#and shes so cute... shorter than me... such a pretty sparkly dark blue... and with such a cute trunk.....

[orcelito]

Hated driving home but I already miss Tessi. I'm gonna be biking to class in the morning but in the afternoon I'll be back in Tessi for my appointment. I know she's right outside and she's a proper car with proper locks and a key fob so people can't steal her like a Kia but I miss her... I wanna say hi to her again... wanna take her on a tour... maybe feed her (gasoline)...

I've had this car for just 1 day now and I still hate driving but I love this car. She's MINE...

[resident-gay-bitch]

*looks at you with big wet eyes* transfem sirius hcs please🥺also what do you think her fashion sense is like

*looks at you right back with even bigger wet eyes* HIIIII! Im so sorry for getting back to you so late, please forgive me, I've been very busy and didn't even notice I had this ask

⭐️ Sirius Sundays ⭐️

Here are my transfem Sirius headcannons! (I love her so much), (I hope you don't mind that I included this in my Sirius Sunday thing);

Her style:

I think it probably wouldn't stray too far from what she'd already wear pre transition; for wizards skirts and dresses aren't that far off from robes so styles of clothing wouldn't really feel too different for her.

In terms of muggle clothing style specifically she'd still wear a lot of boot cut jeans and bell bottoms, a lot of band shirts and her leather jacket, she'd probably just style them a little differently, now with things in her hair, more jewellery and makeup and stuff.

However, I do also think she would raid Lily, Mary, and Marlenes wardrobes to find things that she likes. I think once Sirius came out, the girls would have basically adopted her as their protégé, teaching her anything and everything she wants to know about girlhood.

I think she'd like Mary's wardrobe best, I always hc Mary as a very fashionable person who likes to experiment and be bold with her outfits, and Sirius would love the sparkly dresses and bold colours stuffed into her wardrobe, and she'd have the best time trying everything on and doing a little fashion show for her friends.

I think as well she would wear a lot of skirts. She'd like the way they feel, how flowy they are and how cute they look, and they help her pass better in the beginnings of her transition, and also she knows she's got amazing legs so she doesn't mind showing them off a bit (showing them off to one specific person, more like).

I think, even though she'd try to pass more with typically "feminine colours", blue would be her best colour. Pretty shades of dark iridescence and periwinkles as well, she'd have lots of dresses, skirts, and coats in various shades of blue, and they'd always make her feel most pretty and feminine. Especially some blue eyeshadow or eyeliner. James would call her new penchant for blue a betrayal and tell her to go join Ravenclaw for being such a traitor (and then secretly tell her she's pretty and looks great at the same time).

Tall girls being even taller in high heels is a weekness of mine, and if I knew Sirius in real life, she'd abuse that weakness. I think anytime theres a party or a fancy event on, she'd put a pair of high heels on. They'd make her feel so pretty and feminine, and she'd be so tall. At first she refused to wear any shoe that wasn't flat on the foot because "girls are meant to be shorter than guys, right?" but then everyone told her that was stupid and peer pressured her into a high heels, and made sure she felt amazing in them.

In public, Sirius is very amendment on passing. She's done her research and always wears the most feminine clothing in muggle areas, wears the girls uniform to school, puts on eyeliner and lipstick, pitches her voice up, etc etc, and it's very important to her that she passess. With her friends she relaxes a little, when it's just them in a private area (esp just the marauders because they've seen the most over her over the years and she knows they don't really care), but she still pitches her voice up and wears typically feminine "colours" or "clothing". However, when with James or at home with just the Potters, she doesn't try at all; she'll often use her natrual voice, doesn't ever try to tuck or wear anything really feminine unless she just feels like doing so, she'll let her stubble come in from time to time even, until annoys her, and they never make her feel bad for it. James still calls her gorgeous every day, and Effie and Flea still call her their daughter. They make her feel extremely comfortable.

I think she'd love wearing her hair in double plaits, she'd look so cute like that and she likes how feminine it is, and it would also make her feel like the little girl inside her is coming alive, because all through the first and second years of school, all the girls in their year would have worn double plaits to class. So not only would it be cool and cute, it would be a way for her to feel like she's experiencing the girlhood she missed out on when she was younger. (Maybe James learnt how to braid so he could do it for her before bed if she's tired, and in the mornings so she could do her makeup and stuff at the same time so they wouldn't be late to work / class)

I also think she'd go through a phase where she'd grow her hair as long as possible just to see how long she can get it. Her record is just past her arse and she's very proud of it.

She'd love playing around and experimenting with hairstyles as well. She'd 100% go through bad phases of strange styles and all of her friends just have to grin and bear it, because if a very high side pony is what makes her feel best this week, than they're not going to crush her soul, they know she'll grow out of it soon enough. She does have taste afterall.

She'd get so pissed off about the lack of pockets in everything when she starts shopping for muggle womens clothes, and you know the minuet she finds a dress with pockets she'd show it off to everyone. She'd get so excited and wear the dress for like a month straight, no fucks given, only pockets.

She'd practice makeup looks on the Marauders all the time. James is her most willing model, of course, he'd let her do anything she wanted, but sometimes she'd want to practice on someone with a similar complexion to her, or with a different eye or lip shape or whatever, or sometimes if James isn't around to model. She'd wrangle Remus and Pete into getting their makeup done by her, and they argue the whole time even though they secretly enjoyed it a lot.

Before she came out to Effie and Flea - maybe especially if she was still living at 12GWP at the time she figured it out - and she started experimenting with her gender to figure it out, she wanted to try womens underwear and stuff, but she didn't want to be seen / caught buying it when she was still perceived as a bloke, so she made a bunch herself. She cut her breifs into knickers shape and made makeshift braletts out of old shirts and pyjamas (she had to learn how to sew for this too), and one day Effie or Flea came along to do her washing and found all the janky looking underwear and just went to her like "right, good effort darling but I'm taking you shopping for some real undergarments that actually fits you properly an doesn't look like it went through a blender".

Hc's about her transition;

I feel like she only figured out she was trans later in life, probably after she ran away to the Potters and started to really work on becoming her best self, or possibly just figured it out right before she ran away, and that was the kind of final reason to do it because she knew she had a better chance of acceptance with them <3

I am a tall Sirius truther till the day I die, so obviously she'd be a very very tall woman and this would make Marlene very jealous, and she'd constantly tease Marlene for being so short.

You already know that James is the first person she told, and if this is all happening in the 70s/80s, he probably would have been a little confused by the concept at first and didn't understand it at all. He would have never heard of transexuality and people swapping genders, but he would have still accepted her immediately. He would have asked so many questions, not only to make sure he was doing all the right things to make sure Sirius felt comfortable, proud, and happy throughout her transition, but also because he was extremely curious. He would have done a lot of research for her. (If Sirius wants something, Sirius gets it, so if she wants to be called she and a woman now, James is going to give 110% effort).

All of her friends have had a crush on her at one point, no matter their sexuality (eg pre transition + post), and she's pretty indifferent to people having feelings or attraction towards her, doesn't really care about it at all, but she does like to brag about it with her friends. And she loves to hold it over their heads lol.

I think if she came out whilst still in Hogwarts, she would have just gaslit everyone into thinking she was never a bloke. She'd get all her friends in on it, along with McGonagall of course, and anytime someone asked why she was wearing the girls uniform everyone would just be like "she's a girl wtf are you going on about? no, she was never a bloke, do you need me to take you to the sick wing?"

I think as well, after she came out, she would have gotten a lot closer with the girls. She'd love the way that girls all talk to each other, she'd love the constant drama and gossip, and she'd love how in touch and normal they are about their own emotions. Of course, Sirius has always felt she can talk to James about everything, and she does, but she likes how she can have deeper conversations more casually with the girls and in a group setting and stuff. She'd love how they always immediately validate her feelings and give her proper good advice and can relate to her problems in their own ways. But James would get extremely jealous of this and always try to intervene on girls night - it would never work, but Sirius promised to give him the best gossip when she gets home.

Back to Sirius being drop dead gorgeous, I think after she came out all the blokes on like the quidditch team and in their year would start fancying her, hoping to get a shag or whatever, and would constantly talk to James about it (they'd especially be asking if James and Sirius are actually together now that she's a girl because they're that close, James never gives them a real answer, just tells them Sirius isn't interested), and of course James would tell her all of this. They'd think it's so funny, but it's also strange because suddenly all of Sirius casual mates and quidditch team want a shag with her and it's weird. Again she's indifferent to it, has no interested in any of their advances, but it is odd when all the blokes who used to call her "a good lad" and would crudely talk about girls in the locker room around her, are now interested in her.

I think she'd love taking photos throughout her transition to track her progress. So then on days she feels like shit she can look back through them and see how much she's grown and feel as beautiful as she is again.

Thank you for the ask, I really love receiving them! I had a lot of fun compiling this list actually, I haven't written out all my transfem Sirius hc's before. I really love her so much and she deserves some more recognition tbh. She's the best. :P

[dreamties]

Slashers W/ a Soft Pastel S/O

A/n - So this one actually wasn’t requested, I just thought it would be super cute. And what I mean by “Soft Pastel”, I mean being into soft/pastel/kawaii fashion, I just didn’t know how to phrase it. Since there’s so many subcultures.

Trigger Warning: Slight Cursing (I say f*ck)

Also- these are gender neutral, but a few describe you in skirts/dresses, so if you’re not comfy with that, just skip that part or the whole thing?? :/

I might do more like this for other types of alternative fashion- like punk or something? Or a S/O who has a lot of body mods, I think it would be fun.

Characters: Billy/Stu, The Lost Boys, Helen Lyle, Daniel Robitaille/Candyman, Brahms Heelshire, and Amanda Young.

I didn’t add Michael Myers, but can do so if y’all want it. I just think he’d be very indifferent about it...didn’t think that would be very fun to read.

Billy Loomis + Stu Macher

Stu would be the most like into your outfits

Billy? Not so much. he just thinks you look cute in everything.

but if you did more guro-kawaii looks? they would both be all over that shit. 

it combines more of the grotesque in with the cute- which is just perfect for the boys. they get to see you dawned in all sorts of blood, guts/gore, bandage patterns/aesthetics.

and maybe even tying in different monster-ish elements. 

like wearing funky white or other unnatural colored contacts, really intense makeup(especially around the eyes), and fuck it, maybe you’re wearing faux demon horns.

I think they’d find it kinda hot. if we’re being perfectly honest here.

Now- would you able to get them into it as well?

Stu will ask you, with excitement reverberating throughout out his body and his voice. of course he want’s to at least try it!

so many clips in Stu’s hair. you haven’t even had that many in your hair before!

he may also wear rings sometimes. he thinks all the colors and designs are just so fun!

and on the other hand...

Billy, the guy that basically wore the same outfit for an entire movie? who’s closet only contains jeans and white t-shirts? trying out your style? i don’t think so lol

if you do- somehow- get him to try...

then you might have pressured him into it a bit? very jokingly, of course. 

“C’mon, humor me, babe. Stu’s already dressed and everything!” You try giving him puppy eyes to seal the deal.

“Fine!” Billy says, grabbing the garment and a few clips from your hands. He shuts the door too harshly behind him.

A short silence is shared, before you and Stu burst out laughing. “Do you think he’s mad at us?” You’re hardly able to get it out. Of course he was, but in his own odd way appreciated this adventure.

He comes back a moment later, his white t-shirt replaced with a pastel red one, an especially gory character printed on the front. and a red clip barely hanging on to one of the side pieces of hair in front of his face. You try to suppress a giggle at Billy’s messily put together look.

for the love of gosh- don’t actually laugh when he appears. he is very outside of his comfort zone, and he’s only doing this because he loves you and Stu, and just,, don’t add this to his list of reasons not to try new things.

whatever your reaction ends up being, you’re absolutely obligated to tell them how attractive they look in it(even Billy who looks hella dorky).

(my art)

The Lost Boys

the comparison between their dark, punk-ish style and then the sweet baby pinks and blues, and soft lavenders that adorned your form?? 

it’s just too sweet.

they are completely enamored by your style- even if certain vampires (and I’m not naming any names, but I definitely mean David) may not show his love for your look as openly

Marko- he’d get one cutesy patch for his jacket, so he has like a little piece of you everywhere he goes. also...he genuinely ended up really digging your style? but not enough to abandon his punk look completely. he is still totally dedicated to that.

the other boys will absolutely mess with him about the patch though

all in good fun!

David’s not letting you near his hair with any extra clips or accessories. 

Dwayne enjoys the quiet intimacy shared between the two of you. just sitting together, you might be styling his hair( super loose ponytail or braid- admit it, it would be so cute! and helpful so his hair isn’t always in his face!)...anyways, you’d use a colorful hair tie, and a few clips to help pin back his hair. 

he probably won’t go out with the clips in, but if it’s just the five of you at the cave? he’ll keep it in until it’s time to sleep. 

he loves seeing how happy and accomplished you look after finishing with his hair tho.

Paul is hands down the most likely to get into the whole look and go out in public with it on. 

makeup? hell yeah. it won’t be as intense as yours, and he probably only does the eyes and maybe some shine. sparkly vampire time

hair accessories? all of them

would try combining his look with yours, to have a perfect mess of it.

a light, light  blue mesh top, slightly darker blue jacket(with slight accents in pink, purple, white or black), and his usual sort of white jeans(?) would still look great with it. he’s absolutely rocking that look.

you are ecstatic to finally have someone else to share your passion with! (much harder to find similar folks when you’re a vampire,,)

Helen Lyle

she’s so used to the plain life around her, and she’d been living before you- you were such a breath of fresh air.

of course, you’re darling personality also drew her into you- but your fashion sense? it fascinated her.

she’s not trying it herself anytime soon, but she appreciates the fact that you enjoy it. 

the most she would ever try is a very natural makeup look. and a coat or two of a pastel color of her choice.

she would love watching you get ready. not so much help out though- she just likes seeing the way you approach things. how you choose to pair certain pieces with one another.

she’ll ask questions to better understand your interests! not that it’s weird or wrong that you’re into it, she’s just a very inquisitive person.

you’d wear a lot of blue though- because you know Helen likes that color.

imagine wearing coordinated looks for different events and such. so, when you go with Helen to help out with her Candyman thesis, you might wear candy-themed attire. (of course in this universe,, she wouldn’t die! so no worries of that! you get to keep you’re gf).

if you do gift her something, she keeps it on her bedside table(or dresser). so she can still admire it, and still serves a purpose. fun décor!

all around though- Helen would be very chill, but captivated, about you’re interests.

Daniel Robitaille - Candyman

 his life is so dark and gruesome, and he loves seeing you all dressed up. 

and while he’s dead- long dead- and isn’t really apart of the world in the same sense that you are- it gives him this happy sense of hope for the world.

because there’s this very small thing, that you hold close to your heart, that makes you smile.

Also!!

even if they’re apart of a super awful, traumatic, part of his past- the bees are just a part of the family now.  

so cute yellow/spring/bee themed outfits?? yes. ohh definitely, yes.

As for him dressing up? He’d feel hesitant.

he’s filled with immense joy around you, but is almost scared with someone altering part of his attire or self in any way(rooted back to, again, past stuff).

but part of loving is to take the person as a whole, bad parts, good parts- insecurities- the entire package. and trusting one another.

he has his whole faith in you not to do anything bad.

and so, it becomes a habit for the two of you to spend mornings together, chatting and getting ready. well, you’re getting ready, it’s more for the quality time together for him.

things are little different for Daniel. for many reasons. 

one, he has very short hair. so the clips don’t really work there..

two- he only has one hand, and he’s “working” a lot with the appendages he does have. rings won’t work out because they might fall off- and he’d hate to lose something of yours.

three- he’s not a big makeup fan. he’s happy enough watching you put it on.

and then for his actual attire- he needs the coat to cover his insides. it’s also, in a way, his uniform.

you’ve settled on two things.

making homemade necklaces that can easily hide under his big coat (either sweets or honey/bee themed).

and sewing little patterns on the inside of his coat. other’s wouldn’t be able to see it, but he would know it’s there.

Brahms Heelshire

imagine being super into sorta ‘sweet lolita’, pastel/soft colors, bows, the big skirts, all the sorta ruffles(?)

 and then especially if your shorter than Brahms(which is really,, not hard to do unless you’re insanely tall cause he’s,, 6 foot 3.)- and he thinks you look like such a doll? 

but like,, in a nice way. 

I think he’d get pretty excited if he got to help you set up your outfits!

especially if you praised him for picking out a good combo, or organizing correctly.

and some of Brahms movements are a bit awkward, he’s spent most of his life in the walls and the attic...but imagine turning on his music, and just dancing with him. having him twirl you in his arms a few times.

Brahms loves having your hands through his hair. and if hair accessories means he gets more of that love and attention? then yes,, yes he will wear them.

he just likes feeling taken care of, and along with your usual duties, you help him figure out the soft fashion styles, and how to make it more appealing and suitable for his own tastes.

because- as you insist- you want it to be something he enjoys just because he does, and not just for the closeness. though you can’t deny you love that aspect, too.

i can tell you one thing right here, though. you’re never getting makeup on him. he does not like taking off his mask, even if you’ve been in a relationship with him for a while, he still hides his face a lot.

you’d offered to do his makeup once, since he was staring so intently as you did yours. you’d made the mistake of reaching for his mask. you’d usually ask before doing so, but sometimes you’d slip up.

You apologize profusely, offering your arms out to him for a hug. “There, there, Brahms.” You smile, giving him a slight squeeze of affection. 

he does take your stuff sometimes. 

it’s a little annoying when you think you’ve lost your favorite accessory or dress or etc and then you just realize,, oh, it’s my favorite wall boy again. thank gosh you love him, so you’re not really upset or anything.

he just likes having little reminders of you, it gives him reassurance. upon other warm and fuzzy feelings.

if you’re able to find time in your day though, you’ll make cute little trinkets or bracelets for him. you’ll gift them or purposely leave them out for him-  so you’ll still have some of your stuff when it comes to getting ready the next day.

in short- he’d much rather look at you than partake on his own. 

Amanda Young

she’s never seen anything like this! :0

everyone she knows, herself included, tend to wear more dulled, plain clothes.

she’s immediately very intrigued by your attire...sort of want’s to try it, but is a bit self conscious and embarrassed to ask.

So!! you start out with small things, and fairly early on you both realize that she loves when you decorate her hair with accessories. 

gifting Amanda a pair of little pig clips!!

or little stud earrings- those would be fricking adorable on her!

and she’s just so happy,, wtf

you dress mostly for yourself, but the more you’re in a relationship with your gf- the more you want to dress for her as well. 

you can see this little sparkle in her eye when she sees you, and you want to keep seeing that look for as long as you can.

you slowly get her into it. your relationship and Amanda’s interest in your style just gives her so much light in an otherwise dim world.

if she did get into it, I think she’d do more creepy/cute. as a way to sort of cope with past trauma. that this sort of “bad” thing (the creepy) can still coexist with the good (the cute). she admires that quality.

just very sweet partners, who happen to love similar types of fashion 

[stargazedmoony]

Excerpt from a story I’ll never write: The ‘Outsider’.

With a slight frown between his eyebrows, Sirius turned in front of the mirror. Never in his life had he shown this much skin— how could he when his school uniform only consisted of long trousers? He was glad to be alone, because he was sure that if Peter had seen him like this, he would have laughed right in his face. The three other marauders had left him that morning; James and Peter were at the Quidditch Pitch and Remus was most likely to be found in the library, drowning in one of his beloved books.

Sirius was wearing a plaid skirt in shades of light and dark blue and a bit of white, topped by a simple plain black sweater that he had borrowed from James. The sweater was a little too big for him, because James was both taller and broader than he was. He tried to tuck the sweater into the skirt, but that made the skirt look rather distorted. He then tried to tuck it in only at the back, which looked a little better. At least the sweater looked less big that way.

He sighed, feeling out of place for doing what he was doing. It was Mary’s fault.

They first came up with the idea on a drunken Saturday night when the common room was throwing a party to celebrate the victory of winning the Quidditch game against Hufflepuff. Mary was wearing a sparkly red dress and Sirius made a comment about how he thought dresses and skirts seemed like the most comfortable thing in the world to him. Not only that, he also thought they were pretty too, for both girls and boys. He didn’t tell Mary this, but the angelic girl had probably figured it out, because she said: “I can lend you some, if you want? Oh, you would totally rock them, I just know it!”

Sirius had laughed off the comment, but when he woke up the following Sunday morning with a bit of headache and many vague memories of the night before, the memory with Mary was the only one he could clearly recall. He didn’t tell Moony where he was going that morning. The boy wanted him to stay in bed and cuddle, but Sirius went to find Mary and he found her in the Great Hall, already having breakfast with Lily and Marlene.

“Mary!” he called out. She gave him a threatening look. “You raise your voice at me like that one more time and I will make sure you—”

Marlene giggled. “She had too much to drink yesterday, don’t worry about it,” she interrupted Mary and told Sirius. Sirius laughed. He then lowered his voice. ‘Do you— uh, do you remember what we talked about yesterday?” he asked Mary. Marlene and Lily seemed to notice they weren’t invited to the conversation and turned to each other.

Mary shook her head slightly. “I don’t—” Then her tired eyes widened. “You really want to try?” she gasped. Her lips formed into a huge smile. Sirius pursed his lips together and nodded shyly. “If you’re okay with me burrowing your stuff?” he asked uncertainly. Mary put a hand over her mouth. “Oh, that’s so lovely! Of course!” she said happily. Lily and Marlene looked at them curiously, but Sirius ignored them. Mary lowered her voice again. “Come to my dorm room later, I think I have something that’ll fit you. Or we could always use some kind of spell for that.”

Sirius smiled at her. “Thanks, Mary!” he said. “I’ll see you in a bit, gotta get back to the dorm. Remus is—”

“—Missing you. Of course.” Mary giggled. “Honestly, if you two don’t get married, I’ll eat both my feet.”

Sirius raised an eyebrow, a playful smile on his lips. “You’re putting me in quite a dilemma right now,” he said, to which Mary laughed and slapped his arm. “Oh, get lost, you.”

And here he was. It had been a couple of days since Mary had given him some of her skirts. She’d also put some jewellery in the bag as well and some makeup products, but Sirius hadn’t quite figured out how to use them yet. He knew how to work with an eye pencil and he had managed to make his eyes pop a little more, but how on earth was he supposed to apply eyeshadow? He should definitely ask Mary this once he saw her again.

Sirius looked at the other two skirts he had tried on earlier. There was a long, dark red one, almost brownish. The colour was absolutely stunning and it reminded him of the Gryffindor colours, but the skirt fell slightly below his knee and he felt like it made him look shorter than he was. He had then tried on another short skirt, but it didn’t quite suit his body shape, or so he thought at least. It was a simple and plain, black skirt, a tight fit.

No, the blue one was his favourite. The colours sparked his eyes and it made his legs look long and elegant. He chuckled slightly at the sight of his leg hair. He could understand why girls would shave their legs to wear skirts, but honestly, it didn’t bother him that much. He didn’t think it would bother him if girls didn’t do it either. Everyone had body hair, after all.

He tried on a delicate white pearled chain. Cute, he thought as he stared at himself in the mirror. He didn’t think he looked girly at all. There was something about the outfit that made him feel light, but he couldn’t quite put his finger on it. Maybe it was all the free space between his legs or maybe it was the exciting atmosphere in the room that he could feel blazing up against his skin. He wasn’t sure how to feel— there was just something about this look. He had never quite understood the tumult around boys wearing skirts. Wasn’t everyone allowed to wear whatever they wanted? Who even came up with those kind of dress codes?

Sirius turned again to look at his legs from the back. He smiled. He looked good. Sure, it was a bit unusual to see himself like this, but Merlin, did it make him feel glorious! He had always been one to break the rules and live life to the fullest, but the thing here was that the disapproval of boys wearing skirts wasn’t supposed to be seen as some kind of rule to be broken. He wondered how much courage it would take of him to walk out the dorm room like this. A lot, he thought.

There was a soft knock on the door. “Shit,” Sirius muttered. He launched himself onto the bed, stuffing Mary’s things back in the bag she’d given to him. “Wait up!” he said loudly. “I’m changing!” He wasn’t quite ready for James or Peter to see him like this. Moony was different, but still— what if he scared him away?

“C’mon, it’s me,” a voice chuckled. Moony. “I’ve seen you change before. Why’s the door locked anyway?”

“No, wait, I—!”

“Alohomora.”

The door clicked open and Remus stepped in, his eyes looking across the room and landing on Sirius, who was still sitting on his bed, his legs pressed together and the skirt high up his thighs. “Bloody hell, Moony,” he said, rolling his eyes dramatically. “So much for privacy.”

“Oh, please, you big baby,” Remus chuckled. “We sleep together. You have no privacy anymore.” His eyes darted to Sirius’s bare legs and suddenly Sirius felt the heat rising to his cheeks. Never had he felt so exposed in front of his Moony before. “Oh, fuck’s sake,” he mumbled. He scratched the back of his head. “You were not supposed to see—”

“Are you wearing makeup?”

Sirius bit down his bottom lip, not knowing where to look. “Maybe,” he said.

“And the skirt— is it yours?”

“It’s, uh… no. But you weren’t supposed to—”

“You look beautiful.” Remus looked at him with a smile on his lips.

Sirius’s jaw dropped and he felt his face burning with embarrassment now. “Are you serious?” he asked breathlessly. He got up, straightening the fabric of the skirt and looking back in the mirror. Remus chuckled. “No, you’re Sirius,” he said playfully. “I am just one hell of a lucky boyfriend. What— what gave you this idea though? Or who did?

“Mary,” Sirius said and he turned around to look at Remus. “We were drunk and oh, well. She gave them to me to try them on. But I— I’m not so sure what to think yet.”

Remus smiled softly at him, eyes blazing with pride. He shuffled closer and wrapped his arms around Sirius’s waist, turning him back around to the mirror. “Well, how does it make you feel?” he asked.

Sirius looked from Remus’s face in the mirror back to his own body. His muscular but skinny legs, the black fabric of the sweater hugging his small hips in perfect harmony with his broad-looking shoulders. The pearls around his neck glittering white against the black sweater, his fingers encircled by several stainless steeled rings— never silver, because Remus couldn’t bear it. He was wearing his hair up in a bun, so that some of his piercings were sparkling in the dim light of the dorm room.

I still look like myself, he thought. I’m still Sirius. The small matter of him wearing a skirt didn’t change the fact that he was still the same person and still felt the same way as always, and suddenly he found that that was what he had been so afraid of; that he might lose a bit of himself in trying something that felt like such a big of a deal to everyone around him. And once he realized that, he found himself covered in happy chills all over his body.

It was never about everyone around him. He could handle them like he had handled his family all his life as well— being the outsider as he was to them, carrying the names ‘blood traitor’ and ‘black sheep of the family’ on his back. But they didn’t matter. It were his feelings in all of this that mattered.

A smile cracked around his lips as he said, a little surprised but in full honesty: “I’m comfortable.”

Remus started smiling too, looking at Sirius from tiptoe to face. He smiled his pearly white teeth with happiness for his boyfriend, who beamed in his arms. “Then that is it,” he said to the long-haired boy. “That is all that matters.”

Sirius nodded softly. He turned around to face Remus and kissed him on the lips. “Thank you,” he mumbled.

“For what?”

“For not turning away.”

“Turning away? Why would I ever do that?”

“Oh, you know. Not everyone is the same about boys in skirts.”

“Oh, my darling.” Remus wrapped his arms even tighter around Sirius’s figure. “Don’t you know how brave I think you are? You are redefining the ideal of masculinity. You are the future, Padfoot. And I would also like to remind you that your dear mother would absolutely kick your arse if she saw you like this.”

Sirius laughed out loud, the joy in the sound filling the room with happiness. “Now, that is all that matters,” he joked. Remus chuckled at this and locked their lips together once again. “And I can’t help,” he mumbled against Sirius’s lips, pushing him backwards onto the bed. “That it turns me on to see you like this.”

“Oh no,” Sirius pouted. “Is it too much skin for your hungry eyes?”

Remus let go of his shoulders to look him in the eye, his fingers running across Sirius’s thighs. “It’s not necessarily the skin that’s turning me on, Pads, nor is it the skirt,” he said, looking rather thoughtful. He fiddled with the fabric of Sirius’s sweater in between his fingers, feeling Sirius burning hot under his touch. “It’s your loyalty to being so true to yourself and… and it’s your confidence too. Sometimes I wish I could be brave like you, you know?” Remus blushed, looking down at Sirius with a look of affection and admiration. “But you do make me feel a little more brave just by letting me stand next to you.”

Sirius bit his bottom lip. “You know, you dazzle me when you talk like that,” he said, looking up to his Moony in awe. “I don’t think I’m half as brave as you think I am.”

Remus’s tongue flicked across his teeth as he bent over Sirius again, kissing the boy’s neck and leaving traces of passion and endearment. “Show me then,” he whispered in Sirius’s ear, having Sirius’s chest almost explode with butterflies. His hands found a way to Remus’s neck, pulling him closer, always pulling him closer and kissing him below his ear, saying: “Lock the door then.”

by: @stargazedmoony :)❥

[katyatalks]

Mob Psycho 100 - Kameda Yoshimichi’s Character Design Notes

With each blu-ray/DVD volume of MP100 Character Designer Kameda Yoshimichi gives some notes regarding his process designing each character. Here are all his notes for S1 in the order they are presented, regarding; Kageyama Shigeo, Reigen Arataka, Tsubomi, Dimple, Kurata Tome, Mezato Ichi, Hanazawa Teruki, Gouda Musashi, Kageyama Ritsu, Onigawara Tenga, Koyama, Awakening Lab Five, Terada, Matsuo, Sakurai, Ishiguro, Muraki.

KAGEYAMA SHIGEO

With Mob-kun, the first thing I had a bit of trouble with was - do I keep his design as it is in the manga!!??? Should I make him a little prettier!!!!!??? Should I make him taller!!!!??? Those were the kinds of things I thought about. During a meeting, we didn’t reach any conclusion, so I tried out a few things!!!! ONE-san’s recent designs for Mob Psycho 100 have been amazingly good, so I scooped up the taste of those illustrations and applied them to my anime designs. The atmosphere of the manga is lost if you make these characters too beautiful or make them taller, so I made the right choice!!

REIGEN ARATAKA

I feel I didn’t really struggle with Reigen’s anime design!!!! His suit is plain and there’s not many parts to his design, which was a little upsetting, but in terms of his character there’s no need to decorate him, so I thought that simple is fine. More than anything he pulls plenty of funny faces, so even if his design is simple he stands out as a character, so I think leaving his design as it is in the manga was the correct decision. In the manga, his tie is black, but here, to give a little extra to his design, his tie is pink - that’s a feature of the anime!!!!! Also, Something I particularly fussed over in the anime was the way he stands, with his hips cocked!!!! That’s the anime’s Reigen!!!!!

TSUBOMI

Fans of Mob Psycho 100 probably went, “Who the hell is this”, huh. (Laughs). A discussion was had in which I said I wanted to make her more heroine-like and sparkly - in the manga, she gives off the impression that she turns a lot of heads and puts on airs, but for the anime I thought it’d be good to make her into a more traditionally coded heroine!!!!!! From a directorial perspective I wanted to give her a country-girl-kinda look, so I gave her a hairpin. Regarding the colour of her hair and eyes, there was a lot of trial and error…... well, I think the way she is now is the most heroine-ish, isn’t it!!!!! She’s voiced by Satake-san, too, which is something symbolic!!!!!

DIMPLE

Dimple is a character that I had a good amount of trouble figuring out how to deal with design-wise - I’ll contrast him with Mob-kun, give him a flashy colour, then should I make him luminescent?? Have him slowly sway as he floats?? You could say Dimple’s facial expressions are the greatest in Mob Psycho 100, so I tried to draw as many variations in Dimple’s reference sheet as possible. Drawing expressions for this work was really fun! When I draw, I’m aware that I give distinct facial features!!! Well, not that distinct, but (laughs). Also, Ootsuka-san lending his nice, low voice to a character like Dimple gave the character depth, in a way that makes him quite profound. That’s the power of voice acting… but it made me a little worried, as I thought, I have to make sure the art lives up to his performance!!!!

KURATA TOME

Tome-san is a character that’s truly perfect as she is in the manga, so I tried to not ruin that! She has THE Mob Psycho face!!!! When I was choosing the colours for the school uniform, my decision was made based on how the colours suited her, Mezato and Tsubomi, but the bright blue in the uniform for some reason or another doesn’t suit Tome-san (laughs). The colour is lost a little on Tome-san. I thought Tome-san was quite a gloomy character, but her voice actress, Tanezaki-san, performs her in such a funny way that I ended up loving her! I think, out of all the characters, my view on her changed the most! “Tome Psycho 100” wouldn’t be a farfetched anime idea. 

MEZATO ICHI

I drew Mezato with the intention of making her the heroine!!! When drawing character sheets I draw any particular trait the character may have and then pose them and see what I think - the moment I drew her standing with her camera, I fell in love!! (Laughs). The round head she has due to the silhouette of her short bob - I love that!!!! Her caramel coloured hair also stands out in her design!! She’s fresh!! And her eyes are big and round!! In terms of what makes up her design she’s not too different to Tome-san, but I really felt a girlishness in Mezato!!!! My heart is racing!!! But she never appears!!! Director, please include her more!!!!!!!! Let’s make “Mezato Psycho 100”!!!

HANAZAWA TERUKI

[Written in Osakan dialect that gets more intense as it goes on]

Teru-kun is a character whose appearance changes a lot - I designed 6 variations of his hair and clothes!!!!! That’s way too many!!!!! I don’t know if the number has significance but we see him in his 150% form the most, so I’ve gotten used to seeing him like that!!!! It makes me laugh so much! I wasn’t satisfied - I made his hair extend so far that you can’t even see the top of it usually! In the anime you could say his hair is at 200%!! I can’t decide between the version of him we first see, his bobbed hair version or his short hair version. How can I!!!!! Let’s bring back his 150% hair!!!!!!! Wow, I’ve gone full Osaka dialect here. The colour of his sweater was decided to my taste. Director’s sole judgement was that it’s cute and resembles pyjamas.

GOUDA MUSASHI

As you’d expect, I really fussed over President Gouda of the Body Improvement Club as he’s a popular character!! His characteristics are his caterpillar-like sideburns and eyebrows, his soft mohican hair, and his brawny body. He’s unexpectedly hard to draw (laughs), I suppose I had trouble with him. Above all else The Body Improvement Club’s existence gives a sense of security within Mob Psycho 100 - they’re strong and brave, but it was pretty difficult trying to make sure their facial expressions weren’t too intense!!!!! Kumagawa, Sagawa, Yamamura, Shimura… these are characters who I’d love to delve deeper into!!

KAGEYAMA RITSU

I tried to make Ritsu-kun have more of an adult-like aura than Mob. He barely smiles, so he has an intense look in his eyes. I kept in mind that his eyes are only allowed to become soft when he’s with Mob. His irises are bigger than Mob’s own, so there’s a bit of a difference there. Also, he gets a mid-anime gloom story, so I decided to make his hair a little bit on the longer side. His hair is flexible - I’d make his bangs/fringe longer or shorter depending on his expression. When he’s possessed by Dimple he’s magnificent, using his powers as a weapon. His eyes become even more intense, his hair gets all ruffled up and spiky, and he’s overflowing with confidence. ONE-sensei’s manga have all become like that, too, actually!!!!! Ahahahaha!!!!!!!!

ONIGAWARA TENGA

With Onigawara and his three lackeys, I gave them baggy pants to try and up their rural-delinquent-trashiness factor. Onigawara’s anime features are his baggy pants and the tape he has on his cheek. It gives off the impression that he’s some king of the punks who’s always getting injured… but truth is, it’s probably just there to cover up a pimple (laughs). He’s in a situation where he’s bettering himself after the recorder incident, so perhaps the next time we see him he’ll have given up on those baggy pants and will wear the same clothes as everyone else!!!!!! Switching topics, what’s up with those two wrinkles he has under each eye?? Please enlighten us, ONE-sensei!!!!!!

KOYAMA

You know, since Mob and Reigen use flip phones I thought that was the standard for the Mob Psycho 100 universe, but then we have Koyama with his smartphone. Sakurai uses a flip phone, too. So, only Koyama has a smart phone? What videos does he watch on it? Which apps does he have installed… it’s a mystery… a mystery!!!! Please enlighten us, ONE-sensei!!!! Switching topics, I’m pleased with the unique aura that his special move, Telekinetic Helix, has. Mob, Teru, Ritsu, Claw… everyone has their own particular colours!!

AWAKENING LAB 

Hoshino-kun, Asahi-kun, Kurosaki-san, and the Shiratori brothers all have a sense of individuality, so I suppose it was easy to visualise what colours they might have!! For Hoshino-kun, the process was; Hoshino [star field] -> hoshi [star] -> star -> Nishikino Akira [A Japanese celebrity with a song titled ‘Passionate Star Disco’] -> white!! I thought, his clothes definitely have to be white (laughs). Kurosaki-san’s clothes are sporty but not particularly fashionable, Asahi-kun was designed with a ‘you’re almost there’ feeling, and the silent Shiratori brothers have plain clothes… it was with that that I decided the colours of these five, having them all be out of fashion. Episode 10 had Oda-san as its animation director - he drew a very good and cute Kurosaki-san!

TERADA

What stands out with Terada’s design is his T-shirt that droops below his left shoulder - is it a fashion statement, or is it simply worn out of shape? Who knows!! As something special to the anime, his middle fingers that present his special move, “air whip”, are adorned with jewelled rings! I’ll leave it up to you all to decide whether or not those rings have some hidden secret to them. Out of all the upper echelon members of Claw, Terada has the richest facial expressions -  plus, he’s voiced by Tachiki-san - so even when he’s undergoing water torture, despite the cruelty of the situation, he still comes across as good and charming!!!!!

MATSUO

Matsuo is monotone-ish in the manga, but, “I could give him a magician-ish feel?”. So now he has a dark green shirt with yellow lines. The vase he carries has a bunch of colourful stickers on it, so I tried to make sure Matsuo himself wasn’t too flashy or he and his vase would clash!! Candy-chan and Cookie-chan were also fun to draw!!!! Their colours are also good!!!!

SAKURAI

This simple, undecorated design is rather like him. I tried to make sure it didn’t look like he was wearing mourning clothes. I included red in the handle of his katana. I intended for his hair colour to be a natural, slightly dark brown… but looking at him on TV, it ended up being more of an unexpectedly lighter brown… Not my intention, lol. His slicked back hair was pretty hard to draw!!! The atmosphere of his design changes depending on how much of a forehead he’s given, the silhouette of his slicked back hair, and the application of highlights. Ah, this is unrelated, but me and his voice actor, Hosoya-san, are from the same area! We’re also similar in age, so I kinda feel an affinity toward him!!!!! You didn’t need to know that.

ISHIGURO

First off, I already knew that in the manga there’s an old man beneath that mask, so I gave him a hunched back! Following a request by the Director I made his boots plump, round, and cute!!!! With that, the woman’s voice that comes out of him with the mask on suits him!! You can really feel how cornered Ishiguro is during the season 1 finale, thanks to the power of his voice actor and the lead animator!!!!! It’s just, he has so many scars on his face that I felt sorry for him, so I want to find out more about him!!! I look forward to seeing him in an active role again!!!! ...Will he appear again, I wonder.

MURAKI

Muraki looks more like he’s in cosplay in the anime than he does in the manga (laughs). Following an idea from the director, I gave him a cloak and a mark on his chest that’s connected to the mark on his forehead!!! He’s even wearing boots!!! His design is all put together with purple in a fashion-conscious way!!! Anyway, it seems the director’s favourite colour is purple. Muraki, purple, muraki, murasaki[purple], director, murasaki[purple], muraki, purple. Something I fussed over with his suit beneath the cloak was giving it a gleaming lustre much like latex would have… makes you unsure of whether or not it’s a high quality suit. All in all, it costs 9800 yen!! A bargain price of 9800 yen! Now then, you there, sitting in front of the TV - together with the director, Let’s Muraki!!!!

--

Twitter crosspost here.

Season 2 notes here.

[themarvellouswriter]

MOB!SEBASTIAN x TALL!READER

PART ONE OF THE MASTERPIECE SERIES 

Warnings: Nothing that I can think of to be honest

Word Count: 1.8k

Genres: Mob!AU (Is this a genre?), mild fluff, slight slow-burn, some angst (or maybe a lot of angst)

Notes: Its my first official fic on Tumblr you guys, wish me luck! And happy reading! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“But Y/N, you promised!” “I’m sure you must have hallucinated my response. Why would I willingly promise to wear five inch heels to your bachelorette party?!” “Cause you’ve got killer legs and you always look good in heels,” pouted your best friend, Sofia, from where she was lounging on the sofa of your apartment. “I am perfectly fine wearing my very comfortable two inch ones.” “You always wear them! For me? Your only best friend, who’s getting married in a week?” You looked at Sofia’s puppy eyes and sighed. “Fine, I’ll wear them. But no dancing. I’m already a foot taller than everyone else, no need to add my ridiculous and non existent dancing skills to the mix.” “Deal!” She pressed an excited kiss to your cheek as she stood up and held up a brand new shoe box. “For my bestest and loyalest friend in the whole wide world!” Taking it from her you opened it slowly to reveal said pair of five inch heels. You had to admit, they were gorgeous. Delicate red laced straps and closed toes, just like how you liked them. You hid a smile. Sofia grinned. “I know you love them,” came her sing song voice from next to you. “Fine. Yes. Yes, I do love them.” “Lovely. Try them on!” You tried them on and stood up. Sofia squealed. “You look amazing!” You looked down at your feet and then met Sofia’s glowing smile with one of your own. “Yes, I do!” She pulled you into a tight hug, her head now barely reaching your shoulders.

Suddenly an alarm went off. “Oh, we’ll be late!” “No, you’ll be late. To your own party.” “Which you organized!” “Touché.” Sofia practically skipped into your bathroom to change her clothes. A few minutes later she stepped out wearing a sparkly champagne coloured dress with her six inch golden pumps. “Ta-da,” she said striking a pose.  “Very nice. Very Charlie’s Angels of you,” you complimented her, slowly clapping. She took a deep bow. “Thank you, thank you.” You went inside the bathroom and changed out of your clothes into a similar shimmery knee length red dress. You didn’t really like short dresses because the shorter the dress the more uncomfortable you felt. You looked at yourself in the mirror and gave a slight twirl. ‘Nice’. You walked to find the rest of the party crowding your apartment. All seven of members of your party had dressed to the nines in glitter and were wearing the colors of the rainbow. Sofia liked to keep things fairly small but wild. And for her you would do anything. When everyone finished putting the final touches to their outfits, you called your hired limo for the night and set off for the craziest night of your life.

After spending the entire evening trying to keep the girls mostly sober but slightly tipsy and having fun, you were tired. As much as you were used to wearing heels and towering over people, wearing five inch ones and keeping six giggly girls on their feet was not so much fun. You felt like mother trying to keep her screaming children from screaming louder. At the last stop for the party, you headed to a quiet and mostly empty pub so that they could sober up and not have hangovers the next day. There was another small and quiet party in the corner who appeared to having a meeting of some sort. Not paying much attention to them, you left the girls in a booth in the corner, then headed to the counter to order some light snacks and water bottles. As you waited, you idly stared at the clock behind the bar. 23:47.

Most of the girls were half asleep and the others, mainly Sofia, were playing with the napkins on their table. You felt someone approach you from behind. You stiffened. “Hey,” came a low, slightly gruff voice. You turned around to meet a pair of blue grey eyes. “May I help you?” You asked politely. “Yeah, I’m Sebastian and my friends over there forced me to ask you for your number.” “And?” “And I think you’re really pretty and I would really like your number.” At that moment your order arrived. You gave the man a quick once over. He was dressed extremely well in an expensive looking navy coloured suit and his hair were kind of long and slicked back. He had a soft smile on his face which gave him a sort of puppy look and his eyes were really nice. He had day old stubble which made him look older and very nice looking, not to mention kissable, lips. Your mouth twitched. “If I see you again, then I will. Because right now, my girls need me.” You tilted your head in Sofia’s direction and stood up and you were so much taller than him. He, Sebastian, wasn’t short by any means but right now you practically towered over him. ‘Darn it’. You walked away, face flush with embarrassment, towards your table. You kept your head down the entire meal and when the limo came to drop everyone off at their place, you were the first one in.

You liked being tall. Being tall was nice. Nothing was ever too much out of reach and although you never could have fun on the monkey bars, you liked it. But sometimes being so tall made you want to scream. Why was it that you were so much taller than everyone you were interested in? And not to mention the constant jabs from everyone who looked at you funny for wearing heels. Its not like you needed them, but you wanted them instead. You liked being tall but you often wished that you were small enough to be cuddled with and picked up and swung around in a lover’s arms. And ever so often you’d feel the need for being treated like a small and fragile human instead of a tall and imposing one.

You stayed mostly quiet the entire way under the guise of being exhausted when they girls looked at you questioningly. You smiled and reassured them that you were fine. But your mind kept going back to the ridiculously good looking guy who’d asked for your number and you’d turned him down. On retrospection, maybe he was more good looking now that you were miles away. You shrugged off thoughts about him as you finally got down and helped Sofia out. You paid and thanked the driver for his services and led her in. Sofia immediately collapsed on you bed. “That was the best bachelorette party ever. I had so much fun and by the looks of your night, you had fun too!” You laughed. “It was nothing. I’m glad you had fun.” “What about tall and cute and handsome at the pub? He seemed into you.” “Oh Sofia. You know me. I have extremely high standards. Most people don’t even come close to them,” you deflected easily, knowing that Sofia would never let it go if you told her that you had chosen her over some hot guy.

You changed into your pyjamas and then coerced Sofia into hers. She was staying with you for the night since it was nearly one in the morning. After what seemed like hours of her pouting and making faces and cries of ‘I’m too hyped to sleep! I’m getting married’, you finally managed to get her in bed. After tucking her in, you lounged in your balcony, propping your feet up on the railing and gazing up at the sky. You must’ve dozed off for a while because the next thing you know there were a couple of thuds coming in from the alleyway between the buildings opposite to yours. Several flashes of light followed by a short scream which was abruptly cut off.  Your curiosity got the better of you and you jumped to your feet, grabbed your phone and headed out to investigate.

Using the torch on your phone, you slowly walked towards it. Quietly you made your way inside. Two people were beating up your nice neighbour Veronica Martin, who always gave you a cupcake from her little bakery around the corner. Furious, you stepped into the light and let out an indignant yell, “Will you two jerks stop hitting her?! She’s done nothing wrong.” They gave you the once over and snorted. “This is none of your business, girlie. Run along now.” “Excuse me? If you don’t stop right this second, I’m going to call the police.” The shorter of the two stepped towards you threateningly. “Don’t make us do something you won’t like.” Veronica coughed from her place on the floor. “Leave me, its okay Y/N. I deserve this.”

You clenched your phone tighter and said, “Nobody deserves to get beaten up in the middle of the night.” “Get lost, punk. Or you’re next.” “Try me, egghead. I ain’t playing around.” “Alright, you asked for it.” The shorter one pulled out a blade and moved towards you. “Two years of college mixed martial arts, don’t fail me now,” you muttered to yourself as you ducked just as he swung his knife at you. Taking a step back, you kicked him the stomach and as he keeled over in pain, you snatched the knife from his limp fingers. “You wanna try this again, ugly?” You taunted the other one. You moved closer to Veronica’s prone form and held the blade threateningly. The other held his hands up in surrender. “Sorry, we’ll go now.” He made his way slowly to where his partner was groaning in pain. “Wait, before you go.” “Huh, wha-” And you punched him the face. “That was for hurting Veronica. Now scram.” The taller looked at you, his expression a mixture of offence and surprise as he gingerly touched his cheek. After making sure that they weren’t gonna come out and surprise you, you bent over Veronica and examined her. “Oh, V, you’re hurt so bad.” Her eyes fluttered as she looked up at you. “I’m calling the hospital.” As soon as they picked up, you gave instructions on where you both were. You cradled Veronica’s head and spoke soothingly. Her eyes widened suddenly, “Y/N watch out-” Something heavy hits you on the back of your head and the next thing you know is there is a dull throbbing at the base of your skull and then darkness.

[moonlightreal]

Fate Episode One

At long last, it’s tiiiiiime!

First: whitewashing bad.  Fact acknowledged.  Everybody else has said everything on the subject (ad nauseum...) so no reason to say it all again!

I’m diving in with questions.  The main one is “Will there be a good reason for Musa to be a mind fairy rather than a music fairy?” Dunno why that’s what I’m wondering the most, but it is.  There’s also “Is Fate!Stella truly an unholy union of Stella and Diaspro?” and “so what makes them fairies not witches/psychics/mutants?” and “So what’s up with Beatrix?  We know nothing about her, and as an Umineko fan I’m favorably disposed towards witches named Beatrice!” and also “They’re not really having sex are they?!”

I’m going to try and approach Fate just like I do every season of the cartoon, ready to celebrate the good, snark at the bad, enjoy many headcanons, reference random stuff, and have a good time.  Pretending I haven’t had my fannish heart nigh to broken by the state of the fandom and that I’m worried I’ll get hate for even posting this.  I’m’a try to start from zero to find my own answer the really big question… “Good, bad, or totally irredeemable?”

So… In which we discover a new world.

We start with… a night scene.  Not promising when “too dark can’t see” is one of my pet peeves!  An old fella comes out to check on his cute Irish sheep.  He passes through the barrier, into the dangerous forest beyond to look for a missing sheep.  Yup, he’s gonna be guest victim in the first five minutes.

Oh no!  Something has disemboweled a sheep and left it hanging in a tree!  Clearly there are leopards in the magical realm!

There is a great roar and an unseen but very large-sounding beast chases our poor shepherd!  The guy trips and falls just as he’s about to get through the barrier and is set upon and devoured by the unseen beast!  Blood spatters the rocks!

Opening! It’s the wings we’ve sen and some really beautiful music.  One point for the music.

Then a gorgeous flying shot of the outside of the barrier and Alfea. Whatever the plot turns out to be, the outdoor setting is beautiful. Music that seems to be both pop and edgy plays as we zoom in on the logo on the gate, and there’s Bloom coming in the gate.

And there’s Terra with her father and a tray full of plants.

And there’s Aisha walking by with her dreads

And there’s Stella taking a selfie with other students.

And there’s Musa leaning on her suitcase, headphones on, looking at her phone.  Another girl says something to Musa and she turns and replies and smiles.

And there’s one of the guys twirling a knife.  I’ve heard Sky starts out in a pink shirt so this must be Riven.  The camera comes back to Bloom as she gives him a doubtful look.  In the novelization she’s mentally labeling him an edgelord, and that kinda fits.  Any dude showing off his willingness to twirl weapons at a high school probably is best avoided—except the dudes here are training to fight so the weapons rules must be different.  I wonder if Bloom knows yet that dudes with swords are normal here.

Bloom gets a text to meet Stella at the gate.  She waits.

Camera pan to Sky talking to another guy.  Sky looks… Sky-ish.  Chris Evans style handsome, blond.  I’d’ve made him grow his hair to mimic cartoon Sky’s silly shaggy haircut, but points for making Sky look like Sky!  Minus points for not dying Riven maroon.  They could’ve made it work!

Sky is indeed wearing a pink shirt.  In the novelization Bloom thinks he’s wearing it “because gender roles were for the weak” which is a line I think is funny and intend to use in a story somewhere. There is no obvious hint in the show that Sky thinks gender roles are for the weak

Bloom’s tired of waiting.  She heads off.  Sky ditches his buddy to go meet her.  “Wow, you are so lost.  I’m impressed with your confidence in the face of complete ignorance.  Issue is, you’re overcomitted. You’re essentially running.  And now that I’m here you can’t possibly give me the satisfaction of turning around.”  he says, all in one go.  

I can’t decide if that’s jerkish or charming.  Maybe Bloom shares my weakness for men with accents because she decides on charming.

Bloom says she’s a fairy, giggles because that’s something she never thought she’d say, they’re standing in the courtyard of a college for fairies, Bloom’s from California, not the Otherworld.  So we get all that established.  Sky is kinda charming here and points out the specialists’ hall and fairy hall.

Sky: “I’d be happy to-”

Bloom: “Mansplain it?”  

So the writing team does know some modern issues!  Bloom says Sky seems like a mansplainer, which seems like quite a leap since she is new and he is helping her, in a friendly-sarcastic kind of way.  She’s giggling, clearly charmed.

Then Riven comes up, and he’s like a foot shorter than Sky, and Bloom escapes for some reason so maybe she wasn’t enjoying the conversation as much as it looked? Or maybe it was just the plot needs to move along.  Riven glomp-hugs Sky.  He’s got a great accent too.

Bloom must’ve left because she saw Stella, they say hello.  Bloom says she got impatient waiting and Stella says, “How very American of you”  So American stereotypes are known in magical worlds also?    

So, Stella!  Blonde, tall, zero Stella vibe.  Accent. Long pale coat and a satiny top with big chunky pendant.  She gets to her ring quick, “Portal ring, the only thing that keeps me sane in this place is the ability to leave it.  Your world may not always be thrilling but it beats this one.  There are seven realms in the Otherworld, each a different kind of boring.”  All spoken in a jaded monotone.  Ugh, what have they done to our Stella!

The girls walk inside while Stella speaks, the school is pale stone and arches and plants.  Other students are arriving, hauling suitcases, hugging.  At least some of them seem happy to be here!

Cut to the globe!  and it’s a magical globe, the water moves and there are lil sailing ships!  But the lands are totally blank, so it’s a cheap magic globe Dowling didn’t pay enough for the one with tiny forests too.  Alfea is in the realm of Solaria.

Maybe they shouldn’t have made Ireland = Solaria.  I’ve only been to England but we did not see the sun the whole trip!  Bloom’s in Dowling’s really cool office.  She spins the globe but the camera pans away before we see the names of the other realms.  Bloom’s talking nervously about seeing people updating their insta stories, expecting Tinkerbells, and the lack of wings.

Dowling: “We had wings in the past.  As we’ve evolved, transformation magic has been lost.  Tink was an air fairy, you’re a fire fairy.”

Dowling says classes tomorrow, learn to use magic slowly but safely… we establish Bloom is here to learn to control her magic so she can go home and not keen on ‘slow.’  Dowling says, ‘trust the process’ which immediately makes me mistrust her.

Then she gives a great lil speech: “Alfea’s graduates have ruled realms and led armies.  They have forged powerful relics and rediscovered long lost relics.  They shape the otherworld.”

But Bloom just wants to get done and go home.  She says, ‘I'm here because you promised you’d teach me control.” and Dowling says, ‘no, you’re here because you knew you have no other choice.” and Bloom looks betrayed.

Yeah Dowling’s sus.  

Next scene: Bloom showing her dorm to her parents over video call!  How does that work between dimensions?  Her folks look nothing like Mika and Vanessa, dad’s got a beard and silver temples, mom’s got big blonde curls.  Neither of them have burn injuries or the sort of freaked out vibe I’d expect from folks whose house was just on fire.

Roommate pan-around!  Terra puts potted plants everywhere!  Stella preens at the vanity! Musa headphones-and-laptop but smiles at Terra.  Aisha comes in with her laundry bag.

Bloom’s parents get suspicious about the timezone thing, they think Bloom’s in the Alps, and Aisha comes and covers for her saying it’s time for lights out.

Aisha intro!  She is wearing a pink and brown checkered dress that’s not super fashionable or flattering.  I like her blue braids though. Aisha does not seem to have the accent that many Alfeans have.

Bloom explains the “human parents, fairy daughter, I must be a throwback to an ancestor” thing.  Aisha looks dubious.  Then they mention Harry Potter!

Bloom; ‘Ravenclaw, sometimes Slytherin.’

Aisha; ‘Explains the lies then.  Gryffindor.’

Bloom: ‘Explains the judgment.’

Congrats, you both were jerks in three short lines. 9_9  But they’re smiling so I guess it’s friendly sniping.  

Bloom goes to see Stella, who’s holding up sparkly tops to herself. She’s also got this weird rainbow skirt that looks like gymnastics clothes not real clothes.  Stella’s changing for the party because people have already seen her in her clothes.  Bloom asks confused, ‘People expect you to wear multiple outfits?’ and Stella comes back with, ‘people expect me to care how I look.” In the same jaded monotone.

Before Bloom can WTF outta there like a sensible person Stella snaps her fingers and creates a ball of light.  Bloom gapes, but not nearly as much as I feel like she should.  The magic is beautiful, it’s all rainbowy and sparkly.  Bloom just hesitantly asks, ‘Can I ask, how exactly you..?” and Stella shuts her down with an almost kind, “I’m a mentor, not a tutor.”

But she does give a little infodump.  “Fairy magic is tied to emotion. God thoughts, bad, hatred, fear, the stronger the emotion the stronger the magic.”

And Bloom says, ‘Do you hate me or fear me?  You were looking at me when you did that.  And I’m pretty sure you don’t love me.” Smart cookie, Bloom!  Points to you!  We know it’s because Bloom was talking to sky, and that gives Stellla some emotions.

And points to Stella, she thaws out her voice and talks like a real person, ‘I don’t know you.  I’m sure once I do I’ll find something to love.”  She sounds rather doubtful about the last bit but yay actual emotion!

Then Stella goes over to Terra for her intro scene and I cringe because the novelization did Terra dirty and I’m not keen to see it on screen.  But it works ok.  Stella gently calls Terra on the number of houseplants and says the secret garden was better kept secret, Terra responds that wasn’t really the message of the book, Stella looks at her with amused patience and leaves Musa and Terra to continue the scene.  And I decide if there’s no infodump about how earth and the Otherworld relate to each other in this show I shall be cross.

Then Terra chatters on about her family and how she grew up at Alfea since her dad works here (she’s holding a 100% fake plant) and drops that Stella is a second year.  Musa asks why a second-year is in a first-year suite and Terra says it’s some administrative thing probably best not to mention.  But Terra totally knows the secret.

Musa’s eyes glow purple.  Magic!  But we don’t hear what she hears.  She starts putting her headphones on.  Terra goes on to say they should all not mention it to Stella, then interrupts another headphones-attempt to offer Musa a succulent, “They’re low maintainence, perfect for you, not that I really know you...’

Musa: ‘If I take it will you stop talking?”

Terra visibly deflates and Musa apologizes and grabs the succulent before finally getting to escape into music.

Aisha leans in to ask Terra if Alfea has a pool.  It has a river and Aisha’s been swimming—twice a day every day!  Terra says no pool, just the pond where the specialists train but nobody swims there, at least not on purpose.

And we immediately cut out to the pond, which looks pretty mucky, I wouldn’t want to swim there either!  Two specialists, a boy and a girl, are whacking away at each other with wooden swords on the shore.  They’re all dressed in black pants and tank tops, very Divergent movie poster except with the Alfea logo on the front. There’s a bunch of specialists training all around the pond and one does indeed knock their opponent in with a splash!  But we home in on Sky and Riven and I cannot get over how short and skinny Riven is compared to Sky!  And the fact that I’ve just been rewatching Lord of the Rings and Riven doesn’t look 100% not like Dominic Monaghan… sorry Riven’s actor, I’m sure in future episodes I’ll stop thinking you’re a hobbit!

Anyway, Riven’s teasing Sky about his crush on Bloom, says Sky always goes for the crazy ones and all redheads are crazy.  Sky puts Riven on the mat and Riven says he was getting high all summer and not practicing. Before Sky can give him a “big brother speech” on that riven skedaddled because here comes the teacher with a different speech!

This show’s Codatorta, whose name is Silva and who looks very irish and I like him, does a little speech about how y’all gotta train, singles out a black guy I think is Dane and says, ‘even you will be able to fight like him.” and attacks Sky, who fights back.  They spar for a minute.

Infodump: “Sky’s father was Andreas of Eraklyon, that makes him a legacy.” Also, some of these kids are from families of specialists and some were selected by Silva based on their talent for combat and weaponry. “This place will seem like hell until actual hell comes.  We are the first line of defense, a certainty when the future is uncertain!’

Then Dane snickers about the whole ‘school full of kids with swords’ and Silva says it must be nice to be so ‘soft’ he can make fun. And Dane drops that the barrier exists ‘to protect the school from Burned Ones.”

As he says it, we cut to Sky going out through the barrier to smoke.  

Burned ones are gone.  But Silva saw one when he was a kid.  His father shot it but was killed by the Burned One’s poison.  Burned Ones are inhumanly strong and fast, and have a terrible poison, or disease that kills people who get away.

Sky looks over and sees the shepherd’s body.  Yikes!

Cut to the staff arriving to look at the remains.  Just three: Dowling, Codatorta, and Terra’s dad.  Is that the whole staff?  Who teaches? Could’ve been a wolf or a bear… Terra’s dad collects some gunk from the body and I think calls it “char residue.”

Dowling says, “She killed all the Burned Ones.”

She? This world’s Marion/Daphne, likely.

But the adults clean it up so the kids can party!  Our girls are gathered around the food, and they’re better dressed!  Aisha’s got her hair up and a blue hoodie, Musa’s got a little red coat.  Terra has not been blessed by the fashion fairy, she’s in some overalls it looks like, not flattering.  Terra is saying hopefully that maybe the shepherd died of old age and Musa’s ‘Yeah, that old age decapitation” is gentle ribbing not cruel.  

Aisha’s loading up a stack of cookies, says how much she eats and, ‘If I didn’t swim I’d be massive.” it’s not aimed at Terra , but Terra flinches.  Aisha heads off and Terra says something that boils down to, ‘Musa, you’re tuning out me in particular.” which, Terra you’ve known Musa for what, six hours?  Way too short a time to take it personal.  Musa says, ‘It’s a me thing, it’s not you.” and Terra just flusters and heads away.  Musa looks troubled but not sure what to do and puts her headphones on.

This is SO much better than in the book.  Not perfect, all the interactions between the girls have been very weird as if they’ve been given a script full of cruel catty lines and instructed to say them in a kind way, but at least they’ve tried for the vibe of “trying to be nice to people we don’t know yet and flubbing it” rather than “we are all terrible people” like I feared.

Terra meets her dad and tries to go to the greenhouse with him but he makes her stay to enjoy the party.

Cut to some grownup dude—Dowling’s secretary? Apparently searching for something in a desk that I presume is outside the headmistress’ office.

Beatrix… or possibly a gothed-up Bloom… comes to see Dowling and when told the headmistress isn’t in says, ‘I’ll just take a water, room temp, thanks love.’ and then when the door opens Beatrix greets Dowling with a simpering ‘I'm your biggest fan, I’m obsessed with Alfea...” and cascading apologies for swearing, with more swearing. Dowling and her secretary are as confused by this as I am but Dowling says Beatrix can study the history of Alfea in the library if she wants to.  I assume this is evil Beatrix slyly getting permission to hit the books.  Is Beatrix even a student at Alfea?

Cut to Bloom’s notebook, she’s already started taking notes about powers being linked to emotions, love hate and fear.  Great initiative Bloom, but are there no textbooks you could be reading ahead in?  

We get dumped back to a flashback: Bloom’s mom wants her to go out on a Saturday night, to a party or a movie or whatever teen thing.  All Bloom wants to do is go to antique sales apparently.  Bloom doesn’t want to be a “basic bitch” like her mom and her mom doesn’t want her daughter to be a “weird loner.”

Pause while I urban dictionary “basic bitch.”  Huh.  Not a term I ever heard in my circle of nerds.  

Bloom and her mom are awful to each other.  Back in the present Bloom’s eyes flame up as she remembers.  She decides it’s time to go experiment!  Right now!  Before even one day of magic class or one page of a textbook!  The idiot ball has entered play.

Night has fallen because of course it has.  Bloom runs into Sky at the party.  But she’s not looking to party, she’s looking for a place to be alone outside.  Sky directs her to beyond the barrier, because we’re about to have Plot.  If it weren’t for Plot I‘m sure Sky could’ve suggested a specialist workout area inside the barrier. Sky says there might be wolves or bears or “maybe something much scarier” and Bloom catches the idiot ball and says, ‘But no people?  Perfect!”

Sky offers to go with her but Bloom says no thanks in a “I think you may be flirting and I may be down for that in the future just not right now.” kind of a way.  Good character interaction!  Except Stella grabs Sky for a chat once Bloom heads out to meet the Plot.

Sky and Stella have an opaque exchange that really just establishes they have a past of some sort that everyone knows about because everyone stares—or at least Stella thinks everyone is staring.  I’m starting to feel weirdly sorry for this Stella who has none of her namesake’s sparkle and confidence.  Why does she think all the realms are boring?  Is she ever enthusiastic?

...wait, it’s still day!  Why was it night inside??  This show is weird about lighting.  Gosh Ireland is beautiful!  Where’s this castle they got to be Alfea?  Can I go there?  This FOREST!  It is a fully magical forest.  Aisha is swimming in the river, with goggles and a cap but Bloom heads into the amazing forest.  Good music here too!  Forests and magic and music, come on Fate you CAN be a good show, I believe in you!  Just put down the idiot ball and step away...  Bloom goes through the barrier and outside it sees a swirl of orange and white sparkles in the air.  She watches it and laughs and then hikes through a little more forest.

Finding a clearing Bloom calls her fire.  At first she can’t, then she looks through the pictures on her phone looking for emotion. “Pictures of my sad teenage years are not happy thoughts.  Noted.” She says with an angsty little smile.  Then there’s a photo of the burned out house.  She zooms in and stares at it taking in all the details.  And we get flashbacks to the line of fire racing towards her parents’ bed.

Fire! Bloom turns her handful of fire this way and that, delighted, then tries for two hands.  This is the scene from the trailer, playing with fire.  Good music here.  And good that Bloom thought the magic was neat… uuuuntil she realizes she doesn’t know how to put it out.  She freaks out and waves her hands around trying to blow out the flames.

Aisha comes to the rescue and says dumb things like, “You’re losing control.” and “If you get angry at me...” and Bloom does get angry and throws lines of fire right at Aisha.  Who looks terrified. Sensibly, but also has she never seen fire magic before?  She grew up in a magic realm, does she know nothing about how to help someone get control?  Is control taught to magical babies so teenagers rarely see someone wigging out?  But if magic is emotion then everyone will lose control sometime since we all get upset.  How does an emotion=magic society function?

Anyway. aisha pulls water up from the ground and puts out the flames.

Inside Aisha gives Bloom what for about losing control.  Including, “Is that American for sorry I almost set you on fire?”  Srsly, this show is Irish people and Italians stealth throwing shade at Americans!  *Laughs in January 2021* Bloom retorts that she went away from people to experiment for just that reason, and tells Aisha about not having had fairy parents or any magical experience.

Aisha responds with the story of flooding her school including the toilets and having to wade through poo.  (I also tend to call it poo, after watching Mike Rowe.  I wonder if they watch Dirty Jobs in the Otherworld.)

And Bloom tells her story.  Bloom isn’t a cheerleader, she likes antiques and staying home by herself, so she and her mom don’t get along.  Her parents removed her door, which is awful!  And Bloom got flamey eyes and sent fire straight at her parents while they slept. While Bloom sat on her bed in a rage trance.  Understandable level of fury after that fight.  And Bloom feels awful, also understandable. And she snuck out to sleep in a creepy warehouse to protect her parents.  Her folks didn’t know it was her of course, they don’t know about magic.

Aisha says that beats her flood story, but Aisha is also wondering about something.  “You drew on a good deal of magic without even trying. it’s hard to believe you’re from a dormant bloodline.  Is there any chance you’re adopted?”

Bloom laughs.  Then says she heard the story of her birth a million times, she was a miracle baby diagnosed with a heart defect but then after birth her heart was fine.

Aisha: “Oh god, you’re a changeling!” … ‘It’s barbaric and it barely ever happens anymore….”

Bloom has had enough and just says, “why would you even tell me that?” and leaves.  Musa comes over and asks Aisha what she said.  Aisha: “The truth.  Because someone’s been lying to her.”

Cut to Dowling, lookin’ sus!

This changeling thing had better be fully explained later.  Why was it done in the past?  Why is it considered barbaric?  What happened to the parents’ real kid?  I assume she died of the heart condition, but that’s a bigole dangling bit of Plot.  In the unlikely event that Fate goes for many seasons that baby will turn up with magic too or as a specialist or something. 

Dowling pours tea.  Then she telekinetically locks her office door and opens a secret passage!  Dowling is sus.

Back at the party, where it again seems to be night.  Dane is leaning on a column hangin out when here comes Riven with a flask!  He offers, Dane says no thanks, Riven says, ‘There are two types of first-years: pussies and aspiring former pussies.” and pours the entire flask’s worth of booze into Dane’s cup anyway.

Dane says something about, “It feels like less a binary choice and more like a spectrum.”  And points for the actor delivering this line like it’s a sarcastic comment on social juscice-ness rather than the large sign saying “Dane is not straight!’ that the writers intended.  Dane drinks, makes a face, and Riven bullies him into drinking the rest, tipping the glass so Dane chokes.

Terra rides to the rescue, “Bullying the first-years?  Can you be more basic?” and Riven says Dane was into it which he wasn’t.

Terra: “Thinks he’s some badass but you should’ve seen him last year he was just a tragic nerd in disguise.”

Riven: “And she’s just three people in disguise.”

Dane does call Riven out on that bit of nastiness but Terra just does a great lil speech and strangles Riven with vines.  Thought I’d hate that but I kinda liked it.  Go Terra.  Then she introduces herself to Dane, says that wasn’t a great first impression but Dane says he’s about to make an impression by throwing up after a single drink, and Terra hurries him away presumably to the nurse.  

Bloom google-imaged changelings!  Lotsa woodcuts, someone’s fanart entitled “horror of fairy babies.’  There’s more nuance to it than that…  Bloom looks at a family photograph.

There’s Stella, coming to be sympathetic?  Nope, she’s coming to conivingly advance the plot!  “You know there’s no shame in that, wanting a normal life, wanting to be home...”

When the girls get back Bloom is nowhere to be found.  Musa mind-reads that Stella is wracked with guilt,  They put it together, Bloom was talking to Sky and now she’s gone.  Apparently Stella did something nasty to the last girl who talked to Sky.  Terra is kinda straight up badass.  Stella confesses, she kindly loaned Bloom the portal ring so she could go back to “the first world” but to use it Bloom has to go deep into the forest outside the barrier to a door in a graveyard.

Portal’s super low special effects, Bloom pushes open a door in a cemetary, the ring glows, and Bloom walks into what must be the warehouse she hid out in.

It’s very dark inside both buildings but away from the cemetary it seems to still be day so we can see a Burned One’s shadow coming towards the portal.  Day and night seem to depend on location in this show, and anywhere you need a monster it’s gonna be dark!  Bloom seems to leave the magic portal open and we see her step out on the warehouse into a weirdly well-lit night on earth.

Real actual nighttime on earth.  Bloom walks to her parents’ house and calls them from outside.  Her dad’s surprised she called twice in one day.  This call her folks seem just worried and nice, not awful like they were in the flashback.  Bloom cries.  She can’t ask her parents about the changeling thing.  Her mom says very kind, ‘Your path isn’t like mine or your father’s but I can’t wait to see who you become.”  Bloom hangs up and cries and watches her parents in their house, then walks back to the warehouse to return to Alfea.

But first we get to see where she was camping!  In a little office in the warehouse. She brought a lot of stuff, bedding and pictures for the walls and everything.  She opens a notebook and we see that she was experimenting already, discovered she was fireproof, wondered if she had superpowers.  Then she senses something and looks out through an interior window into the rest of the warehouse.

Yikes! it’s a Burned One!

Bloom staggers back, trips, and drops Stella’s ring down a grate in the floor.

Bloom’s never heard of Burned Ones at this point but she knows a monster when she sees one.  She cowers, back to the wall. The Burned One breaks through the window and tries to grab her!

Bloom escapes into some kind of tunnel, I guess she opened the grate that the ring fell through?  It’s not totally clear.  There’s the ring, on the other side of a different grate or screen, Bloom can’t reach it, there’s lots of roaring, Bloom runs like hell!

And there’s Dowling!  She says, ‘don’t stop now.’ and gestures Bloom through the door back to the cemetery.  The door closes behind her.  Terra, Musa and Aisha are waiting to make sure Bloom’s ok. Bloom says the Burned One got the ring.

Stella, meanwhile, is on Sky’s bed when he comes out of the shower! Dressed, at least.

Sky is not interested.  “You can’t be here, Stell.  If Silva finds out-’   Sky goes for his trousers but Stella comes over and snuggles up to his bare back.  Sky is still not keen.  Seems Stella dumped him then went silent all summer and now she’s jumping in since he talked to Bloom.  Stella… comes out and says, “I got jealous. I did something really stupid.”  and she says, “I can’t sleep in a room where everybody hates me.”   For sending Bloom into danger to get home when that’s what Bloom wanted?  Not great, Stella, but hateworthy?  Did the girls all tell her they hate her or does Stella just think she’s an awful person?  And is Stella actually desperately unhappy or is she just trying to get in Sky’s pants?  Not sure what to take away from this.  Sky hugs Stella and tells her she’s better than she thinks she is.  

The others get back to the dorm and Aisha reassures Bloom that Dowling can take care of the Burned One.

Cut to Beatrix leaving her raid on the library with armfuls of books. She passed Riven, who’s smoking.  They say flirty things and Beatrix says she’s been “snorting the midnight adderall” to show that she’s a bad girl.  Riven offers her a puff but her hands are full of books so they do this almost-kiss so Riven can blow smoke into her mouth.  Erotic, also gross.  Is that a real thing people do? Riven asks Beatrix if she’s a first-year and she says “I’m lots of things” and walks off leaving Riven and the room he’s in, which has the most gorgeous arched windows with trees in them.  Is this place real?  It’s the same place the party was but now it’s night and these windows are glowing green with tree outlines in them. This has gotta be something the filmmakers added.

Pajama scene in the girls’ suite, Terra waters plants, Musa hops in bed with headphones on.  Terra does a needy little wave.  Musa reluctantly un-headphones.  Terra offers a speaker she borrowed from her brother so Musa can have her music without shutting other people out.

And I cringe so hard because just let people tune you out if they want! Communicate by whiteboard!  People not wanting to share doesn’t mean they hate you, it means they have their own thoughts they’re busy with!  Come on Terra, be better than your novelization self!

Musa calls Terra out on her fake-happy bullshit.  Musa can feel all of Terra’s insecurities and anger.  Seems like maybe empaths shouldn’t have to share a room!  What’s the range on mind reading?  How did Musa hit 16 without learning to tune stuff out or going mad?  But Musa says, ‘but if you want to know how I really feel...” and switches her music to a speaker, it’s guitar-y and nice.

Up in Dowling’s office, Silva says she should’ve killed the Burned One not left it chained up and knocked out in a shack outside the barrier.  Dowling needs to investigate this Burned One, see if there are more of them.  Then Dowling spills that Bloom is a changeling, from the time the last Burned One disappeared.  And she says, “Rosalind kept so much from us.  I’m worried about the students. The Alfea they know is very different from the one we attended.”  There’s something very “there was a war before” about the two of them.  Dowling may not be sus after all, though that may make her a terrible headmistress depending on how the next episodes go.

Montage of sleeping students.  Terra and Dane are texting.  Dane accidentally likes one of Riven’s sexy photos.  Riven’s pleased.  Sky and Stella are sharing a bed but after the last scene I can’t imagine they actually did anything.  Sky seemed pretty unseduceable.  

And outside a Mysterious Cloaked Figure passes through the barricade, finds the Burned One in the hut, and zaps it awake with lightning. It pushed back its hood… Beatrix!  So if she undid her too-tight braids she’d be Stormy?  So is Beatrix the villain?  I mean obviously she’s a villain but the threat of the Burned Ones feels... bigger than one teenager in Bratz clothes who has not got the presence of even one Trix much less all three wrapped up together.  But anyway she’ gets to be a doomful cloaked figure at the end of episode one.

Very pretty ending credits music. Listened to it several times.  I can’t understand the lyrics which is probably just as well.  Is it in irish or is it just sung in a way to not have clear lyrics?  C’mon fate, Irishness is a big thing you’ve got going for you, please milk it for all its worth!

I… I LIKED it!  Now my friends say future episodes get worse so I can’t get my hopes too high but this wasn’t awful.  None of the girls really had any vibe of their characters, only Bloom and Sky really look like Bloom and Sky.  The worldbuilding is lacking, I’m left with more questions than answers.

And oh god one episode was ten pages and about five hours.  I… I meant to do this with every episode but I’m not sure I can.  There’s so much to comment on it takes forever.  Maybe I’ll do each one in parts.  Or maybe I’ll abandon the writing and just watch the show like a normal person.  It’s a lot of fun to fine-toothed comb each scene but I’m’a be here forever!

[oddeyecadia]

what if it’s us? (ch. 2)

a/n: okay so i didn’t notice i put “dorm” instead of “apartment” in the first chapter. my mistake. pidge lives in an apartment.

also posted on ao3 | ch. 1

Tired. Pidge was feeling extra tired today. So tired that it wasn't even a feeling for her anymore, it was her whole existence. Her eyes felt heavy, head spinning slightly. She had pulled several all nighters this week to work on papers and review for the upcoming finals. All nighters were her thing, she was used to it, the girl never slept. But everyone had their limits, and Pidge just reached hers.

"You should rest, Pidge. You look exhausted." The girl on the desk said.

Pidge responded, leaning her arms on the desk. "It's fine, Allura. I look like this everyday."

That made her co librarian giggle. Allura's smile was just so pretty. Wait, no, her whole being was pretty. No doubt, anyone who'd meet this woman for the first time would immediately fall in love with her and her beautiful dark skin, soft voice, long dyed white hair, and sparkly blue eyes. They weren't as sickeningly blue as Lance's though–

Shit. Not again. This was approximately the fifteenth time Lance just randomly popped out of her mind. Why was everything always had to be about that loud mouth? Stupid tired mind, stupid soulmate.

"I am truly sorry for not being able to help you these past few weeks. I'll make it up to you. I shall take shelf duties tomorrow if that's to your liking."

Ignoring the fact how, as always, Allura talked like one of those professionally written royal proclamations in old movies, Pidge responded with a thankful smile. "That'd be great. How's your foot though? Are you sure it's okay for you to move around?"

Allura and Pidge started working at one of their college libraries a couple months back for they were both part of a placement program for the Computer Science and Literature students that Altea University had. Pidge was originally placed at the tech desk, though that station wasn't very active in that particular college library so they just decided to also give her normal library duties along with Allura.

After their first week however, Allura had to take a few days off because of a terrible, heartbreaking accident– she fell off the stairs when she tried to run in heels, trying to prove to her friends that Cinderella's sonic run on the castle's massive stairs away from the Prince was impossible. She proved her point well. –that caused major injury on her left foot. The poor girl was supposed to let it rest for a month, and she did but she was still in the healing process, Pidge didn't want to let her do tasks that required a lot of walking on her first day back.

"Don't worry, it's alright now. Though I still need to keep the bandages for a couple more weeks, my doctor said that it would be best for me to do leg and feet activities and exercises."

Pidge tried to look at Allura's foot just to check and failed miserably for it was impossible to see with this huge desk in the way. "Okay. Shelf duties is yours tomorrow then."

"Splendid!" Allura said cheerfully. "So, anything interesting happened while I was gone?"

Pidge's expression immediately fell at the question. "Oh I have a lot to tell–"

"Pidge!" Speaking of.

"Lance." She said stoicly to the tall guy that just entered the library, carrying what seemed to be an old laptop.

"Oh thank God. Help me." He quickly slammed the laptop on the desk. "I think I accidentally put virus in– Well, hello there." His paniced expression was immediately replaced by a cheeky, suave look with that toothy grin of his as soon as his eyes fell on Allura. The shorter girl rolled her eyes. Typical Lance.

Pidge couldn't help but chuckle when Allura only responded by giving him a confused, uncomfortable look. "Allura, this is Lance. Don't worry, he's not as creepy as he looks."

"Uhm? Ouch."

"A friend of yours?"

"Unfortunately, yeah." The short haired answered, completely unaware of how fond she sounded.

"I'm going to pretend I didn't hear that." Lance turned to Allura with a flirty smirk. "So uh, you come here often?"

"I work here, as you can see."

Covering her mouth, Pidge tried her hardest not to burst out laughing. No wonder this boy was single. Using her other hand, she tugged on Lance's jacket. "You're such a flop. Let's go, lover boy, we're blocking the desk."

With a heated face, Lance took his laptop with him and let himself get pulled by his small friend.

"Okay. Back to my laptop." He said, a little aggressively, trying to take his own and Pidge's attention away from what just happened as he sat on a random table that was fairly far from the main desk. "Can you check if there's any virus or something? It kept crashing after I connected one of my group mates' usb in here."

Finally clearing her throat to end her non stop giggling, she then spoke. "Let me see." Pidge sat beside him, moving the laptop a little to face her. She hissed, her vision blurring slightly at the screen's blinding light. She literally felt like her eyeballs were about to fall off. "God, turn down the brightness." And she did with a few clicks. It was kind of ironic how her world revolved around computers yet it was also the one that just caused her pain. Technically, it was the lack of sleep but she lived for the ironies.

"You okay?" Lance asked in a very worried tone with the sincerest concerned look that made her heart skip a bit.

"Yeah." She said, trying to focus on examining the files and whatnot in his computer.

His eyebrows furrowed as he continued staring at her, slowly noticing the little things that clearly didn't scream I'm okay, like how extra pale she looked and how the bags under her eyes seemed to be darker than normal. "Oh really?"

"Yes, Lance. I'm perfectly fin–" The boy placed his forehead on hers. "W-What are you doing?"

Her body froze but her face heated up. Shit. Shit. Shit. Pidge thought. Just when she thought the situation couldn't get more embarrassing, she heard a student quote. "What the fuck? Is that allowed?"

Suddenly she wasn't as pale anymore. Lance placed his hand on the back of her head for steadiness. Closing his eyes, he let out a thinking hum, as if he was focusing on whatever he was doing. She felt his breath touching her face, sending shivers down her tiny body. Their faces were so close that she could then see the little freckles on his nose and cheeks. She didn't even know he had those. They were cute. He smelled really nice too.

Before she could even continue her observation and borderline creepy thoughts, Lance finally pulled away.

In her flustered state, she asked. "W-What the fuck was that?"

"You're kinda warm. But not too intense. Though, I can tell you're not feeling well."

"Who in the world checks someone's temperature like that?"

"Me and my whole family. Now, shush. How many hours have you slept last night?"

She scoffed nervously. "Mind your own sleep schedule, McClain."

That was all the reaction he needed. "Pidge, you need rest."

"Why does everyone keep saying that?"

"Because you can literally apply as a walking dead extra right now and they'll hire you on the spot. And because you do need rest. Which is why Hunk and I will be going to your place tomorrow night."

Her mind blanked for a moment. A few minutes ago he was just trying to mess with her heart with his unique method of feeling one's temperature, now he wanted to go to her place? "... What? You don't even know where I–"

"You'll take us there of course. You live in an apartment near the campus right? It'll be perfect. Hunk and I would always do something fun on fridays. It's kind of like our rest day. Y'know, away from all the stress and schoolworks. Which you really need right now."

Unbelievable. "No. Lance, I have a shit ton of projects and papers to do."

He shrugged. "So do we. Do you have anything to pass on saturday or sunday?"

"No. But–"

"Great. Take a break with us then. We can watch a movie or play videogames, anything that isn't studying."

"How is that going to help me rest? I–" A groan.

Sighing in defeat, she looked back at his laptop and started updating his anti virus.

Tired. Pidge was too tired to argue and tired enough to deserve a break. She knew it was over once the word videogames came out of his mouth. A little break from school didn't sound that bad too. "Fine." She said unenthusiastically, though deep inside that little body of hers, there was definitely excitement.

Either she was excited about the video games or hanging out with Lance. She hoped it wasn't the latter.

Little did she know that a certain tan skinned boy was ten times more excited than her.

"Your laptop doesn't have any virus, by the way. But you have too many files, that's why it keeps crashing. Seriously, you should get a new hard drive or something. And delete some files that you don't need, you have too many selfies here."

Lance screeched so high it hurt everyone's eardrums. Thou shall not see his unflattering photo booth selfies. "Hey!" Grabbing his laptop from her, he pouted. "You'll never know when I need them."

It was when a few shushes reached him that he once again was reminded of where he was. He was about to apologize when he felt his phone vibrate in his pocket. Reading the text, he cussed. "Shit. Hunk texted, I'm late for practice."

The girl beside her raised a brow. "Hunk's in the dance team?"

"Nah, he just likes watching Shay. I'll see you tomorrow, Pidge!"

Lance then stood up and walked away.

Oh no, wait, he came back. "Oops. Almost, forgot." He grabbed his laptop. "Thanks for this by the way. Bye!" And he was gone.

With a fond smile on her lips, Pidge thought. What a dork. ___

It was about 8:30 PM when Pidge came back to her apartment. She was about to go back to stressing her mind out thinking about school works when the smell of burgers hit her nose as she entered the apartment, making her stomach rumble. Lazily dropping her bag on the couch, she then walked to the kitchen. To her surprise, her roommate was cooking rather than preparing some left overs or take outs like they'd usually do.

His mullet was tied in a small ponytail to avoid pieces of his thick raven hair from covering his face and burning the whole kitchen down again. Long story. "Whatcha cooking?" Pidge asked, leaning her side on their kitchen glass door.

He gave her a quick glance before answering. "Some instant patties I found in the fridge. Have you eaten yet?"

"Nope. Nice scrunchy."

"You gave it to me for my birthday."

"That's why it's nice because I picked it. Red suits you." He could already see the smirk on her face without looking.

"You bought it because you'd literally buy everything that you could make a Heathers reference with."

"Oh, but you loved the movie, Keith. Don't lie."

Saying that Keith and Pidge were best friends would be an understatement. The two didn't immediately get along when they first met at their school's conspiracy club, they went through a whole lot of disagreements and fights. Now, one couldn't even live without the other. No one would've thought that the two most socially inept kids would be this close, but here they were.

Keith was a couple years older than Pidge though, they were the same grade, thanks to her above average intelligence. Thus, they graduated together both with honors, Pidge being their class valedictorian. The two went to different universities but decided to share an apartment for their unis were fairly near each other, they thought it'd be much more convenient if they'd just share an apartment rather than paying a shit ton for a dorm –for it wasn't really part of their scholarship– and force their anti social asses to interact with a random stranger they'd call a roommate. Plus, none of them would admit it but they didn't really want to spend college, or the rest of their lives, without each other.

"By the way," Pidge started, sitting down by their kitchen table as Keith finished preparing their dinner. He took a seat across her. "Matt's visiting next week."

"Oh." She didn't miss the way his body flinched.

"Oh?"

"That's... nice." Keith did a good job keeping a straight face but still failed to hide his emotions for there were tints of pink appearing on his cheeks and ears.

"Try harder." She blurted out. He took a bite of his pattie, violet like eyes avoiding her gaze.

Laughing lightly, she added "Also, a couple of my friends are coming over tomorrow. Get your headphones ready, one of them is obnoxiously loud."

He chuckled teasingly. "You have friends?"

"The fuck do you call yourself then?"

"The JD to your Veronica."

"You know we could be JD and Veronica but you're gay."

Shrugging, he responded. "Yeah, but we're still–"

Keith was then interrupted by the sound of her fork dropping. He was about to ask Pidge if she was okay when she suddenly bent down to grab her left foot, letting out a strangled yelp and startling her best friend. He immediately rushed to her side. "Pidge, what happened!?"

"M-My ankle. It hurts, I-I can't– ah!" Another shot of pain, now in her whole foot, interrupted her panicked explanation. Her ankle and foot throbbed as if the muscles there were twisting roughly by themselves. The worst part was she couldn't remember what caused this. She didn't hit her foot anywhere, she was just eating peacefully when she suddenly felt like something on her ankle popped.

"Shit, what did you do?" Keith asked with obvious concern and panic in his voice.

"I don't know! It just happened!"

"It's probably your fucking soulmate then."

For a moment, the girl was distracted from the pain as she let Keith's words enter her head. A word stood out.

Soulmate.

"Keith, get my phone." He obliged without questioning and gave her the device laying on the table. Once she had it, she quickly searched for a certain lanky boy's number and pressed call.

She waited for about ten seconds before finally losing patience and called Hunk instead. He answered after the second ring. "Pidge!" He said rather joyfully for some reason.

"Hunk!"

"Ah, great timing. Are you okay?" "Is Lance okay?" They spoke at the same time.

A pause.

A realization.

"Oh that's some good evidence right there." Hunk broke the silence.

"What happened to him?"

"The dance team were doing this really dangerous stunt, Lance was a flyer and uh, it happened too fast, I didn't really see but something went wrong with their formation, Lance landed on the wrong foot and might've sprained his ankle." Pidge barely understood what he said for he sounded very shakey and out of breath.

She winced, now feeling the pain spiraling across half of her leg. Keith stayed by her side the whole time. "Where is he now?"

"His team is taking him to the infirmary. I can't catch up cus I hate running and I have his bag but we're on our way."

"Hurry up then! It hurts like hell."

"Okay, okay. At least you got the big evidence you needed right?"

The thought of telling Lance about the whole soulmate thing made her groan and end the call. She felt more worried about him than anything else, however.

She remembered her mother saying that people could only feel 80% of their soulmate's pain. If she was hurt, she couldn't even imagine how much more painful it was for him.

"Lance?..." Pidge heard Keith say. "I hope you're not referring to McClain."

With widened eyes and apparently a sprained ankle, she asked. "You know him?"

"Oh, I do." A horrified expression then formed on his face. "Fuck, don't tell me– is he your?..."

Oh she had a lot to tell him.

___

Rubbing her feet together under the main desk, Pidge clicked her tongue in annoyance, dissatisfied with how she couldn't scratch an itch on her "injured" foot. She really couldn't do anything to ease it for it was beneath her converse, sailor moon socks, and the bandage that Keith forced her to put around her ankle. He was no expert but unlike Pidge, he paid attention to that one basic first aid lesson they had in high school.

Her foot didn't hurt that much anymore, thankfully. It took approximately ten hours for the pain to finally fade enough so that she could walk properly without limping, although her ankle would still feel some tenderness when touched. She thought perhaps it was only a mild sprain. Keith suggested it'd be better if she kept the bandage for a couple more weeks though, just to make sure.

"It'll be helpful to your dumbass soulmate too since they say people's injury would heal faster if their soulmate would also take care of it from their side." She remembered the dark eyed saying while wrapping the thick cloth around her lower foot and ankle.

Keith had been bad mouthing her soulmate since he started giving her multiple random bruises on various parts of her body almost every week when they started college. It was pretty understandable now that she knew her soulmate was on a dance team. Keith was still salty though. It became worse when she told him about who her soulmate was.

Keith was a member of Daibazal University's basketball team. They frequently had matches with Altea and both university's dance team would sometimes do opening performances for said matches. Apparently, Keith and Lance met in one of those matches, in the most unpleasant way that was.

Keith told Pidge about how Lance was so hyped on his seat one time, cheering loudly for Altea and booing too aggressively whenever Daibazal would get a point. His friends were telling him to shut up for once the referee heard him, Altea could lose a point because of the team's audience misbehaviour. He wasn't listening though and Keith just happened to pass by the bench –his coach called for him to rest, for he clearly was exhausted, and let the sub play– causing him to hear the dancer's borderline disrespectful chants. Keith politely asked Lance to turn his voice down or the referee would hear him but the boy was just so hyped that instead of just saying no, he even tried to start a fight. Thankfully, the other members of Altea's dance team were there and Keith wanted to save his energy and adrenaline for the game.

Needless to say, Lance didn't leave a very good first impression on her best friend.

Fortunately, Keith texted her earlier that he would be staying at his calculus partner's dorm to finish a project. Who knew what he would do if he met Lance at their apartment later. He was already in a bad mood when she told him Lance was one of the friends that'd come over at their place tonight. Keith obviously didn't want her alone with the boy. And if she'd be honest, Pidge didn't want that too. She didn't think her heart could take it, having to be alone with her soulmate.

Why? She wasn't sure. But he made her... feel things. Pidge didn't like it when she would feel things before she even knew what the feeling was.

Thankfully, Hunk would also be there.

"Pidge! You ready to go?" The obnoxious legend had entered the library once again with a bright smile.

She shushed him stoicly and waited for a certain food enthusiast to follow. He didn't appear. "Where's Hunk?"

"Oh. He said he couldn't come cause he wasn't feeling well for some reason. Didn't he text you?"

The smaller brunette gave him a confused look before looking at her phone which was on silent. A message from Hunk.

1/2 team punk (6:35 PM): I can't come *cough* *cough* I'm sick 😷

1/2 team punk (6:36 PM): Have fun with Lance tho 😉

She was going to kill him.

Hug him to death rather, because he was still a soft devil and she loved him.

boo u hor :(((

Pidge managed to reply and complete his mean girls reference with composure.

Great. She was stuck with Lance. For the whole night. It confused her how the thought of being alone with him could make her heart pound on her chest like crazy. Before she could even complain, he spoke again.

"Looks like it's just you and me, Pidge."

Something in her stomach fluttered.

"Pidge?" Said girl turned to see Allura approaching the desk. "Do we suppose have any Environmental Science books left?"

Pidge made a quick check on the library computer– which brightness she turned down earlier as to not mess with her tired eyes once again –ignoring how Lance tried to greet her co librarian in the lamest, most flirtatious way possible. Allura only responded with a blank hello.

"We have three copies but only one haven't been borrowed. I don't know where it is though?"

"I'll go take a look. Perhaps it had been misplaced." The older librarian then glanced at Lance before giving Pidge an assuring smile. "If I'm not mistaken, you guys have some plans for tonight, right? You should go ahead. It is almost the end of our shift anyways. I got this."

A blink "You sure?"

"Of course."

She smiled back, feeling absolutely grateful for the angel. "Thanks, Allura."

Hanging her huge black and orange backpack on her slim shoulders, Pidge then stood up and turned her attention to Lance. She was about to ask him if he was ready to go but paused when she noticed him staring at Allura who was walking away. He wore this almost bewitched but thoughtful expression, as if he was internally solving an unknown puzzle, as he looked at her from head to toe. However, Pidge didn't miss how his eyes lingered more downwards.

"If you're staring at her ass, I swear I'll poke your eyes out." Pidge stated irritatingly. It was making her sick morally and emotionally. Mostly, emotionally. Why? Again, she wasn't sure.

"I wasn't! I–"

"Yeah, yeah. Let's go." Instead of just going around the desk like a normal person would, Pidge hopped with her right foot, used her arms for support, and went over it. Their head librarian would kill her if she saw that. The strict old lady was on a vacation though, she thanked the universe.

She felt a light throb on her injured foot when she landed, however. It didn't hurt that much but it was there, making her bite her lower lip to prevent herself from reacting.

A wince.

It wasn't Pidge.

"Shit, this foot is killing me." Said Lance.

Oh. She forgot about that. Why she had the "injury" in the first place.

Lance was wearing blue flip flops, making the bandage around his lower left foot and ankle –that was very, yet more professionally done, similar to hers– stand out. Trying to play innocent, Pidge stared at it and asked "W-What happened to your foot?" The concern in her voice was far less from an act.

A light laugh escaped him before responding. "Stunt went wrong, basically. I hope my soulmate is okay."

That last sentence made her stiff slightly. He really did care about his soulmate, didn't he? Technically it was Pidge but he didn't know that. She convinced herself that he only cared about the soulmate that he created in his mind, not Pidge.

"That looks painful." It hurt a lot, actually. She thought. "You sure you can walk? My apartment's a few blocks away."

"Aww, Pidge, you do care."

"I'm leaving you–"

"I mean, yeah! I can totally walk, this is just a mild sprain, no big deal. Let's go!"

The two finally left the library but once they exit the building, Pidge got another text from Hunk that would surely mess with her mind up for the rest of the night.

1/2 team punk (6:45 PM): Btw, please tell me you're going to use this opportunity to tell Lance that you guys are soulmates? I purposely missed a hangout friday to give you this chance! 😩

[dark128]

KNOCKOUT - chapter 10 (part 1)

Warning for mentions of assault/sexual assault.

Thank you for reading!!! 

Bo almost loses her “hat” as she tips her head to inspect her feet. She should have gone with the black shoes, she thinks, performing a Dorothy knock to her heels before wrinkling her nose. 

“Crap.”

The people lined up ahead move forward and there’s a confusing atmosphere in the shadows before blinding lights, a muddle of excitement and almost paralysing nerves. Bo dutifully follows the person in front, noting that this form of conga line is dramatically different than the one she was forced into at her cousin’s wedding. 

Bo’s never been under so much instruction before, follow me, sit here, stand up, clap, shake hands. And she’s reminded of this when beckoned forward by a man with worry lines patterned in waves across his forehead. There’s a trickle of sweat running just past his temple, and all it does is remind Bo of the layers of dark fabric currently draped over her feverous body. 

Her name is scratched out a little aggressively from the list pinned to his clipboard and he gives her a serious looking nod to the side. 

“Go.”

Fingers trail down the deep, red velvet curtains separating the audience from the hordes of achievers. She takes a customary deep breath. It’s with apprehensive steps and a nauseating roll to her stomach that Bo’s name is called and she takes to the stage, one glittery heel at a time. 

Please don’t trip. Please don’t fall and embarrass yourself.

Her heart is thundering like a summer storm, she feels the pressure of it through her tight dress and the damp palms she wipes on her robes that skirt the wooden stage. Bo doesn’t dare look out to the audience, just focusing ahead where the chancellor is offering a smile and a hand to shake. 

Bo’s head shoots up at the echoing whistles and overly enthusiastic clapping. Seated on the next level up are two people she recognises and one more person who she distinctly remembers said they couldn’t make it. Bo had been anguished but respectful at the time, telling them not to worry about it. How could she demand attendance from someone she exchanged infrequent texts with and birthday phone calls twice a year. 

Her mum flashes a camera and even with the distance Bo can tell she already has tears tracking her cheeks. Aunt Grace is faring a little better, although the wild clapping has Bo thinking that over displays of emotion are a family trait. They’re both in eye-catching floral dresses, a bright addition to the occasion compared to Bo’s compulsory dark coloured ensemble. 

She gives a small wave, descending the steps from the stage with one hand gripping her degree and the other clinging to the rail. Harry’s grinning as he lowers his hands from his mouth. 

There’s no time to assess his appearance, her heart slamming her ribcage, but Bo can tell just from the fleeting glance she gets that there’s no longer hair tumbling past his shoulders.

She sits through the ceremony for another two subjects, politely clapping with an impatient bobbing of her knee. It’s far too warm in the old venue, and Bo prays that someone will turn on the air conditioning or open a damn window somewhere. The few times she’s glanced up to the circle seats above, she’s caught a watery smile from her mum. Her aunt applauds every graduate with an enthusiasm not seen anywhere else in the audience. Before the ceremony, she’d grabbed Bo’s hand and told her how overwhelmed she was to be amongst a new generation of graduates. 

It’s Harry that seems to know when eyes are upon him, and Bo receives a smile and a cheeky wink. When they’re released, she’s one of the first up and out of her seat, hustling to try and jostle between some of the slower individuals. 

Freshly graduated, Bo tumbles through the back doors in her haste, out of the main venue and into the reception where friends and family are waiting with full glasses from the bar. Weaving through a large group just beyond her, Bo emerges to scan the rest of the room. 

He’s stood chatting to her mum and aunt, dressed in a navy suit with considerably less hair than when she’d seen him last. 

“Harry!”

Turning, he’s quick about taking the glasses off, ready for her when she barrels into him. Her arms tightly wrap his waist as she blurs the lines between them and squeezes. For Bo, the engaging of their bodies doesn’t last nearly as long as she’d like. Harry’s peeling away from her even as her fingers tighten to his jacket. He levers her away slightly by Bo’s shoulders, quite possibly so he can see her face as he laughs. 

“I didn’t think you were able to come,” her voice quivers slightly, making a grab for his hand. 

“I wasn’t going to miss your graduation, Bo.”

He leans in a little and Bo feels almost as though it’s a secret. 

“But you said -���

“Surprise.”

Harry’s grinning at her like a child telling an awful joke. And it will do awful things to her eye makeup if she dwells on the fact that he’s actually here. “Well, it certainly is a surprise to see your new look,” she fondly smiles, reaching up to touch the short length of his hair. 

“Thought I’d change it up a bit. More presentable for such an auspicious occasion.”

“It certainly is different.”

It’s shorter up the sides and longer on top. Funny, she never noticed how cute his ears were. 

“You look very handsome. And these are adorable,” she says, taking the glasses from his pocket, folding out the arms and placing them back on his nose. 

“Really?”

“You’re adorable.”

He sighs.

“That’s not really the look I was going for.” 

“Congratulations on your adorableness.”

“Congratulations on being massively brainy and getting your degree. Although you look like you’ve just graduated from Hogwarts,” he teases, lightly fluttering her robes. 

“Thanks.”

Bo had forgotten about the graduation cap before she tips her head to peer down at her attire. She catches it just as it starts to slip.

“Oh, these are for you.”

Seemingly out of thin air, a bouquet of prettily tied flowers is produced from somewhere behind him and Harry swaps the bunch for the cap in her hand. Bo’s bashful in her appreciation, hiding behind them whilst speaking her thanks. She thinks she’ll have to ask the restaurant to put them in water whilst they eat.

  “Hey Bo!”

They both turn and Bo smiles back at the group of friends from her course. Max and Ali have identical grins as they wave a bottle of fizz at her and beckon. A kiss is pressed to her mum and aunt’s cheeks, kicking off her heels and wriggling from the heavy robe. 

“I’ll be back in a minute.”

Her promise to Harry is accompanied with more of a kiss to his jaw than his cheek on account that he didn’t bend down far enough. Bo’s taken a few steps away from Harry before she thinks better of it and rounds on him again. He’s still smiling.

“You look really well, Harry.”

She nods, suddenly becoming unable to keep from blushing as she shakes her head and retreats towards her friends, leaving him to watch after her. 

***

There’s already family members trying to hustle groups of graduating friends into keepsake photographs. It’s Ali’s younger sister, with her dark plaited hair swinging around her shoulders that ultimately breaks up their little gathering. She beams up at him, two teeth less than in the family picture Ali had up in his room. He makes a show of trying to resist the youngster tugging on his hand.

  “We’ll organise something over the summer, right?” he rushes before being whisked away. “We could all meet in London, or have a weekend at the beach?”

“Sounds great.”

“I’m up for it.”

“You’re up for anything,” Jose elbows Max in the ribs.

He proceeds to play injured as Jose catches something of greater interest. 

“You should go.”

The words are countered with a tilt to her head, nodding past Bo’s shoulder. 

“You trying to get rid of me?” Bo jokes.

“No, I just think your boyfriend wants you back.”

Bo turns to see Harry stood with her mum and aunt. He’s still got her robe draped over his forearm, and it’s a second before he notices her attention, in which his frown transforms to fondness. 

She wriggles her toes on the balding carpet as her stomach does an odd affectionate squirm at the fact Harry’s also holding her heels.

“Oh, he’s not - my boyfriend.”

“Really? Is he single then?”

“Shut up,” Bo hushes, playfully pushing her friend away. 

She keeps on her toes on the meandering route back to him, cautious of pointy heels and polished dress shoes. There’s even a moment Bo resorts to a hop and shuffle rather than taking critical damage to blue polished nails. 

“You should probably put them back on if we’re going outside,” Harry gestures to her shoes.

“I was hoping someone would carry me. They might look pretty, but they’re killing my feet.”

Regardless, she slips into them anyway, taking hold of Harry’s arm to steady herself. 

“I would offer to put you over my shoulder, but I don’t think your mum would like it much.”

Bo would take a fireman’s lift even if it meant a disapproving look from her mother. After today she’d quite happily get shot of the sparkly, monster shoes down the charity shop. 

“You’d carry me?”

“Course.”

“I’m really proud of you. And just to clarify, I would offer to carry you anyway, even if you hadn’t just graduated.”

She places her hand on her heart somewhat dramatically. 

“Thank you for coming.”

***

Posing for pictures, throwing graduation caps and saying her goodbyes drains Bo of the energy she started the day with. Her mum and aunt are waiting for her on the outskirts of the garden and Bo could just about drop to her knees with exhaustion, anything to get the weight off her feet. But before she can join them, Harry approaches, pocketing his phone and standing in front of her. 

“I’m gunna head off now,” he tells her and Bo’s joy takes a nosedive into disappointment. 

“Really? Aren’t you coming to dinner with us?”

She can tell by the sour pinch to his mouth that he didn’t want to make a big thing about it. Probably just wanted to kiss her on the cheek and slip away. Again. 

“You can stay. We’ll ask them to just set another place at the table. I can -“

Bo starts to turn away to her mum because she’ll know what to do. Mum’s always know; like it’s programmed into them the moment they give birth. Bo doesn’t need to vie for her attention though, her mum and aunt are already watching after the couple across the grass. 

Bo catches her eye long enough for her mother to mouth, ‘Let him go.”

It’s Harry’s hand on Bo’s shoulder that gently anchors her and she can feel a phantom twist of emotion in her gut. It hurts. Reminiscent of a juncture in their shared past when he told her he was leaving. But this time she doesn’t cry. Bo holds her nerve and his eye contact. 

“It’s ok, you celebrate with your family.”

She remains tightlipped to refrain from saying something silly. Harry kisses her cheek but Bo can already feel him stepping out and away, creating a distance that prevents her from clutching at him. And she doesn’t understand why. 

“Harry?”

He smiles, still moving to cut their connection.

“It’s ok, I’ll talk to you soon.”

It’s with a heavy heart that she tortures herself further, watching as he politely slips between the remaining friends and relatives and exits the garden through the stone archway. 

On the walk to the restaurant, her mum strides ahead taking a congratulatory phonecall on Bo’s behalf from a relative she’s never even heard of. 

“I wonder if they’ll have a vegan menu?”

Bo’s aunt has slipped an arm through hers as they wander through familiar streets admiring shop windows.

“You’re not even a vegan though.”

“I know, but the whole diet intrigues me.”

Bo shakes her head, laughing as they round another corner. They’re serenaded by a busker whilst they wait outside the restaurant for her mum to finish the call. He’s young, strumming away at chords and singing along to an early Ed Sheeran track that Bo’s having trouble with naming.  

“It’s a shame Harry couldn’t stay,” her aunt comments as they watch.

“Yeah,” Bo hums, because she’s not really in the mood to discuss it. 

“You shouldn’t worry.”

“About what?”

Little Bird, Bo thinks. That’s the song. 

“He said he’s still trying to sort things out. He didn’t feel ready for it yet.”

***

“Meet me at the corner of Angle Rd at 6, wear something sporty. H x”

She scans over the message again, before chucking her phone back on the unmade bed. Her insides do an involuntary sweep as it bounces before settling inches from edge of the mattress. 

“Wear something sporty, what does that even mean?”

Bo confronts the mess in her wardrobe, hands on hips paired with a scrutinising gaze. Hangers are pushed back and forth on her rail as she contemplates if her jeggings constitute anything remotely sporty. She decides they don’t meet the grade.

A glance at the time makes the decision for her, making grabby hands at a pair of patterned leggings and a “Save The Bees” t-shirt she received from Tiff as a birthday present. She’s out the door in less than two minutes.

Bo’s not really one for arriving early to anywhere, but it’s Harry and his cryptic message that has prompted something similar to nerves in her belly. Similar, but it’s definitely not nerves. No.

“I said something sporty.”

She whirls to see Harry approach from the other side of the road. He’s in sport shorts and a t-shirt with a duffle bag slung over his right shoulder. The tautness in his arms blinkers her vision, not the sort of arms attached to a chiseled model with flowing hair on a cheesy romance novel. But more the solid build of an athlete, of someone who actually uses their body as a tool rather than just flaunting it at the gym. 

She refuses to acknowledge the small clench in her lower tummy. 

“This is what I do yoga in,” Bo explains, glancing down at the bright yellow top and leggings. 

“You do yoga?”

“Yeah, me and a girl from work take a class on Wednesday. We end up giggly through most of it, but I think I’ve got the warrior pose down.”

Bo gives a little demonstration in the middle of the path, much to Harry’s amusement.

“How’s work going?”

Bo moves along beside him as he starts to walk back down the road. 

“Alright thanks, hopefully I won’t be there much longer. I have an interview next Friday with an NGO that I’m doing some prep for.”

“Fingers crossed.”

They chat for the remainder of the mystery walk until they near a building that Bo’s vaguely familiar with.

“Are we working out? I thought we were going for a run.”

“Not quite.”

Harry leads the way through the reception where he’s cheerfully greeted by a muscled man behind the desk. Bo waits as Harry digs a card out from his wallet before swiping it in front of a screen. The barriers ahead of them swing open and she’s encouraged through them with a hand to her lower back.  

They’re met with a wall of warmth and excited shrieks as they press through the heavy doors. Children delight in the water of the fun pool and Bo watches toddlers splash around in fountains spurting from the tiled floor. 

“I brought my niece the other week,” Harry says, leaning against the rail beside her.

“Here?” Bo asks. “To the pool of screaming children.”

There’s a mother standing on the side of the water’s edge, beckoning for three children to get out and dry off, to which they duck under the surface with grinning, goggled faces. It’s a reminiscent scene of her own childhood that amuses Bo as she continues to listen. 

“She loves it. Bit clingy to start off with and we stayed in the shallows mostly, but she wanted to go in deeper.”

“How old is she now?”

“Two and a half,” he replies with a soft sort of smile.

There’s adoration and pride blooming as Harry talks about his niece. And Bo knows for certain that the toddler had him wrapped around her finger from the moment he first held her. And the idea of Harry with a baby, how gentle and soft spoken he’d be whilst informing her of how he’d spoil her rotten despite what her mum says. It’s enough to have Bo pining to witness first hand how someone barely past Harry’s knee could turn him to complete mush. 

“It’s bit of a nightmare after getting out of the water though, she wriggled around so much I didn’t bother changing either of us.”

Bo laughs, gripping the rail.

“Just wrapped her in the towel like a burrito and walked out.”

“Are we here to swim, because I didn’t bring anything to change into.”

“Not today. I have something else planned.”

It’s as they bypass the locker rooms and then the training hall that Bo’s curiosity bubbles over with questions.

She’s left unsatisfied with an answer of, “Wait and see.”

Following along closely behind him, Bo’s introduced to a brightly lit room through a set of double doors. 

“Stay here a minute.”

He offloads his bag to the floor by Bo’s feet which she huffs at before nudging it to the wall with her foot. 

It’s difficult not to notice the female chatter in the sweeping room. The majority are ladies, dressed in sporty attire with hair pulled back and smiles on their faces. There’s a bar running around the circumference, walls which are lined with floor to ceiling length mirrors. If Bo didn’t know any better she’d say they were here to dance, the space perfect for observing and participating in routines to music. But she certainly doesn’t think that’s the case as Harry’s now jogging over to the main group, his presence drawing in the smaller clusters formed on the outskirts. 

The space is relatively bare when taking into account it’s located in a gym. The floor is a patchwork of large blue mats laid out to face the space at the far end of the room. 

“Hi, thanks for continuing to come back,” Harry begins which elicits a murmur of laughter. “I’m pleased to see all the slots are filled for this self defence class. And I hope we can achieve a lot whilst we’re here.”

Bo’s eyebrows shoot up in response, still a little unsure as to what the hell is going on. That is until their eyes meet and Harry beckons Bo from the back of the room to where he’s stood in front of a class of about twenty-five.

“This is my –“ Harry pauses. “She’s um –“ 

“Bo,” she intercepts.

She’s never found public speaking to come with ease, and this feels a lot like a presentation she’s massively underprepared for. 

“She’s going to be helping me demonstrate,” Harry explains as Bo absorbs the information for the first time with the rest of the class. “Bo’s a beginner, too. So this will be new for everyone.”

And that’s pretty much it before Bo is thrown into a class she didn’t sign up for. But what stuns her more is how at ease he is whilst advising people on their foot stance and how to position their shoulders. Well, that and Harry’s surprising repertoire of encouraging phrases he dishes out when making the rounds. 

They run through exercises performed in the previous class, actions Bo has to catch up on with a partner as Harry wanders the floor. Once she’s mastered the art of evading a wrist lock, Harry calls her back up to the front again as the women gather. 

Bo stands to the side of Harry.

“What do you think puts Bo at a disadvantage in a physical confrontation between the two of us?”

The question is posed to the group before murmurs hum around the room and people begin to speak up.

“You’re huge,” one of the women at the front comments. 

Harry laughs as Bo scans him from her eye-level and up. He is considerably taller, broader and heavier than the rest of the room’s occupants. 

                                                                                                            “Yeah, I’m bigger than Bo.”

“Stronger,” someone else suggests.

“Unless she’s an athlete, I don’t think she could outrun you.”

The answers begin to lose steam and Bo is left with an unnerving list of attributes that put her in an inferior physical position. And honestly, it doesn’t do much for her confidence. 

The group conversation is still in free flow as Harry gestures for Bo to approach the mat.

“Do you mind doing a demonstration with me?” he asks quietly with his back partially to the class.

“What kind?” 

“If you’re not comfortable, you can say no and I’ll ask one of the trainers - it’s defence against sexual assault.”

Bo’s stomach instantly drops as she thickly swallows.

“Wow, heavy stuff,” she tries and unfortunately fails to make light of it.

“It’s important to -“

“Ok.”

“You sure?” he asks, raising his brows.

“If it will help the people here, then of course.”

His smile is infectious and Bo actually has to prompt him to continue with the class. Giving him a little shove towards the waiting group so she can hide the grin he’s responsible for. 

“Will you lay down for me please?”

She gives him a look before taking his hand and sitting on their own patchwork of blue in the room. Bo regathers her hair in a tie before flicking it out above her head and laying back. 

“Today, we’re going to be learning to defend and evade against a position known for sexual assault.”

As Bo’s regard flicks from face to face, trying to decipher people’s initial reaction, she’s surprised to find that there’s no shock or uneasiness, instead an openness to listen and learn. 

***

Bo’s a little perplexed at the position she finds herself in, only the mat separating her body from the floor and Harry hovering over her like they’re in the privacy of a home and not at the front of a class full of keen, observing eyes. 

He’s on hands and knees, those knees pressing up under her butt as her bent legs widen. But it’s the nature of the subject matter that, despite the positioning, cancels out any romantic stirrings for Bo, and she’s pretty sure Harry isn’t feeling it either. There’s something sort of remote about it all.

“With sexual assault, this is most likely going to be the position a victim would end up in. I know it might feel a bit awkward to start off with,” Harry continues to speak to the class. “But it’s important to remember that in reality, if something does happen, it’s not going to be from a distance. It’ll be close.”

As if to emphasise the point, he leans down onto Bo until their chests are almost touching. And then his body heat is gone as he straightens once again. 

“Don’t think that once you’re on the floor, that’s it. There’s a lot of moves you can perform to get out of the position. And that’s what we’re going to begin learning today.”

Harry’s full attention returns to Bo and along with it, everybody else’s. She’s forced to peer up at his face, ready for his next instruction. But he doesn’t address her as such, instead throwing another question out to the group. 

“What do you think Bo can do to get out of this?”

He’s almost fully on top of her, his forearms place by her head and Bo can feel her cheeks bloom with warmth. 

There’s mutterings of suggestions between people that have paired off before someone calls out from the back. 

“Head-butt you?”

Laughter flutters around the room. 

“Not quite,” Harry admits with a smile. “Try and push me away.”

Simple.

Bo presses up, palms making contact with Harry’s chest and shoving. But it’s with slight alarm that she discovers all three attempts end with Harry buckling her elbows and powering down. And it’s then, with a whisper of breath between them that Harry asks, “How do you feel?”

Bo thickly swallows. 

“Powerless.”

And it’s true because the thought of being so easily trapped is turning Bo’s stomach over. If it was anyone but Harry performing the demonstration there’s a strong possibility that she’d ask to remove herself from the situation to melt back into the gathering of people watching over. But it is Harry, Harry with his short hair, scarred face and easy smile. And she trusts him.

One woman clears her throat and Harry rolls smoothly back into professional instructor.

“This class is about learning to effectively gain control in situations like this.” With her hands pressed to Harry’s shoulders, not his chest, Bo’s told to lock her arms in place. It ensures that despite his efforts, his upper body is prevented from crushing hers. 

“See,” Harry keeps up his running commentary. “With your arms like this, I can’t get anywhere near you. She could take my whole body weight and still hold the position.”

“Try,” one of the women sat down at the front suggests.

It’s never been an audience that Bo imagined she’d ever be in front of, especially in a situation like this. But the more moves they perform together, the more she feels empowered and comfortable in a strange sort of way. 

Harry looks to Bo and she nods.

He’d been holding back in the demonstration before now, careful not to show full brawn. But as Harry surrenders his weight Bo’s joyfully surprised that she can take it and hold. 

“Are you really -“

“Yeah, good job,” he praises.

A second more and his body’s burden is removed and they roll right into the next action in the sequence. 

Harry is patient as they try different moves according to both of their leg positions. In between repeating new moves he just simply slides Bo back to him, aided by the ease of the mat, much to her surprise the first couple of times. He still holds her firm but the more they practise the easier Bo finds it to perform. She’s particularly pleased to perfect, “shrimping out”, a sequence that ends with freeing her legs.

“Bo’s gunna put her feet on my hips to give her leverage for the next move.” She does so, allowing Harry to adjust her placement before falling back into their position.

“Whilst doing this you can remove your palms from my chest and grip my elbows.”

Fingers wrap tight to his elbows as his hair flops over his eyes.

“And then you push, extending your legs.”

She doesn't exert herself because Harry’s going easy.

“An attacker’s natural reaction will be to pull away, and you use this to your full advantage. When this happens, I want you to move your grip down to the wrists and hold.”

Harry’s presence backs up and away from Bo at a casual pace so she can get used to the transforming hold. Hands sliding all the way down his forearms until she does as instructed and catches his wrists.

“Good.”

They’re taking it slowly, step by step with Harry reassuring the group that they’ll repeat the demonstration as many times as needed. He’s a patient tutor, happy to answer any questions put forward by some of the quieter women. It’s as Bo’s grinning stupidly up at him that her chest fills with pride and she thinks that maybe this is what he’s supposed to do; to help people, use his knowledge and experience of fighting and turn it on its head. Because he knows how to use another’s brute force in his favour, how to block attacks, how to escape a hold, deflect a punch and how to tactically overcome threat. Bo’s seen him do it, and now it’s time for him to  teach others. 

“When you get to this stage, it’s time to fight back. This is where I want you to kick the shit out of them.”

The women laugh at his choice of words as Bo’s eyes widen.

“What?” she blurts.

“Groin, solar plexus and chin,” he gestures respectively to each. “The aim is to incapacitate, knock him back and then you run.”

Bo’s grip tightens on his wrists. She doesn’t want to hurt him and she voices this worry whilst Harry takes hold of Bo’s calfs, lifting them so her feet are near his shoulders.

“This is when you have a chance to kick me in the face.”

Bo teasingly tests the strength of his grip which Harry responds to with a raised brow and comical smile. 

“Think of cycling without the bike, that’s the motion you’re looking for.”

She practises her kicks with Harry tilting his head to the side, out of harms way. 

“Then you can roll out from under me and run.”

Once they finish up with their little demo, it’s clear to see some of the women are itching to try out the sequence. They run through the steps once more slowly and then with speed before they disband and try the routine in pairs. Bo watches as Harry weaves through the mats talking to each pair and helping with any placement problems they’re having. 

It’s Bo’s turn to sit back and watch whilst swigging out of her water bottle. Despite the more sinister underlying need for the class, there’s a few eruptions of giggles between friends when getting into positions. And Bo has to admit that she’s had fun.

Forty minutes more and the participants in the class are collecting their belongings from the back of the room. There’s accomplished smiles and fervent chatting upon exit, one woman even asks if there will be any more slots open for future classes, explaining the interest given when she’d told her friends. The proud smile she displays transforms upon a new arrival to her little area at the back. 

“Were you here for the combat class?”

Bo turns to see a guy in shorts and a t-shirt with the sweat drenched neckline. He’s handsome in a boyish kind of way and that makes Bo think he’s probably not as old as the muscled body lets on.

“It’s a defence class,” she replies. 

He nods with a smile.

“I’ve met the instructor.”

“Yeah?”

He hums.

“Yeah, but have you seen his face,” he gestures vaguely to his own left eye and Bo’s tolerance for this meaningless conversation shuts down. Prick. There’s no obligation to entertain such topics, and the fact that this man thought it was an appropriate icebreaker is beyond Bo. 

“I dunno, I think he’s kinda cute,” she playfully cocks her head at Harry.

Harry’s still chatting with a few of the women but he’s definitely noticed her interaction with the man stood to her left. His posture changes, and there’s a moment where Bo thinks he might approach.

“Oh.”

“Mmm, looks like he could look after a woman. And he’s obviously hugely respectful of them for leading a class that empowers them in situations where we’re oppressed and demeaned in some of the worst ways imaginable.”

This guy is nodding but Bo’s not really sure he follows.

“I’m Jake,” he holds out his hand to shake.

She could almost laugh at the blatant urge to change the conversation. 

“Bo.”

An instant before she sees him, Bo knows Harry is with her. She can already feel the heat of him as he stands partially behind her.

“Who’s this?”

Straight to the point and in a tone she hasn’t heard for a long time. Bo would be embarrassed to admit that it sends her body into a turmoil that results in a flushed chest and that hot little clench in her stomach. She pushes back into him almost on instinct.

“Jack.”

“It’s Jake,” the guy corrects, irritably. 

“Oh, sorry,” Bo lightly laughs, fully aware of her mistake. “We were just talking about you.”

“You were?” Harry asks slightly warily.

He steps more to her right side as Bo fights the urge to push away the flopping curls from his face. 

“Yeah, how successful the class is, and how pretty you are.”

Harry blinks down at her as Bo gives him her best smile. 

“I’m gunna go.”

Jake leaves without any acknowledgement from the pair. 

*** Bo helps with putting the mats away in the cupboard at the back. Well, helping in a sense that she lays in a starfish on the mat as Harry drags it across the floor. A hilarity that proceeds upon switching places, judging that Bo can barely move the mat a foot with Harry sprawled across it. 

“Thanks for coming along, I think it really helps to have someone to demonstrate with. I don’t think I could have taken a volunteer for that sort of routine in the first couple of classes.”

They’re making their way out through the length of corridors to the reception. 

“Oh, I’m not sure. I’m pretty certain there would have been a few hands go up if you’d have asked.”

He’s bashful about it, but Bo definitely sees the grin as he turns away to hold the door. 

“So, how did it all happen?”

“When we were together, I remember you talking about it, teaching women defence.”

It’s a conversation Bo remembers having but it was flippant, she hadn’t dreamed he would acted on it.

“I got trained and became certified as an instructor. It’s only one night a week at the moment, but the manager’s told me that they were turning people away who wanted to enrol in the second class. And it’s not just women, it’s only a small turnout at the moment,” Harry frowns, “but we’re hoping to encourage more of the young LGBT community to enrol.”

“Lucky I got my spot then.”

“You’re an exception.”

“I think you mean, exceptional.”

It’s laughter that opens out onto the street. 

“They’re hoping to fit in some more classes during the week.”

“That’s brilliant.”

“Then I wouldn’t have to do gym training in the day, it would just be the defence classes.”

Bo’s delighted to see that he looks proud and he should be. 

“So, are you gunna show me your new place, or what?”