#drawing this was hilarious because when I was sketching the three of them

[littlesmartart]

good morning everyone and welcome to the Orville Peck Cinematic Universe, aka the happy modern cowboy counterpart to @eleanorfenyxwrites' Brokeback Mountain AU. part one, Outta Time, was posted this morning - in which our intrepid city boy hero meets his two beefy cowboys 👀

[kennahjune]

No Upside Down steddie AU where Steve gradually meets the members of Hellfire (-Eddie) in and out of school and they all come to befriending him really fast because “Steve Harrington is actually a good dude”

But Eddie fucking hates it.

And this only spurs Hellfire on because they think him getting mad over Steve Harrington is fucking hilarious.

Jeff who takes a foods class in third period and Steve does to and then the teacher pairs them for a baking project and Jeff gets to go to Casa Harrington. And he realizes rather quickly that Steve really likes baking and cooking and actually knows what he’s doing and that he’s not just taking the class for an easy A.

Brian (I’ve named him Brian, yes), meets Steve in Art class. Like Jeff, he thought Steve was taking it for an easy A but when seats are changed and they sit together he realizes that, no, Steve’s actually kind of good at drawing (particularly scenery). They get to talking about one of Steve’s sketches and the rest is history.

Gareth doesn’t officially meet Steve until later, but he does see him out with the kids at the arcade. Gareth works at the arcade and there’s this particular group of kids that just irks him— turns out they’re Steve’s gaggle. He watches in begrudging amusement while Steve rounds them up like a pro.

Then Gareth officially meets him after Hellfire one day. It’s fucking windy and he’s just leaving to school to go home when the papers and sheets he was holding are fucking torn from his hands. Steve grabs the papers— there after some kind of sports practice— and makes sure Gareth has them secured in his bad before leaving with a dorky finger-waggle wave.

And Eddie just downright refuses.

And then the school year ends and Steve graduates. And he’s convinced he doesn’t have to see Steve again.

Until, of course, Mike Dustin and Lucas join.

Jeff, Gareth, and Brian are all ecstatic to share their own run-ins of Steve Harrington to the three boys who so clearly idolize him. Gareth happily recalls how Steve “tamed” them in the arcade every time he came in.

Eddie sits in brooding silence.

And then Lucas joins the basketball team. And sure— Jeff’s on the volleyball team— but basketball jocks are so much worse than volleyball jocks.

Mike and Dustin, however thrown out of orbit they were at first, seem to settle in eventually and learn to plan around it. They think that anything that makes Lucas happy is a good thing (even if it did take a bit of a talk with Will for them to realize).

But Eddie? Eddie can’t stand it.

Which is why he refuses to move the date for the final campaign.

But Eddie doesn’t even get to introduce Vecna before Steve Harrington himself is all but breaking down the fucking door.

Eddie has this whole argument in his head that quickly dwindles when he sees the pure anger in Steve’s eyes (and also because Steve is really fucking pretty holy shit).

Steve tells Dustin Mike and Erica to pack up and get to the game before he drags them and you know what?

They listen.

Including hard ass Erica Sinclair.

And then idk Steve and Eddie get into a whole fight about.

But Steve makes it very clear that he doesn’t appreciate Eddie making Lucas feel like he can’t be happy doing DnD and basketball because that poor boy deserves nice things dammit.

And Eddie sleeps on it over the weekend before hunting Lucas down first thing Monday morning to apologize.

Lucas forgive Eddie (against Eddie’s protest because let the man grovel) but makes Eddie also apologize to Steve.

Which Eddie does by showing up to the Harrington Estate.

Eddie apologizes and they get high together and the rest is history.

.

I might actually make this into something, it’s already pretty fleshed out but eh

[kibbits]

Time to share some Starry lore because I’ve got a cute scene in mind. I love to vocal stim, sounds, phrases, but particularly songs. I’ll hear a song that feels just right and I’ll sit and chew it for hours til my throat’s sore. Currently favorite is The Valentine in Starfield (Is it still a sea shanty if it’s in space?). The reason I bring this fun fact up is because I can just see myself sitting for hours stimming with boys over new songs. Especially if it’s any new pieces for the theater. While the scripts and lyrics are predesigned by Fazbear, there’s something unquestionably their’s in performance that make it worth repeating. Worth remembering. Humming through daily tasks. Parroting their tone, their voice. Another sign of their existence that’s more then the capacity to destroy, then just simple property… They do end up being slightly upset when the Glamrocks try to introduce their songs to stimming sessions. (Sun/Moon: “That’s my human bonding time :(“ Monty: “Get cooler song selections then Sock and Buskin.” Freddy: “Pls do not misuse google search privileges to make insults.”)

- ✨Starry✨

Starry, hi!!! <33

!!!! HELL yes I echo songs a lot too!!!!

Unfortunately often 1-3 lines on repeat fgklgjkldfjg currently it's Villainous Thing, but I keep mixing "Let me see those smoky eyes" and "Let's remove those pretty clothes" and I end up singing "Oh dear, let's remove those smoky eyes" which. not the same fgkldjl

STARRY?! HELLO?! YOU REALLY GOT ME TEARING UP OVER THAT DESCRIPTION AAAA?!?! Also ABSOLUTELY -- for both the stimming, and making the songs their own.

God I'm imagining it so hard.

Eyndr suggested I draw a 'Y/N repairing the coat' last magma, and I haven't posted it cause I never got done, but yknow what? You get a WIP sketch fgkldgj Imagine they're singing

(Goose by Eyndr! Sun is stimming with a ribbon, like I do, except that I like to wrap it around the pads of my fingers, but he doesn't have those, so he has the bad habit of letting it run between his finger casings. Also I wanted a domestic vibe for this and also thought it'd be hilarious to have 'fanservice' with Sun being shirtless. Also, a more masculine Y/N! First beard I've drawn I think???)

One of the three absentmindedly starts a song and the others join in almost immediately. Unless it's a headache day, the backstage is never silent between those three, there's always a bit of humming or singing or even just echolalia.

Which. Mood. I always immediately and absentmindedly want to join in on sounds or singing in vc -- which. being in vc at all, and talking?? is a new development for me fgjdgkl but my god it's nice to be vibing and singing with a friend while doodling -- shout out to my bestie @eyndr ! I love hanging out for games or project days so much aa One day discord and spotify won't make us sing rounds/canons fghdj

ALSO HELLO YES SPACE SHANTIES?!?!!? TWO OF MY FAVORITE THINGS LET'S GO I'M LEAVING RN TO GO LISTEN BRB

Ough that's nice!!! I loved it! ; w ; Ehehe, I tend to have work songs/sea shanties days where that's all I listen to, so I getcha and good choice! > :3 Haven't played that game, but I do play No Man's Sky and I wish there was random space shanty singers to find waugh!

Also now I'm totally imagining a Faz Space Opera yeeesss 👀👀👀

Back to BaL! Sometimes, for fun, all 3 purposefully mess with the cadence or pitch, either to make each other laugh or just to get creative or because it sounds nice, and they end up liking something and it's like "!!!!"

When they sing that version later, it feels like theirs -- like it's those moments spent together. Proof of their existence and how it affects the world around them positively. Reminders that they're loved, and they love (in a cosmic kind of way, but also it's a self insert so fuck it we BaLl (aaaay finally used the joke @lavenoon fgjdfklgjld).

Also yeee I can see them being really, ACTUALLY insulted when one of the animatronics, who doesn't know because those little sing-stimming sessions are private with Y/N, jokes about how those songs are lame and they should be singing some of theirs instead because they're catchier. Oof

Which, just now, made me realize that BaL Sun's anger runs cold, so he just goes totally silent, straightens up and get that intense stare. Maybe Moon's even the one who talks through the speaker to deflect and does that overly-sweet anger of like "Catchy, huh? Hopefully we don't catch those inflated egos of yours -- there's barely enough space for all of us and your big heads as it is! We'll come back later~!" to excuse themselves (and then prank them to hell and back of course! But there's no proof : )) ) (ALSO OH MY GOD SOCK AND BUSKIN THAT'S FUCKING GOLD. THAT'S SO CANON NOW AND THE BOYS THINK IT'S HILARIOUS)

Back to the singing, I think that another thing that they do especially well is that they can sing at the same time, so even for solos they can add back vocals to each other, or play around with the pitch since they do-and-don't share a processor and can adapt in microseconds -- wait actually they can definitely sing rounds, too!!

Oh my god now I'm imagining them singing rounds with vastly different moods at the same time, perfectly calibrated so that both of them come out loud and clear and also enhance each other's -- lining up or losing one of their voices at just the right moment to be chilling. It's like you're getting the song and the reprise but both at once

Thanks for the ask Starry!!! Always excited to see you in my inbox <33 And I'm going to be rotating this in my mind for a WHILE fkljdgjkld

[anxiescape]

It’s a million bajillion degrees and I’m currently suffering from heatstroke, so writing is confusing and drawing is confusing and everything is confusing.

So, uhh, here’s a cute little character that @amalgamorph​ and I made. We were gonna wait until her story was a little more developed to share her but uhh i don’t feel good and i wanna be productive so here you go

This is Princess Yingyue!

Who are her parents? Well, I’ll tell you. 😈

I have a one-shot that takes place later in Stargaze. Here’s the scene:

Wukong is hosting a party on Flower Fruit Mountain for the sages, as per usual. It’s a party to celebrate something or other, so they bring him gifts. Peng, the jokester that they are, thought it would be really funny to gift Wukong a bottle of pregnancy water from the Mother-Child River in the Kingdom of Women. They all laughed (except for Liu’er who’s a little confused), and the party continued.

Later, when they’re all sufficiently drunk, they decide to hold a drinking contest (because that makes sense 🙄). Peng, who really is very drunk and not thinking straight, thinks it would be hilarious to slip the water into Wukong’s wine. Surely Wukong would catch it before drinking it. Right? And then they can all laugh again and move on.

Right?

Wrong.

Wukong is super drunk at this point, but he’s trying to beat DBK. So he asks Liu’er to drink his cup for him, claiming that it still counts. Liu’er teases him for being a lightweight, and downs the drink before anyone can say anything.

Well, frick.

Peng, Yellowtusk, and Azure (who also knew what Peng did and tried to convince them it was a terrible idea) all look at one another like “👁️👄👁️”, and silently agree to take this to the grave. Surely nothing will come of this, right? Maybe pregnancy water doesn’t work on celestial monkeys. They all go to bed, and in the morning Liu’er looks just the same. The water is suppose to cause pregnancy and birth within three days, so if he looks the same, then surely it didn’t work, and no one will ever know.

Wrong. It just took longer to work.

Anyway, long story short, Liu’er is pregnant (woohoo mpreg, gosh i’m tired and i wanna go to bed). Neither of the monkeys know how this happened, and Wukong proudly starts proclaiming that it’s his kid, because, y’know... 👀

Long story short, pregnancy shenanigans, cute moments, sad moments, drama, and a very traumatic birth result in the adorable baby Yingyue, who got a lot of her powers from her mama. Papa? Birth giver.

Wukong dubs her Princess of Flower Fruit Mountain, and they all live happily ever after.

Until the pilgrim journey.

Oh dear.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Anyway, here’s a cute sketch of the happy family! Once I feel better, I will fix it up and make it look nice, but until then here you go.

okay i’m gonna go pass out again or somethin don’t @ me

[okthatsgreat]

Hi! Could you do th

HGBDFJGSH YES I CAN !!!!!!!!!!!!!! again like celeste we are reaching lands where i am not extremely familiar with him so forgive me hifumi stans if i fuck up your boy

headcanon a (realistic): he started dabbling in animation!! i dont think he was necessarily planning on scoping out from princess piggles IMMEDIATELY but i definitely think he wondered where his ultimate talent could take him yknow... and considering his artistic ability he picks up animation suuuuper quickly. all of his animations are fic related for the moment but i think in the future when his years long hyperfixation starts to die down a bit he ventures into original work!!! speaking of i think this guy doodles fucking EVERYWHERE like any surface he can get. never give him your notes because he will turn it into his personal sketchpad. dont let him write anything on the chalkboard because he will just start drawing anime girls with wild proportions. makoto turned away from his test for a few seconds to check the clock and when he turned back hifumi had sketched out an entire manga page on his paper. also i headcanon that he tends to bite his tongue when he's concentrated so his friends know when to leave him be LMFAO

headcanon b (may not be realistic but it is hilarious): he plays a lottt of gacha games but cycles through them very very often. every three weeks or so he comes to class playing a completely different mobile game that his classmates have to research because sometimes it is OBSCURE. he's spent so much of his money on loot boxes it is crazy. his friends stage a mock intervention for him at one point. ALSO ALSO get this man into dnd he'd be a pretty awesome dm once he got the hang of it

headcanon c (heart-crushing and awful, but fun to inflict on friends): hifumi was already an extremely lonely character however i cant imagine him immediately growing close to anybody in a postgame setting, ESPECIALLY after what he did to taka and what celeste did to him. this is a guy with an inflated sense of justice from some sort of hero complex, and i think the guilt of realising he was manipulated into celeste's biddings would genuinely eat him alive. plus he's definitely accustomed to isolation, i think it would just be easier for him to grieve everything on his own rather than attempt to bond with people again. his classmates dont see hifumi for a WHILE. like nobody can get in contact with him and its kinda frightening. i also think he gets serious headaches a LOT, like genuinely nauseating headaches as a side effect from his death

headcanon d (unrealistic, but i will disregard canon about it): unreasonably good at karaoke. he only sings songs he likes and never takes requests but whenever he takes the mic suddenly he has an entirely different voice for some reason. he takes his anime themes SO seriously. his classmates are shocked literally every single time

headcanon ask game!!

[nartblartmallcop]

RIP to my dhmis fixation, lets honor it with a bunch of stuff i made and either wanted to pretty up some more or add more pics to before posting but now thats not happening

first off some things that i dont think really need an explanation

first quick sketches of other arts that i just really like and wanted to keep (yea the playlist icons started out as pics for selected red vox songs for each of them)

roy at the very moment where he realises the nature of the world he's in. shortly after this he turns into a gangly beast

pic based on the INCREDIBLE fic "Three Friends, Three Foes, Three Names They'll Never Know" by Eliza Farrow, specifically the quote "Red is love, and rage, warmth and war, luck and passion. Everything was there, under a thick plastering of apathy, his feelings tangled and violent like storms within clouds." from chapter 2 (i actually wanted to draw many things based on moments from the fic because it REALLY sparked my inspo when reading it)

i looked up different hairstyles you can do with freeform dreadlocks like the ones i gave radley and i had way more styles i wanted to do, but these two on their own are also nice

my take on that AU concept where yellow has to dad the other two

was thinking about how naive all three of them actually are and had the idea of an AU where all three of them are children. it would make no sense but thats not what its about it was all about the cute kiddo designs

i actually spent a good few weeks fighting the internal battle of my fucking life on if i would maybe want to change my human designs for radley and quentin cause i felt like the ones here would fit their puppets' appearances better, but i had already grown so attached to my original designs,,, it was a struggle

also my take on the "who used the chainsaw" discourse

quentin would fuck his boss for a promotion. if he hadn't freaked out about how he was brainwashed he would have gone for the gilf

humanization take on duck putting the smallest toast in the toaster: just busting out a flamethrower

radley fighting quentin's internalised racism AND homophobia in one swift sentence

a silly idea i had for a claire humanisation. didnt go with it but the concept is hilarious to me. she just has horns

so the idea i had for the tourism teacher oc (that i didnt make) was that they take the gang to germany for some jokes a la "wow this place is so exotic and strange!!!" when it's just one country to the right. they visit a döner kebab stand in this pic

wanted to use this to set up an arc where quentin locks himself back up in the closet and have it cotribute to some major mental health deterioration. cause i love performing the worst psychological torture on my faves

this started out as "potential tv show season 2 design designs" and then quickly turned into "quentin but hes older,,,, and grumpier,,,, AND in the beginnings of a villain arc" (pure self indulgence)

a height comparison that was my main basis for the refs i made

that shrek AU i promised ages ago. like i said above i really waned to add more to it before posting, at the very least the "Who are you trying to keep out?" "EVERYONE, OKAY?" scene

deltarune AU!! the idea was that yellow is a human who gets posessed by a PLAYER SOUL (a green one instead of red tho) and he goes into a dark world that appeared in his school, but the janitor, duck, sees him, tries to follow him and then he's suddenly in the dark world too! also his mop has come to life and is ridiculousy handsome.

and finally, a little crossover picture i made just before getting fully sucked up by tf2. i genuinely think the two franchises fit each other really nicely tonaly! and also red would 100% play a living meat shield class like heavy and duck would be all insane and violently enthusiastic like soldier. just try to change my mind

[leilost]

i saw you mention some ocs in that tag-the-oc that’s always on your mind. i’d love to hear a little bit about them!

Hiiii

I always describe Trishe Horton as a methodical plant enthusiast who's real intense about gardening and farming, bullet journaling/studying, and cooking for her loved ones. She's pan. She has a real soft earthy aesthetic that contrasts so well with her resting bitch face, firm tone, and dark humor.

I attach music genres to my ocs. It's how I make sense of them. Trishe isn't much of a music person (really my only oc where that's the case, pretty wild) but she's in the lofi beats, alt rock and folk rock, international jazz realms with a hint of r&b courtesy of her best friend, Di, another one of my ocs.

Trishe is hilarious to me. Her dialogue is so much fun, especially since her voice is in the lower register and the tone doesn't change too drastically when she speaks. Some examples of dialogue/Trishie actions:

"If I had the grim reaper’s number, I’d send him my location like three times a day. Just in case he wants to make his week a little more spicy. Perhaps break a few rules."

"Gender doesn’t create Haku. Haku creates gender,” Trishe explains. “That’s my claim. Furthermore, Haku is a dragon who disguises himself as an alleged human boy. So, that’s even more evidence that he doesn’t play by the rules of the straights. So, really, he’s genderless. Not androgynous at all if you look at the bigger picture. I can write a whole dissertation on this.”

Trishe would do these tedious dares like “Go outside and pick exactly 40 blades of grass with a pair of tweezers.” Everyone is like “We don’t have a lawn.” Trishe is like, “I’m aware,” with a dead serious face on.

She's very responsible despite how indifferent she is to hearing people describe her as such. She can't deny that she enjoys leading or facilitating things. Her tendency to be straightforward can get her in trouble, but she can and will provide cushion for loved ones whenever someone confronts her about it. Big reveal: She's actually one of my mushiest ocs.

If you ask her, she'll say she values honesty, spirituality and sour cream and onion chips.

Nadji White. This is my baby boy. He's been with me since I was like 13/14, and actually started out as a side character that I used to nurture one of my other characters for a bit, but as Nadj usually does he was like, "Naaaah, I'm stayin lol" and that he did.

Best way I can describe him is goofy new york nigga. Like, for real. He's always been that, but definitely has had some major development this year. Astronomical.

Lets start off with some random facts that come to mind. He's the eldest of four. He's heavy into comics (mainly Marvel) and viddy games. The genres of music I associate him with are (mainly...bc damn, he has so many playlists) diff kinds of rap but especially Chicago rap, funk - most of his music has funk elements, and alt r&b in the steve lacy/frank ocean arena. He also loves trap beats made from gaming music and old cartoon theme songs.

Also, he's very intense about cereal. Ask me to explain his theory about Kix. I dare you.

Nadji draws! Ask him and he'll say he's a graffiti artist first. Started out doing caricature art in high school, then moved to comics and graffiti and street art on both wall and canvas. He has an art collective that he puts together over the years, starting in high school (that I still haven't named lol). They too are my faves.

All of them brought together because of art but they like to think of themselves as a "we do whatever the fuck we feel" kind of crew so there are musicians, actors, and models. There's a photographer/filmmaker, someone crochets and makes rugs, someone does hair, they do comedy sketches, there's a fashion designers, someone paints. another dances. And so on.

Nadj is definitely a problematic fave. He can be a sweetie, but he's so damn mean when he wants to be. As well as selfish. Stupid lol. His growth as a character is one that even surprises me. Oh also should mention he is indeed a part of the alphabet mafia.

I'll leave it there for now. Thank you for asking bout my babies.

[anulithots]

Aww thank you so much <3

I don't have any idea how I made faer. I remember crocheting a large ball for faer head (very badly since it was just a base) whilst overheating because... this was not the plan! I was supposed to have a plan before diving into making faer!

(I wanted to make a joint system out of cardboard, but that didn't work, so I used wire instead. For some reason, I made faer arms floppy instead of posable, which works now if I'm going the puppet-like route, but I was so upset about it before, because I needed faer to keep faer arms up sometimes. I tried 'fixing it' by cutting faer back open at 3am and inserting extra wire which... kind of worked? It made some not-noticeable bumps ono faer arms, which I thought were super noticeable and I felt bad every time I looked at faer for a while afterwards because I thought I ruined faer. But alas, it was just me be anxious. And I think it's interesting to see how the creators made something, especially the more 'down portions', hence this anecdote. Thank you for the compliment <3)

And another little story - I used to watch 5-hour long needle felting videos for months on end because I wanted needle felting so bad. I cried on my birthday because I couldn't find it at the craft store, eventually one of my parent's friends got me a kit and I loved it a lot. By then I had already been watching and learning for years, so I made a bunny!

(proceeded to make a bunch of pipe cleaner dinosaurs and birds based off my grandma's old parakeets, they weren't that good tbh ;-;)

And the reason I had started to make Anuli impulsively was because my storytelling started as "making backstory for my crafts". This included a craft vs. toy war, as many yarn dolls I could make (they scared my mom when she would find them in random places) and dragons galore. (My crafting mistakes - like visible glue gun blobs - became their defining characteristics - like scars that they showcase because they are proud of it.) Every single story I ever wrote was about a craft I had made. The Land of the Fallen Fairies started like that, but after a lot of iterations and drawings and sketching, the dolls were very outdated. The previous two iterations didn't have dolls to go with them, and I was being quite perfectionistic about character writing at the time, so I convinced myself that the reason writing was becoming difficult was because I never wrote a story without a doll before. BUT I NEEDED THIS DOLL TO BE PERFECT.

Insert one day where my parents tell us not to use electronics (including my paper tablet that I handwrite everything on) so I needed something fallen fairy related to do otherwise I would explode.

Hence Anuli.

Fae took three months to make! Near the end, when I was coloring faer (I made faer face too light and ran out of that color as I transitioned to a darker shade of brown to better match the color of the tree's bark, so the color on faer palms and scattered around faer limbs is actually a yellow-green color, although it looks similar enough to faer muzzle, thankfully!) my parents were wondering why I was spending so much time on "useless hobbies" and it was a whole day of lecturing. I ended up finishing Anuli in the closet. (Which I think is pretty hilarious, as a lot of the land of the fallen fairies is written after 12pm in the closet.)

y mom was impressed when fae was finished. And to clarify - no one had liked my dolls that much before, said they were too scary. I posted pictures of previous ones on facebook (don't do facebook kids!) before, and all my aunties and grandparents wondered if I was okay. So the fact that you and others like this doll warms my heart. Thank you so much for that!

(Sometimes I like just the photo without any drawing on it the best... I can't take Anuli outside though. What to do.)

But if I change something for Anuli's appearance... faer doll self would have to change toooo....

(The only reason why faer leaves haven't canonically fallen off yet.)

*sigh* but... whump prompts.... alas, they have taken me.

I won't change the doll tho. Just pretend... faer leaves grow back? PRETEND?

[charmixpower]

Share your headcanons about each of the Winx couples if you have some! One per couple, for example.

*vibrates out of my seat* Ok, so—

Flora/Helia

Helia will own a sweater for exactly two minutes before Flora decides it's hers now, she likes how cozy they are, Helia just accepts that all of his sweaters are now co-owned

Flora knew what kind of brush Helia was using because Flora is an artist too. Helia mostly does impressionistic art, but Flora being a biology and chemistry nerd only does hyper detailed technical drawings. Helia asks to see her sketch book and it's half chemical diagrams and half super intense botanical illustrations, he's super impressed

Flora definitely braids Helia's hair...it looks so silky...she's obessed

Both Helia and Flora are secretly not as non violent as they seem, Helia being ready and willing to attack when ever sufficiently motivated vs Flora being super passive agressive when ever she gets too annoyed... They think it's funny when people push them too far and they both utterly destroy the fool that stepped to them while still looking like the less violent/agressive party

Helia gets some super fancy glass flowers for Flora as a gift, partly because he was very scared of offending her with picked flowers, Flora loves them and has no clue about Helia's suffering

Tecna/Timmy

In season two/three when Tecna finally starts expressing her emotions instead of repressing them she becomes hyper verbal just talking about everything and anything she likes at Timmy, Timmy loves this

Tecna due to repressing her emotions her whole life tends to get overwhelmed by her feelings and be unable to place them (esp when she first started emoting again), Timmy researches the hell out of emotional stuff to put together a little check list for Tecna for her to figure out how she's feeling

They both use eachother as a rubber ducky, Timmy will ramble for several hours about his English essay to a utterly confused Tecna and vice versa

Tecna hates being cold after the Omega Dimension...Timmy always has something warm on hand when he's with her

Tecna is surprisingly jealous, Timmy thinks this is utterly fucking hilarious

Timmy around s3 gets a lot more confidence with the help of Tecna's encouragement, he's not the most confident guy in the world but he no longer feels ashamed for existing

Timmy will wake up to the fire alarm, grab the fire extinguisher, and put of Tecna's most recent creation in a matter of seconds

She is now banned form the kitchen, unless shes scrambling eggs

Tecna takes great offence because Timmy can't cook well either, he counters this with the fact he's never set the kitchen on fire

Sky/Bloom

I literally refuse to believe that Domino would allow it's one princess to go and marry into another royal family, so Sky is marrying into Bloom's family

Sky is actually on pretty bad terms with his family bc hes always kinda found Disapo uncomfortable and kinda possessive, and he voiced this to his parents multiple times before she mind controlled him—so he straight up just follows Bloom to where ever she's going to avoid dealing with all that

Neither of them have any plans for the future and it shows, Bloom is bad at thinking in the future, and this is the first time Sky has ever had a choice in what he does and he has no clue what to do with it

Sky doesn't really have like?? Life goals or non pre approved hobbies so he's like completely lost in what to do in life..Bloom isn't much better, someone please help them

Both Bloom and Sky hate making decisions so they just kinda look at eachother everytime they need to do something, they play rock paper scissors to determine who has to make the dreaded decision

Both Bloom and Sky love romantic comedies and dramatic movies, they can and will spend a whole day just watching movies

If they bought a house together, Bloom would want to do all the home improvement stuff themselves. Que montage of them learning everything they need to know and doing it together dorkly. At least one paint fight happened

Both of them are utterly terrified that Kiko and Lady won't get along so they keep them separate

Both of them have chronic "I just got out of chollage and I have no fucking clue what I'm going to do with myself" syndrome

They don't actually do real dates, they just hang out and act likes dorks with eachother. They decide if it's a date or just hanging out afterwards

Sky tries really hard to teach Bloom manners for when ever she has to enter high society, unfortunately he also has not that great manners... Brandon got more manners training than him for when he had to pretend to be Sky at Red Fountain... Sky knows enough to teach Bloom the basics, but they end up learning the rest together after rigorous googling and excessive calls/text to Brandon Stella and Aisha

Mike and Vanessa are slowly absorbing Sky into the family, he has not realized yet... Vanessa very much approves of this dork

Sky's parents fucking hate Bloom and always will, Bloom does not mind because she also thinks they should kick rocks

Sky fucking hates glamours but also really wants to go to earth with Bloom and being obviously an alien doesn't help her.... Still complains about it constantly

Bloom some times swings between anger and fear due to her trauma and Sky has gotten really good at removing her from stressful situations

Aisha/Nabu

Aisha free climbed a rocky wall while her energy was being sapped in Darkar's lair, girl is muscular as hell. Nabu closest friends as a child was his security team, guy is muscular as hell. Aisha challenges Nabu to every strength and stamina competition under the sun... He's too chill to be super into competitions but he refuses to make winning easy

Aisha is anxious, agressive, impatient, and hyper emotional, Nabu on the opposite side is like the calmest guy ever. They balance each other out

Aisha has a hard time socializing due to her very isolated upbringing, Nabu is very charismatic and takes control of social interactions for her

Aisha has a hard time finding outfits that both let her move easily and are also super cute, Nabu goes with her to help her shop. He has a good fashion sense but really he's just there to constantly compliment her and make her blush

Nabu eventually gets her an outfit like his purple robe one and she loves it

Nabu is 90% of Aisha's impulse control and this shows when ever she's left alone with Riven for an amount of time

Aisha straight up ran away from her controlling parents, Nabu did the same thing when he found out his parents who barely pay any attention to him were putting him into an arranged marriage, but Nabu is still on speaking terms with his parents despite how they neglected him and tried to make him marry someone who definitely was not ok with it. Aisha is supportive of Nabu trying to repair his relationship with his parents

She secretly desperately wants to do the same but is utterly terrified of the idea that her parents will just not care... Nabu gives her as much support as he can

Aisha hates team sports but with Nabu she finds them tolerable, Nabu thinks this is funny as hell

Aisha has trust issues and co-dependacy issues, Nabu is super emotionally intelligent and can navigate these pretty well but very early on realizes that Ashia had it fucking ROUGH and is trying to get her to feel safe getting help (she's scared of being mocked when taking about her issues)

Nabu is utterly enchanted by Aisha's morphix and askes a million questions, Aisha is so happy to be with someone who wants to listen to her

Aisha doesn't get jealous if someone flirts with Nabu she gets scared, Nabu always turns these instances to talk up Aisha and how much he loves her until she stops getting worried that he'll abandon her

Funnily enough, Aisha does not register when people are flirting with her at all, like she'll think she's having a nice conversation and drop the fact that she has a boyfriend and get really confused when her new friend is all upset... Nabu knows he shouldn't find it that funny but it's so fucking funny to him

Ashia teaches Nabu how to dance, he takes to it like a fish to water. Aisha loves it when he dances with her

Nabu, as the only guy who can do magic, often spars with Aisha bc he's unlikely to be crushed like a bug like the other guys would be

They both are kinda annoyed they like eachother so much bc that means they're technically going though with the arranged marriage—they spend hours trying to find a way to make it clear they're only together because they like each other... Can't stick it to your parents when you actually like the person your getting forcefully engaged to

They hold off any sort of engagement anything on principle

NABU HAS A LONG AND HAPPY LIFE, FUCK YOU CANON, WE ARE NOT FRIENDS

Stella/Brandon

Brandon and Stella are the first to get engaged! They have a lot of talks about what they want in life, and their future

The most stable couple, half because Brandon is chill as fuck and half because Stella makes sure that they talk and spend time together (bc she doesn't wanna end up like her parents)

They constantly have date nights, most of which Stella plans out

I genuinely think that Brandon would of felt deeply uncomfortable dating Stella while lying about his identity, so he told her that he was being required to lie about something by the royal family, this made the reveal a lot less painful for them

Due to neglect, Stella will get genuinely depressed if people aren't paying attention to her (because positive attention from strangers is all she could get as a child) Brandon trys to help her with this by reminding her that she doesn't need to do anything special to deserve love. It's slow going but Brandon is one of the few people she doesn't worry about abandoning her if shes less than perfectly happy and the simple person people assume she is

Stella starts designing men's fashion and Brandon gets to model :)))

Brandon and Stella are a very public couple and Brandon accepts this as part of dating Stella, Stella just really wants the Solaria people to like Brandon so he doesn't have to deal with a near constant smear campaign against him. Stella's plan to make Brandon beloved by the public works like a charm btw

Stella doesn't get jealous. Like she doesn't get worried that Brandon is going to leave her bc she knows she's a catch, however deeply dislikes it when people seriously flirt with Brandon as a matter of disrespect towards her—however she doesn't mind when Brandon flirts with other because she knows it means nothing

Brandon doesn't get jealous, period

Stella thinks than most of the reason people are around her is because she's pretty, funny and simple to be around, so she spends a fuck ton of time being preoccupied with her image and how she presents to people. Brandon has started taking her on super private dates so she can chill for once in her life

Chimera is still around, free from her abusive mother, and the most annoyingly protective litte sister in the world. Brandon finds this highly amusing, but also wishes he didn't have to convince Chimera that he is worth being kept around

Stella is the only other member of the Winx Club that has a good singing voice, Flora has a decent one and Musa ya know, so some times Stella will put on a cheesey love song while they to chores together and sing it to Brandon as best she can

Brandon is one of the most well protected people in the universe. While the other girls tend to get sad when their boyfriend is hurt, Stella mostly gets pissed at who ever had the audacity (after making sure Brandon was ok first)

Both Brandon and Stella thrive in organized chaos, they both always know where everything is despite how everything is thrown every where

Brandon is Stella's impulse control except he never bothers to actually stop her most of the time

Brandon actually really likes fashion and tries to help Stella design clothes. He's not the best in the world at it but Stella is just ecstatic that he's taking interest in her passions

Stella and Brandon definitely have a couples Instagram

Stella asked Brandon out at a gala when Brandon was still pretending to be Sky, at this point Brandon was pretty used to Eraklyon nobles (who are generally kinda the worst) and was afraid of an incident—Stella was drunk when this happened and felt super embarrassed that she put Brandon on the spot like that. Brandon mostly agreed to keep dating her bc she admitted fault without promoting, and as the guy who was required to be around people like Diaspro constantly, he thought that was a very admirable trait

They probably spend the most time together out of all the other couples while everyone is still living separate of course

Stella is always a mile a minute and Brandon loves just kinda watching her do stuff... Local man is enamored

Brandon often drags Stella to comfortable places to chill the fuck out, she falls asleep on him constantly when he does this and he thinks it's adorable

When the lie is revealed, Stella cuts contact with Brandon for a while, then they had a honest conversation™️ they're both very secure in eachother and their relationship after this

Stella often just watches Brandon exercise, one time she brought snacks and a drink like she was watching a movie, Brandon is torn between laughing and being flattered

Stella is actually surprisingly muscular. Half as weight management, half because shes near constantly training her fairy form. Brandon suddenly understands why she brought snacks to watch him train

Stella can pick Brandon up if she wanted to, Brandon doesn't know exactly what emotion this fact inspires in him but he's definitely feeling a lot of it

PDA PDA PDA PDA PDA PDA

Stella probably helps Brandon train as it also helps her train her control, but she's always terrifying of accidentally hurting him bc she's VERY powerful

Stella loves being carried by Brandon, Brandon loves carrying Stella. This makes them both super happy and I love them your honor

Musa/Riven

Musa, seeing Riven sitting down with nothing in his lap: oh?? My seat, a seat for me????

These two are touching eachother constantly. Hands on shoulder, Musa sitting on him even though theirs open chairs, Riven resting his chin and arms on her despite the instant retribution. These two are very touchy

Musa teaches Riven how to play the guitar, this is very cute

Musa writes love songs about Riven, we all know this, but also after Musa teaches Riven how to play the guitar he writes one for her :) it's bad but Musa is so fucking touched by him going out of his way to do this that she loves it anyway

Musa is an easy crier and Riven has like the worst relationship anxiety, what I'm saying is that his song made Musa burst out into sobs (bc she was so happy) and he instantly panicked bc "SHIT THIS WAS NOT HOW IT WAS SUPPOSED TO GO"

During a private emotional vulnerability moment™️ Riven called Musa "baby" in like this super soft gentle affectionate way, and then he just kinda...kept calling her that. It caught Musa utterly off guard the first time he says it in public. She's not sure why Riven settled on that perticualr nickname, but he says is with such pure affection that she melts every time

Both Riven and Musa react very badly to feelings of fear, embarrassment and other trauma things, but they both feel so safe around eachother at this point they don't have these reactions bc they know the other won't pounce on any visible weakness like people did to them in the past

Riven feels absolutely useless to Musa, which sometimes makes him panic and think that Musa is going to leave him for someone thats more useful. With promoting form his therapist, and a lot of effort to put aside his fear of embarrassment, he told Musa this and now anytime he feels like this they have a cuddle session

Musa doesn't have a lot of self confidence I think, she tries to project it but he's hypersensitive and hyper emotional. At first she delt with these feelings by attempting to push people away and seeing if anyone would stick by her, but now she just tells Riven and he tries his best to lavish her with compliments until she feels better

Riven is trying his absolute best to impress Musa's dad... Her dad finds the effort endearingly awkward

Musa asked Riven out very early into s2 and he straight up said "No, I'm a mess right now and don't have the emotional capacity for this." He offered to be friends and she accepted, but the idea of Riven recognizing he's not ready for another relationship in s2 fills me with joy

Musa's first album was written while she was at Alfea about all the earth shattering events going on around her, then she put together an album out of her older songs about her mom and newer more personal songs; her third album is co-written by Riven and it's just a bunch of sappy love songs about how they got to the point their at... It was partly inspired by Riven's attempt at writing a love song for Musa

I think Musa would be utterly obsessed with cute things despite her outwardly standoffishness, I also think that Riven would get/buy her a fuck ton of plushies... She loves them

Musa makes a comment about changing her style to be less tomboy egirl meets depression, and Riven jokingly tells her if she ever wants to grow out her hair that he needs a warning in advance so he gets time to mourn

On that note, Riven constantly plays with Musa's hair. He loves her hair so much

After the Winx Club gets famous, and by proxy their boyfriend, Riven gets a call from the parent that abandoned him. He gives the phone to Musa so she can listen to the voicemail instead of him, and much cuddles were had after wards

Riven likes to use Musa as a pillow, Musa does the exact same thing, this leads to them always ending tangled up when they sleep in the same bed

Musa is fiercely protective over Riven... Dude has gotten fucked up in every season finale (1-3) and Musa is sick of it. The next mother fucker to touch Riven is getting their hand chopped off

Both of them worry that their personalities aren't worth dealing with but they've had so many conversations about how much they care about eachother and wanna make this work that when these feeling do come up they know that they other doesn't feel that way

They're both able to ground the other super quickly when they start getting too emotional and falling into old habits

They both don't really want to make any big plans and are very happy going one step at a time with eachother, they plan for the future sure but they're not like setting anything in stone and this works for them

They both are always ready to go up to bat for another. They both tend to attract shitty people and they protect eachother—people trying to pick fights with Riven triggering him to slide back into agressive ways, people mocking Musa for being over emotional?? No longer, these people are very agressively shut down

I can see them deciding to travel together. Not settling down in one place and just spending time with eachother

They spent a lot of time figuring out what scares the other and what makes them feel safe in s3 to the point where they just have like a list of phrases they constantly say to reaffirm the other

They tease and mock eachother constantly, they have a very cute dynamic going on where they always have to have the last word in their little joke arguments—these usually end in one kissing the other in a attempt to get them to (affectionately) shut up

If Musa things something is really funny she'll laugh super loudly with her whole body and Riven thinks this is the cutest thing in the world and tries to get her to do this constantly

Neither of them feel fear for the future anymore

They probably moved in with eachother the fastest

They're both huge on physical PDA but hate saying overly emotional things in public. It just makes them nervous

Neither of them are keen on getting married super quickly like Sky/Bloom and Stella/Brandon, they probably get married in their 30s—or when they get sick of being condescended for not being married by the media

Musa learned some healing magic just in case, she's not good at it but she's worried

Both of them have the Magix equivalent of Twitter bc after "were always on tv" Stella/Brandon they're the most public relationship of the Winx Club bc of Musa's music. It's mostly them tweeting random compliments at eachother and both of them needing to be reminded by their therapist not to fight with idiots on twitter

Musa is a bit of an adrenaline junkie, no where near as bad as Riven, but she thinks that riding with him on the back of his hover bike is fun as hell

We all know that Stella love Brandon's shoulders but Musa is the same way about Riven's arms. If she's sleeping next to him she WILL cuddle his arm, Riven thinks this is adorable

They both easily slide into being domestic with eachother. Waking up in tangled limbs, groggily making coffee and breakfast???? Yeah that's their dream and their living it

Riven for obvious reasons is pretty uncomfortable around powerful magic being close to him in any capacity, dragon fire empowered Darcy is a thing of his nightmares and being nearly killed by Darkar and—, but he also hates flinching away from Musa so their doing exposure therepy by just vibing with Musa in her Enchantix form. It still freaks Riven out but he's feeling calmer about it by the day

I think they're both super affectionate in private, like when their alone in the quiet moments in the early morning or late at night is when their relationship is at its peek

Riven is very high energy and extroverted when he is not dealing with a fuck ton of personal issues, which is balanced out by Musa's generally introverted tendencies

Riven has no impulse control and much to Nabu's eternal chagrin Musa is a enabler

They're intensely chill in their relationship, yeah they still have issues they need to talk though but they always do the work and the taking

[pollyna]

The Sunnyside of the Iceman

- tattoo shop!au: Sundown and Iceman are the owner of the most ridiculously named tattoes shop in Miramar;

- they were both pilots, but racism and the commie witch hunt did the trick on them. Doesn't matter that Ice was the best and Sundown already flown more mission that he could remember;

- Slider used to be his RIO and now he's Goose's and Ice swears in seven languages (that he speaks) that if one of them isn't going to ask out to the other he is going to do that for them. It's fucking embarrassing. Ice loves his best friend but he can't live with all that secondhand embarrassment for much longer;

- Sundown says that Chip says that they even get worse since they were called in Top Gun and Jesus, seriously Sunny? (Chip is Sun's boyfriend and he's knows all the little gossip that makes Ice laughs for days at time);

- Sun and Chip met two weeks in the program and it took them three years to speak about feelings. Ice would like to know if every single navy pilot is emotionally slow;

- they bought the shop for almost a penny because the lady didn't know what to do with it and Ice knows how to smiles when he wants to;

- Ice's first tattoo is on Sun's left wrist, the silhouette of a Tomcat F-14. Sun's first is on Ice's biceps, a colourful little things that he says represent the patch of Iceman's first squadron. Tom finds himself looking at it for hours, even if it's already four years old;

- They're close on Monday but once a month it's on Sunday because Marcus has his monthly meeting with his granma and he takes Ice with him because it's hilarious watching his 95 years old granny telling her friends, and the pastor, that this is the white Jewish boy I adopted! Ice looks pleasantly embrassed and his humor gets better and better everytime his plate gets filled;

- they hear about Maverick, for the first time, a cloudy day where half of Miramar is in their shop and Slider has his arm around Goose and their noses are so closed they could kiss, even without trying. Chip says he's half crazy up in the sky and that Merlin actually prayed during their third hop. They see Maverick for the first time four week in to the program and the first thing he says to Iceman is it's all your fault if Goose isn't my RIO and the silence is the only sound he hears back and then he's out of the door before anyone can move;

- Sun brings out the heavy alcohol for that night and Iceman finished between Slider and Goose, drawing new tattoes and trying to know knock his friends head together. The next morning the designs are still pretty cool, Slider&Goose are cuddling but nothing happend. He hoped Sun had made his special eggs, he deserves a treat;

- Maverick is back a week later, looking like someone had just kicked his dog and with a pie, a I'm sorry pie apparently. It was uncalled for, I'm sorry he says before shifting half of his attention to the last schematics Ice draw. I-would you be willing to tattoo that on me? It's freaking awsome and Marcus' job are great but I want to first one to that, Ice is almost going to say no to him but the pie is an apple one and Maverick is looking at the drawing like he's seeing something sacred and he can't tell him no. (For visual is something like this);

- so, as Sunny whispers to Chip adding the last details to his last tattoo, the Mitchell-Kazansky drama is beginning. Chip laughs before kissing him, and we have the front row tickets;

- Mav becomes a regular in the shop and in their lives long after the tattoo is done and he has the propensity of moving people around to be as close to Iceman as he can;

- they, Chip&Sun&Slider&Goose, bet on how much time is going to take them to realise that Mav kissing Ice's forehead when he's sketching is something 'friends do' and what the two assholes are going to do about that;

- in the end, and fucking finally Iceman would say, Goose asks Slider out for a date and it goes so bad they're back in the shop the very next afternoon screaming at eachother until Chip doesn't gently shows Slider against Goose's chest and than it's just so perfectly quiet. Because they're kissing. Ice brings champagne out for dinner, they all deserve it and maybe, maybe, he's going to find the courage to take Mav's hand in his and kiss him before the end of the night;

- Sun doesn't want to know, he just wants their shop free of drama, and let his boyfriend take him up in the sky after hours.

[starlitangels]

Crochet and Sketches

Was having Huxley thoughts yesterday. Wrote this today for those thoughts 1.3k words (short but sweet)

—

I opened the door. “C’mon in Hux,” I said with a smile.

“Hey dude,” Huxley greeted, stepping over the threshold. The grin on his face was smaller than usual. Had been ever since the Inversion.

“Have a seat. What brings you by? Can I get you a drink?” I gestured to the couch. Hux perched on the edge of the cushion.

“No thanks, I’m good. I, uh, brought you something,” he said. He patted the cushion next to his. I went and sat beside him. From within the pocket of his athletic shorts, he pulled out something made of yellow and green yarn. “This, uh, this is for you.”

I took it from his offering hand and unrolled it. “What is it?” I asked curiously.

“I-it’s a doily.” He picked at some dirt under one of his fingernails and refused to meet my eyes. “It’s for that succulent I gave you when I was moving—so you can put it under the pot and keep whatever surface its on a little cleaner.”

I studied the little decoration. “Huxley—did you make this?” The inside half was yellow, and the outside half was green—like a flower sitting on leaves. In certain spots I could see where the yarn was a little loose, but there was care and attention in every stitch.

I looked up and met Huxley’s eyes. So vibrant green it was almost unnatural. “Yeah. Yeah, I did,” he admitted, quickly looking away.

I wrapped my arms around him. “It’s beautiful. When did you learn to crochet?”

He gestured vaguely—awkwardly—with his hands. “My moms taught me when I was a kid,” he said. “Knit, crochet. The whole gamut. But, uh, I haven’t really done any-a that in a while. My...” He cleared his throat. “My therapist recommended I start it up again. Said the repetitive motions are really good for de-stressing.”

I nodded as understanding hit me. He was being awkward about it because of how we tended to dance around talking about therapy and the reason we were both in it.

I got up from the couch and went to the succulent on the end table nearest the living room window in my apartment. I picked up the small clay pot and set the doily under it. “Look at that,” I said with a smile. “It looks perfect.” I turned back to face my friend. “Thank you, Hux. It’s beautiful, and I love it.”

Hux kept avoiding my gaze and fidgeting. “It’s no problem, Freelancer.”

“Dude, look at me,” I requested softly. Hux met my eyes. “Thank you. Really.”

There was his smile. A little melancholy still, but at least it was there. “You’re welcome, Freelancer.”

“If it makes you feel any better, I’ve started drawing again at the suggestion of my therapist,” I said. I reached into the same end table’s drawer and withdrew my small sketchbook. The big one was back in my bedroom—and my Elemental friends were not allowed to look at it. The sheer amount of Gavin completely naked I’d drawn—or, rather, attempted to draw—would get me so much crap from them. Even if it was hilarious imagining how red Lasko would get in the face at the sight. None of them were allowed to see it.

I handed Huxley the small sketchbook.

“Go ahead. Flip through. There’s nothing... Inversion in there.”

Huxley flipped open the front cover. On the first page, I’d drawn my new family. The group shot we’d taken at the restaurant we’d had dinner at after my performance at the E&E Games.

Huxley touched the page with his fingertips, almost reverently.

“I-it’s a little rough,” I said. “I mean, I haven’t really drawn anything in... God, it’s been years. Since, like, three years before I told my parents about my powers and... y’know.” I cleared my throat. “Moved here.” Lasko was the only one of my friends who knew the whole story of what happened between me and my blood relatives after I told them about my powers, but all my friends knew my parents hadn’t taken it well.

“It looks great,” Huxley said. “I can tell exactly who’s who, even without looking at the photo.”

I smiled. “Thanks.”

“Mind if I leaf through?”

“Go ahead.”

I leaned back casually on my couch and let him flip through the pages at his leisure. My art had taken a near-five-year break from the time I met Caelum for the first time to now, but using it to see the joy in my life again at the suggestion of my therapist had helped more than I thought it might.

Occasionally Hux would look up and ask questions about what I’d drawn. Book characters, TV show characters, friends from my old life, a few blood relatives. I had to lie when he found the picture I’d drawn of Caelum and say he was from a book I’d read as a kid.

After he made it through the pages I’d filled in, he handed it back to me. “Guess we’re both finding coping mechanisms,” he said.

I nodded. “Yeah. And that’s a good thing, right?”

He nodded too. “Hell yeah, dude.”

I flipped through my sketchbook back to the page of a picture I’d drawn more from memory than any photo on my phone. It was Huxley holding me up by my ankle while I dangled with a grumpy look on my face, arms folded to keep my shirt from falling up too high. He’d been teasing me while we were out at a park with Lasko and Damien. He’d hoisted me up when I’d told him he probably couldn’t. Lasko had a blurry picture that he’d taken hastily, but he’d never sent it to either me or Hux. So the drawing was from memory.

I took a picture of the drawing with my phone—

And promptly tore it out of the book.

“Whoa—dude—what are you doing?” Hux asked.

I leaned closer and held the page out to him. “Take it. I want you to have it,” I said.

“No. Freelancer, I can’t—”

“The damage is done, Hux. I already tore it out. You might as well keep it.” I shook the page at him. “Please.”

Tenderly, he took the paper from my hand. “Thank you, Freelancer. Really. I promise I’ll take good care of it.”

I shrugged. “It’s a piece of paper, dude,” I said.

“Yeah. But it’s special. Because it came from someone special. And it’s got a special memory on it. So it should be treated with the respect and care all that deserves.” Hux held the drawing close to him, shrugging slightly.

I smiled. Small, but still touched. “Thanks, Hux,” I said. Settling back against the back of the sofa, I folded my arms. “So. Did you just stop by to drop off the doily or do you wanna chill for a bit? I’m down for ordering out or making something, if you’re hungry.”

Huxley grinned. “I’m down to chill. I’m not hungry yet.”

“Ya wanna get your ass kicked at Smash?”

That got a real laugh out of him. Throaty and deep. Big. His old laugh—from back when we were first getting to know each other. “Oh-ho,” he teased. “Big talker.”

“C’mon, Hux. We both know you can beat me. I’m just smack talking.”

“I know, Freelancer. But... thanks. You always know how to make us all laugh.”

I shrugged. “Natural talent.”

Huxley chuckled. “Alright. If you think you can handle it, I’m down to kick your ass at Smash, Freelancer.”

I laughed and got up. “We shall see, Huxley. We. Shall. See.”

[anime-grimmy-art]

Hahhaa, well, that escalated quickly XDD  After drawing the “I won’t say I’m in love” sketch, I couldn’t get this idea out of my head XD This AU kinda has some changes compared to the actual Disney Hercules story, so here a list of things I thought of while drawing: -Ofc, Kim would be Hercules, but I couldn't see Ron taking over the Meg role and just making him Pegasus is boring (I also don't like KiGo, so yeah). So instead I made "Hercules" both Ron and Kim. My idea is that Kim is the actual child of Zeus and Hera (James and Ann) and Ron either is another god's kid or sth like a godly spirit. Instead of Herc making his legend, there already are prophecies of a hero defeating the titans. Being ancient times, ofc you'd think they boy is the actual threat. So, in the kidnapping scene, Pain and Panic (2 of Drakken's Henchmen) just take both babies, cos they don't know which one is the supposed hero, but still make Kim drink the most of the juice stuff. The parent's who adopt the two are Ron's parents from the show. With the prophecy being a know thing, the parents try to "train" Ron aka just implanting the idea that he is a chosen hero even though Kim is the one with powers. So, the movie would be a mix of Herc's actual journey and constant misunderstandings cos Kim does all the work while Ron thinks it's all his doing. - I also like to imagine in all the years they talk to Zeus' statue, Ron actually doesn't understand that James doesn't even talk to him but to Kim. It fit his character too, cos he's the type to babble on and on and not catch that he's not the focus at all. - As for abilities, Kim is basically the same as in the series, just with super strength. Think the ep where she gets Higo's powers. Ron himself ain't a pushover tho, cos he still is a divine deity. I'd say it's pretty much like in the show too. Super speed, endurance and resiliance with a good dose of dumb luck. - I toned down Phil's role cos both Kim and Ron already encourage each other. Still, Phil would be played by Mr. Barkin. Just imagining him giving in to training them and it cuts to him in full war gear and saying "Ok, listen up people". It just makes me chuckle. - The one to push Kim out of the falling pillars way would be Ron. (I couldn't see Shego do it) So Kim does go to hell and takes back Ron's soul and the end is basically the same, where she says she's going to stay on earth with Ron. And when the depart from Olympus, it would pan to James and Ann and he'd go "well, Roland could have stayed here too, he did show an act of a true hero" - Now for a bit more complicated stuff, Shego and Drakken. Since I'd love "misunderstanding" to be a running joke in this AU, Drakken, for one, doesn't understand til after "I won't say I'm in love" that the threat actually isn't Ron but Kim. The other thing he doesn't get is that Shego is his "assistant" by choice. Drakken thinks that, like in the movie, he saved Shego's old lover and took her soul for it. In actuality, Shego saved her previous partner's ass but he dumped her anyways, so she cursed him with Drakken's help. I'd like to think Dr. D presented her the contract and was busy monologuing while Shego edited the contract to her liking. First of, her old partner wouldn't be saved, but cursed, and that she had "hell priviledge", so, even though she's a living being, she could go in and out of hell as she pleases. - Cerberus would be a three headed Commodore Puddles. - I like to think that Shego still has her green glow attack thingy, just with limitations. My idea's that she got hit with hellfire at some point, before she even met Drakken, and she can now use it but only for a limited amout of time before it burns her. Her powers were also the reason Drakken tried to recruit her. - Back to the part about misunderstandings. The idea for this AU actually started because of me doodling fanart of Shego with her singing "I won't say I'm in love". The way it would play out is that Drakken sends her on a date with Ron to find his weakness (even though she knows he's not the problem). Ofc she cringes through the day and it's super awkward and in the end Ron kinda turns her down, which, ofc, makes her mad. Thankfully, before anything happens, Mr. Barkin shows up, just like Phil does, and they leave. Shego is super frustrated as she sits on a bench and she mindlessly picks flowers off a bush. She asks herself why tf she even does stupid stuff like that when she picks a blue flower. Cue "I won't say I'm in love". Now, I'd find it hilarious when the muses join in, thinking Shego is singing about Ron, when rly she is thinking about something (or someone?) else. (kinda ambiguous if she just does it for villanous life or for Drakken). But the whole sequence would be her bumping into Ron statues, the muses all swooning, when Shego acutally flinches away cos she got embarrased as she got a  glimps of a hades wall painting or sth - After that stuff, they have an argument and Shego finally makes see that Ron doesn't need to have a weakness, cos he IS the weakness. Mr. Barkin doesn't see them cos it's not relevant for the plot. The rest kinda plays out like in the movie. Ron is the one Drakken has hostage and he makes a deal with Kim. Ron and Kim would be sore at each other cos Ron was enjoying all the glory for the work KIM did and Kim felt underappreciated. So, even though Ron tries to stop her, Kim goes and gets beaten up. Mr. Barkin still gives the pep talk like Phil did, but Kim and Ron manage to defeat the titan with team work (they did BOTH have Mr.Barkin's training after all). Yeah, then Ron gets crushed, Kim gets her powers back and yadda, yadda - Oh, and last thing, gods actually have names and titles. So, Zeus' name is James but he has the title of Zeus. Drakken's name is Drew and his title is Hades, but being the petty dude he is, he went with sth original. The Dr. is him just flexing tho. Phew, that was a lot, but I had a lot of time to think while designing these AU versions. If I think of more, I'll add on to it.

[neverendingdream111]

GENSHIN IMPACT AS IDOLS

- one of the groups consists of: Zhongli, Childe, Venti, Xiao, Diluc, Kaeya and Albedo

- Zhongli is the leader and the oldest obvsly and his smooth deep voice is to die for

- He's also the visual along with Albedo (tho everyone here is gorgeous, ngl)

- Childe constantly switches between rap and vocal, but he's mostly recognized for his amazing dancing (he's the main dancer for a reason)

- Venti is the main vocal and possibly writes most of their songs (sometimes Albedo helps him)

- Funnily enough, Venti is often confused for being the maknae while in reality he's the second oldest in the group

- Xiao is the main rapper

- He refuses to sing but would do it if asked (rarely)

- and he's the real maknae - even tho he hates it he can't do anything about it (and everyone, especially Venti and Childe, loves teasing him for it)

- Diluc and Kaeya are the other rappers along with Xiao and they are related in some way tho both refuse to reveal anything to the public (but everyone is convinced they're brothers)

- they don't get along most of the time and argue constantly, but it only amuses the rest of the members and the fans absolutely love their arguments bc it more often than not turns into a rap battle

- and let me tell you, they completely kill it

- then, we have Albedo. He and Zhongli are the most peaceful ones and most likely keep the team together bc if not those idiots would've caused absolute chaos eons ago

- His voice is angelic, everyone adores it

- Childe and Kaeya are the most chaotic duo especially together

- they have the stupidest ideas and like to mess around

- and they are perfectly aware of their god-like looks and also have the audacity to use it "against" their fans (not that anyone complains)

- they are partners in crime when it comes to teasing Diluc

- Kaeya does it on a daily basis and Childe found it funny and decided to join him on causing inconvenience to others, lol

- Xiao, even though he's an idol, hates interacting with humans but makes an exception for fanmeetings, concerts, interviews and such because Zhongli raised him right--

- he has a soft spot for cats and would have one at the dorm if it wasn't for Venti being allergic to them (although he doesn't see any problem with it)

- speaking of the dorm, it's the pure definition of destruction

- Childe and Kaeya being the little shits they are room together and they are that kind of roommates that would blast music on full volume in the middle of the night just because they felt like it (but obvsly they do it to summon a demon in the form of sleep deprived Diluc because they know he's a light sleeper)

- Venti at some point moved in with them bc he felt like it and it's totally not because Xiao kicked him out--

- Zhongli and Diluc share a room because they both know how to appreciate a moment of peace and they just like each other's company; their perfect afternoon on their day off is sitting there with a cup of tea each and exchanging stories they've heard and/or experienced

- Albedo is probably the only person Xiao would room with excluding Zhongli (and maybe Diluc but it's debatable) because he's calm and collected, doesn't talk too much unlike the other three and when he does talk it's nice to listen to him

- also, the sound of sketching calms him down

- Venti somehow lives in all of the rooms in the dorm. First he roomed with Xiao and Albedo, but he got kicked out by the maknae. Then he gravitated towards Zhongli and Diluc but after a few days the redhead got so annoyed with him he ended up with Childe and Kaeya. The three of them share a braincell, that's why they get along so well, but even though he lives with them he sometimes ends up in the other rooms but that's just him

- he likes a change of scenery, ehe

- Zhongli's the dad of the group

- whenever someone has a problem they automatically go to him

- also, even though they are a really chaotic group, they are equally capable of working together (main reason why they are so goddamn awesome on stage)

- Xiao might act like he doesn't care but he does. A lot

- every time one of his hyungs is having a bad day he subtly tries to cheer them up. He feels awkward with words in these moments and physical contact isn't really his forte but instead he does things like buying them their favorite snack, or opting to watch their favorite film with them (even if he absolutely hates it he still would watch it)

- everyone obvsly knows what he's doing and they appreciate it

- Childe and Kaeya actually aren't as easy-going as they like to appear on stage. They are really emotional human beings and are probably most affected by hate comments and such

- Diluc, as much as he despises their attitude and teasing he has to endure bc of them, cares about them a lot and usually he's the one to knock some sense in them when they believe the haters or just have a bad day. He may not like their behavior but he's not heartless and deems them as family (even tho he wouldn't admit it)

- Albedo isn't a lot older than Xiao, maybe something around a few months, so everyone thinks of him like a second maknae and just because he gives off the vibe, y'know

- He loves drawing and sometimes does a sketch of one of the members or recreates a fanart of them he saw on Pinterest (cue to the fans going wild)

- He, alongside with Diluc, often cooks for them. They both are amazing cooks and I refuse to believe otherwise

- Venti has a playlist prepared for every occasion and uses them accordingly

- he also has playlists dedicated to every member of the group and it's his way of cheering them up or being there for them when they are separated

- as for the run episodes, well.... It can be described in one word

- chaos

- they're even capable of riling Zhongli up!

- tho he mostly opts to watch the chaos from the sidelines, snickering under his breath, he ends up in the crossfire from time to time

- contrary to popular belief, the most competitive ones are Diluc and Xiao

- they are so set on winning they sometimes forget that it's all a game

- Childe once got an elbow to the face in one episode but still no one knows who did it (it was Kaeya--)

- Albedo is just... There, tho he does enjoy it. More than he would admit

- Childe and Kaeya are dying of laughter most of the time and do stupid things that probably only they understand which makes the other laugh harder

- and Venti absolutely loves being the host: it gives him a perfect view of his friends who half the time have no idea what the hell is going on and, of course, power

- the fanmeetings are just the other excuse for them to make fun of each other and fool around

- fans don't mind it one bit because it is honestly hilarious to watch the utter chaos unfold

- even when they are signing albums and merch they throw comments here and there to provoke the other

- especially Xiao bc he's a softie when it comes to their fans and as long as the girls don't do anything... Weird, he doesn't mind interacting with them and sometimes finds himself actually enjoying the contact

- while we're on the fanmeetings--

- Zhongli is absolutely wonderful. He's the kind to delicately hold your hand, look into you eyes and smile softly while focusing entirely on you and what you have to say, indulging into conversation as well

- if it wasn't for the staff members reminding him that the time's up, he would spend at least an hour with every fan

- Childe is so excited he grins so much his cheeks hurt, and would look at you like you just made his day. You can be stuttering, super nervous and anxious and he'd just say it's completely fine and that you should take your time, even if the staff says that you should move to the next member

- Venti is the one that talks a lot, but would shut up and listen to you. He especially likes playing with your hands or just some games like rock-paper-scissors

- he also loves it when some fans show him their singing and he encourages them to go on, synchronizing with them and making an amazing duet

- Xiao is, like I've said before, a big softie. He really appreciates the fact that people find their music nice and genuinely like to listen to it. Would probably ask you questions like "what's your favorite song?", "What do you think of this album *gestures to the one he just signed*" etc

- he DID wear cat ears once because a fan gave them to him and they looked kind of cute

- he didn't hear the end of it for two weeks minimum and Childe and Kaeya probably have the pic as their wallpapers

- Diluc is the most... normal one? I mean, he enjoys the meetings a lot, but he doesn't show his excitement as much as the others. Conversations with him are like talking to an old friend that understands you and it's just so... wholesome

- he's honestly surprised when he gets gifts from the fans. He does appreciate it of course, but he just doesn't really understand why you would go as far as to give him something for no particular reason please give him lots of love he needs it-

- Kaeya is the one with the audacity to flirt with you. Loves seeing the blush on your cheeks and just enjoys annoying people. Though he sometimes stops it out of mercy and opts to talk with you like a normal human being--

- most protective of their fans. Sees one in distress or being picked on, immediatly steps in or tells a staff member to handle the situation

- Albedo is somewhere between Zhongli and Diluc's behaviour tbh. He's really sweet, loves talking to the fans and gets super excited whenever one of them shows him a fanart - especially if it's an original idea

- now let's get to the best part

- as lovely and peaceful as they are on a daily basis, they turn into freakin devils on stage

- kind grandpa with a calming voice? Who's that? A goddamn satan entered the chat

- ooooh, the cat lover? Sorry, we only have a mf demon available

- don't even get me started on the Childe-Kaeya-Diluc trio--

- all in all, they may be annoying each other night and day but they still love one another like family and their bond only strengthens when they stand in the spotlight

I had this idea today and, well, it turned out like this, hope you enjoyed! I also may be doing some sort of continuation to this with Xingqiu, Chongyun, Razor and Bennett as a trainee idol group so let me know if you'd like something like this and if you have any ideas for other groups!

02.05.21

~Nana

[go-learn-esperanto]

Survey answers until now:

This was so fun. There are a lot of answers and that's pretty pog! I'm not gonna include everyone but I assure you I've been reading all of them.

Edit: the resolution was awful. Sorry about that. Updated version now! :)

Now the text answers my beloved <3

Here are some of my favourites!

Mumza. On accident.

How do you cosplay on accident? 👁️👁️

Phil and say it's Urahara

200 IQ play right here

none but i wanted to tell you its not much better. im going as a Supernatural character smh

We really are on Tumblr.com

im doing rivals duo with my friend =]

cc!Ranboo basically. now it just sounds weird. I mean who dresses up as irl celebrities and not the roles they play? man. it just sounds cringe now

I'm gonna throw on a green hoodie, say I'm dream and call it a day B)

Put a plastic plate on it too and it's complete

I have a half-made Ranboo cosplay, but I'm also too old lol

DO IT. I don't care. Even if it's just for you to wear at home. Do it. Nobody it's too old to dress as things they like!

tubbo :D (not 2 self promo but ill be posting pics @starbug.png on insta 👀)

Check them out! :)

There's a bunch of Wilbur/Ghostbur cosplayers. I love you and the Grisn cosplayer very parasocially.

Also the Mumza cosplayers

I got my ex into mcyt a day or so before we broke up because he started to ignore me > - >

Well... That's.

Figured out one of my besties is into it bc I saw a sketch of the Llama Line by L'Targay

One of my irl friends is an OG dsmp fan, she was there the very first stream. It’s just fun to talk to her about stuff.

A group of 17 year old boys called me cringe at the publix selfcheckout bc of my quackity shirt and i laughed so hard that they got confused like. its not bullying if theyre right

This one. This one has to be my favourite. That's the spirit.

There is a girl in my class who I talked to very little. We were supposed to do an assignment based on a hobby we liked, so I chose MINECRFAT. After I presented this, she approached me after class and said she liked my presentation. She showed me some of her dsmp drawings, like the realistic ones based off photos. She fucking amazing at it and they’re incredible

i was having a rlly bad day at school and in maths class(my last hour of the day)my teacher started playing jump in the cadillac and i just started crying

I really don't want to laugh at your suffering but damn that's hilarious from the outside. I hope you're doing better now tho 💜

i showed my mom a ranboo video and accidentally reviled that i stole almost his every one of his speech patterns

In class, a guy compliments my Ranboo hoodie. I look at his hoodie and he’s wearing a Wilbur one. I compliment his as well. A girl nearby stands up and looks at us. She is wearing a Quackity hoodie. Somehow the universe has placed three Dream SMP fans together in the same class. The best part is you would never know we were fans without our merch. We could be anyone. We walk amongst the living

That makes me want to buy merch so bad

last night I wrote penis smp fanfic while sitting right next to my mom who doesn't think I swear. she could have looked at my screen at any time.

Asked “does a historical speech from a minecraft roleplay count?” For a kinetic typography assignment

Wrote a lyrical analysis on the l’manburg theme for a school project

o7

the reason i didn't answer "mumbo jumbo" to the philza's wife question is because mumbo jumbo is too busy being a gay whore in last life. he's gay married but also flirts with every man he comes across

True. Absolutely true.

I literally saw an anti vaxxer on tumblr talking about how it's bad that Tommy and tubbo have to get vaccinated just to see each other irl

!! i have a VERY IMPORTANT FACT: niki nihachu <3 also dsmp women in general,, hannah niki puffy tina collab when pls give it to me its all i want in life,,,,,, also unrelated but im in a musicy mood listen to romance by yoasobi and watch the video trust me its stunning :]

Watched it! Really cool visuals! The music just brings me back to my VOCALOID fandom fase (not that is possible to love the VOCALOID fandom completly though. I definitely haven't.)

I’m making a Wilbur soot animatic based on The Fall by lovejoy and I hope I can get it finished by the 16th !!

Good luck!!! That's awesome!

im in this hellhole more than 1 year how am i still alive akpqpqlajwhoq give money

I have exactly one irl friend who watches dsmp n I'm the one who got her into it >:]

Evil >:]

"Im not gay I just can't read" - Jack Manifold

i just want to know why ranboo was at the red banquet, dressed up and wearing a blindfold . w h y

i can't wait for big lore to come back djfjdkkf

Same

Why must life give its hardest battles to its weakest warriors

Sun Tzu, The Art of War

Please help okay so the problem is "Let P be the set of all people who have ever lived and define a relation R on P as follows: for every r and s that are elements or P, rRs <-> r is an ancestor of s or r =s. Is R a partial order relation? Prove or give a counter example." It's definitely reflexive ince when s=r then s=r which is true. It isn't symmetrical since that would be weird as hell, I mean a grandparent cannot be the grandchild of their own grandchild that would fuck up the family tree even more than the DSMPs but like, how do I prove that mathematically? Like, if rRs and sRr then r = s but "if person A is either a grandparent or the same person as person B and person B is either the grandparent or the same person as person A then person A is person B" just feels like a weird sentence.

69

Just did the Komaeda checklist for c!Wilbur...

I don't wanna know. (I kinda do actually)

Catch me dual-wielding Hermitcraft and the Dream SMP… call me Hannah Montana cause I’m the best of both worlds

Same. Same. Call me Ariana Griande because I'm a-grian with you.

i just saw a post. soon, we will have enough tommy father figures for a mamma mia! au.

Months before I got into DSMP I had an internet friend interested in it and I was like "lol, nice, but could never be me" because I had gotten out of my 2016-2018 MCYT phase not that long ago at that point and didn't think I'd go back... Well...

ldshadowlady is a goddess amongst us all and we should recognize her as such.

True

HMMM well i messed up my eyeliner which has made me quite sad

Mumbo Jumbo could steal anyone’s wife

I always talk about wanting to bake bread again but I keep procrastinating. Same goes for writing fanfiction and stuff too. I have countless abandoned fics across all of the platforms I'm on, plus about ten that never made it out of Google docs or pure writer. I think I have a bit of a problem lol

I can assure you're not the only one. 👁️👄👁️

We all suffer from the procrastination problem. Don't put yourself down too much ok? You're doing that for yourself and if you don't feel like doing it then you don't feel like doing it. 💜

Wilbur with wings is unappreciated especially when you consider all the cool headcanons you can have for what they'd be like after his revival like skeleton wings or phantom wings or only wings DreamXD can see. Also ghostbur w/ blue melting/ evaporating wings *longing sigh*

That's pretty cool!

I figured out I was fine with any pronouns by brainstorming self insert dream smp fanfic

I have a huge crush on quackity

This one broke me and I don't know why. Every time I look at it I start laughing my ass off.

I got into it because of Woe to the People of Order

Oh, woe to thee, ye people of order

I hope your homes continue to smolder

And that you never rise again

And woe to those that called me a friend~

That's a badass way to join a fandom

I just miss Ghostbur man

Don't we all? (っ.❛ ᴗ ❛.)っ Have some blue

[wonderful-writes]

8. Like reader drops of the face of the earth before graduation for like 4 years, and Charlie just realized his emotions in that time frame.

Disappear

Charlie Weasley x Female!Reader

Summary: Y/N and Charlie were best friends during their Hogwarts days, and there might have even been a time when she hoped for something more. But all those possibilities were dashed when she mysteriously went missing, leaving her best friend alone and confused.

Prompt:

8) I never forgot you.

“Race you to the castle?” Charlie Weasley challenged, looking over at his friend Y/N.

“Oh, you’re on, Weasley,” she replied, already getting a head start.

“Hey, no fair!” Charlie protested. He sprinted ahead, attempting to get in front of her. He easily passed her and jogged the rest of the way back to the castle.

Soon, she came up behind him, just as breathless as he was. They stood panting at the Hogwarts steps for a moment.

When he had regained his composure, he teased, “Even when you cheat, you still manage to lose to me.”

She gave him a light punch on the shoulder. “Well, I’m not the star of the quidditch team.”

Charlie laughed. “You’re right. Not everyone can be as great as I am.”

Y/N delivered another punch, this one harder than the last.

“Hey!” Charlie shouted, though he didn’t hit her back. “Come on, we’re going to be late for dinner.”

The two friends headed into the Great Hall and quickly found seats at the Gryffindor table.

“Where have you two been?” asked Percy Weasley, Charlie’s younger brother, upon your arrival.

“We were just visiting Hagrid,” Charlie replied. “He wanted to show me a new dragon book he found, and Y/N invited herself with me.”

“I did not!” Y/N argued, crossing her arms over her chest. “You were the one who asked me if I wanted to come with you.”

Charlie chuckled. He knew how to push her buttons. Teasing any of his friends was always fun, but it was especially hilarious to tease Y/N. She never failed to get worked up, or at least pretend to get worked up.

After dinner, the students headed to their dorms. Y/N walked with two of her roommates, and the three chattered about graduation and plans for the future all the way up to the Gryffindor common room. It was the second-to-last week of their seventh year, and the end of their Hogwarts days was fast approaching. It made Y/N sad to think that she would be leaving all her friends, professors, and memories behind, but she was also excited for what was to come. She had scored an apprenticeship at the Ministry of Magic, and she was set to start immediately after graduation.

As she was about to walk up the stairs to the girls’ dormitory, she heard someone call her name. She turned around to see Charlie waving her over from the sofa in the middle of the common room.

“I’ll be up in a bit,” she told her roommates. “I have to go see what that idiot wants.”

Y/N made her way over to the sofa, taking a seat next to Charlie. “What do you want, Weasley?” she asked with fake annoyance.

Charlie grinned. “What? I can’t talk to my friend?”

Y/N rolled her eyes.

“I can’t believe we’ll be leaving Hogwarts soon,” Charlie mused, staring into the fireplace. “Next week is our last week.”

“Yup. And after that, I’ll be heading off to the Ministry. And you’ll be going to Romania.”

He turned towards her. “I still can’t wrap my head around the fact that we’re growing up. I mean, you’ll be working at the Ministry, and I’ll be working at my dream job on the dragon reserve. It feels like it was just yesterday that we were boarding the train as first years.”

She chuckled. “Yeah, well, that was nearly seven years ago, Charles.”

Y/N looked at him. She would miss him. Sure, she would miss her roommates and all her other friends, but Charlie was different. He was playful and witty, but also kind and caring, and not to mention bloody attractive. She had to admit that she had developed a sort of crush on him during their fourth year, but she had suppressed those feelings because she knew he would never feel the same. He saw her as a friend and nothing more. But no matter how many times she told herself that, her feelings for him never completely went away.

“Hello? Earth to Y/N?” Charlie said, startling her from her trance. “You’ve been staring at me for an awfully long time. Makes me wonder if I really am that hot.”

“Oh, get over yourself, you git,” Y/N retorted, hoping that she wasn’t blushing like a tomato. “I was just lost in thought.”

“Uh huh, sure you were,” he said with a smirk.

Before she could say anything else, someone called for Charlie from the far side of the common room, the side by the portrait hole. She turned to see that a group of boys were beckoning Charlie over.

“We’re planning to sneak out,” he explained when he caught her confused look. “Well, I better go. They’re all waiting for me over there.”

With a wave goodbye, he was off the couch and making his way over to his friends — some of which were Y/N’s friends as well. She watched as the group disappeared through the portrait hole, a twang of sadness reaching her heart. At least at school, she could be around Charlie and spend time with him, even if they weren’t dating. Once they graduated, they would probably never see each other again, or at least not for a long time. She stood up from the couch and trudged up to bed, hoping that a good night’s sleep would ease the dread she felt about leaving Hogwarts and leaving Charlie.

The next morning, Charlie walked into the Great Hall with an extra spring in his step. It was Saturday, and he and his friends had planned on going to Hogsmeade. It would be their last Hogsmeade weekend of the school year, their last time going as Hogwarts students.

He sat down at the table in between Percy and one of Y/N’s roommates. “Hey, where’s Y/N?” he asked when he noticed she wasn’t at breakfast yet.

“Didn’t you hear?” the roommate responded. “She left early this morning. She must have wanted to start summer vacation early or something. She didn’t say where she was going.”

“Maybe her family is taking a trip,” another Gryffindor offered. “Once, in third year, I got special permission to end the term early because my parents had planned a trip to the Caribbean.”

“I’m not sure,” a third voice said skeptically. “She wouldn’t tell me what was going on when I saw her packing this morning. She just said that she was in a hurry and couldn’t talk.”

Charlie was flabbergasted. Why would Y/N leave so close to graduation? She never mentioned any trip with her family or any special event she had to attend. Had an unexpected emergency popped up? Did the professors know about her departure?

The rest of the day went on as usual. Professor McGonagall visited the Gryffindors after breakfast to discuss graduation protocol. A few students asked her about Y/N, but all she would say was that Y/N had a family matter to attend to. Even she did not know whether Y/N was to return for graduation or not.

After the meeting with Professor McGonagall, the Gryffindors made their way to Hogsmeade. Charlie chatted with friends, visited shops, drank butterbeer, and had an overall good time. But in the back of his mind, he still had questions about Y/N. Where had she gone? The professors seemed to know about her leaving, but they weren’t sure when she would be back. Was it a serious emergency? Was her family alright?

To ease his concerns, he decided to send her a letter once he got back to Hogwarts. He assumed she was with her family, so he sent an owl to her home address. He had never visited her home, but he knew her address from when they used to write each other over summers. In his letter, he asked what happened, if her family was okay, and when she would be back. But she never responded.

The last week of seventh year zoomed by quickly. Throughout the week, Charlie and the rest of Y/N’s friends waited for news. Most of them had written her, either asking about her situation or sending warm thoughts, but none of them ever received a reply. The professors did not seem to gain any new information either. It was either that or they were withholding information about Y/N’s whereabouts from the students.

On the day of graduation, exactly one week from Y/N’s disappearance, all the seventh years lined up on the lawn in order by house and last name. Y/N’s friends, acquaintances, and even those who only knew of her through the grapevine glanced around to see if she had showed up at the last minute. But she was nowhere to be found. The ceremony proceeded as usual, ending with the seventh years being rowed across the Great Lake in the same boats that had taken them to the castle in their first year. Afterwards, the students departed with their families, starting their futures as newly-graduated witches and wizards.

Charlie Weasley headed straight for Romania immediately after leaving Hogwarts. He was offered a job at the dragon sanctuary there, and he had never been more excited for anything in his life. He bade farewell to his family and didn’t look back as he left to pursue his dream.

In Romania, he lived in a quaint little house, one of many houses dotting the hills on the outskirts of the dragon reserve. He quickly became accustomed to life there, enjoying every minute of his busy work schedule. During his leisure time, he found himself sketching and taking walks outdoors. He never expected to be the artistic type — he truly wasn’t — but it was fun making bad attempts at drawing dragons and landscapes. But the most fun he had was working with the dragons. He loved every aspect of caring for them, training them, and spending time with them. He didn’t think he could ever be unhappy there.

But sometimes, his mind wandered back to his childhood and his Hogwarts days. He missed his parents, his brothers and sister, and his school mates. He found himself thinking of Y/N most of all. No one had heard from her since her disappearance, and her parents hadn’t contacted anyone Charlie knew either. He suspected that perhaps her family had moved to a new house, and that was why they weren’t receiving any letters. But why couldn’t she send a note informing her friends of her new address? The whole situation was bizarre.

Charlie realized that he had become lonelier during the time he was in Romania. He and the other members of his class occasionally wrote to each other, but letters were infrequent. Keeping in touch became more and more difficult as people grew up and moved on with their lives. His parents and siblings still wrote often, but wasn’t the same as having their presence with him. He had made friends with his coworkers at the sanctuary, and he of course had the dragons to keep him company, but it was Y/N he kept thinking of. Part of it was worry for her well-being, but another part of it was that he genuinely missed her.

But why? Why her? He hadn’t seen his other friends from Hogwarts since graduation either, but he didn’t yearn for their company the same way that he did hers. He supposed it was because he had gotten a chance to exchange proper goodbyes with his other friends. Y/N had left so suddenly that no one had the chance to say goodbye to her. That must be it. Why else would he be so hung over her?

About a year after moving to Romania, Charlie received a letter bearing good news. His older brother, Bill, just had a child with his wife, Fleur. Charlie immediately asked for leave and took a trip back home. It was his first time returning home since moving to pursue the career he had always wanted, and he was excited to see his family again and meet his new baby niece. The past year had been wonderful, but it had also been hard on him. What he needed the most was to see the faces of the people he loved.

Charlie spent a week at the Burrow and savored every second of his stay. He caught up with his parents, spent time with his siblings, and played with little Victoire, Bill and Fleur’s daughter. By the time the week was up, he was thoroughly relaxed and back to his joyful self. He was just packing up his trunk to leave when he noticed a knitted winter hat at the bottom of his drawer.

“Where’d you get that?” asked Ginny, his younger sister, as she came into the room. “I’ve never seen you wear it before.”

“That’s because it isn’t mine,” Charlie replied. He examined the hat closely and instantly knew where it came from. “It belonged to a friend of mine, Y/N. Remember her, the girl I told you about? She was the one who left school a week before graduation and never wrote back to anyone since.”

Ginny hummed. “Did she give that to you?”

Charlie nodded. “She let me borrow it one time in sixth year, and I guess I never gave it back. I must have worn it with me home for the holidays that year and let it sit in my drawer ever since.”

Ginny smiled. “You miss her?”

“Yeah, of course I do,” Charlie replied without hesitation. “She was one of my closest friends.”

His sister smirked. “And you’re sure she wasn’t more than just a friend? You sounded awfully sad talking about her and the hat.”

Charlie scoffed. “As if. I never saw her as anything other than a best mate.”

“You’re blushing, you know that?” Ginny teased.

“What’s this about blushing?” Fred, another brother, inquired as he sauntered into the room.

“Charlie’s got himself a crush,” Ginny informed Fred, making a point to emphasize the word ‘crush.’

“Ooh, has our older brother found himself someone to fancy?” Fred asked teasingly.

“Shut it, you gits,” Charlie replied before his siblings could say anything else. “I’ve never even thought about liking her that way. I just remembered her when I found her hat, that’s all.”

It wasn’t a lie. He had never considered Y/N to be anything more than a friend before. They were close in school, but he was close with lots of other people. She wasn’t in any way special. But now, he felt something he hadn’t felt back at Hogwarts. A new feeling, one that he wasn’t familiar with. It was close to that of having a crush, but he couldn’t be certain. Sure, he’d fancied other girls in the past, but he never had those feelings for Y/N. During their school years, he just wasn’t interested in her in a romantic way. Why would that change now?

When Charlie returned to Romania, he took the knitted hat with him. It comforted him to have a piece of her when nobody knew where she was. He spent the next few years of his life as a talented dragonologist. He devoted himself to his work, extremely happy to be in the profession of his dreams. He even attempted dating, going out with a coworker and a couple women he met in the nearby town. But his dates never went anywhere. No matter how interesting they were or how many things they had in common with him, he didn’t feel like starting serious relationships with any of them. Eventually, he stopped dating altogether.

A year after his trip to the Burrow and two years after his initial move to Romania, Charlie found himself sketching portraits in his living room. It was his day off from work, and it was far too cold to go outside. He had a cup of tea beside him and a fire in the hearth. He spent hours drawing from the comfort of the sofa, and by the end of the day, he had a hefty stack of sketches next to him. He leafed through the stack and discovered that a good number of the sketches were of a woman — one that looked strikingly similar to Y/N.

That was the moment when he realized that he didn’t just miss his friend. He had developed feelings for her, ones that weren’t just platonic. Maybe he had always felt that way, but he couldn’t see it. Maybe all along he had liked her, possibly even loved her, but was blinded by his own stupidity. He racked his brain for all his memories of her and remembered just how amazing she was. She was always so kind, so sweet to everyone. Yet she also had a biting sense of humor and could be brutally honest. He looked back on all their conversations and realized that perhaps he had been pining for her all throughout their friendship, but he had never admitted it to himself.

It was like he was finally receiving clarity. The reason why his dates never progressed into anything more was because he didn’t want anyone other than Y/N. His siblings had seen the way he looked when he thought about her, and now he was finally seeing it for himself. He was finally admitting to himself that he had fallen for Y/N. The only problem was that no one knew where she was.

For the next two years after his epiphany, Charlie tried to resume his normal life. He still cherished his work and adored the dragons. He still had friendly relations with his coworkers and even became close with some of them. He still kept in touch with his family and a few of his childhood friends. And he still couldn’t get over Y/N.

Everything about her occupied his mind. Her laugh, her compassionate heart, the way she listened to him like he was the only person in the world. But he would never be able to have her. She seemed to have dropped off the face of the earth, cutting off everyone he knew who knew her. Maybe there was a reason she didn’t reach out. Maybe after her family issue was resolved, she simply decided not to talk to any of her old friends anymore. Maybe she didn’t want to talk to him. And even if she did miraculously come back, there was no indication that she would be interested in pursuing a relationship with him. She had never mentioned liking him when they were in school, but then again, neither did he.

It had been four years since he started working at the sanctuary. Four years that seemed both incredibly short and torturously long. Charlie Weasley still had his zest for life and his passion for dragons, athletics, and the outdoors. In many ways, he was very happy. But he couldn’t escape the heartache of losing what he felt was the love of his life.

One night, it became too much, and he needed to drown his emotions. He went into town after work and purchased a bottle of firewhiskey. He had intended on getting drunk and using his day off the next day to recover. But when he arrived home, his better judgment decided that drinking away his problems would not be the best idea. Instead, he made himself a mug of tea and situated himself at the kitchen table, attempting to get his thoughts in order.

After a few hours of being alone with his thoughts, Charlie finally decided to retire for the night. Just as he was getting up from the table, there was a knock on the door. Puzzled, he approached the front door of his house. Who could be visiting him at this hour? It was nearly ten o’clock. Was there an emergency at the sanctuary? Was one of his coworkers coming to get him?

His mind reeling with possibilities, he opened ten door. When he saw who was there, his jaw dropped.

“Y/N?” he whispered, staring at the young woman before him. She didn’t look any different since the last time he saw her — same hair color, same expressive eyes, same soft yet defined features. She was unmistakable.

“H-hi, Charlie,” she stammered. She shifted uncomfortably, seeming to be looking everywhere except at him. When her eyes finally met his, she held her breath. She hadn’t seen him in four years, and she had no idea what to expect from him.

He was almost exactly the same as he was at Hogwarts. He still had unruly red hair and freckle constellations all over his face. Although, he was broader, more muscular, but she wasn’t complaining. After what felt like an eternity of staring at each other, he asked her to come inside.

Charlie made her a cup of tea and replenished his own. He set out some biscuits and fruit, apologizing for not having much else to offer. Y/N assured him that whatever he had was fine.

“Where were you?” Charlie blurted. It was the first question that came to mind.

“My sister got sick,” Y/N said quietly. “I received an owl in the middle of the night and left for home at first light. She...she’s no longer with us.”

Charlie nodded sympathetically, his heart lurching at her words. He remembered her talking about how close she and her sister were. He wanted to comfort her, but questions still flooded his head. “Why didn’t you tell any of us? And why haven’t you written anyone back?”

“I wanted to, I truly did,” Y/N said helplessly. “But I was hurting so much from losing her that I couldn’t even think, let alone write.”

He reached across the table and squeezed her hand. “It’s alright,” he whispered.

“I had to postpone my Ministry job so that I could have time to grieve,” she continued. “But when I was ready to start working, they had already given the position to someone else. I was already distraught over losing my sister, so losing the job that was supposed to be the starting point of my Ministry career was a heavy blow.”

“I’m so sorry,” Charlie said, searching Y/N’s eyes.

“It’s okay,” she replied, offering a small smile. “Anyway, for the next year, I worked odd jobs all over Britain, trying to make enough to help out my parents in their difficult time. By then, I felt comfortable enough to interact with people but was too ashamed to write.”

“Ashamed?” Charlie asked incredulously. “Why? We’ve all been dying to hear from you! We were worried sick.”

“I know, and I’m sorry,” Y/N said. “But I had been avoiding the letters for so long as I mourned my sister that it felt rude of me to suddenly reply a year later. Plus, I didn’t want anyone to pity me. I didn’t want anyone to think I was only writing because I needed help either.”

“I understand,” said Charlie. “So what are you doing now?”

“Well, after that miserable first year, another internship opened up at the Ministry. I ended up working in the field I had wanted to get into after all. My internship ended after a year, and I applied for a permanent position in the Department of International Magical Cooperation right after. That’s where I’ve been ever since.”

“International Magical Cooperation? That’s your dream job!” Charlie exclaimed. “I’m so happy for you!”

“Thank you,” Y/N said shyly, suddenly bashful. “I see you landed your dream job as well.”

Charlie grinned. “Yeah, working here is better than I could ever have imagined. I never want to leave.”

Y/N looked down and noticed that both of her hands were now in Charlie’s. Her breath hitched. After all these years, her feelings for him never completely subsided. That was part of the reason why she had decided to visit him. She couldn’t bear the thought of never seeing him again, even if he only ever wanted to be friends.

“Something the matter?” he asked when he caught her glancing away from him.

“No, not at all,” she managed. “I’m just a little tired. It was a long journey getting here. Your parents accidentally gave me the wrong address, if you can believe it.”

He chuckled. “That sounds like them, all right.”

Something about her writing to his parents made him feel warm inside. They had met her before, usually at the train station when they picked him up or dropped him off for school. But the fact that she was comfortable enough to talk to them all these years later made him feel unusually happy.

“I’ll go prepare the spare bedroom for you,” he said, letting go of her hands and getting up from the table.

“Thank you,” she said gratefully.

When he walked away and disappeared into a hallway, she let out a breath. She was relieved to see that he didn’t have a wife or children, though she already knew that much from his parents’ letters. But there was still the possibility that he had a girlfriend. She realized that her hands were shaking as she though about it. She was in love with him but had no idea if he would reciprocate her feelings. When he returned from the bedroom, she decided to pluck up her courage and ask him.

Standing up and taking a shaky breath, she began, “Charlie?”

“Yes, love?” he answered all too quickly. He instantly realized what he had said and blushed furiously.

Y/N took his response and reaction as a sign that maybe he did feel something for her. Or maybe it was an honest mistake, and he was just embarrassed at having called her ‘love’ without meaning it. Either way, she proceeded.

“Do you...do you have a girlfriend?” she asked timidly, almost inaudible.

“No,” he softly replied, meeting her gaze.

“Why not?” she asked, not breaking eye contact. She felt as though she could stare into his warm, brown eyes for all of eternity.

“I couldn’t...I couldn’t move on with my life,” he admitted, “because I never forgot you.”

And just like that, Y/N had heard enough. She swiftly closed the distance between them and connected her lips with his. He was shocked at first, but his hesitation was brief. He kissed her back, matching her intense passion with fire of his own. The moment was electric, but it was over too soon, as the need for air caused them the break apart.

“I love you,” Y/N breathes, her hands still tangled in Charlie’s hair.

He grinned. “I love you, too.”

“Oh, and guess what?” she said, a smile forming on her lips. “My department has a branch in Romania, and they’re willing to let me transfer.”

Charlie returned the smile, his cheeky and mischievous. “Well, then, that calls for a celebration.”

Not a fraction of a second later, his lips were on hers again, and neither wanted to ever let go.

[canyouhearthelight]

The Miys, Ch. 135

I think y’all are in for a treat with this one. I won’t spoil it, though, other than to say that @baelpenrose and @charlylimph-blog thought this chapter was hilarious.

Think about that, please. Charly and Arthur think this chapter is hilarious.

Eyeah. That’s all I’ve got to say about that. I do not take responsibility for any injuries sustained.

As always, please don’t forget to check out the podcast! I will plug it shamelessly, so you may as well.

“Where are they?” Alistair murmured while he searched our shared office thoroughly.  Had it been anyone else, I would say he was being calm, but the fact that he was searching for anything, at all, tagged it in my head as a downright frantic pace.

“Where are what?”

“Nothing,” he dismissed, despite continuing his search.

I furrowed my brows. “You haven’t even had your tea yet. Or your breakfast?”

A pale hand waved me off. “I am aware.”

Shrugging, I gave it up as a lost cause and went back to the list of evacuees that Tyche and I had drafted up. After whipping up a preliminary list of who was assigned where, we were doing a more thorough second pass to ensure no conflicts of personality.  Deep in thought, I paid Alistair no attention until Parvati and Hannah arrived fifteen minutes later.

“Alistair, they aren’t here, so you can stop looking,” Hannah grinned as she took her accustomed seat.

“I am sure I don’t know what you mean.”

“Surrrrre you don’t. Just like I’m sure you don’t know why several of the paint pens ran out of pigment,” Parvati assured him in the most sincere tone I had ever heard. My former therapist would have been proud.

I fought back a smile as he straightened and finally stopped his search, even going so far as to tug his shirt to get any wrinkles out. “I know no such thing.”  With that, he turned his back to all three of our snickering faces, requesting his usual tea and scone from the food console.

Composing my face, I tried to be serious for a minute. “You should eat fast, because our appointment with Arthur Farro is in about fi - “

My door whooshed open. Speak of the devil.

“ - ve minutes early, apparently,” I finished.

Unperturbed as usual, the subject of my previous suggestion strolled in with his usual air of confidence.  Just as he was going to take a seat beside Parvati, he leaned across the table. “Aww, no kiwi or pomegranate on your clotted cream this morning? Poor fing,” he said with a mocking pout.

“I am baffled why everyone believes such things of me,” Alistair grumbled into his tea with a scowl.

I sputtered. “You were using the pens on your breakfast?”

He didn’t even bother denying the chorus of confirmations from those around him, taking the higher road of sudden deafness. “Farro, I am still not entirely sure why a former warlord is necessary for discussions of an evacuation plan.”

“Warlords are generally just berserkers if they don’t have anyone to be ‘lord’ of.” Farro shot a dazzling smile as I supressed a groan. “But then again, being British, I’m sure you got confused, what with all the lords that were there in the last century without even land to their names.”

It really was easier sometimes to do things without either of them. Time to step in. “Gentlemen,” I purred in my most annoyingly ‘motivational’ tone possible, “the bathroom is right through that door, if you would like to continue your pissing contest.  However, some of us have actual work to do, so whether you fuck it out or fight it out, please do so on your own time.”

Both mouths shut with an audible click, and both men looked away from me. But at least they were quiet. Sophia: 1, Whatever-the-hell-this-was: 0.

I forged ahead while I had the chance. “Arthur, thank you for taking time to meet with us regarding the plans for fortifying the safety points. I’m sorry that Tyche couldn’t be here, however she scheduled her stay-cation several months ago and frankly deserves it.” By which I meant I had bribed Derek with a nauseating amount of bao to disable any communications to or from this office from going to her data pad until the start of her first shift post-vacation, and threatened my entire family within an inch of their lives to keep them from bringing up work around her for the next week. “However, I do have her concerns and suggestions ready, I assure you.”

With a scowl, he glanced at me and stood, calling up the emitter-map of the Ark. Quickly, he sketch circles around each of the ‘bunkers’ we had designated. “Xiomara had very sound judgement in the locations she chose for safe-zones, and I honestly expected it. Between her and Evania, there is a frankly terrifying amount of strategic prowess in what is theoretically our Health and Safety office.”

“You can’t be healthy or safe if you’re dead,” Hannah pointed out.

He tossed her a wink and grin. “Touche. However, none of them are perfect. This location,” he leaned to tap and zoom on a mess hall, “is fortified, has access to food and drink, even if you have to furiously call up non-perishables and potable water, and only has one entrance/egress.  A huge entry/egress, unfortunately: the door is ten meters wide.”

Parvati tapped a couple times on her datapad before chiming in. “It does close, however. And it locks.”

Arthur shook his head. “In two panels, each five meters wide. If even one is blown, the gap is indefensible. Both, everyone in there is free for the taking.”

“You are suggesting we ask Miys to narrow the aperture of the door?” I groaned when I heard Alistair leverage his overly-formal language.

It didn’t get any better when Arthur nodded. “Worst they can say is no, but the size of the door is simply for ease of access and to assuage anyone with proximity issues. Now that we all have these handy alerts - “ he tapped his temple for emphasis “ - it isn’t nearly as necessary. Noah? Bud? What do you think?”

The buzz from the ceiling was clearly amused. “I am amenable if this is a solution. As Arthur pointed out, the width of that door is no longer necessary.”

“Annnd there we go,” Arthur shrugged. “The boatwright said yes, if that’s what we want.”

My jaw nearly hit the floor when Alistair nodded firmly and stood. Swiftly, he highlighted three more areas. “These have the same potential concern. We should include those in the proposal.”

‘We’? ‘We’ whomst??? Since when were they on the same side?

“I agree,” Arthur continued enthusiastically, causing my head to start twinging in pain. “According to the engineers and the chemisists on board, the material of the Ark is remarkably fire-retardant despite it’s organic nature - let’s hear it for advanced civilizations - so there is no additional need for fire doors. There is however a possibility of concussive damage to the actual doors in any area, despite how thick the actual walls are.”

“Tyche recommended shock-absorbent material on the exteriors of each door, dropped via internal trigger and held taught by wires rather than any sort of scaffolding,” I suggested, recovering my focus. I flicked the concept at the emitter, where it was displayed alongside the schematic of the Ark. “Using wires would allow us to also store it in a roll at the top of the door, and allow pulleys to draw the wires embedded in the bulkhead down to cover the entire door.”

Hannah nodded thoughtfully. “The materials she suggests are a good idea - definitely maximizes shock absorption as much as possible. My only concern is that we can probably double the flame resistance of the materials for only a ten-percent loss of effectiveness.”

Calling up my datapad, I smiled as I quoted. “ ‘However, Hannah is a professional weaver and seamstress, and therefore I defer to her on any suggestions regarding materials used, provided there is no more than twenty-percent loss of efficacy’. Apparently she did the calculations and had Charly and Conor both check behind her - anything below twenty percent loss, and the blast would blow the doors.”

“And when did the more sensible Miss Reid learn engineering?” Alistair asked in what sounded like genuine curiosity.

“Tuesdays - I think?” I scrunched my face and searched my memory. “It was something very important when we were cosplaying.”

Arthur snorted, but gestured an apology when Alistair affixed him with a downright lethal glare.

Hannah ignored them both. “Wool… We should be able to synthesize raw wool, instead of the plant based materials here. Best of both worlds - fluffy, incredibly flame resistant, and disperses concussive force like nothing else. Line it with silk for shrapnel? We should be good.”

“Fortress defense via quilts. I like it,” Arthur grinned savagely.

“There is a reason tapestries were so important in the Middle Ages,” Alistair snarked at him. “Both flame resistant and insulating, both very good qualities when you see by torches and candles in a drafty residence that echoes like a cathedral.”

Arthur held his hands up in surrender. “Not arguing, no worries… Genuine respect, swear.”

“Better…”

“Annnnd forging on from whatever-the-fuck-that-was,” I interjected, trying to focus on the topic at hand rather than… well, whatever the fuck that was, “That’s overlarge entries and concussive force taken care of. What other concerns did you have, Arthur?”

“Frankly? Camouflage,” he told us sternly. “The best way to protect against an invading enemy is to make it so hard to find you that it isn’t worth the effort.  All these defenses are good an all, but… they’ll stick out like a sore thumb and practically scream ‘Hey! We’re in HERE!’ “ I stifled a laugh when he hopped and waved his arms furiously.

“Very dignified, Farro,” Alistair sniffed as he stood to get more tea.

“I know, right? I’m so classy…”

Rolling my eyes and still regretting having them both in my office at the same time, “We actually have the camouflage solved for.” You could have heard a pin drop, all four of them frozen, mouths open. “It came through this morning from Zach.” I swiped the fortress-quilt specs down, and popped up the plans for the camouflage. “We’re thinking on the visible spectrum, since humans are sight animals. Zach went with a ‘most common denominator’ approach - scent, infrared, acoustic, everything but electromagnetic vision.  The quilts cover the infrared and the majority of the acoustic issues: if any body-heat shows through fifteen inches of fluffed wool and a bulkhead door, we’re doomed no matter what.” I highlighted a line of data. “Scent, likewise: Zach is suggesting aeresolized, low concentration sulfur throughout the majority of the Ark, excluding the safe-zones. The safe-zones will also have one of Miys stationed in each one, acting essentially as an air scrubber. This will minimize acoustics from active air filtration, while also adhering to Miys being a non-participant: they will be present to ensure our comfort due to minimizing body odor, nothing more.  This was already planned, the fact that it will protect us from being detected by scent is just a lagniappe.”

I waited for the thoughtful nods to pass and decided I did not see the glance that Arthur and Alistair exchanged. As long as they didn’t draw blood during the meeting, I would let it slide. “Where it gets sticky is neuroelectric. Zach, it seems, took a page out of Charly’s manual-of-mischief.” I zoomed in on the specific line of the prospectus and waited.

“He wants to what?” Hannah asked, incredulous. “You can’t be serious.”

“Oh I like this,” came the ‘devil’ in ‘devil’s advocate’.

“How would it even work?” Parvati asked, genuinely curious.

I chose that one to respond to. “Just like the microfilament wires that will support the quilts, he wants to cover the walls inside several false locations with a mesh and electrify it to mimic human synaptic energy. Needle in a haystack theory.”

“Wait,” Alistair held up a hand to interrupt. “Are you also proposing that the doors to these false locations will be covered in the quilts?”

“Absolutely,” I confirmed. “Given how far from prospective entry points all of the safe-zones are located, they would run into several false locations before they encounter a real one.”

“And if they decide to tear into all the locations, even the false-positives?” Arthur poked, trying to find a hole in the idea. Which, I had to concede, was why he was even here instead of sending me messages for this.

“What if they decide to tear into every mess hall? Or every door? We can’t plan for everything.” I shook my head. “However, we can factor in a few things that seem pretty consistent despite species - Beings who don’t have legitimate work and take slaves are generally prone to laziness, despite somehow working harder to avoid work than I have ever actually worked a day in my life.  Point being, give them enough false positives on the way, they won’t actually search everything no matter what they say.”

“Speculation and hearsay, not admissible in court.”

“Au contraire, mon frère. Charly did the sociological analysis on all the species most likely to be pirates in the region of the galaxy where we will exit relativistic space, and her estimates are that the plan has a sixty-to-eighty-percent chance of success in the event that all human combatants fail. And I, personally, agree.” 

He conceded a low whistle. “Damn. If I didn’t like Evan so much, I would say Charly is being wasted with Huynh. Objection withdrawn.”

“Quite,” Alistair agreed smugly. “Miss Harper’s plan is a sound one. The Archives, however - “

I interrupted, still irritated about the topic. “You will be stationed immediately inside the doors to defend against any intruders who make it that far, while Tyche will be defending the y-junction between the speculative fiction and historical fiction categories to prevent intruders from reaching the actual people.”

“But the religious studies section - “

“Has already been scanned down to a molecular level to preserve the information, even if we can’t restore any actual artifacts,” Parvati advised in a profoundly bored tone. “You do realize that anyone who reaches that section will not be able to reach the actual people from there without doubling back, right?”

“Miss Fletcher, there is a Gutenberg Bible on this Ark, potentially the last one in existence.” The tone was icy enough to send a shiver down my spine.

“Phee,” Arthur threw out, guaranteeing my irate attention, “Is there any issue with moving the Gutenberg to the Speculative Fiction section until we meet with the Ekomari fleet?”

“Are you seri - “

“Not to placate the Monarchist, I swear. Just - that is a profoundly important historical artifact, even if I agree with nearly none of the contents. The start of the Information age! Literature in the hands of the vulgar masses! Your field of study would have never existed in the form it was without that achievement. Who cares if the first use was to print the frickin’ Bible?”

Before I could object, Parvati added her prodigious two cents. “I do not have to be Christian to appreciate the illuminations in a manuscript, any more than I have to be a Muslim to be brought to my knees by the beauty of a mosque. We can appreciate the significance of something regardless of whether we agree with it or not.”

“This is probably where Charly or Tyche would point out that I am a huge fan of laws against animal abuse, despite firmly believing that Hitler was evil incarnate,” I sighed. “Yeah, we can move the Gutenberg Bible, provided - hang on, stop cheering - PROVIDED - “ I paused to make sure they were all paying attention, “that any other works of significant cultural or historical significance are moved as well. Any first additions, significant religious texts - or in lack of ‘significant’ religious texts, just a copy of each that is agreed to be acceptable by all who follow that religion. A copy of Frankenstein, The Tale of Genji, et cetera.”

I knew my request brooked exactly zero argument from Alistair, as his eyes visibly shone when I added more books to the list. What I waited for were any objections from the other three.

Sure enough, Hannah tentatively raised her hand. When I nodded, she spoke up. “I think we should do a kind of Voyager-plate: a copy, even just digital, of all our texts around music, crafts, technology, mathematics… Art, fermentation, food preparation and the history of it. Not just for this scenario!” she insisted urgently, “For any worst-case scenario. Keep a copy, or several. And put those copies, along with all the relevant artifacts that we have on board, and keep them with the people in the Archives, in the safest part of the ship.”

“Where it would take a black hole to destroy it,” Parvati whispered.

Just as the tears were threatening my eyes, Arthur flopped back in his seat and kicked his boots up onto the table. “Jesus fuck, you guys are depressing. Right, but depressing. It’s doable, though. We just transcribe it into the most common language for each version of ‘language’ in the Galaxy…”

Alistair snorted. “You warlords and your short-sightedness. Clearly, the resolution is to transcribe it into the most common language in the Galaxy with instructions on how to translate it further down.”

“No, you limey-ass bastard,” Arthur growled. “Too much is lost in translation - there is a reason the Qur’an and the Sefer Torah should never be translated to be considered valid.”

Nope. I wasn’t dealing with it. We had covered all the necessary topics, I could message the rest. I twitch my head at both Vati and Hannah, at which point they both rose from their seats. Neither was noticed by the arguing men.

Arthur was mid-sentence when a quick strike from Vati to the top of his spinal cord rendered all his words gibberish. Rather than realizing this, he glanced down at his suddenly-tingling fingertips in confusion. Hannah simply hauled Alistair out of his seat and ignored his squawked objections, her shorter but sturdier frame more than a match for his tall, slender frame and brain that was very much against violence towards women but undecided about how to stop them from chauffeuring you out of a room.

With exactly zero ceremony, both men were deposited in the corridor, to the satisfaction of all three of us. I waggled my fingers in a farewell. “Fuck it out or fight it out, I don’t care. But not in my office. Ta!”

I could not hold back the smile anymore when both started pounding on the door for entry, not realizing I had disabled their permissions right after the first volley had been thrown.  It was almost habit, at this point, to disable their permissions to my office when they started bickering, only to restore them when they decided to act like adults.

Clearly that wasn’t the case this time. Oh well, maybe in a couple hours. I would need to ask Xiomara to do a ‘sensor test’ of the gym and med bays to be sure.

<< Prev   Masterlist  Next >>