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colorseeingchick · 4 years ago

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Valentine’s Affections (Kageyama, Oikawa, Kuroo)

I adore Valentine’s day! Love is in the air and chocolate is in my stomach. But for you and these boys? Well... it’s a lil more complicated than that.

A/N: We are going to completely ignore the fact that valentine’s day was a full 3 months ago. Love is always in the air on this blog !

Warnings: Light swearing? Maybe? Lotsa fluffy stuff beware cavities.

Kageyama Tobio

Kageyama stares hard at the vending machine in front of him. Now, this was far from a new situation he found himself in- he found himself in front of this very vending machine every single day. But the stakes were much higher this time.

Strawberry, or chocolate? Which would be a better gift?

Early on he decided against chocolates, cuz it felt too obvious. He opted out of a note, cuz he wasn’t articulate enough for that. And for the same reasons a verbal confession was completely out of the picture. So here he was, in front of the vending machine, hoping you would accept his love, or at the very least, the milk carton as a token of it.

He decides on the strawberry milk, because the pink carton color reminded him of hearts, so he was hoping his love message would be real clear!!

As he approaches you in the gym, he feels the nerves stir in his stomach. You’re surrounded by the other first years, excitedly chirping at Tsukki and Yamaguchi while Yachi and Hinata jump up and down around you (for what reasons, who knows) now that clean up is over. The second and third years weren’t that far away either. But he knew he’d have to do this sooner than later.

Kageyama stands pensively behind you at a slight distance, awkwardly shifting weight back and forth between his feet. Finally, he finds the guts to call out to you. “Y/N...san.” Alright, maybe it was more like a mutter. No one had heard him, but Hinata had noticed his presence.

“Kageyama! There you are.”

All eyes shift to him, including yours. The heat rushes to his face as he hides the milk behind his back. “Boke! What do you want!” He only gets redder as his eyes meet yours.

“Y/N-san!” He yells a bit too harshly. But you don’t flinch, you just smile. “Yes, Tobio-kun?” Gah, your voice is sweet as always, and he doesn’t even know what to say.

Stepping towards you, he essentially shoves the milk into your hands before turning around and marching out the door.

You stare at the carton quizzically, while the boys in the gym collectively let out a heavy sigh.

“Was that… supposed to be a confession?” Daichi’s disbelief was evident.

“He does that every day though,” Hinata comments, clueless.

“But today’s Valentine’s day, there’s probably more to it, right?” Ennoshita curious.

“Of course that’s the way that idiot would do it.” Tsukki is snarky as ever.

But you don’t hesitate to run back into the club room, a determined look glued to your face.

“Y/N san! Where are you going?” Hinata calls.

“Let them be, Hinata. They have something to take care of.” Suga has a glint of amusement in his eyes.

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

Kageyama tries to calm down as he aggressively drinks his chocolate milk. But he’s jittery all over when you pop up next him.

“Tobio-kun, did ya really think you could just throw me a box of milk and then split? On Valentine's day? Tsk Tsk.” You smile as you move to stand in front of him. Words are far from his physical capacity at the moment, so he opts to just stare at you instead.

“But by the way,” you pull the carton from behind your back in your left hand, and shake it in front of him, “Accepted.” He feels his heart melt in relief. You understood what he meant. At least he thinks you do. You always understood him somehow, even though he wasn’t great at communicating.

“And also…” Your right hand appears now, a small box of cutely wrapped chocolates snuggly fit into your palm, “this is for you. Please, accept it.”

His eyes go wide in shock. For some reason, this was not what he had expected (though everyone else knew it was coming). His heart now swells with an indescribable feeling that he never wants to stop experiencing.

“And this too... unless you want me to stop...” He doesn’t know how else you could potentially make him fall apart more than he already had- but he got his answer when your hand grabbed onto his collar and tugged him down to your height. You placed a slow and gentle kiss on the corner of his mouth. “Tobio-kun, I like you.” Yeah, his heart wasn’t ready for that one.

Oikawa Tooru

“Thank you, Suki-chan!” “So sweet, Maki-chan!” “These are delicious, Haru-chan!” First period hadn’t even begun and Oikawa had already been swarmed with gifts. But despite the time he spent basking in the affections of his little fans, his eyes were trained on you, watching as you happily handed Iwaizumi a cute little box of chocolates. Oikawa saw how his best friend smiled, and he saw the way you buried your face into Iwa’s chest when he hugs you. He decides to ask you about it at practice.

“Y/N-chan!! You know what day it is today!”

“How could I forget when I see my favorite setter drowning in more chocolates than usual?” He ignores the unidentifiable tone in your voice and presses on.

“I saw you give Iwa-chan some~”

“Yes I did.”

“Sooooo~”

“....so what?”

“Where are mine?”

“...I…”

Iwaizumi steps in, his hand protectively grabbing your shoulder. “What’re you harassing Y/N for, Shittykawa. You got enough chocolates already didn’t you? No need to be greedy.” Your eyes are glued to the floor, but Oikawa just sighs and waves it off.

“Sorry, sorry, Y/N-chan! I just figured your chocolates would be so tasty I was jealous Iwa got some~ but I’ll be waiting for them next time!” If only you knew, I would rather eat a single one of your sweets than all the other sweets combined.

He tries to forget the incident until he hears his doorbell ring at 9 pm. “Tooru! You have a friend who’s come to see you!” He’s surprised to see you waiting at his gate, face flushed, breath ragged, and hair ruffled.

“Oikawa-san!” You say with determination. “Y/N...chan?” He walks towards you, confusion and concern clear on his face.

“Oikawa-san…” the confidence fading as he comes near. You look away from his face as you outstretched your hands, a cute, small pink box with a tiny bow on it in hand.

“I’m sorry I didn’t give you chocolates earlier today….I just....” your hands retreat to your body, box still grasped. You look down at your feet once again, so you can’t see his eyes go wide. “I thought about making you some sweets yesterday but, I always knew you had so many fangirls and I didn’t wanna get in their way, or worse, make you see me as one of them… so I didn’t. I’m sorry. I, I didn’t consider you would feel left out. So I made these for you after school! Will you please accept them!”

You look up at him finally, only to see tears streaming down his face. “Oikawa san? Are you okay? I’m sorry if I said something that-”

“I’m sorry Y/N-san, I don’t know what’s gotten into me. But are they really for me?”

“Mhm!” You hand them over, in anticipation of what he would do next. He opens the box, pops a chocolate into his mouth, and then smiles.

“Just as I expected- it’s perfect.” He steps towards you once again, and wraps his arms around you, tightly. “You’re nothing like the rest of them, yanno. You’re very special to me.”

Kuroo Tetsurou

“Happy Single’s Awareness day!” You sing-song at the boys standing in front of your gate, the sun peeking out over the horizon.

“Just jumping over Valentines, then?” Kenma asks you, his face hidden in his switch.

“Yep! Nope! Not for me~ don’t need a valentine!” You’re carefree as you stroll ahead of the two of them, hands thrown behind your head. “Giving Valentine’s are dumb. Right, Kuroo!”

Kenma takes his time to pull his nose away from his switch to let his cat like gaze fall on his best friend, who’s been awfully quiet this morning. He knows why.

“Do you agree, Kuroo?” He asks, probing.

“...Yep. What type of headass buys into Valentines-” He criticizes.

Kenma knocks Kuroo’s bag with his elbow, his gaze transforming into a glare. You do, Kuroo. No chickening out.

Kuroo’s grasp on the bag resting on his shoulder tightens, well aware of what he has to do.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

After school was over and practice was done, Kenma got dropped off at home because he wanted to go home early, for some reason. So now it’s just you and Kuroo, laying on the hill by the bridge, bathing in the hues of orange and pink as the sun sets slowly.

You stretch out on your back, relaxing onto the grass underneath you. “Man, did ya see all those idiots handing out valentine’s? So cheesy.” You close your eyes and pull your hands up to cushion your head, turning your chin up. Kuroo rests on his elbow, angled so that he can watch you as you talk, his hand scratching his head soothingly.

“ Who wants dumb chocolates anyways? You think these chicks would get sick of all the chocolates they get. Hmph.” He watches as your mouth twitches down, eyes squeezed tight.

To be fair, both of you were acting...different today. Kuroo can read you like a book, and even how he can still pick out the unease you’ve been tryna hide all day. But his own nervousness and jitters keeps him quiet.

As you both sit in silence, stewing in your feelings, Kuroo lets out a deep sigh. Now or never. You hear him rustle in his bag as he pushes something over to you. You open your eyes to see a small box by your shoulder with a cute lil cat sticky note pressed onto it- reading, “be Mine, Valentine? :3”

You freeze for a second, processing what he pushed over to you. You look up at Kuroo, who’s now turned his back to you, sleeping on his side.

You open the box and find a cute cat bracelet inside. “Kuroo?”

“You’ve been trashing valentine’s chocolates for a while now- so I figured I’d get you something better. It’s cheesy, I know. Don’t “at” me.” He stays, turned away from you.

You take your time to pull the bracelet out the box, letting heat rise to your face.

“Did you do this just because…? To make me feel better, or-”

“Still a headass huh.” He finally turns around, and you’re glad to see that his own face is as red as yours feels.

“Kuroo… do you, like me?”

“Damn, you’re gonna make me say it huh?”

“Yes.”

“Yeah I like you. Now hurry up and reject me so we can go back to being normal and I can get over my damn nerves. I hate not being myself.” He mutters as his lips twitch into a pout as he rests his bedhead into the grass, hands caressing his neck.

You take a second before crawling over to him, watching him in silence.

“You’re an idiot, too, ya know.” He peaks one eye open, to give you a questioning look. “Now help me put this bracelet on.”

“You like it?”

“I love it. I’m never taking it off.”

“You serious?!”

“Of course I’m serious.”

His Cheshire grin breaks out onto his face as he sits up, closing the gap between you two.

“Oh? Does someone like me back?”

“Yeah someone does. Now are you gonna help me or not.”

In that moment, you don’t think anything can compare to the sheer joy in Kuroo’s eyes as he carefully clasps the bracelet onto your wrist, wrapping his strong fingers around yours.

157 notes · View notes

roanniom · 4 years ago

Note

Charlie giving you some luxury lingerie and a perfect designer trench coat to wear over it (and nothing else) for your Valentine’s Day dinner. Then seeing where the evening takes you 🔥

Thank you, Issa! You’re such a treasure!

Hello lovely anon. I hope this is everything you’re looking for <3

Freezing

Charlie Barber x Reader

Word Count: 2,773

Warnings: NSFW, Dirty, dirty, DIRTY talk, light dom/sub, lingerie kink, size kink, guided masturbation, fingering, mirror sex, implied temperature play

The little bistro Charlie got reservations for on Valentine’s day is just down the street from your apartment, but the brevity of the walk doesn’t keep you from feeling chilled down to your bones by the time you step in the door. The hostess attempts to help you but over her shoulder you can’t help noticing Charlie. He sits tall above the rest of the clientele – your beautiful giant as he notices you and stands to his full height to beckon you over, a broad smile on his face. He had felt guilty about having rehearsal on Valentine’s afternoon, but you’d insisted you’d simply meet him at the restaurant the second he got out to save time. You step past the hostess and into the dining room proper where he pulls you in for a slow kiss. It’s light, not intended to be too obscene for such a public setting, but the way he bends down into you makes you feel the same as when he towers over you, naked and barreling you toward pleasure.

It’s with that heat in your veins that you allow him to help you into your seat. You take him in as he sits as well, beside you rather than across from you. The way you’d always made fun of other couples for sitting. But that had been before you met Charlie Barber. Before you learned how much more delicious a bite of steak or a sip of wine could taste with his hand on your thigh.

You brace now for the way his hand will weigh you down, will massage your flesh and send tingles down your spine. You have to cross your legs quickly as he asks about your day and other basic pleasantries, unsure about whether your accelerated state of arousal is due to your current ensemble or merely due to Charlie’s intoxicating presence. Under your luxurious new trench coat, unbeknownst to the dining couples that surround you both, you are wearing a lacy lingerie set that has you trussed up and ready for Charlie to unwrap, hopefully sooner rather than later.

When Charlie’s hand finally drops down to your thigh you shudder, but Charlie’s eyebrows shoot up in alarm.

“You’re an icicle, sweetheart,” he says under his breath.

“I’m perfectly fine, darling,” you begin to insist, even as you hear your own teeth chattering. Disregarding your words Charlie is already shrugging out of his blazer and placing it in your lap. He moves his hand back under the fabric to find your thigh again, massaging warmth into your muscle discreetly beneath the table.

“I thought we agreed you would wear those wool tights. You would have been a bit warmer at least.” His tone is slightly stern but you see worry behind his eyes.

“These stockings were sexier,” you say with a dismissive shrug, taking a sip from the glass of your favorite wine which Charlie had taken the liberty to order in advance of your arrival. Yes. More delicious with his hands on you, as always.

“There’s nothing sexy about freezing, sweetheart,” Charlie replies, though he chuckles at your enthusiasm as he lifts his own glass to his lips.

“You’re forgetting that time with the ice cubes,” you say, exactly at the moment when he takes a sip. Charlie almost chokes on the liquid before looking down at you with a look that tells you you’ll be punished for this later.

You couldn’t be more excited.

~*~

Two hours later you’re on your knees in the center of the bed, the trench coat discarded at the door and your lingerie perfectly adjusted to accentuate all of Charlie’s favorite parts. He had asked you to get yourself set up for him nice and pretty while he got something and you’re practically vibrating with curiosity over what he could possibly have in store. You’re facing away from the door, per his instructions, so you cannot see him when you hear his footsteps approach. The sound of something being propped up against the wall also catches your attention, but everything else drops from your senses when you hear Charlie’s voice.

“Oh sweetheart. This ass is a gift in itself.”

You feel the mattress dip as he joins behind you. Large hands slide down from your shoulders to your sides to the swell of your ass, posed pertly over your heels in order to show it at its best angle.

“I was thinking of this ass all day, did you know that?”

“No, Charlie,” you say, drawing in a sharp inhale when his hand pushes the small of your back, pitching you forward onto your palms.

“You sure about that, kitten?” he asks, large palms squeezing big handfuls of your cheeks. He pushes you farther forward and you feel the slide of his boxers as well as his skin against the back of your thighs. It registers in your mind that he’s down to only his underwear as well and it excites you further.

“You thought about me all day?” you ask innocently. Provoking him.

“My little tease. You know exactly what you do to me.” As if to punctuate his point Charlie grinds his hard, clothed cock into your ass, pinching you as you whine. “Sending me those pictures while you got ready. Knowing I’d have to keep working with my actors and pretend like my cock wasn’t hard as a rock just from a flash of tits.”

In truth you knew exactly what you did to him. You’d gotten exactly what you’d wanted earlier in the day when you carefully documented the process of strapping yourself into your bra and panties set. You’d also taken a break to touch yourself a little on video, just as an added bonus. It had served the dual purpose of riling you up – you stopped before you came – and riling up Charlie.

You laugh in response to Charlie’s accusatory words, the sound ending in a gasp when he bites down on the soft skin of your neck.

“I might have known what I was doing,” you concede a bit. Charlie’s words are quick to follow in your ear.

“Know what else? I think you get off on how hot you are yourself. You’re sexy and it turns you on.” He yanks you back up then so that you’re on your knees, back pulled flush against his chest. One of his hands holds gently but firmly at your throat while the other gropes languidly at your chest, moving from breast to breast.

“I…I…”

“Oh sweetheart, getting shy on me?”

Suddenly Charlie is whirling you around to the opposite side of the bed. He sits on the edge, feet planted firmly on the ground, and hauls you onto his lap so you straddle his legs, your back still pressed to his chest. When your eyes focus in this new position you find that you are staring directly at a reflection of yourself. A brand new floor length mirror sits propped against the wall next to your bed. It is much larger and grander than the simple narrow one that already hung in the corner of the room by the door.

Your eyes immediately shoot to Charlie, whose frame seems to engulf you despite the fact that he is behind you. His hands grip at your inner thighs to widen your legs slowly, but you still watch him. The way his gaze can’t seem to find a resting place between your heaving breasts and your pussy lips which are now slightly visible around the edges of your thong with your legs spread this wide.

“Don’t look at me. Look at yourself.” His deep voice is commanding and it snaps you out of your reverie. Your eyes dart to your own image quickly, wanting to please him with your prompt obedience, but they widen when you truly take in your reflection.

Your curves are on full display, spread out and sprawled out all over Charlie as you are. Your breasts practically spill from the cups of your bra, straining against the strappy accents that can barely cage them in. Your pussy is a lace wrapped present with a dark splotch forming where your arousal pools unchecked. Your chest rises and falls wantonly as your heart rate accelerates. You are hot.

Charlie’s massive hand comes up and begins to knead one of your breasts through your bra and the size difference makes your pelvis jerk unbidden. He fingers the outer hem of one of the cups. When your hips gyrate again he laughs.

“Like what you see, kitten?”

“Yeah I do,” you say, reaching up to caress the side of his jaw. His hand encircles your wrist swiftly and pulls your touch away.

“We’re talking about you kitten,” he corrects, directing your hand down the line of your sternum. “This,” he adds, dragging your hand over the lace of your bra. “These.” He pulls your other hand up to similarly join the fun, closing his hands over both of yours so you squeeze your own breasts with his aid.

“Oh,” falls from your lips on an exhale. Your eyes roll back a bit, lids fluttering from the way his groping – your groping – continues, but soon Charlie tsks from behind you.

“Ah ah ah, sweetheart. Eyes stay open.”

You oblige him reluctantly, in time to watch him drag one of your hands away from your chest, down the plane of your stomach and to the apex of your thighs. He weaves his fingers between yours but doesn’t curve them in. Instead he keeps them spread wide so that your open, stacked hands smooth over the slope of your covered mound.

“You’re going to see what I see. Feel what I feel.” Charlie is curled around you, gripping you and helping you grip yourself and though little has happened yet your senses are already overwhelmed, already full of him though you are not yet full of him.

“Charlie,” you moan his name, though you’re not sure what you’re asking for. He’s not paying attention, however. Not now as he guides your hand to slide behind the strip of fabric that obscures your pussy from view. He pushes your fingers between your slick folds and the dull press of both his and your appendages causes you to gyrate against your hands.

“I love seeing you all dolled up for me, but do you know what actually gets me hard?” he asks, and it’s absurd if he expects you to answer as he urges your finger to nudge your clit just right of center, back and forth, back and forth with the lightest pressure. Luckily he continues without your response. “The fact that you love getting dolled up for me. The fact that just pouring yourself into these things gets you wet and ready to take me.”

“Fuck,” is all you manage in response.

“I rewatched that video you sent me five times on my way to the restaurant. In the subway, where anyone could have seen,” he continues. “Nobody did see, but it took all the self-control I possess not to just get myself off right there and then like some dirty man.”

You watch yourself lick your lips and swallow. He watches, too, with amusement.

“My kitten likes her man dirty though, isn’t that right? You like being able to send me a video at work of your fingers in your pussy and knowing you’ve gotten me harder than some lovestruck teenager who can barely keep it in his pants. Hmm?”

You know he expects a response this time so you muster all of your wherewithal.

“Yes. I love it.”

“That’s what I thought,” he coos. His hand squeezes down harder around your hand and your breast before dragging it over to cup the other one. “I told you how much I love your ass but have I talked about these tits yet?”

“Mmmm no, Charlie, not yet.”

“These are the most gorgeous tits I’ve ever seen. They fit perfectly in my hands, though they’re beautiful handful for yours.” His hand falls away for a second to admire the way your smaller hand struggles to encompass the pillow of flesh, admiring the fact that you continue his ministrations in his absence. He returns his hand and carries on. “At work I zone out thinking of all the ways I want to ruin your pretty lingerie. I want to suck on these tits through the fabric. I want to fuck you right here,” he says, dragging your hand to run down the valley between your breasts before swiping it over the upper swell of both. “I want to cum all over these.”

As he has been saying these absolutely filthy things, you’ve been slowly falling apart. And not just from his words. He had pushed two of your fingers up into your tight entrance and encouraged a swift in and out motion in your wrist. In the meantime, his own index finger has gotten to work pleasuring your clit with tight, focused circles.

You don’t know what to look at any more as you feel yourself rocket towards the edge alarmingly quick. Your heavy-lidded eyes slide from the way your breasts bulge as he delves your hand inside the cups of your bra to the way your combined hands stretch the fabric of your panties obscenely, your slick causing the material to darken through and through.

As for Charlie, his eyes are on yours as your view settles on your pumping hands down below. He continues watching as he presses open mouthed kisses and nips to the side of your neck, teeth scraping against your earlobe in a way that makes your hips buck harshly.

“But you know that at the end of the day, your pussy calls me home.” His voice is even darker than before as it vibrates into your skin, mixing with the squelching sounds of your slick pussy as both of your hands work inside it. “How wet you get just from the thought of how well I’ll fuck you. The promise of how good I’ll feel in this tight, greedy little hole. And look, it doesn’t matter – my fingers, my cock. Your pussy craves being filled and I’m only too happy to satisfy that craving, kitten.”

You’re wound so tight at this point, grinding down shamelessly against your joined hands, whimpers spilling from your lips. You just want to cumcumcum but you’re also aware it’s too soon. Too quick, too early. Your eyes dart to his feverishly, going against his orders in a desperate attempt to check in on his pleasure. He gives so well but you want to give, too. A moan rips from your throat then, however, and you’re not sure you’re capable of giving much at this point. Not with the spasms already beginning to ripple deep inside. Charlie seems to be reading you like a book.

“You need to cum, sweetheart?” His words are softer than his previous ones, accompanied by a soft kiss to your cheek that directly contrasts the way one hand rolls your nipple roughly and the other picks up speed on your clit.

“Mhmmmm,” is all you can manage.

“Then cum for me, kitten. We have all night. Cum for me now – you’ve got a lot more on the way.”

With his permission you fall off the cliff, all of your muscles clenching, inside an out. He works you through it steadily, the hand on your breast moving up to pull your jaw so that your face is turned back to him. No longer gazing at his reflection but at the real thing. Charlie holds you through the spasms, your lips close enough for him to drink in your heaving breaths as you gulp for air.

When you finally fall limp in his arms, a trembling bliss spreading through your body, Charlie presses a kiss to your lips before laying you out on the bed and moving away. In his momentary absence you close your eyes and breathe deeply, feeling a heavy satiation settle in your limbs. That is until a sharp, cold sensation erupts on your sternum. Your eyes shoot open and you move to sit up but a hand on your chest keeps you pressed into the mattress.

Charlie sits next to you on the edge of the bed, an ice bucket with champagne that you hadn’t noticed before set up on the nightstand. He is gliding a sweating ice cube up and down your skin with a broad smile on his face. He leans down and licks the long line of water that accumulates on your flesh.

“You’re right. Sometimes freezing is sexy.”

~*~

Tagging some lovely friends (please let me know if you would like to be tagged or untagged in the future!): @noocturnalchild @thedivinemissn @insufferablelust @historyandfandoms50 @lostinthedrive @thewilddingleberries @edencherries @mariesackler @safarigirlsp @direnightshade @sacklerscumrag @paper-n-ashes @clydesfavoritegirl @wayward-rose @hopeamarsu @thegreenmatt @barbers-glimmerin-darlin @finn-ray-nal-beads @fizzywoohoo @maybe-your-left @aliveandlonely @han-not-solo @morby @mrs-zimmerman @maryforyou @aloneandsleepless @jynzandtonic @renmaulxo @millenialcatlady @leather-flannel-liquor @soggywhore @foxilayde @mylifeisactuallyamess

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all-that-tmnt-jazz · 4 years ago

Text

Valentine’s Day Challenge [14/14]

Warnings: None

Incarnation: Bayverse

Extra Info: Day 14 out of 14. None of the prompts/scenarios are related. This is the last post of my Valentine’s Day Challenge- I hope you all enjoyed it.

Posting: 3:30 PM Each Day

Prompt: Their First Valentine’s Day with Their S/O

Leo:

He had wanted to make you a gift

He didn’t want to have April/Casey/Vern get him a cheap card to give to you and call it a day

No, not this lad

He wrote out many drafts of a letter

Then drafted at least 4 sonnets

Then drafted at least 6 poems

He gave up, then trying to make an actual gift instead of something written

He tried to make a few different things

He borrowed some wood from Raph’s woodworking station to make a couple of carved trinkets

He borrowed some of Donnie’s vinyl mesh to make a messenger bag so you could carry your school books easier

He borrowed some spray paint and a small canvas from Mikey to try to make you a small portrait

All of these didn’t turn out as he planned, so he gave up on them

Valentine’s Day was creeping closer, and he had a blank slate

Nothing

No ideas

“Useless, empty brain!” he would often tell himself

“Wow, washed up. So sad,” Donnie said to him, sipping a cup of coffee

“I’ve got nothing! I’m done!” he groaned

“Hey, you got this. Shake it up, find a new angle.”

Leo chuckled dryly

“And what does that mean?”

“Look around, use anything to your advantage. I’m not giving up on you.”

With that, Donnie left Leo’s room

Leo just scoffed

“‘Use anything to your advantage,’” he imitated. “I’ve got nothing that’s inspiring…”

He looked around his room to confirm his theory

But then, something caught his eye

He saw something on the corner of his desk, and he had a thought

He knew right then and there what to do

Then, Valentine’s Day came

He arrived at your apartment and was quick to join you in making dinner

You had also gotten a small cake, which you two shared after dinner

You then gave him what you had gotten

You got him a bonsai sapling and a new blade sharpener- he had mentioned recently that his current one was becoming dull

He kissed you gently

He hesitated before pulling out what he had brought for you

But then, he placed his journal in front of you

“I… I know that I have trouble opening up about my emotions, but I’ve always written them down… I trust you with my heart, Y/n.”

You saw the look in his eyes

He was nervous, and you could see how much it took for him to do this

You hugged him, placing kisses all over his face

He flustered

“Thank you for trusting me.”

Raph:

This guy has everything planned out

He had never been as someone who is a romantic, but boy is he

He’s a sucker for romance

For six months before Valentine’s Day, he found out your favorite dish

He had never told you his plan, of course

He also found a way to figure out your favorite love songs

And your favorite flowers

(Red Peruvian Lilies- image Here)

So, when he texted you to go to the roof of your apartment building, you were pretty shocked with what he pulled together

He had a speaker playing a playlist of purely love songs that he heard you say “I love this one” about

He figured out how to make your favorite dish from scratch and had it set up on a small table with two chairs

On the center of the table, he had a small bouquet of Red Peruvian Lilies

You were so flustered when you saw everything

“You really did this?”

“Well, I didn’t want to not do something,” he said a bit nervously

You couldn’t help but smile

“I cannot believe you…” you whisper

You approach him and wrap your arms around his torso

He wraps his arms around your shoulders

“I love you, Y/n.”

You just hold him a bit tighter

“I love you, too.”

Donnie:

He had every fine detail planned out

Every tiny thing that one normally wouldn’t find important

(he’s a perfectionist, cut him some slack)

He had turned your rooftop into a place that was equivalent to a movie set

He had his brothers help to install a “ceiling” and four “walls” that were painted to mimic a restaurant, but made sure there was still plenty of airflows

(it would get really warm in there if there wasn’t, despite the cold weather)

He made sure everything was perfect

He convinced Mikey to borrow a record player, then had Casey get your favorite albums

When you got home from work, you texted Donnie to let him know

He responded quickly, letting you know that he was already ready

You quickly got into a different outfit- one ready for a date

You made sure to grab the gift you had gotten him

It was a piece he absolutely needed for a gadget he had been talking non-stop about

When you got to the rooftop, you were shocked

Your jaw dropped, and you smiled

“Hey,” he said

His voice was shaking

“Hey,” you said, still looking around. “This is amazing, Donnie…”

He smiled.

“I’m glad you like it.”

“I love it, Donnie. Your mind never ceases to amaze me…”

He gently took the box from your hand and put it down, then taking your hands

You look up at him

He placed one of your hands onto his shoulder, then placed his onto your waist

You two just slow danced around the “rooftop restaurant”

(as he called it in his mind)

“Happy Valentine’s Day, my love.”

You place your head into his plastron

“Happy Valentine’s Day.”

He kissed the top of your head, grateful to have you in his arms

Mikey:

He is the only one of his brothers who invited you to the Lair

He was able to convince Splinter to let him use the dojo

He set up several strings of multi-colored fairy lights around the dojo

He had printed out every picture you two took together and clipped them to the fairy lights

There were hundreds, so this took him several days

His brothers were almost uncomfortable with the silence in the rest of the Lair because of how much time he spent in the dojo

(Raph would actually go in there to “train.” In actuality, he just wanted to hear Mikey’s voice as he talked to himself- and occasionally to Raph)

Not only did Mikey do that, but he also spray-painted a portrait of the first picture you two took together

And he convinced April to get him a bouquet of roses to give to you

He was actually incredibly nervous before you arrived

He started pacing

He checked your location often, just to make sure you were safe as you walked over

His brothers had never seen him so high-strung

When you arrived, his eyes turned into hearts

You were wearing orange

His color

His heart would not stop pounding

When he showed you his setup, your heart swelled

And then when you saw the portrait he made, you could have married him right there

That night, his brothers had never heard him laugh so much

Neither of you could be happier.

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orleans-jester · 4 years ago

Text

The Hard Drive

River Laveau - Multiple cellphone videos of the fight with Delta against the human boys. - CCTV videos of the fight with Delta against the human boys. - CCTV video of River entering the bed and breakfast lobby after the fight. - Pictures from Pierre’s party of River in the background of selfies, and the like. - Multiple saved photos from River’s instagram, labeled by location. - Pictures of River approaching Elsa’s current apartment building. - Pictures of River and Pierre leaving the Valentine’s Day dance together and going into the limo.

Chip Laveau - CCTV video of Chip entering the bed and breakfast lobby with River and Dale. - CCTV video across the street from the shelter, showing him, Dale and Clopin entering. - Time lapse to the fire. - CCTV video of them leaving the shelter after the fire. - A phone video of Chip climbing out of Agnes’s window on the night of Pierre’s party. - A video zooming in on Chip sleeping underneath Agnes’s window the night of the Valentine’s Day Dance. - A video of Chip shooting out the window of a limousine during the Valentine’s Day Dance.

Dale Laveau - CCTV video of Dale entering the bed and breakfast lobby with River and Chip. - CCTV video across the street from the shelter, showing him, Chip and Clopin entering. - Time lapse to the fire. - CCTV of them leaving the shelter after the fire. - Pictures of Dale approaching Elsa’s current apartment building. - Pictures of Dale and Belle.

Scout Laveau - CCTV of Scout Laveau and Pierre Renault illegally entering the titty bar. - Pictures from Scout’s instagram, labeled by location. - Pictures of Pierre/Scout climbing out of Agnes’s window.

Flotsam Laveau - CCTV of Flotsam at the airport with Thomas and his brother, causing problems in security. - CCTV of Flotsam, Thomas and Jetsam at the Mutter Museum, before the tape abruptly stops from the electric explosion. - Pictures of Flotsam Laveau drunk at the bar before Thomas had picked him up, then further ones of him getting into the car. - CCTV from Triton’s Topsails the day he stabbed out his own eye. - CCTV and Cell Phone footage of the battle outside of the seafood restaurant.

Jetsam Laveau - CCTV of Jetsam at the airport with Thomas and Flotsam. - CCTV of Jetsam, Thomas and Flotsam at the Mutter Museum, as well as when Jetsam causes the electric explosion.

Cinderella Laveau - Picture files of Cinderella entering and exiting the Renault household. - Pictures of her mail from her PO Box, including bank statements.

Delta Triton - Multiple cellphone videos of the fight with River against the teenagers. - CCTV footage of the fight with River against the teenagers. - CCTV footage from a far away gas station, a dragon being seen in the distance flying off. Three other businesses managing to record the same thing from different angles. - CCTV footage of Delta killing the van driver, rescuing Frank, flying away as a dragon. - CCTV footage of Frank carrying Delta on his back, walking past different businesses. - CCTV footage of Delta and Frank walking into Halloween Town High and proceeding to Victor’s Frankenstein’s office.

Frank Skellington - The video of Frank Skellington getting kidnapped in Oogie Boogie’s office. - The video of Oogie Boogie trying to get Frank to pick between his mother and Delta the initial time. - Footage from the elevator with Arthur when it had gotten stuck - video with full audio. - CCTV of Frank carrying Delta on his back, walking past different businesses. - CCTV footage of Delta and Frank walking into Halloween Town High and proceeding to Victor Frankenstein’s office.

#Munro #River #Chip #Dale #Scout #Flotsam #Jetsam #Cinderella #Frank #Delta

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himbowelsh · 5 years ago

Note

Could you please do Robert Leckie for the Valentine’s asks? Thank you :)

valentines day alphabet ( accepting! )

A : AFFECTION. how does your muse show affection?

Bob is particular about physical affection in general (see EMBRACE below), so his ways of showing affection tend to be more subtle. He’s not above bribing people bringing people gifts, if he feels like he needs to secure their affection; he’s also a very intent listener with a genuine interest in people, and his compassion works to his advantage when loved ones are opening up to him. People feel seen when Bob listens to them --- and he doesn’t forget what they say.

B : BOUQUET. does your muse like flowers? which ones are their favourite?

Bitch doesn’t know the first damn thing about flowers. He’ll rock up somewhere with a lone flower obviously picked from the bush in the front yard and think he’s smooth. Banned from three flower shops in the state of New Jersey, but that’s a different story.

C : CHOCOLATE. does your muse like chocolate? which one is their favourite?

“I’m not a fan of chocolate,” he says, deadpan, while literally digging through a box of Russel Stover. He loves the ones with nuts.

D : DATE. what is your muse’s ideal date? where / who with / etc?

Hey, he’ll go classic, take someone out to dinner --- but he’s going to make it good. Bob will find a way to scatter surprises throughout the night, either by ordering a special dessert when his date’s in the bathroom, or taking the long way around on the way home so they can catch some fireworks in the local park. Bob wants to give his dates something to remember by the end of the night --- something more than the very memorable parting kiss on the doorstep.

E : EMBRACE. does your muse like hugs? what are their hugs like?

He pretends to be casual with physical affection, but it’s really quite significant for him. Bob is careful with how he holds himself, very conscious of his own body language; he likes to portray himself a certain way, and that Bob Leckie hands out back slaps like it’s nothing. Privately, though, he doesn’t like to be touched much. Bob will invite physical affection only when he really needs it, and then he tends to be a clingy hugger. If he’s actively seeking out physical affection from someone else, it’s his way of admitting he feels vulnerable.

F : FLIRT. is your muse good at flirting? how do they flirt?

Could teach a master class in flirting --- not that the lessons would be good, or the advice useful, but he absolutely believes he’s that smooth. The worst part is, he kind of is? Maybe it’s the cute smile, maybe it’s the wit, but Bob has a way of charming women. He’s talented with his mouth in more ways than one. His method of flirting is wit, good looks, and a bit of irresistible charm. (He’s such a lad, he picks a girl flowers from her own garden, don’t date him, dON’T---)

G : GIFT. is your muse good at gift - giving or do they struggle to get it right?

Hmm. He’s... a very determined gift-giver, who utilizes the resources at hand. He’s not going to import the perfect gift from another country, but he’ll pay attention to what people want in the moment, and try his best to obtain it for them. Gift giving is a double-edged sword for Bob. He’s naturally generous, and really enjoys giving gifts... but part of that satisfaction comes from the gratitude of people around him, and the feeling that he’s a bit more important to them. That, by making them happy in this moment, he stands out in their minds a bit more. (We stan a boy who wasn’t hugged enough as a child!)

H : HEART. is your muse quick or slow to give their heart away?

He rushes into it quicker than he should. When Bob falls in love, he goes beyond the person themselves --- he falls in love with the fantasy. The life they could have, the life he imagines he wants with them... and this fantasy isn’t always grounded in reality, but he wants it so badly in the moment. He takes love as deeply as he takes rejection, and his heart is as easily won as broken.

I : I LOVE YOU. does your muse find ‘i love you’ easy or hard to say?

He’s so casual about it. While walking out the door, a quick kiss on the cheek, “Love you.” While slipping into bed and turning off the light, “’Night, love you.” While looking at a meal his partner’s cooked, “Wow, I love you.” He even teases with it sometimes... but this affected casualness is all a way of hiding how much he means it, how much he loves just getting to love someone, and being loved back. By saying it so often, that makes it concrete --- maybe that’ll make it last forever. There’s no denying how much delight he gets in saying it, though.

J : JEALOUSY. does your muse get jealous in a relationship?

Very, very jealous, in ways that can sometimes be ugly. He... does not like to feel like his partner’s attention is slipping. This will result in one of his patented Bob Leckie Attention Grabs. He might actually pick a fight, just to get his partner’s full attention on him once more; he’ll brood and pout and be cross for several days, until his partner finally forces him to sit down and talk it out. He just... worries, is all. Not in a way where he’ll invade his partner’s privacy, but he will make it a Big Goddamn Deal when it doesn’t have to be.

K : KISS. is your muse a good kisser? why / why not?

He gets into it very quickly, and is determined to please. Bob approaches kissing like a dance; if two bodies don’t find the right rhythm, they can’t really hit it off, can they? His hands move all over, getting the feel of his partner’s body, but he otherwise stays very still. His mouth is active, impetuous, nipping their lips and teasing them with his tongue as though eager to claim them. If he can win a noise from them --- either a sigh or a gasp --- it feels like a victory.

L : LOVE. who does your muse love?

He likes himself a whole lot, but also hates himself, so it’s weird. He loves... gah, it’s a hard question. Shouldn’t be, but it is. Once Bob decides to let himself care for someone, he cares about them very deeply. He loves his friends, the group he’s been through so much with --- they’re probably the closest people to him, just because they accept him, bugs and all.

M : MOONLIGHT. is morning or night a more romantic setting?

He comes alive at night; Bob is, unfortunately, a night owl. And also a morning person. If he’s awake, he tends to be annoyingly awake, and is up for getting weird at any hour of the day.

N : NAUGHTY. what is your muse like in bed?

He’s got a lot of enthusiasm. Technique? Finesse? Not so much, but Bob puts in the effort, okay? He’s very sensual, focused on enjoying himself in the moment --- the bedroom is one of the few places Bob can get out of his own head --- but it doesn’t quite work when you get turned on that quickly, Bob. His problem is that he’s lowkey always horny (which explains... 58% of his character) so when he finally gets to rock ‘n roll, sometimes he rolls before he can get rocking. Not his fault, not every time, it just... happens. He makes up for it by being a generous lover who’s very good with his mouth, and can move his tongue in ways that would get a nun trembling. Bob’s patient. When he’s not focused on his own pleasure, he can drag his partner’s out for hours, drawing them up to the brink multiple times before pulling them back. He enjoys hearing them moan, feeling them squirm against him, just knowing that he’s the cause of all of it... and, when they finally are allowed to go over the edge, he loves nothing more than to watch.

O : ODE. does your muse have a way with words?

Annoyingly so. He’s very good at stringing words together, in a way that dances on just the right side of pretentious; when he wants to reach someone’s soul, he can hit a perfect heartfelt note, winning them over. He’s tried his hand at poetry before, but love poetry is well and truly beyond his talent, so please don’t let him try. It’s laughably bad.

P : PARTNER. what does your muse look for in a partner? looks / personality?

Someone who can put up with his bullshit. No, okay, he’d lowkey need someone with the patience of a saint. Someone... grounded, for all the times he isn’t; someone with a clear head, who can look at a situation from an objective angle and give their take on it. He’d like someone capable of expressing themselves eloquently, maybe someone who doesn’t hold back their emotions. Someone sympathetic. Someone who listens, but who can tell a story that keeps people engaged. If they can talk him out of his brooding moods, they’re his greatest ally. If they’ll read his writing and offer opinions (even critiques), he’ll be head over heels.

Q : QUESTION. would your muse ask the big question or expect their partner to?

No, don’t worry. He’s going to ask. Bob might actually ask too soon, before the relationship is really there yet. He doesn’t take being told to slow his roll well, but when his partner points out that they’ve only been dating for six months and there are things they still don’t know about each other, he’s forced to see reason. At least, something close to reason; he keeps the ring in his desk drawer, waiting for “a rainy day” that will inevitably arrive sooner or later.

R : ROMANCE. is your muse a romantic or a cynic?

A self-proclaimed cynic, disgusted by his own romantic longings. Someone please exorcise him.

S : SWEETHEART. did your muse have a childhood sweetheart?

Leckie was a flirt from the day he realized he could fast-talk people; he always had charm, even as a little kid, and it won over plenty of people. Little Bob craved attention, and sought it out from his teachers, who encouraged him; and his classmates, who either loved or hated him. He had about... three elementary school girlfriends. None of them lasted long.

T : TRUE LOVE. does your muse believe in true love?

Please. He may fantasize about a picture-perfect romance, but he’s not naive, okay? Pssh.

U : UNREQUITED. has your muse had their heart broken?

Well... Stella sure didn’t feel good. It wasn’t as though Bob was head-over-heels in love with her; he just thought he was, and had already moved to the stage of fantasizing about their children. He wanted that life, with a family who loved him, people who cared for him and wanted him around... Mama Karamanlis was nothing like his own mother, and actually made him feel wanted. Maybe he was in love with that, more than Stella, but losing her felt like losing a rib. And knowing it was because she didn’t think he’d make it back? Let’s just say there were a few moments after that where Bob didn’t want to make it back.

V : VALENTINE. how does your muse feel about valentine’s day?

He has an actual hatred for it. Genuine vitriol. It’s weird, because Valentine’s Day has had... legit no impact on his life so far. It’s done nothing to him. He just insists it’s a commercialized garbage day, and refuses to go out on principle.

W : WEDDING. would your muse get married? why / why not?

He... I mean, yeah. It’s definitely something he wants. He’s got it all planned out --- nice house, successful career, doting spouse, two or three kids... of course, life’s never that simple, he knows that, but it’s what he wants. The fantasy is Bob’s problem. He’s bound to be dissatisfied with actual married life, or even the idea of marrying a particular partner, until that ideal is shattered. It’ll hurt like losing a limb, but in the end, reality is sometimes better than a dream.

X : XOXO. does your muse use / like pet names?

Oh yeah, and he’s gross about it. “Darling”, “honey”, “sweetheart”, just to see his partner blush... or roll their eyes at him. Either works. He thinks he’s adorable.

Y : YOURS. does your muse get protective easily?

Yes! Same with jealousy --- sometimes Bob will jump to conclusions, and it’s just like, “slow your roll there, marine”. He’s an overthinker, but he’s also quick with his fists, which is a dangerous combination. When he sees a situation that’s definitely not right (i.e. someone he cares about is blatantly being made uncomfortable, or is in danger) he will step in. No hesitation, suddenly he’s just there, with a gleam of challenge in his eyes and a biting remark on the tip of his tongue. If he can’t diffuse the situation with a few words... well, he’s prepared to get punched in the face for someone else’s sake.

Z : ZZZ. how many people has your muse slept with?

He doesn’t exactly sleep around, but again --- he’s a flirt. He’s popular, with ladies especially. Several back in Jersey, of course Stella in Melbourne, and he wasn’t exactly getting anything in the Army hospital, but after he gets home... he’s not above sleeping with coworkers, either, so the news office has gotten a little awkward at times. 5 - 6 partners, good for him.

#robert leckie #the pacific #i... love this man so much #this is my first in depth look at leckie and it came so easily???#i wrote this in an hour #normally these take 2-3 hours but his was EASY because he's just #so multilayered?? so interesting??#some of his worst flaws are my worst flaws and i hate him i LOVE him #headcanons #Anonymous

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ofnifflersandkings · 6 years ago

Text

Title: Roses are Red

Character: Miles Morales

A/n: Happy belated Valentine’s day from your favorite spiderboi

•

You looked down at your desk with a look of pure anguish on your face. In a fit of rage, you tossed you pencil off to the side and sat back to look at your work with a huff.

To put it nicely, it looked horrible.

You picked up the sketchbook you bought from the art supply store on the way home. You held it an arm’s length away from your face, seeing if maybe some distance would increase the quality.

When that proved useless, it took all of your will power to not shove open your window and throw the whole thing out of it.

You pressed your back against your chair, catching a glance at the evergrowing pile of crumpled attempts sitting in your wastebasket. And you could’ve cried right there.

Tomorrow was Valentines Day, and hear you sat trying desperately to make a decent picture for Miles.

The two of you weren’t necessarily dating. It was more of a let’s very clearly have a thing for one another but ignore our emotions till we die sort of situation.

You didn’t expect Miles to do anything in return, but you thought it would be nice to draw him something special as a token of your affection.

Only the problem was that you weren’t anywhere near as good of an artist as he was. Everything you put on the paper just seemed so ugly and nothing looked good enough.

As time crept mercilessly onwards, your frustration only grew. You could feel your anxiety settle in at the base of your stomach and you contemplated forgetting about the whole thing.

What if he took one look at your pathetic drawing and laughed?

The rational part of your brain told you that you knew he’d never be so cruel, especially not to you. But the doubt in the back of your mind was coming in and making itself comfortable.

It certainly wasn’t for a lack of trying. This had been the second sketchbook you’d purchased to try and create him something that was good enough for him.

But you were really falling flat.

You looked over at a framed photograph of the two of you, the happy expression on both of your faces made you smile.

Miles was just so sweet, and you liked him more than you probably should’ve. Heaven knows if you didn’t, you wouldn’t be stressing about a simple present as much as you were.

You closed your eyes and took a deep inhale to calm yourself down. Maybe you were just thinking too hard about this, so you decided to approach this from a different angle.

•

“You don’t think she’s mad at me do you?” Miles asked, staring up at his phone screen.

He had tried messaging you a couple of times since classes ended that day. This had been the fourth day in a row that you had skipped hanging out at lunch or during your free time at the end of the day.

Any time he would ask you to go see a movie with him or hang out on the school grounds and let him show off his new designs, you’d give him a half handed excuse about how you had too much homework to catch up on.

Miles knew you well enough to know that something was up. Sure, you would procrastinate on your work from time to time. But this felt very off, you were usually never this behind.

Yesterday, he even offered to help you finish up your assignments. But you quickly told him you had it under control before you took off without another word.

Truthfully, Miles was beginning to worry. Did you not want to hang out with him anymore?

He looked over at your gift sitting on his nightstand and suddenly felt very self-conscious about giving it to you tomorrow.

This would be his very first Valentine’s Day with someone to show his affection towards. And if he was being 100% honest, he had been very excited to spend the day with you.

But now he was just worried.

“You know (Y/n) better, probably busy with something and can’t get to the phone.” Ganke chimed in, turning away from his monitor to give Miles a reassuring smile.

“Yeah,” Miles said, scrolling back on some previous text messages between you two, trying to see if he had said something to make you upset with him. “I do know better.”

•

You came into school the next morning with a skip in your step and a smile etched onto your face. Somehow, someway, the stars had alligned and you had managed to make a gift you were happy with.

Class Committee had gone into school early that morning and taped flowergrams to people’s lockers. When you got to yours, you were surprised to see a red rose taped onto the door.

You beamed, gently pulling it off and twirling it in your hand. You knew it had been from Miles, he had tried to casually ask you what flowers you liked for no reason in particular.

You placed it in the very top shelf of your locker, setting it right on top of Miles’ present for safe keeping until the end of the day.

The rest of the day passed by as normal, the only difference was that Miles was now the one absent from lunch. He had missed a Physics test from the beginning of the week, so you had no time to explain your sudden disappearances.

“You really threw him for a loop there,” Ganke said, attepting to catch a grape he tossed into the air in his mouth. “I actually felt bad, almost revealed your whole surprise right then and there.”

You looked up from your math homework. “He was worried?”

Ganke nodded. “Miles thought you were mad at him so that’s why you kept bailing on lunch.”

You snorted, “He’s such a dork.”

“A dork you looove.” Ganke cooed, breaking off into a cackle when you chucked one of your own grapes at him.

“Don’t think I forgot about you though,” You said, reaching into your bag and sliding a giant pack of gummy worms over to him.

Ganke gasped dramatically and pulled them to his chest. “You know the way to my heart.”

•

Miles stared at the clock in his final class for the day, it felt like the bell would never ring. Ganke had told him you definitely weren’t mad at him, so now all he wanted to do was see you.

As soon as the bell rang, he was at the door and in a full on sprint to get to your locker before you had a chance with leave without him.

He turned the hallway and saw you just as you pressed your locker door shut. Your bag was already on and he saw the carnation he had gotten for you in your hand.

The sight made him equally relieved and flittery in his stomach. Relieved for fact that you were holding it was solid proof you really weren’t mad at him. And the other because he had never gotten flowers for someone he liked before and the reality of it made his head want to reel.

With this newfound reassurance he bounded up to with a big smile and placed his hands over your eyes to block your vision.

“Guess who?”

He felt you chuckle and it made his smile beam.

You pretended to contemplate it with a few very dramatic hums before a funny idea came into your head. “Is it Spider-Man?”

If a sentence could kill someone, Miles would’ve dropped dead on the floor. He truly couldn’t get his brain to form a sentence but he realized if he didn’t something soon it would make things worse.

Miles faked a laugh and released his hands. “So now we’re playing games? I see how it is.”

You turned around to face him and smiled. “I just wanted to see your reaction. It’s not like you could actually be Spider-Man.”

A thought ran through his mind, ‘This is great, this is your get-out-of-jail free card, take it and run with it,’ but the more prideful side of him couldn’t help but feel slightly offended and curious for your reasoning.

“What makes you think I couldn’t be?” He asked, trying to make it sound as casual as possible.

Your brows furrowed slightly as his sudden question and you laughed. “I don’t know?” You posed as a question more than a statement. “Probably because your Mom would kill you before any supervillian could if she found out.”

Miles couldn’t hide his laugh. “Alright, you got me.”

You looked at him and the nervousness over giving him your gift was starting to settle in again. Should you wait? Should you just get it over with now while there was still time to run?

“I got something for you,” You began, before stumbling over your sentence. “Well not really got, I made it.”

Miles felt his face get all warm. “You made something for me?”

You got flustered and felt to shy too say anything else, so you nodded. You had been holding the sketchbook against your chest, so you held it out to him.

“It isn’t very much, but I tried to make it personal if it couldn’t be good,” You said, undoing the leather strap that held it together.

Miles flipped through the pages. Each page from cover to cover was filled with doodles, some were of the two of you, and others were just funny little comics that you knew would make him laugh.

There was the time when he convinced you take old sheets and cut them up to make ghost costumes you could both wear around. But because Miles never ties his shoes, he tripped in his costume and fell smack on his face.

Normally you would’ve rushed over to help, but seeing this giant blob of white hit the floor with a shrilly cry was too much, and you laughed for about ten minutes instead.

You watched Miles flip through it. Each time he’d laugh or smile, you felt a tiny bit of pressue ease from your shoulders. Maybe you hadn’t done too bad afterall.

When he got to the final page, there was a small message written on it along with a picture of the two of you taped to the inside of the back cover.

For the very best person I know,

It isn’t much but I tried to put in all the thought and love I could muster

Happy Valentine’s Day

Miles just stared at the final page, his fingers running along your handwriting as an almost overwhelming amount of emotion ran through him.

The silence was starting to make your anxiety build up again and you rolled back and forth on your feet. “It’s alright if you don’t like it.”

He looked up at you like you were crazy. “You’re kidding? This is now the most important object I own.” He stated proudly, closing it up and holding it close it him.

You laughed and it made his chest feel light.

“Really though, thank you for making this for me.”

You bashfully shrugged your shoulders. “It’s the least I could do for you.”

“Gonna make my gift look like nothing.” Miles said, taking his bag off of his shoulder so reach inside and pull out a wrapped package.

You looked wide-eyed at it and then looked back at him. “You got me a gift?”

“Well yeah,” He said like it was the most obvious thing in the world. “What kind of valentine would I be if I didn’t. I have a reputation to uphold.”

You smiled and took his gift, slowly peeling off the wrapping paper. It was a painting on an art board of the two of you, ironically of the same photo you had taped to the back of his book.

It was beautiful, his art always was. The colors were super bright and you could help but trace your fingers along the visible brush lines.

“I think we compliment each other well,” Miles teased, looking down at the painting with you. “You know what, that was genius, I should make cards or something.”

You laughed and turned to him, placing your hand on his shoulder and reaching up to place a kiss on his cheek, right near the corner of his lips.

“It’s wonderful, Miles.”

He froze right on the spot, his face felt

so warm he worried he might burst into flames right on the spot. When he felt your lips leave his skin he actually let out a giggle.

Miles immediately cleared his throat to cover this and suavely leaned in close to you, taking your hand in his. “Let’s see if we can catch that movie we missed earlier.”

#miles makes my heart warm #he is an absolute ham #miles morales imagines #miles morales imagine #miles morales x reader #into the spiderverse imagine #into the spiderverse imagines #spider man:into the spiderverse #miles morales

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murasaki-murasame · 6 years ago

Text

Thoughts on Fruits Basket 2019 Episode 14: “That’s A Secret”

Me before this episode: “I’m a big strong adult who can DEFINITELY deal with watching Momiji’s backstory and the grave visit get animated in the same episode :)”

Me two seconds into this episode: *insert sad cat picture here*

Anyway this episode is dead even though it killed me and now I’m typing this from beyond the grave.

Thoughts under the cut.

Right off the bat, this episode actually gave us a new set of OP and ED themes, which I’d been curious about for a while. They hadn’t said anything about it for the longest time, and then they just announced it a day or two ago, lol.

The new OP is really going to need some time to grow on me. I can’t help but feel like it should have been swapped with the first OP, since this is where things keep getting heavier. I know there’s some people who disliked how slow and mellow the first OP was, but I loved it, and this super energetic one is kind of hard to get used to.

But the new ED is absolutely AMAZING and I love it. The song feels very similar in tone to the first ED, which is nice because that was also a really nice song, but the visuals are a real departure from basically everything else in the show. From what I’ve seen people seem a bit divided on how they feel about that as an artistic choice, but I love it. I really like how it seemed to be real footage of figurines and dioramas mixed with digital backgrounds and effects. Which reminded me a bit of some visual tricks used in Sarazanmai last season [fun fact that I definitely haven’t just been waiting for an excuse to bring up: the person who did the zodiac animal character designs for this series, Kayoko Ishikawa, is also the person who did the character animation designs in Sarazanmai!]. Though I think my favourite part is the very first shot of Tohru.

Anyway, even though I knew exactly what was coming with this episode, and it was more or less exactly what I expected, it still managed to take me by surprise with just how emotional it was.

For the record, this adapted chapters 23 and 24 of the manga, which were also adapted into episode 15 of the 2001 series. Which also means that the reboot’s just gotten to the end of volume 4 of the manga. I still think we’re looking at about 70 episodes total for the reboot, give or take.

It’s pretty interesting to compare this to the 2001 version, since it’s technically a less drastic difference than the Valentine’s episode, but it still highlights how the 2001 anime made the conscious choice to remove any foreshadowing or character development that hadn’t been resolved in the manga by about volume 8 or so, which is what was out when the 2001 anime was made. From what I remember of the 2001 anime version of this material, they did a really good job with the Momiji side of things, since they kept it pretty 1:1 with the manga, but their version of the grave visit chapter really suffered because so much of Kyo’s character development and depth got taken out across the entire original adaptation, which in particular really took out a whole layer of foreshadowing from this part. It was still fine, from what I remember, but it lacked the sense of mystery and intrigue that the reboot version has, and the whole scene with Kyo and Tohru at the very end of the episode was entirely removed in the 2001 version.

It’s a much less noticeable change than how the 2001 anime had to basically remove a whole chapter or so of content for their Valentine’s day episode since that part of the manga was so heavy with foreshadowing, but at least if you know where things go with the story in the long run, you can really notice all the intentional set-up going on in this episode.

I’m really excited for anime-only people to eventually figure out what’s going on and what exactly this episode is hinting at, especially since more people seem to be starting to develop theories about what they think’s up with Kyo and Yuki’s backstories and how they tie into Tohru and her mother. So I wonder how they’ll all feel about this when they can look back on it later.

I’m definitely biased since I’ve read the manga, and I’ve seen a lot of anime-only people still make largely incorrect guesses about what’s going on after this episode, but wow does a lot of this foreshadowing seem super obvious in hindsight, lol. It’s not a bad thing, but when you know what’s going on, you can really tell how heavily they’re hinting at stuff. In particular the bit with Yuki at the end made it seem really obvious that he’s the one who gave Tohru the hat, but I feel like that’s something that anime-only people might end up forgetting about compared to all the stuff going on with Kyo.

And on the note of that whole final scene, I loved the abrupt cut to the new ED. It was such a neat shift from how every episode thus far has ended with a relatively mellow and slow lead-in to the ED theme. And most [but not all] of the previous episodes had ended with fun and light-hearted scenes. So having this sudden and relatively surprising admission of guilt from Kyo and an abrupt cut to a new ED theme was really neat.

But of course, the True MVP [tm] of this episode was Momiji, our resident precious bunny boy. I’ve been bracing myself for this exact episode for weeks now, but oh man it still hurts so much. I know the reboot’s been really good with it’s dramatic moments, but I wasn’t expecting how intense and visceral everything about his backstory would be. I had to check back at how the manga presented it, and even though it’s mostly the same, the reboot’s a lot more explicit about showing that Momiji’s mother started engaging in self-harm after he was born. In the manga there’s one panel that shows her vaguely laying on the ground with one of her arms tied in bandages, but that’s about it. And in the manga, the bit with Momiji and his dad didn’t really have a clear setting, but the reboot makes it very clear that they’re at the hospital after his mother hurt herself. Which made it hurt all the more.

I also feel like they were a little more visually explicit with Tohru’s flashbacks to her mother’s death and her going to the hospital. That was also presented as a set of small and relatively vague panels in the manga, but the reboot went all in on making sure you knew exactly what was going on. Like always, I think both approaches work well for their different mediums, but I appreciate the reboot’s commitment to giving every scene a sense of time and place, especially when it comes to flashbacks. It gives it a very different feel to the manga at times, which helps it feel fresh and interesting.

Momiji’s backstory is pretty interesting and noteworthy, since even though we’ve already had tragic backstories in this series before, this is basically the first time where the series really starts to specifically explore and develop this theme of parent/child bonds, and how the curse plays into all that. I think that the way the manga handles the theme of being born ‘with a curse’ and how that impacts your relationship with your parents is actually my number one favourite thing about it, and something that I think it does almost perfectly. It’s a big part of why it means so much to me as a story. It’s not really something you see explored often in media, especially not with this level of nuance, and from as many different angles as this series looks at it from as it goes on.

Trust me when I say that I have A LOT I want to say about this whole theme of the story, and this is definitely where it first becomes a big part of it all, but specifically I’m waiting for the Kyo arc to happen later in this season before I really let loose all my thoughts on it. Pretty much like 90% of the main cast have different sorts of messy relationships with their families, and with the state of their bodies, but Kyo’s story is the one that speaks to me the most. Going by when I think the reboot will get to that part, I’ll probably spend most of my post on the season 1 finale talking about that, which would be a pretty fitting place to do it.

Though on the topic of Momiji, I do want to say that the scene where Tohru hugs him and they both cry together is one of the most memorable and hard-hitting parts of the manga. It’s such an raw and emotional example of the sort of acceptance and love that Tohru represents to the Somas. With how many examples we get across the whole story of the zodiac animal forms being a curse that the characters are hurt by, and which cut them off from other people, the image of Tohru hugging Momiji’s bunny form, and Momiji letting himself cry in his bunny form and be hugged by her, really just goes to show why Tohru is such a pivotal character in all this, and why she in particular is the one who manages to get through to the Somas so well.

Also, before I forget, people are talking about the whole debacle with his accent again, and my two cents on the matter are that he definitely comes across like he’s either a native German speaker, or he’s intentionally acting like one, and I tend to lean toward the former. Especially early on, he uses German very fluently and frequently, and there’s a whole running gag of him misspeaking simple phrases in Japanese, so either he’s genuinely more comfortable with German and not fully fluent in Japanese yet, or he’s trying to come across that way intentionally. It’s also worth noting that Momiji even says in this episode that his little sister ‘isn’t very good at speaking Japanese yet’. Basically I don’t think we’re really meant to question the in-universe logistics of whether or not it’d actually make sense for Momiji or his sister to speak German as their first language when it seems like they were both born and raised in Japan, lol. [And on the note of his sister, the short moment of her looking back at him while her mother pulls her away is another one of those little details that make it clear they’re setting up for way later scenes]

Anyway, this was an incredible episode, and it makes me really happy that they’re committing to adapting the entire thing, so all of the foreshadowing in this episode will be followed up on and developed.

#murasaki rambles #fruits basket

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itisannak · 6 years ago

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‘Valentine’ by 5sos (Ashton Irwin Smut / The Youngblood Series)

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Summary: (Y/N) and Ashton pretend to hate each other to conceal the fact they are sneaking around behind everyone's back. Until jealousy takes the best of them. Based on Sexual Prompt: #60 "I will ride you until I break you. You are mine and mine alone." (Smut / Unprotected Sex) (Request) (Words: 2.5k) (Part of Ashton’s Youngblood Series, but not connected with the other 3 parts)

"Well, look who finally came for breakfast... What, was your comforter a bit too heavy?" Ashton mocks me, earning a punch on the shoulder from Luke and a middle finger from me. "I am sorry, I forgot I had to ask you when you would like me to wake up, Master Irwin. It will be the last time. I humbly request your forgiveness. Now fuck off." I say, taking my seat next to Michael. "Here we go again." Luke mumbles as Ashton clenches his jaw and slams his mug on the table. "Guys, really you have to start getting along. We can't have this whole tour with you 2 fighting like cat and dog." Calum comments, passing me a mug of coffee. "He started it." I state and sip on my beverage. "It's true." Michael says and turns to Ashton. "Oh come on. She was late..." He says and points at me. "I feel that this conversation will lead to nothing. Plus, it's like having 2 4-year olds fighting. Just be adults and put up with each other." Calum states and gets up from the table, heading to the couch. "It's... whatever... As long as he stops being a bitch, I will not push it further." I say and grab a biscuit. "I am a bitch?" Ashton asks, glaring at me. I roll my eyes and get up, joining Calum on the couch. "So, what are we going to do tonight?" I ask the guys, earning shrugs from everyone. I huff and grab my phone, searching for bars near our hotel in Stockholm.

I fix my dress which has risen further up my thigh from sitting on the couch while waiting for the guys to get ready, getting up to prep for their shoot. "Guys, I need to take some pictures of your looks." I shout, picking up my camera. "Do we really need to?" Michael groans, making me turn to look at him. "First thing first, you need pictures for your accounts. And second, that's what you pay me for." I say and shrug. "Luke first." Michael says and points to Luke, who is already fixing his jacket. "Be my guest." I say and point to the white wall which I've chosen for the background. Luke poses for me, almost naturally. I take a few shots before I motion for Calum to come up, giving Michael some extra time. "How do you want me?" He asks, wiggling his eyebrows. I chuckle and roll my eyes before I bring the camera to my eye level. "Lean on the wall, thumbs on your belt loops. Pout a bit, girls love your lips." I say and he follows my orders. Again, I take a few shots, trying different angles. "Thank you. Michael, you are up." I call him and he moves in front of the wall, posing for me. "See, you are a natural..." I say as he changes his poses. "Of course." He replies and I smile at him. "Sit a bit straighter... A couple more clicks and we are done." I say and Michael smiles. "Can someone call Malibu Ken?" I ask, referring to Ashton. "Seriously, don't start again." Michael pleads and I shrug. "I can't promise anything..." I reply, checking the photos I took.

"We are going to wait in the lobby." Calum says as Ashton stands in front of the camera. "Wish I could join you..." I mumble, looking at Ashton. The guys exit quietly, leaving me and Ashton alone. "How long do we have to pretend that we hate each other?" Ashton asks me as I snap the first shot. "Who told you that I am pretending?" I ask, teasing him. "Your nails on my back, last night... When I fucked that pretty little pussy of yours." He smirks at me, giving me the perfect picture. "And who told you that I wasn't pretending last night?" I push him a little more, making him smirk and lick his lips. "Maybe the fact that you've been sneaking in my room throughout this tour." He says as I take the last picture. "Busted." I say, leaving the camera on the table and approaching him. He spins me and pins me on the wall, pressing his body on mine. "You look hot in that dress." He whispers, nuzzling his nose on my neck. "I wore it for you." I admit and he smirks, kissing my sweet spot. "And I really appreciate that, princess." He says and I chuckle. His hand travels up my thigh, grazing the soft skin with his fingers. "We don't have much time." I inform him, breathing heavily; all this play-pretend between us makes the heat between my legs rise. "I know. And don't fool yourself, princess, I won't be satisfied with a quickie. I will ride you until I break you. You are mine and mine alone. " He growls before he crashes his lips on mine. "Is someone a bit jealous?" I ask, parting from his lips. "Of course I am. Do you think I didn't see you cuddling with Calum?" He asks, moving his lips down my chest. "It was innocent, Ashton... We were just watching a movie." I protest but melt as he bites on my collarbone. "You are not allowed to cuddle with anyone but me." He barks, gripping hard on my jaw. "Supposedly, we hate each other's guts. I couldn't just come and cuddle you." I say and watch his features turn harsher. "Then don't cuddle anyone." He says and I smirk. "I love it when you get jealous." I comment and peck on his bottom lip.

After we found a lame excuse for why we were late, we left the hotel and headed to the club I suggested. Soon enough, everyone is drinking and dancing, relaxing after a long time. I am trying to stay away from Ashton, but after a couple of drinks, it is getting harder and harder. I move my hips to the rhythm, maintaining eye contact with Ashton, who sips his soda as he scans my body. I decide to tease him just a little bit start dancing with Calum, who looks at me a little weird. "Are you ok?" He asks me and I nod. "Yeah, I just love that song." I reply and he nods, moving to the rhythm. My eyes are glued on Ashton, who clenches his jaw for the whole time I am dancing with Calum.

An hour or so after, the guys have scattered around, chatting with people and dancing along with the music. Of course, Ashton had to get payback, so he opted for a girl nearby, buying her a drink and grinding on her; I guess I deserved that, but that doesn't make my blood boil any less. He catches the irritation on my face and that makes that stupid smirk spread on his face. A minute after, he is next to me, drink in hand, and cockiness written all over his face. "What happened, princess?" He asks me, leaning onto me to whisper in my ear. "Nothing." I state simply; I hate myself for falling in the stereotype, but honestly, I don't want to talk to him right now. "Oh, come on princess. I know that someone got a little bit jealous." He says and twirls a strand of my hair with his finger. "I don't know what you are talking about." I say and turn away from him, grabbing my glass to get myself another drink. "(Y/N), just admit it..." He sings and I hold myself back not to slap him. "Leave me alone." I say and walk away from him, taking deep breaths to calm my nerves. Given half the chance, I would bust his head open to get some sense inside it.

When I get back to our table, Ashton is waiting there, scrolling through his phone. "What happened, pretty boy? Where is that little girlfriend of yours?" I ask, catching his attention. "Actually, my girlfriend is being such a bitch right now, even though all I did was give her a taste of her own medicine." He replies and I gasp. "I am not your girlfriend." I protest and he groans in frustration. "If you keep doing that, you obviously won't be." He almost screams. "Fine." I reply. "Fine." He says and gulps down his drink.

Once back in our hotel suite, all we do is stare threateningly at each other. The guys give us confusing looks, whispering about what might have happened between us again. "Can you stop fucking looking at me?" I snap, making Michael huff in annoyance. "When you stop staring at me, sure." He replies and I groan. "Guys..." Luke tries to reason us. "What the fuck do you want from me?" I ask, my blood boiling. "What the fuck do you want from me? I am lovey-dovey with you, you are complaining. I am mean to you, you are complaining. I give you a taste of your medicine, you hate me. What do you want from me?" He asks and I burst into tears. "I want a fucking normal relationship with you. This shit is problematic." I scream, feeling my face turn red.

I only realize what I said when I take a look at the guys; Calum's jaw grazes the floor, Michael stares in confusion, and Luke switches stares between me and Ashton. "Shit." I mumble under my breath, looking for a way to leave the room. "Why didn't you tell me earlier?" Ashton asks me, moving closer to me. "Anyone mind explaining to us what is going on?" Luke asks, but neither of us is paying attention to anyone else but each other. "I knew your intentions from Day 1... I didn't want to lose what we had." I admit as the back of his hand grazes my cheek. "What am I going to do with you?" He sighs and I shrug. "Probably break up with me, not talk to me ever again..." I say, pouting. "No princess. I am going to punish you for not speaking your feelings." He says and cups my chin. "I was scared." I protest and he smirks. "I guess we were both..." "What do you mean?" I ask. "Oh, come on guys, you can't be that stupid." Luke groans, making us realize that we are in front of other people as well. "Maybe we should take this somewhere privately." Ashton suggests and I nod.

Once in his room, he locks the door as I sit on the bed. "You know, I am in love with you..." He says, still with his back to me. "You are?" I ask, fiddling with my fingers. "I really am." He replies, however not daring to look at me. "Good, cause I am too. And it is scary, and it is scary as fuck, but I want to shoot at it. Because it's you." I say, standing up and walking to him. "What if I screw this up? I don't know how to do this whole normal thing..." He says, turning to face me. "Then we will screw this up together. I don't know what to do either." I reply and he chuckles. "Look at the kitten being the mature one in this relationship." He comments before he grabs me and pins me to the wall, crashing our lips. "You are mine." He groans against my lips, biting hard on the bottom one. "I am yours." I agree, trying to get back to kissing him. He responds, slipping his tongue into my mouth. I grip on his t-shirt, pulling it to get him closer to me. His hands travel under my dress, directly going for my underwear. He doesn't bother pulling it down; he pushes it to the side and rubs a finger along my slit. "If I knew that fighting for real turns you on so much, I would have argued with you every day." He comments, smiling at me. "Am I really that wet?" I ask him, earning a chuckle. "Here." He says and sticks his fingers in my mouth. I suck on them, looking at him through my eyelashes, and watching him gaze at me in amazement. "Fuck, I always forget how good you are at sucking..." He growls as I take his fingers deeper.

"Bed or wall, princess?" He asks me after I pop my fingers out of my mouth. "Wherever you want, daddy. I need you..." I say and look at him with doll eyes. He doesn't reply; he just gets on his knees in front of me, lowering my dress as he goes. Leaving me only in my powder pink panties, he looks up at me as he spreads my legs. "Princess looks good in pink." He states, yanking my panties down with his teeth. "You like it, daddy?" I ask and he nods. He kisses below my navel and moves downwards, stopping just before my clit. "I love it... Ready for me, princess?" He asks before he pecks on my clit, causing me to melt. "As always." I reply and try not to cum right there and then. "Good." He says and stands up.

He turns me around, gluing my chest on the wall. I hear him unzip his jeans as one slap is delivered on my ass, making me wince, but getting me wetter. He thrusts inside me, making my chest hit on the wall. "Fuck." I scream, throwing my ass backward. "You like that, little slut?" He asks, making me roll my eyes. "I love that, daddy." I scream; It is weird that it is the first time of all we've fucked that I am able to scream, without worrying about the others finding out. "I love your voice when I fuck you, princess." He whispers in my ear, making my pussy pulse. He is pounding in me, hitting my spot every time; there is no time to take it slow, we want release and we want it now. The tension between us has been thick for hours, we can't hold back. My ass claps against his skin, making a perfect sound, adding to our moans and groans. I claw on the wall as he pounds in me, his hand squeezing my boob. "Fuck, fuck, fuck..." He groans, thrusting harder. His grip tightens and I almost lose it, my head falling back and resting on his shoulder. "A little more... a little more..." I chant as he sucks a hickey on my neck. Ashton curses through groans and growls, trying to hold himself back.

I collapse on the wall, screaming through my ecstasy as my legs quiver. Ashton pulls out and starts humping my ass, soon releasing too. I pant and shake as Ashton hisses and groans. "So fucking beautiful." He comments through a hitched breath. "That was so good, baby." I say, turning my head to look at him. "I know." He agrees and plants a kiss on my temple. "Let me clean you up, princess." He says and moves to grab wet napkins from the bedside table. "What are we going to tell the guys in the morning?" I ask and watch him shrug. "The truth. They are big boys, they will understand." He says and starts wiping his cum from my back. "What about the fans?" I ask again. "For now, let's keep it a secret from them. Once the tour ends, we will see." He says and turns me around, bringing me closer to him. I nod and he smiles, leaning in for a kiss.

My Masterlist

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novaent · 6 years ago

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** This episode was uploaded at 12PM on Nova Entertainment’s official YouTube channel.

The screen is dark and an ominous tone plays in the back of your head until it slowly turns into applause. There’s cheering from every side when the video gains color. First, there's Jewelry. The members of Nova's biggest girl group appear during their prime while their own songs play along with their performance. These clips are followed by the other company members: Baechigi, Kang Mi Youn, Kim Sori, Nell, MYNAME and Rain. All of the artists Nova has made it big, and this time they don't plan on making it any different. The last person on the screen is the CEO himself, Hyun Bin, who appears in different clips either by himself, with the press, or with his artists until the screen goes dark again. The man’s voice appears by itself saying: “To be part of this, you must become a SuperNova.” The show's theme tune plays briefly while an animation takes over the scene to present the title of the show.

The Nova building appears from the outside and a text on the bottom of the screen tells the audience it's an early 8am at an unnamed date. When the scene changes, the view is of the inside of a meeting room. It is empty, for now, but the place by itself already gives the impression of power.

That is proven true when three different people walk inside the door. Most wouldn't recognize them, so the editing team makes sure to let you know. The first one is a fine man named Han Yonghwa, as told by the words on the screen, referenced to as the vocal coach. Following him inside are Kim Hyemi, the dance instructor, and Park Minsoo, the rap coach. While they walk over to sit down by the table, a new montage plays on the screen. Nova's idol groups appear again and text points out all of them achieved what they did after a lot of training. Pictures of the coaches with the artists appear as well as videos taken of them during practice with trainees. Nova knew their team was well prepared and all that was left was to find the prepared trainees to debut.

The scene breaks to show Hyun Bin's entrance to the meeting room. Even if not needed, a text lets people know who he is and the important position he holds.

“Good morning,” he says, and the three coaches reply the same to him. “We have a lot of important things to get done today. Yonghwa, would you like to start?”

The man nods. “We've received an interest notice from various of our trainees to take part in this project, and we took the time to choose only the best of our options.” He twists his head to the side briefly. “It wasn't easy, but it won't be easy for them either.”

“We'll soon share with them our plans.” This time it's Hyemi, the only female instructor, who speaks. Once her sentence is done, the scene turns into animation so that the plan may be easily observed. “A total of fifteen Nova trainees have been chosen to take part in the SuperNova project. To help them fully dedicate themselves to this, the trainees will move to a building specially modified for this show only.” While she speaks, the animations change to fit her words and show the public what the contestants will have to go through. “They'll be separated into boys and girls, and each group will live together. The other rooms of the building are equipped with proper practice rooms where trainees will be spending most of their time to perfect their skills and prove their worth to be part of Nova's future idol group.”

The screen returns briefly to show Minsoo when he starts speaking before returning to the animations. “They'll receive weekly missions to work on and, at the end of the month, they'll go through the risk of elimination in case their expectations aren't met. After three months, the remaining trainees will be the ones chosen as the final group members. Should they fail before that, they'll return to their title of trainees at the risk of not getting another chance at debut. This is a make or break situation not only to them but also to Nova.”

The camera focuses on the CEO as he looks over at his coaches. There's a serious look on his face. “Well, let's go right into it, then. Who'll be our first SuperNova contestant?”

“Kang Yuchan, popularly known as Ricky,” Hyemi says. While she does so, his face appears on the screen. “Winner from the MGA Season 1, as well as the coach for the winning team on Season 3. He acted as Joo Insang in Dream High and appeared on Nell's music video for 'Four Times Around The Sun’ as well as the SuperNova new year video in 2016.” With each thing she names, proof of his achievements appears for the public to see. “He's won a lot so far,” Hyun Bin adds. “That's a dangerous man to keep our eyes on.”

And so the screen shows the inside of one of the rooms in the trainees' new dorms. Ricky stands in front of a camera before saying “mom~” with a sing-song tone. He waves his hand, and the previous dangerous statement is left in the air with a cute “hi~” from the boy.

“Ha Huidong,” Yonghwa continues. “Our second longest trainee period after Ricky, but the oldest between our trainees. He also appeared in Nell's music video, as well as the SuperNova new year special.”

Returning to the dorms, the man is shown walking inside and bowing to the cameras he passes by. Different cameras from different angles capture his figures as he pokes his head around each doorframe to check every room before finally setting his suitcase in his room and laying down on a lower bunk.

“Kim Hosung,” This time it's Minsoo. “He finished fifth on the fourth Season of the MGAs, the highest between our trainees. Before that, his voice was the one in a popular Valentine's Day commercial for a chocolate brand last year.”

The boy is shown walking around the dorm apparently without much of a goal. Then, it changes to the scene of Ricky in front of the camera, except he's already waving at it. “Yuchan~!” It's Hosung's voice scaring the other boy. “How are you? Are you excited? I'm excited!”

“Kim Yongsun,” it's Yonghwa's turn again. “She finished sixth on the fourth Season of the MGAs, only one spot below Hosung. Even if struggling with dance as a skill, she was taken by the dance leading company.” The camera focuses on Hyun Bin again. “Is that actually written there?” The screen shows Yonghwa again as it zooms out to show the pile of papers in front of him with all the trainees’ profiles. Sweat drops are edited as if they were jumping out of the coach's head.

“How many do you think they have put in here?” The girl asks while approaching one of the cameras inside her room. “Ah~ hello, it's me, Kim Yongsun!”

“Next it is BamBam,” Minsoo proceeds. “He’s also one of our contestants with a long training period. Not as much as Ricky and Huidong, though. He still took part in the Gayo Dejun stage in 2015 with them, as well as the SuperNova music video.” Hyun Bin looks like he's waiting for more, but nothing comes. “When you look at the others… that's not much, is it?”

“It doesn't feel real.” BamBam is shown inside his room contemplating his place there. “It doesn't feel real at all.”

“And we have Lee Sunmi,” Hyemin says. “She's the longest training female trainee. She was also a winner on the first Season of the MGAs. What others did she was most likely included, like in the Gayo stage and the SuperNova music video. She was also one of the main trainees to help with the Nova artists dance class last year.”

The trainee is shown in the kitchen probably preparing something delicious. “We got this!” She exclaims before giving the camera a thumbs up.

“Lee Kaeun,” says the vocal coach. “She'll soon complete two years as a trainee; in the middle of March. There is not much experience under her belt either. She was only recently revealed as a trainee in the Samsung new year show.” Hyun Bin shakes his head quickly.

The next scene is of Kaeun also in the kitchen. While she moved, the camera followed her around. The girl giggles.

“Heo Solji also doesn't have much on her name as a trainee,” Minsoo adds. “Her and Kaeun share the same level of experience, except Solji has been here for less time. She performed the traditional dance for the Samsung new year show.” This only serves to make Hyun Bin remain quiet.

Solji's shown sitting by herself on her bed inside the shared room. She's writing things down on her journal.

“Son Seungwan, our Wendy,” Hyemi moves on. “She was part of the winning team on the third season of the MGAs with Ricky as her coach. From then on she appeared on the SuperNova music video and performed the tango on the new year show along with Jungwoo.”

The girl appears on the doorframe of her bedroom with a guitar in hands. She plays a tune on the instrument while walking out of the room.

“Kim Jungwoo, of course, was a trainee in Nova for a while.” Yonghwa comments. “He left the company for a period of time which was when he joined and won the third season of the MGAs along with Ricky and Wendy. He was denied a contract at the time, but eventually made his way back to Nova and, now, the SuperNova project.”

His shot is a scene of him sitting on his bed. Jungwoo reaches out for a plush toy in the form a puppy and plays with it.

“Kim Jongin,” Minsoo says. “He’s been on a number of public auditions before.” While he speaks, images of him on the first round of the Triple Threat Challenge are shown, as well as the Hongdae Talent Show. “He finally got a place in Nova and we still have to see what he has to grow.”

The boy walks in the dorm for what appears to be the first time. He looks around and lets out an impressed “Wah~.”

“Meng Meiqi was also in a few auditions herself,” Yonghwa proceeds. “She had taken private Nova auditions before finally joining the team at the end of 2017. Her main specialization is dancing, which got her the hip hop highlight during the new year show as the finishing act of the Nova special stage.” Hyun Bin twists his head to the side. “But does that mean she's the best?”

Her two suitcases are huge and visibly filled to their maximum. The girl looks around the place in awe and then moves on to what will probably be a tough job at finding a spot in the closet.

“Son Chaeyoung has an interesting backstory,” the dance instructor continues. “She's a rapper with a past as a musical performer. She joined at the same time as Meiqi. What she excels in seems to be what the other fails, though, and vice-versa. It'll be interesting to see where these two will go.”

The girl walks around the dorm in search of something, waving at each camera that her eyes catch while walking by.

“Kim Hyuna already has a bit of a name to herself,” Minsoo comments. “She was a finalist at the third season of the MGAs but didn't win. She was a finalist in the Royal Survival but didn't win. She participated in the fourth season of the MGAs but this time she didn't even make it to the finals. Now she's the Nova trainee with the shortest training period and in another survival show. If her failures were only a trend or a curse she'll never get rid of is something we'll have to wait and see.”

The most fitting scenes they could show was of the girl training inside one of the specially prepared practice rooms as she did many times before.

“And the last one… Joo Haknyeon,” it is on Hyemi's folder to say. “He was a finalist on the fourth season of the MGAs and finished second, the runner-up. He got very popular very quickly but as one of the newest trainees and also the youngest his skills are something to keep our eyes on. He'll have a lot of opportunities to show them off.”

He lies on his bed, thoughts unsure by the viewers. Haknyeon plops himself onto the floor and starts to open up his luggage. This would only be the start of their long journey.

“And that is all of them.” Yonghwa lets the CEO know - not that he didn't know before. “All the 15 of them are already in the process of moving into their dorms. We'll be there to supervise them, of course, and groom their skills to perfection.”

The camera slowly focuses on Hyun Bin's face. He looks thoughtful. “Well… not all of them will be perfect, will they?”

The new scenery is the front door of their dorm, the text on the screen letting people know it is the 2nd of March. Cameras all around the place record the trainees as they're guided somewhere by their coaches. The end of their journey is inside a practice room, but this is actually only the start.

Inside of it, they find their beloved CEO, Hyun Bin, waiting for them in all of his glory. “Hello and welcome, trainees, to the first day of the SN Project!” His voice is intense but his expression is inviting.

His speech is cut at that, the editors leaving what is to be as a cliffhanger for what'll come next. The episode only ends, however, with a peek into the future.

EPISODE TWO TEASER: The coaches are shown introducing the concept of the show: “Each week you’ll be given a brand new assignment to work on along with an evaluation to show what you’ve learned. On the fourth and final week of the month, you’ll have to combine everything you’ve learned for one final performance in the presence of your CEO” But it doesn't end at that. “And that’s not all,” Hyemi continues, but the teaser wouldn't show what she has to say. There is happy imagery of cakes and trainees playing with the cameras, but it quickly changes to voices cracking and bodies falling to the floor. Tune in next week for the second episode of the SuperNova challenge.

#nova:sn #nova:snep1

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septembersung · 6 years ago

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I'm curious about the kind of picture book you consider "useless"/"twaddle". Intuitively I know some picture books really are terrible, but I can't put into words why.

A great question!! The tl;dr answer is, twaddle is “junk food for the brain.” Some of it’s delicious in small doses, but you don’t want a steady diet of it. Some twaddle is straight up bad for you. Some of it is only good in limited ways, or for a certain time, or in small doses. There’s gradations of twaddle, and not all of it is without merit. When I’m making choices for my kids, I take a “I’ll know it when I see it” approach.

The long version begins with a contrast: The Charlotte Mason definition of a “living book” is a book by a single author written interestingly and with passion for the subject matter. It should fully engage the reader. Textbooks, on the other hand, are “spine books” - useful for research, but not to be the primary or only text for the subject. So “twaddle” books by contrast are fluffy, gimmicky books - candy or junk food for the brain. They’re frequently shallow, and often in series, written a particular format. At the link to living books an example of “twaddle” is the Magic Tree House series. She noted that they’re not “bad,” but they’re not great literature - so she wouldn’t read them aloud to her son, but they were a good transition for him from simple books to real chapter books when reading on his own, and did spark an interest in a number of different subjects. So although twaddle, they weren’t entirely meritless for her family. (I agree, and also have other beef with MTH, but that’s another post.)

Since I don’t have any independent readers yet it’s easy for me to pick good chapter books to read aloud, but as they look at picture books independently and ask to be read them all the time, and I am periodically the recipient of large numbers of picture books, I’ve had to take things in hand. Last year I was given as gifts stacks and stacks of paperback Scholastic books. Most of them seemed “cute” or harmlessly quirky at first glance, but most of them really are junk food for the brain. (Scholastic has also started pushing progressive ideologies pretty heavily; their newer offerings are full of landmines.) I’ve also started to recognize that outside silly fluff stories there’s also twaddle in nonfiction in this style - if you accumulate enough of it, it’s just a bunch of flashy packaging meant to ‘grab attention’ and the same surface information over and over again.

Some examples of twaddle: The Princess and the Pony, Curious George*, Magic Tree House, The Littlest Valentine, Fly Guy Presents..., most recent Thomas the Train stories.

*The original handful of CG stories are an exception. The same applies to The Magic School Bus, but aside from the little MSB paperbacks that are pure retellings of the classic episodes, even the gimmicky, later-produced ones have enough science in them to be worth keeping around the house. The later CG books, on the other hand, have very little actual science information in them. I categorize CG science as “useful twaddle” and shelve them with the MSB books.

It’s been really useful for me to revisit this because while there are elements of Charlotte Mason’s approach that I like, such as the concepts of living books and twaddle (and the emphasis on outdoor time), there’s a reason I’m attached to classical education. CM has some great angles and overlaps in some ways with Classical education, but Classical education is language-focused, Catholic (or rather, the fullness of it is, although the link there is to a Protestant educator), and consciously follows the trivium, for starters.

#catie-does-things #my homeschooling tag

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zenonaa · 7 years ago

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‘Normally, Byakuya could outrun her, but the rain set them on wet, slippery, even ground, and in any case, he would have been a lousy date if he left her at his heels, someone who worked their way through his defences and breathed a new strength into his core.’

Pairings: TogaFuka (Byakuya Togami x Touko Fukawa) Word Count: 5505 Comments: A Valentine’s Day fic. :3 There are some others on my AO3, but I posted them already on my personal.

💖Please like/reblog and leave kudos if you can! 💖

***

Grey clouds splattered tears onto the bedroom window and howled relentlessly. Dressed in a lilac nightdress, Touko stood still, a silent spectator, protected from the storm’s outburst by a shield of glass.

The rain drowned out her sigh.

Touko turned away and padded over to her bed, which she clambered across in order to reach her phone, sat on her bedside table. Her bed creaked gently beneath her hands and knees, and it gave a final groan as she settled herself on one spot. She swiped her finger across the screen of her phone a few times until it started ringing, and then she held her phone to her ear.

A few seconds later, the ringing stopped with a click, and a voice emerged, quickly shedding itself of static.

“Let me guess, this is about the rain,” Byakuya’s voice said into her ear.

She hummed and sat back, crossing her legs.

“It won’t be an issue,” she assured him. “I planned several different dates, depending on different variables such as the weather.”

Not just weather, but public transport delays, natural disasters and zombie attacks. Her alter, Genocider Syo, had also promised in a conference done on post-it notes that she would not lash out for missing this day, never someone who was big on romance anyhow, with the assurance that she could have a day with Byakuya in the future where they would do ‘nothing too naughty’, and Byakuya had clarified that there would be ‘nothing naughty’ or else he would end their time prematurely. It was this sort of arrangement that had been set up when Touko and Byakuya became a couple, and one everyone agreed on. Even if Byakuya and Syo weren’t dating, they had to learn to get along.

Nothing would stop them from celebrating their first Valentine’s Day together. Nothing.

“I knew you would have contingency plans in hand,” he said, his tone teasing a smile. “So where, and when, will we be meeting up today?”

Her mind went blank for a moment.

“Lunch,” she blurted. She winced. “I mean... we’ll meet at lunch. And where I’m taking us, we’ll be inside, for both places, but bring a coat for the journey.”

“Do I get a hint on where we’re going?”

“Nope,” she chirped, and she wiggled her shoulders. “Both places are a surprise.”

“Oh?” he purred. Maybe it wasn’t a purr, but she gave it a pass. Whatever it was, he sounded interested. “Well, I’ll be the judge of that.”

“You won’t be disappointed,” she assured him.

The storm beat away silence.

“So I’ll come to your place a bit before noon,” she said. “Is that enough time for you to get ready?”

“Yes,” he said. “That will be fine. Very well. I shall see you then. Goodbye, Fukawa.”

“Bye, Darling. I love you.”

“I know.”

He hung up.

She stretched her arms upward and reclined onto her back.

The rain kept her company, for now, but that wasn’t to say she was lonely. Far from it, in fact. Their last conversation wrapped around her in a warm embrace. For a long time, she could barely string more than a couple of coherent sentences directed toward him, but now she found it easy. Very easy. Touko managed a few mouthfuls of cereal and a glass of orange juice, her stomach too full of butterflies to contain anything more.

After she had eaten, she sped through a shower and bound her hair into a single braid before approaching her wardrobe. Though she had spent several hours the previous day deciding on a final outfit, depending on which date they were going on, she probed her options again and ended up instead wearing a black dress with white lace covering the upper half, and a brown belt with a bow for aesthetics at the front that divided the lower part of her outfit from that above. She inspected her reflection in her bedroom from different angles. The longer she looked, the more her skin crawled, with anxiety or excitement or something, and she forced herself away to finish getting ready.

Nothing would go wrong. Nothing.

Just before Touko left her apartment, she checked her satchel to confirm that she had packed everything. Satisfied with the contents, she slipped on her coat, slung the strap of her satchel over one shoulder and hurried out.

Touko only had to cross the landing, and then she was outside of Byakuya’s apartment. She pressed the doorbell. When the door opened, she beamed like the Sun after a storm had tired itself out, but she couldn’t compare herself to how bright, how radiant he was, even without a smile.

“Good morning, Darling,” she gushed, bouncing her heels and keeping her hands clumped together over her chest.

“Good morning,” he greeted, looking snug in his dark green pea coat. “Let’s get this engagement started. Come, I will follow you. You’ll be leading us today.”

She saluted. “I won’t disappoint you!”

His lips quivered but he regained control of them within seconds, and he gave a short nod.

They took the elevator to the ground floor and through the doors, saw the downpour still going strong. Byakuya grimaced. Beside him, Touko hugged herself. The pair stepped out and as they passed through the doorway, he opened his plain black umbrella.

“Stay close,” he said.

Touko jerked her head up, arms still around herself. “Hm?”

“We’re going to have to run,” he said. “Where are we going?”

Her features hardened to an appropriate level for the severity of the situation, as grim as the weather. “The subway.”

Byakuya positioned the umbrella over their heads. Touko’s cheeks grew hotter but she maintained her composure. She trained her eyes forward and moments later, Byakuya darted out, and she chased after him, catching up and sticking to his side. Her heart set aflame as she battled against the gale opposing them. Normally, Byakuya could outrun her, but the rain set them on wet, slippery, even ground, and in any case, he would have been a lousy date if he left her at his heels, someone who worked their way through his defences and breathed a new strength into his core.

They definitely wouldn’t be able to have a picnic in the park, but at least Touko got to take shelter under the umbrella with him, and anyway, the picnic wasn’t out of the picture. Rain pounded against their umbrella and wind screamed to their faces, impairing their vision, and Byakuya’s umbrella began to strain. So it didn’t get blown inside out, Byakuya retracted it, and he grabbed Touko’s wrist. Her heart skipped and her feet tripped, but she regained her footing before she could fall, and she sprinted alongside him.

His hand slid down to her hand and her heart nearly broke out of her chest. Not so much because they were holding hands, as she had held his hand before, in private moments, and she had held the hands of some of her other friends, but more so because she was nearly out of breath. He only let go of her when confronted by the barriers in the subway.

Though the carriage that they hopped onto wasn’t cramped, they didn’t have much of a choice where to sit, ending up opposite each other. Touko collapsed onto her seat and panted, barely soothed by a soft fragrance of freshly washed linen.

According to the map on Byakuya’s side, they only had four stops, and she waited until one stop remained before she spoke again.

“We’re the next stop,” she told him quietly as the carriage resumed motion. He nodded, blond hair flattened by the rain.

Outside, grey sky greeted them but it had worn itself out and needed to recuperate, so for the time being, the pair were spared from its torrential rain. However, it remained just as cold, so by the time they arrived at their first destination, the air had given their faces a thorough nipping.

They escaped its clutches and once inside, Touko scraped hair from her eyes and rubbed her hands together. She had brought them to a café that she had only been to once prior to now, visiting a week ago to compare the location to the images on the website, and she had not been disappointed. Circular tables around the main area each had three chairs stationed at them, but the tables could fit another if desired. Pale green shelving units stood with their backs against white walls, carrying books with washed out covers, stacked horizontally behind front-facing books that were equally as dull.

Touko inhaled the café’s fusty odour, with its aging paper and whiff like stale cigarettes, and felt at ease. At home.

“What do you think?” asked Touko.

Byakuya’s head turned slowly as he absorbed his surroundings. He approached one of the shelves, still without saying anything, and plucked one of the books at the front from its place.

She raised her hand to bite on a nail but decided against it at the last moment. Her hand started to fall, but then she changed her mind again and lifted it so it hovered close to her chin, where she formed it into a loose fist.

“This is old,” he said, mostly to himself.

“They’re all second-hand,” she said behind him. Byakuya clicked his tongue.

“If anything catches my eye, I will have to flip through it to see if it’s in an acceptable condition.” He shut the book with a quiet thud but didn’t put it down. “I wouldn’t want to buy a book that has been smeared with hand sweat.”

Touko ground a foot against the varnishing flooring.

“Someone like you must never have had to choose to buy books second-hand,” she said.

He looked over his shoulder at her, his eyebrows raised. “As an author - a highly successful one at that - surely something inside of you must wither at the thought of owning a book that strangers have pawed at and mistreated.”

His statement stabbed and twisted in her gut. Her face screwed up a little and she hunched her shoulders. Byakuya stared for a while longer, frowning.

“I said something inappropriate,” he deduced. She averted her gaze.

“It’s fine,” she said.

“You know, you’ve never been good at hiding your emotions around me.” Byakuya didn’t bother replacing the book and walked over to a nearby table. He set the book in front of him, giving Touko strong eye contact, and folded his arms over his chest. “Tell me about what draws you to these sorts of places, so I can understand.”

She didn’t want to do that, or say anything, but then he said,

“Please.”

Byakuya gestured to the table by him. Touko sidled onto one of the chairs and pulled out a laminated menu from its slot in a wooden holder, not with the intention to use it to order food yet, but to fidget with. Give her hands something to do. He sat opposite her and rested his chin on the back of his hand, waiting for her to speak.

So she spoke.

“Places like this feel homely to me. Modern bookstores don’t feel like a bookstore but just an imitation, selling toys and trinkets too. And new books don’t really have a smell. Well, they do, but when they do, it’s plastic. Old books have a different scent,” she said. The menu in her hands listed different foods and drinks, but she didn’t read any of them. She just looked at them. “They’re musty and a first instinct for many people is to retract, but there’s something enticing about the scent. To me, at least, they smell soft and sweet... like chocolate.”

A small smile developed on her face that could have flaked off.

“Sometimes, I find books that are out of print or are obscure, and wouldn’t be stocked in most places,” she added. Her eyes flitted up to his blue pair. “People can leave things inside of them too, like love letters and notes that are secrets to everyone but whoever wrote them. It’s like treasure.”

Byakuya didn’t move, his mouth slightly ajar as he studied her. She shivered and he seemed to ease into a faint smile that she returned ten times stronger. All they needed was a candle between them and some violin music, and the scene would be perfect. No. It was fine as it was. Already perfect. He lifted his chin off his hand and closed his mouth only to open it again, perhaps to say something. His pause drew her in, and she didn’t dare breathe and miss what he said.

Then a waitress intruded on their intimate moment.

“Excuse me, are you ready to order?” asked the waitress, dressed in a black t-shirt and trousers.

Touko scowled.

“We were talking,” grumbled Touko.

The waitress squirmed a little.

“Oh, I am so sorry. I’ll come back in a few minutes,” said the waitress, and she started to turn.

“No.” Byakuya flung up a hand. The waitress froze. “We’ll order now. Fukawa, you first.”

Touko adjusted her hold on the menu and read it properly.

“A cream cheese and cucumber sandwich, a croissant and hot chocolate,” she decided. She passed the menu to Byakuya, whose eyes flickered as he skimmed through his options.

“I’ll have a prawn tempura box and a coffee,” he said, and he returned the menu to its slot in the holder.

The waitress nodded and bowed politely. “I’ll have your order with you soon.”

Neither Byakuya nor Touko spoke until the waitress had left.

“I will compare this book to your hot chocolate,” he told Touko and he picked up the book that he had placed in front of him. “But are you really telling me that you don’t mind if a book has been mistreated?”

Touko furrowed her brow.

“It bothers me when people don’t respect books. You were right about that.” She glanced away. Her heart felt like it had grown, threatening to bloat in her chest and tear through it. “However... sometimes... it’s not like that. A leftover bookmark, a small tear in someone’s favourite page, fingerprints and a bent spine... they can indicate how much someone pored over a book. But sometimes...”

What she wanted to say next weighed too much to leave her lips.

“... sometimes not,” he prompted.

“Yeah,” she said. Her posture stooped. “But even so, that doesn’t mean they can’t be loved by someone else. Someone who can appreciate them.”

“I see,” Byakuya replied quietly, seeming to realise that what she said didn’t just apply to books. “After we’ve eaten, we can see what else this store has to offer. Who knows, we might find something of value after all.”

A short time later, the waitress returned with their order. Touko picked up her sandwich.

“Wait,” he said, and she obeyed. He reached over and took the sandwich from her. “I wish to feed you.”

She twinkled at him and savoured every bite.

After their meal, they investigated the shelves around them, drifting apart as they searched for different genres. Her favourite was romance, but she didn’t seek out that section. The store stocked several detective novels and as one of their shared passions was for literature, she had a good idea of what he had already read, even if they didn’t have the same taste, and where his preferences lay. While Byakuya was distracted, browsing somewhere else, she examined an Agatha Christie novel called The Murder of Roger Ackroyd and thought back to an animated discussion they had one time about it.

Memories nurtured a smile and she tucked it under her arm. Touko rummaged some more and found And Then There Were None, but she decided against purchasing it, and opted for a slightly tatty copy of The ABC Murders instead. She hunted around, seeing what other authors’ works were available, and didn’t pay attention to any footsteps that must have crept up to her.

“I wonder what you’re doing here,” Byakuya mused, behind Touko all of a sudden.

Touko jumped and hugged the books to her chest, trying to cover them as much as she could with her arms.

He peered over her shoulder and though he couldn’t see what she had chosen, he could still look at the books in the shelving unit that she stood in front of.

“Hm? Detective fiction?” said Byakuya. “That’s rather different, isn’t it? I wonder...”

His breath smelled faintly of coffee and warmed her ear.

“... is it something for me?” he asked.

Touko shifted a bit. “Yes and no...”

Byakuya’s breathing hitched with interest, subtle, but she had always been good at picking up subtle movements. Telltale signs. She smirked.

“Are you going to tell me what you’re buying?” he asked, resting his hands on her shoulders. Touko’s skin tingled, but she didn’t relent.

“This doesn’t have anything to do with Valentine’s Day,” she said, puffing out her chest. “Like I said, I already had everything arranged prior to today. I wouldn’t buy you something so late on...”

He had already read the books in her arms, but they weren’t for him to read. They were for her to use for research, for when she wrote him a short mystery novel for his birthday in a few months.

“So why is part of your answer ‘no’?” he asked.

Touko twisted around, grinning.

“You’ll have to wait, Darling,” she said, and she tapped him on the nose.

Byakuya tried, and failed, to not pout. She restrained a giggle and noticed a book wedged under his armpit.

“What did you find?” she asked.

“If I was in a petty mood, I wouldn’t show you,” he said. He pulled it out and revealed a book that sucked her lips into a surprised ‘o’ shape.

“That’s...” She adjusted her glasses. “... So Lingers the Ocean.”

Her gaze bounced between his face and the book.

“I wrote that,” she said.

“I read many of your works years ago, and I don’t own any copies of them. With this, I’ll be able to refresh myself on your earlier writing,” he explained, giving the book a small shake.

Touko gave a low, pitiful mewl and held onto the sides of her head.

“What I can write now is far superior to that stilted, repetitive prose,” she whined, and she gripped her head tighter to help resist the urge to snatch it away. “If I was to read it again, I would rewrite all of it. Don’t trouble yourself with it...”

“It won’t trouble me. I look forward to being able to see the improvement,” he replied. “And remember, it’s possible to improve on what is already good.”

At the counter, they made their purchases separately, but they left the store together. The weather had become morose again and rain chased them to the subway station, where for half an hour, they found respite. After that, they reunited with the budding storm, and Byakuya hurried after Touko with his head tilted slightly downward.

On a clearer day, he would have seen where they had gone before they arrived at the flight of stone steps leading up to the location, but even as they ascended, him shielding his glasses with one hand while she did the same ahead of him, when she glanced back, she saw that his eyes were narrowed with uncertainty.

They passed through a set of double doors. In the dry warmth, he wiped his glasses and found his bearings, and looking around, worked out where he was.

“A space museum,” he announced, peering over at the wall behind the tickets counter, which was covered in space-related words printed in silver text, like ‘SHUTTLE’, ‘LEADERSHIP’ and ‘ASTRONOMY’.

“You’re right, Darling,” she said as they walked over to the counter, which was under a sign that said in loud, black font, ‘ADMISSION’. They ignored how the attendant wrinkled his nose at their damp attire. “You mentioned being interested in visiting this place, and as it’s indoors, I thought it would be ideal for a rainy day.”

“I did mention it once. You made a wise decision,” Byakuya remarked, and he couldn’t help but smile, though his couldn’t outshine hers.

Excitement bubbled in Touko’s chest as she bought their tickets, spending extra so they could go to the planetarium later and watch one of the shows. It was the planetarium that she looked forward to most, but for the next two hours, she nonetheless enjoyed herself by Byakuya’s side as they explored the different exhibits.

The first involved a circular screen built into the floor, on which they could watch the Big Bang. Touko gripped the rail around it, lightly touching her arm against Byakuya’s as the footage played.

Of course, while she had never been big on the sciences at school, she had been near the top of her classes for all subjects except physical education, and it didn’t take a genius to work out that this was only a reconstruction. Streaks of blue gathered into a cluster of white light that eventually exploded, sending flecks of cool tones everywhere while a calming voice narrated the event. She knew enough to follow along, and she glanced at Byakuya several times during the video. He observed the screen, listening with impenetrable features.

When the film restarted, Byakuya moved onto another exhibit. Touko tagged along beside him, her hands clasped together. They wound through different hallways, stopping and starting as Byakuya perused various information boards that she read alongside him. Neither said much, but she didn’t mind.

One of the rooms was dedicated to the Moon. She perked up and pointed at an exhibit that caught her eye.

“Byakuya-sama, they have an exhibit where you can walk on the Moon,” she said, vibrating, already imagining them floating around in zero gravity, where the only solid thing to hold onto was each other’s hands.

“I doubt it’ll be very authentic,” he said, eyeing the sign and what appeared to be two hopscotches drawn onto the ground, but he went over to investigate.

“Hello,” said a female attendant, dressed smartly. “Would you like to see what it’s like to walk on the Moon?”

“Yes, yes, we would,” said Touko impatiently, beside Byakuya.

The female attendant helped them into some harnesses that hung from the ceiling, dangling above the start of a different hopscotch. She received several glares from Touko while she fixed Byakuya’s straps, and when they were secured in, the attendant walked over to what appeared to be a control panel.

“All right, just go down the hopskotch and land by the flag at the end,” said the woman, motioning to the other side of the room. “On your marks... Get set... go!”

Until them, Touko hadn’t realised that they had been pitted together and she gasped, but Byakuya took it in his stride and bent his knees. He leaped forward and gradually sank back down, ready for his next jump.

To float, they needed to lift their legs, and to return to the ground, they were required to arrange themselves into a sitting position. Touko didn’t know if this was what astronauts really did in space to get around, but she couldn’t prove nor disprove it, so she sprung into the air to pursue Byakuya, abiding by the rules laid out by the attendant.

She yelped as she was levered up, and she shot an icy look at the attendant, who responded only with a toothy grin. The straps of the harness dug into Touko’s thighs and she flailed her legs, searching for something to land on, but the ground didn’t come any closer to her.

“Move into a sitting position,” said the attendant, pressing buttons and twitching joysticks.

“I know!” Touko snapped, and only when she complied did she lower to the ground. Every step that they placed left a visible footprint on the ground, which had been designed to resemble the Moon. She huffed and continued forward despite how futile victory was, because no matter how much she strained herself to try to reach Byakuya, she knew that the attendant was messing with her.

Byakuya soared over to the other end of his hopscotch first and waited for Touko to wriggle across to him. By the time she landed beside him, heat had blown up her face a brilliant pink, and she bit her tongue as the attendant freed them for their nylon bondage. Touko refused to give the attendant the satisfaction of knowing that she worked her way under Touko’s skin.

“That was... something,” said Byakuya. He pushed up his glasses. “How long is it until we are due at the planetarium?”

She retrieved her phone from her satchel. “A little over an hour.”

“We’re at a good pace then,” he said. “Come. Let us see what else this museum possesses.”

The attendant smiled at them with what, to certain people, or a certain person, could have been perceived as a smirk, and with a burst of confidence, Touko linked her arm with Byakuya’s. He didn’t shake her off and she beamed, twisting the shape of her lips into an indubitable smirk that she aimed at the woman, who soon busied herself with a family of four.

They progressed through the rest of the museum in this fashion. With her free arm, Touko checked her phone at intervals, keeping an eye on the time.

“Are you expecting a call?” asked Byakuya next to an exhibit of spacesuits, all contained behind glass, after she fumbled with her phone when there were forty minutes to spare.

Touko shook her head and switched the screen off. “I’m just making sure we don’t overrun, Darling.”

“So it’s not because I’m boring you?” he asked, and her reading of his lips wavered between a smirk and a frown.

“No!” Touko promised, cringing as her voice echoed through the vast hall. “I’m... I’m really enjoying myself.”

Her face was warm.

“I hope you are too,” she said, quieter.

He looked away and didn’t answer immediately. She kept staring and their eyes met again.

“I am,” he confirmed, and she relaxed.

Touko felt lighter than she had at the moonwalk exhibit. Every footstep bounced underneath her for the remainder of their visit until the show began. They arrived ten minutes early and were ushered into the theatre with a small crowd of people. At one end of the theatre were rows of formal blue chairs, but opposite them were rugs disguised as grass lawn with fake shrubs for cushions, as well as soft, white cloud sofas. Byakuya and Touko opted for one of the sofas and reclined, staring up at the domed ceiling.

The general lighting dimmed. Violin music sang out, and then the theatre’s lighting snuffed out completely. Touko felt a tug in her chest and grasped Byakuya’s hand, squeezing until she could see again. Fortunately, she wasn’t kept in suspense for long, and the ceiling soon sparkled with different colours. Purple, orange, pink and blue. They glittered, depicting galaxies and stars larger than she could comprehend, twinkling overhead. A calm voice introduced them to the show, titled ‘Life on Earth’, and led them through a journey around the world.

She let the narration wash over her and settle on her like a blanket. The scene changed from outer space to footage of London, shot in first person as if they were a pigeon flying through the city. To enhance the experience, the theatre released different scents, depending on the location shown. They swooped down to the shore, and Touko breathed its scent like she was there, its salty, briny scent.

After London, they flew across the sea to other locations, each with different aromas. France gave off an elegant, floral fragrance, mixed with a hint of baking, while Turkey wafted spices, but she discerned roses too. Pakistan greeted them with incense, dust and spices. The narrator made sure to describe all of the smells with words. Incense permeated in Japan, smokey and woody with a faint whiff of sakura.

Next, the Philippines, with rubbing alcohol, fish, durians and ash, a scent that grew on her. Australia brought bushfire smoke and grass. America, pine and barbeque, smelling like it just rained. Costa Rica, a rich rainforest, with fresh foliage and an unusual scent like syrup. Jamaica. Smoked fish. Incense. Jerk chicken. Nigeria. Coconut. Saltfish. A sweet, nutty background note.

Landscapes rolled into the next, and after Nigeria, they seemed to ascend, facing downward, until they entered outer space, confronted with an image of the Earth, small and large at the same time.

At first, Touko felt insignificant, but then the narrator said, “And yet, we are all connected, never alone. We’re all part of something big.”

She squeezed Byakuya’s hand, and he squeezed back.

“You can look now,” said Touko, and she reached up to remove his work tie from around his eyes.

No longer blindfolded, Byakuya had a full, unobscured view of their living room. Fairy lights snaked around the border of a blanket laid out on the floor. Wine had already been poured into two glasses, a deep purple with a red glow at the surface, and the rest of the wine was stored in a bottle lounging in a bucket of ice. A bowl of beef bourguignon beckoned at them with its aroma, placed close to a box of homemade chocolates.

Piano played from the stereo, one hand ringing out the same tune while the other drawled lower notes. It was an instrumental of an Elvis Presley song, and when the lyrics should have commenced, Touko mouthed the words to herself.

Byakuya strode over to the blanket. Touko stopped and held her breath, wringing two handfuls of the skirt of her checkered dress, which replaced the dress from earlier, now in the tumble dryer. He knelt down, paused, and then shifted, sitting with his legs crossed. She exhaled and joined him by his side. The room smelled of Turkey, thanks to the fragrance sold at the gift shop at the planetarium.

“Would you like some beef bourguignon, Darling?” she asked, already reaching for a fork.

“Yes,” he said.

Touko dug the prongs into a cube of meat and raised it to his lips. He opened his mouth, letting her slide the bit of food in. She withdrew the fork but kept the utensil airborne. Every chew kept her in suspense.

“Is it to your liking?” she asked once he had swallowed.

Byakuya smacked his lips together. Touko tried not to swoon.

“Hey, did you buy this or prepare it yourself?” he asked during a pause from licking his teeth.

“I bought the ingredients from a market, but I used a recipe,” she said. She leaned into him slightly. “You know... the recipe from last time?”

“I remember,” he said. He cupped his chin. “First, we forgot to turn the oven on, and then we somehow burned a hole through the oven.”

“This time, the oven is perfectly intact. I even cleaned it afterwards,” she told him as she sifted through the beef bourguignon, searching for a big chunk of meat. She pierced one and presented it to Byakuya.

He ate it without a word, his brow creased as he stared into space. Touko’s lips pressed together.

“You’re not mad, are you?” she dared ask, but she needn’t have been worried.

“No,” he said, and her shoulders sank a stage. “I was just thinking about how to outperform you by a scale factor of three next month.”

Byakuya regarded her with eyes that held no secrets. No punchline.

“You did well,” he said.

She squeaked and tucked her fists under her chin.

“R-Really?” she said.

“I wouldn’t say so otherwise,” he told her.

His gaze lingered. Colour crept into his face and he turned his head away. After some moments’ thought, however, he turned back, his cheeks a vulnerable shade of red. Byakuya took one of her slender hands in his while he grabbed a glass of wine in his other. Not for himself, though, as she found out when he held it toward her. She blinked before curling the fingers on her free hand around its stem. Her heart fluttered as their fingers brushed together, and the steady pressure of his hand around hers kept her heart energetic.

He picked up the last glass for himself and raised it between them.

“To us,” said Byakuya.

Touko nodded and brought her glass forward. They clinked together. She pressed the rim of her glass lightly against her lips but didn’t drink yet, watching Byakuya as he tasted the wine. After a few sips, he set down his glass. Wine sheened on his lips, which he puckered faintly, invitingly.

A smile rounded her cheeks and she wiggled closer. Byakuya released his hold on her hand and wrapped his arm around her as she leaned into him from the side, propped up by his body, and the next song rolled in.

She got to taste the wine without drinking it from a glass.

#touko fukawa #byakuya togami #danganronpa #togafuka #fanfiction #one shot

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corona-stories · 5 years ago

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A story about isolation phone sex

Katie had never had phone sex before. A few lingerie shots and a bit of tame sexting, yes. But never phone sex. And in one hour she was going to be losing her phone sex virginity.

It’s not like Katie was a prude, she’d just never felt the need for it before. When she was seventeen her boyfriend had lived two doors down from her, and at university her sex life had quite naturally transitioned into a string of Tinder dates and alcohol fuelled hook-ups. Since graduating she’d met her current boyfriend James on one of the apps — he’d been a sure swipe right. On their first few dates, he’d been funny and charming, and somehow she hadn’t even been put off by learning he worked in consultancy. It wasn’t long before she was spending most nights of the week with him — she even had a toothbrush at his place. But that was before the lockdown. Before Coronavirus. Before you were only allowed out for essential trips. And apparently, popping over to your boyfriend’s for a quickie, was not considered essential.

Katie checked her phone. 30 minutes and counting. She wondered whether she really found the idea of phone sex a turn on at all. She’d never felt the need for dirty talk in her own sex life. Someone could say what they wanted to her, but as long as they touched her in the right way, she was theirs. In her second year, she’d dated a girl called Ash for a few months, who used to ask Katie to describe what she was doing as she was doing it. Katie could never take it seriously, and was afflicted with the unsexiest things popping into her head at the most inconvenient times. She’d once told Ash that she was going to get her hot. So hot. Hot enough to fry an egg on her skin… The relationship had fizzled out fairly quickly after that. It’s not like she hated sexy talk: once she’d even had a wank to a scene in the film Her where Joaquin Phoenix has sex with his AI girlfriend for the first time. But she thought it was probably just because she found Scarlett Johansson’s robot voice really sexy.

It was now approaching three weeks since she’d seen James. The lockdown didn’t look like it was going to be ending any time soon and she was getting to the end of her tether. So far they’d been talking almost every night but were quickly running out of things to say; there were only so many times you could ask about someone’s broken tumble-dryer. The pair were used to going on dates to art exhibitions and swanky cocktail bars — this solitary lifestyle was quite an adjustment. When she’d suggested it, James had jumped at the idea of phone sex. Or more accurately Skype sex. Facetime sex. Zoom sex? That bit had been his suggestion, telling her quite emphatically that he would need a visual aid. She supposed that his visual aid might as well be her rather than some random woman on the internet.

15 minutes. Katie had a sudden thought. She hadn’t shaved her legs. It seemed very low down on the priority list during the pandemic. She wasn’t exactly lacking the time to do it, but it’s not like anyone was seeing them. If she was honest with herself, she was enjoying how long her leg hair had gotten recently and it was unlikely James would even be able to see the hair on screen. She decided not to worry. With ten minutes to go, Katie slipped off the greying sports bra she’d been wearing all day and put on her plain black halter neck. She’d considered wearing the red lacy number she’d bought for Valentine’s Day but remembered how itchy it had been. Not what she would want when trying to concentrate on the task at hand.

She now had just five minutes to go and opening her phone camera, she practiced holding it at different angles. She tried leaning it at the end of the bed. No, too much chin. Pilling up a couple of pillows, she rested it to give a more flattering angle. Staring at herself in the phone, she waited for James to call. It was strange, just watching herself like this. She supposed that during the video call she’d be able to see herself in the top corner the whole time. Weird.

Slowly, something began to dawn on her but before she could pick up her phone and call the whole thing off, it began to buzz and his picture filled her screen.

Her final, horrified thought as she answered was the realisation that she was going to see her own cum face.

Written by Niamh (@incredibleniamh) Illustrated by Helena (@Helenabonastre)

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doomedandstoned · 7 years ago

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Strike The Sun: An Interview with Miami’s SHROUD EATER

~By Billy Goate~

~Pictures by Wicked Ways Photography~

This piece has been a long time coming. SHROUD EATER has been a powerful force in doom metal for damn near a decade. Their sound crackles with electricity, with a rumbling low-end that has caused a ripple in the underground and vocals that soar triumphantly above the rubbled landscape. It's inexplicable that we haven't covered them in these pages before. Chalk it up to a scene that has just mushroomed exponentially in size since Doomed & Stoned blasted off in 2013. I came within feet of seeing them at Psycho Las Vegas a few years back, but by that time in the festival I was so exhausted I overslept. So it was high time we gave the Miami trio of Jean Saiz (guitars, vox), Jan Valentine (bass, backing vocals), and Davin Sosa (drums) some love. This has been an eventful year for the band, seeing the realization of their second full-length, 'Strike The Sun (2017 - STB Records), and then having the unenviable experience of seeing this self-same sun "stricken" by a certain hurricane called Irma just a month later. The band was kind enough to oblige me an interview in the days following, including an in-depth, track-by-track walkthrough of their Doom Charting new record.

The new record is a behemoth. Are you finding your approach to writing as a band has changed significantly since the early days? What's your creative process like now?

Jan: First off, thanks for digging the new record! Now, as far as the writing process goes, it’s definitely changed due to changes in dynamics within the band depending on who we’re writing with. I feel that with Davin in the band we are all more involved as a unit. Normally, a riff idea blooms, one of us writes lyrics, things just come together and if it feels right we run with it. Sometimes Jean, being the main song writer, has a solid idea to work off of. Currently, the process has a pretty organic flow.

Most young bands would find it hard to envision five years together and hear you are inching ever closer to 10. I'm curious, how your relationships with one another evolved over the years. Assuming you've always been tight. Would you say being in a long-term band relationship is more or less like being in a marriage? Weird question, I know.

Jan: I personally refer to a band relationship as being very much like a marriage, so not a weird question at all. Jean and I have been together 15 years, have been in this band for about a decade now and have been playing with Davin for a little over two years. Personalities, creative interests, sense of humor, compromise, communication, similar goals -- all among the many things that need to jive in order to make a relationship work. If any of these aspects don’t mesh or there’s no connection it’s very difficult to come together creatively. Writing is very much an intimate experience whereas performing can easily be compared to letting it all hang out so to speak. When shit works, it just does.

What do you all do when you're not creating and performing music?

Jan: Jean is a graphic designer by day and works on commissioned artwork by night. She also runs her cassette label, Primitive Violence. She’s worked on some really killer releases including our limited edition cassette packages for Strike the Sun. Davin is a skilled sushi chef and can also whip up a mean hot sauce. He’s a video game enthusiast and is really good with horses. I’m a full-time photographer, animal lover, dabble in incense-making, and a B-movie buff. I enjoy collecting shitty movies and forcing friends to watch them.

This is your second full-length in 6 years. How is it different for you putting out an LP versus and EP? Does it basically just come down to the number of songs you have on hand? What's special about this LP for you?

Davin: Wasn't here for the whole six, but it's pretty much just that. There's definitely an urge to make the songs on an LP flow better together, while an EP can be presented as a “grab bag” of songs. Aside from being my first longer release with the band, what makes this one special for me is how Jan and Jean pretty much let me do things my way (the dumb, hard way) on the recording front. It was a crazy learning experience, and I’m grateful for the opportunity to have put us all through hell and back.

The sound on 'Strike The Sun' is exquisite. I feel surrounded by fuzz, so thick you could slice it with a knife and gobble it whole! Take us inside the studio and share, if you will, what it took to capture just the right tone and tenor you wanted. For instance, what gear did you/do you find essential to get the sound you want?

Davin: Thank ya! We captured the raw DI signals for guitar and bass in the comfort of our respective homes, and took those dry tracks with us to HiFive Audio in Deland, Florida to be re-amped through the gals’ rigs. This allowed the boys at HiFive to really dial in a great tone without worrying about the strength of our performances. As far as gear goes, Jean’s sound hinges largely on the Black Forest, Pharaoh, and Quantum Mystic pedals, all by Black Arts Toneworks, running full-stack out of a Verellen Skyhammer and Matamp GT 120. Jan also sports a Black Forest alongside the Revelation Superbass, all out of a Fender Super Bassman. Vocals were done at home with me in a similar fashion to the guitar ‘n bass, with drum tracking also taking place at HiFive. All lovingly mixed by Sanford Parker!

Did anything change between the practice room and the recording studio in regard to the songs to more fully realize your creative vision?

Davin: Small things like licks and fills. In a more substantial way, vocal parts got a little more detailed, and a couple songs got the synth treatment. I think the mantra was to not add anything engaging enough to the point where it's absence in a live setting would be noticeable.

You've worked with various producers over the years, but seem to have found your sweet spot with doing the recording yourself. Tell us about the difference it makes having Davin Sosa in the engineer's seat.

Jean: Having someone who is in the band handle the engineering and recording is great for us, because it assures that we have someone who really cares about and will go the extra mile on what they’re working on. He has an exceptional attention to detail, knows the songs from all angles, and he really loves the process of recording; I think that shows in everything we’ve put out since he’s joined us and I feel very fortunate in that respect.

Ok, let's get to the fun stuff. Take us through 'Strike The Sun' and guide us into this landscape of fire, flesh, dreams, and disaster. Is there an interlocking character to the songs we're hearing? Perhaps you can walk us track-by-track through the album, if you like.

Jean: Fire, flesh, dreams and disaster is a perfect summary! There are many references to not being of one flesh or skin, creating a certain sense of unstoppable will power, death, destruction and the lot. So let’s go on that track-by-track stroll:

Smokeless Fire