#her second version after going into cc again

[nelbii]

new playthrough and more comfortable with the character creator

[meimi-haneoka]

Cardcaptor Sakura Clear Card Special Chapter: Comments and Analysis

WELCOME BACK, CCS FAAAAAAAAAAAANSSS!!!!!

Oh my god 3 months went already by from that December 1st and chapter 80, didn't they?? Feels like yesterday 🙈But we're finally here, finally ready for the release of the definitive, last SPECIAL CHAPTER of Cardcaptor Sakura Clear Card!!!! After this, no more CCS for at least a while!!

Why do you see me so euphoric?? WELL, THERE IS MORE THAN ONE VERY GOOD REASON 😂 But let's not jump the gun and let's introduce this post properly: this time around, I won't be posting pictures to "illustrate" the analysis/commentary, because this special chapter was treated differently from the other ones. It didn't get, in fact, a free release on CLAMP's Youtube channel, in any language, and wasn't even uploaded for digital purchase on Comic Days like all the rest of the chapters. The only way to obtain it was via the April issue of Nakayoshi, either with the physical or digital version. Since it is clear to me their intention to keep this gem of a special chapter away from the internet jungle, and since lately I used only the screenshots from Youtube to illustrate my analysis, this time around I won't be posting anything (aside from the color page, which was released by the official account themselves).

AND! I won't be mixing analysis and summary, because I have already conveniently prepared some screenshots with a detailed summary of the chapter for the people who were curious to know, but didn't get to see the chapter yet or did see it but couldn't read Japanese. I have already posted these screenshots on my Twitter account, and I'll put them here too under the cut (please don't repost them around or in other social media), so you can immediately get a broad view on the content of the chapter (I don't have to point out translation mistakes, haha 😅), and then, afterwards, I'll write my commentary. And there is SO MUCH to say!!

But before starting, we can't break the tradition right at the LAST ROUND of our chapter commentaries, right?? So off we go, with the GIF OF THE MONTH!!

Yes, I think this is the GIF that can represent this chapter the most. 😂

The Color Page

This special chapter is composed of 33 pages, and of course I can't avoid starting my commentary precisely from the color page!!

I admit it, I hoped for a color spread with the four main characters of Clear Card (hence, including Kaito and Akiho too), but since the other two appeared with their own color page just in chapter 79, we'll gladly take this single color page with SyaoSaku too!! ❤️ The JP text reads "We've been together till now, and we will always be! Featuring a long-awaited special chapter!!" Syaosaku look absolutely adorable....and so, so happy!! Looking at us, from a wreath made of cherry blossoms, of course dressed in their image colors pink and green, in a "pair look"...I think their shiny smiles conquered the hearts of the entire fandom (saw many comments about it) and it is certainly a perfect introduction to a chapter that is, indeed, completely made of this happy, leisurely, warm atmosphere. I feel like it tastes even better, after all the anxiety they made us go through, right? I'm pretty sure that was CLAMP's goal all along, giving us this little reward after all the hard situations they've put their characters through. This color page looks like Sakura and Syaoran are saying "goodbye" to us, holding their hands in a lover's hold, but seeing them so cute and happy definitely soothes the sad feeling 🥲 Until we meet again...hopefully!

Letters From Around The World

But it's when the chapter starts that we get our first surprise: the time skip is of one entire year!!! We left our little heroes at the end of the first year of Tomoeda Middle school, ready to go in spring break and then start the second year...here, Sakura says she's in her spring break of the next year, ready to become a 9th grader!!! I almost couldn't believe they actually went that far, I knew from CLAMP's podcast that there was a timeskip, but I expected just some months! Although....I have to say the characters don't look that different, Mokona said she made them a tiny bit older and she kept true to that, because it's barely visible! 🤭 But if you compare them with how they looked at the middle of the story, of course the difference is visible.

I was so happy to see that the chapter started right away with a letter from Akiho: a letter or a videocall was definitely among the type of content I wanted to see in this chapter, because of course I still was quite preoccupied about the difficult journey Akiho and Kaito embarked on, so I wanted to see how they were faring. The amount of letters Sakura accumulated over the span of this year tells me that they moved around quite a lot, and she had always something to share with her "long-distance sister" 🤭 Kero praising Akiho's skills and even feeling some sort of "reverence" for her insane talent to find all the crazy and rare books was so funny and nice!! 😂Sakura is adorable, feeling all proud about the talent of her "sister" 🤭 Loved that they actually mentioned the place where Akiho and Kaito are currently at!! (cause they didn't reveal where they'd go first, in chapter 80, and I guess we'll never know). I appreciated SO SO much that they let us see that Akiho didn't drop, but actually continued to practice her sewing skills like she was doing before everything went down the drain with the Alice in Clockland play: moreover, finding out later that this skill is also helping her greatly with the true ambition of her life made me incredibly satisfied. How cute of her to send outfits for Kero and Suppy, even from far away??

I was quite surprised to find out that Akiho sends all the rare books to Eriol, and then laughed my as* off at Kero saying he's selling them off (the way Kero phrases it in JP makes it look a QUITE shady activity 😂). This shows there's a continued collaboration between the "group" in England and YunaAki, and it's very nice. They're not only "taking" support from Eriol, Akiho also does return the favor, providing Eriol with the books he needs.

And then....got really emotional to know that Kaito wrote a letter to Sakura, back when they left one year ago 🥲 I DID feel like some kind of acknowledgement or apology from Kaito to Sakura was missing from chapter 80 (but honestly, with everything they had to explain, where they could fit that?) and so this little mention completely fixed that sense of "he made a mess and barely managed to apologize to Akiho before leaving". Kaito isn't an ass*ole so of course he would've done something like that, and a letter seems perfect for an introvert boy of few words like him. I imagine the letter wasn't really long either. The little moon on the sealing wax...❤️The fact that Sakura is storing that single letter together with Akiho's letters in a specific box makes me almost cry. She cares for those two so, so much! 😭 Sakura wishes to receive more letters from Kaito and I really hope he will open up to her along the way, because he could benefit ENORMOUSLY from her advices and perspective! Also THANK YOU CLAMP for giving us a little "still" of those two next to eachother from the moment when they were leaving Tomoeda, with the suitcases and all 🥲that last faraway shot of all four of them together in chapter 80 was so great, but I wanted to see them like this too!

The SyaoSaku Date

Aaaaaand then we get to the long awaited, craved, coveted SYAOSAKU DATE!!! 🤣 I can't count how many people I've seen wishing for this....to be honest I was going to be ok with any kind of sweet moment between the two, but gotta admit that a carefree afternoon watching a stage play and then taking refreshment at a café gives this sense of normal, complete fun that was missing a bit for them. They are dressed in a very fancy way (loved that Sakura isn't wearing her usual long one-pieces but something different, with puff shorts! A sign of her growing up?) and even though they're not exactly wearing a "pair look" (too corny, maybe?), they are well matching eachother's outfits. And of course we find out that Tomoyo made Sakura's cute outfit and even the decorations on Syaoran's collar! The fact she was the one asking Syaoran to wear them at the date is kinda funny, like some sort of guidance into looking like a couple, thanks to the matching decorations! Tomoyo really takes care of everything....yes....everything. 🥲 The mention of Sakura's wedding dress of course made me go "OH MY GOD" and made me realize that if Tomoyo is already mentioning that.......we aren't *that* far away from that day (I always imagined SyaoSaku marrying early, since they're soulmates and got together so young!! 😆). Truly an emotional, sweet moment that was reinforced by Tomoyo's tender expression in the flashback. Her resolution to devote herself to learn to design even normal everyday outfits, or date outfits, everything that could accompany her dear Sakura everyday, reminded me that Tomoyo found her very own way to be with Sakura, and she's perfectly content with that. Tomoyo's happiness is seeing Sakura happy, and she will do anything to achieve that. ✨

Syaoran and Kaito's Friendship

And then my blushy blushy Sakura changes topic and suddenly throws me on the floor in a fit of laughter, because seeing Syaoran's confused look while he was trying to make sense of the pictures Kaito sent him on his phone WAS HONESTLY PRICELESS. 😆 My god, how long have I wished to see them like this? Moving their timid steps into a friendship (since their girlfriends are like sisters and Sakura literally saved Kaito's derriere), being their awkward dorky selves...they surprisingly get along so well and Syaoran doesn't seem to hold resentment towards him, which is GREAT for me!! He's learning from Sakura to just let go of hard feelings, when you've found out the person who acted in an oppositive way was just in a very desperate situation and had actually no ill intentions. And that makes me incredibly happy. Kaito needs all the support he can get, to make the right decisions in his life, and I can totally see him finding a particular connection with Syaoran, due to how they're both moon boys, who would give their life for the person they love. I think precisely for this, precisely because Syaoran can understand to a degree Kaito's situation and behavior, he wouldn't feel judged and would feel more free to establish a connection with him. I was k*lled with laughter and endearment when I saw that Syaoran felt confused, but still tried to understand Kaito's peculiar way of communicating with him 😂 And guess what? I think he doesn't realize it, but he's totally starting to get it! 😂The way our wolfie boy snaps that picture IMMEDIATELY as the cat passes by, and how he only framed the ear, really shows how in the end he's speaking "the same language" as Kaito 😂 Seeing Sakura so excitedly think to herself that the two became such good friends made me scream "SAME SAKURA-CHAN, SAME!!!" 😂 All in all, seeing these two having such a relaxed, comfortable date talking about their friends and stuff that happened lately made me completely feel that one year that elapsed, and now they act totally like a couple that's been dating for quite some time. 😊 Ooooh thank you sensei, really. Thank you so much for this scene. 🙏

The Moon Is Really Beautiful, Right?

BUT! The real reason why CLAMP will always have my heart and my gratitude is hidden in the next scene. 😂

Oh my god, the screams I've belted out when I saw them. And when I've read THAT. But let's go in order, let's go in order and not jump the gun! We're in Germany, Akiho and Kaito now seem to be living in an apartment in a nice building! They're still talking in keigo, and still calling eachother "Akiho-san" and "Kaito-san". 😊

Kaito SMILES genuinely at the picture Syaoran sent him!! And answers, to an observant Akiho, that he's having fun!! 😭HIM! The one who couldn't understand what was fun in interacting with others!!! He looks honestly so radiant and happy, a sign that his mental recovery is going strong. And that he's slowly expanding his "trusted people" network. 🥲🙏Also, he looks younger than ever!!! 😂

It made me INCREDIBLY HAPPY to see that Akiho didn't drop the "hobby" she had started in chapter 26 (ages ago!!), remember this scene?

I remember how much I loved to know she had started learning how to do this, because together with my friends, at the time, we all thought this could easily become her aspiration in life......and guess what?? CLAMP confirmed she wants to take on a job revolving around books and book repairing!! This is all canon!! T___T oh my happy tears.... There's a sense of pride in seeing that this journey for Akiho isn't only revolving around finding the cure for Kaito's shortened lifespan (which hurt his body terribly) and restarting his "stopped time", or finding Momo and the Alice in Clockland book, but she's also got the mental resolution to do something for herself, for what she wants to do in life, something that is completely disconnected from Kaito. Again, I cannot reiterate enough how this girl doesn't have an unhealthy codependent relationship with Kaito, and she's completely capable of thinking about her own future, aspirations and wishes. She wants him with her, and she could never live happily without him, but the love of her life isn't the only thing that exists for her. It is incredibly satisfying to see her working hard for her own future, where she'll be able to contribute (especially financially) to their livelihood. I can see Kaito helping her and assisting her with that. The other day I was dreaming away with my friends about Kaito and Akiho managing a "book cafè" together somewhere, how impossibly sweet that would be?

Seeing this volitive, ambitious, strong-willed Akiho once again filled my heart immensely. And I wasn't the only one, apparently.....

Oh god, you have no idea of the SHRIEKS I belted out when I saw Kaito saying "the moon is really beautiful, right?" in full daylight. Like. It is absolutely unmistakable at this point what kind of love he feels for her, and while I always knew, I'm sure the character took his own sweet time and personal introspection to reach that conclusion. If you remember, I've always said it and reiterated it at the end of chapter 80: Kaito won't understand things overnight, it will take a long time. And one year, at that age, is enough of a long time to come to terms with one's feelings and understanding what exactly they mean. They lived all that time together as two "equals", no more butler/boss bullsh*t, so they had even more opportunities to see eachother's true colors. And Kaito couldn't help but fall even more in love with Akiho, to the point that seeing her working so excitedly for her future made him gently overflow with that feeling....and said that sweet quote of Natsume Soseki that we all know, by now, what it means. I think the mere fact that what made his heart explode was seeing her so independent and strong, is a good sign that Kaito's love for her is the healthy and supportive kind, too. He doesn't love her and feels attracted to her soul because she's a weaker, younger, malleable being that he can dominate (as a toxic relationship would portray), but at the contrary, because she's free and strong and wonderful on her own. The more he sees her shining, the more that feeling grows. Throughout this scene, he looks at her and talks to her in such an intensely sweet way, you can totally see he's smitten with her.

The most popular reply to someone who confesses with "the moon is beautiful" is the equivalent of "I could die for you/I can die happy now", in Japanese. And Kaito had been unconsciously replying that way, with his actions, the whole damn time during the serialization of Clear Card. But since he took it way too literally, things were really heading to tragedy. Nobody wanted him to die for real, and yet, subconsciously, that was the only way he had found to give outlet to an enormous amount of feels that he couldn't express (because it wasn't appropriate, and nobody would ever love him, and he only caused her pain, and he had to let go of Akiho anyway at the end of it).

So considering all of THAT, this "I love you very much" he said now (he added とても, "very", like Akiho did ❤️) in this way, makes me think even more "yes, you finally understood what was the best way to convey it!" and therefore, it represents another character development for our moon boy. 🥲

There's debate over whether he had already understood what Akiho had meant, in chapter 48. I stand firmly by my convinction that, even if he was informed of the Japanese folklore tale around it, he quickly dismissed it as "no, she's meaning it literally for the moon", since he couldn't really believe that anyone would ever take interest in him, and was sure he would've always been alone. Otherwise, if he really understood and believed that Akiho was in love with him, I don't think he could've ever said that "I thought you didn't need me to be happy". It doesn't make sense. But everything that happened at the fake moon, and all her angry tears, and all her resolution to find a way to cure him, made him finally see that she really meant it in that way. ❤️So his own acceptance and introspection could finally start, and....it brought to this. ❤️ If you want to know more about the popular phrase "the moon is beautiful, right?", I invite you to check my first Clear Card Trivia post, focused on the literary and musical references portrayed throughout this story!

And LOL, I couldn't help but noticing several things in how this scene played out: first, he immediately "runs away" blabbering about the breakfast being ready, a very similar way to how he "ran away" in chapter 52 when Akiho could see right through him and was trying to express her support and feelings to him. This is definitely an indication (taking into consideration also how he acted when he was little) that the reason why Kaito walked away back then, slamming the door, had a sprinkle of embarrassment embedded in it, too. Yeah. I mean, look at the face he's making here, just before he notices, puzzled, that his hand is shaking:

He's smiling so tenderly, among the pain he's feeling because of his poor health. He even laughs! He's happy he heard that! But he just couldn't stay hearing any longer, back then. Now, in this scene of the special chapter, he literally throws "the bomb" and runs away without hearing her answer or reaction 😂😂😂this is definitely embarrassment, and I'd like to think there's even a hint of teasing streak that I've always seen between the lines in his personality. It came out particularly with Syaoran and Momo, but Akiho isn't excluded from this dynamic! 😂

And excuse me, but Akiho's reaction literally made me roll on the floor laughing!! 😂The poor girl is probably so used to live abroad, and Japanese folklore isn't probably coming up immediately in her mind anymore, despite it's a phrase SHE used HERSELF back then! 😂Or maybe it's because she didn't really expect it from him, and so she took a moment to connect the dots. Either way, it was extremely funny! And I can't absolutely avoid pointing out how our girl isn't blushing like mad anymore, but just slightly.... I mean. It must have been quite clear to her too, by now, that her feelings were in some kind "reciprocated", be it for what Sakura said back at the fake moon, his decision to go back to her, and his decision to reveal his true name, hence giving her his most vulnerable part of himself... This isn't a shock for her, and she probably waited patiently, patiently, for him to finally say something like this. So maybe, more than embarrassed, she's surprised that the day finally came! 🥲 Goodness. This really puts all my worries to rest, Akiho will truly be happy. And it makes total sense that CLAMP made him say this now, and not at the end of chapter 80. As I said, more time was needed. This entire scene leaves me with a sweet, soft, comfortable feeling, and it's totally how I've always imagined their relationship to be. Also....no more of that "he loves her as a daughter/sister" crap, not canon-wise at least. 😊

One last thing I have to point out about this scene, which curiously reconnects everything together, is that recently CLAMP have announced the themes to which their upcoming exhibition will revolve around: among them, there's LOVE (of course!), and among the decorations surrounding the featured character on the key visual (Sakura, for now, but there's at least another one coming!) there are a couple of birds too. Birds are, in this sense, a symbol of love in CLAMP's language. I couldn't really help but noticing all the birds flying outside the window next to Akiho, the moment Kaito says that "the moon is really beautiful, right?". Basically, CLAMP were trying to scream it all over the place, however they could. 😂

"Momo-san?!"

It was so nice to see Yukito and Kero-chan gossiping about Touya right in his face, with the complete intention to tease him 😂in that sense, Yukito really seems like a sweet and harmless character, but don't be fooled! His teasing power is over 9000!! 😂Touya's killing glare made me crack up! He's so done for, now that both Kero and Yukito can tease him in the open! 😂😂😂

But please, please, let me scream about MOMO!!! Oh my god I would've never accepted a special chapter that didn't feature her!! Aaaaahhh I'm so glad to see that she's fine 🥲 The conversation between her and Sakura made clear to me that she isn't that free to move how I imagined her to be. Certainly, she decides where to go and who the book stays with (and when to leave), but the impartiality imposed on her role doesn't allow her to act freely like she wants, unless she pays a price. And she decided to pay a price, not to see Akiho and Kaito, but to go and thank Sakura herself first. Because, as her "those kids" suggests, she of course still feels some kind of maternal instinct towards them, and as any mother would do, she wants to thank Sakura from the bottom of her heart for having helped and saved those two. Even her body language (the position of her hands) portrays that. And excuse me, but I A B S O L U T E L Y loved how CLAMP clarified once and for all, addressing directly the complaints of their own fandom, that Sakura wasn't forcingly dragged into a matter that wasn't related to her. Everything she did, she decided to do it because she felt it touched her personally. From the moment she became Akiho's friend and came to care for her, everything that happened and everything that she was involved with was related to her too. This wasn't "somebody else's business" anymore. Because Akiho is one of her most beloved friends, no matter how "fast" that happened. Some relationships bloom almost immediately, because the connection is just that strong. And so, this turned into just another expression of "your happiness is my happiness", with Sakura acting according to what her heart suggested. As Kaito is Akiho's most beloved person, Sakura couldn't help but care for him too, because doing so would've made her friend happy, in a wonderful "circulation of love".

Special mention for the scene with pregnant Lilie, oh my god I didn't really expect this either. How long ago I wrote that Tumblr post about cosmos flowers and the origin of Akiho's name? A couple of weeks ago? It's like CLAMP answered my curiosity, with this scene. I still keep my interpretation in my heart, but I also love the logic "it is a flower that keeps the same name in many countries". Of course. "Wherever you'll go, you'll always be your unique self". (And now I want to cry, mama's heart is so big😭) The way Lilie keeps her hands over her womb made me tear up. The ring isn't there anymore, a sign that she probably already gave it to Momo (understandably, since once Akiho would be born, she wouldn't really have much time left). The baby bump isn't that noticeable, probably because she's at the beginning of her pregnancy. Who knows if she kept seeing little Kaito while she was pregnant. 🥲Who knows if in the scene where she's telling him about how wonderful it is to have something you love, especially a person, she was already pregnant with Akiho. 🥲

Momo and Sakura's final words made me understand that Momo cannot go back to Akiho and Kaito till the circumstances and the moment is right. Whether it depends on Akiho's wish, or the right cosmic arrangement, it's surely not in the short term. Especially considering the limited scope of Momo's agency. It cannot come from Momo (unless she pays a huge price), it needs to come from them, strongly enough. I also want to think that, again as an acquired mother figure, Momo wants those two to find their own way, identity and figure out their relationship on their own, without her interference. I'm sure she's keeping an eye on them from faraway, though. 🥲Even though this still feels bittersweet because I wanted to see them reuniting in canon so badly, it gave me lots of hope for the future. Momo is just waiting for the right moment, and she'll be ready to embrace them when the time is right. Maybe, who knows, we'll see that reunion in another series or in a special publication in the future?

The End

And then....the final scene 🥲NOW it is finally clear what Ohkawa meant in that one Twitter Space, when she mentioned that there was a reason why they never featured Sakura's birthday!!! THEY NEEDED TO KEEP THE EXCLUSIVITY FOR THIS!! 😂 I'm so glad they did, really...it's so sweet to see her reaching 14 years old (the "standard age" of many shoujo heroines! 😂) and seeing Syaoran giving her a present, with that strikingly sweet smile full of love...but most importantly....the breathtaking final double spread 🥲🥲🥲🥲 The way she pulls his hand close to her chest, to her heart, while saying that Syaoran will be forever and ever her most important and special person.....really, this chapter is meant to k*ll us all with feels!🥲and I love how CLAMP keep finding ways to portray their physical displays of affection without resorting to the classic, most wanted (but also probably considered not appropriate yet) "kiss". The very final page is a direct parallel of a page from chapter one, where Sakura was going to school alone and looked back down the street to admire the cherry blossoms in full bloom.

Now, she's not alone anymore, but actually hugging the love of her life on her special day! Really, what a wonderful and fulfilling way to give the final touch to this amazing story! 🥲 Her very last line also contributed to this. Sakura leaves us again, 24 years after the first ending, with words of positivity for the future, and love for her important people. This wraps everything up nicely, but it still keeps things quite "open-ended", hopefully in the eventuality to return to this wonderful series in the future. Sakura is growing up, as CLAMP wished, and it might be possible to see her dealing with more "grown-up" situations, magic and non-magic wise. But one thing is for sure, her relationship with her loved ones will always take top priority. ❤️

Well well well, we came to the end of this looooooong commentary for this special chapter too. I can't help but thank once again all of you who followed my posts all these years, and commented with your POVs on the story.

As I've said multiple times, Cardcaptor Sakura gave me so much ever since I was a kid, and this sequel was no exception. This special chapter, in particular, overflowed with things I wanted to see, and I'm sure I'm not the only one thinking so. I once again want to congratulate CLAMP for wrapping everything up nicely, and thank them from the bottom of my heart for these almost 8 years of emotional journey. 🙏

See you around with my other tumblr posts, and let's look forward to the release of volume 16 on April 1st, and hopefully, news about the anime sequel of Clear Card!!

[imomisoplays]

Beetroot Risotto

Spooky sul sul, tombler!

This post is the second part of the Halloween party for the Ito family. Borrowing Stella's kitchen, now it's Vienna's time to conjure up some witchcraft with her cooking skill. Also by @icemunmun-spicy-scalpel, tonight Vienna cooks up some beetroot risotto -- human-friendly version can be downloaded here, and a vampire-friendly version, smartly named Red Count's Risotto can be downloaded here. Don't forget to update Custom Food Interactions (its last update is November 25th so make sure you have the latest version) for the recipe to appear in your game.

This recipe is a great way to balance the intake of vitamins and fibers during the festive occasion. If you have @icemunmun-spicy-scalpel's other CCs, you can also use your own rice and red radish on this recipe.

Bibbidi bobbidi boo, let's start with choppity chop the ingredients! I think the first ingredient (radish) is custom-made because I've never seen it before.

So, I don't know how popular Netflix's Culinary Class War is, but I was definitely hooked with the show, especially because my favorite contestant managed stay in the save zone until later in the show, even winning the whole competition later. No spoiler, tho. 😉

Anyway, one contestant, nicknamed Napoli Matfia, is known for his risotto. In Korean, 맛 'mat' means "taste" -- so matfia could be translated to "mafia of taste" or something like that, which I must admit is solid nickname to choose. From his cooking, I learnt a lot about the cooking steps of risotto, which I can explain in the paragraphs below. So now, we go back to the recipe.

First, dry-toast the rice in the pan. The rice is ready if it's hot to touch. Once the rice is hot, add in the broth. Vienna is using vegetable broth because the recipe she's following is vegan, but you can use chicken/beef broth as an alternative. Keep stirring the risotto for about 12 minutes, remove from the heat and wait a minute. Then, we perform what is called mantecare. There is no exact translation for mantecare in English, but it's an important part in cooking risotto. The term indicates a technique of adding fresh, cold butter and grated cheese into the risotto when the cooking process is almost finish, and stirring/tossing it vigorously that it develops creaminess. I mean, I'm not biased or anything, but here's a video of Napoli Matfia doing a mantecare. Totally not biased, nope.

Voilà! The beetroot risotto is ready to serve! Vienna really made sure everyone got their daily intake of fibers with the roasted carrots side dish.

The adults finished decorating the Halloween table right around the same time Frejr and Soleil went home from Trick-and-Treat-ing. It was a festive spread! Brownies, cupcakes, iced lemon teas, horchatas and some beers for the parents.

The first round is for the babies! They're so well-behaved that Nanami felt it was safe to let them sit directly below the party table. The beetroot risotto Vienna made is soft enough for their smol liddol teef to chew.

Osh Cous B'Gosh gathered to dine in front of the party table for the second round. Frejr and Soleil ran off to count their candies right after they finished their venison steak.

Leia is now old enough to sit with the adults on the main dining table. She's extremely thrilled! Stella just rolled her eyes in adoration.

For her husband, Vienna specially made a vampire-friendly Red Count's risotto which features plasma fruits instead of regular vegetable. They also got him a special plasma fruit cupcake so he wouldn't miss out too much on the sweets.

So, with the Halloween party posts finished, we're at the end of my Simblreen posts. Honestly I haven't really played again since the end of October, so updates might be slow. But yea! There are several plans to do in the near future with the Ito family: the grandkids visiting their grandparents on Mt. Komorebi, aging up everyone, Leia entering university... Oof, so much things! But until then, dag dag!

P.S. Detailed cooking process for risotto is taken from this article, this article -- and completely unbiased, this video.

[offtorivendell]

The Weaver's Song

Disclaimer: well I thought I had time to edit this properly and tidy it up, but joke's on me, apparently the entirety of HOFAS has leaked in Portuguese over night. That'll teach me (haha, never) to leave something in my drafts for months. So this may or may not be correct, and YOU might know that, but I'm not going to read the whole thing until I have the original version.

If someone has already posted this theory, I'm sorry!

Spoilers: this contains information from ACOTAR, TOG and CC series books 1 and 2. Please do not discuss spoilers in the comments until after HOFAS has officially been published, or in the reblogs without warning (and ideally a read more option)!

This may be fanciful, but I think I may know what The Weaver was singing about in ACOMAF... it was a metaphor for Prythian history and Void travel.

“There were two sisters, they went playing, To see their father’s ships come sailing … And when they came unto the sea-brim The elder did push the younger in.”

Theia's two daughters, as @silverlinedeyes has posted before, she thinks the second daughter brought Truth-Teller back to Prythian through a rift - though was there a third, unknown sibling, as @wingedblooms and I have theorised?

Playing - playing music? Music as the universal magic/language? Urd’s music?

Whether or not they're also Fionn's daughters, if literal, the ships could be people travelling through the Void/Rift to Midgard… the Feyre, the Nesta, the Elain come to mind, except maybe the Selene, the Eos and the Helios?

The Haldren Sea sounds like it could have a rift/portal in it (similar imagery to the Court of Nightmares/Hewn City). Port/portal?

Did Helena push her younger sister into the rift, to make her return through the Void and save Prythian from the Asteri, per @silverlinedeyes?

If this was then case then Helena knowingly sacrificed herself.

“Sometimes she sank, and sometimes she swam, ’Til her corpse came to the miller’s dam.”

Did she travel through multiple worlds until she reached Prythian, similar to Aelin as the red star? Or was this after returning to Prythian and living her life she then travelled again across the murky realm?

Miller's dam - dam could be their mother? The Mother? Silba?

A dam is also a body of water. The Cauldron?

Miller is one of the oldest human professions - milling grains for bread.

Miller is also a type of moth - moth wings at the HOW library, with their Cauldron/bowl-type statues at the entrance?

What if the Void/Cauldron is the Miller, and Chaos/Cauldron's water is the Dam?

What if the Void/Cauldron is the earth, Chaos/Cauldron's water is the dam, and the Miller is the hypothetical third sibling?

How do the underground waterways and/or the pool of Starlight in the Spring Court fit in?

“But what did he do with her breastbone? He made him a viol to play on. What’d he do with her fingers so small? He made pegs to his viol withall.”

The viol is an instrument; is the language of the universe a song? This would support my idea that Singing is a language of the gods, and Sight/messages from the gods could be a form of Singing.

Breastbone, spells and bonds are threads, viol strings? Pegs tighten/tune the strings. Witchy and sorcery spell vibes, but also hello PUPPET VIBES. Who is/will the Cauldron using as a puppet?

“And what did he do with her nose-ridge? Unto his viol he made a bridge. What did he do with her veins so blue? He made strings to his viol thereto.”

Nose - smells, Azriel can smell the Elucien bond… because it's discordant (theory on the way)? Amren could smell Feysand’s bond, how?

Bridge - I saw the painting in my mind: the lovely fawn, blooming spring vibrant behind her. Standing before Death, shadows and terrors lurking over his shoulder. Light and dark, the space between their bodies a blend of the two. The only bridge of connection … that knife. Paint that when we get home. - ACOWAR, chapter 69. Truth-Teller connecting with the Starsword.

"A violin bridge is a maple piece that sits atop the violin and lifts the strings above the fingerboard in a way that allows you to play both single notes and double stops. It transmits the string vibrations to the soundbox (body of the violin)." It's a conduit. Could Carranam be relevant here?

Blue - Azriel's siphons, the veins in Elain's eyes in the tent scene when she Looked for the Suriel. Can she see the threads?

Viols have six strings - three brothers and three sisters?

“What did he do with her eyes so bright? On his viol he set at first light. What did he do with her tongue so rough? ’Twas the new till and it spoke enough.”

Eyes bright - like Elain's when she's in pain? Pain is a link to the divine, do her eyes go bright when she's using her magic?

Eyes at first light - Sight/Singing at dawn? Eos?

First light - firstlight?

To set at something, to go after it… with an instrument playing him through the Void? Someone is after the firstlight and will go after it. The Asteri and Bryce. Mystics? Elain?

Till - as in the soil/gardening? More likely a boat's till/tiller; did Theia's second daughter’s tongue become the rudder that allowed “the Miller” to steer his way through the water/Void/space between… Lightsingers? Mystics? And there were three ships named after Feyre, Nesta and Elain Archeron.

Mor speaks the truth, Elain speaks what she Sees.

“Then bespake the treble string, ‘O yonder is my father the king.’”

“Then bespake the second string, ‘O yonder sits my mother the queen.’”

“Then bespake the strings all three, ‘Yonder is my sister that drowned me.’”

The father/king and mother/queen have been separated, and are in different locations.

Different worlds?

Fionn/the father/king is in Prythian.

Theia/the mother/queen "sits" somewhere else… a hell/Hel realm? Sits on a throne?

The sister/Helena is in Midgard.

I really think that the Weaver was singing to nobody/Feyre about Prythian's ancient history, along with the crossover - and potential instructions on how to navigate the Void to "go to Hel" - all the way back in ACOMAF! When she just happened to be collecting a six pointed star sapphire ring (six strings?) for Rhys?

Will each sister become a magical, Singing tiller for the bat boys' wings (as rudders), guiding and guarding them through the Void? It gives a whole new depth of meaning to Papa Archeron's fleet going down in a storm!

This also fits for Vassien, with Lucien being the magical tiller and Vassa as the firebird. And even possibly More and Emerie, if her wings get healed, or she gets her own Pegasus! Could it parallel the way they had to fly through holes in the Wall back in the OT, before Hybern destroyed it with the Cauldron (which just happens to contain Void)?

Will they be the light in the dark?

SJM you wicked bloody genius, this cannot be a coincidence. 🙏🏻

PLEASE BE VERY CAREFUL NOT TO SPOIL HOFAS FOR OTHERS WITH DISCUSSIONS ABOUT THE LEAKS!

[feysandarcheron]

Spoilers for the HOFAS bonus chapter with Bryce Nesta and Azriel and some vague HOFAS spoilers. Basically analyzing the songs’ meanings and going crazy over elriel

Omg the fact that all the elements of the Stone Mother story connect to the plot. (The second and last bullet points in this section have vague HOFAS spoilers)

Grieving mother. They all just got done talking about their mothers. Ember being separated from and grieving for Bryce. The Archeron mother would roll in her grave to see Nesta now and she treated Feyre terribly. Feyre being a perfect mother. The potential for Nesta to be a mother. Azriel’s mother being “anything but terrible”. And of course The Mother is like god in acotar.

Separated and fighting children. *HOFAS spoilers* Helen and Silene separated forever after a battle. Also reminds me of the 7 courts of Prythian that were separated after Theia’s rule.

Separated Man and Woman. He goes up to the sky and she stays on a mountain, which reminds me of The Embrace statue from Crescent City which is Solas and Cthona, the sun and the mountains. Also, she turns to stone on the mountain, which stone reminds me of the prison and of course the significance of the 3 mountains, and what could be beneath them.

Theme of the story is peace over violence. CC is fighting for a better world, and in ACOTAR they are trying to keep the fragile peace in place after the war.

There is also a poem called Stone Mother about indigenous lands stolen by colonialism and climate change. The Asteri are described as colonizers, and *vague spoilers for HOFAS* also Helen and Silene did something to impact the land in ACOTAR and Midgard. Also water is a big point in the Stone Mother, and *more vague spoilers for HOFAS* something happened with the water in Midgard.

So it’s just crazy people think the part about how Woman came to be with Man won’t also have a connection to the plot 😭

Good Man is lonely and wants company. Azriel being alone all this time and emo

Woman wants to be with Man but is married to Bear… an ugly beast if you will !

Bear gets into a fight with Woman and she kills him. Potential for blood duel.

She searches for Man and when she finds him she hides and just watches him, but he sees her foot prints. Reminds me of how shy Elain is and how Azriel is the only one who sees her and vice versa.

Woman reveals herself and Man sees she’s afraid so he speaks to her kindly, which reminds me of ACOWAR elriel

He offers her FOOD !! Mates hello

She accepts the food and each night sleeps closer to him until they eventually get married, which reminds me of how elriel have just been continuously building slowly with each book

PLUS the only other song mentioned is from a CC ballet called the Glass Coffin which is a Brothers Grimm version of Sleeping Beauty (!!!) (The third and last bullet points have vague HOFAS spoilers)

A man uses magic on a woman he wants to marry (a fake bond??), waking her with enchanting music (lightsinger connection !?)

The magic pins her to the bed so she can’t move, and she doesn’t like his magic, so she rejects his proposal by remaining silent. Reminds me of Elain with Lucien.

In anger he puts a spell on her and traps her in a coffin and enchanted her land to make it all barren. *vague HOFAS spoilers* barren land turning fertile again comes up in HOFAS, both Midgard and ACOTAR.

Another man finds the coffin and frees her, they get married, and the land turns fertile again (*vague HOFAS spoilers* again something like this with the land happens in HOFAS), which reminds me of Azriel potentially freeing Elain from the spell of a fake bond, and I think we will also see something like this with land in acotar 5.

Anyways slay elriel foreshadowing. I will edit this to fill in the HOFAS spoilers parts once the book comes out!

[thesoftboiledegg]

"Quids Game" felt like a mash-up of two separate episodes. In fact, it was the best and worst of the Comedy Central/Hulu revivals rolled into a twenty-minute "Squid Games" parody.

The A-plot, with the Planet Express crew and their friends playing children's games to the death, encapsulated most of my issues with the post-Fox eras: bad pacing, weak concepts and characters acting like sociopaths.

We know that the characters aren't going to stay dead, but the crew doesn't know that, so it's jarring to see Fry accidentally murder the professor with a smile and Leela grieving her family's deaths for a second before forgetting about them.

The writers handle the "Squid Games" parody better than I expected--the aliens provide enough context that you can watch this episode without knowing anything about the Netflix drama. Still, I would've preferred a version with a sci-fi twist instead of a direct reference.

The games had a few funny gags, but aside from that, I just...didn't enjoy myself. I would've ranked this episode on the "Yo Leela Leela" tier if the B-plot weren't the total opposite.

First, I loved seeing Josh Gedgie again. New episodes usually reference the Fox era, so it was fun to see a Comedy Central character return, especially since "Cold Warriors" is one of my favorite CC episodes. I actually think it's the best episode from that run (yes, I rank it above "The Late Philip J. Fry"!)

Fry's flashbacks to his childhood birthday party were sweet and heartwarming but not cloying. He had some great lines ("I hope my grandma's proud of me down in hell"), and Billy West nailed his youthful warmth and insecurities.

As others have pointed out, it's odd to see Fry's parents acting nice in the Hulu and Comedy Central episodes when the Fox versions were cold and uncaring. But I think it gives them depth--and makes Fry's absence more poignant, too.

Plus, the twist genuinely surprised me. I immediately thought of "Lethal Inspection," which is another CC favorite.

Basically, "Quids Game" had an excellent flashback storyline that the writers wasted with a poor set-up. If I watch this episode again, I might skip the games and just enjoy the childhood scenes, similar to the way that I skip the tiny people whenever I rewatch Solar Opposites.

Well, I might watch Fry crying over Bender's body again. But after that, it's back to Sherri and Yancy trying to give their son a rare happy childhood memory.

[angegova]

Summary:

Summary: This is my first fic. I wrote this just because I cannot live with CC version and I had to add my own closure ... hope you enjoy..No Beta.. sorry..

Tagging @today-in-fic

Mulder enters the church, takes his glasses off to adapt himself to the darkness of the place.

He can see a stream of light entering trough the stained glass showing a multicolor rays of gold, blue, purple, red and how it all sits right upon Scully it makes her hair brighter. Mulder can help but wondering it this small beam is a God’s signal upon her. He walks the remaining steps and sits next to her ….

“Hey” – he says in a whisper- She gives him a tiny smile.

“You know Scully of all the possible scenarios that ran through my head, I’ve never ever thought this could happen, I never thought that all the choices will lead us to this very moment “

She is silent… emotion evident in her face.

“I mean… we are really here and”. He takes one of her hands in his and bring it to his mouth for a kiss. “And we had been granted something so big … a second chance... it’s like a wakeup call .... I can’t even…. understand the how “

Scully remains silent looking at the hand in her lap… after a long silence from her…  Mulder places his other hand on her chin and lifts her head to look her in the eyes.

“Talk to me”

“Mulder... I just ... I don’t know how I feel…. I want so bad to hope for this but it’s just so difficult.... I am tired of hoping for things that are always taken away from me... from us...  I don’t want to hope again only to find out at the end that it was never meant to be”

He lets go of her chin and places it in on her abdomen, Scully follows  and places one hand on top of his...“I can hope for you and me Scully, but I need to know if this is what you want” ….He closes his eyes rest his  forehead in her temple.

“I want this so much Mulder...  and I feel guilty for it …I am terrified... I don’t know how this can be different from last time… how can I bring another life to be just…” Scully chokes with tears in her eyes.

“Hey no, no … look at me Scully…  I know this whole situation it’s odd, out of time, out of place… but this is our doing Scully…  just you and me… no wicked plots... no darkness behind it... we made this..” He softly clutches her belly. “I don’t want darkness to take this away from us …not this time “

“How can you be sure that this only us ..that this is not something else?” She whispers and leans into him desperately  wanting  the  strength of his believes to carry her through this …

“I just feel it, don’t ask me why.. I feel like this has ignited something in me … I understand how you feel… I do… believe me I do…  but we´ll figure  this out step by step…. let me be the one to carry you whenever you need, let me believe for the two of us...  I remember when I told you that you deserved so much more... and you do Scully you always have …I wanted this for you so badly but  I  was never sure that  I deserved this for me, now I want  so much to be a part of this even if I am… this old “he smiles  ….

Scully opens her eyes taking on his words, her eyes flooded with tears ... “Mulder”

“Let’s   take this leap of faith together … I promise I’ll be there all the all the way, I’ll behave and I will change  every single diaper if you want “  in his typical Mulder humor  ….

 

Scully lets out a real smile for the first time…she is so in love with this man… she feels a small tingling inside her body that stars building a fire in her stomach and sends waves of heat through her body, warming her up ,she looks at his hazel eyes and suddenly … his love, his hope hits her…like a train on a track  “Mulder. I… have never wanted something so much for both of us…. please help me to hope, to believe… I don’t think I can do this alone “

“Always Scully” … he says… they look at each other talking trough their eyes... and they kiss …a warm and slow kiss that let their bodies do the talk. Here... now with this kiss they close this commitment, they had been building this moment since years ago and now they have  all their love packed in a tiny little bundle in Scully’s  womb… this baby represents  the most  undying and greatest  love that anyone of them has ever had …this is who they are  now , life is giving them this present and with open arms they decided to take it.

Their kiss ends and forehead to forehead they breathe, take it all in, slowly they open their eyes and   smile to each other Scully gives him a whispered “I love you “ Mulder   tucks a hair behind her ear  “ I love you so much Dana” after a while  Mulder stands up   tugs at her hand   and turns them both   to leave.. He turns briefly to the altar before they go and in a voice inaudible to Scully he whispers “I will make it right this time  I promise”  to whoever is listening..

Scully walks with him to the gate hand in hand, leaving behind the darkness of the church and emerge into the last rays of daylight, hearts at peace and minds set in their future.

Today they have chosen this path, one that won’t be walked alone or in the shadows anymore

[ilovebellatrixandseverus]

HP longfic rec collection

With reddit closing down, and a lot of rec lists being lost to the public that way, I made a post on here asking for recommendations, and now that there were some in the notes - thank you all! - I thought I'd share them here! Feel free to reblog add to it, more the better! Starting and ending this beginning list with one of my own favs each to give you all some recs back:

Wizards in space by esama on Ao3, almost 50k

The Dumbledore's Army use the Room of the Requirement to get themselves a spaceship.

Harry Potter & Stargate fusion, No Warnings, Gen, Complete Work 27 Feb 2015, HP LJ GW FW HG RW LL GW CC ME, AU - Canon Divergence, Dumbledore's Army IN SPACE!, Science Fiction, Chapters: 10/10 Comments: 456 Kudos: 4807, (Knowledge about Stargate is not necessary to read this story)

Reccing this because I adore it so much it always makes me feel things!

Secrets by Vorabiza on ao3, almost 400k words.

Beginning with Draco's unexpected arrival at the Dursleys, Harry's summer after sixth year becomes filled with activity and many secrets. As his summer progresses, Harry generates several unexpected allies as he finds himself actively becoming the leader of the Light side. H/D post-HBP ~~Complete~~

Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Draco Malfoy/Harry Potter, Drama, Romance, Explicit Language, Sexual Content

Recced by @niccolo-machiavelli07 with the note 'contains good Snape and Malfoy's. I do need to warn you that it's Drarry and Draco has a literal kid...'

Harry Crow by Robst on FfNet - 700+k

What will happen when a goblin-raised Harry arrives at Hogwarts. A Harry who has received training, already knows the prophecy and has no scar. With the backing of the goblin nation and Hogwarts herself. Complete.

Harry Potter, T, English, chapters: 106, favs: 31k+, follows: 19k+, updated: Jun 8, 2014 published: Jun 5, 2012, [Harry P., Hermione G.]

Recced by @elizabethgoudge with the note 'Harry Crow is quite hetero, but has a super interesting premise about goblins and is very long. He has another one with interesting elves, as well.' and I have read the fic before and can second the recommendation! It's an amazing longfic.

Delenda Est on FFnet (Reboot & Original) 100+k

Dying, Bellatrix uses her heirloom to send Harry to the past. There, he can try stopping Voldemort while making the acquaintance of a young and impressionable Bellatrix Black, who may opt to serve Lord Black instead of Voldemort. H/B. Rewrite of DE with different plot, some new characters. No need to read original. Backwards compatible with PB.

Harry Potter, T, English, Adventure & Romance, chapters: 12, favs: 1k+, follows: 2k+, updated: May 8 published: May 2, 2022, Harry P., Bellatrix L.

Recced by @str82theheartpls with the note 'my all-time fave is being rebooted and the original is amazing too'. Description of the original version is 'Harry is a prisoner, and Bellatrix has fallen from grace. The accidental activation of Bella's treasured heirloom results in another chance for Harry. It also gives him the opportunity to make the acquaintance of the young and enigmatic Bellatrix Black as they change the course of history.'

Oh God Not Again! By Sarah1281 on Ao3 & ffnet, 150+k

So maybe everything didn't work out perfectly for Harry. Still, most of his friends survived, he'd gotten married, and was about to become a father. If only he'd have stayed away from the Veil, he wouldn't have had to go back and do everything AGAIN.

Gen - Hermione Granger & Harry Potter & Ron Weasley, Draco Malfoy & Harry Potter, Neville Longbottom & Harry Potter, Sirius Black & Remus Lupin & Harry Potter, Luna Lovegood & Harry Potter - Old Fic, Humor, Time Travel, like literally, originally posted september13 2008 on ff.net, story completed as of december 2009

Recced by @polyvirnl with the note '"Oh God Not This Again" is very good', and I can second that, I read and rearead the fic many times, it's crazy awesome!

The Andromeda Program on Ao3 120+k

Hermione Granger is one of the select few to join the prestigious Andromeda Program to explore space for all of humanity. She thinks it will be an excellent opportunity to prove her worth and show her mettle, but perhaps living on a spaceship and spending her time with the same group of people is not all it's cracked up to be. Or maybe one person in particular is making it especially difficult.

Hermione Granger/Severus Snape, Alternate Universe - Space, Alternate Universe - Muggle, Healer Severus, Adult Hermione, Medical Inaccuracies, Minor Injuries, Slow Burn, Swearing, Angst, Power Imbalance, Alcohol

Recced by @echoofawind with the note 'I love The Andromeda Program. It's a Severus x Hermione muggle Sci-fi AU that has Ender's Game vibes'

Pride of Time by Anubis Ankh on Ao3

Hermione quite literally crashes her way back through time by roughly twenty years. There is no going back; the only way is to go forward. And when one unwittingly interferes with time, what one expects may not be what time finds...

Mature, Violence, F/M, HG/SS, Time-Turner, Time Travel,bChapters: 51/51 COMPLETE Jun 2012, Comments: 438 Kudos: 3133 COMPLETE

Reccing this because once you start reading you can't stop! I don't usually read Snamione and I have no idea how I ended up here first, but I've reread it twice since! Hermione as a death eater spy's wife is amazing.

If you have any other fic recs, feel free to reblog and add them to the post!

Note that reblogs are better than replies (or likes) because reblogs help share the post around - so more people get the recs, and more people see the post and might add their own recs as well!

If you rec more than three please use a readmore under the first or so, so not to spam everyone's dash!

[omsrandom]

Aight, I have a wild FNAF Theory about Security Breach. RUIN DLC Spoilers ahead!

Yknow how we don't know the Crying Child's name? The one who got his head bit off by Fredbear? And how his ghost shares Golden Freddy/Fredbear with Cassidy?

Well, with the new DLC, we're introduced to Cassie, a friend of Gregory's.

I think it's a bit sus that a game, mainly about Freddy trying to help a child escape death and thus is considered the "golden star", has two children in it, who are close. Two children, who are both obsessed with the Freddy's franchise.

Two children, one of who's name is very similar to another named character in the series.

In the same series where we theorized Michael Afton and Mike Schmidt were the same person, and somehow it was true.

I think Cassie and Cassidy are the same. It would make sense as why, when she puts on the VANNI mask, she can hear what Gregory heard during Security Breach.

Cassidy was always vengeful, and most likely realized, like Charlette, that Michael wasn't William and went after him, dragging the Crying Child with her. I think it was confirmed that Freddy has parts from the other versions in him, which would make sense if you consider this:

Gregory wasn't real.

He was the ghost of the Crying Child that the animatronics (and Vanessa, given the VR game) could see due to the old parts (Roxy getting some of the Foxys and Monty getting Bonnie's after they found him scrapped). It explains why he's so tiny, but also why he can easily go into Freddy's holding area without much issue.

Cassidy was busy trying to find William, and once she realized CC/Gregory was in danger, she tried to go after him.

This theory is a mess, but if we try to detangle it, it does clue in on a lot of details:

Cassidy and Roxy never met!

They didn't, but as stated above, if, like Freddy, they used parts from the older animatronics, Roxy was probably Foxy! We have no idea who Cassidy's favorite animatronic was, so going on a limb and saying Freddy first, Foxy second wouldn't be a stretch. Since Foxy is now Roxy, it again makes sense that since Freddy is largely seen as a traitor to the other animatronics and out of the picture, Roxy is now the favorite.

Gregory betrays Cassie in the end!

Yes, he does. With this theory, it's CC lashing out, taking over Fredbear and leaving her alone to the hunt for William. CC is tired, and with the Mimic, he knows if it gets out, she'll keep them there until the world ends. So, he chooses peace, and disappears. To Cassidy, who shared a suit with him, it would no doubt feel like the elevator had given out. He had just betrayed her in the worst way possible to a dead 7 year old.

I probably have more to add but for now, I'm at, like, a 95% on believing this theory.

[saiilorstars]

Ch. 5: A Push and a Loner

Pairing: Barry Allen x OFC  // Fandom: The Flash

Story Masterlist • Previous Stories: Rise Up • It Had To Be You • Belén’s Masterlist

• Can also be found on Fanfic and Ao3 •

Taglist: @ocappreciationtag​​ @arrthurpendragon​​ @anotherunreadblog​​ @maaaaarveeeeel​​ @stareyedplanet​​ @foxesandmagic​​ @frostandflamesfanfic​​ 

Let us out.

We want to be free.

We will come out.

Belén jumped in her seat when Iris dropped a file of papers on her desk. Belén blinked up at Iris who was suspiciously eyeing her.

"What?" Belén looked around and saw none of their co-workers had stopped to look at them oddly. CC Pictures was, after all, a place of gossip.

"I just thought you forgot how to blink," Iris picked up her papers from Belén's desk then peered over to Belén's computer screen.

Belén was meant to be working on an article due that same day, in a couple hours actually, but was still nowhere near finished. Iris knew that, she'd been watching Belén all day and noticing how...distant Belén seemed. At random times Belén would just start staring into space, like she was forgetting where she was or what she was doing. It was odd, even for her.

"I'm just tired," Belén gave a little smile and got back to work. "Thanks for the wake up call."

"Mm," Iris eyed her for another minute before continuing on her way to her own desk.

Belén discreetly watched after her and scolded herself for being so weak. You can get this under control, she told herself.

She just needed distractions off her usual fear thoughts. She needed to take control. That was the key to everything. After all, it wouldn't be the first time she needed to work on getting control over herself. It was what she kept telling Caitlin to do and she should employ it herself to make the example.

"I can hear the voices, Cait," Belén explained as she and Caitlin walked into Jitters later that day. "What does that mean? That I'm actually going to go crazy here?"

"I think...actually, I don't know what to think," Caitlin admitted. She herself didn't understand how her powers came to be except that it was because of her siphoning device they used to "defeat" Datura.

They each ordered a drink then went to take a seat at an empty table. Belén fidgeted in her chair like she would lose it at any second. "Do you hear...her voice?" she asked in a whisper.

Caitlin shook her head. "No. At least, not now." Belén sighed, frustrated with her unique situation. Caitlin didn't like seeing Belén so...lost. She felt partially responsible because she created the siphoning device and now even she couldn't figure out where it went wrong, why it had gone wrong in this version of their time line. According to Barry, they had successfully defeated Datura in the original time line without any sign of...whatever the hell this was right now."You know, it might have to do with the fact you're using them more than I have."

Belén's eyebrows knitted together, taken aback by the assumption but definitely didn't discarded. "I...you think?"

Caitlin didn't say anything while the waitress stopped by to hand them each their drink to go. "It's possible that while you're attempting to use them, it's giving a chance for development. Involuntary development."

"I can't just not use them," Belén nursed her cup of coffee like her life depended on it. "I've been down the road of pushing powers away. It resulted in me losing total control. I don't want that again." She took a sip of her coffee and crinkled her nose. "It's cold."

Caitlin managed a weak smile as she drank from own cup, which turned out to be just fine. The two women then got up from the table and started to leave.

"I think, maybe, leaving them aside for now would be best," Caitlin offered a piece of advice after the two headed down the street.

"No," Belén knew that wasn't an option. "I can't ignore them, especially when they talk to me. I have to practice, take control before they do. And maybe you should too." Caitlin bit her lip, just nervous at that idea already. "Just because she hasn't talked to you doesn't mean she won't ever. She's lurking…"

"I...I don't think so," Caitlin shot that down before it could manifest in her own mind. "I don't want to use my powers."

"Well…" Belén came to a slow stop, "I didn't ask for them but I'm going to learn how to use them." Her eyes lowered to her cold cup of coffee. "In fact…"

Caitlin followed Belén's gaze and started shaking her head. "Bells…"

Belén made a hand gesture for Caitlin to stop. "Starts now," Belén shrugged. She focused her attention on her cup and the exact power she would need to use. It was strange — not the attempt to use her usual plant-based powers — but this was what she was given now and she would have to get by with it.

It just didn't work out the first time.

Caitlin gasped when the cup burst into flames. Belén dropped it instantly and, alarmed, stared with wide eyes at the flaming cup on the ground. "Oh my God!"

Caitlin looked around to see if anyone had noticed yet. Thankfully, most of them were on their phones. She quickly stomped on the cup and put out the small fire. She yanked Belén into a sprint-like walk.

"I'm sorry! I didn't know that would happen!" Belén kept glancing over her shoulder to spot anyone who might have caught them.

"Don't look back!" Caitlin hissed and immediately Belén obeyed. "I understand you want to practice them—"

"But you don't," Belén forced them to stop at the end of the street. "Caitlin, you got one power from that siphoning device. I got...I don't know how many powers I got," she turned her hand over and let flames consume it.

Caitlin once again nervously looked around. "Stop that!"

Belén let the flames die and a red energy erupt from her hand instead. Caitlin looked so pale she could have passed out on the spot. Belén put her hand down and turned her head to the road where Caitlin saw her raise a couple of rocks.

"Belén…" Caitlin was terrified and so Belén finally let it all die.

"I almost burned myself a couple days ago when I tried out my heat powers, remember?" Belén made Caitlin think back to a the night they'd gotten together at Caitlin's apartment in order to...test out their powers. "Barry kept asking me if I was okay. And I definitely had to get rid of my clothes before his freaky forensics nose got into the scorch marks on my blouse."

"I'm so sorry I did this to you—to us—" Caitlin covered her mouth with the back of her hand. All she had wanted to do was save Datura from her terminal illness. She ventured to create such a complex siphoning device that would have - ideally - restored Datura's biology enough so that she would keep her powers and be stable. Caitlin never foresaw that instead she would alter her own friend's DNA along with hers. She'd given them a part of Datura's powers with the danger of unstable DNA as well. She recreated the problem, twice.

"Caitlin, it's okay," Belén hugged the near crying brunette. She didn't blame Caitlin at all. It was, unfortunately, an accident. The timelines changed and they had to make do with what they had. All that was left to do was try to control it.

~0~

Cisco stood alone in the breach room with eyes glued to the swirling breech in front of him. Little by little, the group began to arrive from his urgent call.

"What's going on? Why'd you open a breach?" Barry quickly rushed up beside Cisco. Who the hell could be on that other side? He dreaded to know. If his luck was with him, maybe it was a benign area on the other side, maybe like Anais' world. He would like to see her again...or maybe…

"What's a breach doing open?" Belén made both men turn to see her and Caitlin coming in. "We didn't decide on that, did we?"

Caitlin shook her head to answer. "No we did not."

"I didn't do it," Cisco raised his hands in defense. "That's why I called you." He pointed at Barry.

"Well, can you close it?"

"Once again, I wouldn't have called if I could."

"Okay, well, who's coming through?" Belén cautiously stepped forwards with Caitlin.

The breach rippled as someone finally crossed through and with it went the group's nerves. Harry Wells jumped through, although if the group had been paying more attention they would have seen the urgency on the man's face.

"Allen," Harry Wells greeted, "I need your help."

Barry was still trying to process this unannounced visit to properly dread what new problem Earth 2 could be facing. "With...what?"

But before Harry could answer, someone suddenly zipped through the breach and went around the whole room before stopping in front of Barry. The gust of wind she left behind put everyone into a state of surprise.

"With that," Harry pointed a finger, unimpressed, at his daughter.

"Hey, guys," Jesse waved with a cheery hand at the dumbfounded group.

Harry would then have to explain how his daughter was now a metahuman. They moved into the cortex to better discuss the new change.

"When did this happen?" Wally was probably the most affected, but no one would really know then.

"A few days ago," Jesse was all too happy to explain. Everyone could tell she was over the moon happy with her speed.

Harry, not so much. "So, when I got Allen his speed back, Wally and Jesse were hit with the dark matter. Turns out she was affected," he glanced at his gleeful daughter. "She was totally affected."

"But I didn't get speed, so could it have been from something else?" Wally asked.

"No... I mean, I doubt it. Dark matter affects different people in different ways at different times...sometimes not at all, so be thankful, but she was affected, and I want to run some tests and find out just how much."

"Well, then, you've come to the right place. Let's go to the Speed Lab," Caitlin suggested but both Harry and Barry turned to her with similar confusion.

"Speed Lab?"

~ 0 ~

The 'Speed Lab' turned out to be a rather dramatically large room with everything a speedster would need to train...except Barry had no idea it even existed, and he didn't remember ever training inside of it. He was mostly struck by the large tube-like structure that actually ran above them. According to Cisco, Barry had been using it nonstop

"Something tells me you've never been in this room before…" Cisco sarcastically said to the open-mouthed Barry in the center of the room.

"Nope," the speedster confirmed.

Harry stopped and turned to Barry, only giving him a brief glance before he got the gist of what was going on. "Wait, you...you nev...Allen." Barry actually winced at the sharp edge in Harry's voice. "I suppose that means you traveled back in time again."

"Yeah, but—"

"How many times did I tell you not to do that?"

"How did you even figure that out so fast?" asked Belén.

Before they could say anything else, Nina walked in. Her condition made both Jesse and Harry gasp. She rolled her eyes and looked at the others. "Seriously, anyone else going to give me the wide-eyed look? I've been pregnant for almost nine months!"

"Not from where we stand," Harry settled a sharp glare on Barry.

"How are they immune?" Iris nodded to Harry and Jesse, wondering how that was even possible if no one else noticed the timeline changed.

"Because it's another Earth, so it's another timeline," Harry answered her. "So when did you do it?" He once again turned on Barry. "After we returned to Earth-2?"

"Look, Harry, only a couple things are different—" Barry didn't even get his attempt at an explanation.

"Oh, I'm sure. Not."

Cisco's eyebrows raised. "Really? You guys are doing "not" on Earth-2 now?"

"Uh, no. That's all him," Jesse jerked a thumb at her father.

"Okay, let's just get Jesse on the track and see what she can do," Barry hoped to get things moving because Harry's sharpened eyes were not something he could withstand for long.

"Yeah, let's do it," Jesse was all too happy to show off her new speed. "All right. Check this out!" she took off into the tubing and ran as fast as she could.

"Damn. She really can move!" Joe was the first to react with popping-wide eyes, making the others laugh...except Harry and Wally.

"Yeah, she can. Um... I got to go," Wally tore his gaze from the speeding Jesse and left in a hurry.

"Wally?" Iris called after him but it was no use. It was easy to tell he wasn't quite thrilled with the news. Iris offered to go talk to him but it still wasn't enough to ease Joe.

"Look, it's just... it is better if he doesn't have speed," Barry moved over to Joe but was surprised to find the opposite in Joe.

"Oh, you don't have to convince me of that. The last thing I want is two of my kids zipping around the city, running into danger!"

"Cause he looked pretty disappointed…"

"This is about that other timeline, isn't it?"

Barry had only just thought about the fact Wally could be next on Alchemy's list. He had been a speedster, and though not an evil meta, Barry was sure Alchemy would do something to make Wally a threat. "No, I just... I think you should keep an eye out."

~ 0 ~

Things were picking up with the metahumans Alchemy was summoning. At least that's what Barry thought this new case was all about. John Kane had been attacked with a street lamp post the previous night that just happened to fly into the apartment.

"That smells like a metahuman case from a mile off," Belén told her mother as the Detective led her daughter into the offices. "You have to give me something."

"Yeah, even though you're my daughter—" Veronica stopped and turned to Belén, making the younger woman bump into her, "—I can't do that. Iris came in with the same attempt about an hour ago."

"She did?" Belén blinked.

"Oh yeah, I thought you were worked at the same place…?" Veronica gave her a strange smile.

Belén weakly smiled back. Truth be told, she hadn't quite listened to Iris that morning. The voices were inhabiting her mind and Iris' voice just couldn't break through. "Must have forgotten."

"You okay?" Veronica asked and looked her over to make her own assumptions. "You've been acting...a little...odd, even for people like us."

"I'm just tired," Belén said and believed herself to be telling a technical truth.

"Hm, take a little rest, then," Veronica patted Belén's arm then spotted Barry coming in. "You!" she snapped her fingers at him, making him immediately hold his hands in defense.

"Am I in trouble?"

Belén rolled her eyes and turned around to him. "Have you done anything else?"

"No," he frowned at the similar stares he was getting from both mother and daughter. "I just…" he made a hand gesture to them, the open office where Joe was conducting an interview with a young girl, and to the reception, "...I'm just...doing my job…"

"Help me out on mine then," Belén walked up to him with a warm smile. "I need deets on this case."

"Nu-uh!" Veronica warned her. "You can't bat your eyes at our forensics to get private information."

"Is it a meta?" Belén ignored her mother and waited for Barry to answer her. "You know I can't write about that anyways. Not if it's...you know, Alchemy's doing," she whispered in the end.

Barry apologetically smiled at Veronica who groaned. "I'm pretty sure it's a meta, though I don't know if it has to do with Alchemy."

"Well, we wouldn't know that until we need this new meta," Belén waved a finger in the air and walked towards the nearest desk.

"Barry," Veronica called to him again, this time serious as a Detective, "What exactly did you find? Because we're not getting much from that girl," she nodded towards the open office, "Frankie Kane."

"Well, the outer layer of the lamppost is a half an inch thick, but to bend even a quarter-inch of steel requires 177 tons of tensile strength, so…"

"Are we looking for Mr. Incredible?" Belén smiled at the two, wanting to chuckle at her own joke.

"...but I'm the dork?" Barry playfully asked.

"That's a truth too," she gave a nod. "But back to that little theory—"

"I know you're not infiltrating information to a reporter, Allen," Julian strode into the room, missing Barry rolling his eyes at him, and met Belén's smug look. "You know it's against the rules."

"Mhm, I know how much of a stickler you are for rules," she leaned against the desk and crossed her arms. "But this is off the record, so c'mon…" she gestured with a hand for him to keep going. "Let me hear how the story ends."

Julian upheld her stare for about a minute or so before he continued with their discoveries. Veronica looked between her daughter, Julian and Barry and wondered to what extent did Belén have the two men in front of them wrapped around her fingers.

"...the only problem with Barry's little theory is there were no fingerprints found on the post."

Barry really had to force himself not to roll his eyes at Julian. "Again, Julian, not my theory, and the meta could've been wearing gloves—"

Julian did not hold back. He raised a hand to stop Barry from talking. "Yes, perhaps. But the curvature on the post suggests that equal amounts of pressure were applied to the whole thing at the same time. So, unless our strong man has a wingspan of over 20 feet…"

"Something else caused it," Veronica nodded.

"You two are not really going to fight over theories, I hope," Belén warned Barry and Julian seeing as the two couldn't stop glaring at each other.

"They've fought over less," Veronica mumbled to her and moved for the office. She had pulled Joe out from the office so that they could converse.

"Who's that?" Julian spotted Frankie from the open door.

"That's Frankie Kane, the victim's foster kid," Joe seemed to be harboring something."That poor girl's been in and out of homes for years. Listen, she said that she blacked out during the incident."

"Blacked out?" Julian repeated, confused. From the desk, Belén listened in with a little more interest.

"Yeah. Repressing memories is a coping mechanism for lots of foster kids," Barry gave a little insight but it didn't seem to keep Julian at bay.

"Hmm. Is it?"

Barry's glare was just automatic at this point. "It is," he mimicked Julian's accent.

"It could be something else," Julian pushed past him to get to the office.

"When will you two just...stop?" Belén sighed as she leaned away from the desk.

Barry gestured after the blonde who was in the middle of discreetly taking Frankie's glass of water. "Did you not just—"

"Like school boys, you are," Belén shook her head at him. "But those blackouts...what if they're not just blackouts?"

Even though Barry was fairly annoyed she was getting on his case for something Julian so easily provoked, he listened to her question. "Blackouts have been...a recurring theme for metas…"

Belén cleared her throat when the theory got back to her. It was how she'd started losing control of her powers when she first got them almost three years ago. That...made her wonder. "I have to go," she said with the idea fresh in her mind.

"What? You're not going to persuade these two idiots to keep telling you whatever you want?" Veronica's gesture at him made Barry even more annoyed.

"No, not today, gotta go!" Belén scurried out of there with the intention of finding someone.

~ 0 ~

Jesse came to a stop with a laugh after finishing up a new round of exams for Caitlin and Cisco. "So, how'd I do?" she eagerly waited to hear the response.

"Blood pressure, heart rate, metabolic rate all excellent. And you've got some serious speed, girl," Caitlin looked up from her computer scanner with a proud smile. "I think you're good to go."

Harry, who stood on the other end of the computers, pointed a finger at Caitlin. "Let's not get ahead of ourselves. I still want to run a few more tests."

"Like what?" Cisco gave him a look. They were basically finished with every possible test they could conduct on Jesse.

"Like...more tests," Harry waved him off.

"Hey, so, is Wally here?" Jesse peered to the doorway of the room.

"No, not yet," Caitlin was sorry to say. She could tell Jesse really wanted Wally to be there for her.

"Right. Um... Okay, I'm gonna... I'm gonna go grab some food. I'm starving," Jesse sheepishly patted her stomach.

"Yeah, there's some PowerBars in the workshop. Help yourself," Cisco suggested. He waited until Jesse was completely gone before he called Harry. "Harry? Can I just ask...what are you doing?"

Harry would not tear his gaze from the screen in front of him. "Being thorough."

"Yeah? 'Cause it seems like you're stalling…"

Harry flung his hands in the air. "Okay, fine. I'm stalling. I'm stalling! So what?"

"So what? So why?" Cisco would like to know.

"So why? Why? Why? I got to explain myself to you two? Oh, I guess I do, 'cause you're not parents. That's my daughter, okay? And she spent months on this very Earth watching Barry Allen defeat meta after meta after meta... And Zoom... And all of a sudden, bam! She's got speed, and now she wants to be a hero just like him. And I think that's a great idea. Not!"

"Harry, we can help her. We can train her just like we did with Barry," Caitlin took a much kinder approach than Cisco's sarcasm. "We've done it with Belén and Nina too. We know what we're doing."

"Yeah, except I don't want you to train her, okay?" Harry didn't know what else he needed to do to get that point across. "I brought her here for you to talk her out of it, not talk her into it, all right, Ramon? You... you should talk to her. You're a meta."

Cisco pretended to think about that crazy idea. "Yeah, which makes me the last person she should talk to about not using her powers."

"Okay, Snow... Caitlin... You and her—" Harry put his hands together like a prayer, "You've always had such a special relationship. You talk to her."

Caitlin looked at him like he was crazy. "No, we don't. And I don't know anything about having powers, so I'm the last person you should talk to, so don't ask me…" she knew she'd rambled on a bit too fast during that last sentence. She should start learning how to lie better - it was something she and Belén would need to work on together...just another thing they needed to get under control.

~ 0 ~

Belén arrived at STAR Labs and found Caitlin first in the cortex. "Where's Harry?"

Caitlin looked up from her computer and sighed. "He's probably still cooped up in the breech room trying to figure out how to keep Jesse from using her powers."

"What?" Belén was only momentary surprised but then remembered this was Harry Wells the protective Dad and brushed it off. "Whatever, I think I have a way to figure out a little more about...our situations."

Caitlin turned her chair in Belén's direction. "Like…?"

"Well, besides us and Datura, who exactly would know about Datura and Killer Frost's history?"

"I...I don't know…"

"Harry!" Belén exclaimed. "He kept tabs on the metas in his city. Granted it might not be in-depth but something is something."

"Belén, I don't know about this…" Caitlin sighed. This was a tough situation alright. She knew that unlike her, Belén wanted to understand and control these powers while Caitlin felt said powers were more of a curse. So far, Caitlin didn't know much about their powers and she didn't exactly have the support from the others since they were choosing not to say anything about it.

"I'm not revealing anything, I'm just...asking some questions," Belén tried to explain her idea so that Caitlin could see no danger of disclose would loom over them. "I can make it work as if I'm trying to understand Datura more. He has to know whose powers she owned and what exactly happened to make her...crazy. He can give me the timeline we need."

Caitlin tapped her fingers along the desk, indecision written all over her face. "I just...I don't want people to know…"

"And they won't," Belén promised her. "Worst case scenario, I'll tell him about me."

Caitlin could see that despite Belén coming to her to explain her idea...there wasn't much convincing her otherwise. "Just be cautious, please."

Belén beamed and assured her it would be alright. Unfortunately, Belén didn't have the time she needed to talk to Harry because their metahuman had finally made a true appearance.

Frankie Kane was their culprit.

Barry stared at the profile picture of Frankie on the wall screen. He, Joe and Veronica had the unpleasant task to meet her metahuman side after Julian practically forced it out of her. He nearly paid for that with his life if Barry hadn't gotten him out of the way.

"Her name's Frankie Kane, but she's calling herself Magenta," he told the others.

"Meh," Cisco crinkled his nose at the name.

"That Magenta is a whole different person than the scared, kind girl I was interviewing," Joe remarked. Magenta had an air of smug confidence that Frankie Kane was very far from.

"She's dissociative," Harry said.

"You mean split-personality?" Belén asked and gave Caitlin a discreet look of 'he knows what he's talking about' to which Caitlin inwardly sighed at.

She instead focus on the computer screens before anyone noticed. "According to her medical records, it's a condition she's been dealing with her entire life. I'm sure all the yelling at CCPD is what triggered it."

"So Frankie is Jekyll. Magenta is Hyde," Wally simplified it. "Classic good versus evil."

"Or she's pulling a "Primal Fear." She's faking it," Harry suggested.

"No, she's not faking it. I saw the struggle going on inside of her," Barry reassured them all this was a real case. "Magenta's trying to take over completely."

Belén looked down with an actual twinge of fear. It was an all too familiar fear she wished would leave her alone. Seeing it happening in someone else, a young girl like Frankie, didn't help.

"You said she was raised in the foster care system?" Caitlin asked.

"It's in her records," Veronica came over. "She's been going from home to home."

"Yeah, and maybe not good ones," Caitlin said after checking the records of Frankie's current home. "Her current foster father, John...the one who was hurt in the attack has got a few disorderly conducts."

"He might have some information we can use," Iris saw a chance to help and went over to Caitlin's side. "Belén and I can follow up with him."

Iris' smile made Belén feel terrible when she shot her down. "I can't go. I...have something else to do…"

Iris raised an eyebrow. "Like what?"

"I...I just...can't," Belén quickly looked down at the floor to avoid Iris' suspicious stare.

Even Barry was wondering, at this point, what she meant. "There is...something else…" he spoke up only to keep Iris down. He had began picking up on some strange behavior from Belén after Iris had pointed it out. He was going to look into it, soon. "She got her powers from Alchemy. When I said his name, she knew who he was, so Magenta must have existed in the other timeline too."

"Who's Alchemy?" Jesse asked.

"Well," Cisco began with an overly sarcastic tone, "Doctor Alchemy is a magic man in a cloak who can somehow restore the powers that people had in Flashpoint."

"Okay, and what's Flashpoint?"

"That's what we're calling the alternate timeline that Barry created when he went back in time and saved his mom," Caitlin explained.

"Oh. So Magenta is another side-effect from your time trip. Genius," Harry spat at the speedster in question. "Not. Who knows what else you've changed!?"

"I don't need to be reminded. Thank you," Barry crossed his arms.

"Look, anybody with those powers and as angry as her needs to be tracked down," Joe said, getting them back on track. "Fast."

"Well, great. I mean, fast I can do!" Jesse exclaimed and started out. "Let me just go carb-load."

"He didn't... That's... you don't…" Harry was left calling in vain. "Snow!" the brunette flinched in her chair.

She knew exactly what he wanted and groaned. "Okay, Harry, I'll talk to her, but I don't know what I'm gonna say." She got up from her chair and went after Jesse.

"And I guess I'll go see John Kane," Iris announced, lingering a sharpened look on Belén.

I am a horrible friend, Belén thought.

"Belén?" Veronica startled her out of her thoughts. "Still okay?" she was watching her daughter for any movements but Belén knew that trick all too well.

"Just tired," she recited her lie and waved her and Joe off.

~ 0 ~

Caitlin took in a deep breath before she entered the pipeline where Jesse was finishing her snack. Jesse sheepishly smiled as she cleared the crumbs of power bars off her face.

"You guys weren't kidding when you said speedsters were hungry all the time…"

Caitlin gave a little smile, an awkward one too since she wasn't sure how this conversation was going to turn out. "Listen, Jesse, before you speed off to find Frankie, I just want to make sure that you feel like you're ready."

"Why? Is something wrong? I mean, did the test results say something?"

"No, not at all. All the test results have come back fine so far. It's just... maybe you should take it slow…"

Jesse thought about it for a second before shaking her head. "Sorry, is this how you guys treated Belén when she got her powers?" Caitlin blinked, sensing the sort of accusation Jesse was about to throw at her. "Because we're girls? We need to take it slow?"

"What? No! Not at all!" Caitlin exclaimed. "It was the opposite - she was scared-"

"Well I'm not," Jesse cut her off without intending on being rude. "I like my powers and I can use them!"

This was going downhill, thought Caitlin. "Well, I mean, I'm sure you think that it's a great thing to have powers, but sometimes, it's not so great. Trust me," Caitlin paused involuntarily as her own secret began to resurface in her mind. "I'm just saying that if I had powers, I would probably take it slow…"

Jesse sighed and got up from her seat. "My dad put you up to this, didn't he?" Caitlin opened her mouth but Jesse didn't give her the opportunity to answer. "Yeah. I mean, of course he did!"

Caitlin winced as Jesse stormed out of the pipeline. She quickly went after Jesse, but by that time the younger girl was already shouting at her father in the cortex.

"You don't want me to have this speed, do you? I mean, that's why we're here, right? Not so you could test me, but so you could get everyone to talk me out of using my powers!"

Harry briefly looked over Jesse to Caitlin - the brunette quickly lowering her head and rushing to sit beside Cisco and Wally at the desk. Harry returned his gaze to his outraged daughter still waiting to hear what he had to say. "I just want you to be…"

Jesse groaned when she recognized the same old story about to be told. "To be safe, yeah. Yeah, I know. I've heard it my entire life!"

"This is different. This is way different!"

Jesse scoffed. "Yeah, no, it is. 'Cause I'm not Barry, right?"

"Right. You're not Barry—"

Jesse didn't give him the opportunity to speak. She was tired of hearing the same excuses for everything she did. She whirled around and left the cortex. Harry helplessly watched after her but the action of actually trying to speak with her again was definitely not the right one at the moment.

Wally cleared his throat and slowly got up from his chair. "Let me...talk to her this time," he offered. Harry gestured him to get a move on it.

~ 0 ~

Despite the troubled air in STAR Labs, Belén still managed to secure Harry alone in one of the cortex's side rooms. Caitlin had distracted Cisco with something that would hopefully take at least ten minutes.

"Harry?" Belén poked her head into the side room and gave a wiggle of her fingers.

Harry wasn't exactly the talking sort, and it was even less when he was in problems with his daughter. Belén had to remember that as Harry gave only a brief wave of a hand before returning to a deep work on the computers.

Belén cleared her throat and slowly stepped into the room. "Um, I have something to ask you...it's...um, it's about my doppelganger."

Datura was a delicate topic for Harry considering the woman helped kidnap Jesse and nearly got them both killed. "What could you possibly want to do with her now?"

"You haven't heard, then?" Belén dreaded to be the one to give Harry yet another point against Barry regarding the time lines. "Datura sort of got away from me in this time line."

"WHAT!?" Harry wouldn't try to keep his voice at bay even if Belén clapped a hand over his mouth. "ALLEN! I swear to God—"

"Harry, please! It's already done! There's nothing we can do about it. I'm trying to figure out where she is right now and I need your help!"

"I want to know why the hell Allen is still allowed to walk when he so clearly can't help screwing things up!"

"Harry, I know what Datura being free means to you so if you really want her to pay for everything she did, help me out," Belén put her hands together, "Please?"

Harry shook his head knowing that he would end up helping Belén with whatever she wanted. "You need to put that boyfriend of yours in the pipeline for at least a week."

Belén cracked a small smile. "Sure."

"So, what do you need to know?"

"Datura's history." Belén bit her lip nervously. "Uh, specifically her development into, uh...an evil meta."

Harry cocked his head, his scrunching face pretty much implying he had no idea what that had to do with her search. "What do you mean?"

"I was, um, thinking that perhaps learning her true history would help me ensure things end differently the next time we meet," Belén explained and gave herself silent props for making her excuses sound legit. "What I mean is, I'd like to know what powers she's been known to have. I know a couple, of course, but I also know that she only showed a pea-sized amount of what she actually had."

"Nobody knows all the powers Datura had, Belén," Harry shrugged quickly, "I doubt even she knew."

Belén blinked at the revelation. "What?"

"The whole reason Datura's meta physiology was unstable was because she couldn't control the powers she had. She couldn't stabilize enough to switch between them and actually identify each one."

"But...but what about the people she siphoned? There has to be records about those victims—"

"I can get you the reports from my STAR Labs on her and her victims but her actual body count isn't known, neither are her powers. She kept losing some while gaining others."

Belén let out a heavy breath. This conversation wasn't going exactly where she needed it. Make do with what you have, she reminded herself. It was all she had left. "Okay, um, can I just please get whatever you have on those?"

Harry nodded. "Give me a couple hours to compose all the profiles, alright?"

"Yes, of course." Belén would have to anxiously wait to receive those profiles and get started on a proper plan for her future.

~ 0 ~

"Seriously, what the hell were you thinking? You can't just go stepping into the street like that! I mean, you got to use your head!"

Belén, Caitlin and Cisco each squirmed in their respective spots in the cortex as each of Barry's shouts carried into the room. And if it wasn't enough, Harry and Jesse were going at a similar match in the very room. Apparently, Wally had gotten the idea that he could jumpstart his 'speed powers' like Jesse had - involuntarily - done in her own world. Unfortunately, it didn't work out and Jesse had to pull him out before he got ran over by a car.

Now everyone was mad...except for the leftover trio hearing everything. In the end, both Wally and Jesse each stormed away from their shouters.

Harry immediately called upon Caitlin, who jumped in her chair at suddenly being put in the spotlight with an accusation. "What did you say to her?"

"Me?" the brunette pointed at herself.

"Yeah, you," Harry directed a finger at her face.

Caitlin got over her initial startle and scowled. "Don't blame me for this. I tried to help!" Helping was all that she tried to do lately with no success.

"Help her or help me?" Harry's demand only pushed her further into annoyance.

"Listen, Harry," Caitlin pushed herself up from her chair and slammed a hand on the desk, startling both Belén and Cisco. "Maybe the reason she's shutting you out is because you're not trying to understand what she's going through—"

"I don't need to unders—"

Caitlin was not giving him the chance to speak. "Maybe if you helped her navigate her powers rather than just assuming they'll destroy her, she'd turn to you rather than push you away!" she gave him a sharp glare before leaving herself.

"Point one, Caitlin," Belén mumbled to Cisco who 'mhmed' in response. Harry overheard her and sent the two a murderous glare which prompted them to get out of there too.

~ 0 ~

"Iris, what are you doing here?" Nina accidentally startled the focused reporter in the hospital hallway.

Iris stopped and turned sideways to see the doctor smiling at her. "I'm following up on John James...for job purposes and…" she leaned forwards and whispered, "...meta reasons."

"Ah," Nina understand and looked around the rather empty hallway. "Our street lamppost victim. He's this way," she started walking with Iris. "What's going on with him?"

"His foster daughter is the metahuman," Iris began to explain in a quiet voice since nurses were still passing by.

"Frankie Kane?" Nina recalled the girl which took Iris aback.

"You know her?"

"Not personally, but…" Nina stopped Iris for a second. Her eyes flickered around in case anyone lingered by. "I'm not supposed to disclose anything, but...she's been in here a couple times with some...weird accidents."

"What kind of accidents?" Iris crossed her arms.

"Broken bones in the arms, one time a leg," Nina shook her head. "If you asked me, it's abuse but I can't exactly prove it which is…"

"Why you haven't said anything," Iris nodded, understanding the position Nina was in.

"I can't do anything unless I have concrete proof and if the girl comes forwards. I've just reported my suspicions to the social worker but...there's not much I can do."

Iris began to wonder how that might factor into Frankie's current condition. It definitely made sense. If Frankie lived in a hostile environment, she would try to cope with it some way or another...which might have made her an easier target for Alchemy. "Wait…" she grabbed Nina's arm when a new idea suddenly entered her mind, "...maybe that's why turned into Magenta."

"Magenta?" Nina wasn't in the loop about Frankie's new identity for the moment, but Iris didn't stop to explain.

"Maybe Magenta came out as a defense mechanism! She tried to get back at John Kane for hurting her…and if she did it once - and failed - she's going to try again!" she dashed for the room the nurse in the reception room had indicated was John's.

"Can we not run? I can't run!" Nina grumbled and walked her fastest after Iris.

"Nurse!" Iris found one nurse in the room at the moment and went directly to her. "We need to get this man to a safe location!"

The nurse gave the reporter a strange look. "Why?"

But before Iris could even attempt to expalin with an excuse, they heard distinct noises of metal from outside. Nina came in with a slight short of breath and saw Iris nearing the room's window.

"What is it, Iris?"

Iris' mouth fell open at the sight outside.

"Oh my God," the nurse nearly fell back.

Magenta was back...and with a tank.

~ 0 ~

In the cortex, an alarm went off but it wasn't one that Barry recognized. "What kind of alarm is that?" he looked over to Cisco and Caitlin who were already working on the computers to see the situation.

"That's Iris' panic button," Belén came rushing into the room with Joe and Harry. "What's going on?"

"Her what?" Barry was dead confused but apparently no one else was. "What is that?"

"Her panic button. We installed them on everyone's phones!" Cisco exclaimed and looked up to Barry's confused face. "Cause we kept getting kidnapped!" he nearly shouted.

"After I could start making an actual tally mark chart counting my kidnappings, we decided it was better to be prepared," Belén looked at the others who nodded in agreement. "I still won, though."

"Yeah you did," Cisco smirked.

"We got it!" Caitlin pulled up Iris' location on the screens behind Barry. "It's...the hospital…"

"Iris said she was visiting John Kane, remember?" Belén blinked. Now she definitely felt terrible leaving Iris on her own.

"Is that...a tanker?" Joe nearly fell over seeing the security feed.

Cisco slowly rose from his chair in utter shock. "Th-th-that's a tanker, yeah."

"She's gonna kill everyone in there," Jesse was wide-eyed like the others.

"We have to go there," Barry looked over to Belén, wondering if her strange behavior would also carry over to their work.

But Belén would be damned . "Let's!"

~ 0 ~

Inside the hospital, Iris and Nina were working to get John out of there, even though the man didn't really deserve anything at this point.

"I should really be up there helping," Nina struggled to get people moving without bumping into her.

"Are you kidding me?" Iris sent her a sideways glance while pushing John's wheelchair. "Don't you even dare! Let the others take care of things."

They made it to the front doors but stopped simultaneously when they saw Frankie's figure outside. Magenta was holding her hands on either side of her, controlling the tanker moving over the hospital.

Barry sped to the hospital's roof with Belén. The two settled on their feet and gazed at the tanker coming their way.

See, super strength would be very handy right now, thought Belén. She wished Datura could have had that power siphoned somewhere…

She shook her head after realizing the implications of that. Another metahuman killed for their power was definitely not something she should be wishing for.

"There's not enough time to get everybody out of the hospital. This thing's coming down," Barry communicated with the others through the comms. "What if... What if I create a wind funnel?"

"You won't be creating enough updraft to keep that tanker up," Harry shot him down.

"No, no. Not with my arms. If I run. That could…"

"Propeller," Cisco realized. "That could work."

Harry agreed too. "Barry! Run in a figure eight fashion. You'll act like a propeller. The wind will build upon itself. It'll create the supersonic resistance we need. Could work."

"All right," Barry exchanged nods with Belén then started running in the infinity symbol trail keeping the tanker from crashing over them.

"Okay, well, that worked, but now what? He can't stop her if he's up there," Joe remarked.

"We don't need to fight her," Belén said, still staring down at Magenta. "If she's dissociative then we can get Frankie to assume control again."

"That's your plan?" she heard her mother's doubtful voice and rolled her eyes.

Belén jumped over the ledge and let tendrils of vines create a downward slide allowing her an easy landing in front of the girl. "Frankie? Frankie Kane?"

Magenta's pink eyes glowed bright in the dark and settled over Belén. "You need to leave," Magenta ordered. "I'm not allowed to hurt you."

Belén blinked pretty rapidly, confused by Magenta but took any advantage she could. "Allowed? Why not— you know what, that doesn't matter because I don't want to hurt you either. I know that you're sick, or that...someone made you sick. Let us help you. My friends can help you figure this out…"

Magenta growled under the strain of her tanker. "You need to leave!"

Belén jumped when the tanker gave a large creak on the roof. "No!" she shouted at Magenta to stop. "Magenta—ah!" she lurched forwards as she started to hear voices again.

They want us.

We want to come out!

Use the fire!

This was the worst time to get sucked into the whirlwind of voices. What was worse is that she could actually feel some of those powers forcing their way up her finger tips. "No! Leave me...alone!" Belén clutched her head, shaking it frantically as the voices continued to invade her mind.

~ 0 ~

"What is going on…?" Cisco checked the monitors and saw Belén's vitals spiking up and down. "Magenta hasn't touched her!"

Caitlin immediately took over and smacked Cisco's hands away from the computers. "It's probably her sugar levels," she said the only thing she could think of.

"What's that got to do with this right now?" Cisco frowned at the ruddy excuse.

"Blood pressure is going up, really up…" Caitlin mumbled the readings with growing concern, "Neuron activity spiking...I...Belén!" she called into the comms. "Belén!"

"If she's not getting through Magenta will let that tanker crush everyone in that hospital!" Joe was in equal frantic state since Iris was still in said hospital.

"He right," Harry slowly met Jesse. "They need all the help they can get."

Jesse was a little doubtful of her father's seriousness. After everything, it wasn't expected. "Dad…"

"You need to get out there, now."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes, I'm sure. I know you can do it. You're more than fast enough. Now, run, Jesse," Harry encouraged her with a smile. "Run!"

Jesse smiled back and sped out of there. She met Barry while he was running on the roof. "Hey, thought you could use some extra help. I got this. You go take care of her."

Barry was happy to see her there. He let her take over and rushed down to where Belén and Magenta were.

"Go...away…" Belén said through gritted teeth but the voices were swirling like a vortex, overlapping one another.

"Azalea…" Barry wasn't sure what was happening but he started getting flashes of her earlier days when she wasn't in total control of her powers. Could it be the same thing was happening again? Had he caused that too?

"Barry, Magenta!" Harry's voice rang in his ears.

Barry took care of the priority - he supposed - but felt a little better when Belén managed to send a weak smile his way. She was coming back…

But from what? And why?

"Magenta, killing your foster father and everyone else inside that hospital isn't gonna give you what you need-" his step forwards put Magenta into a snappy mood.

"You have no idea what I need! It's not just John that I want to get rid of. I want them both gone!"

"I know you're still in there, Frankie. Don't let John destroy the good that's still inside you…."

Magenta's eyes flickered pink to dark brown, but inevitably filled with tears. "He said I was weak. That I was pathetic! He said I was a horrible person."

"He's lying," Belén managed to get a word in, simultaneously taking in a deep breath. The voices were going away, but that was an episode she definitely did not want to repeat. "He's just blaming you for all the bad things he's caused in his life. It's not your fault. This isn't because of you."

"I just want him to stop hurting me," Magenta slightly lowered her arms.

"This isn't the way. Your foster father never forgave himself for his mistakes. That's why he took them out on you. He couldn't move forward. But you can…" Barry took cautious steps towards the girl.

Magenta's pink eyes faded to brown, and remained that way, this time. She looked up at the tanker and redirected it back to its place. Seeing the immediate peril was diminishing, those inside the hospital who could leave did.

With Magenta gone, Frankie Kane sobbed her apologies.

~ 0 ~

"So no one else got hurt?" Frankie was now properly there and sitting in the cortex with the group.

"Luckily, no. You don't have to worry about that," Veronica gave the girl a little smile.

"What about John?"

"The DA's prosecuting him for what he did to you. So I think he's gonna be serving time, and he's not gonna ever be anybody's foster father again," Joe was happy to report. It definitely helped having Nina's records on file just for extra evidence of that man's abuse.

"It's just so strange being responsible for all of this and not remembering any of it," Frankie stared at her hands, the ones who apparently had control over...terrible powers.

"What do you remember about how you got your powers?" Barry asked her, in the guise of the Flash. "How this all began?"

"Um... I started having dreams, at night, of Magenta."

"Dreams?" Wally asked, and she nodded.

"They were more than dreams. It was like I was living another life or something. And then I started getting them all the time. During the day. And the more it happened, the more painful they became. Then I started hearing a voice."

"What voice?" Barry had a good idea of who that voice was, but he wanted to confirm…

"It was a man. Named Alchemy. He said he could give me what I wanted and make me powerful again. I didn't understand. I thought I was going crazy," Frankie shook her head.

"Trust me. Magenta is not here because of anything that you did. There may be a darkness inside of you, but if you face it, it'll make it easier for the good side of you to win."

Frankie took his words' meanings with shock. "You're letting me go?"

"None of this is your fault, Frankie. Caitlin found you a good home in Keystone. People that will never hurt you."

"But what if Magenta tries to come back?"

"Fight her. And if you need help, we'll be there. We have faith in you, Frankie," Barry's smile was infectious to Frankie. She thanked them all for the second opportunity she would be getting.

~ 0 ~

"Your neuron levels spiked up like crazy, Belén!" Caitlin was reading over the reports she'd stored while Belén had been out with Magenta.

Belén was now the one sitting down in her greenroom while Caitlin circled her chair. "I don't even know what that means, Dr. Snow," Belén reminded her they did not speak the same scientific language.

Caitlin leaned on one hip, not amused with the response. "Whatever happened out there, caused every single vital of yours to just go up! I barely hid it from Cisco."

"I'm sorry, I didn't...know that would happen," Belén fiddled her fingers together. "I was just talking to Frankie when...the voices started. They were like attacking me with different things."

"They were doing more than just saying stuff," Caitlin looked over the reports on her tablet. "It's like, for a brief second, they were taking ahold of you."

"I felt the powers try to force themselves out of me," Belén admitted.

Caitlin shook her head. "I knew you shouldn't have tried to use them—"

"So then what the hell am I supposed to do with them?" Belén snapped and pushed herself up from her chair. "Because the last time I was in this situation was because I didn't use my powers! They controlled me, Caitlin, remember that? I worked hard to control them and be the Azalea. I refuse to let them take me over."

Caitlin pursed her lips and stayed silent. Of course she remembered. Belén had been close to fighting even Barry off in her non-controlled state.

"I'm just trying to do things differently here," Belén crossed her arms, her anger softening as she calmed down. She wasn't angry with Caitlin, and she wasn't upset...she was just...scared. "It's happening again and I don't want it to. I don't want to lose control. I want to take control. Not using your powers works for you but it's not what I want for me."

"Okay," Caitlin sighed and passed some hair over her shoulder. "Let me...device a training plan, alright? Maybe, if we start slow, then we can take control of each power you siphoned."

"Thank you," Belén said softly and sat back down on the chair. She rubbed her forehead and somehow the fear she felt only increased as seconds ticked by.

~ 0 ~

"Hey, what's going on?" Barry walked into the precinct's desks where Joe and Julian already were. He'd gotten the call so suddenly when he was all ready to go home after such a day.

"Listen, Singh wanted me to show you guys this," Joe motioned Barry to quickly come over. His hand was hovering the clicker of the computer where a video was paused. "This happened a few days ago at Iron Heights. They tried to keep it under wraps 'cause they didn't want anybody to think there was a security issue, but check it out."

"That's Clariss," Julian said without care. "Is this why we were brought in?"

"No, this is why," Joe let the video play.

Clariss was shouting in his cell for Alchemy when all of a suddenly he was picked up and pinned at the wall. He was thrown around like a ragdoll, harshly, until he was flung one last time and hit the ground.

"Dead before he hit the ground," Joe muttered and looked up at the two wide-eyed forensics.

"Alchemy. You ever heard that name before?" Barry asked specifically for Julian just to try their luck at some new information.

"Alchemy? No, I haven't," the blonde shook his head.

"Maybe there's an invisible meta," Barry thought otherwise. Iron Heights was made specifically to cancel out any powers...so where exactly would this invisible meta come in?

"Maybe it's a ghost," Julian suggested. "Do you believe in ghosts, Allen?" Barry's flat face gave him the answer. He rolled his eyes and left the place.

"Hey, do you think this thing is part of the Flashpoint timeline too?" Joe asked once Julian was surely gone.

"I have a feeling a lot of things are these days," Barry muttered and tore his gaze from the video.

[mythalsknickers]

Mythal's Thoughts about Veilguard: CC and Introduction

A Homecoming Ten Years in the Making

Words will never express the feeling I had booting up the game, compiling the shaders, and then seeing all your companions load in before the title sequence. I genuinely do think I squeaked a little and cried seeing the Lighthouse the first time. I happened to be on the phone with my spouse (Elgar'nan's Pantaloons) and he did ask if I was okay. Truth is I was very okay. The game did not exist in a vacuum for me, in terms of it being a dragon age game and the time it came out. The nostalgia hit but also the hit of coming back to a community I had taken a hiatus from. In a time of great strife for my home. Election night was a dark night for me and one where having Dragon Age The Veilguard took a mental load off my brain. For that I am already immensely thankful to this game. This community and this franchise have always been my home fandom, in a way other games could not compare. Even my beloved Cyberpunk 2077. A slight authorial note any screenshots below are coming from my second playthrough of Teigue, or that second playthrough of a different character that got deleted. I promise Teigue is not changing lineages if you see an elf. As our beloved witch of the wilds say.

The Spoilers of New must be preserved. No matter how exciting they are.

The Character Creation

This has to be the most impressive character customization to come out of Bioware in a very long time. From being able to sculpt your character's face using a trio of three faces from a set of I believe 20 heads, to tuning you body from similar presets. There are 88 different hairs, and while I would adore to play with Strand Hair, I have heard issues of it corrupting saves, and I have no desire to turn my laptop into a space heater.

With a character engine this in depth, there will be a learning curve and for myself there was some moments of having to go in post starting and adjust minor things like my character's chin. But you can post starting the game go adjust your features via a mirror located in the player base. You do not have to trek all the way to The Black Emporium and listen to Xenon be creepy while you fix your eyeshadow. Some things I truly adored in my heart of hearts. Being able to take a full face of tattoos and decide which parts of it show up, what color they are. The coloration of my character's scars, how much of his body is tattooed, layering face paint and body paint on top of that. I can safely say I spent close to six hours in character customization the first day, and after my first playthrough when I went to decide on my next character it took about two hours, but given I deleted that save, I was not exactly happy with him. I once again got hit with the nostalgia stick when it came time to make my inquisitor. I will be the first to say I was in camp, our rook will be our inquisitor before the game came out and huffing copious amounts of Copium (See photo proof)

However when the music swelled and I heard the inquisition theme, I cried and I cried hard. I did not think that making my inquisitor would make me cry but it did. I made Fen'aslan, because well she is my solavellan entry into the pit of hell. I have to say I believe a made a fairly accurate version of her, post ten years of Inquisition and dealing with her Husband being an absolute terror.

Our choices for Inquisition being boiled down to three did bother me. While I feel in northern thedas and places where the southern chantry does not have much of a grip on the nations, the choice of the divine would not matter, there were things that were done, that i would love more clarification on and where people went. I went into Veilguard expecting a softening of the lore bubble to bring new fans in but also to offer what I call a soft reset of the canon. I felt back in Inquisition that the franchise was moving towards something that would pivot the canon.

Overall I am in love with the character creator and the faction back stories, those feel like a happy medium between Origin's origin story quests and Inquisition's backgrounds.

On the Design of Demons

This is before my actual gushing over the story because this was a complaint I had as well from the intial promotion content. I was not thrilled with the demon designs. However going through and looking at them now, and feeling them in the world. I am actually quiet partial to them. Demons in previous installments of Dragon Age felt above the world but in this instance they feel more off the world. We start see signs of these more skeletal designs in Inquisition in Solas' personal quest, All New, Faded for Her. In the game the opening sequence we see the run of the mill Shades, Rage Demons and at least two Pride demons. I have lot more to say about Demons but that is going to be a later or possibly post my review masterpost going out topic. But I do feel like these fit the current installment of the game very well.

The Opening Sequence

I saw the first hour playthrough and honestly I thought it prepared me for the cold jump into Minrathous, and no I was not prepared. I knew we were going to Tevinter when Trespasser came out. But to actually be in Tevinter, and see Tevinter in a Post Inquisition world. It is all I imagined and more. Tevinter, specifically Minrathous is a beautiful mix of Elvhen and gothic that we have only seen in Halamshiral and Orlais. The cold open of Rook throwing a Venatori out the bar was more than amusing for me. But more so we got to see a side of Varric that we did not really get to see in Inquisition, but we did see in DA2. Varric, the Spymaster. While not quite as distanced as Leliana, Varric loves his people and when the Venatori in the bar are preparing to jump Rook. he steps in to save his second in command and then share a drink with them.

As we leave the bar we are introduced into a balance mechanic right away and our first taste of combat is not until we find Scout Harding, and recover our gear from her, which suggest Rook entered Minrathous legally or through a means that left us unarmed for the opening sequence. Which is something I will be exploring through fiction later, and it does parallel the cut content of DA2 Mage Hawke having to do a ritual to hide that they are mage before entering Kirkwall. As we progress down to Dumat Plaza we do have plenty of small coin purses and chests to loot, as well as seeing a Toad statue. It is only after we reach the plaza do we meet our next companion. Neve Gallus, and can I just say for the following act of Dorian as our next Tevinter companion. I love her, from her introduction outfit, to her manner of speaking. I am not sure when I will romance her but she is on the list. It is also amazing to see disabled representation with her, showing that no matter what hand our life has dealt us we can still accomplish a great many things. The intricacy on the prosthetic to fit with the design and aesthetic of her character is fantastic.

We progress the story through an ancient elvhen building under Our Lady of Victory, which really brings the words "The Tevinter Imperium is built on the ashes of the Elvhen Empire." to mind. We also see snippets of Solas' life on the run from Varric and the Inquisitor trying to bring his plan to fruition through a small space before you reach the Eluvian hall. In this space we find a desk, behind it are two elvhen artifacts, what looks like a table for crafting runes, and a singular cot with a lute of elvhen design on it. Solas being an artist is something very familiar to Solavellans like myself as he painted all of Skyhold's murals but the addition of music to his repertoire is very poignant give he described what the world was before the veil as a great song. with a singular cot, an elven lute, a desk and an artifact in the corner. Stepping through the door we are greated with the Eluvian Hall, and perhaps the largest eluvian aside from Solas' personal one.

Arlathan Forest, the stuff of myths, legends and amazing headcanon. Until this game we had never seen Arlathan, all we had was a few mentions, and some lore codexs to go off of, one of my personal theories regarding Arlathan was it was the Black City, it was the seat of the Maker and looking at the many screenshots I have, it kinda looks the part. Arlathan is a stunning location but more so for the importance it plays. This was the place where Solas started his rebellion and burned his Vallaslin from Mythal off. This was where it all began a millennia ago and where it begins again. Personally a motif I love seeing that the design team kept, was the resting Fen'harel statues either pointing the way to your objective or signifying a point of rest. It flips the in lore understanding of Solas and Fen'harel at this point on it's head.

It is only after we battle a Pride Demon, which in of itself is narratively fitting given the meaning of Solas' name is pride. Do we get our first look at the Dreadwolf. His outfit was such a change from Trespasser, this was not the Fen'harel trying to lure the Inquisitor to him and remove his magic from them. This was Solas. His armor in Trespasser and the way he carried himself was very much the young hotblooded, cocky general he told Lavellan about. Where as this armor. I'd argue in Trespasser he very much was putting on a mask and to force distance, where as in Veilguard he is genuinely surprised Varric caught up to him. Begging the question if he knew Varric, Harding and Rook were looking for him, why was he surprised? Was it the lack of the Inquisitor not being there? Personally my thoughts are he was shocked that he had been cornered by the very friends he had tried to push away ten years ago. was Solas, bound in the weight of his duty to the people, and trying to run from those who would convince him to stop. Not even a few frames later he is trying to push Varric away, to stop him from stopping him. Solas could have very well frozen Varric the moment he drew Bianca, instead he resigns himself to a fate and shatters Bianca, and even Varric seems surprised by this. Even still Solas pleads with Varric, tries to reason even though he knows for Varric and Harding there is no reason for them to agree to him taking down the veil. Even when Rook knocks the pillars and Varric makes a move and Solas retaliates, it isn't gladness, or relief that cross his face. it is disgust, maybe even loathing. Almost as if he hates that it has come to this.

Our final sequence of what I consider the opening is while our titular character Rook is unconscious. In what appears to be a fade dream. We learn through Solas he formed a small connection to us through blood we spilled at the ritual but he is very much stuck in the prison he used to imprison the ancient gods. It is very clear from the first inital moments, this is not a section of the fade where even a mage Rook can command it. No this portion of the fade seems to react solely to Solas' emotional state. When he begins to explain his plan there is a noticeable moment where he seems upset about the harm caused to Varric, and another moment where he seems upset before he explains that Varric is good at lying too. My initial thoughts regarding the fade prison have not changed since I started this second playthrough, I genuinely believe the Fade Prison is the black city. the shaping is similar to how the black city looks in the fade in previous games, and of course the lack of color, brought in by the blight. "Elgar'nan and Ghil'nain are your responsibility now." A fitting way to force Rook awake much like how he forced a romanced Inquisitor awake.

[bottoms-movie]

Simple Coloring Tutorial

— photoshop: cc 2020, but this should be compatible with most versions of PS — level: beginner — please like/reblog if you use/find this helpful — tutorial under cut:

you will obviously first open your caps or import your clip, crop/resize your gifs, and add sharpening. here is my gif after sharpening and before any adjustment layers:

STEP 1: curves

add a new curves adjustment layer, choose the bottom dropper and choose one of the brightest points in the gif. 

you can see the spot i chose circled below:

add a second curves adjustment layer and choose the top dropper, and choose one of the darkest points in the gif

you can see the spot i chose circled below:

STEP 2: basic coloring

next, i add a levels adjustment layer. on this one, i prefer to only adjust the middle and left arrow. the left arrow adjusts the dark points and the middle arrow adjusts the midtones (and the right arrow adjusts the bright points). i move the middle arrow left to add brightness and highlights and i move the left one right to add depth and contrast. here are my settings for this gif, but i suggest playing around with these two arrows to find what works right for your gif.

i then like to add a photo filter (warming filter (85)). i keep the density at 25% but change the opacity. i prefer 40% opacity but anywhere between 30-50% usually works well. this doesn’t add much adjustment to the color but it helps to balance out the colors, if that makes sense. 

then add a brightness/contrast layer. again, brightness will depend on your specific gif and how bright you want it to be. for contrast, i would suggest not going higher than 15 (i prefer between 5 and 15), but again, it will all depend on the gif. 

i then add a selective color layer and adjust the blacks. for most gif, below 10 will work will. it will help add some contrast without overdoing it. i know i sound like a broken record, but again, it all depends on the gif.

STEP 3: color balance/vibrance

next, add a color balance layer. this will all depend the coloring of your gif, but i will try to give a quick explanation of how it works. for this gif, i slide the bottom arrow towards blue some, because i think nat’s skin is too yellow. i also added a bit of red to add some more depth and coloring to her skin. 

now add a vibrance layer. for this one, i added vibrance at 75%. however, most gifs don’t need this much. you can usually easily tell the right amount of vibrance by just paying attention as you move the arrow. i prefer not to mess with the saturation because i don’t like how it looks.

finally, add one more simple curves layer. most times, i use an auto curves layer. sometimes i don’t like how it looks, just add a simple curves layer by adjusting RBG just a little bit.

OPTIONAL COLORING

now if you want your gif to be brighter/more colorful, there’s a couple more steps i would suggest. first, you can add a selective color layer. for this gif, i adjusted the cyans and blues to make the background more vibrant and magenta to add more color to her lips.

if you want to make your gif brighter, you can add another levels adjustment layer. for this one, you will actually adjust the right most arrow (the one that adjusts the bright points) and the left most arrow again (the one that adjusts the dark points.) these are my adjustments, but you can find what works best for your gif.

MORE RESOURCES

(my preferred) sharpening settings by @anya-chalotra​

font i use for subtitles: utsaah (bold) set to bold and italic 

how to fix orange washed characters by @aubrey-plaza

anti-white washing psd by @evansyhelp​

[haikyuu-boys-headcanons]

𝙷𝙰𝙸𝙺𝚈𝚄𝚄 𝙱𝙾𝚈𝚂 𝙰𝙽𝙳 𝙷𝙾𝚆 𝚃𝙷𝙴𝚈 𝙿𝙻𝙰𝚈 𝚂𝙸𝙼𝚂;

quick note;

hi hi hi!! it’s been a while guys! posting some drafts i wrote when i was taking a break <3 this is just how the boys play sims :)

𝙳𝙰𝙸𝙲𝙷𝙸 » plays very... responsibility?? no cheats, (he has no idea how to use them) literally gives them no time for hobbies, he’s focused on their needs to even consider hobbies + he stresses about the bills 

𝚂𝚄𝙶𝙰𝚆𝙰𝚁𝙰 » spends plenty of time downloading cc and customizing his sims to perfection. even spends hours on end just creating perfect little houses. goes through the 5 stages of grief after one of his sims die

𝙰𝚂𝙰𝙷𝙸 » two words; pure panic. he has so many needs to look after! and has anyone fed the dog?? and has anyone paid the bills for the water?? why is there suddenly a fire every two seconds?!?! deletes the game after an hour of pure stress

𝚃𝙰𝙽𝙰𝙺𝙰 » downloads whicked-whims out of curiosity. regrets it almost immediately, so he tried to take it out of his game and somehow, he took out the wrong files and now all of his sims only have one leg and green skin

𝙽𝙸𝚂𝙷𝙸𝙽𝙾𝚈𝙰 » pulls the tiddy bar in CAS all the way up and you can’t convince me otherwise. besides making super hot girls in CAS, noya just fucks around with all the weird debugs and settings + desperately tries to look under the blankets during woohoo 

𝙺𝙰𝙶𝙴𝚈𝙰𝙼𝙰 » gets so unbelievably frustrated at his sims, to the point where he just starts yelling at them. “didn’t i just feed you, tanisha? don’t be greedy, YOU GET WHAT YOUR GIVEN!” in some ways, i feel so sorry for his sims 

𝙷𝙸𝙽𝙰𝚃𝙰 » surprisingly, very invested in the game! he’s become a master of all cheats and truly enjoys the mechanical aspect of the game. he even has all the expansion packs and everything!

𝚃𝚂𝚄𝙺𝙸𝚂𝙷𝙸𝙼𝙰 » despises the game. he thinks it’s some sort of sadistic fuel for people with god complexes. refuses to play until you mention you can drown people in the game. who’s the real sadist here, kei?

𝚈𝙰𝙼𝙰𝙶𝚄𝙲𝙷𝙸 » downloads so many mods and cc until his laptop is literally about to explode. likes to explore the hidden secrets of the game (plant-sims, rabbit holes, ect...) 

𝙾𝙸𝙺𝙰𝚆𝙰 » makes a mini-sim version of himself and uses cheats throughout the entire game. no one is going to ruin a mini pixel fantasy of himself, not even the cheap ass grill that manages to set everyone on fire every two seconds

𝙸𝚆𝙰𝚉𝚄𝙼𝙸 » religiously does not believe in cheats. he would casually brag to everyone that he managed to finish 3 aspirations on one sim with no cheats but disregards the fact that all his sims are broke and starving 90% of the time

𝙼𝙰𝚃𝚃𝚂𝚄𝙽 » non-committal to all of his households. starts a new one every hour and gets bored of it within the first 5 minutes. he lowkey feels bad for the sims that he’s abandoned and checks up on them once in a while so he won’t feel guilty for leaving them

𝙷𝙰𝙽𝙰𝙼𝙰𝙺𝙸 »  “so... how do you win?” “you can’t really win, it’s a-” “then WHY ARE WE PLAYING??” the whole concept confuses him, he just ends up speeding up time the entire game until suddenly all his sims are dead. he has the audacity to be shocked 

𝙺𝚄𝙽𝙸𝙼𝙸 » the type to get the “cats & dogs” pack and only focus on the animal. like he’ll forget to feed his sim but gets a panic attack every time he can’t find his cat

𝙺𝚈𝙾𝚃𝙰𝙽𝙸 » no.

𝙺𝚄𝚁𝙾𝙾 » success is his main priority in this game. he’ll make his sims as rich as possible and even make his sims work endless hours using the “no sleep” mod! also won’t let them take showers or eat until their work is done! it’s a little worrying!!

𝙺𝙴𝙽𝙼𝙰 » tries to finish the 100 baby challenge like 10 times but always fails miserably. even uses cheats and still manages to fuck up?? calls the game a waste of money on reddit and starts a hate page

𝙻𝙴𝚅 » tries to always create the most picture-perfect white-picket fence family but something always manages to get in the way. whether it be an unaccounted grill fire or the baby getting taken away, he always ends up on the verge of crying and starting a new save

𝙱𝙾𝙺𝚄𝚃𝙾 » always wants the biggest and most expansive family there is. would get mccommand center just so he could fit his family of 47 into one 20 x 20 lot. not to mention, he always has like 8 other apps running in the background so unsurprisingly, he has alot of random burns from his explosive laptop 

𝙰𝙺𝙰𝙰𝚂𝙷𝙸 » the most perfect way you could play the sims, probably the way the creators intended. goes from rags to riches using no cheats, no sudden deaths and no negative moodlets. hmm... a little too perfectly played, wouldn’t you say?

𝙺𝙾𝙽𝙾𝙷𝙰 » refuses to play because of the conspiracies he read about on reddit. he genuinely thinks the sims is just a warning from the government that we’re all in a simulation and that there’s reptiles controlling all of us until we all jus- you know what, no more reddit for you konaha

𝚄𝚂𝙷𝙸𝙹𝙸𝙼𝙰 » total dumbass. wouldn’t be surprised if all of his sims just died as soon as he loaded up the game. wouldn’t even bother with cc or cas, he would just play either with the premade sims or just randomize everything.

𝚃𝙴𝙽𝙳𝙾𝚄 » utter chaos. primarily drug mods, constantly developing and making bank from his drug businesses. would have half his sims take an entire bottle of MDMA and then wonder why they died?? like yes tendou, sims (just like you!) can overdose!! shocker, isn’t it? 

𝚂𝙴𝙼𝙸 »  strives on his house-building and designing skills. like this mf can speed-build mansions but he can’t figure out how to download cc. doesn’t even actually play the sims, just designs houses and then dips

𝙶𝙾𝚂𝙷𝙸𝙺𝙸 » very attentive to their needs bar. like the second his sim’s bladder bar goes down, he’s rage-clicking on the toilet + “hurry sylvia, piss! i don’t want a repeat of last time!!”

𝚃𝙴𝚁𝚄𝚂𝙷𝙸𝙼𝙰 » downloads the hoe-it up mod as a joke and then continues to become very invested in his strips clubs! the downtown fountain club isn’t doing too well? it’s okay, he’ll just make jessica do 30 lap dances until she gets her 1 minute break to eat, piss, shower and sleep!

𝚂𝙰𝙺𝚄𝚂𝙰 » takes the game a little uh... too seriously? will literally get out pen and paper to calculate his expenses, taxes and his water bill. + “no margret, you can’t shower today because then we won’t have enough money to pay the electric bill” poor margret.

𝙾𝚂𝙰𝙼𝚄 » finds out what cc is, spends 3 days just downloading cc and then continues to play non-stop for a whole week. then, he won’t touch the game for another 6 months until he remembers about it again. rise and repeat, like a true simmer

𝙰𝚂𝚃𝚄𝙼𝚄 » loves making drama! he’ll create marriages just to destroy them, make all the spouses cheat on each other and then kidnap their children for ransom until the parents go crazy and kill themselves. a true menace to society

𝚂𝚄𝙽𝙰 » would burn down his house making grilled cheese and would never play again

[lobstercardigan]

Ficlet: Helpless

Three times Kurt felt helpless, and one time it was okay.

———————

- For day 4 of the Klaine / CC Valentine’s Day Challenge !

- Little warning for mention of Kurt’s mom’s death (happy ending, though, I promise)

- Song prompt: Helpless

(I really love the Regrettes’ version for Klaine <33)

- Super short but I’ve always connected this song to Klaine so I wanted to hop on it :D even if I’m like 2 hours late

———————

Helplessness was a feeling Kurt had always hated. He likes feeling in control. It makes him feel safe. Those two things had never been connected to helplessness for him. There were three times he’d felt truly helpless in his life, and he was hoping the list would end there.

The first was when his mom died. When he stood at her grave with his father and he finally realized that that was it. She was gone and there was nothing he could do about it. When she was sick, she was good at making him feel like he was helping - even if he wasn’t. He’d share his lunch with her or sing to her or give her one of his stuffies to help her sleep. She’d always give him that sweet smile of hers and thank him, no matter what. And he’d believed her. But then he’d overhead one of the doctors say that they’d done everything they could, but that nothing would help. And the worst part was that it was true.

The second was when his dad had a heart attack. That time was almost worse than the first because he knew what was coming. He no longer had the innocence he’d had when his mom died. He didn’t get ushered out of the room when discussions about health and ‘options’ were happening. He didn’t have someone to cling to who was going through it along with him. All he had were the memories of all the times he’d been in that hospital with his mom so many years before and the hope that it wouldn’t end that way for his dad too. Those feelings stuck with him long after his dad had recovered.

The third was when the bullying at school had really reached a breaking point. When he was being harassed and threatened constantly, but his teachers told him there was nothing they could do; when he realized that he couldn’t handle it all, but he didn’t really have a choice. It was just how things were always gonna be - at least that’s what he thought.

But then he met Blaine.

Then he met who he was sure was the most beautiful boy on the planet. He’d looked into those eyes on that staircase and he’d tripped and fallen headfirst into love.

And, now, here he stands again - on that same staircase with that same beautiful boy. Only, this time, there are rose petals and music and all of his loved ones… and that boy is asking to marry him.

He looks into those eyes and the sky’s the limit. He’s helpless. But, this time, it’s okay. This time, it’s perfect. He’s madly and helplessly and head over heels in love and he wouldn’t have it any other way. This time, it’s not the end. It’s just the beginning. He feels the pin that was his mom’s sitting right over his heart. It’s almost as if she’s pointing there, telling him to follow it. He sees his dad, teary eyed and cheering for him, and there’s nothing in the world that could take away his joy in this moment. He’s reminded of a line from the song Blaine had sang that very first day:

I finally found you, my missing puzzle piece. I’m complete.

For the first time, he isn’t scared of feeling helpless. He’s completely safe here. He’s not out of control at all. He’s going to be in love with Blaine helplessly and fearlessly and forever, come what may.

[theladyofbloodshed]

Rowan and Aelin aren’t Mates — SJM is just horny!

(A Lyra and Rowan are mates defense post)

To understand why I will go to my grave saying Rowan and Lyra are mates, despite what the text says (text SJM admitted to having to change constantly to make Rowaelin endgame because they wouldn’t have worked otherwise), we have to breakdown the mating bond to what we know about it across both TOG and ACOTAR (it might be the same for CC, but I haven’t read the second book yet, so I can’t speak for it), and from what she’s said in interviews.

Let’s go! (I’ll try to be as coherent as possible)

What we know about the bond (interview):

1) Mates can’t hurt each other (a lie)

2) The bond takes a while to snap into place (also a lie, will explain in two seconds)

3) Two mates are possible (a lie)

What we know about the bond (books):

1) The bond immediately snaps into place, it only requires immortality and magic.

2) Mating bonds are (supposed to be) rare, and highly valued/ the sanctity of mating is protected

3) Unmated/mated mates can be smelled by others

4) Biting is sexual between mates.

5) In ACOTAR, the males feel it more than the females. In TOG, it seems relatively equal.

There’s probably more I’m missing, but the last thing I care to do is crack open the books or go on the wiki.

You might be looking at this list and asking, “Okay, what does any of this mean?” Well, my friend, guess who—at first glance—doesn’t fit most of these? Go on, guess. Did you guess Rowaelin? YOU’RE A WINNER! If you didn’t, why are you here?

But let’s break it down a little further (colors correspond):

1) This is pretty self-explanatory. Check Rhys UTM and Rowan in Heir of Fire.

This rule (which I feel like she also included in book, I just don’t remember if she did and in which book if she really did, I just know she did say it in an interview before the release of Queen of Shadows) completely exposes that SJM had different plans for both of her series. Feylin was originally supposed to be endgame before SJM scrapped the original version (without fully rewriting ACOTAR). Doraelin was supposed to be endgame, just as they were in Queen of Glass (the original version of TOG), just as TOG was supposed to be a trilogy and she didn’t rewrite most of it from the original (aside from removing the Cindrillion stuff). (Honestly, this rule exposes Doraelin as endgame seeing as she said it before QOS was released and in HOF we have a flashback where Aelin could’ve easily went after Dorian herself for spilling something on her dress, but she sent Aedion after him in the same book where he punched her and she attacks Rowan for using Luca as bait for her, both scenes when they aren’t training, so there’s no excuse, and in COM, while she attacked everyone else, she could only hiss at him.)

2) I’ll cover this later.

3) It’s not possible. Not when she keeps writing other romances as being less than when compared to mate romances and how possessive the males are “biologically”. This was just a lie SJM told to try to hide the Lyra/Rowan retcon.

1) This is also self-explanatory. The bond snaps into place for Rhys at the end of ACOTAR and Lucien at the end of ACOMAF. Cassian’s likely snapped into place off page, but I also haven’t read ACOSF, so I don’t know what SJM did with that. And then Maeve a) was expecting it to snap into place the moment Rowan and Aelin meet and b) “manipulated” Rowan’s bond to snap into place for Lyra just as he sees her.

This in and of itself debunks Rowan and Aelin are mates. The explanation that SJM gives is that they were both so broken, they couldn’t see it. But that’s bull. Rhysand and Feyre have just come out from UTM, from witnessing her death, and she still hates him and is fearful of him when it snapped into place for them. The love was what took a (arguable) while. And wasn’t there a backstory in ACOTAR where one of the bonds snap into place, despite them hating each other? And again, I point out that Maeve was expecting the bond to snap into place for Rowaelin, even through whatever, she was expecting it. And it didn’t.

But anon, they’re separate series, stop comparing them! Not in terms of the bond, they’re not. They’re actually very similar, if not the exact same. Across both series, what takes a while is for the characters to fall in love and consummate the mating bond. But they (at least the males) know right from looking at them.

2 and 3) Now, I’m tying these two together because they kind of go hand in hand. So this is a lie in ACOTAR. Literally everyone and their dog is mated in ACOTAR. However, it seems to hold up in TOG (that I remember. I could be wrong, but I don’t remember Elorcan or Lysaedion being mates but this would still stand regardless) which is why I’m tacking on the third reason. (And I guess a little of 4)

Mates are rare, and mated or unmated, it can be smelled by others up to a mile away.

So explain to me then, if mates are rare and, therefore, important when found and protected and respected at all costs and it can be smelled, how would anyone allow Lyra and Rowan to believe they’re mates? Their friends? Their family? Strangers who would’ve done the right thing and told them, “Hey, you guys aren’t who you think you are”? Did Maeve just manipulate everyone they ever came into contact with? The world? Because contextually, Maeve manipulated Rowan only. And based on Rowan, Lyra didn’t believe it, saying it was hard for him to court her. But if it was hard and implied that she was afraid of him… how did they end up together and her pregnant? (Are you implying he raped her, SJM? Yikes.) And to bring the biting thing into it, as it’s a sexual claiming bite, there’s no doubt Rowan would’ve given one to Lyra, but if the bond between them was fake, then the claim wouldn’t work. So it goes back to the smelling thing. People would know they had sex, sure. They would know Lyra’s baby was Rowan’s, definitely. But it’s clear there’s a distinct mate scent and sex scent in both series. I doubt fae who’ve been alive for centuries wouldn’t not be able to tell the difference to tell one or the other, “Yeah, buddy, that’s not your mate.” I doubt this highly treasured thing of the fae would go ignored if two people thought they were mates, but weren’t. So not only does it not make sense, but it weakens the powers of the fae and the importance of the bond, which overall, weakens the plot of TOG since a lot, and I’d actually argue all, of it hinges on Rowaelin’s mating bond. Except… they obviously aren’t mates. They can’t be or else SEE ABOVE. So there goes the Maeve plot, at least.

4 and 5) These are just facts. (But after Rowan sexually assaults Aelin to force her to shift, he says fae don’t bite the females of other males (see reason 2). We’re supposed to take it to mean it’s about Chaol (and Celaena thinks it is) but it’s never specified in book or by SJM that love/sex can be tasted in the blood, and Rowan only specified that she (excuse me for using this word, but I couldn’t think of anything else) already belonged to another dude. (Because Chaol wasn’t the only guy she loved remember? So it could’ve easily been about Sam too, but given all the Doraelin hints and the fact that they were endgame in the original version, it pointed to Dorian.) And remember when I said Doraelin was supposed to be endgame? Remember that scene where Celaena and Dorian dance in The Assassin’s Blade and it’s like they’re the only two people in the room (a known indication of mates) despite the fact that she’s with Sam at this point? The fact that they keep being drawn together (another known indication of mates)?)

I don’t really know how to close this out, other than to say Rowan and Lyra are mates because they fit the bill of what we know about mates as do Doraelin (I mean, they have similar quotes to Feysand, and you expect me to believe they aren’t?). Hopefully, this was coherent. I’m happy to clear up anything that I didn’t explain well. ☺️ Uhh thanks for letting me ramble in your inbox?

You are welcome to ramble in my inbox anytime ❤️

In ACOSF, the mating bond snaps into place when they're having sex and vowing never to want anybody else, late into the book so theirs did not snap immediately. However, Cassian suspected since Nesta was mortal, I think Mor realises in the mortal manor, and Rhys definitely suspects it as he says to Feyre that Cassian will have to make a decision soon about being a buffer.

For Rhys' parents, theirs does snap into place immediately, if I remember correctly, as soon as he sees her about to be clipped.

It never made sense to me either that Maeve could manipulate everybody into thinking they were mates, especially as Lyria was so beneath him in standing. Like it would have made more sense to have used a woman who was more equal to Rowan in terms of power/status - if mates are meant to be equal. But it's the same as Rhys managing to erase memories of Mor/Cassian/Azriel/Amren from the heads of every living person with just a drop of his power while UtM... like there's no way it's possible.

I think sometimes SJM says these things like two mates being possible just to be vague and to add intrigue rather than ruling it out. Even if it won't happen in her books, she likes to float that possibility especially as it adds fuel to the ship war. Just saying if anybody deserves two mates then it's Nesta who should be with Eris.

Petition for sjm to stick to her damn endame and stop retconning everything. Although in this case, I am glad Dorian and Manon got together - I enjoy that pairing at lot more!!

[ggidolsmuts]

(Smut version) CC - Iz*One Chaewon

"Okay, so who knows the answer to this question?" You ask your small but noisy class of students, looking at the clock at the back of the classroom and hoping this tutorial session of yours is ending soon - the class is too energetic for you. Your professor thrust this on you - apparently you did too well in her first-year class, so instead of one of her graduate students, you, a third-year, ended up as a teaching assistant for the class you took just two years ago. At least the pay was good for a college student, so you didn't complain.

"Me me me! The answer is 5x + 2." A long-haired blonde, Yena was it? Answered eagerly.

"Not quite-"

"No stupid, it's 5x2 + 2!" A feisty long-haired student called out from behind, firing a mocking lock at Yena for answering incorrectly.

"Ahahahah dummy!"

"That's enough Hyewon, good job Chaewon, but that is rude of you, there is no need to call others out."

"But-but she had the wrong answer!"

"And you had the wrong way of giving the right answer. Apologize to Yena."

"But what about Hye-"

"Apologize." You ask of Chaewon, sharpening your tone. Her face turns red, abashed at being put on the spot in front of her classmates.

"I-I'm sorry Yena."

"It's okay..." Yena replies timidly, the entire room going quiet at your tone.

"Good, moving on. As Chaewon said, the answer is 5x2 + 2, the reason that is the answer is because..." You launch into the explanation of the question, and the rest of the session goes by smoothly without incident. The students file out the door, eager to get out of the stuffy classroom. All but one make it out the door.

"Chaewon, a moment please."

"I'm sorry I-" You wave her off.

"No, not that, I'm glad you know what you did was wrong though. I wanted to talk to you about something else." She stands in front of you nervously, her hands fidgeting with her notebook.

"You got the question right in class, and I know you get the concepts because you ask the right questions, but Professor Bae says you're scoring poorly on the homeworks and quizzes, why is that?"

"I live in the dorms with the other students in the class, and you know how they are, you can barely keep them quiet in class."

"I've noticed, but Professor Bae says they're quiet in her classes."

"Well have you seen her? We're all scared of her!"

"Fine, but what's your point?"

"At the dorms it gets so noisy, I can't concentrate and study properly there."

"Go study at the library then."

"Too far, we have lots of dorm events going on, I don't want to miss out on those when they're available."

"Hmm... why don't you come to my office hours?"

"Your office hours?"

"Yeah, not many people come by for help, it'll be quiet, and I'll be available if you need help."

"Is that okay? I can just come by and study, even if I have no questions?"

"Of course!"

"That's great! When are your hours again?"

"Monday and Thursday, 5 to 7 in the evening."

"I'll be there, thank you!" She heads to the door, turning around and waving adorably at you, and you feel your heart stop for a moment - how is she so cute?

You wave back.

"No problem."

Chaewon becomes a regular at your office hours, always greeting you cheerily, before going quiet and burying her head in the books. The two of you usually enjoy the quiet classroom together, you working on your own homework while Chaewon goes over the latest chapter Professor Bae covered, occasionally asking you the odd question or two about a concept.

Over time you got to know her better, the two of you talking about the class, the professor, and just university life in general. She was always loud and noisy around her fellow friends, but surprisingly by herself she was more demure and low-key. Your personal highlight of those office hours is when she would give you a cute "Have a good night oppa!" before heading back to her dorm. In one of your office hours before the midterm, Chaewon makes a request.

"I'm having some trouble with these questions, can you go through them with me?"

"Of course." You sit down next to her, the two of you sharing the laptop screen. She points out the questions she has problems with and the two of you work through each and every one of them. About three quarters of the way through Chaewon glances at the computer clock, seeing that it is almost 7 pm.

"Oh no, time's almost up! Do you have to go at 7?" She looks at you with wide open eyes, frustration written on her face for not being able to get through all the questions in time.

"No it's fine, we can keep going, I want to make sure you understand everything." She gives you a grateful nod, and the two of you keep going. Unfortunately the last few questions are the hardest, and Chaewon has difficulty grasping those. Time drags on, and you feel yourself losing concentration, nodding off while she works on the problem. You shake your head, trying to clear your drowsiness. You lean towards the laptop, trying to read the question she's working on.

"Chaewon which one are you working on, do you have any questions?"

"Yes I'm-"

She stops talking abruptly, and you turn to face her. Both of you had leaned toward the laptop, and the two of you were close, far too close. You feel your face burning up, unable to tear away from her - you knew she was pretty, but seeing her blushing face so close to yours, you found her gorgeous. Chaewon snaps both of you out of it, pulling away from you and stammering.

"I-I think I'm done, I don't have any more questions, I'll see you oppa, h-have a good night!" You sit there wordlessly as Chaewon stuffs everything in her bag in a rush, dashing out the classroom without even a wave.

Your heart won't slow down.

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

A few days after the midterm, you knock on the door with labeled "Professor Bae Yoon Jung".

"Come in."

"Yes professor, you wanted to see me?"

"I just wanted to say that you're doing a excellent job, the students in your section did really well this midterm. Chaewon made a huge improvement."

"Thank you professor, I am glad to hear they did well." You're happy that Chaewon did well on the test, maybe a bit too happy - you couldn't hide the smile on your face.

"What's with the smile on your face?"

"I'm just glad Chaewon's doing well, she's been coming to my office hours often, so I'm glad to have been of help to her."

"Keep at it then, here are the tests for your section, give it back to them later today." She pats the stack of papers on her desk.

"Yes professor." Right, you had a session with the class to go over the tests later. You hadn't seen Chaewon since that evening... why are you so nervous? Why are you looking forward to it?

After lunch you find yourself walking to the usual classroom, your heartbeat rising as you open the door. The classroom is shockingly quiet, all the students nervous about the results of the midterm. You are determined not to scan the room for Chaewon, so you dive straight into it.

"Hey class, I'll cut to the chase, good job on the midterm, the median was a 77, average was 80 overall. Professor Bae was very pleased with this section's scores, I think almost everyone got an A, so really good job there. I'll return the tests now and go over each question." You look down at the papers and begin calling out names.

"Kwon Eunbi." A short-haired student came bounding up to you, and as always you found yourself trying not to admire her amazing body while giving her her test back. "Good job." You say to her while looking down at the next name.

"Honda Hitomi." A quiet blonde with squishy cheeks came up to you. You only remember her as being extremely quiet in class, but Chaewon mentioned in one of your conversations that she's really nice and kind to all of them. You give her the test with a nod and a quiet "Good job!" She sees her score and almost skips back to her seat.

"Nabuki Yako-"

"It's Yabuki Nako!" You hear giggles from the class as a petite student comes walking up to you, her face pouty and indignant as you got her name wrong again.

"Right, I'm so sorry Nako, here you go, you did a great job."

"Thank you!" She beams at the score she got.

"Choi Yena." The long-hair blonde approaches you, picking up her paper but not looking at the score.

"You did fine, got that question right too!" You try to encourage her, and she allows herself to take a peek.

"Oh, oh wow, nice!" She pumps her fist and makes her way back to her seat.

"Jo Yuri." Yena stops and comes back to you.

"I'll take it, we look alike."

"I'm here, she can take it!" You wave and see a second Yena - right, they always sat together and you wondered if they were twins, but apparently not.

"Uh sure... good job Yuri!" You call out to her before looking at the next test. "Kang Hyewon." Yena stops and doubles back again, stretching out her hand.

"I'll take it for her, she's going to be late."

"What? Why?"

"She's still eating lunch." You take a look at your watch. "She eats a lot." Yena adds when she sees your confusion. Shrugging you hand her Hyewon's paper. Your heart skips a beat when you see the next name.

"K-Kim Chaewon."

Your heart skips again when you see her rise elegantly from her seat and walk towards you. Normally the students are dressed in casual outfits, but Chaewon seemed really well made up today, her bangs perfect, her long hair lightly curled, and wearing a cute but eye-catching black one piece. She strides up and stops in front of you.

"Hi."

"H-hi." You manage to stammer out.  

"Ooh la la he's nervous!" Your hear from behind Chaewon, followed by a series of scandalous "oohs" from the rest of the class.

"Yah Jo Yuri!" She turns around, raising her fist in a toothless threat. Yuri sticks her tongue out, teasing you and Chaewon.

"Ahem." You clear your throat, and Chaewon turns around to you, her face red at being teased.

"Right, sorry..."

"Here you go, you did a great job."

"Thanks." She looks down at her test. "Wait really?!" You smile and nod at her. What follows can only be described as a shrill squeal of joy as she bounces back to her friends, showing off her score proudly.

"Next is... Lee Chaeyeon." A student with brilliant red hair comes towards you.

"Top score as always, really good job."

"Thank you!" She beams and returns to her seat, the other students envious of her, wanting to take a look at her exam to see what the correct answers were to the questions they got wrong. You go through a few more names.

"Miya- Miyawa... er, Sakura?"

The nervous girl sitting next to Chaeyeon comes forward.

"Good job, you did well this time."

"That's because the game servers were down the night before!" You hear Nako tease. Sakura doesn't say anything, so perhaps she was right.

"Uh huh... well, keep at it!" She quietly collects her paper and returns to her seat.

"Kim Minju... Angel?"

"You actually put that as your name on the test? Ahahahaha!" You hear the unmistakable laughter of Chaeyeon coming from the seats.

"Ahh~ It's because I lost a bet with Yena!" A tall and pretty student came walking up to you. "I didn't think you would say it out loud!" She looks at you accusingly.

"Sorry, I was just reading the name on the paper." She takes the test from you in a huff, the rest of the class cackling in laughter. You felt a little sorry for her, but also laugh along with the class - Chaewon mentioned she frequently gets made fun of because her reactions are great, and it certainly seems to be the case. You return the rest of the tests in short order.

"Okay, I think that's the class, I'll go over the questions now. So question 1..." You launch into a discussion of the test, and the class thankfully focuses, all of them quietly scribbling notes so that they don't make the same mistake again. You try to focus on going over the questions too, but you can't take your eyes off Chaewon every time you turn around to address the class - and neither could she, as the two of you catch each other's glance more than once.

The bell rings and the class begins filing out the door. You watch Chaewon and the rest of the class, but as they get to you Chaewon stops in front of you.

"Hey, I have a good joke, care to hear it?"

"Sure." Chaewon proceeds to drop a banana on your head.

"Ouch, what's that for?"

"A banana fell for you, so will you fall for me?" Chaewon asks in a singsong voice, her face turning beet red as she says it. She doesn't even grab her banana before she dashes out the door. Yuri and Yena crack up behind her after seeing the spectacle, calling after Chaewon and rushing past you to catch up to her.

"I hope you got the joke!" Yena calls out as she leaves.

You got the joke, and the question... Are you falling for her?

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

The next office hours roll around, and you are not surprised, but maybe a little disappointed, to see that Chaewon didn't come to office hours. After all it was right after the midterm, so maybe she is off relaxing with her friends and didn't want to study. You shrug and sit down, taking out your laptop and working on schoolwork of your own. The clock hits 7 pm and you pack your stuff, ready to go grab food. When you open the door however, you are surprised to see Chaewon there, dressed simply in a jacket and jeans.

"C-chaewon?"

"Oh oppa, you're done? Great, let's go!"

"What are you doing here, and go where?"

"Oppa, you finished office hours right?"

"Yes...?"

Chaewon takes a deep breath, preparing herself to say something.

"Let's go on a date."

You heart starts pounding, your mouth dry, did you hear her correctly?

"What?"

"L-let's go on a date!" She looks at you, her body seemingly shrinking away from you as she begins deflating like a balloon, losing confidence at your reaction.

"I-I'm sorry Chaewon, I can't." The words leaving your mouth stab at your own heart like a invisible knife.

"Why? But... but-"

"You're my student, I won't date my student."

"You're only two years older!" She starts speaking loudly, her voice rising but also beginning to break.

"I'm sorry, I can't. I-" You twist the knife further on yourself.

"Fine!" Chaewon's face is bright red, unable to face you. Her body is shaking slightly. "I'm sorry I asked!" She shouts at you before turning away from you, walking quickly back down the hallway.

"Chaewon!" You call out to her, but she doesn't stop or turn around. All you hear is a sniffle - it travels down the hallway, a second knife striking straight at your heart.

Why does it hurt even more?

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

Chaewon stops coming to your office hours, often even skipping your tutorial sessions entirely. You try to ask Yena and Yuri about her, but you don't get much out of them other than accusing looks and asking you hotly, "Why do you care?"

You find yourself missing her presence more and more, looking to her empty seat whenever you turn around to address the class, or looking up hopefully when the odd student comes to your office hours. You knew for sure you fell for her hard, but you also knew you couldn't date her then, and certainly not after that evening... you feel like you have a knife permanently buried in your heart, hurting whenever you thought about Chaewon, which was often.

To make matters worse, Professor Bae caught on as well, as she summoned you to her office close to the final exam.

"You wanted to see me professor?"

"Yes, are you still helping Chaewon in office hours?"

"No, she hasn't shown up in a while, why?"

"Her grades have been slipping since the midterm, which is not too unusual, but she has stopped coming to classes too, so I was wondering if you know anything about it."

"I haven't seen her since the midterm."

"I thought she was going to your office hours."

"She... stopped." The professor shoots you a piercing look, but you manage to stay silent, and she doesn’t pursue the matter.

"Fine. What a pity, she was doing so good too." You stand quietly by, unsure of what to say. The professor fires you another piercing look before sighing, dismissing you with a wave of her hand. "You may go." You worry about her, but there’s nothing you could do either. You hang your head and leave.

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

A week before the finals during office hours, you hear a commotion outside the door. As you stride to the door to find out what's going on, it flies open, almost smacking you in the face. This is followed by a short-haired figure flying straight at you. You manage to catch them, stopping their momentum and cushioning them against your chest. You look up to see Eunbi, Hyewon, and Yena standing at the door, all three of them giggling at what happened.

"We brought you a student who needs lots of help, please take care of her!" Eunbi says before the trio of them leave in a rush. You look at the student in your arms as she pushes away from you. You want to say you barely recognize her, but you spent the past two months thinking about her, you'd recognize her anywhere with any hair style.

"Chaewon?"

"Hi oppa." She says softly. Gone is the long-haired Chaewon you knew for most of the year, instead she is sporting a bobbed hair style, curling at the end and raven black instead of the brown she had. You did not think she could look even better than before, but she has taken your breath away along with your heart.

"Your hair, it looks great!"

"Thank you..." She blushes furiously at your compliment. "We-we had a dorm event, so I decided to change my hair for it."

"Good idea, you look beautiful." The words come out from your mouth before you can stop yourself, your face turning beet red. The both of you just stand there staring at the ground, unable to look at each other.

"I-I need some help before the final exam, I missed some classes because of the dorm event, can you help me?"

"Of course, that's why I'm here."

You sit down with her, happy to just see her again. You can't stop smiling, and to your joy neither can she as the two of you go over questions together, almost like the two of you did before the midterms, and before you know it your time together is over. The two of you pack your bags and exit the room, looking at each other, not wanting to say goodbye. You decide to broach the awkward topic you both had floating in your minds.

"Chaewon, about last time-" Chaewon cuts you off however.

"Oppa, I want to focus on the finals right now, I need to get caught up to speed. Thank you for today, I'll see you Thursday." She says in a rush, not looking you in the eye.

"Right, sounds good, I'll see you Thursday."

Thursday couldn't come fast enough.

You counted down the hours, no, minutes, until you could see Chaewon again, and during your Thursday office hours you find yourself unable to concentrate, your ears straining, listening for any footsteps that might be coming towards the classroom. You leap out of your seat when you hear footsteps coming down the hallway, rushing to the door and opening it.

"Ah!" Chaewon shouts in surprise.

"Chaewon! I'm sorry, I heard footsteps so I t-thought it was..." You trail off, embarrassed at your own eagerness to see her. Her face turns red as she figures out the last unsaid word.

"W-well I'm here... shall we go in?"

"Oh... oh, yes." You snap yourself out of your daze, taking a seat next to Chaewon as she brings out her laptop. You go through the last few concepts that Professor Bae covered in class, luckily Chaewon had little problems following.

"Great job Chaewon, I think you have everything covered, you're more than ready for the finals, you'll be fine."

"Thank you so much oppa, I-"

You turn your head to see why she stopped talking, only to realize that once again she is far too close to you once more. You can smell the faint fragrance of her shampoo, and it is intoxicating. Like a moth to a flame you draw even closer to her, looking into her shining eyes. Chaewon's face is bright red, but she doesn't pull back. You lean forward even more, wanting to dive into those big and sparkling eyes... She bites her lower lip before shutting her eyes tightly, her lips slightly pouting. You don't even realize it, but your hand goes to her cheek, cupping her face gently. You close your eyes and lean in...

"Oppa, quick, I have a question! We couldn't figure this out at the dorms and- oh my gadness!" The door bangs open, and Yuri comes barreling in the door, dispelling all the tension in the room. The centimeters between you and Chaewon instantly get pulled to a meter as the two of you separate hastily.

Yuri grins wickedly, processing the situation. "I'm so sorry Chaewon unnie, I'll tell the others that oppa's too busy with you to answer our questions."

"Yuri I'm going to kill you!" Chaewon half screams, blushing madly.

You step in before things get worse.

"Yuri, I'll answer any questions you have, just keep it a secret for Chaewon, please?"

"Okay, first question is this." She takes out a notebook and shows you the question she intended to ask. It was straightforward and you quickly explained the solution for her, writing it down so that she could show the others the solution. She blindsides you with the second question, grinning teasingly at you.

"Do you like Chaewon unnie?"

"I..."

"Answer the question or I tell everyone at the dorm what I saw!" Chaewon raises a helpless fist at Yuri, but she doesn't say anything else either. She looks at you intently, and you see no reason to hide it any longer.

"I do, a lot." You feel the blood rushing to your cheeks as you say it, looking straight at Chaewon. Her eyes widen at your confession, and she shyly bites her lip, turning away from your intense look.

"You're welcome unnie! I'll let you tell him how you feel!" She waves the notebook at you. "Thank you for the answers! Both answers!" She adds cheekily and dashes out the door.

"Jo Yuri you little-!" Chaewon grits her teeth at her friend before turning back to you, the two of you alone again.

"O-oppa, I... I-"

You hush her, grabbing her by the shoulders gently.

"There's no need to say anything now, please focus on the finals, I will see you again for sure." She nods silently, packing her stuff. As she heads out of the classroom she waves at you.

"Thank you for the help oppa, I'll do well for the test."

"I'm not worried, you'll do great, good luck!" You head back to your desk, stowing your laptop in your bag, trying to process what you just said this evening.

The moment you exit the classroom you are ambushed delightfully, feeling the lightest of pecks on your cheek. You can't help but beam as you turn to see Chaewon run down the hallway, her backpack bouncing the whole day. Your woop of joy echoes down the hallway, chasing after her.

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

The day of the finals comes and goes, and you can't wait to see Chaewon again. But it is more than a week later when you find yourself at Professor Bae's office once more.

"Good, you're here."

"Yes professor?"

"Here are the graded finals for your section, I emailed the class and told them to pick them up during one of the office hours, so just have them ready for your section at your next office hours."

"Got it." You flip through the papers idly.

"Chaewon did great."

"That's not what I was-"

"Shut up, I hear all kinds of giggling from your section whenever I mention the teaching assistants, and Chaewon goes completely red in the face. Do you think I'm stupid?"

"Of course not professor."

"Did you two date?"

"No! I made it clear to her that I wouldn't date a student in the class."

"Is that why she stopped going to your office hours?" She stares at you with a knowing gaze.

"...Yes."

"Ugh you guys..." She massages her forehead in frustration. "Well you did the right thing, it could've been a serious problem." She smiles at you. "But once you hand the tests back, she's no longer a student of the class... so go after her, I like Chaewon, and I can tell you do too."

"Uh... right, thank you." You're not sure what else to say, your ears burning a little at discussing Chaewon with your professor.

"Go, good job, thank you for helping me this semester."

"Not at all, thank you for the opportunity!" You give a slight bow to the professor and exit, a big grin on your face at the prospect of seeing Chaewon again.

The hours seemingly fly by, until it is time for your last office hours of the semester. Your students come in here and there, picking up their tests and thanking you for your help during the semester, until there was a stack of twelve left.

You hear a soft knock on the door, and you almost pull a muscle with how fast your head turns to the door, just in time to see Chaewon come through to the door, smiling bashfully at you. She looked adorable in her short black hair, wearing a plaid top and a short black skirt.

"Hi oppa."

"Hey Chaewon."

"I'm here to pick up the tests. You can give me the others too, I told the girls I'll pick it up for them."

"Oh okay, great, here you go." You hand over the tests to her, and she quietly puts them in her backpack.

"Thanks."

"No problem..." The atmosphere deadens, the two of you not knowing what to say, despite how much you wanted to see each other. Feeling the emotions strain against your heart, you go first, not holding back what you feel.

"I missed you, I missed you so much! I like you, I-I want to go on that date with you!" You add hastily. "T-that is, if you still want to...?"

Chaewon dives into your arms, hugging you tightly and pushing you back into yuor chair. You hear her mumble against your chest.

"I missed you too..." Sitting in your lap she looks utterly beautiful. Your heart pounds as you hold her in your arms.

"I couldn't believe you rejected me the first time, I cried all night afterwards." She whispers quietly. You hug her tight against your body, peppering her forehead with kisses.

"I-I'm sorry, I really wanted to, but it wouldn't have been right."

"I know... but still!" Her voice rising a little again.

"I'll make it up to you, let's go on that date now. Should we go now?" You ask her, looking into her pained eyes as she remembers the moment after the midterms. She shoots you a glare, her mouth pouting a little.

"No."

"What?"

Chaewon gets off your lap, going to the classroom door and locking it with a click.

"What are you doing? If we're not going on a date, why did you lock the door, why are we staying here?"

"That's so Yuri or Yena don't come and disturb us." She sits back down in your lap, wrapping her arms around you and straddling your hips. "I want more than a date."

"More than a-" Before you finish your question Chaewon leans into you, her tongue needily probing your lips for access. You allow her in, and her tongue immediately searches for yours, exploring your mouth with passion. You feel her hands on the back of your head, pushing you deeper into the kiss. You elicit a soft moan from her when your tongue eventually pushes back, dipping briefly into her mouth. The moan snaps you out of the passionate makeout.

"Chaewon, we're moving too fast, we haven't even-"

"N-no we're not!" She says... angrily? Determinedly? at you. Her face is red as she follows up in a whisper. "We would've been doing this already if you just said yes then..."

"Chaewon, I, I..."  You fall silent, you don't know what to say to that at all.

"Please oppa, I... I want this so much, probably more than you do. Let's just do it here... okay?"

Stunned, you try to buy yourself some time to collect your thoughts. "W-wait, shouldn't we do this at... your dorm, or my place, or-"

"No, I waited for so long, I don't want to wait any longer." She shuts up all further attempts at conversation, smashing her lips on yours. You give in to her desires, wrapping your hands around her lower back, your tongue matching hers in intensity, fighting for dominance. Her hands go to your shirt, trying to take it off.

"Chaewon wait, that's too risky!"

"Fine!" Her hands go a little bit lower to your pants, unbuckling and unzipping your jeans. You feel a soft hand free your shaft from the confines of your boxers, your member already hard from the hurricane of passion Chaewon has swept you up in. She breaks the kiss momentarily, her other hand going underneath her skirt as she lifts her hips. While you are distracted by the touch of her hand guiding you, Chaewon positions herself just so, and with a dip of her hips you are instantly enveloped inside her.

"Oh god Chaewon!" You are blown away by the sudden explosion of pleasure, Chaewon matching your voice with a low moan of her own. "You're so wet..." You gasp out as she looks at you happily with fulfilled desire.

"I told you, I don't want to wait any longer." She presses her forehead against yours, looking into your eyes as she grinds on you. You struggle to maintain eye contact with her, the tightness of her walls forcing you to close your eyes in pleasure.

"Are you f-feeling good?" Chaewon asks between pants and bounces in your lap. You can only kiss her in reply, moaning into her mouth as she squeezes you tightly, your kiss pushing her to higher levels of arousal.

"Good... oppa you make me feel so good. I'm going crazy... so... good!" With a short squeal Chaewon hugs you tightly, panting heavily before melting into your arms with a soft whimper, her body shuddering through her climax. Her walls contract around you erratically, coating your shaft with her juices.

"Are you okay?" You kiss her cheek and peck at her lips, letting her come down from her high.

"Much better than okay..." She smiles at you giddily, her face flushed red in pleasure. "Your turn." Gripping the back of your chair for leverage she begins grinding on you, whining at how sensitive she feels after her orgasm. Your hands slip under her skirt, grabbing her thighs and squeezing them, letting Chaewon know just how good she's making you feel. Feeling you throb inside her, she ups the pace, sheathing you fully with every bounce in your lap, driving you to your limit.

"Chaewon I'm so close, you should get off-"

She shushes you with a kiss. "I came... prepared oppa. I want to feel you, just do it in me." She rides you with purpose, biting her lip as she looks at you, eagerly anticipating your peak. She continues to bob on top of you, her eyes shining with need, wanting to give you the same pleasure she felt. You kept looking into her eyes, the gaze you exchange with her filled with finally requited love, until you could look no longer.

"Ah, Chaewon, I-mmph!" Chaewon seals your lips with a kiss, your eyes forced shut by the strength of your orgasm. As you peak you pull her down into your lap, burying yourself to the hilt inside her, pouring all of your pent-up feelings into her warmth. Chaewon coos against you, her soft body quivering at being on the receiving end of your climax.

"You feel so hot oppa..." She sighs dreamily. You stroke her cheek tenderly, kissing her as you ride out your orgasm, making sure you have nothing left to give. She gets off you gingerly when you finish, the white mess you left in her slowly trickling down her thighs. You grab some tissues, the two of you cleaning up and readjusting your clothes.

Ready to go, you grasp her hand in yours, your fingers interlocking, Chaewon squeezes your hand in happiness as you look at her.

"Shall we?"

She nods at you, and you reach to unlock the door. She leans against you as the two of you walk down the hallway.

"Oppa, you should have said yes back then, so at one date a week that's about... 12 dates you owe me."

"12?!"

"Yes, 12, I'm still hurt you said no back then." She pouts, grabbing your phone and tapping her number in quickly, calling herself.

"That's my number, I'll see you at 7 tomorrow for our date okay?" She looks at you cutely - surely you're not going to say no?

"That's about 12 dates you owe me. I'll see you at 7 tomorrow for our date okay?" Before you have a chance to reply you hear the unmistakable accent of Yuri, and the blood drains from your face as you see a crowd of eleven come around the corner.

"Oooh what were you two doing for so long in a locked classroom?" Hyewon teases the two of you.

"Kwangbae you're dead!" Chaewon snaps at her, blushing furiously.

"Why are your clothes wrinkled? Don't say you just held hands, I won't believe you!" Yena adds in a singsong voice.

"Oppa you better treat Chaewon well!" Eunbi follows up, half playful, half threatening.

"I-I will..." You can only reply, running your hand through your hair in embarrassment. "Why are you all here?"

"We thought it was suspicious when Chaewon said she could pick up the tests for us, she never does anything nice for us."

"Eunbi unnie what are you saying! I always do nice stuff for you."

"Save it! Anyways oppa, can we borrow Chaewon just for tonight? You can have her every night after that, we want to hear all the details!"

"U-unnie! What are you saying!" Chaewon sputters as her friends separate her from you, pushing her down the hallway. She turns around to wave at you, her face still blushing red at being found out. You wave back at her, smiling like a puppy. You turn around and walk the other way, skipping your way back to your room.

Lying on the bed you check your phone to see a text from Chaewon.

Oppa I'll see you for date #1/12 tomrorow at 7 pm okay? I'll figure out where we should meet later.

Sure, I'll see you tomorrow <3

You debate for a while, finally deciding to add the heart symbol at the end. Turns out that was a mistake as you immediately get a call from her.

"Hello?"

"Ooooh a heart!" The rest of it is a mess of noise as you hear Chaewon screaming at her friends. After what sounds like a mad struggle for the phone you hear Chaewon's voice.

"Hello oppa?"

"A-are you okay there?"

"Yes, sorry for the call. I'm going to teach them a lesson now, I'll show them who Ssamu, the leader of Joyuriz is. Bye, mwah!" She hangs up with a click of the phone. Shaking your head you put down your phone and turn off the lights, unable to take your mind off your new girlfriend - you had so many questions for her, like who is Ssamu, and what is Joyuriz?

Whatever, you'll ask her tomorrow, tomorrow is going to be a good day... And every day with her after that.

A/N: Here’s the smut version, most of it is the same, other than the scene at the end. I hope you enjoy one of the versions, thank you for reading!