#i did these two months after PLA came out and just found them again and sill like how they turned out

[moldspicy]

found some old PLA doodles 🌸

[ya-zz]

This might be a little of a challenge since you've never written for him but! I wanted to request some Lifeweaver x reader where he keeps receiving flowers everyday from a secret admirer and one day he caughts reader leaving them?

Challenging or not, I love writing for a character that I haven't written a full fic for! Thank you so much for requesting!

Lifeweaver x Reader (gen)

Word count: 1333

Niran would spend his days cooped up inside of his lab or in his room, mind focussing on his biophysics and natural sciences. His schedule was always packed with researching, experiments that worked and failed, though despite the setbacks he experienced, he was determined to fulfil his duties at bringing natural order back to the world. 

His days at the lab were long, nights were short in his room. He kept to his schedule, not wanting to deviate from it at any point. One wrong step and it throws him off balance. Stick to the routine and the research will turn fruitful, everything would blossom into something truly beautiful. 

As he worked, there was no room for distraction. Everyone knew to leave him be, not disturbing him at any point to avoid the groans and dissatisfaction that Niran would spew. He gained a reputation, though the scientist never faltered despite the hateful words that were whispered throughout the building. 

Not everyone hated him though. He had his admirers, much like anyone would. Newbies coming and going would offer their praise and thanks before Niran shut himself inside again. Their words rang on deaf ears most days, but he was thankful nonetheless. 

There was one anomaly that he couldn’t quite place, however. It wasn’t a matter of his research, no, everything was going the way he had hoped; but the one anomaly was the presence of flowers appearing in his lab. Neatly placed on his desk, whether it be on his current project, the stack of papers to the side, or resting neatly in a small test tube. Each day there was a new flower, from buds to blooms, each one unique in their own way.

He would study the flower for a moment or two before putting it to one side until eventually he had a small bouquet of flowers sitting beside his window in a small glass flask - a temporary accommodation before he found a suitable vase.

The flowers would appear each day before his arrival in the morning, yet no matter how early he seemed to get there, he never once found anyone leaving the room. Maybe it was after he left? He did the same thing, waited until he could no longer stay in the lab but nobody came. They had to be someone within the facility. Niran couldn’t for the life of him find or even figure out who this person was. 

But you knew because it was you who was leaving them. For months now you had admired Niran, the way he worked, his friendly nature when he wasn’t working, but you were just another person, someone who he wouldn’t pass a second glance at. You weren’t like him, just a student who studied under another scientist. 

Maybe leaving those flowers was a little strange. Some would probably consider it stalkerish behaviour, but what could you do? He wouldn’t speak to you if he was busy and every chance you had was always taken by someone else who just happened to need something at the same time. 

Seeing him in the lunch hall, wanting to have just one moment only for someone else to grab him and he leaves. Another chance lost. Seeing him in the hallway, wanting to call out to him but he quickly ducks into his room before anyone even has a chance to say hello. 

Niran was probably an obsession for you at this point, but you didn’t want to seem like the crazy person. So, you settle on the next best thing. He liked flowers and what’s not to love about receiving them, especially anonymously. 

While he knew he had admirers, but this feeling was something else for him. It made him feel warm inside. He wasn’t angry that someone was coming and going from his lab because he knew where everything was place. Nothing was out of place, only a flower appearing on his workspace. 

Each day that he sauntered into his lab he wondered what flower was waiting for him. A lily. A rose. Wisteria or lotus. Bluebell or snowdrop, daffodil or tulips. Each were added to the flask or laid gently next to it, his windowsill slowly being overrun by this persons flowers.

And each day that you would return, you would see them all neatly arranged, the moon barely illuminating them before you had to leave. Working late had its perks, you figured out. While many scientists finished early, Niran being one of them, you could wander the halls without any questioning. ‘Just delivering reports’, you’d say, hand holding a stack of papers which only served to hide the flower you had recently acquired. 

Nirans lab lights were always switched off, the indication that he wasn’t there, the cue to leave your flower and get out of there before anyone notices… 

Though tonight was different… 

Everything was going as it normally was; Niran had left for the night and you were out ‘delivering reports’ to the other scientists. You made your way to his lab, the first thing on your agenda. His door opened with ease - you wondered why he never locked it each time it opened. 

You were quiet on your feet, manoeuvring around the space with no effort as your eyes glance upon the growing selection by his window. It made your heart beat just that little bit faster knowing that he had been keeping them and not throwing them away. 

Tonights flower was another lotus, one that was pale pink and white. A little smaller than the previous one, but still magnificent in it’s own way. You place it down beside the stack of papers before backing away. You take two steps back before turning around, heading back towards the door. 

A blurred figure stands opposite the door before it opens and you don’t even get chance to hide before the door exposes you. Like a deer in headlights, you stand there and stare at the taller man, colour draining from your face as your body shakes and heart begins to race. 

He doesn’t say a word but peers behind you, a smug smile appearing on his face. 

“Ah, the lotus. A symbol of purity and strength. How kind.” He finally breaks that silence, walking past you. “You really shouldn’t be sneaking around in other peoples laboratories.”

You go to speak but the lump in your throat stops you. The panic and shame were rising. 

“Please, I’m not mad. I’m glad to finally know who has been leaving me such wonderful gifts.” He smiles at you as he swings his bag over his shoulder. “Come, I’m sure you have an explanation as to why you’re doing this.” 

You sheepishly nod as Niran escorts you out of his room. 

“I suppose I was in luck I had forgotten my bag. It has been such a stressful day.” He speaks as if he didn’t just catch an intruder. “It’s nice to put a face to the admirer.”

The comment makes your cheeks flush. You finally manage to find the words to speak to him, explaining to him the reasoning behind your actions. 

Niran chuckles, his chest feeling warmer as he looks down at you. Cute. 

“Perhaps you would like to get coffee sometime?” He asks, which catches you completely off guard. “There’s this really nice cafe not far from here that serves the perfect blends. They also had tea, if coffee isn’t to your liking.” 

When you accept his offer, the flush burning hotter, his smile grows bigger. 

He winks, tone more playful than serious. “Perfect! I look forward to finally getting to know my secret florist.”

You stand there dumbfounded for a moment before walking back through the halls. You had just scored a coffee date with the best biophysicists in the country. Could life get any more exciting? The smile that embraces your face didn’t seem to let up for hours. Who’d have thought that you of all people get to be that close to him…

[lanawinterscigarettes]

Love Quinn + an overgrown garden from the prompt list please

ofc!! thanks for the request for love btw <3

original prompt list can be found here for those who are curious

Grown With Love (Love Quinn x gn reader)

Warnings: very brief mention of murder but fluff other than that <3

The romance between you and Love, your newly-wed wife, seemed to happen in a whirlwind. It wasn't even six months after you'd met that you'd proposed to her, and naturally she'd agreed to it right away. You bought a house together not long after, one on the cheaper side that you could do some renovations on. She had very specific ideas for how she wanted the layout to be, which you of course gave her complete control over.

Where you lived didn't matter much as long as you got to be there with her, and besides, happy wife, happy life. You'd do anything to make her happy, that much was certain.

Plus, it wasn't as if you had to pay for it. She had her parents money to do that, so she could redesign the house however she envisioned it the be. If she wanted to gut the entirety of the kitchen and rework it to be on the other side of the first floor, who were you to stop her? The world was her oyster when it came to your new place, and that carried into the land it sat on, which included the backyard.

She told you she was planning on having a garden where she could grow all of her own fruits and vegetables, not wanting to rely on overly-priced produce from factories that pumped them full of chemicals from the grocery stores in the neighborhood. There were always local markets, but she wanted to try growing food herself for a change. You were never one for gardening, but if that's what she wanted then you were certainly more than happy to help.

(While it was true that she did want a garden, she also needed a fresh patch of land that wouldn't look suspicious for her to be digging up in case a body had to be buried somewhere. Not that she'd ever tell you about her little hobby, as it was her opinion that you didn't need to know.)

"Honey, can you come bring the wheelbarrow over here to me?" Love asked while pointing with a glove-clad hand in the direction of where the wheelbarrow sat on the other side of the yard. She was on her hands and knees trying to get rid of all the weeds and other plants that she was certain would try to choke out the life of her vegetable garden before it even got started.

"Sure thing, sweetheart." You didn't have much of a set job when it came to redoing the house and backyard. It seemed as though you were there for moral support more than anything else, but that didn't mean you weren't happy and eager to help out your wife whenever you could.

She beamed with pride when she saw you bring it over to her, immediately beginning to dump the weeds that were already dug up into it so they could be disposed of later. "Thanks, honey."

You beamed in response before speaking again. "I'm gonna go grab the lemonade you made earlier and bring it outside for you."

The smile on her face seemed to grow wider at that. You always knew exactly what she needed, and when. "You do that, sweetheart. I'll be out here."

While she continued messing with the garden, you went inside the house, making sure to watch out for the several building supplies the workers had left behind as you grabbed the pitcher of lemonade from the kitchen along with two glasses. You quickly returned outside and filled them up before carrying one of the glasses over to your wife. "Here you go, honey."

She removed her gloves and took the full glass from you as she thought about you looked adorable doing things for her. You were always so eager to please. "Thank you, baby. Why don't you come sit with me? I was just about to take a break anyway."

You immediately nodded your head at the suggestion, rushing to grab your own glass before returning back over to sit down beside her. The garden still needed a lot of work done on it, but it wasn't looking too bad so far.

"What do you want to plant?" Love asked you after a moment or so, watching as you gulped away at her fresh, homemade lemonade while she spoke. "I was thinking some tomatoes, maybe some corn and watermelons if we have the space for it."

"Whatever you want to plant is fine by me. I'll be happy regardless," you replied brightly before leaning over and pressing a kiss to her face. "They'll be grown with love no matter what they are."

"Oh, my God, you and your stupid puns," she said with feigned exasperation, rolling her eyes playfully at your words. "You're right, though. They'll be grown with love, indeed. The love between the two of us," she added in a playful manner.

You giggled at her addition before nudging her side with your elbow. "You're such a sap."

"Mm, only for you." She moved in closer and gave you a passionate and loving kiss, the lemonade soon left forgotten as you got swept up in the feelings you shared for each other, your wedding bands glistening in the sunlight. Everything would be done with love as long as you and her were together.

End notes: Love's so sweet when she's not murdering people

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[goldentournesol]

All That Matters

*gif originally posted by @heat-waveee​ *

(Spencer Reid x Reader)

The one where Reader doesn’t visit Spencer in prison.

Length: 3.0k

A/N: MAJOR SPOILERS FOR SEASON 12 FINALE AND BEGINNING OF SEASON 13! 

Part 2: Here For You

masterlist

Spencer’s absence was felt in every aspect of her life.The bullpen wasn’t the same without him, her apartment, although they lived separately, wasn’t the same without him, even the jet wasn’t the same. She was so used to looking over and seeing his tall frame sprawled over that beige couch that she found herself glancing over out of habit just to find someone else there. It was just as disappointing every time. Her heart ached for him. It ached because she knew that there was nothing more she could do to help him or ease the pain he felt as he was being tortured in prison and it took a huge toll on her mental health. Everyone else had visited him, but she couldn’t bring herself to do it.

“Hey, Spence.” JJ said tearfully as soon as he took a seat across from her in the visitation room.

“Hey, is everything okay? It’s not my mom, is it?” He hurriedly asked with slight panic.

“No, no, she’s fine. Y/N and I saw her yesterday, she asked about you.” She nodded, smiling in an attempt to reassure him. He mirrored her expression with relief when she told him his mother thought he was at the beach. A short silence ensued.

“How are you doing?” JJ asked, as sympathetically as possible. Spencer fought back tears.

“I’m okay. I’m, uh, really happy to see you.” He admitted, even though he knew it probably wasn’t a good idea she was visiting. However, she reminded him of the promise she made him the last time she saw him. She promised she’d never leave him alone.

“How’s…” he paused with a swallow, “Y/N doing?” The question came out tentatively, his facial expression displaying something between a grimace and a hopeful look. The last time he’d seen Y/N in the courtroom, she was in a silent fit of tears.

“She’s...fine.” JJ lied. Spencer raised his eyebrows questioningly. It didn’t take a profiler to know that that was a straight up lie. “Alright, she’s not doing very well. I just didn’t want to tell you that because I knew you would worry about it and I don’t think you need any more of that.” She gestured around. Spencer heaved a sigh. He expected her response, he just didn’t want to hear it. 

Later that day, JJ found Y/N at her desk, nose deep in a file. Her eyes were frantic as they raced through the words on the page, hoping to find something useful. She had thrown herself into the case files, the Spencer-related and the non-Spencer-related. When she wasn’t occupied with the work, her mind would wander over to Spencer, which would send her into a whirlwind of panic, guilt, and rage. 

Panic because she didn’t want to imagine what he was going through, alone, scared, hopeless--. 

Guilt because she hadn’t visited him yet, she just couldn’t bring herself to see him. Not when she couldn’t wrap her arms around him, not when she couldn’t kiss him, or hold his hand. 

Rage because time was moving so slowly without him and they weren’t any closer to getting him out.

She hadn’t heard JJ come up from behind her and rest a hand on her shoulder. She yelped out in response, having been totally focused on the file.

“Woah, sorry, didn’t mean to startle you.” JJ said as she was met with Y/N’s red rimmed eyes.

“It’s alright.” Y/N muttered softly.

“Y/N, when was the last time you took a break? Or got some sleep?” JJ asked, noticing the constant nervous tapping on her thigh.

“A break? I can’t--I can’t take a break, JJ!” She uncharacteristically snapped, standing from her seat. JJ took a step back at her sudden outburst, her friend’s eyes aflame. 

“How am I supposed to take a break when he’s in there, probably terrified out of his mind?! How do you think he would feel if he knew I was sipping on some tea or...or styling my hair instead of helping him get out of there?” She spat, not even caring that she was gaining attention from people around her. She didn’t know that this was the guilt taking over and speaking for her, but JJ knew.

“He asked about you today...again.” She stated coolly, seeing Y/N’s angry expression soften immediately. She averted her gaze quickly, heart wrenching in her chest. She grabbed some files and made a move to leave, probably to shed some self-wallowing tears, but JJ stopped her by grabbing her arm gently.

“We’re going to get him out of there, I promise. But we need you on board with us. I suggest you go home and get some rest. This won’t be solved overnight.” JJ assured her with a determined voice. Y/N pulled her arm out of her friend’s grip and made a beeline for the exit.

It’s not like she didn’t want to see him, of course she wanted to see him. She wanted to see him more than anything, but she wouldn’t stop. She wouldn’t rest until she caught the son of bitch who put him in there. Spencer wanted nothing more than to see her face and hear her voice.

 At first, he genuinely couldn’t blame her for not wanting to visit, but as matters outside the prison began to worsen, the matters inside were on another level. Then, hope began to elude him. He stopped hoping to see her, stopped hoping for a future. Spencer struggled to see his future as anything other than void and bleak as the four walls of his cell consumed him every night. He tried to file away any resentment he felt for her, he even stopped asking JJ about her. Whether or not she chose to share anything about his girlfriend was completely her choice. It had become too painful for him to think about her, let alone talk about her. 

And in the beginning, he was thankful for his eidetic memory because it allowed him to replay their conversations and memories on a loop. But now, the memories mocked him and kept him up at night. She became a part of his past life and he didn’t know whether his new life after prison could accommodate her.

What if they never solved the case? What if he had to spend the entirety of the 25 years in prison? Would she come see him then? At what point would she move on from him? Would she even bother showing up to break up with him? Or would he eventually have to learn from JJ that Y/N found a new lover as she mistakenly mentions her name in conversation?

This is ridiculous. She loves him. He knows that.

Right?

 Curse the intricate inner workings of his brain. It never ceased. He shouldn’t be thinking this way. But pulling himself out of the darkest place he’d ever been was proving to be increasingly difficult. 

Rage filled him as he learned of his mother’s abduction. He didn’t know why he expected Y/N to come take him home when he’d been released instead of JJ. He shouldn’t have done that. He also shouldn’t have felt disappointed when he saw Penelope all by herself right outside the prison doors.

But he did.

No one mentioned her on the way back to the headquarters, but she invaded his mind anyway. He didn’t have the time or the energy to be thinking of her, he needed to find his mother. 

She had been eagerly awaiting his arrival in the bullpen with the rest of the team. She grinned for the first time in months as she saw his tall figure appear through the glass doors. She watched as Rossi grabbed Spencer’s face and kissed his cheeks before pulling him into a bear hug. She watched Emily stroked his hair and kissed his head. Even Matt threw his arms around Spencer. Tears fell as she watched the scene unfold across the room from her desk. 

Spencer’s entire attitude shifted as his eyes finally landed on her. His smile dissipated, his shoulders were pushed back, and his eyes, his kind, soulful eyes were cold as they bore into her wet ones. She felt a shiver race its way down her spine. The air in the room shifted. It was eerily quiet, everyone waiting for the fallout. But Spencer stood still and silent, neither of them making the first move. There was so much left unsaid between them.

“Let’s go find my mother.” Spencer spoke as he averted his gaze from her and made his way to the conference room. 

A silent sob wracked through her body as she fell back into her chair, her fingers gripping at her roots in frustration. Penelope rushed to her quickly and tried to console her, the rest of the team already in the conference room discussing the case.

“Go help the team, I’ll have Emily brief me later.” Y/N said, taking a deep, shaky breath as she pried Penelope off of her frame. Penelope reluctantly nodded and made her way into the conference room. Spencer’s expression was stone cold and indecipherable as he watched Y/N scurry off into the direction of the bathrooms through the window. 

Hours later, they had managed to retrieve Diana after learning that Cat Adams was in fact impersonating Mr. Scratch along with some help from Lindsey Vaughn. They were now doing the best they could to track down the real Mr. Scratch, but the team had been caught in a horrific car accident, which led to Emily’s abduction. Spencer was currently at home with his mother. Y/N, Penelope, and Matt hadn’t gone with the rest of the team. Y/N had been too shaken up to go out into the field.

“Y/N, get Spencer and meet us at the hospital!  Rossi’s refusing treatment until he talks to you two!” Matt yelled as he and Penelope raced to the hospital. Y/N nodded and called Spencer. Her name was the last he wanted to see on his phone, but he picked up anyway. He almost didn’t.

“Spencer! There’s been a terrible accident, Emily’s been taken by Scratch, I’m picking you up now! Rossi’s refusing treatment! I’ll explain everything on the way to the hospital.” She spoke frantically into the phone, speeding off into the direction of his apartment. He hadn’t even had time to reply before she hung up. Minutes later, he got into the car and noticed her panicked state.

“Are you okay to drive?” He asked, immediately noticing her rapid breathing, wide eyes, and white knuckles from gripping the wheel tightly. She met his eyes, shaking her head. Spencer saw the tears and switched places with her, driving to the hospital. He also noticed how she failed to manage her breathing.

“Hey, hey. Try to match my breath.” He breathed in and out slowly. She shook her head in disbelief, hating the fact that this was their first encounter. He was still the caring man she fell in love with, even though she knew he probably hated her guts right then. Her breathing evened itself out and she fiddled with her fingers.

“I’m good, I’m good.” She muttered, mostly to herself, “Spencer, I-” she began but he cut her off harshly.

“Not now, Y/N.” He spat as he rolled into the hospital, searching for JJ and Rossi. Y/N’s heart wrenched as he ran to JJ’s side, treating her with the tenderness she craved. She found Rossi and ran to him quickly.

“Where’s Spencer? Get Spencer.” He uttered, obviously in pain. Y/N brought Spencer over.

“What’s going on?” He asked, walking into the room.

“Shut up and listen.” Rossi demanded, eyes shifting between Y/N and Spencer, landing on Y/N as he spoke, “First, you, go through my pants pockets and find my keys. Second, you’re back on the team.” He referred to Spencer.

“Not sure I should be. Has the director approved that?” He asked.

“I’m making the calls now. I’ll take the heat. You’re back on the team.” He panted.

“I’ve got the keys.” Y/N said, holding them.

“There’s a little one there to a file cabinet in my office. Inside, there’s Chicago Bears season tickets. When you get them, call Matt Simmons. I promised him those tickets.” He seemed adamant.

“Rossi, did they give you something to make you loopy?” Y/N asked.

“I’ll get the doctor, we’ll get him into surgery.” Spencer stated and made a move to leave.

“Just shut up and listen.” He insisted, “Emily is missing. Stephen is dead. As for you two ass clowns, you’ll do me the courtesy of following my orders. And for the love of God, work through whatever it is you two are going through and then I’ll go into surgery.”

She and Spencer nodded as they left the room. “This has nothing to do with season tickets.” She stated and he agreed.

“Ass clowns?” Spencer muttered confusedly and she repressed a giggle. 

They had been so caught up in the urgency of the case that they hadn’t found the time to talk, but Y/N was glad that Spencer was at least conversing with her, even if it was strictly about the case. With Emily now found and Scratch finally dead, they learned to breathe again. Y/N offered to drive Spencer home from Stephen’s funeral, seeing how morose he seemed. He reluctantly agreed and got into the car.

“I know you don’t want to, but we really have to talk.” She said softly, afraid that if she spoke too loud, he’d either snap or break. It was unclear which was more likely to happen.

“Now’s not really the best time, Y/N.” He spoke defeatedly, his hands running over his face and digging into the sockets of his eyes.

“It’ll never be the right time, Spencer.” She pushed, “I missed you.”

He laughed crudely, almost mocking her, “Oh, you missed me?”

“Yes, I missed you. Of course I missed you. I’m sorry I didn’t-”

“Sorry?!” He practically screeched, turning to face her. Her jaw clenched in reaction as she focused on driving. 

“You’re sorry for what exactly? For not coming to visit me? For not bothering to write me any letters? For practically pretending like I didn’t exist? Do you have any idea how often I hoped to see you? Do you have any idea what it feels like to be disappointed to see one of my best friends because I was hoping it was you? I hated myself for it, but it happened. How could you, Y/N?!” He seethed, voice uncharacteristically booming through the small space between them. It was laced with hurt and betrayal. She abruptly pulled the car over on the side of the road and turned to look at him. 

“How could you forget about me like that?” Spencer’s voice was small and shaky, tears threatening to spill.

Her own tears found their way down her cheeks as she stared at his heartbroken face, “Forget about you? I could never forget about you, Spencer.” She sniffled softly.

“You were all I could think about. I couldn’t sleep, I couldn’t eat. I’m pretty sure I developed an ulcer from the stress, by the way. I didn’t visit because…” she swallowed, pausing to blow her nose, “because I was angry. I was so angry, Spencer. Not at you, of course. At the situation. It was unfair to you and I’m sorry. I’m so, so sorry. I know no amount of apologies will undo it, but I couldn’t handle it. I knew I wouldn’t have been able to handle seeing you in there and not be able to hold you or kiss you or...or touch you.” She paused again to blow her nose. 

Her words were disguised by the sobs, but Spencer managed to comprehend them. “It would have been too painful for me, I’m sorry. I was too weak and too selfish. You deserved so much better than that, I know.”

Spencer’s heart ached to see her cry, but he was so upset that he didn’t know if he could forgive her just yet. His throat got that familiar feeling of being so tight that he couldn’t speak. He just shook his head and rubbed at his eyes, turning away from her.

“Just take me home.” He whispered and she nodded, pulling herself together. Spencer occupied himself with a loose thread on his clothes, the soft hum of the engine was the only thing filling the silence between them.

She pulled up in front of his apartment complex and he was about to step out of the car when she reached for his arm, stopping him. She drew her hand back immediately, realizing that that was the first time they made physical contact since he got back. She hoped she wasn’t overstepping. He stared at her curiously at both reaching for him and drawing back.

“Spence, I understand if you want to end things. I just...I love you. I never stopped loving you and I never will.” She reminded him and he nodded, the tenderness she’d grown so used to returning to his eyes.

“I love you, too.” He spoke quietly, offering her a tight smile that obviously hid a lot of pain. 

She watched as he got out of the car and disappeared inside the building. He hadn’t confirmed nor denied that he wanted to end things with her and she didn’t know if she should be relieved at that. All she did know though was hearing those four words from Spencer again breathed a new life into her lungs.

He still loves her.

That’s all that matters.

Part 2

[kanataka-san]

Jasper Hale X Male Reader

Alice decided to make a suprise for her human friend and celebrate it in their house with close ones.

It was Bellas birthday, everybody has a great time joking, dancing or just talking. (Y/N) made her a birthday cupcakes deciding they wont be able eat a whole cake with just the two of them, taller girl agreed at this idea.

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(H/C) haired boy sat on his lovers lap plaing with that blonde locks, gold eyes looked into this beautifull (E/C) and perfect smile that he retured getting closer to kiss smallers boy forehead. "Uh-uh don't move you'll destroy it." (Y/N) pouted holding a braid he made so it wont fall apart. Jasper listened and sat still, smiling- It was perfect.

That was untill brown haired girl hissed... Alice turned to her and saw blood cut on her finger, Edward fastly came to Bella as Rosalie take (Y/N) away from Jasper that was now held back by Emmett and Caslisle. Esme told her 'childern' to take the two to their homes, that way they will be save.

(Y/N) got a plaster in his phone case and gave it to his friend that thanked him. The ride was silent nobody talked but Edward could tell (Y/N) is worried about his lover also by his running thoughts- it made the vampire smile 'cause no metter the sytuation smaller boy was always worried first about Jasper than himself- he know he will get scoled if he said it out loud with his family around.

"Hey, cheer up he will be fine." Edward ruffled (Y/N)s hair after exiting the car and taking him right in front of the door of his house. "I hope so, but you know I'll be woried still, even if you said that. Drive carefully." "Don’t worry we will." The two said goodbyes and (Y/N) went inside. It was dark, he was alone. His parents today morning flew away for their work.

Turning on the lights he decided to make himself something to eat feeling hungry and the only thing that could be made fast was noodles.

It wasn't the best but it was something. Tomorrow he will need to actually cook after school. Right now he just needed to take a warm shower and sleep but first- text Jasper how he feels.

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(Y/N) checked his phone one more time but he haven't got a reply. 'he probably still don't feel good. I'll check in the morning.'

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It was weird... By now (Y/N) was sure to get some kind of reply.. But there was nothing. It worried him..

Deciding to go to school earlier (H/C) haired boy packed his bag and dressed up in one of Jaspers dark blue hoodies, button up white shirt and light blue jeans- he was ready to go. Taking keys to his car from shelf he get out and close the door.

Snow started falling on this part of the forest, it was beautufull, songs was playing on the radio making (Y/N) relax.

When he finally was on the parking he exited his (F/C) car and went to school. He saw there was Bella standing with Edward. "Hey there. You're early." "I could say the same." Bella smiled a bit hugging her friend that returned it. Ok, I'm off just remember this is school so don't get to touchy!" (Y/N) joked as vampire boy shake his head smiling. "You don't need to worry about it."

The day went quite good but (Y/N) haven't seen Jasper or wnen he saw him blond haired boy dissapered in the crown of students. It worried him.

Couple of days later Alice aporached him and took his hand to take a little bit taller boy with her behind the school.

There he stood. (Y/N) looked at Alice that just smiled and go away leaving the two alone. (H/C) haired male wanted to hug his boyfriend but he got stopped.

"(Y/N), don't come closer. You need to forget about me about us." With that he was gone. Smaller boy stood there procesing what happend.

"You... Broke up with me... Why...?"

He asked noone in practicular.. Cold wind embranced him as walked back home.. Not carring about the car, it will be stupid idea driving when you can't even see what's in front of you by all the tears that fell out of his eyes.

It was getting much colder- did (Y/N) cared?- No.

He felt alone for the first time from a very long time, he sometimes felt alone when his parents flew away but he got used to it knowin they will always come back- this time he didn't know what will be.

Knowing Jasper is an empath (Y/N) decided to stay home for a couple of days, maby he will came and say he's sorry.. Or just come...  Be there..

But none of that happend. (Y/N) didn't know if he done something wrong... He wanted to know... The only thing that stopped him was that Jasper haven't come to school or responded to his texts.. Others didn't tell him anything only Bella that way he know he wasnt in school... It destroyed him from the inside..

Finally decided to go back to school (Y/N) started covering dark bangs under his eyes by his mothers make-up, he spent manny sleepless nights.

He hasn't eat regullary only in school so nobody will susspect anything, at home he only drink water- by that he got thiner so he wore bagy clothes, not like it was something out of ordinarry cause he loved big clothes.

In PE he always changed into bathrooms or said he doesn't feel good so he wouldnt practise.

By now he just left his phone at home not carring if someone call him, his parents never expected a response to their emails or texts.

His room still was clean and he did the homework. He always got good grades without studying so it was a plus, not wanting to sit at the borring books.

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

When (Y/N) haven't came to school for a whole two weeks again Bella began to worry but he just texted her he got sick.

She told this Edward at the table in the canteen when others appered and sat down.

Alice got a vision and Edward was fast to read it. "What happend?" Bella asked looking from her boyfriend to best friend.

"It's (Y/N), he's going at the cliff." All of them stood up and leave the school grounds. Jasper was the first one to run as fast as he could knowing where exacly (Y/N) is right now.

Jasper found him sitting at the edge. Calm energy emmiting from (Y/N)- he wasn't about to jump. He always came here when he wanted to think or just be alone with the nature.

"I know youre here."

"And I know you know I'm here."

"Why are you here..?"

(Y/N) wispered closing his eyes trying to stay calm and not to cry.

"I'm here because youre my everything.. And I know I lost you when I break up with you. I know you try to stay calm so you're feelings wouldnt affect me..." Sitting male take a deep breath.

"Please let me feel all the emotions you feelt for the past three months.." Sobs leaved (Y/N)s mouth as he let all the emotions go.

Jasper legs gave out as it hit him. He couldn't believe someone could feel so much and closed it inside for so long.

(Y/N) clamed down against his will.

"No.. P-please let it out, I want to feel what you felt for so long-"

"I wont.. I- I don't want you to feel it.. Please it hurts me seeing you in pain.."

"It hurts me to seeing how you can't let your emotions go without worring about me feeling it."

They were silent... Not knowing what to say.. Until (Y/N) stood up and run up to the vampire falling to his knees the two hugged eachother not carring about the dirt they were in.

"Please.. I know it will be hard for you.. To.... Forgive me.. "

"It will be..."

"Can we-I try to fix it.. Baby steps...?"

".. Baby steps..."

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

It was a hard way, Jasper did everything to make (Y/N) feel better. After he found out how thin his lover got he made sure to regulary gave him small portion of food Esme cooked everyday when she heard what happend. Every morning he went through (Y/N)s open window with fresh portion of vegetables.

There were times when Jasper spend the night wathing (H/C) haired boy sleep stroking his head when (Y/N) got a nightmare.

They know nothing will be the same but they loved eachother and will make it.

Words:1488

[astrovian]

Richard Armitage interview on BBC Radio Northampton for Uncle Vanya (26/10/20)

Full transcript under cut

So he’s won awards for his role as Lucas in Spooks, as the dwarf prince Thorin Oakenshield in The Hobbit, and earlier this year he had us on the edge of our seats as the lead role in the brilliant Netflix series The Stranger. I love The Stranger. Did you see it? I thought it was absolutely brilliant. He’s brilliant in everything he does, I love Richard Armitage. Such a nice guy as well. Well with the pandemic interrupting it’s sold out West End run, Richard is part of an all-star cast bringing Chekov’s iconic play Uncle Vanya to our cinemas and homes as part of a brand new production. Ahead of today’s show I spoke to Richard about the play, and a bit about what it’s like to be a stage actor in Covid Britain.

---

How you doing?

Very well, thank you. This is an absolute honour to speak to you. Congratulations on a wonderful production.

Thanks! Did you see it?

I did! I did! Um-

Amazing.

-if I describe my morning to you, I woke up with a slight whisky hangover pondering my place in the world, and the first thing I did was open my laptop and watch Uncle Vanya, and *laugh* I have to say it was quite-

Oh, how was Vanya on a hangover? That’s probably like most of the characters in the play have a hangover, don’t they?

*Laugh* Well this is the thing – I found myself thinking ‘this is quite life-affirming’, because I was reflecting how human experience hasn’t really changed that much since 1897, and I just wondered as an actor whether Chekov’s understanding of human feelings – it must appeal to you, hugely.

I think that’s why actors go to Chekov, and actually he wrote so few plays compared to other playwrights that what he did do was really define how we approach character. Really, I mean he worked with Stanislavski, it’s the root of, of Western theatre and, and how we construct characters because he’s focused on the lived experience, rather than the plot so much. So most people kind of say “what’s Chekov about?”, and it’s really hard to describe what it’s about. But it’s about human beings and how they – how they bounce off each other and how they attract and how they repel.

Is it completely mad for me to say that, that watching it, it was my first introduction to the play and my first introduction to Chekov, I, I found myself thinking ‘well, this is almost like Big Brother’. It’s like watching a group of people relate in various ways in a claustrophobic lockdown, getting on each other’s nerves, and digging into old wounds, and then I found myself thinking this is, this is so timely for the, the Covid world we’re living in. Did that strike you?

It’s – uh, I, I guess until we started to experience what lockdown was like, suddenly again the play took on a relevance. I mean the last week of performing, when the, the sort of talk of the virus was, was emerging y’know in, in our world, and y’know I’d been speaking these lines for ten weeks as the doctor talking about a pandemic, and he’s turned to drink and he can’t deal with the trauma of losing patients, and suddenly the relevance was, was very high. But also in lockdown, I suddenly realised ‘now I understand what these characters have been going through’. So the – the chance to come back and, and sort of bring all of that experience into y’know, the re-staging of the play film was, y’know, it was really special to be able to do that.

It was really moving at the beginning, because you see your fabulous co-cast members returning to the theatre in face masks, and it was quite easy to find yourself a bit choked. What it a very emotional reunion?

It was because I was not able to be there. *Laugh* ‘Cause I’d just flown in from New York like with, with literally hours to spare before I had to lockdown for two weeks quarantine. So I couldn’t do that, I – I had to join a read-through on a computer via. a Zoom call, so I felt like I was being held back away from my friends and fellow actors. Which was useful for the doctor, ‘cause when he comes back into that house, that’s sort of what’s been happening to him. But every moment there was something to hang on to in terms of the emotions and, and what we’ve all been through.

The – the dialogue is so brilliantly natural, especially from a, a newbie to this world. And I, I think you describe yourself at the beginning, as Dr. Astrov, as feeling a bit wonky-

Yeah.

-and then we hear Toby Jones’ Uncle Vanya complaining about various people wanging on, and-

*Laugh*

-it’s brilliant, it’s moments that make you giggle, and I just wondered how important you think these linguistic touches are to help the drama engage a new audience?

Well it’s always gonna be a translation because we’re not performing in the original Russian, and y’know, that depends on which playwright decides to tackle it, and we were so lucky with Conor McPherson, ‘cause there’s a little bit of the Irish kind of glint in his eye that comes through that dialogue um, so these, these little touches make it feel like we’re just – it’s just us, it’s not y’know, characters a hundred years ago in a stuffy drawing room. These are, these are – it’s us y’know. We’re still the same, and we’re still dealing with the same problems, um weirdly within the state of – within the space of three months those same problems seem to be sort of really prominent, and rather than watching people dealing with a pandemic in a collapsing environment and thinking ‘Oh, that was an interesting history lesson’, it feels like ‘Oh, this is now, these are still things that we are having to, having to navigate right now’.

Whilst I’ve – I’ve read that you don’t necessarily identify as purely a, a method actor, you have talked in the past about how deeply you try to embody the characters you play, and I just wondered how difficult it was to come back after the break and once again put on this skin of the frequently despairing Dr. Astrov?

Um, I came back with, *laugh*, with a taste for vodka that I’d-

*laugh*

-I’d maintained from doing the play, um I came back with no haircut, so y’know, I was – I was sort of *laugh*, I hadn’t put him down really to be honest. I’d, I’d thought about him a lot, and during the course of my research I’d found this diary of a doctor who had worked through his life and through various epidemics, and was really at the end of his tether as to what the point of medicine, and uh, I used a lot of his references to, to sort of try to understand what maybe our NHS workers were going through, and still are going through. Y’know, how do you – how do you go home at night after seeing people in such, y’know, such extreme circumstances without a cure. Y’know, that’s something that we find very difficult to get our heads around because there’s always a pill for something, there’s always a remedy. And these Russians were – were dealing with tuberculosis, for which there was no cure, and typhoid and, and having to, to y’know, having to deal with the fact that most of the time they were death sentences, and we – we have lost that, y’know, we – we have quite luxurious existences compared to them. So to, to be living with something which people don’t have answers has, has really shaken us up I think, and that’s contained in the play.

At the end of the production the matriarch, uh, Anna Calder-Marshall’s Nana, blows out the candles that light the stage and it, it felt to me as though she wasn’t only putting the – the play to bed, she was almost putting theatre life to bed in some way until this bleak winter is over. I just wonder how sad it is for you to see the way the arts are suffering in this pandemic.

It is really, really sad, and I – I, y’know, I’ve been able to carry on doing various kinds of work, but I, I know that there are a huge amount of people out there who work in those theatre buildings that only work in theatre, that can’t go back to work right now. But at the same time, I’m – I’m an optimist, and so I look towards Sonya’s speech about work, and we will endure this and we will come back. Y’know, it might be the middle of next summer, who knows, but I think when we’re – we’re all waiting to have those dust cloths pulled off us, y’know. Um, and we will see diamonds in sky and it, it will come back to us. But in the meantime we’ve just gotta find a way to survive this period, and most people that work in the arts do have ways of doing that, because there are periods of time where you find yourself not working and you have to be very resourceful. And I just hope people can hang on and they’ll – they’ll return when we all do.

Richard Armitage, I – I’m not surprised the run was sold out, Uncle Vanya, and my first experience with the play, my first experience with Chekov. It was absolutely brilliant and I loved every minute of it. I’m, I’m going to get my – my wife’s gonna watch it this weekend, and uh – I hope everyone takes the time to experience it, and just thank you so much for being on the program.

Thank you for having me. And just let me say that it’s the 27th of October and thereabouts for various screenings in your cinema, and going to the cinema is not a terrifying experience, I’ve done it. It’s – if you play by the rules and wear a mask, it’s, it’s actually like a little bit of normality.

Perhaps even sneak in a vodka *Laugh*

*Laugh* Absolutely.

Thank you, Richard.

Thank you.

---

Ah, Richard Armitage, such a legend, lovely guy to speak to. And I’d really recommend it, I’d, I’d heard of Uncle Vanya, and of course I’ve heard of Chekov, but forgive me being a bit of a film philistine, it’s not something I would’ve taken the time to investigate. It’s REALLY good. It’s really funny, it’s really fresh, it feels like a – it’s not a history lesson y’know, it feels, as Richard said, like you’re enjoying character speaking to each other now, and all the issues that they raise feel very current and contemporary. I loved it. Um, you can go to unclevanyacinema.com to find out where it’s playing, but it does certainly look like the Odeon Kettering and the Savoy in Corby will be showing it.

[imagine-your-party-hosts]

Lemon Cake

Word Count: 2,385

Pairing: Bloodhound x Fem Reader

Summary: You looked ever the part of a spouse of an Apex Predator and not an Apex Predator. You did not look like you’d ever even entertained the idea of running a mile, let alone running from a blood sport. How in the worlds had you caught Bloodhound’s attention? Bloodhound, “I am the hunter the gods have sent,” looking at you, with your blush and your eyeliner and your acrylic nails, and saying, “That’s the one.”

“Hey, [Name]!”

You rolled your eyes as you picked up your phone, the television screen behind you still rolling a recording of the earlier Apex Champions. You’re smiling still however at Elliot as he stared at you; he’s too close to the phone screen, and you could see right up his bloody nostril.

“Congrats!” you told him, though you snickered all the same. “Now put on my pretty little hunter so I can talk to them instead.”

Elliot’s mouth dropped, while beside him Ajay snatched the phone out of his hands. They’re still standing in the middle of King’s Canyon, the little drone cameras still circling over their heads from the games.

“Hey, we won! You’re gonna make us that cake you promised us then, eh, [Name]?”

You grinned at her on the phone, nodding your head. “Yes! As long as you give Bloth the phone already,” you reminded her, and she rolled her eyes with a guffaw, finally passing the phone to Bloodhound, and as soon as you saw them you shrieked.

“Bloth!” You screamed like you hadn’t seen them in a decade, and, to you, it felt that way. “You looked so cool this game! Not that you don’t look that cool every game!”

You jumped up from the couch, spinning to show them the television on the wall, pointing to the still circulating image of the three Apex Champions. “Look at you! How did it feel having to carry Mirage for yet another game?”

“H-hey!!” Elliot objected from beside Bloodhound; he tried to come back onto screen, though Bloodhound turned away. “You know, I’m the one that called you out of the goodness of my heart!”

“It was hard work, elskan,” Bloodhound responded, talking over Elliot in the background. You were wearing a pastel pink knitted cardigan over a simple black cami, and when you had spun towards the television the cardigan had fallen off your shoulder, and Bloodhound longed to reach out and yank it back up before Elliot or anyone else saw.

You looked ever the part of a spouse of an Apex Predator and not an Apex Predator. You did not look like you’d ever even entertained the idea of running a mile, let alone running from a blood sport.

“I bet it was! I saw you have to get his ass up time and time again.” You two shared a chuckle at Elliot’s expense, who stood behind Bloodhound, dragging a hand down his muddy face.

You also did not look like someone that fit with Bloodhound. You were soft and plump; your hands had no calluses and your nails were done, sharp little points that Bloodhound likened to talons or claws. You had been the makeup artist for the Apex Legends televised interviews - had been, before you’d had to quit when they found out you were dating one of the champions - so how in the worlds had you caught Bloodhound’s attention? Bloodhound, “I am the hunter the gods have sent,” looking at you, with your blush and your eyeliner and your acrylic nails, and saying, “That’s the one.”

Elliot had searched your name one day, leaned back into his chair as you went for one of your brushes, and he gasped overdramatically like you’d stabbed him.

“Is this you?!” Elliot had yelled, and the other legends looked to him to see if you really had stabbed him. Bloodhound hadn’t exactly needed to be here - it wasn’t like they needed their makeup done - though they were still usually here to wait for the legends to get called to the stage.

“God, why’re you searching me on the internet? Doofus,” you avoided Elliot’s question, taking his phone from him and sitting it down on your table. You’d been doing their makeup for months now, and it was hard not to talk to someone who got up close and personal and pointed out your clogged pores.

“[Name] did professional archery!!” Elliot still had continued, looking around to the fellow legends around you two. You had rolled your eyes, pinching Elliot’s nose and turning him away back to you. “Why don’t you try out for the games, [Name]?”

“Ew!” you had yelled out with a laugh, shaking your head wildly. “Like I’d ever do something like that. I used to just do archery for fun, not to use in the games.”

Elliot had reached for his phone, though you swatted his hand away. “You participated in worlds on the planet you were on, that doesn’t seem like for fun, babe!”

Bloodhound’s curiosity had been peaked - you were the last person they’d ever expected to hold a bow in your little unblemished hands, and that’s when they realized that perhaps there were two sides to your coin.

“I’ll come home to you soon, elskan,” Bloodhound’s distorted voice brought you back to them on the other side of the phone. You jumped and swayed on your heels, grinning brightly at them.

“Please! I’ve been waiting at your suite to watch the games. See!” you turned the camera to the big king sized bed, with its fur blankets, unlit candles on the bedside table. “Can we go back to the cabin when all of this is done, Bloth?”

You knew they still had at least two day’s worth of interviews ahead of them, and while the suite Apex provided was large and warm, you missed the cozy cabin in the woods, you missed listening to the rain hit the roof through the treetops.

“Of course,” they assured you, and you grinned as you fell back onto the bed, pulling the furs over your shoulders.

“Shouldn’t you three get going? Don’t you have to get healed and clean up? And by that I mean Elliot, since he’s the most beat up,” you pointed a finger at the screen, and Bloodhound glanced over their shoulder at Elliot. “I’ll watch your guys’ interview and wait for you. I bought a new candle, I can’t wait for you to smell it!”

You were soft, and someone that needed to be protected. Your cheeks were round and red, your eyes bright and twinkling - perhaps a better question would be how Bloodhound had drawn your attention. The first day on your job you’d went to Bloodhound in their chair, smiling brightly at them.

“I’m assuming you don’t need your makeup done,” you had said, and Bloodhound had glanced up to you as you leaned towards them. “I probably shouldn’t tell anyone, but you’re my favorite legend. I’d tell you good luck today, but I doubt you need it, huh?” you had laughed, rocking back on your heels, hands clasped together in front of you. “Or do you guys say break a leg? I told Octane that, but he told me he didn’t have any. That was embarrassing.”

Once Bloodhound knew more about you they had a better understanding why you’d came up to them that day. On the outside, you and Bloodhound were complete opposites - on the inside, Bloodhound doted over you and you were indeed every part their number one fan.

“I can’t wait either, my love,” they responded, and you squealed in delight.

“I love you, Bloth. The champion of the games and my heart!” you howled out, and underneath their mask they grinned at you.

“I love you too,” they responded, and they relished in the way you bundled the furs around you and rolled around in the bed.

Elliot took the phone back and you stuck your tongue out at him, hanging up in his face as a goodbye. You had only spoken with Bloodhound for maybe a total of four minutes, but you were still left breathless and grinning goofily. You two had been together for just over a year, though you were still always giddy and lightheaded when you saw them after a long time away at the games.

Bloodhound was only itching even more to head back to the suite they now knew you were waiting for them at after the brief phone call they’d had with you. They knew you would be readily waiting with your hands in your lap, patiently on the couch watching the after game interviews for any glance of them you could get. They wanted to go back to you, to show you themselves in person, so you didn’t have to flip through Mirage and Lifeline as well for any small crumbs of them.

You indeed sat on the couch, the fur blanket thrown over your legs as you waited patiently for Bloodhound’s time on screen. Time passed well after dark, and when Bloodhound finally came back to their suite the room was dark save for the television still playing and a candle on the coffee table in front of you.

“Elskan, you’re going to burn the place down,” Bloodhound said as they approached you on the couch, and you stirred briefly.

“I hope so. Then we could just stay in the cabin forever,” you murmured to them as they blew out the candle. You reached out, tugging gently at the heavy coat they were still wearing. “That’s the new candle I got. Smell it, Bloth, it’s blueberry pancakes.”

Bloodhound turned back to you, reaching to place their hands to your legs, and you reached out, wrapping your arms tight around their neck. “I will, don’t worry. You know you didn’t have to sit up on the couch for me, beloved, you could have gone to bed.”

“Where is Arthur?” you asked instead, distractedly nuzzling into their neck, your forehead bumping against their headpiece.

“They are here, elskan,” Bloodhound assured you, reaching their gloved hand up to tangle in your hair, and you gave a quiet whine.

“Where? Bloth, can we get you out of this? I want you to kiss me.”

Bloodhound gave a chuckle, slowly tucking their hands under your thighs and lifting you from the couch. You gave a huff against their neck, though aside from that you didn’t even remark, letting them carry you to the bed where in the corner on the bed frame Arthur was perched.

“Kiss me,” you asked again when Bloodhound sat you down on the bed, though you still patiently looked up to him with your hands folded in your lap again. Bloodhound reached up to take their mask off, and as soon as they’d unclasped and pulled it up you were reaching up, placing a hand to their cheek, your thumb rubbing gently across a scar.

“I love you. Please get out of this so we can sleep together,” you whispered to them, and Bloodhound’s lips twitched underneath your thumb as you grazed the cracks in their skin, turning to kiss your palm.

“I love you too. Give me just a moment, okay, elskan?” they asked you quietly, and you smiled up to them, slowly nodding as they turned away to get undressed. You sat at the edge of the bed, swaying hazily and humming to yourself, cooing to Arthur on the bedpost.

Bloodhound came back a moment later after turning the television off, that was still even now on a recap of the earlier match. “Bloth…” you mumbled as they walked towards you, reaching out to take their hand as they neared.

“You look so cute like this, beloved,” Bloodhound told you, and you grinned sleepily up to them. They reached out, pushing the cardigan off your shoulders, folding it to set aside.

“You look so cute like this, too, Bloth,” you hummed out to them. Your voice was heavy with sleep, eyes already closed as they chuckled at you. “Kiss me, already?”

You didn’t even hear them as they returned from putting your cardigan away, though you felt their hands on your cheeks, rough palms but gentle fingers splaying up to your temples. Their thumb ran over the apples of their cheeks, and you kept your eyes closed as they leaned in to kiss you. It was barely there at first, just a gentle feathering, before they pressed further, and you leaned back into the bed from it. Bloodhound was left leaning over you, and you grinned up to them as they just slightly parted from the kiss, your eyes fluttering open.

“It’s been such a long day…” you whispered to them, your breath against their lips. “You’ve worked so hard. Let’s sleep, and tomorrow I’ll make breakfast. Did you know I told Elliot and Ajay I’d make them a cake if you guys won?” you giggled, reaching up your hand to tangle in their long red hair. “I don’t know how to make a cake! Do you, Bloth? I told them I would so they’d work harder for you.”

Bloodhound was smiling down at you as your hand worked through their hair, as you laughed quietly at yourself. “We could just buy one, my love,” they told you, and you squirmed underneath them.

“No way! I’ll at least try, but if I do burn this place down making it you have to promise to cover for me, okay?” you asked them, and their hands went to your hips to settle your wiggling. They squeezed at the warm skin there, and you tittered, trying to writhe again though they held you still.

“I promise,” they told you, and the way you smiled up to them made Bloodhound forget of the games, the interviews, the pictures, and all they could think about was you below them, warm and plush and giggling.

“Thank you! Can we sleep, now?” you asked again, reaching up to pull on the strings of the hoodie Bloodhound was wearing. Bloodhound complied, leaning in to kiss you one more time before they became dead weight on top of you, and you shrieked, laughing as you reached up to squeeze their shoulders. “Bloth!” you giggled out, and you pushed to try to roll over. They let you try once, twice, and thrice they finally relented and helped you, rolling over onto their side off of you when you pushed.

You were breathless, turning to face Bloodhound, though you still reached up to tucked their hair behind their ear. “What kind of cake do you think they like?” you asked them, your hand resting on their cheek again.

“I like lemon,” they told you instead, and you grinned, nodding your head.

“Lemon it is then,” you agreed.

[twofootedbones]

Rose Colored Shades

Summary: There was once a moment where Latula knew who Cronus was, but when you’re wearing rose colored glasses, every flag is just a flag. 

A look through Latula’s eyes and her view of was had happened between her, Cronus, and Mituna that made them break farther apart than she would have ever liked. 

 You know those stories, those ones where they always start with the “just us three against the world?” Well that’s how this one starts. It was just me and my boys, my two goofballs that I loved with my whole bloodpusher. My matesprit Mituna Captor and my considering morail Cronus Ampora. The days we spent together were always perfect, it didn’t matter if we got a skate trick wrong, got chased away for loitering, or just couldn’t get past this one level in some dumb video game we picked up from the discount bin. We were the perfect Kingdom Bloodpushers trio! One epic heroine and her two boy sidekicks. 

Then we started the game. Me and ‘Tuna saw it as the perfect challenge and we dragged poor ol’ Cro along with us. It didn’t take long for a lot of things to go sour though. Everyone started screaming and punching, pretty sure half of the screaming was Kankri’s fault but it was chaos nonetheless. We all went from one radical kickass group into a clusterfuck of horrible words and totally not rad violence. No one listened to each other and everyone tried to be the leader. Many of us actually broke away from the group to do things our own way. Blame is on teenage angst.

  Then it happened. I wasn’t around to see it and I beat myself up about it every single day. The only one to see it was that stupid mime and he barely showed an ounce of pitty in those cursed eyes. Just bringing the body to us, plopping him on the ground, and walking away like he didn’t just deliver us the most horrific thing we had ever seen. No one knew how to act at this point, we stood there just staring at him. The Tuna I once knew was gone, none of us knew how to help him, he laid there on the ground just shaking and crying. He was covered in his own 

The cursor flashed on the screen, waiting for the next words to be written. Latula leaned back in her desk chair, wiping the sudden tears away from her face ultimately ruining the minimal mascara she had put on just hours before. This was going to take a while. She didn’t know why she was trying to write something like this, Aranea claimed that writing gave “feels closure” whatever that meant. Just a few feet away sat lil Mituna. Well he wasn’t that little as he towered over her by a solid foot, but he was her little honey bee. He was starfishing in the bean bag chair as he idly chewed on a necklace he found somewhere in his hive. His hair was held out of his face by one of Latula’s scrunchies and he sat in just a pair of gym shorts, the fern leaf-like scars that danced across his body being revealed. He hated it when the others saw them, she was the only exception. She was allowed to gaze upon and touch the flowing scars. It was as if his veins had been dyed faint shades of red and blue. 

He had yet to notice her eyes on him and continued to just stare off at the wall, not even paying mind to the show that was playing on the TV. Latula took a deep breath and turned back to the document.The same blinking cursor ready for her to continue.

When he woke up he wasn’t the same, or so I was convinced. When his eyes finally opened, they weren’t the same red and blue slushie color I was so used to seeing. They were completely void of his colors, a black and white that he carried with him to the dream bubbles. He was afraid and confused and he didn’t recognize any of us. He tried to run from all of us whenever he was awake, but all he gained from that was agitating all the harsh electrical burns he had. I was starting to grow sick of yellow being smeared all over the room. The day ‘Tuna first woke was the same day I saw Cronus Ampora genuinely cry for the last time. He stopped coming to visit Mituna shortly after, claiming that everything that came out of his mouth was wrong even though all that really came out was screams of fear. The last time he visited he lashed out at him, it wasn’t much just a shout of the words “shut up” before he ran out of the room. I was willing to push that aside back then, I was at my wits end too. We thought that my matesprit and his best friend was gone. We both believed that our trio was soon going to be a duo. Cronus couldn’t bear to see his friend like this anymore, leaving me alone to take care of him. 

It didn’t take long for Tuna to start using words again. Guaranteed they were in the wrong order, but they were words. He stopped screaming at everyone and he stopped trying to run away from all of us. But he would still pick at his scabs and burns.

 One day he asked me what my name was for the ten-thousandth time. Except instead of repeating it back to me or forgetting it immediately, this dork said and I quote: “That’s pretty, like you!” 

At that moment I swear I was falling in love with him twice over. Every time I would come into the block we kept him in he would call me pretty. He eventually started calling me by my name, but for months he would always ask for me by calling me “the pretty lady” 

Not even a sweep passed before we were all done for. Our game failed and now here we are living forever in the dream bubbles. Totally not a rad ending I kn

A crash interrupted her typing, she quickly turned around only to see that Mituna was no longer in the block with her. “Tuna?” she called out. A faint mumble came before she heard the boy in question reply from the nutrition block. “I DIDN’T BREAK ANYTHING,” was all he screamed. Latula had long gotten used to his lack of volume control. “It was plas- pl- not glass!” he followed in a completely different tone. “Are you sure you don’t need help bee?” she got up out of her chair and started walking towards the block. Standing in the center of a tupperware war-zone stood Mituna Captor and his perfectly poured cup of orange juice. “Hi,” he said with the largest smile plastered onto his face. Latula’s smile came slowly before she was just flat out wheezing at the scene before her, Mituna joined his cackling laugh mixing with hers. The Captor stopped to take a sip of the juice before kicking around at the tupperware. They couldn’t have anything glass in the hive because of this and the glass they do have is hidden in the lowest cabinets where this gentle giant doesn’t think to look. 

“What happened?” 

Mituna pointed up towards the cabinet. “I put the-them away lasst,” he admitted. The boy’s version of putting away the dishes is to stack up a disaster that will ultimately topple over the second someone would open the door. He put his cup down on the counter and started to clean up the mess. Latula joined him. This wasn’t anything really that new, he would always set up the dishes this way in Cronus’ hive whenever they would visit, just to watch the seadweller open the door to be pelted by this psionic’s genius pranks. Now it’s become a normal schedule to never open the cabinet door fully. Kankri has told them that Cronus still does that as a habit, having to watch the seadweller cringe before opening anything every time he goes over there to lecture him. Meenah has even just told Cronus to remove the door if he’s going to keep complaining about it

After fixing the nutrition block back up and settling Tuna back into his spot, this time with juice and a movie he would actually kind of focus on, Latula returned to her husktop, spamming the space bar to wake it back up. 

Ya know, when you look at the world through rose colored glasses, all the red flags just look like flags. Things started to get worse and worse with Cronus the more ‘Tuna recovered. Cronus just couldn’t see the friend he once knew anymore but that gives him no right to treat him the way he did and still does. The day we started to completely cut off all contact with Cronus was the day he actually hit Mituna in front of me. Me and ‘Tuna were just out skating, trying to find the best place to try some basic tricks when we came across Cro’. We took a short break to talk to him for a bit, I should’ve noticed this so much sooner but Mituna was extremely uncomfortable being around him. It’s my fault for not hearing it in his words. Cronus continued to speak some kind of friendship nonsense and wrapped his arm around my bee’s shoulder. ‘Tuna tensed up and shoved the guy away, hard. Cronus looked at him shocked just standing there. Then the bastard said something I will never forget. “I should’ve fucking culled you after we found your broken sorry-ass,” 

Then he reeled back and punched ‘Tuna square in the face. The visor on that helmet cracked and shattered. They started to brawl. Mituna pulled off his helmet to throw it right at Cronus’ chest and managed to pick up his skateboard to slam it into the dude’s side. I grabbed onto ‘Tuna and got out of there ASAP, the poor boy continuing to scream, swear and shout jumbled words all the way until we got back to my hive. I don’t know what happened to the beaten fucker in the dirt, but he could just sit there and wallow for all I care. 

I blocked Cronus on every single platform we shared that night, went into ‘Tuna’s accounts and did the same. While he doesn’t use any of his accounts any more they are important to me and I wouldn’t want that asshole touching any of it. Each and every post being a museum of what Mituna Captor once was and continues to be. 

There have been more times where the two of them have gotten into fights, usually times where I’m not around. I try my best to stay by his side and keep him away, but I can’t coddle him. I refuse to baby my baby. There’s- 

A sudden weight on her shoulders interrupted her writing. “Whatcha writing, Tulip?” her boy said in a sing-song voice. She lifted her arms up to grab onto the ones around her. “Oh, nothing too important,” she tilted her head up to give him a quick kiss on the cheek. Mituna giggled and rubbed his face in her hair. She laughed, pushing the arms off her and getting up. “Wanna watch another movie? I’ll watch with you this time,” she asked, hugging him close. She felt those same awkward lanky arms wrap around her. “Nah, let’ss play Trollio Kart,” he said. 

“Flushed for you,” 

“Flushshed for you tooo,”

[complicated-innocence]

Joker’s Appreciation

The Joker was not one to read. He rarely had the attention span for it, first of all, and even when he could focus long enough... Well, the clown prince had never found an interesting book, and he doubted he ever would. They were always too slow or too boring, and the villain never won, which was just unfair. Honestly! As a villain himself, he was always so sick of the hero coming up on top, or, even if the villain did win... It was always people like Lex Luther, and, frankly, Lex Luther had no flair. That made him bad if you asked Joker. He wanted to see a chaotic villain win, one like him, but... Normies didn’t want those sorts of villains to come out on top, of course. And so he had yet to find a book he liked, even in the ones he had somehow read all the way through.

There was one specific genre he particularly despised, though; romance novels, like the ones Harley would obsess over from time to time. It had taken him a single page to realize that, considering he had grabbed the book from her one night and started reading from exactly where she left off. It was the sappiest, most melodramatic and cliqued thing he had ever read, and it disgusted him beyond comprehension. Or so he thought, but that couldn’t be entirely true...

After all, there was one exception to his distaste for reading; Harley’s poetry, which she wrote oh-so-rarely but Joker had collected almost religiously for the past few years. The influence of those terrible books could be glaringly obvious at times, but, nonetheless... He adored them. He adored the poetic ways she described everything, especially when she described him. He loved her attention to detail, the way she seemed to pay attention to his every move and cherish it all, even when they fought or argued... And he couldn’t help but read the parts about his eyes with a special fondness, too, as they often came up and were mentioned in detail. It was precious, really, and it fed his ego even more. What wasn’t to love about that?

While she did write about other people and other things, he only really paid attention if it was about him. He read all of the others, sure, but... The ones about him were held to different esteem, and those were the only ones that made their way into his collection, even if it took some time, as he waited until she had all but forgotten about them to act. Sometimes, that meant a few hours of it sitting there, untouched... Other times, it meant a few days. As soon as he could, though, he claimed the forgotten poems and added them to the box beneath the photo of him and Harley, all neatly folded and packed away until he could reread them later. He dated them all, and would often go through and read them when she was away, but never once did he tell her about it. He never planned to, either; it was his secret admiration of her, something too soft for her to know.

Or it was, until the day came that Harley barged in on Joker’s reading time. It was at night, hours after the two had fought in the morning... And, honestly, by then, Joker couldn’t remember what their argument had been about at all, nor did he exactly care to. Obviously, she wasn’t overly miffed either, or else she wouldn’t have been back already, but... He didn’t have time to linger on that thought or to even really registered the fact she was home earlier than usual.

He hadn’t even realized she was back until she announced herself. And that announcement was, admittedly, sudden; she barged into his office out of nowhere, and, before he could do a damn thing to hide the poem, she was upon him.

“I’m back, Puddin’!” She chimed cheerily, giggling as she slung her arms around his shoulders, shimmying as she gave him a hug. Her eyes were shut, and Joker knew it.

“Oh, so you are,” he chuckled as lightly as he could, looking around at his desk for what he could do to hide it while he had the chance. “Back so soon? Too dull at the plant’s?”

“Aw, don’ be like thaaaat...” She huffed, still hugging him. “It was jus’ a lil disagreement.”

Its box was too far out of reach for him to avoid disturbing her moment, and, even if it wasn’t... Well, he’d have to fold the paper first, which simply wouldn’t work, and then if she released sooner than he expected, she’d see the other poems, too. One would be bad enough. His eyes skipped away again. He knew he was running out of time to decide. He felt the clock ticking down in his head, based on how long she usually hugged him... Ten seconds left.

“I suppose...” Joker sighed, as if he had any idea what the argument had been about. Panic was setting in, though; he was running so low on time. At the last second, though, he realized the obvious option; hide it under the other papers on his desk! He instantly tried that, but...

He was too slow. Her eyes snapped open just as he had moved the other paper, and so the poem was still up on top. Shit.

“Yeah-- But nevermind that! Whatcha workin’ on~?” She moved to rest her head on his shoulder, peeking down at the desk. He knew it was too late by then. “Written pla--? Wait.” She already read it. “Izzat--?”

“NO! This is absolutely not your concern or what you think it is!” He panicked immediately, throwing a paper down on top of it.

Harley stepped back from him in an instant, an eyebrow cocking up instead of her usual head tilts. Her whole demeanor shifted into something more serious. His heart dropped... That meant he had two options; surrender and let her see, or let her be mad and run off with her other partner again, probably for a month. He internally groaned at the thought. He didn’t particularly want to deal with her being gone so long, not when he had finished bigger plans where he would need her help, and so... He didn’t move to hide it, as much as his pride was screaming at him.

“... Any chance you won’t look at it.” Joker asked, glaring slightly. He knew the answer, but it was worth a try.

Harley simply moved to the side of the desk and, while making direct eye contact, grabbed the paper. She then looked down at it, still side-eyeing him.

His heart sped up as she read, as he observed her... He watched her as she blinked slowly, her eyes skipping back up to reread the first line, her eyes going over the same word again and again. She straightened up, and his heart skipped a beat. She kept reading from there, and then she reread the poem again. Once, twice, and her cheeks slowly colored as she verified more and more that, yes, that paper was her’s. And it wasn’t a newer one, either, although he had those as well. He groaned as her whole demeanor slowly softened, especially when her eyes settled on the date in the corner. He knew damn well that she knew his writing, and that was confirmed when he noticed the fact her eyes practically became hearts after a second.

Harley hugged it to her chest, giggling happily... And then she looked up at him, all love and affection and all the things he despised.

“... Not a word, Harley.” Joker sighed bluntly, leaning back in his chair with a pout. His cheeks were starting to go pink.

“But--!”

“Not. One.” He repeated, his voice getting firmer. He added in a glare.

“It’s sweet, Puddin’! I didn’ know y’kept this one,” She giggled, hugging him. “Didja keep my others~? Least, the ones ‘bout yooooou...”

Joker didn’t respond, and, instead, he tried to shove her away, his cheeks reddening and his pout deepening. He tried to avoid looking at her, too, but... Well, Harley didn’t feel like playing that game, not with this new discovery. She sat in his lap, releasing half the hug for long enough to grab his face and pull it towards her, albeit gently. When she saw his expression, a grin spread across her face.

“Y’did! Really?!”

“... Fine. I did,” he huffed, trying to shove her off his lap... But she was prepared for that, apparently. She caught his shoulders, keeping herself in place. “What of it?!”

“It’s adorableeee~”

“It’s not adorable!” He snapped, trying to push her to the floor again. It still didn’t work, as Harley giggled and nuzzled her face into his chest happily. He groaned again, but... It was useless to fight her, and he knew it. He didn’t try again.

She kissed him, before cuddling back. “Don’ worry~ It’ll be another a’ our lil secrets.”

“... It better be,” Joker grumbled. Harley’s smile grew, but... Well, she didn’t push him any further, and he relaxed some.

They stayed like that for awhile longer, all cuddled up in his chair; he didn’t quite want to move yet, despite his pride being wounded. No. Instead, he hugged her closer to him, one hand lightly petting her hair as he rested his chin on top of her head. He closed his eyes, settling down... And not a word was said, not for a few minutes, until Joker broke the silence again.

“... They are good, Baby. You should write more.”

[rosemaidenvixen]

You are my Sunshine

Chapter 3: Five part 3

Ao3

 Barbara hadn’t slept a wink. She had a kink in her back and one of her arms had gotten pinned by Jim’s weight and gone numb. Her legs were cramped into position after being curled up on a too-small mattress for hours.

 She was in a nightmare that she couldn’t wake up from.

 The logical part of her knew that ignoring Jim’s condition wouldn’t make it go away, but that didn’t mean she wasn’t tempted. Even after racking her brain all night she couldn't think of any good way to protect Jim and keep his condition a secret. The only two options she had come up with were to immediately move somewhere as isolated as possible; or hide Jim, lie to the police, and pretend that he really had disappeared. Neither plan was feasible or practical and both would be the end of life as they knew it.

 Despite how terrible her either plan was, Barbara knew that she had to start implementing one of them. The consequences for Jim would be dire if she didn’t.

 Even knowing that, she still couldn’t force herself to get up and take action. Barbara desperately wanted to not think about the unavoidable consequences of Jim’s transformation for just a little longer.

 When she thought about the terrible things she was going to have to keep her son safe, it was almost enough to make her start sobbing all over again.

 Barbara was trying to summon the will to get out of bed for the upteenth time when something inexplicable happened for the second time in twenty four hours.

 Jim shrank right in her arms.

 Shock froze her for a moment before she scrambled upright, desperate to see what had happened to Jim now.

 Barbara blinked repeatedly, lightheaded from sitting up so quickly, not quite believing what she was seeing.

 Jim, soft and small and normal Jim, stared straight back at her, looking confused and now positively drowning in his father’s t-shirt.

 “I….I’m me again,”

 A jubilant smile slowly spread across Jim’s face “I’M ME AGAIN!”

 Somehow Barbara still had enough tears left to cry, only this time from joy.

 The nightmare was over.

 All the worries, all the fears, all the dread of what might happen to Jim melted away. Whatever the bath bomb had done to him, its effects had worn off. It was the only explanation she could think of.

 Jim giggled and jumped on the mattress, ecstatic at being back in his own skin. Barbara gave a warbly laugh at his antics before glancing at her watch.

 6:17am

 Well now was a good a time as any to start the day. She snatched Jim up during one of his celebratory circuits around the bed and brought him in for a tight hug “Time for breakfast kiddo, How do you feel about pancakes?”

 “Yay pancakes!”

 Half an hour later, Jim sat at the table, wolfing down pancakes that had to be at least eighty percent syrup. Barbara hung up the phone, having just finished calling both of them in sick for the day. After last night’s trauma, both of them needed a mental health break.

 Jim appeared to be bouncing back just fine, the resiliency of youth no doubt, but she didn’t want to push him.

 “Hey mom?”

 Barbara turned to address him “Yes, what is it?”

 He shuffled pancake crumbs and syrup around with his fork “What….happened to me last night?”

 “Well Jim, I’m not quite sure,” she replied “I think that something in the bath bomb changed you for a little bit,”

 “But why?”

 Barbara bit her lip, how to give him answers when she had none “Sorry sweetie, I really don’t know,”

 “Oh….” Jim pondered that for a while “So where’d the bath bomb come from?”

 She took a seat across from him “I bought it at an estate sale last summer,” she paused, thinking of the best way to explain further “An estate sale is when someone dies and their family decides to sell all of their stuff by letting people come into their house and pick out things to buy,”

  “So the bath bomb used to belong to someone that’s dead now?”

 “Yes, that’s right,”

 Jim gave a small frown at the unsatisfactory answer “So where’d the dead person get it?”

 “I don’t know,” Barbara did her best to keep her tone light “I guess it’s just a mystery,”

 Honestly she didn’t even know who the estate sale had been for, she and James had dropped in on impulse while driving back from getting the car fixed. Barbara didn't know how or why someone would have anything like the bath bomb that had changed Jim, and quite frankly she wasn’t sure she wanted to.

 The bath bomb in question had been purchased as part of a package deal, two dollars for a whole grocery bag full of bath bombs. She’d used some of the other ones from the bag over the past few months and they’d been perfectly normal. There was no way of knowing if the bath bomb that had changed Jim was the only one of its kind or not. But either way, after last night, there was no way in hell she was letting any of the rest near water.

 Jim didn’t appear happy about the lack of information, but he accepted that Barbara simply didn’t know the answers to his questions. They finished their breakfast in comfortable silence. Cleaning  and wrapping up their morning routine at a leisurely pace.

 Early in the afternoon, they took a break from relaxing at home and ventured out for a trip to the library. Barbara left Jim to his own devices in the children’s section. The sort of books she was after were somewhere else entirely.

 She was tempted to forget that this whole ugly episode ever happened. Never speak of it or acknowledging the strange form Jim had taken ever again. But part of her refused to let it go.

 After all, she still had no idea how or why the the bath bomb caused this to happen, who’s to say it couldn’t happen again?

 Her eyes darted back and forth between the mythology and the science sections. Where to even begin? Before last night she had never thought bath bomb induced transformations were possible, let alone read books about them. The only option seemed to be to cast a wide net and hope for the best.

 Approaching the shelf, Barbara started browsing the stacks and pulling off anything that looked halfway promising.

 Once she was done, she retrieved Jim from the Kid’s Corner and brought him and all the books he’d chosen to the front desk to check out. Book bags in hand, they headed home, making a side trip to their favorite takeout place to pick up dinner.

 Later in the evening, dinner eaten and boxes discarded, Jim was watching cartoons while Barbara sat at the kitchen table, pouring over the books she’d gotten earlier.

 So far, all the information she had found was frustratingly unhelpful. Right off the bat the science books proved to be no help at all. None of them described any kind species that resembled what Jim had turned into, let alone mention any kind of transformation.

 The mythology and folklore books weren’t much better. Some descriptions of mythic creatures lined up pretty darn close to Jim’s changed state, but there were always a few characteristics that prevented her from categorizing Jim’s blue shape as on thing or another.  

 Gargoyle currently topped the list of possibilities she had going, but even that hypothesis had some glaring flaws. Namely, should couldn’t figure out whether a supernatural creature had inspired the architectural feature or vice versa.

 Furthermore, for every type of cryptid she read about, descriptions varied wildly from source to source. Every book she picked up had a different idea of what made a Gargoyle, Minotaur, Yeti, or Troll. Barbara was positively drowning mythological knowledge. It was impossible to separate descriptions of actual creatures that had inspired these fables from the whimsy of iron age story tellers.

 The descriptions they had on transformations were even worse. The transformations described in books ranged from semi-plausible to highly doubtful to completely ridiculous. Quite frankly, she wasn’t sure where bath bombs fit on that scale.

 Maybe it was time to throw in the towel and mix herself a drink..

 An ear splitting scream rang out from the next room, shattering her focus. Barbara shot out of her seat, knocking her chair to the floor.

 Jim.

 She dashed into the next room only to be instantly paralyzed with shock. Jim was standing in front of the hallway mirror, his eyes locked onto his reflection.

 He looked exactly the same as he did when she had found him in the woods the night before. His clothes looked painfully tight over his longer, thicker limbs, and Barbara was certain that if she touched his blue skin it would have the same stony feel that it did last night.

 Icy tendrils of fear snaked into her chest.

 This wasn’t over, not even close.

 Jim hadn’t moved, his eyes still fixed on the mirror, too stunned to react. It only now occurred to her that he had never seen his reflection last night.

 How had this happened? Had the effects of the bath bomb not worn off, but instead, laid dormant only to return in full force later. If so, what had caused it, why now, why hadn’t Jim changed back at some other time?

 The window caught her eye; no one could be allowed to see this. Barbara darted over to the window and fiddled with the blinds, shutting out the fading light of the sunset.

 Wait….sunset….

 Jim had turned back to normal early in the morning, about the same time the sun would have risen, and when he changed just a moment ago, the sun had just gone down.

 It wasn’t certain, but Barbara had a gut feeling that she’d figured out something important. For whatever outlandish, unnatural reason, Jim’s transformation was connected to sunrise and sunset.

 “....mom….” Jim said softly “....what’s happening to me….”

 That was the million dollar question wasn’t it; if his transformation was tied to sunrise and sunset how long would it go on. Would it eventually stop? Would each change be the same or would Jim be altered more with every passing night? What if the day ever came that he didn’t turn back to normal again?

 She gave him the only answer she could.

 “I don’t know sweetie,”

 The blinds shut against prying eyes, Barbara went over to Jim and gathered him up into her arms, trying to give comfort in place of explanations.

 The nightmare wasn’t over, it was just getting started.

 “I just don’t know,”

[raeofgayshine]

A Sanders Sides FamILY Christmas, Or Whatever- Part 1

Christmas Is My Favorite 

Roman and Patton are excited for Christmas, but Virgil and Logan aren’t so sold on the idea of getting started already. After all, it was only November 1st. 

Set in The World We’re Gonna Make Verse. This is the first of several Christmas Themed Fics I have planned to write for the verse. Can be read as a stand-alone, or along with the other fics you can find here. Read it on ao3.

Warnings: Christmas, Sympathetic Deceit 

The first thing Virgil was aware of when he woke up the first day of November was just how cold, and by extension empty, the bed was. Unsurprisingly he was the last one awake, as per usual, although usually, Roman slept in long enough he was still hanging around by the time Virgil woke up. They all knew how cold Virgil got when he was left alone, it was one of the reasons he still refused to sleep in his own bed even now when the nightmares came far and few in between. Worse, Virgil realized when he sat up and looked at the clock beside Patton’s bed, it was hardly 9 in the morning. Far too early to be awake on a Saturday, especially the night after Halloween.

‘It was outrageous’, Virgil thought to himself, pulling his hoodie closer around him as he finally got out of bed, shivering slightly in the change of temperature. God he hated waking up cold. It was going to take forever to warm up, and until he did someone was going to have to deal with him clinging to their side and taking their heat. Preferable Logan, or Roman, both of them were like heaters. As good of a cuddler as Patton was, he was also just as cold as Virgil typically was, so it wasn’t a good way for either of them to warm up.

“Ah, good morning Virgil.” Logan greeted, looking up from his book as Virgil trudged into the room, eyes only half open. Virgil didn’t respond verbally, but he did walk over a take a seat next to Logan, burrowing into his side in an attempt to gain some warmth. Logan chuckled, shifting to wrap one of his arms around the younger boy and moving his book to rest on the arm of the couch. “You’re up early.”

“Cold,” Virgil said as a way of explanation, a small smile crossing his face as he snuggled closer to Logan’s warmth. “Even Ro was up already.”

“Yes, well that is because he and Patton have been busy since early this morning,” Logan replied, rolling his eyes as glanced towards the kitchen, where the duo had disappeared half an hour ago. “I do not know exactly what they are up to, but I imagine it cannot be anything good.”

“Hmm, where’s Dee at?” Virgil asked, turning his head so that his voice wasn’t so muffled and Logan could understand him better. “Did he go home already?”

“If you mean has his nanny called asking where he was yet, the answer is no,” Logan said, bitterness creeping into his tone, and Virgil couldn’t stop himself from laughing softly as Logan’s protective mother instincts kicked in. It wasn’t a secret that Logan hated Dee’s family situation, and given the chance they were all fairly sure the 12-year-old would gladly fight Dee’s parents. If they were ever actually around, that was. “I doubt she’s even noticed he hasn’t come home yet.”

Logan wasn’t exactly a fan of Dee’s nanny either. Dee wasn’t either, which was why he had resisted going home last night after they returned from trick-or-treating, going as far as to hide himself in the bathtub (where he wound up, in turn, falling asleep) when Thomas went to take Remy and Emile home so that he wouldn’t have to go as well.

“Dee prefers it that way.” Virgil pointed out, thinking of all the times they had found the younger boy alone around town, and how much happier he was that way.

“Regardless of what he prefers, it is irresponsible,” Logan muttered, and Virgil hummed in agreement, not wanting to push the topic any further. Silence fell over them for a minute, until Logan remembered the question Virgil had asked. “Dee got up with Patton and Roman this morning to help in their escapades, but he too apparently got cold before long so found a patch of sun to fall asleep in.”

Virgil snorted softly. “Are we sure he isn’t part snake?”

“That is biologically impossible Virgil. How on earth would Dee be part snake?” Logan asked, genuine confusion slipping into his voice, and Virgil bit back a sigh as rolled over so he was facing Logan.

“It... it was a joke, Lo,” Virgil said, rolling his eyes at the older boy. “You really take everything I say too seriously.”

“Ah, forgive me, Virgil,” Logan replied, smiling apologetically at Virgil, who waved it off his eyes already closed again. Silence fell over them for a few minutes and Virgil began to drift off back to sleep, but just before he was able to, Patton and Roman came into the room dragging several boxes overflowing with decorations, which they dragged to the middle of living leaving a trail of noise and mess behind them.

“What on earth are you two doing?” Logan asked, raising his voice slightly to get their attention, scaring Patton who dropped his box and in turn startled Virgil, who sat up so quickly for a moment Logan was afraid he was about to sprint from the room.

“What does it look like we’re doing, Sherlock?” The sound of Roman’s voice was enough to bring Virgil back from the edge of his panic, although an annoyed scowl fell on his face as he leaned against Logan still tired but no longer able to sleep.

“We’re decorating for Christmas!” Patton exclaimed, pulling out a handful of garland from one of the boxes, smiling brightly as he held it up for Logan and Virgil to see. “We decided to start with the living room cause that’s the first thing you see, but we’re going to do the whole house if we have enough stuff.”

“It’s November 1st,” Logan said slowly, looking between the two boys with a small frown. “Yesterday was Halloween. Christmas is still another two months almost.”

“Which is exactly why we have to start decorating now!” Roman grinned, bouncing on the heels of his feet as he looked around the room, eyes wide with the vision he and Pat had come up with. “We’re already behind! My mom would start decorating as soon as the clock struck midnight, and we’re well past that by now.”

“Roman’s got a bunch of plans on how to make this the best Christmas ever,” Patton said to Logan, smiling at the younger boy who was now slowly unpacking the box he had drug in. “Isn’t it exciting Lo? It’s our first real Christmas. Our first one as a complete family!”

“I still do not understand why the two of you feel the need to start now,” Logan said, his eyebrows creasing slightly as he tried to understand the logic behind the pair's actions. “I mean, do you really need this long to celebrate Christmas?”

“I agree with Lo,” Virgil muttered from where he sat pressed against the older boy’s side, completely curled in on himself and chewing on his lip as he watched the decorations slowly begin to spread out on the floor. “What’s so fucking great about Christmas you need to celebrate it for this long anyway?”

“What’s so great?” Roman gasped loudly, dropping the wad of lights he had pulled out back into the box in shock as he turned towards Virgil, eyes wide in disbelief. “What’s so great?”

“That’s what I asked, yeah,” Virgil said, rolling his eyes at Roman’s dramatics. “It’s just a stupid cash holiday.”

“How dare-“ Roman scoffed, clearly offended by Virgil’s thoughts against Christmas, but before he could finish his sentence Patton was starting to sing.

“I can't believe the time is here. To deck the halls and spread some cheer!”

Roman grinned brightly, joining him as they continued

“It is our favorite season. Though we can't place the reason. Christmas is our favorite time of year!”

“Okay, you just kinda stated stuff we already knew.” Virgil deadpanned, sharing a look with Logan who had equally not entirely bought into the idea the pair were selling

“Yeah, we get that you like Christmas, but what is it about Christmas that you like?” Logan asked, prodding for a deeper answer which Roman seemed more than happy to answer

“Hoho! I'll tell you! We'll wrap our presents good and tight. And shower Christmas trees with lights.” Roman sang, wrapping a strand of lighted garland around Virgil and Logan as he sang, scrambling to plug it in. Patton laughed as the pair sudden burst into light before singing

“Oh, yuletide carols we shall sing. Though I'm not sure what "yuletide" means. But Christmas is my favorite silent night!”

Unamused, Logan removed the lights from around him and Virgil before standing up, brushing off a few loose needles that had fallen on his shoulders before asking the pair “So, you're about the decorations hanging everywhere?”

“Don't sing.” Virgil scowled, curling in on himself more now that he was alone and still very cold.

“The couples under mistletoe, And snowflakes in the air?” Logan continued, ignoring Virgil’s interruption, although he did send the younger boy an apologetic smile.

“Lo, please,” Virgil pleaded, needing at least one person on his side against the onslaught of Christmas the two were trying to drown them in.

“The Christmas morning presents That you open with excitement and delight! So am I right?” Logan finished, looking sure that he had gotten the right answer.

“Not quite,” Roman said a slight frown on his face that made Logan respond in shock

“What?!”

“I love the bells on Santa's sleigh” Roman explained, sitting next to Virgil and throwing an arm around his brother as he sang “And all the reindeer games to pla-a-ay”

“Get to the point before I vomit.” Virgil pushed Roman away from him, his scowl deepening as the youngest cheer never seemed to fade despite Virgil’s attempts to dim the mood.

“I can't just put my finger on it. But Christmas is my favorite holiday!” Roman finished, laying his head on Virgil’s shoulder and wrapping his arms around his stomach, knowing that Virgil could never resist a hug while cold, even if he was upset with the others. “I know my reasonings unclear”

“But I’m still smiling ear to ear!” Patton took over, wrapping Logan in a hug of his own, catching the oldest off guard who could only frown as Patton continued to sing. “Call me "Saint Nick" 'Cause I'll keep giving So long as I can keep reliving!”

“Christmas is our favorite time–” Roman joined in for the last few lines, harmonizing perfectly with Patton as they finished “Don't ask about reason or rhyme. Just know that it’s our favorite time of year!”

“That… was not exactly an answer to the question either one of us asked,” Logan frowned, looking around the room at just how much stuff Patton and Roman had managed to drag out in the short time since they have arrived. “Does Thomas even know that the two of you have all of this planned?”

“You could say that.” Patton grinned mischievously, sharing a look with Roman that had Virgil narrowing his eyes at the pair. Before he had a chance to ask what they were up to though, Thomas burst into the room carrying a box of his own, singing

“It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas. Everywhere you go.” Thomas set the box down on the floor, smiling at the four boys when he noticed them gathered there. “Good morning kiddos. Logan, Virgil, are you two going to help us decorate for Christmas?”

“Not you too,” Virgil groaned, burying his face in Roman’s hair despite the younger boy’s protest that he would mess it up. “Why is everyone in this house so in love with this stupid holiday?”

“Sorry kiddo, it’s Sanders family tradition,” Thomas chuckled, ruffling Virgil’s hair affectionately and eliciting a hiss from Virgil in response that had him quickly pulling his hand away. “We always go all out for Christmas. And that includes starting the day after Halloween ends.”

“I still think it is far too early to be practical,” Logan said, a slight frown on his face and for a moment Virgil felt hope flutter in his chest that Logan was still on his side about this being a stupid idea.

“However, if it makes Roman and Patton happy, I am more than willing to participate in this decorating. It will go much faster if we all work together, and once it is done we will be able to move on.”

Virgil’s scowl returned to his face as he pushed Roman away from him again, climbing off the couch with the full intent of returning to bed when Patton grabbed his arm, looking confused and a little concerned “Virge? Don’t you want to help us decorate kiddo?”

“It’s too cold to decorate, I’m going back to bed,” Virgil mumbled, pulling his arm free and heading out of the living room before the others could stop him. There was no way in hell he was going to help decorate for some stupid dumb holiday like Christmas, that was for sure.

“Have I missed something?” Thomas asked, staring after where Virgil disappeared for a moment before turning to the trio of kids left. “Is there something going on with Virgil?”

“He complained when he first woke about being left alone in bed cold,” Logan said, knitting his eyebrows together as he tried to figure out if there were any other signs of something being wrong.

“Maybe it’s just a bad day?” Patton suggested, looking just as lost as Thomas and Logan. “That happens sometimes.”

“Maybe…” Thomas agreed, not looking entirely convinced, but also not having another answer. “He might also just need some more sleep, he isn’t usually up this early.”

Roman who had remained silent up until now stood up, drawing attention to himself as he went to follow Virgil’s footsteps.

“Ro, where are you going?” Patton asked the youngest of the group, causing Roman to stop and turn to face them with a sad look on his face.

“I think I know why Virge is upset,” Roman explained, his voice a little softer than normal, but he was determined as he added, “So I’m gonna fix it.”

“Roman I’m not sure-” Logan started in an attempt to stop Roman before he could make things worse, but Roman simply ignored him and marched out of the room to find Virgil.

Silence fell over the remaining three in the living room, until after a few minutes Patton finally asked: “So should we start decorating without them?”

“Maybe you and Lo can go bake some cookies instead while we wait,” Thomas suggested, smiling gently down at the pair to hide the worry still clear in his eyes. “Ro was so excited to decorate, I don’t think it’s fair to start without him.”

“Perhaps we could make Virgil’s favorite cookies in order to cheer him up,” Logan added, and instantly Patton’s face lit up at the idea, and he grabbed Logan’s hand excitedly, dragging him towards the kitchen.

Thomas watched them go still smiling, but the second they disappeared from the room it fell into a frown. Something was going on with Virgil, something only Roman seemed to have the slightest clue about, and Thomas had no idea how to help except to sit around and wait for the two to return and see if things were okay. He wished that there was more he could do, but after months of taking care of the boys Thomas knew that pushing for an answer only ever made things worse.

So he just had to wait, and hope, and pray that everything would be okay and that Roman would be able to help Virgil with whatever problem he was dealing with. And until then, he should probably make sure that Logan and Patton didn’t get into too much trouble in the kitchen.

TagList (Let me know if you want to be added):

@bunny222

@musikasworld

[isthemedia]

Ya know what? Last Hurrah time if anything happens to my Tumblr!

Below will be the 1st chapter of the sequel to “What do I Dream to be” (title pending)

The first chapter of the Non-Despair AU-prologue here

And the WIP of the Post Game Fic Prologue.

Finishing up the sequel to “What do I Dream to be” (FUCK YEAH I’m on chapter 7!)

                                                         Chapter 1

“You ever going to tell me your name?”

Eraser huffed as he glared at the blonde. They were sitting...somewhere. He couldn’t tell where. Everything was distorted and nothing looked familiar.

The blonde was still grinning.

“...maybe someday.”

He couldn’t stop the small smirk that crossed his face when the blonde whined.

“Come oooooooon,” he drew out and leaned against him. “Give me something!”

Eraser rolled his eyes and pushed the other away. “Fine...if you want something...I like peach things.”

Bright green eyes--

No wait...red?

No wait, they’re green again?

“Peach things?” The other boy stared at him

“I like the flavor.”

There was a beat before he saw that bright smile again--

And then two large hands from the dark reached out and roughly pulled the blonde away. He could hear the blonde scream and reach out for him.

Eraser reached back, but felt hands take ahold of him and pull away.

“H-HIZASHI!”

“Eraser!”

Blurry eyes flew open as he felt his chest heaving as he took in deep breaths. Eyes darting around before settling on the face that was over his. Those bright green eyes filled with worry.

Green…?

He felt gentle hands cups his face.

“You’re alright,” Hizashi murmured and leaned in, giving him a soft kiss. “You’re alright...a-and I’m right here.”

Eraser nodded some as he finally got his breathing back under control. They stay quiet for a bit, Hizashi nuzzling him gently.

“You were calling my name…”

“...you were...taken away,” Eraser replied.

Hizashi gave a soft kiss. “I’m right here.”

The eraser user wrapped his arms around Hizashi and pulled him close. The blonde sighed happily as he settled against him. Enjoying the moment of them being so close with one another.

“Hey, think we should get up and go out for a bit?” Hizashi suggested. It was nearing evening. He was getting used to this out of whack sleeping schedule; the lack of windows helped with that.

“Do we?”

“Maybe some fresh air and a bite? I...just never heard you scream like that.”

The worry in the blonde’s voice made Eraser stop any further arguments. He nodded.

The two dressed in silence, the air still a bit tense.

“...you asked for my name,” Eraser said.

“I, what?”

“In my dream...you asked for my name…” he felt his brows furrow. “I...I can’t even remember it.”

Hizashi gave a sad smile before walking over to him, pulling his shirt on before wrapping his arms around him. “It’s alright Eraser...I mean I want to know it,” he began. “But, nothing would change now if I did know it. I would still love you if you were Yuki, Hajime, or even Karou. It wouldn’t change who YOU are.”

Eraser blushed slight and scoffed. “You’re such a sap.”

“And I’m ALL yours!” Hizashi grinned and kissed him on the cheek with an exaggerated ‘mwah’. “Come on, I’m realizing I’m starving, and it’s Friday...we should be in the clear.”

“....I need more protein gels too.”

“Wanna see if we can find those peach ones again?”  

The was a brief replay of his dream that ran through Eraser’s mind. How normal, and almost real it felt. Shaking it off he nodded and gave a soft smile to Hizashi.

--

‘Toonuchi Financial Group is another victim to be added to the list of those hit by the string of arsons. Surveillance video shows that last evening a disruption occurred that was enough to cause the cameras to malfunction. Upon closer inspection, it can be confirmed that the damage to them, was caused by a high increase of pressure.

Pressure, created by a devastating sound the decibels reaching over 150.’

“They know it was you,” Eraser said as he glanced over to the TV playing in the bar.

“Even if I didn’t do that, they would have pinned it on me,” Hizashi said as he took a drink of his beer.

One of the few things Hizashi learned about enjoying being in the Marunouchi was how desolate it was when it came to the weekend. It was when he and Eraser could go out in civilian wear and nobody was the wiser.

It was obvious that Eraser never took the opportunity to go out and about, until well...everything that happened a few months ago.

The more he was with Eraser, he felt the underlying familiarity. He remembers when he ran out to get some minor groceries he came across some of these peach protein gels. There was a nagging in the back of his mind telling him to get them, that the other had a fondness for the sweet flavor. So he did. The way Eraser’s eyes lit up was well worth the risk of following that nagging.

“We shouldn’t stay out much longer,” Eraser said, he feet kicking at one of the shopping bags they had sitting under the table.

“Right right...one more after this right?” Hizashi asked, eyes darting to the TV quickly, the hidden message under the question coming through clearly.

Eraser nodded. “Yeah…”

“Then what? You said, the doctors were good...but who else?”

“Some of the guards, though most are blacked out too. Then…” Eraser hesitated. “Then...Kaiguchi…”

Hizashi coughed as he choked on his beer. “K-Kaiguchi Kanjirou?” The ‘Man of the Year’ for businesses three years running? The man behind several ‘saved’ businesses? The man who HELPED fund multiple Quirk assistant charities?! The man that helped fund the Quirk research for doctors!?

HE was part of it!? HE was part of the Quirk Advancement Program!?

Hizashi took a calming breath. Alright, alright, i-it could make sense. The guy coulda been duped into thinking it really was helping them. Right? He met the guy a few times. Intimidating as hell, but his heart was in the right pla--  

“He…” Eraser felt himself shake a little, and it felt like ice settled at the the pit of his stomach. Everything around him was starting to go hazy, as that sweet scent of cigar smoke was suddenly filling his senses. He jumped when he felt hands cover his. Looking up he could see Hizashi looking at him, green eyes filled with worry and a bit of panic. He opened his mouth and Hizashi cut him off.

“Don’t...y-you don’t have to talk about him, alright? Let’s get going, yeah? Head on back, maybe watch something?” The way Eraser acted...shit what did this guy know? Did he know? What was Kaiguchi Kanjirou’s connection?

Eraser nodded. He’d normally make some snappy remark but he just couldn't bring himself to do it this time. The only thing he knew he could be sure of, is how grateful he was that Hizashi was here…

With him.  

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Non-despair Ishimondo and other ships fic-basically a fic of about accepting themselves beyond their Ultimate.

                                                  Chapter 1

Transitioning to Hope’s Peak from Kaiseidan High wasn’t as difficult had Ishimaru thought it would be. The atmosphere was different, more elite and pronounced, but it wasn’t overwhelming. It almost felt natural to be here.

At first he tried to get use to some of his classmates, though most seemed to just ignore him despite his best attempts to maintain his...as Sotaru-kun called it “Moral Compass” personality.

For a brief moment he was certain that he was going to maintain his...rather lonesome social standings at this new school as well-but that changed after about a month into the school year.

Mondo Oowada.

In all honesty Ishimaru was certain he and the Ultimate Bike Gang Leader were going to be at each other’s throats at all times. They were, afterall, at opposite ends of the spectrum. However, maybe through with dealing with people like Noitaka-kun, it seemed that they manage to form some sort of comradery between them.  

No, not a comradery, that word didn’t hold the weight of the connection between them properly.

A brotherhood of sorts was formed.

A deep brotherly bond. He rarely had to worry about spending his free time alone. The biker’s presence a near constant thing. It lead him to form another friendship with his classmate Chihiro Fujisaki. The two favored to spend more quiet time while Mondo would attempt to slack off between classes; the latter would occasionally try to catch a quick nap.

He and Chihiro would take the time to talk about simple things and such. Ishimaru couldn’t understand a lot of the jargon the other would use when trying to explain their next pet project they were working on, but he enjoyed the conversation nevertheless.

He was also grateful that when the bell rang, he wasn’t alone in trying to wake the boker up from his sleep.

All further hesitations and doubts about attending such a prestigious school were almost instantly lifted knowing that his brother, his kyoudai would be there besides him.

Ishimaru found himself being able to speak again with the authority he once had; and even though there were times where he felt ineffective...the times where he wasn’t feeling as such greatly overshadowed them. Case in point would be what have just transpired moments ago.

It was a rare sight to see Togami Byakuya attend gym. The Ultimate Affluent Prodigy not seeing the reason for him to attend such a class he viewed as beneath him. It was almost as rare as seeing Fukawa and Celeste to partake in it as well.

It wasn’t as if the heir was out of shape, quite the contrary, Byakuya was nearly at the peak of physical prowess.

However…

No amount of physical aptitude could prepare anyone from taking a hit to the face by a dodgeball from the Ultimate Baseball Star. Leon yelled out some profanities along with apologies.

Ishimaru without hesitation helped the other boy up, ignoring the protest and verbal berating the other dished out. Bringing the other to the locker room where Ishimaru was able to not only find the first aid kit, but a small repair kit for glasses.

Luckily enough it seemed that Byakuya's glasses didn’t sustain any damage, just smudged lenses. A feat a bit shocking since the blow was hard enough to cause the other’s nose to bleed and split his lower lip.

Byakuya swiped the small cloth, claiming he was quite capable of handling this himself. Ishimaru was still unsure how to actually speak with the other, he always seem--no, he most definitely does just brush off whatever he says. He stood there a bit awkwardly before something caught his eye.

He probably wouldn’t have seen it if Byakuya didn’t shift on the bench to tend to his still slightly bleeding nose. But peaking out from the bottom of his gym shorts was a patch of bruising skin. At first Ishimaru thought that perhaps it was from the fall he took from getting hit.

But there was something more to it.

There was a little bit of drying blood...from what looked like small indentations from a pronged item. Almost like a for--

“Did you--”

“What?” The other snapped as he put his glasses back on.  

“Your leg,” Ishimaru gestured to it.

“It’s nothing. Merely a distraction tactic,” Byakuya stated as he stood up, tossing dirtied cloth at Ishimaru's feet.

“A distraction tact--”

“Not everyone can be as open about certain sides of themselves,” Byakuya cut him off. “We can’t all be open as you and that punk are.”

“Open?” Ishimaru repeated. What was he going on about--oh wait! Didn’t he explain that there’s that unspoken war among all the other potential heirs? So did that mean that he felt guilty for wanting some sort of sibling relationship that he and Mondo had. “I don’t see what’s wrong with you wanting to have a brotherly bond like Mondo and I have! In fact it might be for the best for you! Having that bond can empower you in a way you never felt before!”

Byakuya stared at him. As if he was trying to process the outburst. Was he really that…?

The Affluent Prodigy scoffed out a dry laugh, which only had the other’s look of confusion grow. He almost felt pity for him...not really understanding what he meant. And perhaps a small amount to the Bike Gang Leader for showing interest in somebody so dense.  

“It would be best for you to believe me when I say, that it is not as easy as you make it out to be,” he said to Ishimaru before turning on his heel to go back to class.

No...wanting something you know you cannot have. And knowing you can’t have it...sometimes a distraction no matter how brutal can be the only course of action.

“Hey, Togami?”

Dammit.

“You alright? It looked like Leon hit you pretty badly,” Makoto asked as he approached the other. “He feels really bad about it.”

“He should be fine,” another voice added. “Even with his strength, there wouldn’t be enough force to break his nose.”

And Byakuya internally cursed once again. Because of course, wherever Makato was, Kyouko was going to be close by. He reached up to push his glasses up, and put pressure along the still tender nose bridge in an attempt to distract.

Pain.

Pain was always the best course for his needed distraction.

“I’m fine. I do not need the likes of you to concern yourselves over me,” he huffed and pushed passed...despite the gentle warmth that settled in his stomach.

Dammit, this wasn’t enough this time.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Post-Game 1&2 fic with the victims/perps trying to escape Hope Peak and get out into the world.–Ishimodo, SayaLeo, and slight Celeste/Hifumi (just to clear up, perps and victims form Game1 Only)

                                                    Prologue (WIP)

When she woke  up…

She screamed.

She screamed and thrashed and kicked.

She was somewhere...somewhere small.

Cold…

Trapped.

She kicked harder and harder. Flashes of pain shot up her leg but she couldn’t be deterred.

She...she needed to get out.

She needed to…

To…

To apologize.

To apologize to them.

Her screaming gave way to crying and small sniffling.

She was sorry.

She was so so sorry.

She was sorry to Makoto...she was going to try and frame him.

She was sorry for Leon...even he tried to talk her down, she refused to listen. If she would have then maybe--

They was shouting above her.

Her eyes widened. She kicked harder and harder and soon she heard something crack…

And a tiny door creaked open.

--

She scrambled out of wherever it was...her foot hurt she definitely much have bruised it--

She couldn’t focus on that right now, the banging and yelling was growing more frantic. Looking to see--w-was this a morgue? It was cold...b-but shouldn’t it be colder?

Ah there was water everywhere…

A light was flickering on one of the doors, where the yelling was coming from. Pushing herself to her feet she rushed over-yeah foot is very much bruised--

Open, open! Why won’t it open!? Ah she couldn’t concentrate with the yelling.

She opened her mouth a few times but couldn’t get any words to come out. Not at first...then that little door was being kicked it, and the light flickered again. Maybe---maybe!

“LEON!”

And then the yelling stopped.

“Leon! Please listen, keep kicking at the door, there’s a keypad--”

“S-Sayaka?”

“Y-yes, i-it’s me…”

“Oh god...oh fuck! Say-Sayaka! I-I’m sorry! I-I’m so--”

“Later! Let's get you out of here first!” She heard a small sound, almost like a huff and the kicking proceeded. The door jostled and the light flickered. All the while she kept pressing buttons on the keypad.

Maybe they could break it? She remembered something like this happening to her on tour once. Well not this exactly….but still.

Then the light flickered faster and faster and then--

It went off…

And a click.

And the small door slowly opened.

She backed away just as the door was kicked open, and out scrambled a shaking and shivering Leon Kuwata.

Her heart was slowing down some. The adrenaline was rushing out…

And she cried.

--

Leon could feel himself shake as he tried to catch his breath. His lungs felt like they were burning and fuck his foot hurt. What happened? Didn’t he die? A thousand fucking baseballs to his body--

He whipped around when he heard the crying.

And there she was…

She was alive.

She was alive and crying and--

He fell back with a cough as she threw herself at him. She held onto him as she continued crying. Repeating ‘I’m sorry’ over and over again. The pain...and remorse...he found himself wrapping his arms around her as his own tears flowed.

Each ‘I’m sorry’ Sayaka said he echoed.

Neither of them could tell how long it was, but when they finally were able to calm down-eyes and throats hurting-they tried to get their breathing back under control. It was the only sound in that room for the time being.

Sayaka sniffled as she pushed herself up and rubbed at her eye, and Leon pushed himself up. He looked around...just what was this room? Why was everything so...freaking wet?

“I’m sorry…”

Leon looked over to her, and gently reached to her, placing a hand on her shoulder. “I think we shared enough of those for right now...I-I wanna talk about it more but...we--”

Sayaka took a shaky breath and nodded “W-we should really f-figure out where we are.”

“And how they hell we’re alive…” Leon said as he looked along the wall to see more

[180abroad]

Day 107: Conwy

Today we woke up early again and caught the 9:30 bus out of Betws-y-Coed north to the quintessentially picturesque castle town of Conwy.

On the train into Betws-y-Coed the other day, we had seen some spectacular views of the hills surrounding the River Conwy. On the bus, we got to see even more of the countryside. We passed through a patch of gently rolling, lightly wooded hillsides, dotted with picturesque hamlets and colorful terraced gardens, which I can only describe as The Shire.

Much of it still looked like we were back home in California, but the up-close details--the sheep, the actually old buildings, the pleasant Welsh patter of our bus-mates--made its foreignness a bit more clear.

The old Celtic languages in Scotland and Ireland may be dying out, but Welsh is still very much alive and well, at least in northern Wales. Whenever we overheard a pair of Welsh people talking, it seemed just as likely to be in Welsh as in English. And we figured out a clever trick that some Welsh people seem to do when first meeting someone.

The Welsh word for “hello” is helo, pronounced “hee-low.” To someone who doesn’t know Welsh, it just sounds like saying hello with an accent (which I guess it still is), so they just reply with hello. Someone who speaks Welsh, however, will recognize what they said and reply in kind: helo. And without missing a beat, the conversation can proceed in either English or Welsh as if it was never a question.

Also along the way, our bus crossed over the historic Llanrwst stone bridge--which helpfully had a warning “weak bridge” sign posted next to it. I’m not sure what we were supposed to do with that information, but since the bus driver didn’t seem too much bothered by it, I decided to just not think about it.

Conwy is a charming medieval town still circled by walls that have never been breached or bombed. It instantly reminded me of Dubrovnik, Croatia, which I had visited years earlier. To be honest, the comparison was bubbling in my mind long before we actually set eyes on Conwy, but I was gratified to hear another tourist make the comparison while we were on the castle ramparts. (Perhaps more than gratified--I may have given Jessica a disgustingly gratified grin when we both overheard the comment.)

Driving into town, we passed through a narrow archway penetrating the town walls directly under the view of the castle. And after we got off the bus, that was our first stop.

Architecturally, Conwy Castle is beautiful--maybe one of my top favorites. But as a piece of British history, it is hideous.

For much of their history, the relationship between the English and the Welsh could be compared to the relationship between the Anglo-American settlers and the Native Americans. The Welsh had land, and the English wanted it.

(The English name Wales actually comes from an Anglo-Saxon word for “foreigners,” and the Welsh name for England--Lloegyr--may have originally meant “invaders.”)

Unable to stand toe-to-toe with the English army, the Welsh lords did what every native population does when faced with a technologically superior invader. They retreated to the mountains and waged a guerilla war.

The English responded by ringing the wildlands of Snowdonia with a web of heavily fortified castle towns, from which they could contain the Welsh resistance fighters and launch brutal raiding parties whenever they wanted. For over a hundred years, North Wales was where ambitious young knights and nobles would come to prove their mettle and might.

Despite the castle’s grim origins, the Welsh do an impressive job of presenting it in an accessible, even-handed, and even entertaining way. They make a point to focus on the pride and camaraderie of Welsh culture that allowed them to survive and retain their identity as the era of English imperialism slowly rose and fell.

They are particularly fond of one story that involves one of the greatest April Fool’s tricks of all time.

On April 1, 1401, the English garrison left the castle to attend a Good Friday mass in the city below. They were confident in their iron grip of the city, and they left only two guards to hold the castle gate.

While the garrison was out, the castle carpenter--a Welshman--and two apprentices showed up at the gate to do some work. The guards let them in, whereupon the the apprentices--or rather, Welsh freedom fighters disguised as apprentices--slew the guards, let in a small contingent of other freedom fighters, and barred the gate.

Conwy Castle was so well-designed that this handful of Welsh patriots were able to hold it for three months before finally surrendering to the English garrison. Nine freedom fighters were executed for the coup, but the two leaders who had posed as carpenter’s apprentices were pardoned in exchange for their surrender.

Their names were Rhys and Gwilym Tudor. As in the Tudors who would  become the kings and queens of England less than a century later. Which went a long way toward easing medieval England’s apartheid rule over Wales.

The stairs up to the top of the smaller high turrets around the inner courtyard were ridiculously steep and narrow, but the views were worth it.

Unfortunately, we then had to climb down the stairs. Very slowly.

In the castle’s great hall, we learned that an invitation here during the Middle Ages could have very different implications depending on the context. The hall served as the venue of choice for both honorary feasting and criminal prosecutions. A hallway leads directly from the hall to a dark pit that condemned prisoners would be thrown into to slowly die of thirst or starvation.

As fascinating as everything in the castle was, Jessica and I were suffering under the sweltering summer heat. It wasn’t just bad by British standards--as a Californian, I can definitively say that it was hot.

Luckily, we found a stairway leading down into a mercifully cool basement at the foot of one tower. As a bonus, we got to see a cool model of how Conwy looked at the peak of the English occupation.

Notice how the only ways in and out of the castle were by boat or by climbing a single steep, narrow stairway.

We also learned the curious connection between Conwy and a London football team.

One of the signs mentioned an English knight named Sir Henry Percy, who also went by the nickname “Hotspur.” Henry was the son of a powerful earl and spent the late 1300s in Conwy enforcing English rule. Henry was later immortalized by Shakespeare for his role as the leader of a failed rebellion against King Henry IV.

Jessica wondered if he was somehow related to the Tottenham Hotspur football club in London, it turns out that he is. The Percy family owned a lot of land throughout the country, including much of Tottenham, then an agricultural hamlet north of London, and the Tottenham football club chose to adopt Henry’s famous nickname. (The nickname came from Henry’s eagerness to charge into battle.)

Leaving the castle, we immediately began searching the streets for a place to eat--as much out of a desire to escape the heat as of actual hunger. We eventually stopped at the Galleon, whose window boasted of having “Possibly the best fish and chips you’ve ever tasted.” We appreciated the slight concession to modesty and decided to test the claim for ourselves.

We’ve had far too many fish and chips now for me to even begin ranking them, but the Galleon’s would probably be pretty high up. The fish was great, but I was particularly intrigued by the chips--they were almost a perfect clone of the fries from In-N-Out Burger.

After lunch, we checked out the Elizabethan Plas Mawr house--one of the oldest buildings still standing in Conwy and the first house that a Welshman was allowed to build inside the town walls. (After all, the walls were originally built specifically to keep the Welsh out.)

Keeping in mind that the house is almost 500 years old, it’s in remarkable condition. It is filled with interesting plaster and woodwork throughout. We could appreciate what they were going for, but to be brutally honest the craftsmanship and engineering skills just weren’t quite there.

In one room, the plasterwork ended up getting cut off because they didn’t think to double-check the measurements of the room.

The nude woman used in the plaster motif was apparently based on the artist’s wife, and the fireplace of the great room was painted to look like marble.

Allegedly.

The house’s kitchen was unique in that it was actually stocked with real food and spices (apart from the bouncy foam eggs), and everything wasn’t glued down to the table. It gave the place a remarkably more lifelike and homey feel than the kitchens in other preserved homes and castles we’ve visited--not least because it actually smelled like a kitchen.

Before we headed upstairs, the delightfully pattering audioguide lead us out for a quick view of the garden. As an aside, Welsh might be my favorite of all the British accents. Jessica was pleasantly surprised by how similar it is to a Scouse (Liverpool) accent--though it makes sense in retrospect given how close the city is to Wales and how much of the city’s population is descended from Welsh immigrants.

Upstairs, we saw the attic and the house’s arched roof supports with pegged joints. This would have been considered high-tech architecture at the time, and the owner had originally intended for the roof to be on display over the great room below. But he ended up having to add an attic floor for structural reasons.

From the window, we were able to get another great view of the castle and the rest of the town.

And we just couldn’t get away from the California connections.

After leaving Plas Mawr, we were tired, hot, and almost ready to go. But I had one last item on my Conwy checklist--walking a section of the wall.

We got off the wall just in time to catch the bus back to Betws. On the way, our driver pulled up outside a school and got out. We ended up waited around thirty minutes while the bus filled up with schoolchildren. Apparently this was a combination city and school bus. Still, it was an interesting experience to hear how school bus banter doesn’t really change no matter where in the world you go--just the accents.

Back home, we picked up dinner from the Spar mini-mart and watched Iceland heroically not quite make it to the next round of the World Cup.

Next Post: Betws-y-Coed & Blaenau Ffestiniog

Last Post: Snowdonia

[tokyobts-blog]

sweet like candy

(gif not mine cr to the owner)

paring: kai x reader

genre: fluff, idol!au

word count: 2076

summary: you and jongin are both idols and in a secret relationship. after an award show you spend a cozy night at the hotel with him. jongin tells you he wants to stay with you and finally shares how he fell in love with you.

The car almost reached the hotel. You fell asleep in the meantime because the ride took so long. “Y/N you seriously have no patience” Jongin complained.

“Hey I heard that” you murmuringly answered. “Oh babe you’re awake?” he asked while he moved his shoulders. You once again fell asleep on him. How could you not though? It was actually so easy to get sleepy when you were with Jongin.

The boy was just too soft, it was unable not to drown in his sparkly brown eyes. Whenever he let out a word his voice hit you like a thousand rocks. You were for sure so in love with him.

“We’re almost there Y/N I promise” he whispered as he put you back to sleep.

The driver coughed. “Kim Jongin-ah” he said with a deep tone. “Yes?” Jongin immediately answered. “Is your partner sleeping again?” he asked. Jongin closed his eyes. For a second he prayed that this moment wasn’t real.

Having a partner wasn’t allowed as an idol. Jongin’s company was pretty strict too which made him fear sometimes. The world would go crazy if they’d find out about you two.

The both of you had a dating ban. You could ruin your and your entire company’s reputation by just dating. Your fans might as well transform into antis. Your antis would make you feel miserable and send death treaths. God, it was a painful reality.

“Excuse me but this person isn’t my partner” Jongin forced himself to lie. “Really?” the driver severly insisted. “They’re my cousin, we’re really close to each other” Jongin clarified.

“Oh I’m sorry” the driver apologized.

Not so long after you arrived at the hotel. “Y/N wake up, we’re there” Jongin said as he carefully lifted you up. “Finally” you sighed.

The driver was busy searching your bags as he opened the trunk. “Does your so-called cousin also stay at the hotel?” he asked with a frown. Jongin slowly started to lose his cool.

“Listen driver”

“What Kim Jongin, or should I say EXO Kai?”

“Did I insult you or something?”

“No”

“Then why are you being so disrespectful towards me and my cousin?”

“You’re overreacting Jongin”

“I’m actually not, you should simply do your job well”

Jongin felt more than frustrated. He couldn’t handle those drivers who think they can just treat idols badly. Some of them have no clue about manners and respect. “Give us our bags please” Jongin asked the driver as he raised his eyebrow. The driver rolled his eyes but was kind enough to hand your bags back. “Thank you” Jongin said.

The driver ignored him and stepped up to you. “Poor child, call me if Jongin is being abusive towards you” the driver said. “Now! Get the hell out of here before I hurt you!” Jongin furiously shouted.

The driver got scared and left as quickly as he could. Jongin didn’t make a single move until the car reached a far distance.

“I’m sorry Y/N, he just made me angry” he deeply sighed. Jongin pulled closer to you and placed a kiss onto your forehead. “I just couldn’t stand his questions about you“ he added. “I understand it’s not really your fault Jongin” you comforted.

“Come on let’s get inside quickly before Junmyeon starts to worry” you said while you glanced at your bags. “Right” Jongin answered.

The hotel looked extremely fancy and expensive. You can’t even remember staying at this place once. Maybe JYP Entertainment, your company wasn’t familiar with these types of hotels yet. You’d love to stay at this hotel with your members too though.

“STAR” was the name of the group you were part of. You’ve been repeatedly topping charts and breaking records. Your group gets along with EXO very well since you’re both actual Kpop legends. You’re close with all the members and obviously look up to each other.

“Man, I truly envy SM Entertainment” you said as you observed the hotel. Jongin laughed. “You like it that much?” he asked. “I actually do Jongin” you enthusiastically answered. “Well then you’re lucky Y/N because you’ll spend the entire night here with me” he whispered to your ear.

Being an idol honestly didn’t affect the relation between you two. You loved each other for who you were, not the influence nor popularity you had while making music. The bond you had was special and indescribable.

As you walked around while holding each other’s hands, Jongin guided you to the elevator. “Don’t get scared babe” he comforted. He knew how much you hated elevators. Just the thought of them made your stomach turn.  

“Get over here Y/N, I’ll hold you in my arms” he said as he pulled you closer. He carefully touched your hair because he didn’t want to ruin it. The texture of your hair itself really wasn’t the softest. But he loved it so much.

He started to smell your hair. “Cocoa butter shampoo isn’t it?” he grinned. “Obviously it is” you answered as you smirked. “Look at my baby out here looking mighty fine” he complimented. Your cheeks got warm as you felt yourself blushing.

”Y/N wait a minute” Jongin stopped. You tightened your arms around him. “What? Is the elevator about to crash?” you scaredly asked. “No sweetheart” he softly answered. He pulled his phone out of his jacket and called Junmyeon.

“Good evening”

“Jongin-sshi?”

“Yes it’s me”

“Why are you calling?”

“I just wanted to ask on what floor our room is”

“Jongin!”

“Please don’t shout, Y/N is in the elevator with me”

“Oh .. oh, I’m sorry”

“It’s fine”

“Hi Y/N can you hear me?”

“Junmyeon we don’t have time for that right now”

“Of course, I see”

“So?”

“We’re on the fifth floor”

“Perfect, we’ll see you in a minute”

You walked through the hotel and Jongin still held your hands. “It’s okay Y/N we’re alone now” he said. You trusted him but it was hard to be comfortable at hotels. Fansites booked flights to anywhere just to get photos of you. They followed your every single step as if they were trained to.

Jongin told you stories about his fansites and that you shouldn’t fear them. But sasaengs were something else. They were the most insane, dangerous and wild people. You’ve never considered them as fans but they still call themselves that.

If you’d ever be found with Jongin or Jongin would be found with you, it would literally be over. The press would do nothing but attack the both of you. That’s the main reason why you decided to keep your love for Jongin secret. Jongin did too, but he badly wanted to let it out.

As idols you both had a dating ban and couldn’t end it yourself. You had no control over that business. All you could do was perform, sing, dance and keep your reputaion safe.

It scared you sometimes to call yourself an idol but you couldn’t deny the fact that it was your passion. When you stood on stage, all your worries disappeared. All eyes were on you and you truly enjoyed that.

“Ah our couple must be here” Junmyeon said as he opened the door. “Surprise!” Jongin enthusiastically said. Junmyeon was actually happier to see you than Jongin.

“As expected from our Y/N” he said with a smile on his face. “I was just watching your performance at MAMA” he added as he pointed to his phone screen. “Oh really?” you surprisingly answered. Jongin shook his head. “So you’re really just going to flirt with Y/N like that?” he complained.

“Is my boyfriend a little jealous?” you teased. “If I’m your boyfriend, give me a kiss then” Jongin commanded. “Here we go again” Junmyeon said as he rolled his eyes.

“Are you alone here Y/N?” Junmyeon curiously asked. “Yes I am” you answered while you nodded your head. “But weren’t you at the award show with your members?” Junmyeon asked. “I was but after that they had a photoshoot without me” you informed.

“Without you?” Junmyeon confusedly asked. “Yeah it’s for a high fashion magazine and apparently my tan skin ruins the concept” you sighed. “That’s the most ignorant thing I’ve ever heard” Junmyeon complained. “I really don’t accept it either” Jongin said.

“You’re actually more than beautiful, you’re mesmerizing” Junmyeon softly let out. “Junmyeon I swear to God” Jongin sighed. “This is like the third time I catch you flirting with Y/N” he said as he widened his eyes. Junmyeon giggled. “You’re too possessive Jongin” he teased.

“Hey can I ask you guys something though?” you said. Junmyeon and Jongin looked up at you. “Go ahead babe” Jongin said as he smiled at you. “I’m really tired” you deeply sighed.

Of course you were, you just came from the MAMA award show and performed a special stage. Junmyeon glanced at Jongin as if he wanted to say something. “Take Y/N to bed please” he mouthed. Jongin didn’t hesitate and nodded his head.

“Babe we’re going to sleep alright?” he whispered to your ear. Junmyeon explained Jongin the way to the bedroom. “Don’t get lost around here okay” he said. Jongin promised to pay attention and not to get lost. “Have a good night with Y/N then” Junmyeon said as he smiled.

He kind of felt relieved that you were going to have a long rest. Your schedule also has been extremely tight for the past month. Your group STAR started to gain more and more recognition overseas. Therefore the company kept you busy and planned lots of activities.

Jongin was a big fan of STAR actually. Your fans already shipped you two but you had to be extremely cautious. You wouldn’t even want anyone to notice the slightest thing about you two. It was only when the cameras weren’t rolling you felt free. Or when the fansites were absent, you would be found kissing like the happiest couple ever.

As you laid down the bed Jongin started kissing your cheek. “What am I lucky to have you here Y/N” he said. His lips were perfectly pressed onto your skin. “Jongin” you whined. “Yes babe?” he asked.

“Before I fall asleep I want to know something” you said. Jongin warmly started to wrap his arms around you. “Then tell me what you want to know Y/N” he said as he placed another kiss onto your cheek.

You tried hard not to move away from him. You’d regret it if the touch between the two of you would get broken. “I actually want to know why you’re in love with me” you let out. Jongin gasped. “Do .. do you want to break up? Did I do something wrong?” he stuttered.

“Shhh it’s not that” you hushed. Jongin tried to get a message from your facial expression. “Well if you really want to know” he sighed.

“Y/N I just love everything about you”

“The way you dance on that stage, it’s like you just own it”

“I felt attracted to you for so long it blew my mind”

“I don’t know if it’s because we’re both main dancers of our group but ..”

“You really do stand out”

“And other than us being idols, I love how real you are”

“Your heart is so pure and you care so much for those around you”

“You are the perfection that they can’t touch”

“There I said it, that’s how I fell in love with you”

Your cheeks were burning up. Those words he said along that voice really made you weak.

“Jongin I-“ he placed a finger onto your lips. “Don’t say it Y/N because I already know” he whispered. You couldn’t help but giggle a little. He did knew how you fell for him, you really didn’t have to repeat that.

“Jongin you’re my sunshine”

“Y/N you’re my angel”

“My heart only belongs to you, did you know that?”

“I know, our love is just sweet like candy”

“I hope we can keep on loving each other endlessly”

“We will Y/N, I’m sure of that”

Jongin released his arms from you and pulled himself to the side of the bed. “Y/N I’m right here next to you” he said as he hugged you. Suddenly the lights turned off by itself. You gasped

“Expensive hotels Y/N, I’m sorry” Jongin laughed. “Oh right” you relievedly said. You laid a little closer to his side. As you closed your eyes you immediately feel asleep. “Sleep well Y/N” Jongin softly said.

[aion-rsa]

An A.P. Bio Season 4 Episode Guide with Showrunner Mike O’Brien

https://ift.tt/38xQFt4

Fittingly for a show about high school, A.P. Bio’s writers are often tasked with the least enjoyable aspect of education: homework.

“One of the ways we try to find new areas in stories is just by writing assignments and homework,” A.P. Bio showrunner Mike O’Brien tells Den of Geek. “We’ll all go home and write. I often call them sketches or scenes – just some little thing.”

O’Brien’s homework assignments have apparently paid off as they’ve allowed the comedy to reach four seasons, the first two of which aired on NBC and the following two on streaming service Peacock. 

A.P. Bio is set in the fictional Whitlock High School in Toledo, Ohio and follows disgraced Harvard philosophy professor Jack Griffin (Glenn Howerton) as he returns home to teach some eager nerds A.P. Biology. Unfortunately for the nerds, Jack has no intention of teaching them A.P. Biology and instead forces his students to join him on missions to address his many petty slights and grievances. Fortunately for the nerds, some lessons are learned despite Jack’s most sincere efforts not to instill any.

With all eight episodes of A.P. Bio season 4 available to stream on Peacock now, we caught up with O’Brien to discuss the journey so far. And since we’re thorough, we decided to ask about each of season 4’s eight episodes. 

Read along with our A.P. Bio season 4 syllabus below.

Season 4 Episode 1 “Tornado!”

“Tornado” begins with a set up that should be familiar to many current and former Midwestern students: a tornado drill. The concept of avoiding the mighty power of a tornado by gathering in a hallway and hoping it doesn’t notice you is ripe for comedic possibilities. A.P. Bio, however, decides to take things in a bit of a different direction. This premiere is a vessel for the students of Whitlock High to share slash fiction stories about their teachers with one another.

“One of the writers in the room, Jess Lacher, wrote the cold open of ‘Tornado’ almost word for word,” O’Brien says. “That stayed pretty much as is. We were like, ‘Maybe this is a whole episode.’”

Naturally the excursion into one of fandom’s most treacherous pastimes required some preliminary investigations. 

“We did a decent amount of research (into slash fiction). I tried to get into the origins a little bit of it, which seemed to be maybe Spock and Kirk.”

As of press time, there is no available slash fiction about A.P. Bio characters that I’m aware of…yet.

Season 4 Episode 2 “Sweatpants”

The simplest of actions lead to the grandest of consequences on A.P. Bio. In this episode, that action is a dress code policy to curb bullying. The consequence is the formation of a cult, naturally. 

Read more

TV

A.P. Bio Season 3 Preview: School’s Back In Session

By Alec Bojalad

“We were trying to use some of the tropes of real cults,” O’Brien says. “I feel like I’d just seen Midsommar, and I’ve been a fan for a long time of The Source Family. There’s so many good fiction and nonfiction cult movies and things to talk about, that writers are always talking about and imitating.”

What makes A.P. Bio’s cult particularly interesting is that it centers on sad sack student Victor (Jacob Houston).

“More than anything, we wanted to put it through Victor’s filter. So things he likes and hates are all given Jonestown-level of intensity.”

And that’s how you get delightfully strange scenes of a whole classroom yelling “Divorce! Divorce!” at things they don’t like. 

Season 4 Episode 3 “An Oath to Rusty”

Following his break-up with the lovely Lynette (Elizabeth Alderfer), Jack needs some friends. Unfortunately, the only way he knows how to go about getting them is by asking them to play the world’s hardest board game

“I found Twilight Imperium by Googling ‘hardest games to learn.’ It’s always in the top five. It’s a lot,” O’Brien says. “Talk about going down deep rabbit holes. I spent more time learning tutorials on YouTube for that game than anything else.”

While Jack’s relationship struggles, this episode spends plenty of time with a trio of characters who are thick as thieves. Stef Duncan (Lyric Lewis) and Mary Wagner (Mary Sohn) find themselves frustrated with their friend Michelle Jones’s (Jean Villepique) refusal to tell them what case she worked on during jury duty. According to O’Brien, this is another concept that came directly from the writing staff’s “homework assignments.”

“That was a homework assignment from David Neher, who plays Geology Dave on the show. He just randomly brought in as his homework one time a thing where Stef and Mary are doing police sketches of a fully misunderstood thing from Michelle, who isn’t saying anything about her boring trial she was a jury member for.”

Season 4 Episode 4 “Tons of Rue”

Though the delightful Joe Manganiello notably pops up later on, cult movie star Bruce Campbell is A.P. Bio season 4’s biggest get. The beloved Evil Dead actor portrays Jack’s scumbag father who is trying to turn over a new leaf.

“That was so cool,” O’Brien says of bringing Campbell aboard. “He’s not as well known as Tom Cruise, but his fans are all fever pitch fans. Certain crew members and a handful of the writers were going nuts. I think Glenn was a big fan and really excited.”

Unfortunately for Howerton’s Jack, his father’s instincts to flee when things get too real win out again in the end. Though Campbell’s time on the show was brief, he left a big impact behind the scenes, according to O’Brien.

“He’s just so nice. I guess you’d hope it’s either that, or he’s like a weird psychopath that requires tiny orange juices to keep coming to work. But he’s gregarious and funny and nice and does a great job with the script. I loved having him around. I was a big Evil Dead fan in college, so it was the best.”

Season 4 Episode 5 “The Perfect Date From Hell”

So I’ll be frank: we ran out of time to discuss “The Perfect Date From Hell” with Mike O’Brien. And that’s a shame as there’s quite a bit going on here! From the introduction of Jack’s new love interest Shayla (Hayley Marie Norman) to Principal Durbin (Patton Oswalt) going all Undercover Boss, there was certainly plenty to unpack. Oh well, next time we’ll get to hear all about Durbs’ disturbing prosthetics.

Onto the next one!

Season 4 Episode 6 “Love, for Lack of a Better Term”

This is Victor’s second big showcase episode of the season, after serving as a cult leader in “Sweatpants.” This time around things are a lot less sinister. This half-hour serves as a parody of ‘90s teen romance movies (Third Eye Blind soundtrack and all) in which a lovable schlub goes for the popular girl and can’t realize his true love was in front of him the whole time. 

“It ended up being a big Victor season. He kind of takes over this episode and has a couple of other really great moments,” O’Brien says.

Despite Victor’s clear status as MVP, O’Brien says it’s important for each student character to get their time in the sun. 

“I would say I hope that all of (the students) shine at different moments, because they’re all so talented. It’s on the writing team to make sure we aren’t letting any of them slip through the cracks, even for one episode.”

Season 4 Episode 7 “Malachi”

It’s no secret that comedy titan Paula Pell is a big part of A.P. Bio’s success as school secretary Helen Henry Demarcus. Through three seasons, the show has treated her as a Paul Bunyan-esque character, capable of astonishing feats and fit to bursting with a positively insane backstory. While Helen has quite the internal history on A.P. Bio, the show has not yet fully reckoned with her as a sexual being until this season. And this is the episode that delves furthest into Helen’s horny heart to amazing success. 

“She’s in and out of relationships that aren’t great all the time,” O’Brien says. “We cast Paula’s wife who is a very funny comedy writer and performer. That not only was really fun and exciting, because we know Janine (Brito), but in the midst of a very tense February and March COVID shoot it was a little bit of a relief for Paula and Janine to be able to kiss.”

The story of Paula and a waitress at a local bar’s torrid (and quick) love affair is quite madcap. But according to O’Brien, the show has considered some other off-the-wall possibilities for Helen’s love life in the past.

“We pictured she had a girlfriend who works on one of those fishing boats in Alaska, like Deadliest Catch. She’s there 363 days a year and then on one day Helen calls their “Purge dating day’, they try to have dinner, make out, and go to an amusement park and a concert, all in one day. That was probably a little too wacky.”

Season 4 Episode 8 “The Harvard Pen”

“The Harvard Pen” has a high concept befitting a season (or perhaps series?) finale. The episode flashes back all the way to Jack Griffin’s first day with the A.P. Bio class, which is somehow only “a few months earlier.” Jack gives one golden rule to the assembled students: never touch his Harvard pen. Naturally they do, and the episode follows the pen’s months-long journey to eventual oblivion.

Ultimately though, the real standout in this installment is the web series that the A.P. Bio kids have been producing with Heather (Allisyn Snyder) starring. Janet Fist is a ‘70s style cop drama in which the titular character is a receptionist who has an incredible ability to solve crimes…and to shoot everyone she sees full of lead.

“I used to write a lot of short stories about a ‘70s renegade cop that I would read when I was in improv in Chicago,” O’Brien says. “I thought ‘what if that was through the eyes of this kind of quirky high school girl? Maybe she’s not even allowed to be a cop in the ’70s.’ It becomes this kind of feminist statement that Heather wants to make. It was just really fun to write after that.”

If a fifth season of A.P. Bio isn’t in Peacock’s plans, we’re gonna need to go all-out on a Janet Fist spinoff fan campaign.

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A.P. Bio season 4 is available to stream on Peacock now.

The post An A.P. Bio Season 4 Episode Guide with Showrunner Mike O’Brien appeared first on Den of Geek.

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[backstorywithdanalewis]

Back Story with Dana Lewis on Wuhan and Pandemic origins

Speaker 1: (00:00) Dr. Fauci. Do you still support funding of the NIH funding of the lab and Wu Han Senator Rand with all due respect, you are entirely, entirely and completely incorrect that the NIH has not ever and does not now fund gain of function research in the Wu Han Institute. Do they fight Dr. Barrack We do not fund your barracks gain of function research. Dr. Barrett does not doing gain of function research, and if it is it's according to the guidelines and it is being conducted in North Carolina. Speaker 2: (00:46) Hi everyone. And welcome to another edition of backstory. I'm Dana Lewis, that was Dr. Anthony Fauci and Republican Senator ran poll squaring off over the origins of coronavirus. Paul accusing the national institutes of health of funding, risky Chinese research into bat coronaviruses in Wu Han. The research is called gain of function, which turbocharges viruses to spread to humans. The idea being that scientists can then anticipate the next pandemic outbreak in a laboratory it's risky science because there have been numerous lab escapes of the viruses on this backstory was COVID 19 created in the [inaudible] Dana Lewis / Host : (01:34) Lab. Did it escape? Did the Chinese cover it up? All right. Joining me now all the way from Taiwan is Dr. Stephen Quay. Hi, Steven. Dr. Steven Quay: (01:50) Hi, Dana. How are you doing great. Dana Lewis / Host : (01:51) Before we launch into the theories of the origins of COVID-19, let's just establish who you are, because it's important, right? Because we're talking about science. So you are part of the Paris group, which as I understand is a couple of dozen, just over a couple of dozen scientists with, um, some of them are mathematicians. They're not scientists, there's a lot of different disciplines in there, but that group was formed because, and what is its raise on Detra? Dr. Steven Quay: (02:21) It's mainly a curiosity around the origin. Um, everybody has, you know, pretty busy day jobs of, of one form or another, but we've committed to meeting once a month, uh, by zoom, um, for about four hours. And we usually have someone in the group where we have a group, someone outside the group present, uh, some scientific aspect of it. Uh, and then we have discussions. I mean, we've, we've put out two letters, uh, publicly to, um, support the who into, into support investigations, further investigations. And that occupies some of our time, uh, the logistics of getting those letters done on the sword. But, uh, and Dana Lewis / Host : (02:55) You are a doctor of what and what is really your specialty and your Dr. Steven Quay: (02:58) Strength. So, uh, I have an MD PhD, PhDs in chemistry, uh, taught at Stanford medical school for about 10 years. Yeah, it's a, it's pretty good school down there in the mid peninsula of California. Uh, my, uh, uh, residency was at the mass general at Harvard and I was in a Nobel prize winners laboratory at MIT. So during the day I was learning to be a doctor and at night I was doing photochemistry across the river at MIT. You're not a geologist. I know I haven't, I've invented a treatment for, uh, for a particular, uh, influenza, uh, using sir. And a, so I have 87 patents and I've invented, uh, seven drugs that are FDA approved, including the gadolinium that's used for MRI contrast. So, uh, about 80 million people have used that drug. So, uh, I'm, uh, I'm, I'm a really nerdy scientist. This is probably the core of Steve cuase. Uh, back in the day, 20, 30 years ago, I would take, take home an inch of before the internet, an inch of scientific papers that I xeroxed. And that was my sitting on the patio with a drink on Sunday afternoon. Uh, this is the way I spent my weekends. So fast-forward, I now do it on the internet. Dana Lewis / Host : (04:08) Let's talk about the origins of COVID-19 because you were also, I understand a signatory to this letter, um, from again about 26 scientists. I don't know if they're the same as the Paris group. I know some of them overlap, um, which essentially essentially says to the, who look, your investigation was flawed from the beginning, the, the membership, uh, that Chinese demanded in terms of the scientists that were on that panel essentially gave the Chinese government a veto and your findings. You tell me how you want to put it diplomatically, uh, just don't hold water. And we need to start Dr. Steven Quay: (04:48) Again. Uh, yes, that's essentially what the letter says. And, um, you know, there was a second letter that actually tried to offer a blueprint of, if you are going to start again, th these are the people you need. This is, these are the skill set of the people you involve. These are the steps you should take, et cetera, et cetera. So tried to lay it out pretty clear. Um, so with any sort of impetus, they have, they have the tools they need to do it right. A second time, Dana Lewis / Host : (05:13) The lineup on the theories, there, there is one that says maybe it was in bats and then it jumped to another host, and then it became, um, you know, it was then transmitted to humans and, and, uh, was able to replicate in humans and grow the other is a lab escape. Dr. Steven Quay: (05:32) Yeah. So, um, I've written a basing analysis of what, uh, of those two theories. Uh, I uploaded it on Zanotta. I think in the end of January, it's been viewed 140,000 times. So just for perspective, I written about 360 publications, scientific publications on various fields in that, uh, this one is one or two orders of magnitude, better than anything else I've ever written. The Bayesean Dana Lewis / Host : (05:58) Is kind of, um, of statistical math formulations on what are the odds, right. And, and I understand that you think through your Basie and calculations, um, that a lab origin was 99.8% possibility. Dr. Steven Quay: (06:18) Yes. Uh, in the legal standard is called beyond a reasonable doubt. So, um, basically it is a three-step process. You, you establish a prior probability based on whatever, you can get your hands on, you do an experiment and you see which way it leans. You drop it into base equation, which is a very simple bit of math. My eighth grade daughter does it routinely. And then you get a new unit to get a new outcome. So 26 pieces of evidence were run. My starting hypothesis was 98% probability. It came from nature. But as you said, I ended up, uh, greater than 99% from the laboratory. Okay. So let's Dana Lewis / Host : (06:53) Kind of walk through this a little bit. Um, first of all, in terms of hosts, if you go back after an outbreak of a pandemic, you generally find patient zero, and then you, uh, or patient number one or whatever it's called. And then you go back and you find the animal hosts. Um, in SARS 2003, there was an, an immediate host. So that was a, that was Dr. Steven Quay: (07:16) A cat. Yeah, it's called the civic cat. It was found four months after the first year patient. Dana Lewis / Host : (07:23) Then in 2013 with mirrors a camel, Dr. Steven Quay: (07:28) It took 10 months, but you're exactly right. It was the Campbell's SARS. We're more than a year into this 16 months, eight 80,000 samples of various animals around China. I mean, one of the biases is that you, you absolutely know China has to be motivated to find it in nature, right? I mean, I think that's an intrinsic either bias or preference, but so after testing 80,000 animals and not finding a single case of it, um, to me, that's one of the most screaming pieces of evidence that came out of the, who study that really needs to be addressed. Dana Lewis / Host : (08:02) Chinese would say they just never came from China that you need to go look in Thailand and Thailand or somewhere Dr. Steven Quay: (08:06) Else. One of the, one of the problems with any of this theory is the, the, the virus keeps a clock or a calendar or a diary. However you want to describe it, but basically you can use mutational analysis and phylogenetics to say which virus came before, which virus and therefore put them in chronologic order. Um, that is one of the important things I do in the Basie and analysis is the, the genetic patient zero. I don't believe it's patient. I don't believe it is the actual patient zero cause it's December 20th, thereabouts, but what's from a PLA hospital, every patient and every specimen from the seafood market is downstream from that. Uh, every, every Dana Lewis / Host : (08:46) Patient close to the Wuhan Institute of virology, by the Dr. Steven Quay: (08:51) Way. Yes. I mean, I, I actually did a separate investigation where, which concludes what I call the line to COVID conduit, which is, is basically looking at which hospitals where the December patients wind with the assumption that they went to the nearest hospital for where they live kind of, and then which, which of the nine subway lines they were near, all hospitals were along line too. And that is a, like a 180,000 probability, Dana Lewis / Host : (09:19) Right? Why is it important? Where does line to run to and Dr. Steven Quay: (09:21) From, I have some very unique features. So it's the closest station to the one in sort of neurology. So, uh, if, if a, if a, an asymptomatic worker came out and took the subway and they would go downstairs, it carries 1 million people a day in normal times, you know, obviously back then before that. So that's, so if you imagine it's a back and forth for people from the suburbs going to work as a half a million people, and that's probably coincidentally, but nonetheless, the number of people have infections. They said they had an in, in Ruan was 500,000. It also has the wet market as its closest, uh, is it's close to subway station. And in fact, the who said they had a map of the infections inside the wet market and they're they're asymmetric. So the west entrance has more infections than the east entrance. Dr. Steven Quay: (10:09) And it's the west end entrance that is closest to the line to subway. Now it gets really cool for amplification because the next station from the, from the, from the wet market is the station where the high-speed rail goes. So from that station, you can go to any corner in China that the high-speed rail services in a matter of hours, if you continue to the end of line to your, at the international airport. So you can literally go from the oneness neurology downstairs, never go outside again and come out doors in London or Paris or Dubai or Houston, um, being entirely indoors. So, uh, I'm, I'm really looking for someone to help me with an analysis show, how much amplification that subway connection probably had, because it's independent of whether it came from the market or the lab. It satisfies both of those, but carrying a half a million people a year and having those two major conduits inside of China and into the world, it probably is part of the reason this thing spreads so aggressively, where do you Dana Lewis / Host : (11:12) Think COVID-19 began? Some people trace it back to, uh, a bat cave, um, where several minors became sick. Uh, I think three of them died and those samples were later taken to the Wu Han lab, uh, where they were doing work on them, trying to understand the bad viruses. And if an indeed it came from a bad at all, it came from a cave. Dr. Steven Quay: (11:37) Yeah. Yeah. So, so we know that that again, after 16 months and literally thousands of animal testings looking for closest relatives, um, the closest relative is inside the came from inside. The one is a virology, a bad call, a bad virus called ROTG 13. It was collected in 2013. Uh, in those in they'll say minds with the miners were sick. Um, there were, uh, there were literally hundreds of samples collected and there, there are eight really critical ones that we would love to have the sequences for because we've seen phylogenetic tree. So Dr. She has, you know, done done presentations and she's, she's teased us with these other seven that are very, very close to our 13, but no one in the world knows outside of the one Institute knows what their sequences are. Uh, I think a lot of us suspect that probably a closer relative in the actual precursor to the gain of function research that led to SARS cov two is one of those other seven. My take is RTG is too far. Uh, you've got to come up with 1100 changes to get from RTG to deciders Coby to, I can do about 600 with kind of two quick things in the lab, but the other, the other 500 are, are too difficult. We know Dana Lewis / Host : (12:52) That that lab at one point was doing gain of function, which is essentially a scientific, uh, scientific term where you scientists and it's very controversial. It was banned in the United States at one point where scientists work with viruses and they try to strengthen them and try and determine when they may through mutations, jumped to humans and thereby head off the next pandemic. And then, you know, there's been a lot of denials by the Chinese that they were doing gain a function. And yet it, it was published at one point that the, the bat lady, the woman who ran the lab essentially was indeed doing gain a function, but did that lead to COVID-19? So you, do you want to, you want to try and string some of that together for me? Dr. Steven Quay: (13:34) Well, there's, uh, look a doctor, she, Dr. Barrack have worked together. Uh, they are either they're one and two, and you can, you can pick, which is which it depends on the day and in the year probably, but they're the number one and two coronavirus, uh, scientists in the world, uh, doing synthetic biology, which is gaining function, which is basically taking them apart, putting them back, back together, mixing, mixing pieces from different species of viruses, Dana Lewis / Host : (14:00) A backbone or element Dr. Steven Quay: (14:02) Well, well, with, with, with, they're always, they're always a bad virus backbone. So, so this Corona virus, no matter where it ends up, started at some point in time in bats and whether the intermediate host is a, is a camel or a civet or, or something else, uh, in this case, we think it's probably a humanized mice. Um, but nonetheless, and, and then, and then it jumps to humans, but what's Dana Lewis / Host : (14:24) A humanized mice mouse. Dr. Steven Quay: (14:27) Yeah. It's a little, it's a little scary, but so you take, you take a mouse embryo and you put human genes into the embryo. Um, so that when it's born, it's a, it's a mouse, but it has human lungs, respiratory system. So if you want to test what will happen precisely in humans, uh, it's, it's a great model for that. Now, Dr. Barrick developed that model and he, his mice physically went from North Carolina to, to the one Institute that's documented again and in publications where she, she thanks him for his mice. It just sounds Dana Lewis / Host : (15:00) Like dark arts, quite frankly, but I'm not a scientist, Dr. Steven Quay: (15:04) You know, it's well, it's, it's, it is. Um, and by the way, Dana Lewis / Host : (15:08) I mean, I'm not, I'm not altogether naive either because I've talked to, I, you know, I, I was based in Russia covering biological, chemical, uh, warfare, the dismantling of the former Soviet union's, um, incredible programs and, uh, an assistant secretary of defense, not a Republican or Democrat in that case under the Obama administration told me that, um, the gain of function research is highly controversial and should be banned and was banned. And, uh, it's high, high risk, you know, again, a dark art in, in, uh, in essence. Dr. Steven Quay: (15:44) Well, it absolutely is, again, in my basing analysis, I talked about the fact that it's, it's absolutely published for 30 years. There has been on average 0.9. So that rounds to one, one laboratory acquired infection per year in Asia. So, uh, these are, these are Cyrus, COVID one, uh, you know, other viruses one a year. So, um, you know, you're just playing Russian roulette with, uh, the 7 billion people on the planet. Dana Lewis / Host : (16:08) There is no good explanation. Uh, I'm reading this, this, this was written by Nicholas Wade, who I interviewed about a week ago. There is no explanation of why a natural epidemic should break out and Wu Han and nowhere else, there is no good explanation of how the virus acquired. And I'm hoping you can explain this it's furin cleavage site, which no other SARS related beta Corona virus possesses. What does that mean? Dr. Steven Quay: (16:37) Yeah. So it's one of my five facts that I, that I talk about that are not in dispute. So there, there are five facts about this event that every person, every scientist agrees to, but they, and they all lead to the conclusion that came from a laboratory. So one of them is, is this unusual fear in sight? Okay. So the spike protein is how the virus gets into cells. It's basically like a key and the lock that the cell has is called [inaudible]. So it's a protein on the surface of your lung cells and the spike protein binds to it. And then a second step has to happen where the other part of the spike protein makes a hole in your membrane and injects the RNA, and then it takes over the cell and then it makes a million of its own copies. So in order for this, so th this, this, the spike protein is one big protein. Dr. Steven Quay: (17:26) So in order to do that physical process of injecting the RNA, it has to actually physically move and, and the, and the, and the, the, the binding part, you got the binding parts of the ACE two, and you've got the other Proctor. This part has to physically move like a hundred nanometers, which is a huge distance on a molecular level to get the, to get, to let the RNA go into the cell. So the spike protein has to be clipped. So most spike, most beta coronaviruses clip it at a place called [inaudible] one, there's only a couple enzymes that will clip it there, which means there were only a couple kinds of cells that it can go into. So we've known since 1992, 11 different laboratories have done a new doctor, Dr. Barrick and doctor. She had the willingness to dos since 1992, 11 labs have put fear in, in coronaviruses and 11, 11 times it does one thing. It makes it either more, in fact, more transmissible or more lethal or all of the above. Uh, and the reason is it, it gives a new way of activating that spike protein with, uh, with an enzyme called furin, which is our enzyme. So basically the, the virus is very economical. It doesn't bother having an enzyme to activate itself. It knows with this, with this new, pure insight, uh, that we'll be able to get into a cell. Dana Lewis / Host : (18:39) You've never found fear in cleavage sites in natural occurring, uh, proteins, or what do you want to Dr. Steven Quay: (18:46) Call it? So, so look at the virus. Kingdom is very big. So influenza uses them all the time, all the time. Um, certain other viruses use them all the time, beta coronaviruses and never seem to use them. So, so we've, we have over 2000 sequences of beta Krone viruses from nature. And the number of Ference sites is zero. It was one is, so I was going to be too. So there's no natural fear on site, in any beta coronavirus. That's just, I mean, look at zero out of 2000, you asked a statistician what the incidence in the population is, and it's, it's, you know, under a 10th of a percent, Dana Lewis / Host : (19:22) It tells you, it tells you what about COVID-19 that fear in Cleveland site? Dr. Steven Quay: (19:28) So it has, it has it, but, Dana Lewis / Host : (19:31) And it tells you what about the fact that it has it Dr. Steven Quay: (19:34) Okay. So if there's, it doesn't, it tells you it was lab created well, yeah, so basically, yes, it's never been found in nature in that class of viruses and in, in, in 11 virus, in Landon laboratory, since 1992, it's purposely been put in, uh, including coronaviruses to make them more effective. So that's one layer of the, of the fear site, which makes it special. I call it the, the immaculate immaculate cleavage site, because it literally has to be if it came from nature, um, the next level is the genetic level. So the, the, the fear inside is four amino acids in a row. Now I worked with golden Cron at MIT. You've got the Nobel prize for the genetic code. So there's three basis in the code for every amino acid. So it's, it's redundant. So, so your genetic blueprint that makes proteins has three nucleotides, one amino acid, three one three one three one. Dr. Steven Quay: (20:30) So there's six different three letter words for one of the amino acids in the Ference. I call our genie there's six different words for the same amino acid. It's redundant humans, like a particular letter word CGG bad. Coronaviruses hate CGG out of the 64. So if there's four nucleotides and three letters in a coat on, you know, that's, that's, you know, that that is 64 different possible codes. So the least popular code on for Corona viruses is CGG they hate it. They absolutely hate it. And yet here it is, here are two of them together. Now I've looked at 580,000 Cotons in beta coronaviruses with the help of a computer. And there are not, there is not a single example of, of the, of the two together. CGG CGG next to each other, Dana Lewis / Host : (21:28) Back to Nicholas Wade last line, where he says the natural emergence theory battles of bristling array of implausibilities. Dr. Steven Quay: (21:38) Yeah. So, so I've been, uh, you know, I've been working with Nicholas for about six months weekly, uh, with, uh, with, uh, you know, some of the science behind, behind some of his writing. So, yes. Um, so that, that's a very that's, that's absolutely weird. Now, why, why would the flip side of that is, is there a, is there a laboratory reason why you'd put CGG CGG in, because if you think about it, if you've got six possibilities for the first Argentine six for the second that's 36 combinations, right? Dana Lewis / Host : (22:10) I mean, why would you, why, why as a scientist, would you put Dr. Steven Quay: (22:14) It in? Yes, exactly. Why is a scientist? Would you put it in? So we know that nature is never going to put it in in 580,000 code ons. It's never appeared there before. So nature hates it. Why in the heck would a scientist do it? If there's 36 possibilities, it's very simple. There's a, there, there, there is an old technique where if you, if you inserted something genetically and you want it to follow it in your experiments, you would put in what's called a restriction site. So you'd put in a set of amino acids that gets clipped by a, by an enzyme. You can buy off the shelf. And then when you run a gel, if the protein isn't, if it's still in there and intact, the protein runs very high on a gelatin. And then if it's been cut accidentally or it's been lost or something, you don't see it. So it's, it's a very common laboratory technique. The one in suits that they've been doing it for years, where you, you, you know, when you do an assertion, you purposely put in one of the restriction sites, so you can follow it in the laboratory. Uh, that's the only one of the 36 that has a restriction site like that. So a lot of motivation for putting that in there. Dana Lewis / Host : (23:23) Well, the allegations have been that, um, the us national Institute of health provided funding for gain of function, experiments, and move on. And then you had this very telling, uh, Senate intelligence committee investigation last week, where a representative, um, Republican Senator, sorry, ran poll then, you know, gets in this, w what looks almost like a court examination with Dr. Fowchee, um, who was the head of the national Institute of health, um, were you in front of this group kind of categorically say that COVID-19 could not have occurred through serial passage in a laboratory Fowchee? I do not have accounting of what the Chinese may have done. I'm fully in favor of further investigation of what went on in China. However, I'll repeat again, the NIH and the NIH aid category, categorically had not fund funded gain of function research to be conducted in the Wu Han Institute of neurology. Does that ring hollow? Dr. Steven Quay: (24:23) Um, I think it does. I mean, it may be, you know, in a really lawyerly court, like way, you know, there's a technicality. So what we have is we have the grants that EcoHealth was funded, and we have the subcontracts to, to sort of Realogy inside those grants. So we know exactly what was expected of the WIB inside the grant that EcoHealth got from NAA ID, which is funky cheese, uh, Dr. [inaudible], uh, work it's clearly, it's clearly a gain of function research. Now, the money didn't go from, from an NIH to Han and went from NIH to eco health, to Wu Han, if that really is what he's relying on, it's, it's disappointing, but, um, I don't have another explanation. Now, he actually also said during that interview that there was no gain of function research being done. And I think on the face of it, the document, the not on the face of the documents that are available to the public, uh, you don't have to even do a foil request. Dr. Steven Quay: (25:22) You can just go online in the NIH. You can see, uh, they're describing Ghana function research in the five-year grant that was funded the fund of the one Institute. They don't call it, gain a function. We don't call it, gain a function, but to describe, but what they describe is gain of function. So the gain of function is a very broad definition of just increasing the, the, the transmissibility lethality, uh, or infectivity of a, of a, of a virus in human, in human population, uh, and using humanized mice and, and improving in purposely causing testing to test for spillover potential is exactly that the, the, I mean, it's, again, I will try to pretend to be interested in what they were doing. So the idea was, can I deal with how close to SARS cov one, so we know Colby wants spilled over, and then we know that there are these virus that are 60% similar in 70% and 80% of the 9%. Literally what they were saying is what percent doesn't have to be like SARS Coby one. So we know it spills over, and then we can use that number to go out in nature and say, well, here's a virus that's 85. So it's not likely here's one that's 92. So it's likely giving them the benefit of the doubt. That's probably what they were trying to do. But, um, we know we know what the outcome is. Dana Lewis / Host : (26:36) Steven, just a couple of quick questions as well, before I let you go. The, um, the data that was online, some of it from the Wu had labs, some of it that you required a password. I understand all of this appears in September, it's taken down in September. So October, November, you know, some three months before the official outbreak, although a lot of people think that they already had cases well into November. Um, what, what do you make of that? And how important is that data Dr. Steven Quay: (27:10) Critically important? I mean, uh, 3:00 AM, September 19th, the server that was available for the world for most of it. And it also did have a password protected carbon, but, you know, Steve quake could have gotten on it the day before, but it's taken offline. Uh, now they, they slept up and they said, well, it's taken offline because of hackers around the COVID infection. And then they realized, oh my gosh, this was in September. So I'm not sure. They're still saying that's a pretty big slip up. Well, it's, it's, it's out there. I mean, that's, that's how it is with cameras anyway, but, um, it's not available to this day. So I asked Peter dash Jackie in a, in a public forum here, uh, maybe two months ago, uh, where if, uh, if he would provide access to those files, uh, and he literally said, it's, it's on the record there that, um, he knows what's in them. He's looked at them and there's nothing there of interest. Uh, and that I, then that that's the basis for not providing them Dana Lewis / Host : (28:05) And show him, show him to the world, because right now that lab is under look. I mean, I, I think you, you tell me if this is an overstatement, but it seems to me that there is a consensus amongst the scientific community. Now that at the very least there are huge gaping, uh, gaps in the China, Chinese official story on that lab. So if you want your lab, if you really want to support your, your suggestion to the world, that it didn't originate in the lab, then make all the data available. That's the best thing that they could do right now to the who or Dr. Steven Quay: (28:38) Whoever agreed, uh, whether they would do that or not as is a political question. Dana Lewis / Host : (28:45) Right. Okay. So we we've, but that, that it does still exist. We think, Dr. Steven Quay: (28:50) Oh, I hope so. I hope so. Are we ever going to get to the bottom of this? Well, see, it's an interesting question because, um, with my analysis, all of my evidence is circumstantial, but I remind people that, you know, uh, there are many sort of murder trials in which all of the evidence is circumstantial. And yet we quite routinely can determine, uh, the guilt of, of someone with a proper process and adjudication and, and, and, and getting to beyond a reasonable doubt. So despite it being circumstantial, I believe it's, it's strong enough at this point in time to conclude, uh, again, beyond a reasonable doubt that it came from the laboratory that the, the key thing to remember with, with, uh, these coronavirus pandemics is there's three components. There's the intermediate is there's the host, the animal hosts, the humans and the virus. This is the only one in which it's a singularity that is, there seems to be only one animal because we can't find any in nature. So there's, there's one animal. Um, all the, all the human cases go back through one patient at the PLA hospital in muon. So when president Trump got it, you can follow the mutations to his virus back to the PLO hospitals. So there's a single area there. Um, and, and the, and the, and the sequences inside the virus. Uh, so, and I'm sorry, the, the patient there's absolutely no patients before December who had any hint of this, of this, uh, infection. So it is a true singularity, Dana Lewis / Host : (30:17) One animal, one patient, one virus, one animal, because normally it takes a virus time to become more and more transmissible. There should be a trail of patience. Dr. Steven Quay: (30:27) Oh yeah, exactly. And again, they, so in my basing analysis, I looked at, at, at stored specimens, uh, in Taiwan, in China, I had about 2000 of them in the public record. None of which had SARS COVID two. So the, who has actually updated that. So they, there are 10,000 specimens, um, in that they reported on their, in their report with zero, uh, serial conversion before the first date. So nobody out of 10,000 in an archive specimens had had SARS COVID two, what is the MERS or SARS Coby, one history they're one to 4%. So that means a hundred to 400 samples should have seen. It should be. There should be evidence of Cyrus. Kogi two in a hundred to 400 specimens out of two, out of a 10,000, there was zero. Dana Lewis / Host : (31:10) The reason why we just spent 30 minutes talking about this and why you're spending part of your career studying this and why so many other scientists are looking at it is because in order to understand the next pandemic, you have to, you need to trace back the origins of this one. Can I ask you something that occurs to me? And you can tell me whether it's ridiculous or not, but in trying to fight this pandemic and come to terms with what COVID-19 is, is it important that we understand it was created in the lab? Does it make it a very different pandemic and a very different fight? Dr. Steven Quay: (31:45) Uh, he has one, it seems to me it has one, um, one aspect of the design of a virus that escapes that causes a pandemic, uh, that I think is, is interesting and worth talking about. So the downside is that it is clearly pre adapted for humans. So when SARS Colby one first jumped into humans, it had only 17% of all the, the, the, the ch the mutation changes that needed to cause that initial epidemic 17%, uh, this one has 99.6% at the get-go. So the downside is it was very pre adapted. So it spread very quickly, very widely. And that was the first wave of it. There actually is an upside to that, which is, it has very little genetic runway, very little movement to improve. So in the spike protein, there are only five, uh, five positions that it could mutate at to get better at, uh, from, from it's from the initial case, it turns out what we called the UK strain that the British strain that was, you know, started in the fall and spread. That was one of the five. So, and now Dana Lewis / Host : (32:55) About the very end, that's Dr. Steven Quay: (32:57) Another one. So it's, so it's used up two of the five possible improvements, uh, in the spike protein in terms of binding. So, um, that's somehow to me, encouraging that, this thing, uh, that we've seen the worst of it, and these variants are not going to be able to, um, to have much impact. Uh, I did another analysis and theirs looked like there's, there's eight, uh, epitopes. So the, the human immune system sees eight separate things on the spike protein when it sees this virus. So it makes eight different kinds of antibodies. And at this point in time, the Indian strain has only gotten rid of two of those eight. So we still have 75% of the epitopes are the same. Uh, you know, when I was teaching at Stanford, 75 was a C, but in, but in immunology, that's a pass fail, and that's a strong pass. You probably have to get well below 50% to do have an issue Dana Lewis / Host : (33:49) There, roadmap on where we will be in a year or three from now, with this virus. Dr. Steven Quay: (33:55) No, I said a year ago now, unfortunately, 7 billion people have to either get the virus and get the vaccine. Um, and I'm afraid I haven't changed that tune yet. We're years away from that. That is unfortunately, that's the analysis, Steven, Dana Lewis / Host : (34:11) Last word to you. And I thank you for your time on, on all of this, just wrapping it together. Dr. Steven Quay: (34:17) Well, you know, I think that, uh, my belief is that as a gain of function research project, uh, my belief is that there is a way forward for gain of function research to be done on a different structure. Uh, I'm going to be pro proposing that publicly in the next few months, uh, when I put together a consortium around how that should be conducted. Um, but I think absent that we're just going to do this again with another virus in, uh, in another decade or another few years, Dana Lewis / Host : (34:45) Or just ban gain a functional together. Dr. Steven Quay: (34:48) We could, that, that would be the easiest. Uh, I'm willing to, to find a middle road if that, if that is, uh, is possible, Dana Lewis / Host : (34:57) Steven CUI from Taiwan, Steven, great to talk to you, thank you so much for taking all that science and trying to make it as digestible as possible. And I appreciate Dr. Steven Quay: (35:05) Very much thank you, Dana, for focusing on this. It's an important issue. Speaker 2: (35:14) So why was there a scientific split on using the term gain of function in the [inaudible] lab? Why do we hear Dr. Fowchee say there was no gain of function? Well, I'm no scientist, but Dr. Richard E. Bright, a professor of chemistry and chemical biology at Rutgers university and a biosafety expert contested Dr. Anthony [inaudible] testimony before the committee saying that felt she's claim made during the exchange with ran poll that the national institutes of health has not ever, and does not now fund gain of function research in the Wu Han Institute of neurology is demonstrably false. According to Ebrary, at least some of the NIH funded research conducted in Wu Han equivocally qualifies as gain of function e-brake was quoted as saying he bride claims that the work being conducted at the Wu Han Institute using us funds a pit of Mises gain of function research, and is the exact kind of research that led the Obama administration to conclude that gain of function was too dangerous to continue domestically. Speaker 2: (36:28) And it was in fact banned in the U S in 2014, following a series of lab accidents. And after a petition signed by 300 scientists, demanded a moratorium on gain of function. The ban was later lifted after a review by a secret government panel in gain of function, experiments were allowed to go forward. The Obama administration's ban was lifted in 2017 under then president Trump. That's our backstory and the origins of COVID-19 subscribed to our newsletter. If you like Dana Lewis dot [inaudible] dot com, and please share this podcast so that others can listen. I'm Dana Lewis. Thanks for listening. And I'll talk to you again soon.