love w lance hes fucked up now. lances siblings DEFINITELY tease him about his obvious crush on keith theyre like, “youve been back home for 5 minutes and weve already seen you make goo goo eyes at keith 3 times”. 

-lance is out on the back porch after dinner after sunset, listening to the waves crash on the beach that sits a block away from his family home, smiling at the din of voices he can hear from inside his warmly lit house. keith steps outside to join him, to which lance quips about it being too cramped for keiths liking: 

“actually, it’s.. nice. youre family is really special lance, i can see why you missed them so much.”

“i did. its funny - i dreamt about being back home every night up in space, but now that im here it doesnt feel real.”

keith hums and moves closer to lance, resting his hip on the railing of the porch. he quirks his lips into a smirk “it’s definitely real, considering that your sister showed me all of your middle school theater pictures. i couldnt make that kind of awkward tween imagery up.” lance sucks in a breath and groans, turning his body towards keiths. “please dont tell me she showed you pictures of my role as mercutio in romeo and juliet when i was in 8th grade...” keiths turns his gaze back towards the house, his grin showing absolute mirth and... tenderness as he nods. he shrugs and scuffs his boot across the porch boards, “i thought it was cute.” 

their eyes lock, searching each other as they shyly smile. “careful kogane,” lance says, his eyes glinting, “get all mushy on me, i might think you like me or something.” keith leans forward, his bangs falling over his eyes. “i do like you, i never disliked you.” hesitantly, lance reaches upward and brushes the hair away from keiths forehead, his fingers lingering near keiths temple. “neither did i.” lance breathes. their eyes meet again, challenging each other to move, and so lance does. in one careful motion, he brings his hand down to cup keith’s jaw, angling him so that they align perfectly as lance brings their lips together.

inside the house the familiar chatter continues, and lance has never felt like hes belonged anywhere more than now.

-during their time on earth, allura meets a wonderful girl named erin whos patient with her and caring and admires allura in every way, but meets her w enough fire to keep allura on her toes. allura falls in love with her the moment she sees erin smile.

-since lotors cis ass is gone voltron essentially takes his position as head of the galra empire?? like the people who chose to follow lotor cant necessarily go to sendak bc their traitors to him, and leaving the empire to form another doesnt offer much protection, so team voltron releases the planets that they had under their control and team up w the galran army against sendaks “empire” and rip that bitch to pieces lmao

-after the big ol battle everyone retires back to earth where they all live together/relatively close to each other since they cant imagine being apart from their family after everything theyve been through together. shay leaves her planet and comes to live on earth w hunk after a while, and earth becomes a hub of peaceful human and alien life.

im real tired so this might not make a whole lot of sense but anyway shiro retires, lance becomes black paladin and keith goes back to red, bi lance is canon king, allura and lance are the wlw/mlm solidarity we deserve, everyone on team voltron deserves to be happy. in this essay i will-

[raywritesthings]

Lost in Translation 10/?

My Writing Fandom: Doctor Who Characters: Donna Noble, Tenth Doctor Pairing: Doctor/Donna Summary: In a universe where people are born with the name of the person destined for them displayed on their skin, intergalactic soulmates can be rather difficult to navigate. AO3 link

Donna had experienced dematerialization, actual flying, and even being sucked up into the TARDIS — but never had she felt like she was falling while inside the ship. Until now.

What had she hung about for? Getting distracted in the middle of a bloody Dalek attack, real smart. She’d promised to stay right by her Spaceman, and now here she was about as far away as she could possibly get and about to die to boot. All because she’d kept thinking she was hearing some stupid voice in her head.

The console room grew hotter and hotter while Donna was stuck on the floor. She crawled her way up to the control panel. That voice was still murmuring on the edge of her hearing, getting louder as she got closer.

But not to the controls, she realized, as she came upon the glass jar containing supposedly the Doctor’s hand. It was glowing again and calling to her. Donna couldn’t seem to look away. Slowly, she reached out a hand and touched it.

Glass shattered as the jar broke open, and the golden light traveled up her arm and all through her. Donna fell back, unable to see anything beyond a golden haze.

It didn’t feel like fire, the way the Doctor had looked for those few terrifying moments. Instead Donna felt a sort of calm wash over her as she was filled with warmth. It was comforting and familiar, somehow, and for a minute she swore she could finally make out the voice she’d been hearing: Spaceman saying her name.

The light in front of her eyes receded, and she regained her vision in time to watch as the golden glow in her hands seemed to sink beneath her skin. Just as quickly, her panic returned.

“What the hell was that?” Donna demanded to no one.

The only thing she could think of were the Huon particles she’d been poisoned with two years ago. What had she done to herself touching that hand? When she looked for it, it had disappeared.

One of the coral struts was aflame, reminding her she was going to burn alive before she could die by poisoning. She needed to do something! Not just for herself but the TARDIS. She couldn’t just let her burn. But she wasn’t good enough at piloting to get them out of this mess!

Abruptly, Donna’s mind seemed to flash back with perfect clarity to one lazy afternoon when Spaceman had been showing her how to do certain bits of maintenance on the ship. They’d been lying half under the console side by side while he’d pointed out which wires fed into which buttons.

“Knowing how to fix her will make you a better pilot,” the Doctor had told her as he’d replaced some of the wiring that he’d claimed was stripped, though Donna had detected no difference between those and the other wires. He just liked to pamper his ship, she’d suspected. “Especially if I can’t do it myself.”

Donna had rolled onto her side to fix him with a look. “And why wouldn’t you be able to?”

He’d shrugged. “Any number of reasons. I could be busy. Or incapacitated. Or — well, there’s always Emergency Protocol One if things get really serious.”

“What’s Emergency Protocol—” she’d begun to ask, only for him to roll towards her as well and place a finger to her lips.

“No, no, no, no, no, don’t do that. It’s keyed to your vocal signature,” he’d explained when she’d done her best to frown around the offending digit. “You say it and we go off straight to your mum’s. Because that’s what it does. It makes sure you get home, whatever’s happened to me.”

The Doctor had removed his hand with some difficulty due to the close quarters, and Donna had considered his words. She hadn’t liked the sound of whatever happened to him, but she’d known it was foolish not to keep in mind the possibility. “Huh. Couldn’t have told me about that when I was stuck up on that Sontaran ship?”

His mouth had opened and shut a couple times. Donna hadn't even bothered to hide her smirk. “I needed you and her with me back at UNIT,” he’d come up with eventually. “Anyway, it turned out alright, didn’t it?”

She’d ducked her head, nearly brushing against his chest because she hadn’t wanted him to see her blush. He’d needed her? Daft Spaceman. “What’s next?”

“Oh! Spanner would be lovely. Got to tighten the bolts on the helmic regulator. Can’t have that going out of whack.”

In the present, the heat was growing near unbearable, but when Donna tried the scanner, it blinked on. Those Daleks must have released it from that chronon thing the Doctor had been going on about when they dropped the two of them. The ship was starting to work again.

“Emergency Protocol One!” She shouted.

An image flickered to life in front of her: Spaceman.

He wasn’t quite looking at her, nor did he react to the flames that were popping up here and there around them. It had to be a recording; he’d shown her how that worked, and she’d even made her own once on the sly while she’d sent him for tea.

“This is Emergency Protocol One. Donna, if you’ve activated this, something’s gone seriously wrong. Whatever we’re up against is dangerous, and I mean more so than usual. This safeguard is in place to get you home in case I am dying or already dead.”

What’s happened to him. She should’ve known. Donna was the one about to die, actually, but under his words she could hear the wheezing of the TARDIS engines, and the heat began to dissipate.

“Please don’t do anything rash,” he continued. “The TARDIS is not to be messed with. It’s dangerous, and it would hurt both of you. I know I can trust you to take care of her, Donna. Even if we didn’t finish your piloting lessons, she’ll be grateful for your company. I don’t know how she’ll get on without me, but if anyone can keep her going, it’s you.”

She wanted to scoff at these assertions, but the next words out of his mouth stole her very breath away.

“Donna, these past few months have been — well, they’ve made me the happiest I’ve been in a long time. Maybe ever. I wish I had convinced you to come with me that Christmas if it meant we’d have had more time. You mean more to me than I could ever possibly say.”

There was a lump in her throat that hadn’t been there before and Donna blinked furiously. It was the smoke from the dying fires that had her eyes stinging this way, not him.

“Never doubt your brilliance. Stay kind.” He wasn’t even looking at her, yet she nearly couldn’t bear the gentle warmth in his brown eyes. “And thank you, Donna Noble. Thank you for saving my life and making it worth living.”

She shrugged out of her jacket. It was too warm in here, and she needed her shirtsleeve to wipe at her eyes.

“Goodbye, Donna,” said the projected Doctor, and she knew he wasn’t really here, but she nearly cried out for him to wait as he disappeared. Why had he saved all that for when it was too late for her to respond?

Wait. It was taking her home. But did home mean back where the Earth was supposed to be or where it actually was? What had she done? She couldn’t leave the Medusa Cascade!

As the time rotor slowed and finally stopped pulsing, Donna sat on the floor, too scared of what she might have done to check the scanner or even the doors. Even if the Doctor managed okay with the others on that Dalek Crucible — and she hoped to God he did — what use was it going to be if she’d left them all stranded? How could she have thought to do that to him?

Before Donna could panic too much, however, there was a knock on the TARDIS doors. She nearly cried out in relief at the familiar voice. “Donna, love, are you in there?”

“Gramps!” She scrambles onto her feet, pulling herself up by the console and then laying her hands on it in thanks. “Oh, he’s right about you being clever!” Then she raced down the ramp.

When she threw open the door she found not just her grandad but her mother waiting on the other side as well. Yet the inevitable tirade she’d always anticipated if her mum had ever learned about any of this never came.

“Oh, Donna!”

She found herself pulled into a tight hug which she managed to return through her shock. “We’ve been so worried!”

Was she crying?

“It’s alright, mum.” Donna patted her on the back and tried not to let on how thrown she was by this reaction.

“Will it be alright, then? You and he’ve stopped it? Where is he? Where’s the Doctor?” Her Gramps asked, peering over her shoulder as if he expected Spaceman’s skinny frame to appear in the doorway any second, and Donna thought she might start crying, too.

“No, he’s — he’s still up there. I don’t know how, but I’ve got to get back.”

She only half-turned before her mother grabbed at her arm. “Donna, you can’t! Those Dalek things. It’s not safe!”

“I’m not saying it is,” Donna argued before stopping abruptly.

There was a sort of lurch in her gut, like how it used to feel as a child before she was about to throw up.

“Sorry, just a minute,” she excused herself, running straight for the house. Her mum and Gramps called after her.

Donna only just managed to stagger into the bathroom. She fell forward, her hands catching the lip of the sink, and watched as instead of being sick a wisp of some kind of golden mist escaped her mouth.

When she turned to see her family standing in the open doorway staring at her, all she could think to say was, “Mum, Gramps, I think something’s happened to me.”

“D- Donna,” said her grandad, raising one hand to point at her back. She felt her stomach do another flip. Oh God, was there still some bug on there?

But when she turned to look, that wasn’t what she saw. Instead, through the cloth of her top, something was shining. Donna tugged it down.

Her mark. Her mark was glowing now.

“Oh, you are kidding.” First it decided to disappear in the parallel world and now this?

“What is it?” Her mum asked, eyes wide. “What’s it doing?”

“How should I know? It’s never done that before.” Donna coughed up some more gold mist, and finally admitted, “There was this thing in the TARDIS—”

“The what?”

“His spaceship. The box sitting on your lawn, mum,” she hastily corrected.

“How can that box be a spaceship? It looks like one of those old telephone boxes the police had.”

“Sylvia, come on, you saw it appear out there just now,” said her Gramps.

Donna ignored them both, leaning forward to examine herself in the mirror. Was it her imagination, or were those rings of gold in her irises Spaceman had been going on about on Shan Shen brighter than usual? What was happening to her?

“I need to get back.”

Her way was still being decidedly blocked.

“You can’t!” Her mother repeated. “Those things were killing people!”

“And they’ll kill a lot more people if we don’t stop them.”

“I tried to tell you, love,” added her Gramps. “This is what our Donna’s been doing now, her and the Doctor. They stop all these aliens from hurting people.”

Her mother tried a different tack, waving a hand at her back. “We don’t even know what’s happened to you.”

Donna fixed her shirt to lie over her mark properly, even if the light it was giving off still showed through. “Well the only one who might is the Doctor, so I’d better go and get him, hadn’t I?”

“If you hadn’t been with him, this never would’ve happened,” said her mum.

“It’s not his fault.” Donna decided not to tell them it was his hand she’d touched that seemed to have got her this way.

Though there was a thought. He’d died in that parallel world, and her mark had vanished. Because never meeting him meant she’d never meet her soulmate. Now she’d touched his hand full of that weird generated energy or whatever, and her mark was glowing. Because…?

She knew she couldn’t be right. Like Rose had said, she’d met and would keep meeting a lot of people through her travels with the Doctor. And he had his own mark. It was stupid even thinking it.

Donna shoved those thoughts to the back of her mind. “He needs me, mum.”

“Well hasn’t that blonde girl found him yet? She was here, said he needed her.”

Donna froze. “And what’s that supposed to mean?”

“You think I can’t read between the lines, lady?” Her mother’s voice finally took on that typical stern tone as she stepped forward. “I know just what you’ve been up to, even if it’s in space and not some office. Has he got money?”

“It’s not like that,” said Donna quietly.

“Those kind of men are all the same, and he doesn’t seem that different for an alien. If I’ve told you once, I’ve told you a thousand times, they’ll use you till they find the next one — and a younger one, at that.”

Maybe a year ago, Donna would have given in, listened to her mother. She knew Rose meant something to the Doctor, even if she didn’t know what.

But she did know the Doctor. And she knew what she’d seen in his eyes the last few times they’d locked with hers. When they’d nearly kissed; when he’d almost died and only been able to ask for her; when he’d told her there was something they had to talk about once all this was over. Her mother wasn’t going to stop her from hearing what it was.

She was still carrying on. “When will you stop throwing yourself at them like—”

“He asked me along first, actually,” Donna cut across. “And I turned him down. Realized what a mistake that was, but we found each other again. Cause we had to. Your new best friend Rose told me that. We’re meant to be together.”

Her mother blinked in shock at her pushback. “Meant to?” A short laugh escaped. “You’re talking destiny now? You?”

“Donna’s mark’s in alien, Sylvia,” said her grandad. “She’s sure of it.”

“Oh, so now you think—”

“I don’t know what I think,” said Donna, not wanting to have to tell her mother the truth, that she knew what the Doctor had on his back, and it certainly wasn’t her name. “What I know is it doesn’t matter. He needs me, and I need him. End of story.”

“You said practically the same about Lance,” her mum reminded. “And how’d that turn out? He ran off after all that fuss with you disappearing.”

Donna closed her eyes for a moment, trying not to let that sting. It didn’t really, and only because of the very man her mother was trying to dissuade her from. “How do you think I ended up with Lance, mum? Do you think maybe it was because I grew up thinking I was some kind of failure for being born with something I had no control over and could never be loved because of it? Do you think maybe it was cause I was taught that if a man could be bothered to look at me twice I should count myself lucky? Do you think just maybe it was because I wanted you to finally be proud of me? Happy for me?”

Her mother had fallen back a step with every question as Donna had advanced, until she was practically backed up against the opposite wall in the hallway.

“Just once in my life I wanted to do something right by you. And it all went wrong — and probably you’ll say you knew it all along — but it went wrong in the best way for me. Cause meeting him, traveling out there with the Doctor, it’s shown me how much all of the stuff I’m supposed to have done by now doesn’t matter. I can’t let you down anymore, mum, cause I’ve got a whole different life planned out than what you ever dreamed of. And I hope someday that’ll be enough for you.”

Donna turned and marched away from them both.

She stopped at the front door and looked back. “For the record, Lance didn’t run off. He died after poisoning me for six months and trying to feed me to a giant alien spider, which the Doctor saved me from. If it weren’t for him, you wouldn’t even have a daughter anymore, so you can bet I’m going back for his skinny arse.”

“Good luck, sweetheart!” Her Gramps called just before the door slammed. She looked back to the house briefly. It was probably the last she’d be welcome for a while. Felt too good in the moment to worry much, though. With new resolve, she faced the blue box again and strode right through the doors.

Of course, none of that back there would do any good if she couldn’t get this ship off her mother’s lawn and back into space. She could manage the Vortex, perhaps, but she had no idea how to land it on the Crucible. Donna waited to see if another flash of insight or memory might occur to her. No such luck.

“Look, I know what he said in that message, and I don’t want to hurt you — or me, for that matter. But there’s got to be some kind of way to fly this thing without knowing the coordinates, cos you take us different places with the wrong ones all the time anyway.”

The ship was silent. Donna hoped she hadn’t offended.

“I’ve seen a world where the Doctor’s died, and it’s awful. I can’t let it happen again. Please, he’s so important to so many people. And to me.” She hesitated for a breath longer before confessing to an empty room, “I love him.”

The lights suddenly turned up very bright and the time rotor pulsed up and down. They weren’t moving, though. Was that just her way of saying she was happy? What, had she been hoping?

“Yeah, yeah,” Donna blustered. “I know you want to help him as much as I do. He needs us.”

The TARDIS gave a hum, then Donna started in surprise as one of the panels lifted up and drew back, revealing another panel underneath. Only instead of controls, there was a strange gel-like substance covering it. Donna stepped forward to get a better look, and saw a couple of divets  that were about the right size for a pair of hands.

“Oh, don’t tell me. I’ve got to touch that, too.”

The ship hummed again.

“I hate you both,” Donna grumbled. Then she squeezed her eyes shut and plunged both hands into the strange-looking gel.

The gel slid to cover her hands, and Donna suspected she wouldn’t be able to pull them out until this trip had ended. It was not the grossest thing to ever happen to her on her travels, she had to admit. She still wasn’t happy about it. Best to get it over with as soon as possible.

“Okay, now you gotta take us to the Doctor, right?”

At her words, the time rotor began to pulse up and down, and the ship began to dematerialize. Donna sent up whatever prayer she could think of off the top of her head that this would work and they’d actually end up back on the Crucible. And where the Doctor was. That was key. God, she hoped he was alright and hadn’t done something stupid in the meantime.

They landed, and the gel receded. Donna shook her hands out, though there didn’t actually seem to be any residual gel to get rid of. Still, she was tempted to go wash her hands. If things weren’t so dire...

She looked down at the doors. No one seemed to be trying to get in, and she couldn’t hear any Dalek voices on the other side. She hoped that didn’t mean they’d missed the Crucible entirely.

Wasn’t much use trying to be sneaky, was there? Whoever was out there would have heard her the minute she landed. So Donna pulled her jacket back on, grabbed up the mallet she’d used on the Sontaran, and walked down to the doors.

She had to hold in a cheer when she opened them to something familiar. They were in that room Davros had been in when he’d intercepted the subwave network! He was still there and looking at her, she supposed, though it was hard to tell when she couldn’t exactly decide where his eyes were. Was it just that blue thing in the middle?

There was a whole group of people, some she recognized and some she didn’t, all off to one side of the room, just as silent and surprised as he was. Among them was the Doctor, and she felt a smile stretch wide over her face.

“Happy to still see me, Spaceman?” She couldn’t help echoing.

He made like a mime for a moment, hands and face all pressed up against some kind of invisible barrier, which turned out to actually be real when a force field lit up wherever he’d made contact. “Donna!”

“Oh, thank God!” Martha looked almost as relieved as Spaceman, Donna was pleasantly surprised to note. She’d always liked Martha.

Donna made to run straight for them, only that Davros fellow raised his hand and electricity shot from it like the one bad guy in Star Wars. Not the one in the mask. She’d only ever seen them once on the insistence of an ex-boyfriend, though maybe they warranted another look if they were going to be educational!

All this Donna thought while bracing herself for some kind of horrible pain or possible death. There was no time to duck. Only instead of crumpling to the floor in agony, Donna merely staggered back a couple steps, the mallet slipping from her grasp, while the electricity seemed to crackle within and around her body. It didn’t hurt any more than a mild itch under the skin, and when she threw out her hands, it was suddenly expelled just like Davros had done.

“Woah! Okay.” Donna looked up at the others, all staring at her again in shock.

The Doctor looked about ready to climb the walls of his cell, he was so frantic. But he froze when Donna met his gaze, his brow furrowing. “Donna, your eyes!”

Donna felt her mouth drop open. “Seriously, you’re gonna do this now?”

He shook his head. “No, Donna, they’re glowing!”

Oh.

She came up to the other side of whatever barrier had been placed around him. “Yeah, I thought that’d stopped.”

“Doc, that looks like regeneration energy,” said Captain Jack.

“Or Bad Wolf,” said Rose.

“Regeneration? I thought that was just a you thing,” said some blonde woman to the Doctor, who didn’t even seem to hear it.

“Donna, what happened to you in the TARDIS?” He demanded.

“You mean besides nearly falling to death — Oi!” She only really registered Davros’ second attempt to hit her when she stumbled a bit as it bounced off her. She caught her balance by bracing a hand against Spaceman’s cell and felt a slight push when he brought his hand up to the same spot. With her other hand, she shook out the weird lightning blast in her attacker’s general direction. “Oi, do you mind?”

“Dalek Caan, why does she not die?” Davros snarled at some slimy, deformed thing sitting up high with a spotlight on it. “Your prophecy foretold it!”

“Pretty sure his prophecy’s full of it, mate,” another man Donna didn’t know remarked.

“It’s been wrong so far,” The woman called Sarah Jane agreed. When had she even got here?

“Did you open the TARDIS?” The Doctor was trying to continue his questioning, and she looked back at him. Struggling to follow all the rest of it was driving her mad.

“What, the doors?”

“Of course not the doors! You were already inside it!”

“Well then what was I supposed to open?”

“Nothing! Did the TARDIS do it? Was she trying to save you both?”

“Donna, if you’ve become the Bad Wolf then you can save us,” Rose told her, hands pressed against her own cell. “Get rid of the Daleks.”

“No, don’t do that,” the Doctor immediately disagreed. “Just let me out so I can fix it—”

“Wait, if she’s become the same thing Rose became, does that mean she can fix me?” Jack was looking between her and the Doctor now. “Can we do that first?”

“It’s not a queue, Jack! Nothing’s being done, I just have to set it right.”

“But if she’s harnessed Bad Wolf anyway then shouldn’t she use it? They’re trying to destroy all of Reality!” Rose exclaimed.

“Does anyone actually want to catch me up?” Donna broke in, hands planted on her hips. “What’s the big thing about wolves, anyway?”

Rose, Jack, and the Doctor all stopped arguing amongst themselves.

“Is it safe to say she doesn’t have it then?” Asked Jack.

The Doctor nodded. “Yeah.”

Donna rolled her eyes. She could have told them all that if they’d just bothered to actually talk to her rather than about her.

“Hey Boss, I think Davros called reinforcements!” Shouted the man whose name she still hadn’t gotten just as a door slid open to reveal a bright red Dalek.

“The female will be permanently eliminated!”

She recognized that voice, if Daleks could have individual voices. That was the one that had had her dropped down the bloody incinerator, wasn’t it? Her eyes narrowed.

“Donna, get back to the TARDIS!” The Doctor shouted.

“Bit late for that! Anyway, I think I’ve got a handle on this now.” Donna planted her feet and stared down the red pepper pot. “Want to have another go then?”

“Exterminate!”

The same shot she’d seen fell the Doctor came straight for her — and without her even sliding back an inch she managed to catch and release it. Instead of sparking against a wall like the last two had done, however, the rebound went wide and hit what looked like a control panel sitting off to the side. It exploded, and Donna backed away from the shrapnel into a familiar chest.

She looked up into Spaceman’s face. “How did you—?”

“The containment field came down. It must have been linked to that panel.”

“What have you done?” Davros howled, but he wasn’t looking at any of them. He’d wheeled that chair of his around to face the red Dalek still in the doorway. “Dalek Supreme, what have you done?”

The Dalek didn’t answer. It didn’t even move.

“Oh.” The Doctor was looking around, his mouth hanging open in a perfect circle that meant he’d just realized something incredibly important. “Oh, I see. You didn’t quite trust them all, did you? Your new Daleks, your children. Not when you’d weakened yourself to create them, not when they looked down on you. You couldn’t quite give up control. Built yourself a personal panel that overrode everything else, only you didn’t anticipate it getting destroyed.”

“And it controlled all the Daleks?” Martha asked.

The Doctor smirked. “Better than that. It controls the Reality bomb, doesn’t it?”

Davros was scowling now.

“Sorry, Reality bomb?” Asked Donna.

Spaceman blinked and looked at her. “Oh. Right. You weren’t there for that bit. The planets were an engine for a bomb that was going to destroy all of Reality. It’s fine now, though.”

“What, just like that?”

“Just like that,” he repeated with a grin. “All thanks to you.”

“Come off it,” she scoffed, then gave a squawk of surprise when he spun her around and pulled her into a hug.

“Never,” he said right in her ear, and Donna was actually rather glad to be in his arms because she was fairly certain she’d just gone a bit weak in the knees. His voice lost what she told herself had been an unintentionally husky quality as he added, “I thought I’d lost you.”

“No chance,” she murmured right back.

“So if it’s not the Bad Wolf, then what is wrong with Donna?” Asked Rose, and they both pulled back out of the hug. “Something’s wrong, isn’t it?”

“Er, I don’t really know,” the Doctor admitted.

Donna found she couldn’t quite look at Rose — her mum’s insinuations had been totally irrational, she knew that — not that the blonde was making much effort either with her eyes fixed on the Doctor, and she instead spotted Martha grinning at her. And she wasn’t the only one, because Donna noticed Sarah Jane with a little smile of her own next, and Jack gave her a cheeky little salute when she caught his gaze. What was that about?

“Suppose we should take care of that next,” Spaceman was adding.

“Your typical arrogance, Doctor, assuming you’ve already won. You will suffer!” Davros declared, raising his arm for a third time.

Donna felt the Doctor’s hands on her shoulders as he prepared to put her behind him.

She glanced back at him. “Oi, Time Boy, considering I’m the one with magic immunity I think I should stay in front.”

He looked down. “Right, okay.”

“I’m not sure it matters,” said Sarah Jane. “Nothing seems to be happening.”

They both looked. Davros was pointing his hand with the weird glove about as hard as he could, but no lightning effect occurred this time.

“You wired the controls for your own gauntlet into that thing?” The Doctor shook his head. “Blimey, it’s a wonder the life support systems are still online!”

“So, is that it, then? We’ve definitely stopped him?” Martha checked.

“Yeah, I think that about does it.”

Donna looked at the unmoving red Dalek again. “What about the Daleks, though? I didn’t actually kill all of them, did I?” She knew they were the worst of the universe, but she wasn’t sure how to feel if she had.

“No, they should still be alive inside their shells. Helpless. They’ll need someone to care for them,” said the Doctor. His gaze fell on Davros. “Someone like their Creator. How about that for a final victory, Davros?”

If looks could kill, Davros would actually be doing pretty well for himself at the moment.

“Instead of destroying life you can learn to nurture it. Walled off in your own separate second from the rest of the universe, of course,” the Doctor continued, then shared another smile with her.

“Can we go home now?” The older blonde woman Donna still didn’t know demanded. She was standing right in front of the doors to the blue box.

“Right, good idea, Jackie! Oh, that’s Jackie Tyler, Rose’s mum,” Spaceman told her. “And that’s Mickey.”

Martha turned her head sharply. “Sorry?”

“Er, Mickey.” The final stranger in the group gave a wave. “Mickey Smith.”

Martha was staring at him like she’d never seen another person in her life before. Interesting.

Donna decided to rescue her friend. “Donna Noble.”

“Oh, believe me, I know,” said Mickey, glancing at the Doctor. Okay seriously, what had happened while she was gone?

But her Spaceman hurried over to open the doors and usher everyone through. Donna brought up the rear.

“So what about the planets?”

“Um, they’re stuck,” he answered, tugging on his ear. “They’ll all have to be moved manually.”

Donna blew out a breath. “That’s gonna be a long night.”

“Yeah,” he agreed. “But you first.”

She shook her head. “If Huon particles couldn’t kill me in six months, I think I’ll be alright with whatever this is for a little while longer.” So far it seemed to be helping rather than hurting her, anyway.

She stepped into the ship, but he caught her arm before she could head up the ramp. Donna turned back around.

He entered as well, pulling the door shut behind him and keeping his voice lowered for some semblance of privacy as he said, “This isn’t something we should be taking a risk on.”

“So you want to risk twenty-seven planets instead? How am I more important than that?”

A pained expression crossed his face. “Donna, there’s something I should tell you—”

“Doctor,” Donna said, and he stopped. “You have been trying to tell me something all day. How about instead of saying you’ve got to tell me something, you just say it.”

He stared at her a moment before nodding. “Right, good. Good point. Here goes then.”

Donna watched and waited as patiently as she could while he looked at her, then away, then back again and drew in a deep breath.

“Careful, there’s some glass on the floor,” Martha called out to everyone up near the console, just as the Doctor had finally opened his mouth.

“Surprised it’s not worse in here after dropping into a molten z-neutrino core,” remarked Jack.

Spaceman looked over to the others. “Glass, what glass?”

God, was he distractible! She was tempted to haul him off to the nearest empty room and lock the door, except then she recalled this particular diversion was mostly her fault.

“Right, that would be the jar,” Donna sighed. She’d totally forgotten about the mess it had made when it broke open.

The Doctor turned back to her. “Which jar?”

She rolled her eyes. “Which do you think? The one you keep under the console, dumbo!”

“The one with his hand?” Martha’s nose was scrunched up as she looked around the grating. “I don’t see it anywhere.”

“Yeah, well it sort of disappeared,” Donna explained.

“Sorry, I’m not really following this part,” said Sarah Jane.

“I haven’t been following any of it!” Exclaimed Jackie. “This always happens around you,” she said to the Doctor, who Donna realized was staring not at Jackie but at her with a look of near horror.

“Donna, when did it disappear?”

“I was trying to tell you earlier. We were falling down the incinerator, and the hand had started glowing again, and I could hear it—”

“Hear it?”

“Yes. It — well it sounded like you. Saying my name.” She couldn’t look at any of them while she said that. It’d be too shaming. She studied one of the coral struts instead. “So I touched it, and it broke, and then all this golden light sort of rushed into me. I don’t know.”

“So that really was regeneration energy we were seeing earlier?” Asked Jack.

“Oh, so that’s stopped again? Brilliant,” said Donna with a wry smirk. “What about my back? How’s it doing?”

“Your back?” The Doctor repeated.

“Yeah, my mark was all glowing, too. Least I’ve stopped coughing the stuff up.”

She didn’t like everyone staring at her so scared and unsure. Donna made her way up the ramp and to the controls.

“Look, can we just get started before Davros invites himself aboard or something? Twenty-seven planets aren’t going to move themselves, and my mum’s already in a snit today.”

She initiated takeoff, which seemed to cause something of a stir amongst the others.

“Woah, maybe let the Boss do that?”

“She knows what she’s doing,” said Spaceman as he followed after her and continued where she’d left off.

“How?” Rose wanted to know. “Is it cause of the regeneration energy?”

He cast her an odd look. “No, it’s cause I taught her.”

Sarah Jane made some noise that was a cross between an exclamation of surprise and a laugh. “You letting someone else fly this thing? Well, if I was having any doubts before, I certainly believe it now.”

Donna looked at her. “Believe what?”

“When did you see your mum?” The Doctor asked right over her.

Donna shot him a look, but answered, “I stopped home. Emergency Protocol.”

“And then you got yourself back to the Crucible? How did you manage that?”

“With the goo machine you’ve got hiding under here,” she answered, rapping on the control panel twice.

She was afraid he was about to lose his impressive eyebrows in his hairline by this point. “The TARDIS gave you access to the telepathic circuits?”

“Is that what that was?”

“She shouldn’t have done that. That’s really dangerous if you haven’t had any training. One little bit of indecision or distraction, and you could’ve ended up anywhere!”

“Well it’s a good thing I was so worried about you, then, isn’t it?” She snapped. “Now can you stop with the interrogation!”

He deflated slightly, at least somewhat chastened. But then he turned on the puppy dog eyes. “Donna, I’m worried about you. Humans aren’t meant to interact with regeneration energy. It should’ve created some sort of biological metacrisis.”

Whatever that was, she didn’t imagine it was good. “Is that what’s happened to me?”

“No. That’s what’s so strange.” He was looking her up and down as he said it, and Donna pretended not to notice when his eyes strayed to her cleavage and remained there a while. At least he hadn’t pulled out the specs yet. “The energy protected you out there from Davros and the Dalek Supreme almost as if you’d just regenerated yourself. You said it rushed into you?”

She nodded.

“But it shouldn’t have. You’re not compatible.”

“Maybe not with just anyone’s regeneration energy,” Jack suggested. “But she could be with yours.”

Donna looked round at him. “Sorry, what?”

“No, maybe Jack has a point,” said Martha, doing her best to get a bit closer with all the bodies in the room. “Did the Time Lords ever try to transfer regeneration energy to their soulmates? Were there other Time Lords with human soulmates?”

Donna turned to look at the Doctor. His gaze kept darting between her and Martha, and he seemed afraid to say anything at all.

Donna didn’t have that problem.

“Sorry, what?”

Martha’s eyes widened. “You haven’t told her?”

“Not for lack of trying!” Ordinarily, Donna might have been amazed they could even hear him at that decibel, but at the moment her mind was preoccupied with something else.

“Told me what? Doctor, told me what?”

“How do you not know?” It was Rose who asked. She had her arms crossed and shoulders hunched and was looking at her like Donna’s mum or one of her friends back home always did when they thought she was being particularly dim.

“It’s not her fault,” said the Doctor. When she looked back at him, his tone softened. “Donna, the name on your back...the TARDIS doesn’t translate it because it doesn’t need to. Her library wouldn’t have any books on learning it because she’s built for pilots who already know how to speak it. And the Library wouldn’t have had any books on it because, well, you heard the Architect. I shouldn’t exist.” He took hold of her hands. “Your mark is in Circular Gallifreyan.”

“Your language.” Donna barely heard herself, her voice was so soft. The Doctor still nodded. “Your name.”

“Yes.”

The timid smile he wore slowly fell as Donna shook her head. “But that — that can’t be right. You don’t have my name.”

His head tilted quizzically. “Well, yes I do. You, er, you said you knew that.”

Donna gaped at him. “When did I say that?”

“When you told me about your mark! You said you knew about mine!” He reminded her.

She stepped back, her hands slipping out of his grasp. “That you had one, not that it was my name! You think that’s all the reaction I would’ve had if I knew it was my name? Just ‘oh, by the way, I know about it’?”

“Well, what did you think I had? How did you even know I had one?”

“That was probably my fault,” Martha said, eyes on the grating.

“Martha!”

“Oh, don’t get mad at her,” said Donna, then paused. “Wait. Did you know he had my name the whole time?”

Her friend still didn’t look up. “Er…”

“Martha!”

“Your name’s Martha?” Asked Mickey. Donna barely refrained from a retort for that rather obvious question.

“Er, yeah,” said Martha, looking up with a slight smile, probably glad to have someone not yelling her name at her. Donna would feel bad, but then this was supposed to be one of the most important moments of her life, and it was being witnessed by a whole peanut gallery of her idiot Spaceman’s friends who all already knew.

“Sorry, do we need to all go around and share names?” She turned her gaze back on said idiot Spaceman. “And while we’re on the subject, who all got to find out before I did? Just so I know.”

“Donna, I thought you were dead—”

“So you saved it for then?”

“No! It just sort of happened that way. I don’t know.”

Her eyes narrowed. “You were gonna do something really stupid before I showed up, weren’t you?”

A handful of yeses from the others rose up before he could answer.

“I thought you’d died,” was his stubborn rebuttal.

“So are we actually going anywhere or are you just gonna keep us in space?” Jackie demanded. “Some of us need to get home, you know.”

“Are you kidding?” Mickey dropped into the vacant jumpseat. “I could watch this for hours.”

“I’ll get the popcorn,” Jack offered.

“No one’s getting popcorn!” The Doctor snapped. Probably didn’t want them stealing the good stuff they’d picked up on the Cinema Planet. “Jackie’s right, you all need to go home. Especially you lot from the parallel universe.”

He began a complicated sequence of flipping switches, pulling levers, and pressing buttons that even Donna was having trouble keeping up with. As he rounded the console, he nearly went headlong over Rose who’d planted herself in his path.

“What do you mean ‘you lot’? Who all are you sending back to the parallel universe?”

“Well,” he said, edging around her carefully. “The, uh, the people from there?”

“But I’m not from there. I belong in this world. With you.”

“Rose—”

“I don’t care that our names don’t match. I know I’m supposed to be with you!”

Hold on, they both knew the truth now, not like in the parallel world, and she still wanted to treat Donna and the Doctor’s relationship like it was a non-issue? Not that they’d actually managed to get in to a relationship, but Rose didn’t have to know that.

Donna had to step back as he made a full ring around the console and passed her, Rose determinedly dogging his every step.

“Rose, you’ve barely gotten to live your own life. There’s so much ahead of you. Don’t you think you should give it a chance?”

“Why? You weren’t giving soulmates a chance until Dalek Caan brought that whole thing up. You hadn’t even told Donna!”

He cast her a guilty glance.

This was really happening, wasn’t it? Donna looked down. She didn’t want to watch what her mother had told her would happen play out. Bad enough she was about to be passed over yet again, and by her own bloody soulmate no less.

She felt someone brush shoulders with her and found Martha had placed herself at her side. Donna tried to convey her thanks with a smile but thought she failed rather miserably.

What the Doctor said, however, was, “You don’t know the whole story.”

“But I know how you feel about me. Maybe my name’s not on your back, but you like it. When I said it, that first time, it meant something to you. I saw it,” she insisted.

“Rose…”

Donna lifted her head. He was hesitating. There was something he was holding onto, something he was afraid to say.

“Doctor.” He looked right at her, and now she could see the indecision in his gaze, too. “Whatever it is, tell her. It’s kinder.”

Rose looked back and forth between them. “What is she talking about? Tell me what?”

The Doctor flipped a final switch, and the TARDIS landed.

“I do like your name, Rose. I liked it back on Gallifrey, too. I never told you, but my people used it as a name as well. Arktyior.”

It was the first time Donna — or any of them, she suspected — had ever heard him speak his own language apart from the name of his planet. The way the single word seemed to roll off his tongue, the very sound of it, was something else entirely. She felt mesmerized.

He drew in a breath, visibly pulling himself together after that. “And it was my granddaughter’s name.”

Beside her, Martha’s mouth fell open. And she wasn’t the only one. Rose took a step back, a look of horror on her face.

“No.”

“I’m sorry. I care about you a great deal, Rose. But not the way you want me to.”

Donna turned away as Rose’s eyes began to well up with tears; it was a hard thing to have to learn in front of all these people. Sarah Jane and Jack were both keeping their gazes lowered as well. She heard a pair of footsteps run for the door and the slam of it behind them. Donna knew without looking who it was.

Rose’s mother hurried after as far as the door but paused and turned back. “Thank you.” She left without waiting for a response.

No one said anything for a long moment. Then Mickey stood from the jump seat.

“Well Boss, safe to say I misread that one.”

“You should be off too, Mickey,” The Doctor said shortly. “The walls between worlds will be closing permanently again, and we’ve got to get back over.”

The other man frowned but took a step towards the door.

“Wait!” Martha started forward, and Mickey turned around. “When you heard my name...that meant something to you. You have a Martha?”

He raised his hand and touched the spot on his back where his mark resided. “Yeah. You have mine?”

Martha nodded and stepped closer. “Would you want to stay?” She turned quickly to the Doctor. “It’s not going to blow up the universe or anything, is it? It’s just, everything I’ve seen today, maybe it’s worth giving this soulmate thing a try.”

Donna found herself smiling at the unexpected turn things had taken. Who would’ve thought?

Spaceman, for his part, seemed puzzled. “What about Tom?”

Martha grimaced, and Donna cast her eyes up to the ceiling. “She’s not wearing the ring, you prawn.” Trust him to bring it up in the most tactless way!

“Oh! Sorry. Well, and congratulations, I suppose.”

Martha and Mickey exchanged shy glances, the sort Donna had always heard about when her friends or neighbors had waxed poetic about soulmates. The sort she’d never get now.

Jack was apparently thinking along the same vein. “There, you see? That’s the way it’s supposed to go.” He turned a grin on both her and the Doctor. “How did you two get that mixed up? You’ve known each other how long?”

“Since two Christmases ago,” Martha stated when they both refused to.

The captain let out a laugh. “Seriously? Doc, c’mon!”

“It sounds as though there was some miscommunication on both sides,” said Sarah Jane about as diplomatically as possible. It didn’t make Donna feel any less embarrassed.

Why did everything in her life always have to be some joke? Why did she have to be the one to meet her soulmate nearly two years ago and never realize it?

And if the Doctor really had known it was her name on his back all this time, why had he waited till now to say anything?

She felt stifled with all these people here and unable to act on any sort of impulse. She’d barely even gotten a moment to think, much less figure out how she felt about it. Donna found she, too, needed to get away from it all.

The ramp to one of the corridors was right beside her, and Donna did her best to slip away unnoticed; Martha and Mickey were too caught up in each other, Sarah Jane and Jack were questioning and teasing the Doctor, and Spaceman himself was concentrating on the controls to get them back to their universe. No one was going to miss her as per usual, even if they were all talking about her personal life.

She made it about two paces into the corridor before the now familiar call of “Donnaaaa!” rang out behind her.

Donna stopped with a sigh. And to think she’d been bemoaning the lack of romance.