#for a first attempt with this weird shading? i'm not too mad at it honestly

[turtlemurmurs]

ahahha I set out just to draw that little off the shoulder number from season two but ended up messing around with two shading styles at once (gasp!) and created this funky thing <3

[dangerouscommiesubversive]

hhhhhello hey hi !!!! I'm the podficcer that asked permission to podfic your ghost series and -- I had a strange question for the sangcheng one!!???? I keep thinking about nhs alive in 1920s NY speaking in some 1920s slang and I can't help but uhhhh picture him talking in a 1920s NY accent but is he FROM ny?!!!! 😂 a NY accent keeps popping up every time I read his lines out loud, and I'm not sure if that's weird, so I wanted to ask for some feedback!!!!

for jiangzaix3 I am finished recording the first two chapters and 2/3rds finished with the last chapter. I just have to edit in music! the accompanying Playlist is amazing! I also wanted to ask if you had any other additional songs or Playlist for the other three fics or if I should just pull from the one? I have an idea for which songs go with which stories -- jiangzai x3 has at least 3 songs lol bc there are too many good ones!

thanks again for granting permission! i am attempting to get these done, for spooky season is upon us, but I will try my best!

Hello, my dear! 💜💜💜 I'm so excited to hear your podfics--prior to getting into MDZS, the only person I'd ever heard read my own work was me, so between you and the person recording "this humble fox" I'm practically basking in the exciting novelty of it.

Anyway, that's not a strange question at all, it's a very good one! No, despite his tendency to hang out in fashionable areas of New York City when he was alive, Huaisang is not from New York, he's actually from New Hampshire. The Nies emigrated to the USA significantly before any of the other cultivation clans and initially settled down in the White Mountains, where they made quite a lot of money as trappers. They eventually opened up the butcher shop rather further south in the actual populated areas, and Huaisang attended a private school, so I think the most appropriate accent for him would be what's called a Mid-Atlantic. If you're unfamiliar, look up clips from Bringing Up Baby on YouTube--Cary Grant and Katherine Hepburn are the shining examples of the early 20th century Mid-Atlantic accent, which was a very mannered, deliberate way of speaking. (The house Mingjue had built for him, the one into which Jiang Cheng eventually moves, is in Georgia, because Huaisang hates to be cold and loves to garden and placing him in Georgia meant the Jiangs could maybe keep an eye on him.)

The Yus, meanwhile, settled right outside Boston, in Newton, and Yu Ziyuan did her level best to instill her children with the value of speaking "properly," so Jiang Cheng speaks with...about half of a modern upper-class Boston accent, which shades into a more classic Southern when he relaxes, since he did grow up in Georgia. (The Southern accent gets noticeably more prominent when he's talking to/arguing with Wei Wuxian, who was born in Kentucky and spent the first seven or so years of his life learning to speak from Cangse Sanren and Wei Changze--Cangse had a thick accent, it was one of the things Yu Ziyuan disliked about her and her son after her.

As for music, the other three fics don't have specific playlists--"Jiangzai x3" was fully written in a sort of mad hallucinatory dash, and the playlist sprang up as part of that--but I do have general WangXian and XiYao playlists, if you'd like to look through those for inspiration, and of course all of the chapter titles for "Gimme Shelter" are themselves song titles. Unfortunately, I have sorely neglected Jiang Cheng and Nie Huaisang as far as playlists go, and I do need to remedy that. In the meantime, if it helps at all, Huaisang listened to a lot of jazz when he was alive--think Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong, any luminary of the Harlem Renaissance who was recording before 1927--and loved to go out dancing. I'm honestly not sure what sort of music Jiang Cheng listens to, or if he habitually listens to much at all.

[asknoeloftheresistance]

Sakura was Obviously in a rush,in spite of having gone to bed early she too was somewhat exhausted from yesterday but she paid it no mind! She slammed down her alarm nearly destroying it in the process,thrown off her sheets and blankets not even bothering to pick them up off the floor,had thrown on her uniform packing her weapons,Even before breakfast which simply consisted of whole grain fruit cereal with almond milk,cherry yogurt,and a couple of food pills,and had nearly choked,Thankfully knowing how to use her basic first aid medical skills in order to save herself,((Heimlich Maneuver)) Though her Mom and Dad made a pathetic attempt at helping her both squeezing her far too tight! She coughed heavily. "Don't Ever do that again!" She exclaimed "I'm off now,See you later Love You too!" Of course her parents were uncomfortable,she had no need to remind them that Kakashi~Sensei would Not be going easy on her,However they seemed to trust him enough, and therefore didn't object or ask any questions! Sakura had always prided herself on being punctual. Plus,although she usually kept it to herself,She was also eager! Plus there was much soo more at stake this time! Finally she made a mad dash for the training ground a determined look on her face ignoring the weird looks from others as she passed once she arrived she took a few moments to compose herself and stretching to warm up,Before leaning against a tree underneath the shade once again getting frustrated with her Sensei's apparent lack of time management!

"You're Late,What's Your Excuse This Time!?" Honestly,She was eager to hear it!

She was only kidding of course! He was only in his 30’s and still a force to be reckoned with,with or without his sharingan she knew,Though he did have the grey hair! And she and Naruto both still admired him greatly,Although she wished he would put down those books while in front them! and his “excuses” for being late still irked her,but were also hilarious! It was great to know that he still remained unchanging,He would always be their Kakashi~Sensei! She beamed at him “Well OK then,See You Tomorrow!”

Well, it looked like Kakashi’s plans to stay up and finish his latest book was going to have to wait.  It wouldn’t do him any good if he were tired for their upcoming sparring match.  Sure, he was likely going to arrive late, but he liked actually being ready on time rather than oversleeping.  It would just be wrong at this point if he didn’t make others have to wait on his arrival.  

The next morning wasn’t all that eventful as he prepared to meet Sakura to train.  He could still feel some of the exhaustion from yesterday’s training, although it was nothing major.  He took his time to gather his stuff before heading out of his home.  He strolled at a leisurely pace, figuring that Sakura would beat him to the spot.

[pizzaboat]

Amity is approached by the weird girl one day at school on big break.

Fluff and daisy chains ensue.

Amity didn't like break times at school. everyone would be forced outside, and expected to run around and do something while all the adults huddled by a corner in the shade, sipping from their flasks and gossiping.

It might have been safer to just do what everyone else was doing but Amity didn't want to do what was expected of her that day.

She ignored her usual group of 'friends', that really just consisted of some kids her parents had deemed suitable for their daughter. And made her way to the trees on the grass, which provided shelter from the unforgiving heat of May, and distance from the screeching of other the other children.

Amity had tried to make it work with them, the kids her parents had picked out for her. She really had. But they weren't nice people, these kids; they made fun of her Azura books and bullied her ex-friend Willow.

They weren't the kinds of people she wanted to hang around.

She had been sitting in the cool, pleasant shade for about five minutes reading her favourite book out of the Azura series, when she heard someone aproach her, and crunching footsteps stop infront of her.

Amity readied herself to be scolded by one of the adults for having a book outside and being on the grass, or for one of her 'friends' to yell at her for ignoring them when thet had called her.

Instead an unfamiliar voice asked;

"What're doing?"

Amity looked up to see a girl her age, watching her curiously, she had a friendly smile on her face, and a sparkle in her eyes.

Amity recognised the girl. Her name was Luz, she'd learned that listening to the teachers chastise the girl for not listening in class or being disruptive in general..

"Reading." She answered cautiously, clutching the book close to her chest.

"Wait, are you reading Azura? I love Azura!" Luz exclaimed.

"Who's your favourite character!?" The girl asked, "mine's Azura herself, because she's a hero–she helps people, I wanna be like her when I grow up!"

"So what about you?"

Amity was honestly really taken back by the girls eagerness to just walk over and start up a conversation, about Azura of all things. she thought she was the only one in her class that liked it. it took her a moment to realise she was staring at Luz.

"Um.. I-I like Azura also, and Malemorf, they're pretty cool." She managed to get out.

Luz dropped to her knees infront of Amity, leaving her open lunch box beside herself.

"Malemorf is pretty cool too," Luz agreed,

"They're so mysterious, makes ya wonder what their up to, y'know?"

"Yeah!" Amity nodded.

"Did you read the new book?" Amity asked her then.

Luz shook her head, "Not yet, my Mami said she'd buy it for me if I don't get in trouble for an entire week of school-"

Luz flashed a grin, displaying a single gap in her front teeth.

"-You can see how well that's going for me." She chuckled.

"Did you get in a fight?" Amity gasped.

Luz frowned, " Um well, not exactly.. Boscha hit me with her soccer ball, it knocked out my front tooth, I think she did it on purpose,"

"She started laughing at me when I cried, so I threw her ball over the big metal fence over there."

Luz pointed to the other side of the playground, and sure enough there was a chain link fence, separating the school from a thick forest.

"Wow, that was mean of her. did you get in trouble?" Amity asked.

"I thought I was gonna be in big trouble with my Mami, because all the teachers were really mad, and Boscha had started crying then.." 

"..So, I hid from everyone in the janitors closet. The school called my Mom!"

Amitys eyes widened.

"She showed up, and they found me, I thought I was done for,"

Luz paused for dramatic effect then.

"But she found out what happened and she was mad at the teachers and Boscha, not me!"

"I was so confused until she explained that the teachers 'shouldn't have lost their tempers with a ten year old for reacting the way they did' or something,"

"OK maybe I still don't get it, but she brought me home early and bought me ice cream because my tooth–and said I wasn't in trouble with her so.."

Luz shrugged.

"Huh, your Mom sounds cool," Amity told her, "my parents would have grounded me for a month if I caused so much trouble. "

"Hey, That's not cool!" Luz exclaimed, "Not even any ice cream for your toothy!?"

"No."

"Well they sound mean." Luz pouted.

The mood shifted.

Her parents weren't mean, she thought. those were just the rules.. Amity knew that.

They sat in silence for a while after that. Amity went back to reading her book. Luz picked at the grass around her, apparently the ants had gotten at her lunch ruined it, Luz hadn't been happy about that.

"Pstt,"

Amity looked up from her book.

"What?" she said cooly.

"Are you mad at me?" Luz asked.

"Why would you think that?" Amity retorted in an, admittedly, unfriendly tone.

"Because you haven't talked once to me after I called your parents mean," Luz told her.

"Well, I'm not mad." Amity lied, "I'm just reading."

"And I'm sorry," Luz sighed, "I just dont want anyone to be mean to you.. you seem really nice."

"Well you don't have to worry, because they're not and I'm not–and you don't know anything." Amity snapped.

Luz turned away from her hurt. Amity felt a pang of guilt then, but didn't try to consol the girl or apologise. Amity wasn't nice. She'd been horrible to Willow, just like she was horrible to Luz just now. That was who she was. It would just be history repeating it's self if she tried to make a new friend.

She would only make things worse by trying to talk any further to Luz.

Besides, Luz was the class weirdo. Amity shouldn't be talking to her. Blights associate with a select few. Her parents taught her that. Amity realised then, she should go find her friends.

She felt Luz grab her hand, shocking her out of her thoughts.

"Hey, I made this for you," Luz said, producing a bracelet made of daisy's from her other outstretched hand.

"To say sorry for upsetting you further."

Amity blinked in surprise, and took it.

"Oh–um, thank you, but why?"

"I just told you silly," Luz frowned, "You looked sad when I came over, so I wanted to help cheer you up, but I've only made things worse.."

"So I made you a daisy chain to say sorry."

"But I was rude to you.." Amity shook her head, "you can't be nice to me when I'm not doing the same for you."

"But you were already in a bad mood," Luz shrugged, "so I've decided to forgive you, I know you didn't mean any of it."

This kid was weird.

Amity realised Luz was still holding her hand then. She felt her cheeks burn but she didn't know why. It must be anger or hunger, she had skipped lunch after all.

"How did you make it, the daisy chain I mean?" Amity asked putting her book down and moving closer.

"Oh, well it's easy!"

Luz took her hand back, and showed her how, an intense look of concentration on her face as she tied a string of daisy's together. Amity felt a smile form on her face as she watched the other girl work her magic.

"See?" 

Amity nodded, and tried to copy with sub-par results. 

"It's only your first one, so don't beat your self up!" Luz encouraged.

Amity nodded, but fifteen minutes later the school bell rang signalling the end of lunch and Amity still hadn't gotten it, even after multiple attempts to show her how from Luz.

The two had been laughing all the way through though. Luz had forgotten to ask for her name, which had sent them both into hysterics when Luz realised. It had been the most fun Amity had in ages.

Luz's stomach rumbled. Amity had an idea.

While collecting their stuff and walking back inside, she whispered to Luz;

"Do you want half my sandwich?"

"Oh my god-yes, thank you!"

Amity chuckled.

She'd make Luz that daisy chain tomorrow.

[ma-gic-gay]

"I'm sorry, what the hell is that supposed to mean?" Carly asks and he nods his agreement with the question, confused as well.

"His first allegiance has been you for the entire time I've known him! You call, the second he registers it's you he answers it. No matter what. We could be in a fight and he'd still pause it to answer that call from you. I don't know why, maybe there's something going on there I don't know about, but still. At least now I'm not competing for attention," Sam sadly smiles.

"Redo on the question: what the hell is that supposed to mean?" The blonde asks again, laughing when she figures out what it is she means. "Oh my god, you think we're having an affair! Oh my god! That's- oh my god."

Both of them burst into laughter at the thought of that. "You thought- us?" Jason asks, laughing still in a rare showing of emotion for him.

Confused, Sam takes that as a sign to say that. "Yeah, actually. I don't know, it just seemed like something that would happen between you two. Or that it was happening."

That stops their laughter promptly. "You do know we used to do that, right?" Jason asks her calmly. "Before Michael."

"And then I was in love with him for several years," Carly smiles at him, "and he wouldn't tell me his feelings until after Sonny and I had gotten together the first time. Stubborn goat. I practically told him everytime I saw him but he just smiled and gave me taxi money. Cruel, truly."

"Most of this took place when she was married to AJ," he finishes the version of the story Sam gets today, even though he could've sworn he'd told her before, "with a minor amount of her begging me to flee the country with her and Michael while she was married to Sonny the first time. But since I came back from my great world exploration, we've simply been friends."

"So you two were going to leave the country together, and you used to hook up, and you were in love at one point, and I never learned any of this?" Sam exclaims, angry and kinda hurt as well.

"I just assumed you knew. Honestly, Sam, I'm kinda surprised you didn't. Everyone knows it; we don't try to hide it or act like we weren't. People haven't just brought it up in... God it'd be years by now, but a long time. When you came to town, though, people were still talking about it pretty regularly. No clue why, maybe they found us fascinating or something, but how didn't you know?" A surprised Carly asks her former fellow mob wife.

"No one ever thought to tell me that his best friend was also someone he was in love with! Someone he considered not only leaving the business for, but someone he considered leaving everyone he cared about to protect," Sam exclaims.

"A million years ago," Carly defends him, "and besides, I doubt that ever would've actually happened."

"Mainly because I refused to let it happen," Jason smiles at her. "You were ready to leave the country on the next flight out and never look back, not for anyone or anything."

"Yeah, I guess I should've thought that out, but in my defense, we would've been happy in, say, Switzerland with Michael and very far away from Sonny," she quickly returns his smile, quipping back immediately.

"Switzerland has an extradition treaty," he reminds her. "Vietnam, on the other hand, does not."

"You were prepared to let me just take off to a country with an extradition treaty with my son and you?" Carly asks, mock offended. "That's just mean."

"Never. I would've made sure we went somewhere without one if we went, which we already established wasn't gonna happen," he smiles again, this time noticed by Sam exclusively, as Carly was busy fake pouting and he was trying to hold back a laugh. "Not once have I willingly gone along with a Carly plan and I plan on dying with that."

"Lies. My fake marriage to AJ so that Michael, me, and you could be a family again, legally," the blonde reminds him, smirking. "You went along with that one pretty easily. Granted, it was because you'd get everything back to how it'd been, your comfortable, no changing life."

"So you act like this, reminiscing about a past I found out about five minutes ago, and I'm expected to believe you truly, truly, aren't still feeling feelings for each other?" Sam asks, incredulous.

"Of course we have feelings! Joy, and anger, and fear and sadness and nostalgia all wrapped into one cozy blanket. But that doesn't mean we're cheaters in relationships, doesn't mean that he would cheat on you, that I'd do that to Sonny," Carly exclaims. "Jason is the most loyal man I have ever met. He's broken zero promises to me and believe me I've given him more than enough reason to. But still, he keeps his word. He would never, in a million years, cheat on you."

"Back the hell up, did you just say you've got feelings for him?" Sam asks, angry but unsurprised.

"We're friends, just friends!" Carly fights her.

"Tell me you're not still attracted to him, then, and I'll believe you!" Sam fires back. "Honestly, can you tell me that you have no feelings for him? Can you?'

There's a poignant pause and a shifted dynamic between the three when suddenly, everyone's eyes are on Carly. "I knew it," Sam scoffs. "I knew you were still in love with him, you slut! You say I'm bad, you've been friends with him for longer than I've known he existed and yet you love him, when you're married to someone else!"

Anger and confusion clouds his blue eyes before he says, "Sam! That is completely out of line! Don't you dare accuse her of this when you don't even know what she means yet, or start fighting with her in her restaurant!"

"So that's it? You're mad at me for getting upset with her for having feelings for you all this time? God, you're in love with her too, aren't you? Somewhere, some part of you is still in love with your best friend's wife. This is rich, maybe I should go tell Sonny about this, let him know his wife's a whore and her and you are in love," Sam angrily shouts. "After all, I'm just the baby mama now. Right?"

"Don't say that," he says softly. "I loved you, Sam, with every piece of me and you told me that we were over. That there was no chance of us reuniting. I love you and it kills me, to know you don't feel the same way back."

"You used the past tense. Loved. You corrected it when you noticed. If you're not in love with me, you're in love with her." Sam says calmly, disguising her anger.

"That's not how life works," Carly argues, interrupting whatever Sam's trying to say. "It's not black and white like that, it's covered in shades of grey as well. You, of all people, should know that. Love's complicated. Life's complicated. Don't expect me to be able to answer a question like that easily."

"If some part of your heart didn't belong to him-"

"Some part of it always will. He was my first love, and he's my best friend. He was the first person to show me unconditional love. The very first person to put up with me and treat me the way I never thought I deserved until I met him. So yes, of course I love him. Happy? Satisfied that now you can run back to Sonny and you two can try for baby number two?" Carly asks, the last part coming out as a sarcastic joke.

Jason stands there, stunned but processing it. She's in love with him? That's a shock. Definitely wasn't expecting that when he woke up today.

By the look on her face, Sam wasn't planning on hearing it either. "So you admit you're a whore who used Sonny because you couldn't be with Jason? Is that it? Or is it that you're somehow just coming to this realization now?"

"That's enough!" He says, pulling out of his thoughts. "Where the hell do you get off acting like this? You dumped me, and you're here now it pick a fight with a woman who's my best friend."

"A woman who's in love with you!" Sam says, hurt he's protecting her. "You protect her with everything in you and I can't even get half of your attention. God, I hope you two are happy together. I'm leaving."

No one tries to stop her as she storms off to the elevators.

A slightly embarrassed Carly looks at him. "Look, if I made this weird or anything, I'm sorry. I just- she asked for the truth and I think I needed to get it off my chest. I was planning on taking this to the grave, I swear. You and her are great together, truly, and so I don't want you to feel like you've got any burden to act on what I've told you. We can just forget this ever happened if you want."

"Can we?" He asks, contemplating. "I mean, yeah, I guess we could, but I know you and I know you don't ever give up or hide things. Once your feelings are out in the open, you leave it like that. You are incapable of hiding them."

"I have for this long," she smiles. "So, no pressure, but whatever we do with this knowledge is up to you."

"No pressure? What the hell has happened to you? Are you feeling alright?" He teases, a smirk playing on his lips despite his best attempts to hide it. "I, uh, I guess you're waiting on me to say something?"

"Kinda."

"You... It's complicated."

"No shit."

"Do I love you? Yes, of course I do. We're friends and you've been my family for a long time. When I woke up from the accident, you didn't know about it, didn't feel the need to be careful with me or treat me like I was marked fragile. Granted, we were just having no name sex, but still. And when you found out, you didn't care much. You had Michael, and remember how scared you were? That's why I agreed to take you both in, and it turned out to be both one of the best and worst things to happen to me. We fell into a solid friendship and eventually in love. You word blurted every feeling you had and I just didn't tell you how I felt. When I did, you fucked Sonny because of a misunderstanding. That hurt. But I survived. Came back to town and we were best friends again. The feelings never fully died, but I definitely loved Sam too, still love her to an extent. I just, I don't know anymore what to do to cause the least amount of pain."

"That was emotional, Mr. Morgan," the blonde smiles at his friend. "Maybe you're not stone cold anymore."

He just rolls his eyes and smiles at his friend who's distracting herself. "If you can hide a feeling, anything's possible."

"That felt personal," she jokes. "But where does this leave us? I mean, we both have feelings for each other, but I just so happen to be married to your boss and second closest friend. And you just got out of a long term relationship."

"Absolutely no clue. You're with Sonny, I'm single, and Sam's definitely about to tell him what happened here," Jason sighs. "God, our lives are complicated."

"Seems like my sneaking around plan won't work. Damn. How about my better plan, one where we figure out what we are to each other first," she smiles at him.

"That's somehow even more complicated," he sighs.

"Do you want to explain it to Sonny that we're unlabeled or something?" Carly raises an eyebrow at the man she knows so well. "Exactly. You don't. I don't either but I guess we've got to go with my plan."

"The plan that also involved Sam, the scorned woman, not telling him? Good luck with that," he chuckles, thinking deeply.

The only thing that pulls him out of his thoughts is the sudden feeling of her lips on his. They pull away when he registers what's happening and he looks at her, confused. "What the hell just happened?"

"I kissed you, genius," she smiles at him. "And you didn't kiss back."

"I was thinking," he defends himself. She cocks an eyebrow and he rolls his eyes. "Do you want me to kiss you?"

"No need to be so formal," she smirks and they kiss.

Conveniently, Sonny shows up right then.

To be continued

.-. whY-