#because a lot of people in the comments are bringing up mud and snow

[simptasia]

perspective is amazing. i am adamant that people taking their shoes off in my house is disrespectful and impolite as fuck. but the comments on that post are full of people insisting that its polite to take their shoes off when they go to somebody elses house

thats genuinely amazing and baffling to me

[jimblejamblewritings]

the muggle | part 4.

Summary: Y/N L/N just moved to London from America. Everything was new and weird. London had weird food, weird slang, weird ways of driving. But the weirdest were the people. Especially, the ones in strange robes who always had sticks with them.  

Warnings: some smut and a bit of violence

Pairing: Bill Weasley x black!reader, Bill Weasley x muggle!reader

Word Count: 3.9k

Previous Part | (Series Masterlist)

Bill waited a couple of days before bringing you up. He watched his parents the most. Arthur had no expression, Molly’s lips were pressed tightly together. Bill got up to say that you two were going out.

“It’s not a date if anyone wants to tag along, just a bit of home shopping.”

“Do you two go shopping a lot? Seems a bit materialistic,” Mrs. Weasley commented.

Charlie, who was actually considering coming, sat back down. Harry and Charlie were the only ones who had positive feelings towards you. Harry just liked that you had absolutely no clue who he was and had never even heard of the last name Potter until reaching the UK. He thought Hermione would be on your side but you were viewed by her as an obnoxious American. The muggle aspect was great. She was hoping to get along but couldn’t get past the annoyance and brashness she thought she heard every time you spoke. Bill adjusted his jacket when no one else stood up.

“It’s just looking at shelves, Mum. Her place is overflowing with books.”

He left. The rest of the family piled to the front windows and stuck their heads through the curtain. You and Bill were walking past, you adjusting your scarf when the wind blew it out of your hand. Bill laughed as you tried to run after it. You quickly gave up when it landed in the pond at the edge of the park across the street. You went back to Bill, trying to grab his wand out of his pocket.

“Can’t you abracadabra it?”

“Muggles might see, it’s daylight.”

“No one’s on the street.” You continued your search.

“People in their houses?”

Bill pulled his wand out of his pocket, holding it above his head. You jumped up and struggled to try and grab it from him even though it wouldn’t matter because he needed to do the spell to get it out of the pond. Bill was in the middle of laughing at your struggle that he didn’t notice you bend down to grab a handful of snow. He shivered and looked down when snow hit him in the face. He raised an eyebrow as he tucked his wand back into his shirt sleeve.

“Run, Muggie.”

You booked it across the street, yelling when a snowball hit you. You and Bill started throwing snowballs at each other, only pausing when a car passed by. Charlie commented that his brother seemed happy and was only met with Ginny saying Bill could do better. You crossed the street after the last car drove by.

“I surrender, truce, t— Bill! I said truce.”

You both were laughing as you made your way back to him. Bill took off his scarf and wrapped it around you. He pulled on it to bring you in for a kiss. You smiled as the two of you pulled away. The family’s eyes followed until you both were out of sight.

You didn’t see the Weasleys for the rest of the holidays. Bill sighed as his family left. He was serious about you and wanted them to like you. They were going to have to like you or at least learn to tolerate you better because he was marrying you, no question about it. He was sure of that when he came back late like he said and saw you in bed reading.

He wasn’t going to come over or stay over if you were already asleep, not wanting to disturb you. But you were up— with some weird stuff on your face— and he found himself marching right into the bedroom. You gave him a smile as best as you could with the mud mask on. Bill grabbed his stuff from the top right dresser drawer that was his and went to shower before snuggling with you under the sheets. You were annotating the first book that was dedicated to dissertation research. It was a book that you had to buy twice because it was being used in one of your classes for your literature major but the annotations and focus was different than what you were looking for.

“What’s this?” Bill pointed to your face when he came back in, wearing just sweatpants.

“Mud mask, keeps your skin clear. Good for a detox from all this London fog. I’m about to wash it off, how was Gringotts?”

Bill told you about his day as you walked into the bathroom to wash your face. You plopped back down on the bed, resting your head on your arm. Bill’s hands reached out to trace your eyebrows before dropping to poke your lips. You moved closer to actually snuggle up with him. Moving was the best decision you made. You had an array of international acquaintances, you were going to be finishing school early, you had a boyfriend that you were madly in love with.

The love didn’t die as the months went by. January rolled into February to meet March. Bill just kept coming over and staying over more. You were still amazed by magic and he still used every opportunity to flaunt it. March became April and Spring Break brought your family. They loved Bill. You laughed internally every time they asked him a question. The two of you had studied what you thought were important muggle things for him to know. Bill had forgotten about everything he was taught. Your dad loved that he was a banker. Your mom was content with your choice in a nice and handsome man— telling Bill that she never liked your previous boyfriend. Both your grandma and mom were ignoring their own husbands any time Bill opened his mouth to speak. The accent really had them swooning. Anything that he didn’t know how to answer, you filled in. A lot of the gaps in answers and stories didn’t phase your family. They seemed to think that it was just British culture they didn’t understand.

The Weasleys hadn’t come back but it was alright. Bill said he thought they were really warming up to you because of Ron’s last letter asking if Bill’s meeting with your family went well. He had started including a little paragraph about you and how you were doing in every letter he sent, hoping that he could show them you were amazing. The heat dropped off of him a bit when Fred and George dropped out of school right before the end. He supported their decision, honestly thinking it would have happened sooner. The twins worked hard in school because it was expected of them but neither one liked it.

With the news of Voldemort being officially released to the public, he was busier than ever. You noticed his absence but didn’t say much of it until he finally confessed that your nextdoor neighbor had died. Bill didn’t say much else about how Sirius passed and you didn’t ask questions. There was a dark side to magic that he was trying to shield you from. When your finals ended, he didn’t like the idea of you staying in Grimmauld without even Sirius nearby if something happened. He felt like it made you a target of sorts if Death Eaters ever found out. They wouldn’t even care that he was with you, that’s not what they were interested in. Bill wasn’t important enough to them to torture a loved one. But if they caught wind that you knew about him being a wizard, they could easily assume you knew how to get into 12 Grimmauld. You were coming to the Burrow for the summer. Well, he hoped you would when he asked.

He apparated into the foyer, knocking on the wall as he took off his shoes so that you knew he was there. Your head popped up from behind the couch and you went over to give him a hug and a kiss. His nose turned towards the kitchen. That was something he liked about America. The food. Your cooking always smelled delicious and he had never tasted so many flavors and seasoning in a single meal at a time.

“Is there enough for two?”

“We can split it.”

Bill pulled out his wand but you grabbed his hand.

“Ah, ah, mister. There is no messing with my cooking. I’ll make more, I just got started anyway.”

“I can help.”

“Have you ever used a knife without magic?”

“I’ve taken Potions, Muggie, I know how to use a knife.”

“Ooh, potions. Fine, you can try. It’s carbonara.”

The two of you laughed your way through cooking. Bill wasn’t bad but clearly the muggle way wasn’t anything he was used to. In the end, you got a decent pasta. Your cell phone rang in from where it was charging on the kitchen counter.

“Hello? Ah! You never call at this time. What are you doing up this early?”

Bill grabbed the back of your thigh and pulled you to him as you walked back over. Your face got really animated when you talked as if you were trying to get your friend to see you despite being an ocean away. Your other hand played with Bill’s hair. He moved you even closer so you had to straddle him partly while one foot was still on the floor.

“He dropped out? What did your parents say… wow. I thought he liked Cornell… yes, I’m still dating him.”

Bill squeezed your waist and you looked down, giving him a smile.

“Oh, he’s the best. I love everything about him… haha, you are never meeting him before you scare him aw—”

Bill took the phone, looking at it for a second before putting it to his ear. “Hello? Yes, it’s Bill… I would never leave. (Y/N)’s the love of my life, I plan on marrying her.”

You went wide-eyed. Bill moved you from him and got down on one knee. He set the phone down, pressing the speaker button, and pulled a ring box from his pocket.

“If she’ll have me, of course.”

“You better say yes, bitch.” Your friend screamed through the phone.

You nodded and laughed while stumbling through such a simple word. Bill grabbed the phone and told your friend thank you before hanging up. You stared at the ring.

“You planned that?”

“I learned how to work a phone.”

You chuckled and kissed him once he stood up. Bill rocked the two of you back and forth. You pulled back to look at him.

“I have to call my parents, oh my God, I’m engaged.”

Bill could feel his smile take up his entire face as you dialed your parents at an ungodly early hour for them. He felt that you on the phone was the perfect time to call his family. You sat on the couch and Bill walked into your bedroom to send a patronus to the Burrow.

The Weasleys were finishing dinner when a silver orb appeared. They sat up straight as it turned into a falcon— Bill was the only person they knew with that patronus.

“(Y/N) and I are coming home for the summer so she can really meet everyone… I just proposed to her, she said yes,” Bill got choked up a bit. “Merlin, she said yes.”

The falcon disappeared as they heard your voice say something but it wasn’t very clear. Fred and George cleared their throats and left the table, knowing a lot of frustrated yelling was about to happen. Ron got the hint and quickly followed. It was weird that you’d be coming over. They didn’t know how a muggle was going to have fun at the Burrow for an entire summer. You couldn’t play quidditch with them or play with charms or ride brooms until your legs felt stiff from being in one position for so long.

Molly and Ginny weren’t pleased and Arthur was torn. You fascinated him as a muggle but as his son’s girlfriend, now fiancee, it was a different feeling. Did he want to ask you a bunch of questions? Yes. Did he think a muggle who would never understand their world should be marrying into the family? No. Muggles were meant to be protected from wizards and allowed to live their lives. Wizards and witches could learn a little bit from them like with his enchanted car. But what benefit did muggles bring outside of working relationships? Bill should just be cordial with you, a friendly neighborhood face that you can call on if a boggart crosses your path. And you should be able to show him how muggles created fake magic with their technology to help improve their lives. That’s what Arthur thought the purpose of muggle-wizard connections were for. Ginny was already huffing complaints to her mother and Molly was nodding in agreement.

“Maybe we should invite Tonks for the summer?” Ginny asked as she helped clear the table.

Molly nodded. “That might work, I’ve always liked her anyway. Ah, no, we shouldn’t separate her and Remus. She’s absolutely smitten. I should invite them both, maybe Lupin will finally man up.”

“She’ll have to make the first move.”

They went from you and Bill to Remus and Tonks, forgetting they were even annoyed in the first place.

You turned in your final papers, had a meeting with your advisor, and then met Bill for the most interesting summer of your life. You weren’t sure what to pack or how much to bring. Bill had questioned your suitcase when he stepped into the flat to take you to his home. You told him that trunks seemed impractical and wondered why wizards didn’t just use wheely suitcases. Bill just shook his head and grabbed your suitcases to put in the rental car. All wizards and witches had fake muggle ids and it came in handy when he decided to take a chance and do things the muggle way. A four hour drive to the Burrow seemed like a nightmare but then you said that wasn’t even very far and he just looked at you as he closed the trunk of the car.

“You drive eight hours and you’re still in the same state. Four hours is nothing.” You shrugged. “Can you drive?”

“Yes… and I enchanted the car.”

“Alright. Well, my finals are done, the snacks are all here, my butt looks great in these jeans, the curls are poppin’. I’m ready for an officially awesome summer at the Burrow!”

You tapped on the hood of the car before jumping in. Bill smiled at your attempt to be enthusiastic and got into the driver’s side. He watched you tap your foot on imaginary breaks every now and then during the first hour.

“I know this is the correct side of the road over here but I swear it feels like we’re driving the wrong way.”

“The left side is correct, love.”

“Then why does the rest of the world drive on the right? You guys are wrong here.” You popped an apple slice into your mouth and fed another to your fiance.

The drive was calm and Bill thought that he would like to go on drives with you every now and then. The music was nice— a bunch of artists he had never heard of. Your voice was melodic whether it was you singing along to the radio or telling him a story. The weather added a layer of perfection as the sun shone into the car and made your ring sparkle in the light.

The four hour drive did actually feel short to Bill. He took one of your suitcases while you took the other and strolled up to the front door. Bill pulled out his wand and pressed it gently to your temple. You were given sight into the magical world, no longer blinded by the charms used to keep muggles out. He watched you gasp and take a step back to admire the whole Burrow. Charlie was the one who answered the door.

“What’s that?” he asked, his voice alerted the others who came from the kitchen where they were finishing breakfast.

“Wheely suitcase. A lot easier than trunks, look.”

You wheeled it back and forth a few times. Charlie just nodded slowly and took your word for it. Ginny muttered that there was nothing wrong with trunks as Bill led you upstairs to put your stuff up in his room. You had taken off your sweater that you had put on because it was still cold in the morning and came back downstairs.

“Interesting outfit,” Fred pointed to the ensemble. You were in loose cuffed jeans and a shirt that you tied up to basically be a crop top— neither Arthur or Molly liked that— and had mismatched socks.

“Really? Thanks, I wasn’t even trying this morning.”

“Nirvana?”

You looked down at your shirt. “Hottest grunge band right now. One of the members died two years ago, such a shame.”

“Grunge band?”

“Oh, you’ll love this!” You raced back upstairs to grab the boombox and a bunch of cds.

They watched you fiddle with the machine, having never seen it before. Faces scrunched up as “Sounds Like Teen Spirit” came on. You looked at their faces and turned off the song at the second verse.

“It’s not for everyone, but I’ve got plenty of different cds. Some of the best American artists you’ll ever hear.”

“We could just use our radio,” Ginny said.

You set down the cds on the boombox and turned it off to save battery life. You sat on the couch and just kind of looked around. Your hands ran over the quilt laid over the couch. You smiled at Bill.

“This is like every grandma’s dream house, I don’t think I’ve ever been to a cottage before. No, wait, I’ve been to one back in high school. Ha, Marlon’s party where we s— Marlon had a small party there.”

The family stalked away to the respective corners of the Burrow. You flopped over.

“I’m still fucking up.”

Bill moved your legs so he could sit down. “You’re doing great, love.”

“Your unbridled confidence in me is lovely, Bill, but let’s be honest.”

He pulled on your hand until you were sat in his lap. You sighed as Bill rubbed your back. He decided to show you around the property as a way to get your mind off of your second not so great meeting with his family. Lunch wasn’t much better. Charlie was really the only one who had taken to you positively. Everyone else seemed indifferent to mildly hostile.

“Oh, Bill, the box.”

“Accio box.”

It landed in your lap. You ripped off the packing tape and opened the lids.

“My parents sent over some American things,” you said as you laid the items on the table. “Probably not as interesting as wizard things but it’s different. We’ve got band tees, candy, chips, snacks… Oh, I loved these as a kid! Kool-aid jammers, you need to freeze them if you want them to taste really good. Take what you want.”

Charlie took the second Nirvana shirt. The others poked around awkwardly aside from Bill who tore open a ring pop and pretended to propose again.

“I think this is far better than my first ring,” you joked.

“What made you say yes? No offense, Bill.”

“One day, Charlie, I will actually kill you,” Bill said as he sat back down and wrapped an arm over your shoulder.

“I don’t know, he just grew on me.” You chuckled. “No, but seriously, your brother is amazing. Nice, understanding, more patient than me, a touch controlling.”

“I’m controlling? You won’t let me stand in the kitchen when you cook.”

“You think Italian seasoning goes in everything, babe, that’s why you’re not allowed in the kitchen. I didn’t mean controlling in a bad way, would have said overbearing if I meant it that way.”

“They sound the same.”

“Overbearing is saying I can’t leave the house dressed how I want because you think you have entitlement to my body. Controlling is just pushing me a little bit past my comfort zones like having me bring the boombox,” you explained. “Which failed by the way.”

“Who starts with Nirvana as a way to show people music?”

You turned your head. “I want a divorce.”

“I’ll just propose again, we’ve got… eleven ring pops left. You can only divorce me ten times.”

You both chuckled as he kissed your cheek. Arthur began clearing away the plates.

“Marriage isn’t something to joke about, it’s a serious commitment.”

You felt heat rise to your face. “Oh, of course, it’s just how w—”

“Maybe you two should hold off on something so real if you’re not ready.”

“Dad.”

“You were engaged before and we see what happened. And that was to a witch.”

“Who I dated since third year and proposed to fresh after leaving Hogwarts. It’s been years.”

“I’m just telling you that you should take this seriously,” Mr. Weasley said with his hands up in a little surrender.

Bill sighed and just played with the ring on your finger. The table awkwardly cleared themselves out.

“I’m sorry,” Bill said when the two of you were alone.

“I told you I didn’t want to come,” you whispered.

“They aren’t blood purists.”

“You keep saying that—”

“Because it’s true!”

“Don’t raise your voice at me… I have to work, I’m gonna do it in the car.”

“(Y/N).”

Bill sat back, knowing not to follow. He could hear your footsteps going upstairs to grab your writing supplies. You grabbed your notebooks of story notes and the typewriter that Bill had enchanted to not be as heavy before going outside to sit in the car. You didn’t even bother to slip your shoes back on, just going straight for the car. Bill went upstairs to unpack his and your stuff. Fred and George came in. They had heard you come upstairs before stomping off. Bill threw his folded shirt down on the bed.

“You guys can’t even welcome her, really?!”

“Where’d she go?” George asked.

“The car. She’s working on her book for university… I love this girl, she’s it for me. (Y/N)’s trying. You guys could too.”

Bill left the twins, not caring that they were in his room. He looked at the dining table that still had the goodies you brought minus the shirt and bag of Doritos that Charlie took. He stepped outside and to the car. You didn’t look up when the driver’s side door opened and Bill peeked his head in to see you in the back.

“I have to go to work now, I’ll be back for dinner.”

“Okay.”

Bill sighed. “I love you.”

“Love you too,” you mumbled, still not looking.

Fred and George watched from the Burrow’s front entrance as Bill gently closed the door and scratched at his head before apparating to his job. They looked back at the table in the kitchen littered in goodies. The packages were very brightly colored and said weird things like ‘Airhead’ or ‘Laffy Taffy’.

“What’s a Cheez-It?”

“Don’t know but it’s made with real cheese according to the box.”

“There’s fake cheese?”

“Guess so.”

They took the box of Cheez-Its, some candy, and two t-shirts with some woman called Whitney on the front. You said to freeze the weird tubes of liquid so they casted a freezing charm— there was no point in waiting for the freezer if they didn’t have to. With their hands full, they made their way upstairs to their room.

(Part 5)...

[ninjago-bingo]

final month recap

wow, everyone.  we’re here.  we’ve made it.  we’re reached the end of our bingo time, and i’m absolutely floored by the sheer creative output that i’ve seen over these last four months.  everyone, take a moment to give yourself a pat on the back!!!  no matter if you made 1 piece or 10, there’s now a work of art out there in the world that wasn’t there before.  and truly, that’s super heccing rad no matter how you look at it.

so let’s celebrate!  for this recap, we have a total of 20 new pieces, bringing the total amount of ninbingo pieces up to 50.  in the span of four months, this little event has created 50 individual works (five of them in the last day!)  holy cow ya’ll.

i’m putting out this recap now, but don’t worry, it’s not the end yet!  any submissions made to the end of the 30th still count and this post will be updated accordingly :D

fic:

all the things i’ve never done by @sa-you-na-ra. tumblr || prompts: competition and teasing

It’s always a funny thing when the ninja realize new things about each other. Even though living with each other meant they had to see each other all day, there were still small habits or actions that amused the others.

(mod comments: all these little interactions made me smile so much :D looking forward to the rest!)

error 404: answer not found by @m-aster-of-spinjitzu. tumblr || prompt: memories

Akita and Zane talk after the battle in ‘Awakenings’. The conversation… doesn’t go as either of them expect.

(mod comments: the nuances in this fic are fantastic!  also Akita is always a win :D)

Five times kai was a good brother by @/master-of-fluff. tumblr || ao3 || prompts: nightmare and brother

I'm writing kai centric stuff again.

(mod comments: kai IS the big bro of the team!!! i support him all the way!!)

How Garmadon became a chauffeur by @master-of-fluff. tumblr || ao3 || prompt: driving

"um...Kai? Don't you think we should go Slower?" Garmadon asked nervously trying not to panick as they raced down the road at what had to be over the speed limit.

(mod comments: who let Kai drive?  no but honestly this is canon alskdfj)

little things by @/rosiehunterwolf. tumblr || ao3 || ffn.net || prompts: hugs and crying.

"Enjoy the little things in life, for one day you'll look back and realize they were the big things." -Kurt Vonnegut

Lloyd’s tired of being left behind. How is he meant to be the green ninja when he always has to work harder, train better, and wait longer to go on missions with his team? He wants nothing more than to be their equal.

At least, that’s what he thought he wanted.

(mod comments: a post-ep-18 resolution scene?  SIGN ME UP!)

Neither Snow Nor Rain by @fangirltakesall. tumblr || ffn.net || prompt: post-fight

After their return from the Never Realm and all its troubles, Zane is quiet and Nya is incredibly worried. A call to action to a peculiar sort of battle might be enough to change both of those things.

(mod comments: the concept of these two on their own mission together is just so good! excited to see how their dynamic plays out!!)

Never Put Off Until Tomorrow by @/rosiehunterwolf. tumblr || ao3 || ffn.net || prompts: video games and chores

…what can be done today, yada, yada, yada, we all know the saying. So do the ninja- when Master Wu is drilling it into their heads every minute of every day, it’s kind of hard to forget.

Naturally, it only takes them a week (and the biggest new video game in Ninjago) to do so.

(mod comments: this is so in character that it’s frustrating lol.  also Pixal ftw!!)

oh take me back to the start by @/rosiehunterwolf. tumblr || ao3 || ffn.net || prompts: comfort and 3 am

The past should be left in the past. Or, at least, that’s what Jay keeps telling himself. Nadakhan is gone. It’s not logical to still be afraid. But he is, and now everything that he left behind suddenly feels like it’s never going to be the same again.

Cole isn’t so convinced.

(mod comments: Cole is truly the man we all deserve in our lives.)

On Our Own by @redefine-your-identity. tumblr || prompt: home

It’s been a few weeks since Kai and Nya’s parents disappeared without a trace. Needless to say, they’re struggling.

(mod comments: OU C H no poor babies 😭 the relationship dynamic here is great!)

orange and gold by @/m-aster-of-spinjitzu. tumblr || prompt: cooking

...I just need more Cole and Vania content, they seem like they'd be great friends.

Basically it's just 'Cole goes to visit her there, they almost burn down the kitchen, and make way too many puns', lol.

(mod comments: I also always need more Vania content!! the puns in this were breadful!)

permafrost by @/rosiehunterwolf. tumblr || ao3 || ffn.net || prompts: loss of control and promise

It’s not like this is the first time this has happened. It’s not like none of his teammates have ever suffered this kind of guilt and pain. It’s not like Zane himself hasn’t walked through hell before and come out the other side (mostly) in once piece.

Except, this time, it is. It shouldn’t be different, but it is.

(mod comments: super sweet moment between two ninja who deserve more interaction like seriously!!)

Precautionary Tale by @/fangirltakesall. tumblr || ffn.net || prompt: protective

Fighting is different now, and Zane doesn't know why. Yes, he is titanium now, but why should that change anything? It seems to be changing everything, although is all really as it seems?

(mod comments: a great start to a zane-centric fic!  interested to see where it goes next :D)

Star-Ninja! by @rosiehunterwolf. tumblr || ao3 || ffn.net || prompts: siblings and competition 

What happens when the loveable gremlin the ninja adopted off of the streets introduces them to Starfarer comics?

Chaos ensues, of course.

stuck with you (through bright and blue) by @/rosiehunterwolf. tumblr || ao3 || ffn.net || prompt: protective

Kai only wants two things: to protect Lloyd, and to give him the best birthday ever. Unfortunately, Lloyd seems hell-bent on making that as difficult as possible. Kai’s always prided himself on achieving the impossible, but dealing with human emotions is much more complicated than beating up Garmadon’s generals or shooting enemies with fire, as he quickly learns. Movie!verse

(mod comments: happy birthday lloyd!! look at him getting the love he deserves uwu)

Take a walk in the rain. by @/master-of-fluff. tumblr || ao3 || prompt: rain

Cole had always loved the rain, the way it smelled, the way it felt on his skin, and especially the mud! Whenever it rained his Mother would put on his rain coat and boots And they'd both go out and splash around in the puddles and make mud cakes and do all sorts of things.

(mod comments: this fic made me smile a lot :D loved the way it was arranged!) 

the hues of an empty sky by @/m-aster-of-spinjitzu. tumblr || prompt: crying

Missing memories, or having two of them for one moment - not quite the same, but if there’s one thing Jay’s leant over the last few weeks, it’s that literally nothing makes sense anymore.

Or, some Skybound aftermath, Zane actually expressing emotions about his memory switch being turned off for all those years, and what was supposed to be a ‘they tell everyone about the erased timeline’ fic, but it turned into a 'two characters who barely interact on screen talk at like one am in the morning, and don’t actually tell the other what exactly they’re alluding to the whole time’ fic that I wrote at like one am-

(mod comments: Skybound resolution? SIGN ME THE HECK UP YES)

The Make-Cole-Realize-How-Much-We-Love-Him Competition by @21st-century-ninja. tumblr || ao3 || prompts: bets and competition

Jay and Kai share a horrified look.  “He really doesn’t get it,” Jay says.

Kai shakes his head.  “We need to show him somehow.”

“Show me what?” Cole asks, exasperated again.  

“How much we love you!” Kai exclaims.  “Somehow, it’s not getting through your thick skull that we want to sit next to you because you’re you, so I’m gonna have to just prove it to you.”

(mod comments: a silly little movie fic!)

twitter was a mistake by @/21st-century-ninja. tumblr || ao3 || prompts: teasing and birthday

Kai 🔥 @flaminhotninja ☑

so who was gonna tell me that Jay used to be a game show host huh

🌺✨ the Gift of Jay ✨🌺 @zaptrap ☑

Replying to @flaminhotninja

NO WHO SHOWED YOU

(mod comments: twitter was a mistake)

two halves of a broken whole by @/rosiehunterwolf. tumblr || ao3 || ffn.net || prompts: scars and post-fight

The Sons of Garmadon have been defeated. Garmadon is in prison. The city has been saved.

In the aftermath of the battle, Nya is more than ready to take a much-needed break. But the life of a ninja is messy. Recovery is never that simple. Although the wounds may have healed, the scars still remain.

Zane’s scars seem to match up, though. And maybe together, they can begin to heal.

(mod comments: aggressive care is my jam, and this is it!)

wait by @rosiehunterwolf. tumblr || ao3 || ffn.net || prompts: home and memories

Lloyd’s not so great at being patient. It’s not his fault though- maybe he would be better at it if waiting didn’t always end up being so disappointing- if people actually kept their promises. But this time’s going to be different, he knows it. His father will come back for him. And Lloyd’s going to wait.

As long as it takes.

(mod comments: baby.  baby boy.  baby.  protecc him plz.)

[onecanonlife]

careful son (you got dreamer's plans)    

Wilbur gasps back to life with mud between his fingers and rain in his eyes.

Wilbur was dead. Now, he is not. He can't say that he's particularly happy about it.

Unfortunately, the server is still as tumultuous as ever, even with Dream locked away, so it seems that his involvement in things isn't a matter of if, but when.

(Alternatively: the prodigal son returns, and a broken family finally begins to heal. If, that is, the egg doesn't get them all killed first.)

Chapter Word Count: 3,775

Chapter Content Warnings: swearing, references to scars, implied s.uicidal ideation

Chapter Summary: In which Wilbur makes it to Technoblade, and a conversation is had.

(masterlist w/ ao3 links)

(previous chapter) (next chapter)

Chapter Two: shiver to that broken beat

He underestimated how cold he would get. By the time he finally finds Techno’s cabin, Ghostbur’s memories guiding him over the hills, he’s fairly certain that his fingers and toes are halfway to frostbite, and he’s shivering uncontrollably. If Techno ends up wanting to kill him, he won’t have to do much. Not letting him inside would be enough.

He isn’t sure if he’d respawn. Isn’t sure if he’s got another three lives, or if it’s just the one. Whether it’s three lives to live, three lives to lose, three lives to waste, three lives that he shouldn’t have in the first place, three lives to spare. Two lives to throw away, if need be. Or if it’s just the one.

(the one that he never wanted at all)

(an image flashes: Tommy staring into lava. Ghostbur found him like that, once, and thinking about it now makes his heart stutter in his chest)

He mounts the steps to Techno’s cabin, sparing a glace for—are those polar bears? Does Techno have polar bears tied up outside? He shakes his head, because yes, of course he does, it’s Techno, and then he is standing in front of the door, and he’s suddenly feeling a lot more trepidation about this whole thing. It’s irrational, really, but he can’t shake it, can’t shake the fear that this is going to go terribly, and this whole journey was a mistake.

“Fuck,” he murmurs, his breath puffing in front of his face. “Fuck everything.” The swearing doesn’t make him feel much better, but watching his breath fog up does remind him that he is very cold, and that he needs to be inside now. Even if this ends in him respawning, it’ll be somewhere warmer than this, hopefully.

He knocks. Four times, loudly. There is no response, so he does it again. There is still no answer, and he can’t resist the dark glare that he casts at the door. If he’s come all this way only for Techno to not be home, he’s going to be very put out. He’s also definitely not above breaking into his house, if need be.

He knocks one last time for good measure, already mapping his way in. There’s a window he can break—

“Hold your damn horses, I’m coming!”

It’s unmistakably Techno’s voice, and every muscle in Wilbur’s body tenses up, ready to fight, ready to flee, ready to do whatever the moment asks of him. For a brief, hysterical moment, he entertains the idea of abandoning this whole thing, of ducking out of sight and letting Techno think that it was someone playing a prank. This is the last moment to back out.

He doesn’t, in spite of his better judgment,

(or perhaps because of it, he doesn’t know, doesn’t even know if he has ‘better’ judgment at all, these days)

and he jams his hands in his pockets and tries for all the world to adopt a casual pose before the door is swinging open, and Techno is there.

(his brother is there)

“Alright, who—” Techno starts, and stops just as quickly, staring at him with wide eyes.

Techno looks… good. He looks good. Dressed in warm layers, that damn red cape he’s so fond of flowing out behind him, his stupid crown on his head. His hair is braided neatly, his tusks sharpened to gleaming points, and if, perhaps, the bags under his eyes are a bit darker than they should be, Wilbur won’t point it out. What’s a little lost sleep, in the grand scheme of things? Technoblade seems like he’s thriving up here, the Antarctic Empire all over again, and Wilbur feels a sharp flare of

(jealousy)

(relief)

emotion. He tries not to let it show on his face.

“Hello, Technoblade,” he says. “Can I come in?”

For a long minute, Techno says nothing at all. Just stares, motionless, unblinking. Wilbur can’t remember the last time he saw his brother look so shocked.

(yes you can, you liar, you dirty liar, it was the first time he heard you yell at Tommy, really rip into him, and the shock was only there for a second, he hid it well, but you saw it, you know you did, you just pretended not to, pretended that this was all normal and what you were doing was justified)

“I hate to press you, but it’s fucking freezing,” he adds.

“Shit,” Techno says. “Shit, how are you—Phil said that it didn’t—Wilbur.” He bursts into motion, then, and Wilbur barely tamps down the instinct to punch him, to claw at him and fight and get away as he suddenly steps forward, gripping him by the forearms, crushingly enough to hurt, to leave bruises later. Wilbur furrows his brow at this reaction, but doesn’t have too much time to think about it, because Techno is right there now, right in his face, and that’s too close. Too close. Too much. Techno’s hands almost seem to be burning through the sleeves of his coat, and his skin tingles, as if there are sparks rushing across it.

“It is you, right?” Techno says. “Not—no, Ghostbur wouldn’t, and—wow, I’m gonna need all of you to be quiet. Wait, so where’s Ghostbur, then?”

The bitterness that washes over him is surprising. Perhaps it shouldn’t be. Because it isn’t surprising that Techno asked as much, and something in him, a snarling, angry thing, whispers, of course, of course he would rather have Ghostbur than you, of course he’d rather the pathetic amnesiac remnant, the fragment of a soul that couldn’t handle a single negative emotion, much less act on one, of fucking course that’s the version of you that he likes most, what else did you expect?

(of course he prefers the you that isn’t insane, that doesn’t lash out at anything and everything, even your own family)

“Gone,” he says, short and clipped. “Or so I assume. Sorry to disappoint.”

Techno has the nerve to look confused, his ears twitching. “What? No, that’s not what I—” He stops, then, looking him up and down, his brow furrowing, and Wilbur is about two seconds from breaking out of his hold in the most violent manner possible, because it’s too restraining and too much. “Wow. Okay. You are not dressed to be out here. C’mon.”

“Do you really think I don’t know that?” he gripes, but he doesn’t resist as Techno tugs him indoors, biting back a gasp as the warm air surrounds him. He spares a cursory glace for the inside of Techno’s house, but he knows the layout—Ghostbur was here often enough. “Why do you think I wanted to come inside in the first place?”

He’s expecting a snarky comment back. It’s an old song, an old dance that they do, built on sarcasm and quips and hiding all the feelings underneath. But Techno just looks at him again, looks at him like he’s a puzzle, like he’s something to be figured out, like he’s something unexpected, and Wilbur hates it. Hates being under a microscope, scrutinized, and Techno is only one person, but he feels for all the world as though there are people all around him, looking at him, whispering, like he’s on display, stuck in a glass cage for everyone to point at—

“I, uh,” Techno says, “really, that thing about Ghostbur? I was just wonderin’. It’s not that I’m not happy to see you, Wilbur, honestly. I just… wasn’t expecting it. Phil said that the whole resurrection thing, uh... didn’t pan out.”

… Right. That’s a thing that happened. Ghostbur and his stupid determination, his stupid insistence that the server needed him back, needed him alive, and Wilbur wishes he could take Ghostbur by the collar of his sweater and shout at him until he got it through his head that Wilbur alive is the absolute last thing anyone needs.

“Yeah, that’s not why I’m here,” he says, and—Techno is still holding him, and it’s weird, and he doesn’t like it. His stomach is doing flips. It’s too much, and it’s especially too much coming from Technoblade of all people, because sustained contact has never been how Techno shows affection, or much of anything else, for that matter, and the fact that he’s doing it now is throwing Wilbur off balance.

So he steps away, further into the house, and it seems that this is finally enough for Techno to get the hint. His hands slip from his arms, and Wilbur pretends that he doesn’t feel very cold all of a sudden, a cold that’s different from the snow and ice of outside, a cold that starts inside and works its way out, and—

“Then why are you here?” Techno asks, and a smile pulls at Wilbur’s lips, twisted and not at all happy.

“Ask Tommy,” he replies. “Or better yet, ask Dream.”

“Dream’s in prison,” Techno shoots back. “You’re telling me he did something from a jail cell?”

“What, Tommy didn’t tell you? It’s the whole reason they kept him alive. To bring me back. Not that anyone bothered to consult me about it, but there you go.”

It’s interesting, watching Techno’s face. He has never been outwardly expressive, has always presented a mask of stoicism to the world, but Wilbur knows him, knows what to look for, knows that the slight tightening around his eyes conveys anger, that the flick of his ears indicates discomfort, and a lot of it. What could be causing that, he wonders, feeling a grim sort of amusement. Is it the fact that Dream is alive? Or the fact that he is?

(which would he like it to be? he doesn’t know. part of him wants Technoblade to be put off by him, he thinks. it proves that things are different. that things have changed from their shared childhood. that his experiences meant something, that they mattered, that they are remembered, that he has a reason to be the way that he is)

“Tommy hasn’t been telling me much of anything, lately,” Techno says, and Wilbur only just manages to pick up on the fact that his voice is too even, too monotone, even for him. “We’re not exactly on speaking terms.” He pauses, maybe waiting for Wilbur to say something, maybe not, but after a moment, he says, “You want a drink or somethin’?”

“That would be nice,” he admits. His shivering has begin to abate, but his clothes are still very damp, and they’re not doing anything to warm him up. He should probably ask for a change, but something in him balks at the idea. He doesn’t want to ask Technoblade for favors. Doesn’t want to owe him anything. He’ll take what’s offered, but that’s all.

“Cool,” Techno says. “I’ll get on that.”

They stare at each other. Nobody moves.

“Right,” Techno says. “I’m just gonna… walk past you here.”

Wilbur steps to the side, letting Techno pass him. He’s close enough to touch, close enough to brush up against him if he were just a few inches to the left,

(and something in him is screaming for it, is longing for a gentle touch, for a touch that doesn’t mean pain and doesn’t mean war and isn’t weighted with a thousand betrayals, but he doesn’t know that he can find that here, so much blood is on the floor between them)

but he doesn’t, and Techno disappears from sight. A moment later, there is a clatter, and the sound of cabinets opening and closing. Wilbur stands there for a moment longer, and then takes it as his cue to make himself comfortable.

Not too comfortable, of course. But he sits on Techno’s couch and peels off his coat, and he immediately feels warmer as the air hits his bare arms. He stares at them for a moment, pale and unmarked, and it feels wrong, that they shouldn’t be scarred. He can’t remember if he ever took wounds there, but he’s sure he did at some point, somewhere between the declaration of war and the battles and the explosions and the exile,

(because respawn brings people back, but it doesn’t erase what happened, not completely, and it’s always a tossup as to what will remain, what will linger on as a reminder)

and frankly, he feels like the ripped and torn state of his soul should show externally somewhere.

He breathes out, long and slow, and listens to Techno banging around his kitchen. He braces his forearms against his legs, clasping his hands together and lowering his head.

It might have been a mistake, coming here. He’s not sure what he expected to find, but it wasn’t quite this, wasn’t quite a once-brother who seems to have no idea what to do with him, wasn’t quite conversation that is awkward and stilted and strange because neither of them knows the other anymore, haven’t since the festival, or perhaps since they reunited in Pogtopia, or perhaps since he and Tommy left home, or perhaps since Techno did, or perhaps they never knew each other at all, not really, and they were only playing house all that time.

(that can’t be true, he knows, because he remembers the days when Techno taught him how to fight and he taught him basic guitar chords, remembers the days when he bandaged Tommy’s scrapes and bruises and knew in turn that his little brother would do anything to defend him, remembers the days when the warmth and comfort of Phil’s wings were only a step and a heartbeat away, and they were happy, they were, they were)

Absently, he brings one hand up to touch his chest. He thinks he’s searching for his heartbeat, searching for a bit of reassurance, a bit of stability, but that’s not what he gets. He can feel it even through his shirt, a knot of gnarled scar tissue, thick and raised against the rest of his skin. He slips his hand under his shirt to better prod at it, to map out its edges, and it should hurt, probably, but it doesn’t. There’s not much sensation there at all, a numbness that speaks to nerve endings that didn’t quite heal right.

He knows what it is. He’s not surprised that he brought it back with him.

“Um,” Techno says, and he looks up. Techno is back, is standing in front of him with two steaming mugs, is openly fidgeting, obviously unnerved, and Wilbur might congratulate himself on it if the circumstances were any different. As it is, he takes his hand out from under his shirt and gives Techno a flat stare.

After a moment, Techno huffs and settles on the opposite end of the couch, offering him a mug. Wilbur accepts it, sniffs it, and the scent is familiar, but he can’t place it. He takes a small, cautious sip and almost spits it back out, and not because it scalds his tongue, though it does. He knows what it is as soon as the flavor hits his taste buds, and for a split second, he is overwhelmed by

(tea in his hands and more on the kettle, his father’s voice, low and soothing, and so much nostalgia that he chokes on it)

memories. It’s been so long since he had this. So very, very long.

“Phil left some behind last time he was here,” Techno says. Wilbur looks at him; he’s regarding him carefully, as if he thinks he’s going to—to do what? What does Techno think he’s going to do? Yell? Attack? Bolt? All of those have their attractions, but he sits there instead, his mouth burning with the remnants of the heat.

He doesn’t know what he’s going to say when he opens his mouth.

“I haven’t had this blend since before Tommy and I left home,” he says, the words spilling out without his permission. “It was… the day before, I think? Sometime that week, at least. Phil and I sat in the kitchen and drank tea together, and he told me—” He cuts himself off; that’s too personal. It hurts too much to think about, now.

(he looked into his eyes and said, I’m proud of you, Wilbur, and he tries not to think about it too much, because thinking about it too much means interposing that Phil’s face, calm and smiling and happy, over the face of the Phil that he saw next, tears streaking down his cheeks and his expression twisted in desperation and grief as Wilbur begged him to—stop don’t go there not right now)

“He’s got his own base now,” Techno says, “but he’s not too far away. He said he might stop by tonight. You wanna stick around for that?”

Wilbur goes cold.

He hadn’t really considered it, in all honesty, hadn’t given due thought to seeing Phil, even though he knew very well that he would at least be in the area. Faced with the possibility, he’s not sure what to do with it.

It’s not what he’s here for. That much is certain. He should try to keep from being distracted, probably. He needs to remember that he’s not here with Techno out of familial obligation, but rather out of a desire to find information, to better know what he is about to be walking into.

“Maybe,” he says. “We’ll see.” He takes another sip of his tea. Swallows. Gathers up all of his emotions, and locks them away in a box.

He’s never been too good at compartmentalizing. But he can do it. It’s necessary,

(when you’re not even twenty-five years old and leading your little brother into a war)

sometimes.

“I was hoping you could tell me what’s been going on lately,” he says. “I want to go see Tommy, but I don’t want to walk in without knowing anything.”

Techno snorts.

“I figured it’d be something like that,” he says frankly, and Wilbur’s not quite sure how to take that. “I don’t know why you think I know anything. I don’t exactly have many friends over there right now.”

“Anything is better than nothing,” he responds, quiet and serious, meeting Techno’s eyes. He doesn’t quite know what expression he’s making, but it must be enough to persuade Technoblade, because Techno lets out a sigh, rolling his eyes.

And he talks.

He’s not lying; he doesn’t know much about the state of the server as it is now. But he knows some things, and Wilbur is interested in hearing them. Is interested in hearing about what Techno knows about the final battle against Dream. Is interested in what happened before, and what has happened since—there doesn’t seem to be a lot in the second category, thankfully, so perhaps Tommy has been able to enjoy some peace for once. Wilbur’s about to waltz in and destroy it, of course, but at least he had it for a time.

The exhaustion hits when Techno begins to talk about some kind of egg. Egg government. Egg cult? Techno doesn’t seem to know which it is, and Wilbur can’t make heads or tails of it, and it is then that he realizes that his eyelids are drooping. Which is not good; he didn’t intend to fall asleep here, and frankly, he’s not convinced that it would be safe to do so.

(lie)

But his body refuses to listen to his rational mind, and his thoughts are growing fuzzier by the minute, Techno’s voice falling further and further away. Still talking about the egg. It must be an important egg.

And then, the voice stops. Blearily, Wilbur lifts his head. He hadn’t realized that he’d begun to nod off. Techno is looking at him, something that can’t be softness in his eyes, something that can’t be fondness, because that affection was spent a long time ago, somewhere between Pogtopia and what came afterward.

“You still with me?” Techno asks.

He frowns. “Of course,” he tries to say, but the words come out slurred, just enough that he has no hope of hiding it or excusing it. Sure enough, Techno just laughs. At him. Which is rude and annoying.

“Sure,” he agrees, his voice making it clear that he is not actually agreeing at all. Before Wilbur can protest, he reaches over and plucks the mug from his hands. “I’ve got some guest rooms. Do you want me to set you up?”

“‘M not staying,” he says. Because he’s not. He’s made that determination just now. He’s gotten the information he needs out of Technoblade, and it’s time to move on. He doesn’t want to stay here,

(in a comfortable bed, safe under his brother’s watch, safe for the first time in forever, safe, safe, safe)

that’s for sure.

“Okay,” Techno says, and Wilbur is finding it increasingly difficult to think—and this exhaustion has hit fast, and that better be all that it is, because he doesn’t have the time to be sick—but he is still well aware that he is being mocked. “I’m gonna get you a bed ready, how’s that?”

“No, fuck you,” he mutters, but Techno is already gone, walking upstairs, chuckling to himself. Wilbur glares after him, trying to set him on fire with the force of his gaze, but it doesn’t work, and he is left alone in the room, on the couch, and it seems that he’s not going anywhere tonight. Not unless he takes this opportunity to leave, to venture back out into the cold with nothing but a trenchcoat that hasn’t even finished drying from his first expedition, and—

And this couch is comfortable, actually. Perhaps he can give himself permission to relax. Just this once.

He lies down. Curls up. It’s warm like this. Nice. His mind starts to drift.

He is vaguely aware of Techno’s return, sort-of cognizant of the way he stands over him for a few minutes before muttering to himself, too quiet for Wilbur to bother to parse the words out. Then, there is something covering him, soft and warm, and he must be tired to the point of hallucinations if he truly believes that Techno has just—what, tucked him in? That’s ridiculous. But it’s a problem for the morning.

There is a flash of blue in the corner of his eye. But he’s too out of it to pay it any mind.

Wilbur lets himself sleep.

He wakes up once, to the sound of a door opening, to the sound of voices, two of them, quiet and familiar. He doesn’t know what they’re saying. He doesn’t care. He’s safe here. That’s what matters.

---------

As a note, I’m new to writing for this fandom, so while I don’t have a taglist for it yet, I’m happy to make one if anyone would like, so feel free to ask!

[typewriterghcst]

Title: Leave Us Your Stardust Rating: G like all my other fics l m ao Characters: Natoru, babby Lune, Natori. Mentions of other characters. Words: 2730-ish Summary: The World can be quite an intimidating, tough place for a seven-year-old, particularly after the sun goes down for the first time. Written for the 2020 TCR Birthday Bash, in particular the ‘Ghosts’ prompt. Notes: This is chock full of headcanons regarding these three, particularly during Lune’s childhood, so uh. Hopefully someone else finds this interesting or amusing like I do orz I will admit I’m hesitant on Natoru’s portrayal here because I’m not sure how most people interpret her (or him, if you prefer the dub, aha). I haven’t gotten the chance to write her that often on my RP blog, so this kinda feels to me like jumping headfirst into a shallow pool

                                                          &&&

Natoru plays a lot of roles. She is at once first-line defense and confidante, exorcist and companion. She weaves wild stories and tall tales while battling and eradicating the monsters that manage to sneak out of their imaginary environments to threaten her little ward’s security. She takes care of spiders and hornets. Checks the closet for less rational pests. Peers under the bed each night to shoo out the monsters, too.

It’s because of this, she thinks to herself later once her wits finally arrive, that she ends up being very gently nudged awake by a visibly shaken charcoal-colored kitten in the middle of the night during an extended visit to a neighboring but distant kingdom (the queen’s original home, in fact, a detail that still brings Natoru no small amount of confusion).

“...Natoru..?” Lune sounds hopeful but timid.

“Ehhh.” It’s vaguely questioning, she rationalizes, if a little muffled. She hasn’t quite found the motivation to lift her face from her sleepy haze just yet.

“Can I… can I sleep in here?”

“Why do y’ wanna sleep in ‘ere..?”

Lune fidgets, plays with the edges of his sleeves. “...be… because there’s a ghost in my room.”

Oh. It takes at least a solid minute for that childish (albeit straightforward, she’ll give him that) reasoning to sink in, but once it does, Natoru realizes she’s not getting off the hook that easily. Finally resigning herself to being awake and active again, she hauls herself up from her face-down, torpid position and searches for Lune in the darkness, rubbing at her eyes sleepily.

“Should I go throw him out?”

It takes Lune some time to answer, and when he does, he stares down at his feet as he speaks. “...N-No. I’d rather just stay in here.”

“Eh? How come?”

“...b-because… um. What if… what if the ghosts here are stronger than the ones at home?”

“There are no ghosts stronger than me,” Natoru brags. What a more sweet-natured, maternal cat might have claimed only in the interest of reassuring Lune, she seems to wholly believe, and not for the first time it becomes obvious just why the kitten has taken such a shine to her.

“Really..? How do you know?”

Natoru doesn’t falter, patting her chest with one paw and planting the other on her hip.

"Because I'm the strongest," she answers matter-of-factly.

Lune, still standing at the edge of the bed she'd chosen (though now noticeably with a straighter posture than before), seems to spend some time thinking that over. Finally, hesitantly, he says, “But this isn’t home. What if the ghosts here are stronger than the ones you know? What if the dark makes them stronger?”

Natoru pauses thoughtfully, but ultimately shakes her head. “Nah. I’ve been all over, Lune. And I was born in the human world-- it gets dark there, too. Still no match for me~” She gives him a sunny smile, patently cute as it always is because of her soft, chubby face, but the undercurrent of chaos can not be denied.

What had been a gradual and noticeable decrease in his fear appears to reach a plateau; Lune is convinced, his tail and ears perking back up.

“I’m so grateful! You’re super cool, Natoru!”

“Yep,” Natoru agrees as she hops off her bed to join him on their trek back to his room.

                                                         &&&

Lune begins to trail behind her the closer to his guest room they approach, but she neglects to comment on it. Instead, she tosses the beaded curtain in the doorway aside like a particularly bothersome obstacle, and strolls inside. In stark contrast, Lune tiptoes in behind her, looking furtively from one corner of the room to the next as if he expects to be ambushed. (Well, perhaps he does.)

“Okay, Ghost, you had your fun!” Natoru starts as boldly as she can, paws on her hips. “How’s that one song go? You don’t have to go home, but you can’t stay here! It’s bedtime for Lune.” Then, a little quieter but just as determined, and in a smug tone that shows she absolutely relishes saying it, “And if you don’t listen, then I’m gonna kick you in the head.”

To Lune, she adds, “That’s another great song. Recommend it.”

“It’s about kicking monsters in the head..?”

“Yeah,” Natoru says with a cheerful, heedless shrug.

The two of them are met with a stifling silence afterwards, as Natoru expected, but still she waits for Lune to give his approval. Creeping out from behind her, he pads softly further into the room, one, two steps at a time, again scrutinizing the corners. In the end, he doesn’t turn directly to face her, most likely mindful of the darkened void beneath the bed behind him, but he does look back to her.

“...will you check the bed and closet too..?”

“Of course.”

                                                         &&&

It’s after he’s tucked back into his own bed that Lune asks, “It gets dark in the human world?”

“Every night.”

“How long does a night last?”

Natoru pauses there. 

“...I don’t remember.” She does remember it feeling quite long sometimes, though. It doesn’t seem pertinent to tell Lune. “Time feels different in the human world.”

“How so?”

Again, she pauses, this time in thought more so than in uncharacteristic caution.

The truth is, she thinks, maybe it’s not that time feels different in the human world, but simply that she had once been different. A long time ago, before she came to the Cat Kingdom. Those memories are odd— they don’t fit like they should. She thinks sometimes it may be akin to trying to play one of Natori’s beloved records in a CD player. 

“It’s different because you can tell time has passed just by looking around at the sky and the ground, but it doesn’t actually feel like time has passed. It’s disorienting.”

“The ground changes, too?”

“Yeah!” She chirps. “Sometimes it snows, or it rains. Then you get mud. That stuff’s tons of fun.”

“I’ve seen pictures of it,” Lune starts thoughtfully. “It looks messy.”

“Mm. Natori would have a fit if you discovered how fun it is, too.”

“Maybe I’ll get to play with it, too, then. Someday.”

“Probably! You’ll have your own adventures in the human world, eventually.”

“I hope so,” Lune starts. “It sounds like such a funny place.”

Whatever Natoru might have planned to say to that, no doubt to agree, to tell him of the other oddities abound in the human world, it’s lost in obscurity, as, of all cats, Natori seems to see fit to enter at that time, peeking in through the beaded doorway with a look of subdued disapproval. In some distant part of her brain, the part that’s always faintly amused at her coworker’s finicky quirks, Natoru briefly entertains the idea that perhaps he’d been supernaturally summoned by the talk of mud.

“What on earth are the two of you doing awake at this hour..?”

Natoru answers easily enough, tone blithe as ever. “Don’t look at me, Lune’s the one who dragged me out of bed ‘cause of a ghost.”

Judging from Lune’s offended expression in return, he’s not at all appreciative of his idol throwing him under the bus. Natori, also, regards her with a disapproving frown, paws settling at his hips. To herself, Natoru thinks his current countenance lines up pretty solidly with that of the quintessential, matronly governess.

“Natoru, don’t go blaming your foible on the child.”

“But he did wake me up because of a ghost,” Natoru protests.

It’s at this exchange that Lune’s indignation seems to fade, so that he appears relatively chastened, shamed. “...I’m sorry, Natori, I did wake her up for that.”

Natori seems to… deflate, almost, padding to Lune’s bedside with a sigh. “It’s nothing that warrants an apology, my prince. You’re in no trouble.” Then, while busily straightening the crocheted blanket atop the comforter, “...another ghost, then..?”

Lune’s embarrassed silence says it all, he supposes. So it appears then that Natori decides to move past it without comment in response. A phase, he tells himself, brought about by recent stressors, and one that will fade as they do.

“Well. It is quite late, and there’s an early morning ahead of us all. We should all be more rested, you know. This isn’t the night for tall tales.”

“Hey, speaking of, how come you’re awake, Natori?” Natoru starts shrewdly.

An inquiry the grey cat was clearly not prepared for, as his first response to it is to open his mouth to voice his answer… only to close it again with a light snap once he realizes either he has no suitable excuse or that that suitable excuse is tremendously weak in theory.

“...It’s not important,” he eventually settles on, formal, demure. Leaving precious little room for followup clarifications, though he must know by now that such a thing will not stop Natoru.

“Natori, have you ever been to the human world?” Lune asks.

“Yes, occasionally,” Natori replies, head canted just slightly in curiosity at where Lune’s evident investigation is going.

“Do you have a favorite thing about it?”

“A favorite thing? Well, let me think…”

After a moment, all too aware of Lune’s expectant gaze on him and doing his best to ignore Natoru’s amused, knowing stare (yes, Natoru, he realizes he’s being massively hypocritical right now), Natori seems to decide on, “I suppose I’d say it’s probably the scenery— er, the variety in it, in particular.”

Lune nods excitedly. “The variety! That intrigues me so much, Natori. I’ve seen the pictures of the  forests and mountains and the oceans��� they’re all so huge, Natori, aren’t they? I can’t imagine how big the human world must be to have multiple oceans in it..!”

“I do imagine it must be hard for you,” Natori agrees indulgently with a laugh. Then, a touch diffidently, “...having seen but a fraction of it myself, I must admit it’s rather difficult for me, as well, at times.” His attention wanders to Natoru, who is still lounging propped up on her paws on the end of Lune’s bed like a proper house cat. She wears a thoughtful, somewhat faraway expression, and he wonders what it is she’s thinking of. But, unobtrusive and respectful as ever, Natori doesn’t pry. Instead, he asks, “Did you shoo out the ghost, then?”

Natoru snaps out of her apparent reverie, nodding a time or two and waving her paw in disregard. “Oh, yeah, he’s toast.” And to Lune, “I scared him off, didn’t I?”

“Yup! You said you’d kick him in the head if he came back.”

Ah, that earns her another long-suffering look from Natori, though he doesn’t voice his disapproval this time. Natoru just gives him another of her patented sunny smiles.

“...Well,” Natori starts readily. “If that’s the case, I think that’s enough ill-timed chatter to last us the night. Morning will arrive before you know it, and I’ll not oblige any requests to sleep in.” Spoken while gently tugging the comforter up over Lune’s shoulders, now that the crocheted blanket has been righted.

“Can I ask one last question, Natori?”

“Yes,” Natori answers primly, somewhat absently, if his concentration on Lune’s already straightened bedcovers is anything to go by.

“It’s about the human world again.” And there Lune hesitates, at least until Natori gives another acknowledging noise. “I keep reading about... how big the human world is, and you and Natoru say it is, too. And— and all the stuff that’s in it, things you can’t see here. Do you think… I mean, because it’s so… There’s so much in it, so do you think… someone could go there, but eventually run out of things to see?”

His voice has lowered to be so soft his two companions nearly miss his question in its entirety, and it along with his insistence on keeping his gaze glued to some indeterminate spot to his side tells them both this line of questioning is not just a child’s rambling, all-encompassing curiosity. Because of this, it seems the two of them struggle for an answer for some time— one that must be reassuring and optimistic, but also can not conclusively discuss the issue. It hasn’t been named yet; it has yet to be spoken aloud to Lune, and it is not the place of the royal advisor nor their vaguely-defined assistant to do so.

Paws lingering over the plush comforter where he’s folded it over Lune’s shoulders, Natori finally replies, timidly, “...Anything is possible.” 

“Sure, there’s a lot to see. But nothing beats good old home,” is Natoru’s helpful addition. “A cat’s bound to get homesick at some point.”

Lune doesn’t respond for a few long minutes, but neither Natori nor Natoru move to prompt or hurry him, even when the silence begins to feel acutely oppressive, and Natoru almost wishes a real ghost would break the tension. Eventually, however, Lune gives a very small sigh, and his attention wanders from his earlier inconsequential spot to Natori’s face. It’s not quite his more usual bright and inquisitive demeanor, but it’s at least a step away from the nervous reserve he’d been exhibiting just moments before.

“...I hadn’t thought of that.”

“Yes. It’s certainly a fascinating place, but it’s no Cat Kingdom. The comforts of familiarity compel all of us to look homeward at least occasionally.”

Lune seems to think that over for a moment, glancing down to the hem of the blanket covering him once (Natoru thinks he must be imagining his own bed back at home, and his colorful bedroom, eternally bathed in sunlight). This time, when he looks to the two of them, it’s with a decidedly more self-assured air. 

“Okay! So I’ll stay as familiar as I possibly can!”

Natoru laughs— she can’t help it. It’s such an endearingly straightforward conclusion to come to. Natori, however… she notices the way his expression tenses, the conflicted, nervous debate he must be waging on the inside. Lune has taken away the wrong message from all this, and it should be addressed and amended, but... it’s only getting later, and Natori had entered the conversation with a chiding lecture about the late hour. He looks tired, too, Natoru notes to herself, probably a crucial trigger for his indecisiveness.

“You got it, Lune,” she decides to chime in, pushing herself up onto her haunches now. “But I think it’s time to stick a fork in this one, because I’m ready to go back to dreamland.”

Lune’s eyes light up further. “Oh! Maybe I’ll dream of the human world.”

“Maybe!”

Natori seems to just accept this abrupt left turn in the conversation in his usual yielding way, but he does see fit to add, in a soft tone that comes perhaps dangerously close to pleading, “...Lune… it’s all well and good to desire to remain... recognizable, but…”

There he dithers for some time, at a loss for what he wants to say or how to say it, most likely, as he utters numerous false starts before finally appearing to give up. Instead, lips straightening to a thin line, he fixes the kitten with a sort of wistfully helpless smile, and gives a comically uncharacteristic shrug.

“...Well. It’s late, as we’ve all pointed out. Goodnight, my prince. Now that your room has been cleared of its phantoms, please don’t dawdle on your way back to the Land of Nod. The sun will rise before you know it.”

“I won’t, Natori.”

Natori inclines his head once in wordless approval as he turns to leave, gaze also lingering meaningfully on Natoru (one she again only returns a blithe smile to), before he leaves in much the same natural way he’d first arrived. Natoru takes the opportunity to hop off Lune’s bed and dust herself off, though even her own reasoning for doing so escapes her. Lune, meanwhile, appears somewhat thoughtful, if distantly uncertain.

“Is it really so close to morning? I’m sorry for waking you, a-and for keeping you up all this time.”

“Nah, don’t worry about it. I’ll let you in on a secret, actually—” Here she glances behind her to confirm that Natori has, indeed, left, before continuing in a hushed but shrewdly amused manner, “I know Natori said he wouldn’t let us sleep in, but just keep in mind that what your dad says goes, and he hasn’t seen a morning in years.”

And so it was that Natoru gained another point from the child prince to set in her ‘cool’ pile.

[sonicringbond]

Sonic Ring Bond: The Journey - Scene 27

Thank you everyone for your patience, we finally have a scene with a little action in it. I won’t keep you away from it as I know everyone has been waiting for it for a while, so please enjoy, after just a bit of opening exposition in...

    ~I really do love travelling. Especially with friends!

    ~Tee-hee~♪ Though my current friends aren’t as enthusiastic as I am. Draw has been with me for a while, but he’s always either teasing me or being too serious. I feel kind of bad for him and really hope our journey together will help him open up and have more fun. I kind of forced our new friend on him though, as well as a Ring Bond.

    ~It really surprised me that the weird little creatures we saved were fairies. The one we befriended we’ve taken to calling Mote as they don’t have any names normally. But they glow like the motes of light that Rings leave behind so it’s now a really cute name~♥ Now if only Mote was nicer to me.~

    From the back of a covered truck bed, Rosy watched Draw as he looked at the gray ocean beyond the truck. As a storm raged on and turned the ocean violent and hostile, the truck bumped along as though it was unconcerned. In the comfort of the truck, Rosy barely paid the storm any mind and spied the fairy they named Mote resting. As she smiled and waved pleasantly, the fairy took note and ducked out of sight to which Rosy puffed up her cheeks.

    ~According to Draw, the reason why Mote avoids me and won’t even stay out long enough for me to look at them is because I’m a medium and fairies don’t have the right to talk to someone chosen by the gods. I don’t really remember the adventures I went on with friends as well as I do the ones I went on alone and talked to them about, but maybe I’ve met some. I don’t remember. But it’s not the first time I’ve been called a medium either. A friend back home once did and Ix also called me a medium. Is it really so special being able to maybe talk with gods using my tarot cards?

    ~Well, I’m sticking to talking to spirits today!~

    Not giving up on making friends with Mote, Rosy skipped over to the back of the truck and leaned out as well. The rain immediately slicked her quills, and salt water just as likely sprayed her as the ocean smashed tumultuously against the rocky and jagged coast. In the distance among one particularly rocky outgrowth, an old stone brick castle could be seen rising up and reaching towards the sky with its numerous towers.

    ~After Draw, Mote, and me started traveling together, my goal has been tracking down Sonic so we can get him to help Mote save all their friends from whoever it is who is capturing them and shoving them into those awful autogolems. Unfortunately, Mote doesn’t know who it is and finding Sonic isn’t easy either, but fortunately I have a record of being good at finding him. Mote is also a Ring Fairy supposedly, so that inspired me to try also tracking down another Red Star Ring. Trusting my cards is fine, but we also need one to hopefully get back home. And I’m sure just like me, Sonic is looking for one too as well all our friends.

    ~And that brings me to that big castle that we’re heading for right now. Supposedly it’s haunted, but claims that if you stand in the highest tower that you can hear the wailing of the ghosts who still live in it have lured me to it. Other people argue it’s just the sounds of the ocean rising up from the whole set of ruins that extends out some ways under it. I kind of wonder if it used to be a big city above water before the ocean came in. Or maybe the ocean or the city were dropped here by a Ring Shift. It’s so hard to tell with our world.

    ~Still, as much as I hope the local ghosts can help me find Sonic, some people say that in the ancient underwater city there are tiles in the road that look like the big Red Star Ring that Sonic and I accidentally put up in the sky. But if that’s really true… Well, the ghosts will surely know!~

~|~

    “Why does every idea you come up with lead us into danger!” Draw cried out from the top of his lungs as he clung on to Rosy for dear life.

    Running as deftly as she could through the crumbling ruins she laughed and would have scratched at her cheek if she were not giving Draw a piggyback ride. “Well, everyone calls me a rascal–”

    “You call yourself a Rascal!” Draw yelled at Rosy and was nearly drowned out by a crack of thunder beyond the castle wall.

    Skipping and jumping from one crumbling wall or staircase to the next and down the occasional hall, Rosy attempted her best to outrun the ghosts that were anything but friendly. Barely more than what resembled a sheet draped over a ball, the ghosts were possessed of terrifying eyes of darkness and had long curved horns growing from their foreheads. Rosy had already encountered the receiving end of the horns once and lost most of her Rings. Attacking the ghosts did no good either as they simply dispersed and reformed. As a result, Rosy chose to flee.

    “Well, getting into trouble is part of adventuring too.”

    “Do all of your friends get into trouble like this!”

    “Maybe…?”

    “You’re going to get me killed, aren’t you?”

    “Don’t talk like that Draw,” Rosy tried to cheer up her koala companion, but as she ran out past a broken wall and into the storm, the slick brick floor stole her traction from her, and she slipped and slid about uncontrollably.

    “WOAH~!”

    The two screamed out together and Rosy desperately tried to press her feet into the ground beneath her, but all she managed to do was provide herself more surface to slip on. Her red ballet flat like shoes were not well suited to running as it was, though Rosy made do as she called them cute. She was getting fairly decent running with them on reasonably dry terrain and some grass, but here in the old castle they proved disastrous.

    With yet another slip from an attempted step, Rosy slid down into involuntarily performing a full leg split and continued to slide with even less control than before. Trying to bring her legs back under her merely made her spin and she and Draw crashed into a wall and tumbled right over the parapets.

    “Ow~,” Rosy laughed as much as complained as she held her head and looked up into the violent storm clouds above. A bolt of lightning tore through them and a tremendous crack of thunder shook Rosy and the castle through. “Hee-hee. It’s a good thing Tails isn’t here. He’d be too terrified to move. But then the ghosts would get him.”

    “If you didn’t first,” Draw argued as he walked over and looked down at Rosy. “Besides, it looks like the ghosts won’t come outside.”

    “Really? Rosy questioned as she sat up and extracted herself from the mud she was sinking into. Using the pouring rain to clean herself off, Rosy looked around noticed that they really were not being chased anymore. “Wow! In that case we should probably find a way to get to the tallest tower before the sun goes down.”

    “You really still want to go up there. It looks like it’s covered so these ghosts will probably be waiting for us.”

    “Well, I’m still hoping to meet a nice ghost who can point us to the Red Star Ring or even Sonic.”

    “You are so weird you weirdo girl!”

    “Hee-hee! Don’t be like that Draw. It’ll be fun! Promise!”

    ~Draw of course was fussy about it, though that could have also been due to his coat being soaking wet. It’s funny he how called me strange for wearing a leotard in the snow, but he’s been wearing that fur coat ever since I met him. I wonder if it’s that cozy.

    ~At the least, Draw’s coat was definitely cozier than the castle’s highest tower. But that didn’t make the tower less amazing. Though it was mostly exposed to the elements and the roof seemed to stay up as though it were magic, the view of the city under the waves was breathtaking. Also sad in a way. This once massive city now rested beneath the ocean with only the castle full of ghosts to show where the city was now. But if the rumors were true, and Draw and I could definitely hear something up there in that old rickety tower, then there were ghosts who still talked and likely lived down in the city. I just needed to get in touch with them. To do that with the shape the tower was in I was going to have to use up a lot of Rings to protect my tarot cards from the rain. But it would be worth it. I came up here hoping to find a clue to where Sonic was and maybe snag a Red Star Ring too! It was just a matter of following my destiny as it unfolded!~

Scene 27 · CLEARED A Tide of Ghosts, to be continued

-----

And there we have it, quite a bit of action, and Rosy having a fair bit of clumsiness while it’s going on. I really hope everyone enjoyed and is looking forward to the next scene. It’s my personal favorite so far and has plenty of action as well. Please look forward to it, and thank you so much!

-----

Special Thanks to Cutegirlmayra Story by @JoshTarwater/SonicFanJ Inspiring Song ��� What Makes the Sky Blue – Tsutomu Narita – Granblue fantasy Original Soundtrack: Promise

Fair Use Disclaimer

Sonic the Hedgehog and all affiliated characters and logos are the express property and Copyright© of SEGA SAMMY HOLDINGS used without permission under Title 17 U.S.C Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976 in which allowance is made for “fair use” for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. “Fair use” is use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be considered copyright infringement. The Sonic Ring Bond: The Journey alternate universe (AU) consumer written work of fiction is a non-profit transformative work primarily for personal use and can and will be taken down without warning or prior notice at the request of the copyright holder(s) should it not be recognized under “fair use”.

*Sonic Ring Bond logo created by DEE Art – twitter.com/daryliscute.

Sonic Ring Bond AU and Sonic Ring Bond: The Journey are the creation of Joshua David Tarwater/ynymbus/sonicfanj/@Joshtarwater and is to be, including all contents herein considered for all legal purposes the property of the Sonic the Hedgehog intellectual property (IP) and copyright owners, SEGA SAMMY HOLDINGS. All story contributors via prompt, suggestion, written scene, art, and all and every other contribution acknowledge that all contributed material is forfeit for legal purposes to SEGA SAMMY HOLDINGS upon official request from SEGA SAMMY HOLDINGS.

[j-j-ehlby-writes]

Meet Me at the Chalet || bonus.

Eventual pairing: Tom Hiddleston x OFC (Jenessee Borosi)

Word count: ~3.4k

Summary (I suck at these): Jenessee goes on a solo vacation after the release of her first novel. She got a little more than she bargained for when she gets snowed in with her biggest celebrity crush.

Warnings: Fluff but what’s new?

A/N: Because I have slight OCD, I decided to write just one more chapter so this series can be an even 10 parts. Now I can put this story to rest at last. Thank you for reading this series. It means more to me than any words could say.

night one. || day one. || day two. || day three. || day four. || day five. || day six. || last day. || one year later. || epilogue. || bonus. ||

three years later…

Light buzzing of the airplane’s engines fill the air as it flies us through the air to an unknown destination. My wonderful man has refused to tell me where we are currently flying to, ever the lover of surprising me.

The last five years have been the hardest but most rewarding of my life. After my relationship with Tom became public, my life changed overnight. Suddenly, everyone wanted to know who I was, where I came from, and everything that was happening in my life. My followers and book sales skyrocketed after the Late Late show which thrilled my publicist to no end. Every media outlet wanted to interview me and do a story of “the woman who snatched one of Hollywood’s most eligible bachelors.” I had interview after interview having to repeat our love story countless times for everyone who asked. It grew tiring but I was also exhilarated. I finally got the opportunity to boast about how amazing Tom truly was. The fans got a glance at the man behind the mask, so to speak.

Wherever I went, people would follow me and want to take pictures and ask me questions about Tom. At first it was overwhelming. There were a lot of difficult days following. Especially when I read the negative comments and reactions. I knew there would be and I tried to brace myself for the worst possible thing anyone could say about me but nothing could have prepared me for the real thing. Faceless people calling me a gold-digger among other comments on my appearance, saying I’m using Tom for fame and how we made up the story for publicity claiming that since I’m a writer I could “spin anything to make it sell.” It seemed to be never-ending. Every time I tried to focus on the positive, supportive people one of the negatives would pop up and ruin any sense of confidence I had built.

Tom would try and distract me from it as best as he could, but when he wasn’t physically there with me, nothing could shake the depression it would send me into.

After a few months, I had had enough. I disabled the comments on my Instagram posts and turned off all notifications for all social media. I no longer wanted the negativity to take over my life as it had.  It was also having an adverse effect on my relationship. That was our first hurdle that we faced together. He didn’t want to tell me what to do, knowing I’m perfectly capable of taking care of myself no matter how much he wanted to protect me, but he finally drew the line. He made a statement on his social media, telling the fans he loves so much to stop with the outrageously false comments, to consider my feelings and how their words affect me when they start typing, and that if they weren’t going to be supportive of the woman he is choosing to spend his life with then they are not true fans of his. Following his statement was when I disabled everything. From that moment on, our relationship went back to how it was before we went public.

A pair of lips awoke me from my daydreaming. “How’s our littlest flier?” Tom’s baritone whisper invaded my ears but not disturbing the smallest passenger on the private plane.

I glance down at the sleeping 7 month old with my dark hair and Tom’s curls. “He’s sleeping like a champ as usual.”

He smiles proudly as he sits next to me, reaching for my hand. He plays with the rings that adorn my ring finger that he gave me 2 1/2 years and 1 1/2 years ago. “And how’s my beautiful wife?”

Memories of those two magnificent days always bring me the greatest joy.

Seeing him slowly go down on his knee in front of the fireplace at the Chalet, him declaring his “everlasting love” and how much his life has felt “more fulfilled since meeting me at the chalet,” how big of a surprise I’ve been to him, how much he’s loved every minute of our lives together, and how he couldn’t wait to spend the rest of his life with me. The pure love and joy he exhibited on his face the moment I said yes will forever be etched in my mind, making me fall in love with him that much more than I already was.

Hearing the words “I do” in the most confident manner with the biggest smile on his gorgeous features will also remain a constant memory of one of the best days of my life. The tan suit he wore, the stunning dress that I still love to this day, the warm sand under our bare feet, the sun setting behind us as our family and our closest friends watched us begin the next chapter in our lives.

A kiss to the back of my hand brought me back to the present, “She is confused as to where her husband is taking all of us.” I raise my eyebrow in question towards him eliciting a chuckle from his lips.

“You trust me, darling?”

“You know I do.”

He squeezes my hand in affirmation, “Then will you please believe me when I tell you that you will not be disappointed?” He places another kiss on the back of my hand, ending this discussion in the most gentlemanly way possible. Damn him.

I decide to trust him as I have since the day we met, resting my head on his shoulder, careful not to wake our most precious gift and catch some much needed sleep before we land in who-knows-where.

Upon the pilot’s message about our upcoming decent, I was instructed to put on a blindfold by my husband, adding to the surprise he has in store for us. I was hesitant, skeptical of being robbed of my site for the time being but I trusted him enough to know he wouldn’t let anything bad happen.

He took an anxious Bobby and our gray cat Sadie out as soon as the door to the plane was opened and put them in the awaiting car. Listening to him coo at our son who was undoubtedly upset about being removed from my lap melted my heart. I wish I could have seen it instead of just heard it.

“Alright, my darling, your turn.” He guided me down the steps of the plane into the chilly atmosphere before he gently placed me into a car. He hopped into the drivers seat and we began the second leg of our journey.

The drive was peaceful. He had soft music playing so it wouldn’t wake up the baby in the back and he probably thought I would want to sleep a little more, too. I happily accepted the heaviness again, taking full advantage of not having to fuss over my son.

I was awoken by his soft whispers, “you can take the blindfold off now, darling.” I sat up in my seat before untying it. In front of the car, I see a gate. Tom sticks his arm out the drivers side window, inserting a key into a keyhole effectively opening the gate. I look around and see the bright snow covering everything around. As he drives through the gate, I recognize the area immediately.

“When did the Chalet install a gate?” I ask Tom who has a shit-eating grin on his beautiful weathered face.

“Actually…” He trails off as we pull up to the Chalet and into a brand new garage built off to the side.

“Is this why it was under construction for so long?” I exit the vehicle, putting Bobby on his leash and grabbing Sadie’s carrier before rounding the car to the side Liam is on. Tom is already working to take his car seat out. Tom had told me right before we got married that the Chalet was under construction and would be for a few years. It broke my heart to know we couldn’t go there for our honeymoon, but where we did go was the most wonderful experience. Malaysia, Australia, and Bora Bora… the most fun and relaxing three months of my life. It was a God-send after the stress of planning a wedding and reception. We had a small ceremony with just us, our family, and our closest friends followed by a big reception a week later inviting everyone we know for a night of fun.

Tom ushered us up to the front door, unlocking the door with another key.

“When did Sal give you a key?” was my last question before we entered the building. My jaw dropped. 

Everything looked completely different. There no longer was a front desk, but a foyer with benches and cubbies for coat hooks like a mud room. It opened up to the grand living room that Tom and I have made many memories from sitting together while reading and writing to when we sat by the fireplace after my midnight breakdown the night before to when he proposed to me right in this very spot. 

The view of the mountain below still took my breath away even after all of this time and the many visits we’ve paid since that first time. As I took in the room I loved, I noticed the small details that weren’t there before. Pictures of us- me and Tom- from our first time here to our wedding day and our first family of three photos, solo pictures of Bobby, Sadie, and Liam I’ve taken over the course of the last few years. 

I also noticed a few pieces of furniture that weren’t here before. A papasan chair was placed in the corner just like our home in London had. It’s the best place to sleep when I have a headache and Liam loves sleeping with me in it. There’s a picture of one of those occurrences hanging above it as to remind me of the first few weeks he was born.

Tom appeared next to me, having Liam in one arm, he wrapped the other arm around my waist pulling me closer and whispered in my ear, “Welcome home, baby.”

“Wait, what?” I gasped as the realization hit me. I turned to meet his eyes, “You bought it?!”

“Sal was looking to retire and I said I’d take it off his hands. He gave me a great deal considering we were his favorites.” He kissed me tenderly before pulling back again. “I wanted this to be our home; a place we raise our family, make memories in. What better way to unveil the finished renovations by bringing us all and spending the holidays here?”

I wrapped my arms tightly around his waist, squealing in excitement. Never in my wildest dreams did I think I could call this place “home.” It’s always been a home away from home. Every time I would have to leave, I’d feel like I was leaving a piece of myself behind. But my wonderful, thoughtful husband made it happen. He made this place that holds a special place in both of our hearts into our dream home where we will raise our son and our future children, where we will start family traditions that will be passed down to our children when they have children of their own, a place where our families can come together for the holidays, birthdays, and vacations… a place to call home.

“Do you approve?” He purrs into my ear.

“Do I approve?” I ask incredulously. I pull back to face him, “This is one of the best surprises I could have ever asked for.” I place a quick kiss on his lips. “Thank you.” I turn my attention to our beautiful son who was wide awake now, “did Daddy buy us a new home?” My baby voice came out, “did he?” I took possession of him, kissing his scrumptious chubby cheeks repeatedly. Tom chuckled at how ridiculous I sound but he’s gotten used to it now. “We’re going to be so happy here.”

Tom brings us on a tour to show me all that was done to make it work for us as a family home. Two of the rooms were combined to give us the most incredible master suite I’ve ever seen, including a spa-like master bathroom and a see-through fireplace that connects the two.

Two of the other rooms were redone into bedrooms for Liam and a future child with closets and their own bathrooms. Two other rooms was changed into guest suites for family or friends who want to come stay with us.

But the most amazing surprise out of all of this was the last room was my dedicated writing space. A serene room including a desk, a bookcase that contained all of my books and my unfinished works, cups filled with my favorite kinds of pens, plenty of loose-leaf printer paper, other notebooks I’ve yet to use, anything I could possibly use or need. The real kicker was in what looks like a wardrobe was a Murphy bed. I had always said that my ideal office would include a Murphy bed because I do my best writing in bed. I spend most nights up until the wee hours of the morning writing and I didn’t want to keep my future partner awake with my habit. I couldn’t wait to get started.

The kitchen was converted into a beautiful chef’s kitchen with quartz counter tops with a gorgeous chevron backsplash, normal-sized stainless steel appliances, white cabinets and cupboards and a banquette that was build into the large island that could fit our growing family. It opened up to the living room and dining room now which made the space seem so much bigger than it already is.

I could picture Tom at the stove, making breakfast for us on Saturdays while I watch from either the island or on the couch in the living room. I could imagine both of our families flying around the room busying themselves with whatever dish they were in charge of for the holidays. I see Tom and I enjoying quiet midnight snacks while sitting on the island or on the floor and mid-day food fights like we had during our first encounter.

The gym was also revamped and the laundry room was scaled down to accommodate a family instead of a hotel. It was all so perfect. It felt like a dream, but it wasn’t a dream. It was our new reality.

As we start this new chapter in our lives in Colorado with our little family, I can’t believe how my life has turned out…

In six years, I went from a single, aspiring writer who just released her first book going on a solo vacation for solitude and inspiration to a best-selling novelist, the wife of one of England’s finest gentleman who also happened to be one of my biggest celebrity crushes, and the mother of his unbelievably adorable son.

Never in a million years would I have thought this was where my life would end up after being stuck with him in a beautiful secluded Chalet. Our time in seclusion would be the catalyst for the ride of a lifetime. Half a dozen years later with a painful, but eye-opening year separation, five more published books and book tours for me, five movies and long press tours for him, a long awaited wedding plus reception, and a beautiful baby boy later… here we are in the same Chalet we met converted into our dream home with our son, dog, and cat. Life couldn’t be better.

The holidays in our new home were better than I expected. Our moms fussed over Liam as much as they possibly could when they weren’t concerned with cooking for all of us. When they weren’t all over him, Tom’s sisters were. It gave us some much-needed alone time in our brand new master suite. To say we took full advantage of our built-in babysitters was an understatement.

Thanksgiving came and went far too quickly. Our moms stayed after wanting as much time watching Liam discover something new every day and spoil him as much as they can since neither of us live close to our families with his in England and mine in the states. Our busy schedules don’t allow for us to see them as often as we’d both like. But ever since Liam was born, we’ve both taken tons of time off- no movies, no press tours, no auditions, no publication meetings- and we’ve gotten the opportunity to see them more.

By Christmas though, Tom and I were ready for it to be over so we could go back to our normal. We love our moms, more so now that we have our own child, but they were beginning to become “smothers.” Thankfully by Christmas Eve, Tom’s sisters were back and they could focus on more than just us. That night we decorated the tree with ornaments from our respective childhoods and the ornaments we made to commemorate Liam’s first Christmas and our first as a family of three. We drank cider and eggnog around the fireplace as we watched the snow fall, sharing stories of our favorite memories and our most memorable present. Christmas morning was full of excitement with our nieces and nephews tearing open their presents and Liam wanting nothing to do with his. For dinner my mom’s famous Swedish meatballs were made and devoured by everyone. Our family’s Jell-O dessert with strawberry Jell-O with strawberries added, whipped cream and pretzels was a big hit with the whole family, even Liam had a small taste and he continued to suck on Tom’s finger trying to get every last morsel of flavor. It truly was a day of merriment.

The next day the chaos had ebbed. We finally got back to our quiet household with our routine. We spend New Years Eve watching the fireworks through the multi-story, floor-to-ceiling windows. A picture perfect site made for the best New Years I had ever had.

By the time we were leaving in mid-January because Tom was due on set for his first movie after the baby, we discovered our family was going to gain another member.

When the holidays came around again, our daughter Julia was the apple of everyone’s eye who met her, completing our already-perfect family. She has Tom’s ginger locks and her blue-turning-green eyes are like mine but so much more to die for. She has the sweetest temperament, just like her brother. I can tell already that they completely adore each other. I can’t wait to watch Liam be the protective big brother I always wanted growing up. With a father like Tom, I know he will be the best man- sensitive, caring, soft- everything I love about him. Julia will be the most headstrong and stubborn woman just like me. For now though I’m good with them staying my babies.

As I sit in the papasan chair in the corner with my sweetest little girl sleeping in one arm, I have a pen in the other hand. Words were flowing out of me as if a levee had just given way. Finally getting some peace and quiet after the busy holiday season, I’ve had time to come up with an idea for my next book.

“I see some things never change.” I look to see the love of my life standing where the doorway used to be, where he said those exact same words to me after our year separation. This time however, he was holding our son on his hip, matching smiles on both of them. My handsome boys.

I can’t hide the smile that seems to be a constant on my face nowadays, “But would you really want them to?”

His smile grows bigger as he makes his way over to me, leaning down and pressing a soft kiss on my lips. He pulls back a hair and whispers, “Never,” in the huskiest tone instantly reminding me of the God of Mischief. 

I can’t help but giggle like a schoolgirl when he talks like that. This man still gives me butterflies even after all these years. He still makes my heart race every time he looks at me or touches me. I still get goosebumps when he tells me he loves me, which is multiple times a day. I still love him- I’m still IN love with him- even more than I was yesterday but less than I will be tomorrow. I sigh in complete and utter contentment.

Meeting at this Chalet was the best decision we both could have ever made. The blizzard that stranded us here was the best thing in the world that could have happened to us. I can’t wait to see what the next chapter of our lives has in store for all four of us.

.

the end.

.

Taglist: @the-marvel-wars​ @elusive-beauty​ @drakesfiance​ @im-a-slut-for-an-accent​ @fantasy-is-my-reality​ @hiddlephile​

[waltzofthewifi]

Miraculous Through The Ages: Frozen: Marihone

Masterpost | Next Story | Next Frozen Story

Frozen: After bandits steal the Miracle Box and bring it to Western Europe, the miraculous are scattered over the continent, and the ladybug and black cat miraculous are separated. Now free of the mist of the Enchanted Forest, Tikki must reunite with Plagg before the miraculous loose their balance - and she needs a worthy holder to do so.

Anna slid off the water spirit, smile still wide on her face.

"I can't believe it!" Anna said. "That was so much fun!"

Elsa laughed. "I told you you would enjoy the ride."

"I did!" Anna confirmed.

She took a moment to reorient herself, brushing off her dress and fixing her hair. Elsa patted the water spirit, and the horse ran off again.

"Now, what did you want to talk to me about?" Anna asked.

"Do I have to talk to you about anything?" Elsa asked. "Maybe I've just spent so much time impressed by how you've lead Arendelle, I wanted a chance to show off a little too."

"Well, you definitely know how to show off," Anna admitted.

Elsa laughed. "Oh, wait until you see the spot me and Honeymaren found the other day. It's beautiful!"

"Everything in this forest is beautiful, now that the mist is gone," Anna commented. She spotted a figure moving towards them. "Oh, is Honeymaren coming along? And yet you didn't invite Kristoff."

"I didn't invite her," Elsa corrected. "And after our last game night was interrupted by one of your advisors for - what was it again?"

"Problems with our imports," Anna said. "A serious concern, by the way - but yeah, I see your point."

Honeymaren arrived, looking like she ran the entire enchanted forest to find them. "Sorry to interrupt, but we're having problems with the... boxes."

Elsa looked as confused as Anna felt. "Boxes?"

"You know, the magic boxes?"

"Oh," Elsa replied.

"Magic boxes?" Anna echoed, still confused.

"I'll explain on the way over," Elsa said. "This could be bad."

.

"Do you remember ever reading about the war of all lands?" Elsa asked.

"Yeah, it's an old legend," Anna said. "Old, old legend. Not many people know it anymore. Basically, a long time ago, a lot of countries fought over a magical stone that could give ultimate power."

Elsa nodded. "There's some truth to that legend. There never was a war to that scale, but there have been battles over a group of stones that could give amazing powers. Not so long ago, travelers stole a box of stones from far away, believing them to be the same stones from the legend, but when they realized how powerful the stones were, they knew they had to be extra careful about who they gave them to. Eventually, the leader of the travelers decided to separate the stones, so that even if some should fall into the wrong hands, they wouldn't be able to have all of the powers."

"Like that old saying about the eggs," Anna commented.

"Exactly," Elsa agreed. "The two most powerful stones were separated the farthest - one taken to a kingdom way south, and another left to the Northuldra, hoping that the spirits here would help guard it."

"And now these stones are carefully guarded by the Northuldra," Honeymaren said.

"Wait, isn't there a stone in the vaults of Arendelle that was supposedly a magical gift from travelers?" Anna asked.

"Hm, I never thought about that," Elsa admitted. "That could be one of them as well."

Honeymaren stopped them in front of a hollowed out log in a clearing. All around the log were red... somethings. It looked like translucent rocks that had magically appeared.

"You see the problem?" Honeymaren asked.

She and Elsa kneeled down next to it, and Anna followed suit. Honeymaren lifted up a panel of the log - well, actually, it probably wasn't a regular log, was it? - and pulled out a box.

"It's smaller than I thought it would be," Anna noted. "Not that that's a bad thing! It's just - it doesn't look like it holds something so powerful, does it?"

"That's the point," Elsa said.

The box was pretty, as small as it was. It was square, with the Northuldra four-point design carved in. Honeymaren pulled out four pegs in each corner and slid the lid off, revealing two compartments, each with a small piece of jewelry - earrings in one, and a short necklace in the other.

"They don't look like much," Anna noted.

Honeymaren must have never seen them, either, because she looked as if she had come to a similar conclusion.

Elsa was not bothered. "According to legend, each stone has a spirit within it. They should be able to lead us in figuring out how to fix this."

"Alright," Anna agreed. "Spirits are more your thing, so go ahead."

Elsa nodded and reach her hand in, reaching towards the choker.

"Actually, I think the earrings are the more powerful one," Honeymaren offered.

"Oh, right." Elsa picked up the earrings, and as she did so, a red energy burst out.

Anna started, falling back on her hands, and raised a hand to shield her eyes from the light as it began to take a form. Honeymaren let out a surprised yip, stumbling backwards, and Elsa leaned forward in curiosity.

Anna pushed herself back up and looked at the spirit. "Hello?"

The spirit grinned brightly. "Hello!" She flew up to Anna, looking over her with the same curiosity Anna felt.

"You can talk?" Anna asked.

"Yes!" The spirit replied. "My name is Tikki, and I'm a kwami!"

"What's a kwami?" Anna asked.

"We're what give the miraculous their powers," Tikki answered.

"Miraculous? Is that what these are called?" Elsa questioned.

Tikki nodded. "Usually, there's a guardian to help protect us, and to guide those with the miraculous, but there's no guardians here."

"That's who the stones were stolen from," Elsa guessed.

Tikki nodded. "Those thieves were very ingenious to break into the temple. Fortunately, they realized how powerful the miraculous were, and kept from selling them as originally planned. But the leader didn't listen to me, and separated the miracle box."

Anna frowned. "Isn't that safer?"

"In theory, it was sound," Tikki agreed. "But the ladybug and black cat jewels balance each other out. Without the black cat miraculous, my miraculous is starting to spiral out of control. Unfortunately, no one realized that this would happen until after the mist fell."

"Well the mist has lifted," Anna said. "We can reunite you with the black cat miraculous again."

Tikki didn't look very sure.

"Is there something else?" Elsa asked.

"Well, the ladybug and black cat miraculous are supposed to be partly balanced out through the chosen," Tikki said. "Those that the guardians have chosen to wear the miraculous. I don't think we can find the balance again until we've both found chosen that balance each other out."

"Oh, okay," Anna said. "We'll find a Northuldra that can be your chosen. What qualities are you looking for?"

"Leaders make the best ladybugs," Tikki said. "Those who can lead with confidence, always do the right thing no matter what, are there to support others, and can understand much through very little."

Elsa chuckled.

Anna frowned. "What?"

"That sounds a lot like you, Anna," Elsa said. She turned to Tikki. "My sister is a fearless queen, respected by all of Arendelle. She's loving, determined, confident, and always does the right thing."

Anna felt heat rush to her cheeks. "I'm not that good."

Elsa leaned forward and grabbed Anna's hand. "Yes you are."

"Besides, I have a kingdom to run. I can't leave to help you," Anna said.

"Maybe not," Tikki said. "But I can help you. The ladybug Miraculous has been in the hand of many fearless leaders, and I've learned a lot from my chosens. Right now I need a suitable chosen, then we can worry about finding the black cat."

"If you're sure."

Tikki nodded. "I have a good feeling about this."

.

Two days later, and Anna was attached to her kwami.

Tikki was a floating ball of happiness. She absolutely adored the ice art Elsa left all over the castle, and enjoyed snuggling up with Anna as she read at night. Whenever Anna doubted a decision, she found that she could talk it out with Tikki until she felt more confident.

Anna had told Kristoff and Olaf about her new friend, but, at the suggestion of Tikki, kept her and the miraculous a secret from the rest of the castle. For the time being, it seemed smart.

It was then, two days later, that the bandits hit.

"They're about half a days ride away," was the sentence Anna first heard as she and Kristoff entered the throne room. The two guards and one citizen looked to her.

Anna looked over the citizen. He looked roughed up - covered in mud, clothes torn, eyes bright red.

"What happened?" Anna asked.

"Bandits, your highness," the citizen said. "My family was coming to the market day tomorrow, when bandits came out of nowhere. My two sisters were badly injured - my dad's still taking care of them in the woods. Please do something."

Anna nodded and turned to one of the guards. "Send some guards out to help the family. Make sure to pack supplies to help with the injuries."

"Yes, your highness."

.

It should have ended there.

At a quick pace, it was half a day out to the family, and another half back, so Anna wasn't expecting the guards back until the next day, at the soonest.

But three days later, she was starting to be concerned.

"The guard's are capable," Kristoff said, when she brought her concerns to him. "Just trust them. They've probably just been held up."

At first, Tikki agreed. As did the captain of the guard. And her advisers.

But that night Elsa sent a warning, saying a blizzard was moving their way and to prepare.

"They're going to be stuck out there in the snow!" Anna said as she stressfully prepared herself for bed.

"Couldn't you tell Elsa about it?" Tikki suggested. "Her powers would allow her to travel fast - and through the blizzard."

"That's a great idea," Anna said. She ran to her dresser, grabbing a piece of parchment and a quill. She scribbled a note, before running out to her balcony.

"Gail?" Anna called. "Are you still there?"

The breeze answered, curling around Anna in an affirmative.

"Can you give this to Elsa for me?" Anna asked. "Hurry please."

The breeze took the note, and Anna watched as Gail sped away.

The wait for Elsa to return felt like forever, even if she knew it was under an hour.

"You know where the family is?" Elsa asked

Anna nodded and relayed the directions.

"We should head out now, before the worst of the storm gets here," Anna said. "How long will it take us to get there?"

Elsa looked down at the water spirit and then back up at Anna. "I'd say ten minutes. Ready?"

Anna nodded, and Elsa held out a hand. With a little more ease than last time, Anna swing up onto the horse, and the sisters were off.

The ride lasted about ten minutes, and the winds had picked up speed by the time they stopped, though it hadn't started to snow yet.

The campsite was abandoned, but it was clear it was where the family has been robbed. Broken arrows, a dead campfire, and some extraneous pieces of luggage were strewn around.

"Any ideas where they went?" Elsa asked as they dismounted.

Anna frowned and looked around. "I think I see an outcropping of rocks that way. Maybe they sought shelter?"

Elsa nodded. "Let's go check it out."

It was a good guess, and the family plus the guards had taken shelter there, at a previous point in time.

"No sign of a struggle," Anna noted. "If they left, they were probably heading towards Arendelle. Let's back track."

"Sounds good," Elsa agreed. She looked up to the sky. "The storm will be here soon. We'll have to hurry."

The two sisters started on the most likely path, the wind picking up as they walked.

Anna frowned. "Is it just me or should there be more tracks?"

"I didn't see any at the shelter, either," Elsa commented. "I wouldn't worry about it - we probably just can't see them in the dark."

Anna hesitated. "I don't know."

"You should trust your gut, Anna," Tikki piped up.

Anna nodded, allowing her train of thought to continue. Wouldn't a group moving through the forest leave bigger tracks? Broken branches, hoof prints in the mud -

"Horses," Anna finally realized. "Something must have happened to their horses."

"That might be a good thing," Elsa said. "If they've been moving on foot, they can't have gone far."

"They would be easier to blend in," Anna noted. "You don't think they were hiding from something, do you? The family was attacked by burglars - I bet they stole the horses, and attacked the guards as well."

"Our guards are highly trained," Elsa replied. "It would take very skilled bandits to take them down."

"True," Anna agreed. "We should be very careful, just in case."

.

It took them about half an hour to find the group, partially because they kept walking past the hiding spot.

Eventually, one of the guards spotted them and waved them over.

"Your highnesses," he greeted. "You shouldn't be out here in the storm."

"Don't worry," Anna replied. "Elsa's powers are more than enough protection!"

"We don't have any horses," another guard added. "We'll be traveling for days like this!"

"Let's wait out the storm first," Elsa suggested. "I can protect you all from the worst of it. Then we'll worry about getting back."

"What about the bandits?" One of the girls asked. "They have our horses and all of our supplies!"

"We'll deal with that after the storms passed," Anna repeated. "I've brought enough food for one night."

.

The storm lasted forever.

Elsa created a shelter made of ice, and everyone cuddled in for warmth. Burni joined them after about an hour, warming the place up with their fire, and Elsa introduced him to the girls.

Eventually, the family fell asleep, as did Elsa, and the guards urged Anna to rest as well. Trusting in their promise of keeping watch, Anna snuggled up next to Elsa to wait out the storm.

The storm was still raging when she woke.

Burni, in an attempt to share their warmth, accidentally caused Anna's dress to catch on fire. Thankfully, Elsa put it out before it caused too much damage.

By the time the storm passed, everyone was awake and the sun had been up for over an hour. Elsa and Anna (and Burni) walked a little ways away from the camp to discuss their next move.

"We need the horses if we've any chance of making it back without running out of rations," Anna noted.

"I could find the bandits and take the horses back," Elsa offered. "Kirsten thinks that they're still in this area."

Anna shook her head. "They need you to stay here. Besides, I know how much you hate using your powers against others."

"I'm our best chance," Elsa argued. "The guards are all disarmed and no one else has magic like me."

"That's not entirely true," Tikki piped up. "The Miraculous does grant powers."

"Really?" Anna asked.

Tikki nodded, launching into an explanation of the powers. Anna followed along, listening intently and making note of everything she was saying.

Elsa pursed her lips. "I don't know. You haven't had any combat training or anything."

"I can do this," Anna argued. "Tikki said the miraculous will enhance my abilities anyways. All I need to do is find the horses and bring them back."

"If you're sure," Elsa relented. "Just be careful."

"I am," Anna said. "Trust me."

.

"Now remember, you can theoretically call as many lucky charms as you need," Tikki continued. "But it's best if you keep it at a minimum, especially since this is your first time using it."

"Right," Anna said, nodding that she understood.

"And don't call it right away." Tikki said. "The more information you have, the better the lucky charm can respond."

"Okay," Anna said. "I think I've got it."

"I'm sure you do!" Tikki agreed. "As long as you remember that you're only getting the horses - the miraculous are never to be used to hurt people, even bandits."

"I know," Anna said. "Right, so what was the transformation phrase?"

"Spots on."

Anna took a deep breath. "Okay. Tikki, spots on!"

The transformation wasn't like anything Anna felt. The surge of power took her off guard, and she stumbled backwards, falling into a tree. The tree shook, and a pile of snow fell on her.

"Off to a great start," Anna muttered to herself, pushing herself back up and brushing off the snow.

Fortunately, the transformation left her with waterproof clothes.

In fact, the transformation left her with really nice clothes. She had a red top that came down to right above her knees, with a split in the front to allow motion. Black dots adorned the top of her arms and the bottom hem. Underneath was black leggings and a black shirt, and extremely comfortable black boots with a ladybug design in front. She also now had new gloves, made out of a strong, waterproof material she didn't recognize.

"Not exactly the most camouflaged," Anna noted.

She grabbed the yo-yo around her waist, tossing it up in the air to test it out. It wouldn't be the most effective weapon, but wasn't that the point?

Okay, first step, scouting.

She made it to a pile of snow behind the campsite of the burglars without being seen. She stayed there for what felt like forever, watching the bandits move back and forth.

It looks like there's about ten of them. Two on guard duty, but the rest look unarmed and unprepared.

Anna spotted the horses on the other side of the campsite, near the second guard. She tracked a path around the campsite and behind the horses with her eyes, thinking that sneaking up on the bandits was her best chance.

The transformation let her move faster than usual, even in the snow, and Anna fell into place behind the horses easily.

The guard was leaning against a tree, facing away from her. None of the bandits were paying any attention to their guard.

Anna crept up towards the tree, feet falling silent on the snow. She needed a way to knock the guard out, or at least distract him.

"Lucky charm," Anna whispered.

A wind-up toy fell in her hand, and Anna lifted it up to inspect it. She had seen several like them before, loved playing with them when she was a kid and found herself alone.

It moved by itself - perfect for distraction. If she could just find the right place to set it up -

There.

A little ways away from the edge of the campsite, about twenty yards away, was a dead bush with lots of snow and branches. If she set it up there, it would make lots of sound, at least for a little while.

Anna smiled, wound up the toy, and gently tossed it into the bush.

The bush immediately started shaking, and the guard jolted instantly and went to check.

Anna gave herself a moment to celebrate, before sneaking up and untying the horses.

.

Anna, detransformed, led the horses back to the campsite.

"See?" She told Elsa. "Not a problem."

Elsa grinned. "I had complete faith in you." She glanced behind her. "I'll take you back so you can get back to your duties, and then I'll come back and make sure they get home safely."

Anna nodded. "Alright. Let's get going - I'm sure there's already a ton of work for me to do."

[dramallamadingdang]

Replies! :)

These go back a ways, but it doesn’t include every single reply I’ve received over the last....three weeks?...or so. I just don’t have that much time right now, but I want to do some replies. So, if you’re not included here, please don’t feel left out. I love receiving comments, and I appreciate it when people take the time to leave them. :) I’m going to do a couple replies, that have longer answers, separately, but these are the “shorter” ones. :)

Anyway, these are for @princesspiratecat, @twofingerswhiskey, @lilleputtu, @penig, @esotheria-sims, @tamtam-go92, @i-mi, @hugelunatic, and @immerso-sims.

princesspiratecat replied to your photoset “Fishin’ pond. It has too-blue water at the moment, but that’ll be...”

Why and how is that water so blue?

The “why” is because I finally installed Dreadpirate’s shader fixes to de-blue snow at night. :) For those to work, the terrain shader -- which includes on-lot water -- has to be modified, and the two water mods that Dread made to be compatible with the no-blue-snow shader fixes were Voeille’s and the blue version of Moi’s. The latter is what’s in the pic because that’s the shader I currently have installed. But, I prefer and usually use the green version of Moi’s, and I’m hoping that Dread will see her way to making a no-blue-snow-compatible shader that uses the green version, but if she doesn’t I’ll have to choose between that too-blue one or Voeille’s, and I’d probably go with the latter. Or maybe... 

twofingerswhiskey replied to your photoset “Fishin’ pond. It has too-blue water at the moment, but that’ll be...”

I know that kativip included a water overlay for ponds in a lot of theirs - it's murky green like a real pond and semitransparent. If you're interested I'll yeet you the file

That’s a possibility! :) If you wouldn’t mind passing it along, it might be an option if Dread doesn’t make a green shader... Thank you!

penig replied to your photoset “It dawned on me that when I posted this terrain default I didn’t...”

Wow. As someone from limestone desert, however, I'm looking at the mountains and thinking: Where's the strata?

You know, when I was making that terrain, I tried several different kinds of textures for the high terrain. I knew I wanted something rocky because to me it looks odd when there are giant hills of green grass on more hilly/mountainous terrains.  And because I am a (near)desert dweller, I would’ve liked to have had stratified exposed rock. So I tried that. 

But the problem is the tiling. Not making the images tileable; I can do that. The problem is how the texture tile gets “painted” on the landscape, which isn’t something that can be controlled. The more detailed the image is, the more you notice the pattern repeat when it’s painted on the terrain, and it starts looking really weird. Between that and the struggle to get things in-scale, I imagine this is why most terrain defaults aren’t too detailed.

esotheria-sims replied to your photo “We interrupt these posts to bring you….a pic of the neighborhood’s...”

Nah, I'd totally trust him and his fabulous mane with my food. Sims don't shed, so there's that. :D

There is that! :D And I wish I didn’t shed. I’ve got super-long hair, and I can’t even begin to describe the amount of time I spend unraveling my shed hair from around the vacuum cleaner’s brush. *laugh* I mean, I usually go outside to brush my hair just to reduce the amount of shed hair that hits the floor. :)

tamtam-go92 replied to your photo “We interrupt these posts to bring you….a pic of the neighborhood’s...”

Can cooks be interacted with? Also: my game ALWAYS generates cooks with some fancy skin colour xD

They can’t be interacted with when they’re working, no. But they do walk by community lots, as was the case here, and then you can greet them. Once they’ve been greeted, they’re on the greeting Sim’s relationship panel, and then they can be called and dated and all that, so long as you’ve got the phone fix that allows NPCs to appear on the “Call this Sim” menu. I married-in a cook once.

i-mi replied to your post “Hmmmmm…So my plan to make a concrete terrain default that’s really a...”

Yes, I think more people have lush neighbourhoods, and as long as you warn people in the posts then it's up to them if they want to deal with switching defaults or not. I'm definitely looking forward to seeing it and would be happy if you ended up sharing it! :)

Oh yeah, there will definitely be all sorts of warnings. :) Someone else suggested making a dirt and a desert version, which I can do because both have 4 neighborhood-view textures, and I suspect that not many people use the dirt terrain. So, if I can make the terrain work like I want, I’ll probably make both a desert and a dirt default version.

hugelunatic replied to your photoset “It dawned on me that when I posted this terrain default I didn’t...”

The theme goes all through April! I'm excited to see what you come up with =)

Yeah, I know, but April is suddenly busy for me. *laugh* So, I’m hoping I can come up with a new tropical-island terrain before the end of April. We’ll see. :) I’m not going to be able to start working on it until we’re settled in after migrating.

lilleputtu replied to your photoset “These hills are still alive with the sound of still more screaming. :)...”

this looks so cool! are you gonna share? because *grabbygrabbyhands*

I suppose I could share the decorated terrain, sure. I’m pretty much done with editing the map. There’s not even any CC besides the volcanoes. I’m not sure it’ll look the same with different defaults in, though.

princesspiratecat replied to your post “PSA”

Welcome to my side of the world! I live in the San Bernardino mountains, but we often venture to the beach on the weekends, when we aren't working on our house. Have fun! :)

Ah, I’d rather be in the mountains. Hubby’s house is a beach house in Orange County and while it’s nice being on the beach eventually all the people on the beach get to me. That, and the traffic. I’m something of a traffic-phobe when driving. But on the plus side: Fast internet, woo! :) I’m lucky to get 4Mbps out of the satellite here, but out there....Oh, yeah. :)

immerso-sims replied to your photoset “Yup! This neighborhood definitely feels like home! *laugh*”

Looks lovely! We had maybe one snowy day in Denmark this winter. Which is a shame. I love snow. :( But yeah, what can you do...

It’s funny. Given Denmark’s latitude, you’d think y’all would get a lot snow, but I guess since you’re at sea level and surrounded by water you get more of a maritime-type climate. Well, if you want snow...Come on over! :) We’re heading into melt/mud season now, though. Going to SoCal is going to be a bit of temperature shock. It’s room temperature and warmer there and it’s around freezing here. *laugh*

hugelunatic replied to your photoset “This I-don’t-know-why-I’m-doing-this neighborhood is pretty much the...”

I'm not convinced about the reddish, but I'm excited to try it out! :)

It is red, yeah, but I kinda wanted that. I used pics taken in Moab, Utah for the soil, and the soil and rock there tend toward a Mars-like orange. :) I didn’t want orange, but I didn’t want just brown, either, so I went with clay-colored, which is sort of what I’ve got around here, at least in patches.

princesspiratecat replied to your photoset “I’ve never found a dirt terrain that really satisfied me, including...”

Hmmm...I'm curious to see how my own dirt roads would look with this. But you'd probably need something a tad darker.

Feel free to try it out! I have a picture in my mind of what I’d like to do to make a matching dirt road default, but I don’t know if it’ll pan out. If it doesn’t, I’ll need to come up with something else, and I might just use yours as a template of sorts. :)

[yestodayayayay]

SMOKE AND MIRRORS

chapter 17

“Jisung, you’re stepping on my foot!” “Sorry, I can’t see anything!” Five of you would normally have no problem fitting in the car, but today each of you had at least three bags piled up on top of you. Yuta was exception since he was driving. “Do you think we bought too much?” Lucas asked from the front seat. “I want to say no, but we couldn’t fit all of this in a trunk, so…” You heard Jeno’s voice somewhere on the other side of Jisung. “I mean…it’s a lot, but still, there are 22 of us…” Yuta explained, still focusing on the road ahead of him “Hm…I think we’re here.” Car stopped and you immediately opened the door, letting the cold air in. “Finally, I can breathe again.” you heard Jisung say from behind you. For a moment you focused on your surroundings. Everything was white, it was snowing here, unlike in the city you just came from. Two wooden houses, a few meters apart and only trees around them, all covered in snow. Scene reminded you of cartoons or photos in books for children. Only thing that seemed not to belong there were four cars, parked next to each other. Skyler’s voice coming from the balcony of one of the houses snapped you out of your thoughts. “Guys are coming out to help you get the bags in.” Walking to the front door, you looked down at the ground ahead of you. Suddenly someone took the bags away from you. “Go inside, I’ll bring these.” Taeyong said, going to the car, to get more bags. Without a word you just kept on walking. If it was anyone else you’d at least say thank you, but since it was him the shorter the conversation was the better.

“Take your shoes off, you’ll bring the mud inside.” Skyler was standing in the hallway when you walked in. “There’s literally no mud, only snow.” “Doesn’t matter, put on the slippers, we have to keep this place clean.” Few minutes later a wide living room was filled with people. You didn’t realise it before, but everyone put together in one room and talking at the same time made you understand how many of you were there. “Come on people it’s already getting late.” Johnny yelled “We have to divide into two groups, remember?” “Here’s the idea, I’ll write down numbers from 1 to 22, half of them using blue pen and the other half using the red one. Than we can just randomly pick numbers and that’s it.” Taehyeon explained. Everyone just mumbled in agreement and she went to get a paper and two pens. “Just pick a number and I’ll write your name next to it, and later I’ll read who’s in which group.” It took a few minutes for everyone to pick a number, because a few people wouldn’t stay serious. Khm Haechan and Yuta khm. “Okay that’s it. Listen!” Taehyeon yelled, to make everyone shut up “Blue group: Jeno, Kun, Chenle, Skyler, Lucas, Jaehyun, Jisung, Taeyong, Y/n, Haechan and Jaemin. Red group: Rin, Ten, Johnny, Sicheng, Jungwoo, Renjun, Taeil, Yuta, Mark, Doyoung and me.” “Rock, paper, scissors to see which group stays here and which one has to carry their things to the other house.” Haechan suggested. He played against Mark and won, which meant all you had to do was take your stuff to one of the rooms upstairs.

You agreed to share a room with Skyler, and she let you know that she already picked the best room in that house while you were grocery shopping so the two of you were the first ones to go upstairs and start unpacking. Few minutes later and the door to your room opened with a loud bang. “Yo, I’m just checking who are our first neighbours.” “Lucas, get out and knock next time!” Skyler yelled, pushing him out of the room. “Oh my god…” She mumbled walking back and sitting on the floor next to you and you just laughed in response. “Do you know who is in which room?” you asked. “Mhm…left from us are Jeno and Lucas, on the right side Haechan and Jaemin. Across from us are two rooms for three people. One is used by Taeyong and Jaehyun and the other one by Kun, Jisung and Chenle.” “Yo it’s Rin!” you yelled, staring out the window. Opening the door you both walked out on the balcony and started waving, hoping Rin or Taehyeon would notice you, since their curtains were pulled apart. But they were too busy unpacking and instead of them, Yuta walked out on the other balcony. “What are you doing?” He laughed. “Trying to get Rin and Taehyeon to notice us.” You explained. “Notice me senpai!” Sky yelled out, still waving aggressively. “We’re gonna go in now, see you later.” You waved at Yuta, pulling Skyler inside before she could embarrass both you and herself even more. “Why did y-” Knock knock. “Can I come in?” Jeno asked from the other side of the door. “Yeah!” Sky yelled out, throwing herself on the bed. He popped his head in. “Come downstairs, we’re gonna have dinner soon.” “I didn’t even realise how hungry I was.” You said, walking to the door “Come on, Sky.” “You two go, I’ll be down in a minute.” She said, her eyes not moving from the phone screen.

“Who’s the beautiful human who has agreed to cook for more that 20 people?” You asked, walking down the stairs next to Jeno. “Kun is really good at cooking.” He said “And a few people will help him.” You just nodded in response.

“Where’s Sky?” Jaehyun asked when the two of you reached bottom of the stairs. “In our room, she said she’ll be here in a minute. But knowing her she’s gonna fall asleep, so if you need her just go upstairs. And be a good friend and bring me my hoodie, I left it on the bed, you’ll see it.” “I shouldn’t do it, after your comments on Rin’s post, but I’m too nice of a person.” “Wow, thank you, now I understand how valuable our friendship is.” “At least try to sound like you mean it.” He laughed and went upstairs.

“Are you jealous of how good of a friend I have?” You asked Jeno, pushing him with your elbow. “Yeah, man…” he said opening the door to the living room and letting you go in first “I wish I had someone to go and grab my hoodie.” Laughing, you both entered living room which was already crowded. Kun, Johnny, Rin, Taehyeon and Jaemin were in the kitchen, that was connected to the living room. “Hey, do you need some help?” You yelled so they could hear you over the voices of the crowd in the living room. “Not from you, but when Sky arrives tell her to come here.” Rin yelled back. “Yeah, please keep Y/n out of the kitchen, I’m too young to die.” Heachan couldn’t miss the opportunity to tease anyone. “You’re not really the one to talk, are you?” Jeno said as you two joined the circle others formed on the floor “It was you that started a fire in Jaemin’s kitchen only a month ago, as I recall.” “Shut up.” Haechan just threw a pillow at him.

“We’re not going out tonight, so let’s at least have fun here. Come on, Jaehyun, you go first, truth or dare?” Everyone silenced and looked at Jaehyun, who just walked into the room. He was obviously surprided by the sudden question. “Uhm…truth, I guess…” he mumbled, taking a seat next to Lucas. “Okay…” the boy answered “Out of the people in this house, if you had to kiss one who would it be?” Jaehyun exhaled in relief “That’s too easy dude, Sky definitely.” “SKY, JAEHYUN SAID HE WANTS TO KISS YOU!” Haechan screamed. “TELL HIM I WANT TO KISS HIM TOO!” Sky shouted from the kitchen. A few moments of everyone saying “oooh” and then Yuta asked Jae to pick the next person. He looked around the circle and naturally his eyes met with yours, since you were sitting right across from him. His lips curved into a smile “Y/n. Truth or dare?” First thing that came to your mind was the night that Taeyong came to your dorm, and there was no way that you could say anything about it in front of everyone. Plus you didn’t want to answer any questions about kissing people. “Dare.” You said simply. This answer was obviously what he was aiming for and he laughed slightly before saying “I dare you to kiss someone in this circle.” Great logic, Y/n, great logic. Now you definitely don’t have to answer any questions about kissing people. The circle consisted of 22 minus Sky, Rin, Taehyeon, Johnny, Kun and Jaemin. You scanned the circle and noticed how Jaehyun smiled at Taeyong who seemed as surprised as you were with the dare. You looked at Lucas who was sitting between Jae and Taeyong. He really was the one who knew you the best. He just shook his head as in Don’t do anything stupid. But he already knew that you weren’t going to listen to him. Wasn’t the plan to try and calm everything down? But if you think about it, this is exactly what you were like before. Go one year back in time and every weekend was like this. Isn’t that the goal? To go back to what it was like before? Not caring about anything else but each other when someone needed help, and just having fun. You noticed the girls looking at you from the kitchen. Sky seemed as annoyed as you were with the dare. You exchanged knowing looks and you smiled. Let’s have fun then. Everyone watched as you stood up, taking a step ahead, towards the three guys ahead of you. But that was it, you made a single step and stopped. You winked at Lucas, who was the only one besides Sky that already knew what were you going to do. Then your eyes fell on Taeyong, who was looking at the floor. You turned your back to them, facing the boy who was sitting next to you only a few seconds ago. You held out your hand, looking him in the eyes. He took it and you pulled him up. That was it, a circle of 14 kids and you and Jeno in the middle.

《Y/n’s insta story and Sky’s post from the last chapter should’ve been part of this chapter, but I don’t really have anything planned out, I’m writing everything in the moment, right before I post it, so I had to mess up at one point, sorry about that.》

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vry disappointed in all y’all not kicking my ass about uploading but luckily I did it anyway.

2. What Sharp Teeth

Anora wasn’t much better in the morning. If anything she was worse and running a fever. Relora cooed and clucked over her on the patio while Spayar saddled his horse. Anora was all bundled up in what was basically a blanket with arms but was still shivering like she was cold, her curly hair pinned back away from her face with silver hairpins in the shape of cats made by their father. Once his mare was ready he led her out of the shed. Relora frowned slightly even as she picked her daughter up and went over to Spayar. “She’s gonna be fine, addim,” Spayar assured her.

“You sure you still friends with this healer?” Relora asked nervously.

“Addim, you know her. It’s Mali.”

Relora looked confused, “She’s a healer? Since when?”

“It isn’t very common knowledge. She’ll make sure Anora gets fixed up.”

“Alright. You sure I shouldn’t come?” she asked even as Spayar pulled himself onto his mare’s high saddle.

“I know you both well enough to know that would be a bad idea,” Spayar apologized. “I’ll bring her back probably before it’s dark,” and he leaned down to take his baby sister from his mother. Relora still hesitated before transferring her to Spayar’s capable arms. With a grunt he put Anora in front of him on the saddle.

“Mama?” Anora asked when she realized through her fever she wasn’t with her anymore.

Relora went up to her on the saddle, the scars on her forehead twisted as her brow furrowed and she put her hand on Anora’s leg. “It’s okay cha-trime, your brother is taking you to go feel better.”

“Oh,” she said tiredly. She looked up at Spayar tiredly. “Oh.”

“Just go,” Relora said worriedly. She stepped back and wrung her hands.

“Mali will have her good as before in no time,” Spayar promised his mother and gently tugged on the reins to get his mare to turn. He heard Relora speaking Dirnine but didn’t catch the exact words as his mare walked out the gate. His mother closed it up behind him.

The ride from Bellringer to D’linger wasn’t exactly a short one and Spayar was grateful that before they’d even made it out of the neighborhood Anora had passed out leaning against his chest. They skirted the edge of Smoker’s Den, cutting through part of Tradesmen before finally entering D’linger with its nearly orderly streets with several creating clear sight lines to the Academy at the center of the neighborhood. Spayar got on one of the main avenues and followed it towards the Academy while carefully reading the building corners for the street he was looking for. When he found it he took it down a side street to another side street to a plain door of a small house. It wasn’t much to look at really.

With some effort Spayar got off his horse without dropping his sister and pulled her off. She woke as he gently put her on the ground. “Hey,” he said, squatting in front of her, “I need you to just stand here for a minute while I tie my horse up. Can you do that?” he asked her gently.

“Uh-huh,” and she sniffed looking like she was about to pass out at any moment again. Better than vomiting.

Spayar quickly pulled his mare down to the side of the house where a wooden beam had been installed for just such a thing. He tied the reins up around the cleat provided and went back to Anora. She reached up to be carried and he wasn’t so heartless to deny her. He scooped her up into his arms and walked the few steps from there to the front door where he knocked, rather loudly. He waited impatiently. He knocked again, practically bruising his knuckles.

The door was ripped open. “I heard you the first time! What?” demanded the annoyed healer.

“Hi, Mali,” he said cheerfully and used one of Anora’s sort of limp hands to wave at her. Mali was a good head shorter than him but you’d never know it because of how big her personality was. She was round all around with cunning brown eyes set in a soft face with cheeks that dimpled when she smiled. Her curly brown hair was pulled back into a horse tail high up on her head so you could see her slightly pointy D’linger ears. All of that was eclipsed by the fact that she was a healer, rare in itself, and was a powerful one at that. She didn’t even come from a healing family either.

“Oh, well look who it is,” Mali started out mean then glanced over him and to Anora. “Is that your sister?” her voice dropped a bit in concern.

“Yeah, she needs some help. She’s got a fever and is throwing up and in general is being gross and sick.”

Mali did look concerned before squinting at him suspiciously. “Is this your excuse to come see me?”

“What? She was sick when I got home. Who do you take me for?”

“Spayar Hillsman, d'aelar of Vondugard Le'Acard. I expect the worst, as I should,” she said nearly exasperated with him already and they’d said a handful of sentences to each other.

He made a fart noise with his mouth at her. “I wouldn’t use my baby sister as an excuse to come bother you. I’d just come bother you. Now you gonna help an old friend out or leave us out here?”

Mali made a face. “Alright, come in,” and she let him into the house. “Bring her into the ward,” she said and beckoned. He followed after her dutifully. “When did you get home?”

“Yesterday,” Spayar said. The ward was a large room that took up most of the building with beds arranged around it in a ring and were separated by wooden privacy screens.

“And Vondugard isn’t here glued to your side? I’m impressed.”

“He did his best but I excused myself. At least for a day,” Spayar said and set Anora down on the cot Mali indicated.

Mali turned away from him and put her hands on Anora’s face and throat. Her hands started to glow a soft, dark, light and Spayar could see the veins stand out against Mali’s skin like dangerous roots on her pale skin. “She’s just got the flu,” she said after a few seconds. “Bit of rest, a tonic, and a minor will be all she needs. What’s she aligned?”

“Solar,” Spayar said, arms crossed watching his sister with a serious face drawn.

“Good, so am I.”

“That’s why I bring her to you. The other healer I know is Lunar.”

Mali scoffed, “Lunar healers are half rate,” she moved away from Anora and went to a tall, circular, shelf in the middle of the room. She selected an earthen jug off one shelf, filled a shot glass, and put it back. She brought it back to Anora and woke her long enough to drink it. “If you feel sick again, dear,” she cooed gently to Anora as she pulled a bucket out from under the cot.

“Okay,” Anora said weakly, her face a bit green. Mali just gently stroked her hair, pushing her hair off her high forehead with a soft smile on her face.

“Try to get some rest. Your brother and I are going to talk.” Anora made a noise like she understood, looked at Spayar and then promptly passed out.

“She’ll be fine?” Spayar asked.

“By sunset she’ll be right as a strawberry,” Mali assured him.

“Good,” Spayar uncrossed his arms and followed Mali into her office which was also the home’s kitchen. There was a table there and Mali sat at it, pushed aside her papers, and made room for Spayar.

“So how was your time?”

“I ended up the apostle of an alchemist so you can imagine it was… something,” he huffed as he dropped himself into the chair opposite her.

“Yikes. Was bad?”

“Well I don’t have a gag reflex to vomiting so you tell me,” Spayar said.

“You had a gag reflex? That’s news to me,” Mali gave him a side eye and he had enough humility that he couldn’t meet her eyes at that and looked away awkwardly for a few moments.

“What’s happened while I was gone.”

“You got my updates didn’t you?”

“I did but it’s different hearing them in person.”

“Well… it’s all bad, more or less. Too much snow last year along the Spine, flooded the Meltong this spring, destroyed the Mire, part of Downriver, and Tradesman too.”

“Tradesman too? There’s levies there.”

“Not enough,” Mali shrugged. “They were so worried about Swan Island making it through the rising water.  All geomancers were sent there to hold back the flood and flash floods that they couldn’t easily fortify the rest of the city.”

“That’s horse shit. Verilia just didn’t.”

Mali sucked her teeth but didn’t disagree with him. “Either way, the Mire’s still in shambles, Downriver is a bit better but hardly.”

“You been down there?” Spayar rocked the chair back a bit onto two legs. Mali gave him a withering look but he didn’t stop.

She waited to see if her glare would affect him. When it was clear it wouldn’t she gave him a slight roll of her eyes. “Shortly. I offered some healing to those who needed it but you know how people feel about healers. If they aren’t temple clerics they don’t want to even give you the time or are sure you’ll screw them up.”

“Hardly,” Spayar rocked a bit in the chair.

“Also destroyed a lot of fields around the city. Acres and and acres of farmland got covered in mud and detritus. It’s Asurala and they’re still trying to uncover some of the fields.”

“Sounds like a bureaucracy issue,” Spayar said mildly.

“It is. Verilia is worried. Teldin is in the city.”

Spayar stopped rocking and put the chair back down on all fours, “I heard. How long?”

“He’s been here since Soam,” Mali frowned. Soam was the third month of the year, early spring when crops were planted around Assarus.

“I wasn’t aware of this,” Spayar said with a serious slant of his mouth. “Any idea what he’s doing here?”

“Besides making Vondugard nervous? No idea. He could be keeping an eye on Tallasala and Obi. You know he thinks Vondugard is still a child.”

“He is,” Spayar said but hardly felt it.

“For now. It’s Neyjarra soon-

“Don’t remind me,” Spayar snapped. She just raised her hands at him in a placating manner. “Tallasala and Obi are both here? What about Dellin?”

“Haven’t heard from him in a long time. You’d have to ask someone else.”

Spayar didn’t like that answer but knew there was nothing for it. He’d have to ask Von about it. He’d know more than Mali for sure. “What else? The fields?”

“You’ll see soon enough I’m sure. People are starting to grab up all the food they can get and stockpiling. Theres going to be a shortage this year, maybe next year too. As it is you can’t easily get raw meat anywhere. It’s all being scooped up by others to make into things they can sell. If Verilia doesn’t do something people are going to start charging for raw.”

“Well that’s sort of illegal so I doubt it.”

“Depending on the state of the city I don’t think it will matter,” Mali said seriously.

Spayar frowned deeply at that. This was more than a little troubling. The last time there had been a food shortage in the capital had been seventy-five years ago. It hadn’t gotten to the point of charging to raw goods but that just highlighted how bad this was. “Vondugard says his mother is coming here.”

“She is? That’s probably not for the best. Teldin, Tallasala, and Verilia all under one roof? Sounds like a disaster” Mali said.

Spayar puffed his lips a little in annoyance and rubbed the side of his neck. “It’s a bother,” he muttered in agreement.

“You’re telling me. Everything is getting scarcer in Assarus in the last month and a half. Everyone is scared there’s going to be a shortage and we’ll not have enough food come Lun and Etirin.”

“Just import it? The rest of the country can’t be that bad off the other provinces can’t send food?”

“Way I hear it it’s been a bad year all over,” Mali said. “In the west there’s been heavy summer storms off the Shard.  In the north no rain at all.  East is fine but they hardly have any farm land themselves. South is just as worthless.”

“Yellow Hills area?”

“No idea. You’d have to ask. I just have general ideas. You know I hate getting specific with this stuff,” she scowled. “I’m not one of your birds, I’m a healer.”

“You’re right, I guess,” Spayar got up from the chair. “Speaking of I really need to go check in on them.”

“Figured. Was waiting for you to get out so I can get some work done.”

He grinned at her, “Don’t act like you weren’t happy to see me.”

“I missed you like a tooth ache,” she said and got up to show him out.

“Ah then that is quite serious,” he teased her and headed for the front door. She opened it for him. He paused a moment before leaning down to give her a hug, which he knew she only accepted because he hadn’t asked. “I am glad to see you again. I’ll come get Anora before it gets dark.”

“You better,” she said and finally let him go. He gave her one more squeeze before standing back up and going to untether his horse from the cleat. He waved after he mounted up and clicked to his mare to head towards South Garden nearly on the other side of town. At least he could go a bit faster without Anora sleeping in front of him.

—

Spayar was sitting on the lip of a fountain with a bag of seed feeding the birds for nearly a bell before someone came up and sat down next to him. They had a cup of cider in hand and wore patched clothing of someone who spent too much time wandering the streets and not enough time actually taking care of themselves. “Hey Bruta,” he said and leaned back from what he was doing.

“Didn’t think it was really you. Figured you were still serving time,” Bruta said.

“Just got back. Heard it’s bad down current.”

Bruta grimaced. “You could say. Mirebugs are hardy and the Downies are just happy to be in a better situation than them.”

“How much damage?”

“Nothing a good Asuras won’t help,” Bruta sucked his teeth and scratched at his stubble. “If you just got back you prolly ain’t heard.”

“Heard what?”

“The princes and princesses spoiling for a Conflict.”

Spayar didn’t show the way his heart jumped. He swallowed slowly to keep his cool. That was the last thing he wanted right now. That was the last thing anyone needed right now. After what Mali had told him a Feytol Conflict would be devastating to the entire country, let alone the capital. “Since when aren’t they?” he played it off.

Bruta shrugged. “Just what’s being said around. I know you like to hear the worries.”

“Because they’re usually true.”

“Yeah. Well, there you go.”

“Hear anything else good?”

“Notin’ timely I’m afraid,” Bruta said with a groan as he stretched a little. “Notin’ you prolly ain’t going to hear later either,” he scoffed.

“Yes but repetition beats it into my thick skull,” Spayar said and that made Bruta snort.

He shrugged. “Bread’s two bronze now. Beginning of the summer it was one, last summer it was a half.”

“Meat?”

“I don’t bother tryin’ to get it.  The lady does but I know a fool’s errand when I see it.”

“I see. See you when you have anything else, Bruta.”

“Later little spider,” Bruta teased him and got up, leaving him.

Spayar threw out a handful more seed and the sparrows and pigeons pecked at it. He didn’t have to wait long for a lanky pick pocket to stand to the side and throw part of a potato skin into the mix. That got the birds going. “Was that really necessary, Jan?” he asked them.

“I like watching them fight,” Jan said, looking down at the birds. They turned their glass blue eyes at Spayar, eyes shiny being on something. If Spayar remembered correctly they liked red lace. Spayar had never gotten into that. “Where you been?” they spoke in monotone.

“I was serving time.”

“Missed you.”

Spayar’s lips twitched. “I doubt that.”

“Not as fun when d’aelar isn’t around.”

“So you’re saying nothing fun happened when I wasn’t around?”

“Flood,” Jan looked back at the birds. “Bugs and Downers rioted like the birds. Arm was called. Was bad.”

“How bad?”

“Half the Mire drowned, half of that got torched. There was an exodus.”

“How’s the hunt?”

Jan shrugged. “Good enough. New Lord takes less than-

“Wait, hold on. There’s a new Lord? Since when? What happened to Jackertty?” It didn’t bode well for the minor thieves and cutpurses of Assarus that there was a new ‘Thief Lord’. It was a paper title of course. The guards were vicious tracking down thieves and there was hardly a need to steal. Only the truly poor did.

“Last winter,” Jan’s voice hadn’t changed in tone the entire time. They didn’t even react to Spayar’s start. “Cross is Lord now.”

“Never heard of them.”

“Yeah. They’re from the west I heard.” They looked at Spayar with their glassy eyes. “They aren’t like Jackertty.” Which double sucked. Jackertty knew what he was. He was a minnow in a small pond in the garden with a dozen house cats. The last thing the city needed right now was some westerner from the mountains coming in and making a mess of things.

“You like ‘em?”

Jan shrugged. “What’s not to like.” That was it. They didn’t even say goodbye and Spayar watched them slowly wander away. Jan was such an infuriating person to talk to.  Not even sometimes. They were frustrating always. The two years he’d been serving time hadn’t changed Jan for the better or changed Spayar’s feelings on them either.

Over the next few bells four more of his birds came by, chit chatted but didn’t give him much more information than what he’d already heard from Bruta, Jan, and Mali. He didn’t know what he was expecting but he was hopeful for something more than that. He supposed they didn’t know he was here yet and weren’t actually looking for information for him the way he liked it.

Closer to sunset, when he’d nearly run out of seed and even the actual birds were getting bored of him, a beggar came up to him and sat down heavily against the side of the fountain. Spayar gave them a more than cursory look. They were older and heavily bearded holding a earthen bowl with a few coppers in it and a single bronze atris. He didn’t recognize them right away. “I don’t have any coin on me-

“Don’t be a brat,” a woman’s voice said and looked at him from under a wig. The eyes he recognized.

“Channa?” he asked.

“Yeah, and?”

“Why are you dressed as a… male beggar?”

“Teldin’s paranoid, doesn’t like permanent servants coming and going,” she said. Channa was one of Spayar’s few actual contacts inside the Summer Palace. It was usually impossible for an outside agent to get into the web of spies of Aklin, the spy master. Unless you were part of the larger web or affiliated with a province the spies wanted nothing to do with you. Channa was one who gave Spayar any time at all.

“I would have waited,” he said.

“Maybe but I doubt your prince can,” she said, not looking at him now. She looked straight ahead and her fake beard was such you couldn’t see her mouth move other than the bob of her jaw now and then.

The hair stood up on the back of Spayar’s neck. “What’s wrong?”

“Teldin’s in the Palace, you haven’t heard?”

“I have.”

“Then you know it isn’t good.”

“You wouldn’t have come all the way out to South Garden if you didn’t have something better than that, Channa.”

She wordlessly held her bowl out to him. He gave her a disdainful look. She jingled the coins in it. “I can’t believe I’m being hit up for money by a royal servant,” he grumbled, took out his purse and put half a platinum into the bowl. She pulled the bowl back and tucked it under her shapeless clothing.

“When Teldin does come to the Winter Palace it’s alone, or briefly. This is neither. He’s got Yin Thorn and Sade Mandaria with him.” All of skin on Spayar’s arms prickled. “And he’s been here since Soam. It’s made Tallasala temperamental and Obi even more difficult to deal with than usual.”

Spayar rubbed the bridge of his nose. “How long has Sade been here?”

“She came with Teldin. They’ve been in the Palace for months.”

“Anything important you can tell me?”

“Teldin is pushing Tallasala’s buttons,” she said in a dangerous tone.

“What about Dellin? Anything about him?”

“He’s somewhere in the Hook last time I heard. Not sure where. He keeps to himself with that shadow of his.”

“I heard a rumor of a Feytol Conflict. How do you feel about that?”

Channa was quiet and looked up at the orange and pink sky. Around them South Garden was starting to pack up shop and close down for the night, everyone ready to go home or out to Smoker’s Den to party. “I dunno. We’ll see when Lun starts. Depends on how Assarus is. From what I’ve heard from — the castle quartermaster even the Palace is having trouble getting all the supplies they need without taking significantly from the general available food stuffs of the city. If the city starts to starve a Feytol Conflict might be the best or worst thing for it. We need a stronger Asuras.”

Spayar was frowning deeply by the time Channa had finished. “I see. I really don’t like any of that but I see your point.”

“Yeah. It isn’t good,” she agreed. “I would suggest, if you can, to get your prince out of the Palace. Teldin has been causing a scene everywhere and the last thing you want is His Highness Vondugard getting between Teldin and Tallasala should it come to blows.”

“No indeed,” Spayar said slowly. He emptied the meager rest of his seed onto the ground in front of him. “Thank you for the information. I need to go get my sick sister from the healer now. Don’t get in trouble on the way back to the Palace with the guard.”

“Easy enough,” she said but didn’t rise with him. Spayar left her sitting there and went and found his mare where she was picketed across the square. He retightened her saddle before mounting up.

As he headed back for D’linger he really took a harder looks at the shops in South Garden. He had been thinking about too much else before but now he saw there were signs on old permanent stalls declaring they were out of stock. The three butchers he passed across the city all had sold out signs displayed for the end of the day. There were fewer street vendors in general and what there was were rice stalls. Spayar frowned. When he’d left rice had been a rare luxury from across the Shard because it didn’t grow well in the Alliance. Or at least a suitable place hadn’t been found for its cultivation yet. Now it was prominent, and expensive. Half a silver for a cup of cooked rice with some meager fixings and a quarter platinum for a pound of it uncooked.

When he finally arrived in D’linger the light was still on inside Mali’s place. He knocked politely and waited for her to answer. She did and brought him inside. “How’s Anora?”

“Perfectly fine, just as I said,” Mali said smugly. She brought him over to Anora who was in the kitchen using some of Mali’s charcoal and scrap paper to draw. “Anora, Spayar’s back.”

Anora looked around at him, “De-de!” she said excitedly. Her eyes were clear, her face the normal deep brown.

“Were you good for miss Mali while I was gone?” Spayar asked and came over to give her curls a fond ruffle.

“I was. I’m not like you de-de and always get into trouble,” she stuck her tongue out at him.

Behind him Mali snorted. “Yeah but that’s my job,” Spayar said helplessly. “Cmon, let’s get home before addim loses her mind with worry.”

“Okay! Thanks for making me better miss Mali,” Anora said politely, bouncing a bit.

“Of course, dear. I’m all too happy to see a sweet girl like you better,” Mali said kindly as she saw them both out. Once outside Anora bounded over to Spayar’s horse to pet her. Mali grabbed his sleeve before he could follow. “Just make sure she gets a good night sleep and avoids direct contact with anyone sick for a day or so. I purged the sickness from her but curing a virus with magic isn’t always perfect.”

Spayar nodded seriously. “I’ll tell mama to keep her out of school a few days. I suspect she got it from there. Flue been around this year?”

“Not yet. A lot of people down current got infections of some sort from all the sediment being brought up into the streets and flooding the sewage. But it’s early yet, the rains haven’t started. I’m sure it’ll come,” she sighed.

“Okay. Thanks again Mali. Should I give you something now or later-

She punched his arm. “Don’t insult me Spayar,” she glared at him.

“I was just being nice,” he complained and rubbed his arm. Mali looked soft but she had a mean left hook.

“I don’t want your money. Have your mother send me some of her amazing pickles and we’ll call it even.”

Spayar chuckled. “Sure. Thanks again Mali.”

“Spayar, are we going to go?” Anora called. He looked back at her and she was holding onto his mare’s bridle and his horse had her half a hand or so off the ground.

“I’m coming, I’m coming,” he said and rushed over. “Don’t do that,” he took her hands off the bridle and she dropped down to the ground. “Both she and the bridle are expensive.”

“But-

“Just get on,” and he helped her up onto the saddle before climbing up after her. They waved to Mali before Spayar turned her down the street and they headed back home.

Now that he didn’t have to worry about a sleeping sister and the streets were more empty because of the hour Spayar got his horse to go a bit faster through the streets. So, mercifully, it was quicker home than it was there this morning. Anora was glad to get down and as soon as Spayar put her on the ground she ran for the house calling for their mother. “I’m so glad I’m never having one,” Spayar told his mare who snorted into his face. “Yeah I love her but Densinn’s tongue I don’t want one,” he led her into the shed that was her home.  While he’d been out his father had ordered more food for her and had someone sweep out the little room. Probably one of his apprentices. He cleaned her up a bit with the promise of doing a better job tomorrow and made sure her troughs were full before going into the house.

Anora was in the kitchen with Relora, happily chatting away. Dinner was already starting to be brought out on the table and Calli was there waiting patiently. He did a double take at who was sitting next to her. “What are you doing here?” he asked Von, interrupting his conversation with Calli.

“Don’t be mean, Spayar,” Calli said.

Von just grinned sheepishly at him. “I did come looking for you but your mother said you were gone for the day. So I was just waiting for you,” he said and by the end his grin was a bit more playful. Spayar wanted so badly to be annoyed with him but he just couldn’t.  He sat next to Von. “I knew you’d come eventually.”

Spayar leaned around Von to talk to Calli, “How often does he come here? Is he bothering you? You know you can tell him to leave if he’s annoying you.”

Calli just giggled. “It’s fine. And he just visits sometimes. Don’t get jealous I might have seen him more than you have,” she very specifically needled him. Oh, he did not like that. He gave her a stone faced look, to which she grinned, and looked away. Relora and Anora came out of the kitchen, Relora with the rest of the dinner and Anora with a jug of slightly sweating strawberry water.

“Where are Spayar and Duren?” Relora asked.

“I did tell them dinner was going to be ready soon,” Calli said helpfully. Relora huffed and walked down the hall out to the forge while Anora jumped into her seat. “You feeling better puke girl?” Calli asked.

“I’m not a puke girl,” Anora said sourly.

“You were a puke girl last night for sure.”

“Spayar, Calli’s being mean to me!” Anora cried.

Spayar, who was serving himself hot bean salad with chilies and potatoes, stopped and looked at them both. “Calli, be nice, I guess?” he wasn’t quite sure how to act like an actual adult in this situation. “Both of you stop bickering and eat instead. Eating is a way better use of your air,” he continued and put the big spoon he’d been using into Calli’s hand.

Calli rolled her eyes and at least didn’t continue teasing Anora. “Did you send that letter you said you would?” Von asked him now that the girls were distracted with Calli telling Anora she needed to eat her vegetables.

“No. I was busy,” Spayar grimaced. “Tomorrow, when the post is open again, I’ll send it.”

“Get it in before Lomedocest.”

Spayar gave him a narrow eyed look. “Are you planning something?”

“Me? Never,” Von grinned widely at him.

Spayar squinted at him, not believing his pretty smile for a moment. “Spayar! Calli’s being mean again!” Anora yelled.

“Oi! Knock it off. Addim left for hardly a minute.”

“What’s going on in here?” like on cue Relora came back, leading two very dirty smiths behind her to go wash their hands and face.

“Calli is being mean-

“I am not,” Calli huffed.

Spayar sighed and tuned out his sister’s bickering. Von just watched with a smile on his face while politely eating what was on his plate until Spayar Sr. came in and barked at the both of them to settle down. Dinner was a much more settled affair after that.

[athedemonsqueen]

Vladimir #5 (Vampire Story)

Happy Easter everyone! Today is a very spiritual day for me. Easter has played a big part in my life, in a way its how I learned about religion and how I come to learn to love my Lord and Savior above who payed the ultimate scarifice so I might know God’s love.

Enjoy the chapter! You might get a few surprises in this chapter. ;) In honor of all the vampire legand.

It is night time. The castle has settled into their nightly routine. I took Vladimir out hunting, although I did the hunting. I would catch the animals, drain their blood, and bring it to Vladimir. He was definitely thirsty, he drained two mountain lions and a small group of deer. Once he had his fill of throat, he wiped his mouth of any drops of it, and turned to me. I gave him a smile, placing the bowl aside.

“How do you feel?” I asked.

“I feel much, much better now, thanks to you.”

“Cristina, called you My Lord, what is that about?” I asked.

“It’s a sign of respect and love for me…”

“Oh, so you and Cristina are...mates?” I asked.

Vladimir chuckled, “No, she just has a lot of respect for me, she is just as old as I am, but we are not mates.”

“Oh.”

Vladimir smiled, “I don’t have a mate not for over fifteen hundred years…”

“Stefan spoke of a woman, she made you, and you were mates…” Iasked.

Vladimir looked down as a sad expression became him.

“Oh, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to disrespect…” I said.

“No, don’t threat, yes she was my mate…” He said.

“What was her name? If you don’t mind me asking…”

“Her name...was Mina.” Vladimir commented.

“Mina…” I commented softly.

“She gave her life saving mine…” Vladimir said. “I grieve for that woman everyday…” I nodded understanding.

“I cannot imagine losing Cristolf, he’s the only family I have, my real family. I feel fortune because not many vampires have blood relatives.”

“That’s a good thing to feel grateful for…” Vladimir said.

I smiled looking down, “How did you become so powerful?” He asked.

“Over time, I’ve developed them, my favorite one is my force field.”

“I’m hardly powerful, you are more powerful than me, I see it…” I said.

“In strength yes, but I can’t do what you do…” Vladimir gestured to me.

“I have brute strength.” he said.

“I can do a lot with my powers, would you like to see?” I asked. Vladimir nodded as I hop off the rock.

I began to twirl my hands making the dead leaves on the ground fly in the air. I made them twirl around Vladimir; teasing him. He let out a small chuckle looking at me with amusement. I force the leaves back and forth before I put them on the ground.

Vladimir clapped his hands together, “Bravo! Bravo, very good!” I bowed as I got back on the rock. I was happy I impressed him.

“I wish I could do something like that…” Vladimir said. “I’m sure you can…” I said. I went behind Vladimir measuring my arms out, stretching them out in front of us, “Now concentrate…” I instructed him.

“Feel deep down inside of you…” “Feel for that power…” I whispered.

“Now see it in your mind’s eye and when you are ready cast it out…”

Our hands intertwined as my power came from his hand; small and slowly. He trembled in my arms, fearing the force of the power, “Shh, I got you, don’t be afraid harness the power and wiled it, you can do it My Lord.” I wrapped my free arm around his waist, slowly raising him to his feet.

I brought his arm down slowly, taking my power back, he became calm as he turned to me. Vladimir placed his arm around mine on his waist as he gripped my hand. He gulped, amazed what he did.

“You did very well…” I said softly. My hand was not afraid to caress his face, he took pleasure in as he softly closed his eyes. He placed his hand on mine, as I exhale softly.

“Is this you I’m feeling, or your power?” He asked.

“It’s me…” I said, nervous showing my feelings for him.

His touch was a thousand bolts of electricity going through my body. It was warm and inviting. My heart seemed to stop and my body trembled if my breath was not steady. I would fall into his arms all over again if I wasn’t careful. My hand steadily caressed the back of his head, my fingers intertwined into his snow blonde hair. He sunk into the pleasure even further.

Everything was suddenly interrupted by the sound of horns coming from the castle.

“Horns, they mean trouble.” He said, taking my hand as we went back to the castle.

Everyone was running in panic. People ran screaming down the hallways in fear, going past us. Through it all, Vladimir never let my hand go.

“Ana!” Vladimir called. “What is happening?” He asked.

“Wolves are in the castle, Seth’s pack!” She cried. I gasped putting my hand to my mouth. Vladimir removed his sling and force his arm back into the socket. He cried as he did so.

He turned to me, grasping my face in his palms, “Listen to me, go into the ceiler follow the path that leads to the dungeon of the castle...wait for me there, you’ll be safe there.” He instructed me.

“I can help you, I can fight....” I insisted, nervously. A loud noise came from outside the castle, “Vladimir!” I cried.

“This is not a debate or discussion this is a request.” He said.

“No…” I whimpered.

“Please, please, I will find you there I promise, I’ll come back for you.” He placed a quick kiss on my cheek before leaving my sight.

The Earth trembled as I made my way in the ceiler. The air inside it smelled worse than the secret room. I could hear faint noises from outside the castle a lot of cries and screams. I feared one of them may have been Vladimir. I gasped as the air became thicker. I finally made my way to the dungeon, burying myself away behind the bars. I covered myself in mud and dirt to block my scent for any vampire or wolf to detect me. Cristolf taught me that trick.

Right now, I wanted Cristolf, what was I thinking I would be usually out there. I’ve been in small fights, that I could handle with elderly vampires, but never with wolves. Back home, my family get along with the wolves. We coexist together, they even come to our home for holidays and such. Some of kin even mated with wolves! Why can none of that be done here? I don’t understand it.

I eventually fell asleep, laying my head against the cold rocks. The worry, the fear and the stress of everything has put me into a small coma. My four hour napping, turned into six hours of sleeping. I’ve never slept for six hours before. It annoyed me.

I woke up to the sound of silence. Yes, silence. All I could hear is small drops of water and maybe an occasional rat. I climbed out of the dungeon fearing the worst. I climbed back upstairs and from miles away I smelt blood. Wolfblood. The sky glowed red and orange, a lot of blood has been spilt during the night.

I growled, feeling thirsty, as I followed the scent off the castle grounds. I suddenly picked up the sound of wolves growling and fighting. Over a hill I saw the fight in thick, grassy plains. There were a lot of vampires from the coven and among them was Vladimir. I rushed down to the fight and helped Ana who was gravely outnumbered. I picked up a wolf as much as I could and tossed it across.

“I had it!” Ana growled, “I can clearly see that!” i said sarcastically. I turned to find a wolf coming at me, I jumped over him as he came back for me.

“Stop!” I cried, putting my force field up. He hit his head, making him sit.

I looked around me as I noticed for the first time, this country is nothing, but filled with hate. My eyes grew feverish red as I tilted my head back, and screamed as loud as I could,

“STOP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!” Everything fell silent.

@mylittlepartofthegalaxy @igobypoet @finnabonthesinnabon @finnbealor @devitts-girl @calwitch @meremaidqueen @2sweetqueen @tina679 @echelonfam-30 @soulofaravenheartofawolf

[aion-rsa]

Seeing Game Of Thrones, and its Dimly Lit Battle, in a Whole New Light

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

It’s been a year and a half since Game Of Thrones aired its final episode ‘The Iron Throne’ (although it feels a lot longer thanks to 2020 time dilation), and now a ‘Complete Collection’ box-set has arrived.

It’s slightly odd to behold these 33 discs, squeezed into eight Blu-ray cases, snuggled up in a lovely box, with a little booklet nestled in. So much time has passed since the world watched that finale and the online discourse erupted with the fiery ferocity of Cersei’s attack on the Sept Of Baelor.

With so much vocal negativity surrounding season eight, it feels as if Game Of Thrones has ended up in the big pop-culture bin of shows that nobody talks about anymore (unless they’re taking the mick). But this box-set is a chance to revisit and reappraise, and see if that sentence is really fair…

“You were the best of them”

When season eight was first released in 4K Ultra-HD at the end of last year, word filtered down that it was the best way to watch the infamously dimly lit Winterfell battle episode ‘The Long Night‘. Having originally squinted at this episode (which I streamed on Now TV through a 1080p TV back in the day), I was keen to see how it would look with a 4K-enabled Xbox Series X console hooked up to a shiny new 4K ASUS monitor.

Long story short, it did look better than I remembered (although, who’s to say that I’m not remembering it worse than it was at the time because of all the memes). I wouldn’t necessarily say that the whole thing looks brighter, but that the nuance of the lighting and the rich details in certain shots are a lot easier to make out and understand with a Blu-ray disc and a proper 4K set-up. So yes, I felt I could properly watch the episode this time, with a far greater sense of what I was meant to be able to see.

Putting tech specifications to one side for a moment, there was also a simple joy to be found in seeing these actors and characters together again on screen. With Game Of Thrones so quickly having become meme-fodder and the inspiration for countless angry comments, it’s easy to forget how excellent the cast and crew clearly were. 

Although there isn’t much in the way of dialogue during ‘The Long Night’, it’s moving to be reminded of that sweet exchange between Sansa and Tyrion in the crypts of Winterfell. Reminiscing on their fraught marriage of many seasons ago, Sansa tells Tyrion, “You were the best of them.” It’s a reminder that Game Of Thrones isn’t just about big battles and questionable writing decisions – but also lovable characters, memorable arcs and great performances.

“It’s chaotic for a reason”

There are two commentary track options on ‘The Long Night’ disc, one with director Miguel Sapochnik and cinematographer Fabian Wagner. Listening to it, I’m reminded again of how I saw Game Of Thrones before that final season, back when Sapochnik was heralded as the genius director of such iconic battles as Hardhome and Battle Of The Bastards.

On this commentary track for ‘The Long Night’, which was clearly recorded after all the backlash about how dark the episode was, Sapochnik is in very candid form. It’s refreshing to find something that sounds so honest, and very far from PR speak, on what is clearly an HBO-approved product.

Sapochnik and Wagner reflect on the gruelling 55 days of night shoots that brought this episode to life, a discussion which, on its own, is enough to remind us that a lot of people put a lot of hard work into making this show – whether or not they agreed with the top-level decisions about its direction. 

It’s also interesting to hear Sapochnik’s take on why this episode is so dark – it was, of course, a conscious creative decision from the director and the writers, as opposed to a hapless work experience kid in the editing suite accidentally thumbing a big switch labelled ‘brightness’ in the wrong direction. 

“It’s chaotic for a reason,” Sapochnik explains, as the dead descend on Winterfell on a jet-black night, bringing wind and snow with them to baffle and disorient their human enemies. As Davos squints in the abyss atop the Winterfell battlements, Sapochnik jokes that our beloved Onion Knight should’ve bought a better TV. 

As well as providing some laughs, this insightful commentary can also help fans gain a better understanding of this episode – it wasn’t meant to be a traditional battle like the ones we’d seen before. Rather, it was a descent into hell for all of our beloved characters, brought to life by a crew that spent almost two months working through the night to make it happen.

“The hardest episode of TV anyone on this show has done”

The special features of this mammoth box-set include more than 15 hours of special features, so it’s a huge treasure trove for fans of the show. There’s access to basically every resource you could want. Say, for example, you wanted to know even more about ‘The Long Night’ episode. In the Bonus Features disc from the season eight case, you could check out ‘The Last Watch’ documentary, which includes footage from the first-ever table read for that episode – complete with Maisie Williams’ utter joy when she finds out that Arya will be killing the Night King, and Kit Harington’s bemusement at that same revelation. 

There’s also ‘When Winter Falls’, a documentary which shows exactly how ‘The Long Night’ came together: you can see which bits were special effects and which bits were built in real life, and you can hear the cast and crew reflecting on the harsh realities of making what Harington calls “the hardest episode of TV anyone on this show has done.” Emilia Clarke is convinced the episode must have broken some sort of “work endurance records,” if such a thing exists.

If Game Of Thrones had ‘stuck the landing’ with its final season and somehow managed to please every different subsection of the show’s fans, a bountiful box-set like this would probably look like a tempting investment to a lot of people. And, to be honest, even though I wasn’t utterly convinced by the final season, this treasure trove has reminded me that there was a lot more to the series than just the showrunners’ decisions in the finale. 

“All this chocolate fell out of his secret pocket”

In the ‘Bonus Features’ case are three discs of extra-extra features, which couldn’t be crammed onto the dedicated discs for each season. Across these three discs, you’ll find even more goodies to grow your Game Of Thrones appreciation. On one disc you’ve got ‘Conquest & Rebellion: An Animated History Of The Seven Kingdoms‘, a feature-length animated special in which cast members narrate tales of Westerosi history. (This could be handy knowledge to have if those ancient history prequel series end up happening.)

You’ve also got numerous chunky featurettes in the categories ‘Behind the Scenes’, ‘Inside the Visual Effects’ and ‘Anatomy of a Scene’. I particularly enjoyed the Anatomy of a Scene on Sansa and Joffrey’s wedding – I’d forgotten quite how ridiculous it was, and again, it’s a great reminder of just how much great content this show has given us, how many brilliant performances Game Of Thrones boasts, and just how much hard work went in behind the scenes.

The ultimate fan-friendly celebration of Game Of Thrones can be found on disc one from the Bonus Features case, under the title ‘Game Of Thrones Reunion Special Parts 1 & 2’: it’s basically a two-hour love-in, during which Conan O’Brien interviews pretty much everyone you’d hope to see in a cast reunion.

Serving as the satisfying season finale to my rekindled Game Of Thrones fandom, this Reunion Special has so many moments of squee-inducing glee: there’s a fabulous montage that shows how lovely a time Emilia Clarke has had over the last eight years, compared to Kit Harington being caked in mud and left out in the cold at every opportunity (the gentle roasting of Harington is really quite heartwarming); there’s also a fun anecdote from Mark Addy about Sean Bean hiding chocolates in his costume; and Sean Bean himself turns up for a joyous reunion with his on-screen children, as well as being reunited with Ned Stark’s severed head. 

Seeing the cast and crew laughing together under Conan’s playful questioning, I’m reminded again of all the terrific actors and talented crew members that put years of their life into making this flight of fancy for us. And even though the decisions of the final season may not sit well with everyone, I’m glad that I dived back into the Game Of Thrones fandom and rediscovered what made me love it in the first place.

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Game Of Thrones: The Complete Collection is out now.

The post Seeing Game Of Thrones, and its Dimly Lit Battle, in a Whole New Light appeared first on Den of Geek.

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[leysendris]

Pandora’s Box

Summary: A few months after the BAaT program was closed, the scientist Dr. Petersen and his assistant are looking for biotic talents to continue their research and the further development of their implants on their own. It is in the midst of a slum that they finally seem to find what they are looking for. They don't know they're about to open Pandora's box.

Warnings: Graphic Violence, Strong Language, Drug use (smoking to be exactly. Just to stay on the safe side)

You can also read it on AO3: Pandora’s Box: Chapter 1

German OV: Pandoras Box: Kapitel 1

Chapter 1: The Ghost Fox

"That's not a good idea, that's not a good idea at all... We should go back to the lab, we should..."

  "Stop whining Andrej!" Dr. Petersen rebuked his lamenting assistant and cast a scowl over his shoulder. The man was a whiner and even worse, a scientist without any real ambitions or even visions!

  He himself had both and in addition he was not afraid of setbacks. Unfortunately, scientists who thought this way were rare these days... And so, after the annoying outcome of the BAaT program, unfortunately Andrej was the only one left at his side to continue working on improving human biotics. Or at least to work on it with all necessary means. The other researchers had ducked their heads in like scolded children, had either stopped their work altogether or had switched to institutions whose approach was "ethically impeccable".

  Pah, what a joke! Had Louis Pasteur's successes been demonized because he had tested his rabies vaccine on a young boy? Had the car been banned because the fuel developed by Thomas Midgley had some annoying side effects? No, progress had been celebrated and humanity had risen step by step with its successes!

  This kind of visionary thinking was what drove him. And that's why he just ruined his shoes in the mud of a slum, while he and his whining assistant followed a hired petty criminal through the winding alleys and almost melted under the scorching sun of South Africa.

 He didn't want to think too much about what this filth was made up of, it hadn't rained here for months, and so he couldn't prevent his face from warping in disgust.

Petersen could see the snide grin on their "guides" face from the corner of his eye, but he ignored it deliberately. He didn't care what Jeb thought of them, if that even was his real name. His job was to guide them safely through this shithole and keep the local gangs off their backs. So far, he had fulfilled this task to their satisfaction and hopefully it would remain so. Nevertheless, Petersen got the feeling that he was going to lure them into a trap the deeper they entered the slum.

  "How far along is it?" he asked, trying not to let his concern show.

  "What's the matter, professor, is it getting too exhausting for you? Or are you afraid that I might set you up in a trap?" Jeb asked, before letting out a really unpleasant laugh. "Relax, I want the rest of my pay too. And we're almost there."

  Petersen spared himself the trouble of pointing out that he was not a "professor" and took a deep breath instead. Which he immediately regretted considering the stink in this place. All in the name of progress he intoned in silence. All in the name of progress.....

  “This way!" Jeb gave them a wave to indicate that they should follow him as he forced himself through a narrow passageway leading into something that, with much good will, could be called a backyard. And there was finally the reason for their being here.

  Petersen returned the glancing look that the woman in front of them threw at him while she was pulling on a cigarette.

No, the girl he corrected, she was probably younger than she seemed. Sixteen, maybe seventeen years in age?

He didn't know exactly what he was expecting, but she didn't correspond to any of the imaginations he had. She wore a vest that left her sinewy arms uncovered, worn jeans and boots that looked sturdy enough to kick someone's skull in, even though her small, slightly skinny figure didn't seem to have the physical strength for something like that. But what stood out most about her were her snow-white hair and the piercing gaze.

   "What the fuck, Jeb? You promised me a great deal, and now you're bringing in two candy-asses? They don't look like you can squeeze out a lot for them anywhere..." she growled as she blew out a cloud of smoke and stared at the two scientists further out of steel-grey eyes.

Petersen continued to inspect her with great interest and unimpressed by her behaviour. If the hair colour was caused by albinism? No, even though her skin was unusually pale, especially for this climate, the thick black eyebrows and the colour of her eyes spoke against it. A pronounced form of vitiligo, perhaps...

  "Chill out Ghost Fox." Jeb commented and raised his hands as if to calm her down with the gesture. "I'm just the footboy, the gentlemen are the ones who want to make you an offer." He stepped back a few steps as if to let Dr. Petersen take the lead. Either that or he simply tried to get out of the danger zone…

    He had no doubt noticed, just like the doctor, that the air around their interlocutor seemed to be slightly flickering and her eyes appeared to be glowing blue, which made the name "Ghost Fox" seem rather fitting. So they hadn't come here for nothing, the girl was indeed a biotic. A little old for their purposes, but that was the lot of science. You had to work with the unfavourable circumstances you were confronted with.

    The girl took another puff from her cigarette, took a look at the almost smoked-up stub and flicked it into the dirt before she looked at Dr. Petersen again.

“Then start talking, I don't like wasting my time," snorted the “Ghost Fox" as Jeb had called her, while she pulled a crumpled box  from her trousers, took out another cigarette and a lighter and lit it up before the box went back into her pants.

    "Well, Miss..." Petersen took a short break, but "Miss" didn't seem to see any reason to give him a name. She just kept looking at him with that piercing glare as she puffed at her cigarette.

 Alright, he would be able to cope with that, too.

" I am Doctor Petersen and this is my assistant Andrej, we are scientists. We research the human biotic. The abilities of which you have no doubt already noticed to possess them as well. We want to study these abilities and for this we need the participation of biotics. Like you."

      The girl seemed to be thinking about what he had said while she slowly exhaled a waft of smoke. "Sounds lovely. What's in it for me?"

    Of course... He had hardly expected that a street kid would be interested in the progress of human civilization in any way, let alone want to make a contribution to it without ulterior motives. But he had also considered that.

  “The skills you can use at the moment are uncontrolled, you can only use a fraction of your resources. In the course of our research, we would like to install you an implant that canalizes your biotics and makes them usable to a completely new degree. You can learn to guide them to move objects of several tons of weight, you can create shields, shock waves... and we are just at the beginning of our research, there can be so many more possibilities!"

  Petersen had really talked himself into a frenzy, he was almost glowing with thirst for action. It was this euphoria for the research that Andrej had always admired so much about his superior and why he still stood loyal to him. But despite all the euphoria about having found another potential research object.... he could not help it, this woman's gaze send an ice-cold shiver down his spine.....

    The girl's gaze turned from the scientists to Jeb, who waited in the background, his arms crossed above his chest.

  "And what's in it for you?" she asked with a short nod and the thug grinned broadly. "A pretty nice commission." he replyed.

She nodded again, seemed to think briefly and then looked back at the doctor. "I'll get twice as much as he does, and we have a deal."

    Dr. Petersen didn't seem happy to squander their already tight research budget, but he hesitated only for a moment before he also nodded. "Agreed."

  "Well, wonderful, then let's go." With a pleased smile she got up, flipped off the second smoked cigarette and followed Jeb out of the alley, with Petersen and Andrei hurrying to follow them.

    The way back seemed to be much shorter, now that they knew how long it was, and both scientists took the opportunity to take a closer look at their surroundings this time. Both of them repeatedly noticed people who looked curiously at them, but then hurriedly scurried away. But neither Jeb nor their still nameless probationer seemed to be worried about it in any way.

However, Dr. Petersen and Andrei could not deny that they were beyond relieved when they finally managed to get out of the winding alleys and into their car before they paid Jeb out. The thug had fulfilled his task and both scientists were happy to get rid of him.

    After the unpleasant hike, the way to their temporary laboratory in one of the outskirts of the city seemed like only a stone's throw away and Andrej breathed a sigh of relief as he steered the car into the garage. His boss, on the other hand, seemed restless. He was so full of work zeal , he  couldn't get out of the car fast enough.

Their companion, on the other hand, seemed... almost impassive. No, that was the wrong word, but Andrej couldn't really put a finger on it. She didn't seem nervous or worried, not even excited. She looked around calmly but attentively as she followed Dr. Petersen into the research area.

    The surgical area they had set up in the back of the building was probably barely meeting the minimum requirements in a provisional field hospital. But as the doctor liked to say, you have to play the hand you’re dealt.

But even this makeshift operating room didn't seem to worry her. Maybe she hid her concern, but she also hid it well. As a street kid, the girl was probably used to have to demonstrate strength at all times in order not to appear as an easy target.

  Dr. Petersen already walked through the room with long strides and threw his gown over, as he switched on various devices. “Good good, best we start directly. As already mentioned, we will insert an implant into your neck, which, simply put, bundles your biotic forces and makes them usable. Andrej, prepare the surgical instruments and anesthesia!”

  Andrei looked uncertainly at his superior. "Doctor..." he said quietly. "Shouldn't we at least tell her about the risks..."

  “Fiddlesticks!” Petersen harshly interrupted his assistant. “Why don't you look at that girl? As soon as I wave some cash she doesn't care about the risks, even if I waste time explaining them to her! Now do your job!”

    Andrej nodded, although he was not comfortable hiding the possible risks from the young woman. The operation itself was already critical, not to mention the fact that the new implant they had developed had hardly been tested so far. It was more than questionable whether or not they had been able to eradicate the errors of the L2 series by now, but to be sure of that, these new implants had to be tried out of course.

As he turned around to perform his tasks, his gaze crossed with that of the girl. She still had this piercing look which made his neck instantly tingling again.... He could have sworn to recognize a spark of anger in it, but the doctor drew her attention to himself and Andrej lost eye contact before he could be sure.

    "Well, Miss... Ghost Fox? You don't really have another name, it seems a little inconvenient to me."

  "If Ghost Fox is too long, it's Vixen." she replied with a shrug.

  Peterson's lips curled up in amusement. Vixen instead of Ghost Fox, how... original.

"Well, Miss Vixen, please take off your vest and lie face down on the operating table," he instructed his probationer.

  She followed his request and threw the vest onto a chair, without any sign of shame or embarrassment, even though she wore nothing else under it. While Andrei shamefully turned away his gaze, What a scientist!, Petersen took the opportunity to assess the physical condition of his new research subject.

  She was skinnier than he had suspected under the vest, the pointy, barely developed breasts did not do much to distract from the well visible ribs, let alone the numerous bruises and scars. Her malnutrition was unpleasant, thus she would lack the necessary energy to fully exploit her biotics, but it also had the pleasant side effect that her puberty had obviously been delayed.

  The time of transplantation had always been crucial to the effectiveness of the implants. An implant inserted before or as early as possible during puberty was integrated into the brain during its restructuring and was able to connect with the nervous system much better than those inserted after puberty. So hopefully they would still be able to achieve a good result, given her level of development.

  If Vixen misinterpreted his examination as sexual interest, she seemed at least not to mind it while lying down on the operating table. While Dr. Petersen was still disinfecting his hands and putting on gloves, Andrej placed a tray with surgical instruments and the implant next to the table.

  "Just relax," the doctor said, addressing Vixen, while Andrej put the respiratory mask on her and initiated the anesthesia. He could hardly wait to get to work while she slowly drifted into unconsciousness.

 ____________________________________________

Vixen had no idea how long she had been out when she slowly woke up again. She felt as if she was wrapped in cotton wool and it took a while before the pain was noticeable, although only faintly.

Carefully sitting up she touched her throat. It was tightly bandaged and she hissed silently as she moved a hand across her neck. The wound felt strange, like something was stuck in it.

  "The implant, I guess."

The feeling was not exactly pleasant, but also nothing she couldn't get used to. As long as it kept the promises that these scientists had made to her. She wanted to test her biotics, these new forces that this implant was supposed to bring to her, but she still felt so hazy... yet she tried to use her biotics to carry out this kind of "control" that these men had promised her. She tried to lift a glass container at the other end of the room, but nothing happened.

  "Ah, I see you've woken up,"

Vixen sat up as Dr. Petersen and his appendix entered the room.

While the assistant tipped eagerly on a data pad, Petersen examined her with satisfaction.

The complacency the doctor exuded like a foul smell annoyed Vixen.

But she was even more annoyed by the fact that the promised control over her abilities had not been realised.

"You said I could control my powers now," the woman growled while she got out of bed. Only casually she realized that her upper body was now in a wide white shirt and she was barefoot.

  "I said the implant would allow you to gain control of your abilities." Petersen corrected her. "Of course, this doesn't just happen with a snap of the finger. But don't worry, in the course of our studies you will learn how to use different techniques. And now lie down again, your circulation still needs to get used to the new flow of energy."

  Vixen didn't even think about following his request and she could see how he frowned angrily about it. "That's not the way I imagined it... And besides, you still owe me my money." she growled and walked up and down in front of them.

  "You'll get your money - after our tests have been completed," Petersen replied with increasing anger. "And now lie down again!"

  "I'm getting my money now. And shit on the tests,"Vixen countered and returned the scientist's dark gaze.

She did not miss it at all as his little sycophant tried to circle her and drawed something out of his pocket. A syringe!

She held her gaze further on Petersen, she was experienced in keeping an eye out of the corners of her eyes on people who wanted to fall in her back, and waited.

It was almost too easy. The guy obviously wasn't very skilled in sneaking up on someone. Vixen had let him come close to her almost up to arm length before she swirled around and unleashed her biotics with an energetic gesture of her hand.

  Except her biotics didn't emanate from her this time as usual in an uncontrolled flare.

Instead, the man was caught by a bundled shockwave and hurled against the wall. Vixen was puzzled for a moment when he sank to the ground and lay motionlessly there. This effect she would never have expected in her life... and she loved it!

  Behind the Biotic, Dr. Petersen cussed suppressed. He should have taken Andrej's warnings about the uncontrollability of a tramp like her more seriously.... He rushed to a laboratory table with some scalpels on top of other utensils and reached for one of the razor-sharp blades. She was not yet used to using her new abilities and would probably need a few moments to unleash another attack. During this time he could... Petersen froze, the scalpel in his hand as he turned back to her.

    Vixen hadn't moved a single step, just turned around her own axis to look at him directly. She just stood there, completely relaxed and with a wolfish grin on her face. She didn't miss the knife in his hand, but she didn't see it as a threat. When the doctor raised the blade threateningly in her direction she just laughed up with amusement.

So he wanted to play. Well, that was just fine with her.

  Vixen leisurely left her position and circled around the scientist in a wide arc, intending to cut off his way through the door while he tried to keep her in check with the raised scalpel.

Vixen's hunting instinct was awakened and she was curious to see if she could produce more of these biotic attacks. Her hand flew up high and the energy shock caused a cabinet behind Petersen to bounce up into the air and crash into the ground, clattering. The man jumped to the side like a frightened gazelle and looked at her with eyes the size of a plate. Oh, she would definitely have a lot of fun with him.

    The two of them circled each other like huntress and prey. If she had wanted it, the doctor would have been already as dead as his assistant, but perhaps he was still useful for her alive. She might try to squeeze some more information out of him. A few bank accounts perhaps or more information about this implant and how she could make the best use of it....

    Time and again, she chased the increasingly frightened scientist through the office with small feints and biotic attacks and pushed him further and further towards the wall. As much as she enjoyed the little hunt, sooner or later the cat got tired of playing with the mouse.

She just drove the scientist against a flipped cupboard as her leg got caught in something.

    Vixen looked surprised at the floor, down at Andrej, who clutched her leg with both arms.

The little wretch was still alive?

It was just a short distraction, but it was enough for Vixen to notice the approaching scalpel a little too late.

She knocked Petersen's arm to the side and so prevented him from slitting her throat. But instead of running into nothing, the sharp blade ran across her face and cut her left eye. Vixen screamed, more out of anger than pain, and unleashed another shockwave.

  The effect was by far not as impressive as she had hoped. Instead of a concentrated attack, she released the energy only uncontrolled. The scientist was not thrown against the wall, as she had managed to do with Andrej, but instead slithered relatively harmlessly over the floor.

    Vixen gave the assistant, who was still clinging to her leg, an angry kick before she followed Dr. Petersen. The scientist had dropped the scalpel due to her biotic blow and just started to get up again, his gaze fluttered panicily over the ground in search of the scalpel.

He discovered it and poked forward, but Vixen was faster. Just as he was about to close his hand around the metal handle, her knee crashed on his wrist and he cried out in agony.

    "Tseseses. Is that a way to deal with your patients, doctor?"

  Vixen took the scalpel with a smile and turned it slowly in her hand. It was hard to believe that the woman had the blood running over her face as relaxed as she appeared. Petersen was aware that her pain sensation was very limited at the moment due to the medication she was given, but still. He had cut her eye in half, and she acted like it was nothing!

    The doctor tried to get his hand free, but Vixen just shifted her weight a little and increased the pressure on his wrist even more.

"A pretty sharp knife." She stated matter-of-factly. "But such a tiny blade... and the handle lays awful in the hand. How easily such a thing slips.” With an almost casual movement, she placed the blade on his temple and pulled it in an arch down to his chin. The cut was not deep, but painful enough for the doctor to cry out.

Vixen grinned with satisfaction and turned the scalpel in her hand. "Very well, I think we have now clarified our positions. So let's get back to the beginning of this conversation. My payment. You probably don't have the credits just lying around here being the smart men that you are. So what is it then? Safe? Bank accounts? I'd rather have cash, but I would take the bank details, too."

  Almost playfully she let the scalpel wander over his neck with the blunt side down while she was talking.

Petersen's thoughts were racing. That crazy fury would kill him as soon as she had what she wanted. Somehow he had to convince her that he was more valuable to her alive.....

  The cold metal pressed harder against his neck. She would just have to turn the handle a little bit, and the blade would cut him into the flesh...

"Don't think about how to screw me over," she hissed. "Where's your money, I won't ask you again!"

  "In the safe! Bottom of that big closet! But it is voice controlled, only I can open it," the doctor quickly exclaimed as the scalpel already began to cut into his flesh.

    Vixen sighed theatrically. Ah crap... She'd rather have a safe with a fingerprint or an iris scan. Then she would have just stabbed the guy and dragged his body to the closet. Or just the part of his body in question. Once again she threateningly increased the pressure on his wrist before she got up in a smooth movement.

    Petersen arose tremblingly and rubbed his hand while he kept a close eye on her. He had really been fooled by her scraggy appearance. That wasn't a street kid, that was a predator.

  "C' mon now. I don't have all day." Vixen pointed to the wardrobe with the scalpel in her hand and the doctor hurried up and stumbled over to the wardrobe.

He had not lied, there was indeed a safe in the cupboard, to which he bent down and pressed the recording button.

"Einstein." he croaked.

"Voice sample not recognized." echoed the monotonous computer voice of the safe.

Petersen cast a fearful gaze over his shoulder to Vixen, who teetered her foot with displayed impatience. He quickly cleared his throat and tried again with caught voice.

„Einstein!“

This time a small diode on the safe glowed green.

"Voice sample recognized."

The mechanism had just unlocked when Petersen opened the safes door. His hand was already on the handle of the gun, which he kept in it when his head was brutally torn back at his hair.

  "Nice try."

  The scalpel cut through flesh and muscles without any effort as she pulled the blade over his throat. She shoved him to the ground, carelessly stepping over the still twitching body without being bothered by the gurgling noises the doctor made in the agony of death. The scalpel was dropped unmindfully to the ground and she wiped her bloodied hand on her pants while squatting down to look at the contents of the safe.

  The pistol was a treat, but now, with her new abilities, the rest of the safe was even more interesting for her. She indeed found some bundles of credits and stacks of data pads. Most of it she carelessly threw aside. She couldn't even write her own name, what was she going to do with all the words? But in between, she noticed some illustrated instructions. Not excessively meaningful and the accompanying explanatory texts couldn't make any sense to her again, but it certainly wouldn't hurt to play around with them.

  She grabbed what she could use from the safe and just wanted to look for valuables in the rest of the lab when something caught her attention.

  "You little fucker are still alive..."

Vixen strolled unhurriedly over to Andrei who squirmed on the floor, moaning slightly in pain. Coming closer, she pulled her face disgusted and took care not to step into the spreading puddle in which he lay. He had wet himself, how pathetic...

  Vixen squatted next to his head and looked at the assistant with a thought sunken expression. Cutting his throat like his boss would of course be the easiest and most obvious way to finish him off. But for that she would have to get up again and go for a scalpel....

Once again test her biotic powers and crush him definitively on the wall?

No. She noticed that the use of these abilities exhausted her, and it seemed like a waste of her newly gained power to squander it on an adult man who pissed himself like an infant.

  She also didn't wanted to use the pistol she had pushed into her trouser waistband. Shots were widely heard and she wanted to be able to sift through the laboratory in peace and quiet to find usable material.

  So the only thing left was... She put her hands around Andrej's neck and started squeezing. The scientist wriggled in an attempt to free himself, but his resistance could hardly be taken seriously. Vixen calmly watched his face turn blue and his movements fade away until he finally ended up completely silent.

  Granted, a strangled dead man wasn't a pretty sight, his face turned blue and bloated, his tongue hanging out of his mouth like a fat maggot, his eyes wide open... But Vixen loved this feeling of power when she squeezed someone's life out of his body. It was so much more... personal killing someone this way than just shooting or stabbing him.

And that look when her prey realized that she would be the last thing they ever saw.

  Vixen sighed with pleasure. In those moments, she was God to her victims and it was an intoxicating feeling.

She remained seated for a few moments and enjoyed the euphoric atmosphere before she got up again and began to rummage through the rest of the lab.

  Vixen had the feeling that her life had taken a new turn and the implant in her neck seemed to be humming, as if it was just as eager as she to use this newly acquired power to finally leave this shithole that her previous life had been.

[marcusssanderson]

50 Rainy Day Quotes Celebrating The Passing of Storms

This rainy day quotes collection will help bring calm and peace amidst the storms of life.

We all encounter rainy days in our lives – those times of need, trouble, pain, suffering, or loss.

Whether it’s financial struggles, emotional storms, poor health, or relationship difficulties, there will always be turbulent times in life.

The waters of life will not always be calm. Life will not always be rosy and not all of your days will be sweet.

But although we will always face challenges in life, we should not focus too much on the problems that we lose sight of the opportunities. We should always find the optimistic viewpoint.

To help bring calm and peace to the struggles you might be facing, below is our collection of inspirational rainy day quotes, rainy day sayings, and rainy day proverbs, collected from a variety of sources over the years.

Rainy Day Quotes Celebrating The Passing of Storms

1.) ”Celebrate the rain; it only means that the sun shall shine bigger and brighter than ever.” – Anonymous

2.) ”Clouds come floating into my life, no longer to carry rain or usher storm, but to add color to my sunset sky.” – Rabindranath Tagore

3.) “And when it rains on your parade, look up rather than down. Without the rain, there would be no rainbow.” – Gilbert K. Chesterton

4.) ”Life’s not about waiting for the storm to pass…It’s about Learning To Dance In The Rain.” – Vivian Greene

5.) ”Only a select few are able to see the true beauty that lies behind what just might seem like a rainy day or a grey sky.” – Jessica M. Laar

6.) ”The best thing one can do when it’s raining is to let it rain.” – Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

7.) ”On a sunny clear day, you can improve your body; on a rainy fogy day, you can improve your mind!” – Mehmet Murat ildan

8.) ”Remember; not every rainy day holds within it the promise of any rainbow.” – Anonymous

9.) ”You pray for rain, you gotta deal with the mud too. That’s a part of it.” – Denzel Washington

10.) ”Give thanks for the rain in your life which waters the flowers of your soul.” – Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Rainy day quotes to help you see the positive

11.) ”Colours shone with exceptional clarity in the rain. The ground was a deep black, the pine branches a brilliant green, the people wrapped in yellow looking like special spirits that were allowed to wander over the earth on rainy mornings only.” – Haruki Murakami

12.) ”Thy fate is the common fate of all; Into each life some rain must fall. – Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

13.) ”Skilful pilots gain their reputation from storms and tempest.” – Epicurus

14.) ”A smooth sea never made a skillful sailor.” – Franklin D. Roosevelt

15.) ”Don’t confuse your path with your destination. Just because it’s stormy now doesn’t mean that you aren’t headed for sunshine.” – Anonymous

16.) ”Even the darkest night will end and the sun will rise.” – Victor Hugo

17.) ”The sun after the rain is much beautiful than the sun before the rain.” – Mehmet Murat Ildan

18.) ”Nana always said the rain was nature’s way of adding sparkle to the outdoors.” – Mehmet Murat Ildan

19.) ”Like the sky opens after a rainy day we must open to ourselves . Learn to love yourself for who you are and open so the world can see you shine.” – James Poland

20.) ”The purpose of this glorious life is not simply to endure it, but to soar, stumble and flourish as you learn to fall in love with existence. We were born to live dear, not merely exist.” – Becca Lee

Rainy day quotes to bring joy and happiness

21.) ”There is freedom waiting for you, on the breezes of the sky. And you ask ‘What is I fall?’ Oh but my darling, what if you fly?” –Erin Hanson

22.) ”Life is full of beauty. Notice it. Notice the bumble bee, the small child, and the smiling faces. Smell the rain, and feel the wind. Live your life to the fullest potential, and fight for your dreams.” –  Ashley Smith

23.) ”I’ve learned that you can tell a lot about a person by the way he/she handles these three things: a rainy day, lost luggage, and tangled Christmas tree lights.” – Maya Angelou

24.) ”The way I see it, if you want the rainbow, you gotta put up with the rain.” – Dolly Parton

25.) ”Celebrate the rain; it only means that the sun shall shine bigger and brighter than ever.” – Anonymous

26.) ”Don’t predict the condition of the entire day by the state of the morning. You don’t judge a book by its cover. A cloudy morning is no guarantee for a rainy day!” – Israelmore Ayivor

27.) ”Rain is grace; rain is the sky descending to the earth; without rain, there would be no life.” – John Updike

28.) ”Some people walk in the rain, others just get wet.” – Roger Miller

29.) ”I’ve always found the rain very calming.” – Venus Williams

30.) ”The nicest thing about the rain is that it always stops. Eventually.” – Eeyore

Rainy day quotes to lift your spirits

31.) ”Rain showers my spirit and waters my soul.” –Emily Logan Decens

32.) ”Being soaked alone is cold. Being soaked with your best friend is an adventure.” –Emily Wing Smith

33.) ”There are many things I do for amusement, but for happiness I like to gather up my memories and go for a walk in the rain.” – Robert Brault

34.) ”A rainy day is a special gift to readers.” – Amy Miles

35.) ”The person who dances with you in the rain will most likely walk with you in the storms.” – Anonymous

36.) ”The rain fluctuates between drizzle and torrential. It messes with your mind. It makes you think things will always be like this, never getting better, always letting you down right when you though the worst was over.” – Susane Colasanti

37.) ”Rain falls because the clouds can no longer handle the weight. Tears fall because the heart cannot longer handle the pain.” – Anonymous

38.) ”If the rain spoils our picnic, but saves a farmer’s crop, who are we to say it shouldn’t rain?” – Tom Barrett

39.) ”Do not be angry with the rain; it simply does not know how to fall upwards.” – Vladimir Nabokov

40.) ”Sunshine is delicious, rain is refreshing, wind braces us up, snow is exhilarating; there is really no such thing as bad weather, only different kinds of good weather.” – John Ruskin

Other inspirational rainy day quotes

41.) ”Let the rain kiss you. Let the rain beat upon your head with silver liquid drops. Let the rain sing you a lullaby.” – Langston Hughes

42.) ”The drops of rain make a hole in the stone, not by violence, but by oft falling.” – Lucretius

43.) ”Without rain, there is no life.” – Jerry Yang

44.) ”God is good for everybody. The sun shines on good people and bad people, and it rains on both, too. God doesn’t choose rain only for bad people.” – Mariano Rivera

45.) ”Let us keep the dance of rain our fathers kept and tread our dreams beneath the jungle sky.” – Arna Bontemps

46.) ”In London, the weather would affect me negatively. I react strongly to light. If it is cloudy and raining, there are clouds and rain in my soul.” – Jerzy Kosinski

47.) ”I need the seasons to live to the rhythm of rain and sun.” – Sophie Marceau

48.) ”Some people are making such thorough preparation for rainy days that they aren’t enjoying today’s sunshine.” – William Feather

49.) ”A rainy day is an equalizer. You don’t know what’s going to happen. You just take what you can get.” – Charlie Harvey

50.) ”Keep something for a rainy day.” – Traditional Proverb

Which of these rainy day quotes was your favorite?

We all experience storms at some point in our lives. Life comes with troubles; regardless of your status or what point you are at.

But no matter what challenges come your way, joy and happiness doesn’t have to stop. Hopefully, the above quotes will inspire you to keep your chin up no matter what storms you might be facing.

Which of these rainy day quotes resonated with you best? Do you have any other quotes to add to the list. Tell us in the comment section below.

The post 50 Rainy Day Quotes Celebrating The Passing of Storms appeared first on Everyday Power Blog.

[forcedapotheosis-blog]

Solstice Ch. I

Alright fellas, the next chapter of Gloomy Days will be taking a little longer because reasons (I wrote them down here, if you care [x]), but that doesn’t mean that I stopped writing. What you see here is the first chapter of me trying to go back or rediscover my roots my roots as an amateur author. It’s not that evident in the first chapter, admittedly, but it’ll be getting better. I hope. And you’ll be seeing what I mean. So, what else? It has SaNami in it, because I can’t fucking help myself, is set in an alternate universe that is close to ours (Artistic License: History will be put to work a lot) and .. Sanji (the only planned PoV) will be a little out of character, but it’d spoil a lot if I tell you now in which way. Well, anything else .. let me see.

Oh yeah, reading my other fanfics I kinda came to the conclusion that, even if they are basically only about SaNami, I never really let them interact with each other (I mean, they will in the last few chapters of Gloomy Days, but looking at the other two I posted, it’s .. really not that much), that changes in this one. Hope that you’ll like it (since I’m an antisocial asshole and kinda clueless about this), but even regarding my roots it’s .. well, a little uncharted territory for me. Have fun reading it and have fun in general. The world, at least for a libtard like me, is looking really bleak right now (though I have the feeling that it’s getting a bit better in Germany) and I desperately hope that someone is enjoying his time.

Disclaimer: One Piece and its characters don’t belong to me.

PS: Thanks for all the people reading, liking and reblogging stuff. And, that deserves mentioning, special thanks to the people who sacrifice a little time to comment/review them, no matter if done here, on ff.net or archives. Always makes my day.

Chapter I: On The Road

Dearest brother,

We all remember the miserable circumstances that forced our family apart, but many years have passed since these awful times and no one of us can deny that he dearly missed the sight of you at father's funeral. I thought you might have wanted to know that, even after all the trouble and strife mother and he went through, he found his final place of rest right next to her, three years ago. Seeing him pass away made it clear to your brothers and me that we have a duty towards all members of our family to fulfill, to strengthen bonds and not sever.

You've been gone for so long, Sanji, and I wouldn't bother you if it wasn't my sincerest wish to see the rest of the family united again, even if just for a few days. And before you ask how I found out your address, what a time to be alive, isn't it?

The internet, cellphones, planes and even good old trains are all human inventions made with the thought in mind to bring humanity closer together. And in these wonderful times, it's no big deal to find out about a handsome and gifted young cook on the internet.

I'm so happy for you that you were finally able to settle down and work yourself all the way to the top. I even thought about visiting you at the Baratie, but I didn't know how you'd react. And what would've happened if I just called? I'm very sure that you would have just hung up on me, my dear brother. Thus I started writing this letter, wishing only that you think about my proposal before burning it, I beg of you.

Father's passing has shown to us all that life is ephemeral and everybody could go at any time. It would fill my heart with joy to see you again, Sanji, even if it is for the last time. You always were the best of us and I wish to see how you turned out.

The family will gather at our old demesne in the North, three weeks from now, arriving on the 20th of December to celebrate Yuletide together. Niji and Yonji will bring their girlfriends with them, and even though Ichiji is still a bachelor, his beautiful secretary, a splendid and resourceful young woman, will accompany him.

If there is someone special in your life right now, don't worry: There will be enough space to accommodate everyone.

Longing to see this family together again,

Reiju

PS: I enclosed two train tickets for you and your possible company. The train will arrive at around 23:35 if everything goes right and one of us will pick you up.

He read the letter for what felt like the hundredth time. Reiju did sound sincere about her wishing to see the family reunited. That and the fact that, besides his mother, she was the only member of his family he had any fond memories of, heavily influenced him when he made the decision to accept the invitation. Nonetheless, he kept asking himself if it was the right way to go. Over a decade ago, he broke ties with his family for good, a decision forced upon him by his father. But he's dead now, and every soul deserves peace. Maybe this could actually work out, now that he's gone? And even if not, at least trying it would have made mother happy, he told himself. Reading the letter over and over again and justifying his actions with the thought of his mother on his mind occupied most of his travelling time and he was happy about it, in retrospective. The train ride was long and mostly boring since the countryside wasn't something to write home about and he always thought about the North as being cold, rainy and bleak anyway, with dismissive residents to round up the package. Well, if the shitty weather's anything to go with, this reunion will go down the drain in no time., he contemplated while leaving the train at the empty station that was his final destination. It was astounding that a train would actually regularly visit this place. It seemed abandoned, and while a few defunct lights at rail stations were not a rare sight at all, finding a functioning one here felt like a lottery win. He never liked visiting the old manor, even when he was still a child and his mother still around to provide counterweight to his father. The place, he could recall, did seem to drain her energy more than usual and sleep never came easy in the old halls. For you, mother, I'm giving this a chance., he steeled himself and left the station to step out into the heavy rain that was pouring from the heavens. Even though winter and snow should be upon the country in full force, especially so far up north, there was no such thing as a white Christmas this year. Or a white Yuletide or whatever his family was referring to. It didn't make a huge difference, just .. what, three days? He put up his black umbrella when he left the, at least mostly, dry railway building and immediately felt all alone out here. The people on the train were taciturn, but at least they were there. And when he stepped off of it, he could at least spot a lonesome conductor. But out here? There was just a whole lot of nothing inhabited by no one in a perimeter of around ten kilometres. At least somebody's going to pick me up. Well, somebody should be coming to pick me up. But maybe this is all just a cruel joke, made up by my .. by those guys. I assume that was the last train until tomorrow morning and they'd be laughing quite a lot, knowing that I'm stranded here, in the middle of shitty freaking nowhere., the likelyhood of this situation being construed just to mock him sent a fit of rage and heat through his body, but besides clenching his fist in suppressed anger, there wasn't a whole lot that he could do about it. A cab might have been a possibility, but taking him to the nearest hotel would cost a small fortune. Besides that, it was doubtful that there even was a cab or some other kind of public transporation that he could use to solve that problem. Walking then, maybe?, he continued to contemplate after cooling down a bit, coming to the conclusion that walking the way to the nearest hotel would've been an even worse idea than coming here in the first place. If it was at all possible, the rain grew even stronger and the streets around these parts were not reinforced. Within a few meters, he'd be covered in mud from his feet up to his hip. And he didn't really feel like sacrificing his expensive leather shoes for the sake of his pride.

Cooling down had another effect on him though, his senses came back and the surroundings felt even eerier to him than before. The lonely guard was nowhere to be found and the feeling of being isolated in a hostile and uncaring world grew stronger by the minute. The cover of darkness  was literally impenetrable and not even the slightest ray of moonlight made its way through the thick, black clouds that had conquered the heavens. Still, there was nothing left to do other than cursing this damned family. He breathed in sharply when familiar sounds reached his ears and broke through the staccato caused by the heavy rain. A car!, he thought, somewhat relieved. Maybe the driver was on his way towards town and would give him a ride for a few bucks. He held out his free hand to hail the driver, as the other one was occupied with his umbrella, and balanced his black suitcase on a raised knee, all the while it seemed that every single drop of rain from all over the world decided to come here for vacations. Sure, he might've looked a little silly, standing there in the rain on just one leg, but he wouldn't risk his suitcase getting soaked. Even the roaring engine of the machine fought a losing battle against all the noise. Nonetheless, the driver did seem to see him as he pulled the car right in front of Sanji. Holy .. that's one nice car., and exactly that it was. The owner seemed to value precision German engineering and craftsmanship and when it came to cars for the higher echelons, one could say that Mercedes was unmatched. Yeah, well, not the whole truth, but there's some truth to it., he silently commented, approaching the window on the driver's side.

His heart made a loud thump when the interior lighting of the car was ignited and revealed a single ray of hope, an angel that promised to lead him through this darkest night, no, a fiery goddess to burn the shadows away, he thought. Her gentle, round and maroon-coloured eyes were fixated on him and she finally lowered the window. Maybe it wasn't such a bad idea at all to travel to this place?

"Mademoiselle truly is a sight to behold, thou art so fair, where hast thou been ..", but then she cut him off.

"I take it that you're Sanji?", other than the fact that she interrupted him, there was nothing rude nor unfriendly about the way she talked, and her voice would've made him an obedient slave under literally any other circumstances. Still, his heart grew heavier by the seconds. She's associated with my family. Great. Yeah, absolutely great. I should've just walked out of here., he finally lowered his hand and took hold of the suitcase again.

"I fear that's exactly who I am.", he admitted, feeling as alone as ever. And there it was, just a beacon of light in a night that seemed unending. She smiled at him. Just a normal, casual smile that even total strangers might exchange on their way to work. But seeing it on her face, on her full lips, and extending to her eyes, it could've melted stone or split the mighty mountains in two.

"What are you waiting for, then? Put your case in the trunk and hop in, I'll give you a ride!", and he did as he was told, taking his place on the seat next to her. And she's even more beautiful when I'm not in the middle of a cloudburst., he thought, taking a look at the side of her face. Flawless, beautifully carved. A literal goddess without contest. She even smelled the part, the odour of her parfume told a promising tale of a celestial garden full of tangerines. He gulped when he realised that she caught him staring at her, looking at him with what could have been anticipation. And then it hit him, he was so enchanted by her looks, her smell and her smile - that one somehow stood out - that he forgot to introduce himself. Sure, she knew who he was, but that was common courtesy!

"I beg your forgiveness, mademoiselle, as the sight of you made me forget my manners. Please, allow me to introduce myself.", he slighty bowed his head forward and held out his right hand, palm  pointing upwards. And oh, how delighted he was when she softly placed her hand on his! It was not much of a touch, more like a butterfly gently landing on his hands. I need .. to stop this .. soon?, he tried to reason with himself, but there was no denying that the touch, even the slightest, of a goddess was as intoxicating as .. but he couldn't think of something that came even close to her. This woman was truly without equal. Her auburn hair, her flawless and soft skin, these eyes a man could drown in and die happy .. and he hadn't even seen her standing yet. But it was probably better that way, as he couldn't stop his eyes from wandering down a bit and, well, let's just say it poured fuel into the fire. It's been years since he had his last nosebleed, but now that his blood was rushing .. well, everywhere, he could already feel it knocking on the door. But wasn't there something he had to do? Realising that he was still holding her hand, he somewhat came back to his senses, softly brushing his thumb over her knuckles before lowering his head deep enough to breath a kiss – his lips were not touching her skin – on her knuckles.

"Sanji ... Vinsmoke, it is my greatest pleasure to make your acquaintance, mademoiselle.", to his utter delight, she let out a soft chuckle. And no matter how heavily the rain was hammering on the car, no matter how much noise it made, her reaction enchanted him more than everything he could imagine .. well, more than anything he could imagine safely, without risking a nosebleed.

"The pleasure is all mine, Sanji ..", good God, the way she pronounced his name sent shivers done his spine. "I'm Nami ..", a goddess called Nami? Very fitting. "And I'm your brother Niji's .. ", oh no no no no no, please, don't say 'girlfriend', please, please, don't say 'girlfriend' .. she paused for a moment which led him to finally let go of her hand, raising his face to restore eye contact. "You look a little distressed, did you see a ghost? I was just about to tell you that I'm your brother Niji's girlfriend.", that very moment, he thought that she must have been able to hear his heart breaking. Girlfriend.  His brother's. Taken. Shouldn't have come here .., he sluggishly thought. "That's .. great to hear, Nami. May I ask how .. long you've been together?", his voice threatened to give up on him, but he had to at least try to get on good terms with her. Just for the hell of it.

"Of course you may! Tomorrow it's going to be three years for the both of us, and if I'm being honest, I think that he's going to propose not long after.", well, everything got from bad, but alright, to wonderful to bad to worse to utterly freaking terrible in no time. Mere seconds ago, when she told him that she was Niji's girlfriend, he felt as if he had been suckerpunched by the world's strongest man. And there goes all the hope I had gathered since meeting the Goddess, never to be seen again, but now that she told him that she anticipated a proposal, he couldn't fall much deeper, could he? Once you hit rock bottom, the only way left to go was up. Trying to keep a straight face, even forcing a smile upon himself, he carefully chose his next words, even though his voice tried to betray him all the way.

"That's .. amazing news, Nami, really. I'm very happy for the two of you .. shall we get going, then?", yeah, good news for his despicable bastard of a brother. Maybe he changed for the better? A woman like Nami would never be in a relationship with that sodding bastard he used to be, maybe she even managed to change him?, the chances were slim, but he at least had to try to stay positive. One door closes, another one opens or whatever people in dire situations used to say.

"So, Sanji, are you sure that you're actually related to Niji and Yonji?", now, what kind of a question was that? Didn't she see his eyebrow? Also, he needed a cigarette right now. Without even thinking about the necessary movements, he snatched one of these little nails to his personal coffin out of a silvery case he carried in the inside pocket of his jacket before, again, forcing himself to look at her. "Come again? And .. would you mind if I smoke?", he really, really needed it. Even if she wouldn't allow it in the car, getting outside in the cold and rain didn't seem like a bad idea at all. Maybe it'd even help him to shake off the strange mixture of feelings rushing through his mind and body.

"I'm sure you understood.", there it was again, that beautiful smile that could melt solid rock. Genuine, beautiful and demanding an answer.

"Yeah .. they wouldn't have invited me otherwise, would they?", he still had the cigarette between his lips, waiting for an answer regarding that question. Instead of answering, she moved a little in her seat, taking the cigar jack out of its mounting and leaned over towards his side. And if that wasn't surprising enough for him, her next move definitely was. No clear thought went with it when he felt her fingers gently touch his chin to keep it, and by extension the cigarette, in place, her other hand, holding the cigar jack, moved upwards aswell and she gently touched the end of the cigarette with it, waiting for him to start inhaling. This gentle touch alone was as galvanizing as a date with an electric chair. Niji, his brother, any other man, being a gentleman. All of that seemed just so meaningless when one was confronted with the tender touch of a literal goddess. Her voice was little more than a whisper when she finally answered him again. And even though the rain was still as heavy as ever, his senses were so focused on her that he could've even understood her of she just thought.

"Will you forgive me?", she asked when the smoke finally hit his lungs and brought at least some relief with it, at least from the stress regarding the relevation a few minutes ago. But not even if one would take all the cigarettes existing in the entire world into account, not even if he smoked all of them at once, could they have even hoped to dampen the sensation he felt when she touched him.

"..?", right now, he'd forgive her shooting him in the stomach with a double-barrelled sawed-off shotgun. The cigarette was fully ignited by now and she lowered the hand holding the lighter, the fingers of her other hand were still touching his chin though. And he didn't mind it one bit.

"When I told your brothers, Niji and Yonji, the same story, they reacted with a mixture of fury and jealousy and some pretty creative swearing. You, on the other hand, and that's why I hope that you forgive me, seemed shaken but tried to remain your composure, stayed friendly and put whatever your own feelings regarding that matter were behind, even when I told you that he was likely to propose. I .. have to admit that I liked that. So, would you forgive me the small play, please?", she pouted at him. His mind though, yeah, that was still a blank place.

"So .. you .. Niji .. you're not his ..?", he stuttered slowly and she softly shook her fiery head for an answer.

"Nope, not in this life, not in the next one. I'm Ichiji's secretary. And, before you think any further, I'm only that. Nothing, not even a tiny little bit more than a secretary.", she added, obviously being familiar with how men regarded incredibly attractive secretaries. Finally, she let go of his chin, still pouting at him, waiting for an answer. Kinda sure she already knows it., after a few more seconds in which he kept the smoke in his lungs, he finally exhaled, breathing it out through his nostrils.

"There's nothing to forgive. That, and I admire your exceptional gift when it comes to acting, Nami. It was quite the sight to behold.", slowly, the creeping cold from from his damp clothing returned as the warming touch of her hand was gone. But when she smiled, it was all forgotten again. For a while now, they were just sitting there, next to each other, watching the other person silently and somehow just enjoying the company.

A while later, Nami finally put the car in motion and soon, they would finally reach the manor and Sanji would be forced to meet his family again.

Little did they know that, for whatever they might have felt in that moment, regardless of the role they had to play, they weren't even considered as worthy as a pawn.

And at the dead of the night, a solitary crow cawed defiantly against the raging storm.