#either red or blue depending on whether it was a normal game over or a terminal corruption

[gentle-hero-blog]

kind of niche but i can't wait to see how they style the title + game over screens in Prime 4. those two elements hold so much atmosphere in the previous prime titles i love comparing them all

[junicai]

Aria at Award Shows

Iconic Outfits

2020 AAAs NCT Daesang Award  

Peoples’ jaws dropped when they saw Aria sidle up alongside the other 23 boys, strolling out like she owned the building. The heels gave her enough height to be nearly level with Renjun - something she wouldn’t let the boy forget - her hair dyed back to a natural black like it had been during NCT2020 promotions. It was rare that Aria didn’t look slightly apprehensive about stepping out onto a red carpet, but the confidence was rolling off her in waves. As she walked, the slit in the dress seemed to keep on going, trailing up her leg and changing the otherwise classy dress into something that left the innocent bystanders in the first row suffering from a high chance of a heart attack.

tldr; Aria’s hot and people are Noticing.

2019 Show Champion NCT 127 ‘Superhuman’ 

NCT’s second win with Superhuman left a huge divide in nctzens; a rift between those who were ot21 stans and ot22 stans (sans and plus Aria). Up until then, there had been rumors around whether Aria was to leave NCT now that there was a new girl group supposedly debuting under SM. Their management team had refrained from publishing a response - but that only lead fans to create their own speculations and theories. This outfit played perfectly into the growing rumor; with the large circular pendant on Aria’s bracelet having two chrysanthemums etched into the gold. The flower symbolized happy endings and goodbyes, with nctzens taking this as the proof that Aria was truly set to leave NCT in the coming months. 

tldr; nctzens need to learn how to Chill.

2017 M! Countdown NCT 127 ‘Cherry Bomb’

Unfortunately, this era was the cause of a lot of strife for Arizens; the stylists either hit it out of the park and Aria was drop dead stunning - or she ended up looking a little like a bratz doll a toddler had gotten their hands on. Unfortunately for Aria, their first win with ‘Cherry Bomb’ left pictures of her in a plastic, obviously dyed blue skirt and cherry pink hair to match immortalized on the internet forever. 

tldr; arizens hoped that her stylist got fired after this era. the plastic skirt wasn't the worst thing they'd done.

Other Iconic Outfits

Seating Arrangements

Depending on the venue, idols are normally sat on straight rows of chairs and benches, or at round tables. Given the choice, Aria would always prefer to sit at one of the tables, as not only does it give her a chance to not have to worry about her legs being seen while being covered by the tablecloth - if there is one - but it lets her keep everyone sitting near her in her direct line of vision. 

However, should she have to sit in one of the main rows, she’ll normally end up squished beside one of three boys - Donghyuck, Yuta and/or Renjun. Should one of those three be unaviliable, Doyoung and Jeno are usually quick enough to fill in the empty space. 

Donghyuck would always be her first choice, was it not for the boy’s incessant energy that sometimes left her nerves fried before their performance. Most days she adored the company - adored him and his efforts to get her mind off their impending songs with various games and ways to pass the time (they're not allowed play footsie anymore though, because Aria stomped on his foot with her heel once) - but other days she just needed someone to hold her hand and say nothing. That’s where Yuta and Renjun come in.

As Aria’s found out over the years, for all the man’s tactile affection and loud displays of love, Yuta’s highly perceptive to when she needs some silent comfort. Now, she’s not sure if he’s that perceptive to everyone or just her - but either way she’s not complaining. 

With Dream, Renjun is the one she’ll sit with and doodle on the white napkins that are laid out on the table for lord knows what reason. After being bored out of their minds for their first few award shows, Renjun had snuck two black ballpoint pens into the venue in the inside of his red suit jacket. The drawings had become somewhat a tradition, and the best doodle normally is uploaded to bubble shortly after the show has ended. 

All in all, Aria’s normally quite content to sit in the centre of the large group of boys - split over several rows or tables, boisterous and bubbly with energy. The only real downside to it all is the lack of blankets available to protect her modesty once she is seated. 

Most venues split the idols fairly evenly between the boy and girl groups - with blankets being allocated especially for the seating of girl groups. This meant, unfortunately, that when NCT files into their seats and sits down, there is rarely something in the close vicinity that Aria can borrow quickly without causing a fuss.

Sometimes she gets lucky - other female idols might spot her and are normally kind enough to hand over one of their cushions or blankets, content to share with their neighboring member. Occasionally though, Aria has no such luck and is left to either pull down her dress multiple times per minute to cover the prickly feeling over the tops of her legs when she felt like eyes were boring into her, or wait for some kind of break so she could go find a spare covering.

Aria supposed after the third time something like that had happened, her members were getting fed up with it all. 

At first it was their plan B: should some type of cover-up not be available in their immediate vicinity, Johnny or Lucas or Jaehyun - once, even Dejun - or another member who ran hot near-constantly would shrug off their jacket and fold it over Aria’s legs, pulling it up and then lifting her hands to place them in her lap to hold their jacket there. 

Eventually it became their plan A however, now commonplace for Aria to go looking for the member who was wearing multiple layers and who wouldn’t suffer from the loss of their outermost one.  

Iconic Moments 

Twitter: [180821] and people rly say nct doesn’t care abt aria :/

Red carpets were always something to dread, in Aria’s eyes.

The cameras flashing bright enough to blind you, and the knowledge that if she stumbled or - god forbid - fell it would be immortalized forever on Koreaboo’s newest blog post. 

However the worst bit, was always the footwear. High, stiletto heels that left her teetering around on nothing more than her tippy-toes, precariously balanced as she made her way up and down stairs, over carpet and tiled flooring alike. 

Aria was used to wearing heels, but the one’s she performed in were usually fitted with various types of ankle support and a thick heel to give her balance. Wobbling around on a heel the same width of a piece of uncooked spaghetti was not something she’d willingly choose. 

Not to mention the blisters. 

Designer shoes were gifted to the company on a regular basis - shipped over just in time for Aria to slip into the pair before stepping out of the van into the sea of bright flashes and reporters. It always seemed like designers were too pre-occupied with making a shoe look good rather than making them actually wearable. 

The first time Aria had been gifted a set of heels - early 2018 - she made the mistake of assuming that they would be in similar comfort as her performance heels. 

Two hours later and with a wad of bloody tissue stuffed into the back of them, Aria had learnt her lesson. 

From then on, it was commonplace for Aria to bandage her heels before she went out to shows - not quite as heavily as she normally would for a performance, but just enough to stop the skin splitting under the constant abrasion. 

She’d only been caught out badly once - but it was all caught on camera by a fan sitting close by, and spread over twitter like wildfire. 

Aria had limped her way back over to where NCT 127 was sitting, lips pressed together in a tight line and hands clenched in the tight material of the leather trousers she had been given to wear. The trousers stopped a few inches above her ankles, so the red mess of her heels was clearly visible as she hobbled over and sat down with a thud onto the seat. 

Donghyuck placed a hand on Aria’s shoulder, leaning in so that he could see her face behind the curtain of hair that she had let fall to hide her tear-filled eyes from him. 

“Riri?” Donghyuck whispered to her, thumb beginning to rub soothing circles into her arm. “Hey, Riri? What’s going on?” 

Aria only shook her head, gesturing to the pair of torturous heels on her feet.

Donghyuck inhaled sharply when he saw the blood trailing up her leg and soaking into the back of the heel. He turned to his side to elbow Doyoung, grabbing his attention.

“Hyung. Hyung.” He hissed, Doyoung turning around with an over-exaggerated sigh. 

“No, Hyuck, I told you I’m not going to-” Doyoung cut himself off upon seeing Aria’s pain-filled face. “Aria? What’s wrong? What’s happened?” 

Donghyuck slid off his seat onto the ground despite Aria’s protests that the floor wasn’t clean, get up, and explained what had happened to his hyung. Sliding her heel off as slowly as he could to not pull at the skin more, he muttered apologizes to Aria as she inhaled a shaky breath before exhaling it on a small, wet cry. 

“Hyung, did you bring anything for Taeyong-hyung’s shoulder that we could use?” 

“Yeah, yeah I did give me two seconds.” Doyoung bent into the small bag that he had tucked underneath the seat, pulling out a length of bandage that was stowed away in the outermost pocket. 

Donghyuck took it from Doyoung’s hands with a small ‘thank you’, moving to kneel back down in front of Aria and taking her ankle back into his lap.

“Hyuck, no I got it, c’mon the ground isn’t clean-” 

He silenced her with a look. Aria settled back into her chair - defeated - and Donghyuck wrapped the bandage around her heel as quickly but as painlessly as he could manage. 

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

Twitter: [190323] HSHS ARIA IS A CARAT WE’VE WON LADIES N GENTS

Maybe Aria should have been paying more attention to the camera that was slowly panning around the idols, projecting their faces up onto a large screen beside the stage, but she was too engrossed in the current group’s performance. 

“그렇다고 네 맘이 작다는 게 아냐,” Swaying gently side to side and mouthing along to the lyrics, Aria was happy enough to smile along to the song and move her hands in a small mimickery of the choreography she’d taught herself off the group’s dance practice video she’d watched only a few dozen times. 

It wasn’t until Mark poked her in the side that Aria broke out from her own little bubble, twisting her head to look back at him and then up at the screen when he pointed. 

There, her face, staring back at her from the big screen was enough to make her mouth drop open a little bit and her eyes widen. She clapped a hand to her mouth before turning to hide her face in Jaehyun’s shoulder, shaking with embarassed laughter. 

Aria could hear Taeyong’s teasing laugh in return, before a hand came and ruffled the hair on top of her head, that she swatted away.

--=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

Twitter: [170911] lmao same aria

Aria knew she was there. 

She knew that she was sitting right there and that she was in one of those really skimpy dresses stylists loved to put girls in because apparently female idols don’t deserve modesty and Aria knew that she had a blanket for once and she should share it but oh my god.

It was Chungha.

Aria was going to pass out. 

Taking side glances every few seconds only confirmed the fact that Chungha was pulling down her dress to cover as much of her legs as possible, tucking her ankles together and underneath the seat.

Ok.

Ok, she could do this. 

Aria took a steeling breath, before shifting on her seat to face Chungha on more of a diagonal. She lifted her hand before lowering it slighly, looking away. 

Should she- no ok she’s doing this. 

Without giving herself time to talk herself out of it, Aria moved to rest her hand on Chungha’s arm. The older woman jerked slightly - startled - and Aria was quick to apologize. 

There was no audio in the video uploaded - the original poster having been too far away to capture much - but the two women talked for a moment before Chungha pointed to the blanket and then herself.

Aria nodded emphatically, and Chungha’s face crumpled into something fond, bowing her head in thanks before they unfolded the blanket another time and Chungha scooted an inch closer to Aria so they’d both fit. 

Chungha sent Aria another grateful smile before refocusing on the performances - apparently not noticing, or perhaps choosing not to comment on the rather obvious red tinge that the younger idol’s cheeks had taken on.

[emmys-main]

Intro (Part 1 of Love Me Good)

Summary: When you mention that you’ve never been satisfied by a man in bed, your older friend Chris makes you an offer you can’t refuse. Part II: Closer

Pairing: Chris Evans x female reader 

Warnings: SMUT. Implied age gap, graphic oral sex (performed on a female). Do not interact if you are not 18+. 

Title Inspiration: Intro by the XX

You didn’t know quite how the conversation of sexual satisfaction came up, but you weren’t mad that it was happening. Maybe it was because you were drunk off vodka and pink lemonade. Maybe it was because you were with a group of friends you trusted. Maybe it was because you were just having fun. 

You were in a quiet suburb of Boston with a group of friends who were filming a movie there. You had been working for Chris’s mom’s theater for about three yeas after college, which was how you met Chris, and he’d introduced you to his friends, and then you’d taken a job on a TV show that Chris was filming back in Boston. It had been a wild couple of years, but you wouldn’t trade it for the world. Chris was, without a doubt, one of your best friends. Most of your friends in the area had scattered after college, allowing you to get closer to your employer’s son.

You’d been playing stupid games for most of the night after the Bruins game ended and you didn’t feel like going home quite yet; Chris was your ride, anyway, because he didn’t want you going back yourself so late. Somehow the game had turned to truth or dare, the real version of truth or dare - tell the truth or do whatever the other person says. Of course, in a room full of adults who were full of home-made chips and dip and alcohol, it turned dirty. 

“I’m serious, answer it!” Your friend Janie said, nudging you with her elbow. “Come on, you have to! Or I’ll dare you to answer it!” 

“Fine!” You sighed. You felt heat on your cheeks, starting to sweat a little more than you had been. “Never. I’ve never had an orgasm with a guy, okay?” Janie and another friend, Will, let their jaws drop before falling into a fit of laughter that you knew would happen. Even Chris, who was sitting there, laughed a little bit as he took another sip of his beer. He was probably the most sober of all of you - he was your ride, after all. 

“What about Jay?” Will asked. “You dated him for two years in college.” 

“I lied! He tried, and I almost got there, but I never did unless I was on my own,” you said, pulling your cardigan a little closer to you like it would guard your secret that was already out. “There’s your answer, okay? Now take the conversation away from me.” You took a sip from the pink-rimmed steel straw you were drinking out of, the lemonade and vodka mix stinging your lips like it had been all night. 

“Chris, your turn! Same question or dare!” Janie turned her attention to Chris, who immediately looked like a deer in the headlights. The look on his face faded and suddenly he was chuckling, his cheeks slightly flushed. 

“My record is five in one night. But I don’t remember the last time, so you’re not getting an answer to that.”

“Oh bullshit! There’s no way you don’t remember.” Chris shrugged, putting his hands in his sweatshirt. You secretly loved when Chris dressed like he was that night - in jeans and a sweatshirt and a Bruins hat, not concerned with anyone who might be taking pictures or spreading rumors about what he said. You knew he trusted you the first time he came over to watch a movie and told you some secrets from the set, not even worried about whether you would say something. He looked like any other guy, not Chris Evans. He looked like the guy who was easily your closest and most trusted friend. 

“I don’t remember!” He insisted. “But at least I know it happened.” He looked over at you, winking, and you just rolled your eyes. Chris was a flirt. A hardcore flirt. And nothing ever came of it because you figured he just wasn’t into you. Tonight had been different, though, because as soon as the alcohol started flowing he was all touchy-feely and flirty and was just overall different. You’d be lying if you said you didn’t notice it.

You went a few more rounds of the game, ending up revealing that the craziest place you’d ever done it was in the communal showers sophomore year. Chris’s answer was an awards show green room, a much better answer, but he tried to play it off, saying it was too hot and he was worried about getting anything on his date’s dress, making excuses to play it down so it wouldn’t seem like anyone was missing out on anything. 

You helped clean up before you walked across the street and climbed in Chris’s car. He turned the air conditioning vents toward you, making sure you were cool because you were sweating from all of the alcohol. He put on some 80′s music you didn’t quite recognize and started driving back toward your apartment. You grabbed a water bottle from the cupholder in the console, drinking a little bit of it before remembering it had been there since you got out of the car and that the water inside of it was hot. 

“You can't be fucking serious about that,” Chris remarked when you were reflecting on the night. “You had to have had at least one. Maybe you didn’t notice it, but you had to!” 

“I think I just put too much pressure on myself,” you admitted, “because I almost always get there but I never fully just...” You clenched your fists, looking for a good word, and let your voice trail off when you couldn’t find one in your vocabulary. “But that doesn’t mean I’m not satisfied with it. It’s fine. I’ve just kind of come to know I’m not going to and it’s whatever, you know? As long as I have fun otherwise.” 

“Oh, that’s such bullshit. I’ll admit it’s not everything, but come on! It’s kind of the end goal there.” Chris stopped at a red light, looking over at you to make sure you were okay. You could see that his cheeks were returning to their normal color, even in the bright red light from the truck ahead of you’s brake. He was definitely sober. And this wasn’t a conversation you’d ever even think to have if you were sober, too. 

“Yeah, but... I don’t know.”

“You’ve never been with a good guy, then,” Chris said after a second. He crossed his arms against his chest as he waited for the truck to go, then gently took his brake off and put his hands back on the wheel and the gear shift where he always rested his right fist. 

“Then fucking tell me where they are because obviously I don’t know how to look for them, either.” Chris scoffed. “And, besides, I’m pretty enough to fuck and that’s all. No guy ever wants to stick around to learn how to make me feel good and it’s fucking annoying.”

“That’s just about the biggest lie I’ve ever heard. But maybe you need to look for a friends with benefits thing instead of anything else. At least at first. I hate hooking up with people because you don’t know them, you don’t know what they like or what they want to try or anything. You just know them for two hours and then they fuckin’ leave. But a friends with benefits, at least you know them and you can be idiots with each other.”

“Knowing me I’d probably catch feelings,” you scoffed, rubbing your hair a little when it hit a spot on your ear and started itching. 

“Take me, for example,” he said. You sat up, giggling. 

“What? You?” 

“Exactly! You love me as a friend and nothing else. I wouldn’t even think twice about doin’ something because i know you and I care about you, but I also know that it wouldn’t be weird.”

“You think you and me wouldn’t be weird?”

“At first, maybe, but...” He looked over at you. “You’re hot and we can act like adults, is all I’m saying. That’s what I mean. You don’t want to get with someone you can’t act like an adult with. Literally and metaphorically.” 

“Are you offering?” You asked after a second of silence, having been biting your tongue. The words came out of your mouth before you could stop them. Damn being drunk, even a little bit. it just made the part of you always afraid to step on someone’s toes go away. Chris shrugged in response and took a turn, and you noticed that you were almost back to your apartment. 

“Maybe,” he said. “Depends on if you’re accepting. I just can’t stand the fact that no one’s ever made you cum, it’s fucking ridiculous. And if you’re into it...” His voice faded out when he realized you were looking at him. 

“Sure,” you said in response, trying to be nonchalant about it. Inside, your heart was starting to race. Secretly, you’d always wondered what was inside of the gray sweatpants he would wear to set every morning, what was underneath the sweatshirt he would wear when it was cold outside, how his hair would feel running through your fingers... but you’d always been against it, thinking it was just empty flirting. He was so much older than you, he could have any woman he wanted, and he was so damn out of your league. But maybe, if this was one way you could have him, you wanted to. 

“Really?” He asked, looking over at you. You were at the stop sign right before your apartment. It was now or never. 

“Really,” you responded. His lips teased at a smile in the light of the street lamps and he pressed on the gas pedal, riding the short distance to your apartment before pulling into the driveway. “Do you want to come in?”

“Yeah.” He sniffled and turned off the car, then got out. You waited for him to cross over to you, looking in the darkness to make sure nothing was coming, before walking you up the stairs. You started sweating as you fiddled with your keys, trying to find the right one. 

“You wanna just watch a movie or something? You know, we don’t have to get into anything,” he suggested. You found the key with blue duct tape on it, labeled with your apartment number, and nodded as you stuck it in the door. 

“Sounds good.” You walked into the apartment and turned on the light, your head taking a minute to adjust to the light. “You know where the bedroom is, pick a movie. I’m going to use the bathroom.” He nodded and looked you up and down, smiling to himself, and the feeling of being checked out by him like a piece of meat sent shivers up and down your spine. The shivers stayed until you were in the bathroom, looking in the mirror, rolling up your cardigan in your hands. You weren’t wearing any makeup, but it didn’t really matter. You just made sure that you didn’t have any toilet paper or anything stuck down there, sighing, knowing you didn’t do that well when you'd shaved that morning. But Chris was your friend - if he wanted you, he wanted you. He wouldn’t care whether you had razor bumps or not. 

You sighed, looking at yourself for a minute, and left the room. You walked into the bedroom to see Chris on the bed, shoes already off, hoodie off to reveal a white t-shirt, and his hat was on the nightstand. You sat down on the bed beside him, kicking your shoes off, and he turned on some movie that you knew you weren’t going to be able to watch. You looked at him in the dim lighting of the room before laying your head on his shoulder. He leaned back against the wall and the two of you sat like that for a few minutes, laughing at the TV when you realized he’d put on Forgetting Sarah Marshall, one of your favorites. 

“This fucking movie,” you giggled. He laughed, too, but soon you were calm again. He must have been able to feel it because he pressed a kiss to your head. Did he want to start something now? You wondered. You looked up at him to see that he did, and before you could say anything or do anything his lips were on yours. 

You’d always suspected he was a good kisser, but you didn’t know how right you were until that moment. He nearly tackled you right off the bat, swinging one of his legs over your torso until you were trapped underneath him. He gave you what felt like a million kisses before coming up for air. 

“You like it rough?” He asked you in a low, husky voice. You were so close to him that you could see his pretty eyelashes up close for the first time. His pupils, those gorgeous eyes, were blown up with pure lust and a sick smile came over his face when you started nodding your head. He was the predator now, and you were the prey, and you didn’t even want to try to run away from it.

“I need to hear you, princess, do you like it rough?” He asked. 

“Y-yes,” you said. It came out more like a whimper, your voice dry from the soul-sucking kiss he’d given you. As soon as you spoke a soft smile came over his face, replacing the almost grinch-like grin he’d had a moment ago. 

“Good girl. We’re not gonna do the main event tonight, but I want to make you happy, is that okay?” 

“Okay,” you whined. You could feel heat between your legs, soaking your underwear and your tight jeans. How could he make you like that with just a few words and a kiss? You were met with another searing kiss, Chris’s hand moving up to your throat. He rest his hand right above your collarbone, right where you were the most vulnerable. His fingers pressed into your skin, a hang-nail on his thumb scratching at it. You could barely think because of the way he was shoving your tongue down his throat, giving you no opportunity to breathe between the body on top of you and the warmth in your mouth. His tongue slid past your lips so easily, inviting you to go to war with his, and you took it. His kisses alone were like fire burning you from the inside out. 

After what felt like minutes of just being there, kissing him with his hand on your throat, he pulled away. You wondered what he was going to do but he took his hands and put them down to your jeans, un-fastening the button. A limp, slightly greasy curl fell from behind his ear and with no hesitation, you tucked it back there. He gave you another sweet smile. His fingers fiddled with your button for a second before he started to pull the high-waisted jeans down. He chuckled when he saw that you were wearing underwear that matched your t-shirt. It was strange - you were always so afraid of your own body, looking down and seeing how close your stomach was to overlapping your toes, grabbing at your thighs wishing they would just disappear. But with Chris, you’d known him for so long and felt so comfortable with him that you didn’t even care he could see all of the stretch marks and the baby fat that had never left your stomach. 

“If I’d known you were this god damn beautiful,” he muttered under his breath as he pulled your jeans over your ankles, discarding them to the floor. You sat up in a moment of bravery, pulling your t-shirt off to reveal your bra. Chris’s eyes had starts in them - you never once recalled feeling that way with anyone. You’d only ever been a bundle of nerves before. Now, that bundle was unraveling swiftly. Chris took the time to pull his own shirt off, allowing you to see every dip and curve in his skin. You couldn’t help but grin. God, he was amazing. Your hands went to his waist, breathless at how the man in front of you was actually real. 

“You gonna let me take these off too?” He asked. “You wanna let me eat you out?” 

“Yeah,” you responded. You felt a chill run up and down your spine and then to your hips as Chris’s thumbs hooked in your underwear and pulled them down, revealing you to the cold air of your room. Your legs came open without a command to, and when you did Chris’s eyes turned black again. You’d shaved that morning, not even thinking you’d get any that night, just because you liked to keep it shaved. So your pussy was as open as a flower, right in front of him, pink and perfect and glistening with wetness that you couldn’t control. It was freezing, making you want to close your legs, but you didn’t. You laid there, breathless, and watched as Chris laid down on the bed. He laid in between your legs on his stomach, just for a second, looking. You felt the heat on your cheeks, the aching in your bones for even just a little bit of his air against you. 

The silence of the room was interrupted by Chris again, this time as he spat on your open pussy. It hit your bundle of nerves and you squirmed, earning hands on your hips once again. You jumped when you felt his cold fingers on them, rubbing your juices together. You’d never thought about how hot that was until then - fuck, you could’ve watched him do that all day. 

“That feel good?” He asked in a dark voice. 

“So good,” your lust-filled voice groaned back at him. You moved a piece of hair out of his eyes again, and as if to thank you, he moved to kiss your thighs. He said he was going to tease you, and tease he did - he kissed everywhere but the part of you he’d wet. You gasped at the feeling of his teeth on the thin, sensitive skin of your thighs, sucking little bruises into them. You were suddenly grateful that it was November and you weren’t wearing shorts anymore, otherwise the entire world would have been able to see what Chris had done to you. 

“Fuck, you’ve got the most perfect pussy I’ve ever fuckin’ seen,” Chris said. It almost sounded like a dream when he said it. Faraway and unreal. And then he made it real by stopping the teasing and going straight to the source. You threw a hand over your mouth, not wanting to make too much noise but still too surprised to stop it from happening. You let out a small, high-pitched yelp as his tongue hit your clit first. He sucked it right into his mouth first, as if all of the teasing was over, and just as you let out another moan he let it go. You could hear a chuckle and at the same time, more of your wetness fell out of you. He lapped it up with his tongue, licking a stripe up and then back down, and then around. He was slow and careful with his movements, but it felt like the times you’d been eaten out before - like his tongue was everywhere and nowhere at once. 

This was different, though. This was Chris. This was your best friend, eating you out in the darkness, trying to prove a point that had blown out of proportion. You had to stop another moan from leaving your lips when he sucked you into him, pressing his nose onto your clit by just an accident. 

“No, I wanna hear those pretty sounds,” he cooed. “Tell me when you start getting close, but don’t put any pressure on yourself, alright?” You nodded, your head falling back onto the pillow. “Just sit back and relax, baby girl, I got you.” 

You felt a finger probe at your entrance, and then two, and suddenly he was only rubbing his tongue against your clit and his fingers were inside of you. Your own fingers never felt this good, you thought, ever. He thrust them in and out of you and you could hear the lewd noises of everything going on over the movie. You were whimpering and whining and egging Chris on as he continued to eat you out. Your body was getting hotter and hotter and you were on the brink, but... what if you couldn’t? What if this was just like every other time when you got so close but never could? What if... Chris stopped what he was doing and looked up at you, pulling his fingers from you to grab at your hands. 

“It’s okay. It’s okay. You want me to stop?”

“No,” you said loudly. “Please don’t stop.”

“Okay, then, you gotta relax for me, sweetheart. Just cum when you want to, it’s okay.” You calmed down before he went back to work, sucking and lapping at you. It felt so good, even the sweat on your back felt good, that your legs started to close. He didn’t protest. He just let it happen, and suddenly you could hear him gasp for air before returning right to your wet, now swollen pussy. That was finally what tipped you over the edge. 

“Fuck!” You sobbed out, gasping for air as you felt at your highest. Chris took his mouth away from you and replaced it with his fingers, rubbing at your clit as your legs jerked and threatened to kick him. If you’d been looking at him you could see that he was smiling, that his beard was literally shining in the darkness with your wetness on him. 

“Okay, I’m gonna go slow now,” he said softly, more to himself than you, and his fingers slowed on your clit. When you finally stopped moving, still gasping for air, he disappeared. You didn’t know where he went at first, but after a minute of stillness he returned with your steel water bottle and a washcloth from your closet, one you rarely used. It was wet with warm water. 

“Thanks,” you managed to say, sitting up a little to drink. You twisted the lid off and your hands were shaking, but you drank the cold water. It breathed the life back to you, pulling you down from the highest of the highs you’d ever experienced. And then there was the heat of the cloth against you, and Chris’s soft sh, it’s okay, and then it was all over. He took the bottle and put it on your nightstand, then pulled your blankets out from underneath you. You were naked, still, but he didn’t seem to care. He tucked you in and started getting dressed, noticing that you were tired. 

“I’m gonna let you get some rest, okay?” He said. “Sound good?” 

“Okay.” He leaned down and kissed your temple, putting the TV remote over on the bed beside you. 

“Good night, gorgeous. Call me tomorrow morning and we’ll get some coffee, alright?”

“Okay.” You shut your eyes and fell asleep without a single care in the world. 

The next morning you woke up, noticing that you were naked above anything else. Normally you didn’t sleep naked, but you could feel your bare skin against your comforter and snuggled back into your blankets. You turned to your side, pulling the head of your phone charger out of the port and letting the cord fall to the ground. There was a single text. 

Chris: Just woke up. Coffee at Sam’s? 

Just woke up too. Sounds good. Just as you stopped typing, he started, and within a second he sent another text saying he’d be there to pick you up in half an hour. You pulled the covers off you only to realize that your legs were covered in little bruises and nibble marks from Chris. And then you realized the night before, but you didn’t freak out like you normally did. It felt good. You didn’t feel gross or dirty. You felt safe. Cared for. Satisfied. It was a change from the normal shame you felt after hooking up with someone. It was Chris, you realized. It was all him. 

You pulled on some sweats, knowing he would be wearing the same thing, and emerged from your apartment to see that his car was already out there. You smiled to yourself as you got in, seeing that he’d obviously slept well. 

“Well?” He asked. “How do you feel?”

“Like I just lost my god damn virginity,” you answered, only half joking. “Good. I feel really good.” He gave you a smile back, but it was a little hard to see underneath his famous Red Sox hat. 

“Good. I’m glad.” He drove over to the coffee shop the two of you frequented and you paid for your coffee and sat down where you could people-watch through the streets. 

“So last night was fine?” He asked. 

“Chris, that was the most... I’ve never done that with a guy before and come out feeling not dirty. I’ve also never fallen asleep like that.” He chuckled. 

“You deserved it. I wish I could've stayed, but the dog needed out. So would you want to do that again? Keep up this... thing?” 

“Yeah,” you answered with absolutely no hesitation whatsoever. “If you’re okay with it, yeah. Maybe this time I can suck out your soul instead.”  “I wouldn't say I sucked out your soul,” he rolled his eyes. “There’s much more where that came from.” 

“Good. I want it.” You were only half joking there, too. “Friends with benefits?” He lifted up his coffee cup and you did yours, fake clinking them together like glasses.

“Friends with benefits,” he answered back. “What are you doing tomorrow after those courtroom scenes? We could go to that bar you’ve been wanting to check out.” 

“Yeah, I’d like that.” The two of you talked about more mundane things before finally parting ways with a see you later, princess. He drove you back to your apartment and watched you get in, then left probably to go hang out with his family like he usually did on the weekends. You shut the door to your apartment, sighing dreamily as you decided to lay in bed for most of the day and think about how Chris felt the night before. 

You wondered if you’d ever be able to get him out of your head, or if he’d live there rent free, like the image of him eating your pussy out spread across your bed. 

A/N: This is my first time writing any kind of smut whatsoever, so I hope I did it justice! If anyone wants it, I have a full series for this prepared for this. 

[yukipri]

Marco’s Bauble Part 8 - a One Piece Mermaid AU Text Story

Another update for Tumblr!

This work goes by On the Courtship of Monkey D. Luffy on AO3, and I’ll be updating over there tonight as well!

A quick question....do people like reading the updates here on Tumblr? Or now that it’s on AO3, would people prefer to read there? And if so, would you be okay waiting for new updates until AO3 catches up? I’m a little torn because I’m not sure if people are enjoying reading on here, and it’s quite a hassle to format for Tumblr, and it’s getting a bit difficult for me to juggle updating these stories on 3 separate platforms...

ANYWAY, in this update, Thatch has some Thoughts, and there is mention of Ace x Luffy.

Continues off of, and should be read after:

👒🐟Marco’s Bauble Part 1

👒🐟Marco’s Bauble Part 2

👒🐟Marco’s Bauble Part 3

👒🐟Marco’s Bauble Part 4

👒🐟Marco’s Bauble Part 5

👒🐟Marco’s Bauble Part 6

👒🐟Marco’s Bauble Part 7

~~

What are her 3 sizes?

(For the wedding dress, of course.)

"The fuck! Like I'd tell you!" Thatch roars, startling the blue gull into momentarily leaping off the rail, before it circles back, landing again to peck at his  sleeve to express its displeasure. Thatch ignores it, because he's fuming.

So apparently all of his and Koala's secret debates over whether Marco intentionally proposed or not were for naught, because here's the fucking evidence. And it comes from Izo of all people, because Thatch would recognize that lopsided handwriting anywhere (the man insists that his handwriting is beautiful in his native language of Wano, but he never quite got used to writing any other way).

And well, if Izo, an unrelated third party but professional snooper knows, then Marco himself must know.

And apparently, they're already planning a wedding.

Thatch feels like an idiot. He'd been defending Marco against Koala, and the lil Revolutionary was a tough opponent, one he'd had to chase out of the kitchen with a ladle more than once when he was tired of her word games. Thatch had insisted, like a fool, that no Marco's not that kind of guy, he really isn't the type to play with people's emotions, he would never propose for a joke, nor would he do it seriously without good reason. It must all be an accident, a little misunderstanding, Marco was just ignorant like Thatch himself was!

Except, apparently he did know and it wasn't an accident, and now Thatch feels completely lost because he doesn't know what Marco's thinking at all. Marco, who's not just his his first friend on the Moby, but arguably his best friend; Marco, his brother over several decades; Marco, who Thatch thought he knew better than anyone, except perhaps Pops himself...

Thatch's also pissed, because if Marco wants to start drama after they all reunite and he's introduced to Luffy, that's one thing (not that that would be great either). But right now, they're still near the beginning of Paradise with almost half the circumference of the world to go until even the halfway point, and Marco is WAY on the other side of the Red Line. If this ship explodes in flames or whatever that batshit Revolutionary brother might do, Mister First Division Commander is completely unaffected, but there are plenty of innocents here (like hello! Thatch!) who would find that pretty devastating.

Also, Thatch was the one who passed on that gift to Luffy! Even if he didn't know what it meant at the time...doesn't that make Thatch complicit? And even if not, Marco's strongest connection here is clearly Thatch. If Marco's actions cause chaos, then the blame and responsibility to clean up the mess naturally falls upon Thatch. Which, he definitely did not sign up for.

Pops, Thatch thinks miserably, I thought I was supposed to show them they can depend on us Whitebeards, NOT that us Whitebeards will fuck shit up for them...

But more than anything, there's a shocking large part of Thatch that absolutely balks at just the idea of Luffy getting married. And it's shocking because Thatch shouldn't feel this upset.

Marco, for all the complaints Thatch wants to hurl at him at the moment, is still a really great guy. A guy who, in literally any other situation, Thatch would be the first in line to enthusiastically encourage, and also to congratulate.

And sure, Thatch knows he has a crush, and his little Seastar's carving out a larger home for herself in his heart by the day, but--Thatch admittedly has crushes a lot. Sure, this one feels different, but...Marco, to his knowledge, has never had a romantic crush. He only sometimes but very rarely even has a night out, and Thatch doesn't think he's ever held a relationship longer than three encounters. He's always so serious, so diligent, so sincerely and whole-heartedly dedicated to Pops and his family. He almost never does anything selfish for himself, and Thatch would know.

If, for whatever reason, Marco is genuinely serious about Luffy...then Thatch should, and would, step to the side, regardless of personal feelings. If this is the path Marco wants, then he deserves it, and Thatch will always be the first to say it, no matter how craptastic the circumstances. And Thatch knows that Marco would give his bride the world.

Without them even having met, Thatch doesn't doubt for a second that Marco would make Luffy happy, till the end of her days.

The fact that Thatch knows all this, yet still feels near unbearable reluctance...says more than he's willing to admit.

And so he decides to avoid thinking about the most obvious reason (his own feelings), and instead contemplates his second very compelling reason: Ace.

His littlest brother isn't so great at being honest with himself, and never has. But this, Thatch feels, isn't just a matter of denial.

The boy literally has no clue.

Oh sure, Ace knows he loves his little brother. He makes sure everyone else knows it too, both here on the Merry and back on the Moby once he opened up enough to talk to people. He's so damn proud of her, yet also concerned for her, while also trusting her with his life and more. It's clear to anyone who sees them together that he absolutely adores her.

But it's more than that, isn't it, Thatch thinks. It's in the little gestures, the way Ace raises his arm up without looking at her and she slides under it, also without needing to look at him. It's the casual way they lace their fingers together, like it's nothing, when they're snoozing out on the deck. It's the way sometimes they have unspoken conversations, just staring into each others eyes, before moving forward in synch to meet in the middle to bump their foreheads together in some secret mutual understanding.

It's the reason why Sanji, for all his extravagant flirting, knows when to shut up and return to being a normal human (and, Thatch grudgingly admits, this applies to himself too). It's why Zoro never lets his gaze linger more than two seconds longer than it needs to (but he'll always take those two seconds), why Nami always looks like she wants to sit closer but doesn't, why Koala hasn't said anything when she's probably usually a much more proactive flirter.

Everyone on their crew can see it, except the two in question.

Ace, Thatch thinks, heaving a huge sigh as he looks down at the crumpled note from Izo in his palm. Little brother, you are so fucking in love.

It might not necessarily be romantically. It's certainly not particularly sexually, if Ace's lack of reaction to Lu's aggressive physical smothering is any indication. It could very possibly be platonically.

But either way, there's no room for Sanji, nor Zoro, nor the girls, nor even Thatch himself...at least, until those two figure that out.

Until then, everyone aboard the Merry is here because they love and respect their captains. No one would dare encroach on something so special, yet so potentially immature, not yet ready to be dragged out to be recognized.

Thatch knows Ace has known Luffy for years, he practically raised her. But he was also away at sea for three years. Luffy was a child when he left; she's an adult now.

Thatch once asked him if she had changed at all since he last saw her (Ace most certainly had, according to Deuce). And Ace looked blank, then horribly confused, before saying No...but also, yeah, I guess. Thatch understands; Ace isn't used to not knowing something about Luffy. And something...something had changed.

That something might very well be the thing that needs to be figured out. And for that, Ace hasn't had much time yet, since reuniting with Luffy. Only as much time as the rest of them, in fact. And they deserve time to figure that out, and as the two captains' loving crew, the ASL pirates have an unsaid agreement to watch over them...at least until they have.

(After that, Thatch thinks grimly, it might be open game.)

But of course, there's also the question of Luffy herself, and as much as she's the heart of the ASL Pirates, she's also an enigma. Thatch, for all that he adores her and honestly wants more with her, genuinely has a hard time imagining her as anything but clueless as someone's romantic partner (he's carefully not thinking about anything sexual). It very well may be that the whole "figuring out" that she and Ace have to do...ends up being nothing. And that's fine as well.

Either way, as much as Thatch loves him, there's no way that any of them here on board the Merry will stand to let Marco shatter this delicate...whatever it is that's going on between their captains, that the rest of them are so patiently respecting. Even if it ends up continuing indefinitely.

As strained as it can feel at times, they're comfortable like this. There's the little spark of joy when Seastar gives him a little extra attention, a little burn when Sanji kisses her hand, but comfort in the stability that no one will go any further. If anything it's a nice little spice to their daily lives, just the right amount, and not enough ruin the dish so to speak. This is fine.

Except, that there's just one teeny little problem...

"What did the blue gull bring you today, Commander?"

Thatch doesn't jump, because he's not an amateur and did realize that the Revolutionary was approaching, but perhaps later than he should have. Damn the kid's good at hiding his presence, and Thatch wonders if he'd have noticed at all if Sabo was being serious.

"Just a stupid request from a stupid brother," Thatch says cheerfully as he turns around to face Sabo. The boy isn't even trying to hide his curiosity, his gaze pinned to Thatch's hand.

Thatch contemplates chucking the letter into the sea, but then he realizes he isn't sure Sabo wouldn't just dive after it, and as a devil fruit user, Thatch wouldn't be able to stop him from reading it underwater.

So he casually uncurls his fingers, watches Sabo visibly perk up--before Thatch opens a black hole in his palm, letting the crumpled paper get sucked into the void.

(Perhaps he should be using his power as more than a secure second dimension pocket expansion, but hey, so far it hasn't been so helpful in the kitchen.)

Sabo sags and sulks, rather cutely, Thatch thinks. "You coulda let me see it," he pouts, looking up at Thatch with an expression uncannily like Luffy's. Fuck.

"Collecting intel, Chief?" Thatch winks, expertly hiding his horror that for a moment, he'd actually been tempted. Little sneak.

"Perhaps." Something slightly manic enters his gaze, and alright, that's nothing like Seastar, not so cute after all...

"Nice try, but it's a personal family thing, can't really share," Thatch says, and it's not really a lie.

Sabo grunts, letting it go, before his gaze flicks to the gull, who still has a beakful of Thatch's sleeve. "It waiting for something?"

Thatch sighs. "Yeah, yeah, my response, which I should probably give..." Because, right, Thatch needs to send a message back to the Moby, even if no, he isn't going to answer Izo's idiotic question.

Which, is actually a fine excuse to extract himself from this situation.

"So, sorry, the response also is personal, hope you don't mind," Thatch nods, and Sabo easily opens the way for him--which, Thatch belatedly realizes, he'd actually been blocking. Scary, little Chief, scary...

"Sorry, didn't mean to pry." Sabo sounds genuinely apologetic, and tips his hat at Thatch as he passes by, and Thatch inwardly heaves a massive sigh of relief. "I'm working on it, but I know I can get a little...pushy, when it comes to things that involve my baby brother."

Thatch continues to walk away.

But inside...

Oh. Yikes, he thinks.

~~

Thatch is in the privacy of the currently empty men's sleeping room beneath the deck, and has just finished writing and giving instructions and bribes to the gull when the hatch creaks open.

"Thatch, we're in trouble," Koala announces as she stomps down the stairs, making her sneaky opening of the door rather pointless.

"I noticed," Thatch says dryly.

Koala pales. "He didn't break any of your toes, did he?!"

"What."

"Well, you're a cook, you make food Luffy likes with your hands," Koala shrugs. "Just wanted to make sure."

"What the fuck."

"I don't think he will! You're Luffy and Ace's crew, and you're a Whitebeard pirate, but..."

Thatch groans. "I already thought your Chief might be trouble, but holy shit I didn't know he was that batshit."

"He might not be!" Koala sounds defensive, but it's not particularly comforting. "He's usually reasonable, kind of, but since his memories came back..."

Thatch throws up his arms. "So, how'd he get it out of you?"

Koala flushes. "I didn't say anything!"

"Sure."

"It's not my fault that Sabo's a damn--!"

There's a loud knock, before the hatch flings open, and Ace pops his head in. "Hey Thatch! What's for snack--"

"NOT AGAIN!" Koala cries.

At the same time, Thatch shouts, "IN A SECOND!"

Either way, the hatch slams shut with a, "SORRY!"

Thatch and Koala stare at each other with their hearts beating uncomfortably rapidly.

They slowly heave a slow sigh of relief as the tension drains.

"I really need to apologize to Ace," Thatch mutters.

"I really need to work on my Observation Haki," Koala groans.

"HEY THATCH, I WANT A SNACK," Luffy shouts, and Thatch and Koala's heads whip around in horror, only to sag with relief at seeing that Luffy's not in the room, but only for a second--

--because after that second, a mermaid's crashing through the hatch, ripping it from its hinges as she slams, hatch and all, into Thatch's chest.

The room fills with dust and debris, and there are shouts outside.

Koala gingerly peers into the wreckage where Thatch is now buried in the wall, a terrified blue gull  perched on her shoulders peering alongside her, its claws digging through the fabric of her shirt.

"We're fine," Thatch coughs, peering down to make sure he'd successfully caught and shielded Luffy from damage, even as he peels himself from the wood. Luffy seems unharmed, though her eyes are wide; she clearly hadn't expected to do quite this much.

"...Armament?" Koala asks, noticing how the back of Thatch's hair is black from where it's fanned around him.

"Armament," Thatch agrees, keeping the entire back of his body coated until he's safely pulled himself and Luffy, still in his arms, away from any sharp wood.

"Sorry, Thatch," Luffy says, not particularly apologetic, if anything sort of curious. She peels herself back from his chest, scritching her cheek while looking down at what was once the hatch to the mens room that had shattered between them. She then reaches back to tug at Thatch's black locks, and oohs when they fade back to auburn.

"No worries, just make sure to make it up to Deuce and Usopp when they have to fix this," Thatch sighs, before grinning, letting his arms fall away from Luffy once he knows she has a secure grip on his shoulders. He then begins carding his fingers through her hair to make sure no splinters got in, and likewise dusting off the front of her vest, taking care not to let his touch linger. Luffy nods frantic agreement, more like rubs her head into his palm, and Thatch feels his heart skip a beat.

Koala sighs.

"Hey Thatch, what's this?"

Thatch blinks, then inwardly curses.

Luffy's holding Izo's crumpled piece of paper. His control of his power's still shoddy, and it must have accidentally spat it back out in the commotion.

Please, don't be able to read that, he prays. He luckily doesn't have much confidence in Luffy's reading abilities.

"It says 'what are her three sizes.' What are those?"

In the background, Koala slowly raises her fist.

~~

A few days later, Marco's scouting when a blue gull rapidly approaches him.

Delivery! it squawks. Delivery for you, Boss, and don't show Izo! Don't show Izo! Don't show Izo or the bread man will be mad!

Thank you, noted, friend, Marco responds, and catches the note from Thatch in mid air.

The gull trills acknowledgement, then wheels away to rejoin its brethren, while Marco changes course for the nearest island, a safe forest haven in Pops's territory, still a ways away from the Moby. It's uninhabited, save for the wildlife, and it would be good to land once before returning home anyway.

Marco lands lightly on the tallest and oldest tree on the island, from where he can survey the island of pure greenery, and the endless blue stretching beyond. The branch he's chosen looks deceptively thin, but he already knows it can support his human weight, which is why he shifts, passing the note from his claw to his hand before completing his transformation.

Marco frowns. The other Commanders (and to be honest, the entire crew) have been acting a bit strange recently, but for Thatch, who isn't even on board with them, to also be in on it...

True, this may or may not be related to that at all. But still.

Marco feels like he's missing something.

Marco, Thatch's message starts, and Marco already knows it's going to be serious because it didn't start with a jibe at his appearance.

Marco, I think I'm actually serious about her. Thoughts, brother?

Her, meaning the Ace's little brother, the mermaid girl.

If Marco remembers correctly, in Thatch's first note back to him, he'd written, She's stolen my heart, I think I want to marry her.

Marco had assumed Thatch was joking at the time, or just light-heartedly flirting, as he always did. Marco's used to hearing Thatch spew these kinds of words, and he'd taken it to mean that the girl's exceptionally Thatch's type, but hadn't thought further.

The words had made him remember a little trinket he'd had stored in a chest at the back of his closet, one he'd received from an elderly couple on Fishman Island around two decades ago...

But that's not important now, Marco thinks, focussing on Thatch's message.

In all his years of flings and casual relationships and jokingly asking ladies (and some gents) Won't you marry me...Thatch has not once asked for Marco's opinion. He's certainly had plenty of opinions himself about whether someone would be a potential good match for Marco, which Marco always ignored. But Thatch has never asked Marco about matches for himself.

Thatch really is serious.

Marco finds himself slowly smiling. "Finally, you sap," he murmurs, though no one hears him but the other birds in the trees around him.

He knows he ought to think more about what to say, but the answer is so obvious that Marco takes Thatch's note, and carefully tears the paper so that his brother's words aren't damaged. Gently tucking Thatch's note into his pocket, Marco pulls out a pen for the remaining small blank strip of paper.

Shortly afterwards, two birds depart from the island, in opposite directions: one, a phoenix, wings burning cyan against the clear skies, and the other, a blue gull headed to Paradise.

~~

~~

~~

Part 9, things start Moving as Sabo confronts Ace.

Thank you so much for reading, and I hope you enjoyed! And again, please do let me know if you actually like reading the story here on tumblr or not >.<;

As always, any comments are immensely appreciated and help motivate me to create more for this AU! ;A;

❀ ❀ Send YukiPri an Ask! ❀ ❀

~This ask has been added to the Mermaid AU Text Headcanons Compilation post~

[shiyoneko]

[TL Summary] Hanasaki Miyabi Marshmallow Reading (4/8/2021)

Get To Know Hanasaki Miyabi!! I’ll do QnA Marshmallow! [Hanasaki Miyabi/Holostars]

I reccommend watching the stream too!

He first greets the fans by telling them it’s been cold lately. After a cute head swaying and the usual KonbanMiyabi~, he then mentioned how there are new people who starts watching him lately, or maybe even those who had following him for long, and might not know who he is – for he doesn’t know himself much either, said by him – and he direct this stream for those who wants to know him more deeper.

There are many marshmallows sent to him and he might unable to answer it all.

 ・The mallow sender is very fond of Miyabi’s cuteness; The part of him that shows how good he is at games, the part of him that is nice to his Hanamigumis, the part of him that likes Temma a lot, the part of him that can’t read kanji well… The more they see him from different angle the cuter he looks and they wonder how can he be so cute and what is Miyabi’s own definition of cute.

Miyabi answered with how he doesn’t actually aiming to act cute, he’s just living as he is. He just showed how he actually is. So he concluded that probably he’s probably being cute just by living. He described it with how you usually saw a beautiful flower blooming on the side of the road and thought how cute it is.

Tho, he doesn’t like it if he’s being praised cute too much.

By re-reading what the mallow sender thought of him as cute, he said maybe to this person’s eye, he’ll probably be forgiven for almost anything at this rate; even if he ate his food messily and can’t clean it by himself, or when he got very fat, the sender might just think of it as cute.

Chat: I wouldn’t like messy eating… Miyabi: Yes! That’s how it should be. I think I’ll be a goner if you all don’t get angry for what I did wrong. So you all should get angry to me if I got overboard, okay. I think human is like that.

Comment: Then please don’t mute yourself when you’re sneezing Miyabi: That is one of the only thing I will never do.

Looks like even if we throw him red SC, he won’t change his mind.

 ・The sender wants to know what kind of bag that Miyabi usually use when he go out.

He answered, when he was in elementary school he used a aqua blue and white backpack with a strap of stuffed Disney character doll on the side. After he entered middle school, he felt a little embarrassed wearing it and decided to use a shoulder bag. He sometimes still use shoulder bag until now. And now, for some reason, he goes back to occasionally using the aqua blue and white backpack. He likes how it can hold many goods at once. And what he usually use now is a red, white, and blue colored backpack. And he still bring the same stuffed Disney character doll. He also said he put the Kyomu Suzume keychain too.

His mother had said to him that wouldn’t his age doesn’t suit for him to still hanging around a character doll on a bag, and he replied with “But I like it!!” In the end, his interest is still the same from when he was a kid.

Chat said that dolls has no age limit and he agrees. He also imagines a situation of him meeting someone wearing the same character doll strap and will quietly say in his heart “Ahh, you too huh. That doll is cute, I understand~!” and wouldn’t it be exciting to see someone who brought the same goods as you!

He also imagines a future where people with Holostars goodies glancing at each other’s merchandise and form a conversation of fellow Holostars fans, and said how exciting it will be – tho since Holostars had released their own goods, he find it possible to do even now –

 ・The sender told him about the new Among Us map and wondered if Holostars will play it again.

Miyabi answered this question vaguely by saying he’s preparing for things and told us to wait for it.

  ・The sender has bought food from convenience store a lot lately and wondered about Miyabi’s recommended convenience store items.

Miyabi answered with how he likes and often goes to buy stuff from convenient store. He mentioned how there are many types of convenient store, but the one he goes the most is Seven Eleven. He recommended a section beside the onigiri section, in the French bread section where you can find bread with cream cheese and salmon filling. Tho, he mentioned how it depends on the place whether they stock the same food or not. The next on his recommendation list is salad with pork shabu-shabu, and he also recommended season-limited food and drinks, like zavas cocoa and the likes. He also recommended flank steak. Also microwaveable squid, or those that could be use as side dish like smoked salmon. And spicy dried squid. For the drinks, he recommended cola. He told of normal occurrences he usually had where, despite all of the food and drinks mentioned before, when he reached the cashier he’ll eventually buy more goods and the total price would be over 3K. And after he got home, he’ll eat it all in just a day. Especially if there’s an update to the game he played.

Chat: And this is how you gained 5kg weight… Miyabi: Stop it everyone! It’s supposed to be membership-only secrets!

In the end, he admitted it and said he would like do a diet. He said if there’s a convenient store nearby, Temma will definitely go there too but alas there’s none near his house.

 ・The mallow asked him what does he likes from Temma.

Since it’s embarrassing for him, Miyabi decided to keep the answer in membership-only content. Instead, he told the viewer to ask Temma what does he likes from Miyabi.

 ・The mallow asked what kind of clothing does he usually wear when going outside, and who’s the most stylish out of all Holostars members

Miyabi said he often wears parker and mentioned how he likes checkered pattern. His pants and shirts are mostly checkered. (Tho, not all full-checkered) He also used to wear jeans, but the jeans he bought last year no longer fit him and realized that he’s gaining weight. As for the stylish member, he mentioned Astel is a stylish one. He also mentioned Shien is also stylish, but both Astel’s and Shien’s style are different kind of stylish. Aru-san’s is just Aru-san-like. He doesn’t know much about Temma’s yet, since the two rarely met offline. Miyabi said how Shien’s style is able to bring out his personality with a sense of adultness and not too eye-catching. The other day when they both went out, Miyabi saw the sneaker Shien was wearing and it was white-purple, and he felt a strong Kageyama Shien-ness from it. In the end, he keep glaring at Shien’s shoe. Miyabi said he likes shoes. When he wanted to ask Shien where did he bought the shoe so he can bought the red-yellow one, chat told him that it was a birthday gift from his fans. When chat asked about shoe size, he refused to tell it since he doesn’t want people get surprised if they knew his shoe size is bigger or smaller than what they imagined.

To conclude the answer about what does he wear when he goes out, normally he doesn’t go out much either so there’s not much of it. He mentioned that he has about another 9 of the same white shirt he’s wearing right now and regularly changed it based on time and circumstances (refers to his 2D model, not his rl shirt)

Chat suggested him to buy outfits online. Miyabi said that if he were to buy clothing, especially shoes, online we can’t measure out the size for our size. Shoe size can also change depends on the maker/designer. He doesn’t do online shopping unless for things he really wanted.

He likes Nikes. When he was gonna search for a particular item, he didn’t realized his browser was on the stream screen. He panicked and quickly closed it, and said that now everyone knows he usually uses Yahoo search engine.

 ・The mallow asked about is his character setting of not being able to be 18 is the same being forever 17

Miyabi said it’s a very important question. If he told about it, he might be erased from this world. He leave to viewer’s own imagination.

 ��The mallow asked does he likes chocolate mint or not. Miyabi: Now then, question! Does Hanasaki Miyabi likes chocolate mint or not!

*drums roll*

Miyabi: The correct answer is………………………..I really really like it!

When he goes to Baskin Robbins, he usually orders chocolate mint too. Chat: Then, that means I need to fight Miyabi Miyabi: Why?! I don’t want a fight. Will this be a world-scale war?

Some chats said that they really hate chocolate mint, and Miyabi said that it’s not nice to bluntly said show your hate, especially if they’ve never tasted it before. Chat linked it with coriander (teasing about Miyabi’s curry topping stream) and Miyabi said coriander gave him another different punch that sent him straight into a temple. When chat said that he will someday conquer coriander too, he’ll maybe try going into temple and eat it there to see if he can do it. Or other alternatives of eating stuff based on coriander and not eating it straight as a topping, just like there are people who didn’t like the actual tomato but are fond of tomato sauce.

Chat: I’ll be waiting for the coriander picnic at temple Miyabi: I need to search for temples that can support streaming first then ww

 ・This marshmallow asked what words he usually use when he does egosa.

Miyabi checked his recent search bar in twitter and mentioned みやびくん (Miyabi-kun),  ゆるすた(Yurustars), 花岸 (Hanakishi), ホロスタ(Holostars), 花咲みやび (Hanasaki Miyabi), 花咲の森 (Hanasaki Forest), 住人スタンプ (Hanasaki Forest’s Residents Stamp), 花見組 (Hanamigumi), モンハン (Monster Hunter), モモコブロッサム(Momoko Blossom).

When he checked the Momoko Blossom word, his eyes fell upon a fanart that depicts Momoko Blossom gijinka and showed it on stream. He said its really really cute and showed his Miyabi-ness, especially the ribbon part. He decided to RT and liked it. He also wanted to see more gijinka of other forest residents too. Miyabi mentioned that he always like gijinkas. He showed another cute fanart on stream and thanked the author.

 ・The mallow asked whether Miyabi is a streamer that tends to remember his fans or not.

Miyabi said that he quickly forget people’s names, but if the person came to his stream a lot and commented, he’ll tend to remember them. Also people who mutter on Twitter a lot, draws fanart, and other stuff. If he see a new name on his stream he will know that they’re newcomers too. He encouraged people to comment more during his streams so he can remember their names.

Chat also mentioned that they usually remember other viewers’ names.

 ・The next mallow: I love you, Miyabi

  What did you eat for dinner yesterday?

Miyabi answered that he ate Jiro Instant Ramen at 3 am, but he can’t remember what he ate for dinner. He’s able to remember Jiro Ramen because it left a huge guilty feeling in him for eating it at midnight and could possibly make him gain more weight, especially he’ll sleep after that. Miyabi mentioned that Jiro Ramen also has vegetables in it. A chat said that sleeping after you fill your tummy is the best and Miyabi agrees. Apparently he drinks all the soup too and is guilty for adding up more fat for him to burn.

A chat recommended him to store the soup for the next day and then add rice and eggs on it, and said it’s enough for 2 portions. Miyabi said it’s a great idea and will try it next time.

 ・The next mallow asked is it annoying to send a letter to him every month.

Miyabi answered not at all, in fact he wants fans to send him one every day. Chat said that the letters are most probably gonna be compiled and sent at the same day. Imagining that, Miyabi becomes a bit scared. A chat asked whether the content of the letter will be checked by management before it reached him, and he answered yes. So there are instances that if management finds the letter dangerous, they might block the sender. Temma and Shien had told him about how great season-based letters are and Miyabi agrees. He mentioned that his letter will be compiled in the office and sent to him once every 3-4 months. He said that the last time he received his new batch of letters is a week or two weeks ago (judging from this stream’s date, it’s probably about April 1st or March 25th) and the letters he received that time were new year greetings. And so, if fans wanted to send regular letters, he suggested sending it every 3-4 months. He mentioned that his, along with Holostars, will have 2nd anniversary soon and he said he will receive a batch of letters that time too.

 ・Next mallow asked him about foods he recently hooked into.

Miyabi answered that lately he’s been buying soy milk. When couldn’t finish all the milk, he’ll put them in dishes like hamburg and annin tofu. He’s been trying to make soy milk-based dishes. A chat asked what does soy milk taste like, and Miyabi described it as tofu being squished and mixed with a bit of sugar. He also said soy milk hot pot is great. It’s a hot pot with a soup of soy milk with consommé, with chicken breast meat and Chinese cabbage put in it, also put a bit(?) of cheese in it and it’ll be super delicious. He reminded us that we shouldn’t put too much cheese for such a healthy dish. He said he’s been trying to cook by himself lately and made omurice, tho the dish he’s good at making right now is still instant cup ramen. He really likes cheese and would put them into hot pots, mentioned how it’ll taste great with tomato hot pot. He tried to not do that too much, thought.

He shared a story of where he tried experimenting what ingredientsb suits pasta more to his liking, and found out about ochazuke-no-moto pasta recipe. He claimed it as delicious and everyone should try it too. After you boil the pasta and drain the water, you put it in ochazuke-no-moto soup and warm it. It’s also cheap. He said he made it a lot when he was in middle school, but not recently.

 ・The next mallow asked about Miyabi’s first impression on other Holostars members, like their fashion impression. They also wanted to know Miyabi’s fashion as well.

Miyabi said that the first Holostars member he had met offline was Roberu. He described his first impression on Roberu as… still Roberu. When he was alone waiting for everyone while looking at his phone, Roberu suddenly greeted him with his usual tone, while Miyabi was all surprised and greeted politely. The next member he met was Rikka and Aru-san. He described Aru-san as… still Aru-san. His character model wear a pretty uniform-like clothing, but the offline Aru-san he saw wore a more free style clothes and Miyabi thought “So Aru-san can dress like this too.” He also wore masks and glasses and to Miyabi it was a bit scary and didn’t believe it was Aru-san at first ww Rikka’s is just Rikka. The next members he met is Astel. Miyabi said he was scared when meeting him at first “This is… the aura of an extrovert! This is bad!” Miyabi’s introvert radar rang danger signs ww But after Miyabi talked a bit with him, he realized Astel is stil Astel. On the way home, he got on the same train as Astel and talked about the future for a bit until they both reached their own destination. The next member is Shiepi. He said he likes Shiepi the most. They both likes the same thing and able to talk about the hobby, and Miyabi could talk with Shien more easily. He could feel more calmer when he was talking and being beside Shiepi. The last members he met are Izuru, Temma, and Oga. Miyabi described Izuru as the one who is much kinder and calmer than others. Mentioned how Astel Izuru are usually loud when they stream together, but offline Izuru is very quiet, he’s like a cat. Sometimes Izuru whispered to him that the town is scary, and Miyabi finds it cute. Miyabi said his walking pace is fairly slow, Izuru would sometimes turn at him and asked if he’s tired. Even after Miyabi told him to go on ahead, Izuru adjust his pace and walk along with Miyabi. It is a surprising side to him. As for Oga, Miyabi described him as someone who has big bro energy. His build is big too, but despite that he keeps tries to keep talking in a friendly matter to Miyabi, and is very kind. The last is Temma, but he doesn’t really understand him yet. When he first met him offline, Temma was very nervous and he couldn’t talk much with him. Miyabi mentioned that he met offline with the others are not personal, and was actually a Holostars offline meeting, so he didn’t have much time alone with Temma to understand him further. When he glanced at Temma, he always looked like his gaze was heading towards somewhere far away. He was shaking in the corner. Miyabi tried talking to him, but both of them were very nervous. Next time Holostars do an offline meeting again, Miyabi is determined to properly talk to him.

 ・The next mallow asked where would he go when Miyabi and Temma went outside together.

Miyabi said it’s probably restaurants and such. Mentioned that the only personal offline meeting experience he had was with Astel and Shien when they go to Disney together, and the only member that he met offline just the two of them is only Shien, watched the new Fate: Grand Order movie. With Temma, both are probably will be too nervous to talk to each other and made it awkward, so they’ll bring a third-party, Aru-san to come with them and have lunch together. He said it’ll be much more easier to talk if there’s more people.

 ・The next mallow asked Miyabi to beg cutely so the sender could give him pocket money and spoil him more and more.

He has a side of losing interest of doing something when he were told to do it, so he apologized that he won’t do it. He do likes and wants money but directly asking for it to his viewers felt wrong, so:

Miyabi: …Give me money, please. Ww

Chat: *Superchats Shower

Miyabi thanked all of the superchats and said he’ll use it as funds for Hanasaki Forest.

 ・The mallow sender noticed that there’s many bird-like creature in Hanasaki Forest and asked what kind of bird does Miyabi likes

Miyabi answered with bird thight, bird liver, bird skin, bird wings, parts of birds that could be eaten. Was surprised that they weren’t talking about birds to eat, but living birds in general ww

He said that a warbler has been living nearby his house and he often heard it’s chirps, and start liking warbler. He also likes penguin, chicks, and sparrow. He likes cool-looking birds like eagle and owl. He mentioned that when he was still in elementary school, he kept a pretty big peacock. It was gone when he graduated. He wanted to try eating a big fried egg using ostrich eggs and wondered how many servings he could make with just using one egg.

 ・Next mallow sender noticed how Miyabi chooses his word carefully in minds of the person he talked to and could sense kindness from it and is awed by it. They asked whether that kindness of him is just natural or he tried to be as careful as possible when talking to people, and said they wanted to communicate to people as kind as him.

Miyabi said that it could be coming naturally from him, but there’s one point in his life that made scared of people to the point he couldn’t go outside of his home. That made him developed a personality that tries to observe the person he’s talking and finds out what could possibly make this person happy and sad and angry, and tries to blend in with the people around him. He don’t know if this could be called kindness, since all he wants to do is get along with everyone and don’t want any fights. He has confident that he can befriend newcomers easily with this trait and he might be the best to read the room. He said by being afraid of people and observing them that probably we could get less fearful of them.

But because of this, he also said that collabing with Holostars members are quiet difficult. But he decided that it’s fine for him and thought that it’s one of the good part of Holostars.

 ・The next mallow mentioned that Miyabi always changed his (L2D) outfit not bounded by the current season and asked if there’s any particular reason when he wanted to change outfit, or is it just depends on his mood.

Miyabi said that he didn’t think much of it. He decided on the spot what kind of outfit he’ll use before stream starts. Tho there are times where he wanted to fit his outfit with the theme of his stream, like marshmallow reading such as this might draws in more new viewers who is curious of him so he want to wear his default outfit, or when he plays horror games he’ll use casual clothing like his summer outfit to give a feeling that he’s playing at home.

That was the last mallow! He said that it’s still not enough and he plans to do more at a later date. There are still many mysteries of him that he himself still doesn’t know too. For those who want to know more of Hanasaki Miyabi’s charm, he encouraged you to watch his streams more.

 Thank you for reading~

[leonawriter]

On Writing Fankids

Writing this because I now have two different fankids for the same pairing, in vastly different ways, and they’re very different people. So.

I don’t know how many points I’m going to make, and I don’t know how useful this is going to be, since Disclaimer: I’m not an expert on real children or medical practices, but I am trying to put effort in.

Most of this is composed of questions, because I don’t know who your fankid (or, OC-fankid) is, and the point is to make you think rather than just put ideas into your head by telling you what’s right and what’s wrong.

1 - How did they come to exist?

This is the FIRST question you should be asking when coming up with a fankid. What they look like and how cute they are is all well and good, but when you’re thinking of actually writing a story, that won’t help you.

If the parents are a cis male and cis female couple, then it’s easy to assume how they had a kid. That said, that’s not always necessarily the case, as some people may be infertile, or may simply choose to adopt. However, the answer to this becomes more complicated when fans get to wanting to give a gay couple children, as this usually means they want to give them biological children.

In the event of pairings where the parents are canonically not reproductively compatible (which includes gay, lesbian, nonbinary, and so on) there are still options, which include: a trans parent, which involves being able to write a trans person and not just overlooking how this would change their story; surrogacy, in which someone else carries the child to term for those who can’t, and the related idea of a sperm donor. 

In going into other biological options, there’s also the question of “how believable and realistic do you want this to be? how scientific? how much fantasy or sci-fi do you want here?” and if the answer is “I have fantasy and/or sci-fi in my setting” then you can use that.

That said, please don’t rule out the possibility of adoption. Adoption is the most common way for queer parents in the real world to get kids, and just because a kid isn’t biological doesn’t make them any less their parent’s child. Even/especially in a fantasy setting! And knowing if a kid was adopted, that’ll extend into how they see themself, as well as who the parent is and why they chose to adopt.

Related to that, if a kid is adopted, how aware of that are they? How were they adopted? Are they a canon character that was adopted, or an entirely new character? If they were too young to remember the adoption, how do their parents (or parent, if there was only one person adopting them) explain? If they were old enough, how do they see the person who took them in? How do they see their adopted siblings, if any exist, or any future siblings? What about any prospective additional parents, if they originally only had one, or if their parent/s is/are polyamorous? 

2 - How good are their parents at parenting?

Yes, you want your favourite pairing to be great parents, but no matter what people are going to have their own idiosyncrasies. How do the parents deal when the kid throws a tantrum? 

What if the child shows signs of being neurodivergent, are the parents any good at spotting those signs, and whether they are or not, how do they handle the difference from what they might have been expecting?

My advice here is to pay attention to the pairing in their normal canon and how they deal with situations and also how they handle children in canon, as well as then going to further sources that show what parenting is really like. Your fankid is going to be a baby, they’re going to be a screaming toddler, they’re going to have a personality and wants and they’re going to frustrate their parents a lot. If you want to put the effort in to write the family well, ask someone you know who has kids, even.

3 - What are their circumstances during their childhood?

The fun one about this is that depending on the context the child was created in, the answer can be different for children of the same pairing! 

In my case, I have Satoko and Fumiya. Satoko’s childhood (outside of her parents’ control) was traumatising, and left her as a quiet kid, despite how much she’s shown love later on. Fumiya, on the other hand, grows up in a loving environment from the start, and because of that he’s much more comfortable and confident, despite everything else that happens and so on.

This is where the child starts to develop their own personality. Think about how in the real world, children are shaped by their surroundings and the way that they grow up. Does your fankid learn that they can trust the people around them? How much attention are they given? Is that attention positive, negative, stifling? Do they feel neglected, or coddled? How easy is it for them to find food, or their favourite food? Are they surrounded by children of their own age, or mostly living around adults? Is their living situation, no matter whether their parents love them and take care of them or not, a dangerous one, and how aware of that are they?

Also important is the question of whether they even have both of their parents, or either of them. Maybe the situation here is complicated. Maybe they’re an orphan (sorry, parent pairing). Maybe they’re separated from their family, and they have to fend for themself. Maybe their parents are separated for any given reason. 

Any one of these things is also going to affect their mindset while growing up from being a baby through being a toddler, a pre-teen, and a teenager. If you want them to feel like a fully rounded out person, you have to think of them as such.

4 - What do they look like?

I’m well aware that this is the first thing that most people go with when creating fankids. I’m just saying that it’s not the most important thing you should be thinking of. 

Making a fankid shouldn’t be a mix-and-match game when you’re making biological kids. When you’re coming up with an adopted kid even less so. They aren’t a paper doll. Some children may look like a mix between their parents, while others will take on attributes from previous generations... although when looking at fictional characters you don’t own the IP of, assuming what genes a fankid’s grandparent might have passed on gets tricky. For this I’m focusing mostly on biological kids, but it should help for adopted as well in some parts.

One good rule of thumb here is to look at how genes actually work.

If nothing else, a simple starting idea would be to look at the general population and say “what is the most common eye colour here” and “what is the most common hair colour” and if your fankid is from that area, that’s probably the most dominant gene, over others.

When creating my own fankids mentioned above, my idea went that blue is an eye colour that tends to be dominant, and red hair tends to come through even just by making dark hair lighter. 

That said, hair and eye colour aren’t all you should be thinking about!

Other things that should be thinking about are: how tall are they? what shape are their eyes? Does the structure of their face take more after one parent than the other, no matter their eye/hair colour? Do they have any markings on their body (moles, birthmarks, etc), and if so are they shared with other family members? Are their features they share with family members who aren’t their parents (i.e, a sister, an uncle, a great-grandparent)? 

As they grow up, do they get taller or stay shorter than their parents? In terms of their body, do they become muscular, or not, and if so, why? Do they become fat, or thin? 

Does their health impact on the way that their body looks? This can mean both disability in terms of walking around with a cane, using a wheelchair, or any number of other things.

Do they change their body in any way? Do they choose to add tattoos, or is something done to them in some other way? Do they have any scars? Would they want to share those scars with other people, or would they choose to hide them away?

5 - How canon affects them, and how they affect canon.

Whether or not your fankid grows up before, during, or after canon events makes a difference. If it’s “before/during” then you’re going to have to think of the consequences of that on both them and their parents, but also everyone else. This isn’t just “add in a kid, aren’t they cute” this is an entire new character, with the capability to become a loose cannon and change canon events.

Things can change. That’s something you’ve got to think about, and accept, the moment you want to add this new character into things. Are you willing to change things, and if so, how far?

The kinds of changes can generally be divided into two categories: internal, and external.

Internal changes are the ways that the characters change mentally and emotionally in response to a child (their child, even) being present. In one of my stories, I change very little on an external level, but the focus is on the internal side of things, as the father of this child faces the idea that he might have lost his son, and how that makes him feel when going into a dangerous situation he may not come back from. Other characters might not see any difference, but the internal conflict is there.

External changes are the big ones, where the child being present - and, by extension, the child’s backstory and its knock-on effects - affect the present, and cause things to change in visible ways. This can mean anything from “the pairing’s child has wandered into a dangerous area filled with plot, and needs to be rescued” to “the plot has found the child” or even just “the parents have relationship issues to sort out, and that changes the plot.”

Things to think of here are - aside from “how old is this kid” as you might have come up with a kid that by this point is an adult as far as I know - how active is this kid? Are they happy to stay put and not affect things, or dot hey have insatiable curiosity and the need to do something? Do they stumble into the plot without being aware of it, do they go seek it out, or does it find them? How much danger does this put them in? If it does put them in danger, how do they deal with that, and how do their parents (or single parent) deal with that? If no danger at all, do they have fun, or are they stressed?

6 - Interactions with the rest of the cast.

Honestly, my main point here is, not everyone is going to react to a kid the same way. Just because they’re cute doesn’t mean everyone’s going to like them! And no, that doesn’t mean they’re evil. And sometimes, even the “evil” characters might handle kids better than some “good” characters. In fact, some “good” characters might do so badly with kids that they make them cry, and that doesn’t make them any less “good.” It just makes them bad at handling kids.

Otherwise, how does the kid fare with the other members of the cast, in general and specifically?

Is there anyone that they like in particular? If so, why? Did that person look nice, did they give them their favourite food? Did they do something special? What did they do to become friends?

Likewise, is there anyone they dislike in particular? What did they do to deserve that? Were they mean on purpose, or did they become disliked by means of an accident or miscommunication? Is it that this person raises their voice and the kid doesn’t like raised voices, or they don’t talk loudly enough?

Depending on the situation with the child’s parents, they might prefer people who are positive toward their parents, or who are negative toward their parents. Because let’s not forget those who don’t like being compared, and those who have parents who aren’t any good. For instance, is the child’s parent a villain in their setting? Are they thought of as a villain? Are they a criminal, or on the side of the law, and regardless of which that is, does the child agree with them, and how does that affect their relationships with others who agree or disagree with that parent?

If your fankid, for example, was mistreated by a certain set of people when they were younger, then how does that relate to later on in life, or the canon cast? My Satoko’s backstory involves medical abuse, which makes her wary of doctors scientists, and things that would remind her (even subconsciously) of that setting. Two of the characters in the cast are medically trained. Her interactions with them are going to be affected by that, even if she grows to like and trust them.

In conclusion: a fan kid can be a fun five minute thing, but if you only put five minutes’ thought into their design, their backstory, and their personality, then you’re only going to get the same view of them as a sketch compared to the time it takes to fully line and colour a work of art. 

If you want to write them, or create a full comic with them, you have to ask yourself questions about who they are, and also who you want them to be. If you want them to be a fully rounded person, then you have to put the time into it. And, really, that if this kid starts acting in ways you don’t expect, but that work, just... listen to that.

[adenei]

I would love to read Romione fluff with “I feel like I’m in the clouds when I’m with you.” 😍

Hi anon! I’m so glad you asked for this one because it fit right in with a story I’d thought of not too long ago, but hadn’t gotten to write! I hope you enjoy this fluffy pieces. I’ll let you decide whether or not it’s canon :)

**********************************************

I feel like I’m in the clouds when I’m with you

Ron had just flown down from the quidditch pitch as Hermione stood waiting for him at the entrance of the locker room. It was a beautiful afternoon in early June. 

“I thought you were just going to clean out your quidditch locker?” Hermione asked with an amused look on her face.

“I did,” Ron pointed to the bag at the door as he dismounted from his broom. “It was too beautiful to not at least have one go around the pitch.”

“That’s true. Are you ready, then?” Hermione asked him.

“Sure,” he said as he grabbed his bag. “Where are we headed?”

“You’ll see,” Hermione told him as she turned around and tried to hide her smile. She grabbed his arm playfully and began heading back towards the castle. Harry and Ginny were once again off on their own somewhere on the grounds, which left Ron and Hermione to their own devices. She wanted to sit by the lake, and had the perfect spot in mind. 

She led him around the curve of the lake a ways up from the pitch. It was where the brush thickened, but there was a small opening that had a path leading inside it. Instead of going left as they usually would, Hermione veered right towards the opening. 

“Hermione, where are we going?” Ron asked.

Good, he’s never been down here before, Hermione thought to herself. “There’s a clearing up ahead that overlooks the lake. It’s quiet and out of the way, which I thought would be perfect for studying.”

Just as she’d finished explaining, the path widened, and sure enough there was a decent stretch of green grass before the the terrain turned to rocks and sand at the lakeshore. Up head, the brush made it’s way back to the lake to form a sort of semi-circle around the area. That’s why it couldn’t be seen from the castle. The sun shone brightly, and there was a blanket spread out where Hermione’s things had already been laid out. 

“Whoa, Hermione how’d you find out about this place? It’s brilliant.” Ron looked around in amazement.

“Oh, I discovered it a while back.” Ron didn’t need to know that this is where she’d spent time with Viktor one afternoon during the spring of fourth year. The ship had been docked nearby, and this was where the Durmstrang students often spent time when they weren’t on the boat.

She walked over and laid down, facing the sky. The clouds were white and puffy, which made for a beautiful backdrop against he blue sky. Ron laid down next to her, putting his arms behind his head. “I thought you wanted to study?”

“Yes, at some point, sure. I’d rather just enjoy the sunshine for now.”

“Who are you and what have you done with Hermione Granger?” he asked playfully. 

She laughed at his words. “What? I can act like a normal teenager when I want to, you know.”

“Can you, though?” Ron was leading her on, mischief in his eyes.

“Of course I can! I could go this whole day with no studying and just goofing off if I really wanted to.”

“I’d like to see that!”

“Is that a challenge?” she propped herself up on her elbow to get a good look at him.

“Yeah, I think it is.”

“Fine. What do you want to do?” Hermione asked him.

Ron thought for a moment. He was perfectly content staying right here and talking with her. “I’m happy doing this.”

“Okay, but what else?” Hermione pressed him further. Because apparently laying there and staring at the sky wasn’t enough for that busy brain of hers.

Ron laughed at her question. “What do you mean ‘what else’? Do we really need to do more than just sit here and talk? Or am I not interesting enough to talk to anymore?”

“Of course you’re interesting enough!” Hermione said quickly. “I just didn’t know what you wanted to talk about…”

She had a point. It wasn’t like they’d run out of things to talk about, but their reunited friendship was still fragile and neither wanted to ruin things. “How about we just ask each other random questions, and the first one who can’t give an answer loses?” Ron asked. He’d overheard the twins doing that once with Lee to pass the time on the train, and it seemed like a good idea. 

“Loses? Loses what?” Hermione seemed interested. That was a good start. 

“Oh, I don’t know. The game?”

“Well obviously, but what does the winner get?”

“Umm..how about the winner decides what we do tomorrow?”

Hermione thought about his proposition. “I think that will work.”

“Oh. Alright, you start if you want.” Ron figured he’d follow the ‘ladies first’ rule.

“Okay, but let me get this clear. We’re trying to stump the other person out of answering truthfully, right?”

“Reckon we’re making up the game as we go, so whatever you want.”

Hermione returned his words with a sly grin of her own. “Okay, what’s the cheesiest pick up line you can think of given the current location?”

“What the-?” he was staring right at Hermione. So, she wasn’t messing around, was she? Fine then! He looked around rapidly and noticed the clouds in the sky. “I feel like I’m in the clouds when I’m with you.” He grinned at her. 

His answer made her giggle. Hermione Granger was actually giggling at him. “Okay, that was pretty good.”

“I have my moments,” he said puffing his chest out with pride. “How did you actually learn about this spot?”

Her face fell slightly. Of course her own rules were to come back and bite her in the arse. “Remember that one time in fourth year? I told you I was going to spend the afternoon with Viktor?” Her cheeks became very pink. “Well, this was the spot wher we hung out.” She noticed Ron’s face instantly turn sour. “But we only studied! I swear! This was the area all the Durmstrang students hung around because the ship was stationed just over there. So there were a lot of people around. I just didn’t care for people stopping and staring, starting rumors from their assumptions, and he didn’t like the attention, either,” Hermione said quickly.

“Alright, then,” Ron said. He seemed to relax a bit at her words.

“What do you think will happen after we’re through with Hogwarts?” Hermione asked. It was another question that took Ron off guard, but this time it was for a different reason. 

“I don’t know, actually. I haven’t given it much thought. I hope I’ll get into the Auror program, but I suppose I could always work for Fred and George if I needed money in the meantime.”

“But what about us? How often would we see each other after Hogwarts?” Hermione questioned.

“Ah, Hermione, you asked your question. I believe it’s my turn.” He saw a slight pout on her lips that he thought was adorable. “I like those questions, so how about you answer them. What about us after Hogwarts?”

“Oh, you sneaky little…” Hermione started as Ron gave a lopsided grin. “Well, I suppose it would depend on the situation. If you’re in auror training, I’d probably rarely see you. Especially because when you do have free time, you’ll want to spend them with your family and...well, I’m sure you won’t have time for me.”

“That’s not true at all!” Ron was trying to decipher her words. Did she mean to say ‘..and girlfriend’? He didn’t have a girlfriend. He wanted her as his girlfriend, and even with the book the twins had given him, he was still struggling to make that happen. “We’d still see each other loads of times! Unless you go off and make new fancy Ministry friends, or- or met someone of your own.. But maybe Harry would invite us to live with him at Grimmauld Place. We can clean it up, and then we’d still see each other all the time,” Ron suggested, getting away from the idea of Hermione finding a boyfriend. The thought made his blood boil.

Her furrowed brows turned up as she smiled at Ron’s thought. “That would be brilliant, actually. Of course, this is all assuming that we get through next year unscathed. Plus, there’s the whole Voldemort thing.”

“Let’s pretend that’s not a factor, yeah? More fun to think about when he’s not looming over futures,” Ron suggested.

“Yeah, you’re right. What about marriage and a family of your own. Do you want that someday?”

“Yeah, course I do. As long as it’s with the right person,” Ron said honestly. “You?”

Hermione smiled softly, feeling the gaze of his ice blue eyes on her. “Yes, same for me. How about kids? How many?” Hermione couldn’t help but feel like something was building between them. Sure, they’d had serious, somewhat intimate conversations before, but they’d never been this candid about ‘future’ stuff before. She had to keep reminding herself that this was just a stupid game to stump the other from answering their question so they could choose tomorrow’s activity.

“I think two would be more than enough. Seven’s way too many. You?”

“Really? See, I was thinking eight! You know, being an only child and all, maybe I should try out the whole ‘large family’ thing.” Hermione held her breath as she watched Ron’s reaction to her answer. He didn’t know how to respond to that, so he just stared at her wide eyed until she burst out laughing. “I’m only kidding! Definitely no more than two. I don’t know how your mum managed childbirth seven times!”

Ron exhaled, laughing with her. “You really had me there for a mo’.”

“The look on your face was priceless,” Hermione bent over.

“Yeah, I can’t say I pegged you as the ‘large family’ type. Glad we’re on the same page, though.��� Ron didn’t even realize the words had slipped out as Hermione froze.

“Wh-what?” she asked, her voice higher pitched than normal. 

Ron’s entire face became blotchy red as he realized what he’d said. “I- er- I- Just meant we both agreed fewer kids for when we- er- with whoever we choose…” That definitely wasn’t the best save, but the insinuation he’d just made about he and Hermione having kids together had thrown him.

“Did you ever think about kids with Lavender?” Hermione asked him quietly.

“No.” Ron said almost instantly. He was repulsed by Hermione even asking the question. If he was being honest, Ron was a bit disappointed that Hermione’s reaction hadn’t helped solidify anything surrounding her feelings for him. If they were indeed there. “Do you think the person you’re going to end up with is here? At Hogwarts, I mean.”

“Yes,” Hermione said wihout hesitation. “I mean, if I had my way. Why? Do I need your approval?” Hermione asked him boldy.

“Well, someone’s got to make sure he won’t break your heart. So if Harry won’t do it, then yeah, reckon you would.” Ron tried to make it a joke, but there was an undertone of sincerity that wasn’t lost on Hermione.

She smiled at his words, actually smiled, which threw Ron for another loop. “You’re smiling? I thought you’d get on your soap box about how I can’t tell you how you can or can’t date,” Ron said, sounding surprised.

“Let’s just say I’m really confident that you’d approve of him,” Hermione chose her words carefully.

Ron considered her statement for a moment before responding with, “I hate to break it to you, Hermione, but Harry seems pretty happy with Ginny, and he’s probably the only person I’d approve of. Except maybe Neville. The rest of the blokes are downright...well...blokes.”

Hermione rolled her eyes. “Only those two? There’s no one else you’d approve of?” Was Ron imagining it or had Hermione’s face gotten closer to his own. He could smell the peppermint on her breath now. He chanced a glance down at her lips. I mean, obviously he’d approve of himself. Wait…

He looked back up into Hermione’s eyes, trying to read her. To figure out what she wanted. She was so close now. It would be easy just to...he leaned in and grazed his lips against hers. He heard her breath hitch in her throat, but she didn’t slap him. She didn’t even back away. Ron leaned back slightly and said, “Well, I guess there is one other person I’d be okay with you seeing.”

“Oh?” Hermione said breathily.

“Yeah…” Ron said, without further explanation. To kiss her or not to kiss her? The internal struggle was killing him. What a time to be indecisive.

“Ron? Are you going to tell me?” Hermione sat dazedly, waiting for his answer. Sod it, he thought, and this time he leaned in, not overthinking anything anymore. This time, his lips pressed against hers firmly. She responded in kind. He pulled away. 

“Do you still need more of an explanation?” he asked her.

“N-no,” she said. “As long as that was your seal of approval,” she added.

“Sure was,” Ron said, letting the happiness finally take over.

“I don’t reckon we should tell anyone, though. I may get murdered in my dorm room if a certain someone suspects something.” Hermione said.

“You’re probably right..especially with Harry and You-Know-Who.” Ron agreed.

“Well, at least he and Ginny will keep each other occupied so we can spend time together without being questioned.” Hermione reasoned.

“That’s true.” 

Just then the bell chimed from the high tower, which indicated it was time for the students to head back in for dinner.

“That time already?” Ron asked. They got up and Hermione made to fold the blanket and place it in her bag.

“Doesn’t seem like we were out here very long,” Hermione agreed. “Guess we’ll just have to pick up where we left off tomorrow?” she gave him a shy grin.

“I think that can be arranged,” Ron matched her smile with his own. “Assuming your studying can wait…” he held out his hand for her as they made their way back to the castle. Finally, things were looking up.

[wolf-with-a-pen]

Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door Part 2

TW: Angst, Hurt/Comfort?, Swearing, Unreality?, Death Mentions

Previous, Masterpost, Next

  Tell me if I have missed a trigger warning, ask if you would like me to tag this with anything, and I hope you enjoy.

Last time I said you could skip if you didn't like some of the triggers, but most show up again, sorry.

I might start mentions if you want to be notified when I upload, so if you want that, tell me.

Enjoy!

Word Count: 4170

  IT HAD BEEN 3 MONTHS since Ansel had gone and Edward did not take it well. Gradually, they withdrew from general society, spending more time with Jojo and less time with those in the village, those that did not know what had transpired that day and those that would never understand their pain. Most just looked at them with pity in their eyes. As if they needed pity. All they wanted was space. Most of the time was spent watching the realms or sat staring at the walls of the now empty house, that caused pain with every single look and every memory within it. Since the event, they had seen him -the shell they used to call a brother, but they couldn’t anymore. The one they knew was gone, replaced only by the one that looked, sounded and had the same name as Ansel, but was just another extension of the hive mind called the Guardians. There was no reasoning with him, no fun or game, and almost no personality left by the hive. Everything that made him who he was, was drained from him that day. So, Edward ignored him. One thing they never forgot was their promise. Constantly they thought about how to free all those trapped, and the land from the oppression they now saw everywhere they went.

  One thing they had managed to do was befriend the Guardian of the realms, Isi, who once you got to know it, it was a good listener and sensible, as well as childish and had a personality so amiable that you couldn’t believe that the outside matched the person. And yet, it was how it was. By the time we are at currently, they were pretty close, close enough they both knew some of each other’s secrets. For example, both knew they were non-binary – Isi was agender. Both knew about each other’s lives. Isi knew about the incident. Edward knew about Isi’s girlfriend, and how Isi had crossed over before in order to save her from death. They bonded over their circumstances, ideals and motives- to protect those they love, even if it is breaking the rules or likely to get them killed, or worse. Edward had even told it their plans, and what they had overheard. Isi was more than willing to help, but refused to break rules unless necessary. However, not everything lasts forever.

  It had been a normal meet-up as far as they were concerned, they had managed to create a working plan- go around and find all of the remaining elders, and convince them to help round up enough people to overthrow the Guardians. What they didn’t know, was there was someone eavesdropping, curious about why they were talking and as close as they were. Despite not hearing everything, Biff still heard enough to know that Edward was planning on overthrowing the guardians, and so she visited the guardians to tell them of his treachery. That set their timer. It would start the second they left. Thankfully for them, they spent at least 1 human day in there. However, the second they came out they noticed something was wrong by the looks a now-returned Biff gave them. Death-glare. As if they had killed her parents. Isi climbed back into the box, marked Edward back in, and waved them off.

  Isi turned to face Biff. “What’s wrong?”

“I hope you are not joining them in their plans.”

“What plans?”

“Don’t act dumb, I know they’re planning on overthrowing the Guardians. I hope you aren’t joining them.”

“Of course not.” Biff lied, completely and utterly scared to death. It rarely lied, so hopefully Biff wouldn’t notice.

“Good. If you were, you would be in deep trouble right now.”

  In its head, Isi breathed a sigh of relief, but still felt fear, knowing that someone knew their plans. Knowing that Edward would be in danger. Knowing that it was in danger. Isi excused itself, knowing that nobody else would come, only Edward, pretending it had filing to do, and then it would go to bed. Quickly, it packed all of its stuff in a bag, as well as using one of two phones they stole while in the border room to contact Edward and warn them to collect all their stuff that they could want on earth, and meet back at the border as soon as possible. It hoped they got the message in time.

  Of course, they didn’t- well, not quite. By the time they got that message, they were on their doorstep, staring intently at the letter, taped exactly where Ansel’s was. However, this time, they had an escape plan. Quickly they jumped into action, bursting through the taped message, and grabbing the bags that they had already prepared, grabbing a few empty ones and packing up everything they had left out. Nostalgia and memories flooded through them as they prepared to step through the door for the last time. Nobody knew whether they would be back, but all of them knew they would be gone for quite a while. Not everything went to plan though. Outside the door stood three Guardians, preparing for resistance. Turning on their heels, they jumped through the window and landed running as fast as they possibly could, looking back once or twice to make sure they weren’t being followed, before heading straight for the border. A familiar buzz told them Isi had texted them, and reading the text, they had to laugh. It had come just a few minutes too late. Luckily, they figured it out quick enough they escaped, but others may not have been as lucky.

  A short run later, and they were there- at the meeting point, another border post that had been long since blocked up and was relatively abandoned. Mainly due to it not bordering anything. Only Isi and the guardians had access, and barely anyone knew about it. They were greeted by a nervous Isi that was clearly worried. “We need to leave, now. Biff knows and told the Guardians. I know when the shift swaps over, we should be able to sneak through then, and be gone before anyone figures out. Do you have somewhere to go?”

“Not that I know of, but I can find something.”

“OK, I have a place to go, if I can I may be able to convince her to let you stay for a while until you find a suitable place. I recommend either going to school or getting a job, since you look around that age in order to blend in and earn money to use.”

“Alright, I agree, but I will get out of there as quick as possible. On Earth I will try to gain an army so we can come back and rescue the angels from the Guardians. Will you help me?”

“Yes, of course. It will be harder though because we need to find enough spirits who can enter heaven and humans that can see through the veil of death. Both of those are rare, but once we find one we should be able to find the rest.”

“We’d better get to work then so we can shorten the amount of time they live in control.”

“First, to get to earth we will need to get the jewels.”

“Jewels?”

“The ones I told you about? The ones that give us a physical form on Earth?”

“Oh, right. Yes, of course.”

  Isi led them round a corner, into a room lined with just the jewels in all different forms- some necklaces, some watches, some earrings, some more obscure like notebooks or bags, but all had one thing in common- they were all iridescent and depending on how you looked at them they change colour. One instantly caught Edward’s eye, a golden jewel glinting in the corner of their eye. They turned and gently walked towards it. As they did so the jewel glowed brighter (if that was even possible). Eventually they notice what it was embedded in- a earring small, silver and with a whiteish jewel that glowed golden if you looked at it right. Mesmerised, they took it off the stand and put it on. Looking over they watched Isi take a pretty necklace- a gold chain with a modest sized jewel that looked grey but eventually as it moved changed to purple, then red, then pastel blue and back to grey.

“Ok, you got yours?”

“Yes, thank you.”

“No problem, the guards should be changing around now, and so the border is left relatively unguarded for a few minutes.”

“Let’s go then, if you’re ready.”

“After you.”

  Unfortunately, Isi was wrong. Due to an “escaped convict” (as of yet they hadn’t been convicted of anything and they hadn’t been caught), that “is extremely dangerous” (they couldn’t hurt a fly), guards had been doubled for most of the next few days. They had two options- go back to the abandoned post until the guards died down or fight their way through. Naturally, they chose the former. Neither of them particularly wanted a fight. The universe had other plans though. “Hey, what are you doing here? Wait… aren’t you the wanted convict? Hey, stop that! No-” It was at this point they had him tied up. Both had reacted quickly considering it was Isi’s first time at violence on another person, and Edward did not particularly enjoy it. Sadly, not quick enough. He had managed to alert a few of the guards in the main room, the one Isi usually sat in, and they were ready to attack. Edward saw the violent way out. Isi saw the cowards way. Quickly, it ran and closed the doors, locking them with the key it had been given in case. “Follow me, I know a way. All the guards are in the main room trying to break down the door, so the side room is clear.”

“Ok.” Edward answered, following after it, through a side door in the tower.

  Behind the door was what they believed must have been a break room of sorts for if the guards got tired or hungry. Not that they could particularly, but it was still a nice thought. It was full of counters, a fridge, a microwave and a small stove. A couch sat against one wall, a coffee table just in front of it. However, that wasn’t what drew their attention. Biff was stood threateningly, staring straight at them, looking as if she had been watching the door for ages. “Well, well, look at what the cat dragged in. If it isn’t the convict and their assistant.”

“Biff, you don’t want to do this.”

“Oh, but I do. You have betrayed your people. And me. I was the one who helped you remember. And yet, you’d leave me so quickly. For them. A convict who wants to bring down our glorious guardians. So why? Why do you believe them over me?” She snarled, biting into Isi with every word.

“Unlike you I can see the truth of our supposed “glorious guardians” and they are not what you think- cruel, murderous and they could not care less about us. Any of us. We are just toys.”

“Oh sweetie, I know. I always knew. You were so easy to manipulate into believing me, I just didn’t expect you to ever break out. I tried to stop you from joining them, I really did. But now I will have to kill you.”

“No, no you won’t. Remember who beat your score on the training course? I can and will do it if you force me to.” Isi taunted, watching as fear flashed on Biff’s face. “That’s what I thought. Now will you let us through or will you make us do this the hard way?”

Begrudgingly, Biff thought over the preposition. She really didn’t want to fight Isi. She knew that it was better at fighting than her, however its personality completely nerfed that. She came to her decision. “This time, I will let you through, but the next time you meet, you better be prepared. I will not hold back.”

“Yeah right, coward,” antagonised Isi, as it dragged Edward through the door to the portal room.

“Hey! Asshole!” Biff yelled as she watched them slam the door closed, and heard the familiar click of the lock. “Great,” she thought. “Imma be in trouble.”

  On the other side of the door, Isi was running to lock the main doors as Edward lugged their stuff to the portal. Once it was sure it was locked it ran to Edward, and began to watch the portal. Before long they heard the sounds of the door being smashed in. Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! went the door as the guards tried to burst through, struggling due to the strength of the lock. Under its breath, it was murmuring “Come on, come on, change already,” clearly frustrated at the portal and the lack of it changing. All Edward could do was wait. Watching. With every hit, the door bent beyond how you believed it could. Each time, their sinking feeling increased. Gradually losing hope. Eventually, believing they were not going to make it. They heard a sickening crack, coming from the door. They knew it was over for them. However, they weren’t going down without a fight. Edward estimated another two attempts and the guards would be through. Feebly, they raised their fists, ready to fight them back until the portal opened. Bang! Attempt one. Bang! Attempt two. Bang! CRACK! The door collapsed in bits onto the floor. “It’s open!” Isi yelled, and before they could think, both had grabbed their bags and ran through the portal, almost straight into a wall. As they stepped through, they heard the annoyed guardians, the leader barking out orders at the Guard, threatening him with demotion. Edward didn’t care anymore- as far as they were concerned, they were safe.

  Through the portal, it was dark. As expected though- it had been evening when they had left earlier. Once their eyes had adjusted, Edward could just about tell that they were in an alley somewhere. Expectantly, they looked at Isi. It didn’t notice – it was too busy watching outside to see whether the coast was clear or not. Glancing back quickly, it dragged them out into the very deserted street, only an occasional car broke the silence. “Welcome to Coventry!” Isi exclaimed. “Now, I know it doesn’t look like much yet, but trust me, you’ll like it. First though, we need to get set up and try to find all the supplies we will need until I can find Vanessa tomorrow.”

“Who’s Vanessa?” They asked tentatively.

“Oh, she’s my girlfriend. Unfortunately, she thinks I’m dead. However, I should be able to explain everything to her and get us in there. I know she hasn’t been dating anybody or filled my spot in her flat.”

“That sounds kinda stalkerish.”

“Nah, I’m not stalking her. Just making sure she’s ok. What else am I meant to do with my days? She’s the only one that still cares. The rest forgot I existed.”

“Sorry.”

“Don’t be. It’s inevitable and natural. I’ve been dead 6 years. She should have moved on but she chose not to. I honestly don’t want to because it will permanently stop her from moving on, but we have nothing else to do. And I missed her. Too much. Anyway, let’s go.”

Edward followed it as they wandered down through town, to the few places it knew would be open and it could trust.

  Light was just beginning to appear over the horizon as they made their way to the third and final place they would go to before visiting Vanessa. It was a little bar- looked cosy and homely from the outside, flower beds under the windows with flowers in all the colours of the gay flag. Pansies, roses, lavender, violets and carnations. Above the door there were a few hanging baskets in the trans and non-binary flag’s colours, vines trailing down from them in pastel blue and pink, hot purple, yellow and black, white trailing roses hanging between them. The building was relatively old- white with black woodwork, making it look almost like a cottage. A sign over the door read “Dick’s Dicks (And Drinks)” in bold, black on the white sign, outlined in rainbow.

“This place looks cool,” Edward said without realising they were saying their thoughts out loud.

“It is, it’s a gay bar, but focuses on inclusion, as you can tell by the sign on the door saying everyone’s welcome. It is open nearly 24/7, and the staff are funny and kind. When I was alive I used to come here all the time with Vanny. It’s a bar but really it’s a safe haven for anyone, as long as they don’t promote hate.”

“Ok, now it sounds amazing. We going in?”

“Of course we are.”

  As they walked through the door, Edward marvelled on how pretty the inside was as well as the outside. The walls were half and half-top half was grey brick, bottom half was painted, each wall a different colour in all the colours of the pastel rainbow. To the left was a set of stairs leading to a second floor, to the right was a curved bar, cutting off a corner of the nearly square room. Tables, chairs and couches were strewn around the room, mostly empty. Behind the bar was one member of staff, relatively tall and with a kind, weathered face. A mop of brown on their head, and eyes staring at both of the newcomers. In shock and recognition. "Hey Isi, aren't you dead? And Isi's friend, I saw your death on the news."

"Yeah, we're dead." Isi explained.

"You didn't get kicked out of heaven did you?" The barman joked.

"Well, we can't exactly go back. If we did we'd be punished,and there's only 2 punishments: losing your soul or being destroyed permanently. Neither sound good so." Edward explained, sitting on one of the bar stools.

"Wait, what? Seriously?"

"Yeah," Isi replied.

"Wow. So, I guess you came here because you couldn't go any other place."

"Yep. "

"OK. You want any drinks or food?"

"Yes please." Isi asked.

"OK, I'll let you look over these and decide what you want." He said, handing them some rainbow menus with gold detail on them.

  1 hour later and they had had the best (and one of the only) meal since they had died, the entire time talking to the barman, who Edward now knew owned the place, and was called Dick. "Hey, you'll need a job won't you Eddy, how'd you fancy working for me?"

"Wait, really?"

"Yes."

"I'd like that, thank you Dick."

"It's my pleasure, I needed a new worker, so who better than someone I know? If you give me your phone number I'll text you your timetable. If you're free now, we can start training and Isi can go find it's girlfriend and reconcile."

"That sounds great thank you."

"I'm fine with that. I'd probably better go hadn't I?"

"I know your nervous, but from the sounds of it she loves you, she will not be mad at you, and you will be OK."

"Thank you. OK, so I'll see you later then?"

"See you, I'll come back with Vanny in tow in a while, probably around lunch. Have fun while I'm gone."

"Oh, we will, won't we Ed?"

"I guess. Bye." Edward replied as they watched Isi leave.

  Isi wasn't nervous. It was petrified. It had spent the morning wondering how she would react and now it was the time to talk to her. Every step felt like torture as it walked through the peaceful streets, tracing a familiar path back to where it used to live. A small flat-2 bed with a living room, kitchen and a dining room as well as a bathroom and a study. Modest but that was all it needed to get by that and the beautiful views (despite being in the centre of town the block was tall enough to see out beyond the city). Most of the time it was out helping others or at work so it didn't matter to it. That was always its personality-only hindered by the lack of social skills and confidence to actually talk to others, but it didn't mind. It had a few close friends before death, and it was content with those. Isi was so absorbed in its reflection on the past, it hadn't noticed it had marched into Vanessa's home and was stood looking disoriented around the living room. Everything was the same as it was, but something was off- just the aura of it. One of emptiness and abandon. Not surprising considering everything. However, before it knew what was happening, Vanny was behind it, knocking it out with a frying pan. Isi crumpled and fell to the floor.

  Meanwhile, Edward was stressed. What Dick hadn't mentioned was that it was the busiest time of the year, month, and week due to all of the people not being in school and adults taking time off for the summer holidays. They instantly realised why Dick wanted them to stay behind- he needed the help. In total there were 3 people behind the counter and about 3 or 4 tables for each of them to tend to at all times. They were surprised at this-they didn't expect it to be as popular as it was, considering everyone around them's reaction to them coming out, but they proved them wrong. Finally, the lunch staff came and they could have a rest.

"You didn't tell me it would be this busy."

"Because I knew you wouldn't stay if I told you, and I needed help and fast."

"I'm okay with it, just tell me next time."

"How did it go?"

"Don't ask. " Edward replied, remembering all of the awkward responses he gave and all of the things that went wrong. "Just don't ask."

"OK," replied Dick, not asking. "How about you meet the other member of staff- properly, not during a rush."

"Sure."

  Dick dragged Edward over towards the table that said co-worker was sat at, idly scrolling on his phone. "Mast meet Edward. They are a new staff member." Mast started, not expecting someone to come up behind him. "Oh, hello, I'm Mast, how are you?"

"I'm good thank you. I am Edward. Nice to meet you."

"Nice to meet you too, what brought you to work here?"

"I needed a job, happened to come down here today and was offered a job, not knowing how busy today would be."

"It was quite busy wasn't it. I can't imagine how hard a first day would be with all that traffic."

"I managed. It can't get any worse can it?"

"Trust me, it can. How did you find this place?"

"Oh, my friend brought me here. I'm new to town so it was showing me all of the places of interest, and we finished here for breakfast. It knows Dick, so he gave me a job."

"Cool."

"How long have you been working here?"

"Only a year or so, but I enjoy it and feel like I've been working here forever at this point."

"Cool."

"You're waiting for the friend you mentioned earlier aren't you?"

"Yeah, it said it would come back for lunch with its girlfriend but it isn't here. I wonder how it is."

"It's probably fine, if you're that worried, message it."

"Oh yeah, I forgot I could do that, thanks."

"You're welcome."

  Isi woke up on the sofa. Whose sofa, it didn't know. It also didn't care. Staring straight at it was Vanessa. "Is it really you?" Vanny said meekly.

For a second, Isi was startled and disoriented from just walking up. Then it clicked. It remembered everything that happened including getting hit in the back of the head. Gently it lifted the upper half of its body until it was on eye level with Vanny, ignoring the stinging pain in the back of its head.

"Yes, it’s me Vans, I'm here now."

At this, Vanny broke down into tears. I mean-how else could she react to finding her dead partner is actually alive. “Hey, hey,” Isi murmured, gaining Vanny’s attention, “What’s wrong?”

“I hurt you. I promised not to and I did.” Vanessa replied, choking on her tears.

“It was not your fault, OK? You were not expecting me, I did not warn you, and honestly I would have done the same. You did not hurt me on purpose. Plus, I can’t physically get hurt for long anymore, OK, I am not mad.”

“Really? Wait, what do you mean you can’t get hurt?”

“I will explain everything once you have calmed down enough, OK?”

“Ok,” Vanny reluctantly agreed, as she laid on the sofa next to Isi, who was alreayd laying back down, hugging it gently. She rested her head on Isi’s shoulder. Isi hugged her back, happy that it could at last.

[life-rewritten]

Psycho but it’s okay- Fairy tales and their foreshadowing Part 3(Blue Beard, Othello, Wizard of Oz)

To Kill or Not To Kill

Note by the author: I feel like the momentum of PBIO is slowly reducing. The episodes so far have been incredible but I can see us losing steam and enthusiasm because of the back and forth still going on with our couple. Right now things are very heightened due to the conflict with the brothers and the supposed return of Moon Young’s mum but lately it’s been difficult to analyse that without repeating the same themes over and over again. Nevertheless here is a very short  (well shorter than what I normally do) analytical post analysing the show so far and the theme this time is the murder of women! Enjoy.

Bluebeard was first mentioned in episode 6, the title of the episode focused on Bluebeard’s secret. The fairy tale of Bluebeard although chilling actually has a happy ending. The young girl gets rescued by her family from her serial killer husband. In Psycho it’s okay many characters are shown to see the story of Bluebeard in different perspectives of the other characters. Moon Young sees it as the girl who is traumatised and almost killed by Blue beard because of her curiosity and uncovering the truth that all his wives were killed by him, Sang Tae sees it as a sad story about why Bluebeard kept on marrying women because of loneliness and wanting to be loved, and Moon Young’s dad sees it from Bluebeard’s perspective for the reason for why he killed the women and his wife. 

Park O Ran, the patient in the hospital has taken up a sinister role as Moon Young’s mother, she reads the book by her mother and constantly hums the song that haunts both Moon Young and her father. She mentions the next tale, the story about Othello a general who was misled into killing his wife because of lies and manipulation from the outside. She is seeing it from the point of Moon Young’s mum who she believes was unfairly killed and seen wrongly by society and the family she loves. Moon Young’s father is plagued with guilt and at the same time fear that he killed his wife, and follows the perspective of Othello who was overcome with jealousy and insecurity in why he killed his wife and everyone around him. Moon Young is like the innocent wife of Othello as well because she is the victim in this whole manipulation and game between Lago, Cassio and Othello. Her caring and trusting nature leads her to being hurt. 

Lastly the name of the book Moon Young’s mother writes is called The murder of the wicked witch of the west. The wicked witch of the west is found in the fairy tale The wizard of oz. It’s interesting when you analyse the story as the story focuses on a young girl who ends up being the down fall of witch because she was manipulated by the wizard and others to do so. Again from Moon Young’s mother’s perspective she is the victim, the wicked witch was feared because she had green skin. (This will later parallel with Blue beard and his own insecurities about his blue coloured beard), she is seen as wicked because of this, people don’t notice that the reason she wants Dorothy’s downfall is because Dorothy’s house fell on her sister and killed her, and they stole her red shoes. They took someone precious from her and stole her things. This is very similar to Moon Young’s mother who is protective of her family and is determined to get rid of any one who tries to take them away. Dorothy ends up using water mistakenly killing the witch and she then realises that real person society worshipped, the wizard is not even powerful or real. He’s just a manipulator behind the scenes. 

All these stories have the themes of women being killed unfairly, and being viewed as something they are not. The interesting thing about these stories is that there are themes and imagery that stand out and so when the characters see the stories in a different way it’s shadowing their own internal strife and struggles. Mostly these 3 stories together help piece together the traumatic connection between Moon Young and her real family, her flashbacks and trauma with her mother who seems cold and is seen as monster/witch, her fear and the abuse suffered by her father who seems to have been convinced and manipulated into thinking she’s a monster and her self who has been groomed to be like her mother but is curious and desperate to be a good witch not a bad one. The story also leaves clues again to foreshadowing clues, such as Moon Young’s father being the one to cause her mother to die, Moon Young having a role in it, Moon Young finding out about a murder of another woman in the basement that still haunts her till this day (just like Bluebeard’s bride did) and Gang Tae’s link to danger because of being connected to wanting to free her. 

In a way Gang Tae finds a way to play a role in all of these fairy tales if you see it in a different way. He could be the brother that came to save the girl from Bluebeard and helped her run away. He could be the Cassio in the story of Othello, the loyal fair general who Othello becomes manipulated into jealousy against, Or he can be the good witch Glinda that offers Dorothy (Moon Young) a chance at freedom and a chance to see the wizard or he could also be the wizard who is actually weaker than how he’s viewed by everyone in Oz.  Either way Gang Tae plays the role of the saviour again in these roles willing to help save Moon Young whilst also being hurt by society if he gets to know her or if she uncovers his truth. 

(The way I see it we can see characters in Othello like this; we can Othello as Moon Young’s father, Lago as Society and Othello’s wife as Moon Young’s mother- that way it tells the story that from her point of view Moon Young’s mother feels betrayed that her husband was manipulated by society’s norms and others into thinking she was a monster and killing her. Or you can see it in this way Othello- Moon Young’s mother, Othello’s wife- Moon Young, Cassio- Gang Tae Lago-Society/Father- In this way Moon Young’s mother kills Moon Young’s spirit because she was jealous of her daughter being taken by Gang Tae when he arrived at the castle and her father as Lago because he ends up causing all of them to be killed by his selfishness and coldness.  Or society because Moon Young’s mum doesn’t want anyone to take her daughter from her because she feels alone by how she is viewed by society for her illness and it drives her to being jealous when Gang Tae shows up)   

The themes of these stories then follow the ideas of people feeling alienated by societal norms and their desperate attempts to not be alone as mentioned by Sang Tae who relates to this because he views his Autism as the blue beard of Bluebeard or green skin of the wicked witch . Moon Young’s is her ASPD that she was either born with or groomed with that makes people see her as a monster and take her feelings for granted. Her mother might have been the same as well. In a way the way Society views things that are different i.e. mental health causes these characters to be alienated and desperate to not lose the people who finally come into their lives. Moon Young’s mum adamant need to keep her alone in the castle by twisting her mind, Moon Young wanting Gang Tae by her side and Sang Tae’s own dependency on Gang Tae. The next themes also focuses on curiosity/ the need to uncover the secrets, which ends up being a downfall of the characters in these stories. Moon Young is like the bride in Bluebeard who’s curiosity leads her to breaking her promise and seeing the truth about her husband, she is traumatised by this scene but is later freed from it. Just like her curiosity with Gang Tae when they were younger leads to her realising how much of a monster her mother can be, and if we are still on that theory, it could be the catalyst for why Gang Tae’s mum ended up being murdered or why her mother ended up being killed.  

The last themes mentioned is manipulation of people being a reason for why innocent people get hurt. In Bluebeard we are shown through Moon Young’s father that the reason why Bluebeard kills his wife is because she looked like an angel but she was manipulating him into thinking so, she was always a monster who didn’t love the man but wanted his riches. In Othello, Othello is led to believe that his wife is unfaithful and is driven to madness by jealousy when in reality it was all manipulation by Lago who is jealous of Cassio. And Wizard of Oz, Dorothy is manipulated by society that the wicked witch is evil, and also is manipulated by them to believing the powers of the wizard when in reality he’s just a fake behind the curtain. She had the powers all along when she was given the red shoes. In this show Manipulation causes issues for the people, whether it causes massive fall outs like when Sang Tae felt manipulated by Gang Tae’s lies and his own perspective of his memories, or when Moon Young felt manipulated by her mother to run away from Gang Tae because she’ll never have someone who loves her for who she is. Manipulation comes at a cost for these people who feel alone and isolated by the world and it leads them to losing it and making choices which end up hurting everyone in the progress. 

 (I also wanted to mention the water Dorothy uses to kill the witch, I mentioned in my previous posts that there is memory of a woman drowning and Moon Young watching the woman drown, and there’s a woman who was thrown of a balcony that was kept in the basement who Moon Young saw. The woman who was drowning could be Moon Young’s mother, because the song she sings to her Dear Clementine is also about a woman who drowns. )

So to Kill or Not to Kill? Was it right that Moon Young’s mother got killed, are we being manipulated by others to think she was evil when she might be just like Moon Young and have a disorder causing her to be perceived that way. Did the father have any right to want to kill Moon Young? Is Gang Tae right in the way he views her and treats her because he feels she has no emotions? (This one is complete bull by the way, the way he treats her is not okay. End of.) Are these women in the right or are they in the wrong and should they be treated like monsters and killed? Should they be alone? We all know the title of the show disagrees. It’s okay to not be okay. These people have every right to be loved, and be treated properly. They are still humans.  

[ilguna]

Belamour - Chapter Nine (f.o)

summary: they say the odds tend to favor those who need them. well, they were wrong.

warnings; swearing, murder plot

wc; 11.2k

NOTES: i give reader a last name to fit the world.

–

Today marks the eighth day of the Hunger Games, you think. If you’ve been keeping track of it correctly, it’s been a week, and today is the eighth day. You’d like to say that the time has flown, but the days feel like they drag on forever. Especially with how hot it’s been during the day. It feels like you’re living through lifetimes in the span of a couple of days.

You should probably clarify that today is the eighth day of the games for you guys. Time typically moves differently inside of the arena, and it’s because the gamemakers are always trying to make something happen. Whether that be fights, or just plain death, it’s all dependent on the circumstances.

All you know is that your brothers and family friends have watched you survive in here, and come close to death three times now. The first one being Horace, the second being the mutts, and the third being the boy from Twelve. Although, you don’t think he counts much, holding you underwater was his own death wish.

Reed and Mox are probably beginning to gain hope on the situation. If you’ve survived an entire week, and managed to form a schedule of sorts, then you should be on track to go home. All you have to do is not fuck up between now and then. Don’t pick too many fights, drink plenty of water and eat more than enough food.

Keep your allies close but your enemies closer.

This morning was eerie. Allio didn’t say a word, mostly made grunting noises when Lennox suggested that him and Allio go out to try and hunt. It’s been three days since the storm, so the animals should be appearing back in the woods, but there’s no promises. If they come back with nothing, you’re going to be sent out to the pond.

As soon as the boys left, you and Trink had a quick conversation about how weird it was. You suggested the fact that he’s probably still mad at you three for yesterday, and she agreed. As soon as it was over, you and her started going through boxes to find any stray food.

She ended up finding one full of food. The cornucopia is normally plentiful with all sorts of stuff, so you weren’t surprised that she found it so quickly. The next thing to do was gather all the garbage and make a trash can of sorts. Already, you’ve thrown out wrappers and old bones.

It isn’t until you’re throwing out a fish’s skeleton, when you realize that it might be possible to make a soup out of these. Like chicken and beef broth, but instead with bones. Then you seem to remember that you never watched your brothers when they made it. You were always either out of the house or doing something in your room.

And the others don’t mind the fish--you could care less about eating it every night--but if you continue to make them eat it, or anything that has to do with it, they’re going to riot. It wouldn’t hurt to at least propose it, so you make note and toss the skeleton into the box.

“Hey, you know what I just thought of?” Trink is sitting in the sand, passing over trash when she finds it.

“What?” you ask, grabbing another handful and throwing it into the box. It looks like that’s the last of it. 

You shut the lid on the box, and leave it unlocked, hoping that’ll be a good enough signal to you later that it’s the trash box. If not, the placement of where it is should be good enough for your memory.

“Snares.” she says, “We make snares and set them up in the woods, just so we don’t have to be out there hunting the entire time.”

You nod distantly, thinking it over. It’s not a bad idea. You could catch things overnight and go to grab the animals in the morning, and just reset it, you think. You’ve never had to do something like that before, so it’s more or less a toss up. 

“Do you know how to make one?” you ask.

She’s shaking her head, face turning a light shade of red, “No, I was hoping you’d know.”

And your eyebrows are drawing in, “Why?”

“You and Finnick were at the snare station during the training days, remember?”

For a moment, you’re about to deny it all, not being able to recall a single moment like that. It hits you, after that. Sitting at the snare section with the incredibly impressed expert, and how you taught Finnick knots when he asked. It really does feel like years ago, when it was literally two weeks ago.

And the more it comes back to you, the more you seem to realize that you never actually learned any snares. You were more focused on trying to figure out new ways to tie knots, hoping that whatever the expert tried to teach you, you already knew and it would come back to you in that moment.

You fucked up, majorly. You spent an hour or so at that station without spending a single second of actually learning how to tie a snare. A skill that would now help to keep you all from starving. You grit your teeth, because who’s the one person that spent more time at that station after his first alliance was gone? Finnick.

You look over at Trink, shaking your head before the words form on your tongue. She seems to understand, maybe thinking that you don’t remember. Or maybe the change of expression told her that you don’t know how to tie snares at all.

“It’s no big deal.” she says, “I’m looking forward to fish for dinner, anyway. Even if it’s not the greatest, we can rely on it, hopefully.”

“Yeah.” you agree.

It’s only a few minutes later when the boys come back, absolutely nothing in their hands. Lennox tries to offer an apology, but you figured that this would happen. The gamemakers are keeping the animals from supplying the woods, what’s new? After all the shit they’ve thrown your way recently, it’s only customary.

You pack up your things, collect the empty water bottles, and leave for the pond. On the way, you hum a fisherman’s tune and try to recall the actual words to it. There’s a ton of variations to them, and you remember bits and pieces from the original and all the remakes. By the time you reach the pond, you’ve made a frankenstein version of the song.

You grab the fishing pole and then unpack your things, laying it all out. First, you get the water and purify it. You line the canteens up to make sure that they aren’t taking up a huge amount of room inside of the backpack. After that, you dig through the dirt to find a worm, making the situation beneath your nails worse.

At this point, you’re sure that it’s just stained that dark brown color. There’s really no other way to explain it. There’s a baby blue on the top, and a dark brown beneath the bottom. Picking at it has done nothing but aggravate you. So, you sit in tired silence and wait for the fish to bite.

You can imagine that your brothers are picking out everything that you’re doing wrong. Cringing when you choose to do one thing over the other, they’ve probably already found out ways to make your fishing pole better, and are just waiting for you to realize it too. You’ve already considered crackers and stuff like that, but it’ll eventually break off in the water, and you’ll just waste the food.

You wish that you were able to hear them and what they have to say. Beg them for advice on what to do. Allio is just becoming a bigger problem, the more that time goes on. The food is becoming more scarce, it’s hot here during the day and last night the weather plunged terribly, enough to make you grab out a second jacket from a box.

All you want is to survive, and it keeps getting harder the more that the days go on. You wish that the gamemakers weren’t allowed to interfere, and just had to watch from the sidelines. Of course, the games wouldn’t be nearly as interesting but manipulating the weather is unfair.

You pull out the first fish, and go right back in for a second. This one seems to bite only minutes later, faster than the first. You go to place the second fish down, only to find that the first is missing, with no sight of it around you. Your eyes barely manage to catch a quick movement in the bushes, and the knife is in and out of your hand in a flash.

“Shit!” a voice hisses, you jump to your feet, fingers fumbling for the sword to catch the thief before they have a chance to run.

You have the sword raised, prepared for the other tribute to jump at you. And you just barely peer around the bushes, about to swing and end it. But you catch yourself mid-air once you see who it is. His dark, curly hair is so familiar and it catches you off guard almost immediately.

He’s got a knife clutched in his hands, eyes wide and staring up at you. There actually seems to be some wince on his face, like he was fully prepared to accept his fate with the sword. Leave it to him not to even think of defending himself. 

“Blaire?” you ask, eyebrows drawing together as you survey the area around him.

You’re looking for Finnick and Thyme, they have to be around here somewhere, right? They’re supposed to be grouped up together, so it would only make sense for them to be traveling together. Then again, you’re with the careers and you came down here by yourself. On the other hand, you wanted it that way. 

You find no one around him. Maybe Blaire volunteered to go alone, like you? But that doesn’t make sense, Finnick typically travels with other people, no matter the weather or what they wish. You remember all the times in the rain, and how he’d walk his friends, girls and guys, home after school. Especially the ones that were looking upset.

One more look at Blaire, and you can see that his cheeks have sunken in, no longer as chubby as they were during the week in the Capitol. He’s been starving, and traveling down to look at his hands, it makes sense why he was stealing the fish. He’s hungry.

“Where’s Finnick?” you ask, looking back at him. 

A fish in one hand, and a knife in the other. The longer you stare at the knife, the more you recognize it. Again, you’re looking at his face, and the guilty expression seems to set in. There’s only one knife that looks like it, and it’s the exact design of the one that had been stolen out of your backpack.

Good news, you found the thief that took the entirety of the feast from your backpack in the shack. It explains the disappearance of the food and the knife. Bad news, you accused Allio when it had nothing to do with him, which means that there is undoubtedly a bounty placed on your head, and he’s probably explaining it to them right now. It still doesn’t explain the grapes.

A part of you is angry, because Blaire has caused this riff in the alliance whether he knows it or not. And it’ll be nearly impossible to repair without explaining to them how you know that it wasn’t Allio. It would give up Blaire’s position, and how you didn’t kill him on sight. Even worse if he doesn’t shut up in the sky.

On the other hand, you’re fairly impressed. He managed to get passed four sleeping career tributes, steal the food and leave without making a single sound. The timing and execution is amazing, and you know for a fact that you wouldn’t be able to pull off something like that.

Unfortunately, his luck has run out.

Blaire’s shaking his head, the wince from his face fading as you lower your sword. For now, you have absolutely no intention of killing him. He’s too kind, and you know that the stealing was for his own survival. Even if you’re in the Hunger Games, you can appreciate it. 

“I don’t know.” he says, you offer your hand out to him, but since his hands are full, he can’t grab it. Your arm falls back to your side.

“What do you mean you don’t know? You haven’t seen him at all? You’re supposed to be with Finnick and Thyme. Don’t you have an idea of where they are?”

He gets to his feet, you can see the damage you did to his leg, now. It’s a nick, enough to surprise him and make him think that you did some serious damage. You find your little knife a few feet away. You pick it up, and await his answer.

“I haven’t seen them at all since the first day. We all split up, I didn’t even know that Verda was going to the cornucopia.” Blaire frowns, “She died in the bloodbath, right?”

You nod quietly, bringing him over to where you had been sitting before by the pond. You throw the hook back into the water, “Yeah, it was a quick death, though. I’m pretty sure that it wasn’t any of us that had done it. Definitely wasn’t me.”

“You’re still with the careers?”

“Yeah.” you look over to him, “What have you been doing this whole time? Other than stealing from us.” 

His face flushes, and he opens his mouth and then closes it. He shakes his head, eyes closed and then he looks down to the dirt, “I was hungry.”

“You left nothing.”

“Can you blame me? You guys looked well off, I didn’t see a harm in it at all. And I didn’t leave nothing, I left the crackers and figured that would be good enough. That and the water.” Blaire’s still got a grip on the fish, you have a feeling that you won’t be getting it back.

You pull up another fish, place it on the plastic, and then go right back in again, “We’ve been sharing food. One measly rabbit for four people, it’s not exactly the best. Doesn’t sit right with them.”

He hums, “Sorry.”

“Don’t be. Take the fish, and a thing of water.” you reach into the bag, pulling out the water bottle you’d used, it’s full of water, “Should be clean.”

“Thank you.”

“Yeah. Clean out the cut on your thigh to keep it from being infected.”

You can’t believe that Blaire doesn’t know where they are. So much for a second-hand alliance, none of them are together. Verda’s dead, Blaire is wandering the woods alone, starving. And who knows what’s happened to Finnick and Thyme? It could very well be Blaire’s situation but better or worse, depending on where they are.

You’re so guilty. This isn’t directly your fault, because Finnick had his own alliance so he should have been able to find all of them just fine. But had you… you’re the older tribute, you were supposed to be watching over him. Yet, he’s off somewhere, maybe alone, maybe starving and dehydrated.

Finnick might have broken the agreement on the alliance with the careers, but he’s your friend. Finnick and you have known each other for years. Had you just spent time changing his mind and reassuring him, he might be with you now. You were just so mad that he had turned his back on something so great.

There’s no way of knowing now, if you two could have survived out here. Knowing him, he would’ve wanted to stay away from the cornucopia entirely. Which just means going into the woods with absolutely nothing and banking on sponsors. You know how to do things like start fires, and hunt without all the good stuff, but it just helps.

Then again, you did warn Finnick. You told him that going about this alone or without the careers would be harder. There’s not as many people watching your back. And of course, at some point they’re going to be unreliable and dangerous. But you’ve survived this far, and you’ve only just come across problems.

As far as you know, the games are halfway over. There’s eleven dead, and it’s been a steady flow. In eight more days, the games could be over and you could be going home. 

Blaire dips his hand into the water, pulling out a handful of water as he dumps it onto his thigh. His face twists, a hiss coming from his lips. You feel sorry for him, it has to hurt and it’s going to hinder his walking. But it’s what he gets. It’s justice, in your mind.

Doesn’t mean you can’t help him out somewhat. You and Blaire might not have talked to each other for long, but you don’t feel uncomfortable around him. And he seems to be pretty relaxed, too. You wonder if he sees you as a friend directly, or a friend of a friend.

Sticking the fishing pole between your calf and your thigh, you dig through the backpack for the first-aid. You pull it out, and toss it to him, hoping that he knows what he’s doing, and won’t have to ask you for advice. For a moment, you can see him staring out of your peripheral, and then he takes it.

“I really am sorry, (Y/n).”

“It’s fine.” you mutter.

Blaire doesn’t say anything else for a while. He washes out the blood, waits for his calf to dry, and then places a bandage on top of it. When he’s done, he carefully shuts the first aid and holds it out for you. You take it, tuck it back into its spot, and pull up the next fish that comes around.

Three should be good enough. You wrap it all up in the plastic once the newest one is done squirming, and then place the package into the backpack, right next to the water. 

Blaire’s watching you closely again. Once you’ve zipped up the bag, you look at him, “Good luck.”

“Won’t you be down here tomorrow?”

“Not if we get something from the woods.”

Blaire looks down to the fish in his hands, “It’s been quiet.”

“We know.” you get up, placing the knife back into its spot on your belt, and then the sword. You throw the fishing pole into the bushes and then turn to look at Blaire, “If I have time, I’ll leave something for you.”

“Thank you.”

“Find a place to stay, Blaire.” you tell him, starting your way back to the cornucopia.

The walk is quiet, Blaire doesn’t follow. You manage to get back before sundown, and your allies have already got a fire started. You all get rid of the scales on the fish, then Lennox gets to cooking.

Allio still says nothing, not even when he’s offered food or if you guys ask if he wants more. Eventually, he gets up without a word and goes to take a walk, leaving just the three of you in the cornucopia. A part of you wants to tell them that you saw Blaire down at the pond, but figure that won’t go over well.

You obviously didn’t kill him, and explaining what happened with the food won’t be the best, either. Even if they were to get on your side, you’re sure that suspicions would start to rise. Unless you lied and said that you tried to kill Blaire and he got away. It would explain why he didn’t die immediately but then it would be a waiting game, and wishing death on him.

And coming clean to Allio, he’ll probably find a way to spin it on you. The two of you have made your distaste for each other clear, and Trink is the same way. The only semi-neutral person in this group anymore is Lennox. And you’re sure that’ll only be a matter of time before he’s turned again Allio, especially with the attitude that he has.

Allio has just come back from the woods, a dead rabbit in his hands and a victorious look on his face, when a cannon blasts. The look almost disappears, changing to confusion. But then he hands off the rabbit to Lennox, and takes a seat in his regular spot.

“Nice catch.” Trink murmurs, but it’s clear you’re all still puzzled about the cannon.

It could be anyone except you guys. Blaire, Finnick, Thyme, you think Mac is still alive and both the tributes from Eight. There’s one more, you’re sure of it, but can’t seem to think of who it is. Six tributes, the possibilities are endless.

Allio opens his mouth, another cannon cuts him off. Two tributes. Two tributes are dead.

You press your lips together. Could be Blaire, could be Finnick and Thyme. Could be Mac and Blaire, or both of the Eight tributes if they were caught off guard. Endless, really. Until you get to see the sky and their faces tonight.

You hope you didn’t call their deaths, Blaire and Finnick. You have the worst type of luck with things like that, pointing out how they could happen and then it happening. It knocks two players out of the game, but that doesn’t mean that they don’t matter. 

“Two.” Allio says, as if you all don’t know.

Trink’s pulling her hair out of her face, “Probably a fight between three people.”

You nod along, and Lennox shrugs, “Mutual kill?”

“Isn’t that rare?” Trink asks, “Like I’ve never seen that ever.”

“Probably, I thought that there was one year when it happened, though.” Lennox begins to scoop up the scraps to throw into the trash box, but you’re flying across the small space to stop him, “What?”

“I can use this as bait.” your eyes scan the surrounding area, trying to find something to put it in. The spare canteen bottles come to mind.

After finding one, you pack as much as you can inside, and tuck the can somewhere cold. It’s not going to stay good for long, which means that you’ll have to use as much as possible, and then empty it out to start over. For now, it’ll have to work.

It’s agreed between you guys that it should be an early night. You wait for the death recap in the sky with them, finger crossed for whatever reason. You don’t want it to be anyone you know, but on the other hand, it would be easier. You wouldn’t have to kill them later on, if someone did all the work for you.

The music starts, the blue emblem of the Capitol appearing in the sky. You watch and wait patiently, heart beginning to beat in your chest. It isn’t that big of a deal, you take deep breaths to calm yourself down.

The first face in the sky is the girl from Eight, which immediately knocks out Blaire and Finnick. It leaves two tributes, though. The boy from Eight, and Thyme. Both tributes from Districts Nine and Ten are dead, both of them died during the bloodbath.

“It’s Thyme.” you say, and you really do call it. She’s next to appear in the sky, her district number below her face. 

You turn towards an empty space in the sand, writing out initials. T and L for Trink and Lennox, A for Allio, B for Blaire. One for yourself, F for Finnick, M for Mac, and a number eight for the boy from Eight. And then a question mark, because you still can’t recall where the last tribute is from.

Nine tributes left in the game, four of them being you guys, and five being everyone else. It could be two girls left in the game, and it could be three. Which leaves six or seven boys. 

You suddenly begin to worry about the alliance, one more death from one of the stray tributes, will mean an even score. You’ve seen this problem happen many times before, the career tributes all turning on each other. That or they split up, and you can’t see that happening without one of you dying.

One of you has to go to keep the alliance intact. You’ve been relying on it for this long, and you’re not about to get killed because of paranoia going on in the group. You quickly rub out the sand, and then look up to the others. There’s a sadistic smile on Allio’s face, and you know immediately. He has to go.

“We’re getting closer and closer.” Allio says, and then his eyes drag over to you.

You don’t like this. You’re the youngest, they’re all older than you by one or two years. To Allio, you’re small and weak, and possibly the most useless one still in the group. But as far as you know, he’s got no kills on his head, and you’ve got four. And you’re sure that Lennox and Trink still think that he’s the one that ate all of his food.

There’s evidence.

It’s obvious. You wonder if he knows this too.

You give them a lighthearted smile, because for now, they’re not going to kill you. They’re going to keep you around, because you’re their only supplier of food right now. You have until the animals begin to show themselves in the woods again. Which could be any day now.

The anthem finalizes loudly, and the outside is dark again. Inside the cornucopia, the fire is still going, still giving off plenty of light.

“I’d say we go out and try our luck with hunting again.” Allio says.

Bad idea, you’re already shaking your head, “Just so we can come right back here in a few days? The arena is huge, you have to know that at this point. We could walk for miles and still find nothing.”

There’s a glare in his eyes, “It’s better than sitting here.”

“I don’t think so. Everyone out there is going to die one way or another, let them kill themselves.”

“And what about us?” Trink asks.

You give her a look, and shrug, “We can’t stay together forever. But we might as well make the best of it.”

They already knew that, but you wonder if they realize that you’re banking on the hope that you all stay together. Allio is upset again, Trink looks like she’s taking what you said into consideration, and Lennox is indifferent. 

Lennox keeps the fire going. He says that tomorrow will be Trink’s turn to watch over, and then it’s left to you and Allio to fight it out. Then, you’re all laying down to sleep. Except, it doesn’t come easy tonight.

Nine tributes left in the games. Eight that need to die to make sure that you win. Three of them are allies, one of them a friend from back home, two of them you consider friendly, and two nobodies that you could care less about. You’re almost there. All you have to do is not give up.

You’ve kept your strength this far, what’s a little more?

In the morning, you’re up to relieve Lennox so he can go straight to bed. By the time the sun is higher up in the sky, Allio and Trink are up. You all agree that it would be a good idea for you to go out and fish, because one measly rabbit isn’t going to do much for you four.

You take the backpack with you, and leave without waiting for Lennox to wake up. The others will fill him in, and since they’re awake, they’ll be able to watch over the cornucopia. You just hope that Allio isn’t going to fill their heads with the same thoughts you had last night.

The pond is devoid of Blaire, and it’s quiet. You fish, your thoughts being your only company. And they aren’t very pleasant.

You think that if Allio were to die and the others were to find out that it were you, they wouldn’t be angry. Obviously killing either Trink or Lennox would make the other mad, because that’s their friend from back home. It would be interesting to try and pin it on Allio and see how either of them react, but that could easily backfire. All they’d have to do is think that you’re accusing people too often, and suddenly you’re the odd one out.

And getting rid of Allio would do good, because he’s a boy. And if there are only two to three girls left in the game, it would be nice to even out the playing field a little. Give you, Trink and whoever the other person may or may not be, a good fighting chance. 

You’ve done fine against boys so far, but it’s good to have that extra step, anyway.

There’s a crackle of a leaf, which makes you look over. Blaire’s coming through the trees, still looking malnourished, but a lot more energetic today, “Good morning,” he says, and then sits by you without a word.

It would be a lot easier if he knew how to fish for himself. He’s seen where you put the fishing pole, the real thing that he’s missing is the knowledge and a water bottle to reel in the fish. But then again, you don’t want to just hand out information without getting something in return.

“Good morning.”

“Saw the sky last night, right?” he asks, and you nod. The stench of fish coming from the canteen bottle is enough for you to rethink wanting to touch it and use it as bait, “I have a feeling Thyme and Finnick were working together.”

You look over at him, “Yesterday you said you all split.”

“Finnick and Thyme vaguely ran in the same direction. I couldn’t keep up.” he says, “And I haven’t been able to find them since. The arena is huge, (Y/n).”

You nod, “Yeah, we found that out a few days ago.”

Of course Finnick would work with Thyme, it just makes sense. From one companion to another. You wonder if he’s also hurt, or if it was just Thyme that took the damage. They probably brought in the Eight girl somehow, thinking that she’d be an easy kill, but wasn’t. Hurt Thyme pretty badly, Finnick finished Eight off, and then was left to Thyme. 

In that case, she could be a mercy kill. They could have been using that tactic this entire time, which means that a handful of deaths could very well belong to them. 

“Can I use your water-purify droplets?” he asks, you dig through one of the front pockets to bring it out for him. He thanks you, and then goes right to collecting water. As soon as he’s sat back, you’re pulling out a fish and telling him to take it, “Has there been any drama between you guys yet?”

You look at Blaire, again, and study his face. It looks like genuine curiosity, an innocent question.

He explains himself; “I’m just asking, since all the other times with the games and there being this amount of careers left, drama starts.”

Maybe Blaire has a problem with silence, “Minimal drama, I’m going to take care of it.”

Right after the words leave your mouth, you freeze, fingers still trying to unravel the coil of water. That statement could mean a number of things to him, and everyone back at the Capitol. But talk about giving away an undecided plan. Killing Allio won’t be easy, at all.

Everything has to be perfect. You have until the animals appear, you need a night when you’re taking the shift, and you need to somehow make him look guilty and make sure that he won’t be missed. You know that it’ll be easier, one less mouth to feed, and he won’t be offending you guys each time he opens his mouth.

You almost think his death will be premature, and you should wait until the ‘outsider’ tributes are down a little more. That’s when the thinking stops, because it comes into conflict with your original thought. You don’t want there to be an even playing field, and you don’t want a free-for-all at the cornucopia.

Allio has to go, but you don’t have the timing down just yet. 

“Oh,” Blaire says, he probably caught on to the wording, “Right, is it a group thing or…?”

“No.” you say, “I don’t think that the other two will like the idea.” you put some more fish scraps on the end of the hook, and dip it into the water, “But it needs to happen.”

He doesn’t say anything. You fish for another hour before you’re tired, nothing has bitten since Blaire’s fish. He tries to give it up, but you assure him that it’s no big deal, and bid him goodbye, the fishing pole going straight into the bushes. Instead of taking the regular path home, you take a wide arch, hoping that’ll give you more time to find something else to take home.

Lucky for you, a rabbit darts out of the bushes, and the knife lands in the back of its neck. You’re about to say that it’s good enough, until the back of your mind is telling you that you might as well explore. It’s not anywhere near sundown just yet, and if you go back to the cornucopia now, you’ll just sit there with the rest.

And it’s easier to explore alone, you think. There aren't a ton of people trampling over the leaves, breaking sticks and such and leaving an obvious path that you had been there. It looks less daunting, and the other tributes might even consider staying around. One path isn’t a lot. It’s worrying, they might relocate, and they might not.

You use some of the rope to tie the bunny up onto your backpack. It looks funny with how it hangs down, and you’d put it inside of the backpack, wrapped in a sheet of plastic. Except, it’s still bleeding, and it would mess up everything inside. You’d rather the blood get all over the back of your jeans and shoes instead.

If you were standing and facing the mouth of the cornucopia, you’d say that right now, you’re on the right side of it. Roughly where Allio had disappeared off to last night. If you were to go left of the cornucopia, it would just be the coast, nothing good over there. 

Out here, on the right side, should be relatively nothing. Especially with how the others have described it. You’ve never actually come over here, yourself. You always figured that there wouldn’t be anything interesting. They say they can’t hear flowing water, and it’s just trees.

So, you figure it’s going to be the same, and that the trip out here is useless, and you’re really just trying to burn time, not wanting to deal with Allio’s attitude. It’s devoid of animals, which makes you think that the gamemakers are slowly giving in to the supply of wild animals again, which is good news.

They were right about the dense forest part. You’ve seen worse in other arenas, but it’s still surprising. Having this many trees on what you think is an island. It smells green out here, too. Healthy trees and plants. Honestly, if there weren’t a coast, you’d just say that this is a regular forest arena.

Those tend to be the trickiest. Having to fight in them is hard. Hiding behind trees may seem comical, but they work better than you think. At some point, if you’re not careful, the trees begin to look the same and you can wander in circles for hours, thinking that you’re going the right way but you aren’t.

It’s even more embarrassing when you finally realize what you had done for the past hour, knowing that the people back home and the entire Capitol just watched you do it like an idiot. You always used to ask, “How hard can it be?” But being out here has opened your eyes. You always knew that the arena was hard, especially with how little the Capitol gives, but it’s just making you even more aware.

The more you wander this way, the more you’re able to see the tall cliff, which is beginning to look more like a mountain with how it peaks. It’s definitely climbable, you know that. Just by judging the incline, though, it’ll be a tiring walk. And for what? A good view? Right.

At some point, you get tired of walking straight, and go diagonal instead. If you get lost, you’ll just follow the beach around until you spot the cornucopia. Easy enough plan. Plus, getting lost won’t be too bad. Unless, of course, the Capitol decides to throw in their own twist with you.

After what you said at the pond, you have a feeling you’ve got them intrigued enough to not jump to do things with you. The Capitol has likely figured out that you meant Allio, and saying that you’ve got it handled means that you’re working alone. You even confirmed it by telling Blaire that the group wouldn’t approve.

He probably caught on too. He’s smart, older than you too. Just like most of the other tributes are, except for the Twelve tributes and Finnick. You don’t know the ages of everyone, just a basic idea of where they’re at. You know for sure that Allio, Trink and Lennox are older than you. There’s no question about that.

There’s a moment, while you’re walking through the trees, you hold your breath to make sure that you don’t hear anyone following you. And then you hear it, and it’s enough for you to look over with wide eyes, and not even hesitate about going over. It’s running water, loud and crashing.

As you move through the trees, you’re careful to make sure that there isn’t anyone over here. It’s uncharted territory for you. As far as you know, this is where all the tributes could be, all hiding out around the same area. It’s out of the distance of the cornucopia, and it’s away from the path you walk everyday to the pond.

It’s smart. If someone chose to stay out here, it’s smart.

Through the trees, you’re able to see the water, sneaking up onto the dirt enough to make it mud. You don’t dare move past the treeline, and even position yourself behind a tree, looking out to the scene in front of you.

It’s a paradise. Further out, there’s a waterfall, and it looks like there’s a running stream out here after all. Around the bank are flowers, there’s lilies and lily pads alike, floating on top of the crystal blue water. With how the sun hits the water, it looks absolutely clear. Clean, cleaner than the pond water.

You think you even catch a glimpse of a fish tail, before it’s disappeared completely. How did the others miss this? You have a hard time believing that their curiosity didn’t get the better of them. Especially the mornings that the boys went to hunt. You know you’d try and take a big track around to try and get the best of what you can.

It’s beautiful over here. And as much as you want to fish, gather better water and just walk into it altogether, you know that there’s something else here. Whether it be a water mutt, or a person. In the arena, everything is too good to be true. If it’s not dirty and clearly falling apart, then it’s gamemaker engineered and there’s something wrong with it.

Even with this thought, your eyes catch a vague movement behind the waterfall. A dark color, maybe an animal? But then it happens again, and you know better. It’s not an animal, not with how upright the figure is. One more movement, and it’s registered in your mind. There’s only one person that you know that would bet on something so delicate and dangerous. And it’s not Blaire.

It has to be Finnick. There’s a cave behind the waterfall, and he found it. Smart.

You have the sudden urge to call his name and wander out, but catch yourself before you act on it. You don’t know that it’s him, it could be another tribute that figured out how to swim or don’t have an insane fear of the water. And second, you don’t know if you’re still on friendly terms with him. Not after what happened.

Yet another secret to keep to yourself. You’re careful to sneak off without making much noise, a little upset that you’ll be missing out on a perfect fishing opportunity. If you had your spear, you’d be able to take out half a dozen fish before you realize that it’s way too much.

At least you know where Finnick--or another tribute--are now. You could easily blame them for Allio’s death if something goes wrong. And then the thought of the fact that you knew that they were alive, but again didn’t kill them, pops in your head. You can’t blame any old tribute for Allio’s death without being incredibly guilty.

You make it back to the cornucopia just fine, finding that there’s already a fire going again, and Trink is taking her turn roasting it. They’re all startled at your approach, reaching for their weapons. They must be used to you approaching from the side and coming around, instead of just walking out in the open.

“No fish, got a rabbit, though.”

“None at all?” Lennox asks, “We had so many yesterday.”

“I tried for hours, found nothing so I wandered around until I spotted this guy.” You free him from your rope and hand him off to Lennox, “It’s better than nothing.”

Lennox gets to work at ripping the rabbit apart. You go ahead and hand out the water, and then take a seat near the fire to keep warm. You can already feel the temperature change, again, the gamemakers are tampering with the weather. To combat this, Trink slides in another couple of sticks, and it’s just a waiting game.

“Who’s watching tonight?” Lennox asks, and he’s looking between you and Allio, because the two of you haven’t taken an overnight shift in a while.

“I’ll take it tonight, Allio can have tomorrow.” You say.

“I’ll take the next two days, since I haven’t been doing much.” He says, and then begins playing with his sword over the fire.

It’s an hour or so before the first rabbit’s meat is thoroughly cooked. You tell Lennox and Trink to share the first one, and you and Allio will get the second. For a moment, Allio doesn’t look that thrilled that you made a decision for him like that. But then he must realize that means that he might eat more, and the expression falls.

After dinner, you all stay up for a little longer, playing stupid games and trying to burn more time. As always, the Capitol symbol appears in the sky, along with the sound of the anthem. But there were no deaths today, so it fades quickly. Only then do the others call it a night.

You position yourself up against a box, the hilt of the sword in your hand. If you haven’t had any trouble up to this point, then there shouldn’t be any tonight, either. Which means that you get to sit around in the cold, watch as the fire slowly dies out, and try to keep yourself awake.

It’s just silence during the night. The only time there’s actual noise is during the day, when the birds and insects are awake. You can faintly hear the sound of waves on the shore, and you don’t even bother trying to hear the waterfall, because it’s too far off.

If you thought staying in the cornucopia was cold, you can’t imagine what it’s like behind the water. The water is freezing, and if it’s a cave, then that means the stone will be cold too. Unless the tribute inside of there thought ahead and somehow built a blanket of leaves to keep them fairly warm.

And the mist from how hard the water is coming down? It’ll make some things wet if it’s too close. The only real solution to that, is if it’s deep in there. Honestly, you thought caves behind waterfalls was a thing for fairytales. Like those stupid books your mom used to read you before bed, back when you were in elementary school. 

You listen as the sand shifts, when you look over, it’s Trink rolling over. She’s got her back to you now. Within arm’s reach is her canteen and sword, in the case of an emergency. A few feet away lies Lennox, who sleeps on his back. His things are still by the fire, but with far back he is into the cornucopia, he could just use anything off the wall.

As for Allio, he sleeps on the other side of the fire. Compared to you and Trink, he’s by far the closest person to the mouth of the cornucopia. Easy access for anyone to come around and kill, and just run off into the woods. It’s not possible for you to do the same. It’ll be too suspicious over the fact that you were missing. Especially since you were supposed to be guarding everyone.

Tonight isn’t the night, and you’re not too sure that the next two nights are either. But time is running out, and you need to get to him before another random tribute dies. You need a plan, not something half-assed that could easily be seen through.

At this point in the games, you’re not even sure if that’s possible. Everyone has some sort of paranoia running through their heads. And it’s obvious that it’s gotten to you first. It’s for the right reason, you think. To keep an alliance intact. You could always go out and survive on your own, it’s clear that you can. Just take a backpack and don’t show up at the cornucopia again.

But you’re relying on the other's safety. And they’ll probably know where to go, down to the pond or to the shack to get to you and take you out for keeping them waiting like that. Of course, you could always go somewhere else to hide, but you’re not experienced in the woods.

Blaire might be. The only thing that he’s lacking is actual supply. If you were to team up with him, then you’d have a better chance than just going alone. But it poses the same problem that you’re working with at the moment. Eventually, tensions will rise between you and Blaire. And eventually, if you two somehow manage to be the last two alive, you’ll have to kill each other. 

You don’t want to kill Blaire. You’d much rather someone else do it, because you consider him friendly, just like how you consider Mac friendly. It’s obvious why you don’t want to kill Finnick too. So it’s automatically knocking out three of the eight tributes that need to go, to make sure you win.

At the rate you’re all going, you don’t think that Blaire, Finnick or Mac will die by chance. Blaire might not have the same will to live as the rest of you do, but he’s still fighting to stay alive. And a good example of that, is him stealing food, even though it’s dangerous.

Maybe he has a death wish, and he was partly hoping that he’d get caught and immediately killed for it. It would be one way to end his pain, but you’re not entirely sure if that’s the best way to go, leaving your life in someone else’s hands like that. Especially during the Hunger Games, where everything is supposed to be entertaining.

You could beg for a speedy death, but in the end, you’re all just puppets for the Capitol. None of you want to displease them enough to the point where they do something rash. Whether that be another event in the arena that gets you hurt, or something to your family back home.

You too, are a puppet. And it’s exactly why you’re going to make Allio’s death shocking enough to keep the Capitol on the edge of their seats, and better for you.

By the time that dawn breaks, Trink is up. She lets you sleep into the afternoon, and then wakes you up so that you can still make a trip down to the pond for water for all of them. You’re fairly groggy, and spend a good amount of time just making sure that you’re awake enough to do things.

The good news is, there isn’t an immediate need for fish. Lennox and Allio went out to the forest while you were sleeping, and managed to catch a whole pig. The bad news, the animals are reappearing. They’re still scarce, but all that really matters is the fact that they’re there.

You say that tomorrow is your limit.

Blaire is sitting in the shallow end of the pond when you get there. The bandage is gone, but the cut is still on his thigh. He doesn’t seem to be bothered by it, so you assume that it's feeling better today. Before he can even ask, you toss over the iodine droplets.

“Thanks. For a while I thought that you weren’t going to show up.” He says.

“Took the night shift, I got to sleep in.” You throw the hook in, and resist the urge to yawn. 

Unlike the boys, you’re pretty capable of staying up throughout the night. The only person that really gets a pass is Lennox, because he’s taking the most of them. He probably realized that the other day, and it’s why he’s pawned off the nights onto you guys. Although, to be fair, you’re pretty sure he was taking it until the difference between you and Trink and Allio was settled.

“I was thinking about what you said yesterday,” Blaire starts, but doesn’t continue past that. 

Looking at him, you’re expecting him to pick up once he realizes that he’s got your full attention, you’re wrong, “About what exactly?”

He looks up from his water bottle, tossing the iodine back your way. You catch it easily, and he begins to shake the water, “Taking care of your problem--or the problem, I should say. Don’t you think that could get you killed?”

“Everything in the arena could get me killed.” you say, there’s a tug at the wire, you reel it in, “No matter what I do, I’m always putting myself into trouble. I come down here alone, I continue to feed you, I create plans and keep secrets and try to stay off my allies’ radar. It’s the same for you. Sooner or later, we’re going to get killed or be the ones that kill.”

“Not me.” Blaire says, taking the fish from you, and then watching you pack up your things, “Shouldn’t you keep going?”

“Friends caught a pig. I’m mostly down here to plot, but you’re here.” you look at him, motioning to the fish with one hand while you block the sun with the other, “Take it, it’s yours.”

“I could leave.”

“What you do, is your own free will.” you say.

Blaire sits down right next to you, pulls his shoes off and then places his feet in the water. He starts taking the scales off the fish, you want to warn him about the dangers of the water, how deep it is and you’re not entirely sure what lies in there. But decide you’ll let him figure that out for himself.

“Tell me your plan.”

You can’t stop the laugh that sputters out of you, loud and long. Blaire was expecting this, there’s a small smile on his face, and he waits patiently for you to stop. Even a couple minutes later, you’re still giggling at the idea. Telling Blaire your plan to kill Allio? And for what? You’ll give away everything about the situation.

“Fat chance.”

“You act like I’m going to work against you.” Blaire says, and you’ve still got a funny smile on your face, “(Y/n), I’m in your debt. Plenty of times now.”

“Why? Just because I fed you? As if that’s even a reason.” you roll your eyes, “It’s charity work.”

“You could have killed me by now. Or brought your alliance down and had them do the job.” Blaire says, “Or not shown up and let me starve.”

“You’re caught up in what-if’s, none of those are real reasons.” you say, and the second that the words leave, you want to take them back. Because they are real reasons, you’ve been smuggling this boy for days.

Back home, you know some other poor family would try and repay you. It’s just how it works. You could do something nice like give one of Naida’s boys an old pair of Reed or Mox’s shoes, and she’d be insisting on making dinner for you all for at least two nights. All of it would be on her.

And there was one day, something like that actually happened. It wasn’t for one of her boys, it was actually for the youngest girl, Windy. She’s older now, six or seven, you can’t remember exactly. But it was just after your dad had died, and your brothers and you were in a deep hole.

Reed was illegally fishing, Mox was desperate with his studies, and applying for jobs at the local stores around, but no one was falling through. Naida knew that the four of you were struggling, and scrambling to sell things to stay afloat. A lot of the things that you were selling were old dresses that Alyssum wouldn’t be needing for a long time.

Windy had some important event at preschool, and Naida didn’t want her to look dirty and poor. She was completely missing clothes for Windy, because she’d sold Calandra’s baby clothes a long ass time ago. And even worse, she was scraping by on rent that month, she wouldn’t be able to afford nice clothing.

You found some old dress in the plastic bin beneath your bed. Clearly expensive, and looking almost brand new. You knew that it would go for a lot at the Square. Even the richest families sometimes go down there to get a good deal on things. And if the Square wouldn’t have worked--you doubt it wouldn’t have--you were going to head down to the seamstress.

You didn’t even ask Reed or Mox if it was okay, didn’t even consider the fact that Alyssum would need something like that in a few years. You found an old shoe box in the boys’ closet, and then some ribbon off of a doll from your room. You tied the box up nicely, with some wonky ass bow on the top. And took your ass right over to Naida’s.

The dress was easily a month’s worth of rent, maybe more. But you knocked on the door, Naida answered, and you handed off the dress, saying, “I heard Windy needs something nice for her school thing. Hope you guys have fun.” and left Naida at the house.

Later that day, when your brother’s were coming back from what they did during the day, Naida stopped them on the porch. In no time, she was crying, and absolutely crazed because she thought you’d spent a ton of money on a dress that you couldn’t even afford. But Reed recognized the dress, reassuring her that it would be a hand-me-down. Even then, Naida didn’t want to accept it.

They didn’t give her a choice either. Said basically the same thing that you did. When they came into the house, they found you doing your math homework at the dining room table. You’ve seen Reed proud many, many times, but the look on his face is one you’ll remember forever. You did a good job.

Naida’s way of paying you all back, was the free babysitting for all of you. Taking Alyssum in during the day while you and Mox went to school, allowing Reed more hours for the illegal fishing. And even after he became a legal adult, she continued on with it. She definitely knows that she’s paid it over so many times by now, but chooses to do it still.

Anyway, Blaire might be thinking the same thing. But instead of a dress, it’s his life. Something that is so temporary in the Hunger Games, and even dangerous. You’re risking your life by saving his. You’re putting trust into him not killing you by continuing to do this.

And the one way he wants to pay you back is by listening and giving advice. You don’t know if Blaire has grown up in the poor part of District Three, or if you’re just overthinking all of this. But it’s what makes the most sense to you. You said it yourself yesterday too, that Blaire is not only older, but smarter. He’s got at least two to three years on you.

“There’s nine tributes left in the arena.” you begin, making him look over, “And I’m worried that as soon as it hits eight, my alliance will break up, and I want to keep it together for as long as possible. It’s nice having people watch over my back, knowing that they’ll protect me. And they’re not all that bad, either.

“Allio, the boy from Two, has been causing trouble between all of us, except for Lennox, the boy from One. Of course, last week you took our entire sponsor gift, and I honestly thought it was Allio, and so did Trink and Lennox.” you stare at Blaire, “They still think that it’s him, as far as I know.

“I would get rid of Lennox or Trink, except they’re friends, they’ve known each other for a while. If one goes, the other’s sure to go crazy, so I figured that Allio would be my best bet, anyway. The only problem I’m having is how to get it done. It has to be tonight or tomorrow, because I don’t want someone to die before we get there. And I don’t want the animals to reappear in the trees.”

Blaire nods, thinking this over. He’s quiet for a long time, staring down at his fish. You think he’s just as stumped as you are, and then he speaks, “You can’t ask the others to help you kill him?”

“They think I’ve only killed one person, and I’m not trying to come off as aggressive. I only blew some of it when I told Allio that I hated him, just like Trink seemed to. So, I bet I’ll already be suspected.”

“Could always say that it was some random tribute.”

“That’s what I was thinking, except there isn’t anyone around the cornucopia.” you say, ignoring the waterfall tribute. They’re not as important, they're too far away. Once again, if it’s Finnick, you don’t want to give him away to the others. You wouldn’t be killing him with your own hands, but you’d lead them right to him. It’s good enough.

“You guys explored around the area?”

“More or less.”

Blaire hums, “You said something about the night shift, who’s taking the next one?”

You look over, “Allio said he’d take the next two nights.”

“Oh, then that’s easy. If he falls asleep during the night, just get him then.” Blaire says, “And then find some outlet, like sleeping or whatever.”

You hold your breath, trying to picture it. In this case, doing it tonight would be suspicious, since you’d finally get him alone for once--or ‘alone’. The others will still be there, just unconscious. You could kill him while he’s asleep, and then quickly lay back down. As for the blood knife, there’s a box that you could probably slip it under.

There’s only one problem, the one that’s nearly impossible to get around.

“What about the cannon?”

Blaire huffs out a laugh, “Guess you’ll just have to move quickly and make sure you aren’t breathing heavily. Turn your back to them or something. You can’t over sell it either, so pretending to sleep through the cannon might be cheesy. Or, it might be realistic, I don’t know.”

Allio sleeps on the other side of the cornucopia, opposite to you, closest to the mouth. Unfortunately, another obstacle is going to be the lit fire, but there’s nothing you can do about it. You can’t control the weather, the gamemakers can. And it’s going to be impossible to get them to just make it warm tomorrow night. Unless they come to the conclusion by themselves.

You stare into the water, almost losing yourself in your thoughts, when you see it. A dark motion, bigger than any fish, “Get out of the water, now.” 

You push yourself to your feet, throwing the backpack away. When Blaire doesn’t move fast enough, you grab the back of his hood with both hands, pulling him out of the water and a couple inches away. He’s got it now, coughing because of how hard you were on the hood.

The black mass is towards the top now, just beneath the surface. You watch the bubbles appear, and pop. One of them lands on Blaire’s bare foot, and he hisses, backing up some more. You watch as his skin turns a shade of pink first, and then deeper to red.

You wonder if the water was hot, or if it’s poison. 

Does it really matter?

You grab the water bottle that’s hanging out of Blaire’s back pocket, uncapping it, and then dumping it out, still staring at the water. No matter how much iodine you put into this, it’s not going to be clean. And it doesn’t matter that he grabbed it from the shallow end, either. Whatever is in the water can contaminated it.

“Here.” you say, placing it in his hand, and then moving on to your bag.

You pull each canteen out and dump them out, watching as the water runs downhill and back into the pond.

“Do you think that the fish is bad?” he asks.

You look over, he’s holding it out for you to see. You don’t spot anything abnormal with it, but you didn’t see anything wrong with the water initially, either, or the pond.

“Toss it in.” you shove everything back into the backpack, and attach the fishing pole to your backpack, “I know another place.”

Blaire follows what you said, tossing it into the water, and pulling on his socks and shoes after. You lead him around in a wide arch, exaggerating the path you took the other day. He doesn’t question you at all.

This walk is much faster than the first one, but the moment you hear the waterfall, you get a bit hesitant. You still lead Blaire through the trees, heading right towards the crystal blue water, but watching to make sure there’s no one there just yet. You’d like to give them a chance to leave.

There is no one, and there is no movement on the other side of the waterfall. Once Blaire sees what you’ve led him to, he gasps slightly, “Wow.”

“Yeah, I know. We shouldn’t be here for too long.” you glance behind you, there’s no one. If Blaire can sneak around you guys quietly, it’s no question that others might be able to do the same, “You watch out for anyone.”

“You don’t like it over here.” he says, it’s not a question.

“We’re invading someone’s space.” is all you say, “Fill up the canteens, I’ll get you something to eat.”

Blaire sits down, unfastens your fishing pole, and offers it to you. You shake your head, pulling off your shoes, and then your socks, and you roll up your jeans as far as they’ll go. After that, you pull your sword into your hand, and carefully wade into the water, watching for anything unnatural.

That was definitely a mutt in the pond, as always, gamemaker generated. It’s a wonder if it appeared because they made the creature come out, or because the fish that you caught made them appear. Either way, you couldn’t see it coming. You knew that the water was deep, but you didn’t know what else would be in it.

There’s a great chance that the gamemakers made the mutt appear to push you away and make you think of another place to go. Whether that be deeper in the forest, or over here. You need to work quickly, get Blaire his fish and tell him to go back to where his camp is, wherever that may be.

Your eyes travel back to the waterfall, still no movement. The tenant might be out, another reason why the gamemakers pushed you this way, to purposely cause conflict. If it’s Finnick, though, you think he won’t attack. And if he does, he’ll just leave Blaire out of it, since Blaire’s supposed to be his ally, anyway.

You feel something brush by your foot, and it’s enough for you to jump out of your skin. It’s a fish, curious and bold of what’s joined it in the water. You’re still, and stare at it, waiting for it to come back around. And when it does, you slam the sword into it, staining the blood a temporary pink.

“You should go back to your camp.” you tell Blaire, moving out of the water now, “Don’t stay over here. I’ll meet you back at the pond tomorrow, and we can take the walk around back over here.”

“Sure.” Blaire says, taking the fish off the end of your sword, “Thank you, again.”

Blaire must think that he’ll never stop being in your debt, and you’re afraid of that, too. The list keeps getting longer and longer. Eventually, he’s going to try and find something to pay you back with.

“I cleaned the water.” he says, “It’s all nice in there.”

“Thanks.” you dry your feet on your jacket, pulling on your socks and shoes before you unroll your pants. You sling the backpack over your shoulder, drying the blade on your jeans.

Blaire’s ready to go, too. He assures you that he’ll know the way back, and the two of you split. The entire walk to the cornucopia, you feel awful. Almost afraid that someone is following you back. You check several times, and of course, there’s no one there.

The second you’re out of the trees, the feeling subsides.

[noneatnonedotcom]

Wait. Am I The Winner? (sequel to wait are we the baddies)

this was all done useing dice rolls and is based off of a quest on space battles. everything you are about to read was random chance that i gave flavor to

Jaune base stats: 2.62 (limit break 4.19 stat difference=+60) Pyrrha base stats: 2.62

Shielding for jaune =2779 (alright so maybe a bit more than normal) armor 295 (a bit more manageable)

Shielding for pyrrha=253

Jaune rolls: 1d100+10 (two-handed weapon)

Pyrrha rolls: 1d100 Off hand 1d100+10 (sheild)

The third match between Pyrrha and jaune would take place in the vale arena, much like minstrel vale also prized it’s fighters though in recent years Pyrrha had taken much of the attention away from their more homegrown champions. But one man had changed that.

“LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, IT’S TIME FOR THE MOMENT YOU’VE ALL BEEN WAITING FOR!”

The roar of the crowd was defining, there was more than just blood on the line here. This was the two best of their generation one representing minstrel and the other vale. National pride was on the line and whether the fighters had been informed or not the losers country would be dealing with an influx of Grimm from all the negativity they’d be generating.

Minstrel couldn’t afford that. Not in its current state and so Pyrrha had no choice but to win.

But jaune couldn’t afford to lose either.

“IN THIS CORNER REPRESENTING THE KINGDOM OF VALE, MAY I PRESENT TO YOU THE COUNT OF PATCH, THE KNIGHT OF VALE, THE BIG BAD WOLF OF SIGNAL!”

The vale half of the audience went wild. But jaune’s ears picked out his girls easily, his aura enhanced senses cutting through the noise. To focus on them

That’s why he had to win, winning meant power, power could be used to gain whatever he wanted. And what he wanted was to make a better world for everyone. It was his duty as not only the last descendant of the royal line of vale.

“JAUNE ARRRRRRRRC!” But as jaune arc, lover and boyfriend to both ruby rose and yang xiao-long. So long as he was fighting for them he’d win.

He had to.

“AND IN THIS CORNER, REPRESENTING MINSTREL, THE INVINCIBLE GIRL! PYRRHA NIKKOS!”

Both fighters came out to the octagon armor on their bodies and weapons in hand.

Jaune carried eternal luminosity, a lance forged to act as a replacement weapon to crocea mors. It was a fine weapon, ruby had made it for him. Though in reality, it was more of a banner than anything else. The weapon folded out into a deployable banner woven with gravity dust. Useful when he wanted to make a statement and force others to kneel before him.

It had come up a few times in his fights against the organized crime of vale.

The real advantage was that it was highly visible. Making giving orders on a chaotic battlefield just that much easier.

The same was the case with his armor, custos solis. Made with yang in mind, and named accordingly. It was a vibrant set of armor, made up of golds, dark blues, and whites. It’s advantage so far had been that it hid his true power. His semblance having expanded his aura pool into the three-millions at this point. And there was still room to grow.

Without the armor, he’d seem utterly invincible and that’s the main reason why he wore it and compressed his aura as much as he physically could. It tricked the sensors at the very least. When he was ready he’d show the world his true power. But he needed just a little more time.

His third weapon lay on his hip, blackthorn, a sword forged of the purest hard light dust he could find. It wasn’t quite ready yet. He’d been told the purification of the metal had not been completed so it’s true power was diminished, never the less it was an exceptionally powerful tool. If somewhat costly in terms of aura usage. The thing would drain a normal person dry in a matter of seconds.

Jaune could use it all day and never get tired.

“AND NOW, WITH BOTH FIGHTERS READY LET’S SEE IT, LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, THE FIGHT OF THE CENTURY! LET THE FIGHT COMMENCE!”

Roll 1

Jaune: 64+10= 74 Pyrrha: 100 (Pyrrha came for fucking play!” +20=120

Jaune takes 46 damage

Jaune armor reduced to 249

She was on him immediately, her form perfect, her spear striking him from all over, though his armor took the brunt of the assault. He tried to fight back but she was like water bouncing on the balls of her feet jabbing him with her spear like a boxer.

He was sure that a normal fighter would be unable to mount a defense against her but jaune did mitigate the damage she was able to inflict with his own footwork, waiting for the opportunity to strike

Roll2 Jaune: 18+10=28 Pyrrha: 92 (get that weak shit outta here jaune, you’re fighting the champ!)

Jaune takes 64 damage

Armor= 185

She upped her game then, moving faster and fire in her eyes focusing into a single point, she was here to beat him, utterly. Perhaps to show him the power of friendship after their last fight, perhaps simply because her kingdom depended on her. It didn’t matter she had landed blow after blow, jaune needed to do something

Roll 3 Jaune: 94+10= 104 Pyrrha: 80 Offhand: 17+10

Pyrrha takes 24 damage

Shield reduced to 226

THERE!

Jaune saw an opportunity and for the first time since their last fight, the people of the world saw the invincible girl take a blow. Not a major one, but solid as her aura flashed to protect her. Under his helmet jaune sensed the aura she’d used, it was strong. Perhaps one of the stronger ones he’d ever felt. Even in comparison to qrow. But nothing more than a drop in the ocean to him

She was on him again in an instant

Roll 3

Jaune:18+10=28 Pyrrha:45 Jaune takes 17 damage Armor =168

Jaune becomes annoyed activates dust tattoos +20 to combat rolls

And she was somehow faster and stronger than before, gritting his teeth jaune pushed his aura into the dust based tattoos on his body, an unimaginable pain flowed through him but he pushed through using the extra power to thrust into Pyrrha

Roll 4

Jaune: 81+30= 111 Pyrrha: 42 Offhand: 69 (of course can’t have a jaune fight without this (._.) )+10= 79

Pyrrha takes 32 damage, jaune’s armor is removed for the rest of the fight due to 69 roll Pyrrha takes a -25 to rolls due to distraction

Pyrrha’s shielding= 194

The blow landed but to Pyrrha’s credit she managed to bring her shield against him as he hit her. The crowd went wild for some reason but jaune didn’t pay attention to them. Only to the red-faced Pyrrha in front of him. He went after her again”

Roll 5 Jaune:69 (WTF JAUNE!) +30=99 Pyrrha:93-25=68 Offhand: 90+10-25=75

Pyrrha takes 24 damage armor destroyed by the force of jaune’s blow. Jaune takes -20 from distraction, Pyrrha takes -10 from embarrassment

Pyrrha’s shield =170 She wasn’t ready for it for some reason and when the blow connected it hit one of the straps holding up her armor, jaune cursed his luck as the beautiful redhead was stripped naked before him only her boots and weapons to cover her. Trying to shake off the distraction jaune went after her again as the crowd went crazier!

Roll 6 Jaune:75+10= 85 Pyrrha:90-35= 55 Off hand:61-25= 36

Pyrrha takes 30 damage, pyrrha has had enough! Activates semblance +50 to rolls -50 to jaune’s rolls Pyrrha’s shield = 140

The blow struck well as the beautiful woman seemed more concerned with covering herself from the looks of the crowd than from his weapon. He felt bad, he really did but this was for the good of everyone. And she was a warrior she’d understand.

There was no gender on the battlefield

Apparently she agreed because she suddenly glowed with power moving faster than he could track while he felt somehow slower just by watching.

By this point, they were little more than blurs to most people and her nakedness was forgotten in favor of raw aggression!

Roll 7

Jaune:30-40=-10 Pyrrha:74+15=89 Jaune takes 99 damage Jaune’s sheild=2680

A blow that would fell lesser men slammed into him. His eyes unfocused as the flash of his own aura blinded him. He had no time to react to the now greater pain coursing through his body from both inside and outside as she rained down blow after blow on him the crowd having grown silent with awe watching the two pinnacles of humanity battling it out in the arena

Roll 8 Jaune:85-40=45 pyrrha:75+15=90

Jaune takes 45 damage

Jaune’s sheild= 2635

More and more blows hammered into him and he was being pushed back even if he was finally starting to get his guard up it wasn’t enough, he wasn’t enough to fight this goddess on the battlefield

.Roll 9 Jaune:14-40=-26 pyrrha:41+15=56

Jaune takes 82 damage

Jaune’s shield= 2553

Jaune’s angry activates limit break +60 to rolls stat difference

Was this the end? No one could doubt his power as blows that shook the stadium hammered into him both combatants were beyond human, the crowd could see it but for all of jaune’s raw power, it was no match for the skill of the invincible girl. Even so, they felt honored to be able to see this fight. Neither had ever been pushed this far before and even veteran huntsmen were shocked at the levels of power on display.

Jaune’s eyes snapped open, the wolf of signal, that animalistic part of his brain that couldn’t accept defeat that kept going no matter what the cost to himself, equal parts pride and protectiveness. genius, and stupidity.

That’s what looked at Pyrrha when those deep blue eyes opened. And Pyrrha felt small for a moment, the entire world felt small looking at the unrestrained power coming from the boy

This was the apex hunter, the thing that even the Grimm learned to fear.

This was the big bad wolf of signal and he howled his rage as he rushed her his lance thrown aside in the madness his pain brought on. His fist flying for her head

Roll 10

Jaune:1+20=21 (alright not the best way to show off your next to final powerup) Pyrrha:25+15=40

Jaune takes 19 damage

Jaune’s shield =2534

Jaune throws away his lance, draws blackthorn +25 to rolls

Mussels tore as fast as they healed as jaune no longer limited himself by how much pain he was willing to endure and the force from his punch cratered the ground where pyrrha was but a second ago.

Ultimate power vs ultimate skill

The invincible girl vs the apex predator

For a moment skill seemed to win out as she danced around the raging monster his wild swings destroying the arena as he missed. Inching closer and closer to his prey mindless of the damage and pain he was inflicting on himself, his mad howls echoing in the now stunned silent arena

And then she landed and blow

One big enough to snap jaune back to himself and for a moment he simply stood there, his mussels twitching finally aware that Pyrrha had stripped him as well at some point.

The pinnacles of humanity stared each other down nothing between them, perfection for the world to see. The audience held their breath and

Jaune started to laugh

He laughed and laughed seemingly amused at the situation

“Alright Pyrrha, I admit it, you’re more skilled then I think I’ll ever be, you’ve done it you’ve mastered yourself to a point beyond human limits.” he stalked forward and something about the confidence in him made the women (and some men) swoon at the sight.

“You’ve earned a reward,” he said as he picked up the sword that had fallen off him earlier in the fight “something that I’ve never had to do for anyone else, of course, you’ve already seen more of me than I’ve shown to anyone other than my girlfriends so that question is what to show you now,” he said with a wink and a smirk

His eyes grew dark as his sword glowed with golden beauty. A smile like the bared teeth of a predator shown almost as brightly

“Let me show you what true power looks like!”

And they were on each other again. Perfection in motion as far as the audience was concerned. A golden blade fought against the invincible girl and eventually there was only flashes of color as they danced around the arena until finally

The two stopped fighting mid-swing as the alarm signaling the aura of Pyrrha had dipped below 25%

Could she have won if this were a real battle? perhaps, perhaps not. All that could be said in this moment was that the battle was over. Jaune calmly re-sheathed his sword and picked up his lance. The two combatants shook hands both smiling though jaune’s seemed more a smirk

And then they walked out leaving the stunned audience to collect themselves.

It was five minutes before anyone had the presence of mind to cheer

It would be two hours till they stopped.

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In the back room Pyrrha smiled as she listened to her friends gush about the fight, yes it truly was something she supposed. The main difference between jaune and her was the amount of aura they could bring to bear, she would have to look into being more efficient in the future. But later, she wanted to spend time with her friends.

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In the back room jaune coughed up blood as his abused body and soul finally gave in, he struggled not to cry in pain as it felt like his body was being ripped apart from the inside. There was a price for power, always. He could reach levels of strength that none could match but it didn’t mean he could survive using those powers. His anguish was lessened as ruby placed his head in her lap and yang gently rubbed his back

He passed out shortly after.

He wouldn’t wake up for a week.

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The world was shocked in the wake of their fight, overnight jaune and Pyrrha became legends. The fact that they accidentally stripped each other was morphed in the minds of all the watchers to be the fact that both fought with only their weapons and souls. That they had no added advantages or disadvantages. It was pure combat.

Something that came to be common later on as fighters sought to emulate them. Fighting naked against your opponent became a way of declaring your own power.

Jaune’s tattoos became something to emulate as well though obviously no one made their out of dust, the process was immensely painful after all. The world was divided on who was more impressive, jaune, or Pyrrha.

For his part jaune spent most of his time doing paperwork recuperating and spending time with his girls. There would be time to capitalize on his newfound popularity to advance his political career. But later. For now, jaune lay in a field of flowers watching his sister, yang and ruby play with Zwei

Life was good

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Ozpin subtly played with a knight piece as he studied the board, as well as a queen. The arcs were descendants of the bastards of the royal line of vale. The very same line he’d thought he’d ended with his life as the last king of vale during the great war.

He was powerful and would be a key to winning the war, as would Pyrrha

The only question was who’s piece was he?

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

here’s the next chapter of accidental villain jaune, based off of the dice rolling system for a quest on space battles. it was all random chance and i think i did pretty good with what the dice gave me. what do you think?

[rhotano-rose]

Rosa’s Most-Basic-of-Basic Gpose Tutorial

Hello, I’m Rosa! And I’m here to attempt to help those out there who are either new to using gpose, are confused/intimidated by it, or simply don’t know what gpose is.

To put it simply: gpose is short for Group Pose, a feature in FFXIV mainly used to change how your in-game screenshots look in various ways.

I’ve lost count how many times I’ve seen people either struggle with learning how to utilize gpose for nice screenshots, or even just straight-up never realize it’s a thing that exists in FFXIV to begin with. And it results in so much ‘I suck at this’, ‘I can’t take pretty pictures like you guys’, etc.

And I’m here like, ‘YES. Yes you can!’

I know there are bigger and better tutorials out there, but I want to offer what I can in the easiest-to-understand way possible, since gpose is incredibly fun to tinker and experiment with once you get the basics down.

For the record, I will not be using any Reshade filters or mods for this. This is all 100% FFXIV gpose.

This tutorial also only contains PC keybinds, since I’m a PC player. If you’re a PS4 player, I recommend searching up the appropriate binds for your needs!

So without further ado, let’s start at the beginning! Pretty pictures abound!

1. Open gpose. 

Simply go to your chatbox, and type /gpose in there. Like so:

When you hit Enter, you’re now in what’s known as Camera Mode. This gives you more freedom to move the position of your camera than in regular game mode, and lets you access a handy-dandy control panel to fiddle with various settings. We’ll get to that in a moment.

(You can also access gpose in your Actions & Traits menu, found under Extras.)

If you used an emote, expression, or combat action before opening gpose, it will now be cycling over and over. The easiest way to reset this is to exit gpose, have your character /sit and then hop back up, and re-enter gpose.

If there is a certain emote/expression you want your character to be doing for your screenshot, you can do it before entering gpose OR access the list of emotes from the gpose control panel. Note that combat actions can only be performed before entering gpose.

2. Move the camera!

As mentioned, you can access a lot more camera angles now! Try using your W and S keys, for instance, and pull the camera way up..

Or down low!

Your A and D keys can also move the camera horizontally (left/right)!

First person also works in gpose, so hit your Home key to try it out!

3. The control panel, also known as Group Pose Settings.

It’s not visible when you open gpose, but it’s the key to using the feature to its fullest. Usually the default keybind to bring it up is R, but if that does nothing, hit the key/button that your Auto-Run is bound to. It’s bound to the same key.

There’s a lot of stuff here, I know. But it’s really not as scary and convoluted as it looks, and all the settings are labeled to give you an idea of what they do. I won’t go into every single setting; experimenting is half the fun, so don’t be afraid to press buttons and try things out! But I will point out the ones that will solve a lot of the ‘I don’t know how to do this’.

4. The Face Camera button.

This utilizes your character’s head-tracking; meaning that wherever you position your camera and toggle the button on (you’ll know it’s on by the border around the button), they will look at you!

You can also turn this on/off easily with the spacebar.

This toggle can be used in many ways to make your character look in a certain direction. Depending on what you have them doing, their whole body may turn during an emote/ability, or sometimes it’s just their eyes that move. It varies between emotes/actions.

5. Camera Position and Color Filter make a ton of difference alone.

The first slider for Camera Position allows you to zoom in and out a lot further than you normally can. (Try using your scroll function after adjusting the slider too!) This is how people get those nice close-ups!

The second slider is used to turn your view clockwise or counter-clockwise. This can also be done with the Q and E keys on your keyboard.

This slider is largely useful for artistic angles, and makes taking full-body shots a breeze!

Color Filter is just what it says! It’s a drop-down list, and there are many to choose from, so try ‘em out and see what you like! One I tend to favor is Bright 4, since it makes the colors far more vibrant.

6. Emotes and Expressions time!

Note the little running man icon on the left side of the controls, and click on it.

This will bring you to the Motion Settings panel. Here, you can:

Toggle your character walking/running/sprinting in place.

Access your emote window.

Toggle whether gpose picks up combat actions, or makes your character face someone you’re currently targetting outside gpose when the Face Camera button is off.

When you apply an emote, you can: 

Pause/unpause your character’s animations using the Disable/Enable All Motion button up top (bound to your 1 key). This also applies to the animations of others around you if they’re on your Friends List/in your FC or Party. This is HIGHLY useful for easy rapidfire pauses to get that pose just right. 

You can also use the button beside it, Disable/Enable Target Motion (bound to your 2 key) to adjust ONLY your character, or whoever you are currently controlling. If you have a friend with you, you can click on their character (or use the Tab key) and switch to their perspective!

But keep in mind, you cannot change someone else’s emotes/expressions.

Note that emotes and expressions can be applied at the same time! Try mixing and matching different ones together and see what kinds of poses you can create!

7. Light ‘er up!

The last thing I will touch on is lighting, which can be accessed by clicking on the lamp icon on the left.

Here we have Lighting Settings. And wouldn’t you know it, it turned to night-time when I briefly left gpose!

Moonlight is nice and all, but using gpose, we can use a maximum of 3 extra light sources to brighten things up a bit.

These buttons toggle each light source, which can be adjusted with the sliders below.

(Note that Lighting 1 can also be toggled with the lamp icon up top.)

The Types under each Lighting simply determine how big/bright that light’s radius is.

Type 1 is the smallest/dimmest and Type 3 is the largest/brightest.

Type 1 is ideal for lighting up just a small area, like around your character, and the other two will cover more of your character’s surroundings.

Each set of 3 sliders are simply the Red-Green-Blue values.

You can also choose where to put down your light sources, as well as how close or far they are by zooming in/out. So if we place one down on one side of Rosa..

And a slightly dimmer one on the other side..

Now we can see her lovely face again!

You can do a lot of neat things with lighting, and the effect will differ depending on things like your selected filter, location, weather, and time of day/night as well. It can completely change the mood of your environment, so experiment!

Or you can just torment your victim subject like me.

The possibilities are endless.

And those are what I consider the basics of gpose knowledge! There are other things to play with as well, but the majority of them are simply extras for personal preference. There’s no such thing as a ‘perfect’ way to do it, just play with things and see what strikes your fancy!

As another beloved redheaded lady says: Take chances, get messy, make mistakes! 

And most importantly..

I hope this tutorial helps some of you in your screenshotting endeavors! Thank you for taking the time to read it! ❤

[cats-soft-sanctuary]

Modern AU: Arthur Morgan x Reader

This is a modern AU where Arthur Morgan is a barista at your local coffee shop 

I hope you guys enjoy, and i’m always open to criticism as this is my first written work going for other eyes to see. 

Thank you, enjoy! 

Every day before heading to work, you always had to stop somewhere and get something to drink, whether it be coffee, tea, or a smoothie, it simply depended on your tastes that day, as well as your budget. Of course, you could always go to top chains such as Starbucks, but your loyalty to your favorite coffee shop - and your wallet, always brought you back to the same place you've been going to for about a year now. You became such a friendly face to see come and go, and the barista who worked there seemed to always know your tastes before you do. It was almost like a routine. One morning, you came in and your hair was just ever so slightly out of place, and the barista grinned, and started mixing up a batch of your favorite coffee, before you even had a word out of your mouth. Or when you'd stop in after work on a hot Wednesday afternoon, the barista would immediately make you a nice smoothie to calm your frayed nerves, and let you rest on the couch and watch some kids play board games. The shop was minute and comfortable, with the walls being a soft beige color, paintings hanging across the wall to draw in some color. Fairy lights hung from the ceiling, in a fashion that wasn't over the top, but instead, it always drew you in with the pleasant round shape, fitting any kind of aesthetic. At night was when they shined best, emitting a warm glow that would promptly soothe any oncoming customers coming in after work when the sky was turning dark. But today was different. You walked in, and instead of seeing your usual barista's sweet and friendly smile, you were greeted with another person, with a calm smile. His eyes were focused on the lady before you, a certain kindness held in the bluish green orbs that almost pulled your feet before your brain could understand what was going on. The corners of his eyes crinkled slightly, showing a bit of his age, even with such a calm and delicate smile. His face was nearly-neatly shaved, only a little stubble there, which for most men it made them look exhausted, but on this man, it was as if God looked down and smiled, and decided that this angel of a man should have the perfect amount of stubble to make any girl swoon. His light blue dress shirt clung to his body in a gentle mix of form fitting and soft looseness around his hips, the sleeves rolled up to his elbows in a casually cute fashion. You could tell he was wearing some dark jeans, which he somehow pulled them off perfectly to match the professionalism look he was going for. To tie everything together, he was wearing a light gray apron above it all, with the store’s name printed onto it.

"Ma'am?" A gentle voice called out before you, and only now did you realize that the lady before had moved, and the man was calling out to you now. As your cheeks started to burn, you stepped forward and ordered your normal coffee- which you suddenly decide you didn't actually need. Your heart already seemed to be racing, and you didn't really need coffee to add onto that. But you didn't say anything, already feeling as if you've complicated the man too much, even though the truth was far from that. The man chuckled softly, the sound light and airy, perhaps even a little musky, and it almost seemed as if it didn't belong to him. You even glanced to the side to see if anyone else had been laughing, before resting your eyes on him to confirm the truth. "Is your name (Y/N) perhaps?" He asked, his eyes shining with a bit of intrigue as his head tilted slightly, his hands grabbing a cup to write your order on it. A momentary expression of shock crossed your face, and suddenly for a moment you became more nervous than before. As if noticing your expression, his expression softened, his eyelids lowering slightly as he looked at how your face showed your emotion, his lip ever so slightly tilting down. "The owner told me who you were, said you were a regular. I recognized the coffee order she told me about." He said, his tone showing his worry that he had frightened you, and even a bit of embarrassment mixed in as well. Upon his explanation, you seemed to relax, a smile creeping up your face. "Yes, that's me." You said, your shoulders slumping into a relaxed state, not even having realized before how tense they had been since you walked in. The smile on the man's face widened upon seeing yours, a memory that, unbeknownst to you, he'd keep under lock and key. "My name is Arthur Morgan. It's nice to meet you, ma'am." He said, and with that, he finally began to brew your coffee. The sweet smell of caramel filled your nose, causing you to bite your bottom lip in attempts to hide the smile as you watched Arthur delicately work the machine, seeing his expression contort to one of pure focus, yet almost seemed calming. His eyes were squinting, as if he was focused on one thing only, and that was your coffee. Wishing to perfect it for you, with the perfect amount of sugar, cream, and everything you desired. You noticed quickly that despite a sight many would consider mundane, your heart decided that this scene, was your favorite amongst many others. Seeing a man who looked like he could be a complete womanizer, making your coffee. It was also the fact that he wasn't a womanizer that intrigued you. Arthur seemed like a man who didn't realize how many women he could have if he wanted, in fact, you felt somewhere deep inside you that this man didn't even know his self worth. But it was too early to actually tell if that statement was true. "Here you go. That'll be $2." Arthur said, handing the coffee to you. "Can you try it and make sure it's good?" He asked once you took the warm cup, your fingertips brushing softly against his. As he requested, you brought the cup to your lips and took a sip, your eyes flickering to his while your taste buds tried to figure out if the drink was either too sweet, or too bitter. Arthur seemed a bit nervous, and you noticed he bit his lip ever so slightly that you almost didn't see it. However, once you put the cup down and a bright smile came across your features, a spark of joy crossed his expression. "The best I've had so far." You said, your tone sweet and genuine. You were actually telling the truth, however, if it was because of the maker, you weren't sure. "I'm glad." Arthur said with a sheepish grin, his eyes flickering down to the counter as a light red tint came up in his cheeks, appreciating the compliment. "It was really nice to meet you, Mr. Morgan." You said, handing him the two dollars, as well as another two dollar tip. "I hope we meet again soon." You said, brushing a bit of your (h/c) hair back, smiling softly. "I hope so too." He said, those beautiful blue eyes locking with your (e/c) ones, and for a moment, a connection began. It wasn't until you felt compulsed to move due to another person arriving behind you, that you forced yourself to break the connection.

"Have a nice day." You shyly said, your cheeks rising to your smile as gave a sheepish wave with your free hand, and headed to the door. "Hey, (y/n?)" Arthur called out before you could step out, peaking your interest as you looked back. "Yeah?" "Call me Arthur." He said, and for some reason, a bubbly feeling grew in your stomach. How could such a simple encounter leave you dreading work, but for the wrong reason. The reason being that you wish you could stay and chat with the man you met only a few minutes ago. Your smile grew wider, a soft laugh passing your lips. With a happy sigh, you nodded to him. "Sure thing, Arthur." With that, you turned the silver handle and hopped out onto the streets, the sky painted a beautiful orange and pink, eager to wake up the rest of the world. You squinted your eyes as you looked up to the beautiful colors, the smile you had given Arthur remaining.

Today, was going to be a good day.

[a-drunkard-muses]

All that you have to think about Shuffleboard

Table Shuffleboard is where players alternate sliding weighted pucks down a long, smooth table made of wood. The finish of the table is set apart with explicit territories for scoring.

History

Shuffleboard is accepted to have its inceptions in England, around the 1400s. Around then, players would play a game called "Shoffe-Groat", sliding an enormous 4-pence coin (a "groat") down a long table with focuses being scored for getting the coin as near the edge of the table as could be expected under the circumstances, without tumbling off.

Ruler Henry the VIII was known to be a shuffleboard player, as he is on record as having shed nine pounds to Lord William playing the game. He is additionally known for having prohibited the game with plebeians, as he felt it diverted them from their every day obligations.

Shuffleboard is additionally answered to have been mainstream with early American homesteaders. The play "The Crucible", which narratives the Salem Witch Trials of the late 1600s, makes reference to 1692 as a year where there were a lot of "good for nothings" (sluggish, useless people) accumulated around the shuffleboard in the nearby bar.

Additionally of chronicled essentialness is a 1848 lawful case, The State versus John Bishop. Priest was a bar proprietor blamed for running a round of chance as a shuffleboard without a permit to do as such. The appointed authority, in any case, decided that shuffleboard was in fact not a round of possibility, however a round of aptitude.

Towards the finish of the nineteenth century, shuffleboard was taking off as a serious game, especially around New York City. Papers announced the outcomes with a similar normality as baseball, boxing and different games.

As shuffleboard was essentially played in bars, preclusion had an inconvenient effect on the game. During the 1920s numerous bars shut, leaving their shuffleboard tables inactive. The Great Depression of the 30s was a wellspring of difficulty for some individuals in any case, so when denial was lifted, shuffleboard indeed got famous as an outlet for stress.

During the war, the 1940s were additionally grieved occasions, and by and by shuffleboard gave a feeling of discharge. For some it was a wellspring of extraordinary rivalry, for other people, it was only an agreeable method to sit back. Its base of players developed, be that as it may, and even Hollywood superstars were having tables introduced in their homes.

The 1950s saw shuffleboard arrive at its top in fame. Competitions were across the nation, frequently supported by shuffleboard makers. In spite of the fact that the game declined throughout the following couple of decades, in the mid-80s it started to see a restoration. The 1990s saw the development of the TSA, or Table Shuffleboard Association which built up a lobby of acclaim to deify the absolute best players of the game click here

The Table

The official shuffleboard table length is twenty-two feet in length by twenty inches wide, albeit informally sizes can be as short as nine feet, despite everything saving the width.

At each finish of the table, about 33% is secured by three scoring regions. Each scoring territory covers the width of table despite the fact that they can fluctuate long. The zone nearest to the edge of the table, set apart with a "3" which means three focuses, and is about four to five creeps long. Equivalent long is the adjoining scoring zone, set apart with a "2" for two focuses. Close to this is the "1" segment, for one point. This area is about multiple times as long both of the other two segments. The lines that different the focal point of the table from scoring regions is known as the "foul line". A shot must pass the foul line nearest to the player, or, in all likelihood it is expelled from play. Around the table is a canal, called the "back street". Pucks that fall or are thumped into the rear entryway are considered out of play for that round.

Shuffleboard Powder

To keep play smooth, a lot of an item made called "shuffleboard powder" are sprinkled liberally on the table.

Shuffleboard powder empowers the puck to slide easily no matter how you look at it. The silicone dots act like small metal rollers, empowering a puck to slide down the table with a negligible measure of exertion.

Despite the fact that it is otherwise called shuffleboard wax, it is in reality a powder produced using dried silicone globules and cornmeal (some time in the past it was produced using sawdust), instead of a fluid. It is sold in a holder that appears to be like powdered blanch chemical, complete with openings that take into consideration even circulation over the table. It is prescribed to store the powder in a dim, dry spot.

Shuffleboard powder is accessible in an assortment of types, for changing table sizes and speed inclinations. A few players lean toward a game with quicker activity, while others favor more command over the puck.

Shuffleboard Rules

In light of a legitimate concern for good sportsmanship, it is suggested that all players shake hands before the game starts. Choosing who goes first should be possible various ways, anyway the easiest path is to flip a coin. Recollect that it is invaluable to go second. After the first round is played, the champ plays first on the following round.

Players utilize red or blue-shaded pucks to demonstrate which player (or group) they have a place with. Players alternate sliding their puck down the table. The fundamental objective is to get the pucks as near the finish of the board as conceivable without tumbling off the end.

The middle is isolated from each finish of the table by two lines called "foul" lines. At the point when the player makes an effort, the shot must pass the foul line closes to the player, else it is expelled from the table, as it is regarded being in the "illicit zone". Encompassing the table is a canal called the "back street". Pucks that fall into the back street are out of play for the rest of the round.

When shooting, you can hit the pucks of your adversary. The thought is to attempt to hit your adversary's pucks out of play by driving them into the back street, while moving your pucks into a higher-scoring area. In the event that your puck passes the foul line, at that point bobs off a puck and comes back to the illicit zone, both your puck and your adversary's are expelled from play.

After every player has shot four pucks, the round is done. When scoring toward the finish of the round, focuses are granted distinctly to the player whose puck is nearest to the edge of the table. Your puck can possibly score focuses on the off chance that it is on the table, over the foul line, and closer to the furthest limit of the table than any of your adversary's pucks.

A puck that overhangs the edge of the table gets four focuses. A puck that is in one of the scoring zones gets focuses as indicated by its zone (one, two, or three focuses). A puck that is contacting the line between zones gets focuses just from the most minimal zone. For instance a puck in zone two that is contacting the line for zone one would just get one point).

On the off chance that there are two players, the first to arrive at fifteen focuses is the victor. In the event that there are four players in a 'duplicates' coordinate, the main group to arrive at twenty-one focuses wins.

Certain infringement that will bring about a one-point punishment. To maintain a strategic distance from this, ensure you don't rub your hands over the playing surface, and abstain from broadening the lower half of your body past the finish of the board. While your adversary is shooting, don't grasp a playing puck. Abstain from contacting the real playing surface with either hand previously, during or in the wake of making a shot (in spite of the fact that it is allowable to contact the casing).

In a duplicates coordinate, colleagues remain on the furthest edge of the table and play each other round, shooting from substituting finishes of the table. Basically it resembles playing two rounds of shuffleboard simultaneously, and joining the scores of each group. During a duplicates coordinate, player are not permitted to go the opposite finish of the board to see the situation of the pucks. In the event that you need to think about a puck's position, you should ask your accomplice and depend on their data. Going past the foul line whenever during the round outcomes in a punishment.

Contacting a puck that is in play isn't admissible while any other individual is shooting, regardless of whether it's your adversary or your accomplice. The equivalent is valid for contacting the playing surface or the table edge. Likewise, any pucks in the drain ought not be contacted until the round is done. Causing any table vibrations will bring about a punishment, regardless of whether the vibration is coincidental, for example, hitting the floor. Generally speaking of decorum, it's ideal to remain far back and give your rivals bunches of room when they are shooting.

Varieties

While shuffleboard associations have settled upon some official guidelines, the casual and unconstrained nature of shuffleboard fits a wide assortment of house rules, territorial varieties, and varieties by nation.

In Canada, for instance, shuffleboard is played by decides that have been endorsed by the Canadian Shuffleboard Congress. In many competitions, singles games are played to a score of fifteen. Copies matches are played to twenty-one focuses. In the two circumstances, a round comprises of four pucks for each player.

Guard Shuffleboard

Now and then known as backboard or pad shuffleboard, guard shuffleboard replaces the conventional drains along the edges of the table with pads, empowering players to ricochet their pucks off the sides of the table, which can be helpful for moving around an impeding puck. Regularly guard shuffleboards are twelve to thirteen feet long - shorter than an ordinary shuffleboard.

Sjoelen

Sjoelen, or Dutch Shuffleboard, is played basically in The Netherlands, Belgium and Germany. It utilizes a wooden board generally 6.6 feet long by 1.3 feet wide. Rather than pucks, it utilizes wooden circles. Around seventeen creeps from the front of the board, a level bar of wood is situated over the table, and the plates go under it. This is known as the "start bar". Around fifteen creeps from the rear of the board is the "entryway bar", which is a bit of wood with four opening gaps in it. These openings are set apart, from left to right, as two, three, four and one. Behind this entryway, the board is isolated into four equivalent allotments.

When playing the game, every player takes one turn, with the triumphant player being the one with the most noteworthy score. Each turn is involved three opportunities to slide all the circles down the board, focusing on the numbered compartments. Each possibility is known as a "sub-turn". Players will mean to get a plate into every one of the four compartments, as doing so duplicates the scoring estimation of the considerable number of circles.

In first sub-turn, the player slides each of the thirty circles. Toward the finish of the turn, any circles that have advanced into compartments remain there, yet are stacked in heaps toward the finish of the holder, to keep the compartment passages clear. In the event that each of the thirty plates have entered compartments, the turn closes. Something else, the player gets one more opportunity to shoot the rest of the plates. Toward the finish of the subsequent sub-turn, by and by circles that have entered compartments are stacked flawlessly, and remaining plates can be shot again by the player. This third sub-turn is the player's last opportunity to get the circles inside the compartments, after which the turn closes and the score is determined.

To be considered being inside the compartment, the entire circle must go over the front essence of the door bar. In the event that a debate emerges, a "door plug" can be pushed level against the front entryway bar. In the event that the circle moves when the door plug is pushed, at that point it was not completely in the compartment.

Any plates that have totally gone under the beginning bar ought to be considered in play and should not be contacted until the finish of that sub-turn. The main special cases would be if a plate enters a compartment by means of some other technique than through the space of that compartment, tumbles off the board, leaves a compartment other than through it's opening, or returns under the beginning bar. In any of these cases, the plate is expelled from play, however might be utilized in the following sub-turn.

Sjoelen Scoring

In Sjoelen, scoring is resolved first by including the circles in every one of the compartments. Getting a plate in every compartment causes a twofold score for those circles, making a sum of twenty focuses ((1+2+3+4)x2=20). After each arrangement of four plates is checked, the rest of the circles are granted a score of the number appeared in their compartment.

To give a model a player has five circles in opening two, nine plates in space three, five circles in space four, and seven plates in space one. The player at that point has five complete arrangements of plates, scoring one hundred focuses. There are four residual plates in opening three, scoring twelve focuses (4x3=12). There are additionally two outstanding plates in space one, scoring two focuses (1x2=2). In this manner, the player's all out score is one hundred and fourteen focuses (100+12+2=114).

The most extreme conceivable score ought to be one hundred and forty-eight (seven arrangements of twenty in addition to two circles in the four focuses space). In any case, a player figuring out how to do this inside two sub-turns with get an additional plate, making the all out conceivable score one hundred and fifty-two focuses.

In rivalries, coordinates commonly comprise of a set number of games, for example, five, ten or twenty, and the all out score from all games will be utilized to decide the match champ. As sheets can shift broadly, players are generally allowed to toss five practice plates before the game starts.

Push Ha'penny

Push Ha'penny is well known in England. Like Shuffleboard, it is a descendent of Shoffe-Groat, where rotating players push coins up a board including flat lines. The space between each pair of lines is known as a "bed", and the objective is to push the coins os they land straightforwardly in the beds without contacting the lines. The champ must get a coin in each bed multiple times. A player who can score three coins in a single bed during a solitary turn scores a "sergeant" and a player scoring every one of the five coins in a solitary turn wins a "sergeant major" or "gold watch".

Pushing is generally finished with the impact point of the hand, albeit different procedures are utilized including the palm, side of the thumb or fingers. To keep the board elusive, an assortment of substances can be utilized including lager, paraffin, dark lead, and brew, albeit customarily French chalk is utilized, with baby powder being a cutting edge decision. Each coin has been smoothed down on one side. Albeit lawfully, the tails side of the coin ought to be smoothed in order to abstain from mutilating a picture of the ruler, there are numerous who smooth the heads side at any rate. This has the additional preferred position of leaving the date of the coin obvious, as in a perfect world the coins should all be from that year.

Push Ha'penny is accepted to have begun around 1840. Initially, the game would have been played on any level surface, and the lines would simply be drawn not he surface. In present day times, in any case, official loads up are produced using record or hardwood and the lines are indented on a superficial level. Premium sheets have rails inside the imprints. The reason for these rails is to settle debates about whether a coin is contacting a line. After raising the rails, if the coin moves, it is contacting the line and in this way doesn't get any focuses.

Rules

Sheets can differ in size, yet a run of the mill board approximately twenty creeps by fourteen inches. Every even line is about one thirty-second of an inch. The primary level line is four creeps from the front of the board and the last even line is around five crawls from the board's end. The nine beds between the lines are one and a quarter inches wide. A bit of wood might be added to the furthest limit of the board to shield ha'pennies from sliding off.

A line runs vertically, around one and a quarter crawls from either side, with the goal that the finish of the board is contained a square scoring territory. An inch and a quarter in from either side, a vertical line runs the length of the board. As each bed lies on a level plane, this makes a square spot toward the finish of each bed, which is utilized to check the score.

Players alternate pushing five coins up the board. The ha'penny is situated at the front of the board, with the finish of the coin simply coming over the front edge of the board. From this position, any piece of the player's hand would then be able to be utilized to push the coin. In the event that the coin doesn't make it to at any rate the principal line on the board, it tends to be pushed once more.

After each turn is finished, each coin that is totally inside a bed and not contacting any lines scores a point for that player in that bed. Chalk is utilized to check the score on the finish of the square of each bed, with each side of the board having a place with an alternate player. For instance, if the correct side of the board marks one player, the other player is set apart on the left side. The objective is to get three chalk marks in each square, with three coins in every one of the nine beds. When three scores have been made in a bed, notwithstanding, any extra scores will be granted to the rival, except if the adversary as of now has three scores in that bed. The exemption to this standard is that the triumphant point must be scored by the triumphant player, not parted with as a punishment.

Experienced players will attempt to make a coin thump onto recently pushed ha'pennies to show signs of improvement position, simultaneously scoring with the ha'penny they are playing. System and ability is required to genuinely get capable at the game.

Open air Shuffleboard

Open air shuffleboard ought not be mistaken for Deck Shuffleboard, which will be talked about later. An outside shuffleboard court is long and rectangular, having the two closures set apart with scoring territories. The full court is fifty-two feet in length, and the six and a half feet from the end is a line called the "standard". The territory from the benchmark to the furthest limit of the court is known as the shooting zone. One and a half feet past the gauge is the "10 Off" region, with 10 Off significance less ten focuses. The 10 Off territory is partitioned in the center by a slim triangle, just as on either edge by two calculated lines.

The following line is the beginning of a triangle known as the scoring zone, which is nine feet to the tip. The triangle comprises of five regions. The little zone nearest to the tip is checked 10 for ten focuses, and contiguous this are two equivalent estimated zones stamped 8 for eight focuses. At long last, between these regions and the in advance of referenced 10 Off territory are two equivalent estimated zones stamped 7 for seven focuses. The center of the court is isolated by two lines called the "dead lines". Circles that are shot must pass the dead line farthest from the shooter to be in play.

If you are interested in purchasing a shuffleboard table visit to https://areviewguide.com/

Plates have a width of six inches, and are between nine-sixteens of an inch and one inch thick. A regular plate weight is fifteen ounces. Customarily the circles are dark and yellow, with four of each shading used to play the game. The prompts are shafts, close to six and a half feet long with two short prongs on the end, and they are utilized to slide the circles.

The player with the yellow circles starts, and players alternate sliding plates down the court. At first, the four plates are put in the left 50% of the 10 Off zone and the dark circles in the correct half. The little slim triangle goes about as a divider between each side. A prompt must be utilized to slide each circle, and the slide needs to begin inside the 10-off zone and finish inside the scoring triangle nearest to the player. In the event that the circle doesn't slide far enough to pass the dead line farthest from

[chaotic-undying-loki]

Tagged, about my Loki

Tagged by an awesome Twin Muse, @sviker , Finally getting around to doing this myself

---

LAYER ONE : THE OUTSIDE

NAME - Loki (Laufeyson or Friggason, depending on the situation) EYE COLOUR - Bright blue-green HAIR STYLE / COLOUR - Long, black hair, shoulder length--wavy naturally, even curly, sometimes left such but brushed back, sometimes straightened HEIGHT - 6′2 CLOTHING STYLE - Depends on the situation and mood--leather and gold, regal style, clear suit, sometimes loose and flowing clothing, sometimes androgynous or non-conforming styles BEST PHYSICAL FEATURE - His intense eyes

LAYER TWO : THE INSIDE

FEARS - Never finding his true place, forever being stuck on someone else’s strings, and being bound to a conflicted need to please someone and unsure he can ever please himself. GUILTY PLEASURE - Some actual, quality television that humans have made--blame the one that presented him with Golden Girls. BIGGEST PET PEEVE - Liars who break and ruin with their misdeeds--he finds hypocrisy very annoying. AMBITIONS FOR THE FUTURE - To find his own hold on his life, to gain the power and place that feels right for him, and perhaps pay back pain to those who did wrong in his opinion in the process.

LAYER THREE : THOUGHTS

FIRST THOUGHTS UPON WAKING UP: What must I accomplish today? WHAT YOU THINK ABOUT MOST: The fact that he is without a place, without a home, and his family is either torn away from him, has tossed him away, or will never be able to grasp him in a way that makes him feel real. He thinks about how he must right this himself, because no one else is going to think him worth it enough to do it for him. WHAT YOU THINK ABOUT BEFORE BED: Did I do all that was needed? WHAT YOUR BEST QUALITY IS: A tie, between his endurance and his cunning--no matter what he’s been through, he’s climbed out of his grave and found away to thrive again.

LAYER FOUR : WHAT’S BETTER ?

SINGLE OR GROUP DATES - Single dates, so he’s not distracted from seeing if who he is with is worth his time. TO BE LOVED OR RESPECTED - Nearly craves them in equal measure, but love is what he aches for, even if he might deny it, even to himself. BEAUTY OR BRAINS - Brains, or they’re not worth his time, which he tries not to waste anymore.

LAYER FIVE : DO YOU…

LIE - Plenty, usually to point out the obvious, or work his way into what he needs, but at times it is also a guard. BELIEVE IN YOURSELF - He believes in pieces of himself, but has yet to believe in all of himself. BELIEVE IN LOVE - Perhaps for some, he believes in loving others that deserve it, but has rarely felt like he’s experienced it for himself. WANT SOMEONE - Someone that can be his equal, but he doesn’t wallow over it, or else he would not be able to function.

LAYER SIX : EVER BEEN …

BEEN ON STAGE: Yes. Loki was one to put on shows, sometimes with others, but abandoned it in his younger years. DONE DRUGS: Experimented, but didn’t do them for very long. CHANGED WHO YOU WERE TO FIT IN:  Most his life was spent changing himself, then reclaiming himself, then changing again, until he found out about his origins. Now he’s simply trying to find himself again.

LAYER SEVEN : FAVORITES

FAVOURITE COLOR - Green FAVOURITE ANIMAL - Tie between snakes and wolves FAVOURITE MOVIE - Lilo and Stitch (is also a guilty pleasure, you’ll suffer if you tell anyone) FAVOURITE GAME - The few times he’s found chance to play any mortal games, its been between chess, and bubble buster.

LAYER EIGHT : AGE

DAY YOUR NEXT BIRTHDAY WILL BE - December 17th HOW OLD WILL YOU BE - Approximately 1,055 years old AGE YOU LOST YOUR VIRGINITY - At the Aesir equivalent of 15, to Angrboda DOES AGE MATTER - Not unless the other is below a matured (consenting) age in intimate situations, though in those situations and in normal, social ones, he usual prefers common ground or kindred energy--whether age has any bearing on that is a case by case situation.

LAYER NINE : IN A PERSON

BEST PERSONALITY - Loyal, patient, and caring, as well as understanding. BEST EYE COLOUR - No preference. BEST HAIR COLOUR - No real preference, but red hair tends to draw his attention. BEST THING TO DO WITH A PARTNER - Talk and touch in the simplest, purest ways.

LAYER TEN : FINISH THE SENTENCE

I LOVE - my home. I FEEL - alone. I HIDE -  myself. I MISS - a happiness that was never really there. I WISH - I was never born, sometimes..

[hannah-deactivated20220725]

Truth or Dare

Words: 1,885

Characters: Duncan, Maxie and [Ezrah]

Genre: love confession

Situation: Maxie takes out a board game version of truth or dare that results in news he never expected to receive...

Maxie laughed while he pulled out a board game and tossed it on the bed where Duncan was laying on his stomach, chatting with Ezrah, teasing Maxie with his words. Maxie rolled his eyes, sitting next to Ezrah and nudging their shoulders together. "So this game is like... board game truth or dare. You guys ever heard of it?" Maxie said mischievously.

Ezrah eyed the board, "board truth or dare?" He repeated, glancing at Maxie and then Duncan, "how does it work with a board? What do we have to do?"

"So you roll a die, go forward as many times as the number on the die... then it'll either say truth or dare on it." Maxie started taking out the game as he explained it, handing Ezrah a green piece and Duncan a red one, keeping the blue one for himself. "Then you grab a card from whichever pile the card says." He pulled out the cards and set them in the middle of the board.

"Red is for dare, blue is for truth." He smiled, looking right at Ezrah. "If you refuse to answer the question or do the dare, you have to go back to where you were before the roll and you lose your roll. The first one to the end wins." Maxie beamed at them and Duncan lifted an eyebrow. "Huh..." Duncan mused, staring at the board thoughtfully. "Therw are a lot more dare spaces than truth ones," he noted.

"Dares are more fun than the truth." Ezrah shrugged, nudging Maxie, "Alright, then. I'm in. Who goes first?"

"Hmm, most daring person goes first," Maxie said, staring at his boyfriend with a smirk, handing him the die. "Hey! I'm daring!" Duncan protested, making Maxie snort.

Ezrah rolled his eyes, "Not sure how that means I'm daring, but alright." He said accepting the die and giving it a roll. "Five." He said, moving his piece onto a dare spot, "Go figure." He said, taking a card. "Belly dance like your life depends on it."

Maxie sat back with a smirk that said he was going to enjoy this game. Duncan glanced at Maxie, feeling a little pang of jealousy before glancing back at Ezrah. "You're not gonna do it, right? You only dance when you're drunk..."

Ezrah raised an eyebrow, "I can dance sober." He said, getting off the bed and performing a surprisingly good belly dance. When he finished, he sat back down smirking, "you go, Duncan." He said.

Duncan, face bright red, grabbed the die and tossed it. "Two," he grumbled, putting the red piece on the second d space. Truth. He picked up a card and announced, "Tell everyone your naughtiest dream and who it's about." His eyes went huge as he looked at Ezrah and laughed nervously. "Uhh, I'd rather not..." he said carefully. Maxie nudged him. "Come on, man! You're gonna refuse on your first turn?"

Ezrah eyed him, "Let him pass, Maxie." He said simply, "or replace it with a dare as punishment."

Duncan fumbled with the card then practically threw his piece back at the beginning. "I'll take the pass," he mumbled, handing the die to Maxie, who rolled it. "Four!" He cried in victory. He brought it to four, which was a dare. "Hmm." He grabbed a dare card and silently read it, face burning. "Uhh, I've gotta make out with the person to my left," he said, looking right at Ezrah.

Ezrah glanced at Duncan with a slight apologetic look, "alright, come on then, lover boy."

Maxie practically pounced on Ezrah, covering him in kisses before kissing him deeply, to which Duncan quickly looked away, face burning.

Ezrah couldn't help but kiss back enthusiastically, wrapping an arm around Maxie for a moment before gently pushing him away, "Alright, alright, my turn." He said, laughing as he sat up licking his lips.

Maxie also licked his lips, not noticing the slight tremor in Duncan's bottom lip as he gave a nervous laugh. "Yes. Ezrah, go," he said as lightheartedly as he could muster.

Ezrah didn't meet Duncan's eyes as he took the die and rolled, "Damn, only two." He grumbled, picking up a truth card, "where is the strangest place you've peed." He read, making a face, "gross." He mumbled, "uh... in an alley in Ibiza? I was at a festival with a friend and everything was closed." He said, handing the die to Duncan.

Duncan and Maxie both bursted out laughing at that. "Gross indeed," Funcan agreed as he accepted the die and rolled. "Three. Dare. Of course." He grabbed a dare card and scanned it really quick. "Uh, I have to..." his face turned beet red, making Maxie grab the card. "He has to profess his love to someone who doesn't know he loves them." Maxie cocked an eyebrow. "Man, so much romantic lovey stuff in this game," he mused, handing Duncan the card back.

Duncan's eyes darted toward Maxie then Ezrah, eyes asking for his permission and also asking if he even should.

Ezrah gave him an apologetic look and shrugged, leaving it up to him. As jealous and upset as he had been to see Duncan kiss Maxie... he knew what it felt to watch the person you loved with someone else. And for all the grudges he held... he wouldn't do that to Duncan. It wouldn't be fair.

Duncan's eyes widened in fear before looking down at the bedspread. "Umm..." he fought with whether or not to do it. What if it ruined their friendship? But Maxie had no problems being friends with girls that liked him, so maybe... "MaxieIlikeyou," he said in one swift word, making the young vampire blink. "What was that?" Maxie laughed and handed him the phone. "Be serious, man. Call your crush."

Duncan fumbled with the phone, looking between his two closest friends before putting it to his ear. Maxie's phone started ringing, making him laugh. "Hold on, guys, I'm getting a call." He glanced at the caller ID. "Dude, Duncan, you accidentally dialed my number."

"Maxie." Ezrah sighed, "come on. Use your brain. Make your parents proud." He said, staring at his boyfriend pointedly.

Maxie's face brightened. "What?" He said, pressing ignore on Duncan's call, making his heart sink. "M-maybe I should... go..." Duncan said dejectedly as he started to slide off the bed. Maxie watched him in confusion. "Why are you leaving?" He asked. "You'll never get it, Maxie. Not that it matters, since you have Ezrah now but... just to have my feelings acknowledged like his finally were..."

"Maxie, think." Ezrah said, putting a hand out to stop Duncan from leaving just yet, "really think."

Maxie frowned, studying Ezrah's face, confused. "Why are you encouraging this?" He asked bluntly. "Yeah, Ezrah... you're dating him," Duncan mumbled.

"Because I've been there." Ezrah said, "and yeah, I'm dating him. But, I know what it's like to confess and not even be acknowledged. And if you went with the dare, Duncan, it's because you want him to know." He paused, looking at Maxie, "I know how badly it can hurt. And this isn't just between two people. You knowing means you understanding that the dynamic changes when we act coupley. I don't want to hurt Duncan unintentionally."

Duncan's face darkened a shade as he glanced away, though falling still at Ezrah's thoughtful words. "Thank you," he practically whispered after a while.

Maxie stared at Ezrah, studying his eyes, then glanced at Duncan. "Wait, so... you're being serious?" He asked after a moment's hesitation. "I fucking kissed you, Maxie! What more do you need to see it?" Duncan asked, voice trembling as he looked away. Maxie stared, wetting his lips as he glanced at Ezrah with eyes that were lost for words.

Ezrah gave Duncan a sad smile, "He's cute, but he's dense." He said, looking at Maxie, "I don't have many friends, Maxie. I'm a right asshole with anger and drinking issues. But I like Duncan. He's... a really fucking good friend to us."

Maxie glanced at Ezrah again before looking at Duncan. "What do I say though? I'm in a relationship. I-" "I get it, Maxie. I should have just kept it to myself." Duncan stood this time, grabbing his jacket. "I'll see you guys later," he grumbled miserably.

"I'm sorry, Dunc." Ezrah sighed, watching him go, before looking at Maxie helplessly, "I don't know what you should say. But I think you knowing will help... not make him uncomfortable in the future. More than we probably would normally."

Maxie stared as Duncan threw the jacket over his shoulder and left the room. "What-" Maxie began but sighed with frustration, growling a bit. "I'm not even that great!" He argued. "Why would both of my best friends feel like this? I mean... I can't date both of you!" He dropped his voice so only Ezrah would hear. "Even if I could, I'm not sure I would."

"Nobody's asking you to." Ezrah said, "and we love you because you're you. You are dense, yes, but you are the most caring and supportive guy. You're there for the people you care about. You've got a stunning smile and gorgeous eyes... god, Maxie, you're everything."

Maxie blushed darkly. "Well you're supposed to say that!" He argued sheepishly. "You're my boyfriend..." He stared at Ezrah quietly, licking his lips. "What do I-" he cut himself off to push off the bed and run after Duncan.

A few minutes later, he returned. Without Duncan. Looking tired but like he accomplished something great. "I think... it's okay now..." he said carefully.

"What'd you tell him?" Ezrah asked, leaning back against the bed and holding a hand out for him.

Maxie took the hand and kissed it, trailing kisses up and up until he reached his neck, pouncing on him and smother his face in kisses.

Ezrah laughed, getting distracted for a moment as he kissed back, "Seriously, what did you say?" He asked, wrapping his arms around Maxie's neck.

Maxie held his hips quietly for a moment before replying. "I told him that I was sorry I never saw how he felt... and that he was a great guy and deserved to be happy... and that he was strong and brave for telling me," Maxie told him quietly, nuzzling their noses together.

Ezrah smiled at him, pressing their lips together, “Good. Thank you.” He said, “now, you gonna kiss me? Or should we find all the dirty truths and dares and play them out?”

Maxie hummed mischievously at that, smirking, then pressing their lips back together, pulling him closer and groaning softly against his lips. "Maybe both?" He suggested playfully.

Ezrah laughed, kissing back, “Pick a card then.” He said, eyes bright as he looked up at Maxie.

"I think for my first one, I wanna answer the question Duncan skipped," Maxie purred, climbing on top of his boyfriend and kissing and lightly nibbling his neck. "But maybe... instead of me telling you what the dream was..." He leaned into his ear and whispered, "we could act it out."

Ezrah's eyes lit up, "Does it involve your handcuffs?" He asked.

Maxie smirked and murmured, "why don't you come here and find out?"

Ezrah grinned, crawling over to him and straddling his lap, pulling him into a deep kiss.