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thebakingqueen5 · 3 years ago

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KW 2021: Height Difference

Day 1 for Kataang Week 2021 hosted by @kataang-week with the prompt Height Difference!

Links: AO3 | FF.net

Summary: Another year, another summer, another week of prompts celebrating our favorite couple. Kataang Week 2021 Day 1: Height Difference. It’s his 14th birthday and Aang is feeling frustrated. Katara wants to help and Aang confides in her about some of his insecurities.

Word Count: 2.2K

After a long day of festivities, night had finally fallen across the Fire Nation palace, and Aang and Katara were ready to head to bed and get some well-earned rest.

The couple had just finished up at the banquet and silently walked through the dimly lit halls to Aang’s room so as to not alert Katara’s overprotective brother. Though they had merely been cuddling the last few nights before sleeping, Sokka would surely throw a fit if he knew that they were sharing a room at all, hence a bit of secrecy was needed.

At last, they arrived- the third door on the right in the central wing of the palace had been designated the Avatar’s quarters since as early as Kyoshi’s time. It was a fair distance away from the rest of the bedrooms in the west wing, and it also had far more extravagant commodities with its own mini-courtyard and balcony, giving the pair plenty of space to get away from the rest of the world and simply enjoy being with each other.

“Today was fun,” Katara sighed as they finally entered the room, taking off her shoes at the entrance and immediately going towards the inviting bed.

She let herself fall onto the soft mattress, groaning softly as her limbs were finally able to relax after a long day of dancing, cooking, and celebrating for the airbender’s 14th birthday, while Aang gently closed the door with a soft thump.

“Yeah,” Aang chuckled as he joined her on the bed. He pulled some of the thin cotton sheets over them and then curled up next to her on his side.“It sure was... something.”

The waterbender shifted slightly to allow her boyfriend to rest his head in the crook of her neck and absentmindedly traced the outline of the blue arrow on his head while he closed his eyes in contentment.

“Something?” she questioned. Katara furrowed her eyebrows, her movements faltering. “Did you not have fun, Aang?”

The airbender winced when he heard the twinge of hurt in Katara’s voice. She hadn’t been trying to make it sound that way, but she had been planning the event for weeks and naturally was a little offended by the implication of his words.

“Oh. No, sweetie, I didn’t mean it that way. The party was amazing! The food, the drinks, the music, everything was spectacular. You did an amazing job, and it means a lot to me that you care so much.”

Katara let out a quiet breath of relief, resuming her gentle touches to his tattoos.

“Of course I care, sweetie. You’re my boyfriend, and I love you. That’s why if you didn’t like it, I won’t be mad, really.”

Aang tilted his head up and pressed a quick kiss to her cheek. “That wasn’t it, I promise. I just… I had a bit on my mind today.”

“Do you want to talk about it?” she asked him tenderly.

He sighed and buried his face in her neck. “I guess... it would be nice to get it off my chest. It’s not like anyone else would get it anyways.”

The waterbender gave him a curious look, silently encouraging him to continue.

“It’s so stupid, but I heard some nobles talking when I stepped away to get us some water. They just kept going on and on about how much of a child I was and how I’m too young and too scrawny and too short for you, and, well, they’re right!”

He turned his body away from her now frowning face and pulled the blankets snug around his body like a protective cocoon.

“You’re almost 16, Tara,” Aang murmured. “A young woman in every sense of the word. Spirits, you’re of marrying age in a month! Me? I’m just a loser kid you found washed up in an iceberg. How could I ever be deserving of you?”

“Oh, Aang…”

She shifted onto her side as well and wrapped her arms around his waist, resting her head on his back and listening to the rhythm of his breathing.

“Those nobles are utterly ridiculous. First of all, it’s only two years! What difference does two years make in the long run? It doesn’t, that’s what. My parents were four years apart and were the happiest two people in the world! A gap of two years is insignificant,” she said matter-of-factly.

“Second of all, sure we’re young, but considering that we saved the world even younger, I think it’s safe to say we’ve matured beyond our years. We’re certainly old enough to know we love each other, and that’s all that matters.”

“Doesn’t change the other part though,” Aang muttered in response. “Spirits, I’m 14 and barely the same height as you. A little shorter if we’re being honest. It’s so annoying! Why can’t I just grow up already?”

“Sweetie?”

“Yeah?”

“I don’t mean for this to come off the wrong way, but why do you care about that? What difference does it make?”

The airbender remained silent for a few moments and pondered her question, his eyebrows furrowed in concentration.

“The monks had always taught me to judge people based on the content of their character, not their exterior, and to draw satisfaction from being self-assured, rather than care about what other people thought. And in most cases I feel like I do that pretty well, but…”

“But?”

A subtle pink tinted Aang’s cheeks and he took her hands in his, stroking the back of her hand with his thumb.

“You’re different, Katara. You’re the one I love more than anything, the one I would do anything for, the one whose opinions, thoughts, and feelings mean the world to me. You’re the most amazing person on the planet, and you deserve someone worthy of you. Look at Haru and Jet! They were both older and taller and so even something as small as noticing the height difference when we’re dancing kinda hurts. It just feels like I’m the odd one out. I know that’s silly but-”

The waterbender cut him off and shook her head.

“It’s not silly, Aang. Believe me, I’ve felt the same way more times than I’d care to admit. But, in the end, none of that matters. I love you. I chose you . You’re not just my boyfriend, you’re my best friend."

He turned back around to face her and swept her up in an embrace, mind immediately put at ease by her words.

“Plus,” she continued, “So what if you’re a little shorter than me now? You’ll grow in no time. Quite frankly, I’ll miss being taller than you when you do.”

The airbender quirked an eyebrow. “You’ll miss it?”

Katara chuckled softly and pressed a kiss to his forehead, right at the tip of his arrow.

“Yeah,” she whispered, “I will. Being able to do that, not having to look up or go on my toes trying to kiss you, I won’t be able to do all that forever. Things like kisses, hugs, they’re a lot more… accessible with our current heights.”

“Hmm,” Aang hummed. “I guess I never really thought of it like that. I still want to grow taller of course, but when you put it like that, I might miss this a little bit too.”

“Let’s not get too carried away with the future, okay?” Katara laughed. “We have our whole lives ahead of us, let’s just stay in the present- the present where I love you, and you love me, and nothing else matters.”

The airbender grinned with her, pressing his forehead gently to hers.

“I like the sound of that. Thank you, sweetie. For listening, for the reassurance, just everything. It means a lot.”

“Of course, sweetie. I’m always here.”

Katara pressed a sweet kiss to his lips and wrapped her arms around his neck as Aang returned it, pulling her closer to him. They broke apart after a few seconds and grinned like idiots at one another. There was silence, but it was comfortable. The two didn’t need words, they were just enjoying being with each other.

“It’s getting late,” the waterbender murmured after some time. “We should probably go to bed.”

“Probably,” Aang whispered back, unable to take his eyes off the angel in front of him. With a flick of his wrist, he put out the candles that had been lighting up the room and settled into his pillow as Katara drew closer to him and interlocked their fingers.

“Good night, Aang. Love you,” she said, beginning to drift off to the dream realm.

“Love you too, Tara,” the airbender yawned. “Sweet dreams.”

One year later…

“Happy birthday!” the room chorused as Aang blew out all his 15 candles.

The airbender grinned and began to cut the apple cake- an ancient recipe of the Air Nomads recreated by some of the top chefs in the Fire Nation as a gift from Zuko.

“Thanks guys!” Aang laughed. “Man, it’s crazy to think that the war has been over for a little more than two years now.”

Katara smiled and leaned up on her toes to press a kiss to his cheek.

“We’ve all done a lot of growing up. We’re older, more mature-” she gave Aang a quick look from head to toe. “ Taller .”

He chuckled, pulling her close to him and peppering kisses all over the top of her head. She was right, of course- as if triggered by their conversation that night, Aang had grown rapidly over the next year. A month later he was the same height as her, two months following he was comfortably able to rest his arm on her shoulder, and now, a year later, he towered above her with her eyebrows barely at his chin.

“Ugh,” Sokka groaned. “Give it a rest you two. The oogies are out of control! Spirits, you act like a newly wedded couple still in the honeymoon stage half the time.”

“Oh, leave them alone, Sokka,” Suki chided. “It’s his birthday! Let’s give the lovebirds some alone time. They’re just kids, they’re nowhere near that yet.”

“Yeah, haha, absolutely not,” Aang nervously laughed as the other couple exited the room. The stone pendant in his pocket began to feel like poisonous lead weighing down his vision for the hopefully not-so-distant future.

“You never know,” the airbender heard Katara mumble, so quiet he wasn’t even sure she had actually said it. “Sometimes things will come when you least expect it.”

He stood there blankly for a moment, brain struggling to process her words and had just opened his mouth to ask her what she meant (she couldn’t possibly be talking about what he thought she was… right?) when she decided to speak up instead.

“I can’t believe you were ever nervous about staying short, sweetie,” Katara quipped, her eyebrows raised teasingly.

Aang merely blinked at the subject change, promptly concluding that the last thirty seconds were simply a figment of his imagination, and sheepishly scratched the back of his head in response to her comment.

“I guess it was kinda silly, huh,” he laughed. “Look at us now.”

The waterbender pouted, going up on the balls of her feet and craning her neck to gaze up at him. “You’re too tall for your own good. I miss when you were shorter and I didn’t have to tilt my head every time just to look at you.”

“Oh c’mon, it has its benefits.”

He gave her a quick look to warn her for what he was about to do, and with one swift motion, Katara was suddenly off the ground and in Aang’s arms bridal-style, her arms around his neck and their gazes interlocked.

The airbender touched their foreheads together and gave her a cheesy grin.

“I couldn’t do this before, now could I?” he asked, quirking an eyebrow up at her.

“No,” Katara smiled, her head tilted as she looked at him endearingly, “I suppose you couldn’t. And I certainly won’t be one to complain about you holding me more often.”

Aang laughed and carefully set her back down, hearing the growing volume of the room next to them. He quickly grabbed the two full glasses on the table and handed one to the waterbender.

“Here’s to hoping you’re the one who grows by next year so my neck isn’t always sore from looking down at you,” he said as he held his drink up.

Katara gave him a dry stare before rolling her eyes and smiling.

“Cheers.”

The two clinked their glasses and turned to face the door behind which the rest of their friends had already begun to celebrate.

“Shall we?” Aang asked as he held out his arm to her.

“We shall,” Katara responded, accepting it. “Happy birthday, Aang.”

#kataang week #kataang week 2021 #kataang #kataangtag #aang x katara

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retrocontinuity · 4 years ago

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From "The Sigh of Haruhi Suzumiya V."

Let's talk about Koizumi Itsuki.

(These aren't new thoughts necessarily; I just wanted to expand on my tweets on this subject in one place in my very own unrolled thread.)

In 2020 I finished a rewatch of The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya from beginning to end, in blended chronological order. Speaking honestly, and from a relative emotional distance, season two of this show blows. It is especially cruel to watch S2 right after S1, because S1 is so lively and entertaining. There are some unique ways in which the show feels dated, but one thing has always stood out: Haruhi and Kyon have a uniquely (for anime) natural-seeming chemistry with each other. You're never in doubt that these are two people who will keep each other entertained and on their respective toes. Haruhi is, of course, in a line of great charismatic and bulldozey female characters, and there were many such characters that came after her, but she remains a tour de force of design, voice-acting, and writing. She, and Kyon's relationship to her in turn, was magnetic, even if it was a magnet for dislike and frustration, as she became in S2.

But enough of that. In my last rewatch, what really stood out to me is Itsuki. It's a shame that S2 became so frustrating and hard to watch, because the Sigh arc (my absolute LEAST favorite in the show) ends up doing a lot of really interesting character work for Itsuki. In the final Sigh episode, Itsuki brings up a theory that has haunted me for years: that little!Mikuru was created by her organization specifically to appeal to Kyon. As Itsuki points out, she is childlike, clumsy, and submits entirely to Haruhi's bullying. Perhaps, then, when Haruhi says that Mikuru is moe, she doesn't mean it in the abstract--she means that Mikuru is Kyon's moe (or maybe the reverse?! Maybe she is perfectly Kyon's moe because Haruhi considers Mikuru to be the height of moe).

Here's an obvious statement: Itsuki is little!Mikuru's exact opposite. Mikuru poses a target of jealousy for Haruhi, while Itsuki encourages Kyon to express his feelings for Haruhi. Mikuru is unable to explain anything about her organization or what is happening in any given moment; Itsuki overexplains. Mikuru is a pawn given inexplicable missions in her organization; Itsuki may in fact be the leader of his Agency, even though he doesn't advertise it.

By the logic of Itsuki's own theory, that should theoretically mean that Itsuki turns Kyon off. But here is, maybe, the less obvious extrapolation: in being little!Mikuru's opposite, Itsuki is actually exactly like one other character in the show--big!Mikuru. He is adult!Mikuru but in high school boy form: secretive, suave, powerful in ways that little!Mikuru could never be, helpful to Kyon (but maybe not always in the ways that Kyon wants him/them to be), submitting to Haruhi, but in an entirely different way than little!Mikuru. And, just like adult!Mikuru, he is entirely unavailable as an object of attraction, even if he has the same gravitational pull as her.

I think it's no coincidence that Sigh features both Mikuru at her most moe, her sexiest, her most vulnerable, and also Itsuki at his most weirdly queer-coded villain-esque. Though Itsuki cannot actually be presented as an object of attraction, the show lets him do the next best thing: it makes Itsuki put on his most adult!Mikuru cosplay. In Sigh V, he shows up in clothes utterly unfitting for a high school student. He calls Kyon out at night. They go for a walk and they talk about strange hypotheticals involving mysterious organizations, a future and a past that Kyon cannot know about and may not ever know about, all while weird sexy music plays and a couple of drunk adults do... whatever the hell it is they're doing. At the end of it, Kyon is left with no real answers, but is given a simple mission that involves Haruhi. Is this not Bamboo Rhapsody/Disappearance, but with Itsuki in adult!Mikuru's place? When Yuki in Sigh V says that Koizumi Itsuki and Asahina Mikuru's theories can never coexist, she is unintentionally saying something more: that they can never coexist, just like adult!Mikuru and little!Mikuru cannot remain in the same plane.

As Mikuru's counterpart, Itsuki has a dangerous sex appeal, one that unnerves Kyon. Itsuki's presence threatens to destabilize the balance of the Haruhi-Kyon-Mikuru/adult!Mikuru triangle, by being yet another version of the Mikuru type. To keep Itsuki from throwing the whole thing out of whack, he is constantly being nerfed by the story: by being male and thus turning off Kyon, by himself being attracted to Haruhi and thus a potential (though laughable) rival, and finally in Disappearance by simply, elementally, not being himself anymore (no longer useful, no longer a member of the SOS-dan, no longer containing secret knowledge and secret power). Itsuki's appeal to Kyon is so powerful that he, more than any of the other characters in the SOS-dan, even though he's a guy and thus technically out of the running by default, must become an object of disgust and ridicule to Kyon, because the alternative is a closed-space-at-the-end-of-the-Melancholy-arc level catastrophic event.

That is, the same kind of catastrophic event that occured when Haruhi noticed that Kyon was attracted-- to Mikuru.

#the melancholy of haruhi suzumiya #the melancholy of koizumi itsuki #itsuki is from a long line of characters with powerful gay energy #whose energy is so powerful and so gay that the show had to squander their appeal

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linkspooky · 5 years ago

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ozone hawks wants to shelter jin from the coming storm of the hero invasion and know he’ll be safe when it’s over, even though he’s the one putting him in the most danger // writing for the jinkei bang written for this art by @comradetodoroki

Storms have always put me at ease.

There’s something about the way they ravage our ridiculous world and wash it away like so much sludge.

🌩️

He pulled his hands back through feathered hair. He smoothed it, only for it to pop back up ruffled again. It’s out of character. It’s anxious behavior. Hawks needed to be smooth. Water had to roll off of him and nothing could stick to him otherwise he would get weighed down. He’s just talking. Someone is talking. It’s amazing how his mouth is like a machine. He can hear the words come out and he doesn’t have to think too hard about them because he’s been trained at talking to others.

But this guy. Jin. He’s easier to talk to than most.

“It’s pretty dumb for a bird to be afraid of heights.” “Yeah, yeah. It’s bird brained.” “…You are my favorite person for saying that.”

Hawks doesn’t bear his soul, that sort of requires having a soul and a soul is another thing that would weigh him down. Jin asked him what his fear was, actually Jin talked about his fears. It turns out Jin is afraid of almost everything.

Jin, Jin, he’s calling him Jin now. It’s Twice. Hawks doesn’t know if he’s scared of anything, but then Jin stared at him with those big eyes and he realized he was supposed to say something and ‘heights’ was the first thing that came out of his mouth. It’s not exactly heights, he can be in high places just fine. It’s the idea of falling. It’s out of his control, the falling. He doesn’t even mind the idea of hitting the ground. Just, smashing, and leaving a carcass of feathers, and fragile bones shattered. It’s the idea of falling forever unable to control his trajectory, utterly helpless. Falling at terminal velocity. The air doesn’t leave your lungs like you’d expect it to. And even though you’re surrounded by nothing but air, you’re suffocating, drowning in the blue sky. No, maybe it was the sky that scared him.

Everyone else looked up at the sky and saw freedom. It was so liberating. The sky seemed endless to Hawks. But there was nothing to see. Jin suddenly threw his arms around him from behind, looping them on his shoulder. Jin- Twice was so touchy feely, and so heavy, almost too heavy as he leaned his entire body weight on Hawks. Hawks stumbled forward and hit his face against the glass of the window in the room the two of them used as a hangout. “Let’s go outside! No, I want to stay in my room forever. I’m never going to be a corporate slave, I’ll be a NEET like Spinner!” Twice tended to have two minds about everything, but Hawks was a good listener. “We can’t go out in full costume. People will see us.” Hawks wondered if he was really listening. Birds have a habit called mirroring. They can imitate the noises humans make with their mouths, they can say words, but it’s not like the words carry any real meaning behind them. Just a hollow imitation. He is a mirror that Jin looks into and sees a friend. Jin suddenly has a burst of energy and shakes Hawks by the shoulders. Hawks was shaken. His head bobbed back and forth. “Please, please, please. I’m not going to beg you.”

“Look, at least one of us has to have common sense.” “And it’s me, right? Because I’m just a normal guy. I’m just your friendly neighborhood Jin.”

“Yeah, totally.” Hawks doesn’t want to be mean. “You don’t want to be seen with me, is that it? Well, I’m too cool for you anyway.” Jin had stopped shaking him now, and Hawks kind of wished he would have kept at it. Now that they’ve both stopped, Jin’s hands were on his shoulders. His large hands, capable of holding so much. And Jin stared into his eyes. Jin is wearing a mask and yet his every feeling is so obvious. The emotions in those eyes… heavy. Heavier than the whole sky, like the sky’s weight bearing down on him, crushing him.

“Yeah man, you’re way out of my league. The cool kids never let me hang out with them in high school. That’s why I became a villain.” Actually, he never even went to high school. “But that’s not it. It’s going to storm soon.” “Huh? So what?” “Can’t fly if my feathers get wet.” “Have Dabi dry them off for you!”

“Um, thanks but no thanks.” “How do you know it’s storming anyway?”

“I can feel it in my bones,” Hawks chirped. He can. His bones are light and hollow so he can fly, and when he was with Jin he felt a sort of empty pang in them. A feeling that made his toes curl, and his fingernails dig so deep into his palms that he left red welts. “Are you an old man?” “Something like that…” Hawks muttered. He certainly wasn’t a kid. He never was. “If we don’t go outside right now, I’ll cry. Is that what you want? You want me to cry? You meanie, big bully, villain, fiend! All of my friends will beat you up!” Hawks opened his mouth. He tasted only air. He dry swallowed. Twice smiled so earnestly with his whole face, in a way that it couldn’t be a lie. For some reason the thought of making him cry at this moment cut him. It peeled back all the layers, scars, skins, feathers, bone. Hawks was caught completely offguard. Bad, bad, bad. He was the one manipulating Jin, not the other way around. He couldn’t be moved by this he must stay firmly rooted to the ground. He closed his eyes and put on a smile, his smile so fake compared to Jin’s. “Awe man, I can’t say no to you, huh?”

🌩️

“This is the best day ever. This is the worst day ever! I can’t believe it rained on our parade. Jin, you stupid idiot, who would ever throw you a parade?”

The pounding of raining, the rolling of thunder, both of them beat against Hawks relentlessly. The two of them stranded on a park bench. The noise of the storm washed away everything else, and it was like the two of them were the only ones there. If this storm was some kind of apocalyptic hurricane that washed away everything would and the two of them were the only ones left. If nobody was watching, under the cover of the noise of the storm, could he be his true self in front of Twice? Probably not. Anyway, enough with the deep thoughts bird boy. They walked for a little bit before it suddenly started to storm. The entire time Hawks studied Jin’s hand as if he was trying to comprehend the shape of it. He even tried to reach for it once, only to grasp at empty air when Jin suddenly got distracted by it and turned around. “Hey, a bird! A bird! Look at the stupid feathery asshole! You can talk with birds, right?” “God, I wish…” Hawks stared at the place where Jin’s hand was supposed to be with melancholy, but thought it was probably a bad idea in the first place. Then suddenly, Jin noticed and grabbed his hand. He made it seem so simple. Touching other people, being close to other people. Then the rain started, and the two of them were on the bench and Jin freaked out. He raised his hands up in the air, and played nice guy to calm Jin down. “Hey, hey, I don’t really mind.” “You should mind! You should care a little bit. You’re so careless.” Oh no, Jin was agreeing with himself for once. Hawks wondered what he had done. He could read the emotions on his face, but he didn’t really get what other people felt. He just knew he probably felt less than them, he was lighter, more hollow. “Oh come on, I care as much as the next guy.” That was a lie. He lied without showing anything.

Hawks fidgeted. Sitting still was, hard, difficult. And Jin looked at him so intensely, in a way he wasn’t used to being looked at. He hated being scrutinized, was Jin suspicious? No maybe he just hated being seen. “You don’t care about yourself at all!” “What? We’re talking about me? Don’t I talk about myself enough? I’m a little bit self-obsessed. You know, pretty bird, pretty bird.” Hawks cooed. “You looked so upset! So I tried taking you out to cheer you up, but then I screwed it up and it started raining, and you don’t even care at all.”

“Ah, I was sad?” Hawks head tilted, as if he might comprehend better by looking at Jin from a slightly different angle. “Hey, hey, no reason to be upset. Nothing bad is going to happen.” Lots of bad things are going to happen very soon. Hawks wing moved. Even though he was sure he did not give it the command. His wing moved on his own, it stretched into the sky and curled around Twice serving as an umbrella. His feathers stretched as far apart from each other as possible. He did not want a single drop of rain to touch Twice. He wanted Twice to stop shivering with the chill of rain.

How many people had he saved? Countless. Thousands, probably. He did it without thinking. He had complete confidence in himself. Then, why was he so afraid that he might not be able to save this one person. That he could do nothing to protect him from the coming storm. The people he saved were always faceless. To be honest, he was afraid of looking them in the eye. Even when they thanked him, he didn’t want to hear it. He didn’t do anything special. He had never wanted to save one person so much. And he might not. He might let him fall. Twice’s words are gravity. They drag him back from where Hawks is always floating. “You’re not understanding me. It’s my fault.” “No, you’re not, it’s fine.” “Stop saying it’s fine. Liar, liar, pants on fire. Dabi’s going to light your pants on fire, then you’ll just be standing there without any pants and everyone will laugh. Liar, stupid, I hate you. I don’t hate you.”

Twice suddenly grabs his head. A piercing headache. A splitting headache. Hawks does not know what to do so he simply floats there, his hands just hanging there in the air unable to grab anything.

“This is getting in the way.” Twice grabbed at his mask. He clawed it for a moment. It’s like he’s trying to scratch the skin off of his face. Hawks felt an immediate sense of danger. Fearful. Twice is broken. He broke into jagged edges. Glass that can cut and sink deep into you. He pulled his mask off slowly.

“Hey, you should put that back on.” Hawks said, genuine concern creeping into his voice. He realized, he didn’t care about blowing the mission, he didn’t care about the hoops he’d have to jump through to explain being seen with league of villains Twice in public. He just doesn’t want to see Twice break in two pieces in front of him.

“It’s fine, I won’t break apart if you’re here.” But I’m not here. “Hawks, I want to meet you…” “But, I’m right here?” “I know. What I mean is. I just want to meet you.”

The mask was getting in the way. Of what? Hawks perched on the bench, his knees drawn up to his chest, huddling like a child. He made himself look as small as possible. A nesting instinct. He wanted to be cozy. He wanted to be comfortable. To feel like he belonged somewhere. Jin, sitting on the other side of the bench. Hawks’ wings outstretched, the two of them udnerneath the same unmbrella. Jin’s hair, bleached white by stress. A large scar running down the center of his forehead. A perpetual five o clock shadow. A latex suit that covered his whole body, and the muscles which bulged underneath. He could see the way they shifted as his body moved and studied it in close detail. There was something about the way he was shaped that made him look comfortable to lean against. His toes tap awkward on the ground, because Twice is as bad at sitting still as Hawks is. The rain was so loud, and even louder is Jin’s breathing, and his heartbeat, and Hawks’ senses were finely tuned to both. Jin’s shoulders were broad. Hawks’ were concave and narrow. They were going to break. It was heavy, too heavy. Heavy like gravity. He noticed finally that Jin was drifting towards him. Jin was falling. Hawks has to look at him directly, what good is the terrifying draw of gravity unless you know what you’re facing. Jin’s lips get closer, and Hawks’ imagines what it would be like to be tickled by the unshaven scruff on Jin’s chin. There are so many details that make up Jin, and Hawks’ is just not there, he is not present, he is observing the scene from behind a pair of eyes but he can’t be there with Jin. He can never be there with anyone.

“You wouldn’t like me,” He finally murmured. Hawks said, trying to get what’s happening to stop. “How come?” “Because I’ve met him. I don’t like him.” “I used to not like me either, but even when you don’t like yourself there are people that will like you.” Jin probably didn’t like him. Jin is just a person who would be kind to anybody. All Hawks needed to do was look a little pathetic and Jin pitied him. That was all this was. He was nothing special to Jin. He was nobody special. He had been told that enough times. If he died, if he fell out of the sky what would happen? The hero rankings would shift a little bit and that would be all. There were plenty of people that used him but no one really needed him. Jin gets closer and his lips pull back. Hawks’ contemplated what it would be like to be struck by lightning. A hot stinging pain, every single muscle in your body tenses, and locks. A whiteness you see behind your eyeballs. You spend an eternal moment trapped, your brain sending signals but your body not listening to them, you tingle because your brain can’t comprehend the intensity of what you’re feeling.

Is it painful? That’s not it, it’s a sensation that’s impossible to describe. Then you wake up after it’s done, and there’s a scar left in your skin. The point of contact between his land twice’s lips felt like they were burning as Twice pulled away, or maybe that was just his imagination. The acrid smell surrounded him. His nostrils wee full of ozone. His brain was full of fear. The entire sky is contained in Jin’s eyes for that brief moment. There’s a queasy feeling inside of him, dizzying, and it’s the first time he’s ever felt the joy of vertigo. He doesn’t know where he is or how he feels and it’s unbelievably pleasant. Jin is the entire sky. Jin would never know how much Hawks wanted to throw himself into the arms of that vast emptiness. Hawks’ head is empty. He’s empty. But he’s not. He’s filled with secrets, and lies. When he wants to think about nothing more than Jin and the smell of ozones, a thought broke through. It’s like a crack in the mirror. Hawks immediately rocked back. You lied to him. Jin looks like he did something wrong. Hawks wants to tell him he’s done nothing wrong but that’s not true, he’s a criminal, a murderer. A good kisser, but with blood on his lips. Hawks’ hands flew in the air. “I-I’m just shy. I’m a shy bird.” He pulled the collar of his fur jacket all the way up to just below his nose to conceal the expression on his face.

Hawks looked at the scar that cut cleanly across Jin’s forehead. He was suddenly overwhelmed by the thought. Jin who had given him so much, and Hawks would only give him scars in return. His hands, his lips. There would be lines carved on his skin wherever he touched. Hawks’ and Twice the fact that they met was an incredibly unlikely event like a lightning strike, and just like a lightning strike it never should have happened. It was luck, it was bad luck. He would mark him worse than any lightning strike.The places where he had once caressed so sweetly would only burn now. He should have smelled the ozone ahead of time. He should have seen the storm coming. But it’s too late now, and he’s stuck here with Jin, and he’s completely hopeless, and he can’t fly in the middle of a storm the wind will whip at him back and forth and the water will soak him, and chill him down all the way to the bone. Hawks finally gasped for air. Ozone in his lungs he had forgotten to breathe.” “Twice.” “Jin, you can call me Jin. I always call you by your first name.”

“…What do you think my full name is?” “Hawks Birdman?” Hawks wanted to laugh but he couldn’t. He was someone who could not even smile correctly. “Wait, wait, wait, is that not your real name? Oh shit, oh shit, I’m so dumb. I’m so dumb.” Jin rocked back and forth and Hawks was completely still. He finally looked Hawks in the eye again. “W-we don’t have to kiss ever again if you don’t want to. I’m sorry, I’m really sorry.” Why was he the one apologizing? Why was Jin apologizing? “It’s really hard to tell what you like and don’t like sometimes. If I got something wrong, I’m sorry because I’m stupid, and I don’t think, but ummm…can I call you by your real name?” “One day…” “When?” “When the storm ends.” Hawks said. Everything he said so far to Jin was a lie, and that might also be a lie. But he didn’t want it to be.

#jinkei #jinkeiminibang #twicehawks #hawkstwice #twice #hawks #jin bubaigawara #takami keigo #bnha #bnha fic #zeldi drabbles tag #theres a ff7 reference in this

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echotovalley · 4 years ago

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lo-fi

prompt: autumn is the true romance season and that’s that on that rating: general audiences word count: 1,131 tags: fluff, boys! in! love!, fall warnings: none!

It isn’t necessarily that he didn’t believe Lance.

It was a miscalculation of how right he was.

How hard it was going to hit different.

When the leaves fall off of the trees in different colors and Lance starts to bring back the long sleeves and flannel and hoodies that smell like a permanent mix of his cologne and whatever fall-themed coffee he drinks.

Summer is wide and sprawling, open and raw like at any moment the bubble of sky curving over Earth will crack open from the heat and radiate out into the galaxy. The height of the day, highest point of heat with nowhere to hide. Everything seen.

Fall - It’s something like lo-fi - close and personal with that endearing, imperfect background fuzz that isn’t filtered out. The exposure of summer is dialed back, the edges of things aren’t as sharp. If you aren’t listening closely you might miss something already off and gone on the cool breeze. Summer is forward go, go, go and fall turns back, on a time that lingers in the doorway long enough for you to turn around and say that thing you’ve been meaning to say. It rocks back on its heels and breathes.

Autumn is the true romance season.

Because of the feeling of the sleeves that fall a little over their knuckles that get trapped between their palms when they hold hands.

And that one time at a bonfire Lance grabbed both sides of the collar of his button-up shirt to drag him into a kiss?

There was solid merit there.

Lance had a habit of telling Keith obvious things and it would eventually be at a later date that it would knock Keith off his feet.

Some of those times Lance let a little of their old competitveness slip into the moment with them, but this time it’s a little undermined by the hand that Lance is dragging up and down Keith’s back. “King of romance, remember?”

He-

In Keith’s experience, Lance isn’t wrong in that regard.

“Bar could be argued to have been set pretty low, though.” (Lance’s brand of romance is just that - Lance’s.)

Lance scoffs, but it happens in the same moment he wraps his arm around Keith to bring him close enough for Lance to turn and kiss into his mess of hair.

It isn’t like this all of the time.

They turn through phases where they just want to be around each other as much as possible.

Days where happiness and feelings catch up to them and words are short, but it’s all understood. Still a continual, silent conversation passing between them when they slide into one of their beds so Keith can watch Lance play Animal Crossing until they fall asleep. Completely and utterly hopeless in being with their person.

Not necessarily before every trip that separates them.

It’s just that it’s peak romance season and they have mutual free time so….

So the next morning when Lance is going back over his bag, triple checking that he’s got everything packed, Keith keeps a sharp eye on the hoodie neatly folded beside the open duffel bag. It’s something of a miracle that Lance hasn’t already accidentally packed it.

But a deal’s been made and Keith has no intention of letting that mistake happen.

Not in this house.

When Lance is happy after unpacking and repacking his bag two times, he turns to Keith with his hands on his hips and a smirk tugging at the corner of his mouth. “I’ll make sure to keep an eye out for cool rocks to bring back to you.”

The eye roll Keith gives him is too fond to be mistaken for anything else, his voice soft around the edges. “You do realize we’re not 8, right?”

Lance strides up to him, landing a soft punch to Keith’s shoulder. “Fine, then I’ll just keep all of the neat forest things I find to myself.”

Keith catches his hand and pulls him in, takes this moment - before Hunk eventually pulls into the driveway to pick Lance up - to wind his arms around his boyfriend. “Now don’t get hasty.”

Lance will come back with odyssey long stories, paint the wide expanse of sky and stars into Keith’s bedroom ceiling and he’ll still smell like the campfires, pine, and cool air of fall. And yes, maybe even the occasional rock or leaf.

Instead of needling Keith a little more, Lance closes the distance between them and muffles his laughter against Keith’s mouth. When he pulls away, Keith tries to follow after him to make the moment last a little longer, to get Lance breathless with his smile ear to ear and a flush high on his cheeks, but Lance is on a mission.

He takes the hoodie folded on Keith’s bed and holds it between them, presses the familiar, soft material into Keith’s hands. “I believe this belongs to you for the next week.”

Keith doesn’t waste a moment wrapping his hands around the hoodie, doesn’t have any interest in feigning indifference or ignorance or any of the other aloof -ence and -ance attitudes penned to his name. “We’ll see if you get it back.”

“Hey, you know that one’s my favorite.” Lance halfheartedly tries to wrestle it out of Keith’s hands, but it only ends with him wrapping his arms back around Keith. His hands clasped together resting at the small of Keith’s back. “Now you have to hold up your end of the bargain.”

“Bold of you to assume you’d let me go to get to the closet.”

“We can make this work.”

“You’re ridiculous.”

“And yet, you’re still here.”

Still in his arms. Still making a gross amount of affectionate eye contact.

Keith raises his eyebrows, smirk ticking up one side of his mouth as Lance groans and drops his arms.

Before this, before Lance, it hadn’t been a particular thing he had spent much time thinking on. His clothes were his clothes and that applied to his partner, but Lance swept in and shook up Keith’s ideas on the cliché and got him hooked on it. Keith still feels a little spark and warmth in his chest as he moves Lance’s hoodie to drape over his arm so he can find the shirt he’s looking for and slip it off the hanger.

A deal’s a deal.

He tosses it to Lance.

Doesn’t miss the way his long, tan fingers run carefully over the fabric and buttons of Keith’s red flannel shirt before putting it on over his gray t-shirt.

He grins up at Keith— “Pleasure doing business with you.”

Keith eats up Lance’s expression he comes fast for him, gets his hands on the collar or his flannel shirt and yanks Lance forward.

#klance #Keith Kogane #Lance McClain #VLD #ngl i almost included glasses for lance bc i'm basic #writing tag

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whatcouldgowrong-ohthat · 5 years ago

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Good Luck, Sir (Tony x Tall!Reader One shot)

Alright, this is for @hopingforbarnes’s challenge! Make sure to congratulate them on their awesome follower accomplishment!! I really do like writing for Tony - whether he just makes a small appearance in one of my fics or it’s for something like this. And we all know that RDJ is only 5′8, so…I had to take advantage of that detail to.

Pairing: Tony x Tall!Reader

Dialogue Prompt: “I love you.” “Really? That’s a horrible decision.”

Summary: It seems Tony enjoys surrounding himself with people that are honest and blunt. And Y/N is no exception.

Anthony Edward Stark did not make mistakes as a child. He wasn’t allowed to. No, it was his responsibility to be perfect. To prove how brilliant he was. And even when he “acted out”, it was never deemed a mistake. Those were poor choices. They had to be. The idea of a Stark making a mistake was worse than a Stark ruining the family name. For some reason, in the eyes of his dear, dead father, the two were not the same.

But now, Tony was living by his own rules. He rewrote Stark Industries’ purpose. He changed what it meant to be a Stark. And when he became Ironman, he learned that making mistakes was just as important as learning from them. There was no shame in it. However, it didn’t make those mistakes any less frustrating when they did occur.

“You’re not going to figure it out on ten cups of coffee and a half hour of sleep.”

Tony paused only briefly when he heard that voice. Oh, she would be the death of him. He was sure of it. He peeked out from around the Iron-suit, eyes landing on one of his favorite people.

Y/N Y/L/N.

She stood in the doorway, commanding attention with barely any work on her part. Judging by her outfit, she had just gotten back from some press conference Pepper probably dragged her to. With her skirt, matching blazer, and maroon button up, she screamed professional. And judging by the pinched-up brow, irritated frown, and the four-inch heels she was wearing – she had gotten some unnecessary comments from imbecilic press.

“I’m going to revoke your privileges to J.A.R.V.I.S if you keep using it for my caffeine intake.”

“I dare you to try. You know Rhodey and Pepper would be hounding your ass if you even thought to try it again.”

She has a point, Sir.

“Shut it, J.A.R.V.I.S,” Tony ordered, glaring up at the ceiling as Y/N strode across the room. He didn’t like knowing that even the A.I. was on Y/N’s side. Didn’t he create the thing?

“So what’s up with it?”

Tony jumped. He looked over his shoulder to see that Y/N had managed to come around and join him in the few moments he’d been lost in his thoughts. Running a hand over his face, he looked back at the suit that seemed to be taunting him. He had no idea what was up with it.

“The unibeam keeps short circuiting. Twenty five percent of it never makes it out of the suit. It just –“

“Please, tell me you haven’t been frying yourself with this thing, Tony.”

He smiled innocently. Or was that really his guilty conscious just trying to hide how guilty he truly was?

“Tony!”

“I’m fine.”

“Bullshit.” She straightened, easily towering over his height. Her y/e/c eyes pierced through his and he knew he wasn’t getting out of this. “Sit your ass down and let me see the damage.”

“Are you trying to get me to strip? Hey!” Tony yelped when she caught him by his arm, hauling him to the nearest chair. Really, while anybody else would be fired for this, Y/N was the only one who could get away with it. Pepper hauled out Tony’s “trash” and Y/N hauled Tony. It was the way the world worked. Sitting him in his chair, he slid back a couple feet and huffed as she placed her hands on her hips.

“Shirt. Off. Now.”

Tony didn’t even bother to hide the grin that curled his lips. He loved that Y/N never felt the need to withhold herself around him. That lack of a filter was a necessity for Tony’s life. Anyone who knew him was well aware of that. After all, having brutally honest, sarcastic people in his life was the best way to keep his ego in check.

But Tony would never actually admit that to them. Not even Y/N.

“Yes, ma’am.” Tony stripped off the shirt. The blue hue of the arc reactor made the burns on his skin look almost purple. “Oops?”

Y/N’s gaze had been fixated on the burns. Her worry was evident but hearing that lighthearted tone in his voice earned a sharp glare. She crouched in front of him, hands brushing against the burns.

He flinched. “Your hand’s cold.”

“Your chest is warm. What’s your point?” She stood and walked over to his desk, shuffling through drawers until she found some cream for the burns. Clearly this hadn’t been the first time Tony had burned himself. But hey, mistakes happen. Returning to his side, she started applying the cream to his chest. She could tell by the way he flinched that he hadn’t gotten around to tending to these yet. “You’re so sensitive,” she muttered.

“But you love me anyway.” He smirked as she raised an eyebrow.

“You really do come up with some of the craziest ideas, don’t you?” She shook her head, focusing on the burns once again.

He watched her. The way the light haloed around her hair. How fixated she was on tending to his wounds. The way her lashes framed her eyes. He never really got the chance to look at her up close like this.

“You tend to miss the basics when it comes to the suit.” She looked at him. Her own smirk appeared when she noticed that he had been staring. “Check the wiring around the unibeam. I’d bet money you just need to fix a couple of those.” Tossing the burn cream on the nearby table, she handed him back his shirt. “Anything else you need, Mr. Stark?”

“Can you stay while I see if you’re right?”

Y/N was quiet, simply nodding as they traded. She took a seat in the chair he had once preoccupied, watching as he stepped back to the suit. Watching the man at work was interesting, she had to admit it. She could watch him tinker away for hours.

“J.A.R.V.I.S., check Y/N’s theory, would ya?” Tony asked as the suit started to separate into so many different pieces.

I already had, Sir. I simply hadn’t said anything because – like Miss Y/L/N said – you tend to miss the basics.

Tony grimaced, running a hand along his jaw. “So I’m guessing that means – “

That Miss Y/L/N was right. Yes, Mr. Stark.

Tony laughed. Whether it was at himself or because of the situation, Y/N couldn’t tell, but she certainly enjoyed being the person that reminded Tony of how easy it was to mess up. “Am I free to go now?”

“You have to be the cockiest assistant I’ve ever had,” Tony said, huffing as he finally found the wires that needed fixing.

“But you love me,” Y/N mocked.

“Got that right.”

Fuck.

Silence fell between the two of them. Tony could practically feel the side of his head begin to smoke with the way Y/N was watching him. He probably shouldn’t have admitted that out loud. And certainly not in that exact moment. “What did you say?”

“Uh…”

“Tony.” The chair scraped against the floor, squeaking as she stood.

Bracing himself for whatever commentary she could possibly have prepared, he was surprised when he still heard nothing. He turned around. Because of the platform he was currently standing on, he was eye level with her for once. Well…maybe just under. But that wasn’t important.

No, the look she was giving him was what was important.

“I love you.”

“Really?”

Tony wasn’t sure what to say. How could he make it any more clear? He couldn’t. “Yes. I love you. And that might be utterly ridiculous and – “

“Shut up.”

“Can I remind you that I am your boss?”

“You can.” She stepped closer, toes barely against the platform.

Tony watched, unable to stop himself from walking to the edge of the platform. “Why do I feel like there’s a ‘but’ in here somewhere?”

She laughed, raising a hand and smoothing out the mess of hair that he called “styled”. “That’s a horrible decision.”

“It’s a…horrible decision to remind you of our roles?” He pondered the thought before asking, “Is that the same as a mistake?”

“Depends on who you ask.” That glint in her eyes, the way she smiled, it was clear she reciprocated what he had confessed.

“But don’t I get to make the rules for something like that?”

She laughed. “Not if you want to date me.”

Oh, he loved that laugh. More so than he had realized. It wasn’t until he saw how much she genuinely cared that he realized he had been hung up on her this whole time. She was fascinating and kind. “Then let me fix that? I can start with buying you a coffee.”

“Yeah…that’s where we can start.”

“Lock up, would you, J.A.R.V.I.S.?”

Yes, Sir. And might I just say – this does mean that Happy won the pool as to when you and Miss Y/L/N would be ‘hooking up’ as the term goes.

“Unbelievable,” Tony muttered.

“Is it really? They’re your friends.”

“Yeah, remind me to get new ones.”

“A joke, I’m sure.”

“We’ll see.”

The two left the lab. As the door clicked closed, the lights shut off one by one until there was only the single light above the Iron-suit.

Then, it too turned off.

Good luck, Sir. I’m sure you’ll need it.

—-

@hopingforbarnes

#tony stark x reader #tony stark x you #tony stark x tall!reader #tony stark x y/n #hopingforbarnes250writingchallenge

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sixinsultsago · 6 years ago

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Given my understanding of how media and talk shows work (re: the 'do whatever it takes for the views' mindset) and his track record, Neil gets a lot gigs where another guest surprises him on set.

The other guests are usually people he has a media relationship with: so-called enemies, best friends, rumoured girlfriends, etc. Everyone wants an honest reaction from him, so the surprises keep on coming and Neil, with frantic reminders from his PR manager about his stupid contract, grits his teeth through all of it.

Sometimes it's okay: twice it's been Matt (the second time because of their "chemistry" on screen), a lot of the time it's Kevin, which is a hit-or-miss depending on how many unread texts Neil has from him at that very moment. It is not completely bad.

But he's met people he genuinely doesn't like, too. As well as people he's never even heard of. It's kind of a mixed bag.

Then, of course, at the height of the Minyard-Josten Rivalry, the morning after Andrew texted him 'I'll be stopping by after I do this thing', making it impossible to focus for the rest of the day, Neil is sitting on a couch discussing his team's chances of making it to the finals when the host interrupts to say,

"Now, I've heard rumors that you're butting heads with another Exy player recently."

"Always am," Neil agrees, sticking to the script. The studio audience laughs even though it wasn't a joke and Neil wasn't trying to be funny.

"But this one is different," says the host, "this person, you used to go to college with. You shared the locker room with him for four years. Hell, according to old clips from your PSU days, you two had a partnership that rivaled yours and Kevin Day's. I guess what I'm wondering --- what we're all wondering --- is... what happened?"

He hasn't said a name yet, probably because it's unnecessary. There isn't a whole lot of candidates that speech could apply to. So Neil gets antsy, as he always does when Andrew is brought up by someone who doesn't know, tries to keep it short and sweet.

"Distance might have been a factor in our new relationship," he says, and it isn't technically a lie. He still feels bad. He feels bad every time he can't just say how it really is--- "I assume you're talking about Andrew."

"None other! Well, if distance is the reason your partnership has deteriorated so much, I have some... I don't know if it's good news, exactly, but I certainly have news. Try not to hate us for this, Neil," The host winks slyly. What he really means is: Go on, speak your mind! Destroy this guy! I need the views!

Neil wants to scowl. Neil wants to get up. Neil wants to storm off backstage, but Neil can't because this is his fucking job. He's intimate with the roundabout way hosts go about introducing a surprise guest; the build-up differs every time, but Neil's familiar with all incarnations. This time, his heart is beating like fists against a glass ribcage. He could shatter, here. In front of all these people.

The live band plays.

The host grandly introduces, "Exy's infamous monster in the goal, Andrew Minyard!" and there he is, there he is, striding out from behind a curtain, dressed completely in black, lips pressed together, expression completely stale.

He could be misunderstood for implacable, except his walk is stiffer than usual; Andrew doesn't get stiff, because Andrew is never caught on his back foot. So. He had no idea this was happening either.

They're both off-balance.

This is dangerous.

Neil can twist truths, but he doesn't lie anymore, and his something with Andrew is too important for him to ignore. Not even for fifteen minutes.

Their adoring audience is roaring. Andrew sits beside him on the couch, his thigh glued to Neil's to make up for how he isn't looking at Neil --- he's glaring at their host.

It's been months.

Neil tries three times before he can speak. All that comes out is, "Andrew."

It is soft, worn out like a favorite t-shirt and just as thin. Neil sounds like a stranger. He sounds absolutely fucking smitten. This is incredibly dangerous. Neil can't pretend he isn't in love with Andrew when they're sitting right next to each other. He just can't.

In hindsight he should have seen this coming: ever since rumors of their rivalry began, they were set on this trajectory.

He worries that he's blown it for all of one second: by the time his heart thuds a second time, he has Andrew's undivided attention, his entire body swinging back to its true north. It's hard to worry about anything, now. His gaze is intense and focused since he's pissed off, but the scowl lines ease a bit, and he's whispering, "Neil," like his tongue is cradling the vowels, smoothing away the harsher consonants.

"Hi," Neil murmurs.

"Surprise," replies Andrew, utterly bland. Neil almost laughs, which Andrew notices. Their thighs press closer.

The entire interview goes along the same line. Andrew calls him a workaholic, an anti-social loner, a gym rat who has an addictive personality and an unhealthy obsession with his job. Neil tells everyone that Andrew has cheat days every day, that he once missed a game in his first year as Pro because he fucked up his stomach with too many pints of ice cream, that he has two cats with the most ridiculous names. Andrew pulls on his ear. Neil tries not to lean into it.

Andrew and Neil don't come out.

Their host gets this look on his face whenever they spiral away from a question, caught up in their own momentum. Neil doesn't yell, or bitch, or make snide comments --- No. Neil grins when Andrew is sarcastic, he blushes when Andrew so much as looks at him, he laughs so hard he has to hold onto Andrew's biceps. Neil is so incandescently happy he's dizzy on it.

"So," their host starts. His voice cracks, and he looks poleaxed by the turn of events. "So. The rivalry. I --- I take it the, uh, should we it a relationship?"

Andrew throws his arm across the back of the couch, staring directly at their host. It's a blatant challenge. "Call it whatever you want."

"Relationship, then. Um. So, your relationship is not exactly as the press has reported it. You two seem --- stronger than ever, really. Like you never stopped being friends."

"We aren't friends," Neil snorts. Were they ever? He can't recall when they shifted from enemies to trusted, from trusted to --- other things. Andrew's attraction blindsided Neil almost as much as the realization that it was, indeed, reciprocated. But it never felt like his relationship with Matt, his purest reference for friendship.

The host lowers his voice, asks, "Can I ask? I think it's the question on everyone's mind right now, the burning question. If you aren't rivals and you aren't friends, what are you?"

Not boyfriends; it isn't deep enough. Not partners; Andrew hates the ambiguity of it. They're neither too fanciful for soulmates and neither have proposed yet, won't until marriage is legal and the title of fiancé isn't a dead end. "I don't know," Neil glances at Andrew, who is inspecting his manicure with studied disinterest. "Roomates, I guess."

#aftg #tfc #andrew minyard #neil josten #the foxhole court #andreil #mine #this.......got long #andreil social media #i love thinking of their fame tbh #this got super long #writing #its so rambly it counts as a fic tbh.... i'll edit it in the morning #its super fun to imagine these guys doing celebrity stuff. like what ads does andrew do? who sponsors him?#idk...#andreil fic

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ask-runaan-anything · 5 years ago

Note

Beside the time where you ended up as pocket change, what is the craziest thing that happened during a mission?

Your definition of “craziest” is likely different than mine, little shadow, and my mission reports are what I like to call varied, but there was the time when our target was a member of the XHRS--Xadian HIstorical Reenactment Society--and we had to infiltrate a reenactment of a hundred-year-old battle in order to take her.

She was a veteran general, a brilliant tactician, and an ardent student of history, and she’d used the most cunning and cutthroat tactics against Xadian forces for four decades. She’d seen every one of our other assassination attempts coming, and she’d killed far too many of my fellow assassins. We needed to stop feeling superior to her and begin studying her, as she studied the past.

Her favorite tactics were human spins on Moonshadow thinking. I realized we needed to respect that instead of dismiss it as luck every time. And so I turned her tactics against her. We spent weeks choosing and shadowing our cover targets--humans who would dress as elves for the reenactment--memorizing their idioms, their gait, their favored hands and fighting styles. And on the day of the battle reenactment, we secured these humans and took their places. Right down to the utterly inaccurate war paint and ridiculously sized fake horns drenched in blood. who fights like that honestly the whole mission was like living in an au

They’d been chosen because they were our height and size, but also for the roles they would play in the battle, giving us tactical positioning. We essentially memorized two battle plans: the reenactment plan for our roles, and our own plan to take our formidable target.

The field was utter chaos, and the ground fog made things worse. Not for us, but for the humans around us. I’ve been in real battles, but I’ve never quite felt existential dread like that anywhere else--one too many illusions, perhaps. Or the subpar bow I had to use. The human commanding my archery unit was quite the screamer. He really enjoyed getting into character. At one point, he threatened to lop off my ear points for disobedience. And let me paint this picture clearly for you, little shadow: the humans-as-elves used pig ears for their elf ears, and my human commander was wearing a string of them around his neck. He wasn’t joking.

We had to “fight” for hours until the battle reached the point where the lines surged and broke. The actual taking was swift. My arrow found her eye and she went down. But then we had to remain in character until the Moon rose and we could slip away into the forest. Standing there in plain sight for another hour while her guards began searching every archer on the field took a lot of trust in my fellow assassins. They did everything they could to distract and confuse the search by moving the elven reenactors around and claiming groups had already been searched. My life was in their hands, and they kept me undiscovered. We slipped away home, and the war with the human kingdoms has been much quieter ever since.

I still have those fake bloody horns at home. The general would’ve taken mine as a trophy if she’d caught me. My trophy horns are a reminder never to underestimate humans just because they’re human.

#ask runaan #runaan answers #mission report

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eldritchsurveys · 5 years ago

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653.

Do you struggle to articulate your thoughts and feelings? >> I do. Outworld, anyway.

Have you ever watched a Sons of Anarchy? >> No.

Do you want to see The Woman In Black? >> I never got around to watching it, it never piqued my interest enough.

Has a random guy ever asked you for your phone number? >> Yes. I’m so glad those days are over.

Has a guy ever pulled over to ask for your number or call you hot? >> Probably.

How attracted are you to the last person that kissed you? >> There is no way in which I am not attracted to Can Calah.

Name something that you are doing tonight. >> Fucking around online.

Are you a jealous person? >> Not in the slightest.

Do you like February? >> I mean, there’s really nothing much to like, per se? It’s not a very interesting month.

Where have you lived throughout your life? >> Quite a few places.

Have you ever known a white supremacist? >> Sure, online. Maybe in meatspace too, if they were covert.

What were you doing an hour ago? >> I was either watching Hannibal or reading my emails.

In regards to who do you think 'what if?'? >> ???

Do you like the smell of a barbecue? >> Sure do.

Do you get excited when you find Sanrio products at Wal-Mart? >> I don’t recall ever having a distinct experience of finding Sanrio products at Walmart. But I don’t imagine it’d surprise me or anything, considering Hello Kitty is a widely distributed brand...

Are you 420 friendly? >> Yes. I can’t really partake because of personal issues, but I support its usage for those who enjoy it.

Do you own a Champion's sport bra? >> No.

Do you watch Justified? >> No.

How many cups of tea of coffee do you have in a day? >> Zero, most of the time. I might have a cup of tea or two if I can manage to get my executive function on board. I love tea but making it is a different story...

Do you own a varsity jacket? >> No.

Dolce Vita or Jeffrey Campbell? >> What?

Ryan Gosling or Channing Tatum? >> Ryan Gosling, only because of like. Drive.

Has anyone ever called you apathetic or unemotional? >> Certainly.

Would you rather someone you loved passionately hate you or be indifferent to you? >> I can’t imagine feeling that intensely for someone who doesn’t have any positive feelings towards me whatsoever. It just doesn’t add up for me personally.

Have you read Wuthering Heights or Jane Eyre? >> No.

I bet you miss somebody right now? >> Well, you lost that bet.

What are you planning on doing after this? >> Probably check out what’s going on on my dashboard for a bit.

How much money do you spend in a month on clothes or accessories? >> Usually none. I haven’t bought any new wearables since October.

What was the last clothing item you wore that doesn't belong to you? >> Probably some t-shirt of Sparrow’s. We have similar tastes in t-shirts and wear the same size.

Do you watch Jersey Shore? >> No.

Do you have a thing with someone? >> What...

Do you have any bruises on either of your legs? >> No.

Who was the last person to touch your stomach? >> The last person outworld to touch my stomach would have probably been a doctor or something.

Something tragic just happened. Does your facial expression show it? >> I mean, I guess it depends... the flatness of my affect is an ever-changing element.

Who is the cleverest (crafty) person you know? >> *shrug*

Do you think people who know a lot of facts are really smart? >> I think they’re people who have a great ability in retaining information. Which one could argue is a factor in intelligence, I’d imagine.

Do you ever feel like strangers look mad at you? >> Er, sometimes, I guess.

Do you own anything with your state or providence's name on it? >> No.

How often do you hold back from saying what you are thinking? >> Quite often, because people don’t really need or necessarily want to know what I’m thinking all the time?

Do you like the Paranormal Activity movies? >> Never seen them.

How do you like your oatmeal? >> Thick and still chewy, with milk and clarified butter and maple syrup and cinnamon.

Do you have siblings under the age of 12? >> No.

Are you going to any concerts this summer? >> I don’t know what I’m doing this summer, it’s months away.

What do you watch on TV on a Monday? >> So, I don’t watch regular television. Tuesday? Wednesday? Thursday? Friday? Saturday? Sunday?

Is there anything you want that you can't have? >> Sure, like a well-functioning brain.

Does it make you feel better when an ex starts dating someone unattractive? >> ---

How many brick and mortar schools have you attended? >> Like, 12.

How do you feel about opiates? >> I don’t have any feelings about them.

Do you like True Blood? >> God, I loved that show so much. I might rewatch it just because it’s utterly ridiculous and stupid and fun. Also because Lafayette is in it and I have rarely loved a character more than him.

What's your newest perfume? >> ---

What's your favorite perfume? >> I use a roll-on oil that you can buy, like, on the streets in big urban areas. Which makes it hard to get for me. There’s also one of those hippie stores in the mall that sells a roll-on that’s close enough, I guess. But nothing beats the street-vendor version.

Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint, or Tom Felton? >> No.

Are you a Hunger Games fan? >> I did like the books.

What's your favorite way to eat peanut butter? >> On toast.

What is the last thing you stole? >> I don’t remember the last time I stole something. I finally quit like 5 years ago or so.

Urban Outfitters or Forever21? >> No.

American Eagle or Macy's? >> Mm.

PacSun or Zumiez? >> Nah.

Can you play any musical instruments? >> Nope.

Do you think Selena Gomez is cute? >> I have no opinion on Selena Gomez.

Do you fall in infatuation easily? >> I don’t fall in infatuation at all.

Who has initiated most of your first kisses? >> ---

Do you have Netflix? >> Yes. Honestly, I’m beginning to hate Netflix, but I keep it for the household (and for our friend that also uses my account).

Do you have a good memory? >> Yeah, it’s fine.

What did you wear to bed last-night? >> Same shit I’m wearing right now.

What gives you anxiety? >> Oh, you know. Stuff.

What's the last movie that really scared you? >> I can’t think of any movie I felt that way about.

How did you get the shirt you're wearing? >> I bought it. Probably at Hot Topic.

Why do some guys take shirtless mirror pictures when they don't have abs? >> Because they fucking want to lmao god

Do you think lines are as good as abs? >> What. Also fuck abs.

Do you like bows? >> I like bowties...

Have you ever made a 'haul' YouTube video? >> No.

Have you ever been to Indiana? >> I’ve rode through it on the way to Chicago.

Do you straighten your hair almost every day? >> No.

What kind of a guy do you imagine when you hear the name 'Tim'? >> I don’t imagine any kind of person.

What brand is starting to invade your closet? >> None.

Have you ever seen those Flapjack cartoons? >> No.

Has a boyfriend ever made you breakfast? >> Sure. Raven did that a lot. He was a good lad.

Do you think all porn stars are whores? >> No. In fact, I don’t think any porn stars are whores, because I think whore is a derogatory term and I have no business calling people that when they’re just trying to make a living doing something they (presumably) enjoy. Just like everyone else.

Would you date an 18 year old at the age you are now? >> No. I also wouldn’t date, period, but. Definitely not a teenager.

Do you like cinnamon bacon? >> I’ve never had it, but it sounds like it might be good.

Do you like Epic Meal Time? >> I’ve never watched it.

Have you ever starved yourself? >> No. I never had the willpower. Which is a good thing, I’d imagine.

What do you gather your change in? >> I don’t get enough change to need a place to put it.

Do you like to play Angry Birds? >> I tried it back when it was popular, but it didn’t stick.

Are you more likely to show affection through your words or your actions? >> Actions.

Would you agree that all love is conditional? >> I mean, it is for me. I can’t say that it is for everyone else because I’m not everyone else and people experience love in all sorts of ways.

Do you listen to Darwin Deez or Birdy? >> No.

Do you think Mac Miller is overrated? >> I don’t even know anything about Mac Miller. Except that he’s dead? I think? Might be confusing him with someone else for all I know.

Do you know who Mac Lethal is? >> No.

Do you like Cheez-Its? >> No.

What color is your so's car? >> Sparrow’s car is silver.

Do you believe in God? >> God just doesn’t really factor into my life most of the time.

#surveys #survey #random survey

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thetygre · 6 years ago

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30 Day Monster Challenge 2 - Day #19: Favorite Minions/Henchmen

1. Minions (Overlord [Video Game])

There is only one creature we call ‘Minion’ in this house, and it is the Minions from Overlord. (The game, not the anime.) The Minions are the perfect… well, minions. They’re design is mostly goofy, but there’s also something kind of horrible to them; they’re like somebody threw an imp, a spider monkey, and a goblin in a sack and didn’t open it up again until the screaming stopped. Those buggy yellow eyes, the hunched backs, the crooked tails, the shrill voices; this is what pops into my head when I think of what an evil minion is supposed to be like. They are utterly and totally devout to their master; they have one purpose in life, and that is to serve you. They think absolutely nothing of throwing themselves into a forge just to upgrade your weapons or taking on a monster just because you tell them to.

Watching them swarm over a cyclops like a nest of army ants is always fun, but that hivemind mentality shouldn’t be mistaken for a lack of individual. The Minions are kind of precursors to the uruks from Shadow of Mordor; the longer they live and the more fights they survive, the more unique they become. They’re given names and titles, and they start gathering weapons and armor. It’s never made clear what exactly the Minions are in Overlord, but the implication isn’t that an Overlord chooses them; they choose the Overlord. Without the Minions, and Overlord is just some spooky adventurer in a suit of armor. The Minions make the man, and the fact that you need them as much as they need you is a pretty interesting power dynamic.

2. X-49 (Samurai Jack)

Just… do I really have to say anything? It was one of the best episodes in Samurai Jack, one of the best animated series of all time. And the music and the writing and the cinematography and oh god it’s all coming back at once

3. Igor (Young Frankenstein)

There never was an Igor in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein; he’s a fabricated character at least partially concocted from Edgar Allan Poe’s Hop-Frog that somehow wormed himself into horror mythology. And honestly, thank goodness for that or we wouldn’t have had Marty Feldman’s fantastic performance for Young Frankenstein. Feldman looks like he was born for the role; his exophthalmos was a problem he dealt with his entire life, but Igor is just one example of how he incorporated his condition into his comedy personas. Igor is a good comedic counterpart to Gene Wilder’s Frankenstein in a classic double-act kind of way. Where Wilder’s Frankenstein is driven to escape his destiny or conform to it, Feldman’s Igor is committed to his role from the beginning, with no real perspective on it in the grand scheme of things. Igor undercuts Frankenstein’s deliberate melodrama to remind the audience that it’s all a joke.

4. Kobolds (Dungeons and Dragons)

Kobolds are one of the greatest success stories in tabletop roleplaying monsters. Kobolds have been in Dungeons and Dragons since the beginning, but they spent 1st and 2nd edition as basically another kind of goblin. Outside a few rare exceptions, kobolds were just an adventurer’s in-between step as they transitioned from clearing out rats in cellars to goblins in caves. For 3rd edition, the designers felt they needed to give kobolds something; a hook, a feature, a raison d’etre. So the design team though, “What if the littlest monsters had dreams about being the biggest? What if kobolds thought they were dragons?” The rest is history; kobolds became dragon minions, cultists who firmly believe that they are descended from the great wyrms they worship. Inside ever little kobold beats the heart of a mighty dragon, and their pluck and determination pushes them to reach for heights most humanoid races never even dream of. Kobolds are not only great examples of how to make a monster interesting from a game design perspective, but also of how endearing characters can be when you give them goals.

5. Pleiades (Overlord [Anime])

It always bothers me when evil overlords leave their castle staff of their minions list. A great villain should have their power displayed in everything around them, from their captains to their cooks. That’s why Ainz Ooal Gown’s Pleiades are so great; the castle maids for an evil fortress, each on is an individual fighter with her own superpowers. Following organization rules, each of the maids is also a monster; werewolves, shapeshifting oozes, a sentient swarm of insects, etc. And that’s the kind of creativity and attention to detail I love to see in an evil overlord’s forces. Look at where there isn’t a superpowered minion, and say, “No, this will not do. More evil.”

6. Hunchbacks (Castlevania)

I remember that my mind was blown when I finally realized the ‘fleamen’ from Castlevania were supposed to be hunchbacked Igors. While I was kind of disappointed that bizarre insect men hybrids, I am still happy that Castlevania didn’t neglect a favorite horror trope. Castlevania actually has a pretty unique staff; undead maids, zombie butchers, a plague doctor groundskeeper, and skeleton butlers. But it wasn’t until the Lords of Shadow games that the hunchbacks started being explored. One of the good things about Lords of Shadow was the implication that Castlevania itself is alive; the castle has always existed, and can’t even really be fully pulled through to our world. When the castle needs repairs, though, someone to repair it and expand it, it summons the hunchbacks out of nowhere. The hunchbacks are tied to the castle; they’re like cells in its body. They might know more about Castlevania itself than even Dracula, but they aren’t letting on. Their only job is to serve their master, whoever or whatever it might be.

7. Maleficent’s Goblins (Sleeping Beauty)

Maleficent’s goblins are little bundles of medieval monstrosity with enough character to be charming. They’re like the Minions, where I honestly can’t imagine them existing without a master. It wouldn’t surprise me if it turned out they were just demons conjured up by Maleficent from her firepit. The odds and ends of medieval armor and weaponry on top of their gargoyle aesthetic makes me think of very early Tolkien, like the first covers for The Hobbit and Return of the King. These little guys were the forerunners to orcs, uruk-hai, parademons, and every other evil monster army. Sometimes I still wish we could go back to minions like these.

8. Lurch (Addams Family)

The quintessential creepy butler. I feel like Lurch parallels Marty Feldman’s Igor in some pretty interesting ways. They’re both essentially half a joke, part of a comedy routine that requires someone else to land the punchline. The difference is that while Igor undermined Frankenstein to lighten the mood, Luch is deadly serious to contrast the Addams’ playfulness. Lurch wasn’t just a straight-man; he was a brick wall that you could throw anything off of. To be honest, I always kind of wondered what exactly Lurch was; I never really thought of him as human. My favorite theories are either that he was a flesh golem (since he was clearly based off Karloff’s Frankenstein), a homunculus grown for the family and passed down through generations, or just some really tall guy in a suit.

9. Dwergi (Van Helsing)

The Dwergi in Van Helsing have an unnecessarily cool design for what amounts to being Dracula’s grunts. The goggles, spines, and full leather outfits make me think of aliens or something that would be working for Clive Barker’s Cenobites. I can’t help but think of the ‘jawas’ that were through the gate in Phantasm. But I think that I love the Dwergi most as concepts for evil dwarves; ‘dwergi’ most likely derives from ‘dvergar’, a German word for dwarf. There are even evil dwarves in Dungeons and Dragons named duergar and derro. And that connections opens up so many possibilities for me. Imagine a dwarven sub-race mutated to be classical Igor characters, or adventurers encountering derro dressed all in mad scientist gear underground. The Dwergi have hidden depths when you know where to look.

10. Stormtroopers (Star Wars)

Out of the standard henchmen armies, Stormtroopers are still my favorite. Stormtroopers are up there with Red Shirts in terms of incompetence and mortality rates. Every now and then some random Stormtrooper manages to stand out and look like a badass, but even they usually have a lifespan of however long until the heroes arrive. I’ve heard some people argue that the humanizing elements of Stormtroopers, the way they talk about their day or are just trying to do a job, makes the very Nazi-coded Empire too sympathetic. But I would argue the opposite; the human aspects of the Stormtroopers make it clear how actually farcical the whole Empire is. The Stormtroopers aren’t some elite kill-force, they’re bumbling idiots. Whatever brutal efficiency they’re ascribed usually happens off-screen, and it quickly gets drowned out by the chorus of Wilhelm screams heard while trooper after trooper dies ridiculously. The Stormtroopers make it clear how fascism doesn’t raise the individual up but uses them as a disposable resource. The Stormtroopers as human characters make the Empire look inept, not empowered.

#30 Day Monster Challenge 2 #30 Day Monster Challenge #overlord #samurai jack #star wars #addams family #dungeons and dragons #long post

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zombiiesque · 3 years ago

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Nocturne Alchemy Summer Limited Reviews

Originally published on 7/2/2019

Yikes. So I never finished my Vaults, did I? Well, I'll have to come back to it! Right now, I have a few reviews I wanted to get posted from the Nocturne Alchemy Summer Limited Collection release. I'm also including a brief review of the PC Eternal Egypt, for reference purposes! I chose three perfumes, and they sent me one of their choice because I won a giveaway on their business FB page. So what I have here, in the picture, is Eternal Egypt Summer, Eternal Egypt Ambre, Chamomile, Vanilla & Spice Tea, and Apricot Sugar. The sample is Kashmir, which is the free sample while available, that they send along with orders. Any of you who have been following me for a while know that Kashmir is one of my favorites! Let's hop right to it, shall we?

First off, I want to talk about one of my desert island scents - Eternal Egypt. I'll be brief, but I think it's helpful for comparison to the two special versions I picked from the Summer LC. The NA site has this description: Eternal Egypt (Signature Blend): White Amber, Red Egyptian Musk, Egyptian Amber and the sands of Egypt.

I started off with a sample of this many moons ago, and at first I was a little leery - I had ridiculously bad luck wearing ambers. Smelled like baby powder on my skin. I think I wound up putting the sample in my box for about six months, and one day I dug it out and waved it in front of Jody's nose. Win. He was instantly a fan, and he remains one to this day - it's one of his favorites on me and he can name it when I wear it. I think it's the only one he knows, even though he has others he loves, too. It truly is a signature scent. I graduated from the sample, to a 5ml, and now I have a 10ml I'm flying through. The white amber gives this almost a coconut vibe? This is very bright and fresh, and that sandy note, I don't know how they do it, but this is just such a classy scent. It feels like a high end perfume, but at the same time, it's very easy to wear. I must say this is pretty perfect to represent Egypt - when I wear it, I am transported. I feel like the red musk gives this just the slightest bit of sexiness. If you've tried Crimson, I think that's the red musk here, or something similar, as it's not the bold red musk style of Kashmir. It's clean and a little spicy, and very appealing. The combination of the musk and amber is just totally perfect.

I've added a picture of Eternal Egypt Summer and Eternal Egypt Ambre side by side, so you can see the height difference. Ambre isn't as big as my 10ml original EE, but it's definitely larger than the standard 5ml.

One thing I want to mention, about a lot of Nocturne Alchemy perfumes, and particularly Eternal Egypt: these do get travel shocked. So a little caution note, a little imploring: Please do not judge these by what they smell like when you first get them - and please, please try them on your skin before you dismiss them. They change quite a lot with some rest, and what you smell in the bottle can be very different once it melds with your skin and warms up. Eternal Egypt variations in particular seem to do a lot of "filling out" with age; they get richer, more beautiful - the notes seem to meld and really reach their full potential with a little time in your possession. So my initial reviews will stand, but it's like they're amplified TL;DR? Give these some time. It's summer, it's hot, they've traveled a distance to get to you.

Eternal Egypt Summer is part of the sub-collection Eternal Summer. Notes are: White Amber, Labdanum, Crystalline, a little eNVie saphir Amber, Copal, Guaiac wood, Lavender, NA Chypre accord. I opened this fresh out of the mail (not advised, ever, I have to say, but I have no self-restraint) and I swooned a little. This is pretty different than the original. It's got a cool feel to it. I gave it a few days to rest before I tried it on my skin, but I could kind of tell right away I was going to love this. Converse to the cool feel, there's a warmth here from the copal, a sweetness from the guaiac. The lavender isn't a star, but I think rather blends with the chypre, which is absolutely lovely. I usually like chypres, and this is no exception. You can definitely tell that there's an essence of Eternal Egypt to this, but if you're worried you might be getting a dupe, you're definitely not. How does this make me feel? Like I'm at the beach. It's a perfect, sunny day, the water is a sparkling turquoise, and there's a cool sea breeze on my sun-warmed skin. Yes, this feels like summer to me.

Eternal Egypt Ambre is a part of the 13th anniversary collection. NA says this: Eternal Egypt Anniversary Collection – a reinterpretation with exclusive notes, beautiful blue pearl bottles but most importantly celebrating thirteen years of the original perfume blend from Nocturne Alchemy in four new iterations and limited to 75 bottles each. From the elegant label art to the carefully chosen bottle and the exquisite ingredients, the owner & creator of Nocturne Alchemy (Emerson Hart) wanted the create something to honour the first perfume created at Nocturne Alchemy thirteen years ago. Aging these perfume will bring out the resins and natural notes.

The notes for Eternal Egypt Ambre are: Bastet’s Amber Absolute, Labdanum, Cedar essential, Palo Santo essential, Black Patchouli, Benzoin, Heliotrope, Smoked Balsam of Peru, Italian Lavandin, Black Pepper and White Amber Absolute. Oooof. Well, y'all already know how much I adore Bastet Amber, and here we have my two desert island scents? Okay, that was an obvious gimme. This, too, is pretty obviously different from the original Eternal Egypt. The bottle is GORGEOUS, as is the label! When I first got this, it was far more travel shocked than Eternal Egypt Summer. I couldn't really tell what was going on, and there was almost a black licorice note in the bottle sniff. What? Turns out, that's the palo santo note. It can smell like anise, or minty...but I gave this a good bit of rest before I tried it on my skin. Four days. The anise had calmed down, and I could get an idea of what this was going to be like on my skin, I thought - except, it was so much better than I could have imagined! It absolutely transformed once it warmed up and melded with my skin. Wow. This is more complex, and sexier, than Summer. I'm having a hard time picking out individual notes, that's how well blended this one is. If Summer is bright and fun, a day at the beach - Ambre is a sultry summer night, a slinky black dress, and low slung heels. The palo santo gives this a cool feel, as does the white amber.

Honestly just so glad I chose both of these, I have several variations of Eternal Egypt, because I love it that much, and these are two wonderful additions to my collection. Backup worthy, really.

One of my favorite things Nocturne Alchemy does for their Summer Collections are the Summer Tea and Tea Service. You can read my reviews here, although I've added more that I haven't reviewed from previous collections. The Summer Tea Service reviews are separate, you can find them here. Y'all, it's hot in Florida. And it's hot from April right through December these days. I find myself craving the Summer Teas as soon as it warms up, so they get a lot of wear from me. Green Tea Crimson is easily in my top five all time favorites, ever.

Last year I missed out, but my good friend Heather grabbed Apricot Sugar, and absolutely adored it. So I promised myself if it came back in the Resurgence, I would for sure have to nab it - it seemed like everything she wore it with was perfect, and of course, it was wearable alone. So I chose that for my third bottle, and as I mentioned, I won a giveaway (thanks, y'all, SO much!) on the Nocturne Alchemy business page, for a free bottle of their choice from the LCs. They chose Chamomile, Vanilla & Spice Tea for me. I had already eyed it, because it sounded delightful. The notes for this are: Blue German Chamomile, Bastet’s Ice Cream Accord, Vanilla Bean, Vanilla essence, Black Tea, Cardamom Spice and a little sugar. I love chamomile tea. I have one that's chamomile and vanilla, and it's so soothing, puts me right to sleep! And Jody's mom grows chamomile. This is very realistic. I guess this could possibly go a little floral, but they are such masters at blending, that never happens here. It's got a bit of a floral/herbal tinge to it, for sure, but it's reigned in beautifully by the vanillas. The cardamom is more of a supporting note on my skin, just a slightly spiced warmth, honestly, it's perfection. The balance here is superb. The black tea is something I utterly love, and it adds a little strength to this. Unfh. I've mentioned before, I didn't use to like tea notes, they would go bitter on my skin, but that's never happened with NA, and this is no exception. This is just so appealing! I could not be happier with what they chose for me, I adore it. The ice cream accord adds a tiny bit of foodiness, and it's at the perfect amount. Yum. Obviously, you can easily wear this alone, but I love to layer my Summer Teas with the Tea Service, it just is the perfect compliment. The first time I wore this, I added a little dab of Apricot Sugar, because that's what I had on hand, and it was delightful! I wasn't sure if it was going to wear well with this one, but I have to say if you have both of these you really should try this, it was a wonderful surprise. I've since tried Rice Milk and Sugarcube, and those are both easy winners, too. I haven't tried Sweet Santalum Milk or Coconut Milk, but I suspect those will work well, too - or even my original Bastet's Ice Cream Accord, if you want your tea to be a little creamier/more foodie.

Apricot Sugar: Apricot stone essence, Apricot Skin, Egyptian Sugar accord, Papaya skin and Vanilla fleck. Oh, how much do I love NA's sugar note. It's just so dang good! I have a couple of bottles of the original Sugarcube, and I have worn it alone, because I love it so much. There's almost a freshness to it, and of course sweetness - but it's not tooth-achingly sweet, if that makes sense. That base is pretty present here, more so than it is with Lemon Sugar. The apricot is bright, juicy and just a little tangy, and extremely realistic. I think the papaya skin is more of a supporting note, I've had it in other blends and enjoyed it, but I don't really notice it here. It may be adding to that juiciness. This is a simple blend, but it was meant to be layered, and it really shines when you do that. As I mentioned above, I wore it with Chamomile, Vanilla & Spice Tea, and I've also worn it with White Tea Vanilla, and Crystal, so far. I'm going to try it with Santalum White and White Ambre Ombre, because I feel like those will be great pairings, too. I think this is a very versatile layering perfume, and would be lovely with so many perfumes. Anything with vanilla, for sure. Bastet Ice Cream Accord, some Dinos, Eternal Ankh, really I think anything you think might work. I bet it would be pretty with Egyptian Musk, and definitely Diamond. I'm so happy I grabbed this! If you were a fan of, or yearning for, Love of Bastet: Pink Vanille, I think you should definitely get this.

I have Dimetrodon from last year, but I've run out of time, today, so I'll post that separately. It's currently available in the Summer LC Resurgence, in the Prehistoria collection.

What did you choose from this release? What are you looking at? I'm eyeing a Dino or two, and more Teas....always more Teas! I hope y'all enjoyed these reviews, and they helped you to make some decisions. As always, thanks for reading!

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banshee-cheekbones · 7 years ago

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title: the best part of a bad situation [ao3: here]

main pairing: Malia/Kira

rating: G

word count: ~2300 words

written for: the ‘comedy′ square on my Teen Wolf Rare Character Bingo card. based on the prompt ‘first date to a painfully unfunny comedy show?' as provided by the wonderful @aweekofsaturdays (you’re a lifesaver!)

summary: The one where Malia and Kira go have their first date at a painfully unfunny comedy show, courtesy of Stiles.

Although it technically isn’t even fall yet, Kira swears that she can already feel the sharp nip of winter on the brisk wind coursing through the streets.

There are huge goosebumps trailing up and down her arms underneath her sleeves. She definitely didn’t dress warm enough; when she was picking out clothes for the night, she’d gone for a black skirt over leggings and a thin, star-patterned sweater that seemed more first date material than one of the oversized hoodies she kept around to ward away the cold.

According to her roommate, the sweater had been a good choice, but she’s really starting to regret prioritizing her appearance over comfort.

Crossing her arms over her chest in a feeble attempt to keep warm, she tries to sink back further into the slight alcove she’s been standing in for the past fifteen minutes. She’d been so concerned about arriving on time that she’d left nearly an hour ahead of time and, as a result, had to kill half an hour in a bookstore before she felt comfortable heading over to the comedy club she’s supposed to meet her date at but apparently, based on the fact her date is five minutes late and counting, her concern was unnecessary.

Checking her phone to make sure she hasn’t missed some kind of heads-up text, and finding nothing except a message from Allison (which is probably just a picture of their cat doing something ridiculous or adorable), she sighs and rubs at her arms. The show that they have tickets for (courtesy of Stiles, who set this whole thing up after weeks of bugging Kira until she finally agreed) doesn’t start for another half hour, but if there’s still no sign of her date in twenty minutes, she’s calling it a night. It’s too damn cold to wait longer than that, and sitting through a comedy show alone sounds way worse than just heading home, getting back into her pajamas and eating some ice cream.

While she continues to wait, she goes back over what all she knows about Malia.

They’ve never met face to face, but they exchanged a few texts after Stiles had set them up, although they didn’t really talk about much more than formalities, like what time to meet and where to grab food afterwards. Everything else she knows came from Stiles, who met Malia in a study group for a class they have together. It was all good things, mostly; he had mentioned that Malia did have a tendency to come off as blunt, but she had a good heart and was trustworthy which, coming from Stiles, who got along with people well enough but actually trusted about as many people as Kira could count on one hand, was a ringing endorsement.

The fact that she’s very pretty, based on the pictures Kira has seen, is just a bonus.

Just as she reaches to pull her phone out of her pocket to check the time again, someone clears their throat in front of her.

“Kira?”

Kira glances up to find herself face to face with Malia. Her hair is different from the last picture that Kira had seen; it’s chin length and brown, rather than flowing and honey-blonde. She’s wearing an unbuttoned flannel over a tank top and cut-off shorts that expose miles of her tanned legs, but if she’s cold, she’s hiding it very well.

“Hi!” Kira says, shoving her phone back into her pocket. “Did you find the place okay?”

Malia nods. “Sorry I’m late. I was studying with my roommate and lost track of time.”

“It’s fine,” Kira shrugs, stepping out of the alcove and trying to bite back a shiver as a gust of wind immediately cuts through her sweater. “I don’t think we’ve missed anything yet.”

“Probably not.” Reaching into her pocket, Malia pulls out a crumpled piece of paper that Kira recognizes as a ticket when she unfolds it. “Have you ever been to this place?”

Never.” Her own ticket is a little smoother than Malia’s, although it’s dotted with glitter from sitting on her dresser. “I don’t even know if Stiles has either, actually. Or how he got the tickets.”

“Probably better not to ask,” Malia says, holding out her hand for Kira’s ticket as they approach the entrance. “Unless you want to listen to three unconnected stories before he actually answers you.”

The laugh that bursts from Kira’s chest is embarrassingly loud, and she has to clasp her hands together to keep from slamming them over her own mouth. Her cheeks flush with painfully hot warmth, but before she can try to come up with some kind of way to distract Malia with something else, Malia breaks out into a wide grin.

“If you laugh like that in there, you’ll be their favorite person,” she says, passing the tickets over to the door attendant, who waves them inside.

Somehow, that just makes Kira blush harder.

The main room of the club is smaller than Kira expected. There’s a bar curving along one wall, and the center of the room is dotted with two dozen tables of varying sizes. There are a few two-person ones still available up towards the stage, but when Malia chooses one near the entrance, Kira breathes a sigh of relief. Even though she’s never been to a comedy club, she knows that audience participation is sometimes a thing that happens, and the more she can avoid being the center of attention, the better.

Once they actually sit down, close enough to be almost shoulder to shoulder due to the small size of the table, Kira has to fumble to try and figure out how to initiate a conversation again. It’s not that talking is hard; most of the time, if she’s with someone she knows well or if she’s excited about a topic, it’s difficult for her to wrangle the words spilling from her mouth, let alone bring them to a step.

But actually starting a conversation with someone she barely knows, settling on something she can say that won’t make them look at her weird, is the difficult part.

“I like your hair,” she finally blurts out. Before she can lose her nerve, she continues, “It looks different than in the pictures Stiles showed me.”

“It looks okay?” Malia asks, frowning slightly as she pinches a strand in her fingers and tugs it out in front of her face, like she’s inspecting it for defects. “I did it myself a few days ago. It was getting in the way.”

“It looks great,” Kira affirms. Truthfully, it looks better than some of the professional haircuts she’s had in the past, although she’s willing to admit that many of those failures were caused by her being too nervous to speak up when the stylist was doing something she really didn’t want. “Did you dye it yourself too?”

Malia shakes her head but before she can answer, the overhead lights dim and a spotlight snaps on, illuminating a microphone stand placed at center stage. The club’s MC steps out of the wings and runs through a quick spiel about some of the acts that will be performing over the next few hours and the general rules of conduct for the club. When they finish up, they introduce the first performer of the night, and Kira claps politely as a burly guy with a beard in a t-shirt and jeans steps up onto the stage and adjusts the mic to his height.

“Are you ready to laugh out there?” he begins with. A few people yell or clap again, but Malia isn’t one of them. She leans forward and crosses her arms on the table, elbow just barely bumping against Kira’s.

“If none of these people turn out to be funny, I’m going to kill Stiles,” she says.

“I’m sure he won’t be that bad,” Kira says with a shrug, taking a sip of her water as the comedian launches into his first joke of the set.

Bad doesn’t come close to describing just how awful the set is.

The first few jokes fall completely and utterly flat. They simply aren’t funny, and with each one he tells, the room grows quieter and quieter, until the awkwardness feels like a physical presence, heavy as a blanket.

“Alrighty,” the comedian says after yet another so-called joke is met with silence. “I’m going to try something different now.”

“Like not sucking?” Malia mutters under her breath, chin propped in one hand.

Kira snorts and nearly chokes on her water and, for a few seconds, Malia’s frown transforms into a soft smile.

The transformation only lasts for as long as it takes the comedian to talk again.

The next story he tells is a little better; it’s about something he witnessed while riding the subway on a trip to New York, and as someone who lived there for the first fifteen years of her life, Kira can definitely relate.

But after that, the set goes completely downhill.

While his delivery certainly improves, the content does not. Every story that he tells is tinged with misogyny, racism, and homophobia, sometimes all at the same time, and as more time progresses with no sign of him leaving the stage, Kira sinks lower and lower in her chair, until her eyes are level with the table.

The only way the night could get any worse is if Malia was laughing at the jokes but, thankfully, she hasn’t made a single amused sound since he relaunched into his act. Her face is set like stone, and when Kira glances at where her fingers are curled around her own elbows, she notices that her knuckles are white, like she’s forcibly holding herself back.

Finally, after an excruciatingly long time, the man finally announces that he’s on the last story of his act. It’s somehow even worse than all the others combined, and when he speaks the last word into the mic, it echos around a room that is otherwise silent, completely devoid of a single chuckle or clap.

It remains silent until Malia sits up straight and opens her mouth for the first time in fifteen minutes.

“You’re not funny, and you’re an asshole,” she yells at the man’s back as he exits the right side of the stage. Someone sitting at a table near the front of the room whoops in agreement, and there’s scattered applause, but if Malia notices, she doesn’t give any indication. Instead, she twists in her seat until she’s facing Kira head-on.

“I know it’s early, but can we go?” she asks. “If I have to sit through any more of that, I’m going to kick someone’s ass.”

Kira’s very glad that Malia asked first, because she was just in the middle of trying to figure out the best way to ask if they could leave.

“Me too,” she says, pushing her chair back and getting to her feet. “Let’s get out of here before the next act starts.”

When they step back onto the street, it’s fully dark and the night has grown even colder. Kira immediately wraps her arms tightly around her torso and mentally kicks herself for not bringing a jacket. The diner that they’ve agreed to have dinner at is only a ten minute walk away, but those ten minutes are going to feel like an eternity, not to mention that it’s going to be next to impossible to focus on carrying on a conversation with Malia when she’s too busy shivering.

Before she can lose herself on that train of thought, a slight weight drapes over her shoulders, which she quickly realizes is Malia’s flannel.

“I could hear your teeth clattering,” she says by way of explanation, tucking her hands into the front pockets of her shorts. Her tank top leaves the entirety of her arms and a portion of her chest exposed, but if she feels the cold, there’s no outward sign that she’s bothered by it.

“Are you sure?” Kira asks, curling her fingers into the shirt. It feels soft and well-worn, well-loved, against her fingertips.

“Positive,” Malia says with a firm nod. “I’ll be fine. Are you hungry?”

On cue, Kira’s stomach rumbles.

“I could definitely eat,” she says, sliding the flannel on and tucking her cold hands into her armpits. “Lead the way.”

They’ve only taken a few steps down the sidewalk when she realizes that not only is the flannel soft and decent enough at blocking out the wind, it also smells very good, a little like pine.

Which means that Malia smells very good.

That thought makes her flush, which she immediately tries to hide by ducking her chin to her chest.

Based on the grin she catches Malia giving her from the corner of her eye, she doesn’t think that her attempt is entirely successful.

Thankfully, dinner goes much better than the show and, at the end of the night, when they’re standing at the bottom of the steps leading into Kira’s apartment, Malia refuses to take back her flannel.

“You can give it back to me next time,” she says, smoothing down the collar, fingers lingering for a second longer than would denote mere friendliness. “Okay?”

“Okay,” Kira says, trying and failing to keep herself from grinning like a dork. “Next time.”

Once she’s gotten into her apartment, she manages to last all of five minutes before she pulls her phone out and opens her conversation with Malia.

Before she can fall into a cycle of overthinking that’s bound to last hours, she types out her message and immediately presses send.

could ‘next time’ be sooner rather than later?

Nerves instantly start gathering in her stomach, but before she can start feeling too queasy, her phone buzzes in her lap.

next time could be tomorrow, if you want it to be!

Grinning, she immediately starts another message.

All things aside, despite the terrible comedy show and the cold, she thinks it was a successful first date, definitely the most successful she’s had in a long time.

She just hopes the second one goes as well.

(It does.

And they only get better from there.)

#malira #twfemslash #twfemslashcreatorsnet #twrarecharbingo #twrarepair #mine #mine: fic #and that's all she wrote for rare character bingo!#i'll be back tomorrow with a masterlist!#maliakira

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kintailscape · 8 years ago

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CONfabulation 2017

This weekend, I had a wonderful time at CONfabulation, a multi-fandom convention by the people who brought us Wincon. As always, it’s hard to adjust to real life again after several days of being a fangirl at the height of excitement and being uncensored around/among my people. So I thought I’d write it up while the experience is still somewhat fresh.

I headed out on Thursday morning a little earlier than I’d planned. There was a Penguins game that night and the hotel I was heading to was next door to the hockey arena in Pittsburgh, so I was worried about parking. Google said it would take me 4 hours to get there.I left at 10:30am and made it there at 4:45pm; I’m not so sure, but that seems like a little more than 4 hours. But it wasn’t all the fault of traffic or the weather. I did make one wrong turn and had to pay a toll for a road I didn’t even go onto (Grr!) but I got there without too much difficulty, especially once I left Northern Virginia. I was traveling alone this time, as my con friend was unable to get off work, which meant I could stop for snarfs I saw on the side of the road along the way. I earread Magnus Chase and the Sword of Summer by Rick Riorden during the drive.

When I got to Pittsburgh, the traffic wasn’t all that bad, but it was FILLED with Penguins fans. As a Capitals fan, it was a bit stomach-churning to witness. Luckily, the hotel had self-parking spots available. So I checked in and then unloaded, realizing on my last trip that I’d left the giant bag of food I’d bought at home! Arg! I settled into my hotel room within two minutes (I never really unpack much). My room had a giant space in it (where another bed or a table once was, I assume, or else it was for playing Twister).

I headed down for the meet & greet and ended up sharing two fandoms (Carry On and Grantchester) during small fandom speed dating. I also wrote down several fandoms I now definitely need to put on the high priority list. Then I joined a few people who were heading out to a 7-11 in order to stock up on food. We learned a lot about Pittsburgh City Center during our exploration including: streets are layered, hilly, and confusing; alcohol cannot be purchased at 7-11, and all stores close ridiculously early. I stocked up on some protein bars, bananas, and cereal for the week, then we ventured out to find an open liquor store. Three stores later, we found one that was still open (it was 7:15pm). I also found a good handful of historical markers; my new friends helped me spot them.

We got back to the hotel and I knew from the sight of the downstairs and the streets packed with Penguins fans that I didn’t want to go back out (besides, everything seemed closed). So I spent the night in my room watching Doctor Who episodes, writing fanfiction, reading Outlander, and eating room service. Every so often I checked the hockey score and, when the Pens unfortunately won, the streets outside my hotel room exploded with noise. Ugh. Not where I wanted to be, that’s for sure.

I had a rough night sleep-wise, so I was glad to have my Always Keep Fighting hoodie to snuggle up in Friday morning.

Friday Morning Schedule:

10:00am–10:30am Dealer room I hit the dealer room and bought a few presents, items for future swaps, and something for myself. I also picked up the custom order I made from NightengaleNeedles for a pillow. It turned out so nicely! I had to run it back up to my room so that I wouldn’t fall asleep in panels with it. heehee

10:30am–11:00am Opening Ceremonies Yay! We made it here!

11:00am–12:00pm Buffy the Vampire Slayer: 20 years Later Panelists started by playing the theme song, which definitely got us in the Buffy mood. We had a good time talking about our favorite characters, moments, and episodes as well as discussing the uniqueness of the show itself. It was wonderful to find there were quite a few Spander shippers there, including among the panelists. We all pretty much agreed Spike is the fandom bicycle, but we meant it with love of course. I also liked the discussion about how the show highlighted the concept of inventing yourself and that change is possible without losing your friends.

12:00pm–1:00pm Plushie Workshop I We had to start from scratch as bodies weren’t pre-made, and deciding what to make took me a while, but this was a much needed fun crafting break up in the Quiet Craft room that happened to also be on my floor of the hotel.

I headed out with a new friend to find Jimmy Johns for lunch. After walking in the wrong direction and stressing about time, we ended up at a pizza place on the other side of the block from our hotel where several con attendees were also eating. I had a veggie hoagie, which I ate while walking back to the con and finished during the next session.

Friday Afternoon Schedule:

2:00pm–3:00pm Ohana Means Family This was the found family panel, and we started off by trying to define found families (does joining an existing family like Harry joining the Weasleys count? do they have to have a parental figure?). I adored the discussion of non-human species (like werewolves) who have a sense of otherness already who need to seek out others for a shared experience (I love a good wolf pack). We also discussed the many different ways they come about—choice, workplace, survivalism, world-saving, etc. Other discussion topics included how fandom is our found family, subsets within families, the greater diversity in a found family compared to biological family, how people with different skill sets help each other, and if there are any found families lately without tragic backstories. You get a tragic backstory! You get a tragic backstory! Look under your chairs, everyone get s a tragic backstory! I was THRILLED to get to talk Sense8 for a while! Squee!

3:00pm–4:00pm A Galaxy Far, Far Away We started off by sharing our own Star Wars origin stories, and it was neat seeing the diversity in the group (and also finding others who like the Ewoks). We talked about ships and ships as well. I’m clearly going to have to properly make my way through the Darths and Droids Webcomic. And we ended with discussion of The Last Jedi (SPOILERS!!!!!!) including how even though Finn is wearing Poe’s entire outfit it doesn’t necessarily indicate that Poe is naked, though there is a strong case for such.

4:00pm–5:00pm Vid Show The vid show was wonderful; I’d seen only two of the vids before (and as one was Leverage with my OT3 and to an Ingrid Michealson song, I certainly didn’t mind seeing it again). I was utterly destroyed by Darcy’s SG-1 Jack/Daniel vid entitled “Living Alone” and had to break out the tissue pack almost at once. So good!

As I had no one to do dinner with, I worked on my plushie a little and then went back to the only food place I knew was open and ordered a salad (healthy) and onion rings (my weakness). I sewed through dinner and got the body done (even though I had to reinforce the crotch better after stuffing him).

Then I got ready for the masquerade. I wore my Marauder’s Map dress with Marauder’s Map pin on my badge, Marauder’s Map bow in my hair, and the actual Maurader’s Map as a necklace. (I maybe like the marauders a bit, you know) I also had a black mask I bought with the cape I wore to the Walk to End HIV a few years back when the theme was superheros. I discovered upon arrival that I had taken the masquerade title too literally and I was only one of a few who had masks. Still, it went with the outfit and made me feel a little bolder to be hiding behind a mask, so I kept it on. There was a mashed potatoes bar and a dessert bar as well, and the decorations were wonderful. I had a lot of nice conversations with people, including getting to geek out on Classic Who (and ask some questions about it… and get some lovely audiobook recs) and catch up with one of my favorite fellow hurt/comfort writers. I don’t like dances much and attempted to retire to the fandom lounge for button-making with friends like last Wincon, but it was locked up. Drat! So we headed back to the dance. I did dance to the Time Warp, because that one has scripted dance moves. And I danced to the last song with everyone, which was Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believin'” (so perfect, though were were a little iffy on which verse was which LOL).

Oh, the movie never ends It goes on and on, and on, and on … Don’t stop believin’ Hold on to that feelin’

I went back to my room after the masquerade and worked for 2 hours on my plushie while watching Doctor Who. I finished up watching the Fifth Doctor’s episodes! I also discovered I cut the underwear too small for my plushie. Then I went to bed at 2am.

I got up at 9 in order to eat breakfast and get down to the dealer room as soon as possible.

Saturday Morning Schedule:

10:00am–10:30am Dealer’s Room My friend put in a request for merch and I was hoping to squeeze it in before the morning panels. However, the dealers didn’t all get there early, so I ended up missing half of the first panel. I also dropped a few BookCrossing books on tables in the fandom lounge to give away. Worth it, though. The dealer had the thing my friend wanted AND I ended up buying things from pretty much all the other dealers. Good start to a morning indeed!

10:30am–11:00am Disability in Media A LOT less angry and complainy than most of the disability panels I’ve attended at other cons. There was a lot of talk of positive examples and analysis of things. That was refreshing to hear. I’m sorry I missed the part where they discussed Bashir because, I mean, Bashir, right?

11:00am–12:00pm Invisible Unicorns I had the HARDEST time figuring out this time slot. It was up against Book Recs for the People (I adore books) and Totally 80s Toons (possibly my only chance to talk about my first fandom with people: Pound Puppies). I asked the panelist heading from Disability in Media to Totally 80s Toons to please NOT discuss Pound Puppies because missing such a discussion would break my heart. Then I stayed in the roundtable room for Invisible Unicorns, where we talked about bi, ace, pan, etc. representations in fandoms. The session was so well attended we had to keep grabbing more chairs. LOL It was wonderful. I came out with a LOT to think about. We talked about the whole “prove it!” thing and the problematic usage of “born this way.” One thing I had never heard put into words before was how there is a shorthand for sex onscreen but no shorthand for things like asexual romance (YET!). There were also some hilarious moments i.e. “Once you cross the het barrier at knotting…” “That is NOT where the het barrier is.”

12:00pm–1:00pm Plushie Workshop II I was considering going to MCU, but I’m behind on S.H.I.E.L.D. and haven’t seen the second Guardians yet, so I decided to craft. I had big plans: Finish the head, make new underwear, make the suit jacket, sew the head on to finish it. I managed the first 2 of 4. I made the suit jacket then discovered it’s just a little too small. Drat! I’ll have to redo part of it. But it was definitely another nice break. Except now I have what looks like a headless Morman and not a Ianto Jones yet. One lovely attendee brought a ton of little figures, and we had fun going through them, sorting them by property, and selecting a few. I got a couple for myself and one for a friend. At the end of the day, after everyone else had a chance to look through them (and they were no longer sorted) I took a few more.

I worked on my plushie through lunch (thanks to snacks from 7-11) then headed to afternoon sessions.

Saturday Afternoon Schedule:

2:00pm–3:00pm OT3: A Love Story We listed our favorite OT3s in fandom (Leverage, Force Awakens, White Collar, Haven, Marvel, Sense8, etc.) I ship some very rare OT3s so I didn’t bring them up (Wolverine/Iron Man/Captain America; Sherlock/Watson/Lestrade) but it was fun hearing about other people’s ships. We discussed why OT3s are the best (solves love triangle problems, avoids ship wars, solves problem of killing off awesome female characters). We also talked about dynamics of OT3s (relationship negotiations–swoon!, soulmate AUs, imperfect moments, overlap with found families, inviting someone to join, etc.). And, of course, this lovely quote “My fandoms have orgies all the time” which pretty much sums up my writing style. LOL

3:00pm–4:00pm Fandom as Genre This one was interesting, and I’m very glad I went. What’s unique to fandom that makes it its own thing and makes it special? Some topics of discussion included: ability to have different versions of the same character, ability to have different settings/situations with the same characters, ability to explore minor characters, having less exposition (already know the shared universe, history, appearances, etc.), POV differences, how much of the community aspect is needed to make it fanfiction, the difference between authorized tie-in novels and fanfiction, why we write fanfiction (for ourselves or for a certain population that knows certain things already about the source material), what we’re allowed to write in a fandom vs. what is taboo, how A/B/O originated in fandom, and the concept of headers/tag wranglers. Some quotes I liked included “Fanfic is the only place characters go into the bedroom and come out as the same people,” “We need to make supernatural disgusting again!” and “We’ve come a long way from ‘we’re not gay, we just love each other.'” There was also a question raised regarding what is at the core of a character that makes him recognizable and feel like the same character when everything around is different?

4:00pm–4:30pm Charity Raffle The charity was Planned Parenthood, and people were generous both in the donating of items and in the buying of raffle tickets. I bought $40 in raffle tickets, so I was expecting to win a few things (especially as a few things I put tickets in for only had one or two tickets in the cup). I didn’t get the Ace scarf I really wanted and put a lot of tickets in for, but I did get a bunch of things, including a Martha plushie (who can hang out with Ianto, once he’s done–the Joneses!), tons of comics (including some Archies, Buffys, Marvel, and more), a Donatello figure (he’s my turtle), a Spider-man hat, and some gorgeous fannish jewelry. I was also super happy to see the items I donated to the raffle go to people who will love them. One super nice new friend gave me something she won in the raffle and had two of. Squee!

After the raffle, I bought a few things from the other vendor I hadn’t purchased from yet (I’d frankly been avoiding her booth because I wanted every single thing she had for sale and didn’t trust myself). I ended up with a few buttons I’d never seen before and a super soft Kaylee Bear. I thought about also buying the Jayne Bear, but I just couldn’t do it without a Simon Bear to ship with him. #noregrets.

A few of us stayed in the fandom lounge to finally take advantage of the button machine. Making buttons was one of my favorite parts of Wincon, and it was fun to have one of my button-making friends back as well as some new button-making friends joining the crew. We had a great time going through stickers and magazines, looking for things we wanted. I made a kickass perfect RuPaul button that is sort of now my favorite. I also made an Alexander Hamilton button and a kitty King George button to go with him. And some others, of course. We were at it for a little over 2 hours. It was such fun seeing the creative things people made!

I had just enough time to pop over to Jimmy Johns (found it this time!) before it closed (it was only 7:20, mind you!) and get back to the con in time for the trivia contest. I’d planned on just watching, but I got roped into playing. Glad I did; I even knew a few of the answers, like what century Outlander was in. However, I feel SHAME forever for saying “Flashverse” instead of “Flashpoint.” I will never shake off that shame. I was proud to be able to answer the question about all the Weasley siblings (including next generation) and probably could have done the hockey siblings one, but two people on my team JUMPED at that, so I let them have at it. I’m also sad I couldn’t remember the names of the Hansons! Terrible fangirling on my part; I’m just not good at remembering things when there are time constraints! In all, we had a great team and we came in second… though later I heard we misgraded another team’s paper and actually came in third. Just like the Puffs play says “Third or nothing!!!”

After trivia was Badfic Idol. My fic “Five Times Something Happened and One Time Something Else Happened” was read at the beginning. It was my first attempt and it didn’t win first place or even second. But it did get some laughs. And my friend appreciated the Picard on a Horse inside joke from Wincon I threw in there. Actually, 80% of the fic was thought up during Wincon a few years back, so it was fun to share it. Instead of the judges giving their thoughts after each fic like last time, they gave them all at once at the end, which was a little more confusing, but we got there in the end. The winning fic had no words and was written only in emojis starting with policeman knife fireman and ending with sailboat. I mean… sailboat, you know? That’s a damn powerful ending. Definitely deserved to win! It was a great event; all the stories were hilarious; I had tears in my eyes from laughing so hard. And the judges’ comments were amazing!

After Badfic Idol, I stuck around for a game of Cards Against Humanity. I actually won a round, which was great. I played some fantastic cards but just the one win. Everyone was bringing their best to the game, and it was definitely a hoot.

I headed back to my room and packed up so everything would be ready the next morning.

On Sunday, I woke at 8:45 sleepy but fine (one nice thing about never drinking is not worrying about con morning hangovers). I finished packing and, once again, headed to the dealer’s room for a morning purchase. I had forgotten a button I HAD to buy a friend and, luckily, there were still a few left (in various styles). Score! I’m not posting the photos of things I bought for people, BTW, because that would spoil the surprises.

Sunday Morning Schedule:

10:00am–11:00am The State of Fandom I had to ask but, yes, everyone agreed that LJ is DEAD. Someone suggested Pillowfort, which is like Tumblr only fixes all the problems Tumblr has and lets you have actual conversations. Someone else suggested Pinboard for bookmarking. We talked a lot about building our “brands” and the differences between us oldtimers and the new internet generation in terms of privacy concerns. We also talked about things like how releasing whole seasons at once erases that anticipation we once had for week-to-week shows, how there used to be a fannish code and norms that get passed down but are being challenged now culturally, and how freakin awesome Fanlore is.

11:00am–12:00pm Hamilton: Who Tells Your Story? We started off talking about race and how it puts so many marginalized groups back into the narrative of our country. Then we went into discussions about gender (how women are in the war scenes and how it’s kind of Eliza’s story, or would be if she were in it more). I loved the point one person made about how in Revolutionary War times, a person’s writing style was uniquely identifiable just the way the musical styles for each character are uniquely identifiable for us today in the musical. I was shocked that more people hadn’t read the Ron Chernow book, and I was going to recommend it for people who write Hamilton fanfic, but then the discussion moved on (it’s filled with amazing details like the fact that Hamilton & Eliza had a dog named “Old Peggy” and how Washington’s aides usually shared beds at camp). But we did talk about how the American narrative actually wasn’t as rose-colored as we thought and how the musical humanizes history. Some recommendations included the book Colony in a Nation by Chris Hayes, the Stuff You Missed in History Class podcast, and a Sleepy Hollow crossover where Alexander Hamilton comes forth into modern day and is stuck here. Also, I was given a rec that has Asexual!Dom!Washington and subby!Hamilton that is currently my favorite Hamilton fic EVER!

12:00pm–1:00pm Family Affairs: Incest in Fandom Was great to end the con with a good ol’ incest panel! We talked about our first and favorite pairings. I asked about Bates Motel because I LOVE me some Bates Motel and was told the fanfic is not good, which wasn’t too surprising. We also talked about what makes incest fic good and the different kinds (I’m in love with the term Gencest now!).

1:00pm–1:35pm Closing Ceremonies I had to leave during the closing event, because of my hotel checkout time and because I wanted to get home before it got too dark, but it was nice being there for part of it. And people waved to me as I left, which made me feel all warm and fuzzy. The con com did an amazing job putting this together and making it special and unique. I really hope the next Confab Con is somewhere close to me so I can attend it!

On my way home, I attempted to find some postcards of Pittsburgh to send to people and struck out everywhere I looked. I picked up a grilled cheese with onions and some more onion rings (did I mention I was driving home alone?) as well as a frozen slushie drink at Sheetz. My GPS wanted me to go one way that was blocked off with a detour, so I took the scenic route out of Pittsburgh and quite enjoyed the drive. Then I ended up on 40 heading to a big snarf stop I’d seen when I was driving up but couldn’t stop for because I’d been worried about Penguins game parking. I finished earreading Magnus Chase and the Sword of Summer and put on In the Year of the Boar and Jackie Robinson by Bette Bao Lord, which I also ended up finishing on the drive. So then I started Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson.

I found the historical markers (snarfs) I’d been looking for and discovered it was General Braddock’s grave. Just down the street from that was Fort Necessity. I thought about just doing a drive-by with it and coming back some other time. I even went into the park, drove around the lot, and then went back to the highway again. Then I decided to just do it and went to the fort. I was still on a Hamilton high, and what better way to end my con weekend but with a George Washington fuckup? The park ranger was sad to inform me that the reenactments were all done for the day and that there was only one showing of the film left; I didn’t really care about either. I went through the museum and headed out to the fort. Apparently the Braddock Road by my home is, actually, the very same one I’d been driving on for an hour up in Pennsylvania. I snarfed all the signs and took some nice shots of the fort, the tavern, and the monuments. Hopefully no one thought less of me in my wearing my Hamilton/Harry Potter mash-up t-shirt.

I found a few more historical markers on the drive home, stopped for gas in the little town that literally has an interstate running right through its middle just above it, and got home around 8:30. My cats were happy to see me, and Ozma kitten has already claimed my CONfabulation bag as her own.

CONfabulation 2017 was originally published on The Fangirl Project

#thefangirlproject

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suzie-guru · 8 years ago

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Suzie Saw “Hamilton”!!!

(And Went To Chicago And Had An Amazing Time!!!)

Here it is, the long promised post about my Hamilton experience! The thing is, I had SUCH a great time in Chicago, I’m gonna take you through each day I was there, just because it was so much damn fun and I am so damn in love with Chicago, holy hell you don’t understand, I’m not even a City Girl and I want to live here.

I might have to divide this up into separate posts, I had so much fun and did so many things. If that’s the case, then here’s Part One!

Day One/HAMILTON

God, I love traveling by train. I developed a taste for it when I was studying abroad in Scotland, and this trip just brought it home even more – it is so much better than planes or driving/riding in the car. Can i just travel everywhere by train? I would very much like this.

So my sister and I got into Chicago nice and early since we left at the asscrack of dawn, so we had plenty of time to check into the hotel and then wander around and find somewhere to get some lunch. Care was scared by a pigeon

And I gave a special little greeting to a certain tower

...before we finally found a wonderful restaurant called Elephant & Castle where we dined heartily. Our waiter was an absolute doll, and he very animatedly engaged me in a conversation about the pains of being a ginger and having our hair wash out in the summer and darken in the winter.

Which actually leads me to a really funny running gag that was happening this trip? Wherever we went, people were compelled to talk to me about my hair. Like, seriously, I’m not calling it a running gag lightly, it was an ongoing thing!

Passanger On The Train: “You have the prettiest red hair I’ve ever seen! Truly, it’s lovely.”

Ryan, Friendly Chicago Waiter: “Your hair is the exact shade of strawberry blonde red that mine is before the sun gets to it!”

Lady At Breakfast Cafe The Next Day: “There’s a painting of a girl in the Impressionist Exhibit they have here whose hair is the same shade as yours!”

(perhaps they were talking about this girl???)

(Like, I could see it...)

But yeah, small wonder I love being a redhead so much. Given that I had been worried how faded and gross my hair looked before the trip, I was pleasantly surprised each time it happened, and my sister engaged in good natured grousing.

Care had some homework to do before the show, so after lunch we went back to the hotel, where she hit the books and I took a catnap.

And then, it was time for...

OH MY GOSH OH MY GOD OH MY GOODNESS GRACIOUSNESS, GUYS

G U Y S

IT WAS SO INCREDIBLE

WHAT A LIFE EXPERIENCE

I swear to God, as soon as the pre-show warning rolled over the crowd, coming from one fabulous King George, I started grabbing and punching Care, who was excitedly punching and grabbing me right back. And then as that music started and Wayne Brady as Aaron Burr stepped onto the stage....!

Something you need to know about me: I grew up on Whose Line Is It Anyway? From an early age, I revered Wayne Brady. So when Care and I found out he was playing Aaron Burr in the Chicago Cast, we knew we HAD to see this show in particular. So I was already going through some INTENSE Proud Mama feels about seeing him in this role.

But oh man, as soon as he stepped onto the stage and began, “How does a bastard, orphan, son of a whore and a Scotsman...”, the whole audience went nuts and then, like, immediately hushed, utterly enthralled, utterly ready to surrender themselves over to the ride we were about to be taken on...

Guys, he did SUCH a great job. So many moments I was just grinning into my hands or just nodding in fierce appreciation or wiping at my eyes at everything he was doing with this character, this story, how he danced and moved and wove his mark into this role. In Dear Theodosia, he had this moment where his voice faltered and cracked and this smile just grew on his face, joy and wonderment in his eyes...

In The Room Where It Happens the way he sang the final “Click, BOOM!” and stabbed at the floor with his hands and light backlit him...it sent the entire audience into a round of applause that lasted nearly a full half minute...

And then there was The World Was Wide Enough and how he sang “I survived but I paid for it...”

I had always wondered what song would send me into tears the most during a live production. That and Philip’s death utterly ruined me.

Granted, no one can do Wait For It the way Leslie can. As much as I love Wayne, no one can touch Leslie for that. But he did a damn good job with it too. It’s just...that’s Leslie’s song.

God, I just want to send him a letter saying how proud I am of him, you know? Totally normal feelings, right? Stop being a weirdo, Suzanne.

NOW FOR THE REST OF THE CAST!

Absolute Hands Down Standouts (along with Wayne, of course) were our Hamilton (Miguel Cervantes), Laurens/Philp (José Ramos) and Lafayette/Jefferson (Chris De’sean Lee). Holy SHIT, Cervantes and Ramos have GORGEOUS voices. Lin would have given Cervantes all the gold stars for what he did with Hamilton - he was brash and snarky and heartfelt and utterly amazing. His “I was chosen for the Constitutional Convention!” was delivered all calmly until he did this complete moment of FANGIRLING at the end with happy flappy hands and everything, it was so perfect XD

Hands down, my favorite was Lafayette/Jefferson. GOD, HE WAS SO GOOD. French accent wasn’t as swoon as Daveed’s, but then again, whose is? But as soon as he did the “An-ARK-KEE” line and then danced/grinded up on Burr for note ONE, but TWO scenes...yeah, my heart was won entirely. Completely brilliant acting and singing and all around everything. And his Thomas Jefferson was gold, solid gold perfection.

“Daddy’s calling.”

*Audience Oooohs*

Our Washington (Jonathan Kirkland) was also excellent, although both Care and I agreed that his performance was very different from Chris Jackson, but in a way that really worked. With Chris, you know he and Lin are basically Big Brother/Little Brother, and that comes through in their performance, which is only helped by how they’re both the same height. With Kirkland’s Washington, he played Washington a bit more authoritatively and stiffer, more of a stern father figure than a brother, and the fact that he was physically much taller than Cervantes really gave that weight.

Our Angelica (Karen Olivo) was actually the actress who originated the role of Vanessa in Lin’s first show In The Heights! Both Care and I really loved how she played the role - Renee’s Angelica almost always had a playful edge, but Olivo’s had this snarky sassiness to her that flowed very well from genuine heartbreak to a deep well of anger. As Care said, you could tell she felt things deeply.

Our Eliza...okay, I got to admit, Ari Afsar has a lovely voice, and she looks a lot like Pippa, but...she was a case of hit and miss. Her acting in Helpless was really...forced, with lots of beaming grins with almost squinty eyes, and she kept stiffly holding her arms to her sides in a way that was really odd? Like, maybe she was trying to show Eliza trying to keep herself calm in her girlish excitement? Whatever it was, Care and I both agreed that we were thinking “Girl, relax.”

She had some really sublime moments of acting, though, which made us really excited to see her take on Burn, but even then that was a underwhelming. She captured the anger of it, but none of the heartbreak. Again, no one can touch what Pippa did with Burn, but still, she could have done so much more with it. Honestly, I felt that the actress for Peggy (Samantha Marie Ware, who was INCREDIBLE) would have been a better Eliza and her Peggy, and Care agrees. Apparently she’s the understudy for the role anyway, so I guess it would work out just like that...

OH! There was this moment where there’s this song that WASN’T included on the CD that completely shocked me, and Care confessed that she hadn’t said anything to me as a surprise. It really worked, and I am not going to spoil it here, but it’s SO DAMN SAD AND REALLY EFFECTIVE.

Our King George (Jin Ha) was actually the understudy (AND he’s the understudy of Hamilton!!!) and he was BRILLIANT. He played him with just the right flounce and froth and petulance, and his voice was LOVELY.

The choreography was INCREDIBLE, since I hadn’t spoiled myself too much by watching videos, with Yorktown and Helpless being the exceptions. Standout moments:

Right Hand Man was just balls to the walls MAGNIFICENCE. The lighting coming in these great flashes of cannon fire, the dancers jumping/throwing themselves into the air like they’re being hurled back from the guns...incredible.

During Stay Alive, there’s this bit at the beginning with a British Soldier and a dancer that makes it look like Hamilton, writing for Washington, is right in the path of the bullet that the soldier shot, but it swerves around him at the last moment. The same thing is repeated for the final duel with Burr, but we all know how that ends...=(

I had NEVER seen any footage of Hurricane, so I was blown away (ha) by it in its entirety. Just...brilliance. Complete and utter brilliance and heartbreak.

During The Reynolds Pamphlet, Jefferson got up on the desk and did this wiggling dance that was completely ridiculous and yet utterly appropriate for what an asshole Jefferson is XD

OH! There’s this moment in Satisfied right after Hamilton sings to Angelica, “I’ve never been satisfied...” and he kisses her hand, and the whole background/chorus (out of the light but still visible) gives this quick

g a s p

of an inhale, and it looks so perfect and just utterly conveys this moment of shock that Angelica is experiencing.

This cast was a gift, plain and simple. This show is a gift.

Also, I GOT A BUNCH OF SWAG AND NOW I AM VERY MUCH POOR, OH WELL:

The Schuyler Sisters Shirt

Hamilton Broadway Cast Program Book

Hamilton Sweatshirt

Hamilton Coffee Mug

Hamilton Fridge Magnet for Mom’s collection =)

I will not be spending any money on myself for a good long while, unless I mysteriously win the lotto soon.

Also also, Care and I waited outside in the FREEZING COLD to see if we could see Wayne, but we only got a glimpse of Layfayette’s actor (and one guy who tried to talk to him was shooed away by the House Manager), but then Hamilton came out and signed a few programs! We were too far away to talk to him/get him to sign ours, but we pretty much decided that Wayne would have either left from a different door or would wait until the very last of us left before he would go home.

Also also also, Care keeps accidentally calling it Hamlet. I keep teasing her about it XD

All in all...I am so blessed. So incredibly blessed that I got to go to this show with this cast. Forever a top highlight of my Suzie’s A Musical Theater Geek life.

Next up, Day Two!

#suzie's saw hamilton!#hamilton #personal

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