#honestly her name being Doe opens for some cute stuff with Penny!

[kommandonuovidiavoli]

Age Swap AU doodles 1: Beetles family. Yes, I added another baby because they need it!

Poll results:

[thr-333]

Just Another Class Trip :)  Part 3

You know getting dragged through a multi billion dollar corporations building to try and avoid your illegitimate father, a normal monday for most I’m sure.

First< Previous >Next

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It’s official, I hate Adrien

Marinette groans, having been practically dragged out of bed for breakfast. Adrien was wisely backed up as far as he could in the elevator. She yawns, making it loud as possible and looking Adrien right in the eye.

“Maybe you shouldn’t have stayed out so late,” Tikki giggles, hidden in her scarf.

Yeah it turns out that ‘just need to help out one person’ turned into a it is now 3am and I am halfway across the city beating up a gang.

“At least the box was safe,” Marinette whispers back, she had crashed in Adrien's room, no matter how mad Lila would be, or because of it who knows.

And indeed Lila was mad. The second they step foot into the hotel restaurant the entire class turns to stare at them. Crowded around a smug looking Lila with tears rolling down her cheeks. Marinette just turns a sharp left to the coffee. It isn’t until she has downed half a cup and refilled it that she tries to look for her friends.

Chloe looks just as dead as her, so she sits next to her. Let the morning people talk, they were ready to pass out together.

“Kagami?”

“Yep, Adrien?”

“Yep,”

“Morning people,” They both sneer.

“Were you planning on sleeping all morning?” Kagami asks, eating breakfast like a normal person, what a jerk.

“Were you planning on watching me all morning?” Chloe half heartedly retorts.

“You are adorable when you’re sleeping,”

“Fuck you, I’m adorable all the time,”

“Chlo, language, please,” Marinette implores, nursing her giant cup.

“Shut up Dupain-Cheng,” Chloe snaps, face planting back into the table.

“She’s not that cute actually,” Kagami whispers to Adrien, “Wore a face mask she got green all over the bed,”

“I’ll get green all over you,” Chloe mumbles absentmindedly.

"Marinette,"

"Ah the storm is coming,took them long enough" She takes a gulp of burning coffee, "Yes Alya?"

"You cant just say that to a person," Alya tries to explain, as if talking down to a child, "Lila was up all night crying,"

"She probably just put on a recording and went soundly to sleep," Chloe scoffs, sleepily looking up from the table.

"I was with her all night!" Alya turns to Chloe, seething rage coming to the surface.

"Thats some impressive endurance," Marinette mutters, downing more coffee.

"You think she's been practicing?" Chloe smirks.

"This isn't-"

"Make sure she get's plenty of water," Marinette turns away, hoping the conversation would be over.

"Marinette!" Alya looks down at her the way Marinette often looks at her, the look at a dear friend who changed, "Can't you see you're hurting Lila?"

"Can't you see she's hurting me?" She covers that honestly by gulping down more coffee, she has not had enough for this conversation.

"You used to be so nice Marinette," Alya dodges the question, pointing to Chloe and Kagami instead, "Then you started spending time with these two, and, and you changed!"

"Believe what you want Alya," Marinette motions for her friends to stay calm, "But they stand by me when no one else will, especially you,"

"Thats because!- Marinette if you had just gotten to know Lila instead of being jealous this would have never happened," Alya looks down at her sadly, Marinette was sure Paris would have been up in flames somehow if she had ever trusted Lila, "If you just didn't spend time around these bullies everything could be the same, you wouldn't have become a bully too,"

"So what?" She spits bitterly, looking over at the table watching them, Lila looking disgruntled it wasn't an all out fight, "If I got up and joined that table right now, would everything go back to the way it was?"

"... No,"

Marinette’s pocket buzzes in a familiar sequence. Akuma alert.

"Ok then, not much point in arguing about it, I'm going to stay with my friends, the ones I can actually trust," Marinette quickly shuts down Alya's protest, "Now go get Lila some water,"

Alya walks off back to the table, everyone crowding around her. Marinette waits for the door to be clear, she has to leave before Alya finishes or the whole class will be breathing down her neck.

“Forgot something in my room,” Marinette slings on her back pack, “Be back soon,”

She was not back soon, she was not back soon at all. Luckily she should only be three minutes late for the bus-and nope they left, great. She’ll just have to catch up with the tour later.

Well, I had stuff to do anyways

She talks with the receptionist; her assistant should have sent her a prepared motorcycle to the hotel the day before. It’s a quick drive to the location she had selected specifically to be close to the hotel.

She puts on a simple domino mask before entering the building, she didn’t want anyone to leak her identity after all. Walking in she’s glad to see everything is not in disarray.

“MDC,” Her assistant, Liam walks up to her.

Liam was someone she met through Penny. He’s older than her and also acted as her guardian on most of her trips as MDC. He does know her civilian identity, which she trusted him completely to keep. She likes him because-

“Is that mine?” She snatches the cup of coffee as he passes it to her.

“Figured you needed it,” Liam smiles, wincing as she downs the burning liquid, it's fine she has a strong healing factor, “You said your bag was stolen? This should replace it, it’s most of what you had plus more,”

He rolls forward a pre packed suitcase.

“I would die without,” Marinette says in all seriousness, “So what's the damage?”

“No major problems so far, the security we hired is enough to scare away the smaller thugs,” Liam nods to some security personnel guarding each door, “They won't be enough if any super villains try to attack the actual show,”

“Mm, give them instructions on the night of the show they are only allowed to intercept small time, anything bigger they are not allowed to engage,” Marinette studies the room, there's great places to hide, friend or foe, “If they see anything they are simply to report it directly to me,”

“They can’t engage?” Liam looks around, trying to see what she is.

“They won't be able to stop them anyway, and there is no reason for them to die,”

“If you say so,” Liam leads her through the room where lights are being set up and walls are being painted, “So what's the plan if we do get attacked?”

“I’m sure Batman is going to have his eye on any big events,” Marinette approves of the color of the back wall, it looking even better in person, “Besides I’m planning on trying to intercept before any violence,”

“In other words you're going to make my job a lot more stressful,” Liam sighs, making a note or rather on his tablet.

“Not if I can help it,”

“You can’t,” Liam sighs again at her grin, “Didn’t you have a tour with your class today?”

“They left me,” Liam seems equally unsurprised, “But I should probably head for Wayne tower anyway,”

“Don’t get into trouble,”

“I never get into trouble,” Marinette smirks from the door, “Trouble drags me into it kicking and screaming,”

“More like keen and skipping,” Liam closes the door in her face.

Marinette strolls into the Wayne tower an hour late with Starbucks, she sees is her class, being a nuisance arguing with a tour guide.

“You cannot just leave a student alone in Gotham,” The tour guide all but yells at Madame Bustier.

“Marinette is very responsible, she can handle herself,” Madame Bustier more defends herself than Marinette.

“I don’t care how responsible your student is, that won't stop them from getting shot!” This time he does yell, “You need to go back and pray to god she’s alright and hasn't gotten lost for some murder to find!”

Alright time to break the tension

“Hey, what did I miss?” Marinette asks casually, Already sipping at her straw when all eyes turn to her.

“Marinette! How did you get here?” Madame bustier demands.

“I-”

“I think you mean ‘are you alright, I’m so sorry for leaving you behind,” The tour guide glowers, apparently threatening enough that Madame Bustier actually repeats him.

“I’m fine, I borrowed a bike from my friend in Gotham,”

“You don’t have a licence in Gotham,” Lila sneers triumphantly.

Oh look who actually did some research, how much digging did you do when I learnt how to ride a motorcycle

“I didn’t say it was a motorcycle,” That shut’s Lila up, “But yeah it is a motorcycle,

Worth it for that face

“Also I got my licence approved in America before I came,”

So worth that face

Lila opens her mouth, better than the flood gates, when the tour guide interrupts.

“Now that everyone is here,” He sends a smile to Marinette and a glare to Madame Bustier somehow at the same time, she gets the tinglily feeling of  miraculous holder, or maybe its just the caffeine, “We can start, my name is Dick I will be your tour guide today.

They follow Dick through the tour Marinette's group right behind Dick. She scribbled designs and took notes as he talked, asking her own questions. This got her dubbed Dicks favourite, and easy title to gain as the rest of the class lagged behind. Most were listening to Lila, only Max and Alix were straining to hear Dick over the chatter. Marinette would occasionally pick up a mention of the Wayne's and knew it wasn't related to the tour. She'd have to guess Lila was lying about either dating someone or saving their life, or because it's Lila probably both. A gutsy move in the Wayne tower she had to admit. Marinette could tell Dick was listening and would probably have that rumour make it back to the Wayne's themselves. Would the wrath of some of the richest and most powerful people be enough to stop her? not likely.

They split up for lunch at the cafeteria in the building. She saw the coffee machine and was about to make a bee line to it when Kagami pulled her back to eat some 'real food' whatever that is. She makes a break for it after eating the so called 'real food', right before the tour was about to restart. She reaches it as a familiar figure is also waiting.

"Hi Tim," She greets, getting him to actually jump, "You work here?"

"Hi! um-yeah," He looks over to her, "How did you do that?"

"Do what?" She takes the biggest travel cup they have available.

"Sn-nothing," Tim still looks uneasy, then his eyes lock onto the cup, "tired?"

"Was up till three am last night, plus jet lag?" She yawns, "Yeah I'm tired,"

"Then you'll want to put that cup back,"

"Hm why?"

he gets her answer when Tim ducks down, opening a hidden cupboard full of travel cups at least twice the size of her current one,

"Tim I love you," She fills up the giant cup, "You're my favourite person in Gotham as of right now,"

"Not Dick?"

"Eh, his puns are lacklustre," She shrugs, Tim spits out his drink, "You know Dick?"

"Yep, give him a hard time for me!" Tim calls over his shoulder, walking away.

"You got it!" She hurries in the opposite direction, late for the tour once again.

“Did you get another coffee?” Dick asks as they enter the PR department.

“They were serving them at lunch,” Marinette could almost laugh at how quickly he had begun to fret over her during the tour.

“I know, that was my brothers idea, or rather demand,” Dick sighs, someone else approaching the group to direct the tour.

“Your brother works here?”

“Sure does,”

“But you don’t”

This makes Dick pause, looking down at her as she sips at the coffee.

“What?”

“I mean you don’t work this job at least,” She shrugs, it wasn't hard to figure out.

“Why's that?”

“You seem uncomfortable, your charismatic but still lack the smoothness of a rehearsed tour, plus you seem offended that they are in the back chatting,” Marinette nods towards Lila and her posse, “Regular tour guides would be used to that,”

“You found me out,” Dick chuckles, “I’m just taking over for today,”

“Well I think you picked a bad class to do that for,” She looks over at most her class ignoring the speaker trying to get their attention.

“I think I picked the right one,” Dick says cryptically, then walks off to help herd the class.

“Alright you have to give me the recipe,” Marinette overhears from a nearby desk.

Someone is sitting on it eating a cookie, while the other taps away at her computer.

“Sorry no can do,” She shrugs, “I don’t know it,”

“How can you not know it, you baked them right?” He asks, trying to steal another one and getting his hand slapped away.

“Nope, new vigilante came in, beat up someone robbing my house and baked me cookies,”

“This is Gotham so I believe the first two,” He looks between her and the container, “But cookies?”

“They also gave me free therapy,” She shrugs, before tapping on the container,“And do you really believe I could make these?”

“Touche,” He smirks leaning back on the desk, “So who’s the new guy? With the Batclan?”

“No they said they were just passing through,” She doesn't look up from her computer, focusing intently on the screen, “Names Starling,”

“Never heard of them,”

“Neither, and I tried looking them up,” She sighs, pushing back from the computer in defeat, “Found someone, but it’s not them, actually couldn't find anything on them,”

“Weird,” He gets up from the desk, “Can’t imagine Batman is going to take kindly to a new vigilante running around,”

“Unless he adopts them,”

“That… yeah he probably will,”

"Oh no-CLAIRE" The speaker trying to wrangle her class stops, "We have a problem!"

"Sorry to cut this short," Claire doesn't look sorry at all, "Seems we have important matters to tend to,"

She follows Dick out of the department, ushering her class as she goes. Claire looks over at her like she has two heads, a mixture of impressed and pity, and perhaps a bit of jealously.

They get to go further up the building, to the higher floors. They reach a space that is mostly meeting rooms. He class decide to take advantage of Dick declaring they are completely sound proof, or maybe they took it as a challenge. Marinette is walking past a hall when someone leaning against the wall catches her eye.

“Auntie Selina?!”

They look around, only spotting Marinette seconds before they collide into a hug, she feels the tingling buzz of a true holder.

“Mari!” Selina picks her up and spins her around, no different from when she was five, “Oh, my love it’s so good to see you, when did you arrive in Gotham?”

Marinette watches as her smile morphs into horror.

“Wait, what are you doing in Gotham!?”

“It’s a class trip and- hey where are we going?” Her Auntie grabs her arm pulling her down the hall.

“Marinette!” Dick calls, walking around the corner, Selina makes a sharp turn down another corridor, “Wait!”

Selina is two steps away from running as she pulls Marinette through the maze of hallways.

“Auntie where are we going?”

“Down here,” She opens the door leading to a staircase, too narrow to be a fire exit.

“That’s not really what I was asking,”

Selina inputs a key code, the door swinging open as she is pulled into the room.

“Wait!” She gets pulled through another door just as quick “Was that wall full of weapons?”

“Just a picture sweetie,” She says sweetly, “Down these stairs,”

“Aunt Selina what are we running from?” They are running now, floor after floor.

“We’re not running from anything sweetie,” Selina speeds up, “I just wanted to show you a cool spot in Gotham,”

“Right,” Marinette raises an eyebrow, “I was actually with the class so maybe we could go later?”

“It closes in five minutes,”

“Like you wouldn’t just break in if we were going somewhere,”

“I promise I will take you somewhere nice,” She smiles back at Marinette, they reach the end of the stairs, coming to a garage of sorts, “If you promise to hurry up,”

“Sure-” She does a double take, of the room, “Hold up are those costumes?”

“Collectors stuff, you know,” They are surrounded by bat themed... everything, “Rich people,”

“Right and how do you know this?”

“I-” She hesitates, eyes drifting, “Hey look, the exit!”

They all out sprint towards the exit. Selina reaches out to open the door a second after it swings open.

“Selina,” The man smiles at Selina as she runs into him.

“Hey Bruce,” Selina jumps back, trying to hide Marinette behind her.

“Where are you going?” Bruce looks behind her at Marinette, who gives a little wave.

“Out! Got to hurry!” She grabs Marinette's arm again, trying to pull her around Bruce.

“Is something wrong?” Bruce grabs Selina's shoulders to keep her still and looking at him.

“Nope nothings wrong,” She wriggles out of his grasp, trying again to pull Marinette away.

“Ok then,” Bruce still looks worried but turns to Marinette instead, “Hello I’m Bruce Wayne, Selina finance,”

“YOU’RE HER WHAT!?”

“Snitch,” He Auntie spits out venomously.

“Why didn’t you tell me!?” Marinette asks her with the biggest grin.

“Surprise,” Selina gives half heated jazz hands.

“Wait! Whens the wedding? Do You have a dress? I’ll make one!” She deicides, brining out her sketchbook, drawing different designs, “What's the theme? Never mind tell me on the way to the fabric store, I’ll sketch up some designs,”

“Darling, please-” Selina is now getting pulled along.

“Oh! I’ll call Papa! I’m sure he’ll want to make your cake! We have to hurry, come on lets go!” They're already out the door, Marinette waves turning back to Bruce, “Nice meeting you!”

“What just happened?” Bruce asks Dick as he runs up next to him.

“She kidnapped one of the students on tour,”

“Who is now making her wedding dress,” Bruce nods, not understanding anything

“Did I miss something?”

I think we all did

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Taglist:

@smolplantmum @flufflepuffle296 @dawnwave16  @caffeinetheory   @g-arya   @Maribat-2k20   @ladybug-182    @Actual-disaster-human    @fusser90   @messrs-weasley   @soap-lady  @paintedhope7   @zeneralla    @mochegato     @random-nerd-3 @clumsy-owl-4178  @throneoffirebreathingbitchqueen   @too0bsessedformyowngood @certifiedbidisaster  @Purplegeekypanda @awkward0ghostfan @theymakeupfairies @tikki-marinette @insane-fangirl-of-everything @elmokingkong @inarachi02 @slytherinhquinn @moongoddesskiana @dast218 @buginetye @redscarlet95

[chloelucia13]

Chapter 1: A Sweet Rain

Pairing: Spencer Reid x female!reader

Prompt: Your best friend is getting married, but it seems that you’re the one  who got lucky. 

Warnings: mostly fluff, language, a little angst, it’s pretty chill

Word Count: 3.8k

A/N: So this is going to be the first part of a multi-part series! Enjoy this fluff, because this'll probably be all you’re gonna get out of this series! Anyways, buckle up and I hope you all enjoy! As always, my tag lists and requests are open!

Songs mentioned: “First Day of my Life” by Bright Eyes, “Samson” by Regina Spektor

Tags: @sojournmichael​

“Hey Pen, what’s up?” you hummed into your phone, fishing for your keys in your purse.

“Okay, I have big news,” she squealed, and you nearly had to pull the phone from your ear due to the pitch. “Like, really big news. News so big you couldn’t even imagine-”

“Out with it, Penny!” You chuckled before finally finding your keys, unlocking your car door.

“Okay, okay... JJ and Will are getting married!”

“Oh my god!” Your pitch now replicated hers, and your hands started to shake as you sat down in the driver’s seat of your car. “I have to call and congratulate them!”

“NO!”

You jumped at her sudden shout, furrowing your brow in confusion. “Why not?”

“So the thing is... We’re kinda throwing a surprise wedding for them at Rossi’s.”

“What?”

“Okay, so...”

She rattled off the details of exactly what was happening, about how Will was in a near-death situation and how he proposed to her in his hospital room, and how Rossi overheard their plans to just go to the courthouse and decided that he wanted them to have a proper ceremony.

“So, are you coming?” she basically begged after taking a deep breath, winded after her rushed summation of the events that had taken place.

“Of course I’m coming! I’ll help you guys get ready and everything! Just tell me when and where!”

“Okay, so it’s gonna be at Rossi’s mansion tomorrow-”

“Wait, tomorrow?”

“Yeah,” she dragged out. “Sorry it’s short notice. It’s kinda short notice for everyone.”

You let out a silent sigh, licking your lips. “You’re all lucky that it’s my day off.”

***

You were clad in a pair of jeans and a tee shirt when you pulled up to the towering mansion that you were only slightly envious of. With your dress and makeup bag in the back of your car, you locked your doors before following the stone trail that led to the front door of Rossi’s house.

You barely knocked once when the door swung open, revealing an excited and frazzled Penelope. “Thank god, you’re here,” she sighed, grabbing your arm and yanking you into the door.

“What’s wrong, Pen?” you questioned, trying to keep up with her fast pace that was honestly alarming considering the 5-inch stilettos she was donning.

“Everything! The only other girl here is Emily and she does not have a clue on how to color coordinate! And the caterers said the food might not be ready in time and JJ’s mom might be late and-” 

“Penelope, take a deep breath! Everything’s gonna be just fine. Let’s see what you have so far.”

She nodded, taking a few deep breaths before guiding you over to the pair of French doors that led out to the backyard.

So far, all of the chairs had been set out for the ceremony and the wedding arch and already been placed, but sat bare. Table for the reception were out, but they were lacking decorations as well. The only thing that seemed fully completed was the dance floor, which had a mat of hardwood laid out on the grass with a sound system at the head of it.

“Okay, you’ve all got a good head start. It’s only noon, and they’re not supposed to be here until 6. We still have time,” you consoled, giving her a comforting smile. 

“Ah, is this the girl we’ve been waiting for?” a voice questioned behind you, and you and Penelope turned around to see three men walking in your direction. 

“It is!” Penelope replied, beaming and placing a hand on your shoulder. “Boys, this is Dr. Y/N Y/L/N, the head psychologist at St. Elizabeth Hospital in DC.” Penelope then shifted over to the boys’ side, standing next to the man you knew as David Rossi. “You already know this guy.”

“Of course, how could I ever forget,” you hummed, reaching out to shake his hand.

She then stepped next to a taller man with dark skin and strong eyebrows. “This here is Derek Morgan.”

You shook his hand. “Nice to meet you. I’ve heard quite a lot about you.”

She finally stood by the last, and the tallest, man in the group. “And this is Dr. Spencer Reid.”

You smiled at him, and he did the same in return. “I remember her saying you don’t do handshakes. It’s nice to meet you.”

“So now we’ve got two doctors to deal with?” Rossi playfully sighed, patting your shoulder.

“Seems like it,” you hummed, grinning at Spencer before turning to Rossi. “Though I doubt I’m half as intelligent as Dr. Reid right here. I’ve heard rumors of an IQ of 187?”

Spencer shrugged, a blush flooding his face. “I-I uh, I mean... Yes.”

“And that IQ immediately decreases threefold whenever he sees a pretty girl,” a voice behind you teased, and you turned to see Emily walking over to the group, a bright smile on her face.

“Is that so.” You beamed back at her, slinging an arm around her shoulder and pulling her into a hug. 

“Alright chatter-bugs, we’ve got a wedding to set up!” Penelope announced. “Hotch is gonna be here late, so we’re down a person for a while.” She grabbed your arm and began tugging you off. “I need you to help with flower stuff.”

You rolled your eyes and waved goodbye to the group before letting her tug you inside. Once you two were in one of the many living rooms, she turned to you with a big grin on her face. “What?”

“So?”

You furrowed your brows in confusion, shaking your head slightly. “So what?”

She huffed, rolling her eyes as if it was obvious. “So, what do you think of the doctor?!” 

“Oh my god,” you grumbled, running a hand through your hair. “Penelope, I am not gonna date your coworker, no matter how cute he is.”

“So you think he’s cute!”

“Penelope!” You let out a breath. “Pen, you know I’m not good with relationships, especially with my job, I barely have time to do anything.”

“Neither does he! It’ll be perfect!” She pushed out her lower lip, clasping her hands together in a praying gesture. “Please, at least think about it!”

Another sigh left your lips. “Fine. I’ll think about it.”

She squealed. “Yay!”

“But that doesn’t mean I’m for sure gonna date him!”

She smiled knowingly, nodding once. “Whatever you say.”

***

You were lucky that the florist you contacted had the flowers you needed in supply, and even luckier that they were able to have them all ready within the hour.

You were busy attempting to arrange the flowers and fake vines on the arch when you felt a presence to your right, watching from your peripheral as they gathered a handful of baby’s breath and began sticking them in the spots you needed filled.

“Thanks,” you hummed. “I was about to grab a step ladder for that, but you seem to have that under control.”

“It’s a gift and a curse,” Spencer joked, giving you a shy smile before turning back to his task.

You chuckled before grabbing a roll of sheer ribbon and holding it out to him. “Mind using your gift to tie that ribbon at the top of the arch? I can’t reach.”

He nodded, gingerly taking the ribbon from your hands and extending a length out to tie it to the top of the arch. You then took the roll from his hands and created a draping effect before snipping the length off from the roll and tying it to the side of the arch. 

As you moved to the right side of the arch to mirror the draping that you had just done, Spencer’s eyes followed your movements, his breath caught in his lungs and his lower lip caught between his teeth. 

“Spencer?”

“Hm?” he voiced, snapping out of his trance.

You smirked, handing him the roll. He grinned shyly back at you before mirroring the work he did on the other side. “I asked you where you’re from,” you explained as you took the roll back from him.

“Oh, uh, I’m from Las Vegas,” he rushed out, already feeling a burning in his cheeks.

“Really? What a coincidence. I’m from Reno, but I worked in Vegas while I was getting my masters.”

“Where’d you work?”

“The mental hospital there.” You shook your head, letting out a sigh. “God I worked there for like a year but I can’t remember the name for the life of me. Harrington, something like that-”

“Bennington?”

“Yes, that’s the one!” You turned to give him a smile, only to see a haunted look on his face. “What’s wrong?”

He shook his head, pursing his lips and casting his gaze to the ground. “I-it’s nothing.”

“Spencer.” You took a step forward before tentatively reaching your arm out, weighing the possibilities for a moment before placing your hand on his shoulder. “I know I’m not a profiler, but I can still read people. And I also know that we aren’t close, but you should know that you can trust me.”

He nodded, puffing a breath out through his nose. “I... Someone close to me is... Is one of the residents there.”

Your mind pondered for a moment, dots connecting right in front of your eyes. “Diana Reid.”

He tensed at the name, unconsciously giving himself away.

“She was one of my favorites.” You watched as his eyes lifted from the ground and flickered over your face, trying to decide if you were being honest. “God, she was so intelligent and kind and hilarious as all hell.”

He let out a small chuckle, relaxing slightly. “Yeah?”

“Oh absolutely. She’d crack me up all the time, my sides would hurt from laughing by the time my shift ended. And when she wasn't making me laugh, she’d tell me about her favorite author, read me some of her favorite passages.” A smile imprinted on your face. “Or she would read me letters that she got. Everyday she had a new letter, and her face would light right up when I handed it to her.”

Tears began to well in his eyes, and you moved your hand down to his bicep, locking gazes with him.

“She talked about you everyday. About her genius FBI agent of a son. She was so proud. And I could tell that you cared about her so much. Enough to get her the help she needed. Enough to risk your relationship with her to keep her safe.”

Spencer blinked back his tears and reached up to grab your hand, and for a moment you worried that you had crossed a line.

But that worry immediately faded away when he held your hand, squeezing it gently before giving you a kind smile. “Thank you,” he whispered.

You just nodded, letting the moment linger for as long as possible.

“Hey guys, how’s the arch coming alo-” Penelope began as she walked over to you two, her face buried in her tablet. She froze the moment she looked up, seeing the strange and vulnerable scene in front of her.

“Yeah, yeah, It’s good. I’m uh, I’m gonna go get some water,” Spencer rushed out, giving you both tight lipped smiled before hurrying off.

Penelope gave you a look as she stepped over to you. “What was that?”

“I know his mom,” you stated incredulously, the shock still lingering in your system. 

“Wait, what?”

“She, she was one of the residents at the mental hospital I used to work at.”

“So you guys are like on a third date basis with info about each other?”

“Penelope!” You sighed, rubbing your eyes. “I think that was the deepest conversation I’ve ever had with a stranger.”

“And I bet he can go a lot deeper-”

Your face grew a bright red and you smacked her shoulder. “Stop it!”

***

Your feet were aching by the time you had finished decorating the backyard, immediately falling into a chair with a heavy sigh the moment you placed the last centerpiece on the tables. 

“Y/N I think you may be an actual saint,” Penelope breathed out. “Thank you so much for helping. I don’t think I could’ve gotten this done by myself.”

“I’m always down to help,” you replied, giving her a tired smile. “I should probably start getting ready though. The party’s gonna start soon.”

“I’ll come with you. My stuff is all in my car. We can use one of Rossi’s many bathrooms.”

“That sounds wonderful.”

The two of you gathered your makeup and clothes for tonight before heading into the first bathroom to the right on the second floor of the mansion. That room immediately filled with giggles as you two got ready, helping each other with hair and makeup.

It was almost time for the party to start when you two were ready, zipping your dresses up and slipping on your heels when there was a knock at the door.

“Are you two gonna give us a reveal anytime soon or do we have to beg for it?” Derek’s voice sounded from the other side of the door, his grin evident in his words.

“We?” Penelope questioned, smirking herself.

“Well you know there’s gotta be an audience whenever there’s two beautiful women. Now are we gonna get a show?”

You rolled your eyes, letting out a chuckle as Penelope stepped over to the door. “You ready?” she questioned.

You shrugged. “Ready as I’ll ever be,” you sighed in response before gesturing for her to open the door.

She pulled the door open a moment later, stepping out first and you stepping out behind her.

Emily let out a low whistle, motioning for you two to turn. You scoffed but obliged, waddling around in a circle before giving everyone a sheepish smile. Emily and Derek bombarded the two of you with compliments, boosting your confidence through the roof and making your cheeks burn bright.

Eventually, Emily and Derek and Penelope split off into their own group, chatting amongst themselves. That was when you noticed a timid body tucked away to the side, someone who had been there the whole time but had stayed silent.

“Hey,” you greeted, smiling up at him.

“Hi,” Spencer hummed in return, a shy smile on his own face.

From behind you, you could hear the group change their conversation from whatever mundane topic they were on previously to the topic of you and Spencer. The words seemed to blend together but you could pick up a few things. 

“What did I say, that IQ is gone,” Emily joked.

“Pretty boy’s got a pretty girl now,” Derek added, all of them giggling.

“You um... You look beautiful,” Spencer told you, blatantly ignoring the group’s playful comments.

“Thanks. You clean up well yourself,” you said, reaching up and straightening his bow tie for him. “I dig the bow tie.”

“Yeah?”

“Absolutely. It’s very Eleven-esque.”

He smirked at that. “You watch Doctor Who?”

You shrugged. “Yeah, whenever I get the time. I’m not as big of a fanatic as Miss Penelope Garcia, but I certainly enjoy it.”

“Maybe we can watch the new season together sometime?”

You nodded, beaming. “It’s a date.”

You were so wrapped up in your conversation with Spencer that you failed to notice the peanut gallery wander off, evidently bored by the change of conversation. 

However, you didn’t fail to notice the blush deepening on Spencer’s cheeks from your words, his tongue darting out to wet his lips, a nervous habit that (you hated to admit) had an effect on you.

“We- uh, we should probably head outside. I bet the party is starting soon,” he stuttered out, rocking back and forth on his heels. 

You nodded with a frown, glancing over at the bathroom. “Yeah, that’s probably a good idea. I’m gonna clean up the bathroom and throw my stuff in my car, then I’ll meet you out there.”

A strange emotion, almost reminiscent of disappointment, crossed over his face for a moment before he nodded. “Alright. See you out there.” He gave you a small smile before stepping past you, leaving a lingering touch on your bare shoulder before retreating downstairs.

***

Luckily, the wedding ceremony had gone off without a hitch, every moment was perfect and extremely emotional.

Tears stains still lingered on your cheeks when dinner was over, and JJ handed you a tissue when she stepped over to you. “I’ve got a whole supply of them, my mom gave ‘em to me when I was breaking down up there,” she whispered to you, pulling you into a tight hug.

“Thanks, JJ,” you breathed, hugging her back just as tight. “I’m so happy for you two.”

“Yeah, I’m pretty happy too.” The two of you giggled, and she pulled away from the hug to give you a smile before looking around. “And I’ve noticed that a special someone is pretty happy to see you, too.”

You followed her line of sight, playfully rolling your eyes when you saw Spencer playing with Henry. “God, who put you up to this?” 

She scoffed, turning back to you. “Hey, I may not be a profiler, but I know a connection when I see one.” She reached out, taking your hand in his. “You should really give him a chance. You two would be amazing together, and you both deserve some happiness in your lives.”

A sigh left your lips, but you nodded. “Fine. I’ll think about it.”

JJ squeezed your hand before rising to her feet and looking around for Will. “Well, we should probably do the first dance before Penelope loses her mind.”

You grinned at her. “Have fun, girly. Love you.”

“Love you too. And thank you for all this. It means so much to me.”

“Of course. Anything for you. Now go dance!” You shooed her off with a laugh, watching as everyone turned their attention to the bride and groom making their way over to the dance floor.

The music started playing, and everything moved in slow motion as JJ and Will danced together, both of them beaming with pure love in their eyes. People eventually moved to join them, everyone swaying together on the dance floor.

You had sat at the table for a while, watching everyone make idle chat and have fun on the dance floor. This feeling of warmth and comfort was one that was foreign to you, and you wanted to bask in it for as long as possible. 

“All alone?”

You looked up to see Spencer standing in front of you, a shy smile on his lips. 

You nodded, returning his smile. “I guess so. Dancing really isn’t my thing.”

He pulled a chair up next to you, sitting down and watching the crowd with you. “Yeah, me either.”

“Really? Correct me if I’m wrong, but I do believe I saw you dancing with Emily. And Penelope. And JJ. And JJ’s mom.” He scoffed, and you let out a laugh, playfully shoving his shoulder. “Maybe you’re just a ladies man.”

“Oh, definitely.”

“I mean that sounds like some player behavior if you ask me.”

You both shared a laugh, wide smiles stretching across both of your lips. That laughter soon faded into a comfortable silence, the two of you returning your gazes back to the dance floor.

“I mean, there’s one girl I haven’t danced with,” Spencer spoke up, bringing your attention back to him.

You quirked an eyebrow at him. “Oh yeah? And who would that be?”

Your eyes followed his form as he stood from his seat and walked around you, stopping when he stood right in front of you. “I believe that would be you.” He extended his hand out to you.

A small chuckle left your lips, gently placing your hand in his and pushing yourself to your feet. “You’re getting confident, doctor.”

At your words, his demeanor began to slip, a light blush blooming across his cheeks, glowing under the string lights. “Oh-I-”

“Spencer.” You squeezed his hand. “It’s okay. I’m glad you feel comfortable enough around me to be forward.”

He let out the breath he was holding, squeezing your hand in return before leading you over to the dance floor. You couldn’t help but notice the subtle glance Spencer shared with the DJ once you two stood on the hardwood mat.

The song changed, now playing a slow song you were all-too familiar with. “I didn’t peg you as a guy who listened to Bright Eyes.”

He shrugged. “I’m not. But I had Penelope look into your purchases to see what CDs you’ve bought.”

You feigned offense, gasping and shoving his shoulder. “You two were conspiring!”

He let out a laugh, beaming at you as he placed one hand on your waist. “Well we better get to dancing before this song is over. It’s only 3 minutes and 9 seconds long.”

You rolled your eyes but obliged, placing your free hand on his shoulder and stepped close to him, squeezing his hand once before you two began to sway, eyes locked in each other’s gaze.

“I’m, uh...” You sighed, pursing your lips. “I’m really sorry about bringing all that stuff up with your mom,” you whispered.

“It’s okay,” he whispered in response.

You furrowed your brow in frustration. “But I made you upset, I didn’t mean to do that. I’m really sorry.”

“You don’t need to be sorry. You didn’t upset me.” He let out a breath. “Honestly, it’s really nice being able to talk to someone who knew who she is. Who she really is. Not her illness, her.”

You nodded, searching his eyes. “I’m glad that you trust that I know who she really is.”

“I don’t need to trust you. You told me exactly who she is. She’s a kind, intelligent woman.”

A smile settled on your face. “With a kind and intelligent son.”

He returned your smile, his hand winding around your waist and pulling you against his chest as the song changed. 

You chuckled, searching his eyes. “God, did you guys just decide to play all the music I like.”

He paused to listen to the song. “No, I don’t recognize this song. Maybe Penelope chose it.”

“Of course she did.”

You listened to the lyrics, humming along to the melody as your eyes traced over his features.

Your hair was long when we first met. Of course.

Slowly, as the two of you swayed, you laid your head on his chest, letting your eyes flutter shut.

Peace.

[miraculouscontent]

Askplosion #12 1/4:

.:Asks Referring to Previous Miraculous Posts:.

Anonymous said:

I think that story with Delmar, Sabrina and Alya is only type of Alya demonization you accept.

(the post this anon is referring to)

Absolutely.

I also accept “demonization” for like--comedic purposes. For example, if they had Alya be all in on the love square and all no Marinette you’re not allowed to give up on Adrien if it’s Lukanette endgame and Alya’s (and possibly the rest of the girl squad) “demonization” is for the sake of their dramatic reactions to the mere idea that Marinette would be both not into Adrien anymore and also into someone else.

I just think the idea of turning things on its head by making the people around Marinette the subject of jokes instead of it being Marinette herself.

Anonymous said:

Alya going "Need Some Help?" reminds me of Karma and Nagisa from Assassination Classroom(I said it right this time!). Obviously Alya is Karma and Sabrina is Nagisa(and now Karma's jazzy motif is playing in my head). And Delmar is probably(and by probably I mean almost fucking definitely) Kayano. For real though, I didn't even know Delmar's name until I read that ask/response now. I mean, like, that's how forgettable and underutilized he was. And no, Ms. Bustier isn't worthy of being Koro-sensei.

(the post this anon is referring to)

Still not familiar with Assassination Classroom so I will let the other anons who are familiar with the series silently judge for themselves. ;P

As for Delmar, don’t feel bad; his name actually isn’t mentioned in the special to my knowledge, and it was a tweet that confirmed his name.

Anonymous said:

Oh yeah, the "Astruc gets hit with a washboard" was SUPPOSED to be a shout-out to Koro-Sensei Quest, in which Karma gets hit with a washboard(don't ask where it came from or where they go when they hit the ground, the world may never know) every time he acts like a smug-ass little bitch. You know, like Astruc. Often, the washboard will ricochet off his head and hit a red button, which then opens up a pit which Karma then falls in. In other words, Karma getting Karma! If only Astruc could too.

(the post this anon is referring to)

khfjdgdg ahhh, yeah, thanks for explaining! I’ve always said that I’m not very media-savvy so sometimes I don’t know about more popular shows.

Anonymous said:

Eventually Salty Decadent Court

(the post this anon is referring to)

lol we just slowly upgrade our way through the salt ranks

Anonymous said:

I was thinking about your edit of Desperada, and how I would definitely love to edit the ATLA finale to cut out Kat/aang and Mai/ko stuff lol.

(the post this anon is referring to)

Oh yeah, that’d be amazing! I imagine it’d be difficult, but not impossible. Sometimes it might be better to sacrifice good shots or move scenes around for the sake of making things cohesive.

Anonymous said:

Kagami when adrien its back from NY: I'm sorry adrien, but I have feelings for two blueberries, we have to broke up

Adrien: eh? Broke up? We were dating?

(the post this anon is referring to)

I like how this ask doesn’t specify whether the joke is that Adrien might’ve just been way too “friendly” with Kagami and gave her the impression that they were dating, or a joke on the fact that the show itself doesn’t specify that they’re dating, or both.

A+ 10/10

Anonymous said:

If Adrien does get akumatised because of jealousy about Marinette, I hope someone (Kagami would be great) points out that Marinette was never akumatised for that reason even though she had waaay more scenarios that could have turned out that way. So don't blame yourself, Marinette!! (I also hope Kagami yells at anyone else *cough*Alya*cough* who tries to blame Marinette.

(the “Didn’t Need Burrow” that this anon is referring to)

We just want someone unambiguously on Marinette’s side, is that too much to ask?

Anonymous said:

"It's difficult to animate" hasn't stopped others before (Lord Shen, the Phantom Thieves of Hearts, etc). You may do it as a hobby, but this are professionals who should have done more than the bare minimun.

(the post this anon is referring to)

I agree. I’m just trying to keep things like budget in mind. A bunch of free-flowing clothing is fine but I’m basically like--okay, but you don’t NEED the stuff that would hamper the budget to make things look good.

Anonymous said:

I don't know why, but I'm picturing Ladybug confronting Chat Noir after he gets back from New York like a mother scolding her teenage daughter for sneaking out at night.

(the post this anon is referring to)

Honestly? Accurate.

Anonymous said:

Clara Nightengale: I sensed Marinette was in trouble, so I came to this school on the doub-- Jagged Stone: It's okay, I already got her.

(the post this anon is referring to)

jdhgdjkfgkjfg Jagged and Clara walking down the street together all cool, Jagged still having Marinette slung over his shoulder, and everyone watching is just, “??????”

passivedecept said:

Honestly

After reading your last bit i feel cheated that Jagged isnt included more

But it may be better that he isnt like luka's dad.

Can you imagion?

Luka: dad. I like someone.

Jagged: who?

Luka: a real nice and talented girl name marinette and- who are you calling?

Jagged: penny because we need a place for your wedding STAT!

Because i firmly believe if jagged had a son who was dating marinette he would do everything to get mari as his daughter in law.

Okay that was it. Love every fic and small bit you make. And i was wondering if you had your own fav. Like. What have your written so far that you like the best yourself?

(the post this anon is referring to)

Do you mean it’d be better because love square is endgame so it’d be messy? Because otherwise, not gonna lie, Jagged meddling and being super supportive sounds fun. :P I’m not here for love square meddling but Lukanette meddling is cute because both parties would be mutually aware of it and also be into it.

As for my favorite fic I’ve written? That’s probably too tough to answer, ahaha. For sure, it’s something Lukanette-based, but I know that doesn’t narrow it down much at all. It would also probably be one of my fix-its/canon divergences because I’m crazy for multiverse/alternate timeline stuff (I hate time travel, but I’m all about multiverse, I adore that stuff).

Anonymous said:

In one of your Didn't Need Burrow masterposts, when someone said that Marinette and Adrien had kids and a hamster who'll get Miraculouses, I somehow misread that as "the kids as well as the hamster itself will all get Miraculouses".

(the post this anon is referring to)

I’m sure at least one of my anons would snap back at that with a joke like, “well, with the standards set for who gets a miraculous, I wouldn’t be surprised.”

rogueinthedigitalworld said:

Would like to pop in for a second to say that yes, Maribat *did* start out as a spite ship, because the original creator was a heavy Adrien salter and wanted someone to replace him… and chose Damian Wayne, for some reason. Since then, Marinette has been shipped with all the Robins (and from I can tell, they’re all warped into actuallynice!Adrien with two gimmicks added from the *actual* characters). I’m pretty sure I’m forgetting something, but that’s the gist of it.

(the post this person is referring to)

Thank you for the response! Yeah, I didn’t know if it was like Spider-man and Ladybug - which I don’t think is a spite ship but I might be wrong - so I didn’t want to say that it was a spite ship without being sure (and obviously, some shippers of it could be just genuine shippers, who knows).

Anonymous said:

Okay, but seriously, when I first joined the ml fandom I was so confused about the maribat. I'm not really a big fan of either romance or comics (except for sandman lol) so I kind of filtered them out but it's kind of an experience tbh. I'm pretty sure it started on tumblr though- everyone sites it as the ozmav au

(the post this person is referring to)

Thank you for the extra clarification, anon! Yeah, I have that ship blacklisted (so I don’t see it around) but not really out of hatred for it; I tend to blacklist names/people/ships that I’m either indifferent to or don’t like (I immediately blacklist people who write angst, people who cross tag, and people who do onesided-Lukanette and don’t tag it that, even if it’s just one offense; I don’t play games, lol, if anyone does something I don’t like, I filter it out because I filter everything).

Anonymous said:

Your images of Luka and Marinette kissing are so super kyute! What program do you use to render them?

(the post this person is referring to)

Thank you! I made them myself!

The program I use is MikuMikuDance, using an edited version of the shader “GreenerShader 1.14″

[alice-beaumont-ravenclaw]

História

A/N #1: Finally! Fic number 3 of the Brazil series! I apologize for the wait. Let’s just say that stuff happened after I posted the second fic of the series that kinda zapped my creativity. Anyway, now I am back! 

Hottest Spot South of Havana (Part 1, Part 2) |  A Wonderful Surprise

Word count: ≈3000

Alice’s outfit

Alice could perceive the sunlight through her closed eyelids, but she didn’t want to open them just yet. Wanting to enjoy the warmth of the bed some more, she turned around, thinking her pillow felt firmer than she remembered. Her nose detected a familiar smell that reminded her of the sweater she slept in during cold winter nights at Hogwarts. Her boyfriend’s sweater. Charlie’s smell…

Charlie!

Her eyes opened up at that realization, landing on a sleeping freckled face with messy longish red hairs framing it. What was she doing in the same bed as Charlie? Where was Penny? In fact, where exactly was she? She did not recognize the room she was in as she quickly glanced around. As her mind was going at lightning speed, trying to remember how she ended up here, she looked under the covers. Thank Merlin, they still had their pyjamas on. Lost in those thoughts, she felt the pillow underneath her head shift slightly. She soon realized the “pillow” was actually Charlie’s shoulder, and as she slowly looked up towards his face, her green eyes met his warm brown eyes.

“Good morning,” said Charlie.

Alice stared at him, silent, her eyes wide.

“Why are you…?” started asking Charlie before being hit by a realization. He smirked. “You don’t remember how you ended up in my bed, do you?”

Alice shook her head, still staring at her boyfriend.

“Well, you missed my body so much, you just couldn’t help yourself…” started saying Charlie biting his lower lip to stifle a laugh he could feel coming as he saw Alice’s cheeks turn pink.

“What?!” exclaimed Alice, sitting up in the bed holding her face. “Oh, Merlin! They won’t stop teasing after…” She then heard Charlie’s laughter behind her. “Charlie Weasley!” she exclaimed, grabbing the pillow underneath his arm. “How dare you scare me like that?!” she added, throwing the pillow at Charlie’s face.

Charlie barely dodged the pillow as he sat up, still chuckling. “Sorry, it was just too easy, and you’re so cute when you blush,” he said, hugging her and giving her rosy cheek a small peck.

“Honestly, though, how did I end up here?”

“I was sleepy myself when you joined me, but if I remember, you were woken up by Tonks and Tulip getting ready for their hiking expedition, and I think you weren’t able to go back to sleep because of the racket they were making. So you came here,” explained Charlie.

“Oh… Yeah… I remember now. Tonks tripped over an ottoman in the living room; Tulip burst out laughing, followed by Tonks; Dennis escaped Tulip’s pocket, so they started looking all over the room for him while Penny and I just watched. I vaguely remember Penny suggesting I go over to your room since the boys were already waiting outside, so it would be peaceful,” said Alice, scratching her head.

“Feeling you cuddle up to me was a nice way to go back to sleep,” said Charlie, kissing the top of her head. “Are you sure you want to go to the museum today? I wouldn’t mind spending the day in bed with you,” his lips brushing against her neck.

“Charlie!” exclaimed Alice, scooting away from him. “Penny and Andre are probably out there waiting for us!”

“And it looks like Andre brought your outfit in here while we were sleeping,” said Charlie, noticing clothes neatly laid out on the armchair close to the window.

“All the more reason to not make them wait with… whatever you had in mind. They could come in at any moment.”

“Fine,” said Charlie as he started to remove his t-shirt.

Alice let out a small gasp as she backed away some more, only to find out she had reached the edge of the bed. She fell backward, the little thump it made alerting Charlie. He turned around and saw Alice’s ankles and feet above the bed.

“Alice, are you…?” 

Before he could finish his sentence, Alice raised a thumbs up to indicate she was okay, making the both of them laugh. They quickly got dressed, Alice using magic to get her hair into a braid. 

“I’m surprised Andre picked out the overall for the museum. When we were in Paris, he wanted to dress me in couture when we went to the Louvres,” said Alice as they left the bedroom.

“That’s because I know you and also because I thought we might walk around where the museum is after visiting it,” said Andre, who was sitting on the couch, sipping his cup of coffee.

“How… how long have you been sitting there?” asked Alice, frozen in place.

“Since I’ve been done with breakfast on the terrace with Penny,” said Andre, nodding towards the open doors leading to the terrace where Penny was still sitting, reading a book. “You know, I could get used to this lifestyle,” added Andre as he got up, placing his empty cup on the saucer on the marble top of the coffee table.

“We know,” said Alice and Charlie in unison.

“The two lovebirds have decided to join us?” asked Penny as she closed the doors of the terrace behind her.

“Seems like it,” said Andre as he held the door of the suite for Penny, Alice sticking her tongue at her Hufflepuff friend.

Alice and Charlie walked a few steps behind them as they made their way to the elevator.

“Good thing you didn’t give in to me earlier,” whispered Charlie.

Alice simply nodded, her eyes on their two friends waiting for them next to the lift.

After arriving at the Museu Histórico Nacional, they made their way to the inner courtyard, where carriages, probably used by the nobility back during the colonization and the Empire periods, were on display. Andre seemed to find them quite interesting as he stopped to look at them in detail, Penny staying with him as Alice and Charlie walked inside.

They slowly made their way around the permanent exhibits, which seemed to be divided into three periods: pre-colonization, colonization, and independence. The pre-colonization rooms mostly had native artifacts and prehistoric cave paintings. The rooms that pertained to the colonization period contained portraits of Iberian royals, including an equestrian depiction of Philip II of Spain, who ruled during part of the Iberian Union period between Spain & Portugal. There were also displays showing the extent of slavery in the colony as it was a big part of the economy back in those days.

“What’s slavery?” asked Charlie as they passed miniature models representing the slave trade.

Alice stopped in her tracks, turning around. “You don’t know? Actually, I shouldn’t be surprised. Grand-papa always said wizards live in a bubble. Well, in general, slaves are human beings that are owned by other human beings, and they are treated like property and traded as such. They have no rights. Slavery has existed for centuries, but back during the colonization period, Africans were taken by Europeans as slaves and were used in the colonies as cheap labour. That’s a very succinct summary of it.”

“How awful! Why would Muggles do that?”

“Greed? But it’s not like wizards are perfect. While a majority of house-elves love doing their work and find the idea of compensation insulting, the way some families treat them is… despicable,” said Alice, frowning, as she turned back and walked into the next room, Charlie following her.

They eventually reached the rooms that covered Brazil’s independence period, starting with a life-sized statue of Emperor Pedro I and the text of his acceptance letter to stay in Brazil in the early 1800s, marking the beginning of the country's independence period. There were also paintings representing naval military scenes, one of which seemed to have caught Charlie’s attention as he stood there, looking at it.

Alice, noticing he wasn’t close to her anymore, walked over to him to see what could be so fascinating about that painting. “Are there any dragons?” she said, a small smirk raising the corner of her mouth.

“What? No,” he said with a small chuckle. “No, it’s just most paintings we’ve seen so far represented daytime scenes, but this one is a nighttime scene. There’s something… enchanting about it, I guess, with only the moonlight illuminating the scene.”

“How poetic of you, Charlie Weasley,” said Alice, her lips forming a tender smile. 

“I have my moments,” said Charlie, his cheeks turning slightly pink as he rubbed the back of his neck.

“But you’re right. The moonlight does have something magical. This reminds me… You know the book I was reading yesterday at the lovely library you brought me to?”

“The Brazilian fairytales one? Yes, I remember. What about it?”

“Well, there was this story about how night came.”

“It comes when the sun goes down, no?”

“Well, yes, but it’s a story about how the phenomenon that is night came to be, because at the very beginning of time, the story said, it was day all the time. There was no night.”

“Really? And how does it explain the arrival of night?” asked Charlie as they sat on the bench near the nighttime scenery.

“Well, the daughter of the Great Sea Serpent, who dwelt in the depths of the seas, married a human,” started Alice. “She left her home among the shades of the deep seas and came to live with her husband on earth, in the land of daylight. Because she wasn’t used to that much daylight, her eyes grew weary of the bright sunlight and her beauty faded. That saddened her husband, as he did not know what to do.

“‘O, if night would only come,’ she moaned as she tossed about wearily on her couch. ‘Here it is always day, but in my father’s kingdom, there are many shadows. O, for a little of the darkness of night!’

“Her husband listened to her and asked, ‘What is night? Tell me about it, and perhaps I can get a little of it for you.’

“‘Night,’ said the daughter of the Great Sea Serpent, ‘is the name we give to the heavy shadows which darken my father’s kingdom in the sea. I love the sunlight of your earth land, but I grow very tired of it. If we could have only a little of the darkness of my father’s kingdom to rest our eyes part of the time.’

“Her husband quickly called his three most faithful slaves. ‘I am about to send you on a journey,’ he told them. ‘You are to go to the kingdom of the Great Sea Serpent who lives in the depths of the seas and ask him to give you some of the darkness of night so that his daughter may not die here amid the sunlight of our land.’

“The three slaves made their way to the kingdom of the Great Sea Serpent. After a long, perilous journey, they arrived at his home in the depths of the seas and asked him to give them some of the shadows of night to carry back to the earth. The Great Sea Serpent gave them a big bag full at once. It was securely fastened, and the Great Sea Serpent warned them not to open it until they were once more in the presence of his daughter, their mistress.”

“I have a feeling they didn’t listen,” interrupted Charlie.

“You would be correct. So, the three slaves started out, bearing the big bag full of night upon their heads, but they soon heard strange sounds within the bag. It was the sound of the voices of all the night beasts, all the night birds, and all the night insects. It sounded like the night chorus from the jungles on the banks of the rivers to give you an idea. But as night was something no one had ever experienced on land, the three slaves had never heard sounds like those in all their lives. They were terribly frightened.

“‘Let us drop the bag full of night right here where we are and run away as fast as we can,’ said the first slave.

“‘We shall perish. We shall perish, anyway, whatever we do,’ cried the second slave.

“‘Whether we perish or not, I am going to open the bag and see what makes all those terrible sounds,’ said the third slave.”

“Oh, Merlin…” interjected Charlie.

“So,” continued Alice, “they laid the bag on the ground and opened it. Out rushed all the night beasts and all the night birds and all the night insects and out rushed the great black cloud of night. The slaves were more frightened than ever at the darkness and escaped to the jungle.

“The daughter of the Great Sea Serpent was waiting anxiously for the return of the slaves with the bag full of night. Ever since they had started out on their journey, she had looked for their return, shading her eyes with her hand and gazing away off at the horizon, hoping with all her heart that they would arrive quickly to bring the night. In that position, she was standing under a royal palm tree when the three slaves opened the bag and let night escape. ‘Night comes. Night comes at last,’ she cried, as she saw the clouds of night upon the horizon. Then she closed her eyes and went to sleep there under the royal palm tree.

“When she awoke, she felt greatly refreshed. She was once more the happy princess who had left her father’s kingdom in the depths of the great seas to come to the land. She was now ready to see the day again. She looked up at the bright star shining above the royal palm tree and said, ‘O, bright, beautiful star, from now on you shall be called the morning star, and you shall herald the approach of day. You shall reign queen of the sky at this hour.’

“Then she called all the birds about her and said to them, ‘O, wonderful, sweet singing birds, henceforth I command you to sing your sweetest songs at this hour to herald the approach of day.’ The cock was standing by her side. ‘You,’ she said to him, ‘shall be appointed the watchman of the night. Your voice shall mark the watches of the night and shall warn the others that the madrugada comes.’ To this very day in Brazil, we call the early morning the madrugada. The cock announces its approach to the waiting birds. The birds sing their sweetest songs at that hour, and the morning star reigns in the sky as queen of the madrugada.

“Once it was daytime again, the slaves came out of their hiding place. Their master turned them into monkeys for having disobeyed the Great Sea Serpent by not opening the bag only in the presence of his daughter. To this very day, one sees the mark upon the monkeys’ lips, where they bit off the wax which sealed the bag; and in Brazil, night leaps out quickly upon the earth just as it leapt quickly out of the bag in those days at the beginning of time. And all the night beasts and night birds and night insects give a sunset chorus in the jungles at nightfall.”

“Wait… Did a Muggle really write that? There are a lot of elements in there that seem magical,” pointed out Charlie, his eyebrows furrowed.

“Well, most Muggle fairytales have magical elements. It’s like they know about us and our world without really knowing… Like when you heard The Sorcerer’s Apprentice at the Proms. You said how the music really fit the feeling of magic, even though a Muggle composed it. Perhaps people can feel it without realizing it, and some things we see in their tales come from the days when Muggles knew more about us, but now that knowledge is viewed as pure fantasy instead of truth,” said Alice, her eyes brightening.

“Maybe… Wait, aren’t sea serpents a type of dragon?” asked Charlie, smiling broadly.

“Hmm? Oh, hum, yes, I think so, but you’re the expert on the matter,” said Alice, her eyes on the painting, but her thoughts on something else.

“So based on that story, we have nights because of a dragon?”

Alice stared at him, quirking her eyebrows. “I guess so…”

“Cool,” said Charlie, nodding his head in satisfaction.

Alice shook her head slightly, biting her lower lip to avoid laughing. Of course, the dragon would be the one thing to stick with Charlie. Lost in their respective thoughts, neither of them noticed Penny and Andre making their way to them.

“There you are!” exclaimed Penny, standing in front of them, her hands on her hips.

“I am starving,” said Andre, holding his stomach.

“Sorry, we didn’t see the time,” said Alice, as she got up with Charlie.

Penny rolled her eyes, smirking. “You two don’t seem to notice the time go by when you’re together.”

“Shut up,” mumbled Alice, taking a hold of Penny’s arm.

“Did you know that there’s a story that says a dragon is the reason we have nights,” said Charlie as he walked in front of them with Andre.

“Ok, maybe in Charlie’s case, it’s when dragons are involved that he forgets about the concept of time,” whispered Penny, making Alice snort with laughter.

After eating lunch at the museum’s café, they looked at the other exhibits before returning to the hotel. The rest of the afternoon was spent around the pool as they waited for their friends, Charlie wanting to tell Barnaby about the dragon story. Alice stared at the same page of her book all that time, her mind still on fairytales and their origin...

A/N #2: Thank you for reading my fic! I hope you enjoyed it! Now, before someone comments one what Alice says regarding house-elves, I based it on this article. The fairytale Alice tells is from HERE and the painting that catches Charlie’s attention is THIS ONE.  The reason the title is “História” is because in Portuguese, it means both “history” and “story,” which I felt worked with the story. Feel free to leave a comment, including constructive criticism.

[official-weasley]

The Irreplaceable Charlie Weasley: Pt. 5, Ch. 2

PART 5: THE YEAR WHEN EVERYONE FIGHTS Chapter 2 - A Very Quidditch Crush

Penny

Who am I? What's my name?

I am so busy this year that I don't even have time to think about myself. Braiding my hair every morning? No time. Keeping my sister from getting lost around the Castle? No time. Spending time with my friends in any other way that doesn't revolve around studying? No time!

I even thought I wasn't nagging the group about O.W.L.s as much. They quickly proved me wrong when they started to complain about how much I talked about them. I decided to give them a little break as most of them were doing rather well so I went from every day to missing a couple of days per week, not mentioning the O.W.L.s and their importance.

I did, however, take as much time as I could to brew and experiment with potions. I wanted to learn new recipes and it was a good opportunity to talk to Snape about O.W.L.s even though, not much to my surprise, he wasn't as keen about it as I was. I still had access to his ingredients room and he even lent me one of his books about Potions which made me jump as I knew just how rare it was!

I knew I couldn't keep it forever, so I tried memorizing and trying as many potions from it as I possibly could and I wrote to my mum about it every chance I got. To be perfectly honest, she was the only one who shared my excitement about this.

I also took the time to attend as many of Ravenclaw's Quidditch practices as I possibly could. I half pretended to study, sitting on the lower stands and half eyeing Andre. He was so cute and the best Keeper ever, of course!

It seemed that Orion wanted to win the Quidditch Cup this year as they had practice almost every day. I, of course, didn't mind and neither did Nova for some reason. I noticed that after every match she didn't fly from the Pitch but joined the Quidditch commentator, who as I could recall, wasn't as funny compared to how much Nova giggled when he was talking.

After the fifth Friendly, I was pretty sure that Nova's secret crush from last year was finally revealed and I decided to casually ask her about it. I asked her to help me study for Transfiguration O.W.L. in the Library, as I knew she wouldn't be able to refuse, and since I told her all about my crush on Andre last year in the Library it made sense that I would ask her about Murphy there as well.

I chuckled when I saw how prepared she was! She brought 3 books and so many notes for which I didn't even know she was capable of having. I decided to be very cool about the whole thing, I didn't want her to run away after all. So we studied Transfiguration for about an hour, when I closed her book, crossed my arms on the table, and leaned my head on them.

“So...” I started.

“What is that look in your eyes, Penny?” She was suspicious already.

“About your crush.” I grinned and she rolled her eyes.

“You only invited me here to talk about who I fancy, didn't you?” She frowned as she knew what was coming.

“I was just wondering if I can make the same guess list Tulip did last year?” I blinked at her to appear as cute as possible.

“Alright.” She wasn't amused.

“Murphy McNully.” I said casually. She gasped and her cheeks turned tomato red.

“I knew it!” I pointed my finger at her.

“Shh!” I could hear Madam Pince behind us. I turned around and she was glaring at me.

“I knew it!” I repeated when she finally decided to walk to the other side of the Library, this time whispering.

“How do you know?” Nova was stunned.

“I might attend your Quidditch matches to daydream about Andre but I am not blind.” I winked at her.

“How obvious is it?” She sighed.

“Well,” I rubbed my chin, thinking about it. “If you didn't find him so funny talking about Quidditch, since I can't phantom what's there to laugh about, I wouldn't notice at all.” I was sarcastic as that wasn't the only reason I knew. She was also eyeing him during the matches and she flew right past him as much as possible.

“But he is funny.” Nova defended him.

“Nova, there is a 14,5% chance that only you laugh so much when he speaks.” I giggled and she rolled her eyes when I took Murphy's statistics to prove my point.

“Alright, you got me! But promise you won't tell anyone!” She made me swear.

“My lips are sealed.” I dragged an imaginary zipper across my mouth. “But only if you tell me how it happened?”

“Well,” she leaned closer to me to make sure Madam Pince wasn't going to throw us out, “remember how when you asked me about it last year, I was completely clueless who I had a crush on?” I nodded. How could I forget? I was positive it was Charlie and that she just couldn't see past their friendship.

“Well, after one practice I was taking extra time to get dressed because I wanted to be as late for History of Magic as I possibly could.”

“I knew you were being late on purpose!” I gasped.

“And I stayed alone in the tent and Murphy came inside and we talked and I realized that I liked him.” She blushed. That was pretty rare for her. Oh, she was so cute!

“What made you realize?” I was curious.

“He was talking about this Quidditch strategy that he was confident would improve my skills and I zoned out and suddenly realized just how blue his eyes are and what a cute smile he has.” Her face was as red as Tulip's hair at this point.

“Does he know?” I beamed.

“Does Andre know you like him?” Clever girl, throwing that in my face.

“Are you planning on telling him?” I asked, ignoring her.

“Are you planning on telling Andre?” I frowned at her. We were not talking about me and Andre right now.

“For a matter of fact, I am!” I scoffed at her. “We are going to Hogsmeade next week and I will tell him that I fancy him!”

“Wow, very brave of you Penny.” She winked at me.

“Thank you!” I lifted my chin up proudly and as I started to think about what to wear when I tell Andre I remembered that this wasn't about my crush but hers.

“Stop distracting me!” She giggled. “How serious is this crush of yours?” The answer to this question interested me not just because if they started dating, we could go on double dates but also because I knew Charlie fancied Nova.

“I don't know. I am not so invested in these matters like you are, Penny.” She answered honestly.

“Don't you want to know if he feels the same way?” I asked, confused. Nova gave it some thought.

“Not really. At least not yet. I feel too young for this stuff.” It was probably the first time I struggled to understand her.

“So you will just stare at him and giggle at his not so funny speeches all the time?” I raised my eyebrow.

“I guess.” She giggled. Why she would do that for I had no idea. I know we're only turning 16 this year but if you like somebody, shouldn't you let them know?

“You're weird, Nova Blackwood.” Was all I said.

“Good for you to notice after so many years. Can we go back to studying now?” She opened her book again.

Even though she didn't want to act on it right now, I knew she fancied Murphy very much and I knew that sooner or later she will want some advice on how to best approach him.

I was so happy for her, I could see her dating Murphy and I think they would look really cute together. But I couldn't help but feel sorry for Charlie who admitted to me last year that he has a crush on his best friend. Nova liked Murphy a lot but I got a feeling that Charlie was deeper than that even though he didn't want to admit it and was waiting for his feelings to go away.

At first, I was hoping that I was wrong and I was observing Charlie as much as possible, without being too obvious, to see if he still fancied her. Not only did he blush every time he saw her and stiffened every time she leaned on him or hugged him. He also became more awkward around her and I was beginning to wonder if all my friends needed glasses as he couldn't be more obvious.

I decided I wouldn't tell him as I reckoned it would break his heart and ruin their friendship and honestly, wasn't my business and he would probably be as stubborn about it like he was when he told me about his crush. He said that he will never act upon it and, unlike with Nova, I actually believed him. I reckon Murphy is a great mate and everything, but I couldn't help to think that Charlie and Nova were a match made by Merlin himself.

“Penny, are you even listening to me?” Nova poked my cheek.

“Huh?” I rose my head, which was leaned on my closed fist.

“Were you daydreaming about Andre?” She shook her head, winking.

“Yes.” I lied. It was the first time I didn't.

“So, how are you planning to tell him about how much you fancy him?” She asked, making a kissy face.

“I was thinking of inviting him to Hogsmeade and taking him to Madam Puddifoot's Tea Shop.”

“Take him where?” Nova asked puzzled. I giggled, I knew she wouldn't know where that was.

“It's this cute little tea shop in one of the narrow alleys. It's perfect for dates and a lot of couples go there to snog.” She nodded, knowing immediately why she had never heard about it before.

“You're going to snog him?” Nova raised her eyebrows.

“Well, if he feels the same way after I tell him, why not?” I frowned as she chuckled.“What's the matter with snogging?”

“Oh, nothing. I just think you're adorable!” She pinched my cheeks like my aunt did every time she visited.

“Just go back to reading your book!” I rolled my eyes, trying to focus on reading her notes as it has become apparent she wouldn't give me any more information about her and Murphy.

—

Weeks were passing by so quickly that I felt unprepared for my O.W.L.s I knew we still had plenty of time to study but I was hoping that the teachers would cut us some slack since we had to study for such an important examination.

It seemed, however, that they had more to teach us this year than ever before and the worst of it was that all of the material was also going to appear on the exams. We were all doing a pretty good job. Charlie studied for his Care of Magical Creatures and Defense Against the Dark Arts the most, while Nova teased him that there were other subjects to study for as well.

I was doing as good as I could on all my subjects. I was even surprised how good Tulip was doing as I was sure she would refuse to study just like Tonks did.

Speaking of Tonks! She was driving me insane. She didn't want to hear about O.W.L.s at all. She rarely came down to the Lake with us or joined us in the Library and every time I tried to explain just how important this examination was she rolled her eyes and tried getting as far away from me as possible. I started to worry about her as studying in the last week and a half won't help her get through this as it did with regular exams.

However, I was determined I won't give up and stop nagging her. Sooner or later she will have to start studying. Something that wasn't an issue with my little sister who was just the biggest angel when it came to doing homework and studying. What puzzled me though was the fact that she didn't enjoy Potions at all!

I asked her about it once and she threw in my face that not everybody wants to become a Potioneer and I didn't have a choice but to accept that.

I also convinced Andre to start studying with me which was more for his benefit than mine as I could barely focus on anything else but his cute face. I helped him with every subject but I knew we would have to ask Nova for help when it comes to Transfiguration.

-

The day to tell Andre finally came and I decided to wear my favorite yellow blouse as it was too cold to wear a dress. We walked to Hogsmeade together and I was relieved when I told him where I was taking him and he didn't seem to mind at all.

It went great as usual. He made me laugh and I just loved how much we had to talk about. We got so lost in our conversation that I didn't get a chance to tell him how I feel. I didn't need to do that, however, as our hands brushed while walking back to the Castle, and Andre, looking away, held my hand and didn't let go until it was time for me to go into my Common Room. It was by far, the best day of my Fifth Year.

[huntsman-ash]

RWBY V8 Livethought Stream: Episode 1

And as I have done for the last couple of seasons, here is my live thoughts as I watch the episode. Spoilers below, of course, for RWBY Volume 8, Episode 1: Divide.

First shot we get is of Cinder cleaning a floor. Dammit, and I was hoping she was secretly a whore in Mistral. Ehh.

Convinent that the Grimm Whale has LANDING PADS on its side. Quite a few of them actually. Do Grimm launch from them like VTOL attack craft?

Neo and Cinder are flying a new as of yet un-named vehicle. Im going to call this one the Remora cause it kinda looks like one.

Im getting massive Leviathan vibes from this whale. Wont lie. Mixed with a bit of Hive influence from Destiny.

Neos look of confusion and fear is at the same time both amusing and adorable. Also, she has no shirt over her bellybutton, which I find slightly amusing.

Salems throne has some kind of link to somethign else in the Whale, there’s no other reason for it to have that glowing power bank on the back. Also it seems to be made of bone, as is most of the rest of the interior. So...presumably, Salem shaped this entire thing like a bonesinger.

Salem still got the titties out uniform AND I STILL HATE THAT HER VOICE IS JEN TAYLOR!

Salems got Grimm bone arm bracers. Interesting..

LAMP

Neo is literally saving this entire episode for me with her silent adorable sass.

And Tyrian with the ABSOLUTE FIRE. Also hey hes back, guess he got up here somehow.

Note on the throne Room; all the doors we see are connected to Salem’s throne via those glowing lines, which seem to curve and go elsewhere. I think this is the Whale’s nerve center. And it looks like its on the back if the huge bone in the reare near the teeth is its spine.

And Neos like “hey wait I didnt sign up for this”

Correction; its not a door, its a MOUTH. Wall mouth.

ANNNNDD new designs for everyone on the evil team. HAVEL BE BEAR BRO. TOTAL GAY ENERGY. It looks like he tore the sleeves of a nice dress shirt and just BELTED it in place. And Merc looks like a fucking GOPNICK, HA! What the fuck does he have hanging from his right leg though. 

Yeah, knew it. She touches the throne and the whale responds. Its her command seat, literally.

And Salem putting that bitch IN HER PLACE. You do it queen.

And now to the bottom of the hole under Atlas. THIS. THIS IS WHAT I ALWAYS IMAGINED MANTLE TO LOOK LIKE. VINDIFUCINGCATION AFTER FUCKING 6 YEARS!

Old dudes and faunus. Interesting. OLD DUDE FAUNUS WITH LIKE GIANT FUCKING MOLE CLAWS, DAMN.

Fuckin scramble the moment RWBY shows up. Man that was fast, I was hoping Oscar would be lost for a bit longer.

I still cannot believe how THIN the wall defending Atlas is. ITS LIKE TWO FEET THICK AT THE MOST! A METAL BARRIER WITH CONCRETE SUPPORTS! WHAT THE FUCK ATLAS

And Mantle proper slowly decends into what I have always seen it as. Good.

And May takes out a drone with her weapon like a chad. Nice. I guess Atlas doesnt keep track of their drones...wouldnt shock me

Ahhh resistance headquarters inside an old bar. The Huntress’s moving personnel...nice.

Oscars like “no dont touch me” and then “oh wait, titties, oh yeah...” Poor confused farmboi

OH MY GOD. VODKA IS CANON IN RWBY! HOLY SHIT YES!

Huh. Who’s the eyepatch chick with the cute faunus on the wall there. Interesting.

May Marigold; no nonsense. Good

“Largets Grimm Horde ever seen”. Okay, sure. Doesnt seem that big to me honestly.

Interesting. Ammunition cases on Remnant are nearly identical to ours, down to the large rectangular lockingn flap on one end.

Hmm. Casualties, judging by the watch and dropped material. No surprise. The weak get eaten in this world.

Also hey, faunus Futaba

Oh wonderful, no free-launch for the stadium. BECAUSE WHY THE FUCK NOT RIGHT?

Also, Stilltskin on the wall there. Some kind of whiskey

Main Atlesian Military Compound. Prepping myself for a MASSIVE dissapointment...

“Operations room”. Well, I guess it fits, but I would ASSUME its more accurately called a command and control center, or possibly command information center, depending. We’ll see soon enough.

Salems out in open war? Good. Time to break out the fuckin heavies people.

NGL this whole scene feels really oddly hamfisted. Its...strange. Doesnt feel like its flowing naturally.

Noras got a point but like, bruh, its Remnant. No ones got fucking militiares. You sat on your fucking hands for 80 Y EARS AND THIS IS HOW IT SHAKES OUT FOR YOU

And there’s a difference between division emotionally and splitting up to handle two objectives. Ruby, please stop being a civilian for 20 seconds and THINK

Cute, Penny’s gone full maiden depressed. First thoughts; self sacrifice.  Good idea. But make it more brutal, Penny. Make it a frontal assault that will make that bitch BEG for the end she cannot have. You have lasers, you have maiden powers, hit that whore with an alpha strike that will make Nicolas Kerensky wince!

Goooood. Pennys going for Atlas. CUT THEM TO RIBBONS POLENDIA!

Two teams, two days. Two seperate stories and things get messy.

IRONWOOD LITERALLY CALLS PENNY ON THE PHONE ARE YOU FUCKING SERIOUS.

Remnant is doomed. Lol, jumped a head a little bit buddy? Get out for a little bit mate. See some of the other kingdoms, check how they’re doing.

Atlas has defenses? Sure they do. Something tells me we’re not seeing that...

And guilttrip. Wooooooo not impressed.

Awww Marrow sadboi.

Actually the aces all look sand OH BECAUSE ITS CLOVER. WHY IS HE THERE? ARE THEY-OH DONT YOU FUCKING DARE RT. DONT YOU FUCKING DARE BRING HIM BACK.  FUCK YOU IF YOU DO. HE SERVED HIS FUCKING PURPOSE AND NOW HES DEAD, LEAVE HIM FUCKING BE!

ALSO HES FUCKING DUMB AND USELESS AND WE NEED HARE TO LEAD THE ACES NOW OKAY? We need someone willing to draw blood, not a showboat

Hare’s commentary is mine. Angry snort indeed.

Winters there too, looks like shes still beat to shit. Annnd there’s Ironwoods new arm.

Adorable specialist is adorable. Huh. Wonder if I can use her for something.

Medical brace for Winter...odd. Did she suffer burns or something? A stimm sleeve like in Gears?

Blah blah giant Grimm force blah blah okay yeah whatever

Atlas has hardlight shields. Okay, good. But we know how useful those are against proper attacks...You got anything else? Missiles? AA batteries? SOMETHING?

Seriously its a giant flying army, fill the fucking sky you morons!

Oh look its the two useless members of Atlas’s council.

YEAH! FUCK YEAH! THATS WHAT I WANNA SEE! GET HIS ASS IRONWOOD! FUCK YEAH! NOW SHOOT THE OTHER BITCH TOO! MAKE IT CLEAR THEYVE SERVED THEIR PURPOSE!

That POSTURE. THE CASUALNESS! THE PROPER FIRING STANCE! UGH ITS SO GOOD!

Wish we coulda seen the dude get smashed though. Damn ratings. I wanna know what a bullet does to a person in this universe.

Hare’s face here was the perfect ending to the situation. Confusion, wonder...acceptance. Exactly.

Same with Winter actually.

Huh. Wonder who Salems talking to.

And now for the new opening...

Everythings going to shit, shocker. Nic ecallbacks to other stuff. Oh great does Salem have WINGS now?

This last part reminds me of the trailer for Halo Wars 2

Wonder if the shadow under Crescent Rose at the end means anything.

Annnndddd thats it for this episode! See you all next week!

[hokkaidossoul12]

I have another OC I made, her name is Myra Yates and she is a shopkeeper, she is about 23 years old. She doesn’t have weapons but instead has powers like  being able to change her form (into five different things or half of one of the things, her five forms are her banshee form (of course), a brown doe, a white squirrel, a brown and red frilled lizard or a light brown cougar). In her banshee form she lets out a screech which can explode eyes and make ears bleed, she can also faze through walls as a banshee, she can also sense if a puppet is about to die or is dead and knows where the bodies are. She has a mother (Josie Yates) and father (Willard Yates), she is good friends with the Faceless bandit, Penny Hemsworth, Mother Dove, Finnley, Dorothy, Cashmere, Corbin Croc, Carrie Lanscaster, Luther galloway, Maude Galloway, Fannie Richmond, Vincent Greers and Vivian Webb, Vivian is also Myra's girlfriend. Her height is around Penny Hemsworth’s height (in my AU).

Backstory: Backstory: When Myra was a young girl, she grew up with her parents, Josie and Willard. Before Myra was born, her parents were very poor and barely had enough money to afford food, water and even a proper home to stay in. Josie was pregnant around this time and both parents thought that there was a big chance that Josie would lose Myra before she was even born. Before they became poor, they wanted a baby for so long but...after they became in dept many months ago because of how much they spend on Josie's pregnancy that ended up both getting into a poor condition. It seemed for them everything was at loss, at least it seemed that way, but... that all changed very quickly for them. Within the next morning, Josie and Willard were both huddled on the ground in their very, very worn down home when they heard a knock on their door. They with both scared that it was someone coming to boot them out of their home, Josie's eyes filled with tears at the thought, Willard comforted his very emotional wife, hugging her and kissing her cheek while telling her "whatever happens...I'll make sure you're safe...even if it kills me." Willard finally picks himself off the ground and shakily makes his way towards the door, he paused in front of door, afraid to open it, but he finally brought himself to grab the rusty door handle and open the door. A young boy who dressed and looked very wealthy stood at the door, it was one of the richfolks' children, Willard was sure that this kid would most likely get Josie and him kicked from his home, he sighed and readied himself for what the boy was going to say. But...the boy didn't do anything that he'd expected, instead the boy asked about his financial situations and told Willard he knew about Josie's pregnancy. Willard was confused and nervous at first but he ended up speaking out honestly to the boy, then... the boy suddenly gave Willard a money slip, this confused Willard even more than it did and looked down at the slip, his eyes widened, there was thirty thousand dollars on it. That money was enough to repay their dept as well as buying a new house, proper food and water, new clothing and much more, but...he also he had to owe the boy back, "t-thank you...b-but what do I-" Willard was cut off by the boy, "don't worry about owing me, I giving this to you because you need it, both of you do..." the boy spoke in a calm sympathetic tone as he gave the older male a small smile. This caused Willard to freeze, his eyes welled up with tears, they young boy's eyes widen and tried to ask if he did something wrong, not understanding why Willard was crying until the older male hugged him, the younger male hugged him back. After Willard pulled away he asked what the young boy's name was, the boy answered, Micheal...that was his name. After a few moments, Micheal said his goodbyes before leaving the doorstep and walking out of the property and in the direction of town. Several months had passed, Willard and Josie payed their dept and ended up moving to a new home, they bought food, water, brand new furniture, clothing and other stuff they needed, then a week onward was when Myra was born. As Myra grew up, she was given all the best care from her parents, but...because her parents were too focused on her and getting her new things they nearly went into dept again, but Willard wasn't going to let Myra be put through what they did, so...Myra's father decided to try finding a job, unfortunately...he couldn't find any sort of job around the time no matter how hard he tried to find one. It came down to where going to run out of food, water and even lose their home. But...one day, Willard found another way to make money, gambling. Both Josie and him thought that it would be a bad idea at first, unfortunately...that was the only option they had left to keep the three of them out of dept, so that's what Willard did. For many months, Myra's father went off to the town's saloon to gamble for money, he was very careful with how he played and always knew when to tap out and go home, which resulted in him coming home with lots of bandit bucks, which was plenty of money to keep them out of dept for months on end. It got to a point where even Myra's mother began to gamble too, both of them getting plenty of money afterwards, this went pretty smoothly three years. That was until one day, a mysterious figure had began making an appearance in the saloon, drinking and gambling til it's hard content, but...it seemed to also have a knack for cheating certain puppets who had big win streaks. One day, both Myra's parents decided both to go to the saloon during the night, they of course got someone to babysit Myra before planning to go out. As Willard and Josie were gambling that night, they mysterious figure was there watching them gamble, they both knew that the figure would try start a game with them and cheat them out of their winnings...so they thought of a plan...but it wasn't a pleasant one, they thought if they out-cheated the figure and make them lose the match. Of course, they were right, the figure did try to start a new game with them so they went along with their plan and...their plan worked, Josie and Willard won the game by out-cheating the figure but...this seemed to anger the figure a lot. Suddenly, the mysterious figure stood up from their chair, stood up from the table, grabbing the big table before the figure growled and smashed the table with it's bare hand, breaking it in half. Josie and Willard got up from the table backing off, the figure storming over to them, suddenly the figure revealed itself to be a black ghoul with blood red eyes. It towered over them, it's voice deep and menacing, "SO...YOU THINK YOU COULD OUT-CHEAT ME, HUH? WELL, YOU'RE VERY NAIVE FOR DOING THAT..." the ghoul chuckled before grabbing Josie and Willard by both their throats and throwing them both into a table, the table tipping to the ground with Willard and Josie underneath, bruising the couple badly, the ghoul laughed as he floated over to the couple. "YOU SHOULD'VE STAYED HOME WITH YOUR PRECIOUS DAUGHTER! BUT NOW...SHE'LL SUFFER FOR YOUR MISTAKE!" then before Josie and Willard could react, the black ghoul suddenly formed into a ball of dark light before disappearing out the saloon door, Josie and Willard looked at each other in panic as they raced out the door as quickly as they could out the door and tried running as quickly as they could back home to Myra. Meanwhile, Myra was sitting next to a heater in the living room, warming herself up as she sipped on some flavored milk. Soon...it was time for young Myra to go to bed the babysitter went to Myra and waited for her to finished her milk and once Myra was finished with it the babysitter took Myra's now empty cup and went to rinse it and put it away, but...once the babysitting had gone out of the room that same ball of dark light had fazed through the wall and into the living room in front of Myra, suddenly the dark light had formed back into the black ghoul, young Myra looked up at the figure with fear in her eyes as she shook. Then, without a warning the black ghoul grabbed Myra, lifting her off the ground, locking it's eyes with her as tears welled up in the corners of her eyes. Then, when Myra's parents had finally made it to the front door and bursting inside their own home, they along with the babysitter heard young Myra screaming loudly, the babysitter and Myra's parents rushed into the room to save Myra but...it was too late. Myra's eyes turned black as she was being held by the black ghoul, the ghoul let out a cackled before putting Myra down and disappearing, Josie and Willard's eyes filled with tears as they rushed to Myra's aid, their precious little girl laid in their arms unresponsive but not dead. In the morning, young Myra finally came back into consciousness, shaking and crying at what the black ghoul had done to her, so Willard and Josie then agreed to each other that they would never gamble again after what had happened to Myra, they instead made sure of Myra's safety instead. As many years passed onward (Myra would be about twenty) Myra had gained powers since her experience with the black ghoul, it got to a time where Myra had to move out of her parent's home and start living on her own. Once she packed all her things she left her home, she found a small house to move into, she also found an empty abandoned store to which she took it for her own and decided to start her own business. After three years went by, she met Vivian and they became a couple from then onward.  

She Likes: Singing, making and selling her own stuff, crafting cute supplies (like animal stickers, cute stamps, notebooks, mini bags, colorful bottles, music boxes, mini instruments (except for wind music instruments), juggling bags and mini kits), making accessories (like animal slippers, boots, hats, cute bow ties and hair bows, cute mouth and eye masks, glasses, and bell necklaces), visiting Vivian and hanging out with her, socializing with other puppets and making friends with people who she can relate feelings with.

She Dislikes: When she gets flirted with by other puppets (except for Vivian), when other puppets mess with her friends or her (Showell, Fowler, Otto, Vernon and Betsy), being used as some sort of hostage for a bandit, being forced into doing something she's not comfortable with (it causes her to snap), losing control of her forms (especially her banshee or cougar forms), and irregular patterns or clusters of small holes or bumps (she has Trypophobia).

[basilgrimbitch]

Day Two: Swap

Normal high school AU where Baz is new to Simon’s English class but Penny is the one that gets assigned a seat next to Baz. Aka English nerds in love.

Words: 3457

Note: this is unedited and super rushed but its something!

No warnings apart from a lot of swearing. Enjoy!

_____ 

SIMON

“Alright so I posted the seating plan on the class page, did everyone get a chance to see it?”

While everyone scrambles to look at their laptops, I’ve already seen Ms. Possibelf’s seating plan and can I just say… What. The. Fuck. She’s sat me across the room from Penny (honestly fair since we never get any work done) next to some random girl named Trixie; she seems nice enough but so bloody boring. How am I supposed to make it through a whole year of English without Penny? I can hear the complaints layering up in the tiny classroom and I can see the teacher ignoring every single one of them. I don’t think I’ll bother asking for a change. Though, maybe she’ll listen to Penny?

I nudge Penny’s arm, I guess she’s already seen the seating plan too because she makes no effort to look at her laptop and moves towards her assigned seat.

“Surely the fuck not?” I don’t bother whispering.

“I think you mean surely the fuck yes. I’m not failing this semester because you want to tell me a gross story about your arms smelling like Cheetos mid class.” I’m smirking and she looks like she’ll bite my head off. That makes me smile more.

“That was once!”

“It still happened, and I’d rather hear about your smelly limbs at lunch time - or better yet, never.”

We’re cut off by Ms. Possibelf starting the class, or at least trying to.

“You should’ve all written a draft of your persuasive orals over the holidays, now you must refine them and prepare a final copy. These will be presented in two days.”

Okay as much as I’m a clown in English, I’m actually decent at it. I’ve already written and edited my script, so I really have nothing to do. I sit in my seat and glance at Penny, it looks like she’s done too. I’m fairly sure she’s playing fire boy and water girl, she’s playing both parts (because I’m not there) and she’s taking up the entire table, her desk mate looks so uncomfortable squashed into a corner. Who is he, by the way? The name on the roll was Tyrannus, what the fuck kind of name is that? So pretentious.

I open up Instagram on my laptop and text Penny.

Penelope Bunce – Simon Snow

Simon Snow [10:04]: who is heeeeeee

Penelope Bunce [10:04]: who?

Simon Snow [10:04]: the guy ur sat next to whats his name?????

Penelope Bunce [10:05]: got a bit of crush huh :0

Simon Snow [10:05]: oh fk off I haven’t even seen his face,,, whats his name??

Penelope Bunce [10:06]: he said to call him baz

Simon Snow [10:07]: hmm weird but cool name

Simon Snow [10:07]: what schools he frm?

Penelope Bunce [10:07]: idk do ur work Si

Penny stops typing, she looks me in the eyes then turns to speak to Baz, shutting her laptop. That’s such an odd name, right?

They talk, she’s laughing, he’s just sitting there so composed. He doesn’t look bored exactly, just that he’s better than seeming overly excited. Dickhead it is then.

Even though I think I’ve already decided I hate him, I don’t stop looking at them. He’s got long hair, its black and loose just above his shoulder, his skin is this gorgeous caramel that doesn’t need tanning and his eyes, they’re so grey a mix of green and blue I think and – fuck. We’re making eye-contact, not in like oh oops, more like oh shit why is this guy staring at me. He must think I’m a fucking creep. Shit.

It’s not like I care though, he probably thinks he’s better than everyone in this room anyway. But he’s just smiling at me? Fuck that’s a good smile. I think I’m smiling back, I can’t help it. He turns back to speak to Penny, they seem like they’re in deep discussion about something, I wonder what? And suddenly, I catch myself wishing I was her. Um, what?

The rest of the period flies by. Too quick, I think, not that I need more time to work, I just kind of wish… whatever.

Penny, as per bloody usual, is taking her precious time packing her stuff away. I walk up to her table, hyper aware of Baz’s presence there,

“Planning on leaving anytime soon?” I ask, trying to seem as nonchalant as can be, but my eyes keep glancing to him. I think Penny must’ve picked up on it because then she says, all smug,

“But then you wouldn’t get to meet Baz,” she gestures to Baz, who’s raising his eyebrow and smiling a little against his better judgement I think, then she gestures to me and then back again, “Baz, Simon. Simon, Baz. There we go.” He’s full on smiling now. Fuck, how can someone be so pretty?

“So nice to meet you, I’m Baz Pitch.” He puts his hand out for me to shake it – that’s so proper. I’m not even convinced he’s 17. He’s so calm and put together, these are not words you use to describe a 17 year old guy.

“H-hey, yeah, Simon.” Of course, I trip over my words, I’ve always struggled with that but I’m also really fucking nervous for some reason.

“Do you wanna have lunch with us, Baz?” Penny’s throwing her bag over her shoulder, looking at me like she knows what she’s doing to me and then back to Baz with genuine eyes. Penny doesn’t usually get on with people like that, that’s why we’ve been friends for so long, she really doesn’t have other options (not like I do either).

“That’d be nice.” He says, the corner of his mouth inching up, giving his cool exterior away. He’s not a pretentious git, is he? He’s just a boy on his first day of school; that’s fucking daunting.

We walk out the classroom – finally – and Baz starts telling us about himself and his old school. Mainly just answering Penny’s questions. Does he have siblings? Yeah, four half siblings. How come he moved schools? dad moves a lot for business. Oh, is he going to be moving again? Probably not until after high school, by then I could move out anyway.

I’m not usually this quiet. Usually I’m more social than Penny. I don’t know what’s come over me, I wish I could be her right now.

Lunch happens, Baz doesn’t really eat. Not like I was watching him. Well he was sat right in front of me and I just noticed that he wasn’t eating anything. Surely that’s normal.

I finally ask Baz what other classes he’s taking; other than English we don’t share any classes and then I let myself say, “that sucks.” But only because its normal, its not flirting. You can want a friend to be in your class. Penny still looks at me anyway.

But then he says, “I’ll just have to look forward to English,” and my heart melts.

______

I try not to think about Baz right now, in bed, but I am anyway, and I remember him telling me his full name; so naturally I’m suddenly typing it into the Instagram search bar. Aha! He’s not on private, thank the gods of social media.

I start scrolling through his feed, careful not to tap anything of course. There are a few photos of him alone, they’re gorgeous; he dresses so nice. Penny says I can’t dress myself. In one photo from a month ago he’s in this incredible suit, taking a mirror selfie in a bathroom that looks nicer than my whole house. His hair is slicked back (I think I prefer it loose – still so bloody fit though) and his cheekbones are so defined, he’s got that same face he had when we first met today – eyebrows raised, little bit a smirk, beautiful eyes.

I scroll down to the next photo, this one is different. It’s not a hot mirror selfie, its him carrying a little girl – his little sister? – on his shoulders looking up at her with a smile, a real big smile. He’s dressed a bit more casual too, still nicer than anything I own though it’s just jeans and a black button down. I keep coming back to the jeans. How can someone look so good in jeans?

I scroll through a few more photos, some with friends, some more of just him and a few of books he’s reading or places he’s visited. I feel like I know him a little bit better now – less in a stalkerish way more in a… well I can’t think of the write word. I can never think of the write word.

My phone vibrates all of a sudden and I literally drop my phone, so I don’t accidently like anything.

Penelope Bunce – Simon Snow

Penelope Bunce [23:13]: up thinking bout prince charming?

Simon Snow [23:14]: shut up

Penelope Bunce [23:14]: don’t blame u he’s v cute.

Penelope Bunce [23:14]: And smart.

Penelope Bunce [23:14]: you have my blessing

Simon Snow [23:15]: bugger off,, as if he’s even into guys

Simon Snow [23:15]: I was literally such an idiot today he probs doesn’t even wanna be my friend

Penelope Bunce [23:16]: AHA SO U ADMIT IT

Simon Snow [23:16]: did I even have to

Penelope Bunce [23:16]: ofc not. For what its worth I think u have a shot.

Simon Snow [23:17]: sureeeee

Simon Snow [23:17]: fuckkkkk im gonna be so dead tomorrow,, gn love u

I turn my phone off, pull my glasses off chucking them somewhere I probably won’t find them tomorrow and roll over to fall asleep.

______

We’ve got English first period today. I don’t think I’ve ever been this excited for English, but then I remember I don’t even get to sit next to him.

I walk into class and he’s already in there, we make eye-contact – way less awkward than yesterday – and he gives me a nod. Its friendly, it’s nice, it’s already a bit familiar. I give him a little wave with my right hand below the books I’m carrying but then I’m nearly dropping then, and my laptop starts sliding through my arms. It’s a shit show and it’s too early in the morning to embarrass myself, but I don’t get a say do I? As a say good bye to my laptop that is threatening to smash in the ground any second now – and any possibility for anything with Baz – I hear a chair scraping at the floor then not being pushed in. Suddenly, Baz’s hand is on my shoulder; the other grabbing my laptop that’s basically just resting on my belt buckle at this point. I beg myself not to blush, not now.

Baz is laughing. We’ve – he’s – saved my laptop and now he’s carrying it and my books; he insisted I was not to be trusted.

“Alright, special delivery all the way to your seat. You sure you’re okay Snow?” He’s using my last name because he thinks it’s ‘such a waste to not make use of such an iconic surname’. I like the way it sounds on his lips. I think I just like his lips and anything after is automatically perfect. Perfect.

He taps my shoulder, “you okay there?”

“Huh? Yeah yeah, just a bit tired. Didn’t sleep very much last night.” That’s not a lie.

Baz nods and says he’s gonna go get started on the work, I watch him walk away. The school trousers, they’re no jeans but he looks good in everything.

I try to do some work, making cue cards for my presentation, but I keep letting myself look over to Baz. Penny just caught me and stuck her tongue out.

Penelope Bunce – Simon Snow

Penelope Bunce [08:31]: ur staring

Simon Snow [08:32]: am not,, go away

I go back to working on my cue cards after making a show of shutting my laptop in front of Penny. I get through two more cards before I see a pair of shoes approaching my table. I look up and sure enough its prince charming – I mean Baz. He clears his throat and says,

“I hear you’re good at English”

“There’s no way Penny said that,” I laugh.

“True, she said ‘he thinks he’s better than everyone else.’ But I take it for good reason.” He smiles while doing air quotes, I smile back at him because I can’t help myself.

“Well, I definitely don’t suck.”

“Good. Do you mind reading over my script, please? I feel like it needs a little bit of editing.” He hands over his laptop, “don’t drop this one okay?” he chuckles.

I honestly don’t know how to act around him. I’m the epitome of those ‘act normal’ memes. He hands me his laptop and I start reading. His presentation is on single use plastics and it is so well written, he definitely doesn’t need my help. My neck is getting warm and I hope I’m not blushing at a script on environmentalism just because it was written by a hot guy. That’s pathetic.

But he’s not just a hot guy, is he? He’s smart – so smart – and he’s so kind even if you wouldn’t think so; when he helped me with my books today, I couldn’t help but think back to that photo of him with his sister, so much warmth and kindness expertly hidden under a cool and calm facade. I get to the end of his conclusion and look up in awe but he’s standing just behind me leaning forward waiting for my response. That explains the warmth I was feeling.

Baz doesn’t seem like the kind that would ever doubt himself but if you could see him now, you’d think he cared about what everyone thought about everything; and maybe he does, maybe he just hides it really well.

“Baz.” I make eye-contact with him, finally on purpose, “this… its incredible. I don’t even know why you’d ask for feedback. Your arguments are excellent, and your use of inductive reasoning is really fitting.”

His face lights up, a kind of innocent smile creeps up on his face and for the first time I think I want to kiss him. But even more so, I want to be responsible for more of those smiles. “Really?”

“It’s perfect.”

I look away because I don’t want him to see me blush. Penny is looking straight at us, she gives me one of her reassuring smiles.

______

It’s been two weeks of school; all my classes suck but it’s our last year and soon enough we’ll miss it. At least that’s what Penny keeps saying, Baz agrees with her.

Baz has been spending more time with us; we hang out at lunch time, he’s joined us for frozen cokes a few times in the past few hot days. It’s nice. I can actually talk to him now too.

He’s so smart, smarter than I had thought. He’s not just academically smart, he knows more than just surface level knowledge. Yesterday, on our walk to English he was talking about some article he read on the relationship between sleep deprivation and blood alcohol concentration just for fun. Though its nerdy and just a bit lame, the way his eyes light up when he talks about things he cares about, I’d listen to the summary of a thousand dumb articles to see that again.

Right now, Baz isn’t here though, and all my brain can do is think about him.

“Pennyyyy!” she’s lying on my bed while I do my art homework on the floor, she always comes home with me on Tuesdays, I don’t know when that started.

“Si, I already said no like three times.”

“Why not? Do you not love me?” I asked her to swap seats with me in English. I just wanna sit next to Baz, I can say I need extra help or something.

“I love you of course but I don’t want Baz to think I’m avoiding him, and I certainly don’t want Ms. P to fail me for disobeying her one rule.”

“Just please.” I give her my best puppy eyes and pouty face, “I fink I’m in wuv,” I say mockingly. She

throws an old stuffed toy in my face. I guess that’s a no.

______  

The next day I see Baz at the school gates, he’s holding a cup of coffee and his hair is up in a bun today. Flawless.

“Fancy seeing you here,” how can he look so perfect at eight in the morning. I don’t even feel awake yet.

Baz bumps my shoulder with his and we start walking to our lockers. We talk about the English reading we were set, we’re reading Lord of the Flies and Baz is going on about how he and Penny think the book would be drastically different if it had female characters.

“Golding said he didn’t add girls to avoid sex being a subject.” I say, and Baz just looks at me with his eyebrow raised. I call this the signature Baz look now.

“Oh, come on, as if every single kid on that island was straight.” I choke on nothing for a second. Baz and I have never talked about relationships or sex or sexuality. It’s not really a matter of discussion I guess but hearing him acknowledge the idea of guys being together, I don’t know, it gives me hope. That makes no sense obviously, he’s taking about characters from an English novel not himself and really its more an act of Baz’s resistance than it is a nod to gay rights or whatever. But, still, it gives me hope.

“True,” is all I manage to get out.

We get to English extra early after home room, and I start making my way to my seat. Ever since Baz started hanging out with us outside of class, English is back to being plain and boring, nothing special. So, with my shoulders slumped I mutter a goodbye to Baz as I walk to opposite way to my seat but then I feel something on my hand. Oh my god, its his hand. Its Baz’s hand. On my hand. Pulling me towards him. Its not especially romantic or anything. But its something!

“Hey! Swap seats with Penny, come sit next to me today,” surely this is a dream, I must’ve hit my head. “I need your uhhh help with the essay.” Baz doesn’t help, he just discussed key themes of the novel for breakfast. I feel it again, lingering in my chest, hope. “It’s okay if you don’t want to…” he says a bit quieter now, trying to seem as cool as possible. How Baz of him. Fuck I still haven’t said anything.

“What no no, I want to. I’m just not sure what Ms. Possibelf will say; or worse, Penny.” He pulls at my hand. He still hasn’t let go of my hand. He still hasn’t let go of my hand.

“What? Scared Snow?”

“We’re not in Harry Potter, Baz.”

“True. I’m wayyy better looking than Draco Malfoy and you wouldn’t be a very good chosen one. The worst chosen one who’s ever been chosen.”

I hear myself saying, “what so I’m not more better looking than Harry Potter?” Is this flirting? He squeezes my hand. He still hasn’t let go of my hand.

“You needed me to point that out? I thought it was a given. You’re well fit, Simon.” Simon. Hope.

I hum in response and with one final tug at my hand, he lets it go. I follow him (I’d follow him anywhere).

“Sit, I won’t bite,” He grins at me.

“Yeah but Penny will,” she better not ruin this for me. For us. I sit next to Baz and we start working on our essays. He doesn’t ask for help once.

Penny walks into class, glances at her seat, sees us and walks to my – her – seat next to Trixie.

Penelope Bunce – Simon Snow

Penelope Bunce [08:14]: u win. Enjoy!

I can’t tell if that’s sarcastic or not.

Baz notices I’ve changed my window to Instagram DMs and nudges me, “how come you don’t follow me?”

“Huh, I don’t know? What’s your user name?” As if I don’t know.

Baz grabs my laptop, “I’ll just type it in.” I let him because I’m lazy and I like watching him type but then he clicks on the search bar and has the biggest grin on his face. Fuck. He can see my search history, “looks like you already know it.” How could I forget about that?

I must look mortified because he places his hand on mine. Second time today. “It’s all good. I already have yours too.”

Hope.

[imagines-r-s]

So Many Reasons

A/N: sorry that this was so overdue. I finally got a good idea for it and I hope you all enjoy. 

Word Count: 1.6k

Could you please write a Sweet Pea imagine where him and the reader have been dating for a couple of months and they get into a decently sized fight and he shows up at her house late at night and he text her to look outside her window and stands in her yard telling her about all the little things she's does/little moments they've shared that made him realize he's in love with her?

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

Riverdale, a town easily divided against itself. Northside and Southside, two parts of the same old messed up town. None of us asked for it to be like this, it just is. We can’t really change it, because we’re just kids. I honestly didn’t expect to date a Southside Serpent, but I wouldn’t change it. Sweet Pea and I have been together for about 3 months and those few months have been the best months of my life. When he and I met I didn’t expect to ever end up being in a relationship with him, but I’m very glad that’s what happened.

“Please, Y/N/N, you need to come to FP’s party. Archiekins and I are going to be performing. There might also be a cute guy there for you,” Veronica said, grinning.

“Yeah, Y/N, you should definitely come,” Betty agreed with Veronica.

“Fine,” I finally agreed, knowing well enough that I wouldn’t win the argument.

Betty, Veronica, and I all got ready for the party at her place and had Andre come to pick all of us and take us to the White Wyrm. When we finally got there, Betty went to go find Jughead and Veronica went to find Archie, and I was left all alone.

I hadn’t noticed how out of place I looked until Sweet Pea came up to me.

“I see your friends left you here by yourself.”

“And I see you have no friends,” I snapped, turning around to face him.

“Based off that comment I’m surprised you have any,” he retorted with a smirk on his face,  “Anyways, what’s your name?”

“I’m Y/N. I didn’t catch your name either?”

“I didn’t throw it,” he said, the smirk on his face growing, “the name’s Sweet Pea.”

“Sweet Pea, as in like the flower?”

“Yeah, it was my mom’s favorite flower, so when she passed, it became my nickname.”

“Aw. I’m sorry, I love the nickname though. It’s cute,” I said, sincerely.

“It might be, but it’s definitely not as cute as you,” he winked.

“Oh, uh, I-,” I struggled with my words as I felt a blush creep up to my cheeks.

“I have that effect on a lot of people,” he smirked and walked back to the place he was standing earlier.

I didn’t see him for a while, but I made sure to keep an eye out for him. I finally saw him again when Veronica and Archie had started singing. I went and stood by him.

“Couldn’t resist, I see,” he calmly stated, throwing his arm over my shoulder.

I didn’t respond, I just watched Veronica and Archie singing. I didn’t even make an attempt to move his arm, it felt surprisingly comforting. The only surprise came when Veronica ran off the stage with Archie following close behind. I was about to run out too when I felt Sweet Pea’s arm tighten around me.

“I wouldn’t follow them,” he stated, still looking towards the stage.

“And why is that?”

“It’ll get messy,” he paused clearly distracted by what was occurring on stage.

I looked over to see Betty taking over the karaoke performance. Everything was okay until she started stripping. I could see the other serpents looking back at Jughead, who was clearly shocked by her actions.

“Oh, shit,” I said, in shock.

Sweet Pea just chuckled. “Who knew Jughead’s girl would pull that stunt?”

“ She told no one.” She gave no warning or anything, she just did it. I saw Alice walk in and by the look on her face, I could tell she didn’t want Betty to continue, but she couldn’t necessarily stop her.

I felt Sweet Pea lean his face down close to my ear, “I personally think you should try that dance, but only for me.”

“You wish,” I retorted.

He only smirked in response and moved his arm from over my shoulder to around my waist.

FP went on stage and covered Betty with his serpent jacket.

“Man, tonight got really messy,” I turned to look at Sweet Pea.

“It sure did.”

“Wait a minute.”

“What?” His eyes met mine.

“My ride home left. I need to get home soon, it’s already late.”

“I can give you a ride home. Unless-”

“Unless, what?”

“You want to come to my trailer,” he winked.

“Ok.”

He grabbed my hand and rushed out the door. He handed me the helmet to his bike and we were on our way.

Once we reached his trailer, we went inside. We talked for a few hours and then, him and I fell asleep cuddled up together.

Ever since then, Sweets and I have been inseparable. We started dating a few weeks after this and everything was perfect until the snake charmer had to show up again in Riverdale.

Sweet Pea, Fangs, and I were walking when the two of them got a message to head to the quarry. Sweet Pea left after we shared a quick kiss. I hadn’t heard from him or any of his or my serpent friends, and I was concerned that something had happened. It wasn’t until the next day at school that I had heard from them. All of them seemed off. I didn’t want to pry and ask since I wasn’t a serpent, but it was obvious that something had happened. I didn’t really ever ask him, until a few months later.

I had gone with Sweets to the White Wyrm to help him and Toni at the bar for the night when an unorganized serpent meeting was called. I was told I could stay, I just couldn’t be over where they were.

I couldn’t hear exactly everything that was going down, but I could hear most of it. The lady there, her name was Penny Peabody and apparently, Jughead and the younger serpents had helped him carve off her tattoo. I knew what they meant by younger serpents she meant all of those I was friends with. I couldn’t believe that they had done that. I didn’t say anything to Sweets on the way home and he took notice.

“Baby, what’s wrong?”

I stayed quiet. I wanted to ask, but it wasn’t necessarily my place to know.

“Baby, what is wrong? Please talk to me.”

“Who was that Penny Peabody there tonight?” I asked, my voice not going any louder than a whisper.

“Babe, it’s nothing.”

“It’s clearly something. Especially, if there was a whole serpent meeting about it and Jug might get kicked out of the serpents for it.”

“Penny isn’t a good person. She’s done favors to help a lot of us serpents, but they always came with a price. We simply had to return those favors, and when Jug asked for help and didn’t want to do any more favors, she got mad and got back to FP. Jug wanted to retaliate by cutting off her serpent tattoo.”

“What kind of favors?” I asked, figuring I knew the answer.

“Drug dealing.” Sweets stated, bluntly.

“Oh my god.” Tears were welling up in my eyes. “Please tell me-”

“I didn’t have a choice.”

“You always have a choice, Sweets. Please just take me home, I can’t be here right now.”

“Y/N/N, please talk to me,” he pleaded.

“Just the fact that you helped mutilate this woman, I know she did stuff, but honestly you shouldn’t have even helped. I really don’t want to discuss the fact that you didn’t see an error in your ways at this. And the drug dealing, do you not know the consequences for doing that type of stuff? I can’t be with someone who doesn’t-”

“Do you not think I don’t feel guilty? I felt awful for doing it and keeping it from you. You Northsiders don’t understand the stuff we have to deal with on the Southside. You won’t ever get it because you aren’t one, you might be in a relationship, or were, I don’t know. Y/N, you wouldn’t ever understand, that’s why I tried to stop this relationship from happening.”

“What do you mean tried to stop it?”

“Doesn’t matter. Let’s go.”

“No, it does matter, what do you mean?”

“At the beginning of us talking or whatever, I told your friends to try and talk you out of it and tell you that I was an awful person and stuff, but it obviously didn’t work.”

“Take me home,” I said, as the tears welling up in my eyes finally fell.

He took me home and after that night I honestly didn’t talk to him for a while. Toni and Fangs both tried to get me to talk to him, but I couldn’t after what he said.

One night after school while I was studying I heard noises on my window. I simply ignored them until they got more persistent. I opened my window to see Sweets standing in my yard with a bouquet of flowers.

“Y/N, I’m so sorry. I feel awful for doing what I did and not being honest. I only tried to push you away because I was afraid of hurting you. I miss you so much. I miss your laugh and your smile and the way that you scrunch your nose and stick your tongue out when your concentrating. I miss the way that you smell and how gentle you are with me. Truth is I’m afraid of losing you because I love you, Y/N and I don’t know what I would do without you.”

“I love you, too, Sweets. You could have just knocked on my door, ya know.”

“But that would ruin the fun of what I just did.” He said, shrugging her shoulders.

“You’re right. Want to go to Pop’s?”

“I already brought some with me.” He said, dropping picking up the bag that had been by his feet.

[softbookboi]

Lovesick Schoolgirl (a snowbaz fanfic) Chapter 3 (last one)

Summary: Baz is sitting in class and starts doodling all kinds of Snowbaz stuff in his notebook. When he’s snapped out of his musings and realises he’s doing it, he starts blushing. And then - curse his luck - the teacher calls on him to answer a question. He just starts blubbering and stammering and since Simon is there, its even worse. After class, he’s visited by Simon before he can sneak off to their room to take a nap and Simon insists of Baz telling what he was writing in his notebook because he thinks that Baz is plotting something. Baz refuses but Simon grabs it and before he’s able to open it, Baz lights it up on fire and then watches it burn to ashes. After Baz leaves, Simon becomes hell-bent on figuring out what was in that notebook.

Simon

I don't see Baz for the rest of the weekend.

If I had any doubts in the confirmation of my feelings for him, they're all gone now.

After not seeing him for 2 days and knowing that it's because of me, I know for sure that I really, really like Baz. (Not so much so that I think I love him, but I really like him.) (I considered the thought of loving him and it seems quite likely to me, but I don't think that I'm able to accept something so big in such a small matter of time.)

When I was looking over what he wr-drew. . . in my notebook, I guess I didn't hear the door opening or Baz standing there staring at me. And then, I just heard the door slam shut while I was looking over some words for my tombstone with Baz. I was quite far away from the door, but the sound was so loud that it felt like it had been slammed in my face.

And the loudness just led to me inferring that Baz was livid.

And I honestly don't blame him for that.

If I had been in his place, I would be mad too. Fucking indignant is what I would be.

But he didn't know the real reason I did that.

I looked at it from his point of view soon after the door shut and I admit that what I was doing was fucking hysterical. Honestly, who in Merlin's name does that kind of thing? I was acting like a freaking creep, just like in 5th Year.

But that was from his perspective. Not mine.

I'm not sure that what I did can still be forgiven, but I think that it can.

I mean, I had feelings for Agatha but they were never this strong. And I never had these moments with her where I just felt like she was so beautiful (actually, there were some, but they were all platonic) and I wanted to just snog the bloody hell out of her and also have her remain in my life as the most cherished person in my life.

I never wanted to brush away that one strand of hair that kept falling on her face. I never wanted to lose myself and swim in her eyes. (I never even thought her eyes were that pretty. At least, not as much as Baz's.) I never wanted to lie in her arms or have her lie in mine. I never wanted to protect her.

I never felt as hurt as I am right now when we were on breaks or when she was mad at me.

I was just. . . okay with it.

But right now, with Baz, this is different. I want to do all those things. And perilously.

These feelings are strong. And I'm not sure how to cope with them.

But I still feel like the world's smallest person. For doing that to Baz.

I don't know how long he felt this way, how long he wanted me (Dear Lord, that sounds so weird), and I can imagine that he desperately wanted to hide these feelings and I can't really blame him for being this mad at me.

I've done a terrible thing. Even I know it.

And why didn't I know about Baz? Am I that thick? How could I have not figured that out?

Penny was right. She said Baz might reciprocate my feelings and he does.

I'm not really sure how I feel about it, though. I mean, I love it. It's something that I could've imagined wanting for a despicably long time, but never having it.

But that's still something else.

To know that Baz has feelings for me is great, but it won't do me any good. (It might even make things worse between us.)

But to know that Baz reciprocates my feelings and gives me consent to be his boyfriend, to show him how much I like him and how much I want to be his and him mine, is the real thing.

Baz having feelings is nothing that amazing. But Baz willing to work on this weird relationship we currently have and changing it to one that boyfriends have, that's what's really marvellous.

That's what's really matters.

And that's what I have to get him to agree to.

I've spent the whole weekend trying to find him, but he's just. . .vanished. I've looked through the Catacombs, the Weeping Tower, our room, the dining hall (he isn't there for meals), the football pitch, the Wavering Woods, and literally everywhere else. He's nowhere.

I told Penny about what happened and what I saw, and she wasn't really that surprised. Sure, she was because hello, Baz, the super hot, nonchalant football player, making these cute and dorky doodles about someone else? Wow. But then, she did think that it was kind of expected. She confirmed that I was just oblivious, that Baz's feelings for me and mine for him were quite obvious.

I just think she's way too smart for a mage.

We've been looking for Baz together - we even cornered his friends (or rather, minions), Dev and Niall, but they just told us to bugger off - but we haven't found him. I'm getting really worried. I need to explain to Baz why I was doing what I was doing before he gets any wrong assumptions. (Though he probably already has them by now.)

I really just need to explain myself to Baz.

I have an actual chance at being with the person I've liked since most likely 4th or 5th Year. I'm not letting myself screw this up.

I spent the whole weekend discovering every nook and cranny of Watford (well, not every one, but quite a lot) but I hadn't found him.

I spent my Sunday restlessly. I kept squirming in the bedsheets because it was too hot and then I remembered that Baz wasn't here to complain about the window so I opened it but later on, it got too cold and I had to close it again. It went on and on like this all night. I barely got a wink of sleep, and even that was filled with Baz-related thoughts and his whereabouts.

Today, Monday morning at breakfast, I don't see him in the dining hall. I ponder over where he was staying when he wasn't even coming back to the room to sleep. Maybe he's with Dev or Niall. But they have roommates too, Baz can't just barge in on them like they're a motel.

Is he not going to come to class today? Baz has never missed or ditched a class before. Education is just way too important for him for him to pull something like that. If Baz doesn't show up for classes (which is proving to be more and more possible by the passing minute), then there's definitely something wrong. And by that, I mean that he seriously loathes me.

And if he seriously loathes me, then he certainly won't hear out my confession.

I start fidgeting, thinking about what it would be like if I somehow managed to mess this up. If I ruined my chance with Baz. I would definitely hate myself.

And I've probably made Baz hurt a lot too.

He probably thinks that I'm gonna out him to everyone else or make fun of him for having feelings since it's his perspective of me reacting to anything that's embarrassing for him.

My eyes are starting to sting thinking about it.

Baz is probably hating his life just like I am hating mine right now because he thinks that I don't like him. Even if Baz has a calm demeanour, that doesn't mean that he wouldn't get hurt by thinking his (Oh my God, it feels so good to say it) crush has rejected him. If I were in Baz's situation, I definitely would feel hurt.

And how long has he had feelings for me? Is it for as long as I have? If it is, then I simply am the smallest person in the world. (Even if he didn't, though, I would still be the smallest person in the world for doing that to him.)

Penny sees my unshed tears and takes my hand in hers, squeezing tightly. "We'll find him, Simon. Don't worry." she says.  

"Yeah, but would he even talk to me? He probably will hex me straight into tomorrow for invading his privacy. And it was one of the most private kind of privacies. How is he ever going to look at me, let alone listen to me?"

"Hey, just calm down. He might show up for class, you said yourself that he's never missed a class. He probably won't this time too. You just have to catch him at a good time when there are no distractions and just tell him that you have something really important to say," he shakes her head as I start to open my mouth to argue. "I know you think he won't talk to you, but anyone would listen to their crush. And he seems to really like you, depending on the sketches you mentioned. He'll listen, okay? Just stay calm."

I nod then, an finish my breakfast. I spend the whole breakfast like that, just sulking and Penny trying to cheer me up and it not working.

When the bell finally rings, I jump out of my seat to go to my first class. Baz and I have the first class together, and this will tell me whether he's coming back for Monday.

I almost leave Penny behind, but she runs too and catches up to my fast pace. I stand in front of the door of the room, taking in the fact that Baz could be sitting in there right now and that I could talk to him.

What is it doesn't go well? What if I make a fool out of myself? What if he rejects me for some reason? I keep thinking about the worst ways this could go, and those are the top 3. Penny finally nudges me again and I stumble into the room and look around, scanning the appearance of everyone in the crowd.

And there he is.

Baz.

Baz

I wasn't planning on coming to class on Monday, but then I realised that I can't just miss classes to avoid Snow. Education is too serious for me to do something like that and it was just ridiculous. How much longer was I going to hide from Snow? He was going to find me anyway.

I slept in this alcove in the Catacombs that wasn't really visible to someone who wasn't in it the past few nights. I had Dev and Niall bring me some food so I don't starve, and I worked off of those rats.

They were both certainly interested as to why I was sleeping there, but I told them that it was just important. That I had to do it for some kind of project for extra-credit. They told me about how Snow and Bunce cornered them multiple times and demanded that they tell them where I was. They said that Snow said he wanted to talk to me.

I'm not talking to him. I have nothing to say to him. Following me around in 5th Year was bad, but this is a whole other fucking kind of violating someone's privacy. I seriously can't believe he did something like that. I thought he was a heroic person, not a git who goes through other people's private matters.

He's probably asking for me so that he can reject me in person. And he probably wants to 'let me down easy'. He probably pities me so fucking much and that would be perfect way for him to do things: tell your arch-nemesis that you're supposed to kill, whom has deep feelings for you, that you're rejecting them, but do it nicely. Don't seem smug about it and make fun of them. Be the bigger person.

Honestly, that would be more humiliating than him just flat-out rejecting me, without caring about being too harsh or realistic.

I don't want that. I don't want his pity.

(I still want him, though. And that's what I hate the most about this situation. He did an abysmal thing. Even if it was his enemy, he violated someone's privacy. He went out of his goddamn way go make sure he knew what I was writing in that notebook in class. I hate that he did that. It was despicable. But I still love him. I'm still in love with him, nothing changed that. And it hurts. So much. I wish I could just wake up someday and not feel anything for Snow. Not even hatred. I would've actually enjoyed life. It would be better.)

He came looking for me several times in the Catacombs, but I always hid far back in my tiny little alcove and cast an invisible spell on myself. (We haven't learned those spells yet, so Snow wouldn't think about them.)

I didn't want to go to classes on Monday, but I knew I had to.

I couldn't just miss out on classes. That was just plain stupidity.

So I gathered up my courage and when it was breakfast, I sneaked into the room and got ready for classes.

It took precisely 25 minutes to get ready, since I only washed my hair in the shower.

I sneaked back downstairs, careful to avoid the pathways connected to the dining hall or anywhere Snow might be. (He would only be at breakfast at this time, though. He would never miss an opportunity to eat food.)

I was the first person to be in the my first class of the day, which just happened to include Snow and Bunce. I was terribly regretting my choice right about then to come to classes. Staying in that dark, decaying alcove would've been better.

As I waited, I took slow and deep breaths to try to calm myself down. I was gonna see Snow. I was gonna see his reaction. It was gonna be of pity. Such pity.

My heart was pounding. The great Basilton Pitch, blubbering and blushing before and feelings butterflies in his tummy due to some stupid beautiful boy whose rejection he could not take. Merlin and Morgana, what have I become?

I braced myself as I heard the bell ring, indicating that breakfast was over. I tried to calm myself down by breathing deep again as students start to pile in the classroom. I was half expecting them to laugh or snicker at me, but they didn't. There was a tiny part of me that really believed that Snow had told everyone and now I was ruined. But, turns out he didn't.

I kept my eyes on the door, searching for Snow (and Bunce, but just a little bit for her).

And finally, he came.

And now, I am here. Sitting on my desk, looking straight at Snow (and Bunce behind him) and feeling myself blush awkwardly. I abruptly look away from them, turning my attention to the window, suddenly very interested in the football pitch and the light breeze and cool weather outside. I refuse to look at Snow, even when he plops down right onto the seat beside me. I don't even acknowledge him, don't even pay attention to his awkward positioning of the chair to get comfortable, and the weird looks people are giving us since we switched seats for the first time this year in Watford.

I wait impatiently for the teacher to arrive and start the lesson, and when he does, I almost sigh in relief.

I spend the rest of the lecture ignoring Snow and focusing mainly on whatever the teacher's saying. And this time, when the teacher asks me a question, I actually respond with the correct answer in my casual demeanour.

Snow tries repeatedly to get my attention. To get anything from me. For instance, tapping his pen on his desk (which is something that he knows annoys me), dropping his notebook on the floor (which also annoys me) and sighing too loudly (and another thing that annoys me).

Just as the bell rings, I grab my bag and spring from my seat and am out the door before he even calls out to me, just stands there, watching me run away from him cowardly. I want to face him, but I don't have the guts. It already aches to know that I'm outed, I don't want Snow's pity rejection to make me feel even worse.

• • • • •

I skip lunch and just head down to the Catacombs to take a break from all the escaping Snow.

I've been dodging him and his questions and his insinuations that he wants to talk to me all day. I'm not sure if I can keep up with this forever, or at least until he forgets about it. (And something tells me that he won't ever forget about this.) I rest a little in the Catacombs, catching my breath.

Snow kept on sitting beside in all the classes we had together and people kept giving us weird looks. Even a few teachers raised a brow at us before continuing with their lecture. It was so troubling having to jump out of my seat and run across the room whenever the bell was sounded and I'm pretty sure I looked really weird and creepy to other people while doing that.

After the lunch-is-over bell sounded, I stand up and and run (once again) to my next class, which is with just Snow, not Bunce.

(Bunce isn't really helping him out with the cornering me thing, but I'm 100% sure that he told her. He can't keep anything from her. Maybe she decided to take mercy on me and thought it was fair that I only and to deal with one person. For now.)

This particular class is different than the others. It is Magic Words and me and Snow are already assigned seats together, so he doesn't need to switch seats with someone. And throughout the first half of the lecture, he doesn't fidget. He doesn't let out innuendos that he wants to talk to me. He doesn't do all those things that annoy me. At first, I'm suspicious. I think that he's going to pull something because Simon Snow does not give up that easily. (Or maybe he does when it comes to blood-sucking vampire roommates who have feelings for him.) I can't relax and properly comprehend the words Miss Possibelf is saying. And I'm tensed.

But as the period carries on, I start to relax. It's obviously good that Snow isn't doing those things. And I calm down.

Halfway along the period, he drops something, probably a pen. As he leans down to pick it up, I feel a slight tug on my bag whose straps I'm clutching in my hands. I ignore it.

But then it happens once again.

I ignore it then too.

When it happens for the third time, I tug a little on the straps. Big mistake.

He tugs more. And I tug back. Pretty soon, it's like we're playing Tug Of War.

We're both grabbing the bag and pulling on it desperately. And we're both above the desks now, so we're visible to everyone else.

Obviously, Miss Possibelf catches us.

"Mr. Snow and Mr. Pitch. Detention. I would really appreciate it if you don't have fist-fights in my class, or rather, any other class. Come back in this classroom after all classes for today are done."

I grit my teeth and snatch my bag from him, giving him a glare without meeting his eyes. The bastard is grinning widely. This was most certainly his plan.

I'm going to have to spend detention with him. A whole hour. In the same classroom. Probably alone. (Sometimes the teachers just leave students there with charms cast on the door while they go do whatever they want.)

I don't relax after that. I stay alert for the rest of the lecture though it seems pointless since he already got what he wanted.

I'm not gonna make conversation with him in detention. I won't talk to him. I'll just ignore him like I am doing now.

Once again, as the bell rings, I dash away. But this time, he doesn't call after me.

Simon  

I succeed in getting us both detention and I lay off him after that. I'll just talk to him in detention.

He seemed visibly pissed that I got us both detention, now that I think about it. And he knew that I was going to try talk to him so he ignored me even more and stayed tense for the rest of the lecture.

I feel bad about it but I needed something to ensure that I'll have a chance to be alone with him so I can try to talk to him.

I don't try to call after him or follow him after this lecture. I just let him go. I'll have my time with him in detention. (Unless he somehow manages to escape detention. I honestly won't be surprised if he does that.)

The rest of the lectures pass easily.

Bas tenses up when I sit beside him. (I don't really have to sit beside him now that I have a chance to talk to him, but I want to.) He stays tense the whole lecture. I don't fiddle like I normally do (well, just a bit). We remain civilised and don't fight or talk at all.

At last, the day ends and detention comes near.

After the last bell rings, Baz jolts up from his seat like he did the whole day (Honestly, isn't he getting tired of running around?), and dashes out of the room to the Magic Words classroom.

I trail behind him, trudging and trying to think of what I would say. Why didn't I think of that before? I hate that I do some things as an impulse which shouldn't be impulses.

I'll have to tell him how I feel. But when do I say that? How do I start the conversation? How do I reveal what I really think about him? Should I just blurt out that I like him? That seems wrong. If I need some time to adjust to my feelings for Baz, then he deserves to be informed of said feelings easily. He probably spent a lot of time thinking we couldn't be together, this would certainly shock him a lot. He doesn't deserve for me to just blurt it out.

I take a shaky breath as I enter the room and see Baz sitting in the far right corner in the back, and Miss Possibelf sitting on her desk, arranging some papers.

I knock on the door.

"Ahh, yes, Mr. Snow. You've arrived. Please sit down. You'll be here for about an hour. Please feel free to do anything while sitting in your seat and not causing any trouble that will land you in more detention with Mr. Pitch."

I nod and take a seat in the back, near to Baz but mot quite sitting next to him. I'm two seats away from him on his right. He's reading a book, some. . . gay romance? Yeah, that seems right. The title says Carry On by Rainbow Rowell.

I've heard of that book. It's about two boys who are wizards and secretly have feelings for each other, but they can't ever be together. Because of politicks.

If I didn't know any better, I'd say that those 2 boys were like me and Baz.

It looks like a good book, although I can't really believe that Baz reads romance. I shouldn't really be surprised, though. A lot of those doodles and sketches and pieces of writings were quite cliche and also cute.

Also, Rainbow? That's a weird name. Sigh, Normals.

I look up over to Baz and he's got his right pinkie in between his teeth. That means it's a good book. (Whenever Baz likes a book, he chews on his pinkie. He doesn't do it outside of our room though.)

He looks cute like this. His eyes are wide with anticipation and he's blinking really fast (although, I don't know why he's doing that). He's clutching the book really close to his face, as if it'll run away from him if he doesn't hold it tight enough. His eyebrows are drawn together, furrowed. (That means it's at a good part.) (Merlin, why had I not noticed my feelings for Baz?)

He so concentrated that he almost doesn't notice me staring.

He shifts a bit and catches my lovesick staring (but I don't think he knows that it's lovesick), meets my eyes and immediately drops his gaze while a pretty shade of pink starts dusting his pale cheeks.

I smile a little and turn back, thinking about how I could get to talk to him.

I figured that Miss Possibelf would be leaving us alone. A lot of the teachers do that, and quite frequently. But Miss Possibelf is just sitting on her desk and grading papers.

Fuck.

I guess I have to wait. I can't just start talking to Baz while she is here. We need privacy.

• • • • •

I'm freaking out right about now. We only have roughly 10 minutes left and I still haven't talked to Baz. He has a triumphant look on his face now, as if he figured out my plan to try and talk to him and now he knows that we're running out detention time and I haven't been able to get a moment of privacy so I can't talk.

I'm silently praying Miss Possibelf leaves us. Goes anywhere. Just anywhere. Even the bathroom, that'll have to do. But she isn't. And I'm panicking. I'm pretty sure my magic is leaking and that Baz and Miss Possibelf can smell it. (I was controlling it so well earlier, better than I ever had. I hope that I'll be able to do that again.)

Finally, as if Merlin has finally listened to my desperate pleas, she leaves 5 minutes before the time ends.

"Alright boys, I'm going to hand these papers over to Mr. Tribbiani, and I suspect that your detention will be over before I return. So please, remain seated and when the time is over, leave the classroom because I probably will return late. Maybe." she says as she grabs the stack of papers and her handbag and leaves.

As soon as she shuts the door, my mind goes haywire. What do I do now? I have to talk to Baz. But how? How do I start the conversation again?

I decide to just stop thinking and actually start talking.

I look over at him.

"Uhh, Baz?"

He pretends to be too engrossed in his book to notice me.

"Baz." I say, a little louder.

To my surprise, he answers.

"What, Snow?" His eyes never leave the book and he says this in a disinterested tone, but I can make out the hint of nervousness in it.

"I. . . I think we need to talk."

"About what?" Once again, eyes never stray; bored tone with a hint of nervousness.

"You know what, you git." Suddenly, I'm getting a deja vu. This conversation is all too familiar.

"I really don't, Snow."

"About-about the notebook."

He visibly tenses, shoulders stiffening, jaw clenching. It's hot.

"What is there to talk about? You already know what you so desperately wanted to know. What you searched up special spells for and actually controlled your fucking magic to find out." He spits out. He radiates bitterness off of him, and it's obvious he's still pissed at me. I gulp.

"Baz, I know I did a terrible thing. I shouldn't have-"

"'Shouldn't have'. Yes, that's correct. Why didn't you tell yourself that before you went nosing in my business?" He cuts in.

A part of me wants for him to just let me explain. Another part is really surprised that he's still talking to me.

"I was acting on impulse decisions and that was wrong of me. I was really desperate to find out what you written because-" I start once again, speaking fast, but he cuts me off again.

"Why, Snow? Because you thought I was plotting? Is that it? Couldn't you ever open your mind just this much to realise that maybe I had a life too. That I wasn't always plotting about your death?" He snaps, finally closing shut his book and looking at me with anger in his eyes. His last sentence makes me flinch, and he backs off a bit at that. I guess he feels bad.

"I-I. . . no." I answer quietly. "But, Baz, I have a reason why I was acting so impulsively. I was too scared-"

Once again, I get cut off. But this time, it's the little alarm clock that's on Miss Possibelf's desk, indicating that detention is over.

Baz starts to get up. No.

He grabs his bag and his book and starts stomping away.

And I act on an impulse decision.

"I like you too!" I shout.

He stills and doesn't look back at me but also doesn't continue walking.

"Baz, I. . . I was saying that I was so concentrated on  finding out what you were writing in that notebook because before, in the classroom, when Miss Possibelf called on you to answer the question and while you were getting flustered, you looked at me. And not like glares. Like actually looking at me. And I. . . liked it. I liked it when you looked at me like that. It made you look all soft and human. And I felt something for you. Something I recognised from when I felt it when I was crushing on Agatha. It-I liked you. Like that. I realised that in the classroom. And I was freaked out about it because I never noticed these feelings and they were so strong. It was so sudden. And I just realised that you could easily use this to your advantage. You could easily destroy me. So I had to know that - this is gonna sound ridiculous but didn't seem like that at the moment - you weren't making a plan to accidentally make me have feelings for you and then break my heart or something."

Baz laughs a little at that. Just a small chuckle, but I feel a whole lot lighter and I start to move closer to him while talking. He still hasn't turned around.

It never occurred to me that I was violating your privacy and crossing the line. I was just too scared. And I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. When I first saw what was in there, I was shocked. But then, I was happy. I was happy because we both feel the same way and can try to make it work. The politicks don't matter. And I was so angry at myself for not realising that this would obviously upset you or anyone else snd how wrong it was. I'm so, so sorry, Baz. Just don't be mad at me forever because of this."

I put my hand on his shoulder and turn him around. He's looking at the ground.

"Baz, look at me."

I put my finger under his chin and pull it up. He doesn't protest, just silently whispers, "Is this a prank, Snow? Is this your cruel idea of a joke?"

"No, Baz. It isn't. I would never do something like that."

My voice breaks a little because I don't want Baz to think that I would lie about something this serious to him, and his eyes widen at that.

"Simon," he sighs, and this time, my eyes widen. "I don't—I don't know what to say. I'm not sure I believe you." he says in a tiny voice.

He doesn't believe me? I would never lie about something like this. I'm not a terrible person. But. . . I can see why Baz would think I was joking.

Of course, he would think that I was joking. He's had feelings for someone for (I'm guessing) a long time. Someone who everyone indirectly says that he can't have. Someone who he's been mean to for years and then suddenly when that person finds out, he corners Baz and tells him that he likes him too.

Goodness gracious, why didn't I think of that?

I rack my brain for ways to tell him that I mean this. That I'm not playing some sick prank on him for fun.

And I find one.

"Baz?" I croak out.

He looks at me and my breath hitches.

The coral sunlight of the dipping Sun in the sky is scattered on his face. It makes his pale face glow beautifully. His eyebrows are furrowed once again, but this time in bemusement. His eyes are twinkling and I can see my reflection in them, crystal clear. His eyelashes are perfectly long, curved at the end, and I see a bit of eyeliner. He pulls it off, the handsome prick. His nose is long and slender and perfect too. And his lips. His lips look plump and soft and they look like they're just waiting for me.

So I do it.

I start to lean in a bit and Baz realises what I'm doing, and he sucks in a breath. He stays where he is.

I lean more slowly, giving him time to pull away if he wants to. But he doesn't. And I'm so glad.

As I close the final distance between us, he closes his eyes softly, before I do, and it's another thing that I love about him.

He does it slowly and gently, without applying pressure on his eyes. His eyes lashes flutter as he does it and I can see a little bit of the whites of his eyes as he closes them. Most people (Agatha) just shut them straight and clench. Baz doesn't do that.

It's such a small feature about him. And I love it. It's perfect.

My lips are moving against his tenderly. There's no rush. Nothing that makes us both speed up. Just deep admiration for each other.

The kiss is fuelled by our many different emotions finally erupting out in the open. I can feel Baz's affection for me in the way he lightly swipes his tongue on my bottom lip, asking for entrance. I grant him it. And I am sure he can feel my yearning for him through the way I'm letting my left hand go through his curtain of black hair and my right hand on his back, pressing him against me. I want him to know how much I like him, to know that I actually feel too strongly for him for this to be anything else other than love but am too scared to say it out loud, because this is all so new.

And when we break apart years later; when I rest my forehead against his forehead and we both breathe heavily, trying to catch our breath; when he lets out a soft laugh and smiles a tiny smile just barely conspicuous on his face, I know he knows.

I want to kiss him again. And I try to, but he doesn't let me.

"Wait, Simon," he starts, "I really, really want this. So badly. No less than how much you want it. But we can't.

I frown and drop my hand from his back.

"What?"

"We can't. Simon, you're. . . you have important things to do, like save the world. And no one would ever approve of this."

"And it's not just that," he adds when he sees that I'm about to protest. "Simon, I'm a monster. A. . . vampire. You don't wanna be with someone like me. It's too dangerous for you. And—and we're different. We hardly have the same opinion on things. We're fight all the time. Who's to say that this will actually work out?" he says, weakly.

"Baz, you're not a monster—"

"Yes, I am, Snow."

"Let me finish. You're not a monster. You've lived with me and slept in the same room as me for 7 years, Baz, and you never once tried to drain me. And it must've been so hard for you. But you never did it. You always kept yourself back. You're so brave, Baz.

He scoffs. "Me, brave? I think you're mistaken, Snow."

"'Simon'," I say, correcting him. "And yes, Baz, you are. You fight off your needs everyday and you still act like a git and a perfect human to everyone. And you've done this for years. And Baz, even if we're different from each other. We still need to try. There's still a chance that it could work out if we just try."

"Why, Simon? Why should we try?"

"Because. . . ," and I'm stumped.

It's the same question I asked myself the night I performed the spell, but I couldn't think of anything. Anything that might give a logical reason as to why we should try.

I'm racking my brain for one now, because I want to tell Baz that we should try. But why? He's right. Why should we try?

I've spent my whole life trying to figure out the meaning of the word 'love'. I never had any real family to love, to get loved. Even when I came to Watford and made Penny as a best friend, I still didn't know the real meaning of love. And it scares me. It scares me that I don't know it and that I want to know it. And it also scares me that someday, someone might break me so much that I will forget the meaning of love again. I've lost so many people in my life, people that have never even been in my life, so it scares me so much. It scared me when I was with Agatha, terrified me.

But even if this happens, I want to learn the meaning of love. With Baz.

Because. . . I deserve it.

"Because we deserve it, Baz," he looks taken aback by my sudden epiphany. "We both deserve it, Baz. I've spent my whole life in boys' homes and I never understood what loving someone felt like. Or having someone love you just as much as you love them. And I always felt scared of love, that I don't know what it means and if I do, then what if I break and forget it again. Who will remind me what it means? But now, I want to learn the meaning of love with you, Baz. I had such a shitty childhood and now I'm burdened with saving the world, it's like the universe has finally given me an opportunity. An opportunity to be happy. To actually live life wanting to. Not feeling obligated to. And I want to take it. And I know you feel the same way, Baz. This is an opportunity for you too. This is a chance for you to be truly happy and not fake it." I say with desperation in my voice.

Baz shakes his head at me.

"How, Simon? You don't even know me well enough to—" he gulps and I watch his Adam's apple bob up and down "—fall in love with me."

"Then let me know you," I say, looking into his pools of grey. "Let me know you well enough to fall in love with you."

His face neither hardens nor softens, and after a moment, he smashes his face into mine, kissing (rather snogging, actually) me with that desperation that was lacking in our first kiss.

He pushes and I push back. He nibbles at my bottom lip and I sigh into his mouth. It's all a huge mess of tongue, desperation and rawness. It feels like standing there naked, all our deepest desires and secrets and scars exposed, letting ourselves be defenceless and vulnerable to each other, willingly.

Finally, he breaks apart and says, "Okay."

Baz

We stay there snogging for what feels like hours and only seconds and the same time.

I'm sitting on a desk and Sn-Simon's slotted between my legs. My arms are around his neck and his are around my waist, gripping me possessively. We barely break apart an inch to catch our breaths before continuing.

I guess we're boyfriends now. Wow.

I don't really know what to say.

I don't really want to say anything.

I just want to cherish this. What we have right now.

Simon was right. We do have a chance now. To live happily.

I have chance to be with the boy I've been in love with since 1st Year. Wow.

I'm willing to try. Try to make ourselves compatible to each other.

We are quite different and it's hard to maintain a relationship that way. A lot of people have broken up this way. Majority of them. I stand by this point.

But what's different is that I'm willing to try and keep trying. For him. Simon Snow. My Simon Snow.

And he is too. I can tell.

I want to be with him. It will be hard. It won't be all sunshines and rainbows. There will be dark times, with the politicks and our personal relationship. But we'll fight against it. In those other relationships, it all went down to whether the couple loved each other enough to keep fighting against the world, and a lot of them gave up. It will be the same choice in this relationship. We both have the choice. To leave or stay and keep fighting together.

I choose fighting together.

And I have a feeling that Simon does as well.

chap 1, chap 2

[13-timeslove]

Thirteen Time Ch1: The Docks

“I can’t believe he made pushed up my deadline again!” You groaned loudly into your Akita plushie. “I told him that this part of the manuscript needed more time considering I had to do more research! And what does he do?! Pushed up another fucking week!”

Your roommate Alice sighed as you continued to roll in your bed. She placed her hot milk onto the side table before sitting by the edge and patting your head. You only groaned once more before rolling into her lap. “My editor is an ass”

“You could always get a new one”

“...but he’s a good editor” you sigh dramatically.

“Then don’t complain sweetie”. Alice began to stroke your (h/c) hair as you laid in her lap, a small habit that has formed between your friendship. “Besides, it’s only one week difference. How bad can it be?”

“It’s awful when you have writer’s block”

“Oof”

You turned your head around, looking up at the black haired girl. “Why couldn’t I be smart like you? I wish I had your brain” She started laughing.

“Bitch you don’t want my position! Medical school is such a pain in the ass. You’re the lucky one with your brilliant creative mind, and nagged a job right out of college”

“Shut uppp. You’re better than me”

“No I’m not. And make me” she said while slapping a pillow to your face.

You squealed and rolled off her lap in an attempt to escape her attacks, sitting on the floor giggling to yourself. Alice followed suit and sat next to you, giving you the chance to rest your head against her shoulder. “This is why you’re my best friend”

“This is why I’m your only friend”

“Ouch!”

“Kidding”, you both laughed together. This is what your life with her was like, sarcastic jokes and compliments that neither of you would truly accept.

Alice was there for your since the beginning of college, from the time you accidentally spilled ink on her white pants because of sleep deprivation, to your graduation last year, and even to your heartbreaks. She was always there.

“Hey, Alice”

“Yeah?”

“What time is it?”

“Bout 5:30, why?”

You got up from the ground, and grabbed your blue jacket from the floor. “I’m going to take a quick walk, maybe seeing the sunset will clear my writer’s block”. Alice leaned over your desk to toss a small box over to you.

“Don’t forget these”. You caught them, knowing very well that they were your candy cigarettes. “Still don’t understand why you like that stuff?”

“Because they are yummy” you replied happily. She only scoffed, shaking her head sighing. “Don’t wait up. I’ll be back in half an hour”

“Be safe”

“Will do!”

You started to head out of your apartment complex, walking down the street. You pulled your iPod out of your pocket and continued to walk down the street. “High hopes” was blasting through your headphones, and you honestly didn’t care about the people staring at you head banging in the middle of the side walk. Hell, you even made eye contact with them and mouthed the lyrics hoping they would sing along somehow (some did fortunately).

Eventually, you felt the cold breeze of the shore biting at your open skin. You zipped up your jacket close. Pulling out the candy box, you took out a candy cigarette and placed it between your lips.

You found a spot close to the edge of the wooden rail and leaned against it. Chewing the end of the candy cigarette, you found that all stress in your body left. The sun was close to falling behind the waves, giving the sky a red and purple ombré (you couldn’t help but take a photo for instagram). This is nice, you thought.

....

....

“No, no girl. Leave her be”

You felt a nudge at the end of your leg, seeing a small dog bitting at your jeans. If you were a cartoon character, your head would’ve exploded at how cute this dog was.

“Hi baby!” You said in an overly high pitched voice. You knelt down to its level, letting the cutie jump in your lap and lick your hand.

A low chuckle echoed your ear, making you realize that there was still the owner on the other end of the leash. Whoops.

“Seems like she likes you” ooohhh he’s British.

“Heh, I’m glad” you tried to look up at him, but with the sun in your face you really couldn’t get a good look. You held your hand in front of your face, making an awkward smile. “Sorry I petted your dog without asking first. She’s just really cute”

You got up. “No no, I don’t mind. I’m just surprised. Frankie isn't really open to people on the streets. You’re the first”

“I have been chosen” you joked around. The sun started to set behind the sea, but when you tried to look back at the man in front, your eyes took longer to adjust. All you saw of him was his baseball cap.

“Do you mind if I have one?” You cocked your brow.

“I’m sorry?”

“A cigarette. Do you mind if I have one?” He was pointing at the white stick at your mouth, and you pulled it away realizing what he was referring to.

“Oh, um yeah you can. But they’re not cigarettes. They’re candy cigarettes”

“Those things exist?”

“Yeah actually” you laughed out. “But they’re made of sugar rather than tobacco. So sorry”

“No it’s fine. Um” he paused and started to rub his neck. A little embarrassed that he didn’t realize the damn thing wasn’t even glowing. “C-Could I have one still?”

“Sure” you smiled back. You opened the box again, giving the stranger a white sugar stick (author: why does that sound like a weird lingo for a drug...). He placed part of it in his mouth, chewing at the end.

“Oh god, its so plain”

“It’s unique taste” you laughed at him.

The two of you ended up leaning against the rail. Watching the waves crash over each other through the slightly dim sky. You didn’t like pure silence, so decided to try and make a conversation.

“Based on the accent, I assume you’re not from here? Or at the very least, new around here?”

You heard a chuckle escape his mouth, and honestly it was pretty soothing. “Yeah. I’m not from around here”

“Visiting or work, if you dont mind me asking?”

“Sorta for work. I um...I just finished a big project with my friends. We’re celebrating here, and have a um, contest coming up”

“Oh cool! What research did you guys do? Wait! Are you the guys who participated in the research regarding experimental drug for those who suffer from extreme GAD?”

Even though it was dark, you didn’t have to see his confused face as you threw all these questions at him. Well, that and the awkward laugh gave it away. “I’m sorry, but, wh-what?”

You brushed your hair behind your ear, embarrassed. “Sorry. I just realized that project can refer to multiple things, and my brain immediately went to medical research for some reason”

“Are you medical student by any chance?”

“Oh god no, that field is too advanced for me. I just like reading about medical discoveries”. He smiled at your response, a little astounded at how excited you got over it. “Sorry about that”

“It’s fine” he laughed, almost spitting out the candy cigarette. “Our project was actually a film we’ve been working on. It’s been a long process”

He looked off at the distance. His hat was shadowing his face, but if you focused, there were distinct bags under his eyes.

“It must have been exhausting”.

“Yeah it was” He smiled lightly. “There were a few bumps in the road, but...we all managed”

He pulled the candy cigarette from his mouth, looking at the chewed end. Maybe it was the fact that he didn’t have a real cigarette that made him look depressed, but you knew that it was something else. Being the cheesy person you were, you pulled a penny from your pocket and placed it on the rail near him. “What’s this?” He asked.

“Penny for your thoughts? It, seems like those bumps were a bit more exhausting that the whole project”

“Am I that obvious?” He sighed when he grabbed the shiny cent.

“No. I’m just that good at reading people”. You leaned on the rail, twirling the candy between your teeth. “When people experienced hardships, they either need to talk about it, or push it away. What kind are you?”

“...with people I know...I push it away”. You leaned forward to look at him, the back of his head facing you.

“Well...luckily you don’t know me”

And for the first time throughout this whole conversation, this guy that you’ve been talking to for the past fifteen minutes, finally faced you. Your eyes adjusted to the darkness, and you could see him.

He was handsome, no doubt about that. Young, but at the same time, has worn out features such as his eyes. He gave you a full on smile, averting his eyes to the side.

“What’s your name?”

“...(y/n). Whats yours?” You smirked.

“I am Nobody”

you laughed at him again. “Odysseus fan, who would’ve guessed”

“You wouldn’t” he smirked as well. You paused at the conversation, thinking about what he said earlier.

“You asked me my name so you would get to know me. And therefore, not tell me your hardships, didn’t you?”

“...god damn you really are good at reading people aren’t you?”

“Good is an understatement”

You felt your phone ring, and when you looked down, you saw that it was a text form Alice.

Girl get your butt home. I am about to call the cops to get you home safe.

“Boyfriend?” He asked you.

“No. Best friend. My cue to leave”. You squat down to pet Frankie before you left. “By girlie”. You got back up. “Nice talking to Nobody new”

“It’s a good name”

“Just don’t take it seriously”

“What do you mean?”

You started to walk off the boardwalk a little, but looked back at him one more time. “Nobody means someone who isnt worth something. But if you look at it as another way, Nobody always refers to somebody”

“...you’re an interesting character aren’t you (y/n)?” You smiled at him, before giving Nobody a quiet nod and walked off the boardwalk. Passing by more people as you left.

Nobody, that’s absolute BS.

“Hey, there you are! Gwil and I have been looking for you everywhere”

Their friend only looked down the boardwalk, and they waved his hand over his eyes. “Ben?”

“...Rami. I”

“You good dude?”

“I...I just met someone”

“And?” Gwil started. Ben pulled the candy cigarette out his mouth, staring at it.

“Guys, where can I get more candy cigarettes?”

[cowplant-pizza]

Get Famous Q+A

1. @cowconuts:

So many people are kind of iffy that the world is too small and too detailed for the amount of lots we get.  What are your thoughts about the world?  Many discussed that it feels like a game pack, rather than an expansion pack.  But I'd like to know what you actually like about the pack.  Like, the thing that would make you buy it? (If there is anything.)

Okay so, I want to be totally honest with you guys. I was personally underwhelmed by the world when I opened my game. It was actually something i wrote down in my little notepad when I was making notes about my opinions to write about later. There is only 1 empty lot to choose from when you start and its 50x40 that costs around $9,000. Imo, that is waaaay too big and way too much for what I guess is the starter lot in this world. However, I think there is so much detail in the world’s enviroment that I think I understand. Normally gaming companies will have to choose between two things on which to spend their resources so I guess they chose the enviroment instead of the amount of lots. BUT, I do understand this in a sense because people normally only play with one family per save with legacys or challenges and stuff, and with the ability to have as many saves as you want (or as your computer lets you lol) then I don’t really see it as that big of a problem because I’ll need to play at least about 11 saves before I’ve explored every lot in the world. That’s my opinion on it anyway.

As for my reason for buying this, I think it really adds a whole dimention of gameplay that we sort of needed in the game. It adds new interaction with things such as busking and dj’ing, and gives your sim an actual reason to do these things instead of just leveling the skill for a personality reason if that makes sense? The only thing I sort of felt missing from this is that pre existing townies like Penny Pizzazz and Bob Pancakes don’t already have celebrity status even though in their lore they are considered to be well known. So idk, maybe that’s something they could’ve added but I also think that might be a nice thing for you to do yourself!

2. @izysims:

Do you have an insight on the build/buy? The world is dismally small so hopefully we can at least make it beautiful.  Also what you not get famous from? I know retail you can’t but what else? Can you get famous from a restaurant?

Build and Buy is 50/50 for me. I think that the furniture set that was added into the game is super cute and I will use it a lot. It has a nice aesthetic like Laundry Day stuff. However the lack of clutter was dissapointing for me. I would’ve loved to see more of that stuff, like trophies or medals ect. Also there is nothing for children and toddlers so.. I was very shocked at that!

I’m honestly not sure what you can’t get famous from because it seems like you can get famous from a lot of things! I will let you know if I find anything though :)

3. @sweettartfish:

is being a celebrity worth it overall? i remember playing ts3 late night and eventually regretting becoming famous because of all the paparazzi with bad AI. of course they would still be intrusive, that’s the point, but still. i don’t really want to have to dodge even more random paparazzi if their mechanics aren’t very good. also, how do you feel about the actual celebrity skill mechanic? how are the “perks” and “quirks” ?

Right now my Sim is only on the first level of being famous after about 6 hours of playing. That’s partially because I’ve been editing and trying to find everything for you, and as of right now there are no paparazzi. Although walking around and seeing bigger celebs, I have noticed that there are always paparazzi swamping them. However you do have the option to opt your Sim out of being a celebrity or turing off celebrities altogether!

The celeb quirks seem very interesting tbh. I wrote them all down for you! I haven’t included the descriptions though because I feel like they are pretty self explanitary. 

Group 1: [lvl 1] Noticable - [lvl 2] Celebusim - [lvl 3] Established Name - [lvl 4] Career Hopper - [lvl 5] Easy Street

Group 2: [lvl 1] Networking - [lvl 2] PR Agency - [lvl 3] Fan Favourite - [lvl 4] Instant Besties - [lvl 5] Squad

Group 3: [lvl 1] Corportate Partnership - [lvl 2] Influencer - [lvl 3] All Nighter - [lvl 4] Trailblazer - [lvl 5] Lifestyle Brand

Good (only available at lvl 3): [1] Giving Back - [2] Rally! - [3] Star Treatment

Bad (only available at lvl 3): [1] Who’s Bad - [2] Play the Villain - [3] Feud Bringer

4. @sinister-simister:

Is Get Famous compatible with other packs? For example Pets, can pets get famous by social media? Are sims followed by paparazzi when walking, or only when they are in a specific location (restaurant, home)? Can you completely lose your fame if you dont keep on posting/acting/ect? Do traits influence the fame of a specific sim by any means? Are a famous sim's relatives, famous too? Does the update with the first person game camera help/influence get famous by any means?

1. I think GF is compatible in the idea that Sims can become famous from actions introduced by other packs. However there were no CAS or Build/Buy items for Pets and I am yet to test if they can become famous, but I doubt it.

2. Sims are followed on Lots definitely. I have seen them both in Del Sol Valley and San Myshuno so far but have not seen any on my lot, however I am a low level celeb right now!

3. Yes you can lose your fame. My sim got to level 1 fame after getting promoted to Level 3 Acting career, then the next morning it said her spotlight is fading! 

4. I think that some traits might influence your fame slightly. Being mean will get you a bad reputation and being good will get you a good reputation. There’s also a new trait with the EP so I’m asuming that it might make getting famous slightly easier with whims and quirks.

5. I became best friends with a celebrity and did not have any influence from them. However I do remember in the trailer they said that children can be famous from having famous parents. I’m not sure how far that goes in the sense of siblings or romantic partners though.

6. I haven’t tried it out because it makes me motion sick but no it will not have any influence.

5. @cowberrys:

are the paparazzi really annoying like they were in ts3 or are they pretty easy to avoid if you don't want to be seen? 💕

I’m honestly not sure I’m sorry! I know there is a famous people’s club in one of the bars and the paparazzi are not allowed in there.

6. @artsysimming:

How detailed is the acting career? Like do we get to choose the movies/acting we do or are they just randomly assigned jobs and whims like with the Get to Work careers?

You can choose one of two agencies to begin with that slightly changes your playstyle from the very first level. I thought this was really cool. The acting career is pretty slow and costly to get into however. You basically get the job, then check the auditions from your work tab. You’re given some options telling you the pay and the skills you should probably level to help you through the audition. Once you select an audition you then have a whole day to prepare. You go to the auditiopn the next day at 7pm. If you get through you then have another whole day (well, 2 technically) to prepare for the filming. You do not get paid for the audition, so between shooting, money can get reaaaally tight. I made a starter house of about $18,000 and on my audition day I was down to $60 and had had to sell a load of things in order to afford a guitar (my audition needed guitar level 2). However it’s actually quite fun? And something I have found very tough when playing ts4 is that I’ve felt like all they do is spend their time at work! So it’s actually a very nice break from working 24/7. You do attend the shooting with your Sim if you want to (like a normal interactive career) and that’s super cute. 

[calliecat93]

RWBY V6 CH13 (Season Finale) Review: Our Way

Well... we made it guys. RWBY Volume 6 Chapter 13. The grand finale. It feels like we just began, but still like it was so long ago. It's been one Hell of a ride. Train crashes, traumatic flashbacks via blue genie ladies, Zombie Grimm, confirmed lesbians, mechas, a VERY satisfying villain death, and now a kaiju. It's been quite a journey, and now it's time to bring it to a close. Can our heroes save the day? Can they catch their dreams together and keep rising like the moon? For the final time this volume, lets find out.

Overview

We begin... not in Argus. No, we're in some kind of forest area where we see a Mistral airship arrive. Turns out it got snatched by Neo, who they FINALLY gave a new outfit. It looks really good! She's not the only one as Cinder makes her appearance... and not gonna lie, she's pretty damn hot. She's very pleased with how things are going, especially when Neo uses her power to mask the ship as an Atlas ship. Which will make their infiltration of Atlas all the easier. As she climbs aboard, Cinder comments on how sometime ago, someone asked her if she believed in destiny. If you all recall, she replied yes... and she's happy to say that she still does. Haha... I can't wait for this to be the equivalent of Adam's “It's time I get what I deserved” line for when Ruby kicks your sorry ass! Seriously, I gave the middle finger to this scene. Screw you Cinder.

Okay, back to Argus! Cordovan is furious, repeatedly putting the blame on Ruby and the team for causing all of this. Blake and Yang rejoin the group as Weiss points out that they just took out the one thing that can stand a chance against the Leviathan. Everyone boards the ship as the Atlas Military fight the Grimm off, even activating a hard light shield around the city. Cordovan continues her rantings as her men call for her help. Blake tearfully apologizes to everyone as the ship takes flight, blaming herself as if Adam hadn't interfered, they'd have gotten out with no issues. Yang tells her to not blame herself and Ruby telling her that all that matters is that she's safe. The two even have a cute little hug! Aww!

Maria points out that with the military occupied, this is THE perfect chance to get by and continue to Atlas. But of course by doing so, they leave the chance of the Grimm killing everyone in Argus. Ruby opens her mouth, clearly about to refuse... but her teammates reply first. All three refuse to run. They are Huntresses, and they will fight until the bitter end to protect everyone. Maria seems pleased by this, but things are still not good as the Leviathan's fire breath tears straight through the shields. If it breaks through all of them, then Argus is as good as destroyed. Therefore, Ruby knows what she has to do. She calls out to Atlas' forces, telling them that she is a Huntress and that she can weaken it. How? Well... remember Maria's comments about Ruby needing a trial by fire to train her Silver Eyes? Well my friends, the trial has come.

Maria starts to comment on how she didn't mean like this, but Ruby isn't hearing it. She was able to use the Eyes at Beacon and at Brunswick, so she believes that she can do this. The Argus base, due to the ship being deemed hostile, refuse to aid them. So what does Ruby do? Decide that they'll do ti themselves. With Ren and Jaune keeping the ship masked, the plan is to get before the Leviathan and for Ruby to Silver Eyes blast it. It' a good plan... but by the time they get there, the Leviathan has charged up another attack. They're forced to pull back and both Jaune and Ren's already weakened Auras break. With no one sure of what to do now, Ruby looks to Weiss, a new plan formed.

As Yang and Nora shoot at the Leviathan to keep ti distracted, Weiss summons the Queen Lancer. Ruby hops on, telling herself that she can do this as she flies before the Leviathan. She closes her eyes, even throwing out her earpiece when Yang tries to reach out to her, and begins to think back through her memories. She thinks of the ones she loves like her father, her teammates, her friends, Penny... all the memories that make her feel happy and the urge to protect. But as she does, the darker memories begin to fill her mind. Seeing Jaune's broken state in V4, Yang's broken state at the end of V3, the sight of Yang in the V3 finale. And of course the deaths of both Pyrrha and Penny. All of these BTW use these 2D manga-style images. I honestly would have preferred they just use clips or stills of these moments... but they still look nice. But with the reminder of those dark moments, Ruby's concentration breaks. The Leviathan takes notice of her, and it prepares to attack.

Realizing that she is in trouble, Ruby takes notice of the Lamp. In panic, she calls out Jinn's name. Time freezes aside from herself, and she apologizes for she does not have a question to ask. She needed the time freezing power of Jinn's summoning to buy herself time. Jinn knows this, and decides to grant a pass on her summoning, but she will not allow so again. She DOES however compliment Ruby on her cleverness. With extra time now bought, Ruby again closes her eyes and remembers. This time, she is smiling in confidence as she remembers all the happy moments from the past volumes. Time begins to move again as she remembers those she loves, her team, JNPR, Qrow, Oscar, even Maria. It all culminates to a vision of one person in particular in the only Maya-animated shot of this flashback. We sees a white-cloaked woman standing at a familiar cliff-side, red and white rose petals flying around her as she turns around. Yes everyone, we have finally gotten our first glimpse of Ruby's mother, Summer Rose. With that and all of these thoughts in her mind and a new song titled Indomitable playing, Ruby unleashes the power of her Silver Eyes. With one massive blast,t he Leviathan is turned to stone. The Argus citizens cheer as Ruby can take in a sigh of relief... well, almost.

The Leviathan begins to break free of the stone, bringing Ruby back to panic. But not for long as Cordovan takes over, having dis-attached the broken arm and uses the other one to create a drill and truly destroy the Leviathan. She opens the cockpit to face Ruby personally, who thanks her and apologizes for her and her friend's actions. But, to my shock, Cordovan says that her forces can handle the remaining Grimm and that it's unlikely that anyone will take notice of one ship leaving in her report. Yes everyone, Cordovan is finally allowing Ruby and the gang to take the ship and go on to Atlas. Ruby smiles and rejoins the others as they head off.

Night falls and they have enough fuel to make it to Atlas. Qrow compliments Ruby as he gets his flask... before lowering his arm and telling her to not scare him like that again. He earns a hug from Ruby for that! As she walks off, Maria compliments Qrow on his efforts. While Qrow feels guilty for essentially causing so many issues, Maria points out that he still helped when the time came, and that was good. Qrow seems to be genuinely happy hearing this, complimenting Maria and how it was great to see the Grimm Reaper in action. With the others, Weiss apologizes to Blake for what she had to endure, but is glad that Yang was there to help her. Yang takes Blake's hand, saying that they were there for each other. It seems that the Bumblebee pair's relationship is restored... and may now be canon if Renora is anything to go by XD

Everyone turns to Ruby, Ren pointing out all the crazy but awesome stuff she did. Embarrassed, Ruby points out how Oscar managed to make a successful crash landing. Except... eh didn't. Oscar reveals that during the crash, eh got help... from Ozpin. While he didn't take control, he DID calm Oscar down and guide him on landing before vanishing again. Yang asks if he had been watching them this whole time, but Oscar isn't for sure. Guess we'll leave that open ended for now as Qrow tells them to come over and check out the view of Atlas. We get our first look, and... damn it looks AMAZING. You guys ever seen the Hayao Miyazaki film Castle in the Sky? Think that! There's only... one issue. There's an entire air armada guarding the city, as though awaiting an attack. Control welcomes the ship home, and cue the credits!

But of course, there's one more scene to talk about. First, the credit song Nevermore is AMAZING! It is very much a “Fuck you Adam: song and both Casey and a guest singer named Adrienne Cowan absolutely KILLED it. After hat though, we have of course the stinger. We see Emerald enter the meeting room, the windows still broken and the table still turned over. She sees Mercury and gets ready to apologize for Chapter 9... but sees that he is looking horrified. In a mirror to how the Mistral storyline began in Volume 4, Emerald looks out and is also horrified. Why? Salem is summoning an army of... those gorilla Grimm I can't remember the name of. But that's not all. With her powers, she gives them all wings. You know... kinda like those flying monkeys from that movie that also has a witch and  a wizard named Oz. Hazel walks in, referring to an old saying “If you want something done right, do it yourself”. Salem continues to summon her Grimm as Volume 6 truly comes to an end.

Review

So... what did I think of the finale? Well.. give me a second. Taking in a deep breath... okay, here it goes: AAAAAAAHHHHHH!!!!

I LOVED IT!!!

Okay, we have a lot to go through, so lets get through the small stuff first. First, the stinger scares me. It's a great bookend, calling back to when the Mistral arc began so it's only appropriate that it end with Emerald and Mercury one more looking on in horror at the Grimm pools. Salem is clearly no longer fooling around and is taking matters into her own hands. It's  great Wizard of Oz reference... that makes me very concerned about both Ruby and Oscar since IDK which one is meant to be Dorothy in this case, but still I AM CONCERNED. It's a very good way to end things and to leave us in anticipation for the next volume. Same for the beginning with Neo and Cinder, which again Cinder can go to Hell. But it was a nice scene and they look great in their new outfits. Hopefully this signals that RWBY will also get some new ones! Come on RT, GIVE THEM COATS AT LEAST!

Okay, let us talk about Ruby now. Dear God, RUBY. I've said this several times now, but she has been SO GOOD in this volume. Clearly CRWBY listened to the critiques about the last volume because they've just been killing it with her. This was, of course, the biggest moment for her. Ruby has truly grown and stepped up. She lead when everyone else gave up, she remained committed to the task despite all the doubt and uncertainty, and she did everything in her power to fight back and accomplish her goal. This is, by far, her greatest moment since beheading the Nevermore in V1. She chooses to fight, even when Argus refuses to aide her. She faces the Leviathan head on. She actually remembers about the Silver Eyes and uses what Maria has told her to turn the Grimm to stone. Yeah it didn't work fully, showing that she still has a long way to go to mastering her power, but she still pulled it off and the clever use of Jinn to buy herself time to regain herself was an AWESOME move. And Jinn let her get away with it! Nice!

The entire scene was just great. The flashbacks, while I again would have preferred actual footage or stills, still looked really nice. You could feel how Ruby felt, trying and at first uncertain before the dark memories come back. Then she tries again, much more confident, and uses the memory of her loved ones to unleash her power all on her own, Not out of trauma or fear. Not form Maria needing to guide her. No, she did it all on her own volition. Ruby is no longer that same naive girl form Volume 1 who asked Glynda for an autograph cause she was a Huntress. No, now SHE is the Huntress. She recognizes her responsibility. No longer is it a young girl's naive fantasy, but her sacred duty, and she WILL carry it out. And it wasn't only Ruby. Her teammates, who went to Beacon for personal reasons over the duty and were having serious doubts to their commitment, immideatly refuse to run and to fight on with zero hesitation. These kids have grown so much, and I couldn't be prouder.

I think my only issue is... well, Cordovan. While there is truth in her blaming the kids, she escalated it to unnecessary lengths with the mecha and refused to listen. And she gets away with it. She also takes a 180 on her attitude, which just feels unsatisfying. I mean I'm glad that she let them through, but she receives zero comeuppance for her actions and attitude. It wasn't enough to deter form the finale, but it DID leave me annoyed.

So guys, after one Hell of a journey, the team have made it to Atlas. Which as I said, it looks stunning. There is of course reason to worry since Ironwood's paranoia seems to have gotten worst, but at least they're being allowed in. So... what happens now? Hard to say. There's a ton of possibilities. Hopefully some new outfits, as I said. There's the Winter Maiden, Ironwood's state, potential STRQ stuff, and probably some consequences to this volume since they don't have Ozpin to talk Ironwood down now. With Cinder and Neo on their way, as well as Watts and Tyrian, we've got plenty of worry for our heroes. And of course, there's Penny's father and the Schnee family. A lot of things are coming up I imagine. But all for another time. For now, everyone made it safe and sound. And as a familiar song once stated “that's all that matters somehow.”

Final Thoughts

I don't think I need to emphasize how much I loved this chapter. Think I did that plenty. It was a great wrap-up to what I can now call my favorite volume of the series. I have one more review to do, a full RWBY Volume 6 review. After that, aside form any Character Shorts or stuff that comes out, I'll be done with RWBY until the Fall. So I will see you all in the season review, and thank you all for reading!

[feynites]

I got more Banana Bachelor AU done! ^-^ Tagging @lycheemilkart, Serahlin of course belongs to @scurvgirl

When Magister Danarius turns up dead the day before Vena’s date with Ana, he honestly doesn’t think much about it. 

It’s kind of surprising, in that weird way that always seems to happen when a person you saw alive quite recently is suddenly no longer breathing. But Danarius seemed like the kind of guy who a lot of people would wish death on, and the news feed all reports his cause of death as a heart attack. The cumulative result of too much excess and decadence in life, or a little too much questionable blood magic, maybe.

 Vena spares a moment to muse that a lot of people’s wishes probably came true, and then moves on. Danarius wasn’t even a client, just a business associate of some of Sylaise’s family. There’s a little gossip about it. Mostly people speculating on who will replace him in the Magisterium or inherit his fortune, since he had no heirs to speak of.

 Vena knows the legalities and the social elements well enough to make an educated guess, which is that one of the other houses will claim Danarius’ seat - probably House Carius, they��ve been up-and-coming for a while and their matriarch has good PR - and his wealth will go to his Helvadus cousins. Not because they have the best claim, but because they have the best lawyers.

 It’s not really a big deal, though. And most of the gossip around the water coolers is actually focused on the bachelor auction, and the results of everyone’s dates. Who tried to bid on who, and who’s already gone on their dates, and who hasn’t. Tasallir makes some apologies to Serahlin and Vena but they both just counter by thanking him, and waving off his concern. He and Serahling reschedule their intended outing. Vena’s not completely sure, because she tends to play that kind of stuff close to the chest. But when the subject of her smitten jeweler comes up, Serahlin’s cheeks seem to get a little pinker.

 Vena just hopes he’s nice. Her last boyfriend was a real piece of work.

 Thenvunin goes on his date and regales everyone about it like it was the plot of some kind of romance novel. But not in the ‘oh it was so magical’ kind of a way, more in the ‘ah we’re at the stage where the prospective couple hates one another but can’t shut up about it’ way. A lot of people wonder about the mystery woman who out-bid one of the boss’ brothers for the other. That makes Vena popular because, of course, she bid on him too, and he sat at their table for a significant portion of the evening.

 But he doesn’t really have a lot of answers. And most people seem more taken with making pointedly-not-pointed speculations about Falon’Din. Mainly, whether or not they’re going to have to deal with him as a client again soon, because the man is notorious for pitching fits whenever things don’t go his way.

 And that usually means property damage. Or assault.

 Vena just hopes that whoever ends up having to deal with him remembers to wear a knife-proof vest. He still gets twinges in his left shoulder sometimes.

 His own date seems to just inch closer, taking longer than he might have guessed it would. He finds his thoughts drifting towards Ana, ‘Dalish Ana’, and her freckles and red hair. He googles her, because of course he does. But he doesn’t get a lot of results. There’s an etsy shop that sells foraged crafts and bath products and stuff, but he’s not even sure if it’s the same person. There aren’t any photos of her. No instagram or twitter that he can find, either, but then it’s not like he has comprehensive information or anything.

 He tries her friend, Selene, but there’s even less stuff to be found there.

 In the days leading up their date, Vena considers texting her or calling her. Wondering about the protocols on that. Everything’s set up and they seem to have exchanged all the info they need. But, he’s never really been one for the ‘wait to call’ rule.

 He needs an opener, though.

 Two days after their first meeting, he just goes for it.

 What do you get when you drop a piano down a mine shaft? He texts.

 There’s a brief delay.

 A flat minor? she sends back, to his absolute delight.

 Yes!!! Excellent!

 A happy face follows.

 I have been trying to think of a better name for your in my contacts, he admits.

 Oh? she replies. Are you fishing for my last name?

 No, he assures her. I never use last names. I like nicknames.

 Some people call me Red, she tells him.

 Do you like it?

 She sends him a shrug. Hmm. Not a solid positive, then.

 Clearly you need something more fun and breezy, he decides. Ana-panda? Mana-fana? Ana-fana-bo-bana?

 He peppers his suggestions with a few thoughtful-face emojis. Ana sends him back a skeptical one, but it feels like it has good energy. Fun skeptical, somehow.

 Banana? she tosses in.

 Vena’s grin widens.

 Well if you insist!

 He means it as a joke, reflexively. But it’s… kind of cute. As they carry on exchanging quips and texts, it sticks in his head. By the time they manage to say goodbye, he’s successfully found a very cute-looking banana picture. It even has freckles. He changes Ana’s contact details in his phone from ‘Dalish Ana’ to ‘Ana-Banana’, and tosses on the image.

 Perfect.

 Vena looks up from his phone just in time to walk smack into his own office door.

 …Alright, maybe he shouldn’t text her while he’s walking. Thenvunin from Reception lets out a snort of surprised amusement. Through the glass window of his office, Tasallir gives Vena is very best, patented ‘how did this moron graduate from law school’ look. Vena clears his throat, and tries to play it off as he opens his door.

 “Are you alright, Vena?” Serahlin asks, as she passes through the hall.

 “Fine!” he assures her. “Just distracted. Who closed my door?”

 She blinks at him.

 “You did.”

 Vena fires off a finger gun at her.

 “Right,” he replies. “Yup. That was… I remember now. Great, thanks Serahlin. Are you still handling the Howe case?”

 “Oh, yes. My client is going to get full custody and one hell of a settlement from her husband. I hope Rendon Howe enjoys sleeping on park benches,” she says, and the deflection works pretty well. Vena had heard as much, and Serahlin always takes a special satisfaction in stringing up adulterers and draining them for every last penny. With another finger gun Vena backs into his office, dignity somewhat salvaged.

 “Brilliant, I’m glad to hear hit,” he says.

 His phone chimes again, and he lifts it up, grinning. But it’s just his work e-mail alert going off. With a sigh, he pockets his phone again, and gets his head back in the work game.

 …Banana, though.

 That’s so cute.

  ~

  When the date finally rolls around, Vena is entirely ready for it.

 He wears his favourite tasteful blue swim shorts, underneath a pair of his nicer cargo shorts. A light jacket, just in case the sea winds get cold, and a loose, faded t-shirt with ‘100% Boyfriend Material’ written on it in faded lettering. Tasallir sees him on his way out, and gives him an unimpressed once-over.

 “You are an idiot,” he says.

 Vena winks.

 “Don’t stay up worrying, honey,” he counters, with a pat to his roommate slash coworker slash arch enemy’s arm.

 “Take your rape whistle,” Tasallir instructs, sniffing disdainfully at that remark. He reaches up to straighten out his sleeve. Which isn’t even really wrinkled at all, but it probably is by Tasallir Standards.

 Vena snorts, and backs his way down the hall.

 “Taz, she’s like two feet tall and sweet as a button, I think I’ll be fine.”

 “That is the kind of stereotyping that ends with people being murdered on beaches,” Tasallir informs him. “She could have cohorts. Or a weapon. Make sure you keep emergency services on speed dial, it is first date protocol.”

 “This is worrying, by the way, this is exactly what I’m telling you not to do,” Vena points out, jogging backwards to the elevator.

 “Look where you are going, you idiot,” Tasallir counters.

 “Love you bunches!” Vena jokes, before blowing a kiss, and then finally turning around to hit the call button. The elevator doors open straight away, and he happily makes his way down to the lobby. Carefully balancing a bag full of beach supplies, and double-checking his phone and wallet in his pockets. He fishes his favourite pair of sunglasses out of the bag’s pocket, and slides them on as he nods to the doorman and makes his way out to the street and down towards the parking garage.

 He’d offered to pick up Ana, but she assured him she had a ride. Probably smart, Vena will concede - joking aside it really is their first date, and if she came with him then she’d have to go back with him, even if she didn’t want to.

 Of course, Vena has zero intention of making her not want to. He’s almost forgotten that this date is a result of a weird bachelor auction bidding type situation. They’ve texted one another a few times now. Mainly just corny jokes and puns, but he’s not complaining. Even so, it’s not like Ana knows a lot about him. What if he was a mass murderer or something? That would suck.

 So he gets his car alone, and turns up the radio. Listening to one of the local stations as he devotes the first thirty minutes of his commute to just getting out of the city traffic, before finally hitting less cluttered roads, and driving his way out of Arlathan.

 It always feels so good to do that.

 The beach isn’t exactly quiet, but it’s not being mobbed either. Vena finds a parking spot and then has to walk a fair bit to reach the meeting point. He runs a bit behind, luck of the commute, but when he gets to the little beach side grill he immediately spots his date waiting for him at the front.

 Ana’s wearing a red bikini top with a sunflower pin on it, and a loose green jacket that makes her eyes pop. There’s a dark lipstick on her mouth, and a leaf-shaped charm necklace held by soft cord around her neck. Her freckles are all on full display - well, as much as they could be without that nude beach situation they’d tossed around - and her hair nearly looks blonde in the bright sunlight.

 At least until she turns her head, and the red hits him when she moves. She beams when she sees him.

 “Hey, Bachelor Number Nine,” she quips, bouncing a bit on the balls of her feet.

 Vena grins and does a mock stroll down an invisible runway, turning at the end when he gets to her. He feels light and playful, even if his heart is beating decidedly faster. He loves this feeling, he thinks. The cusp of something good and new, maybe even amazing. But still tentative, too. It’s a lot like the feeling he gets when he drives out of the city.

 “Hey Ana-bo-bana,” he replies. The pockets of her jacket look full, he notes. Something like a leafy twig seems to be poking out of one of the bottom ones, and she’s got a flower in her hands that she’s fiddling with. As he draws level with her, she grins and reaches up to slip it over one of his ears.

 “This grill smells good, and the beach is pretty,” she tells him. “What’s first on the itinerary?”

 Vena moves the flower a little more securely behind his ear, and offers her his arm.

 “Lunch, if you like?” he suggests.

 Ana takes his elbow.

 “Oh, good. I was hoping you’d say that,” she agrees. “Work was absolutely killer this morning, and I’m famished.”

 She grins. Vena’s not entirely sure he’s caught the joke, but after a moment, he decides it’s not the end of the world.

 He grins back.

[vicioushyperbolizer]

Rating Kids Books

“Feminist Baby” by Loryn Brantz

PROS: A super great place to start introducing the concept of feminism to your kiddos. In a few pages, it focuses on some of the major issues that AFAB children deal in terms of their gender (clothes, toys, behaving “demurely”. Really vibrant and colorful illustration

CONS: It not only focuses on just the female side of feminism (instead of looking at equality for all genders), but it really pushed the gender binary. Feminist baby wears pink AND blue. She plays with dolls AND cars. It’s always one or the other, heavily implying that gender is one or the other, too.

Like i said, it’s a really good jumping off point to give kids a lesson of your own on what feminism means, and it gets them used to hearing about the concept, even if the idea is super watered down (and not in a good way). If there are better alternatives to teaching feminism, i’d love to know them

7/10

“Quantum Physics for Babies” and “Rocket Science for Babies” by Chris Ferrie

PROS: These books are AWESOME! Quantum physics is a bit more difficult to grasp (it’s a really hard concept, though, so I’m not mad about it), but Chris Ferrie breaks down incredibly hard science into the most basic parts and makes it actually child friendly. Rocket science is written in such a way that you could easily turn it into a fun activity for older kids (even if they object to the book being “for babies”). The illustrations are bold, but the colors are more muted than the usual neons in kids books (i personally like this, but some kids might not).

CONS: there are some concepts that aren’t explained that will be a struggle for kids. Obviously, these are hard sciences and aren’t really made for kids to understand, but once you introduce the concepts to them, it’s kind of on you as the parent/guardian/reader to answer all of the questions, and I don’t know about y’all, but I don’t think I can explain to my toddler (when the time comes) what “energy” is, and why electrons have it, but neutrons don’t.

9/10

“Don’t Push the Button” by Bill Cotter

PROS: this is probably one of my kids FAVORITE books. It’s interactive, it gets the kid to do things like push buttons and shake the book, and it teaches them small things in a not-obvious way (“push the button two times” “now I’m yellow!”). The “button” illustration is constant on one side of the book, which is really interesting to see, too!

CONS: honestly, i can’t think of any! My kid asks for this book over and over and over, she knows what actions to do before I’m even on the right page. Super fun!

10/10

“What Is Punk?” by Eric Morse, illustrated by Anny Yi

PROS: Okay, I’ll admit that this was more for me than my kiddo, but she actually loves it too! The writing is absolutely phenomenal, and even if there are a lot of words, my kiddo loves hearing the rhyme scheme. The book goes through the different groups of punk music (New York, LA, England, DC, the women of punk), and a little of the history behind it. The “illustraions” are actually clay figures, and are incredibly interesting to look at, because they have likenesses of all the punk greats (and all of the crowds are very inclusive!).

CONS: This is a pretty niche book, and some band names may be a little risque for some folks. (the book does comment on the Sex Pistols’ name, but still mentions the Buzzcocks and The Slits)

9/10

My Little Pony boardbook series by Hasbro (no author mentioned on the books)

These books were a gift. I generally stay away from branded things, because my kiddo doesn’t like to watch tv or movies, and i don’t like getting her branded stuff for things she doesn’t enjoy.

PROS: they’re over quickly

CONS: these books are so bad. You would think that a mega-seller like My Little Pony would spend money on a legitimate book series for kids (or bother to pay an author more than pennies… or bother to put the author’s name on the books, anywhere), but that apparently isn’t the case. The books are short (5 pages front and back, 10 total), poorly written, and the illustrations look like they’re probably taken from the show and not drawn specifically for the books.

1/10

“Goodnight Gorilla” by Peggy Rathmann

PROS: there are animals. Kids like those.

CONS: oh where do i start with this book. I FUCKING hate this book. In the first place: there are barely any words. You’re not reading this book to your kiddo, you’re sitting there flipping pages, either explaining it to them or hoping they can glean some kind of story from it. Or not, we’ll get to that. The zoo itself makes no sense either -- why is the elephant in a cage while the armadillo has an open air, free-range kind of deal to roam around in?.. Do the zookeepers live right there next to it? Because if that’s the case…

WHY does the zookeepers wife end up doing his job?! Why is she the one getting up in the middle of the night to fix his mistakes? What is that teaching the kiddos? “If mommy has to fix daddy’s mistakes, that’s okay?” NAH. nope. Daddy can get his ass out of bed and walk those animals back into the zoo, because his wife probably had a long day, and also IT’S HIS GODDAMN JOB. HE FUCKED UP, HE FIXES IT.

I cannot even begin to express how much i hate this book.

1/10. Because animals, i guess.

Weird mentions:

Please, Mr Panda by Steve Antony

Okay, this is a weird one. It took me at least two or three read throughs to even gleen the message kiddos are supposed to get from this book. It’s probably not the best thing for little ones, but I love it for so many reasons.

PROS: It teaches please and thank you are necessary for interactions. It teaches that you can say ‘no’ to rude people. The panda is cute as hell. The illustrations are interesting -- all of the animals are black and white on a grey background, and the only color is a box of donuts.

CONS: the panda is also an asshole. It’s hard to understand that the asshole panda is saying no because the other animals are assholes, too.

7/10

@unforth-ninawaters