#but it was getting late and he was showing me his Chinese books in his home office and some awkward gross stuff happened and

[fazcinatingblog]

She's out of control, why is she like this

And then when I explained myself, she doesn't reply so I'm thinking okay great I made a good point, she'll just back down and not argue with me, but she follows up at 6am:

[blue-jisungs]

ancient runes and sea creatures

summary. leehan ends up in his worst nightmare - getting the perfect student into trouble

au. hogwarts!!!! ravenclaw!reader x hufflepuff!leehan

word count. 4722 (got a lil too carried away... )

warnings , extras. leehan is intimidated by reader ?? but in a like. impressed way?? also reader is a head girl prefect!!. a slightly suggestive implication at one point but like, its misinterpreted ++ a bunch of hogwart lingo and lore (?). use od leehans real name. mention of a creature that eats humans

author's note. a biiig thank u to @slytherinshua and @gluion for pushing me out of my writers block w this one!!! and esp moni, who tbh came up w this plot!!! i hhope u like it!!! it kinda took a self-indulent route for me (ancient runes as chinese characters haha... haha... and leehan being a mid student w niche hobbies vs the perfect student yn who! shocker! likes! studying... hahah....ha.....) ANYWHO. also love u to death @l3visbby for proofreading!! where would i be w/o u atp....

also i wanted to post one last thing in 2024!!! so i hope u enjoy it and get ready bc ive been cooking <3

leehan fixed his glasses, fingers brushing against the coarse pages of his favorite book. then, he glanced at his notebook. filled from top to bottom with neat, medium sized, handwritten text. here and there were loose sketches and photographs attached with fish shaped paper clips.

the hufflepuff boy looked up at his gryffindor friends - jaehyun and woonhak. they were chatting about something loudly, the sound of their voices blending in with the noise in the corridor. 

sunlight peeked from behind the windows leehan was leaning against, making him feel even more indulged in his own world. 

“we’ll keep going. don’t wanna be late for potions!” jaehyun suddenly announced in his ear and ruffled his hair “see you, donghyun!” 

he just smiled in return, woonhak having goodbye. 

before returning to his book, he let out a small sigh and started looking at the students passing him by. a lot of friends giggling and talking, some people studying or snacking on colorful candy. 

then, as if a lightning struck him, he tensed upon noticing you. 

you were walking with fast pace yet not hurried one. the navy and grey colored tie rustled on the wind, your hair waving gently. a small frown was painting on your graceful features.

“what do you mean sungho is not showing up? i need everyone there” you asked, glancing at your ravenclaw friend for explanation. however, they did not have any. 

“no idea, y/n! he just told me to tell you and wandered off… you have to–” they started. 

“i don’t have to do anything. we have to cooperate if we want everything work out” with a scoff, you turned your gaze away and locked eyes with leehan for a mere moment. 

he felt blood rushing to his cheeks, quickly glancing down at his book. you looked scary. no, intimidating. 

“this thing isn’t here by accident” you gently tapped your head girl badge with pride. “let’s go to class now. i’ll catch sungho later” 

leehan didn’t even realize he was holding in a breath - only when the sound of your voice faded away, he released it. 

he tilted his head and smiled softly, flipped through the pages. he only stopped when he saw a detailed print of a basilisk. quite terrifying yet devilishly smart creature. 

leehan closed the book and packed his belongings, slowly going towards his classroom. 

“oh come on, don’t be such a loner!” riwoo’s whines reached nearby standing student’s ears, causing them to look over at the hufflepuffs. leehan cleared his throat and let out a sigh of defeat.

“fine. who else is going? you know i don’t enjoy crowded places in particular…” he started but his friend already started pushing him towards the exit.

“well you, me, jaehyun, woonhak… and, drumroll please! yes, you guessed it! two infamous slytherins, park sungho and han taesan!” riwoo grinned. leehan nodded, satisfied. that’s a perfect amount of people. “and hanbin”

“just hanbin?” leehan frowned, suspicious. riwoo smiled awkwardly, forcing his friend to move faster.

“and sohee!” riwoo hesitated. 

“and…?” leehan grunted, halting in place.

“that’s all! i promise!” sanghyeok put his hand over his heart “hufflepuff’s honor!”

leehan just scoffed and followed his friend to three broomsticks. it was weekend, after all. going out with more than two people once in a while won’t hurt him, surely. 

it was warm inside, the smell of delicious food hitting his nostrils. donghyun was quick to spot his friends (and their friends). lately jaehyun was detachable from sohee and hanbin. 

eight butterbeers were already waiting on the table, sticking to the wood. 

“you made it, woah! you have my respect!” woonhak, the youngest, joked. sungho patted the seat next to him and leehan sat down, smiling awkwardly. 

“and you? shouldn’t you be on the prefect meeting or whatever?” taesan asked suddenly, sungho rolling his eyes. 

“i should. but if i skip one, nothing will happen” he shrugged, reaching for his butterbeer. 

“y/n seemed pretty upset about it” the words slipped out of leehan’s lips before he could realize it. everyone looked at him, a bit shocked, so he quickly added: “i heard it when she was passing me by. nothing crazy, it’s not like i talk to her or something” 

the mere thought of standing near you terrified him, not to mention talking. donghyun didn’t know how sungho –  or anyone, really – was doing that. 

“she’s being dramatic. miss perfect… she decided to be in charge of organizing almost everything this year, at least it feels like it” sungho mumbled. 

“yeah, it’s crazy how she manages to do it all. well, let’s just hope she won’t cast melfors jinx on you” jaehyun teased 

“his head is as big as a pumpkin already, though” taesan snickered and was met with sungho’s fist on his shoulder. 

you were sitting on the grass, crossing out the ideas that seemed foolish. the weather was cold, yet snow hasn’t fallen yet. even though it was november, you were in charge of organising events for students that are going to stay at hogwarts during christmas. you being one of them. 

well, it wasn’t fully your responsibility - other prefects were supposed to help. 

“stupid sungho…” you mumbled, wrapping your scarf tighter around your neck. 

you looked up and adored the view in front of you. the last of leaves falling off trees, being swept by wind. here and there you could see some students but during this cold season, majority preferred to stay inside. then, you noticed a particular silhouette. 

someone was squatting dangerously close to the lake. 

you stood up, packing your belongings in a rush. 

as you approached the reckless student, you noticed the yellow and black colors of hufflepuff. of course. you opened your mouth to scold their behavior but you heard a quiet murmur. 

“hm? how did you get here, little one? you belong to the island. you couldn’t have possibly swam over here” 

you leaned a bit forward and peeked over the hufflepuff student’s shoulder. he was gently reaching his pointer finger out to a bowtruckle.

the small, green creature was staring at the stranger, big brown eyes blinking slowly. it slowly meet half-way with the person’s finger. 

“you’re not as shy as you friends” a low chuckle made you smile “i should get you back there… but how?” 

the person rose their head up and looked around. the bowtruckle pointed at you. 

“oh?” the student tilted their head and looked through their shoulder, meeting your curious gaze. you gasped, getting caught. 

the guy’s eyes widened, lips tightening. 

“oh” he mumbled. you frowned, his features looking somehow similar. 

the hufflepuff boy stood up, acting as if he did not just hid the small creature in his pocket. he tried to walk away but you stopped him. 

“hey! it’s dangerous to be out here” you cleared your throat. the guy stopped in his tracks, back facing you “do you have an idea what kind of beasts are there?”

a soft smile cracked on his lips, eyes trained on the ground. 

“kelpies, grindylows, selkies… and oh, the giant squid. man, they are so…” he whispered and you were certain he thought his words didn’t reach you. yet, they did. you smiled, realizing he was probably another creature-obsessed student.

“anyway, i do appreciate your care towards this little fella. however, it would be better if hagrid took care of him” you looked at him with a straight face. the hufflepuff boy kept avoiding eye contact and failed to notice the silly bowtruckle escaping from his pocket. 

the green creature ran down his pants and started making circles around you. 

“i, uh… i don’t know how to hold him” you scoffed, trying to catch it. 

“like this. make sure not to tug the leaf on its head…” he breathed out and caught the bowtruckle, holding it in two hands. 

awkward silence fell between you two, the boy stubbornly keeping his head low. 

“i’ll keep going” he mumbled and wandered off to hagrid’s hut, leaving you puzzled and somehow intrigued.

“hey, chill out” sungho nudged your shoulder, casing your fountain pen to jerk and leave a crooked line. you glared at him.

“i would if someone helped me. i still have to come up with ideas for the three last days and i need to turn them in to mcgonagall by friday” you huffed and tossed your notebook aside. 

sungho puffed his cheeks and looked over at taesan for help. he just shrugged, carelessly tucking his hands into his pockets.

“don’t look at me. i’m not even a prefect” his cat-alike smirk made you even more frustrated.

“okay, well… maybe try asking some students what would they want to do?” sungho proposed, scanning your face to gauge your reaction. you let out a small huff.

“see, here we go. thanks. now i just have to ask around who’s staying…” you groaned and noted down the idea, closing your notebook. “but i’ll do that later. now i’ll go, i promised professor snape to help him clean the classroom. a reckless student just… caused a mess, so to say” 

the exchanged amused looks and you raised your eyebrows. 

“what?” 

“nothing. have fun” sungho snorted. his gaze suddenly snapped up to someone else and he waved. you noticed three people walking up. 

one of them looking similar.

“hey, myungjae, do you happen to know someone who’s staying at hogwarts during christmas?” sungho asked, leaning on the table. your fingers twitched at the sight of him almost spilling a cup of juice with his elbow.

“well, uh… our leehan and ricky, i think. and zhanghao. and hanbin, he promised to stay with them so they wouldn’t feel lonely” a boy in gryffindor uniform answered and looked at you, a wide smile painting on his lips.

“you’re staying?” taesan asked. you looked at the only hufflepuff boy in the group. so that was leehan?

“yeah” he answered shortly, purposefully averting his gaze from you. 

“why–?” taesan kept asking and you just sighed. 

“is there anything you would like to do? during the break. i need to organize events for students so i figured it would be the best idea to ask them personally” you crossed your arms. 

everyone looked at the guy, his head tilted down and eyes glued to his shoes. 

“what’s up with him?” the other gryffindor student whispered. 

you waited for a moment before shaking your head. that seemed to work on the boy - he finally looked at you, shyly. 

“it’s a hard question, i know. just… hit me up once you figure it out” you sent him a soft smile and went your way. 

“what’s up with you? is the potion blowing up in your  face still on your mind?” jaehyun laughed and nudged leehan’s shoulder. 

“so that was him after all” taesan snickered. 

“chill out, donghyun. y/n is really cool, don’t need to be all tensed up around her” sungho teased. leehan looked around, scanning the great hall. some people were looking their way - but that was probably nothing serious, right? just a bunch of losers, a prefect and the head girl prefect that’s an all a student.

“earth to leehan! why are you staying here?” jaehyun asked, waving his hand before the hufflepuff boy’s eyes. 

a playful smile painted on leehan’s lips before he explained his reasons to his friends. 

rushing through the dark hallway, you pressed your textbook closer to your chest. it was way past the curfew and you hoped flich was done with his late patrols on this side of the castle. you just happened to get too focused on ancient runes and–

“oof-!”

you felt the impact of bumping into something and almost landed on the ground when a strong hand prevented you from falling. you squeezed your eyes, the darkness not allowing you fully to recognize the stranger.

“y/n…?” his soft voice rang familiar and you glanced at his uniform. the yellow badge with a proud badger adorned his chest.

“leehan, right?” you scoffed and he helped you regain balance, taking a step back. that way, the moonlight sneaking through the windows fell on his face, highlighting his features. 

he fixed his glasses, brows slightly furrowed.

“what are you doing here?” you whispered, blinking slowly. even though your prefect instincts kicked in, you were genuinely curious. 

this boy had just a mysterious aura to him. always so aloof, almost distant. nowadays, you caught yourself noticing him, usually alone reading a book or doing something. something, indeed. just like when you saw him near the lake. he always seemed to be looking for some kind of creatures. you couldn’t help but wonder what he was up to.

“i… uh, i was researching” he smiled gently. his gaze was fixed on you - unlike other times. maybe he didn’t feel so shy now that the midnight darkness was surrounding you two. you thought it was cute. “and, uh… you?”

“ancient runes. they are quite relaxing to me, it’s just… i write them all over to remember how they look. once i nail that i feel like i can read them properly. but just the writing itself… is, yeah. time consuming but fun” you smiled and nudged his arm gently “let’s go together, our dorms are in the same direction”

he nodded and followed you, the quiet sound of footsteps echoing through the corridor.

“did you think about the question? it’s okay if you haven’t, i was just curious” you asked, glancing at him.

“personally, strolling around hogwarts at such hour is nice. i wouldn’t mind it if i was able to do it without the possibility of getting in trouble” he answered. you agreed.

“i haven’t thought about that. hm. maybe it’ll be possible since there’s gonna be less students. i’ll talk to mcgonagall about it” you hummed “thanks” 

“and, uh, did you get it all done? like, the events” his voice was quiet. he wasn’t shy but more so, he was cautiously picking his words. 

“yes but there’s not going to be much. people i asked didn’t seem interested” you sighed.

“it’s a shame, you’ve been working hard to come up with anything” leehan sent you a reassuring smile. a strange glint sparkled in his eye, some kind of sadness. 

“what can i do? i guess they want to be alone, apparently” you scoffed.

“meow”

you two froze, feet glued to the floor. leehan looked at you, wide eyed. 

before you could realize, he was pulling you to hide behind a column. with your head squished against his chest, you could hear his heart pounding as if it was about to rip out of his ribcage. 

his hand naturally rested on your head, the soft fanning of his breath against your hair. 

the sound of footsteps was coming closer and closer as you tried to think of something. 

a sudden beam of light caused leehan to squint his eyes, pulling you slightly closer. 

“what an absurd! not only it is after curfew, you are also… doing things that should be kept private! this place is coming to an end! who would have thought, students… of opposite-!”

“what? no! it’t not like that!” you choked out, turning around on your heel. 

“mrs l/n?!” filch gasped, and mrs norris’ loud meow was almost soul ripping “out of all people! you?”

“no, it’s not like that! we just…” leehan’s voice was quiet, almost stuttering. 

“yes? explain your red faces then! someone who was caught wouldn’t be such a blushing mess! dear merlin, what is going on with those youngsters nowadays!” the caretaker whined.

“we weren’t doing anything, mr filch! we just- we tried to hide! from you, it is. not from you as in… we didn’t-” you tried to explain. when you turned around to check up on the ravenclaw boy, he was indeed as red as the gryffindor representative color. his eyes were glued to the ground and you could swear you saw sweat dripping down his temple.

“detention!”

his eyes snapped up, wide as two prophecy orbs. panic written all over his face, fingers fiddling. 

“it’s my fault. let’s not bring y/n into this” he spoke up, swallowing hard. 

“how so? i see you two. not just you, boy” mr filch said with an attitude, picking up mrs norris. “i’m not repeating myself. detention. madam pince needs help in the library, so it’s just perfect” 

“but-” leehan tried to cut in but the cat interrupted him with an aggressive hiss. 

“now go! before i take points from your houses!” the caretaker tsked and you ran off, grabbing his hand. you could only hear distant murmurs “the head girl… youngsters are getting worse and worse each year…”

once out of his reach, almost at the ravenclaw dormitory, you realized you’re still holding his hand. leehan halted, gasping.

“i’m so sorry, y/n! i don’t know what’s gotten into him but i’ll do it myself. please, don’t bother–” the hufflepuff boy started rambling, avoiding your gaze. was he scared you’re angry at him?

you gently put your hand on his arm.

“hey” 

leehan slowly looked into your eyes; however, just for a split second. his breath was heavy in the silence. 

“it’s alright. i can handle one detention. in the library? it sounds like a pleasure to me” you huffed, trying to cheer him up. poor boy, he must’ve really felt guilty. “he got so pissed because he has never felt the touch of a woman. mr filch got jealous, that’s all” 

you chuckled but leehan remained quiet. well, maybe that was a failed attempt at trying to cheer him up. 

“i, uh. anyway, i’m sorry too. don’t beat yourself about it, okay?” you whispered, patting his arm. leehan’s small nod made you content. “sleep well, leehan” 

he felt your hand slip off his shoulder. 

maybe if he wasn’t too ashamed to look up, he would’ve noticed the way you looked back at him before entering the dormitory.

leehan was standing between the bookshelves, enjoying the smell of books. the library was quiet, thanks to the majority of students having left already. even madam pince wandered off to somewhere. 

“hi”

he turned his head to the side and was shocked to see you. out of your ravenclaw uniform, at that.

“hi” he whispered and quickly returned his gaze to the book he was holding. he gulped nervously, his adam’s apple bobbing.

it was his worst nightmare, actually. bringing the all-star student into detention with him. even though the fault was technically on both sides, he couldn’t help but feel guilty. you should be resting and not… 

“how’s it going?” you asked quietly, standing next to him. your back faced the bookshelf he was facing, side profiles matching. 

“it’s quite pleasant, to be frank” he mumbled in response “you didn’t have to come here”

you scoffed and scanned all the books, laying in messy piles. they really needed reorganizing.

“would i really be able to call myself a student without getting in trouble even once?” you snickered, tucking a strand of your hair behind your ear. “i told you not to worry about it, leehan”

silence fell between you two, only the sound of him flipping the pages bringing warm comfort.

“it’s donghyun, actually” he said softly with a twinge of happiness. you cocked your head and glanced at him, grabbing a random book. “leehan is a nickname that just… stayed. donghyun is my real name”

“it’s pretty” it slipped out of your lips before you could realize, so you just hung your head low and decided to think of a strategy on how to resort the books. leehan smirked and put the book he was holding on one of the shelves. to break the awkward tension you accidentally created, you cleared your throat “uh, did you take care of that bowtruckle back then?”

“bowtruckles aren’t really my thing so i took it to hagrid. he promised me to get it back to its home tree” he hummed, reaching for another book. he ran his fingers over the navy colored cover, the remaining letters of a handwritten title barely there anymore.

“so what is, then?” you asked. 

even though you didn’t have to be quiet, you two kept talking softly. you couldn’t put your finger on it but maybe it was the overall atmosphere of the library. alas, you wouldn’t say you minded. it was comforting.

“sea creatures” donghyun answered with a soft sigh. did you irritate him? 

“sorry. you don’t have to talk about it if you don’t want to. i’m just curious about you” you mumbled. 

your shoulders were touching and you felt his arm move now and then whenever he reached out to put away a book. 

leehan hummed in deep thought, far away with his thoughts - hence, he didn’t hear you.

he never would have thought that he would be conversing with you. you were just so out of his league and intimidated him. good grades, friends with everyone… but deep down it was your organization skills. you just had it all together. despite all those side things you took care of, you still managed to find time to study. heck, you even liked it? he recalled your conversation from the hallway. what did you say about ancient runes…?

“they are quite relaxing to me, it’s just… i write them all over to remember how they look. once i nail that i feel like i can read them properly. but just the writing itself… is, yeah. time consuming but fun.” 

how can one find thousands of new icons to learn, memorise and remember… relaxing. he was a bit jealous that you did it so effortlessly. 

and sure, he heard you complaining about tests and exams. but you still passed with ease. unlike him, who no matter how much he studied, still barely passed. 

“ouch!”

a soft thump of a book falling brought him back to life. 

he leaned down to pick it up but only bumped against your forehead. 

blood rushed to his cheeks out of embarrassment. but you just giggled and took the book, putting it back. 

he must have been zoned out for a while because he noticed you did one of the shelves already. 

you grabbed another book. it had a black cover and no title whatsoever. you started flipping pages to check what even it’s about. leehan, who was peeking through your shoulder, saw a glimpse of an interesting drawing.

“the giant squid” he placed his finger before you closed the book. you were startled a bit and looked around to meet his face quite close to yours. 

yet, his brown eyes were fixated on the creature.

“do you know it’s semi-domesticated? on the chocolate frog cards its described as “the bane” of hogwarts’ students who wanted to go for a “dip in the lake”. it’s so dumb. first of all, it lives very deep in the lake, so even a small dip wouldn’t hurt. and secondly, it’s harmless. it…” he hesitated and a shy smile formed on his lips. you couldn't help but smile as well “it even allows students to feed it bread”

“really?” you asked in disbelief, turning your gaze to look at the drawing of a giant squid. donghyun’s low hum of confirmation made shivers ran down your spine.

“toast to be specific” he added and you felt a movement.

leehan stepped closer and you could feel his body almost pressing against yours, his breath softly fanning over your cheek. the hufflepuff leaned closer to read the information. right, of course.

“but you know, it must be because its magical. true giant squids, architeuthis i think, wouldn’t be able to stand our lake’s lack of salinity. and normally, it wouldn’t digest food” donghyun shrugged. you didn’t know what was happening to you - you couldn’t prevent your smile from growing. listening to him rambling about his niche sea creature interest really warmed your heart.

oh, this boy got you whipped.

“i think it’s a subspecies. like kneazles and mundane cats” leehan added, his finger tracing the black inked illustration of the squid’s tentacles.

your breath hitched. you wanted to reply, to throw a comment. but you realized you had no knowledge in this discipline, making you even more intrigued with donghyun.

“i really want to see it one day. maybe in summer. sometimes it plays with students, you know? lays out its tentacles out of the lake and just… lets the students mess with it” he tsked “hopefully…” 

“i’d like to see that” you giggled. you heard a faint gasp and glanced at him. his eyes snapped back at you, as if he just realized he’s been rambling. 

“i’ll take you with me, then. i planned on going at the end of the year, just before leaving for summer break” he shot you a soft smile, small crinkles forming around his eyes (and you swore your knees just went weak). 

“i’m in” you grinned and gently moved his finger out of the book. then, you closed it and stood on your tiptoes to put it on the higher shelf.

however, you couldn’t reach.

“let me help you” donghyun’s tender voice once again rang from behind you. 

soon enough, you felt his warm hand on your hip as he took the book from your hand and placed it for you. for a mere moment you could feel his chest pressing against your back, the smell of his cologne invading your senses like a swarm of butterflies whirling around you.

you didn't even realize when the hufflepuff boy was back in his position, putting back the rest of the books. and further on ramling about sea creatures.

“there was also a case of the giant squid helping a student that had fallen into the lake…”

sitting on a nearby bench, you were writing the ancient runes to form a sentence. actually, you were writing in your journal about today’s date with donghyun. his own notebook was laying next to you - he was afraid to get it wet. 

“ah, y/n, quick! a grindylow!” he yelped and you shot to your feet, dropping your journal onto the bench. with snow crunching underneath your feet, you sprinted towards the hufflepuff boy. he had his scarf and hat on, pink nose peeking from the layers. 

“how did it come here?” you asked curiously, quickly joining his side. 

leehan's  gloved hand grabbed yours and pointed at the quickly swimming creature. it was barely visible due to its dark color blending with the green shade of the lake but you could see its outline. 

“my bet is looking for food. they like fish. or maybe it was bored. or…” donghyun hesitated, looking over at you. you shifted your gaze at him, looking at his big brown eyes hidden behind his glasses. “or… it came here for its prey!”

donghyun suddenly wrapped his arms around you, lifting you off the ground and spinning around. you squealed, taken by a surprise. 

“they don’t eat humans!” you whined when he put you down.

“uh… sure…” he chuckled and reached to the pocket of his puffy jacket. he grabbed some dried algae and threw it into the water. you moved closer to him, suddenly scared. interlocking arms with his, you snuggled onto his side.

“it eats people?” you asked quietly as you saw the creature swimming closer to the food. its head poked out of the water surface, small, black, shiny eyes looking at you before taking a bite of the algae.

leehan snickered and grabbed your chin, eyes locking with you.

“only cuties like you” he grinned and moved his yellow and black scarf out of his face. then, he leaned closer and kissed you softly. even though his lips were cold, you felt warmth spreading through your body. you smiled into the kiss and pulled him even closer by the scarf. 

who would have thought that two days after the detention you’d gain the courage to ask him out. 

he pulled back slightly, first looking at your lips with a smirk and then back in your eyes.

“and humans. but only the grown grindylows and that one is still a baby” he grinned. and before you could even roll your eyes, he pulled your ravenclaw-colored hat down and covered half of your face. with a giggle, he pulled you closer.

masterlist <3

taglist. @slytherinshua ,, @weird-bookworm

[passionwillow]

Wanna Solve A Murder? - Chapter 1

Hi guys! This is an idea I came up with and I thought people might like it. Let me know what you think? It’s my first chapter story! So I’m super excited!

Pairings: Deacon x Plus sized!reader (age gap, everyone is of consenting age)

Summary: You've grown close with 20-David, especially a certain silver haired sergeant. When he asks you to help him do research on an old case, you get dragged into more than you expected.

Warnings: mentions of old murder, use of Y/N

“Street!”

You called out your best friends name as you walked through the house, a grin spreading along your face as you spotted him in the corner of the living room.

Chris, Tan, Hondo, Luca and Deacon were around him, 20-David all together. Each of them smiled bright when they saw you approaching, Street the first to greet you with a hug.

The music and chatter became background noise as you greeted each member, Deacon’s touch lingering just a little longer than the others.

You’d been friends with Street for years. You met while in the foster system and had stayed in touch with him ever since you were 12 years old. You’d been with one another through all the ups and downs of growing up, and your pride in him when he joined SWAT was immeasurable.

He’d had a hard right adjusting to the team, no doubt. And it had been your voice in his ear encouraging him. Chewing him out when he got kicked off and cheering him on when he got back to 20-David. He’d introduced you to the team shortly after and everyone adored you.

Especially Deacon.

You’d clicked with him most of all when you met them all for dinner. You’d sat between Street and Deacon in the Chinese restaurant, and the conversation flowed effortlessly. You were amazed how much you both had in common. Shared hobbies and interests, favorite music and books. You’d almost forgotten you were at a table full of other people.

Ever since then, whenever Street brought you around or you showed up unannounced with some treat in hand, Deacon was one of the first to greet you.

You got along great with the others. Chris was always happy to hang out, Tan and Hondo were happy to help with car problems or plumbing issues in your apartment. Luca was always reminding you he had a couch to crash on if you needed it.

But Deacon drew your interest the most.

He had opened up shortly after you met about his children and the divorce, and you were happy to offer babysitting services whenever he needed. He gladly took you up on those.

You had so many discussions late into the night about religion, his faith and yours, how hard the divorce was on him and financial struggles. He opened up to you about so much of his life, and you shared the same personal details with him.

Your life growing up in the system, the families you'd been placed with and torn away from, where your real parents were the last you knew. He was a solid support for all of it.

Being around Deacon was second nature, almost natural. You were certain no one else noticed it, but you didn’t realize how wrong you were.

When you pulled away from the hug and looked up at him, his eyes were shimmering with amusement and affection. The warm gaze that was shared between you both didn’t go unnoticed by the rest of the team, especially Street.

“How’s it going, guys?” You asked brightly, stepping back and joining the circle the rest of the team formed. Hondo answered first, launching into a story about another move he made on a helicopter.

It genuinely seemed interesting, you tried to pay attention. But your gaze kept slipping to the man beside him, the silver hair and the brown eyes and the beard, god you loved-

“Y/N? Hello?” You jumped out of your daze and smiled, brain scrambling to catch up with the conversation around you. “Yeah! Yeah, work has been great. We’re slowing down, this time of year, you know. But we’re doing great.”

Chris seemed satisfied with your response and jumped into a story about her uncle, and you tried to focus your mind on your friends this time.

It wasn't long before Street and Chris wandered off on their own, Hondo and Tan disappearing as Tan talked about Bonnie. Luca got distracted by something Rocker was saying and walked off, leaving you with Deacon.

The older man didn't have to say much as he led you to the backyard, knowing you'd follow. The backyard was mostly empty, a few people in the dark corners. Deacon took a seat on top of the picnic table, watching you sit beside him with a smile.

"Everything going alright?" His voice was soft and raspy after not speaking for so long, too distracted by your arrival to participate much in the previous conversations.

You nodded and smiled reassuringly, head cocked as you studied him. "Everything okay with you? You seem.. More in your head than usual."

He smiled at your words and shook his head briefly, elbows on his knees and hands clasped as he looked at the ground. "You know how I've been going to the prison, leading the prayer group?" You watched him and hummed in response, brows knitting together in concern. But you let him continue.

"One of the guys is someone I arrested. About.. 6 years ago? And he's been talking to me, saying that he's innocent. And I'm.. Starting to wonder."

“What was he arrested for?” You kept your tone soft and light, trying to put him at ease. “Murder. He murdered a girl, he was working at her house. Supposedly she rejected his advances and.. he killed her. Stuffed her body in a pantry.”

The heaviness in his tone, his lack of eye contact.. You knew this was bothering him. You shifted a little closer before you could talk yourself out of it, trying to ignore the chilling details he exposed as your shoulder bumped his. "So what if you looked into it? Can't hurt anything, right?"

He leaned into you, the warmth from your body giving him comfort as he raised his head and turned to you, brown eyes glued to yours. "I want to. What if this man really is innocent, and he's lost all these years over a mistake?" You nodded along as he spoke, understanding the worries he had.

Deacon took so much pride in his job, in his work.. You knew how badly this was eating away at him. "Can I help at all?"

"I was actually hoping you would.. I was going to ask you." He smiled slightly and broke into a laughed as your eyes lit up, a grin spreading across your face. Working a real case? With him?

"I would love to, Deacon. Really." You beamed and reached out to briefly squeeze his hand, his long fingers quick to brush yours in return. "Good. You free tomorrow? I pulled the files already, just need some fresh eyes to look over them."

"Just tell me when to be there." He nodded and stood up, taking your arm and helping you off the table before releasing you, his shoulders lowered at the weight that was lifted.

"Tomorrow we'll start, then."

[amphitriteswife]

📝✂️Ror/ Snv characters as Students📝✂️

Qin shin huang:

🪭 never listens to the teacher. Like ever. He just does a lot of shit and the teacher is fed up with him so they let it slide

🪭 He’s the type of student to never study or show up and still pass with ease. No one knows how, not even the teachers.

🪭’ Qin you have had like 43 periods of missed lesson and it’s not even the second semester. How the hell did u even pass my test’ ‘Sir, i am literally God’s chosen emperor’

🪭 If you’re partnered up with him, prepare to take the lead cause bro either doesn’t know shit or he aint even present to begin with

🪭Even though he doesn’t do much for projects, he still buts whatever you need for it as a way to repay you. Including if he gets food or drinks, he’s paying for them too.

🪭Has very random subjects. Mainly cause they have China in them, including Chinese.

🪭 ‘Alright, what subjects do you wish to choose to take exams from?’ ‘China’

🪭 Violates dress codes. You need to dress in uniform? He’ll wear the most lavish suit you have ever laid your eyes upon. The school has a gala and you need to dress fancy? He’ll pull up w the most casual and basic outfit ever.

🪭 If he’s actually present, which is a rare sight, he’s usually loud. Mainly cause he has lots of friends and basically knows everyone since you can get along with him greatly.

🪭 complains about a lot of subjects. Math? He hates it. Biology? It gives him big brain moment and he doesn’t get it. Literature? Not Chinese? He don’t want anything to do with it.

🪭 ‘Ma’am i’m innocent, why does thou must bestows such suffering upon me?’ ‘Qin i just asked you if you could read page 34 out loud’

🪭 popular with girls. U know how bro rizzed up Alvitr? Yeah he does that with other girls too. He’s one of the popular dudes so it’s not like it’s hard either💀

🪭He’s a kpop stan. You can’t prove me otherwise. He listens to BTS, Straykidz, Ateez, KAI, EXO, Tri.be, Itzy and a lot more.

🪭 has lots of friends to the point he almost knows the whole school. Even the new comers.

🪭He a player actually. You know how bro had like idk 39291819101 concubines? Yeah that doesn’t change here either. ‘Hannah? She was In February. Mao mao? She’s so last week’

🪭Throws house parties. The extravagant ones too. Big house, a pool, big garden, many floors. You name it. Funny thing is: it aint even the main house.

🪭won the vote for: ‘Who will most likely become a stripper at the end of the school year?’ In the year books. Most think it’s not even cause he needs money but because he’ll do it for fun

🪭 passed out during the School Gala cause he heard someone say that Sushi is Japanese.

🪭doesn’t eat cafeterias food. ‘I, Qin Shi Huang, refuse to eat this….stuff…I have my own glorious food. You’ll never catch him eat anything that isn’t Asian food.

🪭Bothers ppl during lectures. As in he turns and just stares. He’ll either smile or just keep staring to annoy you.

🪭 always goes to school functions, yet ends up being the one yall wait for to go back. He just disappears when yall arrive and spawns back 34 min late.

🪭Has started a campaign for trips to China

🪭 Had a lot of baby momma’s. He a cool dad and rich enough for it. Lowkey knows how to be a dad too

Poseidon:

🔱 he’s in the school’s swimming team and even won awards for it.

🔱 straight A+ student. He a boring one okay. He dont party, doesn’t even hang out after school. Straight home and learning.

🔱 You’ll only catch him drinking water during breaks and eating nutritious. He actually enjoys salad’s. Especially when it’s middle eastern ones. Does he know what’s in it? He thinks. But he dont care. If it healthy and it bussing it works for him.

🔱 ‘My body is a temple’ ahh student. It wouldn’t be surprising if his ass did Yoga or some meditation.

🔱 only goes to school trips if it’s on the beach or it’s for a grade. He the type of person that actually does the assignment instead of having fun.

🔱 he doesn’t have many friends and usually sticks to his brothers or has his earphones in. He’s the one that’s usually silent during that time too

🔱 He’s the honor graduate. Didn’t give a speech tho. He just grabbed the diploma and dipped. He did grab some food that was prepared

🔱 actually has a gf??🤨 like legit, and she’s the captain of the swimming team. He lowkey simps but he’s Poseidon so you probably will never notice.

🔱 was at a house party once. ONCE. Bro got wasted. He didn’t know punch contained alcohol, bro thought it was lemonade. Ate too much with alcohol in his system. I think yall can guess that it didn’t end well for em😭

🔱 He wears casual clothes, sometimes blazers. He doesn’t like yoga pants cause they look ‘lanky’ not even during Yoga

🔱 He takes notes during classes. Like every class. Every moment. He either writes them or types it on his laptop. Only shared with ppl likes. It’s always organized too.

🔱 if you’re partnered up with him, it can go two ways. He’s either doing only his part and leaves you to fend for yourself. Or he helps (rare sight) with the difficult parts.

🔱 he prefers communicating in the chat document. That way he can be home and still communicate if he needs to, he doesn’t like calling cause his brothers are loud asf, and he wouldn’t talk until necessary.

🔱 supports the school library. Mostly because it’s quiet and he likes quiet, but also because he wants to read a lot and it’s an excuse to not go home. He usually studies there too.

🔱 goes to waterparks during school breaks and posts pics on insta. Insta only too. No snap, no facebook, no bereal, no nothing. Even if he does have it, he doesn’t want others to know.

🔱 surprisingly has discord. But it’s only to play games. He curses ppl out in voice chat.

🔱 would either never have kids or ends up being a teenage dad. Dw tho, his gf can support him if he ends up being a stay at home husband.

🔱 models for extra money. Mostly tight clothes cause they gotta use that body for good advertisement.

🔱 he also hits the gym regularly, so he posts pics about him at the gym too.

🔱 has an onlyfans?????

Loki:

🎭 probably sees the school therapist. Every month too. They give him candy.

🎭 Actually likes literature, art, music and surprisingly p.e🤨 he likes p.e cause he can get his mind off things and look good

🎭 probably has or is in an emo phase. He has his ear pierced and wears black cargo pants. Might even have some tattoo’s.

🎭 He either annoys ppl or is very quiet. Although ppl are mostly scared when he’s quiet cause he unpredictable.

🎭 He probably goes out for walks with his earphones in after school. Like y’know when it’s raining a lil and you can smell the grass n all while you listen to music? Yeah that’s his nostalgic experience.

🎭 He writes poems in his free times or spents a lot of time in the atelier.

🎭 Had a very messy break up with sigyn and it was the hot topic in the school. It was in the school’s newspaper and everything. Even the teachers knew

🎭 he listens to a lot of music. Mostly during making art or writing. He mostly listens to: Mitsuki, Chase Atlantic, Beach Weather, The Weekend, Tylor the Creator and The Neighborhood.

🎭He either hates or loves school trips. Even if he hates the school trip he still goes, mainly because Sigyn goes. But he won’t talk to her though. Cause he too scared.

🎭 He takes aesthetically pleasing pictures of different things. He has a nature page, a dark royal one and a school one. All of em are on insta though.

🎭 he does sometimes go to parties, but he either spends a lot of time with his friends and gets wasted or goes home early.

🎭He’s friends with Hercules and Ares. Who are mostly concerned for his well being.

🎭 he also might have gotten into heavy metal and vkei. His ass might may have since it cause Sigyn likes it.

🎭 if you pared with him you, he either does stuff ir leaves it and does it on the last moment before tge deadline. His ass likes working alone. Secretly prays to be put w Sigyn

🎭 Legit had a mental breakdown in class once. I think bro is used to having em.

🎭 Got voted to be one of those pissy teachers later on in life in the year book.

That’s all for now💀 might make a part two w more characters.

⭐️tag list⭐️ @miss-seanymph-pani @tinyy-tea-cup @heldril @nicasdreamer @monstertreden @riseofamoonycake @imperfectbloodmoon @salmonpoki @snowmantita @rukia-writes @swallowtail-lotus @brokensenseofhumor @bromeliae

[thebubblesareevil]

Secrets for the Soul

Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 5

“That concludes our meeting for tonight, thank you all for making time to join us.” Announced Batman, finally ending this tortuous l, though necessary meeting. Diana stood from her seat and said her goodbyes intent on getting back to Danny for movie night. If she hurried she could stop and pick up ice cream, her hopes of the frozen treat were dashed however when she was stopped by a hand on her shoulder.

“Diana, a moment of your time?” Batman asked with a gruff voice. Diana silently mourned her ice cream as she smiled back and the two stepped away from the zeta-tubes. “As you are aware, Black Canary is leading the training for the covert team. However Canary brought it to my attention that while Superboy is doing well in his training, he is getting very little experience fighting opponents of an equal or greater power level.” Diana frowned.

“He is the teams biggest heavy hitter, it would do them no good if he were to falter when given a challenge.”

“My thoughts exactly, which is why I would like you to take some time to spar with him. Show him what it means to fight above your level.” Batman nodded,

Diana looked at Batman, skeptical “Wouldn’t Superman be better suited for this task.”

“Things between them are a bit…stained to say the least.” He ground out.

Diana frown, “I would be willing to engage the young one in battle, however Superman needs to figure things out with the boy. He is only a child, he needs guidance.” She said firmly.

“I know your hands are already full, we can work out a schedule at another date however I would like it if you would come by this weekend to meet him.” Diana raised her brow. His eye twitched “Please” he added.

“Now that wasn’t so hard was it? Alfred’s been pestering you about manners again, huh?” She smirked. Batman grunted. “That should be fine, I’ll be there Saturday morning at 10, and Batman? I won’t hold back.” She said with a savage grin.

“I would expect nothing less.” And with that Diana took her leave. It was a short flight from the Zeta point to her apartment, when she arrived Danny looked up from his Mars book.

“You’re late~” He said with a grin “You know what that means. You forfeit your movie choice!” Diana sighed as she went to get changed.

“All right, fair is fair, did you pick up dinner?”Danny nodded as he scrolled through the movie choices.

“Chinese is on the counter, drinks are in the fridge.” He shouted as he set up the movie. “Comedy good?” He asked as she made her way to the fridge.

“Sure.” She replied, opening the fridge she grabbed the drinks sitting next to the chain covered stew labeled ‘Danny’s! Do not touch!’

Grabbing the Chinese she made her way over and plopped herself on the couch. “So what are we watching?”

“Only one of my favorite ghost comedies EVER! The Grudge! It’s hilarious, trust me!” He tilted his head in a picture of innocence. “By the way, why were you late, something wrong with the league?” He inquired, nudging her with his elbow. Diana scoffed.

“We are a team of international vigilantes, something’s always wrong. However, in this case, Batman stopped me to ask a favor. There is a young hero who packs quite a punch, however unlike you he has mostly fought people who are physically equal or weaker than him. He needs to train with someone stronger than him to get used to fighting stronger opponents. I’ll be meeting with him on Saturday morning.” Danny nodded.

“Cool, I’m gonna be hanging out with Travis. We were planning to check out the arcade near his new job.” Diana smiled.

“It’s a pity he left the museum, where did he end up going?”

“He got a job on the boardwalk, at that smoothie shop. Y’know with giant monkey on the window.” Diana nodded.

“They do have good smoothies. Grandfather expects us for dinner that night so don’t stay out too late.”

“Sounds great! Hopefully I can get the recipe for that stew, it’s way better than Lunch Lady’s… don’t tell her I said that.” Diana frowned.

“So long as it doesn’t try to eat my lunch again, my poor sandwich it was so young, so tasty.” She replies dramatically with her hand on her heart. “Now start the movie, I wanna see what passes for ghost comedy.” She passes Danny his mushu pork and he presses play….

Two hours later Danny is asleep on the couch as Diana stares at the tv, reevaluating her definition of humor. Looking down at her peacefully sleeping cousin, she couldn’t be too mad. But she could ask around for the best chick flick she could find as payback.

———————-

Saturday morning came, and as promised Diana made her way to a zeta tube. When she arrived at Mount Justice, Batman was already there and based on their reactions he had already briefed them on todays training. She grinned, this was gonna be fun.

She wasn’t wrong either, they each took turns trying to knock her down, each failing more splendidly than the last. When it came time for Superboy to face her she readied herself to face the strength of Superman.

Unfortunately for Superboy, he did not have the same strength as Superman. Diana had also been regularly sparring with Danny, so her evaluation of his strength might have been a bit…skewed to say the least.

Unfortunately only hindsight is 20/20 and so when Superboy charged she immediately countered with full force, and he went flying across the room. After crash landing Superboy quickly righted himself and started charging her once more. Diana, while impressed at his enthusiasm, frowned at how easy it was to push his buttons. She grabbed her lasso and quickly subdued him. He fought against the bindings, though he had no hope of destroying the magical artifact. Diana released him only when he calmed down. She looked Superboy in the eye with a smile.

"You did very well young one, your warrior's spirit is admirable, however you must use it at the right time. When fighting an opponent that you know is stronger than you, you must used that spirit wisely. Wait until you find an opening before you strike, otherwise your opponent will use that strength against you, as I did."

Superboy clenched his fists and grit his teeth, Diana knew that look well. He was frustrated, her advice was likely akin to something he hears quite often. Diana sighed, "I will not tell you to purge yourself of this spirit as it is a useful tool, one I myself use when fighting overwhelming enemies. It is nothing to be ashamed of. However you must be careful not to be consumed by it. I have known many who let the rush of battle consume them. It has never ended in their favor." she approached Superboy, placing a hand on his shoulder.

"I will work with you on this journey, young one, so that you may learn as I did." she said with a smile.

Superboy looked surprised "Seriously? Why? What do you get out of this?" Diana laughed

"What else?! I want a proper rematch! You have impressive strength, I would like to see what you can do with it with a little extra training, young one." Superboy looked her in the eye for a moment before looking to the side.

"My name is Conner." he said with a blunt tone. "And...thank you."

"It's my pleasure Conner, now come, our time today is short let's see who else wants to try their might."

She turned back to see Kid Flash slowly inch behind Artemis. She gave a predatory grin, "It seems we have a volunteer!"

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

Meanwhile...

Danny woke up with his alarm at noon, and couldn't help but revel in the amount of sleep he got, a whole eight hours. He briefly considered snuggling back into the world's comfiest, and coldest, comforter, gifted to him by Frostbite. He slowly closed his eyes before his second alarm went off reminding him that he does in fact have to get up, as he has plans today.

He dragged himself out of bed, still wrapped in his comforter, and made his way to the kitchen. After starring into the fridge for roughly five minutes, as though it held the secrets of the universe... or poptarts, he grinned and grabbed his leftover stew. Pouring some into a bowl and reheating it, he slowly made his way to the table to savor his blob ghost stew. He jumped only a little when his phone started blaring once more, he scrunched his nose before looking at the caller ID. It was Travis. Danny sighed, it was too early to talk.

"Hnnghh?" The sound of laughter exploded from the other end.

"I'm sorry sleeping beauty, did I wake you?" Danny released a massive yawn.

"Nah, mm jus eatin breakfst? Wazzup?" He mumbled, watching the tiny blobs swim around in his stew with half-lidded green eyes.

"Hey I ran into a buddy of mine, mind if he tags along?" Danny scooped out a particularly plump blob and took a bite.

"Hmmm" Travis laughed.

"I'm gonna take that as a yes. We'll meet you at Café Loco before we head to the arcade, you sound like you need it. Were you up playing video games again last night?" Danny once more responded with a noncommittal, “hmmm” because no he was not playing video games. He was flying invisibly around the city and lost track of time, who wouldn't it was beautiful.

“Alright man, I’ll let you get back to you’re breakfast. See ya soon.” And the call ended.

Danny put his phone back down and finished eating before he started getting ready for the day. He threw on some jeans and a t-shirt, taking a moment to consider the jacket. His core would keep him cold, normally he wouldn’t bother but…. He sighed grabbing the jacket. Being a teen hero left him with more than a few scars, Travis was led to believe he got them in the accident that killed his “parents” but this new guy… it would be annoying to explain again, best avoid it entirely.

He grabbed his wallet and headed out, walking down the street he greeted familiar faces, stopping to pet Mrs. Perkins’ dog as he made his way to the bus stop. It wasn’t a long ride, and when he arrived he clambered out of the bus. Heading towards Cafe Loco like a beacon in a storm. He beelined it to the counter, nearly crying at the lack of a line as he ordered his cappuccino with 4 shots of espresso.

Travis found him huddled in a corner booth, curled around his coffee, watching people pass by. He saw a perfect opportunity and slowly snuck up to the booth, he was inches away from tugging the earbuds out of his ears when Danny suddenly turned his head to look him directly in the eyes. Travis jumped back with a shout, Danny took a long sip of his coffee, the stranger next to Travis covered his mouth trying his best not to laugh.

“Why is it so hard to scare you?! I swear this guy has eyes in the back of his head!” At this point the guy next to him scoffed.

“Or he saw your reflection in the window.” He said, pointing at the offending surface.

“Who’s side are you on?!” The stranger shrugged and Danny chuckled.

“I don’t think pointing out the obvious counts as taking sides. Your Travis’ friend right? I’m Danny, nice to meet ya.” He said, the other guy smiled.

“I’m Matt, nice to meet ya. Is the coffee here any good?” Danny nodded, pulling his coffee closer.

“It’s okay at best, he just likes it because they don’t limit his espresso shots because he bribes them.”

“It’s not consider a bribe of it goes in the tip jar.” He said with a wide grin. Matt blushed.

“Oh really, I’ll have to try that.” He coughed into his hand. “So, uh, you said we were going to the arcade.”

“Hell yeah! You said it had all kinds of new and retro games! Plus desktop gaming! Let’s go!” Danny stood from his seat. While he may never reach the overwhelming height of Jack Fenton, Danny had grown to be a respectable 5’10. He was quite proud of this fact though he didn’t think of it too much, considering his cousin was over 6’. But still he wasn't that tall, right? Danny thought,

'So why the hell did Matt just look at him like he was 10 feet tall? Sure the guy wasn't huge, but he wasn't exactly short either.'

Matt backed up just a bit, rubbing the back of his neck and looking away, "Yeah, let's get going before it get's too crowded." Danny downed the rest of his coffee and they headed out. Along the way they started talking about the upcoming school year, as it turned out Matt would be joining him as a junior at Gateway High.

Despite Travis' not so subtle diversions, Matt eventually made a rookie mistake. He asked what Danny wanted to do when he graduated. For the next hour Danny went on and on about how he wanted to build space ships, and how amazing space is, and did you read the Daily Planet interview with Martian Manhunter?!

Not to say Danny ran out of things to say about space after an hour, especially when Matt was giving him his full attention even when they got to the arcade and started playing. No, as someone who worked with Danny until his parents made him quit, Travis knew EXACTLY how long winded Danny could be when it came to space so he did the only thing that could distract him from space. He brought up his cousin.

"So I here your cousin is single and ready to mingle, according to Mrs. Doris, you think if I gave her my number I'd have a chance?" Travis wiggled his eyebrows. Danny looked at him as though he just said he put jelly on a tuna sandwich.

"Dude first of all, you're like 17 it's not gonna happen, second of all, and I cannot stress this enough, she is way out of your league." Travis pouted as Matt laughed at his suffering, not knowing his sacrifice.

"Ahh whatever man, let's just play. I hear there's this new game added to the online corner. Something called Doomed?" Danny froze, slowly turning to face Travis.

"Did you say Doomed?" his eyes were wide.

"Yeah? Have you-" Danny grabbed both teens by the arm and dragged them over to the desktops. Over the next few hours, the three of them made characters and a crowd gathered as Danny dominated level after level. Eventually though his alarm went off, reminding him to head home for dinner. After they said their goodbyes, Danny took off leaving Matt and Travis alone.

"Don't even think about it." Travis said, Matt tensed.

"He has single handedly increased the foot traffic in the space exhibit from the sheer amount of people who come to flirt with him. Him and his cousin are next level man." Matt's face turned a fiery red. Travis looked at him with pity. "If it makes you feel better, he has yet to actually say yes to anyone. To be fair though, I don't think he realizes their flirting when he's in space mode." Travis shrugs.

Matt nearly wept.

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

Danny dug into the lasagna with extreme gusto, while Diana ate at a much more restrained pace as she ate her second helping.

"You've outdone yourself, grandfather. Dinner is absolutely divine." Diana complemented the elderly (at the moment) Ancient. He gave her a proud smile.

"I should hope so, I got this recipe from Naples in the 15th century, from a lovely family of noodle makers. I tweaked it a bit based on it's evolution, I'm quite proud of how it turned out." he said with a grin as his form shifted to that of a young man. "But enough of that, how was your day today? I know you were planning on training the young Kryptonian clone today, how did that go?" grinning, Diana raised a brow, Danny perked up.

"Have you been spying on us grandfather?" Danny laughed.

"He's always spying on us, trust me. But who cares, what was that about a clone?" Diana sighed, resigned.

"Conner is a clone of Superman. Normally it would be his responsibility to train him, however he has been a bit... reluctant to interact with the boy." Danny scrunched up his nose.

"Did he try to kill him yet?" Diana looked at Danny, surprised.

"Superman may object to training him but I assure you he has not intent-" Danny waved his hands.

"No, no, not Superman. Did Conner try to kill him yet, it's like, a clone rite of passage." Diana stared at Danny. Danny stared back.

Clockwork drank his tea, fully aware of what he started.

"I'm gonna need a little more explanation than that." Danny shrugged

"I mean, he's gotta try to kill his original at some point. Just to get it out of his system y'know. My clone didn't last a full day before she tried to kill me." Danny shrugged, taking another bite of his lasagna.

Diana gave him a look like she was praying to the gods for patience, honestly she probably was, before she finally responded.

"When exactly were you cloned?" Danny shrugged.

"When I was like, 14 I think. I know it was after I met gramps, now that is a crazy story." Diana took a deep breath.

"We can get to that later, can we focus on the clone that tried to kill you? Please?" Danny set down his fork on his now clean plate.

"I guess, there's not really much to tell. My dad's best friend, who hated him by the way, wanted me to be his son because we were the only existing halfas, he's not technically he's more alive than he is dead, and because he was in love with my mom, she despised him, I told him no when he repeatedly demanded for me to join him, of course not he's a fruitloop, so he cloned me, a couple times actually but none of them were stable so they destabilized, and Ellie, the only stable clone, posed as my cousin, she is now kinda, and when my back was turned she tried to kill me. It's cool though, she realized Vlad was a fruitloop and we beat him up." he shrugged. "Like I said, there's really not much to tell." he explains before he starts to sneak over to the cookie jar.

Diana looked over at her grandfather, "What?" he nodded in symathy.

"I understand it's a lot to take in, however I assure you any future murder attempts perpetuated by young Ellie are completely harmless. She spends most of her time these days exploring the realms or spending time with Pandora." Clockwork explained.

Diana sighed turning to Danny "And you were okay with this? Being cloned by your enemy."

Danny swallowed his bite "Oh, hell no. I was pissed. Not only did he violate my privacy, he stole my DNA! He made a kid to replace me! So I kicked his ass and stole my clone." Diana looked to the heavens for advice, Clockwork set a hand on her shoulder.

"The gods will be no help when it comes to things like this. Trust me." he smiled. "And how was your day Danny? Did you have fun making friends?" Danny grinned.

"Definitely! He let me blather on about space!" Diana's eyes went wide.

'Dear gods, not another one.'

@a-salty-sal@impulsiveasshole@meira-3919@alcorbearson@cute6troll@samgirl98@skulld3mort-1fan@addie-lover-of-stories@amercurio@chronicallyonline-fandomwh0r3 @heirxofxtime @gin2212 @thegatorsgoose@wanderer-of-worlds@terzatheunderscorerima@bright-shade@satanicrutialspecialist@mur-ururu@birdie-24-05@ascetic-orange@cyber-geist@thatrandomsarahchick@dr-syko-pharm-4@observerblock23@addie-lover-of-stories@rainybyday@berseid@pastalavistamf@ae-vixrose@sunflowershine03@theauthorandtheartist@ruelukas22@krzys2000@onlyhereforthechaos@stargirl1331@apointlessbox@mewzaque@distractedducky@cutelittlebeanie@unorthodoxdreamers @universallytacowolfbakery @joseph557@ver-444@icedbluesoul@shark-time@milo-l-l @spookytragedyshark@nutcase8691@idfk-man10

[i-only-ever-asked-questions]

Map of Soho Good Omens Season 2 - Part 3 (the intersecting street)

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 4 Update: Map and pictures further down now have Lucky Snake, and the description of both the Lucky Snake and The Chinese Buffet Restaurant have been updated too.

We don't know the name of the street that crosses Whickber Street. It starts between the market and the furniture store, and after a crooked crossing of Whickber St., it continues between the bookshop and the Dirty Donkey Pub until it ends on Wardour Street. On that upper block we have: -A. Z. Fell & Co. The bookshop has a backdoor that leads to this street. -Bilton Scaggs Hats and Caps This shop has been here for centuries. Originally Bilton and Scaggs was a publishing firm that printed among other things "The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, witch." Neil believes they went out of business in the late 19th century and the hat makers took over. Their shop was called Bilton and Scaggs Milliner & Haberdasher for a while and eventually they changed to Bilton Scaggs Hats and Caps. But honestly, only Aziraphale knows the whole story.

On the other side of the street we have: -The Dirty Donkey We don't know how long this pub has been in business, but we know that it was already there in the 40's when the zombies used it to hide and spy on the heroes. And then in 1967 Crowley used a private room to set up the caper to steal holy water from a church. The set was also used to set up two of the pubs where Gabriel and Beelzebub met. Both scenes were filmed on the same day! After the tour, the first episode of Season 2 was screened inside the pub for those lucky enough to win spots. The Dirty Donkey Pub has also appeared in Neil's "We Can Get Them for You Wholesale" and "Sandman: Overture." In the show, one of the elevators to Heaven and Hell opens inside the Dirty Donkey, maybe this supernatural ability allows it to show up in many different Neilverses ;) -"Model" This is Mrs. Sandwich mysterious establishment. Nobody really knows what happens there. We know the upper floor has lovely pink curtains, presumably for her girls who also love coffee. -Will Goldstone's Magic Shop Named after Will Goldston (not sure why an extra "e"), a stage magician who wrote many books on magic. The store existed in 1941 when it was run by Pat (who met a gruesome end at the hands of zombie nazis). Will Goldston himself died in 1948. So, was he the owner of the store and Pat just an employee? Did someone use his name? Or is that the reason behind the additional "e", to claim it wasn't him? We don't know. In current times it is operated by Mutt.

This street ends on Waldour Street and because we don't see much of it, I included those shops in this post: -Chinese Buffet Restaurant (updated) The English sign just says "Chinese Restaurant", Google translate gave me "Chinese Buffet Restaurant" for the sign on either side (if you look closely both sides say the same thing). There is no other writing that I could see so I would say that we don't know if it has another name or where is it written (inside maybe?). @embracing-the-ineffable raised the question of how do we know Mr. and Ms. Cheng own the restaurant. The truth is that we don't know for sure. We have assumed it probably because Aziraphale and Ms. Cheng are in front of the restaurant when he invites her to the meeting, but for all we know she was just walking on the street when they met. The Chengs could easily own the Herbal Pharmacy or the Grocery Store. We just don't know for sure -Lucky Snake (updated) To the right of the restaurant (our left) there is another store with yellow walls and red lanterns. It was brought to my attention (thank you!) that this is the infamous Lucky Snake we see in Aziraphale's typed list of shops. In Season 1 it was called "Oriental Delights" but this season it is a grocery store. -Herbal Medicine and Pharmacy - Traditional Chinese medicine appointments To the left of the restaurant (our right) we have the herbalist/pharmacy. This is written in English while "traditional medicine appointments" is written in Chinese. There is no other name outside either.

Turning around and looking towards Whickber Street, we can get a peek all the way to Great Windmill Street, between the news agency and the market. -Windmill Theatre Today it is called Windmill Soho but the name Windmill Theatre is equally recognizable. In 1941 it was owned by Mrs. Laura Henderson. The theatre was famous for 1)not closing at all, even during the heaviest of bombings and 2)its motionless nude girls (tableaux vivants) called the "Windmill Girls". Because of this, it used the motto "We Never Closed" (although people modified to "We Never Clothed"). In the set, the doors are not props, they are the real doors to the internal docks of the studio, which honestly it is very clever.

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 4

[kindlespark]

this is gonna be SO long and rambly sorry anyway i saw a post abt how babel does queer characters and it got me thinking abt why the tropes it uses would usually turn me off other stories but didn’t here

MAJOR BABEL SPOILERS //

i feel like i’d be more mad abt how robinramy ended up in babel if it marketed itself as queer lit at all or if its fans were going “WOW AMAZING QUEER REP” abt it. but no one told me any of that, so finding out they were gay was just a fun little bonus surprise to me. i get why ppl are eh abt robinramy not getting together/technically still being subtext (which i dont think is really true btw like the book literally says “robin was falling in love” but idk i guess if you were stupid you might’ve assumed that it was falling in love with oxford given how romantic some of the other language is (WHICH IS ALSO THE POINT bc i think robin’s friendship with ramy blurring into romance is why he romanticised like all his friendships/experiences in oxford BUT IM GETTING OFF-TOPIC)). i just think robin’s repression abt being gay was intrinsically tied to his attitudes on imperialism (wrt refusing to acknowledge anything that complicated his life until it was too late) and i don’t consider it a cop out or queerbait. like i genuinely don’t think robinramy could ever have gotten together without drastic alterations being made in terms of plot and character. plus i think it’s clear that kuang didn’t want to write a story with any kind of focus on romance at all, because it’s not that kind of book. there’s no successful het romance either, so it grates a lot less. the only reason romance is included at all is to show the ways in which white entitlement manifests. so the tragic way robinramy played out just made sense to me.

and i speak as someone who accidentally spoiled myself on You Know What in the middle of reading and i was like ugghh boooo dreading it the whole time expecting to roll my eyes when it happened but then when it did i was like. wow im actually not that mad LMFAO 😭😭😭 actually thematically the book sets it up so well that i believed that this was unfortunately the only way it could’ve gone. babel is about the loss and tragedy and grief that colonised people experience. it’s about the lengths people will go to to uphold empire and the lengths ppl will go to to tear it down like idk 😭 i guess it is bury your gays but it didnt bother me this time because i thought it fit thematically ❤️ i enjoy tragedy as a genre a lot and i would’ve made it gay anyway you know. thanks rf kuang for doing it for me so i didnt have to.

WHICH IS ALL TO SAY that i guess if you’re going into babel for the queer rep without appreciating that the story is fundamentally a tragedy it would feel like it’s just reusing tired tropes….. but i think the choices kuang made were rly deliberate and not in a way that feels like trauma porn or shock value. the book is fundamentally about the struggles of poc so the layer of queerness that was introduced felt like a subtle extension of the experiences of characters of colour in the book, and i enjoyed and related to it as a queer chinese person who kind of realised they had to prioritise their fight for the liberation of poc over queerness mainly because the idea of western queer liberation cannot be dissociated from imperialism and many aspects of homophobia as we know it was an export of christian european empire into our colonised countries in the first place and FUCK THIS IS A WHOLE OTHER TANGENT ABOUT HOW I THINK RAMY AS A CHARACTER IS EMBLEMATIC OF THE TENSION AND STRUGGLE THAT QUEER POC DIASPORA HAVE BETWEEN OUR IDENTITIES GODDAMNIT OK FORGET IT POST CANCELLED i just rly think babel’s handling of queer characters is fine and makes sense and i like it personally and maybe i will make a coherent analysis about it one day but that day is not today byeeeeeee

[five-rivers]

KoF pollfic continued from here.

Edit: I must be tired because I left the poll off again. It is properly attached now. Forgive me.

.

“What’s that?” asked Danny.  “I don’t mind doing stuff other than translation.”  He loved his parents, but they didn’t always get it.  And, yeah, it wasn’t always ghost stuff they didn’t get (even a normal teenager would rebel if their parents tried to keep them inside twenty-four seven), but it was mostly ghost stuff.  Like why he liked Three Twilights so much, or how comfortable he was around Clockwork.  Or exactly what Obsessions were and how they acted.  

… Even Danny didn’t always understand why he reacted the way he did to certain things when it came to his Obsession.  After all, he’d thought he was managing just fine helping his parents with their research and running the occasional errand for Clockwork until this near meltdown.  Maybe it was a variety thing?  Or the way his parents were so resistant to him helping, lately?  

Yeah.  Yeah, that could be it.  It could be a matter of him subconsciously not feeling like he was being helpful, because they kept telling him to not help.  

Ugh.  Why did these things have to be so complicated?  Obsessions were supposed to be simple!  Straightforward!

Stupid complicated social Obsession…

(Not that he’d ever get rid of it, or even want to get rid of it.  Helping people was so important.)

“Here,” said the attendant, standing from her desk and beckoning him towards an inconspicuous door set in the wall.  “I’ll show you.”

Danny took one last look around the copyists’ room, then followed.  Behind the door was a twisted hallway– No, not a hallway.  The room only looked like that because papers and books were stacked so high on the… desks?  Or were there bookshelves under there?  Either way, it was maze-like.  

The only people they passed had golden loops and curls under their skin, and many of them gave Danny confused or suspicious looks before the attendant greeted them.  This was, Danny quickly realized, the staff area of the library, where only members usually went.  Most of these people probably weren’t even just members, but permanent and semi-permanent residents, if the Lost Library was set up anything like the Library of Tongues.  

“You can probably tell that there’s a lot to do back here,” said the attendant.  “Sorting and all that.”

“Is that what you need me for?” asked Danny.  

“Something like that,” said the attendant.  She scratched the corner of her jaw.  “It’s, well, finding things is much more fun than sorting things out so that they’re easier to find later.  So, we get a backlog, and with the recent influx from the Mausoleum…”  She trailed off, seeming to notice Danny’s glances of trepidation at the stacks of paper.  “Of course, we aren’t going to make you do all this!  This is years worth of files and plans, and… I think some of it is just sheets of doodles, actually.  Some of it is structural, anyway, or otherwise indestructible.”

“Indestructible?”  

“Well, anytime the last copy of something is destroyed, it winds up here, somewhere.  It doesn’t matter if it’s bad or good, or if it was just someone’s meeting notes… if it’s the last copy, it’s here.  Somewhere.  And if the last copy is already here…”

“Oh,” said Danny, understanding.  “I get it.  But I’m still not sure what I’m doing…?”

“Oh!  Right,” said the attendant.  “Well, whenever we get new material, it shows up in one of our intake books.  But those operate strictly on a chronological basis, and they only give the title and author in the original language.  Our card catalog needs the title and author in Middle Chinese, Latin, Esperanto, or English, plus the original, as well as the date of destruction, in order to work properly, so you see the issue.”

“So you need me to make the cards for the card catalog from the intake book?”

“Yes!  That’s it exactly!” said the attendant, making the ‘so cute’ face again.  “You pick up things fast.”

“Uh huh,” said Danny.  

“Now, we’re just around the corner– Here!”  

There was a relatively clear space, with a long counter on one side and a massive wall of tiny drawers on the other.  On the counter rested a set of huge books, each one chained to the counter by a stout golden chain.  Some of them were bigger than Danny.  Well, bigger than Danny in his current form.

“Why gold?” asked Maddie.  “That can’t be secure.”

“It’s probably cursed,” said Danny.  

“Oh, yes, we have excellent security,” said the attendant, happily.  “Or, well, the books do, anyway.”  She went to the thinnest of the books and opened it up to the last few pages.  “Here, this is where you want to start.  You can make the cards in any of the languages I mentioned, and the catalog will take care of the rest.  What else…  Here’s a reference of what the cards look like.”  She handed him a rectangular piece of card with a large dark stain on one corner.  “Don’t mind the stain.”

“Right,” said Danny, looking over the format.  “Where can I find blank ones?”

“Drawers under the counter,” said the attendant.  “Oh, and stay here, alright?  Some people don’t like it when guests are back here.  And it’s also, well, a maze.  I don’t want you to get lost.”

“So, um.  Are you staying here?” asked Danny.  

“Oh, no, I really can’t,” said the attendant.  “I’ll check in on you in an hour or so, and then maybe I can show you the children’s section!  If you don’t want to keep working, that is.”

“Uh huh,” said Danny, dubiously.

“And thank you so much.  We really need this done.”

Danny sat down in one of the chairs at the counter, glowered at the edge of the counter, which was about even with his nose, then got some books to stack up in the seat so he could see over it properly.  Then, he started to work.  

“Why doesn’t their card catalog work with other languages?” asked Mom.  “That seems like an oversight.”

“Four is already a good number for things like that,” said Danny.  He glanced over his shoulder at the wall of drawers.  “If you make something like that too smart, it’ll develop sentience and start to 

“Er, Danno,” said Dad, “why are you doing this?  Don’t get me wrong, it’s interesting!  But not what I thought we were doing.”

Danny sighed, and began the long process of explaining his problems to his parents.

About half an hour in, Danny noticed the quality of light had changed.  He looked up.  First at the ceiling, then around the clear area.  Glowing veins of light traced through the air in one of the gaps between piles of paper.  Veins of light that Danny hadn’t caused.  The ones he’d made on his way in had all but faded.  He frowned.  He’d definitely gotten the impression that there shouldn’t be any other guests here.

Maybe someone had gotten lost.  

Or maybe it was another guest getting a tour or helping with something back here.  Danny doubted all of the guests were translators, after all, and they had to earn their way in somehow.

[fanfics4all]

Deep Sleep

Request: Yes / No  List was made by @alpaca-clouds

Requests are open only if its CHRISTMAS/HOLIDAY/ WINTER related <3 Have a nice day/night

FP Jones x Daughter!Reader 

Word count: 533

Warnings: Nothing!

Y/N: Your Name 

Prompt(s):

PLEASE DO NOT STEAL MY WORK, I WORK HARD ON MY FICS AND IT’S NOT COOL TO STEAL SOMEONE ELSE’S WORK! 

If you want to be on the tag list for anything (My series fics, specific character fics, or just all of them) All you have to do is send me an ask and I will add you! 

Masterlist 

If you enjoy my work, you could also show support by buying me a coffee! 

(Not my photo, credit to whoever made it!)

*Fp’s POV*

She was so tired. Her head was falling forward as she started nodding off, her eyes heavy as they flutter shut. She was too damn stubborn to admit it though. It was late and we were just watching a movie together.

“You should go to bed, kiddo.” I mentioned. She shook her head, but lent on my shoulder. We watched the movie for a bit longer, until Y/N started falling asleep again and slipped off my shoulder. Her head snapped up and looked around slightly dazed. 

“Come on, Queenie.” I said as I pat my thighs. 

“Mmm…” She hummed as her head rested against my thigh. I smiled and gently combed my fingers through her hair. Her breathing quickly evened out and she was asleep in no time. 

Once the movie was over I looked down at my daughter, she was still fast asleep. I grabbed the remote and turned the T.V. off. I stretched slightly, careful not to wake her. 

“Alright, let’s get you to bed.” I said to myself. I gently placed my hands under her back and knees. I picked her up easily and she stirred slightly. 

“I got you kiddo.” I whispered. She mumbled something quietly and her eyes fluttered. 

“Relax, I’m just gettin’ you to bed.” I said with a smile. 

“Thanks Daddy.” She mumbled and I chuckled slightly. I gently laid her on her bed, pulling the covers over her and kiss her head. Her soft snores filled the room and I smiled. She needed as much sleep as she could get right now. I left the room and decided to watch a bit more T.V. while I waited for Jughead to come home. 

An hour later the front door was loudly opened and in walked my son. I turned off the T.V. and sent him a glare. He head right for the kitchen and started loudly looking for something to eat. 

“Boy you better quiet down.” I said and he looked up at me. 

“Why?” He asked confused. 

“Your sister’s asleep and she ain’t been sleeping well.” I said and he looked into the hallway. I got up and sent to go check on her. She was still in bed asleep and slightly drolling. I smiled and shook my head a bit. I walked back out to find Jug eating some left over chinese we had gotten. 

“Did I wake her?” He asked and I shook my head. 

“She’s out like a light. Make sure you’re quiet when you go to bed, I don’t want her wakin’ up tonight.” I said and he nodded. 

“She still stressing about school?” He asked and I sighed. 

“Yeah… She’s been up studying for weeks.” I answered. 

“I’ll try and distract her tomorrow, she needs to relax a bit.” He said and I smiled. 

“Good luck, she’s damn stubborn.” I said and Jughead laughed. 

“Oh, I know.” He said as he finished the food. 

“I’m gonna head to bed, night Dad.” He said. 

“Night, son.” I said and watched him quietly sneak into the room he shared with his sister. I yawned and decided it was time for me to head to bed too. 

Tag list: @les-bio-lie @tashy-bear @ashwarren32 @hollie-blogs-blog1 @lover-of-books-and-tea @nerdygaloresposts @teenwolfbitches28 @kmc1989 @drw0301bieber @lady-of-lies @ravenmoore14 @ravenempress101 @cillianchamp @rowanthomasknapp @rachelxwayne @ready-4-fanfiction @emo-godess-loves-you @hiya-imthatgirl @mindsetjupiter @averysinclaire @mittelerde1999 @sweetest-peas @rousewriter @camiconfessions-blog @thecaptainsgingersnap @cenyddtheunicorn @jacksxsouthsideserpents @lover2448 @mamacobie13 @adamsbubblegumbitch

[imthepunchlord]

Okay, so this might be random, but I've been reading a lot about your recent miraculous rewrite/overhaul, and it reminded me of this other person on Tumblr who posts a lot of stuff on pre-canon/concept miraculous and miraculous artbook stuff. So, I wanted to share some fun pre-canon stuff. They even have a Website about it: https://www.artbookwiki.com/home

Ok, for starters, Marinette was originally going to live in an apartment building in Belleville (which from what I've been told (so don't quote me on this) is kind of Paris's Chinese District. And instead of a balcony Marinette would just hangout on her roof.

Also on Marinette's parents, instead of being bakers, Tom was originally a cartoonist (the more look into this character you start to see a lot of parallels to Thomas Astruc) and Sabine was going to be a lawyer.

Also Fu might have been planned to be Marinette's Grandfather

And lastly, I'll mention Alya. Apparently, she was originally meant to have an interest in fashion like Marinette and might have originally planned to have a crush on Chat Noir.

Also to quote the person who posted all this (I'm leaving her name out so people don't spam her, she's seemed pretty stressed lately):

"From the 9/7/2012 bible: As eccentric as Marinette is classic, Alya wears extravagant outfits, swinging from gothic to geeky. She takes pride in being nothing like the others. It's her way of distinguishing herself. Alya is perfectly at ease with all things technology and telecommunications. Moreover, she's a budding reporter for the college newspaper!... Alya shares her bedroom with her younger sister. The room is divided in two. Alya's half is lined with posters of comic book superheroes, the floor is strewn with cables connected to an imposing DIY computer station.... Besides, she has theories on everything, admittedly- they are often very absurd. She dreams of gaining powers and becoming a heroine like Ladybug... Alya doesn't understand how Marinette can fall for Adrien, On the other hand, Alya finds Cat Noir super classy, ​​molded into his somewhat gothic leather uniform. Oh! If only Alya was Ladybug..."

Thank you for sharing! Some I didn't know, though honestly, a lot of this I'm not surprised to see.

Marinette was always kinda planned to be closer to her Chinese roots. One of the better reflections of this are concept art of her room.

And even in the Miraculous movie, she was planned to come from a small community in China's countryside.

And it's a shame that these keep getting cut out. Her ties to China is really disconnected, and I'm certain it's largely done to be more marketable for a broader audience.

I think this deleted scene from the movie bothers me the most, cause it adds so much depth to the Dupain-Cheng household. It adds to Tom and Sabine as characters, and it may be the first time I really liked them as characters and as parents. And it explains a lot about Marinette's character, why she's such a giver and provider, cause she grew up in a community that was like a close knit family, and helped each other no questions asked. It just backs why she's that way, she was raised that way. It comes natural to her.

Her parents do surprise me, but you know, I could see it. Them being bakers always felt kinda random, but that could bee from the show just not doing anything with it.

Fu doesn't surprise me too much, especially as the show does work off that older concept. You do get a grandfather-granddaughter feel from them, and it does make sense for her to have a direct family tie to Miraculous as she is heavily tied to it as a lead and it being apart of her heritage. Shame that got moved onto Adrien and had nothing really don't with it.

And you know, Fu being related to Marinette isn't a stretch as it is canon that he had younger siblings.

If not her grandfather, he could be a very great uncle.

And as I like the idea more that he got separated from his family and the Guardians were not able to locate them and reunite him with them and defaulted to training him to be a Guardian as they couldn't exactly let a kid go, I do like the idea of him eventually finding his family again, even if it's a descendant of one of his siblings.

Alya doesn't surprise me at all. You could really see it in her concept art.

And it slightly carried over into canon as Alya was the one who knew Adiren was a fashion model when Marinette didn't. For canon, it's very random for her to know, but makes more sense when you know that she used to be into fashion, and that just continues the show's trend of changing from older concepts but also still semi sticking to them without fully committing.

And it just really makes sense as most friendships are born through a shared interest. Marinette is expected to have at least one fashion friend. Marinette and Alya had a good start for their friendship, but the momentum of it struggled as most of their interactions came down to being about Adrien, and it's very, very, very rare for them as friends to bond and focus on something else than Marinette's crush.

Also, given how well off Alya looks since she can attend fashion shows and get front row seats (and maybe has a bodyguard?), and can spend a lot of money...

I wonder if Alya was ever considered to be the mayor's daughter at some point. For sure, she was incredibly well off older concepts.

And with her previously having a crush on Chat, I guess that's where they got the thought for Rocketear.

I am kinda glad they removed that, cause given their track record, especially having the known liar character say two girls can crush on the same guy and be friends, chances are incredibly high that hero!Alya would've soured her friendship with Ladybug over Chat.

I don't know about you guys, but I'm not really interested in seeing best friends turned enemies over a guy. It feels like an old cliche that can go. I'll take the Alya-Marinette friendship in and out of the mask. Even if it wasn't great overall, it's still better than what we could've potentially gotten.

[fyodors--ushanka]

Cuddling Headcanons- Ranpo, Dazai, Chuuya, and Kunikida

WARNINGS: Brief mentions of alcohol use.

Genre: fluff

Ranpo:

The very moment he gets home, he will get snacks and run to you.

He will not comply if you want little spoon. He has claimed that title and it's final.

Tells you about his day as you run your fingers through his hair.

Waits impatiently for the flow of: "You did good." "I love you." or "I'm proud of you."

Picks movies such as Ice age, but will also watch detective shows to point out the mistakes made by the detectives.

"Obviously it was him. It's so simple!" "Ranpo. You only know that because we watched it last night."

Will lay on you with his head on your stomach or chest.

Will also lay inbetween your legs, back facing you.

Cries if you leave him to go shit

Sits on a stool and holds your hand as you do said action.

saying no is a sin in his eyes

Oh You're cold? Incoming walking teddy bear alert. Will be your blanket.

Falls asleep cuddling you, possibly drooling on your shirt.

Holds you tight with his arms wrapped around you because he is scared of you leaving him.

Dazai:

He will probably have gotten chinese and 3 bottles of a random liquor.

You finally get home, and find him on the couch, holding liquor and boxes of food in front of him. Before even saying "Hello" You grab the bottle, downing the remaining half of it in one go.

"You have..Ignored me?!" cue the tears.

He grabs your hand and pulls you to sit with him.

He peppers your face with kisses and then asks you about work.

After you answer, he gives you your share of food and begins complaining about Kunikida.

After his rantings, he'll wrap his arms around you, pulling you close, mumbling apologies.

Will watch fast and furious with you.

"How about a doub-" "NO!"

He'll kiss the tip of your nose.

If you let him rest his chin on your shoulder, he will leave hickeys without you knowing.

Most of the time, he will end up spooning you as you finish nursing the bottle of liquor.

"Babyyyy" you'd slur. He'll take the bottle. "Give it baack!" "No. You've had enough." Even though he seems immature, he worries for your health.

You fall asleep in his arms and he sits there, watching you, too scared to let go. He falls asleep holding you. Cuddling you makes him feel peaceful.

Chuuya:

He will come home late, but you'd be awake.

He would be stressed as hell, probably exhausted, but would still change his clothes.

He would lay his head in your lap and let you massage his scalp.

"Rough day?" "Mhm."

His voice would be muffled by your thighs because he was almost face down.

He won't admit it, but he enjoys it when you express your love vocally.

If you move to get something, he'll say something like: "Don't" or "No"

Honestly, He loves you, but loves you more as a pillow.

Listens to whatever you are watching, Will say something if you watch 90 day Fiance.

"He sounds so toxic. she better not go for him. He is a serial dater." "Chu-?" "Shh I'm listening to the TV."

Wraps his arms around your waist.

He will fall asleep if you keep massaging and petting his head, and you will find a way to lay down without disturbing him.

Kunikida:

He always makes sure he has changed before cuddling you. No matter how tired he is.

Cuddling you is in his book of ideals.

He loves it when he lays with his head on your chest and you play with his hair.

Will complain about Dazai for 30 minutes.

Watches House with you.

Also watches Law and Order, along with Criminal Minds.

"I am proud of you, Kunikida." "H-huh?"

Cannot take compliments.

He will eventually spoon you

He gets flustered if you kiss him, but he loves it.

He will lovingly press kisses along your neck with his arms wrapped around your waist.

"Love you." "Love you too."

Forehead kisses.

He is a complete sucker for you expressing your love vocally AND physically.

Little jaw kisses, pressing your Forehead to his, etc;

Usually the night ends with you guys in each others arms.

SORRY IF THIS SUCKED, THIS IS MY FIRST TIME MAKING HEADCANONS.

[gamesception]

Sception reads Batgirl (2024) #2

writer: Tate Brombal artist: Takeshi Miyazawa colors: Mike Spicer

Ok, so I'm done comparing this run to the Puckett/Scott Batgirl (2000) run. Got that all out of my system last time, this time we're just appreciating Batgirl (2024) on its own merits, and on those merits I actually like issue 2 a lot more than issue 1, so this time I get to be largely positive. No, entirely positive. I have a few minor complaints I could gripe about, like I think Brombal's leaning a bit too much into the faux-noire internal monologue that saturates so many Gotham titles, but whatever. I complained enough last week. This week I'll try to just focus on the things I like.

And the biggest thing I like by a wide margin is that the new team has started giving Cass her own supporting cast of original characters... or I think they're original to this book? If they were already introduced in previous post-reboot Cass stories than that's even better for finding and drawing on existing connections, which is something I wanted this book to do, but if they are original that's still great too. Either way, an excellent choice by Brombal and well implemented by Miyazawa, who gives Bà Bao in particular a super expressive and immediately memorable face.

Bà Bao is a fantastic character, serving a similar sort of character role to Jackie from the 'Shadow of the Batgirl' book, while also effectively functioning as Cass's own Dr. Thompkins in terms of convenient medical support. She's a trained doctor and experienced war veteran but makes her living running an ethnic restaurant in a way that feels pretty authentic to immigrant experiences in the US. And she can be a connection for Cass not just to a cultural heritage - albeit Vietnamese not Chinese - but more importantly to the people she's protecting in Gotham.

She's also already serving as Cass's own Alfred in terms of an older, wiser surrogate parental type figure able to offer advice, and already that's paying off with Bà Bao offering advice to Shiva on how to connect with Cass, advice that Shiva then sets her pride aside to take in, which is a great bit of subtle characterization showing how much Cassandra actually means to her.

Which is a nice bit of issue two carrying forward the one thing I really liked about issue one - the way it handled Cass & Shiva's relationship dynamic.

re: the watermark - I grab screencaps from the pirate site because it's more convenient than scanning pages myself, but I do buy my own copies and read the physical books first.

We don't see as much of the crew here as we see of Bà Bao, but I love this idea of Cass training her own little school of pupils in the back of her restaurant. I hope we get to know all of them individually as time goes on, see their lives, & struggles, get to know the city and Cass's place in it through them.

This supporting cast also gives Brombal someone Cass and thus the reader cares directly about that he can put in danger to highten the dramatic stakes, and on that note...

Later dialog maybe implies that the antagonist thinks he killed Bà Bao here, but I don't believe it for a minute, and if it turns out to be true I will take back every nice thing I just said. Not because dealing with loss shouldn't be part of Cass's stories, but because this character had way too much potential to kill her off in the same issue that introduces her. But yeah, I don't actually believe she's dead, so I'm not actually complaining.

But speaking of this dude, "Kalden the Unseen", yeah, we finally have an antagonist with a face and a personality. One issue late, but I'm not supposed to be complaining this time around. I just think these particular pages with him killing the firemen to cover his tracks but mourning them at the same time would have been better placed at the end of issue 1 rather than the start of issue 2. But whatever, he's here now, and while we don't know him well enough yet for me to call him a great character, he is immediately worlds better than the generic faceless ninja henchmen working for him.

And even they get a little bit cooler now that we see the gimmick that sets them aside from previous ninja clan Batman antagonists - a flower that gives them temporary mystical powers

though at the cost of their lives.

On the one hand, that downgrades them from 'faceless generic ninja mooks' to 'expendable faceless generic ninja mooks', but on the other hand it's a cool gimmick, so again I'm not really complaining.

And Kalden at least isn't faceless. His costume is a bit generic, but the facial scars are super distinct, and the Blind Master gimmick, while it can be a bit cliche, is a classic kung-fu movie trope for a reason. To the extent that this Batgirl (2024) has already been playing into that sort of thing he really fits the story he's in perfectly.

Brombal & Miyazawa also do a pretty good job of establishing Kalden as a real threat here, even to Cass & Shiva. Miyazawa in particular does a good job of expressing the pain Cass is in on her face.

The 'reluctant killer' thing is also a bit cliche, but again it's a well worn trope for a reason, and so far I think it works here, and works especially as a foil for Cass. A villain who agrees with her that killing is wrong, but is willing to sacrifice his own moral purity if he thinks doing so will prevent greater suffering is a strong challenge to her unbending commitment to her own no-killing rule.

So yeah, too soon to call this guy a great antagonist, we'll have to see how Brombal develops him, but the introduction at least is really strong, so there's a lot of potential here.

And we finally get to see Cass's face, as she's forced to accept Shiva's help and flee Gotham in defeat, abandoning her friends - and yeah the angst of all that does suit my preferences for Cass stories, so I'm ending this issue much happier than last time.

But in terms of Cass's face, Miyazawa does a solid job here. This is more recognizably Cass to me than she is without her mask in Birds of Prey. I do miss the bushier eyebrows, broader nose, and stronger jaw of her very early depictions, but those features had largely been lost years and years ago, long before the end of even her original ongoing, so their absence here isn't at all a complaint about Miyazawa's depiction.

..............

All in all, this was a really strong issue 2. It makes me sorely wish DC had opted to spring for a double-length first issue, because the two issues together would have been a much more effective launch for the new ongoing. Entirely apart from not standing up to Batgirl (2000) in my eyes - which no book really could, that comparison was inevitable but not at all fair - Batgirl (2024) #1 even on just its own merits felt incomplete. We didn't get a real antagonist, we didn't get a feel for Cass's life in Gotham outside of her relationship to Shiva, and we didn't get a strong breaking point to close out the first chapter - but these are all things issue #2 provided.

But whatever! It is what it is now. And as of issue 2 I'm actively enjoying this book, and really looking forward to seeing what happens next, so yeah. This is good. Hopefully I'll get another old school Cass review in this month, but if not I'll definitely be back for issue 3.

[aseriesofsmallthings]

Writemas: Day Four

Hello! Writemas day four (hosted by @agirlandherquill) is upon us and I'm still going strong! Today's entry is being brought to you from a hotel room desk, and was written on the train over here! As a result, it's another long(ish) one, which I'm quite pleased with, as the previous two had been dropping off a tad in terms of word count. This one also borders so close to fanfic it's ridiculous (it isn't fanfic, but a lot of it was unintentionally inspired by a TV show kinda), and my head is now screaming at me to turn it into one. Anyways, as per the previous three, very limited editing was done to this, so I apologise for any mistakes made throughout. I hope you enjoy and let me know what you think! 🤍

Prompt: He could not stay still, if he did, his mind would shatter.

Title: Untitled.

Words: 711

Genre(s): Contemporary (very angsty)

He paced the hallway, shuffling the case files under his arm from one side to the other – left to right to left. He reached her door, then backed off again; lifted his fist to knock, and let it drop to his side again. His hand hovered over the handle, contemplating just letting himself in, his other hand fiddling with the well-worn folders.

     He had to blink away the tears that formed in his eyes, over and over again. A deep breath. He steeled himself against the onslaught of emotions that threatened to spill, pushed himself forward, opening her door – probably with more force than necessary – before he could change his mind.

     It was exactly as she had left it. A pile of books she would never get to read stacked precariously on the small, oak coffee table; the olive curtains drawn back to reveal the treetops outside the window. Picture frames of her family, her friends, the team, scattered along the windowsill, the fireplace, the TV stand. An empty cup left on the side table next to the low, grey sofa. Everything the same, waiting for her, it seemed.

     He pushed the door shut behind him, taking his time to look around before he stepped in further, the glow of the setting sun outside filling the room with an ethereal quality he didn’t want to disturb. He moved slowly towards the kitchen, placing the files on the island counter in front of him. He pulled out a stool, as he had done here so many times before, to pore over the case at hand. It had become their routine, choosing whose place they would use, ordering Chinese food and sitting across from each other, analysing case notes and piecing the evidence together. The evenings would start off as work, and eventually would turn into playful banter and laughing. He smiled at the thought of her laugh, how it used to consume him, and he broke, once again.

     He steadied himself with another deep breath and was overcome with the scent of her surrounding him, wishing she would walk through the door just one more time.

     “I thought I would find you here”, a voice from behind him announced. His heart leapt, his mind taking a second to catch up to the fact that it wasn’t her. He didn’t respond, merely glanced over in her direction, a smile of too much sympathy etched across her face. It infuriated him that she had followed, especially here. She had been doing that a lot lately, ever since… since Tilly. He had chosen to ignore her – he had gotten quite good at it – but this was different, she shouldn’t be here, not in Tilly’s flat. “Please, look at me. We’re worried, Daniel.”

     “Please, just leave me alone,” he sighed, defeated.

     “This isn’t going to change anything, this frantic running about you’re doing. She’s dead, Daniel, and acting the way you are isn’t going to bring her back, nothing can.”

     “Leave me alone.”

     “You need to stop, at least just for tonight - go home, rest, the case will still be here in the morning.”

     He clenched his fists, gripping the edges of the files that now lay open on the countertop with white knuckles. He bit his lip, a feeble attempt at keeping his next words to himself, stifling the tears, that once again, tried to escape his eyes.

     “You’re wrong.” He had never been good at keeping quiet – he almost laughed at what Tilly would have had to say to that. “It will change something. It will change the fact that those, murderers,” he spat, “are roaming around free, while Tilly doesn’t get to anymore!” He had to keep going, he had to keep pursuing them, for her, but for him too. He wouldn’t rest until their lives were no longer theirs, made to spend the rest of them behind bars. He would not stop – could not – until that happened. He couldn’t stay still, if he did, his mind would shatter, much like his heart already had.

     The tears he had tried so hard to suppress fell freely now. “She doesn’t get to live anymore,” his voice was almost a whisper now, breaking in places where the sobs overwhelmed him, “- neither should they.”

[ladysisyphus]

Okay! Now that we have finished it, I would like to take this moment to recommend the Chinese drama The Disguiser.

It is a must-watch if you liked Nirvana in Fire, because of course it's the same director and a significant chunk of that same cast, except all playing significantly different roles with different dynamics.

For normal people, you should give it a go if you like:

spies

suits

spies in suits

the amazing east-meets-west aesthetic of late 1930s Shanghai

international incidents

acknowledgements that non-marriage-trajectory relationships can still be important and intimate

minimal unfounded valorization of heterosexuality (like, I can't really explain this one without spoilers, but trust me)

but when the heterosexuality happens, it's cute? so you can't really begrudge it for happening

pretty men getting tortured horrifically

some amazing female villains, like seriously, most of the main bad guys are ladies and they're powerhouses

transparently hilarious try-hard patriotic shit

the inherent eroticism of having someone who loves you shoot you with a sniper rifle

did I mention the suits? because damn

an ending that is satisfying and not relentlessly, senselessly tragic

For perverts, let me sell the show to you like this:

大姐. Elegant and terrifying. Will make you kneel and hit you with a flogger, but only because she loves you. Mommy? Sorry. (Not sorry.)

大哥. Executive homosexual. Will bend you over a bench and paddle you in the foyer, but only because da jie told him to.

弟弟. Should not, from what I understand of the book (and the musical???), be the main character, except he's Hu Ge, so of course he's the main character. Spoiled little gremlin. Everybody's baby. Has a real weird daddy thing going with a very bad man, if you're into that. Bisexual slut powers activated, but only patriotically.

弟弟 #2. Adopted when he was ten. Just like a member of the family except when he's not. Faithful right hand and subordinate of da ge, whom he tops so hard. (But seriously, they're in love.) (No, really. They're basically married.) (I sense the source material has him a little saltier about his station in life, but in the show, he never shows an inkling of being anything but perfectly content doing what he does.) Sultry baritone. Will hold you down so da ge can spank you.

And I'm going to say that pervert shit runs strong throughout what little fandom there is, at least as AO3 would have it:

Which is what happens if you include everything tagged for the Disguiser. If you filter it by English-language works only...

And some of those that say they're in English aren't even in English! They're just pretending to be in English! What I'm saying is, if you feel like making kinky things for a bitty little fandom, this is the place.

Now! If I've sold you on it, here is how to watch it:

Option 1: KissAsian. Upside: Subtitled by the same Viki team that did the Nirvana in Fire subtitles, so they're absolutely readable and like 98% comprehensible. Downside: Slightly sketchy site.

Option 2: YouTube. Upside: It's YouTube; different translation that's also perfectly okay; hardcoded Chinese subs. Downside: Whoever formatted the hardcoded English subs did not put anything behind the plain white text, so any time the English text appears over a bright background (which is curiously often), the words disappear.

Also there's a musical??? that came out in 2021????? If I find a link to a full production of that, I'll come back here and update. The clips I've seen of it look great, though.

Look, this is not a show for everyone. It's got some gore and torture and onscreen injury that's pretty disturbing. It portrays the truly awful realities of Japanese occupation of China during this period. The rah-rah communism! bits are at best hokey and at worst distasteful. It can be slow at times and way too condensed at others. If you're not familiar with this period of history, it's tough to keep track of all the various resistance factions. Because of the spycraft and double-agent business, it can be legitimately tricky to remember who's lying to whom about what at any given moment.

Nonetheless, pervert shit aside, it's a solid story about a complicated quartet of siblings who love and also injure one another, and all the people who love/hate them. There are plenty of genuinely tense moments. The hairstyling and costuming are perfectly on point. The actors turn in some stellar performances. As I alluded to in my bullet points, it has an ending that includes some tragic elements, but not so many that it'll sink all your ships and ruin your day. And I tell you what, this show is legitimately horny for everyone in this car:

So if you watch it, let me know what you think!

[ryin-silverfish]

I've been doing a bit of research on Chinese mythos books, and recently, I'm rather fascinated by one Princess Longji from Investiture of the Gods. Are there any other resources about her?

Also, I love your blog!

Nah, she's pretty much a FSYY original character. However, the star she's deified as, the Red Luan Star, is a Shensha star of romance in traditional astrology.

Plum in the Golden Vase, a.k.a. our unofficial late Ming culture and folk literature compendium, has a diviner show up in Chapter 29 to give a reading on Ximen Qin.

He mentioned the Red Luan Star (红鸾) and the Star of Heavenly Delight (天喜, the star King Zhou is deified as in FSYY) together as the sign that Ximen Qin is gonna have a boy soon.

In an earlier Yuan Zaju, Dou E Yuan, Red Luan and Heavenly Delight is also mentioned together, when the major villain, Zhang Lv'er's father asked his son if the two stars would bless them soon.

(Context: Zhang Lv'er is a scumbag who took in Dou E and her mother-in-law with the intention of forcing them to marry him and his father.)

(He tried to poison Dou E's mother-in-law to get her out of the way, accidentally killed his own father, and pinned the murder on Dou E, who was forced into making a false confession and executed.)

From these two sources, one can see that Red Luan and Heavenly Delight are associated with marriage and having kids, which is likely the meta reason behind Princess Longji and Hong Jin's arranged marriage.

(King Zhou being in charge of either romance or childbirth is still peak dark humor to me, honestly.)

Hope that helps, and thank you!

[stariikis]

𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐢𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐫𝐚𝐢𝐧 | 𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 001

synopsis ; based on the Chinese Drama, 'When I Fly Towards You', in which you, a going-on-high-school English genius named Huang Yuting meets the Mathematics genius of the 10th grade, Nishimura Riki, underneath the rain.

“Sakai Moka, get your butt back here right this instant!” 

Your best friend, in the midst of fleeing from you, glances around teasingly and sticks out her tongue at you. Thank goodness you were blessed with the quality of patience, because if you weren’t, Moka would be dead by now. 

“Give that back to me right now!” 

Playful screams erupt from the both of you as you chase her down the sidewalk, and you curse as your school shoelaces promptly come undone. You really shouldn’t have gone shoe-shopping with your parents the previous week because you liked your older pair of shoes much better than these. 

But your mother insisted that they were completely ruined from your… “little rain mishap”, so despite your many complaints, she dragged you by the ear to buy new sneakers. Look where they’ve gotten you now. Nowhere. Absolutely nowhere. Moka’s fled all the way down the path towards your new highschool, she has in her possession your top secret diary entries from when you were in elementary school, and you’re lost.

You decide not to wear these same shoes tomorrow and trudge down towards where you believe your new school to be.

“You’re late, Miss…?” The 学长 -as you assume- in front of you prompts for your names, a notepad and pen smartly in hand. 

Yeah, maybe it wasn’t a good idea for you to show Moka your journal for the first time and allow her to run away with it. Actually, in all honesty, you can totally blame her for all this right now, but that’s not what best friends do. (You’re definitely going to murder her when you get to class.) 

Knots twist in your stomach when you realise you’re going to have to explain to your new head teacher why you’re late… and it’s not going to make a very good first impression on them. Even as the top graduate in English from your middle school… not a very good first impression indeed. 

Even though it is quite a bragging right that you’re able to get the highest score in a foreign language in a foreign country. And that you’re doing best in said language in a Japanese school as a Chinese student. However, your other grades may not be as appealing. 

“Huang Yuting,” you say in a rush, wanting to get to class as fast as possible after the series of bad scenarios running through your mind. You desperately hope Moka understands the side-glance you give her, silently urging her to hurry up. 

She quickly gets the message. “Sakai Moka from Class 10-5. Same class as her.”

The head student glares at each of you through narrowed eyes before turning to look at the boy that has just shown up next to you. A guilt-ridden look is plastered all over his face and he seems as if he very much wants to leave at the moment. Caught like a deer in headlights, he slouches meekly next to you. 

“And your name, please?” The 学长 asks sternly, peering over the pile of books the boy’s holding. “Ah, Nishimura Riki.” 

Looking slightly wronged, the boy shakes his head fervently and protests, “but I’m not-“ 

“Hey, that’s the name on the notebook. Can’t argue with that.” 

Moka nudges you in excitement, before the 学长 turns back to you and scowls. “What are you waiting for, get to class already!” 

“You’re late. Hurry up and go to your seats.” The head teacher raises his head while speaking and points you towards two empty seats diagonal from each other. “And please introduce yourselves on the way in. I’ve already introduced myself to the class; I’m Sawada Sensei.”

“Sakai Moka.” Your best friend greets everyone with a charming smile. 

“Huang Yuting.” 

You bow almost ninety degrees, wanting to make the perfect impression on your new teacher. There’s no way the top graduate in English can ever look like a bad student. Not in her dictionary, no way. 

“Please don’t be late again. We will condone this since it’s only the first day, but after today you’ll receive detentions as punishment.” 

You both nod and settle down into your respective seats. The teacher goes on about the upcoming orientation camp and the details for the students to take down. However, as you are such a model student with very studious intent, you’re lost in your own world and the briefing falls on deaf ears. 

“Psst.” Moka whispers from behind you, and you lean back in your chair. “You know the Nishimura Riki guy we saw just now? Well, I was doing some research last night and apparently he’s the most popular boy in school. Along with his best friend, Yang Jungwon. They’re like, super smart.” 

“Yang Jungwon…” You ponder at the unusual name. “He’s Korean?” 

“Yeah, and clearly Riki’s Japanese, but that boy this morning didn’t really look like a typical Japanese, right? I know my people.” 

“Tch, don’t judge people based on how they look,” you mumble with an eye roll. “As if you didn’t believe me when I jokingly told you I was Japanese too.” 

“Hey! Maybe I’m just gullible…” Moka retorts, not really helping her case. 

“Anyway, I heard Riki is top in Mathematics, while Jungwon is plain brilliant at all the sciences. I’m so jealous,” she continues rambling, as the break bell rings and signals the start of your break. Relief floods through you at the sound of freedom, and you stand up in a rush. 

“Not so fast. We need to pick an English representative today, to collect the notebooks and materials from the office. And who better than Huang Yuting, the top student in English in the entrance exam?” 

All heads turn to stare at you as Sawada Sensei nods in your direction. Not used to this kind of attention, you smile shyly and accept the offer. “Sure, I’ll go pick them up immediately.” 

“That’s great. Class is dismissed, then.” 

As you and Moka walk towards the staff room, her teasing voice follows you all the way there. 

“Top student in English in the entrance exam!” 

“Oh, some students from class 10-1 were just here, you’re just in time.” One of the head teachers from a different class guides you over to where the materials are located, stacked up neatly for you. 

You frown. “Class 10-1?” With a heave, you pick up one of the two stacks of paper. 

“Nishimura Riki and Yang Jungwon came to deposit some leftover materials. Their head teacher is the Head of Department in English.” 

Nishimura Riki.

Moka elbows you with a not-so-subtle smile. Picking up her own pile of papers, with a look that only you two can understand exchanged between you, you dart out the room. 

“Come on! If we hurry we might be able to see them on the way back to class!” Moka calls eagerly, the frills in her skirt ruffled from all the running. Her fringe is all over the place and the papers are falling out of place in her arms. You must look equally as ungraceful, but these kinds of moments are the ones that remind you of why you’re best friends with Moka. 

You reorganise some of the worksheets before scrambling after her. 

All of a sudden, she comes to a halt. Over the metal horizontal bars, Moka leans and murmurs, “that’s them. See, that’s Nishimura Riki, the one we saw this morning.” 

She points to two boys walking along the school garden, one a whole head taller than the other. Their hands are stuffed in their pockets like how you’d imagine a typical popular boy. But unlike Moka, you don’t judge a book by its cover. 

“Yang Jungwon! Nishimura Riki!” 

Suddenly going out of her damn mind, Moka yells both their names loudly, so loud that the two boys on the lower level turn around in astonishment. Moka squeaks and squats down to hide, pulling you along with her, but you’re equally as shocked as the two boys.

You recognise the taller one. 

It is, without a doubt, the same face that bothered you to the core that one stormy day. His annoyingly handsome face is still stuck in the back of your head, like a catchy chorus that can’t help but to replay itself over and over again in your mind. There’s no way it’s not him, with a blank look plastered there and relaxed lips that seem as if they’ve never smiled before. 

If it’s not Nishimura Riki, the boy you reported late with this morning, it has to be… 

“Yang Jungwon.” The spark of realisation hits you and you stare at Moka in disbelief. “I’ve met him before…” 

Yang Jungwon. 

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