#honestly it's criminal how few short-haired dolls AG has released

[idledoll]

My short-haired girls.

[embermarsh]

INTRO TO EMBER

( danielle rose russell , 24 looks 20, cis female, she/her ) The war is about to start EMBER MARSH. We see that you will be fighting for the MARSH family as a LYCAN. SHE reminds me of HOT AND STILL GLOWING EMBERS AFTER A FIRE HAS RAGED, AN INNER BATTLE OF RETICENCE AND DAUNTLESSNESS, BUBBLING LAUGHTER ON THE PURSE OF YOUR LIPS. We wish you luck. ( cat, 25, she/her, gmt/bst )

ABOUT

name: ember ruth marsh nicknames: em, red, little marsh, marsh age: 24, looks 20 gender: cis female pronouns: she/her sexuality: pansexual species: lycanthrope occupation: forensic scientist ( with a focus on blood spatter analysis ), with aspirations to become a forensic pathologist positive attributes: charming, compassionate, dauntless, ardent, tactile, loyal negative attributes: reticient, stubborn, naive, scrutinizing, unceasing, sarcastic fc: danielle rose russell

HEADCANONS

ember first turned a week after her 13th birthday ( and boy was it a doozy, although she’d been told since birth what shifting was like [ although an entirely individual experience ] and about her family affliction, and even though she felt prepared - she wasn’t. it was entirely out of her control and she realised soon enough into the transition that regardless of how prepared she’d tried to be, she wasn’t going to be able to control this -- her first transformation, she was just going to have to let it happen, go through it, survive it and figure out what to do afterwards. she came too the next day, unaware of her surrounding, uncomfortable and sore. the fact she was disassociated from her environment for a few moments really threw her and she cried. )

ember made it her mission, after her few first transformations to find a place where she had control ( or at least more of it ) of the experience.

although the girl of the Marsh family ( in regards to the children of george and kelly ) ember has always tried to tousle with her siblings and other family members as if she wasn’t the daughter ( and granddaughter ) of the alpha/s. of course; she’s less boisterous than her brothers, and perhaps a little more reserved than others ( although that doesn’t mean she can’t and won’t be bold ). if it’s possible to be a balanced lycan, that is she. she’s had the experience and love and care from her older family memebers to guide her, show her what to do and what not to do, and it really has benefitted her.

ember has never had an issue with blood or injury or violence; she’d had plenty of gory and horror movie sessions with friends that she shouldn’t have when younger, and there was the whole fact that she was a lycan and not unaccustomed to the more macabre side of life sometimes; but it lead her to her career path now. a forensic scientist ( going to crime scenes, carefully collecting and looking at evidence, examining and analysing it to help law enforcement catch criminals and solve crimes ).

( it’s no surprise ) ember loves dogs, and if she could, she’d buy a house and fill it with dogs. she has a chesnut lab setter ( labrador/red setter ) pup who she got from an old college friend whose dog accidentally got pregnant and had a litter of puppies. ember got dana ( named after dana scully ) about a year ago.

she loves everything noodles related; honestly, if it’s got noodles, it’s got her vote. of course, it’s important she have a balanced diet because she burns energy differently and needs her strength for shifting etc, but she can’t resist a noodle based meal. if you need to get into ember’s good books, want a favour, or need forgiveness, come bearing noodles.

ember is a dark reddy brown coloured wolf.

BIO

ember was born after 36 hours of labor, the middle marsh child for george and kelly marsh, and a baby girl no less. ( finally a girl after a rambunctious boy ) was it possible to be the youngest child, a girl; the only girl, and not be a princess? yes. because ember had no inkling of the spoilt baby troupe. she just wanted to be one of the family, play with her brother and cousins. and that didn’t change when her baby brother, Jeremy, came along. although yes she was the only girl, and doted on ( mama’s and daddy’s girl both equally ), she was still a marsh! she wasn’t a delicate porcelain doll that you couldn’t pick up without fear of breaking. but she was treated differently to the boys, because being a lycan was different for a woman. in little ways, but different, and with that came different lessons to be taught and understood. ember was born on an impossible hot day, and thank god for air con and ice chips because if not kelly marsh would not have gotten through it. but it was the mess of red hair atop her head that convinced her parents that ember was the right name for her, more so than the sorching weather outside. 

ember always knew she wasn’t going to be alpha, or even beta. she’d never assumed she’d be any ranking in the pack, because of how many marsh’s came before her, but it didn’t stop her from wanting it. silently, quietly, patiently. she was ambitious, she was capable. she was... also thankful for the freedom that also gave her. she wasn’t as firmly fixed to the spot in cresthill as other’s were. she had the freedom to travel ( albeit for short amounts of time -- home was home and family is everything ) and study elsewhere.

she’d always had her eyes set on a challenging and perhaps more hands on//involved job, and it just so happened that she fell into the idea of forensic science and decided to look into the potential routes she could go into within that. although the end goal had always been forensic pathology, but after her brother’s brutal murder, ember paused her further study ( one year into a medical degree ) and found a job helping the Cresthill police department as a forensic scientist.

to hear that jeremy had been murdered ( not having been at home at the time ) was a surreal moment for ember, she remembered all the feeling and sensation rushing from her legs. it wasn’t until her hip ached from the impact of falling that she released she’d lost balance and fell to the ground. suddenly, she felt sick. very, very sick. and confused. and angry. and... she’d dropped everything to get home. there was no better way to express how she felt following his death and funeral than ...well, numb. something huge in her life was missing. but it was coming together with her family which helped her healing. being open and honest with Franklin helped hugely, and in truth, getting Dana helped lift her spirits and make her laugh again.

WANTED CONNECTIONS

a best friend -- either day one buddies or they were very young when they met and bonded! outside of franklin, this person is her go-to. ride and die buddies for life. an ex-partner/crush -- it’s a little awkward now, maybe they broke up well, or not so. but the fact is ember is over it now. perhaps they were friends first, or perhaps they’ve tried to maintain a friendship after. this is very open to discussion. work colleague -- work can be stressful and long and hard work sometimes, but these two have each other to keep them laughing or their spirits up. be it a perfectly timed coffee cup being put on a desk, or a well timed lunch break.  friends with benefits -- whether it’s late night after work, or when they’re stressed and want some relief, and laughter, and alcohol, they can call upon the other. there are no strings attached ( perhaps there’s family politics or maybe they just know the visions they have for the future don’t match at all ) and it’s just fun. ember really needed some fun in her life after losing some of her fire after Jeremy’s death, and she happened to find it between the sheets with this person. antagonist -- she isn’t sure why ( really, she doesn’t know ) but this person just really gets under her skin! she can’t place it, but it’s glaringly obviously there.

more to come!

[raendown]

Chapter 61

The latest request for the Soulmate Collection actually gave me both the pairing and the au and I realized that even in a modern universe my favorite way to write the Akatsuki is as a gang of criminals. xD

Under the cut or on AO3!

Pairing: SasoriDeidara Soulmate au: The one where each person has a piece of clay that changes shape and color to reflect their soulmate's emotions

Sasori hated that stupid piece of clay. He’d been born with it clenched in his fist the same as everybody else had and he hadn’t hated it then. No, he had learned to hate it in the orphanage. He learned to hate it when his life was darkness and misery and that stupid lump of clay would mold itself into a boy caught mid-run, a child leaping for joy, always colored with happy shades of fun, excitement, amusement. Whoever his soulmate was they were having the time of their life and here he was, stuck in some dark hole with a Matron who hated him and fellow children who mocked him for sleeping with a doll.

So yes, Sasori hated that stupid lump of clay. He never understood why he couldn’t simply leave it behind. He should have shoved it in a closet somewhere, hidden it under the floorboards like so many other angry orphans. Instead it sat at his bedside. When he turned eighteen and aged out, Sasori found himself a crappy job and a dirt-cheap apartment and set his lump of clay at his bedside. Lately it had begun to take on the shapes of small bags or little clocks. What those two things had in common he had no clue but they still appeared in shades of amusement and excitement. He still hated it.

There were days he would come home to find his clay shaped like a reaching hand, colored for longing and wistfulness. On his own worst days the clay would shape itself in to a smiling face and assume the colors of comfort. He supposed that, somewhere, his soulmate must be seeing his own emotions and trying to comfort him in what small ways they could. He would only ever scowl. What did they know of sadness, this happy person who had never gone a full day without producing the colors of joy?

He was twenty-one years old when Sasori found himself someone mixed up with the wrong side of the law.

His shitty job earned him shitty pay and he could afford very little other than groceries. But for the last three weeks he had been working overtime, picking up shifts for a coworker who had gone on vacation. Today he had just a little bit extra money and he knew just what he wanted to do with it: put it in the bank! There was nothing better than knowing he had money in the bank, in that savings account that sometimes almost closed by default because it had been empty for too long. He was excited to finally have something to put in it and hoped he would have enough money to not need to touch it for at least a few months.

Sasori had deposited his precious extra money and was making his way through the atrium when an explosion went off, rocking the ground beneath his feet and sending him tumbling to the floor.

The next thing he knew he was being used as a hostage, long blonde hair obscuring his vision as someone wrapped their arm around his neck and leaned over him to shout at the tellers. Hysterically, his mind noted that this person had a rather pleasant voice. He was terrified when they decided to take him along to use as a human shield, insurance so the cops won’t follow them. Sasori is a human being and the police won’t shoot if he’s in the line of fire. But he is also a good-for-nothing nobody and they weren’t going to put much effort in to finding him. Sasori wondered if his captors knew just how lucky they were to choose the perfect hostage.

They released him inside their van, allowed him to scuttle back in to one corner and huddle there to watch them with terrified eyes. He was flabbergasted to see that the blonde one who had captured him was no older than himself. He was grinning widely, tossing a plastic wrapped package back and forth. One of the other ones waved their hands in the air frantically.

“Deidara! Stop playing with that!” the girl snapped. The blonde young man laughed derisively.

“It’s fine, right? I’m the expert on making things go boom and, believe me, I have no interest in going boom myself.” He tossed the package up in the air, catching it with the same hand. “This isn’t even armed anyway.”

Sasori brought his knees up closer to the rest of his body, just hoping that they would continue to ignore him and wondering if this ragtag bunch of idiots even had a plan for what they were going to do with him. That Deidara guy seemed like the loose cannon type, the one who would make things up as he going along. They probably hadn’t even planned on taking a hostage.

His supposition is proved correct when they arrive at an abandoned building turned hideout to be greeted by a giant man with gills tattooed on the sides of his neck and more piercings than should really be necessary. He was also wearing a dark scowl as they all piled out of the van.

“What the fuck? Deidara can you not control yourself? You took a fucking hostage! And you brought him back here with you!?” The man’s voice was a harsh growl and he seemed like he really wanted to take a huge bite out of the blonde guy with those over-sharp teeth that flashed inside his mouth. The only thing that appeared to be holding him back was the hand on his leg, another man languishing on a nearby couch, calmly watching television while his arm reached out to absentmindedly stroke down Sharp Tooth’s calf.

“Screw you, un!” Deidara glared but wasted no energy defending himself, only looked away to finally pay attention to the person whose life he had just turned upside down. “Hm. What to do with you now.”

Sasori was honestly starting to worry about his own brain because the only thing that flashed across his mind right then was that he hoped he would get home in time for his next shift. Missing shifts meant losing money and he did not work that hard just to use up his precious savings the very next month because these idiots kept him from making enough to cover his bills.

More people wandered their way in to the room and soon Sasori found himself on the edge of what looked like a large family debate, his fate being the subject in discussion. There was only one woman in the whole group and she looked more harried than any of the rest of them. Sasori couldn’t tell if it was the one with the orange hair who was in change or if it was the one wearing a weird orange mask but orange was definitely the color of leadership here. Eventually those two seemed to come to the decision that Deidara brought them the problem (he really didn’t appreciate being referred to as a problem) so Deidara should be the one to take care of him (like he was some sort of pet).

He managed to hold his tongue as he was led away by a grumbling blond. The building they were in appeared to be an old warehouse of some kind, repurposed in to a base for nefarious purposes. The hallways were short and complicated and he lost track of how many turns they took before he found himself closed in to a messy bedroom, standing awkwardly by the door while Deidara flopped on the bed.

“Make yourself at home, un,” Deidara offered magnanimously. Sasori blinked and looked around.

There were posters on the wall and strange tools on a desk in the corner. Bits of wire and tubing and things he didn’t know how to properly identify sat in organized containers, at direct odds with the state of chaos the rest of the room was in. Clothes hung out of a short dresser shoved against the far wall and gathered in piles on the floor. The top of the dresser was completely cleared off but for a familiar lump of clay, currently shaped like a cat sniffing its surroundings and shaded with the colors of curiosity and caution.

Sasori stopped dead, staring at the clay which seemed to call for him, beckoning to him on a frequency only he could hear. As he watched the cat disappeared, replaced instead with a wooden doll standing stiffly upright and fading in to the color of shock. Impossible. Deidara hadn’t been paying very much attention to him but his head shot up when Sasori moved forward, hand reaching out to touch the clay.

“Hey!” the blond shouted. “Don’t touch that!”

“But it’s mine!”

“Are you stupid? That’s mine!”

“No, I mean–” Sasori fumbled for words, Deidara’s hand pressed to his chest to keep him at a respectable distance. “I mean that it’s for me. It represents me. I mean that I think I’m your–”

“Soulmate,” Deidara finished for him.

The two of them stood there staring at each other, Deidara blinking owlishly before squinting at him like he thought he might be lying. Sasori only stared back in wonder.

“You think you’re my soulmate.” For a moment Sasori feared the other might not believe him, then suddenly Deidara’s face lit up with a brilliant smile. “That’s so cool, un! What’s your name? Where are you from? Do you wanna stay?”

“Stay?”

“Yeah, stay here with us. The Akatsuki’s great. They picked me up off the streets when I was really little and they let me blow stuff up all the time. It’s awesome!”

He was being offered a home, he realized, a place to come home to and people to belong with. Sasori thought about his shitty apartment and his shitty job, alone in some shitty corner of their broken city. He looked around the room, seeing Deidara’s poorly kept but high quality things. Then he looked at the lump of clay, hesitant but hopeful. When he smiled he watched it light up with the colors of peace and happiness, taking on the shape of a tiny little house. A home.

“That sounds nice,” he said.

Deidara threw one arm around his shoulders and started talking a mile a minute about how they can find out what he’s good at and what he likes to do so that he can contribute to the Akatsuki in whatever way makes him happy.

Sasori let him talk, the smile on his face feeling new and foreign, and made a mental note that he would need to stop by the apartment and pick up his stupid lump of clay. He can’t imagine being without it, just as he suddenly can’t imagine being without Deidara.