#i just want to have more chars than vee

[heavenlyraindrops]

♱Father Forgive Me (For I have Sinned) ~Chapter Nineteen♱

Lucifer Morningstar x Angel!Reader Fandom: Hazbin Hotel Chapter Nineteen Warnings: profanity Visit the first tag on this post to see all other chapters.

♱ In which the purest soul in Heaven falls from grace… for the Devil. ♱

[Chapter Nineteen]

“I don’t get why we can’t go to her.” 

Charlie’s hands curled into rigid fists, eyes glued to the TV as Vaggie rubbed her shoulder soothingly. 

“The Vees have her now, Charlie,” Vaggie said. “We can’t just barge over to three of some of the most powerful overlords and demand them to hand over what they probably think is their property now.”

“[name] isnt property,” Charlie seethed, then thrust a hand to Lucifer who was sitting next to her, stiff and eyes trained on the screen just like she was two seconds ago. Completely silent. “And we have me, and Dad. We’re royalty, for fuck’s sake.” She clawed at her hair. “Why can’t we just order them to-“

“We can’t risk making the hotel a target, Char,” Vaggie said tiredly. She pulled her hand away, placing it on her chest as she looked at her girlfriend imploringly. “Believe me, I want to-“ her voice cracked. She looked away. “I want to help her too. She was-“ She kept my secret. She was nice to me- they all saw me as a traitor, she probably did too, but she was still-

“[name]? The angel you guys were talking about from when you went to visit Heaven, right, toots?” Angel Dust slunk over to where the three were crowded, slipping in between Charlie and Lucifer onto the couch. His face fell when he looked at the TV. “…Val has her. Oh.”

“She’s [name],” Lucifer said bitterly. Everyone looked at him. “She’ll be- she’ll be fine.” He looked like he was trying to convince himself, face paler than it usually was. 

“Did you know her, Dad?” Charlie didn’t have the patience to sound gentle. The words she threw at him were accusing. “You know her, don’t you?”

“Why would she fall?” Angel Dust asked, ignoring Charlie and Lucifer. “What’d she do?”

“How would you know if she’ll be fine if you don’t know her?” Charlie said, ignoring Angel. “You can’t make that judgement if you don’t-“

“Maybe Heaven found out she supported us?” Vaggie wondered. “Though that’s not really a reason to kick her out.” She chewed her nails. “This doesn’t make sense. The Seraphim loved her.” She looked at Charlie. “You saw it too.”

“All I’m saying is,” Lucifer said, strained, “She’s an angel amongst sinners. Of course she’s ten times more powerful than the rest of Hell, especially the Vees. That’s how all otherworldly beings were created- angels more powerful than sinners, by a long shot.” 

“But an angel died-“

“That was an exorcist. She isn’t an exorcist.”

“How would you know?” Charlie challenged, digging into the cracks to see if her father would slip up.

“It’s quite clear she isn’t an exorcist,” he hissed. Charlie’s face fell. He sucked in a deep breath, smoothing back his hair. “I’m sorry, I just- I’m sorry.” Charlie smiled weakly. 

“It’s fine if she meant something to you,” she said softly. Everyone looked at Lucifer, who didn’t say anything, just looked back at the news flashing on the screen quickly. 

“We could just bust her out,” he murmured, and by the muscle twitching in his jaw anyone looking close enough would have known he was aching too. The simple thought of you in Hell, yet unable to find your way to him- he swallowed and tried to calm his breathing, the way his heart beat in his throat painful. 

“About that…” Angel Dust spoke up, then trailed off. Everyone looked at him. He looked sick.

“Angel?” Charlie prompted gently. He took in a shaky breath, then looked away. 

“Never mind, I- it’s fine.”

“Valentino would hurt him,” Husk said gruffly. All eyes fell on him as he came over, half-empty bottle clutched in his hand as he took another swig from it. “If he can’t take it out on us, he’ll take it out on him.”

Angel pressed his lips together in a shy yet grateful smile. Husk smiled back at him. 

“Angel, maybe we could use you to get [name] back?” Charlie suggested excitedly, but Angel Dust began looking even more sick than before. 

“Charlie, no,” Vaggie hissed. Charlie fell back, face guilty.

“Oh, right. I’m- I’m sorry.”

Angel groaned, putting his head in his hands. “I’m sorry, guys. Fuck, I’m useless.” His phone pinged. He pulled it out, expression worsening. “It’s Val. I’m sorry, guys,” he repeated, pocketing the device and waving remorsefully. “If I see or hear anything about [name], I’ll tell you guys when I get back.”

“Thank you, Angel,” Vaggie sighed, giving him a reassuring smile. He didn’t have the heart in it to return the expression, just slipping out the door, unable to meet anyone’s eyes. 

Charlie stared at the ground, face riddled with guilt. Lucifer looked up. There were tears in her eyes.

“Char?” He asked, scooting over to her and placing both his hands on her shoulders. “What’s wrong?”

“What’s wrong?” Charlie repeated. She looked up. Her eyes were glistening. “What’s wrong? This is what’s wrong!” She flung her hand at the television. “[name]’s in Hell, Dad. And yeah, I barely knew her, but I don’t wish this on her.” She tried to take in a shaky breath, instead failing as a sob racked her shoulders. Tears streamed down her face. “I can’t help thinking- what if I did something while I was in Heaven?” She sank back down and put her head in her hands. “What if I’m the reason she’s down here?”

Lucifer’s throat clenched up. “You’re not,” he whispered. He guided Charlie up, cupping her face in his hands and thumbing away a tear. “You’re not the reason, Charlie.” He smiled weakly, trying not to cry too. “Believe me.”

Charlie looked at him, and some sort of understanding flowed between them because she immediately hugged him, fiercely, afterwards.

“I’m sorry,” she whispered.

Lucifer laughed miserably. “What for?” She didn’t reply, just hugged him tighter. 

“We can see what Angel says, then we can wait till morning, a few hours after he comes back, to see if she turns up. If not, we’ll take some action-“

“I’m afraid that won’t be necessary, dear.”

Vaggie almost leapt a foot into the air. “AAH, FUCK!” She whirled around, fist raised, but once seeing who it was she slowly lowered it, yet didn’t uncurl her palm entirely. “What the fuck, Alastor?”

Alastor ignored her, adjusting his bow tie, then his monocle as he smiled widely. His eyes fixed onto Lucifer, who scowled. 

“It seems to be a matter of fact that I met our elusive little angel. In cannibal town, no less. It appears she’s managed to escape the clutches of the Vees.” His lip curled distastefully at the last word, yet his grin never disappeared, his eyes narrowing. “We had quite an… interesting conversation.”

Charlie shot up, and Lucifer had to take all his self-restraint to not grab Alastor by the shoulders and shake every detail out of him. 

“You saw her?” Charlie said breathlessly, eyes widening. 

“You spoke to her?” Lucifer snapped, eyes narrowing. Alastor’s grin widened beyond what was humane as he tilted his head, eyes glinting.

“Indeed. And you’re all in for quite the surprise.”

[rappaccini]

toh finale thoughts

as before, the animation is stunning. the attention to detail is unmatched and the fight scenes were gorgeous.

damn vee literally did nothing in the end huh

and the caleb-evelyne thing sure never mattered.

the dreamworld was cool. wish they'd gone into more depth with luz and belos paralleling to make that hallucination feel much more impactful. as is, it just feels like luz is cosplaying him rather than we're learning some deep-seated fear in her psyche. the 'you've been the whole villain all along' thing really falls flat if we never receive any indications that it's possible for luz to become that.

bringing it back to luz eda and king was great. i missed this trio.

i find the collector clip show funny.

deeply appreciate them not asspulling a redemption for belos. yes, most people can be reached with kindness and forgiveness... but some can't. most people are doing the best they can. some are not.

i definitely think that the whole 'Luz is a Good Person, You Guys' thing that takes up the first half of the special is the writers trying to address the bullshit criticisms of her character and the badfaith flattening of amity in particular into a generic mean girl. which, well they're not assassinating the chars to appeal to those fans, but they also didn't need to address it either.

love the symbolism of luz getting killed and resurrected, getting to meet god and gain power from him

the gnarly entropy luz's body gets was a great design.

so's her titan form. it's so magical-girly but that's part of the charm. luz gets to not just dress up as her favorite character, but be something her own.

the animation in this fight sequence is stunning.

don't like hunter being demoted to support crew in the final showdown with His Abuser. no one deserves this confrontation more than him and he doesn't even get a chance to tell belos to fuck off and give luz the green card to beat his ass. she just goes lion turtle while he's stuck on the blimp. again, they wanted season 3b zuko so bad they skipped all the most important parts of that arc. in this case, zuko facing ozai during black sun, telling him he's wrong, and saying he'll leave his defeat to the avatar.

like. this is Luz's Fight, being that she's the protagonist and the emperor's foil. but hunter needed to participate too. the bare minimum would've been him and luz having a private moment where he gives her his blessing to pulp his uncle.

sure, give hunter something to do helping the folks at the archives, but he doesn't know them like the hexsquad do.

also again i wish they let luz keep her glyph magic instead of moving on to a palisman. toh spend three seasons building up luz's new unique magic style only to say 'sike! it was a placeholder until she could get the Exact Same Thing Everyone Else Has'. yes camila and the hexsquad get to use it in the climax, but it's luz's magic. it feels wrong that she dropped it as soon as she got a cooler replacement. there had to be some way for her to integrate it more prominently into her titan magic.

belos as final boss had to happen. relieved they didn't make it the collector at the last second. giving him no forgiveness and handing over his destruction to the people he hurt and the literal land he colonized was excellent. smart sidestep of the Kid Protag Can't Kill rule that feels thematically coherent (stares at atla). especially him being melted by water like a classic fairy tale witch

and making him the literal heart of the rot, to match the metaphorical one he was the whole time.

luz keeping her dorky self, but now having the confidence to call herself luz instead of luzura? wonderful.

archives. clever way to sidestep killing everyone bc kids cartoon.

love hunter being adopted by darius. it was properly built up and they seem like a great match personality wise. it caps off hunter's need for a new family (not to mention a new father figure who actually loves and cares for him), and darius's need to redeem himself for his complicity in letting belos abuse his nephew.

salty fandom side note: my controversial opinion is that Hunter Noceda the headcanon reeks to me of a group of people who earnestly wanted to see a pair of adopted male-female siblings being the main characters of a cartoon of this nature, projecting that dynamic onto two friends who aren't related or the same species, who definitely do have romantic tension that just never goes anywhere, who briefly live together as teens being cared for by the same adult after having never known each other as children, and whose parents aren't/will never be married, hallucinating it into Two Literal Siblings, having that interest whipped into an insistent fury that it's the Only Interpretation Allowed by lunter antis/the most rabid lumity stans who wanted an excuse to declare the ship problematic, and since it being abusive would mean blackwashing hunter's character and that was out of the question, they went with it being incest by the vaguest of technicalities, therefore literal 100% no-different-from-two-bio-siblings-fucking incest, therefore anyone who likes lunter becomes depraved, abusive, somehow also homophobic and therefore a 'valid' target for mobbing.

anytime i see art of luz and hunter in a pose that could be interpreted as romantic, and the word 'siblings' is slapped in the description i just think 'so you definitely know what you drew and that people would see it that way. you're just too insecure to let people interpret it as they please, huh'

anyway, hunter deamonne was the right choice. given how quickly hunlow got smashed together to Protect Lumity's Innocence, i'm relieved the writers didn't asspull hunter into the noceda family just to please the fans.

(.... to the people who want luz to have a sibling from the boiling isles who was adopted by camila to protect them from belos, THAT'S VEE)

speaking of ~hUnTeR nOcEdA~ who wants to bet the next ironclad luz-and-hunter-are-siblings pivot will be 'obviously darius and alador marry because they were onscreen together for one shot, and since lumity marry, and hunter is darius's adopted son, they are siblings-in-law and therefore the Exact Same Thing as literal full-on-related-siblings-who-were-raised-together.' fucking. idiots.

or maybe the even more elaborate mental gymnastics routine of 'obviously darius and camila will marry, making luz and hunter stepsiblings'.

either way, it's canon that these two characters who aren't related... aren't related. i feel like people need reminding of that.

i love ending on a time skip epilogue

i appreciate that rebuilding the isles is a work in progress that'll take years. no magical everything-is-fine-now-that-we-killed-the-bad-guy

their college designs are great

palisman carver hunter works. give him a quiet life surrounded by the wild magic he was denied, helping to create things

gus and willow's endings are solid. gus living his human world loving dream, willow getting to beat ass. good for them.

amity certainly was doing... something?

luz staying in the magical realm is great. this story is about not having to choose a category or group to ally yourself with, and finding your own path. it was never going to involve luz going back to the human world forever.

i do wonder if she finished hs in the human realm though. i think that's an important aspect of her character that's been overlooked-- she came to the isles to find the belonging she didn't find in the human world. she needed to go back to the human world, even if only temporarily, to show how her adventure changed her as a person. i'll give it a pass given how truncated this season was. her hs days were probably cut for the first special. still hope she got to have them to some extent.

love the nocedas buying the portal house. best of both worlds is the best ending.

pour one out for flapjack.

again i acknowledge that hunlow's buildup got totally wiped out because s3 had to be truncated. yes, it probably would've been much more developed if s3 got to be a whole twenty or even just ten episodes. sucks. still don't like them as a couple. still reeks of 'we need to pair up the biggest threats to lumity together so Nothing Can Touch Our Baby' and it's still annoying when they coulda just written all four characters better from day 1.

again amity is here to be The Girlfriend. it's wonderful and groundbreaking that a disney cartoon gets to have its main couple be two female characters who get to be a couple onscreen during the run of the show but it's still such an undersell of amity as a character. wish she got her own role in the story as an individual.

so in full review... yeah toh is a mostly-great show with some gaping weak points. even with all the issues i have with it, it's unquestionably beautiful to look at, full of fantastic ideas and characters, made by people who deeply loved what they were doing and mostly stuck to their guns. if this came out when i was a preteen, i'd have loved it.

but that being said, preteen me didn't watch it. adult me did.

adult me appreciates all those aspects and especially how the creatives chose to die falling on their queer sword instead of letting the mouse censor things and water down the message. but adult me does think there are some gaping holes in the writing that keep toh from being one of the All Time Greats. avatar come again, this is not. it's close, but not quite there. i'll recommend it to everyone forever, but i Will talk about the issues too.

yes, the romance is one of my big issues. lumity was just wlw kataang. it was cute and you saw it coming, and Yes I Sure Am Glad It Was Able To Exist... but it totally overpowers and consumes amity's individual character. not to mention that all luz and amity's individual character arc moments could have been better satisfied by pairings with hunter and willow respectively. it's just odd that a show this strongly written failed so hard in this regard, and either didn't at all realize that their two main couples should have swapped partners, or definitely knew and consciously chose to go with the worse option because they wanted wish fulfillment.

but more than that, the biggest problem with toh isn't actually that it was shot dead by disney before it could finish its story on its own terms. if anything these three supersized episodes showed that it was capable of efficient storytelling all along and just didn't do it. season 1's pacing was really fucking bad, and introducing hunter in s2 was a massive mistake. even if they did get two-and-a-half seasons, they still could've ended on such a stronger note if hunter was in s1, and if they actually let the plot get rolling before s1e18.

and on the fandom end of things i'm most happy that the worst people in the fandom will move on to find another children's cartoon to make unbearable for everyone else. ideally the lunter shippers can finally poke their heads out and have fun with the (disclaimer, in the event some nutjob reads this:) non-canon ship. including and especially multishippers.

in general, it's always fun to see how fandoms develop after the dust settled. which headcanons, aus, and theories gain prominence, which discourses are forgotten. which ships and characters aren't remembered fondly, which ones will get a retroactive groundswell. what aspects of the show will be loved, which will be critiqued.

[stvpidinlove]

[ JESSICA VU, SHE/HER, CIS WOMAN ]  —  [ PRIMROSE “PRIM” TRAN ]  is a child of  [ MELINOE ]  with the power of  [ MEDIUMSHIP ] .  they were born in  [ 2000 ]  and have been in nemean lion since  [ 2015 ] .  with the change, they  [ ARE TRAINING IN ]  the  [ HERO ]  role which makes sense since they’re usually  [ DRAWING PORTRAITS & MAKING CANDLES ] .  if you’d like to meet them try the  [ SUN ]  building .

yes...here i am again...!

BASICS

hometown: evanston, il

eye color: hazel

hair color: brown

height: 5′5

sexuality: bisexual

birthday: september 5, 2000 ( virgo )

BIO

prim’s parents met in college, at georgetown university. it was a long and arduous journey for both of them, though in very different ways. her father came from money in vietnam, but he moved to the states for college and didn’t speak much english, he only read it well enough to meet the requirements for foreign admittance (plus, he was exceptionally intelligent). meanwhile, prim’s mother was the daughter of immigrants who had always wanted more for their daughter. they were thrilled when she managed to get all the grants and scholarships necessary to attend, since they never could have afforded to send her to such a prestigious school otherwise.

naturally, prim’s mother was granted work study and she got a job in the main office, which is how the two met. they first bonded over a shared language and she was often tasked with helping him, and eventually she offered to help him with his college transition outside of the office.

and when i say prim’s parents...i mean the people who raised her. these two would fall in love in college, but neither admitted it aloud, out of fear of ruining the close friendship they’d forged.

after graduation, they both stayed in the dc area, but they didn’t talk as regularly. at some point, prim’s father met a darkly enchanting woman at the opera, of all places. in the grand theater of the kennedy center, their eyes met from across the expansive room, and prim’s father would go on to explain it to his daughter as “spellbound at first sight.” because it wasn’t love, it never became love, something he knew even before she became pregnant with his firstborn child. it felt nothing like the safety and warmth he’d felt with his college love who he’d never properly dated.

once melinoe was gone, prim’s father became a single parent in his late-twenties, a responsibility which he took on with care and composure. after his own experiences in the united states, he wanted to give his daughter a name that would be unique and beautiful but familiar to americans, so he chose primrose after the plant common to the dc area. his own parents back home were horrified by their single son fathering a child, though when they finally met their granddaughter face to face, they couldn’t help falling in love with her innocent face.

he reconnected with prim’s eventual stepmother when his daughter was five years old, and they got the second chance that few people ever do. they were married less than a year later, which was still a long time coming.

soon thereafter, prim’s stepmother got pregnant, and prim became a big sister to three rambunctious triplet boys. she remembers when it was just her and her father, but she can’t imagine life without her mom and brothers, who she’s particularly close to.

the only thing that stood in the way was the fact that she’s always felt different, and her father was somewhat secretive when she was a child, but by the time her powers manifested at the age of twelve, she knew why she was seeing people that others weren’t. it’s impossible to describe the feeling of playing alone in her room with polly pockets and suddenly having another girl join in. in this way, prim was rarely alone, but often felt isolated. it was like having imaginary friends with real stories and families and a whole history.

it was difficult and scary at first, but prim learned to take it in stride. she really liked hearing their stories, looking at obituaries that featured black and white photos of ghosts she knew from when they were bearing much younger faces she hardly recognized. she tried not to think too hard about the ghosts her own age, she just did her best to be there for them, because if she was seeing them, it must be for a reason, right?

her power was never something she wanted to control better, she liked acting as a conduit for those who happen to pass through her life, but she wasn’t much good at fighting off monsters and needed to come to nl for her own safety. despite her lack of fighting skills, she so deeply wanted to help people, so when the time came she decided to pursue the hero track.

RANDOM FACTS

prim totally can summon ghosts of her own volition...mostly. it takes a lot of effort and full on seance vibes right now, but she’s still learning! she prefers it when the spirits reach out to her, because that’s a whole lot easier and more exciting.

she actually kind of loves her powers, even when it gets heavy. most of the time ghosts just want the company or they don’t even know they’re dead, so she tries to be their friend and listen to their stories.

she often draws portraits of the ghosts she meets, particularly the ones she can’t get out of her head, who linger for days or weeks or months on end.

because ghosts are temporary, she tries not to get too attached, and it’s also a good thing because not all ghosts are that pleasant to be around and she doesn’t have a lot of luck with getting them to go away.

prim does have a decent collection of crystals and some tarot cards (and a crystal ball that is purely decorative). one of the only ways she’s learned to summon spirits is by using crystals to set her intentions, though it’s still pretty hit or miss.

super open and honest, esp about her powers! def doesn’t believe in using them for ~evil (like pranks or similar things lolol)

POSSIBLE CONNECTIONS

someone desperately longing to speak to a dead loved one (or a not-so-loved one?) 

someone who feels guilty about the death of another and the deceased reaches out to prim to help them convince the living person that the death wasn’t their fault???!

a flirtationship that prim doesn’t take too seriously because she’s friendly and can never tell when someone actually likes her. whether your char is on the same page or not is up to you!

someone Intrigued by her because she’s so upbeat and cheerful even though she’s constantly seeing dead people

ur char is convinced a ghost is haunting them and prim is like i promise u are not being haunted <3

someone who IS being haunted and doesn’t know it hehe

[custom-pronoun-pins]

———————–

Designs are no longer available on Redbubble as of April 2023, as they’ve started actively stealing money from artists. Sorry for the inconvenience. You are, as always, encouraged to save these designs to use as icons or in other art, and you are encouraged to print them out and make your own shirts or buttons if you’re able to.

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The List of neopronouns! Whenever I make a new pronoun pin/icon design from now on, I'm going to make one for every single pronoun set on this list at least.

I am no longer employed because it's past high time I admitted that I can't have a normal job and have an appartment that's livable in, so my twin's income is now our sole source of income. So from now on I'm going to try to make at least 60 new pins a day, since that's the limit for designs you can upload to Redbubble at once, in the hopes that more pins will mean more people are buying them.

If you would like to donate to help out, both my venmo and cashapp usernames are Rjalker! There is also our gofundme here. The Redbubble store is set up so that I get half of the listed price (instead of the default 20%), so if you buy a pin for $6, I get $3, and Redbubble gets the other $3, and same with more expensive products.

As always, if you are buying a pronoun pin from Redbubble that you want to be functional as a pronoun pin, I suggest buying the "large" size, since the "small" size is way too small for people to notice or read easily. You can see an example of how big the "large" pin is here.

If you don't see your pronouns on this list, or would like a specific combination (it/xe for example) or different spellings, please let me know, either in replies, reblogging, sending an ask, or whatever! :)

Any pronouns not on this list that are requested for other designs will also be added to this list so that hopefully nobody gets left out.

Maybe if I find a website that will do it for me, I will figure out how many unique combinations there are of these pronouns in sets of two and make all of them, we'll have to see, lol...

They have been sorted into alphabetical order to help finding them be easier.

Some of these have only just been added while making this post, so they aren't on the newest pin designs yet. That's on my to-do list.

You can request pronouns to be added to this list even if you have no intention of ever buying from my Redbubble store, because the designs will also be free to use for icons and other things! (or if you have a printer and are able to make your own buttons, you can print them out for that, as long as you aren't selling them or claiming the design is your own)

This list will be edited and alphabetized again anytime new ones are added :)

You can also read the list on this google doc with larger font.

Please use my name rather than pronouns

Ask for my pronouns

Any pronouns

Any neopronouns

a/ace ace/aces ae/aer ae/he ae/it ae/ryn ae/she ae/they ae/xe aero/aeros an/droid ar/aro ar/lok aro/aros ay/ace ay/li by/lar byt/byts char/chars clo/loc/locs/clockself club/heart cu/ti de/ad de/der de/dim de/ir deq/dir dey/dem dre/aras e/er e/im echo/echos es/lin ex/exself ey/eir ey/em ey/er fang/fangs fleur/fleurs fluff/fluffs gar/ros he/ae he/it he/it/she he/she he/she/it he/they he/xe he/xey hea/ler hop/hops hy/hym ido/eis it/ae it/he it/he/she it/she it/she/he it/they it/xe it/xey ith/iths ith/kir ix/hal ix/ixelf ke/kem ker/kri kit/kits ky/shal ky/tin kyn/areth ley/lem li/lia li/lim li/lir lo/lok ly/lyr mango/mangos mio/fel mley/mlem moon/moons moth/moths mus/ruum N/Z nat/zahl ne/nem ne/neo ne/rix nei/ther neo/neon ney/nem nix/nixself pe/per pup/pups rain/rainself rak/sura rot/rots ry/ryn sci/ence sci/scis shay/shayself she/ae she/he she/it she/it/he she/they she/xe she/xey shey/shem sia/lia singu/laer star/stars sy/sky tal/lyn tar/dis te/ter tey/tem they/ae they/he they/it they/she they/vee they/xe they/xey they/ze thi/hil thorn/thorns thun/thunder ti/tik twig/twigs vae/vam ve/vei ve/ven ve/vim ve/vir vee/veen vi/vir vo/vos voi/void wa/wir wave/waveself x/xself xae/xaer xe/hir xe/xem xe/xim xe/xir xe/xym xeno/bell xey/xem xi/kiyn xiy/rik xy/xym zag/rey zal/az ze/hir ze/zem ze/zir zey/zem zy/zem zy/zev zy/zym

[mattzerella-sticks]

harrison ford’s breadth of work is phenomenal

Dean gets ready for trick-or-treating with Cas and Jack, and thinks about how great his life is. 

1.2 k, G, Halloween-cuteness with Dean, Cas, and Jack (ao3)

           Dean played with the ends of his leather vest, staring at himself in the floor-length mirror leaning against his bedroom wall. He hunched over, neck bent at a half-angle so his whole body might fit inside the frame. They purchased it months before, he and Sam, at an estate sale they happened upon while driving home from a hunt. Sam bitched about how goddamn awkward fitting the mirror inside Baby would be, but they made it work. It helped that Cas opted against joining them, thinking three people too much a crowd for this simple salt-n-burn. Dean drove the rest of the way back with his reflection three inches from his face, then sat it where the mirror stood today without considering hanging it.

           Cas wanted to, though. He’d mention it, during lazy mornings spent entangled in each other’s arms under the covers, or as they undressed together – sometimes helping each other, sometimes not – his eyes glanced to where it was and he muttered a hint Dean swallowed with a kiss. Cas subtly snuck it onto chore lists and, once, startled Dean when cooking breakfast; snaking his arms around his waist, hooking his chin over Dean’s shoulder, and asked, “When are you hanging the mirror today?”

           He chuckled. Dean flipped his omelet, then pressed a kiss onto Cas’s cheek. “If it bothers you so much, you can put it up just as easily as I can.”

           Dean stepped closer, towards the mirror now, focused on the deep vee of his shirt. During his latest inspection, he thought he saw a loose thread poking free from a hem. As he ran his hand across his chest, Dean realized it wasn’t a thread, but rather a stray, silver chest hair that must have fallen off during his time spent putting on his costume. It matched a few of the grey strands making appearances throughout his chestnut hair, some brushed behind his ears while others swooped across his forehead. Cas had more.

           “But I’ve barely been human more than a year,” Cas argued. He glared at Baby’s rearview mirror, at the patch of grey blossoming near his temple like, if he could, Cas would smite his hair and leave it charred and black.

           “I don’t think it matters,” Dean told him, “Grey hairs can strike at any time. I once worked with a hunter who rocked the salt-n-pepper, she was twenty-five. Said her parents got ‘em early, too. Maybe that’s the case with Jimmy?”

           “If it were, then we should probably call Claire.”

           “She’ll find out in her own time,” Dean reached for Cas’s hand, slipping it into his own, “Come on, we’ll miss the movie if we keep dawdling here.”

           Cas turned, squinting at Dean, then, instead of his reflection. “I thought you told Sam we were heading to the library, for research.”

           “Sure, we can hit the library after.” Dean waited a beat, enough for Cas’s reproachment to recede after ramming into him like waves on a stormy beach. “Listen, it’s been ages since we’ve had any time to ourselves – what with the Bunker and the Jack of it all. If Sam offers to hold down the fort for a while, what kind of partner would I be if I didn’t milk it to romantically treat you to a movie and a candle-lit dinner –“

           “So we’re getting dinner now, too?” Cas asked, smiling too much for there to be any skepticism left, “You think Sam won’t be curious why we’re gone for so long?”

           “If he is, it’s not like he can chase us down.”

           The memory faded with the sound of Baby’s wheels squealing out of the parking lot, his and Cas’s laughter hidden because of it. He finished looking at himself in the mirror, appreciating every fine detail Dean forgot he added to his costume.

           Dean made it in July. He hid it away, alongside the others, until October reared its head and reminded them of Halloween.

           “We should take Jack trick-or-treating,” Cas said at dinner, a spoonful of mushed peas hovering between him and their son, Jack eyeing it and smacking his pea-stained lips together. “He never got to when he was… well, older, so this might be a good time?” Dean agreed with Cas. Sam and Eileen ditched them for dinner in town. “What costume should we dress him in?” he asked. Then, suddenly, with wide eyes and panic woven into his voice, “What are we dressing as?”

           Grinning, Dean stole the spoon and landed it inside Jack’s mouth. Their baby gurgled happily around it while he ate. “Don’t worry about that. I’ve got it all figured out already.”

           Besides Jack’s outfit needing tailoring, his and Cas’s costumes fit perfectly. Especially in the ass, Dean thought. His eyes were glued there, appreciating his curves and dimples. Distracted, Dean didn’t hear him enter.

           “Is this what’s taking you so long?”

           Dean’s gaze rose finding Cas’s amused expression in the mirror, partly obscured by the wide brim of his hat. It caused his amusement to smolder into something sexier and sent his stomach into a flutter. Those butterflies melted into warm gooeyness as he noticed Jack cradled in Cas’s arms, giggling happily.

           They advanced, Cas shifting Jack over to Dean’s waiting arms. “It’s hard tearing myself away from… myself.”

           “Good thing we came to get you, then,” Cas said, “Otherwise we’d never leave.” His eyes trailed toward the mirror, obviously checking their reflections. “Though I can understand why you were having issues.” His hands crept slowly up to Dean’s shoulders, drifting closer, sandwiching Jack between them. “You should make more of my outfits. You know my body so well.”

           “Helps that I’m intimately familiar with it.”

           Cas chuckled, turning to better nip at Dean’s lips. “If you keep that up then we’ll never make it out of here, Han.”

           “Oh, Indy,” Dean murmured, “I’m fine with delaying this a few more minutes…”

           Jack wasn’t. He struggled, pushing Cas back, a whine pitched in his throat. Dean and Cas shared a look, Cas accepting Jack into his arms again. “We’re only kidding Jack. We’ll be in town soon, and then you can collect your candy and show off how wonderful you look as… as…” Cas stumbled. “Dean, who’s he supposed to be again?”

           Dean sighed, pinching Jack’s cheek. “He’s dressed as Harrison’s Ford’s character from Working Girl.” His costume took the longest to sew, suits – especially baby suits – being difficult and above Dean’s skill level. It looked halfway decent, however. Even if Dean spent the past week on alterations.

           Baby’s grow fast. Nephilim do, too.

           “I hope you plan on a different theme for next year’s costumes,” Cas warned, “I don’t know if Harrison Ford can carry us any further than today.”

           Dean gasped, pinching Cas’s cheek in retaliation. “Speak for yourself. You might not think it, but Harrison Ford’s breadth of work is phenomenal.”

           “Yeah, yeah…” Cas swatted Dean’s hand off him, “maybe you can fill me in on it in the car.” He began walking off, Dean not far behind. “And, perhaps, as you’re doing that… you can tell me when you plan on hanging that mirror?”

           Dean barked out a short laugh, throwing his arms around Cas and creating a three-headed, twelve-limbed Harrison Ford monster staggering around the Bunker’s halls. “One day, Cas,” he answered, “I’ll get to it. Not like we haven’t got years ahead of us for me to hang it…”

           He meant it.

[madisynxlogan]

 ➺MADISYN LOGAN  who looks like KAYLEE BRYANT has been seen in Mystic Falls. their paperwork says the PANSEXUAL, WEREWOLF/WITCH HYBRID who is known to be +PROTECTIVE but also –NARROW MINDED has been alive for 19 years but still looks 19 and that’s why you are going to see them around Whitmore College as a STUDENT (FRESHMAN), and rumour has it they are ELLA BENNETT'S EX-GIRLFRIEND.

all about you, who is the player?

my name’s vee, i’m 25 and from ohio.  i’ve been writing for so long that i don’t even remember when i started, i just know that i somehow always end up back in tvd verse.

how long has your character been in mystic falls?

she hasn’t been here long.  she only came because she heard that mystic falls was a place with a lot of supernaturals, and she didn’t want to have to hide as much anymore.

what are you excited about exploring abut your character? what au storylines do you wish to do? and any connections you want for your character?

i’m so excited to develop this character.  she can be so fun, i just think that she needs a chance to open up and be around other people like herself.

history of your character? for canons, any details about their life that you are adding in or for ocs, we would like as much detail as possible about your characters!

You people can see what you want on the outside, because I promise you, I’m nothing like you think I am.  Sure you see the pretty little rich girl, who’s only worried about her clothes, and yes, to a point, I’m that girl.  But for one, outward appearances will only get you so far.  Don’t judge me based on my appearance, because you’ll be wrong nine times out of ten.

Here’s the basic story. I was born to Theodore and Miranda Logan, and for obvious reasons I don’t really remember my birth or the first couple years of my life.  I think I’d like to, because as some say, the first few years are the most important.  But anyways, the first thing that I remember is sitting at a table, having dinner with my parents.  I barely had any teeth so I was basically gumming the steak, which if I remember had this distinctive char broiled taste.  I sat there, pushing it around on my plate, trying to soak up the juices, while my father was giving me the most peculiar look, from his seat. His look only caused me to sit up straighter in my chair, gripping my fork in the same fashion that he held his, elbows lifting from the table only slightly, using the fork now, instead of my fingers to eat the meat.  

From that day on, I vowed to do whatever it would take to make my father happy, because I never wanted to have him look at me in that manner again.  That look on his face, would stick with me forever, I knew it, and apparently my father knew it as well, since he’d been the one to look at me like he’d rather have me on the floor, eating out of the dog dish than sitting at the table with him.  If I was even halfway honest with myself, that look of disdain, probably made me want to cry more than anything ever would in my entire life.

Learning at home with my mother was amazing fun, or at least I thought it was.  She taught me everything that I needed to learn so that when I finally went to school, I would hopefully be ahead of the others.  She spared nothing in the teaching, and she made it obvious that no matter what the consequences may be I was expected to be the best at everything that I did.  This would force me to put forth my best efforts to excel in everything.

When I got my letter from the private school, my parents didn’t seem at all surprised, but for me it would be like an entirely new situation.  Someone other than my parents would be teaching me, grooming me as it were, for the real world.  This wasn’t one of my favorite realizations in life.  I would have rather stayed home with my mother to teach me, but apparently this was unacceptable, so with my things in tow I reported to school as was expected of me.

It became a daily regimen of mine to prove to everyone in my class that I was better than them, while the entire time, inside I was always afraid of failing my father.  He was constantly there to tell me what I was doing wrong, and what I should do to improve on these things.  Now, most people would have been embarrassed to have their parents that close to them in a situation where they were supposed to be making new friends, and learning new things.  Not me, my father was nothing to be ashamed of, at least not in my eyes, my mother either.  Together the two of them only forced me to be better no matter who or what got hurt in the process.

I didn’t last long in the private school, I was kicked out for fighting, and my parents were severely disappointed in me.  They had me put into therapy, and I went back to being home schooled for the foreseeable future.  High school was a different story, my parents finally agreed to allow me to attend public high school, and I made some actual friends.

[bma-2020]

WHERE IS VEE: A GUIDE

@hatpinblade / THE MOST LIKELY PLACE SHE IS / MALLYMKUN ALA DORMOUSE ALA LOVE OF VEE’S ENTIRE LIFE / WOULD BE HERE MORE THAN ALREADY IS BUT LACK OF INTEREST ON OTHERS BEHALVES

 @wcnderlcnd / VEE’S OTHER WONDERBLOG THAT INVOLVES WRITING / SOMEPLACE SHE WISHES SHE COULD BE MORE BUT LACK OF INTEREST ON OTHERS BEHALVES / CLEARLY HAS FAR TOO MUCH FOCUS ON WHAT WONDERLAND CAN BE

 @tasedandconfused / ONE OF VEE’S OG BABIES BEFORE EVEN MALLY / ALSO DIDN’T WRITE ON THIS BLOG UNTIL LIKE THIS YEAR / BUT IT WAS MADE URL AND ALL IN 2012 / I KNOW VEE IS AMAZING AT LIFE / DECENTLY CANON DIV BUT WHATS NEW

@asscmblc / VEE GETS V OPINIONATED HERE / IT IS PLOT BASED AND A SIDEBLOG TO DARCY / CLEARLY TAKES CERTAIN THINGS V SERIOUSLY / ONLY HAS LIKE TWO BIOS UP RN BUT WHAT ELSE IS NEW / VEE NEEDS TO GET BETTER AT BIOS RATHER THAN JUST LONG HC POSTS / BE AWARE SHE PROBABLY WILL POST RANDOM LONG SWINDED THINGS ON HERE EVENTUALLY 

@siicklullabies / WOW VEE LOVES THINGS A LOT OF OTHER PPL DONT LOVE / VEE GIVES TOO MUCH ATTENTION TO CHARS SHE RELATES TO AND LOVES / BUT ALSO CERTAIN CHARS SHE HATES / VEE BELIEVES IN WRITING CHARACTERS WITHOUT WOOBIFYING THEM WHEN THEYRE AWFUL PEOPLE / IF VEE DOESNT DO IT CORRECTLY SOMEONE ELSE IS GONNA ROMANTICIZE IT N VEE AINT ABT THAT LIFE / PROBABLY DONT COME HERE IF YOU WANT TO PRETEND SOME OF THE FANDOM POPULAR CHARS SHE WRITES ACTUALLY CORRECTLY AS THE TERRIBLE PPL THEY ARE ACTUALLY ARE THE FANDOM WAY OF ‘SWEET ANGELS’ WHEN THEYRE AWFUL VEE WILL LET YOU DOWN BC SHE DONT BELIEVE IN MAKING BAD PEOPLE DECENT JS

@inmyjellies / MOST WHOLESOME CHILD TO EXIST / I LOVE TWO FLUFFY MICE BUT ONE YELLOW ONE / NO LONGER SPOILER FREE THO FYI / BUT STILL V CAREFUL ABT SPOILERS / THERE IS NOTHING THAT CAN EVER BE COMPLAINED ABT OVER HERE HE’S TOO WHOLESOME TO HAVE SUCH NEGATIVITY ON HIM EVER AT ALL / HE’LL MAKE YOUR WORLD BETTER / A CHILD

Template Cred / PSD Cred

[leviosarpg]

Congratulations, BEE! You have been accepted for the role of DIANA ROWLE! Bee, I think that it’s more than completely fair to say that you’ve blessed me twice today! This app was absolutely lovely-- from start to finish you demonstrated such a robust understanding of who Diana is. Each para sample highlighted her personality and gave such a vivid insight into Diana's understanding of the world around her. You’ve especially nailed her voice here-- her love of creatures, her relationships with Silvanus and Venus all shined through this incredible app. I love that her favorite color is periwinkle, I love her fascination with Shakespeare, I love that she has a talent for music-- essentially what I’m trying to say here, is that I love your Diana. I have no doubt she is going to be a wonderful addition to the dash and I am thrilled to see where you’ll take her next!

Your faceclaim change to: Sophie Turner has been accepted. Don’t forget to send in your account to the main and complete the items listed on the CHECKLIST!

THE PLAYER

name/age/pronouns/timezone: bee ; 21 ; she/her ; est

THE CHARACTER

desired role: diana rowle

gender/pronouns: cis woman ; she/hers/her

extracurriculars: astrology club ; herbology club / care of magical creatures club

para sample:

“ beautiful. ” he says it under his breath, and at first diana thinks silvanus is talking to her. her heart catches in her throat but then she looks at him to see he’s looking past her. she glances over her shoulder and she sees her sister. she stares only for a second.

she pulls a piece off of her toast and throws it lightly towards him. “ you’re going to catch flies with your mouth open like that, “ she teases gently, “ you’re nearly drooling, silv. ”

he at least has the decency to blush.

she’s quiet for a moment, allowing her sadness to settle into her bones before she begins talking again. this time, she’s not poking fun at him, she’s not opening her own wounds. “ rumor has it professor plank has something special planned for us the next class. ”

diana sees that this has caught his attention and she smiles.

“ professor dumbledore hinted to it. i ran into him after his last class and we were speaking about the assignment and somehow the topic turned to phoenixes. did you know he has one ? a real one, silv, an actual phoenix. if it weren’t dumbledore, like if it were estelle or slughorn who said it, i might not have believed them, but —  ” there’s a dreamy look on her face but then a smirk tugs at the corners of her lips “ —  it might even be cooler than your occamy. ”

he protests and diana laughs.

“ i’m kidding, silv, ” she reaches out a hand, gently resting it on his forearm, “ i’m only kidding. ”

he smiles back at her and her heart clenches again.

“ but it is exciting — you can’t deny that. ”

—

“ you’d be prettier if you smiled more, di. ” venus looks at her with a smile, and diana reflects it back at her sister.

“ you’d be prettier if you bit your tongue, vee. ”

her sister doesn’t flinch, she just lets her smile grow wider as she lets her focus drop back down to the copy of witch weekly she’s been reading.

diana isn’t being malicious in what she says. it’s only easy banter. her sister throws it, and she replies with ease. it’s what they do. it’s how they share their love. maybe to others, it would seem cruel, hurtful, but the barbs never sting the younger rowle twin, and she thinks that they roll off her sister in the same way.

“ belby, ” diana calls. there’s a moment of silence and then — pop !

their house elf appears. “ belby, could i have some drinking chocolate, please ? and a scone ? ”  her eyes dart over to her sister. “ make that two of everything. ”

the house elf nods and disappears.

her sister looks up, saying, “ i didn’t ask for anything. ”

“ i know you, vee, and i know that i wouldn’t have wanted to share mine. ” she offers a small smile at her sister, gentle, kind.

her sister nods.

OTHERS & EXTRA (OPTIONAL)

i’d love to change her fc to sophie turner !

Pinterest:  https://www.pinterest.co.uk/saintedthief/char-diana-rowle/

Headcanons:

you were born on february 14th, younger, just minutes after your sister. you both came to represent love in your own ways. hers was fierce passion, burning red-hot and wild. yours, however, was subdued, white and icy with a cold that burned in a way all its own. it’s a strange dichotomy, you and your sister. somehow, you are one, but somehow you are so different. two sides of the same coin.

the parties your parents threw when you were a child are some of your worst memories. where your sister thrived, dancing and laughing her way through the night, you fumbled over words and footsteps. your heart caught in your chest and it thudded loud loud loud. your mother wanted her friends to sing praises of you, like they did with venus, but you didn’t want it. you didn’t need it. were they to just leave you alone, to approach you slowly, one by one, maybe they would have seen you shine. instead, they crowded you and you felt like a cornered animal, scared and frightened.

in the library, towards the back, just under the window, is a selection of books written by muggles. you find it your second year. at first, you wrinkle your nose, and wander away, finding things to read elsewhere, things more appropriate for a girl of your caliber and reputation. of course, curiosity ends up getting the best of you and you pull one off the shelf finally in your third year. hamlet. it is beautiful and it is tragic and somehow it becomes one of the most meaningful things in your life. you keep reading them. you devour them. apparently, this muggle, this shakespeare, really was something to the world. he was a master, he was masterful. you feel so tiny, so small, when you consider how big he became. you feel like nothing. you decide one day, when you’re only fourteen, that you are going to be something bigger than yourself. maybe it isn’t going to happen now, but sooner or later. you will leave a mark, something not physical but intangible, something that will last long after your name has been uttered by the mouths of the living for the last time.

her favorite color is periwinkle. she can play the piano and the violin well ( she prefers neither — she likes flute the best, but she feels her talents are lacking ). she’s taking newt-level astronomy because it’s her favorite. she has a tortoiseshell cat named cordelia ( after the character in king lear, of course ). she would likely die for a sugar quill while she’s revising.

[singingpuppies]

RP With Sanders-Sides-RP-Blog-12

Who: Patton and Roman.

Part: Twenty Seven.

General Notes: When Patton woke up this morning, he was a regular guy. Now he’s come to find out that he was kidnapped as a baby and he’s actually a Prince, who’s set up in an arranged marriage with another Prince named Roman. How will Patton react to so much changing in his life all at once? Especially when neither of the young princes want to marry someone they’ve just met?

Warnings: None just lots of cute.

ROMAN

Janus watches as everyone got Logan ready for bed, and as Logan got up repeatedly, or at least tried to, Janus knew that they were all in for a pretty long night. When Virgil comes back with the water, Janus carefully takes it, bringing it over to Logan on the chair. He picks Logan up, moving the child so that Logan was sitting instead of standing. "Lo- can you please try and get some sleep?" he asks him, as he passes over the water to him. Remus knew that honestly, he couldn't be annoyed, because when he was a kid, he was so much of the same, so if he got turned back, he'd probably annoy everyone with this as well.

PATTON

Logan continued to bounce on the chair until Janus came over and picked him up, sitting him back down and handing him the water. He took a few sips of the water as he looked up at Janus. Patton was pretty much feeling the exact same way that Remus felt. Honestly, Patton didn't even know what a good night sleep was until he met Roman, so if he were little right now, he'd definitely be keeping everybody up, so he certainly wasn't going to get annoyed or anything by the fact that Logan was still up. How could he when he knew for a fact he wouldn't be asleep either? The more time that passed, the more tired Virgil was getting, but maybe this was a blessing in disguise. Now that he knew that he talked in his sleep (and even attempted to walk around) he was a bit embarrassed, but he certainly didn't have to worry about embarrassing himself in front of Remus if Logan didn't let them sleep. Still, Virgil wasn't going to be able to keep sitting there doing nothing as Logan repeatedly tried to get up and go somewhere or bounced on the chair, or whatever. If he was gonna be up, he was gonna need to do something to keep himself up. When Logan got up for the hundredth time and Virgil realized it was... who even knows how late, he stood up, picking Logan up and sitting him back down. "Okay, I'm gonna need to do something to keep myself up..." Virgil mumbled before reaching for his boyfriend's hand. "Come here, we're going in the bathroom and dyeing my hair purple." he said. Maybe it was the lack of sleep making him extra impulsive, but he couldn't keep sitting there waiting for Logan to get up just so he could put him back in the chair anymore... and he couldn't just go to sleep because they all had to keep an eye on Logan.

ROMAN

Roman mostly watched, it was Janus and Virgil who seemed to be the most hands-on in trying to get Logan to actually go to sleep right now. He stayed near Patton, mostly. Remus looks over at Virgil, he had definitely been starting to see that his boyfriend was tired, and when Virgil grabbed his hand and dragged him off to the bathroom, he can't help a smile, because this is exactly the type of impulsive crap that Remus loved doing, even if he was currently trying to stop himself from doing said impulsive crap. "Yes- you're going to look amazing Vee!" he says with a smile as they walk into the bathroom. "Do you have the dye yet?" he asks him. "And will we need to bleach your hair first- how much of it do you want to dye?" Remus was no stranger to dyeing hair, and he could definitely help Virgil out, he just needed to know what type of dye Virgil had bought and if he had hair bleach.

PATTON

As soon as Virgil got up and pulled Remus to the bathroom, Logan was standing again, bouncing on the chair a bit. "Book." he said hopefully, looking over at Roman and reaching for him. Virgil nodded a bit at the question. "Yeah, I bought everything a while back, Vanessa was gonna do it for me but I chickened out." he admitted as he grabbed what he'd bought a few months back. It was something that he'd always wanted to do, but he'd never dyed his hair before, so he'd gotten a bit nervous the first time around. Especially since there were tons of children running around and causing a distraction when Vanessa had volunteered to do it so his anxiety had him convinced that something was gonna go wrong... this time around it was just Logan and there were four other people around to keep him entertained and try to get him to fall asleep while he and Remus focused their attention on this. "Uh... I don't know... I mean, I was kinda thinking about just going full purple but... I don't know, what do you think?" Virgil asked as he looked back at Remus, running his hand through his hair a moment.

ROMAN

Roman sighs a little bit when Logan asks for the book again, but he decides that since it's already so late, and Logan doesn't seem to be winding down, one story might not hurt. "Only for a little bit, okay? I'll read you one thing." Roman tells him, before moving to pick up Logan again, scooping him up off of the chair. "What do you want to read?" he asks. Janus doesn't even protest at this point- there's no point really- but hopefully the reading could maybe lull Logan to sleep. Remus nods a little bit, and he looks through Virgil's bathroom cabinet until he finds the hair dye. "We probably will need to bleach your hair first- it's pretty dark, and I think that full head of purple hair will look amazing on you!" he says with a smile. "Do you have bleach? Or should I ask Janus for some?" he questions.

PATTON

Logan smiled when Roman agreed to read to him, looking around as Roman picked him up for the book Janus had been reading earlier. He was a bit shy about asking Roman to read him more fairy tales, if his dad were here he'd expect him to ask for something educational, but he'd really enjoyed it when Janus had read them to him earlier and he wanted to hear more. Once he and Remus had found everything, he nodded a bit, blushing slightly when Remus commented that he would look amazing with a full head of purple hair. "Yeah, right here." he said. It was a little crazy to think that he was actually doing this. He was gonna finally have purple hair.

ROMAN

Roman nods a bit, picking up the book, and then he moves to sit on the chair with Logan, one arm around him, the other holding the book- and he flips to the page that they had left off on while reading, before starting to read again, making his voice quiet and soft, hopefully encouraging Logan to sleep. Remus smiles at Virgil, and he gives him a quick kiss, before leaving the room and going to grab a char from the dining room, bringing it in with minimal difficulty. "Alright- just go and wet your hair, don't use shampoo or anything- just water- and then sit down, and we can start!" he says with a smile, before starting to get everything ready.

PATTON

Logan cuddled up to Roman as he read to him. Every now and then he'd close his eyes and Patton would get hopeful that Logan was falling asleep, but just when Patton would think Logan was asleep, his eyes would open again and he'd look at one of the photos on the page Roman was on. At least it did seem to be relaxing him, so that was good, getting him calm was definitely good. Virgil smiled a bit when Remus kissed him, watching as he grabbed one of the chairs from the table, giving a small nod in response to what Remus said next. He followed Remus' instructions, wetting his hair without using shampoo or conditioner or anything before looking back at his boyfriend, his hair curling a bit now that he'd wet it. He didn't have super curly hair but it had a nice sort of curled wave to it that he tended to straighten. He really hoped this ended up looking as good in person as it did when he pictured it in his head.

ROMAN

Janus also notices that Logan doesn't seem to be able to completely relax and fall asleep, but this is definitely better than when he was getting up every few seconds and having to put Logan back into the chair. Roman kept reading, even if it didn't seem to get Logan completely asleep, he still enjoyed it. Remus smiles a bit, gently running one of his hands through Virgil's hair, smilign a bit at the little waves in it. "Okay- the bleach might sting a little bit, but if it starts to like- burn or hurt then tell me and I can take it off." he says to him, and then he slowly starts applying the bleach in a way that indicates that he's had practice with it, which he has.

PATTON

Honestly, it wasn't exactly a very common thing for Logan to get to read books that had pictures in them, sometimes the educational books his father read to him would have diagrams or photos that helped further explain, but not just... fun pictures that went along with the story like the fairy tale book had, and Logan really liked look at them, examining them for hints of things that Roman hadn't quite read yet, it was fun, and calming. Even little, Logan had trouble relaxing. As he got older, he was able to get a lot of that energy out during the day by learning, reading, educating himself and just stimulating his brain so that he could rest at night, but when he was little, it never felt like enough because there really wasn't anything he could learn on his own just yet, he couldn't really read that well, and he just had to rely on what the adults around him were willing to teach to stimulate his mind. He didn't really get to do any of it on his own and so he was hungry for more and it made it difficult to shut his brain off and get a good nights sleep. It was a little easier tonight than usual, since Janus, Roman, Remus, Virgil, and Patton had been very good about letting Logan focus on the things he wanted to focus on, but he was still struggling to really give in to any tired feelings he might be having, it felt like there was so much more to do, plus he was a little afraid he'd wake up and be back at home with his dad and they'd all be gone. But they couldn't disappear if he was up and looking at them. Virgil smiled a bit when he felt Remus' hand in his hair, giving a small nod when Remus explained what to expect. "Okay." he said, letting Remus just take over and do his thing since he really seemed to know what he was doing.

ROMAN

Roman just kept reading- because he knew from experience that as a kid- honestly Logan was pretty neglected by his father. Yeah- Logan had food, and clothes, and all of his physical needs- but mentally? Usually Logan was really left alone, and it was only whenever he visited the twins that they'd let him do what he wanted to do. Remus smiles a bit at Virgil, and then he carefully applies the bleach to Virgil's hair, careful not to get any onto his boyfriend's skin, not wanting to hurt him. After it was done, Remus grabbed a shower cap and put it over Virgil's hair so that the heat would let the bleach do it's ting, and he sits on the counter as he waits for it. "Now we just hav to wait a bit." he says to Virgil with a little smile.

PATTON

Logan really looked up to his cousins, Roman and Remus were the first people in his life to ever show that they cared about him. Who he was as a person, what he liked, disliked, was interested in, wanted to learn about. Logan could be Logan when he was with Roman and Remus, unlike when he was with his father and had to be this perfect child that no actual kid could actually be. Even when Logan did his very best, it never felt like enough for his dad, and it was pretty heartbreaking to feel like you had to earn the love of the person who was suppose to love you unconditionally, especially when you constantly fell short. But even when Logan made a mistake, Roman and Remus still loved him, they never judged him, and Logan didn't think he'd ever be able to really put into words how much he appreciated that. Virgil smiled a bit at his boyfriend when he hopped up on the counter. "You mean I have to sit here with you? I can do that." he said with a smile on his face. "By the way, I was thinking... I know we'll be back at the castle for Christmas, but... maybe it'd be fun before we go back to get a tree and decorate it together here... I don't know when Logan's gonna change back or if we're gonna each be taking a crack at the whole 'kid for a day' thing ourselves, and what order we'll do that in or whatever... but even if one of us is little when we do it, it just sorta seemed like a fun idea." Virgil said with a small shrug.

ROMAN

Janus watches Logan, and he decides that it's fine that Logan can't fall asleep that easily- they were all there to help him fall asleep, and to be there for him to try and calm his mind after today. No matter how long it took to change back- everyone was going to be there to help him through it, to be there for Logan. As Roman kept reading, his thoughts were about the same, but he was actually growing tired himself, and if Logan wasn't asleep within an hour or so, then Roman would be. Remus looks over at Virgil and smiles. "Aww- yeah of course Vee! That'd be awesome- and really cute too." he says with a smile. "Oh shoot- your birthday's soon right?" he asks him, and the gears in his head are already turning because Remus wanted this to be the best birthday ever for Virgil!

PATTON

Logan relaxed cuddled up to Roman, not seeming to notice that Roman seemed to be getting more tired than he was. He was just enjoying having a nice, calm moment to cuddle with his cousin and be read to from a book that had pictures he could look at as he followed the story. Virgil smiled when Remus seemed into the idea. "Cool, maybe we could try to make it happen whatever day Patton is little? He's never really gotten to celebrate the holidays before." Virgil suggested. It sounded like the sort of thing Patton would like. At Remus' question, he nodded a bit. "Yep, 19 on the 19th." he said with a smile. "Very much looking forward to all that birthday food." he said with a dreamy sigh. Since Virgil's family didn't have money, Virgil never really got gifts on his birthday since it was so close to Christmas, sometimes his family would make him things, and that usually meant make him food because... well, that's just how his family was. Virgil didn't really mind, he just assumed that was what happened when you were born so close to a gift giving holiday like Christmas. He certainly wasn't expecting anyone to get him anything like the stuff they'd gotten Logan, or any sort of big celebration. He figured he'd just hang with his friends during the day and stop by his parents for a big birthday dinner at night... which he would drag Remus to, of course.

ROMAN

Roman yawns a little bit, but he keeps reading, pulling a blanket around Logan and himself, letting Logan keep looking at the pictures, smiling at the little one as he tiredly continues reading. Remus nods at what Virgil says. "That sounds good- we can do it then! And then he can have like- positive childhood memories and stuff." he says with a little nods, before leading Virgil to the sink and pulling the shower cap off. "Gotta rinse your hair." he explains, before moving the chair so that Virgil could sit with his head in the sink, and turning on the water and starting to rinse the bleach out of his hair. Remus smiles a Virgil. "You'll be the same age as me soon! But I'll always be six months older." he teases with a little smile. "You're probably going to your parents for your birthday, yeah? So I can plan like- a date for the two of us during the day?" Remus offers. He was also going to get Virgil a bunch of gifts too but he didn't need to tell Virgil that yet.

PATTON 

Logan looked up when he heard Roman yawn, cuddling under the blanket when Roman pulled it over them. Patton smiled as he watched the two, the interaction was so cute. "Yeah, exactly what I was thinking. Love having you in my head." Virgil said with a bright smile. When Remus started to lead him over to the sink, he nodded a bit. "Right... I know it's not staying that way but I feel like I am not gonna look cute with the bleached hair." he said with a small laugh, although, Virgil would find he was surprisingly wrong about that statement later. He laughed a bit at Remus' comment as he rinsed the bleach out of his hair. "I'm pretty use to being the youngest so I'm good with that, you can tease me about being younger all you want... although, now that Logan's hanging out with us more that official spot has been snatched from me a second time, first time being when my siblings started having kids... and Patton joining the group snatched my second youngest spot since he's literally like a month younger than me, almost to the day, actually... if he'd waited like... four more days to be born, we'd literally be a month apart." he said. "Kinda crazy, the weird parallels between Patton and me... we're only like a month apart in age, we grew up in houses surprisingly close to one another, which is wild to think about all the potential chances we had to meet way sooner if he was ever allowed to like... go outside." Virgil pointed out. He nodded a bit at Remus' question. "Yeah, I'll stop by for dinner, my mom always makes all my favorite dinner and my family makes me little gifts, most of which are also foods cause... you know, I was born way too close to Christmas." he said with a shrug. He blinked in surprise before glancing up at Remus. "Wait, really? You'd wanna plan something for the two of us?" he asked with a smile, a bit surprised.

ROMAN 

Janus was thinking along the same lines as Patton- watching the two of them interact was adorable at least and absolutely heart melting at best. Roman continues reading, but his voice has taken on that soft tone that voices can only take on when they're half asleep. Remus sends Virgil a look. "Stormcloud, you look good all the time." Remus protests, continuing to wash Virgil's hair of the bleach, and then eventually looking at him when it was all out. "I like the blonde on you- you look really good." he tells him. Remus nods as he listened to Virgil talk. "I've always been second youngest- but Janus took that from me! Guess we have that in common then!" he says with a little smile, going to ready the purple dye. Remus nods at Virgil. "Of course! As your boyfriend, it's my civic duty to thoroughly spoil you." he tells him with a crooked smile.

PATTON 

Logan would close his eyes every now and then, but he still didn't seem to be as tired as Roman, too invested in listening to the story and looking at the pictures to fall asleep. Roman's voice was really soothing him though, so he was much more calm and relaxed than he had been earlier. Virgil blushed a bit when Remus protested and said he looked good all the time, and of course the nickname really helped get his face that brighter shade of red when teamed up with the compliment. When Remus finished washing it out and commented that he looked really good as a blonde, the redness in his face just intensified, smiling to himself. When Remus stated that he knew how he felt because Janus snatched his spot, he playfully rolled his eyes. "Geez, everybody's just stealing our spots." he said with a small laugh. He smiled even more as he listened to Remus, watching as he got the purple dye. "Aww, babe. I'd love to get to spend time with just you on my birthday, that'd make it like... the best birthday ever." he said with a bright smile. He'd never had to separate his time between so many people on his birthday before, usually he just spent the day with his family and that was that, but now that he had friends, family, a boyfriend, he had a feeling the day was gonna be even more fun than he was use to, just a ton of food and awesome people spending the day together, what could be better than that? Because when Remus talked about spoiling him he just meant by spending tons of time with him, right? What else could he mean?

ROMAN 

Now that Roman knew just how late Logan probably stayed up every day, he honestly wondered how this kid functioned on a day-to-day basis. But as the book was drawing nearer to the end, he didn't let himself dwell on it for right now- he was just relieved that Logan seemed to be winding down and relaxing finally. Remus laughs a bit when Virgil says that everyone is stealing their spots, nodding a bit. He moves the chair a bit away from the sink again, and then he picks up the dye and the brush, and he starts carefully applying it to Virgil's hair, and he can't help a small smile at Virgil's blush. He's happy that Virgil says that he'd love to spend time with him- and he quickly kisses his nose, before going back to finish applying all of the dye. "Do you have any specific place that you want me to take you? Or do you want a surprise location?" Remus asks, and for once, in his mind, he wasn't thinking about crazy places, nothing like he usually would, just... normal ideas.

PATTON 

Logan's sleep schedule had been pretty messed up when he was little. It'd gotten better as he got older, because he learned tools that helped him to calm his brain as it got closer to night time (although, Logan could never calm his brain completely, it was always full of thoughts), but when he was little, he really struggled to fall asleep. Maybe if his dad had taken the time to sit and read to him like Roman had, he wouldn't have struggled as much. Honestly, Roman was doing a very good job and if he wasn't a little afraid that he'd wake up and they'd all be gone and he'd be back home with his dad, he probably would've fallen asleep right now, but he was working hard to stay awake because he was scared of them all disappearing while he was sleeping. He moved to hold onto Roman a bit more, that way if he did accidentally fall asleep and Roman tried to disappear, it'd wake him up. Virgil really couldn't believe that he was actually about to have purple hair, it was difficult to contain his excitement when it was something he'd wanted to do since he was a kid and now it was actually becoming a reality with Remus' help. He smiled more when Remus kissed his nose, giving a light shrug at the question. "I don't know... never really thought about it, a surprise location planned by you sounds pretty fun though." he said with a smile, knowing Remus probably came up with the best surprises since you never really knew what he was gonna come up with, and there was a part of him that was curious to see what Remus would come up with and think was fun for Virgil.

ROMAN 

Roman definitely had no intentions to disappear, hell, it'd probably take a lot to pull Roman away right now, because he was hell bent on having Logan get a good nights sleep, because who knows how long Logan could potentially be stuck like this. When Roman finishes the book, he gently sets it down besides the chair, instead moving to gently card his free hand through Logan's hair. Remus nods a little bit. "Alright- then I'll make it the best birthday surprise date ever!" he says with a little smile, and then he finishes with the purple dye on Virgil's hair. "Now we wait!" he says to him- and there's no teasing remark, no suggestion of destructive things to do to pass the time.

PATTON 

Logan watched as Roman set the book down, cuddling up closer to his cousin and holding onto his owl with one hand and Roman with the other, his eyes closing when Roman started running his hand through his hair. Virgil smiled more when Remus stated that he was going to make it the best birthday surprise date ever. "Careful Remus, you keep going out of your way to do nice stuff for me, people are gonna think you like me or something." he joked, poking Remus' side before looking back up at him when he said that now they just had to wait. "Okay, okay, let me try to guess what you think we should do to pass the time." he said playfully, reaching for Remus' hands and scrunching his nose slightly in thought, trying to think like Remus. "I mean, you were suggesting the roof earlier, so I feel like you still wanna climb on my roof, but it's really cold outside, so maybe not that... or tell me more about the bone and teeth collection, speaking of bones... did we ever really finish our conversation a few days ago about all the different ways to break an arm or did we get side tracked?" he asked as he tilted his head slightly, swinging Remus' hands back and forth lightly as he spoke. "If you were thinking about something food related then maybe... sneak past the others into the kitchen and eat... salt... or sugar... or just like bite straight into an onion like it's an apple or something! You know there's apparently some kind of onion somewhere that is sweet enough to bite into like an apple, but I don't buy it. I can't imagine it's not just a trick to get people to bite into onions." he said with a laugh.

ROMAN 

Roman smiles down at Logan, watching as his eyes slipped closed, and soon Roman's were as well- but he didn't mind sleeping on the chair with Logan- there were definitely worse places to fall asleep in. Remus rolls his eyes a bit. "Wow, people thinking that I like my boyfriend? I certainly can't have that." he teases with a small smile, gently squeezing Virgil's hands when he takes them. When Virgil lists off a bunch of things that he thinks Remus would want to do, Remus wants to smile, because he wants to do all those things with Virgil, they're all very Remus things to do, but that just serves as a reminder of everything that he shouldn't be doing right now. He can't help but speak when Virgil brings up onions though- "I eat onions like apples normally- honestly I don't get the big deal, they're good!" he says, and then immediately wants to take it back because it's another weird thing about himself that could potentially scare Virgil away.

PATTON 

Logan wasn't really asleep, but he was very calm and relaxed as he stayed cuddled up to Roman. Patton, however assumed they'd both fallen asleep, unable to focus on anything else because the two of them were just so cute! Virgil laughed a bit. "Next thing you know, they're gonna think you love me or something and it's all just gonna snowball from there." he laughed as Remus squeezed his hands. Virgil's smile grows when Remus continued with the onion conversation, quite pleased with himself for doing a seemingly good job of thinking like Remus. "Well, now you're making me wanna bite into an onion even though I know I'm not gonna like it because I'm not really a huge fan of onions anyway." he laughed. He didn't dislike them or anything, but they weren't his favorite, and while he didn't judge Remus for liking them he doubted he'd like biting into one, but Remus' enthusiasm made him curious to at least try it. He looked at their hands a moment as he continued swinging them before giving Remus a playful smile. "How am I doing? Am I in your head yet? Is it kinda hot? It's at least a little hot that our thoughts are pretty much in the same place, right?" he asked, a playful tone to his voice, poking Remus' side again, the smile still covering his face. He was kidding around, sort of... after all, it was pretty attractive when he and Remus had those moments where they were just totally on the same wave length, and okay, just because Remus liked to collect bones or bite directly into onions that didn't mean talking about those things fell under the category of 'sexy talk' but Virgil was completely oblivious to the fact that Remus was trying to suppress all that stuff and so he was just being silly and playful. Honestly, he figured this was the sort of stuff Remus would enjoy talking about, that it would make him happy that Virgil wanted to talk about it too, and he liked making Remus happy. Plus he always wanted Remus to think he was hot no matter what they were doing or talking about so... couldn't hurt to throw that in as well, right?

ROMAN 

Janus also thought that the sight was absolutely adorable, and he moves to go and settle himself on the other chair where he had been sleeping for the past few days. Roman does fall asleep like that, besides Logan on the chair, drifting off at whatever ungodly hour of the morning it currently was. Remus nods a bit, smiling. "We certainly can't have people thinking that!" he says with a little giggle, and smiling at Virgil. "You don't have to eat the onions- but if you do I want to be there." Remus tells him. When Virgil pokes his side and teasingly asks if it's kind of hot that their thoughts are in the same place, Remus laughs a bit. "I guess it is, Vee!" he says with a smile "You're sweet- but you're the one with all the hotness in this relationship." he tells him, moving to check if the dye was ready- before deciding that it had set in enough. "Come on- we gotta wash out your hair." he says, leading Virgil back over to the sink.

PATTON 

Patton cuddled up to his stuffed animals on the pull out, trying to fall asleep himself. He didn't think he'd be able to without Roman in the bed with him, but somehow just knowing Roman was near by was enough to help him fall asleep, although he did find himself waking back up every now and again, using that opportunity to check on Roman and Logan whenever it occurred. Logan was pretty much doing the same, drifting in and out of sleep, mostly because he wanted to keep checking that everyone was still in the room and Roman was still cuddled up to him and no one had left. Virgil laughed a bit. "So like, if I just like... took a huge bite of onion and then just like... kissed you, is that a deal breaker? Would you just leave me right then and there for kissing you when I smelled like onions?" he joked with another laugh. "Maybe I'll also have some garlic and horse radish too before I kiss you, like if I'm gonna do it, I might as well go for the whole trifecta, you know?" he said playfully with a laugh. "Um, you're sweet, but that's a freaking lie if I've ever heard one, I mean, just look at you." Virgil said, though his face was bright red from Remus calling him hot. When Remus said they had to wash out his hair he nodded a bit before letting Remus lead him to the sink.

ROMAN 

Remus looks over at Virgil, and when he asks if he'd leave him for kissing him when he smelled like onions and stuff, he shakes his head. "Absolutely not! I wouldn't leave you ever, let alone about onions and stuff." he says firmly. He smiles at how red Virgil's face seems, smiling at him a bit. "Yeah, I've looked at myself, how 'bout you take a look in the mirror Vee? You're the hot one, and I'm not taking arguments or criticism at this time." Remus says as he moves Virgil's hair under the stream of the water and starts washing the dye out, careful not to get any into Virgil's eyes.

PATTON 

Virgil smiled a bit more. "Well, that's comforting to hear... especially since you probably have a lot of post garlic kisses in your future because if you couldn't tell by the food of choice when it comes to my entire family, I'm a slut for garlic." he said with a laugh. "And, for the record, I wouldn't leave you ever either, so congratulations, you're officially stuck with me." Virgil said with a smile. His face got even more red as Remus continued, about to argue before hearing Remus state that he was not taking arguments or criticism at this time. "You know, this conversation has the same energy as when we were in my room and you said I had the best ass which, was very much appreciated, but also like, you definitely have the best ass." he said as Remus started washing the dye out.

ROMAN 

Remus laughs a bit at what Virgil says, smiling at him. "As long as I'm getting kisses, I don't really care what you taste like." he says with a smile. "I absolutely don't mind being stuck with you, Vee." he says, as he finishes washing the last of the extra dye out of Virgil's hair, going to grab a towel to dry it off. "See this conversation has the same energy because you were wrong then, and you are also wrong now." Remus informs him, finishing toweling off his hair, but it's sill a little damp. Remus reaches out to touch Virgil's hair, gently running a hand through it, then gently lifts Virgil's face with both hands, holding him at arms length so that he could see the full effect of the new hair. "You look amazing!" he tells him with a grin.

PATTON 

Virgil smiled a bit more. "Good, because I want constant kisses." he said happily. At what Remus said while he was towel drying his hair, Virgil's jaw dropped a bit before he let out a loud laugh. "Do you wanna fight? Because I will physically fight you right now, you're hot and you have the best ass and you're gonna have to learn to live with that." Virgil said, about to continue before he realized Remus was done, smiling a bit when he felt Remus' hand run through his hair before taking a moment to look at it himself. Oh my God... he loved it. "Oh my God, it looks so awesome!" Virgil said a bit too excitedly before clearing his throat and sliding his hands in his hoodie pockets a bit awkwardly, shifting his weight from one foot to the other as he tried to compose himself because his reaction was a little over the top and embarrassing. "I mean... like, whatever, it's kinda cool." he said before hearing Remus tell him he looked amazing, biting back a smile as his face went a bit pink. "It is kinda amazing, huh?" he said with a smile before looking in the mirror again, why in the world had he waited so long to do this?!

ROMAN 

"I am more than happy to provide you with constant kisses- and while I've been itching for a rematch, I'm going to decline the offer to fight you." Remus tells Virgil, although declining a fight isn't very... Remus of him. "It does look awesome- if you weren't the hot one before, you are now." he tells him with a grin, smiling at Virgil. Remus thought that Virgil looked fucking amazing, and that the purple fit his general aesthetic really well, and that he just looked amazing and perfect.

PATTON 

Virgil smiled a bit more before smirking slightly. "Scared I'm gonna kick your perfect ass?" Virgil asked playfully before letting his attention fall on his hair, he was officially obsessed with it. Wondering if the others were still up with Logan or if they'd gotten him to fall asleep and gone to bed themselves, he poked his head out of the bathroom door, eager to show more people. Luckily, this was one of those moments where Patton had woken up and decided to check on Roman and Logan, and he let out a happy gasp when he saw Virgil's hair. "Virgil, it looks so good!" Patton said happily, practically bouncing. "Thanks Pat. Remus gets all the credit. Did you manage to get Logan to fall asleep?" he asked curiously as he looked over at the chair, spotting Roman and Logan. "No." Logan piped in, cuddling up closer to Roman. Virgil laughed a bit before sighing. "Well, we can sit up with you for a little longer until you fall asleep." Virgil said, making sure to keep his voice quiet so he didn't wake Roman or Janus. "But we gotta be quiet so we don't wake up the others, okay?" Virgil said, Logan nodding a bit before putting his finger over his mouth as if to signal that he'd be quiet. Virgil figured maybe Logan slept better if he could hear the people around him so that he knew he wasn't alone and that nobody was leaving, he seemed much more calm and relaxed than when they'd started on Virgil's hair so maybe if they just did something simple out here and Logan could hear them, he'd fall asleep. An idea popping into his head he went back in the bathroom and grabbed his make up, grabbing Remus' hand with his free hand and pulling him over to the pull out, sitting down and leaning on his boyfriend as he gestured to Patton to sit as well. "I promised you a make over." he said to Patton who instantly squeaked with happiness and looked at all the make up Virgil had.

ROMAN 

Remus follows Virgil out into the living room, and he smiles at Virgil again when Patton says that it looks nice, smiling when Virgil says that he gets the credit, and he notices that Logan wasn't asleep still- damn, how did the kid still look so awake? Even Remus probably would have crashed by now as a kid! When Virgil dashes into the bathroom, Remus smiles a bit when he comes back with makeup, and he wraps his arms around Virgil's waist when he sits in front of Patton to do his makeup.

PATTON 

Virgil let Patton pick the colors of eyeshadow that he liked best, deciding not to do a full face since it was the middle of the night and just focus on Patton's eyes. After a bit of time, Virgil finally finished, smiling a bit and handing Patton the hand held mirror he had with his make up so Patton could see it without having to get up. "Virgil, it's so pretty!" Patton said happily, Virgil smiling a bit more as he looked over what he'd done, mostly just shades of light blues with a bit of glitter, but Patton seemed really happy with it. "Glad you like it." Virgil said before turning a bit so he was facing Remus. "You want a make over too?" Virgil asked, more than happy to do his own look last if it meant getting to put make up on Remus. Patton looked over at Remus at the question, smiling a bit before looking back over at Roman and Logan, noticing that Logan's eyes were closed again. Maybe Virgil was right, maybe Logan just had to feel like they were all still there so he could relax completely.

ROMAN 

Remus watches as Virgil works, smiling a bit at seeing Virgil working and in the zone like that. "It looks really good Vee!" Remus says with a smile, and then when Virgil turns to ask him, he nods quickly. "Is that even a question!?" he asks him with a little laugh, quickly moving to make it easier for Virgil to have access to his face. "Do your thing, babes." he tells him with a soft smile.

PATTON 

Patton glanced back at Roman and Logan one more time, pouting slightly because he wished Roman was awake so he could show him his pretty make up that Virgil had done... but Roman and Logan looked so cute that he couldn't be all that upset about it. Maybe Virgil would do it for him again another time when Roman was awake and he could show him then. Virgil's face lit up when Remus said he could do his make up, picking some pretty shades of green, some of which of course had some glitter to them, and getting started. He took his time, making sure it looked perfect and once he was pleased with himself he smiled, tilting his head slightly as he looked Remus over just to really make sure he was happy with his work before an idea came to him, hopping off the bed and going over to the vase of flowers he'd gotten for Remus the other night, grabbing one of the green flowers and going back to the pull out, putting the flower behind Remus' ear so it poked out on the side of his hair before smiling, proud of himself for the look, handing Remus the mirror he'd let Patton use a while ago. "Thoughts?" Virgil asked, hoping Remus liked it, already starting to think about what shades of purple he wanted to do on himself next because he was very curious to see how the purple hair would look with some purple eyeshadow... not even realizing that Logan had completely fallen asleep a while ago and there really wasn't any reason for them to be up this late anymore.

ROMAN

Roman shifts a little bit in his sleep, but immediately goes still when he glances down at Logan, and sees that the child is asleep. He sleepily glances over at Virgil and Remus and Patton on the floor, and it takes him a second to actually register what's going on, before his eyes widen, and he grins. "Makeover?" he whispers excitedly, before glancing over at Patton, gasping quietly. "Patton! You look so pretty!" he says with a smile. Remus closes his eyes as he lets Virgil work on his face, letting Virgil tuck the flower behind his ear, and then looking into the mirror, smiling a bit when he saw the look. "Virge! You really did a great job- you're really good at this!" he tells him.

PATTON 

Patton looked back over at Roman when he heard him moving around, hearing what he said, Patton nodded with just as much excitement before blushing when Roman gasped and commented on how pretty he looked. "Virgil did it!" Patton said with a smile, glad that Roman liked it. Virgil smiled when Remus liked the look he'd done for him, unable to help but be proud of himself and slightly distracted by how good Remus looked with make up on. "Thanks, babe, learned a lot from Vanessa." he said with a smile as he started to put some purple on his own eyelid, glancing over at Roman when he heard him complimenting Patton. He was really glad that everyone seemed happy and impressed. "Want me to do your next?" Virgil offered, pretty sure he could put some on Roman without waking Logan up. Now that Logan was actually officially asleep, he didn't seem like he was gonna wake up any time soon. He actually seemed to be sleeping better with just enough noise to know everyone was still there.

ROMAN 

Roman smiles at Patton from where he sat, glad that Patton seemed so happy about it. Remus watches Virgil as he does his own makeup, watching as he applied all the different colors to his eyelid. "You gotta teach me one day!" he says with a smile. Seeing Virgil do this- it was really cool- and clearly Virgil liked it a lot. Roman nods a bit at Virgil's question. "Sure- as long as you can do it without waking up Logan."

PATTON 

Patton was very happy that Roman seemed to like his make up, he was very happy with it himself. Virgil finished up his own purple eyeshadow before looking back at Remus. "Oh, I got you, babe." he said with a smile, excited by the thought of teaching Remus how to put on make up. "Bro, I could do Logan's eye shadow without waking up Logan, you're good." Virgil said proudly before deciding to use some reds for Roman, starting on his make up. He was careful not to wake Logan up, but it wasn't all that hard since Logan seemed so content now. Still, he glanced down at him every now and again just to make sure that he wasn't doing anything that might wake Logan up, and there was still that part of him that was curious about when Logan would change back so he also glanced at him every now and then just to check to see if he was still little, which he was. Once he finished Roman's make up, he held the mirror for him so he could see without having to let go of Logan.

ROMAN 

Remus smiles when Virgil finishes his own makeup, kissing his nose gently. "It looks great." he says with a smile, "You're really good at makeup!" Roman laughs when Virgil says that he could do Logan's makeup without accidentally waking the child up, and he stared extremely still as Virgil ddi his eyeshadow, grinning when he saw his reflection in the mirror. "Virgil!! This looks amazing!" he tells him with a bright smile.

PATTON 

Virgil turned a bit pink when Remus kissed his nose. "Thanks, love." he said brightly before giving Remus a quick kiss. Virgil smiled more when Roman seemed to like what he'd done, glad everyone was happy with it. "Thanks, man, I'm glad you like it." he said with a smile. "We're gonna have to make plans to go out somewhere so we have a reason to do all this and then actually get to show it off." Virgil suggested before looking back at the sleeping child still cuddled up to Roman. "Looks like you're spending the night in that chair, Ro. Sorry, Pat." Virgil said with a small laugh, Patton smiling and giving a small shrug. "It's waaaay too cute for me to be upset about, I can survive a night without Roman cuddles so that Logan can have Roman cuddles." Patton said happily, he was Logan's cousin, after all, Logan deserved Roman cuddles just as much as Patton did, and Patton got them all the time, so he was more than happy to let Logan cuddle him tonight.

ROMAN 

Remus smiles a bit at the little kiss, blushing at the pet name, smiling and gently kissing Virgil back, smiling a little bit at him. Roman smiles a bit when Virgil says he's spending the night in the chair. "I don't mind." he says with a soft yawn, before cuddling closer to Logan, starting to fall asleep again. Remus looks over at Virgil. "Ready to go to bed?" he asks Virgil.

PATTON 

Patton cuddled up with his stuffed animals on the pull out, smiling at Roman and Logan when he noticed Roman was getting tired again. Virgil gave a small nod when Remus asked if he was ready to go to bed, following him into the bedroom and changing into pajama bottoms, though he left his hoodie on. "Do you think we should take the make up off? I don't want to, I worked very hard on it." Virgil said with a small pout as he looked back over at his boyfriend.

ROMAN 

Remus follows Virgil into the bedroom, watching his boyfriend fondly as the two of them went, and he steals some of Virgil's pajama bottoms as well, opting to go shirtless to bed, thinking. "Hm- you did work very hard on it- but aren't you supposed to not sleep with makeup on?" he asks. Another slightly worrying sign. Since when did Remus ever care about what one should and shouldn't do?

PATTON 

As much as Virgil absolutely loved it when Remus stole his clothes and put them on, he was still pouty considering Remus' response to his question. Virgil was a bit surprised when Remus said that you weren't suppose to sleep with make up on, pouting a little bit more as his shoulders slumped down a bit. "You're right." he sighed before grabbing some make up wipes and bringing them to Patton and Roman so they could take their make up off, Patton pouting a bit when Virgil handed them to him because he clearly felt the same way Virgil did but he did use them, Virgil going back into the bedroom and handing a few to Remus so he could wipe the make up off himself as well. He hoped they could come up with some sort of reason to wear make up again. Once it was off he bit his lip, shoot, he should've taken pictures of the various make up looks he'd done on the four of them. Oh well, next time. He threw away the used wipes before moving over to Remus, wrapping his arms around his boyfriend and burying his face in his shoulder, the tiredness he'd distracted himself from with hair and make up officially coming back full force.

ROMAN 

Remus can't help a small smile at the pout, but that's what'd be the responsible, reasonable thing to do, right? So even if he didn't want to, that's what he'd do. Roman takes the wipe when it's handed to him, and he wipes all of the makeup off in a sleepy haze, before tossing the wipe into the nearby wastebasket and going back to sleep. Remus wipes off his own makeup, wrapping his arms around Virgil when Virgil rests his head onto his shoulder, and slowly walking with him to the bed, laying down so that he could wrap his arms around Virgil, pulling the other close to his chest.

PATTON 

Virgil cuddled up closer to Remus once they were in the bed, yawning before closing his eyes. "Love you." he mumbled sleepily, falling asleep quite quickly, which wasn't really surprising considering how late it was. In the morning, Patton was the first one up, waking up earlier than he usually did. He glanced over at Roman and Logan, noticing that Logan was still asleep, and still little. Well, it was still less than 24 hours since he accidentally got turned into a child, it hadn't even been a full day yet.

ROMAN 

"Love you too." Remus says to him, but Remus himself didn't fall asleep for a while. He spent a long time worrying, his mind anxious and restless but eventually, he managed to fall asleep with Virgil beside him. Janus woke up soon after as well, glancing over at Logan and Roman and checking to see if Logan was still small, and seeing that eh was still a kid. He wondered how long this was going to last... he stood up and out of his chair, silently stretching, careful not to wake Logan.

PATTON 

Patton looked over at Janus when he noticed he was waking up, reaching for his glasses and sliding them on his face. "Morning." he said tiredly, a small yawn escaping him. Logan was completely out cold to the point where even Roman could probably get up and leave the chair at this point without worrying about Logan waking up, exhausted since he'd stayed up so late the night before. Virgil cuddled up closer to Remus in his sleep, mumbling a bit, but not seeming to be getting up or trying to go anywhere like he had the night before, but there was a part of him that was still a little worried about Remus, and it was making him a bit anxious, hence the slight nonsensical mumbling.

ROMAN 

"Morning." Janus greets, going into the kitchen to go make some tea. It was chilly again, so he thought that as everyone woke up they might want some. "Sleep well?" he questions as he sets the kettle to boil on the range. Remus was already awake, his thoughts burning in his head, like little gnats- buzzing around, he couldn't seem to get rid of them no matter how hard he tried. Usually, Remus couldn't care less about the intrusive thoughts, he welcomed them, embraced them, but now- as he was trying to get rid of them, there were more and more and more and he couldn't stop thinking about them and today was going to be really difficult wasn't it?

PATTON 

Patton pulled the blankets up over himself, cuddling his stuffed animals and giving Janus a small nod to his question. He didn't really sleep as well as he would've if Roman had been in the bed with him, but at least Roman was close by, and knowing that made it a bit easier to sleep. He glanced over at Roman and Logan, wondering how long they'd be asleep for. Virgil shifted slightly in his sleep, mumbling under his breath for at least another hour before he seemed to actually be waking up. Barely awake, he didn't even bother to open his eyes, cuddling closer to Remus sleepily and clinging to him a bit. Waking up so close to when he'd been anxiously mumbling and muttering in his sleep didn't exactly make for a calm awakening like the previous morning when Remus had to calm him down to keep him from going anywhere and he was already relaxed again by the time he really woke up. So he cuddled closer to Remus, after all, Remus always did seem to be successful when it came to calming his anxious thoughts. He had no idea Remus was having some anxious thoughts of his own at the moment, still too tired to really be aware of much of anything just yet.

ROMAN 

Janus moves into the kitchen, setting down the sugar, teabags, and milk, before grabbing mugs for all of them. He waits a bit longer for the water to boil, and when it does, he pours the hot water into the mugs, remembering how everyone took their tea from a few days ago. Roman was just barely starting to wake up, but he'd most likely be asleep for a little while longer, just now starting to move a little in his sleep. When Virgil cuddles closer to him, Remus wraps his arms protectively around his boyfriend. Even if Remus was going to have a shitty day because his brain was all messed up and he couldn't just be normal that doesn't mean that Virgil had too. He gently cards a hand through Virgil's newly purple hair, stroking it gently to both calm Virgil and himself.

PATTON 

Patton noticed that Roman was starting to move around a bit, figuring he'd probably wake up soon. Logan, on the other hand, still seemed to be completely asleep. Patton figured he'd probably end up sleeping in a bit later today, not that it was all that surprising with how little he was and how late he'd stayed up. He needed the sleep. Virgil relaxed slightly when he felt Remus protectively wrap his arms around him, his mind calming some at the feeling. Even though he was barely awake, he could remember and tell just by cuddling up to him that Remus was currently shirtless and he cuddled a bit closer just to be sure Remus wasn't cold or anything. When he felt Remus running his hand through his hair, he let out a small, sleepy, little hum, relaxing even more and melting into his boyfriend's touch, feeling more content now that he'd moved closer and Remus was holding him and playing with his hair.

ROMAN 

Janus makes the tea for everyone like they had asked for it the day before, moving to hand Patton's to him, placing one on the small table beside Roman and Logan's chair, and taking his own cup, inhaling a deep breath in, slowly taking a sip of the warm liquid, letting out a soft sigh at the warm tea. Roman shifts a bit when he smells the tea, his eyes opening a little bit, and he sleepily blinks awake, smiling at Patton. "Morning darling." he murmurs softy, smiling at him, and the picking up his tea. Remus smiles softly at the little hum that he's able to pull out of Virgil, and he hides his face into Virgil's shoulder, just holding him close and enjoying laying with him as much as he could with the torrent of thoughts still raining through his mind.

PATTON 

"Thank you." Patton said to Janus as he was handed the tea, taking a few sips before smiling when he heard the sleepy voice of his boyfriend. "Morning." he said with a smile, giving Roman a small wave since he couldn't really give him a hug or anything yet. Virgil felt so calm and relaxed by this point thanks to his boyfriend, that he came very close to just falling back asleep, content to just lay there in his boyfriend's arms with Remus playing with his hair, but he stayed awake, or at least he stayed in whatever state of barely awake he was currently in at the moment. He stayed that way for a while, just enjoying the closeness before he finally spoke. "Remus?" he mumbled sleepily after a moment, still not bothering to open his eyes.

ROMAN 

Roman smiles at Patton again, before looking down at Logan. "You think that it's safe to move?" he whispers, not wanting to wake Logan, although it did look like he'd be asleep for a while. Janus just sips at his tea- he was always cold, and he was trying to warm up again, still a bit sleepy. When Virgil said his name, Remus looks down at him, putting on a little smile in case his eyes opened. "I'm right here." he assures him softly, kissing his forehead gently. "Did you sleep well, stormcloud?" he asks quietly.

PATTON 

Patton looked at Logan one more time before nodding a bit at the question. "I think so, yeah." he said, pretty positive that if Roman wanted to get up he could manage doing so without waking Logan. Virgil let out another sleepy, happy, hum at the sound of his boyfriend's voice, and at the calming words, relaxing at the feeling of Remus kissing his forehead. He gave a small nod at the question, letting out a small yawn before speaking again. "You cold?" he mumbled tiredly after a moment, not really ready to get up yet but he definitely would if Remus was cold so he could get him a sweater or something since it seemed to just be getting colder and colder with every passing day and he didn't want Remus to be cold or uncomfortable.

ROMAN 

Roman nods a little bit, before shifting Logan a bit so that the child was resting in a more comfortable position. "I was scared to move him all night." he says with a quiet chuckle. "I'll get up in a bit for whenever breakfast is." he says to Patton with a little smile. Remus shakes his head when Virgil asks if he's cold. "No, I'm not cold sweetheart, don't worry about me." he says to him with a little, hopefully reassuring smile. Sure, Remus was a little bit cold, but his brain was screaming at him not to be a bother, not to make Virgil get up because of him, not to annoy him.

PATTON 

Patton smiled a bit when Roman admitted that he'd been scared to move him all night, it was so sweet how Roman was with Logan, especially when Logan was all little like this. "When do you think he'll change back?" Patton asked curiously before taking another sip of his tea. "I can try to make breakfast today... you can help, if you wanna." Patton said to Roman after a moment. The one time he'd made breakfast on his own, people had seemed to like it, so he could give it another try, plus it was always fun working with Roman, even if they didn't always know what they were doing in the kitchen. Virgil just hummed in response, moving so he was a bit more on top of Remus to keep him warmer just incase. "You're so comfy." he mumbled tiredly as he nuzzled his face in his boyfriend's shoulder. Remus definitely gave the best cuddles in the world, hands down, and just being close to him at all made Virgil so calm and happy. He honestly could've just stayed like this the whole day, but he knew they'd have to get up eventually, plus he was curious to go out there and see if Logan was still little or if he'd changed back.

ROMAN 

Janus shrugs. "I've done the math- comparing the size of Logan to the plants, and how much magic I used, it'll be anywhere between now and another day- it's too complex to figure out exactly." Janus tells Patton with a little nod. Roman nods, smiling at Patton and gently setting Logan down on the chair, standing up and wrapping a blanket around him, settling him into a comfortable position, before going over to Patton and gently wrapping his arms around him. Remus smiles a bit when Virgil says that he's comfy. "I'm glad that I'm comfy- you are too." he tells Virgil, his hand gently rubbing circles into Virgil's back.

PATTON 

Patton nodded a bit when Janus said that he thought Logan would change back any time between now and tomorrow. When Roman got up, Logan clung to his owl a bit more in his sleep, rolling over so that his back was facing the rest of the room and pulling the blanket over himself a bit more than even Roman had put it in his sleep, the blanket now covering most of his face. Patton let out a small giggle at the sight before his face lit up when Roman came over and wrapped his arms around him, excited that it was his turn for cuddles from his boyfriend. Virgil relaxed even more, if that were possible, when he felt Remus rubbing circles into his back. "Love you so much." Virgil said, still sounding a bit sleepy. He let himself just enjoy this for a few more minutes before speaking again. "Do you think Logan changed back yet?" he asked curiously.

ROMAN 

Janus continues sipping at his tea, now fully awake at this point. Roman smiles at seeing Patton so happy, and then he gently kisses his cheek, before grabbing his hands and then gently pulling him to the kitchen. "What do you wanna make?" he asks Patton, still holding onto him. Remus smiles at that, hugging Virgil tighter. "Love you more, Vee." he says with a soft smile, before sitting up, still holding Virgil, basically pulling him into his lap. "Let's go check?" he offers.

PATTON 

Patton had practically glommed onto Roman, pouting slightly when Roman started leading him into the kitchen because he was hoping for a few more minutes of cuddles since he'd gone all night without them, but he figured everyone was getting hungry so it was okay. As Roman led him into the kitchen, he glanced back at Logan one more time, his eyebrows raising slightly. He couldn't really see Logan since he'd completely buried himself in the blankets but Patton would swear that the bundle under those blankets looked bigger than it had a second ago. Logan had changed back? Snapping out of his thoughts when Roman spoke again, he tilted his head slightly, trying to think of breakfast foods he actually thought he could make, but it was hard to focus when he was distracted by Logan, so instead he poked Roman's arm and pointed over to the chair to see if Roman would notice that Logan seemed to have changed back too. Virgil nuzzled his face deeper into Remus' shoulder, blushing lightly. "No, love you more." he mumbled before feeling Remus sit up, finally opening his eyes. "Mmkay." he hummed tiredly, his head still resting on Remus as he rubbed his eyes.

ROMAN 

Roman giggles quietly at Patton's pout, smiling softly, before looking over at Logan when Patton poked him in the arm and gestured at Logan, and he looks over and yeah- definitely Logan was normal size again. Janus looks over as well, letting out a huge sigh of relief because thank god that Logan had actually turned back and this wasn't permanent- Janus had still been freaking out about that slightly. Remus smiles a bit at him. "Well I love you most." he says with a smile, before carefully standing up, pulling Virgil with him as he did, keeping his arms around him and throwing on a random shirt that he had found.

PATTON 

Patton was very excited that Logan was back to normal for multiple reasons. One, it was just nice to know Logan was okay (though Patton never doubted that he would be), two, if Logan changed back safely with no negative side effects from the experience what so ever, that meant Janus would probably be more willing to let them each have a turn being little because there was nothing to worry about, and honestly, Patton was way more excited about the thought of seeing a little Roman than he even was about being little again himself. "I love you most." Virgil mumbled back sleepily before following Remus out into the other room just as Logan finally started to wake up himself, reaching a hand up to rub his eyes. His brain felt a bit fuzzy, probably from the lack of sleep. It was weird though, he definitely could remember everything that happened when he was little the day before. At first he thought maybe it was just a really vivid dream, but it was too clear in his mind to have just been a dream, but at the same time when he tried to logically focus on the events the day before... his mind just sort of stopped at the moment he went outside to ask Janus and Virgil about their tea... and everything else actually felt more like it took place ten years ago when he was actually four, though he knew it didn't because of the obvious reasons of the rest of the groups ages and the fact that he hadn't met Janus, Virgil, or Patton when he was four. It was pretty easy to conclude even in his extremely sleepy morning state that something must've gone haywire with Janus' magic and that's how he ended up a child for a day. It was a good thing that Logan was always a bit out of it when he first woke up, or he probably would've been too embarrassed by yesterday's vulnerability and emotional openness to even look the others in the eye today. "You're back." Virgil said when his gaze fell on Logan. "I didn't leave." Logan mumbled sleepily in response. "True... but like... do you remember--" Virgil started, cut off by a sleepy nod from Logan. "I do." Logan said as he clumsily reached around for his glasses.

ROMAN 

Janus is very relieved by the fact that Logan is normal again, and he moves to go and stand near the chair, bringing Logan's cup of tea with him, setting it down near the chair, listening as he says that he remembered everything. "Are you alright? Any headaches? Pains? Any other uncomfortable feelings?" he asks, worried about Logan, wondering if there are any side effects. Remus stands near Logan, and he relaxes a little bit at seeing that Logan is back to normal. "Morning Logan- good to have you back." he says with a little smile, and his brain was just a little bit relieved because honestly Remus was worried that since he was so horrible and disgusting that he'd accidentally find a way to traumatize Logan. He doesn't notice, but his hand unconsciously begins to scratch at the inside of his wrist, a nervous tic of his that he did whenever the thoughts were too much- and at the scratching, the skin started turning pink from the scratching. Roman is glad to have Logan back, smiling a bit at the sleepy teen.

PATTON 

Logan sat up a bit, sliding his glasses on his face and trying to wake himself up a bit more because as tired as he was, Janus questioning him about side effects was sort of interesting to him. "No... my heads a bit foggy, but I believe that's from the lack of sleep." he said, if he remembered correctly he stayed up really late last night, but if he was actually 4, that wasn't very surprising to him. "It's a bit odd, I will admit. I remember everything, but it doesn't feel like it happened yesterday. It feels more like it actually happened ten years ago." he said, making a mental note to write about how it felt and what he experience later. He took the tea from Janus, sipping at it a moment as he thought. He was a bit too embarrassed to admit how much he'd enjoyed the day before... it was nice to be back at a place where his brain wasn't over working itself all the time, it was almost like a lovely little vacation. Virgil took notice that even now Logan looked less tense... not as relaxed as he had been the day before, but not as stiff as Virgil was use to seeing him. "Janus, do Roman and Remus next!" Patton finally blurted out, bouncing a bit. "Roman and Remus?" Virgil repeated with a small smile. "Well, yeah, you can't separate them, they're brothers!" Patton said as he protectively grabbed Roman's arm, Virgil letting out a small laugh. "Of course, what was I thinking, you're right." Virgil said with a smile. "Wait, you're all going to take turns becoming children?" Logan questioned as he looked around at the group. "If Janus says it's okay, you were so cute and you had so much fun, it'll be fun!" Patton said with a smile. Logan pursed his lips in thought. It would be interesting to get to see the spell from a different perspective and study someone else going through what he'd been through the day before. He wondered if they all actually wanted to do this or if it was just Patton getting overly excited. He also wondered if Janus would actually agree, it was different doing it on purpose than how it'd gone for Logan, being completely accidental. Part of Virgil was surprised Patton wanted Roman and Remus to go next instead of wanting the turn for himself, but part of him completely got it. "It would be really fun to see Remus all little." Virgil admitted with a smile before reaching for Remus' hand, only then noticing that Remus seemed to be scratching his wrist. He looked at Remus a moment before taking his hand, wondering if he should ask about it or if it was better not to bring it up. Maybe he just got bit by a bug when they were playing outside the other day and Virgil was over thinking again...

ROMAN 

Janus nods a bit when Logan says that it's from lack of sleep. "Yeah- you did stay up pretty late last night." he says, a soft chuckle escaping him, and then he looks over at Patton. "Wait- that's something that you all would like?" he asks, and then he looks over at the twins, since Patton had suggested that they go next. Roman shrugs a bit, but a smile is on his face. "Sure- I mean who wouldn't want to be a kid for a day?" he asks. And besides- Patton seemed so excited about it- Roman could never turn down anything that seemed to make Patton this happy. Janus nods a bit, before looking at Remus. "Remus? What about you?" he questions. Remus takes Virgil's hand when it's offered- and he had scratched enough that the skin was red, and he looks up at Janus. "Oh- um sure-! That sounds cool..." he tells him.

PATTON 

Patton realized fairly quickly that he might've gotten a little carried away and he looked back and forth between Roman and Remus. "I mean... you don't have to, obviously, it just seemed fun... but like, you don't have to." Patton added quickly, though he smiled a bit at what Roman said. Virgil shrugged light at Janus' question. "Yeah, I mean, I gotta agree with Roman, it'd be fun to be a kid again for a day." Virgil said with a smile, more than happy to take a turn himself once Roman and Remus had their day... or take today if Roman and Remus decided they didn't want to. Virgil's head tilted slightly at Remus' response. "Like Patton said, you don't have to if you don't want to, love." Virgil reminded, just wanting to be really sure that it was something Remus actually wanted to do.

ROMAN 

Roman shakes his head. "No no- it's a great idea!" he says with a grin, smiling and kissing Patton's cheek gently, before looking over at Virgil. "You'll get to see how absolutely crazy Remus was as a child." he says with a little laugh. Remus looks over at Virgil, and he smiles at him. "What- you think I'd miss the chance to be young again? No way- of course I want to." he says with a little smile, which was terrifyingly convincing, although he wanted nothing more than to scream because god, he was even more annoying as a kid and what if that sent Virgil running for the hills-? Janus looks at everyone. "So- when would we do that then?" he questions.

PATTON 

Logan watched everyone as they discussed this. Honestly, he completely understood why they all wanted to do this. On the one hand, if you'd asked Logan if he wanted to be a child again for a day 24 hours ago, he probably would've said no... but now that he actually had been a child for a day, he totally got the appeal. Honestly, he'd do it again if given the chance... it was nice to have all his stress and worries disappear for a bit and to just have fun. "Do you think you'll recognize me? I recognized you when I was little despite your age difference, but you're always older than me... I've never been older than you before." Logan said curiously, wondering if Roman and Remus would still know who he was if he was the older one. Virgil gave Remus a smile, glad to see he seemed into the idea. Patton was honestly incredibly excited that everyone seemed as into the idea as he was. "Now!" Patton said excitedly, bouncing on the balls of his feet a bit.

ROMAN 

Roman thinks. "I don't think so- depending on how far back we go- you weren't even born until we were five, so I doubt that we'll recognize you." he admits. Remus smiles back at Virgil as reassuringly as he could, and then when Janus heard Patton's response, he looks at the other two. "Is now okay?" he asks them, to which he quickly gets an affirmative nod from Roman and Remus, Remus' just a tad bit more hesitant. "Okay..." Janus says, and he moves to slip his gloves into his pocket, before ever so carefully reaching to touch Roman and Remus in turn on the top of their hands, and it's a short wait, before suddenly- there's two very small people in the room- Remus and Roman sitting on the floor, both looking a bit disoriented, and Janus quickly waves his hand again so that their clothes actually fit them, before he slips his gloves on again. Roman quickly stands up, running on slightly wobbly legs over to Remus and pulling him to his feet, the two of them standing close to each other, looking wide-eyed at the adults surrounding them.

PATTON 

"Right, I hadn't thought of that." Logan stated when Roman said it depended on how far back they go. In his mind when he thought about Roman and Remus magically becoming younger, he pictured Roman and Remus around the age of 9 or so, but he'd gone all the way back to 4 years old... and so there was a pretty good chance that was the age Roman and Remus would go back to as well, and Logan hadn't even been born yet when they were that little. Once Janus did his thing, it literally took all of Patton's energy not to squeal loudly just at the sight of Roman and Remus all small... he didn't want to freak them out or anything. Forcing himself to compose himself, Patton gave Roman and Remus a friendly little wave. "Hi, I'm Patton... and that's Virgil, and Janus, and Logan." he said with a smile, not sure why apparently everyone had trouble telling them apart when they were little... even if they weren't wearing matching clothes, Patton knew exactly which of them was Roman and which was Remus, but maybe that was just Patton. Virgil couldn't get over how adorable the two were, but he kept his distance. Sure, Remus had never hated him or anything, but it wasn't like Remus immediately liked him the way Virgil had immediately liked Remus... which meant that there really wasn't any sort of guarantee that little Remus would even want to bother with him at all. What if little Remus didn't even like Virgil? It was quite the anxiety inducing thing to think about, so for now, he gave Remus space. "Yeah, we're uh... babysitting you two for the day, so you get to hang out at my house with us." Virgil added after a moment, hoping Roman and Remus wouldn't be as freaked out if they had a bit more context, even if it was slightly fake context. Logan took the opportunity while everyone was distracted to grab the pajama bottoms Virgil had set aside for him, sliding them on before standing up and grabbing his notebook so he could take notes of what he remembered from the day before and what was happening currently. "You guys hungry?" Patton questioned.

ROMAN 

 Remus was currently hiding behind Roman- definitely not 'absolutely insane' as Roman made him out to be. Apparently Remus' worries and fears had translated onto little Remus, except little Remus didn't know why he was all upset and scared. The twins had been extremely close as children- but as they had gotten older, they had grown apart a bit- but now, the sibling bond was back in full force for the kiddos. Roman nods a little bit when Patton introduces himself and everyone else, and he gives a little smile, waving, showing that he was missing his two front teeth- so was Remus, for that matter- and they were, at this age, exactly identical- besides from their behaviors. Roman nods at the explanation. "Okay- are you going to play with us?" he asks with a bright smile, excited. Remus meanwhile opted for continuing to hide- new people, well... people in general usually didn't like him- he didn't want to bother the new people who were probably undoubtedly charmed by Roman. When Patton asks about breakfast, Remus nods a little bit, shyly, and Roman nods quickly too. "Food!" he says brightly. Remus looks up at Janus, before quickly looking away. He wanted to ask about the mark on his face, but he usually got in trouble for asking those sorts of things. Janus looks between the twins, he's completely unable to tell the two apart- but he can see that one of the twins is definitely a lot more shy.

PATTON 

Virgil also didn't have much trouble telling the two apart. Like Patton, it was very easy for him to recognize them. What did catch him off guard was little Remus' behavior. Honestly, he'd been prepared for Remus to be bouncing off the walls or running around or potentially breaking something in his house or eating something he wasn't suppose to. But seeing Remus so shy and clinging to Roman made any nervousness Virgil had about Remus disliking him disappear because the only thing he could focus on was making sure Remus felt comfortable and happy and safe. That was pretty much Virgil's constant state anyway. Remus was more important than anything else. "Of course we'll play with you. But let's eat first." Patton said with a smile. God, Roman was so cute! When the topic of breakfast came up, Logan went to get some pillows to put on the chairs for them, remembering that's what the group had done for him the day before. Patton held out both hands so that both Roman and Remus could take his hands and he could lead them into the kitchen. "Do you know what you want to eat?" Patton asked curiously. He figured if they requested anything too advanced for Patton, Janus or Virgil could always help make it. Virgil kneeled down next to Remus, though still made sure to keep his distance so that he didn't freak him out. "Hey, Remus... you wanna help me make breakfast for everybody?" Virgil said gently, hoping maybe he could distract him and get him to come out of his shell more. Plus it might make Remus feel special to have been the one that was asked to help since he had a feeling usually Roman got the majority of attention.

ROMAN 

Roman smiles when Patton says that he'll play with him, and he reaches for Patton's hand, before he looks at Remus, not wanting to leave his brother alone. Sure, as a kid, Roman wasn't the most conscious of other people, but he always looked out for his little brother. He doesn't answer Patton's question, but he thinks maybe giving Remus the breakfast choice will help him feel better? "Ask Re?" he suggests to him, dropping the hand in favor of going to go give Remus a hug. Remus hugs Roman back, and when Virgil kneels down and asks if he wants to help cook breakfast, he looks at Roman, who gives him a reassuring smile, and then Remus looks up at Virgil and nods just a tiny bit. Remus couldn't possible mess up breakfast, right? He'd just stay quiet and try not to touch anything. But he did like that Virgil was trying to include him and talk to him.

PATTON 

Patton's heart actually melted at how sweet Roman was with Remus. He knew the two were close, and had been even closer when they were little, but actually seeing it was the most heart warming thing ever. It made him wish he had a sibling, it was so adorable. Patton nodded a bit. Both the question and the extended hands had been for both of them, but he'd let his attention fall to Remus completely if it made them both feel better. He wanted to encourage Roman to keep looking out for Remus anyway. "Do you wanna pick what we have for breakfast, Remus? What would you like?" he asked with a smile, though Virgil's attention seemed to be on Remus now so Patton let the attention fall to him. Virgil smiled a bit at the nod before extending his hand out to Remus, leading him into the kitchen. "I'm gonna pick you up so you can sit on the counter and see everything, okay?" Virgil said before picking Remus up and sitting him on the counter. "Okay, head chef, what are we making?" Virgil asked with a smile as he looked at Remus.

ROMAN 

When Virgil reached for Remus' hand, Remus hesitantly took it, following along besides Virgil to the kitchen, and when Virgil asks if he can pick him up and set him onto the counter, he nods a little bit, and then he sits on the counter when Virgil sets him down. Remus moves to scratch at his wrist again, not sure what to say when asked the question- scared of making the wrong choice and then having Virgil hate him because Virgil seemed really nice and Remus didn't want another person to dislike him. He think, before speaking hesitantly, his voice quieter than anyone except Roman had probably heard before. "French toast-?" he suggests, and it's a clear question, not the confident answer that would have usually been expected from him. Roman moves to hold onto Patton's hand tightly. Roman was drawn to Patton- how kind and sweet he was. Janus is a bit surprised by how Remus is acting- but he doesn't know if he should be worried- or if this is just how Remus was as a child.

PATTON 

Virgil nodded a bit at the suggestion. "French toast it is." he said, trying to think of ways to get Remus to have a little fun and relax a bit. He reached for the bread, making a bit of a show as if the bread weighed four hundred pounds before sighing dramatically and looking back at Remus. "Oh no, Remus, the bread's too heavy for me to pick it all up at once, I can't do it... can you pick it up for me? You seem really strong." Virgil said, holding back a smile. Patton smiled when he felt Roman take his hand, looking down at him. "I didn't realize your brother was so shy, but I noticed how you were looking out for him, that's really sweet of you, you're a very good big brother." Patton said with a smile on his face. Logan studied the two of them a moment, though his focus seemed to be more on Remus. He didn't remember Remus being so shy, then again, he didn't know Remus when he was four... maybe he had been when he was littler... although, his behavior was sort of similiar to what Logan remembered it getting like when his intrusive thoughts were a bit worse or Remus was working hard to hide them, was that what was happening now? Maybe he was anxious that all these 'new' people weren't going to like him if they knew he had them?

ROMAN 

Remus watched as Virgil reached for the bread, his eyes widening a bit when Virgil couldn't pick it up, and then when Virgil asked him to pick it up, he nods a little bit, before he stands, carefully walking across the counter, and then he stops a second, before picking up the loaf of bread, smiling a little at Virgil when he realizes that he can pick up the loaf, and he looks up at Virgil, and it's very clear that he's trying not to get excited. "I got it..." he says, his voice quiet again, too soft for Remus' usual tone, and he moves to hand the bread to Virgil, not wanting to drop it or mess it up somehow. Roman nods a little bit, looking at Patton, holding his hand gently. "Sometimes Remus is like this- and he doesn't want to do certain things in front of like- new people and stuff- and he won't talk or be loud or play or have fun or tell me cool things like he usually does...." Roman complains with a little frown, but he smiles when Patton says that he's a good big brother. "Thank you!" he says with a smile. Janus is just completely in the dark- having no prior knowledge of any of the twins- he was just trying to go off of context clues at this point.

PATTON 

Virgil watched Remus carefully, ready to grab him just incase he lost his footing so he wouldn't fall. "Don't be discouraged if you can't pick it up, it's super heavy." he said as he watched Remus reach for the bread before gasping when Remus picked it up. "Oh my gosh, you're so strong! Thank you so much, that's such a big help." Virgil said excitedly because there was no way he was gonna let Remus not be excited about all this. He could tell he wanted to be. When Remus handed him a slice of bread, he took it, getting started. "Thank you so much, Remus, I don't know what we would've done for breakfast without you, we all just would've been hungry!" he said, taking the slices from Remus one at a time to keep it believable that he wasn't able to pick the whole loaf up at once. Patton listened as Roman explained why Remus was so shy, pursing his lips as he tried not to pout. He didn't like that Remus was so worried and scared to just be himself around them. He smiled at Roman though when he spoke again. "So what games do you wanna play after breakfast?" Patton asked curiously. Logan was close enough to Patton and Roman that he over heard their conversation, making a note of it. He hoped Remus felt comfortable enough to open up and just enjoy himself soon. It was funny, Logan was the opposite. At his regular age he was constantly closed off and being four again had helped him open up, but with Remus, it seemed like being four again was making him more closed off. They'd have to fix that.

ROMAN 

Remus was watching Virgil get excited- and Remus really wanted to get excited too, but he didn't want to make anyone mad, he didn't want to do something wrong that would result in people getting mad at him, especially Virgil, who was being especially nice to him. He smiles a little tiny bit, but he quickly shuts it down, getting frustrated with himself because he couldn't just control himself already like he was supposed to! He handed the slices to Virgil one by one until they were all gone, and he sets the empty bag on the counter, sitting down again and watching Virgil, his hand moving of it's own accord to scratch at his arm again, breaking the skin this time, but not bleeding. Roman thinks when Patton asks what type of games he wants to play. "We could play drawing- or we could sing, or dance or play swords!" he says with a little smile to Patton, excited at the prospect of new people to play with.

PATTON 

Virgil noticed that Remus was really holding back the urge to smile, and it was starting to really worry him. He'd asked Remus before he'd even changed to a 4 year old if everything was okay, and Remus insisted that it was... and at first he thought he was just over thinking things, his anxiety did cause him to do that quite a bit. Then when Remus first changed, he thought maybe he was just more shy than he'd expected, but he knew Roman and Remus had stated on multiple occasions that Remus was a wild kid, and that just made him even more worried about Remus' behavior. Sure, Remus might've just forgotten to mention that he was shy around new people and had to open up to them and get comfortable around them to get to his usual self back when he was little, but when he noticed Remus was scratching his arm to the point of breaking the skin, Virgil couldn't just let it go and assume that he was overthinking anymore, especially since he could tell how much Remus wanted to just join in the fun, or even simply smile and for some reason, he wasn't letting himself do that. Patton smiled a bit as Roman listed all the things he wanted to play, nodding. "That sounds so fun, we definitely should do all of that." Patton agreed. Logan was still to himself, taking notes. "Thank you so much for all your help, Remus, I really appreciate it." Virgil said as he finished up the food, setting it down on the table. "Breakfast is ready." he said, helping Remus down from off the counter before looking at his arm where he'd been scratching. "We'll be right there, you can start without us." Virgil said, taking Remus' hand and leading him into the bathroom because there was no way he was letting Remus be this anxious all through the meal. "I noticed you were scratching a lot there bud, and I didn't want you to be itchy all through breakfast. Do you have bug bites or something, do you need something for itching?" Virgil asked, though he had a pretty good feeling that wasn't the case, but he grabbed the first aid kit and kneeled down next to Remus just incase. With kids sometimes just giving them a bandaid made them feel better enough, and he wasn't totally sure what Remus needed.

ROMAN 

Remus was still worried about making everyone hate him, and as Virgil kept making breakfast, he still couldn't focus or even help or just be normal. He was trying but he couldn't- his parents very often told Remus to simply 'be more like Roman', which Remus tried to do, he really did, but it wasn't easy for him. He loved his brother- but he couldn't help but hold some hidden envy because everybody always liked Roman, everybody thought that Roman was the best, and Remus always messed everything up. When Virgil takes his hand to lead him away, Remus gets nervous even more, moving from scratching his wrist to scratching the top area of his other arm as he follows Virgil. He's scared- Virgil's going to yell or get mad, wasn't he? Roman smiles a bit at Patton when he said that they could play those games, happy that he was going to get to play with the new people, but as Remus was led away, he looks at him and Virgil leaving worriedly. "Where's Re going?" he asks Patton with a little frown. When Virgil asks his question, Remus shakes his head a little bit, looking down at the floor. Virgil should be out there eating breakfast with everyone else but instead he was here because Remus was too stupid to be able to act normal and he couldn't just control his brain like a normal person- Remus hardly noticed when he started scratching his wrist again, his hands shaking a bit as he keeps his eyes on the floor.

PATTON 

Patton watched as Virgil led Remus into the bathroom, noticing that Remus was scratching his arm the whole time. "I don't know... he's scratching his arm, maybe Virgil's just getting him something to help so he won't feel all itchy, or he could just be showing him where the bathroom is, but I'm sure they'll be right back, we can save Remus a seat right next to you at the table until they're done." Patton said, hoping he'd be able to distract Roman and keep him from worrying, though he could understand why Roman was worried, he seemed to really care about his brother. "Do you want a quick tour of the house before breakfast so you know where everything is?" Patton offered. Virgil frowned a bit when Remus didn't respond, opening the first aid kit but stopping when he noticed Remus wasn't even scratching the same spot anymore. "Hey, Rems." he said gently, grabbing Remus' hands so he couldn't scratch. "Something wrong? You wanna talk about it?" he offered. "You can totally tell me whatever it is, I won't tell anybody else, not even Roman, if you don't want me to." he thought a moment, what would he have wanted to hear if he were little and anxious right now? "Whatever it is it can just stay between us, and I promise I won't get mad or judge you or anything... in fact, I'll tell you a secret about me first so that it's fair, okay?" he said with a small smile. "Come here, though, I gotta whisper it because I don't want anybody else to overhear what I'm saying in the other room." he said, pulling Remus a little closer. "I'm very very scared of bugs... not spiders, I think they're cool, but some other bugs, like roaches... I get super scared and if I saw one right now I'd run away and need somebody to protect me." he said softly, a small smile on his face. Okay, so technically, Remus already knew that, but four year old Remus didn't. "Okay, your turn to tell me something." he said, hoping Remus would tell him whatever it was that was bothering him so much.

ROMAN 

Roman nods a bit at what Patton says, but he's still worried about Remus. "Okay- can you sit on the other side?" he asks Patton when Patton says that Remus was going to sit on one side of him. "Tour would be fun! Do we have time before food?" he asks Patton, looking up at him a bit excitedly. Remus looks up at Virgil when his hands were grabbed, stopping the scratching, and he shakes his head quickly, trying to deny that there was something wrong. "Not even Roman?" he asks, slightly intrigued by Virgil's offer of not even telling Roman, and he's intrigued by Virgil saying that he'd tell Remus a secret about himself. He moves closer to Virgil so that he can whisper in his ear, and his eyes widen a bit at the mention of bugs, Remus adores bugs- he'd offer to take them away from Virgil, but still- he was scared that if he talked about bugs the new person would tell him not to anymore. Remus finally looks up at Virgil when he says that it was Remus' turn to tell him something, and Remus hesitates, biting on his lip a little bit, before speaking. "My brain's stupid- it won't be normal like Roman." he says simply to Virgil, and then immediately, the child was overthinking. What if that was too much, what if Virgil didn't want to talk to him anymore, he'd go hang out with Roman instead.

PATTON 

Patton smiled, his face lighting up when Roman asked if he could sit on the other side of him. "Of course I can." Patton said before nodding. "We've got enough time, here, I'll show you around." he said, leading Roman into the living room. "This is the living room, there's a box over there thats full of toys and games and stuff that you and Remus can play with." Patton said, pointing to the box Virgil had taken out the day before for Logan. "Not even Roman." Virgil confirmed with a nod. When Remus started opening up though, Virgil tried to hold back a frown, afraid that Remus would mistake the action for something worse than it was. "Hey, your brain is not stupid, okay? It just does some different stuff than Roman's brain. My brain does different stuff sometimes too... it likes to try and trick me a lot and make me think I'm doing stuff wrong or that people don't like me even if it's not true. Just a few days ago, I was with my favorite person in the whole world and my brain had me totally convinced that he was mad at me, and so I did all this stuff to try and hide that my brain was saying that and get him lots of presents so he wouldn't be mad at me anymore, and you know what happened?" Virgil asked, squeezing Remus' hands a bit. "I decided instead of bottling it all up until I could explode, to just talk to him about how I was feeling, and he wasn't even mad at me at all! So I got all worried for nothing, which was pretty silly of me. But it made me feel better to talk to him about it, and then I got to spend the whole rest of the night with him and by the end of it my brain stopped saying all that stuff." he told him. "So maybe if your brain is saying stuff that's bugging you, you'd feel better if you talk to me about it, I'll even super pinky promise that no matter what you tell me your brain is saying I won't get mad or upset or anything because this is serious business, you can say whatever you want." he said, pulling one hand away from Remus so he could hold his pinky out to him.

ROMAN 

Roman followed along besides Patton as he headed into the living room, keeping a hold onto his hand, nodding a little bit when Patton says that there were toys there. "Cool!" he says with a smile as he follows Patton through the house, smiling at him more. Remus looks up at Virgil, confused when Virgil says that his brain wasn't stupid. He listens as Virgil talks about how his brain was different too, and how he had accidentally thought that his favorite person was mad at him. He shakes his head a bit when Virgil squeezes his hands and asks him what happened, and when Virgil says that he talked to his person, and that everything worked out, he thinks that talking sounds pretty good- but every time he opens his mouth he usually seems to mess things up. "Super pink promise?" Remus asks, before holding his pinky out to Virgil to shake, gently shaking it, and then dropping his hand again to fidget with his fingers. "My brain is saying that um- that since I think about bad things that I shouldn't that if I talk or if I say things that aren't good then people won't like me anymore and everyone is going to hate me because I can't be normal like Roman like I'm supposed to and I always mess everything up and I'm too loud and nobody likes me because I talk about things that are gross and weird and I don't want you and all the other new people to get scared of me and not want to be my friend anymore-!" Remus rambles out, suddenly all the words spilling out, and it's a good thing that Remus was in child form, because adult Remus would never admit any of this.

PATTON 

Patton smiled, continuing to show Roman around the house, showing him Virgil's room, the laundry room (not that it was all that exciting but it was part of the tour, right?), the door to the backyard, making sure not to leave anything out. "Virgil has a pretty nice house, don't you think?" Patton asked with a smile. Virgil nodded again. "Super pinky promise." Virgil confirmed as they linked their pinkys together. When Remus actually opened up, Virgil couldn't help but frown, because he hated to think that Remus felt that way, especially since he doubted it was something Remus had outgrown. Maybe Virgil hadn't just been over thinking before. "Rems, nobody's gonna hate you. You shouldn't constantly be trying to be more like Roman, there's already a Roman, if someone wants a Roman, they'll go to your brother because he already exists, but if you're both the same, then we lose a Remus, and that would make a lot of people really sad. It'd make me super sad." he said with a small pout. "I bet it'd make Roman super sad too, he needs you to be you." he pointed out. "The only thing you have to worry about is being yourself. As long as you're considerate of other people's feelings, which I can already tell you are, then there's nothing else to stress about. Just be totally you and if somebody doesn't like it then they're lame and you don't need that person in your life anyway because you've got even better people like Roman, and Pat and Jan and Lo... and you got me too, and I'm not going anywhere, trust me." he said with a smile. "You know, my favorite person in the whole world that I mentioned earlier? He feels the exact same way you do... and I love him more than anything in the entire universe. He talks to me about gross, weird stuff all the time and it's my favorite thing because when he's doing that, I get to see him all happy. Just the other day he was telling me about his bone and teeth collection, some people might find it weird, sure, but sometimes you just gotta give it some time to find your people, you know? And I definitely promise you're gonna grow up and find your person who will let you be loud and won't make you feel like you're messing anything up and he's gonna be totally obsessed with you." he said with a small laugh. "And you're gonna help him through his own stuff too... I bet you're good at that, I bet you already help out your brother when he needs somebody, don't you?" he said smiling, hoping this was helping Remus feel better.

ROMAN 

Roman nods at Patton's question. "Yeah! Virgil's house is super nice!" he says with a smile, walking around with him as he toured the house with Patton, clinging onto his hand tightly, and then making grabby hands for him. "Up?" he asks him, wanting to be carried, giving Patton puppy eyes. Remus listens to Virgil with wide eyes. Virgil said that it was... okay for him to talk about and think about weird things? And gross things? "Lotsa people hate me." Remus corrects him. "All the fancy schmancy people at the castle think I'm annoyin' and dumb." he says to Virgil, but as he listens, and Virgil says that everyone liked him even if he wasn't exactly a normal kid who liked normal things, he smiles- just a tiny bit. "He does?" Remus asks, when Virgil says that his favorite person has a bone and teeth collection. "I do too! I kept my teeth when they fell out, and Roman let me keep his too!" he says, and he's getting a little bit more excited now- just a bit, little by little, incase Virgil suddenly decided that it wasn't okay for him to talk anymore. And he nods again when Virgil asks if he helps Roman. "Yeah! If people are mean to him and make him sad, I kick them!" he tells him proudly.

PATTON 

Patton's smile grew when Roman suddenly asked to be picked up. Patton never got to pick Roman up, it was always Roman picking up Patton, which he loved of course, but he wasn't as strong as Roman so he never got to be the one carrying Roman around, but he tried to contain his excitement now that the tables had turned. "Of course!" he said, picking Roman up. Virgil frowned again when Remus stated that lots of people hated him before rolling his eyes when he explained further. "Ohhh, I get it, you haven't heard the big secret yet." he said a bit dramatically before gesturing for Remus to come a bit closer so he could whisper to him. "Those fancy schmancy castle people? They're jealous of you because you're super fun and nice and they're all boring, they actually wanna be more like you but they don't know how to let loose and have fun... so they act mean so you don't find out that they're all just super jealous of you." he told him softly. Virgil nodded. "He does." he repeated with a smile, listening as Remus told him more about how he kept his and Roman's baby teeth, unable to help the huge smile that crossed his face as Remus got more and more excited. That was more like it. He couldn't help the loud laugh that escaped him when he said he kicked anyone who upset Roman. "Well, the good news is, there's nobody you have to kick here, we're all really nice." he said with a bright smile. "See? You just talked about stuff your brain was telling you, and your super cool teeth collection and the world didn't end, and nobody hates you... told you that you could talk to me. So now that you got all the bad feelings out, you can just relax and be yourself and have fun all day... and if there's anything you wanna say but you get a little nervous about it, you can just say it to me instead of the whole group so that you still get to say it but you don't have to worry because you know I'm not gonna get upset or mad or anything, sound good?" he asked as he messed up Remus' hair a bit, smiling.

ROMAN 

Roman giggles happily when Patton picks him up, smiling and wrapping his arms around him, resting his head on top of Patton's shoulder, his eyes closing gently, happy to be curled up to him. Patton was warm, and he smelled nice too! He smiles brightly, reaching up to gently play with a piece of Patton's hair that had fallen close to him. Remus looks at Virgil when he says that there's some sort of big secret, and he leans closer to hear it, his eyes widening at what Virgil said. "Really?" he asks, eyes open in wonder. The fancy people were jealous? Remus nods a little bit, smiling when Virgil says that he won't need to kick anyone. "Good- I don't wanna kick anyone today." he tells him serious, and he smiles a bit more when Virgil calls his teeth collection cool. And he nods some more. "Yeah- okay-! And you have to promise again that nothing I say is too gross or weird?" he asks Virgil, still a little hesitant, but way more willing to trust and accept Virgil's help. When Remus was an adult again, this would most likely be a conversation that he'd need to have with Virgil again.

PATTON

Patton smiled even more when Roman cuddled up to him and reached up to play with his hair, his whole face lighting up. He loved getting to see Roman like this. Virgil smiled a bit at Remus' reaction to the big secret. "Really really." he told him. Virgil nodded, crossing his heart. "I promise that nothing you say is too gross or weird." he assured with a smile on his face. This was definitely something the two of them would have to discuss in more detail when Remus was back to normal, but that was something they could worry about later. Honestly, Virgil was worried, he hated to think Remus felt like he had to hide parts of himself, he never wanted his boyfriend to feel like that. There was also the matter of how Remus keeping all this from him had effected his own anxiety but honestly he wasn't even sure if he'd ever bring that up because it just sort of felt selfish and like he was trying to make the situation about himself which he definitely didn't want to do. Remus was way more important. "Okay, now that we got all that settled, I think it's time for the incredible breakfast that could not have happened without the super strong, super awesome, Remus!" he said excitedly before picking Remus up and putting him on his back so he could give him a piggy back ride back to the kitchen. He set Remus down in one of the chairs Logan had set a pillow on before getting the food and starting to serve it to everyone. Patton smiled when he saw that Virgil and Remus had returned. "They're back!" he said to Roman happily, walking into the kitchen and reluctantly setting Roman down in the chair next to Remus, sitting on the other side of him like he'd promised to do.

ROMAN 

Remus was definitely glad that Virgil seemed to not be mad at him, he was super happy that Virgil said that he could talk to everyone, or especially Virgil about everything going on in his head and how he was feeling and anything else that he wanted to talk about. He laughs happily when Virgil picks him up, his arms wrapping around his neck as he held on to him. "Breakfast!" he says excitedly as he's set down in a chair, grabbing Virgil's arms in his little baby hand to stop Virgil from moving away from him. Roman smiles when Remus is back, and he sees that Remus seems to be much happier and doing much better than he had been doing earlier. "Hi!" he says with a grin, and Remus smiles back. "Hi!" he echoes, before the two for them break off into quiet giggles, as though saying hello was the funniest thing in the entire world. Roman took a big bite of his french toast, humming happily at the taste. "This is amazing!" he says through a mouthful of food, chewing happily. Remus completely douses his own food in syrup, nodding in agreement and eating his own food. Janus sits down at the table, noticing that Remus definitely seemed to be acting more himself- a big relief, as Janus had been worried, and he was sure that Virgil had been as well.

PATTON 

There were a million reasons why Virgil was determined to make sure Remus felt like he could be himself, the top reason was pretty self explanatory, but he also had a feeling that this whole situation didn't just effect Remus, it messed with Remus' relationship with Roman too. He knew they were close, but they were insanely close as kids, and maybe they'd still be insanely close now if every adult in Remus' life hadn't made Roman feel like the enemy, like this unattainable goal he'd never reach. It didn't matter if Roman was the most thoughtful, wonderful brother in the world, if Remus heard 'be more like Roman' enough times, he'd start to get jealous, and resent him because he was creating an impossible standard Remus could never hope to rise up to without Roman even realizing it. Logan seemed more relaxed even now, and he had a feeling it had something to do with the events of the day before and the difference in how the adults treated him than how they'd treated him when he was actually four creating new memories that actually helped him... if Virgil and the others worked hard to make sure Remus felt like he could just be Remus, maybe when they changed back they'd be even closer because Roman would remember how it felt to be so close and protective of Remus, and Remus would have new memories of adults not pitting the two of them against each other like it was some sort of perfection contest. It was worth a shot, anyway. When he set Remus down and he felt him grab his arm, he gave Remus a smile. "I'll sit next to you." he told him, claiming the seat on the other side of Remus. Logan was still focused on his notebook, and Virgil noticed he hadn't said a thing since the two switched to toddlers. He wondered if it would be a good decision or a bad decision to tell Roman and Remus that Logan was their cousin... he had a feeling knowing that the two didn't remember that was part of why Logan was so silent, he probably had no clue how to be around them without them being aware of that fact so he was just keeping to himself. Virgil and Patton both smiled widely at Roman and Remus' interaction, Virgil smiling at Roman's compliment. "Tell it to Remus, he was a huge help in making breakfast." Virgil told Roman with a smile before snorting back a laugh when he saw Remus practically drowning his meal in syrup... that was more what he'd been expecting from today.

ROMAN 

Virgil had pretty much gotten it exactly on the nose- Roman and Remus as children had been basically inseparable, but as they grew older, they had been put against each other in practically everything- sports, academics, general aspects of their lives- and Remus had always been told that he was coming up short compared to his brother by most adults. When the two were adults, Roman had kind of realized what had been going on, he'd realized that constantly being pitted against one another hadn't been good for wither of their mental health, especially Remus'- he'd definitely gotten the short end of the stick. The two were fixing the relationship that had been strained by circumstance, and they were close one again- but not nearly as much as they had been. Remus was happy when Virgil sat down next to him, smiling at him a little before going back to eating his food. Roman nods a bit at what Virgil said. "You made good breakfast!" he said to Remus with a grin, and Remus smiles back. "Thanks! But I didn't add any dirt this time so I don't think it tasted as good as last time I made food...." he muses.

PATTON 

Virgil wasn't sure he was going to survive the cuteness overload that was baby Remus. He snorted back another laugh when Remus stated that he didn't add any dirt to this particular meal, finishing his own food and noticing that Logan had finished as well, grabbing both their plates and carrying them to the sink. "Lo, come help me with the dishes." he said as he grabbed Patton's empty plate as well, Logan standing up and going to the counter. "You haven't said one word since Roman and Remus changed, what's up?" Virgil asked. "I'm taking notes." Logan explained. "Yeah, I see that, but you've probably got enough for right now, why don't you spend a little time talking to them?" Virgil suggested. "I wouldn't know what to talk to them about." Logan said with a small shrug. Logan thought it might be fun to be the older one for a change, maybe teach Roman and Remus some stuff and be there for them today the way they'd been there for him yesterday, but it was weird to live in a world where Roman and Remus didn't know he was their cousin, it was like he didn't exist, so it felt easier just to stay out of the way, let them have their fun, and take notes that he could study later. He took his notebook and walked into the living room, grabbing a change of clothes so he could get out of his pajamas and heading into the bathroom, Virgil letting out a small sigh before glancing back at Roman and Remus to see how they were doing with their food.

ROMAN 

When Roman finished his food, and Remus did as well, Roman grabbed Remus' hand, and Patton's as well, pulling the two of them away from the table and to the living room to go and sit on the couch sitting down on the soft cushions, Remus plopping down to sit besides him on the couch. Roman pulls the two of them closer so that he can whisper to them- "I think that Logan's sad." he says somberly, shooting a furtive glance at the other, who was currently in the kitchen. Remus thinks, and then starts to slowly nod. It definitely made sense, Logan was being awfully quiet, so that meant he was sad, right? "If he's sad then we need to make him happy again!" Remus says quickly. Virgil had helped him when he was feeling sad, so now he and Roman could help Logan! Roman nods a bit, looking at Patton. "Yeah- we could play with him! That helps when I'm sad!" he says with a smile.

PATTON

Patton let Roman lead him into the living room, overhearing what the two of them were whispering about. His mind instantly went to the same place as Virgil's... should they tell the twins that Logan was their cousin? Was there any harm in it? Not that he could think of off the top of his head, although, maybe it'd be better to wait a few more minutes to tell them now that he knew they were planning to try and cheer Logan up, because it would probably mean a lot to Logan to see how much the twins still cared about him even if they didn't realize they were related. It was so sweet, how much Roman and Remus seemed to care about people they barely even knew. Virgil finished up the dishes and looked back over at Janus. "I know they don't remember but... there's like... no harm in telling the twins that Logan's their cousin, right?" he verified, having no idea that the twins were already planning something nice for Logan without even having that knowledge. When Logan had gotten dressed for the day he came out of the bathroom, sitting himself in his usual chair and continuing to scribble in his notebook.

TO BE CONTINUED

[poisonacecharlotte]

9, 14, 24, 27 uwu ples

Send A Number to Experience One of My Muse’s Memories

9. A photographic memory

“This is your first dress huh?” Charlotte heard the older man’s voice but her eyes were focused on her clothes, how the fell off her sides, how they would flow when she spun, how the silky fabric felt under her fingertips. So consumed by the outfit she almost forgot to reply

“Yeah, I borrowed my mom’s dress once when she was out grocery shopping, she was so mad at me, this one fits me slightly better... slightly” Charlott couldn't help but feel gangly and weird in the simple but beautiful dress her thoughts were interrupted by father Riley’s chuckling however, seems he’d finished setting up the tripod and camera  “What? do i look that silly in it?”

“Not at all, you havent noticed you’d been smiling since you came out of your room wearing it have you?” and she was, it was the first time she’d smiled in a long time and the fact hadn’t crossed her mind, for as odd as she thought she’d looked, it really did feel natural, like something was finally right for once. Father Riley pressed a button on the camera, quickly stepped next to Charlotte and five seconds later there was a blinding flash, Charlotte’s first photo of her new life, her new dress and her new family

14. A memory of a relationship

“Vee, come on you’re a wild pokemon, you shouldn’t be with me, you should be with your own kind in the wild!” “Zuzuzz!”“I know but living out there is what’s best for you! I don’t want to get any more attached... I probably shouldn't have given you a name than should I?”“Zubaaa!”“...you really don’t want to leave me huh? I mean you are the smallest zubat i’ve ever seen, and after what happened I don't want you flying next to careless trainers with repels”“Zuuuu!”“Ok baby, you win this round, lets head to the pokemart, see if they have a pokeball for you”

24. A holiday memory

Char was only ten at the time, when Christmas came she hadn’t expected much, last year she got her skateboard but Papa had lost his job at the docks since then. she appreciated how much they tried to make this year seem no different, same fake tree with decorations she and her sister had personally made out of paper, one of the few times she could remember having fun with her 6-year-old sister who always seemed to have something better to do despite her age. Even before breakfast, they were allowed to go to their stockings and pull out small candy bars to snack on, try scratchy tickets they found inside or just talk about what they hoped were under the tree, Char tried not to get her sister’s hopes up too high, during the time ma made breakfast papa would be opening mail from family Char had never even seen, she wondered if she had relatives her age, maybe ones nicer than the kids at school

“Ay, Sport, letter for you, from your cousin V.”

Char was shocked, from what she’d heard V was slightly older than her but never thought there would be any reason for her to write, tearing open the letter in excitement Char eyes were glued to the note, wanting to connect, family who wanted to hear what she had to say, the lack of gifts under the tree was no longer an issue, Char had got what she wanted, immediately she bolted upstairs to the desk she did homework at and wrote her reply 

“Hey cousin Vee thanks for writing to me i don’t have many friends at school...”

at the time she had no idea their writing back and forth wouldnt last until the next Christmas

27. A memory of something they’re proud of

“Father Riley! Try these poffins! They’re actually good this time!”“Alright Charlotte, I can already tell from here you’ve improved, they smell lovely”“So? what do you think?”“You really worked hard on these huh? they taste really good”“I’m sorry it took me this long to get them right, that food poisoning was dangerous at your age”“Don’t be sorry, I don’t know anyone else who would have kept at it as long as you have, you’ve got a lot of strength to keep going like that”“Th-thank you, I’ve really tried my hardest all these years, I hope I’ll make the best poffins ever someday”“It helps that you’ve already made every single mistake, you know how to avoid them now!”“Father Riley! now you’re teasing me again!”

[authorjanellesamara-blog]

My First and LAST Time at Hy-Vee Market Grille

If you're from the central midwest, you've probably heard of the grocery store chain, Hy-Vee. It's a middle-grade grocery store, not full-on gourmet, but not a discount store, either. They're employee owned and they usually have decent stuff. It's a bit more expensive than Walmart, but they have a higher quality of fruits and vegetables and a larger selection of organic food, which is mostly why I shop there. In the last year or two, they've been adding a restaurant to many of their stores here in Kansas City, which is named Market Grille. We decided to try it, and we were not very happy with our experience.

This all started in early May, the day after my husband's immigration interview. We wanted to celebrate his recommendation for citizenship, so we went out to lunch. We don't eat out very often since I cook so much, and we didn't really know where we should eat. We settled on Hy-Vee Market Grille since it was supposed to be such fresh food. 

Fucking shit... We were there for over an hour for just burgers.

We got there and waited at the front counter for at least five minutes before the guy came to help us. We both got the special--a burger, fries, and a drink for $6.99. We both ordered cheddar on our well-done burgers. We were given two small plastic cups and pointed toward the Coke Freestyle machine. He said we could sit wherever we wanted. 

Most of the tables were empty and dirty. We found a clean one in the corner and sat down.  In the middle of the room, several tables had been pushed together so that a group of ten could sit together. He'd said that he'd put our order in first so that it wouldn't be stuck behind the large order he'd taken from the cluster in the middle. They got their apps after ten minutes, but whatever. We figured our burgers couldn't be too far behind.

Twenty minutes later, the guy came out with two burgers and said, "American and gouda?" Um, no. We both had cheddar. He apologized and took the food to the right table. A table that I'm pretty sure got there a while after we did, but contained a guy who worked for Hy-Vee, so it was possible he got his order put in before we'd arrived. 

Another fifteen minutes had passed when I saw someone exit the kitchen carrying two burgers. He walked around to the other side of the huge wall/partition that splits the dining room and was intercepted by the guy who'd helped us earlier. They talked for a couple of minutes before he finally came back into view with our plates and set them down. He hightailed it out of there and was not to be seen again until long past when we were ready to leave.

My husband and I both reached for our fries first. They were cold and hard like they'd been overcooked and then left to sit out for a while. I only ate three fries off of my plate. They were just intolerable. I tried to build my burger--a hugely thick patty that was smaller around than the bun because whoever formed the patty is a moron. It's charred black on the outside, but at least it wasn't bloody on the inside. (I love my steaks to be medium, but I only eat thoroughly cooked burgers.) I had two complete stacks of toppings on my plate--lettuce, tomato, onion, and pickles. My husband had one stack and it only contained the first three. No pickles for my sweet Karim who's just trying to celebrate. I insisted he take one of my stacks of veggies.

The stack that I kept was despicable. Part of the lettuce was hanging off the edge of the plate and it was literally dried to a crisp like it had been dehydrated under the heat lamp. The lettuce that rested on the plate was hot, dark, and wilted. I wasn't eating that crap. I don't eat raw onions, and the tomato slices had a gritty texture when I touched it--a sure sign of them being hothouse garbage. So, I only put the two pickle slices on my burger. 

There were no condiments. No ketchup or mustard sat on the table. We were not offered any. There were no small ramekins of sauces to accompany our burgers. We were expected to eat them dry. No mayo, no mustard, no ketchup, no BBQ sauce, no nothing. And dry they were! The buns were hard and stale but also toasted in order to make them extra dry and hard. All that time under the heat lamp sure didn't soften them any, either. Like, could they not even bother to give us fucking packets of ketchup for our fries? I'd seen stuff for coffee and tea over by the drink machine--sugar, creamer, etc.--but I sure didn't see any ketchup anywhere. Not that I eat ketchup, anyway, but most people do, so...What the fuck?

When we were done, we waited for our bill. We waited to complain. We waited for over ten minutes after we were finished, getting more and more angry that this guy was nowhere in sight. Finally, we went to stand by the front counter, while I looked back into the kitchen. It's clearly a shared kitchen for the hot deli, salad bar, soup bar, Chinese food, and pizza bar that are all inside the grocery store. We waited some more.

Another customer approached me and we started talking about how it seemed like this one guy is the only person who works in the restaurant part. There's no bartender, even though several people were sitting at the bar, drinking. There was no cashier. There were no other servers. He and the obvious cook who came out of the kitchen with our food were the only people we'd seen. But the one guy who's working was spending 90% of his time in the kitchen, well out of sight and earshot of his patrons. Bad. Fucking. Job. One of the first things you learn working the floor at a restaurant is the 80-20 rule--80% of your time is spent on the floor and no more than 20% of your time is spent in the back. And you'd damn well better be in the back for a reason, like retrieving an order.

The only good reason he could've been back there so much was if it was also his job to cook everything for that restaurant. If that's the case, shame on you, Hy-Vee, for placing so much on the shoulders of one person when there is a kitchen full of people. If it's a shared kitchen, it should be shared work. 

Finally...FINALLY! This guy comes out of the back. He's not carrying anything. All of that time in the kitchen, ignoring the paying customers, and he's not even bringing out anyone's food! The big table of ten people has still only gotten their appetizers. Whatever. His friendliness and seeming attentiveness once he sees we've seen him is all just a spectacular front. Dude should be an actor. If he really cared as much as his smile claimed he does, he would have done his job better. 

"Oh, hi! Were you guys ready to check out?" he asked us as he rushed to the computer.

"Yep." I popped hard on the p, showing my dissatisfaction. "We have been for a while." Yes, I'm sassy. Or a bitch. Whatever. If I'm not happy, you're going to know it. I'll get mouthy. I don't expect perfection, but I expect people to try. I've never understood complacency in others. How can people not try to be better? How can they be fine with remaining stagnant? But that's a whole other thing...

His brow furrowed. "Are...are you sure you didn't already pay?" He looked up at us, his smile fading in his (perhaps feigned?) confusion. 

"I...I don't know. I don't have a receipt." I turned to my husband. "Did you pay? When we got here?"

Now it's his turn to look confused. "I don't carry cash. I didn't swipe a card?" He wasn't sure and he stared off at nothing, trying to remember. "No?" He said it like a question, still not positive.

"I have cash, but did I pay?" I looked in my wallet, but it didn't matter since I didn't know how much money I had, anyway. 

"I only have three open tickets," the guy said while he looked at his computer. "The table of ten, a table of three, and the people at the bar. I don't have an open ticket for your burgers."

"But I don't have a receipt. I keep my receipts."

He shrugged. "Sometimes, they get lost in the shuffle up here."

I looked up at my husband and saw it in his eyes. Let's go. 

Fine. I wasn't going to complain. I wasn't going to let this guy have it. I'd already unloaded by telling the dude from the bar that it was terrible and we'd never be back. He'd commiserated with me, said the place was great when it first opened. Fully staffed, quick service, good food. Anymore, though, it was only ever one person, even during dinner. They were killing their own restaurant by not staffing the damned thing. Sucks to be them, I guess.

We checked all of our cards later. None of them had a charge for our meal on it. The more I thought about it, the more I was sure that we hadn't paid. I don't recall ever hearing a total, nor do I remember dropping coins into my wallet, both of which are things I always take particular notice. Then there's the receipt...If I'm not given one, I ask for it. 

Now, I'm certain I've unraveled the mystery. I believe I've figured out why it was free and why it took so fucking long. He didn't complete our order. He didn't do whatever he had to do to send our order to the kitchen. There wasn't an open ticket, because there wasn't a ticket, period. When he brought out the other people's burgers, he realized that they should have been ours. He went back into the kitchen like, where are my other burgers? He had to have them make them on the fly. But clearly the cooks suck at timing and staging orders, so they dropped the fries and started the burgers at the same time. Prepped the plate, cold veggies and dry bun sitting with the heat lamp ruining it all while it waited for meat. The meat got added and it sat there and waited for a good while longer until a cook came out to look for him since he'd needed these now ruined burgers so urgently. He probably stood over there, arguing with the cook, then gave up and brought us our crappy food.

Yeah. That's my theory. He probably hid in the back to hide from us. I was facing the kitchen while we waited for our food and ate. I've been told that I have one hell of a mean/angry-face. I've never really seen it for myself, but I have seen other people's faces when they see me irate or furious. So, I think he let us have our food for free because he forgot to enter our ticket. I think he was avoiding confrontation by confusing and surprising me with free food because an angry woman wearing a camo floppy hat over purple hair is more likely to make a scene.

Well, scene avoided, dude.

Future customers avoided, too. An understaffed restaurant stays empty because no one wants to come back. I also won't be going back because if this is what happened--if he really forgot to send back our ticket and then just let us have it for free--then he should have told us. He should have come to the table and explained why it was taking so long and that it would be free for the inconvenience. That would have been much preferred over us waiting, wondering, and getting angrier the longer we waited. A sure-fire way to have cemented that we'd go back would have been to offer a free dessert after our meal. But, then...that's how I do my customer service, so...yeah. Either way, we won't be going back due to poor customer service.

[mnranger5]

April’s Triple F - Food , Family & Fishing

April 2017 has been busy. So busy I’ve only found the time for one blog entry.  That changes today!  

Although it’s been wet, April has given us some pretty decent temperatures for spring.  With the warmer weather, we’ve come out of our hibernation and enjoyed the weather with some fun cooks on the green egg. We’ve done burgers, beef jerky, Asian inspired (ginger sesame) boneless wings and pulled beef sliders.  

The jerky turned out decent, but could have used a little more kick.  I also used sirloin steak for this cook when I think a roast may have been more ideal.  

The slices of steak were thin, and when dried out, shrunk up into some really tiny pieces – less than bite size.  A sirloin roast would have allowed for a wider cut of meat, which I think makes the eating experience a little more enjoyable.

The pulled beef sliders ended up being decent, but the cook itself was greatly underestimated in terms of time to completion.  Here is the backstory on that:  Aidan and I were sitting around on a Saturday morning getting inspired through Green Egg cooks on YouTube.  We came across a pulled beef recipe which was similar to a recipe that was in the Big Green Egg Recipe Book given to us by Alissa and Jeff at Christmas.  The sliders looked great, so we decided we’d make those for lunch. First step was procuring some beef, so we headed up to Hy-Vee for a couple of chuck roasts.  

After letting the roasts marinade in my dad’s famous prime rib marinade, we seasoned it heavily with Factor salt.  By this point, CJ had joined us for the cook which we let slow roast at 250 degrees for 3 hours with some hickory added for smoke.  

After three hours, the meat temp was nearing 160 degrees, so we foiled the roasts and placed them back on the smoker for an hour. The recipe called for the roasts to get to 200 degrees in this time.  We were only at 165.  It was 2:00, and these roasts had been on for four hours.  For better or worse, intense hunger drove our next actions.  We decided we’d pop the foiled roasts into the oven and finish them off at a higher temp – 400 degrees.  Within an hour, the meat temp had risen to 190 degrees. We were within striking distance, or so we thought.  We carved off an edge of the roast to taste, and while the flavor was spot on, the meat had the consistency of rubber.  It was inedible.  CJ and I could not believe it.  We were five hours into the cook, just 10 degrees shy of our target temperature, and the meat was awful.  What had we done wrong?  We followed the directions, step by step.  The meat should be almost falling apart, like pot roast consistency.  We concluded that we should have never put it in the 400 degree oven but rather let it slow roast up to 200 degrees while sitting in the smoker. The only way we thought to salvage the cook was to decrease the oven temp down to 250 degrees and let the roast slowly come up from 190 to 200.  Two hours later, we hit 200 degrees.  That is 7 hours of cook time for two smaller’ish chuck roasts (neither was over 2.5lbs).  Never in my wildest imagination did I think it would take that long.  But, the consistency was finally there.   

After the cook , I did some research on the breaking down of meats and found the following:

These tough cuts of meat contain large amounts of collagen which require long cooking times to break down into a rich gelatin.  When you cook, collagen begins to melt at about 160F and turns to a rich liquid, gelatin. This gives meat a lot of flavor and a wonderful silky texture. When cooking it is important to liquify collagen.

Our breakdown in the cook is that the collagen had not even started breaking down before we foiled the meat.  The collagen began melting once in the foil on the Egg (for an hour) at 250 degrees, as well as in the oven at 400 degrees.  The issue with the oven is that while the high temp in the oven did bring the meat up to the desired temperature, it did so much too quickly.  The collagens do not just break down all at once, but rather slowly (sometimes painfully slowly) breakdown over time.  So that was our big mistake.  And we only made that mistake because we were hungry – we wanted to eat!  The moral of the story, never let hunger in the middle of a cook dictate cooking times.

The following day, CJ put the shredded beef in his eggs, and Dyan and I made shredded beef tacos.

Our best cook of the month I unfortunately did not get many good pictures of.  But it was delicious!  Tony, Denise, and CJ came over for some Asian inspired boneless wings.  Tony is a huge fan of sesame and ginger marinade, so I whipped together a concoction that includes soy sauce, oyster sauce, siracha, brown sugar, liquid smoke and a couple of other ingredients.  

We marinated boneless chicken thighs overnight and tossed them on the 600-degree Egg searing them for about 7 minutes on each side.  The cook didn’t take long and the chicken charred up beautifully.  

The chicken was served with with corn on the cob and Dyan roasted potatoes.  Tt was an absolute hit!  Even Dyan and Denise thought they were amazing.  I have come judge a cook by how much the girls eat!

One last cook we did was just a regular burger evening on the Egg.  Tony and I added some pecan chips for some added flavor. The burgers were phenomenal, and Denise even said it was the best burger she ever had!  After the cook, the girls went to a party while Tony and I hung around the house with the kids.  While watching a movie, there was an extremely loud cracking and crashing bang that came from outside.  It was so loud; the entire house shook.  The tv and lights turned off momentarily.   Tony and I jumped about a foot off the couch, looking at each other like “What the hell was that?”  I looked out the sliding glass backdoor and all was calm in the neighborhood, like nothing had just happened.  Dark clouds were off in the distance.  It had to have been lightening!  But it made no sense, the storm was still 15 miles west of us.  And, it really wasn’t even a big storm.  I pulled up the radar and the storm colors were yellow and a touch of orange.  The kids were freaked as they hollered out from upstairs, “What was that?!?”  They quickly returned to playing their game though.

Tony and I returned to the movie.  About five minutes later, there was emergency vehicle sirens in the distance.  The sirens were getting closer, and closer. Pretty soon, it was obvious, the sirens were in the neighborhood.  Two AVPD Explorers pulled up in front of the house, closely followed by a couple of AVFD trucks.  

The lightening had struck directly across the street from us behind our neighbor’s house.   In classic rubbernecking fashion, Tony and I walked into the neighbor’s back yard to join the police officers and firemen.  

Sure enough, lightning had struck a tall poplar tree.  The lightning moved through (down) the tree striking the ground a couple of feet from the tree.  The strike left a 2-foot-deep hole in the ground and shattered an irrigation system pipe. 

Water was gushing from the deep hole. The impact of the lightning was so great, there were pieces of sod thrown all over the yard and into the tree. It was an amazing sight to see!  

April has been quite a bit more interesting than just Big Green Egg cooks and neighborhood lightning strikes too.  The Easter Bunny visited for one.  

And, we decided to forgo Easter dresses this year for a more casual preppy look!

Dyan also got supper artsy/craftsy with them and made slime!  They let me sleep in that morning...Thank God.

April also marks Ashlynn’s first competition dance performance.  

Her team received Gold awards for “Ready for a Miracle” and “Children of the Sun” routines, and then received Platinum, the highest award possible, for their dance to “Powerful.”  Ashlynn was also asked by her studio to accept the award for “Ready for a Miracle” which was really cool because it was her very first dance at the competitive level.

The month of April has been good to our family as well.  My parents spent a blissful week soaking up the sun in Hawaii.  

For their birthday present, we got them a gift certificate for dinner at Ruth Chris on the Big Island.  

Alissa and Jeff also had some fun experiences this spring.  

Skiing in summertime weather and getting up close to the rooster tail at the dam.

For the first time in 4 years, it was looking like April was going to go down as a non-fishing month for me.  We’ve been so busy that fishing has been put on a back burner this month.  However, Mike kept my streak alive by taking me out fishing in his brand new Nitro on Friday, 4/28/17.  

We met at Carl’s Lake at 5PM and headed over to the eastern side looking for crappies. Mike had been on this spot earlier in the week  and caught dozens and dozens of crappies – from the sounds of it he was hooking a fish on every cast.  We trolled around the point in about 7 FOW without getting bit.   Mike moved us into deeper water, around 10 feet.  

As we trolled northward, in the deeper water, Mike began picking up bites.  The bites were coming on the fall.  I don’t recall, but we were using either a 1/16th or 1/32nd oz. black jig head with a 2” white and red skirted tube jig.

Then the bites turned into catches.  Mike hauled in 10 fish before I finally got my first one.  A tiny little tater chip, but still, my first fish of the year!

We hung around the northeast part of the lake picking up about 20 crappie and a couple bluegill before we decided into the northern bay looking for warmer water. The only fish we found was this little pike that crushed my bait and gave me a fun ride on my light tackle setup.

As the sun went down, the temps got pretty cool, so we packed up and headed home.