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stressed-chaos · 3 years ago

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Memories - Part 13

I am merging some chapters to decrease their number, since there is still a lot of story of unfold, so many of the future chapters may be long.

Hope you all like this one! Comments are appreciated!

Warnings: Mentions of hospital, doctor, nervousness, langauge, lying. My shitty attempt at writing.

(Let me know if I missed any.)

Sebastian was talking to the doctor. Since he was the second person on her emergency contact list, the doctor was notifying him about Y/N’s situation. He was nodding along, patiently waiting for his friends to come back. He explained everything that happened, while the doctor assessed it all. The doctor informed him that they would have to keep her under observation for a few more hours and then she’ll be free to go. Giving Sebastian a warning, they patiently waited for the two to come back.

The doctor told them everything to a red eyed Y/N and Ben, with necessary precautions. He inferred was that since Ben was probably the last thing on her mind—which made Y/N raise an eyebrow towards Ben, with a we-need-to-talk-about-this-face— it was probably the reason that he, and the memories related to him were wiped out from Y/N’s mind. They weren’t really sure if that could happen, but since it had…and there was no other reasonable explanation for it for now, they went with that.

After he left, she positioned herself back on the bed and asked about the doctor’s words. “So…any of you will let me know what I was doing before I fainted?”

“Um…that’s—that’s a good question,” Sebastian mused, nodding his head rapidly. “Let’s…okay, I’m pushing Ben under the bus. Goodbye,” with a click of his tongue, he popped the last words out. He was out the door before they could comprehend whatever he had said. Ben muttered ‘chicken’ as he left.

Y/N turned to Ben with raised eyebrows and the curious expression of a child, giving him puppy dog eyes. She thought she may have to convince him. Ben almost melted and became a puddle of his own skin at that sight, his panic temporarily easing. He put his thumb on his chin and lightly tapped his finger on his cheek, trying to come up with a lie. “Y—you fainted and I was probably the last thing on your mind because…we were…looking through old photos of us.” It wasn’t the whole truth or a complete lie, hence the guilt wasn’t able to eat him up.

“I fainted seeing old memories?” Ben nodded, “Well it was actually due to dehydration as Seb might have told you.”

“And for some reason he wasn’t the last person on my mind?” Ben just shrugged.

They could hear the soft cricketing sound coming from outside the window and the tapping of someone’s foot. The hospital smell was not a sense of security to both of them before, but it didn’t remain a big problem now that there wasn’t any serious trouble. They had momentarily forgotten wherever Sebastian went, Y/N confused over him running away. He finally moved to sit on the chair near her bed, silently asking for permission through his eyes. Seeing her nod, he made himself comfortable, (being as comfortable as someone can get on a hospital chair), holding her right hand with his left.

Y/N shuddered for a moment, which immediately made Ben let go of her hand, thinking it was his fault. Y/N just smiled and reassured him that she felt something cool touch her for a moment, which caused her to react like that and grasped his otherwise warm hand again. It did bring a sense of security to her, the hand working as a firm pole. Once again she was hit by the cold sensation and looked down to see a gold metal band resting comfortably on his ring finger.

Ben followed her line of vision and his eyes grew wide. Shit. In a quick flash, Ben removed his left hand and switched to holding her hand with his right one. Y/N’s eyebrows were furrowed. “You’re married?”

Ben remained silent.

“Engaged?”

Still no words.

“Promise ring?”

He just stared at his feet.

“Stolen?”

Ben contemplated his options. One, he could tell her the truth, where the chances are high of her fainting and losing her memories again. Two, lie and deal with the consequences later. He went with the second one. So, he will have to create a fake wife, maybe even create a whole new person, based on his actual love. Easy. He is an actor, lying is his job…he can do this. He hyped himself internally and began, “Yeah uh, I’m—uh married.”

Y/N’s beaming smile broke Ben’s heart, “That was a lot of ‘uh’s for something you should be pretty sure about. Unless you were drunk when you got married.”

Ben laughed, “No no…I was fully sober.”

Y/N’s eyes suddenly widened, “Hold the fuck up, don’t you live with your wife?”

Ben nodded, “I do. Why?”

“Sebastian told me we live together. And if you live with your wife…” Ben looked at her, the flower of hope waiting for her.

“…I’m invading your guys’ privacy.” Ben forced the flower to wither away. At least his wife’s obliviousness was back. She did not really assess a situation greatly and just dived into something she wanted to do. Ben was usually the one helping her on that. Relief flooded his features, the doctor told them to let her memories come back naturally, he gave a natural push yeah, but it could very well have backfired. Thank saints.

“Oh shit…I’m so sorry. Why did you guys even let me do that? I’ll—I’ll get out of your guys’ hair as soon as I can. I must have been disturbing you two or more than two, for so long…” Y/N was rambling until Ben cut her off. Damn it, Seb.

“Hey, you haven’t been disturbing us. She—she loves having you around. We were already living together when I met her. When you two met, you hit off almost instantly. It’s completely fine.” Ben internally pumped his fist into the air, pros of being an actor I guess. It seemed like an acceptable lie to convince someone that they can’t invade their own privacy.

Y/N was not convinced, but she did not push any more on the subject. She shifted herself to rest her head on Ben’s shoulder. Realizing her actions, she froze just when her head was about to touch his shoulder, silently looking up and being sorry through her eyes. Ben chuckled and encouraged her to rest her head with a comment, “You apologize too much,” quoting her from earlier.

“So…tell me about her,” she prompted after a few quiet moments.

“Tell you about who?” Ben asked, momentarily forgetting his ‘fake’ partner.

“Your wife, dummy.”

“But that’s—oh her. She’s a wonderful person. We’ve been together since just after high school. And every day has been nothing less than a marvelous dream. She is a little quirky and we have been on many adventures together. She loves pranking people with me, although I have also been at the receiving end numerous times. She doesn’t see herself the way I do. She would rather spend a whole day with a book than go out. We have a lot in common and currently she’s…on a business trip but she never fails to call me. I just love her so much, can’t even remember a time when she wasn’t in my life,” Ben was staring right into Y/N’s eyes, meaning all the words. His eyes held all the love he had for his sunshine…well actually moonshine. The moon brought calm to both of them. Can he be sued for copyright of telling his wife their love story with someone else’s name?

Anybody could see the obvious love he held in himself for his partner, even she could. It was like high school all over again. Him loving her, her loving him, but both wanting to preserve their friendship, when they were obviously something more. All the times they were mistaken for a couple by the teachers—hell, even the principal, was just an evidence. They had loved each other without knowing it, despite that being pointed out countless times by others. Sometimes they weren’t even listening, too busy getting lost in each other through secret glances. Sebastian made it his mission one year to get those idiots together, just so he could stop hearing them gushing.

“How did I let you marry her? I would have kept her for myself,” she teased.

Ben chuckled, “Yeah, you also said that when we got married. And apparently she loves me more, so I win,” he stuck her tongue out at her. He hated lying. And enjoying cause Y/N was usually one to return the compliments, she would always find a way to turn those compliments back to the person who gave them. As much as he loved making her blush, it was nice to have this once in a while.

“You didn’t tell me her name.”

“Y—right, sorry. It’s uh—Jennifer. Well…for now, enough about her, what do you want to eat?”

“I didn’t say I was hungry.” Ben raised an eyebrow. “Alright…fine. No need for giving me that look. How did you know?”

“I’m your best friend. We’re connected.”

Y/N nodded, “No hospital food.”

Ben mock saluted her and got up. He moved his head and kissed her cheek. He felt her tense and ease simultaneously, eyes widening...before relaxing with and a faint smile gracing her lips. Ben realized his actions and hurried out to the door, heart hoping for her to call him back. Even if it was a pretty common action for him to do, especially for her, even before they had started dating, he felt as if he shouldn’t have done that. She was obviously trying to get to know him and he just goes and kisses her cheek. Plus, her little tensing reflex only added to his uneasiness. He had failed to see the small smile on her face, which soon turned into a confused grin.

The fear monster was back, laughing cruelly at his face for messing up and losing her, for the third time. He passed Sebastian just about to enter the room, who had seen the whole exchange. His best friends really are idiots…fools rather, for one another. Even if one’s mind doesn’t remember the other, her heart does anyway.

Sebastian made his way to the room and sat down on the chair. Y/N was still dazed from the kiss, it wasn’t new. Despite them being together for almost a decade, they still managed to get each other acting like teengares. After a few seconds, her temporary daze broke and she jumped scared seeing Sebastian, “Where did you come from?”

“When you were lost in a fantasy world chasing Ben around a tulip field. Did you get a goodbye kiss when you left?”

“You saw that huh?”

Sebastian nodded. “You froze.”

“Yeah…it was kind of unexpected.”

“So there was no other reason?”

“No…why would there be?” Y/N questioned.

Sebastian did not answer. He just muttered a quick, ‘I’ll be back’ and went away, allowing her to get back to the tulip field. This is wrong, he’s married, she frowned, changing her line of thought to food. Outside, in the same scheduled corner, he found Ben nervously tapping his foot. He managed to calm himself down a notch.

“Did you eat all our food?” Seb joked, hoping to lighten the mood.

“I thought you were Y/N.”

“Do I really sound like a woman?”

Ben went to shake his head, but ended up nodding, a mischievous smile on his face. Seb gasped in mock offense. The two pals sat down, laughing, promptly ignoring the elephant in the room. Ben asked first, “She’s alright?”

Sebastian nodded. “What about you?”

“My wife just subconsciously rejected me. I’m fucking estatic,” sarcasm dripping like wildfire in his tone.

“You know as well as I do that she didn’t mean to. She froze because it was unexpected, you didn’t feel her relax in a split second. But I saw it happening. She was smiling, Ben and she did not even know. You two are back in the two teenagers whose crush just noticed them for the first time, phase, or well…just went on your first—I’m getting off topic. Her heart remembers you Benny, and it loves you. We just need her mind to remember it too, which we’ll do together.”

Ben just hugged Sebastian tightly. That hug meant a thousand words, no need for acknowledgement with words. “Staying for lunch?”

“You’re asking like we’re at an afterparty in your house.” Chuckling he added,“Nah…s’fine. Besides you two need to talk. I have some work, I’ll see you guys later.”

“Do you think she remembers that one year?” He made a mental note to ask her about that. His friend shrugged.

Taking her favorite lunch, Ben found her sleeping peacefully. She propped one eye open when she heard him coming through, grin on her face. He handed her the lunch and made himself comfortable at the chair, taking his meal. Y/N gasped, “You brought my favorite. Thank you. How did you— wait never mind, don’t answer that.”

Ben chuckled and started eating his fries, which Y/N ended up stealing a little with her puppy dog, and of course he let her. He turned to mush in front of that look, no matter how hard he tried to resist. He got her back when he stole some of her food while Y/N just looked at him with a mock resting fish face.

“Hey, do you know someone named Harry?” Ben questioned.

“Uh…it does sound familiar, Harry Styles? Potter?”

“Styles. But not as a famous singer. Do you remember him as…a friend?”

Y/N chewed while thinking, “It’s a little fuzzy. Although I can see a kind of scrawny looking man with green eyes and sharp cheekbones.”

“That can be him.” What they didn’t know at that moment, that it was not him, it was another green eyed man-monster, set out to destroy their forever.

Y/N felt her phone buzzing in her pocket when she asked about Sebastian’s whereabouts. “He had some work, so he left.”

Y/N nodded and picked up the phone without looking at the ID. “Hello?”

“Hello sister. How are you?”

“I’m sorry…who are you?”

The man on the other line laughed, “You didn’t delete my number, did you?”

Seeing Y/N’s furrowed eyebrows, Ben offered to talk on the call. He saw the ID and mouthed, ‘It’s Harry’ to her and went outside the room for privacy. Speak of the devil and they shall appear. He heard Y/N squealing with excitement behind him.

“Hey Harry. It’s Ben. Good timing, we were just talking about you.”

“Oh Hello Mr. Brother in law.”

Ben explained everything to Harry who let out occasional hums. He felt downhearted that Y/N doesn’t remember him, but when Ben mentioned about her little fuzzy vision, he said, “She called me scrawny? Man, I need to hit the gym,” chucking at his own words. He wished Ben a ‘good luck’, before ending the call.

Y/N made grabby hands at him when he returned and started firing questions at him. Ben answered them all carefully, with Y/N’s squealing interruptions. She took the news of knowing Harry fucking Styles pretty well, including the part where she dramatically fake-fainted.

The rest of the meal was spent in silence. Y/N noticed Ben’s eyes seemed to be getting drowsy along with her own. She offered to share the bed with him, at which he was surprised, “You sure?”

“Well as we are best friends, I don’t think this is the first time it would happen. Plus it’s not like I am injured…it’s perfectly fine. Hope on, buckaroo.”

He understood and eagerly compiled. She adjusted herself, but the bed was small for both of them. The only way for both of them to be able to sleep comfortably was to face each other or for Y/N to sleep on top of him. As exciting as the second option was, they could not go through with that. Eventually they both adjusted with Ben being the big spoon and having her in his arms, face buried in her hair, like every time. It brought a sense of relaxation to both of them, Y/N thinking it was just because she was sleepy, everything her thoughts served far from the real truth. A while later, Y/N moved to face him, resting her head on his chest and listening to his rhythmic heartbeat.

And that was how Sebastian found them when he returned from his endeavors.

Ben woke up from a two hour nap, feeling a weight on his chest. He lifted his head to see Y/N almost draped over him, softly snoring. She looked at ease, he forgot all their troubles for a moment. The love dazed leaned his head down to kiss his wife, but felt something on his forehead. Irritated, he removed it and started reading it the best he could with his sleepy eyes.

Benny,

I have gone to your guys’ house to sort some stuff out. Call me when you wake up. Also the doctors said that Y/N can go home after a last checkup.

Barnes

Ben’s eyes went wide. All the memories came hitting his mind like a truck. He was about to kiss her, without consent, well she is his wife…but she doesn’t remember him. He wasn’t able to dwell on his thoughts much as he felt Y/N squirming. She propped her eyes open, immediately squinting them due to the sunlight. She was about to go to sleep again but saw him and with a little ‘morning’ she got up.

The doctor came in at that moment and Ben got up to let the check up happen. He decided to act on the message, “Hey, Mr. Crab…what’s up?”

“Morning Mr.Buckaroo, how was your nap?”

“You know we should call you buckaroo, not me. The nap was fine. Why did you want me to call?”

“Oh yeah…that. Okay, so I talked to the doctor, they said Y/N’s memories should come back naturally…right?”

Ben nodded, but realized he couldn't see, so he let out a hum.

“So I kind of…removed your guys’ couple photos from the walls, along with the ones of your nightstand. It may cause her to faint again and all this to happen…I’m sorry buddy.”

“You have nothing to be sorry for Seb. It’s what is best for her. Where have you kept them though?”

“Yeah about that, I’m thinking I should keep them at my place, lest Y/N comes across them?”

“That—that does sound fine. Thank you Seb, for everything.”

“Hey, that’s what friends are for. You just treat me to a pizza and movie night of my choice sometime.”

“Sure, sure.”

“See you there then?”

“Okay. Goodbye, be safe.”

“You too.”

Ben hung up and went inside just as the doctors were finishing their work. They allowed her to be discharged and leave, after giving him some instructions, the same one as Seb.

“You ready to go?”

Y/N nodded eagerly.

“You’ll love our place.”

#ben barnes #sebastian stan #benjamin barnes #benjamin thomas barnes #ben barnes x reader #ben barnes x y/n #ben barnes x you #sirius black #fanfic #fanfiction #Memories #bin bons

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chisheya · 4 years ago

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hanahaki disease [niragi x reader x chishiya] highschool au!

Summary: love is reckoned to make us powerful; not susceptible - as much as i tried to convince myself that. as much as i tried to stay strong; tough and heroic, enough to risk it all and let my emotions surge on the exterior. strong enough to be crushed yet again, to love and be loved again - knowing my fragility.

i’ve known the agony and lament sufficiently enough that it demolished my sanity, left my soul burning away, gradually fading into ashes and disappearing like dust under the moonlight’s breeze. and the funny unfunny part is - i wish i had told him, perhaps one day i will.

‘‘I have loved you since I first laid eyes on you. My love bloomed like a flower in my chest.’‘

Tag list: (if you want to be tagged, let me know because the previous post got deleted for some weird reason lol)

Word count: 2.5k

The sun's soft twinkles crawl over house rooftops, and in an early hour, despite it, it still felt like a chilly morning. Early as it is, the neighborhood was caught up with parents rushing with their children, some going to work, some even rushing late. Thankfully, the riots of youngsters were vetoed by the sound of Supermassive Black Hole by Muse playing through my earphones. I was deliberately walking down the alley on my way to school, gripping the hem of my uniform and cursing to myself that this skirt was of no use to at least keep my legs warm.

The reckless gust reaching from my left side provoked me to jump out of my skin, revolting me from my daydream.

‘’God's sake-’’ I turn my head only to see Chishiya standing next to me, with a smirk on his lips. The sudden view of him caused me to blush, as my brain screamed oh-look-your-crush. Although you could rarely see this guy smiling and being friendly, his agenda was incompatible. Clever, crucial, and cunning as he is, he always had a special place in my heart. Why, you ask? I'd love to know that too... Maybe because he has been my friend since forever.

''You must be that cold, huh,'' Chishiya says sarcastically. ''Y-yeah.'' I murmur, ''anyway, again one of early practicals at the hospital today?'' ''Correct.''

''Yikes,'' I add, clicking my tongue, ''good luck.''

''Have you decided if you'll stay here in Tokyo?'' Chishiya pops a question, clearing his throat, as his face remains immersed on the boulevard in front of us. ''Huh, what do you mean?'' I add, looking up at him, wishing he'd look back at me. But he never does...

''For university.'' ''Oh, that,'' is all I say, before taking the next few seconds to think what to proceed with, ''yeah, Tokyo - I guess, still not sure yet.''

''It better be Tokyo or I'm disowning you.'' He says in a stern voice, delivering it with a smirk as he quickly runs his hand through my hair, resulting in becoming a mess.

''Hey!'' I chuckle, about to return the favor but he succeeded to grab my wrist and stop me just on time. Shucks.

Chishiya and I have been friends since childhood, as our dads have been friends since their early school days as well. He's in his third year in med school and I'm about to graduate in less than a month and enter university in few months. Not to mention, living close enough in the same neighborhood visiting Shuntaro's family every Sunday for dinner was a ritual that my dad, Aguni, and I couldn't stop doing. My mother has had enough of Tokyo so she decided to leave for England. Yeah, pretty simple...it has only been dad and me since. Not like I regret staying with dad, and if there was the father that would win The Dad of the Year award, it would be him. Playing cards meanwhile drinking wine was a post-dinner ritual for our dads, later through time, Chishiya joining them as well. In most cases, I'd end up just observing how they play and anticipating who's going to win. From Aguni being the best to, Shuntaro's dad, a few years later as Chishiya evolved enough his cunning games he beat them in it. He became a card game master, no jokes.

I didn't notice it has come for the time for us to go different paths, as my school was in the complete opposite direction.

''So,'' I murmur, stopping and turning to face him, ''I guess time to say goodbye.''

''Good luck, kid.'' He says, giving me a soft smile. Ah, if he only knew how something so insignificant and minor to him has such a consequence on my heart. But he never will though. As I know, what we are and what we are not.

I just smiled as I watch him turn his back on me and leave first. He always leaves first. I stayed few more seconds as his figure slowly fades of to distance I get ready to go my way.

⋞ 〈 ⏣ 〉 ⋟

After the last class, I choose to go to a nearby library to catch up on some assignments. The library is a soft of the enormous coffee shop yet one can stay all day and feel good even if one buys nothing at all. That's the discrepancy. It is a place of welcome for everyone rather than for "customers." This is not a money-nexus venue yet a love-nexus space, and that makes it a real treasure in this city.

I was relinquished and dazzled by the book in front of me, until the moment someone’s voice yanks me out of my thoughts.

''Since classes are over, want to grab lunch?'' I feel a hand placing softly on my left shoulder as a soft boyish voice peaks behind me.

''Niragi,'' my lips stretch in a smile as I embrace my best friend in a hug, ''of course, you mind if Chishiya tags along as well?''

''Oh,'' he mouths, providing it with a vague look, as I feel him stiffen up a bit and breaking the hug before proceeding, ''Chishiya..too?''

''Yeah!''

''Sure,'' he says, providing it with a soft smile, ''definitely..''

''Great, I'll let him know then.''

⋞ 〈 ⏣ 〉 ⋟

Niragi and I walked after school side by side, on the way to Shibuya where we agreed to meet up with Chishiya. As we have arrived early, we stand by a big poster advertisement. I gently lean my back onto it, facing the industrious avenues of Shibuya wandering with people. Niragi, leaning as well, right next to me.

''So, have you decided? Is it going to be Tokyo or London?''

''Hm,'' I murmur as his question breaks me out of my trance, ''regarding studies?'' He nods.

''Honestly, not sure,'' I hesitate, before proceeding, ''but I'd love to stay in Tokyo.'' This was not a lie, but London on the other hand, was just an excuse in case my health gets worse. An agreement was made with my dad that it'd be best to stay there with my mom and focus on getting better.

''Tokyo.'' I sigh, still caught up thinking what if I have to end up having to go back to London. What do I do then? And more importantly, what do I tell them? The minor, simple thought of lying to the people I deeply care about stings.

''And you?''

''Tokyo,'' he says softly while looking down, smiling - as the thought if he had something that binds him to dwell in this city, ''I already got accepted in for game engineering.''

I knock him softly on top of his head, standing on my tippy toes. Though he was portrayed as the delicate and sweet guy he is, he was taller than both Chishiya and me.

''Ouch,'' he exclaims as his hand rests on top of his head, my action catching him off guard, ''why did you do that?''

''Why haven't you told me, little idiot?''

''I planned to,'' he giggles, a wide smile as I've never seen scattering across his delicate features, ''I was waiting for you to confirm you got in your desired major as well.''

Yeah, I have, Niragi. It's just that I might not even be able to go because of my health. The phrases, the verdict, that I desired I could have mouthed out. But I couldn't, not now. Not when we're about part ways, and the way I want to remember these recollections is by them as their happy-selves, us cycling through alleys of Tokyo, eating noodles in the park during chilly nights, by city lights as the background noise of crickets was vetoed by our laughter. The recollections, moments I'll protect in my psyche permanently.

I just remained silent, looking at my friend as he was smiling and looking off to distance till he started waving to someone. I shift my gaze only to see Chishiya's figure approaching us, hands in his pockets as usual.

''Hello there, peasants.'' Chishiya teases, as he finally approaches us.

''Excuse me, lord Shuntaro.'' Niragi scoffs at him, crossing his arms.

''So where will we head to?''

''Whoa, Morizono, not even embracing your friend in a warm hug and you're already talking about eating,'' Chishiya says falsifying pain in his voice, ''I'm hurt.''

''Chishiya,'' I let out, rolling my eyes at his statement, ''I know you don't do hugs.'' I proceed, nudging his forearm slightly, hoping that the warmth I felt growing in my cheeks wasn't showing.

''Fuunji or Ichiran Shibuya?'' Niragi says, clicking his tongue.

''Fuunji,'' I mutter, at the same time as Chishiya adds, ''Ichiran.'' Our eyes met instantly as we both realized our choices were different.

Do I have to mention that I'm probably already blushing? No, because heck - yes I am.

Oh boy, here we go. Let him have his way, Y/N.

As you always do.

''You know what, let's go to Ichiran,'' I exclaim, looking in between my best friends waiting for them to agree.

''Ichiran it is,'' Niragi exclaims.

A little while later, our food has finally arrived. The moment it lands on the table, Niragi digs at his sweet and sour soup and pulls out all the cubes of carrot. I don't say anything, I really couldn't care less about table manners and there's always something interesting going on in his head. Chishiya calm and collected as he is, starts eating at a slow pace. After swallowing his first bite, he breaks the silence, ''we must go somewhere to celebrate your birthday, Y/N.''

''I'm not sure-''

Niragi peeks up at me with sticky fingers in his mouth. Meanwhile, Chishiya adds, through the mouthful, that I could just about make out the name "Kyoto."

As my mouth was full of food as well, I just nod seriously.

"That's a great idea, Chishiya. I never thought of that." Niragi grins, still with the fingers in his mouth, then he scoops them up and lines them neatly next to his stocking.

Chishiya holds out a cup of soju, "for Y/N." Niragi's hand comes over and snatches it up, his grin as wide as his cheeks will stretch, and scatters back.

Chishiya and I just exchanged looks, laughing at his silliness.

We drank soju, we were already merry and full, we told the most terrible of jokes. That was us. Casual, informal, yet caring enough to make the time we spend together joyful.

⋞ 〈 ⏣ 〉 ⋟

After grabbing lunch with Chishiya and Niragi, I headed straight home. The thought of visiting Kyoto for my birthday with them was still bouncing on my mind. The thing is, how to bring it up to Aguni? Hm? As loving and fond as he is of both of them, the thought of sending his only daughter away with two boys on a trip probably sounded far away from a brilliant idea. Sigh, I guess it'll take a lot to convince him.

''Dad, I'm home!'' I exclaim, meanwhile closing the doors behind me and taking off my shoes in the hallway.

''Someone's back home early, huh?'' Aguni says chuckling, as he plants a soft kiss on my forehead.

''Yup, something smells delightful,'' I say, meanwhile slapping my hands in excitement and taking my seat.

''Ah, you sneaky,'' He adds, taking the seat as well across me, ''it's your favorite - pad thai chicken wok.''

''So,'' I began, meanwhile randomly picking food with chopsticks in my plate, ''I have a question.''

''Yes?'' Aguni murmurs, mouthful, gazing up at me. ''So you know that my birthday is next week...'' I say awkwardly, placing my chopsticks gently on the table.

''Of course, how would I forget my daughter's birthday?'' He scoffs, butthurt that his daughter thinks he's that forgetful.

''No, of course not.'' I chuckle, ''but I did want to ask you something, uh...''

''Go ahead, silly.''

Just say it. Now or never. And I do - ''I've been thinking of visiting Kyoto with Chishiya and Niragi-''

''Not happening.''

''But-''

''You? On a trip? With two boys?'' his voice stern as he glares up at me, causing me to swallow, ''you must be out of your mind to think I'll let you, Y/N. Boys your age are wild.''

''No, there's going to be more of other friends...too, from school.'' I start, slightly panicking as I was also trying to think of the ways to get him to approve, ''not just Chishiya and Niragi, although you know they're my closest friends.'' I proceed further, looking around the food on the table, as I noticed he has almost cleared out his plate, and yet there was still chicken left in mine. Splendid, a perfect way to bribe him now.

''Plus,'' I mutter, as I start taking out the chicken from my plate, putting on his, his eyes now fully focused on that chicken, ''I know you trust them enough to protect me if anything happens, right?'' I grin, awkwardly.

''Only because they are aware who's your father and someone not to mess with.'' He adds, still not convinced enough, but still taking the small pieces of chicken with his chopsticks.

''Uh, yeah,'' I murmur, as I watch him, eating up those last few pieces of chicken as if they are his last, ''beside your protectiveness, what do you think?''

''Y/N, you've forgot one thing.'' Aguni says with a serious tone, placing down his chopsticks.

''What?'' I question, acting dumb. Expecting him to answer, he just remains silent and gives me an even worse glare now, ''doctor's appointment,'' I add, ''come on, it doesn't have to be next week as well. Just check with them if they can postpone it.''

He preserves silent, still staring up at me with a serious look on his face. Sigh.

''A trip with my friends is more important. Not to mention, it's our last as we're all parting ways soon because of university.''

''To you. But to me, your health is more important Y/N.''

''I...understand, dad,'' I sigh, looking up at him, falsifying a smile, ''but look at me, I'm feeling fine. I've never been better.''

''Same as you claimed in the past, until it happened again and I was close to losing you forever.'' He asserts, this time his voice louder than before.

''Dad...cheer up,'' I exclaim, as I reach out my hand, placing it on top of his, ''it's...just because it happened then, doesn't mean it will happen again.''

''You don't know that. Your condition is serious-''

''I'll take care of myself. Alright?'' I murmur, squeezing his hand, ''please, can I go?''

''Alright, alright. Under one condition, take care of yourself and as soon as you get back we're going to the doctors. Promise?''

''I promise.'' I holler, lunging from my seat to hug him before storming off to my room. As soon as I shut the door behind me, I lean my back on it.

There was an eerie sentiment I felt within, a good sort though - just not sure for what exact reason yet. It felt like it was the calling card of an adventure, paths awaiting, what will transpire. Whatever was ahead could be a great challenge, and there could be tears, but it was an exploration to take and so I smiled. The inklings would come, perhaps when I’d least expected it, so I’m ready to take this leap of faith.

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shaydeoffical · 4 years ago

Text

Let’s Slip Away: Diluc x Fem Reader: Childhood Best Friend Au

Summary: You and Diluc slip away from the annual Dawn Winery Ball and confess. Reader then deals with some anxiety about the relationship and Diluc soothes them.

Tags:

Lots of fluff, Creepus is a wonderful person, Diluc is so smooth, dancing under the moonlight, long fit.

Diluc x Reader

Lets Slip Away

The annual Dawn Winery Masquerade Ball, the biggest ball this side of Mondstat, or it used to be. Thankfully, Diluc had successfully scaled the ball down in size a little more with each passing year. Still, it didn't make much of a difference with the ballroom still being packed tight. No matter how the guest list shrunk, people found a way to take up the same amount of space as before. There's nothing I loved more than a dance, but it was the people I couldn't stand. Everyone liked to pretend they were an evil aristocrat once their identity was concealed. A fancy dress, a decorative mask, and a new hairstyle, and everyone felt invincible. It was the same thing every year; they'd order the staff around, drink till they lost control, and leave the manor a mess. It was deplorable.

After watching a woman toss a glass on one of the maids, I lost my cool. I may or may not have tossed my grape juice on the women in retribution. The maid couldn't do it, so I had to use my position as "Master" Diluc's best friend to get away with it. What I didn't expect was for the lady's husband to toss not just the wine but the whole glass at my face. While the glass didn't bust when the base hit my head, it did leave a notable bruise, and the wine soaked through my hair, mask, and dress.

Elzer stepped in immediately to settle the issue, and instead of sticking around to get a lecture, I slipped into the garden. Hiding between several grapevines. I listened to the music pour from the house above and pouted. If I had played my cards right tonight, I would have been dancing in an empty corner with Turner or maybe even Diluc if he was free. He always saved the last dance for me. When the party started to clear a little, we'd stay in my favorite corner and have a quick dance while he whispered about he'll find a way to have the event canceled next year. But no, I was being eaten by mosquitos fighting off a headache.

Holding my mask between my hands, the once white fabric had stained dark red. Even my cream dress was littered with splotches that wrecked of dandelion wine. Sucking in my lower lip, I held back a sudden wave of sadness. It settled into my bones and swept through my limbs in a jitter. Why was I so sad? I avenged the maid and did the right thing… but my chest ached. Curling around myself, I tucked my head between my lap. There was a time and place for crying, and a party wasn't one. Yet, there I was, sobbing into the fancy gown Diluc had hand made for me. Of course, he wouldn't be mad at me for what happened, but the guilt was eating me alive. I had ruined the evening for myself and made things harder on my friend. "There you are. I've been looking all over-. Hey, Elzer told me what happened, but he didn't mention a welt. How badly are you hurt?" Diluc pushed through the vines faster and hopped over the last row. He knelt beside me and carefully lifted my chin so he could see my face. "I'm just being a baby." I leaned back, the moonlight catching my skin. He ran his thumb over the knot on my forehead, and he clenched his teeth. "Damn bastard." He looked back at the mansion. "He might be wearing a mask, but there's only one person in Mondstat with monogram shoe buckles." "What?" I laughed; he was so serious, but the idea of a monogram shoe buckle had me drying up my tears. "Who pays for that kind of thing?" "Mr. Barker." Diluc wiped under my eyes. "Are you hurt anywhere besides your head?" "Besides the guilt of running the dress you got me and making the party harder for you to manage, I'm fine." I let it out. There was no use in pretending it wasn't bothering me. I had learned a lot about Diluc in our years of being together. While he was a very perceptive man when it came to solving crimes and putting things together, he didn't have the same skill for guessing how I felt. He's known something was wrong before, but he'd just find ways to blame himself if I didn't tell him. "I'll have you another dress made, and those Barkers aren't your fault. Ms. Barker started it, and I ended it. There's always a little drama at these events." He twirled my hair around his finger. "I'm sorry I wasn't there to stop it entirely." "Don't go blaming yourself now." I scooted so close; I was almost in his lap. "Let's just focus on the music or the sky. I know you'll have to go back in soon, so let's just relax for a moment." "Hmm, I can hear it from here. It's nice." A soft number started to play, and people passing by the window cast shadows into the courtyard. He leaned his head against mine. Minutes passed by, and the song changed, both of us just settling our nerves. "So, I guess we won't have the last dance together this year." I hummed, the thought burning at the back of my mind. "I can't go back in there like this." I forced myself to laugh, trying to get it off my chest without sounding too sad. "We don't have to go back in. Elzer can handle the end of the night speech for me, like every year." Diluc stood, reaching his hand out to me. "Milady, may I have this dance?" "Diluc…of course, you may." I pushed my insecurities down and gripped his rough hand. Being wealthy, Diluc had been trained in many different types of formal ballroom dances. When he was in the zone, there was no one but Kaeya who could match his prowess and aura. But I wasn't blessed with the same background. I was just the daughter of the maid, and while my mother was paid well, there wasn't enough money to pay for a dance instructor. However, Diluc taught me everything he knew. We use to spend hours after his class, practicing and gliding around the living room. After some time, I even got to join the classes as Diluc and Kaeya's partner. Creepus convinced my mother it was just good practice for the boys, but looking back, he just wanted me to get that experience as well. "You okay?" Diluc gently gripped my waist as I spun back into his arms. "Yes, I was just thinking about when you taught me how to dance." I closed the gap between us and started moving with the song. Diluc took charge after a few more movements, and I gave up trying to lead. It was always a fun game for us to try to take charge, but I normally gave in fairly fast. Every now and then, he'd let me lead, but I often stepped on his toes when I did. The ground wasn't level as a dance floor, so it was easier to just follow Diluc. Since he took the first step, he was able to find the best footholds. When we did hit a small hump, we'd steady each other and share a small smile. It wasn't a seamless performance like when we were on solid ground, but it was fun. It also gave us a reason to cling tighter to each other. His broad chest was always so warm; there was nothing more pleasant than laying my head there and closing my eyes as we swayed under the moon. "That was always so much fun." Diluc spun me out, then back into his arms. "Father use to watch us practice, he never told me directly, but Elzer said it was one of his favorite memories." Diluc pressed his lips into a line, eyes turning back to the manor. "He always loved this event, but I can't help but hate it." "I'm not a fan of the crowds or the entitled guests. But I do enjoy dancing with you." I laid my head on his shoulder, bringing him back to the present. "It seems we only dance when this event rolls around. And I can't help but wish for more moments like this. So, while I understand your distaste, I do think Creepus had the right idea. This is a chance for all of us to come together do something we all loved…it just is hard to enjoy when other people are so entitled." "I feel the same way. Dancing with you, it's always my favorite part of the ball." We swayed back and forth in a tight embrace, the music fading out and our footwork growing sloppy. "There's been so much to do recently. I'm afraid I've neglected you." "Mother told me that as friends get older, drifting apart is normal… I'm just glad you're still here with me. No matter how short that time is." He hugged me tighter, inhaling a sharp breath. "Maybe friends do, but my feelings for you are much stronger than just friends." I gasped before I could stop myself. Crickets chirped in the distance, and the lighting bugs emerged just as the party started to close. This moment was very much real…but did he really just confess? "You want to be with me?" I slowly looked up, grabbing the sides of his suit. "As more than friends?" "I do." He pulled back a little, glancing at the ground. "How do you feel? Could you ever love me as more than a friend? I know it's selfish to ask that of you, given the dangers that follow my line of duty. But I can't deny myself any longer." "My heart is going to jump out of my chest, Luc." Grasping his hand, I pressed it to my wrist. He smiled, rubbing his thumb over my pulse. "I want to be yours, and you mine. To be honest, I've had feelings for you for a while now. I just thought you didn't return them." Heat climbed up my face, and I looked away to hide it. While his confession was so smooth, mine was energetic and messy. Why couldn't I keep it calm? "That settles it then." He stepped closer, our eyes locking and fingers lacing. "We'll be together from here on out." A warm breeze went by, picking up the bottom of my ruined skirt. "Next time there's a dance, you won't have to leave my side, nor I yours. There will be no flying wine glasses or uncouth guests. We can dance the night away without worry or interruption." "I don't know if a party could ever go that smoothly." I pushed his hair back and cupped his face. "Unless we barred over half the guest list." "If you don't think I'd do that, then you underestimate how far I'll go to make you happy." His checks tined red, barely illuminated by the moon. "Oh, I don't doubt you, Master Diluc. But I'm not hard to please, we could dance in the living room like we use to, and I'd be the happiest person alive." I tugged him closer, wrapping my arms around his hips, and swaying to an imaginary beat. "It's not often you add my title before my name." He hummed, letting me lead us to the song in my head. "Master Diluc, whatever do you mean?" I batted my eyelashes and snickered. "I didn't realize I added it. Maybe it's where I've spent most of the night talking about you, and not to you that I've forgotten how to be relaxed. There was many a guest who wanted to pry about your love life." "Well, you have a definitive answer now, Lady Amber." He kissed the top of my head, stopping for a moment. His body radiated a wave of heat, and he nodded to himself. "It's starting to get cold. We should head inside before you catch a cold. I'm sure everyone's left by now." "I don't want this moment to end." I clung to his shirt, the warmth he emitted making my eyelids grow heavy. Whenever he allowed me to use him as a personal heater, I took the chance. But this was the first time I didn't worry about it being the last. "We have many more moments like this ahead of us." He supported me as we walked towards the mansion, looping his arm around my waist. "Let's go clean up, and turn in for the night. Tomorrow we can have breakfast and go for a ride along the river. How does that sound?" "It sounds so nice." Once we were back in the house, Elzer met us in the doorway. "Where have you been, Master Diluc?" He rubbed the bridge of his nose and glanced at me. "And you, Ms. Amber, what were you thinking tossing your drink? You completely ruined the night. I could hardly contain the guests" Diluc wrapped his arm around my shoulder, and Elzer's tone sifted from miffed to muted. "Elzer, the issue was with the guests, not Amber." He steered me towards the stairs, nudging me along. "Go on to bed. I'll be up there in a moment. I have some business to finish up." Diluc walked towards his office, motioning for Elzer to follow him. Elzer shot me a perplexed look and tried to mouth out, 'be more careful' before hurrying after Diluc. I whisper back, "okay," before taking the stairs two at a time before stopping. I wasn't going to get in trouble, so I might as well show I'm not ashamed. "Goodnight Elzer," I called after the older man, with as "pleasant" of a tone as I could muster. Parties almost always stressed him more than Diluc, but since Elzer was an employee, he couldn't run and hide like Luc. Truth be known, if Diluc hadn't been there, I would have gotten a long lecture on the importance of keeping good relations with potential business partners. But that's only because Elzer couldn't let his frustrations out on anyone else. I was always there to listen and receive his distain when things went wrong. It wasn't my favorite pastime, but it did help him feel better. It was surprising he was so stressed, he actually chastised me in front of Diluc. It must have been a tough night even after I left. I usually was lectured in private, but he really was ready to let me have it. Once in the guest room, I disrobed. The heavy gown took several minutes to untie and loosen the laces, but once it was done, my lungs could fully expand. My ribs ached, so I rubbed circles on my sides till the initial throb dulled. The night had gone better than I ever planned, and now it was over. Yet, there was a worse throb in my chest than the pain of a corset. Diluc and I were finally together. We removed the ever-lingering question and just confessed. Why did it hurt inside? Was it that the party was hard on everyone else and I was so happy? Or was it something else? Tilling the blue pitcher on the nightstand, water rushed into the ornate basin below. Dipping a rag into the cool water, I began to wash the wine from my face. It had been such a stressful night. Perhaps the empty feeling inside was fear of the unknown. Or fear that Diluc would wake up and change his mind. That he'd send me away for good once he realized he could never be with someone of such low status. Someone who didn't couldn't even keep up public appearance at a ball. Maybe, it would just take me slipping up once when I was wearing a mask? Then he'd send me away from the manor. I finished cleaning up, then tossed the water out the window. Fixing the pitcher and basin back in place, I reached below the nightstand and pulled out my nightgown. Slipping on the flowy gown, I turned down my sheets and got comfortable. This guest room had been mine for as long as I could remember. While I still lived in the cottage by the river with my mother, I spent more nights at the mansion than at home. Diluc and I would rush through his paperwork every night, and I'd help get his gear ready to go protect Mondstat. I was his sidekick in many ways. Spending so much time there at night, it just made sense for me to sleep here too. We were a great team. Plus, the close proximity made things easier and less suspicious… But that wasn't the whole truth. It was more so that my mother had met someone new, and he had moved into our shared home. He was a nice man, a retired Knight of Favonius, but I just couldn't relax around him. He was stern about me not going out after dark, so staying over at the mansion became more and more frequent. Which was better for mom and Mr.Godfrey's partnership. But while I spent more nights away, mom started to believe there was something between Diluc and me, so she was happy to see me leave home. She was going to be overjoyed to hear the news that we confessed. Though, I'm sure she'll say kicking me out was the reason we finally admitted our feelings, which was not the whole truth. Still, I did miss my own bed sometimes. Pressing my back to the headboard, I curled my knees up and rested my head between them. Sucking in a deep breath, small tears slipped past again. There was too much happening. I couldn't think about one thing for too long. So much good just happened. Why? Why was I thinking about the bad? A familiar rasp at the door rang through the room. "Come in." Wiping my eyes, I sat up and pulled the covers up to my neck. "You're crying again." He walked into the candlelight. I could tell he had cleaned up before coming to see me. He was wearing one of his loose puffy shirts and some cotton pants; his hair had been smoothed and pulled into a low ponytail, water dripping from the ends. It didn't matter what he wore. He always looked unbelievably handsome. "Was it Elzer? He knows it's not your fault. He was just worried about our trade deal." "There's just so much to think about. I can't let myself be happy." I rubbed my eyes again. "What if you realize I'm not good enough for you? Or what if my mother's partner treats you poorly because you quit the Knights? Then that couple, what if they stop working with you and it hurts the business because of me? No one is ever going to see me as anything more than a gold digger." My brain let loose, new concerns and problems being added to my mix. "I'm so negative right now, and I know you probably just want to be happy that we feel the same way…but- I'm so sorry. "He pulled back the covers and crawled in with me. Wrapping me in his arms, the blanket went over our heads, and Diluc settled down. "There you go, having to comfort me like a child." I rested my hand on his shoulder. "You sure you could learn to love a mess like me?" "I already love you." He rubbed patterns on my back, pressing a kiss to the lump on my forehead. "You've been like this since we were children, plagued with worries beyond your control. I know that after you let it out, you always feel better. And that the minute you go silent, that's when I really need to do some digging." He paused drawing on my back and instead moved to play with my hair. "We'll figure it all out as we go, all the what's and if's. We'll take them one at a time, starting with the one I have control over." "Woah." He flipped me over, hovering inches from my face. He pinned me between his legs, the v neck of his shirt hanging open so I could see the red hairs on his chest. "You could be from the richest family in Mondstat or poorest, and I'd still want to be with you." He kissed me, pressing down just until our bodies touched. "I'd go as far as to say, if you were a member of the Fatui, I'd still be smitten. I would certainly find a way to break your ties with them, but I couldn't stop loving you. So, you are more than enough for me, and if anyone makes you feel differently, then I will handle it." "That's a bold statement coming from you." I ran my fingers through his ponytail as it hung over his shoulder. "I can't argue with that logic, but I promise I'm not a member of the Fatui." I wrapped my arms around his waist, encouraging him to squish me with his full weight. "I'm going to crush you." He fought against me, but I only nuzzled his neck, blowing raspberries. "Amber, hey." "I know. But I'd also like to point out how improper it is for you to be in my room at this hour. So, I'd like to be crushed as repayment… please." I let go of one side of his hip and wiped my eyes. "You are right. It is improper." He lowered himself a little more but didn't fully lay on me. "A true gentlemen would never stay this late with a proper young lady. However, there is something else I want that's a little scandalous." "What could that be?" I gasped, my lungs not fully expanding as his weight sunk down on my chest. He noticed as he sat up to his previous position. "A kiss?" He moved his elbow up and cupped my face. His eyes glimmered with the flame that was lighting up the room. His touch was gentle but so firm I couldn't imagine being in another person's embrace. At that moment, there were only two people in the world, and I was madly in love with one of them. "That sounds quite proper to me. You should always kiss your lover goodnight." I stuttered a little, unable to keep up the playful banter as I looked at his lips. The smile that spread on his face made the butterflies in my stomach flutter. Archons, I was smitten. His thumb brushed my lower lip before he brought his mouth down for a chaste kiss. Testing the waters, he hovered millimeters above me, and I stole his lips in a deeper kiss. Having a lack of experience in the field, I matched the pattern he set. Just like dancing, I tried to take the lead and failed miserably. So I did was I was best at, adding the fun flourishes. I curled my fingers into his hair and snaked my hand up his shirt and across his chest. He matched my movements, caressing my face and tilting my head up to deepen the kiss. Every star in the sky dulled in comparison to the explosion of light that spread over my body. He shifted back, catching his breath. he smoothed my hair and peppered, kissing around my face before setting back. "Thank you." He laced our fingers together, pulling my hand to his mouth and kissing my knuckles. "Will you stay tonight?" I took our intertwined hands and kissed his knuckles in return. "I don't want you to leave just yet." "As you wish." He got behind me, adjusting the covers we had tossed around earlier. "Now, let's get some sleep. We have a big day tomorrow." I laid my head on my pillow and scooted back until we were slotted against each other. His hand wrapped around my shoulders in a reassuring squeeze. "I love you." "I love you more." It took a while for all the blood pumping through my body to relax again, but once it did, I fell into a deep and peaceful sleep. Dreams of dancing through the clouds with Diluc filled my head, and I had the best rest of my entire life. Next to the man I dearly loved.

The End

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#diluc x traveler #diluc x reader #genshin imagines #genshin impact x you #diluc imagines #master diluc #diluc ragnivindr x reader #diluc ragnvindr #elzer #ambershaydeoffical #geinshin impact #fanfiction #insecure reader

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writing-gifts · 4 years ago

Text

datura (moth!bruno x butterfly!reader)

—–

A/N: I made more art! You might have already seen it though lol Anyways this chapter got longer than planned but I really wanted to Bruno and reader to do some things before Summer ended.

First Chapter || Previous Chapter || Next Chapter

Reader is gender neutral!

----

[Late Summer]

The crowds along with the heat had become more tolerable recently, which you were glad for. Now you were able to gather as you usually did, instead of going out to the forest clearing with Bruno every couple nights.

Part of you will miss it but you need to spend your energy on making up for lost time. It would get cooler from now on and slowly the flowers would start to die out.

You wonder how long your Daturas will last. The last time you flew by the area, the shrubs they grew on looked greater in size and there seemed to be a few more flowers so you could guess they would at least survive the beginning of Autumn.

“Do Daturas last through the fall?” you ask Bruno. It would be best to make sure.

“Yes, so no need to worry about not being able to get your nectar."

“Okay, that’s what I was hoping. Now I don't need to panic-gather."

You relax on the arm of your daybed. "Honestly, I should have asked earlier but guess it slipped my mind.”

“You know, it’s actually quieter in our usual Datura spot now.”

You sit up. “For real? We should go then.”

“Right now?”

“Why not? I need to catch up!”

Bruno raises a brow. “But you have more time.”

“Why do it later when you can do it now?”

“...I guess I can’t argue with that. And it wouldn't hurt to start saving up.”

With that, you’re off the daybed and heading to your bedroom to find your bags.

When you return you hold out a satchel for the moth to take. “You can borrow my canisters. I don't want you to go home empty handed.”

“Thanks. I'll make sure to get these back to you quickly.”

“It's cool. I have a bunch of extras. I don't even know how I let myself collect so many…”

You did know, but you didn't want to admit that every time you saw one that was a color you liked or had a nice design, you couldn't stop yourself from getting it.

“Okay, let's go!”

Tonight the moon was fully out in the clear sky so you decide to not bring your lantern along. As long as you stay near Bruno you should be okay.

The both of you walk through the path you’ve taken several times, however it is even more narrow than the last. You couldn’t even walk next to each other.

Having fewer flowers will be sad but at least the foliage will finally back down when it gets colder.

When you finally reach the end of the path, you're shocked by what you see. The Daturas have spread a lot since that last time you were here.

You and Bruno fly above the thick layer of dark leaves that had pretty much over taken the area. Before you could at least get to the grass if you wanted but now you can't even see the ground anymore.

"They grow so fast!"

"Be cautious, there could be creatures hiding in the leaves. It’s unlikely but we shouldn't get careless.”

Heeding his warning, you stick close to your friend while you both gather. It must have kept you focused on your task because you're done quicker than you expect. Bruno notices this too.

“Didn't do any of your taste testing?”

“Not being able to see through all the leaves is a little worrying I guess.”

You fiddle with your satchel strap. You would usually try to sit around after gathering but you were ready to go back home.

“Want to head back then?”

You nod and you both fly back down to the path.

“You know--isn't it weird that we could just get attacked at any time,” you ask Bruno as you walk behind him.

“Well that's just nature.” Bruno answers unbothered. “Are you scared?”

“No, it just sucks that one moment you could be standing around unsuspecting and then the next you're in another creature's mouth! You don't even get a chance to fight back." You grimace. "Nature’s kinda cruel….”

“It can be, but there are definitely good things about it too.”

“Of course there are, like the flowers. Everything else can leave though.”

“Even me?”

You deadpan at the back of his head. “You know what I mean Bruno. Just the dangerous things, I can trust you not to hurt me.”

“But even those things have a role to fulfill and keep everything in balance.”

“Ugh, stop being reasonable.”

Bruno smiles over his shoulder at you and you can’t help but feel he’s being cheeky with you.

“And sometimes the things you think are dangerous can also surprise you...”

“Huh?” You weren’t sure what he meant by that.

The moth doesn't respond immediately, and you see consideration flash on his face before he turns away.

“You remember the wasp I mentioned knowing?”

“Oh my g--” You stop yourself before you say anything rude. “...Yes.”

“Well, he's actually one of my closest friends.”

Your eyes widen and you can't stop yourself. “B-But, they eat us.”

“Well actually it's their young that does that, but this wasp lives on his own.”

It wasn't unheard of for colony type bugs to live on their own but It was somewhat rare so you’re still a little surprised.

“Oh...He’s the loner type?”

“I guess you could say that. So he doesn't have to do the ‘killing and delivering the body to the nest’ drill. I think that's actually the main reason why he left."

“I mean...I guess that's good? For us at least.”

“But you see what I mean?”

“Kinda, but I don't plan on trying to befriend any insect killers anytime soon.”

Bruno nods. “That’s fair. I know our relationship is strange.”

You try to gather your thoughts before speaking. The moth didn't seem upset but you wanted to make sure.

“I won't lie...I-It freaks me out a lot, but I do think it's kinda neat that you befriended someone that would be seen as an enemy. And as long as you're safe I can’t really complain.”

“I am. I’ve known Abbacchio for years now. He can be cold at times but underneath that he’s extremely loyal and has a good heart. And if you decide to get to know him you’ll see it too.”

So that’s his name…

You also wanted to introduce Bruno to your friend so you would feel rude if you immediately dismissed the idea, even if Abilene and Abbacchio weren’t exactly on the same level. And this wasp managed to gain Bruno’s trust and respect, so he had to be safe.

“You don't have to. I don’t want to make you uncomfortable.”

You start to fiddle with your bag strap again. This was definitely something you couldn’t agree to on the fly. “Maybe one day…? I’m not sure yet.”

“That’s completely fair,” Bruno replies, seemingly satisfied with that answer. “Just let me know if you ever want to.”

You weren’t sure if you would but you nod.

"Let's hurry, I'm getting thirsty."

----

While Summer was finally drawing to a close, Bruno finally managed to get you in the same area as a pond. He said it was one of the best times in the year to visit and when you arrive, you’re glad that he convinced you to come along.

The moonlight reflects off the pond and lights the area. You see various bugs hanging around, singing and dancing, and enjoying the last of the season. Some of them are even flying surprisingly close to the water.

However, the fireflies are tonight's stars as their warm glow turns heads and sparkles on the water’s surface.

It was lovely. Maybe even more so than the forest clearing.

While you stare, enthralled, you notice the bright red flowers growing out of the pond practically demanding for your attention.

“I see you’re eyeing the Red Flare Lilies,” Bruno says. “Still nervous about getting near the pond?”

”I am but I didn’t know there were such pretty flowers growing out of it...”

“Then we should get a closer look, yea?”

You want to but hesitate. The last time you got close to a pond you almost became a meal.

“What's wrong?”

“Nothing.” Your eyes might be playing tricks on you, but you’re sure you see the surface of the pond ripple near one of the flowers.

“Okay, I might be a little freaked out! What if there’s frogs?”

“It's not impossible, but if anything, you should be more worried about fish--”

You groan. “You should have just lied to me.” Any urge to go had been wiped away.

“Well it’s a pond so there’s no point pretending, but you didn’t let me finish. This pond mainly carries small fish and no one has ever reported encountering frogs here so it should be safe.”

Even with that explanation, you still aren't sure. That was something that could change at any time.

“If you don't want to, I can just go out for you?”

“B-But look at all the lily pads and frogs can move super quickly! I’m not going to send you out there for nectar I could get anywhere.”

No matter how tempting that flower looked it wasn't worth it. Being an insect meant constant danger but you took the necessary precautions to lessen that danger. But ponds--they were just too dangerous. It honestly baffled you seeing those bugs getting close to the surface willingly.

Bruno looks concerned, which makes you force yourself to relax your shoulders.

“Sorry--”

You're interrupted by some bugs in the distance yelling out Bruno’s name to greet him. A few of them actually come over to properly say hi, and you stand silently to the side as they surround him excitedly.

You aren't really surprised that he’s popular. He could be charming when he wants to be. It's a little awkward standing there though.

“Where have you been Bucciarati?” A fluffy moth asks.

Bruno opens his mouth to reply but a young cricket--you think--latching onto his arm speaks next. “I missed you! The other adults never want to play with me,” they pout.

A beetle speaks right after. “How’s Narancia been?”

You watch and listen while Bruno tries to handle the small group before looking back out to the pond, but before you can zone out, someone asks about you. And for some reason, Bruno introduces you.

You feel stiff with all these eyes on you suddenly. You were definitely not prepared and you’d get the moth later for this.

“I've never seen a nocturnal butterfly...” the child stares, looking confused.

“Oh no, I should actually be asleep right now--”

“I love your wings!” the fluffy moth compliments.

You smile slightly. “T-Thanks, um...”

The group was excitedly talking at you and it was hard to keep up. Fortunately you don’t have to say much more because Bruno shoos them away shortly after.

You release a breath. “Okay Mr. Popular, warn me next time...”

“Me popular? Hardly." He smiles slightly, looking apologetic. "And sorry, I didn't think anyone would actually come over. Let’s go sit down.”

He leads you to a quiet spot where the grass isn’t as wild and overgrown. And you both lounge on a rock to look out at the pond and insects.

“This place is beautiful.”

You lean back on your arms, no matter how hard you tried, your gaze would always drift back to the Lilies.

“Even the pond.”

“It is. Especially with all the fireflies.” The way Bruno sounded, it was different but you couldn't place your finger on why. You glance over and he looks a little sad? Wistful?

You feel as if you saw something personal.

“I know right! I’m kinda jealous.”

“Why?”

“Well other than it looking pretty, they can just light the way with their bodies. I kind of wish I could do that too. It would be pretty useful.”

“But your diurnal.”

You almost laugh at the moth’s response. “Maybe I should become nocturnal then. I'm already part way there."

All these nightly escapades with Bruno were starting to eat into your usual sleeping time causing your days to get shorter. You'd even find yourself waking up way past noon sometimes.

“Okay then I'll become diurnal in your place so I can collect from all the day flowers for you."

You purse your lips. “Hmm, I don’t think you'd be able to handle the switch. You’d probably fall asleep randomly even more than you already do.”

“In my defense, I have a little one constantly waking me up when I'm trying to catch up on my sleep.”

You giggle. That was a valid point.

"How much sleep do you even get?”

Some days you could see a hint of exhaustion on the poor moths face when he came to visit you.

“I wish I knew.”

That answer was definitely worrying. A sleepy bug is a vulnerable one.

“You’re not sleep deprived and just really good at hiding it, right?”

“Don't worry. The elders near me like to take Narancia off my hands when I get too tired or when I need to go somewhere. I honestly think they want to adopt him for themselves,” Bruno chuckles a bit.

"But you probably wait until it gets pretty bad don't you?”

"...What is considered pretty bad?"

The lack of a clear answer confirms your statement, but you’re not exactly sure what to do about it yet so you decide to let it go for now.

"Nevermind," you sigh and continue watching the bugs glide across the water.

“I really thought the flowers would have tempted you onto the pond,” Bruno brings up suddenly.

“D-Did you want me to go?”

“Not exactly. I was just hoping you would see there were good things about it.”

“I did say it's pretty but anything related to frogs is bad.” You say it without really thinking but when you see the slight look of disappointment you wish you could take it back.

“I’m sorry, I just--” You take a breath. You'll just be honest. “...I might have done something stupid when I was younger. Now I just stay very cautious around giant bodies of water. But don’t take that the wrong way, I’m still happy you brought me here!”

He nods, understanding.

“You come off as really carefree and careless a lot of the time, especially when I first met you. It kind of makes me worry."

You're unsure why he brings that up but it wasn’t too surprising. You wouldn’t say it outloud but you did still do some things that Abilene and Bruno would probably not approve of when you were alone. But it wasn’t anything too bad. Well not to you anyways.

“At least now I can take comfort knowing that you probably aren’t doing anything more dangerous than staying out late,” Bruno says.

“Most likely, so you don't need to worry about me--just think relaxing thoughts,” You bump your shoulder into Bruno and he gently bumps you back with his elbow.

“I don't think that's possible, especially with that answer.”

Bruno turns to you when he notices you're staring at him without saying anything. “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing, I just have a feeling you and Abby will get along well.”

----

You were pouring and mixing nonstop the last couple of the days. This was it--this was one of your last couple of chances to bake. Eventually the weather would drop too low in temperature and you wouldn't be able to do it again until next Summer or late Spring if you're lucky.

“Is this really necessary?”

You invited Bruno to help you, but he was mostly watching you go into a baking frenzy at this point.

“Is this necess--Yes!” You mix even harder, slightly frustrated. The batter wasn’t as thick as it should be and you weren’t sure why. You just hoped you didn’t completely ruin this batch of cookies.

“Was that supposed to be my voice--Nevermind,” Bruno sighs. “You're not even eating most of what you’re baking and I don't think I can eat anymore either.”

“Just take the rest with you and give it to Narancia.”

“That's still way too much. Aren't you tired? You should take a break.”

You finally put down the wooden spoon you were using to look at the moth.

“Maybe I went a little overboard, but I just want to try so many things and there's so little time.”

“A quick break won't hurt though.”

“Sure.” You reach for the handle of the spoon. “But let me just finish this--”

“That's what you said the last time.”

“....Okay, okay.” You place the spoon back down and head towards the dining table where Bruno’s sitting.

“But only for a moment.”

Even though you were being stubborn, you really were exhausted. You had lost count of how many things you baked all together but it must have been a lot since you had probably visited most of your neighbors at least twice. You hadn’t gotten the hang of treats low in sugar yet, but when you did Abilene would be on the list too.

Spreading your wings, you stretch your arms above then outward.

“You really do have lovely wings.”

You force your wings down. "...Where'd that come from?"

You were doing your best to not overthink but it was much harder said than done. The moth had to be messing with you bringing that up so suddenly.

“I think I always knew but it was pointed out recently.”

What does that even mean???

“Then--well you have nice wings too!” You want to shift the attention from yourself but it didn't mean you weren't being honest.

You move to get behind the stool Bruno’s sitting on for a better look at his wings and partially to avoid his piercing gaze, but he looks over his shoulder at you.

“I really like them--the shape, the pattern. They really suit you!"

You internally cringe from how that compliment came out, but there were times where you did want to touch them. Fortunately, you keep that part to yourself.

His wings slightly shift. “Thank you.”

There's slight frustration from how coolly he takes your compliments. One day you'll finally fluster him.

You sit down across from him and lay your head on the table. “It's kind of cool that wings come in so many different shapes and colors...I actually know someone who has these cool transparent wings. I thought she was a butterfly but turns out she's a moth."

“Are you talking about Mrs. Joestar?”

You slightly lift up your head to look at Bruno. “You know her?”

“I met her recently. She's very lively for her age."

“I know right! She keeps teasing me too,” you pout. “Her husband’s even worse!”

Bruno smiles, a playful glint in his eye. “Because you make it so easy.”

“…Don't turn against me, I’m begging you.”

“I'll think about it.”

“Urgh, whatever.” You rest your head back on the table. “Anyways, doesn't she really look like a butterfly?”

“Yes, if I hadn't seen others like her before I probably would have thought so too.”

“Hmm, butterflies and moths are pretty similar to be fair. We have to be descendants of the same things….”

Eventually, you find yourself shutting your eyes while you're prattling off to Bruno about viable ancestors. You tell yourself you'll just rest them but when you open them next you're in your bed under your covers and Bruno’s gone.

You sigh once you realize what happened. That moth got you.

You force yourself out of bed once you remember the cookie batter sitting out. It was too late to cook it now so you would just have to put it away for tomorrow.

When you walk into the kitchen, it's cleaner than when you left it and a box of baked cookies are sitting where the bowl once was.

You smile and grab one. They came out better than you hoped.

#as tempting as it would be this wont turn into a poly bru-abba story #do you guys prefer a more shy reader or a more forward one??#writing for a more forward one is fun ngl #bruno buccellati x reader #bruno bucciarati x reader #bruno x reader #reader insert

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radioactivepeasant · 4 years ago

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Fic Prompts: Folklore Friday

This is actually an unfinished short story that I wrote three years ago. So you may notice that it’s a little different from my current writing style in some ways. It’s been edited a wee bit before posting, mostly proofreading stuff, but this is an urban fantasy short I was working on years back about a young man who accidentally becomes king of the goblins. He really really does not want to be king of the goblins.

He never should have taken the detour that night: that was the source of all his troubles.

Work had been brutal, with a grand total of ten patients either screaming over the phone about the charge for their appointment, or trying to convince him that the doctor had approved a kind of medicine that he most certainly had not prescribed. Of course, since he was “just a receptionist”, they all assumed they could bully him into agreeing with whatever they wanted. Admittedly, by the time he had clocked out for the day, Seth Jefferson Jr. had had just about all the frustration he could take.

All he really wanted to do was go home, sit on the couch, and not talk to anyone for the next three hours. So when he spotted five or six scowling young men congregating around the only streetlight on his normal route home, he decided to take the path of least resistance. Seth had never cut through the ratty, overgrown park before, but it would only add a few minutes to his commute. It seemed like a better idea than trying to navigate around the men up ahead, at least. He hopped the fence and continued on his way, hands in his pockets.

Seth kicked through a pile of leaves and discarded beer cans, wrinkling his nose. Midsummer Park had been a very nice place once, when he was young. It hadn’t been the most popular destination, but there had been a certain charm to the way the flowers had been planted in spirals around the tree trunks. The flowers were gone, now. Nobody had bothered to do any landscaping there for years, and the plants grew as they pleased now.

Seth pulled his coat a little closer to his neck, shivering. The park was quiet, save for the soft chirps of crickets and the occasional frog. His own footsteps sounded unbearably loud as he walked, as if he was trespassing. He could not shake the feeling that someone or something was watching him. He hoped it wasn’t the men from the sidewalk.

The toe of his sneaker met the thin stalk of a Clitocybe nuba with a barely audible plop. Seth glanced down at the mushroom, then caught sight of a large, ugly toad watching him from the shelter of another mushroom a few inches away. Gross.

There was a whole ring of the fungus, extending perhaps ten feet in diameter. Some might have thought of old legends and superstitions and walked around it, but Seth had no time for fairytales. Cold and annoyed at having to go out of his way, he stepped over the mushroom he’d kicked and moved on through the center of the circle. That was a mistake.

Instantly, Seth knew that something was terribly wrong. His feet were frozen to the dying grass as though they’d grown roots. His arms hung heavy at his sides, coated in an icy numbness from his shoulders to his fingertips. Panic gripped his lungs, and he strained to breathe. His eyes could still move, and he cast them about wildly, looking for the source of his paralysis.

The toad who had been sitting at the edge of the mushroom ring hopped forward with slow, squelching motions before coming to rest at Seth’s feet. Its eyes shone an uncanny gold, and then before Seth’s eyes, it began to change.

The toad grew in size until it was near the height of a large dog, then it straightened to stand on its back legs. The toadskin fell away like a discarded poncho, and left the most preposterous figure Seth had ever seen.

It was covered from its head to its cloven hooves in short, coarse hair or fur, most of which was covered by a very ugly embroidered tunic and breeches. Long, tangled hair hung down around the person’s shoulders, sprouting from a skull that sported horns. Horns of all things! Seth registered all this in silence, mostly owing to the fact that he was not able to open his mouth.

“Well well!” the strange figure said, and Seth’s heart skipped a beat at the eerie whispery sound. “Not many humans get stuck in these anymore! I wonder who we’ve got to thank for that? Your internet? Probably your internet.”

They leaned down to peer into Seth’s eyes. “How old are you? Twenty-two? Twenty-four? Old enough to know better. Didn’t anyone ever tell you it’s not nice to walk through a fairy ring?”

You’re kidding me. Seth thought. Fairies? As in pixies and flowers and little glittery wings on kids’ dolls? Yeah right. This guy looks more like a demon.

As if they’d read the human’s thoughts, the satyr-like figure snorted, twitching their pointed ears.

“Now don’t tell me you thought all fairies were dainty little girls wearing flower petals? Human exaggeration: utterly ridiculous.”

Seth decided that he had to be hallucinating this. He’d probably slipped on one of those empty beer cans and struck his head on a rock or something. Now he was dreaming up some pseudo-mythological weirdness. Might as well play along until he woke up, right?

Seth’s more logical side pointed out that there was no evidence that he’d taken a fall of any kind, but Seth was not prepared to acknowledge that the satyr existed. Neither was he prepared to follow the line of reasoning that said the satyr might be a figment of his imagination, and that he might be standing in a field staring at nothing.

“Fairies, huh?” he croaked. He was a little surprised that his mouth was able to move at all, as it had been stuck shut only moments before. He coughed, and swallowed a few times in an attempt to strengthen his voice.

“I’m guessing that saying I don’t believe in fairies isn’t going to make you fall down dead.” he said dryly.

The satyr performed an odd little caper and cackled.

“No indeed! I don’t know why that idea caught on, but it’s not true.” They paused, and glanced slyly at Seth out of the corner of their eye. “In fact, saying I don’t believe in fairies usually results in a goblin being born.”

Abruptly the look of amusement dulled into something closer to flat annoyance. “There’s been quite a population boom in the Umbralands recently, as a matter of fact. You humans should stop telling your young that we aren’t real.”

This struck Seth as slightly amusing, but he said nothing. Whether he was dreaming, hallucinating, or actually experiencing this -- which had to be impossible. Fairies and Goblins had no place in modern, rational society! -- he’d been standing in the mushroom circle far too long. Seth needed to get home!

“I was never the fairytale type,” he said shortly, “Exactly what happens now?”

He hoped his tone conveyed what his frozen body language could not: that he was tired, hungry, and not in the mood to put up with any magical monkeyshines from this decidedly odd figure who had so rudely interrupted his Friday evening.

The satyr studied him a moment, as if they were trying to measure the man’s personality with their eyes alone. They paced with an odd, rollicking gait, whistling merrily through Their teeth.

They looked jolly enough, but there was something about them that made Seth’s chest tighten with a kind of fearful caution. Apparently, his body knew something he didn’t, and was classifying the satyr as a threat.

Perhaps it was the knowledge that things like satyrs just weren’t supposed to exist. There was a certain level of aporia spreading through his mind, suppressing his thoughts and reactions until there was nothing left but an unending hum and an anxious awareness of what was happening around him.

“What should we do with you?” the satyr mused, beginning to pace a loping circle around Seth.

“In the past, we used to set impossible tasks for interlopers. Or, I could keep you here, dancing uncontrollably for a year and a day or until someone figured out you were missing and called your true name. But that’s all pretty standard fare.”

They came to a stop just behind Seth’s left shoulder, and the hair on the back of his neck stood up. Seth wished he could move, even just his arms so that he could protect the vulnerable stalk of veins and vertebrae.

Come on, Seth, he tried to reason with himself, It’s a goat-person. Not a vampire. It probably won’t drink your blood. But then again, Seth didn’t know anything about goat-people. Who was to say it wouldn’t try to eat him? It -- he? they? -- had been pretty menacing thus far.

He heard the satyr take a deep breath, then out of the corner of his eye he saw them walk around to stand in front of him again. They were smiling, and right away Seth decided he didn’t much like the look of that smile.

“I’ll tell you what, human. Since it’s late, and you’re probably tired, let’s do this: if you guess my name, I’ll sweep this under the rug and we can both pretend it never happened.”

Oh that just screamed “suspicious”. Even if he wasn’t familiar with a lot of folktales, Seth knew Rumplestiltskin, and he had a bad feeling about this seemingly-innocuous guessing game. Despite his better judgment, however, it seemed like this might be the only way out of this stupid mushroom ring.

“What’s the catch?” he rasped.

The satyr blinked slowly, then shrugged. “I suppose if you fail, I’ll get to set an impossible task for you after all,” they said innocently.

Seth muttered some choice words under his breath and stared very hard at the goat-person. “How many guesses do I get?” he asked shrewdly.

“I’m feeling generous. I’ll say five.”

Noticing Seth’s disgusted expression, the creature bared surprisingly sharp teeth in a slightly aggressive smile and leaned close.

“Just be glad I picked guess my name and not a game of riddles. You don’t look like you’d be very good at those.”

Well, that much was true, but Seth wasn’t going to give them the satisfaction of hearing it confirmed. He racked his brain for bizarre and fantastical names. Rumplestiltskin could be dismissed out of hand, at least, as could most of the Tolkien-esque names that presented themselves to him after a few moments.

“Is it Mephistopheles?” he asked first.

“No. It’s a good name though, I’ll keep it in mind if I ever change mine.”

“Fine.” Seth squinted and looked for another. “Pan?”

The satyr narrowed their eyes. “It’s because of the hooves, right? That’s profiling and I resent it.”

Well, safe to say “Pan” was not their name. Seth tried hard to think and guessed again.

“Wormwood?”

“Okay,” the other answered with gritted teeth, “Now you’re trying to insult me.”

“Hey, I’m working with what I have, here!” Seth protested. “What about, er, Fauna?”

The satyr didn’t look at all impressed. “Well that’s not very creative, is it? A bit more feminine than I prefer, too. Try again.”

Seth’s remaining guess met with similar results. Frustration bubbled up inside him. It had been rigged from the start. He’d known that, of course, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t still get angry about it. Seth was at least glad that his face was still mobile. He twisted his lips into a vicious scowl, which he directed at the smug satyr.

“Well that’s my five guesses, used up. You might as well tell me what it was,” he growled.

“Of course, where are my manners?” said the satyr sarcastically. They swept into a low bow with a flourish of their hand. “They call me Chicanery. Lord Chicanery Black, if you require a title and surname.”

Seth was furious. “And how would I have been able to guess something like that?” he demanded.

“You wouldn’t,” Chicanery answered carelessly, “That’s the whole point. But while we’re doing introductions, what’s your name, human?”

Seth nearly said his name, but at the last second changed his mind. He had no idea why, but it seemed like a bad idea to just casually give the creature his full name. Was it something he’d read once?

“Jefferson.” he answered. Chicanery nodded.

He cracked his bulging knuckles and leaned on Seth’s shoulder in a very irritating fashion.

“Well, Jeff, you failed the test. So now I get to set a task for you.”

“No.”

Chicanery looked astonished, as though it had never actually occurred to him that someone would refuse to play along. For just a moment, a flash of anger crackled -- quite literally crackled as if it were a spark of electricity -- in his eyes, and a chill ran up Seth’s spine. Perhaps it wasn’t such a good idea to antagonize the creature.

“Impossible task, or stay here in the ring until you die of either starvation or old age. Your choice.” he said coldly.

“That isn’t fair.”

He knew it was childish, but Seth couldn’t help pointing it out. He had a job, a life, and none of this made any sense at all.

“If life was fair, I wouldn’t be stuck here guarding an abandoned dance ring,” Chicanery answered dryly. “Look, if it makes you feel any better, you’ll be rewarded if you actually pull it off. You need a car? Or a better job?” he stared pointedly at Seth’s scrubs.

Seth squinted at Chicanery, trying to gauge just how much of the odd being’s words were truth. It wasn’t as if he had a precedent for this to measure it against. The promise of a car was tempting, though he didn’t know how he’d afford the gas. No, best not to get ahead of himself. He didn’t know what Chicanery wanted him to do yet. Still, he was more than ready to get out of this fairy ring.

“What exactly did you have in mind?” he asked warily.

Looking immensely pleased with himself, Chicanery hopped back a pace and spread his arms wide.

“See? Was that so hard?” he asked. Then he leaned in again. “You’re going to help me run a little errand. It’s just some housekeeping. And by “housekeeping”, I mean you’re going to help me usurp the throne of Unter Kobold, king of the Umbralands. I assume you have a gun, or can get one?”

“What.”

“Don’t worry about it.” Chicanery held out one of his calloused, hairy hands and Seth found that he could move again. “Do we have a deal, or am I leaving you here?”

Well, when you put it that way, Seth thought bitterly, and he gingerly shook the satyr’s hand.

It felt like being grabbed by a pinecone. Something stung his skin and the human pulled his hand away with a hiss of pain. A shimmering mark in the shape of a leaf curled outward across his palm with the same faint crackle he’d heard before.

“You’re free to go now, Jefferson,” Chicanery said with a dismissive wave of his hand. “We start planning tomorrow.”

The moment Seth stepped out of the mushroom ring, the satyr was gone. In his place, the ugly toad from before sat, watching him. Seth shuddered and hurried home as quickly as he could. As much as he desperately wanted to convince himself that none of that had been real, he could not deny that he’d only lost five minutes by the time he got home, and the leaf-mark on his palm did not wash away.

Seth kicked off his shoes and did not bother to change into pajamas as he fell into bed. He could only hope that the satyr would forget about him after a few days.

He awoke the next morning to the sound of someone moving around in his kitchen. Seth felt around for the baseball bat he kept next to his bed, then eased his bedroom door open. Now he could hear voices.

“-well we can’t do that. No no, that’s much too much pepper. See? It looks weird now.”

Something gurgled and croaked, but Seth couldn’t make out whether or not it was words. He was more concerned with the fact that the first voice had belonged to Chicanery Black.

Seth marched into the kitchen, bat upraised, to find the satyr and a grotesque little creature that appeared to be a cross between a crocodile and a sugar glider sitting on his shoulder. They were bent over the stove, observing eggs frying in a pan. Chicanery turned with a grin.

“Ah! Morning, partner. Collywobble and I were just debating on how much pepper humans usually put in their eggs. How much do you put in?”

Flabbergasted, Seth’s mouth worked soundlessly for a few minutes before he gasped, “None! And how did you even get in here? Don’t you guys have to be, like, invited or something?”

“That’s vampires,” Chicanery shoved a forkful of boiling hot egg into his mouth and spoke around it. “Which don’t exist, by the way.”

“Of course,” Seth muttered sarcastically. “Because that’s much weirder than a satyr frying eggs in my kitchen.”

Chicanery did not grace this with an answer. He shoveled the other egg out onto a plate in an ugly lump, and handed a fork to Seth.

“Today,” he said, “You’re going to go to your public library and look up everything humans ever wrote about goblins and gargoyles and how to kill them.”

Seth seriously considered making a snide remark about homework, but decided not to push his luck. If the satyr had no trouble getting into his house, there was no telling what else he could do. He groaned and set his baseball bat down so he could eat.

“You weren’t going to stay here, were you?” he asked, gagging on the amount of pepper in the rapidly cooling egg. “I mean, is this going to be a regular thing?”

Chicanery glanced at the diminutive creature on his shoulder and back at Seth.

“I’ll stay until the task is completed.” he answered, confirming Seth’s worst fears. He leaned casually against the counter and raised a hand to scratch Collywobble behind the ears. “You know, you’re taking all this remarkably well. The last human I tried to recruit went stark raving mad, you know. They had to cart him away after he went goblin hunting in a supermarket. After an experience like that, it’s nice to find a human with a good, stretchy mind.”

Collywobble made a wet, barking sound in what was presumably agreement. Seth made a face and gestured to it.

“Okay, what is that?” he sighed.

“She,” Chicanery corrected, “Is Collywobble. She’s a goblin, and you’d better get used to her because you’ll be seeing a lot more of them.”

“Why?” Seth asked, already certain he would not like the answer.

Chicanery looked at him as if he’d lost his senses.

“One does not simply overthrow a goblin king without minions!”

Collywobble snuffled agreeably at this, then hopped down to the table. Seth decided that this was altogether too much weirdness for one morning, and that he’d be better off at the library. He stood and opened the refrigerator, looking for a stiff drink to chase away the taste of burnt and over-peppered egg.

Something like a winged porcupine held up a three-toed paw in greeting and he slammed the door.

“Why.” was all he managed to say.

Chicanery opened the refrigerator again and brightened.

“Oh! Widdershins!” he said, “So you found the place after all. What do our friends at the armory say?”

“I’m done.” Seth threw his hands into the air and left the kitchen. This was ignored by Chicanery, Collywobble, and Widdershins.

After discovering one more goblin in his clothes hamper and one in the closet, Seth threw on his shoes and stormed out of the house, locking it behind him. It likely wouldn’t do any good at all, seeing as Chicanery and his minions had just sort of materialized to begin with, but it gave him a slight sense of satisfaction.

#folklore friday #original fiction #original characters #original story #urban fantasy #fairytales #fairy rings #short story #long post #Chicanery Black. He's a brat.#Seth has so many annoyances ahead of him #fic prompts #writing prompts #someday i might finish this but i have no idea what was supposed to come next

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blueiscoool · 4 years ago

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Casu marzu: The world's 'most dangerous' cheese

The Italian island of Sardinia sits in the middle of the Tyrrhenian Sea, gazing at Italy from a distance. Surrounded by a 1,849-kilometer coastline of white sandy beaches and emerald waters, the island's inland landscape rapidly rises to form hills and impervious mountains.

And it is within these edgy curves that shepherds produce casu marzu, a maggot-infested cheese that, in 2009, the Guinness World Record proclaimed the world's most dangerous cheese.

Cheese skipper flies, Piophila casei, lay their eggs in cracks that form in cheese, usually fiore sardo, the island's salty pecorino.

Maggots hatch, making their way through the paste, digesting proteins in the process, and transforming the product into a soft creamy cheese.

Then the cheesemonger cracks open the top -- which is almost untouched by maggots -- to scoop out a spoonful of the creamy delicacy.

It's not a moment for the faint-hearted. At this point, the grubs inside begin to writhe frantically.

Some locals spin the cheese through a centrifuge to merge the maggots with the cheese. Others like it au naturel. They open their mouths and eat everything.

If you are able to overcome the understandable disgust, marzu has a flavor that is intense with reminders of the Mediterranean pastures and spicy with an aftertaste that stays for hours.

Some say it's an aphrodisiac. Others say that it could be dangerous for human health as maggots could survive the bite and and create myiasis, micro-perforations in the intestine, but so far, no such case has been linked to casu marzu.

The cheese is banned from commercial sale, but Sardinians have been eating it, jumping grubs included, for centuries.

"The maggot infestation is the spell and delight of this cheese," says Paolo Solinas, a 29-year-old Sardinian gastronome.

He says some Sardinians cringe at the thought of casu marzu, but others raised on a lifetime of salty pecorino unabashedly love its strong flavors.

"Some shepherds see the cheese as a unique personal pleasure, something that just a few elects can try," Solinas adds.

When tourists visit Sardinia, they usually wind up in a restaurant that serves porceddu sardo, a slowly roasted suckling piglet, visit bakers who sell pane carasau, a traditional paper-thin flatbread, and meet shepherds who produce fiore sardo, the island pecorino cheese.

Yet, if you are adventurous enough, it's possible to find the casu marzu. It shouldn't be seen as a weird attraction, but a product that keeps alive an ancient tradition and hints at what the future of food might look like.

Giovanni Fancello, a 77-year-old Sardinian journalist and gastronome, spent his life researching local food history. He's traced it back to a time when Sardinia was a province of the Roman empire.

"Latin was our language, and it's in our dialect that we find traces of our archaic cuisine," Fancello says.

There is no written record of Sardinian recipes until 1909, according to Fancello. That's when Vittorio Agnetti, a doctor from mainland Modena, traveled to Sardinia and compiled six recipes in a book called "La nuova cucina delle specialità regionali."

"But we have always eaten worms," says Fancello. "Pliny the Elder and Aristotle talked about it."

Ten other Italian regions have their variant of maggot-infested cheese, but while the products elsewhere are regarded as one-offs, casu marzu is intrinsically part of Sardinian food culture.

The cheese has several different names, such as casu becciu, casu fattittu, hasu muhidu, formaggio marcio. Each sub-region of the island has its own way of producing it using different kinds of milk.

Foodies inspired by the exploits of chefs such as Gordon Ramsay often come in search of the cheese, says Fancello. "They ask us: 'How do you make casu marzu?' It's part of our history. We are the sons of this food. It's the result of chance, of magic and supernatural events."

Fancello grew up in the town of Thiesi with his father Sebastiano, who was a shepherd who made casu marzu. Facello shepherded his family's sheep to grazing grounds around rural Monte Ruju, lost in the clouds, where magic was believed to happen.

He recalls that, for his father, casu marzu was a divine gift. If his cheeses didn't become infested with maggots, he would be desperate. Some of the cheese he produced stayed for the family, others went to friends or people who asked for it.

Casu Marzu is typically produced at the end of June when local sheep milk begins to change as the animals enter their reproductive time and the grass dries from the summer heat.

If a warm sirocco wind blows on the cheesemaking day, the cheese-transforming magic works even harder. Fancello says it's because the cheese has a weaker structure, making the fly's job easier.

After three months, the delicacy is ready.

Mario Murrocu, 66, keeps casu marzu traditions alive at his farm, Agriturismo Sa Mandra, near Alghero in the north of Sardinia. He also keeps 300 sheep and hosts guests in his trattoria, and keeps casu marzu traditions alive.

"You know when a form will become casu marzu," he says. "You see it from the unusual spongy texture of the paste," Murrocu says.

Nowadays, this isn't so much down to luck as the ideal conditions that cheesemongers now use to ensure as many casu marzu as possible. They've also figured out a way to use glass jars to conserve the cheese, which traditionally never lasted beyond September, for years.

Though revered, the cheese's legal status is a gray area.

Casu marzu is registered as a traditional product of Sardinia and therefore is locally protected. Still, it has been deemed illegal by the Italian government since 1962 due to laws that prohibit the consumption of food infected by parasites.

Those who sell the cheese can face high fines up to €50,000 (about $60,000) but Sardinians laugh when asked about the prohibition of their beloved cheese.

In the past few years, the European Union has begun to study and revive the notion of eating grubs thanks to the concept of novel food, where insects are raised to be consumed.

Research shows that their consumption could help reduce carbon dioxide emissions associated with animal farming and help alleviate the climate crisis.

Roberto Flore, the Sardinian head of Skylab FoodLab, the food system change laboratory of the Technical University of Denmark's innovation hub, has long studied the concept of insect consumption.

For a few years, he led the Nordic Food Lab research and development team -- part of the three-Michelin-starred NOMA restaurant -- trying to figure out ways to insert insects into our diet.

"Lots of cultures associate the insect with an ingredient," Flore says. That said, Sardinians prefer the cheese to the maggot and are often horrified by the idea that people eat scorpions or crickets in Thailand.

Flore says he's traveled around the world to study how different cultures approach insects as food and believes that while psychological barriers make it difficult to radically alter eating habits, such consumption is widespread.

"How do you define edible food?" he says ."Every region of the world has a different way to eat insects."

He's convinced that Sardinia's delicacy is safe to eat.

"I believe that nobody has ever died eating casu marzu. If they did, maybe they were drunk. You know, when you eat it, you also drink lots of wine."

Flore hopes casu marzu will soon shed its clandestine status and become a symbol of Sardinia -- not because of its unusual production, but because it's emblematic of other foods now vanishing because they don't fit in with modern mainstream tastes.

In 2005, researchers from Sardinia's Sassari University made the first step in this direction: they raised flies in the lab and made them infect pecorino cheese to show that the process can happen in a controlled way.

Islanders and researchers hope that the European Union will soon rule in their favor. Until then, anyone who wants to sample it will need to ask around when they get to Sardinia.

For those willing to suspend concerns about what they're eating, it offers an authentic experience recalling a time when nothing was thrown away and when boundaries of what was edible or not were less well defined.

Cheesemonger Murrocu says that, fittingly, locals keep an open mind about the best way to eat casu marzu, but a few other regional treats have been known to help it slip down easier.

"We spread the cheese on wet pane carasau, and we eat it," he says. "But you can eat it as you want, as long as there is some formaggio marcio and a good cannonau wine."

By Agostino Petroni.

#Casu marzu: The world's 'most dangerous' cheese #food #food porn #strange foods #maggot cheese #sardinia

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gutsymmetry · 4 years ago

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this is my incredibly loose timeline of regina’s fairy tale history, because this show is so fucking confusing. it’s not so much a “timeline” as like, this is the order i think events happened in, and i don’t know how much time elapsed between them. i’m going to post some meta and like, explanations on parts of this in a bit, to keep this post from being astronomically long.

regina is born in the kingdom of her grandfather, king xavier, to cora and prince enrique (henry sr.)

cora tries to kill a few of enrique’s older brothers to move him up in line for the throne. she’s not successful and the entire conspiracy is hushed up and they’re shuttled out of the kingdom, child regina in tow, into a quiet exile in leopold’s kingdom

regina grows up in leopold’s kingdom. cora frequently uses magic to punish and abuse her daughter.

the flashback events of “stable boy,” 1x18, take place. regina, age 18, rescues snow white from a runaway horse. when snow’s father, king leopold, proposes, she attempts to run away with her secret boyfriend, daniel. cora murders daniel and forces regina to marry the king.

the flashback events of “we are both,” 2x02, take place. on the day of her wedding, regina banishes cora through the looking glass, using magic for the first time. she believes cora is trapped permanently on the other side, in wonderland, although this is not true.

she makes use of magic for a second time by restoring and preserving daniel’s dead body as a private monument to his memory.

she begins formal magic lessons with rumpelstiltskin.

the flashback events of “the doctor,” 2x05, take place. jefferson, dr. frankenstein, and rumpelstiltskin conspire to deceive regina, convincing her there is no way to bring daniel back from the dead and breaking her heart a final time. after this, she kills a person for the first time to impress rumpelstiltskin with her dedication to magic and vengeance. (she and jefferson also kindle kind of a Thing™ and at some point they do sleep together, though it’s primarily a form of experimentation on regina’s part.)

the flashback events of “enter the dragon,” 4x14, take place. regina travels to maleficent’s castle and befriends her, bucking her up and urging her to return to magic and vengeance, with the result that the burnt-out maleficent regains her strength and vitality and resumes her quest for revenge. (they have a bit of a low-key affair also, off and on throughout the years, but think of each other as friends versus any kind of romantic partner.)

i transpose a version of the flashback events of “mother,” 4x21, to here, sometime during regina’s marriage to leopold. cora travels back from wonderland and attempts to coax regina into having a child, perhaps under the guise of helping her secure access to the throne when leopold and snow are out of the way. in retaliation and out of genuine fear that leopold might make her pregnant, regina takes a potion that makes it impossible for her to bear children.

at some point, perhaps after the death of his wife, jefferson confesses about his conspiracy with rumpelstiltskin to regina, permanently poisoning their relationship and turning her against her mentor.

the flashback events of “fruit of the poisonous tree,” 1x11, take place. it has been roughly 10 years since regina’s marriage to leopold when the genie washes up on their shore and, through a series of manipulations, is led to believe that regina is in love with him. thinking that the alternative is her suicide, he murders king leopold on her behalf, and then, when he discovers the subterfuge, uses his final wish to wish to always be near her and look upon her face--trapping himself inside her vanity and becoming her magic mirror.

at some point, enrique is kidnapped by cora and trapped in wonderland with her. i don’t like the show’s version of events, in which regina is the one who magically traps him and cora just kind of swipes him on her way back to wonderland; i think regina wouldn’t want to use magic directly on her father because it would be too immediately and viscerally like her mother. maybe it happens shortly after leopold’s death in retaliation for regina once again refusing to ally with her mother.

the flashback events of “the heart is a lonely hunter,” 1x07, take place. regina enlists the huntsman to help her murder snow white, and when he fails, she takes and enchants his heart in order to make him her puppet.

the flashback events of “skin deep,” 1x12, take place. regina meets belle on the road and manipulates her into attempting to break the curse of the dark one. rumpelstiltskin throws her out, and regina pursues her at length until she’s able to capture and imprison her (touched on in “the outsider,” 2x11). afterward, she returns to rumpelstiltskin’s manse to taunt him about belle being dead, which is a crock of shit.

the flashback events of “true north,” 1x09, take place, allowing regina to regain possession of the poisoned apple. don’t ask me why the apple ended up poisoned or how she lost it to the blind witch in the first place, okay.

the flashback events of “an apple as red as blood,” 01x21, take place. regina takes custody of the imprisoned prince charming from king george, using him to entrap snow white and force her to eat the poisoned apple.

the flashback events of “hat trick,” 1x17, take place. regina has her revenge on jefferson, separating him from his child by trapping him in wonderland and using the occasion to rescue her father from cora, as well as get her hands on jefferson’s portal-jumping hat.

a version of the flashback events of “lost girl,” 3x02, take place. snow is awoken from the sleeping curse and she and regina confront each other; she challenges regina for rulership of what was formerly leopold’s kingdom.

a version of the flashback events of “the cricket game,” 2x10, take place. regina is successfully captured by snow and charming after their defeat of king george and accession to his throne. they are prepared to execute her, but snow spares her life at the last moment, ensuring hers and charming’s safety from regina via a deal with rumpelstiltskin... but his protection can only hold in a land with magic. regina decides she will cast the dark curse.

regina crashes snow and charming’s wedding and threatens them with the dark curse, as in the flashback events of “pilot” 1x01. she goes to maleficent and threatens her in order to acquire the text of the dark curse, as in the flashback events of “the thing you love most,” 1x02.

the flashback events of “queen of hearts,” 2x09, take place. as part of her preparations for casting the dark curse, regina sends hook to wonderland to assassinate her mother. unbeknownst to her, cora overpowers him and enlists him as an ally.

regina casts the dark curse, as in “the thing you love most,” 1x02, destroying the enchanted forest and sending its inhabitants to storybrooke, maine.

#✦ villains don't get happy endings ( regina headcanon tag. )

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minsugapie · 5 years ago

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The Eve: part 5 (1713 words) - when pigs fly

• • • • • •

Lumi is down on her luck. After graduating university with a business degree, she has yet to secure a career in that path, reluctantly working and living at an old motel instead.

Kim Jongin is on the run. He’s been framed for embezzlement, and someone faked his death while he was out of town. With only a handful of bills and a false identity, he had been only able to survive for so long until breaking down in front of an old motel, hoping that whoever found him wouldn’t report him to the authorities.

• • • • • •

prev // current // next

masterlist

• • • • • •

i’m🤭excited🤭for🤭part🤭6

• • • • • •

It had been a long, long day inside the lobby of the motel. There were now three people (excluding Lumi) occupying the 12 rooms…but that still made it slow. She got a call from the owner of the motel that she’d be coming in today for a surprise visit, so Lumi had to make sure that everything was in its place. Granted, she never let things get out of hand either way.

The handsome man that had come yesterday called Sehun had said good morning to her when he exited her room. He had been sitting at the table outside his room with a big winter jacket and a coffee. She had no idea who would want to have their morning coffee like that in the cold, but she wasn’t going to judge him.

That night, after the long few hours with the owner and having to stay in the lobby in case any of the guests needed something, Lumi fell asleep. It wasn’t the first time she’s let her head rest on the desk, and she doubted it would be the last time. The only sound that could be heard was from the crickets outside, which were surprisingly still alive in this transitioning weather.

She was only asleep for about half an hour when she shifted and almost fell off the chair, waking herself up. Looking around and deciding that there was nothing that she missed, she headed to bed. She locked the lobby and sneakily made her way back into the room, where she found Jongin sleeping. Actually, she wasn’t sure, but she guessed from his deep breaths.

She kept her pyjamas in the bathroom now that Jongin lived with her so she tiptoed there. A warm shower felt nice against her muscles as she stood under the pouring water for longer than necessary. Lumi thought about how she was starting to suffocate. And by that, she knew that she needed to stop thinking about Jongin the way that she was. Now that he was looking more healthy, eating, and actually smiling, she knew that she was royally fucked. Unfortunately, the deep thinking mixed with the hot water made her almost fallen asleep in the shower. She even still felt groggy as she walked out of the bathroom.

Lumi stumbled towards the bed, completely forgetting the fact that Jongin was even in it. In fact, she didn’t remember until she lifted the comforter and plopped herself right onto his chest. He grunted, clearly, as her weight knocked some air out of him. She was there for a full second before realizing and scrambled to try to get off of him.

Jongin’s arms slid around her waist before she could, however, and he whispered, “you shouldn’t be sleeping on the chair, Lumi. The bed is big enough for the both of us.”

She didn’t know if it was because of her fatigue or because of being this close to him, but she let herself relax in his arms. It was as awkward as it sounded because a moment after she calmed, he twisted, pulling her body to the side on the bed.

“I can’t sleep with you Jongin,” she argued, yet still didn’t move. She couldn’t see any bit of him, but his arms were still around her waist. When she finally made a move to lay on her back, he must have been convinced that she wasn’t going to sleep on the chair once again because he took his hands back to himself.

“It’s been three days and you still wanted to sleep on the chair? That can’t have been a very good sleep at all,” he commented, taking a deep breath. Lumi felt him turn over to turn on the lamp. She was met with a muscular back, perfect in its entirety. When he turned back to her, Lumi answered his question, “I can’t really sleep that well anyways.”

“Well you have to be sore?” His eyes didn’t leave hers as he asked her another question. She wondered what exactly was going on. If someone would have told her last week that she would be in this close proximity with him, she would have told them that it would have only happened when pigs fly. But here she was, breathing the same air as the most beautiful man in the world.

She was too distracted by her thoughts, ideas from earlier in the shower coming to mind. She had to look away from him before she broke her own heart.

“I’ll take that as a yes then,” he chuckled. His voice brought her eyes right back to his face. She looked at his mouth in fascination. His smile was adorable, and his eyes were crinkled. It was as if nothing serious was going on and the two of them were just casually sharing a bed.

It was a dangerous situation both outside the doors of this motel for him and emotionally for her. What made it even worse was the fact that she had no idea what he was thinking about. He clearly didn’t think of her as gross or he wouldn’t have told her to stay in bed with him, but there was still her underlying lack of confidence that she acquired from Suho.

All Lumi could manage was a nod of her head. She didn’t even know at that moment if she was sore from the chair or sleeping in the lobby. “Can I tell you something, Jongin?” She whispered, grabbing at her shirt to stop herself from reaching out to grab him.

Jongin stared at Lumi as he waited for her to continue. He was staring at her with his full attention. He shifted and brought his arm up and under he is head, laying on his elbow. “Mmm, go ahead.”

Lumi gave his a small smile and then started, “Have I ever mentioned a man named Suho to you?”

His answer was automatic, “No.”

“He was my husband,” she admitted, eyes not leaving his to gauge his reaction. His face twitched, and she could have sworn that a small frown appeared on his face for a millisecond.

“Emphasis on the past tense,” she continued, scrunching up her face in disgust just thinking about him. “I met him in university, the very place where we heard about you and Kyungsoo. Actually, I do have a degree.”

Jongin’s facial expression perked up at Lumi's clarification. “You have a degree?” He questioned. She knew he probably wondered what she was doing here.

Lumi nodded her head. “I do. But that’s where Suho comes in again. After we got married, he didn’t want me to use it. He wanted me to stay at home, which I did. So, I didn’t make any money for myself. I found out that he had a second life with someone else, and so I decide to divorce him. But I still didn't have a penny to my name and a whole load of student loans. Rent in the city is too expensive, so I’ve been living and working here to slowly pay off my students loans. I still have a long way to go.”

“Why don’t you go back home?” His voice was soft, lips barely moving with his words.

“My parent moved to Europe to pursue what they’ve always wanted, and I didn’t want to take away anything more from them. They had me when they were still in high school, so I’ve already ruined their lives enough,” she admitted.

“Do you still talk to them?”

“We write each other letters because they can’t use technology,” she smiled. She did love her parents, and if they wanted to write her letters, she would let them. “Actually, they still think I’m married to Suho because their letters come to this town.”

“You deserve to get out of here,” he admitted, moving his hand under the covers. Lumi thought he might have been moving to hold her hand, but he stopped before he did.

“I actually wanted to work for you,” she admitted with a laugh.

Jongin smiled with her, and she revelled in how nice it felt to talk with someone like this again. She didn’t have anybody else really at all. “Tell you what,” he started, moving a piece of your hair from in front of your face to behind you ear, “once my name is cleared, I’ll hire you as a thank you for saving my life.”

“But,” you tried to argue but he quickly placed his hand over your lips, stopping you from talking.

“No buts…it’s the least I can do. You’re lucky I don’t offer to pay off your loans as well. But I won’t because I know that you don’t want to have to owe me anything more.”

Lumi was surprised that he understood that she didn’t want anyone ever taking care of her expenses ever again, and she silently thanked him for that. “Well, byun better tell us some good news then!”

“Byun’s my only friend now. His real name is Baekhyun,” Jongin admitted, turning onto his back. Lumi thought about how weird it was that she felt cold now that his gaze wasn’t directed onto her. “Goodnight, Lumi. You deserve better than what you settle for.” His voice was barely audible, and as soon as he was finished talking, he turned his back completely to her. She didn’t know if it was something she said, but he seemed sad now.

Lumi realized that falling asleep on the motel desk was easier than falling asleep beside Jongin. His scent was everywhere—on her pillow, on the blankets, and even in the air. She wouldn’t complain because it was amazing, but as soon as she was about to fall asleep, probably twenty minutes after him, he turned to her completely and grabbed at the loose material of the hoodie she was wearing. He looked peaceful as he was mumbling to someone in his dream. His whimpers from the previous nights turned into talking, and even though he was still audible, she was glad that he was no longer sad as he slept.

He pulled her closer to him by her sweater, and she wasn’t going to object—not only because she didn’t want to wake him up.

• • • • • •

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anthelid-day · 5 years ago

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A holiday and birthday I’ll never forget.

We went to the coast to visit family despite warnings that we should reconsider our travel plans. There was a free highway with no fires in the area and, as it was Christmas and our families were on the coast, we found our way down the alternative and long route, meeting friends in Cooma along the way. The usual route was closed due to bushfires.

Christmas was a success and we were all having a great time! There was some smoke from the bushfires up north so we stayed inside but anticipated clearer weather to take the kids swimming for new year.

The night before New Year’s Eve, we noticed an orange glow in the sky and smoke. The RFS app showed a fire had started at Badja outside of Numeralla. It looked so far away at the time. We went to bed with the thought of swimming the next day. My birthday was on New Years Day. After we’d go for a swim we’d bake the cake and prepare the food and board games and get ready to do the tradition we do every year. We were to go outside, watch the new year end and the new year begin, start my birthday cheers and a dark male is to walk through the house before we re-enter. So when we went to bed, we imagined that that was going to be our New Years Eve.

The fire looked so far away.

I woke up at about 5am or 5:30am and looked at my phone. The RSF app told everyone in Cobargo and Coolagolite to evacuate towards Bermagui. We had my mums partner in Coolagolite and so I immediately called them to wake them and told them to get out of there. They raced right over to ours. I went to wake my mum to let her know what was happening. Just then a knock was heard on the door. I go outside to find a woman with a hose, she’s frantically waking everyone. “Cobargo is on fire right now. People are coming here. We might have to run next. We just need to wake everyone up.” I looked up to the sky and there was nothing but darkness with a deep, red glow. Burnt leaves and ash fell from its darkness. I open my RFS app to look and the fire had actually grown so much in a few short hours, it was practically at our doorstep.

A new notification comes in at that moment instructing Bermagui to evacuate to the beach. The Surf Life Saving Club was the evacuation centre so we decide to make our way there. We pack up the car and wake the kids. We tell our oldest that we are off to watch a sunrise and that worked well because skies are also shades of red and orange during a sunrise. We didn’t want to freak her out yet. Our son is a baby so his only concern was his bottle. We’d eventually have to tell our daughter the truth when the daylight doesn’t come after the sunrise but for now we had to get them out as calmly as possible.

The streets were lined with cars and people. Emergency vehicles passed by us occasionally. “Look at all the people here to view the last sunrise of the year!” I said. “Why are there nee-naws, mummy?” “Well even emergency services enjoy a sunrise!” I countered. She seemed happy with that answer.

We’d also come to the coast with our guinea pigs as we had no one to babysit them in Canberra at the time. So we were carrying a baby, our bags with the things we needed, a tired toddler, the toys she wanted to bring to view the sunrise with, blankets to keep warm (we had learned that it can actually get very cold when the smoke is so thick it blocks out the sun and it’s warmth like it’s midnight), food for the kids and a giant carry-cage with three guinea pigs. We checked ourselves in with the volunteers and then collapsed on some grass outside, still maintaining that we were “watching the sunrise”. When I told her the truth later, she calmly asked her questions and then went off to play with her new Barbie Ambulance. She dreams of being a doctor one day and the thing folds out into a doctors office. It’s a real hit.

Sitting on the lawn and trying to feed a baby who was suddenly aware that he was in a loud space, he cried while my daughter tried to calm him and my husband and I silently fretted, wondering if other family members were safe. My husbands grandparents live near Batemans Bay and the fires were escalating there. My mother sat in the grass with her partner at another location convinced things would be fine while I’d occasionally yelled at her via text to get up to the SLSC to check in. I just wanted to be sure that everyone could be accounted for. She’d tell me not to worry and we’d see each other later. It had begun to rain lots of ash and leaves so we took the kids, the guinea pigs and all of our stuff inside.

Finding and collapsing on a miraculously free couch inside the centre, my husband settles the kids while I go out to get some space. Crowds in these situations make me feel like I’m in a small space and I had to step out periodically to calm down. On one of my excursions out I took a video of the evacuation that’s blowing up on my TikTok and some photos that ended up being in a news article later that morning. People on TikTok who had family in the area wanted to know the situation and I’d spend the rest of the day informing them of what was going on. There’s something about being on the scene and letting people know the situation that makes me feel like I should have possibly been a reporter. So begins a moment of existential crisis before I notice I’ve got ash and burnt leaves in my hair and I head back in.

We remained at the centre until mid afternoon when we were told that those with residences and accommodation within the town were cleared to go home. We were relieved! So on New Years Eve, mid afternoon, we went home, settled the baby down for a nap and started planning the next day. The baking we could do while we wait this thing out. I plugged my phone in to charge and the power went out moments later. Baking was suddenly off the table.

The fires had knocked out the electricity. But we still had reception. I sat in the car to charge my phone there and was responding to comments to let people know the situation. The sky turned this incredibly dark red and then went black. It was about 5:15pm and we lost reception. That meant no internet as well. I go back into the house. “We have no power and no communications. We have no way to let those worrying about us in the outside world know that we are okay and we can’t check on those who we are worried about in Batemans Bay.” I said. The word at the time was that they may not be able to restore power until the weekend but they actually couldn’t for an entire week.

On top of that, the petrol stations were all closed and our tank didn’t have enough to get to a town an hour away that had no guarantee of petrol. The radio repeatedly told people to leave despite no guarantee of petrol and that wasn’t realistic for us. We were to stay put until the petrol stations open and do our best.

We sat in darkness with some torches, playing scrabble, watching the world outside get darker. The quiet was very unusual. There were no birds singing, no crickets or frogs and the town was closed off. No one could travel so there were no cars. There was nothing. Just silence with an apocalyptic view. When the smoke accumulated enough to create its own thunder storm, it felt like we were dropped right in the radioactive badlands of Fallout 4 with a more reddish hue. The blue skies and turquoise waters we paddleboarded on were a distant memory all of a sudden. It was freezing. Of course, I only packed summer clothes.

New Years Day arrived and my family was trying to celebrate my birthday the best we could but with such wide windows built for a view, the apocalyptic view outside and the reminder that a fire was by our doorstep drowned any feeling of joy. We were scared. I kept thinking about a week earlier, looking at the map and seeing nothing of concern and racing down to see our families. How could we stay away from our families for Christmas? But here we were a week later. There was a road briefly open to Tathra and it was nose-to-nose for hours. Cars slowly lined the main road as frightened tourists and residents fled with their things. Destination - Bega, Cooma, Canberra. And we stayed and watched with our nearly empty tank. “You wouldn’t want to be in that with a baby.” Mum said. She was right.

Our baby is bottle fed and so we’d make the trips up to the SLSC to get boiled water to make bottles with and for some coffee. I found a spot of reception and quickly let my friends know we were okay via Facebook before it dropped out again. They had been worried. Without communication, no one knew the full extent of the situation. Night time was hard because the baby wakes and the bottles had to be heated with whatever hot water was left in the hot water system and it barely warmed a bottle. We couldn’t shower or only jumped in for 30 seconds so we could save the hot water.

Without power we couldn’t cook and our fridge wasn’t going to refrigerate anything. We kept cool some milk the best we could and stocked up on canned goods. We ate baby corn and sardines, fruit and anything else we could get from the supermarket. The supermarket remained open with shelves that were emptying fast. It reminded me of abandoned supermarkets in Fallout. A lot of Fallout happening, I thought to myself. The staff worked while not knowing if their houses were still there. In a neighbouring town they had to close the supermarket as people began walking off with trolleys full of stuff and looting upon hearing that there was a problem with transaction processes. “People have got to eat” a friend later would say. People were trapped and scared with limited food to give their families. Things were bound to take a turn. Some days later the supermarket in Bermagui would be closed due to being understaffed as people fled or staff defending their homes. Thankfully the SLSC has donated food to give out.

The day after New Year we were all on edge. The smoke stayed thick, the kids were scared, the toddler hated being stuck inside and the baby was scared from the smell of smoke. Our throats and eyes hurt. Coffee was limited. My husband and I went to get some hot water when a neighbour said there’s a line at a petrol station. As we went past we saw the tanker. Oh my gosh there’s a tanker!! We got some hot water, I passed a bird in a cage, dropped the hot water off at home and raced to the line.

We were around the 100th car in line. My husband waited in the car while I went up to grab us coffee while we waited. I passed by the bird again. It had a note that it belonged to a Cobargo resident and the person who had dropped it off couldn’t find the owner and couldn’t fit it in her car so begged that someone feed it and give it water at the centre. It sat there with it’s cover and a box of its food, tweeting at anyone who passed it. I took the coffee back to the car and raced up to the centre a final time. I was going to evacuate with that bird. The volunteers didn’t really know how to look after it and, with everything going on, couldn’t have the time to give it what it needed.

A news station had found its way into Bermagui to show the line to the petrol station in their segment and had reported that the petrol was free. People began getting news that they had free petrol as those who overheard the report started to tell the line of cars. It wasn’t free though, and you had to pay in cash. Thankfully we did have cash on us, a rare thing for us. We wondered about those who had none, what they’d do if they were told they had free fuel only to find that they had to pay - and had no cash on them. I later corrected the news channel on my Twitter, disgusted at the irresponsible reporting.

It took 3 hours to get fuel while we waited for the generator to work at the station, then raced home to grab the kids, who mum was watching. There was a window of opportunity to escape and we were taking it. Mum took the opportunity too. She grabbed petrol before the pumps ran out and then fled to my brothers place in Bega. She’d stay there several days until she was allowed to go home.

Our drive home was slow. There were jams at several points and the smoke was so thick we had to close the aircon entirely. We watched as small fires still burnt so actively under trees and people cried outside the smouldering rubble that used to be their home. Animals sat in paddocks with burnt legs and we knew they’d likely be shot later. A lone alpaca sat on blackened paddocks and I hoped it wasn’t burnt, it’s fluffy face looking on to the distance as if it already knew its fate. Our baby cried for his bottle but they went cold in the traffic jams. There was nowhere to heat it until we met up with our friends in Cooma, the ones we met on the way down a week earlier. We fell through their doors looking worse for wear as they made us coffee and gifted us shortbread. We fed the kids and stretched our legs. We got home after 9 hours. My husbands family didn’t want us to worry and filled our shelves and cupboards with food and turned the aircon on to give the house clean air. We sat on our bed in an unchaotic house and wondered if we really did just go through all of that.

Mum was able to go home this past Wednesday and they switched the power back on. Mum was glad the place wasn’t looted as there were looters in the area. The fires brought out the best and the worst in people. While we were raising money and donating, others looted the cars of those who had already lost everything. When in Bega my mum, at one point, hid under a bridge with my brother for hours while it rained live embers. An old colleague of my brothers took them in until they could go back to my brothers place.

When we got back home to Canberra, I started the search for the birds owner and found her after a big community effort. She had gone to Melbourne for Christmas to see her daughter and her neighbour looked after the bird. The owner had lost everything. Her house and all her belongings and important documents. It would take a while to get back on her feet and so I’m watching her bird for her while she does so. I felt so sad to hear that she lost everything. What we went through was so small in comparison. We had a home to run away to and my mum got to go home to her house. But this bird and his owner have lost everything but each other and their dog. The bird gets along with our guinea pigs. They all chirp together while sitting inside waiting for the smoke in Canberra to die down. It’s really very cute.

It’s been very emotional. I have been crying at odd moments. We’ve seen a lot. This past week my husband and I have been struggling with how everything was supposed to be normal again. He’d go to work and I’d look after the kids and do my hobbies except it’s smokey outside and we have P2 masks on whenever we went out and the house is taped up to keep smoke out.

We are still processing a lot but I think typing it here helps in that process. Thank you if you read all of this. I will be resuming the bug photography soon. There’s no real conclusion yet and that’s because the fires rage on. There won’t be a real conclusion for a while yet. I guarantee it’ll remain devastating. We’ve lost lives and wildlife. We’ve lost treasured places and homes. Pets die from respiratory distress from being left outside. Stock are being put down from being injured in the fires. So we all cry from time to time while trying to do our best daily.

Much love,

Anthelid-Day

#nsw bushfires #bermagui #cobargo #evacuation #australia #australian bushfires #nsw #south coast #fires

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dukereviewsxtra · 5 years ago

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Duke Reviews Xtra: The 10th Kingdom Part 2

Part 2 Starts With The Evil Queen Digging Up All Her Mirrors..

As Virginia's Iron Shoes Are Ready For Her To Wear, However A Box That Smells Like Leather

Yeah, Trolls Have An Affinity Toward Leather, Go Figure...

Falls Right Through The Window, The 3 Trolls Fight Over It And Knock Themselves Out In The Process...

Flying In To Save Virginia, Virginia's Less Than Trusting Of Wolf As The Last Time She Saw Him He Tried To Eat Her Grandmother But Giving His Word That She's Safe With Him, He Goes To Find A Way Out Only To Notice The Troll King's Magic Shoes...

Telling Her To Leave Them As They'll Make Her Want To Wear Them All The Time She Seems To Do Just That As They Get Out Of That Castle...

Wanting To Go Back To The Snow White Memorial Prison To Rescue Tony, Wolf Is Resistant At First But Eventually Says Okay But They Have To Avoid The Roads And Instead Cut Through Beanstalk Forest...

Once There, They Find A Statue Of Jack From Jack And The Beanstalk, This Leads Wolf To Tell Virginia Why The Trolls Hate Wendell And That's Because Wendell Has A Fertile Kingdom And They Have A Polluted Disgusting Kingdom...

Oh No, Somebody Call Captain Planet!

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But Wolf's Words Fall On Deaf Ears As Virginia Is Gone Which Can Only Mean One Thing...

She Stole The Troll King's Magic Shoes!

But Despite That Wolf Eventually Finds Her As The Shoes Magic Doesn't Last Long. Taking The Shoes Away From Her After A Short Struggle, Virginia Tries Everything She Can To Try To Get Them Back Even To The Point Of Seduction...

But Despite Being Attracted To Her, Wolf Knows It's The Shoes Doing The Talking And Not Her...

But With The Troll King And His Kids Closing In, Virginia And Wolf Decide To Climb A Beanstalk Where They Get To Know Each Other A Little Better As They Spend The Night From Above...

The Next Day, Believing Security Around The Prison To Be A Joke, The Warden Decides To Have The Prisoners Clean Out The Cellar Where The Mirror Is So New Security Measures Can Be Put Into Place...

Realizing That's Where The Mirror Is, Wendell Puts Tony's Name On The Work Detail, However, When He Finds Mirror, The Warden Tells Him To Throw It In The Boat Or Else He'll Throw Him And Everyone Connected To The Chain He's On Into The Ocean...

So, Tony Throws It Into The Boat Where By Some Miracle It Doesn't Break...

Put Back In His Cell, Tony Discovers That Acorn And Clayface Have Created A Tunnel Out Of The Prison, Asking Him To Let Him Come With Them, They Say Yes...

However, Tony's Escape Might Be A Bit Premature As Virginia And Wolf Arrive To Get Tony Out Of Prison By Using The Troll King's Magic Shoes...

Once Inside, They Get Wendell From The Warden's Office Despite Wolf Knowing That With Him The Shoes Will Lose Their Magic Quicker And What Do You Know? He's Right As Once They Reach Tony's Cell The Shoes Lose Their Magic...

But As They Crawl Through The Tunnel, They're Blocked By Tony's Big Butt As He Got Stuck In The Tunnel When Attempting To Escape...

Maybe Tony Should Follow Winnie The Pooh's Example And Do Some Stoutness Exercises...

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(Start At 0:51, End At 2:07)

Eventually Getting Tony Out Of The Tunnel, Father And Daughter Are Reunited As Tony Tells Virginia About The Mirror Being Placed On A Barge, However When They Go To Get It They It, They Discover That Acorn Used The Barge To Escape, Taking Everything Including The Mirror With Him...

Getting On A Boat To Follow Acorn, They're Spotted By The Trolls Who Attempt To Virginia And The Others But They Manage To Get Away To The Troll King's Displeasure, But He Has Bigger Problems Right Now As He's Contacted By The Evil Queen...

Wondering If The Troll King's Children Have Caught Wendell, He Tells Her No, As She Orders Him To Send His Children After Them And To Return To His Palace Until Further Notice...

But Saying He Doesn't Take Orders From Her, He Swears That If She Contacts Him This Way Again, He'll Kill Her...

Reading One Of His Self Help Books, Wolf Takes The Opportunity To Get Rid Of The Troll King's Magic Shoes Which Pisses Virginia Off To No End At First But Guessing That She Was Going To Wear Them Tonight, He Tells Her That While Magic Is Nice It's Very Easy To Get Addicted...

This Leads Her To Ask Wolf Why She Wasn't Able To Resist The Shoes But He Was? To Which He Believes The Reason To Be That Virginia Has A Strong Desire To Be Invisible...

Tired Of Waiting For The Evil Queen To Take Over Wendell's Kingdom, The Troll King Declares War On The 4th Kingdom And Challenges Wendell To Face Him In 7 Days Or He'll Claim It As His Own...

The Next Day, Wolf Wakes Virginia And Tony Only For Tony To Discover A Golden Fish In A Glass Case. Named The Golden River Gold Fish, Wolf Tells Tony And Virginia That This Is The Famous Anything You Touch Will Turn To Gold Fish...

With Tony Seeing Untold Possibilities With The Fish, Wolf And Virginia Tell Him To Just Leave It Alone

Contacting The Troll King In The 4th Kingdom, The Evil Queen Is Rightfully Pissed At Him For Obeying Her Orders And That If He Stays There, The Coronation Will Be Cancelled And Her Plans Will Be Ruined...

But Having No Interest In Leaving The 4th Kingdom, She Hangs Up On Him So She Can Consult With Her Mirror, Who Tells Her That Wendell Is Travelling Down The River Toward Her Castle With 3 Others, 1 Who Can Talk With Him And 1 Who Can Hurt Her...

Asking To See These People, The Mirror Tells Her That He Can't Show Them To Her But Knowing That Wolf Is With Them, She Tells The Mirror To Focus On Him...

Oh, God The Bee Gees Running Gag Is Back...

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(Start At 0:46, End At 0:49)

Contacting Wolf As He's Shaving, He Just Tells The Queen To Go Away And Leave Him Alone Before Tony Enters And Hangs Up, Washing His Face Off As He Leaves...

However As Tony Looks For Food, He Decides To Go Back To Look At The Golden Fish Only To Break The Glass By Coughing (Of All The Luck) And Sticking His Pinky Inside The Fish Gaining The One Time Ability To Turn Something Into Gold...

All I Can Say To That Is Thank God He's Not Dr. Evil Or Else He'd Turn Himself Into Gold...

Meanwhile At The Queen's Castle, Dog Wendell Pees On A Post...

As The Evil Queen Tries To Convince Him That He's Not A Dog But Prince Wendell, Ruler Of The 4th Kingdom And That In Order To Be Crowned King He Must Show Bravery, Loyalty And Intelligence...

Why Can't They Do It The Wakandan Way And Challenge Someone To Single Combat?

Finding Acorn's Barge At A Town, Near The Queen's Castle, Wendell Goes Off On His Own To Investigate The Castle (As He Can Sense His Body There) While Tony And The Others Go To Get The Mirror From Acorn...

However, When They Arrive, They Find Acorn And Whatever Junk Was On-Board Gone, With The Person Who Now Owns The Barge Telling Them That He Traded It For The Guy's Horse And Carriage, Which He Took Through The Woods...

But Despite Virginia And Wolf Wanting To Leave For The Woods Immediately Tony Asks For 15 Minutes To Find Wendell...

And Speaking Of Wendell, The Queen Is Giving Dog Wendell An Eating Lesson As The Trolls Arrive To Give Her An Update On Their Search For Wendell Which Goes Nowhere...

Telling Them To Not Return Without Wendell Or She'll Make Them Eat Their Own Hearts, The Trolls Leave Believing That Meeting Didn't Go Well...

Finding Himself, Wendell Tries To Get Dog Wendell To Reach Him But Unfortunately They're Unable To Touch So Wendell Goes Off To Get Help, But As He Goes To Find Tony, Wendell Is Found By Tony, The Trolls Also Find Him...

This Leads Tony To Do Something We Don't See On Screen But We Know He Did Something...

Finding Virginia And Wolf, Tony Tells Them That He Defeated The Trolls However When He Shows Them How, We See That Tony Not Only Turned Them Into Gold But Wendell As Well...

Summoning Her Huntsman (Played By Rutger Hauer)...

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(Start At 0:13, Stop At 0:43)

The Evil Queen Tells Him That Neither Wolf Or The Trolls Have Captured Wendell And Whoever Is With Him Is About To Enter His Forest. Swearing To Find Them, He Leaves...

About To Enter The Forest, Virginia And The Others Run Into An Old Beggar Woman, Who's Hungry For Food, But Where Wolf And Tony Are Not So Charitable Virginia Gives Up One Of Their Bacon Sandwiches They Made Earlier...

As A Reward, The Woman Tells Them That Acorn Took The Main Road Through The Forest But She Warns Them To Get Off The Road At Once As Someone Is Following Them With The Intent To Kill Them...

This Gets Wolf Remembering That This Forest Is The Domain Of The Huntsman Who Serves The Queen, So Taking The Old Lady's Advice, They Stray From The Road And Go Through The Forest...

Coming Across A Gypsy Camp, They Try Going Around But They're Unfortunately Caught By Gypsies Who Seem Pretty Nice At First As They Invite Virginia And The Others To Join Them For Dinner...

Oh, And I See They're Having The Remains Of The First Trailer For Sonic The Hedgehog For Dinner...

Asking Tony To Sing In Return For Their Hospitality We Get The Most Groan Worthy Version Of Gypsies Tramps and Thieves Ever...

Cher Must Be Vomiting After Hearing That...

Finding A Bunch Of Talking Birds In Cages, Wolf Tells Virginia They're Magic Birds That The Gypsies Break Their Wings Off To Sell For Millions To Rich People To Absorb Their Magic...

Why? What Does The Magic From These Birds Do?

Coming Out Of A Carriage An Old Gypsy Tells The Gypsies To Set Up A Table For Fortune Telling...

But While Tony's Fortune Is Nothing To Tell About, Virginia's Sees The Gypsy Asking For A Lock Of Her Hair (Which Will Come Back To Bite Virginia In The Ass) As She Tells Virginia That She's Full Of Anger As She's Never Forgiven Her Mother For Leaving Years Ago...

Something Her Grandmother Mentioned In Part 1 That I Thought Wasn't Worth Mentioning Till Now...

She Also Tells Virginia That She Has A Great Destiny One That Stretches Way Back In Time...

With Virginia Leaving, It's Wolf's Turn To Have His Fortune Told, But It Doesn't Go The Way He Wants It As The Gypsy Tells Him That She Saw A Young Girl Dead And A Fire With Him To Burnt On It...

Remember This Fortune As It Will Be Further Developed In Part 3...

Knowing That Wolf Is A Wolf From The Fortune, This Leads Wolf To Reveal That The Gypsies Grandson Is Also A Wolf...

Allowing Virginia And The Others To Spend The Night, They Attempt To Sneak Out Early The Next Morning, But Virginia Just Can't Leave The Talking Birds To Die So She Frees Them All Only To Be Seen By The Head Gypsy Who Sends The Other Gypsies After Them...

But While They Manage To Get Away From The Gypsies, The Head Gypsy Uses The Hair She Cut From Virginia To Curse Her...

But Don't Worry About The Gypsies Becoming A New Threat As They're All Killed By The Huntsman...

Continuing On Their Journey, Wolf And Tony Start To Notice That Virginia's Hair Has Grown Slightly Since They Left The Gypsy Camp Which Leads Wolf To Theorize That The Gypsies Have Cursed Her..

Duh...

By Nightfall It Starts To Rain, As Virginia's Hair Has Grown To Length Of Rapunzel's. Luckily, They Come Across A Cottage That's Been Abandoned For Years, Going Upstairs They Find Seven Beds Which Leads Them To Realize That This Cottage Once Belonged To The Seven Dwarves...

Starting A Fire, Tony Asks The Question That We've Been Dying To Have Answered, What Happened To Snow White After She Married The Prince?..

This Leads Wolf To Tell Them That She Became A Great Queen And One Of The Five Women Who Changed History..

With The Women Being, (Aside From Snow White) Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, Red Riding Hood?, Gretel From Hansel And Gretel? And Rapunzel...

Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella And Rapunzel, I Can Handle Being Queens But Having Red Riding Hood And Gretel Is Like Making Alice From Alice In Wonderland A Princess In Kingdom Hearts, It Doesn't Work...

The 5 Of Them Formed First 5 Kingdoms And Brought Peace To All The Lands. But Now They're All Mostly Dead, I Say Mostly As There's Rumors That Cinderella Is Still Alive But If She Was, She'd Be Over 200 Years Old...

(Acting Like Joey Lawrence) Whoa!

Virginia Spends The Night Talking With Wolf About Her Mother Which Just More Exposition At This Point...

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But Waking Up Virginia Finds That Her Hair Is All Over The House, And What's Worse It's Growing Up The Stairs...

They Try Using Cutting Tools To Cut Virginia's Hair But Nothing Can Cut Through It...

It's A Curse For A Reason, You Morons...

Worried About Dying With Long Hair, One Of The Birds Virginia Saved From The Gypsies Helps By Telling Them That A Woodsman With A Magic Axe That Can Cut Through Anything Lives In This Forest And With It They Can Break The Curse...

However, Wolf Smells The Huntsman And Decides To Bury Virginia, Tony And The Golden Wendell In Holes While He Leads The Huntsman In A Circle..

But It Sadly Doesn't Help As Virginia Sneezes Revealing Their Location To The Huntsman...

Forced To Run, Tony Gets Away To Tell Wolf What Happened While Virginia Gets Caught By The Huntsman And Is Taken To His Headquarters, Which Finally Ends Part 2...

To Be Continued...

#the 10th kingdom #Kimberly Wiilliams Paisley #john larroquette #dianne wiest #scott cohen #rutger hauer #ann margret #warwick davis #camryn manheim #wolf x virginia

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mst3kproject · 6 years ago

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The Choppers

It’s teenage crime spree time! With Arch Hall Sr. writing and producing, Arch Hall Jr. starring, and Bruno VeSoto supporting, the result is sure to be MST3K-worthy. All it’s missing is Ray Dennis Steckler, but I guess one can’t have everything.

America’s youth is its greatest resource, and those youth are in danger of growing up into criminals. Witness our antagonists here: Cruiser, Torch, Ben, Flip, and Snooper. They drive around in a truck full of chickens, taking apart random cars and selling the pieces to Moose, a grouchy and unscrupulous junkyard owner. The cops are baffled, but sooner or later the young thugs are bound to make a fatal mistake – and theirs comes when they girl they decide to sexually harass turns out to be the secretary of an insurance investigator. At around the same time, Moose gets tired of their attitude and decides to turn them in. Looks like the Choppers have chopped their last, uh… chop, I guess.

I’m sure you all want to know whether Arch Hall Jr. sings in this movie. He does, but not until forty-five minutes in when I really had begun to hope I’d escaped him. The piece is actually kind of catchy although not particularly memorable, but I may be in a forgiving mood because the first musical number in the movie was so much worse. It’s performed by an elderly guy who works at Moose’s junkyard, and not only is he a bad singer, but what starts out sounding like a boy scout campfire ditty turns out to be a mournful country song about his divorce. It made me long for the comparatively sweet strains of I Love You Vickie.

The photography here is notably terrible. Almost the entire movie takes place outdoors in harsh desert sunshine because I think they didn’t actually have any lights. Indoor scenes are kind of dim and night scenes are completely indecipherable – although I think somebody didn’t believe a practically pitch-black screen was enough to convince us it was night, because there are also lots of loud cricket noises. There’s a bit where the Choppers vandalize a guy’s car because he took their parking spot and it’s almost impossible to see anyone’s faces or tell who’s talking.

The acting is sort of indifferently bad. Arch Hall Jr. is Arch Hall Jr., where everything he says sounds kind of stagey and dumb, and nobody else is much better. The twenty-somethings playing the young criminals use hip slang in a way that suggests they have no idea what these words actually mean. Arch Hall Sr. continues to believe he can build his son into a teen heartthrob, and so he shows us things like Cruiser’s pasty chest and belly as he lounges by a pool.

You say you didn’t need that screencap? Well, I didn’t need the shot it came from.

Most of the screen time in the movie is spent on the Choppers as they take apart cars, play or listen to bad music, argue with each other, and harass women. The supposed heroes aren’t on screen nearly so much, but that’s okay because they are stunningly un-likeable. There are a couple of bland cops, but the ones who are really our protagonists are inept insurance investigator Tom Hart and his nagging girlfriend Liz. Tom comes across as an oblivious dope, while Liz constantly whines that she’s tired of fighting crime and wants to go home and eat.

Tom never redeems himself, but Liz gets a couple of moments. She’s the one who notices that feathers keep turning up at the crime scenes, and when she recognizes Cruiser’s car at a drive-in she is able to keep him staring at her boobs long enough for her to memorize the license plate number. Naturally at the climax, she is not present and Tom, who did pretty much nothing all movie, gets all the credit for catching the gang. The movie doesn’t make anything out of this because it doesn’t see anything wrong with it.

Which of course brings us to the fact that The Choppers hates women something fierce. There are only two we can actually be said to meet: Cruiser’s empty-headed girlfriend Gypsy (I know a bot who would be righteously angry at this name choice) is there to hang around in a bathing suit and be dumb. The movie can’t decide how much she does or doesn’t know about his criminal hobbies – she seems to help vandalize the car in the parking lot, but then becomes the damsel in distress at the final shootout. Liz nags, mocks, and generally treats Tom terribly, and at the end her competence is treated as his accomplishment.

Several of the five boys have backstories that depend on absent fathers – Cruiser’s was killed in WWII, Torch’s is an alcoholic, and Snooper has had a series of uninterested stepfathers. The implication is that a single mother cannot possibly raise a boy. He needs a father to turn him into a man (this is as near as stated aloud when a reporter attempts to interview Torch’s drunken father on the radio). The only moment involving a woman that doesn’t reek of misogyny is when the boys harass a waitress and she blows them off.

If we’re gonna talk about fathers and sons… this is another movie Arch Hall Sr. made to try to build up his son’s career, and another movie in which the two of them are at odds. They never actually meet in The Choppers, but the reporter played by Hall Sr. comments on how intelligent and talented the boys are and how much they could have accomplished if they’d only had the chance to live up to their potential. Once again, it’s really, really tempting to try to do some psychoanalysis here, as if Arch Hall Sr. was using his films to tell the world how disappointed he was with his son. I don’t know these people, of course, but that’s definitely the impression I get.

The main theme in The Choppers is one I’ve already dealt with, the idea that a boy without a father will become a criminal, stuck forever in the stage of life where rule-breaking is fun and consequences are things that happen to other people. There seems to be a level on which the boys have adopted Moose as a sort of substitute father – he has encouraged and taught them in their criminal endeavours, and while he and they argue and threaten each other, they are honestly shocked by his eventual betrayal. In the end, Moose abandons them just as their biological fathers have done.

There also seems to be some attempt to talk about class. All the Choppers seem to come from underprivileged backgrounds except for Cruiser, who has a backyard pool and a fancy car. This puts him in the same category as Paula from The Violent Years, in that we’re given no good reason why he does this besides what his says to the reporter at the end: “we had a ball.” Like Paula, Cruiser is the leader of the gang, but unlike her, he does not participate in the actual crimes. Instead, Cruiser and his fancy car serve as lookouts – his upper-class origin allows him to be in charge without having to get his hands dirty, and there are signs that the rest of the boys resent this. When they are all cornered at the end, it’s Cruiser who suggests giving up while Torch prefers to go down fighting. Unlike the others, he’s not sufficiently invested in this to die for it.

What the movie is trying to say here is that money is not a substitute for good parenting, and privileged boys can still fall into crime if their fathers aren’t there for them. What it manages to imply is that even in crime being rich gives you a head start and can make you a leader regardless of actual leadership qualities.

So this movie is really, really bad, and doesn’t deal very well with its thematic material – but that’s not to say there’s no entertainment value to be found here. It’s never funny when it tries to be, of course. There’s an attempt at a running joke with Snooper wondering if he’d be more attractive to women if he wore contact lenses, which will make you shudder if you know what contact lenses were like in the 50’s and early 60’s. The humour that works in The Choppers is naturally the unintentional kind, to be found in the bad acting and the unwieldy chicken truck.

My favourite moment is when Cruiser, talking on a candy-striped walkie-talkie the size of a dachshund, tells his cronies to give the police “the farmer routine”. Flip and Snooper immediately pull a couple of cowboy hats out of fucking nowhere and put them on, and I almost did a real-life spit take. This feels like the kind of thing that would have fascinated the Best Brains. I can imagine Joel, Crow, and Tom whipping their own Stetsons out from under the theatre seats to wear for the rest of the scene (Servo would have needed help with his) and every subsequent appearance of a cop being greeted with, “quick, put on your cowboy hats!” It would definitely be the stinger.

Talking about having a favourite Arch Hall Jr. movie is like talking about having a favourite kind of turd to eat, but insofar as the statement means anything, The Choppers is my second-favourite of his movies I’ve seen so far. It’s less misogynistic than Eegah! (not a high bar) and doesn’t have nearly as much crappy music as Wild Guitar (accomplished by simply having less music). My favourite Arch Hall Jr. movie is The Sadist, which I actually don’t consider bad enough for this blog. In The Sadist Hall Jr. played a serial killer, and he was pretty terrifying. If he’d had more roles like that (with directors who were not his father and could actually coach good performances out of him) he might have been a decent character actor.

#mst3k #reviews #episodes that never were #the choppers #sorry about my face #60s

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the--blackdahlia · 6 years ago

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The Day the Music Died Chapter 8

Title: The Day the Music Died Chapter 8

Summary: In 1959, a plane crash tragically took the lives of three musicians and their pilot. But the mysterious circumstances send the Winchester brothers on an adventure. Now they have a mystery to solve…before one of them joins the other three.

Warnings: None that I can think of.

AN: You might want to watch this video. It’ll make sense later. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AQXVHITd1N4&t=1s

1958

November turned to December and Sam was starting to lose hope of ever getting back to his own time. The 50’s weren’t so bad if you could look past all the racism, sexism, wealth gap, homophobia, and everything else. It had a cool aesthetic though. Maria seemed to love being able to grease Sam’s hair back to help him fit in. She really liked spending time with Sam. But Buddy did too. He was trying to teach Sam how to play drums and he was teaching Sam how to take care of the guitars and equipment for when they went on tour in January.

The doomed tour, and Sam would be there to watch it all crash down.

Buddy and Waylon were out, talking with the other members of Buddy’s new band. Sam had been there when he told the Crickets “screw you” and left them behind. So he had convinced Waylon to join him and a couple others on the tour. There was this pretty cool cat from California that was going to be joining them, as well as another fellow Texas boy. Sam and Maria knew exactly who they were and what was going to be happening to them.

So Sam and Maria stayed behind while Buddy and Waylon did their thing. Sam wasn’t sure what to do, so he took to helping Maria with the cooking. There was a small radio plugged in, sitting on the counter. Maria was reading through a cookbook, trying to figure out which recipe would be best for dinner that night. Sam set at the table, reading the week befores copy of Life. Elvis had just played a little bit ago, followed by one of Buddy’s songs. After a few ads and some talking from the DJ, a Connie Francis song came on and Maria couldn’t stop smiling. She turned to look at Sam.

“Stupid cupid you’re a real mean guy.” She sang. Sam glanced up at her. “I’d like to clip your wings so you can’t fly!” She walked over to him, making him look up at her. “I am in love and it’s a crying shame…” She leaned in to kiss him then, but Sam gently pushed her away.

“Maria…” Sam said. The song was still playing in the background and Maria stood there awkwardly.

“I just thought…” She started to say.

“You’re married to Buddy.” Sam told her.

“Yeah, and I love him, but you know what happens.” She said.

“And I care too much about him to hurt him like that.” Sam said. “You’re the one that said you would have rather loved and been in pain than never have loved at all.” Maria nodded and set down, hiding her face. “Maria…”

“I’m sorry. I just don’t know what to do.” She looked up at Sam. “What am I supposed to do?” Sam leaned forward.

“You spend as much time with him as you can.” Sam said. “You love him like you’re gonna lose him.” Maria nodded. “I know how hard this is, but it will be okay.” She smiled a little, trying to hold back the tears. “Why don’t we change the subject and forget about what just happened?”

“When are you going to cut your hair?” Maria asked with a laugh. Sam glared some.

“Never.” He stated, matter of factly. Maria laughed.

“Good thing the 60’s is coming up. Though you might get mistaken for a member of the Manson family or something.” She teased.She stood up and went back to the cookbook. “Sam, would you chop some veggies for me?” Sam went right to it, so thankful that they had moved away from what had just happened.

They spent the rest of the afternoon cooking and making small talk. Sam ignored the looks that Maria tossed his way when she thought he wasn’t looking. She knew it had been a mistake to try to kiss him. She tried to just focus on the task at hand, getting ready to put the chicken and veggies in the oven. She put it in then went to do the dishes, but Sam had already gotten to them. Maria started throwing away the packaging when a song came on.

Day-o, day-o.

Maria stopped what she was doing and looked over at Sam, who looked right back at her with a smile on his face.

Daylight come and me wan’ go home.

Maria started miming along with the song.

Day, me say day, me say day, me say day

Me say day, me say day-o