#anyway. maybe i'll make a masterpost one day. who knows

[bidoofenergy]

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[angels-fantasy]

☆ you go shopping with mitsuki for bakugo's surprise b-day party decorations! ☆

day 3 of the explosive birthday celebration ! hosted by @queenpiranhadon

hanging out with katsuki's mom secretly was not easy, especially when he liked to know where you were and who you were with. not in a crazy, possessive way of course, it's just how he showed he cared.

but when mitsuki, his mom, asked you to go decoration shopping with her, you couldn't just deny her offer. maybe this could be an opportunity to learn more about katsuki, you thought.

while you were shopping for the decorations, you quickly noticed that katsuki had gotten a lot of her personality traits. this was something you knew already, but spending time with her one on one really solidified that idea.

"what do you think about these banners, sweetie?" mitsuki asked, holding up two different 'happy birthday' banners. one was all black, and the other was orange. the color theme of the party was his hero costume colors, which were black, green, and orange.

you hummed and looked at the rest of the decorations in the cart, noticing there was already a lot of color, "i think we should go with the black."

she nodded and threw the banner into the basket, "you've got a good eye, kid." she said, making you smile at the small compliment.

suddenly your phone began to ring and you already had an idea of who it was. picking up the phone, you said "hey katsuki." causing mitsuki to turn around and make a questioning face at you.

you shrugged your arms at her, trying to silently tell her you didn't know why he was calling.

"why the hell are you at the store with my old hag?" he asked, making you chew your nails nervously as you thought of an excuse.

"we're just shopping, katsuki. why are you looking at my location anyways? stalker."

you could already see the veins popping out on his forehead at your question, "answer my question dammit!"

you rolled your eyes, "if you really want to know, i just wanted her help with some outfit ideas. your mom is a fashion designer, you know."

he hmphed and said, "whatever. why didn't you ask me?"

you groaned internally at his question, "because i know you're busy with school work right now-and don't even try to say you're not!"

he mumbled something on the other side, "fine. have fun with the hag."

"stop calling her that! anyways, i need to go okay? talk to you later-bye!" you said, quickly cutting him off before he could say anything else.

you sighed and faced mitsuki, "sorry, he had a million questions about why i was with you. i had to lie about why we were shopping together."

she laughed, "that damn brat doesn't know how to keep his nose out of other peoples business." she said, making you laugh in return since you knew how true it was.

the two of you continued shopping for decorations, finally stopping when the cart seemed full enough.

"i think that's everything, right?" you said, double checking the list you made beforehand.

mitsuki nodded. "it should be. if not, i'll get what we need by myself another time." she said, making you hum.

after checking out and paying for everything, while walking back to her car she said, "thanks for helping me with this. i know katsuki can be a pain sometimes, but you're good to him, so i'm glad you get to help plan his party with us." she then proceeded to pat the top of your head with her free hand roughly, much like katsuki would.

you smiled at her words, "it's no problem. i'm glad to be here."

authors note

i'm so happy i got to be apart of this :) thank you sm to kae who invited me to be apart of this event! this was a great experience and it was fun to write, so i hope you liked it! i'm sorry it was pretty short though... -.-

here is the masterpost, please go check out every one else's work!!

day 1: you make a birthday gift for katsuki - @zanarkandskylines

day 2: you invite all of class 1-A to the party - @xbabyd0lli3x

🪽day 3: you go shopping with mitsuki for bakugou's surprise b-day party decorations - @angels-fantasy

day 4: coming april 17th - @starieq

day 5: coming april 18th - @lowkeyremi

day 6: coming april 19th - @queenpiranhadon

day 7: coming april 20th - @cashmoneyyysstuff

taglist for the event: @gina239 @mystic60 @meowze4r @icedemon1314 @bigsimpo343 @ah-mya @whezdostuff @berry-vioo @seonne @slayfics @food8me @katsuisbaby @azzo0 @kit-katsukii @stoned-anime-babe @kukikoooo

those in orange couldn't be tagged unfortunately :(

[idyllcy]

from one admirer to another : christmas

pairing: leon kennedy x reader || masterpost: from one admirer to another

synopsis: from one admirer to another, an online penpal service, allows for two people with common interests to write to each other without ever revealing their actual address! Luckily for both you and Leon, you get matched up! What do eggs and Christmas even have in common anyway? sure hope it's that modeling business and NOT that Ada Wong addiction.

Dearest Leon,

I wondered long and hard while writing this letter regarding what I should write back to you. You're quite a romantic, you know? You call me someone who views life with rose-tinted glasses, yet you send me flowers once every other week through delivery and call me every night that you can. In fact, it's gotten to a point that Ada had come back to the flowers for a quick visit and physically recoiled at the flowers. I do a pretty good job keeping them alive, so I've attached a polaroid of every flower that's still alive. (I also have one of Sesame Bun)

I wonder what it was about you that drew me in too. I find myself thinking of you more and more these days, rereading your letters to me and the absolute embarrassing gushing over me you had done, and I think back to when we kissed on New Years last year. You're a great kisser, you know that? I miss that about you a lot. I should've kissed you goodbye when you moved.

That makes it sound a little like I only love you because you're a good kisser, huh? Oh, right. I love you. I had a three-hour-long dramatic monologue in my apartment around all of the furniture while holding Sesame to my face, scoffing at myself over the fact that I would ever entertain such thoughts. But, the more I talked, the more I realized that maybe I do love you. Wow, what a change in roles, huh?

Your manager said what? That's absurd to me. You must really love me, huh? Well, I'll play into the image of you being in love by being just as in love, alright? Not that I'll need to play the role all that much once we start dating. (Is that presumptuous of me? I have agreed to date you, right?)

I admire you very much, you know? I find it incredible that you had started in law enforcement and now you're in the modeling industry as a supermodel. I know you think it was a little coward-like of you to escape the corruption rather than fight it head on, but you're flourishing no matter where you go. I find it amazing that you're so smart and think so fast. I really admire that, you know?

So, having said all that. Yes, I will go out with you. Please treat me well, Leon.

Hope this letter finds you before me, your admirer ᰔ

Leon blinks at the boxes piled outside of the apartment next to his, raising a brow as he steps into the elevator to go down to grab mail, humming. A neighbor. How fun.

Maybe he should go over and introduce himself after they settle in? Maybe he'll meet the neighbor after everything is settled down. It's a nice little apartment complex, so it would take a bit. If he remembers right, next door was the loft. Must be someone who likes climbing up and down, then.

Your letter sits in his hand comfortably as he cuts it open, careful not to accidentally damage the contents of it. A flurry of polaroids are pulled out by him, his flower deliveries visible one after the other, and a final one of Sesame Bun.

The boxes in the background of the images catch his eye, and he raises a brow. You're moving? Packing up? Sunshine barks for his daily walk, and Leon pulls out the letter, ruffling the dog's fur as he does a quick read.

"Hm?"

Sunshine barks at the door, and Leon puts the letter down, faint smell of your perfume on the tips of his fingers as he reaches for the door, blinking slowly at the bouquet that greets him instead.

"Hello?"

"Delivery from... an admirer?" You peek from behind the bouquet, and Leon gasps, reaching behind the flowers to engulf you in his arms, engulfing you in himself as you laugh, cheeks warm as Leon squeezes you, pulling back slightly to stare at you, hands flying to your face to map out your features, eyes gleaming as he smiles at you.

"Hi." He breathes.

"Hi." You grin. "Delivery for... Leon?"

"I missed you."

"I missed you too." You hum. Can I have a kiss?"

You reach up for Leon's face, and he obliges, lips pressed to yours sweetly as he squeezes you, lashes fluttering you let the flowers fall to the ground to wrap both your arms around his neck.

Leon only pulls away when he's sure he's going to pass out.

"So? What are you doing here in the big city?"

"The flowers are a housewarming gift. You owe me one now." You grin, keys on your finger as Leon blinks.

"Oh, Oh. We're neighbors?"

"Come over sometime?"

"Anytime." He picks you up, spinning you as he presses his forehead to yours.

prev letter : masterlist : epilogue

[pavaal]

mari mobamenco masterpost

unlike most of the masagoto conversations, a lot of these were not retranslated because i no longer have the original japanese, but i just wanted to compile them! i did find a couple things that i never translated that were sitting in a word document so those are new, but mostly they're just cleaned up to make them easier to understand and less clunky to read.

my next plan for translation stuff is to tackle the mini-dramas in yomecolle! i have some of the cards already translated in my tag, but there are a few things i skipped, and i'd like to put together a proper script for the cards where masayoshi and goto were specifically talking to each other. after that, i bought some magazines that i'd like to translate the blurbs from!

for now, enjoy mari+masayoshi and goto+mari having inane chats about nothing.

MARI+MASAYOSHI

Masayoshi: When you’re trying to persuade someone to do the right thing, you absolutely can’t give up! Mari: That’s sooo boooooring. Masayoshi: I’m sure everyone could understand each other if we just tried to communicate! Mari: Well, I’ll leave the talking to you!

Mari: Omawari-san wa inu ~ ♪ Masayoshi: What are you singing? Mari: "Inu no Policeman!" It's my new song. Masayoshi: It's… interesting… Mari: It's good, right?

Masayoshi: You're very cat-like. Mari: You think so? I guess I've worn cat ears in promos and things like that. Masayoshi: Now that I think about it, you were such a kitten when we first met! Mari: Are you trying to give me a compliment? (Another one that needs some explanation. Masayoshi says that Mari was 猫をかぶってた, which literally means "wearing a cat [costume, in the case of Masayoshi and Mari's first meeting]" but has the idiomatic meaning of something similar to "a wolf in sheep's clothing." Masayoshi accidentally (?) said that Mari was only pretending to be sweet, but he literally meant that she was dressed as a cat.)

Mari: I heard you refuse to use an umbrella. Masayoshi: Actually, there's a very profound reason for this… Mari: That's okay. I don't need to know. Masayoshi: If you're going to bring it up, please listen until the end.

Masayoshi: What are you doing? Mari: I’m preparing outfits for our police friend~ Masayoshi: Oh… Goto-san would look good in this one! Mari: Right?!

Masayoshi: Cats are pretty cute, huh? Mari: Oh, are you a cat lover? Masayoshi: No, I actually prefer dogs. Mari: Yeah, I can see that… you do seem like a big puppy. Masayoshi: D… do I really come off that way?

Masayoshi: What do you like to do in your free time? Mari: I like to cause a little trouble! Masayoshi: Can you really call yourself a hero with an attitude like that?! Mari: It was a joke! A jooooke!

Masayoshi: It's dangerous for girls like you to go out alone at night! Mari: Don't worry! I mean, I save YOU all the time. Masayoshi: Um, that's a different issue entirely. Mari: Anyway, let's make this city safe for everyone to go out at night! Masayoshi: Yes… you're right! Let's do our best!

Mari: I need some advice! Masayoshi: Yes? What is it? Mari: I don't know what kind of attack to debut next. A taser? Blunt force? Or maybe… an explosion would be best? Masayoshi: Um… I'd like to recommend something more gentle…

Mari: I've been in a great mood recently! Masayoshi: Me too! Mari: I wonder if it's because I got to see a certain officer the other day…? Masayoshi: I also saw Goto-san a few days ago!

Mar: I've been in a great mood recently! Masayoshi: Oh, really? Mari: Yeah, I kind of feel like… maybe I'm the most important person in the world? It's like I can do anything!

Masayoshi: Last night, I dreamt Goto-san made me curry. Mari: Huh?! Invite me next time! Masayoshi: But it was only a dream… Mari: Yeah, and I wanna have this dream too!

Mari: What type of person is that policeman interested in? Masayoshi: Goto-san? Um… His girlfriend, and people who email him a lot, I suppose… Mari: So I'll start by sending him 100 emails a day! Masayoshi: That'll just make him angry!

Masayoshi: I'll take care of things here! You go ahead! Mari: Huh? Isn't that what a sidekick would say? Masayoshi: No way! It's a hero's line! Mari: Then… I'll take care of things here. You go ahead, junior!

Mari: Do you have many friends? Masayoshi: No, not really. Mari: Is that so? Masayoshi: It's hard to find people to share my hobbies with. Mari: I hate to say it, but I know that feeling…

MARI+GOTO

Mari: I wanna eat your cooking. Goto: Anything in particular? Mari: Anything that you make is fine by me! Goto: Then I'll heat up some instant curry later. Mari: You know, when I said "anything," that wasn't exactly what I meant…

Mari: Who do you like more, me or Samumenco? Goto: I don’t like either of you. Mari: Then… who do you like more, Samumenco or your girlfriend?! Goto: Huh? Why wouldn’t I pick my girlfriend?! Mari: You hesitated just now! Goto: I didn’t hesitate!!

Goto: What do you do in your spare time? Mari: I don't actually have that much free time… I have to compose songs, learn routines, things like that. Goto: Right, your job keeps you busy. Mari: Lately, I've also had to prepare a variety of uniforms for you! Goto: I never asked you to do that!

Mari: Now that I think about it, I had a bounty on my head too, didn't I? Goto: Yeah, when everyone was running around for information. Mari: Honestly, the amount was way too low! Goto: THAT'S what bothers you? Mari: It should've been 100 million, at least!

Goto: I haven't been able to take a break in forever because of you guys. Mari: Got it! Let me apologize by taking you on vacation! Goto: What kind of vacation would THAT be?!

Goto: What do you think about getting cosmetic surgery and stuff like that? Mari: Ick! I would never. Goto: That's actually quite sensible of you. Mari: It's because my body is already 100% perfect!

Goto: Being an idol seems really busy. You must be exhausted. Mari: I find a way to make time! Goto: Don't you ever sleep? Mari: Well, you know, in meetings and stuff. Goto: Don't do that!

Goto: Do you even have a license? Mari: Of course! Goto: For driving? Mari: Yeah! My most recent driving instructor even said that my driving was the best it's ever been! Goto: Somehow… I feel bad for him.

Goto: You and Masayoshi kind of have similar tastes, huh? Mari: What do you mean? Goto: Like your costumes, for example. Mari: Don't be stupid! My costume is ten thousand times better than his! Right? Goto: …no, they're pretty much the same.

Mari: Omawari-san wa inu ~ ♪ Goto: What are you singing? Mari: It’s my new song—“Inu no Policeman!” Goto: Huh. (There’s no way it could be about me, right?)

Goto: What is it about me that makes freaks like me so much? Mari: You’d call me a freak when I'm standing right in front of you? Goto: Ah… sorry. I was thinking about Masayoshi. Mari: So you totally ignore that I like you too, huh…

Mari: Don't you want to join us heroes? Goto: I'm already a cop, so that's like a hero of the common people. Mari: Well, the uniform is good, but it's a little plain… Goto: It's plain work, supporting society.

Mari: Hey, officer? Where can I buy a gun? Goto: No way. Don't buy one, don't use one, don't even WANT one. Mari: Yeah, that's what I thought you'd say… I guess I'll just have to use my shock baton and explosives! Goto: Don't use those either!

Goto: Whenever you get photographed as Flamenco Girl, you always face the camera and strike a pose. Mari: Of course I'm gonna pose for the camera! Goto: I guess that comes with being an idol. Mari: No, I've been this way since I was a little girl!

Goto: Do you want to see a movie sometime? Mari: I've only got the Red Axe movie, but guys like that, right? Goto: Why do both of you only have these hero show theatrical releases…?

Goto: You and Masayoshi both live in really nice places. Mari: Why don't you spend the night sometime? Any time you want is okay with me! Goto: Absolutely not.

Goto: Ever since I met you, it feels like it's been nothing but losing tickets. Mari: You don't think meeting me was like winning the lottery?! Goto: No, it was more like blowing my savings on nothing. Mari: You're supposed to be happy we met.

[kaylinalexanderbooks]

OC questionnaire

Thanks @oliolioxenfreewrites here and here, @winglesswriter here, @the-golden-comet here, here, and here, @paeliae-occasionally here, and @drchenquill here!

Rules: answer the given questions in the POV of your OCs, then give the next people three more questions!

Holy shit I'm actually caught up?!?!

Previous Questionnaires:

Rounds One and Two Masterpost

Maddie, Ash, Noelle, Ewan, Jazlyn, Lexi, Alex, Carmen

Gwen, Gabriel, Liam, Xitlali, Akash, Jedi, Rose, Sam

See below for: Robbie, Hye-Jin, George, Wade, CJ, Teo, Atsila, Niri

#1- Robbie

Would you consider yourself loyal?

“Well, I don't exactly want to toot my own horn or anything but yeah, I consider myself loyal. If anything happened to Akash, I'd actually lose it. I got into a physical fight in his honor. That was how I displayed my powers for the first time, actually, so that was pretty cool. Sammy, too, I'm very loyal to my sister. And my friends at Alium, they're so dope, I love them, okay? So, yeah, loyal. Me. I'm that. I'm like a dog that way. ... I think that's a good thing. I dunno why I had to say that, I was done. *Sigh* okay I'm just gonna stop now and move onto the next question because holy shit I'm rambling, and I always do that, and I never know when to stop annnd I'm doing it again, okay for real this time. I'm done.”

If you saw someone unhoused on the corner asking for money, would you stop and give or keep going?

“From personal experience, I'd stop. My mother always makes sure I have money, cash, on my person at all times. And unfortunately - well, maybe not unfortunately, I dunno why I said that, the POINT is, I have this thing where if I see something bad happen, and I know I could help, but then I don't, I literally cannot stop thinking about that for anywhere between a full 48 hours to the rest of my life. I passed someone before, because I was late, and then ran back and gave them like five dollars because it ate me up, but they were happy, so that made up for the fact that I was late. Great, now it sounds like I'm humble-bragging. I swear I'm not trying to. My point is that I want to help people. And I'll stop there before I ramble again.”

Pineapple on pizza. Thoughts?

“Gonna be honest, never tried it. But I'm SUPER curious. I gotta know what it tastes like, but I'm scared. Both Ash and Noelle like it. Ash I don't trust at all - that girl likes the dumbest food combinations - and Noelle is interesting because she likes food and knows what goes well together, but also I don't remember when she's ever described food as bad, and she has other pizza toppings that she claims are better anyway. Point is, I'm curious but scared to try it.”

✨ Robbie intro post✨

#2- Hye-Jin

What's your earliest childhood memory?

“Oh, that's difficult. Hmmm... I'm not sure which is the first memory, actually. It's not like I memorized the time and dates of everything haha! [Pause] Okay, fine, I remember. It was the first day of preschool. I had only just turned three. Everyone in the class had these, uh, Assignments, I guess. Roles? Hm... Ah yes, jobs, so everyone in the classroom had responsibility. It was randomized, but I got the "caboose," or the person who stood in the back of the line. I cried really hard because I thought that was the worst job in the world, and my teacher probably hated me. I got to carry a flower, though, so I think that calmed me down.”

Do you dance?

“It's more like did. From, hm... Ah, kindergarten grade through sixth grade, I did ballet, tap, and jazz at a local dance studio. But middle school kinda allowed me to take more extra curriculars that were more convenient, so my parents told me I should probably drop dance after my sixth grade year was a mess. I didn't want to, but y'know it is my parents' money. I wish I could've kept it up.”

What smell you can't stand?

“Oh, cinnamon. I'm so sorry, but I don't like it. The smell, anyway. It's weird, I don't mind cinnamon as a taste. But the smell is too much. Maybe that's weird.”

Other Hye-Jin: OC in three, fun facts, bingo, deep dive, origin, outfit, questionnaire one, questionnaire two

#3- George

What never fails to make you laugh?

“A couple things. One: my sister, Carla. She's actually really funny. Watch a movie with her, and you'll see. She's yelling at the screen, insulting her favorite characters, getting way too invested. She tells me all of her thoughts. Two: stupid customers. Hilarious! Someone told me their newly installed voice activator was broken. They were going to pay me a LOT of money. They programmed their voices and everything! Turns out, they hadn't turned it on yet. Three: Liam. The guy can turn everything into an argument, it's fascinating to watch. But funny as in he's super clever, and he can roast anyone. The funniest day for me would be if they came with me on my job, i had to deal with a dumb customer, Liam roasted them, and Carla ranted about a new movie she found.”

How can you tell if you’ll get along with someone?

“Haha, that's funny. People skills are just a little overrated. It's been Carla and me in our house for a while, and we've been doing fine! I'm certainly not going to make friends doing my job no matter how much the homeowners want to talk to me. Liam is cool, and I knew I was gonna get along with him when we met, so he's literally the only example I have for this question. Okay... I knew I was going to get along with him because I was getting everything hooked up to move a lot of the data to our place, and I was talking out loud and Liam seemed bored so he inserted himself into the one-sided conversation and helped me figure out everything. Then the next day, I was working on one of the computers, and Liam came up to me and just started talking. He said I seemed bored, and I was. Sometimes I can't fix things at superspeed because I have to wait for the computer to respond, or the hardware is delicate or something. He asked me to 'infodump,' he said, about any topic I wanted to. The previous night, I stayed up late reading the entire file on jellysponges, so I just talked about them and suddenly, it was like no time had passed and the computer was done! Liam nodded, said my information would be helpful if he ever got into an Alii marine biology debate, and then he invited me to sit with him at lunch. That was cool.”

Do you prefer sweet, savory, sour, or salty snacks?

“I have been talking for way too long. Well, I mean, you may not think it's that long, but I don't do this unless I'm excited about something, and being a speedster it feels like it's taken forever. Anyways, I like all snacks because I have to eat a lot for my metabolism, but honestly out of those snacks I like salty chips.”

Other George: OC in three, questionnaire one, questionnaire two, fun facts

What is your favorite season?

#4- Wade

“Ooh, that's hard. [A couple seconds of silence.] Sorry, Liam's in my head debating all of them. Alright *claps hands* I think it has to be summer. There's so many things to do, and it is always pretty fun to just make a vacation plan. And the beach is awesome. Teo and Parker and I plan our summer - well I plan it; if the others did it'd be a disaster, and they know it. The point is, our summers rock.”

Where would you like to visit?

“I would like to go to Japan. There's so much stuff to do in Tokyo alone. I haven't been to Comic-Con, and I'd really like to, or an anime con. Being from Florida, I've been to Disney World a few times, but not Disneyland in California. Then again, the one in Tokyo... Man, there's a lot of planning that'd be involved. Can't wait til I graduate.”

When do you usually go to sleep?

“I try to be in bed by ten so I can get to sleep before eleven because high school times are shit and I want at least six hours before I have to get up, and that's still not enough sleep! Parker and Teo have it worse, though, since they both can't get settled down until, like, midnight. Uggghhh, we should ban school before nine.”

Other Wade: OC in three, interview, kiss, questionnaire one, questionnaire two, two truths and a lie

#5- CJ

How long has it been since you last travelled?

“Last summer, my family went and traveled around Sector 8 in Alium. It was so fun. Though I admittedly kinda missed Issa. She would've loved it. My favorite part was seeing an opera, actually. It's quite fascinating.”

Where is your favourite place?

“I find it a little strange to have a favorite place. Sometimes my room is a good place to be but sometimes I just want to leave it. Now, I think you're probably just referring to a place that statistically I'm more likely to be happy in. In that case *shrug* not enough data to say definitively, sorry. However, I sometimes stop by the library and just organize books that are there. They're always out of place. And the librarians know me by name. I don't think I have any bad memories there, so even though I don't go to the library every day, I think that's my answer.”

If the inciting event never happened, what would you be doing?

Other CJ: questionnaire one, questionnaire two

*bursts out laughing* “'Inciting event?' Like, as in stirring up something or like, in a story? Cause this is real life, baby. Okay, I'll play along. I guess one could say it was Rose showing up. I suppose if that never happened, I would just be living life like normal. Rose and I don't have a lot in common, but I enjoy talking to her. She is really friendly and thoughtful. So I guess I would be a friend short. And I would be content, but not as happy as I am now.”

#6- Teo

Do you speak more than one language?

“Uh-huh. Three, actually. English, Vietnamese, and American Sign Language! I'm fluent in all of them. My parents decided to try and teach me ASL when they realized I'd need, like, hearing aids, so they, like, took classes and taught me! And not to toot my own horn but, like, having three languages down meant my brain was, like, SO ready for kindergarten.”

What is your favorite thing to eat?

“Do NOT make me choose. It's literally, like, whatever I'm eating in the moment. Right now *holds up* it's this sandwich.”

What drives you to succeed?

“My boyfriend. And also, like, my own ambitions. I can do a lot of things. Again, not bragging, just a fact. I know, like, gymnastics, acting, improv, role play, those are similar I know, playing the guitar, singing, photography, ballet, graphic design, editing, I can go on. It's literally just me wanting to learn how to do more stuff, y'know? I want to build an impressive ass resume. Not just for, like, jobs, life in general. I'm always looking for new skills.”

Other Teo: questionnaire one, questionnaire two, kiss

#7- Atsila

What's the worst thing you've ever done? Do you regret it?

“The worst thing? Ha-ha-ha, what a question. What, in my opinion? Well, I wasn't paying much attention in my literacy class, so I failed! Hahaha, I'm kidding. I'm just not the kind of person to do terrible things, baby. I guess sometimes my competitive nature has made other people upset, but that's technically not anything I've done. Well, that's settled.”

What's the quickest way to make you laugh?

“I do love watching someone make a fool out of themselves. Deserved, though. I have standards. I won't kick people while they're done, but it's sure funny when those who get in my way fall over. Also, make a sexual innuendo and I'll be on the floor in stitches.”

What is your favorite song right now?

“There's this lovely piece called ‘Who We Become in the Shadows’ by Keano Adler. You wouldn't have heard of it, being Ceter and all. Anyway, I should get back. It was lovely talking with you.”

Other Atsila: questionnaire one, questionnaire two

#8- Niri

Do you sometimes wish to be someone else?

“Sometimes, yes. I don't want to lie. I'm thankful that it isn't constant. Usually, I am happy. Sometimes I'm not. It depends on the situation.”

Do you push forward or take time to rest?

“Hard question. [Thinks about it] I think I rest if I find a task boring. I push forward when I like the task.”

What is your favorite drink?

“I like hot chocolate. It is not just a winter drink!”

Other Niri: questionnaire one, questionnaire two

Tagging @sarandipitywrites @theeccentricraven @reininginthefirewriting @paeliae-occasionally @bread-roses-and-chrome

+ ANYONE ELSE

Y'all's questions: 1) Describe your ideal life. 2) What are you most looking forward to? 3) What's your most unique trait?

TSP intro

TSP tag list (ask to be +/-): @thepeculiarbird @illarian-rambling @televisionjester @finchwrites

@nebula--nix @literarynecromancy @honeybewrites @the-golden-comet

[beetleviolet]

THIS TOOK ME TOO LONG OMG AGH

Collab Masterpost

TJ and Nardo belong to @its-the-chicken-nugg

Misa belongs to @littlemissartemisia

The other Mikey and Luke belong to @boots-with-the-fur-club

And the "Raphaels" are by @justalittleobsessed and @languajix, I kinda didn't ask before I threw them in here for a little bit, sorry!

I doubt this will actually count for points but uhh @tmnt-fandom-family-reunion why not tag feel free to ignore lmao

For reading purposes: Lo is Deaf, and all signing is in italics (unless i missed something lmao). These are all English translations, and are not written in ASL grammar!

“Fuck!” Raph cursed. It was simple to read his lips for that word, a solid “F” that was easy to catch, even if the “-ck” wasn't. That, and by Raph's expression alone anyone could tell he was cursing, his face was twisted in dismay. 

Honestly, Leo was relieved he was finally snapping too. The human and Nardo were, as expected in the situation, losing their shit, but they mostly kept it to themselves. It was nice Leo wasn't the only one fed up with the whole situation. Wasn't the only one “lashing out”, as the human had put it, a frustrated fingerspell. 

Does Mikey know how to swim??, Raph asked, frantic. The whole camp underwater, it had taken Lo and Raph a while to get used to the feeling, even thought they could still breathe. Can't really learn to swim when your only access to water is full of shit. 

He's a turtle. The other Leo signed, apparently fine being called Nardo. Leo was glad Mikey hadn't thought of that one. Maybe worse though, they decided to call him Lo. Raph was the one who suggested it, and Leo didn't want to make himself look insecure by objecting. Now he kinda wished he had. The name ‘Lo’ was something more intimate, something from when they were little. Like he was a kid again.

I'm sure he'll be ok! Nardo continued, but there was a fine tremor to his fingers, and his smile was a little strained. Leo wanted to argue, just for the sake of it, but Raph already looked stressed out of his mind. 

We should split up and cover more ground, The human suggested. A spike of fear drove its way through Lo's chest like a stake through his lunges, or maybe a nail in a coffin, or maybe a little bit of both. 

He had to move. Had to strike first. 

I'll go with you. He signed, and damn it, his hands were shaking too as he pointed to the human. Maybe it was a Leo thing. Raph tracked the movement knowingly. 

I can go with you. Raph offered. 

We need one of you in each group. Nardo interjected firmly. If we find them we need someone from each family to help. He was annoyingly right. Lo nodded. Raph grimaced, 

Fine. Text me if you need anything. 

Ok, Mom. That made Raph crack a smile. A small one, at least. 

Leo thought the day had pulled every last ounce of emotion out of him, wrung him dry, but looking back that was dumb. Raph wasn't there, and when Raph wasn't there Leo was a little less there too. So yeah, part of him expected the fear. 

He hadn't expected it to be… kind of awkward. 

There was a lot of walking, a lot of glancing and then glancing away. The human had to interpret as they asked around, but it wasn't really needed most of the time. There were a lot of shakes of heads, blank stares at the missing poster, tight lips as they shrugged. 

Lo kept his head turned away, not wanting to see anymore. That was, until he looked back and TJ was gone. He jolted, spotting her pink jacket on the shore of the lake and two forms in the water. The human, and.. 

Lo broke into a run. 

It was stupid, but at first he thought the small kid in the water was.. was.. 

It didn't make sense. It had been years since Mikey was that small. 

Lo moved into the water to help, but there wasn't any need. Misa fit neatly into the human’s arms, even as she flailed. 

Thank you, TJ signed anyway. She said something to Misa, a question. Misa's chest was moving up and down, up and down. She flapped her hands in distress. The human said something else, before patting Misa on the back. The kid coughed up water. Lo winced, pressing his shaking hands together. It was fine. Misa was okay! Until she covered her eyes, face painted with distress. TJ seemed to remember Lo was there, signing as she spoke to Misa, 

Don't look at what? She asked her. What? His anxious confusion must have shown on his face, because TJ softened, 

It’s okay Lo, I’ll take care of her. It was almost embarrassing how much he was reassured.

Cold. Misa signed it this time, half of the shivering genuine. TJ wrapped her jacket around her. 

Better? She asked. Misa nodded. The human helped her dry off for a moment before turning to Leo,

We need to bring her with us.

What?? Are you crazy?? Lo signed a little smaller, suddenly aware the kid was watching him, It's too dangerous! She could slow us down! 

He risked a look at Misa. Bad idea, those puppy-dog eyes were killer. 

…it wouldn't be right to just leave her alone.

Fine. Stay close. Misa smiled. She was so cute it was obnoxious. TJ seemed to read his mind,

You're adorable in that jacket! Do you feel okay enough to walk, or should I carry you? Misa held her arms up. Tension fell from TJ’s shoulders, it was clear how much she loved kids. She rested Misa on her hip. Misa chewed on her thumb, signing with one hand,

Where is Misa? 

We're going towards the cabins now. TJ pointed, Is there anyone we need to look for for you? Any friends or family? Misa shook her head. The kid was all alone, then. She bit down on her thumb again. Must have been a nervous habit, it reminded Lo a little of Donnie.

Hey Misa, can you help me? He asked. Misa looked up at Lo curiously. Can you help pass out these posters? She nodded, and took a few from him. The determined spark looked a lot like Raph. 

TJ had been right about taking Misa along, at least this way she would have some people looking after her. 

Hey! Leo snaps back into attention as TJ waves over another Mikey who was rushing by. She interprets a little hecticly, still balancing Misa in one arm. This Mikey was looking for his brother too. 

Who's your brother? Leo asked. The Mikey began to sign as well. 

Huge crocodile! He spread his arms all the way out, indicating what must have been, in scientific terms, a massive fucking crocodile, His name is Luke! 

We can look for him while we search for our siblings. TJ signed. Lo gestured to Misa encouragingly. She handed a poster to the Mikey, who accepted it with thanks. To Leo's excitement, the Mikey's eyes lit up with recognition. 

He gave me a bandana! He pointed to Mikey on the poster. I haven't seen him in a while though. He bit his lip anxiously. Please, let me know if you find my brother, he's been missing since the power outage. 

The power outage… Lo didn't pay attention as TJ rattled off the same warning she had been giving to everyone. Fear spores caused disappearances. Anything glowing blue, even just blue for that matter, was dangerous. When asked for a phone number in case they saw Luke, he handed TJ… a purple cellphone? There was something distinctly Donnie about it.

This can call me directly through my ninpo, and I can call you, I'll let you know if I see anything. 

Thank you. TJ signed gratefully as he rushed away. For a second, just a second, her expression crumpled into something awful, hurt, her eyes shining. She was quick to cover it up,

Ok. Let's go find some more people to ask. Lo nodded along. 

It wasn't any of his business, really. She was a stranger. More than that, she was a human. Messing with humans was stupid, and Lo wasn't stupid. He wasn't. 

…it was just, just for a second, she reminded him of Raph.

Except Raph always hid it a little faster.

…Leo was so stupid. 

How are you? He asks. And he was so bad at this, just like always. TJ glanced at him, surprised he asked. 

Alive. She responded. That was fair. 

Good.. good… He signed. This was just embarrassing. 

What about you? You okay? 

Yeah, yeah. But his nodding fist shook. Lo jerked his hand down and into his pocket. TJ stopped, turning to him. 

We will find Mikey. She looked him in the eye. I won’t stop trying until I know he’s back with you and safe. I promise.

She.. promised. 

In their family, promises were big things. Some days, promises from Raph and Dad were the only things keeping him going. Promises were sacred. So it had to be true, right? 

Damnit, she was just like Raph, taking Lo’s.. concern (ew) and turning it around on him. And just like Raph, it was working, he was all tensed up and eyes stinging, nope, abort mission, abort! 

Right. Same. He avoided eye contact, looking around. Let's ask them! He pointed to a pair of turtles standing nearby. They were trying on red masks, but based on the giggling, and the orange fluttering out of their back pockets, they weren't Raphs. 

Annoying. The human signed small, having to fingerspell the word, They're the ones pranking everyone. She didn't seem too happy about having to talk to them next. Leo fought a smile. It was a little funny when some of the other campers slimed him and Mikey, even if his brother didn't share the sentiment.

As usual, Leo stood back as the human talked and signed along. 

No joke, our siblings are missing, have you seen them? Anywhere at all? There was an immediate reaction that Lo didn't bother paying attention to,

Your siblings are missing? Oh man, I'm sorry. I don't know what I'd do if my big bros went missing. The other turtle elbowed him, Ow-! I mean, if my one older brother Leonardo and my two younger brothers Donatello and Michelangelo went missing because I am Raphael and that is me. I'm Raph. Totally and absolutely. He flashed a smile. 

…right. Lo signed before handing them a poster. To his surprise, the turtle's eyes lit up with recognition. Yeah! Tj did her best to interpret, Me and another Mike pranked him with some glitter, but bro totally freaked out. Cussed us out and everything.

Yikes, Mikey hated glitter. But cussing people out? That didn't sound like him at all. TJ looked annoyed, both with the pranksters and with the inability to sign with both hands. She mumbled something to Misa, who helpfully raised her hand so TJ could tap out a list. 

One, how dare you upset him. Two, Lifesaver! Lifesaver? How did that help at all?? TJ turned to Lo, excited,

The glitter! She pointed to where the crystals were thicker, and it was a bit darker. Something sparkled. Glitter smudged against the stone. 

Maybe TJ really would make good on her promise.

[clatoera]

Always Remember We're Burned for Better Chapter 17: What Doesn't Kill Me Makes Me Want You More

Heeeeey guys. I feel like I apologize a lot for delays. Full transparency is that as we enter the final act of this fic we are also entering my application season. Things are going to be irregular until October when my apps are submitted. At the same time I expect thats when I'll be starting the sequel so! Exciting things ahead! Thank you for your patience and understanding and love. I appreciate and love every one of you.

I quite literally went on a mission to revisit every thing Jack Quaid has ever done to get an idea of how I wanted Marvel to sound. I'm posting this 26 minutes before I see oppenheimer the third time.

The title is from Cruel Summer (tswift)

AO3

Masterpost

As always, thank you to my friends. @ohhowwehavefallen who quite literally is the reason for the very last scene. IT was her. Give her credit for it existing. @kentwells for literally letting me bounce EVERY idea off them (I literally the other day said I just want people to be happy and had to be reminded I cause the suffering), and @crookedlyniceperson who keeps me going with the thought of memes.

Thank you as we enter this last segment of chapters, where we end the war and start the rest of their lives.

“Do they ever stop looking at you like you killed their dog?” Johanna is the one who asks, glancing around half heartedly at the dozens of wary stares being sent their way at any given moment. 

In perfect, offhanded unison, Cato and Glimmer give a resigned “No.”

They had grown used to it. The distrustful looks, the pitiful side glancing, but frankly there was not as much fear or respect one would think these once great victors would garner. 

Then again, they were quite a sight to behold these days. 

Johanna, with hair like a peach fuzz and various track marks from IV after IV for that Morphling hit. 

Clove, who had flayed more than one man alive on television, with skin like violets and nightlock berries from her neck down, bruises blossoming on every inch of that pale canvas. 

Cato and Glimmer, who they had long since deemed as crazy and unstable, but now less of a threat with the return of the carrot they had dangled on the stick before them. 

Really, the only one who even resembled his old self was Marvel. And what threat was he, anyway?

Finnick did not grace them with his presence, nor did Annie, as they were playing peacekeepers between Katniss and Peeta across the room after his attempt on her life not all that many weeks ago.  After all, someone had to keep Miss girl on fire’s embers glowing. Without the supervision of Finnick, Gale likely would have taken Peeta out by now just for his own opportunity to get ahead in the name of protecting Katniss. 

“We kinda did kill their dogs. Well. We killed their kids.” Glimmer reminds her, back to her earlier habits of pushing food around on a tray, slipping hard and fast into her old ways. 

She sits directly next to Clove on the opposite side of Cato, across from Johanna. Next to Johanna is Marvel who still cannot look at her for longer than a second, so far as Glimmer knows at least. 

It’s Clove, of course, who catches him looking when Glimmer is not. 

“We didn’t kill their kids, they weren’t in the games.” Clove rolls her eyes, but stabs her blunt spork into the overly-cooked but under-seasoned green beans. She couldn’t even raise her shoulder parallel to the floor, but they were still unwilling to give her (or Cato, for that matter) a knife. At least someone in this godforsaken place was still scared of her and didn’t see her like a bird with a broken wing. “The twelves mostly finished themselves off every year anyway- for fucks sake would it kill someone to get some salt down here?”

“I would commit a literal war crime for a pizza right now.” Marvel admits, and the tone of his voice sounds like maybe he’s only half joking, that maybe he really would dig a knife into the president of District 13 in exchange for extra pepperoni. 

When the eyes around them firmly land on him, and some of the armed guards tense and take a step forward he puts up a single, defeated hand. “I’m joking. I’m not here to take out the rebellion for a stuffed crust.”  When the guards step back and the weary looks turn away, he does cock an eyebrow and gives a slight nod of his head. “Extra cheese on the other hand..”

Glimmer gives a quiet giggle, though she does not look up from the swirls she makes with the potatoes before her. 

Cato actually laughs, though, in a way he had not in the many months of separation of him and Clove. It was like something in him had come back to life, and it clearly had something to do with the dark haired girl he currently had his arms draped around the shoulders of. “If you’re going to get us shot over pizza we may never have again, at least make it something good. At this point I’d lead this fucking war if it would get me back to a burger.” He gently nudges Clove, who is furiously attempting to stab at whatever they were trying to pass off as a balanced meal. “Come on. What do you miss?”

“What don’t I fucking miss? Our bed. Fabric softener. The use of my arms..” Clove starts to complain, but she looks up and catches the teasing shine in his blue eyes and can’t help but play along. “...half of a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, the peanut butter half. And an orange. If we make it out of this, I never want to go a day without real fruit ever again.” She nudges at Glimmer’s knee with her own, before doing the same with her free shoulder. “What about you Glim Glam? What’s your death row choice here?”

How is she supposed to say, oh, nothing, I wasn’t allowed to enjoy food, the thought of eating makes me nauseous? How is she supposed to say that she isn’t quite sure there's anything out there in the world that she’s interested in these days. There’s a memory, though, of a night before Clove became victor officially, of late night snacks in a bed that was not her own but belonged to the man across from Cato. Back when there was still potential and love in her world, that little bit of good that she had had taken from her yet again. 

“...those little cake slices, not cupcakes, but the individual slices so you can try the different flavors. They have them at the parties all the time. And maybe fries?” Glimmer smiles to herself at the memory of salt between bed sheets and frosting on the tips of noses. “And there was this pasta, with like…cheese sauce and It was so so good but I can’t remember what it was called but it was just so good I’d kill to have it again–”

“...mac’n’cheese. That’s what it’s called. You like it with the toasty little breadcrumbs on top of it.” Marvel finishes for her, briefly lifting his head and giving ever so slight of a nod. “I remember it from when-”

“Yeah. I do too.” Glimmer agrees, and is the one to break eye contact as she refocuses down at the scraps of borderline dog food they’re being fed. 

A heavy, powerful silence falling over the table full of victors, a haze no one quite wants to break. Cato taps his thumb on Clove’s shoulder, and she settles into his side contently. Marvel clears his throat and looks around the room awkwardly, not quite focusing on any point or face in particular. 

“...well!” Johanna announces, finally breaking through the silence that permeated their shared space. “I don’t know about you, but the first thing I want, is a fucking drink.”

—————

“Where’s Cato? I haven’t seen you two apart…actually at all, since you got back?” Glimmer invites herself to the foot of Clove’s bed, hands full of bed sheets and thread. “Off in that silly little meeting of boys?”

“Finnick showed up and practically begged him to go.” Clove confirms, pulling herself to a more proper sitting position  and tucking her feet back to sit criss-crossed underneath her.  “I don't know if it was actually a meeting or if he was just trying to make him go get his allotted thirty minutes of fresh air.”   As she sits she tugs at the newly replaced IV in her hand, bringing forward the poll that was attached to the long bit of tubing in her hand, reminded of the inconvenience she thought she had escaped. 

Glimmer reaches out a hand to brush over the back of Clove’s, immediately calling attention to the new intrusion. “Clove! I thought you were done with these?”

“Eh. A small setback. Turns out part of my lung just like..collapsed when I was trying to throw this morning. It was filled with blood, it got pretty nasty. I guess I still have some internal bleeding and bruising.” She pulls down the top of her hospital pajamas, showing the literal tubing coming out from below her clavicle, which is filled with fresh ruby blood. “Shoved this in me, the IV is for the pain. I don’t think I need it but–”

“Your lung collapsed. You have a literal piece of plastic sewed into your skin. And you don’t think you need the pain meds?” Glimmer cocks a blonde eyebrow, before mirroring Clove’s cross legged posture. “You’re stronger than anyone else I know, Clove. Stubborn, but strong nonetheless.” 

She offers Clove a bit of thread and one of her stitching needles, along with  the upper half of some shredded fabric.  It had started off handedly– a story of how Clove used to stitch up Cato, how they had been taught in the academy and how she didn’t want to lose that skill too when people were here to baby her. Someone, Primrose Everdeen maybe, had suggested it may be a good therapeutic exercise for her to use the fine muscles and tendons in her hands, to work on stitching and maintain her fine motor skills. 

Really, though, it was more of a therapy for Glimmer, who desperately needed to feel needed, who desperately needed a friend to distract her brain for a few hours a week. 

It worked out for both of them. 

“Any other injuries you wanna admit to, Clove?” Glimmer inquires, absentmindedly beginning to run a new type of fabric stitch on the opposite end of the fabric from Clove. “You know I have no one to tell.”

“Nope. Just the usual. Broken ribs. All my major joints are useless. A lung that gave out. Oh, some internal bleeding…” Clove tries not to reveal her frustration when she cannot thread the needle, cannot keep the intrinsic muscles of her head steady enough to connect the two pieces. The shaking of her right hand betrays her as she drops the needle, grip strength so diminished she can't even keep hold of it for long enough to throw an anchoring stitch in the fabric.  Clove throws down the fabric in defeat, running her hand now over her face instead. 

“But hey. My skin is coming back together. Just ugly fucking scars for the rest of my life–” Clove reveals the skin of her thigh to Glimmer, the puckering of stitches and the greenish-yellow hue of a bruise starting to dissolve under her skin. “Just fucking great, Glimmer. I’m just great.”

Glimmer drops the fabric, and immediately pushes up the sleeves of her District Thirteen issued henley shirt. Her own scars are not as angry red or freshly bruised, but rather a raised, pink granulated tissue in rivulettes from her elbows to right where her wrist meets her hand. “We all have scars now, Clove. No more magic Capitol tricks  to take them away. I clawed my way out of handcuffs, using blood to lubricate my way out.. We all have scars now that we’re going to carry for the rest of our lives. You are alive. You have Cato. By all standards, you’re dong pretty fucking great compared with the other option here.” 

Glimmer picks up the little fallen needle and wordlessly threads it for Clove, saying nothing nor expecting any gratitude from the other woman for the act. “You have Cato. Who will not leave your side, who shoves into a twin-sized hospital bed with you somehow–”

“We slept in a twin sized bed at the academy when we were sixteen until he won. We’re used to it, is all.”

“It’s still sweet. How he is so insistent on being near you all the time, all he thought about that whole time was you Clove, I’m shocked they even got him away from you now.”

“Yeah well.. I made him go with Finnick, too. It’s not good for him to sit here and treat me like a porcelain doll all the time. For either of us.” Clove takes Glimmer’s offering with no words of thanks, as the exchange would prove too embarrassing of a hit to Clove’s fragile confidence.

Her confidence being the only truly fragile thing about her, may she add.

“He sleeps with me and he is always touching me but it’s like he’s scared to touch me, you know?” Clove explains, hoping it is not too much information for what had become her closest friend. “He thinks I'm fragile.”

“He doesn’t think you’re fragile.” She nearly scoffs, giving a half hearted laugh. “He thinks you’re anything but. He just doesn’t want to hurt you.”

It’s Clove’s turn to scoff and laugh at that. “He has never given a fuck about hurting me. He broke my collarbone the day we met. After he won, he used to push me so hard at training that I couldn’t walk the hundred steps to my room at training. One time he picked me up by the throat and slammed me against a wall until I could escape myself. Our entire lives have been hurting each other–”

“Well you’re not the one getting choked against a wall now, are you?” Glimmer deflects, and a wicked smile floods Clove’s face at the realization of the lighthearted change in topic. 

“I wish I were getting choked against a wall in a different way, you know?” Clove teases, laughing as they fall into a comfortable silence as they work on different types of stitching– human skin or low thread-count sheets. 

“You know Marvel is going to come around, right?” Clove offers out of the blue, seemingly coming from nowhere with the topic change. “You said that all Cato thought about was me, well, that was him too. We shared a wall. Lots of conversations were had through six inches of concrete and all….he’ll come around. He just needs time to remember–”

“Clove, he won’t even look at me. He won’t come around, because he remembers it all just fine. Do you know what he said to me that day? That I used him, that he was just another client to me. He said that…that..that I just picked him because he was there! He doesn’t believe that I love him, Clove. He thinks I just..faked it all.” Glimmer catches the skin of her finger in her needle, and quickly brings the blood drop to her lips to staunch the bleeding. “I didn’t fake a thing. Not with him. He is the only person it was ever real with and I just- I just…I miss him.”

“He loves you too, Glimmer. He never stopped.”

“Yeah, well, he shows it just like every other man I’ve ever met, now.”

—————

“There's my favorite cellmate!” Marvel’s voice pops out, a goofy grin on his face as he lets himself right into her room.

“Let me guess, it’s your turn to babysit me?” Clove slams shut the book she had been reading, some silly novel from long before the dark days in a language that was English but also so much more complicated. The only type of enrichment activity she got these days was mental, it seems. 

“Huh? No, no of course not, no...yeah, actually. Yeah. But! I came because I wanted to see you, not because It’s my turn to keep you supervised.”

Clove swings her legs over the side of the bed, placing her feet firmly on the ground before pushing herself to a standing position. She had quickly discovered if anyone was going to let her get away with something it was going to be Marvel– he was not going to keep her in bed with crafts or insist she not move too much at risk of re-angering an existing injury or worse, making a new one. Maybe it was because he had been there when she was at her absolute worst in the Capitol, right alongside her, but he didn’t quite treat her like her skin was made of glass. “Let me guess, another meeting of all the victors but us?”

“The privilege of being the special ones who got pulled out of the arena apparently comes with a security clearance.” Marvel shrugs, nodding his head enthusiastically towards the door. “Peeta bread down the hall is in therapy, Johanna went backwards today in terms of progress with water, and Annie is..well she’s Annie. Oh but us, we’re the big scary careers remember? We’re the little captiol plants, that's why they tried to kill you, makes it more believable you know?” 

Clove hops off the bed and practically scurries towards the door, at the chance to escape her sterile prison at any slight opportunity that arises. As she gets closer to her chaperone she notices the permanent marker writing on his arm. “Look at you, you got slave to district thirteen privilege, what are you blowing off right now?”

“History of Nuclear Defense. It’s pretty cool, but I can’t look at that guy from twelve for more than fifteen minutes-”

“Well you are the one who threatened to stab him for cheesecake, Marvel.”

“I was kidding! Mostly!” Marvel gestures to the left to turn out of the hallway, the long way away from the fellow prison (hospital) cells of their friends and fellow victors. Other than Annie, he has had the hardest time accepting what has happened to them, and even more so why he was left without the physical scars of his friends. “Apparently Cato and Glimmer have both gone after him, I think our turn is long overdue.”

They take their government mandated stroll up and down the hall, back and forth, as they do any day that Marvel gets assigned Clove duty. It’s the most exercise anyone will let Clove have, the most autonomy, even. 

“Have you heard anything about back home? Noone will tell me shit, and I don’t know if they don’t know or if they’re trying to spare my feelings like I'm a child who can’t handle the reality of war.” He half whispers, all too aware (and maybe even a little paranoid, after their time in the capitol) that someone is always listening for something even the littlest bit treasonous to slip their lips so they can be hung in the proverbial town square. 

“Glimmer knows nothing about Gloss and Cashmere. They can’t tell me anything about Enobaria. I thought asking every day would break them but-” Clove gives half a shrug, kicking her feet along the concrete floors. “Noone can tell me anything about her. We don’t know about Brutus, either. All Cato wants to know is about his sister. I don’t think anyone knows. Or if they do, they’re keeping it from all of us.”

He doesn’t respond, just gives a nod at the reality of their situation. If anyone knows anything, it is well hidden from all of them. “You know, I’m not glad you’re still in the hospital, but I’m glad Cato sleeps with you, he’s supposed to be my roommate. We have fucking roommates, what is this, war boarding school? Between this and the classes, I feel like they left some gaps in our education in the districts. Who knew we should know how to do nuclear fission by eighteen.”

“I literally don’t even know what those words mean.” She half-laughs, shaking her head in disapproval. “Other than the games and then, you know, the capitol, I have barely spent a night away from him since we were sixteen. I think you’re safe to push the beds together to make yourself one big one, because he won’t be there anytime soon.” 

Clove supposed that meant that Glimmer was meant to be her roommate when all was said and done. In another life, they probably would have switched in the dark of the night, Clove and Marvel or Glimmer and Cato, rearranging the sleeping arrangements in a way that would scandalize the upper-administration of thirteen and they would not have cared. All they would have cared about is having been together, at whatever cost. Things are different, now, though.

“You need to talk to her.”

“I don’t want to talk to her.”

“Marvel I do not know what they said to you in those last couple of days before we got out, but a week before all you wanted in the entire world was to see her again.” Clove reminds him in a voice that can only be described as lecturing. “All you have to do is talk to her, you’ll know she meant it all.”

“I just can’t get it out of my head, Clove. That all along she was just using me. Over and over and over again, I just hear them telling me that it never would have been me. Why would it be me?” His eyebrows are just slightly knit together, and there's a hesitation in his voice that Clove can recognize as doubt. 

Doubt. The strongest force in the world, like a spell that needs no more than a drop to permeate every inch of your being, to consume you. To burn you to the ground. 

“Because you’re you. And she’s her. And I’m Clove, and he’s Cato. It makes sense just because it does. Some things just…are. And this is one of them.” She has nothing better to say, because there is no stronger answer. 

Somethings are just meant to be because they simply are. 

They pace in a peaceful albeit tense silence, for about five more minutes before the overhead alarm signals to them that a change in activity will happen in exactly five minutes, and her other supervisors will return.

“...you know that Glimmer and Cato got to go to the armory, right?” Clove informs him with a heavy, heavy sigh. “Cato gets target practice and I’m barely allowed out of bed. How’s that fair? I’m going fucking crazy, Marvel.”

“You almost died, you psycho, I think they’re just being cautious. Besides, you were already crazy.”

“I’m not made of porcelain or glass or ceramics. I trained in the best training academy in the country for ten years, I won the fucking Hunger Games.” Clove slams her hand into the door, blocking their entrance back in. “Do you think I'm some little broken winged bird?”

“You don’t have to tell me that, Clove. I was there. I know what you survived. I wouldn’t have. I don’t think anyone else would have.” He gently nudges her hand out of the way so he can make sure she actually goes back to her room. “You know, it probably wouldn’t have been so bad if you had just given them the screams they wanted.”

Clove scoffs. “That's rule number one. Never show weakness. That gets you killed. And besides, I only scream for one person.” She gives him a playful nudge with her shoulder as she pushes past him. 

Who would have thought. At one time she saw him as one of the most annoying victors she had ever met, and now, he was the only person treating her like she had her own two legs to stand on.

Damn. Maybe trauma bonding is real. 

“I don’t need babysitting, you know, Marvel.”

“Trust me, I Know that. Convince everyone else.”

—————

“It’s okay, Clove, you’ll get it back–”

Clove lets out a frustrated scream, throwing the knife to the ground. Finally, finally, she had gotten a knife back in her hand in the training room, a moment she had been working toward for weeks. She had expected it to be muscle memory, truly her second nature, and come back to her as easily as it had back when she was five years old and threw for the first time. 

Apparently muscles lose their memory when they are severed. 

“No, Cato, it isn’t fucking okay!” She grabs another one of the knives– albeit not the best quality, but she cannot blame that. She could kill with a plastic butter knife, before– and as soon as she raises her arm she nearly drops the knife from the sharp pain that runs through her shoulder. “This is all I fucking have, this is all I am, and I can’t do it. I could do this when I was five.”

The couple of throws she had managed to succeed in executing failed in other ways, each three feet away from even hitting her target. A failure, by academy standards. 

“Baby, this is not all you are.”

“How would you feel? If the only thing that has ever made you remarkable was just..gone? This is all I have, yes it is. This is as close as I’ve ever felt to my mother, who chose the games over me, this is the only thing that kept my grandmother choosing to keep me alive, the hope that i’d actually win. I was tiny and frail looking then but I was good. I was the best. This is all I have, Cato. This is all I am, and now I'm not.” Clove tries, again, to bring her arm past parallel with the floor, and the pain is nearly unbearable. She does not cry. She does not show it. But god, god does it hurt deep in her bones. 

“If this is hurting you, you need to stop, Clove.” Stupid Cato. Stupid Cato and his ability to know even the slightest change in her face, to be able to notice even her slightest tells. “You just need time and that's okay.”

“And what the fuck got into YOU Cato? What the fuck is this ‘you need to stop’ shit?” Clove snaps, stepping forward to grab him by the center of his shirt, pulling him forward with a jerk of her arms. “What happened to the person who broke me, and ran me until I threw up, and never once, not a single time, took fucking pity on me? What happened to the person who wanted to make me a better tribute, who wanted to make me a better fucking victor even when we were going to kill each other? I’m not broken, Cato, don’t treat me like I am.”

Cato shakes his head, and drops his hands to his side, before very very gently grabbing her upper arms. “Clove, I don’t want to hurt you, it’s not worth it.”

“Oh since fucking when don’t you want to hurt me? Pick me up by the throat and make me fight my way out, Cato!” Clove practically begs, deep eyes searching his face in desperation, pleading for understanding, 

“That was to make you survive, Clove, not fucking kill you.” He tries, gently tightening his grip on her arms. “This isn’t all you are, Clove, not anymore. Not ever.”

“Cato, stop! Treat me like your fucking partner. Treat me like me, Treat me like you’re Cato and I’m Clove and we have spent our entire lives making each other better. I am begging you, treat me like me.” Clove sees the hesitation in his face, in the way he looks from her eyes to her nose to avoid the desperation in her eyes, and knows she has him. She grabs his right hand and pushes it up to the top of her shoulder.  “Brace my shoulder, and do NOT let it go. If I cry or scream. Do not let it go.”

Something snaps in Cato, or maybe something reawakens, but he gives a firm, hard squeeze at the junction of her arm and her shoulder, feeling the tendons separate and slip underneath his fingers.  Clove’s legs nearly give out, and it takes all she has not to whine in the true agony at the feeling of her joints sliding over each other again. He does not let go, or loosen the grip he has on her swelling shoulder joints. Cato twists her in his arms, facing her out towards the targets. “Go. Throw.” 

His other arm is wrapped around her waist, and holds her up as her legs beg to give out and bring her to the ground. As her throws hit closer and closer to the target, Cato doesn’t comment on how he can tell exactly how hard she is struggling to breathe, or how he can feel her other hand shaking at her side. 

“I have an idea.” Cato begins, finally letting go of her arm and her body and trying to ignore the soft whine that she lets out when he does. “Not that they’re letting us anywhere near a war but,” 

He reaches for the same deep silver gun he had picked up all those weeks ago, when he and Glimmer had been given free range for an hour with Beetee taking pity on them.  “Easier to hit with this.”

Cato slips it from his hands to hers, and notices the way her hand nearly falls at the weight of the weapon. Before the frustrated look can even befall her face, he has her back in front of him, with both of his hands on top of hers. He raises her hands in his, holding them out infront of her. “You’ll like it, at least until your arms are better.” 

“Easy now, baby.” Cato whispers in her ear, “You’ve got it.” He promises, and when she finally pulls the trigger, he catches her back against his chest when the kickback reverberates through her and sends her a few inches backwards. “There you go,” Cato kisses right below her ear, just before she twists in his arms to face him. 

The smile stretched across her face is worth it all in that moment, the wicked, dark energy she is so known for all but painted in her eyes. 

“I knew you’d like that.” Cato teases, only slightly off guard when the metal falls to the ground with a loud cling and he feels her pulling him back. It’s effortless when he naturally lifts her by her waist onto the armory table, in a spot between the guns and knives and various weapons of choice for the assorted victors in thirteen. 

Clove threads her fingers through the hair at the base of his neck and oh she is alive, alive alive again. As she pulls him down on top of her, she pauses only for a moment before catching his lips with hers. 

“Remember, I’m not broken.”

“I know, Clove.” 

[vinbee631]

Prodigal Sons and Daughters Alike

Hey!! Welcome to the masterpost for my contribution to the @tss-storytime Big Bang! This is one of the biggest projects I've ever completed, and the biggest one I've ever posted, so I really hope you enjoy it!

With that being said, chapter links under the cut! I'll be posting a chapter a day on AO3, so I'll be adding those links as I go!

The art inspired by this fic, made by the lovely @nandysparadox

AO3 Link

1 - I’m Never Gonna Not Dance Again - Prologue ~ Welcome to Sanders Academy! And welcome, the creativitwins

2 - I Can Show You the World (I Can Show You this Classroom) ~ Who would have thought school could actually be- not awful?

3 - What Is This Feeling? (So Sudden and New?) ~ Making friends is surprisingly easy and also Roman please calm down it's only the first day

4 - On the First Day of Mock School (My Roommates Gave to Me…) ~ Waking up is hard, at least they have each other now!

5 - Opening Up, Letting the Day In, Pour You a Cup and Say “Hello, How Ya Been?” ~ Now that they've all met each other, things get complicated (in a good way, they're just middle schoolers)

6 - You’ve Got a Friend in Me (But Maybe Not Him) ~ Remus makes new friends! Patton, not quite, but he's working on it!

7 - Ever Since I Was a Kid, I’ve Been a Brooding Basket Case  ~ One stereotypical melodramatic teenager coming right up! (Now featuring a little more trauma than is strictly necessary for a thirteen-year-old prodigy!)

8 - Forgive Me If I Boast… On the Subject I Love Most (Getting to Know You)  ~ Remus' persistence is highly admirable, but Virgil is not entertained.

9 - Why Do You Look at Me When You Hate Me? ~ Virgil is confused, and possibly has more unresolved trauma. Remus does not do art, but for once is okay with this fact

10 - Intermission: How Would You Like a Friendly Competition? (Let’s Take On the Song)  ~ The twins are very competitive, but also very close. Remus gets a well-deserved break.

11 - I Feel Badly About You Feeling Badly About Me, Feeling Badly About You   ~ Remus talks it out, and gets some sound advice.

12 - Looking for Something Worth It (The Algorithm is Perfect)  ~ Conversation One: Virgil and Logan are now study buddies

13 - The Bar Isn’t the Best Place to Find Advice, Thank God We’re In the Hallway ~ Conversation Two: Janus is snarky, and apparently, so is his roommate

14 - You Know Time Crawls On When You’re Waiting for the Song to Start  ~ Conversation Three: Roman has good taste in music, but bad taste in movies

15 - I Don’t Need No Love (All I Need Is a Sugar Rush) ~ Conversation Four/Existential Crisis: Baking Edition, feat. Patton

16 - Fear or Love, Baby? Don’t Say The Answer (Actions Speak Louder)  ~ Conversation Five: Remus' biggest mistake

17 - Being Back Here Makes Me Hot in the Face ~ Conversation Six: Good God these boys need therapy.

18 - It’s the Story of One Who Turned from Hating (The Man Who Only Learned to Love) - Epilogue  ~ There is no official conversation seven, but things work out anyway. At least, Virgil thinks so.

aand, that's all folks!

[alas9]

✨ 📖 ✏️ studyblr masterpost jam ✏️ 📖 ✨ Day #5 as an independent game designer maybe?

Today is about study tips! And I think you won't like mine, hehe but I'll give them anyway.

Create the environment for studying

My first one is to set the environment you study at, to make it more conducive to do so!

Our brain does not like friction, since it was forged in a time of total sedentary lifestyle. Animals in nature only expend energy to flee/fight a predator, search for food, and reproduce. All other energy costs represent enormous friction for us. When creating a habit we must lower the friction to the minimum, to the point where we can repeat the task day after day without it bothering us, and gradually increase the demands. If you don't have a study habit, don't try to lock yourself up for an entire afternoon until you understand basic concepts of whatever. Try watching one video, then two, then 5, then spend an hour on a tiny project. Think tiny, well your first project should be smaller than that. The 1% everyday rule.

Adopt an aesthetic that you can maintain over time

I don't want to discourage the flirty fairies of studyblr, I love following beautiful studyblrs and people who romanticize their lives, but I'd love to say to you to don't make your own honeypot that diverts you away from your goals.

I know it sounds super idiotic to say it, but for many people, it is important to romanticize their life as a way to reduce the friction in their tasks. Aesthetic is in everyting and some of us like to have control over it. Part of it is maintaining a blog, a bullet journal, etc. I don't think it's a bad practice, since falling in love with your lifestyle is something healthy and not an obstacle. Romanticizing student life can be trap that we all may fall into sooner or later. In the first years when I decided to be self-taught (before that I went to art school for 5 years before dropping out, missing a year to graduate) and started investing my time in learning programming, I wasted a lot of time trying to accommodate every minimum detail to make it enjoyable. I loved going to art school because it was a very sensorial and aesthetic experience, and I wanted to bring a little of that experience to my new life in programming. My first notebooks were unsustainable, my blogs too, I never managed to finish a bullet journal, my Notion had the most beautiful and impractical templates ever seen by humankind, and I spent more time maintaining those things than actually studying. I had an intermediate hiatus, driven by having started working in programming, and I returned to studying in a much more practical and clean way, with fewer worries and clear goals. Reaching your goals is also a vibe lol

Do excercise and invest in a good chair (or a good desk)

I know this sounds random and I have no advice to give. In fact, I think this is my best advice. I have a protrusion on my spine, I have another coworker who has 2, and a coworker with 3 (the latter is working full remote because she can't tolerate sitting in the office). Office and study life is extremely sedentary, and even worse if you do both at the same time. I used to be a girl who did ballet, gymnastics and basketball, until I moved to study and almost at the same time I started working. The anxiety of stillness made me addicted to snacks. I have gained considerably weight since then and my physical disposition after 10 years is no longer the same. I have colleagues who go to the gym just to physically support this lifestyle. You need a lot of strength and endurance to avoid falling into depression and other physical illnesses, such as obesity, bulges, or back pain. Sitting for so many hours can shorten your leg muscles and twist your spine. The sooner you dedicate yourself to your physical health, the further you can go. Sometimes you just can't study or challenge yourself more because your body doesn't allow it. Besides that, eat well and drink water.

Get an ergonomic chair that keeps your spine aligned, or some of those desks that allow you to work standing up, they are excellent investments.

---

Information about programming is everywhere all over the surface of the web, there is little to honestly talk about it. That's why I think it was more valuable to talk about the consequences of living this lifestyle for so long. I hope it helps someone.

[esta-elavaris]

Flufftober Day 17: Encouraging Someone to Achieve a Goal [1,142 words]

My Flufftober '23 masterpost can be found here 💜✨

I do have a main fic for these two in the very early stages, but it's currently on a break while I finish up some other things - but I'll definitely return to it eventually.

Anyway, throwing all of my insecure artist angst into this one, lads.

Fiona threw down her pencil and sighed heavily, burying her face in her hands and not caring if it ended up streaked with grey thanks to the action.

“Hurdle?” Eddie’s voice sounded somewhere from the bed behind her.

They’d long since taken to spending a lot of their time here, in her studio apartment – where they couldn’t be interrupted, nor often found at all. He’d been lounging on her bed for some time, and after a certain length of quiet she’d quietly assumed he’d dozed off and thought little more of it. Apparently she’d been wrong.

“More of a roadblock,” she replied sourly, voice muffled by her palms. “Surrounded by lots of yellow tape reading danger do not cross, land mines, all of that sort of thing. Maybe an armed guard or two. Orcs, I think. Uruks. Great big ones. Covered in blood. Occasionally, they laugh and call me a dumb bitch. It’s a whole thing.”

Had he laughed, despite the fact that she’d purposely riddled her words with a touch of the ridiculous, she wouldn’t felt worse. And maybe he knew that, because he didn’t. The bed creaked as he got out of it, feet padded against the floor, and then there was warmth at her right side as he leaned over her to peer at the sketch that was sending her around the bend.

“Why don’t you like it?” he asked quietly.

Once again, knowing the right thing to say. The bastard. Because any exclamation of it’s fine, or there’s nothing wrong with it, or you’re being dramatic would make her feel even more ridiculous than she already did.

Although she was doing a pretty decent job at making herself feel ridiculous, grumbling in response – although finally lowering her hands as she did so, just so she could scowl at the paper before her.

“It’s like every other crap, mediocre thing I’ve ever drawn.”

“Ah. One of those nights?” he asked knowingly, leaning down so he could rest his chin atop her shoulder.

“I mean it, Eddie,” she insisted. “What am I thinking? What was I thinking? Art school? Like that’s not a direct path to living hand to mouth for the rest of your life. I have no…no back-up plan. No other bloody skills. Nowhere to go when this shit inevitably doesn’t work out.”

“You’re good. Real fucking good. Best artist I know.”

“That’s not enough,” she shook her head.

“You’ve got the dedication. God knows you’ve got the work ethic.”

He remained close, a ring-clad hand settling down atop her waist.

“That might not be enough either.”

“What would be, then?”

“Luck. Fate. That…that it thing, that all the people who make it have. The shit people know when they see, but can’t really explain. You have it.”

As she shrugged, his chin remained firmly planted at her shoulder despite how her action jostled it. When she was done, though, he pulled back only enough to wheel her chair back with him, spinning it around so she faced him and ignoring how it creaked in protest.

“So do you! You have all of that, babe. Luck? Luck is shit. Luck is what the naysayers who gave up on their own shit call it when the people who didn’t succeed, so they can feel better about the path they chose.”

“But what if nobody else sees it, Eddie?” she gestured wildly, too lost in the spiralling panic to care if she sounded ridiculous. “I can do everything I can to make this work, I can ignore that gross, pitying look people who don’t matter give when you tell them you’re an artist – the one that’s all ‘oh, sweetheart, you’re too old to still cling to a dream like that’ because fuck them, but if the people who do matter see my shit and decide it’s not for them, I’m- I’m fucked. And what then?”

“Then you give them the finger and you keep going for it,” he said like it was obvious, eyeing her with no less fiery fondness than he usually did for how damn hysterical she knew she was being.

“And if it doesn’t work out?”

“It will.”

“If it doesn’t, Eddie?” she leaned forward. “If I end up…if I end up some- some unemployable sixty-year-old woman who can’t afford her phone bill because she poured everything into delusion and ended up with no other skill to offer?”

“Better than being a sixty-year-old in a job she hates wondering if she could’ve had it all doing what she loved if only she’d tried,” he said without hesitation. “I know you, Fi. You’d be ten times happier scraping to get by doing what you love than you’d be living like a queen with a job that has you dreading the alarm going off in the morning. You’re doing it now, neither of us exactly lives like royalty – is it so bad?”

His hand rested on her shoulders then, impressing the full weight of his words on her.

 “It’s not bad at all,” she said, honestly and without hesitation.

“So…worst case scenario…more of this. Could be a hell of a lot worse. You can’t view the other path as a surefire win, either, because who’s to say it’d work out? You can get fired from a shitty job you hate just as much as you can fail doing something you love. If anything, it’s probably more likely. So what’s the point?”

The tension left her – a slow sort of unfurling working its way across her body, her chin lifting, her shoulders loosening up, and her jaw unclenching one after the other. Eddie grinned.

 “It’s…” he paused and leaned in close so he could reach and turn the little alarm clock on her desk towards his gaze, “two in the morning. Which means it’s around four hours after the cut-off point where you can start trusting your opinions on the trajectory of your whole life.”  

“I know,” she sighed.

“But,” he cut in with a little grin, “what I’m about to say is a fact, not an opinion, so it’s fine – right?”

He paused then, dark eyes fixed on hers as he made sure she was about to hear, really hear, every single word he was about to say. Whatever he saw looking back at him was good enough for his liking, and he continued.

“Me n’ you are gonna take this world by storm. You hear me? Real power couple shit. They won’t know what hit ‘em. And we’re gonna do it together. Yeah?”

“Do you never doubt?” she asked fondly.

Eddie grinned – that wide, brilliant grin that lit up his face, the room, and the world they were about to take by storm – and then he answered, leaning in so they were almost nose-to-nose.

“Us? Never.”

Links: AO3 -- FF.net -- flufftober masterpost -- dividers by cafekitsune

[wowbright]

Fic: God of All Things

Klaine Advent 2022: detailed

Words: ~850 words

Rating: Teen and Up

Summary: Blaine gets some shocking news. Kurt pulls focus.

I’m back with more vignettes from my Mormon!Klaine universe for Klaine Advent 2022! This vignette takes place directly after Stunning Performance.

My Mormon!Klaine Masterpost.

--------

“Whatever gossip you've heard is probably a lot more detailed than what we know,” Elder St. James said. “Elder Clarington was acting really weird and Sister Steele took him to the doctor and he hasn’t been back. Everybody's praying for him, and you should too.”

“Well,” said Elder Flanagan, “so far, I've heard it was meningitis, epilepsy, food poisoning, and demon possession. I hope it's not meningitis—that would be bad. I mean, demon possession would be bad, too, but that's easier to take care of with through the priesthood.”

Blaine took his toothbrush out of his mouth and spit into the sink. “It's neither.” The two missionaries looked at him, eyebrows raised, heads tilted, the way Tina’s dogs used to look at Blaine when they were playing fetch and Blaine would hide their toys behind his back. “I'm rooming with his companion, Elder Nixon. They've let him know a little bit more. No details, but he'll be fine.”

“Where’s Elder Nixon, anyway?” Elder St. James asked.

“On the toilet, I assume,” Blaine said.

“Never assume,” Elder Flanagan said in a low, confiding tone. “I assumed my companion was locking his bike in the rack behind me when we got to the train station two days ago, but, no, he was peddling down the street as fast as he could.”

“Not this again,” Elder St. James murmured under his breath.

Blaine frowned. When he'd met Elder Flanagan in the Ingolstadt train station, it had been to trade companions—Blaine got Kurt, and Elder Flanagan got Elder Thompson. Elder Thompson had been scheduled to go back to the U.S. sometime after Easter, Blaine remembered—but he'd told Blaine once that he’d stay on the mission another year if only the church would let him.

It was a shame that whatever companion had come along next for Elder Flanagan hadn't lived up to the same standards. Next to Kurt, Elder Thompson was the hardest working missionary Blaine had ever met, and the most sincere. He'd had such a strong testimony of the gospel, and it had been a hard-earned one, not easy the way it was for white kids from the Wasatch Front who had been taught since birth that they were a special generation whose valor in the war in heaven had earned them elevated status in the eyes of God. It had been nice for Blaine to work with somebody who wasn't white for once, and even though Elder Flanagan was white, he was an outsider in other ways, so Blaine imagined Elder Thompson must have been a relief for him as well.

And Elder Thompson had been so good with their investigators, understood all of their doubts and could speak to them, because he had experienced the same doubts too.

“Sorry the guy they assigned you after Elder Thompson didn't work out,” Blaine said.

Elder Flanagan looked at him, startled. “They haven't assigned me anyone yet. Not really. I mean, I have my buddy for today, but they’re still scrambling to figure out who I'm going to be working with now. Elder Thompson running away throws the numbers off, so I'll probably end up being part of a threesome.”

Blaine had to be hearing things wrong. Elder Flanagan’s accent wasn't that easy to understand. Maybe he wasn't saying Thompson. Maybe he was saying … no, he was definitely saying Thompson. “That doesn't make sense. His mission was almost over.”

“Yes, but—Du meine Güte!”

The room went dark. Everyone fell silent, the only sound the purr of running water. The lights flicked back on, then off, then on again.

Elder Nixon stood at the light switch. “TEN MINUTES TO BREAKFAST!” he belted out. It was sonorous. Almost musical.

A privacy curtain opened just outside the shower stall Blaine had been a few hours earlier. Kurt stepped out, his hair wet, his garments hugging his pale skin. They were the synthetic kind, sheer and translucent, the shape of Kurt’s nipples more than hints against the fabric, the darkness of the hair at the crux of his thighs evident—but only if you were looking, and Blaine definitely shouldn't be looking, he absolutely should not be looking, he certainly wasn’t looking at the bulge beneath the hair that his imagination had feverishly, gloriously conjured into his hand earlier that morning—look at his face, look at his face, Blaine—but that was almost worse, because he was even more beautiful than Blaine had remembered, the shape of his chin and the freckles dusting his cheekbones and the little wrinkle at the top of his nose as he looked inside his toiletry case for something, and

and

and

oh

Kurt was real.

He was real, and Blaine wanted him, and Blaine’s body was in the same room as Kurt’s body, and this evening their bodies would be even closer together on the train, and then they would be in the same room, in adjacent beds, their breath mingling, and everything so close, but Blaine couldn’t touch him, couldn’t tempt him, and

no

but

of course, Blaine didn't want to do those things, not if Kurt didn't want them.

It was okay.

Even without touching, Blaine could feel Kurt in the way his skin tingled and his breath caught and his body—

Blaine’s body

—felt so alive.

And God.

God of all things.

Kurt was beautiful.

[ambersky0319]

NNT Rewatch: Episode 2

Masterpost

College orientation is done, Camp Nano begins in two days, and I have plenty of free time right now! So! Time to continue the rewatch!

Also I should probably say, this being a rewatch, I will talk about things that happen later both in this season and the story in general

Okay so first of all, Netflix, you're asking to skip recap when this scene wasn't in the last episode

Secondly okay then her father wasn't laid up in bed sick when she escaped, but I wonder if he encouraged her to leave on her own because he knew he was/he'd get sick, or if he knew he'd just slow her down bc. I mean. He IS old

Gotta respect the holy knights still calling him Majesty when there to arrest him and while banging on his door-

Love characters with parental-related trauma, whether it's just related to the parents or the parents caused it. And Elizabeth (though not known yet) has BOTH of those

Anyway she'll be seeing holy knights burst into her father's room in her nightmares for a long time I'm sure

Also what was that roar. Like jesus you'd think one of the new generation had transformed then and there with it-

Also also Elizabeth's dress when fleeing is actually pretty cute and separately I like that purple cloak, and I gotta remember to draw her in it at some point

Final also give this poor girl a hug :(

It's interesting just how many demon types there are depicted in the intro (at least a huge variety in appearance) yet we don't really see a lot of them

First season it's the red and gray demons, then we see more humanoid ones (Meliodas and the commandments), and Grayroad, but then there's this hulking demon in the intro and some dragon-like ones. There's one I'm curious if it's what Galand is beneath the armor. And there's tons of - again fairly humanoid - demons in the Cursed by Light movie.

Just. I'm really curious why we had so many humanoid ones. I would've loved to see the more beastly or monstrous looking demons throughout the show more, if only because the designs look so cool

But then we also don't know how much of this art can be considered accurate since the goddesses are portrayed with only a single set of wings, so (assuming that this was art depicting stories passed down by humans) maybe none of these demons exist

It'd be really cool if they did tho

Also at the bottom we have two human armies facing against each other, one blue the other red, and supposedly fighting on their respective sides. So it's interesting to see humans being depicted to be split on who they should support in the Holy War, if anyone, kinda like what I assume was going on with Rou and the humans who attacked the Fairy King Forest in the first Holy War

One day I'll analyze the Sins' armor and how it fits to each of their characters perfectly

But today is not that day

NETSUJOU NO SPECTRUM

I just. I love the colors in this intro and every scene is just beautiful

Also Elizabeth and Meliodas, while standing hand in hand, are fairly far apart and I'm pretty sure in future intros they're MUCH closer together

Holding hands to show that their lives are intertwined/connected - hinting at the curse they're plagued with. But there's also distance between them that Meliodas is likely putting there, trying to keep Elizabeth at arms length to avoid accidentally activating the curse.

Like. Cmon. Elizabeth is closer to HAWK in the intro right there.

Alright I'm gonna be overanalyzing EVERYTHING if you hadn't caught on so here's more

In the scene they're lying in the grass Elizabeth is sleeping (or at least has her eyes closed) but Meliodas' eyes are wide open. Could be referencing how Elizabeth will die/has died but will come back (reincarnation -> sleep cycle) whereas Meliodas will continue to live (never truly dying -> awake). Like he closes his eyes for a moment then springs up, kinda like a brief respite before getting back into the thick of things

I'm definitely reading too far into it and idk if it makes sense but I'm fine with that

Too bad we don't see more of the Necropolis. I feel like it'd be interesting to explore more.

Especially the differences between there and Purgatory imo

And we're back with the sexualization

Like even if Elizabeth was just naive she's a TEENAGE PRINCESS you're telling me she doesn't know proper etiquette and what would be considered inappropriate behavior?

Meliodas just dodging her question so effectively that even when she hits the nail on the head (sorta, could what he did really be considered a crime when everyone else was dead?) he just says "well, maybe" and she just. Doesn't bring it up again I think?

Anyway I also just love the look on his face when he says maybe-

WHERE DOES THE PATH LEADING TO THE BOAR HAT COME FROM

MAMA HAWK JUST DIGS DOWN AND IS GREEN AS THE GRASS AROUND HER BUT SHE DOESNT HAVE A PATH PATTERN AND THE STEPS TO THE BOAR HAT ARE FAR ENOUGH THAT THEY WOULDNT REACH THE EXISTING PATH

But also I love that there's a path leading to nowhere on this hill. Meliodas sells Vanya ale regularly from the looks of it (we see it in episode 1) so I wonder if the path is just there for when the boar hat is in town

Also it's a crime Meliodas became king of Liones

Man knows his stuff about alcohol and he seemed to actually enjoy running the tavern. He should gave just remained a bartender. He didn't even really WANT to be ruler of ANYTHING

I mean. Sir. Look at him then compare him to literally every person around you. You think he can SEE what's going on???

Wait I forgot Twigo wasn't a holy knight

Also apparently I accidentally quoted Meliodas in Eternal (Gelda saying "That twigo guy" in ch 19)

Surprised we don't see more people other than Mead say they're buddies with the Sins, but at the same time it makes sense bc the Holy Knights? But like damn you telling me not one grown ass arrogant bastard decided to scare people by saying this?

I actually love a lot of the villager designs in Vanya. Like there's so many types of people (body type wise at least)!! It's great!!!!

Girl practice your aim better

But also Elizabeth's reaction to Meliodas getting nailed in the face with a rock is gold 😂

Also also Meliodas didn't budge after getting a - pretty decent size - rick straight to the face

The way he just ushers Mead off like "alright we're going and you're mine now let's go"

"why are they hitting me" boy you're literally between him and the villagers?????

Why wasn't the rock-throwing stopped until AFTER Mead was gone??????????

Mead looking all cheeky and Meliodas just like "Brat. You're gonna regret this." when Mead insists on eating before telling Meliodas anything

While I am miffed over them not using more of Elizabeth's physical abilities in the show, I do absolutely love just how big her heart is and how she's such an empathetic person

Like she figures out what Mead's deal is before going to confront him and connects with him through it and just ughshfhdh

The shock on this kid's face when he suddenly realizes he's talking to someone who will completely understand him

Also he looked so surprised when Elizabeth got down to his level and like

This just shows a really healthy way of talking with kids and trying to get to the root of the problem. She starts with what she's heard, then gets to his level and connects with him and just.... my heart....

And like. It WORKS. He opens up about what's really going on because Elizabeth opened up to him

The way they just look at Meliodas - who wasn't paying attention lol - after Mead's explanation

What tf are these knights even thinking like. Mdudes you got no powers. You ain't holy knights. What if the village just decided to mob you? Every single one of em looks twice as strong as you

Anyway

They should've mobbed the two idiots

"That's the power of one of the Seven Deadly Sins" I mean. The sword thing? Not really? Since pretty much ANY Holy Knight could've removed the sword. Just happened to be him

But if we're talking his kindness to do it? Like him just having a big heart? Then yeah

Wonder if Mead was gonna ask if he was a Sin or just a Holy Knight

That lil push and "Go on" and the village and like ajdjfjfjfhfjfjf

I love this episode so much and I always forget how much I love it

Also! Perfect Time still playing in the background! I don't remember much about future seasons but I don't remember it playing much in more emotionally triumphant scenes rather than physical

Like the fight with the DK and even SD, while somewhat emotionally charged, were more about the physical triumph than the emotional

Perfect Time in this episode doesn't kick in until AFTER Meliodas pulls the sword and then it plays in the background, lasting until the scene changes to the Boar Hat

It was used to emphasize this as a win, because it was a win for these people's spirits and less about Meliodas' physical win

ITS CALLED THE FOREST OF WHITE DREAMS OKAY

I love the foreshadowing of Gilthunder's story, because while we don't know much about him or what the fuck that raven is and why it looks so evil, we know they're connected somehow but don't know how

Also the raven is outside observing Gilthunder, through the glass, maybe highlighting how Gilthunder is trapped under Vivian's vigilance AND how Vivian cannot truly see Gilthunder (who's in a chair blocking the view of the window and therefore letting him hide from Vivian)

That is a really nifty power of Gilthunder's and it's a damn shame we NEVER SEE HIM USE IT AGAIN

Love seeing the customers starting at Hawk in shock but also nervously lol

I do love all the foreshadowing to the curse without blatantly showing that foreshadowing

After Meliodas confirms there's something Elizabeth is meant to do, he says "And I have something that I'm meant to do" and while it's clear to people who know he's talking about how he has to break the curse to first time watchers it could mean something much different, like he's meant to protect the people or save them (because, as revealed later, that's why he's the sin of wrath - he failed to save the people of Danafor but also he's protecting THESE PEOPLE now too)

Him catching and then throwing the spear back will never NOT be epic

Wonder how close Meliodas got to hitting Vivian's raven

It's been a LOOOOOONG time since I last listened and watched this outro oml

Also poor Diane having to walk while everyone else can just pass the nights sleeping

She's been sleeping in the forest to prepare for how long she'll have to walk awake once she joins everyone else

And that's episode three! Yknow I thought I was going fast-paced with Eternal but now I realize we get introduced to some of the characters REALLY FAST

Anyway if you got this far, you're fantastic! Lmk what your favorite nnt race is if you want and - if YOU want to ramble too - why?

[devilofthehounds]

God Eater 3 Character Novel | Spinning Bonds: Chapter 3

[image id: A novel cover. Zeke Pennywort from God Eater 3 stands with his back to the viewer, his scarf billowing in the wind. Overlaid within the scarf is an image of a young Zeke with his four brothers, smiling happily. The text, when translated into English, reads “God Eater 3 Character Novel | Chapter 4: Zeke Edition | Spinning Bonds”. /end id]

This is a fan translation. Original text here.

Masterpost 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8

For a while after that, we spent our days as part of the base.

Using the safe routes that the peddler showed him, Saul made daily expeditions in the trailer to sell valuable goods that Rhys picked out.

Today, he was taking Keith with him to a nearby settlement to set up a market stall.

The rest of us stayed behind at the base, enjoying some peace and quiet for the first time in a while.

"...And that's it. That's how you play poker. With me so far?"

"Yeah... Kinda."

We were sitting on the rooftop. Rhys was teaching me how to play cards.

"So, this is the strongest hand. Four cards of the same number plus a joker, making five cards."

Spade. Heart. Diamond. Club. And the most powerful of all: the joker.

Rhys arranged the five cards, this particular set being aces.

"Huh, so this is the strongest... Five of the same type. Hey, just like us!"

"That's right. The strongest hand symbolizes the strongest bond... I like the sound of that."

Rhys smiled. But then—

"Rhys! Zeke!"

Neal came up from downstairs.

"What's up, Neal? Huh... What's that?"

Perched on Neal's fingertips was a butterfly with the most amazing wings I'd ever seen.

"It came through the window just now! Can I keep it?"

Neal's eyes shined with excitement as he spoke, a rarity for him.

Though it looked like it could fly away at any moment, the butterfly stayed still, looking quite comfortable on Neal's finger.

"Alright, Neal, you can keep it. But don't let it run loose! I don't want to find bugs all over the house!"

"Aw... Why not? They're all so cute."

Neal brought his hand out of his pocket to reveal several spiders, happily crawling about.

"Gah! Why would you put those things in your clothes?! Gross! Get rid of them!"

When I said that, Neal's eyes narrowed.

".........Fine."

The next moment, Neal threw the swarm of spiders at me.

My high-pitched scream echoed throughout the base.

I ran outside, desperately shaking out my clothes to get rid of the spiders, which had somehow gotten on my back. At the same time, Saul and Keith pulled up in the trailer.

"We're back! ...Huh? Zeke, what's wrong? Why are you crying?"

"I'm not crying! Neal, he—he..."

I turned around. Through my tears, I could see Neal on the rooftop, snickering. Next to him, Rhys waved down at us, clearly exasperated.

"Alright, what happened? Are you two fighting again? Be sure to make up with each other later, got it?"

As he climbed out of the passenger's seat, Keith was snickering, too.

"We're home!"

"Hey, Keith, welcome back! Did you find anything interesting?"

"Mm-hm! Check it out!"

Keith held up an old robot toy with three drills on its arm.

"Keith was amazing. He took this broken toy and used some parts that were lying around and got it working again."

Keith flipped a switch, and the robot's drills started spinning.

"Whoa! So cool! Did you really fix it all by yourself?"

"Eheheh..."

"Looks like Keith has a talent for tinkering with machines. ...You know, Dad always used to say, 'If you give your all to master your chosen craft, then that can only increase your odds of survival.' Maybe Keith just proved him right."

"Dad said that...?"

"Yeah; it's what he left behind... But if you really like machines, Keith, you should give it a shot. Who knows; it may come in handy one day."

"Yeah... Yeah! I'll do it! I'll remember those words!"

Today was just full of rare expressions, wasn't it?

It was the first time I'd ever seen Keith so happy.

"Well, anyway, gather round, everyone. I've got a bit of an interesting story to tell."

At Saul's request, the five of us convened.

"I heard this from the people at the settlement we stopped at today. Apparently, there's a Port ship making the rounds in this area... to try and take kids to safety."

A Port. If I remembered right, it was a new type of base that started getting built after the Calamity.

I'd heard it was supposed to be safer than a satellite base, and that God Eaters were deployed to protect the people who lived there.

"I'm thinking of making contact with the ship. If we can strike a deal with a Port, we might be able to get some protection. Even if we can't, we might be able to get supplies delivered to the base. This could be our chance."

My eyes lit up, hearing such news.

But for some reason, Saul looked troubled.

"But... it sounds pretty fishy. From what I've heard, it's only young kids that get taken in. I've even heard word of parents being separated from their own kids."

"Huh...?"

"I don't know the details, but we shouldn't let our guard down. Still, if we can establish a connection with the Port, we'll be able to rest easy for the time being. I don't want to miss this opportunity."

It was a new hope, one I never could've imagined.

Perhaps our journey together was nearing its goal.

"Hey, Saul. The Port's protected by God Eaters, right? Then... why don't we become God Eaters?"

I'd heard that even kids could become God Eaters.

The ultimate warrior that could defeat Aragami. With that kind of power, there'd be nothing to fear.

Plus, if even one of us became a God Eater, we'd have an easier time getting the Port to protect our family.

"I bet I could—"

"No way."

It was rare for Saul to speak so harshly.

"...Look, Zeke. I know you just want to protect our family. And hearing that makes me really happy. But becoming a God Eater is off the table."

"But why?! I'd be super strong, I know it!"

"And after you get strong, then what? You'd spend your days doing nothing but fighting Aragami, never knowing when you might die. ...We're not aiming for a battlefield. We're aiming for safety."

Saul knelt down, looked me in the eye, and gently ruffled my hair.

"We five brothers are one. ...We don't let anyone cross a rickety bridge alone. Alright?"

"...'M sorry."

When it came to taking risks, the five of us had to stick together. I knew that.

But in reality, it was always Saul and Rhys crossing those rickety bridges to protect us.

It was about time I protected my brothers, too.

"I hope you understand. Now, let's get that cargo unloaded! All together now!"

Although Rhys patted me on the head and told me not to worry about anything, it still felt like he was treating me like a little kid, so I couldn't really cheer up.

Midnight, that same day.

As the sky began to turn white, I suddenly woke up and realized Neal wasn't in his bed.

I snuck out so I wouldn't wake anyone. After searching for a while, I found Neal crouched in a corner of the base, hugging his knees.

"Neal! What are you doing outside this late? Wait... Are you... crying?"

"I'm sorry... I'm sorry..."

Seeing Neal quietly shedding tears, I quickly knelt down next to him.

Laying at his feet was the butterfly from earlier.

"Is... Is it dead?"

"I put it in the container properly, but... when I went to check on it, it was already..."

Neal's eyes were red and puffy as he stared at the butterfly's unmoving body.

"You've been crying out here this whole time...?"

I'd thought it was just one little insect.

But to Neal, it had been an irreplaceable friend.

"...I'm sorry, Neal. I said some nasty things about your friends."

I sat down beside him and put my arm around his shoulders.

We stayed like that for a while until Neal calmed down.

"...You know, Zeke? I agree with Saul."

"Huh?"

"I don't want you to become a God Eater... I don't want you to go off on your own."

Neal stared at me, his eyes full of tears.

"I want all of us to stay together forever. Keith feels the same way, I'm sure. So please... Don't even think about doing anything dangerous, okay?"

I really was a terrible big brother.

How could I protect my little brother if I was the one making him feel like this?

I was the worst, not even considering my brothers' feelings.

"...You're right. I didn't think about how it'd make you guys feel."

I held Neal's shoulders tightly.

As I shared my body's warmth with his, cold from crying all night, I made an oath.

"Sorry. I won't say anything stupid like that again. We five brothers are one, right?"

"...Promise?"

"Yeah, I promise! I won't leave anyone behind, and I won't leave anyone alone! So, there's no need to cry!"

Neal wiped his eyes. This time, he gave me a small smile.

I wanted to be able to help my brothers, too. That feeling rang true, but... in the end, maybe my brothers were right. I was being too hasty.

What I should do. What I could do. I was so close.

I had an important mission: to protect the bonds between us brothers.

[idyllcy]

from one admirer to another : scrambled

pairing: leon kennedy x reader || masterpost: from one admirer to another

synopsis: from one admirer to another, an online penpal service, allows for two people with common interests to write to each other without ever revealing their actual address! Luckily for both you and Leon, you get matched up! What do eggs and Christmas even have in common anyway? sure hope it's that modeling business and NOT that Ada Wong addiction.

featuring: reader as scrambled eggs // leon as christmas

Dear scrambled eggs,

Thank you for that Ada print. It's going into my shrine (you were weird first, alright? Don't go calling me weird now.) and the fact that it's signed? crying screaming throwing up. Also, how dare you call yourself her day one? I was there when she first debuted you can NOT be more day one than me (joke).

I like my eggs in the form of shakshuka. If you haven't tried it before, you really should. It's delicious. It's basically eggs in tomato-based sauce with a ton of other spices and god it's so good I could just die. My favorite season... probably Thanksgiving. I know turkey gets pretty boring at times, but the cranberry sauce that my friends make is so good it's criminal. And, yes, I am unfortunately no different from you, but that's our secret, alright? I think I do an okay job of pretending to be normal at work.

Life updates... I had a shoot with a random model two weeks ago and I'm unable to get the way their hand felt on my bicep out of my head. I felt like a teenager all over again when they did. I'm not a teen anymore, and it's been a hot minute since I have been. Is this the curse of working with attractive people as a model? It was my first time seeing them, and the director didn't even refer to them by name, so my assumption is they don't do that many shoots. Maybe I'll be lucky and never see them again? Big day for losers in love (me). I'm kidding. I'm moving too fast. This'll be over in a couple of days. It's not like they're as hot as Ada— but they're pretty damn close. Got any advice for a loser who's just fallen in love at first sight?

Other than that run-in with the model, I got a couple of days off last week which I was supposed to enjoy, only to get absolutely obliterated by okaokra's newest chapter on glhf <3. Why am I an Ada stan who likes angst. Why am I cursed to love the way okra writes? I am not immune to the Ada brainrot or whatever the youth are saying these days. Every time I think of Ada I feel a little more like those twitter artist reaction memes of them biting wood.

The good thing about being only semi-well-known in the industry though is the fact that I can still sneak around at local events as a fan. It's nice that masks are so accessible nowadays. I'll be stopping by at the Ada-themed cupsleeve event in Raccoon in a couple of days, so I'll probably mail you a little something from that. So, if my letter finds you late, my apologies.

Oh, right, since we're on that topic. Merry Christmas, and happy new year.

See you around? Christmas

The cupsleeve event is relatively easy to sneak into for Leon. He puts on old glasses from college and a jacket that makes him look a lot younger than he really is, and he orders an Ada drink, grinning at the table on the side when he spots a familiar face.

"You're an Ada fan?"

You blink up at him, visibly surprised, and he takes a step back.

"Sorry, I thought you looked familiar—"

"No! I'm the same person. Yeah, I'm a big Ada fan. I'm running the event this time, actually. I model for spare money to host events like this." You scratch your cheek. "Wanna enter the lottery?"

"And what would I get?"

"A limited edition, signed, Ada photocard."

"What is this, Kpop? —take my ten." He hands you a bill nearly immediately, and the two girls at the table with you jump in their skin.

"Wow, you're down horrendous, huh?" You hand the ten to the girls, patting his shoulder. "How should I get the stuff to you? You have to leave a social or something."

"Mm..." He clicks in his twitter handle, and you blink slowly.

"Can I bid for it?"

"That was not the plan, but I mean—"

"You'd have to out-bid them." One of the girls get up to put their hands on your shoulders, and you scratch your cheek.

"How much did you pay for it?"

"The base price is two hundred dollars." You grin.

"Mm... and if I give you three hundred?"

"It's signed, so no."

"Shame." Leon clicks his tongue. "I would've paid good money for that photocard."

Leon turns his head at the sound of the door opening, eyes widening as Ada herself steps through the doors to her cupsleeve event. The people in the coffee shop yell as she does, too many people crowding around her to beg for a signed autograph on their cupsleeve.

"Guys, give her a little space." You call from the table.

The people ignore you, and you scoff.

"Do you need—" Leon's cut off by your actions instead.

You grab the megaphone on the table and nod at the workers, most of them covering their ears as you yell.

"CAN YOU GUYS GIVE HER SOME SPACE, PLEASE?"

The megaphone renders everyone quiet, and Ada laughs.

"I'll sign one by one at the table. Please let me sit first. I just finished a shoot." She waves thank you to everyone as she takes your seat, and you ask her if she needs anything to drink. Leon finds that it's almost as if you planned it, and as Ada meets eyes with him at the table, his heart flips.

She's literally so hot. He's going to pass out.

"Well, since you're here. Do you want a signed cupsleeve too?"

"Yes, please." Leon fumbles as he hands her his cup, looking for a pen, and Ada hums.

"It's good. I brought a sharpie."

"Can you sign my arm— wait, that would violate my contract." Leon purses his lips.

"Do you model?" She asks almost naturally, signature smooth on his plastic cup as she hands it back to him.

"I started just a little ago."

"Any major goals?"

Leon steps to the side to let the other fans get something signed. "I'd like to have a shoot with you one day."

"I look forward to seeing you at a shoot one day, then." She hums. "Who knows? Maybe we'll meet at a runway too. What's your name?"

"Leon. Leon Scott Kennedy."

Leon's heart flips into this throat, and his cheeks turn red.

God, he's going to pass out.

prev letter : masterlist : next letter

[thatforgottenbasilisk]

Dear Diary

Word Count: 3621 (AO3) (My Fic Masterpost)

Originally Posted on 4/21/2024

Rating: T

Summary:

Excerpts from the diary of sixteen-year-old Todoroki Fuyumi, during and after the disaster at Ujiko Daruma's underground laboratory, which led to the escape of many unfinished Noumus and children not yet subjected to the experimentation.

For Febuwhump 2024 Day 16: Came Back Wrong

Dear Diary,

It's been three years since Touya died. It still doesn't feel real, sometimes, but I guess you never stop missing people, do you? I still say I have three brothers, sometimes. I have to correct myself. It's so embarrassing, since everyone else gets all sad and awkward about it. They keep assuming it happened recently, and I have to tell them no, it was three years ago, I'm just not over it yet.

I don't know if I'll ever really be over it.

I'm not really the eldest. Dad doesn't even refer to me like that, even though he's the one who wants to move on the most. He always calls me his "eldest daughter," or else his only daughter. I'm never just the eldest. That suits me fine.

I wonder if Shouto still remembers him. He does now, probably, though if Dad caught me bringing him up to Shouto I'd probably be beaten within an inch of my life.

Not really. He doesn't think of me the same as my brothers. He wouldn't lay a hand on me, and I don't know if that makes me lucky. Maybe it does, maybe it doesn't, but either way my only bruises are self-inflicted or accidental.

I don't know if Shouto will still remember Touya in a few years, is what I really mean. I don't know if he was too young to remember anything about him. When Shouto's a teenager, is it ever going to cross his mind that he outlived his brother? Will anyone tell him? Dad says we shouldn't say anythi

I have to go. Someone's knocking on the front door.

-----

Dear Diary,

Sorry about yesterday. It was just a salesman, going door-to-door to sell... I forget what it was. I wasn't listening, really, and I think he could tell, because he was pretty quick to leave. I don't think he knew whose house he was at, which is a good thing, I guess. Better if it's just an anonymous interaction than him knowing there could be famous people to meet or something. He would've probably asked if Dad was home, and that would've freaked me out.

I mean, what do you do in that situation? Tell some stranger that you're home alone, or make one of Dad's fans mad? He knows your home address!!

Anyway. That's not a situation I've ever encountered, with someone who's a fan coming to the door, and I hope it stays that way. Dad got home almost immediately after that, having barely missed the salesman, and I had to get started on dinner and homework and everything. I honestly forgot I just left in the middle of a page like that until today, but oh well. It doesn't matter, really, it's not like you have thoughts or anything like that.

At least Dad's working late tonight. He'll get his own food, because he doesn't expect me to make dinner for him if it means I won't go to bed early enough to be rested for school. School is all he cares about, and I don't think I mind much. I get good grades, and he doesn't look at me, and everything is fine and everything stays fine.

I think I'll just make food for Natsuo and Shouto; there are leftovers from yesterday in the refrigerator, but only enough for one person. I still mess up the portions sometimes, but at least I always make enough! I liked yesterday's dinner, too, so I'll be fine being the one to eat it. Natsuo has hockey practice today, so he'll want more food than is in that leftover box, and Shouto's picky enough that I don't think he'll even touch any leftovers. He gets persnickety about textures in his food. He doesn't usually say anything, but I pay attention; he always just pushes around things that have been reheated or anything that's mushy in a similar way.

I don't think I want to keep on the same train of thought I was on yesterday. I hope Touya's happy, wherever he is, whatever place we go to when we die. I'm not sure what I believe in, personally, and I think I'll just find out when I get there, decades from now.

Anyway. That's enough about that. I think I should get started on dinner; Natsuo's going to be home soon, and I don't want him trying to help instead of doing his homework. You know how he tries anything to put it off!

-----

Dear Diary,

There weren't any leftovers in the refrigerator yesterday. I know there was supposed to be a bowl in there, I'm not crazy, but it was gone and nobody will admit to eating it. I would believe Shouto of doing it, since if he admits to anything outside of Dad's direct approval, he's probably in for all kinds of punishment- except there's no way he would touch them, he hates reheated food. Natsuo would just admit to it. Dad wasn't there, but he wouldn't have done it either- if he got hungry or something when I wasn't there, he'd have gone to one of the places near his agency.

That just leaves me, and I didn't touch it.

It's not a big deal, I saw that it wasn't there before I started making Natsuo and Shouto's food, so I just made some for myself, but it's still weird, you know? Nobody would have taken it.

That reminds me of something that happened last week- Natsuo said his soccer ball was missing. It also wasn't really a big deal, it's hockey season right now so he's not exactly playing with it at the moment, but it was strange. Nobody other than Natsuo would've touched it, and Natsuo had only known it was missing because it wasn't under his bed, which is where he keeps it during hockey season so that it doesn't get in the way of anything else (he explained it to me when I was trying to tell him that his closet would probably be a better place to put it).

We found his soccer ball after two days. It was in Touya's old room. Nobody ever goes in there.

The room itself was almost undisturbed. There was dust on all the bookshelves, including on the books themselves, plus some of the trophies and medals he got from martial arts, back when Dad let him do that instead of Hero training. The blankets and clothes were dry-rotted, and a lot of the cloth stuff had holes where moths had gone at it.

In the center of the room was Natsuo's soccer ball, the one thing that didn't have any dust on it.

I was the one who found it. I had just kind of been looking through all the rooms, not paying a lot of attention to which doors I was opening, and I found it. I grabbed the ball and closed the window- someone must have left it open while airing the place out, the air would've gotten so stale otherwise- and decided not to think anything of it. Natsuo must have brought it in there for some reason and decided not to tell me, or else just forgot.

He's lucky that Touya's room is on the second floor- imagine if he'd left a window open on the ground floor! We'd have burglars in no time flat!

Anyway, it's all kind of weird. I would wonder if someone really did get in through that window, except if they snuck in like that, we'd be missing our expensive things, right? My jewelry box is untouched- I just checked, and everything is still exactly where it should be- and nobody's said anything about missing electronics or other expensive things. Nothing that would have reason to be stolen. Just leftovers and a displaced soccer ball.

I think I'll make extra food tonight, just as an experiment. I'll let you know if it disappears, too.

-----

Dear Diary,

The leftovers were gone again. Something is definitely up, and I want to find out what. I'm tempted to set up cameras in the kitchen, but I don't have the money to buy any. Also, I feel like anywhere I could put them would also be very visible? It wouldn't be hard to avoid cameras.

I think I'll do my homework at the dining room table tonight, after making too much food again- there's a bag of carrots I don't want to let go to waste, so I figure I'll use them all. It'll just be a change of scenery to help me study for my biology exam next week, that's what I'll tell Dad when I set up my things in there after dinner. Maybe I'll even stay up the whole night- I don't have school tomorrow, so it's not like I'll suffer for it. If anybody asks, though, this last part is an accident.

If nobody comes into the kitchen and the leftovers are still gone, then somebody in the family is stealing the leftovers without telling me. If nobody comes into the kitchen and the leftovers are still there, I'll have to come up with another way to watch what's going on.

If a stranger comes into the kitchen, Dad taught me how to use my quirk. Not a lot, of course, but enough.

-----

there's a monster in my fucking house

its tall too tall and cold cold cold all around it

fingers too long it scratched the walls how didnt i notice before

im hiding in the closet i dont know if it saw me

i saw all of its teeth. it didnt have a mouth really no cheeks no lips just teeth.

im scared

i dont wanna die

it reminded me of touya. it stole his eyes

-----

Dear Diary,

I must have fallen asleep last night without meaning to. I had a horrible nightmare, but it couldn't have been real!

I dreamed that the leftovers were stolen by some kind of monster, but that's just absurd. There aren't any scratches on the walls or anything, not like I dreamed there were. Of course, I didn't see any scratching, I just heard it, but a sound like that would've left marks!

It wasn't a quirk. If it was real, that is. If it was real, it wouldn't have been a quirk, because I know what unfortunate quirks look like and that was something else entirely. Something was wrong with that thing.

Good thing it wasn't real.

I found the bowl used for the leftovers in the sink this morning. Guess it's someone having a late-night snack! I think it might be Shouto- maybe he's figured out how to use his quirk to reheat food in a way that doesn't change its texture? That would be useful for him, I think. He already uses it to turn soba cold when he thinks I don't notice him doing it.

I think I'm going to keep studying in my room from now on. The dining room isn't good for sleeping.

-----

i can hear it in touya's old room

it's making strange noises they aren't human it isn't human it isn't it cant be

it's like a low howl

almost like crying

im writing this in the dark so it doesnt see the light from my room

it sounds like pain

i dont like it

leave me alone

-----

Dear Diary,

There is something in this hou

-----

Dear Diary,

Ghosts are real. I know it. I'm being haunted by one, I know it for certain, he's haunting us becau

-----

Dear Diary,

Ayane from school invited me over for a sleepover tomorrow night!

Dad says I'm not allowed. He doesn't know that anything is wro

-----

Dear Diary,

Sorry for ripping so many pages out. That's the last one, though, so don't worry!

Ayane from school invited me over for a sleepover tomorrow night. I asked Dad if I could go, but he said no; I have too much homework, and somebody has to clean up the house. I don't know why I can't take one night off of taking care of everything, but I guess that's just the way it is. I think he might be a little paranoid right now, too; he said something about not wanting me to be out after dark, or leaving the house for too long.

Maybe he's got a bad case going on. Sometimes he gets weird just before a big case he's involved in hits the news; the kind with lots of press conferences, and they're always the kind of press conferences where he says something "as a father," or about "my own children," or something else about my brothers and I. The reprehensible cases, with the kinds of people that remind him that at least he's not the worst father out there; he always gets twitchy, then. I think he's got one of them now, maybe that's why he's acting weird.

He's going to be home late again today, tomorrow too, he already told me, but he says he doesn't know what time for either. If he doesn't know what time, then I don't either, so I can't even sneak over to Ayane's for an afternoon. What a disappointment.

I keep having those dreams. They're nightmares, really, of the same monster that I dreamed of in the kitchen on Saturday night. I haven't told anybody the specifics, because that would be stupid, wouldn't it? A monster that looks like a distorted version of my dead brother- no, that would just be worrying people for no reason. I can keep things to myself, and if I can't, that's why I have you!

-----

Dear Diary,

Sorry for not writing for a few days. I've been kind of busy, what with Dad hardly ever being home- guess I was right about that big case. If he's here, he's in his office, writing more reports or more emails or more of whatever paperwork he has to do. I don't really care about the specifics; he's not dying when he's home, and he could be out dying when he's at work, that's about the extent of my interest in it. I don't want to go Pro, anyway, I never have and I never will, so there's nothing in it for me to go snooping in his office. I never have before.

He keeps on telling Natsuo and I not to go in there. He says we can't even glance at any of those papers, they're top secret, except he's worked on plenty of top-secret things before without being so uptight about it. He's probably telling Shouto the same thing, but neither of them have confirmed that. Shouto doesn't really talk at dinner, which is the only time I'm allowed to talk to him, and I don't want to waste that time talking about Dad.

It's all got Natsuo freaked out. I can hear him pacing over in his room, practically stomping- he's gotten so much taller in just a month, I think he's forgotten how to be quiet, at least Dad's not home to get mad at him over it- he's got all these conspiracy theories about how it has something to do with the Yakuza, or some other organized crime syndicate that could have hits out on us if we figure it out. I don't believe any of that, necessarily, but I definitely agree that it's weird.

Anyway, if Dad's not home a whole lot, it means that when he's done with this whole case, he's going to be even worse about the house being clean, and our grades being good, and everything else he has to make sure is still running well without him being there for a while. So I've been pretty busy lately, and I keep forgetting to write in a proper entry.

Proper entry! Okay!

... Nothing's really happened other than what I already wrote in for today. I got my biology exam back? I did pretty well on it. I mixed up some of the chemicals in the Krebs cycle, but other than that, I got pretty much everything else right.

My weird dreams haven't stopped, but I can't do much about it. There's no real news other than the test and that.

-----

Dear Diary,

I let my curiosity get the better of me.

-----

Dear Diary,

I'm not dreaming.

Natsuo saw it too. He can hear it at night. He says it has Touya's voice. He says he would recognize it even muffled through a thousand walls, which I think is kind of exaggerated.

Shouto hasn't seen it, though. I made sure to comment on hearing weird noises at night- I said I thought it was birds or too much wind, something stupid- and Shouto said he didn't hear anything. It would be impossible not to hear it if you were nearby, so he must not have seen it, either.

I think I might let my curiosity get the better of me again. It's not like Dad's going to be home to find out.

-----

it wasnt an accident

it cant have been

sekoto peak was planned by someone and they took him

they took him and they killed him

again

and again

and again

-----

Dear Diary,

Natsuo's curious, too. I already told you about that, but I'm making sure his curiosity doesn't get the better of him. He's clumsier than I am, less detail-oriented, and I know Dad is very particular about his office. If anyone was to go in there, they should make sure everything looks completely untouched. Natsuo wouldn't be as careful about that as he should be.

I found papers about this underground doctor. He goes by multiple names, some of which date back to the Dawn of Quirks. His quirk is unknown, but suspected to be longevity-related for this reason.

He's apparently connected to someone whose name and all aliases are redacted. Guess even Dad doesn't have full access to that.

He's been conducting experiments. Children are taken from their homes, or off the streets, with falsified evidence of their deaths planted as needed. Then, he engineered extra quirks in them, through unknown means. Most of them died. There were pictures.

That was another reason I didn't let Natsuo see.

They found out because of an incident in Fukuoka. There was some kind of disaster, and some of them managed to escape before sustaining life-threatening injury. Most hadn't yet been experimented on, but a few had. The children are all currently wanted for questioning. Many of those who had been experimented on were able to formulate basic thoughts and perform simple or familiar tasks, such as getting on the train and navigating to their old homes.

I told Natsuo the basics. We agree on a lot of things that he thinks of that.

-----

touya's dental records were found in that lab

-----

Dear Diary,

Dad hasn't been home in days. I keep seeing him in the background of live coverage of the area around the disaster in Fukuoka, on the news, late at night. He doesn't look like he's slept at all.

He won't find what he's looking for.

-----

we know who is in our house

i want to help him

i dont know what they did to him

does he remember me?

probably not

-----

Dear Diary,

I called Dad. He didn't pick up, so I called his agency. They told me he's busy outside of Musutafu, I don't have clearance to know where. I told them that the news cameras already told me where he is, and I already know enough about the Noumu case that he doesn't, so if they could relay a message to him, that would be fantastic. I don't usually get mad at anybody that works for Dad, but I think they kind of deserved it right then. I'm sixteen, not stupid.

I told them to tell him that I said he needs to come home.

He says he'll be on his way in the morning. I guess I'm skipping school tomorrow.

Natsuo's going, though. He can't miss hockey practice, and he doesn't need to hear everything that's going to be said.

-----

Dear Diary,

I haven't written here in a while, have I?

They found Touya. He'd been hiding in his old room when he wasn't out. Apparently he'd been hiding under his bed during the day.

They questioned him on everything. I wasn't there for that bit, but there were a lot of police in and around the house for a while. Guess they weren't comfortable taking him to a holding cell, that or Dad wasn't letting them. I think it might have been some of both.

I don't know how much they can do for him. He's being treated by a bunch of the best doctors, some from other countries who were flown in for the whole thing, the same as everyone else who escaped from the lab. There's been a lot of progress!! Touya can talk now, which isn't something he could do before, but he can't say much. We don't know if he'll ever be able to use complete sentences, or use his quirk, or make it somehow known that he remembers anybody from before, but then again, nobody does. All we can do is hope.

They still haven't found that doctor, not for lack of trying. They've tracked down two more labs, each with more kids and more press coverage. I think there's a news van camped outside of the house and the hospital both, at this rate. I have to be driven to school because of the press.

Everything's turned upside down, but I don't think I'd trade it for anything. I have Touya back, no matter what form he's in, and that's enough for me.

[tryingtimi]

Taglists for the WIPs in the individual posts. To sign up for any of the taglists, please fill out this form. I will also share snippets and crumbs from projects other than these three as well. Those will be tagged with timis other stories, but I'll make them a masterpost someday for organisation purposes. ♡

〄 METALSEA SERIES settled with this one for now

When Cronyl, the exiled young driadlin man tries to fight against a fairly corrupt kingdom alone in a reshaped world that no longer bears humans on its back; an unexpected Turn of the Metalsea happens to upset everyone's plans — and life itself on both half of the planet it holds together. Confused and disoriented, Cronyl teams up with the people who he stumbles upon in the chaos and they begin to wander together, revealing more and more secrets about their roots and the world they thought they knew.

PROJECT PAGE

Masterposts

SNIPPET | CHARACTER | WORLDBUILDING

genre: epic fantasy, adventure, with a sprinkle of romance pov: past-tense, third person limited, also a lof of character (i think i have at least 5 MCs) setting: fairly typical high fantasy, but i try to come up with as much original stuff as i can — hopefully original races for example, also a little bit steampunkish later in the story status: slowly starting the first draft — when i can finally stop worldbuilding plus note: i plan this to be a series of 4 or 5 books, because i can't write short stuff if i happen to start writing tag: #Project Metalsea

◉ IQRUS temporary title, sometimes I call it Project Icarus

A slowly growing, great gap separates the two borther, Dane and Adran Cohren, when they begin to fight againts Aetherius' otherwordly horrors on the brink of human extinction.

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Masterposts

SNIPPET | CHARACTERS | WORLDBUILDING

genre: sci-fi, fantasy, eldritch-lovecraftian horror or thriller (not sure yet), probably a little grimdark pov: past-tense, third person limited, more than one character pov setting: cyberpunkish, futuristic, deepwater stuff and a fair amount of bullshit science status: outlining and drafting plus note: i know the description is very vague but i couldn't write one without too much worldbuilding (yet), so i'll make it up some later, maybe when the individual post is up already tag: #IQRUS

☏ LONEL settled with this one for now

Lonel has two secrets. One, he is the last of his kind since his mother was killed. Two, he is certain a vampire is to blame. These, however, are secrets he can’t tell anyone about. Vampires do not exist, and he can't be sure if his mind could be trusted anyway. Until one day, during his daily forensic cleaner job, he witnesses a scene that changes everything.

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Masterposts

SNIPPET | CHARACTERS | WOLRDBUILDING

genre: neo-noir, thriller, urban fantasy pov: past-tense, third person limited setting: Wolf Among Us and 1960s-esque city with full of crime and all. status: brainstorming and outlining plus note: i need to come up with a better summary, but all in all this is it. everything is subject to change, especially since i may or may not want them to be vampires or werewolves but something a bit more unique, even tho the base concepts are the same. tag: #Project Lonel

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TIMISRECS. I reblog works from here to keep others' works I enjoyed in one place. TIMISHELPSAVES. The URL says all. I reblog writing advice, helpful tips and such from here.

#timisramble | #get to know timi | #timis general worldbuilding