#despite being an asshole he is kind of the ‘weird uncle’ type

[kcciny]

May I introduce you to my first demon pillar oc, Valefor

[mooshs-crack-headcanons]

Hello if the request is still open. Could I get headcanons that if dante has a daughter how would she get along with dante, vergil and nero (post dmc5)? Thanks!

Hello! Just a heads up for the future! This was a very different type of request for me to write and next time I get a request like this in the future I'm not going to accept it! But I really hope you liked this one anyway!

Well, it's kind of a given that either way that she's going to be one; be a devil hybrid and going with the tread I'd say that she would hold the family trait silver hair, and two; have Sparda's blood through her veins which in turn makes her a dignified badass. 

I would say that most likely that her mother would be a human making her a quarter demon just like Nero, and for the sake of this request I'm going to have her age be around Nero's. 

His daughter would most likely work at the office, since you know 'family business' and all and would work on phone duty while her father's out on jobs and take in small jobs on her own just to try and keep the electric and water from getting shit off (dad just has a talent for not paying bills after all) 

I'd say despite being the overgrown man child Dante is, he'd be a good dad. He's fun and super easy to hang around, but he can get awkward as hell when certain topics come up; ex dating/love advice, and if his s/o, Lady, or Trish is around he'll most likely push it off on them to deal with. 

He does go on quite a few jobs that last him over a few days quite often, so I can see him taking her to Fredi's out to eat and have some quality father-daughter time. He also likes to take her on jobs (that he knows for a fact aren't world saving) with him and hunting together is another bonding exercise. 

All of the awkward bad dad jokes. All of them. 

He likes telling her stories about her grandmother and all of her teachings she taught him and Vergil, because he knows she would've been proud of the fine woman his daughters become like he knows he is. 

Dante has told his daughter quite a few stories about Vergil over the years, nothing too specific in his death or ever mentioning his corruption at Mallet Island, but enough for her to know that her uncle was a stubborn asshole who lost himself in lust for power. So when it came time to meet him after he and her father returned from hell was...weird. She knew that her father and him were twins but seeing it in person was off putting, even if a normal person couldn't tell by just glancing at them, she can tell that even if one has clearly aged more than the other that they're still if fact identical deep down. 

Vergil deep down feels really guilty after every he'd down up to the ending of 5 and he's made an attempt (keyword: attempt) to get a connection going with his family again, he made amends with his brother (though still sharing the rivalry) and is trying to get into his son's life, so of course he's going to try his best to at least get to know his niece but given this is Vergil and communication isn't exactly his strongest suit so it's going to take quite some time. 

Vergil himself originally thought as V that Nero was Dante's son, so seeing his daughter for the first time isn't that shocking to him. What is shocking to him is how...nice she treats him. With her being Dante's spawn he would've expected her to be more - how would he put it? More like Dante's spawn? (Vergil please stop calling children spawn) But no, she's more calm and collective and even brings up a conversation about Blake's work with him from time to time and it completely baffles him to no end but deep down he really appreciates it.

Like most things, Vergil finds hunting to be where he feels his best so it's no surprise that in his 'connection attempts' that he goes on jobs with his niece. Going on jobs with Vergil is very different then going on jobs with Dante, she quickly comes to realize. On jobs with her father, they'd tend to stick together as a team and he'd show off all of his stylish skills just to show her that: "Her old man still got it." Vergil on the other hand tends to like going on jobs alone, and even the first few times when he has 'agreed' to let his niece tag along at first he always keeps his distance to do his own thing but he doesn't travel far enough so that he can still see what she's doing, she has the blood of Sparda after all so she should be able to impress him. But after they've bonding for a bit Vergil doesn't travel off as far, far enough so that both of them have their own proper battle space but close to where if need be he can quickly trick over if the chance if she is about to have a fatal call with a demon and he can come to her rescue. But from what he's learned about his niece is that she's learned what Dante has taught her by heart and is very skillful at what she does so instead they can have friendly banter with one another during these missions. Vergil is very proud of his niece. 

Even though the thought confused the ever loving hell out of him that the old man somehow, Nero and Dante's daughter were friends before they found out they were cousins, they knew they were somehow related with Sanctus' confirmation to Nero during 4 but they never knew how far it went. At that time no one but Dante knew, and Lady would joke about Nero just being a kid that Dante forgot about or something but of course with Dante being Dante he chilled it out saying if he had another kid he would know about it and saying nothing about it further. 

Nero would hang around the shop for a good while after the events of 4, still feeling lost and confused about how his whole life was a lie with the Order and wanting to get stronger with his inner demon to protect the most important person left in his life at that point; Kyrie. Speaking of which, Kyrie would also tag along to the shop feeling confused and lost as the brainwashing of the Order slowly would fade away as she grieved for her brother's life. I'd say this is where Dante's daughter would pitch in and try to help out the both of them the best that she can whether it be by training for hours with Nero or being a big emotional support and a shoulder to cry on first Kyrie, which all earns Nero's respect. 

Because of that respect, during 5 she actually spent the whole game in Fortuna with Kyrie and the kids. Deep down she was so upset and angry at herself that her father's somewhere lost in that fucking tree Redgrave after seeing his defeat first hand when she went with Nero (who at the time she was visiting after Kyrie called her about Nero's lost arm) and that 'mysterious bastard' V. For the whole month she spent beating herself up over it, she knew her father wasn't dead; he defeated three demon overlords in his lifetime! Three! But seeing him actually fall to an enemy...terrified her. She'd wished to go back to Redgrave the agreed time but Nero asked her to watch Kyrie and the kids in his place and she just...couldn't refuse. 

Nero's easy to make flustered and embarrassed and it's hilarious if you just make simple jokes about how dorky he gets around Kyrie like how he does that scratch/rubbing at his nose thing with a big dumbass grin on his face. Both Dante's daughter and Nico both enjoy flustering the shit out of him, and because of that Nico and her are good friends (and once she leaves Nico makes it very clear to Nero that his cousin is hot, which again gets Nero's goat) 

Nero and Vergil of course still have a very rocky relationship even after 5 (which again understandable when your parent yanks off your arm and all) so since him and his cousin have a good relationship, he tends to go to her for advice, after all she's had her entire life with her dad and he's only had a dad for the last few months tops. 

Either way this family might be hella dysfunctional, but I'd say she'd wouldn't rather have it any other way. 

If you like what you read please consider reblogging! It means the world for writers and artists!

[gizkasparadise]

cdrama rec/review: le coup de foudre

KDRAMA AND CDRAMA MASTER LIST OF REVIEWS

Series: le coup de foudre / love at first sight / i don’t like this world, i only like you Episodes: 35 w/ a special Genres: then & now, slice of life, high school to adult life, romance, reunion/getting back together, working with the ex Spoilers in the Rec: for set-up/light ones for character backgrounds If You Like, You’ll Like: the reply series, sad-looking dogs that are loved very much, because this is my first life (VERY similar male lead), sibling love, my sunshine but if people were nicer and had significantly better hair, multiple couples that are all a lot of fun

Rank: 10/10

PREMISE

flashback to 6-8 years ago (because the OP here can’t remember lol): it’s desk selection day in qiao yi’s classroom! a very dramatic moment for all high schoolers, qia yi has to select who she sits next to. because she’s at the bottom of the class ranking, she gets last pick, which essentially narrows down her choices to that creepy kid who writes love poetry to every female student in the class and yan mo, the scary genius student who has placed 1st in their class since...forever.

taking a gamble, qiao yi goes with yan mo. yan mo eventually agrees to tutoring qiao yi outside of class and they become friends. then...friends? if you know what i mean. it’s very sweet and cute. only problem is that yan mo is both a genius and from a Family of Means, and so is already planning on attending cambridge (yeah, fucking cambridge) after graduation. not wanting to separate, yan mo asks qiao yi to come with him and she agrees to study hard so she can get accepted to a university in the UK, too.

but then, well, bad shit happened. 

qiao yi ended up staying in their home town, yan mo left for cambridge, and we got two v heartbroken teenagers on our hands.

4 years later, yan mo returns after studying in the uk, and by chance they end up bumping into each other. angry because qiao yi hurt him, yan mo puts up an ALOOF AND COLD AND I DONT CARE AT ALL front that she sadly buys. but after he leaves for the big city to pursue a business opportunity, qiao yi harnesses some amazing big dick energy to go after him, in a sort of inverse DONT LET HER GET ON THAT PLANE! move. very abba. 

the plot bounces between their (and their friends’) high school years, their lives as reunited adults, and their future lives as married folks. i love it very, very much.

MAIN CHARACTERS

zhao qiao yi

as a high schooler, qiao yi was a quiet girl with low self-esteem, who consistently ranked at the bottom of her class and was always attempting to retreat into her school tracksuit like a turtle. despite this, qiao yi has some solid friends and is always kind if somewhat shy or uncomfortable in certain situations. as a adult, qiao yi works as a television producer and is clearly more confident. 

she buys truly awful graphic t-shirts as thank you gifts that one feels obligated to wear. falls for scams easily. will help you fold 1000 paper stars for your boyfriend even if she hates your boyfriend because she’s ride or die like that. look at how cute she is no one is allowed to be mean to someone as cute as this.

yan mo / “frank”

if you liked se hee in because this is my first life, you’re in luck because here is a 10% angrier version. at first, yan mo seems cold, aloof, snobbish, pretentious, arrogant...

okay, but he’s ALSO got a lot of feelings and will help people out. well, at the start of the show, he’ll help two people out. but that expands to like 10. so, progress! in high school, he falls for qiao yi in the typical Cannot Spit It Out fashion, buying her sentimental cans of coke, PUTTING IN ONE EARBUD SO SHE CAN LISTEN TO THE BEATLES WITH HIM, feeling Weird about her tying his tie, and single-handedly ruining a for-profit afterschool tutoring business in about 30 seconds, because they weren’t teaching qiao yi anything, and he knew he could do it better. tbh he completely fucking destroys a lot of things and people in under a minute. #ruthless

he’s very protective of qiao yi and rather than explain it, here is a clip from the special episode where yan mo confronts another student who left a love confession meant for qiao yi in his desk by mistake (subtitles have to be selected under settings, but it’s subbed in english):

zhao guan chao

zhao qiao yi’s twin brother, who has always placed 2nd in their classes after yan mo. despite his high grades, he comes off as a laidback teen heartthrob and has a reputation for being a flake and a playboy. BUT he’s legit a chill dude and clearly popular for a reason--he gets along with (almost) everyone. he loves his sister and is extremely protective of her, especially since she’s so shy and has low self-esteem for Reasons That Will Be Explained in the Tragic Backstory. he’s such a good brother. the best brother. also looks out for qiao yi’s best friend, wu yi. understands the value of shoes.

hao wu yi

qiao yi’s best friend, and another classmate of The Crew. i say this with so, so much love, but she’s got a lot of chaotic dumbass energy. struggling along the bottom ranks with qiao yi during high school. she has the worst taste in men as a teenager, falling for the guy who literally bullied her in like. ep 2. thankfully she’s got qiao yi and guanchao.

the trio are close, and that doesn’t change as they grow up. wu yi ends up becoming a novelist who writes pop and steamy romance novels and has a significant teenage girl fanbase. it’s amazing. 

fei da chuan

my boy. another classmate, he, qiao yi, and wu yi make up the official Dumbass Trio of their high school class and have adorable adventures + solidarity in it. he’s also yan mo’s uncle. somehow. because rich people families are wild. while he’s got a place to live, he more often than not crashes at yan mo’s, who Does Not Like It. but da chuan does not notice or care. 

abrasive but 100% sincere about everything and toward everyone. people will think he’s an asshole or a gangster but then he’s secretly feeding abandoned kittens in the corner or something. as an adult, has the best business casual outfits. serves as a big brother figure to a lot of people, but qiao yi in particular. cannot, cannot fucking do math.

SUPPORTING

“alicia” / cheng youmei. an old family friend of yan mo’s who is very posh and rich and dignified. studied abroad with him at cambridge, and is cold toward qiao yi after arriving back in china. cosplays B)

teacher gao. everyone’s high school teacher who later owns a bar that seems to be there only for dispensing advice. seriously. there is no way this bar is economically sound as the only customers you ever see are gao’s students coming in one at a time for Wisdom and you never see them pay for anything. also the bar has no fucking roof and is directly above traintracks. i have hang-ups about this bar

lin shu. yan mo’s mother. very sweet and pretty and a ballernia turned program director. is almost never home but clearly loves her son. du chaun’s sister. somehow.

zhao suyin. qiao yi and guan chao’s mother. one of her kinks is roleplaying condor heroes characters? okay okay okay

tian weimin. qiao yi and guan chao’s stepfather who works as police officer. best dad award. he’s so sweet and corny and peak dad humor. he loves them kids & they love him back

grandpa. yan mo’s dog in high school. a very old basset hound with sad eyes:

dollar or d. i cant tell you anything about him, other than he used to be a stray and yan mo says he’s ugly, which, rude.

DRAWBACKS

plot...hm. there’s SOME plot, but this is about characters + romance + friendship + family. if you’re looking for scheming mothers-in-law or tragic car accidents or secret destinies this isn’t the one for you. similar in vibe to Reply 1988 (they even watch the show in the show :’D / make references to it)

OKAY SO every plot summary i’ve seen says that yan mo is in a relationship with someone else when he gets back to china. no he is not. i say this because it was a huge turn off for me/initially put me off watching the series. he is definitely a one-and-only type. there’s no cheating in this show. lmao, hell, neither of the mains are even interested in anyone else but each other

i liked du chuan and his love interest a lot, but they definitely didn’t get as much screen time as the others

while it’s clear qiao yi + yan mo are the mains, another couple gets a lot of screen time as well. this might be a skip if you don’t like multiple couples/secondary relationships in a show

i surprisingly enjoyed the high school storyline a lot more than the adult one? which is super weird for me, but idk i was sad when it was over because it was so cute.

some...weird technical decisions. every once in a while, the camera will have like a nostalgia filter and then it disappears and then the edges get a bit blurry and idk it feels very film school 101 to show that what’s on screen is a ~memory. the soundtrack/music is sometimes also too loud--to the point where it can drown out the actors (particularly janice wu in the high school arc, since qiao yi is soft-spoken)

REASONS TO WATCH

the lead actors (janice wu + zhang yujian) are legit two of my favorites and they have great/easy chemistry. all the actors are amazing. everyone’s loveable

SIBLING GOALS the zhao twins are amazing and they’re both each other’s biggest fans. gaunchao had some really heartwarming brother moments

i love love lmao. this spoke to a lot of my favorite dynamics: exes reunited/having to work together, childhood sweethearts reuniting as adults, “gangster” and princess, childhood friends turned lovers, bickering couples, cold man who actually has a lot of feelings, lots of people being overprotective, idk. everything was just great. 0 complaints on any of the ships.

i genuinely liked every character other than that one piece of shit poppa zhao. even alicia, who’s put into the stereotypical rich bitch role, was actually really fun and subverted a lot of expectations for this trope

it’s just. real cute y’all. probably my favorite cdrama and definitely in my top 10 (maybe 5?) dramas overall.

FINAL THOUGHTS

i love them ;;

[diabloindigo]

Are you the person to open a box of cereal just to get the toy inside? As a kid yes. Right now, I don’t buy cereals with prizes anymore. Do they even stuff toys in cereal these days? 

Do you get scared easy? If it’s in the anxiety induced variety, yes. 

What was one of the stupidest things you cried over when you were little? Not sure, it could have been anything from not wanting to wear a fancy dress or dress shoes to a party or a broken toy. 

Have you ever drank milk from the carton? Despite having a working dishwasher and plenty of glasses, I “waterfall��� milk and juice from the containers. 

Juice or milk? I go both ways, leaning more towards juice. Apple or orange. 

Do you ever turn off your computer properly? Once in a while. 

Do you wish you were a fish? Not really, though I kinda envy the blue Dory (Doctor Fish?) in the tank at my gynecologist’s waiting room. It likes to swim to the bottom of the tank and ride up to the top on a bubble jet. That damn fish has probably had more fun than I have in the past several months. 

Who’s your favorite super hero? Invincible (Amazon Prime). Along with Spider-Man (2002) and the Big Hero 6 movie, that character/series is a rare superhero show that makes me feel strong and vulnerable at the same time. 

Who’s your favorite super villain? Slade Wilson/ Deathstroke as seen in “Teen Titans: The Judas Contract” animated movie and the 2003-2006 “Teen Titans” cartoon series. 

Spiderman or X-men? Spider-Man. Tobey Maguire and Peter B. Parker from Into the Spiderverse. 

Movie theatre or stay at home movie night? Theaters. Alamo Drafthouse. I love ordering boozy milkshakes and finger foods.

Do you have a Blue Ray? I have one of those external drives for my Mac though I never use it. 

How about HD television? Yeah

Do you think HD television is kind of a waste of money? No. 

Do you get why people get so frickin’ freaked out during football season? I do not, and living in a state with a hard-on for (American) football makes it weird when I tell people that I do not have a favorite football team/player. 

Do you ever sneak scraps to the dog even though you’re not suppose to? I don’t sneak him food. If I cook or order too much to eat, then I scrape a couple of cup’s worth of leftovers in his bowl. He’s probably got only a year to live so let him live it up a little. 

Are you reading a book right now? If so what? A friend gave me a copy of “The Only Good Indians” but I can't get into it so I’m reading “Full Throttle” by Joe Hill. 

What was the last book you were required to read for school? It’s been so long I can’t remember. 

O donuts or jelly filled? Whipped cream filled. I love Krispy Kreme’s whipped cream filled donuts with raspberry filled donuts as a close second. 

If I’m feeling bland then I do like crullers. 

Do you like your ice-cream in a bowl or cone? Bowl unless it’s a tasty cone. 

Marshmallows in your hot chocolate or no? I could go either way unless it’s a tiny cup of chocolate. 

Do you like cherry coke? Hell yes. I love going to Sonic for a cherry-vanilla-lime Coke or this greasy little 1950s type burger joint for their cherry cokes since they load the cups with several cherries. 

Do you really think diet Dr. Pepper is the equivalent of a cupcake? No, it tastes artificial. Like a bastard child of a soft drink that wants to pass for cherry soda. 

Do you snore in your sleep? Drool? Talk? Snore and talk (I’m pretty stressed out).

Have you ever sleep walked? no

Are you a morning person? I am now. 

How do you wake up in the mornings? by alarm during the work week, naturally at 6-7 on vacation days. 

Do you think guyliner is hot? What is that? 

Is variety the spice of life? yeah

Do you think strawberry milk is disgusting? I like it. 

Have you ever drank after anyone? Like sharing a cup/bottle? Yeah, loads of times.  

Have you ever drank after anyone you don’t know very well? No. 

Do you have any limits on who you drink/eat after?

If we’re talking about sharing, then I will share food/drink with family and friends. If someone offers me bite-size pieces that are individually wrapped or can be torn off the main portion, I’ll eat it, but only from co-workers or acquaintances. 

Would you eat a sucker if someone already ate some of it? No. 

Would you chew somebody else's gum? Hell no. 

Do you know anyone who’s going to die of mono because of that? No. 

Do you enjoy school? My English and psychology classes. 

Are you a teacher’s pet? no

Do you have a job? Yes. 

How did you get to and from school? Parents drove me or I walked for elementary through high school. I drove when I went to college. 

Do you have a bedtime? And if so what is it? I’m in bed between 11-12 a.m.

What time do you get up? 6 am so I can walk/exercise before the sun boils the earth in full force. 

Have you ever pulled an all-nighter? Yeah in college. 

What’s more important? Beauty or brains? brains

Do you believe in yourself? Sometimes I do, and sometimes I don’t. 

Did you ever want to be an astronaut when you were little? No. Being a veterinarian or scientist were my highest ambitions as a small kid. 

How about the president? Never. 

What did you want to be when you were little? Veterinarian, scientist, cartoon character. 

Did you ever want to be a super model? no

Do you believe you’re attractive enough to be a super model? No.

Have you ever had an X-ray? Several in the past few months for pre-surgery and dental work.

What’s your favorite guy’s name? What’s your favorite girl’s name? Guys’: Shane, Mark, Tadashi, Austin, Cade, Trip.

Girls’: Quince, Sienna, Amy, Kit, Lizzie (Elizabeth), Raven.

Who’s your second cousin’s, grandparent’s, sister? The fuck...

Do you laugh to yourself whenever the ketchup bottle farts? No, in fact, I get annoyed when other people hear it and ask me if I farted. 

Do you have any real guns in your house? I have several. 

Do you know how to use nunchucks? No, I bought a pair at one of those Asian imports emporiums, but I donated them since I never learned to use them. They were these crappy foam padded ones with dragons printed on the handles. 

Do you know anyone who can use nunchucks? No. 

What do you want to be next Halloween? In better health and not shitting bricks about using up my paid time off to go to doctors’ appointments. 

Did you ever consider getting a job as a mall Santa? No. I’d rather be one of his elves or a reindeer. 

Are you the one responsible for taking out the garbage? Yes. Grosses me the fuck out sometimes with smelly discarded poultry trays or rotten food, but somebody’s gotta do it. 

Do you recycle? My city has the blue recycling bins, but I heard that since we’re an ass-backward community, “recyclables” and trash all go to the same place. I just place recyclables in the blue bin to help clear up space in the trash bin. Maybe I’m wrong and this city does recycle? Can’t hurt. 

When I was 11, I’d collect empty soda cans to take to the recycling guy since back in the day, they’d pay for aluminum cans. That’s how I scraped up funds for dollar movies and hot dogs. 

Are you a pyro? Yeah. I carry/collect Zippo lighters but mostly because the “click-click” is satisfying to hear since I flip the lids open and closed to relieve stress. And I burn a lot of old bills and letters with sensitive info on them. 

What was the last word/thing you wrote down? I was researching high fiber foods that are also low in carbs to make a grocery and dinner meal plan. 

Sleeping or eating? After my surgery, sleeping. 

Are you overall a positive person? I try to be realistically positive, if such a thing exists. The world will never be all sunshine and My Little Ponies, but I try to find some comfort and positivity when my world is a shit-show. Filling this survey out kinda helps. 

Do you hate hypocrites? Yeah, especially the “do as I say, not as I do” types. 

For instance, a certain family member is pushing good diet and health habits, but it aggravates the hell out of me if I see him drinking high sugar iced tea or eating ice cream. Or Door-Dashing Burger King, even if it is a Beyond Whopper with a diet Coke. 

Do you like to prank people? Yes, but I do benign pranks like leaving dirty riddles and meme drawings on their front doors. 

What was the worst prank you’ve ever done on anyone? I tried fucking with a telesolicitor but I could not stop laughing. 

Have you ever jumped on a trampoline in the ice? I don’t own a trampoline. 

Have you ever ice skated? No. I tried once after a local minor league hockey game. I got the skates on, but my ankles were bending/bowing out so I changed my mind.

Ever water skiid? No. 

Is vacuum spelled funny? Yes. 

Democrat or republican? I don’t associate formally with either party, but I hitch my pony a little to the left. 

Who’s the biggest asshole you know? My former boss circa 2013. Very unprofessional and a veritable loudmouth and a poor (shit) showman wannabe. 

Pen or pencil? Gel-ink pens. 

Should all paper have holes? nope

Speaking of holes. Swiss cheese, what’s the point of that? Fewer calories? Spinning slices in my hand like a TV cowboy spinning his revolver in the trigger guard with his finger? 

Have you ever been in a helicopter before? No. 

Own any airbrushed tshirts? Nope, not even in the nineties. 

Have you ever been suspended? No. 

Have you ever been in a fist fight? A few playground fights as a kid. 

Ever said something to someone that you didn’t mean to say? Yes. 

Do you forgive too easily? I don’t think so. 

What are you listening to right now? The AC running. 

Have you ever seen any of MCR’s music videos? Nope. 

Are you tan? No. 

Have you ever been in a tanning bed? No. I have no desire to look like a Cheeto or woo skin cancer. 

Have you ever played water volley? Once at my uncle’s neighborhood swimming pool. 

Ever had a sunburn? Yes, from neglecting sunscreen re-applications or underestimating the sun. 

How about wind burn? It hurts….. Nah, I don't live in a cold enough climate for that. 

What was the first word you learned how to say? I think it was “mama.”

[emybain]

The Mall

im not gonna lie i lowkey based this off of my own (very few) experiences going to the nasty old mall in the next town over with my friends. lets just say: very worried parents, sticky atmosphere, and great people watching but also pedophiles left and right sksksks. the movie is also based on a movie I saw with friends when I was thirteen, but I saw it at the nice, trustworthy outlet mall closer to my house lmao. anyone else ever seen the boy? anyway, enjoy me projecting my awkward young teen experiences on the AU where Nova’s parents live. this is unedited as well:)

Part of the Nova’s family lives AU***

Masterpost of all my Renegades Fics 

    Nova was practically vibrating with happiness. She bounced up and down in the passenger seat of her mom’s car, leg jiggling in excitement. Only half paying attention to the radio, she hummed along to the music playing. Today was a new day. A breakthrough in Nova’s thirteen years of life. 

    For the first time ever, after countless hours and years of begging, Nova was being dropped off at the mall to hang out with her friends. 

    Her parents were what most would call overprotective. By this point, Nova was used to it, but it was still annoying when she had to miss out on fun activities just because Mom said no. They never even gave a clear answer when she asked why, too. It was always “Because we’re the parents and we say so,” usually followed by them telling Nova to go clean her room or entertain her siblings. Even with this new experience, Nova hadn’t been completely honest when her parents grilled her on the details. As far as they knew, Nova was just seeing a movie with a few friends and would not be venturing into the main mall. They were under the illusion that Adrian Everhart, Nova’s best friend and the only boy her parents trusted, was going to be the only male present. Not that it mattered much, anyway, seeing as Nova had expressed her attraction to girls as well at dinner one night about a year ago. Still, according to her parents, adolescent boys were trouble. All except for stupidly perfect Adrian Everhart. He was the kind of kid that everyone and their mother couldn’t help but be friends with. The kind of boy that, after leaving someone’s house, the mom would say “I always liked him. Good kid.” The same couldn't be said about Nova, his partner in crime since they were six and seven years old.  

    Her mom parked the car along the curb outside the movie theater entrance of the mall. Leaning back from the wheel with a heavy sigh, she looked over at Nova. “Just a movie, right?”

    Nova nodded firmly, hand already reaching for the door in her hurry to escape. She could see the silhouettes of her friends, waiting in line for tickets. 

    “Hold on there, young lady.” Nova heard the clicking of the lock and groaned. “I want you to text me once every hour, okay? Stay with Adrian no matter what. If anything happens, call me or your father immediately.” Nova inched toward the door again, this time trying to unlock it subtly. Her mother still noticed. “Don’t talk to anyone you don’t know.”

    Nova felt an evil smile creep onto her lips. “But what if they’re selling candy?”

    “I mean it, Nova Jean.” She swore she saw the flash of fear in her mother’s eyes. “No funny business. You know how I feel about leaving you, and here of all places.” She gestured to the building before them. “Be on your best behavior. There are-”

    “Eyes on me at all times, I know.” She rolled her eyes, thinking back to all the times those words had been repeated to her whenever she went anywhere. When she was younger, they confused her. But now, Nova knew her mom meant the media and how the older Nova got, 

the more people watched her every move. After all, her family had a reputation. “Can I go now? Adrian’s already coming over here.” 

    Closing her eyes, Tala Artino nodded. She reached for Nova’s hand when her eyes reopened, now soft. “I love you, sweetheart, Be safe. I’ll pick you up at 10.” 

    “Love you too, Mom.” Reaching over, Nova pressed a kiss to her mom’s cheek. Then, she was finally allowed to exit the vehicle. Adrian, waiting outside, greeted her with a hug. Nova couldn’t help but notice his growth spurt in recent months. She had always been the short one, but there had been a time once where she didn’t have to tilt her head up to look at him. Now, her neck stretched more and more each time she saw him. She should’ve seen it coming; his mom had been tall, and he was a spitting image of her. 

    “Hi, Mrs. Artino.” Adrian waved as the passenger window rolled down. All traces of a stern parent vanished from her mother’s face when she waved back. 

    “Hi, honey. You’re going to make sure my daughter doesn’t do anything she’s not supposed to, right?” 

    “Mom!”

    But Adrian laughed and simply nodded, putting on his dumb charming smile that won over every parent. They said bye to her mother. Nova watched until the car had disappeared from view before turning to face her friend. 

“Where should we go first?” 

Adrian frowned. “Are we not seeing the movie? Everyone else already has their tickets.” 

“They can see it if they want.” Nova wrapped an arm around Adrian’s and pulled him forward. “But it honestly looks boring. All horror movies are the same.” 

But Adrian didn’t look convinced, and while Nova wanted nothing more than to explore the mysterious place her mother hated with a passion, she could tell he wanted to see the movie. Well, the movie was only an hour and a half. And it was only 5 in the evening right now. They had plenty of time. 

Nova let out a sigh, then pulled Adrian in the direction of the ticket line. “Fine, but you’re staying in line with me to buy a ticket.” 

Adrian snorted. “Just as long as you sit next to me in case I get scared so I can hold your hand.” He seemed almost shy in saying that, despite trying to be nonchalant and joking. Nova glanced over at him and noticed how his cheeks and neck had darkened. A flutter twirled in her belly, but she pushed it aside. Those feelings were nothing new by now. But for whatever reason, she only felt them when she was around her best friend. 

———-

“That movie was terrible!” Nova said as soon as she exited the theater with her friends. A few people glanced over at her, shooting disapproving looks before recognition dawned on their faces and their eyes flitted between her and Adrian and the linked arms between their bodies. Nova had to refrain from making faces at them, remembering her mother’s warnings. 

“It wasn’t that bad,” Ramona said with an eye roll. “At least it wasn’t the same as every other horror movie.” Ramona was a Renegade, like Nova and Adrian. She had been chosen by Nova at the last trials a few months before to be a part of her team. Usually, the Council didn’t let the younger Renegades participate in the trials other than to watch, but they gave Nova an exemption at the ripe age of thirteen. Why, she wasn’t fully sure, especially when Adrian’s dads were on the Council and still wouldn’t let him create his. She suspected her parents had a bit of a pull in that, as well as the Council recognizing the amount of time Nova put in every day for the organization. After all, she was dedicated to righting the wrongs her uncle had done in the past. Her team couldn’t do much anyway. Patrols were too dangerous, so they were forced to stick to duties inside headquarters, something that quickly grew boring but at least helped Nova’s team bond. 

Benton, Nova’s other recruit, shook his head. “No, I’m with Nova on this one. Possessed dolls? C’mon, it’s been done like, fifty times already.” 

Nova headed the group as they ventured into the main part of the mall. The aroma of pretzels and stinky children pierced her nostrils. Nova hadn’t been inside a mall for some years. Her mom tried to avoid the place as much as possible, as it wasn’t the cleanest place on earth. Usually, if they had to go to a store in the mall, they would spend time only in that store, parking near an entrance by the store in order to spend the least amount of time in the main mall as possible. Tala had practically drilled Nova every single day leading up to her mall escapade on what to do and what not to do, as well as reminding her of the dangers of the media and of course, the splotchy-faced pedophiles who camped out in the food court all day watching teen girls pass by in crop tops and cut off shorts. 

“Okay, but you have to admit the creepy dude at the end was a surprise,” Adrian countered, pushing his glasses up over his nose. Nova bit back a smile; she had promised not to make fun of his scratchy, changing voice. Even if he did squeak every other word. “Living in the walls?” He shuddered. “Spying on her that entire time?” 

Ramona muttered something under her breath in Spanish. “No wonder his parents left. I honestly would’ve left sooner if I were them. Screw his feelings.” 

“Yeah, he was weird, but that kind of came out of nowhere.” Benton ran a hand through his blond locks. “The plot holes are endless. Why didn’t his parents just up and abandon him? What was keeping them there? Why was he in the fucking walls to begin with? Why didn’t they get him mental help sooner?” 

Nova gasped, quieting the group. She had spotted one of her favorite shops, a small store that sold band and other nerdy merch. Her mom wasn’t a big fan, seeing as they sold goth and emo type stuff, and their workers were ‘scary looking’. She grabbed Adrian’s hand in her excitement, missing the way his gaze widened at the gesture, and tugged him in the direction of the shop. 

    “There’s a shirt I’ve had my eyes on for the longest time,” she explained to him as they halted in front of the wall lined with band t-shirts. Benton and Ramona trailed off from them, drifting over to the racks and cubbies of fandom merch. 

    Adrian hummed in understanding. “The West Side?”

    “East Side,” Nova corrected, glaring at his teasing shit eating smile. “If you’re going to their concert with me in November then you better learn their name at least, you asshole.” 

    Adrian bumped her shoulder lightly, but helped her look for the shirt after she gave him a brief description. Just when she was beginning to think they didn’t have it, Adrian let go of her hand to reach forward and to the left. When he turned back to her, he had the shirt, and in a size medium, just as she liked it. The baggier, the better. She grinned and accepted the shirt, wrapping an arm around him in a loose hug. 

    That’s when she saw a flash in the corner of her eye. 

    Flipping around, she saw a girl a few years older than her, the phone in her hand dropping awkwardly. Her group of friends all giggled and whispered to one another. Based on the way they were dressed and were acting, Nova could tell they had followed her and her friends into the store. 

    The girls entire face turned beet red, but that didn’t stop her from tearing her gaze from Nova to look at the photo she had taken. Before Nova could even open her mouth to ask her to delete the photo, the group of girls was gone, flocking out of the store quickly as if they hadn’t even been there.And that was when Nova noticed the hidden phones of quite a few shoppers. One was held in crossed arms as the lady pretended to look at a pair of shoes, another behind a clothing rack. One didn’t even try hiding their camera, or even bother to whisper to the person beside them. 

    A chill ran through Nova’s body, and suddenly she didn’t feel very well. Well, her few minutes of freedom were fun while they lasted. She closed her eyes and practically leaned against Adrian, jaw clenched as she pressed the shirt back into his hands. 

    “Shit.”

[winepresswrath]

I assumed it was tumblr being dumb, when actually it was me being dumb and bad at tumblr. My ask box is on now!

How I feel about this character

I love him very much! I also think he’s also just an absurd amount of fun as a main character. He has chemistry (platonic or otherwise) with everyone and you can always count on him to blow up a formerly stable situation. I think my favourite thing about him is the way he adopts people and makes family wherever he goes, but a close second is that sense of justice and fairness that’s always so close to the surface with him. Without getting too personal about it the realization that a bunch of stuff endemic to the culture you were raised in is actually morally indefensible being intimately tied to a big gay crush is very relatable to me, as I imagine it is to a lot of older queer people. I love that he gets to be angry, and arrogant, and make some CHOICES without that taking away from the validity of that moral revelation or his fundamental goodness. One of my absolute favourite moments with him is the scene in the second life where he remembers being kind of a dick to Nie Huaisang about his fan- not in a big or important way, just by being a little thoughtless and self absorbed, and then taking a moment to be kind in a way it didn’t occur to him to be when they were kids. In general my favourite parts of the show come from the first life, but I love that he got to grow up. Somehow. While being dead. Details! 

All the people I ship romantically with this character

I’m going to cheat and just say Lan Wangi and also basically the rest of the cast to spare myself typing out every name. I am a multishipper who loves random crackships at heart so it’s been kind of weird to get into a fandom where there is such a strong soulmates vibe from the main character’s ship. They are extremely perfect for each other and they get such a good, satisfying romantic arc that ties in very well with both their individual characters and the broader themes of the series, but also I would like some rarepairs. Toss him in a meadow with some sex pollen and the random character of your choice. Wei Wuxian/everybody.

My non-romantic OTP for this character

I love him in mentor/teacher/uncle mode and I would read one millions words of fic about him and the junior squad. I am extremely soft for his relationships with Jin Ling and Sizhui, but I also really love that Jingyi and especially Zizhen just decide he’s awesome and adopt him despite the authority figures in their lives, Lan Qiren and Zizhen’s dumb dad be damned. I am not interested in sex pollen anywhere near the juniors for any reason.

OK, yes, I have EXTENSIVE yunmeng trio feelings, but I also just love him with pretty much everyone? I love his relationships with the Wens, I love his friendship with Nie Huaisang, I basically powered through this series a) turning to my friend in increasing consternation being like “i think... i am being tricked into finding Jiang Cheng hot” b) gently mocking my friend because she developed earnest feelings about Jiang Cheng first c) enduring my rightful comeuppance for (b) as I began openly weeping in my living room over yunmeng siblings and expounding at great length about how Jiang Cheng is trying very hard actually and there is a lot going on with Yanli d) being delighted by Wei Wuxian interacting with people. He’s just a joy to watch!

My unpopular opinion about this character

I don’t actually know what the broad consensus is. I think he can be a dick and that’s one of my favourite things about him? I think he has done several things wrong in his life and that’s ok? are those unpopular? I sometimes feel like I spend half my fandom time being shouting THESE CHARACTERS ARE ASSHOLES about my favourites and the other half of my fandom time shouting FOR REASONS WHICH I TAKE GREAT PLEASURE IN CONTEMPLATING. This is fun for me. Wei Wuxian tries very hard in appalling circumstances. If he’s not allowed to be a dick sometimes I don’t know who is. It’s very impressive to me that most of the time he is kind and generous as well as being righteous.

One thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon.

YUNMENG BROS RECONCILIATION or at least a couple steps closer towards it than we got. There’s this really good piece of meta going around twitter about why it’s great that they didn’t reconcile in canon. It is very moving and has several gut wrenching things to say about those unfixable relationships that make up the emotional scar tissue of most people over 25. I see where they are coming from but. BUT. First off, I genuinely think their relationship in canon is pretty hopeful, which may be an unpopular opinion in and of itself. They’re alive, they have a good reason to talk, Jiang Cheng at least canonically kind of wants to, and they’re actually very good at forgiving each other. And I just don’t think their relationship has settled at the end of the show. They haven’t adjusted to their new normal, which means there’s a lot of room for them to decide what that’s going to look like. And I wanted them to hug, OK, I just did.

[drarrygirl27]

Thanks for the tag, @unsealingkale !

I nominate @darling-lo

1. what does your name mean / mean to you?

Oh wow! I learned something new about my name. It is a Hindi boy name meaning, Center. I'm used to reading it meaning things like knowledge, wise, understanding, and water baby. This is very interesting!

I used to hate my first name years ago, but honestly I really used to hate myself for many reasons for many years. I now love my first name as much as I love my middle name. My last name is pretty cool. I used to want to change it to my biological last name, but now it ties me to both my grandma (She got remarried when my dad and his brother were in their teen years. The man she remarried, she had 3 of my uncles with, 2 are still alive.) and my dad so I'm going to keep it for a little while longer. My dad has another brother who I keep in contact with with my biological last name. They found each other through Facebook years and years ago.

2. breakfast, lunch or dinner?

Breakfast because breakfast is the bomb! That is my favorite kind of food, day or night. I do eat lunch and dinner too, but breakfast food will always have my heart.

3. what are you proud of?

I am proud of how far I actually have come in my life. There were times where I literally wanted to just let things be even when it was bad for me to do so, but I still eventually found the courage to leave when I knew that in my heart of hearts that I needed to for the good of my overall well being. I have had to do that a good bit of times in my life and despite how some of it hurt me really bad to do so emotionally and sometimes mentally even, I knew that I just had to do it because if I would have stayed in some if not most of those situations, I wouldn't be where I am now.

I don't have the best job in the world right now and things have been really hard especially with this crazy ass situation going on, but I am so much happier in so many ways than I was 3 years ago and years before that even. I have grown a lot in many ways. I have the Army to thank for that at least partly. That place pushed me to my limits in so many ways that I had no choice, but to see that I really, really needed to change in some ways if I was ever going to get anywhere in life in the Civilian world. It was what I like to call a necessary hell.

4. your go to song on a bad day?

Not sure if this counts, but when I get scared or anxious about something, I listen to "Lullaby" by Shawn Mullins. It feels like he is singing it to me in a way. It sounds crazy I know, but I have loved this song for many years and overtime it just became a really good comforting song for me.

5. have / want tattoos

I don't have tattoos and I don't think I will ever get a tattoo. I don't like needles. I'm not as bad as my mom with them, but I still don't like the way they feel and I wouldn't know what to get anyway.

6. what are you looking forward to post ‘rona?

To go to places without having to wear a mask like the movies and the mall for instance. They drive me nuts! I wear them for work and when I go into stores. At home, I stay mask free because no one has the 'rona in the house because we all wear masks when we go out some where like work places and the like.

7. fave place you’ve travelled to / where you would like to travel to?

Lost Maples Natural State Area in Texas, hands down! It is a gorgeous place with mountains with hiking trails and beautiful unbelievably crystal clear water.

North Carolina. I need to pay respects to my grandma and if it is allowed I am thinking about spreading my dad's ashes on her grave as well. I was in the Army when she died. I was offered to go back home because of it, but I knew my grandma would have wanted me to keep going and so I did.

8. name a personal object in your room that you love

My grandma's and Daddi-o's memorial service discs even though the Bitch Cunt of the Century a.k.a. Former stepmom was in charge of the pictures on my Daddii-o's discs. You can tell because she is in most of the pics. *Sighs* Lord, I wish I would have had enough balls to tell that 'thing' to fuck all the way off! *Sighs* Hindsight is 2020 and unfortunately, all that shit went down in 2017.

9. what’s your niche interest?

Hmm... I have a good bit of them to be honest. I will just name my main fandoms at the moment. Rhink, Supernatural, and Harry Potter especially when it comes to shipping. LOL!

10. ideal date with yourself?

Hmm... An ideal date with myself, eh? This is going to sound so weird or maybe not, but either a trip to a bookstore or a thrift and or antique store. I love to check out those kinds of places.

11. share a pic from your camera roll that brings you joy

12. is there anything you would say to your younger self?

It may not seem like it now, but eventually things are going to get better for you and you are going to accept and love yourself for everything that you are. You're not going to hate yourself forever and there are going to be people who like and or love you as a person. Your family has always loved and respected you even if it didn't seem like it sometimes. One day, you are going to be able to look into the mirror and through very, very deep self reflection come to understand why your friends and family and the like have always loved, respected, admired, and believed in you. I love you and one day, you are going to love you too.

13. do you bop to music on (I corrected this. It originally said in.) your own? do you sing?

Yep especially while driving in my car to and from work and at work too.

Oh Hell Yeah! I sing way more than I used to especially not just by myself behind closed doors. I don't sing out loud at work though because people could be sleeping and also I'm still a wee bit hesitant to sing in front of people like face to face depending upon where I am at, who I am with, and such. I'm working on it, but I do show my talent to people a lot more than what I used to.

14. is there a type of animal you associate with home? does your house get animal visitors?

Hmm... I was around cats a lot more than dogs throughout most of my lifetime especially my childhood and teenage years.

If we're being sappy though I'd say cats and dogs now. My boyfriend's brother and sister-in-law have a cat that I love a lot. He is what I like to call a sweet asshole. LOL! He can be nice and or loving, but not towards most people. He is kind of like my boyfriend in that way. They're both assholes to people who actually deserve it, but if you're a good and respectable person they'll show you the same kind of decency.

My mom has two German Shepherds that are my fuzz sisters. I love them way more than I thought I would ever love dogs. I was just a cat person for a really, really long time, but now I actually like or love dogs depending upon my relationship with them.

15. is there an artist of any kind who speaks to your soul?

Oh goodness! So many of them do. A lot of musical artists, writers, and the like. To name them all would have me write out a novel or two even. LOL!

[idkthisisjustforfanfic]

Love Me Like You Used To (part 2)

AN: Thanks for all the love on this little mini story, y’all! I do ask that if you like my work, please reblog! It’s great to get so many likes, the but the greatest compliment as a writer (imo) is sharing my work! :) 

2.7k of uncertainty

____

Y/N shifted on her bed uncomfortably as she read the text from Nick.

It was good to see you today.

She didn’t know what to say--mostly because it was good to see him today. It felt good to be with someone who knew her before things felt so out of balance. Y/N read the words another three times before she let her thumbs hover over the screen.

How did she say that to Nick in a way that didn’t seem like she was coming onto him or holding onto something that wasn’t there? Sure, Y/N and Nick had agreed to be friends when they broke up, but it went just as well as it does for most couples. A few texts here and there--liking each other’s instagram posts--until finally, nothing. Their years together faded into a memory, only thought about in rare moments alone.

She typed back: It was good to see you too. Thanks for listening.

She let the phone flop to her bed and wondered about where things had all went wrong. When did her life become one that she didn’t recognize? When did she start to feel so unlike herself?

Her phone buzzed quickly--her immediate thought was that there was clearly nothing left between she and Nick if he was texting back so quickly. If there was, he would have waited a few minutes, you know, make her work for it. But it wasn’t Nick.

It was Harry.

Hope Nick is doing well.

Y/N’s breath hitched in her throat, her heartbeat was suddenly in her ears as she looked up at the clock. Had he seen something online? Had he seen them in person? Was he still living in the West Village?

Again, her thumbs hovered over the screen--but this time, for a different reason. What did she say to the boy who still held her heart in his hands? The boy who likely didn’t love her like she still loved him--despite the six months and the one drunk text between them?

He was angry, the words in his text made that clear.

She typed a few words and backspaced. Typed again, backspaced. Once more, until she stared at the blank message and wondered what it would be like to type her real feelings.

“Hey,” a voice sounded from the doorway--Y/N’s roomate, Nina, poked her head through the door frame. “How was your date with a Jonas Brother?”

Y/N rolled her eyes, flopping back on her bed a little too dramatically. “It wasn’t a date, okay? It was just coffee and talking and catching up. You know, normal things you do with your ex-boyfriend.”

“Girl, I’ve had a shit ton of ex-boyfriends and I have never done that with any of them.”

Y/N shot her roommate a look, one that read you’re not helping, as Nina came to sit on the bed.

“It’s not that easy, Nina.”

“What’s not easy? Dating cute guys with lots of money?”

Y/N gave her another unimpressed glance--she hated when people took it there. Sure, she knew that she was linked to people with a different form of popularity than most were used to--she knew her job gave her that type of access to those types of people--but Y/N didn’t see them that way.

“Harry texted me,” she said quietly, her eyes on the ceiling as she waited for Nina to have a dramatic reaction.

“I’m sorry--what? Two ex-boyfriends in one day?”

“In the span of three hours,” Y/N corrected.

“That’s got to be a record, even for you.”

Y/N laughed at this, watching as Nina stood from her bed and headed back to the door. “I’m meeting Katie for dinner, want to join?”

“I can’t,” Y/N spoke, turning on her side to face Nina in the doorway once more. “I’ve got a skype call with my manager and a few contracts to read over.”

With that, Nina disappeared from sight, her words still ringing in Y/N’s ears. That’s got to be a record, even for you.

Y/N knew that there was something cosmic about it--something strange about the fact that the one time she was vulnerable enough to reach out to Nick and put herself out there, Harry showed up.

Y/N had been to Chelsea four times since she broke up with Harry. She’d avoided it for so long. She avoided the 6th avenue street fair when the weather warmed up and she avoided the Chelsea Pier like the plague.

She wondered, as she stared back at her phone once more, what kind of sick joke the universe was playing on her.

**

Harry had decided to put his phone underneath the couch cushion when he watched TV that night. He decided it’d be better off there, in a place where he wouldn’t be tempted to check it every 13 seconds to see if Y/N had texted back.

He’d made it through two commercial breaks before he felt like the phone was burning a hole at the end of his couch.

He scrambled for it, his heartbeat climbing when he saw her name on the screen. Somehow, he hadn’t expected to actually get a reply.

He’s doing well. Working on a few new projects lately.

He let out a burst of air through his nose, his anger climbing up this throat and leaving a heat in his chest that he didn’t like the feeling of. He hated being mad at Y/N. He hated feeling like there was space between them that only grew with the passing seconds they spent apart.

But he couldn’t deny that things had changed. He couldn’t deny that distance was hard and work never made it easy. He didn’t like all of her friends and she certainly didn’t love all of his. There were fights and phone calls that ended in an impulsive press of the ‘end call’ button and ignored voicemails.

There were also days when Y/N would be the only person in the world to make him smile.

Harry had to fight the urge to call her--his thumb seemed to float above the small icon under her contact. One quick press and he had the chance of hearing her voice. But he didn’t know if that’s what he wanted.

Not if she was back with Nick.

But how was he supposed to ask that? How was he supposed to get more information about their meeting if he couldn’t actually ask? And what did her text mean? Y/N wasn’t stupid enough to think Harry was seriously inquiring about Nick--she’d absolutely picked up in the sarcasm that laced his message.

Which mean that Y/N was being just as testy in her reply, which made Harry more annoyed.

**

Nick had no clue what the feeling was in his chest when he laid in bed to try to sleep. He didn’t know what he thought or felt or wanted and that was something entirely new to him. He’d always been a take charge kind of person--he’d always been one to set his sights on a goal and meet (if not exceed) it.

It’s not that he hadn’t thought about Y/N at all since they broke up. The first year he thought about her a lot. It was hard to go from talking to her everyday to barely speaking--and it was especially hard when he found out that she’d started dating Harry so quickly.

It’d been barely 6 months and she was suddenly paired up, going out, and doing fun and exciting things with all of her new friends. Nick avoided instagram altogether after he saw her first post about him--even though the breakup was amicable.

Nick cared about Y/N--and that would never change. He wanted her to be happy, but something about Y/N’s new boyfriend had rubbed him the wrong way when he got a text from a mutual friend asking if he’d heard the news. She’d bounced to a new boy in a new band and it felt--in a way--like she was fame chasing.

Not that Y/N needed to do that--she was successful on her own. But now she had a new group of friends to go on tour with--new names were beside hers in the headlines and to Nick, it felt like he’d suddenly woken up in an alternate universe.

Y/N L/N on to the next one (direction).

A new direction for Y/N L/N, literally!

Nick eventually decided that getting a girlfriend of his own was the best way to deal with the strange feelings he had about it. And when he met Olivia, everything settled down. The world moved on from his public relationship and public split, and Y/N and Harry seemed to be quieting down as well.

So life moved on. His band broke up, his new relationship ended, he became an uncle (twice), and he realized that he actually enjoyed fishing and writing songs for other people and spending time with his friends away from the stage.

Now, as he sat at the counter in his brother’s SoHo apartment the next morning, Nick couldn’t help but be annoyed by the look on his brother’s face. Joe--who had a penchant for pissing Nick off--was just excited that Nick had reunited with Y/N.

“You can’t be mad at me for being happy about it--she was one of my best friends for four years.”

Nick rolled his eyes and then sipped at his black coffee. “I’m not mad at you--it’s just weird, okay? I have no idea who she is now.”

“She’s Y/N,” Joe said simply. “She can’t be that different.”

“You’re missing the point,” Nick shook his head, almost ready to drop it entirely until Joe rounded the corner and took a seat next to him.

“Then enlighten me, asshole.”

Nick laughed a bit, rubbing at his eyes to try to gain clarity. “She used to be my best friend, too. She used to be the person I called every night before bed--and then suddenly she fell off the face of the earth, pretty much.”

Joe shrugged his shoulders, an admission that Nick had a point.

“And now she--she shows up in my life four years later and needs emotional support? Because her relationship ended and she asks how I’ve been like it’s nothing?”

“This is one of those things that would only happen to you,” Joe laughed, clapping his hand on Nick’s back as he stood.

Nick let out a sigh. “Yeah--no one’s written a book on how to be friends with your ex-girlfriend who you haven’t spoken to in four years.”

Joe tilted his head thoughtfully. “You’ve always wanted to write a book.”

While Nick appreciated the joke, it didn’t help him decide anything. It didn’t give him any more insight into what this meant for he and the girl he didn’t know anymore. And it certainly didn’t give him any insight into the feeling in his stomach when his phone lit up on the counter.

Why didn’t you tell me you had coffee with Y/N? I had to find out on twitter?

**

Harry wasn’t trying to obsessive. He wasn’t trying to check Y/N’s instagram for updates and he wasn’t trying to be weird when he texted Niall to ask if he’d spoken to her lately. He knew they’d talk periodically--he knew because Niall had let the metaphorical cat out of the bag when he publicly wished her a happy birthday on twitter.

Niall, however, insisted that he had no idea what was going on with her and Nick, and he did his best to ensure Harry that her ex-boyfriend had nothing on him.

“He’s ridiculous, Harry. He wore a chain to a red carpet not that long ago--lookin’ like Liam but stupider, t’be honest with ya.”

Harry let out a sigh, appreciative that his friend was following all the usual protocol: shit talk the competition and boost Harry’s ego accordingly.

“I don’t know if I should text her back.”

“She texted you? You wait until now to tell me that Y/N texted you?”

“Well I texted her first, and then she responded.”

“What did you say?” Niall’s words were rushed as if he needed the information like his life depended on it.

Harry paused for a second, a small laugh escaping his lips in contemplation--he was snarky and he knew it. He also knew that if he told Niall what he’d said, he’d likely get a lecture.

“I asked how Nick was.”

Silence on the other end of the line. After a second, a sigh. “You’re incredibly petty sometimes, Harold.”

“Yeah, yeah,” he brushed his friend off. “What am I supposed to do when she’s the one who broke up with me, huh? She’s the one who left and she’s the one who’s now in this neighborhood for some reason and hanging out with him.”

“M’not saying it’s right,” Niall said. “I just think you’d be better off telling her how you feel.”

“How I feel?” The words escaped Harry’s mouth without much thought. The problem was that he didn’t really know how he felt. He didn’t really know how to handle this when his strongest feeling was a desire to punch Nick Jonas in the face. But those headlines wouldn’t be good.

“Yeah--y’know. Say that you miss her, say that you wish you never broke up.”

“I can’t just say that to her Niall,” Harry’s deep tone insinuated that what he was saying was obvious, but Niall didn’t see it that way.

**

“I’m sorry if it was weird,” Y/N laughed, holding her drink to her lips as she smiled across the table at him. She couldn’t really read him--which had always been an issue in their relationship--but she sipped at her drink and set it on the table before raising her eyebrows at him.

“It wasn’t weird in a bad way,” Nick said slowly, a smile pulling at his lips as he let his eyes take her in again. She hadn’t changed much. Her hair was darker than it was when they’d broken up. She’d died it a lighter shade that spring--he was finding blonde hairs all over his apartment long after she’d packed up her things.

“I’m okay with it being weird,” she said. “I mean, we you date someone for four years and then not speak for another four years--I don’t think things just go back to normal after that.”

Nick nodded and moved his head side to side, letting Y/N know that she was right. “You’ll be happy to know that Joe and Kevin are thrilled, though.”

“Joe already texted me,” she laughed, finishing the last of her beer as she tossed her head back in laughter.

Of course he had. The two of them had been inseparable. Another strain on their relationship. 

Y/N knew that had always bothered Nick--that she’d been so close with his brothers that she had her own relationship with them. It wasn’t that he was jealous, but Y/N had a knack for taking sides with Joe or Kevin and pissing Nick off. Something that now, Nick could laugh about.

“Of course he did,” he smiled.

At first, when Y/N offered to grab a drink with Nick that night in a bar near Joe’s apartment, he wanted to decline. Their coffee date had only been a day earlier and his head was still reeling from the small talk they’d performed.

Y/N wasn’t nervous this time--she wasn’t wrapped up in her own downfall and her feet felt a little more firmly planted on the ground, even when Nick admitted that he missed her.

And when they hugged goodbye that night, Y/N didn’t mind that Nick’s arms were wrapped around her shoulders, his chin resting on her head before he kissed the top of her hair. “I’m glad we did this,” he said.

“Me too,” she replied, though she didn’t really know what they meant by it.

She was comfortable with the not knowing, though, which was an unexpected (but welcome) change from the last few days. She walked home by herself, counting the blocks in her head as her feet hit the pavement one after another after another.

She rode the elevator up to her apartment and turned down the hall, reaching for her keys in her purse--when she noticed him sitting there. He was slumped on the floor beside her doormat, his head in his hands as if he’d been half-asleep. He shifted and raised his head when she said his name.

“Harry?”

His eyes were on her--he was completely still and seemed to be frozen in thought until he stood from the floor and swallowed. “Hi--sorry--I just, I figured I’d say it all in person instead of over text.”

table of contents

[formal-fauxpines]

Unofficial Say It Sequel- Chapter 1: Say It Gently

This is one of my first fic ideas when I decided to start wrtiting Pinecest fan fics. Inspired by the fic Say It by @pinewreaths, I wanted to explore the idea of what happens to Mabel and Dipper after she becomes a semen eating vampire and how that affects their relationship after first feeding on him.

Big shout out to @pinecesttrain for helping with editing and helping with further inspiration. And of course big thanks to @pinewreaths for giving me their blessing on using their work that helped set me on the path to write.

Meal time for the Pines Twins came around as it usually did: Door locked and blinds drawn, Dipper lying on the bed, his pants drawn down with his throbbing member exposed for his sister to extract the vital fluids she needed to sustain herself. Her head bobbed up and down on his shaft with long, languid licks and sucks to ensure the utmost pleasure, usually providing the largest payoff of the sweet ambrosia that was her brothers seed.

Since Mabel’s transformation into a vampire a few months ago, meal times had become a bit more unusual to the outside world. Luckily for them, they already were used to the unusual, especially since the twins being unusually close was such a norm.

In becoming a vampire, no thanks to her lying, asshole, vampire ex-boyfriend, Mabel was granted most of the usual afflictions that come with the condition. However the one that took her, and subsequently her brother, by surprise was the method of feeding that she needed. Not the usual blood that is so emphasized in media, stories, and mythology, but weirdly enough, semen.

In a moment of emergency, her brother had been willing to oblige her need to feed and provided the necessary fluids for her. However, with her hunger too great to control, his plans for a more modest feeding method quickly degenerated into a rockus night of fellatio that he had never thought he would be engaged in. Not that he minded,after all, Dipper was always willing to help his sister when she needed it,no matter what the task.

A few days after the first feeding, the twins were able to contact their great uncle Ford, via a special video phone he made for them, getting fed up with Skype, and ask about any conditions of Vampirism that he may have discovered. !

“Ah yes! Vampirism! In fact, I’ve thought about it a few times when I needed the physical capabilities to conduct my research, but the associated issues would hinder me in the long run so I would always need to change back. Good thing too. Some dimensions I found where blood didn’t exist. In all my research I did find a cure for it, however the time limit on reversing the condition is 24 hours.” The twins sighed in exasperation, feeling defeated in the news their great uncle revealed.

“However the condition is manageable,” Ford started up again with a little more enthusiasm. “I was able to find some artifacts, spells, and other techniques that can offset some of the less, desirable traits of the condition. Aside from the usual annoyances, all you have to do is make sure you have a viable food source.” The twins sighed in relief this time. There was a way to have Mabel live with it. “By the way, what is your prefered food source, Mabel?”

The twins froze, caught off guard by Ford’s nonchalant way of asking. What was he getting at? What other feeding did he mean? Did he know about theirs? “C-come again?” Dipper broke through the tense silence.

“Yes, yes, the substance you need to draw your energy from. My research has found that vampires actually have many different types of feeding styles. The most common, of course, is blood. Which can usually be human or animal. Also sweat, saliva, and even a few more unusual fluids like urine, or semen. I have found these particular vampires to be more under the classification of a crossbreed between vampires and succubi. Really fascinating to find out how many different ones there are in the world. So which is it?”

“Blood!” both the twins shot out with urgency, hoping it wasn’t too obvious they were hiding something.

“Alright, a common type then. have you found a viable source yet, children?” Ford asked, not giving any inclination of suspicion to the twins’ quick reaction.

“Candy was able to swipe a bag for me from a recent blood drive, and Sir Dipping-sauce here was nice enough to let me have some of his blood in a few emergency cases,” Mabel said, trying to keep calm with the half-truth she had to tell her Grunkle.

“Very good, just be careful though. If you don’t get a source of food regularly the hunger builds up and things can get a little… crazy.”

CRASH!!!

“STANLEY!” Ford yelled, turning his head to look off screen with a tinge of irritation in his eyes, “I told you to stop messing with my experiments! Sorry kids, I have to go. Let me know if things change.”

The line disconnected and the screen turning back to the devices menu settings. The twins were grateful that the chat was cut short as neither of them were sure they could hide the reddening of their faces. They knew exactly how wild things could get if her hunger was left unchecked.

“Welp”, Mabel said, slapping her hands to her knees after a moment of awkward silence . “Looks like we got to find me a new food source then.”

“Hehe, y-yeah. I guess we do.” Dipper joined, in scratching at the stubble on his chin.

The following weekend, Mabel and Dipper worked hard on finding a new food source. Mabel knew the easiest method for finding one, but she didn’t much like the prospect. She always considered herself a love expert, and felt her skills improved as she grew older and learned more about relationships and dating. However using her skills to just land a guy to suck off she felt would besmirch her talents. BESMIRCH! Plus, she was not the kind of girl to mess with someone’s emotions, she learned that lesson years ago.

The Pines twins’ plan of attack was to find any guy looking for a good time as much as she was looking for an easy meal. The two would peruse areas for guys who may be looking for an easy hook up, and being college that seemed easy enough. On weekends they would go to the bars, frat houses, and any type of party that looked wild enough. The point was to find drunk bros, which much to Mabel’s chagrin, was not her type.

Mabel busted out her best to attract and draw in the easier prey: Tops that showed off more cleavage, skirts that rode a little high, heels that accentuated her booty. She knew she would hit the mark when, on more than a few occasions, she got Dipper red in the face or had him stare a little too long when asking him what he thought. If it was good enough for him, it was good for some fast food. With Candy and Grenda by her side as her wing women, she felt like it would be easy pickins.

Dipper also took up a role in her hunts as more of the scout. He would look in areas Mabel couldn’t normally go, like the men’s restroom. Even though she was a sperm-sucking vampire, Mabel still had standards. He would also offer to go to other bars nearby, increasing their range, and allowing Mabel a second set of eyes if she couldn’t find anything for herself.

Dipper was a little against this method, and memories would surface of how protective he could be from similar guys trying to hit on her in the past.  How he would intervene if the guy wouldn’t take the hint. She always felt a comfort in how he would watch out for her, making her heart give a little flutter at the thought. The thoughts were pretty nice, in a weird way. It made her kind of glad their options were a little limited, since it meant he agreed to help despite his misgivings.

Despite all their efforts, however, Mabel kept running into the same problem every time. She would land a guy, and get back to his place or hers. They would start by making out,  Mabel thinking sexy thoughts to get her through the start if she wasn’t into the guy, which was most of the time. Admittedly, Mabel would occasionally have a flash of Dipper and his manhood run through her mind. The taste of his seed, the smell of his musk, the warmth and texture of his shaft on her tongue would all do the trick to push her past her current prize with the more delectable memories of her exquisite first meal, driving her hunger enough not to care. Still, most of the time once they got past the make out phase, she would start to wane in her appetite for the guy in hand. The saliva would at least be a slight appetizer which gave her some energy, and a slight taste of what was to come. Or in many cases, didn’t come.

Her vampire senses presented both a blessing and a curse, allowing her to see, hear, taste, touch, and smell exceptionally better than before. However, the smell and taste became an issue to her. When she tried to select her prey for the night usually she could only catch a faint hint of their smell among the myriad of scents in the usual pick up spots. But once she got some one-on-one time the smell became more noticable and harder to ignore. If the taste of the make-out session didn’t send her packing, then the whiff of what lay to the south surely did.

The first few attempts to eat were more forced, Mabel going about a more ‘giving it the old college try’ mentality, as she was not used to such a casual take on such an intimate action. She tried to dive right in, in some cases holding her breath to avoid the scent. The taste of pre-cum that exuded from their member gave a stronger taste than the make-out sampler. It was too strong in some cases, ending the session earlier than expected. If she was able to get past the drops that were a precursor of what came next, she regretted it afterwards.

The surge of life-sustaining fluids tasted nothing like what she received from Dipper. It drove her sense of taste over the edge to the point of being physically ill in some cases. She wrote it off as being from having too much to drink that night, not that she had a drop to begin with, and excused herself to purge the contents of her belly.

After a few times to try and get a new food source from weekend to weekend, Mabel learned to check waste baskets and bedding to get a better look at the menu rather than lead a guy on with the make-out session. Picking up on trace amounts of fluids was easy enough, but led to the same disappointing conclusion that she was not hungry enough to drink what she thought tasted like a milkshake made with carrot juice and squid.

A few times the guys would get belligerent, which Mabel could understand, but did not take kindly to. In those moments she was always happy knowing that her new condition provided her the means to defend herself just fine. Dipper was always sweet telling her he would stay close in case she needed help, but was always proven unnecessary after she showed she could take care of herself now. He still made it a point to ask her to contact him in case things got out of hand. They never did, but she still felt a warmth knowing her brother always wanted to be her hero in her time of need.

At the end of the night though, he really was her hero. Perhaps not in the normal sense, but he had saved her from a few nights of going hungry. After the first few failed feedings, Mabel had turned to her brother, asking for something to hold her over in case she didn’t get enough energy from her supposed dinner. He had been a little taken aback, surprised that Mabel had struck out with the guys she tried to get with. After hearing her situation though, he was willing to oblige.

Since they had already went all the way with the first meal he provided her (or second, technically) it wasn’t the most awkward thing to ask him. They decided to arrange that if she needed a quick pick me up shot Dipper would provide it. He would rub one out in a condom like the first time when she asked, agreeing to this method since she didn’t really want to press the issue of getting it straight from the source. Partially embarrassed from how she lost control last time and partly because she didn’t want to admit how good it made her feel to feed off of him.

But since she did lose control, she settled for a sack lunch. Despite the fact that it wasn’t fresh, the ambrosia she remembered still tasted as sweet and savory as ever, filling her with a warm sensation through her whole being as she imbibed it. Yet as she enjoyed what she could get from him, more and more she would ask for a late night snack as she kept failing to feed. Even if she was successful, she would often ask for a chaser to get the terrible taste out of her mouth and wash away the dissatisfaction.

“Another dud, huh?” Dipper asked as Mabel begged him for another semeny snack. He rubbed the back of this neck nervously as he sat on the edge of his bed. “I’m sorry this keeps happening, but… you sure about this, Mabes?” “I mean, I know I was your first source, but I can’t be that much better than the guys you were going after. I’ve seen the kind of guys you go boy crazy for. Some of them seemed your type from what I guessed.”

“You don’t understand, Dipper. I thought they were going to be okay, but when we stepped away from the crowds and got some one-on-one fun time, their B.O. would make my stomach go ‘OH NO!’” she said in a silly voice reminiscent of the Kool-aid man, punctuating her last statement with a playful poke to the stomach.

Dipper sighed out in willing defeat. “Well, I don’t want my sister to starve. And Ford did say it would be bad to let you go too long without feeding. I mean, we have first hand experience with that.” He blushed at the thought of it.

“Hehe, yeah. I guess I got a little too cray-cray on my bro-bro then. I promise I’ll be better and keep it under control. You did give me a lot that time though and I’m not as hungry as then, but I am getting a little bit now,” she said shyly, biting her fingers, her fangs showing slightly.

“I guess we could give it another go. If it could help us avoid another frenzy. Just give me a minute and…” He reached for his sock drawer and pulled out another set of condoms and tore off a square.

Mabel reached out and grabbed his wrist firmly with a restrained urgency.

“Actually, I was thinking we could maybe try sooooomething else?” she said, biting her lower lip.

“Um-uh, o-o-okay? Uh, w-what did yooooouuuu haveinmindexactly?” Dipper asked with a nervousness in his voice. His eyes showed a glint of fearful curiosity. “I mean d-did you want to just, um…” He coughed in his fist, unable to finish the thought, instead looking down to his crotch.  

“N-no, I mean kinda, I mean not yet, I mean…,” Mabel took a deep breath to calm her flustered self from saying what she wanted. “Grunkle Ford did say that vampires could use other food sources too, right? When I was trying to do some ‘meal prep’, so to say, I got a slight taste from the make-out sesh. I mean it wasn’t like a full first course, but it gave me just enough to make it through the night, or at least to you.” She stared down to the floor as she said it, grabbing at a lock of hair, twisting it in her fingers nervously. “Kind of like having cold fries before having a four star meal. So maybe we can give that a try? I mean if you don’t mind your sis macckin’ all over you?” Mabel explained spitting the hair out and adding a slight giggle.

Dipper thought about it, contemplating the scientific ramifications of it all. “True, I mean, I don’t mind giving you what you need in the end. You know, since we already did, well… you know.” He blushed and coughed into his hand again. “But if this is what you want to do then I’ll do it...” His lips turned upwards into a warm, comforting smile and he placed a hand on her knee, “...for you.”

“You really are the best, broseph.” She clasped his hand in hers and gave it a gentle squeeze. “So how do you want to ya know… do this. I don’t want to break you as bad as last time”

“How about you start and take it how you feel. After all, it is your ‘snack time’.”

“Okay then, I mean, no biggie. We did this before, kissing and all ya know. Just one twin helping the other this time.” Her face flushed a slight pink as she leaned into him. The closer she got, the more warmth she could feel from his breath. He met her half-way, connecting with her lips, softly and gently as to test the waters of this new/revisited experiment.

Mabel felt a slight jolt of energy right when their lips made contact. She was reminded of drinking hot cocoa, the warmth of the sweet liquid making contact with her lips before letting it in. This was a thousand times better in her opinion. Sweeter than any cocoa she could buy, with a perfect heat that warmed her to the core without burning her, and a scent that she learned from experience was about to come.

Remembering her first feeding and how that tasted, this one seemed more like a light snack. Lighter, like a small drop, but still giving nourishment. She found it peculiar thinking about all those other guys, that they couldn’t give her this amount of energy from even the full salty shebang. Just this kiss might have been enough for her. She wanted more. She needed more!

Mabel pressed more into her brother’s lips. He seemed just as eager to receive her. Their mouths opened slightly, allowing their tongues to pass though and connect. Soon the drop on her lips turned into a drizzle on her tongue as they embraced one another. Their hands began grabbing frantically at each others clothes and hair. Mabel was desperate to get a grip, as though doing so would make him give her more of what she was tasting.

The full flavor of his saliva was just what she expected from the initial kiss. It was as if she were drinking up the most delectable beverage in the world.The closest thing she could compare would be the sweetest honey, mixed into the smoothest of creams, with a slight hint of a fruit that is so amazing it may have not been discovered yet. She knew well enough that Dipper didn’t partake much in these foods, so she accounted this blending of flavors as his own personal essence. She couldn’t get enough.

Every bit of pressure, every smack of the lips, every grab at her tresses of hair and clothing was like she was being treated to the best dining service she’d ever had. She was disappointed when she had to stop for a breath, much like in the past drinking too heavily to quench her thirst. She panted heavily after her intense snack session, looking down at her brother.

Lips pink and slightly swollen, eyes half-lidded with a sense of shock and euphoria, a small trail of saliva that lay at the corner of his mouth from when she pulled away. He was breathing just as hard, if not harder from the intensity of what they shared. But, His body didn’t have the stamina of a vampire to keep up, and he looked exhausted.

“Oh my gosh Dip! I’m so sorry! I didn’t mean to lose control like that again. Are you alright?” Mabel laid her hand on his face, cupping his cheek. He nuzzled into it and grabbed it with his, squeezing her hand lovingly. Her heart skipped a beat at the sight of him being so warm and affectionate to her touch. A small flutter began to rise in her stomach.

“Yeah Mabes,” he said between breaths. “I’m fine. Just never had a make out session that intense before.”

Mabel cocked her head to the side in confusion. “Really?” The gears started turning in her head at all what he just said could mean. She decided to take a chance on it. She turned her head back upright with a devious smile spreading across her face and eyelids half-lidded. She asked again with a sultry tone, “Really?”

“I mean, I’ve had some pretty good ones in the past, but I think you just set the bar.” After uttering those words Dipper’s eyes shot wide open realizing the confession he just made. “I-I-I mean, um, ah...”

She pressed a finger to his lips as if to push the pause button on his mind. It seemed to work, as he halted his hectic explanation. “Relax broseph, after all we’ve done since I transformed, it’s not the weirdest thing to admit. Plus, if I were to be really honest, you make a great kisser too. And not just because you taste so amazing.” She bent down to him lapping up the small bit of spittle at the corner of his mouth left behind from her earlier departure, and followed with a kiss to the corner of his mouth. “Thanks, Dipper, for being so understanding.”

He reached up to stroke her hair and wrapped his arms around her to cuddle on the bed. “Of course Mabel. I’d do anything to take care of you,” he said gently as she wrapped her arms around him too, and slipped into a warm embrace.

After about 20 minutes of blissfully cuddling with each other, Dipper broke the silence. “Hey Mabel? Not to ruin the mood, but I got a question for you.”

“What’s up Dip-dop?”

“So did that give you the energy you needed then? I mean. I know you need um, you know, the other stuff, to be fully nourished, but how did that work for you?” he said in his usual sense of curiosity he had for the supernatural but underlined with and awkwardness for talking about this particular subject with his sister. .

“Dang Dip,” Mabel said with a bit of disbelief at what he just asked. She sat up out of the cuddle session, feeling its warmth and enjoyment snuffed out by awkward sciency questions.  “Can’t just let that curious mind take a break for once, can you?” She tapped her index finger to his forehead as she asked him.

Placing her hands on her hips she began to give him the answer he was looking for with a hint of annoyance for being such a wet blanket to the warm and silent affection they were sharing. “If you must know, it actually filled me up better than any other guy I tried with. Like, even when I got a full load out of them,” she said matter of factly and ended with her arms crossing across her chest.

Dipper shifted a bit at the last statement showing discomfort at the premise. Mabel picked up on it, all her senses making it hard to ignore. “Um, sorry, Dipper. Just wanted to be honest with ya. Must be getting too used to these feeding arrangements that it seems normal now,” she said, patting his thigh, hoping to ease his distress.  

“No no. It’s fine. I mean, I asked after all,” he replied, trying to shake off his embarrassment at the mental image of Mabel with those other guys. “But, like, ya know...  I just can’t help but wonder. What makes this so different,’’ he gestured between the two of them. “Why are you getting more out of me? Like, what makes me so special?”

“I dunno. Maybe those guys were just not that tasty to begin with? Like even regular Mabel would have passed them up if given the option. Or maybe you just happen to be so sweet helping a girl out like this,” Mabel added, poking Dipper in the cheek, drawing circles into his stubble with her finger.

“Hehe, thanks for the compliment Mabel,” he said, grabbing her hand gently to cease the playful pokes, “but seriously, if we don’t get this feeding thing figured out soon, I may just be your soul source of food.”

“Well,” she said with a little hesitation in her voice, “it’s not like it would be the worst thing ever.”

Dipper was a little caught off guard by the comment. “Wait, what?” he asked in disbelief.

“I mean, sure it may be a little awkward to find a new food source. But as long as I have you to keep me fed when that falls through I should be alright,” she said with a chipper attitude. Then she turned serious and sour. “Unless, of course, this arrangement bothers you.”

“What!? No, Mabes, of course not!” He raised his hands between them as if to deflect her accusation, shaking his head to assure her it wasn’t true. “I was just thinking about your, uh, situation. You know, I don’t want you missing out on anything because of this is all. I can handle anything to make sure you are fed. Just that...” he sat and stared at the floor silently, hesitation and concern about what he was going to say plastered on his face.

“Spit it out Dipper,” she said, slightly annoyed at his hesitation.

“You really don’t mind me being your source of sustenance? I mean,” he looked away scratching his neck, a few drops of sweat forming on his brow, “don’t you find it a little... weird?”

“Sir Dippingsauce I am surprised at you. We’re the MYSTERY TWINS, weird is in our genes. And we already passed the bounds of weird with me being a sperm-sucking vamp. If that happens to come from my twin bro-bro so be it,” she said defiantly. Mabel settled herself down and placed a hand on Dipper’s shoulder, speaking calmly. “But if it bothers you, we can always find another way.”

“No!” He jerked his body to face her straight-on making her release his shoulder. His eyes appreaed filled with worry at the suggestion . “I-I mean... like I said. I just want to make sure you are okay with this,” he added before turning his head to stare at the floor.

Mabel leaned in to deliver a kiss on his cheek, her lips parting just enough for her tongue to graze along his skin and leave a wet spot. She pulled back and proceeded to lick her lips, humming in pleasure. Dipper felt a shiver run down his spine, causing Mabel to giggle. “Yep, just as sweet since I last checked.”

She gently grabbed him by the back of the neck and placed her forehead to his. His face emitted a greater heat and his pulse quicked. “Don’t worry Dipper,” she said in a soft, gentle tone. “We’ll check with Grunkle Ford about this whole thing. Come what may we’ll get this figured out. Now come back here and cuddle me dag-nabbit.”

Dipper looked up into her eyes. She could tell just in this short talk that it was what he needed. Concern still flitted in his gaze, but also comfort and love. Her senses picked up on his vitals, telling her that he was calming down.“Okay, okay. ‘Come what may’ it is,” he said embracing his sister once again.

The sound of his heartbeat, his personal scent,  and warmth he emitted comforted her in ways she hadn’t thought possible. For her, next to him now, everything was perfect.

Then again, she thought, maybe it always was.

[lukes-writing]

Chapter 5: The Heap of Ashes

Project introduction | Previous chapter | Next chapter

Word count: 2800 Warnings: Profanity

September 23rd, 7:58 PM, the Heap of Ashes, Trinity Gate

The Heap of Ashes is, at first glance, an uninteresting hill which offers a nice view of the Trinity Gate cityscape, even though the view would be better if the hill was taller. All that’s on its top is a small chapel which has some backstory behind it. During the second civil war, it was a place where the people of all three territories could go and say a prayer. It was a sacred ground and nobody was ever attacked or killed there.

However, people tend to forget easily. The chapel has been abandoned and the religious needs of the city’s Christians can now be satisfied in a large, splendid church in the city center.

Sienna sees the silhouette of the chapel in front of her. She still doesn’t know what she should expect. She thinks what would happen if she stayed at the party and continued conversation with that cute guy. She starts to regret the decision to come here and considers returning to the party while it’s still underway.

But her curiosity forces her to keep going.

Now she sees there are some other people gathered in front of the chapel. She’s not naive enough to rule out the possibility she’s walking into some sort of trap, but she’s prepared even for this possibility. Her purse hides, besides other things, a small, yet efficient 9mm handgun.

And she knows how to handle it very well.

She comes closer to the group in front of the chapel and takes a closer look at the three people.

The man from the parking lot isn’t among them, but there is a girl who must be related to him somehow. She also wears long, fair dreadlocks and even her facial features are somewhat similar to him.

Sienna looks at the girl for a while longer. She’s that type of weirdo Sienna intentionally avoids while at school - hanging out with weirdos would put a dent in her reputation. She’s wearing a hippie-style dress and… damn, is she really barefoot?

The girl notices Sienna is looking at her and she approaches her. She has a strange smile on her lips, somehow absent, dreamy. Nevertheless, it doesn’t come out as creepy, just slightly uncanny. Sienna realizes she’s actually kind of cute, despite her face untouched by make-up, petite frame and apparent lack of feminine curves.

“I’m pleased to meet you,” the girl says with a peculiar sing-song voice and makes a curtsy - something Sienna has never seen a woman actually doing. “I’m Whisper.”

“Whisper?” Sienna replies, still figuring out how to feel about this girl. “That’s a nickname, right?”

Whisper lets out a ringing laugh. “No, that’s my actual name. But if you find it too strange, my second name is Johanna. Even though I still prefer Whisper. Or Wisp.”

“Sienna. Nice to meet you,” the older girl says. For some reason, she doesn’t feel a need to use her full name like she usually does. Then she gives Whisper a small smile.

The longer she looks at Whisper, the more oddities she finds. Earrings decorated with bird feathers are hanging from her ears. She’s wearing an excessive number of necklaces, pendants, bracelets and wristbands around her neck and wrists - she even has decorative bands around her ankles. Flowers are weaved into her hair.

Sienna wouldn’t call her beautiful. But there was a word which would describe her peculiar charm perfectly. What was the word? Yeah. Winsome.

Whisper lets out another laugh. “Girl, you’re looking at me like I was some kind of paranormal entity!” Her thin arm grabs Sienna around her waist. “Come, join us! No need to be afraid!”

Sienna’s hopes go up when she realizes the remaining two members of the group are men. But they quickly cease again after she gives them a closer look.

One of them is tall, but neither fit or good-looking. He is leaning against the chapel’s wall with his hands folded on his chest. Sienna likes to hang out with bad boys, but this one looks like a straight-up asshole. He gives her only one bored look and continues observing the cityscape below them.

The other one almost makes Sienna laugh, but she manages to gather the rest of her courtesy and hold it. For real though, that guy is incredibly short, with a ridiculous afro on his head. His futile attempt to grow some facial hair doesn't make him look any more manly. He looks like he desperately wants to be in another place.

With her friends around, Sienna would normally laugh at people like Whisper or the short guy. Now she realizes it’s not the best thing to do. She feels a bit insecure since she’s used to being surrounded by people as popular and beautiful as her. Now she has a company of three rather peculiar people.

She can still turn around and return to the party. But once again, her curiosity wins.

Then, the tall guy finally speaks with a rough, gruff voice. “Alright, ladies and… you,” he makes a gesture at the short guy. “I suppose we’re all here because we met the same weird dude with dreadlocks.”

“That’s uncle Wiccan!” Whisper bursts out. “No need to be afraid of him. He’s great!”

The tall man looks at her and raises his eyebrows. “Unbelievable. I would never guess you two are related somehow.”

Whisper scowls at his sarcasm, but remains silent.

“Does anyone know what does he want from us?” Sienna dares to ask. “Did he also talk about some kind of job offer when he spoke to you?”

“Y...yes, he did,” the short guy speaks timidly. “He promised me… a house.”

He seems to be intimidated by the tall guy; he’s constantly glancing at him, like he was expecting him to hurt him somehow. Sienna can see why. They are a textbook example of a bully and his victim.

“Same here,” the tall man utters. “But I wouldn’t be here if it was only up to me,” he gives a grim smile.

After another while of awkward silence, Whisper points at both of the guys. “Hey, you two, Sienna and I need to know your names! Not introducing yourself is rude.”

“Parker,” the tall man replies curtly.

The short one takes several deep breaths before answering. “Gary. Gary… Underwood.”

Another wave of silence is finally interrupted by Wiccan Salisbury finally emerging from inside the abandoned chapel. “Welcome!” he calls with a wide smile on his face. “I knew you would all arrive in the end, even though I had slight doubts with some of you,” he gives a knowing look to Sienna and Parker. “Curiosity is a bitch, right? But I can assure you that you made the right decision.”

“My ass,” Parker utters.

“Uncle Wiccan, hi!” Whisper squeals and rushes to the man, hugging him.

Wiccan laughs. “Wisp, I think it’s not the right time for this.”

The girl scowls and backs off.

Then, the man speaks to the four once again. “I presume my lovely niece told you already - my name is Wiccan Salisbury and in this story, I’m that mentor character which usually gets killed off later. I hope this won’t be the case, though.”

Whisper lets out another ringing laugh. Even Sienna giggles a little. The more she interacts with this strange man, the more she likes him.

“I know it sounds cliché and stuff, but once you enter this chapel, your life will never be the same again,” Wiccan continues in a more serious tone. “This is your last chance to turn around and leave. You will be free to go, without any consequences,” he looks at Parker.

The tall man seriously considers leaving - Sienna can see it in his eyes. But in the end, he stays, just like the remaining trio. Wiccan nods and gestures them into the chapel.

Even though the chapel is abandoned, its interior looks brand new. It’s nothing too opulent, just a few rows of pews, a pulpit in front of them and a detailed statue of crucified Christ above it. However, Whisper still feels the sanctity of this place. She tiptoes, trying not to make any noise which would disturb it.

They all advance in silence. The most prominent sound is the clacking of Sienna’s heels on the floor. Parker shuffles forward, limping heavily. Gary looks around with a gaping mouth.

“Do you know the first rule of videogames?” Wiccan speaks, his voice echoing through the chapel, violating the solemn peace. “When you’re in a church, always check the space behind the altar. There is almost always some kind of secret.” He walks behind the pulpit and grabs something on its backside, probably some kind of secret lever. A clattering sound resonates through the open space.

“What the fuck is going on here?” Parker spits out.

“Hey, watch your language! This is a sacred place!” Whisper scolds him. Parker just gives her an annoyed look which the girl endures.

Suddenly, a part of the wall underneath the Jesus statue slides to the side - hidden door. It reveals a shaft with an elevator car - something they would never expect here.

“We used to have a nice, old-school shaft with a cool spiral staircase, but some of the people who worked here before complained about having to walk the stairs every time they went here, so we had to modernize,” Wiccan explains. The elevator is rather large, enough for five or six people. At least its interior, which is made to resemble shiny dark wood, fits the local atmosphere well.

“Come on, step inside,” Wiccan urges them. “I know you’re suspicious and demand answers. I promise you’ll get them as soon as we descend.”

Wiccan hops into the elevator first. Sienna and Parker reluctantly follow her. Gary hesitates, but also steps in. There are no buttons in the elevator, just a wooden lever. Wiccan pulls it. The elevator car closes once again and starts to descend. The space is illuminated by a strip light on the ceiling.

The ride doesn’t last long. The door soon opens again and the group steps into a large, bright room which could be a modern conference room, just more homely. Several more light strips illuminate the room. The most prominent part is a large round white table in the center of the room, surrounded by several comfortable armchairs. Several smaller tables and armchairs are scattered around the room.

Whisper’s bare feet feel the coldness of the linoleum floor. She looks around the room. There are movie posters on the walls which ease the atmosphere. Her attention is dragged by a large bookshelf that occupies a whole half of one of the walls, contrasting with a high-performance desktop computer in the corner of the room.

There is a poster on the wall depicting Wiccan on a yellow background, looking into the camera and flexing his biceps. The letters above him read WICCAN DO IT.

“Kill me,” Parker sighs upon spotting the poster.

Wiccan stands in front of the large table and theatrically spreads his arms. “Welcome to The Society,” he announces. “A law enforcement unit in the matters of inhumans, supernatural occurrences and misuse of advanced or secret technologies. I hope you enjoy your stay.”

“Excuse me, but what the fuck?” Parker scowls.

“It may sound ridiculous, but you will soon find out,” Wiccan says, then he takes one of the seats and invites the rest to join. They sit like King Arthur’s knights - that was probably the purpose of this hall. Whisper squirms with barely contained excitement. Gary looks bewildered like always, Parker and Sienna just carefully wait for whatever might come next.

Wiccan casts his eye over the people he brought here. He already knows they are powerful as individuals. But the question remains - are they able to work as a team? Parker can’t be farther from a team player. Sienna’s arrogance could make her feel superior to others, which is wrong in a team. Gary has the opposite problem - his pathological timidness. And Wiccan already knows how whimsical can Whisper be.

This may be tough, but I believe the circumstances will make them a team after all.

Just a moment after they take a seat, one of the doors present in the room open and another person enters.

It’s a tall, graceful Afroamerican woman with a lean figure and a playful smile on her lips. Her long, pitch-black hair is tied into a messy top knot and she’s wearing a long, dark purple dress with wide short sleeves. The golden jewelry she’s wearing around her neck and wrists is especially prominent on her dark skin.

“So I see you brought the recruits,” she says with a sweet, smoky voice. “Mind if you introduced us?”

Wiccan smiles. “Okay. Let me introduce you to my beloved wifey, Ophelia Salisbury. Ophelia, meet the new recruits who will, hopefully, carry our legacy in this city. Parker Skellinger, Gary Underwood, Sienna Joy Corwin and Whisper Johanna Archer-Gutenberg.”

“Corwin?” Whisper squeals.

“Archer-Gutenberg?” Sienna shouts.

Ophelia giggles. “Looks like we have Juliet and Juliet here.”

“I think so,” Wiccan grins. “Girls, I know your families don’t get along particularly well, but could you try and leave these skirmishes behind? The less tension, the better.”

“Okay,” Whisper accepts immediately. “I won’t hate anyone just because my dad does.”

Sienna hesitates a bit longer. Her father, James Corwin, told her countless times that Jack Archer, Maria Gutenberg and their children are nothing but a bunch of sneaky opportunists who constantly try to sabotage the effort of the Corwin family.

However, Whisper doesn’t even look like one of them. That petite, barefoot girl with a dreamy smile on her face can never possess a threat to her family’s business. Sienna presumes she’s more like a black sheep of the family and has a leaning towards her uncle instead.

Parker sums it up when he frowns at Whisper and says: “Are you trying to tell me this is a child of Jack Archer, the famous entrepreneur? She looks like that type who hugs trees and doesn’t shave her armpits.”

Whisper returns him the furious gaze, then raises her arms to show Parker smooth, hairless underarms. “My skin sees a razor more often than your skin sees water,” she spits out.

Sienna giggles at both Whisper’s outburst and Parker’s reaction. She decides she likes that girl, no matter who her parents are. This is also the first time I admit that I like a loser, she realizes. She’s shocked about how much did her personality change in just two days.

“I guess they will have to work on their synergy,” Ophelia comments. “Remember when the Team Menhir formed? We became best friends practically overnight. You, me, Kirlian, Tara and Kazuki. We were so young, so unprepared for what was going to happen.

Wiccan kisses her on the cheek. “Yeah, some time passed indeed. But now, we can enjoy our retirement and let these do the dirty job,” he grins.

“This… this is starting to scare me,” Gary yowls.

Parker lets out a contemptuous cackle, but he also radiates nervosity. Just like Sienna who is usually confident about everything she does. The only exception is Whisper whose eyes shine with almost childish curiosity. Is it because of her personality, or because she already knows the mysterious man who brought them here?

“Come on, don’t be afraid!” Ophelia smiles at them with her perfect teeth. “Nobody is going to hurt you… at least not here.” If she expected her remark to ease the atmosphere, she was wrong. Gary looks like bursting into tears any minute now. Parker gives up his fight and lights himself a cigarette. The married couple gives him a look of disagreement, but they remain silent.

“One more thing before we start,” Wiccan says. “The Society’s teams always have five members, and, if you can count right, there are only four of you. That means…”

“You will be joining our team!” Whisper cheers.

“Not at all,” Wiccan puts her down. “The fifth member should be here soon, so in the meantime, why don’t you take a look around? This is going to be your workplace, after all.”

Parker, Sienna and Gary leave their seats rather reluctantly. Whisper literally jumps and starts to zealously scavenge the room. She’s weird indeed, but somewhat lovely, Sienna thinks. Out of her teammates, Whisper gave her the best impression so far. But then, there’s not really much to choose from.

Author’s Note

I wholeheartedly thank you for reading! I hope you enjoyed the chapter, and if you did, please leave a comment, send me a message or share and let more people know about this story! You can also consider a small donation at www.paypal.me/lukassladky. Have a great day and stay tuned for the next chapter!

[tumblunni]

OH FUCK I THINK I FINALLY CRACKED THE CODE OF WHY I ALWAYS LIKE THE VILLAINS BETTER

Like man it always makes me so confused cos i mean im a soft AF person and i always end up having sympathetic redemption headcanons for them so its not like i like VILLAINY ITSELF but what else do all these characters have in common?

Thats it. Thats it, ursula helped me crack it.

I just WANT THOSE TRAITS ON THE HEROES

I really want a nice confident sassy funny chubby trans auntie who promotes body positivity to our young hero and always gets to say the coolest lines and get the best moments and BE LOVED FOR WHO SHE IS

And like usually whenever you get anywhere close to seeing those "villain traits" on a hero they like.. Remove all the good parts. If you have a supportive hero aunt she's always boring and generically supportive instead, and has to look like the most stereotypical boring mess ans have a super small plot role and uuuugh thats IF SHES EVEN THERE i mean seriously aunties and grandmas are weirdly less represented as mentors than grandpas who are already REALLY HARD TO FIND and again OFTEN GENERIC AND UNFUN WHENEVER THEY GET TO APPEAR

And how damn often are we allowed to have a chubby gay aunt!! WHERE IS MY CHUBBY GAY AUNT!! ive met SO MANY chubby gay aunts in real life like 90% of all my psychologists have been either that or like.. The exact same but a straight lgbt ally instead. Sassy plus size aunties are THE BACKBONE OF OUR SOCIETY DAMMIT! I've had so much help thanks to sassy gay aunts!! And like even just looking at any damn crowd scene in a normal city centre youre gonna see so many chubby aunts and long nosed uncles and all those sorts of bullshit "ugly people" that mass media pretends are ugly and relegates to One Minor Role In The Entire Cast despite them being infinately more common than supermodels and NOT UGLY AT ALL GEEZ IT PISSES ME OFF SO MUCH

I cant believe im a fuckin disney villain fan cos of body positivity

Tfw u suck so bad at making hateable people that the fandom universally hugs all your villains and ignores your boring protagonists like fuckin TAKE THAT DIDNEY

God i wanna hug hades sooo bad he just needs a friend aaaaaa

And i mean its not just disney, every damn time ive obsessed over a villain its been because they have some trait thats supposed to be "bad" but its actually good and we dont get to see it on the heroes

Like my thing with science villains in particular is that when i first played ff7 i really liked the idea of an evil minion who's a bad sidekick not just because he's "dumb" or "bumbling" but because he's actually not interested in any of the evil stuff and he works against his own boss and is like.. Friendly to the heroes, i have no particular grudge against you and i wont stop you if im off duty and all. I liked the Turks for the same reason but in the origibal ff7 translation they were kind of stoic and serious and i didnt really become as much of a fan of them til i saw them being more goofy and comic relief in some optional sidequests and then their movie adaptation. But hojo was always being all "lol my boss's plan is so stupid amirite" and had that very memorable scene where he's just sunbathing and tells you everything you need to know to get to the next thing to ruin his boss's plan cos i mean fuck it who even cares im just here to soak up some sun while fully dressed in a turtleneck and labcoat. It sucked so much that he was such a reprehensible bastard with creepy sexual assault vibes and murder and child abuse and experimenting on people and basically just NOT A LOVEABLE VILLAIN but his CONCEPT held so much potential to be filled by a sympathetic character instead...

So yeah then cos of him i kept being obsessed with finding SOME CHARACTER SOMEWHERE that actually lived up tp that potential, and thats why i was instantly interested in charon from pokemon and totally on edge waiting for the slightest chance for him to become That Perfect Sass Gramps Of Legend. And then he was indeed sassy!! And had so little screenyime that there was potential for interpretation of him as potentially redeemable cos i mean the game never said he wasnt, the game barely said anything about him at all, lol. And he was so old and small and frail looking and i just wanted to protect him!! And then that one wifi event that actually hinted at synpatheticness!! Aaaa its a recipe for a Forever Fave~

And i guess maybe it all started with my grandma being awesome and me really missing her? Cos i had shitty abusive parents and she was my ONLY good family member who showed me what love was like. And she was also basically a supervillain. Like every damn supervillain trait except being evil! She was bombastic and confident and sassy and mischievious and loud and passionate about stuff and always had something funny to say and never gave up no matter how many times she failed. And she also used all that great power for the forces of good!

So yeh thats why i love sassy good guys and i hate that often even when a sassy villain gets redeemed they seem to lose all their edge and become more generic now theyre a good guy. Or they get totally sidelined with no screentime anymore, or they ONLY get to be comic relief and dont get the full and complex redemption they deserve. Or just a lot of bads!! Its never the simplest answer of just fuckin.. Keep the character the character. Thats kinda why i didnt feel too much for the maleficent movie even though the concept itself sounded like everything i ever wanted. The character in that movie is a very different person to origibal maleficent, she's more just a stoic tsundere mumsy figure than a hammy badass iconicness. Still a nice villain redemption but it felt like it would have been better as an original story instead of an attempted maleficent. Also i wish they handled it better with the whole "true love's kiss could be from your mum instead" thing cos i get sooooo grossed out whenever i see people shipping movie maleficent and aurora! Like yes sleeping beauty with lesbians would be great but not when one of them is old enough to be her mum and raised her like a mum and changed her goddamn diapers! Also why did they have to ruin the three good fairies just to make maleficent have the mum opportunity? Like just remove them from the story if you wanted maleficent to raise the kid instead. No need to rewrite them into incompetant assholes when they were everyone's fave part of the original! Dont sacrifice the rare and elusive Good Sassy Gay Aunts!! THEYRE LIKE THE ONLY ONES IN DIDNEY!!! (Incodentally merlin is the equivelant of this to hades as the fairies are to ursula)

Also also villains tend to have ACTUAL FLAWS in stories that have a more boring bland protagonist. I wanna see the story behind charon's neuroses and how he struggles with overcoming his temptation to be bad because of greed but ultimately manages to conquer his own negative side because power of friendship and such. Thats a great character arc that provides so much more than he does as a villain where they just wasted him entirely :(

SO BASICALLY IN SUMMARY

* villains are often more complex and well developed characters with flaws while the same wroter might make shitty heroes due to the illogical fear that nobody would root for them if they werent 100% perfect and successful at everything ever

* villains are also often made as negative stereotypes of minorities and other rarely seen traits, which means its easy to reach out to them and reclaim them as a more positive version when theres literally no other options for you to cling to

* the quite common accidental sympathy factor where a villain will seem to be hated more than they deserve for their actions, ir unjustly punished so much that they feel like an underdog, since the writer assumes you'll think theyre "more evil" for being a stereotype and if you dont agree that this thing is bad then it seems like they have way less sins than the story claims they do

* also sass. Sass is good.

But basically the whole root of it is that its stupid and cruel and doesnt goddamn work when you make villains bigoted stereotypes. It just makes me love them! The only person i hate when i see a stereotypical villain is the writer who thought that was a good idea, lol. Just imagine that meme of the samurai holding the cat but its me holding all disney villains!

Also even if a villain isnt outright intentionally meant to be "this minority is bad", it can still make me symoathetic to them if theyre still something thats rare amoung the hero side in the same series. Like charon being the "most unredeemable" villain despite being the most harmless and funny and his plan being so much less world destroying than cyrus, and also he's the only grandpa villain in like.. The whole of all. And he's drawn very much in that way thays supposed to be "ugly" i.e normal grandpa, vs that weird sort of younger than he looks grandpa that hero ones tend to be because blablabla beauty ewuals goodness anti body positivity whatever. Tho actually sinnoh was good with that, they had the best grandpa professor in my opinion cos he got to be sassy too! Rowan always reminds me of auron from ff10. Sinnoh was a good game where i liked a lot of both the heroes and villains even if i still had more villain faves cos i mean pokemon is always biased towards that for me since every game has a voiceless perosnalityless main character and often theyre the one doing most of the heroing with the supporting hero characters having surprisingly little proper screen time. Thats a big part of why i loved hau gladion and lillie in sun and moon! They felt more like a real friend group than any other ones before.

ANYWAY now im just going offtopic into more "i love lots of stuff about every pokemon game" so ill stop typing now

But just basically VILLAINS ARE GOOD COS THEYRE GOOD CHARACTERS and if those stories gavethe same character a good guy role then id still love them just as much, if not more. I dont specifically like villainy, its just that my definition of a good character is often considered a bad character by lazy writers, apparantly?

Also WHERE IS MY SUPPORTIVE GOOD GRAMPS CHARON GAME AND GAY AUNTIE URSULA GIVES YOU FASHION TIPS SMARTPHONE MMO

[thewolfisawake]

★ fill in the questions as if you are being interviewed for an article and you were your muse.

TAGGED BY:  @for-a-prxce

TAGGING: Steal it

1. WHAT IS YOUR NAME?

C: Crowe

A: Aspis

2. WHAT IS YOUR REAL NAME?

C: Galen Metaxas

A: Kai Adler

3. DO YOU KNOW WHY YOU’RE CALLED THAT?

A: What? My real name or my hunter name?

C: Both?

A: Uh, well, my parents thought they were funny because me and my sister’s names are water and fire. 

C: What? Seriously?

A: Yeah...

C: I have no idea with my parents. It sounded nice? As for being a hunter, well, it’s apparently a good idea to give specific names to your spies.

A: Well, you’re spying on stuff outside the Bastion, aren’t you?

C: That is true...so what’s your story? Thought it sounded cool?

A: No, I got named that after I...kinda sorta grappled and used a knife on my opponent in my fight.

C: Excuse me, wha--

4. ARE YOU SINGLE OR TAKEN?

Both: Single.

C: But could change any time.

5. WHAT ARE YOUR POWERS AND ABILITIES?

C: Binding magic but that’s about it. 

A: Protection wards I guess?

C: You learned that?

A: I thought it might be useful

6. WHAT COLOR ARE YOUR EYES?

A: Brown

C: Purple

7. HAVE YOU EVER DYED YOUR HAIR?

C: No.

A: Yes.

C: What? When?

A: My hair’s dyed right now, Crowe.

C: Y-You’re not blond?

A: Uh, no?

C: I need a minute to reevaluate everything.

8. DO YOU HAVE ANY FAMILY MEMBERS?

C: Yeah...

A: No. 

9. DO YOU HAVE ANY PETS?

C: The neighborhood kids all took care of the cats around, does that count?

A: Probably. I had a pet chicken for a while.

C: A chicken?

A: Until he got bigger, yeah.

10. TELL ME ABOUT SOMETHING YOU DON’T LIKE.

C: Working

A: Why am I not surprised? Why do you work here then?

C: Gotta eat to live, gotta steal to eat

A: Was...Was that an Aladdin reference?

C: You appreciate him a lot more when you get older.

A: Alright then...As for something I don’t like, doing laundry

C: Truer words have never been spoken.

11. DO YOU HAVE ANY HOBBIES OR ACTIVITIES YOU DO IN YOUR SPARE TIME?

A: Eating. A lot of grinds

C: Going on boat rides, playing music, any number of things, really

12. HAVE YOU EVER HURT ANYONE BEFORE?

Both: Yes.

13. HAVE YOU EVER… KILLED ANYONE?

A: If it saves many more...

C: Yeah, what he said

14. WHAT KIND OF ANIMAL ARE YOU?

A: I dunno?

C: You’re an otter, obviously.

A: Obviously?

C: And obviously, I’m a--

A: Gecko!

C: Hey..!

(a red panda and a bird)

15. NAME YOUR WORST HABITS.

A: I’ve been told I’m too much of a ‘do-gooder.’

C: I like teasing people, which apparently is bad

16. DO YOU LOOK UP TO ANYONE?

A: Not really...

C: Not even your teacher?

A: I respect Daza but there’s some things......it’s best not to be repeated.

C: That just makes me even more curious. As for me, I kinda look up to Luscinia in a weird way

17. GAY, STRAIGHT, OR BISEXUAL?

Both: *shrug*

18. DO YOU GO TO SCHOOL?

Both: Nope

19. DO YOU EVER WANT TO MARRY AND HAVE KIDS SOMEDAY?

C: Mmm, maybe? Sounds like it could be nice, sounds like it could be a pain. Depends really.

A: I...don’t know. I don’t think I’d make a good day, y’know?

C: Well if nothing else, you can be the weird uncle

A: Wouldn’t you be the weird uncle?

20. DO YOU HAVE ANY FANS?

A: Nope.

C: Just an admirer

A: Really, who?

21. WHAT ARE YOU MOST AFRAID OF?

A: Never having a place

C: Being like a Nomikos

22. WHAT DO YOU USUALLY WEAR?

C: Jeans, jackets, and watches.

A: More or less the same?

C: Only with the stuff that comes from the anti-hero school of fashion despite I’ve seen what you’d actually wear and it’s bright and makes sense for what you’re like.

A: The anti-he--Crowe, what? And what’s wrong with my fashion sense?

C: *inhales* I really was hoping Kat was gonna bring this up.

23. DO YOU LOVE SOMEONE?

C: Not particularly

A: My family.

C: But that’s a given

24. WHAT CLASS ARE YOU?

A: Middle

C: I guess it’s been long enough I have to say upper although I’ve since gone back to middle

A: I still think you’re upper.

C: Rich kid, asshole. 

A: I wouldn’t say that though

C: But I can hear you think ‘damn rich bastards.’

25. HOW MANY FRIENDS DO YOU HAVE?

A: A handful

C: Plenty.

26. WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS ON PIE?

A: It’s okay

C: Same

27. FAVORITE DRINK?

C: Wine

A: Juices

29. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE PLACE?

C: Home

A: Yeah, nothing quite like it

30. ARE YOU INTERESTED IN SOMEONE?

Both: No.

31. WHAT’S YOUR DICK SIZE?

A: *turns red* 

C: Eh, about 138 mm? 

A: Crowe...!

C: What? They asked.

32. WOULD YOU RATHER SWIM IN THE LAKE OR THE OCEAN?

Both: Ocean

33. WHAT’S YOUR ‘TYPE’?

C: Don’t have a type.

A: I don’t either.

C: But you’ll know when Asp has a crush because those puppy--

A: Shut up, man!

34. ANY FETISHES?

C: Mmm, a bit of impact play, orgasm denial, queening because god that’s hot, and--

A: *blushing madly* Crowe why?

C: God, it’s just sex. We’re adults. We can talk about this like adults.

35. TOP OR BOTTOM? DOMINANT OR SUBMISSIVE?

A: *red gets deeper* Why does this keep coming up???

C: Don’t really care where I am but not that fond of being submissive.

36. CAMPING, OR INDOORS?

A: I like camping, it’s nice to see the stars and the quiet sounds around.

C: I’ve done enough camping for a lifetime so I prefer being indoors when I have the chance.

37. ARE YOU WAITING FOR THIS INTERVIEW TO BE OVER?

A: Yes, please.

C: Aw, we were just getting started

[mykastory]

It’s over.

Where’s my happy ending?

Not here.

It’s over.

I can’t believe it’s over.

And in the most fucked up, 황당한 way ever.

About a month and a half ago, we were over at a friend’s place for game night when all of a sudden, one of our friends G got pissed for seemingly no reason and wanted to leave. I asked him what was wrong and he says,

“You.”

?!?!?!

Now this guy is kinda..... unique. He’s super smart in certain ways but also the “nerdy gamer type.” He wouldn’t tell me what he was pissed about and just stormed out.

The rest of our friends and I tried to figure out what had happened but no one could and they reassured me that he had done this before with some of them but that he would probably get over it and apologize.

After that night, I talked to his girlfriend and she said that I can be a bit “intense” and “aggressive” sometimes... She gave this example of this one time that I said, “Sit down, bitch!” to her on the subway when I was 양보해줘ing the seat to her... The context here is that G had kept saying that to her that night so I was just imitating him... but she didn’t get that and of course dumbass me didn’t even recall saying this to her until later and I never got the chance to explain... ㅠㅠ

Either way, I reached out to G to apologize,

“I just want to apologize if my actions and words were aggressive to you. I know sometimes I do try to be a bit meaner like you guys are when you’re joking around with each other but maybe it just comes out weird or I’m doing it wrong... I’m really sorry. I didn’t know it bothered you so much and I will definitely work on refraining from making comments like that... blah blah blah.... I hope you know it doesn’t come from a bad place and I totally respect you... blah blah... I feel really horrible that it got to a point to make you fed up with me and I hope we can talk and work things out.” (blah blahs are stuff taken out for anonymity).

To which he replied,

“I realized what the core of the issue might be. I think we’ve learned that it’s not always easy to see the line between playful teasing and bullying but I think I have some insights that might be useful.”

He went on to list these things...

- Teasing his gf for not drinking. (one time that I remember... S and I bought a round of shots for everyone and despite me saying that G’s gf didn’t drink, he bought her one anyway. When she didn’t finish, I said, “‘***, lame!” But that was it. No shit.)

- Stopping a friend from napping at a party when she was exhausted. (I was just trying to include her and wanted to get to know her better... Besides, who sleeps at a house party?!)

- Joking about S being an inadequate partner. (인정... I wanted validation because whenever I addressed actions that upset me, he would never understand or 인정 so I thought if I brought it up amongst friends and they chided him for it, he would understand... I know, not the best move. That’s why 인정.)

- Bemoaning G for playing his favorite game. (It. was. a. joke. We had a shoot together the day before and it was basically filming him playing a buncha games. The game night was the day after that so when I walked in and found him playing the same game, by himself, when everyone else was talking to each other and socializing, I jokingly said, “Hey G, didn’t you get enough of that yesterday? Haha.” And that’s what pissed him off....)

And then he goes on to say that for the guys, “trash talk is mutual... blah blah... A battle for social status might be appropriate in a HS or college setting but seems unnecessary and unfun among friends in their 30s... But that’s just me. If you feel that I’m being overly sensitive, I’m happy to accept and move on.”

Wtf?!

I know I can be mean sometimes, but wanting the “power” (S’s interpretation of the words... He had been the one trying to make me more like one of the guys so I could be invited to guy’s night which mostly consists of going to PC bang to play FPS games which I love but I was always excluded because it was only something that happened when the other girls weren’t there cuz they don’t like playing PC games...) could not be further from the truth.

Regardless, I tried to apologize again and thanked him for bringing this to my attention because if he really felt I was a bully and “everyone else thinks so, too,” according to him, then it must be true.

“I can see now.... I want to fix this... I appreciate you addressing the issue because it’ll help me analyze the dynamic to understand what’s okay and what’s not... I hope in the future if anything like this happens again, you feel comfortable enough to pull me aside and let me know how you feel before it gets to a point where you’re so fed up that you explode.”

He never texted back and I was feeling so wretched about the whole thing that S and I decided to go visit my uncle to get away from the city with my family.

We talked about the incident while we were there, and he was trying to piece together how my actions may have come off as bullying and we spent some time trying to distinguish between “bullying” and “teasing.” Other than that, we had a relaxing time and had to come back home before going to 산소 on Saturday.

On the way back home from 산소, we dropped off my parents at their house and were on our way back home when A calls S. He asked to hang out but we had to go home because of the dogs. To this, he says,

“Well, both of you don’t have to go...”

Wtf man.... that’s some messed up shit. But A was on speakerphone and I told him to go cuz you know how A is about that kind of stuff.

S thinks that A wants to talk about what happened, and surprise, surprise G is with A, too. So I drop him off to meet them and I go home.

Before this, I hadn’t shown S any of the texts between me and G because I didn’t want to get him involved and feel like he had to play middle man, but he wanted to at least see the last text I had sent, for reference, so I showed him before he went to go meet them.

He texted me while he was with them, at first, telling me not to worry and that he’ll 잘 얘기해줘 for me, but when he got home, he didn’t really seem to want to talk about it.

We ended up talking the next morning and he tried to help me understand G’s perspective. Basically, G thought I was a master manipulator, power hungry sociopath but he didn’t want to have anything to do with it. G also took the fact that I hadn’t shown S our text chain to use to say I was manipulating S and withholding facts. WTF?! Regardless, S said he’d help me get through this and we were supposed to have dinner at his mom’s house but he understood if I wasn’t up for it.

I didn’t end up going to his mom’s place and tried to sleep before he came home because I still felt like such a wreck from the whole G situation and was majorly depressed because it broke my heart to think that all my so-called “friends” thought I was some power-hungry mean girl...

I used to be a cheerleader in HS and they think of me as the former mean girl, but that’s so far from the truth because I was bullied so damn hard and always made it a point to reach out to others who were being bullied or were in need of love... But of course none of them know this shit. Well, A does but hell would freeze over before he took my side after all the shit that happened.

The next morning I woke up to hear him leaving the house to walk the dogs and he left me a text saying that I should eat something and that he wanted to talk when he got back.

I was still seriously depressed and I wasn’t quite ready to talk... And I hadn’t checked the message before he came back so when he DID get back, I was still in the room and he texts me suddenly in this cold ass tone saying,

“You can’t avoid this. You have a decision to make and I will not wait forever.”

Something along those lines. I erased all our messages, since, so I can’t write it down verbatim like I usually do.

I didn’t know where this hostility and coldness came from all of a sudden and I asked him why he was talking like that to which he kept robotically responding,

“Like I said, I won’t wait forever. You must make a decision.”

Wtf? I had absolutely no idea what decision he was talking about as there was absolutely no context there and I was so hurt by his sudden change of attitude... This went on for about 20 texts and I ended up leaving the house because I was so upset and couldn’t get through to him.

I was gone for about 3 nights? First 2 nights I stayed at a motel near the house and then the third night I wanted a change of pace (place?) so moved to a different motel...

I had been keeping in touch with my sister and BIL during this situation and BIL called me out that third day to buy me dinner and tell me what happened between him and S because S had called him to talk.

Basically, BIL got super pissed at S and almost walked out on him a couple times because he said S was sounding completely like a robot and nothing seemed to get through to him. He said S wasn’t making any sense and was saying all these ridiculous things that BIL was so close to smacking him upside the head but he prayed a lot and 참았어 and tried to talk some reason into him but to no avail.

The next day, I got chased out of the room by a damn cockroach UGH GROSS. My sister told me S had called her and wanted to talk to her, too, and told me to go home and try to talk to him after she talked to him.

When they talked, she tried to be on his side but told me that it was super frustrating and that she wanted to scold him several times for being a child but prayed and 참았어 a lot too. She tried to be as compassionate as possible and sent him home telling him that I would be there, waiting for him, and I told him the same via text.

When he got home...

I actually don’t remember...

What I do remember is that over the next three days, he basically tried to “help me realize what was wrong with me” and get to the “root cause” of what my problem was. He wanted to “see if I was capable of change” and that if I “continue down this road, I can’t go with you. I’m fully prepared to be the asshole in your family’s eyes and leave you.”

This consisted of him interrogating me on why I did the things that I did to our friends and getting me to see how I manipulated him and our relationship. Whenever he asked me a question about some of my behaviors, nothing I said seemed to satisfy him. I tried to relate back to an example where our situation was flipped around and we were in each others’ shoes, to which he would keep deflecting back to me, saying,

“We’re talking about you right now. Not me. We can get to me later.”

I asked if we can work on mending our relationship, but even to that,

“Not now. We can get to that later.”

Super frustrating.

(I later found out that he was using the “detect a covert aggressor” clues and was using these questions as a trigger to try and get responses that satisfied him... But, fuck, it was already apparent that he made up his mind about me and that he used this as a guise to “try everything in my power to make things right with her.” 뻑이나...)

After a lot, a lot, a LOT of talking and crying (me, not him), he finally broke me and got me to admit that maybe I was a horrible person that thought I was better than everyone else and that’s why I looked down on his friends.

There’s a certain amount of truth there, and I was broken enough to expand on it in a hypothetical. I never really thought of them as MY friends. They were HIS friends, before they were mine. Plus, there was all that shit that happened with A, which resulted in me treating him not so nice sometimes, and I know that’s bad and not very God-loving of me. I honestly just thought of them all as my little 후배s because they kinda were... S’s friends and by extension, my 후배s...  I admitted to all of this and my conclusion was that I needed to make things right and that I also need God back in my life to learn to love others around me more rather than judge

Despite my “breakthrough,” he didn’t understand or agree to the need for God and brought this up as another “issue” and wasn’t sure if he was “okay” with this being my conclusion.

At that point, I was so broken and depressed that all I could think of was suicide.

I wondered if it would be better to jump out the window or from the roof... Or if I should just take a buncha pills...

I realized, then, that I had to get out of there before doing anything I truly regret and can’t reverse.

I told him I needed to go home to clear my head a bit and he agreed.

When I got home, I was basically dead.

I had barely eaten for the past week and my mom said I looked like a walking corpse...

My sister and BIL tried to help me through a lot of it and told me that I should try to work things out with him and admit to what I did wrong, but be careful not to apologize for anything that I DIDN’T do.

Which is exactly what I did.

Of course, I did a lot of soul searching, too. The thing that I remember the most is that my BIL said to be true to who I am. Which is so important, now that I realize... I was always sitting around, waiting for S to notice me and trying so hard to be the one for him that I completely 무시했어 myself and who I am. I was basically a fuckin pushover, and my unhappiness there came out in other areas.

S came by to talk to me once or twice, but when I tried to address that realization I had, it was met, again, with the same response;

“This isn’t about me. It’s about you.”

He also met with my sister a couple times, and she said that it seemed like he was changing every day.... Like her words would get through to him, but then be pushed back... 계속 back and forth, basically.

In our talks during and after that, he talked about:

- How I made him feel bad for going out to meet his friends when he had no reason to feel bad (we would be on our way home after work and had plans to eat and whatever but then his friends would call for a “guys night” WHY ALWAYS A GUYS NIGHT?! and despite me telling him to go and that I would love to have the house to myself, he would feel bad for going but blame his feeling bad on me.)

- He never wanted to get married in the first place and that’s why he was probably pushing off the wedding. (This one really pissed me off more than anything because I’ve always, from day one, been so cautious not to force him to do ANYTHING because I didn’t want him 원망해ing me for it. I ended a friendship with one of my best friend’s for forcing him to think about how he feels about me!!  And now he’s saying that I forced him into this relationship?! When a year ago he was telling me that, no matter what, even if it’s the smallest of the smallest, he wants to “give me a wedding”?!)

- I wasn’t supportive enough in his businesses and when he told me he was worried about having to start over in the US (we were supposed to move back after the RR failed but then he wanted to try out his PP so we built that together but that ALSO failed) I told him that it was just cold feet. All this made him question himself and he realized that he couldn’t make his own decisions or trust his own gut, and that was my fault. (REALLY?! Sitting countless hours at the store with him, paying for EVERYTHING, putting aside everything I wanted to fit his needs, and he has the gall to tell me that I wasn’t supportive enough and that I made him doubt himself?! He doesn’t think any of this doubt has to do with the fact that his past THREE businesses failed, first one of which was with A, and he left because A was a “manipulative 개새끼,” his words. And now he was saying that A is such a good friend to him???)

- He felt I “lied by omission” in not telling him how Christian my family was. He knew I was, but when we went to 산소 and were 찬양 and 예배드려ing he said he felt really uncomfortable and realized how lonely he would be if I made all these Christian friends in the US. (DO YOU KNOW HOW FREAKING LONELY I FELT IN THAT GODLESS GROUP WITH ALL YOUR NON-CHRISTIAN FRIENDS?! INCLUDING THE FUCKER THAT WAS ALWAYS TRYING TO WEDGE A NAIL BETWEEN US THAT YOU NOW CALL A BEST FRIEND?!)

As the talks evolved, basically what he wanted from me was to admit that I had “emotionally abused him.”

His words. Not mine.

“Physical abuse is a lot easier, cuz you can see the scars. Emotional abuse is not as clear cut.’

I told him that I probably wasn’t as loving and supportive as I could have been. We were both at our worst and in a horrible, difficult situation, and we both needed to address these problems.

“Nope. I need you to admit that you manipulated and emotionally abused me.”

I admitted to the manipulation. I had to. Because the way he saw it, “Short of anything illegal, you’ll do anything to get your way.”

In part, it’s true.

Because to him, manipulation, in any shape or form, is bad.

Hiding vegetables in a meal to force your kid to eat vegetables?

Just as bad as having someone co-sign a loan that you know you won’t pay back.

According to him.

Plus, I sat around waiting for him because I felt he was the one, no matter how hard and depressing it was...

So I admitted it.

But what I couldn’t admit was the emotional abuse.

After admitting to the manipulation, though, he seemed to feel a bit better. He told me that “they” had diagnosed me as a covert aggressor.

To very, very briefly summarize, it’s a person who uses these tactics to inadvertently manipulate a person. Tactics such as minimizing fault (it’s not that big a deal) or putting the example back on the other person... Honestly, it sounded like such bullshit to me. He used the SAME “tactics” on me, but how does that make me the only covert aggressor?!

“Just because a person checks off some boxes in a column doesn’t mean that person is what it says. You check off a lot of the sociopath boxes, but that doesn’t make you one, does it?”

I said to him. To which he replied,

“We’re not talking about me right now.”

UGH!!!

After I confronted him with my thoughts on this “theory,” he said he felt like I was regressing and this wasn’t going to go anywhere, and finally said,

“I want a divorce.”

During this time, I had asked him to go a marriage counselor because I absolutely did not agree with a lot of the things he was saying and I really felt like we needed an unbiased, third party professional, but he said he would only do that if A was the third party.

WTF?!?!?!? How is he an unbiased third party?!?!?!

Sigh.

So yeah. That was that.

“Ok.”

I was fucking broken and didn’t have the strength or grace to argue.

A week later, we were at the court house to file for divorce.

A month later we were there to finalize it.

You know what's even more ridiculous?

After we finalized the divorce, we came out of the court house and he asked to go get coffee. I really didn’t want to but ended up going because he kept saying he didn’t want things to end this way.

After some small talk, he says,

“We had a good run though, yeah? Lotta fun times.”

“Really? Despite all that emotional abuse?”

“...”

그치... 할말 없지 개새끼야...

And then he says,

“A really misses you...”

“I’ll believe that if he ever says it to me.”

S had suggested I talk to A about the whole situation to “recognize the severity” of it when all this was happening, so I did.

A basically said I could be mean sometimes (I know... I was intentionally mean to him cuz he was an asshole...) and that he was really upset when I first started dating S because we were seeing each other at the time.

NO WE WERE NOT!!!

I was dating JH and he was dating this other girl (which he actually lied to me about for quite some time) so I had no idea wtf he was talking about but I was still broken, now submissive me at the time, so I just let it go.

He also said he still loves me and will accept me as I am, blah blah... but funny thing is he never talked to me again after that...

I also talked to G during all that to show S I was making amends and he went on and on saying that he didn’t feel I was truly sorry because he doesn’t believe a word I say and that he thinks I’m a social mastermind manipulator (HA! I wish! That’s A, not me!) and he’s scared of me...

Left me speechless... I’m a master manipulator for “bemoaning” about you playing games and not wanting a friend I’ve been asked to get close with to sleep? How am I the master manipulator and not A?!

Anyway, that was that... and I haven’t heard from S since.

Actually, he called me about 2 weeks ago at 3 in the morning... twice... I didn’t pick up and he sent a message saying he was at the empty store and was reminiscing so he called...

I messaged him back the next morning to apologize for missing his calls and a little small talk went back and forth but that was it.

Apparently he also called my sister right before the divorce, saying I was a bitch for taking my family away from him. He also met with her to “warn her because she would likely be my next ‘victim.’” (Another thing I addressed to him during our talk right after the divorce was finalized and to which he was unable to say a thing). This all happened before our divorce was finalized, but

WTF are you serious?!

Ugh.

I haven’t seen or heard from any of them since then, with the exception of, funnily enough, A’s gf. She was the only other Christian in the group and we were really starting to bond until this shit hit the fan and she messaged me not long after asking how I was doing and that we should meet up before I leave to the states.

I also talked to another friend (AC - he also used to be friends and worked with A until A tried to undermine him and steal his contacts/ work -_-) about what happened. I had to tell him what happened because of work stuff and he was so shocked by the story but not too shocked cuz he always thought they were a weird group of people and that they were incels..... New word I learned but totally made sense to me because when I tried to tell S at the beginning that I felt that if I was a guy, none of this shit (”bullying” him and his friends - something he TOLD me to do if I wanted to be one of the guys and that he  called “teasing” until all this was brought up) would have happened, but he disagreed and said my view of the world is skewed... But it was pretty damn validating to hear that from AC and he helped me feel a lot better about the situation.

My family was also super supportive during the time and I’m so grateful for that.

But anyway, that’s the story of my divorce.

Fuck.

I’m divorced.

It sucks but I learned a lot from the experience. How unhappy I was, how underappreciated I felt and how that came out in the most horrible ways (angry drunk... I didn’t realize this until now but I was never an angry drunk until I met him... So I kinda understand why his friends saw me this way because they’ve seen the worst, drunken side of me that’s really embarrassing, but they don’t know me like S does... Or how I thought he did...). How important it is to marry a fellow believer...

I also realized I’m a LOT happier now that he’s out of my life.

It’s like a burden has been lifted off my shoulders.

No more having to deal with his “wouldn’t this be a great business idea?” at every little freaking thing or his “ugh. affection. ew. that’s so not me” bullshit. Even when we first fell in love, he would look at me and say, “Fucking mykastory...” And not having to worry about spending most of my paycheck on rent for the store!

I need someone who loves me as much as I love them and actually KNOWS what it means to love.

It doesn’t mean abandoning someone in their time of need - I REALLY needed him by my side during this time, but he wasn’t there for me or willing to budge. Never once apologized for a thing during this whole ordeal.

The biggest thing I realized is that I shouldn’t missionary date/ marry and that he never really knew who I was because we never connected, spiritually. Also, he only had the capacity to love himself. No one else. He always came first and didn’t understand the meaning of sacrifice.

He will forever be the person who broke my heart and bounced.

But good riddance.

I’m better off without you.

I thought this blog was over but I guess it lives on...

[thehomebrood]

WORK IN PROGRESS

Main Cast

These are either player characters or important NPCs played by the DM.

Olur Larek, Half-Orc Paladin (PC) he/him, 41 [Reference Pack] Alive

Definitely “team dad”, Olur is always there to provide healing for the party. Though he probably stresses out and worries too much, he is a strong leader with a just heart, willing to die to protect those he loves. On top of being team dad, he is an actual father as well. He and Steele have three children. Olur’s ultimate goal is to settle down with his family, but first he has to make the world a safer place to do it.

Kukyo, Vanaran Huntress (PC) she/her, 19 Alive

Kukyo has a habit of getting herself and the party into trouble. Her inexperience and curiosity usually get the better of her, but she is trying to figure out her place in the world. She and her brother Nyuwganga are the product of a Lamashtan cult, and Kukyo finds difficulty in understanding the world outside of her troubling beginnings. With the help of the party, she is learning to make better decisions, and is distancing herself from her dark past.

Steele, Tiefling Brawler (NPC) she/her, 50+ [Reference Pack] Alive

Team mom, actual mom as well. Steele’s favorite place to be is in the fight, she is incredibly skilled at hand to hand combat. Though she doesn’t share Olur’s sense of justice, she enjoys fighting and does want to make the world a better place for her kids, so she tags along. She is very grounded and keeps Olur and the rest of the party in check, and tends to have good, unbiased advice on most situations. So far, Olur’s never beaten her in a sparring match. 

Alagon Brannor, Elf Arcanist (PC) he/him, 120+ [Reference Pack] Alive

Though he came into the picture later than others, Alagon had no issues fitting in with the group, especially with fellow mage Skreeach Surefang. Upon first arriving, Alagon was fearful and easily startled by everything, never before having left the safety of his library in the Archenwilde. However, as the gravity of the situation hit and new information unfolded, Alagon was quickly swooped into a need to apply his knowledge to save others. At the end of the day, his primary goal is to uncover the secrets of whatever magic he can, but he has a heart of gold and hates to see others suffer. His relationship with Skreeach eventually grew into love and they are now together.

Skreeach Surefang, Dragonborn Spellslinger (NPC) he/him, 35+ [Reference Pack] Alive

Since the day he arrived, Skreeach was a curiosity and a bit of an outcast. Hired later by Grant, he came into the party only a bit before Alagon did. Their thirst for knowledge and new magic quickly drew them together and they became best friends. After traveling with the party for some time, Skreeach made some mistakes along his path, driving a wedge between he and his friends. Driven by his love for Alagon and the first real family he’d ever known, Skreeach made things right in the only way he knew how. The party forgave him, and Skreeach wasted no time admitting his love for Alagon, and they are now officially together.

Rin (sometimes goes by Cake), Kitsune Ranger (PC) she/her, ancient Alive

Rin’s optimism and airheaded nature know no bounds, but she has a way of keeping situations light. She is a kitsune, possessing the ability to present as human or fox. She loves nature and life, which begs the question of why she took so quickly to the dark and mysterious Aphonis. Rin’s past is shrouded in mystery, but she hunts down the answers. She is close to just about everyone in the party as she is impossible to dislike, but she seems to hold a special relationship with Aphonis and Olur. As of recently, she is married to Aphonis.

Aphonis, Changeling Cleric (NPC) she/her Alive??

Though Aphonis’ relationship with the party started off rocky, she always had an affinity for Rin. In the beginning, she wore a mask and was entirely mute, though she kept close to Rin and their relationship grew. Over time, Aphonis revealed herself to the party, and through blessing of her goddess her voice was returned to her. In a constant state of death and life, Aphonis owes her life to and worships Urgathoa. Now in possession of Urgathoa’s divine instrument, Aphonis is her goddess’ champion. As of recently, Aphonis and Rin are married.

Lord Sebastian Grant, Human Wizard (NPC) he/him, ancient Leader of the Court of Ravens [Reference Pack] Alive

Long-time friend of Ank’ucha and to a lesser extent Olur. Grant is the employer of the party, as he gathered together Olur, Kukyo and Rin to do some field work for him and was the start of our heroes’ journey. Generally light-hearted with a good sense of humor, he swiftly became good friends with the party he helped bring together. Though he doesn’t travel with them, he stops in from time to time to pay them, give them items they may need, and has stepped in to help during several tense situations, evolving their relationship more from coworkers to allies. He enjoys tea and collecting rare artifacts, and has an affinity for birds, especially his flock of magical ravens.

Seerys, ???, ??? (NPC) any pronouns, ??? [Reference Pack] Alive

Banished inside a ring for millennia, he was found by Alagon, who donned the ring and discovered he couldn’t take it off. Upon using an identify spell, Alagon was pulled into the realm of Seerys and after talking with him for a while, promised to help. All we know about Seerys is two things: His memories have been wiped and he is missing his golden spoon. Our heroes are on a mission to find out the secrets of Seerys’ existence, where his golden spoon is, and why it’s so important to him.

Chieftain Ank’ucha, Human (NPC) he/him, 55+ Alive

The Chieftain of Tiber, and long-time friend to Grant and Olur. Ank’ucha is a kindly leader, if not a bit too kind. Sometimes he can falter when making decisions, but his council keeps him on the right path. He is a beacon of respect and hope in his community, a lover not a fighter. He is a father, his young child is an Oracle, which is a secret he keeps under tight wraps, with only his closest and most trusted friends knowing.

Lord Dryle, Elf Vampire Lord (NPC) he/him, they/them, 2,000+ [Reference Pack] Alive

A “boss fight” gone wrong introduced our heroes with Lord Dryle. They quickly realized he was a giant dweeb and not worth their time, but as months went by they kept in light contact with him since they had to pass through the village he was lording over several times. Though Dryle is generally an awful, irritating person, there is something about him that keeps bringing he and our heroes back together. Dryle eventually introduced Bailey to the party, dropping her off on them for a while as he took care of personal business, but upon his return he seems to have fully integrated into a regular visitor and ally.

Zathune, Blue Dragon (NPC) he/him, ?? Alive

Grumpy, snappy, generally unpleasant. A young blue dragon, and divine mount to Olur. Soul bound to the paladin as punishment by Gozreh, he is growing more accustomed to being a part of the team whether he likes it or not, but lately the glory and good deeds seem to be appealing to him.

Andre, Orcish Blacksmith (NPC) he/him, 60+ Alive

Olur’s uncle as well as dad-figure, he took Olur in as a child when his parents passed. Andre is huge, jolly, and always down to make you something neat out of metal. He isn’t really good at anything else. Except hugs, he’s really good at those.

Side Cast/Recurring/Important NPCs or Names

Greirat the Alchemist

Liam the Bowyer

Khalil Larek Sr

Magdalene

Balor

Cornelius

Gareth the Alchemist

Grom the Bowyer

Clyde, Cecil, and Ssara

Parrya and Ushbaja

The Oracle

Olohimbe

Important Locations

Holy Xantambe

Tiber

Nantambu

Blood Cove

Lake Oocta

The Archenwilde

MORE COMING SOON

Noc, Kasathan Operative (PC) he/him, 19, 24, 45 based on campaign arc [Reference Pack] Alive

To say Noc is strange is an understatement. He is full of curious tendencies and odd quirks, but he is kind and caring. He loves collecting things, playing video games, and eating, but most of all he is a crack shot with a sniper rifle. He is a non-traditional Kasatha in the sense that he does not cover his mouth with a veil or scarf.

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

OTHER

Future D&D 5E game, yet to be named. Slotted to be played once OoT is over!

Rook, Halfling Spellthief (PC) he/him, 30 [Reference Pack] Alive

Though a bit quirky, Rook is a friend the common folk would like to have. He tends to be forthright and hot-headed, but he acts for a good cause. His best friend is Mage Hand, by the name of Digit, whom Rook swears has a mind of his own. Together, Rook and Digit swindle the noble and give back to the poor.

[theincorrigiblemagpie]

Rishton Ka Chakravyuh (Episodes 1-6)- Much Mahabharat Very Family

Aug 7, 2017 to Aug 12, 2017

HELLO! I, indomitable watcher of desi soaps, am cautiously trying out Star Plus’ latest offering: Rishton Ka Chakravyuh after my last 3-episode-long-unnameable-adventure in this neighbourhood. I’d seen the promos floating around and found myself interested despite this really not being my usual fare. For one, the selling point isn’t a romance (shocker!), but also the fact that its milieu isn’t one I particularly enjoy. Nonetheless, I decided to give it a shot and found myself hooked. It’s a week old and I ran through 6 episodes without any trouble at all. I’ll try to touch only on the most pertinent bits since I’m covering 6 episodes together, but strap in, this is going to be looooong.

__

Our story begins on a stormy night, in a haveli, where a woman’s agitated screams indicate gruesome murder or labour. No good ever came of a haveli and you can mark my words, kids. #EatTheRich  It turns out to be labour and seconds after, a heavily veiled woman (Payal Nair) makes off with a baby into the dead of the night. She evades all the security around the haveli and makes it to a ghat-type place where a priest is waiting for what seems to be a pre-planned rendezvous. Then, without too many words, she hands over the baby to him and drops Ominous Hints about how she’s being forced to give this kid away because it’s a girl. The priest is troubled but takes the child, and once the woman leaves, looks at her palms under the moonlight and declares that she’s going to be SO COOL when she grows up that he doesn’t even know what to name her that will be fitting. So he names her Anami. For real. I’m sure all besotted new parents feel this way about their new babies but this is just lazy. You’re a pandit, you have casual access to the world’s Sanskritized highfalutin names. And you go for The Unnamed. Ok then.

In the meantime, the haveli is rejoicing over the birth of a little boy to Satarupa (Narayani Shastri) and Vikram Aditya Singh (Ajay Chaudhury). The Dadaji, who bears an uncanny resemblance to the MDH guy, is ecstatic about the birth of their ‘waaris.’ Tell me they don’t give you #SameGuy feels.

This show is just determined to fuck over its young people in the matter of names, because they name the boy child Vatsalya Vikram Singh. As the bearer of a somewhat difficult-to-pronounce name, I really feel for both Anami and Vatsalya. It’s evident that they’re twins, but as Vats, the boy, is heir-apparent to this medieval family, it’s unclear why Satarupa and Damo had to secretly get rid off Anami.

We’re also introduced to the Evil part of the family, Pujan Singh (Praneet Bhat) who calls the Dadaji ‘Chachaji’ and his smirking wife. This really amplifies the Mahabharat feel because Praneet Bhat still has a Shakuni Mama hangover from Starbharat and is the Most Extra dude imaginable. He breaks into enthu-boys-at-visarjan-style dancing at any given opportunity and is all about the band-baaja. He’s obviously not happy about this waaris business but pretends to be. We also see a toddler who runs out from inside the haveli but gets a really Stern Look from Dadi (Anju Mahendra) and is reluctantly dragged back in by a nurse. Oh, and their family priest is played by the long-suffering Tom Alter. He definitely has a hand in this giving-Anami-away business although he seems like a benevolent sorta babaji.

Then we flash forward 17 years into the future. Anami has been brought up by Pandit Murari Pathak and his wife Madhu (Lubna Salim aka Leela Bhabhi from Baa Bahoo Aur Baby), along with their own little boy Laddoo who seems to be about 8 or 9 years younger than Anami. Anami (Mahima Makwana), of course, is the main protagonist of this show. She’s an industrious little busybody who struts like she owns Varanasi, in her dhoti pants, embroidered blouses and jackets, and Mahadev/sadhu-style dreadlocks. I wasn’t too sure about the hair in the promos, but I think it works. It's obviously a part of her non-conforming person. She practices some form of dancing+martial arts in the morning, picks on her mom whom she lovingly calls ‘Paagal Panditayin,’ saves hapless devotees from fraudulent babas as a representative of her dad’s Gyan Vigyan Bhagwan initiative, tends to her chores, and picks on Laddoo for not preparing enough for his upcoming admission test to an English medium school, all before midday. Just typing this list exhausted me. 

The only drop of sorrow in her cup is that she’s adopted and must live with the fact that her biological mother gave her away for her selfish reasons. It’s interesting how this bothers her because her adoptive parents obviously love her to bits, but then you see that the Paagal Panditayin is not above twitting her about her adopted status when she loses her temper (like she does when Laddoo accidentally falls into the river while accompanying Anami on one of her missions). She regrets it immediately and goes to comfort Anami but this seems to be a longtime wound that can’t be undone. As a side note, this show is really gorgeously shot. I’m trying to keep screencaps at a minimum to prevent this ridiculously long post from becoming even longer but the lighting and camerawork here kinda make me want to shove this show into Gul Khan’s face. This show is already Sharmaji-ka-beta to 4Lions.

Ngl, I hadn’t expected to like Anami much (mostly because I’m not a huge fan of Mahima Makwana from whatever I saw of her weepy character in Sapne Suhaane Ladakpan Ke) but I’m very favourably disposed now. She certainly is young and brash in many ways, but also practical, contemplative, and mature.

Scene switches to Lal Mahal, situated in the vaguely-named Vihar which we learn is near Delhi. The Singhs are royalty there although their economic power derives only partially from whatever princely state position they presumably held pre-Independence. The real power comes from their Royal Steel Holdings company which is apparently a massive enterprise employing thousands of families in the area. And now, I really have to introduce you to Satarupa, the Motherest Mother of Them All. Here is Satarupa casually using a sword to slice her thumb open and offer her own blood as chadava to Kali as part of her son’s 17th birthday celebrations before using the same bloody thumb to give him a teeka. This is after a two-day fast, btw.

Man, for my 17th, my mother took me and a bunch of my friends to KFC and called it a day. (Ily, mommy, I wouldn’t have had it otherwise.)

You knew right from the start that Satarupa is not a person with many fucks to give but this casual establishment of Intense is kinda awe-inspiring. Mostly cos it’s Narayani Shastri, I think, who is a very formidable presence onscreen.

Side note: Both the Pathaks and Singhs are primarily Shiv devotees. Desi tv never fails in their tropes. You can tell so much about a show/family by the gods they worship. As a rule of thumb, the more intense the families, the likelier they are to worship Mahadev. Whereas YRKK and DABH-like families worship Ram-Sita or Radha-Krishna.

Old Dadaji gets up and announces that he really is too old to be chairperson of the company anymore (damn right, you look to be 105). And although he has always believed in keeping the family and business separate, he thinks the most capable person to succeed him is 17 yo Vatsalya (Devarshi Shah who looks disconcertingly like an older Darsheel Safary). Excuse me while I take an eye-roll break. Someone set Kangana Ranaut on this uncle who is trying to tell me that the only and most capable person in the vicinity is a boy who can barely grow a beard and who just happens to be his grandson.

Another side note, can we retire ominous chantings of saam-daam-dand-bhed as background score? I promise we’ll all still figure out who the evil schemers are. Predictably, Pujan Singh, his smirking wife, and his now-adult asshole son are Not Pleased. We learn that Vats’ dad had done something to displease Dadaji and has de facto been disinherited although he’s still very much a part of the family. Methinks this has something to do with the hidden-away toddler in the beginning. Man, there are too many secret children already for one show. So basically, Satarupa and Pujan are named caretakers of Vats’ legacy until he comes of age in a year. Meanski this Dadaji is just asking for Vats to get murdered. Why dafuq couldn’t he have named the very intimidating Satarupa successor, no one knows. No doubt it has to do with more bullshit about being a woman.

I will say in Vatsalya’s favour, he’s not happy about this situation and doesn’t think he’s ready or deserving. The fam decides to head to Varanasi where they traditionally have a puja for any new heir. We get some inkling of how Vats seems to be a genuinely nice kid despite all this money and spoiling. Satarupa is an affectionate but strict mother. They have this really sweet mother-son thing of singing old Hindi songs to one another and man, can Narayani Shastri sing.

This really brings home how weird the Anami situation is. Satarupa is a fond and doting mother but also fiercely protective of her son. I don’t really see her giving up her daughter just because it was a girl. When she already has a son too.

We make progress in the case of the Mysterious Toddler. It’s a guy called Narottam who lives in the same house but everyone seems to loathe him except Vatsalya. Narottam calls Satarupa ‘Chhoti Ma’ and Vikram ‘Papa’ and they both vehemently deny any relation and can’t stand the sight of him. It’s only on Vats’ insistence that he is allowed to accompany the family to Benaras. Also, the guy’s body language, tone, and a comment made by Pujan’s son Avdhoot make me think he’s possibly trans or gay or just likes to cross-dress. In Hindi soaps, it’s hard to tell the difference among various kinds of queerness. I’m thinking he’s Vikram’s illegitimate son but why he’s such an asshole to Narottam is a question. Satarupa and the family’s resentment I still understand (even if it’s a terrible thing to have brought up an innocent child amidst this hostility). But Vikram’s I don’t. I don’t like Vikram, I think. 

They head to the ghats and have their showy puja and stuff and of course, Anami and Vatsalya come face-to-face. Anami, who hates her birthday for being a reminder of the mother who gave her up, is already in a bad mood and none too pleased with the huge puja which is blocking access to her priest. Anami snips at Vats but he takes it in his stride and is polite. I like this boy more and more.

(please note Tej Khan in the background who is Vats’ bodyguard and also part-time Sid Mallya lookalike)

You know the Extra is hereditary because Anami apparently floats a diya into the Ganga every year to signify that she tyag-s her birth-mother the same way birth-mother gave Anami away. That is an awful lot of bandwidth to waste on someone you’ve never seen. Also, I have to say, how convenient that she hates the birth-mother and not the birth-father. Granted, her birth-father is a wet dishrag but she doesn’t know that. How does she assume it was the mother’s fault? For all she knows, the father made the mother give her up which is really the most common way this shit happens in India. I see your internalised misogyny, Anami. No matter how picturesquely you hold a diya against the Ganga.

Lots of things happen together after that. Damo sees Pandit Murari and recognizes him as the priest she gave Anami to and hides from him but then is guilt-wrought. She runs to Tom Alter for advice who reassures her that she has committed no sin and that the sacrifice was necessary. He gives her a rudraksh bracelet to protect Vatsalya with. Avdhoot and his drunk friends make Narottam dance to Namak Ishq Ka in a very humiliating manner. Pujan hires a gunda to do away with Vats before they leave Benaras. And we know that Satarupa did not happily give up Anami.

They have their pagdi ceremony and Dadaji impresses the responsibility of the position on Vats. Here’s an idea, maybe you shouldn’t leave the livelihood of thousands in the hands of a 17 yo, Dadaji. But I want to take a moment to address how soberly dressed this family is, including the Evils. After the monstrosities I see across the board these days, this show is so easy on the eyes, I almost cry.

On the other hand, Madhu is mad at Anami for being such a party-pooper about her own birthday (justifiably so). Anami confesses that this day always brings up more questions than she can handle and that’s why she hates it and there’s nothing anyone else can do to help her. She does reaffirm that no one can take her away from the Pathaks, though, and runs off to the ghat where she meets Vatsalya who also feels suffocated under the weight of expectations on him. They discover their shared birthday and chat about mothers and philosophy as 17 yos are wont to do. Really, these kids grow on me all the time.

Whilst sharing their existential angst, a couple of mercenaries attack Vats from under water. They try to pull him under and drown him but Anami fights them off until Tej Khan appears and manages to save both of them. Vatsalya gives Anami his protective bracelet out of gratitude and tells her that if he had a sister, he’d have liked her to be like Anami. After the two return home, Tej Khan and Satarupa set out to catch the gundas, Tej having actually seen the face of one. After realizing they can’t give them any info about who had hired them, Satarupa ruthlessly orders their drowning and the family returns to Lal Mahal.

Anami’s next project is Laddoo’s admission to an English medium school for which she does her best to teach their parents and Laddoo enough English to ace the entrance test. Back home at Lal Mahal, Vats wants to be allowed to return to his hostel in Delhi for two months to clear his final exams but Satarupa is adamant. She will not let Vatsalya out of the house until she can send him to the States for college. I’m so confused as to how their world works. No college in the world, no matter how much money you have, is going to accept a student without a high school diploma of some kind. She’s like “we’ll send you earlier than I’d planned to.” Halwa hai? And what is the guarantee no one will send assassins after him over there? This blind faith that desis have in America’s supposed magic ability to fix all their problems is a disease. Vats is really mad that he’s going to be housebound for the foreseeable future and is perfect bait for Pujan to instigate. Goaded by his uncle, he runs away to Delhi and actually makes it halfway there until we realise Tej Khan was tailing him all along and after some momentary panic at home, has orders from Satarupa to bring him back. 

Listen, I want to know which agency they hire security from because it seems to be the only one in tellywood which is able to do its job. That’s twice Tej Khan has saved Vats’ life in like 4 episodes. 

Unfortunately, Laddoo does not make it to the school, even when Anami tries to get him in via the sports quota and even more unfortunately, on the way back to Vihar, on Pujan’s orders, a truck rams into Vats’ car, killing him and Tej.

*sigh*

I knew this was coming, of course. The promos made it obvious. There has to be an even more compelling reason for Anami to be brought back to Lal Mahal than there had been for her to have been given away in the first place. But I have to say it was still a blow. Even though it’s only been 4ish episodes, this boy was delightful. Despite his money and surroundings, he was sweet and considerate and respectful towards everyone, including Narottam whom his entire family despises. All he wanted was to be allowed to finish high school and play his guitar and hang out with friends. And he was on the fucking phone with Satarupa, singing Hai Apna Dil Toh Awara, and his mom heard the accident happen.  *sobs* I’m not crying, you’re crying.

Anami’s bracelet, the same protective one given to her by Vats, snags on a corner and snaps at the same moment and Anami is very rattled. In true desi tv style, she’s got a Feeling. Just like Madhu and Laddoo had about losing her on her birthday. And Vatsalya had about Benaras completing him in some inexplicable way. What would the Feelings industry do without desi TV? She tries to restring the bracelet but goes through the day feeling restless and heavy and talks to her Dad about how she wishes she could understand her own feelings. #SamePinchAnami Listen, I’m really here for this shows functional parent-child relationships (of course, before we get to the elephant in the room that is Anami-Satarupa’s relationship). Like, Satarupa and Vatsalya were adorable and half the impact of his death is felt through Satarupa’s loss. And Anami has really great individual relationships with both parents. (No one cares about irrelevant Vikram and his periodic declarations that he’s proud of Vatsalya.) Even Pujan and Avdhoot are equal partners in Evil. I just can’t harp enough on how rare it is to see honest parent-child conversations about fears, insecurities, dreams on desi TV.

Heavy mourning at Lal Mahal, with the family remembering their individual relationships with the sunny Vatsalya. One moment of confusion where some rando calls Vats’ dad Baldev but I swear he’s been called Vikram all along. Like, is he that irrelevant that the show can’t be bothered to get his name right in the 6th episode? Obviously, it’s too early for me to have formed any kind of attachment to this show or its characters but I find myself dearly wishing that Vats and his budget Sid Mallya bodyguard miraculously survived the accident and are being hidden away by Satarupa as she gets to the bottom of this (since we saw no cremation). He was a good kid. We need more of those and fewer angry assholes on TV. In between the mourning, we’re introduced to Sudha (Sangita Ghosh) who is the main antagonist, wiki tells me. Toh this Pujan and his family are just ainvayi, I suppose, in case villainy kam pad jaaye. 

Sudha appears to be a dreamy airhead only invested in her toilette at first glance, but then she rapidly exhibits changes in emotion that would put a mime to shame. She sheds a few tears over the news of Vats’ death, saying that it’s so unfair that the sins of the elders have been visited on an innocent boy, and then instantly cheers up because tears would mar her beauty and she can’t really bring herself to feel sorry for anyone at Lal Mahal (didn’t I tell you that nothing good ever comes of havelis?) She definitely has some deep-seated hate for that place and its people. I don’t know if she’s Narottam’s mother, but that is a possibility. She’s wearing her saree the Bengali way and something about her surroundings hint at her being a courtesan. But I just want you to stop for a minute and appreciate the beauty of these shots. #crie

Back at the haveli, Satarupa, in her grief, tries to shoot herself but I’m not worried she will because LOL that is not how this works. The most interesting reaction is Narottam’s. We see him lying on Vatsalya’s bed with tears rolling down his face, but then he gets up and puts on Vats’ favourite jacket and talks to the family photographs lining his walls. He says Vats never really appreciated what it meant to BE Vatsalya Vikram Singh but he, Narottam, does-- it’s all he’s ever wanted to be, and you can sense that there is this conflict between his love for Vats and his resentment for what Vats had and he never will. I have no idea why he doesn’t leave Lal Mahal where he’s so vilified nor why the family allows him to live there. It would’ve been the easiest thing to have sent him to a boarding school and made him live elsewhere all these years, but they did not. God, I’m blown by the writing so far. I haven’t seen character-writing like this in a while.

Finally, we’re introduced to the dude who is potentially Anami’s future love interest. You’ll never guess what he does for a living. He’s a....*drumroll* COP! I definitely missed the memo that said cops are fashionable again on TV. He’s a generic looking dude called Adhiraj but he’s not godawful, even if he’s not quite standout. He definitely walks with all the swag you’d expect from a CBI cop who has just bullied his senior into giving him the Lal Mahal case which he believes is not an accident. He wants to investigate “apne tareekon se” so you just know he’s going to do some illegal shit.

Adhiraj comes complete with an efficient if slightly chirpy assistant whom he manages to chastise in their first scene for wearing perfume *eyeroll* and a background secret connection to Lal Mahal where his interest is personal. 

Okay, is there anyone in the whole damn NCR who doesn’t have a vested interest in Lal Mahal? Adhiraj goes to lurk outside the place and brood at an indistinct photograph in his pocket, of a family with two young boys, taken against the same building. Matlab yeh Lal Mahal walon ne kitne logon ko antagonise kiya hai in the last 20-30 years? Where did they even have the time to piss off other people while trying to kill each other or conversely, keep each other alive? Anami’s multitasking also seems hereditary only.

It’s too early to ship anything yet but I sense potential. This fellow could work on his dialogue delivery while Anami and Satarupa work on their relationship.

Next week: Pujan is manipulating the Press and Anami is getting ready to thrash some chhichore boys who surround her bike.

There’s obviously a lot to like over here. The writing and cinematography leap out immediately. But there’s also some generally good acting all around. It definitely tends towards the melodramatic but then, which show does not, these days? I particularly am intrigued by the familial relationships and don’t actually give a fuck about Anami and Adhiraj. (I know!) I looked up the producers-- newbies Sanjot Kaur and Bhupinder Singh for Rolling Pictures and director Ashwini Chaudhary who has a few forgettable films and shows under his belt. I can’t trace any precedence but things are off to a really promising start and I’ll keep watching as long as my interest stays.

(Just please, please, please let there not be any gratuitous sexual/physical violence involved that is cavalierly treated.)

[smutmylifeup]

Client Report: Shuichiro Momoi (MATURE)

“It’s so weird you sitting there smiling. I’m not sure I like it.”

Miho said from the other side of her desk, almost a little bitter since she didn’t have a reason to smile currently with Goto just leaving for an undercover operation.

Rose was sat in Miho’s office, writing up her last clients report. Well, this could be her last client for a very long time since all that had gone on at MJS recently. And while the atmosphere was tense and sombre. Everyone tried their best to remain positive at least – except for Miho who had been hugging her Domo plushie for the last hour or so.

Rose couldn’t help having a reason to smile. She’d found Ryosuke.

“Stop looking at me then.”

Rose sassed back although she wanted to wipe the inane grin off her own face because of Miho’s current situation, she couldn’t.

“Was the client that good? Or are you thinking about a certain puppy of yours?”

Miho’s eyebrow arched but she knew the answer to that question before she asked it.

“Don’t call him a puppy, it reminds me too much of Kisaki.”

Rose’s body shivered, that was one encounter she wished she could forget. But somehow, she had a feeling it wouldn’t be the last – especially since Ryosuke and Ota knew each other, even if it was through Mr Oh.

“I really wish I had seen that, Jazz said he deserved it,” Miho leaned back in her chair as if she was imaging it. “But don’t avoid my question. Tell me about him.”

“Fine, his name is Ryosuke. And actually he was the reason I learnt self-defence when I was younger. We were neighbours and he was the kind of annoying kid that just didn’t know when to quit. He’d hang around me like a – well like a lost puppy. He was always so happy go lucky and energetic, the total opposite of me. He was infectious and I found myself wanting to be around him.”

Miho nodded, a soft smile playing on her lips as if she knew something Rose didn’t.

“Eventually he didn’t annoy me anymore. And I actually started to look forward to seeing him after school. Since we went to different schools we only saw each other after. But he’d always have these odd scrapes and bruises on his hands and knees.”

Rose frowned, she remembered confronting him about them on several occasions. And he’d just say he was a ‘klutz’ and fell over. She wasn’t stupid – while he smiled and laughed it off, his eyes looked sad and his eyes never looked sad. But she couldn’t do anything about it or she didn’t think she could because they didn’t attend the same school.

“He was a scrawny, short boy and was so innocent and saw the best in everyone – that was his greatest quality.”

Rose smiled again, he was the only person that saw beyond Rose’s cold exterior. No one had ever broken her walls down as easily as he did – well not until the MJS ladies.  

“But kids are assholes. They saw his kindness as his weakness and pushed him around, literally. I wanted to protect him somehow. So I asked to join my Uncle’s Dojo.”

Rose realised she was rambling about part of her past that both made her who she is and haunted her. She knew that MJS knew she was kind of like a guard dog when it came to people she cared about but it was still hard for her, the metaphorical walls may have been knocked down but there was still rubble all around her.

“Long story short – I kicked some bully asses, nearly go kicked out of school and Ryo got mad at me for getting myself in trouble for him. He shouted at me, possibly the only time I saw him remotely close to being angry but in seconds I had him pinned to the floor.”

Miho chuckled and Rose looked at her.

“I know, it’s like a running theme right? But he wouldn’t listen to me so I had to take drastic action. I wanted to protect him, he was and still is extremely important to me.”

“So he’s basically like your puppy?”

Miho questioned as if she was trying to make Rose realise something.

“No. He might have been when we were younger but he’s not a puppy anymore, well not mine anyway.”

Rose felt a plunge of sadness strike her heart.

Why did that upset her?

“I see.”

Miho nodded well aware of the sudden change in Rose’s expressions. Miho was a woman of wisdom and she knew that some people needed to work things out for themselves rather than be told.

“You’ll have to tell me more about him at our sleepover tonight.”

Miho chirped, the sadness in her voice masked with a forced excitement attempting to cover up her upset but failing miserably.

I think it’s been said before but MJS seriously has some badass bitches who didn’t succumb to drama and angst easily.

“But for now, finish that client report. I’m going to grab a coffee, want one?”

Miho was more than a fair boss. There was an even mix of work and play – outside of the actual date scenarios, and it made for a great working atmosphere. And a great atmosphere meant happy employees.

“Yes, Sir.”

Rose saluted at Miho.

“Okay, just for the Sir comment I’m not bringing you coffee now. And don’t think I won’t kick your ass if you keep giving me lip. Don’t forget I was an assassin in a past life.”

Rose chuckled and waved her hand as if to admit defeat. After all, even if Miho wasn’t serious in her threat, she knew Miho was more than capable of handling herself in her past life and in her current life.

After that, Miho left the office to get their beverages and Rose picked up her clients profile again, thinking back to the beginning of the date.

“Hey, sorry to make you come all the way here instead of the bar we agreed on.”

He picked up the bowl full of icing and whisked it as if it was the lightest and easiest thing in the world – and from a disastrous experience of her own, Rose knew it wasn’t.

“No problem. Sounds like you’ve been pretty busy.”

She wasn’t lying when she said it wasn’t a problem. Although being here at all was kind of disappointing since she’d just found her best friend, she was still on an adrenaline rush that made it difficult for her to sit still or for her mind to be focused on one thing. But work was work. She had time for a social life later. Rose leaned over the counter trying to squash her jittery hands and watched him.

“You have no idea.” He sighed.

Shuichiro Momoi. 25 years old. Pastry chef and part owner of Pâtisserie Larme in Jiyugaoka. He was a very handsome man, still young, in good physical shape despite all the sweet treats around him every day, he could bake and he had his own successful business at such a young age.

He ticked all the right boxes for a lot of women. Although, it wasn’t as simple as that – she hadn’t witnessed much of his personality yet. Even at the brief meeting with him and Miho, he was quite serious and robotic about the entire thing.

Which wasn’t a bad thing.

“While you finish up, mind if I ask you some questions about your ideal wife?”

Rose said getting out her sketchbook – she had planned to makes notes but it was kind of becoming a theme for her to draw clients as part of their profile. And with the inspiration of such decorative cakes all around her, she was in her element. As well as to keep her focused on the job at hand.

“Go ahead. I’m almost done anyway.”

“Tell me about your ideal type? What specifically do you want in a woman?”

Rose flicked her pencil in the same motion as Momoi did when he iced the cakes he was making.

“Hm. Well, I think it’s easier to tell you what I don’t want and I don’t want to date another pastry chef.”

He said, his tone sharp but flat and deathly serious.

“Oh?”

It wasn’t meant to come out as inquisitive as it sounded but Rose couldn’t exactly suck back in the sound she just created.

“Bad experience.”

Was all he said, the end of his sentence making it quite obvious he didn’t want to go into any further detail. So, he had a wall up. Not willing to show someone his scars like a badge of honour. He needed someone patient to chip away his armour.

Noted.

“While I respect that it’s probably still a tough subject for you, you are aware that I need full honesty from you to find you the best match, right?” Rose said.

She glanced and him and he gave a nod but didn’t look at her.

There was silence for a moment only the sound of her pencil scratching against paper. Rose wasn’t sure what to say – he hadn’t really answered her previous question, well he had but there were millions of women who weren’t specifically pastry chefs. It was almost like he chose to end that conversation there. And so far, all of her clients had been more than honest with her since it was to their benefit. This was basically the first wall she’d walked into yet.

“What are you doing?”

His voice boomed over her head and the sudden appearance of his voice, much closer now made her head bolt up and straight into his chin.

“Shit.”

He grunted, stumbling back slightly.

“Ah, fuck. I’m so sorry, are you okay?”

Rose dropped her pencil and got up and briskly walked round to where Momoi stood. She pushed his hands out the way that held his possibly bruised chin and replaced them with her own.

“Jeez, you have a seriously hard head.” He grumbled.

But he allowed her to continue touching him and inspect his chin for any damage. She titled his head upwards to get a better look. His jawline was really something, it was sharp and strong. Surprising really that he hadn’t shattered Rose’s skull.

“You chin isn’t exactly soft.”

Before she even realised, her fingers softly followed the bone. When her eyes flitted up to his face, there was a tinge of pink to his cheeks and he seriously avoided eye contact. While she was here for more than a caress of his chin, she also didn’t want to step over any boundaries he had.

“Sorry,” Rose let her hands drop after making sure he was not seriously hurt. “and to answer your question. I was just drawing – I’m an art student.”

A deep intake of breath and Momoi looked at Rose. His brow furrowed into a scowl and while she would have assumed he was pissed, the slow arch of his eyebrow was the first expression she’d seen other than his resting bitch face.

“That doesn’t really surprise me,” Momoi eyed her from head to toe. “You have that whole artist ‘look’.”

“Is that an insult or a compliment?”  

Rose stepped back so she was able to look at him without craning her neck too much and crossed her arms under her chest. Effectively creating some impressive cleavage that poked out of her shirt. And she was rewarded with an obvious glance from Momoi.

“What would you do if I said insult?”

This was starting to get somewhere. While the banter was basic at best, it was still more than what she’d gotten out of him already.

Rose walked back slowly, not taking her eyes off his until she reached the almost empty bowl of icing. She gracefully, still looking at him dipped her finger into the bowl and got a generous amount of icing on her finger and raised it until she could lick it clean off.

Momoi watched, his stoic face shifting into the slightest of teasing smirks.

“You’re lucky I’ve finished icing the cakes or I’d make you pay for the icing you just ate.”

While Rose thought that perhaps if she wasn’t here for the reason she was, that threat would have been serious. After all, he clearly took a lot of pride in his work and the dedication it took to make and perfect each individual cake.

“You’re lucky it tastes as good as it looks or I’d need something to wash away such a dissatisfying taste.”

Rose gave her finger one final lick before she walked back towards Momoi.

“I’m so glad Aki isn’t here.” He sighed.

For a moment Rose thought that perhaps he’d be embarrassed by how openly they were just flirting in his work place and the innuendo that left her lips. But there was something about him that reminded her of Minato.

If he was anything like Minato, this was going to be fun.

However, he looked completely comfortable in his posture, in his gaze and in his movements as he tugged Rose into his chest.

His lips were on hers and their bodies pressed as close together as the height difference would allow. The kiss was warm and smooth. Their heads titled together as Momoi changed the angle. Rose’s hands were gripping tightly onto him for support, he was greedy in his kisses and even with her vast experience, Rose struggled to keep up with his pace.

“Hah…Not – Not here.”

He panted as he took a moment to catch his own breath before he kissed her again.

While Rose was starting to get into the heat of the moment – she also knew it wasn’t very sanitary to have sex in a kitchen that was used to make cakes for mass human consumption. And reluctantly she pulled back.

She looked at him with lustful eyes and waited for him to show her in the direction of where he wanted to continue.

He took her hand and escorted her to a set of stairs and with his eyes motioned for her to go up them. However, he did not follow and just watched her as she continued.

“Enjoying the view?”

Rose called as she peered over her shoulder.

“Would be better if your shirt wasn’t in the way,” He dismissed but his tone still teasing. “I’m just gonna lock up, I don’t think we want any unexpected visitors.”

“Wouldn’t be the first time.”

Rose smirked thinking back to the time her and Kyobashi were just about to reach their orgasms and his bedroom door burst open, and what she could only assume was his friend/co-worker walked in. She never caught his name but he was pretty hot and the way he blushed was extremely adorable.

She continued up the stairs with that memory replaying in her head and went into the room where Momoi told her to wait.

It was really hot upstairs. The room was probably directly above the kitchen so the heat from the ovens seeped into this room. She undid her shirt, popping each button – while she would have endured the heat for any other reason, her shirt would probably be coming off anyway so she may as well make a head start.

With her shirt thrown over the back of the sofa, Rose sat back in position and a few moments later Momoi entered.

“Sorry, the guy who ships our deliveries just showed-“

Momoi cut off his sentence when he lifted his eyes from the floor to Rose. And Rose smirked in response, it always made her feel really good when she removed her clothes and she got that kind of reaction.

People always didn’t expect her to have the figure she has from the baggy shirts and t-shirts she wore.

“Something wrong, Shu?”

Rose hadn’t asked if she could be so informal, not that she normally did but with what was to come calling him “Mr Momoi” seemed a little strange, unless he asked her to call him that.

“Jeez.”

He whistled out in a deep exhale. He shut the door behind himself and began to undo his uniform on his way to where Rose was seated.

“I like a mature woman, but you,” he said wrapping a hand loosely round her throat and pulling her up. “Are pretty damn impressive.”

He kissed her again, not allowing her to respond to his compliment. And Rose fell into the kiss.

The rest of their clothes were shed without any hesitation. Although, Rose’s underwear was left on. Perhaps her intricate strappy mesh bra and panties combo was a good choice because Momoi didn’t seem the least bit interested in taking them off.

“Like doing it with underwear on?”

Rose queried as he pushed her into a sitting position on the sofa.

“Mm, if the underwear is this sexy – yes.”

He responded but still stood.

Rose made a mental note that he was a fan of sexy underwear and waited for him to make the next move. She looked at him through her lashes and blinked sensually – she knew what she wanted to do next and she was hoping her eyes were doing a good job at asking for permission as well as her sneaky hand that was running down his stomach.

“Uh-uh. You have to vocalise what you want.”

He smirked, pushing her hand away.

“I want to suck your dick – please.”

Rose didn’t hesitate to answer to his terms. It wasn’t as if she was ashamed of wanting to blow him.

“Good girl.”

Momoi brushed his hand through her hair and encouraged her to slide off the sofa and onto her knees by putting a little pressure on the back of her head. And she complied happily.

“Looks like it’s not only your cakes that rise well.”

Rose said – she couldn’t miss the opportunity to make a pun out of his job and his semi-erection.

Abruptly, before Rose could even get his boxers down and around his ankles, Momoi pulled her hair back and made her head tilt up to his towering form.

“You’ve got a lewd mouth.”

“You’re going to find out just how lewd.”

Rose moaned, enjoying the pain on her hair follicles.

Momoi let out a growl and encouraged her once more to get down to business.

So he enjoyed dirty talk too – noted.

Rose pulled his boxers down and the semi she had seen protruding through his boxers was now a full blown erection. And she subconsciously licked her lips – it was amazing how a little dirty talk could turn someone on so much.

He wasn’t huge, Rose would say about average but he was thick and girthy. Each vein seemed to stick out and throb against his skin. And it was all cased in the delicious chocolate colour of his pubic hair.

“Don’t just stare at it.”

Momoi said, his tone impatient under Rose’s gaze.

And Rose wasn’t one to keep someone waiting. She gripped the base of his cock and watched Momoi’s body tense at the contact.

Once he relaxed again, Rose gave one stroke with her fist before she leant in to kiss his tip. It was a feather light brush on her lips and she stared up at him to watch his response.

His eyes tightly shut before opening and he stared down at her. A stern expression as if to say ‘don’t keep me waiting.’

Rose shut her own eyes and sucked his tip between her lips. The salty taste hitting her savoury pallet in the dribble of the pre-cum that she swiped at with her tongue. Rose opened her eyes again as she began to bob her head. One thing she loved about blowjobs was watching a man enjoying her mouth.

Their eyes met for a brief moment until Rose grazed her teeth along the top of his cock. Momoi’s eyes squeezed shut and the grip he had on her hair tightened. Rose did that one more time before continuing to bob her head.

She continued like this for perhaps ten more seconds before switching it up. She removed him from her mouth with a lewd pop. Tilting his cock up towards his stomach – Rose licked the underside of his cock from base to tip and back down again.

And next was the focus on his balls, which seemed to throb against her tongue as she traced small circular patterns before sucking on one then turning her attention to the other.

Rose gripped onto his thigh for support and dug her nails in when he gripped her and pulled her once more to put his cock back in her mouth.

But this time he set the pace – thrusting his hips forward into her mouth, pushing as far back as her gag reflex would allow. When she began sputtering, he held his position and looked down at her.

“Swallow.”

Rose swallowed, although she wasn’t actually swallowing anything – it was the contraction of her throat muscles that contracted around the head of his cock that pressed against her tonsils. Momoi groaned and pulled back out of her mouth.

“You weren’t wrong when you said your mouth is lewd.”

Momoi panted, releasing his tight grip of her hair and smoothing it down. And Rose smiled, one of things she enjoyed about rough sex was the softness that was hidden under all the pleasurable pain.

“But if we keep that up, I’m not gonna last much longer,” He said bending to wrap his arms around her and pick her up. “And I’ve got to an inspection of your pretty little cake before I do that.”

Momoi grinned, obviously pleased with his own baking pun.

Rose chuckled, wobbling slightly as Momoi helped her stand. The pins and needles made her legs ache but she couldn’t asked for a moment to walk it off – it would spoil the mood.

So instead she decided to turn and kneel on the sofa and lean against the back of it. Her ass perched up and ready for inspection. And she was rewarded for her position by a little spank on her behind.

“You’re such a good girl.”    

Rose wiggled her ass in response. The ache between her thighs from the make-out sessions and the blowjob was bordering on painful. And the little wet patch on her underwear showed that.

“Did you enjoy sucking my dick that much?”

Rose nodded as he gripped each of her cheeks.

“Say it.”

He slapped her ass again but this time with a little more force. And Rose threw her head back in enjoyment.

“I loved sucking your dick.”

She panted, she was already extremely turned on – the lack of friction was starting to get realllllly frustrating. She gasped when her underwear was pushed to the side and the air hit her damp pussy, a buzz of a shiver ran over her body from head to toe.

The intrusion of a finger into her wet glove was not unwelcome but still made Rose moan out her surprise. The much needed friction satisfying the frustration he’d caused making her blood pulse around her body faster than before.

He leaned over her form and brushed her hair to one side of her neck and kissed softly against the other side. A complete contradiction to the almost pounding his hand was doing as he thrust in and out of her pussy adding a second finger after two thrusts.

For a moment, he just breathed against her neck and her ear as he continued to fuck her with his fingers.

“I’m not allowed to mark you, am I?”

He asked, his teeth grazing her already bruised throat – the marks Minato had left still not fully healed.

“My – My boss wouldn’t be happy if I showed up with more visible bruises.”

Rose moaned out, struggling to form a sentence with the pleasure he was still bestowing on her. But she emphasised on the ‘visible’ part.

“Well then,” His teeth continued to graze down her neck until her reached her shoulder. “I guess I’ll just have to leave some only where you and I know about them.”

Momoi bite down onto her shoulder and sucked harshly. A rush of pain jolting her forward and her moans muffled into the back of the sofa as he made sure he’d leave a sufficient hickey.

“I can’t, I can’t hold back anymore.”

Momoi said as he released her skin.

He retracted from her, the heat from her back making her sweaty skin shiver. But as he pulled his fingers out of her, her pussy was still hot and begging to be cooled down.

Rose stayed in position panting out the lingering pleasure she was feeling.

She leaned on her arm and peered behind her as she watched Momoi head to a locker – which was probably his. After some fumbling he pulled out a small foil package. And Rose was thankful because her bag was still in the kitchen and she’s not sure her legs were stable enough to go and collect them.

Momoi returned to her but instead of continuing this position, he sat on the sofa and made her straddle his lap.

With the condom on, Rose held the base of his cock and began to lower herself onto him. His width stretching her in ways that made her sting but in a pleasant way.

She let of on his cock when his tip was inside her and she gripped onto his shoulders to support her as she engulfed the rest of him. Momoi gripped her hips and pushed her down on this cock with a gentleness that was refreshing in comparison to the roughness he’d showed her so far.

After full insertion, for a moment they sat still and panted. Their breaths mingling into a hotbox of sexual heat.

Then they began to move, and Rose’s hips lifted Momoi pulled his back to the slammed her back down into his lap. The desperation in both of their movements were evident. It was so blissful and gratifying. Each thrust reaching further and further each time – or that is what it felt like.

“God, I – I want you to cum.”

Momoi said, releasing one side of her hip so he could play with her clit.

At the contact Rose’s head flung back and only didn’t fall off his lap thanks to the hold her nails had on the skin of his shoulders.

It wasn’t long till they’d both reached their orgasms.

She was first to cum, and gladly let Momoi use her pussy until he’d found his own.

Rose was putting her clothes on, while Momoi went downstairs – luckily after putting on his own clothes, probably wouldn’t look good if someone saw a naked man wandering around inside of a cake shop – especially since it had peaked in popularity, mostly due to the ‘prince of pastry’.

Once she was presentable, Rose went back down too.

“Here, these are for you.”

Momoi handed Rose a pale pink box.

“Oh and Miss Fujiwara.”

Momoi said as an afterthought.

Rose placed the box on the counter and opened it.

In the box sat six cupcakes, all pale pink and white. Each intricately decorated into symmetric and tasty looking butterflies.

“Oh my god. These a beautiful.”

Rose smiled at Momoi and he blushed. How cute.

“I almost don’t want to eat them,” Rose’s smiled intensified. “Almost. Thank you, are you sure it’s okay for you to just give these to me?”

Momoi nodded, his cheeks still a little pink.

“That’s really sweet of you. Hey, how about when I finish my drawing, I give it to you as a gift? Fair trade.”

Rose offered as she picked up her sketchbook and put it back in her bag.

“Deal. Maybe I’ll have to get you to design some cake for me sometime.”

He smirked as if he hadn’t even give Rose the option to say no.

Rose’s phone began to ring – telling her that the date was over.

“That’s my cue to leave.”

Rose smiled, and Momoi’s disappeared but he nodded.

“Would you like me to take you home?”

Rose shook her head. While she was pretty sure Momoi was a good guy under his abrasive personality, after all that had gone on at MJS she couldn’t allow him to do that.

“I’ll get a cab, thank you. It’s getting late, I’m sure you’d like to go home.”

Rose smiled as she collected her things and then picked up the box of other sweet treats she was itching to wrap her lips around.

“Thank you for this evening and the cakes. You’ll be hearing from either myself or Miho in the next few days.”

Rose said as she headed towards the door. Momoi following closely behind.

When she opened the door, she turned towards him and stepped onto her tiptoes to place a kiss on his cheek, more of western style goodbye than a traditional Japanese one but she felt rude just bowing after what they’d just done together.

“Good night.”

And that was the end of the date.

Rose had just finished writing up Momoi’s report when her phone rang. She didn’t recognise the number but answered anyway.

“Hello?”

“Akane?”

The use of her first name and the almost shy but puppy like voice used made Rose smile instantly.

“Hey Ryo. I’m so glad you actually called. I was half expecting you to forget, you were always good at that.”

Rose chuckled.

“I’d never forget to ring you!!!”

Ryosuke exclaimed, very defensive.

“Yeah, yeah. So what’s up?”

“I, I, Um. Was wondering if you wanted to hang out tomorrow? Mr. Oh gave me the day off and I want to see you. But Don’t worry if you’re busy!”

Rose smiled, he was so adorable.

“I’m not busy tomorrow. What did you have in mind?”

“Really?! Yay. Um, I dunno I hadn’t thought that far ahead,” There was silence on Ryo’s end for a moment. “Oh I know, can we play mario kart?”

Rose’s smile turned into a grin.

“Didn’t get enough of me beating you when we were kids?”

“Hey! I’ve had a lot of practice. I know I’ll be able to beat you this time!”

Rose laughed. He was always so energetic, it was so refreshing.

“We’ll have to see about that. Do you want to come to mine?”

There was another pause on the phone and Rose wondered if she’d asked anything strange.

“Is, Is that really okay?”

“Yeah, why wouldn’t it be?”

Rose was puzzled, he came her house as a kid all the time. And she went to his all the time. Why wouldn’t it be okay?

“N-No reason! Ya, what time should I come to yours? Is it the address on the card you gave me? Do you want me to bring snacks or anything?”

Rose laughed.

“Calm down, Ryo. I can only answer one question at a time. Yes it’s the address on the card and shall we say about one PM ish? And no, I’ll swing by the grocery store after I leave work today.”

“Okay! I can’t wait to see you. Oh, and to finally beat you at Mario Kart.”

Rose shook her head. He was still the same person she knew as a kid and that was such a relief, she was always worried if she found him he’d be completely different.

“Bring it on.”

Rose could hear another voice in the background and by the tone, assumed it was Mr. Oh.

“Ah, yes. Sorry Boss, right away,” Ryosuke’s voice was muffled but Rose could still hear what he was saying. “Akane, I’ve got to go. Mr Oh needs me. I’ll see you tomorrow!”

“Heh, okay. Have a good day!”

Rose hadn’t realised that just by talking to Ryosuke just how much he could affect her mood. She almost didn’t recognise the excitement that came out of her voice as she said goodbye. But she wasn’t bothered.

She was just thinking about what snacks to get for hers and Ryosuke’s Mario Kart date.

Date?  

MJS: @whatdoyouexpectthistime​ @hifftn @smile-smile-ichthys @nitelotus