#at least start accepting them a week early and then actually start them in february... lol ... we'll see the 27th i guess | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

aicaptures · 9 months ago

Text

Twice "Ready to Be" - My first ever concert experience!

October 1, 2023 - I attended my first ever concert. The whole experience was exhilarating, fun, and my voice was hoarse for a week but I'd happily do it all over again (I'll be getting a closer seat next time!)

FOR CONTEXT - I started liking K-pop way back 2013 when my friends performed I got a Boy by Girls Generation during our school's Foundation Day when we were in our third year high school. Even though I don't understand the lyrics, I think what got me hooked with it was the vibe, beat, and how powerful some K-pop songs were. My K-pop playlist is my go-to in Spotify whenever I need a booster whenever I feel sleepy or I need to get things done at work.

I have been a Badminton player ever since I was in fifth grade. My parents are also Badminton players and they greatly influenced me to play the sport. My parents are members of a Badminton group where majority of the other members are their friends. It was only me and another kid that belonged to the "younger members" list but there was a time where we met a group of teenagers in the Badminton court where we usually go to. They played with us and then we invited them to join our group and they gladly accepted. In that group, I met my so-called "Badminton crush" (but this is all in the past now, okay? Haha) and one time during our quarterly Badminton tournament, he brought his own speakers and played Heart Shaker by Twice while I was warming up before my game. I saw him dancing the steps while laughing with his friends and found it cute that's why I got curious about the song and the artist and that's how I started to know and liked Twice. I think this was around 2019-2020?

And by the way, my bias in Twice (favorite singer or band member in an idol group) is Dahyun but I love the other members too!

FAST FORWARD - February 2023, JYP Entertainment announced that Twice will be having their third world tour and Philippines is included in their Southeast Asia stops. I got excited because the last time that they came to the Philippines, I was not able to secure a ticket. I just felt happy that they are coming back here and I wondered if I can go to their concert but also feared that I cannot be able to because my parents would be angry with me if they knew that I bought a concert ticket (I don't hate them for that but I grew up not having most of what I wanted when I was younger because for them it is a waste of money).

Early June 2023, I got the news that I will be laid off. I was so lost that time because I have no plans of resigning from my position any time soon because I was actually supposed to be trained for a promotion but unfortunately, they had to hire people from a different agency which meant that they had to let some people go to make room for those and I was one of them.

I received what they called a "retirement package" or compensation for the employees that got laid off. It was enough to last me for a bit (This is considering all my bills for a month and it could easily last me for at least 6-8 months if ever I don't get a job quickly) so I started considering buying a ticket. I had the money that time but I am worried to go alone because it was my first time so there are a lot of things that I do not know yet. I don't know if it was fate (but maybe it was) because my bestfriend Lolyn told me that she wants to go to the concert too. Now both of my problems are resolved - I have money and someone to go to the concert with.

The ticket selling for their show on September 30 was scheduled last June 15. I was having my PC professionally cleaned that time so I queued at exactly 10 am in the shop using my cellular data for the ticket selling but I got placed 64000th. I already lost hope because I think in less than an hour the concert was already declared sold out.

After I got home, I saw in Facebook that they will be having another show on October 1 and another round of ticket selling for it last June 16. Lolyn and I came up with several ideas on how we can get tickets - we contacted someone to help us find a valid session link and they will give it to us (It's not illegal but for those that were able to get into the website early, their session is still valid for I think 10 minutes and they can share it with other people so that they can buy tickets as well without having to queue) and then we queued on all our available devices.

June 16 came and then I asked my sisters (they're twins, by the way) to help me out. It was nerve-wracking because every link that we tried always cuts off midway due to network traffic but luckily, the session that was on my PC went through and I immediately got 2 tickets for me and Lolyn. I was crying that time because I was nervous as heck and then I laughed it off after I received the online receipt because it was a success!

D-DAY - Concert day came and I wasn't able to get some sleep hahaha. I went to Lolyn's house because her sister is going to drive us there. There were four of us attending - Lolyn, me, her sister, and their family friend. I bought their light stick or "Candybong" (the name of the Twice' light stick), their only official merch that I have. We got to the venue early because we aimed to get a good parking spot. We got some food from Burger King in the gas station near the venue (Philippine Arena in Bocaue, Bulacan) and then we ate it in the car after settling down. The doors are scheduled to open at 5pm (if I remember correctly) because the show will start at 6pm. After eating and then staying in the car until around 3pm, we decided to go out and line up. We got a bit lost because there's so many Onces in the venue but we eventually found where we need to line up. While on the line, there were a lot of Onces with freebies so we got some! We got stickers, bracelets, and headbands!

CONCERT EXPERIENCE - The whole 3 hours that they were performing, I was always shouting. I can hear my seatmates laughing because of loud I was but I can't help it hahaha. Every member performed their special numbers and there were also parts where they performed as a group or by threes (since there are nine Twice members in total). Aside from shouting, I sang my heart out, jumped, participated in the wave (there's this thing with K-pop concerts where they start a wave using their light sticks and the crowd will follow), caught some confettis as souvenir, and took lots and lots of pictures and videos.

There are times that I felt the whole arena moving with us as we jump hahahaha and its definitely one of those moments where I felt the most alive. I was so happy being a part of that ocean that day.

Thank you, Twice!

In the next post, I'll share some pictures and clips of me that day!

#text

0 notes

uncleasad · 1 month ago

Text

With all due respect to the wiki, and pardon my French, but the wiki is full of merde 😂

As I detailed in this post (my addition at the very bottom of the reblog chain; perhaps I should break that out on its own at some point), there’s no conceivable way the series started in February. None. Zero. (Did it really have “February” in a title card for 1x01? Or was this someone on the wiki working backwards from known dates, e.g. 1x06 Sweet Sixteen, and deciding it’s February when the season starts, without also looking forward to where we know that the annual flag football game takes place near the beginning of the fall semester [2x03]?).

1x01-1x04 clearly take place in the late summer/early fall, August to early October, given the attire and the quality of the light, and if someone on the show put a February title card in 1x01, they’re insane (and equally full of merde, regardless of what they say). No one in Georgia (let alone Virginia) is playing football in March/April, let alone February, in those clothes.)

The sanest way to reconcile the parts of the time timeline with events whose dates we know with the realities we see on the screen (condition of the light, attire) is to posit possibly a gap between 1x04 and 1x06 (possibly several weeks between 1x04 and 1x05, then months between 1x05 and 1x06).

Anyway, back to Penelope 😂

Do we know that Josie actually had one of those pens? I couldn’t remember Pen mentioning anything Josie had written in her diary, but I also did not just watch that episode 😂 (For that matter, do we know that people knew Penelope was the one gifting them?) And if she gave one to everyone at school (which is how I interpreted it—or at least the adults and older students), would Josie still not have accepted it?

I interpreted 1x01 to indicate their breakup was 3-6 months ago, maybe 1 year max? But that’s really just vibes 😂

I think we agree that Penelope only found out about The Merge recently and that general sequence of events related to that, though 😀🙏

Is my understanding correct that Penelope only learned about The Merge after Christmas (whenever the hell that was in S1? Between 1x04 and 1x06?), after she gave out the spelled pens?

And only then once Alaric wrote something about it with the pen (presumably after 1x10, when he’s reading the book about the Gemini Coven)?

I think in all the fog of time and general uproar over Penelope’s treatment of Lizzie in attempts to get Josie to stand up for herself, my brain had thought Penelope had known for a while and that was part of why they broke up and she was behaving that way, when in reality she’d only known for a few weeks?

It makes no sense with Penelope’s character for her to sit on a secret like that for so long—although she did wait until 1x14 when she left to finally tell Josie (but she gave Josie the letter in 1x11, so she was hoping to talk to Josie sooner, I guess?).

Related: we also have no idea

when Josie and Penelope started dating,

how long they dated, and

how long before 1x01 (when Josie said she was still nursing a wounded soul) they broke up, right?

(The Merge question is actually relevant for a fic I’m writing, and the others are tangentially informative, so lumping them all together here.)

#reblog #tvdu timeline #penelope park

10 notes · View notes

pocketramblr · 4 years ago

Text

The followup to the Thought™

"Ugh." You say, waving to the screen. "Look at that, now that's who should have been the main character-"

"Oh?" I say, a small glowing figure appearing in front of you. "I can show you that if you want, wish granted." I wave my magic wand, and you blink to find yourself watching a different universe's show.

It's about a blond boy, with a minor superpower that's difficult to work with. He only has one friend, with major anxiety. Both of them want to be heroes, which is about the coolest and nicest thing anyone can be in this world.

But the blond boy is only in middle school. He doesn't get the best grades, he's a bit of a class clown, a bit of a delinquent. He's not exactly cool or over powered, but his earnest, bright nature endears him to the watchers and readers of the story. He's nice, and not worried about competition. He'll put cheering up his best friend over studying- and he'll put just enjoying video games together over training his power on his own.

He doesn't, by the way, train on his own. He makes meager progress in the class provided, and works hard when he's thinking about it, but he honestly doesn't even know where to start with his power.

He takes the entrance exam, and by some manner of luck, manages to permeate through blasts and rubble while shoving other students out of the way. He's used to watching out for his best friend, at least, and that carries over in his natural, if clumsy, attempts to help others here.

With more luck, he is accepted into the school on those points. So is his best friend, though they're in different classes. He still doesn't have many friends, but they meet a new girl in his bf's class: she's gorgeous and powerful- the most raw energy in any of their quirks, and no anxiety or complications holding her back.

She's a bit of a ditz, though, a bit much for others to hang around all the time, so even though she should be a shoe in fit the most popular, she slides easily into their group instead.

The fandom likes her a lot, and you feel impatient. This isn't the story you wanted to see, not really.

"Don't worry," I say. "Time flies when you're actually a school story instead of a daily battle with villains story."

And it does- they compete in the first sports festival. The main character, to little surprise, doesn't do well. But he manages to keep himself and the others smiling and laughing through it, and that brings the attention of the mentor.

The mentor that you like, of course, the mentor you believe was right.

The mentor trains the main character. It's hard, but he can actually break down what exactly he needs to improve on, and now that he has support, the main character takes it seriously. Like all children do, he rises to the expectations on him when he's given the material to do so.

Not made to find the material. The kid would have never dreamed of just assuming and asking such a high ranking hero to focus on him. Rather like another boy, but we'll get to him later.

It's another year. The girl tried her best at the beauty pageant. The best friend tried his best at the liscence exam. The main character has still been training at his internship.

"His second year." You say, thinking. "Now this is when All Might shows up in the timeline, ten months before February in what would be Mirio's second year."

I raise an eyebrow, but wave my magic wand.

All Might does appear. The mysterious top hero, always in the background- ads, all over the mentor's office. They used to work together, but no one in this universe knows anything more than that.

The mentor and the principal happily tell the main character that the number one hero wants to meet with him directly! The boy is nervous, of course, excited, of course, and a tad confused.

But meet they do.

And offer his quirk, he does.

The episode and chapter end on that, of course, and you feel a surge of excitement. Finally!

You look around and realize others in this fandom do not see it that way. Many critique the twist as coming out of nowhere, with no build up that it was even possible, breaking the established rules for no reason. Many others are proud of how much the main character has to work at the difficult power, and do not want him to have a second before he masters this one. Some feel it's a trap- a secret test of character, or a villain in disguise who will ruin him. Some wonder if it's more metaphorical- he's offering the power of support and more guidance, maybe a connection, but not his literal superpower.

You do not know how to feel about it, but you know this will be for the better. He will be perfect for it.

At the beginning of the next update, the boy turns down the quirk. Grateful, more than he could say, but he's worked so hard for his own power and he's not even up to snuff with it yet. He's unsure he's the best option. The girl, after all, is used to weilding such power, maybe he should try her, maybe he should keep looking.

The top hero nods, and asks if he can visit again later, if he can find no other. The boy is a good hero after all, and maybe he needs to believe in himself as much as he is telling his friend to. It will be hard to train a second quirk, yes, but he can manage. It will make him stronger and pay off, after all.

The boy agrees, tentatively. No one can really say no to the number one hero, after all.

"Ok." You say, nodding. "There's an opening. It can build more, since that's how the story is here, way more slowburn."

I shrug. That's what happens when you start the story three years early, but whatever.

The story goes on. The main character does better in the sports festival, but not by any measure good. His friend finds a mentor, a character popular. Much warmer than the blond's mentor. The girl gets a really good mentor, a top tenner.

And then they start to get really good. They're used to training now, and getting it all bit individually and together. The mentor is motivated as of by fury, pushing more and more. And the main character grows to reach it.

Another year. They're seniors, now. Just one year left before they're pros, but they're already about at that level. They're called the Big Three.

The third year is different. Chaos every few weeks. A class of first years attacked.

"Oh, because All Might is still looking for a successor among the students- checking over the freshmen but they won't be able to compare."

I hum in a way that could be interpreted as agreement.

The sports festival. Finally, real victory. They do so well, even with one anxious at crowds. And one that is seemingly allergic to staying clothed. They do well.

The chaos continues, always at the sides. The others in this universe who follow the story talk about that and the offer the top hero made. Is he getting weaker? Did that power leak somehow and now someone wants it?

The tension grows, especially for you. If the hero doesn't give the main character the power before the summer....

The main character doesn't get the power before the summer. The hero falls on tv while the blond and his friends watch in horror.

After the summer, the main character decides to meet the freshmen. You wonder who will replace a certain someone's seat, or if this is playing the original quirkless hero storyline.

When the main character challenges the class of freshmen and you see that sparking green, you seethe.

"I said I wanted Mirio to have OfA! Why is he-"

"Actually," when I speak, you cannot. "You asked for him to be the main character. He still is. A beloved one, even."

"You know what I meant!"

"Perhaps. But then you asked for another change, and so I allowed All Might to meet with him a few days before he would have in the old timeline. He had a chance, he turned it down. Why are you mad at him having his own ambitions and autonomy?"

"He was supposed to take it! He's the worthier option, and you know it."

"What makes him worthy?"

"He works hard!"

"So does Izuku."

"He worked hard before he was offered everything by All Might!"

"Yes," I will admit. "Though, that's only because he met Sir before he met All Might. Were you so focused on how slow it was going that you didn't actually watch what he was doing?"

You will not admit to anything, still angry.

"He'll get another chance." I remind you.

You huff, but the story continues on.

The main character takes a liking to the boy you despise. So does the fandom, dubbing him the cutest little kohai. He's awkward and eager and sunny, like a fusion of the main trio.

He's also impulsive, and on their first patrol together they run into who will obviously be the big bad of the arc- and his abused daughter.

The fandom is split on if the story is going to go with a "In this arc, the blond must pass his experience on patience to a boy who it all about speed and too naive" or if it's "In this arc, it's the mouth of babes- the boy will inspire the main character to do good more impulsively."

You sit and wait for it to be "the boy will finally fork over the power he's now spent over a year working to hold and use to the real main character."

The raid happens. We finally see how the main character met his best friend. It's very sweet. The girl is a lead character and gets focus on her fight too, though the two freshmen working with her don't really. There's another funky freshman boy who turns out to be more like the best friend than we thought.

Finally, we get to the main fight.

And the main character is shot, quirk erased. For good, if the villain who's really not actually that good an example of a scientist is to be believed.

"Oh. What if the former top hero offers his power again, after this arc? It's about loss but always moving on?" The fandom asks. They aren't sure if the buildup to this is better than before, but it's certainly am interesting turn, and not as controversial as the last time.

The best friend saves the day by awakening right at the perfect moment to drag the teacher in. The quirk is kinda super deus ex machina for this arc though.

At the hospital, the mentor dies. The former number one hero is there.

The fandom wonders whether to hope or fear how long he'll wait to replace the mentor and the quirk.

You wait, knowing it's soon.

Then the freshman offers his quirk, and the fandom flips again.

"We should have known!" They cry. "He had super speed and strength the whole time, maybe the sparks are from his own quirk, but it's the same power! Oh, this hurts much more than just if it had been the retired hero!"

Once again, the fandom divides. Many can't bear to see the kohai they love shoved aside after this one moment. Will be be able to use his original power? Then they won't mind the strength for the blond. Some say to wait for his power to come back. A few pipe up about the possibility of him doing it quirkless. He has trained physically too, after all these years.

"No thanks," he says again. He does smile though- just like Sir told him to- and tells his kohai that he’ll do great things with the power, just like All Might did. Tells him that he already has.

You're past the point of fury now.

"Why?" You demand.

"Keep watching." My tone is cold. "Keep watching, the next five months where he does nothing but babysit a girl in hopes she'll magically make himt not quirkless again. He doesn't even ask if he can be a quirkless hero. He doesn't even go to school to keep training. You demanded the other boy figure it out himself. This boy doesn't. He just hopes the same thing that did this to him can undo it."

You don't know what to say about that.

"Neither took it seriously in middle school. That's the nature of middle schoolers. Neither of them tried to go solo quirkless, when no support was provided. But they're both good kids. Hard workers. Heroic. They love each other, honestly, they're friends. It's sweet. And it's sad that it took me doing this for you to see it."

I shake my head.

"Sir Nighteye never saw how Mirio was much more like Izuku than All Might. That was his mistake, because he didn't know the meaning of worthy. Not that it was his choice to make even if he had. There's no magic to this. OfA isn't Excalibur or Mjölnir. All sorts of people have had it. And All Might wasn't doing much to train before he found Nana ether, as much as he got into trouble. OfA is more about connections they have to each other. It's about people's relationships. As it happens, that just doesn't include Mirio and wouldn't be at its most meaningful if it did."

"You just are too much a Deku stan and hate Mirio-"

"Accuse me of hating Mirio again, and I will leave you here." I threaten, pointing my wand at you. "Now. Did you learn your lesson?"

You grumble, but you do nod.

"Good." I say, before waving my wand one last time. You're back where you were before, not a trace of me or magic.

The lesson, though, sticks.

#i said i was going to 'it's a wonderful world' you and so i did #hmcmverse #other main characters meta series

125 notes · View notes

all-that-jazz-93 · 4 years ago

Text

American Dragon Timeline

I’ve been trying for a while now to figure out the timeline of this show, because it makes no sense in the order that Disney Channel originally aired the episodes. It also makes no sense in the episode list on Jeff Goode’s website, which he claims to be the proper chronology of events.

I had to come up with a few convoluted headcanons to make this work, but I think I’ve finally pieced together a coherent timeline (note that for a lot of the filler episodes, it doesn’t actually matter that much when they take place, I was just trying to stick as close to Jeff Goode’s chronology as possible.)

September 2004

Old School Training

It’s implied in this episode that Jake got his dragon powers very recently. They don’t say how recently, but given how new the whole thing is to him, I’d say it’s probably only been about a week or two.

Here’s where we come up against our first issue with canon. In The Legend of Dragon Tooth, Jake says he got his dragon powers when he turned 13, and in Shapeshifter, he says he’s a Pisces, which means his birthday would be in late February, or March. There’s no way the timeline makes sense if that’s the case, so my headcanon is that Jake is just like…really bad at astrology, and he somehow confused Pisces with another star sign.

We also have the issue of how far behind he seems to be in school (he’s 14 in early season 2, but still in 7th grade). So, two more headcanons to explain that. Number one, Jake’s birthday is actually sometime in early September, so he missed the cutoff to go to kindergarten when he was 5, and had to wait until he was 6, placing him a year behind (some places don’t allow kids to start kindergarten if they turn 5 after September 1st. I knew a boy in my old youth group who was almost a year older than everyone else in our grade, because he had an October birthday). Number two, at some point in elementary school, Jake was held back a grade. So the first episode takes place shortly after Jake’s 13th birthday, at the beginning of his sixth grade year.

Since Trixie and Spud are supposed to be the same age as him, that would mean they must’ve both been held back at some point as well (that especially makes sense for Spud—anyone who’s purposely failed as many tests as he has would almost definitely have to repeat a grade).

This would also make Rose younger than them. She’s very bright, and she seems like a good student, so it’s unlikely she was ever held back. But we don’t want her to be too much younger than them, so I’ll headcanon that she also has a birthday in early September, making her a year younger than Jake. If that’s the case, she’d be 12 in season one, and 13/14 in season 2.

Adventures in Trollsitting/Fu Dog Takes a Walk

The dogcatcher says that it’s September.

September/October 2004

Shapeshifter Dragon Breath The Legend of Dragon Tooth The Talented Mr. Long Professor Rotwood’s Thesis Act 4, Scene 15 The Long Weekend Body Guard Duty Dragon Summit

This episode has to take place after Shapeshifter, Dragon Breath, and Professor Rotwood’s Thesis, since the Dragon Council makes references back to Jake’s actions in all of those episodes. It also has to take place before The Halloween Bash, which places it sometime in September or October.

October 2004

The Halloween Bash

Jeff Goode’s website lists this episode as taking place between Ski Trip and The Hunted, but there’s no way that’s possible, because Ski Trip takes place close to Valentine’s Day, and The Hunted takes place during the Equinox (they don’t specify which Equinox, but it would have to be the one in September; it’s the only way the timeline makes any sense, even with the generous liberties I’m taking with these headcanons). So The Halloween Bash has to take place before Ski Trip. No one in this episode makes any reference to knowing Rose’s identity, so it works out just fine.

February 2005

The Ski Trip

Valentine’s Day was actually on a Monday in 2005, so presumably this episode takes place the weekend of February 11-13.

March 2005

The Egg/The Heist

Easter was on March 27 in 2005. This is how I know The Hunted takes place during the Autumnal Equinox; Rose was still in the city during Easter weekend, a week after the Vernal Equinox.

Eye of the Beholder Ring Around the Dragon Jake Takes the Cake

May 2005

Fu and Tell/Flight of the Unicorn

Flight of the Unicorn takes place on Memorial Day, which was May 30th that year

May/June (or September) 2005

Keeping Shop

Hong Kong Nights

I know Jeff Goode’s website says this is the last episode of season one, but I absolutely cannot accept any episode besides The Hunted as the season finale, so I’m just gonna recognize that the council has made a decision, but elect to ignore it.

September 2005

The Hunted

The Autumnal Equinox in 2005 was on September 22

Late November/Early December 2005

Half Baked

Jake says it’s been three months since Rose left. It couldn’t be exactly three months, because that would place this episode in late December, and school would be out for the holidays. So presumably it’s late November or early December, and Jake is rounding up when he says three months.

The Academy

This one would pretty much have to take place very soon after Half Baked, like within a week or two.

Late December 2005

Breakout

This episode establishes that 88 and 89 are in the city working as apprentices to the Huntsman, so it has to take place before the Christmas episode, which they also appear in.

Hairy Christmas

January/February 2006

(Most of these don’t actually have to take place in January or February, aside from Dreamscape and Fool’s Gold. The rest could be pretty much any time during Jake’s 7th grade year. I’m just trying to stick to Jeff Goode’s chronology, and keep at least some of the episodes in the order he listed.)

Hero of the Hourglass Bring It On Family Business Something Fishy This Way Comes The Doppelganger Gang Dreamscape Fool's Gold

February 2006

The Love Cruise

They never explicitly say it’s Valentine’s Day, but the whole concept of the Love Cruise seems like something a school would do for Valentine’s Day. Also adds an extra layer of heartbreak, because it means Jake and Rose’s breakup happened on the one-year anniversary of Jake finding out Rose was Huntsgirl. Ouch. February has not been kind to Jake.

On the other hand, I’d prefer to headcanon that Jake and Rose got to spend the whole summer together before their breakup, going on dream dates every night and not having to set their alarms for school in the morning (can we just let them be happy for a little while? PLEASE?!?!?!?), so maybe the Love Cruise wasn’t on Valentine’s Day, and instead was just some random school event at the beginning of their 8th grade year.

May 2006

Feeding Frenzy

They spend three days visiting Jake’s family, so it’s either Memorial Day weekend, spring break, or summertime. Most likely Memorial Day or spring break, since Jake says in this episode that he’s been the American Dragon for a year and a half.

May/June 2006

A Befuddled Mind The Rotwood Files Haley Gone Wild Switcheroo

This one takes place after The Love Cruise, because Jake and Rose’s recent breakup is a minor plot point, so it only takes place at this point if we headcanon Love Cruise taking place in February.

Young At Heart

I know this is supposed to be a later episode, but going by this timeline, Jake would be 15 for most of his 8th grade year, and in this episode Jake, Trixie, and Spud talk about being 14, so it has to take place during 7th grade

Summer between 7th and 8th grade

A Ghost Story

Late September/Early October 2006

Homecoming

I never went to public school (I was unfortunately homeschooled), but it’s my understanding that middle schools don’t do Homecoming. So my headcanon is that it was actually just a junior high prom or something, but a few students on the planning committee approached Sun Park and begged her to let them model it after the Homecoming dances at their older siblings’ high schools. Sun was delighted by their enthusiasm, so of course she agreed.

Any time during their 8th grade year

Supernatural Tuesday Siren Says Shaggy Frog Nobody's Fu Game On Bite Father, Bite Son Magic Enemy #1

February 2007

Year of the Jake

Chinese New Year was on February 18th in 2007

March 2007

Furious Jealousy

Trixie and Spud put together a Daylight Savings themed school event, so this episode takes place either in October of 06 or March of 07. We’ll go with March because it’s closer to the end of the series.

June 2007

Being Human

Haley and Gramps both say in this episode that Jake is 14, but he would actually be 15 by this point (even if my whole timeline is wrong and he actually is a Pisces, he still would’ve had his 15th birthday already). Presumably the writers just weren’t paying close enough attention to their established timeline, but the in-universe explanation is…sometimes family members forget your age; my best friend keeps saying her youngest sister is 15, when in fact her sister is turning 17 this year. Sometimes you lose track.

Summer after 8th grade

The Hong Kong Longs

Presumably this episode takes place around July or August, which means Jake and his friends would be almost 16 by this point (and Rose would be almost 15, assuming my headcanon about her being a year younger than them is accurate).

#no i didn't spend three hours on this what are you talking about #american dragon: jake long #american dragon jake long #ad:jl #adjl #jake long #trixie carter #arthur spudinski #rose adjl #adjl rose #haley long #lao shi #sun park

79 notes · View notes

strangeinternetwasteland · 4 years ago

Text

Silver Touch- Gojo x Fem! Reader

A/N: This was a Soulmate AU I did for a @konoblog-simps server collab. I did collaborate with the beautiful and talented @titanialev for the picture. This was fun to write and I hope you all enjoy.

Click here for the artist photo

Word Count 2.5K

Another year down and it was a failure. Another year that ended terribly. During the Christmas season, you had heard your older family members ask when you would find your soul mate. Most of your family members that were of age had already found theirs. What was wrong with you? It drove you mad that you had a soulmate at all. Obviously, the words written on your palm gave that away. Every time you looked at them you always wondered where and when it would happen. Not knowing when you’d see, or touch them made it a lot more unbearable. Yuji, you idiot. For the umpteenth time, you read it. That perfect writing, it drove you crazy. If you had only a countdown to when you’d meet, a place, or any clue honestly it would be helpful.

Soul mate marks were taken very seriously. The soul marks were always wherever your soulmate would first touch you. The mark also contained the first words your soulmate would speak to you and glowed silver. They appeared after birth, some immediately after, as in your case. Some people were born without them and they appeared after their soulmate was born, as was your father’s case. Most people found their soulmates by the time they were 18. You being in your early 20’s hadn’t yet. This embarrassed your mother greatly, and you’re sure your father would probably disown you if you lived at home for much longer.

Your friends, who most found their mates already, would gently push you to date, so you wouldn’t be awkward when it came time to actually meet your mate. While hoping that maybe one of these people would be your soulmates. They really did mean the best for you, but even you know that wouldn’t help. You did enjoy a few people here and there but knowing your soulmate was out there still you lost interest quickly.

With your terrible New Year’s Eve date you had behind you, most people were looking forward to Valentine’s Day. It was common knowledge that more soulmates were found between the 12th and the 16th of February. You had no hope, you never really did. So when you started noticing more pink, purple, and red decorations and advertisements around town you internally gagged. It made your stomach hurt looking at all the goods sold to soulmates.

Today, though, you have a bit more energy than normal. You dressed for your errands for the day. Deciding on wearing a super thick gray sweater with jeans and a baby blue scarf to bundle against the cold winter, which quite honestly, besides black, was one of your favorite colors it had always been, but you never knew why. It didn’t make sense, but you never questioned it more than that, because when you thought about it more, you knew it was just something about it that you liked. It made you feel happy and peaceful.

After a quick look in the mirror, you grab your purse and walk out the door. All the different shades of purples, pinks, reds, and white assaulted you as you walked by the many stores. Today, you were stopping by the pharmacy to pick up some headache medicine. After walking in and audibly groaning at the terrible displays of cheap displays of love you decided you were going to treat yourself to (your favorite hot beverage) to help combat the cold.

Just across the street was your favorite place to get (beverage of choice). The people were always very kind and friendly, and if you wanted to be honest, you liked that they knew you by name here. You didn’t always order the same thing every time, but since the events of the past few months left you embittered, you were going to go with your most favorite, and comforting drink. The familiar scent of coffee and tea filled your nose as you inhaled deeply feeling calmer than you were outside. Standing in line for a moment, the sweet blonde barista, Lorelie, greeted you.

“Hello Y/N! How are you doing today? What can I get started for you?” She chirped happily, and that familiar greeting, whether it was her or anyone else working always left you feeling like you belonged here.

“I am doing well, Lorelie, I hope you’ve been doing alright. Can I please get a large (name of a favorite hot beverage)?” You smiled back trying to sound as happy as Lorelie did. You couldn’t help but feel like her warmth was infectious.

“Sure thing! I’ll bring it to you when it’s ready.” Lorelie said automatically. A small gesture that you always appreciated. You looked around the little shop while many were covered with Soulmates ads and gifts, here there was very little mentioned. Frankly, you were happy this place was void of any such nonsense. After a few moments, Lorelie came walking up with your order and a treat. Of course, it was a brownie. She always seemed to give you little moments of happiness. You thank her and start leaving the little shop.

As you walk out, a handsome man with white hair holds the door for you, with a smile. It usually wouldn’t bother you but he had a mask over his eyes. How did he know where he was going? You were lost in your thoughts and not paying attention to another man who came running behind you. He seemed to not notice you at all. When he crashed into you, he forced you to fall forward right into the man holding the door. You felt your ankle twist forcing your scarf to fall over your face and obstruct your eyesight. You felt your beverage and brownie escape your grasp. You tried to catch yourself but felt your hand hit something fleshy and you held on for life.

Everything had happened so fast. After you decided that sitting down would be better after hurting your ankle. You pulled your scarf just enough to see. You saw the man holding the door with a frightening glare on his face. You weren’t sure if it was at you or the mess of your beverage all over his shirt.

“Oh no!” You said with dread. Looking at this mess you had made and probably could’ve avoided if you were just paying attention, you knew the shirt this man was wearing was expensive and would take a month’s pay just to replace it. The man’s face changed after you spoke. He started taking off his mask to look at you. You felt your face grow warmer and you just wanted to leave. His bright eyes never leave your face.

“Yuuji. You idiot.” He kept looking down at you. Your breath caught in your throat. You froze for a moment. Your mind and heartbeat raced. You were desperately trying to remember where you’d seen those words before. You looked down at your palm and saw the words glow silver. You then looked back at this man. The look on your face must’ve given everything away. You looked up and saw the words on his hand glowing as well. When he finally looked up at the man named Yuuji he stared at him intently .

“Where are your manners?” Your soulmate scolded Yuuji. You started trying to stand up to get out of this situation. You couldn’t wrap your mind around the fact that this extremely handsome man was your soulmate.

“What? I didn’t see her.” Yuuji stated and he didn’t look the least bit concerned for you.

“Here, let me help you up.” The white-haired man held his hand out to help you up. You nervously took it and pulled yourself up. His hand was warm and was the smile he was giving you.

“My name is Gojo.” You stood as still as you could even though you felt dizzy. You felt yourself wobbling, the pain in your ankle increasing. Gojo noticed and swept you off your feet carrying you bridal style into the shop you were just leaving. He gently places you in a chair. The look of worry spreading over his face. He left you and went to ask Lorelie for some ice.

After a minute, Gojo returned and checked your ankle for any swelling, bruising, or a broken bone. His touch was soft and relaxing, he gingerly touched your ankle and noticed nothing unusual.

“It doesn’t look broken. I think perhaps you just sprained it.” He spoke softly. “I can bring you to the doctor or hospital if you’d like...Sorry I never did catch your name.”

“Oh, I am sorry, I never did say it. It’s Y/N.” You say sheepishly, noticing the color of your scarf and Gojo’s eyes are the same color. The whole world suddenly becomes a little bit brighter as you’ve come to accept that you’ve found your soulmate.

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

Looking back on the last year of your life you never would’ve expected it to go so smoothly. After meeting Gojo, and the terrible incident caused by Yuuji. You and Gojo spent the day talking and getting to know one another.

After three months, Gojo decided to ask you to move in, and you gladly accepted. The first few weeks were nerve-wracking, but you both seemed to make it work. The way Gojo always seemed to be silly and playful when you didn’t want to be or weren’t in the mood made you fall harder. He would bring you flowers, or little gifts when he came back from work trips, and he would just do anything for you because he missed you.

After eight months together, he planned a small weekend getaway for the two of you since he had been working a lot. He made sure the entire trip was to your exact liking including drinks, and food. This was when you were sure you loved him, despite being soulmates. The first night there under the starry sky and a small bonfire, he proposed to you. The moment was perfect and you didn’t hesitate to let him know exactly how you felt. When you returned home, you planned your wedding. Gojo had a lot of rules for the wedding, but knowing him he probably only meant one or two of them since he loved to make you flustered.

The day of the wedding the sun shone brightly, the sky was the perfect shade of blue, and cloudless. The wind was light, and the temperature was perfect. The aroma of late spring flowers blooming softly mingled with the fresh air. In a few short hours, you were going to marry your soulmate.

You took a deep breath to gather your thoughts. Your bridesmaids were giggling as they sipped on mimosas, and chatted. You were definitely nervous, and you knew you shouldn’t be. There was a knock at the door signaling the make up artist and hair stylists arrival. Everything was coming together.

The time came for your makeup and hair to be done. You decided on wearing your hair down but softly curled, placed upon your head was a silver vine tiara made with pearls and crystals. Your make up was soft and natural, except for your lipstick, which was a Ruby to match the roses. You stared at yourself for a moment and actually felt like a queen. Your bridesmaid’s were all wearing their makeup understated as well, but all of them had their hair done in a sophisticated bun with a french braid on the side. Each one had a hair pin to match your tiara.

The dress was one that you never imagined would look good on you. It was the first one you tried and just fell in love with. It was an A-line ball gown with a small train. The bodice was a corset with the sleeves that were off the shoulder. It had a lot of lace and the bodice. Though it was a bit heavy, you knew that Gojo would absolutely die in it. The dresses for the bridesmaids were all floor length chiffon dresses that also matched the roses you chose. Seeing yourself in your dress, and the bridesmaids in their dresses you knew that this dream was going to become reality.

A knock on the door jolted you out of your thoughts and frenzied the bridesmaids. As they hush each other, your maid of honor answers the door. She talks quietly to the person on the other side for a brief moment and closes the door.

“Everyone and everything is ready,” She said quietly. You nod to her as you place your veil over your face.” You hold your bouquet of red roses in your hand and inhale deeply. You couldn’t imagine your life at this moment. From meeting your soulmate to being married to him. It all seems to have flown by in the blur of life.

You walked to your holding place. Your bridesmaids all waiting along with the groomsmen and your father. The music began and you felt like you were floating on a cloud. You couldn’t believe the overwhelming urge to cry. The voice inside your head told you that you needn’t cry because the amount of time and makeup used to make you look ‘natural’ was surreal. You took one look at your father, who normally was stoic, and expressionless. Not right now, he had tears streaming down his cheeks, and snot running down to his chin. You smiled at him. Knowing how hard giving away his only daughter would be for you, you patted his arm where yours was linked with his.

The music changed to the song you chose to walk down the aisle to. You took one last deep breath and looked ahead. The door swung open to the outside. You noticed the beautiful archway of flowers draped in the deep red roses you chose for flowers. Something you didn’t plan, and you felt your stomach flutter knowing Gojo was behind it. The walk down the aisle looked like it was going to be forever, but in reality, it was very short.You heard the ooo’s and ah’s of the guests. The quiet whispers of how beautiful you and your dress looked.

You kept your eyes locked on your soulmate. You knew that everyone would be looking at you. As is traditional but you didn’t want to ever forget this moment where you swore you saw tears in your soon to be husband’s eyes. The rest of the ceremony went rather quickly. Gojo’s vows made all the women cry, and your vows to him were sweet. You’d invite everyone to a reception following the ceremony. While the guests were guided to drinks and appetizers before a meal, you, Gojo, and your wedding party were whisked away for photos. As the photographer took pictures, your smiles never faded, the memories would last an eternity, and you couldn’t wait to see what your future held.

#Gojo x reader #soulmate au #cute and fluffy #saturo gojo #jujutsu kaisen gojo #gojo satoru #gojo saturo x reader #jjk gojo #jjk satoru #jjk soulmate AU

144 notes · View notes

astromechs · 3 years ago

Text

keep whatever it is (that's compelling you on)

HERE IT IS, my matrix resurrections spec fic, completed and in under the wire before the trailer! i think i'm ready to quit fussing over this, and i'm really excited to get it out into the world!

also here on ao3!

01.

Every single morning, Thomas A. Anderson is jolted awake at approximately 8:15 AM by the shrill of the same alarm, shovels in the same shitty cereal before stumbling into one of the same five shitty suits that he has to remember to get dry-cleaned, takes the same seat on the subway on the way to work — where he sits in the same chair for eight hours straight with minimal breaks, staring at his computer screen (or, more often, out into nothing) until it’s time to take the same subway back to his shitty apartment, order from the same rotation of shitty takeout, and find some mindless, banal distraction while he ignores texts that don’t even matter anyway before he falls asleep to eventually wake up and do it all over again.

It’s nothing special — just the average life of an average mid-grade programmer at the average tech conglomerate. Comfortable, sure, and a dream many would kill to achieve; he knows this, knows this every time he passes the poor old woman who’s feeding pigeons in her ratty coat from the battered metal bench on the sidewalk in front of his apartment building. He slips her whatever spare change he has on him — a $20 bill, on the days he’s lucky, but often less than that — and, without fail, she always accepts, with a warm smile and kind eyes that seem to stare right into his soul, seeing the deepest parts of it.

Like she knows him. And that’s what’s weird.

He tries not to put too much thought into it, because, honestly, he tries not to put too much thought into anything at all; he’s found that to be the most effective way to navigate the machine that systematically runs his rhythmic, mundane life.

But even so, there are things that he knows he can’t shake.

One afternoon in late February, when the cut of the wind had not remotely suggested that spring would just be a month away, he’d passed the woman on the bench as always, but he could’ve sworn that the whole flock of pigeons scattered on the sidewalk at her feet had frozen for a split second. Like they’d been… glitching. In a blink, everything had returned to normal, and he’d spent about three days (and three sleepless nights) trying to convince himself he’d been seeing things, that he’d just been spending too much time actually working on his assigned program for once and that maybe he should take some of his accumulated vacation days? And the following week, he had, but….

No time off to try to clear his head would ever change the fact that this hadn’t been an isolated incident.

Because sometimes — he swears he sees pieces of code fall through his field of vision; a blink and then they’re gone, but it happens too often not to be a pattern, and no matter how much he might want to for the sake of his own sanity, he can’t just brush that aside. Sometimes, flashes come to his mind like barely-remembered dreams, in idle moments and just on the edge of the line that separates sleep from waking consciousness, so real that he knows they’re memories. Dark tunnels that haven’t seen the sun for centuries. Cold, so cold that no amount of warmth, human or otherwise, can really combat. Running, desperately bounding up the fire escape to the third floor of a rundown motel, three men in sunglasses and perfectly-tailored suits in close pursuit, his heart pounding in his ears so loudly he can barely hear the phone ring from Room 303, the place he has to get to, because everything depends on it. A barrage of bullets in his chest, one right after the other, back slumping against the wall as his heart gives out, vision fading to grey and then to black, but a voice, reaching through it all to call him, tether him….

Neo.

There are things that he knows he can’t shake, and sometimes, he thinks he had another life. Another name.

Another purpose.

He’s haunted by the ghost of it.

It’s the second of April — at least, that’s what the screen of his phone tells him, because otherwise he wouldn’t know, or care to know. A Friday, and all the faceless commuters are packed like sardines into this subway car, headed home for weekends that are sure to be as inconsequential as his own. Today, he has to stand holding the rail for the ride home; a woman trying to juggle both a baby and two bags of groceries had just barely managed to stumble onto the train before the doors had closed, and he’d sprung up, more than glad to give up his seat to someone in greater need.

She tries to thank him, profusely and repeatedly, but with where he’s standing, he would have to twist to keep facing her, so, with a nod and the barest hint of a smile, he turns away to spend the trip the way he always does: in solitude.

The route back to the station just down the block from his apartment building is never smooth, by any stretch of the imagination, but today, it’s bumpier than usual; the train car jerks and jostles, until, eventually, it sends him colliding into back of the passenger standing next to him.

He’s just about to stammer out some automatic, awkward apology, but then —

Blue eyes meet his, clear, crisp blue, and a jolt strikes him right to the core.

He thinks — no, he knows, he knows — he’s seen these eyes.

Neo. In the darkest corners of his mind, the voice whispers again.

Time freezes, glitches, around him, around him and this stranger with familiar blue eyes. He sees the light leave them, and then come right back. He sees warmth, what something is telling him had once been the only thing able to keep the cold of the real away; that warmth spreads through now, to the tips of him, and he has a sense, one he doesn’t entirely understand, that something has just clicked into place.

Behind sunglasses, another pair of eyes watches them from across the car.

“You all right?” Neo.

He sees brows knit in concern, and for the first time, he pays attention to the face that the eyes belong to. Probably the most beautiful woman he’s ever seen in… more than one life, he’d have to guess, is now in front of him; he isn’t so detached and disconnected that he doesn’t notice that. Her short dark hair is cut into a severe bob, and she’s dressed in black from head to toe — from her coat and gloves, to her boots. It suits her, somehow.

After a beat, he finally remembers to speak. “Yeah. I — sorry.” The subway jerks to a halt; he glances up, and adds quickly, after clearing his throat, “This is… my stop. Excuse me. Sorry.”

Pushing past her, pushing past everyone in his way, he disembarks to the station, and when his feet touch solid pavement, he takes off at a sprint. Up the stairs (third floor… Room 303….), down the sidewalk (agents, just behind… he can beat them, if he just runs faster than he ever has…), not stopping until the mundane certainty of his shitty apartment building is within his sights.

Just before he makes it safely inside, he catches a glimpse of the old woman on the bench watching him, her smile wider than he’s ever seen it. Maybe, even, almost inhumanly wide.

10.

Her name is Natalie.

That’s what he learns about a week later, when he bumps into her again in front of the grocery store on the corner down from the subway station, the one he always chooses out of convenience. Quite literally; he’s distracted, disconnected, and before he even knows what’s happening, he’s collided with another body, contents of the two bags under his arms spilling out onto the sidewalk. His apologies are hurried and stammered, but her hands are gentle as she moves to help, brushing his more than once. Her smile is soft when their eyes meet.

Over the next several months, he learns a lot of other things, too.

He learns that she takes her coffee with cream and no sugar, and that she always leaves the barista a generous tip. He learns that she’s a genius with tech, better than him and his two computer science degrees and half-cushy corporate job could ever hope to be, and has his whole apartment practically rewired in an hour one day. He learns that if he’s quiet and still, her black cat has no qualms with being his friend. He learns that her lips curve up in just a certain way and her eyes crinkle when she’s just about to laugh.

And he learns that kissing her feels like coming home, as familiar and peaceful as it is new and strange. He learns that with her, coming together, becoming one with another person, is like nothing else.

For the first time in what he can remember, he knows what it feels like to be alive.

(Only it isn’t… is it? The first time. Somehow, just like he knows that he sees the same person walk past him twice, like he knows that those glitches start happening on a near-daily basis, like he knows that the old woman on the bench is smiling at him more broadly than ever….

Their lives have collided, and given each other meaning, purpose, before.)

11.

In his dreams, he sees a city entirely built from light. Spires touch the sky like fireworks, blindingly bright, and with every step, flames ripple out from his feet, making the next one all too clear.

Inevitable.

This is where his path had always led.

In his dreams, he can’t see her face. He can only hear struggling gasps for breath, and a voice that only grows shakier. He can only feel the metal that pierces her stomach, the blood that pools on her shirt. The faint heartbeat he can do nothing to restart.

Inevitable.

(You were right, Smith. You are always right.)

He wakes with a start, drenched in a cold sweat (as cold as their last kiss), gasping for breath. Next to him on the bed, Natalie stirs and shifts closer; when he reaches out a tentative hand, lets his fingers graze over her stomach, she’s warm.

His eyes scrunch tightly shut. Code falls behind his lids like the rain that patters against the windows outside.

100.

There’s nothing out of the ordinary on this day in early fall. A breeze rustles the trees as they walk hand in hand through the park, and provides the first hint that cooler weather is on the way. Children’s laughter from the nearby playground fills the air. Dogs chase each other on the grass. Natalie sips her coffee, cream with no sugar; they enjoy the contented silence that falls between them, only punctuated by her soft smile.

There’s nothing out of the ordinary — except for everything that is.

They meet each other’s eyes, her blue to his brown, and in an instant, everything changes.

It’s hard to tell who sees it first, but — the flash of recognition envelops both of them. Vague memories, the ones that have floated over him like a constant cloud, just out of reach, are in his hands, in his brain, in his heart. He’d had another life once, another name. And it’d been —

“Neo.”

She whispers it on an awed breath, tears forming in her eyes. The coffee cup slips from her grasp, long since forgotten; she lifts that hand to his face, fingers tracing the rise of his cheekbone.

Tears swim in his vision, too, tears and strands of code, falling. Falling. Nothing makes sense and yet everything makes sense, no more so than when the name falls out of his mouth, the last piece of a particularly jumbled puzzle: “Trinity.”

But a thousand words he doesn’t know how to say don’t even begin to get a chance to form. He feels the eyes watching them more than he sees them; both hands drop to his sides, and he tenses, ready to fight.

He’s barely aware that the old woman who’s usually on the bench near his apartment building approaches on the sidewalk. She looks between them, nods, and:

“They’re coming, kiddo,” she tells him, voice severe, with none of her usual warmth, as she grips his arm. “You need to run.”

101.

At sunset, a man in a white suit, tall and imposing, joins the old woman on a park bench near the playground, but says nothing; from all appearances, it looks as though he barely acknowledges her at all. They remain, just like this, as people filter out one by one under the steadily darkening sky, returning to their lives.

They always remain through every iteration, the Mother and Father of the Matrix.

Preoccupied with purpose and the inefficiency of wasting time, as is his programming, the Father is the first to break the silence.

"I informed you it was a dangerous game.”

The Oracle says nothing in response.

She merely smiles.

#neo x trinity #the matrix #the matrix resurrections #neo #trinity #* fic #song title is from cascades by metric #which for some reason just feels like a ship song for them #anyway i'm so hyped for tomorrow!

14 notes · View notes

emmerrr · 4 years ago

Note

Jordeclan going to an amusement park or a fair? They both just honestly need a break and some fun!!

anon i’m so sorry this took so long but hey i made it valentine’s day and there’s lynch bros content and i hope you like it (also on ao3)

Declan wakes up on the morning of Valentine’s Day not really aware that it’s Valentine’s Day.

It’s Saturday, so he doesn’t need to go into work, and he trundles down the stairs into the kitchen and makes himself a coffee. Matthew and Ronan are still asleep, the latter of whom spent the night after driving up the previous day to go to an art show with his brothers. (Ronan had been less than subtle about his disdain for the ‘art’ in question; Declan had dragged them out early to go to a diner for some burgers. Brotherly bonding at its finest.)

He sits at the breakfast bar with his coffee and checks his emails on his phone like he’s reading the news. There’s a few work things, but not too much, all things considered. He sends a good morning text to Jordan, knowing in all likelihood she won’t read it until at least noon. The thought of her brings a smile to his face, and he wonders if he’ll get to see her later. They don’t have any solid plans in place, but their relationship has never been one that follows a rigid structure anyway. She’s been a breath of fresh air in every possible way.

An hour or so later, Declan hears Ronan moving around in the guest bedroom upstairs, probably throwing his stuff together before he drives back to Singer’s Falls. Not long after that, Matthew comes down the stairs, golden curls matted to his head on one side from where he’s slept on them.

“Mornin’,” he says through a yawn, and takes a seat. “What’s for breakfast?”

“Whatever you want.”

Matthew hums. “I want eggs.”

Declan nods at the fridge. “Go on then.”

Matthew sighs but gets up again and opens the refrigerator, standing solemnly in front of it before slowly removing a carton of eggs.

He puts them down and makes a good show of looking lost as he meanders around the kitchen finding everything he needs. Declan knows he’s doing it on purpose, but goddamn if it doesn’t work. “For crying out loud, how do you want them?”

Matthew grins; he’s won this round. “Scrambled, please. You’re the best.”

“Yeah, yeah. You can make your own toast, though. And go and ask Ronan if he wants any.”

“Yes, sir!” Matthew salutes, and runs off to the hallway to yell up the stairs at Ronan.

A mountain of breakfast later, Ronan disappears again to have a shower, and Declan makes Matthew wash the dishes. He sits in the living room and turns on some nature documentary just for background noise, but only a minute or two passes before Matthew comes in and sits down.

“You cannot possibly have finished the dishes yet,” Declan says.

“They need to soak,” Matthew insists, eyes skating guiltily from Declan’s face to the TV screen. “Oh, is this the one with the penguins?” He sits down, and Declan resolves himself to finishing the singular chore he asked Matthew to do later.

“Yes, half a job Bob, it’s the one with the penguins.”

Matthew smiles indulgently and settles in to watch, but they both get distracted a moment later when they spot Ronan walking past, carrying a lot more than he originally had with him.

“Why do you have a big teddy bear?” Matthew asks.

“Is that a boom-box?” Declan asks.

“Is that a heart-shaped balloon with Adam’s face on it?” Matthew asks.

“What are you doing?” Declan asks.

Ronan leaves everything in the hall by the door and comes to stand just inside the living room, hands in his pockets. He shrugs. “Just gonna make a pit-stop at Cambridge, that’s all.”

Declan sighs. “It’s not exactly on your way. Does Adam even know you’re coming?”

“No, it’s a surprise. It’s a funny inside joke Valentine’s surprise.”

“What do you mean, Valentine’s surprise, it’s not Val—oh my god.” Declan puts his head in his hands. “Oh my god, it’s Valentine’s Day.”

“Oh, Declan,” Ronan says, the smile evident in his voice. “Forget, did you?”

Declan lifts his head. “It was a busy week at work.”

“Don’t worry, bro, I must have got all the romantic genes, it’s not your fault.”

Declan scowls but there’s little heat in it. He checks his phone and Jordan is yet to reply, which could mean nothing, but doubt now niggles in Declan’s mind. What if Jordan was expecting some kind of gesture and is now massively disappointed that Declan is so useless?

“What do I do? It’s too late to make any reservations.”

“Reservations are for chumps anyway, just go and do something fun,” Ronan says.

“Like what?” Declan snaps. All that’s running through his head is that he got Jordan some tyrian purple at great cost and at very short notice for their very first date. If her expectations for Valentine’s Day are high, he has no one to blame but himself.

“I’ll leave that up to you to figure out,” Ronan says. “I have to hit the road.”

Matthew laughs and elbows Declan playfully. “Ronan is a better boyfriend than you.”

“No he isn’t, shut up,” Declan says, which just makes Matthew laugh harder.

After Ronan hugs Matthew goodbye, Declan helps him carry the ridiculous gifts he has obviously dreamt up out to the car.

“Text me when you’re with Adam,” he says when he’s closed the trunk, “so I know you got there okay.”

Ronan opens the driver’s side door and levels Declan with a put-upon look. “Fine, I will try my very best to remember to text you when I arrive.”

Declan manages a smile. “Appreciate it. Drive safe.”

Ronan moves to get in the car, but hesitates, and turns back to his brother. “You’re not really worried that you forgot about today, right?” At Declan’s shrug, he continues, “Come on, Jordan’s cool, she’s not gonna care. Everyone knows Valentine’s Day is bullshit.”

“Says the guy who’s driving several hours out of his way in honour of said bullshit day,” Declan says pointedly.

Ronan shakes his head. “Look, the day’s irrelevant; I’m driving several hours out of my way because I miss my fucking boyfriend and this is as good an excuse as any to go see him.”

“Yes, but—”

“But nothing. Jordan likes you, for some unfathomable reason. She’s not gonna dump you because you didn’t remember to plan some posh, soulless valentine’s date.”

Abrasive as he is, Declan can’t deny that Ronan’s right. “When did you get so wise?” he grumbles, and Ronan smirks.

“Hey, statistically I’ve gotta be right about some things.”

“Once in a blue moon.”

“Asshole.”

“Yeah, yeah. Get out of here.” Ronan gets into the car, but Declan stops him before he shuts it. “You really think Jordan is cool?”

Ronan laughs. “Way too cool for you.”

Declan’s unwarranted fears about Jordan ignoring him fade as soon as she texts him back an hour or so later. She doesn’t mention the dreaded V-word, but she says there’s a fair in town, and asks if he wants to go.

A fair date sounds pretty perfect actually, and when he agrees, Jordan tells him she’ll pick him up at seven. She always does like to drive.

“I still haven’t got her a gift, though,” Declan tells Matthew. “Is it bad that I don’t have a gift?”

“You’re going to a fair,” Matthew points out. “Plenty of opportunities to be all manly and shit and win her something.”

“Language,” Declan says, and Matthew rolls his eyes.

“You should get her a card, at least.”

“Valentine’s Day cards are always so terrible, though,” Declan complains.

“So make her one. Jordan’s arty, she’d probably like that better anyway.”

Declan doesn’t like that both of his younger brothers are being smarter than him today, but nevertheless, Matthew is right, and Declan ransacks his office supplies to see what he can come up with.

He uses some high-quality photo paper to print out a picture of a pretty flower that he found online, then carefully cuts it out and glues it to the middle of the front of some card he’s folded in half. He frames it by cutting out strips of purple card and sticking them around the flower. Then he gets irritated with how shit it looks and considers throwing the whole fucking thing away and starting from scratch, when Matthew peers over his shoulder and says, “Aw, that looks really nice.”

So Declan keeps it, writes his message inside, and finds an envelope that is only a little bit too big to put it in.

Time’s getting on, so he goes to get ready. He has no idea what to wear for a date at a fair, and takes two tie options out to the living room to get Matthew’s opinion.

“Which tie is more appropriate?”

“Neither.”

“You didn’t even look.”

“I don’t need to. Don’t wear a tie. You’re not going on a job interview. Plus it’s February and you’ll be outside, put a sweater on.” Matthew does finally look at him now, and he sighs at Declan’s blue button-down and grey slacks. “This is what you wear for work, put some jeans on. You’ve like, met Jordan, right?”

“Alright, smartass, point taken.”

When Declan’s changed again, Matthew decrees his outfit of jeans and a fairisle sweater in navy tones boring but ultimately acceptable, which Declan figures is the best he’s going to get. He also thinks he’s going mad if he’s asking Matthew of all people for fashion advice.

He just has time to slip his coat on and put the card in the inside pocket before there’s a knock at the door, and Matthew runs to open it.

“Hiya, squirt,” Jordan says to him, which is funny because Matthew is taller than her.

“Hey. Declan tried to wear a tie.”

Jordan laughs, throwing her head back, and Declan finds there’s a dopey grin on his face even though his girlfriend and his brother are bonding over making fun of him. “Of course he did. Never fully dressed without a tie.” She meets Declan’s gaze over Matthew’s shoulder and winks at him.

“Hey, I’m right here,” he says, faux-wounded, and makes his way over to the door as Matthew heads back to the living room.

He kisses Jordan. “Hi.”

“Hi yourself. You ready to go?”

“Yes.”

“Have fun, guys!” Matthew yells, and Declan hesitates, poking his head in to look at his brother.

“What are you doing tonight? You can come with us if you want?”

“No way, man, I’m not third-wheeling on your date. Also it’s cute how you think I don’t already have plans, I’m extremely popular.”

“Uh huh,” Declan says, worries evaporating. “Modest, too.”

They leave, finally, and Jordan drives them to where the fair is set up, filling Declan in on any little anecdotes he’s missed since they last spoke. He’s happy just to listen to her talk; sitting in her presence is like recharging a battery, and he feels lighter than he has all week.

Parking is easy to find, and they huddle together as they walk towards the entrance, the lights from all the rides and the heat lamps looking bright and inviting beyond. Jordan slips her hand into Declan’s, and he tucks them both into his pocket as Jordan leans her head against his shoulder.

“I missed you this week,” she says.

“Did you?” Declan smiles. He likes being missed by Jordan. “I missed you too. I always miss you.”

“Well you say that now, but I’m going to destroy you at fairground games, so you might change your mind.”

Declan’s doubtful, but he grins at her amenably.

She holds up a finger. “But first, we need to go on a couple of super fast, spinny rides, because if we go on them after I’ve had something to eat I might just throw up all over you.”

“Yeah, let’s avoid that,” Declan says. “Lead the way.”

Jordan, practically vibrating with excitement, drags Declan straight to the ride she keeps calling ‘the whirligig’, because it takes you round and round, faster and faster, while the carriage you sit in is also spinning. So it’s double the amount of spinning, and when they get off, Declan has to stop for a minute with his hands on his knees while Jordan lovingly laughs at him.

She takes pity on him and they go on the ferris wheel next. They kiss when it stops when they’re at the top, which Declan knows is cliché as hell, but he’s certainly not complaining. He pulls back a little, his thumb gently brushing along her cheekbone.

“I made you a card,” he says, a little embarrassed. Jordan’s warm brown eyes go wide and pleased.

“Oh yeah?”

He pulls it out of his pocket and starts to hand it to her nervously. “It’s not very good.”

“I’ll be the judge of that,” she says, taking it from him. She opens it and smiles when she sees the flower. “So pretty.”

“It’s called a Middlemist red camellia. It’s like the rarest flower in the world. Or so Google tells me.” He knows that Jordan will know why he specifically chose this flower. He’s telling her something about who she is to him. She won’t miss the significance of that.

She brings Declan’s hand to her lips and kisses it gently, before letting it go and looking at the card again. “I love camellia’s,” Jordan says, “but I’ve never seen this one before.” She opens the card and reads the message Declan wrote inside, a soft smile growing the more she reads.

Jordan sighs and holds the card to her chest with her eyes closed. When she opens them again, she says, “I made you a card, too.”

She pulls it out of her own coat pocket, and Declan opens it. On the front is a colour pencil drawing of him, perfect hair, non-smiling, boring suit, but with the fanciest shoes he has ever seen; a more exaggerated version of the ones he was wearing when he and Jordan first met.

Declan laughs in joyous surprise. “Your card is better than mine.”

“My card is funnier than yours,” she says. “It’s not better.”

“Thank you,” he says, earnestly, looking at the portrait and cracking up again. “I think...I think I’m gonna frame this.”

“You should. It’ll be worth a fortune some day.”

Of that, Declan has no doubt. “You wanna know a secret?”

“Absolutely.”

“I forgot it was Valentine’s Day.”

It’s Jordan’s turn to laugh, and she leans in to kiss Declan’s cheek. “I forgot, too. I didn’t realise until I went to grab a coffee and there were Valentine’s specials going on all over the place.”

“Ronan of all people reminded me. He drove up to surprise Adam at Cambridge.”

“Bless him, Ronan really is a gigantic softie.”

Declan grins. “Well he told me he thinks you’re cool. Too cool for me.”

“Aw, babe, he’s right!” Jordan says, laughing at his sad pout. “Unfortunately for me, I love you anyway.”

Declan shakes his head, smiling. “You’re a dick,” he says. “But I love you, too.”

The ferris wheel starts moving again, and when it stops, they go and try their hand at some games. Jordan comes out on top at ring tossing, duck hooking, the coconut shy, and the buzzwire, but Declan does pretty well at the mini laser quest and a balloon-popping darts game.

They end up at the shooting game stall, where you have to try and knock the cans over to win prizes. There’s a cute stuffed stegosaurus that Jordan has her eye on, and Declan pays for them both to have a go to try and win it.

They each manage to knock a couple of cans over, but there’s some that are way more stubborn and don’t seem to budge even when clearly hit.

“Another round,” Declan says when his go is finished. He sighs in frustration when the results are the same.

Jordan puts his hand on his arm. “You know these things are rigged, right? They’re weighted, it’s almost impossible to win the good prizes.”

The rational part of his brain understands this to be true. The monkey part wants the prize. “Yes, but it’s Valentine’s Day and I have to win you this stupid stegosaurus. My manly pride is at stake.”

Jordan snorts. “Well how about we take your manly pride to that stall over there and I’ll let you buy me a churro, I’m starving.”

“...Churros sound good.”

Jordan links her arm through Declans as they follow their noses over to the churro stall.

“I really would’ve won it with one more go,” Declan feels the need to say.

“Sure you would,” Jordan says easily. “Maybe later.”

“Fuck later, it’s freezing. You wanna come back to mine? I’ll make you a latte.”

Jordan grins up at him. “I thought you’d never ask. Churros first though.”

“Oh, that’s a given.”

#the raven cycle #jordeclan #lynch bros #dreamertrilogy #anon #emma answers

30 notes · View notes

deaf-bakugou · 4 years ago

Note

Do you consider yourself deaf or Deaf?

Thank you for this question! I consider myself big D Deaf! And I have for at least 6 years now. I didn't start out that way though. And I am thrilled to have this chance to talk a little bit about my story and how I finally accepted myself and my disability.

Some of you may know that I was actually born hearing. The doctors think I started losing my hearing when I was around ten years old due to an Autoimmune disease. Unfortunatly... no one noticed until I was quite progressed. I was 14 when I went to the children's hospital and got my first set of hearing aids. I hated them. I hated the doctors. I hated myself...

At the time I refused to identify as anything. I wasn't deaf. I wasn't hard of hearing. I tried to force myself to believe I was still a perfectly normal teenager with no issues. After all, I wasn't struggling in school. I was a straight A student with a 98 GPA. So I prided myself on refusing to wear the hearing aids and refusing any help at all. In the summer between 9th and 10th grade I suffered another attack and lost a significant amount more. I tried to ignore it but quickly discovered that it wasn't working. I was angry. Why was I still losing my hearing? Why was it progressive?

...

My Audiologist sat me down and said to me, "you will probably be profoundly Deaf one day. Hearing aids or a cochlear won't help you then. You need to start preparing for your future. It will be easier now."

I was devastated.

Something a lot of Deaf positivity blogs or people won't tell you, is that it is OKAY and peflrfectly natural to be devastated when you, as a hearing person, learn about your hearing loss. It is often described as grief. People often report going through the five stages of grief in regards to the loss of a sense. It is dehibilitating, life changing, the death of who you were before. But. The chance to come out of that grief as someone new, and just as amazing as the last person. But I digress.

I started to research. Intensly, about what I could do. But only because I did start to notice my grades falling. I was missing information, and I didn't even know it. I wore my hearing aids for the first time outside of the office or my house. And it was... life altering. I paused and I stared at the tree in my yard. I had forgot their were birds who lived their. Birds who sang on these early mornings. My mother cried. But not for the same reason that I did. She was thrilled that my hearing aids had given her back her "hearing child" I really struggled with that. With who I was. Because even with my hearing aids, I am not perfectly hearing capable. But I tried. For her.

Now here is a part that I am a bit ashamed of... I actually knew several Deaf people. I was friends with them. I already had a basic grasp of beginners sign language. But they worked so hard to communicate with me... that I barely put in the work to communicate with them. It was still more than most people put in, so they considered me a close friend and Ally! It wasn't until I was battling with it myself that, I had never been a true friend to them at all. So at 14 years old, I threw myself into learning the language. Luckily my school had an ASL class. And I had known the teacher since I was 10. She had taught me the basics when I befriended her Deaf students and had taught me the basics of Japanese from her home country as well. (Unfortunatly I studied ASL so hard I lost basically all Japanese.)

Suddenly I was learning words i had never known before. I learned who I was. I was Hard of Hearing. My girlfriend at the time actually knew more sign language than I did. Her mom had been a teacher for elementary school Deaf students. She joined the classes with me, and together we learned who I was supposed to be. I settled in and learned about the different terms and became comfortable with who I was. I learned how to ask for aid though I was sometimes still embarrassed about my struggles. When it came time for college, I enrolled in a fully Deaf collage. I intended to continue my language education so that I was fully fluent by the time that I was fully and profoundly Deaf.

That was when I truly met my people. These people were truly and unashamedly, big D Deaf. I started to settle in, truly immerse myself in the culture, I stopped wearing my hearing aids while I was on campus, why did I need to? The end of my first year there... I realized that I was... culturally Deaf. Not only was I hard of hearing now, but I belonged here with all of these people. I was big D Deaf too. And I wasn't ashamed about it. My still girlfriend, often acted as an interpreter for me when I needed that aid, and she was also immersed with me though she went to a different school.

It was a long journey to find my home. But I did. Eventually I came home.

The next year, I woke up on an early February morning and I knew something was wrong. I wouldn't walk. The world was spinning. I was vomiting from the nausea. And my ears were ringing so so much. I ended up in hospital after my mother had to come and get me. It turned out that I had another Autoimmune attack that had severely impacted my inner ears. My hearing had once again taken a severe loss. I was now what was legally defined as deaf in the medical terminology. Without my hearing aids I could hear very little. Almost nothing in my left ear except sirens and other equally loud noises if they were closer to me. In my right ear? If you were shouting at me from right beside my head, I could still occasionally understand your sentences. But really, all verbal communication was now dependent on my hearing aids whereas before, under the right circumastances, I did okay. It would take me months in a wheelchair to learn to walk again. And only a few weeks to adjust to my new hearing levels. I had already been adjusting and preparing for something similar for over 6 years now. I went back to school I graduated with 2 associates and only have a bit more to complete my bachelors. (But money can be hard to come by for classes so that took a pause while I worked) I am still active in the Deaf community. I know what it is like to be both, and to be inbetween. I understand and I know how to help. I primarily focus on education. Of the Deaf community on their rights. (Literally my job before Trump cut the grant funding) i help hearing people learn about Deafness, and I help new deaf or hard of hearing individuals come to terms with the struggle. My journey will never be over. And an identity can be ever changing. Fluid, as mine was, a glass of water that slowly drained to the eventual bottom as I invested the information. This is true for all labels and identification.

I married my girlfriend, who has now been my wife for a while. The same one who learned ASL with me and held my hand at the start of my identity crisis. A support system that helped me in the way I aim to help others. I didn't always belong where I am now. But I do now. Not through some force or illness that was out of my control. But because I chose to find a place where I could belong.

#deaf-bakugou #deaf #hearing aids #deaf life #deaf culture #asl #deaf school #big D deaf #hard of hearing

81 notes · View notes

dearest-bucky · 4 years ago

Text

Put a little love on me (2/2)

Bucky Barnes x Reader

Summary: There's a solution for everything, even for Bucky's sleeping problem. His solution comes in the form of a certain team member.

Words: 4.1K

Warnings: angst with a happy ending, two idiots in love, Bucky is sad and cute, reader is dense but cute too lol

A/n: The final part, I hope you like it! xx

Originally posted: February 19, 2020

Bucky didn't have any idea how it had happened, but when he woke up the rays of sun were shining high in the sky. Warmth and light peeking through the half opened blinds.

He had no sense of the time, it could be early morning or late afternoon.

What he knew though, was that this was the greatest he had felt in a very long time, maybe for the first time in his life. Having y/n wrapped around his body, so close there was no space for even a piece of hair in between them, felt amazing.

Some time during the night he had rolled on his side and tucked y/n in his chest, his arms enveloping her in a strong and secure embrace. Now he could feel her deep and steady breathing softly hit his chest even through the material of his shirt and he could feel her arm around his middle, they were wrapped with each other in a cocoon of limbs and had apparently slept that way for the most of the night.

A small sigh escaped Bucky's lips and he instinctively tightened his arms around her body, before his mind could come to its senses and realize this wasn't normal at all for them. But then, why did it feel like the most normal thing in the world?

Bucky hadn't had a sleep as good as this night before in his life, even before the war and although the pillows had helped improve his sleeping time, it was nothing compared to having slept with y/n in his arms.

Immediately, Tony's words ringed in his mind. I always sleep better when Pepper is with me.

Bucky couldn't help but think that y/n could be his Pepper. He had always liked the woman, but she never allowed herself to get close to people, especially men. He didn't know why, she never told him her reasons, but it wasn't as if Bucky had asked her and she refused to tell him. Bucky had his own demons to fight and his own insecurities. However, he heard from Captain big mouth one day when he was talking about y/n, something about a bad break up leading to heartbreak. That was enough for Bucky to take a guess at what had happened to her, so he never said anything about it.

But now, he wanted nothing more than to get to know her, to get her to open her heart to him and let him love her like she deserved.

She was still sleeping soundly in his arms and he profited of these moments to just enjoy her presence and warmth and soft skin against his. But that didn't last long as she started to stir in her sleep and slowly waking up.

Bucky held his breath to see her reaction.

"Mm, Buck..." She mumbled sleepily and a smile escaped his lips at the sound of her sleepy voice.

She let out a yawn and closed her eyes again peacefully, but that only lasted a short second before she quickly untangled her limbs from his and frowned.

"Bucky what the hell?" She asked him and instead of the sleepy, peaceful sound of her voice, he only heard confusion and panic. "What happened? Why, why.. Why were we cuddling?"

He was just staring at her and couldn't stop thinking about how adorable she looked with her bed hair and sleepy face. But he had to focus on the present, on the fact that she obviously hated him for cuddling with her during the night.

"I'm sorry," He replied calmly. "I guess it just happened at some point during the night."

She held his gaze for a short moment then got up from the bed without another word, moving to the small bathroom that was inside their hotel room. Bucky reached for his phone in the nightstand and was actually shocked to see it was half past ten.

After several minutes, or maybe it was a long hour, y/n emerged from the bathroom, hair brushed and dressed ready to go. Bucky hadn't moved yet from his previous position, but when he saw she was ready he willed himself to get up from the bed and do the same.

They checked out of the hotel and got in the jet, ready to go back to the compound. During the entire flight back, none of them said even one word to each other, each staying in two opposite corners of the jet, the jet itself flying on autopilot.

****

The relation between Bucky and y/n had changed drastically after that night in Kiev. If before there was some sense of professionalism and just general acquaintance between them, now it was as if y/n was going out of her way to ignore him.

If she was about to go in a room and Bucky was already there, she would turn around and go someplace else. If she was already in a room and Bucky would join her, she would immediately leave the place without a word. It was getting ridiculous. The entire team had noticed the weird vibe they were giving.

Bucky was miserable. More than a month had passed since that night in Kiev and y/n had been ignoring him ever since. He thought it would be a little awkward between them in the beginning and that it would go away in time, but it was the second month and the tension was still palpable between them.

She was going out of her way to ignore him, and Bucky couldn't help but feel the pang of pain in his chest every time he thought of her. And he thought of her a lot lately.

He had returned to his sleepless nights, nightmares not as much of a problem anymore, but his restless thoughts were now tormenting him. He knew he had to do something about this situation, but he did not have even the smallest clue as to what.

But while carefully pondering his options during one of his restless nights, he thought of his best friend. Yeah, he could ask for Steve's help. He knew Steve wouldn't let him down. So that's what he did, first thing in the morning.

Steve was surprised to see Bucky join him in one of his morning jogs, but happily welcomed the company. He had asked Bucky for weeks to go running with him but his oldest friend always turned him down, until today.

They had been running for at least 2 miles when Bucky decided to finally ask, a little anxious for the answer, but it was better than not knowing.

"Hey Steve, can you please tell me what happened to y/n?"

Steve stopped right in his tracks the moment the question left Bucky's lips. He stared at his friend for a second, before coming up with an acceptable answer.

"Buck, you know you're my best friend and I love you, but maybe it would be better if you asked y/n about her personal life."

Bucky sighed in disappointment. "Yeah sure, I would ask her if she didn't ignore me as if I have the plague or something. I can't get her to stay in the same room with me for more than two seconds, what makes you think I can get her to talk to me?"

"You're a clever man. I'm sure you're going to figure something out." Steve replied and resumed to his running.

Bucky cursed under his breath and kicked a piece of grass with the heel of his shoe, before going after Steve to continue their run.

So much for his best friend's help. He had to count on himself to solve this situation and in the best case scenario win the love of y/n.

No matter how much Bucky tried to convince himself that he only wanted to at least make amends about what happened with y/n, he knew he wanted her to let him love her, and to have her love him in return.

****

Y/n had just woken up and moved to the compound's kitchen to get her cup of coffee. Leaning in the counter were Natasha and Wanda, chatting with each other animatedly about something y/n couldn't even care about at this point.

Ever since the night in Kiev and the next morning when she woke up in Bucky's arms, she hadn't been the same. She avoided contact with pretty much everyone, especially Bucky.

It was difficult to keep everyone at arm's length, but she didn't feel up for anything lately. She didn't feel like a good company to anyone and she didn't want to take anyone down with her in her self-pity party.

Having woken up in Bucky's arms that morning almost two months ago now, was one of the best things that had happened to her. She had felt secure and warm and loved.

And that's what scared her shitless. Love.

That's the reason she had been avoiding Bucky at all costs all this time.

When Natasha's eye caught her half-awake moving form from the spot where she was sitting close to Wanda she knew this was a good moment to corner the other spy and ask what was she was dying to know.

"Good morning y/n!" She greeted in her usual unusually soft voice. Wanda smiled and did the same.

Y/n grunted a "good morning" of her own in response and moved to the coffee machine in quick but short steps.

She poured herself a mug and held the pot in the air, asking silently if any of the other women wanted coffee too. Natasha held her own mug in her direction and y/n refilled it for her.

They drank their coffees in silence and only after she saw that y/n had drank more than the half of her coffee, Natasha decided to finally talk to her. And she was determined to not let her dodge this conversation anymore.

"So y/n, what's going on with you lately? Haven't seen you around a lot." She said in a casual voice, almost innocent, but y/n knew better than that, she knew that the Black Widow never asked a question without a motive.

"Nothing much Nat, same old things." She replied, trying to keep the same casualness in her voice, then quickly taking another sip of her coffee to win a little moment to collect herself.

Wanda was just looking at the two women, not saying anything yet, but she knew what this was about, having read Natasha's mind just a second ago.

Natasha was growing tired of y/n trying to avoid everyone and everything lately. She wasn't letting that happen anymore.

"Okay, " she said all of a sudden, after y/n's reply. "I've had enough of this." She got up from her seat and left her mug on the counter, taking y/n's mug from her hands as well and placing it to the counter too.

Y/n stared at her in disbelief, while she looked like a woman in a mission.

"What is really going on? Ever since you came back from that mission in Kiev with Barnes you've been acting weird, isolating yourself in your room most of the day and training like a mad woman during ungodly hours of the night."

Y/n's eyes widened at her last words, but Natasha kept talking.

"Yeah, don't think I haven't noticed. You know nothing escapes me. So now you better tell me what really happened before you upset me." She finished with a serious tone of voice and y/n knew she couldn't get away from her this time. She had been postponing this moment for too long, now it was the time to open up with her girls.

When y/n first joined the team she had immediately warmed up to Natasha, then Wanda had joined their small group of estrogen and they had become an inseparable trio ever since. They became best friends and sisters, trusting each other with their life about everything.

Y/n stared at Natasha for a moment, then averted her eyes to Wanda, before speaking. "Okay, let's sit down, I have a lot to talk to you about."

They moved to the common area and sat on the couch, y/n sitting in the middle with the other women each on one side. Two pairs of eyes were glued to her, waiting for her to spill the beans.

Y/n cleared her throat awkwardly before speaking. "So you know how that time in Kiev me and Bucky had to spend the night in a hotel before coming back..."

Both women nodded faintly, waiting for her to continue.

"We got there and there was only one bed in the room. Long story short we ended up sharing the bed that night and when I woke up in the morning we were cuddling."

Natasha's eyes lit up and a smirk grew on her face, while Wanda had a sincere smile on hers.

"I don't see what's the problem here." Natasha finally spoke.

"Well let me finish." Nat rolled her eyes and motioned with her hand for y/n to carry on. "When I was waking up I half moaned his name and then I panicked and yelled at him for cuddling and it was embarrassing." She finished, her voice getting lower with each word, until she finished her sentence in a hushed whisper.

"I still don't see what the problem is." This time it was Wanda who spoke. "It doesn't explain the misery you've been wallowing in for the past two months." That witch! They were determined to get her to tell them everything.

Y/n groaned in response and hid her face in her palms. "You guys don't get it." She spoke in a muffled voice.

She sighed before letting her hands down and looking at her friends, then continued to elaborate more.

"That night was the best sleep I had gotten in a long time and waking up in Bucky's arms was a miracle in itself. I felt secure and happy like I hadn't felt since I can't remember anymore, but..."

"But?" Wanda urged her to continue.

"But I'm scared Wan. I can't make myself available for the same heartbreak again. I feel I'm falling for him but I can't risk my heart again with love. You know what happened the last time I fell in love." She looked down at her lap and her fingers were picking at the skin of her hands, a nervous tick she had.

"Oh honey, you know it wouldn't be the same. Bucky would never hurt you like that asshat did." The soothing voice of Natasha did nothing to ease her nervousness though.

"But that's the thing Nat. I don't even know if he feels the same. If he doesn't everything will be worse and I would die of embarrassment and it would be so awkward and..."

"More awkward than it already is?" Nat asked smirking and y/n glared at her.

"You know what I mean..." She sighed, exasperated.

Nat hugged her with one arm and Wanda did the same on her other side.

"We know honey, but everything will be fine. You need to talk to Bucky." It was a sincere suggestion made by Wanda, but y/n whipped her head up as if Wanda's words burned her.

"No, no, no way! There's not one single chance of me talking to him ever again."

"But you love him, don't you?"

Y/n let out a breath she didn't know she was holding. She wasn't ready to say it out loud that she loved Bucky, but hearing Wanda say it so casually, so naturally she couldn't help but contain a little smile blossoming from lips.

"I.. Yeah, I do." She whispered. "I love him."

****

Bucky had just returned from his run with Steve and headed directly to the kitchen to grab a bottle of water from the fridge, then made to move to the common room but stopped in his tracks when he heard the voices coming from the other side of the wall.

"...You need to talk to Bucky." He recognized Wanda's voice. He knew he shouldn't eavesdrop, but couldn't help himself when he heard the Witch mentioning his name.

"No, no, no way! There's not one single chance of me talking to him ever again." This time was y/n speaking, and he felt his heart constrict at the sound of her voice. Panic was evident in her tone and he couldn't help but feel sad, he knew he had something to do with her condition, but he didn't know what to do to make things better.

He was about to leave when he heard the categorical refusal in her panicked voice to the thought of talking to him, but he froze when he heard the Witch speak again.

"But you love him, don't you?"

His breath hitched as he was anxiously waiting for y/n's reply. He was scared to know the answer, scared that he would get hurt if she didn't feel the same, but braced himself for whatever was about to come.

She formed her reply in a hushed voice Bucky could barely make out from behind the wall, but he was sure he caught her soft voice saying the words, "I love him."

His heart did a weird unexpected flutter as soon as his brain registered her words and a sigh of relief left his lips.

Now that he knew, he needed to talk to y/n as soon as possible. He couldn't wait to put them both out their misery.

For the moment he retreated to his room, leaving the girls to carry on with their conversation, already feeling bad for eavesdropping but in the same time so happy he did. Otherwise he would never gather the courage to do what he had planned.

****

Despite him knowing about y/n's feeling, and y/n admitting her own feelings and agreeing to talk to Bucky soon, that didn't happen for another week, in the most unconventional way.

As per usual, Tony had made almost all of the team go to a charity event in one of the hospitals of New York City. It would be good publicity for the Avengers to do something of the sort, as if proving to the world that the Avengers were good at not only fighting aliens and destroying entire cities as collateral damage.

New York Presbyterian Hospital was their destination of the day, all they had to do was visit some of the patients, especially little kids, shake hands, answer some press questions then go home about their normal day.

They were walking along the hall of the second floor of the hospital, following behind a young doctor, when someone called from behind for y/n.

Y/n turned around to meet the source of the voice calling her name, but she was surprised, and not in a good way, to see in front of her, none other than Trevor, her cheating ex-fiancé who had dumped her at the altar.

That had happened four years ago and y/n was totally over Trevor, she was sure she didn't love him anymore, had stopped loving him since long ago, but facing him now, even after all this time didn't do any good to her. All the pain and the agony he caused her when he abandoned y/n in the day that was supposed to be their wedding day, came back to her as bad memories. She sucked in a short breath and steeled herself in front of him, not wanting to give him the satisfaction of her pain.

"Hello, y/n. It's so great to see you here." He greeted in a cheery voice, as if nothing bad had ever happened between them.

"I wish I could say the same." She said in a bitter tone. Her eyes fled for a second to his left hand, where a golden wedding band was placed and shining proudly. So he was married.

Y/n hadn't heard anything about him since that day she so desperately wanted to erase from her mind. She had no idea he was even working there now.

He had found himself another woman to marry, while y/n had lost all these years closing herself off to each and every man that would show the slightest bit of interest in her. How stupid of her to do that! How stupid of her to lose herself because of a man who didn't love her, and most importantly didn't even deserve her love at all.

"Listen, I know we didn't part on the best terms with each other but I want you to know I'm sorry." He carried on with speaking. "But now I'm married to this wonderful woman and...." At this point y/n had stopped listening and simply shut him out. She wasn't interested in what he had to say. She didn't care that he was married. She didn't care about anything that had to do with him anymore. All she wanted was to get away from Trevor as soon as possible, but he kept talking and talking.

"So what about you, anyone new in your life?" He asked so casually as if they were two good old friends.

She shifted her weight from one feet to the other, not knowing how to answer. "I, umm.. actually... I.." she began stammering, only embarrassing herself further, until a moment later Bucky came to her rescue, casually circling his arm around her middle.

"Doll, what's going on?" He asked in a sweet tone of voice, that was directed only for her, but at the same time the look he gave Trevor screamed "stay away, she's mine".

"H-hey, Buck." She replied to him and put her hand on his shoulder, trying to steady herself in his presence. "This, hmm, this is Trevor. My, uhmm.." she didn't know how to continue her sentence, but Trevor stepped in, stretching his hand in front of Bucky's.

"I'm her ex." He said flatly.

Bucky shook his hand, a little more firmly than necessary, wanting to intimidate the man.

"James." He said in a stoned voice, Winter Soldier like. "The boyfriend."

Trevor's eyebrows rose in surprise and Y/n met Bucky's eye for a second, kind of shocked by his words, but she quickly gathered herself before meeting Trevor's face, a small smile of approval to Bucky's answer plastering in her features.

Trevor was silent for a moment, not knowing what to say, but Bucky didn't allow him a lot of time.

"It was good to meet you Tim, now we have to go." He said in the same cold tone and didn't even let him reply before moving away with y/n beside him.

When they were out of Trevor's sight, y/n stopped and turned to face Bucky. "Thank you for that." She said in a shy voice, her head hanging low, eyes not meeting his.

"It's okay." He replied, suddenly unsure of what to say anymore. "You know, actually I..." He carried on and only then y/n picked up her head to meet his loving gaze. She silently urged him to continue speaking, so he took her hands in his, before resuming to what he wanted to say.

"Shit, I can't believe I'm doing this now." He was talking to himself now more than to her. "Okay, here goes... Y/n I really like you. And I really want to be for you what I said to that guy back there I was." He rushed the words out quickly, before he lost his nerve.

"You mean..." She trailed.

"I mean..." He repeated and slowly started closing the distance between them, unsure of the next step, but her eyes closed in their own volition and her head tipped up for her lips to meet his, and Bucky didn't need any other reason to lock their lips in a much awaited kiss.

They kissed for what felt an eternity and this was the only time after a really long time that y/n felt truly happy. She kept kissing Bucky until the need to breathe became too much and only then they broke the kiss. Even then they didn't move too far from each other, Bucky snaking his arms around her shoulders and holding her close in his embrace. She sighed happily in his chest and her arms tightened around Bucky's torso. They weren't planning on moving but it was Steve who broke them off their reverie, calling for them from the other end of the hall.

"Buck, y/n, we're leaving." He said and a smile was plastered in his face.

The pair finally moved and made their way to the exit, holding hands and smiling so wide their faces were practically shining.

#bucky barnes x reader #bucky x reader #bucky barnes x y/n #bucky barnes one shot #bucky barnes fic #bucky barnes imagines

83 notes · View notes

haltandcatchfiretothemax · 4 years ago

Text

FEMSLASH FEBRUARY 2021 #21: In which Donna gives Cameron a gift

[CN: food and eating mentions; alcohol mentions]

It was early in the evening on a breezy summer Friday toward the end of June, and as Cameron pulled up to Donna’s house she wondered, not for the first time, if she was ready to be done with commuting and splitting her time evenly between the trailer and Donna’s house. She turned off the ignition, grabbed the bunch of wild flowers she’d picked from her own garden patch, got out of the car. Or at least, maybe it’s time for a break? she thought to herself as she walked up to Donna’s front door. I’ve been going back and forth for a year…maybe I could just stay here for the summer…or even just for this month? Or the next few weeks?

Donna had left the door open for her, and Cameron let herself in, expecting to find Donna listening to music and maybe even dancing in the den or maybe the bedroom, happy and energized from her weekly manicure and lunch outing, buzzing with news from Tanya or Diane, as well as ideas for what they should do that evening and later that weekend. Instead, Donna was in the kitchen, in a black knee-length full slip and apron, hair half up in rollers, behind the stove, which was covered in simmering pots and pans. Cameron’s eye immediately went to the table, which was set with Donna’s good plates and candlesticks, and an empty vase waiting for Cameron’s wildflowers.

“Honey!” Donna called out. “You’re home! Just give me a second and I’ll fetch your slippers and bring you a gin and tonic!”

The very idea of gin made Cameron go ugh. She went to the dining room, and turned around. “What is all this? Did we get married? Is this our anniversary that I forgot? Did I miss something?”

Donna chuckled at her, stirring one of the pots in front of her. “Well, it is almost the 4th of July, which is sort of an anniversary for us.”

Cameron nodded. “I’ll allow it.”

“I figured,” Donna said, checking one of the other pots, “that we could get a jump on celebrating, since we’ll be preoccupied with the 4th, on the 4th, and all.”

Cameron sighed and looked over at Donna, hit with a wave of affection for her. “Okay, Boss.” She went up to the kitchen island, and said, “You look very alluring in your slip.”

“Thank you!” Donna said brightly. “Are you wondering if I’m planning on dressing up, and if that means that you’ll have to dress for dinner as well?”

“You can read my mind. Just like a perfect wife should,” Cameron joked.

Donna shrugged. “I was gonna put a blouse and shorts back on after I was done cooking. The slip was just so that you’d have something fun to look at.”

“Mission accomplished,” Cameron grinned. “I’m a little grimy from the drive, though, so. Meet you back here after I get the flowers in some water and shower?”

Donna grinned back at her. “Sounds like a plan.”

***

An hour later, the flowers were in the vase, the candles were lit, and dinner was served. Cameron and Donna enjoyed their eggplant parmesan, spinach, and angel hair pasta with two glasses of one of Donna’s favorite red wines, and a lot of happy chatter about how their weeks had been, what the girls were up to, and their weekend plans.

When they were done, Donna got up and took their plates. As she walked them back to the kitchen, she said, “I made some red velvet cake for dessert! I know that you prefer the store bought, but, what can I say, I woke up in a mood today.”

Cameron, who was in the bad habit of overeating but only when Donna or Bos cooked for her, groaned, “That sounds great and all but I might literally barf if I try to eat more right now?”

Donna put away their leftovers, and then she returned to the table with two black velvet jewelry boxes, and set them down in front of Cameron. “Then maybe you can open these first?”

Wide-eyed, Cameron stared at the boxes with undisguised terror.

“Don’t get all excited,” Donna huffed. “Neither of these boxes contains an engagement ring, the only engagement ring in this house is the one that Gordon gave me and that I refuse to ever part with.“

Cameron looked at her uncertainly. “And one of them,” Donna continued, “isn’t even jewelry.” She picked up the smaller box and held it out toward Cameron.

Cameron accepted it slowly, like it might pop open like a trick snake nut can. She opened it, and saw that it had a set of keys inside.

“I know, I know,” Donna said, sinking back into her chair. “You don’t have a key to your trailer for me. What if that’s okay though? What if the lesson the last 15 years have been trying to teach us is that reciprocity and being a good partner doesn’t have to mean everything is even steven all the time? I don’t need the key to your trailer. I know that I’m welcome there. And I’m also okay with usually calling before I come over.”

Cameron frowned at her. “Are you sure?”

“I’m positive,” Donna smiled at her. She pushed the other box toward Cameron.

Warily, Cameron picked it up, and opened the top. Inside, there were anodized silver pendants, on what looked like two anodized silver chains. One pendant was a small silver compass, and the other was a small anchor. Smiling sadly, Cameron said, “So I’ll always be able to find my way back to you?”

Gently, Donna said, “Or to wherever. You’ll never be completely lost, though. You’ll always have some help figuring out what direction to go in.”

“I don’t have anything to give you,” Cameron sighed.

With the same sad sort of smile, Donna said, “You might not have any jewelry for me, but that’s okay, because I already have all the jewelry I need. And also, my house is full of plants and fresh flowers and I have a garden full of fresh herbs and lavender out back, and I have homemade breads and hummus and preserves in the kitchen because of you. I get how that might not sound like a fair trade to some people,” she said, leaning forward and resting her elbow on the table. “ But I think it is. I think it’s more than fair.” She sighed, and then she said, “My house doesn’t feel empty the way it used to. That sounds terrible, I know. The girls used to live here. It didn’t feel empty because of them or anything that they did wrong, it felt that way because of me. But I don’t feel like that anymore. Now I wake up every day and I think, ‘Maybe things will actually be okay? Yeah, I think so.’”

Eyes starting to glisten, Cameron closed the jewelry box, and set it back down on the table. She looked back at Donna, and said, “Yeah. I know what you mean.” When Donna smiled at her, Cameron said, “I love you.”

“I know,” Donna said, wiping a tear of her own off her face. “I love you too.”

Unable to resist, Cameron asked, “Last and best?”

Donna’s smile grew broader, and brighter. “You know it.”

#LAST ONE BBYS!#extra thanks for reading and following along this year because i have been running on fumes #and i feel like it shows tbh!#femslash february #femslash february 2021 #cameron howe #donna clark #donna emerson

15 notes · View notes

vintagecoldcases · 4 years ago

Text

Story of Ted Bundy

TW: execution photos, details of deaths

**a more detailed victim list will be posted later, beware of this post if you are sensitive to blood/gore/other oddities of true crime as it will have crime scene photos**

Theodore Robert Cowell, was born on November 24th, 1946 to Eleanor Louise Cowell at the Elizabeth Lund Home for Unwed Mothers. Eleanor was known by Louise and Ted’s father’s identity is unconfirmed. His birth certificate states Lloyd Marshall, a salesman and Air Force veteran, as his father. Louise claims his father to be an old war veteran known as Jack Worthington, this is who the King’s County Sheriff’s Office has listed as such. A few family members believe that Louise’s father, Samuel Cowell, could’ve been Ted’s father but no evidence has been found to support this claim.

Ted was raised in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania by his maternal grandparents for the first three years of his life. He, family, and friends, were told that his grandparents were actually his parents and that his mother was his older sister in order to protect them all from the stigma of birthing a child out of wedlock. There are variations of how Bundy found out his true parentage. A past girlfriend was told that Bundy was shown his birth certificate by a cousin, Stephen Michaud and Hugh Aynesworth (both biographers) were told by Bundy that he found the certificate himself. Anne Rule (biographer and crime writer, who knew Bundy personally) believes he did not find this information until 1969. In 1950, Louise changed her surname from Cowell to Nelson and left Philadelphia to live with cousins Alan and Jane Scott in Tacoma, Washington. In 1951, Louise met Johnny Culpepper Bundy at an adult singles night at Tacoma’s First Methodist Church. Johnny and Louise later married that year and Johnny formally adopted Ted. Johnny and Louise went on to have four children together, and whilst Johnny tried including Ted on family trips and outings, he remained distant.

Teenage Ted Bundy

In 1965, Ted graduated from Woodrow Wilson High School and enrolled in the University of Puget Sound where he spent a year before transferring to the University of Washington to study Chinese. In 1967, he became involved romantically with a UW classmate, most commonly known as Stephanie Brooks in biographies. In 1968, he dropped out of college and worked at a series of minimum wage jobs; even working as Arthur Fletcher’s bodyguard and driver during his Lieutenant Governor campaign. Brooks then ended their relationship due to Bundy’s lack of ambition. He also took one semester at Temple University after returning back to Arkansas and Philadelphia to visit family. In 1969, Ted moved back to Washington where he met Elizabeth Kloepfer (also known in Bundy literature as Liz Kendall, Beth Archer, or Meg Anders).

Ted Bundy & Elizabeth Kloepfer

In 1970, Ted re-enrolled at the University of Washington as a psychology major. During this time he became an honor student and was well regarded by his professors. In 1971, he took a job at Seattle’s Suicide Hotline Crisis Center, where he met Anne Rule who noted nothing disturbing or abnormal about Bundy. In early 1973, despite his average law school admission scores, he was granted admittance to UPS and the University of Utah. In 1973, he rekindled his relationship with Stephanie Brooks. He also continued to date Elizabeth Kloepfer. Neither woman knew of the other at this time. During this time period, Brooks had flown in several times to stay with him in Seattle. He had discussed marriage with Stephanie and had also introduced her as his fiancee at a point. In 1974, he abruptly broke off all contact. He did not return phone calls or letters. After a month of trying, Brooks was finally able to contact Bundy by phone, asking why he had so abruptly ended the relationship without an explanation. He responded with, “Stephanie, I have no idea what you mean.” and hung up the phone. She never heard from him again after that. He had just wanted to prove to himself that he could marry her in retaliation of her ending their former relationship before.

Ted Bundy and Stephanie Brooks

Ted had been skipping classes in law school by this point and had stopped attending all together by april when the first series of murders were reported. Circumstantial evidence points Ann Marie Burr, an 8-year-old girl, as one of Bundy’s first victims in 1962.

Ann Marie Burr, age 8

Washington/Oregon Murders

College aged young women started to disappear at a rate of about one a month in Washington and Oregon. On January 4th, 1974, shortly after midnight, Bundy snuck into the basement apartment of 18-year-old Karen Sparks (also known as Joni Lenz, Mary Adams, or Terri Caldwell in Bundy literature). He bludgeoned her with a metal rod from her bed frame and then sexually assaulted her with the same rod. She was unconscious for 10 days but survived. She sustained major permanent physical and mental disabilities. In the early morning of February 1st, 1974, Bundy broke into the basement bedroom of Lynda Anne Healy. He beat her until she was unconscious, dressed her in a white blouse, blue jeans, and boots and carried her away from the scene. On March 12th, 1974, Donna Gail Manson, a 19-year-old student at the Evergreen State College in Olympia went missing as she left her dorm to attend a jazz concert that she would never attend. April 17th, 1974, Susan Elaine Rancourt disappeared from Central Washington State College, on her way back to her dorm after an advisors meeting. Two female students later came forward with encounters with the same man. One was on the night of Susan’s disappearance and the other was three days before that. The man had his arm in a sling and had asked the girls for help loading his books into a brown or tan Volkswagen beetle. In Corvallis at Oregon State University, on May 6th, 1974, Roberta Kathleen Parks, left her dormitory to meet friends for coffee and she never arrived.

Police precincts were growing more and more concerned with each abduction. As they had no evidence or connection between each of the girls besides they were all young, attractive, college-aged, white women with their brown hair parted down the middle. On June 1st, 1974, Brenda Carol Ball, disappeared from the Flame Tavern in Burien, near the Seattle-Tacoma International Airport. She had last been seen in the parking lot with a brown-haired man with his arm in a sling. Not too long after that, on June 11th, 1974 Georgann Hawkins disappeared walking down a brightly lit alleyway between her boyfriend’s dormitory and her own sorority house. After Georgann’s disappearance was made public in the media, witnesses came forward reporting that they saw a man that night in an alley behind a nearby dormitory. He was on crutches with a leg cast and was struggling to carry a briefcase. Another witness had said that the man actually asked for her help. At this time Ted was working in Olympia as the Assistant Director of the Seattle Crime Prevention Advisory Commission. He wrote pamphlets for women on rape prevention here. He also later worked at the Department of Emergency Services (DES), which helped look for the missing women. This is where he met Carol Anne Boone, and began dating her (as well as Elizabeth Kloepfer).

Carol Anne Boone

Pressure was immense on law enforcement at this time. This was very frustrating as panic spread through young women of the area, with six disappearances and one brutal beating. Rates of hitchhiking in young women dropped drastically. Police could not provide reporters with what little information they had because they did not want to compromise the investigation. Similarities between the victims were noted by the police in their investigations: The disappearances all took place at night, each disappearance was usually near ongoing construction work, also within a week of midterm or final exams. Every single victim was wearing slacks or blue jeans; and at most crime scenes, there were sightings of a man wearing a cast or a sling, and driving a brown or tan Volkswagen Beetle. On July 14th, 1974, five female witnesses on a beach at Lake Sammamish State Park in Issaquah, Washington, described an attractive man in a white tennis outfit with his arm in a sling. They also described him speaking in a light accent, possibly Canadian or British, and was introducing himself as Ted. He asked for their help in unloading a sailboat from his Volkswagen beetle. Four of the girls refused but one accompanied him to the point of the car in view. When she did not see a sailboat, she fled the area. Three other witnesses saw the man, now known as Ted, saw him approach Janice Ann Ott. He fed her the sailboat story and she was seen leaving the beach with him. Four hours after Janice’s disappearance, Denise Marie Naslund, vanished after leaving a picnic to use the restroom.

Idaho/Utah Murders and Kidnappings

In August 1974, Ted moved to Salt Lake City, Utah, after receiving a second letter of acceptance from the University of Utah Law School. He continued to call Elizabeth Kloepfer as he lived in Salt Lake, but dated at least a dozen other women at the time. On September 2nd, 1974, Ted abducted, raped, and murdered a still unknown hitchhiker in Idaho. On October 2nd, 1974, Ted kidnapped 16-year-old Nancy Wilcox from Holladay, a suburb of Salt Lake City. On October 18th, 1974, The daughter of the police chief of Midvale, Melissa Anne Smith, vanished after leaving a pizza parlor. Her body was found nine days later, nude, in a mountainous area. Postmortem reports say she may have remained alive for up to seven days after her disappearance. On October 17th, 1974, Laura Ann Aime disappeared after leaving a cafe around midnight. Her body was found by hikers, nine miles northeast of American Fork Canyon on Thanksgiving Day. Both, Melissa and Laura had been beaten, raped, sodomized, and were strangled with nylon stockings. November 8th, 1974, Ted approached Carol DaRonch, introduced himself as Officer Roseland and used the story of someone attempting to break into her car and to accompany him to the police station to make a report. When Carol pointed out that he was not going to the police station, he immediately pulled over to the shoulder of the road and tried to handcuff her. In their struggle, he accidentally handcuffed both cuffs to the same wrist. Carol was able to throw the door open and escape because of this. On the same evening, Debra Jean Kent disappeared after leaving a theater production to pick up her brother. The school's drama teacher and a student told police that "a stranger" had asked each of them to come out to the parking lot to identify a car. Another student later saw the same man pacing in the rear of the auditorium, and the drama teacher spotted him again shortly before the end of the play. Outside of the auditorium, investigators were able to recover a key that unlocked the handcuffs on Carol DaRonch’s wrists.

In November, Elizabeth Kloepfer called King County police for the second time, after reading about the string of disappearances and murders in the towns surrounding Salt Lake. Bundy had risen considerably as a suspect among the King County Police, but the most reliable witness from Lake Sammamish could not identify in a photo lineup. In December, Elizabeth called the Salt Lake City police with her suspicions. Ted was then added to their list of suspects, but there were no credible forensic links to put him at any of the Utah crimes. In January of 1975, Ted returned to Seattle and stayed a week with Elizabeth. She did not tell him she had reported him to the police on three occasions. She also made plans to visit him in August of 1975 in Salt Lake. Unfortunately, Ted’s crimes moved to Colorado at this point.

Colorado/Utah/Idaho Murders

January 12th, 1975, Caryn Eileen Campbell disappeared walking down a well lit hallway between the elevator and her room at the Wildwood Inn in Snowmass Village, Colorado. Her body was found a month later on a dirt road next to the resort, nude. On March 15th, 1975, Julie Cunningham disappeared while walking to a dinner date with a friend from her apartment. April 6th, 1975, Denise Lynn Oliverson vanished while riding her bicycle to her parents house. Her bike and sandals were found near a railroad bridge in a viaduct. May 6th, 1975, Ted was able to lure 12-year-old Idaho native from Alameda Junior High School, Lynette Dawn Culver, to his hotel room in Salt Lake City, where he drowned and raped her. He disposed of her body in possibly the Snake river north of Pocatello. In Mid-May, three of Ted’s coworkers from DES came to stay with him for a week. This included Carol Anne Boone. They stayed for about a week. Subsequently, Ted visited Elizabeth Kloepfer in early June. They discussed getting married the following Christmas. She again made no comments about her talking to police on several occasions. Ted also did not disclose his ongoing relationship with Carol Anne Boone or his relationship with a Utah law student known as both; Kim Andrews or Sharon Auer. June 28th, 1975, Susan Curtis disappeared from the campus of Brigham Young University, forty-five miles south of Salt Lake City. In August of 1975, Ted was also baptized into The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints although he did not follow any of the religious practices and was not an active participant in services.

On August 16th, 1975, Officer Bob Hayward of the Utah Highway Patrol, arrested Ted in Granger. This was another suburb of Salt Lake City. Hayward had observed him cruising the residential area in the pre-dawn hours. Ted then fled the area at high speeds after seeing Hayward’s patrol car. After noticing the front passengers seat was removed and placed on the back seat, the car was searched. Hayward found a ski mask, another mask fashioned from pantyhose, a crowbar, handcuffs, trash bags, rope, an ice pick, and other burglary tools. Ted had said that the mask was for skiing, he found the handcuffs in the dumpster, and the rest were household items. Detective Jerry Thompson remembered a similar looking suspect and car description from Carol DaRonch’s attempted kidnapping. Police then searched Bundy’s apartment and were able to turn up a guide to Colorado’s ski resorts with a checkmark next to the Wildwood Inn. They were also able to find a brochure for Viewmont High School play in Bountiful where Debra Kent disappeared. They although did not find enough evidence to detain Ted and he was released on his own recognizance. Ted claimed later that investigators missed his collection of polaroid photos of his victims and he destroyed them after his release. Salt Lake police placed Ted under a 24 hour surveillance.

Detective Thompson flew to Seattle with two other detectives to interview Elizabeth Kloepfer. Elizabeth told them that in the year prior to Ted’s move to Salt Lake, she had discovered things that she "couldn't understand" in her house and also in Ted's apartment. The items she found included crutches, a bag of plaster of Paris that he had admitted stealing from a medical supply house, and a meat cleaver that was never used for cooking. Additional things she found included surgical gloves, an Oriental knife in a wooden case that he just kept in the glove compartment of his car, and a sack full of women's clothing. Ted was so far into debt, that Elizabeth suspected that he had stolen almost everything of significance that he owned. When she confronted him over a new TV and stereo, he warned her, "If you tell anyone, I'll break your fucking neck.” Elizabeth then mentioned that she would find Ted looking at her body with a flashlight under the covers on more than one occasion, and that he would get very upset if she mentioned cutting her hair. Which was long, brown, and parted in the middle. Detectives interviewing Elizabeth were able to confirm that Ted was not with her on any of the nights where the Pacific Northwest disappearances occurred. This is where Elizabeth learned about Stephanie Brooks and their brief engagement in 1973. In September, Ted sold his beetle to a Midvale teenager, but Utah police impounded it and dismantled it. They were able to find matching hair samples from Caryn Campbell. They also found “microscopically indistinguishable” hair strands from Melissa Smith and Carol DaRonch. On October 2nd, 1975, Police put Ted into a lineup and Carol DaRonch was able to identify him as Officer Roseland. Other witnesses were able to identify him as the stranger from the auditorium at Viewmont High School. He was able to be charged with aggravated kidnapping and attempted criminal assault in Carol DaRonch’s case. He was released on $15,000 bail, which was paid by his parents. He continued to live with Elizabeth Kloepfer during this time.

In February 1976, Ted stood trial for Carol DaRonch’s kidnapping. He waived his right to trial by jury because of the negative views surrounding the case and opted for a bench trial. After a four day trial, and a weekend of deliberation, Ted was found guilty of kidnapping and assault. In June he was sentenced to one to fifteen years in the Utah State Prison. In October, he was found hiding in bushes in the prison yard carrying an "escape kit". This included road maps, airline schedules, and a social security card. He spent several weeks in solitary confinement for this. Later in October, Colorado authorities charged him with Caryn Campbell's murder. He waived his right to extradition and was transferred to Aspen in January 1977.

June 7, 1977, Ted was transported from the Garfield County jail in Glenwood Springs to Pitkin County Courthouse in Aspen for a preliminary hearing. He waived his right to a court appointed attorney and opted to serve as his own, and as such, was excused by the judge from wearing handcuffs or leg shackles. During a recess of the trial, he asked to visit the courthouse's law library to research his case. While out of view from his guards, behind a bookcase, he opened a window and jumped to the ground from the second story. He managed to injure his right ankle in the process as he landed. He shed the outer layer of his clothing. He walked through Aspen as roadblocks were being set up on its outskirts after noticing his disappearance, then hiked southward onto Aspen Mountain. Near the summit of the mountain, he broke into a hunting cabin. He was able to steal food, clothing, and a rifle. The following day he left the cabin and continued south toward the town of Crested Butte. Although, during this time he had managed to get lost in the forest. For two days he wandered aimlessly in the mountain forest, missing the two trails that led downward to his intended destination. On June 10th, 1977, he broke into a camping trailer on Maroon Lake, taking food and a ski parka; instead of continuing southward, he walked back north toward Aspen, eluding the roadblocks and search parties along the way. Three days later, he stole a car at the edge of an Aspen Golf Course. He drove back into Aspen, where two police officers noticed his car weaving in and out of its lane and pulled him over. He had been a fugitive for six days.

Back in jail at Glenwood Springs, Ted again ignored legal advice to stay put (not to try to escape again). It was said that the case against him, already weak at best, was deteriorating steadily as pre-trial motions consistently resolved in his favor and significant bits of evidence were ruled inadmissible. A quote stating, "A more rational defendant might have realized that he stood a good chance of acquittal, and that beating the murder charge in Colorado would probably have dissuaded other prosecutors... with as little as a year and a half to serve on the DaRonch conviction, had Ted persevered, he could have been a free man.” had shown that. But instead, Ted assembled a new escape plan. He acquired a detailed floor plan of the jail and a hacksaw blade from other inmates, and collected $500 in cash. This was smuggled in over a six-month period, by visitors, Mostly Carol Boone. During the evenings, while other prisoners were showering, he sawed a hole about one square foot, between the steel reinforcing bars in his cell's ceiling and, having lost 35 pounds, he was able to wriggle through it into the crawl space above. In the weeks that followed, he made several “practice runs”, exploring the space. Multiple reports from an informant of movement within the ceiling during the night were not investigated. By late 1977, Bundy's impending trial had become very high flying in the media in the small town of Aspen. Ted then filed a motion for a change of venue to Denver. On December 23rd, 1977, the Aspen trial judge granted the request, but he was sent to Colorado Springs, where juries had historically been hostile to murder suspects. On the night of December 30, with most of the jail staff on Christmas break and nonviolent prisoners on furlough with their families. Bundy piled books and files in his bed, covered them with a blanket to simulate his sleeping body, and climbed into the crawl space. He broke through the ceiling into the apartment of the chief jailer, who had been out for the evening with his wife. He changed into street clothes from the jailer's closet, and literally walked out the front door to his freedom.

Florida Murders and Assaults

Ted arrived in Tallahassee, Florida on January 8th, 1978, and rented a room under the alias of Chris Hagen at the Holiday Inn. Here Bundy tried to find work and leave his criminal past behind, thinking he’d be able to remain free if he didn’t bring police suspicion onto himself. He then was forced to leave his only job application after being asked to provide identification. He reverted to shoplifting and stealing credit cards from women’s wallets out of shopping carts. On January 15th, 1978, he entered Florida State University’s sorority Chi Omega. Starting at 2:45am, he bludgeoned Margaret Bowman and then garoted her with a nylon stocking. He moved on to Lisa Levy’s bedroom, who was beaten unconscious, strangled her, tore one of her nipples, bit deeply into her left buttock, and sexuallly assaulted her with a hair mist bottle. In the bedroom adjoining Lisa's, he attacked Kathy Kliener. He had broken her jaw and had a deep laceration on her shoulder. Karen Chandler was also attacked in her bedroom, she suffered a concussion, loss of teeth, a broken jaw, and a crushed finger. Kathy and Karen both survived and attributed their survival to the attacker being scared off by headlights illuminating through the window. The whole attack happened within fifteen minutes with thirty witnesses in earshot who seemingly heard nothing. Shortly after leaving the sorority, Ted broke into the basement apartment of Cheryl Thomas, eight blocks away. He dislocated her shoulder and fractured her jaw and skull in five different places during this attack.

On February 8th, 1978, he approached the daughter of Jacksonville chief of Police, 12-year-old Leslie Parmenter, introducing himself as “Richard Burton, fire department”. He only backed off when challenged by Leslie’s older brother who had shown up to pick her up. That day, he backtracked to Lake City. February 9th, 1978, at Lake City Junior High, 12-year-old Kimberly Dianne Leach was summoned to retrieve a forgotten purse in her homeroom class and was never seen afterwards. Her mummified remains were found seven weeks afterwards in a pig farrowing shed near Suwannee River State Park. It appears she had been raped (her underwear was found near the body with semen in them) and her throat had been slit. On February 12th, 1978, Bundy could not pay his rent and had the growing suspicion that police were closing in on him, he decided to flee Tallahassee. Three days later he was apprehended by Pensacola officer, David Lee, near the Alabama border. In Miami, June of 1979, Ted stood trial for the Chi Omega killings and assaults. The jury deliberated for less than seven hours before convicting him on July 24, 1979, of the Bowman and Levy murders, three counts of attempted first degree murder and two counts of burglary. In January 1980, six months after his first Florida convictions, Ted stood trial in Orlando for the kidnapping of Kimberly Dianne Leach. After less than eight hours of deliberation, Ted was found guilty again. During the penalty phase of his trial, Bundy took advantage of an obscure Florida law; providing that a marriage declaration in court, in the presence of a judge, constituted a legal marriage. As he was questioning former Washington State DES coworker Carole Ann Boone, who had moved to Florida to be near Bundy, had testified on his behalf during both of his trials, and was again testifying on his behalf as a character witness, asked her to marry him. She accepted, and Bundy declared to the court that they were legally married. February 10th, 1980, Ted’s was sentenced to death by electrocution for the third time. In October of 1981, Carol Anne Boone, gave birth to a daughter and named Ted Bundy as the father.

Ted Bundy died by the Raiford electric chair at 7:16 a.m. EST on January 24, 1989. Hundreds of revelers sang, danced and set off fireworks in a pasture across from the prison as the execution was carried out, then cheered as the white hearse containing Bundy's corpse departed the prison. He was cremated in Gainesville, Florida and his ashes scattered at an undisclosed location in the Cascade Range of Washington State, in accordance with his will.

#ted bundy #bundy #true crime #crime #serial killer #killer

20 notes · View notes

hellitwasyoufirstsergeant · 4 years ago

Text

Hi everyone! I’m not really sure why I’m posting this here, I suppose because I’m not ready for people I know ‘irl’ to see this, and this is the only account I have anywhere where none of my irl friends follow it. As to why I’m posting this at all, I’m not so sure either. I suppose largely for myself, in the hope that it will exorcise some demons, and partly for other people, because eating disorders just are not discussed enough and perhaps by posting this I can show someone else that they’re not alone.

There may be mistakes in this and it may not all be 100% coherent, I found it hard to write and I didn’t wish to read it back over.

WARNING: The following post contains discussions of eating disorders and mental health issues. Please do not read if this is a trigger for you, and please not not read if you’re only here to pass judgement

Looking back now, it’s so easy to realise why I felt the way I did, and to see my descent into mental illness. At the time, it was confusing as hell. I wasn’t diagnosed with generalised anxiety disorder and clinical depression until I was 17, although I had been suffering from both for six years already, I just didn’t realise it, because I just didn’t know they existed. I didn’t know there were medical conditions to describe how I felt, perhaps if I did I wouldn’t have felt so alone and so alienated. It wasn’t until last year that I realised I’d suffered from an eating disorder. Before that, I didn’t know that binge eating was an eating disorder.

The words ‘eating disorder’ to me conjured up images of skeletal bodies, of people making themselves sick. I wish that preteen and teen me knew that I was suffering from an actual condition, that other people suffered from too.

I don’t recall specifically the first time I binged on food, but over autumn (fall) of 2011 it became a regular occurrence, a habit. It was my way of coping with the changes in my life - starting a new school, my mum being diagnosed with a clinical illness and an increasingly fractured relationship with my dad - and my feelings of loneliness. I was also self conscious about my body, I was in a more advanced stage of puberty than most of my peers and I was aware of the fact that I was a little overweight. Bingeing became an outlet for feelings that I couldn’t understand, and therefore that I couldn’t process.

It was a process that I repeated regularly for six years. It was like a paradox, the more I looked at myself in the mirror and hated what I saw, the more I binged, the very thing that made me carry on putting on weight. I was overweight, I still am today, but I wish that I could have seen myself the way others saw me - slightly chubby but not the ugly monster I thought myself at the time. I ate my feelings away, it was the only coping mechanism I knew. Even when in some ways my life improved - when I was 14 I finally fell in with a group of friends who were kind and who made me feel accepted - my mental state continued to decline and I continued to eat to cope. I was also feeling confused about my sexuality, something that increased my sense of alienation and otherness. It was often the only thing that got me through the day, the only thing that made life bearable to me.

I never confided the way I felt or my problem with food to anyone during this period. My mum knew that I had issues with food, twice she found hidden stashes in my bedroom. She has been a good parent to me, but I so wish she’d handled it differently. She made me feel ashamed, something that made me more determined to hide my problem and therefore to not confront it. I think perhaps that she would’ve been a lot more understanding had she known the feelings behind the problem, but I didn’t know how to go about telling her.

I can’t remember how old I was exactly when I shoplifted food for the first time, I think around 14. The £10 a week pocket money was no longer enough to fund my problem, even though I always chose the cheapest food so that I could buy as much as possible. I shoplifted semi regularly from the local supermarkets for around 18 months, I still don’t know how I was never caught.

In September 2016, I started sixth form college. It was a fresh start that I so badly needed, my five years at secondary school having been so unhappy. It was hard to begin with, only my oldest friend went to the same college as me and old feelings of loneliness resurfaced. A part of me had hoped that the change of school would allow me to leave my bingeing habit behind, but it wasn’t to be. Even when I settled in and began making friends, I continued bingeing.

New friends at college told me of their mental health issues, and I finally felt understood - there were other people who felt the way I did, other people who wanted to die. These feelings may not be normal, but I’m not alone anymore. Despite feeling accepted properly for the first time in my life, I continued to eat. Perhaps it was the stress of A levels (my fellow Brits know how fucking hard these are), or my mum’s decline in health, or my increasingly worsening relationship with my dad.

In May/June time of 2017, my oldest friend, Imogen, who was one of a few friends now aware of my poor mental state, told me that I should go to the doctor. After a little persuading, I agreed. She came with me, but the appointment achieved nothing. I tried a few more GPs at my local surgery and eventually found one who made me feel listened to, and who was kind and sympathetic. I don’t recall the exact time I was diagnosed (to be honest this period in my life is a bit of a blur), but after some months I was finally diagnosed with GAD and clinical depression. I still continued to stay silent about my problem with food.

Ironically, it was actually the further decline of my mental state that allowed me to break my old habit. My mental health had declined fairly slowly over the past few years, but the decline accelerated over autumn and winter of 2017. I don’t know if there was a trigger behind that, I guess mental health doesn’t need a reason. I didn’t know how to deal with the way I felt, I lashed out and fell out with Imogen, which hit me hard. We didn’t talk at all for three months. Before this period, I had often thought that things would be so much easier if I was dead, but my thoughts had never progressed beyond that. Now, it became more active. I actually wanted to die. I stopped looking when I crossed the road, I stopped looking after my physical health at all. Fears about hurting my mum were the only thing stopping me from taking it further. But, I finally stopped binge eating, so disinterested in life that even the that no longer made me feel better.

My mental state didn’t take a turn for the better, but I grew used to these new feelings and started to process them properly. I got better at pushing them out, but I did eventually decide to tell my parents about my diagnoses. My mum was very supportive, she still is, my dad not so (although I probably should’ve expected that). I made up with Imogen, my behaviour started to normalise. I felt so free from my old bingeing habit, it had only been a few months but it felt like a lifetime ago.

In February 2018, my mum told me that she’d be moving to Yorkshire. She’d been forced by her job to take early retirement due to ill health, she was only 50 at the time, and wanted to live somewhere cheaper so she could save on living costs and pay off her mortgage. I was scared, and considered for a time moving in with my grandparents so that I could stay in a place where I knew people, but eventually decided that I’d move with my mum. Still, despite the biggest change ever to happen in my life, I managed to avoid a return to my binge eating habit. I’m still not sure how. Perhaps now that the habit was broken it no longer had the hold over me that it once did.

And then, around March 2018, my dad gave me £500. To this day I still have no idea why, I guess guilt. But it was so much more money than I’d ever had. The temptation not to spend any of it on food was too great. I decided to treat myself, I’d spend £100 on food and put the rest in my savings.

By the time I finished college at the beginning of June, the entire £500 was gone, at least £450 of it spent on food. I still remember the binge I had the day after me and mum moved out of our old home and in with my grandparents, who we lived with for seven weeks before going to Yorkshire. My mental state declined still further, and I wasted most of those weeks in bed, not having the energy to do anything. I kicked myself later for not using it to spend time with the friends I was leaving behind.

After we moved to Yorkshire in August, I spent two of the worst months of my life. My old feelings of loneliness resurfaced, not helped by the fact that one of my closest friends just stopped talking to me. I seemed to alternate between binge eating, my binges even bigger than they ever had been, and hardly eating at all.

But, eventually, I managed to settle in. I got a job, I made new friends. I didn’t make a conscious decision to stop binge eating again, it just happened. I wasn’t lonely anymore, but my mental state didn’t seem to get any better. But, I had healthier ways of coping and I didn’t need to binge as an outlet for my feelings anymore. In September 2019, I started uni, and I finally felt like my life had a purpose.

Now, I have more and better friends than I ever had. I’m glad I made the move to Yorkshire, where I live now is much nicer where I grew up and if I hadn’t made the move there are so many amazing people I wouldn’t have met. Most of my friends are aware of my mental health issues, although I rarely discuss them in detail.

However, only one of my friends is aware of my eating disorder. I didn’t realise until last year that binge eating was classified as an eating disorder. I’m not quite sure why, but this discovery prompted me to finally confide in my oldest friend, Imogen. She was very supportive and understanding, and I know my other friends would be, but it’s still something where I look back and I’m like ‘woah that actually happened’. Putting it out of my mind as much as possible has been my way of coping with the fact that it did happen. I have been slightly more open online that I have irl about the fact that I had an eating disorder, but this is the first time I have discussed it this in depth with anyone.

I’m going to say now what I wish preteen and teen me had known: you are not alone. Whether you’re suffering from an eating disorder, from mental health issues, or from something else, you are not alone. I can’t say truthfully that I have never regretted confiding in someone, but the majority of the time it has helped me, even in a small way. Please talk to someone if you have an eating disorder, be it a friend, a family member, a GP, a teacher, even me. It is nothing to be ashamed of.

I stopped binge eating as a regular habit at the start of winter 2018. Although I relapsed a couple times last year, it’s been twelve months and counting since my last binge.

#shut up ange #please everyone remember that no matter what you’re going through #you are not alone #find later

36 notes · View notes

dont-cry2020 · 5 years ago

Text

“Guess You’re a Celebrity Now, Huh?”

Harry Styles X Reader

//inspired by an idea given to me by the wonderful @peter-andthelostboys//

//What happens when there’s a new girl at an arts college? Well, she receives anonymous portraits shoved under her door, that the notorious Harry Styles may have something to do with//

//Fluff and angst//

//this definitely isn’t my best work but I haven’t been feeling super motivated lately, so thank you for your patience. i might try and rewrite this another time bc i really love the idea//

Harry loved to draw. It was his passion.

He was quite good at it, too, so it was really no surprise to his friends and family when he got accepted to art school in Los Angeles.

It’s a scary thing to move all the way across the world, let alone by yourself, but Harry adjusted quickly, enjoying the warm climate that was so different from the UK.

You, on the other hand, were feeling quite lost after high school. Your parents pushed you into medical program after medical program, determined that you were going to ‘make the family proud’ and ‘become rich and smart.’

For starters, you could care less about being rich, but you decided to humor your parents by going to medical school. Yeah, it was hard.

So incredibly hard.

So hard, in fact, that you could count the panic attacks and all nighters you pulled on two hands.

However, you found in yourself a passion for music; whether that was writing music or playing guitar or singing, it made you feel whole. Something that medicine and doctorates degrees could never.

As Junior year began and the weather got crisper and the air constantly smelled like cinnamon and spice, you started to feel lonely on top of the stress. Sure, you had your friends, really good friends at that, but that wasn’t the problem. You longed for someone to love, someone to hold you and help you through your ups and downs and someone for you to help through their ups and downs. But, you knew that you couldn’t handle a relationship right now, for Christ’s sake you were studying to be a goddamn doctor!

You had a boyfriend freshman year. He was kind, smart, and, much to your parent’s approval, was studying to become a pediatrician.

But you weren’t happy.

It was always about school and homework; never parties or holidays or even intimacy. So, you ended it, and as junior year is upon you, you haven’t had a boyfriend since.

Your girlfriends noticed that you were lonely, so they spent their time setting you up with hot college medical students to which you indulged in, and it was fun, sure, but you still weren’t happy.

So you did the one thing that your parents never forgave you for.

You dropped out.

You dropped out of medical school and transferred to an arts college, one that you had your eye on since freshman year, and one that was about as far away from home as you could possibly go.

You didn’t tell your mom or dad, didn’t tell them because you already knew what they were going to say.

“You’re ruining your future!”

“You have no chance of getting a job now!”

They hadn’t stopped since they found out from your brother, wondering why such a smart girl would become an art student. They didn’t even know you liked art.

You were sad to leave your friends, sure, who wouldn’t be? You loved them, but you all understood that it was for the best. You had a dream, and you were going to chase it. They stood at the gates of the airport, waving and crying and hugging you as you boarded the plane from London to LAX.

“Here we go.”

...

Art school was weird.

There were no snobby students with 4.0 GPA’s to wave in your face, no professors that thought they were better than everyone else or classes that you dreaded going to.

It was actually fun. Who knew that college could be fun, right?

Moving into your dorm was terrifying. You didn’t know where to go or who your roommate was going to be, and despite your previous experiences, it was already half way through the first semester, and every one else had their chances to collect their bearings. Luckily for you, you got your own room because everyone else had already moved in and had roommates.

...

Rumor had spread throughout campus that a new girl had moved in.

“Apparently she’s English,” or “she transferred from medical school” or “she’s a music major” were all things that Harry heard walking down the halls of his dorm and through the lawn and in classes.

It seems like this new student was all anyone ever talked about.

He couldn’t say he wasn’t intrigued, for he was English too, and curious at that, but he was an art student and you were a music student, so he never saw you around, and none of his friends had ever met you either.

As February rolled by, you had found that you adjusted quite nicely, making a few close friends and acquainting yourself with new faces.

The weather was probably your favorite part about this school. Back home, you would never even dream of studying outside on the lawn in the middle of the winter, but here you are, sitting in a circle with a few of your friends, talking and laughing about music and strumming your guitar.

Harry had his headphones in walking home from class. He was tired and he really just wanted a quick nap. It was Tuesday afternoon and the sun was shining, so there were tons of people on the lawn. It wasn’t a new thing for people to be playing instruments or singing when it was nice outside, so he didn’t bat an eye when he heard strumming of a familiar song.

But his eyes widened when he heard an accented voice that matched his own. His eyes followed a group of students, most he had seen before, but he didn’t recognize the girl with the English accent.

She must be the new girl.

Harry convinced himself that he didn’t want to go back to his dorm to work on his art, but it was such a beautiful day that he would sit on the lawn and sketch his little heart out.

He found himself staring at the girl, memorizing every freckle and curve of her face, quickly looking at his lap when you caught his eye, feeling like you were being watched.

“Who’s that?” you asked your friends, pointing at the boy sitting by himself, nose buried in his sketch book.

“That,” Jack said, eyes widening, “is Harry Styles. Probably the hottest guy on campus.”

Margot rolled her eyes. “Jack’s just mad because he’s not into guys. He’s British like you, ya know.”

“He is hot,” you say, looking over at the boy with curly brown hair and tattoos littering his arms. “I should introduce myself.”

“Yes girl, get it!” Jack cheers. Rolling your eyes, you walk over to him.

“Can I sit?” you ask, looking down at Harry. He looks up at you eyes widening, scrambling to close the sketchbook that was full of drawings of you. He couldn’t help it, you were just so gorgeous. He nods his head slowly, eyeing you up a bit.

“‘M y/n,” you say, holding out your hand for him to shake.

“Harry,” he says, engulfing your hand in his large tattooed one. His rings catch your eye, reflecting the light and making him look that much more intimidating. “You’re English,” he remarks, not asking, but rather telling as if you didn’t already know.

“Yeah,” you laugh nervously, his stare making you slightly uncomfortable.

“Sorry,” he says apologetically. “Jus’ never seen you around here.”

“‘M new. Transferred last semester.”

Harry was interesting. He was funny, sweet, but a little reserved and intimidating, too. He was an art student that looked like he was the lead singer of a rock band. He dressed in dark jeans and jumpers and wore necklaces and rings. Never what you would have expected to be attracted to, being an ex-medical student and all. But, despite your doubts, you found him very appealing.

The conversation ended when he had to get to class, so you bid him farewell and returned to your group of friends, egging you on for every detail of your previous conversation.

...

The week finally rolled along to Friday, and you were set to go to bed early and watch netflix alone, in proper need of some me time. Your friends, however had other ideas when they barged into your dorm with a bottle of wine and the skimpiest dress they could find.

“Come on, y/n, please!” Jack begged you, walking to your closest and rifling through your clothes in the most extra way possible. He pulls out a pair of lacy panties and a matching bra. “All of your clothes make you look like a prude, so you’re wearing this.”

“Hey!” you say, snatching the undergarments from him and shoving them back into your drawer. “I’m so spent tonight, I really don’t feel like going out.”

“But,” Margot says, pulling your makeup out from your desk, “a certain British boy will be there.”

Suddenly all parts of you that were fatigued and not wanting to go to a party change their direction and you’re snatching the dress from Jack’s hold and going to the bathroom.

“Forgot something, sweetie,” he teases, throwing the lacy underwear at you.

You looked hot. You weren’t gonna lie. The black velvet dress clung to all your curves and stopped right above your knees, scrunching up on the sides with little ties. Your hair was curled and eyeliner sharp, and you honestly felt a little overdressed for a little college house party. Little did you know, LA art students don’t mess around at house parties.

To say that heads didn’t turn when you walked in the room would be a complete lie. All eyes were on the new girl, including a familiar pair of sparkling green ones.

Harry was intrigued, to say the least, watching the new girl dance around the house, nursing a drink and laughing with her friends. He wasn’t much of a party guy himself; he had a lot of friends, sure, but he preferred just to stay home or have small get togethers with them.

He felt himself being drawn to you, sliding in between grinding bodies and swaying slightly to the music as he neared your own dancing body.

“D’you wanna dance with me?” Hot breath fans over the back of your neck, goosebumps erupting over your skin. Spinning on your heels, you weren’t all too surprised when you were face to face with the only other Brit in the room. His gaze flickered across your face, brow furrowed and concentrated as he set his hands on your hips. You threw your own arms around his neck giggling to yourself as you saw Harry smile for the first time since you met him. His perfect white teeth had butterflies erupting in your belly.

You danced for a while longer, all the alcohol you had consumed earlier finally catching up to you. Giggling as you lose your balance, Harry catches you, holding you still before smashing his lips to yours.

Mere seconds felt like hours as his lips touched yours. You barely knew the guy, but for some reason it felt like the best kiss of your life. Yet, somehow, you knew you wouldn’t remember it in the morning, so you focused on the present and how he made you feel.

He made you feel good.

It felt like nothing you had ever felt before, sparks flying and hearts pounding and every other phrase used to describe something completely and utterly amazing. You got lost in his lips, memorizing every inch.

You pulled away, not completely unaware of the lust in the curly haired man’s green eyes.

“I’m gonna go get a drink,” you tell him over the booming music, slipping out of his arms and entering the much quieter but still noisy kitchen.

“Y/n! Where’d you go earlier?” Margot questioned, smirking at the lipstick smudged across your face.

“Jus’ dancing,” you slur, getting yourself another cup of whatever alcohol was on the counter.

“Mhmm,” she says, knowingly raising her eyebrows and taking your cup, replacing it with a bottle of water. “Think you’re done.” You groan, begrudgingly taking a sip out of the bottle, your body silently thanking you for ending it’s torture.

Harry wasn’t sure how it happened, but as soon as you left him, he was being dragged onto the dance floor by some girl, he wasn’t sure who, and was being grinded on and made out with.

“Y/n,” Jack said, tugging Margot by the arm, eyes widening “do you want to head back to your dorm now? We know parties aren’t really your thing.”

“What! I’m having so much fun!” you sway on your heels, trying not to fall down. “Why do we have to leave I-” your heart dropped in your chest.

Harry’s tongue was dancing with some random girl’s, not even five minutes after he had kissed you. Maybe it wasn’t the end of the world, maybe you shouldn’t have been so attached to a man that you had just met and just kissed once, maybe you were drunk, but you didn’t care. It felt like your world was crashing down.

You ran as fast as your bare feet could carry you, Jack and Margot chasing you, yelling at you to slow down, but you didn’t listen.

Harry saw you run out of the party, pushing the girl sucking his face off and palming him through his jeans away. He thought that maybe he should go after you, but he didn’t feel like it’d be welcome. He ran his hands through his hair, eventually following your lead and leaving the party to head back to his own dorm.

Your feet carried you all the way to your room, unlocking it and throwing yourself on the bed, mascara tears staining your pillow case.

“Hun,” Jack says, petting your hair and pulling it back into a pony tail. “Don’t worry about this prick. He’s not worth your time.”

The rest of the night was spent with Jack and Margot holding back your hair as you threw up what seemed to be everything you’ve eaten in the past two weeks, and you crying about you didn’t even remember what anymore.

Harry tried to sleep that night, still buzzed and tired from the party and the previous week, but he couldn’t seem to rest his racing mind. He got out of bed, only clad in a pair of boxers, and went to his desk, pulling out his sketch pad and getting to work. He drew line after line and shadow after shadow, constructing a piece that he felt genuinely proud of, something he hasn’t felt in what seemed like ages. He knew that it needed to be seen.

...

Your head was pounding. Absolutely hammering in your head. Jack and Margot were passed out on the floor, blankets and pillows and water bottles littered the bedroom and after seeing the stains on your pillow, you really didn’t want to look in the mirror. However, you eventually had to get out of bed, throwing the covers off your bare legs and sluggishly walking into the bathroom. The best part about transferring in the middle of the year, you found, was that you didn’t have a roommate to share the bathroom with, or someone that would see you like this.

“Holy fucking shit,” you whispered, taking in the reflection looking back at you. Your cheeks were tear-stained with black streaks of mascara, your hair was matted and had chunks of something you hoped was not throw up in it. Not to mention that you were still wearing your dress from last night, except now it was bunched around your torso like a tight potato sack.

You stripped, throwing your clothes onto the floor and getting into the shower. The hot water cascaded down your head, wetting your hair and face and washing all of the regret away. You were in the heavenly water for a good long time, fingers starting to prune up from the steam and liquid.

Walking back into your room, you were pleasantly surprised to see that Jack and Margot had left a note on your bed, saying that they went to get breakfast and would be back soon. You thanked God that it was Saturday and you didn’t have any classes.

You immediately got back into bed after you dried off, pulling the covers up to your chin and closing your eyes, hoping to calm the pounding in your head just a little bit. That’s why, when there was a quiet knock on the door, you didn’t get up immediately, thinking that it was just a courtesy knock from Jack and Margot before they barged in with food. But when that didn’t come and the hallway quieted, you rolled yourself off the bed, grumbling to yourself and opening the door.

“Hello?” you say to no one in particular, seeing as there was no one on the other side of the door. You looked around, peeking your head into the deserted hallway, before finally looking down and seeing one of those big orange manila envelopes. You figured it was something from the front desk or maybe a letter from your mom telling you how you were making a mistake, but bizarrely enough, there was no address or even name. You took one more look around the hall before going back into your room and shutting the door behind you.

Curiously, you picked open the envelope with your fingernails, carefully ripping the paper. You pulled out the paper inside the envelope.

Shocked was an understatement to how you were feeling. A gorgeous portrait of lines and shapes that created none other than your face. It was a little chilling, knowing that someone has been examining your face and features so closely, but also because there was no name or address...not even a note.

“What’s that?” Jack asks, barging into the door, arms full of muffins. He throws you one, sitting down on the bed next to you and examining the paper in your lap.

“Someone left it at my door, but there’s no note or name or anything,” you say quietly, eyes scanning the picture. “That’s weird, right?”

“Ooh,” Margot says. “Somebody’s got a secret admirer!”

“More like a stalker,” Jack remarks, tracing the paper with his fingers. “Who do you think would do this?”

You honestly had no clue. The only visual arts student you knew was...no.

“Harry!” Jack says. “It has to be Harry!”

“There’s no way in hell it’s Harry,” you remark, slipping the paper back into it’s envelope and placing it onto your desk, changing the subject to the events of the previous night.

...

A few weeks later, Harry found himself drawing constantly; whether it was small sketches or bigger works, they all had one common factor; they were of the same woman he couldn’t get out of his head.

You, on the other hand, had received quite a few more drawings stuck under your door. At first, you weren’t all that phased, but you couldn’t seem to shake the feeling that you didn’t know who was doing this.

Margot had called it a ‘secret admirer’ but you weren’t quite sure whether it was that, or a stalker. Sure, it was sweet and all the drawings were beautiful, but how did said person find out where your room was? Or how did they know when to put the drawings by your door so they could have enough time to leave?

Jack had suggested that you sit by the door until there’s a knock, so one night, you settled by the door, rather impatiently waiting.

Nothing.

Still nothing.

Feeling your eyes get heavy, you let yourself go, falling limp against the door and succumbing to a deep sleep, so when you were startled awake from a knock on the wooden door, you weren’t able to register what had happened fast enough.

Sure enough, when the door swung open there was another envelope, just like all the other ones you had received, except this time, something caught your eye.

There was a date and a time scribbled in messy handwriting: 7 PM, 2/23.

Your brow furrowed, staring at the information written on the paper, eventually pulling our your phone and sending a picture to your friends.

what does this mean ? you wrote, referring to the information you had received.

OMG! that’s the art show tomorrow! jack responded

you have to go now! Margot sent

You were a little creeped out to tell the truth, but you wanted nothing more than to find who the mystery artist was, and why they wanted you to go to the art show.

It was no surprise when Jack and Margot barged into your dorm the next day, rifling through your closet and styling you.

“It’s a goddamn art show, not a party,” you said as Jack pulled out another frumpy dress that he probably made you buy.

“Okay, and?” he asked, fluttering his lashes that were honestly far longer than you could ever get yours.

So, here you were, standing in the middle of the art hall, hair and makeup done, looking nervously around the exhibits that other students had created. They were all really beautiful, but you found yourself being drawn to one in particular .

A large oil painting of a girl with y/e/c and y/h/c laughing with a guitar in her hands was standing at the center of the room on an easel. The sky was painted with deep purples and blues and pinks and you couldn’t help but gape at the blending of colors. Something about the painting was familiar, but you couldn’t quite put your finger on it.

“Mr. Styles, is this the model you used for this gorgeous work?”

“Er... Yes, actually.”

You stop in your tracks, glancing up at the painting one more time and then turning towards the voices. Harry.

Harry painted this. And it was a painting of you.

You opened your mouth to say something, closing it after nothing came out.

“You-?” you whispered, still awestruck from the fact that Harry was the artist.

“Yeah,” he says, scratching the back of his neck and giving you a shy smile.

“And the drawings?”

He nods his head.

You stand there in awkward silence for a moment before he motions for you to come follow him. Your steps fall in place behind his as he leads you outside into the cool February air.

“I thought I should explain...” he says, ruffling his hair but not looking at you. “Tha’ night, at the party,” he starts, pausing for a moment to gather his words. “When I kissed ya... I felt something. And I know you did too... and then tha’ girl, whashername?”

You just shrugged your shoulders, slightly amused by the crease formed in the man’s forehead.

“Anyways,” he continues, “doesn’t matter. But when she kissed me and I saw you run out, and she kissed me,” he emphasizes the last part, widening his eyes and you just shake your head, lips curling up into a smile. “An’ I was gonna run after you but I didn’t think I’d be welcome... so I knew I needed to make it up to you... and after I met you on the lawn I couldn’t get the image of you laughing with your friends outta my head and I just knew I had to draw you and-” he continues to ramble on, but you just shush him, gripping your shirt in your fists and pressing your lips to his.

He trips slighty but you hold him into place by the fabric of his shirt, his hands eventually sliding onto the small of your back.

“D’ya wanna go out with me?” he asks as you pull away, his eyes glimmering in the sunset as you both catch your breaths.

“Yes,” you say, laughing slightly. “I do.”

Harry called you a few days later, asking if you wanted to go get coffee at a shop that he went to often. You obliged, saying that you would love to, ‘forgetting’ to tell your two best friends so they would leave you be to get ready.

You were excited; it was your first real date with Harry, and you liked him a lot. You had chemistry and it was clear as water to anyone who saw.

Walking into the coffee shop and looking around, Harry’s arm waving at you caught your eye. He gave you a warm smile, gesturing to sit at the seat across from him.

“Hey,” you say, greeting him.

“Hi,” he says, pulling your chair out for you before sitting down in his own seat. “I ordered you a latte. I hope that’s okay?”

“Perfect,” you say, pulling the coffee to your lips, choking on it at the sight of a certain painting hanging on the wall.

“Har- that’s- that’s your painting!” you tell him. He only smirks and nods his head.

“’S on display,” he says, resting his head on his hand. “Thought everyone should have the pleasure of looking the most beautiful girl I’ve ever seen.”

You blush, taking another sip of your latte, before a little kid comes up to you, chocolate smudged across his face.

“Is that you?” he says, pointing a chubby finger at the picture. You chuckle.

“Yeah, actually, it is.” you say, smiling at his mom as she apologetically takes her boy by the hand.

“Guess you’re a celebrity now, huh?” Harry says.

“You made me famous,” you tell him, grinning at the green eyed boy in front of you.

285 notes · View notes

alexiessan · 5 years ago

Text

Never alone - Chapter Twelve - Soulmate AU

AO3

Previous - Here - Next

Master List

Hi! Thank you for all your reaction to the last chapter! I love knowing what you guys thought of the chapters :)

Robin was the first to wake up the next morning. The sun shining right in his face bothering him for a few minutes and preventing him to open his eyes completely.

The first thing he saw when he opened his green eyes was black hair.

Marinette’s black hair.

His girlfriend was still sleeping, and he would have liked to say that she looked peaceful in her sleep, but it was clear on her face that the pain was still there and bothering her even in Dreamland. She was obviously frowning and was trying to get closer to him, looking for pressure against her invisible wound.

He lifted a hand up his face, checking that his mask was still in place before putting a strand of Marinette’s hair behind her ear with the same hand.

It was nice, he thought, waking up like this. He could get used to it.

Realizing that he spent the whole night in Paris without telling his family — even if they probably knew that already — he took his phone out and answered the few texts he’s received ever since he left his home.

He answered his father first, telling him that Marinette was ok, if in pain, and told him that he will probably spend the whole day in Paris, if not the whole weekend.

He then answered his brothers who were worried about Robin’s soulmate and told Drake, that no, he couldn’t call the tiny French girl and ask her directly since it was Ladybug who got hurt, and he’s not supposed to know her identity, don’t be an idiot, Drake.

Seeing that it was only six am on a Saturday morning, the vigilante put his phone away and closed his eyes to catch a bit more sleep. He usually didn’t sleep late into the morning, but he didn’t mind doing it this once.

When Marinette woke up, the first thing she registered was the pain in her chest. It didn’t get better during the night, unfortunately. She winced as she tried to move but quickly gave up, it hurt too much.

She felt a hand stroking her back and only then did she open her eyes.

She saw Robin looking at her with worry in his eyes, asking silently if she was alright.

She gave him a small smile she hoped was reassuring.

“Hey,” she whispered.

“Hey,” he answered, lightly kissing her forehead.

She smiled, cuddling to him, seeking his warmth.

“This is nice, waking up like that.”

He didn’t say anything, but the hand stroking her hair told her that he thought the same thing.

During the last five months, the fashion designer learned that Robin talked more with his actions than with his swords. He was too proud — or afraid, maybe — to say some things out loud, but if you paid enough attention, his actions told you everything you needed to know.

You just had to pay very close attention.

“What time is it?”

“Around ten.”

Not too late but not too early either.

“Do you want breakfast? I have a spare toothbrush if you want to freshen up too.”

“Are you telling me I have bad breath?”

She giggled.

“I’m telling you we both have morning breath, and I would like to kiss you good morning at some point.”

He flicked her nose teasingly and got up, helping her to get up as well.

“Hand me your dog plush,” he said, smiling a little — probably mocking her — “I’ll heat it for you.”

She handed it to him.

“Don’t tease, I know you love dogs as much as I do.”

“Yeah, but I don’t have plushes.”

“No, but you have a real dog.” she sighs. “You’re so lucky.”

He ruffled her hair with an amused smile.

After Robin got the dog plush heated, he followed the Eurasian girl in the bathroom, where she got a brand new toothbrush out of the package and handed it to him.

Both of them brushed their teeth in silence, and it hit Robin how domestic it was.

After five months apart from each other, the youngest of the Bat Family thought that seeing his girlfriend again would be awkward. That touching her would be weird or something. But when he saw her, he just took her in his arms and kissed her. It was so natural, like they were never apart in the first place.

And now, after waking up next to her, brushing his teeth next to her… It felt so natural that it scared him.

It scared him how attached he got to Marinette.

Yes, she was his soulmate and his girlfriend, but he didn’t think he would get attached to her so fast.

When they got to know each other in Gotham, he was fond of her. He liked her, so he kissed her, but he wasn’t quite attached yet.

And five months later, he was attached.

As his eyes caught Marinette’s in the mirror, he couldn’t help to compare himself now, and himself back when he was ten years old.

He was changing, he realized. Not just now, but ever since he was under his father’s care.

He was changing, and it scared him and reassured him at the same time.

People would laugh at his realization. Of course, he was changing. But it’s easy for other people to see that, but for yourself? You don’t see the change in yourself.

After Marinette rinsed her mouth, she smiled at him despite her pain.

And yeah, maybe it was a good thing he was changing. He thought that she wouldn’t smile at him like that if she met him when he was still under the influence of his mother and the league.

He had a lot of things to think about after he left to go back home.

They decided to spend the day watching movies in the living room. Marinette wasn’t in any state to go anywhere anyway, and Robin had a lot to discover when it came to movies.

There were so many movies he’s never seen, it was appalling.

She made him watch a Disney movie first, Mulan. It was her favorite one.

And ok, Disney wasn’t for him, she could understand.

None of them wanted to watch romantic movies, and horror movies were out of the question for the teenage girl.

So they watched some thrillers instead.

It would have been great, cuddling with Robin like this, if only Tikki would stop glaring at him.

She still held a grudge from their first meeting.

Robin didn’t apologize, and he probably never would. Plus, it seemed like Tikki’s glares didn’t bother him the slightest.

If the Kwami of creation didn’t like him, the holder of the ladybug Miraculous could only wonder how it would go when he will meet her friends.

She shuddered as she thought of the possibility of Alya not liking him.

Well, she will see that when they cross that bridge.

Saying goodbye to Robin after the whole day spent together was painful. He said that he could spend the whole weekend but she had things to do on Sunday and she had to go outside — in pain or not, she had to meet with Claude for their joint project — so she wouldn’t be able to be with him that day.

She kept him with her as long as possible by kissing him thoroughly, though.

God, she loved kissing him.

She loved it when he brought her closer to him with a hand to her him. When he cupped her jaw or the back of her head.

She loved putting her hand in his hair and messing with this perfect style of his. She loved locking her arms around his neck as they deepened the kiss.

She was going to miss that.

She really hated how fast she got used to those things just for them to get taken away because they lived in different countries.

He put a strand of her behind her ear and kissed her forehead.

God, she loved it and he did that too.

“Until next time.”

She smiled sadly at him.

“Yeah. Have a safe trip back.”

She gave him one last kiss and when she opened her eyes, he was already gone.

When Damian got back to the manor, he was welcomed by his family’s worry and questions.

Yes, Marinette was ok.

Yes, she was in pain. A lot of pain, actually.

No, she didn’t need to go to the hospital, the Miraculous Cure healed her but the pain remained.

Yes, it’s awful.

The young Wayne was exhausted, so his father ushered everyone out of the room, but not before he told said:

“After what happened, the Justice League of America decided to take the negotiations on the next level. The Europe headquarters should accept our help soon after that.”

In his room, Damian lied against Titus, petting him and thinking about his day with Marinette.

He was changing, it was a fact. What his mother taught him in his childhood wasn’t what he relied on the most anymore.

He started to understand that it was a good thing. He wanted to be a better man. Not only for Marinette, but for his father, for his brothers.

But more importantly, for himself.

The months passed again, faster than Marinette would like.

The Parisian and Robin made video calls more than before. And the other vigilantes were crashing the calls more often too.

She didn’t mind that much, they still let them have at least one call a week without crashing it.

She loved talking with them and watching them interact, they always made her laugh.

She remembered that time where Red Hood and Nightwing made her fall from her chair from laughing too much.

“When I was born the gods said ‘he's too perfect for this world’.” Red Hood had said.

“Oh please, when you were born Satan said ‘finally competition’.” Nightwing had scoffed.

They had completely lost her after that, she couldn’t stop laughing.

Her and Robin’s birthday were close — she was born on the 16th of December, and he, on the 21st — and they spent at least two hours on the phone on those two days.

Robin has surprised her with a gift, arriving on the morning of her birthday. It was a locket with dried flowers inside and she loved it. It went well with anything so she wore it every day.

She also sent him something at the same safe address he gave her the first time. A leather jacket with a Robin carved on the back. You could easily miss it if you didn’t pay attention. She thought that the bird was more subtle than the R of Robin the vigilante.

Then, at the end of February, he gave her the best of news: the JLE finally gave in, and he and another of the Bat Family will come to Paris in June to help her and Chat Noir with the Akumas and to track Hawkmoth down.

He said they would be in Paris for as long as necessary.

Marinette couldn’t wait for them to get there. Not only could she see her boyfriend daily — or almost daily — but unbeknownst to him, Hawkmoth’s reign will soon come to an end.

Soon, Marinette would get to be a normal teenager again.

It’s not that she didn’t like to be Ladybug or anything. She loved Tikki — even if sometimes she could be like an annoying bis sister with all her lecturing — and she loved Chat Noir as a partner and a best friend.

She loved the freedom of being Ladybug, she loved running on rooftops and the wind in her hair as she fell and caught herself with her magical yoyo.

But she hated fighting. Marinette was a pacifist. And fighting wasn’t what a pacifist did.

She hated that she had to fight with and hurt innocent people. The Akumas were only victims of Hawkmoth, a puppet controlled by an adult man who wanted power to get whatever it was he wanted.

She hated to see the look on the Akumatized victims after they were freed from the butterfly’s user’s influence. They were always so guilty afterward, even if it wasn’t their fault. A lot of people who got akumatized sought therapy to help them cope with what they were forced to do.

She hated that a baby wanting sweets was enough for Hawkmoth to take advantage of.

And not just once, but several times.

But most of all, she hated the pressure it put on her shoulders.

As Ladybug, she was the only one who could reverse the damage and purify the akuma.

She couldn’t be weak, even for a second, during a fight.

She thought of Animechara and how she could have died that day.

She was getting tired, and she was only sixteen. She didn’t want to know how Robin’s teammates, who fought for a decade for some, could still do it.

While she would still go out as Ladybug for a run and for the adrenaline after Hawkmoth was out of the picture, she would let the other threats to the police.

Finally, Hawkmoth would be going down.

Tag List:

@bigpicklebananatree @animegirlweeb @crazylittlemunchkin @northernbluetongue @cutechip @justafanwarrior @iloontjeboontje @resignedcatservant @maribat-is-lifeblood @i-like-fairytail-and-stuff @toodaloo-kangaroo @mikantsume @dast218 @amayakans @zestyzealot @lunarwolfspn @corabeth11 @marinettepotterandplagg @olynix

#maribat #daminette #maridami #damian x marinette #ml x dc #miraculous x dc #mlb x dc

161 notes · View notes