#completely forgot this info so i had to find out where it was from. it's from the stellaworth preorder cd jfc

[dmmdconfessions]

[Image text: To this day, I think the most random piece of information provided by side content is Noiz's (ALLEGEDLY… I refuse to accept it.) favourite food besides pizza and pasta being plum-filled pork loin. Like okay…? I guess…? The German name for it is long as hell too, I do not blame the Allmates for not understanding a thing + Usagimodoki speaking German was hilarious.]

[almadelsur]

💋 The Secrets One Keeps

summary: You're in love with jj but he's with kie, so in moments of pure desperation you often find yourself turning to the person he hates the most...rafe

warnings: some good old angsty pining, very very slight smut if you squint, fem!reader, one or two uses of y/n, plz let me know if I missed anything

a/n: SHE'S BACKKKK, so I've decided to completely reformat and re-post this fic with a few tweaks and editing considering i first wrote this like 3 years ago, and yes for those of you who have been asking, I fully intend to finallly continue this fic....more info on that later ;)

.・。.・゜✭・.・✫・゜・。..・。.・゜✭・.・✫・゜・。.・。.・゜✭・.・✫・

JJ’s eyes change the moment Kiara steps into any room. Immediately his presence is ripped away from your immediate atmosphere, popping the little bubble you'd spent all afternoon crafting as he sprung up to greet the olive-skinned enigma that captured his affections.

“Kie!” The joy in his tone was incomparable to anything he’d directed at anybody else. Nothing could draw out such happiness from the blonde. You hated that about her.

In an attempt at self-defense, your brain shut itself off. Shielding you from processing the scene in front of you, your emotions ran cold like cement pouring down and across your neurons. It was the only way you could survive such a beating to your heart.

You figured that by distancing yourself mentally, you wouldn’t have to raise suspicion and distance yourself physically. In reality, you knew the real reasoning was your inability to stay away from JJ but the facade helped you cope.

“Hey J” she embraced him and his body relaxed around her as if she was the only source of his happiness. The only way he’d find alleviation from what he perceived as a shitty life being through her. “Sorry I’m late my parents had me running like crazy at the wreck today.”

Scattered greetings filled the air from the rest of the pogues, yet you could only focus on the way his eyes fixated on her like she was the most beautiful thing he’d ever seen.

“Here come sit baby” he offered her the seat he had just previously been place holding. What you thought had been quality time with your best friend, presented itself to you now as momentary attention to pass the time until his actual desire arrived.

Settling herself down and offering you a wide smile, her shoulder bumped against yours gently as a sign of acknowledgment.

“Hey dude” she directed at you, but you didn’t reply. You just couldn’t bring yourself to pretend. Not today anyway. Instead, you offered her a small smile, it was minimal but it was the best you could do under the circumstances.

“Yo" A crumpled tissue paper flew at your head, jj attempting to refocus your attention on him, "didn’t you say you were gonna get some water or something?” He spoke up, the scheme evident in his tone.

“um yeah I guess” You lifted yourself up and took a few steps before jj used the opportunity to slump himself down where you had been sat and sprawled his arms across his girlfriend’s shoulders.

“snooze ya loose sucker” he joked as he turned to Kiara to start up some mindless conversation. Leaving you behind in the dust.

Your teeth gritted as you focused on making your way to the kitchen hoping the distance from the scene unfolding would lift the iron grip on your heart.

You made the fatal mistake of glancing back and you were met with the image of jj nuzzling up to kiara in a picturesque display of love. The lump building at the base of your throat indicated that it was your time to get the hell out of there before you broke down in front of everyone. 

“Shit guys, y’know what I just realized I gotta go” You spoke quickly, your tone matching your pace as you rushed to the exit of the chateau. 

“You’re still coming to the party later though right?” John B asked, not tearing his eyes away from the screen in front of him. 

“Mhm yeah sure” you opened the door ready to depart. 

“Shit I forgot about that! Me and jj are gonna be late, we got dinner at the wreck tonight.” kiara added as you stepped out, unable to control the escape of a rogue tear.

“Date night babyyyy” You heard JJ cheer before you slammed the door behind you. 

“Is Y/N okay? She seemed a bit off.” Kie nudged JJ as she questioned. 

JJ furrowed his eyebrows momentarily. Glancing out the window, he saw you jog away from the house, and a brief flash of worry flashed through his mind. As quick as it came, it dissipated. He shook his head figuring that if there had been something wrong, he’d have been the first to know. 

“Nah she’s okay don't worry.” he offered to kie.

Boy was he mistaken. 

——————————————————————

“Fuuuck me” you moaned out, sinking into him one last time. You were hot, sweaty, and heaving as you pulled him out of you.

“I thought I just did” Rafe taunted leaning back to lie down, arms crossed behind his head causing his taut abdomen to flex.

You scrambled off the bed, picking up your garments and shoving them back on your body forcefully.

“What, no pillow talk?” He tried again.

“Rafe..” you trailed off. Whenever you’d finish fucking, you’d struggle to even look at him. The self-hatred flooded your body as soon as the orgasm poured out.

“Hey you called me” he eyed you intently but you knew he didn’t actually care. To rafe cameron everything was just a game. At this point it was pretty much common knowledge. “In fact” he moved closer to you so that he could speak directly into your ear “It’s always you that calls me.”

“Don’t be a dick” you stood up and eyed your heels contemplating whether you could face the walk back in them. “You know it makes me feel like shit.” It might have sounded brutal but that’s how things were with rafe.

“Yeah, it’s like you punctuate your orgasms with self-hate.”

“I'm a pogue, rafe.” You argued back as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

“So? Kooks and pogues can fuck you know.” You couldn’t comprehend why you were even having this conversation. Why now, why tonight.

“Yeah maybe, not you though.” You didn’t want to tell him the reason explicitly.

“I fuck pogues.”

“You fuck anyone.” The words came out almost instantly and without thinking, yet rafe took no offense.

“Exactly so what’s the issue?”

“The issue is, rafe.” You paused trying to find the words without actually having to say the words. “The issue is that if my friends found out they’d hate me, probably more than I already hate myself.”

He just chuckled, the look in his eyes changing as he figured you out.

“What's funny?” You challenged.

“You don’t have to bullshit me princess.” He looked up at you with a devilish glint in his eye. “You just don’t want jj knowing about your little escapades huh?” Bingo.

“He’s with Kiara.” You shrugged him off.

“Uh huh, you like him but you can’t have him.” Every word he spoke striking a nerve deep within you. “So you’re fucking me to fuck him over.”

“You don’t know what you’re talking about.” You grabbed your heels and shoved them on, wincing as you buckled them up.

“Don’t I?” He threw his joggers on lazily as he stood, the level dynamics changing significantly. The older boy towered over you. “Where are they tonight?”

“Back at John B’s, we had a little get-together.” You crossed your arms. More often than not you usually called rafe after a few drinks left you feeling lonely. “Sorry, your invite must have gotten lost in the mail.” You attempted to jab at him with sarcasm yet he clearly held the upper hand with his line of questioning. 

“So all of them are there now?” He stepped towards you.

“Mhm,” You lied.

“Even jj?” Moving closer until your neck was craned upwards to meet his eyes.

Taking your silence as an answer, he reached up and ran his palms across your upper arms, prompting you to uncross them.

“He was uh- him and kie should be getting there soon” You mumbled.

“So would i be wrong in guessing, that might have prompted your call then?” You let yourself be guided by his movements leaning your neck further back as his hand trailed up to your jawbone.

“rafe…” you called out insignificantly.

He leaned in and pressed his lips against your neck, right over where he could feel your pulse, and pressed down.

You couldn’t help the gasp that left your mouth. Because as much as your heart belonged to jj, rafe was just so fucking good at raising your temperature.

“Round two?” He mumbled against your neck.

“Yeah..” you attempted yet it came out as a whisper. He grabbed you swiftly and lifted you, moving you across the room and throwing you down onto his bed, crawling on top of you in a predatory manner as he did so. As your back hit the bed, the ringing of your phone brought you back from the haze he had you under. 

“Wait rafe stop stop” you pushed him off and grabbed the screeching mobile, pressing it up to your ear. “Hello?”

“Dude, where are you?” The sound of jj’s voice came through over the pumping sound of music and party chatter. “Me and Kie just got back and John B says no one’s seen you for like over an hour.”

“Oh I’m uh, I had to go do something for my mom” The lie pouring out of your mouth caused rafe to chuckle which was of course met by a slap from you signaling for him to be quiet.

“Oh well, when are you getting back? I have to tell you about this date. You’re gonna be so proud of me I actually think I’m ready to tell Kie I love her” you screwed your eyes shut as he spoke.

“Yeah I- you know what I can’t make it back my mom needs me to stay and help out but uh I’ll see you tomorrow or something.” You hung up before he could even reply, throwing your phone down uncaring of its state.

“What’s wrong? They getting hitched?” Rafe spoke up from behind you.

You turned to Rafe, the fire in your veins pushing your arms to grab him, roughly pulling him back onto you.

“Just shut up and fuck me rafe.”

And fuck you he did.

——————————————————————

The next morning you woke up to the sight of rafe’s bare back. Not much of a cuddler, you figured.

Quietly you pushed the covers off and began to dress yourself back up. As you got to your shoes you sighed and shook your head, as if there was any way in hell you were going to walk home in heels. You scooped up your shoes and your now-cracked phone shaking your head, slightly ashamed at your outburst.

Without even a second glance at the sleeping body you were leaving behind, you made your way over to the door. As you turned the knob and stepped out to leave, a husky voice spoke up.

“I’ll keep my ringer on for you babe.”

You rolled your eyes looking back at him, “Fuck you rafe.”

“Yeah, that’s what I’m counting on.” He didn’t even open his eyes as he answered, instead just rustling around in the bed and turning to the other side, once again facing his back to you.

You scoffed as you exited. Your internal rant clouded your vision, body on autopilot with an excellent self-navigation of the Cameron house from the countless times you’d made this exit.

“Y/N?” The gentle voice wiped your thoughts clean as the shock stilled you dead in your tracks, slowly turning to come face to face with none other than Sarah.

“Sarah” you drawled out. “What are you doing here?”

“It’s my house?” Her head was cocked to the side, equally shocked to see you.

“No I just mean- I thought you were spending the night at John B’s.” You forced the small talk, avoiding the topic of why you were here, sneaking out at 8 in the morning.

“He had to work today, did you spend the night here?” She glanced up at the door of rafe’s bedroom.

“Umm-“ There had only been two other instances where you had been at a complete loss for words. The day jj told you he and Kiara were dating, the morning after your first sexual encounter with rafe, and now this.

“Are you sleeping with my brother?!” She whisper-shouted, eyes wide as the realization hit her. Busted.

“No?”

“Oh my god!” She grabbed you by the wrist and dragged you to her room, slamming the door as soon as you were both inside. “How long has this been going on?!” Her tone was loud and her hands wild as she interrogated you.

“Just a little under a year.” You sat on her bed and looked at your lap as you spoke. Reminiscent of a child being scolded.

“A year?! Oh my god!” She repeated. “Who knows about this?!”

With that, you looked up at her desperately. “No one. No one knows so please don’t tell them.” You didn’t have to name names for her to know who you were referring to.

“Are you two like” she paused “together?” She scrunched her nose up, disgusted at the thought of her bully of an older brother dating anyone.

“No god no. It’s just sex” you were just as uncomfortable as Sarah was, having to tell her about boning her older brother.

“Disgusting.” She turned away from you with her arms crossed, looking out the window.

“Look I’m not proud of it okay? Just-“ You sighed “Just please don’t tell anyone” pleading again.

Sarah let out a long sigh and uncrossed her arms. She walked over to you and joined you on the bed, her eyes showing concern mixed with something you couldn’t quite place your finger on.

“I thought you were into jj” she spoke softly, there it was. Pity.

“Yeah well, jj is with kie and instead of sitting around wallowing in self-pity, I decided to do something about it.” As the words left your mouth, you realized how weak the explanation was.

“So you just use rafe to bang the jj out of you.”

“It’s not like Rafe cares, if anything he’s also using me.” You tried to reason.

“I don’t doubt that. But I mean, that’s- It’s not healthy, you’ll never move on if you don’t actually process your emotio-“

“Look Sarah, I don’t need to do any of that shit okay? What I have here works, when I fu- when I’m with rafe, I don’t think about jj.” Tears began to swell in your eyes “Sleeping with rafe helps me forget about everything, even if it’s only for a little while he uh- he makes me feel good.” To an extent, there was truth behind your words, while you and rafe fucked the rest of the world went away. It was only after, that the crippling self-hatred hit you along with the return of your immense feelings for jj. 

Sarah shuffled over and threw her arm around you. “That’s not good for you, it’s just momentary. It’s easy and it's a cycle, you’re never going to get better going down this path. Especially not with rafe.”

“Rafe he’s- he’s not that bad.”

“Yes he is. But i bet it gives you satisfaction fucking him knowing jj hates him. Feels like revenge right?” She’d always been so perceptive your Sarah, you hated how she could see right through you.

Tears ran down your cheek silently. “You’re not gonna tell anyone right?” You sniffled.

She gave you one of those classic salt-of-the-earth Sarah Cameron smiles, the kinda smile that would light up any room she walked into. “Takin' it to the grave babe.”

A loud beeping caused both your heads to whip towards the window. “Shit, I completely forgot I was supposed to go on the HMS with pope and jj, we were gonna chill there until John B and Kie finished work.” She rose to her feet and extended an arm towards you. “Wanna come? Or we could drop you home if you’re not up for it.”

With a sigh you took her hand and pulled yourself up, walking beside her as you mentally prepped yourself to face the blonde you desperately pined for.

“Well rise and shine campers.” jj yelled out of the window of the drivers seat.

“Y/N! Where you been dude? you totally bailed last night.” Pope was next to speak as you and Sarah filed into the Twinkie. As JJ began to drive you avoided any form of eye contact in his general direction.

“I had to go help my mom out, blackout at mine again.” You didn’t even look at pope either, instead focusing your attention on the blur of trees and houses pacing by the window as JJ sped down the winding roads.

“Isn’t that what you were wearing last night?” pope, observant as always, pointed out.

“Uh yeah, I didn’t really get any time to change cause…”

“I called her last night when I got home, I was so drunk I don’t think I was ready to stop the party.” Sarah covered for you.

“Yeah I wrapped up helping my mom out and then this one calls me talkin bout a sleepover or something so I didn’t exactly have much time to change.” 

Thankfully pope had lost interest as soon as he had asked the question, otherwise, your overcompensating ass would have been caught out straight away. You always had to add to the lie until you felt like you had sold it completely.

Keeping your eyes trained on the outside meant that jj’s frown directed at you through the windscreen mirror went completely undetected. He always knew whenever there was something up with you and right there and then he knew something definitely was.

“Hey, you okay?” He didn’t need to address you explicitly for you to know he was talking to you.

“Yeah just tired.” You shrugged him off in an attempt to distance yourself from him yet again.

He knew you were lying but he didn’t understand why, you never lied to each other. Apart from John B, the pair of you were closer to each other than with anybody else in the group. You’d been best friends since kindergarten, and since then you’d sworn 3 things to each other.

1- You’d always share your snacks.

2-You’d always be best friends even if you argued.

 3- You would never ever lie or keep secrets from each other.

Of course, as the both of you grew older the rules became more and more lax. The snack sharing was limited only to when you felt nice enough and sometimes you’d go for days without making up if you had argued particularly badly. Having kept two friendship-breaking secrets from him, the childhood rules seemed pretty insignificant by now.

“Mhm,” he responded, flickering his eyes between you and the road. “Are we taking you home to change first?”

“Yeah, I don’t know if I’ll join you guys afterward though.” You chewed down on your nail anxiously as the tension from being in the same space as jj paired with the guilt from having fucked rafe prior, suffocated you.

JJ made a face as he focused on the road, something was wrong with you and he’d be dammed if he wasn’t going to put his everything into finding out what that was.

[bvrnesher]

۶ৎ ── Strawberry Milk !

first post! tap there for chb masterlist ! here for reqs info

warnings: fluff, mutual pining and blushing competitions, brief accidental touches (feat. sparks of electricity, literally), reader struggling with a milk carton (very tragic, but jason saves the day with grace)

ㅤ୨ৎ —˳ jason grace ! reader

summary: jason never planned on talking to you—it just kind of happened. A carton of strawberry milk, a shy smile, and a little bit of awkward charm later, and suddenly, he's standing in the infirmary, trying (and failing) not to blush every time reader smiles at him. Maybe it wasn't such a bad idea after all.

𝗜𝗧 𝗪𝗔𝗦𝗡’𝗧 𝗦𝗢𝗠𝗘𝗧𝗛𝗜𝗡𝗚 𝗝𝗔𝗦𝗢𝗡 𝗛𝗔𝗗 planned; it just kind of happened. You and Jason weren’t exactly close.

You’d see each other around camp occasionally, but you never really interacted, at least not the way you’d wanted to. Sometimes, though, he’d catch himself glancing your way, finding you at the archery range or just watching you with a small smile whenever he noticed your hair catching the summer sunlight.

Could you blame him? You were probably the most beautiful girl he’d ever seen, and he knew his share of pretty girls. But you... He wasn’t sure if it was just your looks or the fact that you always gave him a smile every time your eyes met. That smile? It could light up the whole damn Olympian world.

It didn’t take long for him to notice that every morning, without fail, you sat at the pavilion for breakfast with your half-siblings. And every morning, you had a carton of strawberry milk in hand, no matter what you were eating.

Jason knew today was one of those days when you helped out in the infirmary. The days when you usually skipped breakfast, staying busy taking care of the campers who were hurt. He didn’t think much of it, just figured it would be a nice gesture—something that might cheer you up a bit.

After breakfast, he grabbed an extra carton of that strawberry milk. Not much, but enough to break the ice. With the carton in hand, he made his way to the infirmary, where he knew he’d find you. Not like he’d memorized your schedule or anything—he did.

When he reached the infirmary, he peeked inside and saw you organizing bandages.

A smile tugged at the corner of his lips. "Hey, you're busy?" he greeted gently, lowering his gaze to meet yours. "I noticed you’ve been working hard in here, so... I don’t know, thought you might like a little break." He smiled, charming but a bit shy, scratching the back of his neck.

When you heard him speak, you glanced around, half-expecting him to be talking to someone else. Maybe he’d made a mistake? But no, it was just the two of you in the infirmary. It took a second for your brain to catch up.

Oh. Oh, he’s actually talking to me. Well, that wasn’t something you expected today.

"Oh—no, no!" You waved your hands frantically, shaking your head maybe a little too fast. Embarrassment flooded you as you felt your cheeks heat up. You gave him an awkward smile. "I mean, yeah, I’d love a break."

Perfect. That’ll scare him off.

Jason’s smile widened slightly at your reaction, and for a moment, he completely forgot why he was even here. He just kind of stood there, staring at you like an idiot—until he realized you were looking at him expectantly, waiting for him to say something. A faint blush dusted his cheeks.

He cleared his throat, flashing you a shy but undeniably charming smile. Gods, was this man even real?

"Oh, good," he said, then hesitated, like he was trying to figure out what to say next. You stood there, unsure how to respond to that incredibly deep, meaningful statement.

Your gaze flickered over him, taking him in from head to toe—something he definitely noticed, because he straightened up slightly, looking a little uncomfortable (or more like flustered) under your scrutiny.

Your eyes landed on the carton of milk in his hand—strawberry milk. Your favorite. You raised an eyebrow. Jason Grace didn’t exactly seem like the type to drink strawberry milk.

"Oh, you like that?" You asked with a small smile, latching onto the first topic of conversation that came to mind.

He blinked at you, clearly confused.

"The milk," you clarified, nodding toward the carton in his hand. Jason mentally cursed himself.

He’d completely forgotten to give it to you.

"Oh—uh, not really," he admitted.

You frowned slightly, tilting your head. He quickly clarified, "I mean, it’s good, but it’s not for me." He extended the milk toward you.

Your eyes dropped to the milk carton on his outstretched hand, surprised by the unexpected gesture.

"Oh, thanks," you said, taking the small carton with a soft smile. "It’s my favorite. That’s really sweet of you." You flashed him a smile. A smile so bright that Jason almost swore his knees almost gave out.

"Huh. Yeah. No problem," he said quickly, trying to brush it off. "It’s nothing, really. I just… noticed you liked it, so I figured you might want one."

"Oh, no. It is something, Grace," you interrupted, "I mean, it’s thoughtful. Not a lot of people would even notice something like that. So, thanks." Jason smiled, shoving his hands into his pockets. A short silence settled between you before he finally spoke again.

"Need any help here? Looks like you’ve got a lot on your plate."

You nodded.

"Yeah, an extra pair of hands would be nice. Thanks, again." You shot him a grin and went to open your milk—except, for some reason, you just couldn’t get the stupid thing open.

You muttered a curse in Ancient Greek under your breath, still struggling, silently praying you didn’t make a fool of yourself in front of Jupiter’s golden boy.

"Let me," Jason said, taking the milk from your hands before you could protest. Your fingers brushed, and a small jolt of electricity sparked between you. You had to pray to all the gods not to start blushing like an idiot.

"Here," he repeated, handing you the now-opened carton. You took the carton.

"Gods, at this rate, the only word I'm gonna say while I'm with you is 'thanks.' And, thanks," you joked, managing to pull a laugh out of him.

"And is that a bad thing?" He tilted his head, looking a little more relaxed now.

You shook your head. "Not at all. Actually, it's sweet. You're sweet."

The last part slipped out before you could process what it meant. He blushed, but you were almost as red as the strawberries you loved so much. Was this a competition to see who could get a deeper shade of red than Superman’s underwear?

He caught sight of your reaction to your own words and tried to stifle a laugh. "Don’t worry. A slip of the tongue happens to everyone," he said gently. You didn’t need to look at him to know he was smiling.

"Yeah, sure. But I’m not taking it back. Honestly, calling you 'sweet' doesn’t even come close," you admitted, flashing him a smile.

He just stared at you, lost for words, until his brain finally caught up, and then he smiled at you, even more charming than before, a faint blush coloring his cheeks.

"Huh, you too," he said, quickly clearing his throat. "I mean, you’re pretty. I mean, sweet... I— Gorgeous," he admitted.

You might have died right then and there, but you would’ve died happy knowing that Jason Grace called you gorgeous. No doubt about it.

"Are you busy tonight?" he asked, finally.

"Nope. I’m free as soon as I finish here." You took a sip of your drink, courtesy of Jason.

[too-much-tma-stuff]

I Want Better For You (part 3.5)

part 1 | Masterpost | Part 3

Tim sat on the edge of his bed in Titan’s Tower, his mind going like a hamster on a wheel, a mile a minute and getting nowhere. In his hands he held the note left for him by Red Hood! It was a serious security breach that he had gotten in here at all. Obviously Tim knew he was smart, he had been Robin before Tim after all, you couldn’t do that job without being smart as hell and strong as heck. But he had upgraded the security himself when he joined the team, no one should have been able to get into the tower, let alone into his room to leave the note.

At least it wasn’t a bad note? In fact it was… nice, it was a kind offer. They had to know that if he did this he would spy, he wouldn’t even be able to help it because he’d always had a detective's mind, yet still they offered. 

Of course there was always a possibility that it was a trap of some type but Tim really didn’t think it was. Jason had proved he could get into the Tower, if he wanted Tim dead or kidnapped he could have just done it.

He should talk to his team about this, he should talk to Bruce about this, but for the moment he just held the note. Robin had always been his hero, sure it was Dick he’d first recognized because of the Flying Grayson connection, but Jason had been His Robin. Tim had idolized Jason, and been completely devastated when he died. Ya he had become Robin to help Bruce, but it was to memorialize Jason as well.

He knew that Jason wasn’t the same as he’d been before his death, but… while he was dead Tim had gotten used to thinking of him like a brother. A part of him desperately wanted to take this note at face value, to forget all about the violence, and the crimes, and just take the olive branch and bond with his childhood hero. But he was going to be smart about this.

He was going to go, of course he was, but he needed to put safety measures in place and some sort of plan. Though he probably still wasn’t going to tell B about it, he was overprotective and would grill Tim for any bit of information he managed to gleen, and if he wanted any real info he would have to do a long con. Best he could do right now would be to have Superboy listen in, set up a code word, and have Impulse ready for an extraction if needed then… well he’d tell Batman when he needed to.

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

It took about a week to talk Superboy into letting him go but it wasn’t exactly hard to set up as minimal of plans as he had, including wearing a hidden wire to record whatever happened. As long as it worked, Tim had heard tech had a habit of messing up around Hyena if he didn’t want them working. 

He didn’t bother thinking of an excuse, he didn’t think he needed one. Wanting to get to know them would be enough, especially if he was going to rely on them for anything in the future. 

So, feeling tense and keeping to the shadows he entered Crime Alley on a slow night with his friends behind him, figuratively speaking. He moved a bit deeper in, grappling up to the roof of a building, feeling a little lost and listless. He did know vaguely where to find these two, but Crime Alley wasn’t a small place, and now that he was in their territory he didn’t know where to go, it’s not like they knew where Hood and Hyena lived, or their base of operations. 

It seemed like he didn’t need to though, because while he was standing on the roof thinking he saw someone coming, leaping from one building to the other with reckless abandon. They weren’t even using a grapple as they free ran and made jumps Tim was pretty sure should have been impossible. Tim knew who it was before they were close enough to see detail because Hood still used a grapple, the only one who acted like that was Hyena.

Sure enough Hood’s lover skidded to a halt across the roof in front of Tim, grinning to the point he could see it a little past the muzzle he wore. He didn’t have any weapons out, not that that meant anything, half the time Hyena forgot to use the clawed brass knuckles he carried and fought with bare hands. Tim was tense, ready to fight or flee but Hyena was not, he seemed relaxed and didn’t approach, keeping his hands visible. 

“Hey there little birdy, what can I do for ya?” Hyena asked, he didn’t have a Gotham accent but it was a little hard to tell where exactly it was from.

“I got Red Hood’s note. I just wanted to talk, introduce myself properly and meet you before I decide to take you up on any of the offers.” Tim said honestly.

“Of course!” Hyena agreed, pulling his phone out of a hidden pocket on the inside of his cropped jacket. “I’ll text Hood, ask him to pick up some food for us and we can have a little rooftop picnic and chat for a bit. How’s that sound?”

“Sounds good,” Tim said, not sure why he was surprised by the offer.

“Any requests? The lifestyle sure builds up an appetite huh? And I certainly hope you’re still growing,” Hyena teased, cackling at Tim’s expression of indignation. Hyena wasn’t that much taller than him!

“Coffee,” He requested, finally relaxing a little.

“Hmm,” Hyena sounded judgmental as he tapped at his phone. “Fine, it’s your bone density that’s at stake not mine.” He pressed send, waited a moment and his phone dinged with a reply. “Great, he’ll be on his way soon, with picking up food he’ll probably be about a half hour,” Hyena said, pocketing his phone again and flopping down, as if the rooftop was a soft bed. “I know it’s probably Hood you really came to see but is there anything I can tell you in the meantime? Let’s stick to small talk though huh? I know how you bats and birds are, but I also know you’re wearing a wire, and I’m not interested in spilling my guts.” 

“Alright, ya that’s fair. Hood mentioned in the note that you know a lot about astronomy?” Tim mentioned, finally sitting down with his legs crossed as well.

“Oh ya, I was totally obsessed with it for most of my life, I wanted to be an astronaut when I was a kid and learned everything I could about space and engineering,” Hyena confirmed casually.

“This is a long way from being an astronaut,” Tim pointed out.

“Ya, well, things don’t always go the way you plan you know? Sometimes you get kidnapped by mad scientists and experimented on to the point you go a little around the bend,” Hyena snickered. Tim wasn’t sure if he was being serious, or self referential, or not.

“Riiight, well, what are your favourite space facts then?” Tim asked, just to pass the time really. Hyena brightened immediately and was happy to start sharing a bunch of random facts. 

It ended up in a back and forth of fun facts, aerospace vs chemistry and both of them could go shot for shot when it came to engineering. Tim realized, a bit belatedly, that Hyena is way smarter than Tim had given him credit for. That was disconcerting but… if they ended up getting alone Tim thought he could have a lot of fun tinkering with him.

“Incoming,” Hood broke into their conversation, warning them before he landed on the roof so he wouldn’t startle them. “Hey there Timmy,” He said as he walked over to crouch next to Danny, handing him a few bags of batburger and a tray of drinks before taking off his helmet. He was wearing a domino underneath it but it wasn’t like Tim didn’t already know his identity. “Got your coffee, I bet if you took off that domino your eye bags would be nearly as dark as the mask. Never enough time to sleep between school, social life, and nightlife.” Jason said, taking the tray of drinks back from Hyena, who promptly started digging through the bag with his now free hands, and handed the coffee cup to Tim.

“If you drop out of school to play hero I will personally kick your ass,” Jason said pointing at Tim warningly. 

“Uhhh,” Tim sounded, shifting a little awkwardly because he couldn’t deny he had already thought about dropping out. He looked down and took a sip of the coffee, which wasn’t great, but hey. “Why do you care?”

“Neither Hyena or I got to finish school because we died before graduation,” Hood said simply, which was a punch in the gut, and new information about Hyena. “I want better for you.” 

Tim didn’t know how to respond to that.

Hyena finished rummaging through the bag with a little yip of delight and started distributing the food, handing Hood a bag and taking a box of chicken wings, a burger, and some fries for himself before handing off the rest to Tim. “Looks like Hood didn’t know what you wanted and bought half the store, whatever you don’t eat I’ll finish,” Hyena joked as Tim took the bag. “Shit I forgot my sauces,” Hyena grumbled, staring at his nuggets with a little pinch between his brows. 

“What sauce are you looking for?” Tim asked, looking through the bag.

“Sweet and sour,” Hyena said brightly and Tim found the sauce and tossed it to Hyena, who hummed happily and took off his mask to eat. He was completely barefaced now and Tim couldn’t help but stare a little just because of how casual he was being about this. “What?” Hyena asked, catching Tim staring. 

“Hey I know he’s cute but he’s taken,” Hood joked, slinging an arm around Hyena’s shoulders who cackled and leaned back against Jason.

“No!” Tim said, cursing his fair skin for showing his blush, not because Hood was right of course, he was just embarrassed! “I mean, that’s not what I was thinking, I’m just surprised you took off your mask,” He told Hyena.

“It’s not like you haven’t seen it before I’m sure. I’m sure you and the bats have already figured out my ‘civilian identity’ or whatever. It’s not like I have anything to protect really, I only have the mask and the outfit because I like the aesthetic.” Hyena said, gesturing down at himself. 

“Fair enough I guess…” Tim said before looking back at Hood. “How did you get into Titan’s Tower?”

“Trade secrets Timmy, I’d rather talk about you. How’s school? You got a girlfriend or boyfriend?” Jason asked with a shit eating grin as Tim sputtered indignantly and then took a big bite of his burger to avoid having to answer such an invasive question! Especially with Superboy definitely listening in.

[littleminigenius]

rosekiller long fic recs

i know how hard it is to find multi-chapter fics where rosekiller is actually the main ship so here's my current list of ones i've read / am reading:

(i copy pasted the full ao3 link with the tags and summaries and everything so there's a lot of text beneath the cut btw, i'd just rather have more info than not enough)

100k+ words & completed:

Head Over Feet (136890 words) by sanguinerose Chapters: 27/27 Fandom: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling Rating: Explicit Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings Relationships: Barty Crouch Jr./Evan Rosier Characters: Evan Rosier, Barty Crouch Jr., Regulus Black, Marlene McKinnon, Pandora Lovegood, Emmeline Vance Additional Tags: Friends to Lovers, Alternate Universe - High School, Slow Burn, Fluff and Angst, Internalized Homophobia, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Bad Parenting, Falling In Love, Everyone Is Gay, Smoking, Evan Rosier Needs a Hug, Idiots in Love, Explicit Sexual Content, Developing Friendships, Drinking, First Love, Barty Crouch Jr. is a Little Shit, French Evan Rosier, Bisexual Barty Crouch Jr., Demisexual Evan Rosier Summary: “This is a really bad idea, Barty.” Barty hums, nose brushing against Evan’s. Despite his words, his hand found its way to the back of Barty’s neck, keeping him close. “Then tell me to stop.” “You know I won’t." Evan moves back from France to England after over a decade with very little expectations. He’s never really had any friends and he’s used to people stepping out of his life—why would this time be any different? He’s ready to spend his remaining years at high school alone. Luckily for Evan, a few people don’t seem to let him.

So Look At Me In The Eye (Is Anyone There At All?) (169768 words) by picture2burn Chapters: 43/43 Fandom: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling Rating: Explicit Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Barty Crouch Jr./Evan Rosier, Minor or Background Relationship(s), Regulus Black/James Potter, Sirius Black/Remus Lupin, Marlene McKinnon/Dorcas Meadowes Characters: Barty Crouch Jr., Evan Rosier, Regulus Black, Dorcas Meadowes, Pandora Lovegood, Sirius Black, James Potter, Remus Lupin, Marlene McKinnon Additional Tags: Slytherin, Chaotic Barty Crouch Jr., slytherin skittles, Rosekiller, Alternate Universe - No Voldemort, Alternate Universe - Everyone Lives/Nobody Dies, Happy Ending, everyone will be happy mark my words, Fluff and Angst, Lots of Angst, i'll add tags as the story goes on, POV Multiple, evan and barty pov, Friends to Lovers, Slow Burn, i cant believe i forgot to add that tag, this shit is very slow burn tho Summary: Barty Crouch Jr. and Evan Rosier have been friends since they were kids. Nothing could change the bond between them, no matter what. Until they start falling in love with each other. - Or, Barty and Evan realize things aren't how they were meant to be.

like real people do (147431 words) by tsprongs Chapters: 19/19 Fandom: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling Rating: Mature Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death, Underage Sex Relationships: Bartemius Crouch Jr./Evan Rosier, Pandora Rosier & Evan Rosier, Pandora Rosier & Bartemius Crouch Jr, Regulus Black/James Potter, Sirius Black/Remus Lupin, Pandora Lovegood/Emmeline Vance, Mary Macdonald/Lily Evans Potter Characters: Bartemius Crouch Jr., Evan Rosier, Pandora Rosier, Original Male Character(s), Regulus Black, Remus Lupin, Sirius Black, Peter Pettigrew, Dorcas Meadowes, Marlene McKinnon, Andromeda Black Tonks, Narcissa Black Malfoy, Lily Evans, Mary Macdonald (Harry Potter), James Potter, Emmeline Vance, Hestia Jones, Benjy Fenwick, Caradoc Dearborn, Amelia Bones, Edgar Bones Additional Tags: Rosekiller, Jegulus, MacEvans, dorlene, wolfstar, Everyone Is Gay, Modern Marauders (Harry Potter), Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternative Universe - FBI, Alternate Universe - Criminals, mexican barty, POC James Potter, Good Peter Pettigrew, Gay Evan Rosier, Gay Bartemius Crouch Jr., bartemius crouch jr & pandora rosier friendship, Lesbian Lily Evans, get lily evans her own tag, ex snily friendship, Angst with a Happy Ending, Angst, Fluff, Marauders as Found Family, Alternate Universe, james potter & bartemius crouch jr. friendship, Friendship, Pre-Relationship, Developing Relationship, Friends to Lovers, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, POV Multiple, Minor Character Death, Original Character(s), Plus-Size Lily Evans Potter, Non-binary character, Endgame Barty Crouch Jr./Evan Rosier, Regulus Black & Evan Rosier Friendship, POV Alternating, Regulus Black & Barty Crouch Jr. Friendship, Trans Regulus Black, Trans Pandora Lovegood, Trans Male Character, Trans Female Character, Autism, Autism Spectrum Summary: “First of all, I would like to say that every single bit of work you’ve done in this case is greatly appreciated, and you have saved so many lives,” she says. Barty’s heart drops for a moment. “You’re not taking me off it?” He says. “No,” she shakes her head quickly. “Of course not. I’d like you to be the agent who stays with Evan Rosier in the safe house.” “You what?” Barty stares at her. No way. “Absolutely not. No way in hell. I respect you, Andromeda, but there is no way I’m staying in a house with that man for however long we have to.” - - - - "so i will not ask you, why you were creeping, in some sad way, i already know." like real people do by hozier

A star for a summer's day (142778 words) by her_smile_forges_galaxies Chapters: 26/26 Fandom: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling Rating: Mature Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Regulus Black/Barty Crouch Jr., Regulus Black/James Potter, Barty Crouch Jr./Evan Rosier, James Potter/Evan Rosier, Minor or Background Relationship(s), Sirius Black/Remus Lupin Characters: Regulus Black, Barty Crouch Jr., James Potter, Evan Rosier, Remus Lupin, Sirius Black, Pandora Lovegood, Dorcas Meadowes, Euphemia Potter, Poppy Pomfrey, Peter Pettigrew Additional Tags: Fake/Pretend Relationship, Alternate Universe - No Voldemort, Bartylus, Rosekiller, Jegulus, Remus and Regulus friendship, wolfstar, slytherin skittles, Jealousy, Fluff and Angst, Gay Regulus Black, Bisexual Barty Crouch Jr., Gay Evan Rosier, Pansexual James Potter, Gay Remus Lupin, Bisexual Sirius Black, Moonseeker friendship, Hurt/Comfort, Happy Ending, Background Wolfstar, family trauma, POV Multiple, Angst with a Happy Ending, Two can play at that game, Fake Dating, Implied Sexual Content, Quidditch, Past Child Abuse, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Slow Burn, Gryffindor Party, No beta we die like Regulus Black did in the cave, Asexual Evan Rosier, Regulus Black Needs a Hug Summary: Barty is in love with Evan, and he doesn't know what to do about it. Regulus is in love with James, and he doesn't know what to do about it. Luckily for both of them, Barty has a foolproof plan (or maybe not so full proof after all, but you can't blame a guy for trying)

note: i know the first two ships tagged are bartylus and jegulus, but this fic is basically equally rosekiller and jegulus, bartylus is just an intermediate

Beneath the Mask (105164 words) by orphan_account Chapters: 44/44 Fandom: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings Relationships: Barty Crouch Jr./Evan Rosier, Minor or Background Relationship(s), Regulus Black/James Potter/Lily Evans Potter, Pandora Lovegood/Xenophilius Lovegood Characters: Evan Rosier, Barty Crouch Jr., Minor Characters, Patil Family (Harry Potter), Pandora Lovegood, Regulus Black, Winky | Crouch Family House-Elf, Gregory Goyle's Father, Rosier Family (Harry Potter), Bartemius "Barty" Crouch Sr., Alastor "Mad-Eye" Moody, James Potter, Lily Evans Potter Additional Tags: Angst, Fluff and Angst, Domestic Fluff, Death Eaters, Azkaban, Not Canon Compliant, Department of Mysteries (Harry Potter), Asexual Evan Rosier, Bisexual Barty Crouch Jr., Friends to Lovers, Seer Evan Rosier, Evan Rosier-centric, Past Regulus Black/Barty Crouch Jr., Established Regulus Black/James Potter, Established Regulus Black/James Potter/Lily Evans Potter, POV Barty Crouch Jr., Evan Rosier Lives, Barty Crouch Jr. Lives, Unspeakable Regulus Black, Unspeakable Pandora Lovegood, Underage Drinking, Underage Smoking, Canon-Typical Violence, Anti-Muggle Content, Propaganda, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Hurt/Comfort, The Power Of Love, They're both a bit not good, POV Evan Rosier, POV Alternating Series: Part 6 of Through the Pensieve Summary: It's been nearly a year since Evan was released from Azkaban, and he needs to move on with his life, but it's hard when he's followed by Aurors and pressured by his family to begin working with Robert Goyle, all while being haunted by his past and unsure if he's losing his mind. Evan's story is broken up with the memories of Barty Crouch Jr, starting with their first year at Hogwarts and leading to where they are now. -or- Is Love the most powerful form of magic, and can it counter a blood curse?

Incomplete but on their way to 100k+ words:

Psychotic kids (85573 words) by QuillFire Chapters: 15/? Fandom: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling Rating: Mature Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings Relationships: Barty Crouch Jr./Evan Rosier, Regulus Black & Barty Crouch Jr. & Pandora Lovegood & Dorcas Meadowes & Evan Rosier, Minor or Background Relationship(s), Sirius Black/Remus Lupin, Regulus Black/James Potter, Pandora Lovegood/Xenophilius Lovegood, Marlene McKinnon/Dorcas Meadowes Characters: Evan Rosier, Barty Crouch Jr., Regulus Black, Pandora Lovegood, Dorcas Meadowes, James Potter, Sirius Black, Remus Lupin, Peter Pettigrew, Lily Evans Potter, Mary Macdonald (Harry Potter), Marlene McKinnon, Xenophilius Lovegood, Emmeline Vance, Sybill Trelawney, Fabian Prewett, Gideon Prewett (Harry Potter), Molly Weasley, Arthur Weasley, Benjy Fenwick, Alice Longbottom, Frank Longbottom, Bellatrix Black Lestrange, Narcissa Black Malfoy, Andromeda Black Tonks, Lucius Malfoy, Rosier Family (Harry Potter) Additional Tags: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Non-Magical, Alternate Universe - High School, Pandora Lovegood and Evan Rosier are Twins, Demisexual Evan Rosier, POV Evan Rosier, French Evan Rosier, Bisexual Barty Crouch Jr., POV Barty Crouch Jr., Trans Regulus Black, Strangers to Lovers, Slow Burn, Mental Health Issues, Recreational Drug Use, Underage Drinking, Angst, French Sirius Black, French Regulus Black, Family Issues, Dysfunctional Family, Family Dynamics, Family Bonding, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Tags May Change, Tags Contain Spoilers, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Implied Sexual Content, Suicidal Thoughts, Child Abuse, Transphobia, Suicide Attempt, Implied/Referenced Self-Harm, Domestic Violence, Past Domestic Violence, Implied/Referenced Domestic Violence, Coercion, Emotional Manipulation, Manipulation, Child Neglect Summary: The first thing Evan ever remembered was sunlight streaming through a window, warm and golden, brushing over his skin. It felt like a promise, but promises lie. After his father’s death, Evan returns to the UK, to a family he doesn’t know, people he doesn’t trust, and a life he doesn’t want waiting for him. Barty is chaos incarnate: loud, touchy, and impossible to ignore. He’s hell-bent on breaking every rule, but somehow, Evan doesn’t crumble. That only makes Barty want to tear him apart — or hold him closer. Pandora has always felt like something is missing — a piece of herself ripped away before she could understand what it was. Her dreams are fleeting, but her determination to find what’s lost is unshakable. Regulus is sharp-eyed and sharper-tongued, keeping his emotions locked away. Beneath his calm exterior lies quiet rage and unspoken battles. Dorcas is bold, sarcastic, and fiercely loyal. She offers no pity — only the strength and love that demand you keep going, even when you want to stop. In a world full of noise, anger, and desperation, the question isn’t whether they’ll tear each other down — it’s whether they’ll find a way to hold each other up before it’s too late.

Perilous Things (96653 words) by cuntycrouch Chapters: 15/? Fandom: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling Rating: Mature Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings Relationships: Barty Crouch Jr./Evan Rosier, Regulus Black/James Potter, Sirius Black/Remus Lupin, others, Regulus Black & Sirius Black, The Marauders - Relationship, Regulus Black & Barty Crouch Jr. & James Potter & Evan Rosier, Sirius Black & Remus Lupin & Peter Pettigrew & James Potter, Marlene McKinnon/Dorcas Meadowes, Regulus Black & Barty Crouch Jr. & Pandora Lovegood & Dorcas Meadowes & Evan Rosier, Regulus Black/Barty Crouch Jr., Grant Chapman (MsKingBean89)/Remus Lupin, Mary Macdonald/Peter Pettigrew Characters: Barty Crouch Jr., Evan Rosier, Remus Lupin, James Potter, Regulus Black, Sirius Black, Peter Pettigrew, Marlene McKinnon, Dorcas Meadowes, Mary Macdonald (Harry Potter), Lily Evans Potter, Pandora Lovegood, Ted Tonks, Andromeda Black Tonks, Grant Chapman (MsKingBean89) Additional Tags: Barty Crouch Jr. Being an Asshole, Evan not having it, Football | Soccer, Angst, James the sun potter, Marauders Era (Harry Potter), Marauders, Alternate Universe - High School, Daddy Issues, Reg and Barty are literature nerds, Angst and Fluff and Smut, Peter and Evan are besties, Alternate Universe - Football, Rosekiller AU, Modern Marauders (Harry Potter), Enemies to Lovers Summary: A Rosekiller centered football/high school au. Barty never care much about making friends. He never cared much about anything, to be honest. Then came Britain, a new school, football and mainly James fucking Potter need for team spirit.

Complete fics <100k words:

A serpent and his rose (65028 words) by LovelyLittleManiac Chapters: 18/18 Fandom: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling, Marauders - Fandom, Marauder - Fandom Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence Relationships: Bartemius Crouch Jr./Evan Rosier, Regulus Black & Bartemius Crouch Jr., Regulus Black/James Potter Additional Tags: Minor Marlene McKinnon/Dorcas Meadowes, Minor Pandora Lovegood/Lily Evans, Minor Sirius Black/Remus Lupin, LGBTQ Character, Mild Sexual Content, POV Barty Crouch Jr., Bisexual Barty Crouch Jr., Trans Regulus Black, Gay Regulus Black, Gay Evan Rosier, Non-Binary Pandora Lovegood, Rosekiller, Starchaser, Bartylus, Slytherin skittles dealing with Hogwarts life, love drama, Barty being a dramatic little shit, lots of fluff, Some mild traumatic homelife stuff, Not Canon Compliant, Evan is Amazing, JUST KISS ALREADY, CAN SOMEONE TELL THESE IDIOTS THEY'RE IN LOVE? Summary: A Non-canon compliant, Barty POV, Rosekiller fic, that starts off with a fun Darkstar (Bartylus) FWB relationship and shows a glimpse into the life of the Slytherin skittles in their final Hogwarts years. Lots of love drama, lots of fluff, some pain. Rosekiller (and Jegulus) endgame!!

when the butterflies turned to dust (26865 words) by cukrkandl Chapters: 8/8 Fandom: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling Rating: Mature Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Barty Crouch Jr./Evan Rosier, Regulus Black & Barty Crouch Jr. & Pandora Lovegood & Dorcas Meadowes Characters: Barty Crouch Jr., Evan Rosier, Regulus Black, Pandora Rosier, Dorcas Meadowes Additional Tags: Fake Dating, that's the only cute part now for the warnings lmao:, Self-Worth Issues, Past Sexual Assault, Internalized Homophobia, Internalized Acephobia, people pleaser barty crouch, but it's like super intense and not healthy at all, First Kiss, First Date, Asexual Barty Crouch Jr., Asexual Evan Rosier, Trans Evan Rosier, Friendship, Angst, Fixing broken friendships, barty just wants to be a good person, it's kinda sad ngl, Allonormativity, No actual sex happens, just past references, Minor Jegulus, Minor Dorlene, past unrequited bartylus, Implied/Referenced Underage Sex, Past Abuse, Happy Ending, Alternate Universe - No Voldemort, Transphobia Summary: Instead of dealing with his extensive issues, Barty somehow finds himself the Hogwarts' go-to guy for girls who want to lose their virginity. It's weird, he knows, but he doesn't realize exactly how weird until Evan asks him too. Barty doesn't know him very well; he and Pandora only switched places at the beginning of the year, and Barty's never talked to him much before. What he does know, though, is that he can't just do that to his best friend's brother. Instead, he decides to fake date Evan to show him what a perfect relationship should look like. Despite never having been in one. And not liking boys at all. Or sex.

Straight A's (32167 words) by stargirly161 Chapters: 14/14 Fandom: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Barty Crouch Jr./Evan Rosier, Minor or Background Relationship(s) Characters: Evan Rosier, Barty Crouch Jr., Pandora Lovegood, Regulus Black, Dorcas Meadowes, Lily Evans Potter, James Potter, Sirius Black, Remus Lupin Additional Tags: Alternate Universe - High School, Alternate Universe - Muggle, Academic Rivals to Lovers, Rivals to Lovers, Rivals to Friends to Lovers, Pandora Lovegood and Evan Rosier are Siblings, rosier twins, POV Alternating, POC Evan Rosier, Gay Evan Rosier, Everyone Is Gay, background Dorlene, background jegulus, they hate each other, or do they, Betting, Texting, Happy Ending, Fluff, I just want them to be happy, Fluff and Angst, barely any angst though, they are so stubborn, Slow Burn, Like really slow, not canon whatsoever, no beta we die like regulus in the cave, Underage Smoking, Tension, Flirting, Getting Together, Falling In Love, Background Pandalily - Freeform, toxic family expectations Summary: "Their grades had been acting like a sick game of tug-of-war, alternating like the phases of the moon, waxing in one of their favours before waning and swapping power to the other. Switching between first and second place like neither of them could find their footing on the podiums." Or, Evan Rosier and Barty Crouch Jr start their last year of sixth form determined to each be top of their class. Tests, bets and group projects force them to reconsider their fierce academic rivalry and maybe, possibly, discover that there's a thin line between love and hate.

Two Sides of the Same Coin (24827 words) by anything706 Chapters: 15/15 Fandom: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings Relationships: Barty Crouch Jr./Evan Rosier, Lily Evans/Mary Macdonald, Marlene McKinnon/Dorcas Meadowes, Regulus Black/James Potter, Sirius Black/Remus Lupin, Barty Crouch Jr. & Mary Macdonald Characters: Barty Crouch Jr., Evan Rosier, Mary Macdonald (Harry Potter), Lily Evans, Regulus Black, James Potter, Marlene McKinnon, Dorcas Meadowes, Pandora Lovegood, Sirius Black, Remus Lupin, Peter Pettigrew Additional Tags: Fake/Pretend Relationship, Idiots in Love, Angst, everyones whipped, and oblivious, Established Jegulus, established dorlene, established wolfstar, I'm Bad At Tagging, everyones gay, i know barty and mary wouldn't have the same potions class, just roll with is, probably add tags later, short ass chapters, sorry about that, i don't know how to properly end fics, asexual evan, BI BARTY, bi lily, bi mary Summary: “You want me to flirt with someone in front of Lily?” Mary asked skeptically.   “Why not take it a step further and date somebody, then see her reaction to you doing all these coupley things with someone that isn’t her, it’s perfect.”   “Why would I want to string somebody along just to break up with them once I figure out what Lily thinks.” Oh he didn’t really think of that.   “Eh so what?” He shrugs, “not that big a deal.”   “That would just be cruel Barty.”   “Then just get someone to fake date you.”

Cause I'm Just A Teenage Dirtbag, Baby (29095 words) by trinaveva Chapters: 7/7 Fandom: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling Rating: Not Rated Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Barty Crouch Jr./Evan Rosier, Regulus Black/James Potter Characters: James Potter, Regulus Black, Sirius Black, Evan Rosier, Barty Crouch Jr. Additional Tags: Enemies to Lovers, Alternate Universe - High School, Angst with a Happy Ending, Hurt/Comfort, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Underage Drinking, Underage Smoking, Jealousy, Implied/Referenced Abuse, Evan Rosier Needs a Hug, Pandora Lovegood and Evan Rosier are Twins, Protective Barty Crouch Jr., Minor Regulus Black/James Potter, Body Shots, barty calls evan rosie, Internalized Homophobia, Sharing a Bed, Evan Rosier is a Little Shit, Good Barty Crouch Jr., James Potter & Evan Rosier Friendship Summary: Evan wasn't looking at Crouch, He was just … glancing around. It's not his fault if Barty’s stupid bright green strands stood out, or the fact that black lines of whatever tattoo he had could be seen peaking out from under his shirt, tracing down his back, or how when he stood up and stretched Evan got a glimpse of his waistband, and if he looked closely he could make out the h- ‘-VAN?! Mate, lunch is over, everyone left. ‘ James was stood over Evan, looking at him with soft brown eyes, a steady tan hand on his shoulder, gently shaking him. ‘You were staring again..’   Or; Evan is a handsome, popular footballer. Barty is a skater, outcast. They have never really gotten along, but for some reason they can't quite seem to leave each other alone.

[ckret2]

Would utonium tell aku about the other child he has (if he even remembers at all that he accidently made Jojo into Mojo Jojo, cause he forgot about that completely until Mr. Mojo's Rising and then that info is never brought up again, so utonium might really have forgotten it) or would aku discover it himself

Personally i think that—now that he's been so pointedly reminded—Prof Utonium remembers his history with Jojo. But like, he doesn't think about it in depth on a day to day basis. first and foremost Mojo Jojo is the evil villain who keeps trying to hurt his sweet little girls and take over the world... and also he used to be Utonium's awful lab assistant.

So I don't think he'd think to tell Aku about Mojo. Obviously since Aku's such a good guy (pause for the studio audience to laugh knowingly) he's primarily interested in hearing about the heroes made from his essence! And all of Utonium's research on Chemical X's properties—how it can be used, what causes it to bond or not bond with other ingredients/beings—why, it can do all sorts of strange things to a body if a bit of it is accidentally ingested, look at this! ("That explains a strange fever dream I had this one time I was sleeping off a terrible cold.") And THAT is what Aku gets told about Chemical X and how it's been used.

The girls probably tell him about some of their villains—he knows about the gang of green teenagers, the weird pink bear, the evil genius monkey, the LITERAL EVILEST WORST GUY EVER (Aku's like oh sometimes i had tea with HIM in my other timeline, nice to have a familiar face around), this suuuper annoying rich girl that wants to join their team... and that's kinda as much detail as he gets. They are tiny children, it does not occur to them that Aku might, like, want to KNOW that Mojo got his genius from Chemical X, like it simply doesn't cross their minds that that might be relevant to his interests.

So he's not finding out until they have an actual fight with Mojo somewhere he can see it. idk how this get finagled. maybe mojo attacks their house. maybe the girls were dragging aku out on the town because they want to play at the park and prof utonium was busy and aku ran out of excuses and that's where mojo attacks. maybe mojo takes the girls captive and aku's like oh hell no i was teaching them eye laser tricks this afternoon and i am NOT letting that get pushed back to next weekend again. or maybe mojo overhears the girls mention that they've got a "new dad" and he waits until everyone else is out of the house to break in like "you are now my hostage, for I am taking you as a prisoner back to my place of residence which is not this dwelling but another location that is not here, and you will be coming even though you do not want to due to the threat of force which I am willing to levy against you should you not cooperate with my—" and aku's like "well, i suppose i could stand to go out more."

but however it happens, he's pretty quickly like, so, this chimp that looks like me and sounds like me and is evil like me and craves to rule the world like me... why does he smell like me.

once somebody explains oh yeah he got chemical x'ed too it's thirty seconds maximum before they're going "SON?! 🥹" "FATHER?! 🥹"

whether or not he immediately starts loudly praising mojo's villainy is dependent upon whether the girls are around when aku makes this discovery. If they ARE around and shouting YOU CAN'T HUG HIM HE'S THE BAD GUY he's just going "a father's love is unconditional." He'll slink out at 3 a.m. to find mojo and tell him the truth. but however it happens, aku's making sure mojo knows he's SO PROUD of his son and his life choices

which is probably the first time anybody's ever said anything like that to mojo. He might start crying.

I think I'll go with "the girls are there during the first meeting so aku has to sneak out to tell him the truth later" just because the setting of that conversation makes such a big difference.

If you've just met the being responsible for making you who you are today and he tells you how proud he is of you? Sure, that's pretty flattering, especially if he's just seen your mountaintop property volcano lab with all the big cool weapons and machines you designed and built yourself and you got to tell him about your big ambitious evil plans. Like hell yeah your brand new demon daddy's proud of you, there's clearly a lot to be proud of.

on the other hand, if he comes to you after he's just watched you get beaten, defeated, and humiliated, if he looks at you with your clothes torn and your face bruised sitting on a cot in a cold jail cell... and THEN he tells you he's so proud of you?

devastating.

[sergiocanavero]

rereading aftg again when last read was in 2020 and i was a teenager is a crazy experience so

Things I Forgot About , Missed, or Moved On From Way Too Quickly:

renee is so much more present than i remember! and she and neil do end up kind of friends (see: the trio running laps together everyday)

for some reason when i first read it I thought aaron was distant from the upperclassmen mostly of his own volition whoops

forgot just how bangin' the plot structure of tkm is and how well nora builds anticipation

SPEAKING OF WHICH idk if i'm just too familiar with the books and characters but I had zero complaints with the book. like everyone jokes about how it's a "bad story," "mid writing," "problematic," etc, and I used to as well (is it mostly to preempt being seen as cringe for loving the series? probably) but now I don't find any of these qualities to be true!

dude andrew is so fucking normal. i guess i'm jsut so used to him, I remember the second time I read the series I was kind of shocked by how harsh he was. Now everything he does makes such perfect sense, he almost seems chill . Kevin on the other hand?? wildest behavior in all of the first book

someone else brought smth similar up but I can't find it: would andrew have been willing to stab or harm nicky sober? i never questioned it before, but now it makes perfect sense that he would only be willing to do that when he was drugged out his mind

nicky isn't one of andrew's ; andrew is nicky's

andrew's monologue to luther!! all the while holding onto aaron and letting neil help him holy shit. someone kill luther too

every time I read the scene when neil goes to aaron and starts comparing drake death to tilda death to get him to understand I forget where he's going with it (saying andrew didn't want aaron to kill drake) and I get so confused

andrew is so much more quote unquote normal than I remember. like bro was volunteering so much more info about himself than he needed to - he wants to be known!!!!

PARALLELS between robin and kevin, namely: andrew only showing interest and going to join night practices once kevin resists riko by playing with his left hand, But only plays and helps once kevin gets fed up and hits him in the helmet with the ball VS andrew shows interest in robin and her playing exy is resistance to her captor, to being hidden away, but only helps her and teaches her once he pushes her to the edge of the roof and she finally hits him - when they each give up their respective inactions!!

god damn i need robin cross books, please nora

the "I've never understood why he likes knives" scene. holy mother of god

the king's men being far and away the best book of the trilogy. incredibly bonkers pacing, the kidnapping being only the first of three climaxes of the book, the second being jean's rescue by renee, the third the visceral, euphoric final match

I didn't know about "you were always going to lose him" until a few days ago WHAT of course andrew lost his shit kev baby where did that pr training go

but in all seriousness it's so insane for their relationship in so many ways

andrew covering neil's mouth as soon as he says proust's name -> i think i'm going to vomit

NEIL CONVINCED ANDREW TO GO FOR THANKSGIVING I completely forgot about this. what the fuck. what the Fuck. and I think this would have been a lot more irreparable for their relationship if riko hadn't paid drake off

i have never and will never forget renee showing up in the middle of the night for andrew's keys, not requesting, grim and calm and so determined you need to take a breath.

the drama of neil not realizing the buzzer was a goal

Andrew orchestrated their entire match against the ravens. no one understood it, but they trusted him enough. andrew literally won them the championship

andrew would have had to start running the second neil dropped to his knees right???

riko death my shayla. nora's writing is so visceral and this scene. my god, this scene. the face cradle + so much emotion that neil-readspeoplelikeabook-josten couldn't understand him

allison going back to play because andrew tells her about riko <3

renee guilt!!! over seth

renee guilt over not being able to protect allison

renee guilt over not being as good of a goalie (eg first half against the ravens)

monsters (and the rest of the foxes) comfortability with abby

"Same old Kevin, as unforgiving and obnoxious as always" "his tone was fond" - Jeremy Knox knows who kevin day is!! and likes him! not the fake, perfect, polite kevin that the other teams and the press usually see

dan wilds, an obsessive and manipulative babe. and successful at both

"Matt looked at Andrew. "one of these days you have to let me hit [Kevin]." Andrew gazed back at him in unimpressed silence." babe!! matt unafraid of andrew, casual "conversation" between them. I love their potential lighthearted friendship/understanding

[pandalorian36]

Spencer reid x (gn)reader

A late night working ends with the both of you falling asleep on the couch where the rest of the team find you the following morning.

Word count: 885 Warnings: none

I stifle another yawn stretching out in the chair "Do we have any more coffee?" Spencer jerks upright a sheet of paper stuck to his cheek "What?" I chuckle leaning over and removing it "Maybe we should take a break?" he nods and stands stretching pushing hair out of his face "How is it one already?" I shrug and spin around in my chair before standing "Everyone else went home at ten? I thought it had only been an hour."

He grins "Although time does appear to pass faster when you are working." I hold up a hand "Hold up brains. It is far too late...early for that. As much as I love you and your info dumps now is not the time." he chuckles "Sorry."

We make our way to the small kitchen finding clean cups and coffee. A weight drapes over my shoulders as arms snake around my waist "What happened to being professional in the workplace?" he mumbles something into my neck that sounds like "Alone."

I turn around wrapping my arms around him sighing happily "We could go home." he sighs "I want to get this done." I nod "I know so do I." he smiles pressing a gentle kiss to my forehead then my lips, I melt into his touch cupping his cheek gently "We should get back to work." he sighs kissing my cheek "Okay." grabbing the two cups of coffee in one hand and my hand in the other we make our way back to the office sitting on the sofa and dragging some of the files closer.

We spend another hour working getting almost everything complete when I decide I want to be more comfortable so bring my feet up onto the sofa leaning my head on Spencer’s shoulder. I manage another page before I can no longer fight the heaviness of my eyes. I am vaguely aware of the files falling to the ground Spencer’s head leaning against mine.

3rd person narrator

Penelope, Emily, and Derek are the first to arrive the next morning. Penelope looks over at the conference room confused "Did you guys leave the light on?"

"Y/N and Reid where going to stay late. They probably just forgot." Hotch and Rossi walk over sighing "Conference room. We've got work to do." They all make their way over Derek and Emily freezing in the doorway grinning broadly. "Oh my god."

Y/N has their head in Spencer’s lap while Spencer has an arm draped over their waist head sliding down the sofa slightly the both of them fast asleep a pile of files on the floor where they have slipped out of their hands. Garcia is quick to snap a photo while laughing "That is adorable."

Hotch clears his throat loudly startling the two sleeping agents "Good morning." Y/N scrambles to their feet "We fell asleep." Rossi chuckles "We can see that."

Reid stands up brushing fingers through his hair while Morgan laughs ruffling it up more "Bit of a bird’s nest there pretty boy." Reid swats his hand away the others taking seats around the table. Hotch has the barest smile visible on his face "So you where productive last night?"

You grin grabbing the files of the floor "Actually yes. Where's it gone?" Spencer sorts through the remaining files on the table finding the one you are looking for "Here."

"Thank you." Garcia starts giggling though quickly stops at the questioning looks from her superiors "Sorry sir." Spencer and you talk through your work while Garcia continues to grin at her computer. Rossi smiles "I suppose we shouldn't be shocked the two of you completed three days of work in a single evening."

Once we have finished going over the files Hotch takes over summarising and organising, but it doesn't take too long. Morgan grins at something Garcia shows him "You two sure looked cozy on the sofa." Spencer blushes scratching the back of his head "I think I need some coffee."

"Pump your breaks pretty boy. I think you and Y/N have something to share with the group." I feel my eyes widen as I recall going to get coffee, we forgot about the cameras. Emily and JJ grin moving around the table to view Penelope’s laptop while Spencer buries his face in his hands in attempt to hide the blush while you remain frozen in place "I knew it." Emily groans "Damn." Morgan holds out his hand "Cough up."

Rossi and Hotch both look equally confused while Spencer is now resembling a tomato. I sigh "Well the cats already out the bag. Yes, we are dating. He asked me first. It’s been nine months."

"Nine months!" Garcia whoops "I win." Hotch shakes his head slightly at the group’s antics "Just keep things professional in the workplace." If possible, Spencer turns a deeper shade of red sputtering slightly while Morgan grins broadly "I think this the first time we've seen you at a loss for words."

I stand making my way to Spencer’s side he takes my hand in his squeezing it gently. While Emily sighs "It is so obvious how did we miss it." The others start pestering us with questions, but I am glad they know. We are a family, a strange family definitely but a family none the less.

[bareee]

(Don’t read this with a dark tone, read it with a light tone please I’m asking.) So why is your boy sassing Neve for being concerned she was possessed by a demon when it’s a real danger in dragon age? She’s a mage, the most vulnerable to possessions, she’s allowed to be ask after it. In fact everyone is cautious because of it.

You suffer joke to get answers XD I couldn’t help it

NOW BAM

1. He’s always sassy or has an attitude when he’s comfortable, Neve (and eventually Lucanis)makes him very comfortable.

2. And most important, short answer:Mark is not from here, he’s from Faerun(BG3/DND). He know nothin’.

Longer answer(with some spoilers):

In Mark’s whole canon, he’s from there, he made it here on accident, so HE KNOW SHIT bout anythin goin on. Antoine and Evka will explain more in a comic sense when we get to em cause they dealt with the ol’ man the most in the beginnin cause I chose the Warden route (Cause boy is tank and extra health is important and I go by mechanics in video games when I know no lore), turned out lore wise it was a very fun choice for who Mark is anyway but still. He took out the tower in the warden backstory, With his own body falling through it after teleport in here in my story, and Mark not knowin anythin, not bein able to DO anythin he was suppose to be able to do, and at a ripe ol 68 yr old is the standard story of a dense ol man takin his new lesson on learnin and changin with whats around him. He aint happy, and Antoine, Evka,Harding,Varric, and the most recent Neve and soon Lucanis are the ones stuck with this ol man stuck in a mind set that makes no sense cause their world makes no sense to the ol man. NOT TO MENTION him bein told and find out ether now or later when Emmrich joins that in Dragon age, what we’d split in different race groups completely in dnd as Fey, fiend, and undead, are actually all in same category here just different stages or whatever also is somethin he will not be able to comprehend well. Which I will continue why this is VERY bad down at the bottom cause spoiler.

Which all is kinda good for me cause I know nothin other then veilguard myself. I have inquisition but haven’t played it at all for the years I’ve had it downloaded…. And in my veilguard only experience i can see and understand what everyone bitched bout how laxed it is. I KNOW NOTHIN that is bad bad in the world because the game has no agency what so ever hardly. Some context a little sometimes like thanks to Harding’s and Davrin’s attitude towards Lucanis You know somethin’ up and bad juju…. But its so mild in a world perspective I had a hard time judgin on s scale whats more dangerous then other things… I have heard plenty that this is not a great step into the dragon age world, I fully know it and am happy the character I chose to play represents how clueless I’m gonna be bout everythin in this.

NOW SPOILER ALERT cause at this time we’re still like 2 or 3 comics away in my bg3 one from this info bout Mark bein fully known knowledge out there, AND I do hint at things to happen in the DAV storyline sooooo Imma put a cut here if ya dont wanna read it yet and can come back after those are out if liked. I have been diligent on keepin this damn thing a secret and drippin hints so its your fault of ya spoil it for yourself now~~~

Mark bein FEY in dnd and even worse an ARCH FEY makes it where not in any way, shape, or form is he possible here doesnt make it better for him to process things. Here he makes no sense and in fact the closest thing Ive been able to find that represents what Mark is the Evanuris. Solas, Elgar’nan, Ghilan’nain, these are the people he’s closes to representin here, and he HATES that. (Includin the others he dealt with in this game that I forgot the name of) And even to them he’s broken and not correct. He doesn’t belong here at all,and the world will be breakin him in the process of fittin him in till he figures out ether how get back home or how to once again break himself to fit a mold.

[loonylooly]

at this point i'm wondering what sarah is thinking when writing her love interests, like ok it's clear she finds them hot but like....are they good people

Rhys:

UTM lap dance shenanigans

throwing Feyre into danger constantly (Weaver, destroying cauldron, getting the book from Adriata, etc etc)

Still not doing jack shit about wing clippings in Illyria?? Emerie is right there, Rhysand, go enforce your damn laws

Insulting his wife's sister constantly

Almost killed his wife's sister cause she dared give her important medical information

Locked Lucien (MY BOY!!) in the house of wind

Locked Nesta in the house of wind

Didn't give Mor any warning that time he made her face her abusers and she cried i think (ngl i forgot most of it)

Ignoring Hewn City even tho...Kier is like the only bad guy we've seen from there?? Surely there's decent people in Hewn City, don't gotta make everyone suffer

Nesta windhaven kidnapping intervention so she stops spending Rhys' money (if it was really about her own sake, they would've put a stop to it much earlier)

Seemingly alienates everyone in Feyre's life that could and would stand up to Rhys for Feyre's sake. Lucien? Nah, shoo. Nesta? Nah, shoo. Weird thought but Tarquin? Yeah, makes her steal his book.

And last but DEFINITELY not least; demon baby wife death

HE COULD'VE TOLD FEYRE... OR ATLEAST NOT THREATENED TO KILL HER SISTER FOR TELLING HER WHEN HE HOULD'VE TOLD HER IN THE FIRST PLACE??

THERE'S PROBABLY MORE BUT MOVING ON

Cassian:

Barely ever stands up for Nesta in the IC

Aids in kidnapping Nesta to Windhaven so she stops spending whysand's money

Laughs at Nesta when she falls down the stairs

Aids in punishing Nesta for daring to tell Feyre important medical info

Constantly going agaisnt Nesta's wishes and trying to "save her" when she doesn't want him to

That one time Azriel asked Nesta if Cass had pushed her down the stairs...Like are we gonna ignore that?? Personally I'd have a quarter life crisis if my closest friend, who is like my sibling and has known me most of our lives, seriously entertained the idea that i would physically assault the girl I like

general aggressiveness all of ACOSF

aids in bulldozing Nesta's apartment

Rowan goddamn Whitehorn (Who I've yet to see people bashing him somehow,,, HoF rowan was like if ACOSF cassian had a horrific murder baby

Left his pregnant mate alone during a war cause he wanted to prove himself....like..idk man if i had the choice between war and taking care of my pregnant wife i'd pick the wife (did he know she was pregnant? i've kind of forgotten by now)

Rowan's kid would've been hundreds of years older than Aelin.....just think abt that

Literally everything he did to Aelin during training in HoF

Their argument where he PUNCHED HER IN THE FACE

Threatened to whip Aelin...I repeat....Threatened to whip Aelin, an ex-slave....

Told Aelin it'd be better if she died 10 years ago (unprovoked?? bitch you met her like 2 weeks ago just cause she's getting on your nerves doesn't mean you gotta wish DEATH upon her)

Literally was relieved to find out she was only 19 because if she was a few years older she could've been THE CHILD OF HIS BEST FRIEND.

No issue with marrying the cousin of his best friend's child....Imagine if he hadn't met Aelin first.. If he'd met Aedion first, Aelin would've always been the relative of his friend's son to him

FOR THE RECORD i hate all of the SJM age gaps but rowan and aelin's specifically irks me because Aelin LITERALLY CALLS HIM OLD throughout the WHOLE SERIES

Literally tells Aelin he doesn't care about what she's been through and that she is nothing to him after she confronts him for leaving her

Puts Luca in danger by sticking him on to a frozen lake with a monster inside where he'll DIE if Aelin can't save him

Funnily enough, some of the only seemingly decent person guys in SJM 1. Are completely forgotten about in the books or 2. SJM had to make them violently unlikeable

Like we've got:

Tarquin, seemed like a pretty good guy, rightfully pissed that the IC stole his family heirloom, shows up like twice in the books (LET HIM COME BACK SARAH I LOVE HIM)

Tamlin, was pretty decent in book 1, was made violently unlikeable in book 2 onwards

Chaol, very strong morals, generally a good person, loves his wife, made violently unlikeable and boring in late CoM, HoF, and QoS (ToD is one of my favorite books in the series, will praise ToD till the day I die, my boy EARNED his own book)

Aedion, seemed like a good person, strong morals, spent years trading his dignity for the sake of Terrasen, loved his cousin above all else, made violently unlikable in KoA (even tho I think he was justified in being angry about it, i'd be SO pissed)

Sartaq, good guy, strong morals, Nesryn's chapters were some of my favorites in ToD, Sartaq is one of my favorite SJM love interests, i'll never forgive author lady for forgetting about him in KoA (tho i guess she forgot about everyone from ToD? Yrene and Chaol are the only important ones, she barely even mentions Nesryn even though Nesryn's BEEN an integral part of the gang since QoS, giving her the Suki from ATLA treatment)

[curio-queries]

SMERALDO GARDEN MARCHING BAND

My thoughts prior to the release of MUSE. I've avoided pretty much all reactions and analysis posts until I finished this so I have no clue if anyone else has come up with better words to describe some of these concepts but here's my take on it. I wanted to get this out prior to MUSE so that I can see how my view evolves with further context but here's where I am now.

Initial Reaction:

I'd actually had a few issues that night so I wasn't in the best headspace to take in a new song but I did listen to it on Spotify first and then watched the mv twice, once without subs and once with. (And yes, I know it's technically not called an mv...deal with it lol)

Anyways, I definitely wasn't immediately sold on it - which is expected from me, it's EXCEEDINGLY rare that I like any song on first listen but SGMB only took a couple of runthroughs before I was on board. One thing that helped me reframe it in my mind and with my previous expectations is to remember the first part of Jimin's self-proclaimed attributes: Cutie, sexy, lovely. SGMB leans very solidly into the cutie aspect, a little near the lovely side but far deeper into Cutie than anything we've seen in his solo releases. (RememberCute was an answer in the seossword puzzle). That got me thinking about where the rest of his songs would be in comparison and here's the placement I've landed on. Some of these have changed over the past few days but I'm curious where y'all disagree with my placements.

Good old Serendipity, a perfect balance of the three in my opinion. All of FACE is firmly in the Sexy section with Like Crazy leaning more evenly into Lovely. Lie is also right there with LC but more closely on the border. My beloved Promise and Letter holding down the Lovely section with CTT straying closer to Cutie. If you forgot about the cutie circle though, SGMB would have seems like it was complete out of the expected range. I am curious if we'll ever get something that's a mix of cutie and sexy, I can't comprehend what that would be like but I wouldn't put it past our JM to find a way!

Theories?

So, how do I think I did with all of my theories? Let's go through them one by one:

Open Locker Meaning: nothing to prove/disprove this yet. There were an awful lot of references to Serendipity in the mv though, so maybe that's the tie-in? I don't know, this one was a streeeeeetch in any case.

Sound Effects Interlude: we know we're getting an interlude but we'll have to wait for MUSE and any behind info to learn if it's sound effects that Jimin recorded himself like Dive.

Rooms Going from Dark to Light: Yes! I mean we knew it was going to be a lighter album than FACE but I think the word BRIGHT is all over SGMB. And I think this technique in both of those videos was trying to highlight that for us.

SGMB as an Actual Band: Yes! Definitely right here too! I'm going to talk about this more below because I think this is actually a very important part of this song.

The Emoji Poll from the Insta Chat: Yes! I think some people are still trying to make the argument that each option is supposed to represent different songs on muse. And while the others may lean more into any of these specifically, SGMB definitely has elements of all of them as well

An Actual Band?

So, like I mentioned in the theory above, I had the thought that SGMB could be portrayed as a fictional band itself, very similar to what MCR did with the Black Parade. And since Jimin decided to use this as the song's title; as well as make it the pre-release track, I think this is an important topic to delve into.

First, this allows Jimin a perspective shift to share with us his career outside the lens of BTS. Not because he NEEDS or WANTS to separate himself from them but he has had his own journey as an artist that may differ from his experiences from the perspective of a BTS member. Obviously BTS is completely woven through this journey and he gives us an acknowledgement of that with the line about 12 June and the handsign.

(Sidenote, whenever I see any of them do that now, I instantly think of that moment in Jimin's pixid ep where he said they don't anymore...I think we may have been misled...) 😝

Second, the frame of SGMB from a band's perspective also puts the song firmly in the categorization of 'work' rather than 'personal'. With FACE being such a deeply personal projectregarding his very deep human experiences, i love that he'svery upfront with us about MUSE being a work project. I've said this before, and it's one of my absolute favorite things about Jimin's music: he crafts it so that we can easily adapt it to our own interpretations. There's a lot of loving and beautiful imagery in the lines of this song that can have special meaning in all levels of relationships; platonic or not. But his delivery if this message to us, is professional. This is reinforced by the suits Jimin has worn in all of the material released so far. He's following a work dress code. (If you happen to see this post within a week of release, we have a poll regarding Jimin's suits on @bts-polls )

ME + US = MUSE

I just want to touch on this briefly here as I expect there'll be more once the album releases but there are some hints already. Like I discussed in my FACE post, Jimin has again come up with some key words to weave through the project. In FACE, it was several sentences but MUSE seems to be focusing on the following:

ME: Jimin himself

US: Jimin's view on his audience

MUSE: His awareness of us and how that effects his creations and manner of artistry.

SGMB and CTT are both bursting with these references and viewpoints. But I honestly don't think of SGMB as a traditional 'fan song'. I have another post where I talk about the different kinds of fan songs. Like I said above, SGMB details Jimin's experience as an artist and how his audience plays into that process. Not like CTT that's literally a diary of our journey with him. Maybe an extremely nuanced take but SGMB just doesn't feel like it belongs in the same 'fan song' categorization that CTT does.

The End for Now

Does anyone know anything about that little hand-wave Jimin does during the bow at the end? He repeats it. Is just an additional flourish that he's added in himself? I've never seen anyone do that during bows after a performance so I'm wondering if it's a cultural/industry thing.

What do y'all think? I'd love to hear your thoughts! If any of you have made posts about SGMB, I'll try to read them now but rumblr is not very forgiving if you miss something in the timeline. I'm very happy for you to share links to your posts in the comments!

[austinslounge]

I really don’t understand some people in this fandom at times. A rant incoming but with context I promise

Firstly I’m more upset that knowing how loving and sensitive Austin is then he wil have had many very personal things in his house and his Elvis leather suit and other props he may have kept for memories. Plus other stuff he may have kept from when he was with V that would have personal memories for him, stuff from when he was a kid or sentimental presents from friends/family etc. But what really truly breaks my heart is that they could have took something that would be irreplaceable in every sense - something that belonged to his mum or something she gave him. That hurts and as someone who lost their mum this cuts deep. It could be jewellery or a picture or even something small like an ornament that they may smashed when they ransacked the place and yet all these so called fans care about is - he had a gun 😭

A few things I need to get off my chest though but I wanted need to give little context on why some ppl may feel a bit shocked but let me be very clear I DONT CARE ABOUT A GUN IN HIS HOUSE!! To the fans that do care a few things for you to think about - you don’t live there he does, he’s not dating you and until he does his then sorry but your view point doesnt matter to him and last I checked he’s a fully grown man who can make his own choices on what he keeps in his home!

However I can see both sides because in England we have EXTREMELY strict guidelines and I know this personally. I live in N. Yorkshire and am surrounded by the countryside and plenty of farms and my brother helped the farmers hunt rabbit etc so he had 2 hunting guns and he had to do a lot of things to keep them in our home - not only did he need to get a full gun license but also have a police officer come round and sign off that his gun cabinet was dead bolted to the wall, in a secure place and had deadbolts to lock it. So I understand why some people may find it alarming that Austin had a gun in his house because when we had people visit they were very nervous about guns being there. Being a military kid i remember the soldiers weren’t allowed them at home and had to sign any they used in/out from the secured gun room with another person to countersign and they had to keep logs for security reasons and even then only those with firearm licenses were allowed too do this. Do guns that are kept LEGALLY at home is usually unheard of unless your into hunting, clay pigeon shooting or farmers etc.

However saying you’re no longer a fan or view him differently is absolute madness! He lives in the US where laws are different and on top of that we have NO IDEA where the gun was, maybe it was a prop or maybe it was one that he was using for training for an upcoming movie so he could get comfortable with it and knowing him as an actor who takes his work very seriously this would make complete sense to me. But does any of that actually matter - he’s a grown man with a sensible head on his shoulders and maybe he felt safer knowing it was there in case he was home when in this situation. If cash was stolen too it was probably locked in a safe as I doubt money was just sitting in an unlocked drawer or kept under his mattress 🤦‍♀️ and even then we don’t know how much money was actually taken - give your head a shake people - it’s just a very small amount of info from a gossip site who used the right words for click bait!

I’m just glad he wasn’t at home or the outcome might have had a very different ending and probably not a good one - let’s not forgot what happened to Kim K!!!

Thanks for your input on this Anon.

Yea girl, I'm not really understanding the backlash and the think pieces on this whole gun thing tbh. You can't base your view on Austin having a gun in the home when you're not from the US and don't have the same context and background.

Here in the US, it's not uncommon for people to own guns or to have them in their homes. Having the right to bear arms is literally written into our nation's Constitution. My grandfather was in the military and owned a gun in our home. I saw it all the time, but we knew not to touch it. I never saw him actually use it, but he always had it there "just in case" someone tried some funny business.

As for Austin, we don't know anything about the gun. It could have been a family gift, it could have been passed down to him, it could have been something he purchased on his own, it could have been from a film he did, etc. I'm also willing to bet that he's probably had it for years. As I posted yesterday, he and Vanessa used to go to the gun range all the time. As long as people are responsible with guns, it's perfectly fine to own one, and I have no problem with what people choose to own in their own home.

I'm also not understanding the hypocrisy of fans enjoying watching Austin actually shoot stuff up at the shooting range while training on the tactical training facility, but then having a heart attack about the fact that he has a gun in his home. 🤔 That makes absolutely no sense to me.

Also, I hate to burst people's bubbles, but a lot of celebrities own guns lol. It's nothing new. 😅

With all of that said, I agree with you that fans are focusing on the wrong thing. Like you mentioned, we don't know what the burglar(s) could have taken. I would be freaked out just coming home to a ransacked house just in general. Who knows what precious things they may have gone through. When something like that happens to you, no doubt you feel like your privacy has been violated. 😔

As you mentioned, I'm just glad Austin wasn't at home. Can you imagine?

I just wish fans would focus more on this very grave reality instead.

[am-i-the-asshole-official]

AITA for being mad that my girlfriend broke up with me?

So I (23 M) got with my ex (23 F) about 5 months ago— we met through a college program, and really hit it off! It was just friends at first but I pretty quickly caught feelings, because she was just so down to Earth with me I really felt like I could spend forever with her. I wasn’t gonna say anything yet, because I felt like we hadn’t really known each other for that long. But then, some stuff happened in my city (don’t worry we’re fine), and thanks to that we didnt meet up for a good while. I ended up finding out she went to the next city over to escape a bunch of riots (I don’t blame her) so I drove out to make sure she was okay. Which she was!

I took her back home after telling her about what she missed— she was originally going to go to her parents house, but with some convincing on my end she agreed to go back. After such a long couple of days, I realized she always made me feel safe and comforted in ways no one else could. So I confessed to her, which she accepted, and we started dating! It was really nice, and super romantic. I felt like I found the perfect person and I thought she did the same.

But less than a month or so into the relationship, she completely turned on me! Getting mad about how I moved on from the previously mentioned from the crazy stuff happening in my city, yelling about her living in my house now, and not wanting to date anymore. It was like she completely forgot our friendship and relationship all. And I tried helping her get back to where she was, and sometimes she’d wake up like her anger had never happened, but after a few days it wouldn’t stick and I’ve given up on trying to make her remember anything. At first she was sort of OK with dating but it quickly turned into a on-again, off-again thingy.

She constantly complains about things— she complains mostly about my hobbies (I’m really into gardening and botany, which she says is “weird”, and I don’t know what she means by that…?), and she also complains about our neighbor, who I’m on really good terms with (apparently my ex and my neighbor (41 F) had bad blood in the past, but I had no clue!!!) In fact, she complains about my other friends (23 F and 22 NB), saying that the former is a “self-absorbed prick” and the latter got “brainwashed” by me after we became friendly. I feel like I can’t spend time with my ex around my other friends anymore or even mention them because of how vocal her anger is.

She claims to have constant nightmares and blames them on our negative relationship, and I was getting really fed up with it because she just lashes out in anger instead of talking ANYTHING out with me. We got into an argument recently, and because I was so angry I had told her that I didn’t like her now and I wished she went back to how she was when we first started dating. She was really hurt, and I didn’t mean to hurt her that way, but she ran off before I could apologize. It’s been days and she still hasn’t come home, but she texted me and told me we’re through (if it wasn’t clear enough). I’m pretty frustrated she has just been lashing out at everything and not communicating with me. It makes me feel shitty and I don’t get why she acts like this.

I’m afraid I’m being a dick for being mad she left without ever talking things out, but I wish she gave us a proper chance! So AITA??

What are these acronyms?

[xxlady-lunaxx]

Finally! | {KokuZan}

Theme: Fluff

Note: Ngl the picture is so cute >w<

(pt. 2 is here)

Muzan ordered the Uppermoons to him at an unusual time—close to dawn. They all bowed to him once they were all there, and he turned with a triumphant look on his face—something they'd never seen before. And it shocked them, of course. 

But then he held something up. A blue spider lily. THE blue spider lily.

A collective round of gasps filled the room, including from Nakime who hadn't known about this yet. 

Muzan's eyes sparkled. "I have gotten it, finally. The blue spider lily."

All of the Uppermoons completely forgot their formality and began speaking all at once, staring up at it in wonder. 

"Where did you find it??" Daki said, gazing up at it with curiosity.

"Have you seen if it works yet?" Gyokko added.

"Will we be able to use it??" Hantengu asked, trembling. 

"When did you find it?" Douma said. 

Akaza crossed his arms. "How did you get it? Will we find more?"

Kokushibo stayed mostly quiet though his eyes stayed on the blue flower. 

Muzan cleared his throat, silencing all of them. "I have not tried it yet. I do have more. And I'm going to have one of you to test it, to try it out." 

All of them waited with bated breath. Who was going to have the honor to use it first?"

"Kokushibo." Muzan looked down at the Uppermoon from his stand on the platform—he prefered to be standing above them. 

Everyone turned to Upper 1, who stood silently, shocked—though no one could tell. Then he said, slowly, "When is this happening?"

"We will go now," Muzan informed him. "I have already gotten things ready."

Kokushibo nodded and waited as Muzan dismissed the other Uppermoons, telling them that they will be updated when they need to be.

Then, the demon lord turned to Nakime and said, "Bring us to my office." 

Kokushibo found himself in a room with some sorts of experiments going on on a desk. He saw the other blue spider lilies Muzan had acquired and inspected them closely. 

Then Muzan said, "Alright. You must eat this flower."

"Is that all?"

"Yes."

(too lazy to try and think of smth more fancy.. sorry..)

Kokushibo went to pick up one of the other flowers but Muzan handed him the one he'd shown to the Uppermoons. "Have this one since I've already got it here."

"Alright." Kokushibo eyed it carefully then brought it up to his mouth. At the last second he hesitated and said, "How are we to test it? Am I supposed to go in the sun? What if it doesn't work?"

Muzan waved him off. "We will put only part of your body in the sun. Like, cut off your arm and put it there. We have to be cautious."

Kokushibo nodded. "Okay." He carefully put the flower in his mouth and sort of stood there with the stem protruding from the opening of his lips as if it was a lolipop.

Muzan sighed. "Just, uh, chew it and swallow like it is some regular food you're eating."

"Mmkkaf," Kokushibo mumbled. ("Okay")

He chewed for a moment, not used to this weird consisitency (how to spell..) and then swallowed. "Now what?"

"We'll wait because it will probably need to, maybe, be absorbed into your blood and body, right? You should rest." Muzan took his arm and led him to a room with only a futon in the middle. "Sleep now and we'll see how it is tomorrow."

~~~

(this is so friking short it's only at 500 words-)

When Kokushibo woke up, Muzan was sitting next to him, seeming to be asleep. The Uppermoon sat up and glanced at his Master. Was he asleep?

"Ehm.. Master?" Kokushibo whispered.

Muzan didn't answer. He was probably asleep.

Kokushibo lifted Muzan carefully and placed him on the bed. He draped the blanket over him then stood and walked back to the office. He looked around and saw a book open on the desk. It was information on the blue spider lily, it seemed.

Apparently it only grew in the sun—which explained why none of them had found it—and that the species was extremely rare. Besides that, a little info on how to grow it but nothing else that seemed interesting to Kokushibo. (i think yk why I wrote that)

As he flipped through the pages of the book, someone walked over next to him. Muzan glanced at the book then said, dismissevely, "We're going to test the blue spider lily today when the sun comes out. I think it's midnight right now."

"Alright," Kokushibo responded, his eyes on the book. "Did you sleep okay?"

"I should be asking you that. Anyways, were you the one who put me in the bed-" Muzan asked.

"You looked tired."

He shrugged. "I got bored of waiting."

"Why didn't you go out?"

"When you first fell asleep it was daylight. And I fell asleep around sundown. Dusk." 

"Ah, alright." Kokushibo looked up. "Well, should we go and eat first before dawn?"

Muzan nodded. "Yes. And you will need to have energy to regenerate—though I don't doubt your ability to without energy anyways."

Kokushibo nodded. "Of course."

~~~

Muzan and Kokushibo stood at the very edge where the sunlight fell. It was midday and they were going to test the blue spider lily now. 

Kokushibo held out his arm and cut it off in one swift motion. Then he kept it away from what he'd cut off so it would regenerate a new one. Muzan took the part of his arm he'd cut off and tossed into the sun.

They waited a beat, watching for any sort of disintigration. 

Nothing happened.

They glanced at each other, shocked.

Kokushibo cut off another part of his body and put it in the sun. Again, it sat there unmoving, only bleeding. 

A smile slowly started to form on Muzan's face. "It worked," he whispered. "It works!! Finally!"

In all his excitement, he hugged Kokushibo tightly. He quickly let go, apologetic, then said, "Try going in the sun fully now!!"

Kokushibo nodded. He was nervous, of course, but seeing how it hadn't done anything yet and how excited Muzan was.. he had to.

So slowly, but surely, he stepped into the sun. The light warmed his body and face and he stood there, shock filling his features. His instincts didn't say run away. He was still alive. He was here and alive. He was in the sun and alive and.. 

Kokushibo turned to Muzan and smiled. "It worked," he said. "It worked."

Muzan looked giddy. "We must tell the Uppermoons. I have gotten enough spider lilies for all of us. We'll start right now."

Kokushibo went back into the shade and held Muzan's arm as they were teleported back to the Infinity Fortress.

Nakime, who had been as interested and anticipated as the rest of them, said, "Well?"

She saw their smiling faces and realized that it had gone well. She gave them a relieved smile then brough the rest of the Uppermoons. 

"It has worked," Muzan informed them. "He can go in the sun! I have blue spider lilies for all of you! We have finally achieved what we had never had before." He grinned. "We can go in the sun."

{Word count: 1205}

Lame ending tbh

anyways..

ALSO HELP I WAS GOING TO DO SMTH MORE LIKE THE PICTURE I PUT UP THERE BUT ENDED UP DOING IT COMPLETLEY DIFFERENT

AHAHHAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH

[w0w0zella]

um hello!!! im gonna be making a. bugbo murderstuck au Masterpost of sorts! I guess! ill format it like a q&a but im making up some of these questions myself. So lets get into it :3

this is a really long post! b careful :3

"what is murderstuck?" murderstuck is a Bugbo AU that made/am making (complicated wip status lol)! its a story that takes place a month and a bit after the events of familiar foe. Very long story short, gerbo ends up getting killed (on accident), joe then kills bugbo (On purpose) and joe seeks out thomas flyswatter for help. i have a post here that goes more into the story if you'd like to see it! vvv https://www.tumblr.com/w0w0zella/728157783124574208/ill-post-these-together-awawy-from-the-rest-of-the?source=share 

currently it is a well defined plot line that i and a couple other people have made art for,, and a work in progress fanfiction!

"why is it called "murderstuck"?"

murderstuck is actually (Believe it or not lol) a Homestuck thing! murderstuck is a specific part in act 5 act 2 of homestuck where one character kills someone and then someone else kills THEM, so i was like  Fuck yeah that makes total sense for this au. In all honesty, i just called it that cuz i needed a name to jump back to in discord for easy finding and it. Stuck i guess GIGGLES lol.

i am currently.  Semi looking for new name suggestions! so if anyone has any ideas !!!   Tell me !! Please !! I have No idea!! ((by the way, because murderstuck is already technically a thing, you need to tag murderstuck posts with #bugbo murderstuck or #bugbo murderstuck au or else it will be drowned out by all the homestuck art :3

(question by geluga on discord) "where did joe get his cleaver ? is it the same way he just happened to have an axe in episode 2 or is it from something else?"

yeah no i didnt really think out him having a meat cleaver lol. lets say thaat. umm. He got it becuase he was preparing bugbo a Yummy Meal (Steak is his Favourite or some  shit idk) !!!

i do NOT rmember why i gave him a meat cleaver aswell. If you want a Good answer, the reason i gave him a meat cleaver and not his Trusty Axe is because his axe would have been far too dull and bulky to slit bugbos throat. if you want the TRUE answer Its because i forgot he had an axe at all and thought the meat cleaver would look cool

(question by onyx on discord) "did gj feel bad after The thing or did he feel like totally justified"

AMAZING QUESTION !!!! Gradient Joe feels EXTREME remorse. of course when he looks back on it he knows why he did it, but if we're being completely honest; bugbo was immobilized. he did not need to kill bugbo. if he had killed him while bugbo was choking him, that would be a different story. but he killed him while he was backed up into a tree, immobilized and begging for his life.

he feels extremely bad ! Very extremely bad!

(question from ANON in my ASK BOX) "DUDE I LOVE YOUR AU SM RAUGHHHHH also question uhh where is hoppo in the au? we havent really heard about her"

So. During the events of this au. she is. away. like she usually is. Dont really know where! Shopping at grocery market. back at war. lost at sea. you decide. (More info on hoppo in the next question

(question by kets on discord) "uuhhmmmm what is the absolute WORST ending this au could have realistically?????????? like if it didn't end whene thomas was ocmforting joe idk :3333333"

OKAY i coudl see this one of a couple ways. First way is, bugbo wins. bugbo succeeds in choking joe to death, And now he is alone (til hoppo gets back) i said this one first cuz its probably not the worst possible thing, but i think it would be pretty terrible!

second worst would be if Joe waited for hoppo to come back instead of going to thomas for help. In my humble opinion, i think that hoppo is very stubborn and VERY loyal. so. (to me at least) it stands to reason that if hoppo came back, she would side with bugbo VERY hard. she would probably fucking hate joes guts, and that would be the worst  thing for him after everything he already went through. Maybe they would Fight too idk…

Very first worst would be if joe just straight up killed himself after killing bugbo. I could see this as a thing he contemplated, but if he actually went through with it?  Oh my god Fucking imagine. all of there corpses there for hoppo to find when she comes back. Thomas rotting away in his lair without anyone to talk to (and without knowledge of bugbos death) for years? Devastating.

other notable endings include Joe OR bugbo Killing themselves directly after gerbos death, hoppo ending up killing joe out of anger when she comes back, Or (In a silly alternate universe that We made on Disc Ord���) bugbo comes BACK to life and DRAGS himself to go kill joe HIMSELF!!!!!!

(question by DEMO on DISCORD) "is gradient joe book smart or money smart" i am going to kill myself and its your fault i think. never speak to me again (Joke)

NOTABLE INFORMATION:

as stated before, you need to tag murderstuck posts with #bugbo murderstuck or #bugbo murderstuck au or else it will be drowned out by Homestuck stuff !! i want to see all of your art and things!! Thank you!!

you are ONE HUNDRED PERCENT WELCOMED AND ENCOURAGED to make stuff surrounding this au! Please Please Show It To Me!!!

if you are drawing During Fight or. During Murdering bugbo or joe, here are some things to note! - bugbo attempts to choke joe to death during a part in the fight, and he almost succeds! This causes Permanent scarring on gradient joes neck, and scratch marks all over bugbos arms from joe clawing at them!!!

- joe ends the fight with his shirt partially open and his tie missing!

- joe breaks bugbos right leg! there is a noticable gash on his inner right knee!

- joe kills bugbo by slitting his throat with a meat cleaver!- after joe is done, he drags bugbos body over to where gerbo died! (he was crushed by the fallen Stone Structure!)

thank you all so much for the love and support with this au It means so much to me. thank you from the botom of my hart.  IF YOU HAVE ANY COOL IDEAS, MORE QUESTIONS, OR ANYTHING ELSE YOU WANNA SHOW/TELL ME, MY MESSAGES AND ASK BOX ARE ALWAYS OPEN!!!!!!

[eventinelysplayground]

New Experiments

This story is the third one from my WIP Poll a while back just two left now! I'm not 100% on this fic but I'm overall happy enough with it. This one is a bit different as it focuses more on Emma with a side character that we haven't seen in English yet but she's been in several fan translated events and I wanted to expand on Emma's relationships with people outside of the princes. The only info needed is that Yuel is an apothecary/pharmacist who becomes Emma's teacher after she moved to Jade. I don't know the fandom overlap here but Yuel gave off major Matsu from Sekirei vibes whenever I would read events she's in so that along with the translations was my guide for her. There will be a sequel to this in the future just I wanted to do them as two seperate fics. Yuel and Emma conduct an experiment which leads to both of them being excited for different reasons. WC approx 1379. CW: mentions of pregnancy. Also thank you to the ancient Egyptians for their knowledge which made this story possible.

“Now this plant is quite interesting! It has strong implications as a replacement for some harder to find ones with minimal effect on efficacy which would open up so many possibilities. Oh, but do be careful when handling it as it's thorns are extremely sharp and.. Emma?”

Emma was having a lesson with Yuel on some of the new plants being cultivated at the palace, or at least she was supposed to be having one. All her mind could seem to focus on was the scents.

“Emma!”

Emma's head reflexively moved back as Yuel snapped her fingers in Emma's face.

“Yuel, I'm so so sorry!”

“What's gotten into you Emma? Normally you're a model student but lately it's been hard to get your attention.”

“I know and I'm sorry it's just…”

“Just what?”

“The plants.”

“The plants?”

Emma watched as Yuel looked around at the various plants she had brought out for today's lesson.

“Is one of the new ones bothering you?”

“It’s not just the new ones, it's all of them.”

“All of them? Are you sure?”

“Yes! All these plants and flowers, and the wet soil ugh.”

Emma dropped her head onto the desk in frustration and let out a long sigh.

“I don't know why but any strong scent lately bothers me, I can't even stand the smell of roses anymore!”

Emma looked up at Yuel to see her staring down at her with her arms crossed over her chest and a sneaky smile on her face.

“Let's forget about these for today, I have something else I want your help with.”

“What?”

Emma was yanked from her chair as Yuel pulled her up and started practically rushing out of the room and down the hallway.”

“Wait Yuel, where are we going?”

“First I need to stop by the palace infirmary and pick up what I need for my experiment then we're going to my quarters.”

“What experiment? Can we even do an experiment in your quarters? Yuel? Yuel!?”

Now it was Emma who found herself being ignored, apparently forgotten in Yuels enthusiasm. Just as they reached the infirmary Yuel came to a sudden stop.

“Actually it's probably better if you wait here for me Emma. I'll be right back, don't go anywhere!”

Emma watched as Yuel hurried off into the infirmary. She hadn't been waiting very long when she heard a familiar voice call out to her.

“Emma?”

“Prince Keith!”

“What are you doing outside the infirmary, did you get hurt? Are you alright?”

Emma waited as Keith walked towards her looking concerned.

“It's sweet of you to worry about me but I'm fine.”

“Are you certain? I know you said as much this morning but you really have seemed unwell lately.”

“I'm certain. I'm just waiting for Yuel she said she wanted to-”

“Talk to the physicians about an order that I completely forgot about! It's all sorted now though so if you'll excuse us your Highness but we need to get back to the lesson, come along Emma.”

“Oh okay, I'll see you later Emma.”

“Yes of course!”

Emma once again found herself being dragged along behind a quickly moving Yuel. Once they were safely away from the infirmary Emma spoke up.

“Just what exactly is this experiment if you aren't telling Prince Keith about it?”

“You'll see soon, my quarters aren't far and I promise to explain everything then.”

Those were the events of five days ago and they kept playing over and over in Emma's mind making it hard for her to concentrate on anything else. She had gotten up early and was now just about sprinting through the palace hallways on her way to her teachers quarters. It wasn't easy keeping a secret from Keith and she hated to make him worry about her still but it was best to wait. She reached Yuels door and had barely knocked when it flung open and Yuels arm shot out grabbing her and pulling her inside.

“I was going to go and get you if you hadn't shown up soon.”

Yuel enveloped Emma in an almost smothering hug.

“Come take a look.”

Yuel gestured towards the workbench set up in a corner of her room. Emma let out a breath she wasn't aware she was holding and slowly walked towards it. On top were three dishes containing some seeds, the seeds in the first dish still looked dormant but the seeds in the other two had begun to sprout. It had worked, it had really worked! Emma was hit with waves of emotion and she clasped her trembling hands over her mouth in shock.

“Oh Emma!”

Yuel placed her hands on Emma's shoulders from behind keeping her steady on her feet.

“I…it really worked.”

Emma's voice had been trembling at first but now she was laughing as she looked between Yuel and the seeds.

“We didn't make any mistakes? Everything was how it needed to be for it to be accurate?”

“What kind of questions are those!? We did every step perfectly Emma, our control seeds are responding as they should and our two test seeds are doing just what I told you they would.”

“So then-”

Yuels loud laughter cut off Emma's question.

“Yes Emma I can say with almost eighty percent accuracy that you are with child. You'll still need to wait a month or two for the palace physicians to be able to confirm it physically but that's more just precautionary really.”

Emma was shocked, though not as shocked as she had been when Yuel first explained the experiment to her.

“These are grain seeds but under the right circumstances and environment they have a very special purpose, they can be used to tell if a woman is with child.”

Yuel was staring at Emma with a serious but soft look on her face.

“What, me?”

“Well it's certainly not me!”

“But…what makes you-”

“The aversion to scents. It's not an entirely common symptom but it happens and usually quite early on. These seeds will be able to tell us with an almost eighty percent accuracy.”

Emma sat there blinking at Yuel while still trying to process what she was hearing.

“I've never heard of there being a way to confirm it so early other than well…”

“Most Jadeans are aware of it but the seeds are incredibly finicky so we don't export them. If even one thing is off, the temperature, moisture in the air, exposure to light…any of them can affect the accuracy and render the results invalid so it can only be done by specially trained apothecaries or physicians. Only two of us in the palace have the training required but this is an excellent opportunity to teach you how as well.”

“What if I make a mistake?”

“Don't worry about that. Alongside the one you do we'll have a control as well as one I perform myself, also nothing will be said to anyone outside the royal family or head physician for a while. Although the test is incredibly accurate when done properly there have still been inaccurate or inconclusive results so nothing is announced publicly until the physician's final physical confirmation.”

Emma was pulled out of her reverie by an excited and quickly talking Yuel.

“This is such wonderful news! A new little prince or princess and so many new experiments and formulas to try out, I can hardly wait!”

Emma felt Yuels hands release her shoulders and watched her almost jump up and down with joy.

“New formulas for what?”

“Well first we have to figure out something for your sense of smell. Then if you have trouble keeping down food, something to help with that. A compound to make sure you're getting an adequate amount of nutrients, maybe something to help you sleep later on. You'll definitely need something to help with aching muscles and a new cream to help minimize the stretch marks. That's probably going to be the most difficult one, I mean you're so tiny compared to his Highness…”

Emma sat down in a chair smiling and listening to Yuels obvious enthusiasm then slowly ran a hand over her stomach. She almost couldn't believe the news and was overcome with joy at the thought of the, hopefully small, baby to come.