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mxndoscyarika · 4 years ago

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Honeydew (Marcus Pike/Moreno x OC) | Chapter 7

Summary: Erin He moves to DC after working for the FBI in Texas and runs into a hero in disguise; Marcus Moreno. Something about him is familiar, too familiar, yet different in a way that she can’t quite place. Although confused, she can’t deny her feelings for him; perhaps, after years of regret, she finally found the one.

Warnings: food/drink mention, mention of dead loved one (Marcus’s wife), brief nudity, kissing

Ao3

Honeydew masterlist

Like my writing? Here’s my masterlist.

Author’s Note: Here’s the next chapter! I wanted to let them have a moment to just be together after everything that happened, and this was one (of many) of them. Enjoy!

“I just don’t understand why it’s not working. It doesn’t make sense.”

Sometimes she wondered why she had to be a supervisor that knew how to code. If she were non-technical, like many of her past managers, she could have simply told the developer to do some code reviews with his colleagues. Well, it wouldn't have been that simple either way, but at least she would get to go home.

Erin sighed and sat down by Brian’s desk. The empty coffee cups and notebook with scribbled ink was a familiar sight, though his desk did seem to be missing one crucial thing: a rubber duck. “Let’s just take a step back and go through the logic, ok? So we have that….”

She and the developer went through the specifications for the updates and the high-level implementations that needed to be done. It seemed like he managed to get most of the framework for the code set up; all that was left was, well, writing the code and making sure it was correct. However, the deadline for shipping the code was coming up in the following days, and he was still at the debugging stage.

Although it had been a while since she’d programmed anything in a work-related context, she thanked the CS gods that she still remembered enough to take on some of the debugging. Conveniently, Brian had prior commitments that night and needed to leave on time–as if an engineer’s shift was ever truly over. But while there were others who could help out, something told her that it would be faster if she did some of the debugging herself. After all, she’d just spent half an hour reasoning through the logic.

“Why don’t you finish up as much as you can, push your changes to the repo, and I’ll take a look later?” she suggested, scanning the code. At first glance it looked fine–as most code normally did–but there were obviously issues somewhere that caused all the tests to fail. “I have some other work to do, but if we can get everything ready within the next couple days I don’t think they will mind the update being slightly delayed.”

With that, Erin went back to making her rounds through the work area, picking up any stray folders and getting last-minute status updates from the others. The sky was already dark, any trace of the sun long gone. Normally she would be getting ready to leave soon, but there was more work to do ahead of the op she was leading.

Ignoring the vibrations of her phone, she made her way back to her office and set up her desk to keep working. One thing she’d learned over her years of experience as a supervisor was that an organized desk was crucial for concentration. If only other aspects of her life were as organized as her desk.

It had been days since she found out about Marcus’s secret identity, but she couldn’t help but still feel utterly stupid. She was stupid to think that she could move on. That she, for once, was enough.

The truth was that she was never enough. She wasn’t enough to bring Marcus back after his disappearance, and she wasn’t enough to make hiding his past life unbearable.

She would have been lying if she said she didn’t consider breaking things off. But at the same time, she couldn’t bring herself to do it. He said that he and Pike were the same, that everything they had was real. And if that was true, then maybe things would get better. They could try to make things work, and show up for each other. After all, wasn’t that what caused the mess anyways? Them not being there for each other at the most important moments?

Someone knocked on her door.

Erin didn’t look up from her work. “Come in.”

“Hi honey.”

This time she looked up, a small smile on her face. “What are you doing here? Shouldn’t you be at home with Missy?”

Marcus chuckled softly. “I guess I should, but my mom convinced her to stay the night so that we could have some alone time,” he explained, sitting in the chair in front of her desk. Eyes twinkling, he lifted a paper bag. “I texted you asking what you wanted for dinner but you didn’t reply, so I got your favorite.”

Now she really was smiling. “You brought canh chua? I’m sorry I didn’t reply, I’ve been running around the department trying to get everything together.”

“It’s alright; I figured you were busy, so I wanted to make sure you at least had dinner,” he said, pulling out the container of soup along with some utensils and a couple to-go bowls. “I know you love the bạc hà, so I asked for extra. They’re in one of the small containers, so we can add them in ourselves.”

“You’re too good to me.” Erin pushed her laptop to the side so he had more room to organize the slew of containers. The tamarind-flavored soup was often a treat rather than a regular meal, one that she normally savored in the cozy atmosphere of the Vietnamese restaurant. Her heart melted a little as she realized that Marcus had to have driven across town to get it from the restaurant.

“You deserve only the best.”

Some containers were filled with jasmine rice, fragrant and pillowy. Others overflowed with toppings like aromatic cilantro, spicy Thai chilis, and crisp bean sprouts. And, as promised, there was an extra container with fresh slices of bạc hà, the spongy stem of the elephant ear plant.

Her mouth watered as she helped fill the bowls with rice and soup, letting the golden broth soak into the grains. The tomatoes and pineapple chunks were perfectly cooked and plump, brightening the salty, nearly fruity, broth.

When she pushed the bowl towards Marcus he shook his head. “You eat first, Rin. You’ve had a long day. How was work?”

“Tiring,” she scoffed lightly, adding a questionable amount of chili to her bowl. The soup was still pleasantly warm when she scooped some into her mouth, the salt giving way to the fruity sourness and inferno of chilis. She moaned in satisfaction, “This is exactly why you are my favorite person in the whole world. Thank you for bringing this, brown eyes.”

He smiled softly, adding a significantly smaller amount of chili to his bowl. “Of course, honey. Just like the old times, huh?”

At that, Erin sighed. Sometimes she forgot that her memories of Marcus Pike were really of Marcus Moreno, and it still hadn’t ceased to be jarring when that realization hit. “Yeah.”

Noticing her hesitation, Marcus looked at her apologetically. “I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have said that–”

“No, it’s okay,” she interrupted, waving him off. “I just...I missed this. Us in an office sharing food in the evening. I never thought I’d ever get to experience this again, but now you’re here.”

His eyes softened and he reached over to hold her hand in his. Stroking the back of her hand softly, he said, “I know. I missed this too.” He shifted in his seat. “And I know we can’t go back to what we were before, but I don’t want you to feel like you need to separate our memories. They’re ours, honeydew. Nothing can take that away.”

“I know,” she said, eyes burning. “I’m sorry I’m not as happy–”

“It’s alright,” he interjected gently. “It’s not your fault. None of this is your fault.”

And, if she would let him, he was going to spend the rest of his days showing her how much she meant to him. It was a mistake–a huge one–to hide from her for that long. If time was money, he’d cost her so much. Maybe he wouldn’t ever be able to give those years back to her, but he could make the most of their time in the present. Now he just hoped his paperwork would get approved at HQ.

“I’m just so tired,” she said quietly.

Of everything. Of being herself, and of feeling like the biggest fool in the world for not realizing the man she loved had been in her life eight years ago.

She’d long since stopped caring about what her colleagues thought, but that didn’t mean she couldn’t pride herself on her intelligence and knack for details. With everything, she wasn’t quite sure what hurt most: the blow to her pride, or the fact that Marcus had lied.

But deep down, a part of her was happy. He finally came back, and while the past was wrought with cracks, the future felt...secure. And if there was anything she knew about Marcus, it was that he wore his heart on his sleeve, and that he wanted to stay for the long run. She knew that, no matter what, he wanted to make things right.

“Why don’t we head home after this, then?” he suggested, lips quirked up in a small smile. “They can’t get too mad if the smartest woman in the bureau takes the night off.”

---

“Would you like to stay?” she asked, unlocking the door to her apartment. Marcus’s car was parked in the visitors’ parking area, and it was starting to get late. “You don’t have to if you don’t want to.”

“I’d love to, if you’ll have me,” he answered, heat rushing up to his cheeks when her eyes met his. Even after all this time, he couldn’t get over the way she looked when she smiled at him like that. When she looked at him like he was everything she ever wanted.

They settled into the apartment as usual, with Erin checking on her plants and Marcus helping to plug in her laptop. Something about the way Erin moved around in the space was just...right. He’d seen her navigate government buildings and sites for operations, but at home, there was a different kind of confidence about her. It was a confidence that he knew only a select few were allowed to see.

Once they reached the bedroom, Marcus kissed her forehead and went into her bathroom. “Stay here, I’ll get a bath ready for you.”

Erin let out a huff of laughter at his eagerness, resigning to putting away her bag and changing into more comfortable clothes. As much as she loved a good suit, she also loved the warmth of sweatpants and the softness of silk. But seeing as she still needed to wash up for the night, she slipped on a silk nightgown, the hem stopping just above her knees.

Eventually, Marcus returned and led her into the bathroom, presenting her with a bathtub full of gardenia-scented bubbles and steaming water. He’d also found her electronic candles, placing them strategically so she could see in the dimmed lighting.

“It’s perfect, Marcus. Would you like to join me?” she asked, biting her lip in anticipation. The bathtub was just large enough for two people, and she wanted to know what it would feel like to be with him in her most vulnerable state. After all the secrets and waiting, she just wanted more .

He shook his head, trying to not let his mind linger too long on the way her nightgown hugged her chest like liquid gold. As much as he wanted to be with her, something told him that it wasn’t the right moment. “You’ve had to take care of yourself for so long, honey. Let me take care of you, ok?”

“But what about you?”

“Don’t worry about me.” Their lips melded together as their resolve grew strained. She tasted sweet and intoxicating, and it took all his strength to not give in. “You deserve to be treated like a queen. You’re my queen, and I want to make you feel good. Is that alright?”

She hummed softly and kissed him again. A low moan escaped her lips. “You really know how to make a woman conflicted, Marcus.”

“Sorry, it’s a bad habit.”

“I know you are. I’m just glad you’re here now,” she said. Pulling away, she stepped up next to the bathtub. Slipping the straps off her shoulders, she suggested, “If you’re not going to join me in here, why don’t you get comfortable and keep me company?”

The bath felt as amazing as it looked, the hot water melting away the tension in her muscles and the bubbles acting as a blanket to keep her modesty. Well, not that she hadn’t undressed in front of Marcus, but she wanted to keep some parts of her a surprise.

After some shy laughs, Marcus stayed by her side the entire time, sitting on the edge of the tub. It was just wide enough for him to sit comfortably, close enough that they could talk softly and he could help wash her hair. The golden glow of the candles and the warmth from the bath soothed their nerves until they were just two people in love.

Relaxed and back in her nightgown, Erin sat on her bed and checked her emails one more time. Thankfully, there weren’t any that she needed to reply to.

“Careful, hot tea incoming.”

She smiled up at Marcus, who was holding out a cup of steaming pu erh tea. Accepting it, she remarked, “I’m surprised you were able to find the tea leaves.”

“It helped that I remembered that you always have a designated cabinet.”

“I guess not that much has changed after all these years,” she said, sipping from the cup. As she did, she wondered if it was just herself that hadn’t changed.

“Dance with me?”

Her eyes widened in confusion when he broke the silence. “Hm?”

Marcus held out a hand, which she instinctively reached for. “Dance with me. Please?”

It didn’t take long for her to give in, setting the cup down on the nightstand. They swayed slowly in the bedroom, moonlight streaming in. Although there wasn’t any music, it was just what they needed. They just needed a moment in each other’s arms.

Erin’s head rested against his chest, the warmth from his body sinking into her. “I missed you so much,” she said softly.

“I missed you too.”

He missed her too.

But there was still something nagging at the back of her mind. Part of her didn’t want to disturb the peace, but she also wanted answers. Maybe it wasn’t the best time to ask him. Maybe it would undo everything. Before she could stop herself, she asked, “Can you tell me about your wife? Missy’s mom? Did she..?”

Marcus sighed softly, but not out of frustration. No, it was the kind that was borne of fondness. His arms tightened around her. “Yeah. We actually met not too long after I had my documents changed back. I didn’t want to tell her. I wanted a fresh start, but I still felt very much like Marcus Pike rather than Marcus Moreno. So, I told her about my past and we went from there.” A soft chuckle. “She was definitely shocked, but it was different because she never knew me as Pike, only Moreno.”

She wasn’t you, he wanted to say.

“I’m glad she knew,” she replied, snuggling closer to him. At least he told her, the mother of his child. It was...comforting to know that he hadn’t been all alone during those years. Eight years was a long time to keep a secret. “And what about now? Do you still feel like Marcus Pike?”

“Some days I feel more like Pike,” he admitted. “But with Missy and the Heroics, I feel like I’ve settled into being Marcus Moreno. It took a few years, but….Pike will always be a part of me. It wasn’t ever not me, just…a different side.”

“I see.” When his arms shifted, Erin clung to him tighter. “Don’t leave. Please.”

Marcus kissed her temple, his lips soft and warm. “Never again, honey. I’ll be here until you’re tired of me.”

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TAGLISTS: (please let me know if you’d like to be added/removed!)

PERMANENT:

@cinewhore @randomness501 @ahopelessromanticwritersworld @miraclemoreno @halfwaythereroyal @fioccodineveautunnale @talesfromtheguild @tortles @ladamari68 @theokatcov @snivellusim @starryluce @inked-poet @this-cat-is-dea @shedobewritingalittle @chews-erotically @thefandomimagines @emesispo @bitchin-beskar @phoenixhalliwell @nerdypinupcrystal @dishonouringmycow @sarahjkl82-blog

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#marcus pike #marcus pike x reader #marcus moreno #marcus moreno x reader #Marcus Moreno x OC #Marcus Pike x OC #Pedro pascal fanfiction #Pedro pascal #wcbh #we can be heroes #the mentalist #honeydew #my writing

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sunxeii · 4 years ago

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I love reading your tags and was wonder what your interpretation on the Lip x Lip pocky edition is? Also, more similarities between Ken and Aizou's types because I want them to have some common ground they have so they can try to talk to each other and reconnect again.

Aww, I’m glad you love reading my tags~ Thank you sm!! <33 it makes me happy knowing people like my rambles and opinion on things,,

Are you talking about that pocky scene in the new MV where Yuujirou and Aizou are at the store together and had their own pockys in their hands? Or are you referring to their pocky flavors? :O pls let me know~

As for the analysis between Ken and Aizou’s types…

(I ended up talking A LOT so you can read more under the cut ahsjs)

I know you probably meant their physical similarities (like hairstyle, etc) but I kinda delved more into their characters??

Compared to the Shibasaki brothers who, in a sense, are more modern… Yuujirou and Arisa have different family backgrounds than most people. Arisa’s family owns a shrine, meanwhile, the Someya family has a kabuki legacy and many of them (especially his stepdad and brother) are very strict about beauty + a good performance. Arisa is sometimes seen in shrine maiden clothing while Yuujirou is sometimes seen in traditional clothing. Arisa’s grandfather is a Shinto shrine priest and Yuujirou’s stepdad/brother and other people in his personal life are kabuki actors.

Both of them know how to dance like some of their family members and they definitely practice.

Here, Ken is watching her perform and blushing. Aizou has also canonically seen Yuujirou perform kabuki. LOOK HOW GOOD THEY LOOK and their eyes omg (granted, arisa obviously looks happier but yeah) BUT YEAH,, look at these two images and tell me you don’t find the similarities.

Also, both Yuujirou and Arisa sometimes do the :3 face

Arisa had put her hair up in high twintails after being inspired by Sena, and she even moved forward in life as she tried to be more outgoing and friendly. Since Yuujirou’s application has him with long bangs and he came to the audition with short bangs, I’m assuming he may have cut them himself. He has also tried being more kind and cool to the public eye (fans, classmates, etc.)

So they both directly changed their hairstyles and acted friendlier. They’re moving forward aww

Arisa and Yuujirou don’t consider Ken and Aizou as perfect, even from the start. Arisa found Ken’s way of living too “my-pace” and even boring. Meanwhile, Yuujiou bickered with Aizou on their first meeting.

Both Arisa and Yuujirou had problems making friends when they were younger. Yuujirou kept himself busy with Kabuki practice whenever he was invited to hang out so he never rlly formed any actual friendships, and Arisa tended to “poke her nose into other people’s affairs and had unintentionally spoken harshly during elementary school, which ended up with her often being left out by her peers,” according to her novel.

Aizou is technically Yuujirou’s first friend, since it was revealed that Yuujirou’s childhood lacked any friendships and he pushed everyone away because he felt like there wasn’t a point in making friends. However, Aizou kept talking to him and involving him in things despite their arguments. In Arisa’s case, Ken noticed her from afar and told his friend to keep an eye on her ( for him to act like her friend or smth.) This helped her get situated and it made her feel happy.

We know that the Shibasaki brothers have a certain way they portray themselves on the outside. They are seen as sociable, friendly, and outgoing by the public eye (aizou with his fans and classmates.) But on the inside, despite their popularity and interactions, they’re lonely people. Other people like them but they can’t see who they truly are, at least 100%. Both Yuujirou and Arisa can. The brothers talk to their partners and involve them in stuff, even when the other doesn’t seem to want to comply or ignore them. Arisa defends/defended people and Yuujirou has actually defended Aizou and even made him cheer up and laugh by doing a particular face when his idol partner was visibly upset about something. So, the both of them help the boys better themselves and the Shibasaki brothers know they can rely on their partners. Lonely Persons imply that Yuujirou and Arisa are the only people that can understand Aizou and Ken, even when the other doesn’t properly say it in words or tell anyone else. It’s like words aren’t even needed and their bonds are deeper than that.

Both the cat versions of their types look at the brothers and arisa is within arms reach, fairly close to ken because she’s there for him and they’re dating. Aizou feels like Yuujirou is there for him but he’s also afraid of losing him and that they aren’t as close as he may think— obviously that’s not true because yuujirou appears with a smile and looks at him softly. // psttt just shoot ur shoot aizou// Both Arisa and Yuujirou are holding their cat versions (kuro and the random cat lmao) close to their chests too, with one hand over the cats’ backs.

Between Aiyuu and Shibarisa, arisa and yuujirou are seen as the more “chill” or “quiet” ones (even though, of course, yuujirou is quite sneaky and arisa is outgoing in a way)

Arisa seems to like the crepes on their date and Yuujirou, with his sweet tooth, would DEFINITELY love crepes. i demand a crepe date for aiyuu,, i demand us seeing aiyuu eating cake on xmas.

By the way, this is just a fun observation but both Ken and Aizou definitely think about texting Arisa and Yuujirou the most during literally anything. In “Naimaki Honey”, Ken looks happy while he stares at his phone and he’s def on LINE a lot for arisa— i bet he texts her goodmorning and goodnight + little things. Aizou literally texted Yuujirou at 2 am over some BEEF ROAST he made. like it was his first thought after he finished and yuujirou read it immediately (but didn’t reply lmao) I’m assuming arisa and yuujirou don’t text with the same energy as their partner most times.

Also, we already know how they’ve been compared to or represented by cats. And the Shibasaki brothers own a cat, plus aizou likes cats more.

OK WOO— i’m done HSJS. So sorry that it was a long read !!! I tried to compile some stuff and then I accidentally exited out and lost everything SHDJS

#dark hair with short sharp bangs #didn’t rlly have friends when they were younger #got compared to cats #like sweets #didn’t like their partner at first #come from a line of families that aren’t modern or common #they’re outgoing but not as bubbly or loud as their partners #lipxlip #honeyworks #aiyuu #shibasaki aizou #someya yuujirou #aiyuu canon #haniwa #shibarisa #shibasaki ken #takamizawa arisa #anon asks #asks

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ginnyweasleywannabe · 3 years ago

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Treasure Hunt Chapter 2

You can find Chapter 1 linked in my Masterlist

Chapter 2

Her plan to find Marc was off to a bit of a rough start. For starters, she didn’t actually know where Marc went and even if she did, she didn’t have a car to get there. Damn. Marlene liked to think of herself as an independent person but the more she thought about it, the more she was going to need help. She was brainstorming who to ask, she needed someone who would be willing to go on this kind of trip, someone who wouldn’t stop until they finished. She of course thought about asking James. He loved a good adventure, but he was about to start his season and training was taking all of his time. Her best friend from uni, Dorcas, was still in Glasgow and besides she loved Cas but the girl would quit if this thing got to out of hand. There was one person Marlene could think of. Dammit.

It was 8:30 and still raining, Marlene was barely noticing the rain, she had just knocked but she was wondering if she could still make a break for it, maybe he hadn’t heard the knock. She had decided that 30 seconds had been long enough and he wasn’t home so she could turn around, when the door swung open. Dammit. Again.

“Hel- lo?” Sirius Black opened the door with irritation. He wasn’t sure who could be at his door at 8:30, he knew the group was out for drinks and it was too early for any girls to be showing up. But he had to admit this was this last person he was suspecting. He quirked his eyebrow up as he finished his greeting.

“Marlene?”

Ok so Marlene hadn’t thought that far in advance. She had got the idea and her mind and immediately set it in motion, now she was standing at his door in the rain like a crazy person. Like the clingy girl he had made her feel like.

“Um Hi,” She tried to offer him a smile but it was more of a grimace. “I was hoping we could talk?” she then rushed out, “not about us! Um I have an issue, well a problem, a situation.” God this was already going so bad and he was just standing there. “ I brought beer” she held up a 6 pack with a sheepish smile. He was still just standing there, staring at her. “and its raining, Sirius.” She finally resolved herself and leveled him with a glare.

“Oh right! Sorry! Yeah come in!” He awkwardly held the door as she stepped into his studio.

Marlene looked around the place, he hadn’t changed anything, she was about to have made a full turn, she was taking it slow not quite ready to face him. Out of the corner of her eye she saw a big black dog lunging at her. Quick to brace for impact, “Snuffles!!” she wrapped her arms around him., “oh I’ve missed you buddy!!”

Sirius had walked to the two giving them a slight eye roll, “I can’t believe you leveled my big English mastiff named Samson to that cuddly goob who answers to snuffles.”

“Yeah well that’s because he’s a big cuddle muffin! Yes you are! Yes you are!”

Sirius was just looking at his ex, he couldn’t possibly thing of why she would be here. They hadn’t talk once since their breakup. He wasn’t sure what to say, he still felt for the way he ended things but he didn’t like to think about it, better to avoid.

“So Marls, why are you here?” Sirius pursed his lips and braced himself for whatever way this could go.

Marlene looked up at him, she felt ten different emotions, “I hope I didn’t crash you twos bachelor night. I’ll give you a moment to text the flavor of the night and tell her you’re going to be delayed.” Ok so maybe Marlene wasn’t completely over the breakup.

Sirius let out a puff of air, “Alright time to crack open of those beers you brought, yeah?”

They both grabbed a beer and as nervous as Sirius was, Marlene seemed more, she had finished her can in one long gulp.

“So you’re probably wondering why I’m here, at your door, like the crazy clingy, ‘its getting too serious girl’” Sirius just stared, that was thing about Marlene- she always just said whatever came to here mind. “ok well you know my brother Marc” Her arms were flying around now, “Marc, tall, brown hair, permanent scowl, 6 foot 2-“

“Yes, Marlene, I know Marc, if you remember you forced all of us on an awful double date.”

“Yep. That’s the one! Well he found some old diary in the archives and he was following some lead about some old, well don’t make fun of me but treasure.” Marlene bit her lip in anticipation.

“Treasure?” Sirius raises his eyebrows, “what does that even mean?”

“Well you know the old wives tail about the lost items of the Hogwarts founders?”

Sirius knew they story, his whole family had gone to Hogwarts, just a gave her nod and waited to see where this was going.

“Well its real and Marc thinks, thought, he could find it. Anyway he left two weeks ago and he was supposed to return last night but he didn’t come home. And my graduation ceremony was today, he wouldn’t have missed it. Also he’s been texting me, Marc has been texting me. I’m starting to get worried.” Marlene’s worry for Marc showing on her face, “So I was think I would go after him and bonus if there is gold!”

“Marlene, I don’t mean to be rude but why are you here?” Sirius still wasn’t sure how this story was relevant to him, especially since he was under the impression was that she hated him. Or at least wanted nothing to do with him.

“Well the thing is I don’t think I can do it on my own, for one I don’t have car, and two I’m not sure what’s waiting out there for me.” God Marlene couldn’t believe she was having to ask Sirius for help, taking a big breath she knew she needed to do this for Marc, “I need your help.”

Well that was not the answer Sirius was expecting. He could see how much she didn’t want to ask him, why had she asked him?

“And you came to me for help because……?”

“Because you’re a greedy asshole.” Marlene said in a flat tone. “The thing is I need someone who is willing to go through whatever’s waiting out there for us if it means he’ll get something big in return. If you help me, you can have gold. All I want is the four lost treasures, for museums. …And James happened to mention you family was exactly funding you now that school is over so it could be helpful.”

Damn James and his big mouth. He looked at her, she was giving him big puppy dog eyes, she had the brightest blue eyes. She looked like a mix of nerves and hope.

“Please Sirius, its Marc. You know what it took for me to come to you. Besides, it could be a great adventure!” She was hoping to appeal to his mischievous side but she was starting to lose hope but then she saw him smirk…

Sirius couldn’t help it but she just looked so desperate, and he really did need the money.

“Alright McKinnon, let’s say it is real. Where would we start?” He said it in a teasing voice but Marlene was going to take it and run for it.

“We???” She said it with a big smile- one Sirius used to tell he loved and she had once told him it was reserved for only him. “Well we,” She waved a finger between them, “would start by going to Marcs office, he must have left some kind of note about where he was starting.”

Sirius gave her a small headshake, “Okay McKinnon, we’ll go to his office and if we find something that is actual hard proof and not your word. I’ll go.”

“Great! Let’s rock and roll” Marlene gave a bounce and started past him for the door.

Sirius put hand on her waist as she passed by, both of them ignoring the slight heat they felt. “Slow down there blondie, it’s almost 10 at night on a Saturday we can’t go right now.”

Marlene was pointedly trying to ignore that his hand was still on her waist and their faces close together. She would blame that mix of feeling in her stomach on her slightly tipsy state.

“Well duh, but I have a key to the artifacts department. So now.” She hesitated then said, “Unless you do have someone coming over.” There’s that weird dip in her stomach, “God you’re right we can just go in the morning.”

“No, no, I uh just didn’t know you had a key. We can go now.” Sirius didn’t know why he was so quick to correct her. Sure he had gone out with a couple girls since their spilt but he never went past a second date.

“Great.”

They both released some air and just shared a small smile. Marlene was the first to break eye contact. She pushed some hair behind her ear.

“Okay well the rain stopped so we can just walk.” God she was over him, that was the whole point of asking him so she could show everyone that she wasn’t hurt about what happened, they could co-exist. But even if just to herself, she could admit, he would always be that handsome guy she was first taken with in some ruddy pub.

Luckily the campus wasn’t far from Sirius’ place. The building was so old there wasn’t an elevator. The history and artifacts were on the fifth floor. The two we climbing the stairs. There was a loud creak from behind Marlene, she gave a sigh and an eye roll.

“Could you please try to be quiet, I know I have key but its technically Marcs spare so we can’t get caught.” She had turned her head around to glare at the ridiculously handsome in the moonlight boy a few steps behind her.

“Sorry McKinnon, I got distracted by the view” He gave her a wink and a cheeky smile.

Marlene rolled her eyes at him muttering perv under her breath as turned back around. Right as they reached the top of the stairs, there was a loud clang from the end of the dark hallway. Marlene let out a shriek, Sirius’ hands went out to her waist to stop her from falling back down the last stair he was on.

“What happened to being quiet, princess?” Sirius had step up on to the landing so he was whispering right behind her ear.

Marlene stepped away giving him a small glare and smoothed her shirt

“Are you still afraid of the dark?” He was trying hard not to smile

“I’m not afraid of the dark! I’ll have you know I’ve handled myself just fine with Marc gone. Besides, there are just a lot of old cursed things in this building, it can be spooky. And ghosts.”

Marlene turned on her heel and headed down the hall way. Sirius stopped holding back the smile he was trying to hide. He used to jump at the chance to be her hero, as he liked to think it, whenever Marc would go out of town. He always find it cute how jump she was. Those nights she would practically sleep on top of him. He missed it. Wait no. Sure it was nice but that was then, not now, not after he burned her.

He was watching her dig through Marcs desk. He honestly didn’t know why he did it, well he kind of knew the reason. The truth was when he and Marlene first started dating he was looking for a future. It was right after spending the holidays at the Potters and he saw what Mia and Monty had. He realized that marriage wasn’t the hallow imprisonment his parents had made it out to be. He wanted that someone who he knew he could always count on, not someone perfect but something at the end of it all it was worth it because you still had them.

Marlene and Marc had come to the Potters for Christmas dinner, she looked stunning. Well honestly she looked hot. He was surrounded in the best environment he had been in and she was adding to that. Things had changed after that Christmas and he pursued her. He was ready to get serious with her but then James bought a ring. James had bought a ring and Sirius was just ready to be officially exclusive. Seeing James talk about proposing was freaking him out, this was too much. Marlene had never pushed him but he just got freaked and called the whole thing off. Now he just avoided her if he could help it, it felt weird, like there was this underlying tension between them. He supposed there was they had never had a really talk about their breakup, it was just one day were serious and exclusive and then the next they were over and haven’t spoken since. Now he was here watching her dig around some old filing cabinets. Her blonde hair was almost a silver glow in the light coming from the window.

“Ah ha!” Marlene had pulled him from his thoughts, thoughts he shouldn’t be having.

She was scanning over some papers she had found, her tongue sticking out.

“Whatcha got there Sherlock?”

She didn’t even glance up at him, “It’s Marcs initial notes, it’s not much but here he mentions something about a town called Godric’s Hollow.”

“Who’s there?” The old groundskeepers voice rang.

“Shit, we need to move” Sirius pulled her into a closet. A rather small closet. They were standing face to face. Chest practically touching

“What are you-“ Marlene’s voice was cut off by Sirius’ hand clamping down over her mouth.

He tried to give her a stern shut the hell up face but she just licked his hand.

“Did you just lick me?” He said it with an angry whisper

“Oh nothing I haven’t done before” Marlene raised her eyebrows then, “I’ll just go out and show him my ID and it’ll be fine.”

“No. It will not be fine. Me and James have had loads of run-ins with old Filchy and he takes his job way too seriously.” Sirius was still whispering with a tone. Marlene just rolled her eyes, it had only been a few hours but she was going to be doing it a lot during this little adventure of theirs.

Sirius peaked through a small crack in the door, “Alright do you think you have enough? We should probably get out of here.”

Marlene gave him a nod and they emerged quietly from closet. Marlene gave a little shiver in the hallway, she hadn’t realized how warm they had gotten in the small closet. They quickly made their way down the stairs. Emerging from the building letting out puff of air.

They decided on walking back to Marlene’s, all while going over the notes she had found.

“It’s kind of a jumbled mess but he used a code. It was one we made up when I was little. He would make up little treasure hunts for me and James to on around the property. See this line

‘jrgulfv kdoorz’ if you take each letter and go to the letter 3 after it in the alphabet it spells Godric’s Hollow. I looked it up in my phone its some tiny town about 5 hours from here. He’s got some other random stuff that doesn’t quite make sense to me yet but I figure going there would be a good place to start.” The had made it to her door stop, she stepped up on to the first step, “We should get started in the morning, can you pick me up at 8?”

If Marlene was going to make him get up that early, he was going to give her a tease. He had remembered what she said earlier in the night, “You’re sure you don’t want me to stay the night McKinnon? I know how you can get when you’re alone.”

Sirius was giving her that teasing smirk, it used to always get her worked up but two could play at that game, “I’ll have you know I’ve been doing just fine on my own.” She said it in a voice that alluded that they were now talking about something other the being scared.

Sirius quirked an eyebrow, “Oh really?” He said slow, he was always happy to flirt with Marlene, especially about this topic.

Marlene leaned down to whisper in his ear, “Really, you see I’ve had some help.” Sirius face fell flat at that. Marlene smirked and leaned back a little, “It’s about this big,” She held her index fingers about 6 inches apart, “hot pink and battery operated.”

Sirius let mix of a puff of air and an attempt at a small laugh, Marlene just smirked. She knew she was getting him worked up. She leaned in again. She lowered her voice to her best sexy voice.

“I’ll admit, I’ve been lonely lately. It’ll be late at night and my mind will start to wander. And I just can’t help myself, slowly I’ll reach my hand down, God I’m already so wet. I touch myself and I started to get worked up, I’m almost there, I speed up, and then,” Marlene stood up straight and deadpanned her voice, “Sometimes I’ll think of you and it really kills my mood.” She gave him a pat on the shoulder turned around in walked up the steps. She turned over her shoulder and with a wink said “I’ll see you at 8, Sirius.” In the door she went.

Sirius was just standing at the bottom of the stoop, mouth parted. He rubbed his hand against the light stubble on his face, that girl was going to be the death of him.

#blackinnon #sirius x marlene #Treasure Hunt #marlene x sirius #marlius #my writing

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thirstyforred · 4 years ago

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Do you have some top 10 least favorite card arts?

i was this *fingers touching* close to making "I don't like Karol Bem's art and here's 10 reasons why" but that would be rude 🙃

10 Whoreson Junior aka old Blood Money artwork by idk because it's redacted on gwent.one and I don't want to guess lol

ok, I actually Like this artwork, I really enjoy the general Ramsay/Roose Bolton vibe Whoresons have, but, similarly to Parasite I'm not sure this card should be in the game - thankfully no longer is. i guess I'm sounding kinda stupid considering that I'm super excited about upcoming Salamandra grossness, but I honestly think that Failed Experiment or Salamandra Abomination are just on the line of being too much, gross, violent, whatever, while the Blood Money fucking jumps over that like it's Olympics. idk I may be because Salandra is more fantasy and unreal, while this blood bath is somewhere in the realm of realism. if it was a fanart i wouldn't have anything to say, but since it was a part of the game for some time, I'm very glad it no longer is

9 Mage Torturer by Lorenzo Mastroianni

again, not a bad art, BUT... the first time I saw this I literally thought I'm looking at X-Force vol 3 cover art, which technically is a compliment because if i could i would have the whole wall just with the cover arts from this series, but it's in no way Gwent aesthetic. i look at it, i love it, I'm confused, and tho the premium is kinda ugly - not the worst when it comes to "nice artwork, bad premium", but i won't spend my dust on this one

8 Syanna by Bogna Gawrońska

not bad art, but i have so much personal beef if this whole the Black Sun storyline... i often will edit gifs to make premiums look a bit more vibrant than they are in reality, but damn this one is already an eyesore

7 Bruxa by Bogna Gawrońska

not a bad concept but... ugh... titties... sparkly titties... falling on my face

6 Ethereal by Karol Bem

i don't even know where to start with this one 🙃 it’s not even gross or scary, it’s just fucking sad

5 Toad Prince by Marek Madej

the muddy color palette is killing me

4 Arachas Nest by Marta Dettlaff

Arachas Nest wishes to have what Salamandra Abomination has lol

bonus mention: only one, because it's a super personal thing that bugs me and i don't expect that literally anyone other on this earth will get this - Roderick de Wett, he looks so fucking old 😩 he's too old and it's homophobic and an attack on me specifically 😩 i know it's just my hc but i think that all things considered it would be incredibly funny if he was just barely older than Adda or even younger than her (and she's in her early 30s in TW1 just FYI)

3 Kerack City Guard by Bogdan Rezunenko

acab and all that, but it still rubs me the wrong way that the flavor text and premium are both like yeah we have to make sure that everyone finds this woman ugly as hell

2 Sweers by Chris Rallis

this man is going to spit at me any moment now and then call me slurs, and in retaliation, i will bite his ear off

1 Ele'yas by Diego de Almeida Peres

she has a weird face. i literally have nothing else to say here. she has a weird face, it bugs me, and not only me because i think it's like a second version of this art and she looked differently before, but she has such a weird face

#gwent #the witcher #thirsty vs dziki zgon #tho blood money censored premium is the funniest shit #they removed all body parts except one leg #and then were like yeah we also need to get rid off this cup on the floor #but left the shadow behind adkjshdakjsdhak #Anonymous

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deepspaceballet · 4 years ago

Text

tagged by @sporkandpringles!

i’m tagging @captain-jimmeh @poe-damnnn-eron @atoxiccupofjoey @thesadchicken & anyone else who wants to do this!

1. what color is your hair brush?

hot pink.

2. a food you never eat?

meat.

3. are you typically too warm or too cold?

i’m usually sweating.

4. what were you doing 45 minutes ago?

talking to my psychologist lmao.

5. what is your favorite candy bar?

mars or twix i guess (not a huge candy person tbh).

6. have you ever been to a professional sporting event?

yes sir.

7. what was the last thing you said out loud?

goodbye.

8. what is your favorite ice cream?

mint chocolate.

9. what was the last thing you had to drink?

pepsi max.

10. do you like your wallet?

yes i do actually.

11. what was the last thing you ate?

spaghetti.

12. did you buy any new clothes last weekend?

no i did not.

13. the last sporting event you watched?

the hockey world championships? (we won.)

14. what is your favorite flavor of popcorn?

the movie theater kind but i actually really vibe with unflavored ones too.

15. who was the last person you sent a text message to?

my little sister.

16. ever go camping?

as a kid, yeah, a couple of times.

17. do you take vitamins?

i take vitamin d every day, should probably take the others too lmao.

18. do you go to church every sunday?

no i do not, i go to church when i’m quote unquote forced to go, which usually means the christmas mass if i can’t talk my way out of it.

19. do you have a tan?

not at the moment.

20. do you prefer chinese food or pizza?

pizza but to be fair i’ve eaten a ridiculously small amount of chinese in my life time so i don’t know how i’d feel if i had more to base that decision on.

21. do you drink your soda with a straw?

sometimes.

22. what color socks do you usually wear?

pretty much any color and mismatched too. i own more white and black ones than others tho.

23. ever drive above the speed limit?

i never drive at any speed as i don’t have a license.

24. what terrifies you?

oh boy, oh geez. well let me start off with the caveat that i have an anxiety disorder, so ya girl is terrified of more things than not. but ok, a few of the things that terrify me: the ignorance, unwillingness to learn and self-indulgent violence in our culture, the inevitability of global warming, the united states, my future, failure, not being capable of being happy, being misunderstood, being sick, fish and all insects, particularly bees and ticks.

25. look to your left, what do you see?

my dvd collection.

26. what chore do you hate?

doing dishes. man do i wish i owned a dishwasher.

27. what do you think of when you hear an australian accent?

“ugh so cute.”

28. what is your favorite soda?

pepsi max. my elixir of life.

29. do you go to a fast food place or just hit the drive through?

again, i don’t have a license so i definitely don’t hit the drive through. so i guess i’d go to the fast food place but only if i’m out for the night, i usually order in more tho.

30. who was the last person you talked to?

my psychologist.

31. favorite cut of beef?

none thanks.

32. last song you listened to?

royals by lorde.

33. last book you read?

dirk gently’s holistic detective agency by douglas adams.

34. favorite day of the week?

it depends on the week tbh. but definitely not sunday. ever.

35. can you say the alphabet backwards?

yes but slowly.

36. how do you like your coffee?

i don’t drink coffee anymore, which breaks my heart, i miss it. i used to drink it with a dash of milk tho.

37. favorite pair of shoes?

my doc martens.

38. at what time do you usually go to bed?

around 11, though i won’t sleep until closer to midnight.

39. at what time do you usually get up?

8-9am in quarantine. back when i had morning classes it could be much earlier.

40. what do you prefer: sunrises or sunsets?

sunsets. one of my favorite things in the world.

41. how many blankets are on your bed?

technically two, but one of them is just at the foot of my bed for the once in a blue moon occasion that i actually make my bed.

42. describe your kitchen plates?

always dirty.

43. do you have a favorite alcoholic beverage?

dry white wine or grapefruit long drink (finns get it).

44. do you play cards?

sometimes, usually a drinking game or a random group activity.

45. what color is your car?

still don’t have a license ergo don’t have a car.

46. can you change a tire?

not that either.

47. what is your favorite province?

wait do we technically even have provinces here? either way it wouldn’t mean much for y’all if i mentioned finnish place names so.

48. favorite job you ever had?

i haven’t had many tbh. i suppose working on the website and being an office assistant at this little company for a few summers.

49. how did you get your biggest scar?

by being a dumbass.

50. what did you do today that made someone happy?

i don’t know if i have? i praised a mutual’s fanart in the tags for miles (on my other account), i hope that might’ve at least made them crack a smile?

#tag #tag game #feel free to ignore if you don’t feel like doing this!!#long post

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ngame989 · 5 years ago

Text

“Change” - TGG SVTFOE Fanfic Collection Ch. 3

Writing: @ngame989

Art: @toxicpsychox (make sure to follow him for bonus pics from the story!)

Editing: @bmc-nightfury, @seddm

Alternate fic links - FFnet, AO3

Summary: Star, Marco, Tom, and Janna celebrate Earthni's first Halloween and get a taste of what life's like for the rest of its inhabitants.

Comic Page

Masterpost

See below for the text, hope you enjoy! Sorry for the delay, we’ll be back in a few days with the comic page!

Flying was one of the most exhilarating feelings for Marco Diaz. He flung his arms out to the side, letting the wind ripple around and through his hair, his face, and the open front of his hoodie. With a world this beautiful and vast, who even needs the hoodie, anyway? It’s just weighing him down, preventing him from truly feeling as free as he knows he can be. He shifted positions, dramatically discarding the hoodie and feeling the crisp autumn air on his upper body through only the thin grey t-shirt. Suddenly it struck him: how exactly was he flying without Nach-

“Pfffthbtbt, Marco, what the heck?!? You got hoodie stuck in my teeth!”

Marco tried to glance at the familiar voice that interrupted his thoughts, but he was blinded by the sun gleaming in the purple sky. His arms instinctively were brought up to shield his vision. Wait, Marco realized, hadn’t he been holding on to something? Panic set in, both at the feeling of losing something important and at not even being able to recall what it was. It was uncanny, the moments he’d just experienced felt as vague and distant as anything he’d experienced in the Neverzone...

The view of the stunning Earthni landscape beneath him was obscured by a massive dangling ribbon in front of him, disrupting his contemplation. It was utterly tantalizing, almost demanding his attention. He shifted positions, reaching forward as far as he could to catch it, tugging the ribbon to his body and wrapping himself up in it, nestling deeper into his fabric cocoon and feeling briefly at ease. Wait, where exactly was he again? Something felt off, but the unnerving thought dissipated entirely once more at the soft touch on his head. Two large fingers tousled his hair to and fro, giving him a sense of contentment he didn’t know was possible. A glance skyward revealed the face of a giant Star Butterfly towering over him with a soft smile as she pet his head in the safety of a pocket sewn into her narwhal dress. Did that dress even have a pocket? And how was he here? Why was Star so big? As his mind sluggishly tried to work out what wasn’t gelling about the whole situation, his gaze followed their ribbon higher and higher until it finally reached the red balloon guiding them through the sky.

“OK, Marco, payback time!” she shouted with glee, flicking her head and whipping a tuft of flowing golden hair directly into his face.

“Bleh, Star, your hair… ptooey, Star, your hair is in my mouth… Get it out… Star? Star! Star!”

…

His eyes snapped open, senses on high alert, rapidly regaining his full cognitive faculties. He felt a light sheet draped on top of him; he was in bed, in his pajamas, with no hoodie or jeans in sight. Something large was still wrapped in his arms, but this time there was a warmth and softness that invited him to snuggle in deeper. The last thing he noticed is that his face was still completely buried in blonde tresses, and it all clicked.

“Thanks Roy, these goblin dogs zzz are absolutely zzz deliiiiiicioooouuus zzzzzzzzz”

“Star...”

“Why yes, I would like to try strawberry-flavored zzzzzzz”

“Staaaaaaar… wake up. It’s almost...” He tried and failed to peek around the veritable curtain in his face. “I don’t actually know what time it is, but we should still get up, today’s the day!”

“Totally, totally, totally, just 5 more minutes, Marco… 5 more hours…”

Marco sighed and lifted his head, freeing his face from the hairific onslaught and sighing into the crook of her neck. The leftover hint of strawberry shampoo danced through his nose, infatuating him as he pulled Star closer and felt the silky fabric of her gown softly graze his hands. She laughed and cast aside her favorite teal pillow with a heart she had been holding, gripping his arms instead, both enjoying each other’s company and affection - a fairly common occurrence these days.

Three months of this kind of paradise. Well, close to it, anyway; that first night on Earthni had been a one-off incident at the time, but it still hadn’t been long until unintentional movie marathon naps became slightly less unintentional and eventually moved to the comfort of one of their beds altogether, allowing them to spend nights in each other’s arms and sleep in at their leisure. And why not? They had all the time in the world. Marco was technically done with high school, and Star certainly wasn’t that upset that there wasn’t a fully integrated school system for Earthni quite yet. Besides, formalized education wasn’t much of a thing on Mewni anyway, and she wasn’t a “foreign exchange student” bound by Echo Creek’s norms anymore in this new world of theirs. They’d answered a few questions to the public about the Cleaving and spent a bit of time in the limelight, of course, but otherwise they were finally free of the burdens that had been on their shoulders for most of the time they’d known each other. It was the summer vacation they’d longed for, even though the season had passed them by long ago.

Suddenly, a knock at his door interrupted their bliss. “Star, Marco! Lunch is almost ready!” Angie sing-songed through his door. That woke both of them up - not because his mother had caught them innocently canoodling the night away, as that boat had sailed a while ago with a fairly predictable acceptance (though not without some teasing), but because lunch? How long had they slept in? Star bumped into Marco’s forehead when she bolted upright, startling him so much that he backed up off the bed into a heap on the floor.

“Marco! Gosh, Marco, I’m sorry-”

“M’okay,” he groaned, letting her help him uncrumple his body and stand up straight. They scrambled around the room to gather the discarded boxes of Sugar Seeds from the night before and shared their usual quick good morning kiss before splitting off to get ready for the big day ahead of them. Ten minutes later, Star emerged from her room with one of her older dresses, sky blue with two belts minus the fuzzy leg warmers, and skipped over to the stairs to slide down the railing into the dining room where Marco was already seated. Angie brought turkey sandwiches on the table.

“Good morning, you two. Sleep well?”

“We were up waaaay too late marathoning the new season of Fiesta de la Noche. I think it was the Sugar Seeds, please never buy the ‘Oops! All Corn Syrup!’ flavor again.” Marco winced at the lingering stomach pain.

“It’s sugar made from corn, why would you ever think I wouldn’t buy it?” Star scolded, adding some table sugar from the shaker the Diazes had repurposed for Star (leading to a few accidentally ruined dinners in the first week) to the fruit salad on the plate.

He playfully rolled his eyes and dug into his meal. “So, mom, where’s dad?” he mumbled out between bites.

“BOO!” No one even flinched at Rafael’s entrance from the back door.

Marco groaned. “Dad, are you trying to scare everyone again this year?”

“Haha, no, Marco. Last year I thought, ‘Why go for scary when nothing could ever top a hungering spirit almost devouring your loved ones, sending you into a manic frenzy?’ But then a lightbulb struck me on the head: I can simply bring joy and happiness instead of reopening the wounds of the most traumatic night of my life, haha!” Marco vacantly boggled at his father for a few silent moments, trying and failing to find any possible words in response, but there was no need as Rafael spoke up again. “Oh, and River is helping too!”

As if on cue, Star’s dad barreled through the back door dripping sweat. “I’m a riot with the youngsters, this will be a blast! Rafael, my good man, thank you so much for inviting me to participate in your culture’s festivities. Now how far would you like the catapult to fire the children?”

Rafael nervously chuckled as he lead River out the back door; the families got along swimmingly, but it was clear that neither had fully adjusted to every idiosyncrasy of the other. Marco and Star, having just finished the last of their lunches, followed out the back door and gaped at the spectacle. A giant corn maze occupied at least half of the massive property the Diazes now occupied, catapults of varying sizes had been built with landing pads, a few carnival-looking booths stocked with buckets of candy were set up with games Marco didn’t even recognize, and it was all topped off with decorative ghouls and skeletons scattered all around. The teens’ eyes bugged out of their heads as they processed the scene. How the heck did they sleep through the assembly of all of this? An instantly recognizable revving sound approached from the side; Marco’s eyes lit up as he ran over and gave his favorite dragon-cycle a big hug.

“Oh, Boo-Boo, good to see you!” he cooed, affectionately stroking her scaly head while she purred. A few weeks ago, she spotted him by chance in Monstertown while they were helping Eclipsa finish up some new housing, and after a tearful reunion the Diazes (who were a bit apprehensive upon finally learning what a dragon-cycle actually was) had built a stable in their backyard for her. She came and went as she pleased, but was more than happy to ride with Marco like they always had, occasionally with Star in tow.

Rafael approached and tentatively patted her on the head once, which caused her to defensively nuzzle into Marco. “By the way, Nachos asked if she could help us tonight with the Halloween chicanery and maybe give the kids some little joyrides… if that is OK with you.”

“Aww, that’s so sweet of you, girl!” Marco cooed. River hollered excitedly at Star and Rafael to show them his latest contraption, leaving Marco alone with his companion. His warm gaze turned steely in an instant as he knelt to the ground, looking directly into pink reptilian pupils of his dearest dragon-cycle.

“Thanks for doing this for me, Nachos, I owe you one. Remember the plan, OK? Keep an eye on them and keep everyone in one piece. You have my number if anything goes wrong, right?” She matched his serious demeanor and nodded sternly, at which he softened and kissed her on the forehead before scratching that spot on her neck that she always enjoyed. “I can always count on you, girl.” He stood up quickly to prevent any suspicion when he heard Star chatting to their dads as they approached the house once more.

“OK, dad, try not to have too much fun tonight. Last Halloween I was here, everyone almost got eaten.”

“No promises, sweetie!”

Star waved goodbye with a cheery grin before turning to Marco, eyes widening while maintaining the grin for an exaggeratedly concerned effect. Marco snickered and took her hand, heading back inside the house for their next mission. With all the shenanigans going on tonight, everyone decided it was best for Mariposa to not be in the house, so Star had volunteered to take her with them tonight, which meant she’d need a costume. The pair split apart to gather their supplies for the task. Star took a quick peek into the nursery and found Marco’s angel of a baby sister fast asleep in her crib, fortunately not disturbed by all the happenings around the house. Star went into Marco’s room and cleared off the floor for them to work, mere seconds before a big ball of purple fluff barged through the door.

“Can you believe that girl at the fabric store?” the bundle scoffed, revealing itself to be Marco after unceremoniously dumping piles of fabric and sewing supplies on the ground. “How can you not tell the difference between lavender and heliotrope? It’s so obvious! Even with the swatches from Turdina I’m still not sure if these are the right colors, and I will not settle for anything less than perfection for my little Turdinita-”

“OK, Marco,” Star huffed out. Like everything he did, it was still cute when he entered diva mode, but it was still near the top of the annoyance list. She rolled her eyes and grabbed him by the shirt, pulling him downwards and pecking him on the lips - mostly to shut him up - before putting a finger on his chest and pushing him onto his bottom in front of her. “Let’s get this done, OK? I know that you and Tom are gonna take, like, an hour on the makeup for your costumes.”

“Our trial run clocked in at 44 minutes sharp,” he retorted with a smirk, laying the sewing pattern out to start arranging the fabric. Minutes turned to hours as they toiled away, carefully picking out the colors and textures from the vast selection of cloth Marco had procured. Star was no slouch at the craft - she had decorated Marco’s cape by hand, after all - but every time she glanced over at Marco pouring his entire self into every thread and sequin, she couldn’t help but smile.

Marco carefully balanced a pin between his teeth, holding it up to make sure the design was coming together, then put it down to see Star dreamily staring at him. “Uh, Star? Is something up?”

“N-nothing,” she stammered in response, preparing the accessories for the finishing touches.

“Hey, I just realized… you still haven’t even told me what your costume is yet!” He handed the fabric over to her to begin cleaning up the massive mess of scrap around his person.

“I did tell you it’s a surprise, and I’m sticking to that! You and Tom went all gung-ho on the whole ‘bullfighting’ thing from the beginning. A girl’s gotta have her secrets, Diaz!”

“OK, OK,” he held up his hands in surrender, “I’m sure it will be amazing. Anyway, how does the dress look?”

Star scooted over beside him and held up the frilly purple outfit in front of them, flipping it over and around to get the full view. “Looks like a job well done to me!”

Marco’s eyes glistened at the sight. This whole thing had been his idea, wanting to make his baby sister’s first Halloween something special even if she wouldn’t remember it (there would be ample photographic evidence, his parents would make sure of that). But in some way it was also his way of commemorating his old life and what they’d left behind. Although Star had perhaps been the most dramatically affected by the Cleaving, losing the magic she’d known all her life, he had his own friends and adventures across the multiverse too. Earthni was special in its own unique way, and he certainly wouldn’t trade it for anything, but he didn’t want to forget the parts of his life he’d left behind. Shutting his eyelids and taking a deep breath and feeling a bit of moisture squeeze out, he wrapped an arm around Star, pulling her into his side. “Thanks for helping me with this, you didn’t have to-”

“Marco, you know I’d do anything for Mariposa. And it’s fun just spending time making stuff together!”

“We are pretty good at this, aren’t we?”

“Eh, I’d give it a passing grade.” Marco and Star jumped to their feet striking a tag team battle pose in the direction of the unforeseen intruder... and found Janna sitting on Marco’s bed, surfing something on her phone which was rested on Star’s pillow without so much as looking at them in acknowledgment.

“Janna!?” Marco asked incredulously. “Wait, shouldn’t you be in school?”

“I told them I was half-demon after the whole Severing Stone thing and they ate that riiiight up, so I’m exempt from human school now.” He could do nothing but blink in disbelief. “Anyway, on my way over I saw your dads with both their shirts off for some reason and I really didn’t feel like dealing with that so I just snuck in through the window. Oh, and I brought Meteora, too.”

“Wait, what? Where is she then?”

“On your head.”

Marco looked up and saw Meteora clinging to the ceiling before staring directly down at him and dive bombing, taking them both to the floor and giggling at his expense. Star helped him up and took the baby from him, calming her relatively easily by virtue of not being Marco Diaz.

“OK, but Eclipsa didn’t tell us about this! Why do you even have her?”

“Look, guys, it’s not a huge deal. She needed some help this morning and your parents told her you two were ‘busy’,” she said, holding up the pillow in one hand with the air quotes, “so she called me instead. Some monsters were, I dunno, worried about Halloween a bit or something and Eclipsa was dealing with that but still wanted Meteora to go trick or treating.”

“So you’re saying that Eclipsa wants Mariposa to bring her back a lot of chocolate.”

“Bingo.”

Star pinched the bridge of her nose in frustration. “OK, fine, whatever. What’s this about being worried about Halloween?”

Janna shrugged her shoulders impassionately. “The whole schtick of Halloween is using the idea of monsters to try and scare people, and they’re a bunch of monsters who don’t want to be seen as scary.” She stood up and tossed her phone up and down a few times before slotting it into her pocket and finally addressing Star and Marco directly. “Whole thing’s a load of crud if you ask me, I’m totally down with monstery quirks. Plus you wouldn’t have to worry about costumes! Like, look at the munchkin there, she’s got pointed ears and a tail. It’s already better than anything I ever went trick-or-treating in.”

Meteora briefly stirred, as if picking up on the talk about her, and Star motioned everyone to the door with her head. The trio moved into the nursery quietly to put Meteora in the guest crib they kept around for her frequent visits, then went downstairs to continue their conversation.

“I mean… it can’t be that big of a deal, right? Costume parties were a thing on Mewni, too, and not everyone who showed up was a Mewman. I doubt it will be perfect, but everyone’s been getting along pretty well so far!” Star said with some emphatic hand-waving.

“Yeah, you’re probably right,” Marco responded. Admittedly, Marco wasn’t entirely sure. The residents of Echo Creek were generally pretty accepting, in his own experience, but it was never a certainty. Tensions could linger for a while unseen, and one could never know exactly when they’d boil over. But being with Star had taught him a lot about trying to see the best in the world, and he found himself able to share the overall feeling of optimism.

“Plus, I don’t think any kids are gonna climb all the stairs to the Temple,” Janna chimed in from the couch.

“That too,” Marco replied without looking away from Star. “It’s our first big holiday together, and- and I just want this night to be about us having a blast with all our friends and getting a whole truckload of candy!” he yelled triumphantly, taking Star’s hand. Her shining ocean pools focused entirely on him and blazed with the same determination he had.

“I’d tell you two to get a room, but...”

Marco’s eyes went wide as he blushed, causing Star to finally end their moment of emotional vulnerability with a contagious laugh (and light blush of her own) that Marco quickly joined. Once it subsided, Star took Marco’s other hand in hers. “Yeah, you’re right. Hopefully nothing too unexpected hap-”

The front door violent opened with a burst of flame and smoke entering through. Marco shrieked and leapt in fright, being caught and cradled by Star. What could possibly have done such a thing?

“Hey guys, how’s it hanging?”

Oh. That’s what. “Hey Tom,” Marco sighed out, hopping down from Star’s arms as the smoke cleared from his dramatic entrance and Tom closed the door behind him.

“Am I, uh, interrupting something?”

“Marco got freaked out when you burst open the door,” Janna ever-so-helpfully provided.

Tom raised an eyebrow at Marco judgmentally. “You’ve lived with Star for years, come on, dude.”

“I’m not on guard for it when she’s directly next to me!” he cried defensively with his voice cracking, extending his arms in her direction to punctuate his statement. “Anyway, Tom, you ready for the big night?”

“You know I am,” the half-demon responded, meeting Marco in the center of the room for a high-five. “Alright, we should get costumes ready. We’ll be in Marco’s room if you need us.” As they ascended the stairs, Marco caught Janna making some sort of comment about to Star about “stealing your man” - he shouldn’t have expected much different. As soon as they got into his room, he went into his closet to gather all their costume pieces as Tom shut the door. “I can’t believe you humans basically have a giant costume party once a year where everyone gets candy. I could probably, like, just walk around like normal and it would still count. That’s too cool.”

Marco sat them both down on his bed and began to wipe his face off. “Eh, it’s pretty tame usually. Two years ago, Star and Janna summoned a ghost that ate everyone and my dad had to wrestle it to get everyone back. The inside of his belly smelled like licorice, it was awful. But it was an interesting Halloween.”

“Hungry Larry?” Marco assented while beginning the first layer of foundation. Tom laughed and held Marco’s arms at bay while he regained his composure. “Not a demon curse, but I’m familiar. Of course it was those two. OK, man, you can’t tell me funny stories like that, we’ve gotta get this done and we don’t need any distractions.” Marco nodded, always happy to see someone share his dedication to the craft. Foundation, then outlines, then filling in with white… the process stretched on for minutes as the basic design became evident. He sat back to observe it from multiple angles. While Marco switched brushes to begin the detailing, Tom spoke up once more. “I’ll be honest, man, I was kinda surprised about this. Figured you and Star would do a couple costume or something.”

“This idea was too good to pass up, though. Plus, I thought it’d be cool to do something like this with you! I mean, you are one of my best friends,” Marco rubbed the back of his neck, realizing too late that he had had a bit of white face paint on his hand.

“Well, it’s super cool, so thanks.”

Once Marco put the finishing touches on, he held up a mirror for Tom. The reflection showed his face transformed into a skull with ornate patterns everywhere. When Marco had come up with the idea for bullfighting costumes, Tom had been pretty disturbed by the fact that the bulls were killed. Marco had to admit it was pretty cruel, but after learning about Día de los Muertos, Tom suggested an Underworld-themed bullfight (where the bulls were already dead). Tom offered a fist-bump which Marco proudly accepted, and then the two switched places to begin the process all over again.

As Tom reached over to grab the makeup, his eyes lingered on the pillow with a heart at the head of Marco’s bed. His eyes darted back and forth between the pillow, all three eyes widening. Marco followed his train of thought and- oh no. “Tom, it’s not what you think-”

Tom raised his hands defensively. “Dude, I won’t judge.”

Marco sighed. What did he do to deserve this all in one day? “It’s not like that- OK, it’s not like that that, just… yeah.”

Minutes ticked on in silence while the steps were redone on Marco’s own face. Foundation, white paint, highlights… It was only when Tom got to the final ornate decals that Tom spoke back up again after sketching the outline on Marco’s face. “For the record, I know we haven’t really talked about it much but when I told you I was cool with you two getting together, I wasn’t just bottling stuff up or anything, OK? Yeah, breakups suck, but I’m pretty sure after a day or so my mom was taking it harder than me,” he chuckled with a toothy grin. “I know we haven’t, like, talked about it much since then, but you two are perfect for each other. I’m happy that you’re happy, dude, and more importantly I’m happy with myself too.” Words stopped once more as Tom focused to finish the pattern, showing Marco his own face in the mirror much to his delight. Everything came together flawlessly, and even faster than they’d anticipated. Marco breathed a sigh of relief at still managing to accomplish everything they needed to before trick-or-treating officially began. Part of that relief, he had to admit, was due to Tom’s words as well. Of course he didn’t think Tom resented him or anything, but knowing that they weren’t just “cool” but completely free of any potential past baggage felt like a weight off his shoulders. Marco leaned in and gave Tom a one-armed hug, clapping him on the back. “I take it you’re happy with the makeup job?” Tom joked.

“Well, your contouring is flawless. But it was mostly for the other stuff.”

“Anytime, man,” Tom responded, punching his shoulder lightly with a smile.

“Alright, costume time.”

***

“Star, seriously, do I have to do this?”

“Trick-or-treating starts in a few minutes, so too late nooo-oow!” Star sing-songed, bouncing over to the top of the stairs. “Are you boys down there?”

“Yeah,” she heard both Tom and Marco reply from the living room downstairs.

“Alright, Janna, it’s showtime!” Star grabbed her hesitant friend by the wrist and practically dragged her down the stairs. “Introduciiiiiiiing… Starberry!” She twirled in place once for effect, showing off her full body strawberry suit complete with themed headband and boots, then pulled Janna out from behind her, who had her hand on her forehead. “And Janna Banana!” She’d begrudgingly put on the main banana costume but had vehemently declined to wear the rest of the ensemble Star had picked out for her, sticking with her normal outfit instead, which Star was willing to accept.

Marco and Tom stared wide-eyed for a moment, turning to each other, then the girls, then to each other again, then back to the girls, mouths agape.

“How… what… wuh…” they both stammered incoherently, before bursting into raucous laughter, holding onto each other just to stay standing.

“God this is stupid,” Janna grumbled under her breath.

Star waited until they were done before explaining herself. “OK, so remember that night at D&D where Janna bet me I couldn’t beat the cyclops horde and I did?”

“You were only able to do that because you, and I quote, ‘rolled for cuteness check’ so they’d adopt you instead and Ferguson allowed it for some reason.”

“Well, maybe it’s because my character is incredibly cute!”

“Your character is just an elvish Marco.”

“Exactly. Anyway, since you guys were already doing your own thing for Halloween, I thought Janna and I would, too! Fruit Friends!” Star shrilled, hugging Janna and wiggling her back and forth.

“Let’s just get this over with.”

“Well, you both look great,” Marco giggled, walking over and flicking the strawberries on Star’s headband. “Where did you get this?”

“Dad helped me make it. He’s surprisingly good at arts and crafts. You two look pretty nice yourself.”

“Thanks. Tom wouldn’t wear the rest of the costume, though, but it’s still OK.”

“I’m not wearing a full body fursuit, Marco. But I can definitely do that thing bulls do in cartoons,” he coolly smirked, before blowing a puff of smoke with a bit of flame from his nostrils. Tom had a large nose ring and a bushy tip on top of his tail, but otherwise was wearing a pretty standard dark jacket on top of a maroon button-up shirt with dark slacks.

Star turned back to her boyfriend, looking his flashy getup up and down. “You look pretty nice yourself, Diaz,” she crooned playfully. “Although you missed out on the opportunity to be Mango Diaz for the night, bub.” The skull-themed makeup was absolutely divine, as she expected from the boys - they were frankly better at it than her. The ornate gold decorations all over the jacket and high-waisted pants looked sharp on top of the red base, and she was never one to complain about a nice white dress shirt and black tie, either. “Heh, I don’t want to mess up the makeup but-”

Marco cut her off with a brief kiss, taking her by pleasant surprise, and when her eyes fluttered back open he gave her a half-lidded stare and a smug grin. “Don’t worry, we used sealer.”

Janna moaned at the couple and slumped onto the couch. “Let’s just go get candy already.”

“Are you kids leaving soon?” Rafael poked him head out from the kitchen, making a comical “oh” face upon seeing all the costumes. “Darling, come look at how wonderful these costumes are!”

Angie quickly joined with the babies in tow, oohing and aahing over all the outfits. “Let’s get a quick picture before you leave, shall we?” The babies crawled over to the teens as they struck a pose for the camera. Her best friends - well, besides Ponyhead, who had blown them off for a special edition of her show tonight - all together having fun on holidays? It was exactly the life she’d been wanting for herself for a while. Stump Day was the last time they’d done anything like that, and even then it was riddled with strife and tension, but it filled her with a genuine warmth to know this would be the norm now. Or maybe that was just the not-that-breathable costume. Tom let out a yelp when Mariposa tugged on his tail, clapping in glee at the response.

“Guess that’s our signal to go,” he said in a strained voice, scooping up Mariposa and handing her to Marco who had just put on his baby carrier before she could pull at the nose ring. Meteora, meanwhile, seemed content to nest in the leaves of her strawberry outfit. They all grabbed their bags and headed out the door.

The night started off fairly uneventful; they collected candy going door to door, and most of the Echo Creek residents were quite impressed by the costumes and especially by Tom’s pyrotechnics. They passed a few monster families wandering around - her favorite was a centipede-looking monster that had an elaborate assembly of dolls mounted onto her body to make it look like a bunch of humans in a conga line. Once they had stopped at every house in the immediate neighborhood, their bags were fairly full already, so they decided to take some time and go explore looking for decorations for a while before stuffing their bags to capacity too early. The group headed towards some of the more blended areas of the merged town (still colloquially referred to as Echo Creek by most of the population) to see how all the different groups were celebrating the spooky festivities. Star and Marco were walking hand-in-hand with the babies in their care, just taking in the sights and enjoying the company, while Tom and Janna were chatting beside Marco.

“Janna, I’m telling you, that isn’t a real thing!”

“C’mon now Tom, I have three different necronomicons that reference it.”

“Grandpa Relicor goes on for hours about curses at every single family dinner and he’s never mentioned anything that could turn a human inside out.”

“Maybe he’s keeping it for himself. Did you ever think of that?”

“I’m sorry that I don’t think about turning humans inside out all that often! Look, we can just head to his library sometime and- wait, hold on. Star, isn’t this where we got kidnapped that one time?”

Star snapped out of her daze and looked around; they were in the old monster village! Star had been so busy during the last stretch of her time on Mewni that she hadn’t even gotten to visit it once some of the monster families came back, and Buff Frog had come over to visit them a few times on Earthni but she hadn’t been sure exactly where his home was. She motioned for the group to follow her while she looked for the right hut… There! They walked up to the door and knocked.

“Go away! We do not want any!”

“Buff Frog, it’s me!”

The door flung open and Star was immediately swept up into a giant bear hug. “Star Butterfly, my little sweet potato! It has been so long! Come in, all of you. What brings you to my home, and why are dressed like weird red plant with many eyes?”

“It’s Halloween, we’re trick-or-treating!”

“What is this ‘Halloween’ of which you speak?”

This caught Star off-guard. It had been posted all over town and in the newspapers, hadn’t it? After all, there were plenty of monsters she’d seen celebrating tonight already.

“Um, well, it’s an Earth holiday where people put on costumes and walk around to other people’s houses, and those other people give them candy!”

“Ah, so that explains mysterious children at door all night. I hide in home. Many not seem happy when I am not giving them things. This also why tadpoles go with friends wearing peculiar clothing. I understand all now.”

“Out of curiosity, Buff Frog, why didn’t you know?”

“I am needing help to read fancy Earth papers, text too small for eyes. Children try to show me this ‘internal net’ of yours for video, but I do not like. They teenagers now, do not talk to old man about life,” he sighed mournfully. “Is OK. We begin Halloween now. Who want swamp grass? Is favorite treat, but I happily give to my good friends.”

“Thanks Buff Frog, but uh, I think we’re good,” Marco said, making a quick face of disgust.

“Whatwuzzat?” Tom mumbled through a mouthful of swamp grass while eagerly taking more from Buff Frog into his bag.

Another knock came to Buff Frog’s door. His face lit up in joy. “This must be trick-or-treat! I try your custom now.” He went over to the door and opened it, arms spread wide with a gigantic smile on his face. “Happy Halloween! I am so glad to have fresh-faced child at door and be part of holiday cheer. What your costume supposed to-”

“Ugh, whatever. You have any candy or what?” Star sharply turned her attention in that direction at the familiar voice.

“Jeremy?” Marco cried out, his voice cracking.

Star and Marco poked their heads around the side of Buff Frog at the familiar voice. Jeremy Birnbaum, in the shrill, diminutive flesh. Of the many people Star had met during her time on Earth, he was one of the few that she would’ve been perfectly fine with never seeing again, and she knew Marco hated him far more than she did. He was wearing a karate outfit with his name embroidered in multiple places on the fabric.

“Well, well, well, if it isn’t Marco Diaz. What are you doing out in a dump like this? Oh, wait, that makes perfect sense!” he cackled.

“Don’t listen to him, Buff Frog,” Marco shouted, still fixing his angry gaze on the child. “He’s just a sad, mean little turd.”

“Look, Marco, I get it. You did one big thing and had your 15 minutes of fame and you think you’re hot stuff. But all you really did was make this town even lamer and bring a bunch of weirdo losers here. Whatever, I’m out of here. By the way, those wing things on your head are wimpy, old man. Anyway, later, nerds.”

As he was walking away, he antagonized a few groups of monster teenagers that were wandering around. Star’s face felt like it was on fire. She started charging out the door to give the twerp a piece of her mind, but a large hand gripped her shoulders and held her back.

“Star… is not worth it.”

“Yeah,” Tom added, hands in his pockets. “For the record, I’ve seen a lot of demons with wings way wimpier than yours.” Buff Frog laughed sadly.

Star clenched her fists in and out, knowing they were right. After taking a deep breath, she plopped down onto the floor, resting her cheeks on her hands and sighing. Since the Cleaving, it seemed like everyone had been getting along so well, and problems had been out of sight for so long that she’d gotten complacent. Even after the subject came up earlier today, she really hadn’t believed that anything bad would happen. Had she just been delusional for assuming that things were really better? Could more of this happen? Would more of this happen? She’d done everything in her power, including giving up that very power, to fix the problems and prejudices she saw in society. On some level, she knew she shouldn’t be too bothered by this - it was just Jeremy, after all - but it was just sinking in how far away they still were from the world she wanted to see.

After another minute stewing in her negative emotions, two large hands hefted her back to her feet, and she found herself staring directly into big yellow eyes at a distance where she could see every individual wrinkle under them. “Star, is OK. Those like mean boy exist, but it not so bad. I am used to it. Is better than Mewni. No one try to shove us off cliff yet,” he laughed. “Besides, mean boy not wrong. This place is dump. Children not do chores. Teenagers. Now go, I am not needing you being sad. Get candy with friends and adorable babies,” he said sternly.

“OK. Well, tell Katrina and all the others that we said hi,” Star hesitantly spoke. He was right, she supposed, but something about it still wasn’t sitting right with her. Marco took her hand with the smile he always gave her when trying to ease her worries and the group headed for the door.

“Star, karate boy, take good care of each other. Friends and babies too. You are both like tadpole to me. All will work out, da.”

The group said their goodbyes and headed out. “You feeling alright?” Marco inquired after they’d made their way out of the monster village, .

“I- yeah, I’m fine. Just stinks to see something like that after a while of things being really good.”

He squeezed her hand reassuringly. “I know a house that gives out homemade candy bars made from Sugar Seeds. Ferguson ate four of them one year and was sick for two weeks. Wanna go?”

Star was grateful for the change in subject, and turned to see his soothing chocolate gaze roving her face. He was always right at her side knowing how to lift her spirits, whether it be out of the deepest depths or from the mountaintops into the clouds. Maybe it was just best to push the issue out of her mind for n-

“I hate to interrupt the moment,” Tom stuck his head between them, forcing them to split apart to not get smacked by his horns, “but you might want to check this out.” He pointed a block in front of them to a group of kids frantically scrambling away from something with purpose, looking back over their shoulders every few seconds. Star and Marco locked eyes briefly once more and ran over towards them with the others just behind. Interestingly, Star noted, there were humans, Mewmans, and monsters alike in the group. The moment they drew near, one of the kids just pointed around a large building nearby without a word before continuing their mad dash.

Even Janna seemed interested now, raising an eyebrow along with the others before jogging towards the source of the commotion. They rounded the corner and were greeted with…

“Ludo’s castle?” Star and Marco said simultaneously. “Ludo’s here?”

“They’re still doing that thing?” Tom mouthed to Janna in the periphery of Star’s vision.

Now that she thought about it, there was a dim recollection of Ludo’s voice in her mind from the fateful day of the Cleaving, but her entire being had been so focused on the portal that it had barely registered at the time. How they hadn’t stumbled upon it in the past few months, though, was beyond her. OK, maybe it had something to do with them spending their first few dragon-cycle joyrides focused more on each other than what was below them, but in her defense, how was she supposed to focus on anything else with Marco in his adorkably handsome rough-and-tumble rider outfit? A non-heart-shaped spot of pink tinged her cheeks, and she shook off the thought by striding towards the castle, with Marco jerking forward as a result.

Janna’s eyes lit up at the eerie glow of the torches and the medieval trellises all along the walls. “Finally, my kind of Halloween.” She leaped forward to ring the doorbell.

Before anyone could react, a large net descended on them, capturing them and hoisting them up into the air. They all instinctively tried to break it, and found it impossibly strong. The door opened and they were hoisted into the and carried inside. Star tried to get her bearings but struggled to adjust her position given the bulky fruit costume. Eventually they were set back down in a large room. Star was finally able to crane her head enough to see the back of a large stone throne with two giant horns.

A shrill, familiar cackle erupted from the occupant of the throne. Suspicions confirmed, at least. “Hello, children. You have been trapped in my clutches! By the power invested in me on this Hallow’s Ween, I declare you… trick-and-treated!” Everyone remained still for a second, holding their breath to see what Ludo would do next. “Trick-and-treated!” he called out again. His voice dropped to a whisper, but Ludo was bad at whispering. “Dennis, that’s when you turn the chair!”

“Oh, right, sorry big brother!”

The stone throne swiveled around to reveal Ludo in the same clown costume Star remembered from the seance years ago. Spider and Bird, who Star now realized had been the ones to trap and carry them, emerged from the shadows to flank the sides of the throne. Right as the net dropped, Star felt her costume get pelted with something light. She picked up a small bag that had landed next to her face; it was labeled “Gold’N Crispz”.

“Ludo, what are you doing?” she finally called out.

“Wait, Star Butterfly? Is that really you? Help them up, help them up quickly now!” Spider, Bird, and a tall Kappa Star didn’t recognize helped Marco and Tom up first, who in turn assisted with Star and Janna. Ludo ran over and leaped up into a confused Marco’s arms, giving him a big hug and doing the same to Star a moment later. “I’ve missed you both so much!”

“We, um, missed you too, Ludo?” Marco unsurely stammered out.

“Oh, Marco, you’re alive! I thought you were actually a skeleton for a moment there!”

Star cleared her throat to get his attention once more. “So, uh, Ludo… we saw some kids running away screaming from here before.”

“Trick-and-treating hasn’t been going so well, they all call me ‘ugly hairy clown’ and flee. Ah well, more chips for me! But help yourselves, you two!”

“Uh, Star?” Tom spoke up. “Where’s Meteora?” Wait, what? She was gone? Star had felt her pulling on the leaves just a few minutes ago. She glanced over to Mariposa, who was still strapped into Marco’s carrier comfortably, seemingly unaffected by recent events. She groaned in frustration; the night had already had enough problems, why did this have to happen?

“There!” Marco shouted, pointing to the half-monster baby who had started crawling all along the gloomy walls of the castle. She rounded a corner out of sight.

“I got this,” Janna said. “This is my kind of place.” She jogged as fast as her costume would let her into the corridor Meteora disappeared into.

“I have zero clue who any of you are,” Tom added, pointing finger guns at Ludo and his friends, “but you guys seem like you have some catching up to do, so I’m just gonna go too.” He followed after Janna, tailed by the taller Kappa who Star presumed was Dennis who was breathlessly shouting warnings about various things in the castle.

“Well, your friends seem fun!” Ludo spouted out, bouncing on his feet. He led them into a room decorated like a lounge and jumped up onto one of the armchairs, motioning Star and Marco to do the same. “Come, sit! Would you care for another game of cha-rahds?” He gasped suddenly, pointing at Marco’s chest with a comically excited grin. “You two had a baby! That’s so nice! What’s her naaaaaame?”

Star and Marco’s faces both flushed. “She’s not ours, she’s my sister!”

“Potato, tomato,” he waved his hand at them dismissively. “I’m so happy for you both!”

“Anyyyyway,” Star drawled, eager to change the subject, “You rebuilt your castle, huh? It looks…” She spotted some sludge dripping down one of the walls nearby. “...nice!”

“Yes, it’s been quite an emotional journey this past year. I floated through space for a while - I think I hallucinated you with six arms at one point!” Star raised a finger and began to open her mouth, but Marco quickly grabbed pushed it back down. He probably had the right idea. “Then I lived a dreadful life with mother and father for a while, and then my wonderful little brother who I love so very much helped me see that I didn’t need them anymore by dunking a basketball, and we ended back up here! I guess that’s about it.”

“That’s… uh, glad to hear you’re doing well?” Star asked hesitantly. It was nice to see him not constantly attacking them or plotting to steal from them, but he was still an incredibly strange creature that Star could never quite get a read on. “How’s Earthni been treating you?”

“What’s an Earthni?” He blinked a few times, still innocently grinning.

“Earth and Mewni fused a few months ago,” Star dumbfoundedly responded.

“So that’s why the sky went all pretty and purpley, and why that milkshake stand I always went to right after I failed at getting your wand appeared right next to us. Speaking of which, how is that wand of yours?” He leaned forward in his seat expectantly.

“It’s, um, gone,” Marco said.

Ludo’s brow furrowed. “Well why don’t you go find it?”

“He means gone gone.” Star added. “We destroyed its source.”

“Whaaaaaaat? So no more magic at all? No more wand?” His beady pupils suddenly contracted to tiny dots in the center of his bulbous yellow eyeballs, voice dropping to a whisper. “...no more wand. No more wand. No more wand! I’m free, I’m- I’m free!” He stood up on the chair, jumping up and down and spinning around looking the happiest they’d ever seen him. “My brain, it doesn’t stop scheming and plotting for ways to steal the wand. It’s been lingering in the back of my mind for so long, but I don’t want it there. This is such a relief!”

Star felt a pang of sympathy for her ex-enemy. His mind was largely still an enigma, but he was struggling to put a past he wasn’t proud of behind him in his own way - something she was quite familiar with. She popped open a bag of chips and inspected them carefully, still a bit concerned about whatever food Ludo might deem worthy of giving out. Much to her surprise, they were actually just standard potato chips - fairly good ones, at that, and she was pretty hungry, having been too preoccupied to even dig in to her candy haul so far. Ludo remained in his happy reverie, babbling to himself while she munched and crunched down all the chips. Was that really all there were in it? Stupid packaging. She rustled the bag a bit, hearing it echo through the room. How could a bag be so loud? When the noise persisted, she realized it was actually footsteps. The three stood up and found Tom, Janna, and Dennis, all with scratches and scrapes and scuffs on their skin and clothing, panting heavily with Meteora fast asleep sucking her thumb in Tom’s arms.

“That baby is a nightmare!” Dennis squeaked out, his nasally voice only accentuated by his breathlessness. “She fought off Spider and Bird-”

“Yes, yes, we’ve all had a lovely evening, Dennis. But get this: the wand is gone! I’m free! Star, Marco, it’s been wonderful to see you again, we must catch up more some other time! Quickly, we must go tell Fudo and Tudo and Kudo and Zudo and Menudo and-”

Star, Marco, and the others had managed to make it the whole way off the castle property and out of earshot before Ludo was done with his list of names.

“Sooooo… what happened to-”

“I don’t want to talk about it,” Janna tersely stated, as if the experience had made her a changed person. “Let’s just go take Meteora back home.” She took a step forward and winced

Tom snapped his fingers and a pillar of flame erupted in the street behind them, fading away seconds later to reveal his souped up Underworld carriage. “I can’t portal everywhere anymore but I can at least do that. Hop in.”

“What a gentleman,” Janna grumbled, tossing herself face-first onto the long plush seats within.

Star looked at the carriage, then looked up to Marco and knew they were on the same page as usual. They weren’t quite ready for Halloween to end yet. “We’ll make our own way back.”

“Suit yourself,” Tom shrugged, following Janna into the carriage before taking off for the night.

Marco’s hand found Star’s once more as they started to meander back in the general direction of home. “Well, that was an unexpected visit.”

“Yeah… glad to see Ludo’s doing well, though. It kinda gives me hope for Earthni, y’know?”

“Hmm?”

Star gazed up at the last vestiges of the sun in the sky. The sunsets on Earthni were becoming a constant positive in her life, always reminding her of the best the world had to offer. Of Marco, of peace, of the promise of a happy life ahead of them. “If Ludo, the guy who spent basically every waking second of his life for my entire first year here trying to steal my wand, can dig deep down and learn and grow from it… maybe we don’t just have to accept that some people are going to be mean idiots. It’s never gonna be perfect, but maybe there’s at least some hope that anyone can change.”

“I guess you’re right.”

“Except Jeremy. He might be one of the hopeless ones,” she joked, jabbing an elbow into Marco’s side causing them both to giggle profusely. “Weeeeeell, we should probably get home soon. This little angel is on a one-way trip to Snoozeville.” She gave a feather-light boop to Mariposa’s nose.

“...should we still stop for those Sugar Seed bars?”

She sighed in contentment and leaned against his arm. “You know me too well, Diaz.”

#starco #svtfoe #star vs the forces of evil #tgg svtfoe #fanfic

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thecandywrites · 6 years ago

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Isthantari- The Series Part 1

And we’re back with more Jika! So, because I am super awkward, I ended the Isthantari story the way I did because I was trying to invite anyone who wanted their own date with a Jika to tell me so I could write that and @wolfofbluestardust was the first to take me up on my offer. So here we are! So this is her OC Lenora who is a pastry chef and owns her own bakery/pastry shop. And her own Jika- Jabari, who is awkward, pessimisstic and shy and Lenora is loud, bold and a hopeless romantic. Forbidden romance with a prince? Check. Sweet and fluffy overload? Check. Love at first scent? Double check. Awkwardness? QUADRUPLE CHECK. Lets do this!

And if anyone else wants one of these, message me.

Isthantari- Jabari and Lenora

“Thank you so much for doing this.” Sable thanked you as Jaxon and his brother Jabari carried in cases of the Jika fruits into your pastry shop.

“You’re welcome, I’m excited, so what do I need to do to them?” You posed curiously as you looked the fruits over curiously.

“Well they’ve already been frozen and thawed so they’ll be sweet for you so you don’t need to do much else. I’m really excited to see what you’ll be able to do with them.” Sable beamed happily as she arranged one of everything onto a long counter with a set of tools to open the fruits so that you could try them yourself, grinning when you ‘oohed’ at the different flavors as your brain kicked into overdrive as you quickly wrote out what your inspiration was telling you to do with them.

“Well give me a few days at least to play with these and see what I can do, but right off the top of my head, macaroons and cupcakes, with this as a filling or to flavor buttercream frosting.” You suggested.

“I was thinking the same thing. Well, if you can’t get a hold of me you can tell Jabari because he’s been put in charge of getting the produce to earth chefs and he’s also in charge of pricing. I can already tell you, this one will probably be pretty expensive because a giant tree only grows one seed pod, granted that pod has over a thousand seeds but you only get one pod a season. So I’m still working on trying to see if I can cross breed it to either get bigger pods or more pods per tree. But the fruit around the seed is literally the blue raspberry flavor a lot of candy has and the seed to me is a cross between a macadamia and a cashew.” Sable explained as you bit into the fruit and felt your knees go weak and ate the rest of the fruit before biting into the seed in the middle.

“I see what you mean by the macadamia nut but I’m getting hints of Brazil nut too.” You pointed out as Sable tried it again.

“Yeah, you’re right, Brazil nut. The nuts I think would be good dipped in chocolate or perhaps into a baklava or something.” Sable mused as you nodded in agreement to that and wrote that down too.

You and Sable had been friends for a long time, you had become a pastry chef and owned your own bakery but because Sable was a friend of yours and her inter-galactic and inter-species connections meant that you were usually her go-to person to see if alien foods would be palatable or be made palatable for humans and as a bonus, you were also who a lot of aliens like to come to for sweets that were for them a taste of home. And when aliens got married, you were their go to for wedding cakes in flavors that were literally other worldly, you had alien staff that helped you with flavors and styles that were even a hit with the humans.

And then you noticed it. Sable’s relationship with Jaxon and the absolutely doting way he was around her and the smitten way she acted around him.

“So…? What’s up with that?” You whispered to Sable with a mischievous glint in your eye.

“Oh, Jaxon and I are together, it’s just uh, supposed to be under the radar, you see, the Jika are controlled by a queen and “technically” speaking, she’s the only one who’s supposed to breed in the colony and will kill rivals. And...yeah, so she’s not. And let me just say, damn.” Sable giggled as her whole face blushed beet red.

“Oh?” You giggled yourself. A forbidden romance? Be still your beating heart!

“Ok so the Jika are really sensitive to smells, in particular pheromones, that’s how the queen controls the hive, just like our bees do, so anyway, so Jaxon took one whiff of me and thought I was a queen and he quickly kind of totally fell in love with me and dear god the sex is out of this world, but don’t worry, he can’t knock me up, it’s fine, but he calls me his ‘Isthantari’ which means ‘one I am devoted to for life’ and so while we have to be careful and as long as I don’t pose a threat of any kind to the actual queen and as long as I don’t attract any others, we’re fine. I just have to wear a fuck ton of deodorant and perfume. Actually Jaxon’s brothers, because Jaye started a relationship with another doctor a couple of years ago, most think that because they’re not the queen’s consorts that they’ll never find love but when Jaye and Jaxon realized that they could, their brothers are realizing they can have a life and romance outside the hive. So if you’re interested, I can try to set you up. You just, literally have to be very careful. And if they’re attracted to your scent, great, if not, don’t take it personal, more fish in the sea and all that, and one may think you’re the living end and another won’t, so it’s an individual thing too.” Sable tried to explain and warn you as Jaxon and Jabari finished getting the last of the fruits inside and you got a good look at him. He was handsome and that purple sheen to his black was quite beautiful.

“How big of a dick are we talking here?” You whispered before Sable gestured and described it and your eyes went wide but the biggest excited smile plastered on your face before she described the sex too and the royal jelly and you were beyond intrigued.

“Hell yeah sign me the fuck up,” you agreed before a plan bloomed in your head.

“Jabari right?” You repeated his name when he came back to stand next to Jaxon who was standing next to Sable, waiting further instructions as you held your hand out to shake one of his before he stepped forward and shook your hand.

“Hi, I’m Lenore, so Sable said to keep in touch with you when I have something for you guys to try, so I’ll need your phone number and email address.” You insisted before he puled a cell phone out of his, what you could only describe was an alien fanny pack because he wasn’t really wearing any other clothes and gave you his phone number and email address.

And then like a woman possessed, you spent the next three days experimenting before you created a plethora of cup cakes, macaroons and all kinds of desserts before you texted Jabari that you had things for him to try. Sable and Jaxon were delivering goods to another chef so that only Jabari could come which was perfect. You had worked up a sweat working on all this and part of you was hoping that Jabari would like your scent the way Jaxon had liked Sable’s.

“Hey, you made it, come on in,” you invited him warmly as you took him back into the kitchen where you had everything displayed on the long counter for him as your other employees manned the front counter.

You watched Jabari very carefully for his reactions, remembering that Sable had told you to watch his antennae movement as well and noticed that on most of it, his antennae were wiggling like crazy as you wrote that down. But to your chagrin, he didn’t seem to give you much of any other reactions other than simply moving down the table and continuing to eat one of each item methodically.

And you did your best to stay close to him but the closer you tried to get, the father away he tried to stay. Ok, so this one didn’t like you. Maybe he was one of the brothers that didn’t think the risk was worth it.

“Can I take this with me?” Jabari requested as he gestured to everything on the table.

“Sure. For Sable to try?” You guessed as you got a to go box and started putting the treats in it for him.

“...yes.” Jabari slowly affirms and not only takes the box but went to the front and ordered one of everything you make at the store and he leaves with a few cases of your goods.

The next day you texted Sable to see how she liked your sweets.

‘I didn’t get any.’ Sable informed you. ‘Although with Jika, when they find something they like, they inhale it, they must have been really good that he ate it all.’ She tried to assure you.

‘Well it would have been nice for him to SAY so. He wouldn’t give me so much as a hum or any thing. Not even a ‘this was good’.’ You complained.

‘Jika are really AWKWARD at first. I had no idea Jaxon liked me until three days after I met him in person. Jaxon fought with himself to keep away from me because his instincts were telling him to mate with me already and he was trying to be professional. So if he came off as stand off-ish it’s because they are usually pretty stoic. Once you get passed that, then their personality will come through.’ Sable explained. ‘Do you have what you need to make more? Because now I really want to try some.’ Sable urged.

‘Yeah, I should, give me by the end of the day today.’ You answered and right at ten minutes to close, Sable, Jaxon and Jabari returned, Jabari’s antennae were a bit droopy though and were your eyes deceiving you or was his abdomen bigger than it was yesterday?

“I’d like to apologize for making you make these again, I had a lapse in self control and ate it all.” Jabari apologized meekly.

“I’ll only forgive you if tell me your honest appraisals of everything.” You returned with a wicked curve to your grin and he perked up quite a bit at that before he just went on and on in amazing detail about every tiny little thing as Sable and Jaxon tried and really enjoyed each item as you were just suddenly overwhelmed, it was like getting the most glowing review from a food critic but in person and when he grabbed your hand to lead you out into the front to the display case as he then gave you a review of each thing, you realized, he did, eat every. Single. Thing. And you fell in love with the way he described your food because he made it sound like you had made each thing just for him and he appreciated and was deeply moved by it all and in awe of it all. You should have recorded this to write it down to actually put it into your menus. When he was done, you were almost ready to cry.

“Thank you.” You thanked him and flung your arms around him to hug him as he awkwardly hugged you back and you felt his antennae tap the back of your head gently just as the employees were closing the store.

“You’re welcome. You’re very talented.” Jabari praised as he seemed to give into the embrace and hugged you so tight it was a little hard to breathe and you noticed he’s petting your hair. You quite like it.

“Would you like to go get a drink with me?” You asked boldly as you pulled away from the embrace.

“Uh, you have drinks here?” Jabari tiled his head slightly in confusion as he gestured to your coffee bar and your fountain drink dispenser.

“No, alcoholic drinks.” Sable corrected as she came out from the back and handed you a sheet of paper with her and Jaxon’s reviews written on it and on the other side was suggestions of pairings which you folded and put into your pocket.

“Uh, can Jika…?” Jabari put to Jaxon who nodded ‘yes’ before he said something in the Jika language and it sounded encouraging.

“Sure,” Jabari confirmed and you could tell he was nervous.

“Come on.” You urged as you grabbed your things and took his hand and led him down the street to a local bar and pub that you liked to go to after a long day and you got dinner and a drink and smiled when he got the fruitiest drink they had and ate the slice of pineapple and orange that came with it.

“So how come you couldn’t tell me all that yesterday?” You posed after you placed your order.

“I needed time to compose myself and get my thoughts in order.” Jabari answered as he played with the rind of his orange nervously.

“Do I make you nervous?” You asked as you tilted your head to the side.

“No,” Jabari answered probably a little too quickly and a little too loudly.

“Really? Because your body language says otherwise.” You argued before he stopped fiddling with the rind and sat on his hands.

“It’s ok to be nervous, I don’t think any less of you if you are. But I do appreciate honesty. Just tell me and don’t leave me guessing.” You advised before a fight broke out at the bar and in a split second and faster than you could blink, you were wrapped up in his arms and he literally flew you both out of there and towards the Jika ship. You struggled until you realized how high you were and literally stopped struggling to cling to him so tightly you wrapped yourself around him even though his hold on you was pretty hard already.

“Jabari! What the fuck are you doing?!” You screamed as you looked down over the city and noticed it was...actually really pretty as that suddenly seemed to kick some sense into him and out of the instinct that had taken over him.

“Huh?” Jabari seemed to ask as he came to his senses and quickly changed direction to fly you back to the pub before he landed gently on the ground and put you down.

“Don’t move.” You ordered before you went back into the restaurant, got your food to go and came back out, paying the waitress and leaving a hefty tip, because the poor thing thought you ran out on the bill.

You came back out and practically hopped back into his arms.

“Ok, now you can go wherever you were taking me before.” You told him before he seemed to look at you a little more appreciatively and took off, his wings easily flying you through the air as his hold on you was secure as you held onto the food before he seemed to fly into a blue beam of light and in a flash, you were on the Jika ship and he was flying you through the ship as you watched on in wonder before he came to his quarters before he put you back down.

“That was really fun, just warn me the next time you want to go flying.” You gently teased as you looked around and saw what looked like a table and chair and had to hop up to sit on it and got your food out.

“So this is your place? It’s nice.” You appraised.

“Thank you.” Jabari nodded as he opened his food container and pulled up a chair and sat down and began to eat.

“So are you just naturally flighty?” You asked.

“No, Jika are fierce warriors.” Jabari countered.

“And yet half a second after the first punch was thrown you had both of us out of there and half way here already.” You argued firmly because you knew he was being protective, he just didn’t want to admit it.

“An instinct to keep you from danger kicked in and took over.” Jabari tried to explain delicately and a little dismissively but you were undeterred.

“Really? Aww, why?” You demanded with a bright smile.

“What Sable told you about Jika in my position?” Jabari returned.

“That you weren’t chosen for a royal consort and so you simply have a job to serve the hive but that you and your brothers are learning you can have a life outside the hive.” You repeated with a smug grin.

“Uh huh.” Jabari nodded.

“And that you’re affected by pheromones and that that’s the reason her and Jaxon are together because she smelled like a queen to him. So, do my pheromones do the same to you?” You asked plainly.

“Yes, and it will get both of us killed.” Jabari confessed.

“So it’s dangerous, some people really like that, the whole forbidden romance thing, that’s what sells books and movies and love songs.” You shrugged.

“It could be the downfall of the Jika as a whole, because if it’s seen as something any and all Jika can do, soon all the worker Jika could go back into incubation and have the ability to ignore the hive mind and our society and ways of doing things could cease to...” Jabari tried to argue before you grabbed his face, used your thumbs to move his mandibles out of the way to kiss him and smiled into the kiss when he kissed back and nearly climbed over the table to pull you up out of your seat to hold you as he picked you up and kissed you deeper.

“Oh fuck,” Jabari breathed as his hands pet your body which made you feel feverish because holy shit, did he taste good and this was great.

“So don’t tell the hive mind.” You managed to say between heated kisses as his bed appeared out of the floor.

“I need, I need you to tell me to stop.” Jabari pleaded desperately in a last ditch effort to save you from his imagined fate.

“Why?” You asked as you pulled away to look at him as you cocked your head to the side.

“Because if lay you down, I’m gonna mate with you and I won’t be able to stop myself at that point, right now, if you don’t want this, you have to stop me right now.” Jabari pleaded.

“Yeah I don’t want you to stop though because the forbidden romance is totally my thing and if I smell like your queen by all means, make me your queen but without actually getting us killed.” You breathed.

“Fuck, well ok then.” Jabari caved and pinned you to the bed and in lighting fast speed, he stripped you out of your clothes, which having four hands came in handy and then his cock emerged and you gasped in surprise.

“Wow, that’s huge,” you purred before you wrapped your legs around his waist and tried to align yourself onto him and when the tip touched your slit, the slightly cooling yet tingling sensation began to spread into your womanhood before you noticed a duct appear on his chest and start oozing a yellow liquid.

“What’s that?” You asked as you pointed to it.

“Royal jelly, we make it during mating,” Jabari answered as he got into position and his breath shuddered when you licked it up and to you, it tasted like a mango, passion fruit, papaya, lychee and super ripe pineapple smoothie. It was so good. You easily licked it up and had to strain your neck a little to reach the duct and closed your mouth over it and sucked it before your tongue swirled around it just as he entered you and his hips stuttered as his breath fluttered as he temporarily forgot how to function because it felt so good and you couldn’t help but moan when he filled you, no stuffed you full and you whimpered as your hips rocked into him, trying to take him as deep as you could and when he really started to move as one hand held him above you so he wouldn’t crush you but the other three arms were wrapped your chest, your waist and your rear.

“Am I hurting you at all?” Jabari asked worriedly.

“No, but if you stop now I’ll hurt you.” You insisted before you played with the duct with your tongue which practically made him come apart again as he picked up the pace as you greedily sucked down that royal jelly.

“You’re so small and you’re so soft, yet you’re fiercer and bolder than any warrior I’ve ever met.” Jabari tried to praise you as you snorted a laugh.

“Oh no, are you choking?” Jabari asked as he pulled away before you pulled him back.

“Nope, laughing. Everyone says I’m tiny yet fierce.” You grinned before you attached your mouth over the duct again and sucked hard and that only made him hump you harder which was exactly what you needed to reach orgasm and just as you were barely coming down that knot at the base was now at your entrance and was drenched in your essence and with one last good thrust it popped inside and you cried out as your lower belly really bulged but instead of pain, you only felt a slight discomfort but otherwise it was nothing but pleasure as you were pumped full as your mouth was suddenly pumped full of royal jelly too and you tried to gulp it all down.

“Fuck,” it was your turn to cuss once you finished drinking it all down but you were still basking in after glow and you felt like you had melted and had slowly started to solidify in his arms again. “Wow, that was...wow.” You tried to have a coherent thought.

“Uh huh,” Jabari nodded in agreement as he very carefully laid down on his side with you still in his arms as he tried pulling a soft blanket over both of you to make sure you didn’t get cold without your clothes on.

“So why were you so weird the other day?” You asked him.

“I was trying not to mate with you and tried to stay professional, I’m sorry if I hurt your feelings by not giving you the feedback you needed at the time.” Jabari explained as he ran his fingers through your hair marveling at it.

“Hey, it’s understandable,” you chuckled before you felt his cock shrink and the knot popped out and you expelled, what to you- felt like a gallon of his cum all over the bed and when you reached down between you to touch it, you marveled at it’s holographic nature and then out of curiosity you licked your finger clean and giggled.

“My cum tastes funny?” Jabari asked in confusion.

“Your cum literally tastes minty, like sweet mint gum.” You cackled as you licked your other fingers clean.

“What?” Jabari asked as he watched you curiously.

“Your cum, it tastes like mint gum, something humans actually like and think tastes really good.” You explained.

“Oh,” Jabari blinked.

Once you both recovered, you got redressed and he literally flew you home. “So am I your Isthantari now?” you asked as he put you down on your front step with surprising precision and care.

“If you want to be.” Jabari returned.

“Hell yeah,” you beamed before you pulled him down to kiss him again.

“Goodnight Jabari, I had a lot of fun tonight, by the way, you owe me for dinner.” You teased as you playfully pat his chest.

“Oh, that’s right, uh, yeah, I’ll...take you out for another alcoholic beverage, soon. Tomorrow?” He asked.

“Tomorrow. And I want to go flying again after, so don’t drink too much, don’t want you flying while drunk.” You winked before you went into your apartment.

#exophilia #Isthantari #alien #alien boyfriend #alien love story #plus size asian reader #my first commission I really hope you like it!#reader insert #alien lemon

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junietwohundred · 5 years ago

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Dev Diary: What is time, even?

Welcome back to Bee Foundry Games. Pull up a chair. Have a cup of tea. Something stronger? Now you’re speaking my language.

Anyway, what were my goals for last week?

Write descriptions and flavor text. There’s no excuse not to; I’m just being lazy now.

Make the Bentley work like a car and not like a thing you’re toting around

Fix the SE/E problem.

Annotate my game outline with what conditions must be set for the player to continue.

How did that go?

I wrote a little. I had a good idea for some text about the Bentley and things in it. I got a little obsessive about “WHAT DOES THE INSIDE OF THE BOOT OF A 1932 BENTLEY LOOK LIKE?! IS THERE CARPET? WHY DO WE EVEN HAVE GOOGLE IF IT CAN’T TELL ME THIS?!” And then I said, “Fuck it. It’s the trunk of a car. Deal with it.”

Going pretty well. I’ve got a drive verb, and it works inside the Bentley. It moves the characters and the car and keeps the characters in the car when they reach their destination. I don’t entirely like that you have to say “Drive Bentley” rather than just “Drive,” but that’s a refinement problem for Future Me who knows more things.

Fixed! I had to swap two lines of code - if you look for the “east|e” input first, it finds both those qualities in “southeast|se” and takes you east. It has to look for the concept of pure east-ness second.

Preeeeeety much done? I know I haven’t figured out every possible flag, but I know what has to be in whose inventory at what times. I have to learn how to make order optional on a few acquisitions; I’m sure Future Me will have a ball with that.

So not bad progress, all in all, even if my goals weren’t especially lofty. I took a hack day on Friday to work on the game, and man, it was rough. I broke the drive verb around 9 am and didn’t fix it again until 4:30. I did it in a pretty janky way, but it works.

I also did some organizing on my Trello board, which previously featured a card labeled “idk write the game?” right between “Finish walkthrough” and “Get beta testers.” (The last card on the board, btw, is “ ‘Hey, Michael Sheen! Retweet this!’ ”) Now I have cards for writing and tech for individual scenes and puzzles. The lists inside are largely reminders from the outline: X has to be in inventory before Y; set the ABC flag when thing GHI happens.” (I seriously had a moment in that sentence when I forgot parts of the English alphabet.)

I feel like I’ve been focusing on the Bentley to the exclusion of the rest of the game because one my first goals (one that I set before I started diaries, or at least that never made it into a diary) was to make a navigable skeleton to the game, and the Bentley is part of navigating. And while it’s presented technical challenges and I’ve learned a lot, it’s like I’m afraid to start making objects and puzzles and actually doing the meat of the game. Maybe I feel like I don’t know enough about Quest or code? I tried to write a function the other day and wound up nuking the whole Git branch.

So my goals for next week:

Let the Bentley be. It’s OK. It’s not perfect, but it works.

I’ve written all the objects and rooms in Crowley’s flat - let’s get them in the game.

Change all the exits from just “north” to “north to X location,” etc.

See what I can do about writing and coding the very first scene, which requires the player to meet a few conditions before they progress.

I don’t expect work to be especially taxing this next week, so that gives me time to write. But I also have to give a conference talk in early January, and I need to work on that - that date is going to sneak right up on me. I need to prioritize, or at least divide my time appropriately. The conference talk is a lot less writing than Nine Precisely.

I’m gonna go, but you’re welcome to linger over your tea or your wine or your jelly jar of overproofed rum. Whatever gets you through a Sunday night.

Until next week!

#GOdevdiary #good omens #text adventures #interactive fiction #bee foundry games #we'll meet at nine precisely

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yourcoolfriendwithallthecandy · 5 years ago

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Magic and Miracles and BEYOND Chapter 10

I know, I know, nothing for months then 3 chapters in a row. But hey, this is the final portion of the pre done chapter. And yes, in case you haven’t noticed, I totally cast Lucas Hood from Banshee as Cor. BECAUSE THE SIMILARITIES. And I can totally see Gladio in a cop uniform and having those baristas fawn over him and mentally flirt with the idea of getting arrested if it meant that Gladio would be the arresting officer. And while I’m not a tea person- @the-immortal-marshal is and she said that that brand of tea and that flavor of tea is a proper English tea and would be Ada’s all time fav. And yes a Cane Corso is if Ferrari designed a dog to protect you. I have been planning that detail for months and so in the picture of the two brendle Cane Corsos- Kona is on the left (Kona coffee) and Kahlua is on the right because it looks like a white russian which is Kahlua and milk and that silver Cane Corse is Sasha. And obviously this russet brown dog is Baxter, bless his heart for doing all he could to protect his mama.

So without further adieu, here’s chapter 10. AO3

Chapter 10

Sylva didn’t have Ada moved to just any hospital room, but had her moved to the VIP rooms of the hospital that were on the upper floors that had the best views, the ones that looked like hotel suites that had every comfort imaginable along with an actual bed for Cor to sleep in too with actual super plush bedding, with super comfortable mattresses and the meals would be gourmet and had their own kitchen down the hall along with a mini kitchenette in the room and even the hospital gowns were beautiful and made from super soft peached cotton and were just as comfortable as any nightgown. Also the toiletries were designer and name brand and had things beyond the shampoo, conditioner and soap, but really good day and night face moisturizers and lotions and toothbrushes and toothpaste, mouthwash and body wash, even body scrubs, hair dryers, brushes, hair ties and the like. Even the waiting rooms on this floor were spectacular with it’s own private baristas in their little coffee nook and a free snack bar along with high end oriental teas in silk triangle tea bags. And Ada had two dedicated nurses who would not be waiting on any other patient other than her during their shifts.

The next morning Ravus came into work and saw Clarus walking in with Gladio, both of them in uniform and both looking particularly rough, like neither of them had gotten any sleep which was the same boat he and everyone else found themselves in last night. Well, except for Tredd, Tredd had been in his element yesterday. Asshole, but he was the perfect guy for the job yesterday.

“What’s the status?” Ravus asked curiously.

“Um,” Gladio said before he came over and bent over to talk with Ravus face to face.

“Ada is um...she’s having a miscarriage.” Gladio informed Ravus who’s eyes went wide.

“Oh my God.” Ravus breathed in shock. “Uh, let me park, and I’ll meet you in there,” Ravus offered before he parked in his spot two levels above and took the elevator down to the floor Ada was staying on, which was coincidentally the same floor he and Lunafreya had been born on, just a few rooms down actually and they found Crowe and Libertus already there since Ada had called Crowe first thing that morning and Crowe and Libertus had booked it coming in to see her.

“What are you doing here Beavus?” Crowe tried to act casual but it was no use before Ravus just enveloped her in a hug and hugged her tight and let her cry into his chest, not caring in the least if it messed up his suit up or not.

“I work here remember? How is she holding up?” Ravus asked and Crowe shook her head no.

“She’s not. God I want to hit Cor so bad right now.” Crowe admitted. “He promised me he would protect her and keep her out of his work.” Crowe cried.

“He underestimated his ‘work’.” Ravus replied sadly as tears pricked his own eyes.

“He swore to me that he would keep her out of harm’s way!” Crowe bawled before Cor came out of the room to talk with Clarus as Libertus tugged on Crowe’s shirt to get her attention.

“You asshole!” Crowe yelled once she pulled away from Ravus and charged Cor before Ravus and Libertus had to hold her back.

“You swore to me you’d keep her safe! You promised me you were going to protect her with your life! Instead she almost lost hers and she just miscarried you bastard!” Crowe screamed as Ravus and Libertus both had to fight to keep her from all out wailing on Cor, picking her up off the floor from behind and still having to deal with her trying to kick at him being mindful of her own pregnant belly.

“I know! I’m sorry! I did all I could! Believe me! You think I want her here? Do you think I ever wanted this?! I never wanted her to get involved, I never wanted her anywhere near this, it got personal and I’m sorry! I swear I’ll get the bastard!” Cor roared back with Clarus keeping a steady hand on his chest as angry tears escaped them both.

“Lower your voices,” Clarus warned.

“Where is he?!” Luche roared as he rounded the corner.

“Oh fucking hell.” Ravus groaned and looked to Crowe and Libertus to see which one of them contacted Luche and they both looked away guiltily before Ravus let go of Crowe so Libertus could hold her back on his own to get between Luche and Cor.

“Slow down, slow down,” Ravus warned Luche still a good 20 feet from Cor who was already in fight mode as was Luche and Ravus got Luche to stop and put both of his hands on Luche’s chest and used his own body weight to keep Luche from advancing any further.

“You motherfucker!” Luche accused Cor angrily as he could only point as he looked past Ravus at Cor who looked back angrily and had his fists balled up at his sides as his own rage seethed. Oh he was .2 seconds away from really handing this jackass his own ass. “This is all your fault!” Luche roared angrily.

“Lu?!” Ada called out when she recognized Luche’s voice. Fuck she wanted to see him. She had wanted to see him since last night. And at sound of Ada’s voice it prompted a complete change in Luche and he started pushing past Ravus with all his might.

“I’m here!” Luche called back before he realized no matter how much he wanted to hand Cor his ass, he wanted to see Ada more.

“Whoa, whoa,” Cor said as he tried to get in the door to keep Luche from getting to Ada.

“Cor let me see him! Let him in!” Ada cried and Cor turned to look at her in outrage. She is going through a miscarriage of their baby and she wanted to see him of all people?!

Luche grinned victoriously and still bumped Cor’s shoulder hard when Luche moved past him in lieu of actually hitting Cor. Then the smile fell and he came and threw all propriety out the window when he sat next to her on the bed and gathered her into his arms and hugged her tight and felt some relief when she hugged him back just as tight as Crowe, Libertus and Ravus took up the door frame to look in before Ada looked up and shooed them away before Crowe took the hint and shut the door to give them some privacy as the three of them stood guard at the door to keep Cor from going in.

“I’m so sorry Baby,” Luche finally offered as he started to cry too as Ada had a new wave of tears stream down her face as she cried into him and felt better and worse at the same time when she felt the kind of comfort she had been craving having him hold her again.

“You’ll have to forgive Crowe and Libertus, they both texted me the news and I couldn’t...I couldn’t stay away.” Luche explained.

“I’m glad you’re here, thanks Lu.” Ada said and smiled despite everything. God he smelled so good too, another new cologne but still...so Luche. God she had missed him so much and she had only seen him the day before but with everything that happened, that felt like forever ago.

Luche could smell the blood on her and it made him sick to his stomach. God he would have given anything to never have her go through something like this. God he wanted to ask a million questions but he also doubted she would be up to answering any of them. So he did the sensible thing and kept his mouth shut but stayed holding her as tight as he dared, he forgot how good it felt to simply hold her. God he had missed her so much. He wanted to tell her everything but knew it wasn’t the right time for that either. This was about her, not him. And right now, she was hurting, in every way and he needed to try to make this better and bearable for her.

“Is there anything I can do Baby?” Luche asked, taking a risk calling her that, but she technically started it by calling him ‘Lu’.

“Please don’t fight Cor. He did all he could, he really did. He saved my life.” Ada pleaded and Luche swallowed down his angry argument that if it hadn’t been for Cor, her life wouldn’t have been in need of saving to begin with.

“Please?” Ada added and Luche knew that if he was going to show her how much he had grown up, this was how he could start and Ada felt all the tension begin to leave him and Luche finally caved.

“Fine, but if he starts shit, I’m gonna finish it.” Luche warned.

“Ok, that’s fair.” Ada agreed. “Just, keep holding me,” Ada requested as she realized she really didn’t want him to let her go so Luche did just as she asked and held her as tight as he dared and smiled sadly when he felt her completely relax again. And even a little bit longer than that, she nodded off to sleep and part of his heart leaped for joy that he could still get her to do that, and that she still felt comfortable enough with him to fall asleep in his arms, he remembered the first time that ever happened to him and it made him feel...so amazing that she was comfortable enough to fall asleep in his embrace, she still felt that way obviously. He kissed her temple sweetly, letting his lips linger on her skin for just a moment, savoring it before he started to let go of her and have her lay down in bed to get more rest. She needed it. He wanted to stay with her, have her fall asleep and wake up to him too but his common sense said that he was probably already overstepping his bounds enough, he didn’t need to push it. Well, anymore than he already had been.

He tucked her in and made sure she was perfectly comfortable before kissing her forehead and cheek again, mindful of her injuries. Just needing to get the last of that in until...he didn’t know if he would ever get the chance to ever do that again.

“I love you so much Ada.” Luche whispered as he gently pressed his forehead to hers before he pulled away and wiped his eyes and tried to force his emotions back under control before he left the room and saw his friends leaning on either side of the door when he left. Clarus and Cor thankfully nowhere in sight but Gladio was still sitting in the chair next to door.

“She’s asleep.” Luche informed them when they all looked at him questioningly.

“Ok, come on, let’s go to my office.” Ravus invited to everyone.

“I’ll stay here with her, you guys go,” Crowe suggested to Luche and Libertus before she went back into the room to sit with Ada.

“I told my dad I’d stay here and keep watch.” Gladio excused them before Ravus, Luche and Libertus nodded in agreement with that before they left, Ravus turning around to mouth and gesture to text him to which Gladio nodded solemnly in agreement before they walked back to the elevators before going up to the level where Ravus’ office was. Ravus walked past his mother’s office and saw her working before he got his friends into his office before he went back to his mother.

“Luche found out, Crowe and Libertus told him this morning.” Ravus reported.

“And how did that go?” Sylva asked as she continued to do all she could for Ada within her system.

“Well they didn’t kill each other or kick each other’s asses thanks to us holding them back.” Ravus shrugged as Sylva hummed in response as a look of resignation crossed her face.

“She’s going to need therapy, miscarriage alone can wreak havoc on your psyche but being taken captive, and getting beaten, I can only imagine the trauma she must be experiencing. Luche will need you today.” Sylva insisted as Ravus nodded in understanding as she upgraded Ravus and Luche’s status within the system.

“There, you and Luche both have your God Codes.” Sylva informed her son as he walked around pulled up a chair and saw for himself that she had Ravus copy and then showed him how to bring them up and how to arrange things and the different programs available to make sure everything would be taken care of as well as showed Ravus how Ada already had VIP status so that the nurses and doctors would take extra good care of her and how there were already two dedicated nurses on Ada that did nothing but cater to her for their shifts and showed the rest of the teams of nurses Sylva put onto Ada so that she had round the clock care and make sure all medicines, especially pain medicines would be approved and covered not only by insurance but by the hospital as well, and arranged for visits from the staff psychologists and psychiatrists and made sure various programs would cover all the therapy and made sure to send notes to mention that it would be covered and that there would be no out of pocket expense for Cor or Ada.

“There, I think this is all we can do on our end. Hopefully she’ll take us up on the offer for the therapy at least.” Sylva blew out a breath once she finished.

“Thank you Mom,” Ravus thanked her and hugged her from his spot next to her.

“How is Luche doing?” Sylva asked.

“He...took it better than I thought he would. The moment he heard Ada’s voice he went from fight mode to comfort mode in less than a blink of an eye.” Ravus answered with half cocked grin. “Actually, could you uh, could you tell him or can I tell him what we just did, I know he’ll worry.” Ravus requested thoughtfully.

“Absolutely, just remember Cor is hurting just as much as Ada is, he lost his baby last night too. Both of you should take the day or next couple of days off if you want or need to, and if he needs an outlet you can take him to our house. I’ll understand if he’ll want to drink himself into a stupor, nearly losing a woman you love is difficult, also if he needs support and or therapy, we’ll be there for him and provide that too.” Sylva invited warmly.

“How long have you known? About Hazel being Witchhazel? About Gil taking Ada, you reacted as if you had been expecting this all along, you had the blueprints to the sheriff’s office and the US Marshal’s office in your desk and you knew exactly how to break both strongholds. How did you know all that was going to happen or more importantly- how long did you know all of that?” Ravus asked.

“Do you swear on Selena’s life that you will never repeat this to anyone? Not even Selena and especially not to Luche?” Sylva put to him.

“I swear.” Ravus vowed.

“Since the beginning of summer, when Cor got close to Gil and Gil sent a message to Cor, Hazel had to deliver it, she came to me for help right after and that’s when I knew what would happen, pieces fell into place like dominoes and I knew what was going to come and all the probable outcomes bloomed in front of my eyes and I knew I had to come up with a contingency plan to save everyone’s lives. Tredd suspected Ada was pregnant on the first day of the first cruise and came to me, one look at her and I knew but I swore him to secrecy and if and when we get asked, I will only admit that Tredd had a hunch but I couldn’t be sure so I played it safe in making sure Luche and Ada wouldn’t have sex at all just in case and I’ll leave it at that, but it was so that there would be no question as to who’s baby was lost last night, that’s why I hired Tredd to be a cock block on the cruises because as much as Luche is hurting right now, I knew he would break completely if he had any doubt at all that it wasn’t his baby that died last night too, that’s why I had to protect him the way I did and with as emotional as he is, that’s why I kept Crowe, Libertus and Luche in the dark because I couldn’t trust any of them to keep their heads through all of this and they would emotionally react and fuck everything up although after this experience, they’ll be much more level headed and I’ll be able to trust them with much more. I also knew Cor wouldn’t stop unless he was made to stop and I did what I did to keep Hazel and Titus from fighting against Cor and Clarus and the entire police force and Marshal service because Hazel knows there are moles in both, and those moles will the be the ones to make sure we all get away with this and the investigation on what happened last night- never leads to us, that was the deal I made with Gilgamesh myself shortly after he took Ada.” Sylva revealed.

“You made a deal with Gilgamesh?!” Ravus balked.

“Sweetie, I had to, otherwise Ada would have died, hell all of us would have been killed because all of us would have been caught in the crossfire, I owed him because it was his order to kill Ardyn and Andrew Izunia and it was Charlotte who killed them both so I let them borrow my plane to get them a clean getaway and my pilots deleted all the flight data so now there is no record of Gilgamesh ever using my plane and I deleted all the flight data in the chopper so now there’s no trails to anything and Selena along with the girls were very creative in making sure our alibis stick and are water tight if they’re ever needed and we’re all lawyered up. So now all of this is over for everyone except Cor and Ada and Luche of course, now that Gilgamesh is out of the country, we’re all going to try to go on with our lives and live in peace. I couldn’t have this family tear itself apart like that. That’s why I had to play both sides and got my hands as dirty as they are, all of us walked away with our lives despite our loyalties clashing. Granted we had to go about it outside of the law but we’ll be ok. However I can tell you that Cor, in his quest for vengeance and revenge will completely abandon Ada and that’s how Luche will get her back. They’ll be back together before Crowe and Libertus get married in a month and chances are she’ll be pregnant not long after that and their own wedding will be right before Crowe and Libertus leave and will already start to show by then.” Sylva predicted. “And I know you’re mad at me for not telling you all this sooner but I had to be sure you wouldn’t blow it either.” Sylva urged as Ravus nodded in understanding.

“You’re going to have to teach me your ways Mother.” Ravus gently teased which caused Sylva to huff a laugh.

“Oh I will, Tredd is already chomping at the bit to be taught too and I wouldn’t have gotten half as far without him and I know you think he’s an asshole but his loyalties are to us and this family because this family is his family now and you don’t have to worry about him ever turning on us, he’s practically another brother to you and another son to me because I see his potential and I'm nurturing it rather than dismissing it like everyone else does and he’ll be fine and hopefully neither of you will have to use these skills.” Sylva offered before Ravus grabbed his notes and went back into his office with his mom where Luche had grabbed the bottle of brandy and was all out chugging it.

“Ok, hey, before you get shit faced, I need to tell you something and I need you to pay attention.” Sylva urged as she got the bottle out of Luche’s hand and handed it to Ravus to put away before she held Luche's face in her hands.

“Luche, listen to me, it’s going to be ok. I know you’re hurting. But please keep in mind what’s important, and what’s important is Ada. This is the card to a cane corso breeder, they have two dogs for you that have been going through all kinds of training all summer. A cane corso is if Ferrari and Lamborghini designed a guard dog, they’re amazing and you’ll love them. Write them a check from this checkbook. I know you’ll want to crap a brick when you hear how much these dogs are but again, these have been trained to protect Ada with their lives just like Baxter, who’s ok by the way, he’s with Luna right now. The girls were able to save him. Also, you need to give Cor some slack.”

“But he…!” Luche tried to argue before Sylva silenced him with a finger to his lips before she held his face again.

“I know, I know, he put her life in danger, he put all of our lives in danger all summer but Honey, he’s paying for it right now, he lost his baby last night, he almost lost the love of his life too just like you did. But you are going to do what Cor can’t. Cor’s going to lose himself in vengeance and You. Will. Not. Do. That. Your entire focus will be on Ada and her recovery and making sure she never feels alone or abandoned again. I will have a bag of books for you to start reading today, you’ll read them, study them and use the knowledge you find in them. You will be Ada’s rock and I promise you, she’ll be with you before the wedding. Don’t worry about getting justice for Ada because you never will but what you can do is get her safe, get her secure and keep her that way the rest of her life. Your job in life is taking care of her. Do your job. But you can’t do that if you’re shit faced.” Sylva urged before she explained the God Code and gave him his and showed him on Ravus’ computer how she was already taking care of things and how Luche could keep track of everything in his own computer as Luche visibly relaxed and calmed down.

“Oh thank God! I was about to go crawling into her office to beg for that.” Luche admitted once he saw everything.

“Well no need, it’s all taken care of.” Ravus reassured him before Luche got up again and walked to Sylva’s office with her as he thanked her for everything as she got the books together for him to read from her own bookshelf in her office.

“You’re welcome, and Luche, may I suggest you should get some therapy too in dealing with this. It’s ok for you to get some comfort and support in all this too.” Sylva gently suggested as she hugged him just as tightly, kicking into ‘mom mode’ herself.

“I was about to come in here on my hands and knees and beg for your help.” Luche admitted and Sylva snorted a laugh.

“Sorry, that’s not funny, but clearly, no need but that’s a wonderful and moving thought.” Sylva grinned proudly. “Although if you had, I would have done just as much to help her as I’ve already done and believe me, I have done all I can do. Now, may I suggest, just take the rest of the day off, take the next few days off, you can stay here and hang out in Ravus’ office if you want or you can come to my home and crash there too but what I would suggest is you see Ada one more time then you go get the dogs and bring them home and get things ready for Ada to move in with you sooner than later, take Ravus with you to get the dogs ok? You’re not alone, we’re all here for you. And give yourself time to process this, give Ada and Cor time to process this too. I know we all have our misgivings about the situation, as horrible as it is. But it’s important to look at the big picture and look outside our own personal pain ok? I know you don’t want to hear that but you need to hear it ok?” Sylva admonished gently, keeping her tone gentle and soft but still firm.

“Ok, thanks Mom.” Luche thanked her.

“You’re welcome Sweetheart, now, I got work to do, just take it easy ok?” Sylva said as she finally let go of him and Luche nodded in agreement and sniffled still before Sylva handed him a tissue.

“It’ll be ok, she’ll be taken care of to the best of our ability, I promise Sweetheart.” Sylva reminded him before he nodded again and left and rejoined Ravus and Libertus in Ravus’ office.

Meanwhile when Luche, Ravus and Libertus left Gladio shot a text to Cor.

‘Knucklehead left, said she fell asleep, Crowe’s with her in the room now and Crowe confirmed she’s out. Beavus, Knucklehead and Lib left, Crowe is still here tho.' Gladio texted Cor. Even though Gladio felt Cor was the one who was the knucklehead. Gladio had spent most of his life idolizing Cor and now that all this had gone down and watching the way Luche had behaved all summer, he felt Ada should have never left Luche, she was better off with him and he couldn’t fault her for wanting Luche and even he could see that Cor was losing her because Cor had blown it. Cor knew better, when Cor admitted he had known for months that Gil had his sights on Ada, he was ready to kick Cor’s ass. He was so grateful that Sylva had seen all this ahead of time and had a plan and was able to get everyone to work together on their own side rather than against each other, he was grateful Regis did too. The way it worked out was the best case scenario. Hopefully it would be the one time in his career that he’d be dirty but it was for Ada. He knew that if it had been Pashmina, he would have gone full Punisher and tried to burn the city to the ground. But fuck all if he and Pashmina hadn’t gotten the best sex ever last night when they got home from the hospital, why he personally didn’t get more than a couple of hours of sleep last night. He was so proud of her for pushing through her squeamishness with blood and working on Baxter and working on alibis with Selena when she was done, hell all of the girls had worked on alibis. She was a bad bitch in the best way. He loved her so so so much. Hell even Yasmine had been awesome, helping Pelna with all the computer systems and making sure all the cameras were shut off so that none of it got recorded while also manning a special drone to keep an eye on things at the same time. They worked together as a great team too. He was happy they were together. Even Nyx and Luna were great and Stella and Tredd were in their damn elements last night. Tredd was a damn natural and took to this like a fish to water. He was so surprised Hazel was WitchHazel. But he was so grateful he didn’t have to face off against her. He was super impressed Coach was as amazing as he was and he understood that Coach would be loyal to Hazel and he could only hope and pray they stayed together because they were all one big family and this family handled it’s business last night and this family took care of itself. He was so proud to be in this family and at the center was the biggest badass of them all, Sylva, she was the glue holding everything together and he wanted to kiss her when she revealed how she actually had plans in place just in case any of this shit had ever happened to any of them, she was the epitome of Mama Bear and she took care of her cubs and was ready and willing to do whatever it took to protect them. Heaven forbid anything ever happen to her because they were all screwed otherwise.

‘We’ll be right there, got to grab some coffee, text me any changes.’ Cor answered, having been on and off staring at his phone since Clarus suggested they go get some coffee from the cafe down the hallway to distract Cor from barging into the room and making a fool of himself.

“God I wanna punt that asshole to the moon.” Cor growled as they stood in line to get some coffee as Cor looked at the tea selection and tried to think of what Ada would like to drink as Clarus just rolled his eyes and shook his head. Clarus was a patient man but Cor was reaching even his limits.

“But you did the right thing by not doing that, you know Ada. She wouldn’t want you fighting, not when she’s going through so much already.” Clarus reminded him and Cor just grumbled his curses under his breath and crossed his arms over his chest and squeezed his phone tight to make sure he didn’t miss any vibrating from getting messages.

“Hi, can I get two of the largest coffees you have with four shots of espresso each, chocolate syrup and caramel syrup in both.” Clarus ordered first from the Barista who happily took the order down.

“Name?” She asked.

“Clarus on the first and Gladio on the second.” Clarus answered.

“Ok,” She nodded as she wrote down his name on the cup and handed the cups over to the next barista at her station.

“How much will that be?” Clarus asked.

“Oh it’s free, if you’re seeing a patient on this floor, as their guests your refreshments are free, all I need is the room number.” She replied.

“Oh it’s 8245.” Clarus offered before she nodded and punched that into the system as he still put a fiver into the tip jar.

“And what can I get for you?” She asked Cor sweetly.

“The largest coffee you have and probably eight shots of espresso and I can add my own cream and sugar right?” Cor asked and she nodded. “And can I get one of...can you just get me two cups of hot water and then one or two packets of every kind of tea you have?” Cor asked.

“Absolutely,” She immediately agreed. “Name?” She requested.

“Cor.” Cor answered and she wrote that down too and passed the cup over.

“Room number?” She asked.

“Same number, 8245.” He answered as she punched that in. “Leonis? Cor Leonis?” She asked once she saw the name under the room number listed as the caretaker.

“Yup.” Cor nodded.

“You’re listed as the caretaker for the patient in 8245 so if you need anything at all, you can call room service and all your meals and snacks will be provided for you free of charge and of course anything we can provide for you here too.” She informed him sweetly.

“Thank you,” Cor nodded in understanding as he gave he a polite smile before she got to work getting his things together.

“Can I get that chocolate muffin?” Cor added as he looked at the display of pastires and snacks in the case again and realized he hadn’t eaten anything since last night and wanted to inhale it on the spot.

“Of course, anything else catching your eye this morning?” She asked as got him his chocolate – chocolate chip muffin which was practically a cupcake without frosting and put it into the bag for him before he shook his head no and she simply nodded in understanding before she handed it over to him before he walked over to Clarus at the end of the bar where there were condiments while they were waiting for their coffees to be made, Cor not waiting anymore before taking the muffin out of the bag and started to eat it, not caring that he was taking almost inhumanly large bites because it was a big muffin. His cheeks expanded as far as they could and he took some comfort in the delicious taste and not noticing or caring that he was getting chocolate crumbs everywhere. Clarus gave him a wary if not a bit amused look and went ahead and got Cor a couple of napkins and just handed them to him.

“You have a little something, well, everywhere,” Clarus muttered as he gestured to all of Cor’s face and chest. Cor just shrugged and continued chewing as it gave him a break from thinking and helped him process more. God he wanted to kick Luche’s ass, he wanted to kick Gilgamesh’s ass, hell he wanted Gilgamesh DEAD. He wanted to dismantle his empire brick by brick and beat Gilgamesh to death with those damned bricks, then maybe, if he had time and energy, go after Luche. Who did that asshole think he was? Just marched all up in there and rushed to Ada’s side like he was the most important person in the world? Asshole. How did Ada want him?! How did his Ada want her ex at a time like that? She should have been furious with Crowe and Libertus for telling him, he had no right and no business knowing their business like that. He wondered how pissed Ada would be if he did actually kick Luche’s ass? She’d get over it eventually, right? God he needed to make this right, he needed to FIX THIS. He needed JUSTICE, he couldn’t believe he had knocked her up either, he was going to be a dad...as terrified as that thought made him feel, he would have given anything to just redo the last 24 hours. Go back in time, he wished he had taken Ada out of town, hell, put her on a plane and sent her away to go visit her parents, out of harm’s way the moment she had gotten back. And his heart tormented him with guilt when his brain supplied him with the what if scenario of Ada figuring out she was expecting and surprising him with the news. How happy they would have been, how he would have properly proposed to her and married her. Keep her home, keep her safe. He would have given anything for that future...

“Mr. Leonis.” The second barista called out when his coffee was done along with his cups of hot water for tea that had all been put into a drink carrier, all the teabags put into an empty cup.

He put the rest of his half eaten muffin back in the bag and grabbed the carrier before joining Clarus at the condiment counter and put cream and sugar into his coffee as Clarus put creamer into his and Gladio’s coffees before passing the creamer to Cor to put in his own coffee before they went back to the room.

“Is she awake yet?” Cor asked Gladio who nodded but licked his lips when he saw his dad carrying coffee with his name on it and reached out for it and took it from his dad before drinking it gratefully.

“Yeah, she ordered breakfast and it came like 5 minutes later, service is insanely good up here.” Gladio informed him and Cor blew out a breath of relief, good she was eating.

“Good, go to the counter down there and get some breakfast too.” Clarus urged before Gladio nodded and obeyed his father’s direction.

Cor knocked softly before coming into the room to see Ada and Crowe talking quietly as Ada picked at her food a little while Crowe downed her own meal that had brought with Ada’s meal.

“I got you some tea Love, I got all the different kinds they had.” Cor informed Ada before setting the cups on the table.

“Were you hungry Love? When I called to order breakfast they asked for my order and asked for my ‘caregiver’s order’ and any guest meals as well.” Ada explained as she sifted through the different tea flavors and making a face when they didn’t have any she really liked, so she settled for the black pearl tea.

“So I’m eating the guest meal just so you know.” Crowe informed Cor through her own bulging cheeks, she was after all eating for two. Which only made this loss more poignant. Crowe and Ada would have been expecting babies at the same time.

“I got a muffin at the snack bar down the hallway, I’m good.” Cor waived off as he sat down and put his half eaten muffin and coffee on the other bedside table.

“You doing ok?” Cor asked Ada curiously, just itching to ask her about what happened between her and Luche. God it was like pouring salt in an open wound. And the way Crowe was looking at him with subtle aggression was only frying his nerves worse.

Ada waited until Crowe finished eating before asking for some privacy with Cor who she could see Cor barely able to maintain his composure.

“Yeah I gotta go find Lib anyway, see what shenanigans he’s up to.” Crowe excused herself and got up to leave before there was another knock on the door and Cor just wanted to scream. He just wanted to be alone with Ada for two god damn fucking minutes before Crowe left and three doctors and a nurse came in.

“Hi Miss Ardens, I’m Dr. Gentiana, a psychiatrist here at Miracles, how are you feeling today?” Gentiana asked warmly as she came in and shook Ada’s hand before shaking Cor’s before the others introduced themselves as well. Dr. Ramuh and Dr. Shiva.

“And please be honest with your answer.” Gentiana clarified when Ada took a deep breath and hesitated in answering.

“I feel like shit, I hurt all over and in every way.” Ada answered as her shoulders sagged.

“From the notes in your file I can completely understand that and you have every right to feel that way and you shouldn’t be afraid to admit it.” Dr. Gentiana gently assured her.

“Thanks,” Ada offered a small smile, enjoying the validation.

“Well the reason my associates and I are here is we understand you’ve gone through some really traumatic experiences recently and I would like to ask if you were comfortable sharing those or did you need or want more time to process everything? Because you need and should be taken care of not just physically but as a whole, especially psychologically.” Gentiana specified kindly.

“Well...” Ada began before her eyes flooded with hot painful tears again as she grabbed the tissues then poured out everything that had happened as the doctors took notes and offered commendation and encouragement as Cor scooted closer and grabbed her hand and cried too as he wallowed in his guilt and remorse and really liked it that Dr. Gentiana engaged them both and listened attentively to him and Ada since Dr. Gentiana had been his phsychiatrist for a few years now.

An hour later when Ada had finished pouring her heavy heart again, but this time she felt a bit lighter about it and a tiny bit more at peace about it too.

“Well you’ve done an excellent job being open and honest with us and I applaud your strength, both of your strengths, this isn’t easy stuff to talk about and both of you did a really good job. And thank you for trusting us with this information and trusting us with your feelings. Now you’re being offered to be in a couple of different aftercare programs where our services will be free of charge to both of you and I highly recommend taking full advantage of the opportunity. Here’s my card, are you comfortable with us coming again tomorrow? Or even later today?” Dr. Gentiana invited as she put her card on Ada’s table and slid it to her before handing Cor her business card again as well before her associates did the same.

Ada nodded yes and Cor found himself nodding along too.

Meanwhile back in Ravus’ office, Ravus and Libertus listened patiently as Luche poured his own heart out after Libertus had given Luche the full story and all the nitty gritty details from Ada’s point of view as Ravus was surprisingly very, very quiet about everything else and Luche had wanted to punch something and settled for punching Ravus throw pillows he kept on the couch in his office and screaming into them before all out breaking down crying while Ravus sat on one side while Libertus sat on the other, both of them putting their arms around Luche’s shoulders and consoling him.

“Why didn’t I fight harder for her? Why did I ever let her go? None of this would have happened if I hadn’t let her go.” Luche sobbed as the three of them emptied the tissue box Ravus kept on the coffee table in his office.

“And why was she ok starting a family with him and not with me?” Luche asked rhetorically and Ravus and Libertus could only shrug.

“God Crowe and her would have been pregnant at the same time! They would have had a double baby shower, Ada would have been such a good mom.” Luche sobbed.

“She would be, she still can be.” Ravus tried to comfort. “And maybe this will open her eyes and make her see that she isn’t better off with him, there’s still hope.” Ravus tried to console.

“You’re right.” Luche realized. “It felt so fucking good to hold her again. I can’t, I can’t give up now. I gotta get her back. I don’t know how, but I gotta, maybe if I can show her and prove to her that I’ve changed, that she’s better off with me, she’d be a hell of a lot safer with me, that the most dangerous thing around her would be kitchen knives. I can take care of her now. I can take care of her better than he can.” Luche professed and Ravus grinned mischievously when he got an idea.

“Well, what helped me win Selena was small, but powerful and thoughtful gifts and gestures. She’s British, British love tea, what’s her favorite kind of tea?” Ravus asked thoughtfully.

“Irish Breakfast.” Luche answered and Ravus’ grin grew.

“Yeah I doubt Miracles stocks that, come on, go into my bathroom, get cleaned up, we’re going tea shopping.” Ravus suggested before Luche did as he was told and went into his bathroom.

“Text Crowe, we’ll need the best friend scoop.” Ravus directed Libertus who agreed and texted Crowe only moments before she came into the room herself.

“Nice office Beavus, where’s Luche?” Crowe asked.

“In the bathroom getting cleaned up. I would like to ask the biggest of all favors.” Ravus began and walked towards Crowe bravely.

“And that is?” Crowe asked as she crossed her arms and popped her hip.

“Luche wants to get back with Ada and we would like to ask for your help. Seeing as how Ada would be much...safer with him. Do you think there’s a chance she might want him too?” Ravus asked carefully and his heart soared when Crowe’s grin grew mischievous.

“So let’s say I agree with you and I may be in the possession of the knowledge that Luche has a pretty big chance since I agree with you that she��s better off coming back to him and would be happier with him too, what would this ‘favor’ entail?” Crowe asked.

“Doing exactly what you just did by telling us that and perhaps answer some questions like what’s her favorite...anything and everything?” Ravus returned with an equally mischievous, scheming smile.

“Please Crowe?” Luche asked once he reappeared from the bathroom, still looking like he had cried his eyes out but was at least a little bit better put together.

“Hell fucking yeah I’m in,” Crowe agreed before going and hugging Luche.

“You did so good Luche, so so good, you were perfect with her, you didn’t barrage her with any questions or make her feel guilty or anything, you just provided comfort by just holding her and that’s all she wanted and needed from you.” Crowe revealed as Luche breathed a sigh of relief and hugged her back tightly.

“Now come on, I have a feeling we’re about to make a shopping trip.” Crowe invited with a gleam in her eye. “Beavus, you drive, you have the biggest and nicest car.” Crowe commanded and Ravus chuckled and grabbed his car keys.

Ada had given Crowe permission to tell only their closest friends that she was in the hospital as Selena, Luna and Nyx came, Baxter and flowers in tow since their alibi was that Sylva had called them in to take care of Baxter as did Pashmina, Yasmine and Stella and Ada was so, so happy Baxter was alive and relatively well. So Luche when he, Ravus, Libertus and Crowe returned with goodies and flowers galore were able to blend in with the rest of them. But Cor however kept a suspicious eye on them all, even though he did appreciate their condolences.

“I got you a few things.” Luche muttered as he handed her a tin of her absolute favorite tea. A beautiful turquoise tin from Fortnum and Mason, Irish Breakfast flavor complete with a special tea ball and spoon and a proper set of tea cups and a small teapot and matching set of tea cups and an English style scone and fairy cake, also in her favorite flavors. Luche tried not to smile too smugly when Ada gasped and fawned over them and Crowe happily dumped out the tea she had been sipping on and got fresh hot water from a little electronic tea kettle to make a fresh pot of tea for Ada so she could enjoy it immediately. And Cor tried and failed not to get enraged at the fact that Luche seemed already all to eager to try to get on the best terms possible with Ada. His baby died in less than 24 hours and already this asshole was showing off with going overboard with stuff. God he just wanted to deck him. But Cor had promised Ada he wouldn’t start anything with him. But he was all to eager for Luche to just go ahead and say something even mildly offensive and he would gladly beat his ass. The only comforting thought Cor could come up with is it would take less than two seconds to draw his gun and shoot him in the head and do so fast enough that Luche wouldn’t even have a chance to react. But no, Ada had been traumatized enough. He couldn’t do that to her, not right now….in front of her...probably….not. Plus there were too many witnesses and all her friends were on the edge of hating him and he felt like he could feel their resentment roll off of them in waves.

“And we got you an assortment just in case you wanted to try something different.” Ravus shrugged when he produced a big box that had a nice assortment of even more tins of tea in it.

“Aw, you guys are so sweet, thank you.” Ada graciously thanked them before getting another round of hugs from everyone as Baxter wagged his tail on her lap, Baxter being so happy to see her even though he was bandaged up too before Sylva and Regis appeared as well.

“My goodness, give her room to breathe guys,” Sylva lightly and gently teased when she knocked on the open door.

“Hi Mum,” Ada laughed.

“Oh bless your soul for calling me that Dearest, how are you feeling?” Sylva asked as she put the flowers on the window sill along with all the others and sat down on the bed with her as the other girls scooted away to give her room.

“So sorry to hear about your loss,” Regis offered Cor before he noticed how Cor was barely hanging onto his cool with the room so full of people.

“Why don’t we get some air.” Regis suggested to Cor and Ada nodded her encouragement and permission to Cor who was hesitant but then was all too happy to get up and out of there before he cracked or snapped or both.

“Guys, could you also please give us a moment?” Sylva requested to rest of them before they took the hint and got out of there.

“Oh my that’s a lot of tea,” Sylva noted, breaking the ice before they both blew out a breath.

“It’s overwhelming to have so many visitors isn’t it?” Sylva guessed and Ada huffed a laugh.

“Yeah,” Ada agreed.

“I remember when I had my miscarriages, they were particularly rough and I didn’t want to see anyone but Victor. To see anyone else felt like burning my shortest fuse to turn me into an angry vengeful fireball.” Sylva explained in a joking manner as she made a face and got Ada to laugh.

“But you’re doing really well Sweetie, but remember, it’s ok to tell them to take a hike and just give you some space and some time. You’re healing from a lot of wounds, the deepest ones are always unseen. Please don’t push yourself beyond your limits.” Sylva offered sagely as Ada nodded along.

“Now, I have done everything I can possibly do on my end to make sure your stay here is as pleasant and comfortable as it can be while also being mindful to Cor’s loss too. So besides just your copay from his insurance, you should not be getting any medical bills and if you do, tell me and I’ll take care of those too.” Sylva informed her.

“Oh you didn’t have to Mum,” Ada shook her head and Sylva softly shushed her.

“Oh hush, I wanted to, you’ll have to forgive the boys and Cor, Cor called me last night and I made sure that once you were brought here you’d be taken care of to the best of our ability, and when they all told me the very basic overview as to what happened, I’ve been working all morning to make sure you stay taken care of, plus as CEO, I have codes and protocols that get stuff done immediately. Luna jokingly calls them my ‘God Codes’. So since you’re family, I was only all too happy to use them especially for you. Now don’t feel rushed getting out of here either, it’s a big hospital with plenty of room. You stay as long as you need to ok?” Sylva offered.

“Boys? Does Noctis and Ignis know too?” Ada asked.

“No. Sorry, I meant Ravus and Luche, Luche came to me first thing this morning, only moments after he found out himself, practically came into my office on his hands and knees begging for my intervention, which by that point, I already had and obviously I would never make anyone do that because that’s just ridiculous. Luche didn’t have his own codes yet and Ravus’ codes will fall a bit short for a little while yet. But it got done.” Sylva explained and tried not to grin when Ada’s face softened and she relaxed at hearing that Luche had done that.

“Well, let me give you my number here at the office so you can call my office directly from your room. If you need or want anything, and I mean that, anything at all. Even if you just want to talk or whatever, please do not hesitate to call me.” Sylva invited as she wrote down her number on the dry erase board at the bottom, in large enough print that Ada could easily see it and dial it before getting her own business card out and writing every number she had for herself on it and on the back and handed it to Ada. “Do you want another hug?” Sylva asked when she saw how moved Ada was to all this and Ada nodded and Sylva sat back down and hugged her as tight as she dared and rubbed soothing circles into Ada’s back as Ada broke down and cried again before rocking her the way any mother would and spoke the softest sweetest words of comfort to her.

“How many miscarriages did you have?” Ada asked.

“Three, one before I had Ravus and two after I had Lunafreya before I had my tubes tied. I had the hardest time carrying both of them. Ravus was born at 32 weeks and that was only because I was on strict bed rest in this very hospital for most of the pregnancy, only a few rooms away from this room. Lunafreya only made it to 31 weeks on bed rest, because my body sucks and I had to have C-Sections for both of them because of all the complications. And Lunafreya, she was the surprise because I thought Victor had pulled out and apparently, he didn’t pull out in time. They lived in incubators for the first few months of their lives and were touch and go several times and it was absolute torture. Surprise miscarriages are sometimes worse because then you mourn all the what ifs and you start mourning all the joy and the possibilities you would normally would have felt had you known. But you should know that it’s ok to do all of that, mourn all of it. Don’t push yourself to get over it, your friends will start to move on quicker than you do and you’ll feel left behind and that they all stopped caring about you and please don’t start to believe those feelings, because those feelings that they stopped caring won’t be true. And some of them may say some really well intention-ed but horrible things and you’ll want to scream and rip your hair out and it’s perfectly ok to scream and throw temper tantrums because that’s part of the process. And if you find yourself drawing away from everyone, especially Crowe because she is expecting herself and it may get too painful to have just another reminder of what you almost had yourself and that’s ok. She’ll do her best to understand and she’ll get over it. And sooner than you realize you’re going to wake up and not want to immediately scream and cry and then you’ll have a whole day where you won’t cry. You’ll want to but you won’t and it’ll followed by more days that you do cry, anywhere from a single or a few tears to buckets of tears. And then you’ll have a day where you see a baby and go ‘at least someone else was able to carry them’ and not want to die inside. And then another day you’ll be happy to see a baby or a pregnant woman and not feel jealous or cheated. And maybe, if you want to have more kids someday, you will and then you’ll wake up one day and realize that you’re passed this. And- or- you can go to the end of the spectrum I’m at and try to adopt everyone, every kid you come into contact with. Not that you’re a kid anymore mind you. But anyone in that age group or younger. I know it hurts and please, understand that you’re not alone, and I don’t mean your friends and family. Also keep in mind Cor lost just as much as you did and believe me, he will beat himself up over this for years to come. And he’ll have good days and bad days himself.” Sylva guessed and Ada nodded in confirmation.

“He’ll take longer to process this and come to terms with it. Give him time and patience and the benefit of the doubt. Don’t lose each other in this grief. Try to pull each other through but you both have to put in work, if you find you’re the only one doing the work, you should reevaluate things ok?” Sylva advised gently even though she feared that Cor would lose himself in work and be more determined than ever to hunt Gilgamesh down and wouldn’t stop until he did and he would leave Ada alone in her grief by being preoccupied with his job. She deserved someone who would be present with her. Not distracted, not angry, not vengeful which is what hopefully Luche would be.

“Thanks Mum,” Ada whispered in thanks as she buried her face into Sylva’s chest.

“Have you called your parents yet?” Sylva asked thoughtfully.

“No, I don’t want to worry them, I don’t want them to ask how it happened and I don’t want to keep telling this story over and over again.” Ada pulled away and shook her head.

“Ok, that’s perfectly ok, you don’t have to tell anyone else what has happened either, except perhaps a therapist, which I highly recommend but you don’t have to. Don’t let me push that please.” Sylva requested.

“Actually three of them came earlier, Dr. Gentiana and I forget the other two.” Ada admitted.

“Dr. Gentiana is Lunafreya’s therapist as well as the rest of our family’s therapist, don’t tell anyone I told you that, that’s a HIPPA violation but whatever, anyway, she is absolutely wonderful. She has helped some people through some really... just awful... well to be perfectly frank, some fucked up shit.” Sylva stated plainly that got Ada to snicker a laugh and helped her stop crying. “But she specializes in helping people who have lived through some really traumatic experiences. Women especially. She usually doesn’t take on new patients, but as a favor to me I had her make an exception and if you like her, she’s the one I would recommend the most. In fact she had me stop recommending her because she got flooded with referrals from me.” Sylva explained.

“That’s where I’ve seen her card! In Luna’s wallet!” Ada realized as she had been racking her brain thinking she had seen Dr. Gentiana’s business card before.

“And feel free to ask Lunafreya about her too, I’m sure she’ll say the same things I am.” Sylva suggested.

“So who got you the tea?” Sylva asked as she noticed the tin on her table matched the ones in the box along with the tea set and the electronic teapot.

“Oh Luche got me all this one and a proper scone and a fairy cake, bless his soul, and then Beavus, Lib and Crowe got me the rest.” Ada explained as she pointed and gestured to everything.

“Is this your favorite tea?” Sylva asked as she reached for it and picked it up to look at it thoughtfully.

“Yeah,” Ada confirmed with a nod.

“Like this brand and this flavor?” Sylva asked curiously.

“Mmhm, I’m surprised Luche even remembered. I can’t get Cor to remember that, all he can recall is that I like tea period.” Ada muttered before she dug into her scone and practically moaned when all the flavors hit her taste buds just the way they were supposed to as she enjoyed the perfect texture.

“Well that was incredibly thoughtful of him to remember a detail like that.” Sylva praised. “Can I smell it?” Sylva asked and Ada nodded adamantly before Sylva popped the lid and took a deep breath in.

“OOOOoooooohhhh,” Sylva ‘oohed’ appreciatively. “That smells downright heavenly.” Sylva praised.

“Do you mind if I get a picture of it so I can make sure my house has it for when you come to visit Dearest?” Sylva asked thoughtfully.

“Go for it,” Ada invited and Sylva snapped a picture of it with her phone.

“You know, you’ll learn this when you go to therapy but Luche has either knowingly but I’m guessing unknowingly helped you quite a bit by providing this, this is called ‘Distress Tolerance’. Small joys like this, food, smells, tastes, anything sensory that you find enjoyable, help you endure and tolerate distress.” Sylva revealed as she put it back in place.

“Yeah?” Ada asked, her heart melting a little more.

“Yep,” Sylva confirmed. “Well that’s my Mum talk, thank you for suffering through it as well as you did Dear.” Sylva thanked Ada.

“I needed it, I didn’t realize how much I needed a Mum until you came in.” Ada admitted.

“Oh bless you Sweetheart. And I will happily be your Mum from now on ok? If you want me in Mum mode, good luck trying to get me out of it.” Sylva warned teasingly which got them both to laugh.

“Ok, do you want everyone back in here or just Cor or is there anyone else you really want to see? Do you want more rest?” Sylva asked thoughtfully and rubbed Ada’s arms before taking her hands within her own and holding them gently, rubbing the back of Ada’s hands with her thumbs comfortingly.

“Just Cor, I know he’s overwhelmed right now, he’s not used to all the people.” Ada answered. “I don’t want to be rude but..”

“Hey, don’t worry about that, throw the fear of being rude out the window. You and your recovery come first. I’ll happily go into Mum mode and tell them to take a hike. ‘They can bite my shiny metal ass’.” Sylva quoted Futurama and Ada erupted into laughter.

“Victory is mine!” Sylva said in her best Stewie impression and Ada laughed even harder.

“My kids hate it when I quote their shows, embarrasses the crap out of them, probably why I love to do it so much. The best part is quoting it wrong and watching them die a little on the inside, I won’t lie, gives me life.” Sylva giggled. “Ok Sweetheart, let me get out of your hair,” Sylva suggested before leaning forward and hugging Ada tightly again and kissed her cheek sweetly before she pet Baxter affectionately and got up and took her leave as she mentally made a note to make sure that the room would be equipped to handle Baxter staying with Ada.

“Guys, we should probably call it a day, she’s pretty exhausted in every respect.” Sylva gently but firmly told them before seeing Cor down the hall talking with Regis still.

“Say your goodbyes quickly and quietly. And then get the hell out.” Sylva sarcastically quipped which got them all to snicker a laugh.

“Except you two, I would like to have a word.” Sylva clarified seriously as she pointed her index and middle fingers to Ravus and Luche who were standing side by side before walking towards Cor to offer her own condolences while the rest of them just popped in and said their quick goodbyes.

“Regis and Luna said you used your ‘God Code’?” Cor asked with an amused but appreciative smile.

“Yes, I put them in before we left last night.” Sylva admitted.

“Thank you so much.” Cor graciously thanked her. “I didn’t even realize you could do that.” Cor admitted.

“I hope you don’t mind I slipped into “mum mode” with her since she could use a mother’s comfort for the time being. And I told her about my own multiple experiences with this kind of loss which I think helped quite a bit. Hearing from someone who has already gone through it and come out the other side.” Sylva offered.

“Oh I didn’t...thank you, I don’t know what to say or how to say it and you know me, I’m not..great with words.” Cor admitted lowly as he felt himself grow embarrassed with how fragmented he was being. He hadn’t slept well last night either.

“I’m just gonna hug you.” Sylva tried to warn him before standing up on her tip toes and hugged him tightly and smiled sadly when he hugged her back just as tight. Seeing as how she was kind of a big sister to him or perhaps an aunt.

“Sweetheart, you just lost your baby, a baby you didn’t know you had to loose. It’s hard. I know first hand how hard it is. It’s ok to mourn, you need to mourn, mourn the loss of the life, the loss of the joy you normally would have felt in finding out she was expecting and mourning how your lives are and could have been forever changed and mourning the ‘what if’s’ too. Don’t ever think you’re being weak by mourning and going through all the stages of grief at your pace, not anyone else’s. Just take care of yourself and take care of Ada. Don’t let the doctors or nurses rush you out of here, when you and Ada are ready to go home, you’ll know and she’ll tell you and I’ll make sure Baxter can stay here with her and don’t worry, I’ll get food and dishes and things delivered shortly. Hopefully. But don’t rush yourselves either. Be patient and be kind to each other, and be understanding, that’s all you should do. And please know that you’re not alone, I know that’s all you want to be is alone and her friends aren’t leaving her but her friends are her family right now Cor, and for better or worse you need to be her friend and her family. Make sure she doesn’t feel alone and don’t get quiet because you’re afraid of saying the wrong thing. Make your presence known and felt. Stay with her mentally, not just physically. Very few things are worse than being with someone knowing their head is a million miles away.” Sylva cautioned gently even though she knew Cor would completely ignore all of this but it was important that Regis witness her giving that advice as she rubbed soothing circles into his back too and Cor nodded his agreement and understanding at that.

“Will do,” Cor croaked as he fought to keep himself from crying before looking past her to see Ravus and Luche hanging out down the hall but further away from the room.

“Who’s left down there?” Sylva asked.

“Just Beavus and Knucklehead.” Cor chuckled.

“Well I asked them to stay behind because we have work to do, I’ll take them with me when I go.” Sylva explained as she let go of him and returned to standing on her own feet. “And don’t read too much into well intention-ed gifts, they’re meant as ‘Distress Tolerance’ which is a form of therapy that you’ll learn about hopefully when you go and get some because both of you could use it.” Sylva reminded him. “Just ask him or Lunafreya, Ravus won’t want to talk about it, he never does.” Sylva gestured to Regis. “Also, I put my direct phone line number in Ada’s room, both of you are free to use it, if you want or need anything, anything at all, it’ll ring my office directly and she has a card with every phone number I have, I suggest putting all numbers into your phones and don’t hesitate to call ok? We’re here for you. As much as you want us to be.” Sylva reminded him sweetly.

“Thank you,” Cor thanked her again.

“You’re welcome, take it easy the rest of the day and the rest of the week, tell anyone else who wants to come and visit, to either send a text or wait until you’re up to having more visitors and to ultimately, take a hike.” Sylva advised with a grin.

“Will do, now go take a hike.” Cor teased and Sylva barked a laugh.

“Ha! Ok, I’m going I’m going.” Sylva laughed. “I’ll see you at home soon Dearest.” Sylva bid to Regis before turning and walking away and nodding to Luche and Ravus to follow her before they obediently took that cue and followed behind her and turned and went to the elevators.

“You know, I used to think she was bossy, now I just understand, she’s just The Boss.” Cor muttered under his breath to Regis who was smiling so proudly at his wife’s back.

“Yeah, it’s a tough job and she’s tougher than the job so it works out.” Regis shrugged before giving his friend one last hug before he promised to keep in touch and offered to help every way he could and offered to go to Cor’s house to get him some clothes to change into so Cor could get a shower and Cor immediately gave Regis his house keys to do just that and Regis promised to be back as soon as he could.

Meanwhile in the elevator.

“Luche, does the term ‘Distress Tolerance’ mean anything to you yet? Did you look at those books I gave you?” Sylva asked while she kept her back to her boys but could see in the reflection how Ravus and Luche looked a little worriedly at each other.

“No...not really.” Luche honestly admitted.

“Huh, well Distress Tolerance is when you are going through something that you find distressing and you distract yourself from said distress via sensory engaging distractions, like eating or drinking for example, either you should provide this for yourself or someone could provide this for you.” Sylva listed off casually.

“Like say for instance, your favorite tea, a tea set and a proper English scone.” Sylva gave an example and finally gave Luche a grin over her shoulder before the elevator dinged and the doors opened to the floor where their offices were.

“Right about now though, you should get those dogs.” Sylva urged them before Ravus and Luche looked at each other and nodded in agreement before Ravus took Luche with him to the dog breeder in question.

“Can I help you?” The woman answered as she came to the door.

“Hi, my name is Ravus Nox Fleuret and this is…” Ravus began to introduce. “Oh you must be Luche Lazarus!” She realized with a bright smile as she opened the door fully.

“My name is Zara Kisska, I’ve been expecting you all week. Sylva said you’d be by this morning.” She said as she shook their hands then invited them into the house before she led them through to the back yard where a group of dogs were playing.

“Kona! Kahlua!” Zara called before two brendle cane corsos came bounding up happily as the other dogs stopped and looked up and stared curiously at them before they walked over to them too.

“Sit,” she commanded and they all sat down immediately before she had Luche and Ravus meet them as Luche just fell in love with Kona and Kahlua as did Ravus. “Now Kona is a male and Kahlua is a female and both of them have been spayed and neutered and all of them have all their shots…” Zara began to explain as she told Luche more about the dogs as the others smelled them curiously too.

“You wouldn’t by any chance have a…” Ravus began before Zara smiled smugly.

“This is Sasha.” Zara introduced as the silver gray cane corso licked his hands. “Your Mom said you might want one too and requested I keep Sasha back for you.” Zara grinned as Ravus fell in love with Sasha as Sasha fell in love with him too.

“Obviously they’re all great with other dogs, great with other animals, I have three cats and a few parakeets and they’re all great with them. You’ll want to feed them a really, really good dog food…” She continued as she showed them what she fed the dogs and made suggestions about toys and treats and how much time to spend with them and to obviously socialize them with their friends and their pets and what their personalities were like and what she had been training them with and what commands she used and what tone of voice she used when she did it and demonstrated those commands for them before she asked for 5k per dog since they were all show quality dogs and had pedigrees and papers and extra obedience training which Ravus and Luche gladly paid and got their papers and their vet records before Luche and Ravus got their leashes and walked away with their new dogs and had them get in the back of Ravus’ car before he drove them to the pet store to get everything they would need for the dogs before driving Luche back to the hospital so he could get his car and take his own new dogs and all their stuff home. He spent the rest of the night getting them settled in his house and made sure they knew where to go potty at and where their food was at and that they felt right at home as Ravus did the same to Sasha as Selena fell in love with Sasha too from their apartment right next door.

#Magic and Miracles and Beyond #Magic and Miracles and Beyond Chapter 10

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multiimuse · 6 years ago

Note

★☆✪❉✯⍟♌ ♒🌷ꕥ🍀 - bsd muses~

★ what kind of phone do they have?

Chuuya - A high-end smartphone that’s technically a few years out of date but still functional. He could upgrade it but doesn’t see much point; cell phones are the type of tech he’s invested in pouring money into.

Alcott - An older-model, flat flip phone. It does its job, and she has a cute flower charm attached to it. She could afford something newer by now, probably, but this one was a gift shortly after joining the Guild, and she doesn’t want to part with it.

Ranpo - A smartphone that he doesn’t use much, despite the number of games he has saved on it. He tried to use its GPS navigator once and ended up getting lost for the better part of a day. (But hey, he found a really good ramen place out of it.)

☆ what is their phone’s background?

Chuuya - His background is a bottle of wine being poured into a glass. His lock screen is a picture of his motorcycle. (They used to be different, once upon a time, and he still has the photos he used back then saved on the phone.)

Alcott - Her phone is so old that its background is a simple color: a soft teal.

Ranpo - His background is a picture of Karl! ... Really. It’s Karl. Poe’s just in it. Because he’s holding Karl up to the screen. His lock screen is someone’s hands as they’re writing something furiously. The edge of the sleeve that can be seen looks a little familiar...

✪ their standard ringtone?

Chuuya - The chorus of a rock song he’s liked for years. Once upon a time it’d get changed every so often to things he hated, but that hasn’t happened in so long he’s almost forgotten it would ever happen.

Alcott - A little piano melody that’s loud enough to hear but soft enough not to startle her.

Ranpo - One of those obnoxious ‘ringtones’ that’s just a voice telling you to ANSWER THE PHONE. Sometimes he’ll switch it up for an obnoxiously-catchy pop song that’s popular right now.

❉ do they have any pictures on their phone?

Chuuya - He has some recent pictures from outings with the other members of the mafia that he’s reasonably close to,but most of the photos on his phone are old ones that he can’t bring himself to get rid of but doesn’t want to look at so he pretends they’re not there.

Alcott - A very old, very grainy picture of her family, taken with the phone’s poor-quality camera. It’s the only one she has on it, but it’s enough.

Ranpo - Quite a few! He likes taking pictures of sweets he’s going to eat that are as visually appealing as they are tasty, so that he can keep them forever and still eat them. He even did a photo diary of his snacks for a month and never bothered deleting those pictures. There’s also a few candids of his coworkers taken when he was bored, a cool bird he saw out the window, one of Kenji’s plants on top of a computer, and more than a few candids of Poe.

✯ what do their texts look like? do they use emojis often? what kind?

Chuuya - [to: mackerel] stop texting me when i’m in the middle of a job. i know you know i am i fucking saw you waving at me.

Alcott - [to: Mother] Is everything alright at home? I haven’t heard from you in some time, so... I was worried.

Ranpo - [to: ed] hey ed r u busy if ur not i have something 4 u so lets meet up ok ^u^

⍟ any games on their phone? what kind? how often do they play?

Chuuya - ...He has Neko Atsume and he has spent significant amounts of real money on spoiling his pixel cat visitors. Tell no-one. He has a few card and puzzle games, too.

Alcott - Herr phone is too old for any good games, but it does have centipede and a difficult-to-control pinball game.

Ranpo - His phone is 95% games. Card games and puzzle games, mostly, things that are distracting and colorful and fun. It’s useful to fidget with, and he’ll try just about anything once if it’s recommended to him, but he’s pretty quick to forget them if they can’t hold his interest.

♌ how do they drink their coffee/tea?

Chuuya - For his coffee, he drinks it black and gulps it down. It’s something he drinks for energy rather than for pleasure, so he doesn’t care too much about the taste. With tea, he’ll add sugar, but only if he thinks no-one’s watching. It’d be embarrassing to be caught adding sugar to it.

Alcott - She doesn’t drink coffee, and when it comes to tea she puts honey in it to sweeten it.

Ranpo - He can’t drink either one plain; with coffee he will only drink it if it’s flavored and full of cream and sugar, so much so that it can barely be called coffee any more. Tea needs milk and a lot of sugar, as well --- really, they’re more like sugar with a little coffee or tea added to them.

♒ their cleaning routine - laundry/dishes/cleaning the rooms

Chuuya - He keeps his home pretty meticulous; his suite at HQ is cleaned by the same people who handle other higher-ups’ quarters, but at his house he’s the only one who keeps it clean, and he makes sure to do the dishes at least once a day and drop his clothes by dry-cleaning once a week as necessary. (Less delicate clothing he’ll handle every few days.) General cleaning he’ll do after work whenever he has the energy. It’s relaxing.

Alcott - She tries to keep a routine, but she isn’t obsessive about it. Laundry once or twice a week, dishes every day or two, and she’ll go over and do basic cleaning every two weeks or so.

Ranpo - Things like laundry and dishes don’t really cross his mind --- they happen around him, generally, unless he’s bribed into doing them, and as for regular cleaning, he... isn’t a slob, but he does tend to get distracted and will leave things lying around without bothering to put them up. It’s not like he’ll forget where he put them, so it’s not a big deal.

🌷 what do they have in their wallet?

Chuuya - Cash (over 25,000 yen / 250 USD, on average, sometimes upwards of 50,000 yen / 500 USD), credit/debit cards and his license. He doesn’t need to keep more in it than that, and he’s not particularly worried about it getting stolen (by anyone but Dazai at least.), so what does he care about a few raised eyebrows about walking around with a lot of cash money on hand?

Alcott - A picture of her sister Elizabeth, about 1500-2500 yen / 15-25 USD, her ID and a membership card for her favorite chain bookstore.

Ranpo - His cash candy fund of about 3000-5000 yen / 30-50 USD, an old photo of his parents, his address, and a folded-up map. There may or may not be a few old crushed M&Ms and melted candy in one pocket.

ꕥ what’s usually in their trouser/jacket pockets or purse?

Chuuya - His keys, his phone, his wallet, a lockpicking kit, and a packet of cigarettes.

Alcott - Lip balm, extra pens, her phone, her wallet, some loose spare change, and a tin of mints.

Ranpo - At least two packages of candy or snacks, though it varies between things like kit-kats and lollipops or boxes of pocky or gummies, etc. His wallet. A magnifying glass (that he doesn’t use but he just... he just wants it, leave him be), and of course, his glasses.

🍀 what kind of jewellery are they wearing? what’s their favourite peace?

Chuuya - He has his choker, but other than that doesn’t really wear much jewelry. There are other ways to look fashionable than that --- though he will sometimes wear it on his rare off days, if it’s something that’s needed to complete the look he’s going for.

Alcott - She has a necklace that she wears under her shirt. It has a pendant on it that’s shaped like a bird in flight. That’s her only real jewelry piece, but she’s very attached to it.

Ranpo - He doesn’t wear jewelry --- it’s not comfortable and it’s more to bother with ---, but he does keep his parents’ wedding rings in a box at home.

#;hc: chuuya #;hc: alcott #;hc: ranpo #strangefellows

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lilaswordsandthings · 7 years ago

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A/N This is the first section of my new Criminal Minds AU Fanfiction for #IllegalcerebralsAUChallenge. This chapter was getting really, really long, so I decided to split them up, so each “Episode” is going to have multiple chapters that are part of it.

[September 16th, 2006 Seattle Washington 3:30:AM]

“Yeah Boss, I’m in…” Breathed a deep, raspy voice.

The person the man was speaking to said something, but whatever it was, was too quiet for the little girl listening to hear. She cowered under her bed, sure that whoever the man was, he was a threat to her and her family.

She’d finally fallen asleep, only to be woken up a few minutes later, by someone throwing a flower pot through her second-floor bedroom window. She’d woken up with a jolt, the hair on the back of her neck standing on end. Her head swiveled around the room, her eyes having instantly adjusted to the dark, cut she couldn’t see anything at first. Catlike, she dove under her bed, where she now lay hidden, lying flat on her belly, her thin, linin bed-skirt all that was hiding her from whoever was in her house.

“Don’t worry about it, trust me, they’re not gonna wake up. All I have to do now, is grab the kid and I’m out of here.” The man said.

The little girl shivered with terror as the man’s heavy footsteps came closer and closer. It was all she could do not to scream when she heard the hinge creak as her bedroom door swung open.

“Now…” The man said. “If I were a little girl, where would I hide?” He asked himself, as he rummaged around the room.

She let out a small squeal as she heard him swear when he hit his foot against the large toybox at the end of her bed.

“Ha! There you are…” He exclaimed as he grabbed her by her ankles and pulled her out from under the bed.

[September 16th, 2006, Quantico Virginia 7:00 AM] The FBI’s SRU (Super Natural Response Unit) was tasked with dealing with any and all crimes involving or victimizing America’s growing population of what were collectively called Mystics. Mystics, served as the official, and politically correct, umbrella term for all manner of Vampires, Werewolves, Mermaids, Reapers, Witches/Wizards, Shape-Shifters, basically if it wasn’t your ordinary, everyday, run of the mill human, it was their job to take care of it. All the unit’s members were some form of Mystic themselves. The unit’s youngest member, Dr. Spencer Reid, was a Vampire. On this particular day, they’d been called in just as the sun was rising. He’d learned to take precautions on sunny mornings like this one, specialized sunscreen, sunglasses, long sleeves, gloves, anything to make sure that as little sunlight touched his skin as possible, driving his antique Volvo to work instead of walking to the train station, also helped. Upon his arrival, Reid made a beeline for the coffee bar, filling his travel mug with double-shot espresso and pouring in a small vial’s worth of donated blood, before sweetening it with five tablespoons of sugar. Unable to wait any longer, he took a deep gulp of the hot mixture. Caffeine still did its job, but there was no substitute for blood, not only did it have a smooth, salty flavor that he would never get tired of, but it refreshed him in a way he couldn’t quite articulate. When he set his mug down, he heard the heavy, clomping, unmistakable footsteps of his favorite werewolf, who then howled right in his ear, making him jump. “Geeze Morgan… do you have to do that?” He asked, turning to look at him. Morgan looked almost human at the moment, despite the fact that they were still in the throws of the full moon, sunlight had erased almost all visible traces of his wolf form except for luminescent golden wolf eyes. Still, Morgan could always speak perfect canine, howls and all, no matter where they were in the lunar cycle. “Morning Reid…” Morgan said with a chuckle, his elongated, dog-like teeth still showing as well, with the harsh light coming in through the window, they, and Morgan’s glowing eyes were all Reid could see. “What’s got you so jumpy this morning?” “Have you looked outside lately?” He asked. “What’s the matter? Too bright out there for ya Vampire Boy?” Morgan asked jokingly. “Seriously though, I thought Vampires burst into flames in direct sunlight, so how does sunlight feel to you guys?” He asked. “It’s kind of like a human getting a vat of ice-cold water dumped on them, only once it’s been on you for about ten seconds or so you realize that the water is actually a mild acid and it starts to feel like your skin is burning wherever it touched.” Reid explained. “As for just looking out a non-UV protected window, imagine getting that substance in your eyes.” “Ok ow…” Morgan agreed. “Yeah, not pleasant. Interestingly enough, although the common image of Vampires bursting into flames in direct sunlight is a stereotype, there actually is some truth to it, there are at least five different known forms of Vampirism, all with varying degrees of solar intolerance and all with differing abilities, weaknesses, and needs.” He replied in his characteristic ‘much more than you ever really wanted to know’ way of his. “I’’m what’s called a Moroi, sunlight is painful for us but wouldn’t actually be dangerous unless we went sun tanning at the beach, which no Moroi in their right mind would do anyway. Vampirs are the ones that spontaneously combust in direct sunlight.” “Noted…” Morgan said, trying to digest everything Reid had just told him. “Morning guys…” Came another familiar voice as Emily Prentiss stepped through the glass doors. As always, she wore a long, hooded cloak, as her decapitated head hovered just a couple of inches above her neck. Emily was a Dulahan, the grim reaper of Irish folklore. Her head turned, ninety-degrees to its left, independent of its body, so that it was facing them. Her eyes locked gazes with Morgan, as though transfixed by the glowing wolf eyes the full moon forced him to keep on full display. “Morgan, I think you forgot to change back completely…” Said. “Seriously, those eyes are just creepy.” “Says the girl whose head isn’t attached.” Morgan bit back. “Besides, you do know the full moon lasts for three whole days, not just one night right? Sunlight allows me to change back for the most part, but the eyes and teeth aren’t going anywhere until the full moon actually ends.” “So tonight when the moon rises you’ll be forced to go full wolf-mode again huh?” “Yup… what about you? You planning on walking around like that all day?” He asked. “Well, I could anchor my head to my neck with a collar, or I could just carry my head, but it will stay like this unless I do something with it.” She replied. “Um… guys…” Came another familiar voice. It was the team’s technical analyst and resident fairy, Penelope Garcia. She was floating just a few inches off the ground as her wings, which could appear pink, purple, or blue depending on the angle at which the light hit them, fluttered behind her.“I hate to be the one to rain on the morning parade, especially on such a nice day, but we have a case. Hotch, Rossi, and JJ are already in the conference room.” With that, the they followed her into the roundtable conference room. Reid was grateful to leave the blinding light of the front hallway for the section of the building’s sixth floor that served as the headquarters for the FBI’s newest unit. Their office was much more Mystic friendly, the windows were polarized to keep sunlight radiation out, there was a mini fridge in the corner with bottles of human blood, donated by willing feeders and delivered on a weekly basis, and wolfsbane serum, wolfsbane serum allowed werewolves to retain their normal personalities and control their behavior when they were forced into full wolf form by the full moon. The conference room that they used to present new cases was up a small flight of stairs on a landing above the rest of the office, next to it was a library of both ancient and modern texts concerning all manner of mythical creatures. The rest of the team was already there, Hotch stood, staring at a picture of a little girl on the monitor with a furrowed brow and a worried look in his red, cat-like demon eyes. Rossi and JJ were sitting on the far side of the table, both in human form. As Reid took his place at the conference table there were several photos of the same young girl with a narrow frame, delicate features, inky black hair, and glasses with rounded rectangular lenses in the files in front of him. She looked human, but the closer he inspected the hard copies of the photos, the more certain he became that she was actually a vampire, and more specifically, a Moroi, like himself. She was extremely pale, as though she never went out in the sun without some sort of protection; and her upper and lower canine teeth were noticeably elongated, the fangs of an immature vampire who had yet to lose and replace them with her longer, sharper, adult set. Though she didn’t seem to be more than five or six years old, she was tall for her age, like all Moroi, and as if the teeth hadn’t been enough of a giveaway, the way the camera flash had hit her glasses told him that her lenses were polarized just like the windows in their office, meant to keep her eyes safe from the painful, blinding effects of the sun. JJ, a blonde-haired, blue-eyed Kirin, floated out of her seat in her human form and grabbed the remote off the table in front of her and began the briefing. “This is five-year-old Raven Blackwell, she’s a young Moroi who disappeared from her home in Seattle Washington last night. Her parents, William and Harper Blackwell are Dhampirs, people who carry Moroi genes in their DNA but have few vampire traits. They enrolled Raven in a local public school because there was no night school for Mystics within a hundred miles of their home. When neighbors from across the street went to check things out, They found the parents dead on the floor of the master bedroom, and Raven missing. Her bedroom window was broken. There was a flower pot from the garden on the side of the house lying broken on the floor at the foot of Raven’s bed. The best guess right now is that the Unsub used the flower pot to bust the window open and then used a ladder to get up to the second floor.” She explained. “Well whatever happened, we have two deceased victims and a missing little girl, there’s no time to waste. Wheels up in twenty.” Hotch ordered. [8:10 AM, On the Jet] Reid: “Alone yes, that’s the keyword, the most awful word in the English tongue. Murder doesn’t hold a candle to it, and Hell is only a poor Synonym - Stephen King

“I don’t get it.” JJ exclaimed. “How does a five-year-old get kidnapped out of her bedroom in the middle of the night? Home is where I a child should feel safe.”

“That bothers me too. The whole family were pretty low risk.” Emily added.

“So the one thing we know for sure, is this Unsub definitely enjoys a challenge. Taking out both parents and kidnapping a little girl is ballsy. The question is, who are we even looking for? Is it a single Unsub? Are we looking for a team? Are they Mystic and if so, what kind? Male? Female?” “Motive is gonna mean everything for this case. If she was taken by a pedophile it’s likely that it was another Moroi. Sexually motivated unsubs rarely cross racial lines. As for male or female, we all know the statistics there. Women typically abduct infants, men take children.” Morgan pointed out. “That’s true. However, as we all know, not everyone is on board with the recognition of Mystics as citizens, we can’t rule out a hate crime carried out by humans who may have resented the presence of a Moroi student in a school filled mostly with ordinary humans.” Hotch added. “We need to figure out why she was taken and we need to do it fast. When we land, Morgan and Prentiss, go see what you can learn from the ME, Reid, Dave, go to the victims’ house and walk the crime scene, and JJ and I will coordinate with the CARD team and local authorities.” Hotch ordered.

#illegalcerebral's au challenge #Criminal Minds Fanfiction #JJ #Spencer Reid #David Rossi #Aaron Hotchner #Emily Prentiss #Penelope Garcia #Derek Morgan #alternate universe #mythical creatures

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wineanddinosaur · 4 years ago

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VinePair Podcast: Sparkling Wine Is Having a Moment

December is traditionally the month when wine drinkers think about sparkling wine the most, whether to augment their holiday celebrations or to bring a bit of cheer to cold and dreary weather. However, the incredible range and diversity of sparkling wines now available in the United States make a strong argument to turn sparkling wine into an all-seasons beverage.

To kick of VinePair’s celebration of Bubbly Week, Adam Teeter and Zach Geballe are joined by guest host and VinePair staff writer Tim McKirdy to discuss some of their favorite offerings, why American sparklers are taking off in wine regions all over the country, and how Prosecco, just like Champagne, has turned itself into a luxury brand.

Listen Online

Listen on Apple Podcasts Listen on Spotify

Or Check Out the Conversation Here

Adam: From Brooklyn, New York, I’m Adam Teeter.

Tim: From Queens, New York, Tim McKirdy.

Zach: And in Seattle, Washington I’m Zach Geballe.

A: And this is the VinePair Podcast. And before we get into the podcast, a word from today’s sponsor. This podcast, and Bubbly Week, which is occurring this week, when this podcast is airing, and it’s all about bubbles, and it’s one of our favorite weeks of the year here at VinePair, is sponsored by Luminore by LaMarca, J Vineyards & Winery, and Otello Lambrusco. And with that, we’re on to the pod. So we’re going to talk about bubbly in a little bit, but before we jump into all things sparkling, Tim! You’re our guest host for this week. It’s great to have you, a staff writer at VinePair. Obviously, we’ve explained to you the rules of the game, so what have you been drinking recently?

T: Well, thank you guys for having me on. So, yeah. What have I been drinking recently?

A: Besides tea, obviously. Because I want to say this. I’ve noticed that in every British program I watch recently, there’s a lot of tea consumption. And do you guys really like tea, or is it just a ruse? Do you put it on for the tourists?

T: Well, I would say that’s better than your comment you made to me the other day about dentists and British people. I like tea, but if I’m drinking it for the purposes we normally have hot drinks, to get going in the morning or whatever, I prefer a coffee. But if I need something to warm me up in the afternoon, I will go for an Earl Grey. But I haven’t been drinking a lot of that recently. To return to your original question, as my 10 Instagram followers will know, I tend to drink a lot of Martinis, and I recently discovered a Japanese vermouth. It’s not actually technically a vermouth because it’s made with a sake base, but it’s Bermutto, and I thought that it’s the perfect pairing for some of the range of incredible Japanese gins that are out there these days. So, yeah, I’ve been using that for my Friday night Martini and will probably add a little bit more vermouth then I typically go for, just because the flavor is incredible. I’ll normally go like super dry, just a splash, but yeah, maybe even go up to a two to one.

A: Wait, where did you discover this sake-based vermouth?

T: So this was actually a product I’ve received as a sample and enjoyed, and it was sent to me as a gift by someone. So we were doing the huge vermouth roundup, and I was reaching out to try tons of different sweet vermouths for a different story that I was writing about Negronis, and the person that I was in contact with with like, “Well, you have to try this dry vermouth” because they actually happen to know that I’m a big Martini lover as well. So they sent that along, and it’s wonderful. And it’s hard to glean the name of the producer from the bottle. There’s not too much information on there, but if I get it, maybe we can add it to the show notes.

Z: Or you all can go follow Tim on Instagram, and we can make sure he posts a picture of the bottle there.

T: That’s what I was really aiming for there. You know, you’ve got to follow me now.

Z: Double that follower count for you. We’re going to go from 10 to 20.

A: Seriously Tim, come on, man.

T: It’s an incredible, a really wonderful Martini, and really highlights some of the amazing Japanese gins that are out there these days, too. So yeah, go out there and look for it, there can’t be too many on the market. So if you find one online, it’s probably the same one I’m drinking.

A: Well now I’m jealous, but that’s fine.

Z: Wasn’t that the point of this whole, this whole bit here, Adam?

A: It’s also not the first time I’ve been jealous of Tim, so it’s OK. Zach, what about you?

Z: To me, the most striking thing that I had this last week, I taught a class about Rioja this past weekend and opened the current vintage, or I guess they’ve just switched vintages, but the 2007 Reserva from López de Heredia, I think we’ve talked about him a little bit already on this podcast before honestly, their Vina Tondonia, which is one of their single vineyard Riojas. And two thoughts struck my mind. One is: I just adore those wines. They’re definitely not the thing that I want all the time. I have to be in the right kind of mood and place for them to work for me, whether it’s the reds or even the whites. But the other thing I’d say is, it reminded me in doing it for this class, it brought back all these memories I had of selling it as a sommelier and how much I had to fight with that wine in a restaurant setting, because it really needs like four or five hours in a decanter before it really is enjoyable. And for me at home, whatever, that’s fine, I’ll open it and then come back to it in the evening when I’m ready, and I actually encourage the people in my class to open it hours beforehand. But boy, it was a pain in the ass in restaurants, and I love the wines, and it’s not meant as a knock on them, but it was hard as a sommelier to explain to people that like, well, really, if you want to enjoy this wine, you should have ordered it four hours ago.

A: Oh my God. Yeah, I’ve only had their wine once or twice. I don’t remember how long it was decanted for.

Z: The white is a little bit more forgiving. The reds are just typically—

A: Oh, you had the red. I thought you had had the white.

Z: No, I have had both, although the red is the one I had the other day, and delicious with time to open, but you gotta plan ahead. It makes sense this past week of Thanksgiving, where all the food you prepare takes a long time to queue up. So it’s kinda like, the wine equivalent to making a turkey or something like that.

A: So can you just explain so what would it be like if you hadn’t given it time? Is it just incredibly tight and there’s nothing there?

Z: And maybe one day we’ll do a podcast topic about some of these wine terms that are hard to define, like “tight,” but basically to me, when I describe a wine that way, what I would say is that the overwhelming sensation of the wines are the structural elements. So the tannins and the acid, it’s kind of the equivalent experience you get sometimes if you have a white wine that’s too cold, where sometimes all you taste is the acidity in the wine and the fruit profile and the aromatics are really muted because the wine is too cold. With reds, serving temperature can affect that, but it’s more often just with wines like that that are aged for a very long time in barrel, and then for very long time in bottle, they just need that time in a decanter, or at least being open on your table or something to really fully start to express themselves. And so when you taste it just freshly opened, you taste nothing but really tart fruit and a lot of tannin and almost aggressively medicinal quality. And then when you come back to it, three, four, five hours later, the fruit is a little bit more generous, although still quite dry. And then you get much more of this savory, but not off-putting notes that you get when it’s just freshly open. So more of the leathery, wood, smoke notes that I really enjoy, but it takes a little while to come out of the wine when it’s just been opened.

A: Interesting. Interesting.

Z: What have you been drinking, Adam?

A: Oh gosh, a few things. Drinking a lot more wine lately, obviously, than cocktails. And beer, ‘cause I love beer. I drank a really great KCBC beer Kings County Brewers Collective, but I forgot the name of it. It was their seasonal this year, but just a delicious, hazy IPA. That was pretty tasty. But then on Saturday night I made fresh pasta with truffles, and I opened a bottle of Cogno Ravera Barolo that was dope. Really, really, really, really good. I think it was our No. 1 of the year two years ago on the VinePair list. And it was just a beautiful bottle. And again, the reason I was asking is because the same thing happened with the Barolo. I popped it and let it sit for like 45 minutes in the decanter, and when we first drank it, it was all tannins still. And then 30 minutes later, it had completely opened. So I guess basically an hour and 15 minutes sitting in the decanter, and then it was beautiful. But it was just crazy how that happens. So, yeah, that’s basically what I’ve been drinking recently.

T: Look at you guys, men of the people, popping out the decanters.

A: Shut up, Tim. Shut up Tim, usually —

Z: Why did you bring Tim on this podcast, again, Adam?

A: Because it’s fun.

T: Actually I saw that, Adam, I think I saw you posting it on Instagram and I was like, wow yeah, that’s the way to spend a Saturday night.

A: No, that was the second bottle. Remember, I texted you this, you messaged me on Instagram. And I was like, yeah, I made a mistake. Like we’re doing a Zoom with some people at 10 p.m. and it’s only 8:30, so I’m going to pop another one. And now that I’ve already had this bottle, I’m going to have another bottle, and continue watching my football game.

T: It’s a whole new meaning to the term double decanting.

Z: Oh my God.

A: Yeah, totally

Z: Tim with the fire today.

A: Always the fire, it’s the best. But it’s funny, ‘cause I really haven’t had a lot of cocktails recently. I love a Martini. Tim has inspired me, but I haven’t made one yet this season actually as it’s gotten cooler, I think I need to later this week. I don’t know if I’ll do it tonight.

Z: I mean, it’s a great week for it. We’re recording this obviously before Thanksgiving and is there a better couple of days to be drinking Martinis at 2 p.m. than on Thursday and Friday of Thanksgiving week?

A: When you’re with your in-laws?

Z: Hmm, fair enough. I don’t know. You might need the Martini. I’m sure Naomi’s parents are lovely, lovely people.

T: I’d like to think of it like if New Year’s Eve is the Super Bowl of drinking, then Thanksgiving is the playoffs, right? You know, we’re leading in the season, we’re getting there. So, you know, mid-week Martini might be appropriate. Who knows?

A: I agree, Tim. I have another question for you before we jump into today’s podcast, how’s your storage unit doing?

T: My storage unit is brilliant. I wanted to come live from that, but this is maybe not a problem not all of our listeners have, but living in New York, having an incredibly small apartment and basically being confined to that apartment for gosh, eight months now, my girlfriend and I had the realization the other day of “why don’t we get a storage unit?” And it’s honestly a game changer. I got my wines in there that I want to age, you know, it’s temperature controlled. I say my “wines that I want to age,” there’s like 12 bottles, no illusion. But honestly, this is a game changer. If you live in New York, public storage, it’s wonderful. You get a great deal. I highly recommend it.

Z: Do you have a promo code for us, Tim? So we’ll save 10 percent off if they drop your name?

T: 10 pounds off with “McKirdy Martini”

Z: 10 pounds. Oh my goodness. That’s actually funny that you mention that, though. ‘Cause I actually, my wife and I, we rent a house here in Seattle, but with a child it became clear that with Covid and quarantine, it was not big enough. So we actually also rented a storage unit a couple of months ago, and it has also been a game changer in our house because now my wife and I don’t have to fight about how we’re going to find room for anything, any new toy for our son, because we put all the old toys in storage and yeah, I’m team storage locker, too.

T: Yeah, my girlfriend and I said, think of all the things that we can buy direct to storage. It’s brilliant.

A: I can’t. You two are too ridiculous. So let’s jump into bubbles, shall we? Always a fun time of year, always a fun topic. This is one of my favorite weeks of content we do every year. And it’s really awesome that for the past three years, it’s been sponsored by Luminore by LaMarca, J Vineyards & Winery, and now Otello Lambrusco. But it’s a celebration of all things bubbles. I didn’t drink as many bubbles in early Covid just because it didn’t feel like it was a celebratory time, but I’m really ready to drink bubbles now. And just of all kinds, do either of you drink bubbles regularly? And if you do, do you have one that’s a go-to or a kind of style as a go-to? And don’t say Champagnes, Zach. I know you’re a somm, but we don’t need to tell everyone else.

Z: I would say that I do drink sparkling wine, a lot, including Champagne. My wife is a big fan as am I, to be fair. I would say, though, that as far as go-tos, it’s been really interesting. That’s been something that I think has changed a lot for me over the last couple of years. If you had asked me this question a few years ago, I think I would have said Crémant and I would’ve just left it there, and I still drink a decent amount of Crémant. For those who are unfamiliar with Crémant there’s a range of different regional Crémant appellations throughout France that refer to basically wines made in the traditional or Champagne method, but not in Champagne itself. And they can often be really, really good. They’re not usually aged as long as Champagnes. Certainly not as long as vintage Champagnes, but even your standard Champagne bottlings typically spend more time aging than most Crémant, but they’re very good. They’re often very good. They’re serious wines. They’re taken very seriously by the producers in most cases. And they’re obviously significantly more affordable in many cases than Champagne, but for me, actually, I surprisingly, perhaps to myself, have found myself actually gravitating towards drinking a lot more Prosecco than I used to. It started by visiting the region a couple of years ago and having some Prosecco that was — let’s say it was just a different category of Prosecco than I was familiar with from just working as a sommelier and as a wine drinker here in the States. Fortunately, a lot of those wines have become more available in the U.S. over the last few years, or at least here in the Seattle market. And I find myself really enjoying a lot of the balance that you find in Prosecco that is actually sometimes harder to find in a lot of sparkling wines, because the Prosecco is typically not quite as acidic and typically has a little bit more residual sugar. And so it’s a little bit more balanced unto itself, whereas sparkling wine, especially Champagne and Crémant, is delicious and an awesome pairing with a lot of foods, but if I just want to have a glass by itself, I actually find myself more gravitating towards Prosecco and I think that’s something that’s been a broader trend in this country. And that people have realized that if they’re just going to have a glass of something sparkling, I think more than ever before, that thing is Prosecco. And I guess I’ve just caught up with the trend.

A: Interesting. Tim?

T: Yeah. I definitely am a lover of all sparkling wines. I think it’s probably up there with my favorite styles or go-to bottles. It’s something I definitely drink quite regularly. When it’s just a normal week, probably not during the week, but a normal weekend, I will be looking for something in the store that’s a little bit more budget-friendly. Like Zach says, I do tend to find a lot of value in Crémant wines from France. Tons of great American sparklers as our friend Keith Beavers likes to call them.

Z: And only Keith, let’s be clear.

A: Yeah, no, I think he’s onto something, people. I actually think “American Sparkler” is a great name for sparkling wine from the U.S.

T: Let’s make that happen.

A: Let’s make it happen. We’re making it happen.

T: I think Cava as well as is another style of sparkling wine that I think if you know where to look and spend just a couple of bucks extra, I think you can find some amazing wines in there, aged on lees, that are just fantastic.

A: Nice. I mean, it’s interesting. Yeah. I don’t drink as much sparkling wine as I would like to, but I do think I’ve found myself recently drinking a lot more American sparkling wine, like the stuff from, for example, Domaine Carneros, any of those kinds of producers like that are out in California. I think that there’s some people doing really interesting things. Also a lot of the Italian sparkling wine — not just Prosecco, but Franciacorta as well as the stuff coming from other areas that are just really interesting as well. I think that there’s a lot of delicious sparkling wine out there that also is more than just Champagne. And I think the reason I’m saying more than just Champagne is, I would love to drink it all the time. I think it’s absolutely delicious, but I just can’t afford that. For the Champagnes that I enjoy, they’re always well above 60 to 70 bucks a bottle. And it’s very rare that I drink reds or whites that I love that are above 60, 70 bucks a bottle. So to justify that in Champagne all the time is very, very difficult. So I don’t do it. But there’s bottles in the 20s and 30s that are from everywhere else that are equally delicious in the right moment.

T: To your point there, Adam, I think as well with domestic sparkling wine, you named Domaine Carneros. I’d say another go-to for me as well — you’ve mentioned it on the podcast before — but Gruet. I think you manage to capture that Champagne flavor profile. Some might argue that the nuance might not be there as with a $60 bottle of Champagne, but you capture that overall flavor profile. You can also find those wines practically everywhere, which I think is a huge plus. And they’re also budget-friendly. One of my favorite things to do in the “before times,” as we’re calling it these days. So living in Queens, some people might be familiar with some of the neighborhoods here. There’s a neighborhood close to me called Jackson Heights and they have the most amazing momo trucks. So what I would typically do is pick up a chilled bottle of Gruet, go down there, stick it in the larger size of the brown bag, and take along some cups and order some of those momos. And that pairing for me, it’s just one of the most incredible things. It’s something I would normally do to kick off Thanksgiving as well, but I’m not sure that’s going to happen this year, but that is a pairing that we might get onto pairings today, but that’s a pairing that isn’t very classical, but I want to put that one out there and claim it for myself, if I can.

A: Oh yeah. I read about that, that you do that in a publication called Eater, I think. There was an article written about how you do that, but I wasn’t sure if it was you because it mentioned a husband, so I’m not sure if it was you.

T: Well, what can I say? The quality of journalism and reporting these days, fact checking is not what it was.

Z: This is great, though, because I actually think Tim points to a really important story, whether it’s about the American sparklers or just sparkling wine more broadly, which is one of the cool things that we’ve seen emerge, at least I’ve seen I think, and it’s not exclusively the province of America, but I think you’ve seen it here a lot is this interesting approach to sparkling wine that that is there are producers that are making wines that are very much modeled intentionally after Champagne, in terms of the choice of varieties, the winemaking methodology. But you’ve also got producers who are working with almost every variety possible, whether it’s Germanic varieties like Riesling, and Gewürztraminer, and Müller-Thurgau and making sparkling wines from those, or making sparkling wines from other aromatic white varieties like Muscat and people making Pétillant-naturel or Pét-Nat wines here, there’s this incredible range of sparkling wines, and this kind of dovetails with the conversation, Adam, that you and I had with Keith a couple of weeks ago about American wine and some of the exciting places to look at. But one of the things that the U.S. has is a lot of these areas that are newer wine-producing regions that might not be quite suitable for big red-wine production. They’re cooler, they’re wetter, they have higher altitude, but they make for amazing potential spots for sparkling wine. And so this idea of expanding the idea of what sparkling wine means beyond this Champagne paradigm is really exciting to me. And I think those food pairings like the one that Tim discussed with the momos or the incredible range of cuisines that we see in this country. I mean, that is where sparkling wine shines. Besides just as a drink by itself, as I described at the beginning, but yeah as this incredible pairing tool, because sparkling wine itself is so diverse and can work with so many different flavors. And so I found incredible pairings at home with take-out Indian food and some interesting Pét-Nat Lemberger from here in Washington. That was a weird-a** pairing, but I thought it worked pretty well, especially with things like paneer cheese that work with a lot of different flavors. So yeah, the possibility space for those of us who are interested in drinking sparkling wine is really broad, and having a broader canvas of wines to work with is also super exciting.

A: Absolutely. And I think the thing that you’re picking up on that is really cool is just how delicious these wines are with a range of cuisines, and how well they go with a range of cuisines. I think a lot of people don’t think about that that often, right? I think we can blame movies and popular culture for this, but Champagne, or sparkling wine in general, but it all began with Champagne. Now it’s this celebratory drink, right? So you pop it at the beginning of a meal to cheers everyone. It’s the wedding drink when the bride and groom first come on and there’s the toast or whatever, but that there’s a lot more to these kinds of wines and they’re very complex. They have a lot of different flavors and aromas then other wines do that pair really well with even things like steak and roast chicken and stuff. That’s just delicious. You might be like, “Oh, I was feeling a red tonight.” Well actually like, you can do just a really delicious sparkling wine with lots of yeasty notes and a savory quality that makes it the perfect pairing for those kinds of things. I think, yeah, you’re right. The amount of fun that people are having with sparkling wine now is really interesting. I think that’s something that we’ve even seen in the re-emergence of Lambrusco. Like there’s this wine that got a really, really terrible rap in the ’70s and ’80s because the stuff coming over from Italy was just sickly sweet. But it’s a wine that comes from the same region as Parmesan cheese and prosciutto, right? And it’s made to go with those wines when it’s done really well. And it can be delicious and dry and easy to consume, obviously, cause it’s often lower alcohol, but then also just does beautifully with pizzas and does awesome with red meats and things like that and spice. And that’s been really fun to watch people discover that because it’s a great wine to have in your repertoire, along with, you know, whites and reds.

Z: Lambrusco is like the perfect wine for one of the few truly American foods, and that’s barbecue. And we’ve had, I guess we call it a spirited conversation about barbecue and what exactly that word means on this podcast, people can go back and listen to the barbecue wine podcast that we did over the summer to get more detail. I’m not going to reiterate everything that was said there, but I do think it’s important to point out that Lambrusco works really, really well with almost any variety of barbecue. And also is one of my absolute favorite pairings for a dish that I don’t personally have very often, because it’s not really what I do, but a very classic edition in December, which is a Christmas ham. Because as Adam mentioned, Lambrusco is from Emilia-Romagna, which is the salted pork capital of the world. So if you’re going to have salty pork, you should have Lambrusco.

A: It makes sense. It makes sense.

Z: And it is really like the capital of the world. I cannot overemphasize how much cured pork I had in my couple of days in Emilia-Romagna. It was — obscene isn’t even the right word. It was something beyond obscene.

A: I want to go to Emilia-Romagna.

Z: It’s very un-picturesque.

A: I just want to go there for the salted pork.

Z: And actually surprisingly also, and this is a thing that comes up in Italy, they have some of the best bread in Italy, which Italian bread is really hit or miss. Like just absolutely dreadful bread, uh, but Emilia-Romagna’s bread is good. Tim, I have a question for you, because we were talking about the culture and the context in which people drink sparkling wine here. And Adam made a dig about tea earlier, or at least hinted at it. But, I was going to say that I think there’s a perception in this country right or wrong that the Brits are more sophisticated when it comes to wine than Americans traditionally. Is the role of sparkling wine in England functionally different than what it is here? Is that something that’s changed, or what’s it classically like there? Or maybe in the modern day?

T: Yeah, that’s a great question. And I think, the simple answer is that, in my experience, I don’t think that British culture is in any way more sophisticated when it comes to wine or any other type of drinking, but I should add the caveat that I also grew up in Scotland, as well. So, that’s a whole different story. Just search for Buckfast and read about that. And if you’re not familiar with it, that will reveal some things about us as a nation. So I would say that sparkling wine, I don’t think it does have that connotation as only being for celebrations. It’s definitely present at the celebrations. Any occasion I can remember growing up, getting together as a family, there would always be Champagne there. But I’d say more in recent years, and this is even before I came of drinking age. I remember growing up and Cava being so huge in the U.K. And maybe there was some kind of breakout moment where we were told as a nation, “This is like Champagne, but it’s a lot cheaper.” And then at some point there was a shift. I want to say that it was probably about 12 years ago, maybe a little bit longer, where Cava changed to Prosecco. And you know, through the lens of, “Is sparkling wine only for celebration?” I would say absolutely not. Especially for the majority of the nation. It would stun me if Prosecco wasn’t the best-selling wine in the U.K. You know, maybe rosé or maybe something like Malbec might challenge it, but Prosecco is just so popular, and it’s everywhere, and it’s definitely not like the celebration wine. It’s wine for every day. It’s the wine for when my mum gets together with her friends, or when you go out to brunch with friends, or, I guess all the occasions that we have it here, as well, but it just always seems to be on the table.

A: It seemed to happen in the U.K. and in the U.S. around the same time for some reason. It just popped. Everyone, all of a sudden — obviously Prosecco was here for longer, but it feels like all of a sudden people were aware of it. And they knew it by name. And I think what’s become really interesting, now we’re getting onto the business side, is that yeah, during Covid right while Champagne sales slumped, Prosecco interest and sales continued to stay fairly high, and people were asking for Prosecco by name. So where they might call an American sparkler Champagne, they know now to call Prosecco “Prosecco.” It’s become this thing that is this just massive behemoth that people recognize as like the sparkling wine you can drink all the time. And yes, I mean, if you want to toast with it great, but also if you just want it on a Tuesday night with take-out, and then you want to watch Netflix, it’s a great wine to have, and it’s just been everywhere. And that, I think, has been really interesting. And the only thing I wonder about with Prosecco is like, how much more can it grow? Because it’s just grown so much, but it doesn’t really show a ton of signs of slowing. So, there definitely is still opportunity.

Z: Adam. I have a question for you and for Tim, of course, too, if he has thought about this. So, you mentioned the business side of it and the growth of Prosecco and the fact that it’s now a category distinct from Champagne, and then I guess sparkling wine more broadly. But what I wonder is the thing I haven’t seen a lot of, I’ve seen a little bit of it, but not a lot of it, is producers in the United States or other parts of the world really trying to go after Prosecco’s market share directly. So you see a lot of people pushing other kinds of traditional-method, fully sparkling wines as an alternative. Oh, you know, whether it’s Cava, whether it’s other Italian sparkling wines, whether it’s domestics, et cetera, but you don’t see people saying, “Hey, we’re going to try and make a wine that, flavor-profile-wise, is similar to Prosecco.” Now, maybe that’s because no one else is growing Glera. And so they’re not going to really make something that tastes exactly like it because they’re not growing the grape. But I think a lot of it is maybe that for whatever reason the success of Prosecco, no one has an explanation in the wine world. No one really understands it. They don’t know whether to credit it to the style of wine itself or just it’s relative affordability, and the fact that I guess the name resonates with people, it’s easy for people to pronounce and remember. That stuff matters, too. I don’t know. Do either of you have a read on why you’re not seeing more people making semi-sparkling, tank-method sparkling wines, and trying to push them as Prosecco alternatives?

A: I do. I think that sparkling wine, for the majority of consumers, is a lifestyle beverage. It’s much more similar to rosé than it is to other wines. And so when you’re talking about a lifestyle beverage, you’re talking about what else that wine represents, besides quality-to-price ratio, the grape it’s made from, whatever. Prosecco represents to most American consumers now a posh, Italian lifestyle. It represents this idea of Italy and Milan and what’s really funny is, and Venice, it represents everything. And I remember talking to a few French corporate producers about this last year at a conference. And they’re like, “But we are closer to Milan” and I’m like that’s fine. But we’re Americans, we don’t know where Omaha is compared to where New Orleans is. We don’t. We have a very weird idea about where things are in other countries. And so it’s like, wait, of course Prosecco is closer to Milan, and maybe Rome, too, but it just represents Italy as a whole. And in the same way that Champagne to people represents this posh French lifestyle. Which is why I think Crémant could never really unseat that in most Americans’ minds and make them aware of that. ‘Cause Champagne already represents that to them. So like “the budget-level Champagne from France,” I’m not interested in that. I’m interested in the lifestyle of high-end French culture and fashion and food, and that’s Champagne. Again, right now I don’t know what that could be for Cava. Can you tie that to Barcelona? It’s super close to Barcelona, but no one’s done that yet. No one’s really been able to figure out how to make you connect the culture of that sparkling wine to that lifestyle, because again, I think we’re still, as Americans, unsure of what Barcelona is as a lifestyle place. Whereas Italy and France, we really know. It’s fashion and food and all the things that we love. And that’s why I also think you don’t see American producers trying to copy it, because it’s hard. Like what are you copying? Yes, you can potentially copy the flavor profile and the price, but you can’t copy all the other things that it says about you. And I think sparkling wine is truly a product where Americans think a lot about what it says about them in the same way we think about the fashion brands we wear, or the kinds of furniture we choose to have in our homes or whatever. What’s the initial connection? The “brand-this-type-of-person” connection that people make to say, “Oh, well they drink these brands, they must be this kind of person.” And so it’s very hard to compete against. And like it’s interesting to me that it took the Italians this long to make it click, but they did. And now I think it’s just very strong.

Z: That’s fascinating, Adam. I know we’ve talked about that context or that idea in the context of Champagne specifically as a luxury brand item, but it had never occurred to me that it just is true in a different way for Prosecco — that’s super fascinating.

T: Yeah, I think you both raise really great points there about sparkling wine in general, and I guess certain sparkling wines becoming brands within themselves, right? Like Champagne, Prosecco, maybe Cava to a lesser extent, but I don’t feel like there are many others in the world, right? Like Corpinnat. That’s never gonna break out, or Franciacorta, sorry guys. I don’t think it ever is either. But looking at the business perspectives, Zach, I think there’s another interesting aspect here that someone mentioned to me recently, I can’t remember who I was speaking with. And they were talking about the fact that it was probably a very good idea that, as of late two thousands, the Glera grape was known as Prosecco. And then it was changed so that, when grown within Europe, it needs to be called Glera now. And I think that was a very savvy decision to protect the Prosecco brand, right? Because otherwise what could happen, you could have all these different producers in other countries where maybe they could make wine for cheaper and even undercut the price of Prosecco, use that grape and use it on the labels, and then that could create all kinds of problems for the Italians. So I think that’s an interesting thing to explore a little bit from the business side of things.

A: I don’t know. I think the other thing too, with the American styles, for whatever reason, they are just trying very hard to be either the Champagne equivalent or be so obvious that they’re not, that all I’ve ever seen in an American sparkling wine or in the majority of them — and I’m looking at a few of them on the floor of the room I’m in right now — they kind of copy the look of Champagne. The label, everything, and so you’re like ‘Oh, so this is the Champagne alternative.” And I always wonder, are they doing this in case the consumer doesn’t realize this isn’t Champagne? Or is this really what they’re going for? Or then they’re very modern, right? Ultra-modern-looking labels and things like that, which I also don’t think totally works. But again, it comes to that connection, right? I think if you had a sparkling wine region that was really close to New York, or really close to maybe L.A. or something else that we think of as being super posh, maybe you could have that tie into fashion and that tie into culture that would make it be a much stronger luxury product, but you don’t. And with Champagne or with Prosecco, you have that. And you look at how these packages are designed for both of those kinds of skews, and for the most part, they evoke other luxury brands. I mean, you look at Luminore by LaMarca and that blue, which is beautiful on the bottle, also definitely nods to Tiffany’s. It definitely does, we know that blue. You look at the Mionetto bottle, and it nods to Veuve Clicquot. You look at a lot of these different well-known brands on both the Prosecco and a Champagne market, and I think they just do a much better job than sparkling wine around the rest of the world at positioning themselves as what most consumers consider them to be, which is luxury products.

Z: And the last point I wanna make, ‘cause it ties all those things together in some sense to me, is that one thing I would encourage our listeners to think about is that Prosecco, Champagne, Crémant, Cava et cetera, these are only a slice of what’s possible in this sparkling wine realm. And I think that one of the encouraging things for me, as I mentioned before, is that producers and importers and distributors are starting to see the value in having a really wide breadth of sparkling wine options for people, whether that now includes things like Lambrusco, whether that includes Pét-Nat, whether that includes some other kinds of interesting wines. Whether it’s the variety, the methodology, whatever, sparkling wine is a really diverse category and it’s growing more diverse all the time. And while the classics and the tent-pole styles and icons are still delicious and worth investing in and worth checking out, I do think that one thing that will be exciting in Bubbly Weeks to come, hopefully, is discussing the incredible possibility space that’s still out there that we’re just starting to explore as a broader wine-drinking community.

A: Absolutely. Well, I hope everyone has a wonderful Bubbly Week and you drink lots of sparkling wine. I know I plan to. Tim, thanks for joining us as this week’s guest host. Always a pleasure to have you, sir.

T: Always a pleasure to be here. Thank you both for having me.

A: Yeah man. I mean, I don’t want to keep you away from your tea, so we’re gonna let you go. I’m sure you have a hot pot going with a little bit of a biscuits as well. Everyone, thanks for listening. Leave us a like, comment, review on iTunes, Spotify, wherever you get podcasts. It helps everyone discover the show. Zach, I’ll talk to you next week, man.

Z: Sounds great.

Thanks so much for listening to the VinePair Podcast. If you enjoy listening to us every week, please leave us a review or rating on iTunes, Spotify, or wherever it is that you get your podcasts. It really helps everyone else discover the show. Now for the credits, VinePair produced by myself and Zach. It is also mixed and edited by him. Yeah, Zach, we know you do a lot. I’d also like to thank the entire VinePair team, including my co-founder, Josh, and our associate editor, Cat. Thanks so much for listening. See you next week.

Ed. note: This episode has been edited for length and clarity.

The article VinePair Podcast: Sparkling Wine Is Having a Moment appeared first on VinePair.

source https://vinepair.com/articles/bubbly-week-podcast-2020/

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johnboothus · 4 years ago

Text

VinePair Podcast: Sparkling Wine Is Having a Moment

Listen Online

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Or Check Out the Conversation Here

Adam: From Brooklyn, New York, I’m Adam Teeter.

Tim: From Queens, New York, Tim McKirdy.

Zach: And in Seattle, Washington I’m Zach Geballe.

T: Well, thank you guys for having me on. So, yeah. What have I been drinking recently?

A: Wait, where did you discover this sake-based vermouth?

Z: Or you all can go follow Tim on Instagram, and we can make sure he posts a picture of the bottle there.

T: That’s what I was really aiming for there. You know, you’ve got to follow me now.

Z: Double that follower count for you. We’re going to go from 10 to 20.

A: Seriously Tim, come on, man.

A: Well now I’m jealous, but that’s fine.

Z: Wasn’t that the point of this whole, this whole bit here, Adam?

A: It’s also not the first time I’ve been jealous of Tim, so it’s OK. Zach, what about you?

A: Oh my God. Yeah, I’ve only had their wine once or twice. I don’t remember how long it was decanted for.

Z: The white is a little bit more forgiving. The reds are just typically—

A: Oh, you had the red. I thought you had had the white.

A: So can you just explain so what would it be like if you hadn’t given it time? Is it just incredibly tight and there’s nothing there?

A: Interesting. Interesting.

Z: What have you been drinking, Adam?

T: Look at you guys, men of the people, popping out the decanters.

A: Shut up, Tim. Shut up Tim, usually —

Z: Why did you bring Tim on this podcast, again, Adam?

A: Because it’s fun.

T: Actually I saw that, Adam, I think I saw you posting it on Instagram and I was like, wow yeah, that’s the way to spend a Saturday night.

T: It’s a whole new meaning to the term double decanting.

Z: Oh my God.

A: Yeah, totally

Z: Tim with the fire today.

A: When you’re with your in-laws?

Z: Hmm, fair enough. I don’t know. You might need the Martini. I’m sure Naomi’s parents are lovely, lovely people.

A: I agree, Tim. I have another question for you before we jump into today’s podcast, how’s your storage unit doing?

Z: Do you have a promo code for us, Tim? So we’ll save 10 percent off if they drop your name?

T: 10 pounds off with “McKirdy Martini”

T: Yeah, my girlfriend and I said, think of all the things that we can buy direct to storage. It’s brilliant.

A: Interesting. Tim?

Z: And only Keith, let’s be clear.

A: Yeah, no, I think he’s onto something, people. I actually think “American Sparkler” is a great name for sparkling wine from the U.S.

T: Let’s make that happen.

A: Let’s make it happen. We’re making it happen.

T: Well, what can I say? The quality of journalism and reporting these days, fact checking is not what it was.

A: It makes sense. It makes sense.

A: I want to go to Emilia-Romagna.

Z: It’s very un-picturesque.

A: I just want to go there for the salted pork.

T: Always a pleasure to be here. Thank you both for having me.

Z: Sounds great.

Ed. note: This episode has been edited for length and clarity.

The article VinePair Podcast: Sparkling Wine Is Having a Moment appeared first on VinePair.

Via https://vinepair.com/articles/bubbly-week-podcast-2020/

source https://vinology1.weebly.com/blog/vinepair-podcast-sparkling-wine-is-having-a-moment

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flippinoptimist · 7 years ago

Text

> Vel : Meet a nerdlord

Today at 2:45 AM

deputyheadmistress Alright, someone talking to you on my behalf about a lack of privacy got to me a bit. But I'm not upset with you for how the internet behaves.

flippinoptimist thats lurky, theyre a little closer to omniscient than is average for most beings, and like kind of giving advice, and they mean well i think they meant it mostly to make me stop chargin around in like, manic mode, though, even if stuff relatin to you was the causal start of the chain sorry you got dragged into it miss granger, and that i wasn't doin the tact thing

deputyheadmistress I didn't mean them, I meant the thread about different faux book titles. But a close to omniscient being is, I suppose, something I'll also have to get used to. I'm at least a bit used to manic teens, though it's not the best way to get shocking information.

flippinoptimist i think my earth age would technically start with a two, but thats sorta recent after you spend enough time around here you get used to the like, multiverse

deputyheadmistress Can we, perhaps, stop talking about the multiverse for a few moments? And talk about something a bit more grounding, like your particular brand of magic. I'm very curious.

flippinoptimist sure its sorta a fusion of everything ive run across, since the inherent stuff that my ~destiny~ tried to put on me isnt the same kind of stuff as the place where im learnin the inherent is more of a "woo, heres a big abstract concept, you are an incarnation / channeler of a shard of it, neato"

deputyheadmistress That sounds like a lot to dig into, but alright.

flippinoptimist the school part is about how you can structure thought and energy flow into symbols and runes and things i'm focusin on artificing ..and the inherent part has given me a knack for illusions i cant figure out how to actually cast spells but im good at making things!

deputyheadmistress Oh! I was very good at ancient runes during my time at Hogwarts, and while I haven't managed to do much with it since graduation, other than an enchanted bag, I'd be really curious to see what similarities there might be. I wonder if you can cast spells. Logic seems like it'd point to yes, but if you're from somewhere else...

flippinoptimist id be curious about them! i know the words to a few spells but ive never seen them and do naut have a wand of the kind you are thinking of the wands i know about / make each have a specific spell in them, and are locked to create a specific effect that triggers when a gesture or word or w/e happens

deputyheadmistress That's terribly inefficient.

flippinoptimist sure, its Terrible

deputyheadmistress ... Is that referencing those historical people of note who end up being so infamous people associate them with the word 'Terrible' as well?

flippinoptimist naut much different than having a necklace that makes you invisible though yes! it also enables a billion terrible puns

deputyheadmistress I was curious. It's a bit strange to add it yourself, don't you think?

flippinoptimist (ba dum tsh)

deputyheadmistress Oh.

flippinoptimist it is

deputyheadmistress Well, that explains that, doesn't it?

flippinoptimist but my species has this thing, where on adulthood we each replace our kid name with an adult Title

deputyheadmistress Oh, it's a cultural thing.

flippinoptimist yeah, and i chose a human one

deputyheadmistress Alright. I read a little bit on that.

flippinoptimist because humans are neat and i like them

deputyheadmistress Oh! Well, I'm glad you like humans, then.

flippinoptimist and i respect a lot of the cultural things i see in most of the human places i have found

deputyheadmistress Good, I was about to ask that.

flippinoptimist also everything that comes out of japan is amazing

deputyheadmistress I don't know how I could let you use a wand from here, but I want to try.

flippinoptimist id love to try if you can think of a way! i am pretty good at establishing first contact with new universes, and i could get you alien tech and magic to check out if you wanted for various definitions of alien

deputyheadmistress ... Alien tech won't work so well on Hogwart's grounds. I had to heavily modify this computer so it'd function here.

flippinoptimist i am curious about how

flippinoptimist alllsooo.... ill have to find a copy of the magic version of getting around from place to place

deputyheadmistress Oh! I wrote a whole thesis on how to make magic more compatable with muggle text over the summer, let me...

flippinoptimist but i know where to find it! couple of steps and itll work out okay

deputyheadmistress I'll send it to you later. It's a bit lengthy, and I have to type it up here. Alright, I'll hold.

flippinoptimist okay i hate to say this because i am definitely interested in exchangin data and showin things, but it feels rude not to remind you before we get much further that a step of getting this to work is probably going to involve me (random internet stranger) havin to figure out what your coordinates are, so i can write them in the format needed for the circley part i can get you the circle rune pattern either way, but if you want a way to actually use it, id need to basically track your IP but, like, fancy and involving you running a thing on a computer let me know if you want to do that part, but heres the circle diagram

flippinoptimist -- flippinoptimist began sending file : transportationcircle.pdf --

deputyheadmistress I have been warned about random internet strangers.... I may have to work on protection wards for a moment, for the sake of safety.

flippinoptimist sure thing i highly advise not using that w/o fillin in coordinates the way it says, and also not without knowin your home coordinates if you step through that thing, the only way back is to know how to write your home address, you know?

deputyheadmistress Alright

flippinoptimist to find home coordinates, install one a these chat programs, and send me a private message, i can use a couple a tools to trace the connection from there and get your code

deputyheadmistress This is certainly the sort of decision I want to be making at five in the morning. Alright, I've got everything set up. What is life without adventure, and the chance to make the headmistress mad at me.

flippinoptimist lol the decision will still be here at not five in the morning, but you wont be able to blame it on the time then shit i should give you the programs shouldnt i -- Discord, Trollian! --

deputyheadmistress Thank you.

flippinoptimist i have a set of coords i can give you that are explicitely for being a neutral place to meet people, but the sky isnt done yet so its janky lookin but! the building is finished

deputyheadmistress I've chosen a fairly neutral place for the moment, don't worry.

flippinoptimist ok!

deputyheadmistress > Message him on Discord. This will be absolutely fine. Totally.

flippinoptimist > He messages her back! About two minutes later, he gives her the number version of her coordinates, which she can use to get back home from anywhere. He also gives her the coordinates to the convenience store, which he mentions is "a pocket dimension under construction"

deputyheadmistress > She'll... Write that down and probably not do anything with it for a while. > If he tries to look at her coordinates directly, it will really really not work, as if his machine were glitching, but he can probably go a few miles out for a nice view of a scottish country side.

flippinoptimist > Neat! He ..does poke that far, but then sets his machine to go back to looking somewhere else. The coordinates are saved, but he promises to himself to not use them. if somebody gives you coordinates, you can go places, or people w/ yours can send you stuff or come visit

deputyheadmistress Alright. This is going to take a bit of getting used to, but if you want to come over you can.

flippinoptimist > ..man, he was supposed to be in time out, but lately he'd been doing so well ..until today.. and he'd been leaning into choosing the Chaotic choices more and more often... > What good was putting yourself in time out if you didn't stick to it?

flippinoptimist crazy o clock in the mornin probably aint the best time for first impressions, though its temptin as hell. i could send across some small magic gunk and weird alien snacks as a proof of concept, and meet you like, tomorrow or another day soon?

deputyheadmistress That sounds good! I'll send you some magic things too, then.

flippinoptimist sweet! we can compare notes

deputyheadmistress > Time to gather some of George's jokes and some magical candy.

flippinoptimist > He would send an invisibility ring, a few novelty disguises, a small opal that made anyone within line of sight experience a slightly sweet taste (in a well-shielded bag), and a variety of alternian mass-produced snackfoods labled in a clearly alien language. Ones he thought might not creep out humans too bad.

deputyheadmistress > Bertie botts every flavor beans are a necessity, though she does make sure to include a carefully penned note about what flavors he may come across that are less pleasant. Chocolate frogs are included as well, of course. Things that turn skin different interesting colors, fireworks that make flame animals bound through the air.

flippinoptimist > He is going to admire the hell out of and carefully store these for later perusal.

deputyheadmistress > He also gets a somewhat large coinpurse that he can shove his whole arm in and still seem to not run out of room.

flippinoptimist okay this is a pretty neat bag stupid question and no i am not going ot try, what happens when you turn it inside out

deputyheadmistress You could turn it out for a really long time. I think it'd be annoying to stuff it back in though

flippinoptimist okay, what if i went for a swim in the ocean with it is there a limit?

deputyheadmistress Of course there's a limit. But it can hold a tent or two, several thin blankets, changes of clothing, general everyday use things, and of course money. Thin things work better, obviously. You could probably fit thick blankets, but it'd be way more annoying both to put them in and pull them out.

flippinoptimist that makes a lotta sense and is pretty interestin i have a tech way of carrying lots of stuff, but you mentioned tech was sad

deputyheadmistress Oh! I have a print version of the paper I was going to type up.

flippinoptimist ive got an amulet thats basically like a mr potato head that disguises you all the runework lines up so you can unclip parts and clip in different parts

deputyheadmistress > Send that along, also. There's moving pictures involved, with her pictured. Oh wow.

flippinoptimist modular!

deputyheadmistress I don't think describing it as 'Mr Potato Head' is reassuring, for a disguise, but a modular disguise is interesting.

flippinoptimist it only works when everything is seated in firmly and shut, but its also sort of like legos > He .. sends a modular disguise amulet over too, with a couple of bits and pieces it only does disguises for my species, but hey, maybe thatll be handy

deputyheadmistress Maybe.

flippinoptimist pro tip if you are ever going to go to a place with my species, ask them which color of person is best for you to be can of worms subject really

deputyheadmistress That sounds racist as hell.

flippinoptimist oh yeah

deputyheadmistress Joy.

flippinoptimist p much sometides people call the usual empress "fish hitler" most of the dudes i know are huge rebels

deputyheadmistress The magical world just recently got done with a war similar to Hitler's.

flippinoptimist but! there are placeswhere things are fine its just good to check if a place is one of them first

deputyheadmistress So I'm a little sick of that.

flippinoptimist i hang out in like three different places where she got deposed differentamounts of time ago yeah thats aight

deputyheadmistress At least there's that.

flippinoptimist speaking of humans, its great how often its naut like that like, sometimes, but anyway people can be pretty cool when teyre given teh chance

deputyheadmistress I do like to believe in the inherent goodness of people, despite how much bad has happened.

flippinoptimist i think people can choose how theyre gonna be theresa lotta nice reasons to choose not to be a dick

deputyheadmistress I should hope you wouldn't need reasons, but yes there are reasons to be nice.

flippinoptimist sometimes bein mean is tempting, otherwise people wouldnt do it you get all wrapped up in somethin, dont see all of it, then suddenly you get a reality check an gotta go "hey is this where i wanna be" and then people ignore the question because they dont wanna think about it and then its sealed, theyre dicks and theyll stay that way

flippinoptimist till they look around again

deputyheadmistress I suppose.

flippinoptimist i spend a lotta time thinkin about it i was a jerk when i was younger, and i decided to be nice instead so i spend a lot of time talkin to dudes who are or were also jerks and we all get better! cause i can help them find the reasons they need to start

flippinoptimist also jerks are sometimes kinda hilarious, and theyre often pretty good at shit. otherwise theyd have learned better when they ran into a problem they couldnt solve w/o help.

deputyheadmistress It's getting a bit late. I think I should probably turn in for the night, before all of the teenagers wake up and need scowling at.

flippinoptimist that is probably a thing i hope you have a good night miss granger it was nice meetin you

deputyheadmistress It was really interesting talking to you, Vel.

flippinoptimist i try for interestin

deputyheadmistress Do you really need to try?

flippinoptimist not really

deputyheadmistress Have a good night. I'll talk to you tomorrow.

flippinoptimist bye!

#ooc eyes only #deputyheadmistress

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