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imagines-by-a-typical-fangirl · 4 years ago

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Love On-Set (Pt. 01 of 10)

Pairing: Dacre Montgomery X Reader

Word count: 3K

Next part (02) ->

Summary: You knew acting on Stranger Things season 3 would be a challenge, and you also knew, from the start, you'd have to work closely with Dacre Montgomery. But is wasn't a big deal for you, since this is your job and you're determined to act professionally. You had it all figured out, or so you thought, until the moment you were out face to face with Dacre. Then, this job became a lot harder than it was supposed to be, since you can't seem to focus whenever you're around Dacre. And you'll have to be around him a lot until the end of production.

{Dacre Montgomery Masterlist}

{Stranger Things Masterlist}

First Sight

The minivan stops right before entering the set as the driver speaks with one of the security guards. A huge structure was built around the area, and if it wasn't for the strong lights, you'd be in complete darkness. It's late at night, but yet, there are some journalists and a lot of cameras. They immediately surround the car, trying to see who's inside.

“Vicki, do you think I should go out and talk to them?” You decide to ask her first, because you're not as known as the other actors, and you're not sure if they'd want to talk to you.

“Sure. But don't take long.” She nods, touching the drive's shoulder and telling him to wait.

Taking a deep breath, you push the door open, a smile on your face as the cameras quickly find you. Running a hand through your hair, to make sure it's not messed up, you take in all the microphones and smartphones pointed at your face.

“(Y/N), could you answer some questions?” A short, dark-haired guy asks, a camera flashing.

“It depends on the question, but I'll try my best.” This seems to please them, and you wonder if the others couldn't afford a few minutes.

“Your posted on your Instagram account that you were a Stranger Things fan from season one.” A woman asks. “How was the transition from being a fan to acting on the show?”

“It was fantastic.” The first season of the show was still driving people crazy when you got the call for an audition for the role of Amy Whitehall, for seasons two and three. Vicky, you have no idea how, got in touch with some friends when she heard they were searching of someone with physical traits similar to yours. Thankfully, the audition went well and you got the job. “It's an honor to be part of this masterpiece. The only bad part is that now I have some spoilers.”

“Your character's scene by the end of season two had any interaction with Billy Hargrove, Hawking's bad boy. Does that mean she'll be in any kind of relationship with him?”

For that, you have to think, careful not to say anything that will expose the plot.

People are very interested in Billy, not sure exactly where the character will go from now on, after his introduction on season two. He stole many hearts, for love or hate, dividing opinions. And your character had a short appearance by very end of the last episode, shown in an interaction with him. On her way to the ball, to help Nancy, Billy almost runs her over with his car, after dropping his sister. They had a small dialogue, him asking her to get out of the way and her telling him to look where he was going. Then a pause, a little bit of tension, and that was it.

“I'm not allowed to answer that, but Amy's scene was just an introduction. Her character will be around throughout season three.” Offering another smile, you turn around, giving attention to someone else.

“What will be a new threat? The season finale raised a lot of questions about–”

“Excuse me, excuse me.” Vicky pokes her head out, a hand raised. “I'm sorry, but we have to get going.”

“Aright.” You mumble. “Thank you, guys. Bye.” Politely, you wave at the reporters before going back into the van.

You're soon moving again, leaving the entrance behind and driving in darkness for some minutes before more lights come into your sight until they're all around you. The set was built around a piece of the road, where you already shot earlier this week.

“C'mon, (Y/N). Hair and make-up." Vicky urgers, stepping out of the van with you.

You easily find your way around the set, chatting with people as they do your hair and put the makeup on. There will be a tiny cut above your left eyebrow, and Ron, the guy who always take care of the fake wounds around here, takes only fifteen minutes to get it done. Once you're ready, Vicky guides you to the filming area, and you sit on your chair a few feet away, under one of the many huge tents scattered around the place.

“Hi.” Someone says, and you abruptly look up from your phone, finding your co-star. The only co-star of the day, Dacre. He's already full Billy, with the mullet wig and the leather jacket. “I didn't mean to startle you. Just thought I'd come to say hello before the scene.”

You haven't properly spoken to Dacre. The single scene you made was quick, one of the last, and the set was a mess. So you didn't have the chance to talk, and ever since, you haven't crossed paths with him. But today's scene is all about your characters. Amy's first appearance on season three will have her running from something in the woods, the Mind Flayer, and she crashes her car on Billy's, while he's on the way to meet Mrs. Wheeler. That's it for today, their first meeting.

“Hi.” Smiling back, you shake his hand. “I'm (Y/N).” You decide to remind him.

“I know.” He simply says. “Do you want to go over the lines before the real thing?”

He has such a nice voice, it's impressive. You've watched some of his movies, and he's really good. It's not like you haven't acted before, but nothing so important or famous as Stranger Things. You can't help but be a little nervous. “Sure.” Blocking your phone, you stand up, leaving it on your seat.

“Alright. Let's–”

“(Y/N)! Dacre! It's time, c'mon!” The director calls, cutting you off.

“Guess we'll go straight to the real thing,” Dacre says as you start making your way to where the cars are positioned.

Billy's Camaro and Amy's light green Toyota are placed a few inches apart, the front part already wrecked and a light smoke coming off from under the hood.

“The mechanism will push the cars on each other and the rest you already know.” Your stylist comes to check on you one last time, making sure everything is perfect. When she steps away, you get inside the car.

A few days ago you shot Amy's way over here, driving insanely fast, running from the shadows creeping. Most of the scenes where Amy will be alone were already made since there weren't many. She will be around the others a lot, as the events are unrevealed.

Once you're in the car, you take your time to get into character, ignoring the orders being yelled outside. The lights are turned off, and the road before you is almost completely dark.

“Let's get it started, everyone!” The director shouts. “Action!”

At his command, the car jerks forward.

Letting your head fall on the wheel, you breathe fast, wide eyes acknowledging what just happened, the crash, the smoke, the other car that collided with yours. Looking over your shoulder, you imagine, you picture it coming, moving through the threes, growing closer.

“What the hell!” The voice yells as you try to make your car start again, uselessly. “You could've killed me!”

“Damn it.” Cursing under your breath, overcome by terror, you step out of the car, running around it and into the other one, which is still working, opening the passenger door and rushing inside.

“What do you think you're doing? Get the hell out of my car!” Dacre shouts at your face, in Billy's voice, a little deeper.

“There's something in the woods!” You yell, looking through the rear windshield. “It's coming!”

“Are you crazy or something?! You almost wrecked my car!” As he speaks, you imagine it once again, the tentacles coming from the sky, taking over the road behind you.

Then you grab his arm, squeezing the muscle underneath the jacket. He's in the middle of a sentence when he looks back too, immediately going silent as he's eyes meet the same inexistent thing you're seeing.

“What the–”

“Drive!” You burst out, and the car starts moving.

“Cut!” The director's voice reaches both of you and Dacre hits the brakes.

Relaxing, you let go of his arm.

“That was great, but I want another take. Ryan, turn those lights down.”

The scene is repeated three more times, with different lighting until they finally decide it's perfect. Then the whole set starts moving to the next scene, which is the sequence to what just played out. It'll be shot in a street Northeast from the road, and since it'll play out from the Camaro, you're told to stay in the car as Dacre drives there, following the other cars.

“You did well back there,” Dacre says as you move, taking a different turn from the other cars to reach your mark. The street has a few small houses on one side, which will have their lights on and some people moving inside and on their balconies, and tall threes on the other.

“You too. Hope I didn't hurt your arm, but Amy was terrified.” Shrugging your shoulders, you smile to hear his giggle.

“I noticed.” He says. “But my arm will survive.”

Looking his way, you're able to have a good look at him now. It's a little dark, but you can take in his features. Dacre makes the mullet look good, which is impressive since you absolutely hate the hairstyle. But not on him. Clearing your throat, you look away. “Make sure it will. You'll need it.”

Dacre stops by the mark, everyone apparently already on their positions. “Things are about to get tense for Billy and Amy now.”

“First fight.” You say, taking a look at your outfit to make sure nothing is out of place. “Enemies to lovers is quite a good arch.”

“I like it too.”

“(Y/N). Dacre. Are you ready?” The director asks and both of you give him a thumbs up, hands off the window. The crew with the microphones and cameras are already positioned, ready for the scene. “Alright then. Ready... Action!”

Dacre moves the car forward, just enough to fake it as he hits the breaks. “What was that?” Billy asks, annoyed for some reason Amy wouldn't know.

“I don't know.” With a hand on your hair, shaking a little, you breathe fast, terrified. “Just take me home.”

“Now I gotta drive you home too?”

“Screw you.” The sudden outburst and the disgust in his voice makes you bolt out of the car, keeping in mind not to look at the cameras following you.

“Are you going to walk?” Billy yells, but you don't look back, walking fast, crossing your arms. “Wait.”

“Screw. You.”

“Don't be an idiot.” You roll your eyes when you notice he's coming closer. Dacre grabs your arm, forcing you to turn around. “Are you really going to walk home with that... Thing out there?”

You're confused at his change of moods, pushing your arm away. “Does it look like I have a choice? You just saw that–” You gesture at the threes on the other side of the road. “–and you still couldn't bring yourself to drive a lady home. You're such a gentleman.” Raising your voice, you put the same tone of disgust in your voice that you heard in his. The cameras move a little closer, and you know why. That's when the tension starts, when Amy stands up to Billy. Stepping forward, lifting your head to try and look him in the eye, you put a single finger in his chest. “You're far worse than what people say you are.” You don't get why his eyes make you nervous. Maybe this whole thing is more than you're used to, too big of a production for you after a few years away from the cameras. As much as Dacre's face being so close makes you feel funny, you gotta keep it cool, don't let it show. You're scared, terrified of a monster in the woods.

“Cut the bullshit and let's go.” He takes your arm again, but you refuse to follow him, standing your ground.

“Let go!” You struggle a bit on his grip, noticing how you actually need to act as if it's tighter than it really is. When he turns to face you again, as you struggle, his face comes close again, his eyes filled with Billy's annoyance.

“Get your butt–” Exactly in time, a crack reaches your ears, and both you and Dacre look at the woods with wide eyes, your breaths caught in your throats, unsure of what made that noise, but not excited to find out. “Let's get out of here.”

“Yeah.” You mumble, heading back into the car.

“And cut!” The director yells as soon as you close the door shut. “That was good, but I want another take. I want the same tension you both built on season 2, only now it's stronger, you're face to face. And Dacre, work this out because people need to be convinced Billy likes someone for something else than just fool around.”

You both nod, repeating the same thumbs-up gesture. Taking a deep breath you wait for the sign and starts moving, doing pretty much the same until you're both out of the car, but this time, when Dacre pulls your arm, you act as if the pull was stronger then it actually was, letting yourself collide against his chest before stepping away. “Are you really going to walk home with that... Thing out there?”

“Does it look like I have a choice? You just saw that and you still couldn't bring yourself to drive a lady home. You're such a gentleman.” Instead of just putting a finger on his chest, you push him away with both hands, not keeping the normal distance as doing so, and letting your eyes fall on his unbuttoned shirt for a couple of seconds before raising your them again. You feel the heat on your cheeks, and you know you're blushing. Checking him out was not the intention.

Dacre's eyes meet yours, and for a second they soften before the usual annoyance comes back. You wonder if he's trying to say something, give you a hint about something he wants to do, but you have no idea what it might be. “Cut the bullshit and let's go, princess.” The weight on the last word is different, lower, meant as in insult, an irony.

“Let go!” You whisper-yell, trying to pull away, but you stop when Dacre holds the other arm, trying to drag you to the car. His stare is intense, and the cameras move a little, coming closer, and you know they're focusing on your faces. “Let go.” You repeat, much lower this time, trying to put some distance between you and him, since your bodies are way too close already.

“Get your butt–” The crack again, the stare at the woods, and the sudden change of moods. Run now, fight later. “Let's get the hell out of here.”

Nodding in agreement, you give your arms one last push, and Drace's eyes come back to you as if remembering he was still holding you, finally releasing his grip. You both run to the car and the scene is over.

Despite saying it was perfect, the director wanted two more takes. He wants proximity, touching, anger mixed with a sudden, recently discovered passion from an unexpected connection at first sight. You're happy to hear that you did achieve that, not sure if it came from your skills or the funny feeling you had in your stomach through the scene. It's weird to have someone you basically just met so close, only inches away.

When it's all done, you take off the outfit and put your clothes back on after washing the make-up away. Then you wait for Vicky, leaning against the minivan, scrolling through your Instagram feed.

“Hi again.” You see Dacre approaching through the corner of your eyes, raising your head to look at him. “Have you checked in at the hotel yet?”

“Yes, just before coming here.” All the actors are staying at the same hotel, just so it's easier to gather everyone around when needed, and be sure of the time it gets for them to get on set.

“I came in my car. I can give you a ride there if you like.” As he speaks, you see Vicky coming, talking with the director. Which you still don't know the name yet.

“I came with Vicky, my agent.” Gesturing at her, you feel embarrassed to decline, and you hope Vicky will say something to help you out as she usually does. “Right, Vi?”

“Oh, no.” Waving her hand in a fast motion, she puts a lock of her blond hair behind her ear. “Remember what I told you? Make connections, friends. Don't stick with me during the whole production.” She reaches out her hand and Dacre politely shakes it. “I'm Victoria Klein. (Y/N)'s agent and her mother's oldest friend.”

“Dacre Montgomery.” He simply says.

“You may take her to the hotel. I have some things to do and she needs to rest. Long day tomorrow.”

You just watch as Vicky sets you up as if you're not even there to make your own call. But you're too shy to say anything else, to still refuse Dacre's kindness. “Ok then. See you, Vicky.”

“Have a good night.” She says after giving you a quick hug.

Silently, you follow Dacre through the set to the parking lot. His car is among several different trucks, some of them already leaving. “Nice car.” You tell him as you get into the passenger seat.

“It's rented.” Dacre turns the ignition and the car comes to life. “I can't be without a car. What if I need to go somewhere?”

“Fair enough.”

He drives through the huge set and you fall into a comfortable silence, not sure of that to say. It would help if you could see some kind of landscape or anything at all through the window. Then you wouldn't look like an idiot with eyes glued at nothing but darkness.

“Did you stop to speak to the journalists?” Dacre asks when you reach the exit, waving at one of the guards.

“Yes. You?”

“Yeah. What did they ask?”

“Spoilers.” Shrugging your shoulders, you give him a glance, and he does the same. “About Amy's and Billy's relationship. What can be expected after their meeting in the season finale.”

A low giggle escapes his lips. “Wait until they know.”

“But they will have to wait until next year.”

“You did well back there. You actually blushed. How did you do that?” He stops at the red light, and you feel when he looks at you. Running a hand through your hair, you meet his eyes.

You weren't trying to blush. You just did. “I'm a very good actress.” Giving him a sassy smirk, you see when his lips break into a smile. It's different from Billy's smile, he doesn't act like he's trying to hide some unknown meaning behind it.

“You sure are.” The red light turns green and you start moving again. “Uhm... There will be a kissing scene, you know.” Oh. The kissing scene. You read through it, of course, you just didn't give much thought about it. “Have you ever done a kissing scene?”

“No.” The answer is quick, you don't have to think much. “In my long list of three movies, in two of them my character didn't have any romantic interests and in the other one it was platonic.” Dacre had done it, you remember from some movie, not sure which one. Your mother insisted on watching some of his movies, just so you'd ‘get to know your co-star skills’ before actually having to work with him. But it's different. It's completely different watching a character on screen and then meeting the person behind it.

“Oh, ok. I hope I won't make you feel uncomfortable.”

“Don't worry about that.” You're a professional, and that's your job. It's just a kiss anyways, and the scene won't be shot any time soon. You'll have time to get used to the idea.

“I just think that since our characters arch is connected from now on, it would be good to get to know each other. It helps a lot when the co-stars are somehow friends.”

“Of course.” He has way more experience in this than you, so whatever he says, you agree.

When you get to the hotel, Dacre leaves his car on the underground parking lot, and, despite having his room key, he insists on accompanying you to the reception to get your card. Once you're in the elevator, you rest your back against the mirror, watching the numbers as they light up.

“We should exchange numbers,” Dacre says, turning to look at you. “In case some of us need to go through the lines or work on something.” He shrugs his shoulders, the light fabric of his white shirt moving. “It's a thing among us. You'll be invited to a lot of parties like that.”

“Sure.” Taking your phone off your pocket you unlock it and hand it over to him as he does the same. Quickly, you type your number and save if on his contacts list.

“That's my stop.” He says when you reach the 14th floor. “See you tomorrow.”

“Good night.” You mumble, waving at him as the elevator door closes again.

The first thing you do when you get to your room is kick off your shoes, already undressing to hit the shower before throwing yourself on bed. It's very late and you won't have many hours of sleep. You're halfway to the bathroom when you take your phone to put on some music. But you don't recognize the object in your hand. After a moment of confusion, you realize it's Dacre's phone.

“What now?” Stopping on your tracks, you start making the way back and gathering the clothes you left on the floor, putting them on again. Since you don't know the number of his room and knocking from door to door is ridiculous, you decide to call reception and just ask. But on your way to the landline they have near the couch, Dacre's phone starts ringing. You were wondering who would it be when you read your own name on the screen.

“Oh, hi.” You're quick to pick up. “I guess you have my phone.”

“Yeah, I got lucky it didn't lock, or else I'd have to call reception asking for your room.” His voice gets a lot darker through the phone. “Would you tell me which one is it? I'm already heading to your floor.”

“1703.” Already making your way to the door, you hear the soft beep of the elevator's doors opening.

“I'm almost there.” He's still speaking when he turns the corner, getting into your sight. You hang up, a shy smile on your face. “Sorry about that.” He hands you over your phone and you give him back his.

“It's alright. We're both tired.” You expect him to just say good night and leave, but he doesn't, shifting his weight from one leg to another.

“Have you met the others yet? Natalia, Joe, Millie...?”

“No, not yet.” You've heard they are very close, and you're the new girl in set. Saying you're nervous doesn't get anywhere close.

“I'm your only friend so far then.” Dacre states. “I'll break the ice with the others, don't worry.” He smiles again, and now, under the bright lights of the hotel hall, you can see his face perfectly. His blue eyes, a lot kinder then they were earlier today when he was Billy.

“Thanks. Guess I'll see you tomorrow then... Pool scenes.”

“Pool scenes.” He repeats. “I'll leave you to sleep now. Good night, (Y/N). Again.”

“Good night, Dacre.” Standing by the door, you watch as the walks away, towards the elevators.

You're about to head inside when, just before he turns around the corner, Dacre gives you one last look, a smile coming to his lips when his eyes meet yours.

@baker151910 @shinydixon @dreamin-of-dacre @hanoi15 @lickmymelanin @skykittysstuff

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skullsandwineglasses · 4 years ago

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The Legends (2019) Full Review

My review of the first 30 episodes of the drama can be found here.

This is more of a rant than a review. The drama should have wrapped up at episode 35. I was able to tolerate it up to episode 42 when the wedding was, but by episode 48 it’s a total mess.

If only this scene was as epic as the picture makes it look. But alas, this was just a dream sequence, and by this point in the finale, I was already bored and scrolling through instagram on my phone. If only they really did have a love-hate relationship. But this is an angst-free drama.

Inconsistent character arcs

The FL and ML have become incredibly weak, both in terms of abilities and personality. The changes just don’t make sense for their characters.

Zhao yao is no longer the badass she once was, and I’m actually fine with that. Moving away from her demoness persona is part of her growth. BUT, she no longer has a goal in the drama (except when she finds out that Mo Qing has an inner demon. Then, her goal becomes finding a way to expel the demon). But in the last quarter of the drama, she doesn’t really do anything of importance. She lost her sword, but she doesn’t actively go and find it. Instead, Mo Qing and Jiang Wu are the ones who took initiative to hunt it down for her. And when Lin Zi Yu got away with it, she doesn’t bother thinking about finding her sword again?? I mean girl, you lost your sword. Your only weapon. Why is that not at the top of your list of priorities? Is this the same FL who had risked it all for the Wan Jun sword?

(I miss the demoness)

Her tolerance level for things that annoy her is just so out of character. Zhao yao used to be someone who always fought back against anything she didn’t like. But when it comes to Jiang Wu, she seems to have unlimited tolerance for him. Yes, he saved her, but owing him does not mean letting him be a menace. Like when Jiang Wu sucked the life energy out of Ah Dai. All she did was try to restrain Mo Qing from attacking Jiang Wu, but she didn’t spring forward to prevent Jiang Wu from killing Ah Dai. I mean, the cause of Mo Qing’s rage was Ah Dai dying. Shouldn’t you go address the root of the problem? Instead, she just sits and stares and lets Jiang Wu kill Ah Dai instead of doing something. And then there’s the scene in the library when she’s asleep, but Mo Qing is wrestling with his inner demon, and then the Wan Jun sword kills the 2 guards on duty. She just sleeps through the entire thing. Wasn’t she once the most feared conqueror/demoness? Isn’t she a warrior? How can your senses not be alert when there’s so much ruckus around you? Someone on MDL said that she became a glorified baby sitter for the ML, and while I don’t agree that it’s as extreme as that, I can see their point. All that Zhao yao does after the wedding is try to reign in Mo Qing to prevent him from going into full-on demon mode. She holds him back, tries to calm him and soothe him, rinse and repeat.

Speaking of Mo Qing, his current personality is just rage and jealousy. At first, it was kinda endearing seeing him jealous, but soon his entire arc was just about him being consumed by jealousy. The writers try to justify it by saying that he’s always had low self-esteem and been unconfident about himself because of his upbringing, and the growing demon energy inside him is exacerbating these thoughts, making him more unlike himself, but you’re telling me that everything that he and Zhao yao had gone through together was all for naught? This would have made sense 5 years ago, but we’ve seen that he has greatly matured since becoming sect leader. During the earlier episodes, he was able to see right through Zhao yao’s mask. He teased her, flirted with her, scolded her, and basically proved he’s her equal in every way, and he did it all with easy confidence. And now suddenly, all of that growth reverses, and he’s insecure and sensitive again. This character progression just doesn’t make sense in the context of everything that’s happened. I would have loved to have seen more of the introverted and unconfident Mo Qing at the beginning of the drama. But instead, we only got a handful of scenes before that part of his character arc was cut short and we skip ahead 5 years later and then another 5 years later to when he’s the sect leader. There was honestly no purpose for Mo Qing’s suffering. He just suffered for the sake of suffering. In other xianxia dramas, characters suffered for a purpose. It was a price they had to pay in order to protect someone they love. But this suffering is just pointless. It does nothing for this character arc. And they kept replaying the same montage of him sleeping on the dragon. As if it’s not already clear from the last 20 episodes that he’s being haunted by his father’s demon.

Villains and supporting characters

I didn’t really care for the villains? Luo Mingxuan is still alive, but doesn’t do anything until the last 5 episodes. I eyeroll whenever Lin Zi Yu is onscreen. Jiang Wu is the only one who’s interesting and he serves as comedic relief.

And then there are all the unnecessary deaths. It’s like they’re killing off all the good characters one by one. What was the point of killing off the doctor? He was the only character who could scold both Zhao yao and Mo Qing. The drama felt so empty without him.

But on a good note, I really liked most of the supporting characters, from Zhiyan to Shi Qi to Ah Rong to Gu Hanguang. They were also the most consistent characters in the drama.

On a bad note, the drama spent too much time on the backstories of supporting characters. I did not care to watch Suruo mourn Luo Mingxuan and remembering how they fell in love, and this happens for pretty much all the couples in the drama. It’s because Zhao yao and Mo Qing have a very simple romantic arc that’s resolved very early on, so the writers had to throw in fillers to drag out the drama. And the consequence is that our leads end up getting not enough screen time.

The final 2 episodes

Oh boy. The last 2 episodes were a hot mess. In the final battle, everyone kept attacking and stabbing Luo Mingxuan, but he just won’t die?? He’s like Wolverine. He just comes back stronger. It just kept dragging on and on, and I completely lost interest. And I felt bad for Xu Kai. He was standing on the sidelines for most of the battle, just watching and shooting worried faces at Zhao yao. I hate to say he was useless, but it just felt like the writers did him dirty. Even Jiany Wu, who had already died by that point, was given a brief re-appearance. While Mo Qing, the ML, was forced to sit out on the action.

I’m also so over the will-he-won’t-he be evil plot. I keep saying this but I’ll say it again. It. Just. Keeps. Dragging. I’ve watching longer dramas, but this one felt to go on forever. We get it. You’re being tortured by your inner demon, but love will conquer all.

The editing is also weird? Some of the scenes aren’t in chronological order, and there’s no separation between dream sequences and reality. I also never liked the preview at the beginning of each episode. I also hate how they cut some crucial scenes from the TV version that’s on youtube, forcing me to hop onto doboku, which buffers.

Honestly, the last episode felt like a hallucinated dream sequence. In one scene, they’re all sitting around the table saying that the need to seal the Wan Jun sword before Mo Qing gets out of the control, and then it suddenly cuts to black with a title card that says 5 years later (don’t get me started on how often they overuse the “5 years later” plot device. Why is it always exactly 5 years?) We then see that Zhiyan is now the sect leader, and we’re told that Mo Qing has sealed himself away, and Zhao yao has been waiting for him to return. We don’t see them say goodbye to Mo Qing before he seals himself away. No scene showing a handover to Zhiyan. We’re just forced to go with it and imagine these scenes ourselves.

Zhao yao, with a new hairstyle and new clothes to signify the time skip, watches Zhi yan and the sect from the distance. She then goes to visit other people, like Sima Rong and Liu Cangling. Liu Cangling and Zhiyan are the only couple who were able to move on from each other, and honestly, good for them. We then see Zhao yao sitting in the cave, pouring wine onto the cave floor, and then it cuts to black again and a sword flies through the air and wedges itself on the bedrock and we hear Mo Qing say Zhao yao’s name in a voiceover. And then it cuts to a scene where they’re both in the cave wearing their clothes from 5 years and Zhao yao has her old hairstyle. You assume this is a flashback to when they sealed the sword. And then we see Mo Qing in another realm where he lowers the sword in to the water, presumably sealing it. And then it cuts to both of them on the street buying food, wearing their old clothes and hairstyles.

Does this mean he got out of the seal? When in the timeline is this street scene? How did he get out of the seal? Did he just walk out? Was Zhao yao there waiting for him, or did he go and find her? It’s typical for there to be a long period of uncertain separation in xianxia and wuxia dramas, and these dramas usually end either ambiguously where you don’t know if the couple will reunite, or they end with an emotional reunion, like in Ashes of Love, Eternal Love, Love and Destiny, and Love and Redemption, and famously in Return of the Condor Heroes. But what in the world was this ending?? The hell happened? That was so anticlimactic. If the scene on the street really was their “reunion” after he got out of the seal, does that mean Zhao yao changed her hair back to 5 years ago? Why is the costuming so confusing then?

And the last scene where they have the same actors play their kids? Um, no. That’s just plain weird. You built up the chemistry between the 2 actors, and then in the end you make them play siblings and re-enact the scene of when their parents met? For what? To make the audience reminisce about the budding romance between the leads at the beginning so that things come full circle? But, these characters are siblings?? You’re trying to make us emotional over a scene of two siblings pretending to be lovers?

There was just no point in doing that. It doesn’t tell us anything about the characters’ married life now. I don’t care about their kids. I care about the characters and what they’re doing now. What a strange and uncomfortable way to end the drama. Not satisfying at all.

It would have been better if they had left it ambiguous. The amount of times that Zhao yao came back from the dead showed that they can defy the impossible, so even if it was an ambiguous ending, you’d still be able to believe that they’ll be together again. But this mess just ruined the chemistry. Ugh. I really miss the first half of the drama.

Overall Impression

I’m mad about how chaotic the last few episodes were. While the beginning of the drama wasn’t without its flaws either, it was still very promising and intriguing. The beginning of the drama felt like they knew where they were going with the story, even if you didn’t completely like the direction that it went. So yes, I echo the other critiques saying that this drama had a strong beginning and a weak end.

When I got to episode 35, I thought, how bad can this get? When I got to episode 42, I was still holding out hope that maybe other people were just harsh and maybe I’ll actually enjoy it. But no, the final 10 episodes are really as bad as everyone says it is.

The romance, which was the only reason I stuck to the drama, also felt a little underdeveloped. I wish we got to see more scenes of them pre-episode 30.They were so cute then. Everything post-episode 30 was just them being constantly worried about each other.

At least there was no angst. And the comedy was great. So there’s that.

I give this drama a 7/10 for the characters and the premise. The plot is not worth watching due to terrible editing, pacing, and consistency, but it’s also a drama that won’t take you long to watch since you could skip most of it anyway and just go to the scenes with the leads. It’s my first drama watching Bai Lu and Xu Kai, but I’m def now interested in more of their work, like Arsenal Military Academy.

#招摇 #the legends #bai lu #xu kai #cdrama #白鹿 #许凯 #zhao yao #cdrama review #cdrama rant

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mothdalf · 4 years ago

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For the lovely anon who requested Maedhros experimenting with short hairstyles post- Angband! HC below the cut

The last image is closest to my own usual mental image of Maedhros and one of my fave drawings of him.

This then exposes various wounds and injuries to his head and scalp that need to be treated, including a severe one that wraps round the right side of his head and onto his face. Even though it’s old and no longer bleeding, it’s not exactly healed, and needs some intervention to set it right. So that side of his head is kept sheared and exposed so that the wound can be monitored and treated, even as the rest starts to grow out again. The hair never grows in properly around the scar, so he keeps up shaving that side even after it’s healed.

It’s not exactly a priority so he doesn’t really think about his hair again as he recovers, as long as it’s clean, not stuck to any healing skin, and not being pulled, he doesn’t notice it. Once Maedhros’ health is more stable and he’s actually able to think about it, he still keeps it short (like Maglor’s) because 1: it’s easier to deal with independently, 2: it feels safer, as it’s harder for anyone to grab, and 3: he’s got some unpleasant memories and issues surrounding his hair that he’s got to work through.

There aren’t many people he trusts or can bare to have help him with things like dressing or grooming as he gets used to doing it with just his left hand. He gets to trust the healers who are treating him because (once he’s no longer completely delirious) he knows they’re helping him and have been around him at his most vulnerable and haven’t done any harm, but it’s not like they’re gonna hang around and do his hair for him when he’s up and about. That leaves Fingon and Maglor. Fingon just likes to brush and play with it and braid it (Maedhros finds this very soothing), but Maglor practices all sorts of asymmetrical buns and braids and shapes.

When he’s better accustomed to doing it for himself, Maedhros usually sticks to a messy bun or simple ponytail. He also notices a patch where the hair grows through white rather than red- where damage to the area means the hair has no pigment- which is a little disconcerting at first but he doesn’t really mind it.

As time goes on he gets more comfortable with growing it out a little more, because it makes him feel a bit more like himself. He used to take such pride in his beautiful copper curls and he finds he misses it. It also softens and distracts from his much harsher new appearance- before he was tall, lean, slim, and classically beautiful, now he’s rougher, scarred, and sharp. However different he looks, his hair comes back (mostly) the same. It’s part of himself that he recognises and a small, sad voice in his head that he refuses to acknowledge clings vainly to the idea that with it he’s still beautiful.

In Himring he retains the simple, easy styles that he can do himself. Maedhros is no longer comfortable with having a valet or any personal attendants, he’s lived without them long enough and the idea of someone so close and doing personal things for him makes him very uneasy. However he does choose to grow it out more and more, and during visits and for special events he will allow Fingon, or Maglor, or one very trusted member of his household to braid it.

After the Nirnaeth Arnoediad he stops taking care of it altogether, and Maglor threatens to chop it all off again. He brushes through it but cuts it back to his shoulders and keeps it around that length for ease after that. He can’t really find it in himself to care about something like his hair as everything crumbles around him. There’s not much point in being beautiful after Fingon is gone.

#maedhros fëanorion #maglor fëanorian #fingon #maedhros #my art #nelyafinwe maitimo #the silmarillion #tolkien #noldor #first age antics #maitimo #headcanon #nelyo #my beautiful boy #my golden boy

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connieslover · 4 years ago

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headcanon: when you cut your hair

✧˖*°࿐headcanons of midoriya, todoroki and bakugou reacting to seeing their crushes new hair cut

princess QUEEN yona

*ೃ☼ izuku midoriya

ෆ you and the other members of class 1-A were currently having your interships

ෆ you so happened to bumped into todoroki who had a slight panic look on his face

ෆ and so you decided to follow him

ෆ and now, you, midoriya, iida and todoroki were against the known hero killer, stain

ෆ iida was on the ground, badly wounded from the knife that went through his shoulder blades

ෆ midoriya was slumped against the wall as his body had been paralysed for a while due to the villains quirk

ෆ todoroki and you were trying to get hold of the villain who had been running around the narrow hallway, trying to get a cut on either of you

ෆ your eyes had spotted midoriya who had been clutching onto his leg, which you presumed had been injured

ෆ seeing the pained expression on his face, your feet started moving

ෆ the only thing in your vision was the look of midoriya biting his lips and his brows furrowing

ෆ you didn’t notice the villain making his way towards you and grabbing a fistful of your luscious long hair

ෆ you gave a small wince at his hard tug

ෆ “y-y/n!” shrieked midoriya, eyes widening at the sight of stain’s rough hold on your hair which enabled you to move

ෆ "so what will it be? the life of this girl, or yours?” he snarled to todoroki who had immediately stopped producing ice

ෆ your eyes met todoroki and you mouthed to him to stall the villain

ෆ you spotted a knife hanging from stain’s waist and you immediately had an idea

ෆ todoroki decided to create an ice sculpture of some sort, earning the attention of the villain

ෆ your hand reached for the knife and in one swift moment, you felt free of his grasp

ෆ you pulled a mulan

ෆ stain diverted his attention to you and todoroki immediately started attacking him with ice blocks

ෆ meanwhile, you ran to midoriya, kneeling beside him

ෆ “midoriya? are you all right?”

ෆ the male gave a small groan and pushed himself up from the ground

ෆ “y-yeah, i think it’s wearing off but he hasn’t noticed yet,”

ෆ and so, iida took the courage to push himself off the ground

ෆ you, midoriya, iida and todoroki had started attacking the hero villain until he was knocked out in todoroki’s ice

ෆ endeavor came to the rescue

ෆ but so did a nomu

ෆ a few other heroes gathered to the street where you were located and helped put nomu to rest

ෆ once the whole chaos was over, you gave a tiring sigh and your legs gave up

ෆ you were on the ground, relieved that you weren’t badly injured

ෆ “y/n...your hair,”

ෆ you looked up, eyes meeting midoriya’s large green ones

ෆ remembering that you had sliced off your hair to get out of stain’s grasp, you ran your fingers through your now short hair which barely went past your collarbones

ෆ it was DEFINITELY uneven

ෆ “does it look bad?”

ෆ from the illuminated light of the lamppost, you were definitely sure that you saw a faint blush on his cheeks

ෆ “it looks great! like really great! but also uneven....”

*ೃ☼ shoto todoroki

ෆ during the weekends your mother suggested that you should get a hair cut as your hair was really damn long

ෆ you lowkey had an emotional attachment to your long hair so it was hard for your mother to convince you

ෆ that was until you read a twitter post on ways to get your crush’s attention

ෆ and one of the ways listed was to get a hair cut

ෆ that day, you went to the salon with your mother

ෆ however, things didn’t go as planned

ෆ when you arrived in front of class 1-A, you hesitated to go in

ෆ you were actually debating on whether you should run back home

ෆ you gave a small curse and entered the classroom, tugging the strings of your hoodie tight

ෆ “y/n! good morning!” uraraka greeted you

ෆ you smiled at her and sat at your seat, trying to avert the gazes from the females

ෆ “y/n-chan, why are you wearing a hoodie?” asui asked, tilting her head to the side

ෆ “you normally don’t wear hoodies,” chimed in ashido with a raised brow

ෆ “o-oh, it’s a bit chilly today,” you lied playing with the sleeves of your hoodie

ෆ “but its summer,” it was jiro’s turn to raise a brow

ෆ “don’t tell me you’re feeling unwell? we should bring you to the recovery girl!” fretted yaoyoruzu

ෆ “n-no! it’s fine!”

ෆ todoroki who had been listening to your conversation secretly started worrying

ෆ “y/n’s sick?”

ෆ unluckily, you had forgotten that you had rescue training class today

ෆ which meant that you had to wear your hero costume

ෆ and that there was no way that aizawa would allow you to wear your hoodie on top of it

ෆ whilst you were changing into your hero costumes, you prayed that no one would notice your hairstyle

ෆ but. you were in a room filled with women.

ෆ and they notice everything.

ෆ “y/n-chan where did your long hair go?” shrieked ashido, instantly running towards you with gleaming eyes

ෆ soon you found yourself surrounded by the girls

ෆ “your short hair looks so cute!”

ෆ “is that why you were wearing a hoodie?”

ෆ “why did you cut your hair?”

ෆ you felt taken aback by the sudden rush of questions and you took a step back

ෆ “i-uh...my mother suggested that i should cut my hair since it was really long,” you answered, playing with a strand of your hair

ෆ the girls continued to pester and compliment you in the changing rooms

ෆ when you and the girls stepped into the grounds of where the rescue mission would be held, you spotted todoroki immediately and you found yourself hiding in between asui and uraraka

ෆ you weren’t well hidden as the two of them were smol

ෆ after thirteen had explained the tasks, you and the rest of class 1-A immediately split up to find survivors and aid them

ෆ whilst you were running in the streets, shouting and looking for citizens who were ‘injured’ you saw todoroki who was a feet away from you

ෆ you immediately hid behind the closest thing to you

ෆ “y/n-san? why are you hiding behind a pole?”

ෆ you awkwardly laughed before moving from the pole

ෆ “oh me? i was just uh making sure this pole was sturdy. it wouldn’t be a good situation if it fell on a citizen right?”

ෆ being the dense person he was, he believed you

ෆ todoroki advanced towards you, his eyes never leaving yours

ෆ you felt your heart beat pulsing quickly

ෆ “oh shit is he going to say that my hair cut is ugly? damn it i should have ran back home while i had the chance!”

ෆ instead of commenting about your hair, todoroki placed his palm against your forehead, making you blush a deep red

ෆ “t-todoroki?”

ෆ “that’s good. you’re not sick,”

ෆ you gave a small head tilt, slightly perplexed

ෆ once he removed his palms from your forehead, his eyes moved to your hair

ෆ you felt his fingers gently holding your short hair

ෆ you were internally scREAMING

ෆ “your hair is really pretty,”

ෆ “OI YOU DUMBASSES ARE YOU SUPPOSED TO BE FLIRTING OR RESCUING PEOPLE?

*ೃ☼ katsuki bakugou

ෆ you and bakugou were paired up together for a class where you had to defeat the robots and escape through the gates of ground omega

ෆ and being the person he was, as soon as the timer started, he used his quirk to make him travel in the air

ෆ “are you really just leaving me behind?” you shouted at him

ෆ “just catch up dumbass!”

ෆ you gave a scoff before running off

ෆ bakugou was in the air, shooting at every robots in sight with his explosion

ෆ while you were on the ground, shooting at the robots with your quirk

ෆ from the sound of bakugou’s explosion, it wasn’t loud

ෆ meaning that he was pretty damn far away from you

ෆ suddenly, out of nowhere came a herd of robots

ෆ knowing that you weren't able to defeat all of them at once, you ran into the forest with the robots following behind you

ෆ “if they follow me, i'll lead them to where bakugou is and we can defeat them together,” you mumbled to yourself

ෆ you looked behind you to see the robots following you, but at a slow pace as it was slightly difficult for them to manoeuvre in between trees

ෆ you heard the sound of bakugou’s explosions growing louder, meaning that you were getting closer to him

ෆ “baku-”

ෆ you felt your legs halt to a stop

ෆ your long hair had been caught between a few branches

ෆ you gave a curse before trying to untangle your hair from the branches

ෆ but, you realised that the robots were getting dangerously closer to you

ෆ panicking, you tried taking steps forwards in attempt to run but it was no use as the branches were basically dragging you back

ෆ you saw the group of robots a few meters away from you

ෆ “welp, this is how i’lll die,”

ෆ you covered your face with your arms, waiting for the attacks from the robot

ෆ but instead, you heard a thump on the ground in front of you and loud explosions

ෆ once the sound of the explosions had stopped, you moved your arms away from your face

ෆ you were greeted with an angry looking bakugou

ෆ “you idiot what the hell were you doing? are you making me do all the work?”

ෆ you gave him an eye roll

ෆ before you could bark back at him, he started laughing

ෆ you were flabbergasted

ෆ this was the first time you had seen him laugh up close

ෆ and it was delightful

ෆ “what are you laughing at asshole?”

ෆ “d-dumbass how did you get your hair caught between these branches?”

ෆ “just shut up and help me,”

ෆ once bakugou was done laughing at you, he walked to the branches and gently untangled your hair from the tree

ෆ you felt the last of your lock of hair drop to your back and you twirled around in glee

ෆ “yes! im free!,”

ෆ bakugou snickered, “you should cut that ugly long hair of yours,”

ෆ “what? no way! i feel prettier with long hair,”

ෆ “you look ugly with long hair to me,”

ෆ “soooo if i cut my hair, would i look pretty to you?”

ෆ “w-what? no! i never said that dumbass,”

ෆ the next day, you were skipping in the hallways, your hair, which was now short, bouncing as you did so

ෆ you entered the classroom with a wide grin

ෆ “morning!”

ෆ “y/n-chan, you’ve cut your hair!” gasped uraraka

ෆ “yup!”

ෆ the girls of class 1-A swarmed around your desk to compliment your new hair cut

ෆ bakugou, on the other hand, had just arrived

ෆ his eyes then moved to the cluster of girls at your desk and he gave a small ‘ttch’ before he sat in his seat

ෆ you had finally noticed that bakugou had arrived and you stood up from your seat with a confident look

ෆ “y/n, where are you going?”

ෆ “what the hell do you want?”

ෆ bakugou’s sharp bright red eyes darted to you who was standing in front of his desk

ෆ “am i pretty to you yet?”

ෆ that’s when bakugou noticed your new hair cut

ෆ you had a light-hearted grin on your face while you tucked a stray strand of hair behind your ear

ෆ you looked stunning

ෆ but he didn’t want to admit it

ෆ he gave a snicker and looked down at his textbook

ෆ unsatisfied by his answer, you gave a huff before turning your heels away from him

ෆ “you’re prettier with short hair,”

ෆ you turned around with a surprised face

ෆ and what made you even more surprised was the light shade of pink on his cheeks

#my hero academia #my hero academia headcanon #midoriya x reader #todoroki x reader #bakugou x reader #katsuki bakugo x reader #izuku midoria x reader #todoroki shoto x reader #boku no hero academia #headcanon #hair #reactions #fluff #anime

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kickasskody · 4 years ago

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DAKOTA ‘ kody ’ PIERCE, a character study. “just because i cannot see it, doesn’t mean i cannot believe it.” -- jack skellington

Character’s full name: dakota pierce Reason for name and/or meaning of name: kody’s parents met and fell in love in north dakota, and decided to name their son after the great state 💖 Character’s nickname: kody Reason for nickname: in middle school, kody didn’t think the name dakota was cool. but the name kody, the most generic white boy name ever , was definitely cool Birth date: december 13th, 2002. baby sagittarius

Physical appearance Faceclaim: austin abrams Gender: cis male Height: 5″8 #shortking Build: scrawny boy body. looks like he couldn’t lift more than 30 pounds... PSYCH!!! he’s a vampire so he can actually lift several hundred pounds 🤪🤪🤪 Eye color: blue with little dark green specks Glasses or contacts?: not with that snazzy 4k vampire sight !! Distinguishing marks/scars: funny little frecklescape on his back that looks like this emoji 😦 Hair color: dirty blonde Type of hair: type 1, aka straight hair Hairstyle: gets up out of bed, looks in mirror. maybe tussles it a little bit. thats it Physical disabilities: none Mental disabilities: adhd Clothing style: sweaters sweaters sweaters. striped sweaters ( because the best time to wear one is all the time ), disney sweaters, sweaters with dogs on them. white collared shirts to go underneath most of them. denim jackets, a couple of them tattering with holes in the elbows. black skinny jeans -- like he owns four pairs of the same black skinny jeans. someone tell him that skinny jeans aren’t in style anymore. uses the same jansport backpack he’s had since the eighth grade with a sewn in epcot center patch on the front pocket. dirty checkered vans. falling apart high-top converse. it’s not that he’s poor and can’t afford new things, he just prefers all his old stuff. Make up: has never worn any but wouldn’t be opposed to trying some !!

Personality Good personality traits: good at secret keeping, friendly and uplifting, loyal, thoughtful, great memory, cautious, playful. chaotic good energy 🥰 Bad personality traits: gullible, slightly obnoxious, constantly confused, easily distracted Mood character is most often in: cheery, happy as f, practically bouncing off the walls Sense of humor: goddamn hilarious!!! at least he thinks so lol Articulation: loud and occasionally stuttery. repeating himself pretty often. the type to get lost in the middle of conversation and have to take a second to mentally loop back and remember what exactly they were talking about. uses the word ‘ like ‘ way too much. talks with his hands a whole lot. constantly talking like he’s a kooky disney character on a mission. Character’s greatest joy in life: riding a mf’in roller coaster Character’s greatest fear: disneyworld getting blown up / physically hurting someone Character is most at ease when: he’s curled up with his friends watching a disney movie Most ill at ease when: he’s laying in bed at night, pretending he’s sleeping since he can’t Enraged when: thinking about how there are vampires in bridgemead -- that they could turn other people, kill other people, or worse... harm his friends. Depressed or sad when: drinking from a blood bag. watching disney pixar’s coco. thinkin’ about a disneyworld churro and how he’ll never be able to enjoy the taste of one again. Priorities: at the moment? trying not to hurt anybody. Life philosophy: “Keep Moving Forward!” -- walt disney said that Greatest strength: his optimism / ability to take something sad or bad and turn it around! Greatest vulnerability or weakness: giving just about anyone the benefit of the doubt.

Goals Drives and motivations: getting enough money to be able to travel the world and visit every disney park on the planet. Immediate goals: graduating high school / helping the scooby gang solve mysteries Long term goals: roller coaster designer / engineer. create a haunted house / rollercoaster hybrid ride

Childhood Hometown: orlando, florida Type of childhood: the kind where he’s an only child, where his middle class parents live to please and spoil him, take him to whatever amusement park he wanted to go to and buy him all the best merch. the smile on his face was worth more than anything they ever could’ve purchased for themselves. kody probably would’ve had siblings, but his parents had complications getting pregnant again, and thus they lived to make sure he had the best life possible. Pets: a cat named toulouse ( shoutout aristocats ), but he passed when kody was fifteen Most important childhood memory: waiting in line for five hours to ride harry potter and the forbidden journey at universal studios orlando. blew his little kid mind. Dream job: imagineer!! Religion: non-practicing christians. church on easter and christmas ONLY!

Present Current location: bridgemead, massachusetts Currently living with: his parents 💖 Pets: none Religion: agnostic Sexuality: currently questioning his sexuality. growing up he always felt attracted to both boys and girls, but has never been able to articulate it. he’s only ever expressed interest in women, but he has a fat crush on chris evans as captin america Politics: would be socialist if he cared enough to think about politics Occupation/education: bridgemead high school super senior Mode of transportation: his parents dark blue prius!! but only thursday - sunday

Family Parent one: marcus pierce -- drug store manager Relationship with them: kody and his dad are best buds! if it weren’t for his fathers love for rollercoasters, kody doesn’t know what his life would be like today. they used to play rollercoaster tycoon growing up and kody still cherishes those memories today. Parent two: tina pierce -- bridgemead city manager Relationship with them: kody and his mother have a very loving relationship. however, kody’s adoration for his mother dwindled when it was her job that forced them to move to bridgemead. he thinks of it as her fault that he doesn’t get to go to disneyworld anymore, and there’s a bitter part of him that thinks that if she hadn’t made them leave, he never would’ve become a vampire. he knows its wrong to attribute her to his curse, but sometimes when he’s really sad he cant help it. Siblings: none Other important family members: his widowed aunt shirley who lives twenty minutes from disneyworld and occasionally would join them on their weekend visits to the parks. he misses her greatly 😩😩

Favorites Color: that bright electric blue color on the cinderella castle at disneyworld Music: electronic Food: a disneyworld churro. Film: the incredibles / scooby doo 2002 Drink: pink lemonadde mixed with sprite Form of entertainment: disney+ subscription. if that’s all he had, he’d be content. Most prized possession: a magic kingdom two day passport ticket from the 1980′s

Habits Hobbies: playing rollercoaster tycoon / designing rollercoasters on his computer. obsessively watching ghost club paranormal on youtube. bothering aj with the latest thing on his mind that she definitely doesn’t need to know about Plays a musical instrument?: nope. wishes he could though! Plays a sport?: nope, but would be great at track now that he’s a vampire! How he would spend a rainy day: playing kingdom hearts II in his pajamas. Spending habits: great at hoarding all of his allowance! since he’s not spending it on food, he’s an excellent saver. pre-vampirism kody was not as cautious with his spending. Smoking/drinking/drugs?: no way 🙅🏼 has yet to even try alcohol Extremely skilled at: cheering up his friends! finding the good in others and convincing them to see it too 🤗 Extremely unskilled at: stopping himself from crying when he’s sad / when he’s in the middle of crying. putting together pieces of their investigations. sure, he can find things -- but what the hell is he supposed to do with them once he’s got it?!?! Nervous tics: anxious picking at his cuticles. messing with his hair. aggressive foot tapping. scrolling through his phone without actually looking at anything. Usual body posture: that boy has been working on rollercoaster code on his computer for YEARS. his body posture is absolutely RUINED! Mannerisms: constantly talking with his hands. bouncin’ around like tigger when something exciting happens. abbreviating things that don’t need to be abbreviated. the loudest in the room at all times.

Traits Optimist or pessimist? Introvert or extrovert? Daredevil or cautious? Logical or emotional? Leader or follower? Disorderly and messy or methodical and neat? Prefers working or relaxing? Confident or unsure of himself/herself? Animal lover? HELL YEAH.

Self-perception How do they feels about themselves?: before the year 2020, kody actually quite liked himself! he realized that he was goofy and sometimes not everyones cup of tea, but for the most part, he knew he was a good guy who was a little obnoxious! now, he has mixed feelings about himself. vampirism has elevated a lot of his emotions and more often than not now, he dislikes himself for what he’s become, or what he could become if things turn bloody. One word the character would use to describe themselves: spunky What does the character consider their best trait?: his compassion What does the character consider their worst trait?: his gullibility What does the character consider their best physical characteristic?: his fluffy hair !! What does the character consider their worst physical characteristic?: that he’s a short king. stream short kings anthem by tiny meat gang How does the character think others perceive them?: he’s pretty sure most people think that he’s wildly annoying, but that doesn’t stop him from being fully himself most of the time! What would the character most like to change about himself/herself: his vampirism!! get this shit out of him just make him a normal aging boy again!!

Relationships with others Opinion of other people in general: kody is a big ole’ ball of love, and thus so, he tries to share that with everyone. strangers are treated with compassion, acquaintances are treated as old friends, and friends are treated like family. unless kody already knows someone to be a bad person, or is wary of them, he’s genuinely one of the nicest people one could ever meet. Opinion of the Scooby Gang: talented, brilliant, incredible, amazing, show stopping, spectacular, never the same, totally unique, completely not ever been done before, unafraid to reference or not reference, put it in a blender, shit on it, vomit on it, eat it, give birth to it. Does the character hide their true opinions and emotions from others?: it depends on the topic, but for the most part, yes. when it comes to most scooby gang related endeavors, kody will share his thoughts -- if it’s something related to movies or tv, he’ll be talking your ear off for hours. if it’s something that could result in it hurting someone else, he’ll be quiet, and if his vampirism was ever to come into question, he’d be absolutely be suppressing it. Most important person in character’s life: oh god, not to pick scooby gang favorites, but probably aj. she’s the closest thing he has to a sister, and he doesn’t know what he would do without their banter, and her support. Best friend/s: aj darke, dylan frye, & arabella byrne Dating experience: absolutely none. kissed 2 girls in the span of 2 years over 3 years ago. Romancing: kody wouldn’t know the first thing about trying to get someone to date him. all he knows is the stuff he’s seen on tv, watched in movies, or experienced around him ( such as his parents successful marriage, or his friends dating people ), but if it were to come down to him, he’d be extremely awkward. picture tom holland’s spiderman trying to talk to zendaya’s mj in far from home -- because that’s extremely accurate. kody isn’t trying to date anyone right now for a couple of reasons: one being that he’s too nervous, and not exactly looking for love, but if it were to happen... he wouldn’t run from it necessarily. but two being that his vampirism creates a bit of a problem for him, and he’s not sure if he should subject anyone to the curse he’s stuck with.

Extra Physicality: if necessary, could probably lift a car and throw it down the street. as of right now, doesn’t know how strong he really is / is more concerned about hurting his friends with this supposed strength than he is finding out how many hundreds of pounds he could lift. kody in a fight? probably losing within the first five seconds, unless bloods drawn and the instinct to pounce takes over. Species: vampire How do they feel about it?: hates it. would do anything to reverse it. wishes he had just stayed a little longer at karma cafe that night. or had never gone at all. How do they look in their supernatural form?: pretty much the same, however when he’s hungry and near blood, his eyes go all dark and bloodshot, and the veins around his eyes start to pulse ( basically just like vampire diaries ), but kody is unaware of this since he’s never seen it happen to himself or another vampire

#bridgemeadtask01 #shoutout aaustinabrams for this gif #idk how to credit gif makers listen thats my credit right there

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sleephyjhs · 5 years ago

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You Cut Your Hair Short (REACTION)

[ requested / masterlist ]

a/n :: my schedule has slowed down a bit due to mental health and mock exams, but i’m getting around to everybody’s requests!

KSJ

The oversized hoodie that hung loosely around your figure was chosen specifically for your quest that day. You’d yet to reveal your new appearance to your partner, Seokjin, and although you were sure he’d like it, there was a risk factor involved.

You weren’t reliant on his reaction. The opinions of others had never really played much heed in your life choices, but this time it mattered. The man you’d dedicated so much of your love to had to love your new haircut, otherwise you weren’t too sure where to turn.

The sitting room you expected him to be waiting in laid by the front door. Inside your ribcage, your unseated heart pounded with both adrenaline and fear. Pulling the drawstrings around your head tight, you opened the door in one swing to avoid further hassling.

Seokjin, placed in his usual seat at the end of the couch, turned his head to greet you, “You were gone a while, I was beginning to worry you’d gotten lost.” He smiled as you traipsed around the maze of a room to sit beside him, “Tell me you didn’t walk home with your hoodie that tight.”

“I didn’t,” you chuckled, crossing one leg over another, “I was gone for so long because I made a drastic change. And I really hope you’ll love it as much as I do.”

His eyes widened at your explanation. As you reassured yourself he would like it, you untied the drawstrings and pushed the good back to reveal your shorter hair. The freshly cut tips of your hair just grazed your shoulder, which was an extreme change from the hair that previously extended past your ribcage.

“Oh wow, Jagi.” Seokjin gawked at your dramatic reveal, before chuckling a few huffs, “I honestly prefer this! I didn’t know you became hotter woth short hair.” Jokingly, you hushed him before escaping upstairs to experiment with styling.

MYG

Over a year ago, you’d made a pact to yourself to grow our your beyond damaged, frazzled hair and redebut your short hair, but much healthier. What seemed a lifetime of hair treatments and avoiding the peroxide (which was harder for you than perhaps normal) later, and you had finally booked the long-awaited snip.

Your boyfriend, Yoongi, was eager to join you in the salon. He’d seen you struggle with the process of regrowing your hair from the get-go, and had, more than enough time, helped you search high and low for the right hair products for you to get the results you so desperately wanted. Now, he was just as excited as you for the fresh start with healthy hair.

“How short are you going again?” Yoongi asked, swinging your holding hands back and forth to keep your walking pace. As you’d already cut wispy bangs into your hair, length was something that took you a while to think about, but you couldn’t ruin all the surprises for him.

“You’ll find out soon enough!” You insisted before pushing the salon door open and entering.

Yoongi watched intensively as your hair was snipped shorter and shorter. It took most of an hour, and yet he remained focused on the length of your locks getting closer and closer to your head. You couldn’t help but find it endearing how invested in you he was.

“And there we go!” the stylist announced, using a smaller mirror to show you the back of your hair. The fine tips only just levelled with your jawline; it was perfect. You stood from the chair and turned to face Yoongi, who had perhaps the toothiest grin you’d ever seen spread from ear to ear.

“How does it lo-“

“Phenomenal, just phenomenal.” He interrupted, reaching into his pocket for his wallet and rushing to the counter before you got there.

“No, Yoongi! What are you doing?”

“Treating you. Let me do it, please?” Knowing you’d lose any argument you had with him, you reluctantly allowed him to pay for your new hair. You’d find a way to repay him somehow.

JHS

“I’ll have a surprise for you when you get home tomorrow,” you announced to your boyfriend, Hoseok, who was 9 hours away in Europe on album promotions, “It’s not much but I’m hoping you might like it.”

“Well I’m flattered you want to run me a rose petal bath with candles, I really am.” He giggled. Although you knew he was only joking, you reminded him it could easily be arranged, “No, I’m kidding. I’m excited for whatever it is, baby.”

Later that day, you fled your high-rise apartment building to visit the hair salon for the first time in the new year. As cheesy as it was, you were always a firm believer in ‘new year new me’, and making a choice as bold as cutting your hair was definitely new for you. Ever since you were little, your hair had always extended far down your spine, and although you weren’t ready just yet to cut it up to your ears, your shoulders was a large enough distance for you to feel a new kind of empowerment.

By the next morning, you’d already fallen so deeply in love with your new look, you couldn’t help but wonder why you hadn’t done it before. The choppier locks framed your face much better than your previous pin-straight hair. Even if Hobi didn’t like it, you felt a lot more confident in yourself, which meant it was definitely worth it.

“Hello? I’m home!” A sudden voice called out, leading you out from the kitchen and into the hallway to meet Hoseok. As his eyes came up to meet yours, a smile spread across his face.

“Is this your surprise?” He beamed as you stepped closer. When you nodded, he stepped forward to run his fingers through your cropped hair, still presenting a glowing smile, “It looks so good on you! My angel looks so beautiful.”

His constant nicknames for you never failed to make you blush, “Thank you. I’m so glad you liked it,” you stepped forward to take a hold of his hand, “but if you come now, I’ll run you that bath you were talking about.”

KNJ

Whenever they completed a concert, you liked to facetime your partner, Namjoon, to catch up on your days (considering he wasn’t flat out exhausted). When you were apart for so long, just watching him eat or ramble about his clumsy mishaps was enough for you. Every morning, you hoped that he would still be awake by the time you rang.

Especially that day. It wasn’t easy to surprise Namjoon when he was home; he was too intuitive to be oblivious to everything around him. However when he was halfway across the world, it was easier to pull of smaller gestures for him that often ended up meaning more.

Your sudden difference in hairstyle wasn’t so much a gesture, just a change you had been holding back to make. Short hair had always appealed to you for many reasons. Less hair product, quicker drying, arguable easier to style? You’d take that any day. On top of that, you’d picked a paler latte colour to drench your hair in, contrasting your previous chestnut hue.

As you awaited Namjoon to answer, you made the snap decision to cover the webcam with your thumb and tease the curiosity out of him. Sure enough, when he sat down to talk to you, he couldn’t help but knit his brows in confusion, “Why are you covering the camera? Oh no, what have you done? Is the house still standing?”

You chuckled at his brief panic, “No, silly. I have something to show you. A good thing!”

“Right..”

You edged your thumb away from the screen only to watch in pleasure as Namjoon’s face ignited with surprise, “I don’t know what I was expecting but it wasn’t this. I love it so much!”

“Thank you, Joonie. I kept it just long enough for you to still play with though!” You blurted, resulting in a rosy blush from your distant partner.

PJM

As Jimin ran his fingers through your freshly dyed hair, your mind searched for why something didn’t feel right. You weren’t ever satisfied with your appearance, but this time you felt even less comfortable. You loved your platinum hair endlessly, but the same old long, wavy style was starting to get old.

“Jiminie, do you think I’d look good with short hair?” you questioned, looking up from your position on his chest. Jimin had always been able to give you fashion advice, but you’d never asked about your actual appearance before.

“I think you’d look incredible with any hair,” was the stock answer you were expecting. Although there was perhaps some truth in what he said, Jimin was also unlikely to say no, “why? Are you not feeling long hair anymore?”

“I’m not sure. For some reason I feel like I’d suit it better, you know?”

“Well I say go for it. It grows back anyway.”

Within the next 10 minutes you’d had you appointment booked for later that day. Now that you’d convinced yourself, it was better to get it done immediately so you couldn’t talk yourself out of it.

Jimin waited for you in the car just for you to be able to keep the surprise element to your new pending look. As you approached the car with your shoulder-length fresh cut, you watched through the rear mirror as his eyes met yours.

His beaming smile was already spread across his plush cheeks as you sat down next to him, your grin almost matching his, “I don’t know about you but this is maybe the best decision I’ve made in a long time.”

Jimin chuckled, reaching out to twirl a lock of gently curled hair, “It certainly is, beautiful.”

KTH

Since you were a young teenager, trimming your hair ends every few weeks had become routine. Only recently had you been tempted to turn a trim into a new look. Most of your fashion ventures came in the form of clothing, but for a change, you had decided to make a more permanent choice.

Part of the reason you decided to make an adventurous change was to surprise your boyfriend, Taehyung. You never thought you’d meet somebody who shared your exact fashion taste or who found a lot of expression in their hairstyle. In many ways, it helped you bond at the start of your relationship and so became something you both enjoyed more.

While he was away filming for a new comeback, you made it priority to visit the salon. Your once rib-length hair now just scraped your shoulders. The longer bangs that once framed your face now feathered at your brows. Not even an hour into your new appearance and you were already obsessed.

Later that evening when the door to your apartment slammed shut, the pending excitement that you’d built up finally climaxed. Looking over to your left, you were greeted by a shocked Taehyung, who tried to hold his boxy smile back, “Sorry, I must have the wrong house.”

You giggled at his small joke as he edged closer to the sofa, “What do you think? Does it look okay?”

“Incredibly, truly. I’m a little surprised you didn’t colour it too.” He knew you so well, but already you were a step ahead of him. Of course, he was your best fashion adviser.

“Actually, I was hoping you’d help me pick a colour to dye it?” Taehyung nodded eagerly as you opened the sample book lended to you by your stylist. The hardest task was picking a shade you hadn’t experimented with before.

JJK

As somebody who likes to learn all the skills he can, Jungkook quickly picked up your hairstyling tricks after you began to date. Purely out of his own curiosity, he asked you to teach him how to braid in multiple different ways and you had been more than happy to do so.

Since then, Jungkook had found a form of therapy in playing with your hair and braiding random ropes of your hair after a bad or stressful day. In many ways, it was just as calming and settling for you too. Knowing that Jungkook actively tried to avoid knotting your hair was more comforting than it seems.

One of the necessities for hair braiding is of course, long hair, which you had spotted through most of your teen years and into your early 20s. And although he claimed to prefer you for you rather than your physical feautures, you were aware that your hair was one of his favourite parts about you.

The day you decided to cut it was the day you realised all of those therapeutic hair styling sessions were a thing of the past. You hadn’t even briefed Jungkook on your plan, or yourself for that matter. It felt right in the moment, and as much as you loved your new look, it was a problem that was on your mind all day.

Since returning from the salon, you’d waited desperately for Jungkook to come home. Any second, he was due to walk through the door, and although he didn’t know it, he was about to put his skills under a quickfire test.

As soon as the front door had shut, you rushed into the hallway to eagerly greet your man, “Woah, your hair! Where’s it gone?”

“It’s on a salon floor somewhere. But quick, you need to see if you can still braid it.” Your rushed answer ignited his desperation to test his braiding skills on your new hair. Jungkook’s eyes widened as he waddled behind you into the sitting room, where a couple of hair bands had sat waiting for him.

Despite him tugging on your hair a few times more than usual, his focused silence transmitted good news to you, “I can still braid it!” He exclaimed, wrapping the hairband around the finished product. You stood up to look in the mirror at your boyfriend’s work, “I think my braids look cuter when your hair is shorter!”

^ im really sorry you had to wait this long. not only do reactions take me the longest but i also struggled to come up with different scenarios so i really hope this is all okay for you! thank you so much for your patience <3

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goldenspecter · 4 years ago

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Wash and Go

summary: wash and go (or wash 'n go) - a method of cleaning and styling hair without the use of heat, protective styling or any other manipulation techniques and a staple in the natural hair community.

Valerie hadn't expected to style a ghost kid's hair, especially one as powerful as Clockwork, but she believes that everyone should have a good hair experience. She just didn't think it would be the start of something new.

Word Count: 6,970

Archive of Our Own FFN

This fic takes place early season 1, like maybe a week or so after "Parental Bonding".

-I headcanon Clockwork to be black and queer/nonbinary and express that through all my fics that I've written. Maybe not as explicit as calling out skin tones but through little things like AAVE(African-American Vernacular) and their hair type. So at the very least, they were coded to be read as black whenever I write them. Valerie uses AAVE terms so if there are words that pop out at you that you don't instantly recognize/aren't sure of, that's AAVE and it's used in its correct context. This fic serves as a reclamation of blackness/black culture for CW, Valerie and Tucker, for more on that, it’s included on the AO3/FFN versions but not this one since I didn’t want to clutter it any further with notes.

-Music in this phic: Green Eggs and Ham by Princess Nokia and VRY BLK by Jamila Woods ft Noname

---

It’s quiet in her room and the young, small, blue ghost that she mysteriously acquired is laying in her bed, watching a video on their prized console. They-Clockwork, is quiet, curling in on themselves, as if to make themselves smaller than what they truly are and it rubs Valerie the wrong way. She’s not quite sure how, but she knows that something is off. As an attempt to ease the small child, Valerie moves in to run her fingers through their hair in an attempt to comfort them when her fingers are stuck in thick silver curls and Clockwork hisses in pain, but doesn’t make any move to pull away or pry her fingers out of their hair.

“Chile, do you not comb your hair? When was the last time you ran a comb through that?” Valerie asks, gentle maneuvering her fingers out of the thick, nappy hair.

“You’re supposed to comb it?” asks Clockwork, voice tinged with confusion.

“Yes, you’re supposed to comb it!” Valerie almost shrieks, because what parent doesn’t teach their own child to comb their hair or style it for them? Hair was such an important thing for children. It spoke volumes about people, the luscious curls, vibrant blacks and deep browns that stand proudly on top of your head, and she knows each and every hairstyle she rocks is breathtaking and commands attention to her personhood. She can’t imagine a child not being taught to take pride in their hair and the fact that this child hasn’t been taught to be prideful of their hair both saddens and enrages her. She notices the subtle flinch before she softens her voice, “Sorry about that but do your parents really not comb your hair?”

Clockwork is silent before shaking their head, “They said it’s too much trouble,” they say, voice soft. “So they cut it short when it grew out too much. Saved everyone time.”

Valerie’s eyes darken in rage and she has to take cartoonishly deep breaths before she can speak. What kind of parent does that shit? To give up on their child, not bothering to take care of their needs and all but giving up on them? She takes another deep breath and speaks in a low voice, “Well, we’re gonna change that.”

Clockwork furrows an eyebrow, “What do you mean?”

“I’m going to do your hair,” she says, “That is, if you’re okay with it.”

“No one wants to do my hair,” Clockwork says quickly, “It’s a pain to do and I’m too much of a baby for anyone to do it. I always cry and scream too much when my guardians try.”

It takes every fiber in Valerie’s body to hold back a venomous retort about how shitty Clockwork’s parents sound, because at the very least, she knows that her anger at their parents will be misconstrued and that Clockwork will grow to be afraid of her. Instead, she puts a hand under their chin and gently turns their head to make them look at her.

“Getting your hair combed sounds scary, I get it,” Valerie starts, “However, it's not healthy to keep avoiding it like this. You gotta do it at some point, and if you decide that after this you wanna get your haircut and keep it short, that’s fine. But at the very least, you deserve to have a good experience when it comes to your hair and I would like to be the one to provide that for you if you like.”

Clockwork falls silent, before nodding hesitantly.

Valerie is surprised that they agreed to something like this so quickly, that they trust her with something so intimate, but she does nothing to convey her surprise. Instead, she stands up and puts her hands on her hips. “Alright, first step is to wash your hair.”

Fifteen minutes later, Valerie gathers two combs, shampoo and conditioner sets them down on the counter of the kitchen sink as she finishes cleaning off the counter. It doesn’t take her long to do so, and when she finishes, she gently motions for Clockwork to come over. Clockwork obediently comes over, tightly holding the dry towel to their chest, their grip tightening when they eye the combs laying on the counter.

“Will it hurt?” they ask, looking down at the ground.. It’s not how a child typically asks when parents have to disinfect cuts and scrapes, but from a child who knows and has been through some serious pain. Valerie’s heart aches for this child she barely knows. She’d love to meet their parents because she has a lot of questions to ask, most of which involve a lead pipe.

“Yea, it will,” she says honestly, not wanting to lie to Clockwork. “Especially since you’ve never had your hair combed but I promise you I will do my best to not make it hurt anymore than it has to.”

“You promise?” Clockwork asks.

Valerie nods. “Come on up here squirt. Let’s get started.” She helps Clockwork onto the counter, moving one hand on their back while the other rests on their chest and she slowly but gently guides their head to hover above the sink. Once Valerie thinks that Clockwork is steady, she slowly removes her hands and moves to turn one of the sink knobs. She slides her hand under the water, slowly waiting for it to get hot enough before she touches the knob for cold water. Valerie puts her hand under the water again, deems it warm enough before she pulls out the spray head and starts to wet Clockwork’s hair.

“Is this too hot?” she asks.

Clockwork squirms a little, pulling their head back from the water. Valerie holds their head still but moves the nozzle away from them and turns the cold water on just a little bit more. She puts the nozzle back at their hair, “How about now?”

“Yes, thank you.” they say.

“No problem. I promised you would have a good experience and this is an important part.” Valerie says, moving the nozzle around to thoroughly wet Clockwork’s hair.

Valerie occasionally fluffs their hair as she wets it. Once she determines that it's fully drenched, she places the spray head back into its socket, grabs the shampoo and opens it with a loud click.

She squeezes a nice dollop of it in her hand to start out and begins to massage the shampoo into Clockwork’s hair. “I wasn’t sure what scent you’d like best so I picked out lavender to start with. We can shop for more if you want to keep this up.”

“I like lavender.” they say, then a moment later, “If I want to keep this up?”

“Yea, if you like how this turns out, then we can keep this up. We can try out different hairstyles, do whatever you want. I can ask dad to buy more hair stuff from the store.” Valerie answers, adding more shampoo to Clockwork’s hair and deeply massaging it in with the soapy suds coating her hands.

“You want to keep doing my hair?” asks Clockwork and Valerie knows that they’re asking much more than that. You want to keep trying? You aren’t ready to give up hope on me? You don’t want to quit?

“Yes, if you let me.” Valerie says, because she loves doing hair. She loves styling it. Taking something that’s so beautiful in its raw form, magnifying its beauty with braids, twisting, heat is a magic all on its own and she’s so glad that she’s able to take part in that magic.

Clockwork lets out a tiny ‘ok’ so softly that Valerie has to really strain her ears to hear them. She can tell that she’s made them uncomfortable so she quickly dries her hands, opens Spotify on her phone and plays some music. Her voice and body falls into the trap that the music lays out for her and so soon, she swings her hips as she sings proudly while still continuing to wash Clockwork’s hair.

“Love my inner child, Kool-Aid smile

I been like this for a while

Going into town, gonna find a crowd

Right by the kids in the park with the style”

Her joy is contagious, as Clockwork begins to tap their hand against their chest with the beat. Valerie’s nails scratch against their scalp, causing Clockwork to let out a groan.

“Something wrong?”

Clockwork immediately shakes their head, “No. Just- that felt good. Can-can you keep doing that?”

“Of course,” Valerie says as she presses her fingers into their scalp, massaging the skin with varying pressures to both distribute the foamy substance and pamper the neglected area." “Is it too much pressure or good enough?”

“Uhh...good enough?” Clockwork answers, and Valerie can tell that she’s hit the sweet spot. “I like the pressure, I don’t know why.”

“It’s okay not to know why,” Valerie reassures them, pulling the nozzle and rinsing out the shampoo before adding more into the child’s hair. “But to be honest? It just feels good to have someone massage your hair and that’s okay.”

“Really?”

“Mhmm. When my dad used to wash my hair, I loved it when he massaged my hair.” Valerie says, continuing to massage their hair. Her music is still playing, hiding a smile when she hears Clockwork softly humming to her music.

Her hands pull at several strands of silver hair at the nape of Clockwork’s nape. “Do you hear any squeaking?”

“A little? What does it mean if it’s squeaking?”

“Your hair’s clean. Hold your ears closed, I don't want water to get in them. Swimmer’s ear is hell.” says Valerie, thoroughly rinsing out the soap and suds before she adds more. “I’ll wash it again just to make sure. I want it completely free of any build up of dirt or dandruff before I style it.”

Valerie washes Clockwork’s hair a third time, this time making sure that she completely scrubs out all of the dirt and dandruff that might have built up before she rinses out the soap and suds for the last time. She gets the bottle of conditioner, begins to squeeze it out, and rubs into Clockwork’s hair.

Once there’s an ample amount of condition in Clockwork’s hair, Valerie reaches across the sink to grab one of her combs, a golden wide tooth comb and readies it in her hand. Clockwork eyes the comb with great suspicion, instinctively scooting away from the menacing comb.

Valerie notices and rests her hand on their chest to stop them in their tracks. “Look, I know, I know. It’s scary, it’s going to hurt a lot, especially since you haven’t had a lot of experience with this.” Valerie begins, voice soft. “If you need to scream, cry, whatever, then go ahead and do it. I’m not going to stop you. Okay?”

“Okay.” Clockwork whispers, bracing themselves to feel the teeth of the comb dig into their hair.

Valerie places the comb at Clockwork’s edges, pulls the comb through the hair to form a part, occasionally having to pull the tangled strands apart by hands. During this Clockwork hisses, kicking the side of the island in pain. She does this two more times, effectively parting the soaking wet hair into three sections. Valerie fully sinks the teeth of the comb into their hair, starting at the scalp and begins to pull the comb through, collecting dead hair as it goes through stopping at the ends. Valerie focuses on the ends, where its the most tangled, combing it through multiple times to get it to that silky smoothness.

She retracts the comb from their hair, pulls the dead hair piling in between the teeth of the comb and puts it in the strainer at the bottom of the sink to be collected when she finishes. Valerie combs through the first section one last time and nods in satisfaction at how easily she can run the comb through their hair.

Sticking the comb in Clockwork's hair, she does a quick check in. “How are we feeling?” she asks.

Clockwork quickly wipes away any tears pooling at the corners of their eyes before they turn their head to look at her. “It hurts, but I think I’ll be okay.” they say.

Valerie quirks an eyebrow. Getting hair combed hurts like hell, even when combed often. They have to be in some serious pain for how tenderheaded they were. “You sure?” she presses, “I can stop for a few minutes if you like. It’s not a big deal, Clockwork.”

The small child shakes their head, “No,” they say, a soft sob itching to be let loose but they manage to suppress it. “You can keep going.”

“Okay,” Valerie says quietly, pulling the comb out of Clockwork’s hair and resumes by starting to comb out the next section. Clockwork continues to hiss in pain, but doesn’t do anything to stop her.

Dead hair continues to gather at the bottom of the sink as she combs through the sections.

“What’s this song? I like it.” Clockwork asks, Valerie muses that they’re trying to focus on something other than the pain.

“VRY BLK by Jamila Woods and Noname. It’s one of my favorites.” She pulls the hair from the teeth of the comb before returning the comb through their hair. “Would you like me to turn it up?”

They nod, “Yes please.”

Valerie dries her hands on her shirt, grabs her phone to turn the volume up and starts the song over. A soft steady percussion starts up and slowly takes over the kitchen.

“Black is like the magic, the magic's like a spell

My brothers went to heaven, the police going to, yeah, they're going to

Hello operator, emergency hotline

If I say that I can't breathe, will I become a chalk line

Up to see the movie, line up to see the act”

Valerie takes pride in her voice, as she continues to sing as she finishes combing out Clockwork’s hair, and smiles as she can hear them sing along to the chorus very softly. They aren’t flinching from the pain as much and she considers that to be a monumental improvement. She runs the comb through several more times to make sure that their hair was fully combed out before she rinses out the conditioner in their hair.

When the conditioner is completely rinsed out, she turns the water off, gathers the clumps of hair sitting in the strainer and dumps them in the trash can. She returns to the sink, helps Clockwork sit up, pulls the towel away from them, and drapes the towel around their neck. Valerie holds out a hand for Clockwork to hold onto and pulls them off the counter.

“How was it?”

Clockwork runs a hand through their hair, eyes widening in surprise that it’s free from kinks. “It’s...good. It felt good.”

Valerie beams, “Good.” She grabs the combs, her phone, and a chair that’s in front of the kitchen island and takes with her into the downstairs bathroom. “Come along Clockwork!”

Clockwork follows after her, droplets of water forming a trail behind them. They’re standing outside the bathroom when she wordlessly gestures for them to sit in the chair in front of the mirror. Clockwork struggles to get in the chair since it’s the chair is a bit higher than them but they manage to hop in. when they finally hop on the chair, they are entranced by their reflection staring back at them in the mirror. They pull at a few strands of silver hair, looking on in curiosity as it unravels and coils back once they let go.

This was what their hair looked like when it was combed, washed and treated with care? Impossible. It looks.. too good. Healthy. It’s on their head, so it has to be their hair. Maybe they shouldn't get too attached because Valerie says she would be willing to keep this up, but what if she grows tired of doing it and ends up cutting it like the Observants.

“Looks great doesn’t it?” Valerie says, cutting them out of their thoughts.

Clockwork nods, “I can’t believe that this is what my hair looks like.” they say in awe, because holy shit this is what their hair actually looks like. Their vision blurs and before they can wipe their tears away, Valerie’s hands are already there, whipping away the tears that spilled over.

“If you think this looks good now, just wait until I’m finished.” Valerie says, excitement bleeding in her voice. She takes the towel off their neck and drapes it across the chair. Grabbing the comb, Valerie quickly combs through their hair and sections it into four big plaits.

Valerie takes down one of the braids in the back, pulls out a jar of curl defining creme, opens it up and scoops some out with her fingers. She then slabs the cream on top of their hair before she takes time to really work it through, pulling her fingers through the hair to define the curls. Her hands dive back into the jar to scoop out some more and continue massaging it through Clockwork’s hair, saturating the hair with the cream.

Clockwork is quiet throughout the process, casually stimming as Valerie did their hair and they honestly couldn’t believe how easy it was so far? Why couldn’t the Observants do something like this?

“It’s so smooth,” Clockwork says.

“Yea, glad I combed your hair out right?” Valerie jokes with a smile.

She gets a fervent nod as her answer. "Me too. Otherwise, it would be a helluva lot harder to do this."

The music still plays in the background as Valerie finishes one section, takes down another braid and continues the process. It takes about an hour to do, and that hour goes by quickly.

When Valerie finally finishes, she proudly puts her hands on her hips, "What's the verdict so far?" she waits for Clockwork's reaction.

Clockwork leans forward in the chair to get a closer look at their hair. This is actually, really their hair. Fingers slowly pull at some of the defined curls hanging in front of their face and coming away with a build up of the cream between their fingers.

“It’s so pretty.” Clockwork says in awe, and as much they don’t want to, they can’t help but be prideful of their hair. They look at Valerie. “What now?”

“We let it dry.” says Valerie. “It takes a few hours to do.”

“I’m a Time Master!” Clockwork answers, gesturing to the clock in their chest. “I can speed time up, and you won’t even notice!”

“Oh we don’t have to wait that long.” Clockwork says simply.

“How so?” Valerie answers, “Unless you’re talking about a hairdryer, I don’t know what you’re on about.”

“You? A Time Master?” Valerie asks, seeing Clockwork nod enthusiastically, quirks an eyebrow. “You’re so young.”

She doesn’t give herself time to think about how she literally just did a Time Master’s hair. Because holy shit, if this child is so powerful, then how powerful were their parents?

Clockwork frowns, “That’s what everyone says. The Observants think so too, but here I am!” They force themselves to smile and Valerie thinks there’s so much more to that bright and cheery optimism that Clockwork is exuding.

“Yea, you are. But I think using your powers to dry up your hair is cheating.” Valerie says gently. “If you want to truly experience this, then you gotta wait like the rest of us mere mortals.”

“How long does it take?”

“Four hours. Give or take.” says Valerie, “Sometimes I use a blow dryer to speed it up a little bit if I’m not in the mood to wait that long. I can use a blow dryer if you want?”

“Yes please.”

“Okay.” Valerie goes into the bathroom closet, rummaging through the piles of towels, hair products, and bed sheets until she comes across the blow dryer. She gets, heads back to the sink, reaches over Clockwork to plug it in the wall, and drapes the tower over their neck. “It’ll get a bit hot, just let me know if it’s too much.”

“I know it’ll get hot, that’s what they’re supposed to do. I’m not a baby.” Clockwork says smartly and Valerie can’t help glaring at the small child.

“You and I, we finna fight.” She says with a smile. “But seriously, tell me if it’s too hot, okay?”

“I don’t see the point, but okay I guess.” Uneasiness grows in Valerie’s stomach, what the hell has this child been through for them to not take their own limitations seriously? What the hell have these Observants done?

Valerie is seriously starting to question that she needs a lead pipe when she finally does talk to these Observants.

Valerie turns the blow dryer on, keeping it several inches away from Clockwork’s hair, moves it around their head, the heat of the blow dryer slowly but surely drying it a bit. She occasionally wraps her hand around the curls, to feel how wet their hair is and to make sure that she doesn’t dry it too much.

“How’s the heat?” She asks.

“Hot.”

“That’s what blowdryers are supposed do.” She mimics from earlier, laughing when Clockwork glares at her. “Is it too much?”

A firm shake of the head, “No? I don’t think so? It feels kinda nice.”

“Cool, cool. I’m only doing this for another minute or two since I don’t wanna dry it out too much.” Valerie blow dries it for another 5 or so minutes before she cuts the blow dryer off, unplugs it, wraps the cord around it and stuffs it back in the closet.

Clockwork slides off the chair, shuffles towards Valerie, who presses a hand against the top of their hair.

“Hmm, it’s still somewhat wet. It shouldn’t take more than two hours for it to fully dry out.” Valerie guesses.

The child fumbles with their gloved fingers. “What do you normally do while you wait?”

Valerie rests a hand under her chin. “I watch tv, play a game or two, read a book if I don’t have homework to do.” Eying Clockwork, she continues. “Homework isn’t that important though, what would you like to do?”

“I dunno?” Clockwork says shyly, pointedly looking at the ground.

She doesn’t say it out loud because she’s certain it would embarrass them, but the way Clockwork acts is oh so similar to the little kids that she babysits for some quick and easy money and that in and of itself is so damn adorable.

“What do you normally do then?”

“I mainly watch the timestreams! Or I train on my powers! Sometimes I have to attend some meetings or handle some crisis that the timelines are going through at times.”

‘Does this child do nothing but work?’ Valere thinks to herself. “Do you do anything for fun?”

“I don’t have time for fun. Not when there’s important work to be done.” Clockwork says with a derisive snort, sounding so much older than the seven/eight year old they are. “Humanity’s a little bit more important than me having fun.”

“I’m sorry but what the fuck is wrong with your parents?” Valerie snaps.

Clockwork flinches and Valerie immediately regrets it.“There’s nothing wrong with the Observants. They’re doing just fine.”

Valerie growls, pressing her hands to her temples, trying and failing to suppress the frustration that she’s experiencing right now. “Yes there is. My dad doesn’t make me work all the time, your parents shouldn’t either.”

“But that’s different!” Clockwork shouts.

“How the fuck is it different?”

“You’re a human child! You wouldn’t understand!”

“You’re a child too!” Valerie shouts. “You are a literal child! You’re younger than me!”

Clockwork sputters at that, trying and failing to come up with a response. “But I’m a Time Master-”

Valerie clasps a hand on one of their shoulders, “You might be a Time Master, but you are a child first and foremost. That’s the most important thing for you to be and the Observants are wrong to teach you otherwise.”

The teen pulls Clockwork into a tight hug, “How about we play a game or something? We can do whatever you want.”

Clockwork’s muffled voice mumbles out, “Really?”

“Really.”

“Can I show you my tower?” Clockwork asks excitedly, pulling away from her and she can visibly see the way Clockworks eyes light up. “It’s really cool, there’s a lot of rooms, hallways and books-”

Valerie presses a finger against Clockwork’s lips, “Why talk about it when you can show me it?”

"I'm not really the best at teleporting. I have accidents sometimes," Clockwork admits softly. "I don't think I'd be any good teleporting two people."

She shrugs, "Maybe you aren't. Perhaps there's other ways to get there."

"There are but natural portals take forever to form and there aren't any in Amity Park." Clockwork says, "Guess we'll have to teleport there."

Valerie raises an eyebrow, looking down at the young Time Master. "I thought you weren't any good at it." She says suspiciously.

Clockwork doesn't say anything as they run towards Valerie. "We'll have to find out won't we?" They say, jumping up, diving into Valerie, wrapping their arms around her. A portal formed behind the two children, both of them falling through the portal and Valerie landed on her bottom as they came from the other side with Clockwork buried into their chest. Clockwork sits up, looks down at Valerie and tilts their head.

"Did I do good?" Clockwork asks.

Valerie pulls herself up, uses her elbows to keep herself propped up, and looks around. The simple bathroom that her and Clockwork was in is gone, the house, everything that she knew is nowhere to be found and was replaced with scrying portals twice her size and clock gears of various sizes. Valerie questions why there are so many gears here, since it seems like it would be dangerous for a young kid like Clockwork to be around no matter how smart or cautious they seem. But she doesn't say it out loud, instead, saving it for whenever she finally meets these Observants. She looks to her left and her right, the seeing the hallways that Clockwork mentioned from earlier, but the more she stares down the hall, the more they grow in size and loom over her, the discomfort that started off small growing until she can actually feel it gnaw at her.

Clockwork taps her shoulders and she jolts, tensing her shoulders before remembering that it was only just Clockwork as she loosens the tension in her shoulders and lets out a deep breath.

"Did I do good?" they ask again.

Valerie looks around one last time, really taking in the scenery of the tower, how everything the tower touches seems to be saturated in green overtones, the overwhelming sense that everything about this place feels so unnatural, disconcerting and wrong and that a simple human like her wasn't meant to be here. Slowly, she nods her head, not wanting Clockwork to pick up on her uneasiness.

"You did great buddy." she says. "You mind getting off of me?"

Clockwork beams at the praise, floating off of Valerie and helping her stand up. Once she's up off the ground, they look up at her with wide expectant eyes. "Can I give you that tour now?" They ask, tail flicking behind them excitedly.

"Yea, sure buddy." Valerie says, yelping when Clockwork takes her hand and begins dragging her through the halls to give her the tour of the citadel.

As Clockwork gives the tour, she takes note of all the empty rooms that have been repurposed for gardens and apocatheries, libraries brimming with rare books that are worth more than what her father will make in his entire life time, how Clockwork is just so enthused with bringing someone along to show them empty rooms devoid of life and personality and she has to wonder how lonely they have to be.

She's not sure how long the tour was, but it felt like it was over before it truly started. Green eyes catch a door with a startling amount of locks on it and her curiosity shines through.

"What's behind that door?" she asks.

Clockwork tenses, the grip they have on her hand tightening. "It's nothing." they say with a tight voice, pulling Valerie along as the two move away from the door. "Let's go."

"Is it dangerous?"

"Tour's over." they say cryptically.

So it is dangerous. "Why is there something so dangerous in your tower?" She asks, walking behind them. "Why would these Observants leave something like that with a little kid? What if you got hurt?"

Clockwork shrugs, "It's not like I don't heal up, I'm usually fine."

"Usually? What about when you aren't?"

"I heal. Eventually. and I get over it." Clockwork says, leading Valerie back to the area where they started from. "That's it."

"Don't these Observants help you heal or get better?"

Clockwork raises an eyebrow and shakes their head in a manner that says 'dont ask stupid questions.' "No? Why would they? I get myself in trouble, I get myself out of it." They say nonchalantly, turning their back to Valerie as they wave a hand to change the image on their scrying portal. "You wanna see something cool?"

Valerie begins to shake her head to argue about the Observants, but whatever she is going to say dies down in her throat when she sees the hopeful look on Clockwork's face begging her to drop the subject.

Reluctantly, she nods her head, "Sure why not?"

Clockwork beams at her, grabs her hand and pulls her into the scrying portal. Valerie doesn't have time to think about how she feels like she's wading through jelly as she goes through the portal and how her body goes numb for several seconds after she stumbles through the portal before she finally catches herself awkwardly standing on her tippy toes, body lurching forward and just one misstep away from falling flat on her face

Time travel, she supposes, isn't really meant for humans.

"Are you okay?” Clockwork asks, “I’ve never had a human travel with me before.”

Valerie nods, before her throat coats itself in bile, feels it rise and fills her mouth and she immediately shakes her head. The fourteen year old throws herself over the closest ledge, leaning over and throwing up the bile that came out of nowhere. Her legs buckle as she continues throwing up before she finally stops, resting limply for a few moments. Valerie pushed herself off of the ledge, shakily pulls herself back together, before turning around to face Clockwork.

“If I wasn’t fine before,” she rasps out. “I’m fine now.”

Clockwork raises an eyebrow, “Are you sure?”

Nodding her head, “My mouth feels gross but some water should do me some good.”

“Okay.” Clockwork says, slipping their hand into hers and guiding her away from the stone ledge. “There’s a resturant around here somewhere, we can get you some water.”

It finally crosses Valerie’s mind to ask where she is. “Where are we anyways?”

“Rome.” Clockwork says offhandedly.

“Ancient Rome?” Valerie asks.

“Noooo,” Clockwork says with a laugh, looking up at one of the street names before crossing the street. “Present day Rome. Don’t get me wrong, ancient Rome is cool and all, I just didn’t think you would like to see gladiators, deal with the stench-Romans bathe but like, Rome is still gross and all the other nastiness that goes on.”

Oh. She didn’t consider that. She wonders from the way they’re crossing the street, with no one really paying attention to them, if they were really there. “Can they see us?”

“Who?”

With her only free hand, she vaguely gestures to everyone around them. “Them!”

Finally understanding who Valerie was referring to, Clockwork shakes their head. “No. to them we don’t really exist? I don’t know how to explain it, but whatever we do right now isn’t really going to impact the timeline.”

Valerie doesn’t really get it. Maybe it’s because she’s not a Master of Time and doesn’t really understand the complexities that come with the passage of time and if she was quite honest, she’s grateful that she’s just a human who interacts with time in such a simple and straightforward way. Valerie doesn’t get it, but she trusts this kid that’s pulling her through the streets of Rome.

The two walk by several clothing shops before finally making it to that restaurant that Clockwork mentioned earlier. Valerie looks up to see the name of the restaurant and is taken aback when she sees the white double arches standing out against the black drapes.

“McDonald’s?” Valerie asks, a hand on her hip. “Of all the places in Rome and you choose McDonald’s?”

“McDonalds is considered a restaurant, so I technically brought you to one.” Clockwork says arrogantly, curling their fingers around the door handle. “You don’t have to come in if you don’t want to.”

Clockwork pulls the door open and enters. Valerie grumbles and begrudgingly follows after them, slipping through the open space before the door closes, her potential complaints dying down when she saw the interior of the McDonalds. Black bricks on the floor, with dining booths covered in leather, each one separated by wood and marble. She takes a few steps forward, taking in how...sophisticated this McDonald’s looks. As she marvels at the decor, her eyes move away from the furniture and flooring before they linger and gaze in awe at the sculpture cornered a few steps away from the tables.

Valerie steps in front of the statue, a beautiful Roman woman with a dress. Her arms were missing, and the dress rests below her chest, each of the folds immaculately sculpted in the marble. Valerie reaches her hand out to touch the detailed folds of the dress, but retracts her hand in fear that if she touches something so beautiful, it’ll break and crumble in her hands.

“It’s not going to break, you know,” Clockwork says, “It’s not the original sculpture, the original is in a museum if you want to see it.”

She looks down at them, then back at the sculpture. “Do you know who did it?”

Clockwork shrugs. “I dont know but it’s no Venus de Milo.” They turn away, walking down the steps, and heading into the main area of the restaurant. “You still want that water?”

Remembering how dry and parched her throat is, Valerie nods, stepping down and walking into the main part of McDonald’s and she’s taken aback at how fancy it looks. The Nasty Burger could never look like this, “It’s a fancy McDonald’s, I’ll give it that.”

“I thought all McDonald's look like this?" They ask.

"Chile no," she scoffs, they walk past the people and stop in front of a self-service kiosk. Valerie taps the screen and orders herself her much needed water.

"Can you throw in some fries please?" Clockwork asks. "Nuggets too!"

"Aren't you hungry?" She teases, adding the requested items to the cart. "I could go for some fries and a chicken sandwich myself."

Adding the items to the order, she taps finish, and when the payment page comes up, she turns to Clockwork. "And how do you propose we pay for all of this?" She asks, "I don't have any of my money on me."

Clockwork bites their lip, before leaning over and tapping the screen, and fiddling with it before it shows that the order was paid for it. The kiosk spits out a receipt, Valerie takes it and eyes Clockwork suspiciously. "What did you do? I thought you said we don't really have an impact on the timeline."

"I just took advantage of a little loophole in the system," they say innocently. Looking up at Valerie, they shy away from her disapproving frown, turning away from her appearant disappointment as they explain themselves. "It's not going to hurt anyone, and we don't really have an impact on the timeline right now."

Valerie notices how they turn away from her, and decides to let up, relaxing the tense muscles on her face. She wasn't happy that they technically stole from the people here, but she won't harp on them too much. They say it won't really have an impact on the people here, so that doesn't make it that terrible right? Shaking her head, Valerie moves away from the kiosk, towards the register and waits for their food to be served. Ten minutes pass by, she hears their order number called out, grabs the food, rolls the top of the bag inward to keep the food hot, and searches for a table that isn't too full to sit at. Clockwork stays close to her, and she offhandedly notices how their hand slips into the crook of their elbow and latch themselves close to her. Something foreign blooms in her chest but she squashes it down before she can put a name to it or fully explore it, blaming it on the weirdness involving Clockworks powers.

She finally finds them a place to eat, an area that seemed to be a bit secluded and didn't have as many people in the area. Valerie and Clockwork sit down at a semicircle shaped booth several feet behind a case of glass holding cups with plants in. Clockwork slides in the booth first, Valerie slides in next and sets the food on the table. Opening the bag, she pulls out the Clockwork's food along with some ketchup and honey mustard packets and gives it to them.

Clockwork pulls their fries and nuggets close, dips some fries in the ketchup and sticks them in their mouth. "Thank you!" they say happily, swinging their feet as they continue to eat. Valerie doesn't say anything back, opting to open her chicken sandwich and taking a bite out of it.The two children eat in silence-rather, Clockwork talks about whatever crosses their mind, while Valerie occasionally nods along and asks a question or two of her own. She ignores that little feeling in that chest from earlier as she listens to Clockwork talk, as she's certain that it's just some weird pain in her chest or stomach that'll go away.

Valerie finishes eating about twenty minutes later and puts her trash in the white paper bag. Clockwork notices her, looking up at her, "Did you want to see more of Rome?" they ask, "There's a shopping district a few streets away, if that's what you're into."

She doesn't say anything as she grabs a napkin, folds it in half and reach out to the little Time Master's face to wipe off the remaining honey mustard and ketchup from the corners of their mouth. With her other hand, she feels Clockwork's hair, gently patting the top and middle parts of their hair, rubbing the curls between her fingers to truly feel it, and pulls her hands away from them with a smile. "I'll take a raincheck for that," she says with a smile, gently tapping their nose, grabbing their trash and tossing it in the trashcan next to the table. "But we need to go back home, I have to show you something."

Clockwork tilts their head before nodding. The seven year old snakes their hand into Valerie's, tightly clasping their hands together, scrunching their eyes close and before Valerie knows it, the two are back in her kitchen.

"How'd you do that?" she asks, "Last time, you needed a portal."

Clockwork shrugs, "I dunno? You said we had to go home," they say, "This is home."

Oh. Valerie isn't quite sure how to feel about that admission, and she has a lot of feelings about the way Clockwork easily and honestly calls this house, where she lives, home. So she'll bury them for right now, maybe unpack them later, maybe ask her dad about these emotions. She senses that Clockwork is staring at her, realizing that she spaced out, plasters a wide smile on her face to make up for it. Valerie covers their eyes, shushing their protest when she walks them over to the bathroom and stops in front of the mirror.

Slowly, she lowers her hands from their eyes, watching with joy as Clockwork stops their protesting to stare at themselves in the mirror. Valerie moves behind them, fluffing their curls up a bit, so they can be at full volume. "Do you like it?" she asks, "Be brutally honest, Clockwork."

Clockwork stands there in shock, a hand reaching up to tug at one of the curls at the edge of their forehead. "It's so pretty," they say in awe, then noticing Valerie standing behind them. "It can't be mine. There's no way this can belong to me."

"Yea, it is." she says simply, shifting her weight to one side of her body and leaning against the bathroom door.

For the second or third time that day, Clockwork cries. Valerie bends down a little bit, right until the two were eye level and pulls Clockwork in for a hug. She feels them trying to hide in her neck but she shakes her head, gently guiding their head to look in the mirror, "Every single strand of hair belongs to you," she says, wiping away their tears. "I know you don't believe me, but your hair is so beautiful. I meant what I said earlier, I'll keep doing your hair as long as you want me to."

"You mean that?"

Valerie nods, "I meant every word I said."

"Can you…?" they begin, but they go quiet, still unable to ask the question.

"Yea," she answers, pressing a kiss on their forehead. "Come back next week, okay?"

"Okay." Clockwork says.

#danny phantom #valerie gray #dp clockwork #dp fanfic #dp fanfiction #goldenspecter writes

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lilaacstars · 4 years ago

Text

you’re in my veins (and i can’t get you out).

rating: T | words: 31.227 | pt 2.

read it on ao3

He watches how her eyes grow big after listening to his offer. His eyes fix on her and start to notice the bruises she has close to her scalp, down to her ear, the edge of her jaw and on the visible part of her neck. Her bangs are falling gracefully to the side - too gracefully- but he can take a peek, with the little cat senses he still has left, and see that underneath that perfect hairstyle there are stitches and missing hair.

He gulps, almost choking on his saliva, it feels thick and heavy and his throat has closed, impeding his ability to breathe, but he hasn’t stopped so his body trembles, and it is like he will puke, but there’s only the acid on his stomach, and it goes up as if it was a bubbly chemical reaction, but his throat is still closed, and he just feels as if his whole body will shut down but it’s too awake at the vision of her. And then the sensations pile up, then crumble down, then pile up again, and it’s a cycle of obscure overwhelming emotions that trigger and stop every reaction his body pulls.

It is disgusting, nauseating, gory even.

Upclose, face to face, breathing the same air, the consequences are not an image fabricated by his brain anymore, and yet, he knows there are so many more hidden marks of treachery that will present itself in flesh and pain.

Her lips tremble and her sight finally fixes on his, only to look away a second after.

However, she leans forward, closer to the window.

Adrien takes one step back and that allows Ladybug to come inside the room.

Her steps are careful and light as if she is ready to jump back to the window and run away from here at any given moment. Adrien is sure that it isn't a baseless guess, but what is truly going through her mind is still a cypher.

After standing in the middle of the room and eyeing everywhere around, she finally walks back to stand beside the coffee table and lets out a long sigh.

Next, Ladybug stands close to the window, only giving little steps in a small space. She takes the end of her long braid and starts playing with the end.

He looks at her, hands on his pockets as he fidgets and waits for her to speak, for her to guide him where she needs to be.

“It’s good to see you,” Adrien whispers and takes one step forward.

Ladybug crooks a brow and tightly hugs herself. She doesn’t answer.

“You haven’t been out as Lady Noire in a long time. Is there a reason?” He asks, trying to sound as ignorant as a civilian would be.

Ladybug lets out an amused scoff but there’s no real joy behind it.

Her eyes are focused on the skyline and a thin layer of gleaming tears is set on her eyes.

Adrien gulps, unsure if the reaction has something to do with him or is all about the thoughts she’s been carrying through her night stroll.

The question wouldn’t be an unusual one for a mere civilian. Maybe they wouldn’t be so eager to jump into it, maybe they would ask other questions first, but he was not a mere civilian… well, he was now, but there had been a time where he wasn’t.

No.

He still isn’t a mere character walking down the road. He will never be, and yet that is the path he must pretend to follow.

“This was a mistake,” He hears the whisper as loud as a siren.

He jolts on his spot and takes fast steps towards her. It only makes her jump faster towards the window.

“I- I’m-”

But before he can formulate a phrase on his mind for his mouth to stop the stammering, she is gone.

His eyes follow as she is only a ship in the night between the sea of city lights.

She is gone.

Gone.

Gone forever.

But is she?

She is not truly gone. She is alive, and she is patrolling, and Paris has their heroine back.

But he doesn’t.

He doesn’t have a partner, he doesn’t have a friend, he doesn’t have his other half.

He is a broken piece of a human that once felt he finally had the piece that could make him endure life, and now she is gone.

Not truly , but he has been left alone with her shadow roaming through the brightest corners of the life of others, yet creeping on the back of his mind, only smiling on his memories, and frowning and avoiding his gaze into the future.

His breath stops once again. One little detail striking like lightning.

She avoided his gaze as if he was a deathly disease.

Could… could she know who he was?

Marinette seems to be aware that he once was something special; someone special. And Ladybug is as smart as her, if not more.

But if she knows, then she wouldn’t have come. If she hates him so much that she couldn’t even bear for him to touch her when she needed someone to lean on (not in the figurative sense) then why would she seek for him? Why would she come to him?

It doesn’t make any sense and yet he can’t shake the thought out of his mind.

And it stays there, like a fly on the wall. As the days pass he will forget about it, and then the buzz of the wings will echo in the chamber of his mind and then it would be the only thing he can focus on.

Not school.

Not Kagami.

Not his friends.

Not Nathalie.

Not his father who finally makes time to have dinner with him.

Nothing at all.

Nothing but her and the knowledge she might have.

The wonder wouldn’t even pretend to hide when the sunset, it would make itself appear in other shapes through dreams. Some of them are tranquil, others are as bitter as reality can be, and yet the bittersweets are the worst. They show the road not taken, they show him taking good decisions after the terrible ones he’s taken, and reward him with what he has always wanted, the unravelling of the secret. Every day he wakes up and knows that he does not deserve any of it, that this can’t happen and that if it does happen he has to make sure he does not gain any redemption from it. And every day he wakes up knowing not only that he has broken every piece of her soul, but also has put her in imminent danger.

When she left he could see her limp, he could see how he prefered a certain grab on the yo-yo, and how short her jumps were in comparison to her usual ones.

There is nothing he can do to make it right, he’s already brought destruction to them, but if he could find a way to protect her, he wouldn’t think it twice.

He is sitting right next to Luka on the café table, as Nino looked for an empty chair he could use, he scribbled on a napkin.

They were waiting for their order to come, only one glass full of fresh water in front of each, and sugar and a plate of napkins in the middle of the round table.

Luka had his phone out, scrolling through, and tapping his foot against the pavement in a comforting rhythm.

This

“Sorry, I found a chair inside almost immediately, but I got bombarded by messages from Lya.”

Luka and Adrien giggled, the first more enthusiastic than the second, but that wasn’t a rare occurrence anymore, so there was no comment about it.

“How many of those texts were pictures?” Luka asks.

“Oh, half of those. She’s so excited that LB is back.”

Adrien stops drawing and looks towards Nino, watching his phone as Luka takes a look through the pictures.

“Ladybug was out?” He asks, pretending to not be incredibly interested. Even if after his breakdown in school he doesn’t think he can get away with it.

“Yeah, there was an akuma attack like an hour and a half ago?” Nino asks and Luka nods at him, “Don’t you have your alarm on?”

“No.” It was too painful to hear the akuma emergency line going off and not being able to do anything.

“Why not? You have to, you’re going to put yourself in danger.

His mouth opens and closes before he can show how uninterested he is in his safety. If he can stumble through the path of an akuma, he might see Ladybug, and no matter how many bruises, cuts, or blood he might lose on the way, all that pain would be worth it.

“It just stresses me out.” He lies, realizing his friends are expecting an answer, “Was she alone?” He can’t help but ask.

The shadow that crosses his friend’s eyes doesn’t startle him. He’s grown accustomed to this reaction.

“Yes.” They nod.

They seem to be interested in continuing this conversation, but Adrien has the call on it, and he doesn’t want any of it. They can’t know how personal it is for him, they can’t know that knowing that she is out there alone makes him feel as if he was cut in half.

“What were you looking for in your phone?” He says, turning his head to Luka, “You looked consumed by your phone.”

“A bike.” He gives a toothy smile.

“You already have one,” Nino says confused.

“I think he means a motorcycle,” Adrien smiles.

“Yes.”

“That’s so awesome,” Adrien chimes, “I have a license for it. My father doesn’t know, of course, but once I’m out of the house I’m buying one bike for myself too. Which ones have you seen?”

And Luka pulls out his phone again, showing the different models he has his eye on.

Adrien is glad that the subject takes a lot of the conversation. As their food and coffees arrive, they’re still talking about the prices, the equipment, the special license he has to have, and how Juleka isn’t very fond of him buying “such a dangerous vehicle”.

“She wants me to buy a car, I’ve tried to let her see that a car doesn’t go with my style.”

“It would be more comfortable for you to carry around your instruments.”

“Yes, but a car will never be cooler than a bike. Also,” He changes the website to a new one, “Look at these amazing suits and helmets.” Nino and Adrien move their chairs closer to Luka to get a better look.

There are different jackets and trousers to suit up for the cold, or not burn yourself with the pipes of the bikes (apparently this wasn’t a rare thing), there are others that only had the objective of making you look while riding. Adrien could understand that sometimes having a cool suit just made things better.

When Luka changes to the helmets, there is one that catches Adrien’s attention.

Is black and matte, with neon green accents around the shield, and all around the curve, as if it was stitched.

“Wow,” He hears himself gasp.

“I liked that one too!” Luka jumps, “But I think I will look like an astronaut, also I don’t think black is my colour.”

“It is mine.”

Nino and Luka laugh.

“When have you ever worn black?” Nino asks and gives him a shake as he hugs him, “I think I’ve seen you only wear it on photoshoots, and you always look so awkward.”

“I look fantastic in black.” Adrien protests, but not truly caring about making a better comeback.

His mind is too busy planning something else.

keep reading in ao3.

#ml fic #miraculous ladybug #ladrien #ladynoir

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dolphin-bouillabaisse · 5 years ago

Text

Beards of a feather flock together

(I only wanted to write a short, jokey thing about lockdown beards for the Ineffable Husbands. Why did it turn into an actual fic-long jokey thing?!)

Crowley is using the lockdown efficiently, he thinks, to experiment with facial hair, like all the humans seem to be doing.

He knows he doesn’t technically need the excuse of ‘nobody will see me for a while, so I can let my beard grow out and play around with it’. He knows that he is using miracles for it anyway, and could do it any day and have it disappear and reappear instantaneously.

He knows that. He’s still using the lockdown as an excuse. He’s absolutely not above lying to himself, or making up explanations that sound far more plausible than “I was being extremely bored and had told Aziraphale I was going to sleep so I couldn’t even bother him without exposing that as a blatant lie to avoid being honest about wanting to come over to his place”. There's only so many times you can scream at plants and clean the entire flat top to bottom before you end up at this level of boredom, which was usually interrupted by a particularly wine-laden dinner or a quick run-in at a park, both out of the question now as well.

And so, Crowley is experimenting with facial hair this afternoon. He’s not done it a lot before, to be honest. Oh sure, he’s changed his hairstyle almost as often as his gender, if not even more, and he’s had the rare moustache when human fashion called for it, but he’s never kept any kind of beard for longer than absolutely necessary. He wonders why.

Seeing himself in the mirror, he realises why.

He’s decided to re-visit some old styles at first, but brushing along the small tuft of hair on his chin, all he can think about is the reactions he’d last gotten for it. Some drunkard in a tavern had compared it to a goat, he remembered, and Aziraphale next to him had giggled. Giggled. It had not felt good.

An angry snap of fingers later, and an equally troublesome moustache is staring at him in the mirror. He wonders if it had maybe been the glasses that had put this particular ensemble together decades ago, or the shirt, but he knows neither of it had been able to save him back then, and nothing was able to save him from it right now. At least this time around there is no angel to tell him that it seems less reminiscent of some movie stars and more of a dead member of his beloved rat army.

Snap after snap after snap, the dark red patches across his face change from bad to horrid to absolutely unmentionable, and his patience grows thinner than it has ever been before, and it's been pretty much at the level of a piece of rice paper for several centuries.

One last snap leaves him with just a regular, run-of-the-mill full beard, slightly darker than his normal hair, but styled just as meticulously. He runs his fingers through it, feeling the soft rasp along his hand.

“That's not half bad.” He reasons to his reflection. Not something he's going to go outside with any time soon (he's not going out anyway, but, just as a general point), but not so bad he'd have to fear more unwanted comments or giggles from certain blonde, one-style-fits-all-centuries angel.

The phone rings. He swirls around and almost races towards the throne room office, but remembers quickly enough that he's supposed to be asleep and not ready to answer the phone after the first ring.

He's allowed to pick it up before it goes to the answering machine, though, right?

“What.” He grumbles, hoping it sound sufficiently drowsy and just-woke-up-ish.

“Oh, my dear, I'm terribly sorry. Am I bothering you?”

“Told you I was gonna sleep.”

“Yes, I know. I only wanted to check. I thought I would get that horrid machine, anyway.”

“Why d'you need to check, then?”

“Well.” Quiet rummaging, shuffling. Crowley can see Aziraphale adjusting his waistcoat before his inner eye. “It's recommended.”

“What is?”

“Checking in on-” A soft pause. “Friends and family. Keeping in touch. You know.”

“Ah.” Is all he can manage to answer, which is not exactly anything, so the line stays quiet for a while.

Quite a while.

“Well, I shouldn't be keeping you from your sleep-” is said at the exact same second as his “How's your baking going?”

They pause again after that verbal collision, to gather themselves and their wits back up. Crowley clears his throat, but Aziraphale manages to break through first.

“Oh, my baking is going splendid. I'd say I've mastered the European styles by now. I've been experimenting with some Middle Eastern breads and desserts, and some things I remember from back when we were, um, stationed in the area. But it is awfully hard to find the proper spices and ingredients for it in the shops at the moment. Essentials, you know?”

Crowley doesn't know. Crowley hasn't set foot in a supermarket for years, but the idea of Aziraphale with a shopping trolley and a bag for life and a little list of items on a torn piece of paper makes him want to spend several hours at Waitrose's looking for whatever extinct herb Aziraphale needs.

“Sounds like you need something else to pass the time.” That is not meant to sound as obvious as it does, so a quick addendum is needed. “Reread all your books by now?”

“Well, yes, actually.” Aziraphale sighs. “Ah, I decided to look around on that interweb you set up for me a while back, as well, you remember?” Crowley remembers staring down the ancient desktop pc in the bookshop and telling it to better rear up a good browser and immaculate virus protection or so help it... so a quick hum is the only reply before Aziraphale rattles on.

“And, well, there are quite a lot of people talking about things to do during the lockdown, you know. A lot of people are baking, just like me! And they’re making all kinds of very entertaining videos, and jokes, although I don’t understand all of them. I think they are very popular media related, I’m afraid.”

“You're planning to become a youtube star now? An influencer?”

“Heavens, no!” He can hear the soft smile in that, and it's almost annoying that he can despite not seeing it. He had no idea how badly he wants to see it. Well, maybe he had, but he hadn't admitted it yet. “I'm only saying, humans are coming up with the most random things to entertain themselves during this horrid time. It's quite heartwarming.”

“I suppose.”

“And everyone seems to be using this unwanted time off to try new things! They're being so creative and courageous. The young lady down the street, with the flyers, you remember? I saw her at the grocer's, and she's shaved off half her hair! It does look marvellous, I have to say.”

Well, it's not exactly surprising for Crowley to hear, he thinks, because if he'd had to peg anyone on Aziraphale's street to go straight for some queer quarantine hairstyling, it would've been her. But he doesn't get much time to think about that before Aziraphale's voice pulls him back into the very one-sided conversation.

“It's all very inspiring. And I figured, well, why not? Nobody is going to come into the shop for a while, and I'm not going out, and I've always wondered-”

“Angel.” Crowley cuts through the babbling with almost a bit of dread in his voice. “Did you shave your head? Is that what you're trying to say?”

“Oh gosh, no, nothing that extreme! Really, would you actually believe me to do that? I know you like your hair changed every few years or so, but I-”

“What did you do, then? What did Holly and her shaved head inspire you to do?”

Another round of silence on both ends of the line. Crowley prepares himself for the worst, though he has no idea what that would be.

“I've grown a beard.” Aziraphale almost whispers.

“You what?”

“I've grown a beard!” He repeats, a tad louder. “I've always wondered – there's barely any angels with facial hair, and you used to have those- I just had no idea what I might look like with one, and I thought, if not now-”

“And?”

“And what?” Aziraphale huffs.

“What do you look like?” Crowley's grin is mischievous, and his voice really shouldn't sound like this, but he can't help the teasing as he rubs across his own beard, still not vanished away by miracle. He hears a soft scratching on the other end of the line.

“It's not- it's not bad, if that's what you're expecting to hear. Although it seems a bit patchy, the colour, at least.”

“Patchy.”

“Yes, there's this bit – in the front – my chin, you see. It seems an awful lot lighter than the rest.”

“Angel, you have to expect some white hairs after six thousand years.”

“You are mocking me.” Aziraphale tuts down the line.

“I swear I'm not. It's just hard to imagine you with a beard. Never seen anything on your face, even when it was the style for humans.”

“Well you certainly won't be seeing it anyway. I'll make sure to be presentable once the lockdown is lifted.”

“What?!” Crowley interjects a bit too shocked, maybe. “You can't do that to me, angel! You can't dangle this little morsel of information in front of my face and then never let me have it!”

“I'm not going to go outside or greet customers like this only so you can have a quick laugh, old serpent.”

“You leave me no choice, then.”

“What do you mean?”

“I need to see this beard of yours, angel. Even if it means coming over before regulations are changed.”

“Well.” Aziraphale says, and Crowley is sure he can hear a smile again, but definitely not a soft one. That bastard. “I simply can't keep you from breaking the rules, can I? You are a demon, after all. Not all your wiles can be thwarted, I guess.”

Probably not, Crowley thinks as he realises he's been had, but you're definitely an A-class tempter.

(the story actually goes further here: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24402841

because nobody seems to reblog the second, longer version :( )

#Crowley #Aziraphale #Good Omens #Ineffable Husbands #my writing

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sithsecrets · 5 years ago

Text

A Matter of Expediency - Part VI

After being married off to Kylo Ren in the name of securing an heir to the First Order’s throne, a princess tries to navigate the ins and outs of married life. As she grows closer to her new husband, the princess also carves out a place for herself in the Order, assuming control over her life when she thought she would have none.

—

Part 6

4k words

Mentions: swearing

—

You rise early on the morning of your wedding, too anxious to lie in bed any longer as you watch the sun creep up in the sky. It’ll be hours before it’s time for you to get dressed, and you know good and well that your ladies are still fast asleep. Lydia’s never been a morning person, Joon stayed up late playing cards, and Helda had to be practically poured into her bed by the time dinner ended. It looks like it’ll just be you for a while, so you start hunting for ways to occupy your time. Nervous energy thrums through your entire body, and you’re plagued with the urge to pace about the room until your legs give out. You decide that a walk on the beach might do you good instead, so you set out on the sand, not bothering to change out of your nightgown.

The morning sun is gentle and warm on your back as you walk along the shore, letting the salty water of the ocean lave over your feet and ankles as you did last night. This place really is paradise, you think wistfully, smiling to yourself as you observe some marine life further out. The creatures jump out of the water together, seemingly playing a game of chase, and you consider the event a good omen.

A bit less anxious after some time outside, you head back up to your rooms, glad to see that a breakfast buffet of sorts has been laid out for you in your absence. It’s far too much food for you to eat alone, but you figure that the resort staff has considered the fact that your ladies may come to eat with you as well. You nibble on some fruit and a pastry, unable to eat much because of your remaining jitters.

You’re salty and windswept from being out by the water, and though no one is here to help you, you decide to take a bath anyway. It ends up being nice, soaking in the warm water alone as you languidly wash and cleanse your body. Though bathing does help you relax a little bit, you still can’t help but think of what’s to come as you exfoliate. You’ll be a married woman in just a few hours’ time, and tonight, you’ll retire to your marital bed with your husband. Surely the Supreme Leader is expecting that the two of you will lie together, and the mere notion of that makes your heart pound. You feel totally helpless, lacking in sexual experience of any kind, and you fear that you won’t be able to please him. Both Lydia and Joon have said that it’s not that difficult to make a man happy in bed, but you’re still incredibly unsure of yourself. So, to compensate, you’ve decided that it would be best for you to make your body as soft and appealing as possible. You may not know what to do with your body, but you would die if Kylo lost interest in you simply because he ran his hands over a patch of scratchy dry skin.

Out of the tub, your crusade to make yourself appealing continues, and you slather yourself in lotion and moisturizer. At the end of it all, every inch of your body is silky and soft, and that makes you feel just the slightest bit more confident.

You snack on some more food after you’re done bathing, munching on fruit and toast until your ladies finally come stumbling into your chambers. Helda complains of a headache, calling the rest of you cruel when you snicker at the fact that she’s hungover. Your ladies graze on the spread that was laid out for you earlier, practically force-feeding Helda toast and fruit so that she’ll feel a bit better. You nibble on some cheese and berries, eating because you know you need to— passing out in the middle of your own wedding would be too mortifying to bear.

Finally, the time comes for the lot of you to begin getting dressed. As always, Lydia does everyone’s hair, making quick work of styling Joon, Helda, and herself before she sits you down in the chair. Lydia is much more deliberate in her work with you, twisting and combing your hair carefully, pinning with purpose and a strategic touch. When she’s finished with you, your hair is sleek and elegant, drawn into an intricate knot at the back of you head. It’s so different from you’re your usual loose, carefree hairdos, and you touch the hairstyle lightly, experimentally.

Lydia must mistake the gesture for one indicative of a disliking for what she’s done. “I thought it would look rather pretty with your dress. You said that they’re going to call you ‘Empress,’ and I thought the look would complement your new title,” she tells you. “But if you don’t like it, there’s plenty of time for me to start over.”

“No,” you say quickly, not wanting her to remove a single hairpin, “no. I love it. I just… It just makes me feel different is all.”

You know what you’ve said is strange, but no one mentions it as Joon starts on everyone’s makeup. Like Lydia, she fixes up herself and the other ladies quickly, brushing on a few light washes of color and calling the whole thing done. With you, of course, she takes her time, working with her own face close to yours as she defines your features and paints you prettily. And stars, Joon is a talented artist, for when she’s finished with your makeup, you look radiant. None of what she’s put on your face is heavy or overbearing, but every subtle highlight and shadow works together to make you look regal, sultry— you don’t think you’ve ever looked this good in your life.

“You’re a witch, Joon,” you state, unable to tear your eyes away from your reflection.

“Well, I just did my best,” Joon says with a humble shrug, but the little smile on her mouth tells you that she’s rather pleased with herself.

With your hair and makeup done, the time has come for you to get into your dress. Lydia and Joon steady you as you step into the garment, guiding your legs through the layers of fabric so that you don’t tear your train by accident. Helda’s the one who really dresses you, though, working diligently behind your back to fasten up the dozens of little buttons that run down your spine. She has the smallest hands out of all of you, and the girl has always had a talent for tedious tasks such as this one.

After a few short minutes, Helda steps back pronouncing you dressed. Everyone is quiet for a moment after she says this, studying you in the mirror.

“Well,” Joon says softly, “I guess that’s that.”

You aren’t sure what she means, but you understand nonetheless.

“You look beautiful, Princess,” Lydia declares.

“A real vision,” Joon adds quickly, and Helda nods.

“Thank you,” you say, distracted by your own appearance.

One would think you vain, studying yourself so intently in the mirror, but it’s not your beauty that has you fixated. You hardly recognize yourself like this, though you’ve gotten dressed up for many events in the past. But there’s something different about this time, something different about you. You look like a queen instead of a princess, like a woman who commands attention.

“Thank you,” you repeat, “thank you all. I look incredible, really.”

“He’s going to die when he sees you,” Lydia affirms, coming to take your hands. Joon and Helda clasp their palms over Lydia fingers, smiling up at you with a tinge of sadness. Suddenly, you realize that this is it, this is the last time that you’ll all be together in this way.

“It’s been an honor to serve you, Princess,” Helda tells you, and you try your very hardest to blink the tears out of your eyes. It wouldn’t do to ruin Joon’s work, not when the wedding is coming so quickly.

“It’s been an honor to be served by all of you,” you say, talking around a lump in your throat. You break into a tearful smile, looking a Joon, Helda, and Lydia in turn.

There’s so much more that you want to say, but you don’t get the chance. A knock at the door breaks your moment, and you know immediately that it’s your escort come to retrieve you.

“I have to go,” you say quickly, stepping away from the mirror. Joon tails you to the door, straightening the train of your gown and checking your hair one last time.

And with that, you’re gone, off to become a married woman.

---

Your wedding ceremony feels like a dream. All you can really remember of it is faces, the faces of the guests as they watched you walk down the aisle, the face of the officiant, Kylo’s face as he recited his vows to you. Kylo’s face, and the warmth of his hands, and the quick kiss that the two of you shared once you were pronounced husband and wife. Everything else, though, that’s a complete blur. You don’t remember your vows, or what instruments were played as you walked in, or even what Kylo said as he promised himself to you.

You and your husband are whisked to the reception almost immediately, though you are pulled into a side room for photographs. A woman dressed in plain, official clothes poses you and Kylo stiffly, snapping pictures of you smiling and not smiling, of you seated and not seated. Your husband doesn’t speak to you during any of this, and you’re thankful— you don’t think you could form a coherent sentence right now if you tried, too overwhelmed by everything that’s just happened.

The reception is indoor/outdoor, set in a richly decorated hall with a terrace and access to the beach. You and Kylo are greeted with cheers and applause, and the noise of it all is loud enough to make the building shudder. Before you can so much as catch your breath and get your bearings, Kylo’s taking you aside to a receiving area. Two members of the Imperial Guard stand behind you and your husband, supervising guests that come to talk to both of you. Person after person, couple after couple approach where you’re seated, and all of them congratulate you warmly. Kylo already knows most of the people that come your way, but your head is swimming with new names and faces. By the time the line clears, you feel like you’ve just downed a bottle of strong wine.

Kylo gives you his arm when the two of you get ready to leave the receiving area, and you’re happy to have something solid to lean on. Your head thrums with a dull ache, and you find yourself wishing you had eaten more earlier. And of course, your mind spirals with thoughts of all of the interactions you’ve just had, thoughts of all the important people you just met. Anxious, you hope that you made a good impression, thinking of how Kylo said he needed a “second face” for the Order. And that would be just your luck, wouldn’t it, fucking up your new job on the very first night?

“You’re doing very well,” your husband whispers suddenly, and his words send a chill down your back. In your nervous tizzy, you forgot completely that the Supreme Leader can easily read your mind, and your heart pounds at the thought of him knowing how anxious you are.

Your shock and fear must show on your face because the look in Kylo’s eyes softens to something more apologetic. “You are,” he presses, and you can see that he means it. Kylo’s compliment instills you with just a little more confidence, and you straighten your back, grabbing on a little tighter to his arm as the two of you go walking about the room.

Finally, it comes time to eat. The sun is slipping down as everyone moves to their seats, and you’re grateful to sit down. Kylo helps you into your chair before moving to sit down himself, an unexpected gesture that you find rather sweet.

“I’m starving,” you tell him, just to make polite conversation. You and Kylo haven’t talked much since the two of you wed, more focused on entertaining guests than anything else. Kylo turns to look at you, to really look at you. You’re not sure if you’re doing a poor job of schooling your expression or if Kylo can simply sense your feelings, but he somehow knows that you’re overwhelmed nonetheless.

“The hard part is over,” he says to you seriously, speaking quietly so that only you can hear him. “We get to relax now.”

You’re not sure that Kylo Ren’s ever relaxed in his life, but you decide to take his word for it regardless. Before you can say anything else, two servants approach the both of you from behind, setting your food down in front of you without a word. When everyone’s been served, Kylo stands, and a hush falls over the room.

“Friends,” he declares, “allies. I thank you all for being here tonight to witness this union between myself and your Empress.”

Your pulse quickens at his use of your new title, but you try to paint a pleasant expression on your face as you watch your husband speak.

“Tonight marks an auspicious new beginning for the Order. I believe that with the Empress’s help, we will be able to expand our organization and bring even more prosperity and stability to the galaxy.”

Thunderous applause erupt in the room, and it takes several seconds for everyone to quiet themselves. When things are silent again, your husband looks down at you, his goblet held aloft towards your guests. The look you see in his eyes escapes description, but you cannot help but feel that there is something akin to passion swirling behind his irises. Or maybe it’s lust… You aren’t entirely sure.

“To the Empress,” calls the Supreme Leader.

“To the Empress!” echoes the room, and everyone drinks to the toast.

Kylo never breaks your gaze as he takes a long drag off of his glass, moving to sit down as he does so. You think that you should say something, anything, but every word dies right as it reaches your tongue.

Despite the nervous buzz in your veins, you eat ravenously, your need for food too strong to be ignored now. Kylo eats with as just much vigor, probably as hungry as you are. He drinks wine with his meal, but not to excess. You try to be as mindful of your alcohol consumption as well, thinking it would be best to be sober for tonight.

After dinner is cleared away, a band begins playing cheerful, fast music, and many of your guests flock to the center of the room to dance. You spot Helda, Lydia, and Joon amongst them, and your heart yearns to join your friends in their merrymaking.

“Do you dance?” you ask Kylo, turning to look at him. Your husband looks rather taken aback by the question, so you’re not surprised by his answer.

“No,” he says quickly, “not at all. I’m not good, and I don’t like it.”

His answer deals you a crushing blow, and you settle your hands in your lap a bit solemnly. “Oh,” you say softly, trying to hide your sadness, “well that’s good to know.”

The look on Kylo’s face changes, becomes more nervous. “But you’re more than welcome to,” he blurts. “I mean, don’t let me hold you back.”

Under different circumstances, you would have been out on the floor already, but you feel obligated to stay with your husband. This is your wedding, after all.

“Are you sure? I feel bad leaving you here by yourself,” you tell Kylo, but you’re already itching to join in the fray.

“Please,” Kylo affirms, and with that, you’re up and out of your seat.

Joon, Helda, and Lydia squeal when you find them out on the floor, all of them crushing you into a big hug all at once. It’s hard to hear them over the noise, but you manage to catch all of the compliments that they throw your way before the lot of you go galivanting across the dancefloor, twirling and spinning and jumping and holding hands with one another.

After a few songs, a young officer cuts in, asking shyly if Helda would like to dance. She accepts, and just as she goes to leave, Joon’s boyfriend comes and whisks her away as well. You and Lydia stand to the side of all the dancers now, panting and grinning, flushed with joy.

“Let’s get some air,” Lydia suggests, red in the face. Sweat beads at her hairline, and you’re sure that you’re in a similar state.

“And some water,” you add. Lydia nods in agreement, and then you’re turning around, trying to meet your husband’s eye. Your heart jumps a bit when you see that he’s already looking at you, but you don’t say anything, merely throwing your head Lydia’s way and pointing towards the doors that lead outside. He seems to understand what you mean, nodding calmly. You flash him a smile, and though Kylo doesn’t return the gesture, you like to think that you see softness in his eyes.

Someone’s taken the liberty of placing lights outside so that your wedding guests may enjoy the beach, even under the cover of darkness. You and Lydia manage to slip away from the crowd, glasses of water in hand as you traipse across the sand. As you move farther and farther away from the resort, everything grows darker, your path mostly lit by moonlight now.

“The Supreme Leader thinks that you make quite the pretty picture,” Lydia says to you, a fistful of her dress clutched in one hand. You roll your eyes at that, but you’re glad that it’s too dim for her to see you blushing.

“I would like to think so,” you murmur, thinking of how your husband looked at you as he gave his pre-dinner speech,

“Oh, you don’t have to think,” Lydia teases, “because I know for sure. He’s been staring at you all night long.”

The idea of that pleases you, but you try not to let it go to your head, giving Lydia a little shove as she laughs at you.

“I’m just saying that I don’t think you’ll have any trouble endearing yourself to him,” she says, still grinning. “He seems to think a lot of you already.”

“I know.” You’re still murmuring, shy under Lydia’s suggestions.

After a few seconds of companionable silence, Lydia suddenly stops short, turning to look at you. She’s thrown into shadow, almost featureless under the light of the moon, and the way she’s holding herself is strange. Before you can ask her what’s wrong, she speaks.

“Still, it’s not too late to back out,” your friend states. Only now do you realize how far away you are from the resort, how alone the both of you are.

You stare at her for a moment, raising your chin appraisingly. “What do you mean?”

“I mean,” Lydia says, taking a step closer, “that this stretch of beach goes all out to a bit of untamed, uninhabited land. If we kept walking, it would take some time before someone came looking for us. We could be anywhere by then.”

Coming from anyone else, her suggestion would be appalling. But this is Lydia, and you know what happened to her when she got married.

“I’ll be just fine, Lydia,” you say quickly, reaching out to caress her arm. “Thank you. Thank you for thinking of me like that. Thank you for being willing to stick your neck out. But you don’t have to. I can handle myself. I’m going to be okay, I promise.”

And really, you think that you will be. The Supreme Leader does not seem so terrible, and you feel like you could figure all of this out if you try hard enough.

Lydia gazes at you for a moment, and then she reaches out to squeeze your hand. “If you ever want to leave, all you have to do is contact me. I’ll figure out a way to rescue you, no matter where you are or who you’re with. I’m not afraid of any of those people.”

Your friend could be executed for treason if anyone heard her talking like this. You cannot believe how fortunate you are to have someone that loves you so much.

“I’ll be fine,” you reiterate, squeezing Lydia’s hand even harder than she squeezed yours.

---

Back inside, you say goodbye to your friends. It’s bittersweet, exchanging hugs with all of them, aware that you won’t be seeing them for quite some time. But, none of you cry to blatantly in front of the other guests, so you consider the whole thing a success.

You go back to your husband, plopping down into your chair tiredly. Your feet ache, and wisps of hair have come loose form your updo.

“Did you enjoy dancing?” Kylo asks you lightly, eyes flitting to where your hand tucks a piece of your hair back into place. You smile weakly but brightly.

“Oh yes,” you say, laughing airily. “I’m exhausted now, though.”

“If you’re tired, I can have a group of guards take you back to the ship,” Kylo offers, and you cannot help but feel that he’s nervous to be speaking to you like this. His gloved hands fidget, eyes darting away from your face for just a moment.

You’re taken aback by this, having not thought of your wedding night for hours now. Though your initial impulse is to decline, you see that it’s growing late. You have to do this eventually, you know that, so you might as well rip the bandage off now.

“Yes,” you say, “that would be all right with me. Are you coming along as well, or…?”

“No,” Kylo says quickly, folding his hands in his lap. “I thought you would like a moment to yourself. You can go now, and I’ll follow shortly.”

You only nod at that, but you’re glad to see that Kylo’s feeling just as shy about all of this. Still, he steels expression as he motions to two imperial guards, blunt and commanding as he orders them to take you to your transport vessel. The two guards do so wordlessly, not speaking to you or even to the Supreme Leader as they escort you out of the room.

You’re loaded onto a small, light aircraft manned by only a single pilot. The guards climb aboard as well, sitting across from you with their weapons at the ready. You get the feeling that they’re there to protect you more than they are to intimidate you, but you find them off-putting anyway. You’ve always known stormtroopers to be friendly and sociable, but you assume that members of the Imperial Guard are held to a higher standard, that they’re people of a different breed. Still, you think that they could stand to say or do something to make them seem a bit more human.

The Supremacy is the biggest craft you’ve ever seen, a virtual city floating out in the blackness of space. As your vessel lands on one of the ship’s many decks, you wonder how you’ll ever find your way around this place, already panicked by the notion of getting lost onboard. Still, you try to keep your cool as you disembark, thanking your pilot and the guards graciously.

A small party is waiting for you upon landing, just a couple of stormtroopers and a woman who displays no insignia or rank of any kind. She’s older, old enough to be someone’s mother, and she wears her graying hair in a tight, slick knot at the nape of her neck. Dressed in shapeless black clothing, one might find this woman unremarkable at first glance.

“Empress,” she says, curtsying deeply. The stormtroopers also bow, acknowledging your arrival. “My name is Miriam. I am here to serve you.”

#kylo ren #kylo ren x reader #kylo ren imagine #kylo ren fanfiction #star wars #star wars imagine #ame #my writing

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jackdawyt · 5 years ago

Video

youtube

I am beyond privileged to share my very Early Access impressions of The Waylanders, thanks to the developers at Gato Studio who gave me an early key.

The Waylanders is a party-based RPG set in the Celtic and Medieval eras, inspired by classics like Dragon Age: Origins, Neverwinter Nights 2, and The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. I’ve only played the first 10 hours of this game, and I’ve fallen for it. It’s very apparent that the developers of The Waylanders love Dragon Age. And so, to anyone who loves Dragon Age, will love The Waylanders.

I’ve played prologue and the very few early hours of the game which are in early access, meaning there’s plenty of work that needs to be done and nothing in the game is final. However, I was able to get an amazing feel for what the finished game will look like, and believe me when I say, this is the Dragon Age successor we’re all looking for.

Character

Upon starting the game, you’re taken to a very recognizable character creator, clearly inspired by Dragon Age: Origins. You can choose between a male/female body, four races, six classes, and then an origin story based on each of those choices.

The races in Waylanders are rather distinct, as opposed to traditional DND races like elves, humans and dwarves. Here we have the choice between human, werewolf, mourian and semi-fomorian.

The classes are rather straight forward, each of them have unique weapons, abilities and features. As an example, Rangers have the Pets feature which allows them to have animal companions, and Sorcerers can teleport using their specific magic feature.

You can customise your character with a few hairstyles, facial types, different skin tones, eye, hair and facial hair colours.

You can then apply more points into your statistics based on your race and class. And the final aspect of customisation is your identity, where you choose your name, pronouns and voice.

The voice is just for grunting noises in combat, I believe the game follows a silent protagonist so you can make up your own voice.

After making those final decisions, you’re given a cute lore character summary, backing up each choose you’ve made for your PC. Now your adventure can begin.

Story

The story is told through a plentiful of cutscenes and long dialogue interactions, of course, just what Dragon Age fans love. I found each of them engaging and I was hooked from the start really.

I’ve played the prologue twice, and a few blocked out side quests that are still in very early alpha. The story starts with the Spanish Celtic tribes arriving at Ireland to meet and convey a union with their gods. However, things don’t go according to plan, as you can imagine.

What’s fascinating about The Waylanders compared to Dragon Age for example, is that the lore is steeped in Irish and Spanish folk lore. We discover many legends like ‘The Tuatha Dé Danann’. Which means ‘the tribe of the gods’ in Old Gaelic. It’s exciting lore that actually exists in some of the real world’s sub-cultures today.

The setting of the game is based in medieval Galicia, which is in Spain. The developers are actually from Spain, the stories they’re telling throughout The Waylanders are tales each of them has grown up with.

I won’t say much more on the main story, other than the protagonist has a mystery that reminds me of Kingdoms Of Amular Reckoning. Of course, another stellar RPG that takes pinches from Dragon Age: Origins.

The plot seems to surround a lot of time travel themes, going forward and back in time, with many choices and consequences taking effect from your decisions.

As a whole, the writing is excellent. And that’s expected due to the fact that Chris Avellone, best known for writing Fallout: New Vegas, took the helm. Alongside with him, Ex-Telltale's Emily Grace Book who’s the fabulous Narrative Lead.

Not to mention Mike Laidlaw aided to team with his creative vison to “create a high-level narrative and to structure the game and the story.”

And if that’s not enough, Dragon Age veteran Inon Zur composed the soundtrack of The Waylanders too, which is just beautiful.

I want to share more about the main characters. So far, they’re compelling, even in just the first hour, I found myself latching onto each of them, with their many different personalities.

In my opinion, the dialogue holds the game up, I found myself engaging in every single conversation I could, interacting with every character. I’d say my favourite character so far is Nazhedja. Naz for short.

She’s very intriguing! Being a mourian, she’s immortal, though she composes herself as a charming and relatable individual.

The voice cast is amazing and familiar with the likes of Simon Templeman, known for playing Loghain in Dragon Age taking the role of the Celtic Druid Amergin. Personally, as a Brit, I fell in love with hearing so many of my countries’ varying accents.

And apparently there will absolutely be romance in the game, however, it’s not in the alpha stages. But we can all look forward to that!

Gameplay

The Waylanders gameplay centres on building up the narrative, there’s an emphasis on interactive conversations. You’ll spend a fair amount of time asking questions and getting to know each of the characters in this world, building bonds and shaping the story.

The game has a linear feel to it, however, once the prologue is done, you can explore many of the hub areas. Very much like Dragon Age: Origins. The world is lush to explore, and the art style is fantastic. It has a cartoony feel to it.

While exploring the stunning areas, you can switch the camera’s placement for a more isometric feel, or stick to a more third person feel, whatever suits your playstyle. This is an amazing quality of life feature, that I think other games like this need to adopt.

There’s a huge codex, which updates frequently after conversations. It’s a wonderful touch, I spent plenty of time reading each of the characters and their backstories.

Combat

The combat is rough around the edges and it can be hard to properly aim and target your opponents. Too often I’d cast a spell at an offensive enemy, and I’d accidently click and switch to my warrior companion who’s bashing the same enemy in the face.

You can have up to five party companions at a time. And there are these grouped up attacks you can do as a squad called formations. You band together and attack. It works like a charm.

The combat does feel very identical to Dragon Age: Origins, even down to the animations of fighting and how long it takes to fire a spell, or shoot an arrow from a bow.

One of the developers gave me a few console commands for my stream, and I was able to see what animal pets we could have, I was very surprised with the amount of animal companions you can have. There’s even a dragon!

Each of the classes prove to be very unique, in my two playthroughs, I played as a Sourcer and a Rogue. I loved the individual features each class provides whether it’s a passive or an actual ability, each class have dynamic ways to stand out. And of course, if you’re undecided which class to play, Waylanders is a party-based RPG, you’ll always have a companion with a different class you can switch to and play as.

Summary

In summary, judging the early hours of The Waylanders, the game has very reminiscent systems and gameplay that anyone who’s played Dragon Age will find themselves familiar with. However, the game has proven itself to be original with its engaging story, intriguing characters and unique lore.

Of course, the game is in its early access alpha stages, and there are plenty of bugs and things that need further improvement. But I can see the heart and passion that has gone behind this game, and that’s what I’ve grown to like about this game.

I’d say to anyone who’s a huge fan of Dragon Age: Origins, why not go and give The Waylanders a shot. The game launches on Steam’s Early Access store on June 16th, support this game as it grows throughout development, and releases as an epic Dragon Age successor.

#The Waylanders #The Waylanders Early Access #The Waylanders Gameplay #Studio Gato #Dragon Age #Dragon Age: Origins #RPG #New RPG #lore #early access

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chxmpionofjustice · 4 years ago

Text

STUDY : TSUKINO USAGI ♡

♡ BASICS.

♡ IS YOUR MUSE TALL / SHORT / AVERAGE? Usagi is the shortest of all of her friends. She’s 4′11″ or 150 cm and yes, she’s fun-sized.

♡ ARE THEY OKAY WITH THEIR HEIGHT? Yes and no. Her lack of height can come in handy sometimes, but it really is a pain in the butt to buy pants. She compensates with shorts and skirts and she can’t really complain because she’s looks amazing in them. And her boyfriend’s face is too far away from hers for her own liking, but standing on tip toe for a kiss feels like something out of a romance, so she can deal.

♡ WHAT’S THEIR HAIR LIKE? Long, blonde, and shiny. She tries to keep it cut to around knee/calf length but ever since she awoke as the Moon Princess, her hair seems to want to grow much farther than than of its own accord and... well it seems to get a little lighter over time. She keeps her hair up in her signature odango-and-pig-tail style on either side of her head. The hair style is held to together painstakingly with hair bands and bobby pins, all of which come out when she goes to sleep. Sometimes she’ll wear her hair in two low pigtails when she sleeps but more often than not, she lets her hair loose.

♡ DO THEY SPEND A LOT OF TIME ON THEIR HAIR / GROOMING? Hahahahahahahhahaha. What do you think? YES. Usagi’s hair is one of the few things she puts real effort into. Her hairstyle itself takes a lot of time to do (She’s got the thing down to a science but it still takes her around 10 minutes and would take anyone else a LOT longer), not to mention what she does to keep her hair healthy. Usagi has a whole basket of hair products in her room, ranging from shampoos, conditioners, hair masks, and oils. Maintaining all that hair is hard, okay?

♡ DOES YOUR MUSE CARE ABOUT THEIR APPEARANCE / WHAT OTHERS THINK? Yes and no. She definitely cares what she looks like. She loves fashion and putting together outfits so she looks kawaii wherever she’s going (this also counts work as an adult, she will be the girl in the office wearing the cutest blouse and skirt combo with a pair of adorable kitten heels and this will clearly fool everyone into thinking she can adult). But she doesn’t really do that because she cares what others think. She does that for herself, to make herself happy. And if people happen to think she looks good, well that’s a plus. She can be a little vain like that, but who isn’t?

♡ PREFERENCES.

INDOORS OR OUTDOORS? outdoors

RAIN OR SUNSHINE? sunshine

FOREST OR BEACH? beach

PRECIOUS METALS OR GEMS? gems

FLOWERS OR PERFUMES? flowers

PERSONALITY OR APPEARANCE? personality

BEING ALONE OR BEING IN A CROWD? being in a crowd

ORDER OR ANARCHY? order

PAINFUL TRUTHS OR WHITE LIES? painful truths

SCIENCE OR MAGIC? magic

PEACE OR CONFLICT? peace

NIGHT OR DAY? day

DUSK OR DAWN? dusk

WARMTH OR COLD? warmth

MANY ACQUAINTANCES OR A FEW CLOSE FRIENDS? a few close friends

READING OR PLAYING A GAME? GIVE ME GAMES OR GIVE ME DEATH

♡ QUESTIONNAIRE.

♡ WHAT ARE SOME OF YOUR MUSE’S BAD HABITS? HAHAHAHA. Okay do y’all even have TIME to read this? Seriously, there are a lot. To name the biggest bad habit of hers, it’s over-indulgence. Usagi shamelessly indulges in EVERYTHING she loves to the point of excess sometimes. She’s banned from a couple buffets because of her eating habits, the girl is a black hole for food, and will eat whatever she wants to eat. She wastes money on food, mostly junk food because she doesn’t cook.

Despite the fact that she can’t cook, she will buy ANY cute appliance available for the kitchen that she can. Hello Kitty Toaster? Got it. Sailor Senshi chopsticks? GOT THE WHOLE SET (of course for when everyone comes over, they can eat with their designated chopsticks, duh). Mickey Mouse Waffle Maker? BOUGHT (Girl doesn’t know how to make waffle batter). Every single cup she owns has a character on if from some anime, movie, or manga. She even has commemorative Sailor Senshi cups too. Oh you thought it ended with the chopsticks? NOPE. She spends money on plushies, pillows, pens, bags, etc, of her and her friends and does it QUITE HAPPILY. Of course, the thing she buys the most of (besides herself)? Tuxedo Mask. Tuxedo Mask plushies. A Tuxedo Mask pillow case for a body pillow (listen don’t judge her), the rare Tuxedo Mask action figure and the Tuxedo Mask vibr-.... Well let’s just say that she doesn’t only buy every day items with his brand.

A lot of her indulgence has to do with money because she has no impulse control. If she sees a cute thing, she wants it, she buys it. Be it items or clothes. And whatever she buys usually ends up... Well, not put away. Usagi can be pretty messy (it’s a system that works for her, okay), to put it simply. And she’s messy because, to put it quite frankly, she’s kind of lazy. She’s a queen procrastinator who prefers to play games, read manga, doodle, and SLEEP rather than do homework or chores. Usagi would rather do anything under the sun except her responsibilities and everyone who knows her knows this. Boy, do they know this.

That being said, when she is facing her responsibilities as Sailor Moon, she does almost a complete 180. The Earth is her responsibility to protect and she will do anything she has to to keep it safe. Even if it means sacrificing herself. Despite how selfish she can act with certain things (food mostly, she’s like Joey, JOEY DOESN’T SHARE FOOD), Usagi will give herself to save a life in an instant. No hesitation. Because to her every life is precious. The world is precious. So if she has to use her crystal to the point where she has no life energy left to defeat someone evil or divert an asteroid, she will. If she has to throw herself into an abyss to defeat an enemy and save everyone else, she will.

You may be asking yourself why I wrote that all out. “Altruism is a good thing!” I did it because the level of altruism she displays is destructive. To herself. She is so willing to save everyone that if she sees her own demise as the only way to keep everyone else from dying, she will let herself die. And that’s not giving up. Giving up would be going without a fight. Usagi is gonna fight until her very last breath and that’s gonna be what takes her. Unless someone can come up with a way to save everyone where she won’t have to do that, there’s no stopping her, either.

♡ HAS YOUR MUSE LOST ANYONE CLOSE TO THEM? HOW HAS IT AFFECTED THEM? Yes and no. Usagi and her friends have all died more than once. Losing them and Mamoru the first time it happened was absolutely devastating to her. She still has nightmares of seeing their bodies lifelessly laying in the snow. Of watching Mamoru, her prince, die in her arms and then be taken away from her only to become a pawn for the enemy.

The first deaths are the hardest to get over.

And then watching one by one as her friends were taken by the Black Moon (she only BARELY saved Venus, if she didn’t have Mina-P with her, she doesn’t know if she would have been able to go on like she did), her future daughter was corrupted so heinously that she took her own father hostage for her own amusement, and then Sailor Pluto’s death.

I won’t even get into how Galaxia practically vaporized Mamoru in front of her and she was so traumatized that she wiped it from her own memory and was convinced he got on the plane to America. Or how Galaxia also did the same to her friends. There are nights Usagi wakes up in tears with the awful inability to breathe and the only thing that can calm her down is hearing their voices.

She clings tight to Mamoru when anyone gives him an all too appreciative lingering look (seriously, the man is too pretty for his own good, he attracts so many bad guys) because god forbid they end up turning out to be something evil and try to take him away from her.

The long and the short of it is that Usagi definitely has some form of PTSD. Thank you for coming to my TED Talk.

♡ WHAT ARE SOME FOND MEMORIES YOUR MUSE HAS? Usagi had a sunny life and continues to live wearing rose-tinted glasses even when she has to stop and save the world now and then. She has so many fond memories of growing up like playing dress up with her mom, meeting Naru in primary school, playing in parks and going to the beach with her family. She has even fonder memories of meeting her best friends, her sisters in arms, in middle school.

And, despite how it ended, sometimes Usagi likes to think on some of the memories from her past life in the Silver Millennium. How she and the senshi would spend day after day with each other. Memories of her mother doting on her and of extravagant balls held in opulent ballrooms. Memories of meeting the beautiful prince of Earth and of the first time she felt his lips on hers.

She has an awful lot to sort through.

♡ IS IT EASY FOR YOUR MUSE TO KILL? Hell no. She struggles with that idea. The only time she kills is when the enemy has shown their truest form and she has no choice. Otherwise, Usagi will do her damnedest to save everyone. The bad guy included. Because everyone deserves a second chance to do the right thing.

♡ WHAT’S IT LIKE WHEN YOUR MUSE BREAKS DOWN? Usagi is known for being a crybaby. We establish this early on when we meet her. So one would think her break downs are loud and dramatic because that’s how she is when she cries. That’s... Not strictly true though. When Usagi breaks down, really breaks down, its because she’s holding onto her pain quietly. Usagi breaks down with silent tears and full body sobs. She breaks down with trembling hands and their white knuckle grip on her pillow that she’s holding against her face to muffle when she can’t be quiet anymore.

She breaks down alone.

When someone finds her and tries to comfort her, it can go one of two ways, either she’ll just keep letting it out and allow herself to be comforted, or she’ll suck it all back in, put a stopper in it and assure whomever it is that she’s fine, really, she was just crying because Lawsons didn’t have any more red velvet cake, honestly.

When Usagi breaks down, she’s at her lowest emotionally, usually feeling horrible about herself. That’s a point that you’d think would be particularly difficult for her to get to right? Right?

♡ IS YOUR MUSE CAPABLE OF TRUSTING SOMEONE WITH THEIR LIFE? She literally does this all the time. Usagi is an amazing judge of character. Not counting her senshi, Usagi has put her life in the hands of people that her allies considered untrustworthy multiple times. And she was right to trust every single one of them. The first one being Tuxedo Mask, then the Outer Senshi. After that, Hotaru. Helios. The Starlights. Usagi knows when she can trust someone with her life and yes, yes, YES, she is very capable of doing it.

♡ WHAT’S YOUR MUSE LIKE WHEN THEY’RE IN LOVE? Haaaaaaaaaaaa, gosh. Usagi in love is... She loves with her whole self. Usagi is not good at hiding her emotions, even when she’s trying to hold them in. She’s the definition of ‘heart on your sleeve’ because she’s so very open with her emotions and she doesn’t know any other way to be.

When Usagi is in love, you can take one look at her with the person she loves and it’s obvious. We’re talkin’ heart eyes muthafucka. She’s clingy, likes to touch and be affectionate a lot. And, this goes back to her indulgence thing, she has no problem letting her person know she wants them when she wants them and indulging in that. She’s not subtle in anything with her love.

She is very physical in her love, but that’s because that’s how she is. But being in love is also tender. Kisses pressed into sleep warm skin, banter and giggles over breakfast (that the other person made because once again, ya girl cannot COOK), cuddling on the couch or in bed while having soft conversations or talking about their day, going out to spend the day at the park or where ever for a day date, romantic dinners in her favorite restaurants or, even better, at home. It’s secret smiles and softened eyes and soft brushes of skin. It’s being completely open and endlessly patient when the other person can’t be just yet. Usagi in love is both in-your-face and achingly tender.

And yes, I know that Usagi had heart eyes when she saw Rei. Listen. Usagi has a big heart. Like a humongous heart. She falls in love easily. She could say she’s in love with her ice cream and totally mean it, okay? Usagi loves with all of herself and that’s not just romantically. But the type of “in love” Usagi can be in, because of her heart, can seem fickle, even when it’s not to her. Just because she started loving one thing doesn’t mean she doesn’t love something else just as fiercely.

♡ TAGGED BY: @adversitybloomed ♡ TAGGING : WHO EVER WANTS TO TBH

#about usagi;;#dash games;;#GABBY THIS TOOK ME 3 HOURS #AND I DO NOT EVEN CARE ABOUT THE READ MORE AT THIS POINT #DEAL WITH THE LONG POST Y'ALL.

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streetsavoir-faire · 4 years ago

Photo

Born Name: Damien Quincy Rodriguez

Age: 22

Birthday: May 26th 1998

Overview:

Mother: Catalina Rodriguez (39 February 19th, 1981)

Father(s): Michael Rodriguez (41 April 24th, 1979) Richard “Einstein” Jones (50), Fagin Jones (47)

Mother’s Occupation: Unemployed, Student

Father’s Occupation: Fast Food worker, mechanic, Odd-jobs in a diverse field. Warehouse work, delivery, MLM’s, production, etc.

Family Finances: Lower Class, Skirting Poverty

Other Close Family: Francis “Frankie” Corbyn (41) - ‘Uncle’, Ignacio Alonso Julio Federico De Tito (24) - Big Brother, Oliver Saluki-Sykes (20) - Little Brother, Rita Saluki-Sykes (29) - Sister,

Pets: Dorothy - Redish/pink betta Fish, Tiny - Tito’s Rottweiler/Pitbull Mix

Home Life During Childhood: Before he was found and taken in by Fagin? Horrible. Dodger suffered abuse from parents who were far too young and immature to have children. They didn’t want a kid, and they made that very clear to Dodger from the very moment they brought him home. He was never shown love or compassion from his mother or father. He was barely taken care of and owned one toy in his five or so years of living with them. He suffered emotional and physical abuse and spent many nights on the streets, unsupervised. Often, he was locked out of his house for ‘misbehavior’. Eventually Dodger just decided to stay out there and spent his nights under a bridge before eventually Fagin took notice of him and eventually gained his trust and brought him home.

After Fagin, his childhood was still a little troubled. Their family was poor, and often struggled to find money for food, luxuries or heat. Even struggling, Dodger much preferred his found family as he got to learn what it was like to have people that loved him. Even with debt collectors, facing abuse from the Sykes’ and occasionally needing to eat small inconsistent meals, or cuddle up together instead of having heat in the house. He wouldn’t trade it for the world.

What Did His or Her Bedroom Look Like: When Dodger moved in with Fagin he quickly took over the apartment’s storage loft and claimed it as his own. While it was dangerous (there was no barrier to stop anyone from falling back into the living room below) and a little drafty (there was also a nifty hole that gave him access to the roof) - it was home for Dodger. With a mattress tucked up into the corner and the rickety ladder to get up and down (that he himself rarely used), it was perfect for Dodger. Sure - it wasn’t all the spacious or child-friendly but... it was his favorite.

Any Sports or Clubs: Dodger didn’t go to school - and therefore he didn’t participate in any clubs or organized sports. Instead he went with Frankie to his theater group, spent time reading with Einstein & Fagin or scaled buildings and played made up sports with Tito.

Favorite Toy or Game: Dodger’s favorite toy (and something he still cherishes to this day) was a small teddy bear that Fagin got him the first night he came home. It’s over a decade (closer to two) old and is worn beyond relief, but Dodger still keeps it in his bedroom. As a child he carried it everywhere and was incredibly protective of it. It has plenty of tears and stitches that Fagin fixed himself - but Dodger loves it all the same.

Schooling: Again, Dodger didn’t go to school. He left his home before he would have been enrolled and while Fagin and Einstein tried to get him into school, Dodger simply couldn’t handle the hours away from his new family, nor could he deal with how overwhelming the whole concept was. So instead, they all did their part homeschooling himself and Tito over the years. He’s got plenty of street smarts and owes everything else he knows to Fagin, Einstein and Frankie.

Favorite Subject: Reading with Fagin & Einstein. (And reading plays with Frankie since he was so dramatic)

Popular or Loner: Popular (not in school obvs)

Nationality: American

Religion and beliefs: None

Physical Appearance

Face Claim: Tyler Posey

Movie/Era Representation: Alone

Complexion: Smooth, olive skinned, freckled

Hair Colour: Naturally Black / Currently Dyed Blue

Eye Colour: Brown

Height: 5′10

Weight: 153.4lbs.

Build: Athletic/Slim

Tattoos: A very large and ever growing collection --> See here

Piercings: 14mm Gauges in ears, nose piercing, snake-bites (re-pierced), eyebrow piercing (re-pierced)

Common Hairstyle: Typically sweptback, sometimes a mess when he wears a hat or beanie, usually tries to keep it semi-long, swept to the side (x is a common look)

Clothing Style: Casual street wear. Ratty jeans, ripped jeans, dirty jeans. T-shirts, muscle tanks, sweatshirts. Backwards hats or beanies. Worn black and white converse. Nothing fancy. You’ll tend to see a red bandana somewhere on his person. Sometimes he wears it around his head, sometimes around his neck, occasionally tucked into a pocket or around his wrist. But it’s always somewhere.

Mannerisms: Likes to drum his fingers or drum on things in general, also a knuckle cracker. Tends to move a lot because he’s high energy.

Usual Expression: Smiley babe

Health

Overall (do they get sick easily)?: Yes. A combination of terrible care to himself and drugs makes Dodger extremely susceptible to getting sick. He’s a perfect picture of what not to do health-wise and it shows.

Physical Ailments: Mildly Anemic,

Disorders: None

Neurological Conditions: None.

Allergies: Latex, mangos, cats,

Grooming Habits: He showers, unlike most #men he is not a 3-in-1 kind of guy, so he knows how to use separate body wash, shampoo and conditioner. He’ll wash his face every morning & every night and brush his hair and shit but he’s not over the top. Shaves if his facial hair gets longer than a mild scruff. Keeps the boys tame.

Sleeping Habits: Inconsistent. Dodger has no real sleep schedule, but he tends to sleep just about anywhere when he needs to. He’s the least picky about how he sleeps and falls asleep easy.

Eating Habits: Uh, he eats. Sometimes. Some days it’s eating for a village, some he skips for a day and is like ‘oh yeah oops.’ It depends. So I’d call this inconsistent as well.

Exercise Habits: He’s always exercising just by association. He walks/runs everywhere and climbs shit and is doing his free running/parkour all over Swynlake.

Emotional Stability: Fair. He tends to stay cool and tries to be the mediator when it comes to trouble. Dodger tends to be the one who keeps it together and stays calm when they’re in a situation. The relief, really. However when he does slip, he can get emotional quickly. Fun-fact: Dodger never yells. He may say things firmly, angrily, etc but he won’t yell.

Body Temperature: Runs warm.

Sociability: A social butterfly.

Addictions: Drugs (weed, alcohol, pills, etc).

Drug Use: Daily, addicted. The hard stuff isn’t daily (weed is... multiple times a day), but more every few days, once a week.

Alcohol Use: Often.

Your Character’s Character:

Bad Habits: Drugs. Drumming on objects or idly, cracking his knuckles, zoning out mid-conversation, scratching the back of his neck, smoking, manipulating people.

Good Habits: Loyalty, offering his help, extending manners, being kind.

Best Characteristic: Openness.

Worst Characteristic: Pride

Worst Memory: Being beaten within an inch of his life & having to leave his family and home behind and flee the country.

Best Memory: Being officially adopted as Fagin & Einstein’s son.

Proud of: Holding his job at the garage. Getting his gig at Pixie’s. Still being in a relationship (new record).

Embarrassed by: His inability to get his music off the ground, how he’s still in the same place in life when everyone else seems to be getting somewhere or doing things.

Driving Style: Does not drive.

Strong Points: His passion and drive. His ability to bring things and people together.

Temperament: Carefree and easy going.

Attitude: Optimistic & outgoing.

Weakness: Coming off as too confident, cocky.

Fears: Being abandoned/being alone again, his family getting hurt or dying.

Phobias: Being abandoned.

Secrets: An open book. Perhaps the one secret he has is knowing that Roscoe abused Oliver.

Regrets: Going to William Sykes and trying to buy them time to pay back their loan.

Feels Vulnerable When: He’s with his parents.

Pet Peeves: People who brag about their money. Charities, but not charity.

Conflicts: Having money in the family. Having Roscoe married to Rita when he fucking hates him but wants Rita to be happy.

Motivation: Support for Fagin & Einstein/to make them proud.

Short Term Goals and Hopes: To start picking up more gigs and getting music off the ground.

Long Term Goals and Hopes: To be able to fully financially support himself and the fam through his music and that he can quit his real job and do what he loves.

Sexuality: Pansexual

Exercise Routine: Running all around Swynlake like a crazy man.

Day or Night Person: Night - that’s when the action is.

Introvert or Extrovert: Extrovert

Optimist or Pessimist: Optimist

Likes and Styles:

Music: Punk Rock, Rock, Alternative,

Books: Any book that Fagin & Einstein used to read him

Magazines: Playboy (lol)

Foods: Quesadillas

Drinks: Coke, whiskey, vodka, rum, Gatorade,

Animals: Any are cool

Sports: The made up ones he’d play with Tito, Free running,

Social Issues: Domestic Abuse, Child Abuse, Women’s Rights, Magick Rights,

Favorite Saying: Absotively Posilutely

Color: Red

Clothing: Jeans, T-shirts.

Jewelry: Gauges, lip rings, nose ring, eyebrow stud.

Games: Poker, Rummy, Uno,

Websites: Not a huge internet person (because he didn’t grow up into it like most kids his age). He uses Twitter a lot though. Youtube just to watch things. Used to use the ‘Hub’ quite a bit ;)

TV Shows: Doesn’t really watch TV, but when they could pay for cable, anything ridiculous. He was a fan of the Crocodile Hunter if only because Tito and himself would mimic that show and get into so much trouble.

Movies: Again, he’s not really well versed in movies but.. I’m sure he was into shit he wasn’t supposed to watch when he could get ahold of them. Fight Club, Lethal Weapon, Die Hard, etc.

Greatest Want: To be happy & with his family.

Greatest Need: Affection.

Where and How Does Your Character Live Now:

Home: Dodger now lives in Benbow (2D) and honestly his biggest complaint is simply being on the second floor. He would much prefer an apartment he has to climb higher to break into (since who uses the door?). However, he doesn’t like the apartment nearly as much as he loved the old rickety apartment they lived in back home. He misses his loft and all the weird things that made it perfect. This apartment isn’t terrible - sure, the door sticks something fierce and it’s a little cramped for five people but... it’s fine. And the neighbors aren’t the worst, it’s just... never felt right. It’s still home, if only because home is determined by the people living there more than the place itself.

Household furnishings: A mish-mash of things. Nothing in the Jones household is a set. It’s all second-hand or used items that they got when they could and when they could afford to. That means everything from the tables and chairs don’t really.. match like they might in a normal household, but none of them really mind. They’re just grateful to have them in the first place.

Favorite Possession: The bear Fagin got him when he first came home.

Most Cherished Possessions: The bear Fagin got him when he first came home (shocker) - though a worn red bandana that he took from Fagin also comes in close second. He’s almost always wearing it somewhere. Also the stuffed Reindeer from his first Christmas. The beat up guitar that the whole gang pulled together to get him.

Neighborhood: Benbow

Town or City Name: Swynlake

Relationship with Family: Great! Dodger is incredibly close with his found family. He would lay his life on the line or do anything for all of them. He’s closest to Fagin, but only because that man gave him everything in life he’s ever needed when no one else would. He loves his family so much though. Even if he annoys the absolute piss out of Frankie & Rita, he couldn’t be happier.

Car: Doesn’t have one

Career: Part-Time Mechanic, Part-Time Musician, Part-Time Con-artist/thief

Dream Career: Musician

Dream Life: Happy & can provide and take care of his family so they don’t have to work so hard anymore.

Love Life: Peri

Talents or Skills: Singing, Guitar, Percussion, Piano - musical talent in mostly all forms, athletic ability/balance, can juggle, sleight of hand, pitch perfect.

Intelligence Level: Street smart, book....slightly smart.

Finances: Poor as fuck

Past Careers: Full time thief, part time street performer, odd jobs,

Past Lovers: ‘Lovers’, none really. The closest he had was a toxic first ‘boyfriend’, Corey but it didn’t last long.

#about #inspo #muse #x; Dodger #tw abuse #tw child abuse #tw drug mention

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captainpikeachu · 5 years ago

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DISCO S3 NYCC TRAILER ANALYSIS!!!!!!!

sMESA BACK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

And boy oh boy was Saturday, October 5 such a good Trek news day!!!!!!!!!!!!!

so....let’s get back to some good ole analysis of the teaser trailer for Discovery Season 3, still likely to be about a year away before we officially see it

Trailer begins with our queen Michael landing in the future

that is a lot of dirt you might say, it’s like she landed near volcano or something

ohhhhh a look into her gear - so it looks like her science division badge, a phaser, and a communicator maybe, the black one that looks like a phone and has the Starfleet delta decal on it, and there’s some other equipment that I don’t know what they are

then we hear Michael’s voice saying “I’ve spent a year searching for that domino that tipped over and started all of this”

and by this, I think she means she spent a year trying to find the cause of why the Federation has “fallen” in a sense, as this would tie into what looks to be the theme of the season by the looks of the rest of the trailer

accompanying her voiceover, we see the following images

we not only see Michael’s changing hairstyle, but also how her mood has changed, going from worry and fear to almost resigned and ready for whatever that’s coming - also we see that she did seem to pick up more equipment or other objects throughout this one year period as indicated by the growing piles behind her

it is confirmed that Michael and the Disco crew did not land in the future together, so it looks like Michael arrived first, and the Disco crew lands one year after Michael’s arrival

here we see Michael with our new series regular David Ajala who is playing a character named Cleveland “Book” Booker, from the looks of this scene, Michael runs into him at some point and they seem to be avoiding someone else or being chased by someone else and are trying to run away and hide

and it seems Michael and Book are running away from some Andorians with very interesting weapons, we also see some humans behind the Andorians - could this be some remnant of a Starfleet/Federation?

some sort of pulse weapon is released and Michael and Book are knocked flying and glass is breaking

Michael and Book are walking across some landscape and we got two planets in the sky - I’m not sure what this planet is or if this is even the same planet where Michael landed, but we do know from the panels and interviews that Michael and the crew did not land at Terralysium as they had hoped

Book asks Michael, “You believe in ghosts?”

Michael replies, “What does that mean?”

Book: “That badge on your shirt.”

the look on Michael’s face says it all - she realizes what he means - the Federation, Starfleet...they’re basically ghosts, something that doesn’t exist anymore

Saru and Tilly are the next shot that we see, the doors look to be the Disco bay area? Maybe they are getting ready to take a shuttle and go somewhere? They certainly looked to be dressed for it.

next we hear a man’s voiceover saying “I watch this office everyday, believing that my hope was not in vain...”

so Michael and Book are at this office and meeting the man speaking the voiceover, I don’t know if Book brought Michael there or if something else brought them there - like perhaps the people that were chasing them got them here?

and this man, I don’t know if he’s a Federation government member? or maybe this is a museum? or a believer of Federation ideals? or perhaps he is someone who is the descendant of a character we know from Season 1 and 2 (maybe like Ash Tyler) who has been told to wait for Michael and find her if she does appear in the future? that might be a bit of a stretch but it could be an easy way to explain his devotion and belief?

we see the flag of the Federation, interestingly this one has only 6 stars

just to compare it with, this is the usual flag of the Federation that we see

so at this point, it is looking like something caused the Federation to break up and become fractured? those 6 stars perhaps represents the 6 species/planets that are still standing together?

the man’s voiceover contines in this next scene, “...and that hope is you, Commander Burnham”

the fact that he knows her name is why I am inclined to believe that he is the descendant of someone who knows Michael and has been told to one day expect her

this next reaction shot of Michael’s face is not related to the scene before, as we see by the change in Michael’s hair, this shot is a year after the scene of Michael meeting the man above - this shot is likely Michael’s reaction to finding out that the Discovery crew has finally made it through

explicit confirmation of how many years we jumped into the future - so since Disco Season 2 mostly took place in 2257, this means that Michael lands in 3187 and one year later is 3188, when the Discovery arrives

at the panel, it was confirmed also that we would explore more of the Trill, and we see that in the trailer - the two people in red are likely Trills, the person in the foreground doesn’t look to be Michael, but it might be her, and the pool is where the symbionts are

this could be Michael in the pool? or it could perhaps be another character who becomes a host? we have heard rumors that Disco Season 3 is possibly bringing in a nonbinary character, so this may be that person as this looks like the actor I was informed they had cast

now these are definitely Trills, though it might be unlikely we will see the Dax symbiont from DS9 around in season 3, since I’m not sure the symbiont would be able to live into the 32nd century

and there’s Discovery!!!!!

REUNIONS!!!?!???!?!!

Michael has found her Disco family!

A shot of Detmer and Owosekun.

Culber looks rather concerned

some sort of confrontation is happening in the spore drive room, there is at least one person holding weapons, some non-Disco crew people, maybe someone after the spore drive? it was noted that the drive may become a target

we do see Stamets and Tilly in the top right corner, but the person to their left kinda looks like Stamets?

Stamets and Tilly both look very unhappy and alarmed at the same time.

Book and Michael are fighting on that planet we saw them walking across earlier, and it looks like those Andorians or whoever was chasing them has caught up to them

the person Michael is fighting doesn’t look like an Andorian, but Book is definitely fighting an Andorian

and here we see Georgiou getting into some fights as well, and we see Saru behind her - it looks like wherever Saru and Tilly were going, Georgiou went with them as well

this character here I believe is the nonbinary character they had rumored to have cast, and this might also be the same character we see go into the Trill pool and possibly be joined with a symbiont?

now this shot....ohhhhhhh

so from left to right, we got Andorian, a species that I cannot really be sure of, Human, Cardassian(?), Lurian, and another Andorian

they are part of the same group that we saw earlier in the trailer chasing Book and Michael

Book and Michael are booking it (sorry I couldn’t resist)

so through the last few scenes, we have been hearing Saru’s voice saying “This ship bears the name Discovery. She has carried us into the future, and it will be our privilege to make that future bright.”

Book and Michael are sure not skipping leg day in this trailer - this looks like some sort of science facility?

next shot is an interesting one - this could either be a flashback to Prime Georgiou, or this is Mirror Georgiou pretending to be Prime for some undercover sort of mission?

either way, she says “Let’s see how this plays out, shall we?”

Michael pointing a phaser at someone, now judging by her hair, this is one year after she landed in the future, and the person behind her is likely that nonbinary character (who I really need to know the name of so I can use their name properly)

also interesting to note about her uniform - the color stripes don’t look silver

and a close up look on her badge....that’s the command division badge

now Michael’s uniform is missing the stripes across the shoulders that indicate a captain, but the change in color and badge looks like Michael is officially moving from science division into the command track and she will be wearing gold and not silver anymore

something is happening on Discovery and Owosekun is getting shaken around

Georgiou killing some folks

Discovery flying

and finally, we hear the man say “Where will you go?”

to which Michael answers, “Wherever the answers are.”

but look at the way they are holding hands, you do not hold hands with strangers like that, I mean, short of this guy being a fan, this sort of familiarity speaks to a deeper connection, which just goes to further add to my suspicion that this character is likely a Ash Tyler descendant of some sort, or a descendant of someone who once knew Michael and has been waiting for her to appear in the future because they were told to wait for her by someone who had knowledge that Discovery went into the future

this logo color feels happier and brighter somehow

so there it is! the trailer giving us the first look into season 3! SO MANY POSSIBILITIES!!!!!

and I’m sure before its 2020 release, we will see at least one or two more trailers so we can have more of an idea, but I am so excited to see Discovery boldly go off into the future!!!!!!!!

whatever is happening this season, it’s looking like Discovery is going to be leading the way to rebuild a possibly fallen or broken Federation and restore it to the ideals that it once stood for! this is an interesting narrative, especially when compared to some of the themes we are seeing with Picard’s story and going rogue because the Federation won’t do the right thing to help.

I’ve said in other places already but it looks like Disco and Picard are both telling this overarching Federation narrative but going at it from two opposite ends with Picard detailing the gradual decline of the Federation while Disco is giving it a rebirth.

BRING ON SEASON 3!!!!! YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!!

#star trek discovery #star trek discovery season 3 #disco spoilers #discovery spoilers #star trek #star trek discovery speculations #michael burnham #saru #sylvia tilly #paul stamets #hugh culber #cleveland booker #mirror georgiou #joann owosekun #keyla detmer

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