TIaF Edits Teaser - Chapter 9
Movement out of the corner of your eye makes you look over. There stands another monkey. Chestnut colored fur shimmering in the sunlight that peeks through the window, Her fur much longer than Monkey King’s, styled in braids with a jeweled flower pin resting above her ear. The marking on her face could best be described as butterfly wings, an elegant forest green and making her amber eyes truly pop out.
“Uh…” you look at her, then Monkey King. “I’m not… interrupting anything, am I?”
“Of course not, little one.” The monkey in question stands, donned in silk robes that screamed elegance and royalty. She steps over to you both, looking you over with a curious eye. She says, “Lovely to meet you. Who might you be?”
“Aaaahaha, funny story about that…” Monkey King coughs and tugs at the collar of his tunic. “Remember when I said I had an assistant who’s—ah—helping me with training the kid? Well, uh…”
“This is them?” She finishes with a coy smile, her index finger resting by the corner of her mouth. “Why so embarrassed, my pebble? Do you think I’ll humiliate you in front of them?”
“Whaaaat? Of course not!” He sputters, waving a dismissive hand and crossing his arms. You notice his tail twitching and swaying with increased speeds, quickly wrapping around his ankle. “I just—well—wasn’t expecting… haha… you to meet so soon…”
He is acting… weird.
You’ve never seen him act like this in the short time you’ve known him. “Uh, I don’t mean any disrespect… ma’am?” You ask, looking at the stranger. She nods, so you continue, “I don’t mean disrespect, ma’am, but, uh… who are you?”
“Ah, so my son hasn’t told you about me, I see,” she raises a brow at Monkey King, who stiffens up and helplessly shrugs. Her sharp stare reminds you of thorns on a bush, but they turn to petals when she looks at you now. “I am Sun Lihua. I’m Wukong’s mother.”
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floyd/riddle valentine's day headcanons 💙❤️
(okay, this post is more overly detailed than i originally planned because i ended up writing a whole scenario about what their first valentine's day after they start dating could be like. but i still want to share it, so here it is.)
riddle is somewhat conflicted about valentine's day. on the one hand, he was always a bit of a romantic, and as a kid there were times when he dreamed that someday he'd have a special someone to spend this holiday with. but he's changed since he was a kid, and regardless of how he might or might not feel, this year he happens to have an exam coming up in a few days and thinks that studying for it would be a more practical use of his time.
besides, floyd will also be busy working at the mostro lounge that evening. each year they hold a special valentine's event with discounts for couples, and floyd seems to be very focused on helping jade and azul plan for it. what makes valentine's day so important, anyway, when the one you love should be special to you every day? they can just go on a date whenever they like.
he still wants to try and respect the rules of the holiday, though. he knows from books he's read that it would be wrong of him not to get his boyfriend a gift, and he also knows that it's a popular tradition to make handmade chocolates for your partner on valentine's day.
so he buys some chocolate-making supplies and molds--the molds are shaped like hearts and roses, so they're sure to make floyd think of riddle when he eats them. and he does the best he can, knowing floyd will still love them even if they're not perfectly made.
he also buys a card with a simple yet elegant red and gold design, and makes sure it's blank inside rather than having a cheesy prewritten message, so that he can write his own message thanking floyd for bringing so much excitement and joy into his life.
the card he picks probably looks something like this:
he plans to take the chocolate and the card, along with one white rose and one red rose from heartslabyul's gardens, to floyd in the morning and see if they can plan to spend a day together after the exam.
while on his way there, he starts to feel a little embarrassed and wonder if the roses are too much. he doesn't really care about the holiday (or so he claims, but he sure did spend a lot of time preparing for it) and surely floyd doesn't care beyond exploiting it for business purposes, so this is a bit silly, isn't it?
wrong! for floyd's part, they don't have valentine's day in the coral sea, so he's actually been pretty excited for it--which riddle had guessed, since for the last few days he's been constantly asking riddle for advice on decorations and menu items for mostro lounge's event as well as spending quite a lot of his spare time there, presumably helping prepare things.
what riddle fails to realize is that floyd's excitement is about far more than just making money at the lounge.
so, riddle is standing outside floyd's door and about to knock when floyd suddenly comes rushing out and absolutely lights up upon seeing riddle there.
he doesn't even give riddle a chance to get a word in before tearing the gifts from his hands, popping a rose-shaped chocolate in his mouth, and doing a goofy little laugh as he tells riddle he loves him. riddle hopes floyd doesn't see the blush on his face.
"goldfishieee!" he exclaims. "i got you something too, and i just know you'll love it!!"
he runs back into his dorm room and comes out holding a small, very messily-wrapped box of store-bought white chocolate truffles, a plushie of a pink hedgehog holding a heart, and an envelope containing one of those fancy pop-out valentine's cards--specifically, one with a goofy pun on it. i'm picturing something like these:
riddle opens the card and rolls his eyes at the pun while trying to pretend that he's not smiling fondly at it.
he's about to ask about their plans when floyd leans over and drapes his arms around riddle's shoulders, and then says that he absolutely has to come to the lounge tonight for a very special surprise.
riddle is genuinely shocked at this, but he agrees, somewhat reluctantly because he's supposed to be studying--but also secretly excited at the thought of floyd having planned something just for him. he has to enlist cater's help to find something decent to wear.
floyd grabs riddle by the arm and drags him over to a table within seconds of him getting to the lounge. jade takes their order, they talk and tease each other and laugh together like they always do, and they also have fun chatting with some of their other friends who are sitting nearby with their own dates.
riddle almost forgets that floyd was supposed to have some kind of surprise for him, until floyd suddenly excuses himself and then shows back up a few minutes later with a small heart-shaped cake, covered in strawberries and other elaborate decorations.
it turned out that floyd had baked and decorated this cake for him. riddle felt guilty because he'd already eaten more than he meant to for the day, and especially because this must have taken much more work than the chocolates and roses he'd given floyd.
he tells him as much but then floyd tells him he's being silly before snatching the fork from his hand and going "if you're not going to eat it then i guess i'll have to!"
riddle feels a flash of anger because floyd can't just try to take his food, there are rules against such a thing. he takes the fork back and tries a bite of the cake, reasoning that it would be rude not to. it's strawberry flavored and possibly the best thing he's ever tasted.
when they leave the lounge that evening, they end up going back to heartslabyul together and for some reason floyd all of a sudden decides that they're playing tag and makes riddle have to chase him into the rose garden.
floyd didn't have any extra surprise for him, he just wanted riddle to keep having fun with him for a little while longer.
at the end of the day, riddle finds that he doesn't regret having lost a bit of study time for this, and he makes sure to tell floyd how grateful he is. he has to admit to himself that maybe there is something special about valentine's day after all.
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The Tale of Yesterday: A Saga in Most of Its Parts.
To start, I don't have the best luck with my vehicles. I tend to break things or just be the common theme among things that break. I have had 4 spark plugs blow, a gas pump die, a leaf spring pop, tread on my tire shred off, been hit by a cop, hit by a plumbing truck, the AC fail in the summer in Texas, among a smattering of other things that were simple to fix or cosmetic. We've been down to one vehicle since before school was out due to a failed starter.
Grandma offered to take a kid on Friday and asked for some eggs. My friend (let's call her A) wanted some eggs. All things I can take care of in one round!
I hauled the kid up, gave Grandma the eggs she wanted, and headed down to my friend's house. I decided to take back roads, thinking it would take me more directly to her house and I could have some much needed down time to myself at the same time. Two birds, one stone.
This particular back road is full of hastily patched pot holes. This particular back road has turns that could rival an A5 race track. I don't know if it was a factor, but I wouldn't be surprised.
I was about a mile from A's house when I heard it. The distinctive clank of something metal bouncing along behind the truck.
Eek! Pull over! What is that??? WHAT IS THAT?? Aw crap... that's not safe.
I get moving, going more gently than before and wincing at every clang. Call Hubs. "Hey, uh yeah, I know you want me home sooner than later, but something fell off the truck and is bouncing along under it. I'm leaving the truck at A's house. I'm sure she will take me home but I need to call her." Call A. "Hey, uh.. I need to leave my truck with you, can you take me home?" And she starts laughing.
She starts laughing for 2 reasons.
1. Her husband (who we will call J) is a mechanic. He does a lot of sidework to help out the family and this sort of thing happens often. He's our go-to mechanic and we are often over at their house. (Like I said, I don't have great luck with vehicles)
2. She had a friend just the night before in a similar situation. Apparently, A went out to book club the day before and her friend bought her home. On the way back, they hear a thud and then metal clanging. Her friend's car dropped its muffler.
So A goes "Did your muffler fall off?" "I think so?" "Is it a long tuby thingy?" "Yeah" "Just park it next to my friend's car, we will have matching pair" I'm trying not to laugh while she's saying this. What are the odds?? Two dropped mufflers within 24 hours! Both on the way to her house?!
I get there, park, take a picture for Hubs, put her eggs on the porch, and she takes me home in a fit of giggles.
I had to then call my mother-in-law and give her the news. "Hey... I need to ask you to do something that you might not like... can you bring the kid home?"
I explained what was going on. We have no vehicle. I, currently, have no way to come get my child. Can you bring him home?
She's not entirely comfortable with the idea. (Understandable) She doesn't have a carseat and hasn't had to drive the kids anywhere before. She might just keep him overnight. We will keep in touch.
Hubs got in touch with our neighbor (the same neighbor who has 2 horses in our pasture) and asked if we could borrow a car just in case. Of course!! Neighbor jumped on it so fast we had a spare car in 5 seconds flat! He's awesome! I was able to go get the kid and get him home. Grandma didn't need to do it, which I could see really made her shoulders relax. She's a good driver, but she was worried.
J decided it was easier to fix the starter in the Jeep than it would be to work on the truck. He came over after dinner and worked on it in our driveway.
Starter works now, but the battery is dead. Neighbor brought over a trickle charger and a jump box to help out. We figured out the battery has a fault and we need to replace it. Neighbor left his car so we could continue to use it. Hubs is supposed to go this morning, but isn't up yet.
On all these parts, I am extremely lucky that everything happened when it did. My child was somewhere safe. I wasn't in a rush to get back to him, and it wasn't necessary that I get him at a certain time. I was very close to my mechanic's place AND his wife was there to take me home. My wonderful neighbor was willing and able to lend a car. Even when I called Hubs to let him know what was going on, I didn't interrupt an important business call. It might not seem like a comedy from the outside, but everything landed so absurdly perfectly that all I could do was laugh the entire day. How odd a day it was.
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