#i love the number of times someone has sent me this art in particular

[gumballavocadoharry]

Estrangement (follow up) 1:

Posted. My new post to my blog 'Go Getter' was already finished and was sent in for the public to enjoy. My feet dangled slightly off the soft cushiony magenta swivel chair I had invested some money into. For comfort this good, especially when spending long grueling hours staring at a vivid screen, it's obligatory to have congeniality. I propelled myself up; stretching my aching back and ruffling my ombre hair that had a color of caramel tracing the ends, and my natural sandy brown that I darkened led more towards my roots.

I clenched my hands into fist before straightening them wide out as if I were falling from a building and my hands were spread, desperate to grab on to something. After stretching every muscle in my body from my protracted writing shift, I rambled downstairs for a cup of tea as a token for another post well done. 

The kettle bubbled as I waited patiently in my favorite living room chair, that rocked back and forth and had the coziest backing to it. It wasn't until my phone started ringing loud enough to startle me half dazed that my eyes vaulted open and darted themselves to my telephone. I purposely waited until the answer machine came on and the caller would be revealed.

"Hey Kaitlin....it's yn, your mom. I was just checking up to see how you were doing and if you're alright," Her voice ricocheted with unease, culpability and inquisitiveness. "It's been 3 years since we've last seen you and.....oh well it's just a mother's intuition. Maybe I'll see you around...bye." Click!

I tortured myself, making myself bitterly fatigued in holding back an eye roll that I fruitlessly achieved. "Mother's intuition?" I pondered loudly. Ha! What a joke! I don't need a mother like her....I don't need a mother at all anymore...like I ever had one. How did she even get my number?  The thought of my mom having my home number in the first place was beastly. Afterall, I meant it when I promised I wouldn't see them again. The hissing of the kettle interrupted my deep engrossment in how in the world mom even knew someone who had my number. I quickly turned off the stove, and raced back into the living room to call and have my number changed again.

Chances are, if mom has it....so does dad, and that was a BIG NO-NO.

I sighed a sigh of relief when my number was changed. I spent the next hour texting everyone important my new number, but it was worth it. Only then did I feel alleviate enough to enjoy my hot tea....that I heated in the microwave. I plopped the black tea bag into my vehemently hot water filled mug and watched it bleed through as the water sizzled it in. I scooped in a couple sugars before sauntering in my kitchen nook. I couldn't quiver the tragic thought of myself reconnecting with my family, or should I say parental units. I contemplate on my siblings from time to time, especially Kira. She should be 10 years by now, in fifth grade with her favorite baby blue and yellow backpack with the anime faced crescent moon.

Maybe Kameron and Kristopher are famous or established athletes, Kimberly has her academics, so that lands her as a teacher or professor possibly, Kylie loves art so maybe a painter for her....so that just leaves mom and dad. I haven't heard much particulars on any of them, but I finally came to terms that it was requisite with all the calamity that I had escaped at the hands of my parents. I accepted that they were living their lives with acclimatization of me being a couple miles away, and that I myself have finally become the same with my own; even to the point of adding an addition to my 'world of fun'.

Angus. He was a couple feet taller, standing lanky with black messy hair that was occasionally brushed into a shaggy mop cut, where his bags flowed neatly above his eyebrows. His piercing grayish blue eyes would confine my hazel ones, daring as to not look to his mauvelous tiny kitty lips. Adrenaline drumed the more my mind would recapture the moments I had with him over the summer, a few short story posts that were marginally mirrored off him. I could die with his bulky arms wrapped around my waist and my head pillowing his shoulder blade. A goliath to me, but a gentle giant that would run through hail and fire just to see my face or to hear about my derisory day on the computer. 

I beat myself to a pulp if I feel like I'm not giving my half of the invisible agreement to Angus because of my loveless background. He's the first person besides Kira who showed me an authentic side of life....one filled with laughter that causes your sides to ache, that makes your cheeks sting whenever he smiles at you, holding flowers or a new teddy bear behind his back like fingers crossed and one that makes you burn an internal promise to cherish every waking moment with him like it's the last time you'll ever see his smile, or his laugh or his heart.

I had finished my tea faster than anticipated. That was it? I thought before taking the cup to the sink and pressing my back to it. Sunlight gashed my back with it's florid rays, as it was indeed powerful enough to sneak around the daisy patterned sink curtains I had hanging up, and flash me with it's thick amber radiance. I licked my lips before draggin my bare feet across my hardwood upstairs to my bedroom. Maybe I needed answers, maybe I needed closure. The thought came as a shrug to me, like if someone shrugged their shoulders in an unsure manner like they couldn't be certain of the consequences that follow. I flopped in my swivel chair and conducted a internet investigation of my own, looking up every members name and what their profile was connected with. 

Kimberly was now engaged to someone named Pete and as theory, she worked as a professor in "Limbgere's instutite of learning." Kylie was an art curator, studying to become an established artist, Kristopher was a sports doctor; inspired by basketball injury that took him out for the season, he decided to take his course in medicine, and Kameron was a professional soccer player. Kira, being the youngest was still in school and mom and dad.....dad still worked as a professor and mom was the typical homemaker like she was when I left home.

I swallowed a little stupefy as to how much of everyone's life was left from me. It was my decision of course, no one else's but mine. But I guess it still pierced that everyone seemed to forget about me so easily. Kimberly's engaged and I had no idea, so I guess it's no surprise the aftershock started kicking in. I mean I'm sure they've seen my Instagram posts; boyfriend posts, awards I've won for bestselling blogger. And my short stories that have won special achievements. In fact....Kristopher follows me. I only noticed this a few months back despite him being one my loyal followers for years. So it perturbed me on his silence. He was one of the ones I could bear my heart out when I reached a breaking point, and he returned it with chill hug and "You'll get through this."

My unsettled thoughts began to make me feel queasy. I wanted to scream, cry and swear at the top of my lungs, cursing everyone down to the big white house and my medium sized bedroom that I haven't even dreamed of in 3 years and 30 blocks away on the other side of town.

Ding! My melodramatic rumination was intervened with an email. 

Dear Kaitlin,

You are invited to the 55th annual publisher awards this Friday! You have been nominated for 'Best short story' and 'Best blogger/ Writer!' We hope to see you there! Congratulations!

Sincerely,

The Publisher Foundation 

A lump that was sheltering in my throat was finally released with a excited exclaim. Hair, makeup, nails, dresses all ran through my mind anticipatory. I couldn't believe I was nominated and let alone invited! This was a highly exquisite ceremony and words couldn't express my gratitude for such an acknowledgement!

Angus, being the first person I shared this invigorating broadcast with, took a delightful share in the rousing engagement I had. "Kaitlin, I've gotta rent a tux and arrange a special dinner for afterwards," My cheeks turned a deep crimson at the thought of being completely spoiled on the night of a special ceremony, that had already taken dominance in my mind. "Aw Angus, you don't have to do that,"

"I wanted to. After all, you've done so much and I need to make it up to you. Especially with this job that's been taking up too much of my life." Angus had inquired a job that he was planning to retire from due to the harsh elongate work and the smothering of the periods it occupies during the week. Angus would come to my house with achy numb fingers and languid shoulders that led his back into a slump. I was glad he was going to quit this nugatory job, as it was killing him in front of his very eyes.

After our conversation, I immediately arranged for fancy dress and heels that would match the jewelry I would adorn myself in. I laid out the prepossessing ocean blue ombre dress on my bed, admiring the painting like cloth that I would be wearing in a couple days. The realization sent a exciting chill through my spine. I could picture it; rouge colored lipstick, silver diamond earrings with a matching bracelet and silver heels. And of course my hair was to be styled in a beach wave bun with a french braid trailing itself around my head. 

It was all set. I was officially ready.

I had just put the finishing touches on my eyelashes. I curled the fake hair into the perfect curve, that brought extrinsic to the silver and blue mixed eyeshadow and black velvet eyeliner to my hazel eyes. My heels clicked modishly against ligneous pavement that was a straight path to the bedroom door, that would lead me down the stairs to open the door for my escort. "Hello Angus," I greeted him, sashaying my hips as if to bring heed to how my body hugged the dress and how I modestly glistened to his appeal. "You look stunning! That color...." Angus was tongue-tied in his astonishment. "You're gorgeous." He simply stated, in a matter of fact like there was no question about it.

I returned his plaudits, and allowed our arms to twine together as we walked to Angus's silver van and drove off the ceremony. The dem yet bright lights were what flashed my eyes first besides the cameramen flashing their cameras towards the upcomers who were all competing for the special achievements being given tonight. I took a few pictures, did a couple interviews before finding my seat and joining Angus in sitting down for a little while.

Although, it bored me to death seeing everyone mingle, and a few attendees had asked to meet me, so I excused myself from my boyfriend and joined in the chatter before the show. "Kaitlin, you look rather beautiful tonight," Tiffany, the girl who owns the fashion blog who I occasionally allied with was looking stunning in her sparkly cream gown that she donned a matching shaw with. Although despite her formosity flashy dress, her strawberry red lipstick is what I noticed first besides her dangling diamond earrings. "I should say the same for you too Tiff! That shaw and those earrings!"

Even through her thick blush, I could see her beaming flattery cast itself beyond the artificial makeup. While glancing over her shoulder, I noticed familiar green eyes revert themselves in my direction before turning away. It shook me. I remembered those eyes, emerald colored ones that garmented brumal distant looks, and repugnant stares. Manly eyes that only one person I knew could wear so boldly around me. 

Dad.

My sandpapered throat swallowed only drops of my internal distress. I couldn't bare to be in a room with that man despite my earlier curiosities. The minute Tiffany turned her attention to another guest, I darted as far away from that area in the large auditorium hall as possible. My heart banged loudly, as the thought of such nightmares could return to me on my night. How did he get here? Why is he here? How, just how? I didn't think this could get worse but.....on my luck, anything was possible right? "Kaitlin?" I turned to see Kameron standing there in awe before he raced to me and embraced me into his much thicker arms than when I had last seen him. "It's been so long." 

I hugged back, looking over his shoulder and seeing Kim and Kylie following shortly behind and....Kira. The little girl who saved my life. Tear bubbled over as I greeted my siblings with tight hugs. "Katie!" Kira wrapped her little arms around my neck that I returned feeling fondness growing thickly in the form of of lump in my throat. "Kristopher's with mom and dad." That icy feeling hit again. It pinged hard enough to arouse vigilant protection on myself and Angus. "They're here?"

"Yeah, remember? Dad always had been a part of the publishing foundation because he would offer books and other important reading material to them." I hit my forehead with my hand mentally. That's why! I remember coming here faintly because of his connections to the program and with other professors of the publishing foundation!

"Oh right!" "Look how much times have changed, now you're here and you're nominated for two awards!" Kylie added. "She is?"I turned around to be met with those green glacial eyes again. Some things never change. Dad looked stunned and dumbfounded as him and Kristopher walked side by side to the rest of the group. I nodded almost bombastic. "Yep, they nominated me for best blog and best writer and blogger."

"That's amazing!" Mom had now showed up to this family reunion. "You deserve it." I swallowed pride and thanked my mother for her guilty compliment. Things hadn't changed. "You look so beautiful honey, I didn't know you added ombre to your hair. How's things been going?"

I flinched a little when she said "honey." "Oh very well thank you, you?" "It's been good. You know Kimberly's getting married and Kira is on her last year of elementary." I smiled wide of Kira. She has come so far and I couldn't be more proud of the little girl who I had to bitterly say goodbye to. 

"That's great! Congratulations both of you!" I pretended to not have cyber stalked them. "Who's Angus?" Kristopher brought up. Of course he would know, as he became friendly with my Instagram over the course I've been running it. My parents head perked like a they had just seen a mysterious flash. I cleared my throat of a chagrin position. "Angus, he's a friend...my boyfriend." I don't understand why I mentioned that last part. Maybe a piece of me wanted to give a small insight to my life to the outsiders looking in. "Well that's great, is he here?" I kicked myself internally, regret was already sinking in and drowning me. "Yeah, but I think he's in the bathroom." I patted myself for my competent lie. 

"Alright ladies and gentleman, let's get started." I heard the announcer say. I trollied to my seat that was next door to Angus, who was sipping champagne. "Tonight is the night of the Internet awards, where we celebrate bloggers and writers who gift us with wonderful content on their personal websites or a public one that's filled with tons of other writers. So tonight we honor these ones with awards. You've voted and so now we will tell the winners of our favorite writers."

My stomach did leaps as I thought about the awards. How shiny they looked, how sophisticated the design looked and how well it would display itself on my office shelf. I glimpsed over to my father who was also anticipating the ceremony. It would be preconception of me to think my father didn't deserve such achievement for his life's work. After all, the last time I stepped foot into the college he labored at, his speech and assignments to the students were exceptional. His precision and timeliness were astonishing. The high society professors cavalier whenever dad's speeches ring through their connections.

But without downgrading myself, I at least tried to be good writer. I don't know exactly how dad felt about me being nominated or being blogger in the first place, but that doesn't change anything. I swallowed my abhorrent thoughts and put on a number one smile for the show.

The announcer announced the nominees and then the winners; show going on faster than expected. It only picked up when dad was invited on stage to give a speech.

"I know tonight is very important, we're all dressed fancy for this special evening. Writers are what make the world and blah blah blah," I tuned him out and just sipped my champagne. I got up to use the bathroom, and as I stood up, my father's eyes met with mine. Those icy ones had now turned into hesitance and downhearted. Almost scared with my reaction to the turned tables. But I was simply excusing myself to the lavatory on an unbiased notice. I looked in the mirror, staring hard at myself with candid orbs. My eyes; fresh, my smile; unalloyed, my face.....guiltless. I didn't have to hide behind a facade of a sugary persona to be accepted again or to dismiss everything that's happened in my life.

I put on a more aplomb face and goose stomped myself out to my chair. Good job lieutenant.

Dadhad finished his speech and excused himself to his seat. I shifted my eyes quickly to the man who had tormented me for all my life, to see him shift his attention to me. He gave way to puppy dog eyes that hinged on predicted disappointment from my 'shallow' escape to the bathroom. I reverted my eyes back to the stage and continued my attention there until they would announce my category. "The nominees for best short story are, Maya Tutwell, Kaitlin Styles, Ruby Hoffman, Lance Griffin and Parker Deseto," Hepulled the ticket out of the envelope.

"Kaitlin Styles!" A hyper amount of adrenaline raced through my body like electric bolts. I zipped on stage, not caring that my dress was trying to introduce my cleavage to the audience, although I did adjust myself before turning to the crowd. 

"Thank you all so much! I would never be here on this stage if it wasn't for any of you. When I first wrote this story, I had just moved a couple miles away from home, into a new apartment and I had just started my job as a blogger and I had no idea it would lead to this. The story was inspiration off of a personal experience in life and in love and it was difficult for me to convey at first. But I did it and I published it into the story you all know now. I wanna thank my boyfriend Angus for his limitless support and adoration, my friends and fans who made this possible for me tonight. Thank you, I love you so much!" I wiped the faint mascara tears and watched as I stood beyond the crowd, yet a second time since my graduation. I could see Angus who was clapping and whistling with immense pride, a few friends who clapped the loudest among the thousands of crowd goers and my family who clapped with confusion and botheration. Except for my siblings who were delighted at my second wind.

Mom tried to stand for a ovation but, It wasn't necessary....so I exited the stage with that thought. I didn't win best blogger, but I didn't care. I won something and that was enough for me. Angus kept continually kissing my cheek as we left. I had my new beautiful trophy in my hand as I walked arm in arm with my guy. In the corner of my eye, I saw my dad headed my way.

He approached me before I could take an escape route to Angus's car. "Hey Katie," I slightly narrowed my eyes to dads. I looked at him distrustful of what he was planning and I knew he could sense that. "Could I talk to you for a minute?" I signaled for Angus to excuse himself, as he took the award and ventured to the car. I turned my attention back to dad. I raised an eyebrow to signal to for him to explain what was the reason he pulled me aside. "Kaitlin, first I wanna congratulate you on winning best short story tonight....I'm very proud of you."

I nodded, just pondering on where this conversation was going. "Look, I won't be coy in the way I was when I last saw you. I know you hate that, especially from me. I miss you, your mom misses you, we all do. It's so painful to know that when you left, you wanted nothing to do with this family, and you changed your number, we didn't know where you lived and it's been years since we've last spoken. But that's not what I wanted for us, to end on such a grim note. It hurt to see you have a boyfriend, be in a successful career and just accomplish so many things, without us being there to see it all. I mean we are all proud but.....we just miss you. We love you Kaitlin and......could you ever find it in your heart to forgive us for everything so we can be a complete family again?"

I looked down. "If I'm being honest, I don't know. What you and mom did was disgusting and no one should be treated with such repugnance. I mean the only reason you say that is because I made a name for myself without the credit of your professor status, without Kameron's soccer career, without anyone's help and maybe that's a kick in the shins to your pride. No, I don't regret not speaking with you or mom. Maybe everyone else, but not you. Mom called only a couple weeks ago with the same speech of how she misses me and all that except I didn't pick up the phone, I let it go to voicemail before changing my number without any closure of how she got a hold of it in the first place. And besides, you have your children, Kylie, Kameron, Kristopher, Kimberly and Kira with all their successes. Why should I be the missing puzzle piece? My life is complete."

I could tell that last sentence shook dad, hard. His eyes welled up with tears that broke into an out loud sob. "I'm sorry, Katie, I didn't mean to hurt you. Why didn't you tell us before?" I squinted my eyes at dad before huffly walking off. But not before turning around and saying: "You figure it out. You've got your whole life." And then I joined Angus in the car.

Part 2???????

(Ha, I'll do it anyway!)

[charlidos]

Fanfiction fantasies

An illustrated summary

During this deep dive back into the Viggorli ocean, I've been reading more fanfiction than I have for years. In older fandoms, I used to read so much, but these last years it's been quite scarce.

Reading this much makes me think in terms of fanfiction; while I don't write it myself, I still have a million plot bunnies in my head.

My favourite fantasy/ plot bunny is inspired by chaosmanor's beautiful reunion/reconciliation stories. It goes something like this:

~~~

V & O had some kind of relationship while filming but it ended long ago. It probably ended on a not good note, leaving a lingering feeling of melancholy over a great love lost. But in the present, with children and partners intact, they haven't been in contact for years.

However, since the birth of O's son, V has sent F a Christmas gift every year. A handmade toy of some sort (elaborate, beautiful and from a fairytale or a Nordic saga - because V is ridiculously brilliant like that), different each year. And as F gets older, it's his most beloved gift. The package always only says "Merry Xmas from Uncle Viggo" and O never explains anything to F and O never talks to V about it. (Possibly, the daughter also gets gifts...) Until F starts to wonder, starts to want to know more about the figurines and what the stories behind them are.

Somehow, F gets hold of V's telephone number (because O made sure to keep it all these years, somewhere safe and hidden) and calls V up. O finds out, is shocked and feels the need to call V to make excuses, since they had an unspoken deal about not being in contact with each other. The call leads to renewed contact, eventually renewed feelings and a trip to Spain for O and F. And it somehow ends happily for everyone. (My plots never has a more defined ending, I love pining and angst too much to know how to get to the happy part. But I still want that happy ending. Somehow.)

~~~

This story would need, in my head, a companion piece in a getting together/ first time story from NZ. It would possibly be about their first time being during or in conjunction with getting lost in the rain forest (because I really, really want a long, detailed story about what happened there). It would go something like this.

V wants to show O this amazingly beautiful rainforest, but why does he ask O, why does he want to show O this wondrous place, and not someone else? There is a strong attraction between them, but V keeps resisting it, maybe even denying it. V has decided that O is too young, too beautiful, too much for poor old V. Still, V keeps acting the opposite and can't help wanting to show O the beautiful, magical forest he's discovered. Knowing O would be the only one who would truly appreciate it the same way. Nature seems to quiet O down, make him calm - and even more beautiful to V.

Getting lost, and a little scared in the infinite darkness and unfamiliar sounds of the forest, make them huddle up together for comfort and warmth. A particular kind of closeness that finally brings them both over that hurdle which has restrained them. How from then on, they venture into a relationship which lasts for the rest of the shoot. However, being male, they never really talk about it, just have intense nocturnal rendezvous whenever time allows during the hectic shoot.

Towards the end of their time in NZ, they are both too exhausted to meet in private very often, but when they do it's very intense but also all very unspoken. When they return to their own lives, they don't know how to transport what they had to fit with "real life". O is carried off in the whirlwind of his new-found fame and V goes, at first, back to where he was before LotR took him away: to art, to Henry. They still meet occasionally, trying to hold on to the feeling from NZ. But gradually, their meetings becomes few and far between, until, eventually, they stop. Maybe just fading out. Or maybe they have a final argument, putting an end it to it all. Maybe they decide it's better, for their own sanity, to break it off completely.

The whole time, they have never talked about how they feel about each other and perhaps it's not until they've lost touch that O really realises what he lost. Maybe V has long accepted his feelings for O, but doesn't want to say anything, too scared of being hurt, and becoming a burden to O in his career and life. And so it goes, until they haven't met for years. But with V keeping up with O's life all this time. And thus feeling inclined to send gifts to O's son... (There would be a lot of angst and pining, if I wrote this.)

~~~

I wish I could write it for real... But if someone else feels inspired, please do! 🙏

[mrwiseandshine]

Sharing the core strategy is helpful and positive, and it speaks well of Automattic's leadership that they're willing to maintain the kind of transparency we've seen recently. But yeah, there are good reasons for people to be concerned about several of these goals. Basically everything in this strategy is compatible with a healthy Tumblr that retains its current userbase, but it also feels like the writing is on the wall for core features that long-time users love.

Some comments on each principle:

Improving conversion rates generally means making the experience worse for logged-out users. That does sometimes matter for logged-in users. It used to be that webcomics sometimes used Tumblr for hosting, so Tumblr users could follow them directly on the dashboard but the comics were still accessible for anyone. I recently sent someone a link to a blog and they had trouble accessing it because they didn't have an account. Moving away from conversion rates would make the user experience better on both of these items, but yeah, it's basically a lost cause. People screenshot content when they want to share it these days. It sucks but there isn't much room to make things worse for current users by requiring login.

Prioritizing non-chronological feeds in development is, as sabakos says, equivalent to relegating the chronological dash to a legacy feature. This makes users nervous, literally. It puts me on edge, makes me worried about Tumblr's future. It's certainly possible to maintain the chronological dash as a first-class feature alongside an expanded "Best Stuff First", but retaining trust about it actually happening requires taking active steps to show the chronological dash remains a priority, even if they're a little silly or wasteful.

In particular, a lot of this talk about improving conversations sounds like it can work great on the chronological dashboard too. In particular, deduplication of posts on the dash would be great, I'd love to have a chronological dashboard where the first appearance of a post has a number with how many times it shows up in the last 24 hours of my dash. Adjacent identical reblogs should be collapsed into one, and later identical appearances of posts I've already seen should be minimized or hidden. This should be optional, but I'd definitely like deduplication. It would also be great to be able to see all comments from anyone I follow on a post, so I can know I've got the full context on the most recent addition.

Creators already like Tumblr, so changing core features to prevent users from avoiding content they don't follow is super dangerous. Using language like "the outdated decision to only show content from followed blogs" is terrible, don't talk like that about core features central to the value the site provides to current users. That said, yeah, there's lots of ways the site could work better for creators. Revenue sharing with users that generate significant original content is an obvious but expensive one. The ability to forcibly put source headers linking back to the artist on posts by other users would probably be popular. A dedicated feed or dash config slider for "art I'd like" would be neat, there are probably people who'd appreciate extra art even if they don't want generic non-chronological content.

Maximizing attention and engagement is also dangerous. On other websites, this generally means "make the website more addictive to make your users' lives worse". Tumblr knows that, of course, but it's an obvious point of concern for users.

No disagreement on the importance of stability, though. Tumblr bugs have often been fun, they're a part of the local culture, but clearly stability improvements ought to be a major goal.

I'd also just be really interested to know how much a user costs Tumblr, on average. Does an ad-free subscription pay for a whole user's costs?

Tumblr’s Core Product Strategy

Here at Tumblr, we’ve been working hard on reorganizing how we work in a bid to gain more users. A larger user base means a more sustainable company, and means we get to stick around and do this thing with you all a bit longer. What follows is the strategy we're using to accomplish the goal of user growth. The @labs group has published a bit already, but this is bigger. We’re publishing it publicly for the first time, in an effort to work more transparently with all of you in the Tumblr community. This strategy provides guidance amid limited resources, allowing our teams to focus on specific key areas to ensure Tumblr’s future.

The Diagnosis

In order for Tumblr to grow, we need to fix the core experience that makes Tumblr a useful place for users. The underlying problem is that Tumblr is not easy to use. Historically, we have expected users to curate their feeds and lean into curating their experience. But this expectation introduces friction to the user experience and only serves a small portion of our audience. 

Tumblr’s competitive advantage lies in its unique content and vibrant communities. As the forerunner of internet culture, Tumblr encompasses a wide range of interests, such as entertainment, art, gaming, fandom, fashion, and music. People come to Tumblr to immerse themselves in this culture, making it essential for us to ensure a seamless connection between people and content. 

To guarantee Tumblr’s continued success, we’ve got to prioritize fostering that seamless connection between people and content. This involves attracting and retaining new users and creators, nurturing their growth, and encouraging frequent engagement with the platform.

Our Guiding Principles

To enhance Tumblr’s usability, we must address these core guiding principles.

Expand the ways new users can discover and sign up for Tumblr.

Provide high-quality content with every app launch.

Facilitate easier user participation in conversations.

Retain and grow our creator base.

Create patterns that encourage users to keep returning to Tumblr.

Improve the platform’s performance, stability, and quality.

Below is a deep dive into each of these principles.

Principle 1: Expand the ways new users can discover and sign up for Tumblr.

Tumblr has a “top of the funnel” issue in converting non-users into engaged logged-in users. We also have not invested in industry standard SEO practices to ensure a robust top of the funnel. The referral traffic that we do get from external sources is dispersed across different pages with inconsistent user experiences, which results in a missed opportunity to convert these users into regular Tumblr users. For example, users from search engines often land on pages within the blog network and blog view—where there isn’t much of a reason to sign up. 

We need to experiment with logged-out tumblr.com to ensure we are capturing the highest potential conversion rate for visitors into sign-ups and log-ins. We might want to explore showing the potential future user the full breadth of content that Tumblr has to offer on our logged-out pages. We want people to be able to easily understand the potential behind Tumblr without having to navigate multiple tabs and pages to figure it out. Our current logged-out explore page does very little to help users understand “what is Tumblr.” which is a missed opportunity to get people excited about joining the site.

Actions & Next Steps

Improving Tumblr’s search engine optimization (SEO) practices to be in line with industry standards.

Experiment with logged out tumblr.com to achieve the highest conversion rate for sign-ups and log-ins, explore ways for visitors to “get” Tumblr and entice them to sign up.

Principle 2: Provide high-quality content with every app launch.

We need to ensure the highest quality user experience by presenting fresh and relevant content tailored to the user’s diverse interests during each session. If the user has a bad content experience, the fault lies with the product.

The default position should always be that the user does not know how to navigate the application. Additionally, we need to ensure that when people search for content related to their interests, it is easily accessible without any confusing limitations or unexpected roadblocks in their journey.

Being a 15-year-old brand is tough because the brand carries the baggage of a person’s preconceived impressions of Tumblr. On average, a user only sees 25 posts per session, so the first 25 posts have to convey the value of Tumblr: it is a vibrant community with lots of untapped potential. We never want to leave the user believing that Tumblr is a place that is stale and not relevant. 

Actions & Next Steps

Deliver great content each time the app is opened.

Make it easier for users to understand where the vibrant communities on Tumblr are. 

Improve our algorithmic ranking capabilities across all feeds. 

Principle 3: Facilitate easier user participation in conversations.

Part of Tumblr’s charm lies in its capacity to showcase the evolution of conversations and the clever remarks found within reblog chains and replies. Engaging in these discussions should be enjoyable and effortless.

Unfortunately, the current way that conversations work on Tumblr across replies and reblogs is confusing for new users. The limitations around engaging with individual reblogs, replies only applying to the original post, and the inability to easily follow threaded conversations make it difficult for users to join the conversation.

Actions & Next Steps

Address the confusion within replies and reblogs.

Improve the conversational posting features around replies and reblogs. 

Allow engagements on individual replies and reblogs.

Make it easier for users to follow the various conversation paths within a reblog thread. 

Remove clutter in the conversation by collapsing reblog threads. 

Explore the feasibility of removing duplicate reblogs within a user’s Following feed. 

Principle 4: Retain and grow our creator base.

Creators are essential to the Tumblr community. However, we haven’t always had a consistent and coordinated effort around retaining, nurturing, and growing our creator base.  

Being a new creator on Tumblr can be intimidating, with a high likelihood of leaving or disappointment upon sharing creations without receiving engagement or feedback. We need to ensure that we have the expected creator tools and foster the rewarding feedback loops that keep creators around and enable them to thrive.

The lack of feedback stems from the outdated decision to only show content from followed blogs on the main dashboard feed (“Following”), perpetuating a cycle where popular blogs continue to gain more visibility at the expense of helping new creators. To address this, we need to prioritize supporting and nurturing the growth of new creators on the platform.

It is also imperative that creators, like everyone on Tumblr, feel safe and in control of their experience. Whether it be an ask from the community or engagement on a post, being successful on Tumblr should never feel like a punishing experience.

Actions & Next Steps

Get creators’ new content in front of people who are interested in it. 

Improve the feedback loop for creators, incentivizing them to continue posting.

Build mechanisms to protect creators from being spammed by notifications when they go viral.

Expand ways to co-create content, such as by adding the capability to embed Tumblr links in posts.

Principle 5: Create patterns that encourage users to keep returning to Tumblr.

Push notifications and emails are essential tools to increase user engagement, improve user retention, and facilitate content discovery. Our strategy of reaching out to you, the user, should be well-coordinated across product, commercial, and marketing teams.

Our messaging strategy needs to be personalized and adapt to a user’s shifting interests. Our messages should keep users in the know on the latest activity in their community, as well as keeping Tumblr top of mind as the place to go for witty takes and remixes of the latest shows and real-life events.  

Most importantly, our messages should be thoughtful and should never come across as spammy.  

Actions & Next Steps

Conduct an audit of our messaging strategy.

Address the issue of notifications getting too noisy; throttle, collapse or mute notifications where necessary.  

Identify opportunities for personalization within our email messages. 

Test what the right daily push notification limit is. 

Send emails when a user has push notifications switched off.

Principle 6: Performance, stability and quality.

The stability and performance of our mobile apps have declined. There is a large backlog of production issues, with more bugs created than resolved over the last 300 days. If this continues, roughly one new unresolved production issue will be created every two days. Apps and backend systems that work well and don't crash are the foundation of a great Tumblr experience. Improving performance, stability, and quality will help us achieve sustainable operations for Tumblr.

Improve performance and stability: deliver crash-free, responsive, and fast-loading apps on Android, iOS, and web.

Improve quality: deliver the highest quality Tumblr experience to our users. 

Move faster: provide APIs and services to unblock core product initiatives and launch new features coming out of Labs.

Conclusion

Our mission has always been to empower the world’s creators. We are wholly committed to ensuring Tumblr evolves in a way that supports our current users while improving areas that attract new creators, artists, and users. You deserve a digital home that works for you. You deserve the best tools and features to connect with your communities on a platform that prioritizes the easy discoverability of high-quality content. This is an invigorating time for Tumblr, and we couldn’t be more excited about our current strategy.

[ufonaut]

out of curiosity, what's your recommended reading for Rex Tyler?

REXY MY FRIEND REXY!!!! they're not too many but more than half of these are coincidentally some of my all time favourite comics:

secret origins (1986) #16 -- a rare gem from roy thomas and definitely some of his best work, this is precisely what it says on the tin but rex's realization that the rats he'd tested miraclo on had died a little after he'd already taken a first dose himself is as viscerally horrifying as ever and the beginnings of rex's addiction are explored in no uncertain terms

sandman mystery theatre (1993) #29-32 -- this is nearly a direct adaptation of rex's first appearance in adventure comics (1938) #48 and while the art has none of bernard baily's charm, there's few things i love like rex's manic episode after taking miraclo and the way he hysterically declares "nothing can hurt me anymore!" minutes after being hit by a car. turns out things do hurt him, he just can't feel it! this arc is like a best friend to me

hourman (1999) #5, #24 -- it's no secret i'm not a fan of rick or the android hourman but both these issues explore the superior hourman and we get my absolute favourite characterisation of rex ever published as well as a more in-depth look at his addiction to miraclo. #5 is more or less an origin issue that circles through rex's entire life ("he grew up poor! he grew up poor! rough edges... no social validation whatsoever! his whole life, he had to accomplish miracles just to feel adequate!" is maybe the one comic book moment i think about the most on a weekly basis) and #24 is a middle-aged rex grappling with what miraclo has done to his life, his inability to be a good father to rick or husband to wendi due to the little matter of blacking out every weekend, and we even get poor kent nelson dragged along into a marital argument between the tylers. most of all time

smash comics (1999) #1 -- this is part of the 1999 one shots collected under the 'jsa returns' title and while the overarching story can be understood via all-star comics (1999) #1-2, i think it stands well on its own. this particular one shot sees known odd couple rex & charles mcnider sent on a mission together and it's genuinely one of the funniest comics ever published as far as i'm concerned. you won't believe the sheer number of people i've seen take as literal fact the story rex tells when fucking with mcnider by saying he became hourman because someone threw a clock through his window ("yes, father, i shall become a bat" year one style!)

dc 2000 (2000) #1-2 -- not a rex-focused story per-se but a great look at his dynamic with the rest of the jsa and great fun in general. highlights include wes & al bullying rex into taking his miraclo cause he's "pretty dull company" otherwise

solo (2004) #7 -- he's wired, baby! he's gonna get the shakes! what's a guy supposed to do when he's taken his super coke and there's no crime to stop? this little story will tell you!

all-star squadron (1981) #34, #44, #49, #50 -- there's some great rex action in squadron as a whole, by far his best ongoing, but the issues i've linked are basically a highlights reel of rex's various miraclo-induced heart attacks. as far as i'm aware, this is the earliest comic to have explicitly acknowledged rex as an addict and to have dealt with the consequences of it in a realistic manner, something i'm always on the lookout for and greatly enjoy here

the golden age (1993) -- the quintessential rex comic. the rex manifesto, even. robinson's clearly very inspired both by adventure comics and by roy thomas' work on squadron but on both counts he manages to elevate the very concept of hourman to another level entirely, and evidently the mature tone (and themes) of the book work in rex's advantage like few things do. his vivid hallucinations in #2 make for one of the most memorable sequences in the entire medium and that end note of "one day, maybe, rex will tame his inner demons. maybe" is a gut punch to me every time. a magnificent book as always

starman (1994) #11, #37, 77-79 -- see: the golden age above. rex's starman appearances are in effect just more of what robinson had already previously established but they're an endless delight to me and i enjoy the varying time periods as even with rex's addiction and his untimely end (we were still on zero hour territory here after all), there's still glimpses of rexy at his very best

justice society of america (1992) #1, #5-6, #8-10 -- the series is a must-read for any jsa fan, of course, but it's especially important on the rex front. #5 marks the first time we see rex go to a NA meeting and as this deals with the then-present day jsa, we also get the pleasure of seeing rex slowly and awkwardly try his hand at repairing his relationship with rick

these are roughly in chronological order (in-universe chronological order, that is) and i'd also like to give a special shoutout to elseworlds jsa: the liberty file 2000 and jsa: the unholy three 2003 -- which have some of the most fun rex appearances in history, as well as confirmed socialist leanings -- and dc: the new frontier 2004 #1 -- which doesn't actually include the jsa in a real sense but does feature a wonderful article about rex's death and the public's attempt to reconcile hourman the hero with rex tyler the addict, really great stuff in there.

rex's golden age stories are great -- bernard baily's art is just entirely something else -- but they're often hard to find and even more so in readable quality, hence their absence from this list. i wholly recommend them though, even if rex's evolution as a more mature character had obviously been a wholly necessary one. enjoy! :)

[byierficrecs]

just wanted to pop over and say that i love this blog so so much; I love getting to see creators, especially lesser-known ones, in the spotlight. As someone who has been writing fanfiction for over a decade and has gotten very little recognition for it (relative to other stories in my fandoms, that is) it's always very discouraging to see my stats stagnate whilst so many other people who are arguably at the same level as me getting so much more attention and love.

I'm not really in a place (mentally or financially) to be commissioning art for my fics, so seeing your little graphics for all the fics people recommend make me so so happy. I'm obsessed with the one you did for my fic; but they are all always so cute. And it's just nice to see someone spreading positivity in a way that is broad and fair (i'm a libra, lol) and doesn't put anyone down in the process <3

Yeah sorry this is kinda rambly but just like, I was seriously considering not writing for this fandom anymore because it feels like no one cares about my blog or my writing or anything; but then I found this blog and it reminded me why I write, and reinspired my love of what I do.

So thanks <3333333

ngl, this actually made me tear up a little. i've also been writing for various fandoms for a while and i know how discouraging the low interactions can be overtime. it really is a matter of luck half the time and no matter how much effort you put into something, it's impossible to know if anyone will care or if you'll be yelling into the void.

and sometimes, fandom makes it worse. the obsession some people have with numbers, not willing to dedicate their time to anything that's not already popular can be quite upsetting, and the bad habit some people have of pitting authors and works against each other is, indeed, extremely stressful.

i've seen it in other fan groups; it is an unfortunate constant all across the internet, i think. but this fandom in particular can be quite cruel and sometimes it drains my creative energy altogether. i assume it's the same for others. and nevermind the hyper-criticism and high standards, sometimes people are hurtful in their effort to support some creators and it's baffling. i even started this whole thing (twt account and blog) as a response to someone ranking fics. and i know they meant no ill, but for many it is saddening to know you'll never be in one of those "best fics" things.

(and before anyone says anything, yes, people should write for themselves, first and foremost. however, the act of actually posting a story for the internet to see is a little unnerving, and the biggest reward is to get feedback. to get none is quite crushing.)

alas, i can only hope that this thingy makes some writers happy. be it that more people check a story (not in my control) or the authors simply get a graphic of dubious quality, i hope i can make some people smile at least for a few minutes. know that at least you got one reader checking out your hard work, and that i love every single story that has been sent.

,,,see, now you got me all rambly x.x anyway, i'm happy to know i could help a little, and i'm so glad you didn't stop writing <3 if it's not much to ask, would it be possible to know who this is? i won't share that if you don't want me to, but this really brightened my day and it has filled me with determination to try to do better (in writing and in making the graphics) :]

[scoobydoodean]

I am reblogging this, and I want people to know when I do so, that for a long time, I have considered Bear a friend. He's been a follower of mine for a long time and actually has his own tag on my blog #thee number one benny stan to hold all of the lovely things he's sent to me over the last year when I started formally tagging things. I was tagged in and frequently reblogged his art over the last year, which I have always thought was lovely and unique (and have told him so).

Over the last year, I became increasingly aware that a lot of people do not know Bear as a person who occasionally pops into their inbox to spread love and positivity—which is what I have always known Bear for—as a sweet, lovely, creative person.

When the anon mail from some benny stans started happening, I did not believe that he would send people such terrible things. My experience with him had always been positive, and he came to me a few times when Courtney was getting anons he thought could be misconstrued as being from him (though no one, including me, ever implicated him in any way), and told me it wasn't him. I believed him. My way of making sense of the harassment Courtney was being sent that seemed so deeply connected to Benny and recent posts Bear had made (despite no one ever saying that) was that perhaps someone who disliked both of them was sending the messages, and then DM-ing both of them about it to stir up drama as some sick little game.

Courtney and I discussed this. Bear and I discussed this. I urged Bear to protect his mental health by not going to Courtney's blog to see messages that filled him with anxiety (and frustration over the lack of shared interest in Benny and deanbenny). It has been perpetually clear that despite being blocked, he often goes onto Courtney's blog and then gets upset about hate messages being sent to Courtney about Benny, and how Courtney responds to them. Courtney has never once named him in connection to any of these messages, and people sending Courtney ugly things about Benny OR about Bear is not Courtney's fault.

ETA:

Over the last few months, I have grown sadder and sadder as I faced more evidence (despite the fact that absolutely no one tried to prove it to me) that Bear is the one who sends a lot of the ugly messages Courtney has received (including suicide bait). I genuinely did not want to believe this was the case.

However, I have seen vagueposts that happened too close together, timestamped before Courtney receieved hate mail about Benny AND a few minutes after they responded to it. I've become aware of a lot of stories that have saddened me that show a particular pattern. I will leave most of those for other people to share or not share.

I also reached out to someone recently about negative experiences connected to Bear that I had heard about, and harassment that resulted from blocking him for some unpleasant behavior. I've been asked not to be too specific to protect their identity. I also want to add that Bear was a follower of theirs prior to this, and they'd had friendly interactions:

He came back after being blocked and harassed me from multiple accounts (one of them had anons that had been sent calling people racists. [I say] anons because the account was empty). The first one was an "apology"—typical, "I'm sorry that you felt bad, but I didn't do anything wrong". Other anons were hate mail, name calling, yada yada. [...] Note that since this started I thought it was best (from a cursory glance at his blog) that I never utter a word to him. well then I took some measures in hopes that would stop him without me having to contact him. He called me a racist and said that I used the term "harassment" to make him look like a thug, and then he started DMing my mutuals sending them [posts he made about me]. When people started unfollowing him, he deleted [everything he's said] [...] Then he made a post apologizing [...] to anyone but me. Days passed and he kept vagueing me, saying I was the worst person alive, love bombing and following MY mutuals and talking shit in DMs that I was racist and a terf [...] Basically, he's been playing the victim while implementing every single abusive tactic under the sun to the point that a couple of mutuals unfollowed me I think because of him? There's no way for me to know but they're mutuals now so I assume that was the cause. [...] He keeps stalking everyone I follow leaving comments, likes etc etc. I'm so tired 😩

Here, I would also like to cosign Courtney's warning on this. Do NOT harass anyone over this. Do NOT send anyone ugly messages. I will eat you alive.

I don't want to start drama and I don't expect you to respond to this but I think you deserve to know what's being said about you. tumblr. com/transfagbenny/738678589192552448/and-id-appreciate-if-we-stopped-using-the-terms

i actually am going to address this because this person has been lying about what's been going on for months and they've apparently been harassing other people for months if not years, so. it's time to put an end to this.

before i start though i want to make it abundantly clear that if you take this as an opportunity to do anything other than block this person, then you are trash. do not send him messages. do not tag him in things. do not harass him in any way. leave him alone. if you need to block, do so and then move on. hate mail and harassment is disgusting behavior and i don't want to be surrounded by anybody who engages in it. and if you do it on my behalf, i think you are worthless and i want nothing to do with you.

so, this is what happened: back in february of 2023, an anon asked me if i had any opinions that would get me canceled with the dean girlies. i replied, "oh now we’re talking!! hmmmm let’s see. i don’t care about benny at all. deanbenny does nothing for me. deanbenny is dust. it is dust. drowley rights forever" and i did not tag it because i'm not an asshole. bear then sent me a message that at the time i thought was funny/cute because his url reflected that he was obviously a huge benny fan. we had a very cordial exchange. everything was good. we chatted a little bit about how neat it would've been if benny had been played by a black actor and how the racism problem with gordon would've been fixed if gordon had been played by a white actor. not all of our conversation is visible anymore (and i also don't think all of it was on this post anyway) because i've since blocked him so his replies no longer show up on my posts. the point is: everything was fine. it was a good tumblr exchange. he continued to follow me. i did not follow him then or at any point.

the problem is that he kept coming onto my posts and into my inbox to try to make things about benny. that is not okay. i had already said that benny was a character (and deanbenny a ship) that i was not interested in. to me, this is an obvious boundary i've established that he repeatedly crossed. it's not an egregious violation, obviously. more than anything it's annoying. what he should've done, if benny was that important to him, was unfollow me and move on. but he didn't and i indulged him for awhile but at a certain point i thought, "okay maybe if i stop indulging him, he'll take the hint." so i stopped responding. he did not take the hint. he got worse and he even started commenting on things that he couldn't make about benny, just to willfully misinterpret things i said and taking them completely out of context. unfortunately, i don't have receipts for any of this because at the time i didn't know it was going to become an actual problem (however I have since learned that this is an established pattern of behavior he engages in, so you can probably find examples on other people's blogs).

it got so annoying, though, that i very carefully broached the subject in a private server with people i trusted. without naming any names or using any incriminating language (i.e. not specifically referencing benny), i basically said that there was someone being annoying about a specific character on my posts and i wasn't sure what to do about it. immediately, a handful of people replied with some variation of "the benny stan? he's been doing that to me too." i do have receipts of this (and an entire server to back me up) but i hope you can all understand why i'm not going to provide those or name names (or ask anyone to get involved publicly). the point is, it became apparent that i wasn't the only one and this was a pattern of behavior. i also learned during that conversation that bear has a history of harassing people and calling someone racist or a transphobe if they block him.

at that point, i decided not to rock the boat. i would just continue to ignore him and maybe he would get bored and move on. well that obviously didn't happen. he kept doing it and as a fun added bonus, he started to make vague posts about me. the thing is i don't actually care if he vagueblogs about me. it's his blog. he can do whatever he wants. it's none of my business. i mean i personally think he should've just unfollowed but, again, his blog, his choice. it is annoying that every single time he would do it, someone would send me a link or a screenshot of him doing it, but that's not really his fault. so, again, i just ignored it.

this is where we get to the incident in question. after a private discussion among a small group of friends, i posted this obviously joke poll at the insistence of @letterstothedevil, a tumblr user who has given me permission to include her in this.

the original message about the poll:

the permission:

now EYE think it's abundantly clear that the poll was a joke amongst friends, but maybe it wasn't, and i'm not going to fault anyone for not magically knowing that. i am, however, totally willing to fault someone for being a gigantic asshole. bear commented on the post and i, admittedly, gave a somewhat dismissive response because at that point i was so tired of him being willfully obtuse and twisting every little thing i said that i just didn't want to bother. he then went and made a series of not-at-all-vague posts calling me racist and claiming that i simply do not care about the racism in the show and it's obvious because i've never ever discussed it on my blog (which is a hilarious lie given that i'd specifically discussed it on my blog with him). at that point, there was no reason not to block him. he was already doing the thing that i didn't want to deal with. so i did. and i thought that would be the end of it.

again, i was wrong.

i then started to get anon messages daily about benny and deanbenny and how i'm racist for not liking benny, etc. this was harassment that EYE was on the receiving end of. nobody else was a victim of the messages i was being sent. they were sent to me and it is not my job to make sure other people are protected from the harassment that i am experiencing. i'm pointing this out for two reasons: 1. because i did try to protect bear from it for awhile anyway. i knew that people would assume it was him and at the time i was still giving him the benefit of the doubt, if for no other reason than the fact that i didn't think he could send me messages since i blocked him. and 2. because when i did finally start to respond to some of the messages, bear acted like he was somehow the victim in all of this (and continues to act that way to this day).

i don't know if bear had (or currently has) anything to do with any of the messages i get (which, thankfully, have slowed considerably). what i do know is that at no point during any of this happening did he stop looking at my blog and vagueblogging about me.

when i finally did answer a few of the messages, bear had a bit of a meltdown about it. i know this because he used a separate account that i hadn't know existed to message me and because he talked to one of my friends about it. (i'm not going to name that person but if they want to get involved publicly of their own accord, that's up to them lol). i'm also not going to share screenshots of what bear said to me because he explicitly asked me not to (it's also the reason i'm not sharing screenshots of the numerous receipts i have of the things he's said and lied about on his blog but, unless he's deleted any of them, you can go and find the posts yourselves.) what i am going to share is that in the message he sent to me, he flat out lied about his behavior. he told me he hadn't been vague-blogging about me, that he would never ever do that about anyone, and that he would certainly never harass someone (all things that i have receipts of him doing).

it took me awhile to respond to this message because i was still trying to be gracious about the whole situation. i recognize that he is much younger than i am and i think it's important for me, as a full blown adult, to take that into account. i had a private discussion with a few trusted friends about how to handle this because it was important to me to not let him off the hook for his behavior and for lying just because he's young. this is what i ended up saying:

his response was to double-down on his lies (while, hilariously, vague-blogging about me and the whole thing) and then go into victim mode about something so completely unrelated and far-fetched that i decided i simply wanted nothing to do with him ever. (this is when he asked me not to share screenshots, so i won't, but this is me saying that i have ALL of the receipts, bear, so if you continue to lie, you will not like what happens.) i blocked his alternate account and tried to ignore him.

the harassment continued. again, i have no idea if he was actually part of it. the vagueblogging continued. he started to do it to other people he associated with me. many of them blocked him because of his behavior. i continued to answer some of the hate i received, continued to ignore and/or block most of it. it got so bad that i was sent seizure bait on more than one occasion, one time bad enough that i actually ended up going to the ER. there are receipts of all of this, too. you can see on my blog the messages i've been sent. i think at one point i even shared a snapshot of what my inbox looked like. i've shared privately with friends (who can confirm if they want to, but no pressure) screenshots of the kinds of messages i get that i don't respond to. the point is, that for a period of months, i was relentlessly harassed. and at no point during this time did i say anything to or about bear (or anyone else). the most i've done is respond to messages that have been sent to me. i've largely sat quietly while this thing happened to me and bear continued to make posts about me and act like he is somehow a victim in this. he's assumed things about me and my identity. he's violated boundaries i've set. he will not let this go. and i'm not the only one he's doing it to.

i'm so fucking tired of it. leave me alone. leave my blog alone. leave my friends alone. leave any and all of the people who have blocked you for your own inappropriate and obnoxious behavior alone. that's it. that's the end. none of this would be happening if you would just respect other people's boundaries. i don't want you on my blog. i do not want to interact with you. i don't want anything to do with you. that's it. the end.

[holykillercake]

FRIED EGGS

KOBY x Pirate!Reader

word count: 2k

summary: Being infiltrated as a Marine and keeping your feelings under control was easy until you were assigned to work with Marine Captain Koby. How you wished he was a jerk.

highlight: ¨I am kissing you... but I am angry, Y/N-san...¨

warnings: read under the risk of developing diabetes.

notes: Hey, guys! This was a lovely request from @pure-kirarin! <3 I had to stop other projects to make this one because Koby threw me out of my comfort zone hahaha I really hope you like!! ALSO 1) Happy Birthday Sabo-kun! ALSO 2) In order to add more dept to the story, the main character is part of a Yonkos´crew, but I wrote in a way that all fit, so choose your favorite! ALSO 3) ART ALERT!

Leave comments, hearts and love!

¨You have been doing a remarkable job in such little time, Commander L/N. We all have great expectations regarding your transference to our Marine Headquarters.¨ 

The words of the Rear Admiral barely scratched your mind as you discreetly observed the pink-haired boy´s reflection on the crystal clear window. 

He maintained a similar posture to yours: chin up, chest out, shoulders back, and stomach in. However, while your fingers remained paralleled to your trousers, you took a glimpse of his clenched fist, thumb fidgeting the side of his index finger. 

¨Vice Admiral Tsuru was reluctant to sign your transfer. She said you remind her of herself in the past, which is always an excellent compliment to hear.¨ you nodded, acknowledging his words  ¨We´re glad we convinced her.¨

Your heart warmed with his words, and you almost felt bad because you knew the disappointing outcome O-Tsuru-san would have at the end of this. She trained you with the iron face of a merciless soldier, and the elegance that resembled the animal of her name.

It has been three years since you received the green card from your captain to part ways in a long-term solo mission. A journey to excavate the putrid secrets of the so-called defenders of the law. You learned after a short time that justice is not so black and white.

Not that you planned to reveal the dirt, no. That intel your captain could sell to the Revolutionary Army and keep the capital running. You were interested in the arms race, the corrupt diplomacy, and more importantly, the dark pipes where traitors flowed.

Someone from inside the Yonkos was feeding the Marines with crucial information about the Emperors´ activities. And in such a close fight, you could not take those risks.

All other Emperors must have their own undercover agents within the Marines, but even that was a dispute. You could point some names to your boss, who confirmed what was suspected. Those would usually be the best of the best, extravagant and loud.

But not you. You didn't have to make that much noise. You slid between the floors of New Marineford like a snake swimming with the current. Earning the respect of your superiors and being promoted without ringing any bells. You accepted each medal with a firm salutation and relentless performance. 

¨The trip must have been displeasing. Submerging ten thousand meters underwater and rising to these fiendish waters require a good rest. Our Marine Captain Koby will escort you to your quarters, Commander Y/N. The remaining instructions shall be presented tomorrow.¨

You saluted the Rear Admiral in front of you and turned to the exit, passing by Koby, who waited for you to leave first.  When your paths crossed, the pace of your heartbeats quickened, pumping more blood through your body and leaving a burning sensation on your cheeks. 

The involuntary response was instantly interpreted as alertness to danger, which needed to be handled with caution. 

Can´t let my guard down around this one, you thought.

In fact, you planned to keep as much distance as you could from him. An officer let slip that he has been gaining incredible control over his Observation Haki since the Paramount War. 

But the wind seemed to change direction, and you began to swim against the current. When the morning came, you were assigned to be his partner for an undetermined time, and he would act as your superior. The idea of being bossed around by a younger marine got your temper sparked. 

Only he was not like the others, treating you in a patronizing and condescending way. He spoke to you with the same cordiality and politeness he addressed everybody else. 

Slowly, your concrete cold expression began to soothe. You would still remind yourself how annoying his good manners were, though. So annoying, seriously!

¨Good morning, Y/N-san!¨ he greeted as you joined him for breakfast. 

¨Good morning, Koby.¨ 

¨Our Border Force correspondent sent his report early in the morning with information about possible Yonkos´ alliances in the Wano Country. We are arranging a meeting as soon as possible.¨ 

You didn´t like to handle work so early, but this subject, in particular, raised your spirits. ¨Good. It was about time.¨

You noticed that he wore a different headband. ¨What happened?¨ 

¨Hm?¨ he brought the soup bowl close to his mouth. 

¨The bandana. Green, with the fried eggs.¨ he choked on the miso soup, coughing like he had swallowed poison. 

You reached for a paper tissue and handed it to him. ¨K-Koby, are you ok?¨

¨Y-Y/N... Y/N-san...¨ he coughed some more ¨They´re not... fried eggs...¨

¨Oh...¨ your brows raised slightly ¨What are they?¨

A depressive aura grew around him ¨They are flowers, YN-san...¨

The edge of your lips contorted as you tried to hide a smile. You haven´t felt like smiling genuinely for years. Annoying boy!

From that moment on, ignoring him became more difficult. He started to ask you to train with him or invite you to spend some time with him and Helmeppo whenever you had free time. Eventually, he began to ask you how he looked before an important meeting. 

Most of the time, you would reply something like ¨ok¨. But sometimes, the mouth was quicker than the brain, and you would let an ¨impeccable¨ slip out, followed by an awkward throat clearing and blushed cheeks. 

From both sides.

•

¨Oh my-¨ you stopped yourself from finishing the sentence. 

You were chosen to complete this mission due to your excellent skills in hiding emotions and acting calm under stressful situations. No one could break you. 

Within the Marines, no joke could make you crack a smile, and no torture could make you spill secrets. 

Why did you want to ask if he was ok?

Koby had entered his office with bumps and bloody bruises over his face. His always neat uniform was blotchy, and he carried a first aid kit. 

¨Garp-san paid a visit.¨ He sat on the couch and opened the white box, throwing everything on the coffee table. ¨I bet it wasn't like this with Tsuru-san.¨ he chuckled. 

¨No. She would beat me up, wash me and hang me up to dry.¨ 

You shot from the chair, moving towards the clumsy pinkette, who struggled to attend to his injuries. He tried to hold the mirror with one hand and suture his gash with the other. 

¨Thank yo-¨

¨Shh. Don´t move.¨

You leaned closer to have a better look, giving Koby the same chance. Your delicate perfume smelled like it was tailor-made for you. Your breathing was slightly irregular, and your lip twitched with every given stitch. Your fingers felt like feathers on his skin, so much that he didn´t even feel a sting. 

The job was fast and efficient, making Koby wish Garp had put more effort into his Love Fist. Grabbing a piece of wet cotton, you cleaned the dried blood.  

¨Alright...¨ you whispered.

¨Alright...¨ he whispered back.

You were inches apart from his face, your eyes traveling across the scar on his forehead, the pink locks, and kind features. Your mind traced back all the way to the Paramount War. You had very little knowledge about him, but the words he spoke that day have always made your heart pound like cannonballs. 

You will make an excellent Admiral one day, Koby. 

I hope you don´t hate me. 

¨Y-Y/N-san...¨

¨Hm?¨

¨Your smile is beautiful.¨

¨What?¨ The stupid scene of yours was interrupted like a DJ stopping the record player. 

With cheeks getting pinker than his hair, you shot up and marched back to the chair and your newspaper. ¨You clean this up.¨ 

He left a low chuckle out and began gathering the mess. 

Oh, no, Y/N. You have got to be kidding me. 

He is a freaking marine. Breathe. 

There were a vast number of reasons why you couldn´t like him: from him being a Marine Captain and you being a pirate to the fact that your mission was coming to a conclusion.

Meaning that your journey as his partner would be very soon reaching its end. The meeting with this mysterious correspondent regarding the Yonkos´ operations in the New World would be the last move in this chess game. You would be going home. Mission completed. Everything perfect, right? 

Right, perfect. Impeccable! Ugh!

•

¨... confirm secure line.¨

¨This is Border Officer code 404890. Secure line confirmed.¨ you spoke with a low but clear voice through the nail transponder. 

¨What´s the status on our birdie?¨

¨Positive. The birdie is located at 03:24:01.¨ you gave your boss a coordinate to the name of the Marine informant. The answer you took three years to find out remained on file number one, third page, suspect number twenty-four. 

An amused laugh echoed on your end, and you buried the speaker on your jacket to muffled the sound. 

¨At least he is not one of ours.¨ a chuckle ¨Great job, Y/N.¨

¨Thank you, boss.¨

¨I know this mustn't have been easy, but you were impeccable as always.¨

Yeah, impeccable. 

¨You know the protocol now. We´ll see each other in a few days. You´ll have a party waiting for you, kid.¨

¨Aye, aye, boss. But I want the good booze.¨  Both of you laughed. 

You finished the call, and the smile on your lips died as the image of a pink-haired boy invaded your mind. You wished he was a jerk like everybody else. 

It would have been so easy. 

¨Who were you talking to?¨ your chest contracted, pushing the air out of your lungs and sending extra blood supply to your muscles. 

You hid the transponder into your jacket and turned, facing your Marine Captain. 

¨Eavesdropping, Koby?¨

What should I do?

¨Y/N-san, who were you talking to?¨ he repeated himself, offering the benefit of the doubt. You sighed.

¨My captain.¨ 

Why the need to be honest with him?

¨Y/N-san, please don´t tell me-¨

¨I´m sorry, Koby. I wish I didn´t have to do this.¨ you couldn´t bring yourself to face him.

¨A-Are you a pirate? Why?¨

You chuckled ¨Why am I a pirate?¨

¨Why did you do this?¨ his face was pale, making your guts twitch in guilt.

¨I´m on a mission. But I´ll leave soon.¨

¨You are like... Vergo-san.¨ he sounded disappointed.

¨I am nothing like Vergo. You know this.¨ or at least you hoped he did. 

He closed the door slowly, eyes fixed on your figure. The bright light from the window made him look like an ethereal painting.

While you tried to predict his next move, whether he was going to interrogate you or kick your ass, Koby acted calm and collected, not hesitating. He trusted his Observation Haki to guide his next move. Or maybe his heart.

You saw a pink blur closing distance like a missile, and before you could dodge, his hands pulled you by the waist, connecting your bodies and lips. 

He forced your back to meet the thick window with a gasp that was muffled by the kiss. His touch was rough upon the fabric of your uniform, but his mouth felt soft against yours.

Your hands moved to his hair, removing the round pair of glasses and the green bandana so you could get lost in his locks. His grip was harsh under the fabric of your uniform, but his hair felt soft on your fingertips. 

A moan escaped your lips when he parted the kiss with a loud snap and struck the glass with both hands, keeping you trapped in the middle. You let go of his hair and grabbed him by the collar, not letting him go away.

¨I am kissing you... but I am angry, Y/N-san...¨ his breath was heavy and carried with a myriad of emotions. 

¨I know... I am sorry.¨

¨Why?¨

¨Because I like you, Koby. A lot.¨ he paused for a second, fighting the urge to admit the same.

¨What was your mission?¨

This is the last lie, I promise, Koby. ¨The Marines possessed vital information about something my boss wants. I needed to get it.¨

¨Now that I know that you´re a pirate and that you stole Marine´s assets, I´m gonna have to hunt you down.¨

¨I´ll be waiting for you.¨ 

You stared him in the eyes, and he kissed you to stop himself from saying what he really wanted. 

I love you, Y/N-san.

Diary of Koby-Meppo: The Fried Egg Life Crisis.

💕 @vemuabhi

[nais-doodles]

THE FINAL PRODUCT AHHHH. This took a lot out of me but I am so proud of how it came together in the end, ahhhh.

Here are the original sketches if you’re curious as to how everyone looked originally.

Obligatory ask for you to click through

And finally, finally, my headcanons below the cut, so ya’ll don’t have to be bogged down with them. Warning, it’s kinda long

Hi, I put off making pancakes to write this

Lucifer

Lucifer owns a private detective agency (Edit: It’s got a name now! Morningstar Detective Agency, courtesy of the lovely @impastaz309), and all the brothers are in one way or another involved in it

The agency works with the police in the more secretive cases, usually ‘important’ people going missing under mysterious circumstances, drug trafficking etc.

Though he’s the head, a lot of the time he’s handling paperwork which helps cover the brothers and his back, especially since some of the stuff they do, and links they have with other people and organisations, could be exploited at their expense.

He’s looking at satan btw lmao

Running a detective agency and also keeping tabs on his brothers is very hard ™ so Lucifer is just, tired, all the time. Please give him a shoulder rub and smooches

Mammon

Usually used as bait, believe it or not, therefore his existence is somewhat of a mystery. He has to keep a low profile.

If you asked someone in the street, unless they were really involved in the agency (which they wouldn’t be), has a high ranking in the police (unlikely), or any of the other organisations the agency associates with (probably not) they wouldn’t know he exists

Mammon is very good at his job, organising meetings with middlemen, smooth talking his way out of situations, getting even the criminals themselves to come and meet him without a mediator

He is only ever used when they agency or police know with absolute certainty that the person they’ll be catching will be arrested without fail - which is of course impossible to know, so it’s always a gamble when they pull Mammon out of the deck

Good luck dating him because this guy can’t really go in public for too long at a time

Leviathan 

He works at a newspaper agency, or at least that’s what they want you to think

In reality the whole reporter business is a front, and Leviathan is an information broker. Or rather, the head of a small group of information brokers.

The city is big, and one person alone isn’t enough to cover everything, but man is his group efficient

Every address change, every telephone call made, every booking of hotel rooms, all of it, he keeps tabs on it all

The information he’s gathered has helped the private detective agency out in a pinch many times, and will continue to do so in the future

“I’m very very busy, so please don’t call me during work, sweetheart. Especially not this particular number, that’s only for emergencies, and even then, it better be life or death, okay? Okay.”

Satan

Works in a bar. Specifically, a bar in a kinda sorta illegal underground fight club. It’s very illegal don’t let anyone fool you

A lot of the more questionable people of the city frequent this bar, and let me tell you, some people cannot keep their mouth shut once they’ve had a few drinks.

Anything Leviathan or Asmodeus can’t catch (don’t worry I’m getting there), is usually picked up by Satan via a blabbermouth who had too much to drink that night.

Satan is also pretty chummy with a lot of the fighters, and has a tendency to be the one patching up the milder injuries after fights

Therefore, he has a lot of favours he can collect, so if Lucifer ever needs some muscle that goes beyond what Beel can provide, Satan in there recommending a few of the more... smarter(?) fighters at the club.

Please don’t scratch his bar, he is a very forgiving bartender, but ruining the mahogany imported from England will have him beating the shit out of you 

Asmodeus

A bit of a celebrity, his rise to fame being both accidental and very useful

Think barbershop quartet, but he does a lot of solo work as well. The other three guys in the barbershop quartet are an absolute blast, and Asmodeus loves them to bits.

Originally, Lucifer was furious. How does he expect to work in the agency if he’s off singing at clubs and attending fancy parties? Then he realised something: Asmodeus can keep tabs on any of the more sketchy celebrities who slip through the net

So off into stardom Asmodeus went, attending lavish parties and singing at packed theatres, collecting dirt, formulating blackmail, getting only the best gossip and pulling favours along the way.

“Jen, hon, did you hear about Carter? Apparently, he’s sleeping with the daughter of the Chief of Police.” 

“Wait a minute... Asmo, isn’t she married?”

“She is most definitely married.” 

“Oh my.”

Beelzebub

Usually seen working with Belphegor, partially because, well, that’s his twin brother and he likes his brother, so why not?

And also because Belphegor always needs backup

Though he isn’t always with Belphegor, really, he’s just sent whenever Lucifer is wary of sending anyone in the agency somewhere on their own.

Think of Beel as a bodyguard of sorts. He is always there to stop things form getting physical if needs be, but he isn’t always enough on his own despite being an absolute powerhouse. So sometimes he’ll go around with someone Satan recommended too

They’re really nice actually, Beel was super surprised, you’d think they’d have no manners? (That’s because Satan gives you the nice ones Beel, thank him once in a while) 

They also all think he’s a marvel of muscle send from the gods so ya know. And they all get him cakes from that bakery he loves, so they’re all good in Beel’s book

Belphegor

You know the whole good cop bad cop routine? Yeah, Belphie is both depending on who you need for that current situation. 

Masterful in the art of manipulation, Lucifer uses him on the more tough to crack people who sit in the interrogation room

He is actually pretty good at shoving the fragmented pieces of a case together, weaving a story that gets the person being interrogated sweating bullets

Even when he is way off, he still manages to worm information out of the subject a lot faster than anyone at the police station. Point, private detective agency.

Like I said, he can be the good cop or the bad cop, though because he isn’t all that intimidating, he’s usually asked to be good cop

But dear lord he is a scary bad cop, and everyone in the police force and their mother knows it

If you got this far wow, hi, thanks! And you may or may not be happy to know I’m planning on another noir piece, this time featuring the undatables and maybe my mcs too idk yet

[morganayenneferburnham]

Have I Known You 20 Seconds or 20 Years? – Nikolai Lantsov Series

Chapter 1: Devils Roll the Dice, Angel Roll their Eyes

Chapter 2: You Did a Number on Me

Chapter 3: You Could Call Me Babe for the Weekend

Chapter 4: The Best of Times, The Worst of Crimes

A very short summary: Y/N has been working with the crows for a few years. Her life feels complete until she meets the insufferable Nikolai Lantsov. She finds herself forced to work with the King of Ravka on one of Kaz Brekker’s crazy schemes.

Word count: 2.5k

A/N: I finally finished chapter 4. It is a bit longer than the others. I should probably mention that I have never picked a lock or broken into a safe before so it might not be accurate. I tried my best, though!

Chapter 4: The Best of Times, The Worst of Crimes

“So, how often do you break into councilmen’s houses, exactly?” His curious voice resonating, barely louder than a whisper, in the dark empty corridor.

She was crouched down in front of the office door, kneeling on the thick burgundy carpet. Her nimble fingers, holding the picks she’d slipped from a hidden pocket of her dress, working quickly to get the door open.

She smiled, “Often, enough.” Does he disapprove? She wondered. Probably not. He’s breaking in as well, after all. The lock finally clicked. She let out a deep sigh of relief. Kaz may have trained her well, but she knew he was a better lock pick than she could ever hope to be. He was always so calm. Unfortunately, her nerves threatened to get the better of her every time she had to use this particular skill on a job. She was glad the first hurdle was behind her, but she knew cracking the safe would prove to be even more daunting.

“Let’s go,” she said, standing up and placing the picks back in her hidden pocket.

The door opened silently revealing an elegant office. Ornate woodwork decorated the lower half of the walls. Tasteful art pieces were scattered around the room. Kaz would love this, she thought, looking appreciatively at a DeKappel mounted on the wall behind the cluttered desk. If we have enough time, I’ll take a quick peek at these documents. There might be something interesting in there.

“According to Brekker the safe should be behind that bookcase” Nikolai gestured to a tall bookcase in the left corner of the room before swiftly making his way to it. “There should be a mechanism somewhere…” He was looking for it, moving his fingers around the back of the piece of furniture. A loud click resonated. The bookcase swung on its hinges, revealing the door to a steel safe. Nikolai turned back to her, wearing a wide grin. “This is fun! Maybe I should take a page out of your book.”

She raised a questioning brow, looking in his direction, making her way to the safe. “What do you mean?”

He let out a low chuckle. “I think I’ll start breaking into Zoya’s room, move stuff around. Maybe leave a note or two. It’d be a good way to annoy her.”

“Why would you risk your life like that? I mean I don’t know her well, but I have a feeling she’s scary when pissed off.” She thought of Zoya’s blazing blue eyes. She must be gorgeous too.

“You have no idea how absolutely terrifying she can be” he mused. “but a King needs entertainment.” His grin was utterly wicked. Y/N felt her heart skip over a beat.

She smiled back. The idea of Zoya trying to murder the king amused her to no end. “Well, it’s your funeral,” she replied, shrugging her shoulders. “Now be silent, I need to focus.” She took a seat on the floor facing the safe.

She reached for the combination dial, gently resting her fingers on it. She breathed in deeply. Contact points. This is the easy part. She slowly spun the dial listening for the telling sounds. Click. A bit more. Click.

There we go. Park the wheel. Okay. Now I need to figure out the number of wheels. Sankta Lizabeta, please, don’t let there be too many.

She started turning the dial slowly again. First turn. Click. Second turn. Click. Third turn. Click. Fourth turn. Nothing.

She let herself breathe again. Three wheels. Three numbers. Six possible combinations. She could do this.

She quickly turned the dial to the right, letting it complete multiple turns before stopping at zero. She rolled her shoulders. No time to waste, she thought, here I go. She spun the dial slowly to the left. Click. More. Click. She repeated the process over and over, starting from a new number each time. She knew lock manipulation was time consuming but Saints this was taking way too long.

She found herself wishing she’d brought paper with her. This would’ve been a lot easier if she could’ve graphed her findings as she went instead of having to memorize them. Wylan is brighter than I am. He should be in here, helping.

She finally narrowed it down to three numbers: 12, 13, and 89. Six possible combinations. She was already behind schedule. She had to try them quickly.

She tried the first combination holding her breath. It didn’t work. She could feel Nikolai’s gaze on her. She heard him fidgeting by the door.

Saints, it would’ve been so much easier if I could’ve just drilled through this damn door. We’re screwed if I can’t get it open in the next minute.

“Fuck, I wish Kaz had sent Jesper in.” She was starting to panic. Second combination? Not this one either. This was taking too long. She was too slow. She was going to fail Kaz. Even worse, she was going to fail Nikolai.

She tried the third combination to no avail.

“Why would a sharpshooter be useful right now?” He sounded mostly confused, somewhat curious, and maybe a bit anxious.

Her fingers worked quickly, turning the dial following the sequence of the fourth combination. She groaned. It hadn’t worked.

“Well, a Fabrikator would be a lot more efficient at cracking a safe,” she said simply. Only two combinations left to try. This has to work.

“Oh, thank the Saints!” she exclaimed leaving no chance for Nikolai to reply. The penultimate combination had worked. 13-12-89. This Saints forsaken sequence of numbers had finally opened the safe. She had been lucky the safe wasn’t one of the more recent models. This one had already been difficult enough to crack.

She grabbed the blueprints, quickly rolling them up. She pulled her skirts up her right thigh and slid the precious documents in the sheath safely tied there. Nikolai closed the safe’s door and locked it. They were already late. “Come on. We have to go.” She was moving towards the door as soon as her skirts had fallen back into place.

Nikolai followed suit, quietly closing the door behind them. He quickly moved aside, giving Y/N access to the lock once more. She was already holding her picks.

Her hands were shaking slightly making it difficult to lock the door. She could’ve sworn the small click of the lock was the most beautiful sound she’d ever heard. She had never been more relieved. She rose quickly. She was ready for this night to be over.

Footsteps rang out in the hallway. Someone was coming up the stairs. It would be hard to explain what they were doing in the deserted hallway. They couldn’t be discovered here. She looked around hurriedly but there didn’t seem to be a good hiding place anywhere close.

Nikolai turned back towards her, “Do you trust me?”

“I –” Nikolai hadn’t given her a chance to answer, his lips already pressing against hers in a passionate kiss. His fingers gripping her waist tightly. She felt her back hit the wall with enough force to knock the breath out of her lungs. Nikolai deepened the kiss, tilting her head slightly to the left. His lips brushing against hers, his tongue sweeping her bottom lip. Her lips parting slightly into the kiss. His hands were moving up her back, pulling her closer to him. It felt like his hands were everywhere. His pleasant, intoxicating smell filling her nose, dulling her brain. His body was now pressing her hard against the wall, the doorframe digging painfully into her back. Her fingers, now tangled in his chestnut locks, had somehow found their way to his hair. She felt is fingers caress the skin at the back of her neck. All rational thought was completely erased from her mind. It was too much. It wasn’t enough. A small moan escaped her throat. Her heart was racing or maybe it was Nikolai’s? She couldn’t be sure.

A small cough reached her ears.

His lips left hers, drawing a plaintive whimper from her, only to attach themselves to her neck. She was fully aware of the next moan that escaped her, loud and breathy.

Someone cleared their throat next to them. A guard was standing there, staring at them. He looked somewhat amused but mostly uncomfortable.

Oh, it dawned on her, Nikolai is giving us a cover. It felt like a cold bucket of water had been poured on her head. She tried pushing him away, but Nikolai didn’t release his grip on her waist. Her cheeks were still flushed. She had to find a way to get her wits back. She was Ainsley Ó Ceallaigh. Not Y/N Y/L/N. It hadn’t been Nikolai, King of Ravka, kissing her. It had been Eoin Ó Ceallaigh, her husband.

“My apologies. I certainly don’t mean to interrupt” the guard was sporting a crooked smirk “but this part of the mansion is closed to the guests.” He didn’t seem to suspect anything was amiss.

“No need to apologize for doing your job, my friend,” Nikolai told the guard, his tone warm. “This is all my fault. You see I just couldn’t resist my wife’s beauty.” He pulled her in to place another kiss on her lips. Nikolai was playing his role to perfection. “We’ll go back to the party. Wouldn’t want to inconvenience you any further.” Nikolai’s hold on her waist loosened, his palm sliding to the small of her back. He used it to push her gently towards the stairs.

“Have a good night” the suggestive tone of the guard’s voice sent a fresh wave of blood to Y/N’s cheeks.

They heard the door rattle as they started walking down the stairs. The guard was checking it was locked. He would be able to report to the councilman that no one had entered the office. By the time Van Verent would realize documents were missing, Ainsley and Eoin Ó Ceallaigh would be long gone.

-----

Nikolai kept his hand pressed to Y/N’s back. She hadn’t said a word since he’d kissed her.

He knew most Grisha in Ketterdam were indentures. He had even seen the pleasure house tattoo on her left arm. Kaz had told him she was now exclusively working for the dregs but her tattoo from the House of the Blue Iris was still visible. “She keeps it as a reminder” Kaz had said. A reminder of what, though?

He’d probably crossed a line by kissing her like that. Not even giving her a chance to consider his plan. Time had been short. They didn’t have any other options. He only hoped that he hadn’t caused too much harm.

Nikolai guided her through the crowd, smiling and nodding at various dignitaries until they reached the doors leading to the garden. They should be meeting Jesper and Wylan by the porcelain cabinet, but he needed to make sure Y/N was alright first. He could feel how tense she was, her muscles stiff under his palm.

The cold air seemed to bring her out of her daze. “What are you doing? We shouldn’t be here. We should –” he could hear the insecurity in her voice.

“I know exactly where we should be.” He rested a gentle hand on her shoulder. “Are you alright?” he couldn’t quite keep the concern out of his voice.

“I’ll be perfectly fine once we get back to the plan” she spat at him. He was surprised to see how quickly she had gone back to acting as if he was the bane of her existence. He had really thought they were making progress and had almost become friends. At least, that’s what he had hoped.

She needs time. “Fine, let’s find Jesper and Wylan.” His voice was cold, perfectly controlled. He offered her a hand. He didn’t want to push, but they still had to play their part. He felt her cool fingers close around his hand.

------

Wylan’s eyes were wide, probably in surprise. They were late and they weren’t supposed to be coming from the gardens. She only hoped her lips weren’t bruised from the kiss. She didn’t want Wylan to think they were late because they had been unprofessional. She knew he’d have to report it to Kaz. Wylan was by far the worse liar of the crew. He couldn’t keep anything from their boss.

If Kaz thought Y/N was compromised, that she couldn’t do her job… She knew he wouldn’t send her back to the Blue Iris. Or did she? Kaz was known to be ruthless after all. If she fucked up the job? If she wasn’t useful anymore? She’d been with the crows for a long time now. She thought of the crows as her family. But did Kaz really think of her that way too? She’d like to believe Kaz loved her the way the same way she did. She couldn’t be sure. She was spiraling. She had to get a grip. They still had to play the part.

Jesper raised a questioning eyebrow at her. She ignored it and plastered a smile on her face. “Hello,” she had to keep herself from grimacing. Her voice had been all wrong, way too high. She tried correcting it. “I don’t believe we’ve met.”

She saw the look of absolute confusion in Jesper’s eyes. Wylan looked more concerned than confused. This is bad. “Ketterdam has the most surprising weather, doesn’t it?” Wylan smiled. This was the phrase they had agreed upon to convene the success of their operation.

-----

The party had settled down about an hour later. The number of party guests dwindling steadily. Jesper and Wylan had taken their leave about 15 minutes before Y/N and Nikolai, keeping up the pretense of only having met that night.

They were now safely back at the Hendriks’ house, standing around the table in the dining room, examining the blueprints.

“Everything go according to plan?” Kaz inquired.

“Kinda” her voice was unsure. She knew it was better to tell Kaz now. She fiddled with the hem of the tablecloth.

“What do you mean ‘kinda’?” His face would’ve been unreadable to most, but Y/N could see the apprehension there.

She felt Nikolai tense up by her side. Her mind kept travelling back to the feeling of his lips on hers. She needed to focus. “It took me too long to open the safe. We were behind on the schedule and a guard came back to the hallway before we could leave.” She met Kaz’s eyes. “Don’t worry, the door was locked.”

“How did you explain what you were doing in a part of the house clearly closed to guests?” Zoya sounded curious.

Nikolai was the one to answer her, “What could a handsome man and his gorgeous wife possibly be doing in a deserted corridor in the middle of a party?” The sarcasm that laced his voice painting the picture clearly for everyone.

Y/N lowered her eyes, the blueprints suddenly very fascinating to her. She felt her cheeks flush once again.

“Quick thinking. The guard believed it?” Kaz didn’t sound mad. She risked a peek at him. He was looking directly at her. From the look he gave her she knew they weren’t done talking about this.

“No need to worry, Brekker.” Of course, Nikolai couldn’t leave it at that. He had to make it worse. “We made it believable.” He winked. “Also, Y/N is way too modest about her acting abilities.”

tagged: @power-of-words23

[thefanficmonster]

Real Friends

Valkyrae & Reader (Male)

Warnings: Swearing

Genre: SMAU, Platonic fluff, RPF (Real Person Fic)

Summary: Following an accidental and not very consensual face reveal, Y/N’s dealing the sudden shift of the spotlight on him even more than it was before. Being the big deal he is on social media, the internet has every right to be freaking out. Luckily, he’s got a friend to help him cope with it all.

Requested by @iawaythrown Hii! Thank you so much for your request! I’m so sorry for how long it has taken me to complete your request and post it but here it finally is. I’ve never written a SMAU before so this isn’t the classic SMAU format but I still hope you’ll enjoy it! Love, Vy ❤

Imagine you end a toxic relationship of almost a year and go to bed feeling like a ton of bricks has been lifted off you, like you can finally breathe properly and like you’re finally getting a taste of freedom. The very freedom you chose to lose by getting in the toxic relationship in the first place. Of course, I didn’t know it was toxic at the time, probably cause it wasn’t, but it gradually turned into a nightmare.

A nightmare that keeps haunting me even after I thought I had put an end to it.

Apparently, that was wishful thinking cause I woke up this morning to find an unbelievable number of notifications and messages from friends, family and my manager and associates. Being in the music industry as a faceless creator, I keep my circle tight and it only consists of people I can trust so to see them all freaking out at me at once, even the most level-headed ones, freaked me out too. Quickly, I opened the first notification I reflexively tapped on and it opened a post in which someone had tagged me.

A picture taken of me while I was asleep, no doubt one taken by my ex. That being said, I think we can all have a guess at who posted it in the first place. I didn’t listen to my manager when he told me to not allow anyone I trust 1000% into my inner circle. I was foolish and at the peak of my career, feeling on top of the world and feeling invincible which was rare for me. I’ve always been insecure about many things in my life, growing up with a lot of judgy people made me be that way. Not to mention that I didn’t want to be the victim of the internet’s racism either. People turn a blind eye most of the time, but it’s still there, it still exists and looms over all social media platforms, disturbing people’s peace left and right.  You see, I didn’t want people to have an opinion of my art based on my appearance or associations with other creators. I’m pretty good friends with many content creators, especially in the gaming industry, but I’ve never wanted to be put in a box as one of the many friends of someone famous. I made a name for myself without anyone knowing who I am exactly.

And now they all know because of this photo that my ex sent to float down the rivers of hungry social media:

Damn am I gonna get an earful from my manager or what. It’s still rater early though and I’m really not about to deal with this drama on a caffeine-free brain so if there are any calls, emails or messages that need answering - and yes, there are PLENTY of them - they’ll all have to wait until I feel like dealing with them. I’m glad I don’t have to keep up this unbothered charade at home since I live alone cause I seriously don’t feel ok with this. I mean, I could probably report it, but what use would that be when my brand now has a face and a huge chunk of my privacy has already surfaced against my will.

As I sit in my kitchen, sipping my coffee, I finally gather the nerve to at least scroll through the notifications that I’ve received. Fans reaching out, relatives, friends, pissed off people that are there just to exist and try to disturb my peaceful existence but all they’re gonna get is a hard DELETE from me. I have offers on top of offers for modeling pending, waiting on my response. I’ve never considered it, being a faceless creator and all, but my manager will definitely want to milk some cash from this too. That thought makes me sigh in defeat. I have no one to blame but myself for trusting my ex. No one made me do it, no one made me let them in, but I still did, fucking myself over insanely. Just like they’ve now fucked me over.

Amongst the sea of notifications and yet to be opened messages, one in particular stands out and makes me do a double take. It’s a message from my friend Rae - Valkyrae, as she’s known online. She’s one of those gamer friends I mentioned earlier, probably the one I’m closest with. Her and I talk on the regular so seeing a message from her in my inbox is nothing unusual so I wonder why that was the one that stuck out to me. Regardless, that’s the only one I feel like opening and replying to at the moment.

V ~ Hey Y/N, you doing ok? This all must be really hard on you so don’t feel obligated to reply. Do so when you can or want to. I’m here if you wanna talk

Of course Rae would be the one to know how I truly feel in a situation like this. I can act and cover up all I want but she knows exactly what’s underneath the surface of my façade. That third eye friends have for each other, it’s incredible.

Me ~ Doing ok. Wasn’t expecting to wake up to this but now that millions of people know what I look like it feels oddly bittersweet, you know? Like I don’t have to go out of my way to hide anymore but I’m also gonna miss that privacy I had while I was a phantom

Me ~ On the upside: people want me to be a model now XD

My message goes to Seen almost write away, the Typing icon appearing shortly after the messages were read. I wait for Rae’s reply, sipping my slowly cooling coffee with little interest due to how invested I am in our conversation. If there’s a person who can make light of this situation, it’s Rae, no doubt about it.

V ~ I know what you mean. It’s not gonna be easy to adjust to but you will get used to it eventually. I’m sure you’ll even grow to like it. Promise you, it’s not that scary to be exposed, there’s literal millions of people who support you wholeheartedly :) 

V ~ Us, your friends, are here too! Never forget that, we’ve always got your back, Y/N!

V ~ Oh and you really should be a model! Whoever’s saying that has got the right idea. Maybe don’t fear this new change, but embrace it! Take this new turn in your life confidently. Sure, it was out of the blue, but do you really want the person who exposed you to feel the satisfaction of bringing you down? That doesn’t sound like you at all tbh

The epiphany strikes me as soon as Rae’s words sink in as I read them. She’s 100% right. The last thing I want is for my ex to think they’ve won. I refuse to give them the pleasure of tasting victory on the expense of my mental health and career progress. In fact, imma show them just how much they benefited me. But first...

Me ~ Thank you so much, Rae. Thank you from the bottom of my heart for this eye-opener

Me ~ I owe you one <3

I sure as hell owe her one, but for now I have other battles to win.

Rifling through my gallery, I find one more recent picture and without a shred of doubt or hesitation, I go straight to Instagram to post it.

~ “Since y’all were curious...And since y’all wanna see me model, you’re welcome” ~

Within seconds likes and comments start flowing in like a riptide, taking over my phone that, despite being charged all night, is already at half of its battery life.

I refresh the page with the post to look at the new comments that have come through, all supportive and complimenting me, some are real thirsty and some are incredibly kind. And even in that sea, her comment still sticks out to me, making me grin like an idiot.

“That’s what I was talking about! Work it, Y/N!“

[samsgayblog]

Lightbulbs

What I do to go out of my way to give a good impression. To be fair it all comes from desperation.

I’ve always had a bit of a love hate relationship with Grindr. I love the that it is probably the best way to find out who is gay near to where you live and saves an awful lot of potential missed signs and signals, or worse. I hate it because the only people who tend to message me are overweight men over the age of 60 years old looking for a piece of ass.

I have tried to meet guys on other platforms, and I've even tried online dating using sites like Plenty of Fish, but strangely the sites set up for actual dating tend to have more crazies on than Grindr. Gay social networking is such a strange one and still to this day I can’t get my head around it. I mean in what world is it more normal to send a dick or ass pic to a random stranger who doesn’t even have a profile picture and who you know nothing about, vs just simply opening with a question or even maybe just saying ‘Hi’?

I’m not offended that people send me super personal images of themselves, although I do wonder how many of them have considered what some random anonymous crazy person, they just sent a picture of their face and dick too could do with it that image.

What I dislike about Grindr in particular is that there is no real etiquette. I mean on the occasions where I have practically given up on life and downloaded the app I always set my profile to Looking for Mates and Dates, and yet I have been screamed at so many times and told to get off the app just because I'm not interested in hookups. Surely Grindr can’t just be used for sleazy cheap hookups. I also don’t get why it’s just expected that after telling a person my name, age and what I've been up to that day, it’s just expected that the next logical thing to do would be to send a dick pic or something.

Don’t get me wrong there has been one or two guys I have chatted to, and even met up with (not for sex) who have actually been able to sustain an actual human conversation. There have also been a number of people who have said they too are looking to date.

The art of dating is something of a mystery to me. It’s fucking hard. What I mean is that I've been on a fair few first dates with guys I've met from apps like grindr or dating sites like Plenty of Fish, but I never seem to make it past the first date. I believe they call it ghosting, when someone is talking to you for one minute and then stops all of a sudden and never speaks to you again.

You know the worst part about dating?

You don’t get feedback like at school or college lol. I mean I've been ghosted enough times after a first date to know it’s probably me lol. I don’t quite know what it is as I always try to talk honestly about me and my life and make an effort. Ok maybe I can be a little two honest sometimes. The closest thing to feedback I've had from a date was him saying ‘you know, you're probably the most interesting person i’ve ever met’ but then after saying that the guy never spoke to me again. I didn’t badger him or anything, I simply sent a message the next day saying, ‘it was nice meeting you and I think we should do it again’ and I don’t think that's too out there as a response and yet nothing. I mean if you think i’m interesting then why wouldn’t you want to meet up at least one more time.

It’s probably because #interesting is a code word for strange and that the guy clearly thinks i’m messed up or something. The annoying thing is that I'll never know.

Early on when I forst started dating there was a website called GYC (Gay Youth Corner) and it was great. It really helped me come to terms with being gay, it had great forums where people gave advice and talked about their lives. I met my first BF on GYC actually lol.

In the early days of dating I can imagine I would have come on too strongly, after all I used to be the romantic type back then, dreaming that one day i'll come out of the closet and meet the man of my dreams, get married and NEVER HAVE CHILDREN (I grew up in a house with 13 kids, believe me it’s enough to put you off lol).

When I eventually did start being honest with myself and came out and then later actually officially came out to my friends, then I was so feeling like I needed to make up for lost time, after all I was 16 and I witnessed practically all my straight friends (meaning both my friends lol) have relationships in school.

As soon as I came out I decided ‘I so want a BF’ and well that's a story for another time, but the point that I think I was making was that years ago I didn’t really date, I kind of interviewed potential life partners lol. So sure maybe my direct personal questions put a few guys off but I also had a need to please and to feel wanted and that probably doesn’t make me appear very good. I mean the gays can smell the despiration can’t they lol.

As mentioned I also had a bit of a need to please on dates, which didn’t extend most of the time to putting out (although it’s been known to happen). Growing up not being popular and being officially nominated as the least popular and most unattractive boy in my school year group (thanks to Miss English), that kinda gave me a need to be liked by people, and my need to please has gotten me into all sorts stupid situations over the years.

Take this specific situation where I was talking to some on Grindr, we did the usual chit chat and then finally got around to talking about something actually interesting which was a project this guy was working on for a carnival float. The only problem was his supplier had let him down and he needed a few hundred special light bulbs (not the sort you can buy from a hardware store). What do I do but jump to the rescue and tell him I can get him some. I had an account at a wholesaler and placed and order and paid for them.

What possessed me to spend £150+ on lightbulbs for some random person i’ve never met? Probably because I needed to feel useful, wanted him to like me and have a compulsion to solve problems (that's by far one of the traits that's served me best throughout my working life at least.

I had the bulbs which I had gotten delivered and packed them in my works van and I arranged to meet him which did involve me driving about an hour to get to some strange village in the middle of nowhere lol. I finally met the guy and he told me, ‘ah yeah mate, it turns out I got the bulbs after all so I don’t need them.’ Was I pissed off? Yeah but of course I wanted to make a good impression so I smiled and said ‘oh that’s alright i’ll take them back then.’ I never could take those bloody bulbs back, they were a special custom job so I had to fork out the money myself and was lumbered with about 200 funny shaped bulbs in the garage for about a year. I did try to sell them on ebay but let's be fair only a couple sold at a time.

Moral of that story, I’m an idiot and need to stop jumping to random peoples rescue who I don’t know. Did I learn that lesson then? No chance because I've done similar things since. I feel a New Year's resolution coming on lol.

[canary3d-obsessed]

Restless Rewatch: Nirvana in Fire, Episode 02

(Masterpost) (Other Canary Stuff)

Warning: Spoilers for All 54 Episodes!

A Cunning Plan

Let's start by checking in with the in-progress schemes. Nirvana in Fire features many, many overlapping schemes that stretch across multiple episodes.

Princess Nihuang's Marriage: Princess Nihuang is betrothed to a dead guy, and that's fine with her. If she needs tender emotional care she's got Xia Dong. Xia Dong is married to a dead guy so this works well for both of them.  

The Emperor wants to marry Nihuang off, because she's got a loyal heap of troops at the southern border, and he's a paranoid old fuck, who doesn't like anyone to have the power to overthrow him. Marrying her will sort of force her to hand her troops off to her impulsive younger brother, or something.

The Emperor has a soft spot for Nihuang, however, so he's allowed her to set a bunch of impossible conditions on the marriage, including a martial arts contest. NIF is a hybrid palace drama and Wuxia drama, so there are courtesans and backstabbing and sneaky maids and sneaky eunuchs but also, people can fly.

The two main power seekers, Prince Yu and the Crown Prince, have flunkies that they want Nihuang to marry, but their flunkies suck at martial arts, so if they want her to marry one of their dudes, there will have to be cheating.

Note that Nihuang's good friends Jingrui and Yujin are taking part in the contest to marry her, which might be weird, except they both know she can beat their asses so they seem to just be joining in for fun & prestige. 

The fact that she doesn't want to marry either of these loveable cuties means that she's pretty serious about staying betrothed to her first love, despite his apparent deadness.

(more after the cut!)

Recruiting Mei Changsu / Killing Mei Changsu: Team Prince Yu wants to recruit Mei Changsu. Team Crown Prince wants to recruit him or kill him, if recruiting him doesn't work. 

Mei Changsu acts like this is so tedious; all he wants to do is rest. But they only want to recruit him because he and his pal Lin Chen made them believe he is the answer to their problems.  Whenever Mei Changsu acts annoyed at something, it's probably something he actually orchestrated. "Pork chops again?" (secretly buys more pork chops).

The Duke Qing/ Landgrab Case: In Episode 1, the Jiangzuo Alliance protected some witnesses against Duke Qing in an enslavement/land grabbing case. It's difficult for me to find anything about historical land grabbing in China because Google is full of 21st century land grabbing information. Anyway Duke Qing works for Prince Yu, so the witnesses are (whether they mean to be or not) on The Crown Prince's side. The Emperor has an interest in this case, because land grabbing is bad, apparently, even by corrupt-emperor standards. Xia Dong is in charge of investigating.

The Chiyan Army Case: This is the big conspiracy that the entire show is about. 11 years ago, the Emperor received evidence that Prince Qi, Lin Xie (Mei Changsu's father), and the entire Chiyan army were going to rebel. This was supposedly reported by Xia Dong's husband, Nie Feng, before Lin Xie supposedly killed him. The emperor ordered executions for everybody.

Prince Jing thought this was a bunch of bullshit and didn't hesitate to say so, which got him sent off to distant regions to do army things for years at a time, and landed him a place high up on the emperor’s shit list.

The Hazelnut Pastry Scheme: This is a small scale, benevolent scheme, in which Concubine Jing will eventually stop making cookies with hazelnuts in them, because Mei Changsu is allergic to them. 

Ok, that’s the scheme roundup for this episode. On with the show!

Everybody Was Kung Fu Fighting

After a quick expository chat between the Emperor and Gong Gao, laying out the reasons for the Nihuang Marriage Scheme, we go to Prince Yu’s place to watch superhot Meng Zhi, commander of the emperor's guards, whip some ass. Not, alas, literally.  Despite his leather shoulder thingies and his handsome beard, and his commanding ways on a battlefield, when it comes to interpersonal relations he is pretty much a labrador retriever puppy in human form.

Meng Zhi is kicking the asses of Prince Yu’s fighters to determine if they're qualified to compete in the Marriage contest. They are not. He points out to the Prince that they can't put such terrible wimps into the competition because it will make the country’s defenses look weak.  

This beatdown is observed by Prince Yu and by Xie Yu, who Prince Yu thinks is on his side. Xie is 100% on the Crown Prince's side, but is carefully hiding that fact; he has his son working for Prince Yu as part of his cover.

In determining how severe an ass kicking is, everyone talks about how many moves it takes to defeat someone, like it's chess. Meng Zhi can beat literally anyone else in the show. He's number two on the Langya List of fighters & we never meet #1.

Fe Liu Was Fast as Lightning

Mei Changsu is hanging out in the garden at Xie manor while Fe Liu jumps around. Fe Liu wants Mei Changsu to play Roblox with him, and pouts when MCS opts for staying in the garden and reading a book.

Fe Liu is utterly devoted to Mei Changsu; I really love their relationship. Fe Liu’s backstory isn't fully explained in the show, but apparently he was raised from an early age to focus on being extremely lethal, and didn't spend much time learning to talk or other skills, making him the epitome of the asynchronous/ gifted teen. Mei Changsu isn’t who raised him to be like this; MCS and Lin Chen rescued him, which is why he is now Mei Changsu’s personal murder pet.

Fe Liu is both a complete fantasy character and also a really believable teen, beautifully acted by Leo Wu, who DMBJ fans know from Tomb of the Sea, and who Xiao Zhan fans know from Battle Through the Heavens.

Fe Lui promptly gets into a fight with Meng Zhi, who's visiting Xie manor. All Fe Liu was doing was leaping about the rooftops like an assassin, but since Xie Yu is the sort of guy that a lot of people would like to kill, Meng Zhi doesn't think this is so good. They have a hilarious, entertaining fight with many, many wire-assisted moves.

They're pretty evenly matched, and Xie Yu watches them with extreme interest until Mei Changsu shows up and tells Fe Liu to stop. Xie Yu is watching because he needs to know how many dudes he should send to assassinate Mei Changsu. Answer: more. Always more.

Unfortunately, (or fortunately since it’s probably all part of MCS’s plan) Fe Liu's extreme skilz make it obvious that his boss is someone important. Mei Changsu discusses this with Jingrui and Yujin in an open-air setting where Jingrui's brother Xie Bi can totally hear them.  In no time flat, father and son have reported his identity to their respective princes.

Over at Prince Yu's place, Qin Banruo and her awesome eye makeup join the party. She's Prince Yu’s advisor/manipulator, working for the (fallen) Hua kingdom, led by the (deceased) Princess Xuanji . She has a network of spies who work for her, that she deploys for Prince Yu's schemes. Her ultimate goal is not to help him, however, but just to fuck up the Da Liang Empire, which conquered the Hua.

(Nearly) Everybody Hates Jingyan

Xia Dong heads out on her assignment in the Land Grab Case, and Nihuang goes to see her off. They talk about gender expectations and how annoying it is to have to marry a dude, and briefly hang out being WLW goals with their mutual devotion, excellent fashion sense and deadly fighting abilities. Nihuang, in particular, wears the prettiest things and also stands at attention like she's commanding an army; I adore her.

They're interrupted by the arrival of Prince Jing, who is greeted cheerfully by Nihuang and eye-rollingly by Xia Dong.  

He's wearing an awesome brass-and-blue armor that we never see again after this episode. It's too bad - it's a good color for him and it has a cool vampire cloak with a high collar.

Prince Jing takes the opportunity to snark at Xia Dong about her investigation and the Xuanjing Bureau’s penchant for inventing finding conspiracies, and then rides off before she can reply.

This leads Nihuang and Xia Dong to get into their chronic argument about the Chiyan Conspiracy and the Lin family, and then Xia Dong hits the road.

Prince Jing and his subordinates stand around outside the palace waiting to report to the emperor while the emperor ignores him. They get sweatier and sweatier while they wait. which makes me like the Emperor a little bit more.

Prince Yu and CP Xian are busy sucking up to the emperor as they look at a manuscript. They are a bunch of assholes and you can see that Gao Zhan isn't a fan of this bullshit.

Eventually Gao Zhan reminds/persuades the emperor to summon Prince Jing, whose brothers snark at him like a couple of 12 year old girls while he radiates manly vigor and handsomeness.  

Consort Jin is bummed that she can't see Prince Jing for another 5 days, and her maid sidekick says random comforting things. This maid, Xiao Xin, is actually a little snake, who works for Qin Banruo's network. We don't learn that until sometime later.

All of the maids have this same hairstyle. If you are a westerner and you think this hairstyle is crazy, have a look at some Roman and Byzantine historic hairstyles. I'm not saying this hairstyle is NOT crazy, mind you; just that crazy hair was a feature of many, many historical empires.  

Consort Jing has someone deliver her hazelnut cookies to Prince Jing; she doesn’t know about Mei Changsu yet so hazelnut is still on the menu. Nicest mom. Also smartest, helpful-est mom, as the story develops.

Suck-Up Contest

At Xie manor, Xie Bi tries to get Mei Changsu to go meet the Empress, who has stopped by with Nihuang specifically to meet him, as part of the Recruit Mei Changsu scheme. Jingrui says nope, fuck that, he's not going to be a pawn in your political games, fuck off. We get to see Jingrui being steely and righteous, which is both cool and hot. Nihuang should totally marry him.

The Empress is annoyed that Mei Changsu doesn't show up, and Nihuang is like, it's ok, I don’t actually give a fuck about meeting new men. But I did want to meet his murder puppy Fe Liu.

Grand Princess Liyang says they don’t need to bother meeting pugilists, despite her son being one and her supposed best friends/co-parents also being pugilists.

Grand Princess Liyang will probably be glad Mei Changsu didn’t come to her little party, once she realizes what tends to happen when Mei Changsu comes to a party.

Then we go to the suitor tournament, in which everyone more or less sucks.

The princes really want to go over to Mei Changsu’s balcony to meet him, and they have a hilarious silent interaction where they both try not to be the first one to move. They finally cave, and go together.  

Then they compete to see who can be the most cringe and blow the most smoke up Mei Changsu's ass.

They ply him with gifts and flattery, which he mostly manages to resist.

Cookie Time with Granny

Then they get summoned to go meet the grand empress, who is (I think) the mother of the previous emperor, the grandmother of the current emperor, and the great grandmother of basically every highborn character of the current generation, including Nihuang and Yujin, although it’s not clear where they sit in the family tree. Historically, cousin marriage - particularly of maternal cousins - was no big whoop in China, so it's not surprising that a lot of nobles would share a great-grandmother.

The Grand Empress is a sweet lady with dementia. She can’t figure out who the hell anyone is. First-time viewers feel the same way.  

Her dementia is pretty well depicted, unlike a lot of TV dementia, or at least it matches up to my experiences with my own elders. She remembers the distant past more vividly than recent times; when she understands who’s in front of her she connects with them emotionally, but she falls off track easily. And she projects the identities of people she misses onto people who are around her.

Like many other grannies, no matter who is visiting, she wants them to 1. get married 2. produce offspring 3. eat something, you’re so skinny

When Mei Changsu meets Granny she immediately calls him Lin Shu, either because she recognizes him or because she really misses Lin Shu, or both. She calls Nihuang over and joins their hands, and Mei Changsu grabs onto Nihuang's hand and holds it for a while.

Everyone thinks it's adorable that Granny has dementia and is confused about that guy who was horribly killed, except Nihuang, who was already checking Mei Changsu out and is somewhat verklempt. She might have to revise her anti-man feelings a little bit.

Everyone leaves, and Nihuang hits up Mei Changsu to take a walk with her, casually mentioning that she could have his hand cut off for touching her, but since she's not in the mood, he's ok.

She prods a bit to find out what he's doing in town and what he's up to. “Do you have a girlfriend? Like a serious girlfriend or just a stalker who works for you?” She asks him which of the two princes he's going to support, but they’re interrupted by a eunuch beating a slave child. That’s the price you pay for trying to have a date in the palace, I guess.

[ibijau]

“Stop borrowing flowers out of my garden to woo people who don’t even treat you right.” said by Jiang Cheng! Hm, could you make this mingcheng???

This one got away from me so it’s a tiny bit longer than the usual, oops?

The problem was that strictly speaking, it wasn’t a garden. It was just a patch of dirt on the side of a long abandoned construction project that had never been completed due to lack of funds, or embezzlement, or some other bullshit that Jiang Cheng had never cared enough about to try and find out.

It wasn’t a garden.

But Jiang Cheng had been planting flowers there, out of sheer boredom, because he lived right next door and missed the greeneries of his parents’ house. Their garden had always been gorgeous, perfectly maintained by his mother, an absolute work of art. It was the only place she seemed happy. It was the only thing Jiang Cheng missed about his old life. Those quiet moments when his mother, in a fit of good mood, took him around her garden, her one true love, and explained to him about the plants and how to best care for them. People in their circle would sometimes joke that Zu Ziyuan loved her garden more than her family.

Jiang Cheng had never found it funny. Perhaps because he knew what it was like to envy mulberry leaves for the tenderness with which Yu Ziyuan would remove caterpillars from them, when she could hardly be near her son without pushing him around.

For a while, Jiang Cheng had hated gardens. That wasn’t the whole reason why he’d moved to the city, but it had probably impacted his choice anyway. He’d wanted to get as far away from his parents’ life as he could.

But in the end, something must have run in his blood. After months of walking by that abandoned patch of dirt, Jiang Cheng had given in one day. He’d bought some bulbs and seeds, a beginner’s guide to gardening, and set out to work.

It had surprised him when flowers actually started growing. Jiang Cheng was used to failure, and his mother used to tell him he had no skill for gardening. No skill for anything really, but gardening in particular seemed to piss her off. 

But there were some wallflowers and geraniums to prove she’d been wrong about this.

About other things too, perhaps. For the time being, Jiang Cheng just clung to the gardening thing.

The entire first week after the flowers started growing, Jiang Cheng expected that whoever owned the plot of land would come to pour bleach on them. It was private property after all. But the plot appeared to be fully abandoned, and that meant Jiang Cheng was free to do as he pleased.

He got more flowers, making sure to pick varieties that were good for bees, because that would make his sister happy, if he ever got around to calling her. He also planted tomatoes, and after hesitation a few courgettes, because those grew like weeds and it wouldn’t matter if someone stole a few, or even all of them. It was the sort of things that’d make his brother happy, except he talked to him even less than to his sister, so Jiang Cheng wasn’t sure why that mattered.

What mattered was that the garden made him happy in a way he hadn’t been in a while. It gave him something to care about. To care for. Something to check on in the morning as he headed out to work, a place to spend a little time when he came home. It encouraged some of the neighbours to chat with him, when up until then they’d apparently half wondered if he was a serial killer with his constant angry face. The little old lady next door asked if she could borrow some of the vegetables growing, and gave him half the dish she made using them.

It felt like a homecooked meal, in a way the family gatherings he still occasionally attended never did.

“You should try planting daylilies,” she suggested. “Pretty and delicious, it’d be a win. My grandmother used to prepare them for us, I’m sure I can remember how to do it too.”

Jiang Cheng did as she asked, and sweet old madam Wen delivered on her promise when the flowers were ready. She invited Jiang Cheng to have lunch with him one Sunday, when her nephew and niece were there. It should have been awkward, but madam Wen was a cheerful old lady that managed to get all three of them chatting as if they’d always known each other.

Better than if they’d always known each other, in Jiang Cheng’s case.

He ended up trading phone numbers with both siblings. Not because he felt like flirting with either, as their aunt so clearly hoped for, but so he knew who to contact if something happened to the old lady. Wen Qing wasn’t very chatty, except to complain about their roommate from hell, but Wen Ning often asked for photos of the garden, and in exchange sent Jiang Cheng pictures of the dogs he got to see at the veterinary clinic where he worked.

For the first time in years, Jiang Cheng felt that things weren’t so bad.

So when one evening after work he dropped by his garden and saw a stranger in an expensive thought pacing by his courgettes, Jiang Cheng felt a familiar dread. If this was the plot’s owner, if he had come to ruin things…

Jiang Cheng rushed ahead, ready to plead his case.

Then stopped after a few steps when the man turned his way. He was handsome. Very handsome. The sort of handsome that belonged on the pages of a magazine, not in the middle of Jiang Cheng’s shitty illegal garden.

The man was also on the phone with someone, and apparently so deep in an argument that he didn’t even see Jiang Cheng just a few metres from him.

“You are the worst,” the man shouted at his phone, “and I swear I’m kicking you out this time. I will… no, don’t cry. Stop crying, it doesn’t work anymore! You…”

The handsome stranger started pacing nervously between the courgettes as whoever was on the other end of the conversation made their case.

“Listen, you are going to calm down, ok? I’m… hey, I’m bringing you flowers. How does that sound?”

He leaned down toward the daylilies, not yet picking one as he waited for the other person to reply.

“Of course real flowers. You… listen, I don’t have the energy for this. We’ll deal with it when I get home.”

The man hung up, and started tearing away Jiang Cheng’s flowers, roots and all, like a barbarian.

Jiang Cheng had always allowed everyone to take what they wanted or needed, but only if they showed some respect for his efforts.

“Stop borrowing flowers out of my garden to woo people who don’t even treat you right!” he barked, stomping toward the man.

The handsome stranger, startled, dropped the flowers.

“Your garden? What do you mean, your garden?”

“You think this got here on its own?” Jiang Cheng asked, gesturing at his garden. It wasn’t as beautiful as his mother’s, but it was his all the same and it loved his plants.

The man looked around with wide eyes, as if he hadn’t even noticed before where he was.

“Sorry, I thought they were just… wild flowers. Did you plant all of those?”

“Not the pumpkins, that’s the kids from down the streets who thought it’d be fun. And the herbs are madam Wen’s because she doesn’t like getting them from the store if she can get fresh ones. But the rest is mine.”

“Must have been a lot of work,” the man said with an admirative whistle. “I can make a cactus die of thirst, so I’m impressed, you must be really good. You’ve been at it for a while?”

“A couple months,” Jiang Cheng grumbled, refusing to let praise from a handsome man get to him. “I live next door and this place has been abandoned for ages apparently.”

“So it’s not your garden,” the stranger noted with a grin. “Well, if you’ve stolen the land, I feel less bad about stealing flowers. It’s not like you can call the cops on me.”

He bent down, ready to slaughter more flowers, so Jiang Cheng did the logical thing and pushed him to protect his daylilies. The handsome stranger fell in the dirt, which thankfully was dry and wouldn’t stain too badly. Jiang Cheng wasn’t sure he could afford to repay that suit.

“If you’re going to steal my flowers for your shitty manipulative wife, at least do it properly. Nobody wants a bouquet with roots.”

The man blinked a few times, a little disoriented after being pushed down. When he saw Jiang Cheng grab the torn daylilies and carefully cut the stems so he could replant the roots, the stranger laughed.

“You’re really passionate about this, uh,” he said, standing up and wiping the dirt from his suit. “That wasn’t my wife on the phone, by the way.”

“Your manipulative husband then,” Jiang Cheng retorted, cutting a few more flowers.

“Little brother,” the man corrected. “Apparently he got drunk last week, slept with my best friend, panicked, ghosted him, left town for five days to hide at his best friend’s house, and now he’s… ah, but you probably don’t care.”

Jiang Cheng shouldn’t care, no, but he couldn’t help laughing at the crazy story. It sounded like something right out of a shitty soap opera, or the kind of bullshit that Wei Wuxian used to pull all the time, back when he was still part of Jiang Cheng’s life.

“My brother’s the same,” Jiang Cheng said, handing out the small bouquet he’d managed to salvage. “Did you take those so he can go apologise to your friend?”

“Honestly, I’m not sure if he’s going to give them to Xichen or if he just wants to keep them to feel spoiled. I’m not sure I’ll give them to him, anyway. It’s not every day a handsome man gives me a bouquet, I’ll be tempted to keep it.”

Jiang Cheng shrugged and rolled his eyes, and absolutely did not blush like a schoolgirl being complimented by her crush.

“Just go give those to your brother. And learn to cut flowers properly, asshole.”

“If I drop by again, will you teach me?”

Jiang Cheng shrugged again and turned away, so it wouldn’t be too obvious just how red his face was. He’d have slapped himself if he could have. It was ridiculous to react so strongly. His only excuse was that the man was really, really gorgeous and had a really, really nice voice… and that it had been a long while since anyone had flirted with him, even this badly.

“Maybe I will, if I can find the time. My life’s not a fucking soap opera but I have my own stuff to do.”

“Fair enough. Well, I hope I’ll see you around. It was nice talking to you.”

Jiang Cheng shrugged, and refused to turn around to watch that too handsome man go, though he might have been slightly tempted.

He’d lost enough time to that asshole already, and the tomatoes weren’t going to water themselves.

[footballerindreams]

How I Met Your Mother - Kanemoto Yoshinori

Right timing! Yoshi’s birthday is coming up! Therefore here’s an imagine dedicated for him.

S/O to @treasuredays​!

We all know that Yoshi has always adored his hyung, Choi Hyunsuk. But did you know there is one more person is adored…or should I say loved more than Choi Hyunsuk. You could say Yoshi’s family but it’s already given. Actually, there is another “Choi” that he loves: CHOI Y/N.

Who is she?

Oh. She’s just a Kindergarten teacher and just the beloved and closest cousin of Hyunsuk.

And how their love story bloomed is one heck of a whirlwind.

Aside from being an idol, Yoshi had engrossed himself with drawings and paintings. He draws and paints on his other free time (the other free time is producing music). One day Haruto came to his room to ask something and Yoshi was painting.

“Woah! Senpai! When was the last time I came here?” Ruto asked.

“Uhm, last week? Why?” the older Japanese replied.

“Is it just me or your room is now full of your artwork?” the younger said.

At the moment, Yoshi’s room is stacked with so many finished paintings on canvasses on one side of the room, a few stacks of sketches and drawings on his table. And now on the floor is another painting about to be finished as well.

“Do you have any plans for this, senpai?” HAruto asked again.

“Actually, no. You know me Ruto. I just paint and draw as a hobby.”

“Don’t tell me, your going to get rid all of these later.”

“WHAT! NO! I’ve worked hard on this!”

“Ok. But for sure you are not planning to look for another room and use this room as your stock room for all your paintings. And besides your works are good. Why don’t you show it publicly?”

“I did. Treasure map?”

“Aside from that.”

“Then what do you suggest to do?”

And so later that night, the members had a meeting and decided they will have an open exhibit for all of Yoshi’s work. At first they wanted it to display on the lobby of the YG Building. But the other idols (like Bobby-hyung) and the higher ups said, “Go all out.” and in the end Yoshi’s drawings are displayed at the Samsung Museum of Art.

Then came D-Day for Yoshi’s exhibit and as expected, many people came to see his work. From fans, to even high profile people. Hell! Even Samsung’s CEO came to see and wanted to buy some of Yoshi’s artwork and the man was shocked. Did he sold it, of course…No at first. The CEO wanted to buy one of his work for more than 2 Million Won and all of the members are flabbergasted…and more flabbergasted when Yoshi refused it. But after some consideration (thanks to Hyunsuk saying that he can do more paintings if he wants to), he said yes.

 Yoshi is busy roaming around when he saw a group of children, probably Kindergarten students coming in the exhibit hall. Yoshi has always been fond of kids so he said his hellos to them, until he caught sight of their teacher.

“Y/N! You’re here!” Hyunsuk shouted running towards the teacher.

“Hi, hyung! Yeah. It happened that the kids have field trip today and I decided to take them to this exhibit when I saw an ad yesterday. I never expected to see you here too.” Y/N replied.

“Well, the exhibit is all Yoshi’s work. You know him, right?” Hyunsuk said with a smile while patting Yoshi’s shoulder.

“Wow! Is this all of your work?” Y/N was amazed.

“Hai…I mean…Ne!” Yoshi stuttered.

“They’re so beautiful.”

You’re beautiful as well.

“Arigato gozaimasu…” Yoshi bowed in embarrassment.

---

Well, that was not the last time Yoshi saw Y/N. The next time was at Hyunsuk’s birthday.  And this time he really sucked up all the courage he has…just to get her number, which she gladly gave.

Sure after that they sent messages, called, and even hanged out!

Though Yoshi is liking her more and more, he never said what he felt. He thought hanging out with her is enough.

---

“Tadaima.” Yoshi said as he entered their dorm. He just came back from another hangout with Choi Y/N.

“Well, guess who came home so “early”.” Hyunsuk sarcastically greeted while sitting on the couch. It seems like he’s waiting for a particular someone to come home.

“Hyung, you’re still up?” Yoshi said.

Hyunsuk stood up almost jumping from the couch and approached the younger member who is taller than him. “Yeah. Care to say where have you been the whole time?” Hyunsuk asked.

“I was at the studio working on---”

“Don’t lie to me Yoshinori. I know you’ve been meeting with Y/N the whole time you are out of the dorm.” Yoshi swallowed the lump on his throat as he looked at his hyung. He knows Hyunsuk is really serious.

“Stay away from her.” Just is what Hyunsuk only said and then he went to his room.

---

Yesterday

Yoshi! I have free time this Saturday. Can we hangout?

Hi Yoshi! You’re probably busy right now. I’m sorry if I am disturbing you.

Today

Hi Yoshi. Is there something wrong? It’s so unusual that you’re not replying.

I know I sound intrusive, but you know, you can talk to me.

I’m fine Y/N. Don’t worry. =)

---

Y/N is so worried so after her class she decided to go to Yoshi’s dorm to check him out.

“Y/N! Did not expect for you to come. You should’ve told me. I should’ve picked you up.” Hyunsuk said as he saw his cousin outside the door.

“It’s okay. Sukkie-hyung. Anyway, is Yoshi here right now?” Y/N casually asked.

Then Hyunsuk’s face changed. “Why are you looking for him?” he sternly asked.

“I’ve been texting him but he’s not answering. I thought he has a problem, and I was a bit worried.”

“He’s not here!” Hyunsuk replied at bit loudly making Y/N flinched a bit. “I---I’m sorry Y/N. I did not mean to.” Hyunsuk immeditaley apologized.

“Uhm. It’s okay. But are you okay? You seem agitated.” Y/N asked. She thinks something’s up.

“I’m fine.”

---

“Yoshi!” Y/N screamed as she saw the Japanese boy sitting on a bench looking towards Han River. Yoshi heard her voice and looked at her direction. With widened eyes, he suddenly got up from his seat about to leave.

“Wait Yoshi, stop!” Y/N grabs his hand. “Why are you avoiding me? Did I do something wrong?” Y/N asked.

“No. Nothing, Y/N. I just really have to go. I still have some work---”

“I TOLD YOU TO STAY AWAY FROM HER!” Hyunsuk came dashing and grabbed Yoshi’s collar pulling him closer. Yoshi is now trembling.

“Hyunsuk, what are you doing?!” Y/N dashed to free Yoshi from her cousin but she was only stopped by the Japanese.

“It’s okay Y/N.”

Hyunsuk grabbed Yoshi’s collar tighter almost ready to punch the other’s face.

“Again. I told. You. To stay. AWAY FROM HER! Which part of that do you not understand?!” Hyunsuk shouted.

“Hyunsuk! I was the one who went to him! What’s your problem?!”

“I don’t want you to be hurt again, Y/N. DO you still remember the time that you came to me crying after you found out your boyfriend was sleeping with another girl?” Hyunsuk replied.

“I do! But Hyunsuk, Yoshi is different. I know, and I believe he’s different.” Y/N cannot take it anymore and said, “I like him, Hyunsuk!”

Hyunsuk let Yoshi got when he heard what his cousin said.

“I like him. What can I do? I can’t help it.” Y/N kneeled on the ground and cried.

Yoshi came closer to her and wiped her tears away. “Please don’t cry. I’m sorry I avoided you. It’s just that I don’t want Hyunsuk-hyung to hate me and you to become sad.” Yoshi held her hand. “But now I know too. I like you too, Choi Y/N.”

Y/N hugged him tight for the first time.

While Hyunsuk just stood there, feeling guilty for what he did.

It turns out that Y/N had a prior relationship before Yoshi. A Japanese expat working at a big Korean firm. Y/N was so in love with him and she would always tell Hyunsuk about him. But then she caught him cheating on her. When Hyunsuk knew, he could not control himself and almost thrown his reputation away as an idol. Thanks to Y/N and her kindness, he stopped before he lands a fist on the guy. At that point Hyunsuk was always on guard for his cousin, especially with Japanese men.

---

Yoshi and Y/N’s relationship bloomed and stayed strong. When Seung and Yong were born, Hyunsuk tried to tease them to seal the deal and give his twins a cousin to play with only for him to get a sassy reply from his cousin.

“Don’t you dare tell us to seal the deal. You haven’t even sealed yours! Do it first.” Y/N said that made Yoshi laugh at his hyung.

We can say Yoshi is a box full of surprises. During Jihoon’s wedding, he asked Jihoon to intentionally throw the garter to him and Jihoon’s wife to throw the bouquet to Y/N. The newly wed couple made it as natural as it is. And it really happened. The bouquet was thrown first, and Y/N got it.

Then instead of a garter, a small white box was thrown and Yoshi, as intended, got it.

They were at the center and the people are watching them. Then Yoshi kneeled and Y/N was shocked.

“I want us to be the next couple to get married. I think it’s time to seal the deal. Choi Y/N, will you marry me?” And Yoshi opened the box revealing an Aquamarine gemstone ring.

Y/N can’t believe what’s happening and cried, “Of course I will!”

---

A few months after their engagement, the got married in Yoshi’s hometown of Kobe. And during that time, Hyunsuk was the best man. He even delivered a speech for the couple.

“I don’t know why but my cousin has a thing for Japanese men. But I’m happy that out of all Japanese men she met, Yoshi is the one she is spending her life with. At first I was afraid that things will go wrong again, and that Yoshi, eventhough I know he is a good man, will be the same as the prick who broke my cousin’s heart. But he proved me wrong. And also, I know Yoshi adores me so much. Even during Treasure box time. But I did not expect he would go to the extent of being a part of my family tree. But anyways, welcome to the Choi family, brother, and cousin-in-law. Cheers to the newly weds.”

And then a year after, Hikaro was born, much to the happiness of Seung and Yong.

[yougobunny]

The first installment of “They became a team and a family in 2772, but it’s a small world and their lives were entangled long before they actually met. They just didn’t know it.”

Or: All Along They Were Invisible Strings (tying you to me)

Episode 1: Ace, Lexi, a charity wrestling match & a bar mix-up

Ace wasn’t looking to meet anyone that night. 

In fact, he hadn’t been in the mood to meet anyone for a while now. The bustling film industry in Acmetropolis provided ample opportunity so he was, fortunately enough, never pressed for either work or money. Now, was it good work or good money? Debatable. But as a single guy in Acmetropolis, his meagre income was more than enough for him to get by. 

It did help that his roommate was a bartender who didn’t mind smuggling him the occasional drink or snack plate when he was behind the counter. That was where Ace found himself one chilly evening in late August in 2771, munching on a plate of nachos as said roommate complained about his latest date. The cold weather had sent in a barrage of patrons into the warmth of The Looney Saloon, and Benjamin Fox had just finished serving a bunch of young college students before taking a breather by Ace’s corner of the bar table. 

“I swear everyone wants to date a bartender just because they think I can get them free drinks,” said Benji, a fox with fur so dark it almost seemed black in the dim lighting. He wiped down the bar, scrubbing hard at a particular sticky stain that Ace hoped was just beer. “I mean, I don’t really ask for much, y’know Ace?”

Ace swallowed a mouthful that he had been chewing, “Have you, uh, tried asking them for dates out of the bar?”

Benji looked thoughtful, “... No.” His eyes flicked over Ace’s shoulder, and he flashed Ace a quick grin that showed off his glinting white canines. “Hot girl coming ov- Hey! Welcome to The Looney Saloon, what can I get cha?”

Ace fought the urge to roll his eyes at his friend’s antics. Now, part of Ace’s martial art’s training was to notice. To take in minute details and read body language and anticipate movement within the space of a few heartbeats. To be aware of his surroundings. So, when he glanced sideways at the person in his peripheral vision it was more out of muscle memory than actual interest. 

The newcomer was human, considerably short despite still being taller than Ace or Benji. Her dark hair was fashioned in a layered, choppy way that seemed to be in trend for young women in Acmetropolis. She leaned against the bar and despite the general odour of alcohol that seemed to permeate the space Ace got a whiff of something clinical from her. Antiseptic?

“Can I please get a virgin mojito?” She had raised her voice to be heard over the steady thrum of sound in the bar, but something about it still came off as impossibly polite. Ace chalked it down to the smile that accompanied the words.

“Coming right up!” Why was Benji yelling?

As his friend turned away, Ace noticed another thing about the girl. This time he couldn’t help but excitedly ask, “You’re a fan of Slam Tasmanian?”

She turned to face him, surprise quickly turning to glee upon noticing him eyeing the Twisted Spinner patch on her bag. “Oh yeah! He’s just great, so great. I’m, uh, actually meeting a friend here to go watch his charity exhibition match at Acme Stadium.”

A part of Ace, the friendly, conversational part of him, wanted to say that he had been planning to go to that same match but had decided against it at the last minute. Mainly because Benji hadn’t paid him back for the last round of lasertag and the remaining money he had would have gone to either that, or rent. It had still been a close call though. So instead he just said, “Lucky. Sounds like it’s going to be a good show.”

“Are you a fan too?”

Ace grinned, “Of course, I have taste.”

This earned him a snort of laughter and when she looked at him again there was a flash of something in her expression. Ace couldn’t place it, but she glanced down and Ace saw her eyes scan across her phone screen before another, more recognisable, look settled on her face: surprise. “Oh my god,” she straightened, jumping a side-step away from the bar table, “I got the wrong bar. But my drink-”

“I’ll pay for it.” Ace waved her off, “You go ahead, have fun.”

She looked like she was about to say something more, and Ace wondered if it was his mind playing tricks on him when it seemed as if she had her phone angled in his direction. But she moved again and the moment was gone. She looked so grateful it was almost as if he had suggested donating his kidney to her as opposed to paying for a drink she didn’t get. 

“Thank you so much. Maybe I can make it up to you sometime, have a nice night!” And she was gone, darting off and out the front door into the chilly August evening. 

(Ace forgets about the encounter within a few weeks. It might have been sooner if it wasn’t for Benji whining about never getting the girl’s number. He stops soon enough when Malia Lynx walks into The Looney Saloon a few days later.

Call it fate, destiny, or scene 3A from the poorly scripted dramatic comedy of their lives, but Ace does end up meeting the girl from the bar again. But that’s more than a year and a whole other story later.)

The thing about growing up with just enough money to scrape by in Acmetropolis is that you learn how to navigate the city to maximise savings. So Sapphire knew which buses offered free rides for students and which subway lines let in healthcare workers for free, both of which she utilised frequently as a nursing student currently attached to AcmeMedical Hospital. She also knew that if she started running, she could also make it there in about the same time it would take her to wait for the bus.

So that was how, 15 minutes later, Lexi Bunny looked up from where she was playing on her phone outside of The Lunar Saloon to see her best friend hurtling down the sidewalk and leaping clear over a bench to pull up beside her. “Took you long enough. How the hell did you end up at The Looney Saloon?” 

Lexi reached into her pocket and produced a tissue, passing it to Sapphire who gladly accepted and began dabbing the sweat from her forehead. “I think I saw that it was closest to the hospital and just, like, assumed. Sorry.”

“It’s okay,” Lexi shrugged, “We still have plenty of time to make it to the stadium. And if we hurry we might still get some of those vegetarian hot dogs before they run out.”

“Okay,” Sapphire’s breathing was normal, but she had a palm pressed against her side. “Let my spleen calm down a bit Lex, then I’ll start walking.”

Lexi laughed, “I can’t believe you ran all the way here.” She had felt a twinge of annoyance when they realised the mix-up, but the girls could never stay mad at each other for long. “You look great for someone who just hauled ass all the way across the city.”

“Then I’m doing a very good job of hiding it because I promise you I am this close to keeling over.” She straightened up slowly, inhaling through the stitch in her side, “And I might have run over what was either a potted plant or a small child, I’m not sure.”

Lexi patted Sapphire’s elbow. It was the tallest, most sensible body part she could touch without awkwardly stretching to reach for. “Do you want to get a drink before we go? Or did you manage to get a snack?”

“Nah, I’m fine. They’ll be food stalls there.” She grinned, as if suddenly remembering, “I was excited for you to get there though. I met someone. I mean, we talked for maybe two minutes tops, but he seemed nice.”

“Sapph,” Lexi’s raised an eyebrow, “Last I checked you have a very nice, very devoted boyfriend.”

She shook her head, “Oh my god Lexi let me finish. I mean for you. It was this cute bunny guy-”

Lexi decided to not let her friend finish, “Oh my god Sapphire I love you but you’re just so bad at trying to set me up. And with a stranger??”

Sapphire looked indignant, “Hey, I had a good feeling about this one.”

“You say that about everyone! The last guy you set me up with tried to get me to join his cult!”

“Okay in my defense, I really thought he was just super into Dungeons & Dragons.” Sapphire had the decency to look somewhat sheepish, “I didn’t know about the cult thing. His brother seemed perfectly normal in class.”

Lexi rolled her eyes, more fond than anything else, “Fine, fine. Lets just go, we can try and get good seats before it fills up.”

“Oh, he was a fan of Slam Tasmanian too!” 

“Everyone likes Slam! He's Acmetropolis’ wrestling sweetheart!” Lexi laughed, “That doesn’t mean he has good taste, it means he has eyes.”

[jokertrap-ran]

(未定事件簿) EVENT!「致斯卡提的情诗」 [Tears of Themis] EVENT: A Love Poem to SKADI Translation (The Manor of Hermes: Lu Jinghe Route)

*Tears of Themis Masterlist / Mobile Masterlist *Spoiler free: Translations will remain under cut *The tracking tag for ALL Event Stories will go under: #Tears of an Event

Expensive Sculpture:

MC: What a pretty sculpture…

Lu Jinghe: Isn't this one of Lale's artworks?

MC: Lales? That famous oil painter? Did he do sculptures too?

Lu Jinghe: Of course. Although Lales was publically well-known as an oil painter…

Lu Jinghe: His sculptures are also just as valuable as his oil paintings.

Lu Jinghe: Actually, each and every one of these sculptures are extremely expensive due to there not being many to begin with.

He circled the sculpture a couple of times before finally squatting down behind the statue.

Lu Jinghe: For such a large sculpture like this… I'd say that it'll be something exceedingly hard to obtain without the right assets and connections combined.

MC: Which means the owner of this Mansion's…

Lu Jinghe: That's right. They're someone wealthy and respectable; someone with a big circle of friends.

MC: ...Is that so…?

Lu Jinghe: Okay, Lawyer sis; let's not think about this for now.

Lu Jinghe: I found something else too.

MC: What?

Lu Jinghe: Look.

He brought his right hand in front of me; in his palm, laid a single Purple Jewel Fragment.

MC: A fragment of "Allie's Winter"!

Lu Jinghe: You bet’cha!

☆ Obtained: Expensive Sculpture! ☆ Obtained: Purple Jewel Fragment!

☆⋅⋆…⋅───── ⋆⋅⋅⋆ ────⋅…⋆⋅☆

[Expensive Sculpture Info]

A Sculpture from Lales, an Oil Painter. There are not many of such sculptures made by Lales being circulated in the world, thus, not only are these works very expensive, but they're also hard to obtain. This particular piece located in the Mansion is shocking in both size and exquisiteness; in order to purchase something like this, the buyer must have accumulated a large wealth of money along with undoubtedly strong personal connections.

☆⋅⋆…⋅───── ⋆⋅⋅⋆ ────⋅…⋆⋅☆

Strange Wall-painting: 

Lu Jinghe: Wait!

MC: What's wrong?

Lu Jinghe: Is this… The Cult of Rebirth?

MC: The Cult of Rebirth? What's that?

Lu Jinghe: Have a look at this picture.

He pointed to the artwork mounted on the wall.

Lu Jinghe: Find anything odd about it?

MC: Hearing you say that, it does feel a little off…

MC: This painting has… Wings, weird-looking skulls, and… Eyeballs?

MC: Why would you combine these things together?

Lu Jinghe: Because they're the iconic symbols of the "Cult of Rebirth".

Lu Jinghe: The Cult of Rebirth was a heretical cult popular among a small circle of people in the last century.

Lu Jinghe: They believe that people are born bearing sins.

Lu Jinghe: But at the same time, they also believe that everybody has a chance to cleanse themselves of such evil.

Lu Jinghe: The skulls here represent evil, the wings, of chance; and the eyes, the gaze of "god", himself.

MC: Wow… You really know your stuff.

Lu Jinghe: I heard my teacher mention it back when I was taking the class on "Art and Religion".

Lu Jinghe: Although it was a niche cult, it's followers included a good many artists and painters back during its prime.

Lu Jinghe: And inspired by the strange doctrines and customs of the cult, they proceeded to create many "amazing works of art".

Lu Jinghe: Like the famed "Seven-day Prayer" series of artworks; they're basically showcasing the whole process of how this religion is worshipped.

Lu Jinghe: The painting before us is very similar to that of the third artwork in the "Seven-day Prayer" series in terms of its content and the technique used in its creation.

MC: I seem to recall seeing the "Seven-day Prayer" series of artworks on the internet before… But they all looked pretty "distorted", so to say.

Lu Jinghe: In the field of Art, distortions and mania are sometimes deemed as a type of "beauty".

Lu Jinghe: Although, I must say that the "beauty of mania" that is expressed in works related to the Cult of Rebirth only panders to a very small group of people who find it aesthetic…

Lu Jinghe: It's not just you; it's something that many people who study Art may not even recognize or accept.

Lu Jinghe: And that's precisely why there are only a small handful of people who understand these paintings, as well as the teachings of the Cult of Rebirth.

MC: But for this painting to appear here of all places? Wouldn't that mean that…

Lu Jinghe: There may be believers of that Cult here.

MC: …..

Lu Jinghe: Wait, there's something else here.

Carefully checking the painting again, he made an unexpected discovery on the back of its frame.

Lu Jinghe: A Purple Jewel Fragment. It should be the missing piece from "Allie's Winter".

☆ Obtained: Strange Wall-painting! ☆ Obtained: Purple Jewel Fragment!

☆⋅⋆…⋅───── ⋆⋅⋅⋆ ────⋅…⋆⋅☆

[Strange Wall-painting Info]

The Cult of Rebirth, a heretical Cult that was popular among a small group of people in the last century. Many “amazing artworks” were left behind as it’s legacy due to the many artists and painters that had been part of their following, among which is the “Seven-day Prayer”, that has garnered the most fame.

The painting that has been hung in the Living Room of the Western-style Mansion is very similar to that of the third painting in the “seven-day Prayer” series in terms of the content portrayed in it and the technique being used.

☆⋅⋆…⋅───── ⋆⋅⋅⋆ ────⋅…⋆⋅☆

Incomplete Roster:

MC: Wait a minute, Lu Jinghe.

I opened the case before us and retrieved something from its depths.

Lu Jinghe: A Roster… But part of it's already destroyed.

MC: What's wrong?

Lu Jinghe: Look at how these words are being written; find anything odd?

MC: Hmm… Looks like they're a combination of skulls and feathers…

MC: Could this be encrypted, by chance?

Lu Jinghe: That's right. This is an encryption method unique to the Heretical Cult of Rebirth.

MC: And can you understand this type of encryption?

Lu Jinghe: Yup. I once saw it on one of the paintings that were presented during class.

Lu Jinghe: Although this "Cult of Rebirth", with an exceedingly small following, didn't leave any written records behind…

Lu Jinghe: They still managed to leave behind many works of art as its legacy, due to the large number of artists and painters in their midst.

Lu Jinghe: The second painting of the "Seven-day Prayer" series depicts the Cult of Rebirth's Sacrificial Ceremony…

Lu Jinghe: And it also depicts and shows how this manner of encryption came to be, in detail.

Lu Jinghe: But at the same time, the trick to solving this puzzle also lies within the very same painting itself, hidden from sight.

MC: So you're saying that… You can understand what's being written?

Lu Jinghe: Of course, I ended up specifically studying up on everything to do with the seven paintings in the "Seven days Prayer" series.

Lu Jinghe: Now, let me see…

Lu Jinghe: He took the Roster and went through it page-by-page.

Lu Jinghe: ...The number that's being recorded here should be the number of "tributes" that the Cult members gave.

MC: "Tributes"? And what would that be?

Lu Jinghe: "Tributes" for the leader of the Cult.

Lu Jinghe: The Cult of Rebirth believes that people are weighed down by sin upon birth, but at the same time, everyone also has a chance to clear themselves of such sins.

Lu Jinghe: And that the reason why you'll encounter such misfortune, is due to the sins you bear.

Lu Jinghe: So you'll have to cleanse yourself of these sins, if you wish to be rid of misfortune.

Lu Jinghe: But cleansing yourself of such sins alone isn't enough; you require a "Messenger of God".

Lu Jinghe: And this person is the very head of the Cult. He declared that he was the son of God, hence, possessing the ability to communicate with God.

Lu Jinghe: And believers can get him to play "Oracle" for them, as long as they pay the proper tributes.

Lu Jinghe: Their sins can be cleansed, so long as they do as the "Oracle" instructs.

Lu Jinghe: The speed at which the "Oracle" works is tantamount to the amount of "tribute" paid. The more tributes you give, the more efficient it will be.

MC: Isn't this the same method being utilized by Multi-level Marketing Organizations now?

Lu Jinghe: Yes, but back during the era where the Cult of Rebirth was at its prime, scientific knowledge itself wasn't exactly something that was widely known, so…

MC: Then, how much did the people listed on this Roster pay?

Lu Jinghe: Let me see…

Lu Jinghe: There are some who handed over land instead, and some who used gold as their tributes; all of which amount to huge sums of money.

MC: Why…

Lu Jinghe: Looks like it's very likely that this Mansion is a gathering hub for the believers of the Cult of Rebirth.

MC: ……

Lu Jinghe: Oh, right. This Roster also came with something else.

He handed me the thing he had been holding in his hand.

MC: A fragment of "Allie's Winter"!

Lu Jinghe: Yup.

☆ Obtained: Incomplete Roster! ☆ Obtained: Purple Jewel Fragment!

☆⋅⋆…⋅───── ⋆⋅⋅⋆ ────⋅…⋆⋅☆

[Incomplete Roster Info]

A Roster that’s been badly burnt. The visible part of its content is as follows: (Ps. Chu Dai has already translated the contents of the Roster, so please go on ahead and read it with a peace of mind~) “Year 19xx, Month x, Day x. The amount of “Tribute” everyone gives will be recorded in this book for easier verification in the future. …… L.Mー Tribute Amount: Five properties and one ranch in Sakya Fyjord; the title deed to which have already been transferred. …… J-S.Hー Tribute Amount: Twenty gold bars; has already been sent to headquarters. …… Y.MーTribute Amount: Five gold bars and an Orchard; the items and the title deed to which has already been transferred. May the Son of God cleanse your sins as soon as possibly; may you be pure and untainted forever.” 

☆⋅⋆…⋅───── ⋆⋅⋅⋆ ────⋅…⋆⋅☆

Worshipped Idol:

There was a shrine atop the table with strange patterns painted all over.

There was also a photo in the middle of the shrine.

MC: Lu Jinghe, do you make any sense of this?

Lu Jinghe: This is… An idol of the God that the Cult of Rebirth prays to!

MC: An idol of the God they pray to? Are you certain?

Lu Jinghe: Of course, I'm sure about it.

Lu Jinghe: Even though the Cult of Rebirth is such a small heretic Cult that not many people know of it…

Lu Jinghe: The paintings that have been painted onto this shrine is still something that's kinda famous in the world of Art.

Lu Jinghe: Some of the decorative Frescoes on the roof of smaller churches are based off this painting.

Lu Jinghe: Or stained-glass arrangements, so on and so forth.

MC: Based off this? But this painting's full of… Eyes, strange skulls and wings…

MC: Not exactly suited for your ordinary church…

Lu Jinghe: What's being imitated isn't the content, but rather, the composition of the painting.

Lu Jinghe: The shape and colour of the paintings you're talking about are quite vastly different.

Lu Jinghe: Hence, it's not an easy task at all to skilfully integrate this…

Lu Jinghe: Into a piece of work, and at the same time, express what the painter truly wishes to show.

Lu Jinghe: But still, the painting on this shrine is very skilfully done. It expresses the especial secretively of the Cult of Rebirth exceedingly well.

MC: That's true. You can imagine just what sort of Cult the Cult of Rebirth is...

MC: Just by looking at this God.

Lu Jinghe: Later, a great artist in the world of Art chanced upon this painting and was inspired by it.

Lu Jinghe: After that, he utilized a similar composition method when painting a church mural.

Lu Jinghe: In the end, the fresco became an immediate success the very moment the church opened to the public.

Lu Jinghe: And consequently, this manner of composition also rose in popularity.

Lu Jinghe: But a large part of the masses only knows of the works of this great artist, and not the divine intent that had been behind it for the Cult of Rebirth.

Lu Jinghe: I, too, learnt it by chance back when I was studying in Florence, Italy.

MC: So, just what exactly does this shrine represent?

Lu Jinghe: According to the teachings of the Cult, if there's something you require God's help with…

Lu Jinghe: The first thing to do is to pay the leader money in an expression of "sincerity"; in other words, "paying tributes".

Lu Jinghe: And the next step would be to enshrine an idol of this God in your own home for twenty-one days, to await the day where God descends and graces them with his presence.

MC: So this picture that's on the idol is placed here because…

Lu Jinghe: Look, there's a message at the back of the picture.

Lu Jinghe: "I hope that the great God can cleanse my daughter of her sins and wake her from this madness."

Lu Jinghe: "-Lasture Modro".

MC: So Mr. Lasture was one of the Cult of Rebirth's believers… Did he enshrine this statue for the sake of his daughter, Allie?

Lu Jinghe: Correct. And judging from the sheer size of this deity, I'd say that his "tribute" was by no means small.

Lu Jinghe: And his position and status in the Cult itself was probably not a low one either.

MC: ……

Lu Jinghe: Right, there was also something else in the shrine.

He revealed the palm of his hand.

Lu Jinghe: I found this behind the photograph earlier; it should be one of the missing Jewel Fragments of "Allie's Winter".

☆ Obtained: Worshipped Idol! ☆ Obtained: Purple Jewel Fragment!

☆⋅⋆…⋅───── ⋆⋅⋅⋆ ────⋅…⋆⋅☆

[Worshipped Idol Info]

A shrine unique to the Cult of Rebirth. One is required to enshrine this divine box at home for twenty-one days if they require the help of “God” to accomplish something. Lasture enshrined this wish-granting box here for the sake of his daughter, Allie, in hopes that God could “cleanse her sins and wake her from the madness”. It looks like he has forked out quite a lot in terms of “tributes”, all for the sake of this one God.

☆⋅⋆…⋅───── ⋆⋅⋅⋆ ────⋅…⋆⋅☆

Divine Message Ⅰ:

A roll of sheepskin parchment laid under the rags of the bench that had been placed in front of the bed.

Lu Jinghe stepped up, giving the roll of parchment a once over.

MC: Find anything?

Lu Jinghe: How about you tell me if you found anything first before asking me that, Lawyer Sis?

MC: ……

MC: The shape of these words feels like a combination of both skulls and feathers alike…

MC: Is this some sort of code?

Lu Jinghe: I knew you’d figure it out! That’s right, this type of encryption is…

Lu Jinghe: Exactly the same as the one I saw in the famed second painting of the “Seven-day Prayer” series.

Lu Jinghe: If I’m not recognizing it wrongly, I’m pretty certain this is an encryption method unique to the Cult of Rebirth.

Lu Jinghe: On one hand, it is to ensure that internal information is not disclosed, to prevent the government from sanctioning them; and on the other hand, it is to show and express the “divinity” of the leader…

Lu Jinghe: The Cult uses iconic skulls and wings to represent different characters.

Lu Jinghe: Similarly, they also use this method to convey information to each other.

MC: Then what's written on this sheepskin parchment is…

Lu Jinghe: “Your prayers have been heard by God.”

Lu Jinghe: “In a couple of days, a servant of God named Geraldi will arrive to cleanse the sins of Allie Modro.”

Lu Jinghe: ……

MC: ……

As I recalled what Lu Jinghe said, my eyes drifted elsewhere…

A gleaming object in the gaps between the bench that had been placed before the bed caught my attention.

MC: This is…

I edged towards the bench in front of the bed.

MC: It's the Jewel Fragment we're searching for!

☆ Obtained: Divine Message Ⅰ! ☆ Obtained: Purple Jewel Fragment!

☆⋅⋆…⋅───── ⋆⋅⋅⋆ ────⋅…⋆⋅☆

[Divine Message Ⅰ Info]

The Cult of Rebirth’s Leader’s reply to Lasture. The content of the letter has been translated and is as follows:

“Dear Mr. Lasture Modro,

Your prayers have been heard by God. In a few days, a servant of God by the name of Geraldi will arrive to cleanse the sins of Allie Modro.

I hope your dreams come true.”

☆⋅⋆…⋅───── ⋆⋅⋅⋆ ────⋅…⋆⋅☆

Handwritten Divine Message:

MC: Lu Jinghe, look at what’s inside this drawer! There’s an actual jigsaw puzzle in there!

Lu Jinghe: Want to try piecing it together?

MC: No thanks… I don’t know how long it’ll take for us to piece these 20 pieces together when there’s no complete picture for us to refer to…

Lu Jinghe: So what? I know what the picture’s supposed to look like when completed.

MC: !!!

Lu Jinghe: From the looks of the image printed on the puzzle pieces…

Lu Jinghe: It looks exactly the same as the fifth artwork from the “Seven-day Prayer” series that I once saw.

Lu Jinghe: I still remember how it looks; we’ll be done in a jiffy.

His hands continued in their movements as he spoke, and soon, puzzle pieces that had once been scattered all over the floor were brought together as one complete picture.

At the same time, he took out a piece of white paper from his pocket and sketched the image that the completed puzzle formed onto it.

MC: Why did you sketch it down?

Lu Jinghe: “Seven-day Prayer” is one of the few paintings about the Cult of Rebirth that still currently exist…

Lu Jinghe: In addition to depicting the whole worshipping process of the believers, it also records a whole lot of things about the Cult’s unique code of encryption.

Lu Jinghe: They often use such graphical encryption methods to transmit information, so I wanted to redraw this picture and see…

Lu Jinghe: If there’s anything hidden in this puzzle.

MC: Did you figure anything then?

Lu Jinghe: Yeah. According to how the encryption of the Cult of Rebirth works, the message that’s being conveyed in this puzzle is…

Lu Jinghe: “To Geraldi, there’s no need for you to seriously treat his daughter at all; just be aware that after his daughter passes away...”

Lu Jinghe: “You’ll need to find a way to transfer all the properties of the Modro Family, including the Western-style Mansion to the Son of God through any means necessary.”

MC: If that’s so, then isn’t this Geraldi guy just a conman!?

Lu Jinghe: ……

Lu Jinghe: Try looking again and see if there are any other loose pieces.

MC: Let me have a look…

MC: Nope… Nothing here.

MC: But I found some Jewel Fragments in one of the corners.

Lu Jinghe: Alright then… I guess it's not all for nothing.

☆ Obtained: Handwritten Divine Message! ☆ Obtained: Purple Jewel Fragment!

☆⋅⋆…⋅───── ⋆⋅⋅⋆ ────⋅…⋆⋅☆

[Handwritten Divine Message Info]

A puzzle that was left out in the Collection room, pieced together into a complete picture. After translating the pattern of the picture according to the workings of the unique encryptions of the Cult of Rebirth, the obtained content is as follows:

“To Geraldi, there’s no need for you to seriously treat his daughter at all; just be aware that after his daughter passes away...You’ll need to find a way to transfer all the properties of the Modro Family, including the Western-style Mansion to the Son of God through any means necessary...”

There are 20 pieces to this puzzle that conveys this information. If we were to convert it to 4 digits, the numbers will be “0020”; and it seems like these four digits have some correlation with the locked code case in the same room where the puzzle was found, and the secrets hidden within.

☆⋅⋆…⋅───── ⋆⋅⋅⋆ ────⋅…⋆⋅☆

Traces of a Magic Circle:

MC: (I finally managed to collect all the Fragments!)

MC: (The notch on the lock of the door is similar to that of the strange rune segment of “Allie’s Winter”...) 

MC: (The Purple Jewel, in it’s entirety, is supposed to fit in here...)

MC: (Guess I’ll just slot it in and see how it goes.)

☆⋅⋆…⋅⋆⋅⋅⋆⋅…⋆⋅☆

MC: Lu Jinghe, look at the ground!

MC: Is this a Magic Circle?

Lu Jinghe: This is the Cult of Rebirth’s “God-inviting Circle of Blood”.

MC: ???

Lu Jinghe: The Cult of Rebirth will always draw a blood formation like this one before they proceed to cleanse their fellow followers of their “sins”.

Lu Jinghe: They believe that God can be guided from the Realm of the Gods to the Human Realm through this, further increasing the success rate of “cleansing one’s sins”.

Lu Jinghe: And the name of the person being cleansed of sin will be written on the edge of this “blood formation”.

Lu Jinghe: So, who was this formation created for…?

He walked to the edge of the circle where a line of handwritten words could be vaguely seen.

Vague as it was, it wasn’t too much trouble for us to recognize it, for we’d already seen this name many times within this Mansion.

"Allie Modro".

Lu Jinghe: So it really is for her…

MC: But from the looks of it, it seems like the circle wasn't completed…

Lu Jinghe: That’s right, but the “God-inviting Circle of Blood” is usually only painted on the very same day they cleanse someone of their sins…

Lu Jinghe: I’m afraid something must have happened to Allie Modro on the day where they were supposed to “Invite God” and “cleanse” her of her sins.

☆ Obtained: Traces of a Magic Circle!

☆⋅⋆…⋅───── ⋆⋅⋅⋆ ��───⋅…⋆⋅☆

[Traces of a Magic Circle Info]

The unfinished "God-inviting Circle of Blood" that had been in the Sacrificial Room. The name of the person being cleansed of sin has been written at the edge of the "blood formation"—— Allie Modro.

☆⋅⋆…⋅───── ⋆⋅⋅⋆ ────⋅…⋆⋅☆

Collection Room's Code Case: Study Notes

MC: So many books! And lots of them are on famous codes!

MC: Oh? Are these books… For learning the Akkadian Language? 

I continued sifting through the things within the Case.

MC: (There are also some wastepaper and notes that were used to practice writing the words of code…)

MC: (And the owner of all this stuff is…)

I looked through the covers of the notes and books again.

MC: (These books were all given to Allie from a Private Tutor by the name of Lalyre…)

MC: (Looks like she was studying these codes along with Akkadian.)

MC: (All these notebooks used for practice belong to Allie, but there's one under the name of Winter…)

MC: (Unless Winter was studying alongside Allie?)

MC: (And then, he also took this change to use the two languages?)

I hurriedly flipped through "Winters" notebook.

MC: (There’s another sentence on the last page…)

MC: “Thank you… For being willing to fulfil this dream of mine…”

☆ Obtained: Study Notes!

☆⋅⋆…⋅───── ⋆⋅⋅⋆ ────⋅…⋆⋅☆

[Study Notes Info]

The notes that Allie and Winter left behind, from when they were both studying Akkadian and other kinds of code.

☆⋅⋆…⋅───── ⋆⋅A Love Poem to SKADI⋅⋆ ────⋅…⋆⋅☆