#it took a lot of adapting and straight up lying to make but eventually i learned to make 2 days of masterful work followed by 3 days of

[thepositivefella]

It's not just about school. I've been hired to many jobs because of how competent I am at certain tasks, what they never expect is that this same competency is absolutely not consistent

Something I've yet to wrap my little autistic head around is the fact that level of effort doesn't always correlate to outcome.

Especially in school.

[im-in-vin-ci-ble]

Hello~ Can I request a Mark x fem reader who’s a lot like starfire and is very Powerful close to omni man and is also an alien princess but she lives on earth and they go to the same school and she’s also a solo hero who one day sees invincible fighting off a tough villain with the teenteam but is losing so she steps in to help and he recognizes her and starts getting all nervous since he has a crush on her and then after that they introduce themselves get to know each other and eventually work they’re way up to mark confessing and she says yes :3

(If possible can it be a slow burn im a sucker for slow burn tropes and stuff 😤)

A/N: I gotchu, this bout to be a lil long 😮‍💨 making the fem!reader a little more human, figured since she’s in an actual school for humans she’d need to adapt to the humor/culture so she doesn’t get suspicious

Pairing: Mark Grayson x Fem!Reader

Rating: M, some swearing and gross monster guts

Warnings: N/A

Summary: Mark is finally joined in battle by an alien princess who has caught his attention. Turns out she goes to the same high school, and if he can throw around 150-pound monsters across the street, surely he can confess his true feelings to a girl... right?

"Are you fucking kidding me right now?!" Rex Splode yelled as he wobbled up off the ground. "We've been on this thing for hours and it only has one damn cut!"

"Calm down Rex," Atom Eve said from behind, "You're gonna get even more tired from yelling."

The two watched as Dupli-Kate attempted to distract the scaly kaiju, replicating herself second after second to give space for Invincible to hit the monster by surprise. The kaiju's screech echoed throughout the city and shook the foundations of the surrounding buildings, forcing Rex, Atom Eve and Robot to move aside and save however many civilians they could.

"Invincible," Dupli-Kate shouted, "I can't keep up much longer!"

A sonic boom overcame the surrounding noise and Invincible appeared from the clouds. Dropping in at maximum speed, the young superhero balled his hand into a fist and took a deep breath. A loud battle cry escaped his mouth but it was cut short as the kaiju's heavy arm slapped him away just in time, throwing him through destroyed buildings until he landed on the pavement.

Out of breath, dizzy, and in a serious amount of pain, Invincible laid on the broken road for a second to regain his strength. The wind softly blew down on him as he focused his sight on a contrail leading towards him, and he watched as a girl in purple land right next to him.

She bent down and held him upright, "Invincible, are you okay?"

"Mmhmm," Invincible croaked with a defeated smile, "Totally fine."

His sight reverted back to normal and the first face he saw shocked him alive. It was her. They never talked in school and he was almost sure she didn't know his real name, but here she was, basically cradling him in her arms and calling him Invincible.

So she knows who I am. At least with the suit.

"Come on, that kaiju is about to be destroy the entire city," she said, helping him get back on his feet and flying away to the seemingly unbeatable figure.

He huffed, "Stay cool, Mark. She's here to help," and he followed suit.

This marked the first time he really interacted with the new superhero; he'd only ever see her on TV or read about how she saved people on the newspaper. He'd be lying if he said he didn't find her attractive — as do most guys his age — but watching her blast the kaiju with the green bursts of energy from her hands made her only even more appealing.

Invincible regrouped with the rest of the Teen Team. "I don't know what else we can do to this thing," Atom Eve admitted.

"I do," the girl spoke up. "Distract it as best as you can but stay far away from the stomach. When I tell you to take cover, make a run for it."

Robot replied, "That seems highly dangerous."

"Let's do it," Invincible quickly replied in a high-pitched voice.

Everyone looked over at him, surprised at the sudden change in his voice and just how fast he reacted in agreement. 

"Uh, it's a good plan," he nodded, causing the girl to shoot a warm smile his way. "I definitely think we should do it... if all of you... uh, think, we should."

Exhausted and out of options, the rest of the group followed her orders and took different corners of the monster. Dupli-Kate handled one leg, Rex Splode handled the other, Robot and Atom Eve took the arms, and Invincible went back to the head. The kaiju struggled to keep its focus on just one of the heroes, and while it remained preoccupied, the girl absorbed all the energy she could muster and flew straight for the stomach.

"Take cover, now!"

Invincible and the Teen Team moved away and they watched as the flying hero's eyes opened in a bright shade of neon green, both her arms extended out as a large ball of green formed around her hands. The rays exploded right through the kaiju and it shrieked in pain as she briefly disappeared into the stomach. The kaiju lost balance and slowly fell forward as the girl, her eyes still green, appeared on the other side and harshly fell down on the ground.

The kaiju landed on the street with a loud boom and the group ran towards the girl who was now covered in parts of the kaiju's digestive system.

"Okay, that's kinda gross," Rex Splode commented, to which Dupli-Kate quickly responded, "Shut up."

Invincible dropped down on his knees and wiped the blood and guts off her face. Subtly admiring her facial features up close, he couldn't believe (and almost felt stupid) that he never recognized her despite the fact that he almost saw her everyday.

The girl groaned in agony softly shook her head, her eyes fluttering open to the sight of Invincible's dark hair, goggles and yellow mask.

"Hey, hey," he whispered, "Are you alright?"

She sat up and hissed at her injuries, holding her head with her bloody hand. "Mmhmm," she gently nodded with a half smile, her eye one still shut. "Totally fine."

---

Mark had a hard time focusing on school. His body ached from yesterday's injuries and he suffered a few bruises from literally tearing through buildings. He made his way to his locker and rested his head on the metal door, dreading the fact that he still has an entire afternoon of classes to go. Closing his eyes in hopes to quickly recharge, his moment of peace was disrupted when a shoulder rammed into his chest and several books landed right on his toe.

"Oh god, I'm so sorry," a voice exclaimed.

Mark's head snapped up at the sound of the voice. It's her. He momentarily froze and watched the girl bend down to pick up her things, and when he finally regained movement a split second later, he also bent down to help her out. He kept quiet as he tried to think of the coolest possible response to make her think that he was actually the coolest guy in school, but all he could think of was how heavenly and badass she looked yesterday.

"Thanks," she said as he handed her the book. "I hope your foot doesn't bruise."

They both stood up and he shot her a nervous smile. "T-totally fine," he replied, clearing his throat afterwards.

She crossed her brows at his response and nodded, and a look of suspicion replaced her worried demeanor.

"I'm Mark, by the way," he cleared his throat again and reached out his hand, "Grayson."

"Mark... Grayson, huh?" she responded, scanning his face as her suspicion grew. Her eyes finally landed on the hand that was waiting, and she took one last look into his eyes before deciding to shake it. "I'm Y/N," she introduced herself with a skeptical smile, feeling his sweaty palm wrapped around hers. "I'll see you around, Mark Grayson."

She walked away and Mark's eyes followed her trail as far as he could see. He quickly pulled out his phone to send a text to Eve, who was actually watching their interaction a few classrooms down.

"Mark," Eve called out as she moved towards him. “So I’m assuming...”

"You knew?” he asked her in disbelief. “Why didn't you tell me Y/N was a superhero? I just introduced myself to her as Mark Grayson and I'm almost positive she knows I'm Invincible."

"First off, it's not my secret tell," she answered with a shrug. "Second, you guys didn’t trade secrets or whatever?”

Mark shook his head in a panic, "No, but I'm guessing she also knows that I know her secret the same way I know she knows my secret." He rested his forehead on the locker door once again and groaned, "Ugh, I'm so into her, it isn't even funny. And this whole superhero thing just made it even more awkward."

Eve laughed, "Look, I'm not going to force her to tell you if she isn't up for it, but if you want, I can ask her to hang out with us later. Maybe — emphasis on maybe — my presence will make her comfortable enough to admit who she is."

"Okay, okay," he sighed, turning around to rest the back of his head. "My insides are dying."

"After the kaiju yesterday, be thankful you don't mean that in a literal sense."

---

Where in the hell is Eve?

Mark pulled out his phone for the third time in 10 minutes. Still no call or response from Eve to his text. He was getting evidently nervous; his palms were sweaty again and it felt like someone turned up the heat in Burger Mart. His left leg jerked up and down in anxiety as he stared at his phone, looking at the seconds on the clock icon tick by. If he were left alone with Y/N, he'd have no idea what to say. What does she like? Should I bring up the kaiju yesterday and praise Invincible? No, she'll just think I'm full of myself.

"Hey Mark."

He jolted and saw Y/N standing by the corner of the booth. "Hi!" he replied in that irritatingly high-pitched voice. Mark's heart began to race and the thoughts in his head ran wild. "Um... Have a seat. Sorry Eve isn't here yet, she actually hasn't answered my calls or my messages. Teenage girls, huh? What can you do?"

She crossed her brows again and chuckled, "That's fine, we can wait for Eve. But I think I'm more concerned about you."

"What do you mean?"

Y/N chuckled again, "You seem... nervous.”

He faked an obnoxiously loud laugh, “Me? Nervous?”

She watched him from across the table in silence, waiting for him to regain his composure.

When Mark couldn’t hear Y/N laughing with him, he finally shut up and shook his head. “Yeah, I am nervous, sorry,” he admitted, shutting his eyes tight. 

She giggled, “Totally fine.”

Hearing her say those two words calmed his racing heartbeat. A smile crept on his face and she reciprocated, their eyes locking for a few seconds before both their phones buzzed.

“Oh, I just got a text from Eve,” Mark said. 

“Me too.” She opened the message and began to read it out loud, “Sorry, can’t make it tonight. Something came up.”

“Have fun, you two,” he followed, his voice faltering. He placed his phone, screen down this time, back on the table and sighed, “Sorry, guess you’re stuck with me. That is, if you do want to stay and... hang out, and stuff.”

"Why wouldn’t I?” she replied, her warm smile easing Mark back into a relaxed state. “It’s nice to have a friend who...” she trailed off, “understands.”

“Understands what?” he asked.

“This thing people like us call life,” she answered. “You know, it took me a long time to acclimate here. I didn’t think I ever would, then I met friends who made this place feel like home. And home is a feeling I hadn’t felt in a really long time.”

Mark rested his elbows on the table and leaned in closer, “Well, I’m always here. You know, a-as a friend... or an acquaintance, even. I don’t, I don’t want to push it.”

Y/N giggled again, “You’re a funny man, Mark Grayson. This planet is lucky to have someone like you.” She reached out and held his hand, “And I’m even luckier to have you as a friend, or an acquaintance.” 

He felt the heat rush to his face and he could swear his heart nearly jumped out of his chest. The afternoon flew by in a hurry as they engaged in lengthy conversations, fatty fast food, and childhood stories. While Mark was open to sharing every tiny detail — down to the color of the bleachers at the park where he played little league — Y/N kept hers pretty vague, leaving out descriptions of family members and even the places where these stories happened. 

Mark’s phone buzzed again, but the vibrating pattern indicated it was a phone call. He turned the screen over and saw the unknown number; it was time to suit up.

“Shit, I’m sorry Y/N, but I need to go,” he said in a rush. “I have a... uh, an emergency.”

You couldn’t have thought of anything more specific?

“It’s cool. Um, don’t worry about it,” she said, shaking her head with her eyes glued to the vibrating phone. 

Mark’s one leg was already out the booth before he decided to finally just go for it. Sitting back down with his now quiet phone in his hands, he took a deep breath.

“Y/N, I think you’re really cool. Can I maybe, like, call you sometime, or something?”

Her lips formed into smile that extended to her eyes, and it was enough for Mark to melt a little. “Of course. Yeah, sure,” she replied in excitement and typed down her number on his phone. She handed it back, “Now you know how to reach me if you’re getting your ass whooped again.”

His mouth fell open as his shaky hands grabbed his phone. “Wait—”

She smoothly slid out of the booth, “See you later, Invincible,” she winked, “Don’t get killed today.”

---

Luckily for Mark, no one got killed today. Maybe a few wounds here and there, but nothing painful enough that will land him in the GDA hospital. After spending an hour in the shower, he finally managed to lie down on his bed and rest his body. He sank into the mattress and closed his eyes, taking in the seconds of undisturbed peace that have become rare moments since he got his powers. 

As he replayed the events of today’s fights in his head, his mind drifted off to the hours he spent with Y/N. He pulled out his phone and mustered the courage to press the dial button, and the repeating sound of the ringing was making his pulse race. 

“Hello?”

“Oh good, you didn’t die today.”

Mark chuckled and sandwiched his hand between his head and the pillow. “It wasn’t that bad today, just took a few hits,” he explained. “So listen, Y/N, I was wondering, uh—”

She cut him off, “What are you doing right now?”

“What?”

“What are you doing right now?” she repeated.

“Um, nothing, just getting some rest” he sat up and looked around. “Why?”

“If you’re not too tired, do you maybe...”

Mark smiled, “Maybe...?”

“I don’t know, sneak out? My roof is pretty comfortable.”

Silently fist pumping, he fully stood up and nodded, “Text me the address.”

Just as quietly as he exited his room via the window, he softly landed on Y/N’s roof. Swiftly flying up and greeting him, she took the place next to him and crossed her legs. 

“You’re right, your roof is pretty comfortable,” Mark said.

She chuckled at his remark then noticed a gash by his right temple. Her brows furrowed in worry, “You have a wound,” she said, making sure not to touch it.

“Don’t worry about it,” he replied, softly holding her hand and placing it back down with his. “Totally fine.”

Those words brought her some sense of comfort as her eyes softened, causing her to unconsciously squeeze his hand. Mark’s eyes widened and he looked down at their tangled fingers, frozen for a moment.

“Is this... okay with you?” he asked.

She nodded. “Wanna lie down? Since my roof is so comfortable?” she asked with a smirk.

“Sure,” Mark chuckled, removing his hand from her’s and stretching his arm out as they lied down. Y/N rested her head on his shoulder, keeping her eyes up at the stars.

“Hey Mark?”

“Yeah?”

A moment of silence.

“Thank you for coming.”

He looked down at her as she met his eyes, “You’re welcome.” 

The two shared a smile, and Mark took a deep breath as he prepared himself for the words that were about to come out of his mouth.

It’s now or never, Mark. Now or never.

“Watching you kick ass yesterday was... really a sight to see,” he began. “You’re powerful and strong, but more importantly, brave. And you’re so fucking beautiful and kind and smart and...” Mark trailed off, sighing, “I never thought I would be in this position — with you next to me in a very comfortable rooftop under the stars.”

“Mark...”

“And I really like you. Like, really, really like you.”

“Mark.”

“It’s okay if you don’t feel the same way, but I just wanted to let you know. It’s important that you know—”

“Mark,” she cut him off. “I like you too. A lot.”

He breathed a sigh of relief and covered his eyes with his free hand. “Oh thank god. Thank god!” he exclaimed.

Y/N shushed him, “You’re gonna wake up the neighborhood, Invincible.”

“Sorry,” he giggled quietly, “I got excited.”

She laughed and faced her body towards him. They locked eyes again, and Mark didn’t know if it was gravity or just the adrenaline that pushed him, but he finally leaned down and met her lips. Static ran through his body as he deepened the kiss, and he felt an excitement that was even more exhilarating than the first time he flew.

She pulled away and Mark ran his hand through her hair, resting his hand on her cheek. “How was that?” he asked.

She smiled gently and placed her hand over his, “Totally fine.”

[dreamii-yume]

I've had an idea in my head for quite a while! What about Cater using you all he can for his birthday? You can't deny him either! You don't want to make the birthday boy sad, do you? He'd film everything as well! Threatening to upload it to Magicam if you don't do as he says.

- 🍑

Let’s start off with some spicy blackmail for our birthday boi~ (ง ื▿ ื)ว

“Oh~ That’s good pose, (Y/N)-chan! Look a little more to the right, here!”

Holding his phone in a horizontal manner, Cater tilted his upper body to get that perfect angle he wanted. You awkwardly shifted from your position, waiting for him to get a shot as you looked away in embarrassment. “Ah! Come on, don’t look away all shy like that~! It’s cute though, but it doesn’t feel right~” You flinched as you quickly went back to glance at the lens of his phone, your face blooming redder by the second.

“T-Take the shot already…” You barely mumbled out with your voice coming out a lot weaker than you would’ve wanted. You knew he was utilizing his time here, trying to savor the moment, but resulting in you becoming more and more humiliated by the second…I mean, how could you not? When this birthday boy just ordered you to go down on your knees right between his legs, and basically gave you the permission to jerk him off. It’s his own perverted way of a gift, yet you could only puff your cheeks at it.

Cater gave nothing but a chuckle. “Now, now…It takes time to get that perfection, Cupcake~” He taunted, his eyes sparkling at the sight of you through his phone screen. His responses seemed distracted, you figured it must be because he’s so lost on his own world right now. Well, of course he’s applying this much focus on you right now; The way you nervously hold his cock in your hands and letting it poke against your warm cheeks, it’s simply enticing. No matter which place he holds the camera at, each angle is just unbearably adorable that it’s just impossible to take one shot. “Hey, why don’t you stick out your tongue for me, Darling?”

You let out a slight whine, keeping your mouth shut into a straight line as a form of rejection, stubborn as you can be. Still, it wasn’t enough for Cater to rethink his choice, having your tongue out just above his cock would definitely increase your cuteness level! “Hm~? Is that a no?” He hummed in a mocking manner; it made your stomach churn in response. The feeling of regret bubbles in. “That’s too bad…I guess we can still go with a livestream then! What do you say? Let’s livestream this event on Magicam!”

You gulped. “I just can’t decide on a good shot, you see! Maybe if I let everyone see your current state, they’ll be able to help me? Cay-kun is quite popular, you see~!” He said with a cheerful smile, but his eyes look down on you with dark intentions, making you feel as if there’s a loaded gun right at the back of your skull. His fingers began to fiddle with his phone screen, filling you with dread especially when you can’t see which buttons he was pressing. What if he was already livestreaming all this time and you just haven’t realized��!? “Let’s title this with…”The Prefect of Night Raven College’s Adorable Birthday Gift to Cay-kun”! Then-“

With a huffing whimper and frustrated tears building up on the side of your eyes, you opened your quavering mouth and stuck out your tongue like he asked. Cater stopped with a victorious smirk on his face before laughing, you felt his cock twitched in your hand. “Aw, you poor thing~! Getting all flustered like that…” He said, reaching out to your face to wipe away those tiny tears, before studying your facial features. “Hm…So cute…”

He slipped his thumb on the side of your mouth, widening the gap before a truly smug smile followed right after. You widened your eyes with a squeak as he moved his cock right at the entrance “…Now, I want you to take this all in your mouth. All of it.” He smiled sweetly with a small giggle.

There’s nothing that you could really do here, your words are useless against him when he literally has the power to ruin you with a click of a button. Covering it up as a birthday gift didn’t really mean anything at all, he could’ve done this at a normal day and he’d still have that power. After much mental deliberation with yourself, you eventually moved to lean in closer and do as he say, opening your mouth wider to accommodate his girth. “Mm…That’s a good girl…” He said in a gentle whisper, moving his hand to pat your head as a form of motivation. His breath seems shaky, now that he’s feeling all sensitive with how warm you feel on the inside. “…You can move now.”

And so, you did, not having any other choice in the matter. Your actions were a bit clumsy, but you provided a warm and comforting feeling every time you bobbed your head to swallow him whole. The way your tongue would slide up and down his shaft, your saliva sticking to his skin like a protective layer. Cater couldn’t help but be amused as he noticed that you were actually learning fast, curiously exploring your options to deliver pleasure without even noticing it yourself. Cater was glad that he decided to secretly record this whole event, not to livestream or to post anywhere, but for himself to daydream again and again in the near future.

He let out a slight breathy chuckle and kept the fact for himself, however he would be lying if he said that he expected you to adapt this quickly. Honestly, your hands would automatically pump his dick slightly while you nibble and suck on his head, your hot breathing lingering against him was enough to stimulate him faster than he would’ve liked. Before Cater knew it, he just found himself to be the one moaning out loud as you fastened your pace. He mentally cursed as he just overestimated his endurance and his hand, which was sitting on top of your head, was beginning to add pressure to have you engulf him deeper and longer. “Nngh…(Y/N)-chan…You’re really good at this, huh…” He giggled, like an intoxicated individual, a drool slipped out on the side of his mouth in process. “More…Cay-kun wants more, (Y/N)-chan…!”

You heard him and to your surprise, your body was more than willing to grant his request as you felt a surge of motivation flowing in you and you began to suck him faster. Throwing his head back, Cater was unable to hold himself back anymore and with a euphoric smile, he gripped your head and pulled you out. His thick, white semen came bursting out of his slit like that of a firework and landing everywhere, mainly on you. You closed your eyes, feeling some liquid all over your face and mouth, eventually dripping down your cheeks like slime. “A-Ah…” You moaned slightly, slowly opening your eyes only to shut them off immediately as bright white flash suddenly slipped into your vision. Clearing your mind soon took the realization in you that after so long, Cater finally took that one perfect photo he wanted, and you weren’t even ready! You wondered how it look but seeing how your senior stares at his phone with that lovesick look on his face made you rethink otherwise.

Maybe that picture should really just be for his eyes.

“Aah~! This is perfect! It’s a completely stolen shot and you still look so cute!” He admired the photo, exhaustion doesn’t seem to have any effect on him even after his initial release, but trails of sweat drops down from his forehead. “Plus, my cum makes you look like you’re covered in whip cream instead! I guess pulling out was really the correct choice, good job me~!”

Squealing like a little girl, Cater finally took noticed of your pouting self and merely smiled brightly at you. “And good job to you too, (Y/N)-chan! You’re such a Sweetheart!” He said as leaned forward and pulled you into a bone-crushing hug. “You really made Cay-kun’s birthday so much fun! Thank you~!”

You averted your eyes to the side and gave him a twitching smile. “Uuh…Y-Yeah, whatever you say…” You said, paling at the thought that you actually wouldn’t have agreed to this if he hadn’t blackmailed you in the first place. The senior seemed to be too distracted with his own enthusiasm to notice your salty attitude, but you had an underlying that he does notice, he just doesn’t want to acknowledge it. You ended up sighing in depravity in the end whilst hugging him back, you quietly click your tongue as a plan to have your revenge later…When you’re sure that those pictures won’t accidentally fall to some shady website that is.

Cater melts a little long in your touch before forcing himself to pull away and flashed you a wide smile. “Well then, I’m expecting our date in that one super photogenic café this Saturday, yeah~?” He said as you looked back to him, blinking. “What kind of boyfriend would I be if I don’t take my girlfriend out somewhere nice?”

Then it hits you like a truck. “Wait…G-Girlfriend…!? Boyfriend!?”

With your panicking self, Cater tilted his head to the side, feigning innocence. “Hm~? That’s right. I mean, it’s just common sense for us to be in a proper relationship after doing that, you know?” He said with a shy blush, but still gave an evil smile in the end, making you gulp down a very bad feeling. Especially as proceeded he pulled out his phone with the recent picture of you covered in his seed, making you squeak in fear. “After all, you wouldn’t want this coming out so soon, right?”

“So, you better bet that we’re going to be stepping up a higher level than this, Sweetheart~!”

[guiltysecretpasttime]

Linzin Week 2021: Day 3 - Stargazing (part 3)

WIP Pre-Canon AU Lin x Tenzin Rating: Eventual M To the Linzin week 2021 organizers: Is it fine to post a WIP - a serialized contribution? Will post it in AO3 as well once completed ✌🏽 Read part 1 here.

Lin was looking forward to a quiet soak in the bath. She figured it was late at night enough that Tenzin would have retired to bed.

Upon opening the door, smoke wafted to her face. Something smelled… burned, she thought while coughing.

“Lin, is that you?” Tenzin’s voice came from the balcony.

“What happened?” Lin fanned away the smoke as she to him.

Tenzin was slouched on the outdoor chair, bottle of beer in hand. “I attempted to cook.” Tenzin’s face was pinched.

“Aw, you were supposed to have a dinner date?” She leaned on the doorway. “Scared the poor girl away?”

There was a strange look on the airbender’s face. “No…she didn’t show up.”

“I’m sorry.” She said and realized she was sincere about it. She pointed to him and waved to the still dissipating smoke. “Didn’t think to use airbending?”

“Oh.” Tenzin’s eyebrows furrowed. “To be honest, I wasn’t thinking straight.” Then he took a swig off the beer bottle.

Ah, it was that kind of night.

By all appearances, the airbender was a stickler for air nomad tradition. However, his parents both agreed to raised him and his siblings in a more liberal way. This resulted in the siblings to adapt any practices of their parents’ heritage into the quickly modernizing society.

And that includes the occasional alcoholic drink for this airbending master.

“How was work? A little bit late, isn’t it?”

“Terrible.” Lin slumped into the opposite garden chair and grabbed the bottle off Tenzin’s hand. “One of the detectives mucked up the paperwork. His sergeant and I had to work double time to meet the deadline for the indictment.” She took a gulp from the bottle before giving it back.

There was a relief in his expression that puzzled her.

“That’s grea- terrible indeed.”

She rolled her eyes. “Sarcasm still does not suit you, airhead.”

Tenzin continued to punctuate the otherwise quiet night air with comments about his day and questions about Lin’s.

They took turns from the bottle until Tenzin finished the last swallow. “This is nice.”

“Hmmm?”

“We haven’t had this long a conversation since... I don’t remember when.”

Huh.

Tenzin gestured to get more beer and she nodded.

She sat back, scratching her arm as she thought.

That was sad, in reality.

But nice. No expectations. Reverting to their old habits, their old patterns to before they became a couple.

She squinted.

That had been so long ago.

“Say, do you want to go up?” Tenzin held two bottles of bear, cold with icy condensation at its surface.

“I don’t see why not.” Lin stretched, took one bottle of beer then followed Tenzin to the rooftop.

There was no actual furniture on the rooftop, but there were some wooden crates that they had fashions into makeshift seats and tables.

Pulling up a crate, Lin remembered why they selected this apartment.

It was not in the more glamorous districts in the city. It was quite close to the suburbs, to be honest. That was something they both liked to have maybe in the future, a quaint quiet home in the suburbs. Until then, this is the closest they could get.

And well, they took it on because the apartment unit was at the top floor with easy access to the rooftop.

Tenzin settled little ways to the side, about two crates away from her.

She popped open both of their bottles.

“There isn’t a lot of stars tonight.”

A glance at Tenzin revealed he was observing the sky.

Lin simply shrugged. She knew him well enough to know that a Tenzin who has had alcohol is a talkative Tenzin.

“We were discussing about oral tradition earlier in class. One of the students shared about the Earth Kingdom superstition that you can actually use the stars to find your soulmate.” Tenzin hunched on his knees, picking at the label of the bottle. “Do you believe any of that?”

“Believe what?” She decided to humor him.

“Soulmates.” He replied quietly, not meeting her gaze.

“Soulmates…” Lin took a gulp of beer first, considering her words. “Can’t say I do.”

The airbender now turned to her. In his haste, his almost full bottle had liquid swished on the floor. “Why not?”

“I mean, look at people we grew up with,” Lin grimaced, using her fingers to count. “Uncle Sokka didn’t really settle down, did he? Was his soulmate the moon spirit? We can never know.” She took a tip and pointed out another finger. “My mom – we don’t even have to explain that further -.”

“But doesn’t the thought of someone out there to be with you sound, well, reassuring?”

“Not really. Sounds like a load of excuses not to put effort into a relationship since you knew from the get-go, you’re for each other.”

“So, you really don’t believe in soulmates?” Tenzin asked slowly.

“Pffft no, of course not. Soulmates? Oh, come on.” Lin decided a change in topic was needed as the current conversation was about to get maudlin.

 ---

He tore off the label of the bottle.

But, I do.

 ***

As with any of their annual vacations, aside from a day or two spent with the entire group, everyone was pretty much left to their own devices.

This made their farce a bit easier to pull off.

Tenzin decided early on to spend most of the time in their room. Lin was barely there anyway so it work.

Tock-tock-tock.

“I know you’re in there.”

Knowing that his brother will not leave until he acknowledged him, Tenzin opened the door.

Bumi entered without waiting to be invited in, hands behind his back. He made a face on the papers sprawled on the table and most of the other surfaces in the cabin room. “Come now, Tenzin – there’s a reason why it’s a vacation.”

“I need to get this done.” It was a weak argument, and he knew it.

Bumi knew it.

“We’ve seen more of Lin than you in the past few days. So that means you haven’t had a lot of couple time either.”

“We see each other all the time.” Tenzin prevaricated. Technically, they did occasionally cross paths at work.

 ---

Bumi rolled his eyes. “Sure – at work, eh? Well, if I can’t bring you out to the party – I’ll bring it here until to agree to get out.” He brought out his ammunition. “Uncle Sokka’s personal brew!”

Tenzin struggled to catch the tall suspicious (yet unfortunately familiar) bottle.

“I’m not drinking, Bumi.”

“Oh yes, you are.” He swiped the papers off the couch and plunked himself on it.

He did not really have any other agenda other than to get Tenzin relaxed enough to join them for tonight’s excursion.

Bumi grinned as his baby brother finally popped open his bottle.

 ---

But, whoo boy, a Tipsy Tenzin was a Talkative Tenzin.

 ---

“You’ve broken up for that long?! Spirits, Tenzin! Why didn’t you think to tell me or anyone?

“Look, I knew you were proposing to Izumi this week. We didn’t want to take that away from you.”

“Still.” Bumi pondered a bit. Maybe his brother needs a wingman now? “Do you want me to bring you over with boys, when we’re over at Republic City? We can introduce you or better yet, we can go around town now and -.”

“No, thank you, Bumi.”

“Don’t you still live together?”

“Yes.”

Are you stupid? “How is that going for you?”

“It’s fine. We’re now glorified roommates. It still gives me privacy from our parents, you know. And a bit of a sanctuary. And it’s fine. We do our own thing and it’s fine.”

“Bro, you said it’s fine too many times.”

“Lin’s totally fine with it.” A beat. “She’s a big girl, she can take care of herself. It’s not like she’d like to move back to their old house either.”

Bumi frowned but agreed.“To be fair – no one asked us about our relationship so we haven’t been lying.”

“Yes, you’ve been omitting the truth. I see you’re fitting really well in city hall, councilman.” Bumi patted him on the back.

 ---

Clunk.

“Oh, I’m sorry – did I wake you?”

The whiff of air that wafted towards him smelt of smoke, sweat, the odd smell of old alcohol, and something distinctly Lin.

“No, I was doing –.” His eyes scanned quickly the bedside table. “Some light reading.” He put up the pamphlet. “You didn’t disturb me.” He saw the clock say it was three in the morning.

“Sorry,” Lin was quickly pulling out clothes from her side of the cabinet. “Don’t worry – I’ll just take a quick shower and try not make a lot of noise. I’ll head on to bed too.”

Tenzin turned to his side of the bed, unwilling to think of what (or who, he thought distastefully) Lin might have been doing.

Not that she wasn’t in the position to do so. Of course, she was well within in her rights to do so.

Maybe telling Bumi wasn’t the smartest idea. True, he promised to keep it to himself.

Rather, Tenzin knew Bumi and the rest had gotten back to their accommodations a couple of hours earlier (judging by the racket when they were trudging nearby).

Usually, Bumi would have insisted to see to it that all of their party would have gone home together. But then again, knowing that Lin was now single, he probably did not mind if Lin had gone off on her own…

The sounds of the shower from the en suite can be heard.

Tenzin pressed his palms to his eyes.

He told Bumi it was fine.

Who was he kidding – it wasn’t fine. He wasn’t fine.

And, unfortunately, he didn’t know what to do about it since only one-half of the broken-up couple did not seem to be fine.

[crowtoed]

Sybil’s 1740s Stays Build: Part 1, Drafting/Fitting

Tumblr is a WAAAAAY better format costuming posterity tbh, so here’s a bit of a slapshod build... log? (They’re like 2/3 done, whoops) for these stays. While I based my Molly Grue cosplay on an 18th c. silhouette, I’ve wanted to give a proper, historical set of stays a try for a while, doing as much by hand as possible to prove that I’m capable of making something even the reenactor crowd could respect. (INVITE ME TO JOIN YOUR WEIRD WOOL-CLAD CLUB) But I also wanted PRETTY UNDERPINNINGS, the kind of thing silkbaron features or something. Kind of thing that gets an ‘ooh’ represented by high def pics in a costuming portfolio. Ah, projects equally rooted in petty ambition and artistic curiosity... anyway... Since I’m working on a cosplay for ‘dragonkeeper’ Lady Sybil and drawing on a lot of 18th c. influence (and my Molly set are SUPER comfy) I looked for a historical pattern that I liked. Being a Ramkin, surely Sybil could afford a set of elegant, albeit indestructible stays?

Hot shit, my dudes. (From Norah Waugh’s ‘Corsets and Crinolines’, which I’ll actually buy when I can afford a copy. THANKS PINTEREST)

I’m in a weird place between straight and plus size. Honestly I could get away with a half-boned set of stays like what Redthreaded sells, but MAN I love the sturdy, exoskeleton-like, all over compression of fully-boned ones. As we’ll see later, the downside of this is that you need a metric crapton of boning channels and a similar amount of stiffening. This is also when I’d heard about that newfangled ‘artificial whalebone’ stuff the skinny costumers on the youtubes were aflutter about (I’m not just being salty, this will come into play later as mistakes are made). So step one: Drafting

Norah Waugh uses a perplexing non-gridded scale in C&C Underpinnings Factory (something that will make you want to kiss the feet of Ninya Mikhaila and the Tudor Tailor team). I could have had my photoshop wizard of a spouse blow up the pattern and through a little trial, error, and sharpie-ing fitted the pattern accordingly- but I’m a goddamned spite gremlin who needed a self-esteem boost in he middle of a pandemic. So I used math.  First I figured out the measurements of the original garment by cutting out the thumbnail pieces and using the scale legend as a ruler. I took my own waist and bust measurements to figure out the ratio of the original wearer to me and used that as the general equation to plot my pattern points. Fudging to fit my own numbers (slightly different waist-hip proportions) or to make the pattern ‘make sense’ happened, but I got over it. Humans struggling to clothe their meat suits and doing a little handwavey geometry in the process is historically authentic. I wish I could turn this in as very overdue schoolwork for math credit.

Another adaptation I made were areas that weren’t as boning dense to cut costs. In hindsight this didn’t help the bottom line much, but it was going to happen anyway since I changed up the angles of the original pattern (and therefore the channel layout). To make my life easier mocking up, I wanted to try the cardboard and duct tape stays method that made its way around the internet a few years’ back. I used 2mm chip board, a roll of the silver stuff, and some cord and.. it was an utter goddamned disaster. You know when there’s a hole in the bottom of a rowboat and you’re just bailing and bailing, but more water just keeps seeping through. Then eventually the whole thing floods and sinks, forcing you to abandon ship? That was my experiment with cardboard stays. (Note: Cardboard as an analogue for the stomacher panels, however, worked great.)

Then I switched to a sparsely-boned mockup cut out of bits of cotton duck/canvas I had lying around and cable ties. As you can see, there are Problems. The back’s too long, the tabs don’t spread out from my natural waist, there was a massive sideboob spillout, and the waist was too tight- creating that bowed gap in the lacing. Not great, not terrible. Fixed it in the next draft. Since I was feeling a bit confident and o-so zesty, I did v2 out of two layers of (again) sparsely stiffened canvas. If this version fit with minimal tweaks, I’d use it as the boned ‘core’ of my stays. I cannibalized the columns of grommets from v1 and basted them to the mockup to save time (and potentially my interlining, since I’d be doing hand-bound eyelets on the real thing). 

(Caption: I am absolute shit with a tracing wheel- nobody one ever taught me. Above is some semi-successful grinding.)

No pics because I was by myself, but it fit pretty well! In fact I only ended up replacing one of the panels since that side-boob issue hadn’t completely resolved. 

With the mockup canvases good to go, I went ahead and machined all of the boning channels. Then I steeled myself for the next stage: handsewing ALL of those channels through the nice outer fabric I’d chosen. Of course more mistakes were made, but we’ll get into that in part 2...

[dessarious]

Guilt and Consequences

Okay, so this is just something that wouldn’t leave me alone. It has absolutely nothing to do with my other fics and may actually be a one shot. (We all know that’s not something I do but hey I can hope). Anyway, I’ve always hated the way Lila’s character was done. For so many reasons. The biggest issue I had was that there’s never any explanation for her personality. Sure, there is a small percentage of people that are straight up evil, but not many and it’s lazy writing to make a character, villain or otherwise, with absolutely no reason to be the way they are. If you’re not going to flesh out a character don’t make them a focal point period. Okay I’ll stop ranting now. This is in no way canon, nor is it meant to be.

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

AO3   Next

“You told her what?!” Adrien flinched as Lila yelled in his face but she didn’t care. This idiot had completely destroyed all her plans with no thought what so ever. How had things gotten so bad?

“It doesn’t do any good to put more pressure on the situation. I told Marinette that you’d come around once you got the attention you wanted, so she should just let it go. Take the high road.” She was dangerously close to punching him in his sanctimonious face. The only thing stopping her was that getting arrested for assault wasn’t something she wanted to experience right now. Not to mention she now had to try and fix this insanity.

“That is quite possibly the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard. Ignoring things may work with paparazzi but that is not how you should deal with anything else. More often than not ignoring a problem just makes it worse.

“I’ve been ignoring Chloe’s bad behavior for years and she’s getting better.” Lila felt like her head was going to explode. As good as Adrien was in science he apparently didn’t understand causal relationships. The boy was far too dense to survive in the real world.

“As I understand things, Chloe didn’t start improving until Marinette stood up to her and Ladybug called her out on her bad behavior. Your enabling simply allowed her to continue what she was doing without consequences. People don’t change without a reason Adrien. Most need a pretty enticing incentive to do anything out of the norm.” She couldn’t deal with this anymore. Lila knew that she wasn’t going to make him see the error in his thinking. Everyone thought of Adrien as a ray of sunshine but she’d seen first hand how hard he held onto ideas even when all the evidence pointed to the opposite conclusion. Instead she turned and walked away as he yelled justifications at her back. She knew he wouldn’t actually follow her because his ride should be there any second. He wouldn’t risk getting in trouble, no matter how much he wanted her to agree with him.

She didn’t even know where she was going at this point, just wandering randomly while she thought. Everything had gotten so out of hand. Nothing like this had ever happened to her before and she had absolutely no idea how to fix it, or even if it could be fixed. She didn’t think so. It’s like the perfect storm of stupid, incompetence, and compliance had coalesced into this mass of insanity that she couldn’t see a way out of. Why did everything have to be so complicated? She’d done the same thing dozens of times with the exact same result. Why did things have to turn out so differently this time?

Before she knew it Lila was standing in front of a building she had no wish to enter. She knew she had to, but honestly she would rather step into traffic. Still, if there was any hope of salvaging things this was where she had to start. She just hoped she’d be able to get out some sort of explanation before they threw her out. She took a deep breath before opening the door.

“Good morning! What can I do for you dear?” Lila hesitated. Surely Marinette had told her parents about what was going on, right?

“Madam, my name is Lila Rossi. I was hoping to talk to Marinette.” There was absolutely no recognition in the woman's eyes. What the hell kind of alternate reality was she in? From everything she could gather Marinette had a great relationship with her parents. Even if she had let Adrien talk her into staying quiet at school, why would she hide what was going on from them?

“Of course, and you can call me Sabine dear, no need to be so formal.” She followed as Sabine led her up the stairs at the back of the bakery and into a little apartment. Lila had lived in a lot of places, but not one of them had ever said home the way this tiny space did. “Marinette’s room is up there. I have to get back down to the bakery, just knock before you go in.” Lila could only stare at the woman’s retreating back in panic. There was no way Marinette wanted her of all people anywhere near her room. She’d expected Sabine to get her to come out here. She looked back at the trapdoor with no idea how to proceed.

Eventually she worked up the nerve to climb the stairs. A few minutes and many attempts later, she managed a timid knock. There was a muffled ‘come in’ and Lila almost had a heart attack. Now what? Against her better judgement she slowly opened the door and poked her head up. She saw Marinette hunched over her sewing machine, not paying any attention to who had entered. But what caught her attention was the bruise on Marinette’s cheek and a strip of gauze around her forehead. Lila’s anger from earlier reignited with a passion and before she knew it she was in the room standing directly behind the girl.

“How could you listen to that moron’s advice?” She winced the moment the words came out of her mouth. That was not how she wanted to start this. Marinette jumped and actually fell off the chair. Lila flinched back at the fear in the girls eyes when they registered who she was.

“Wh- What are you doing here?” Marinette’s eyes were darting every which way, looking for escape routes or something to defend herself with most likely. It hurt knowing that this was all her fault.

“I… I didn’t mean to scare you.” Then why did you yell at her dumbass? “I’m here because…” Why exactly was she here? She really should have planned this out, or at least had any idea of what she was going to say. “I’m here because I need to apologize to you, and I think you deserve an explanation for why I apparently destroyed your life.” Marinette’s eyes widened in shock and disbelief. Lila couldn’t blame her.

“You want to apologize to me?” The skeptical tone caused her to break eye contact. It was well deserved but Lila didn’t even know where to start. She was a selfish creature by nature so apologies didn’t come naturally, but this was something that needed to be done.

“Yes. I’m sorry for everything that’s happened to you because of me. I never thought…” She couldn’t continue. No apology and no explanation was good enough for what Marinette had gone through because of this mess. Lila didn’t even know everything because apparently the class had been bullying Marinette for over a month but they’d kept it from her because she was too ‘nice’ and wouldn’t have approved. How did you even begin to make up for something like that?

“You never thought what? That your plan to take away all my friends would affect me? That you making my school life a living hell would hurt me?” The girl sounded pissed and Lila couldn’t blame her but the tone sent her into her defensive mode anyway.

“I never thought anyone would believe the garbage coming out of my mouth!” Marinette blinked at her in confusion, all the fight suddenly gone.

“What?” Lila sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose. Where did she even start? None of this was going to make sense to Marinette. Honestly she wasn’t certain it made sense to her anymore either.

“I should probably start at the beginning.” Marinette motioned her to continue. “My mom is a diplomat, that wasn’t a lie. She’s something of a fixer. Basically when a situation has escalated too far they bring her in to smooth things over. Because of that she gets moved a lot more often than most. I think the longest we’ve lived in one place is about nine months.”

“And that makes it okay for you to lie and bully people for no reason?” Bully? She hadn’t considered that before. From Marinette’s perspective she understood why she said it though. Especially after the bathroom incident. Lila winced.

“I didn’t mean to… The lying has a purpose but I’ve never had to escalate things before. It’s not an excuse, I should have considered things better. I just…” She just what? She’d just been so focused on her goal that she hadn’t bothered to look at the collateral damage. Hadn’t even considered that there would be. “Look just let me explain, then you can yell at me.” If she didn’t get this out now she wasn’t sure she’d be able to.

“Fine.” Lila shifted nervously as Marinette’s full attention was focused on listening to her. Having that much animosity directed at her was extremely uncomfortable.

“So when I was little the moves were more frequent. Because of that my mother hired tutors and enrolled me in online classes rather than try to attend school. There didn’t seem to be any point in having me adapt to a new place and teachers every couple of months. About three years ago things slowed down a little and she decided it would be good for me to socialize with other kids. Despite my best efforts, I was enrolled in school. I hated it.” That was a vast understatement. The curriculum wasn’t advanced enough and the kids were all immature and annoying. The teachers were boring too. Not to mention that she was used to learning at her own pace and having the ability to choose subjects that actually interested her. School was basically torture.

“I wasn’t happy and told my mother so but she thought I just needed time to adjust so she basically told me to suck it up and deal with it.” She’d had a perfectly researched and reasoned argument but her mother wouldn’t even listen to her. “A couple days later a boy was annoying me. He refused to leave me alone after I’d told him many times to stop and eventually I snapped and punched him in the nose.” It had felt really good at the time.

“Really?” Marinette sounded somewhere between horrified and amused and was obviously trying to keep a straight face.

“Really. I was sent to the principal and he called my mother. I was expelled because they had a zero tolerance policy for violence. My mother was not happy with me and lectured me about solving my problems in a different way, but she let me homeschool again because she wasn’t certain how long we’d be there and didn’t want to go through the effort of finding another school. I thought I’d won, until the next time we moved and she put me in school again.” Once again she’d argued to be allowed to stay with homeschooling. Once again her mother had ignored her.

“Let me guess, you just walked up and punched someone the first day?” Lila let out a snort of amusement and shook her head.

“No. Mother made it very clear that physical violence had far too many repercussions, so I had to get creative. I read the school rules trying to find the easiest way to get thrown out. I tried disrupting class constantly, but that just landed me in detention. So then I tried stealing. That got me thrown out quickly enough, but it also could have had legal ramifications that I didn’t understand at the time. My mother made it very clear to me after though.” Yet another fun conversation where her mother talked at her and wouldn’t let her get a word in edgewise. Lila couldn’t understand how she could be such a good diplomat and still have no idea how to listen to her own daughter.

“So you got to homeschool again?” She blinked at Marinette for a moment before nodding. She’d gotten lost in her own thoughts. “But I’m going to assume it didn’t last.”

“No. Every time we move she tries again. I don’t understand why she bothers. The next few schools I refined my technique. I found out that lying was the easiest and least complicated way to get thrown out quickly. They just don’t want to deal with it. Each school has slightly different thresholds but I found that obvious misinformation coupled with lying about medical conditions usually got me back home within a week. I thought I had it down to a science, until we moved here.”

“So wait… you’ve just been trying to get expelled this entire time?” Marinette was looking at her like she’d grown another head. Lila wasn’t surprised. To anyone else what she did sounded insane and maybe it was a little. But it worked and she was a very results driven person. “What about the Akumatizations?”

“What about them?” Lila couldn’t figure out what that had to do with anything.

“If you wanted to be found out, why were you so upset you became Volpina and Chameleon?” Lila winced. She’d watched the limited footage and remembered how she’d reacted after. She’d been disoriented and confused and had just lashed out.

“I was expecting Adrien to call me out. The necklace I showed him came from his father’s line after all. I misjudged how involved he was in the industry apparently. I wasn’t expecting or prepared for an actual Superhero to call me out. I’ll admit I reacted badly, but in my defense I didn’t know then how little it took for Hawkmoth to Akumatize someone.” That had been a less than pleasant realization. Maybe she should try and apologize to Ladybug after this as well. It wasn’t the hero’s fault that Lila couldn’t deal with normal social interaction and lashed out when she felt threatened.

“And Chameleon?” Lila winced at the soft question. She still didn’t know what she’d been thinking when she’d threatened Marinette. Well that wasn’t completely true but she didn’t realize how far she’d gone until she saw the Akuma.

“You were the only person who seemed to have a spine and didn’t believe the bullshit I came up with. I was trying to push you into reporting me to the teacher or convincing everyone else that I was lying. I’ve never been in a situation where people actually thought that my lies were real before. Looking back it was a stupid thing to do.” And wasn’t that an understatement. “After I left I realized how harsh I’d been and was coming back to make sure you were okay when the Akuma phased through the wall and straight into me. Apparently my being mad at myself for overreacting was enough to let him in, again.”

“Why keep lying though? You had to have realized it wasn’t working at some point so why keep doing it?” That was a really good question and she didn’t have a good answer. Lila ran a hand through her hair in frustration.

“At first I thought that I just needed bigger lies. I also expected the teacher or principal to call my mother and verify the ‘disabilities’ I said I had. Other than that I guess it was just habit. It’s what I’ve always done in that situation and I didn’t know what else to do if I’m being honest. Everyday I’d tell myself that today was when everyone would see through the bullshit. That’s also why I started lying about you.” Once again, in hindsight it was an extremely stupid move. Marinette looked confused.

“You’ve been lying to the class about me thinking it would make them realize what you were doing?” Yeah, it was a really stupid plan.

“Yes. I did my research. Everyone loved you. You were the class rep for crying out loud! I thought that lying about you would get them to at least think things through. I mean they’re supposed to be your friends. They’re supposed to know your character well enough to question it when someone says you’re doing something so completely off track from your normal. I didn’t expect them to believe me without question and I absolutely didn’t expect them to retaliate and hide it from me.”

Marinette’s head snapped up in shock. She was looking for something in Lila’s eyes but Lila wasn’t sure what it was. The girl's expression softened suddenly and before she knew it, Lila was on the receiving end of a crushing hug. What the hell?

“If you’re trying to suffocate me there are easier ways to do it.” The words just popped out and Lila winced again. So maybe her mom had a point about her needing more social interaction. It still didn’t mean she should be forced to endure school. She felt Marinette let out an amused huff and pulled back.

“So what brought on this need to come clean?” Lila’s eyes automatically went to Marinette’s injuries before snapping away to the wall.

“Alya slipped and told me what they did last night. I went to Adrien first since he knew Ladybug called me out to try and get him to make the others see sense, or at least help you protect yourself. That’s when he told me what he said to you.” She felt her anger resurfacing just thinking about that conversation.

“That’s what you meant.” Lila just blinked at Marinette in confusion. “When you first got here you yelled at me about taking a moron’s advice.” Lila winced at the reminder but nodded. “Apparently you’re not the only one prone to making mistakes and snap judgments.” Her tone was dry but still held a trace of amusement. Lila wasn’t certain what to make of it.

“I’ll text my mother and have her come here after work so I can explain what’s going on to her and your parents.” It was the least she could do. There was no way to fix this, but at least she could come clean.

“You can’t do that! What if one of them gets Akumatized over it?” Lila just frowned at Marinette. She couldn’t be serious. Her worried expression said otherwise.

“You can’t keep letting people hurt you because you’re scared how they’ll react. Hawkmoth is going to keep using people and that’s not your fault. It’s not your job to make everyone happy, especially not at the expense of your physical and mental well being. They need to know what’s going on so you can get out of that toxic school environment.” Marinette actually rolled her eyes.

“Just because you don’t like school doesn’t mean it’s a toxic environment.” Lila stared at her in shock. Marinette was serious. The phrase ‘what the hell’ was quickly becoming her new mantra.

“You’re kidding right? Your teacher avoids her job at all costs by making the class police itself. She blames the victims for things they have no control over because it’s easier than actually confronting someone. The principal hasn’t once tried to call my mother to verify absences or illness. That’s not even including your classmates who have gone full Lord of the Flies over a bunch of lies.” How could she possibly think any of this was okay? Marinette seemed confused as she mulled over Lila’s words. How long had this shit been going on?

“I suppose it may seem that way to someone walking into it, but I think your prejudice against school in general is part of your viewpoint. Things have always worked themselves out before and I’m sure everyone will come around eventually.” She was going to have an aneurysm. Apparently Marinette was just as bad as Adrien at holding on to things despite the evidence. She reached out and gently touched the gauze on Marinette’s forehead.

“They could have killed you. Alya especially is prone to acting without thinking things through or caring about the consequences. It’s why she posted all those ridiculous interviews. Honestly I’m surprised she hasn’t been sued yet. I took care of the site though.” She wasn’t even paying attention to the words coming out of her mouth, too focused on where Marinette’s blood was seeping through. This was all her fault.

“What do you mean you took care of the site?” Marinette’s tone was off but she couldn’t place the tone.

“Hacking is one of the things that I actually like doing. I took down everything with me and purged it from her harddrive. I also took down that stupid picture of Ladybug and Chat kissing after Oblivio. It’s not much but it’s as much of an apology I could manage to Ladybug even if she never knows who did it.” Alya had ranted for days about the Heroine’s denial. It was beyond annoying at the time.

“Why do you want to apologize to Ladybug?” Lila blinked at her before letting out a sigh.

“After my Akumatizations I said some things… let’s just say I wasn’t in a great headspace. I tend to go feral when I feel threatened. Add that to the whole lying and keeping in character to get expelled… She has enough to deal with without hormonal teenagers mouthing off at her.” Marinette was studying her again and Lila couldn’t read her expression at all. It made her more nervous than she would have thought.

“I still don’t think we should tell our parents. Maybe we can turn things around ourselves.” Damn it. The girl was out of her mind.

“That school is a breeding ground for bullies and narcissists. The administration needs to be held accountable for their neglect or who knows how many others could get hurt. There needs to be consequences or things will never change.” There was no way they could fix this themselves. She wasn’t even sure teams of lawyers and therapists could fix this at this point. Marinette was frowning again. Lila wanted to convince her this was the right thing, but if push came to shove she would tell the Dupain-Chengs the truth so they could do something about this. Her mother would just want to bury it to keep Lila out of trouble. Marinette’s parents would do what they had to to protect their daughter, at least she hoped they would.

“I don’t want anyone else getting hurt… Maybe we can talk to the principal. If we say we’re going to look into a lawsuit or call the police, maybe he’ll change.” Lila rolled her eyes.

“He won’t take anything seriously coming from two teenagers. Look, I realize your self preservation instincts aren’t very strong but you need to tell your parents what’s going on. If nothing else you can transfer schools. Honestly, you probably should.” She looked devastated at the thought and Lila’s guilt came back full force. She knew that she couldn’t control the actions of others, but if she hadn’t worked them up they never would have gone after Marinette of all people. They say ignorance is bliss for a reason. Marinette probably would have been perfectly happy not knowing what her classmates were capable of.

“I can’t just leave my friends.”

“What friends? The only person who has bothered to tell me to back off is Chloe. Something about you being more fun to square off with when you actually have a spine.” That girl was at least what she seemed. Lila could respect that far more than Adrien’s fake personality. In his defense she didn’t think he was doing it out of spite, he’d just been playing a part most of his life and probably had no idea who he was, let alone how to be himself.

“They didn’t mean it. I’m sure once they understand the situation they’ll calm down.” There had to be a way to get through to her, but Lila was getting far too frustrated to think things through properly. As usual, her mouth went into gear before her brain.

“If we tell them what’s going on now they’ll just transfer all that anger to me, assuming they don’t think you threatened me into backing up your story that is. Sadly, I have a feeling that it’ll be the second.” She would be fine with the first honestly. It would give her a reason to have her mother pull her out of school. Unfortunately given the class’s track record she couldn’t chance it. Alya could easily whip everyone else into a frenzy if she decided Marinette was forcing Lila to back her version of events. The girl hadn’t been able to find the truth yet so there was no reason to think she would come to her senses now.

“I suppose you’re right. I wouldn’t want them going after you.” She couldn’t have heard that right.

“What?”

“What you did was wrong but you don’t deserve to be bullied for it. I don’t want to be part of the reason that would happen.” Her supposed friends attacking her didn’t phase her at all, but the thought of those same friends bullying the person who’d set them on her in the first place caused her to pause. Lila would never understand that mindset.

“So can we at least talk to your parents about what’s happening? This has gone way past too far and I really don’t think we’ll be able to stop it by ourselves. Please.” Marinette finally nodded and Lila felt a tightness in her chest loosen. It wasn’t enough, but it was a start. 

AO3   Next

[rose-demica]

Fandom: Avengers

Pairing: Loki/You (Reader)

A/N: For the amazing @mariekoukie6661 Merry Christmas! I hope it’s a good one! 

Also, side note, I always thought Loki could teleport - don't ask me why, I just always have. Plus he can do other bits of magic when he chooses to, using the spells he learnt at his mother’s side.

“You want to do what?!” You weren’t quite sure you believed your own ears there was no way-

“You heard what I said,” Loki replied, lifting his head from his book to you with a lazy smirk, eyes tracing the way the pen in your hand dropped down to the desk, distracted from the paperwork you were supposed to be.

“Might I remind you that you’re on house arrest, and I’m on probation-”

“But it’s Christmas!” Loki whined, cutting you off. 

“We can’t even leave this floor!” You persisted nevertheless. “If they find out I let you leave for even a half-second then I’m done for.” Loki sighed, eyes flicking back down to his book, but you knew he wasn’t focussed, he was still listening to you. “They said if I can prove myself worthy they’ll let me properly join the team! So you are going to stay there, and I’m going to stay here, and that’s that.” You felt quite proud of yourself, looking back at your paperwork and ignoring the Norse god as he looked up at you, and pouted with the puppy dog eyes you’d yet to resist. As long as you didn’t look at him, your resolve wouldn’t falter. Certainly it was the point of this test, seeing if Loki could sway you into releasing him.

“You’re no fun.” Loki turned back to his book, ignoring you. Your lips curled into a smile, You 1, Loki.... like 500, but still!

“Y/N. You’re all done for the evening. Loki, have you seen the error of your ways this time?” You put your pen down and turned as Steve walked into the room, still in his uniform. 

“Yes Sir.” Loki scrambled to stand up, only to vanish entirely when you reached out and punched the captain in the arm. The disguise falling away as the real Loki clutched at his arm. “Ow! What gave me away?”

“Steve’s not out on a mission. He’s out for personal reasons.” You shrugged, turning back to your work with another small smile. You were on a roll so far. Normally you’d either given into Loki by now or fallen for one of his tricks. 

“Seriously Y/N, just five minutes.” You rolled your eyes, afraid to look at him in case he tried something else that you’d no doubt give into. Nope, you would just sit here and stare at the paperwork, paperwork was much safer than the smug, handsome face of that trickster.

“Either Tony or Steve will kill me if you leave, especially if you leave for the freaking North Pole.”  

“But it’s Yule time. It’s when the ancient Norse people left us gifts, very nice gifts, in case I decided to return the favour of a poor offering.” You did turn to look at Loki then, watching the way he was kneeling on the ground, clutching his arm in pain where you had hit him as if it were a gushing wound. 

“And that’s why you want to go to the north pole?” You raised an eyebrow as he pouted, 

“Well yeah, that’s where they send all the gifts, before Heimdall and his 'elves' Bifrost them to Asgard for distribution,” Loki stated like it was the most obvious thing in the world, and for half a second actually had you wondering why you hadn't known that. 

“So you’ll get the gifts eventually anyway?” Loki groaned, running a hand down his face. 

“It’s tradition Y/N, centuries old tradition, I gotta go peek!” You laughed, of course this was what it was all about, Loki couldn’t wait until the right time to find out what his gifts were. He reminded you of the child that always had to ruin their own surprise with their own impatience.

“You can wait-” An icy cold wind hit you, chilling you to the core in a way you knew it would take weeks to fully feel warm again. Everything in front of you was white as if you were staring at a blank piece of paper. The snow under your feet crunched as you shifted, trying to find any semblance of something other than white- wait... snow?

“Whoops.” Loki was laughing as he lifted his hand off of your arm, you hadn’t even realised he had been close enough to touch you, and now- “Now how did that happ-” You didn’t give Loki a chance to finish his sentence, tackling him straight into a big snow pile. You laughed at his yelp of surprise, picking up a fistful of snow and shoving it up his shirt, revenge!

Loki wasn’t about to take that lying down, he rolled out from under you, a quick tap with his leg sending you face first into the snow. You heard his fearful gulp as you growled, and he took off, with you hot on his heels.

~~

It wasn’t until you started shaking that you stopped, Loki calling a truce when he realised you were shivering so violently it was getting hard to stand. He wrapped his own body around yours, pulling you into his lap, before conjuring a blanket out of midair to wrap tightly around you both. 

“Hang in there beautiful, we’ll be somewhere warm soon.” Loki’s hand ran through your hair, and suddenly you were in an igloo, a small fire burning in front of you. Yet still, he held on to you, tucking your head under his chin and holding you tight. 

“I didn’t see any presents for you. Were you too late?” You asked, fighting the drowsiness that the sudden warmth had caused to flare. A yawn forcing its way past your lips regardless.

“Early, but all the presents I wished for were there,” Loki replied softly, wrapping the blanket tighter around you before leaning back against the Igloo wall, carefully making sure to keep you tucked against his body.

“Oh?” You forced your eyes open searching around the room for whatever it was that Loki had been hoping for this year. 

“I’ll tell you what it was soon. First you should warm up. I’m sorry, I forgot that others are not as well adapted to the cold as I.” Loki chuckled, before running a hand down your back. 

“Can you make hot cocoa?” You asked, itching for something to warm you up from the inside out. 

"Anything for you." Loki shifted slightly, before offering a steaming mug, you could feel the warmth radiating from it, greedily wrapping your hands around the mug. "Car-" It burnt, the blistering kind of heat that came from touching metal trays fresh out of the oven. You cried out in pain, letting go of the mug and clutching your hand to your chest. 

"Let me see," Loki spoke softly, setting the mug aside and reaching for your hand. You let him pull it from your chest, slowly uncurling your fingers. They were an angry red, pulsing with heat. "Sorry beautiful." Loki's hand turned blue, and cool, running over your hand before tangling with yours, it took the heat and pain away, letting you relax back into Loki's chest. 

A few muttered words from Loki's lips had the pain gone altogether, his hand returning to normal within yours. Slowly you reached out with your other hand, Loki passing you the cocoa, this time you took it by the handle, bringing it to your lips. 

You felt the sip of warmth travel from your lips to your stomach, a pearl of heat that rolled down the middle of you, before reaching its destination. Slowly the heat spread, tendrils of warmth seeping through your veins. The warmth chased the coldness from your body, with it the tiredness slipped from your brain.

You stayed quiet, sipping your cocoa as it warmed you up. Loki seemed content with that, letting the silence fall between you. 

"What present were you hoping for?" You eventually asked, pushing your mug away and focusing on Loki. He seemed reluctant to answer, looking around the igloo before settling his gaze on the fire. Maybe hoping if he stayed quiet you'd break and fill the silence, but you knew he'd crack first. 

"Heimdall's running behind schedule." Loki pretended to check a watch he wasn't wearing. "I enjoy watching the presents pile up. Then every year people volunteer to come down and sort through the piles, before taking them back up to Asgard and delivering them." 

"Loki-" You shifted in his lap, making it so that you could see his face a lot more, prepared to try read through any lie he might try and tell.

"I think it's where the idea of your Santa being based in the north pole came from. We were spotted once." Loki ignored you, clearly, he had been hoping his quiet statement had gone unnoticed. 

"Loki... did you ask Santa for me this Christmas?” You watched the trickster carefully, especially the way the tips of his ears were slowly growing redder. 

“No, we don’t believe in Santa.” Loki was still looking anywhere but you, as if this time he knew he’d be the one to crack if he saw your face. 

“Loki-” He relented, looking down at you with such a tenderness that it stole your breath away. You’d been so busy ignoring your own feelings, that you’d been oblivious to his. 

“Maybe.” His hand cupped your cheek, lifting your head slightly more. “Depends, did you wish for me?” Part of you wanted to scream yes, tangle your hands in his hair and pull his lips to yours, but you had a better idea.

“No.” Loki’s face started to fall, walls coming up almost as quickly. “I wished for mistletoe, and an opportunity to meet you under it.” Loki paused, eyes scanning your face, checking to see if you were messing with him or not. 

“Well, I did say anything for you.” He shrugged, moving a hand before bringing it back with a sprig of mistletoe. You took it from him with a smile, before holding it up over your head. 

“Whoops.” You spoke softly, “Now how did that happ-” Loki’s lips were soft and warm on yours, you dropped the mistletoe, carding a hand through his hair and kissing him back. 

[crimsonhcadache]

      - ̗̀ NOW INTRODUCING:  IVES ❝ IVY ❞ SERRANO !

( DANNA PAOLA, CISFEMALE, SHE/HER, SCORPIO, 24 ) I just spotted IVES “IVY” SERRANO at the beach today. Don’t you know them? They live down by the TOWERS and usually hang out with the RICH KIDS & MUSICIANS cliques. From what I’ve heard, they can be DECEITFUL, but they’re also ADAPTIVE. I always think of them when i hear LAST LAUGH - FLETCHER and tend to associate them with STRAWBERRY CHAMPAGNE, A FRESH SET OF STILETTO NAILS, AND RED LINGERIE. ( tay, she/her, 22, est )

full name: natalie rose serrano ives serrano nicknames: ivy, poison ivy faceclaim: danna paola voiceclaim: lana del rey birthday: november 1st, 1996  zodiac: scorpio sun, aries moon, gemini rising sexuality: bisexual occupation: influencer, instagram model, musician, scammer / thief positive traits: effervescent, bold, creative, charismatic, coquettish, intuitive, ambitious, alluring, adventurous, perceptive  negative traits: cantankerous, deceitful, envious, manipulative, dramatic, stubborn, narcissistic, materialistic, reckless, quick-tempered character inspos: maddy perez euphoria, jackie burkhart that 70’s show, blair waldorf gossip girl, margo hanson the magicians, every lana del rey song ever, lucrecia montesinos and cayetana pando elite, rosa diaz brooklyn nine nine, the entire rose family schitts creek, jen harding dead to me

- ̗̀♡ — › background !

the main thing u need to know about ivy is that she is lying ! always !! her real name isn’t even actually ivy smh

she was born NATALIE ROSE SERRANO, to two working class parents in new york city. she knew from a young age that she was just supposed to be rich and famous, and that something had gotten mixed up somewhere and she was put in the wrong life.

in high school she got a scholarship to a fancy private catholic school, and that’s where she started to hone her craft of manipulating rich people. she would befriend all of the richest bitches at school and take advantage of everything that came along with it: vacations to far away places, stays in the family’s cabins and lake houses, even designer clothes that her friends no longer wanted and would gift to her, thinking it was their idea all along

as she grew up and got better at getting what she wanted out of people, her entitled attitude only got worse, driving a wedge between her and her parents, who kept waiting for her to develop a work ethic and kept being disappointed. a few months after she graduated high school, on her 18th birthday, her parents kicked her out of the house and cut her off, hoping that it would force her to grow up and take on any responsibility

but that plan backfired for them, her parents underestimating how truly stubborn natalie was. the day after her 18th, she wandered into a local strip club and got a job, figuring it’d be the easiest and quickest way to get some cash, and she took to it naturally and actually really enjoyed stripping

she started to embody an entirely new persona that she had created for herself, dancing under the name POISON IVY and telling everyone she was a trust fund baby that had been cut off from her rich parents, needing to dance to supplement her income, and her lies just continued to spiral out of control until she almost started to believe it herself. she had never told anyone at the club her real name, not even the other strippers, just going by “ivy” for a while.

she had learned to weaponize the power she had over people by being pretty and charming, using her looks for absolute evil and doing whatever it took to get money—from straight up pickpocketing, to making men buy her expensive gifts, to blackmailing, to sugar babying, to getting patrons wasted and manipulating them into tipping her absurd amounts… she did it all, very quickly earning enough to live the life she had always dreamed of, that she felt she deserved for whatever twisted reason.

she started posting on instagram with the name poison ivy generally just flaunting her carefree, extravagant life, often exaggerating or down right lying just to really dazzle her quickly growing audience

as she started to go down the influencer route, she realized she needed to do something to hide the skeletons in her closet ( the fact that she didn’t actually come from money and was making far more than was normal for even the best of dancers, a couple of small possession / shoplifting charges, and just generally anything that could lead people to her real identity ) so she started to tell people her name was ives, fully taking on the new identity. she even went so far as to make some of the people that had been closest to her sign NDAs about her real identity, making sure that no one could sell info about her should her plan of being famous work out

she also moved out to california to run away from everyone in the city that was starting to catch on to what she was doing, basically doing all the same shit but now in a New Place.. this was about 3-4 years ago, so she’s been in sunhollow for a while now doing the whole influencer thing !!

and it did work out !! at first she was definitely buying followers/likes to boost her likelihood of brand sponsorships, but eventually she faked it until she made it and actually attained influencer status. she then used her newfound internet fame ( and some classic blackmailing ) to get herself a record deal 

she also started sleeping around with pretty much any famous person she could, having very public relationships and breakups and scandals to keep her name in the press, which ultimately lead to more exposure/people following her, if only to see what she did next, which lead to even more sponsorships

eventually she stopped dancing and just focused on her influencing and more recently ( like... less than 6 months ago recently ) her music career. but she never stopped sugar babying and scamming rich stupid men, still very much using that as a means to keep up her lifestyle. she’s also done a few modeling things, but it’s mostly just like catalog work or being the face of a trendy campaign bc she’s way too short for the runway

she also recently made an only fans account bc she was bored one night and was mostly planning on posting once as a joke but then she made a bunch of money / got a bunch of subscribers and was like oh word ? i can do that ! so she will post on there from time to time but she’s not like… super serious about it ya know ? also her music label is big mad at her for it bc they’re like bUt yOuR rEpUtAtIoN and she’s like yeah.. but my bank account ? also it’s no secret she used to be a stripper so she rly just.. doesn’t give a fuck ! 

so basically she’s jus here making money being pretty and pulling a long ass scam on… everyone

- ̗̀♡ — › personality / headcannons !

she’s a real two faced bitch… she has perfected the art of becoming whoever she thinks other people want her to be, quickly adapting her personality to get whatever she wants

she’s usually pretty friendly actually, really charming and outgoing and just trying to have a good time

she has a pretty short temper tho and holds grudges like you wouldn’t believe, so once you’re on her bad side… good luck lol she is so ruthless

she’s like… deeply, deeply selfish and will always put herself first, but she’s so manipulative that she can make people do things that they think are their idea, but it’s really just something she planted in their head so it’s not always obvious

also very spoiled and will throw a mf fit if she doesn’t get her way or u say no to her

always going out !! always doing the most !! she’s the type to show up randomly at ur door at 8pm on a tuesday with a bottle of tequila and make u party with her whether u like it or not

she’s a lot smarter than she lets on sometimes, like she knows people expect her to be stupid and ditzy and shallow and she’ll let them underestimate her when it’s beneficial

always looks perfectly put together— her nails are always meticulously manicured, usually w stiletto shaped acrylics, and you’ll literally never see her outside her house without makeup and a perfectly composed outfit. it’s also a rare occasion that she’s not wearing at least six inch heels, trying to make up for bein so mf short ( she’s 5’3 )

she talks A Lot but is really good at saying a lot of words without actually saying anything, like you can be best friends with her for months and then just be like “i don’t actually know a single thing about her”

always up to no good and sticking her nose where it doesn’t belong !! she’s always got some sort of scheme going or getting in to some kind of drama

v much a hoe and v much proud of it, will sleep w just about anyone especially if she can get something out of it

also a serial dater !! she’s always hoping in and out of relationships and being rumored to be with a dozen people at once

most definitely calls paparazzi on herself, especially when she’s around other famous ppl but will never admit it

compulsive liar, she will literally lie about the dumbest things like she doesn’t even need a reason to lie she jus.. does

she has a luxury two bedroom apartment that she lives alone in ( one room is kinda a guest room but also mostly just a giant closet ) in the towers and the gag is she doesn’t even know how much her rent is bc one of her random sugar daddies pays her rent.. her power tbh 

- ̗̀♡ — › wanted connections !

hookups / flings / one night stands / fwbs all that shit !!

exes on bad terms … gimme drama pls

enemies / ppl she’s stolen from maybe… she would definitely deny it and say they’re jus jealous of her or smth stupid but that could make the feud worse

party pals !! like i said she goes out a lot and always somehow manages to make new friends and drag them into her shenanigans

on again / off again exes… i want the Angst so bad..

shallow friendships / influencer friends like they play it up a lot for insta bc they both have a pretty big following but they dont really... like each other that much ?? like they definitely seem to be a lot closer than they really are

pr relationships this could be past or present !! in the same vein as the last one except they pretend to date ( or maybe just act like they’re gonna date but never actually do ?? like to fuel rumors ) 

unlikely friends !! like ppl who are nice and sweet and Pure, she could use a lil good energy in her life

situationship / flirtationship like they’re super flirty and maybe hook up a couple times but everyone assumes they’re dating or like gonna date but they’re jus vibing. bonus points if one or both of them actually has feelings but can’t tell if they’re just friends / casually hooking up or if it could turn into something more.. im a slut for some mutual pining !!

neighbors … mb they hate her for always being loud n throwing mini parties OR maybe they join in

mean girl rivalries !!

someone she’s taking advantage of / stealing from without them knowing .. oof

partner in crime !!!

one sided crushes or like someone she’s stringing along smh

sugar daddies mb 😇

someone to put her in her mf place JDKDKD like they call her out on her bs and are like “i see what ur doing bitch stay away from my friends” type thing

idk anything really !! gimme all the messy plots ok :~)

[angstyaches]

Feverish puke for felix and elliot? You choose the sickie I can’t decidee

Hi anon! Sorry this one took so long, but this really helped me develop what’s been going on with these two. 

CW: emeto, fever, bodily changes, anxiety, mention of deteriorating condition (maybe?), food mention, (un)death mention

Part of the Plan

Felix’s ears felt like they’d been filled with cotton wool. He could see that Ryan’s lips were moving, he could tell there were words coming out, but it wasn’t until he heard Elliott say his name that he managed to snap out of it.

He jumped and looked down to see that he’d been digging his nails into the back of Elliott’s hand, leaving tiny half-moon dints along his boyfriend’s warm, slick skin.

“Are you alright?” Elliott asked, even as something dulled the yellow fire that usually sparked behind his own eyes, making him sit with his shoulders sagged. Felix laughed out of disbelief and nervousness, because if he didn’t laugh, he thought he might burst into tears. 

He glanced at Ryan; even she was looking at him with a strange expression from her chair, as though he was the one they needed to be worried about. She tilted her head inquisitively, her silver hair curling against the ruffles of her blouse.

“I’m good. No, I’m good. I’m sorry.” Felix cleared his throat, frowning in Ryan’s direction. “Sorry. I, um – I mean, is – is there no way to slow it down? For example, what if Elli cuts right back on blood, like me? I know it’d feel a bit weird at first, darling, but if it would help –”

“Well, I was just explaining this,” Ryan said pointedly. “Unfortunately, there’s no slowing it down at this stage. Elliott’s tendency to over-indulge on hunts, coupled with the fact that he was half-blooded directly by an Elder, seems to have caused his transition to accelerate by quite a lot. Reversing the transition at this stage, well – it’s unheard of.”

“But,” Felix said, “can we slow it down?”

Ryan pursed her lips. “I would not recommend trying.”

Felix could tell she was straining to keep her composure, considering how distressed the two of them seemed. He briefly wondered what this change would mean for her; Elliott had never planned on surpassing her status as Elder, but now he might just do it unintentionally.

Elliott shivered and hunched further forward in his chair. Felix leaned into the motion so he could keep a hold on his hand.

“His body is going to keep adapting,” Ryan said. “And if he doesn’t obey his new cravings? Well, it won’t be pleasant for anybody involved. I’m talking about intense nausea, muscle spasms, violent outbursts –”

“How?” Felix asked, his throat pinched. He held back the tears that stung his eyes, knowing that crying in front of Ryan would undermine anything he had to say. “If you knew that being blooded by an Elder would make his transition this unstable, how could you have let it happen?”

“Elliott was just as aware of what he was doing –”

“You knew he didn’t want to change.” Felix’s lips trembled apart with each word. “You knew I didn’t want him to –”

“Fee,” Elliott murmured, pinning him with a look. His expression was pained and exhausted and pleading. Come on.

“Felix, Elliott is capable of making his own decisions,” Ryan stated, draping her arms along the sides of her chair. “You both have my sympathy, since I can see it’s causing you distress, but I do not take responsibility.”

He looked at Elliott with the same anger burning in his throat, because Ryan was right. The way Elliott turned his face away, reluctant to make eye contact, suggested they were both thinking the same thing, so there was no point in Felix bringing it up; he’d told Elliott to take it easy whenever he went hunting – especially whenever he was traveling alone or with Nancy.

The feeling dissipated when Elliott slid his elbows onto his knees, hanging his head forward. Felix shifted in his chair, placing a hand lightly on the back of Elliott’s neck. His skin was much hotter than it should have been, and the contact from Felix’s hand seemed to make him tremble.

“Once the toxins are out of your system, the symptoms should ease. I would recommend cutting physical meals down to once every two days from now on, and upping your blood intake by half, at least until you’ve got a handle on your symptoms. So, for now, you should rest.” Ryan’s cool yellow gaze fell on Felix. “And you, Felix, need to adjust your attitude, quick-smart.”

Felix forced a smile. “Yes, ma’am. Come on, Elli, let’s get you up to bed.”

___

“I have a bad taste in my mouth,” Elliott muttered from where he sat at the edge of the bed.

Felix relaxed his hold on Elliott, having crawled across the bed to drape his arms around his shoulders. He was trying not to press too closely or heavily against Elliott’s skin, considering how much heat was already radiating from him, even after he’d taken off his shirt.

“I know, darling. Ryan said a lot of things that were hard to hear. Imagine, failing to take any responsibility for –”

“She only said things that were true, Fee. And I – I meant that I have an actual bad taste in mouth.” Elliott sat forward, reaching up to remove Felix’s hands while his own quivered. “I feel nauseous.”

“Oh.” Felix slid back from Elliott, watching as his shoulders clenched and he dropped his head into his hands. “Is – is there anything I can do?”

Elliott grunted as he pushed himself to his feet. “Just, um – just try to relax. I can tell this is stressing you out a lot. Put something on the T.V., maybe.”

Felix’s heart sank as he sat back on the bed. Elliott crossed the room and let himself into the ensuite. His eyes were pinned on the ground as he turned back to close the door. Felix didn’t want to put anything on the T.V.; the only thing that would make him feel better was being with Elliott, and he couldn’t do that while he was nauseous, or he’d get his arm bitten off. Metaphorically, not literally; or at least, he hoped.

Felix climbed off the bed after a minute, and started rearranging the duvet so they could get straight in once Elliott was ready to lie down. He took one of his own blood and sugar lollipops from the box on his nightstand and left it lying, still in its wrapper, on Elliott’s pillow, in case he felt like replacing some iron. He looked at it for a second and put it away in the box again, realising he didn’t know how Elliott’s body would react to the sucrose.

He wrung his hands after that and sat back down on the bed, unable to think of anything else to do. He started off kneeling, eventually letting his legs slide out to the side, trying not to look towards the bathroom door.

Trying not to picture Elliott gagging over the toilet, all by himself. Trying not to picture this exact same scenario occurring more and more frequently from now on, as Elliott’s body inched closer and closer to being undead, instead of simply off-human. Felix’s hand flew to his mouth to stifle a sob, and he closed his eyes, willing them to absorb the tears that threatened to fall. He wished he could bundle all the tears up and tie a string around them and tuck them away in his heart somewhere.

He jumped as the handle of the bathroom door slammed down, and the door opened a crack. It sat like that without any further movement.

“El?” Felix scrambled off the bed again. He went into the ensuite to find Elliott shivering on his knees in front of the toilet, though it didn’t seem like he’d thrown anything up yet.

He looked up at Felix, that glassy look still in his deep yellow eyes. “Fee, can – can you hold me? Just for a minute?”

Felix shuddered with a sob, his resolve crumbling. He tackled Elliott into a hug and put hand out against the side of the bath to stop both of them from toppling over.

“Oh, don’t cry, beautiful,” Elliott begged in his ear. “Please.”

“I know, I know I’m just making it worse, Elli, I’m sorry.”

“No, I am. I’m so incredibly sorry. This wasn’t part of – of the – of the plan we–”

Elliott lurched forward, and Felix sank back, stroking a hand across his boyfriend’s shoulders as he retched over the toilet. His skin was practically on fire, his body fighting against what it now considered to be foreign substance, a potential threat. Toxins, as Ryan had put it.

A few hours ago, it had just been fried chicken and rice. Nothing toxic at all. The fact that Felix had made it was probably part of the reason Elliott had been holding back from throwing up all this time. Like he thought it would be a direct insult.

“Let it up, darling, it’s okay,” Felix stammered, just in case that was what was happening. He lightened his touch on his back, surprised he hadn’t already been whined at or shaken away. Not wanting to leave, but afraid of making his boyfriend feel too crowded, Felix edged around him and climbed into the bath. He it would make Elliott feel like they were separated enough.

Elliott threw him a quick, grateful glance, then choked on another unproductive gag. “Fee, we – we never… Rome, and – and Japan…”

“Darling,” Felix whimpered, folding his arms on the edge of the bath and resting his chin on top of his hands. “We can still see the world together. I know I talk like all I care about is food tourism, but there’s so much more I want to do. With you, Elli.”

Elliott gasped, trying to choke out more words through the nausea. “What – wh-what if –?”

His breath hitched, a shallow belch echoing against the toilet bowl. He sat forward a little more, back muscles contracting visibly under his skin. He made a noise like something had clawed at his throat before letting waves of vomit splash into the water. Felix wished he could scoop his arms around his waist.

He eventually took his hand away, in case his boyfriend was just cooperating with the touch so as not to upset Felix. He wouldn’t put it past him.

“God,” Elliott rasped finally, dropping his weight to the side and sliding his legs out so that his back was against the bath. His face contorted as he pressed a hand to his belly, letting out a couple of short, wet burps.

“Are you okay?” Felix sighed, crawling down the bath. “Can I touch you now?”

As soon as Elliott gave a weak nod, Felix sat up on his knees, reaching one hand down to rest on his boyfriend’s chest. The other, he placed gently on his cheek. “You’re still just like a furnace.”

Elliott tilted his head to show Felix the weak grin pulling at one edge of his mouth. “Give it a minute, boo. My stomach’s still halfway up my throat.”

Felix pressed his lips to Elliott’s damp, salty cheek. “Did you know the food was going to make you sick?”

“I… hoped it wouldn’t,” Elliott muttered. “I hoped yesterday’s stomach ache would turn out to be just that, not… not this. I didn’t want this, Fee...”

Tears looming in his eyes, Felix kissed the back of Elliott’s neck. “I know.”

Elliott lifted a shaky hand to hold onto Felix’s. Felix wondered if he was pressing so that his heartbeat would be a little more obvious against his palm, its pace slower than a human’s, but still ticking. The thought of it stopping for good, of him becoming truly undead, was clearly on his mind.  His hand slumped away from Felix’s after a few seconds, arm resting heavily in his lap.

“Oh, darling,” Felix said, his voice echoing slightly in the empty bath. “Are you ready to go to bed?”

Elliott grunted. “That sounds wonderful. Sooner or later, it’ll be a silk-lined coffin for me.”

“Elli, I love you,” Felix whispered against the side of Elliott’s head. “But even if that were true, we’d be keeping the bed, because there’s no way I’m being spooned in a coffin.”

[skamamoroma]

Anon, that post wouldn’t format properly so I’m posting this here instead. You asked me expand on why I always refer to Nico as being surrounded by metaphor. Strap yourself in! I get carried away talking about this stuff. I have written much of this back around s2 but I have tried to keep it to examples. I hope this is what you were after!

In overview, this is why I love them as a pair so much. They are VERY different but they also work so well to balance each other out. Where Marti is A LOT, Nico adds a little perspective. Where Nico is a little overwhelmed by his feelings, Marti brings the simplicity. When Marti needs to see beyond his own head, Nico facilitates it. Etc.

You’re right, I’ve always liked to say that:

Nico is metaphorical,  Marti is a literalist.

This is what s2 was founded on and the following are examples I can think of (and there are probably many more!) that show how Besse included this so much throughout their story.

The foundation of their Last Man On Earth metaphor is most important here. I have written POST after POST on this but, in summary, Marti presenting this isea as Isak did with parallels universes upset Nico as Even was overwhelmed by the idea of multiple universes. Nico felt overwhelmed by the idea of isolation. But, considering his currently life was causing him difficulty as he felt stifled and trapped, spoken for and unable to be his truthful self, Nico craved comfort, escape and acceptance but ultimately to be listened to. We saw him descend into this struggle especially after the clip with his mamma. He consistently signalled to Marti he hadn’t given up and was trying... red string, notes, antidote prep...but he chose to lean into Marti’s apocalyptic universe. By accepting it as their little world, Nico only considered it if they were BOTH the last men, if Marti would be with him too and without anything else to impact them. They’d be safe and free from society or parents or girlfriends or anyone else who was weighing in. Nico changed his mind and it brought him comfort. Not only that, he constructed this world as a way to escape and comfort himself but also as a way to communicate with Marti on his plans for how they could be together. Eventually, Nico became so engrossed in the idea, he lived it. He created their apocalypse in Milan, looked out at the world as Marti lay in bed and accepted the world was empty and he was safe to be with Marti. He lost himself a little (a lot?) in the metaphor, bless him.

Nico hid that vial of “vaccine” for Marti to find, attaching a note that effectively said “I finished my search. I found the vaccine. You can use it to either cure the people or cure me” - my lovely Nico and his metaphorical ways effectively saying “I took some time to try to work this stuff out and to try to be with you and I am giving you a choice here: you can end this whole thing with me and end our little world we built or you can use it on me and accept me into your life”. His “impossible personality” being something Nico thinks needs to be cured and that Marti would want to change him. He knows nothing can be “cured” but he tried to tell Marti about his BPD and illness in the only way he knew how. He wanted to be different, to be “easier” and tried to give Marti a way out without being completely honest... because it was the only way he knew how to articulate it at the time. He leans into metaphors to make sense of stuff!

La Giraffa. My personal favourite. Stefano Benni and that FUCKING BEAUTIFUL quote. “La giraffa ha il cuore lontano dai pensieri” - the giraffe has its heart far away from its thoughts” and the resulting “it fell in love yesterday but doesn’t know it yet”. Nico sent this metaphorical idea to Marti to help explain in the only way he knew how about his mental illness. He didn’t feel able to be open and blunt, not like Marti, so he reached out in this way. The giraffe being Nico. His illness and his heart not being mutually exclusive, telling Marti his feelings for him were real and that him having a mental illness doesn’t mean he can’t love and be loved and that he isn’t his illness. Still moves me to this day. I have a legit giraffe on my wall in my flat because I took this quote to heart so deeply. Marti being Mr Literalist, didn’t get it 😂 Nico choosing a giraffe as his other companion in his Last Man scenario, an animal who would understand him... he is such a lovely thoughtful soul.

The red light scene in Milan. Oh I love this moment so. Nico steps into the room and asks Marti what it says. Marti being literal is like “how?” And tried to read it in English. Nico being Mr Metaphor is like “No Marti, it says Marti.... and Nico”. He’s in world builder mode, turning his surroundings into what he wants them to be. He sees the world differently. He surrounds them with meaning and suggests they’re in a place just for them, that this red room (RED) is theirs, their names are even on the wall. Then kisses Marti’s heart. LORD. The whole scene is a metaphor while Marti is just taken along for the ride.

Nico also chose 2 other things alongside Marti and a giraffe for his apocalyptic scenario: an airplane and nakedness. Freedom/escape and openness/the true self and no barrier between him and the world. Boy knew what he was saying. Marti didn’t have a bloody clue, lying there and saying he’d choose to mess up the Pope’s toilets 😂 oh Marti.

The red string. Nico and his little ways of showing Marti he cares. The idea of the red string of fate, the way Nico kicked off their apocalyptic story with a romantic treasure hunt while signaling that Marti is his destiny, that Marti should “follow”... those shots of beautifully endlessly blue Marti following the bold red string (with those god damn blue and red art pieces in the background - when will Ludo submit to being grilled by me about his metaphorical symbolism). Nico was asking Marti to follow and not leave him being even if he wasn’t able to stay. It was his way of signalling to Marti he was still there, still trying, still asking Marti to stick with him even if he had to leave for a while.

Nico ended up so engulfed in shame during the minute by minute scene. He descended into his own head, crying into the pillow and feeling so full of shame that he couldn’t look at Marti. He couldn’t lean on anything to help him in that moment. I love the contrast with Marti because Marti effectively states these simple pieces of information that bit by bit takes Nico out of that moment and eases his mind: “I’m here”, “you don’t know what will happen” and “let’s take each day, calmly, together”. Nico’s tiny little smile after Marti says that makes me want to cry because you can see the “he is perfect for me” all over his face. Marti is so GOOD for Nico without really realising.

Nico, deep in his head, overwhelmed by shame but for the first time trying his best to be open, referring to their Last Man world once more when he sent that text. It was his acceptance that the entire time he was trying to use it as a way to tell Marti that they could be together and he could change and they could escape...it was useless because he’d realised it didn’t matter as we’re all alone anyway. Saying he was choosing to see Marti in the twinkle lights. Knowing Marti was in one of them comforted him. Marti... being Marti... was like “screw that, I’m here and not a metaphorical light in the distance, you don’t need that metaphor to not be alone. I want you like this, no changes, just be honest with me”. As simple as that. He’s not alone. He doesn’t need this complex metaphor to get what he wants/deserves.

Nico and his weirdo little metaphorical ways even blending into his glasses at the bar! He sees the world SO DIFFERENTLY. He chooses to consider the fact their glasses are positioned in the same way means something... and Marti not having a bloody clue what he’s on about goes “no they’re not” and moves it to match Nico’s. Little does he realise that Nico would SWOON at that because Marti just buys into it, effectively says they suit each other and Marti will roll with Nico’s ways.

The list is endless. But the way Marti is so blunt and straight forward and the way Nico is so in-depth and metaphorical means they compliment one another so beautifully but also it means that Nico is a complex, layered, fascinating guy with a mind that just works a little differently and he may struggle at times but... he tries in his own way to express himself. Even in s4... Marti NEEDS honesty. He just needs someone to be straight with him. His own mind doesn’t work like Nico’s and whereas I think Nico has a GREAT handle on who Marti is, Nico clearly still struggled a little to match Marti’s level of honesty and still worried he wasn’t able to be honest about his past. This is pretty naturally developed conflict. They WANT to work and they try and adapt and I love that despite their real differences, they also share a LOT in common and work so beautifully together! 💙❤️

[dynamic-duo-deposit]

Do you think Dick is a BatCat shipper? I loved him in Hush he looked so innocent and cute telling Bruce that Selina is good for him!

Before I answer this, some disclaimers- 

1- I haven’t read Tom King’s Batman Rebirth run with the BatCat not-wedding yet, so I can’t speak to that nor Dick’s reaction to it.  (Though I am aware of the general plot points.)

2- As with all things Batman, we are talking about 80 years of comics here.  Also, while I generally enjoy and appreciate BatCat, I’m a casual shipper at best, so it’s not really my focus and I’m sure some more knowledgeable Selina fans would have more to say on the subject.

3- Oh boy, this is longer than I meant it to be.

With that out of the way- Yes, Dick Grayson is generally pretty fond of Catwoman (perhaps a bit too fond at times) and subsequently, her relationship with Bruce.

Regarding Hush, Dick being pro-BatCat is straight from the comic-

(Batman #615)

But going back in time, I think this question was prompted by these panels from Batman #3, and that is pretty typical of their early interactions.  Basically, Golden Age Robin spends most of Catwoman’s first appearances being profoundly unimpressed by Bruce’s Thirst.  (Likewise to modern reinterpretations.)

However by 1947 in Detective Comics #122, Dick has reached the point where he seems amused by it and teases Catwoman about Batman, even if she denies any feelings.  

(Spoilers: She’s lying.  She’s had a crush on Batman since issue #3)

Most of the time though, while they did interact, they didn’t have much one-on-one time, and any connection between Selina and Dick took the backseat to each of their relationships with Bruce.  Catwoman was also reformed for a while, and went through extended periods where she wasn’t even showing up in the comics.

Here’s where I say that I’m really rusty on the Silver Age, so someone else might have a better memory of good Dick and Selina scenes from that period.  

(I’m also curious about their relationship in the original Earth-2 comics where Bruce and Selina were married, since I haven’t read much of that. Though I know Selina dies and I don’t get the sense they had much of a connection.)

However, I have been reading a lot of Bronze Age comics lately and The Lazarus Affair storyline does have some really great Dick and Selina (And Dick shipping BatCat) moments worth sharing. 

Dick goes to Selina for assistance with Talia, because no one else could “help [him] in the same way [Selina] can.”

(Batman #332)

This leads to Robin and Catwoman going on a mission together and eventually discovering Talia and Batman kissing, which upsets Selina.

(Batman #332)

Catwoman has her own side-story trying to prove Talia’s involvement with shady endeavors, and they talk about Selina’s feelings for Batman.

(Batman #333)

Dick and Selina have good teamwork throughout the story though.  Complete with undercover disguises and other shenanigans.

(Batman #333)

While Talia is ultimately cleared, (also- she dies and is resurrected. As it goes with that family.) Dick makes it very clear to Bruce at the end here, that he is very much “Team Selina.”  

(Batman #335)

Dick eventually leaves to join the Titans and isn’t around Gotham as much, and when Dick does start showing up in Gotham again more in the 90′s/early 2000′s I know that Nightwing and Catwoman are both in some of the same big Bat-events, but outside of sharing panels I can’t think of any really memorable interactions between the two off the top of my head?

We do have things like this though-

 (Gotham Knights #10)

And this-

(Nightwing #52)

They also had a couple of nice interactions during the Dickbats era.  

(Gotham City Sirens #7)

Although not without conflict. (Or weird compliments.  Or Selina referring to herself as Bruce’s possession.  Yikes.)

(Batman #692)

Anyways, this is not even close to a complete collection of Dick and Selina moments and as I disclaimed at the beginning, I’m not up-to-date with recent BatCat-related events.

To be fair, I don’t think Dick and Selina have even had much interaction or connection (BatCat-related or otherwise) outside the wedding arc post-new 52 reboot?  Except kinda Forever Evil, which made it clear she didn’t even know who he was.  Which is depressing.

(Forever Evil #3)

But yeah, I really enjoy Selina and Dick’s relationship, and it’s one of the factors that makes me enjoy BatCat.  (It’s nice when your kid approves of your girlfriend.)  

Dick and Selina are both very adaptable, their interactions tend to be lighthearted and fun (when they’re not too cougar-ly), and they’ve worked pretty well as a team when the situation that calls for it.  When Selina’s criminal activity isn’t getting in the way, they seem to enjoy each other.

From a Dick and Bruce perspective, he also likes that she can bring a different side out of Bruce, and it’s also often a fun opportunity for lighthearted banter and for Dick to get to tease Bruce in a way no one else can.  

(Batman #615)

(Because Bruce can be pretty useless whenever Catwoman shows up and Dick is aware of this.)

(Batman #15)

I do have to say that calling Dick a “BatCat shipper” does feel a bit, I dunno, reductive?  He genuinely respects and even likes Selina a lot of the time, and she’s one of his favorites when it comes to Bruce’s girlfriends because of that, but it’s not exactly his character’s focus.  Dick has his own life without worrying about who Bruce is dating.

With that said– Dick is definitely a BatCat shipper and these are some of the highlights from 80 years of comics proving it.  

He’s a fan.

(Batman #615)

[donttellpeterparker]

Euro Trip

Summary: A trip of a lifetime right? Going abroad with your friends and the guy you were head over heels for... how could anything possibly go wrong?

Requested: No

Word Count: 2k+

Warning(s)?: FFH Based, Please don't read if you haven't seen FFH

masterlist (xx) request (xx)

——————————————————

Part 2, Part 3, Part 4

Euro Trip

''I have a plan!'' Ned turns to look out Peter with a confused expression.

''Okay, first, I am going to sit next to Y/N on the plane, second-''

''Wait what?'' Ned cuts in. immediately starting to disagree with Peter's idiotic plan to win you over.

''I'm going to buy a dual headphone adapter and watch movies with her on the plane, the whole time, third-''

''Okay...'' Ned buts in again, his eyes searching the classroom for you. You were currently sitting over with your friends, writing something down in your book.

However, Peter just ignores Ned's hostility and continues on.

''Three, while we are in Venice I was thinking of getting her flowers, though she doesn't really like flowers but she loves the Sunflower and Red rose combo so I figured I'll get her that but on a necklace instead-''

''Nice...''

''Then five, when we get to Paris, I am going to take her to the top of the Eiffel Tower, give her the necklace and tell her how I feel and... step six.... hopefully she feels the same way'' Peter eyes dart across to you as he uttered the last part, watching in awe as you tilted your head back and laugh at whatever it was your friends were talking about.

''Oh and don't forget step seven'' Peter's eyes go back to Ned in confusion.

''Step seven?''

''Yeah, don't do any of that'' Peter tries to hold in his scoff.

''Why?'' Why wasn't Ned on board with this plan, it was a fool proof plan. Peter had gone over every possible scenario and this was the best one, even Karen agreed. Though admittedly, he was slightly embarrassed that he talked to his A.I about this.

''Because I wanna be Bachelors in Europe!'' Now Peter scoffs.

''Man...''

''No seriously, I may not know much as a guy but I do know this, Europeans love Americans... and more than half of them are women!''

''Okay... sure... but I really like Y/N, okay? She's awesome, she's super funny in a kinda dorky way and sometimes I catch her looking at me and I feel like she-''

''Oh shh! She's coming'' Ned and Peter quickly both shut up and glance down at their work sheets in front of them which were both already done of course.

''Hi dorks, excited about the science trip?'' I spoke up with a smile, glancing at both of them. However Peter glanced up at me nervously, already feeling himself getting tongue tied.

''H-hi... o-oh yeah we were just... talking about the trip'' Peter plays with his pen in his hand to try and get himself to focus a little. His heart was beating faster and faster by the second. The crush he had developed on you came on very sudden, almost immediately when you guys became friends. I gave them both a weird look but thought nothing of it seeing as Peter was always like this. It was honestly the cutest thing to me.

''Yeah well, Peter's plan'' Ned interjects. Peter stiffens as his eyes widen.

''You have a plan?'' I asked Peter, my eyes never leaving his. God they were so chocolaty brown...

''Oh no I... I don't have a plan'' He had wanted to kill Ned so badly right now.

''Oh he's just going to be doing a bunch of school work while we are on the trip and collect some dining spoons from each continent'' Peter felt relieved with the smooth lie Ned had told you yet stiffened once again at the last part he had said. My eyes now glanced over both of them suspiciously.

''Like a grandmother?'' I had no filter with anything so I was always quite blunt. Peter's eyes widen as he quickly shake his head, pointing his pen towards Ned.

''No he'll be collecting spoons I'll just be... uhhh... doing my school work.. yep'' He glanced down now and fiddled with his pen a little more.

''Okay umm... that was a little bit of a roller coaster'' I tried to joke as all of us emitted strained laughs.

''Little tip, download a VPN so the government can't track you while we are gone'' I furrowed my eyebrows to myself once I heard how stupid I had sounded.

''Smart... will do'' Peter compliments, smiling at me. I couldn't help but to smile back and nod my head, not liking the effect he seemed to always have on me.

''Bye'' I gave them both a small wave before quickly walking past them as soon as the bell chimed. Both Peter and Ned turned to look at each other, Ned smiled.

''Well I think that went well'' Peter just shook his head and dropped it on the table, exhaling his breath he hadn't even known he was holding.

~*~*~*~*

''Okay come on guys, single file line please!'' Mr Harris had looked more stressed then ever, frantically moving his hands in the air while they were still holding his clipboard. He always stresses when it comes to trips of any kind and honestly I could see why. He could barely keep his shirt buttoned never mind keeping a hoard of teenagers in check. Though Mr Fitz was well calm, probably because of the mini pillow comfortably around his neck as he was taking a day nap standing up.

''God I am so excited! I can't wait for the 8 hour plane ride! The boats we'll take to the hotel! All the different Museums we'll visit, the food, the wine-'' I swiftly laughed and put my hand over my best friends mouth to stop her from rambling.

''Calm down okay? We haven't even boarded yet'' I smiled softly to myself even though I felt like rolling my eyes.

''I know but this is so exciting!'' It was exciting, though if I was going to have to listen to her ramble on for the next 8 hours stuck in a confined space I would go insane.

''Hey he's staring again'' I turn my head to my best friend and over to Brad in the distance, his eyes immediately locking with mine. In reality he was 5 years younger then me, one of my friends kid brother yet since the blip, he aged whereas I didn't.

Not gonna lie though, those 5 years had turned him into practically a Greek God.

''He would put Zeus to shame...'' I watched as she stared lovingly at Brad, it honestly made me a little sick to my stomach. Yeah he was good looking but a total jackass too.

''Isn't that the guy who had two man ponies? no one looks good in a man pony'' Her smile instantly fell from her face as she turned to glare at me. I laughed as she stormed off, joining the rest of the class in the line up.

''Now Boarding flight 2376 to Venice Italy, please make your way to gate 37 for your departure in 20 minutes'' A woman's voice came over the PA system.

''Okay guys hurry up! let's go! We are not having a repeat of what happened last time! Move it!'' Mr Harris lungs would eventually die out soon from all the screaming. I smiled to myself as I followed the class, getting gently shoved along by the teacher to hurry up.

''You did practically insult my soul mate but, who are you sitting next to on the plane?'' My best friend turned to face me while the others began boarding in front.

''I'm not sure'' I shrugged my shoulders, looking straight ahead. I could see the familiar brown locks in front, smiling towards the stewardess before walking through the gate. My best friends eyes follow and she snickers.

''Hopefully it's not next to Penis Parker'' Sometimes I had wondered why I was even friends with her, she was ruder than me.

''Y/F/N, stop'' She knew I liked him so she did everything she could to bug me about it.

''What? I'm just saying, I heard he snores like, really loud'' I laugh at her and push her along to the front.

''Whatever dork''

~*~*~*~*

The plane was a lot more bigger than I had imagined. It was probably a very bad time to begin getting claustrophobic. I popped in my ear phones and played some calming music to ease my nerves. I hadn't even been on a plane before till now.

''Do you want the first shift or second? I could take either'' Mr Harris spoke up to Mr Fitz from just a little in front.

''Give me the third shift'' I laughed softly to myself.

''I can't chaperone these kids alone'' Mr Harris complains as he walks over to his seat as Mr Fitz walk further onward, immediately sitting down getting ready to take a nap.

''Hey Peter, this is called an airplane, it's like the buses you're used to except it fly's over your crappy town, not drive through them'' I was beyond annoyed once again with Flash.

''Hey ma'am, he blipped so technically he's 16, not 21'' I smiled as she turned to Flash and took the alcoholic beverage right out of his hand.

''Hey what are you doing? I don't even know this girl'' Flash yelled in the distance. I smiled and turned around to smile at Peter. He smiled back in thanks. I continue down the aisle and find my seat. I was beyond grateful that it wasn't next to my best friend who would definitely talk my ear off the entire time.

~*~*~*~*

''I need your help to get me to sit next to Y/N'' Peter turned to Ned swiftly once he saw Brad make his way up to you, having a quick conversation before taking a seat in the row before.

''No, what about our plan? Bachelors in Europe'' Peter stares at Ned in disgust.

''That was your plan, not mine, mine's foolproof'' Ned rolls his eyes and sighs.

''Not entirely...'' Ned mumbles to himself but Peter just ignored him, glancing over at his best friend with puppy dog eyes.

''Alright fine'' Ned gets up and begins walking over to your row. I glance up and offer a smile, noticing Ned seemed a little on edge.

''Hey guys'' Jenny from beside me just nodded her head, not really interested in conversing.

''There's an old lady sitting in front of us and she's wearing like a crazy amount of perfume and it's setting off Peter's allergies, you know Jenny, if you could just switch places with Peter real quick-'' Ned was speaking so fast I almost didn't hear him.

''He's allergic to perfume?'' Jenny asked incredulously. Ned paused and looked deep in thought. My eyes scan his face, seeing if he was lying or not.

He definitely was.

''Yeah, yeah umm... it makes his eyes water'' Mr Harris turns around from in front of us and his eyes widen.

''You said Peter had a perfume allergy?'' Ned looked mortified as Mr Harris shot out of his seat real quick.

''Uhh...'' Ned stumbled.

''I know from experience that a perfume allergy is no joke!'' I tried to stifle a laugh as Mr Harris struggled to get his seat un-buckled as Peter rose in the distance.

''Y/N stand up'' I did as he said and rose as well.

''Y/N, you take my spot, Ned take Y/N's and Peter let's get you up here'' I sat down at my new seat and glanced beside me to see Brad already beaming. Great. However, what I failed to notice was how my best friend was sitting on the other side of him, sending me a glare. I glanced at her and just shrug my shoulders.

''Thanks for bringing this to my attention Ned, everyone's safety is mine and Mr Fitz top priority...'' He trailed off, glancing towards the already snoring teacher fast asleep.

''Well thank you, come on Peter!'' Peter look disgruntled as he grabbed his carry-on bag and followed Mr Harris reluctantly.

''I got a dual headphone adapter if you want to watch a movie?'' Brad asked me, catching me out of my thoughts. I turned to him and smiled.

''Only if it's depressing, or funny'' I joked. Brad laughed and smiled, reaching into his backpack. However just a few rows down from them Peter could hear the conversation perfectly thanks to his spider-senses.

He was completely and utterly guttered.

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

A/N: Am I spotting a mini series perhapsss? xx (P.s probably be the same length as ‘One Hell Of A Night’’’

[ivyisms]

       - ̗̀ NOW INTRODUCING:  IVES ❝ IVY ❞ SERRANO !

( DANNA PAOLA, 24, CISFEMALE ) I just bumped into IVES "IVY" SERRANO the other day while walking down NORTH Kingsboro, where SHE lives. I hear they can be SEDUCTIVE and MANIPULATIVE, but when I think of them I immediately think about ROSE PETAL BLUNTS, STRAWBERRY CHAMPAGNE, AND SIX INCH STILETTOS.

hi hello it’s tay back again w another one of my demon spawn muses !! apparently chaotic bisexuals w fcs from elite is just my brand™️ but anyway ivy is probably my favorite oc i’ve ever made so i have A Lot to say abt this messy bitch !! if u go H E R E i have a very long stats/bio page with pretty much everything i could think of BUT i will try to summarize the main points semi-concisely

- ̗̀♡ — › background !

the main thing u need to know about ivy is that she is lying ! always !! her real name isn’t even actually ivy smh

she was born natalie rose serrano, to two working class parents in new york city. she knew from a young age that she was just supposed to be rich and famous, and that something had gotten mixed up somewhere and she was put in the wrong life.

in high school she got a scholarship to a fancy private catholic school, and that’s where she started to hone her craft of manipulating rich people. she would befriend all of the richest bitches at school and take advantage of everything that came along with it: vacations to far away places, stays in the family’s cabins and lake houses, even designer clothes that her friends no longer wanted and would gift to her, thinking it was their idea all along

as she grew up and got better at getting what she wanted out of people, her entitled attitude only got worse, driving a wedge between her and her parents, who kept waiting for her to develop a work ethic and kept being disappointed. a few months after she graduated high school, on her 18th birthday, her parents kicked her out of the house and cut her off, hoping that it would force her to grow up and take on any responsibility

but that plan backfired for them, her parents underestimating how truly stubborn natalie was. the day after her 18th, she wandered into a local strip club and got a job, figuring it’d be the easiest and quickest way to get some cash, and she took to it naturally and actually really enjoyed stripping

she started to embody an entirely new persona that she had created for herself, dancing under the name poison ivy and telling everyone she was a trust fund baby that had been cut off from her rich parents, needing to dance to supplement her income, and her lies just continued to spiral out of control until she almost started to believe it herself. she had never told anyone at the club her real name, not even the other strippers, just going by “ivy” for a while.

she had learned to weaponize the power she had over people by being pretty and charming, using her looks for absolute evil and doing whatever it took to get money—from straight up pickpocketing, to making men buy her expensive gifts, to blackmailing, to sugar babying, to getting patrons wasted and manipulating them into tipping her absurd amounts... she did it all, very quickly earning enough to live the life she had always dreamed of, that she felt she deserved for whatever twisted reason.

she started posting on instagram with the name poison ivy generally just flaunting her carefree, extravagant life, often exaggerating or down right lying just to really dazzle her quickly growing audience

as she started to go down the influencer route, she realized she needed to do something to hide the skeletons in her closet ( the fact that she didn’t actually come from money and was making far more than was normal for even the best of dancers, a couple of small possession / shoplifting charges, and just generally anything that could lead people to her real identity ) so she started to tell people her name was ives, fully taking on the new identity. she even went so far as to make some of the people that had been closest to her sign NDAs about her real identity, making sure that no one could sell info about her should her plan of being famous work out

and it did work out !! at first she was definitely buying followers/likes to boost her likelihood of brand sponsorships, but eventually she faked it until she made it and actually attained influencer status

she also started sleeping around with pretty much any famous person she could, having very public relationships and breakups and scandals to keep her name in the press, which ultimately lead to more exposure/people following her, if only to see what she did next, which lead to even more sponsorships

she’s probably been in kingsboro for a few years, living in a super fancy one bedroom apartment that she definitley doesn’t pay for ( she doesn’t even know how much her rent is tbh )

eventually she stopped dancing and just focused on her influencing or whatever, but she never stopped sugar babying and scamming rich stupid men, still very much using that as a means to keep up her lifestyle. she’s also done a few modeling things, but it’s mostly just like catalog work or being the face of a trendy campaign bc she’s way too short for the runway

she also recently made an only fans account bc she was bored one night and was mostly planning on posting once as a joke but then she made a bunch of money / got a bunch of subscribers and was like oh word ? i can do that ! so she will post on there from time to time but she’s not like... super serious about it ya know ?

so basically she’s jus here making money being pretty and pulling a long ass scam on... everyone

- ̗̀♡ — › personality !

she’s a real two faced bitch... she has perfected the art of becoming whoever she thinks other people want her to be, quickly adapting her personality to get whatever she wants

she’s usually pretty friendly actually, really charming and outgoing and just trying to have a good time

she has a pretty short temper tho and holds grudges like you wouldn’t believe, so once you’re on her bad side... good luck lol she is so ruthless

she’s like... deeply, deeply selfish and will always put herself first, but she’s so manipulative that she can make people do things that they think are their idea, but it’s really just something she planted in their head so it’s not always obvious

also very spoiled and will throw a mf fit if she doesn’t get her way or u say no to her

always going out !! always doing the most !! she’s the type to show up randomly at ur door at 8pm on a tuesday with a bottle of tequila and make u party with her whether u like it or not

she’s a lot smarter than she lets on sometimes, like she knows people expect her to be stupid and ditzy and shallow and she’ll let them underestimate her when it’s beneficial 

always looks perfectly put together— her nails are always meticulously manicured, usually w stiletto shaped acrylics, and you’ll literally never see her outside her house without makeup and a perfectly composed outfit. it’s also a rare occasion that she’s not wearing at least six inch heels, trying to make up for bein so mf short ( she’s 5’3 )

she talks A Lot but is really good at saying a lot of words without actually saying anything, like you can be best friends with her for months and then just be like “i don’t actually know a single thing about her”

always up to no good and sticking her nose where it doesn’t belong !! she’s always got some sort of scheme going or getting in to some kind of drama

v much a hoe and v much proud of it, will sleep w just about anyone especially if she can get something out of it

also a serial dater !! she’s always hoping in and out of relationships and being rumored to be with a dozen people at once

most definitely calls paparazzi on herself, especially when she’s around other famous ppl but will never admit it

compulsive liar, she will literally lie about the dumbest things like she doesn’t even need a reason to lie she jus.. does

- ̗̀♡ — › wanted connections !

hookups / flings / one night stands / fwbs all that shit !!

exes on bad terms ... gimme drama pls

enemies / ppl she’s stolen from maybe... she would definitely deny it and say they’re jus jealous of her or smth stupid but that could make the feud worse

party pals !! like i said she goes out a lot and always somehow manages to make new friends and drag them into her shenanigans

on again / off again exes... i want the Angst so bad..

unlikely friends !! like ppl who are nice and sweet and Pure, she could use a lil good energy in her life

neighbors ... mb they hate her for always being loud n throwing mini parties OR maybe they join in

mean girl rivalries !!

someone she’s taking advantage of / stealing from without them knowing .. oof

partner in crime !!!

one sided crushes or like someone she’s stringing along smh

sugar daddies mb 😇

someone to put her in her mf place JDKDKD like they call her out on her bs and are like “i see what ur doing bitch stay away from my friends” type thing

idk anything really !! gimme all the messy plots ok :~)

[sarah--goff]

T.D.M: Chapter 15: Absolution

You wake unexpectedly in the height of the afternoon.

When you slit an eye open, you let your surroundings sink in, your whole body felt like it was lined with lead, you couldn’t so much as shift your arms. It takes a lot of strength to turn to lay on your side with your legs tucked underneath you. When you manage the fetal position, you’re dripping with sweat and panting slightly.

You feel as though all you really want to do is sleep, you could sleep forever and ever right now you need rest.

You close your eyes again grimacing at the pain of doing so as well as the stabbing pain above your eyebrow. You briefly wondered what the hell had happened to you to cause it when everything hit you like a bolt of lightning.

You can’t move. You can’t breathe. Your chest feels tight. You don’t know what to do.

The whole world comes crashing down.  The 13 hours were long since up. You’d lost.

You’d lost.

“I’ll give you a challenge: a chance to win back your freedom-if you wish. If you complete my task, you’re free to go. But if you lose, you stay with me- in my castle. Forever” .

You start to cry, softly at first and then loudly sobbing and hate yourself for it. Don’t give him the satisfaction you pleaded but the tears wouldn’t stop.

You could never go back to home, never see your friends, never walk home after a long day at school in the summer evenings, never slope off to the empty park grounds to sit by the green ponds whenever you felt like it, never see your only remaining family, never sit in your tiny freezing bedroom , drawing idly with the blankets huddled around you, cursing Kari for making you do the dishes, cursing your life, wishing to leave…

You’d sold yourself out. How stupid could you have been to think you could have won the Labyrinth?

You had no-one to blame but yourself for this mess, you should have known better, right from the start that the Labyrinth would be rigged against you. He’d done everything in his power to slow you down from the start; the overturned stone, the changing Labyrinth walls, the Riddler Guards, his little distractions, the disguise, the Goblin King was so desperate to stop you from winning. Well now he had, he’d won.

And Hoggle! You felt deeply cut by his betrayal, above all else, the Goblin King was the villain you could excuse his deceit, but Hoggle?  How could he have been so cruel to lead you astray twice?

You lie there alone in the bedroom, weeping helplessly on your back, tears rolling down your cheeks, unable to wipe them away or hide the pathetic sob noises you were making. You cried harder, shoulders juddering at every sob.

“I was going to win” you cry hoarsely aloud to make up for the frustrating paralysis “I was going to win ”

The blue coat swings on the peg of the door as it creaks open, with a gloved hand appearing around the frame of it.

“You’re awake I see” Jareth’s voice slices through your buzzing thoughts like a hot knife in butter.

He closes the door behind him, mumbling something in another language at it with a raise hand before turning to you. The sun’s rays burst through the window dancing on the flagstone floor.

You suck your breath in sharply. The game was over. What was he going to do now? Torture you, humiliate you, make you his little jester-play thing when he got bored? It didn’t matter, you were here now. ‘Forever’.

The Goblin King shrugged off his own leather, pegging it over the blue cloak then pulled out a stool you hadn’t noticed by your bed, sitting at it, so he was level with you.

He noticed your silence, resting his forearms on his knees as he leaned in “Oh come, come, come now, Sloane, why so much haughtiness and dread? Where is that adventurous little thing who braved every crevice of my labyrinth? I thought you’d be more than glad to be away from it”

Was he really that oblivious? Or psychotic? Or maybe he just assumed you’d forgotten all about the Oubliette episode, haughtiness and dread didn’t even sum up what you were feeling now he had you right where he wanted you. You can feel your thudding pulse in your eye sockets and in your legs.

You said nothing, not even meeting his eyes. You chose to stare straight ahead instead, at the tapestry on the wall, willing yourself not to cry again.

He raised his hand holding a crystal, purple and glowing and you flinch at the sudden movement.

“You stay away from me” you yelp finally finding your voice, edging away from the hand paused over you. “You and your fucking magic”.

He closed the hand with an exhale, evading the light from his palm “you need your healing today, you’ll grow weak without it” he said matter-of-factly.

“Bullshit” you breathe through the rising lump in your throat, you ball the rich quilt you’re lying under in your hands, “you just want keep me this-s way, weak and help-helpless”.

“I would never hurt you” he put his hand over your balled fist and you manage to jerk it away though it feels so weighted down. “My rose-“

“Don’t fucking touch me” you hiss out.

The whole room was spinning, you have to close your eyes, you feel like you’re drunk.  “Why do I feel… so heavy?” you turn your head to face him, with narrowed eyes “you’ve done something to me. Druh-drugged me or something”.

Jareth puts the damp cloth in the wash bowl with some leaves floating in it, then extracted it, squeezing the water from it carefully. You watch it run, the trickling noises against the stillness giving you goose-bumps.

“It’s your mortal body reacting to the magic exposure,” he said flatly “it can’t possibly handle it all at once, so it must be fed more in small doses to balance it out” he pushes the little hairs falling in front of your face out of the way to put the clothe to your forehead, holding your arm down at your twisting protests. “It’ll adapt in time”.

In time.

A surging heat passes through your stomach. You squeeze your eyes shut at the pain “oww ughhh ” you curl up clutching yourself “you’ve done this to me” you say, sliding your accusing eyes to him, “you ”

He pauses the dabbing on your forehead to meet your eyes.

“I did not plan for things to go this way. Believe me”.

That meaningful look, so cruel and so kind. You flicker to the ballroom where you had been under the same look.

You turn away to cross your arms over your aching stomach.

“Oh no?” you gasp through clenched teeth “but you’re happy now aren’t you? Satisfied with yourself, you got your own way event- eventually” you cursed yourself at the rising lump in your throat “but me? What did I get? A one -way ticket to servitude. Slap on the shackles now”.

“I don't care for your tone,” Jareth's demeanour becomes more callous, throwing down the clothe in the bowl and putting a hand on his hip “everything I’ve done, ever since we met, I’ve done for you.”

The sky had become overcast and you shivered in the chill of the absent sun.

You scoffed looking at him over your shoulder “keep telling yourself that, it doesn’t change the facts” .

Jareth stood sharply so the stool screeched backwards against the floor. “The ‘facts’?” He spat standing at the foot of the bed for you to look at him properly.

“You want to know the facts? My ‘gift’ to you Sloane, was exactly that. A gift, to repay you. A way out, a way to make sure you could live happily ever after by binding you to fae rules, which I bent for you” he hissed “the facts are, that I gave you thrilling adventure away from your tedious life, gave you gorgeous dreams, made you smile, made you laugh, even given you a place in my kingdom. You chose to ignore what you dislike, what doesn’t fit into this villainous character you’ve warped me into. I have been generous- but I can be cruel”.

“Generous!” you sat up straight, refusing to wince at the pain of the fluid movement “You arrogant prick! What have you done that’s generous?”

“Everything!” he snapped throwing his arms up. “Everything you wanted I have done! You wanted someone to listen? I did. You wished to be “taken away”? I took you. I have re-ordered time-”

Jareth gestured to the grand clock on the wall - like the one you’d seen in the outskirts when you first started the Labyrinth- spinning its thin black hands backwards and then forwards wildly around the face.

“-to ease your hardships in my Labyrinth, a challenge you wanted to enter -and I let you- I have turned the world upside down and I have done it all for you. I’m exhausted from living up to your expectations” he frowned with a defeated sigh “Isn’t that generous?”

You pressed your mouth in a straight line for a while but then a tear brimmed daringly in your eye.

“You tricked me into trusting you, you threatened my freewill -giving me no choice but to run in the Labyrinth then you brought me here, to this bloody place, and I didn’t ask, then you try to scare me into submission when things weren’t going your sodding way” you tick off with as much venom as you can put in a hushed whisper “and it’s not okay. It just isn’t”

He stares you out for a time and you glare back at him. He opened his mouth to say something when you bent double, thudding back against the pillows, writhing in pain “aughhhh”.

The wind outside rose, you could hear the tree by the window drop all its leaves in the abrupt uproar.

He’s by you side in a flash.

“Here, let me” Jareth opened his palm, purple light flooding from it. You nodded frantically, squeezing your eyes shut, forgetting your pride in the burning of your ribs.

He knelt before you, gesturing to you to move your shirt up so he could lay his hand on your skin.

You shivered at the contact but then hissed as it seeped through.

“Gahh !” you clutched his forearm, fingers digging into his clothing and clenching your teeth together. You bit back the tears, writhing in pain. “It’ll be over in a moment” Jareth said gently to soothe you in the pain, you grasped the material harder.

You don’t want to look at the light flooding into your skin and stare down at him instead while he works. From up close you notice only now that he’s wearing more make-up than usual, it’s sharper, darker, his hair looked fluffier, little silver bits among the blonde shining in the purple glow. He’s even dressed up a little. Your heart skips a beat. For me?

“All done” Jareth finishes up, catching you staring at him. You forget that your hand is now relaxed on his forearm and his palm on your rib-cage. The Goblin King’s eyes flicker down to where you’re absentmindedly rubbing the pad of your thumb across his shoulder.

You remove your clutch on him immediately, heat radiating from your face. “It…feels better. The pain’s gone completely” you cough.

The burning sensation disappears from your sides like a weight lifting from your shoulders. You can push back the quilts and sit up properly against the pillows without wincing and then swing your legs over the bed.

You stare at the flagstone floor.

For a moment, nobody says anything. What else is there to be said?

“Your run in my Labyrinth might be over,” Jareth broke the silence, in a tone bordering on grave.

He slipped both of his hands over your own “however, you and I, Sloane Hazel, we're far from finished,”

You blankly stare down at the large hands cupping your own, but you don’t yank them away.

It’s wrong, it’s very wrong to feel wanting. No, you hadn’t forgotten the chemistry in the ballroom, dream or no dream, you'd been so comfortable and you both knew it. Your tell-tale spiked pulse said everything.

Your mouth parts and closes as if to say something but you remain silent. The memories of your first introduction creep into mind.

“Do you want it?” he held it out for you to take. “You’re unhappy here. But I could make you happy” he said it almost in a whisper.

He held out his hand earnestly for you to take “come, leave your little cell of room behind, leave your dreadful family and just run away from it all”.

Why did a traitorous tiny part of you get a dark thrill over the fact that he might have genuinely wanted to steal you away to keep you right from the start? Your stomach flutter at the possibility that his offer might have been selfless, no underlying cruelty? That he wanted you for you, not just something to control?

You glance at Jareth’s face, clearly reading your own. You wait for him to irritably sigh or retreat like he had done before but instead he watched the cogs in your mind turn patiently. All traces of his earlier smug taunting had completely dried-up.

“I know” you said eventually “…I know I lost the challenge . And… I suppose you only did the right thing, bringing me here…” you gestured flatly to the room, and your healed side. “A deal is a deal” you admit as much as it pains your heart, accepting the gravity of the situation that you were stuck in.

Jareth gave away nothing in his expression “go on” he said curiously.

“If I’m bound to stay here I…I think we should set a few things straight” yes. okay. good. Ground rules.

“You mean you have requests?” Jareth stated rather than questioned in a monotonous voice, he folded his arms, awaiting you to continue.

“Well, yes…Maybe given the circumstances…” you said sternly

“I believe I’ve been more than fair to you” he said coldly and for a minute you think he’ll straight-up rebuke you, but instead his expression changes suddenly. He held his chin with his propped hand, mulling something over and continued.

“but, never let it be said I ever refused Ms Sloane Hazel” Jareth exhaled. “I’ll humour you, if you humour me”.

Fuck.

Ah, see what you’ve done? Now doesn’t this scene sound all too familiar?

The voice in your head derided you,

and what did Hoggle warn you about? Shady deals?

You tried not to swallow and give away your doubts, you toy with the red quilt between your fingers when an idea comes to you.

“How about…quid pro quo?”

He smiled wide so you could see those feline teeth “now there’s the Sloane Hazel I was waiting for. My dear, I believe I’m beginning to rub off on you”.

You shrugged like it was no big deal “then we both get what we want” please say yes, please say yes.

“Quid pro quo it is” there was a daring twinkle in his eye. “Go on, go on, I’m all ears”

Stay humble you warned yourself. Tit-for-tat goes both ways.

“First off, no more tricks to get me onside like you did in the Labyrinth, no playing glamour dress up to fuck with me”

“But of course, I need not to now”

You glared at him pointedly.

“It was brilliant though wasn’t it? My performance sterling” Jareth jovially tossed a crystal in the air and when he caught it, you found yourself staring back at Sage, the mysterious, kind, peasant woman who fed you.

“a rose, for a rose?” Jareth croaked in her voice.

He fluttered the crystal in his hands until his withered finger-tips held a yellow rose out to you, but you flicked it away.

“cut it out Jareth,” you said meeting his gaze under the green shawl, the warmth in her smile had vanished and instead sliced through you “it’s creepy”.

Sage- Jareth- gave a withered smile before transforming back in front of your very eyes.

“I thought that was you, you know” you frown, not the least bit surprised that the only person kind enough to you for more than five minutes in that Labyrinth was a rotten glamour trick. “And no more magic drugging. No magic against me in any way, shape, or form, I’m serious” you sniffed. "The soup wasn’t great either by the way- I was just hungry”.

Jareth laughed at that returning to his own rich regal voice.

“Very well, you have my word, no ‘magic drugging’ as you put it. Which brings me onto my request; you will accompany me for meals, morning, noon and night, regardless”.

You raised an eyebrow a strange request “done” but it was harmless you supposed.

“Now that I’m here, I want to see the Underground, properly” you gestured to the small turret room, already the walls were beginning to cave in “I won’t be held in here, it’ll drive me nuts”.

“that can be arranged” he nodded “you’re not my prisoner, Sloane, I fully intend for you to see my land for all it is” he said proudly “you may go wherever your curious heart desires in my kingdom, but the outskirts and the labyrinth itself are strictly out of bounds. That’s part of the deal.”

You opened your mouth to argue but he put his hand up to silence you.

“My kingdom, my rules” Jareth sang.  “I know the Labyrinth better than anyone, it submits to me only, it’s not somewhere for strolling. No contentions”

“Whatever, I’m not in a hurry to go back any time soon” you nodded with a shiver, it would take something extreme to get you back in there.

You cross your legs underneath you on the bed putting your hands in your lap.  “I wish for at least some privacy, to write and draw, like I used to in my… old room,” you explained looking down at your hands “it would be nice to still do normal things”

Jareth folded his arms across his chest, sticking his hands under his armpits, “of course” he scoffed “you really think I would restrain my favourite artist?” you smiled back at him at that, shaking your head with a blush.

“Furthermore, on the subject of kingdoms, I am your king now and you will treat and respect me as such, like every other citizen, regardless of our association,” he smiled shrewdly.

Oh, he was beginning to enjoy this, you could tell.  

“you live in my kingdom now, in my castle, under me, your sovereign. The ways of the Above do not concern me”

You frown “under you?”  

He waved dismissively, “I only require what every other monarch would require of their citizens. Please continue, my rose,” The Goblin King inclined his head in a slight, inviting bow.

You licked your dry top lip quickly “I get to see my family”

“No dice I’m afraid”

“What? Why!”

“As I explained to you, you belong to the Underground now, the Above does not concern me, besides, the deal was that you lose and you stay forever, if you remember correctly”

“I …” you let that sink in you should have been paying attention to his wording before you agreed to that stupid challenge. You would never see your aunt and uncle again. Ever.

“My friends?” you suddenly remembered you looked to him hopefully.

He shook his head “Same rules apply. The Above is forbidden”

You held back the strangled gasp. Kari and Brian were family, your mother’s blood, no less, but your life- long friends, Jan, the people you’d practically grown up with. Poof. What would they think happened to you? That you ran away? That you were kidnapped? They would never know.  

“You can’t just expect me to leave everything behind!” you stutter. The reality was very much settling within you. “Like I didn’t have a whole life there!”

You felt like you were going to throw up suddenly. Your stomach heaved dangerously.

Jareth only tilted his head in reply. An act that said “you should have thought about that before you were willing to put that on the table”.

“There will be far too many questions. Believe me it’s for the best.”

“I don’t understand! What do you mean!”

“Your time in the Underground is turning you , I already explained that your mortality was being balanced out with magic” Jareth picked his words carefully

“the exposure, will slowly begin to change your mortal being,” his tone became serious “ you’re part magic now at least, like me, you’ll remain very much the same as you are now, it would be difficult to hide it from your acquaintances as time goes, even with glamour magic” .

“I don’t believe you” you reply tartly. “That’s impossible” but your mind was racing already.

“Nothing’s impossible. You’d think you’d come to realise that by now” he gave that Cheshire cat’s grin.

He was right. Any manner of questioning possibility was ruled out the second you stepped foot in the Underground. Another thought crossed your mind

“wait, how old are you ?” you’d completely forgotten that he wasn’t human, another worldly being…That you would come to be too?

The Goblin King grinned cupping his chin “how old do you think?”

“I don’t know…around... forty”  you offered generously with a vague wave of your hand.

He threw back his head and laughed and you glare at him. “Well that’s how old you look!” you protested “well go on then, tell me”.

“Why? Afraid I might be too refined for your taste?” he winked suggestively

You shoved his shoulder “I was thinking more ‘cradle snatcher’ ”

The Goblin King’s eyes danced in amusement “more than you know”

“and yet you’re still the biggest child I’ve ever met”

“Ah, the biggest child you’ve met so far”

“You’re a smart-arse, bleach blonde, prick, you know that?” you found yourself smiling.

“You wound, sweet” he said in mock-annoyance, he pretended to ruffle his hair airily “this is all natural Ms Hazel”.  Of course that’s what he’d pick up on.

“If you say so. Okay, so we have a deal then?”

“You have my word on all counts,” Jareth gave a short nod

“Me too” you stuck out you hand to shake on it but pushed it away with shaking his head amusedly.

“Don’t you know every deal must be sealed properly?”

“How?”

Jareth whisked his hand and a feathered quill and sheet of paper popped onto the writing table at the far end of the room. “The good old-fashioned way of course, a contract”

You pushed yourself off the bed to spot the long white scroll on the table, the calligraphy golden. You could see the small print at the bottom besides where each of you would sign.

“Well of course I knew that” you said huffily “Can I have a –“

“Here” he pushed the magnifying glass into your open hand before you had even asked for it.

“How did you know I was going to say that?”

“You’re a sharp girl, you’d want to read the small print. Of course, there’s really no need since I would never try and pull the wool over your eyes, my sweet” he blinked feigning innocence but oh boy, did you know better.

“Hmmm” you said plucking up the paper anyway to read it. You read it all thoroughly, as well as the actual details itself, everything you had both agreed on was there.

“Yep it’s all there” you held out your hand for the quill and scratched a messy “Sloane L. Hazel” across the black line, hoping to god this wouldn’t come back to bite you. The quill’s black ink bled into the paper drying out and turning gold. Inerasable.

“Hey!” you snapped when you’d finished, realising he’d been standing behind you staring at your arse while you had slightly bent over the desk. “Merely admiring the view” he chuckled at your sour expression, throwing the quill at him.

Jareth slowly and meanderingly leaned over the table, free palm resting on the wood flatly. You notice a marking on his hand beginning from his index finger and disappearing under his cuff's sleeve.

He'd signed it “The Goblin King of the Underground” alongside yours in large swirling loops which you rolled your eyes at but couldn’t help admiring the hair falling over his face before he stood tall again.

“Sloane L. Hazel” Jareth bobbed an eyebrow, reading your signature aloud “how very professional, what’s the L for I wonder?”

“L is for Lux- like a short way of saying ‘Lucky’ ” you shrug at his puzzled face.

“Lux” he repeated sardonically. “How tasteful”.

“My parents lapped up unusual names” you explain “before they knew they were having a girl, they agreed that my mum would pick the name if I was a girl, my dad a boy, so when they had me, my mum said she chose the name from one of her favourite books and my dad got to pick my middle name since the one he was going to pick was unisex.”

You smiled fondly remembering your dad telling you the story behind your strange name when you were younger. You had been in the kitchen making some god-awful muffins together for a change and set the smoke alarm off, Jeremy couldn’t cook for toffee.

“My dad told me it’s because they were very “lucky” to have me in their life, like ‘thanking their lucky stars’ or something but then my mum told me it was after the name of this bar they met in and he threw some flour at her”.

You laughed, remembering clearly the look of horror on your mother’s face as her entire outfit was splattered with the white powder and for a second your father had looked genuinely terrified of his wife until she had thrown some back at him, right in his face, and then he at you for laughing at the pair of them in the ridiculous scene, within minutes the kitchen was a winter wonderland. All three of you had rolled on the kitchen floor in the snow of the flour, coughing and spluttering- your parents tickling you until you thought you were going to burst. It was one of your happiest memories of them.

You were grinning brightly from ear to ear and staring off into the distance. You blinked rapidly coming back. You noticed Jareth had been listening intently and gave an embarrassed shrug.

It was strange telling the Goblin King about your parents when you rarely spoke about them to anyone. He already knew so much about you when you knew very little of him.

“They sounded wonderful” Jareth said softly with a small smile and you nodded in agreement

“They were. I was lucky to have them ” you swiftly changed the subject, “is this it then?” you nodded at the signatures.

“One more thing, now we each must knock on the wood”

“What?” you tilt your head “you’re having me on”

“Nonsense, you Abovelers say it all the time,” he tilted his head “don’t you know the meaning behind it?”  Jareth rapped on the table to emphasise “It’s the only way to properly seal the deal”.

You hum, also knocking on the dark wood feeling silly. Your hand burnt like a flame had been held to it “ow!” you snatched it back, holding your burning wrist “what was that !”

He took your wrist, inspecting it curiously. “It’s the contract, as a reminder, look” twisting it over to show you the marking that had been etched on your skin.

“its sealed on your wrist to provide proof of the oath you knocked on- binding you to the contract” the strange marking was like a white tattoo, in the shape of a circular Labyrinth and an owl taking flight .

“The royal seal no less” he noted, inspecting his own wrist where the same seal was placed.

You took it back, rubbing the soreness. “Will it be there forever?”

“Most likely” he nodded. It was only tiny anyway.

You rolled your sleeve back down. “You mean you’ve never done this before?”

“Not personally no,”

“Then…What happens if either of us …break it?” your heart dropped at the thought. This was magic. There would be consequences surely.

Jareth gave a hapless shrug.

“You don’t know” you said drily in disbelief. “Why didn’t you say beforehand! What am I suppose to do now?”

“I suggest you be a good girl then” he grinned.

“It’s not me I’m worried about, it’s you- you’re bound to break it” you put your hands behind your head and exhaled to let off steam idiot!

“Ye have little faith, Ms L. Hazel, I may surprise you yet” he scoffed

“Wait, there’s something else” you say, rubbing your temple one thing at a time, the thought bubbling in you before you forgot about it again.

“What? Don’t tell me you forgot to add something after that entire bloody ritual”

“No no, not about the contract- I mean, I want an explanation”

Jareth cocks his head quizzingly

“About all this, about you. I think I deserve an explanation. More than that actually” you stifled an abrupt yawn.

He smiled, “Very well, I’ll tell all tomorrow, deal?”

“Why not now” you pushed, eager for answers while he was still in the talking mood.

Another yawn hit you like a wave, you found yourself forcing your eyes open. How can you be tired already you’ve only just woken up. Bloody magic. “I’m all ears”.

He smiled ruefully, “You’re much too tired, besides I’ll want your full attention, you have a big day ahead you, so I suggest you get a good night’s rest” you narrowed your eyes at him suspiciously.

“tomorrow, I promise ” he rose and moved to the door,

“Jareth?” you called before he disappeared .

“Yes?” he lingered by the door looking at you expectantly.

“Maybe you’re not a bleach blond”

He smiled and nodded, wishing you a goodnight before disappearing, you heard the sound of a crystal ball rolling across the floor on the other side of the door.

Good night? ��Yeah fat chance of that. How were you supposed to sleep now?

Nevertheless, you climb into bed, the first day of the rest of your life was over. It can only get better from here, you assured yourself. Not like you just signed away your life for real or that you were half magic or something or another. It was also so confusing. Sleep was probably the best solution.

You inspect your wrist and then drop it to stare up at the four poster’s ceiling. What have I done?  You'd never imagine you go in this deep.

_*_

In his hands, Jareth clutched the silly beggar disguise he used to hamper your progress, one final disguise. He exhaled air from his nose, amused over it, “hmmf” . It seemed so silly now.

He tucked it away in a trunk at the foot of the bed, it would be a while before he would use it again unless another one of those brat runners called upon him, wasting more of his time, still though it could be fun sometimes to watch their confusion.

He climbed into bed but found himself unable to sleep instantly, instead tracing the seal mark absent-mindedly on his wrist.

[radiosteve]

Need Your Loving Tonight Ch.2

Summary: About a year after you first met your best friend Brian, he tells you that he wants to fulfill his lifelong dream and form a band. After recruiting his friend Tim to join, you help them hold auditions to find the perfect drummer. Much to Brian’s surprise, you and Tim seem to be getting along a lot better than expected. 

Note: Here is part 2!! Now that we’ve got a little introduction we can start to get into the juicy stuff. I’m trying to follow along with a semi-accurate timeline so that’s why there might be a few weird time jumps. Freddie will be in the next chapter, I’m so excited! The italicized words are the readers thoughts, just like last time. I’m going to be as consistent with updates as I can, so I’ll try to have a new chapter out every few days. Also, if you want to be added to the taglist just send me a message or an ask and I’ll add you! I found the photo on google, I do not own it.

Warnings: Some language and slight smut

Pairing: (will be) Roger Taylor x Reader x John Deacon 

Words: 2.2k+

September 29, 1968

It had been a little over a year since you packed up your life and shipped yourself overseas to attend Imperial College. Your friendship with Brian only grew as the year went on. By the end of your freshman year you felt so well adjusted and comfortable with your foreign surrounds that you dreaded going back home. But, with no place to stay in London for the summer, you filled your suitcases once more and headed back to your hometown. Your mom greeted you at the airport with the biggest smile you had ever seen. 

It was difficult to tell if she actually was happy to see you or if she was just glad to have someone to fill the space between her and your father. You spent your summer like most others, working on the boardwalk and going to the beach after your shift ended. It was a lonely summer, but you knew how to adapt. All of your high school friends seemed to move on without you and all of your college friends lived in a different country, but hey that’s life. Occasionally you would go out with your friends from work when you all had time off, but you longed for the end of the summer. 

Being at home made you realize just how different New Jersey was from London. You cursed yourself from those first couple weeks of the fall semester for wishing to escape back home. Because now that you were here, it sure as hell didn’t feel like something you would call a home.The only thing that kept you sane during the warm, sunny months was the beach that was just a ten minute bike ride away. Night or day, rain or shine, it was your favorite place to hide from the lonely reality that you grew to know. It was the only thing that London lacked.

Finally the sun started to set earlier and the days quickly faded to night, bringing along the end of August and the start of a new school year. The taxi ride from Heathrow airport to campus seemed to be the longest thirty minutes of your life. But after you dragged your luggage from the taxi trunk you were nearly tackled by a hug from your best friend. After a long session of catching up and unpacking, you felt happier than you had in months. You felt as if you were laid out on the beach without a cloud in the sky. Classes went on as normal and your social life excelled along with your grades. Bringing you to where you are now. 

You and Brian had taken over your dorm for the day because your roommate Sally had gone home for the weekend. Both you and Brian were nursing pretty wicked hangovers after a very intense party the night before. You sat at your desk staring at the textbook in front of you, blinking to try and see straight. Brian sat on your bed with his guitar on his lap as he strummed softly to some tune he had made up.  

“I think I’m finally going to do it,” he spoke, pulling you from your textbook induced trance. You spun around in your chair, happy to have a distraction, but confused by the statement.

“What are you finally going to do?” You questioned, your head throbbed a little from twisting around so quickly. Brian looked up at you and slowly set his guitar down, leaning his back against the wall that your bed was pushed against. 

“I’m going to start a band, Y/n! Well, I’m actually going to put flyers up around campus and hopefully people will respond so then I can start a band,” he seemed utterly ecstatic while telling you his plans for the future. You nodded along as he talked, taking in his words and the excitement that was etched across his face. A smile overtook your expression as a thought popped into your head. This could be something big.

October 5, 1968

You stood with Brian throughout his desperate search for decent band mates. Luckily, Tim Staffell, who he had met at a concert, was all in favor of joining Brian’s new band. Now with a guitarist and a singing bassist, the duo needed a drummer. The desperate search frustrated the three of you after seeing the same mediocre drum skills over and over again. You three decided to take a break, blow some steam, and have a few drinks at Tim’s apartment. One drink turned into two and two turned into five and five became eight until you felt drunk off your ass. 

Brian had discovered early on in your friendship that you had a passion for music but you never seemed to elaborate on it whenever he brought it up. He also knew that if he got you drunk enough you would get giggly and start revealing things about yourself that you hardly ever talked about. That wasn’t his intention when he suggested to drink a few beers, but that didn’t stop him from listening when you started to giggle before you spoke.

“Guess what,” you giggled out, taking another drink from your beer bottle as the boys both turned their gaze towards you. “You guys are going to be so pissed. I can actually play the piano and the drums,” you said between giggles. Brian and Tim both sat up quickly from the couch that they rested on. 

“You’re saying that this whole time we have been searching for a drummer when we’ve had one with us the whole time?” Tim interrogated you, but his voice spoke without a hint a malice. 

“Uh-huh, I didn’t want to tell you guys though because I have no desire to be in a band. Plus I’d hate to be in a band with my best friend, break up, and then have it ruin our friendship. That would be soul crushing,” the words tumbled from your mouth before you even knew what you were saying. “Oh shit, you guys are friends, my bad,” you mumbled before draping yourself across the chair you sat on as you laughed. Brian and Tim looked at each other with raised eyebrows before looking back at you in your alcohol induced giggle-fit. Brian chuckled and took a swig from his beer bottle. Your infectious laughter and charming smile brought a grin to his lips. Tim eventually joined in on your and Brian’s giddey feeling, leaving the three of you laughing like maniacs. 

October 14, 1968

By four o’clock in the afternoon, you, Brian, and Tim felt as if you had completely lost a majority of your collective brain cells. The three of you had been stuck in a lecture theatre on campus that Brian rented out so the band could hold auditions for drummers all day. After seeing about six different people play you felt like your brain had turned to mush. Hearing the same few songs over and over was starting to give you a massive headache. You sat on a couch that Tim had managed to smuggle into the audition space as some lanky red haired boy tried, and failed, to maintain a steady tempo on the drums. 

The boy was clearly nervous, but nerves and music do not work well together. After  the three audition songs, Brian stood up and began to speak in the nicest tone he could muster.

“That was great, thank you. I think we are going to need some time to think over our decision. We’ll give you a call soon,” he said as the boy shakily stood up and grabbed his things. He responded to with only a nod and quickly fled from the room. Brian plopped back down on the right side of the couch while you sat in the middle with Tim on your left. Tim shifted his arm so that it rested across the top of the couch as he turned to look at you. 

“What do you think Y/n? In your own professional drumming opinion,” Tim asked  with a cheeky smile on his face as you turned to nudge his shoulder. 

“I’m certainly not a professional drummer, but even I can tell that whatever-his-name-is can’t drum for shit,” you signed, sinking further into the couch.

“Well, we only have one more hour and then we can leave and get some decent food. In the meantime, do you guys need anything? I’m going to run down the hall to the vending machine and get something to drink,” Brian offered, picking himself up from the couch once more. 

“Some aspirin would be great Bri,” you joked as he waved you off while walking out of the room, heading to the other side of the building. 

“Alone at last,” Tim whispered in your ear making goosebumps flourish all over your skin. “We’ve got at least five minutes,” he grabbed your cheeks and pressed his lips against yours in a rush of passion and hunger. You and Tim had secretly started hooking up ever since you woke up at his apartment the day after you got drunk and spilled the news of your secret music skills. Brian had to leave early that morning to run some errands, leaving you and Tim alone for the first time. You started of with just talking and teasing, but it soon became flirting and kissing and next thing you knew you were naked in Tim’s bed. 

You’d both promised to not tell Brian in hopes that it would prevent him from getting angry at you both. Honestly, you felt kind of bad for lying to your best friend but it seemed like the right thing to do. Plus its not like you and Tim were dating. What was going on between you two was more of a casual hookup than anything. As great as relationships may seem, you were never much of a fan of dating. 

Tim had you pinned against the couch as he brought his knee between your thighs, rubbing against your clothed core as a moan escaped your lips. He swallowed your pretty sounds as your hands traveled down his body, reached for his growing bulge. His lips traveled down your neck and towards your breasts. He stuck his face inside your shirt earning a giggle from you that soon became a moan as he sucked on the top of your left breast and gripped your hips. 

“Fuck Timmy, that feels so-”

“Hey guys-oH MY GOD,” Brian exclaimed turning around so he didn’t have to face you and shielding his eyes as you and Tim quickly pulled yourself apart. A shorter, but attractive blonde-brunette boy stood behind Brian with wide eyes and his mouth turned up in a smirk. You and Tim stood up from the couch and adjusted your clothing as Brian slowly began to turn around. “When did you guys start-” Brian began quietly but quickly cut himself off. “Nevermind, not the time. Uh this is Roger he’s here to audition.” Brian turned and gestured to Roger who waved his hand that held two drum sticks. “Roger, this is our bassist and lead singer Tim, and my best friend Y/n. Who is apparently much closer with Tim than I first thought,” He mumbled the last part more to himself, but everyone still heard it. Roger let out a small chuckle as your cheeks began to turn red. 

“You can, um, warm up or whatever you need before you start,” Tim instructed Roger, trying to cut the awkward tension in the air. You looked over at Brian who sat in the middle of the couch in order to separate you and Tim. You took a seat on Brian’s right as Roger moved towards the drumset and began to tune it.

“What are you doing,” Brian said after looking up at Roger with the drums.

“I’m tuning them,” he replied as if it was obvious. Brian turned his head towards you, with raised eyebrows and his mouth slightly agape. 

“I didn’t know that was a thing,” he muttered and you smiled at his exasperated expression. Roger finished what he had been doing and began to play the first audition song. It was by far the best rendition that you had heard all day. It sounded extremely similar to the original song but with an added dash of flair that you assumed Roger used to show off a little. When he had finished playing the three audition songs you started to clap, bringing a large smile to the blonde’s face. While Brian and Tim didn’t join in on your clapping, you could still tell that they were just as impressed as you were. 

Roger stood up, sweeping his long strands of hair behind his ears as his made his way towards where you three were seated on the couch. Brian shot up from the couch to shake Rogers hand as he approached them. Tim slowly followed and you stood soon after. A smile spread across Brian’s face after he shook Roger’s hand, earning a suspicious look from you. He’s going to say something stupid, isn’t he? Brian looked straight into Roger’s eyes and said the words you knew were coming. “You’re in.” 

Taglist: @retromusicsalad      

[thechildoflightning]

The Service Dogs from

just keep stumbling forward (baby im waiting for you)

A Sander Sides fanfiction series

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My series focuses on CALM/LAMP as well as handing life and mental illness (which can be found here) and features two service dog handlers in Remy and Virgil.

As I’ve written these characters I’ve grown quite attached to their dogs, and I know some of the fans of the series have as well. As such, 

I’ve put together a collective post featuring the dogs

Which includes their breeds, names, personalities, and how/why they are so important to their owners. Oh, and reference pictures of course!

[Image Description: Photo of a young Bernese Mountain dog sitting in a field. The puppy is looking at the camera with big brown eyes and adorable expression. The puppy is quite fluffy and has the traditional tri color markings of its breed. ID ends]

[Image Description: Photo of a large Bernese Mountain dog striding through a nature trail. The dog is holding its head high and seems quite regal. It is wearing a harness and it’s tongue is hanging out of its mouth slightly. The dog has the traditional tri color markings of it’s breed and it’s long fur has a slight curly wave to it. ID ends]

Dolly

Bernese Mountain Dog

The name Dolly is English, Greek, and American. It most commonly means “a gift from God” and/or “a vision.”

Dolly, being Virgil’s first service dog, had a lot of work cut out for, and her name represents her very being. Dolly was what gave back Virgil his independence and life while also providing him hope and safety. At the time, she really did seem like a true gift from God as the large dog immediately got Virgil to open up and decrease his violent and unsafe behaviors. She was a vision of what Virgil’s future could be.

Dolly was incredible gentle but firm. She was very much a sweetheart and a lap dog when off duty. She was all for cuddles, and her soft, thick fur always made Virgil feel safe.

But she also held her boundaries. At the time, Virgil was in a fragile place, and not only did he need Dolly to ground him and help him through flashbacks, he needed her to feel safe. Dolly often had to task into a Block, physically separating her handler from others to allow him the perceived safety he needed.

Dolly was the definition of a firm and gentle giant, and her passing was devastating on Virgil, only helped by the arrival of his new service dog, Trixie.

[Image Description: Photo of a Dutch Shepherd puppy sitting impatiently outdoors. The dog is black with slight brindle markings. It is looking at something off screen and can barely sit still. ID ends]

[Image Description: Photo of a Dutch Shepherd lying down in a green field. While lying down, the dog is intensely focused on whatever is behind the camera. The dog’s ears are perked up and it has bright amber eyes. The dog’s coat is black with brindle markings. ID ends]

Trixie

Dutch Sheperd

The name Trixie is English and Latin and means “bringer of joy.”

Trixie stepped in as Virgil’s newest service dog almost a year before Dolly’s passing. Dolly was a part of Virgil’s very soul, and had profound importance in his life, making her loss truly devastating. In fact, Virgil was adamant in his refusal to get a new service dog after. And then came along Trixie. Like her name suggests, Trixie’s puppy-like innocence and behavior brought back joy to Virgil’s life as he came to terms with Dolly’s passing. Dolly may have helped Virgil first recover from being kidnapped, but Trixie held the responsibility of helping guide Virgil through normal life and reintroduce him to the joys of it.

Trixie was dignified and passionate while also playful. She took her job seriously separating play time and work time like a pro. She was a constant at Virgil’s side and seemed to know the importance of her position. She took her job seriously and did it with purpose. She got honest joy from doing her job and doing it well. But, let her off duty, and she turned into a light-hearted puppy. She was sure to always wake up Virgil with enthusiasm and slobbery licks each morning.

Trixie was powerful, representing Virgil’s transition to adulthood, while still never forgetting the importance of living life to the fullest, a trait that would continue in Kit.

[Image Description: Photo of a Boxer German Shepherd Mix puppy leaping across a field in front of a house. The dog’s tail and ears are sticking straight up as it proudly holds an antler toy in its mouth. The dog is a caramel brown color with white paws and darker markings around its face. ID ends]

[Image Description: Photo of a Boxer German Shepherd Mix in a snowy field looking directly at the camera. The dog’s ears are a mix between half perked up and half folded over and it’s muzzle has bits of snow on it. The dog has an almost confused expression. It’s coat is brown with a small white marking on its chest and darker markings around its face and ears. ID ends]

Kit

Boxer German Shepherd Mix

The name Kit itself has no real meaning or origin. It has been used both as a nickname for Christopher and Katherine, therefore sometimes tying it to be related to Christ or purity and clearness. A more common use of the name is the abbreviation, meaning Keep In Touch. In result of these conflicts and lack of origin, the name Kit fits perfectly. After all, our origins don’t define us.

Kit’s position was different in a way that neither of Virgil’s other dogs had to experience. While both of his other dogs had to help support Virgil through trying times, Kit was only there for the aftermath. Virgil, while still having severe PTSD, had learned to adapt and manage his life in healthy ways and now had support systems in place. Kit, above all, needed to be adaptable to this new Virgil. He struggled the most in his training, causing Virgil to consider more than once to get a new dog, but it was Kit’s sheer determination that turned him against the idea. And eventually, Kit had a breakthrough in his training and everything fell into place.

Kit was pure energy. Everything about him had charm, determination, and life. While Kit struggled the most to learn his tasks and master his training, he worked the hardest. Virgil put him through the wringer and he always came back for more. It was Kit that inspired Virgil to find his own determination and self-love in himself. He was a reminder of new days and new futures. If Dolly and Trixie were steady, Kit was flexibility. 

Kit became Virgil’s reminder to work through and find new ways to solve his problems, while also taking the time to smell the roses. Kit was balance.

Bonus!

[Image Description: Photo of a chocolate labradoodle puppy in front of stone and brick. The dog’s head is slightly tilted with its tongue hanging out. The dog has a bright brown nose and eyes. ID ends]

[Image Description: Photo of a chocolate labradoodle in front of a cream background. The dog’s body is not facing the camera, but it’s head is turned to directly look at the camera. The dog is lifting its head slightly and has a lolling tongue. It’s fur is quite bushy and curly. ID ends]

Cha-Cha

Labradoodle

The name Cha-Cha does not have an origin, as it was not originally a name, but a dance known for it’s hip movements, small steps, Latin American music, and most of all, it’s energy.

Cha-Cha may not have a name origin, but it certainly has meaning, just as the large labradoodle had in Remy’s own life. Both members of the team have an unmistakably energy, just as the dance the dog is named after. Cha-Cha, compared to Virgil’s dogs, also has a completely different job. Cha-Cha’s job is unmistakable- to guide and support Remy in order to give him more independence.

Cha-Cha is sophisticated and intuitive, and like her owner, dramatic. The dog, more than any other, has always seemed to be almost human. She has been a constant in Remy’s life and has seen him evolve into a more confident version of himself. Her sophistication has allowed him pace to be his own person, while her intuition has always kept them connected as one. She was the perfect in between independence and dependence. Plus, she has always had a sense for the dramatic, as when she was off duty, she would pout like nobody’s business when denied a lick from the peanut butter jar. 

Cha-Cha has always been so much more than just “a guide dog.” She is Remy’s love, freedom, dreams, passions, and aspirations.

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I really hope you all enjoyed this! This was both very self indulgent as well as me wanting to convey a bit more about the dogs to the readers. I just, these doggos are so good, and they deserve that recognition. I hope you love them as much as I do!

And if you haven’t read my series, but are in anyway interested, you can find it here. 

Thanks so much!