#can't eat four cookies if i only bake three

[espytalks]

the most brilliant thing ive started doing is making premade cookie dough, sectioned out into preformed cookies, and keeping them in the freezer.

since we gots a toaster oven, and cookies bake well from frozen, it's been super convenient if i have the patience to pop a small batch in when i'm craving something sweet. also, this way, we have a small amount without the temptation of a whole two dozen to gorge on, since we're trying to be more mindful of how much we eat.

[wisteriainslumber]

baby twst headcanons

happy mothers day, have some disorganized tiny shenanigans feat. the twst women warnings: ch7 spoilers for draconia family members, siblings lying for fun (borderline malicious behaviour), foul language, and maybe a teensybitoftraumaoopsies

Riddle

if he could, he'd be an outside kid with tons of bug friends

secretly kept a caterpillar pet in a lil terrarium jar until it could fly on its own

he found it while it was raining outside and wanted to help it grow :(

my guy was a sickly victorian child

rarely would three months go by without riddle falling ill

he has dyslexia. without the pressure of having to get everything right on the first try, riddle can kinda enjoy reading now because he gets to learn new words and concepts at his own pace

deep in the corner of his room sits a journal with only half if it filled out. most of the entries start like 'i read a new book today' immediately followed by something like 'i do not understand life'

he actually can't bear to read the contents of the more recent diaries, but he equally can't bear to throw them away (not until he can send his younger self a letter that it will all be okay)

his only connection to other people his age were trey and che'nya

and on the occasions where trey was absent che'nya would 'teach riddle about the queendom of roses'

most of the time he fed him lies and riddle believed him

and most of the time riddle would yell at che'nya for being confusing and not clear enough

you can't just tell him that the hat man haunts him at night then reply with "what hat man?" when riddle asks for clarification

like !!! the hat man you just told him about !! (which gets him a reply of "who told you about?" damn you che'nya)

his favourite childhood memory was going out with them to get matching pins together

he still wears his little crown pin today!!

cats would frequently perch on his windowsill and riddle likes to watch them lounge in the sun and wonder what cats think about

(che'nya claims to know but riddle has never seen the beastman talk to a single cat)

but kitty-speak was riddle's first learned animal linguistic. he would practice by talking to the regular cat by the window

it stopped showing up for a while and then came back with four kittens and riddle smuggled them for a good... three anxiety-riddled hours before telling the cat their babies will be well taken care of with che'nya instead

riddle may had to give up those kittens that day but owning a pet cat will be in his future soon. #manifest

Trey

it was a massive game of follow the leader in the clover household

when mama clover was carrying flour over to the patisserie, you'll see the mini clovers carrying small bowls and utensils to help

easy bake oven user

but he was ass at it

legend says his unique magic manifested at age 10 when it was mommas birthday and he baked a really shitty cookie, so he prayed to the queen that his mum would think it tasted nice and it did :D

his siblings took a bite out of the rest of the batch and wretched very dramatically

had his hands full trying to convince che'nya to not eat the glass he found on the sidewalk because it 'looks crunchy'

in fact, whenever talking to adults, trey never refers to che'nya by his nickname but his entire full name. he just wants you to know!! also che'nya is a nickname for friends and family >:(

trey's room has always been free reign for his other siblings, they treat it like a common room

why? mostly because they don't have permission to do anything fun without supervision but big brother trey can to be their supervision :)) right :)))

the clover household is no longer shocked by che'nyas abrupt presence in their house. he seems to favour a certain corner of the house and most of the material on trey's bed

theres usually an extra set of utensils by their table in case che'nya appears. there used to be two extra sets but.. you know🫠

his siblings started a game of hiding as many rubber ducks in trey's room without him noticing

but after they permanently clogged the pipes of the toilet with their duckies, they switched to ugly stickers all over trey's bicycle

howEVER, it happens to be their bicycle now because trey outgrew it and had to get a new one. have fun cleaning the stickers :D

unofficial designated seats at the table and in the family car. real fights have broken out over the siblings because of these spots

still fears basketballs to this day because his brother threw one and trey happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time and he woke up with the wrong accent. oh, and a concussion

Cater

all brands but barbie was ruined for caycay

his sisters used him as a mannequin to practice makeup

he had extremely elaborate revenge plans to pin them on the other sister but would get his ass whooped if he was caught

of course, that never stopped him from being extremely crafty to get out of trouble :)

referring to himself in third person cutely was a learned behaviour for survival™

it never worked in his household but it surely worked with other kids his age

collecting pity points but at what cost

had a girlfriend on club penguin for two months and got publicly dumped on club penguin

banned from club penguin because he wouldnt leave her alone and she reported him

sold off his sisters rainbow looms

those kids that are cognitively gifted such as he thought the people in the tv were trapped in there and then asked his mom if they were also in a tv and trapped

whenever dad worked in the office, cater would sit in the big boss chair and 'help', which meant that he was sorting coins and bills based off colour

he also told his dad to wash the money because it looked dirty on the corners

whenever he and his sisters played together, they'd tried to open the compartments of their toys and cater had so much fun with the screwdriver and taking stuff apart

also owned a joint notebook with his sisters. there would be things like poems, drawings, and the hair of ruined barbie dolls taped inside

cater has his own journal though, and he composes very emo poems in there. all written in glitter gel pen. cater would later look back on these and cringe but the more you read, the more you kinda get into it. it is a tad bit profound... for an eight year old, that is

Ace

demented ass doll player

his version of fun was making his dolls de-limb each other and throw them into a big pit to summon his darth vador figurine

whatever in-game ace is, that was his brother except he was significantly worse

my boy ace was the number 1 victim of big bro trappola

ate brown paint chips, which was 'chocolate' according to his brother

was locked inside the bathroom while his brother whispered bloody mary into the walls

sat through horror movies to prove he was a big boy and shit his pants when his brother recreated the jumpscares in the middle of the night

until he got a little older and started outsmarting him

now the trappola brothers team up to terrorize everyone else

its a competition for the brothers to compete over who can spoil the plot of which movie first

weaponized the slap bracelets

sucked milk out of plushies. no i will not elaborate

he's a jump rope champion! and it carries over to those skipper hoops as well

he does prefer the skipper hoops over the rope simply because there are um... ankle shattering consequences if you miss a jump, which meant it was perfect for sharing with the neighbourhood kids! gotta keep those stakes high, ya know?

tried to do a lot of magic tricks to impress papa trappola

made his brother take him to the amusement park and big bro got MAD tips because everyone thought ace was so cute, and quote unquote 'an angel'

like NO HES NOT???? if only big brother trappola knew ace picked up his charisma from him😭

Deuce

grew up with 80s movies, he thinks every that happens in those movies are true stories

he was always presented with old gadgets to 'fix' so its now something he can do pretty well; restoring old devices

the kids his age thought he was like wayyy too old fashioned, like born in the wrong generation

bike kid. if he wasnt inside he was on wheels

he kept a barbie doll in his bike basket and always made sure she wore her helmet (she was the bike guard)

slept with eggs and held them in his hands hoping to hatch a baby chick

thinks teachers live at the school

super sweet child. he's the first at the other kids' side if they got hurt

at the same time he is the biter kid. especially on fathers day

loves reading stories with grandma. whenever she came over, he would bring her a book

he'd also stick around the kitchen and try to see what she was doing. he thought that maybe he could learn to cook a few things by himself so they had more time together

in times like these he would be internally angry at his father because?? grandma is always working, mum is always working, fuck that guy specifically.

easter is his favourite holiday. his family have a tradition of egg painting and deuce used to hide caramel candies in them because grandma liked them

best helper kid around. will hold the dustpans and stuff while Dilah was sweeping

knew the names of all the trucks his mum drove and also a lot of the mechanical part names

had a habit of accidentally breaking things like clocks so he learned quickly how to fix them back up

his grandma takes him shopping for stamps so deuce can send mail to his house, addressed to his mum

Leona

parkour child

bounced all around the palace, climbing the trees outside and everything. gotta keep those claws sharp

before his father fell ill, the kingscholar family used to have lil picnics with Kifaji outside

without fail, leona would always find the highest seat or a nice sun rock to rest upon

unconsciously, even now, leona finds immense comfort in sun rocks

followed his brother around everywhere

when he couldn't catch up, Falena would give him piggy back rides while he was going about his day

asked him many questions bc hes curious about the world

would ask him difficult questions he already knew the answer to just to see Falena struggle lol

whenever tiny leona got tuckered out, his brother would carry him back to bed in lieu of the servants

leona insisted on sitting in the conference room with his dad to gain insight on how kingdom affairs were run

papa kingscholar agreed since it would be good exposure for them, and leona was the one who took notes, Falena would point out the participants at the table and quietly introduce them to leona

ruined the lives of people he played chess with. imagine being bested by a nine year old in chess. the shame.

after Falena got married, leona shifted his studies from maintaining amicable kingdom relationships to medicinal research and ancient curses

the palace staff thought it was out of malice, but leona wanted to focus more on the properties of magic now

(and also, well, based on the new target on his brother, his new sister-in-law, and his nephew, there can never be too many precautions..)

even when he was a tiny child he did whatever he fancied

his servants may have told him that tending to a servant's hair was below his stature but that only made him sneakier when making tiny braids in Kifaji's hair

git gud g

Ruggie

another crafty child

aye, when it depends on your survival, you learn to use those legs of yours to run like the wind

even worse he was a small ass child so he was hard to find

snuck into schools and pretended he could talk to ghosts and charged the kids a quarter to talk to a ghost for them

mental math god. from multiplication to geometry and time, ruggie knows the most efficient ways to get the job done, as well as a few backup plans

would sew up little felt dolls for his neighbourhood friends

left the house to do a bunch of odd jobs and picked up quite a few languages, which meant even more jobs all around, and now he has some pretty unique talents

like, he can preform acrobat tricks! and he can also paint a house upside down. oh, and he can travel quickly on one foot! (don't ask)

oh yeah, ruggie had a huge slime stand

he would make so much slime and sell it off and it made mad bucks but he also absolutely hated slime. what a good waste of detergent and glue, honestly... >:(

and people wanted them different colours and with charms and the like. at least it was a thriving market, but ruggie cannot stand the sight of slime ever since he retired from the slime scene

really liked rubiks cubes because it was like painting a little puzzle. also, when the children got bored of it, they would try to detach the squares and put them on the faces they desired

it was so funny to watch because they will use the oddest tools and tricks to dislodge the squares (like tying a shoelace around a square and trying to tug it off like you do with baby teeth)

ruggie also made lots of origami as seasonal decor :D his grandma really like the flowers and birds he would fashion

this IS canon but i want you to know that he would take the neighbourhood kids and rotate the group around houses in different costumes to get more halloween candy. everyone stan ruggie

Jack

he has younger siblings so his sense of justice was in his personality wayy back then

got to be an exemplar big bro for them💪

whenever they were playing castle, jack was always the princess because his sister wanted to be the heroic knight

if you asked jack, he would say that his sister only wanted to be the knight as an excuse to beat the shit out of his brother

wanted piercings but couldnt get them pierced so his sister gave him sticker earrings

they did not work nor stick very well but he loved him

let his siblings bite him, it seems to be their preferred mode of affection

sometimes they will wordlessly enter his room just to bite him and chill

often had playdates with vil when he was home

jack still doesn't quite know what the difference was between all these water brands vil was showing him but the spirit is there

oftentimes vil was alone in the house so the two played grown up and cooked by themselves

vil had told his dad that they were married because jack would come over and had sleepovers a lot

jack has a big green thumb. he wanted to plant a garden but he started with succulents first because they are notoriously hard to kill

by now he's ready to advance but every time he goes to get different plants, he comes back with more succulents haha

the plants under jack's care are happy enough to bloom flowers, and he gives them to his mama

if vil learned a spell, he would teach jack and vice versa. the BIGGEST supporters of each other. friendship is magic, guys

the first time they learned colour changing spells was an entire mess and vil was bawling in a panic by the end of it because they dyed Eric Venue's favourite couch bright blue and didn't know how to reverse it

jack wanted to call vil's dad to tell him but he ended up calling the wrong number and thought they were in trouble so he ended up bawling too

whenever vil wasn't in the class, no doubt jack is going to question his whereabouts

oddly, jack and neige have never interacted and only found out about vil being their mutual friend well into their teen years

Azul

like ruggie, was a master hider

unless he wants to be found, you will never find him

learned how to read earlier than kids his age because he wanted to prove he could spell big words to his mama

he may have cried a lot as a kid but do you know what that means? FREE black paint!! SUCK IT, PLEBS.

my boy was an astounding artiste, its why hes so creative with getting his way

azul is a visual learner, and always finished books a little slower because he REALLY analyzes all the pictures like downright dissects it

his grandma suggested art as a way to express himself while also making sense of the world around him

even though he thinks his old drawing of him and the twins is outdated in terms of his skill level now, he has a sentimental attachment to it and keeps it in his room always

trading trinkets was a common thing between the trio aka the twins would pop by

mama ashengrotto adored the twins bc they adored azul('s mom that is)

also inherited a beautiful singing voice from mama ashengrotto. he and his grandma would bond by playing the piano and singing. sometimes, they'd do a little show at his mom's restaurant

red hair was seen as very attractive in the coral sea and he very regrettably colour-magicked his hair

it was not the shade he wanted, but he was curious on what was, so with the many complex spells he learned at his age, he experimented with different lengths, colours, and styles until he restored it back to its original form

there remains one surviving picture of his red hair and it is kept in his stepdad's wallet (because its the only place azul wouldn't look!)

no azul is not aware pictures of his redhead era even exist

Jade

loved to weave necklaces and bracelets using shells and plants

gave a lot of necklaces made of sharks teeth to his family and azul because those are valued good luck charms!

it might also be because he loved to hunt sharks but he pretends thats not the reason :)

wandered off all the time and floyd always had to drag him back home before night

hes a curious boy, wanted to explore everything around him, especially the dangerous places

child leashes don't work in the sea but im sure mama and papa leech would have loved to have one anyway

was the main reason why he and his brother have separate rooms

too many petty "stop leaving your mess on my side (of the room)" and hissy fights had mama and papa leech mad

things definitely settled after they had separate rooms

sometimes if he got into trouble he would pretend he was floyd and sent his parents off to look for "jade"

highkey never worked but it never stopped him from trying

started a new method of using tears and his parents were more lenient with him after so he realized he can get away with things if he shed a few tears

he can cry on command and this is his primary weapon if scaring people off didnt work

will then pin it on the other party as if he didn't enable the fight

straight up told floyd lies growing up, that the pufferfish would crawl inside his ears when he sleeps, or that floyd was 'allergic' to seahorses, or that in order to get an angler mer to go away, floyd had to use bioluminescence

this carried over to land as well except jade didnt know whether his words were true or not he just straight up made things up

was also a very very sickly child. got ill extremely easily and is much more sensitive to temperature or water pressure changes

esp during pollen season? jade is gonna lose those lungs he just acquired from sneezing and coughing

Floyd

grade A hoarder

he sees something he likes? he's bringing it back home

unlike at NRC, the twins have separate rooms so the entire space is filled with a bunch of floyd's knickknacks (its why jade is always mad)

as soon as hes done playing with one he's found something else on his swims so his room is 80% things lying around

and when jade stole said knickknacks claiming it was his turn to play thats when floyd suddenly claimed that mermaid doll (that he highkey forgot existed) was his prized possession

back off jade thats his property😡

when he was younger, he loved looking and behaving exactly like jade, but as he got older he valued being his own person instead of an X2

is actually legitimately the older sibling by a few minutes and deliberately decides whether its his privilege or not whenever he can

but as soon as "because you're the oldest" is said he claims that none of them are older because they were born on the same day

to the outsider, it sounds like floyd is feeding jade a heap load of bs, but he likes gathering trivia and wording it so it *sounds* fake but really isnt

like that seahorses give birth via baby explosion

one exception to this rule is that floyd is constantly changing the story of how he met jade

one instance it was that they found each other, another was that some kid kept begging him for food and that later their mom said that was his sibling, other times, jade had allegedly died before floyd used his awesome magic to revive him

most of the time floyd tells jade that a whale shat him out and whatever came out of it looked so deformed and floyd thought jade was so soppy pathetic (in a cute way) so he brought him home

jade never tries to refute nor confirm any of these allegations but when the last story gets told he's always a little more passive aggressive with floyd that day

Kalim

sickly victorian child #2

its from all the poison attempts

and as a result he may or may not have tried mithraism so maybe its worse than we think😭

allergic as hell to bug bites too like someone please give them a electric racket

hide and seek is banned from the Asim household

at that point in his life, kalim had a good 6-7 siblings and letting them loose in a big household AND telling them to hide is a recipe for disaster

it was almost impossible for him to get in trouble too because no one was about to scold the heir of the house

workers of the Asim palace were absolutely not going to scold him and his parents had like fourteen other more rambunctious younger children

but don't be fooled, kalim is a very good seeker when it matters! he can spend hours focused on finding something important, so those hide and seek games were banned for a VERY good reason when kalim was out at night searching and didn't return the next morning (meaning he got childnapped)

oh, whats a little kidnapping but a minor setback? hes fine and in one piece, the doctor triple-checked! anyways, who's ready for another round of hide and seek??

every now and then, kalim falls victim to the good ole' midnight hour and kitchen scissors hair disaster. no, no one learns

the birds and random animals in the Asim park (that's right, his private park..) all have names and kalim visits them often to befriend them

he's learned around a total of eight languages and he will personally translate (with jamil as the scribe) his own books so he can teach his younger siblings

even remembers all their favourite hobbies, genres, activities, etc, etc

the Asim children all have one thing in common and that is their love for bubbles, but who doesn't?

kalim spends time in the nrc lab to create the perfect bubble solution with big, long lasting bubbles. trust.

remembers faces, names, and even birthdays very well. you can always bet on kalim to wish a servant or one of his tutors a happy birthday!

to kalim, having someone know your name and be happy to see you is very important! so he wants his loved ones, guests, and servants to feel appreciated, especially on their very special days :)

Jamil

has the immune system of god he has survived all of the flu seasons without catching it himself

he and kalim played in the bird houses often

taught the parrots a bunch of silly words and phrases

Najima taught one of the parrots to only refer to jamil as 'stinky'

he and Najima claim they look nothing alike even though kalim and everyone else insists its true

the two siblings fought over particular hairbands while sitting next to an entire selection of them💀

Najima loved to fight over things that jamil wanted first just for the victory

yeah, even in childhood jamil never got a break. as if the universe would give him that

we all heard the silly goofy story of jamil shuffling around under a vase thinking he was all sneaky and shit. he has many more stories like this

such as climbing in trees (he only got stuck twice!), wrapping himself in cloth and slithering on the ground (very conspicuous!!), again, draping himself in fabric and trying to blend in with the walls (with a 50% chance of success) etc, etc.

he is SO good at hiding and has so many secret spots around Asim palace, trust him.

Najima?? literally sent him a picture of curry for his birthday to celebrate. the two constantly send each other a bunch of pictures of random rocks, disfigured trash, and all sorts of unsavory things with the caption 'look its you'

while other servants were renovating Asim palace, they told the kids not to run around, because someone could crack their head if they fell off the ladder/the ladder fell on them

so, like the curious kids they were, jamil, Najima, kalim, and a few of his siblings camped around the construction zone waiting for someone's skull to break

its just morbid curiosity, they weren't wishing ill upon anyone

Vil

'don't carry me! i can walk by myself!' but in a way to convince his dad to pick him up

loved being carried around but would never admit to it

partook in many sweets as a kid even though he limits himself now

had a tradition with neige to make hot chocolate every thursday after school. in the warmer seasons, they switched to making their own fruit juice with the blender

from whole kiwis, to sweet potatoes, and ginger roots, it evolved to throwing random things in the machine to see what kind of funky juice would be made

our dear Eric Venue thinks this is so cute he has no problem with it as long as they dont waste food and clean up after. it would be a good habit to learn

plus vil looks so happy because he thinks operating a blender is such a grown up thing to do

1000% ate things he wasn't supposed to

the lipsmacker smelled so good though :(

when he failed a spelling bee and didnt want his papa to be disappointed in him the most logical thing in his seven year old mind was to eat the test

ripped it up and munch munched on the paper

and that had been his primary solution to bad grades until he was able to get in a good study technique (that, and his stomach rejecting the paper)

HORRENDOUS handwriting and it was because he tried to trick himself into being left-handed for a good portion of his life because the Beautiful Queen was left-handed >:(

also had trouble with enunciation from learning very big words. Eric can understand him but a bit of speech therapy and musical training helped

(if you're lucky, you'll still hear hints of it when vil's extremely sleepy)

often made friendship bracelets with, like, no one to give them to

traded a few with jack because vil taught him how to make them. jack thought that they would be a nice thing to give to the rest of his family, and made a few for vil in exchange

Rook

you think him crawling around on the dirt was a recent thing? hell no this was a learned childhood behaviour

he may not have had a bow back then but he had rocks and a will to play

and by will to play i mean he would pelt a lot of things with rocks

his old teachers had to placate him by teaching him how to skip stones on the lake for every one else's safety

only members of his own family were willing to play hide and seek with him

mostly because he is a terrifying seeker. you hide in the bushes and not two seconds later you hear those loud ass military grade boots stomping in your direction

ik no one wanted to play hide & seek with his ass. he only got worse after he developed his unique magic

helped paint his family's nails bc he had such a precise hand

its probably the nail polish fumes that made him this way. among 10 million other things

you know how kids would give each other cards and lolipops on valentines day?

well, on heart's day, rook would have drawn a picture of all his recipients and attach a cool leaf or flower to it

its very adorable and extremely thought out. his old recipients still think of him to this day (real)

rook had very nice penmanship even at a young age. he started by replicating his fathers handwriting and liked the flow of cursive and flair of a signature (rook has made a lot of personal signatures for himself)

had a wax stamp phase where he would dry out and collect a bunch of flowers and presses to make wax stamps

he still is crazy about wax stamps but now he can carve his OWN presses with his OWN knife 👍👍

made homemade twisttube videos at home with his siblings. they range from movie scene recreations, lip sync videos, or full on original scripts

be assured that the costumes, lighting, acting, and editing were rather top tier for their age, and it is because rook's family is exuberant like him (all cutie pies!!)

Epel

mud pie maker

he and the chickens in his village go wayyy back

didn't need animal linguistics to understand the clucks

uhh hey did anyone else have the experience of having pet chickens and then having them disappear and reappear on the dinner table??

im not saying it happened but im also not saying it didn't happen

he does brush his hair. the only reason he hates it when vil brushes his hair is that he feels like his scalp is getting scraped off

the only way to get epel to bathe was to use those three-in-ones because he would never sit still

those children that get dirty thirty minutes after you bathe them. sigh

overlined his lips with his ma's lipstick because ma used it to look nice before going to sell their produce, and epel wanted to help with sales this time. you can probably guess what happened after

the dislike for cosmetics is lifelong

(he did apologize by picking a handful of dandelions for his ma)

adrenaline junkie through and through. as soon as his legs were long enough to touch the pedal, he'd be operating the forklifts and in no way was it safe or responsible

fed the birds with seeds meant for their garden. they were hungry :(

fiddled around with the stray instruments on rainy days, now he can play in perfect harmony during celebrations with his relatives

epel has perfect pitch. destined for pomefiore all along <3

epel did not fear bees. he has potential for being a beekeeper but he didn't want to wear the bee suit

learned how to read and write very early in because he wanted to help out around the village. epel put checkmarks to confirm shipments and things

a bunch of his drawings are hung around the home

'helped' his grandma Marja knit by using the needle to stab the ball of yarn she needs to hand it to her

Idia

banning him from anything was impossible

locking your kids away from the cookie jar would work for anyone but idia. and not for the spiteful reason you think

makes him want to do it more because its interesting enough to stimulate his genius little brain

at that point he doesn't even want the cookie anymore

doing mental gymnastics to exploit loopholes. having a remote controlled airplane fetch him a cookie isn't going against his parents' word because technically he never touched the jar at all

which leads to extremely specific rules established in the shroud household

some notable ones include "severed limbs are only allowed in the staff freezers on halloween" and "no hacking the automated showers to chase down staff member C for thinking Premo are cuter than ortho"

his minecraft boyfriend broke up with him after they built their house together

it doesnt end there though, it never does. ortho took control of the pc to burn down the house and idia also got them banned. never underestimate the rage and revenge spirit of a child scorned

you know that thing about a devil and an angel on the shoulders? well, ortho was 90% the enabler for Bad Behaviour

and mostly because if idia was thinking of doing something, chances are, ortho was already doing said something

the S.T.Y.X staff often with the brothers were usually roped into playing video games and were happy to listen to whatever the boys felt like talking about

idia would bring new inventions to them and play a guessing game of what they think the function was

ortho stunk really bad at building things from scratch, but he was pretty good at memorizing the names of the parts to help idia

idia would ask the staff to take them to the observatory often. they would learn all about the constellations and idia liked to chart how they changed through the seasons

Ortho

his parents mostly had him because idia always got too creative when he was bored and thought having a new baby in the family would help idia fix up his behaviour, you know, be a good role model for ortho and all

... turns out, ortho would be pulling idia into all sorts of mischief. and worst of all, he ALWAYS GOT AWAY WITH IT.

he is tiny but mighty

lots of attitude in this little body

his favourite word was 'why'

him and idia had new nicknames for each other all the time

some of the time they were just kid things, most of the time they were a prize

whoever clears the extreme level with the highest score gets to make the other call him a nickname of their choosing

his received nicknames included such like "cosmic warrior", "lord of the shadow realm", and "the almighty" (when he beats idia's high score... after 5 losses in a row that is)

has no problem hacking the main S.T.Y.X system then blaming it on the employees for having weak security (some bs like 'im six and managed to break into the most secure network')

im sorry but i can't deny it. yes, ortho is an ipad kid and yes his ipad was disgusting

except ortho actually does listen to cyber security and he didn't have the passcode lock, he had the password lock, and it was changed every other week

(idia has accidentally locked the ipad on several occasions trying to guess the overly complicated password)

insane attachment in the sense that he will make up some bs reason (AND a forged research paper to further solidify it) on why he can't be separated from idia

if he were actually surrounded by children his age, just know ortho would've been the biter kid

weaponizes his cuteness just like jade but in a more ^^🌸 way

in these cases he will only refer to himself in third person because it pulls the most heartstrings

tugging on idias sleeves and telling him "ortho wants a cookie" had yielded better results for him than "i want a cookie"

and ortho is nothing if not a very smart boy

Malleus

fully believed that eating the seeds of watermelons would cause one to grow in your stomach

grandma Malificia found it too funny to correct him and to this day malleus still believes it

1/2 contributor to lilia's hairstyle. whenever lilia tried to make him take his bath he would spit fire

(until lilia let him play with the bubbles that was)

when he was a little kid and knew he was in trouble, he would hide in all sorts of places and pout

except he sucked at it. his hiding skill was between "if i dont see you, you cant see me", or his tail would be poking out behind the couches

usually the servants would turn the other way unless it was an emergency. because if malleus was found by anyone but the Queen or lilia, he'd have a toddler tantrum (he thinks they gave up on him)

spent most of his early days finding comfy nesting places or hunting for shiny things. there was nothing but Instinct in his little noggin until he could transform into a bi-pedal form

every day, without fail, he would get his horns stuck in something and throw a fit over it

testiest kid to ever test. when you tell mal he can't do something he'll do it bc he wants to understand why he can't do it

wanted to help grow the roses in his garden faster by summoning a thunderstorm that lasted three days and three nights

whatever tantrums you think malleus throws now are the most mild ones in his entire life

a younger malleus would summon entire hurricanes unknowingly and he would screech and babble in old fae tongue

a non-briar valley resident could easily mistake this for a demon summoning, but this is a normal tuesday in the palace

TRUST, malleus' temper is the tamest ever in the entire draconia lineage

the palace staff actually thank the witch of thorns for her mercy because this tantrum only burnt the entire east wing of the castle to the ground. the young prince is so tame !!

Lilia

straight out of a horror movie, this one

has the long dark hair and only wore long white dresses to really complete the look

loves walking around bare foot to connect with nature. that dress will be smeared with mud, fur, and berry juice (that were always red or purple tones, to everyones horror)

you all have lilia to thank for the inspiration to this horror trope

im talking wandering around in the dark, glowing magenta eyes, which appear red at times

sits SO still when its story time and the story is ancient curses and tomes

was also the kid that claimed they had a ghost friend and that his peers were being mean to "billy"

and no his family was probably the exact same way tbh

the fae are sturdy and lilia went without supervision for days

its quite a normal thing in his household

lilia would be fighting real ass ghosts in diapers and his mom would be cheering him on

the streaks are not from a goth phase but it was more of a 'the fruit juice in cranberries make really nice paint did you know??'

he also really loves tomato juice and it happens to be pretty too, so, why not?

it was originally red streaks but faded and he liked the pink better

one day he packed his bags and told his parents he was going to live in the afterglow savanna and his mom straight up joined him in packing

i like to believe that lilia did have edible food as a child but the army just ruined his tastebuds for Ever bc at that point, food was only a substance needed to live, it didn't have to be enjoyable

yeah, anyway it would be super funny if lilia's parents were good chefs, but lilia legit cannot tell the different between salt, flour, and white glitter

lilia was scooped up by Malificia mostly for his skill but it really turned out to be a glorified playdate for Meleanor

the princess was a mENACE and lilia could take her thunderbolts a bit better than the rest of her servants

(meaning that lilia was the only one that wouldn't be screaming bloody murder, he just would be hella mad and Meleanor thinks his audacity is funny)

Silver

lilias method of feeding him was waterboarding him with milk and that does not come without consequences

although lilia would go out often, its safe to say that silver was never really 'alone'

lilia would have a magical beacon on him at all times even if mal was babysitting, and he appreciates that the wildlife took a liking to silver

speaking of, silver had no concept of stranger danger no matter how much lilia told him so

every time malleus would come over silver would ask him to play murder mystery with his dolls

his first word was an attempt at malleus' name

they played together a lot it was really inevitable

helps worms and snails when it rains by helping them get under tree stumps or grass

played with axes & garden shears (thanks lilia)

2/2 contributor to lilia's hairstyle. and by that i mean he gave lilia a haircut with garden shears (that lilia fully encouraged so silver could 'build his repertoire of skills')

at this point lilias hair length was more of a liability since his sons loved to tug on it and one had a penchant for burning it

take your eyes off silver for one second and he's gone. he saw an ant, a bird, a cool statue, etc etc

loved all the fairytales lilia read him and always asked to be read the ones where true love reigned

him and malleus ran off together (more like mal whisked silver away) everywhere to play and explore

mal loved to show silver the most random things and he would always speak to him like a grown up

would often protest at the end of the day because he didn't want to part ways with him

their earlier conversations looked like mal was listening to silver say something profound even though all silver could do at the time was babble in toddler language with the occasional 'tar-tar' (no one knows what this is but malleus insists that silver is telling him he's hungry)

Sebek

beat the shit out of rocks with sticks

in the colder seasons, and and silver would find rocks or big ice pieces to smash on the ground

poor dude grew up confused as heck. lilia tells him lots of things, and he goes home and his parents tell him a different thing

complained about going to the dentist so much that now silver knows so much about the teeth structure of fae

his siblings love him so much, they're always doting on him and pinching his cheeks and that's why his smiles are so big and nice (real)

refused to eat anything on a fork. he hated the taste of metal

much preferred to use chopsticks. learned because he was a Big Boy now (he is one) and can help himself!!!!

unexplainable hatred for felt fabric. he used to melt all of his felt puppets in the water

him and silver dug a hole in lilia's backyard thinking they could make it to the shaftlands

they didn't make it to the shaftlands, but they dug too close to the river, so the hole filled up with water

and while silver panicked, sebek straight up burst into tears thinking the hole was going to drain the river

also burst into tears one halloween where lilia was dressed up and claimed he was the river spirit and didn't know anyone named sebek

ate a dog treat at some point but silver and malleus also joined him (not before malleus trolled sebek by saying he's going to turn into a dog now)

sebek was so distressed that he dragged malleus into it that he questioned his entire life because he loved playing with sticks. did he eat a dog treat earlier in his life???

when questioned, sebek told silver he didn't need to worry about the dog treat because he already drank milk like a puppy anyways (referencing the milk waterboarding, of course)

anyways, this incident ended in a stick-sword fight and malleus got a bonk on the head from lilia for his instigating

this is where sebek learned it btw. silver developed a thick skull because sebek is ALWAYS bonking him on the head for not knowing things he deems 'everyone should know'

taglist (let me know if you want to be added): @bigmoose1964

[seoafin]

I need your thots on house husband geto,,how he cooks and cleans and all he asks from you is a kiss every now and then [ever since i read nitc all i've been thinking about is how he asks rip!mc for a kiss in exchange for anything]

ohhhhhhhhhhhh

-

"You don't cook at home?"

When Shoko had dragged you out to a girl's night with some of her old friends from medical school, citing that Satoru and Suguru had kept you cooped up in the apartment for themselves for too long, this was not a question you anticipated to be answering. At first you were overwhelmed. It was a large gathering. Ten became eight, and eight had dwindled to six and then four. Right on the verge of retiring for the night, conversation had shifted to the topic of boyfriends and relationship woes.

And now three pairs of eyes look to you. An amused chuckle escapes Shoko's lips, a lit cigarette neatly slotted between her lips.

You blink, embarrassment washing over you. "I—well." You stare down at your lap. "I'm not really that good at cooking...so my boyfriend...does all the cooking."

Suguru does the cooking. And the laundry. When Suguru's away, Satoru takes care of it. Satoru washes the dishes. Cleans. He sweeps and vacuums and tidies after the kids. You had tried to help, once, but Suguru had directed you away, and now the realization is quickly dawning on you that it may have been because you are simply incompetent at housework.

You may not be able to cook, but nobody is incompetent at cleaning!

Except…maybe you. You don’t know. You’ve never needed to clean. Nothing more than a perfunctory clean every once in a while when you lived alone. You weren’t a messy person. Shoko remarked often that your first apartment was cleaner than it had been when you had originally moved in.

"How sweet," Kuriyama sighs out. "My boyfriend can't even cut a vegetable! He cooks for you? Everyday?"

"U-usually," is your response while your mind races, trying to think back to the last time you had helped with anything around the house. Anything.

"The only thing my boyfriend can make is ramen. Not to mention he's super picky about his food!" Mori shakes her head. "He's so difficult! Honestly I think of dumping him everyday for being so incompetent!"

You stare at her.

Shoko clears her throat. "I'm sure it’s not only that—”

“I agree,” Kuriyama says, nodding, face fiercely determined. “It gets so tiring sometimes taking care of everything. Maybe it’s time to move on!” She leans in. “Your boyfriend wouldn’t happen to have any good looking friends?”

Out of all the reasons that constantly filled your head with why Satoru and Suguru would break up with you, you hadn’t expected your inability to do household chores to be one of them.

Incompetent.

Well, it would certainly be understandable. If anything, you think you would prefer them breaking up with you over something as mundane as not being able to do housework, instead of the many flaws to your character. It would settle easier. It would hurt less. Now you just had to prepare yours—

“Let’s call it a night!” Shoko interrupts, cigarette disposed, taking you to stand up by the arm. “I have to get her back before people start calling,” she says, interlacing your fingers.

Kuriyama sighs. “Just when we were getting to the best part, Shoko!”

“Yeah, yeah,” Mori grins. “You should come to our next night out. You can invite your boyfriend too! We’ll make an exception!”

Shoko waves them off, pulling you outside the izakaya. 

“I can’t cook either,” she says as the two of you wait for a taxi. You know that. But Shoko bakes. Cookies and cakes and occasionally other baked goods. You spent nights over at her apartment eating cupcakes until late in the morning, watching American dramas and horror movies. Delicious, mouth watering desserts.

“Who expects women to cook nowadays anyway?”

—

When the elevator parts to your apartment, you immediately go to Mimiko and Nanako’s room and check their pink laundry hamper. Empty. Then to Tsumiki’s room. Empty. Megumi’s room. Empty.

You’re seated on the floor of Megumi’s room when the door opens again.

“How was the—”

You push past Satoru to go into your shared room at the end of the hall to check your laundry hamper. Suguru is reading on the bed when you open the closet. Empty. You sit down, knees flush to your chest, dejected.

You don’t need to look behind you to know Satoru and Suguru are exchanging glances.

From your knees, you mumble. “Did you do the laundry?”

It’s Suguru that answers you. “We just finished a load.”

“Oh.”

You sit in silence.

At least, until Satoru gently yanks you up into his arms, and carries you to the bed. You immediately turn face down on your comforter, covering your face. 

You think they must be having another one of their silent conversations. You squeeze your eyes shut. Tomorrow, you resolve, you’d wash the dishes after dinner.

You hear the door open yet again with Satoru’s departure, and Suguru softly says your name. You sigh, picking yourself up. You really can’t refuse Suguru when he says your name like that.

“Where are the kids?” You ask, even though you already know where they are. They’d be back early tomorrow morning, before school.

“Educational overnight field trip with Yaga,” Suguru replies, amused as your attempt to delay the inevitable. He plays along, lightly teasing. “It’s not like you to forget these things.”

You don’t meet his eyes. Suguru calmly waits you out until you lamely say: “I don’t help around the house.”

You can tell he’s taken aback. “Is that why you were looking for…dirty clothes?”

You’re embarrassed just thinking about it. “...”

“I like cooking,” he says. “I like cooking and watching you, Satoru, Megumi, and the girls enjoy what I make. And I definitely, don’t think it’s a burden. We order out a lot too, don’t we?” He continues. “As for the laundry, I grew up doing it with my mother. It reminds me of home.”

You reluctantly look up. There’s a soft smile on his lips. “I can wash the dishes.”

He chuckles, hand caressing your face. You nearly close your eyes and lean into it. “You don’t need to. You don’t need to do anything.”

You still want to. Try. It makes you feel better. Slightly. The knots in the pit of your stomach loosen. “Can I help you with lunch for the kids tomorrow…?”

He pretends to think about it. The fondness in his barely suppressed expression gives him away. "Maybe if you give me a kiss first."

"Suguru," you grumble.

He only replies with your name, face erupting into a full blown grin.

Your face warms as you lean close and cup his face with your hands, bringing your lips to his. He pulls you on to straddle his lap, wrapping an arm around your waist and breathes you in. His lips briefly part, and you feel his tongue run over your bottom lip.

You pull away, about to rest your face onto his shoulder, into his neck. His dark purple gaze draws you in. “We can take care of you,” he says, softly. Then he kisses you again, and this time you let him take you apart with his tongue. Against your lips: “We can take care of you.” 

You draw apart, breathless. You pointedly stare at the wall behind him while you attempt to regain what’s left of your composure. Suguru laughs and presses a kiss to your collarbone, one hand sliding underneath your shirt onto bare skin, thumb lightly dragging over the scar of raised flesh on your side.

“Besides,” he murmurs, lips still attached to your neck. You can feel the slightest kiss of teeth. “Satoru makes more of a mess than the kids. It’s only right that he cleans up after himself.”

“Hey!” The sound erupts from behind the door. 

You should’ve known. 

—

[extra]

“I’m so sorry,” you bemoan.

Ten minutes prior, Nanako had run into the kitchen, brush in hand and horrified, ("Papa, something's burning!"), then she had looked at you, brightened in understanding, and called back into the hall: “Everything’s alright guys!”

Satoru looks over at the unrecognizable charred pieces of salmon on the stove top, face unreadable. Then he shrugs and drops a light kiss on your nose. “You tried.”

You hide your face in your hands.

You also pretend not to see Satoru discreetly handing Megumi a pack of bills as the kids shuffle out the door for school.

[respiratory-kristem]

5 Times I Was Happy.

Kris writes down five times he was happy!!

TWs: Nothing!! This is slightly melancholic fluff

@fukuzawa-armeddaddyagency @justsigma-bsd @currentlyeatingrocks

@fedya-the-rat-god @casinoownersigma @reaper-beneath-the-moon

@sayuutoria

@discourse-on-decadence @futuremafiabossdazaiosamu @the-caged-jester / @juniper-bunch @sugarthebee

@paintedgrilledcheese @deeply-moonstruck @arsonist-lullabye

I read somewhere that writing times you were happy can help when you're in a bad mood. It seems stupid but I'm willing to try it.

Right now I can only really think of five, so I'll write those down.

Event 1

I think the earliest happy memory I have was when I took my baby sister to Oktoberfest. She was… four I think? I was around ten. We went to Oktoberfest with my parents and it was really fun. I went on a ton of rides and tried my first sip of beer that day. I got a gingerbread heart that says "Ich Liebe Dich" from my sister who spent her pocket money on it… I couldn't bring myself to open and eat it, it was so special to me. It's probably still in a box somewhere…

Event 2

Katie taking me to the carnival on my day off in the mafia when I was… 12 I think. She took me on a lot of rides and we played the games. She won me Robert in the shooting range game, he's been with me ever since. She said she won him just for me, to keep me company when Ezra locks me in the basement overnight and I can't come out. Robert's kept me company all these years, no matter what. Elenore used to cut him up too, but Katie always stitched him back together.

Event 3

My sleepover with Katie and K when I was 14. It was really nice. Katie took us to her house, and she ordered a bunch of pizza and got sodas and chips. K and I played videogames for the first time that night. I beat his ass in Mariokart, he was so mad. Then we built a big blanket fort in Katie's living room and fell asleep while watching The Devil Wears Prada. I woke up at three am and K was awake too, and we went to the kitchen and tried to bake cookies together for Katie in the morning. We burnt them but Katie appreciated the thought. She was laughing and we were all so happy that night. It made the next day a lot more bearable with the mission.

Event 4

When Katie took me to the mall when I was 16. She took me to go shopping for new clothes and things, and I bought new knives and a new coat. She took me to a cafe and we ate chocolate cake and had coffee. It was nice. I love Katie so much. She took care of me as well as she could. She was the best.

Event 5

When my Dad took me shopping for regression things. He took me to the store after I told him about that, and he helped me pick out everything. My star blankie, my elephant plush, new pacifiers and a mouse plush like the one I had when I was five. He accepted it and he babies me all the time. This makes me really happy. I like being babied since I was denied that even as a kid. I love my Dad.

Those were five times I was happy.

…I feel a little better now. Maybe I should do this more. I'm going to go to a gas station and buy some energy drinks and see if that helps too.

[twoset-updates]

[270223 词不达意的劳拉 weibo post]

tl;dr: this fan met eddy in a cafe and got to chat with him. translation below (it's quite long but very sweet)

I was helping Twosetter friends in Singapore get tickets [for the Twoset vs Davie show], and I was lucky enough to get a spot ahead in the queue. You could only buy a maximum of four tickets with one account, and she needed three. I thought I shouldn’t waste the luck, so I decided to buy four anyway. At the time it was an impulse decision; I hadn’t even decided whether I’d let someone else have the ticket, or go to the concert myself. So although I had the ticket, I hesitated for a long time thinking whether I should go after all. For one thing, Twoset wouldn't be the only ones performing, and for another, borders had just reopened. Time would be tight to get a visa, and air tickets and hotels in Singapore aren’t cheap, either.

Just like that, Lunar New Year passed. When my friend asked me what I would be doing with the extra ticket, and if I needed help finding someone to take it, I thought of Boss Yang’s “just do it”. Even if it wasn’t for Twoset, I hadn’t been overseas in three years. Recently I had been troubled by certain comments from some people, so I might as well treat it as a vacation to relax. So I applied for the visa, and told myself that I would go if I managed to get it. As it turned out, I really did end up getting it.

I won’t elaborate too much on the performance itself. It was my first time seeing Twoset live, and my first time meeting Twosetters in person, so I was really happy. I felt that the more talented Twosetters are, the more humble they are. They’re all really friendly, too. Someone even brought cookies they had baked (I brought them back with me and still can't bear to eat them). It was like a grand exchange of things everyone had made.

So many things were exchanged

I was also happy to visit the places where Twoset had shot videos, the National Museum of Singapore, Victoria Concert Hall, Merlion Park, the mall where Davie pretended to be tailing Twoset—so many places. I also ate and drank lots of delicious things. Out of all the fans who had flown in, I might be the one who stayed the longest in Singapore. I thought the trip would end just like that, but I didn't expect that the day I was to fly back home, I got a huuuuuuuuge surprise.

In retrospect, meeting Eddy was such a coincidence, it felt like fate. I had only wanted to get a coffee to go from this cafe, and was planning to eat at another restaurant. But when I went in, the staff asked if I wanted to eat in or takeaway, and for some reason, I said I would eat in. The cafe was pretty full, and I was brought to a seat quite far inside the cafe. Then I ordered my meal and the food arrived, and just as I had finished taking photos and was about to start eating, out of the corner of my eye, I saw someone walk by me to wash their hands. I glanced at them, and got a shock. Was that Eddy?! But I didn't dare to stare at them directly, so I just observed them through my peripheral vision.

The person walked by my table again after washing their hands, and I only saw their side profile and back. Those glasses, the brick red T-shirt from the Christmas video, black skinny jeans, and white Gucci sneakers—who could that be other than Eddy?! I watched as he walked to the seat right by the entrance and sat down.

I was calm on the outside, but on the inside: AHHHHHHH HELP! When did he come in?! Should I go say hi? What if he ate and left quickly! But I thought, I'd be flying back in the afternoon, and I might never get another chance like this. So I took a deep breath and walked towards the entrance.

He was eating alone (I was so lucky; if he had been discussing something with someone else, or if he was with a friend, I would probably have walked back to my seat as I wouldn't dare to disturb him), and had ordered a coffee. On the chair opposite him he had placed his backpack, and there was a large notebook on the table. When I reached his table, he realised I was there, and stopped eating to look up at me. For about two seconds, we just looked at each other silently, neither of us saying a word.

(Me, internally: say something! Don't be such a freak!)

(For the below conversation, it happened in English, unless mentioned otherwise. {} indicates actions, expressions, and additional explanations, and () indicates my thoughts.)

Me: OMG Eddy

E {realised I was a fan so he was a little cautious but smiling}: Hey hello!

Me: OMG, can I sit next to you? {The table next to him was free}

E: Sure, do you want a photo?

Me {nodding vigorously}: I actually came to see your performance, but I'm flying back this afternoon. Actually, this is the last place I'm going to before I head to the airport {I can't stop talking when I'm nervous, sorry, I don't know what I was saying}

E {his tone of voice was very gentle}: Oh where are you from? What's your name?

Me: I'm Laura, from Shanghai, China {I sat on the seat next to him, and turned to face him}

EDIT: I forgot to mention, amidst all this I also asked if he remembered, during the video they filmed in Taiwan about giving fans gifts, I'd asked Lisa to pass him a gift from me. (None of us knew whether Lisa would be chosen, but I told Lisa I'd send the gift to her anyway, and if she wasn't chosen it would be my Christmas gift to her. I'm thankful to Lisa for being such a nice person and agreeing to my request.) [I told him,] I gave him and Brett a Mario luggage tag each, did he remember, those were actually from me. He said, "Oh yea yea I remember that gift." (He really remembered, I'm so happy)

Then Eddy talked a bit about Shanghai with me. He said he'd been to Shanghai, and I couldn't resist teasing him about when he said "Shanghai Stock Exchange" [T/N: during Landmark Charades] (Eddy internally, probably: Why won't the fans from Shanghai give me a break about this). He seemed like he was cringing at himself (super cute!). He said he really didn't know why he said it during the video, and I asked if it was because the tour guide had brought them there when he was in Shanghai? He said he'd actually never been there, and had only been to the Oriental Pearl Tower. I told him he should come to Shanghai and see the Shanghai Stock Exchange, the building is really quite magnificent. I said, "please come to Shanghai, come to China, we fans in Shanghai really look forward to you visiting," and he said they'd look into it. (I know he was just saying it though; it seemed like it would be difficult for them to come to Mainland China.)

At one point, I apologised for my bad English, and he said, in Mandarin, "it's okay, we can speak in Mandarin too." But I kept speaking in English to him (I have no words for myself, I could have listened to him speak more Mandarin!). When he said they'd "look into it" he said it in Mandarin [T/N: original phrase is 再研究一下看看].

I told him his Mandarin is really good, and joked that Brett's sucks, and he laughed. But I hurriedly added that Brett's pronunciation is really good, and with his usual serious/earnest expression, he nodded, saying, "Hm, that is true." I said Brett seems like a pronunciation prodigy—previously there was a German fan who said his German pronunciation was good (and there was a German fan who watched the show with us this time who said the same). Eddy said that is indeed the case, as Brett had a lot of friends from Germany when he was in Europe. But I told him that since he could understand Mandarin puns, it was really impressive too. He smiled bashfully after being praised. (So so so cute!)

Then I suddenly remembered that I had interrupted his meal, and I was worried whether he would have other plans later in the day, so I asked him. I said, "I'm very sorry I interrupted your meal, I don't know if you have any other plans later, is it okay?"

He very seriously looked at his watch, and really thought for a bit, and only then did he tell me he actually did have something on later, but it was alright as there was still a bit of time, and we could continue chatting for a while. {He didn't immediately say "it's okay", and didn't take the chance to end the conversation either; he's really a sincere and nice person.}

At that moment, he suddenly pointed at my right shoulder, and said, "This is really cute." I took a second before I realised he was referring to the violin earrings I was wearing that day. I said, "Yes, this is for the violin gang." He said, "Yea!", and I replied, "I'm part of the piano gang though." He smiled and said, "Oh, that's great." I said, "But a lot of times I'm lazy and don't practice," and I took the chance to ask him if he would sign a mini metronome. I told him I'd actually bought it at Synwin the previous day (and luckily I had it in my bag as I was afraid it would be damaged [if I kept it in my luggage]). He agreed and asked if I had a marker. I said, "Yes, I even have a gold autograph marker." He said, "Cool," and wrote "Go Practice" for me. As he did so, he toyed with the metronome a little, and said, "I didn't know there were mini metronomes like this, it's really cute." I asked (greedily) if he could address the autograph to me, and he checked again that my name is Laura. It's actually a really common name, and I thought he would just write it straight away, but he was considerate and still asked me how to spell it. (He's so nice.)

He even added a emoji, really cute

Alright, I'll "Go Practice"

Because I had to take the metronome and autograph marker out of my bag, I had picked my bag up from the ground, and he noticed that my bag had two pins on it (Puganini and Meowzart pins from the SSO; a Twosetter in Singapore had mailed it to China for us). He said, "Oh, this is cute," and I replied, "Yeah, It's from the SSO," and he said he knew, but he only knew they had made Puganini pins and not Meowzart ones. {He really pronounced the "meow" sound, it was cute.} I said, "Yeah, and it so happens that it's Paganini and Mozart (referring to him and Brett), what a coincidence." He agreed.

My SSO Puganini and Meowzart pins.

Then I remembered that I had made three headbands for the concert—one for Twoset, and two other Paganini and Mozart ones (because I had thought those characters would appear during the show)—and I still had them in my bag, so I hurriedly took them out to show him. First I showed him the TwoSet Violin one, and I told him I'd even glued on LED lights by hand, and turned the lights on to demonstrate. It seemed like he was happy about it but also thought it was a little embarrassing. He hid his face in his hands (ahhh so cute). Then I showed him the Paganini and Mozart headbands, and said, "These don't have lights though." He said they were really cute, and I told him the Mozart one has rabbit ears because Mozart had made the rabbit ear gesture, and the Paganini one has devil horns. Then I paused, and asked if he wanted the headbands. (I thought I'd just ask.)

TwoSet Violin (I put the LED lights on by hand, sorry for the poor craftsmanship)

Paganini (I originally wanted to add lights too, but I gave up afterwards)

Mozart

Unexpectedly, he said, "Sure!" He took them from me, and said, "I'll give this {the Mozart one} to Mozart Brett." Then he wore the Paganini one himself ahhhh (I was so stunned in that moment, I completely wasn't expecting him to take the initiative to wear it, so I just dumbly stared while we continued to talk). After about five seconds, I realised he might feel awkward wearing the headband, so I asked if he wanted to take it off for now, wasn't it awkward? Then he suggested that we should take a selfie first (I completely didn't think that he himself would suggest a selfie with the headband), so he could take the headband off after the selfie, because it did feel awkward after all. (Ahhhhh I'm sorry I keep saying this, but he was so cute when he was being bashful ahhh)

Paganini Eddy is so cute and looks so good!

After the selfie, I told him I was in too much of a rush this time to finish lights on all the headbands, so if they came to Shanghai, I would make a full set of headbands with lights for them, and he said, "Deal!" (So, please come for real TAT)

That was almost it, but just then, I remembered that a while ago a lot of people were curious if they had ever tested which Hogwarts house they were in? At first, he didn't really get what test I was talking about, but when he understood, he said that they'd never done the test.

E: Do you think the test is fun? Should we do it?

Me {nodding}: It's really fun, I think you guys can try it.

E: Which house do you think I'd be in?

Me: I think you're Ravenclaw

E: I think I'm Ravenclaw, too

Me {quietly}: I'm also Ravenclaw (shameless)

E: What about Brett, which house do you think he's in?

Me (I didn't think he would bring up Brett on his own): Hm...... I think he's either Gryffindor or Slytherin

E: Oh? {He seemed to be surprised that I chose two houses; I'm guessing the one he was surprised about was Slytherin.}

Me: Gryffindor because he's very courageous, but Slytherin because he has a realistic {I said it in English and Mandarin} side as well. [T/N: original word for "realistic" was "现实"]

E: Oho, Brett, Slytherin, hehehehehe {a teasing laugh} (I thought, does he think that Slytherins are villains, so he thinks it's funny that a fan thinks Brett is a villain?)

Really, I took up quite a bit of his time, and I apologised a few times throughout the conversation, but he amiably said that it's alright. He listened to me patiently, replied to me earnestly, and fulfilled all my requests. (Now that I think about it, it might be because I told him in the beginning that I would be flying back to Shanghai in the afternoon, that he was very forgiving of me, and for that I'm very, very thankful to him.

P.S. Eddy is more handsome and good-looking close-up than in videos; his eyes are round and bright, his iris and sclera are clearly defined, he looks here and there when he's thinking, and he has double eyelids on both eyes. Sob, he's really cute (for the millionth time)

Finally, he really was like he said: a very gentle listener. At the start of the post, I mentioned that I was feeling troubled, and part of it was for reasons related to my work. There were some issues that I couldn't figure out an answer to, and in the course of my conversation with him I couldn't help but tell him some of it (it's strange, he has the power to disarm people). He patiently and carefully listened to my troubles, and in reply, he didn't simply say something like "you should just do it," but instead he said that it was a tough problem indeed. I told him that that's why I'm grateful to them for making videos and performances that inspired me, and he told me, "If you decide to do it, you can do it."

Me: ......well, since you've said that, I have to do it now.

At this point, I guess I can't get out of the fandom anymore...... It feels like all the challenges I faced in making this trip to Singapore happen were worth it. In the process, I received a lot of sincere help from Twosetters, and I think I did my best to help them sincerely as well. As expected, sincerity is really the solution to everything. I guess that's how it is with Twoset, and this community that formed around them. I think that's one thing about Twoset that differs from others, the most special thing: they brought together this amazing, talented community. It seems if you treat others with sincerity, and have a little luck, you'll be able to make your wishes come true.

[justonemorechapternicercy]

“We can bake cookies! And put heart sprinkles on them.” sibling bonding Percy and Tyson baking together for their favorite redheads (aka Rachel and Ella)??

(Sorry, it's a bit different, because I can't comprehend what I'm reading and I mistook the "for" for "with" 😂 oops 😅)

"Oooh! We should bake cookies! I love cookies, they are yummy!" Tyson declared between two Disney movies, after whining that he was hungry.

"Yes! Ella wants it!" Ella exclaimed, jumping up from her cozy nest, her eyes sparkling as if she was a character in an anime. "And we can put heart sprinkles on them!"

There was only one possible answer, really. Percy knew there was no way he could say no to those two begging eyes, and he could see that even Rachel liked the idea.

"But only if we make the base blue," he negotiated.

Rachel smiled, "Of course it's going to be blue. The icing will be white and the sprinkles pink."

It took a second for Percy to understand. "Ah," he blushed. "That's nice."

"So? Can we, please, make cookies?" Tyson begged. Percy adored his overeager puppy of a brother. Picking him up, he pretended Tyson was kidnapped by aliens as he run towards the kitchen, followed by tinkling, joyful laughter.

"Nooo, I don't want to be kidnapped!" Tyson whined, his face flushed red.

"But you are, and I'm going to eat you!" Percy declared, pretending to bite into his brother.

"Nooo! I'm not edible! You can't eat me!" Tyson screamed, laughing as he tried to escape from Percy's arms.

"If you are hungry, we should make those cookies, babe," Rachel winked, standing between the two brothers, helping Tyson to get out from Percy's grabby hands.

He pouted, "Spoilsport," but held up his hands in the universal sing of surrender.

Ella, the adorable little redhead princess was already lining up the baking sheets with parchment papers, not bothered by the commotion. She was already used to it.

Tyson dragged the ingredients from the shelves onto the counter, but as Percy could judge, it was a bit more than the cookies needed. At least he was almost sure they didn't need gelatine, nor tapioca pearls in their cookies, but honestly, who was he to know?

"Do you need some assistance?" Rachel stiffed her smile, her arms full of eggs, milk and butter.

Percy could see the indecision on Tyson's face, his eyes darting from one container to another, but then he glanced at Ella, and his little face became determined. "No, I can manage," he said. Percy thought his little crush on Ella was the most adorable thing ever.

"Ella needs a bowl," their little princess implored.

The four of them quickly gathered everything they needed - and some more -, and it didn't take long until the two youngest were covered in flour.

"You have-," Percy frowned, looking at Rachel. " You have something on your face," he said, and with a quick move, he smeared butter on Rachel's cheek.

"You are a dead man, Percy Jackson," she whispered frostily, but before she could retaliate, Tyson chimed in.

"I... We think we need help."

The look on both kids was one full of sheepish guilt. Percy's eyes followed their gaze, to the floor, where three eggs were cracked open, the sticky egg white covering everything.

He sighed, "You bake, I'll clean."

"Deal," Rachel hummed in acknowledgment, but before she went to help the kids, she pressed a kiss on Percy's cheek, wiping the butter off, into his skin.

It took no time until they had a perfect batch of blue sugar cookie, baked, cooling on the counter.

"Ella wants icing," Ella said.

"Me too!" Tyson chimed in.

"Me three!" Percy added, all of them looking at the only person who knew her way in the kitchen.

"Okay, okay, I'm doing it!" Rachel sighed, sieving powdered sugar into the egg white that they didn't use in the dough.

She was concentrating so hard to make it into the perfect consistency that her tongue unconsciously peeked out from her lips. Percy, of course, thought it was adorable. Like anything his partner did.

He was so engrossed in admiring her that only the chewing sound alerted that two little kiddos stole something they shouldn't have. Glancing at them, he could see them showing the rest of the cookie into their mouth before their older siblings could stop them, then grinned at him around a mouthful of cookie like two pleased cats.

He adored those little shits.

"Ella likes them!"

"They are really good!" They mumbled, their mouth still filled with the sugar cookie. The food dye painted their teeth blue, and Percy had to coo. Adorable little shits.

"You two can have another one when we are done. Don't you want to sprinkle these pretty hearts on the cookies?" Rachel asked, holding up the container. Ella rushed there immediately, yanking it out of Rachel's hand, inspecting the sparkling little candies in the bottle.

"Who wants to ice the cookies?" She asked, offering the bowl, and Percy took it.

"I'll do it, and Tyson and Ella can decorate," he decided. Taking a cookie, he dipped it into the royal icing.

"Just like that?!" Rachel exclaimed, horror in her face.

"Just like that. Who needs piping bags? I don't," he shrugged with a shit-eating grin on his face. He knew it would drive his perfectionist little artist mad. As much as she likes to make a mess in her art room, she can't stand it in her kitchen.

"Ugh," she groaned, but didn't complain, and the kids happily sprinkled a copious amount of those little hearts over the slowly drying icing.

[moecartoons]

Hi hi, OCs' bakery orders?

Same for the trio too if you'd like!

I had to look up a menu for a bakey bc I've honestly never been to one outside of walmart ig and a small one in Puerto Rico my mom used to bring me to that had hispanic treats I can't recall the names of.

Chip - If money isn't a problem, probably the fanciest and most chocolate thing they have. Just a slice, if that's all right. Otherwise they'll share.

CV - Who's buying? Not her. She'll have everything on the menu. The more sprinkles the better. Do they got funnel cake? Nevermind, she wants two donuts with sprinkles, one of them E-claries, and half a dozen cookies with those candy coated chocolates baked in 'em.

Talos - He'll eat whatever CV doesn't. So probably half an éclair and four cookies.

Teddy - He'll have a couple of brownies, an éclair as well, a full dozen of Bavarian cream, strawberry filled, and bacon sprinkled donuts. Not abnormal for a growing wolf boy, honestly. He'll also take a strawberry shortcake to go. Add bacon on that too, please, unless he's planning to share.

Ms. Kenzie - Bagel. Plain. She brings her own hot sauce.

Matt - He's probably doing more looking than actually choosing what to get. His Ma already bakes so much and does it so well, anything he gets at a bakery will probably be more for how it looks and the novelty than the taste. Probably gets a funny little cupcake shaped like a baseball or a spider and a donut with bacon bits.

Jackie - [Even if Chip only has a single slice, she gets a bite of whatever fancy chocolate thing they got.] She's getting three black velvet cupcakes and NO she's NOT sharing. The other two are for her parents.

Inez - Strawberry filled powdered donut. Doesn't really hit the spot like a sweet apple filled empanada, but she'll live.

Thank you so much for the ask, it was a lot of fun!

[talesfromsiteredacted]

Care Package, Or Suddenly My Dad is Super Popular On Site

Rabbit's dad sends a huge surprise. Rabbit shares with her friends, of course. Even Dr. Gears gets a treat.

It's a typical Monday. First, breakfast with my dearest Doctor. Then, off to a metric ton of reports, new rules, new hires, and... the same old Dr. Clef. He's strumming his damned ukulele. As usual. What isn't, however... is the very worried D-Class approaching with four very large boxes.

"Uh... hi. I'm looking for an Agent... Rabbit? Really? Yeah, Agent Rabbit. Got some packages for you." He hands them over, then takes out an envelope. I pass the boxes to my obliging boss, and take the envelope. I open it. Huh. Dad sent goodies. Wonder what he sent.

"Hey, boss, you can open the box. My dad the baker sent us a reward for our hard work." Dr. Clef opens the first box. It's full of pastries, from apple fritters to cannoli to even raspberry danishes. All four boxes are filled. I take out a half-moon cookie, and hand it to the D-Class. He whoops.

"And I thought today was gonna suck. Free cookie for delivering a package? I like it here already." He heads off with a smile.

"Yeah... I love you, Dad, but I'll never be able to eat all of these. But... I know who can."

"The staff?"

"The staff. But first... I think Dr. Gears needs a little treat too. He works harder than any of us. Oh, lucky us... here he is, our favorite Site Commander. Hi Boss. My dad sent a care package, through the usual channels, of course. There's way more than I can eat, so please help yourself."

"Hmm. Are those... eclairs? I suppose one won't hurt." He picks out one, takes a bite... and smiles. "That is delicious. If I didn't know better, I'd swear these eclairs are anomalously good. We may want a word with your dad, if only to teach Mabel in the site cafeteria how it should be done. 343 knows she's a decent cook, but a terrible baker. Poor Dr. Light had a birthday cake 073 could have used to kill 076-2 it was so hard. Pass them out before the meeting, food helps focus."

We bring our haul of baked happiness to the conference room. I open the other three boxes while Dr. Clef makes free coffee. I add a sign, "My dad sent me way too many of these things. Take one and tell a friend." I do, however, snag a small personal sampler, for a few absent friends. 053 is going to love Dad's chocolate chip cookies, and I know Iris loves a good cannoli. Plus, 999 loves sweets, can't forget my little squishy buddy. That done, we head into the room. I'm seated by the door, merely by chance. But... suddenly my dad is super popular. Funny how good food does that. I can hear my coworkers chatting.

"So, did you know Rabbit's dad bakes?"

"Yeah, he's awesome. So is she for sharing."

"I haven't had a decent eclair since I left Paris. I think I want to meet Rabbit's papa, as this is tres bien."

"Holy crap! Lemon tarts! My mom made these all the time."

And now, in addition to being the best dad ever, my dad is now a site legend.

[timekeepertwister]

Case 0 Type P - File 1 - “The Waltz of Walpurgis”

Location: The Witch’s House

Timeline: PET-K

Date of Record: April 30, 1939

Affirming Witness: C/E-727

Subjects Involved: C/A-95, C/L-33, RC/EO-77, H/?-9 (in multiple denominations)

Timeline Inspection Record Of: “Tower of Sweet Chaos” [Minor Deviation Detected]

Deep into the haunted woods unknown was a cottage that was said to be the dwelling of a Witch. Whether because the temperature setting she had on her wood-burning Oven was too high, or possibly because her sweet tooth for baked goods was as insatiable as her desire for unusual culinary inventory, Cookies often dreaded the building, fleeing from it the first chance they could get to truly live their lives.

On the turn of the Night of the Witches, frequently stated by many wizard academies as once in a millennium (although this has been thoroughly debunked by third party sources), one Cookie would find herself going towards the house to pose a question to the homeowner on her people’s purpose in life. This was White Lily Cookie’s destiny. She told herself, “The banquet is starting… the Night of the Witches, held once in a thousand years... this is my only chance! I shall meet the creators, the Witches! I must ask the question. I will ask them why... why they created the Cookies... and myself. I must learn the truth!” Anticipating the official response of the Witch, she eagerly snuck into the house in search of the kitchen, weaving around rats. Spiderwebs. Mouse traps. BEAR TRAPS. Finally, the ladder. Having found a ladder, White Lily Cookie slowly ascended it. “A stairway to the table. Lofty for a Cookie, but a small convenience for a Witch.” And just in time she did; just as she climbed up to a satisfactory level that matched the banquet table, the worn-out wooden door creaked open to give way to a whole host of Witches from far and wide.

Some as short and pudgy as Gruntilda was claimed to be, while others were tall and slender as if they hadn’t had a filling supper in forever. One Witch even came in with what seemed like four Skeletons awaiting food! As the door opened, the hostess Witch greeted her colleagues warmly with a very raspy voice, “WELL WELL WELL, IT'S BEEN A THOUSAND LONG YEARS! GLAD TO SEE Y'ALL!”

A second Witch responded, “AND WOULD YOU LOOK AT THESE! THEY LOOK AMAZING! Y'ALL BEEN WORKING HARD!” As she dropped her small satchel of belongings off to the side, the welcomed Witch eyed the banquet table with delight as if she wanted to eat everything right away.

The homeowner Witch smiled with delight at seeing her friend admire her wide array of baked goods. Bread, cake, biscuits, pie, tarts, everything was up for grabs… but her pride and joy seen in her banquet spread was her freshly-baked cookies. Having worked tirelessly for the last three nights with the date of April 30th marked as a banquet night with her fellow Witches, the Witch had baked, decorated, and served her intricate trays of cookies for this very night. Now that her work was done, she gestured to her work and retorted jovially, “PHEW! I BAKED A TON OF COOKIES! HERE, TRY ONE! YOU'RE GONNA LOVE IT!”

As the Witches began to go for their sugary bounty, they instantly went right into the waiting collection of cookies and began eating them like no tomorrow much to their delight… but very much to a horrified White Lily Cookie’s dismay. “Impossible...! The Witches... our creators... are... eating... Cookies!” She let out a practically unheard shriek as she turned to the waiting collection of gingerbread cookies and other banquet desserts, screaming in growing hysteria, “WAKE UP! PLEASE! WE HAVE TO RUN!” …no response. She tried calling out to them again, hoping to get a response, “YOU CAN'T STAY HERE...! LISTEN TO ME, WE MUST ESCAPE...!”

Baffled by the lack of response, and movement for that matter, White Lily Cookie looked at the banquet cookies with a sense of hopelessness, “But why... why! Why are you smiling at me?!” Having abandoned all hope of saving these cookies from being eaten, she began to run away unseen, saying to herself, “I must... I must tell someone about it!”

But in her haste, she had not seen a rogue fork in her path and tripped upon it, losing her balance and falling off the table towards a waiting cauldron of bubbling purple dough. Now knowing of her destiny, she told herself, “Why... why did you do that...? Witches... the Witches deceived us… The Cookies... were created to... be eaten! But I was born... and lived... I have my will and consciousness... I can't... accept this fate...!”

The resounding splat emanating from the cauldron when White Lily Cookie fell into the dough had alerted the Witches and an unusually small awaiting raven to the site, knowing that a Cookie had fallen into a cauldron of dough. The homeowner exclaimed, “WHOSE COOKIE IS THAT? LOOK, IT FELL INTO THE ULTIMATE DOUGH!”

The Witch’s guests clamored in reply, as if they weren’t worried about one Cookie falling into a cauldron of dough. “T'IS ALRIGHT! LET'S JUST BAKE IT AND SEE WHAT HAPPENS!”

“YEAH, LET'S BAKE IT! LET'S SEE WHAT FORTUNA HAS IN STORE!”

Unfortunately for them, Fortuna was not on their side tonight. Heaved onto a baking tray, a glob of purple mush with a forsaken Cookie inside, with some other pastries and stuff still in the Oven, the Witch cranked the woodburning oven up to a fiery 375 degrees Fahrenheit. White Lily Cookie’s screams were drowned out by the sounds of crackling wood, bubbling dough, and rattling metal as she felt herself being pulled apart.“Wh-WHAT’S HAPPENING TO ME…?!” Uttering a soul-splitting scream, she felt her own dough split away from her as it spit her out of the blob of Ultimate Dough, right off the tray and into the fire.

The Ultimate Dough conglomerated into what White Lily Cookie perceived to be the Boogeyman staring down the Oven’s cast-iron doors. A Cookie with horns black as night. Slender as a skeleton. Dough burnt into a pale shade of purple, just as the Ultimate Dough was not even an hour ago. And then the flames died down. The doors opened. A new Cookie burst into sinister laughter in her new life as a charred and mortified White Lily Cookie could only hide in silence and watch Chaos Incarnate unfold.

——————————

[End of File 1] - [Next: File 2 - “Solace in Nightmares”] - [Return To Case Record]

[flusterfluff]

Altun and Harmony's answers under the cut!

1a) Altun likes fruity drinks, and isn't afraid to order something large. 1b) Harmony would order a glass of baking soda if she could speak enough to order. She goes absolutely feral for the stuff.

2a) Altun is rigorous about scrubbing her scales and bathes at least two times a day, occasionally even going to bath houses to soak and relax. A lot of her work is a strain on her back and legs, so she enjoys water a lot 2b) Harmony doesn't groom. She doesn't shower, and she only bathes when forced into water by Altun. It's a lot like trying to get a cat to take a bath. This only happens about three times per week, but she doesn't seem to need as much hygenic upkeep for some reason. 3a) Altun is rigorous about the upkeep of her submersibles and mammets, but lacking the skill to maintain them herself, most of her spare income goes to paying engineers when one breaks down. 3b) Harmony doesn't understand the concept of money and paid four million gil for a single drink, once. How did she get that much money? Who knows. Wait, she has -retainers-? Since when!? How!? HARMONY, YOU BETTER BE PAYING THEM! 4a) Altun's back is HEAVILY scarred from a fight earlier in her life with a Courser Chocobo. She took a Choco Meteor right to the back, but ended up victorious. She won't say she won, but she DID have dinner that night. 4b) Harmony has no scars, but thin veins of gold run across her body in a curious manner. 5a) She won't admit it. She did it behind closed doors, in a bath, when her mentor died. That was a long night, and there was probably a bit too much alcohol involved. 5b) Some time before she was corrupted. It's impossible to know further details. 6a) Orphaned at a young age, she doesn't know if she has any blood relatives left alive. (She does, like two cousins that she has VERY NARROWLY avoided meeting because oops) 6b) She was the youngest child of a noble family in Voeburt. I only learned as much as I'm writing this. 7a) It varies based on conditions. She actually has two pairs of footwear, something light for moving around more easily and heavier boots for trudging through coerthan snow 7b) If you look below the dress, she's actually barefoot. Yes, even in the snow. On paving tiles. In houses. On carpets. Barefoot. This doesn't seem to bother her, or somehow leave any mess. 8a) It's a mess. Altun sleeps where she works, sometimes making her way to her mess of a bed from her desk. 8b) Harmony might not sleep? I don't know, she won't tell me. 9a) Altun is really fond of Starlight. She remembers seeing Ishgardian fireworks displays courtesy of the cannons on the Steps of Faith from afar as a child. It's a quiet appreciation, but she really likes the mood. 9b) Today. Tomorrow doesn't exist, yesterday can't be changed, but today is here and now. Harmony is happy to exist, and every day is a gift. She well and truly lives every day like it's a holiday, and that's not just because she doesn't understand what a holiday is. Only partially because of it. 10a) Altun actually has a mood necklace that she wears almost everywhere, even if it doesn't quite work. It does, however, reflect the role of whatever job she's on because I'm a nerd about my glamours like that. She also has a trusty knife that she's incredibly fond of. The blade is super worn down and almost too short to be useful from how many times it has been sharpened, but almost useless isn't useless. 10b) Harmony has way too many cookies. She has had them since at LEAST last hatching-tide, and they're all super stale and some are even moldy. Do not accept cookies from her. It's for the best if you just let her eat them in peace, no matter how enthusiastic she seems to share them.

So my problem with most ‘get to know your character’ questioneers is that they’re full of questions that just aren’t that important (what color eyes do they have) too hard to answer right away (what is their greatest fear) or are just impossible to answer (what is their favorite movie.)  Like no one has one single favorite movie. And even if they do the answer changes.

If I’m doing this exercise, I want 7-10 questions to get the character feeling real in my head. So I thought I’d share the ones that get me (and my students) good results: 

What is the character’s go-to drink order? (this one gets into how do they like to be publicly perceived, because there is always some level of theatricality to ordering drinks at a bar/resturant)

What is their grooming routine? (how do they treat themselves in private)

What was their most expensive purchase/where does their disposable income go? (Gets you thinking about socio-economic class, values, and how they spend their leisure time)

Do they have any scars or tattoos? (good way to get into literal backstory) 

What was the last time they cried, and under what circumstances? (Good way to get some *emotional* backstory in.) 

Are they an oldest, middle, youngest or only child? (This one might be a me thing, because I LOVE writing/reading about family dynamics, but knowing what kinds of things were ‘normal’ for them growing up is important.)

Describe the shoes they’re wearing. (This is a big catch all, gets into money, taste, practicality, level of wear, level of repair, literally what kind of shoes they require to live their life.)

Describe the place where they sleep. (ie what does their safe space look like. How much (or how little) care / decoration / personal touch goes into it.)

What is their favorite holiday? (How do they relate to their culture/outside world. Also fun is least favorite holiday.) 

What objects do they always carry around with them? (What do they need for their normal, day-to-day routine? What does ‘normal’ even look like for them.) 

[starvette]

T 25/90 || K2 || GF = K + 8

Am I struggling on my Kitavan diet? A bit yes, already. Planning meals meticulously far ahead helps. Just gotta have funding and stay mindful and present, and focused, and plan. I got discount soybean fettuccine. A hundred grams of that has forty five grams of protein. I won't have to have anything else for the day. Well, I should shred some of that cabbage into new kaleslaw. I think I'll just write a lot about food now. I exported the most aesthetic quotes from Marya's book to my email. During difficult moments I shall reread those.

There's a sun crisis. It's not coming out of the damn clouds! I looked at the forecast and they're saying it won't come back for the entirety of July?! This is actually catastrophic.

I think I'll need to stop buying berries. They're just too delicious. I can't stop eating right now. Just woke up at four in the morning. I dreamt about guiltily buying cake (it was a cherry chocolate type of situation). Bingewatched pictures of cake and Claire Saffitz baking cookies. Then more Titan. Pictures of sundaes and banana splits. Just very very very very very very lazy today. Sat for like five hours straight.

At noon or so I was presented with A Cat. I was meant to take care of him for a day. He snores with every inhale. We slept together. It was all nice. Until late at night when he started begging to go outside. Looks like cats do understand what's behind that entrance door! It's a relief. I heard booms of thunder as I was making my soybean fettuccine. I finished it and opened the window to watch the lightning show with cat but alas he immediately jumped down outside. I had to finish my fettuccine that I worked for so hard before going after him. It was just five minutes. You already know how fast I can wolf down a bowl of pasta. And by then he was nowhere to be found. Clearly, no desire to return home. Then, a terrible shower started.

For a couple days now I've lost my fin fear and have been applying it to my arms and, ahem, nipple. I put the microscope out of my mind until the 30th. I'll see if I can get those photographs taken by some pro at a clinic. Besides, I've got my control nipple (which I'm not afraid to show) and control arm. I'm going through Derek's amazing lectures and wishing I could just download them all to my brain. He said he can get all the molecules he wants pretty easily. I felt like a stupid little baby hearing that. Mairi said I wouldn't get scarring. Maybe I can bypass this whole drug route. But then again I don't trust anyone.

Fucking hate this diet. There's even no more cheapy legume pasta at LIDL. Things I can eat: Legume pasta (the only thing I actually *like*), chia pudding (the best vehicle for collagen), frozen veggie mix, veggie soup with soy croutons, seasoned lentil cakes with olive oil, nutritional yeast on everything, nuts and seeds by themselves, olives with health crackers (expensive), cherry tomatoes, avocado just by itself?! (I won't be seeing fish roe again until my next lifetime so forget about that avoroe delicacy), kaleslaw or some other nasty salad, TOFU (god bless her), salmon, I don't know if tuna ever again...I can't think of anything else. Beans and friends. Although I did read that people started cultivating those around the same time as grains so really why are legumes so much better?! I am technically allowed berries too but I'm so miserable that I can't help gobbling the entire 400 gram pack down right away which is not how they're meant to be consumed at this time. Those frozen bitches are at peak ripeness and *very* sweet. Well, and then there is coffee and teas, and my fake and gay almond milk. I was also looking at three ingredient vegan keto cookies but I don't know if I should be using xylitol right now. Not to mention the pricetag. Time has slowed down. Maybe that's exactly what I needed. After all it had sped up so much I had to start writing this blog.

If I can manage this for any meaningful length of time, then I would later be adding in potatoes and corn, berries, and maybe grapefruits. Oh, and oatmeal? After I'm done with three months of no gluten? Ha. I think I'll always be afraid of whole wheat unless I test it with a CGM. Which costs money.

Yesterday I was looking at deep sea fish and I read that at least one of them could go five years without eating. It helps to imagine myself as a deep sea fish that eats disgusting slimy organic matter - anything at all with nutrients, the raw building blocks of life. I read of another fish that can live for up to two hundred years in complete darkness. I wonder what the hell do you do with such a life. I think these fish must be very enlightened.

[onlyfreds]

Hi Gabriella! I am mostly new here, but I have read your fics and they really stole my heart 😊. Could I request a 🎉 for Klaus Baudelaire with the song Can't help falling in love by Elvis Presley?

Nela 💜

Thank you so much Nela! This means so much to me! 💖 Thank you so much for requesting this and I had fun writing it.

A/N: This is my first Klaus fic, so I hope you like it!

Can't Help Falling in Love | K.B.

It’s been a while since Klaus has been in the city, considering the fact that he had been staying at an isolated island for the past few years. 

They had decided to wait until Violet had come of age before returning back to the rest of the world, considering their history would give them a hard time in finding a job and the fact that they had a toddler to sustain.

After a long journey, the four of them finally reached the dock - they had yet to find out what city they’re in but at least they were on land. 

Violet picked Beatrice up, not bothering to anchor the boat to the dock as they won’t be needing it anymore. 

“I guess we have to stop by the bank first.” Violet mused.

“Yeah,” Klaus agreed, holding on to Sunny’s hand, “Then we can try to look for a place to stay.” 

“Or something to eat.” Sunny added. 

The Snicket and three Baudelaires waved their way through the traffic, stopping once they had found themselves in front of the building that had the name Sunside Banking glittering under the sunlight. 

“I guess this is it.” Violet said, exchanging a look with her brother. 

Pushing the glass door, they were hit with the cold air coming from the air conditioner. A nice lady immediately assisted them without question.

Maybe things wouldn’t be so bad after all.

–

The bell gave a small ding as Klaus pushed open the door, he saw an ad saying that the store needed an extra helper so he decided to take a chance. 

Breathing in the familiar scent of books and looking around at the tall shelves, Klaus felt like it was his lucky day - something he hasn’t felt in a long time. 

“How can I help you?” A voice suddenly said, pulling his attention towards the counter. 

Now he knew what the poets were talking about: how he would feel that the breath had just been knocked out of his lungs, how everything else would fade away and you were the only one his brain could focus on, how he would feel his heart racing faster than the speed of light.

To put it short, it was wonderful. He never felt this way with Isadora Quagmire, his first love, or with Fiona, his first heartbreak. It was like having a crush but make it ten times better.

“Hello?” Your voice brought him out of his trance. “Are you okay?”

He chuckled, running a hand through his hair, “Yeah, I was actually planning on applying for the job opening?” 

–

“What’s got you smiling like that?” Violet asked her brother with an amused smile. 

Klaus shrugged, mind still occupied with the thought of you, “Nothing. I already told you - I got the job.” 

Violet nodded, putting a blanket over a napping Beatrice, “Yeah, but your smile is telling a different story.” 

“He’s in love.” Sunny walks into the room, carrying a tray of freshly baked cookies.

“Aha!” Violet exclaimed as Klaus gave no protest to Sunny’s claim, “Who is she?” 

Klaus sighed in defeat, taking a cookie from the tray, “Her name is Y/N and she works at the bookstore I just got a job in.” 

“That is literally your dream meet-cute.” Violet teased. 

“You didn’t ask her out, didn’t you?” Sunny said. 

“Of course I didn’t.” Klaus defended, “I just met her - why would I? She might think that I’m some sort of creep.

–

It’s been three weeks since Klaus had first met you and things have been going smoothly so far. 

Violet had been egging him to tell you how he feels and he already did his research to try and ease his mind. But it’s like no one can agree on the perfect way to ask a girl out.  

The two of you were busy shelving the new books that had just arrived that morning. 

Truth be told, he didn’t have a hard time making conversation with you, frankly it was the opposite. He loved talking to you, he loved picking your brain at topics that he couldn’t discuss with Violet or Sunny due to their different interests. 

“I just thought of a quote.” Klaus suddenly said out of the blue, picking up another stack of books from the box, “I can’t really remember where I read it but it goes ‘Wise men say only fools rush in’-”.

“‘But I can’t help falling in love with you.” You finished, looking over at him with a smile.

“Yeah.” Klaus cleared his throat, ignoring the heat rising up to his cheeks as he returned to the task at hand. 

A moment of silence passed between the two of you before you spoke up.

“Was that your way of asking me out?”

“I-I. It was. Probably?” Klaus always seemed so composed, this was the first time you saw him trip over his words. 

“It’s okay if you just want to stay friends, I just really wanted to-” He was once again interrupted but this time, by your lips on his. 

“Wow.” Klaus breathed out afterwards, making you giggle, “Please tell me I’m not dreaming.” 

“Nope. Nope at all.” You answered, fixing his glasses that had been knocked askew. 

[peachiipark]

Hxh main four grocery shopping hcs? IT FEELS SO WHOLESOME☺️

oh my god.. THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR REQUESTING THIS IT'S SO CUTE

the main four - grocery shopping!

domestic!au

grocery shopping with these four is interesting

now let's start off by saying that they either go grocery shopping on saturday & sunday mornings

it's normal for them to go shopping every two or three days. when it comes to the appetites of two growing boys, there's no way the four of them could last a day without a stocked kitchen

assuming that this supermarket is separated like the average Walmart, the boys all have certain paths that they'll drift to. despite that, they always plan to meet at a certain line

gon freecss

gon befriends the cashier. no questions asked.

FISHING TOOLS

gon knows every single isle in the grocery store. he'll even remember the items that he hid so no one else buys them

recommending teas for kurapika

such a sweetie buying seeds for aunt mito to plant when he visits her on the weekends

walmart subway enthusiast

usually sticks by killua the whole time while he gets lectured on what in th name of god a gameboy is

tries to buy a fish

realizes that he kills and eats fish as a hobby

gets sad

latino isle lover

leorio paladiknight

SPICES. leorio seems like a guy who likes his food seasoned THOROUGHLY or he'll go back into the kitchen and season it himself.

fight me, leorio's both in the cooking AND baking isles. i initially imagined him to be a disaster at baking, but there's food thing he make extremely well! ricotta cookies.

you can also catch him at the gardening area arguing talking with a walmart employee since he couldn't figure out how to use a lawnmower. someone please stop him. anyone.

leorio also goes to the medical/skincare isle to make sure he stays fresh and healthy (he's also buying stuff for kurapika. no, kurapika doesn't know. he's just going to find random bottles with sticky-note instructions on how to use it)

is very big on buying veggies. if you tell that you've never had something, he'll make the BEST food with that item

killua "door dash" zoldyck

doesn't even know how to cook or make food for himself 😒 he's not concerned with buying food that isn't already made. if he has to buy only INGREDIENTS?? even worse

killua goes straight to the electronic area (don't try and tell me that he wouldn't)

new gaming console? got it. broke his charger? bought two more. IS THAT A NEW ALBUM??

as much as he loves clothes, killua will NOT shop at Walmart for clothes he just WON'T

by the end of it, he's waiting at the nearest restaurant inside of the walmart for everyone to finish (munching on little candies that he bought)

he's literally just buying ramen

kurapika kurta

oh pika my love

i actually have no idea what he would really buy

if this is a domestic!au and he isn't going batshit crazy over revenge, i would think that he would be in the tea isle :)

genuinely can't imagine kurapika wearing anything else besides a suit and if he does wear other clothes, he ain't shopping at walmart

would struggle at the McDonald's inside

"what? there is no kurtan cuisine? what is this 'big mac' you keep speaking of? is this a joke?"

he buys a sunhat

he just does

maybe a watch too

helps old ppl in the medication isle (he has migraines okay.) and gets doted on by old women

accompany on: to the masterlist!

[cheelseaaaa]

Baby We Build This House, of Cookies

Pairings: Natasha Romanoff x Reader

Summary: the gingerbread house, a creative way to make cookies look a lot more pleasing and appetizing. Now, let's see what the fam will do as they show the might of their creativity in making gingerbread houses!

Warnings: kitchen mess.

Word count: 946

A/N: My Christmas entries are until 23rd of December. English is not my first language.

Fifth entry for my Christmas entries.

Masterlist

⊱ ──────── {.⋅ ✯ ⋅.} ──────── ⊰

Baking is one of your specialties, but not Natasha's. Natasha sucks at doing things in the kitchen, she's never been assigned on doing lunch or dinners 'cause everyone knows that she will burn the kitchen to the ground. All she knows is to make pancakes and waffles for breakfast but when it comes to full meal courses, she goes invisible.

It's almost Christmas, and what's something with four walls and a roof, Icing and candy all around that everyone is enjoying building in the kitchen? A gingerbread house! That is what you are supposed to make today, but your wife, Natasha, together with the kids baked all parts of the gingerbread house because they are so eager that they almost burnt the whole house. “What did I say? Before I leave you three?” You said, trying to restrain yourself from shouting at them. This is the first time that you seriously want to kick them out of the house, especially your wife, but it's Christmas and Christmas is the day of joy, so you will let this slide.

“Don't do anything that can burn or destroy the house” they said in unison making you nod. “Then why are you trying to burn the house?” you said still trying to keep your cool, making them more nervous. They know the consequences of their actions and they know how you get mad so they are really scared, even the Black Widow herself.

“It was an accident, mommy. We really want to make the gingerbread house but you took so long to buy the parts so we took the matter in our own hands...” Nate, your eldest, answered. Ahh, they are so impatient, just like Natasha. They don't know how to wait and keep their asses in place.

You sigh. “Clean up the mess, after that we will build your Gingerbread house.” You said before taking your coat off and walked straight to the kitchen.

The kitchen is a mess. Flour is everywhere, the oven is still emitting black smoke from the cookies they've tried to bake. Rolling pin and dirty bowls in the sink. A reminder not to leave them alone.

“Sorry, Love. It’s just that...” you cut her off before she can continue. “Let's just clean up, okay? We'll talk later.”

———

After cleaning up the mess they made in the kitchen, you all gathered up on the living room. To talk.

“Look—”

“Mommy—”

“We—”

“Hey! One at a time!” You said before stretching your hands towards your youngest, “What do you want to say, hun?” she slowly walks towards you and sit on your lap. “We're sorry, mommy... Can we go and build a gingerbread house now?” she said with a small voice, still scared of what you would do to them.

You can't help but laugh at your daughter's antics. “I ain't mad at you or at anyone, hun. Maybe a little bit disappointed, but that's it. So, who’s up for building a gingerbread house?” you said before standing up and carrying Naomi in your arms.

They sigh in relief knowing that you are not mad and cheer in joy that you are now allowing them to build a gingerbread house.

———

15 minutes in, and you are in a little bit of a crisis, a lot of bread crumbs are on the counter and a lot of spilled icing, but no one cares as long as you are all happy and contented...

“Baby, don't eat the icing! You need it to stick them together” Natasha said before snatching the bag of icing from Nate. Nate only pouted before continuing his Gingerbread house, “Love, it's fine we have a lot of glue, he can use it to stick his pieces together.” you said jokingly making Naomi laugh and Nate groan. “But glue is not edible, mommy.” “Exactly so don't eat your icing.” He nods and grab himself a new bag of icing.

“We also might need that later." you said before giving Natasha a wink, making the red-head blush. “You're so dirty.” She whispered into your ears making the both of you laugh.

“Mama! Look, I'm done!” Naomi said before showing her gingerbread house, for a 4-year-old kid, you are surprised. She did an amazing job. Her structure is not falling apart compared to yours and Natasha's gingerbread house. “Woah, that looks so good, hun. Wanna help your brother over there who struggles to keep his structure stands?” Natasha said before pointing, Nate whose gingerbread house is falling apart. She nodded before approaching her brother.

After an hour of building, you all are finally done. You and Natasha made a pretty good job on making your gingerbread house. While Nate, well... he ate the cookies since he can't make his gingerbread house stands. As for Naomi, she did a great job, better than what you and Natasha did.

“This is so cute!” Natasha said before taking a photo of yours and Naomi's Gingerbread house. You also took a photo of the gingerbread house you made, to post it on your personal Instagram, not the account you use for the Avengers content.

“I'm going to put this in a glass case! This art needs to be displayed somewhere in the house that is easy to see.” Natasha said before carrying Naomi's gingerbread house.

“Baby we build this house of cookies, to eat and enjoy. Not to be displayed.” You said before taking it away from her. Natasha's smile fell and you heard the kid’s chuckle.

“It's okay, mama. At least you got a photo of it.” Naomi said before hugging her mama. You smile, your kid is maturing and your wife, well she's growing backwards.

⊱ ──────── {.⋅ ✯ ⋅.} ──────── ⊰

A/N: Should I start doing request or nah? Should I also make taglist? Feedback is very much appreciated. I am posting every Monday and Thursday

[keanureevesisbae]

But professor… - epilogue

Summary: It's been a year and a half since their little baby was born. How are the two of them doing?

Professor!Walter Marshall x Penny Townsend (Asian ofc)

Wordcount: 1.7k

Warnings: None

A/N: Is it the end for Penny and Walter? Yes, omg i can't believe. I hope you guys enjoyed it as much as i enjoyed writing it. The story took a full 180 (especially because I intended this story to be much shorter lol), but I'm very satisfied nonetheless 🥰

Masterlist // But professor… masterlist // Previous chapter //

Declan has a plan and that is to go outside. I mean, it’s kinda fair, since he spend a lot of time inside today. Not that he complained. No, no, no, he was an absolute angel at the salon—like always—playing with his toys, while I was at work, but now he needs some fresh air after we had a quick snack at home.

This little man is definitely as head strong as his dad, however he isn’t as stubborn as Walter can be.

Declan attempts to throw a ball at me and I can see there is some definite improvement. Just like any kid at that age, he is distracted like that. ‘Momma, momma,’ he says, pointing to a truck that passes by. ‘Dada!’

‘Oh honey, that is not his truck,’ I say, crouching down next to him. ‘Dada is gonna become soon. In his other car. His work car.’

Declan points. ‘No dada?’

‘Not yet.’

‘Dada home?’

‘Almost,’ I say to him, giving him a kiss on his cheek. Declan stops playing altogether, staring at the road, waiting for Walter to come home. His mouth slightly agape, as he focused on every car that passes by.

Finally his car pulls up and I exclaim: ‘There he is!’ When Walter gets out of the car with a smile that is only this wide when he sees us, I let Declan go and watch him wobble over to his dad. With one hand he lifts the little boy up and presses kisses on his chubby cheek. ‘I missed you,’ Walter says, looking his son in the eye.

‘Dada miss, dada miss!’

He chuckles. ‘That’s right.’ He walks up to me and says: ‘There is my princess.’

‘Princess momma,’ Declan says.

‘Give me a kiss, sweetheart,’ he says, wrapping his arm around my shoulder. I press a peck on his lips and melt against his frame.

‘It went splendid,’ I say. ‘I actually got to do someone’s hair for an important interview and afterwards, she came back to the salon and told me it went great!’

He smiles. ‘I’m so proud of you.’

After Declan was born, I stayed home for about six months, acclimatizing to being a mom and those sleepless nights. It was hard, I cried a lot and I was very scared. I think I hung on the phone with my mom about seventy percent of the time, while calling Walter the remaining thirty percent. I have adjusted pretty okayish, especially when Walter went to work, made sure I have nothing to worry about.

No stress, providing for the two of us as much as he can and Declan and I sure are lucky that Walter is the love of my life.

My parents helped me financially to go to cosmetology school, which was an absolute blast. It was around fifteen minutes from my place and Declan was always allowed to come with me.

He sure wrapped everyone around his fingers with no issue at all.

While Walter still is that grumpy detective he was when I met him outside of our house, he changes into a big fluffy ball, shaped like a human the second the front door closes. No matter how tired he was, how long his shift was, he pushes it aside to take care of his family.

We walk inside of our place and I tell him: ‘I made dinner.’

While I’m not a world class chef, I do manage to make some decent meals, especially because I wanted to make Declan’s baby food, since my mom raised me with that as well (though I was no saint and had jars as well stored in my kitchen, just in case).

‘Princess, I’m so lucky to have you,’ Walter says. Once we’re inside, he places Declan in the high chair and scoots his own chair closer to it, a silent message that he will help Declan eat today. ‘Okay, little fella,’ Walter says, ‘you gonna be a good boy and not spill the food over me?’

Declan nods. ‘Deccie, good boy.’

I give Walter a kiss, after placing his plate and Declan’s in front of him. ‘He has been such a good boy at the salon today, so it’ll go great, I’m sure.’

After I sit across Walter, he asks about my day. From the looks of it, he had a rough one. Thankfully enough happened at the salon today for me to talk about. While we’re still working on improving him sharing more details, but I kinda understand. With Declan repeating a lot of words recently, we get a little bit more careful with what we’re saying.

After Dinner, Walter and I curl up on the couch after Walter changed into something more comfortable. Declan places his head on my chest, his eyelids growing heavier before he stretches out his hand to place on Walter’s chest.

I nuzzle against Walter’s side.

‘He is so cute,’ Walter notes.

I smile. ‘He sure is. He has your curls.’

‘But your pout and eyes. How can I ever say no to this kid?’

I shake my head. ‘You can’t, honey. I tried it today and it was the hardest thing in my life.’

He starts to chuckle softly. ‘You got nothing to do tomorrow?’

‘No, why?’

‘Can you come down the precinct? I wanna show off the two of you.’

I smile. ‘Oh my goodness, you are so predictable. Of course, I can come by. Maybe I’ll even steal some of my mom’s cookies, tell them I baked them.’

He chuckles. ‘Oh, you shouldn’t be lying when at the police.’

Declan stretches himself and whines a little bit. ‘Momma,’ he says, looking up to see me.

‘Oh, I think someone is really tired,’ I say. ‘You wanna go to bed?’

He nods. ‘Deccie tired.’

‘That’s what I thought.’

‘Here, sweetheart, I’ll do it. You relax, okay?’ Walter stands up and after I gave Declan a kiss, Walter lifts him up and carries the tired little one up the stairs.

I watch my big buff boyfriend walk back into the living room and he places the baby monitor in front of us, before he sits back on the couch. That monitor basically is glued to Walter’s hand as he always checks up on his boy. I thought I would be the parent that worries the most, however Walter puts me to shame.

The two of them are as thick as thieves and it makes me so grateful that we have a son together.

‘How was work today?’ I ask him.

He shrugs. ‘There was a dad who left his kids in the car,’ he says, ‘in the burning sun, before literally running away. Took us two hours before we found him.’

‘Oh no.’

‘Yeah, it was painful. The kids are gonna be okay, but… It reminds me that Declan is a really lucky kid.’

‘Do those kids have someone to go to?’

‘Yeah, an aunt,’ Walter says, rubbing his face. ‘Come here, princess.’

I wrap my arms around his neck, giving him a kiss on his lips. ‘I missed you.’

Walter smiles. ‘I missed you too. You have no idea how much it means to me to see you two in the yard, waiting for me. Especially after a shitty day like this one.’

‘You know you can always call me,’ I say. ‘Really, I always want to listen to you. You before anyone else, okay?’

He nods. ‘Have I already told you today that you are a very amazing mother and how lucky I am?’

I shake my head. ‘Nope, not today.’

He pulls me on his lap and gives me a peck on my forehead. ‘Just everything you do and say to him… It’s like you always know exactly what to do and you stay so patient and kind.’

‘Oh, Walter, that’s too sweet. I can guarantee: it’s all because you stayed—or at least pretended—to stay calm. Had you not done that, I would absolutely freaked out every time Declan had a funny breathing.’ I ruffle through his hairs and ask: ‘Have I been good to you as well?’

‘What kind of question is that? Of course you have. I’m so lucky that I have you and you and I have a family. There is no one else in the world I would rather have with me for important events.’ He places his hand on my sides, pushing up my shirt. ‘Give me a kiss, princess.’

I willingly oblige and press my lips on his. ‘I love you, Walter.’

‘Oh, I love you too. I want your honest opinion and really be honest, okay?’

‘Okay,’ I chuckle.

‘What do you say if you and I have another one?’

‘Another what?’

‘Kid.’

My eyes widen. ‘Really?’ I ask. He actually wants another kid with me? I mean, I always figured we would have more than one kid, but that would be in the future a little bit further away.

But already another one?

‘Yeah and I mean, if you’re not ready, then I totally understand and I won’t bring it up until you are ready, but I personally would love it.’ He smiles and adds: ‘I mean, two of the most beautiful babies running around here? Together with my beautiful girlfriend, who I’ll make my wife someday?’

I should not be squealing, yet I totally do. ‘Walter, honey,’ I say with a chuckle. ‘I’d love to have another baby with you.’

He starts to smile even wider. ‘Really?’

‘Yes, really. I’d love for Declan to have a few brothers and sisters.’

‘A few? How many you thinking about?’

‘I don’t know. How about three kids? Or four?’

He starts to laugh. ‘Then you and I better get some practice in with some baby making,’ he chuckles. ‘Because this time it’s not gonna be an accident.’

I slap him across his chest. ‘Walter, what did I say about that word?’

‘Oh, right right.’ He gives me a kiss and says: ‘Declan wasn’t an accident, he was our surprise baby. Forgot.’

I place my forehead against his, wrapping my arms around his neck. ‘Forever and ever, right?’

‘Forever and ever.’

[scented-morker]

Speak now

A beeping sound echoes in the small bakery, the scent of freshly baked cookies enveloping you like a warm hug. A bell over the door jingles as someone enters the shop and you all out a “I’m in the back, I’ll be with you shortly” as you maneuver the hot pan out of the way.

You walk to the front of the store, expecting to see one of the sweet old ladies who frequent your business, and it’s a struggle to hide your surprise when you’re met with the handsome face of a man about your age.

“Uh hello,” a smile situates itself on your face as you approach where the man is standing, admiring the pastries through your display case.

“Hello” he stands up straight, his full height making you crane your neck slightly as he smiles back at you.

“Is there anything I can help you with today?”

He explains that he's getting a party together for the HYBE corporation's end of the quarter celebration, and is looking for a caterer for desserts.

"Oh, yeah absolutely, why don't I set you up with a tasting"

You weren't completely sure what they did in that building, other than that it was fancy and they got paid a lot for it. But an event is an event, and you liked catering events.

"Actually I think I'm good, I already know what I want"

A jolt of surprise runs through your body as he says it, confused on how he could already know. You're very certain he's never been in your business before, as you would definitely remember a face like his.

"Alright then, um how big of a headcount are we looking at"

"About 100 workers and their families, just put me down for," he glances back at the pastry cases to read the tags sitting in front of the baked goods, "75 of those tarts, both in raspberry and mint, 50 of those vanilla twist pastries, and 60 of the chocolate cannoli's"

You furiously scribbled down his order as he spoke, internally freaking out at how much time it would take you to bake everything, eventually looking back up when he stopped talking.

"Okay and that is under what name, and for what date?"

"Lee Heeseung, and next Saturday"

You grimaced at the short notice, thankfully Heeseung didn't notice, writing down the last bit of information on the order slip before shooting him a wide grin.

"Alright I will get that all worked out for you, thank you for the order"

He flashed a beautiful smile and you immediately smiled back, trying your best to ignore the way your stomach did flips at the sight.

"While I'm here, can I also just get whatever that chocolate thing is in the display case"

He said it with a slightly embarrassed chuckle, followed quickly by "just don't tell my boss, he'll probably give my nutritionist a heart attack"

You laughed with him, going to get the pastry he ordered, ringing it up and passing it over the counter, quickly snapping your hands back into yourself at the brush of his fingers.

Heeseung doesn't seem to notice as he takes a seat at one of the tables, continuing small talk with you as you replace items in the display case with fresh ones.

When you finished your task he was still eating and nobody else had come into the store, so you start wiping down the tables around him, accepting his offer when he asks you to sit with him.

"So you own this place?"

"Yep! It was my grandmas before the previous owner took over, and they just happened to be retiring when I graduated so it got passed down to me"

"That's impressive, owning your own business this young"

His eyes shined genuinely when he said it and you could tell that he really was impressed.

"Thank you, I'm very proud of it"

He smiles again and somehow you just know that he's a good person. The way he actually cares about the things you talk about, not just pretending to be interested. You could tell he loved seeing other people happy with the look he gave you when you talked, and maybe it was unreasonable, but right then and there a part of you fell for Lee Heeseung.

"You seem quite impressive yourself, working for a big fancy company like HYBE at your age!" You complimented back.

"Oh it's nothing, just a," he paused for just slightly longer than necessary before saying "an internship."

"That's still so cool! What's it like?"

You propped your chin on your hand as you waited for his response, not noticing the way he stared when you did so.

"Uh it's really not as cool as you think," he brushes off the question, "hey, do you want to go for a walk with me?"

The change of topic caught you slightly off guard, but you recovered quickly, checking the time on the clock and realizing it was time to close.

"Yeah that'd be great, just let me close up"

You go through the routine, counting your cash box and storing away pastries, eventually locking the door behind you as you and Heeseung head out into the evening.

"Where do you want to go?" You ask, since he was the one that suggested a walk, and he smiled back at you as soon as the words left your mouth.

"I thought you'd never ask"

He grabs your hand, excitedly pulling you to follow him as he passed through alleys and patches of trees, before eventually stopping, letting out a "ta-da"

You turn in a slow circle, taking in the view, willow trees hanging down around the bank of a river, small flowers covering the base of the trees.

"Oh my-"

You finally turned back to the man next to you, finding his sparkling eyes already on you.

"This is beautiful Heeseung"

His smile is bright enough to light up the slowly darkening night around you as it graces his face, and he pulls you over to sit down under one of the trees.

"Hey Heeseung, can I ask you something?"

"Yeah sure, anything"

"How'd you already know what you wanted to order? I'm sure I've never seen you in my store before, I would remember you"

"Because I'm just so handsome?" He teases, laughing even harder when you reply "yeah, exactly".

"Well Y/N, can I be honest with you?"

"Yeah, of course"

"I've tasted your food before, even before you owned that place"

Your eyes widened at his confession, head cocking to the side as you tried to think of where he could have had your pastries.

"Were you at an even catered?"

He shakes his head dramatically, mumbling something unintelligible.

"What was that?" You lean closer to try and hear what he says and he looks up then, face mere inches from yours as he repeats himself.

"I said 'you give a girl her first kiss and she doesn't even remember you'"

You let out a small gasp as you realize and your face flares up in embarrassment.

Seventh grade, you had your first kiss with a boy who went to the same music classes as you, and you remember embarrassingly bringing him baked goods every class after that. His name was Heeseung, and now that you think carefully you can see the resemblance to the man sitting in front of you now.

"Oh my gosh that's so embarrassing, how'd you know it was me?"

He decides not to tell you he's remembered you since that little peck in middle school and has been begging his boss to order from your bakery so he would have an excuse to see you again.

"You haven't changed much since seventh grade" was his response instead, and you slapped his arm at the comment.

You two spent the next three hours just talking, catching up on each other's lives and reconnecting after your time away.

Before you knew it the sun had completely set and there were no light posts in the area Heeseung had brought you, you now struggled to see the boys pretty smile only a foot in front of you.

"Its getting late, and you probably have work tomorrow, we should probably start heading back."

He checked his phone at your mention, and you pretended not to notice the giant number of notifications while his eyes widened at the time.

"I didn't even realize it had gotten so late, let me take you back"

You're glad he offered, not sure you would be able to make it back to the cafe without his guidance.

The way back seemed much shorter than when you had been pulled down it earlier that day, and you found yourself disappointed that he didn't grab your hand again.

"Well here we are"

He looked around once you made it back to the familiar building, before turning to you.

"Where's your car?"

"Oh, I live pretty close so I just walk, it's easier than trying to find a parking spot in the city traffic anyway"

He nodded his head along with your statement but then shook his head slightly.

"You can't walk home alone at this time of night"

You felt touched by his concern, but fought him on it anyway.

"It's fine Hee, it's only like four blocks away"

"Nope, no way. That's way too far, come on"

He waved his hand towards you and you looked down at it curiously.

"What?"

"I'm walking you home, now come on"

He grabbed your hand again, both of you smiling at how right it felt.

You reached your house in about five minutes, and you tried to hide your disappointment at the prospect of your fun night coming to an end.

"Do you want to come in"

His eyes lit up at the offer but were quickly turned down to look at his feet.

"I'd love to, but I have work early tomorrow"

"Oh, okay"

It was quiet for a few moments before he made eye contact again, taking a step closer to your body and pulling you in his arms in a friendly hug.

"Thank you"

You hugged him back, wrapping your arms around his torso.

"I should be the one thanking you, that spot was beautiful, and I had a really great time. Thank you for taking me with you"

Little did you know that he wasn't thanking you for the few hours you had spent together. But he said "of course" anyway.

"Well goodnight"

"Goodnight"

You went to go inside, sticking your key in the lock before quickly thinking of something.

"Wait!"

Heeseung looked at you quizzically, waiting for you to say whatever it was you had just thought of.

"I need your number," he raised one eyebrow and you quickly added "so you can text me when you get home safe, I would be an awful friend if I let you get kidnapped after you so graciously walked me home"

He laughed at your reasoning, but handed you his phone anyway as you two quickly added each other's contact.

You took a look at his contact, bursting out in laughter at the sight of it.

"Did you really put your name in as 'Heedungie' with a bunch of hearts?"

He looked proud of himself for making you laugh and he nodded his head.

"Yes, yes I did"

"No fair, give me your phone back I want to give you something embarrassing too"

You didn't think he actually would, but his phone was held out to you and you took it, quickly turning around and taking an exaggeratedly cute selfie to set as the contact picture before putting in a nickname for your name, complete with the same aggressive hearts as his.

"There"

He took the phone back and laughed at the improved contact.

"Perfect"

You shared one last smile before you entered your house, Heeseung leaving your porch after seeing you securely in, making sure he walked a block away before calling his driver so you wouldn't see.

Only once he was safe in the confines of the backseat did he look at the notifications on his phone.

23 missed texts from his father and 7 calls from his mother.

He clicked on the notification, skimming his eyes over the texts, rolling his eyes at their content. He didn't even read all the way through before shutting his phone off, throwing it across the seat for the rest of the ride.

You had just stepped out of the shower when you heard your phone ding, and you paused the music to go check the text.

'Just got home, all in one piece and no kidnapping attempts were made on me'

You laughed at his text, shooting back something along the lines of 'I'm glad to hear that' before heading out of your bathroom to get dressed.

Heeseung texted you a few more times after that, and you found yourself giggling at his messages exactly like seventh grade you did. Eventually you said your good nights, after you had scolded him for staying up when he needed to get up in the morning, and you smiled one last time at the obnoxiously cute contact name before floating off to sleep.

You went to work the next day, and the one after that, and there was no real difference in your life except for the constant texting and the extra bounce in your step. Even your regulars commented on how happy you looked.

Heeseung liked to come to the cafe on his lunch break, and you started making an extra lunch in the morning after the first day when he ordered three pieces of cake as his meal.

It was Thursday, and you were currently trying to find someone to help you bake the giant order for the party.

"Come on please, it's huge, and even one person would be a huge help to me"

"Sorry I can't, I'm babysitting for my neighbors the whole week"

You let out a sigh at yet another no, and put your phone back down on the counter.

You were so absorbed in the call that you hadn't heard Heeseung come in, and you almost screamed when you looked up to see him standing in front of you.

"Woah sorry," he was laughing so he obviously wasn't that sorry, "I didn't want to interrupt your call"

"It's okay"

"What do you need help with?"

It took you a moment to realize he meant the phone call and you let out another sigh at your empty search.

"I'm trying to get someone to help me with the order for the party, it's the biggest order I've gotten and it's just me so I can't make it all in one day by myself"

"Oh," he paused "what are you going to do"

"I don't know" you shrugged, "I'll have to start making things tomorrow, everything that would be able to stay overnight so that I don't have to do it all on Saturday, but even with that I don't know if I'll be able to get everything tomorrow done. Maybe I'll put a hiring sign up and hope someone applies by tomorrow"

He tried to stifle his giggles at how dumb of an idea that would be, but you still noticed.

"Heeeeee," you whined, holding the sound out for longer than needed, "stop laughingggg I know it's dumb. I'm trying to avoid a breakdown okay?"

He finally stopped laughing, and his eyes lit up like he just thought of an amazing idea.

"I can help you!!"

You look at him like he's crazy and he shrugs nonchalantly, "What? It's a good idea."

"No Hee, I would never ask you to do that. Besides it's literally for your order, I'm not making you cook for it, especially not on a work day"

"Nope, it's too late. I've made up my mind. I'm helping you"

"No Heeseung, you're not"

"Yes I am. Okay now I'm gonna run away before you can yell at me more. I'll be here tomorrow at- wait, what time do you even open?"

"Nine AM"

"-Then I will be here at nine AM"

"No Heeseung!"

He takes off running and you try to chase him down, both of your laughter ricocheting off the walls. A few people outside stop and watch as you run like children, most of them smiling at the sight.

"Heeseung"

"Nope, not happening"

He runs around you in a circle, quickly running up to the side of your body giving you a peck on the cheek and then taking off back towards the direction of his work.

"See you at nine AM" is the last thing you hear from him, a quiet message because of how far away he was, even though you know he was shouting when he said it.

You shake your head as you watch him turn the corner, turning around to come face to face with one of your regulars.

"So that's why you've been so happy lately?"

You try to think of something to say, some denial of how smitten you were, but all that came out was a giggle, one that solidified your current appearance of a lovesick school girl. You immediately slapped your hand over your mouth, embarrassed at your reaction, but the woman just laughed before heading into the building, you following shortly after to serve her.

And the next day, right at nine AM, the bell above your door rang, and in came the boy that had been the cause of your racing heart all week.

"Here I am"

"You're the worst"

"You say that, but you're smiling"

"Shut up"

He giggled as he followed you to the back of the building, teasing you more about how you were accepting his help anyway.

"I was hoping you wouldn't show up, but I guess since you're here I might as well get the help"

It wasn't true, you were up all night trying to decipher if he was actually going to show up. You even got out your cute apron and put some extra effort into your appearance this morning.

"I would recommend putting this on"

You toss him an apron to protect his clothes, going behind him and tying a nice little bow. He ignored the way his body tingled where your hands brushed it, and your breath hitched when he turned you around to do the same thing.

"This is my job Hee, I could tie it myself"

"I know," was all he said, letting his hands linger on your waist as he turned you back around to face him.

He tucked a few strands of hair behind your ear, his face a little bit too close to yours.

"Whatcha doing?" Your voice came out as a whisper and the way he smiled made your heart beat even faster then it already was, something you didn't think was possible.

"What do you want me to be doing?"

You gave a small laugh, throwing your arms behind his neck and angling your head up to get closer to the tall man above you.

"Does this answer your question?" You asked, referring to your previous actions.

"I think it's a pretty good indication" he spoke through a smile, leaning down to brush his lips against yours softly.

It was barely a kiss, absolutely no pressure from either end, but the butterflies in your stomach absolutely erupted at the contact, and you couldn't even try for an actual kiss because of the huge smiles on your faces.

"Did you feel it?" He whispered, and even without an explanation you knew what he meant.

A giggle left your lips, "yeah I felt it".

A jingle sounded as someone walked in the store and you pulled away from him to go serve the customer.

He was standing against the counter when you walked in, still just basking in the feeling of what had just happened.

"Alright lover boy, time to get to work"

He smiled at the nickname, coming up to you and spinning you around once, before speaking.

"Yes chef"

You laughed at his antics and gave him directions on how to help you start the tart shell.

By noon you were well ahead of schedule, the playlist you had chosen now blaring as you screamed the lyrics together, flour dusted over your faces as you took a break from kneading the dough for the twists.

"Thank you for this"

"Helping you bake?"

"No, everything else too"

He smiled and pulled you back in, this time for a real kiss.

That night you both went home early so that you could get up early for last minute party prep, after a goodnight kiss (or two, or three, or four...) at the your front door.

"Okay I'll see you tomorrow"

"Can't wait"

He hesitated to pull away from you, not quite wanting to leave, but you pushed him lightly.

"One more?"

He puckered up and you laughed giving him one last kiss before running into your house, hearing his whines through the door.

"Okay baby, I'll see you tomorrow"

You almost screamed when the nickname left his lips and you could hear the laugh he let out when he heard your squeal from the other side of your door.

**

"You can go to the back room, there will be another girl in there and a changing station set up, guests are starting to arrive now"

You listened to the other worker speaking, trying not to show how tired you were after finishing all of the baking that morning.

Following her instructions, you headed to the back room to change out of your sweats and into something more presentable for the party. By the time you had exited the back, you could hear the chatter of people and could tell the party was starting.

They started by giving a small speech about how well they had done that quarter, thanking all of the employees for their work and their families for supporting.

Within 30 minutes you were carrying out trays of your pastries, everyone mostly finished with dinner and some random business video was playing in the front of the room.

You walked out to stand along the wall with the other miscellaneous staff people working the event, and watched as they moved on to giving out awards for things like "best costumer service" and "highest sell rate". The entire time you were looking around for Heeseung, trying to spot him over by some lanky guys who looked like interns, but no luck.

"Alright now that all of the awards have been passed out, an important announcement from CEO Lee"

You looked around trying to spot the man in question, eyes eventually landing on an old man, grey hair and a pinstriped suit, as he used a cane to lift himself out of the chair and up to the stage.

You spotted Heeseung then, sitting at the same table the old man had just left, along with an older looking woman you assumed to be CEO Lee's wife, and another male that looked to be a little older than Heeseung.

You thought about trying to get his attention, but the CEO soon started speaking, and your eyes were pulled away from him.

"As I think we all know, I'm not as young as I was when we started this business," there were a few laughs from around the room, and the man waited for them to be done before moving on. "I don’t want you to worry, I’m perfectly healthy, but I, along with my family, have decided that it would be best for me to step down from the company."

Murmurs erupted throughout the room, and it was enough to tell you that the employees had no prior knowledge of this decision. You look over to Heeseung to gage his reaction, but instead of surprise or confusion, his face is laced with something that looks more like... disappointment? You decide it must be the lighting that's obscuring his actual expression, since that wouldn't make much sense.

"I will be retiring within six months, and my son, I know you've all seen him around the company," the female population seems especially excited about these words, a few turning to make faces at each other, you even hear one say 'hot boss' to her friend.

"Heeseung, please come up here"

You can hardly conceal your shock as you see your Heeseung stand up from his seat and go to the front of the room.

You furrow your eyebrows as he stands next to who you now realize must be his father.

"Heeseung will be taking over the company after my leave"

Your eyebrows shoot up as the words register in your mind.

Heeseung is going to be CEO of this giant company within 6 months.

Maybe you should have been mad that he lied to you, that he hid this part of himself from you. He definitely didn't tell you the position of his father, or the fact that he was going to be coming into said position, but you found yourself realizing that you didn’t really care.

'That's one hell of an internship' was the first thing you thought, and you laughed at yourself for it.

When you zoned back in to what was going on, Heeseung was ending what you figured was a short speech about him taking over, and you clapped along with the rest of the crowd.

His eyes met yours and you swore there was relief on it when he saw you let out a "whoo" along with a few others.

Heeseung steps down from the podium, taking a few hands that were held out to him, giving handshakes and responding to comments from men in high up positions.

You were called to the kitchen to pack up the few pastries that weren't needed, and the loud conversing of voices faded with the closing of the door.

You smiled giddily at yourself while transferring tarts to boxes.

'I can't believe I'm dating the new CEO'

Wait-

We're you dating the new CEO? Technically you'd never gone on a date or at least one that you called a date. And he had never asked you to be his significant other. But you kissed? Multiple times.

"What is going on in that pretty brain of yours?"

You almost dropped the tart in your hand you were so surprised by the voice. A quick look reveals the person that had you so zoned out in the first place.

"You were thinking so hard it looked like smoke was about to come out of your ears"

You can't help but laugh at his words, finally continuing your actions of packing up the food and thinking up a lie.

"Just thinking about how my little intern became CEO in a week," worry crossed his face, but it disappeared immediately when you continued, "you must have been an AMAZING intern"

He laughs and moves next to you to help.

"So I might have lied a little bit"

"A little bit?"

You raise your eyebrows at him and he corrects himself with a laugh.

"Okay it was kinda big, but I just didn't want you to treat me different or anything"

He gives you his big doe eyes as you place the last pastry in the box, sealing it up to be taken to your car.

"Hee, you know I'm not mad right?"

"Really?"

"Yeah"

He smiles, and you realize too late why he's coming closer to you, your feet leaving the floor as he spins you around.

"Hee, Hee, stop" you laugh out, and he finally puts you back on the ground.

"Okay, so you don't hate me"

You cup his face, leaning in until your noses are almost touching.

"Correct, I don't hate you"

"Then in that case," he backs up and you pout at the increased distance.

He takes your hands in his, looking at you in a way that has your knees about ready to collapse.

"Would you want to be, my official official, girlfriend?"

You giggle at how he seemed to have the perfect timing, pulling on his hands to finally plant a soft kiss on his lips.

"I would love to"

Part II