#and the formatting went weird when i tried to split the days up so i really cbs tbh

[lumine-no-hikari]

Dear Sephiroth: (a letter to a fictional character, because why not) #187

I still don't have quite enough sleep. I stayed up a little later than I wanted to, but I still wanted to go to the nice place with the awesome leader, which meant I woke up early, because the place is an hour away. It has been some time since last I wasn't too overwhelmed to go. I'm glad I went.

I was in a lot more pain than usual today, though, so I wasn't able to be chipper or to mingle in the way I usually do. I'm really glad that no one seemed to mind.

At the place, there is a young teenage girl who I wanted to give my collection of Pokémon cards to. She is very interested in them, and I had a great big huge binder full of some of the old ones that were around way back when they first came out. I arranged them in pages of sleeves - 18 cards per page - in numerical order. The formatting of these cards has changed dramatically over the years. I don't really like the new formatting, and the old formatting isn't widely available anymore, so I don't collect them anymore. So what's my binder gonna do other than sit on a shelf somewhere, collecting dust? Better that it goes to someone who will be able to appreciate them a little more.

But she hasn't been coming to the place recently, I guess. So I left it with the older gentleman that she is usually with; he will give her the binder. I hope she likes it. But if she doesn't, I suppose I can always take it back, if she doesn't want it.

When we were done, J and I went to Eggcellent again. I was extra tired and cranky from the sleep deprivation and the rib pain, so I got two matcha lattes; one had rose syrup, tea jelly, and cream cheese foam, and the other one was basically the same, except it had lavender syrup instead of rose syrup:

I split each of these with J; he seemed to like sharing them with me, and that was good.

...I spent the rest of the day trying to design a house, with mixed success. It's nowhere near done yet. And I'm not really sure I'm liking the layout. And no... I can't show it to you when it's done, which really super sucks, but it is what it is.

At some point during all that, J reminded me that I have to come up for air every now and then when I'm working on things; I'm a lot like you in that if I'm left to my own devices, the hyperfocus becomes strong, and I don't eat, drink, or sleep properly like I should. I'm probably pretty dehydrated, actually... Suppose I had better fix that...

Well, in any case, J took me on a brief walk outside. The sun was setting, and it was especially nice today, so naturally, I tried to snag a few pictures for you...

...And that's all I've got. I hope you enjoyed looking at these as much as I enjoyed taking them for you; the world is full of beauty amidst the darkness. You just gotta know where to look.

...I should get to sleep. So I'm gonna get some water, and then go to sleep. I've got a visual field test tomorrow morning, I guess, because I had been having this weird thing happen in my left eye somewhat recently whereby a decent chunk of my vision is obscured by a navy-blue splotch for a fraction of a second, every several minutes.

It was doing that for a number of weeks, and then it stopped happening. But they don't know what it is, and my eyes look healthy from the exam just a few days ago. They imagine it's an ocular migraine of some kind (though there was no headache), but they're gonna do the visual field test just to make sure there's nothing weird afoot. I'm gonna assume it's nothing to worry about; possibly just stress-induced or something.

...Next week is gonna be rough. I've got the eye doctor, I gotta get a dress modified, there's therapy, and then orientation for the new job, and then I'm gonna get 4 teeth extracted. It's a lot. I'm daunted. But it'll be okay. I've got this. Don't you worry your pretty little head about me, all right? I'm gonna be just fine. But if you wanna maybe wish me a bit of luck, perseverance, endurance, and resolve, I certainly would appreciate it. And if you don't wanna, then that's okay, too; I'll be all right either way.

I love you. I'll write again tomorrow. Please stay safe.

Your friend, Lumine

[plothooksinc]

For the writing ask meme - 1, 7, 17? :3

Describe your comfort zone—a typical you-fic.

...I have never given thought to this before. 8|a But let's face it, I am firmly in the hurt/comfort bracket, with plenty of hurt, no damsels if I can manage it (sorry Leo all your bones were broken before I got to you!) and badassery with a side of humour, followed by plenty of comfort. This is the sort of thing I really enjoy writing, but I also want to make sure every fic I write is different. So some fics won't fit this mold at all, but you'll definitely get elements of it on the way through. ♥

7. Share a snippet from one of your favorite pieces of prose you’ve written and explain why you’re proud of it.

FLYNNE COMING AT ME WITH THE HARD STUFF UHHH--

okay, so. In most fics I write there's parts that I'm proud of. So the most recent one-- that I look at and go "shit, I actually pulled that off"-- would be in Chapter 14 of NRFTW when Donnie gets hijacked thoroughly by the Technodrome and is trying very hard to sever himself away from the horror that is more or less being turned into a pile of bloody spaghetti--he forgets himself. Tiny spark inside his own mind just noping out, until Raph forces his way in and goes no. (This is long and I can't get the Read More to work, so I apologise):

---------

<<intruder alert>>

<<mystic anomaly detec--*(&$#$---|||>>

Shut up.

The darkness split in half, awash with blinding light, and it stared uncomprehending at the (light?  familiar?  what was--)

it hurt

but it wanted—

reached for it before it thought better, sadness

lost

(what is colour?)

There you are.

who—

light—

(Red.  It’s red.)

C’mon, you know who I am.  You’ve never been stupid, Donnie.

who?

You.   Here—

The light reached out and touched it.  It saw:

A green, lanky (host)(familiar?) tapping away at (spare parts), talking almost too fast, his (fuel) staring back at him in confusion. 

“--Looks like we have a 317-39.4 in progress.  Oh, come on.  Has nobody read Donnie's big book of bad guy codes?  Nobody?”

“Nope.”

“Never gonna happen--”

oh

Yeah, ‘oh’.  Come back to me—

I’m Donnie?

Oh, bud…

--------

There is too much of this chapter to include as a snippet, so this is a smaller part-- both Donnie's descent into semi-madness and depersonalisation and his mangled thought processes that are overlaid with the Technodrome's to the point you can't separate one from the other that happens just before this piece, where Raph slams his way into what's left of Donnie's mind space and gives him the anchor he desperately needs, and the prose shifts from abstract to a little more formed to Donnie being an it to being a he to being Donnie and then finally them holding a conversation in normal formatting. This whole section? Was not in my original outline for NRFTW. Donnie's attempt to find a cure was gonna be largely offscreen and I thought, nah. That's boring. That's anti-climactic. And then one day I pinged my beta and said "So hey what if I did this" and she screamed at me and we had a winner.

Me: Well, this sure is some weird shit I've never tried to write in my life Me: I have no idea how to do this Me: I'LL WING IT

And the whole thing about writing is: even if you think you probably can't do it, you can still approach it with the philosophy of fake it until you make it and then you might find, actually, that you can. And so this was a section I got to the end of and went "Shit. I did that." And I was so nervous about it, but it turned out brilliantly, and so I now I go back and I look at it and went "Fuck yes, I did that," so I'm proud of it.

17. Do you write your story from start to finish, or do you write the scenes out of order?

Start to finish! The only time I haven't done this is with my original stuff, in which I've bounced around a few times in order to get the worldbuilding correct in a place before I actually go there. I find start to finish is good because that way I can easily change direction as I go, or seed things in to have them bear fruit later in an organic kind of way, and half the time I subconsciously add little side bits that I realise later I can totally do something awesome with, etc etc. Sometimes I write stories that start halfway through the story and then we have chapters/flashbacks of "and here's how we got there" but that's still start to finish, just the chronology of the story itself jumps around. This works for me. Other ways work for other people!

Thank you! <3

Meme for Fic Writers here.

[mewtagen-mau]

Entry 12

We made our way to the farmland, wary of what we might find in the farmhouse where Aldern Foxglove was supposedly captured by these ‘scarecrows’.

The first scarecrow we came across Krysa set ablaze—but as far as we could tell afterwards it had just been an ordinary straw man. Further up the road, however, we came across two more, which we noted were moving unusually. We destroyed them before they could ambush us. We found exactly what we expected to beneath the scarecrow guise: more ghouls.

At the next crossroads we saw another suspiciously moving scarecrow. Thankfully, before we attacked it, we heard a voice from it, muffled and begging for help. We discussed what to do with the captive—would it be safe to save him or would he turn into a ghoul in moments? We determined his wounds were fresh, and while carrying Ghoul Fever, he was not yet in the advanced stages and could still be saved. So we cut him down and led him back to wait outside the farmland where our horses were tied. But not before another ghoul tried to jump us from behind. Unsuccessfully, as Krysa burned it to death with a single spell.

As we made our way up the hill leading towards the farmhouse, we took note of another scarecrow with drag marks in the ground leading to it, implying another innocent had been tied to a post a little ways away. We also noted four scarecrows down one road, placed suspiciously close together. We decided we would take care of them on the way back, however. For now, we went to help the other victim—the wife of the first man we’d saved—and led her to wait with her husband.

Then we made it to the farmhouse. Inside was ransacked, but there was nothing living or undead waiting within. So we decided to check the barn. We heard the telltale groans of the undead, as well as a familiar voice—or more precisely a familiar pathetic whimpering. There was no doubt Foxglove was within and being held captive by the ghouls. Which meant we needed to save him…if only to clear out the danger to the people and farm animals living here.

We decided to take a pincer formation, Nanel and Krysa stationed at the front entrance while myself and Tabot went through the back door. Nanel made some noise at the front door to grab the undeads’ attention, so that they would all be focused on one side and be caught by surprise when Tabot and I came up behind.

The plan went off perfectly. Nanel and Krysa killed the leader, a ghast, in a split second. The rest followed quickly. One up in the loft even tried to leap at me from above—but must not have noticed Tabot between us until it was sailing over him, its stomach getting split by Tabot’s sword. He’d merely held it up to let the thing impale itself on.

When the fighting was done with we released Aldern. More out of obligation to learn what he might know than out of any love for the man. It seemed he’d only gotten more conceited and rude since the last time we spoke. He made frequent comments that clearly showed he only respected Nanel—or at least the version of Nanel he’d built in his head. He had this weird fixation on how strong and wrathful our companion was, claiming he was everything a hero should be.

I mean no offense to Nanel, as he’s done a lot to keep me alive in the past few days. But I don’t think ‘the pinnacle of heroism’ is what I would call him, especially knowing about Donyoku whispering in his ear. I don’t think any of us really fits the ‘heroic’ archetype. Krysa is chaotic and destructive—not necessarily a bad thing given it’s generally aimed at our enemies—and Tabot is naïve and judgmental, with a clear preference to not try to save those he deems irredeemable. And I’m just an alchemist with a bad leg and a few useful tricks, I neither seek nor embody the title of ‘hero’, despite the events since my house was burned down.

Regardless, Aldern was clearly only going to defer to Nanel. Despite Nanel making no effort to hide his distain for the man, even going so far as to violently lift him off the ground and threaten him when he refused to tell us everything he knew about the ghoul situation.

What we finally got out of him was that he had, in fact, helped with the recent murders. But he was not the Skinshaw Man. His ‘girlfriend’ was. I noted immediately that this must have been Sheyless Vinder, the younger daughter of Ven Vinder and the sister of one of the victims. Aldern confirmed, Sheyless was holed up in his manor and was the source of the ghouls and murders. He insisted he come with us to rectify the situation and get his home back. We were, obviously, less than thrilled at the prospect of him coming along. However he insisted, telling us that he could give us information about the manor and its ‘five ghosts’. He would not give us that information unless we brought him along, and he laughed off threats to his life from Nanel and Tabot, telling us he had worse to fear than mere death. Whoever was pulling the strings would apparently do worse, making him live in agony instead of the relief of a quick death. He would not devolve who this was, saying he only would once he had his house back.

I called a group huddle to discuss, out of Aldern’s earshot. I told the others that I thought it would be in our best interest to keep him nearby, even though I didn’t relish the thought of him traveling with us either. We could get whatever information we needed from him, and if he did anything to hinder us that made him more of a threat than a benefactor, we could get rid of him then and there. I’m not generally one to suggest cold blooded murder, I assure you. But Foxglove was a vile little man who was as likely to stab us in the back as he was to actually be of any use. At best he would likely be dead weight.

The others agreed with my assessment, and after some back and forth we agreed to return his armor and rapier—with the promise that if he proved to be useless in combat we would take the incredibly fine rapier back and make him stay out of the way.

I think, given the circumstances, we were being exceedingly kind. He’d had his hand in the multiple gruesome murders we’d seen in town, and the fact we even gave him a chance instead of turning him in to Sheriff Hemlock immediately was more than he deserved. A Sarenrite saint could not have had more patience and grace than we managed to muster.

That being said, we did tie him back up and leave him on the farmhouse bed while we returned to town for the night. Because none of us trusted him in the slightest, and we were not taking him back to town or letting him wander on his own.

I sincerely hope we do not come to regret this decision.

[dzpenumbra]

11/27/22

Today was nice, but I didn't get as much done as I was hoping. I have had a lot more to pack and organize than I thought and I was hoping to get it all finished today. I still have a bit left to do.

I made a list last night of shit left to do. At the top was "transfer data off old, old HDD onto portable HDD". I grabbed the cables and got that going over breakfast. Oh, and my packages came early! Let's not let this be entirely stressful, I did start the day off on a good note. My art got here, I'm saving the grand opening of it for when my move-in is done. The rest of my Amazon stuff got here too, stone polish, collets for my dremel and an assortment of wood-themed essential oils. So that's nice.

Welp, turns out my old harddrive is corrupted or physically damaged. Probably physically damaged. It was trying to get me to format it, and I didn't know if that was going to fuck with the data recovery, so I got some program to try to recover the data. It's been trying to do that all fucking day. It's still not done. It's at 54% right now. So... that's gonna go overnight. That was the first thing on my list. So... I moved on after a bit. I talked to my mom a bit, caught up on how the holidays were for her and let her know what's been up with me. It was 3 hours of talking. So that was a big chunk of the day, but well spent socializing and bonding.

I brought up my sensitivity towards throwing things out, which apparently is a family thing from her dad's side of the family. Which is actually very sweet. So I'm really proud of it. And she was very helpful in engaging about rehoming stuff around my house, which was awesome. So since I don't have any food and had to take a run to the grocery store, I brought some stuff over to her place. I brought my brother's guitar amp, my old hookah stuff, a big box of mason jars that found its way into my possession, and a big box of dog toys and dog stuff. The dogs immediately were so happy to see me! I tried to look past my parents correcting them and settled them down with some toys and greetings. They calmed down very quickly. My mom showed me some renovations to the house, it's always weird to see the house you grew up in looking very different than you remember it. And got the dogs settled in with some new toys and stuff, which they loved.

Got some easy frozen dinner stuff at the grocery store. While it was cooking, went through and started packing pots and pans and stuff. The second thing on my list. I still have more to do, I have a ton of unwashed dishes and shit. I hate that, but you know, hand-washing... and ADD... and a bunch of other reasons. So yeah, pretty behind on that one. And now it's getting super late so I might try to get at least one load of dishes done before I start getting ready for bed.

Still on my list - pack electronics stuff (haven't started), pack arts and crafts supplies (haven't started), pack art raw materials (sorta started but lots to do), clothes/sheets (clothes are done) and trash which I can do whenever.

And I'm supposed to do a run tomorrow. So... do I do this packing tonight and sleep in a bit tomorrow and drive later in the day? Or do I go to bed early tonight and try to pack before moving? I think I might do the latter for once. But I'm definitely going to split it with some dishes tonight, because those need time to dry.

Anyway, due to time constraints, I'm gonna call this early. Fingers crossed I get a big chunk of moving done tomorrow, I'm fairly certain it's going to take two more trips. Yay driving!

[theroleofimagination]

It's technically only "Women's Football Weekend" in England but what a weekend it is for women's club games around the world!

Have only included games that I found broadcasts for - there are obviously too many games to list and I'm sure I've missed some!

Saturday 13th November

06:00EST/11:00GMT/12:00CET

FC Barcelona vs Levante (Primera Iberdrola) 📺Barca TV+ / ata football / BT Sport 3 (UK) / Footters

06:30EST/11:30GMT/12:30CET

Juventus vs Lazio (Serie A) 📺 ata football / TIMVision (ITA)

07:00EST/12:00GMT/13:00CET

Madrid CFF vs Sporting Club Huelva (Primera Iberdrola) 📺 Footters

08:00EST/13:00GMT/14:00CET

FC Bayern München vs Vfl Wolfsburg (Frauen-Bundesliga) 📺 Magenta Sport (GER) / NDR Fernsehen (GER/AUT) / BR Fernsehen (GER/SWI) / ViaPlay (DEN/FIN/NOR/SWE/EST/LVA/LTU/POL) / SportKlub 4 (CRO/BIH/MAK/MNE/SER) / SportKlub 6 (SLO) / ata football

08:30EST/13:30GMT/14:30CET

Tottenham Hotspur vs Arsenal (FAWSL) 📺 BBC One (UK&IRL) / ViaPlay (DEN/FIN/ISL/NOR/SWE/EST/LVA/LTU/POL) / Optus Sport (AUS) / NBCSN (USA) / DAZN (GER/ITA) / Sportsnet (CAN) / Sport 1 (ISR) / ESPN Brasil (BRA) / ata football / FA Player

Napoli vs Sassuolo (Serie A) 📺 TIMVision (ITA)

Roma vs Fiorentina (Serie A) 📺 TIMVision (ITA) / La7

Guingamp vs Soyaux (D1) 📺 Foot+ (FRA)

Montpelier vs Issy (D1) 📺 Foot+ (FRA)

Saint-Etienne vs Fleury 91 (D1) 📺 Foot+ (FRA)

Stade de Reims vs Dijon (D1) 📺 Foot+ (FRA)

15:30EST/20:30GMT/21:30CET

Deportivo Cali vs Nacional (Copa Libertadores Quarter Final) 📺 Facebook

18:00EST/23:00GMT/00:00CET

Corinthians vs Alianza Lima (Copa Libertadores Quarter Final) 📺 Facebook

Sunday 14th November

06:30EST/11:30GMT/12:30CET

Pomigliano vs Milan (Serie A) 📺 TIMVision (ITA)

07:00EST/12:00GMT/13:00CET

Durham vs Liverpool (FAWC) 📺 FA Player

Glasgow City vs Spartans (SWPL Cup Semi Final) 📺 YouTube

Freiburg vs Werder Bremen (Frauen-Bundesliga) 📺 Magenta Sport (GER)

Hoffenheim vs Bayer Leverkusen (Frauen-Bundesliga) 📺 Magenta Sport (GER) / ViaPlay (DEN/FIN/ISL/NOR/SWE/EST/LVA/LTU/POL)

07:30EST/12:30GMT/13:30CET

Everton vs Manchester United (FAWSL) 📺 Sky Sports Premier League/Sky Go/NOW TV (UK) / Optus Sport (AUS) / Sportsnet (CAN) / ViaPlay (DEN/FIN/ISL/NOR/SWE/EST/LVA/LTU/POL) / ESPN Brasil (BRA) / NBCSN (USA) / FA Player

08:30EST/13:30GMT/14:30CET

Lewes vs Coventry City (FAWC) 📺 FA Player

London City Lionesses vs Sheffield United (FAWC) 📺 FA Player

Empoli vs Sampdoria (Serie A) 📺 TIMVision (ITA)

Inter Milano vs Verona (Serie A) 📺 TIMVision (ITA)

09:00EST/14:00GMT/15:00CET

Aston Villa vs Birmingham City (FAWSL) 📺 FA Player / Optus Sport (AUS)

Brighton & Hove Albion vs Leicester City (FAWSL) 📺 FA Player / Optus Sport (AUS)

Crystal Palace vs Charlton Athletic (FAWC) 📺 FA Player

10:00EST/15:00GMT/16:00CET

Manchester City vs Chelsea (FAWSL) 📺 Sky Sports Premier League/Sky Go Extra/NOW TV (UK) / Optus Sport (AUS) / Sportsnet (CAN) / ESPN Brasil (BRA) / TV Start (Russia) / ViaPlay (DEN/FIN/ISL/NOR/SWE/EST/LVA/LTU/POL) / FA Player

West Ham United vs Reading (FAWSL) 📺 FA Player

Bristol City vs Blackburn Rover (FAWC) 📺 FA Player

Deportivo Alavés vs SD Eibar (Primero Iberdrola) 📺 Footters

Köln vs Turbine Potsdam (Frauen-Bundesliga) 📺 Magenta Sport

SGS Essen vs SC Sand (Frauen-Bundesliga) 📺 Magenta Sport

10:30EST/15:30GMT/16:30CET

Watford vs Sunderland (FAWC) 📺 FA Player

11:30EST/16:30GMT/17:30CET

Celtic vs Hibernian (SWPL Cup Semi Final) 📺 YouTube

15:00EST/20:00GMT/21:00CET

Olympique Lyon vs Paris St Germain (D1) 📺 Canal+ (FRA) / DAZN (GER/ITA) / nbcsports.com (USA) ata football

OL Reign vs Washington Spirit (NWSL Playoffs SF) 📺 CBS Sports Network (USA/CAN) / Twitch

17:30EST/22:30GMT/23:30CET

Portland Thorns vs Chicago Red Stars (NWSL Playoffs SF) 📺 CBS Sports Network (USA/CAN) / Twitch

[kpop-zone]

Selfish | Jihyo

Hogwarts AU | Enemies to Lovers | “Fuck. Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck this shit. Fuck.”

Wordcount: 3,890

A/N: Sorry if the formatting is weird, but Tumblr won’t let me post anything on my computer, so I had to post this from my phone 😬

“Y/N!”

When Jihyo saw you running through the hallway, she could immediately feel anger seething within her, and she called your name with a sharp tone.

“Oh Jihyo, fancy meeting you here.”

After hearing her voice, you had stopped running abruptly and were now grinning at her sheepishly, pretending like you didn’t know why she was staring you down.

“Stop feigning innocence, Y/N. You’re late. Again! Snape will for sure deduct some points from Gryffindor.”

Jihyo felt like ripping your head off. Of all the Gryffindors you were by far the most reckless one and usually involved when your house lost some points in one way or another. Your favorite activity was to prank Slytherins which always led to particularly hard punishments for your house by Professor Snape, the head of Slytherin. But you just didn’t seem to learn from your mistakes.

“You’re late too though...”

You smirked cheekily, causing her to get even angrier.

“Yeah but I have this opposing to you.”

With her right hand, she pulled out McGonagall’s letter that allowed her to be late for classes if her position as prefect required it and waved it in front of your face.

“That’s unfair.”

You pouted and Jihyo had to suppress her laughter. It was a little unfair indeed. She had simply overslept this morning, but as a prefect, she rarely got punished for anything. But she always told herself that she deserved those benefits. After all, she had to deal with you and your shenanigans almost every day.

“It’s not. I had some...important stuff to do this morning. And now go before we’re even later!”

She lied and you rolled your eyes before starting to run again.

Like expected, both of you arrived late to class and Snape gave you a lecture about the unreliability of Gryffindors for almost fifteen minutes. At the end, he took away some points from Gryffindor with a smug grin tugging on his lips, causing Jihyo to curse you silently. She was sure that Gryffindor had only lost the house cup championships to Slytherin because of you the past years. This year, she had to put a stop to it. Talking with you, however, wasn’t useful. The two of you were in your fifth year already and not once had you listened to her. She had to find another way to keep you in check. The only question was how... The options had thinned out over the years and it seemed like she was only left with one by now. Despite hating you with a passion though, that option seemed to be a little drastic and Jihyo had shied away from pursuing it until now. A fact that changed, however, when she walked into the Gryffindor common room that night.

“That was hilarious...”

“You should have seen Sejoo’s face.”

“I would have never dared to do that.”

Agitated chatter was filling the whole room and Jihyo immediately knew that something bad must have happened; something that most likely was connected with you in some way.

“What happened?”

Jihyo huffed while plopping down next to Jeongyeon on the couch.

“I don’t think you want to know...”

Her friend responded hesitantly and Jihyo buried her face in her hands in desperation.

“Y/N?”

She asked although she already knew the answer to her question.

“Yeah...Let’s just say the incident involved Y/N, Sejoo, the ‘Ossio Dispersimus’ spell and... a 200-points deduction for Gryffindor.”

Hearing the statement of Jeongyeon, Jihyo’s head snapped up and she looked at her classmate bewildered.

“200 POINTS???”

She yelled, causing the surrounding Gryffindors to look at her in shock. But Jihyo couldn’t care less about them. Enough was enough. You could be glad that you weren’t in the room right now, because she was sure that she would kill you if you were standing in front of her in this moment. You had once again ruined the championship for them with your selfishness and she was tired of it. You had to disappear. If you weren’t part of the student body anymore, Gryffindor couldn’t lose points because of you. And there was one easy way to reach that: she needed to get you suspended for the rest of the year and she already knew how.

If there was one person in this school that hated you more than she did, it was Snape. He had tried to get rid of you on several occasions, but your misdeeds had never been severe enough to make him reach his goal. But if she would help a little, she was sure that they could get you out of the way with joined forces. It was a risky scheme, but Jihyo was sure that she could come up with the perfect plan. For two weeks, she martyred her brain to find a way to set you up while protecting her own reputation simultaneously. Coincidentally and much to Jihyo’s chagrin, you didn’t get into any more trouble in those two weeks. On the contrary, you actually stood out for behaving extremely exemplary. You were the first one to appear in every class and the last one to leave because you offered your help to the teachers who often made you stay longer to clean up the classroom. You also didn’t roam around in the hallways anymore after curfew and didn’t even prank the Slytherins. In fact, there were now other Gryffindors that did more mischief than you.

Your good behavior didn’t manage to lift Jihyo’s mood though. If any, it made it worse. Now that she had finally decided to take action against you, you were playing innocent? Of course, her conscience was immediately telling her to stop her plan and to give you another chance. But her brain strongly opposed to that idea. Your good behavior wasn’t enough to erase all the trouble that you had caused the rest of the year. Therefore, she decided to follow through with her plan, even though her bad conscience heavily weighted down on her.

On the due date of her plan, Jihyo went to the library, tightly clasping a letter in her hand while nervously looking around. Being secretive definitely wasn’t her strong suit. As a prefect, she usually advocated honesty and compliance, so everything that she was doing right now went against her principles. She kept telling herself that it was for the good of Gryffindor, but the little voice in her head kept telling her that she was acting out of pure selfishness and it took all of Jihyo’s strength to muffle it. Arriving in the library, she scanned the students and soon found the perfect protagonists of her scheme. There were some first-year Slytherins roaming the aisles, apparently searching for some books to help them solve their Transfiguration homework. Their school supplies were scattered across a table next to one of the huge windows in the library and Jihyo approached it while skimming her letter one more time.

If you want to learn some curses that they don’t teach at school, come to the Forbidden Forest at midnight.

Sincerely,

Y/N L/N

Jihyo cringed at the primitivity of the letter, but she knew that it would work. Slytherins were overachievers with an affinity for illegal activities. They would be too intrigued by the offer to turn it down. After looking around one last time to make sure that no one was watching her, Jihyo dropped the letter on the table of the first years before scurrying off. Her heart was beating out of her chest and she felt like she was close to passing out. She didn’t know how anyone could enjoy going against the rules; she felt absolutely miserable right now. Not being able to be around people any longer, Jihyo wanted to rush off to her dormitory, but before she could leave the library, someone suddenly called her name.

“Jihyo!”

Jihyo didn’t need a second to realize who the voice belonged to and her body froze instantly. Had you caught her red-handed? For a split second, she considered running away, but before she had the chance to, she could already feel your hand on her shoulder. Reluctantly, she turned around with guilt reflecting in her eyes, ready to get yelled at by you.

“Um...I know it’s a little late, but I wanted to apologize to you.”

You mumbled sheepishly and Jihyo’s jaw dropped. That was definitely not what she had expected to hear from you.

“I know that I’m the reason for a lot of your worries and I also know that I took it too far with the incident with Sejoo two weeks back. I’m really sorry about that and I will try my best to make it up to you and the whole house. I’m proud to be a Gryffindor, so I want to make you guys proud in return too from now on.”

You continued while firmly looking into her eyes as if you wanted to convey the seriousness of your words by allowing her a glance into your soul. A glance that Jihyo didn’t want, because she could feel the complete sincerity of your apology and it made her actions even harder to bear. Why did you need to tell her all this now?

“Um...i-it’s a little late for regret now, don’t you think?”

Jihyo stuttered, trying to sound snappish, but her bad conscience forbade her to harm you even more. You didn’t seem to notice the lack of sharpness in her voice though. Instead, you looked like a beaten puppy who was painfully aware of their misdeeds.

“I know and I’m really sorry. I hope you know that this is nothing personal. I’m really grateful that you’re our prefect, no one would be better at this job than you. I’ve never meant to upset you with my actions.”

You smiled sadly, managing to break Jihyo’s heart. What had she done? You didn’t deserve to be suspended and she didn’t deserve your kind words. What person would set somebody up like this? She needed to get that letter back. Panicked, she looked over your shoulder to the table of the first years, but to her sorrow, the Slytherins were nowhere to be seen. They must have left the library already. Looking back at you, she could see that you were anxiously waiting for some kind of response and she would have loved nothing more than to give you the chance to explain yourself. Maybe the two of you had started off on the wrong foot right from the start. But there was no time to talk right now; she needed to get that letter back first.

“I need to go.”

Jihyo exclaimed breathlessly before running out of the library, leaving you behind with a confused expression on your face. Frantically, she ran down the corridor while scanning the passing people. Yellow, blue and red uniforms passed her by but not a single green one.

“Fuck. Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck this shit. FUCK! Where are those little brats??”

She cursed under her breath as she reached the stairs. She had no idea where the Slytherin common room was and even if she did follow another Slytherin student there, she would not know the passwords to enter. Desperately, Jihyo grasped her hair and turned around her own axis. What was she supposed to do now? The castle was too big to find the first years. Panicked, she walked up and down the corridor, trying to think of a way to prevent the fatal consequences of her plan from happening. Her only chance was to stop the first years from going to the Forbidden Forest tonight. If she could intercept the Slytherins on their way to the meeting point, they couldn’t get caught by a preofessor and the letter wouldn’t come into play. It was the only way to make this right.

Therefore, Jihyo reluctantly went to the Gryffindor common room where she waited on the couch in front of the chimney like on pins and needles. The hours passed painfully slow, but after a while one fellow student after the other left the common room to go to bed until Jihyo was the only one left. 11:45, the clock face read, causing her to jump off the couch and to stumble to the exit. Under no circumstances, she could let the first years slip through her fingers; she needed to stop them. Being allowed to roam the hallways after curfew as a prefect, Jihyo didn’t worry about running into any professors and headed straight to the entrance hall where she was just about to open the heavy double doors when they suddenly swung open without her help.

“Oh Ms. Park, I’m glad to meet you here. Look who I’ve found loitering outside.”

Mr. Filch croaked smugly while dragging two of the first years from the library by their robes.

Shit.

Jihyo tried to fake a smile, but on the inside she felt like dying. How was she supposed to change the course of these events now?

“What a lucky catch. Thank you for your assistance, Mr. Filch. I can take them to their head of house.”

She tried to pull the first years to her side, but Mr. Filch tightly clasped their uniforms.

“It’s ok. I will accompany you. I want to propose some punishments.”

He giggled ugly before shoving the scared Slytherins forward. Reluctantly, Jihyo followed them to Professor Snape’s office while martyring her brain to find a solution for this hopeless situation. But there didn’t seem to be one. Before she knew it, Mr. Filch already knocked on the dark oak door to Snape’s office which swung open a second later to reveal the irritated-looking professor.

“What?”

He grumbled and Mr. Filch snickered silently.

“I’ve found two of your students outside. After curfew.”

Mr. Filch put exaggerated emphasis on his last sentence, causing Professor Snape to grunt angrily before motioning all of them to come inside. He looked at the two first years in disgust, making Jihyo wonder why he was the head of Slytherin in the first place.

“P-professor Snape, we can explain.”

One of the Slytherins stuttered anxiously before pulling out Jihyo’s letter from his robe, causing her breath to hitch in her throat. She couldn’t just rip it out of the younger student’s hands and destroy it, right? That would be too suspicious. Instead, she had to watch how Snape took the letter and started reading it grimly before his face lit up suddenly.

“Y/N...”

He mumbled, looking happier than Jihyo had ever seen him before.

“Let’s pay Professor McGonagall a visit.”

Before anyone could disagree with him, Snape already scurried out of the room and the rest of them had to follow him wordlessly. Jihyo didn’t know who looked more miserable right now. The two first years or herself. All of them slouched their shoulders and regret was written all over their faces. Filch and Snape on the other hand resembled two Cheshire cats, especially after bolting into Professor McGonagall’s office.

“Y/N has endangered the lives of two first years. I plead for an immediate suspension.”

Professor Snape blurted out before giving the other professor the chance to process this ambush. Jihyo had never been more distressed in her life to have a plan of hers work out just like she had wanted it to.

“I beg your pardon?”

Professor McGonagall asked confused, causing Snape to snicker in amusement.

“These two students here have willfully been lured into a life-threatening situation by Y/N L/N, your student.”

He repeated himself while handing over Jihyo’s letter. Silently, the head of Gryffindor read the harmful words before sighing in desperation.

“That is a severe delinquency indeed...but I’m sure there must be an explanation for this.”

Professor McGonagall was quick to jump to your defense, causing Jihyo to draw hope that was destroyed a second later though when Snape scoffed dismissively.

“Yes, there is an explanation. Y/N L/N is a danger for this school, or have you forgotten about the incident with Sejoo only two weeks back? As a responsible head of house, I can’t tolerate such behavior.”

He narrowed his eyes and Professor McGonagall straightened up defensively.

“I haven’t forgotten about that, but if I may remind you, it was your student who used a slur about Ms. Park’s decent here that caused this whole incident.”

She bit back while pointing at Jihyo who flinched in surprise. What did Professor McGonagall mean by that?

An unsettling feeling started to form in Jihyo’s stomach, and she gulped thickly. What if everything wasn’t like it had seemed?

“That still doesn’t justify the endangerment of fellow students.”

Snape tried to distract from the misdeeds of his own student, leading to a stare down between the two heads of houses. The tension in the room increased with every second until the door of the office suddenly swung open. Inside came Filch accompanied by you, causing Jihyo’s eyes to widen. She hadn’t even noticed that the caretaker had left the room.

“I’ve taken the liberty to bring L/N in.”

He snickered before shoving you into the room.

You ended up standing next to Jihyo and looked at her nervously.

“W-what is this about?”

You stuttered, trying to sound relaxed although a slight trembling in your voice gave away that your heart had to be pounding in your chest.

“You have been caught red-handed. It’s over.”

Snape grinned while pointing at the letter in Professor McGonagall’s hand. Confused, you frowned, obviously not being able to know what he was talking about.

“Why would you lure them into the Forbidden Forest?”

The head of Gryffindor asked in disappointment and you looked at Jihyo for help.

“I did what?”

The confusion and fright in your voice was unmistakable and Jihyo hung her head in shame.

“Quit playing innocent Y/N. We have all the proof we need!”

Snape yelled causing you to flinch in shock. In reflex, Jihyo immediately grabbed your hand and you squeezed it tightly.

“You’re going down for this! You lured two first years into the Forbidden Forest. They could have died if Mr. Filch wouldn’t have found them in time. I will not let this go until you are suspended for the rest of the year.”

With every word more tears started to pool in your eyes and Jihyo couldn’t manage to avert her gaze from you. You looked so helpless right now and all she wanted to do was to save you from this horrible place.

“I-I don’t know what you are talking about. I have never seen this letter before. Why would I Iure first years into the Forbidden Forest??”

Your voice cracked in desperation, but Snape just kept on accusing you aggressively. After all, you had a history of pranking Slytherins. Jihyo couldn’t imagine how wronged you had to feel right now, and she gently rubbed your hand with her thumb, not knowing whether she was trying to calm you or herself down by doing so. She knew that she could end all this by admitting that it had been her who had left the letter, but despite being a Gryffindor, she wasn’t brave enough to do that. How was she supposed to explain it? How would she be supposed to ever look into your eyes again?

“That’s enough. We’ve understood your point, Professor.”

Professor McGonagall eventually ended Snape’s rant before looking at you with a sad face.

“I see how this incident is out of character for you, Y/N. Nevertheless, I have to agree with Professor Snape, the evidence is overwhelming. Therefore...you are hereby suspended until we can prove your innocence.”

Your jaw dropped, hearing these words from the head of Gryffindor and you looked at Jihyo as if she was your last hope. But she wasn’t strong enough to save you. Instead, she flung her arms around your neck and pulled you against her body.

“I’m so sorry.”

She sobbed, not being able to hold back her own tears anymore. Suddenly, however, she could feel how you started to stroke her back soothingly.

“Hey, it’s ok. This is not your fault.”

You tried to calm her, apparently not suspecting her betrayal in the slightest.

“Y/N, let’s go to your dormitory to get your belongings.”

Professor McGonagall asked you and you pulled away. With a light smile tugging on your lips, you reached out and gently wiped away the tears that were streaming down Jihyo’s cheeks.

“Don’t be sad, your job is actually going to be a lot easier from now on. Although I really would have loved to celebrate our victory in the championship together at the end of the year.”

You chuckled sadly to cheer her up before trying to turn around to leave but Jihyo held on to you and crashed you into her body again. She couldn’t bear to see you cheering her up any longer. Not after what she had done.

“It was me. I wrote the letter.”

She whispered into your ear while new tears streamed down her cheeks.

In disbelief, you separated your bodies and stared at her with betrayal written all over your face, causing her to avert her gaze. Her guilt was squeezing all air out of her lungs and she waited impatiently for you to expose her. This charade was unbearable.

“And here I was thinking that you were starting to like me back... What a foolish thought.”

You chuckled, causing Jihyo’s head to snap up. Slowly, you started to back away from her while grabbing your forehead in disbelief and Jihyo shakily reached out for you.

“Y/N...”

The words in Jihyo’s mind were all jumbled and the only thing she could utter was your name. Why weren’t you yelling at her? Why weren’t you standing up for your innocence? Your calmness and the disappointed look in your face was slowly killing her. She needed you to punish her for her betrayal, but you didn’t show the slightest inclination to do so.

“No, it’s ok. Don’t worry about it.”

You mumbled, still seeming to be dazed due to her confession.

“Y/N, what are you doing? You should expose me...”

Jihyo shook your shoulder lightly, but you only smiled at her.

“Yeah you’re probably right. But I won’t. I could never hurt you like that.”

You shrugged while trying to remove her hand from her shoulder but Jihyo only tightened her grasp.

“What are you talking about, Y/N?”

She furrowed her brow in confusion although the blurry picture in her head was slowly starting to get clearer, revealing a truth that she would have preferred to keep ignoring.

“I genuinely hope that you’re happy now, Jihyo. That’s all I ever wanted. You should look out for Sejoo and his gang though. They don’t like to see a muggle-born in such a powerful position and I don’t know what they will do now that I’m not going to be there anymore.”

With that, you removed her hand from your shoulder and walked up to Professor McGonagall who looked at you apologetically before giving you a sign to leave the room. One last time, you turned around and nothing hurt Jihyo more than to see that the sadness in your eyes still couldn’t manage to erase the affection that reflected in them. She had been so blind all this time...

Who would have thought that she had been the selfish one all along?

[ontheblock]

BABE U WRITE FOR SALLY FACE?? Anything with Travis (male s/o with him obviously) or Sally please :O your writing is amazing!!

YES I DO !! i used to have a bunch of wips i still haven’t finished but i figured i can still add sf to my list since it was such a comfort game when it came out haha. as per usual, this isn’t beta read, i fucked the formatting up twice but just squint when you notice any errors- also thank you love <3 i‘d give you a free bologna sandwich for requesting trav ily. 100% beef obviously /winkwonk

fabric

•warning: abuse, religious guilt, homophobia and f-slur use, bad first kisses, badly written fluff, travis being travis

Travis was meant to live a life molded for him by his father. The pattern was already placed on the fabric when his first cry shook the hospital room at 6:33am. He was supposed to be cut from his father‘s mold but Travis‘ fabric was already old and frayed, the intertwining strings of muted tones that held him together felt lose by the time he could run. Sometimes he thought about the reason why he was incomplete. His fabric wasn‘t strong enough to hold his family name, not stretchy enough to bounce back from his father‘s reactions. Travis‘ mother patched him up every time there was another bruise on his back or face. She would cut parts out of her own fabric to cover the ripped strings her husband‘s belt left on their son. But she had only so much left when the beatings got worse.

Travis was in middle school, attending a christian summer camp a few hours away from Nockfell. He never noticed how different the air was at home but the sky was so murky compared to literally everywhere else. His father thought it was a good idea to let the boy out of town while he took care of the Ministry business which was code for something Travis shouldn‘t stick his nose into. He never asked but someone went missing while he was gone. Tragic.

Not as tragic as the camp counselor calling Travis home on their last day. The boy didn‘t know about that but they told his father about some inappropriate behavior his son showed with a fellow camper - a boy his age, Kenneth didn‘t care for the name or where he was from. All he needed to know was what his son did with that boy. The counselor tried to calm the angry parent on the phone but as soon as the information was exchanged the line went dead. He didn‘t want to hear the washed up excuses. His son was young and it was best to get these urges out of his system before they could even develop - dig for the deepest root you could find and rip it from the still fresh ground before it bloomed into something ugly, even if that meant that the garden would never bloom at all. Kenneth was a man of action after all.

That evening Travis came home clueless while his father already stood in the hallway with his wife behind him, holding onto his hand and uttering whispered quick prayers but his thick fingers already curled around the leather painfully hard. The strain it caused in his hand only fueled the need for a release as he charged for his son who didn‘t even have the chance to slip out of his worn sneakers.

That evening his mother didn‘t stay when Kenneth told her to go to bed early. Travis asked himself if it pained her the same way it pained him when his skin split under the force his father put in his first few strikes.

“You want to hold hands with boys now?“

“My son isn‘t a faggot, is that clear?“

“I gave you a place in this filthy town. You will appreciate it and live a proper life!“

“You will thank me when you don‘t burn for being dirty.“

It wasn‘t meant for Travis to answer because by the end of the night he would not even think about a boy‘s hand to be soft and warm anymore.

Travis was older now but he never found enough of anything to mend the damage his father did that night. Travis didn‘t try to explain that he held onto the boy because they figured that they wouldn’t slip on the wet mud that way. Instead he kept quiet about it ever happening and his father was content with this as long as he pulled his son from the devil‘s path to sodomy.

And Travis thought so too until a thread of blue fabric pulled together a gaping hole in his fabric. It stuck out like a sore thumb - too vibrant but warmer than any patch his mother gave to him and when he sat on the grimy bathroom floor in school after Sal Fisher of all people gave him a fucking pep talk, it felt nice. The warmth let his tears evaporate so he could pull himself together for the rest of the day.

But it was short lived. The warmth spread through him so fast he felt like burning up whenever he sat in class with Sal. He tried everything to get that blue thread out of his life but pulling on it only felt like strangling himself and he regretted ever letting his bully persona slip in that bathroom just because Sal fucking Fisher found the note he threw away - the note that was about him but Travis never had it in himself to tell him that. He regretted his promise to be less of an asshole because he knew he couldn‘t. Not even three days later the heat in his belly was so hot that he boiled over when he saw Fisher talking to that ginger nerd by the lockers. He ended up calling him a faggot because how dare he be openly gay in the same town Kenneth Phelps lived? How dare he be happy like this?

Sal tensed at the insult. Did he actually think Travis could be better? And why was his freakshow friend not hurt at the insult when it still burned in his throat to say it? Why did it feel like the slur wasn‘t meant for Todd at all? Travis swallowed hard as he fled the hallway in such a hurry that the three folded up pamphlets in his barely zipped up backpack fell on the muddy vinyl flooring.

“Fuck, Phleps. Just wait. Travis!“ The boy in question tucked at his collar as he turned a corner just to slip into another empty corridor. They had a free period right after gym class and Sal Fisher was determined to finally talk to the boy who relentlessly bullied him to now avoid him like it was the other way around. “Jesus, I‘m not gonna pry but if your dad-“ Sally harshly bumped into Travis as he whipped around, finally coming to a stop. Shame crawled up the taller teen‘s neck when he didn‘t find the prosthetic nose digging into his sweater uncomfortable.

“Shut up! God, just stop!“ Sal was surprised that he would use his Lord‘s name in vain like that and if the situation was anything but this he would‘ve laughed. “Travis, I don‘t know how you feel but-“, Sal tried again but Travis was at his limits this time. “You don‘t and you never will, Fisher. Your dad would accept you being a dirty faggot but mine doesn’t!“ He tried to fill his words with venom but it all bounced back on the guy‘s mask anyway with how much his voice actually trembled.

There was a moment of silence that made Travis want to literally get struck by his God‘s angry lightning. He couldn‘t even leave. It was like all the root his father dug out slowly crawled back to feed on his shame and ground him in front of Sal who still had to react and maybe Travis should just tell him to fuck off so he wouldn‘t have to find out what he wanted to say next.

“Travis...“ Sal lowered his voice in a fake moment of privacy. “Are you-?“ Travis already shut his eyes as he clenched his fists. He didn‘t like where this was going but there was no more fight in him. “Nevermind. You don‘t owe me shit but I saw your back.“ Travis exhaled through his mouth until there was nothing left in his lungs. He knew where that question was headed. Are you gay, Travis? Are you the faggot and that‘s why you‘re so angry? He was glad that Sal changed his approach because even Travis himself was too scared to find the answer.

“So what, Sally Face? You‘re sticking your nose somewhere it doesn’t belong. If you even have one under that stupid mask.“ Travis harshly pushed his index finger into the boys chest and the sharp inhale he made almost made him freeze up and apologize. But he couldn‘t. He was too deep to go soft now. The look in Sal‘s eyes was enough to make Travis finally stumble backwards and push past him.

He didn‘t follow him this time.

His verbal fights with Sal Fisher were like a damn wake up call for the teen. The rush of warmth it spread in his chest and the cold shiver in sent down his spine were shaking his body every time. He started noticing that Nockfell wasn‘t that murky. Travis used to really like yellow as a child because it reminded him of his mother’s favorite sunflower dress. She was a different woman now. The vibrant yellow was fading just like her hair. Maybe it was just Nockfell, maybe it was because of her suffocating husband draining her of her life and slowly unraveling her fabric. It didn‘t matter now but to make a depressing story short, Travis didn‘t have a favorite color anymore.

But the sky looked like a pretty shade of blue on some days. He never noticed but his bathroom tiles had blue specks in them. He always thought they were just a weird grey. There were tiny flowers blooming in the most vibrant blue behind the school and he wished that they were behind the church too but nothing ever grew around that building. But he would pluck them sometimes when he was skipping gym class. His last fight in the empty hallway was weeks ago and he hoped that Sal finally gave up on his savior complex. But why did his chest sting at that thought? His fingers slowly clutched his sweater as he stared at a withering flower by his foot. Travis jumped out of his thoughts when the metal door creaked open.

“Yo.“ Sal pushed the door closed with his shoe as he held up a hand to casually greet him. His face scrunched up. “What do you want?“ Travis lowered his head again. The boy obviously noticed the fresh shiner on his face already but facing him still felt like he exposed himself. “Just wanted to confirm that the church boy was skipping class.“ Uninvited, the teen sat beside Travis on the grass, with a healthy distance of course. “Shut up. My faith has fuck all to do with school“, Travis spoke lowly but his voice was tired. Sal just hummed in agreement before silence draped over them. Not uncomfortably like the usual strained void of reactions when one of them dropped something they weren‘t prepared for. It felt ok like this and it felt like a blanket. To Travis that blanket was soft and blue but before he could shake it off and stand up there were strings of the obnoxious fabric already weaving themself into his personal space.

“We don‘t have to fight all the time.“ Sal didn‘t look at him and neither did Travis. He really didn‘t have a reason to disagree. Not one that wouldn’t blow his cover at least.

“Maybe I could come to your little church and-“ Travis head snapped up. “Don‘t“, he blurted out a little louder than he meant. “It‘s a joke. I‘m not religious.“ Sal snorted, plucking a few pieces of grass. “Yeah, because you‘re a sinner in the eyes of the Lord. You f-“ Travis had to physically stop himself by biting his lip. Sal looked over at him and Travis wished he didn‘t. “Sorry“, Travis mumbled, refusing to meet his eyes, or eye since he was pretty sure his other eye never moved before. “I‘m trying to not call people that anymore.“ because all I hear is my father saying it.

“It‘s cool.“ It wasn‘t. “Why are you skipping?“ Travis huffed. It was weird to not let the conversation derail into verbal abuse. “I don‘t know. I fell. Hit my head on the door pretty bad. As you can see.“ Sal just hummed. “That‘s why you‘re limping, too?“ Travis blurted out a “yes“ a little too fast. Why was he nervous? His whole school life already revolved around cover up stories about the strange aches and bruises he got out of nowhere.

“Right.“ Sal let it slide, again. “You‘re acing algebra, Fisher.“ It wasn‘t a question so Sal didn‘t say anything. “Hmm.“ Travis cursed himself for never learning proper social skills but his father didn‘t like him bringing strangers into the house and his teen years were a constant feeling of push and pull of picking fights with boys that sparked an ugly tingle in his belly.

“You need a tutor?“ The silence seemed to be enough for Sal. Fuck him and his open fucking hand. “Maybe.“ Travis flicked a flower with his finger, dismissing the clear offer because his stomach ignited at the fact that Sal didn‘t hate him enough yet. “Maybe there is a tutor in Addisons Appartement, Room 402, who‘s free on the weekend.“ Sal couldn‘t help but smile under his mask as Travis huffed. “Fuck you, Fisher.“

Sal already forgot about his offer when lunch passed and his dad stood in the kitchen, washing their dishes, enjoying the background noise of his son watching TV with his cat. They were so engrossed in the VHS tape Sal put on that he didn‘t hear the door until his dad whistled from the kitchen. “Sally, door.“

“Huh? Oh. Yes, dad.“ He jumped to his feet, leaving Gizmo to the slasher movie he seemed to like. “Weird, Larry said he‘s busy“, Sal mumbled, opening the front door. “Oh.“ It was a knee jerk reaction from Sal because he expected everyone but Travis Phelps to knock at his door and truth be told, he looked like he‘d rather be anywhere else with the way his awkward greeting caught in his throat and died on his tongue as a huff. His eyes followed the way the blue strands hung over Sal‘s shoulders, the mask straps upsetting the smooth texture as a few chunks hung over the elastics. Travis hasn’t seen him with his hair down. He looked smaller in big sweatpants and a band shirt too.

“Travis?“ The boy‘s eyes snapped back to the mask in front of him. “So, algebra?“ Sal tilted his head a smidge. A small habit he picked up to better communicate what would otherwise be shown in his facial features. But it made Travis want to scream for a multitude of reasons as heat crept up his neck. “Obviously.“

Anyone else would‘ve told him to fix his tone or fuck off but Sal held open the door for him. It felt wrong but Travis took the invitation, rubbing his clammy hands on his pants. “Who is it?“, a deeper voice called and Travis almost jumped. He had to remind him this wasn‘t Kenneth. Mr Fisher wasn’t anything like his dad and he didn’t have to be on edge around the boy. “A friend“, Sal replied shortly, only getting an approving hum.

A friend. Did Sal see him as a friend? He couldn‘t dwell on it since he was pulled into the boy‘s bedroom that looked nothing like his. “Just sit anywhere.“ Sal wildly gestured into the room and Travis sat on the barely made bed as Sall dropped his books next to him.

Travis felt like there was something breathing down his neck the entire time they sat on Sal‘s bed. His shirt collar felt like it was about to cinch his neck closed, the dangling cross necklace he kept under his shirt felt hot to the touch like it burned the shape of Jesus into his chest with every sinful thought that crossed his mind as Sal explained the most bland and unerotic subject.

“Travis?“ The boy almost choked on his own spit.

“Romans 1:26-27.“ Travis stumbled over his own words but the verse was engraved into his head after writing and reciting it for a month straight under the stern eye of his father. There was a briefe silence for a moment.

“What?“ Sal looked up from the book in his lap.

“What?“ Travis felt breathless as he stared back at Sal. “Nothing“, he quickly added before Sal could even say anything else. “Explain that again?“ But he didn‘t. Instead, Sal pushed the book off his thigh, still staring the boy down. “Did you really come here for algebra, dude?“ No. “Yes.“ Travis fiddled with the hem of his shirt, not knowing if it was anxiety, anger or just bile scratching against his stomach lining to crawl out of him.

When Sal didn‘t say anything else Travis just reached over the boys lap to take the book himself but there was already a hand pressing against his shoulder. Travis hissed as he pulled his arm back, making Sal pull back just as fast. They stared at each other for a moment before Sal‘s gaze darted to his shoulder. “You fell pretty hard on that door.“ Travis clenched his jaw. “Shut up, Fisher, and back the fuck up.“

The boy shook his head, scooting away an inch. “Listen, you can say no because I would too but I can at least get you ointment for that.“ Sal gestured to his back and shoulder and something in Travis just crumbles as he lets his hands drop into his lap, staring them down to not look at Sal. “Ok. If it gets you off my back you parasite.“

Travis didn‘t plan this when he knocked on the apartment door. He expected to maybe stay 20 minutes before something would make him see red but all he saw was blue. Maybe he was cursed. All these years of plucking out the roots his father couldn’t reach were rendered worthless now that he sat on the rough carpet, holding his shirt up as Sal dug out the ointment.

How did he even get here? His heart beat in his throat when he felt a presence behind him. He felt the need to say something. He wanted to make it clear that this meant nothing to not make it weird but wouldn‘t that make it weirder? Wasn‘t this the same as his mother putting a bandaid on his cuts and whatever herbal mixture on his wounds? It wasn’t because he never felt the sick urge to kiss his mother.

“Ready?“, Sal asked, kneeling behind him with a glob of cool ointment on his index and middle finger. Fucking hell, why did he have to make it weird? He definitely had to say something now.

“It was my dad.“ Travis spoke fast enough to mutter his words but the long pause probably meant that Sal heard him anyway. He wanted to melt into the carpet, leave behind a stain on the boy‘s floor to annoy him just one last time. He didn‘t know what he expected him to say to that and he also didn‘t know why that was the thing he had to say. But Sal made it easy on him by just not answering at all. Instead, he dabbed the cream on the first bruise, making Travis inhale sharply but otherwise biting his tongue. Sal figured that Travis wanted to act tough by not showing that it hurt but actually, Travis didn‘t trust his voice under Sal‘s soft fingertips.

“Travis“, Sal spoke again. Travis wasn‘t sure if he hated the heavy silence more of the fact that Sal was the first to say something while he was rubbing little circles into his back. He didn‘t answer but that never held Sal back.

“Are you gay?“ His voice was so quiet that Travis wouldn‘t have heard it if they sat a little further apart but it had the same effect as screaming it for all of Nockfell to hear. Sal felt him tense up under his touch, already expecting him to jump up or at least yell at him. But neither of them did anything. Sal‘s fingers rested against the heating skin, feeling it rise with every ragged breath he managed to take. “Travis-“

“Fuck, Sal. What? Do you want me to tell you about the times my dad beat the gay out of me or do you prefer that time I wanted to kiss you in that gross fucking bathroom?“, the teen finally barked, letting his words sink in first before he hissed a quiet “shit“. The fingers on his back pulled away as Sal sat on his heels. “You wanted to kiss me?“, Sal repeated, slower than Travis but he just pressed the balls of his hands into his eyes until he saw shapes and felt like the pressure would crush his face. He heard Sal shuffle around the room, probably getting ready to throw him out like he should‘ve done a while ago. But the shuffling stopped in front of him and something told him not to look but cold hands were already on his wrists to peel his cramping hands from his face. Travis opened his eyes just in time to see that mask uncomfortably close but before he could say anything, there was an odd sensation on his lips with minimal pressure. Sal was kissing him and it snuffed the flame in his stomach for just a moment, allowing the torched butterflies to unfold their wings and fly high enough to even make his heart pump overtime. But the feeling was lost just as soon when Sal inched backwards, pulling his prosthetic back in place before Travis could even take any of this in.

“Sorry.“ Sal threw it into the room for Travis to interpret. But the gears in his head threatened to jump out of place already so he reached out to Sal who already flinched backwards, holding onto his mask. “You don‘t want that.“ Sal pushed his hand back a little. “How would you know?“ Travis furrowed his brows at him but he was thankful. He wasn‘t sure if he could take seeing the boy bare like that but he was craving that feeling his father tried to snuff so desperately.

Sal just shook his head as Travis inched closer. “I‘ll close my eyes.“ Now it was Sal‘s turn to hole up in silence, knowing that neither of them could handle the mask coming off. Something made him trust Travis‘ words as he opened the bottom clasp which was the cue for Travis to shut his eyes. He did and seconds later he felt Sal on him again. One hand clamping over his eyes just to make sure and the other fisting the front of his shirt.

This time Travis felt the cleft in Sal‘s lip and the scar tissue ripping up the soft skin. He leaned into the kiss. Where were his hands supposed to go? When Travis didn‘t find the answer his body moved on autopilot. One hand threaded through the surprisingly smooth strands as the other clung to the small of his back.

Travis should‘ve been grossed out by the drool pooling out of Sal‘s torn lip but he wasn‘t. He should be grossed out by Sal being a boy but he wasn‘t. When Sal pulled back he kept his hand over Travis‘ eyes while the other wiped the spit off his chin. The kiss alone was enough to patch up his murky fabric with bright blue strings that dominated the colors his father painted him in. Travis didn‘t know what would happen after high school. Hell, he didn‘t even know what would be tomorrow. But he didn‘t want the bright fibers to unravel him again.

A knock on the door startled both of them, making Sal pull his arm away and Travis rapidly blinking. He didn‘t notice the mangled face first as the unruly blue caught his eye. His hand did that. His heart beat in his throat again as he overheard Sal‘s father say something and Sal shooting a hum of agreement back. His prosthetic was already on his face again before Travis could catch anything besides the scar tissue crawling up his jaw and chin before splitting his lips and exposing teeth and gum.

Maybe blue was his favorite color.

[corvus--rex]

So, to start off with, these are a little rough. Mostly cleaned up for spelling/grammar, but there are things that are more like placeholder notes in exposition form that would be written out if I went back to it.

This one's working title is Quantum Fracture, is "in universe" non-canon compliant, and is set both near the end of s.2 after ep.9, and a few years post s.8. It's also only semi-abandoned. I like it and want to keep going with it, but I've hit a wall and just can't do anything with it right now. It has (sort-of) time travel and "Galra genetics are weird" resulting in Klance kids. It does also switch between times, but those sections have punctuation separators.

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

“Lance, Pidge, keep watch on the area. Keith, Hunk, and I will go down to check it out,” Shiro said over the comms.

“Got it.”

“Copy that.”

Green and Blue split off from the V-formation, flying over the asteroid while Black, Red, and Yellow landed on its surface. Lance and Pidge kept a visual track on their friends while keeping their scanners active for anything in the area. Team Voltron had been on their way back to the Castle after liberating another planet from the Galra Empire when Pidge’s more finely-tuned scanners picked up on what looked like an abandoned Galra base embedded in an asteroid. Shiro made the call to check it out and let Allura and Coran know what was going on, keeping Lance and Pidge on watch. The Black Paladin took point, with Keith right behind him. Hunk brought up the rear, man-portable cannon ready for whatever might try to sneak up on them. The facility was powered down, a layer of dust on every surface.

“Looks like it really is abandoned,” Keith said, “I don’t think there’s anyone or anything left here.”

“Agreed, but I want to complete a sweep of the facility. Never know what might have been left behind,” Shiro replied.

They continued on, not making any real effort at stealth, but only made it about another 20 feet before a side door creaked and flew open, Keith finding himself blown out into space, despite Hunk’s effort to prevent it. Keith tried to use his jetpack to redirect himself and head back to the facility, but there was just enough gravity generated by the density of the asteroid field to pull him toward the nearest surface. He bounced off the next asteroid, damaging his jetpack in the process. It sent him away from the asteroid field and into open space.

This isn’t how this was supposed to go, Keith thought as he floated in the void, then realized just how much Lance was rubbing off on him. His back hit a second, smaller asteroid, and he bounced off into the nothingness. Come on, Red. Where are you?

He felt the shift in the vacuum an instant before the sensors in his armor picked it up. The short chirp announced the sensors’ findings, bringing it up on the HUD. The display’s minimal capabilities showed the slight variant, a faint ripple in the fabric of space.

“The fuck is that?” he asked the void of space.

He hadn’t expected an answer, and didn’t get one. What he did get was the familiar mental pressure of the red Lion, immediately followed by the equally familiar golden glow of the robotic cat’s eyes. Red swallowed the paladin’s free-floating body, and he rolled through the slowly pressurizing corridor before the artificial gravity activated. He had only just taken his seat in the cockpit when he heard Pidge shouting across the comms.

“Keith! Are you ok? There was a spatial-temporal fluctuation right next to you.”

“Yeah, I felt it, but I'm ok,” he answered, exhausted from the mission and subsequent launch into space.

Green came up alongside Red, guiding them back to the Castle, Blue right behind them. Once the three Paladins were back aboard the Castle of Lions, Pidge insisted that Keith go to the medical deck, just in case.

“Ok, fine, Pidge. But I'm fine. Really,” Keith protested while simultaneously giving in.

She didn’t trust him to really go, but she was also concerned with the anomaly she found, so didn’t question it when Lance volunteered to make sure Keith went.

“Keith, what were you thinking?” Lance asked when they were alone.

“I don’t know what happened. It wasn’t anything I did and Hunk and Shiro will figure it out. Pidge is more worried about the space-time ripple we encountered. But I'm fine. Really.”

Blue’s Paladin stopped in the middle of the empty corridor. “You scared me, cuervo. I saw you get ejected into empty space without Red or any of us nearby. Pidge said she was going after you, but still…it scared me.”

“I don’t think we should hide anymore. I think it’s time to let the team in on our secret.”

The pair had been dating secretly for a month at that point, intentionally keeping their relationship from the rest of the team. Keith didn’t think they would have been taken seriously to begin with, and Lance agreed. After a late-night talk, they both decided to give it time and let themselves settle into their budding relationship. But it was beginning to make them behave differently, especially on missions. They became focused on where the other was and it was causing mistakes. This last mistake could have been deadly, although Keith was right, he hadn’t done or not done anything that led to the deserted Galra base’s small side door opening and pulling the Red Paladin into the cold vacuum of space.

“Yeah, I think you might be right,” Lance admitted.

Keith took his boyfriend’s hand, linking their fingers together, and headed toward the medical deck. Coran met them there, no doubt having been called by Pidge. Keith was thoroughly checked over by way of the Castle’s scanners, and as far as they could tell, not a molecule was out of place. After finding out that Keith was at least partly Galra, Pidge and Hunk had thrown themselves into a reprograming project to the medical deck’s scanners, integrating human biological standards. They were surprised to find that the scanners were already programmed with Galra standards, and that was when Coran told the entire team about the original Paladins, Zarkon included.

Instead of the lounge or one of their bedrooms, Lance and Keith instead went to one of the Castle’s many observation balconies. Once they were alone, Keith let himself crumble, wrapping his arms around his boyfriend and holding on as tightly as he could. Lance gently returned the physical connection, understanding that the events of the morning had affected him more than he would let on in front of anyone else. He waited until he could feel the tension drain and knew that Keith was just sneaking middle of the day snuggling.

“You better now?” Lance asked.

Keith sighed softly against Lance’s neck. “Yeah, I think so. We should probably go see what Pidge found before anyone wonders where we went.”

“I don’t wanna,” he protested, holding on tighter.

Keith laughed and pulled away. “Well, if we stop keeping all this a secret, we won’t have to worry about where and when anymore.”

“Ugh. I guess.” Lance’s tone was overdramatic as usual, but his blue eyes sparkled with excitement at the idea of being open about his relationship.

Stepping backward out the door, Keith led the way toward the Lions’ hangars and Pidge’s lab. Halfway down the second to last corridor, Keith tripped over the smooth floor. He caught himself mid-stumble and stopped completely.

“Keith?” Lance asked, “Mi cuervo, you ok?”

_~*~_~*~_~*~_

“Keith! What the fuck was that?” Lance called over the comm.

“Dunno, but my speeder’s sensors caught it. Heading back now,” Keith answered from inside his modified speeder.

Modified, that was, by Pidge, who had retrofitted all of the Lions’ speeders to be able to fly in space. They were still fairly short-range, not capable of straying far from the Lions. It meant that Keith was still in visual range of Red when the Lion’s sensors spiked with the anomaly’s fluctuation.

Lance was waiting at the door to the cockpit when Keith came in. The tail of the raised French braid that normally ran halfway down his back was draped over his shoulder. Lance had insisted on braiding his husband’s hair that morning. Keith had groaned and asked why, seeing as it was just a simple recon mission. “Because you’re pretty, the twins are at school, we have time, and I felt like it,” was the list of reasons Lance rattled off as he made Keith sit. He didn’t mind it, but they usually saved more complex braids for diplomatic missions, not “drive down the street for space readings” missions.

Keith had had his second puberty while in the Quantum Abyss with Krolia, and it ended up being a good thing she was there. Alone, he would have assumed that the abdominal cramping, chills, fever, nausea, and full-body pain meant that he was dying. Krolia, however, recognized the symptoms of the shift in her son’s body to that of a Carrier and becoming physically capable of conceiving and carrying a baby. She told him that his half-human status may well have rendered him infertile, but they didn’t have the resources to look into it at the time, and the middle of a war wasn’t the time to worry about it. So it surprised both Keith and Lance when he found himself pregnant not long after the war ended, and they welcomed their twins Andra and Ori five and a half months later after a normal Galra-length pregnancy. The twins birth records had their names down as Andromeda Artemis and Orion Fenris Kogane-McClain, names that were called with increasing frequency now that the twins were five.

Keith sat himself in the pilot’s seat, pulling up the sensor readings from both Red and the speeder. They looked the same to both himself and Lance, but Pidge would be able to make better sense of them. But something about the anomaly was bothering Keith. It took a good minute of staring at the readings to realize that it was similar to how spacetime behaved near the core of the Quantum Abyss. And something about thatbothered him even more.

“You ok, cuervo?” Lance asked, leaning against the edge of the display panel.

“Yeah,” Keith sighed, “Just something about that anomaly reminds me of the Quantum Abyss. We’ll get it to Pidge and figure it out.”

The trip back to the new Castle was short, Red bypassing the reconfigured IGF-Atlas and heading directly for his hangar on the original Castle of Lions. After the end of the Galra War and the brief, but intense, war with Honerva, the Voltron Coalition needed a permanent – and mobile – base. The Atlas reshaped itself, wrapping around the Castle like the defensive walls of an ancient castle around its keep. Its completed size rivaled that of Galra Central Command, now the seat of the newly-formed Galra Collective.

Team Voltron’s power couple – beating out Shiro’s marriage to Adam – crossed the distance to Green’s hangar, where Pidge still maintained her personal lab. They found her buried in her multi-screen setup, one screen dedicated to the call she was on with her long-distance Olkari girlfriend Malyn, the others covered in technical readouts, diagrams, and blueprints.

“We’re back,” Keith announced when they walked in.

“Oh good. Anything weird happen out there?” Pidge said, taking Keith’s comm.

“The anomaly is behaving like the core of the Quantum Abyss.”

Pidge shoved the device into her computer a little harder than she intended. Except for her ongoing call, she wiped everything off the other screens, replacing what was on them with the readouts from both Red and the speeder. Her amber eyes flicked from screen to screen, already analyzing.

“I’m really sorry, Malyn. I have to call you later.”

“Of course. Is everything all right?” Malyn asked, concern laced in her voice.

“I’m not sure yet. We found a spatial-temporal anomaly, but it’s behaving differently from anything similar I’ve seen. Maybe…there was one…nah, that was different…”

Malyn laughed, she always found her girlfriend’s analytical mind adorable. “I’ll let you get to that. We’ll talk later.”

“Hm? Oh, yeah. I'm sorry, Malyn. We’ll talk again later, promise,” Pidge apologized again, but Malyn waved her off, still laughing, and cut the call.

“So, you'll let us know when you’ve found something?” Lance prompted.

“What? Yeah. Right. This is weirder than anything I've ever seen like this…”

Lance and Keith shared a look, knowing that Pidge was fully invested in the data and that she wouldn’t leave her computer unless she was physically removed. Deciding on the tactical retreat, they left her to it, heading back to their apartment on the Castle.

The Atlas hadn’t been the only thing to be reconfigured. The Castle of Lions had undergone its own renovations, the old single rooms turned into apartment-like suites. Shiro and Adam maintained Garrison positions onboard the Atlas, but retired to the Castle at the end of every day. Lance and Keith settled into their apartment after their two month long honeymoon. Hunk was splitting his time between the Castle and Balmera, sharing his space with Shay when they were there. Pidge mostly used hers as an excuse for more tech and a separate workspace, but Malyn stayed there with her when she could get time away from rebuilding Olkarion under Ryner’s guidance. Coran had decided to keep his old room the way it was, and Allura felt that her own rooms didn’t need the upgrade. The rest of the rooms stayed the same for the new Altean crew running the ship at a proper capacity.

It wasn’t until they got back that Keith realized Pidge still had his comm. “Well, shit. I’ll be back,” he said, heading for the door.

Lance decided to follow him out into the corridor.

“Why?”

“Because,” Lance answered, “I have nothing better to do and I can watch you walk away all day.”

“What the fuck, Lance?” Keith groaned in mock frustration.

“No, that’s after we get your comm.”

Keith turned, intending to call Lance out on exposing him like that, but stumbled, relieved that Lance was close enough to catch him.

“You alright, cuervo?”

“Yeah, I'm fine. Just tripped,” he said, but stopped. Something was wrong. He could feel the braid hanging over his shoulder from when he stumbled, felt the strength in Lance’s arms. No, this was wrong. He looked up. There was a small scar he didn’t remember being there, and the blue Altean marks were definitely new. His own body felt foreign. It was shaped differently, taller and broader than it should be. His voice was different, a little deeper, a little huskier than it should be. “Lance?”

“Keith, love, are you really ok?”

“I…I don’t know.”

Lance helped him to stand, leading him back to their apartment. Once inside, he sat Keith on the couch. “What happened? Exactly,” he asked.

“What does – is this about the anomaly? I told you before that I'm fine. We had Coran check me out. There was nothing wrong. Where are we anyway?”

“We didn’t have Coran check you out. There’s an entire medical crew for that anyway. We’re home, on the Castle. What do you remember from this morning?” Lance’s entire tone was cautious. Something was very wrong with his husband, but he wanted to have at least some answers before bringing it up with anyone else.

“We were coming back from a mission and stopped to check out an abandoned Galra base in an asteroid field. One of the side doors opened and I got blown out. There was a ripple in space-time, and I got close to it in nothing but my armor before Red came to get me. But I'm fine. I told both you and Pidge that.”

Lance remembered that mission. Overall, it was unremarkable. The base didn’t have anything useful. But there hadn’t been any temporal fluctuations. Yes, Keith had ended up floating through the void, but nothing happened other than that. The only reason he remembered that mission in particular was because that was when they decided to tell the team that they were together. It had been ten years since that mission.

“Ok. I do remember that. But, that was ten years ago. That was when we decided to tell the team that we’d been dating for a month.”

Keith’s face flickered between shock, bewilderment, and terror. Ten years? There was no way that could be right. But the evidence was right there. His own body and voice were different. He could see and feel how long his hair had gotten. And then there was Lance. He was beautiful as ever, and it certainly seemed that they were still together, but he was different. The scar, the Altean marks – how and when the fuck did that happen, and why? – and there was the fact that he was broader, more muscled, not slender and willowy like he had been. He processed everything in real time, not saying a word in that time. It had apparently been longer than he thought, because Lance was looking up at him from where he’d tilted his head to the side.

“Keith? Mi cuervo? What is going on?”

“You…you still call me that? It really has been ten years?”

“This has to be related to that anomaly,” he muttered. “Yeah, it’s really been ten years. And, yeah, I do still call you that. A lot’s changed in ten years, but not that. Stay here. I need to show you something. It might help.” Lance stood, leaving the room for their bedroom, coming back in less than a minute. He extended his free hand, bringing Keith over to the table where they both sat. Lance placed a ring of smoothly twisted and woven silver metal and carved crystal that shifted between blood red, cobalt, and vibrant violet on the table between them. “Do you remember this?” he asked softly, “Do you remember when I gave you that?”

Keith stared at it like if he could untwist it mentally, he could remember what it was. But he couldn’t, because Lance had never given him anything like it. It was definitely something he could see Lance picking for him, but as far as Keith knew, he never had.

“No, I don’t,” he had to admit.

Lance sighed, a tinge of sadness to it. “Ok. Something happened with the temporal anomaly we found earlier and that Pidge is still analyzing. I know you’re really Keith, but I don’t think you're my Keith. What you said happened this morning happened ten years ago for me. We need to go check in with Pidge and see if she’s figured anything out yet.”

“Ok,” Keith agreed, rising to follow Lance, “I shouldn’t know anything else. Not yet. But at least I know we’re still together.”

“We certainly are,” Lance agreed, taking Keith’s hand, “We’ll figure this out. That anomaly might have fucked with your memories somehow, but we’ll figure it out.”

_~*~_~*~_~*~_

“Yeah, fine.” Keith stood on his own, suddenly realizing that they shouldn’t have been a corridor and a half away from Green’s hangar, they should have been close to their apartment in a completely different part of the castle. Everything seemed ever so slightly bigger, except for himself and Lance. His braid was gone, and he was wearing clothes he hadn’t seen in years. And Lance looked so young. This was the thin, wiry boy he’d fallen in love with more than ten years before. The one without the Altean marks he’d gotten when Allura revived him after saving her from an energy blast. But he heard Lance call him by that familiar pet name. That alone left Keith with more questions.

“We need to see if Pidge’s gotten anywhere with that anomaly,” Lance said.

“Yeah,” Keith agreed. When had his voice gotten higher?

Keith stopped when they walked into Pidge’s lab. It wasn’t what he was expecting. This was the lab of a decade earlier. The one with the laptop she’d brought from Earth along with the equipment she had either repurposed or built from scratch. It startled him, and he froze in place.

“Keith, seriously, are you ok?”

“I…I don’t know anymore. Everything is wrong. Where is everyone else?”

“Hunk and Shiro are heading back from the abandoned base now. That door just malfunctioned after going so long without maintenance. And there was absolutely nothing important there,” Pidge answered, still focused on her computer screen. She realized part of what he said and turned around. “Wait, what do you mean ‘everything is wrong’?”

“You’re looking at a spatial-temporal anomaly, but it didn’t happen now. There shouldn’t have been one here. I…I think I might be from your future. Or, at least, sort of. I don’t look any different to you, do I?”

“No. You don’t. Get back to the part where you think you're from the future.”

“I don’t know how much I should tell you. I don’t know if it could upset the timeline. But I know when I am now.” He turned to Lance. “It’s been about a month now, right? And we had that talk?”

Lance nodded, trying to understand just what his boyfriend was saying about the future. “Yeah, and we did talk about it. Just a few minutes ago. But if you're from the future, I don’t know if talking about that now will help. It also doesn’t answer the question of if you’re Future Keith, what happened to Present Keith?”

“I don’t know. Best case, he switched places with me. He’ll be confused and probably a little scared, but I know he’s in good hands there. Fuck it feels weird talking about myself in the third person. Have you found out anything about the anomaly here?” he asked Pidge.

“Well, I think so, but I've never seen anything like this before.”

Keith came up behind her, looking over their temporal disruption. It was identical to the one he’d found in his time. He had no question now that he had switched bodies with his 18-year-old self. But at least there were a few things he didn’t need to worry about hiding. He knew he was at least partly Galra at this point. He wouldn’t meet Krolia for a little while, so he would have to keep that one to himself. But it also meant that he hadn’t been through the Quantum Abyss yet. There was no way he could tell them about that without explaining everything. He would have to be subtle with asking about the war.

“I have, but I can’t tell you anything specific. Like where, why, or how. And even knowing what it is, I don’t have your science brain, Pidgey. I have no idea how it works.”

Both Pidge and Lance were staring at him. Not because of what he said, but how he said it. He’d picked up a lot of linguistic quirks from Lance over the years, and no longer gave it any thought at all.

“You sound like Lance,” Pidge said finally.

“We’ve all spent a lot of time together over ten years,” Keith replied, avoiding the real question.

“Sure. What canyou tell me about this?”

Keith pulled Hunk’s usual seat over, sitting beside her. Lance perched on an empty spot of desk space, suddenly wanting to be closer to his boyfriend, or whatever he was at that point.

“It’s specific to a single point in space, but not this one. But that’s the problem. I can’t tell you anything about where it is or what it is because you haven’t gotten there yet. All I can say is that space and time work very differently there due to massive fluctuations in gravity, which is why this doesn’t make any sense.”

“Because there’s something there that affects the gravity in a way that it doesn’t where we found it.”

“Basically. It’s more like what affects gravity there doesn’t exist anywhere else, especially where this anomaly was found. It’s also far smaller here than it should be. Like the difference in scorch marks between Lance’s rifle and Hunk’s autocannon.”

“So, this anomaly is a precise shot, and where it should be is a huge mess,” Lance said.

“Pretty much,” Keith agreed, “But I really can’t tell you about it because there’s something vital to the war there and I don’t know how it would change things if you found out about it now. It wouldn’t be good. There are other players you don’t know about yet.”

Pidge continued typing away at her laptop, the 3D render of the anomaly rotating on the screen. Lance wanted to watch the progress, but he couldn’t focus on it. His attention was solely on Keith. Except for his earlier phrasing, he didn’t think Pidge had picked up on just how different he was. Body language, mannerisms, almost everything had changed in some way except for his physical appearance. And there was one thing Lance had noticed almost immediately after Keith started talking about the anomaly. He was pretty sure Keith wasn’t aware of it, but he had been running his left thumb across the ring finger of the same hand, like there was something missing. Lance thought about bringing it up, but decided not to, heavily suspecting Keith would just say that it was something else he couldn’t talk about.

~*~*~*~

Links to the rest of the series:

1 | 2 | 3* | 4 | 5* | 6* | 7 | 8 | 9* | 10 | 11 | 12* | 13 | 14 | 15* | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19*

[elliewritessometimes]

IT’S @mattieswheelers BIRTHDAY!!! HAPPY BIRTHDAY LOVELY WE LOVE YOU SO MUCH

beCAUSE of this, myself and @notsomightymightytiger decided to steal tea leaf’s time travelling mattie au and create a whole entire fic with their ideas and also a design that @ari-is-anxious did a while back!! hope you enjoy aaaaaaa <3333 aLSO stabbies try and spot as many starboard references as you can heheheh 

this can be read on ao3 here if you prefer the format :)

tw: swearing, murder (it’s minor and resolved tho jsgh), religion (nicco my love read with care), blood, i really hope i haven’t missed anything please do let me know if i missed anything

-

Mattie had always been able to time travel. For as long as she could remember, her walk-in wardrobe had been lined with silver metal and held no clothes at all. As a child, this made it all the more exciting, though as she grew older and actually started to want to own clothes, it became a little inconvenient. She supposed all great inventions came with some kind of sacrifice.

Her uncle had made the time machine as a gift when Mattie was born. Her parents, like any basic adults, assumed the wardrobe-sized box was simply a toy and had taken no interest in it. Mattie, from the age of about three when her curiosity had really set in, was the one who discovered that the machine was in fact a working portal and not just a children’s toy. Since then, she had been happily travelling time and space during the darkest hours of night.

(You may have entirely valid concerns about a three year old having full access to time travel - luckily, not just for Mattie’s safety but also that of the entire human race, her uncle had set what were effectively child locks on a lot of the controls. These were diminished the day that Mattie turned thirteen. Uncle Calvin had always been a little weird, but he certainly wasn’t heartless.)

-

Usually, Mattie’s time travel didn’t affect her life. Sure, it made for some pretty awkward conversations as Mattie spurted some knowledge which could never have been explained through a textbook, but those could often be blamed on watching too much Horrible Histories as a child (“Mattie, I swear to God, you’re so bageling British, and yet you’ve never been there, I don’t understand.” “Horrible Histories is a masterpiece! You’re just jealous that you’re too American to have seen it.” “Actual asshole of a child.” “Farrah-!”).

It was going well until Mattie’s freshman year at Giles Corey. And then three of her fellow highschoolers were murdered. And suddenly Mattie had a way to prevent that from happening.

In some stroke of luck, she passed out at the sleepover and didn’t find out about the murders until she was sitting in the back of a cop car, driving to her house to pick up her things. She remembered thinking how weird it was that she wasn’t being taken straight to the station, but brushed that away in favour of ‘going into her wardrobe to change out of her bloody clothes’.

The time machine was cold like it always was and that forced her out of her muddled state quickly enough. She thought back to the victims. Chess. Farrah. Clark. Snapping on her goggles, she pressed a button, whirled backwards through time and space, and appeared at the gate to Riley’s neighbour’s house.

She really wished that she had actually changed her outfit - the damp blood turned cold with the breeze and sent shivers up her spine. The smell perhaps or just her sudden appearance startled the neighbour’s dogs into a frenzy. A figure, Chess, unharmed and merely confused instead of terrified, stood up from Riley’s bench, calling into the darkness. Mattie’s breath caught in her throat. The second figure, knife glinting in the dim streetlight, slipped out of the back door. Their red hair shone in the reflection of the knife with a sick kind of beauty.

Mattie could have stopped them there, taken the knife from the assailant’s grasp, prevented the tragedy of the evening. But she didn’t. She just watched.

Three minutes later, after arriving back in her present time and pressing yet another button on the wall of her closet, she watched the same scene unfold in the bathroom with a much younger victim. Twenty minutes after that, the third attack. This one was different though, an accident.

Still a little desperate and overly conscious of the police officer standing guard outside of her bedroom, she reappeared in her wardrobe, putting on a jumper before turning back time a little further. She appeared in a gymnastics centre as a girl around Mattie’s age did wolf turns on a beam. A coach entered the scene from the sidelines as the girl stopped spinning, her distinctive plait falling still against her back. Something in Mattie ached at the sight of Chess so lively and innocent, willing to give up her life for her dream of succeeding in her sport. As the two wandered into a side room, picking up water with a smile, Mattie edged forwards, collecting soft gym mats as she went. Within minutes, the area surrounding the beam had been double layered with cushioning, and Mattie could only pray that her plan would work. She’d seen enough YouTube videos to know what happened next.

Chess emerged again with her coach, hopping back up onto the beam with practiced ease. Again, Mattie was forced to just watch as she went down into her wolf turn, then rose up, did a split leap across at least half of the beam, and jumped into a twist to land on the floor. It was a messy landing, the gymnast’s ankle caving in on itself, knee twisting unnaturally in the air, before coming down hard onto her side. But, unlike in the previous videos, there wasn’t a resounding crack, only a weak cry of pain as Chess stumbled back to her feet.

Mattie grinned despite herself as snippets of conversation drifted her way.

“-not broken, don’t worry-”

“The Olympics seem out of the picture…”

“Get her a drink to numb the pain! Yes, limeade’s perfect-!”

Mattie arrived in her room again with a whole plethora of new information just inserted into her mind like it had been there all along. There was no longer and never had been a police officer outside her door. Her shirt was clean, her head undamaged. Chess didn’t go to the Olympics, but still did gymnastics in her spare time as her knee made a full and quick recovery. Farrah wasn’t dropped. Riley, in some weird twist of fate, went to the same therapist as Mattie. Life was… good for the Giles Corey Tigers.

Across town, the sleepover was still going ahead as normal. From what weird memories she just gained, Mattie knew that the team was at a rocky patch, their personalities still clashing in any iteration of the evening. But, with some relief, she knew that it would never in this timeline be bad enough for murder to even be considered as an answer. Her phone buzzed. The lies came easily as she covered up her mysterious disappearance from the sleepover she should currently be at.

Reese (school): Where are you???

Mattieeeee: I went home :( not feeling good

Reese (school): :((( that sucks

Mattieeeee: Ikr. I think it was the ice cream.

Reese (school): I told the others

Reese (school): They all say get well soon apart from Kate and Cairo who actually agreed on something for once haha

Mattieeeee: What did they say skjghdjh

Reese (school): “Tolerate the lactose, Wheeler.”

-

In her short-but-actually-quite-long-given-all-the-time-travel life, Mattie had witnessed a number of key historic events (and had caused about 85% by some small accident, but that’s a story for another time). The one which ended up unveiling her secret to someone in her actual life occurred overnight one February. Or maybe July. Depends. Time is weird.

She stepped into a small room, luckily through the doorway and not awkwardly through the window, as done many times before. A man sat hunched over a desk by the window, dressed in brown and using a pen-but-not-really-a-pen to craft a page of writing. From Mattie’s extensive historical knowledge, it could have been anywhere from 1000 BC to the 16th century.

“Hello, excuse me,” she began, “But I’m a little lost.”

The man startled, his not-really-pen skidding across the page and leaving a trail of thick ink in its wake as he blinked at her in the doorway. “Who are you?” He seemed perplexed as to how a young girl was standing there, in the opening to his room, in clothing not of any time now or before.

Something that Mattie had realised after travelling not only to different times, but also to a vast number of different settings around the world, was that somehow, she was never stumped by a language barrier. Instead she was always able to fluently converse with those she met in what appeared to her as American English. It was really weird; she tried not to think about it too much or it made her head hurt. She’d also learnt that it was best not to explain her full situation to her companions, becoming accustomed to pulling the classic ‘I’m not here, you’re just dreaming’ excuse. So that was exactly the tactic she applied here. “A dream figure. You don’t need to be afraid.”

The man narrowed his eyes, glancing down at the paper and then back up to Mattie’s face. “That’s a good line.” He scribbled her words down onto a scrap piece of papyrus. “Maybe I can use that later.”

Mattie grinned, sensing her chance to fuck up history just a little bit. “What are you writing?”

“How the world came to be,” the man explained. “God.”

“Ah, of course. The Bible, huh?”

“Pardon?” The scribe locked eyes with Mattie for the first time, confusion etched clearly on his face. She shook her head in response, having learnt that it was hopeless trying to explain events of the future to people who could never even begin to imagine the future that she came from. Seemingly satisfied, the man continued. “As the vision you are, I wonder if you’ve been sent to answer my queries.”

“Of course. Go ahead.”

“I’m struggling for a name. Not for the book itself, but just for this chapter.”

Mattie smiled as wisely as she could. “What do you have so far?”

“‘Generational Crisis’. The chapter describes how our world came to be - the creation of natural elements, the first humans, the beginnings of emotion. ‘Generational’ as it shall be carried on for generations, and ‘crisis’ as it’s a huge event, a crisis for the higher powers.”

Mattie choked. Her mind imagined a world where the entry chapter to the Bible was named as so, and it was a world of chaos and highly differing language choices. “That is very wise, sir. I have one suggestion: how about shortening it? Make it snappier, more catchy. I’m thinking…” She paused, feigning deep thought, “‘Genesis.’”

The man gasped, scrawling her word down at the top of the papyrus. “Genius! Thank you, child. I should write your name in my finished book, to show my gratitude for your kindness.”

“Mattie, sir, Mattie Wheeler. It’s been lovely to meet you and see your studies.” Over the centuries, Mattie had learnt to leave those she met with some kind of reassurance as the humane aspect of her hobby. “Before I go, I may be a dream spirit, but I can assure you that the work you have done right now shall be greatly appreciated for thousands of years to come.”

“You really are a wonder, perhaps a child sent from the power above.”

Unthinking, she snorted, replying, “Oh, boy, you are not ready to hear about Jesus.”

“Jesus? You mean my sister’s husband? I do hear some curious rumours about the man…”

Mattie hid her laugh behind a hand. Of course, this was hundreds of years before Jesus Christ came to be thought of. “I know, right? Jesus? More like JeSUS.” The scribe didn’t reply, mind clearly tired of its confusion and instead turning back to something it knew well. He picked up his writing patterns again. Mattie turned away, back to the doorway. “I will leave you to your writing again. Sleep well.” Leaving a small vial of dissolved sleeping pills on the desk, she stepped out of the door.

-

The only class that Mattie knew she would see Eva in was Religion. They didn’t actually share the class, but Mattie’s Religion teacher was Eva’s form tutor and the older girl often used the classroom as a quieter study area for her free period. Not that Mattie would call a class of thirty sophomores particularly peaceful, but apparently she hadn’t heard the noise of the senior study area, you genuinely don’t understand, last week Jacob Thomas tried to make toast using the sun on a desk and then, bam, the entire of senior year are creating chants about sun bread, it was so weird, Mattie, I transferred to a school of crackheads.

After her travel to the 7th century AD, Mattie sparked a sudden interest in her Religion classes. Eva, being the older sister that she was, watched closely as the sophomore stayed behind after class to search the Bible for something in particular.

“What’re you looking for?”

“Nothing!” Mattie didn’t look up from fervently turning the pages.

“Well, that’s a fucking lie.” Eva perched on the side of a desk, sliding across to snatch the book out of the younger girl’s hands. “Why the hell are you looking at what is essentially the movie credits for the Bible???”

Eva watched as Mattie bit her lip, eyes darting around the empty classroom. She thought for a long moment, visibly debating points in her head, before leaning over the top of the book to run her finger down a list of names. About a third of the way down the page, she stopped. Eva’s eyes followed her finger as it drew a circle around a certain name. Matte Wheyler  

“See. I was looking for that.”

Eva didn’t say anything for a while. Mattie waited with baited breath as Eva’s brain tried to make sense of what they saw. “Mattie Wheeler, what the bagel.” It didn’t bother to even be a question.

“It’s a really long story.” Mattie slumped onto the desk as well. “Hey, did you know that ‘Genesis’ would have originally been called ‘Generational Crisis’ if it wasn’t for me?”

After a glance at both of their timetables, they decided that their next lessons (biology and latin respectively) were worth missing. Instead, they stayed seated on a desk in the Religion classroom, as Mattie explained in detail how her name came to be in the Bible. It was refreshing to finally spill her secret after fifteen years of complete silence, and Mattie wondered vaguely in the back of her mind if one day Eva might be able to share in her time travelling adventures. That might take a little more explaining though, because Eva sure did have a lot of questions.

“So, you don’t change anything?”

“Not anything major. Like, I can’t stop Hitler or anything, that would change too big an event. Little things, however, like names and stuff, it’s fun to mess around with. Ever wondered why the Italian city, Pisa, has its name? I delivered pizza to the guys who were kind of like the government at the time of its naming. Hence, the Leaning Tower of Pizza.”

Eva cackled. “Wait, what?! God, dude, that’s nuts. What the fuck.”

“What can I say, all I really want in life is a little bit of chaos and also mozzarella sticks.”

-

Mattieeeee sent a photo.

evanescence: is that??? abraham lincoln????

Mattieeeee: Abraham Lincoln was an otter.

evanescence: how so?

Mattieeeee: Point one: look at him.

Mattieeeee: Point two: no seriously. Look at him.

evanescence: oh my god

evanescence: i cannot believe you have a literal selfie with abraham lincoln that’s fucking wild

Mattieeeee: Perks of the job :D

evanescence: literally hire me i want a selfie with cleopatra

-

farrah o’satanic ritual: yall i got out of the shower like an hour ago and i still haven’t changed

Imposter: What can I say, bath robes are in fashion rn

farrah o’satanic ritual: ive told you before clark stop pretending you know how to dress

Mattieeeee: Farrah did you not die in the shower?

katherine: ????mattie???????

farrah o’satanic ritual: no?? i didn’t

SmileyRiley: dang it

katherine: riLEY-

caicrow: riley i thought we’d moved on from murder

Imposter: Plot twist: Mattie was the murderer all along

katherine: CLARK-

Mattieeeee: oops-

-

It wasn't meant to happen, she swore up and down it was a mistake. A true and honest accident. And it kinda was? I mean Mattie hadn’t intended for the scaffolding on the new tower being constructed in Pisa to wobble, she’d already fucked up Pisa once in her career, but… Well, that's what she got for letting loose Giles and Corey (her occasional time travelling companions, who also happened to be cats) in the middle of a Italian city in 1252. She could have sworn the catnip was safely concealed in one of the pockets inside her jacket (which was filled with all sorts of trinkets from her travels in the space-time continuum), yet somehow the two had still gotten into it. She guessed that's what she got for not hydrating-feel-greating and eating-to-defeating.

An old citizen eyed her suspiciously, taking in her struggle with the two cats. Or maybe she was just more focused on Mattie’s goggles - she doubted anyone in 13th century Pisa had seen such a bold fashion statement before. The tower continued to lean in the background.

Finally, Giles and Corey settled down, each in a pocket of her trench coat. Mattie breathed a sigh of relief, which only got halfway out of her before she was sucking it back in as the old lady from across the street began to approach her.

“Young lady.”

Mattie smiled sheepishly. “Hello, ma’am. Is everything alright?”

The lady looked mildly amused. “I couldn’t help but notice your two cats going mysteriously close to the tower before it started collapsing. You wouldn’t know anything about that, would you?”

“Oh, no, ma’am. My cats are very well behaved.” Giles gave a resounding yelp at exactly the wrong time. A hiss from Corey echoed from the opposite pocket.

“Well,” the lady grinned, “If that’s the case, why don’t you leave the animals with me? You seem fairly preoccupied with the tower - perhaps you can try and assist its reconstruction?” She held out a hand.

Mattie thought for a moment and then handed across the two cats. “Thank you ever so much, ma’am. I’ll try and be quick.” The woman nodded and Mattie sped across the square to the drastically swaying tower.

When she arrived back at the woman’s table, there was a second lady in animated conversation with her. As Mattie approached, she stood up to take her leave, pressing a kiss to the first lady’s hair as she left. Something was definitely fruity there.

“All fixed!”

“I’m glad.” The woman nudged the cats back to their owner, looking intensely over Mattie’s shoulder to the stabilised tower. “It certainly looks sturdier.”

“I should hope so.”

The woman narrowed her eyes. “Sometimes,” she said, staring pointedly at an area on the structure, “I think about crabs.”

“Oh?” Mattie tilted her head. “Do you?”

“Yes. And often when I think about crabs, I think that they shouldn’t be in Pisa, and they most definitely should not be crawling over the tower.”

Mattie gasped and followed her gaze, muttering curses under her breath. “I didn’t realise I’d brought a whole crab with me! I thought I’d taken the sea life off the rocks!”

The woman chuckled. “You seem to be a strange character. Child, where on Earth did you find not only rocks large enough to support a tower, but also a live crab in Pisa?”

Accepting her fate, Mattie decided to tell the truth. “They’re from Egypt.” At the woman’s questioning look, she expanded, “I’m a traveller of sorts.”

“Oh. Well, child, you’re a gift of a traveller. Brightened my day. Italy these days is far too serious. Maybe we should put more crabs on the leaning tower, huh?”

Tucking her cats back into their respective pockets, Mattie allowed herself to laugh. “Maybe we should.” With a nod and a smile, she wandered off, eagerly awaiting her portal.

-

“Why were you in Egypt anyway?” Eva asked as Mattie recounted yet another of her time-travel-gone-wrong experiences.

“Library of Alexandria.”

“Oh, yeah, because that explains so much.”

“Shut up.” She rolled her eyes. “It was 48 BC, Caesar was burning shit, this random Roman dude set fire to the library.” She pulled a book out of her backpack. “I saved this and stashed away a few of the slabs of rock. And apparently a crab.”

Eva took the book in awe. “Jesus Christ… This thing is, like, thousands of years old…”

“I know, right? Weird.” She watched as Eva flicked through the pages, tracing her finger over certain words or illustrations. “But it was such a beautiful library, I couldn’t let it just burn. So, I retaliated. Burnt the house of the soldier who set the original flame.”

“Mattie!”

She shrugged. “Setting someone’s house on fire is a survival skill.”

“Oh my God.”

“I would have done something more dramatic, but I had to get home. I had a cake which would need to come out of the oven.”

Eva laughed, the sound echoing around the empty classroom. They were skiving class again, this time PE, the one class they had which coincidentally fell at the same time for both year groups. “How are you so normal in school, but so badass when you time travel?”

“I dunno. All I can say is that cake and spite are my only motivators.”

“You’re like a superhero. ‘Time Travelling Mattie: The Only One Who Can Lead A Dual Life Successfully’!!!”

Mattie blushed, shrugging. She definitely needed to take Eva with her one day. A superhero duo. “Okay, that name needs some work. How about: ‘Sanchez And Wheeler, The Ultimate Time Travelling Duo’?”

“I think I like the sound of that.”

“Yeah?”

Eva nodded, shaking her hand like they were signing a business contract. “Yeah.”

[imaginethatneathuh]

The Fool: Game Boy - American Gods

Game Boy x partner!reader, romantic

Game Boy plays a game with you.

Part of @dragon430’s Tarot Troop.

TW/CW: None that I can think of.

Word count: 2.0+ K

•

After a long day at work you were relieved to not have to do anything else today. As soon as you got home, you said to yourself, it’s nap time. Sadly, or maybe happily, things didn’t work out that way.

As you stepped into the small, shared flat, you sighed and rolled your neck. Wordlessly, you walked to the kitchen and got some water, tossing your keys on the counter.

You had been on your feet all day; the only thing on your mind was a shower and bed. As you drank, water falling from the corners of your mouth, you noticed there was silence about the house. There was never silence unless your long-term partner, Game Boy was gone. Setting your cup down, you walk around the counters and cabinets that split the living room and kitchen. You stopped at the edge and peered in, hands on hips. With a frown, you tilted your head before walking into the living room, still in your barista uniform.

“Game Boy?” You called in the empty flat. “You here?”

After a long string of silence, you moved closer to the sofa and placed your hands on top of it.

It wasn’t peculiar that Game was gone, just odd that he hadn’t said anything before. He had always told you beforehand so you wouldn’t worry. This time, you supposed, he’d failed to mention his absence. Still, a part of you thought he may be elsewhere in the flat.

As he didn’t answer you, you began to search for him. He wasn’t in the bathroom and you doubted he was in the communal laundry room. Despite knowing that he certainly wasn’t in your room, you still checked. Predictably, he wasn’t there, but you did decide to change into something more comfortable.

With nowhere else to look, you knocked on his room’s door and opened it. It was empty. Gaming equipment, actual games, a computer, a telly, and other stuff like that covered the room, but there was no Game Boy. Your partner Game Boy, not the Nintendo handheld game console. He did, in fact, have one of them on a shelf.

There was a note taped to his computer which is odd because Game Boy rarely ever wrote anything with a pen or pencil. He also never let anything so “dated” as a pen and paper note on his precious computer. Not if he was in his right mind anyway.

You got closer, out of curiosity of what was so important that Game decided to write it out. The handwriting was very sloppy, you noticed.

Do you remember where we met? The note asked. I do. I thought you looked amazing. That’s why I couldn’t talk to you. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t say anything. I was so tongue-tied, it was rather embarrassing.

You smiled, remembering how flushed Game had been. He couldn’t even look at you. It was adorable.

Find where we met. Follow the trail and we’ll see each other soon enough. Let me take you on an adventure. You won’t regret it. I promise. I love you - G

Your heart swelled in your chest.

‘A game from Game Boy,’ you thought. ‘How cute.’

You left the flat, wanting to see just what game Game was playing.

•

Standing near a park bench, you looked around.

You had been around here, on a walk, when you’d bumped into Game. Stupidly, you hadn’t been watching where you were going and ran into him, but he didn’t seem to mind.

“I am so sorry,” you said. “I didn’t see you.”

You looked into his beautiful blue eyes and your heart skipped a beat.

The young man you’d run into turnt away, blushing and pulled his black trench coat tighter. He nodded, still looking at the ground.

“Again, really sorry.” You walked past him but stopped next to a park bench. After a few seconds, you couldn’t help but look over your shoulder at him.

The blue-eyed boy stood there, looking at you, his hands in his pockets and scarf wiping back from the wind. He was considerably round and he had some acne, but it didn’t bother you. His eyes told you everything. There was more going on behind them than most would assume. More what, you didn’t know. But he seemed to know so much. One look into them and it was like you had had a glance into endless something, but you weren’t sure what. It was within your grasp and, yet, an ocean away.

Your eyes met again and warmth filled your chest. You smiled and waved at him.

His already deep blush deepened.

You walked down the path. A note, taped to a bench, caught your attention. You picked it up and opened it.

This is where you stopped when we first met. The moment you looked back at me and our eyes met, I could feel myself falling for you. I don’t get that feeling anymore. It’s more of knowing I love you and you love me kinda feeling, but I digress.

You smiled. His words rang true for you, too. There were no longer butterflies and lightning. But there was a feeling of belonging with him that you could feel in your heart.

Sometimes, I wonder why you weren’t repulsed by my acne and fat. I still have no idea why you’d go out with me. But, I’m glad you did ask me out. Being with you has been something else. A fantastic something else.

After the first time walking through the park, you started going there more often. At one point, it was every single day. All you wanted was to see him again. But, it took months before you did.

And when you did, as cliche as it sounds, it was like the whole world stopped around you. Without even thinking about it, you walked over and asked him out.

You got a stuttered yes, but it was still a yes.

Go to where we had our first date and you’ll find a friend and a note waiting. - G

•

After getting out of the car, you made your way to the arcade you and Game Boy had spent your first date. It had been easier to get him to talk about video games than it was himself. Still, the way he had talked about his favourite, and his most hated, games made you fall deeper in love.

The two of you played a ton of games, usually for two players. He’d even called you his player two, as a joke.

“Hey, Y/N,” the attendant, Steve, said. “G stopped by earlier. Told me to give you this.” He handed you a note.

I know I didn’t really let you talk much when we were here, but when you asked about my favourites to play, I just started rambling. It did make it easier to talk to you, though.

Speaking of rambling, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland was a bit nonsensical, wasn’t it? I don’t know why you love that movie (or the book) but that doesn’t mean I wasn’t happy to wear the VHS tape out with you. Seeing you happy was the best part of that. Now, Alice, my dear, go back home and go down the rabbit hole once again. - G

Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland was indeed nonsensical which was the best part about it. There was no real story. It was nonsense, the best kinda sense there is.

“Thanks, Steve. See ya later,” you said as you left.

•

Back home, you went to the telly and pulled out the VHS tapes. On AAiW’s case was a note from Game.

We’re pretty close to the end now. But, just to say it before I say it, I love you. As much as I found this movie weird, nonsensical, and rather insane, I found it worth every second spent watching because I got to spend time with you. Y/N, you mean everything to me. I love you. The reason I say this now is because I’m not the best at saying things without coming off like a prick. It’s easier to write them.

You can find me at the address below. And, as the rabbit always says, “I’m late.” So get here before I have to chop off your head for tardiness (or should I say tartiness?). - G

You chuckled softly at the pun and ran a finger down the page.

The address below wasn’t familiar to you so you pulled out a map.

•

The warehouse looked disgusting on the outside. Broken windows and grime-covered walls were not the most romantic thing, but still, if Game Boy was here, it’d be worth it.

You walked in, expecting to walk across broken glass or something, but there was no crunch beneath you. A path looked like it had been swept clean for you. It trailed to the back of the warehouse, small origami roses laying on it.

You followed them and picked them up one by one. The first few were plain white with green-painted stems. But, slowly, red started to bleed onto them. The ones farthest away were fully red, just like the Queen wanted.

The last rose sat on a door handle, the kind typically found in warehouses that jut out to the side. You picked it up, twirling the faux stem in your fingers. The rest of the bouquet sat in your arm. You could smell the paint coming off them.

The door creaked open and a shy figure peeked out.

“G?” You asked.

“Close your eyes,” he said. “Please?”

You did as he asked, heart pumping. “Can you please tell me what’s going on?”

As much as you wanted to know, you knew Game Boy had a hard time figuring out what was okay and what wasn’t when it came to real-life people.

“You’ll see,” he said.

The door creaked open more and he shuffled out. He picked the bouquet out of your arms as well as the last flower before disappearing for a moment. The warmth of his hands transferred to yours as he led you into the office. You could hear the door close again. Game Boy positioned you right in front of something, guiding you by your upper arms. His warmth left you before he spoke.

“You can open them now,” he said.

He stood in front of a table, a vase of the origami flowers he had made in his hands. Candles hung down from the ceiling in a heart formation, each holder connected by wire.

You silently stared at the sight.

Game Boy breathed heavily, his coat thrown off to the side. Still, his turtleneck was a little hot right now. He couldn’t tell if it was because he was nervous or overheated. Probably both.

You stepped forward and took the vase from him and set it down on a table.

“You did all this?” You asked.

He nodded, wiping his hands on his khakis. “I wanted it to be special.”

“Wanted what?”

He ran a hand through his blonde hair. “I’m not the best at this,” he mumbled under his breath. He straightened and looked you in the eye, despite that being rather uncomfortable for him. “Y/N, we’ve been dating for a while. Not a super long one, but it’s been a while. And I know you said you wanted to wait before calling us partners, but I can’t wait any longer. I love you so much. I want- I want you to be my player two. Permanently. Not just for a game or two.”

He seemed to have practised saying the speech over and over again.

You walked forward and pulled him into a kiss by the fabric of his turtleneck. Game Boy cupped your cheek and kissed back gently.

You pulled away, smiling. “I’ll gladly be your player two for as long as we both play the game fair.”

Game Boy sighed in relief, a giant grin spreading across his face. He leant in and kissed you again.

[brideofcthulhu10]

Alright orginally I wanted to do these all in one go, but I figured it'd be easier for me to get them in segments that way you guys get more content. Okay heads up, guys I will be going with my family to the zoo tomorrow so I'm not gonna be posting much that day. I'll try to push something out but no guarantees!

Lost Boys Fem!S/O Gives Birth [1/4]

David

Days pushed into weeks. Weeks to months. Finally, months turn to weeks. Now it was to the point David was getting increasingly impatient. While the due date was up for speculation, 9 months began to tip towards ten. Anxious couldn't even begin to cover it. He wanted his child, he wanted to see their face, most of all he wanted you to stop hurting!

Early mornings of you crying from the sheer aching pains in your back sent him into a tizzy, he couldn't get any sleep while you were in agony. He'd lie beside you in the wee hours of the morning flipping through the stupid pregnancy book Dwayne found for him. 

"A late due date is not uncommon. Your baby will come when they're good and ready," David read to himself out loud laying beside you in bed, his face souring into a grimace. Patience was a virtue he had yet to achieve. "I don't want to wait."

With the prospect of childbirth looming over the two of you he had decided since your first trimester to sacrifice his comfort by sleeping beside you. Originally they had simply housed you in Star’s bed, but due to her wretched half-vampire form she would have no risk if the sun were to catch her. David, on the other hand, would quickly burn to a crisp at the first sign of daylight. Thus, he took it upon himself to search his way through the dismantled hotel until he found the most stable room held together between peeling walls and cave formations, tucked away from any prying light. Holes were sealed up, cracks were filled, your bed even had a canopy of thick black curtains covering it to prevent any stray beams that felt welcome.

Laying beside him you only shrugged your shoulders with a soft sigh, running your hands over your stomach. You had just gotten used to this speech by now. David tried everything to help you go into labor. Weird foods, extra long walks, those stupid exercises, even sex! 

Nothing. Your little one was as stubborn as their father. 

"You know color me crazy," you started to say, petting the platinum blonde vampire tenderly ", but I don't think grumbling at a fetus will make them come any faster."

"Shows what you know." David laid the side of his head atop your belly ready to burst. Carefully he peeled away his leather glove, sliding his hand beneath your shirt. Your skin was warm and taut, stretching to its limits. He had watched the time slip away faster than he expected, and yet somehow it felt not fast enough. When he closed his eyes he could hear the muffled, warped heartbeat submerged below. The momentary peace soothed his soul. He could sense their stirring mind. It was muddied, a cluster of emotions, no thought.

The silence gave you a moment to breathe and savor the tender moments with David until a sharp sting pulled at your abdomen. It spread across the base of your stomach, digging into the small of your back and spreading outward. You nearly recoiled from him with a harsh gasp hissed through your teeth. David sat up immediately.

“What is it,” he demanded, taking your hands into his. “Are you okay?”

It only lasted a minute or two and just like that the ache had faded away. Taking a moment to breath you simply smiled and waved it off. "Relax it's just a cramp," you assured him. “It just caught me off guard is all.”

"I'm not so convinced." He pulled himself to your side. "That's the third time it's happened in an hour, love. They’re getting shorter in between. Are you sure you aren’t in any pain, kitten?." 

You kissed his cheek softly, tucking away a lock of snow that had fallen in his face. "I'll be fine. I promise. Don’t worry about me okay? It’s already gone." 

What you weren’t aware of was that you had spoken far too soon. The discomfort persisted even into the daytime, and David's observation was starting to hold some weight. Earlier that night it had only begun as a slow ache that came once every two hours. But that time had split in half. Then again. Until you were feeling a persisting ache in your muscles that left you gasping for air almost every five minutes. In the late hours of the afternoon you softly awoke still wrapped in David’s arms. Again another pain came and went, this time you had to bite down on your lip to avoid any sudden sounds. Slowly you managed to wiggle out of his grip, hoping another blood bag may be enough to curb your discomfort. It wasn’t a surprise when even motion became a taxing endeavor. Every step weighed heavy on your body, you thought you might have to sit down before you had even left the room. Barely shuffling through the corridors, you had begun to use the walls as support.

You clutched at your stomach, dragging in labored breaths trying to catch yourself against the edge of the lobby fountain when you finally stumbled out. It was too much even to move now, and the reality of the situation was settling in. These weren’t your false contractions that visited you maybe once an hour, if that. There was maybe a minute in between them now. With what little strength you had left, you lowered yourself onto the floor. You couldn’t hold back whatever agonized groans that had previously been stifled, clenching your eyes shut. This was definitely a bad decision on your part.  

Your absence was quickly noticed by David. The bed felt lighter, he could sense some sort of difference in weight and with a tired groan he rolled over to reach you... Where were you? 

At first he lazily ran his hand over the sheets, expecting you to only be a few inches from him. When you proved further than he expected, he began rapidly patting around the mattress. His body began to panic when his fingers still failed to find you, then across the cave he heard an echoed whine. That's when he shot up out of bed from his slumber, looking at the empty space where you should've been. "Y/N," he called out, hearing you scream a second time. "Y/N!!" 

In a frantic dash he swung himself over the bed, nearly flying through until an unexpected obstacle had him skidding to a horrified stop. 

You were clinging onto the edge of the fountain just out of his grasp, the cruel sun enveloping you entirely leaving him to cower in the shadows. Paul and Marko had dove from the cave when they overheard you crying, circling through the dark until they saw David diving into the room just as limited against the ring of fire as they were.

“Y/N, hang on,” Paul called, but the moment his fingers touched the light they burst into flames. Immediately he recoiled with a shriek, grasping at his burnt flesh. There was no way they could reach you. Not until the sun went down. Everything began to hurt at once. GThere was a heavy layer of perspiration coating your skin. You hadn’t even realized your water broke until you could hear it. Like someone pouring out a bucket of water, the ground beneath you now soaked. 

David rapidly paced watching you sob alone against the fountain. What should he do? What could he do?? Just like Paul, he began to reach his hand out to touch the light. Of course it caught aflame and he rapidly shook it to dispel any further burn.

“David please, stay back,” you begged, trying to prop yourself against the concrete edge behind you. The sun proved a worthy adversary to you as well, firmly planting you in place with not an ounce of strength to spare between you and the constant contractions. David steeled his resolve, stepping forward towards you. Your words were falling on deaf ears, even Paul and Marko making a mad dash to hold him in place. With every ounce of strength he had, David tore away- right into the sun. 

Within moments the merciless rays lit his back up into a cruel bonfire. You screamed, sobbing and begging him to go back. Instead he fought to lift you into his arms, dragging his feet through hell. You were clinging to his jacket, unable to watch the look of agony he presented until finally he had collapsed with you in tow into the dark. Marko quickly covered the flames with an old tarp draped over the couches, patting it away as fast as possible. The stench of charred flesh made his nose ache, it was foul. 

Even in his weakened state David dragged himself to your side, pushing away your hair from your burning face. It took everything you had to stay still. There was no doctor here to warn you of when it was safe to push. 

With every passing hour it grew more intense. David had no choice but to feel how dilated you had become. To hell with modesty, if you weren’t ready and you tried to push the baby out you’d both die. He’d read enough of those books Dwayne brought to know what to do. Paul held your hand, helping you sit up in place. He swore you might break his hand, and once if was time you began to panic. Both vampires had to keep you firmly in place while your body began to stretch and tear. Dwayne had finally arisen, bringing in an armful of towels and a tub of warm water. At the suggestion he took over, you rapidly shook your head. It was one thing to have David with his hands up there, so instead he was on cleaning duties. Your screams filled the cave, every room vibrating with the unimaginable pain you felt. It was pushing out, all you could do was cry. All four boys were talking you through it. No one could have really prepared you for this. Stories and films always made it seem like the birth could easily take three hours tops. It had been almost the entire day. Thirteen hours from the contractions to now your labor, clinging to every excruciating minute. You felt like you were dying, everything becoming numb… and then you could hear the first sounds. Coughing and sputtering as fluids were thrown up.

All of you were just silent, David’s face in utter awe. Gently Dwayne handed him a towel, scooping up the blood caked infant now wailing in his arms. Tears spilled over his cheeks, wiping away the muck that hid his precious child from him, utterly speechless.

“Oh… shit dude,” Paul finally spoke, causing a breathless laugh from you. Even David chuckled.

“Well c’mon man don’t keep it a secret,” Marko chimed in, trying to get a peek. God, it was so tiny. Dwayne leaned over David’s shoulder at the newborn nestled against his chest.

“..It’s a girl..,” he asked. David’s nod sent a rush of warmth through you, an uncontrollable wave of tears and laughter spilling from you. Still recovering from his own endeavors into the sun, he handed your newborn daughter to Marko, who in turn, placed her in your arms. Her petit fingers grasped at your shirt, whimpering against your chest.

 “She’s… beautiful,” you hiccuped, utterly breathless. You looked over at your burnt partner trying to recover with a blood pack stolen from the fridge, bits of flesh reviving back into healthy skin. When he could finally recover enough to move beside you, he simply pulled you into his arms, softly thanking you over and over for his beautiful little one. She clung to his hand as it ran over her petite head whimpering until he gently cradled her in his arms once more. A sense of relief washed over you, laying against David's chest barely able to catch your breath. Tonight he would go hunting to recover, and for the first time he wouldn't be bringing back blood for you, but for your newborn daughter.

[ownedbytexbikerdom]

It was a regular day, or so she thought. Jane had just gotten back from work and was absolutely spent. Exhausted. Wiped out.

She was rather looking forward to spending the evening with Christian, her Sir. Maybe they’d take the dogs for a long walk outside of town. Maybe she’d get started on a three course meal. Maybe they’d invite some friends over and play games. The opportunities were endless really.

She hangs her jacket, takes off her shoes and notices that Christian’s already home. There was his briefcase, his peacoat. Weird. Usually she got home before he did.

But no matter.

She walked up the stairs, wondering why there wasn’t a flurry of wagging tails and lolling tongues to greet her.

She saw soon enough.

There he was. In all his glory, sitting at the table. An elbow propped on the mahogany surface, the sleeves rolled up, the first two buttons undone, on his white button up.

She could feel it emanating off him. The precious space between her legs, moistening. And he hadn’t even done anything yet.

“Take off your clothes, get on your knees, and crawl to me.”

“Yes Sir.” A whispered response. Her words shook with arousal, with anticipation.

She let her plans for the evening fly out the window, waving them goodbye. She slowly took off her top. She slowly spun around, bent at the waist, and slid off her pants. She wriggled her ass for him. Swaying side to side as she pulled down her panties.

She heard his low groan of approval cut through the air. The air itself thick with sexual tension. She swallowed hard, throat drying. She unclasped her bra; with a muffled thud, it hit the floor.

She lifted her gaze to meet his. She got down on all fours, her expression changing from giddy anticipation, to one of complete submission.

And that is what got him. He fucking loved that. When he can read it in her eyes that she is willing to do whatever he says. That vulnerability, that trust, is what makes the member confined to his slacks, stiffen.

He straightened in his chair, eyes following the lovely creature before him, inching closer and closer towards him.

Once she settled between his legs, he starts to stroke her hair, “I built something for you. It’s why I’ve been so busy lately. I wanted it to be perfect, and I believe that it is. Do you want to see?”

Of course she did.

He smiled, reaching back for the collar on the table behind him. He fastened it over her neck, hearing her sigh contently as he tightened it. He took the chain leash, clipped it onto the ring, and stood up.

Without another word he walked down the hall. Slowly, so she wouldn’t have issues keeping up. He walked down the stairs, subtly looking back to make sure she kept her stature.

Of course she did.

They reached the basement, and that is when he pulled out the blindfold; the satin ribbon of black, and placed it over her eyes.

She could hear his breathing quicken. Feel a slight tremor to his touch. He was excited. Almost uncontainably so.

She tilted her head in silent wonder. She had not a clue what it could possibly be.

She felt her leash tug forward. She followed, her curiosity begging her to rip off the blindfold. She wouldn’t of course. That would ruin the surprise.

She felt him halt and sat on her ankles. She felt him unhook the leash. She felt his hands move to the back of her head, undoing the ribbon.

She beheld his surprise. It was a cross. St. Andrew’s Cross is she recalled correctly. Boards held together in an ‘x’ formation. Cuff links for her wrists and ankles screwed on.

She took it all in. Having conflicting feelings. Of course she loved it. Of course she was so grateful of all the time, all the effort, that he had put into this.

But at the same time…should they use this consecrated symbol to play on, would that not be a form of desecration? Her heart started to thud against her chest. Her mind spinning.

She touched the cross on her collar. She had the same feelings when he had chosen it. And she wore it with pride. She wouldn’t have rather he picked any other.

Maybe it would be the same with this. It’s not like she would be imitating the death of her Saviour. She would never reenact that. She would never let that be used in their play. He knew this as well as she did.

Which is why, he went with the traditional ‘x’ that is so often used in the bdsm world. But, in all this he knew what kind of thoughts would run through her mind. He knew she’d be hesitant. Should she be adamant that she can’t incorporate the cross into their scenes, he would understand completely. It had been a risk he’d been willing to take. If worse came to worse, he would simply put it up for sale for somebody else to enjoy.

He decided to push it along with a simple command, “Stand up, and put your hands, your ankles in their positions.”

She didn’t look at him as he spoke the words. The words with no room for question. The words with no room for refusal.

She bit her lip and stood. Fiddling with her fingers, thoughts racing. She was trying to make a snap decision.

He refrained from giving her a gentle nudge towards his creation. Instead, he watched that beautiful mind work. He watched her eyebrows twitch, watched her foot tap. And finally, watched with delight as she took a shaky, uncertain step towards the cross.

One step that became two. This time more confident. And another. He watched her head lift. Her chin up, jaw set, eyes narrowed. She had made up her mind and nobody could change it. He knew the expression well. She could be a stubborn ass if she so wanted.

With a steeling breath she lifted her arms, spread her legs, and waited.

Beaming, he took striding steps over to her. Delicately placing her wrists into the cuffs, tightening them, clasping them.

He brought his hands around to the straps he had installed on the back. Straps for her biceps. He knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that she could struggle herself out of almost anything. These were just a precaution against that from happening.

She raised an eyebrow, a blush creeping into her cheeks. She knew the reason why he needed those extra straps.

He saw the expression and paused to brush his lips against hers. His hands lingered over her body. Tweaking her nipples, grazing down her smooth abdomen. He could hear her near silent squeaks. See her muscles twitch, the hair on her arms raising.

He let his hands drop and crouched to strap down her legs and ankles. But before doing so, he couldn’t resist. Couldn’t resist giving her sweet femininity a kiss. More than a kiss. He ran his tongue up and down the length of that beautiful slit. He sucked gently on her precious button sitting up top. Flicking his tongue gently around it, he heard her moan, “Ohhh Christian…that fucking tongue…”

A quiet giggle tickled his ears, so he kept going. Not with his usual, tactful vigour. No. He kept it sweet, kept it gentle, kept her giggling and moaning. He was building her up. Teasing her for the torture she was about to endure.

Unbeknownst to Jane of course.

He finally withdrew, much to her chagrin. She was already sloppy and wet. Her pretty cunt begging for more. Later. He silently promised.

He clasped in her ankles, strapped down her thighs, and took a step back. He smiled in admiration, took his phone out and snapped a picture. She still had that desperate look on her face. Her pussy was still glistening, both with arousal and his saliva. Fucking beautiful.

“Now, my pet. Now we will begin, and here are the rules. You are not allowed to cum. Under any circumstances…you are not. allowed. to cum. Do you understand?”

A distressed whimper escaped her lips, “Yes Sir…”

“Good girl.”

And then he began. He started with a tiny vibrator. It looked like a clip, she had never seen it before. He put on end inside of her, easy to do because she was fucking soaked. The other end rested perfectly on her clit.

Her jaw dropped. Her body started to writhe. And he hadn’t even turned it on yet. He laughed, using the remote to turn it to a lower setting.

Instantly she was moaning. Her legs flexing and relaxing at the stimulation. Her breathing sped, her mind draining of all coherent thought.

He smirked and went to his special drawer of goodies. A drawer she had been forbidden to snoop in. He brought out a chain with two clamps attached at each end.

Her eyes were shut in building ecstasy so she didn’t see. She did, however, notice the second he attached one of them to her nipple.

She gasped sharply, yelping at the sudden spark of pain. Her eyes snapped open, her pretty mouth twisting in a grimace as he attached the other.

“Come on babe…I thought you were a 12/10?”

She snarled at the reference and forced a haughty arrogance to mask her face, “I am.”

He pulled on the chain, her nipples stretching painfully, causing her mind to split in confusion. She wanted to whimper at the jolts of pain, but she wanted to moan sweetly as the vibrations down below continued its merciless assault.

Her body shook, she tried to keep from wincing. Tried to keep any sound from escaping her throat. But that failed drastically when he used his other hand to turn the vibration up. In a rapidly pulsing sequence.

He tugged a little harder, just long enough to elicit a scream. A scream of sheer frustration. If she wanted to, she could cum already. It never takes her long.

He upped the ante and dropped the chain. With no warning whatsoever, he slid two fingers inside of her. The invasion pushed the other end of the vibrator against that particular spot. The particular spot that was his favourite to claim.

He started to pump his fingers in, out, in, out. His other hand holding the vibrator on her clit in place.

It was almost impossible for her to keep the orgasm at bay. To keep it roiling and riling; an angry beast confined to a cage.

Her body thrashed as each time his fingers went back inside her, it would push the vibrator against her gspot and send her to space with overwhelming need.

He watched her face. Watched her eyebrows scrunch together as she fought against herself. Watched the beads of sweat form on her forehead. Her nails bit into her palms. Her teeth grit together.

It was taking every ounce of self control she had not to cum right then and there.

He decided to try and break it. Break her will. He took the remote and maxed it out. Turned it to the highest, setting. The setting with two second pauses for every seven seconds of vibrating.

Another scream. A plea this time. A plea for release.

A little longer…

He kept his fingers going and started to bite her skin. She was losing her mind. Drool dripping off her lips. Chest heaving.

She was a mess.

A fucking mess.

It was for that reason alone that he bellowed into the heated basement, “Cum Jane. Fucking cum for me!”

She bit her lip as she allowed her body to relax. And in that split second, in that moment, her world stopped. Time paused.

With another reach of his fingers her body exploded. She squirt a steady stream onto his hand. She didn’t care though. No. She didn’t care as her body was sent into endless spasms. Each muscle convulsing to a different rhythm. Her screams of sheer joy sliced through the air and entered the atmosphere. The dogs playing outside paused, cocking their ears before resuming their play.

He pulled out his fingers, set the vibrator on low and smeared the dripping liquid from his digits onto her lips.

Her head hung limp, tongue barely making it out of her mouth to lick it off. Her body was stuck in a post-orgasmic limbo. The constant, low hum of the vibrator making every nerve jolt. Making her overstimulated clit throb.

“Well my love, I’m hungry. So I’m going to make us supper. I’ll be back in an hour or two.”

He snapped two more pictures as her eyes widened in shock, in pleading. But just as she opened her mouth to vocalize her opinion, he cut in,

“Oh. And don’t cum.”

And with that, he turned his back, turned the vibrator up, and walked up the stairs and out of sight.

Lordy.🔥😈🔥 Someone may have a death wish. 😉

[takaraphoenix]

04 fandom ask how about a show I haven't heard you talk about in a hot minute. Phineas and Ferb?

I kind of enjoyed you discovering the weird and wonderful cartoon most of the people under 25 grew up with. I think that's a good age range cuz I'm under that and I definitely grew up with it as a good part of my childhood but I'm also still well into cartoons in going in my twenties lol... my birthday was last month and I had quite the number of Elena of avalor presents. You can do that fandom if you want to but not necessary

Well, happy belated birthday first! And then thanks for playing! And also, yeeeah I haven’t been watching Phineas and Ferb in a bit, the 10 minute format asks a lot of concentration of me that I simply don’t have lately so it’s on the backburner. I got the tab open and I definitely wanna finish it because I like the show, but I just don’t have the space for it right now.

Phineas and Ferb:

the character i least understand: Baljeet? I mean, he is... best friends with his bully... that is such a weird dynamic, I genuinely do not understand it at all?

interactions i enjoyed the most: Heinz and Perry, for sure, they’re so weird

the character who scares me the most: Heinz, Phineas and Ferb like those three have the actual capability to destroy the world if they so deem but all three use this power for incredibly specific stupid silly things, like imagine what they could do if they actually tried to be evil? Terrifying

the character who is mostly like me: I really don’t think any of them tbh

hottest looks character: Vanessa probably?

one thing i dislike about my fave character: sometimes, Isabella is very passive-aggressive with Phineas when he once again completely fails at realizing something is/could be romantic, I feel like clearer communication would be the better approach and like that boy needs these things spelled out for him so just spell it out for him

one thing i like about my hated character: I... don’t hate any of the characters? Aside from maybe Heinz’s parents I guess? And like... the thing I like about them is that they... made... Heinz, I guess? xD

a quote or scene that haunts me: The fact that in Isabella’s head, Phineas is a centaur for some reason

a death that left me indifferent: no one has died (yet)

a character i wish died but didn’t: none, nope, this show doesn’t have such characters

my ship that never sailed: I dunno, I do think Vanessa/Candace would be hella cute and a great way to tie the two plots more together also queers in a Disney show that early, could you imagine

Elena of Avalor:

the character i least understand: Naomi when she went “well, your cousin who you love like a brother just betrayed you and is on the run and so are dangerous sorcerers but like I’ll just fuck off to travel the world now because that’s what I need”, like I understand that being a captain is what she always wanted but that timing was incredibly insensitive considering their friendship and her own commitment into being a council member? Like, the open sea doesn’t run away, it would still be there after they caught Esteban, but to leave Elena and Avalor like that, during times where she - as one of only two (2) people in the entire country who actually can read the freaking ancient language - would have been needed? That made no sense for her character

interactions i enjoyed the most: Elena and Naomi, Elena and Isabel

the character who scares me the most: None, I think?

the character who is mostly like me: Maybe Mateo, a little?

hottest looks character: Ash Delgado

one thing i dislike about my fave character: For a princess, Elena is really bad at deligating and like... even into the final season, she proves to be bad at that and at that point, she should have spent years learning to deligate, you can not run around and solve every problem yourself once you’re queen and you do have a big network of people you can trust

one thing i like about my hated character: error, redeeming qualities on Shuriki not found

a quote or scene that haunts me: okay so on a more complex level, the fact that Elena can see and talk to their parents and just didn’t fucking tell Isabel for forever, I get it is only one day a year that she can talk to them, but... she really just... forgot to tell other people that she could see ghosts, more specifically her dead parents, when there is Isabel and their grandparents and they all deserved a chance to talk to them too, even if just indirectly. So, it haunts me that the second Dias de los Muertos episode wasn’t just their family, together, and just... talking

a death that left me indifferent: Did anyone die, aside from the pre-dead parents? I don’t think so

a character i wish died but didn’t: Nope, not really

my ship that never sailed: Elena/Naomi. Y’all can say what you want but if that finale wasn’t queerbaity af, when Elena approached Naomi when she was supposed to pick a partner to dance with, while the boys puffed their chests out hoping they would be chosen and for a split-second even Naomi thought Elena wanted to dance with her? I really thought they pulled a “queer in the last second” there and I think they should. I am already eternally grateful that the show didn’t force the four main characters into two heteronormative couples, but can you imagine the raw power of Elena of Avalor, first queer Disney princess?

Send me a fandom and i’ll tell you

[captainkappa]

Fanfic :: Icebreakers

Me? Publishing writing? It’s more likely than you think.

But yeah, holy crap, I finished something! That hasn’t happened in a long time, so please enjoy this zukka modern au fic where they’re both attending college now!

While taking online classes, Sokka and Zuko are paired up for icebreakers.

Preslash Sokka/Zuko, college AU

AO3 link

-=-=-=-

Sitting down in front of his laptop, wearing the sweatpants and tank top he slept in, this was not how Sokka expected to start his third year of college.

Well, he didn’t expect be forced online for the spring semester of his sophomore year as well, so technically that was a bigger surprise. At least this time, he was better prepared and built his schedule with distance learning in mind; a film course for his last elective, two engineering courses that weren’t reliant on lab, and two math courses. He tried not to think about all the labs he would have to take in the next year and a half, but for now, it was worth it to have a manageable schedule during a pandemic. For now, he was content to live off campus with Aang. He could’ve stayed home with his dad and Katara, but because Aang didn’t have any family to speak of, the executive decision was made for Sokka to keep his lease on the apartment with Aang and video call with his family at least once a week to make up for it.

It wasn’t that bad. They got one of the few places near campus that allowed dogs, so Aang’s shepherd dog, Appa, made the whole situation less dreary. Plus, his elective was right after his thermodynamics course, which gave his more of a reason to get up for the 9 o’clock engineering course.

So, here he was, not listening to the professor go on about “unprecedented times” and “academic honesty,” the same things he’d heard in his earlier class. Glancing at his own camera, he saw Aang not so sneakily open his door. He quickly muted and took out one of his earbuds.

"I'm ordering groceries,” Aang said quietly, “need anything else?"

"No, just whatever I put on the list."

"Got it!"

Aang closed the door and Sooka turned back to the computer, unmuting himself. The professor was about to move on to syllabus, when Sokka noticed a white blur out of the corner of his eye. He barely had time to think about the fact that Aang hadn’t fully closed the door, when he was knocked out of his chair with a crash.

"No, Appa, no! Down boy!" He said, fruitlessly trying to get Appa down off him. Appa paid no attention, continuously licking at him.

From the one earbud still in his ear, he registered his classmates laughing and the professor asking, "Are you alright?"

Appa was still not letting up so he just threw up a thumbs up in what he hoped was in frame of the webcam. "Yeah, sorry about that. My roommate’s dog hasn't seen me since March. Let me just-" with a flourish, he muted himself.

“Now Appa,” he said, gently holding the dog’s face in his hands, “if this incident haunts me all semester, I’m only getting you kitty treats for a month.”

Appa’s tongue lolled out of his mouth, completely oblivious.

“Alright now, up! Up!”

That seemed to do the trick, or it was the whistle from Aang in the other room. Either way, Appa graciously got off Sokka, trotting out the bedroom door much more slowly than he’d entered.

Sokka righted his chair and settled down and saw that even though the professor had moved on, everyone was still giggling at him. He took it in stride, taking a bit of a stretch.

The professor soldiered on, explaining how she found PDFs of all articles needed for the course (sweet), how she got them all copies of the movies on her website, and the schedule for the semester.

"Ok, now that the housekeeping is over, I'll put you all into breakout rooms for ice breakers. You’ll be in a room with one or two other students. Tell each other your name, major, why you're taking the class, and a fun fact about yourself. You'll introduce each other to the rest of the class in 5 minutes."

Sokka sighed, having hoped that at least one professor would forgo icebreakers considering the online format for the class. No dice. He clicked on the breakout room pop-up and anxiously waited for the other person to join the group, looking at his camera in the meantime. It was only then did he realize he’d been sitting in class for half an hour with his ponytail all askew. He tugged out the ponytail holder, shaking his hair out and pulling it back up so the sides he’d shaven himself were on display.

He looked up and a second person had silently joined the breakout room. Sokka immediately recognized him as one of the students who initially caught his eye. He wasn't conventionally attractive, with the massive scar covering the left side of his face, but he was certainly striking, with his floppy black hair and short-sleeve button-up shirt. It must’ve been a trick of the light in his room, but it looked like he was blushing.

“Oh, sorry, I didn’t see you there.”

“I-It’s okay,” the other guy said, seeming a little bit distracted.

Sokka could guess he wasn’t a fan of being online, so he continued, "Ok, then I'll start. I'm Sokka, junior mechanical engineering major. This is the last elective I need, but really it was the only one available that wasn't too advanced. My fun fact is I invented submarines."

That seemed to snap the other guy out of his reverie. "I... what?"

"Well I thought I did. I had these whole schematics for underwater cars with telescopes sticking out from the top to look for ships, but then my uncle Bato brought me a book about submarines for Christmas and I cried for two days."

The other guy was silent.

Sokka grinned, "I was 4."

"Oh! I thought you were just weird." He said, before clapping a hand over his mouth. "No wait! I mean-"

"Nah, don't sweat it dude, that's why I tell that story the way I do, for the punchline! Don’t worry about it.

“Oh, okay.”

“Your turn!"

"Uh, well my name is Zuko Sozin, I'm a senior English major with creative writing and theater minors. I’m also taking this for an elective and my fun fact is… I hate fun facts"

He snorted, "Fair, but come on, you gotta give me more than that."

"Um... I’ve trained with swords?”

Sokka gasped. “Do you have them with you?”

“Yes?”

“Show me!”

Zuko’s camera shuddered as he moved his laptop to point at to another wall of the room to show two swords with curved blades leaning against the wall.

“That’s so cool!”

“Thanks, they’re dao swords.”

And then Sokka leaned back and watched Zuko go into the history of dao swords, how they were traditionally used, and how long he’d been learning them. It was like any awkwardness had left Zuko’s body and was replaced with this confidence as he went on about this topic that he clearly loved. It was endearing. As someone who frequently would break out into an enthusiastic TedTalk about what he was doing in his engineering classes, Sokka loved hearing about other people’s passions.

Then, as Zuko was explaining how dual-wielding was much harder than using a single sword, the pop up informing them they would be put back in the main Zoom call in a minute appeared.

“Oh, wow,” Sokka said, “time sure does fly, huh?”

Zuko blinked, “What-? Oh, sorry, I totally took up all of the time.”

“It’s fine! It was really interesting!”

A small smile appeared on Zuko’s face, “Really?”

“Yeah, I only recently started training with a sword.”

That spar returned to Zuko’s eyes, “Oh really? What-”

But then the video cut out and was replaced with a loading screen. Sokka cursed under his breath as he was put back into the larger Zoom call with all the other students in it.

The professor’s video lit up, “Okay, settle down everyone. Now, which group wants to go first?”

While the first group went, Sokka made the split-second decision to start typing in the chat. After double and then triple checking that he was only messaging Zuko, he hit enter.

hey, i know this is kind of forward, but I can talk more about my sword training after class, if you want? here’s my number xxx-xxx-xxxx

Sokka tried to focus on the icebreakers after, but his eyes kept straying to the chat. He and Zuko got through their ice breakers just fine, and Sokka’s fun fact got equal amounts of confused faces and laughs, which was his intention.

And then he was caught up in taking notes on the professor’s explanation of the homework for the next class and then the Zoom call was over. It was only afterwards, as he was replacing the piece of tape over the camera, did he realize he never got a response from Zuko.

He tried to tamp down his disappointment. He had come off pretty strong, he shouldn’t take it personally.

He had a couple of hours until his next class, so he pulled his phone out of his pocket and unlocked it. He learned the hard way last semester to keep it on silent, and so he scrolled through Aang’s frantic apology texts over letting Appa get in the room, Hakoda wishing him luck for the semester, and Suki confirming their movie night after her afternoon class. He surprised that in between those texts, there was an unknown number from a couple of minutes ago.

Hey, Zuko here.

Sokka felt his heart stutter and a grin spread across his face as he typed out his reply.

hey! my last class of the day ends at 2, if you want to talk then?

He barely made it into the kitchen before he got a reply.

Sounds good.

Sokka couldn’t get rid of his grin as he typed out Zuko’s name into his contact.

Maybe there were some upsides to online classes.

[itsclydebitches]

Welcome back, welcome back! We have a relatively short chapter this time, which theoretically means it shouldn't have taken me as long as it did to write this recap. Yet here we are. 

We open again on Sun's perspective as he joins a large group in the dorm common room. Recall that last chapter Velvet said she wanted to show SSSN something and I took issue with her "Speaking of family" line. We'll get to that in just a bit, as well as the surprise element of this chapter. Moving chronologically though, we learn that this group is the self-named Beacon Brigade and there has been a unanimous vote to allow SSSN to become a part of whatever the Brigade is doing. "Everyone here helped defend our home and school," Velvet says, "even though they didn’t have to. We’re grateful. As far as we’re concerned, you’re all honorary Beacon students." That's a rather nice sentiment and, once again, Velvet shows herself to be the best and most mature character presented so far. That's not a terribly high bar to clear and as established last chapter, she definitely contributes to the intense Sun-bashing, but this is one of the sweetest lines I've heard from RWBY in a while, so kudos. 

Sun, however, doesn't take kindly to the inclusion. "Whatever that means anymore, Sun thought. Then he chided himself. To the others here, it still meant a lot." That's how you do a character flaw without making them a complete asshole. You either have someone else call the character out (paying careful attention to whether that person's opinion has any weight in the story—something the webseries still needs to work on), or you have the character call themselves out. Which Sun does here. The story allows Sun to have this flaw while likewise recognizing that he's not being fair to the others. That's a conscientious human being right there. 

Or a faunus. You get what I'm saying. 

Sun continues to unpack his prejudices and acknowledges that he's not a big fan of how that mentality impacts the formation of teams: "That was the whole point of the team system—to become part of something, to define yourself, to lose yourself in it. A team made you someone new, someone better." But for Sun that's too much attachment. He claims he's not the type to get attached to either people or places, though his willingness to follow Blake to Menagerie on a "What if?" says differently. Here we get to see how Sun thinks of himself as someone outside of these community ties even as he tries so hard to maintain them. It's a part of his personality that—for reasons I assume have to do with his past—he is unwilling to acknowledge yet. 

The rest of this group is introduced, including Team ARBN and Nolan, originally a member of Team BRNZ. Where are the other three? Oh, they died at the Fall of Beacon. 

Cue me putting the book down for a solid minute because this is one hell of a deviation from the tone of the webseries. With (maybe) the exception of the Schnee charity ball, the Fall of Beacon has been presented as no worse than what we, the viewer, directly experienced. Meaning that the end of Volume 3 was the moment RWBY went from a lighthearted action show to a tragic epic trying to take itself seriously, and crucially the show has made it seem like we were privy to everything that was a part of that change: Penny dies. Pyrrha dies. Yang loses an arm. Everyone is forced to abandon their school. Those are the four events that made this the Fall of Beacon and already we had a problem with how little the show chose to grapple with those things. Ruby's nightmares conveniently disappear. Yang has no difficulty fighting despite working through PTSD. Ruby doesn't seem to care that the friend she saw killed is miraculously standing before her. These events are, by and large, not integrated into the cast's feelings, reactions, and motivations  and when they are it's to say that such a tragedy has no bearing on difficult things like trust (Ozpin) or that those who are still haunted by the Fall are unstable and unfit to lead (Ironwood). Post Volume 4 these events haven't been given the proper weight, which is bad enough on its own, yet now we find out that things were even worse than they first appeared? 

Penny and Pyrrha were not the only ones to die. The Fall was always a tragedy, but this is a tragedy that goes beyond our core group of characters. Was anyone going to mention that Jaune, Nora, and Ren weren't the only ones to lose a teammate? That an entire generation of huntsmen are working through this on a far more personal level than previously established? As said, it's bad enough that the webseries has glossed over Pyrrha's death for everyone but Jaune, yet now BTD comes in to say, "Yeah, some of these kids lost their entire team. Remember these guys?" 

"Everyone on the right is dead now." No need to make room for that in your primary story. 

(As an aside, an anon once asked whether it's weird that Pyrrha got a statue in Argus. At the time I argued strongly that it wasn't, partly due to her celebrity status and the fact that this was her home city, but also because she seemed to be the only "real" death in the Fall. Obviously we as the viewers count Penny as well, but the world may not view the dismantling of an android in the same way they'd view the murder of an organic teenager. As the single "real" death that Beacon suffered, Pyrrha's memory shoulders that attention... but now this little tidbit blows all that out of the water. Apparently lots of kids lost their lives that day and our webseries hasn't taken the time to acknowledge that.) 

So I'm reeling from this revelation and taking in what it's done to Nolan: "He was even thinner than he'd been last year at the Vytal Festival, and his rose-colored glasses didn't hide the dark shadows under his eyes." Don't get me wrong, I'm thrilled that at least some part of the RWBY-verse is acknowledging the severity of Volume 3's finale, it just rankles that this work is relegated to a supplementary novel already loaded with other problems, rather than put into our main storyline where it would do more good. 

Speaking of those problems, we get another conversation about how unnecessarily cruel the Shade students are. I like the little pun on "shade" that Nadir gives—"Let’s just say some of the Vacuan students here are giving a new meaning to ‘Shade’ Academy"—but I’m not sure why Myers feels the need to follow that up with Nadir giving an awkward explanation. I can't remember precisely where, but didn't we see this already? With Sun or Neptune? Plus we definitely just got Fox's 'joke' that went over Neptune's head. Not every character needs to be #awkward regarding humor and you can trust your reader to get the joke without explaining it each time. That’s a specific character trait that feels like it’s being applied to too many characters now.  Moving on, Arslan speaks my mind by pointing out that, regardless of what Shade might think about them "abandoning" the academies, it's not a productive attitude. Their new peers are more interested in beating them down for what's already happened than discussing how they can move forward as allies (sound like any main characters we know?) So the group strikes up a conversation about what they can actually accomplish. We learn that Yatsuhashi has been leading some of them through meditation and others take the time to share their survivor's guilt, admitting that the Shade students' attitude sometimes feels like a punishment they deserve. Iris brings up Castor, another peer who perished at Beacon, and Nolan continues to grapple with the death of his teammates. Yet despite the severity of these admissions, Sun still isn’t impressed. 

“Yeah. Because you ran away, Sun thought, unable to stop himself, even though this was the exact thing the other Shade students were thinking of the Beacon and Haven survivors. No wonder Nolan was here—he was probably getting criticized worse than anyone, because Shade students were supposed to be stronger than everyone else.”

Okay wait, does Sun actually know that Nolan ran away? Is "ran away" in the context of Nolan's specific battle (his team was fighting a mech or something and he split), or is it in the context of the entire Fall (he failed to take back Beacon and therefore 'ran')? That's a huge difference because if it's the latter (and I suspect it is)... Sun ran away too. Has Sun—and Myers—forgotten that he was there? At the Fall. Right there on the left. 

It feels more than a little disingenuous of Sun to be adopting any of the Shade Academy's criticism when he himself was a part of the 'failing' group. Why is he acting like he’s an outside observer, judging Nolan when they went through the same horror? When he too ‘ran’ from that fight? Obviously this ‘You ran away’ perspective is just garbage all on its own, but I'm really distracted by what appears to be only three explanations: 

Nolan really did ditch his team, Sun knows about it, and this is all info that I've missed from the previous book (always possible)

Nolan really did ditch his team, Sun knows about it, but Myers isn't interested in telling us how Sun got that info or why it’s important 

Nolan never ditched his team, 'ran away' is in the context of leaving Beacon to the grimm, and Sun is so deep in his denial he’s removed himself from the facts of the situation. You didn't save Beacon either, Sun! 

I'm just 

Sun isn't done yet though and before we cover that I just want to say: I get it. This book drags him to an unreasonable degree and any Sun fan must just be frothing at the mouth reading through this. However, I also can't claim that Myers has made Sun particularly endearing here. Like in the prologue when Sun is all about being a solo act, denying reality, and ignoring the harm he's done to his team, here he's presented as someone I'm just not interested in spending time with. I know I praised him above for correcting his knee-jerk thoughts, but like with Coco's flaw becoming overdone Sun-bashing, Sun’s attitude it so over the top I get frustrated with him even while I sympathize with the extreme criticism he’s shouldering. Because this Sun isn’t any kinder or wiser than the group targeting him: 

“But he’d believe it when he saw it. It was easy to talk about doing something, and another thing to follow through on it. Maybe that was what he didn’t like about this group. So far it was all just sitting around and talking. They should be focused on moving on— channeling their strength toward protecting their new home, their new friends.”  

Sun has little to no faith that this group can accomplish the things they set out to do (despite evidence to the contrary). He's critical of what they have chosen to do and is dismissive of their needs. He likewise criticizes others for not taking care of their home and their friends... even though he's the one who left his team to chase after Blake, someone who explicitly did not want or need his assistance. It's something Sun himself brings up later on: "Blake may not have needed or wanted him, but there was no doubt in his mind that he had helped" and it's his dismissive attitude here that’s my primary issue with him both in the webseries and in this novel. Sun prioritizes his own desires (I want to help) over everyone else's desires and needs (Blake didn't want my help and didn't need it). We see him doing the same thing here, rejecting what a very large group all needs because it's not something he as an individual wants. It feels contradictory to call Sun selfish because his desires do revolve around helping others—his wants are all coming from a loving place—it's just that how he prioritizes that drive to help often ends up hurting others and he continually refuses to acknowledge that. His “but I helped” is used as a catch-all justification for the bad choices he made in providing that (unwanted) assistance. Like creepily following a woman, or ditching his team, or getting in over his head by following three goons alone, or criticizing a conversation that others find beneficial. To reiterate, I do think that Sun has gotten way too much heat in this novel, but I also can't pretend that he's a character I'm particularly fond of. He made me uncomfortable the moment spying on four women in their bedroom was played as a joke and RWBY has done very little to endear me to him since. It's a bit of a surreal experience to read about someone I’m very critical of, but when the material itself criticizes him I’m suddenly like, "Hold up. That's going too far." 

Reading about Sun feels like watching someone who insists they help another bake a cake. The baker does not want help, does not need help, but our character is just desperate to do something. So he forcefully takes the ingredients for himself and ends up ruining the batter. I'm like, "Okay, that's not appropriate. You're coming from a good place and you never meant any harm, but your actions were still a problem. We should address this, including where that desperate need to help is coming from." 

Except then the baker 'addresses this' by screaming at him at the top of their lungs, throwing things, and banning him from the kitchen for all time. 

Me: "Not like that!!" 

Simply put: this novel is generating a lot of emotions and very few of them are pleasant. 

Things finally come to a head when Sun rolls his eyes because he doesn't like therapy—wait. 

Hold up. Just give me another second. 

You remember I spoke about the "surprise element" earlier? Think about the structure of the last chapter. We end on what's essentially a small cliffhanger. Velvet says she wants to show Team SSSN something but the reader doesn't know what that is. We’re waiting for the reveal. Yet we only learn that the group is having a therapy session four pages in—and this is a six page chapter. (Yes, I'm writing twice as much as the source material. You all know I'm not succinct :p ). Myers is now demonstrating a habit of not introducing the core aspects of a scene: who, what, where, when, and why. We've got half of that— who, when, and where—but not the 'what' or the 'why.' What is the group doing in the city in the middle of the day? Are they patrolling? Out to lunch? Following a lead? Looks like they're visiting a wall. Would have been nice to know that a couple pages earlier. Oh, there's a souvenir table there? Didn't feel like it, and it was never mentioned in the scene setup, so that’s an awkward surprise. Now Velvet wants to show them something. What is it? No seriously... what is it? Please tell me what's going on before we're more than halfway through the event in question. Granted yes, you might be able to deduce that they're in therapy, but we don't know that for sure until Sun uses the word. And we need to know in order to properly read the scene. I spent the first four pages thinking that this group was an expansion of CFVY's solo missions. While they were talking I was waiting for Velvet to reveal what she wanted to share—another secret mission they were conducting, or something—not realizing that the conversation itself was it. That’s the reveal. I mean, Beacon Brigade isn't exactly a name that makes you think "therapy." They're labeling themselves an army, ergo I assumed this had something to do with their war. That is, more to do with it than working through the aftermath. 

In retrospect it is somewhat obvious that these students are engaging in group therapy... but at the same time it's not because I would think, technically, that this isn't therapy. Who's the therapist? Velvet? She's the one leading, but she's also an unlicensed, traumatized teen just like everyone else in the room. It's a support group and that's fantastic, I'm honestly thrilled one of RWBY's stories decided to incorporate this, but at the same time it's odd to have Sun seriously referring to this as therapy like this is comparable to receiving professional help. I’m bringing this up because we saw the same perspective regarding RWBYJNR's status as huntresses. That's a job, something earned and presented to you by an expert, but up until Volume 7 Ruby seemed to be working under the impression that because she wanted to be a huntress and because she did vaguely huntress-like things, she was one. Simple as that. But crucially she wasn't and that lack of knowledge, maturity, and training caused serious problems in Volume 6. Now we have a group calling their activity therapy, doing vaguely therapy-like things, but Velvet isn't a therapist. I'm saying that not to knock the excellent work she's doing to help both herself and her friends (and I'm also quite aware that I'm missing an entire book's worth of information that may be pertinent here) but rather, I bring it up to acknowledge that the whole of the RWBY-verse seems to have a skewed idea of how professionalism works. We've got a lot of teens in this franchise who are put in positions of power when by all logic they shouldn't be. RWBY has failed to do the work of coming up with compelling reasons for why these half-trained teens keep getting put in charge of stuff, which is what any story staring kids and teens needs to do.  

Anyway, I've rambled on about that enough. As said, Sun isn't enjoying the touchy-feely-ness of it all, even when Velvet reiterates that they're "like family." Coco reminds him that he's free to leave, but of course she turns it into an insult: "Maybe you’re not ready for this.” Sun ignores the implication and does try to leave, admitting that what he has to say probably won't go over well. The others encourage him to share though, it's a safe space... until Scarlet makes a dig about keeping them waiting again. I'm simultaneously going, "He's right. Sun still refuses to acknowledge how badly he hurt his team" and also "#Yikes. So much for this being a safe place!" 

What I’m saying is these kids all need an actual therapist. Sun himself is described as feeling "strangely disconnected from his body. Unsettled” at the start of the chapter. The tragedy here is that one of the characters most in need of this help is the one digging his heels in the most. 

It gets worse though. Sun finally caves and his take is, as one would expect given his feelings thus far, not great: "This is why Vacuans won’t trust you. Because you’re holding on to who you were and where you came from instead of focusing on where you are.” He also claims that “Theo really wouldn’t like this," making it sound like the group is breaking rules and should be ashamed of trying to cope with their trauma in a healthy manner. He ends with the confident belief that Vacuans understand them completely because they punish themselves by staying in the same, harsh place. 

(So do these people move on or not?? Ugh I can't get into this again.) 

Scarlet, as Sun predicted, isn't pleased to hear any of this. Frankly I can't blame him. "Like you didn’t leave us the first chance you got to chase after someone you barely knew who didn’t want your help?" he says. "You didn’t even stay in Vacuo for school —you chose Haven.”

He's not wrong. Hard as it is to hear, Scarlet has a point. Sun did abandon his team. He did chase after someone he'd just met who didn't want his help. He did choose to go to Haven because, as he explained last chapter, he's not a big fan of Vacuo. Which isn't a bad thing in and of itself, it just means he's not in a position to criticize others for not immediately adoring this kingdom, rejecting Beacon in the process. Like so many other RWBY protagonists, Sun holds others to a standard he doesn’t demand of himself. I can hate Vacuo and leave because there are things about it that make me uncomfortable, but you have to learn to appreciate it and forget what’s outside this kingdom, despite never having a choice about coming here. It’s food for thought and something he should be encouraged to consider. However then: 

“You wouldn’t know anything about loss, Sun. You never stay in one place long enough to learn.” 

That's not a point, that's just cruelty, and it's an attack that clearly hurts Sun a great deal. He flushes and snaps, "You all belong in Vacuo more than you think." Really, they all do. He reiterates to himself that there's nothing to work through, they all just need to move on, and then he really does leave, saying that he'll see them for patrol. Well, at least Sun isn’t planning on going off on his own again, even if he is on the outs with his friends. 

So that was an all around depressing chapter! I didn't like it. I was honestly shocked when I went back and realized that it was only six pages because it felt far longer. We're now three chapters into this novel... with only nineteen more to go 😬

Until next time! 

[goddesstiera]

The Mantiqueen Menace

Part three of my Captain Nova/Grimm series. Here on AO3

“Hey Captain, you got a sec?”

Nova turned from where she was writing Grimm at her terminal to Nyoka’s entrance into her quarters.

“What’s up?”

“I’ve been asked to take care of a problem mantiqueen and I could use some backup.”

Nova paused. It was technically their day off and mantiqueens were second only to primals in the Things-Nova-would-like-to-avoid list but she wasn’t one to refuse help to her friends and she couldn’t let Nyoka go alone.

“Sure, we can take a little detour. We will see if we can convince one of the others to come too. Just let ADA know where we are headed. Wait, where are we headed?

Nyoka just smiled at her and as she turned to leave, called back over her shoulder, “Stellar Bay.”

**********************

“Grimm!” 

As soon as the lift reached the ground, Nova was throwing herself into Grimm’s waiting arms, squealing in delight as he swung her around in a circle.

Nyoka just rolled her eyes at the couple but the corner of her mouth turned up, just a bit.

“Guess what?”

“What?”

“Mr. Sanjar somehow found out what you guys were doing today and it may have been suggested that he send someone to help you guys and I may have volunteered.”

Nova squealed in delight. She and Grimm never got to see each other as much as they wanted and the prospect of getting to spend time together, even working, was wonderful news.

 “I'm not gonna turn down another gun. Glad to have you, Grimm.” Nyoka patted him on the shoulder as she walked by, heading into town. “I need to refill my ammo. Meet me by the gate.” 

****************************************

"So what's the plan?" asked Grimm.

Nyoka stopped and turned towards him. "When we find it, we split up and surround her. Should keep her confused and distracted. Takes a lot of bullets to bring one down and with only three of us we have to be smart about it."

"Why are there only three of us? Where are the others?"

“That one’s on Nova.”

Nova sighed. "I had already promised everyone a day off and no one was willing to give it up." 

Sighing again, she held out her left hand, tapping each finger with her right pointer as she listed off her crew.  “Max wanted to catch up on some reading, Felix had a date, Parvati was working on some upgrades to the ship, ADA insisted that SAM clean her terminal, don't ask, and Ellie straight up laughed in my face. Almost punched her." The last part was said almost affectionately, as she shook her head and smiled.

Nova and Ellie had a weird relationship and Grimm had yet to decide if they were friends or not. It seemed to vary from day to day. Or maybe he just didn't get their friendship.

“Come on you two, less chatter,” scolded Nyoka who had already started walking again. “You’re gonna announce our arrival to everything in a two mile radius.”

“Yes ma’am,” they replied in unison. This time it was Nyoka who sighed.

*******************************************************

Their plan worked perfectly, at first. Attacks coming from three directions kept the mantiqueen confused and she kept spinning around, never getting too close to any of them until Nova’s gun jammed.

As soon as her shots stopped, the queen spun around and charged at her.

Everything seemed to move in slow motion. Nova turned to run, scrambling to get her shotgun off her back but it was too late. She tried to dodge the attack but the creature was too fast, swinging its clawed arm, slicing her across the back and knocking her to the ground. She didn’t move.

“NOVA!!!” screamed Grimm. 

Without thinking, he sprinted towards them and threw his armored body over Nova. The mantiqueen raised her claw again but a well-aimed shot from Nyoka blew a chunk of the arm off. The creature screeched in pain and rage and turned toward her, Grimm and Nova now forgotten. 

"Get her out of here," she ordered and Grimm wasted no time in complying, scooping up Nova and bolting to the relative safety of a nearby rock formation. He could hear Nyoka scream followed by a hailstorm of bullet fire. He hoped she would be okay by herself but Nova was his focus right now. He lay her gently down on her stomach and cut away the rest of her ruined jacket and shirt. 

The wound was nasty, and blood was pouring from it and a gash on her forehead but he had to push away the fear for her and focus. He slid into his training seamlessly and grabbed Nova’s med kit out of her bag. 

He stared down in horror as he realized she only had one adreno for her emergency medical inhaler. Dammit Nova. How could she not have checked her supply before going after a mantiqueen?!

He used it and after what seemed an agonizing eternity, he could see the bleeding begin to slow. He needed to get her back to town as soon as possible but at least she was out of immediate danger. 

He dressed her wound with gauze to keep it clean and dared to peek around the rock just as Nyoka finally brought the thing down. The second it hit the ground she came running towards them.

“How is she?”

“She only had enough adreno to get her halfway. Do you have any more?”

“I got one. Didn’t have enough for another after ammo. I get paid after it's done. Don’t wanna pay me and then have me die.”

He hit her with it and then gently scooped her into his arms.

“Let’s go.”

********************************

They made it back to town in half the time it had taken them to get there. They considered taking her to the doc in town but ultimately decided to return to the Unreliable and Ellie’s care.

“Ellie!” Nyoka screamed up the stairs as she had Grimm follow her up them to the mess. Ellie’s head popped out of her room as they reached the top and her eyes widened at the sight of a lifeless Nova in Grimm’s arms. 

“What the fuck happened?”

“Mantiqueen got her good and we only had two adreno. She has a nasty gash on her head too. I think she hit it on something when she went down.”

“Goddammit Nova!” Ellie had reminded her before they left to get more but clearly she had forgotten. She could tell you every detail about every hunk of junk she collected but couldn’t remember to have enough medical supplies on hand.

“Lay her on the table.”

She dug around in her med bag and pulled out two more adreno and loaded them into her inhaler.

“Grimm, get me something to clean her up with. Nyoka, go grab a blanket to cover her up. I’ll get these bloody clothes off her.”

*************

She had just finished washing the last of the blood off her skin when Nova’s eyes finally opened.

Grimm, who had been sitting next to her, holding her hand, noticed first.

“Nova! You’re awake! How do you feel?”

“Like I’ve been trampled by a herd of primals.”

“Just one mantiqueen and you are lucky to still be breathing, although you are gonna be sporting a nasty new scar as a reminder.”

“I’m touched by your concern, Ellie Bellie.”

Ellie, for once, ignored the hated nickname. “What were you thinking going out with that few adreno?!”

Nova winced at her tone. 

“Can we not yell?  I’ve got a splitting headache.”

“That’s because you cracked your head on something and probably have a concussion.”

“You are welcome to chew me out later but please can we not do this now?”

Ellie wanted to scream, No! We are doing this now, but one look at Nova and all the fight went out of her. Even with the adreno, her body had been through a traumatic injury and it had left her drained and with a brand new scar as a reminder of it forever. She sighed.

“Just get some rest. Grimm can carry you to bed, “ she replied before she walked back to her room and shut the door.

She turned to Grimm, who had remained silent through all of that. “You ok?” she asked tentatively.

“Let’s get you to bed.”

The nonanswer bugged her but she let it go, wrapping the blanket around her and letting him scoop her into his arms. They remained silent for the short trip to her room and he set her down on her bed. He turned and she reached out and grabbed his hand.

“Don’t go,” she whispered. 

He squeezed her hand with his. ”I need to take my armor back and report in. I’ll be back right after.”

She nodded in understanding, immediately regretting the movement and lay down to wait.

**************************

She was asleep by the time he returned but his approaching footsteps woke her.

“Grimm?” she called out, her voice heavy with sleep.

“I’m here.” He sat down at the edge of her bed and took her hand, interlacing their fingers.

She waited for him to say something and when he finally did, it was almost too quiet to hear.

“Please don’t do that to me again.”

“It’ll take more than a mantiqueen to take me out,” she said, chuckling. Grimm didn’t find it funny.

“Dammit Nova!” he shouted, causing Nova to jump slightly. It was the first time she had ever heard him raise his voice and she couldn’t keep her shock from showing.  He sighed heavily and stood up before continuing much softer. “You almost died and I couldn’t do anything. I feel like I failed you.”

“Is that how you see it?” She wrapped the blanket around her and stood to wrap her arms around him. “No, Grimm. We were going hunting today no matter what. You going with us is the only reason I’m no worse off than a nasty new scar on my back. You SAVED me.”

She reached up and cupped his cheek with her hand and he covered it with his own, holding it in place.

"I don't know what I'd do if I lost you," he whispered as he wrapped his other arm around her waist and held her tight.

She didn’t know what to say. She couldn’t promise him she wouldn’t be in danger again, that she wouldn’t get hurt again. That wasn’t something anyone could promise. 

“I’ve never felt like this about anyone before.” 

She remained quiet, instead leaning forward and kissing him, pouring everything she couldn’t say into it.

His hand dropped from holding hers against his cheek to her waist and pulling her even tighter against him. Her arms snaked their way around his neck as she deepened the kiss, her tongue sliding between his lips.

The blanket slipped away as his hands slowly slid up her naked back until his fingertips accidentally brushed against the raw skin of her scar and she winced, pulling away from him slightly and effectively dumping a bucket of cold water on him as he was brought back to reality.

“Shit!” he cursed, dropping his arms and stepping back from her. “I’m sorry.”

He bent down and retrieved the blanket for her, carefully wrapping it back around her naked body. “You are supposed to be resting. Doctor’s orders.”

She wanted to argue but he was right. Now wasn’t the time for that. “Will you stay?”

“As you wish.”

He helped her get settled in bed and kissed her forehead before taking a seat on the floor. He’d slept in worst positions.

“You can sleep in the bed. It’d be tight but we could make it work.”

“Nova…” he started to argue with her, remind her she was injured but one look in her eyes and he froze. He could see the fear hiding behind them, mirroring the fear he had felt. She didn’t want to be alone. “Move over.”

She smiled in relief and shifted so he could climb in bed behind her, his back pressed against the wall. She turned to face him, using his arm as a pillow, and snuggled into his chest. He carefully wrapped his other arm around her waist, mindful of her scar.

His legs were a little cramped but the feeling of her in his arms, pressed up against him far outweighed any discomfort he felt.

“Goodnight Nova.”

“Goodnight Grimm.”

Nova was asleep almost immediately. The safety and warmth of Grimm was too soothing to fight. He on the other hand, lay awake a bit longer just holding her as she slept, reminding himself that she was fine. He buried his nose in her hair and breathed in her smell until the rhythmic sound of her breathing lulled him finally to sleep. It was the best night’s sleep either of them had ever had.